From: montana1416 <pglore@aol.com>
Date: 2 Mar 2003 17:23:59 -0800
Subject: xfc: Hope Dies Last (1of 8) by Montana1416
Source: atxc

Title: Hope Dies Last
Author: Montana 1416
E-mail: Montana1416@aol.com
Rating. 
Classification:
Crossover X-Files/Stargate SG1
X-Files: MSR, AU, X-File.
Stargate SG1:  J/D Preslash, Meridian Fix of 
sorts, AU.
Distribution: Anywhere is ok, but please let me 
know.
Spoilers: A bunch, for both shows but I can't 
remember them all. Let's just say through the 
Truth for the X-Files and Abyss for Stargate.  
Spoilers for X-Files MSR Fictions Mac and 
...And So It Begins, both may be found at 
www.Gossamer.org
Summary:  Shortly after the Truth, Scully 
disappears and Mulder turns to an old friend to 
help find her. Along the way he meets Dr. 
Daniel Jackson and Colonel Jack O'Neill and 
must join them in the fight against a group of 
aliens trying to change Earth's future in order to 
get Scully back.
Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully belong to 10-13 
Productions, Fox, David Duchovny and Gillian 
Anderson... Jack and Daniel belong to 
Glassner/Wright, MGM, Richard Dean 
Anderson and Michael Shanks. They are being 
used without permission, and without profit. No 
infringement on the rights of their owners is 
intended.  I just wanted to play! Penny 
McAllister and Brian Harold are mine. 
Note: I may have played (just a bit) with the 
timelines of each Universe to fit the story. 
Feedback: Yes!!!!.
Many thanks to Shadow for once again facing the
great beta challenge...

Hope is a pathological belief in the occurrence 
of the impossible.
H.L. (Henry Lewis) Mencken

World War II
Dover, England

"There they are Doo." Gene Baldwin said as he 
pulled the binoculars from his face and pointed 
through the windshield toward the northeastern 
night sky. 

"Well, would you look at that, it looks like a fire 
flickering across the sky."  Mark Dooley said in 
awe as he got up and leaned closer to the 
windshield and stared in the direction Gene was 
pointing.

"It's really unusual for them to be this far south.  
Must be some storm out there in space," came 
Gene's response as both men continued looking 
out the cockpit window. 

"Mac, you getting this on film!"  Doo yelled 
back to the crew's reconnaissance photographer 
Don McAllister.  

"Yeah, Doo, I'm on it!"  Mac yelled back.
 
"Gentleman, the aurora is a swell sight but do 
you think we could get back to the business at 
hand  like getting our asses on the ground in 
one piece." Captain John Merewether said, 
looking pointedly at his co-pilot and his 
navigator.  

Doo responded as he moved back to his rightful 
position as the plane's navigator and away from 
the window he had been admiring the light show 
through.  "Sure Cap but a poor southern boy like 
me has never seen such a sight. Besides, we're 
over the cliff's now."  

The Captain chuckled. "Doo, you're so full of it, 
poor southern boy my eye.  Anyway, HQ said 
the Jerry patrols are heavy tonight.  We're alone 
out here without the rest of the group so I need 
everyone on alert.  I don't want to run into a 
patrol because you're looking at the pretty lights 
instead of navigating us to a safe landing."  
Before Doo could reply the three men in the 
cockpit heard the crackle of the radio. 

"Sully was that HQ?"  The captain asked the 
crew's radioman Pete Sullivan.  

"No, Cap, I could tell it wasn't HQ but not much 
else it was really garbled.  Besides we're on 
radio silence because of all the patrol activity.  
Could be a Nazi trick."  The radio crackled to 
life again.  

This time the listeners could make out and 
American Accent.  "Is anybody out there?  
Hellooooo!"   
"Maybe HQ is trying to tell us something..."  
Gumdrop started to say from his waist gunner 
position beside Sully but was shushed before he 
could finish.  

"Shhh! Listen up!" Sully said as he leaned closer 
to his radio. The radio crackled with static.  

The captain said after a moment,  "Just in case 
there's trouble we'll take the alternate route to 
base."  He and Gene shifted the plane's position 
slightly to the northeast.  The dancing light of 
the aurora was directly in front of the aircraft. 
The radio again crackled to life.  

"This is the Lucky Lib, Papa, Echo, Gold, 476 
requesting final approach to Watton Field," said 
the voice from the radio.  

"Cap did you hear that?"  Sully asked 
incredulously.  

"Yeah, Sully, break radio silence find out who's 
using our call sign and giving away classified 
field information."  

Sully got right on the task. "This is the Lucky 
Lib calling unidentified craft using this channel.  
Please identify yourself and..."  Sully didn't 
complete his message.  

Out of his small window he saw three 
Meserschmidts approaching from the southeast.  
"Cap we got problems at about 7 o'clock." 
 
The next thing Sully saw out his window was 
the Meserschmidts hit what he could only 
describe as an invisible barrier. "Holy Cow! 
Doo, quick take a look at this, those mezzies are 
just falling out of the sky.  Mac, you got any 
film left? Do you see this?"

Mac nodded, he was already snapping pictures 
as Doo quickly made his way to Sully's 
window.  Through his camera lens he could see 
the fighter planes tumbling toward the ground.  
Then with the camera's eye he traced the path 
directly up from the falling planes where he 
noticed a shimmering against the night sky.  To 
his mind the air shimmered like heat rising off of 
the hot brick pavement of his Florida hometown 
in the late summer.  
As Mac, Doo and Sully looked on; the 
shimmering air moved toward them causing the 
plane to shimmy and shake thus causing Mac to 
lose his grip on his camera.  Doo made his way 
back to the cockpit being jostled from side to 
side as he went.  He arrived in time to see Cap 
and Gene lose control of the aircraft.  As the 
nose rose upward, the plane started to climb. 
The abrupt ascent had crewmembers hanging on 
to whatever was available to stop them from 
tumbling to the tail section of the plane.   Bolt's 
rattled loose, ammo rolled down the isle, glass 
started to shatter, as the plane was being 
virtually sucked spaceward.  

"Oxygen!"  The captain shouted.  

The crew struggled to place their O2 masks over 
their noses and mouths.  Suddenly, the plane 
dropped, descending as quickly has it had risen. 
The sundry of articles that had rolled to the tail 
section were now rolling toward the cockpit.  
The Captain, Gene and Doo watched in horror 
through windshield as the plane raced to meet 
the ground, their efforts to stop the dive useless 
the engines had cut off and the plane was at a 
dead stick.  Abruptly the decent stopped, the 
plane came to a halt and hovered about five feet 
off the ground.  The terrible shaking started 
again rocking the plane too and fro as if 
someone were shaking the plane; like it was a 
gummed-up salt shaker, trying to break the crew 
loose and out of the plane.  Quickly deciding 
that the roller coaster ride they had experienced 
was about to begin again the captain gave the 
order for the crew to abandon the craft.  The 
captain waited for the rest of the crew to jump to 
safety before he jumped joining them on the 
ground.  They watched as the plane rose into the 
night sky and disappeared.  Leaving her crew 
abandoned in a dark field somewhere in 
England, safe and unharmed but bewildered and 
befuddled by their experience.



Airplane Graveyard  
Tucson, Arizona
March 2001

The stillness of the airplane graveyard was 
disturbed as the air shimmered against the 
backdrop of dazzling red light provided as the 
Aurora danced along the northern horizon of the 
desert sky.  A B-24 Liberator dropped out of the 
sky, kicking up dust and sand as it settled into 
it's new resting place among the rows of other 
long dead warplanes.  A static sound came from 
inside the plane as if someone were keying a mic 
as a test to insure the system was working and 
not damaged by the jolt of hitting the ground.

Helena, Montana
March 2001

	The air above the tree line shimmered to 
life as a large alien craft emerged from 
nothingness. The craft looked like a bright light 
as it traveled quickly from its origin point 
through the night sky.  The light neared the 
ground then came to a halt in a clearing just 
beside a small highway. The light rose back into 
the night sky and then vanished making the air 
above the open field shimmer.  Before the light 
faded out of sight it illuminated a man's body 
left lying naked on the ground.

Airplane Graveyard  
Tucson, Arizona
June 2002

	The light from a clear desert night sky 
cast an eerie glow on the airplanes sitting row 
upon row in their desert graveyard. Most were in 
some state of disrepair and all of them had been 
long dead.  Two silhouetted figures topped the 
wall surrounding the graveyard.  

"You ok Scully?" Fox Mulder's voice broke the 
silence.  

"Yes, Mulder just give me a hand down. And 
remind me again what we're doing here." Scully 
replied trying her best to sound annoyed as she 
pointed the beam of her flashlight at the ground 
below.  

"Ah Scully, this is going to be great, we had to 
get away from the lights of the city to get the 
best view of the auroras.  This place is perfect; 
we're away from the lights and just think of all 
the history in these old planes."  He said as he 
jumped down off the wall and then reached up to 
help her down from where she was perched on 
the wall.  

"Mulder, I hope you're not disappointed, but this 
is really too far south to see the auroras." She 
said looking Mulder in the eye as he gently 
lowered her to the ground beside him.  

"Ah, right you are Dr. Scully or should I say 
usually you would be right but back in March, 
2001," Scully shivered involuntarily, the date 
brought back bad memories of Mulder lying 
dead on the ground in Helena, Montana.  Mulder 
reading her thoughts reached out and drew her 
closer to him then continued.  "An enormous 
wave of ionized gasses struck the earth's 
magnetosphere. The wave was created two days 
earlier by a titanic coronal mass ejection on the 
sun.  That tidal wave of particles funneled down 
from the earth's magnetic field to the upper 
atmosphere. So right here in Arizona the desert 
sky glowed like a neon sign. I read in the paper 
today that the same conditions are present 
tonight."  

Scully still looked skeptical.  

Mulder said quietly, "I've missed so much 
Scully and the aurora's are something..." he 
didn't get to finish his sentence because as he 
looked northward through the rows of planes he 
could see red lights dancing just on the edge of 
the horizon.   

"Look at that Scully."  Mulder stood behind 
Scully with his arms wrapped around her and his 
chin gently resting on the top of her head as they 
stood and watched the light show streaking 
across the night sky. Once the lights faded 
something caught Mulder's wondering eye.  
"Wow, Scully that's a B-24 Liberator.  It's looks 
to be in great shape from here. Let's go take a 
closer look."  He grabbed Scully's hand and 
hurried over to the old plane.  

Scully laughed, thinking how much like a kid 
Mulder seemed. First watching the lights, now 
rushing her toward an old warplane looming just 
a few yards away.  She wanted to be annoyed 
that she had let Mulder talk her into climbing the 
wall surrounding the huge graveyard, but in the 
end it was all an act.  In fact, she had seen the 
aurora's when Mulder was in the hospital 
recovering from an alien retrovirus in Alaska 
and she had to admit they were really unique.  
She had also loved the air shows that had come 
to the various bases she had lived on during her 
childhood.    It had been far too long since she 
and Mulder had been able to do anything this 
relaxed.  After all, they had been on a personal 
Def Con One since Mulder's death sentence was 
handed down at the travesty that had been called 
a military tribunal.  Mulder's subsequent break 
from the brig had been followed by their 
rumored deaths at the hands of the faceless men 
in unmarked black helicopters.  Luckily, Mulder 
and Scully had vacated the ancient Anasazi 
pueblos moments before the helicopters 
swooped down and totally destroyed the old 
dwellings.  Life on the run was a necessity so 
that the truth of their greatly exaggerated deaths 
would not fall into the wrong hands.  Carefree; 
seemed to be a far off land, so tonight's little 
escapade into a desert graveyard to see the 
auroras and old airplanes was a welcome 
breather.
 
