In Search of Possibilities, part 3 of 3

[fignewton]

In Search of Possibilities, part 3. (Continued from part 1 and part 2.)



Epilogue Here

Sam and Daniel stood side-by-side next to Colonel O'Neill's infirmary bed, grinning down at their commanding officer. Teal'c stood at the foot of the bed, watching all three of them with that absolutely inscrutable face that meant he was silently laughing.

Colonel O'Neill squinted up at them, his eyes narrowing at their cheerful expressions. "You look amazingly upbeat for two people who fell though a snakehead's vanity mirror and got stuck with yourselves for nine hours," he said sourly.

"Oh, we had fun, sir," Sam said brightly. "We had a lovely conversation with ourselves."

"Our robot selves," Daniel added, sitting down in the chair next to the bed and leaning a comfortable elbow on the colonel's mattress.

"They seemed quite pleasant," Teal'c agreed blandly.

The colonel groaned and thumped his head back against his pillow. "It's bad enough there have to be alternate mes running around all over the universes," he complained. "Do there have to be alternate robot us's, too?"

Sam winced a little. "Actually, sir, your robot self was dead. So was Robot Teal'c." She nodded apologetically at Teal'c, who graced her with a solemn nod of acknowledgement in return.

"...Oh." Colonel O'Neill frowned at this. "And you're so happy about this - why?" he demanded.

"Not about that part, Jack," Daniel assured him. "But they'd been cut off from Earth for three years. I think they might choose to make contact, and that can only be a good thing."

"I don't see why."

"Because they don't deserve to be alone?" Daniel's voice was still light, but Sam recognized the undercurrent of menace that lurked just around the corner of the conversation. The colonel evidently sensed it as well, because he hastily changed the subject.

"So, you two are back in the right universe. What happened in the lab? Have you made your report to General Hammond yet?"

"Yes, sir," Sam replied, slipping into formal mode. "There was very little that we could use from a military or tactical standpoint, but we were able to retrieve quite a bit of information about the quantum mirror itself."

"The quantum mirror that we destroyed two years ago?" the colonel asked pointedly. "And that's useful how, exactly?"

"Well, Jack, there's obviously more than one mirror," Daniel said reasonably. "And getting hold of Atropus' data crystals will keep Sam's division busy for years to come."

"Wait a second." Colonel O'Neill held up a hand, frowning. "I still don't understand how you managed to get in when the two of you messed up the knob thingies."

"It was very simple, O'Neill," Teal'c cut in, smoothly interrupting Daniel's protest before it could be launched. "Once the thunderstorm had ceased, I requisitioned a second winch and generator and the assistance of SG-3. Colonel Reynolds lowered me into the shaft until I was directly above the quantum mirror -"

"Are you crazy?" the colonel demanded.

Teal'c merely cocked an eyebrow at him. "From there," he continued, unperturbed, "it was relatively simple to maneuver myself through the broken wall of the shaft into the laboratory itself. I made my way to the entrance of the laboratory and found a simple locking mechanism, which I released to open the door."

"Huh." The colonel blinked at the prosaic solution. "And the only things in there were the snakehead's research on the mirror?"

"It'll take quite a while to go through the data crystals, sir," Sam offered. "There might be information on other subjects as well."

"No space guns?"

"No, Jack," Daniel said patiently. "No space guns." He grinned at the colonel. "On the other hand, your big honkin' spaceship has big honkin' space guns, so the month isn't a total loss, right?"

"I guess," the colonel sighed, staring moodily at his wrapped knee. "This knee's gonna complicate things, though."

"I understand that Doctor Fraiser plans to release you in time for our mission to destroy Tanith, O'Neill. Is that not the case?"

"Oh, it is." The colonel avoided comment on the way Teal'c chose to categorize their mission to move the Tok'ra to a new base. "But it's still a pain in the... mitka."

"I thought it was the knee, sir," Sam said before she could stop herself. Teal'c's face became even more expressionless, which for him was the equivalent of outright sniggering.

