Chapter 1

Major Samantha Carter beamed with enthusiasm upon being debriefed prior. A very large naquadah ore bed had been discovered in the USA and had been acquired by the government. The naquadah deposit was located in Utah and one of the largest deposits ever discovered. Earth now had its own supply of the rare mineral that was so crucial to the space program. It was as if they were given a gift from above and she couldn't have been more pleased. She made her way to the Gate Room to gather with her team for the next assignment. She noticed Teal'c was missing from the assembly.

She greeted Jack and Daniel, "Sir! Daniel…" she glanced about, "No Teal'c?"

Daniel explained, "He was called to Chulak this morning. His son is having some issues…" he winced.

"Girlfriend issues," Jack added with a sigh.

"Oh," she winced feeling any parent's frustration. "I see…so it's just us."

"Just us, Carter." he agreed. He glanced up at the control room as the inner ring of the Stargate began to turn. One by one the chevrons locked into place and soon the event horizon was established with an eruption of liquid energy that shimmered like water under the high powered lights.

Jack watched on as Sam and Daniel went through the eye of the Gate first. The whole thing was getting rather mundane for the old colonel. Every new dial out was becoming much like the last. He walked up the ramp and into the event horizon for yet another mission.

Much to Jack's surprise they didn't end up where he thought they would. Instead of exiting a majestic Stargate on a large stone platform they emerged from a much smaller Gate in a dark cave. He looked about rather baffled, "Is this where we are supposed to be?"

Daniel had been casting the flashlight about the area and replied, "No!" He turned towards Sam who was equally confused.

Sam reported, "There is no DHD. Where are we?" she asked herself. She went to inspect the much smaller Gate in detail. "This Gate is seven feet tall; one third the size of our Gate."

Daniel found the cave lacked any glyphs or writing of any kind. He declared, "I got nothing on my end."

Sam found the access panel and began to remove it. She gathered her computer from her bag and remarked, "This could take a while." as she began to run a diagnostic.

Jack figured, "Daniel and I will take a peek outside the cave and see what's out there."

"Sounds good, sir." she agreed.

Jack and Daniel soon found the mouth of the cave partial hidden by a rock. It was a tight squeeze but the men emerged and found a rocky, mountainous region overlooking flat lands below. It looked much like Earth's Midwest to the men.

"Nice view," Jack stated. He removed his binoculars from his vest pocket and began to visually sweep the area. In the distance he spotted movement coming out of a tree line. He squinted as he realized he was spotting an Elk.

Daniel peered through his set of binoculars, "That's a Moose."

"More like an Elk," he corrected.

"What's an Elk doing off world?" he wondered.

Jack paused and admitted, "I have no idea." He turned and led Daniel back inside the cave. He soon found Sam who gave a worried look as she ran the readings. "Carter!" he started.

She looked up, "I'm picking up US satellite feeds on my computer, sir. This isn't good."

"What?" he asked.

"The date stamps are from over three years ago. I'm running a more detailed analysis on the smaller Gate. I don't think we actually left, Earth, sir."

Jack replied, "Daniel and I spotted an Elk outside."

"I still think it was a moose." Daniel told him.

Jack rolled his eyes, "Whatever!"

"It's gonna take time to finish my diagnostics." Sam told them. "We're not dialing out of here. That much I can tell you now. The ZPM that powers this little Gate is dead. We're lucky we didn't have Teal'c or we would have overloaded the buffer system and we could have lost one of us on re-entry."

Jack asked, "Satellite states are off by three years?"

Daniel gasped, "Like the time we ended up in 1969."

"We're much closer this time but it appears so," Sam confirmed. "We can't get back. We are stuck three years in the past if my readings are correct." She then figured, "There would be another version of each of us here already. Us from three years ago! We have to stay out of our way and not contact anyone or we could affect the timeline."

"What?" Jack asked fearing what he heard.