Scully loved everything about Mulder, but his 
need to investigate the unknown and always 
search for the truth was the part of him that she 
loved best.  As they reached their destination, 
Mulder spied a workman's ladder propped 
against the side of the aging plane.  The night 
sky seemed to produce an almost ethereal glow 
over the old B-24, like a benevolent spotlight 
without the eeriness projected in the rest of the 
yard. 	

"I'm just going to take a look-see inside, Scully, 
seeing that someone was kind enough to leave 
us a ladder."  Mulder said as he reached out with 
his free hand to grasp the ladder.  

Scully let go of his other hand as he started his 
ascension up the ladder.  She watched as he 
reached the top then disappeared through the 
opening in the side of the plane.   It wasn't long 
before Mulder urged Scully in an excited tone to 
come up the ladder and join him. 
 
"The inside is in amazing shape, Scully, it seems 
to have all of the original equipment."  Mulder 
reported as Scully climbed the ladder.  

"Mulder I hate to ask this, but how would you 
know what equipment was standard on a B-24 
bomber."  Scully challenged.  As Scully reached 
the top of the ladder she leaned in and peaked 
through the opening to see Mulder sitting at 
what appeared to be a radio consol just to the 
left of the opening.  

"Colonel McAllister."  He replied to her 
question a little absentmindedly as he fiddled 
with the radio's knobs.  

"Colonel McAllister?"  Scully queried waiting 
for more of an answer.  

"Yeah, he was one of my neighbors growing up, 
an Air Force Colonel, I used to hang out with his 
three daughters.  He was real airplane buff.  He 
used to take me to all the air shows on base and 
we would spend hours studying all the old 
warplanes.  The B-24 happened to be his 
favorite because he had been a reconnaissance 
photographer on the crew of a B-24 during 
World War II.  He had this story about a B-24 
called the Lucky Lib that he used to tell.  One 
night coming back from a special mission the 
crew spotted the auroras just as they crossed 
over the Dover Cliffs to England; next thing 
they knew, they got a strange call over the radio 
and then they spotted three German fighters 
right on their tail but then the air around them 
kind of shimmered and the fighters just dropped 
out of the sky.   As they watched the fighters fall 
something took over the Lib and he said it was 
like a giant roller coaster ride the whole crew 
thought they were goners but just before hitting 
the ground the plane stopped and let the crew get 
out and then it vanished into thin air."  Mulder 
concluded his story and looked at a skeptical 
Scully. 

"Oh Mulder that's a great story, he made that 
up."  

"No Scully, he actually didn't like to talk about 
it, but when Sam disappeared he told it to me so 
I wouldn't feel like I was crazy.  I always liked 
Colonel McAllister, he just wanted me to know 
that sometimes crazy and unexplainable things 
do happen even to the most rational of people."  
As Mulder finished his explanation the radio 
squawked to life.  "Look it's actually working." 
He said then spoke into the microphone said. "Is 
anybody out there?  Hellooooo!  This is the 
Lucky Lib, Papa, Echo, Gold, 476 requesting 
final approach to Watton Field."   

"Mulder, is that really safe what if the police 
pick up that ca..." Before Scully could finish a 
garbled reply came through the speaker.  

"Th...is... th... Lu... Li... c... un...fie...
cr... 
us... th... cha...  Pl...id...yo..."  

Mulder again spoke into the microphone "Lucky 
Lib repeat your last transmission."  

Then looking directly down at Scully he said,  
"It's all harmless Scully, no police use this low 
band frequency anymore its probably just some 
kids with an old CB radio.  Come on up the rest 
of the way Scully I want to show you the ball 
turret." He said as he waggled his eyebrows up 
and down.  

Making Scully laugh and climb the last two 
rungs of the ladder.  

The radio squawked to life again this time 
sounding like an open mic. 
"Awww....Ox...Awww...sh...."    

He said to Scully, "see they're just playing 
along."  He chuckled as he let go of the mic and 
moved toward the door to help Scully over the 
threshold of the opening. Sounds continued 
coming from the radio 
"shhhh...awww....crrrrrr.....shhhh.... 

The radio blipped out.   Scully reached up to 
take Mulder's hand touching him when she 
vanished.   Mulder's head exploded with a 
headache that knocked him to the cabin floor.  
His mind was overwhelmed by images from two 
different timelines for the last nine years one 
with Scully, and one without her.  As the pain 
receded, he opened his eyes and looked around.
 
"SCULLY...SCULLEEE..." he yelled rubbing 
his eyes and then desperately scurrying down the 
ladder thinking that she had fallen.  No sign of 
her on the ground around the old warplane.

"SCULLEEEE... SCULLEEE..."  His 
desperate yells echoed throughout the graveyard.  
He knew what he had seen; yet he couldn't bring 
himself to believe it.  Scully had vanished into 
thin air, but no one vanished into thin air she 
must be here.  Mulder scrambled back up the 
ladder into the plane searching it thoroughly for 
any sign of Scully. No sign of her.  He 
frantically searched around the area of the plane 
and then retraced the path they had taken over 
the wall back to the where the car was parked.  
Mulder's stomach sank when he opened the car 
door and there was no evidence that Scully had 
ever been his traveling companion.  The book 
that she had been reading was gone, her sweater; 
gone, the small bag she had on the passenger 
side floor; gone.  He reached down and pulled 
the small lever beside the driver's seat that 
opened the trunk.  He walked to the back of the 
car, lifted the trunk lid and found one suitcase, 
his.  All traces of Scully had disappeared.   
Mulder felt more and more panicked, he had no 
idea of what to do or where to turn.  How could 
a person and all proof that they had existed just 
disappear?  Alien abduction came to mind, but 
he had experienced no time loss only that 
intense headache and two sets of conflicting 
memories.  Anyway, aliens were not known to 
stop for luggage and other personal items he 
reasoned.  
He took out his cell phone, turned it on, and 
started to dial; damn, the people he most wanted 
to talk to were dead.  His mind drifted as he 
imagined the conversation.
 
"Lone Gunman."  The voice at the other end 
answered.  Mulder froze at the sound of the 
voice on the phone he didn't know why he had 
dialed their number probably just force of habit.  
In need of information call the Lone Gunmen. 
How could this be?  They were dead.  Was this 
more help from beyond the grave?  He thought 
of Alex Krycek helping him; first to escape 
Mount Weather and then giving him information 
at his tribunal, weeks earlier.  

"Hello, although I appreciate the heavy 
breathing, speak- or I'm going to hang up." 
 
That was definitely Frohike's voice. Mulder 
decided to take a shot and asked, "Frohike, do 
you recognize my voice?" 
 
"Yeah you're my favorite Fed.  How's it hangin' 
Mulder?"
  
"Frohike what's my partner's name?"

"Mulder, what's with you?"

"Please, just answer the question.  Who's my 
FBI partner?"

"You don't have a partner, Mulder you're the 
lone wolf of the FBI's X-File Office."

A sense of dread came over Mulder. "So, you 
don't know Dana Scully?"

"No, Mulder, should we?" John Byers voice 
came on the line.
   
"She's been my partner on the X-Files for give 
or take nine   
 years."  Mulder said in a stressed out tone.

"Mulder you haven't had a partner since Diana 
Fowley left and that was about 11 years ago...so 
you're sounding a little scary here."  John Byers 
said calmly.

"Yeah. What kind of peyote are you smokin' out 
there Mulder" Langly chimed in.
  
Mulder's mind was racing.  "Listen can you 
guys do me a favor and find out about a Dana 
Katherine Scully, DOB 2/8/64. I'll call you back 
in one hour." 
 
"Sure Mulder." Came the answer from the trio 
before he hit the off button on his cell.

Daydreaming conversations with the dead was 
definitely not getting him anywhere.  He needed 
to do something real, he couldn't call Skinner, 
he had put everything on the line for Mulder 
during the trial and then breaking him out of the 
brig, involving him would be too risky.  Mulder 
needed to go somewhere to sort out this new set 
of memories, see if they held a clue.  Earlier that 
evening he and Scully had checked in at a small 
motor in outside of Tucson; he would go there.  
As he drove his mind wandered back to the Lone 
Gunmen.
 
"Lone Gunmen."  This time it was Langly on the 
other end.

"Langly, It's Mulder any luck with that name?"
  
"No, Mulder we can't find anything on a Dana 
Katherine Scully. Is she another victim of that 
airplane graveyard case you were working on?"
  
"Yeah, in a way."

"Well, if you want my opinion I still think that 
space time continuum or alternate reality 
theories are your best answer Mulder...

"Ah, Langly get off of that Star Trek crap 
already. It's more like that Frequency movie 
anyway." Frohike interrupted.

 "Frequency? That's lame.  And it's not Star 
Trek crap, they're bonifide theories of quantum 
physics and right now the atmospherics in that 
part of the country are ripe for glitches in space 
time."

Mulder didn't interrupt their argument.  
Actually, he thought Langly made some sense.  
He couldn't think of a better explanation and 
right now he felt like he was on a cross over 
episode between Star Trek and the Twilight 
Zone.  The plot of which revolved around 
breaking the temporal prime directive and being 
left to wonder if he had disappeared from 
Scully's universe or if she had disappeared from 
his.

He was drawn out of his thoughts by the sound 
of Frohike's voice, "Earth to Mulder."
 
"Hmm, oh sorry."  Mulder answered.

"I thought you were going to check out Langly's 
notion with one of those Oxford Professors of 
yours." John Byers joined the conversation.

"Yeah, I'll do that, Thanks fellas, I can take it 
from here."  Mulder said out loud to the empty 
car.  

"Mulder, call if you need us."  Byers sounded 
concerned as his image appeared in the 
passenger seat beside him.  Mulder blinked and 
Byers was gone.  

Motor Inn of America
Outskirts of Tucson, Arizona

Mulder became aware of the Motor Inn's neon 
sign winking at him in the distance. He checked 
to make sure the room was secure before lying 
on the bed and closing his eyes. His imaginary 
conversation with the gunmen foremost in his 
thoughts had him wondering, what professor 
could he call at Oxford that would know about 
space/time as the Langly in his head had called 
it?  Who could he call?  Mulder fell into a fitful 
sleep tossing and turning as he played reaching 
out for Scully's hand over and over again in his 
mind each time with the same result a blinding 
headache and a vanished Scully.  Mulder gasped 
for breath waking with a start, he looked at his 
watch he had been asleep for less than an hour.  
He sat up as a thought struck him he didn't need 
to call Oxford, he knew someone much closer 
that might be able to help him find Scully.  Now 
that he had an idea of where to start he needed to 
move, to do something.  He had to know if 
Penny McAllister were still in Colorado, if she 
was, he'd have a head start, if she weren't, he 
really wouldn't have lost anything by heading in 
that direction. He got up, went to the Manager's 
Office settled his bill and then got in his car to 
drive north to Colorado and find Penny.  He 
hoped she still lived in Colorado Springs.  He'd 
call Penny in the morning.   As he thought about 
Penny he realized that she was in both sets of 
memories, which led him to wonder if for some 
reason something had tried to erase only his 
memories of Scully.