Colonel O'Neill glared at her, then at Teal'c, and then at Daniel, who wasn't even trying to hide his smile. "Explain something to me," he groused. "You two fall through a quantum mirror and come back here without a scratch. Laughing Boy here -" He pointed an accusing finger at Teal'c, who raised both brows this time and didn't bother to refute the charge, "- gets hit by lightning, and keeps right on ticking..."

"I was not, in fact, struck by lightning," Teal'c said calmly. "I was merely temporarily stunned by being in close proximity to a lightning blast."

The colonel's voice rose to override this. "And I'm the one stuck in the infirmary with Midget Mengele as my -"

"You were saying, Colonel?"

Four heads whipped around to stare at Janet Fraiser, who had the uncanny ability to move silently when it suited her, despite her non-regulation heels. Teal'c bowed his head in greeting; Daniel sat up a little straighter in his chair, his hand covering his mouth to hide his smirk; and Colonel O'Neill pasted a weak smile on his face, his mind clearly racing in an attempt to salvage the situation. Hiding a grin of her own, Sam murmured something noncommittal and escaped the infirmary.

She wandered back toward her lab, glad to be walking the clean, sterile halls of the SGC instead of sitting in a patch of grass and flowers on the other side of the mirror. She wondered, with a shiver of unease, how much her robot double would have given for the chance to be doing the same.

"Sam?"

She turned at the sound of Daniel's voice, stopping to wait for him as he strode toward her, his face alight with warmth.

"You doing okay?" He seemed to be studying her face carefully.

"Yeah." She eyed him. "Looks like you are, too." That tense undercurrent of unhappiness, which had dogged him from the moment he learned about their doubles' deaths, was gone. She remembered that final exchange he'd had with Robot Daniel on the other side of the mirror, and she understood how much it had meant to him to be able to offer that other Daniel a tangible token of hope.

"Has anyone complained about the loss of equipment?" she asked.

Daniel gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Considering everything else that got lost on the mission? No one is asking any questions." His mouth quirked into a conspiratorial grin. "Besides, Daniel Jackson still has possession of it. It's just a different Daniel, that's all."

"Just a different Daniel," she repeated thoughtfully. "I guess so."

"Anyway, Janet kicked us all out of the infirmary, so I thought I'd join you and see what goodies we got from Atropus' secret lair." He waggled his eyebrows at her for emphasis.

She chuckled. "Sounds good to me. Come on."

She fell easily into comfortable conversation with him as the two of them walked to her lab, making straight for her computer to access the data they'd copied from Atropus' lab. But her mind kept circling back to Daniel's passionate defense of their counterparts, and wondering just where she stood after the day's experiences.

"Daniel," she said suddenly, interrupting him mid-flow. "After what happened today..."

"Yes, Sam?"

The colonel had always asserted that the robots were machines, nothing more. Even after the robots in their universe had... Died? Deactivated? Even then, despite a softening in his attitude, he still insisted that they hadn't truly been alive.

Daniel had been furious at the time. She'd wondered, at that chaotic debriefing after Juna, if his anger was truly over the robots' fate, or a thin mask for his terror at not being there when they were all so close to death. Now, after watching that final exchange between Daniel and his robotic counterpart, she was no longer in any doubt.

"I was thinking about Teal'c," she said, circling around the subject. "I remember your report about what Teal'c said in that other reality, when we were trying to help the SGA contact the Asgard."

She'd been a little taken aback, at the time, to read of his calm, almost ruthless assessment, at the precise definitions of self that allowed Teal'c to fire on his doppelganger without even blinking.

"After he shot the other Teal'c? 'Ours is the only reality of consequence,'" Daniel quoted. He tipped his head down, glancing at her over the frames of his glasses. "It's the way his mind works, Sam. It doesn't have to mean anything else."

Her gaze slanted away from him. He'd understood her oblique reference, all right. Like her, he seemed to assume that in Teal'c's cool mind of black-and-white, friend-or-foe, he considered himself to be the only Teal'c of consequence in their own reality, too.

