VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA

“Where are we going exactly?” Ely asked as he stepped off the bus. He was slightly confused by the brilliant escape plan that this guy came up with. He was equally sure that the guy was making it up as he went along. When he put that to Mitchell the only reply that Ely got was, “I got it from a friend of mine.” What that meant was completely beyond Ely. He did not bother asking that question any more and, he spent more time wondering if this was really a rescue. What did he really know about this Cam guy anyway? Ely was absolutely sure he was from the future but, that did not mean he was a good guy.

Instead of sitting on a bench, and waiting for a bus, Mitchell shifted the bag on his shoulder and began walking down the sidewalk. He stopped a few feet and looked back at the kid, “are you coming or not?”

Ely snorted in return, “first I want to know where we’re going.”

Cam marched right back up to the kid, got in his face, and told him, “away from here as fast as we can. Let me also add that wasn’t a question, it was an order.”

If there was one thing that Cam had come to admire about this kid it was the fact that he had guts. Ely held his ground, “not till you at least tell me who you are.”

It was somewhat surprising to Ely when the guy was completely forthcoming, “Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, United States Air Force. Since there currently is no Air Force that should give you a good idea about what part of the calendar I’m from.” Then Mitchell hit the kid with a question of his own, “and do you ever take off those damn clothes? I saw you wearing them the night you came through the gate, back in Manhattan.”

Ely became a little self defensive, “I wash them, ok? I just wear them most of the time because these zoot suits, everybody wears here, are uncomfortable as hell.” He ended the thought with, “not to mention they look dorky.”

To Ely’s surprise, Mitchell just broke out laughing and slapped him on the arm, “couldn’t agree more kid.” He then nodded for him to follow and this time Ely did. Mitchell went on to tell him, “we have to get you a zoot suit though. You stand out like a sore thumb with that T-Shirt on and, it’s a good bet, somebody is going to remember it.”

The sun was going down and Mitchell checked his watch. He told Ely that he was hungry and they wandered into a local dinner where Mitchell used the phone while Ely was seated in a booth. When Mitchell slid down on the bench across from Ely he got pounded with another question, this time about the call, and Cam ignored it like he had most of the others. Cam supposed he could not blame this kid but, it was getting seriously annoying.

When the waitress departed with their orders, Cam figured this was private enough to get some answers himself. Cam ignored Ely’s whining about why he had ordered an extra meal. Then Cameron summed up the anger he had been holding in reserve for a while, “ok Kid, do you have any idea what you have done?”

Ely just shrugged, “yeah I only ordered one meal and you have the nerve to call me fat?”

Cam just looked at him like he was an idiot, “I risked my life fixing the damn time line. I got stranded in Fedora Central for my troubles. Then you come along and piss all over my cornflakes. Did the G-Men, over in the mansion, tell you about anything going on out here?”

That told Ely a lot more than he had known. It also alarmed him to no end, “you didn’t come here to rescue me, did you? I mean, I’ve been wondering how you guys even knew to look for me, let alone find me. I just figured it had to be some time thing where…”

Cam put his hand up signaling the boy to stop right there. He was slightly annoyed and even said why, “how did anybody let somebody like you anywhere near the SGC.”

“Actually,” Ely admitted with a certain amount of self disappointment, “I’ve never been to the SGC.” It was apparent that this alarmed Cam to no end. Ely had visions of this guy reaching for his Zat gun, or his machinegun, or his pistol, knife, crowbar, grenade, or any number of objects of mayhem that he carried in the sailors duffle bag. To avoid that Ely quickly blurted out, “project Icarus! I was on project Icarus!”

Cam had to think about that for a second. He knew what that project was but, he also knew very little about it. It was just getting off the ground when he left and about the only detail that was slipped to him, by Carter who had full knowledge, was that they were trying to dial the ninth chevron on the gate. Cam had his doubts about the projects expectations which, he considered, a little bit less than realistic. This also gave him a slight bit of hope.

Cam leaned forward, looked around to absolutely make sure nobody else was listening, and then he asked the kid, “are you telling me you guys managed to dial the ninth chevron and it sent you here?”

Ely was, once again, confused by the question, “no. It sent us, the entire base, to this ship called Destiny. It’s flying around out on the other side of the universe.”

There were too many things about that statement which made no sense to Cameron. He let it slide for a minute because the waitress came back with their plates. He set one of them aside and checked his watch after he did. Then he picked up a fork but, instead of eating, he pointed it at Ely, “we’ll get into all that later. What I want to know is how exactly did that get you here?”

Ely watched as the guy started to eat. He suddenly realized something, “you’re hoping I can get you home. Aren’t you?”

“Something like that,” Mitchell replied paying more attention to his food. He then added, “course I’m not so sure that matters any more. In fact I’m not even sure home exists anymore.”

Suddenly Ely felt sorry for this guy and with no small amount of pity he told Mitchell, “and I’m not sure that, even if it did, it would help you.”

Cam stopped eating when he detected the sudden change in Ely’s mood, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

Ely leaned forward. This time it was his turn to act as if he were divulging some great secret of the universe. Ely was not so sure that he wasn’t, “because I just realized I know who you are.” Cam seemed unimpressed with the revelation or the theatrics. He went back to eating and Ely continued, “you know about the ancient communications stones?”

“Yep,” Cam replied, “I was there when we first figured out how to use them.”

“It was our only way to communicate with Earth,” Ely told Mitchell. “One time, When Colonel Young went back to report to…”

Cam’s eyebrow raised, “Everett Young?”

Ely was pleasantly surprised, “you know him?”

“Course I do,” Cam replied. “He commanded a couple of different SG teams, did a stint at Atlantis base one time. I remember there were a few people that didn’t like him but, O’Neill did. I guess with that kind of support the rest didn‘t matter.”

