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Aberrant: Stargate Universe - 1975 [Complete]


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[set two months before the formation of the specialist SG teams]

"So what's this big news?" Olivia asked, swirling the wine glass so that the red liquid inside sparkled and glimmered. Wakiki and his family were in town visiting and they had told her they were taking her out for dinner because they had something to tell her.

Jolena smiled and reached for Wakiki's hand. He took it as they beamed at one another, grinning like idiots. She's pregnant again. The thought came in a lightning bolt of surety, and Olivia felt her smile slip, just a touch. It was back a second later, as she berated herself for letting envy get between her and her family.

"We're going to have another baby," Jolena said, turning to grin at her.

"I'm gonna have a brother!" Matsu giggled, her eyes bright.

"We don't know that, honey," Joly said, putting her hand on her daughter's hair. "It could be a girl."

Mattie nodded. "The baby is in Mommy's stomach, and we can't take it out to look yet," she said with the wisdom of a four year-old. "But I'm the girl, so it'll be a boy."

"You'll have to wait to see," Olivia agreed, smiling at her niece. She looked at her brother and sister-in-law. "Are you going to determine the gender via ultrasound?"

"Yeah, just to be ready," Wakiki said. "Guessing everything with Mattie was so much fun last time."

Joly laughed. "I enjoyed that challenge," she said to her husband.

"Yeah, I'm sure you did," he grinned at her. "I didn't, I'd like to not buy double everything again."

"We don't have to buy again if it’s a girl," Joly pointed out. "I saved Mattie's clothes..."

Olivia drowned out their words, her thoughts far away. Had she been braver, stronger, her own child would be five years old this month. With effort, she pushed those thoughts away. What could have been was useless to consider. The only thing that mattered was the reality before her. So she laughed as her brother told a joke and let herself be happy for her family.

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Olivia stretched, letting the laptop rest against her folded legs. Today, she was pretty sure she hated her sadistic boss, Marv. Somewhere in the warehouse, she could hear him talking as he supervised some aspect of the inventory. Sighing, Olivia picked up the laptop and started to carefully look through the box in front of her. It was on the bottom shelf, and she'd just pulled it out and sat on the floor instead of trying to lift it onto a table or bend over it.

Some brass somewhere had ordered the Research and Development department to perform an inventory; according to Marv, about once a decade, someone in the upper echelons got nervous about whether all the alien things were where they were supposed to be. So everything deemed non-critical was put on hold while beans were counted. The junior team members were always the ones left doing it. And that included Olivia. Unlike the other techs, she was under strict orders to not directly touch anything. She was just as happy with that order. Knowing her life, the next thing would turn her inside out or leave her stranded on a planet full of nothing but pro-gun, anti-choice Republicans.

Humming to the music coming over her head phones, she turned back to her job. Using a grab-stick - a fancy one that had probably cost the United States government several hundred dollars in a fine example of her tax dollars at work - she turned the mask in the box over, verifying that it was genuine. "One Death Mask from PX-822 - check." She clicked the 'confirm' box on the database and repacked the mask, putting it back.

The klaxon was sudden and strident, and Olivia looked up in alarm as a voice said, "Intruder alert. All personnel vacate the Warehouse. Repeat, intruder alert."

Olivia stood up and started for the exit, leaving the laptop. Her heart rate picked up quickly as she moved at a brisk pace through the maze of shelves. She heard running feet and frowned; panicking wouldn't help. She stepped out into a corridor and saw one of the scientists barreling toward her. Ken Sato was his name, she recalled, pleased at that. Since the incident with the black pentagon, her memory had been spotty; names and dates were particularly hard now. "Ken," she called, "slow down-"

He dropped to a sudden stop in front of her, his face set in hard lines. He grabbed her arm, and she realized he had a knife in his other hand. "Ken," she said, her voice shivering with sudden fear, "why do you have a ceremonial Kat'rak dagger?"