"So where does that leave you?" he prompted gently, drawing her to look back at him.

Where did that leave her? The scientist who marveled at the workings of an android far beyond their capability to reverse-engineer, the astrophysicist who thought in numbers and absolutes? How was she to think of their robot doubles now - those they'd handed to Harlan in this universe for burial, and those they'd left with a glimmer of hope in a dimension just a few heartbeats away?

"I think..." she started, then stopped.

She couldn't understand the robots, she knew. She couldn't define them, categorize them, classify them as real or not.

She never would be able to, either.

With a sudden lightening of her heart, she realized that she rather liked it that way. Difficult challenges were good things, after all.

"I think it's time for chocolate," she announced. Opening a drawer, she drew out two Snickers bars from her private stash. She handed one to Daniel and saluted him with the other. "To absent friends," she said, a wealth of meaning in her eyes.

He took the proffered candy bar gravely, and saluted her in return. "To absent Sams and Daniels," he agreed, and tore the wrapper open.

***
Epilogue There

Stars were appearing in the sky, and the moons were rising, when Sam and Daniel returned to the power plant, some six hours before their power reserves would drop to dangerous levels. They greeted Harlan, then went to their resting area for some privacy. They sat down and simply looked at each other for several minutes.

"We have a decision to make," Sam said, finally breaking the silence. "Major Sam and I spent a lot of time discussing the Air Force side of things. Daniel, if that Presidential order for our... dissection was never revoked, we could find ourselves literally under the microscope."

"An argument for our sentience wouldn't help?"

"I'm honestly not sure which way would be worse, Daniel - if we really are the original SG-1, or if we're not."

He gave her a level stare. "But you do agree that we're fully sentient - fully real - whether or not events here were the same as events there. Don't you?"

For three long, agonizing heartbeats, Sam didn't answer. Then she straightened her shoulders, and returned his steady gaze. "Yes," she said simply. "I do."

He breathed again. "I'm glad," he told her.

Quiet descended again, until Sam returned to the burning topic of the moment. "So. Do we want to try to make contact again?"

"I agree it's a risk." Daniel shifted restlessly. "But the other Daniel pointed out that if everything in both universes is the same, except for Jack and Teal'c surviving and our discovery of the switch at the very beginning, then Juna is now suffering under Cronus' rule, and the SGC has no idea."

"The SGC would want to know about Cronus' movements," Sam said, considering.

"And maybe they can help liberate the people of Juna again."

Sam smiled at him. "Yes. There's that, too."

"Well." Daniel shifted again. "I gave me - I mean, I gave myself..." Sam had started snickering at his fumbling attempts at coherency, and he picked up one of his spare shirts and lobbed it at her. She caught it and primly started folding it with military precision.

"Okay." Daniel took a deep breath and tried again. "The other Daniel gave me something. Two things. He thought we might want to use them."

He pulled the two items out of his pocket, and saw Sam's eyes widen with surprise. The first was a folded slip of paper, but it was the second object that made her gasp and drop his shirt.

A radio.

"We can try to dial Earth again." Daniel licked his lips. "There won't be any visual, of course, but we can at least communicate via the radio. Find out if anyone is home. And this -" He unfolded the paper and showed Sam the symbols that SG-1 Daniel had hurriedly scribbled down right before his departure. "The SGC in their universe established something they called the 'Alpha Site,' although the other me did add that a different universe called it the 'Beta Site.' That's... probably not very important."

"No," Sam agreed, her voice almost dream-like. "So if we can't get through to Earth, we can try the Alpha Site instead?"

"If we want."

If we want.

They didn't need their internal radios to communicate. The look in each other's eyes was more than enough.

As one, they rose and made their way to the section that housed the Stargate. It was dark here now, as they slowly continued to shut down everything in the plant that wasn't either directly connected to the power source or used for their living quarters. That didn't matter, though. Thanks to Harlan, they had no trouble seeing in the dark.

But now, there was a glimmer of light. And no matter the outcome, Daniel knew he was glad they'd come this far.

