Confirming Carter Day5
By RibaldWriter
Interior-Kitchen
0650 Hours
“Hey, I woke up and you weren’t there.” Carter said as she stepped into
the kitchen. “How long have you been up? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Tammy said, taking her hand and kissing it lightly as Carter
stood over her. “I couldn’t sleep, and didn’t want to wake you, so I came in
here. I’ve been looking at a few things.”
“What kind of things are you looking at?” Carter asked, leaning over her
shoulder. “How long have you been out here?”
“A couple hours. I just made the coffee. Get a cup, and I’ll show you.
I’ll make breakfast in a little bit.”
Tammy turned her laptop around so Sam would be able to see it when she
came back. She was looking at an image on her tablet when Sam sat down.
“Okay, this chart shows your blood chemistry over the last 48 hours.”
She said, pointing at the laptop screen. She traced her finger across a line
near the top. “This shows your glutamate levels. It’s the most common
neurotransmitter, and is in as much as half of all neurons in the brain. It’s
especially important in regards to memory. Curiously, glutamate is actually
toxic to neurons, and an excess will kill them.”
“If you say so.” Sam said.
“I do. The problem is, with levels this high, you should be having
trouble remembering your name, much less learning new skills, like you appear
to be doing.”
“What’s that thing on your tablet? It looks like an ultrasound.” Carter
said, leaning closer to get a better look. “I’m not pregnant am I?”
“No, you’re not pregnant.” Tammy laughed. “This is one of the images we got
off the scanner yesterday. That’s your brain, not your belly. Here’s a better
look.” She brought up another image that showed a top view of Carter’s brain,
with colored highlights in different areas.
“This is a representation of what was going on in your brain just as you
began speaking normally yesterday. It was the scan I had in progress. We didn’t
look at, because you seemed to have recovered.”
“Seem to have recovered. I’m not sure I like the sound of that.” Carter
said slowly. “Hold on a sec, I need more sugar. You need a refill?”
“I’m fine.” Tammy said, bringing another image up beside the first on
her tablet.
“Now, look at these two images side by side. You see the difference?”
She said as Carter sat down.
“The second one is mostly red and orange, and the first one is blue and
green.” Carter said. “How much time passed between these two scans? And I’m
guessing that the second one was earlier?
“Yeah, they were about forty minutes apart. These are the first and last
scans. Now look at this.” She wiped the images from the screen, and brought up
another pair. “These two images are also of your brain. The first pair showed
what was going on in your brain, these show the make-up of your brain itself.
What do you see now?”
Carter took the tablet and examined the images. She looked up at Tammy,
a puzzled expression on her face. “I don’t see any difference. But you do, or
you wouldn’t be showing me these.”
“Look here,” She said as she slid around next to Carter. She pointed at
part of the screen, circling it with her finger, then pointed at the
corresponding area on the other picture. “Then here, and here.” She repeated
the process in another area.
Carter looked at the images again, flicking her eyes back and forth
between them. “The picture on the left has more dark areas where you’re
pointing. What’s that mean?”
“This area here is the frontal lobe. It’s involved in decision making,
problem solving, and planning. This other area is the temporal lobe, and it’s
involved in memory and language, among other things.”
She stood up and went over to the fridge. “You didn’t have a stroke, or
anything like that yesterday. Your brain went wonky while it was reconfiguring
itself.”
She poked around in the fridge for a moment, then turned back to Sam.
“You got any ideas what you might want for breakfast?” She asked.
“Timeout!” Carter said, looking back and forth between Tammy and the
pictures on the tablet. “My brain did what? I don’t think I want to believe
what I think I just heard you say.”
“Well, if you think you just heard me say that based on those images,
one taken yesterday, the other five months ago during your last physical, that
you now have roughly thirteen percent more active neurons, you can believe it.”
Tammy walked over and leaned over Sam’s shoulder, pointing at another
area of the screen. “This is the cerebellum. It coordinates the brain’s
instructions for skilled repetitive movements and for maintaining balance and
posture. I see a dramatic change there too, that explains your improved
kinesthetic awareness.”
“You knowledge of your body’s position in space.” She said when Carter
looked back over her shoulder at her. “Which is why you can do gymnastics
again, without practicing recently.”
“But I think yesterday’s incident was centered in the temporal lobe,
which is why your speech was impaired. That’s where all the red and orange were
on the first two images.” She said as she went back over to the fridge. “I’m
thinking that these changes are happening mostly while you sleep, but we just
happened to catch one as it occurred.”
