“It’s an SGC all right, but a bit on the post side of the invasion—“ Carter ventured as they stepped into the hall and spotted the flickering lanterns. O’Neill gritted his teeth.

“I do not believe the Tau’rii were successful in defeating Apophis in this reality,” Teal’c rumbled.

“Ya think?” O’Neill commented, pocketing the necklace in his vest. Carter sniffed.

“Looks like Level twenty-three back on OUR base, and it’s pretty dank, sir—not much ventilation, and judging by the dust not much traffic.”

“Well someone’s been here recently checking the mirror, so let’s move out—“ Quietly, professionally they flanked the doorway and moved through, checking the long hall through sights. The footprints ended at one of the service ladders.

“Okay—“ O’Neill peered up into distant light. “Chances look good that there’s going to be company above. We can either climb up to meet them, or lure somebody down.”

“If we do the latter, we will be boxed in and against greater numbers should our enticement fail,” Teal’c intoned. O’Neill nodded.

 “Rats in a box. So it’s up. I’ll take point—chances are good my alternate might still be around.”

They climbed as silently as they could, Carter bracketed by the two men. At the second floor, O’Neill stopped and stepped out to the floor, bracing against the door, waiting for any sound. Carter flanked the other side and read his hand signal to wait while he looked through.

O’Neill signaled ‘all clear’ and lead them out into the hallway. Teal’c looked around.

“This level is still functioning—we may very well be in the stronghold of a resistance movement, or a survivor’s camp.””

“But they keep the mirror stored down below—and there’s no power at the bottom, where the Gate is—“ Carter mused quietly. O’Neill nodded.

“Might not have enough power to run it—that thing takes a hell of a lot of juice even on a good day.”

“Or maybe they—“ But whatever she was going to say was cut off as they heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Quickly they ducked into a darkened room, waiting until they faded away. Carter led them out, and they moved further down the hall. A hum grew louder and she cocked her head.

“It’s uneven—the power source isn’t an exact match to the utilities—“

“Perhaps one of the naquadah generators has been adapted to replace the conventional generator—“ Teal’c offered quietly. Carter nodded. O’Neill motioned to the double doors at the end of the hall.

“That SHOULD be one of the labs, right?”

“Yes—“ Carter agreed. Cautiously the approached and opened the door into the large room. No one was there. O’Neill stared. Carter stared. Teal’c stared.

“”I think I’m going to—“

“Barf later, Carter. That’s an order, “ O’Neill snapped tersely. He looked from the faint outline of a body trapped in a bubbly column to the ornate gold box on the floor.

“Son of a bitch! They’ve got a sarcophagus!”

“And the body—is she alive?” Carter muttered, looking at the suspended form in the cylindrical tanks. Teal’c shook his head.

“She is not. She is merely preserved, like a specimen in a jar, Major Carter. Her cellular preservation is being met by the sarcophagus, but only at the most primitive level.” He pointed the connecting cables that ran from the sarcophagus to the tanks. “As Osiris and Isis were in their canoptic jars.”

“Like Frankenstein’s lab,” O’Neill spat out, “Christ! What the HELL are these people doing?”

Carter shivered, and glanced over the room again.

“Something biological, that’s obvious—“

Teal’c had moved closer to the sarcophagus and was examining it intently.

“O’Neill, this has been made recently—there is no name carved on the lid, and the activation panel is of a different design.”

O’Neill studied the area Teal’c was pointing to and his frown deepened.

“Made RECENTLY?” he repeated. The Jaffa nodded, his expression grim.

“It is a complex piece of technology and requires much skilled labor and security—only a few planets have such facilities.”

“Oh GOD!” Carter gasped, drawing the attention of the two men; they shifted to her side, looking up with her at the figure in the column.

“It’s—ROSE, sir!” came Carter’s strangled whisper.

***   ***   ***

“So what’s the big picture here, Jack?” Rose finally blurted. They were sitting across a table from each other, and Rose glanced at her hand: two threes an ace, a six and a four. She dropped the six and four as Jack dealt her two more cards. Carefully she added the new ace and three into her hand and gave a discouraged little sigh. Across the table, Jack twisted his mouth.

“Damn it, I just lost again, didn’t I? Maybe I better call—“ he groused, glaring at her. She rolled her eyes.

“Don’t bitch, and tell me what’s REALLY going on.”