He stood in front of the DHD, Sam at his side. His fingers skimmed lightly over the glyphs, then poised over the first one for Earth. He hesitated and turned Sam, raising his brows questioningly.

She nodded, her smile a little shaky. "Do it," she said.

Daniel pressed down hard on that first glyph, seeing it light up. With his gaze fully focused on the DHD, he heard the first chevron on the Stargate lock into place.

Auriga.

Cetus.

Centaurus.

Cancer.

Scutum.

Eridanus.

He hesitated once more at the point of origin, looking up at Sam. She nodded again, her smile no longer tremulous and her eyes bright and clear.

He hit the final glyph. The seventh chevron lit.

Sam's hand squeezed his shoulder, and he reached out to press the central globe.

end

niamaea wanted: (Our) Daniel and Sam in an alternate universe (quantum mirror or however else it could happen), friendship.

She didn’t want: Character death, noncon, excessive angst (some is fine), Jack/Sam.

Some characters died, but not not the ones Niamaea meant. And some angst turned out to be inevitable. I hope Niamaea will forgive me. :)

Comments

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

LOVE. Oh, so much love for this fic! :-) I haven't found many stories set after the demise of the robot team, and this filled that gap, and the wonderings in my mind, very well.

Wonderful Sam and Daniel interaction (and I mean that all four ways, *g*).

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

So glad you enjoyed it! And yes, all four ways. It was fun to work out how each Sam interacted with each Daniel, and vice versa. :)

[niamaea.livejournal.com]

GLEE!

I made myself wait to read this until I had finished polishing and formatting my fic submission, and then I ran to check it out, and aaah! Awesome!

I'm not gonna lie: I was kind of hoping whoever got me would take the AU prompt, so I'm so excited about that, but you did robots! And mythology! And Harry Potter and Star Wars references! And banter!

I love it (and the angst was totally appropriate, by the by). Of course I loved the way both Sams and Daniels interacted (in pairs and with 'themselves'), but I also loved our two being so smart in their respective fields and getting to pool their specialties to figure something out, and how awesome Teal'c and Jack were when we got to see them, and, really...just the whole thing.

Yay! I'm so rereading this.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Hurray, you liked it! ::bounces::

If I'd taken your other prompt, the fic wouldn't have been so long. :)

Glad you liked the references to Harry Potter and Star Wars! It was amusing to look up exactly which cultural phenomena were prominent in late 1997/early 1998 that Sam and Daniel might know about. Poor Daniel, missing the next six books of HP!

I had so much fun with the first half, when as you say, they got to "pool their specialties to figure something out," that I was suddenly 8000 words into the fic before they went through the mirror. Oops. :)

And yay for teamy goodness, and I'm relieved the angst worked out for you!

Thanks for a great prompt. This is my first longer fanfic, in any fandom, with my own plot instead of being an ep rewrite. Thanks for giving me the inspiration to do this! :)

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

Alternate universe fic AND robot fic!!! *flails with glee* This is fabulous. What a terrible conundrum for robot!Sam, to have to consider herself as not real. (And I'm taking even Major Sam to be an AU to our canon universe, because of the way canon!Sam reacted to Reese. So many trails for thought this story opens up!)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Hee! So glad you liked it!

What a terrible conundrum for robot!Sam, to have to consider herself as not real.

Oh, yeah. And I'm so glad you were able to feel robot!Sam's anguish here, because I locked myself into the rigid POV and couldn't bring myself to drop it. It's a good thing Daniel knows her so well, right? :)

And I'm taking even Major Sam to be an AU to our canon universe, because of the way canon!Sam reacted to Reese.

Ooooh. Nice twist, that. Except... Well, I'm thinking of Sam's reluctance to betray Fifth. I think canon!Sam did learn someting from Double Jeopardy, even if it didn't translate into comprehension for Reece. Maybe she worked on Reece a little too intimately? As you say, robot!Sam had to accept her own sentience after she'd worked on improving her own mechanics, and that was really tough. Canon!Sam studied Reece and managed to re-activate her, so... Hm.