“You seem to be taking this very well.” Carter said as she looked at the
tablet again.
“Yeah, I’m sorry if I appear to be taking this lightly, but I’ve had a
couple of hours to go over this a few times, and now I’m just relieved. There’s
no noticeable change in the brainstem, the part of the brain that connects the
brain and spinal cord. That’s involved in coordinating the basic functions,
like heart rate and breathing. That’s what let’s you do other stuff without
going, ‘breathe in, breathe out’.”
“And these other changes don’t worry you?”
Tammy walked over and took her hand, pulling her to her feet. “I don’t
know yet.” She said as she took Sam in her arms, looking into her eyes. “But
aside from yesterday’s incident, they appear to be benign, at least from a
direct health standpoint. We’re going to have to do more testing to see what’s
really happening in there.” She tapped her fingers lightly on Carter’s
forehead.
Sam laid her head on her shoulder, her arms going around her waist,
hugging her tightly to her. “I’m scared, Tammy.” She said softly.
“I know, hon.” Tammy said as she stroked her hair gently. “We knew there
were changes taking place, but now we know where, and that will help us figure
out the what and the why. It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay.
Just...better.”
“Better?” Sam asked as she stepped back, looking at Tammy. “How do you
mean?”
“Yes, better. You’re not just changing, Sam. You’re evolving. I need to
see medical data on the ancients if you can get that for me, but I think right
now, you’re somewhere in between them and us.” She smiled as she looked at her.
“And I think that means you don’t have to die. At some point, you can decide to
ascend if you want to.”
Interior-Bedroom
0825 Hours
Sam was back on the bed under the scanner when Keller walked in. She had
electrodes attached to her head and neck, and Tammy was asking her a series of
questions, seemingly at random, making notes on her tablet and marking points
on the chart as it scrolled out.
“What are we looking at?” She asked as she went over and sat at the bank
of laptops.
“Brain activity and density.” Tammy said, glancing down at Carter. “You
need a break, Sam? We’ve been at this for a while now.”
“Yeah, no point in me just laying here while you bring Jenn up to
speed.” She sat up, ducking as Tammy pushed the scanner out of the way. She
pulled at one of the leads attached to an electrode. “Can I take these things
off?”
Tammy nodded and sat on the bed behind her, rubbing her shoulders as
Carter peeled the electrodes off.
“Good. Andi said she wanted an EEG...did you say density?” Keller asked,
looking over at them.
Carter grinned at her. “I’m evolving. Isn’t that kewl?”
Keller looked over at Tammy. “What’s she talking about?”
“I sent you some pictures. Before and afters of the scans we did
yesterday. One pair shows brain activity, the first and last scans. The second
shows her brain, yesterday, compared to the last physical, five months ago.
Look at them, then I’ll explain.”
Keller opened her mail, found the pictures, and nodded as she looked at
the first one. Her brow furrowed as she looked at the second one, and she
looked over at Tammy, then back at the picture.
“This is accurate? There wasn’t a chance that the image from yesterday
is faulty in some way?” She asked finally.
“I have the results from every scan we did yesterday, and two more from
today. They all show the same thing. Today’s show another noticeable increase
in neural activity, and neuron density. You’re seeing what you think, Jenn.
She’s converting other tissue into neurons.”
“I want to say that this is impossible.” Keller said slowly. She looked
over at Carter. “I’m sorry Sam, I didn’t even say good morning. How are you?”
“I’m good, Jenn. Thank you for asking.” Carter said, smiling warmly at
her. “It’s been an interesting morning, but I can’t say it’s been bad. Tammy
and I have been talking while she pokes and prods me, and we decided that I’m
going to be okay.”
“I hope you’re right.” She looked passed her at Tammy. “What else do you
have?”
“There’s another picture, take a look at that one.”
Keller opened the third picture and studied it. She looked puzzled for a
moment, then went back to the second one. She flipped back and forth between
them, then left the last one up on the screen.
“When were these images taken, this last pair?” She asked.
“The one on the left was done this morning. The one on the right, about
ten thousand years ago.”
“This is an...wh...how? I don’t unde...” She sputtered. “These images
are almost identical! The neural density is what, less than ten percent
difference?”
“Something like that. I was thinking fifteen.” Tammy said as she hugged
Sam from behind. “Sam accessed the ancient database, and we went through the
medical records. That image is from a sixteen year old girl, as near as we
could tell.”