"We have to lay low and stay out of history's way." she insisted. "We need to avoid ourselves and anyone who knows us until we catch up with the day we left. Then we can go back to the SGC." she figured.

"What?" Jack asked looking at his friends in a near panic.

Daniel winced, "We can't go back until we catch up to when we left. That means…we have to stay low and out of sight for the next three years. We're on a countdown…Tick Tock!" he explained.

"Oh' great!" Jack heavily sighed.

5 Days Later

Jack rolled onto his side. It had been a rough five days sleeping in region. They had managed to get to a nearby town a day prior and find some clean clothes to change out of after spending four days in a survival mode and camping in the wilderness. They soon discovered the name of the town was Hunter Creek in Utah. After ensuring none of the cash they carried was dated prior to the three year cut off the team found a local secondhand store to buy civilian clothing. Jack let his field jacket that doubled as a blanket, slide down his shoulders as he sat up in the chilly, dew soaked morning. He was growing tired of camping in the woods like some hermit. He was beginning to feel like a hermit as he had not shaven in three days. He still supported his combat boots but not the trousers. Instead, he wore blue jeans, a white t-shirt and a red and black flannel shirt.

Daniel and Sam both started to wake. Daniel wore a pair of tan carpenter pants with a red and white flannel. He managed to buy a wool blanket at the secondhand store which he favored in the cold nights.

Sam also had to change out of the uniform and found herself wearing blue jeans, a purple and white flannel shirt and a brown down vest that she purchased from the thrift store. The only remnant of the uniform was her boots. All of the team still wore black combat boots.

Jack had already gone for a paper bag of food they purchased while in town. He found the box of instant oatmeal and looked over at his friends, "Morning campers! Who wants what flavor? I get brown sugar." he staked his claim.

"Apple," Sam requested as she gathered some water to heat on the fire.

Daniel complained, "I wanted raisin spice, Jack."

He rebutted, "We are on a limited budget, Daniel. We only had enough money for one box of oatmeal. That's why I got the variety pack. So, your choices are now plain or apple."

"Raisin spice," he smirked at him.

Jack tossed him the box, "Fish out what you want." He then turned his attention towards the fire pit.

Sam mentioned, "We will need to find jobs to get more money."

Daniel thumbed through the oatmeal packets, "Whatever jobs we get will have to be under the table. We can't use our Social Security numbers or it will mess up the other us and we will be victims of identity theft." He removed the apple flavored oatmeal packet for his breakfast. He mentioned, "Not much left! Our rations are gone and the food we bought is nearly depleted."

Sam repeated, "We need to find jobs. Any job! Even cleaning…" she winced. Suddenly she couldn't use her degrees, she couldn't use her real name and everything she worked so hard to accomplish was gone for the next three years. She felt like a nobody! Someone who didn't exist in society but lived on the edge of the world and far away from civilization.

Jack stated, "Do what ya gotta do, Carter. Cleaning is way better than other stuff. If we need to clean to get by then we clean. I don't care what we clean…bathrooms, stalls…I don't care. It's way better than working the streets."

Daniel agreed, "Finding a job with no ID will be hard. It will be a hard labor job. Something that migrants would fill."

Sam figured, "This area has a lot of farms and ranches! Maybe we can find jobs working for one?"

"Possible," he agreed "And a farm or ranch might even have a house for us to stay in." He looked to Jack, "That can provide us with shelter and no more camping."

Jack smirked, "We should just contact George, tell what happened and he can put us up in a hotel for the next three years."

Sam disagreed, "We need to stay as far away from Star Gate Command as possible. Contacting General Hammond would place the timeline at risk for we could accidentally tell him what happens in the next three years. We need to isolate ourselves as much as possible." She grabbed the toilet paper roll, "This is our last roll. We need supplies soon!" she informed and then stood up to go relive herself behind a tree.

Daniel asked Jack, "When we run out of toilet paper what do we use?"

"Leaves," he smirked at him.

He winced, "We better find jobs soon!"