I love comments that make me think, and I'm really glad you enjoyed the fic. :)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. I was so clueless, it took me to the allergies to realize the alternates were robots. It's not like you hadn't telegraphed it enough with Daniel's angst--I was just distracted with--oh wait these are the AU Sam and Daniel...what are they Tok'ra or ascended or something? I was just really engrossed in following the story as it happened.

Very clever twist in the road. The fic is made of teh awesome, fig!

And as for Part 1...um...I'm just...um...speechless.

Great job!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Ascended? Heh. That would have been really neat! Frankly, I was more interested in making it clear that this was a different Sam and Daniel, and not our Sam and Daniel after their mirror trip, than in whapping the reader over the head with their being robots. I don't think I had any specific moment when I pointed to the story and said, "I want the reader to figure it out here." Although it was fun to sprinkle in the clues, especially the more subtle ones! :)

So glad you liked it. As for part one - heh. I didn't realize, until after I read the lovely fic that you wrote for me and the prompt I gave you, that I'd actually gone ahead and basically written my own prompt. Oops, that. :)

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's just lovely. And the idea to use alternate robot Daniel and Sam was inspired.

Love it.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! I'm so glad you liked the fic. And the robots definitely deserve more fic love than they get!

[zorb]

Hehe, you gave us twice the Sam and Daniel a ficathon calls for! I approve. :-D

I'm also a big fan of the robots and wondering what happened to them, so to see that element incorporated - plus an AU, plus science geekery and banter - was a treat.

You packed a lot of fun stuff in this fic!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

you gave us twice the Sam and Daniel a ficathon calls for! I approve.

Hee! Well, once I was sending Sam and Daniel through the mirror, they just had to meet themselves, didn't they? Making the Sam and Daniel into robot!Sam and Daniel was... I'm not actually quite sure where that came from. But I'm really glad you liked it, and the wonder twins aspect, too. Thank you! :)

[hoshi-reed.livejournal.com]

Goodness that is SD times 2. :D

Awesome

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Goodness that is SD times 2

Heh, yes! We'll take as much Sam and Daniel as we can get! :)

I'm glad you enjoyed it. (And your icon is scarily mesmerizing.)

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

YAY FICZILLA!
This was so, so, so, so good! I loved all the interactions, all the characters - the entire premise. Wonderful work!

“Daniel Jackson would like to finish as quickly as possible, too,” Daniel said through gritted teeth

I loved Daniel here - can so hear him saying this and I love him working through his fear and Sam understanding and poor Daniel. Plus you did a great job with the setup - I could really imagine what they were doing and how they were arranged in the pit and you did a great job narratively with plopping us in the middle and then working back to tell us what was going on - also, brilliant, brilliant creation of the puzzle!

“Wait a minute. Daniel, isn’t there something you do to make the translation easier? Maybe the Tok’ra could –”

tiny nitpick - did you mean "something you could do to..."?

“This is a formula, Daniel!” Without so much as an ‘excuse me,’ Sam rummaged in the front pocket of his vest and pulled out his customary pad and pencil. She realized what she was doing and gave him a sheepish glance, but he only looked amused.

this was great - from Daniel's skirting the edge to them both becoming excited puppies at the puzzle it takes both of them to solve and I love that ignoring of personal space - Sam just grabbing stuff from Daniel's vest.

She could address Daniel’s second concern, at least. “I know you’re unhappy about how often the team has been apart,” she said, rubbing his arm gently. “I have a feeling that it’s not going to happen that much, any more. Juna was too painful without you, Daniel.”

Awwwwww They did have too many missions not together around then, didn't they. And this is right around when Daniel is really flailing for purpose and it hurts because I know Meridian is coming in a year.

“How should I know?” Daniel’s eyes closed, and a massive shudder ran through him. “I don’t want to find out. I’ve gone through enough mirrors –”

Poor guy. I can so see him not wanting this and I love how palpable you made their fear and how tense the situation was - really great writing.

