Rec Category: General Hammond
Pairing: none
Category: General Hammond, Samantha Carter, episode related, time travel
Warning: temporary (?) character deaths
Author on LJ: redbyrd_sgfic Author's Website: Redbyrd's Stargate FictionLink: 1969 Prime and the prequel,
1969 Prime Minus OneWhy This Must Be Read: In yet another Redbyrd gem, we get to explore those tricksy ramifications of time travel. In 1969, SG-1 made it back because of the note Hammond wrote to himself, creating a loop to give them the knowledge to get safely home. But if we follow the logic of that explanation - at least, as much logic as is possible when discussing time travel! - shouldn't there have been a beginning to that loop, when SG-1 went back
before Hammond had a chance to write the note?
That leads us to
1969 Prime - a prequel to the episode, where the ending isn't very happy. Sort of. Because the ending is the episode, and that makes everything all right. Doesn't it?
Time travel makes your brain freeze...
The first half of the story, understandably enough, isn't written from George's point of view - after all, it's the recounting of the first part of the episode, when SG-1 set out
without that crucial note in Sam's pocket. Delightfully, for me, Redbyrd takes the opportunity to write the story from Sam's POV. (I believe I have mentioned, once or twice, that there is a sad paucity of good Sam POV gen stories in the fandom.) Little changes until we meet Hammond, although I particularly enjoyed Redbyrd's explanation for Daniel's foot-in-mouth
"Nyet." After all, they're on a mission, and Daniel is used to automatically translating and replying to different languages when they step through the Gate.
The story twists sharply on its axis once SG-1 are hustled into the truck and they have their confrontation with Young Hammond. From that point on, the story is told wholly from George's POV, and it's particularly poignant to see SG-1 through his bewildered and concussed eyes, especially once they tell him the truth and try to set up events for an eventual fix of their situation. When escape meets with failure, George is left with the memory of four strangely gentle people and a commitment that will shape his life for the next three decades.
Redbyrd does her usual excellent job of weaving the few hints we know from canon into a realistic whole. There's the sad note of Hammond deliberately sticking to his job despite his wife's illness, because he's determined to still be part of the Air Force in order to save SG-1's lives in the future; there's his early meeting with Samantha Carter, his friend Jacob's tomboy daughter. Most fascinating of all, there's his meeting with Jack from
COTG, now retold with the colored implications of what George knows happened and is going to happen.
As an added bonus, Redbyrd wrote one more story:
1969 Prime Minus, which is the loop
before the prime loop, so to speak. If there was a loop when SG-1 went back but George hadn't written the note yet, then it stands to reason that there was the
original time line, in which SG-1 hadn't gone back yet... yes, I know. Brain freeze! While
Prime Minus One seems very similar to
Prime, many motivations and details are changed, making for fascinating reading.
Any fan of time travel - and George Hammond! - can't afford to miss these two wonderful fics.
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