"My name," Ken said, his voice a strange and heart-stopping double-echo, "is Jaltor." The whites of his eyes glowed, flaring with sudden light.

Goa'uld! The word was enough to weaken her knees, even without the knife point, which came to rest against her throat. "Please don't hurt me," she begged, her voice shaking.

"That depends on your usefulness," Jaltor growled. Using both the knife and his grip on her arm, he pushed her deeper into the warehouse. Stumbling, Olivia let herself be guided back into the rear area.

"There, that box," Jaltor said, pushing her against it. "Open that."

Her hands shook as she obeyed, releasing the clamps holding the upright box shut. The front popped open a bit and she pulled it wide, revealing a gold-plated mirror. Jaltor reached past her and grabbed a crystal off the mirror, cradling it in his hand. Olivia watched him press facets; it seemed to be a control device for the mirror. Lights appeared with each touch of his hand. He was intent on what he was doing; when she was sure he wasn't paying any attention to her, she started to ease away from him.

Light, brilliant and blazing, flared from the mirror, backlighting an image of blue skies and very human buildings. It was somewhere on Earth, somewhere densely populated. She squinted, trying to see where it was, but there wasn't much to go on save that it was densely populated.

,,

Jaltor smiled at her, a mocking expression. "Thank you for your help, Dr. Jenings-Izumi. I will remember this service, and will persuade Ra to spare you as my Lo'taur," he said, smiling at her. "I do so appreciate breaking the smart ones." Still smirking, he touched the flat plane of the mirror and disappeared.

"Someone's woefully out of date," Olivia muttered, her courage returning now that she was alone. Ra had been dead for years.

"Down here!" she heard someone call. She turned to see a Marine coming toward her. "Where'd he go?"

The mirror was fading. The Marine would never make it; a goa'uld was getting away. Olivia knew what that meant and knew the danger of it. She'd only heard some vague stories of the goa'uld, but what she knew was very bad. Someone had to track it and get word back to SGC.

She shouldn't do this. She was no hero, no Marine. There's no one else. You can't let him get away like this.

Swallowing hard, Olivia pressed her hand to the mirror. There was a blinding flash that she saw through her closed eyelids; when she opened them, she was somewhere else. It was like blinking, only she was one place when her eyes closed and another when they opened. A narrow street was before her, with very white buildings on either side of her. She turned around, but there was nothing there; no counterpart to the mirror existed. Fighting panic, she hurried to the intersection, looking for both where she was and poor Ken.

She forgot to look for Ken when she reached the intersection. Everything around her was written in Japanese, which made her frown. Worse, the architecture was definitely non-American. She was in a foreign country with no identity and no way of contacting home. "Damn it," she whispered, then spotted a newspaper stand.

She drifted over, frowning at the strangeness of it all. Maybe she wasn't on Earth anymore; the man's clothing was very off, kind of retro, and there was an unfinished, unpolished look to everything. He was staring at her, seemingly torn between ignoring her and telling her off. It was damned unnerving, and she glanced down at the paper to see what clues it could offer.

The paper told her two important things: she was in Motobu on the island of Okinawa, and today's date was July 19, 1975.

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She found a quiet corner in a park and had hysterics for a while. She was aware that Jaltor was getting away, but she was currently far more concerned about herself. She couldn't be here - she wasn't born yet, so she was ok, but what would happen to her once she was born? She only had a little more than a year before that happened. Would she be ripped apart by temporal forces, determined that only one Olivia could exist at once?

Worse, she knew this date. Somewhere in this city, her mother was just settling into her semester of teaching English aboard. Somewhere in this city, her father was signing up for an English class. He'd meet her mother at the Aquapolis and then transfer into her class, and they'd fall in love. She was in the very awkward position of possibly erasing herself before she was born. That'd solve a few problems, wouldn't it? Suicide by time travel.

She shook off the dire thoughts and began to think. Her best chance of getting out of here was to find the time machine and return herself. She wasn't really keen on living through the eighties again - she'd looked like a dork the first time. So that was the first step.

