Disclaimer: Quite simply, not mine.

Warnings: Swearing, non-graphic violence/torture.

Spoilers: Definite spoilers for The Movie, Children of the Gods, TBFTGOG, The Gamekeeper, Fair Game and Point of View. Otherwise expect spoilers or references to anything up to and including Shades of Grey.

Author's Note: Nothing very much to say except heartfelt thanks to Exploded Pen, Drax and Katie for reassuring me over the prologue and Charlene for the superb beta work so far on this. Takes place after Shades of Grey, but before Maternal Instinct (late S3). Honest opinions and constructive criticism are always welcomed :)

o

Prologue

"...And in a related incident, Captain Harmen Aldwin was today killed during an off-world mission. The fatality was believed to have been an accident, and only a minimal investigation is expected to be carried out. SGA spokesman Paul Davis earlier made this statement..."

"Bastards," Daniel muttered, reaching over for the remote control and switching the small television set off. He scowled into the now darkened office. For good measure he grunted a couple of times, then got up out of his chair and left the room. He strode through the concrete corridors of the SGA; at this time of evening nobody was around, or maybe they were just avoiding him, keeping well out of his way. Either way, Daniel didn't stop to think for too long about it. Within a matter of minutes he'd reached his destination, namely Hammond's office. Put his hand on the handle, and was about to pull it down to open the door when...

It opened. And Daniel found himself face to face with not one, but two military officers. The first looked him up and down.

"Jackson," he said, courteously enough.

"Samuels," Daniel nodded back. Then, to the officer behind the colonel, "General."

"Daniel," Hammond smiled. "Come on in, the colonel was just leaving."

Daniel nodded and stepped around Hammond and Samuels. A second later the general joined him back inside the office and shut the door behind them. He walked around to his chair, and motioned for Daniel to take the other one. Daniel stood by it, but didn't sit.

"Is there something you wanted to discuss, son?" Hammond asked him.

It took Daniel more than a second to restrain himself from an irrationally angry response. Instead he took a deep breath and with calm, evenly measured breaths, said, "I was under the impression that there was a seventy-two hour bereavement period before deaths were announced to the media."

Hammond looked troubled. "You caught the news as well, then?"

"Yes!" Daniel all but exploded. "What the hell happened?"

"We're still trying to work that one out," Hammond replied. "And rest assured, Major Davis has done all he can to smooth over the leak."

"So it's a leak now?" Daniel asked sarcastically.

"It's looking that way." Hammond sounded saddened, and Daniel couldn't help but agree with him; the day-to-day situation at the SGA was tenuous enough already without a possible leak to add to the mix.

Daniel finally sat down, followed a second later by Hammond on the other side of the desk. The charge that had been in the room during the verbal exchange had all but dissipated now, leaving just two emotionally exhausted men.

"Any idea about who could do something like this?" Daniel asked after a while.

Hammond sighed. "More than a few ideas, but it's just speculation at the moment. All we can do at the moment is sit tight and hope whoever's doing this will catch themselves out sooner rather than later."

There was no point in arguing at the moment; it was nothing more than speculation. But after a few more moments of near melancholic silence, Daniel again spoke up. "Captain Aldwin was a good man," he said, the words coming out perhaps more forcefully than he had intended. "One of the best. He deserves more than this!"

"I know," Hammond replied quietly.

Daniel continued, really beginning to let loose now. "His family deserve more than this, for crying out loud! I've met his wife. He's got three children. All without a father now, and I bet they heard about it on the news rather than from one of ours." He stopped again, and took some deep breaths, running a hand through his short hair. "This is becoming seriously screwed up, General."

"I know, Colonel," Hammond replied, with a surprisingly wry smile. "And that's why we're going to fix the leak before it becomes a flood." He stood up, motioning Daniel to do the same. "Come with me. There are a few more developments you missed today while you were off-world."

"That reminds me," Daniel mused, allowing the general to leave the office first, a step and a half behind the senior officer. "I haven't seen the rest of my team since we got back - where are they?"

"Down in one of the laboratories," Hammond replied, half turning his head back to Daniel as they walked through corridors. "Where you would be as well if you hadn't decided to shut yourself off from the world for the last four hours."

Daniel bit back the less than professional reply to that, and instead followed Hammond down to the expanding science department in the bowels of the mountain. Past the glass windowed-doors showing lab coats performing weird experiments with half constructed naquada reactors, and right on to the room at the very end. Hammond knocked on the door before opening it, and inside the room itself Daniel found a rather motley group of people - his motley group of people, to be precise. "John," he nodded, coming over to stand next to the archaeologist. He looked over to the main table. "What have we got here then, Major?"

Meyers looked up, apparently only registering Daniel's presence for the first time. "Sir!" she grinned. "Where'd you come from?" When Daniel simply grinned wryly in return and raised an eyebrow, she got back on topic. "General Hammond, Colonel Jackson," she added with a quick glance back in Daniel's direction, "I think we may well have found the solution to all our problems."

"An unobtrusive yet portable lie detector?" Daniel asked facetiously, garnering a puzzled look from John next to him. He mouthed the word, 'Later', and John nodded in response before they returned their attentions to the lab table. For her part, Meyers was unfazed; instead of looking back at Daniel and John she rested her hands on the table and stared evenly at General Hammond. For the first time Daniel noticed what was on the table, but he couldn't quite remember where he'd seen it before. Although he knew he should recognise it.