Hope Dies Last (2 of 8)
Montana1416

Disclaimer in part 1

Somewhere in Arizona

		As he settled in for the long 
drive to Colorado Springs a thought occurred to 
him.  All of his memories from the last nine 
years; meeting Scully in his basement office, 
Scully's abduction, working cases together on 
the X-Files, his Father's death, his Mothers 
death, finding out what happened to Samantha, 
being abducted, tortured, dead and then 
resurrected, William, having to leave, reuniting 
with Scully, his trial and conviction, the last two 
weeks with Scully, were intact.  Those memories 
felt right, but what if they weren't real.  The 
other set of memories floating in his head had 
him still with the FBI and no Scully in his life.  
If these memories were true the events he 
remembered with Scully would never have 
occurred.  No wonder all of the Captain's of the 
various incarnations of the Starship Enterprise 
complained of headaches thinking about the 
space-time continuum, alternate realities and 
time travel.  He had to stop comparing himself 
to fictional characters and thinking about which 
memories were right and which ones were 
wrong.  It just served to confuse him, so he was 
going with his gut and assuming that the 
memories he had with Scully were the right ones 
and that he was exactly where he was supposed 
to be.  All he needed to do was somehow correct 
something to make Scully come back.	
  
Changing the subject in his head, he reflected 
how peculiar it was that he had thought of going 
to Penny for help.  When he was being tortured 
in the alien spaceship he had made up a whole 
scenario to keep his mind occupied during hours 
of excruciating torture.  It was a fantasy X-file, 
so to speak.  In the dream, he had gotten 
Scully's ova back from Kurt Crawford, then 
with the help of his sister-in-law Dr. Caroline 
McAllister-Reese; a fertility specialist and 
Penny's older sister, and using invitro 
fertilization Scully had gotten pregnant and 
delivered twins.  The dream hadn't been too far 
off of reality; after all, Scully had been pregnant 
with William when he was abducted. His felt a 
pang of guilt and remorse as he thought of 
Scully making the decision to give William up 
for adoption.   He had thought by leaving them, 
he was protecting them.  It turned out that the 
only way to protect their son was to give him up.  
Scully had exceptional strength, he didn't know 
if he would have been able to make the same 
choice.  In his dream they had not had to make 
that choice. That black-lunged son of a bitch 
Spender had ordered the kidnapping of one of 
the twins, his newborn daughter, and that's 
where the dream had ended. Each time he was 
tortured, he replayed the story in his head and 
each time the end was always the same Spender 
would order the kidnapping and then nothing.  
Why did his dreams always end badly?  In real 
life, other than an annual Christmas message left 
on his answering machine, he hadn't thought 
much about the McAllister sisters in recent 
years. In fact, tonight when Scully had asked 
about his knowledge of the B-24 was the first 
time since his abduction that he had thought 
about the family.  They had helped him through 
the dark days after Samantha had disappeared by 
including him as part of their family; when his 
own family had been falling apart.  It must mean 
something that one of them was in his fantasy 
world, helping him.  He looked out the 
windshield at the road ahead and thought of 
Mac, the youngest of the sisters and his best 
friend. She had died of cancer at such a young 
age. Even now, thoughts of Mac were 
bittersweet.  He had been with her at the end as 
her husband, marrying her just days before she 
died in a small hospital ceremony that her 
mother and sisters had helped him plan.	
   
New Mexico

		Mulder had been driving for 
quite some time when he realized that the sun 
was rising and he needed to stretch his legs and 
make his phone call to Penny.   Getting out of 
the car at the rest stop he scanned the area for 
pay phones rare in this day and age, but a lot 
safer than using his cell.   At this moment he 
was really thankful for his photographic memory 
and hoped the number hadn't changed.   The pay 
phones were just inside the restaurant, housed 
inside the main building of the rest area.  Mulder 
fished a couple of coins out of his pocket.  
Placing the coins in the phone and hearing the 
connection he dialed the number.  The phone on 
the other end was ringing...one...two...thr.. 

"Hello." a man's voice answered. For a second 
Mulder considered hanging up but then decided 
to hell-with-it and spoke to the man on the other 
end. 
 
"Hello, is Penny McAllister there by any 
chance?" He asked hopefully. 
 
"Yeah, um, hold on a minute and I'll get her." 
The man replied. 
 
Mulder could hear the man call out to Penny and 
heard the static as the phone was picked up 
again. 
 
"Hello" Penny answered.  

"Penny, it's Mulder." 
 
"Mulder?" 

"Yeah, Penny, Mulder."
    
"Is it Christmas, have I missed something?"
 
Mulder smiled, he deserved that remark; in any 
reality, but he could also hear the amusement in 
her voice so he replied in kind. "No, it's not 
Christmas, but the world is ending, so I thought 
I'd come out there and see you." 
  
"Ah... so you want to spend your last minutes 
on earth with me, I'm touched Mulder. 
Seriously, how are you and why are you 
calling?" 
 
"I'm fine, but I am going to be in Colorado 
Springs and was thinking we could catch up."  

"Mulder, I'd love to see you, that'd be great, 
when are you coming and how long are you 
going to be here?"
 
"Today and not sure."
 
"So, you'll stay here. You can have the spare 
room." 
 
Great, he thought but then thought of the man 
that answered the phone so he asked, "Your 
friend won't mind?"
 		
"My friend?"  She sounded puzzled.
  
"The guy that answered your phone, Penny." He 
reminded her.
  
"Oh no, Mulder that was my neighbor Daniel he 
was just over using my coffee pot because he 
knocked his off of his kitchen counter this 
morning, so I'm pretty sure he won't mind if 
you stay with me...but I could ask..."  She 
laughed.
  
Mulder smiled. This was the Penny he knew and 
loved and she was still a smartass.
   
"Penny, I'm driving now, see you this evening, 
what time do you get off work, so I don't show 
up too early."
  
"Tell me what time you think you'll be here and 
I'll be here."
  
 Looking at his watch he figured out his arrival 
time and relayed it to her, "About 5:00 or so..."
 
"Ok, I'll see you then."
"Penny thanks."
  
" No biggee Mulder but you might want to wait 
to thank me until after you've seen the spare 
room."  With that she hung up the phone.
  
Day 1 
Colorado Spring, Colorado 

Penny looked at her neighbor contently 
sipping his coffee and wondered why Daniel 
didn't just have an intravenous line for coffee.  
"That was odd."  She remarked.

"Hmm. What?"  Daniel asked distractedly. 

Penny continued almost as if she was thinking 
out loud rather than talking to Daniel.  "Mulder 
is coming for a visit. A friend coming to visit 
isn't all that odd, but Mulder coming after like, 
10 years, that, is odd. I wonder what's 
happened."

Daniel interrupted her stream of consciousness 
ramble, "Is there something I've missed in the 
last four years living next door? Are you always 
this suspicious or is there more to this Mulder 
than your saying? Like old boyfriend or..."
 
"No, not old boyfriend, old childhood friend, 
actually old brother-in-law, he's my younger 
sister's widower, and really bad at keeping in 
touch. You know that Sarah McLachlan song, 
"Building a Mystery".   That's Mulder.  So I'm 
left wondering why the visit out of the blue, 
that's all.  I guess, I'll find out when he gets 
here."  She shrugged.

"So, he's a mystery?"  Daniel asked trying to 
follow her thought pattern.

"No, he's a beautiful fucked up man." She stated 
matter-a-factly as she let the topic go.

"Oh."  Daniel smiled finally seeing her point.

Daniel had liked Penny from the moment he 
moved in next-door four years before.  In one 
respect she was a lot like Daniel, in that, she 
always wanted to know why. And this Mulder 
person certainly seemed to present her with 
something to puzzle over.  Penny was one of 
those women that had no idea the effect she had 
on the men of the world.   He thought she was a 
lot like his SG1 teammate Samantha Carter in 
that respect.   Penny stood about 5'10", she was 
slightly overweight; but the extra pounds gave 
her figure soft curves. Her auburn hair was 
shoulder length; her complexion fare and she 
had gorgeous green eyes.   Daniel had once 
noted that she didn't date much.   He thought it 
was because she had beauty, brains, and the rank 
of Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force 
Reserves, a lethal combination. All in all, he had 
pegged her as physically intimidating and 
emotionally vulnerable.  Daniel learned the truth 
of Penny's love life quite by accident a couple of 
days ago.  She was in love with Colonel Brian 
Harold, her partner at the U.S. Space Command; 
a man whose wife had been lingering in a coma 
for almost a year at the Air Force Academy 
Hospital as the result of a training accident.

"So is your car still in the shop?"  She asked 
changing the subject.

"Yes, which reminds me Jack'll be here any sec. 
I have to go. Thanks for letting me confiscate 
your coffeepot." He replied as he headed toward 
the door.

"Give Jack a hug for me." Penny winked.  

Daniel just rolled his eyes as he walked out the 
door. Penny had this absurd notion that he and 
Jack were soul mates. Even as strange a notion 
as it seemed the thing was Daniel couldn't deny 
there was a certain pull between he and Jack.   
Penny wasn't the first person to notice the 
intensity of their relationship. However, she was 
the only person that had actually said it out loud.  
One evening after having dinner and a lot of 
wine with he and Jack, she had told him, that 
they argued like an old married couple and that 
she thought in another reality they probably 
were. Wouldn't the military like that?
  
Daniel stepped off the elevator on the ground 
floor thinking about Jack, which caused him to 
bump headlong into the man himself. Jack put 
his hands on Daniel's shoulders and gently 
pushed him back to an arms length.

"Whoa easy Danny boy, I was just about to 
come up and roust you out of bed, I've been 
calling your apartment for the last five minutes."
  
"I was next door at Penny's, I broke my coffee 
pot this morning so she let me use hers." Daniel 
explained.

"Ah..." Jack said knowingly. Daniel without his 
morning coffee was no fun.  "How is the lovely 
Penny Mac this morning?"

"Good, she said to tell you "Hello"."  Daniel 
smirked knowing Penny's real message. 
 
"So back to P3X whatever today and the 
Kelownan's, the fun never stops."  Jack 
sounding a little more bored than he actually 
was by the mission.  An undefined something on 
the first day of this mission had made his nerves 
jangle.  He had tried to shrug it off and chalk it 
up to being around a bunch of politicians and 
geeks, but he still had this nagging bad feeling.  
Realizing Daniel was talking to him he tuned out 
his thoughts and tuned in to the younger man.  

"... can't let those people make the same 
mistake we did, thinking that being able to 
destroy their rivals a hundred times over equals 
a greater peace.  We really need to get the point 
across that weapons of mass destruction are no 
good unless you use them."  Daniel urged.  He 
knew that he and Jack came from two 
diametrically opposed backgrounds, but he 
thought that one thing Jack had come to realize 
since their first mission to Abydos was that 
peace at gunpoint was really no peace at all.  

