Disclaimer: I own neither Stargate: SG-1 nor Battlestar Galactica.
Author's Notes: This story takes place after "Continuum" for Stargate and between the Season 3 episodes "Maelstrom" and "Crossroads, Part 2" for Battlestar Galactica.
Samantha Carter stood in the observation room above one of the SGC's many isolation units watching the interrogation taking place below. Through the speakers she heard what Cam and Agent Barrett said to their guest and her replies, but Sam's mind had trouble process what she heard. Behind her the door opened.
"What did you find, Daniel?" she asked without turning away from the scene below.
Daniel paused in surprised at her seeming prescience until he noticed the reflection in the glass. It was only then that he noticed that Vala had followed him into the room.
"There was some information in the Atlantis database, but the really interesting stuff was in Merlin's records," Vala answered before Daniel could respond.
"And?" she prodded.
"Kobol was the designation for a project into artificial life," Daniel informed her as he attempted to glare Vala into silence.
"Not Replicators," Vala added anticipating Sam's thoughts smiling sweetly to Daniel as she did so.
Daniel glared once more at Vala's interruption before continuing his explanation, "It was a successor project after the Alteran Replicator project went FUBAR. They decided that bodies composed of nanites made the replicators too powerful so they gave this next project bodies made of..."
"metal," Sam said in unison with Daniel. "Sounds a lot like these cylons, she's been describing."
"Yeah, but that's not all," Vala interjected once again. "The interesting stuff was in Merlin's records...one's dealing with his Ori weapon."
"And?" Sam prompted when her focus strayed to the interrogation below.
Daniel sighed as Vala failed to continue the explanation having become distracted by the scene below. "It seems that the Others and the Ori weren't the only factions within the Ascended Alterans," Daniel said. "Apparently, there was a major conflict going on while Merlin was building his weapon. There were a lot of factions each vying for control. The Ori were actually one of the two largest factions, and a faction called the Lords of Kobol were the other."
"I think I see where this is going. The quote-unquote Other factions banded together and forced the Ori and Kobol factions into exile," Sam guessed.
"Yes," Daniel confirmed.
"So, the Others are totally hands off, and the Ori feed off their followers like vampires. I wonder what the Kobol philosphy was," Sam mused.
"According to Merlin, they were somewhere in between," Daniel told her. "They fed off their followers, but didn't really interfere with their lives. Just enough to keep the worship flowing."
"So if we think about the worship like drug use, the Lords of Kobol were the recreational users, and the Ori are the hardcore junkies," Sam suggested after thinking about it for a moment.
"Good analogy," Daniel agreed.
"I don't know if that helps us with this situation though. Do we want to involve ourselves in their conflict?" Vala asked from where she stood observing the interrogation.
"Someone wants to make sure we do involve ourselves," Sam stated.
"It seems likely," Daniel agreed. "The way her ship appeared in orbit around the Alpha site does raise some suspicions."
"It's not just that," Sam told him as she handed him the file she'd been holding. "You weren't the only one to find something interesting. Carolyn found something in her examination as well."
As Daniel opened the folder, the interrogation lost it's appeal for Vala, and she strolled back across the room to read over Daniel's shoulder. The door closed quietly behind Sam as Daniel found what Sam had been talking about. A moment later, Vala found it as well.
"Huh," Vala huffed. "That explains some things."
Daniel offered Vala another glare, but his scolding was cut off before it could begin when the two noticed Sam enter the isolation room.
Cam immediately rose from his chair, offering his place at the table to Sam before meandering to the side of the room where he propped himself against the wall.
"Oh goodie," Starbuck drawled as her lips formed an amused smirk. "Someone else has come to play."
"Miss Thrace," Agent Barrett admonished.
"That's Captain Thrace," Kara corrected. "Captain Kara Thrace of the Colonial Defense Forces."
"Captain Thrace," Barrett corrected himself. "May I present Colonel Samantha Carter."
"Pleased to meet you," Starbuck greeted Sam with a half-hearted wave. "I hope you have some new questions to ask because I'm getting frakking tired of answering the same ones over and over again."
Sam didn't respond at first. She just stared at the woman in front of her.
"Sam?" Mitchell prompted.
Carter blinked hard then took a deep breath clearly gathering her thoughts. "I do have some new questions for you," she told Starbuck. "Let's talk about your parents," she suggested.
"My parents?" Starbuck questioned as she tipped back in her chair. She seemed taken aback at the question as did her two male questioners. "What? Are you some sort of psychologist? Come to see if I'm crazy?"
"You're adopted aren't you?" Sam asked ignoring Starbuck's reaction to her choice of subject.
Starbuck's chair slammed back down to the ground with enough force to startle the two men in the room who perked up at her reaction. The smile was gone from their guest's face.
"What did your parents tell you about how you were adopted?" Sam asked.
"How the frak do you know I was adopted?" Starbuck asked in return. "No one knows I was adopted. Not even the Old Man."
"What did your parents tell you about how you were adopted?" Sam asked again with deadly seriousness in her voice.
Starbuck ran a hand through her hair as she looked at the other woman. She didn't want to answer, but the question had the same air of command about it as an order from the Old Man. She didn't want to answer, but her training was telling her she must.
"You want our help fighting these cylons you've been talking about," Carter reminded Starbuck, dangling the carrot before her. "Do you need me to repeat the question?"
"What does this have to do with the cylons?" Starbuck demanded.
"You answer my question, and I'll answer yours," Carter bargained.
Starbuck gritted her teeth as she glared mutinously at the woman who had taken over her interrogation. "My parents told me I was a gift from the Gods," Starbuck finally said. "My mother told me frakkin' Hera and Janus appeared before her and gave me to her. She said the gods told her to raise me well because I would save the colonies when I grew up. She was frakkin' crazy, okay? Who knows where they got me. I looked when I left home. I thought maybe they'd stolen me or something, but I never found anything."
Sam closed her eyes as she took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "Our doctors found something when they examined you," Sam told her quietly.
"Found what?" Kara asked.
"They found that your DNA was already in our computers," Sam told her. "An exact match. 100% Earth human." This information brought the two men in the room to attention as well as Starbuck.
"It's gotta be a mistake," Kara denied.
"Your mother wasn't crazy," Sam informed her hesitating slightly as she said the word 'mother.' "And you were stolen, or will be..."
"Will be?" Agent Barrett asked.
"According to the DNA tests, Kara won't be born for another three months," Sam explained as she pressed a hand to the bulge in her stomach where a hand or foot was now kicking her.
"Oh boy!" Cam exclaimed as he straightened from the wall. "You're kiddin' right?" he asked.
"Daniel found references to Kobol and the Lords of Kobol in Atlantis's database and Merlin's records," Sam told them. "We know the Ancients were experimenting with time travel. An Ancient named Janus in fact."
"Holy crap!" Cam swore. He cocked his head as looked back and forth between mother and daughter noting the similarities in their appearance. It was there in their build and the color of their hair, but then he pictured General O'Neill. 'Her eyes she got from her dad,' Cam thought to himself, 'and the attitude.' "Holy crap!" he repeated.