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As SG1 exits the Stargate they find themselves inside a darkened structure littered with machinery of alien origin.

"Good morning, campers," Jack says as they disembark. As they explore they note that the writing on the artifacts is definitely alien. The damage to the complex appears to have been done by Goa'uld weaponry, but it happened many years ago. As Carter and Daniel go off to check an adjacent room, O'Neill finds an odd sculpture that resembles a frowning sun face.

Teal'c takes one look and insists that they must return to Earth immediately. He says the symbol is a warning to all Goa'uld or Jaffa who might come to this place. It means Korush-nai, 'turn back'. It is placed on worlds the Goa'uld attackers have wiped out and left contaminated. The surface of the planet will be radioactive. No one will be left alive.

Meanwhile, Daniel and Carter have found a room, a lab, filled with artifacts from other planets representing many human and non human cultures. The items are all labeled as they would be in a lab or museum and include articles Daniel recognizes such as a cuneiform tablet and others he is not familiar with. As he studies them, they hear Jack calling from the other room.

We're out of here, Jack tells them. Daniel protests saying the place is a treasure trove of artifacts from diverse human cultures.

"I don't want to hear it," Jack says and he, Carter and Teal'c leave the room. Daniel is disgusted, but he takes off his back pack and begins to load into it several of the artifacts.

One in particular is completely foreign and when Daniel touches it a large stone ring standing on the floor next to him energizes, and the empty center of the structure becomes a mirrored surface, in which he casts no reflection. Jack is still calling him, but Daniel can't resist investigating the enigmatic surface. When he touches the 'mirror' he feels a brief electric shock. In his excitement, he runs out into the outer chamber to ask the others to help move the object through the Stargate, but Jack, Carter and Teal'c are gone and the Stargate has been disengaged.

"Oh, I really hate it when this happens." Daniel groans to himself. He activates the Stargate and steps through arriving at the embarkation room. As the iris closes, he turns to the room and comes face to face with a phalanx of armed weapons, aimed right at him.

"Hands over your head, or we will fire," he is told by the soldier in command. "Identify yourself".

"Daniel Jackson, SG-1" Daniel answers.

Just then Hammond enters the room dressed in camo fatigues. Daniel addresses him as general and asks what is going on.

"General?" Hammond replies "Do you see stars anywhere on my uniform."

The soldiers are very defensive when Daniel claims to be a member of SG-1. Hammond, who is addressed as colonel, demands to know how Daniel got an SG-1 remote iris deactivation device, then asks a dumbfounded Daniel "Who the hell are you?"

Daniel is handcuffed and dragged, protesting, to the infirmary. He demands to see Jack O'Neill. Despite his protests that he is not a Goa'uld, he is placed on a gurney in front of an MRI machine as a doctor, not Dr. Fraiser, readies a hypodermic.

"Don't give me that." Daniel shouts, but they don't listen to him. He continues to insist that he is Daniel Jackson and that he has to see Colonel Jack O'Neill.

"You mean General O'Neill?" the soldier asks. Before Daniel passes out, he sees Katherine Langford standing in an adjacent observation area.

When Daniel awakens, he finds he is locked in a detention cell. He pounds on the door and demanding to speak to someone, but the only response he gets from pounding on the door is a sore hand.

A few minutes later, Catherine enters. He addresses her by her first name and she is surprised that he knows her since she doesn't reciprocate.

She does however know 'who' he is, having looked up his name and she proceeds to reads the information from a notebook she is carrying: Dr. Daniel Jackson, linguist, expert on ancient Egypt, better known for some of his more radical ideal. She is more interested in finding out how he managed to come through "her" Stargate.

"Your" Stargate Daniel says, "what the hell is going on here, Catherine."

"I prefer you address me as Dr. Langford," she replies coolly. She also demands to know how he got SG-1's remote device and code. He tells her he took it with him when he entered the Stargate a few hours before, on a mission to P3R-233. She tells him he has never been in this SGC facility before his unannounced arrival today.

Daniel is becoming frustrated. He reminds her that it was he who deciphered the symbols that are used to engage the Stargate and that Catherine herself had hired him to translate the cartouche found at Giza. He tells her he was a member of the team that went on the first mission to Abydos.