His voice cut off again. It took another minute before he replied, but his voice was brisk and professional now, fully in control. “I’m going to have to work the winch manually. The cable is damaged, so it’s going to have to go slowly. I need to know now if that’s going to be a problem.”

Jack! Jack doing what Jack does best and assessing a situation and finding a solution - taking charge, watching out for his people and cutting to the core of what needs to happen.

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this, Doctor Jackson,” she muttered in his ear. “What would SG-4 say if they could see us now?”

Oh, Sam! I love the banter and comfort between them - I love her realizing how scared he is and how to calm him down and him helping, which helps too - I love them with each other and the whole maneuvering and him not letting go for anything.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

“I’ve seen your lab. You’re out to prove the second law of thermodynamics, aren’t you?” / “Archeologists do it in the dirt.” Sam dug the toe of her shoe into the ground for emphasis.

This whole exchange had me cracking up. Brilliant!

Sam’s reply was cheerful. “Quick, or ‘quick-er’?”

*loves*

“I’m not even sure which hand is mine at the moment, Sam.”

*loves again* I realized it was the quantum mirror before they fell through but you set it up so well and I loved their bickering as they fell through and rolled. Oh, and Sam pulling Daniel away to not be a target was also great!

SG-1 Daniel’s brows rose too, in a kind of unconscious mimicry. “Huh. Four years on SG-1, and you still think there’s such a thing as impossible?”

Awesome line. Also - They're robots! That was so awesome! I realized something was weird, with Daniel correcting to very specific measurements in his thoughts, but I didn't make the connection until it came out and...just brilliant. I love the robot!SG-1 so much - they are so Sam and Daniel and you really feel for them and what they've gone through - a complex issue you handled brilliantly.

“Have you – did you get your Sha’re back?” / Daniel closed his eyes. Slowly. / “No,” he whispered. “But I hope someone else helped her when I couldn’t.”

Ah, yes, and it's impossible to write Daniel without mentioning Sha're. So good! I loved all their conversations, seeing where things meshed and where they didn't.

SG-1 Daniel frowned, thinking. “We must have,” he said doubtfully. He raised his voice. “Did we get into trouble, Sam?”

This was great - just like Daniel to not notice whether they got in trouble.

And they pulled Teal'c through! And Jack and his knee! And the aftermath and dealing with it and giving the robots their radio and...so good.
*squishes ficzilla*
See, long fics are TOTALLY worth writing. This was awesome!

[paian]

Oh, this is totally wonderful. Quantum mirror fic and robot fic and double the Sam-Daniel friendship and massive teaminess and metaphysics too! ::hearts::³

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you! It may have morphed into Ficzilla on me, but it was a lot of fun to write (especially the teamy goodness, yay!) and I'm really pleased that you liked it. :)

[tarimanveri.livejournal.com]

Ooh, awesome. So much plotty goodness! *applauds you* Really, I don't know which part I liked best - the fiendishly clever puzzle at the beginning with all the fabulous mythology, or the scene with alternate robot Sam and Daniel in the classroom thingy (so awesome having it appear to be a blackboard then a window...), or the part where they compared universes... There's a lot of very good short fic out there, but long, well-written, meaty stories like this are worth their weight in whatever - naquadah? I really enjoyed reading it.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! :)

I had a lot of fun working on the puzzle! I'm so pleased everyone seems to like it. And what else would they think the mirror was, without the knowledge our SG-1 has accumulated since then? It's a little scary, to think about how little SG-1 knew when Tin Man aired.

Such lovely compliments! I never imagined I could write a long story like this one. I'm really glad you enjoyed it.

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

I will now flail madly and babble incoherently about how much I loved this fic.

I dig android SG-1 and I enjoy getting a peek at AUs, so this was just all kinds of love for me. You obviously put a ton of work into this as far as research. The eps where they've obviously done their math and mythology homework always make me happy since they (and this fic) show our heroes to their best advantage.

The puzzle, as others have noted, was very cool. Likewise the banter. The conversation in the infirmary toward the end was wonderful, with everyone so quippy beautifully in character. Teal'c "laughing" = heeeee!