As Jack unlocked the truck door he surprised 
Daniel by simply saying, "I know Daniel."

Penny watched the two friends from her 
bedroom window.  She knew that Jack and 
Daniel had hit a rough spot in their friendship as 
of late. What had really surprised her four years 
ago when she first met Dr. Daniel Jackson, 
archeologist, anthropologist, linguist and 
Egyptologist, was that he and United States Air 
Force Colonel Jack O'Neill were friends at all.  
Then she got to know them.   Their chemistry 
was almost tangible.   When she first noticed 
"it", she wondered how she could have such an 
outlandish notion that two heterosexual men 
should be romantically involved.  More and 
more over the years she realized that they had; 
"that certain something", that made two people 
just seem right together; they clicked.  Jack and 
Daniel together caused a chemical reaction that 
produced no small amount of unresolved sexual 
tension.  At present they seemed to be at the 
"perpetually annoyed at but can't live without 
you stage" in their relationship. The truck 
carrying Jack and Daniel started down the street.  
Penny laughed at the absolute ridiculousness of 
her thoughts. Better to obsess over Jack and 
Daniel than spend time worrying about her own 
screwed up love life, that was a whole different 
ballgame.    Turning away from the window she 
looked at the clock on her nightstand; it was 
already 7:30 am.   Project Q was on a 
countdown today.  Although Penny held the 
rank of Lt. Colonel in the USAF Reserve, she 
was actually a civilian consultant at the U.S. 
Space Command doing research in quantum 
physics and an instructor at the U.S. Air Force 
Academy.   She bustled about, putting on a suit 
before practically flying out the door of the 
apartment to ensure that she would arrive at her 
U.S. Space Command lab on Peterson Air Force 
Base before her ranking partner. 

US Space Command
Time Lab

"Penny are you ready?  Colonel Brian Harold 
said as he entered Penny's lab. 

"Yes, We're on a three minute countdown to the 
flare."   Penny replied taking a glance at her 
partner.  He was gorgeous.  Tall, well built; 
although his uniform hide most of his body's 
finer features, sandy brown hair and hazel eyes 
that at one glance seemed to be alight with gold 
flecks then in the next filled with intense dark 
green hues. Returning her concentration to the 
consol in front of her that housed all kinds of 
monitors and gadgetry, she watched the 
countdown clock carefully. She flipped the 
switch her left hand was resting on from closed 
to open as the clock hit zero.  The speaker in 
front of her crackled to life.  The sound of loud 
static filled the air.  Pushing in the microphone 
button with her right hand, Penny bent toward 
the consol.

"Project Q-1-9-8-9 this is Project Q-2-0-0-2 
come in please."
  
"Project Q-2-0-0-2 we're reading you 5 by 5.  
Today's code please." Came the answer from 
the other side.

"Merlin, Q-1-9-8-9."  Penny responded.

"In response, Gandalf, Q-2-0-0-2."  The 
disembodied voice answered.

"Q-1-9-8-9, sun flare activity will close the 
wormhole in 30 seconds good talking to you, 
out." Penny smiled.

"Out Q...."  The rest of the message died.

"So, how was the trip?"  Colonel Harold teased 
as he smiled down at his scientist partner then 
placed his hands on her shoulders much like a 
manager would a boxer who had just gone 2 
rounds and was sitting in the corner of the ring 
waiting for round 3.
  
Penny looked up at him, "Frustrating." 

"Penny you have made a huge breakthrough just 
being able to predict the solar flares that occur in 
precisely the same space and time, now and 
then. You, talk to the past.  Remember, baby 
steps."  Brian encouraged.  

Penny swiveled her chair to face him.  "I know 
but it's so frustrating we know the theory works.  
Einstein predicted that time could be made to 
fold back on itself allowing time travel.  The 
sound waves go through the wormhole created 
by the solar flare.  I say a few words to Thomas 
in 1989, the past, and he gets to talk to me in the 
future, but I still don't understand... it should 
work in the other direction too.  I can make all 
the right predictions, do all the math 
and...tsk...I should be able to talk to the future."
 
"So, why do you think they haven't contacted 
us?"  Brian asked thoughtfully.

Penny knew Brian meant "they" as in the future 
she and Brian; also known as Project Q. "I 
honestly have no idea, maybe we lose our 
funding." Penny laughed but there was no mirth 
in it because her answer was so plausible.  The 
government was not known for its patience with 
scientific projects that they couldn't blow 
something up with or parlay into dollars.	
  
Changing the subject Brian told Penny he'd 
meet her for lunch as he left for his office.  
Lunch was their daily ritual.  They had would 
meet up and go to lunch either in the Mess Hall 
or somewhere close by the base. Today they 
were meeting at Penny's.  Brian knew that when 
Penny volunteered to make lunch at her 
apartment something was definitely wrong 
because Penny hated anything to do with the 
kitchen.
  
Lunch was waiting on the table when Brian 
arrived. The aroma of the food made his 
stomach growl, but he couldn't shake the feeling 
that he was a condemned man about to eat his 
last meal.  He had been sensing that even after 
six months of having a semi-established 
relationship Penny was still very much ill at 
ease. Getting Penny to agree to their relationship 
had been a delicate operation.  Penny was one of 
those women that seemed to be perfectly content 
on her own.  He would come to find out that the 
reality was she was very conscientious and 
really hadn't found what she was looking for 
and refused to simply settle. Brian spent months 
trying to figure out what it was she wanted.  All 
his efforts paid off when he finally saw a 
glimmer of hope for a real relationship, but he 
knew things were tenuous because of the limbo 
in which he lived.  During lunch neither wanted 
to venture to far from a conversation of mainly 
small talk about movie's they had seen and the 
latest base gossip.  They had already had one 
talk about their situation and it seemed that 
another one was in the works.  Brian was 
content to let things lie but he knew Penny's 
conscious was bothering her so he just waited 
for the other shoe to drop.  It smacked him up 
side the head as Penny told him about Mulder's 
upcoming visit.  

"I may just teach my Quantum Physics classes at 
the Academy tomorrow and not come into the 
lab; since we have no activity scheduled for 
tomorrow, but I'll let you know."  She told him.

"So he's going to stay with you?"  Brian 
inquired.  

"Yes, in the spare room."  She replied and 
waited for him to get the picture.  

"What you're telling me in your very subtle way 
is we won't be seeing much of each other 
outside of work until he leaves." 
	
She nodded. She really hated talking about their 
relationship but she decided Mulder's visit gave 
her a perfect excuse and there was no time like 
the present they had just drifted along for too 
long.  "Look it's bad enough that Daniel figured 
out our "relationship" and you know how much 
like a vulture I feel...I mean Lynn is in a coma, 
Brian, and as much as I love you, I refuse to 
wish for Lynn to just give up.  I know that she's 
for all intents and purposes gone and that you 
haven't pulled the plug or feeding tubes for her 
parents sake, but I don't want people to look at 
me in, you know the "she stole that poor 
woman's husband while she was helplessly 
lying in a coma" way.  Not that Mulder would 
ever judge me but I guess, I judge me, I'm not a 
good cheat or liar, so please help me." She 
wasn't able to stop the tears from running down 
her face as she thought of Lynn, lying in a coma 
unaware her husband had fallen in love with 
someone else.  Stop crying, she told herself, 
don't let him see you like this; be tough.
 
"Don't cry," he said, wiping her tears away with 
his thumbs. "Everything will all be okay."

"No, I don't think it will," she said, in a 
shuddering voice.


Hope Dies Last (3 of 8)
Montana1416
Disclaimer in part 1

She felt trapped, unable to move in either 
direction.  Her love for Colonel Brian Harold 
was on one side, her own sense of honesty and 
integrity and to a lesser extent her obligation to 
U.S. Air Force were on the other.  There was 
nowhere they could go, no solution other than to 
give each other up until things were resolved.

"Don't feel guilty about this," he said, his voice 
cracking.  "I'll never forgive myself if you do . . 
."

"I'm sorry but I do, Bri.  Look, I love you more 
than I've ever loved anyone, but . . ."

"But?"  Brian's voice was soft.

"But this feels like we're dancing on her grave, 
we shouldn't be together, we should just walk 
away."

"I know," he finally said in a resigned voice.  "I 
know."

She reached up and smoothed his hair. "You 
made vows to her that you need to honor."

Brian turned to her and gave her a bitter smile.  
"Yes, I have vows to honor," he repeated.  He 
looked at her with a mix of tenderness and 
sadness.  Brian hadn't meant for any of this to 
happen.  Until the accident he had fully expected 
to be married to Lynn for the rest of his life.  
Penny had been his partner and a good friend to 
both of he and Lynn before the accident.  He 
hated that she felt so guilty that their relationship 
had become so intense over the last months.  But 
it had been over a year of waiting and knowing 
that Lynn would never recover and he needed to 
go forward with his life and he wanted Penny.
  
" Penny you're the most honest and decent 
person I know, and I can't walk away not when I 
know you're the one.  So for now, I'll give you 
some space but just remember I love you.  Have 
a good visit with Mulder."  He turned and 
walked out of her apartment, knowing that she 
would refuse to see him outside of work from 
that moment on. 

Colorado Springs

Mulder's trip to Colorado Springs had 
been uneventful, if you call being left alone with 
your thoughts  two sets of thoughts  and 
trying to sort them out for 10 hours uneventful.  
In the first few hours all he wanted to do was 
turn around and go back to the airplane 
graveyard and search for Scully.  A gut feeling 
stopped him from turning the car around.  That 
same gut feeling that he couldn't define or deny 
keep him moving toward Colorado Springs; it 
seemed as if he was being told from somewhere 
beyond that the answer to Scully's 
disappearance and how to find her was there.  
Once he'd made up his mind to follow his gut he 
actually made pretty good time.  When he had 
called Penny from the payphone at the I-10 rest 
stop just west of Las Cruces, New Mexico that 
morning, he'd only been guessing at his arrival 
time.  Pretty good guess he thought to himself, 
he'd always told Scully he'd never been wrong, 
at least driving. He smiled.  Using the directions 
Penny had given him he made his way to her 
apartment.
 
Penny couldn't concentrate when she got back to 
work after the talk she and Brian had so she 
taught her class and then cancelled her office 
hours and headed home early.  First checking for 
messages on the answering machine and seeing 
none she went into her bedroom to change from 
her work clothes to a pair of faded jeans and a 
pale mint green v-neck tee shirt.  As she 
emerged from her bedroom both the phone and 
the doorbell rang.  She grabbed the phone on her 
way to the door.  

"Hello."  She said into the receiver. 

"Hey Penny, I need a favor." Daniel's voice 
came through the line.  

"Hi, Daniel, hold on a sec."  She said as she 
opened the door, to a Fox Mulder that seemed a 
little older, a little ill at ease and something she 
couldn't quite place standing in the hallway.  

"Mulder!" She flashed him a dazzling smile that 
immediately put him at ease. "Come on in 
...make yourself at home...let me just finish on 
the phone real quick." She said as she waved 
him into the apartment and the living room. 

"K, Daniel, What's up?"  

