Free STARGATE SG-1 29 Hall of the Two Truths by Susannah Parker Sinard

repack it. He didn’t even hear the footfall until a split second before a hand rested on his arm. The sensation of having been pricked by something sharp was forgotten a second later as he leapt to his feet to face this new threat.
    Except —
    He blinked.
    “It’s me, sir.”
    “Carter?”
    She stood there. In flesh and blood. Alive. And smiling at him.
    “Yes, sir.”
    Jack was suddenly light-headed, and happier than he had any right to be. He pushed aside the impulse to hug her and grasped her by the arm instead. She felt warm and solid beneath his fingers.
    “But how?” Not that the details were important, only that she was there. “I thought you were dead.”
    The gigawatt smile faded into a sympathetic, almost pitying look. “I am, sir,” she replied gently, her eyes locking onto his. “But then, you see, so are you.”

Chapter Five
    “I’M DEAD.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    He pointed at her. “And you’re dead.”
    “Yes, sir.” She sounded rather matter-of-fact about the whole thing. And here he thought he was the one who’d taken a blow to the head.
    “No offense, Carter, but you look pretty damn healthy to me.”
    She shook her head. “I’m not sure how, Colonel, but I don’t think this is really us.” She closed her eyes for a moment as if sorting through her thoughts, and then opened them. “I mean, it’s us, of course, but not us like we’re used to being us.”
    Okay. Now she was starting to scare him. Cryptic wasn’t Carter’s usual M.O.
    “Come again?” he said, eyeing her. She tried once more.
    “Okay. It’s almost as if the essence of who we are has somehow been manifested into a form that physically resembles how we used to be, so we’re able to talk and walk and do everything we could do while we were alive. But I don’t think these are our real bodies. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’re not.”
    Jack touched the gash on his lip — the source of the dried blood — and winced. “Oh I don’t know. Feels pretty real to me.” He saw a bemused smile tug at her mouth as she half-shrugged.
    “I don’t pretend to completely understand it. But think, sir. You saw me die. We both saw Daniel and Teal’c zatted to death. Odds are, they killed you too. And yet, here we are.”
    That part, at least, he couldn’t deny. Still. Carter getting all metaphysical on him? It was weird. Too weird. “Well, here some of us are, anyway.” He looked around. “Where’s Daniel? And Teal’c?”
    She shook her head. “I have no idea. When I woke up, you were the only one here. But you were unconscious, so I checked outside. I didn’t see any sign of them.”
    “And that’s when you came up with this ‘theory’ about essences and stuff…?” He hated doubting her. It was like questioning whether the sun would rise each morning. But this stuff was way out there. He couldn’t imagine even Daniel coming up with it.
    “Well, it’s not exactly my theory. Here, I’ll show you.”
    Jack followed her to the doorway. Already he could hear the gentle patter of rain on leaves and the singular smell of wet vegetation. Sure enough, a steady drizzle was falling. A heavy fog obscured everything farther away than twenty meters, muffling both sight and sound. It was like being wrapped up in a thick, gray blanket.
    “There.”
    She pointed at markings that had been engraved on a plaque on the exterior wall of the building. He looked at her askance.
    “And you can read this?”
    Carter nodded.
    “So — what? Suddenly you’re channeling Daniel?” He hadn’t meant for it to come out quite so snide. Carter seemed not to notice.
    “I can’t explain it, sir. But when I look at it, I just — I don’t know, I understand it. It’s as plain as English.”
    Considering he’d once been capable of both writing and speaking Ancient — or so he’d been told — he wasn’t exactly in a position to doubt her.
    “Okay. In that case, what does it say?”
    She reached out and ran her fingers over the