"Ok. Um, I figured out how to work the Stargate. You recruited me to translate the cartouche found at Giza. I went through on the first mission to Abydos. And unless the last two years have been some wacky, wacky dream, I am a member of SG-1."
Daniel Jackson talking to Catherine

"Not as far as I'm concerned," Catherine says. She informs Daniel that 'she' supervised the team that translated the cartouche from Giza, and while she admits she referenced his work, she tells him that when she approached him about doing the translation he declined and was rather rude.

Daniel is getting extremely frustrated at this point and demands to see Captain Carter. Only to be told that Samantha Carter is not in the military. She is a civilian astrophysicist working with the Stargate project.

"Don't you have any explanation for this?" Catherine asks.

"God no!!" Daniel shouts. "I know you. I belong here. You don't."

"Excuse me," Catherine says, sounding miffed. He reminds her that the Air Force made her retire and that she was supposed to be at home living happily ever after with Ernest. Catherine is surprised he knows about Ernest and he tells her that he helped reunite her with Ernest.

Hammond is reporting to O'Neill that they only have fifty percent of 'the list' through to the beta site, when Catherine interrupts. She tells Jack that he really needs to talk to the young man who came through the gate.

"He knows things," she says. Things he shouldn't know. O'Neill reluctantly agrees to talk to the man.

Daniel is relieved to see Jack, but Jack doesn't know him and bluntly informs him that they are in the middle of a "situation". However, Catherine thinks Daniel might be able to help them.

"This is starting to get a little bit spooky," Daniel says. He proceeds to inform O'Neill that a few hours ago, everything about SGC headquarters was different, but not completely different.

Jack wants to know what Daniel can tell him about the Goa'uld. Daniel responds by saying as far as he is concerned they - he and Jack - know each other very, very well, and everything he knows about the Goa'uld, Jack should also know. Daniel insists again that he is a member of SG-1 with O'Neill, Captain Carter and Teal'c. Then he asks where Teal'c is.

When Daniel tells Jack that Teal'c is a Jaffa and their friend, O'Neill orders him removed. But before Jack leaves, Catherine asks O'Neill how Daniel got through the gate, how he knows the things he knows. Daniel asks if Jack still went through the Stargate to Abydos with the intention of detonating a nuclear device once he passed through the gate. He reminds Jack that he was willing to commit suicide on that first mission because his son had recently died, had, in fact, shot himself with Jack's own gun. Jack appears to be stunned that this stranger would know about the circumstances surrounding his son's death. Catherine swears she didn't tell him anything. Daniel asks if they then went to Chulak?

"What is Chulak?" Catherine asks.

The Jaffa home world, Daniel replies.

Do you know the symbols, Catherine asks again.

Yes, says Daniel. She asks him to write the symbols down and he complies realizing as he does that, if they have never gone to Chulak, they would never have met Teal'c.

Everything is screwed up, Daniel says.

Just then Carter comes upstairs into the briefing room. Her hair is longer and she is dressed in civilian clothes, but she looks like the same

"Sam?" Daniel asks. Like everyone else in this off kilter version of the world, she stares at Daniel as though she has never seen him and asks who he is. Catherine informs Sam that he is Dr. Jackson the man who came through the gate that morning. O'Neill asks for a report and Sam tells him that they just lost Washington and Philadelphia.

Daniel wants to know what she means by "lost". O'Neill tells Carter to show Daniel exactly what they are talking about. Sam takes Daniel down to the gate control room and shows him a world map.

Every red dot is a destroyed city. A news broadcast is being played on a nearby monitor announcing that all military efforts to stop the alien vessels have failed. Sam tells Daniel that the Goa'uld appeared four days ago and have been systematically destroying human civilization. They are leaving no survivors in their unstoppable wave of destruction.

"I feel like the victim of the biggest practical joke ever."
Daniel Jackson

Daniel is in the briefing room with Catherine who now seems sympathetic. She was going through the items Daniel had in his back pack, and he tells her about the P3R 233, the strange mirror made of a rocklike material that might be naquada, how he touched it, and how he couldn't find Jack, Sam and Teal'c after he did so. As he talks he hears the sound of the Stargate activating. He goes down to the gate control room where Carter is asking if they shouldn't continue sending personnel to the beta site.