He tossed another chip into the pile between them on the table; Rose followed suit.

“We need your body,” came his low admission. Something in his strained tone made Rose glance at him warily, and he lifted his chin. “Whatcha got?”

“Full house, threes over aces—“

“Shit.”

“My body?” Rose raked the pile of chips in as Jack picked up the card and slowly shuffled them. He carefully kept his glance averted.

“After the virus did it’s thing, planet earth kinda went into a meltdown for about eight months. All those rotting bodies meant we had some severe pandemics of disease wiping out even MORE people. Lot of suicides too. Daniel estimates that our population dropped from seven billion to around three billion all within that timeframe. No births to replace anybody. Finally, when Apophis decided to reclaim Egypt the motherland, he made it a point to destroy every city with a population of four million or more.”

“Jack—every time you open your mouth it gets worse and worse—“ Rose bleakly responded, blinking. He gave a ghost of a shrug.

“These are the FACTS, Rose. Apophis is the System Lord supreme at the moment. He’s set up a base in Luxor, with major camps of Jaffa and technicians on every continent. We in North America have the Sarcophagus laboratory. The weapons lab is over in Africa—near Kenya we think, and the Spacecraft lab is in India.”

Rose took the cards he dealt her and fanned them in her hand, studying them carefully : a pair of eights, a pair of sevens and a queen. On a whim she pulled the sevens, discarding them as Jack took four cards himself. For a second they didn’t speak, and Rose bit the inside of her cheek as she studied her hand.

“We have a box. A sarcophagus.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Siler and Daniel and a few of the turncoat Jaffa have been putting it together, and it works. Sort of. We can regenerate things part of the time, and it can keep someone alive.” He looked away. “Sort of.”

A horrible suspicion flared in Rose’s mind and when she stared at Jack’s hands she caught the faint tremble.

“No—oh Jack!”

He looked up, expression bleak and yet darkly compassionate.

“You have NO idea how much I want to kiss you senseless right now. You ARE my Rose—perceptive to the core.”

“How long have you had HER in stasis?” came the soft demand.

“A year so far, but we can’t do anything more for her without help. Our doctors don’t think she can support a pregnancy, so we’ve been—“ he faltered for a moment, then moved on, “--collecting her egg cells and saving them.” He admitted bleakly, a grimace on his face. When Rose looked at him, he gave a faint shudder.

“I thought losing Charlie was the worst thing that could happen to me. Back then I didn’t know there were different KINDS of anguish, Babe. Now I do.”

“Jack—“ Rose could feel the blood draining from her face. Without thinking about it she dropped her cards and moved to him, pulling his head to her chest, holding him gently. For a moment Jack clung to her, giving in to his need for comfort, a deep sigh escaping his lungs. Rose stroked his silver hair and willed herself not to cry. She looked up at the dark windows, grateful that they’d been given privacy for their evening.

“Christ the SCENT of you—“ came the low moan. Rose tightened her grip, matching his strength as best she could. Then carefully she took a fistful of his hair and tugged, turning his face up to her.

“MY Jack is going to try and find me. Even though we’re not on the best of terms right now, you know damned well he isn’t going to stop looking for me, Jack.”

“I know,” came the soft reply, “But none of them have done it yet. The mirror’s in a dark storeroom with nothing to set it apart from hundreds of alternate reflections out there. Unless he’s got folks working around the clock and a hell of a lucky break, it won’t happen this time either.”

“It COULD.”

“It could. And Apophis could free the Jaffa too, but trust me, it ISN’T gonna happen.” As he spoke, Jack let his arms move gently around and down Rose’s waist to her rounded rump, stroking gently. She impatiently wiggled.

“God damn it, I WILL fight you, Jack! You’re bigger and stronger, but the only way you’re getting me is through rape, and that’s not something you can do.”

“Seduction—“ he rasped with a sickly grin, a desperate gleam. “I know all your buttons, Briar Rose—“

She gritted her teeth and began to pull away, but Jack stood up, making it a point to rub against her in a slow, deliberate way. The nurse’s uniform bunched up between them, and she tensed, cursing herself for walking into his grip in the first place. Jack looked down into her face, breathing evenly even though she could feel his arousal against her bare thigh.

“I’ve never forced myself on you—ANY of you. But I’ve got time to seduce the hell out of you.”