"I'm sorry Penny I know your friend just 
arrived.  And I wouldn't ask and really this 
wouldn't have mattered had we left for our 
mission on time, but I'm stuck here on base 
because we're on weather stand-by, and I really 
need the translation book that is sitting on my 
coffee table.  I don't have my car, Jack's in a 
meeting and the mission will go as soon as 
whatever atmospheric problems clear, so I can't 
wander off the base. Soooo, I was wondering if 
you'd like to meet us for dinner at the Mess Hall 
in the NORAD Visitors Center and bring me the 
book."  Daniel explained hopefully.  

"Breathe, Daniel and hang on a sec.  Mulder, 
would you mind meeting some friends of mine 
for dinner tonight?" Penny asked her guest who 
from his prone position on her couch was having 
no problem making himself at home.
  
"Sure, that sounds great, I'm starving."   Mulder 
said through a yawn.  

"Ok, Daniel I'll bring your book.  Is half an hour 
at the Visitors Center, ok with you?"  She 
inquired. 

"Yes and thank you so much Penny."  Daniel 
said before hanging up the phone. He couldn't 
believe he had forgotten the book.  Yesterday 
he'd given Jonas Quinn; one of the Kelownan 
scientists, a book to read and help him with 
translating the writings on the Kelownan's 
Goa'uld temple.  Last night going through his 
books at home Daniel found one that might be 
better.  In his panic over his broken coffee pot 
this morning, the book had slipped his mind.  
Lucky for him Penny was a good neighbor and a 
Lieutenant Colonel.
  
"So Mulder com'ere and give me a hug."   
Penny said as she put the phone down on the 
pass through ledge to the kitchen and walked 
over and tugged Mulder off of the couch and to 
his feet.  "How are you, you look really tired.  
Are you sure you want to go out after being in 
the car all day?"  

He hugged her tight and replied.  "Yeah, I'm 
starving and if my memory serves me correctly 
you have nothing in your frig but an assortment 
of soft drinks."  Penny laughed he hadn't 
forgotten.  She never liked to cook and he was 
right she had condiments and cold drinks in the 
frig, not much else.  

"Ok. So you know me. Why don't you go 
freshen up and I'll run next door and get the 
book Daniel needs, then we can go."  She said 
breaking their embrace and pushing him toward 
the bathroom.  Penny rifled through the kitchen 
drawer in which she had last seen Daniel's 
Apartment key.  After retrieving it from under a 
several pizza coupons she went next door seized 
the book from the coffee table.   When she 
returned Mulder was ready to go.
   
They got in her car as she explained to Mulder 
they were going to meet Daniel at Cheyenne 
Mountain Air Station. 

"Isn't that where NORAD is?"  He asked.  

She nodded and explained to Mulder,   
"Although Cheyenne Mountain is best known 
for housing NORAD, technically it is the, 
Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center 
or CMOC and it's truly one of the most unique 
installations in the world. Apart from the fact 
that it's housed 2,000 feet underground, CMOC 
is also different from most military units because 
it's a joint and bi-national military organization 
comprised of over 200 men and women from the 
Army, Navy, Marine, Air Force, and Canadian 
Forces. Its operations are conducted in seven 
centers manned 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  
CMOC serves as the command center for both 
NORAD and USNORTHCOM. It is the central 
collection and coordination center for a 
worldwide system of satellites, radars, and 
sensors that provide early warning of any 
missile, air, or space threat to North America.  
Supporting the NORAD mission, CMOC 
provides warning of ballistic missile or air 
attacks against North America, assists the air 
sovereignty mission for the U.S. and Canada, 
and if necessary, serves as the focal point for air 
defense operations to counter enemy bombers or 
cruise missiles. In addition, CMOC also 
provides theater ballistic missile warning for 
U.S. and allied forces. In support of 
USSTRATCOM, CMOC provides a day-to-day 
picture of precisely what is in space and where it 
is located. Space control operations include 
protection, prevention, and negation functions 
supported by the surveillance of space." Penny 
finished her spiel.  

Mulder smiled and said, "I guess I don't need to 
sign up for the tour."  

Penny laughed.

Cheyenne Mountain Air Station

	The Marine at the guard station saluted 
Penny; the military sticker on her windshield 
told him that she had security clearance and that 
she was an officer, as she and Mulder entered 
Cheyenne Mountain Air Station.  Passing 
through the checkpoint she drove a few more 
yards on NORAD Road before turning the car 
into Visitors Center Parking lot.  The mess hall 
Daniel referred to on the phone actually served 
as an informal O Club for the Air Station.  After 
all, Visitors were only allowed to tour on 
Thursday's so the Military decided to put the 
Visitors Center to good use everyday.
  
As they entered the club Daniel waved them 
over to the table where he and Jack we're seated.  
"Hey, Penny."  Daniel said as they approached 
the table.  

"Hi. Daniel, Jack, let me introduce an old friend 
of mine Fox Mulder.  Mulder this is Dr. Daniel 
Jackson and Colonel Jack O'Neill."  The two 
men stood up and shook hands with Mulder and 
offered their nice to meet you's.  Mulder noted 
that there were no insignias on their uniforms.  

"I thought Sam would come with you all."  
Penny said as she sat down.  

"No, she was occupied working on some 
doohickey or other and was eating at her desk."  
Jack answered.  

Mulder had been looking at Daniel like he was 
trying to recall where he knew him from and 
then the light of recognition came to his face.  
"Are you the Dr. Daniel Jackson that wrote the 
paper about cross-pollination of ancient cultures 
and something about the pyramids as landing 
platforms for UFO's?"  

Daniel was a little flabbergasted.  It was rare that 
someone outside of the archeological 
community knew about his paper.  "Yes, that 
would be me. How did you come to know about 
my work?"  Daniel inquired. 

"Oh, you could say it's kind of a professional 
curiosity for me."  Mulder replied rather 
cryptically.  

"I thought Penny told me you are an FBI 
Agent."  Daniel said.  "Yes, I am."  Mulder said 
thinking; rather than go into the whole I was but 
I resigned a year ago but since yesterday 
depending on which memory bank I use, I seem 
to be an agent once again, he just simply say 
yes.  "I'm with a unit at the FBI called the X-
Files, my partner and I investigate the 
paranormal and that includes aliens." Mulder 
went on to further explain seeing the curiosity 
written on Daniel's face, without noticing the 
questioning look on Penny's.  "I read your paper 
and thought your theories were really 
interesting. Why'd you give up?"  

Daniel chuckled.  "Hmmm, well no money, no 
grants, no job and I was laughed out of the 
archeological society so...it seemed best to 
pursue other ventures."  

Mulder looked at Daniel thoughtfully before 
asking, "Have you ever thought of going back? I 
mean reopening your inquiry?"  

"Hold on," Jack interrupted. "Before you answer 
that Daniel and one thing leads to another let's 
go get our food?"  Jack got up from the table 
then waited while Penny got up and they headed 
to the buffet line. 
      
Throughout dinner Mulder and Daniel talked 
about theoretical aliens and academia while 
Penny and Jack chatted about sports and other 
things.  As they finished dinner Jack was called 
away to the phone so Penny turned her attention 
to Mulder and Daniel catching what seemed to 
be the tail end of their conversation.  
"...produced a virus that infected early man and 
transformed his physiology. Into an alien life 
form itself. Then when the last ice age, wiped 
them out, the virus lay dormant. It thrived 
underground in oil deposits.  It looks like black 
oil. It has sentience. It can think. It has the 
ability to communicate and it communicated 
with the aliens in Roswell. I believe that there 
are some people in the government that have 
been concealing all of this since the Roswell 
crash where they captured a group of these 
aliens from the spacecraft wreckage.  They 
salvaged the various alien technologies from 
them and from their data banks they learned of 
the alien plan to "re-colonize" the earth.  I've 
seen the evidence so now you see why your 
theory doesn't seem that off base to me."  
Mulder finished.  

Penny had lived next door to Mulder when his 
sister Samantha had been abducted.  At the time 
he had no recollection of who or how she had 
been taken her.  She knew that later on from 
what she heard through her family grapevine 
that Mulder believed that Sam was taken by 
aliens and had pursued his belief even with the 
FBI.  Mulder was a brilliant man but listening to 
him she wondered if Daniel thought he was 
some kind of crackpot.  She should have known 
better, from the look on Daniel's face he seemed 
really fascinated.   Daniel seemed to give 
everyone the benefit of the doubt. 
  
Jack returned to the table.  "Daniel the weather 
got worse, so we're on stand down until 0730 
tomorrow morning let's go home."   

"Really?  Ok Jack."  Daniel said. Mulder noted 
the look that passed between the two men, it 
seemed that weather wasn't really the issue. He 
wondered what was.   

Penny offered to take Daniel home so Jack 
wouldn't have to go the extra distance to the 
apartment building.   Before getting in the golf 
cart that had brought he and Daniel down the 
road from the Mountain Complex, Jack shook 
Mulder's hand.  

"Nice meetin' ya.  Maybe next time Daniel will 
let the rest of us get a word in edgewise."    He 
smiled and clapped his hand on Daniel's 
shoulder, "I'll pick you up at 0700. Oh and I'll 
bring the coffee."  Jack winked at Penny. "Night 
all."  He got in the golf cart and drove toward 
the tunnel entrance to the mountain.  
	
Penny, Mulder and Daniel got into Penny's car, 
both Mulder and Daniel offering to climb into 
the small back seat, finally it was determined 
that Daniel being slightly shorter and smaller 
than Mulder would survive the 20 minutes in the 
back with the least potential for permanent spine 
damage.

"Mulder I'm curious," Penny said as she started 
the car "you said to Daniel that you and your 
partner worked on the X-Files.  I didn't know 
you had a partner."   Mulder looked over at 
Penny,  

"This is going to sound really strange but here's 
what happened to me yesterday."  Both Penny 
and Daniel listened as Mulder explained who 
Scully was and told of the events in the Airplane 
graveyard.  "...so here I am and I need your help 
to figure out if this has something to do 
with...not that I want to sound any crazier than I 
do but...the space time continuum? And if it 
does where'd she go when she vanished and 
more importantly, tell me how we get her back."  
Mulder finished.

Penny looked at Mulder thoughtfully before she 
spoke.  "Ok, let me see if I understand correctly, 
in a nutshell, you and Scully...is that her name?" 
Mulder nodded.  Penny continued.  "You and 
Scully were at an airplane graveyard outside of 
Tucson, you went inside a B-24 bomber, you 
spoke to someone on the radio and then Scully 
just vanished.  And you have two sets of 
memories; one set with her and one set without 
her. 

Mulder again nodded, and said hopefully, "Do 
you have any ideas?"

"Mulder thinking this has something to do with 
time travel is really out there.  You have just 
described a situation in which at least two, 
maybe three of the four theories of what scientist 
deem "time travel" have come into play."  Penny 
answered him.

"...and?"  Mulder wanted her to go on.

"Ok, first...um..it's like you have two theories 
happening concurrently.  You have what we call 
the "grandparent" paradox. It's like, suppose that 
you went back in time and killed your 
grandparents before they had any children. By 
doing it you eliminate your own existence. So in 
other words by talking on the radio you were 
talking to someone that had either a direct or 
indirect effect on whether Scully was actually 
born.  Which; for me, such a huge coincidence is 
hard swallow."  Penny finished.