Catherine explains to Daniel that they have been sending people through the gate to a safe haven called the beta site. Daniel realizes they are dialing up Chulak using the coordinates he provided. Jack says they are going to try to stop the Goa'uld attack any way possible and are preparing to send a nuclear device through the gate to Chulak. Daniel protests telling Jack that the Jaffa aren't the enemy, they're just slaves. But Jack won't listen. The death toll on Earth is 1.4 billion, and he can't think of a good reason to not bomb Chulak since the Jaffa are flying the ships that are destroying Earth. Daniel tries to make him understand that there are innocent human beings on all the Goa'uld worlds, but Jack does not want to listen.

"This isn't happening. This is nuts," Daniel says to himself. He asks Carter and Catherine if it is possible that the Stargate malfunctioned and he came through it to a totally screwed up, different version of Earth. Carter explains the Stargate can't transport people to an alternate reality. She also explains theory of alternate realities to Daniel and he wonders if he might actually have found an alternate universe.

"So this isn't...my world at all. This is some sort of..." (begins laughing) "...other dimension?!"
Daniel Jackson

Catherine is the one to realize that it wasn't the Stargate that pushed Daniel into this alternate reality, it was the 'mirror' he touched on P3R 233. Sam recognizes the code P3R 233, as one of the planets they had visited. Before she can say anything else, the Stargate is activated from off world. While everyone moves to their jobs. Daniel accesses a computer to find out what he is doing in this reality. The computer database informs him his last known address was somewhere in Egypt. The map shows him that Egypt has been totally destroyed by the Goa'uld attack.

Daniel: "Uh oh."
Carter: "What?"
Daniel: "I think I'm dead."
Daniel Jackson, after discovering his files on the computer...

As he talks, Air Force One is attempting to get through to SGC command, but it is being pursued by enemy craft. As they watch helplessly the president's plane is overtaken and destroyed. The vessel that destroyed the president's plane is on a heading that will take it directly to the Cheyenne Mountain facility. ETA is one minute. Intelligence has shown that the enemy vessel has enough firepower to reach them even deep underground, and they cannot evacuate any personnel as long as the gate is under attack from off world. They hear a rumbling as the outside monitors show the arrival of a pyramid ship, landing directly on Cheyenne Mountain. Carter says that if the Goa'uld decide to fire, they won't even feel it. The blasts that hit the coastal cities were the strength of 200 megaton nuclear warheads. They're not going to fire, Daniel says. The Goa'uld will want to re-capture the Stargate.

Moments later in the briefing room, Colonel Hammond announces that the Jaffa on the upper levels of the complex were assembling what appeared to be a weapon.

General O'Neill orders the distribution of troops and the destruction of all but one elevator to the lower levels, then he orders all civilians through the gate to the Beta site, ASAP, including Catherine and Daniel. Carter informs him that the Goa'uld have kept a wormhole established from off world effectively tying up Earth's Stargate.

Probably because you sent that bomb through to Chulak, Daniel speculates. Carter tells him that unless they get another window of opportunity to open the gate they are all stuck at SGC. Recommendations, O'Neill asks. Carter tells him that under normal circumstances SGC can only keep a wormhole established for about 35 minutes. She is hoping that the Goa'uld are also limited to maintaining an off world wormhole a certain amount of time. There's a time limit. O'Neill looks at Hammond but doesn't say anything.

O'Neill and his men are setting charges and blowing up elevator shafts.

Daniel is translating a recording that Catherine has given him. He says the first part sounds like ancient Egyptian.

"We didn't recognize it," Catherine says.

"Oh, uh, you didn't learn to speak it aloud on Abydos," Daniel responds. "Where did this come from?"

Catherine tells him it was a deep space transmission received about three months ago. So why do you want me to translate it now, Daniel asks. Because, Carter replies, it originated in the same quadrant of space and P3R 233.

Where your mirror is, Catherine adds. We went there after we received the transmission, Carter says. It had been wiped out by the Goa'uld. "We didn't find any mirror though."

Daniel is writing something on a pad in front of him.

"Beware the destroyers," Carter reads over his shoulder. The inhabitants must have sent out a warning before they were destroyed, Catherine surmises.

The rest says, "They come from," then a series of pulses. Carter says they have analyzed the pulses and they are in clustered in groups of 3, 32, 16, 8, 10, 12. Six numbers. It could very well be a Stargate address without the point of origin.

The aliens had figured out where the Goa'uld attack was originating from, Catherine says. They had assigned a number to each symbol on the Stargate and these numbers must be the location of the Goa'uld homeworld or a military base from which the attack was launched. All they need to figure out is what symbol on the alien gate at P3R 233 corresponds to the number one.