Ely found that refreshing. It had nothing to do with the subject at hand. It was just strange, and nice, to be having a conversation with somebody that, for lack of a better term, talked the same language. That also confirmed to Ely that this Cam was for real. Even if some dark aged stooge, like say Doctor Grant, knew a lot of about the future, there was no way he’d ever be able to small talk about it and be believable. Ely knew that, sadly, from way too much first hand experience.

“Yeah that’s Colonel Young all right,” Ely replied. He then continued, “well one time he traded bodies with you. I remember that now. He, or you at least, whatever, told me you commanded SG-1. I didn’t put it together at first cause I’ve never actually seen your face till now. I showed you all over Destiny that day.”

“Only problem here is,” Cam replied, “I never did anything like that. I never even heard of Destiny until you told me a few minutes ago.”

Ely replied to that with, “you first got into the program when they selected you to fly F-302 space fighters. You got picked over a good friend of yours, or something like that. You got shot down over Antarctica and spent nearly a year in the hospital. After you got out you requested to be assigned to SG-1 and…”

Cam raised a hand, “ok point made.”

“No I don’t think so,” Ely told him. “The point is you were still there when I left but, you don’t know anything about it. You said you came back to save the time line but, funny how the Mitchell, that I met, never mentioned it.”

Now Cam suddenly realized this kid did not believe him. Cam had been so busy being weary of Ely that it had never occurred to him that this kid might be doing the same. Cam said it up front, “I came back to restore the timeline because a goa’uld named Ba’al had changed it with this fancy machine. I put a bullet through his head and fixed the problem.”

“Which is my point,” Ely replied. He was actually excited and, morbidly curious, “once you did that you never had to go back and hence, you don’t really exist. The other guy, the Mitchell that I met, he went on with life as normal and never had to go back.”

That was no great revelation to Cam. He had figured that out, on his own, years ago. He also did not particularly care to be reminded of it. Cam figured it was a good thing that he had spared his other self the living hell that went with restoring the time line. Deep down though, Cam felt cheated. Of all the cosmic fates, of all his other selves that must exist, he was the one that got stuck out of time, alone, and destined to be, quite literally, a non entity for the rest of his life. That left him just stoically staring at the kid. After a moment or two, he told the boy, “until you screwed up the time line again. That also brings me back to my question that you didn’t answer. How did you get here?”

“Well,” Ely gulped. He then went on to recount some of what had happened on Destiny. Cam didn’t really find much of it important until he realized the kid was trying to put it all in context, “the last sleep chamber didn’t work. I couldn’t fix it.”

Now it was Cam’s turn to feel sympathy, “so you guys couldn’t get back because you didn’t have the power to dial Earth. Everybody else was going to na-na land, for three years, and the ship didn’t have the life support to keep you going for that long.” Now Cam dropped the sympathy and became stern once more, “still doesn’t answer the question.”

“I was getting to that part,” Ely replied. “To make a long story short…”

Cam huffed, “that would be nice for a change.”

Ely held back with the answer when a young little blond headed girl came running up to the booth and slid in next to Mitchell. She tossed her arms around him and gave him a kiss on the cheek that looked more like she was trying to suck his face off. She bounced, she beamed with smiles and radiated an enthusiasm that was almost disturbing to Ely. Then she looked at him, cocked her head, bounced slightly on the seat, and stuck out her hand, “Norma, who are you?”

Cam waved that question off, “he’s just the friend that I told you I was here to help. You got my stuff? I need to get him some new clothes while we’re at it.”

Norma gave Ely a good once over and replied, “yep, he certainly does.”

“Hey!” Ely protested to Cam before shaking the girls hand and adding, “I’m Ely even if he is rude.”

That made her giggle and then she went right back to talking with Cam, like Ely was not even there. Ely slumped his shoulders since he was used to that kind of thing. Didn’t mean he had to like it though. He did manage to inject in the conversation that was going on without him, “and for the record, I think these clothes are kind of cool.”

Norma’s smile vanished and she looked confused. She then replied, “well that’s what you get for wearing your underwear out of the house. Next time put on something warmer.”

Cam almost dropped the food out of his mouth as he laughed. When he recovered he tried to get back to business, “my car, Norma?”

She just shrugged, “it’s in my Aunt’s garage, right where you left it a few months back. Where did you go anyway?”

“That,” replied Cam in between bites of food, “is a long story and one that I don’t have time for. Everybody finish up. We can’t stick around here too long.”

Ely looked concerned, “how do you figure that?”

“Because,” Cam replied checking his watch, “Ness is waking up right about now and, unfortunately, that guy knows more about me than I really wanted him too.” It had been just plain bad luck that Cam had found himself needing the guy in the first place. Jones had been right about how to locate Ely. Ness really had been the key to that. What neither Jones nor Cam had expected was the Nazi commando team that was also tailing Ness. Just way too much bad luck that now left Cam with yet another problem.

It was also apparent that Ely didn’t get it because he said, “you didn’t worry about John Wayne?”

Norma got excited, “you guys met John Wayne!”

“Another time Norma,” Cam told her. He then told Ely, “the guy is an actor. He’s not going to be as thorough going as Ness will. That guy, even if he’s a bad one, is still a cop and I’m afraid J Edgar’s boys are going to hang on every word he has to say. That mean’s we’re going to be covered in G-Men in no time flat. In case you hadn’t noticed Ely, they did figure you were kind of important.”

Now Norma was even more thrilled, “did you guys knock over a bank with John Wayne?”

Cam now directed his stern eyes at her, “did you listen to the news today?” She returned the look and added the body language that spelled out how dumb that question was. Cam nodded in agreement, “you are right. Dumb question so never mind. Let’s just get out of here, shall we?”



TO BE CONTINUED