No, she had to stop herself. Her duty was to find and neutralize Jaltor. Then she could worry about getting home. But she couldn't do it alone. The problem was, she didn't know where she could find help from. Her sources and knowledge about Japan were limited to her family-

That thought held some merit. She knew her family was around here and she knew them. Grandma Izumi was a lost cause, the racist bitch, but she remembered that there was an aunt who had always been nice to her - the one she'd been named after, actually. Olivia racked her brain for what she could remember about Aunt Sachi. She'd been the member of her family who had been the most accepting of Mom and Dad's relationship. Olivia had never really known her; she'd died when Olivia was very young. She'd been odd, from what she remembered from her father telling her, full of strange ideas. She'd died unmarried, with no children.

Rising to her feet, Olivia took the only option available to her - making contact with someone who might be able to help her. It was a risk, but she didn't know what else to do.

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A phone book was her guide, and Olivia was more thankful than ever that she had kept up her Japanese. She used to hate it, especially when she'd hated her Japanese heritage. But now she was grateful for it.

She wasn't grateful that the Japanese culture appeared to be even more repressed now than it had been in her two trips in her youth. Her dark skin earned her stares; one woman actually pulled her children behind her, as if Olivia were going to jump at them. She wondered how her mother had tolerated it, as she was darker-toned than Olivia. Knowing Delayah, she'd simply held her head higher and walked prouder.

With was with a great deal of relief that Olivia rounded the last turn and found herself on a small, quiet street. She'd been here before, once in the future. After Aunt Sachi's death, one of the cousins had purchased the house from the estate and the Izumi's had stopped there on their first trip. Olivia couldn't remember the cousin's name, but she remembered the house. On the trip-to-be, the house had just been repainted, but the giant 'Hello Kitty' that had been painted on the door was still visible through the paint. Today, it was freshly painted, the Japanese icon smiling brightly at her.

Haruo and Sachi had been the 'wild' children of their family. Creative and exuberant, they had defied Japanese traditions as children. From what Olivia had been told, Haruo had settled down in high school, while Sachi had not. She'd never stopped dancing to her own music, and she was considered eccentric. All attempts to 'hammer her into place' had failed.

There was the option of going to the Japanese government, but Olivia had no idea what that would do the time stream. All it would take is someone saying or doing the wrong thing, and something could be changed. No, she was convinced it was better to involve one person - and, as callous and wretched as this made Olivia feel - someone who would be written off if she blabbed too much. Worrying about that was a bit premature, honestly; Olivia had no idea if she could convince her to help, or even if she could help, but Olivia was officially out of options. Honestly, if anyone could be convinced help to help in time, it would be 'crazy' Aunt Sachi.

She knocked on the door and waited; it was quickly opened by a small, smiling Japanese woman. Her smile slipped a touch as she looked up at Olivia.

Olivia felt her own smile slip. Aunt Sachi had always been described to her as so much larger than life that seeing this tiny woman who was barely over five feet tall was a shock. "Izumi Sachi?" she asked tentatively.

"Yes?" she replied, her smile returning a little. "Can I help you?"

"Perhaps," Olivia said, bowing. She hadn't done this for a while, but her parents had insisted that she learn about this part of her heritage. "My name is Jenings Olivia. May this humble one ask for some of your time?" The highly formal words were the most appropriate for this situation; she was imposing upon this stranger.

"Oh, yes, please enter," Sachi said, standing back and waving her in. As Olivia entered, she shut the door and led her into a sitting room. Olivia sank onto the cushion as Sachi asked, "Would you like some tea?"

"Oh, no thank you," Olivia said, knowing that she had to decline. "I do not wish to be a burden."

"Oh I insist," she said, already preparing the tea. Olivia protested twice more and was overruled, and only then could she accept it politely. As it brewed, Sachi made small talk about the weather and current events, which Olivia was only partially able to follow. Finally, the moment for casual talk was done, and Sachi looked at her expectantly.