"What's the other theory? You said there were 
more."  Mulder asked

"Hmmm...the other theory which is easier to 
believe is called the Observer Effect.  In simple 
terms you would travel in time to alter history 
and succeed, but the only persons capable of 
differentiating between the reality left behind 
and the new reality are those directly associated 
with the time travel... the time traveler.  Which 
in this case would make you the time traveler 
not Scully.   And that brings in a third theory 
because none of this explains how the hell you 
got here."  Penny said mulling it over in her 
head.

"So you think I disappeared from Scully, and 
she's somewhere thinking I vanished, again."  
Mulder said trying to keep it all straight in his 
head.

Penny squinted at Mulder, "Again?"

"Yeah, very long story, ask me later." Then 
steering Penny back to the subject he asked, "So 
where does that leave us?"

Penny sighed again, "In an Alternate Universe, it 
seems by talking into that radio you've changed 
the timeline of an alternate quantum reality."

Mulder looked over at Penny almost afraid to 
ask, "How do I get back...home?"

"Mulder I'm not sure you can. It would take..." 
She stopped mid sentence thinking of the 
impossibility.

"Come on, Penny just tell me it can't be much 
worse...it would take what?"  Mulder 
encouraged her to explain.  

"Yeah, Penny I'd like to hear this too.  What 
would it take to send Mulder back to his 
reality?" Daniel said from the back seat startling 
both Penny and Mulder who had been so 
involved in their conversation they had all but 
forgotten he was in the car.

"It would take a humongous stable wormhole 
and the ability to predict a solar flare that would 
occupy the same space-time as the one in the 
past.  A more technical explanation would be 
that Einstein's special and general theories of 
relativity combine three-dimensional space with 
time, to form four-dimensional, space-time. 
Space-time consists of points or events that 
represent a particular place at a particular time. 
Ummm...think of your entire life as a sort of 
twisting, turning worm in space-time. The tip of 
the worm's tail would be your birth and its head 
would be your death. The line, which this worm 
creates with its body, is called a world line. 
Einstein predicts that massive bodies such as 
black holes can distort world lines.  Soooo, if an 
object's world line could be distorted enough to 
form a loop that connected with a point on itself 
that represented an earlier place and time, it 
would create a corridor to the past.  You with 
me?"  

Both Mulder and Daniel nodded.  

"Imagine a loop to loop track that smashes back 
into itself as it comes back around. This closed 
loop called is a time-like curve.  Time-like 
means that the body under consideration 
experiences time that increases in one direction 
along its world line.  A closed time-like curve is 
one way to create a kind of shortcut through 
space-time called a wormhole.  Ok so, 
Wormholes are holes in the fabric of four- 
dimensional space-time, that are connected, but 
which originate at different points in space and 
at different times. They provide a quick path 
between two different locations in space and 
time."  

Knowing that both of the men she was talking to 
were extremely intelligent she didn't want to 
insult them but decided to explain further using 
an example she used with first year cadets taking 
quantum physics. "Think, "Alice in 
Wonderland" her looking glass was a wormhole 
that connected her home in Oxford, with 
Wonderland. All she had to do was climb into 
her looking glass and she would emerge on the 
other side of forever. In reality however, it 
would require a much more elaborate scheme to 
create a wormhole that connects two different 
points in space-time. 

Here's the reason I say I don't think it's possible 
for us to send you back. It would require the 
construction of two identical machines 
consisting of two huge parallel metal plates that 
are electrically charged with unbelievable 
amounts of energy. When the machines are 
placed in proximity of each other, the enormous 
amounts of energy  about that of an exploding 
star  would rip a hole in space-time and connect 
the two machines via a wormhole. I mean it is 
possible, and the beginnings of it have been 
illustrated in the lab by what is known as the 
Casimir Effect. But one of these machines 
would have to be placed on a craft that could 
travel at close to the speed of light. The craft 
would take one machine on a journey while it 
was still connected to the one on earth by way of 
the wormhole. Now, a simple step into the 
wormhole would transport you to a different 
place and a different time.  Like I said not 
possible, at least today."  

Mulder folded his arms across his chest and 
leaned his head back against the headrest.  He 
had no intention of giving up, but Penny's 
explanation had made him think that getting 
home was next to impossible.  
Daniel looked lost in thought as they reached the 
apartment building.  None of them had much to 
say as they entered the building.   Mulder and 
Penny bid Daniel good night as he left them to 
enter his apartment.  Penny sat down on the 
couch looking at Mulder thoughtfully as he sat 
down in the armchair.  

"That was some story Mulder..." Mulder 
interrupted before she could finish.  

"Please say you believe me Penny, like when we 
were kids you always believed me about Sam."  

"Mulder, I've seen some really odd things and 
yes I guess I do believe you, but I'm not sure 
how I can help."  She sighed.  Then seeing 
Mulder's dejected face she realized something.  

"She's more than your partner isn't she? I mean, 
I know if she was just your partner you'd want 
to get her back, but I sense more.  Am I right?" 
She asked gently.  

"Yes, I love her Penny, I trust her, she's my....  
she kept me going when I didn't think I could go 
any more and she's given up so much for me.  I 
can't leave her out there not knowing, I have to 
find her, get her back or get back to her, 
whatever it takes."

 Penny heard the desperation in Mulder's tone.  
"Tomorrow morning we're going to the Air 
Force Academy and you're going to do research 
in the Physics library I want you to read any 
obscure reference you can find on stable 
wormholes, sun flare activity and time travel 
theory.  If there's something you think is 
interesting but just don't get the science I want 
to see it.  If we're going to find out what 
happened in that graveyard we're going to have 
to dig in and work."    She had no idea what they 
could possibly find that would help Mulder.  She 
knew from first hand experience that sound 
waves could travel in time, but a person that was 
a different issue.   What she wanted was to give 
Mulder optimism. Mulder smiled, he loved 
Penny when she was determined and nine out of 
ten times that stubborn resolve got her what she 
wanted.  

"Thanks Pen, you working on this with me, at 
least, gives me hope.  I think I'm going to hit the 
shower and see if I can get some sleep. See you 
in the morning."
  
"Good night, Mulder. Oh and Mulder, I heard 
somewhere that hope dies last so we won't give 
up."   She said as she headed to her room.

Air Force Academy Physics Library 
Day 2

Mulder spent most of the next day in the 
Air Force Academy's extensive Physics Library.  
He found and saved anything he could on 
wormholes, time travel and sun flares.  After her 
last class Penny came to check on him and they 
decided to bundle up his findings and take them 
home for a closer exam.  They categorized the 
articles and research Mulder found into a 
number of piles for easier reference.  They were 
so engrossed in their task that by the time they 
thought about eating it was almost 10pm so they 
decided to order out for pizza.
  
"Maybe Daniel's home and we could ask him to 
join us, he's really a great researcher so he might 
be willing to help. We have a ton of information 
to go through.  I'll run next door and see if he's 
home and invite him. You call and order the 
pizza." Penny said.  As soon as Mulder went 
into the kitchen to find the phone, Penny 
remembered the old spare coffee maker she had 
up in the cupboard.  She had been meaning to 
give it to Daniel since his had broken, but kept 
forgetting.  She went into the kitchen behind 
Mulder.  

"I thought you were going to get Daniel."  He 
said.  

"I am, I just want to find this old coffeemaker I 
have and give it to him, until he remembers to 
buy a new one, I meant to give it to him 
yesterday." She replied to his inquiry while 
rummaging through the cupboard finding the old 
Crups coffee maker.  She smiled it was a good 
coffee maker but probably not up to Daniel's 
exacting standards, but it would have to do.  
Taking the coffeemaker then not being sure he 
would be home she remembered she had placed 
his key on the key rack hanging by her front 
door; she took it, before heading next door to 
Daniel's apartment.  
When she got to Daniel's the door was slightly 
ajar.  No reason for alarm, Daniel was always 
forgetting to close and lock the door.  She 
pushed the door open the apartment was dark. 
Maybe, Daniel wasn't home yet.  Oh well, she 
thought and headed straight for the kitchen when 
she sensed more than saw someone sitting on the 
couch just in range of her peripheral vision.  

"Daniel? Why are you sitting in..." She stopped 
mid question realizing that the figure was not 
Daniel but Jack.  His head bowed into his hands 
kind of rocking to and fro from the waist up.  

"Jack, what's wrong?" She asked gently.  

He looked up at her with red-rimmed eyes and 
simply said, "He's gone."  

She shook her head, "What I don't 
understand...gone...Daniel...where?"  

Jack gaining his composure told her the cover 
story SG1 had come up with to explain Daniel's 
absence to his civilian friends.  "He was killed in 
accident. The weather front that they thought 
had passed whipped back around and caused a 
flash flood in the area we were working in, 
Daniel's missing, presumed dead.  He was swept 
away before we could get to him and the current 
was so strong, he was just...just..."  Jack 
choked out the last part.

 Penny could feel the sting of tears welling in 
her eyes. All she could think was she had to get 
out of Daniel's apartment and away from Jack; 
she raced next door. Barreling into Mulder as 
she entered the apartment, she fell to her knees 
and started to sob.  Jack was right behind her.  

Mulder seeing Jack went into protection mode.  
"What the hell did you do to her?"  Mulder 
hissed.  

Then he saw Jack's face.  "What's happened?"  
Mulder asked quietly. 
 
"It's Daniel, he's missing, presumed dead, in a 
flash flood."  Jack said turning away from 
Mulder because his emotions were about to get 
the best of him.

Hope Dies Last (4 of 8)
Montana1416

Disclaimer in part 1


The cover story was awful; the truth of what 
Daniel had actually suffered before ascending 
had been horrific.  He would never forget Daniel 
sitting across from him in the infirmary and 
calmly going through the list of symptoms the 
radiation poisoning would manifest before his 
actual death.   Maybe that was why when Daniel 
had asked Jack to let him go; he was able to 
grant his request.  Jacob had said there was no 
guarantee that the Tok'ra healing device would 
actually give them back a whole and healthy 
Daniel.  Jack didn't want Daniel to suffer 
anymore.   This way he could think about him as 
out there somewhere. 

Three Month's Later
Colorado Springs

For three months Mulder stayed with 
Penny.  He considered himself an unperson.  Not 
knowing what contact with other people would 
lead to, he decided to have no contact with 
anyone from his past.  The months passed in a 
blur.  He spent most of his time doing research 
but even that seemed to have hit a dead end.  On 
the plus side, Penny had been able to figure out 
times and dates when the sun flare activity 
would duplicate the night he and Scully had 
been in the airplane graveyard.  However, the 
information was useless because there was no 
wormhole either manmade or natural that could 
take him back to the moments before Scully 
disappeared. There would be no rescue mission 
through time.  He didn't even know how he had 
entertained the thought.  He believed in and had 
witnessed many a strange phenomena, but this 
was a pipe dream even for him. Penny had been 
great throughout everything.  He didn't know 
when he actually came to the realization that she 
thought finding Scully through time was an 
infinitesimal impossibility too huge to fathom, 
but there it was.  To Penny's credit she never let 
her disbelief stop her from exploring each 
cockamamie theory he brought to her to its 
fullest extent and with an enthusiasm that 
matched his own.  Penny gave him hope where 
there was none letting him exhaust each and 
every possibility until he knew to an absolute 
certainty that his quest was impossible.  
Knowing was one thing admitting was quite 
another and Mulder couldn't and wouldn't admit 
that Scully was lost to him.  He held onto his 
faulty logic: she had vanished into thin air; 
therefore, she would reappear in the same 
fashion. After three months he was ready to 
scream his frustration, but couldn't do that to 
Penny.  She had put her life on hold to help him 
so he would remain in control, and sane.  The 
rage that had been boiling inside him since the 
day Scully vanished tried bubbling to the surface 
but was always put in its place by his mortal 
shame. He'd let this happen to her. He wanted 
Scully back.  His desire was so strong that even 
knowing the implausibility of ever finding a way 
to bring Scully back to him, he still held on to a 
glimmer of hope.  Proving that Penny was right 
in saying hope dies last.  