"Which problems are we talking about, Major?" Daniel called out, taking half a step closer to the table before going the whole hog and stepping right up to the table, John right behind him.

Meyers looked at him. "The negotiations, sir," she replied, almost breathless with the anticipation of it all. She switched her attention back to Hammond. "General, I really think this could work. I think it has a high possibility of working."

"Slow down, Major," Hammond said easily, smiling slightly as he held up his hands in front of him to reinforce what he had just said. "Take it one bit at a time."

Meyers flushed. "Yessir... You remember what Thor told John, a couple of weeks ago?" she asked, the three men, looking around at each of them in turn. She waited for them all to nod before continuing. "That's what John and I may have the solution for."

Shooting a questioning look at John - which yielded no result whatsoever - Daniel turned his attention back to Meyers. "The negotiations?" he asked, seeking further clarification.

He got it; she nodded fervently.

"Because the fact of the matter is that we have nobody on this planet suitable to fill our corner of the negotiating table," John added, speaking for the first since Daniel had arrived.

"Until now," Meyers finished, grinning. She reached onto the table and picked up the small device that had been sitting in it. "SG-3 found this four weeks ago on a recon mission to the Distarium," she began.

Daniel recognised the name of the planet where they had originally found the Quantum Mirror, and instantly he made the connection. "You're planning on using the Mirror?" he asked, almost incredulously. When Meyers and John both nodded, he turned to face Hammond. "General?" he asked. "Is this seriously going to be considered as an option?"

"Unless you can find a human both fluent and willing enough to face down Cronos and two other System Lords at a negotiating table, Colonel, I think this is the only option we have left."

"Besides," John interjected placidly, staring at the device in Meyers' hand, which Daniel now realised had to be the thing that operated - controlled the Quantum Mirror, "Thor made it pretty clear to me that if we missed out on the talks, then the likelihood of a Goa'uld attack on Earth would become a distinct reality."

"And this is what you've spent this afternoon doing?" Daniel asked John and Meyers. "Just... sifting through alternate realities?"

"You were the one who chose to isolate yourself this afternoon, Colonel," Hammond added, good-naturedly enough.

"That's not quite the term we'd use, sir," Meyers replied, with another smile of her own, "but it works in this context. Now, this..." holding up the device for all to see, "acts like a remote control for the Quantum Mirror. The level of inflexion you use to differentiate between the two points determines how far apart the two realities are, based on their fundamental roots."

"I think that makes sense," Daniel said slowly, mentally trying to wade through Meyers' habit of using a dozen words instead of a couple. "So what does this have to do with finding a representative?" Although he already had a fairly good idea...

Meyers pulled a face. "It was difficult to begin with," she told Daniel earnestly. "Most of the realities we viewed through the Mirror were either Goa'ulded completely or else the Mirror was still back on the Distarium. Until... we found... this reality."

In the brief silence that followed, Daniel wondered just why the hell nobody had thought to actually call him at all that afternoon. Then John spoke up again.

"The alternate reality's Mirror is located in a small laboratory exactly identical to this one," he explained to Daniel, holding his arms out to emphasise the point. "And since Elise and I were not fired upon by either military-issue guns or staff weapons, it's a safe bet to say that that reality is neither Goa'ulded nor unaware of just what the Quantum Mirror can do." He shrugged, almost helplessly. "It's as good a place as any to start. And without anything permanent to work from, there's no way I'll be up to a level suitable for the negotiations this side of the next blue moon."

"We know from John's experience in the other alternate reality that entropic cascade effect would begin to take root within forty-eight hours," Meyers said, picking up the conversation thread from John. "Therefore, General, it would be advisable that we send as few people through the Mirror as possible."

"Like Colonel Jackson and Doctor O'Neill?" Hammond asked her.

She nodded. "Yessir. Using John's experience as a base factor, it's reasonable to hypothesise that John and the colonel are constants in almost every reality we're likely to encounter. Also, the Colonel Jackson that John encountered in the other reality did imply that there were more versions of this combination 'out there', so to speak. Sending the colonel and John through would be better in terms of actually getting something accomplished."

Daniel was caught up on the mention of 'more versions', but before he could say anything on the matter, Hammond was already nodding. The general looked over at Daniel. "Colonel?" he asked. "It's entirely up to you."

And just like that, the fate of the world was left on his shoulders. Before he passed judgement... "So, what exactly are we going to do in this other reality?" he asked nobody in particular. "Trade our Doctor O'Neill in for theirs for the negotiations and hope for the best?"

Again, Hammond simply smiled. "It's entirely up to you, Colonel," he repeated. "Due to the extenuating circumstances and the very fact that there are no conventional options left to take, I'm giving you full jurisdiction in this matter. Do whatever you have to do in order to secure us a speaker for the negotiations."

Because if I don't then Cronos is going to pop over in a mother ship and blow us to smithereens while he wonders what to have for lunch.

Daniel kept that thought to himself, and instead turned slightly to look at John. "Are you sure you're okay with the idea of this?" he asked quietly.

John nodded. "From a purely anthropological point of view it really is difficult for me to say no," he replied equally as quietly. "I don't mind doing this, Daniel."

That last reassurance was all Daniel needed; he turned back to Hammond and, firmly damping all of his own inhibitions about actually going to an altogether different reality, found a smile from somewhere. "When do we leave?"