"Izumi-san, I need your help, and I need your discretion," Olivia said, bowing her head deeply.

"My help, Jenings-san?" Sachi asked softly.

"Yes, this is very difficult," Olivia confessed, clasping her hands nervously. "What I am about to tell you is extraordinary. I need your help to stop an alien invasion. From the future."

"I... do not understand," Sachi said, looking confused - but not scared. Olivia was pleased to see that there was a spark of interest, too. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Dad had said his sister was a little crazy, and that might be what saved Olivia.

"I am from the future," Olivia said. "I knew of you, through your family, and decided that you could help me. I need a native to give me advice and guide me. I have to find a man, and I have to do it fast. He came here for a reason, I hope, which means he isn't disappearing into the crowds. So long as he is seeking something here, in Motobu, in this time, I have a chance of stopping him."

Sachi's eyes were shining as she leaned forward. "Are you an alien, Jenings-san?"

"Me? Oh, no, I'm American!" Olivia laughed. "I just came here through a time machine... well, a time and space machine, as I started in Nevada in 2004, and ended up here in 1975."

"I must ask," Sachi said softly, "but do you offer some proof?"

"Umm, oh! Yes," Olivia said, digging into her pockets. "Here, Izumi-san, please see the date on this." She handed her a quarter.

Sachi took the coin and looked; her eyes widened as she caught the date. "This could be fake," she said.

Olivia spread her hands. "All the proof that I could offer could be faked. The only thing I can't fake also will not come to be, not for a while. I'm afraid that I didn't know I'd be coming, so I can't tell you what will happen in two hours. All I can tell you is this: buy Microsoft. And I promise you will believe if you see the true face of the alien I hunt."

Sachi grew very serious. "Will it put me in danger?"

"Yes," Olivia said, fearing she was losing her only source of support. "But I'll try to limit that danger to me, ok?"

"Oh-khay," Sachi said, imitating the English word roughly.

"Ok, you're willing to help?" Olivia blinked, surprised.

"Yes, I am," she said, nodding. "It sounds like fun." She looked just like Olivia's father as she broke out a huge smile, her eyes sparkling.

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Sachi ran out for a quick shopping trip while Olivia put down her thoughts in notes. She had some logic-steps that she wanted to lay out in a concrete manner. She was sure that would provide the clues to why Jaltor had picked here and now.

First, Olivia had to assess what were actual guesses and what were facts. Sighing, she started to write.

Jaltor picked this time and place specifically. (Assumption - don't know if he was in control of the device or guessing.)

Olivia frowned. She was going to operate as if that were true, because otherwise she had no real clue where or how to find Jaltor. So she rewrote it:

Jaltor picked this time and place specifically. ("Fact")

Alright, but why? Olivia tapped the pen against the thin paper, thinking. There had to be something here that Jaltor knew that she didn't, that he wanted. But what?

"Time to find out what is specific to this area," she muttered. Sachi had left the last few days’ worth of newspapers behind, and Olivia dug into them. The most obvious thing was the 1975 World Expo. The center piece of the Expo was the Aquapolis, which was part of the Science and Technology Cluster. The floating city was a concept city, showcasing drawing life from the ocean. It was meant to be a prototype for marine communities. Olivia thought it was ugly, looking like the bastard love child of an marine oil rig and metal pier. But it was a huge part of the 1975 World Expo.

The 1975 World Expo has something to do with him coming here. (Assumption)

It was a complete assumption, and Olivia didn't have a problem with that. They had to start somewhere, and it was the major event of the year, especially for Okinawa.

So what did she have to do? She started writing again.

1) Find what he's seeking (something of Yu's??).

2) Stop him from getting it.

3) Stop him.

4) Return home.

The door opening made her head come up. Sachi beamed at her and put a paper bag on the chair. "Here are some clothes to help you blend in as a tourist," she said, before setting down another bag, "and I brought today's papers."

"Thank you," Olivia said, smiling widely. She reached for the papers, while Sachi leaned over her notes.