"Hey, a nickel for your thoughts." Penny said as 
she walked out of the kitchen and sat next to 
Mulder on the couch.  

"I think I've just realized that we've exhausted 
all of our possibilities for finding Scully. I know 
that you've just been humoring me for the last 
week or so...just so I won't feel like I've 
abandoned Scully without exploring every 
minute possibility.  I think it's time to stop. I 
think I'm gonna hit the road and let you get back 
to your life."  Mulder said clearly dejected and 
resigned that the search was over.  

"Mulder, I'm sorry..." Penny started but Mulder 
interrupted her.

"Penny don't you dare apologize to me, you've 
done more to help me than any other sane person 
would have done given the situation."  Mulder 
said vehemently.  

"Mulder I just wish it had been enough, I mean 
I'm still not even sure what time theory we're 
dealing with and that's really a blow to the 
quantum physicist in me."  Penny said sadly.  

"Penny the fact that you believed me and even 
attempted to find a solution...makes you stand 
head and shoulders above every other quantum 
physicist I know."  Mulder looked over and 
smiled at Penny.  She grinned back getting his 
little joke then said.  

" I get it I'm the only quantum physicist you 
know.  Seriously, you joke but you know there 
has to be a solution, nothing happens in nature 
without some kind of science being able to 
explain it and not being able to figure this out 
just..." 

Mulder groaned.  

"What?" Penny asked in response to his groan. 

Mulder smiled.  "You sounded just like Scully, 
It took me years to get her to believe that 
sometimes things can't be explained by applying 
science - ah scratch that - because thinking about 
it now I'm not sure I ever fully convinced her.  
But Penny sometimes unexplained things do 
happen and science just doesn't always have the 
answer. Remember that B-24 story your Dad 
used to tell?"

"He made that up, Mulder and I'm not sure you 
could convince me of that...but... changing the 
subject to you hitting the road, won't you stay 
until you figure out where it is you're going? All 
you've been doing for the last three months is 
trying to find a way to get Scully back.  I know 
you haven't had a chance to think things 
through. Stay and just relax and figure out your 
next move."  Penny urged.   

"You're right, I haven't given a lot of thought to 
what comes next, so I'll stay but only a few 
more days."

"Great and Mulder when you do leave please 
don't let ten years go by before I see you again."  
Penny said as she headed to her room. 

Mulder smiled sheepishly at her last statement. " 
'Night, Pen"
 
Somewhere in the Universe

	At the time Daniel had stepped into the 
glowing white light of the Stargate for the last 
time he had no idea what to expect he was 
simply going with Oma Desala.  At once he was 
overwhelmed with the amount of knowledge at 
his disposal.  He understood things he hadn't 
even thought about during his life.  The only 
requirement for gaining all this newfound 
knowledge was adhering to a set of rules, with 
the number one rule; or as Daniel liked to think 
of it the prime directive, being no interference.  
You could look, listen and learn but you 
couldn't touch and that was really hard for 
someone who had spent a lifetime learning by 
touching. Of course, he could go anywhere he 
wanted; investigate other races, other cultures, 
other time periods, other worlds, and other 
galaxies.  It was really strange having 
knowledge but not having to work for it.  It felt a 
bit like cheating but at the same time it was 
incredible.  Daniel realized how small his place 
in the universe had been and how much more 
there was to see and do.  

However, no matter how small he felt his place 
had been, he still couldn't let go of the people 
that had meant the most to him; Sam, Teal'c and 
Jack. He made it part of his routine to watch 
over them.  Even under his watchful eye Jack 
had managed to get into the kind of trouble that 
almost cost him his life.   So that's why once 
again he was saying goodbye to Jack in the SGC 
infirmary.  Jack would be ok; of this Daniel was 
sure, he had peeked into the future.  It was more 
than a little strange to move back and forth 
through time, like driving down an interstate 
highway exit 14 takes you to the 23rd century.   
He hadn't lied to Jack about being content with 
the path he had chosen. He really could not at 
that moment imagine being any thing other than 
what he had become. It really was an amazing 
experience.  Then again being with Jack 
throughout his ordeal had made Daniel realize 
how hard it was to keep his hands out of the 
proverbial cookie jar.  Right this minute he 
needed something to do, something new to learn, 
because that was the only thing that was going to 
keep him from spending the week hovering 
around Jack and the infirmary. 
 
Earth 2013

	As he left Jack's side he headed for the 
undiscovered country, the future.  Daniel picked 
at random and headed eleven years into Earth's 
future. It was kind of like reading the last page 
of a book, just to reassure yourself that if you 
spent the time and continued reading that things 
would indeed turn out ok in the end. What 
Daniel discovered was not the reassuring 
conclusion he had been seeking. The last page of 
this book seemed to be promising something 
like; no make that exactly like, the apocalypse.  
The sun filtered through the smoke and ash to 
reveal the scarred face of a dying world, the 
landscape was the gray of dried out soil and the 
trees that remained were charred and black. 
Everything around him was in flames and fire 
was raining down from the sky. As he moved 
from one place to another he discovered old 
wounds in evidence under this new assault. 
Cities that weren't currently burning looked 
worn and brittle.  Roads were pockmarked with 
cracks and potholes. The people he saw mirrored 
their surroundings.  They were weather-beaten 
and scarred. The young looked old, and the old 
seemed ancient. The whole scene was surreal; 
like the melting clocks in a Dali painting, the 
world seemed to be warped and distorted.
 
Daniel closed his eyes and in his mind's eye he 
got images of alien ships swooping down, of the 
swarms of bees carrying a type of Black Death 
over the face of the earth. He saw soulless husks 
in the place of real men who carried out highly 
sophisticated methods of genocide for their alien 
masters. He saw his world near extinction. Who 
or what had caused this?  As soon as the 
question touched his mind, he got an image of 
the Asgard, of Thor, no, he refused to believe 
that in such a short amount of time Earth's 
protectors would become it's destroyers.  He 
concentrated harder.  This time names came 
with the images; he was not seeing the Asgard 
and Thor, but a group called the Muspelheim 
and their leader Surt.  Daniel knew from Norse 
mythology that like Asgard, Muspelheim was 
one of the nine worlds in which the Norse Gods 
resided.  It was the home of the fire giants. Surt 
watched the border of this world. He, if Daniel 
recalled correctly, was waiting for the day of 
Ragnarok when he would set the world on fire 
with his fire sword.  It looked to Daniel as if 
Surt had been busy.   Trying to remain calm, 
Daniel thought about what action he should take. 
He could go back and question the others about 
all that he had seen but that would draw their 
attention. Frankly, all Daniel really wanted was 
to fix this and that would be stretching that damn 
non-interference rule to the breaking point.  
Something was nagging at the edge of his 
consciousness some piece of information that he 
had heard fairly recently that maybe didn't 
explain what he was seeing but gave a clue as to 
why it was happening. The problem was he had 
learned so much over the last few months that 
his head was full of new information.  
Something about the bee's carrying a 
virus...Mulder...that was it Penny's friend 
Mulder had told him about an alien virus that 
looked like black oil and would be spread by 
bee's.  Daniel concentrated on Mulder, aside 
from his story about the aliens that would 
destroy the earth he had also said his partner; a 
women named Scully had disappeared from an 
airplane graveyard.  Mulder had seemed to think 
it might have something to do with the space-
time continuum, that's why he had come to find 
Penny.   Daniel decided the best place to start to 
try and "fix" all of this was with what Mulder 
perceived to be different and that to would have 
to be the world without Scully.
 

Tucson, Arizona
Three Months Ago

	Suddenly, Daniel found himself back in 
the Earth's present year but three month's in the 
past in an airplane graveyard at night.  He 
observed two figures coming over the top of the 
wall that surrounded the yard. He recognized 
Mulder and then he saw a pretty, petit, red 
headed woman, Scully. Mulder appeared to be 
the "wanderer" of this team.  Daniel listened to 
their friendly banter and smiled as Scully gave 
Mulder a hard time.  Through her 
admonishments of caution he recognized the 
underlying affection in her voice, it was similar 
to that of Jack's when Daniel; just, had to see 
something.  He smiled and looked on, as they 
stood wrapped around each other watching the 
strange ghostly lights flashing across the 
horizon.   As the lights dimmed they approached 
a large plane that seemed to have captured 
Mulder's attention.  Within a matter of minutes 
Mulder had entered the plane via a work ladder 
leaning on its side.  He watched Mulder play 
with the radio; only it was not the ordinary radio 
it appeared to be.  Daniel's ears detected a 
strange hum just beyond the range of the static 
each time Mulder keyed the mic.  Scully 
climbed the ladder next and then there it was she 
just blinked out of existence.
  
Daniel realized he had seen someone disappear 
in much the same way.  Jack had just blinked out 
of existence whenever Thor wanted to talk to 
him. Daniel focused on Scully and was not too 
surprised when he found himself on a 
Muspelheim space ship, the same kind of space 
ship he had seen destroying Earth's future.   
Knowing what had happened to Scully, Daniel 
decided his next step should be to focus on 
Mulder and see what happened next.  He 
watched as Mulder searched the graveyard.  
Mulder drove to a small interstate motel, 
checked in and then left almost as quickly.  He 
watched as Mulder got out at the rest stop and 
guessed Mulder was headed to Penny's and 
knew that he was the person Mulder was 
speaking to on the payphone. Daniel realized he 
would find no other answers here in the past.  He 
knew that the Muspelheim must have a motive 
for abducting Scully but his guess was that 
although Mulder may ultimately hold the answer 
he was not consciously aware of it.    Scully 
must be the common denominator, linking her 
abduction with the future he had witnessed.  
Why else would the Muspelheim abduct her? 
They must have known that without her the 
Earth was theirs for the taking.  All at once 
Daniel knew what he had to do.

Present Day
Colorado Springs

Jack O'Neill was released from the infirmary 
after a week of "sarcophagus rehab".  As he got 
in his truck to leave the mountain for a couple of 
days R & R, he thought about the ordeal that he 
had gone through over the last few months.  
First Daniel, then almost dying, next the implant 
 he shuddered at the thought  the torture and 
finally his escape.  When Sam, Teal'c and Jonas 
were finally able to give him a detailed 
explanation of their rescue plan and how the 
idea had just come to Teal'c during Kel no reem; 
he was more and more convinced that Daniel 
had been whispering in their ears.  He had his 
doubts at first but he should have known that 
Daniel would come through for him. No 
interference my ass.  The thought made Jack 
smile, he was glad to see that Daniel in his see-
through state could still be counted on not to 
follow orders.
 