The only unique symbol they would have would be the point of origin for 233, Daniel surmises.

"But", Catherine points out, "we won't have that particular symbol on 'our' Stargate."

But, Daniel says, he has it on the tape of the 233 he made in his reality. Just then the connection to the gate breaks free. They begin to dial out to the beta site.

"Can they dial in once you start dialing out?" Daniel asks.

Yes, Carter tells him, They have to get the seventh chevron locked before the Goa'uld do the same from their end. So its a race.

At the same time, O'Neill and his troops are moving through the corridors. As they come on the blast doors to corridor A2 they explode inward.

"Come on, come on, come on," Daniel says trying to will the gate chevrons to lock faster. They get as far as chevron five before the Goa'uld establish a wormhole from off world.

We have to dial faster, Catherine tells Sam. Carter reminds her that they cannot try again until the Goa'uld wormhole disengages and they appear to be able to maintain a wormhole for 38 minutes. We may not have that much time, Daniel warns.

Jack and his people are falling back, fighting as they go and sealing off corridors. A large Jaffa comes through the blasted corridors. It is Teal'c.

In the briefing room, Daniel has determined what he believes to be the point of origin for 233. So they can now decode the number sequence sent by the inhabitants of that world. Carter says they have 25 minutes before they can attempt to activate the wormhole again. Hammond tells O'Neill that they have determined what might be the Stargate address for Goa'uld homeworld. Jack immediately decides they should send a bomb through to those coordinates. Whoa, says Daniel, I know you think of me as an outsider, but what good will that do? It won't change anything here. Carter reminds Jack that they only have one shot at dialing out. If they use that one opportunity to dial the Goa'uld's homeworld they will never get out of here themselves.

As they talk they are distracted by Daniel's videotape which has continued to run in the background, They are shocked and surprised to see themselves on the tape.

This is visual evidence of Daniel's parallel reality.

Its supposed to be theoretical O'Neill says. Not anymore, Carter obviously awed by the prospect. What began as Einstein's theory of relativity--, she starts to say, but is interrupted when Hammond points to Teal'c and asks, Who is this?

"That is Teal'c. Big guy, gold emblem on his head and Goa'uld in his stomach."
Daniel Jackson, about Teal'c on the video..

He is smiling fondly as he says it. We just saw him on the security camera, Catherine says. He's the Jaffa leading the attack on this facility. "Well he was, and probably still is, the first prime of Apophis," Daniel says. "He would be charged with the most important mission."

This might sound selfish, Daniel continues, but in my reality this hasn't happened yet. The earth that I know still has a chance. Do you want to explain that, Jack asks. If, Daniel says, this really is the address of the Goa'uld homeworld or where ever this attack originated from, and I can get this information back to my reality, then maybe I can stop this before it starts there. "What makes you think the Goa'uld are even going to try to attack earth in your universe."

"Well I'd say we've pissed the Goa'uld off as much as you have, probably even more," Daniel answers.

Jack can't believe that Daniel wants him to give up what could be their last chance to strike back at the Goa'uld so they can save themselves in another reality. Not just yourselves, but earth, Daniel says. "Your earth" Jack says.

"The Jack O'Neill I know would do it" Daniel says. Well apparently you and I have never met, is Jack's response. No I guess not, says Daniel.

All I know, Daniel says, is that by coming here I have seen what is going to happen. I have a chance to stop it in my reality if you help me.

There is a moment of silence. How much time doc? O'Neill asks. Twenty-two minutes, Carter reports.

All right, Jack says, so the argument is academic. We could never hold them that long anyway. Maybe we could buy some time, Daniel suggests. "How," Jack asks.

"Not how," Daniel answers, "Who."

They watch on the view screen as Teal'c blasts the surveillance camera.

"You're kidding right?" Jack asks.

Daniel explains again how Jack, in his reality, convinced Teal'c to betray Apophis on the slim chance that it would free his people. Jack reminds him that they just sent a bomb off to Teal'c's planet and that there probably wasn't anything left to save.

"Not in this universe," Daniel persists. Jack can't believe that Daniel expects him to explain all this to 'this' Teal'c. He's smart, he'll understand, Daniel insists. But Carter also has doubts. Daniel has no way of knowing if this Teal'c is even remotely similar to the Teal'c he knows. Daniel admits that he has know way of knowing for sure, even though there are many similarities between the two realities. He knows what he is asking is insane and he tells them that he will understand if they choose not to help him. It is their world and their lives. And that is the deciding factor.