"What have you learned?" she asked.

"Not much," Olivia admitted, starting to flip through the newsprint pages. Again, the imminent World Expo dominated the news. She was about to give up when one picture caught her eye. "Izumi-san... do you have a magnifying glass?" Her aunt got it for her and Olivia bent over one of the pictures. "Oh my God..." she whispered in English.

Sachi frowned, then stood next to her and leaned over. She saw many odd things in the picture; it was a shot of the 'Vehicles of the Future' display. "What are we looking at with such trepidation?" she finally asked.

Olivia used her pen to point at a silly looking vehicle, with an odd triangular shape, which reminded Sachi of both a snail and a duck. It was labeled as a spaceship, but everyone knew spaceships were saucers. "That's a Tel'tak, a goa'uld spacecraft. I'm not sure," Olivia said, dread in her voice, "but I think they're capable of hyperspace travel." Suddenly, Jaltor's threat about Ra had made more sense. "If he got to Ra now, warned him twenty years in advance - it'd be a disaster!"

"What is this Rha?" Sachi asked.

"Ra is a powerful alien; he had enslaved earth thousands of years ago," Olivia swallowed. "If Jaltor gets to him now, twenty years before Ra's death... Humanity wouldn't stand a chance. This is way bigger than a lone goa'uld damaging the past - this is the end of our future." She grabbed Sachi's hand. "Can we get into the exhibit tonight?"

"It is guarded - it opens tomorrow!"

Olivia shook her head. "We don't have a choice. We have to make sure he doesn't get it tonight. We can't let him leave the planet in that thing. We can't."

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The plan was quickly worked out, and Sachi left for one more quick supply run. While she was gone, Olivia made what could be her final arrangements. Either way, she didn't plan on coming back tonight. So she quickly wrote down what she had seen and found, and put it in an envelope. The envelope was addressed to the head of R&D at Area 51, using all the proper codes and precautions so that the letter would actually arrive. Sachi would mail it for her. Hopefully, that would mean that if she succeeded but died, someone would know what happened. And someone would need to collect the Tel'tak from whoever currently held it. She idly wondered if the owners knew what they had in their possession.

The next thing she wrote was a letter to Sachi. Her aunt had helped her so much, but there was one more thing she needed. Olivia was terrified that she was going to alter time somehow; there was one thing that had too happen, as far as she was concerned. So she asked her aunt to be sure that her father signed up for her mother's class. They had to meet, or else there would be one heck of a temporal mess. She left things vague, but made sure Sachi knew it was important.

And with that, the only thing left was to face her fate at Jaltor's hands.

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The polyester clothing was itchy, and everything felt weird on her body, clingy where it should be loose and loose where it should cling. Clothing in the seventies sucked, and Olivia wished that she was back in her cotton blouse and willow-broom skirt. The polyester bell-bottoms and flimsy top with the pull-over sweater vest were bothering her. With effort, she blocked the distraction.

,,

The sound of the ocean roared softly in their ears as she and Sachi crept along a line of vendor's tents. Ahead of them the dark form of the Aquapolis loomed, its light off until tomorrow. The bridge, which was flexible and could accommodate cars, was also unlit, an ominous tongue reaching from dry land to the floating prototype city. The 'city' itself had an industrial, raw look to Olivia that made her think 'urban wasteland', not 'city of the future'.

Sachi caught her arm and drew her to a stop, pointing. Olivia nodded as a spark of red revealed a smoking guard. Her aunt fumbled something into her hand, and Olivia nodded, digging out the lighter. Hiding behind Sachi's back, she quickly lit the firecracker and tossed it aside. Sachi grabbed her hand and they scurried away from their distraction together.

The snap and pop of the firecrackers drew the guard's attentions, and the two women were able to get closer to the Aquapolis before the next guard intervened. He stood on the bridge itself, his body a barricade to their progression.

"How do we get past him?" Olivia murmured, even as his radio crackled and he was warned of the firecrackers. "Crap."