Altogether such a wonderful fic. Please do consider writing more long fics in the future, you clearly have a knack for it.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Such wonderful feedback! You've really made my morning. :)

I think everyone loved the robots, so it was great to be able to use them. And oooh, yes, it's great when they get to use their skills! I wish we'd been able to see it more often.

Oh, yeah, I think Teal'c is always laughing at his teammates. It just took them a couple of years to figure it out. :)

Thank you so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed it. Another long fic...? Well, it looks like we'll be getting a new round from the sg1teamficathon, so who knows?

[redbyrd-sgfic.livejournal.com]

Okay, these are a bit out of order because I couldn't resist reading this at work yesterday (despite truly not having time, and did not immediately comment).

“Well, I’d offer to help, Daniel, but it’s all–”

“Don’t say it, Jack. Please.” Daniel gave a long-suffering sigh. “You’re still by the door, right?”

“Yes, Daniel.” The drawl sounded amused. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me where to go.”

“Jack, if you keep feeding me straight lines like that, I’ll –”

Hee! I completely loved this... I can *so* see this in an ep. (a good ep..) And Jack's suggestion (possibly not entirely serious?) that they blow open the door with C4. And Teal'c being reasonable.

And the puzzle was excellent...nice bits of detail, working in the Linear A from Pelop's world (Dang, I always forget that ep title, because of the 'hundred days' reference which *should* have been the ep title, but which they didn't use there but for the S3 ep..)

And I love it that they get the *data* off Chronus' ship- it makes no sense whatsoever that there wouldn't be data stored in the ship's memory, and it's really never dealt with.

Getting back to the puzzle- we really don't see anything like that after the space mine episode, though it shows up more than once in earlier seasons(I'm thinking of S2 Message in a Bottle. And S1 Cold Lazarus.) I love Sam and Daniel babbling at each other when they start to unravel it- wonder twins indeed!

And I love *weather* (something we see very little of on the show!), and of *course* they can't just solve it, and if they hadn't been under the gun timewise and wet and stuff, no doubt they'd have stopped a few minutes and thought about it. And the base 8 was a nice touch.

Lightning.. um. I think I'd be a tad happier if we'd seen the end of Sam's cable melt, but it is a very SG-1ish thing to have happen. No doubt the rain loosens whatever they used to anchor the generator initially. I have to handwave this one a bit. No doubt the winch normally has a mechanical failsafe that is also damaged by lightning. Okay, the probability of the generator falling, that's clever, and I don't think I've ever seen it used before.

Love, love, love! the robots, and this being really Harlan's world. That leads me to an interesting question...I can't recall- did the quantum mirror ever show the original alien lab as one of the options in POV? I don't think we've ever established in canon that it can be used to travel to different worlds in different dimensions. (Though it's certainly common enough in fanon.)

Love the argument about movies- it seemed a tad odd at first- but once I realized they were robots, I figured that they would have talked about movies they had seen as well as lots of other things over the years they were together on Harlan's world. And Sam pulling Daniel out of the way of the mirror *g*.

*giggles* Love Sam and Daniel rolling around trying to get unclipped. Like, before they have to get married.

Oh, and I figured out the robots pretty much instantly at the 'bleeding' line.

[redbyrd-sgfic.livejournal.com]

And of course LJ would not let me post the whole thing at once..silly LJ! So, comment continued:

And Sams and Daniels- I love AUs anyway and this is great fun. I love the unfolding comparisons of the two AUs. And wonder mightily if the 'real' SG-1 *does* get to go home in the second AU, and the robots just weren't told. (And *hearts* Alt!Hammond for warning them.)

I like the real Daniel so fiercely defending their humanity. I had to be sold on that one, but you convinced me. (At first, I was a bit startled at his vehemence, but you made it very real.) A nice foreshadowing of Reese, as well.

Oh, yes, LOVED: SG-1 Daniel frowned, thinking. “We must have,” he said doubtfully. He raised his voice. “Did we get into trouble, Sam?”