Daniel had said he was happy where he was not 
in those exact words, but Jack understood.   
When Jack would let his rage subside enough to 
allow the image; he could picture Daniel 
experiencing all the wonders of the universe.  
The rage he felt was not aimed at Daniel, but at 
the circumstances that had lead to his need for 
ascension.  Daniel had been taken from him not 
by Oma Desala but by the carelessness and 
cowardice of the Kelownan scientists  that 
outraged Jack.  Daniel had been the voice and 
conscience of SG1 and in a way he had been that 
for Jack too. Since Daniel's act of bravery, 
Jack's world had been plummeted into a type of 
silence.  He regretted each and every time he 
had told Daniel to shut-up or to keep his theories 
to himself.  In the post-ascension months, Jack 
had held his feelings close to his vest all the 
while longing to be comforted by Daniel's voice 
and then as if on cue there he was lending his 
comforting presence to Jack in Baal's hellish 
prison.   One of the things that had become 
crystal clear to Jack when he saw Daniel in his 
prison cell was just how much he had missed his 
friend.  Steering his truck into a parking space 
on the street in front of Daniel's apartment, Jack 
was not sure whether the effects of the 
withdrawal or just plain sentiment had drawn 
him here.  Keeping Daniel's apartment had been 
his idea.  After all, Daniel was technically 
missing in action, still drawing a paycheck, and 
had tons of junk that would need a home, so as 
executor of his estate Jack made the decision to 
keep the place.  With a full mission schedule and 
everything else that had transpired Jack had only 
been able to stop by a couple of times since 
Daniel had been gone. He was glad that Penny 
had agreed to feed the fish, had they depended 
on him they would have been belly up. 
 
Staying the night at Daniel's place being around 
all that old stuff that Daniel loved might help 
cure the dull pain he had felt since Daniel had 
left him in the infirmary.  As Jack ambled up the 
walkway to the apartment building he saw 
Penny's friend Mulder coming around the block 
from what looked like a pretty good run.  Jack 
waited at the door for Mulder to catch up.  
"Hey." Jack said.  

"Hey, you checking up on Daniel's place, so far 
we've managed to keep all his fish alive. Any 
news?" Mulder inquired.  

"No, nothing has turned up." Jack said looking 
down at his hands.  

"Ah, I'm sorry.  Are you here for a while?"  Jack 
gave a slight nod as Mulder continued. 

"Why don't you join Penny and I for dinner, 
pizza and beer, take out of course, because 
Penny never keeps any food in the apartment.  
Mulder and Jack both laughed as they got in the 
elevator.  

"Sounds good, pizza and beer it is. What time?"  
Jack asked.

 How 'bout 6:30ish."  Mulder replied. 

"Great, see you then." 

Entering Daniel's apartment Jack was struck by 
how this place was "so" Daniel, warm, inviting, 
full of artifacts and books.  Feeling tired and 
realizing he had a couple of hours to kill before 
dinner at Penny's, Jack went into Daniel's room 
and lay down to take a nap. 

Daniel Jackson rested on his side; head propped 
against the palm of his hand, silently watching 
and waiting for Jack O'Neill to reach REM 
sleep. He was laying on his old bed just inches 
from Jack's sleeping form. He could tell that 
Jack was about to enter the space between his 
own reality and Daniel's. It was neutral ground, 
a place they could meet and no one would be the 
wiser.  Deep and even breaths indicated that 
Jack was almost there.  Once his friend reached 
REM or the space between realities, Daniel 
would be free to wake him and talk to him. It 
was sort of like dream walking, although, Jack 
would be awake he would think he was 
dreaming and because of that ambiguous state 
the others would remain blissfully unaware of 
Daniel's conversation with Jack.  Daniel still felt 
a nervous anticipation, he wasn't exactly 
dropping by to say a simple hello, but at least 
Jack wasn't being tortured. At this moment he 
was safe Jack couldn't see or hear him. He was 
going to ask Jack suspend his belief and to trust 
him.  He and Jack had been down this particular 
road many times.  Sometimes Jack was willing 
and able but at other times Jack was just plain 
stubborn.  That fact alone made Daniel unsure as 
to how to relay to Jack all that Mulder had told 
him at dinner the day before he ascended. 
Mulder's tale of black oil aliens was like the 
fiction of some bad dream. Believing anything 
could be possible was part of who Daniel was, 
but not Jack, he would need evidence.
	  
All the evidence Daniel had to offer in this case 
was his word he hoped that it would be enough 
for Jack.  Daniel shuddered as he thought of 
witnessing Mulder's aliens in action.  He knew 
they were the worst nightmare kind of trouble 
and they had taken Mulder's partner.  Along 
with absorbing the knowledge of Scully's ordeal 
and acquiring the truth of Mulder's manipulation 
by the Muspelheim, Daniel found a gem of the 
information obtained by Mulder and Penny in 
their search for a solution.  They had actually 
found a way to get Scully back although Mulder 
and Penny had no idea that the technology they 
needed actually did exist.  That's where Jack 
figured into all of this, he could put all the pieces 
together.   Daniel reckoned that with all Jack had 
seen in the past five years that the trouble 
convincing him would not come from the fact 
that Mulder's tale or Daniel's solution were too 
farfetched, but the story had to be told in a way 
that would propel Jack into immediate action.  
Jack's eyes started moving under his eyelids.  
Time.   
                  
"Jack. Jack. Wake up."  Daniel coaxed.
 
"Huh, no."  Jack muttered.

"Jack, please wake up and talk to me."

Jack was sure he knew that voice maybe he 
should answer.  "Wha..." Jack sighed, still not 
quite awake.

"Jack, wake up."

"Alright, already, jeez Daniel. What is it?"  Jack 
said with his head still on his pillow opening one 
bleary eye to look at Daniel who was lying right 
next to him.
 
"Hi, sunshine."  Daniel couldn't resist.  "I need 
to tell you a couple of things, so I need you to 
pay attention for a minute." Daniel explained to 
his groggy bed companion.

Still fuzzy about what was happening Jack 
answered. "Right now Daniel? Can you tell me 
tomor...Wait? Daniel?"   The realization finally 
registered; Daniel was speaking to him, but that 
wasn't possible Daniel had said goodbye to him 
again in the infirmary a week ago. 

"Yes Jack, it's me, I'm really here and I have to 
tell you this right now."  Daniel said firmly.  

Jack still a bit dazed and emotionally drained 
from the week of withdrawal rubbed his index 
finger and thumb back and fourth across his 
eyes.  "Why are you..."  Jack started to ask but 
was interrupted by Daniel.  

"Listen, I promise I will explain all of this to you 
later, but right now I really need you to listen to 
me." 

Jack must have noted the urgency in Daniel's 
voice because he finally agreed to listen. He 
mirror imaged Daniel laying on his side, placing 
his hand under his chin and dug his elbow into 
his pillow. "K, what's up Danny?"  

"Jack, we have to help Mulder get Scully back.  
She is not supposed to be gone.   I don't know if 
you heard any of what Mulder told me at dinner 
that last night in the O Club about the aliens, the 
shadow government and the work that he and 
Scully have been doing for the last 9 years, so 
I'll just give you the Readers Digest version.   
Mulder's aliens have been planning an invasion 
of earth for the last fifty years.  They use this 
black oil; well, it looks like black oil but it has 
sentience. It can think. It has the ability to 
communicate.  As near as I can figure the virus, 
injected into its victims with a bee's sting, is a 
parasite.  It acts like a goa'uld.  This virus, like 
the goa'uld, takes over the host body and it 
either makes them human/alien hybrids or 
incubates until it forms a new alien."  Daniel 
paused to make sure Jack was still with him.
  
"With you so far, oily virus equals new bad guy 
..." Jack interjected.  

Daniel continued, "Mulder says that he and 
Scully discovered that a group within the 
government have known since the Roswell 
crash.  This shadow government; so to speak, 
captured a group of these aliens from the 
spacecraft wreckage.  They salvaged the various 
alien technologies from them and from their data 
banks they learned of the alien plan to "re-
colonize" the earth.  In an effort to save their 
own lives this group of men manufactured a 
vaccine that could render them immune to the 
virus all the while pretending to cooperate with 
the aliens' plans for colonization.  The aliens 
found out about the vaccine and changed their 
original plan to make humans a slave race to 
simply wiping out all life by invading and taking 
over the Earth.  It's all been set in motion.  Earth 
is in more trouble than we ever realized.  What I 
found out is that Mulder's aliens are a renegade 
branch of the Asgard family tree.  They're called 
the Muspelheim and their leader is called Surt. "  

Jack looked skeptical and started to say 
something, but Daniel beat him to the punch.  
"Listen, I know I'm giving you the condensed 
version of this.  And I know how preposterous it 
all sounds, but it's not any more preposterous 
than traveling to different worlds through a 
wormhole, fighting the goa'ulds  make that 
snakes  that think they're gods, or any one of 
the thousands of things we've seen over the 
years."  

Jack's turn,  "Daniel you're saying that there is a 
group of basically bad Thors out there that have 
this living slime virus and they want to destroy 
us?  How does that work?  Oh and not to 
mention that people within our government 
know all this...well, scratch that last one  that 
is possible."
 
Daniel considered his reply and then said, "Jack 
think about it there are two sides to every coin, 
for the Goa'uld it's the Tok'ra, for us it's like 
the SGC and the NID. Well, for the Asgard it's 
the Muspelheim."
 
Jack studied Daniel for a few seconds then said, 
"Since this is my dream, I'll go along. What 
exactly do you need me to do to stop 
this...virus?"

"We need to get Scully back because she and 
Mulder are key to Earth's survival.  I don't 
know how but Scully will be instrumental in 
finding a way to stop the virus from spreading.  
You need to go through the Stargate at precisely 
1:11 am the day after tomorrow.   You will need 
to take Mulder and Penny with you, but no one 
else can know."
  
"And just where would I be going for my court-
martial, Daniel?"

"Jack, please trust me, there will not be a court-
martial."

 "Oh, so they just shoot me."

"Jack, I promise this is the right thing to do.  
I've seen what these aliens can and will do.  I'll 
be waiting on the other side of the gate for you, 
so please trust me."  The earnest look in 
Daniel's eyes said it all.  Jack knew he would 
take the risk and go just because Daniel was 
asking.
 
"I can do that."  He finally said.  "I still need to 
know where it is I'm going, you know, a little 
matter of dialing the gate."

The tension Daniel was feeling eased.  "Just dial 
home Jack and once you get to the other side I'll 
tell you everything. So I'll see you 32 hours 
from now."

Jack laid his head back down on his pillow 
closed his eyes and mumbled, "Daniel, stay."  
Daniel smiled and then reached out and brushed 
his hand over Jack's tousled hair and 
disappeared. 
 
Jack woke to the sound of knocking on the door.  
He looked at the clock, 6:47 he had overslept. 
That was the strangest dream; he shook his head 
as he walked through the apartment to open the 
door.  

"Hey sleepyhead, you ready for dinner." Penny 
greeted him noting the lines of sleep still on his 
face.  

"Oh jeez Penny, I'm sorry, I must have 
overslept, I'll be over in a sec." Jack apologized