"We can put out more firecrackers..." Sachi's voice trailed off and she silently pointed.

Olivia turned her head, then hunkered down instinctively as she saw Ken/Jaltor striding toward the guard. "I guess I was right," she muttered, gathering her feet under her. "I hate being right."

The guard saw Jaltor and moved to intercept him; both woman watched in horror as he raised his arm and pointed something at the guard. From this distance, they couldn't hear the silenced gunshot. But they saw the flash and saw the guard jerk and fall into stillness. Jaltor walked over to the body, grabbed it around the ankles and dragged it to the edge of the bridge. The two woman watched him roll the body over the edge and into the ocean.

"Wait here," Olivia whispered, letting go of Sachi's hand. "I don't want you to be in danger."

Sachi was following her regardless. "I have come this far," she whispered, "I will see it done."

"It's dangerous," Olivia promised.

Sachi shrugged. "Life is dangerous, if you live it right," she answered and Olivia relented. She hadn't wanted to be alone, anyway. Together the two women crept across the bridge, their eyes wide and senses alert for the armed man running around.

,,

"Where is the Tel'tak displayed?" Olivia whispered. Sachi pointed, and they tiptoed forward. The 'interior' of the Aquapolis was mostly exposed to the winds, though there was a roof overhead and there were some central buildings. The entire building dipped and swayed as they walked, and soon the women were holding onto one another for more than moral support. The 'Vehicles of the Future' was almost a third of the way around the Aquapolis on the upper level, so they had to find the stairs up and then double back to the ship. As they approached, they saw a light bobbing around the ship, and they nearly crawled the last ten feet to huddle behind a 'hover car'.

,,

Jaltor was circling it, his flashlight playing over the ship. He muttered in a foreign tongue, and Olivia caught snatches of goa'uld curses. Apparently, he didn't seem to be happy about the condition of the Tel'tak, which lifted Olivia's heart. Perhaps if he needed to make repairs-

,,

The door on the side scraped open, and Olivia frowned. She could see that the interior was dirty, but not much else. He stepped inside and the door closed. "Come on," she whispered, darting across the open area, holding the baseball bat tight. She was pretty sure that in a gun-fight, she was supposed to bring a gun, but that wasn't likely here in Japan. In fact, she was wondering how Jaltor got one, mostly because she wanted to find the person responsible and shoot them a few times. Not that she would. But she wanted to.

,,

At the door, she examined the edge. There didn't seem to be a way in, so she stepped to the side of the door and waited. After a moment, Sachi crouched next to it on the other side, her own kitchen knife in hand. It seemed to take forever, but the door opened, and the two women struck.

,,

Had Jaltor been ready for them, they would have been in trouble. But he wasn't, and Sachi's knife caught him in the leg. Olivia's bat was less effective; she didn't account for the doorway and it wanged off the opening without hitting Jaltor. The vibrations that rang up the bat were brutal but she kept a hold of it through sheer adrenaline, ignoring the discomfort. Jaltor pointed the gun at her and she thought she was dead, only to have Sachi wrap herself around his legs and begin to push at him, making his arms pinwheel as he struggled to stay upright. Using the bat like a rapier, Olivia rammed it awkwardly into his crotch. Thankfully, that was one place she could hit that she didn't need to hit well, and Jaltor doubled over with a surprised gasp. "Been a while since you had balls on the outside, huh?!" Olivia snapped as she brought the bat down on the back of his head.

,,

He went down like a rag doll, and both women froze. "Is he dead?" Sachi whispered.

,,

"Even if he is, the goa'uld isn't," Olivia said, just as the snake shot out of his mouth. Both women shrieked as the thing wiggled in a circle and came back at them. It needed a host, and it had two options. Jaltor leapt at Sachi and Olivia reacted without thought, swinging at him. She didn't connect directly, but it was enough to knock the snake off course. Olivia followed, her bat swinging, as Sachi moved to intercept, her eyes too wide.