Jack shakes his head. "All I really have to do is buy a little time," he says reluctantly, just enough time to get the Stargate open again.

Catherine suggests that Daniel's videotape might help convince Teal'c. Daniel goes to get the tape. Hammond can't believe Jack is really going to do this. Carter questions whether Daniel is right about 'this Jaffa'.

"He was right about my son," Jack answers, as though that were all the proof he needed. Daniel hands Jack the video tape and thanks him.

"I think this is where you all wish me good luck," Jack says. Carter stops him before he leaves and they embrace. Daniel looks at Catherine. He is puzzled. "I take it they're not engaged in your reality."Catherine commented.

Hammond rallies his men, telling them that the enemy will most likely penetrate the lower level of the complex at any time. He tells them he is proud of them and that if and when they get the Stargate open they will go through it. In the meantime, they have to keep them away from the Stargate control room.

The Jaffa are preparing their weapon when Jack appears, unarmed and surrenders to Teal'c. He tells him he is the commander of the base and addresses him by his name which surprises the Jaffa. He says he has quite a story to tell Teal'c about how he knows his name.

In the control room, Carter has knocked another five seconds off the dial out time. Hammond advises her to set the auto destruct sequence for two minutes after the estimated window of opportunity for the next opening of the Stargate. He doesn't intend on leaving anything for the Goa'uld.

Teal'c watches the video tape of himself in the other reality. Jack tries to convince him of the reality of Daniel's world. He tells him that in this alternate reality he is a friend, that he hates being a slave to the Goa'uld and is an honorable man who sacrificed everything for the chance to free his family and his people, including his wife and his son Rya'c. Teal'c, who had listened up till this point, grows grim at the mention of his son's name and tells O'Neill that they received a message from his homeworld. The message stated that Jack had sent a weapon of destruction through their Stargate. Jack winces. My family are dead, Teal'c says. Then he aims his weapon at Jack and fires.

Catherine orders Carter and Daniel to the gateroom. Then she realizes that the device Daniel brought with him might be needed to return Daniel to his world. Carter tells him to go ahead to the embarkation room while she gets the device from the briefing room. Daniel thanks Catherine. She reminds him that he helped reunite her with Ernest in his world. She considers them even.

Daniel hesitates a moment, then races to the gateroom

In the meantime The Goa'uld have overrun Hammond's position, killing Hammond and all of his men.

Two minutes remain before the gate is free and can be activated.

Carter has been cornered in the briefing room by several Jaffa. She tries to convince them that she has alien technology that she wishes to give to Apophis. Slowly, they allow her to hand them the alien control for the interdimensional portal. As they take it she produces two grenades and announces that she would also like to blow them all to hell.

Catherine hears an explosion from the briefing room overhead just as the dial up sequence begins. Daniel is waiting in the embarkation room, but the enemy is blasting through the door as the gate dials in. He watches as the Jaffa break into the control room where Catherine is, but the blast doors close before he sees them kill her. The computer voice announces that autodestruct will occur in one minute, but the gate is still dialing. With 30 seconds to go before autodestruct, Teal'c steps through the burning hole in the security door and enters the gate room.

The gate engages, and for a few seconds Teal'c and Daniel are face to face. Teal'c has his staff weapon aimed at Daniel but he does not fire immediately. It now becomes a foot race. Daniel runs up the ramp toward the open gate and as he reaches it Teal'c fires. As Teal'c stands before the open gate, his objective secured, the final seconds of the self destruct sequence count down, and the facility is destroyed.

Daniel emerges from the other side of the gate, and is back on P3R 233. He has been wounded in the right arm by Teal'c's staff, but he jumps to his feet and runs to the alien mirror. He touches it and feels the electric charge tingle through him.

Jack, Carter and Teal'c have been searching the alien facility, but have found nothing. Then, from the artifact room they hear a voice call out. They rush to the room to find a wounded Daniel lying on the floor. What the hell is this, Jack asks looking Daniel's arm. Teal'c tells them the wound is from a staff weapon. In Daniel's hand is clutched a scrap of paper, and on it is written a Stargate address. We have to get him back to earth, Jack says. "No Jack," Daniel says, through the pain. "We're all in very big trouble. They're coming. They're coming."

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