SO like Daniel to not notice being in trouble! (This leads me to a digression on teenage!Daniel, where he probably often got into trouble through inattention, and was completely bewildered when eventually the consequences were brought to his attention...)

Ooh, and you tie in the time loops from Window of Opportunity! How gorgeously ironic that they should try to dial just then!

Grumpy!Jack in the infirmary *g*- 'Midget Mengele!' Ouch! He's going to pay for that, for sure. More seriously, this must have been fairly stressful for Jack- getting injured and having to let someone else go rescue his team? Yeow. He's probably been driving the SGC folks crazy.

Oh, nice. I can definitely see Sam practicing avoidance on this one. And chocolate is always a good thing! Fics ending in chocolate = good!

And I definitely can see Robot Sam and Daniel trying to go home. *g* Sequel fic! Sequel fic!

Okay- from the rather disjointed commentary, you can see that yes, I loved it! Very well done, and really, longer fics are so satisfying. Listen to the sound of my voice. You love writing long fics. You want to write more long fics...

Very very lovely! Thank you!

[rigel-7.livejournal.com]

I have finally come back to this wonderful epic fic to leave you the slavish feedback that you deserve!

Firstly, congratulations on such a beautifully detailed and well crafted story.

I was hooked from the beginning and sat and read this in one sitting.

There was a whole host of canon references that I just loved picking out and having that "aha!" moment when you slot it into the plot.

I loved the puzzle setup - it was incredibly atmospheric and very exciting, especially as it established a certain level of peril right from the start and the quantum mirror sent a chill down the entire length of my spine.

Robot!SG-1 - I definitely have a soft spot for that team, and I thought the way you introduced and then expanded on their backstory was excellent. The point of divergence was a great hook into their characters.

Very immersive and completely captivating. I loved it!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. Feedback is like fine wine - it only gets better with age. :)

So glad you liked the fic! It was my first ever plotty story, and I'm really pleased with how it came out.

[sg-betty.livejournal.com]

This is a great story. I was confused for a minute until I realized that the thing sliding across the window must be the rope! Ah Ha! Now I must know the rest of the AU robots' story! Please?

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you're having fun with the fic. :)

To be honest, I don't know if Earth's Stargate was buried or not. I didn't want to know. That's why I ended the story right there.

If I ever do the timestamp meme, I will definitely add a caveat that no one can ask for anything after this story!

[lilyleia78]

Hi! I'm doing some tagging for stargatefic and stumbled on this. I'm so, so glad that I did. This is going in my bookmarks. It was so wonderful, friendship, humor, characterization, team action. Perfect!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! Why does belated feedback taste so much better than the fresh stuff? :)

This was my first long fic, and I'm really glad it worked for you. Thanks for commenting and letting me know!

[thraesja.livejournal.com]

I'm happy belated feedback tastes better, because the stargateficrec just lead me here:

Loved the puzzle you set out for them to solve together. I've been trying to come up with a suitable one for a long-standing WIP I'll never finish. You just blew all my efforts out of the water. Nice job! :) Great use of the Internet to help you geek up our sciencey duo.

And the AU robots! Nice. Loved all the little hints and clues. I figured it out once Daniel classified the voice in his head correcting the distances as annoying. Which I guess was the second time. The first time, I figured it was just a standard ancient Greek math thing. I did miss the 'quick-er' reference until later on though, at which point it made me retroactively grin. Great characterization you gave them. Same banter, just a touch more intimate given that they've been basically alone together for three years. Makes it bet-ter.

“Besides, isn't C4 supposed to be Plan B?”
And Snark!Daniel. I think I'm in love.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Thank you for such lovely detailed feedback!

I got a little too enamored with the puzzle, I think - that's why it took so long to get to the point! But yes, I enjoyed researching it, and I'm very pleased with how it came out in the end.

Sprinkling the hints here and there was great fun, even searching online to determine which books or movies would've been around in '98 for robot!S&D to recognize. :)

And aren't we all in love with Snark!Daniel? ;)

I'm glad you liked the story, and yay for stargateficrec!