,,

Jaltor came at Olivia next, launching itself as if it had springs in its body. Olivia tried to deflect with the bat and was only partially successful. Jaltor was slowed, but it just wound itself around the bat once and lunged for her throat again. Olivia barely got a hand around it, her fingernails digging in as Jaltor began to dig its head into her. Shrieking in pain and terror, Olivia dropped the bat and pulled against the snake with two hands. It was making slow progress - until Sachi slipped her knife between Olivia's neck and hands, under its body, and cut upward with all her strength. Hot blue blood splashed down the front of Olivia’s shirt and vest, and she whimpered, pulling out the head half-lodged in her throat.

,,

"You need a hospital," Sachi insisted, shedding her jacket and balling it against the wound.

,,

"No," Olivia rasped, taking the jacket and putting pressure on her throat. "Not here. Too many questions." She could hear the guards coming. "Can you run?"

"I won't leave you," Sachi said, her voice firm. "I won't let them arrest you."

Olivia shook her head, then winced at the pain. She tottered to Ken's still form and fished the control crystal from his pocket. "I'm going home. Now go. You can't go with me."

Sachi nodded and said, "You were right... about seeing the alien's face. I believe you." She bowed deeply. "It was an honor to help you."

"You honor me," Olivia said, bowing as much as she dared. Her voice was rasping with pain, and she felt dizzy when her head moved. "Now, go, please. I don't want you to be in trouble."

As her aunt left, moving carefully to avoid the guards, Olivia staggered back to Ken's side and put a hand on him. Hopefully, he'd be taken back with her if she was touching him. She could feel her blood soaking the front of her shirt; it was making it hard to think. The damned thing must have nicked something important. She wasn't dead, so it wasn't a major artery.

She looked at the glowing crystal, studying the symbols on each facet. Thankfully, they were in hieroglyphs and Olivia sighed as she found a symbol on a dark side that meant "home". With a groan of joy, she took a tighter grip on Ken and pressed the facet. It glowed brightly under her finger as the others went dark, and with no warning, she was somewhere else, a familiar warehouse.

,,

Which was when she realized that she'd forgotten the goa'uld's body, though she didn’t have time to worry about it. The Marine who had been rushing forward to stop Jaltor was still rushing, and he tripped over Ken as they suddenly appeared in Area 51. Olivia had just a second to release an undignified squawk as he fell on her. Her head hit a shelf as she tumbled down and she was gone.

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"Dr. Jenings-Izumi? How do you feel?" Dr. Lam's voice was soft but insistent, pulling Olivia out of unconsciousness and into pain.

"... hurt," she rasped.

"Where?" Dr. Lam asked, flashing a penlight in her eyes.

"... yes..." Olivia groaned, blinking and trying to avert her eyes from the punishing light. Her eyes focused on Dr. Lam. "Ken?"

Dr. Lam shook her head, and Olivia fell back asleep, awash in disappointment.

The next time she woke up, she felt a little better. This time, a nurse greeted her. "How do you feel?" he asked.

"I hurt," Olivia said clearly. "Where's Dr. Lam?"

"She went home," the nurse said, "it's the night shift. I can call Dr. Wildling, if you need."

Olivia shook her head. "No," she said, "I just remember her being here." Her eyes focused a bit more. "Wait, the night shift? How long have I been out?"

"It's three in the morning," the nurse said.

"Oh crap!" Olivia said, sitting up, only to drop back with a moan. "My brother's family was staying with me... they must be worried sick. Can I have a phone?"

Five minutes later, she was calling home. Her phone picked up, and Olivia frowned at the loud music right before her brother said, "Yeah?"

"Wakiki... what's going on?" she asked.

"I met some people tonight, invited them back," he said. "Don't worry - they're all cool. Nothin' crazy, just some talking and music. Wow, it's three. Where are you, anyway?"

"I hit my head at work and have been resting in the infirmary. Yes, I'm fine. And yes, I can hear the music," Olivia said, aware that she sounded really annoyed. "How on earth is Mattie sleeping through that?"

Wakiki paused. "Who?"

"Mattie, your daughter. And for that matter, Joly shouldn't be up this late, either. She's sleeping for two."

"Sis, you are not fine," Wakiki said, his voice extremely concerned. "Will they let me on base if I show up?"

"What are you talking about?" Olivia said, confused. A nagging fear was just starting, but she ignored it, because it just wasn't possible.

"Livy, I don't have a daughter, or a pregnant Joly, whomever that is," Wakiki said. "You must have hit your head hard. Are you sure you're ok?"

"You have a daughter named Matsu, and a wife named Jolena," Olivia said, hearing her voice shake as she realized that no, he really didn't - not anymore. "She's pregnant... with your second child." The words were an attempt to deny the reality of the situation.

"Let me talk to a doctor. Right now, Livy. I'm not fucking joking. I want to talk to the doctor caring for you."

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"Well, that turned out pretty well," Colonel Mietzen said, nodding to General Hammond.

"Yes it did," Hammond agreed, his deep voice sounding something between pleased and tired. "We didn't even have time to worry about it."

"And the human DNA we found in the Goa'uld symbiont was from Dr. Jenings-Izumi."

Hammond gave him a sideways look. "Yes, your people were right about that." The look made it clear that Mietzen was pushing things by being a bit too smug.

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"General, something's bothering me," Mietzen said.

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"What is that, Colonel?" Hammond asked, a slight emphasis on the word 'colonel' purposefully invoking rank.

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Mietzen caught the subtle warning; colonels didn't always get to question the generals. "Sir, Dr. Jenings-Izumi has a fairly high clearance for someone who's been here as short of a time as she has. I'm sure all that extra access to information helped her on this mission. She might not have succeeded without it."

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"She's a good analyst," Hammond replied, his voice cool. "And she's proven that our faith in her is well-founded. Twice now, actually."

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"I see." Mietzen nodded. "Don't suppose that the brass over Area 51 would consider letting me borrow her for something, would they?"

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Hammond glanced at him measuringly. "Depends," he said slowly, "on what that task is."

,,

Mietzen smiled. "Let's talk, General."

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"You have to let me go back, Marv," Olivia sobbed, sagging in the chair in his office. "I know what went wrong, I can go back and fix it! You see, because the Aquapolis was closed the first day it should have been open because of what we did on that night, and it where my parents met, and when they tore it down in 1993, they went back there as a family and Jolena was there and she hung with us, and she and Wakiki fell in love and I know I can fix this!"

"Olivia," Marv said, his voice firm. "There's too much at stake for us to send you back. I know you have had a terrible loss, but you stopped a potential invasion of Earth. You resolved it well. Your letter to the my predecessor allowed us to negotiate the Tel'tak away from the Japanese company that held it, as well as allowing us to learn about and acquire the body of the Goa'uld symbiont." He shook his head. "Olivia, I'm sorry. We can't let you access the time mirror again."

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"You have to!" Olivia shouted, rising to her feet. She loomed over her seated boss, her eyes wide and angry. "I erased my niece and nephew from existance! I have to fix that!"

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"Olivia, calm down," Marv said firmly, his eyes flicking past her to the orderlies who had walked her down. "You're going to hurt yourself."

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"I'm already hurt!" Olivia snapped, as the orderlies gently grabbed her. She struggled against them, but it was no contest. They dragged her out of the room, as she shouted, “Her name is Matsu! She likes the color yellow and swimming! She’s only four years old!”

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Marv sighed heavily as her voice faded. He felt for her. It must be hellish to be the only person who remembered members of your family, especially kids. But when you weighed the loss of the population of Earth against the loss of two kids, there was no contest. It was too great of a risk to send Olivia back to repair her personal problems. She'd get over it, in time, he told himself and he believed it.

Had he been in the Infirmary to hear her heartbroken sobs, he might have felt differently.

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