“And I don’t need Daniel’s notes anymore. As a matter of fact, I made a
few corrections I’m going to have to tell him about.” Carter said casually as
she turned and looked at Tammy. “And while I’m thinking about it, I want to
check those simulations I started yesterday. I need to sit down with the three
of you today too, so we can decide what we’re going to tell the IOA. I’d like
to do that tomorrow.”
Tammy let her go, and she stood up and walked toward the door.
“You coming back, or should I check on you in a bit?” Tammy asked.
“I may get into it, so come say hi. Yell if you need me.” Sam grinned,
and walked out.
Tammy put the leads for the EEG away, and rolled the machine off to one
side. She gathered up the paper readout, and rolled it up as she sat down
beside Keller.
“I looked at the last scan we did yesterday, the one that was in
progress when she recovered her speech. I noticed a change in brain activity,
all of it centered in the temporal lobe. I think we caught her while her brain
was reconfiguring, that’s why her motor functions weren’t impaired, and she
responded normally to every test Andi did. Andi wouldn’t have known to check
for something like that. No one would have.”
Jennifer looked at her for a moment, then looked at the floor.
“What is it, Jennifer.” Tammy asked. “You want to say something.
“I...yesterday morning, when we were in the kitchen, making breakfast.”
Keller said slowly. “Yo...you did something. You turned and faced the wall to
her bedroom, and you told her not to leave you, that you would follow and find
her. Do you remember that?”
Tammy shook her head. “No, I was making gravy, and Andi called out...”
“I’m not surprised.” Keller said. “Considering the state you were in.
But I talked to Andi, and she said that Sam came around on her own, and asked
for you. The timing is almost perfect.”
She paused, letting Tammy absorb what she’s said. “Andi Told me that she
was gone, Tammy. That there was no one in there when she was looking at her.
Sam was completely unresponsive to any verbal or sensory cues, even though she
responded to physical stimulus, and her vital signs were fine.”
“Oh my god.” Tammy whispered, her eyes filling with tears. “You’re
saying that we almost lost her.”
“No, I’m saying that she heard you, and she came back from wherever she
was, to be with you.” Jennifer said as she put her arms around her, rocking her
gently. “Call me a romantic, but that’s what I think happened.”
“What does And...” Tammy began, but at that moment, the lights flickered,
went out, then came right back up.
“Sam?” She called as they stood up, looking around. “Sam, are you
alright?”
“I’m fine. Sorry, that was me.” Carter yelled back.
Tammy and Jennifer went into Sam’s office, and saw her grinning
sheepishly behind the desk.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t expect the lag.” She said, looking down and tapping
out a few symbols on the keyboard.
“What did you do?” Keller asked.
“I took the building off the cities power grid. We’re running off my STM
bridge.” She said as she looked back up at them. “It works. I’m smarter than
McKay.”
“We already knew that was going to happen.” Tammy said as she sat down.
“But how about a heads up next time you do something like that?”
“Okay. Would one of you call Andi, and see when she’s going to put in an
appearance?” Carter asked. “I really do want to go over a few things with all
three of you. I’m going to let the building run off the STM for a few hours,
and switch it back later. I just want to do a test.”
“I’ll do it, I have to run over to the
“Ten hundred is fine. That’ll give me some time to think, and play with
some things.” Sam said lightly. She looked over at Tammy. “Or maybe I’ll just
spend some time with my girlfriend. Yeah, that sounds like a better idea.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” Tammy grinned as she stood up.
“You can feel me up, but it has to be for fun...no more medical stuff
for a few hours.” Sam said as she came around the desk. “Promise?”
“I promise.” Tammy said, holding out her hand.
“Cross your heart.” Jennifer said
“What?”
“Cross your heart. It doesn’t count if you don’t.”
“What is this, junior high school?” Carter laughed.
“No, she’s right.” Tammy said, turning toward her. “Cross my heart,
ho...”
“Don’t do that part. I believe you.” Sam said, pulling her close and
kissing her. Then she looked over her shoulder at Jennifer. “Will you get out
of here? We’d like to be alone of you don’t mind.”
Jennifer smiled and waved as she went out the door.
Interior-Kitchen
1015 Hours
“If I wasn’t seeing it, I never would have believed it.” Andi said as
she flipped through the pictures Tammy had put together, then reviewed the
scans from the day before, and that morning. She had already gone through and
verified the findings, pulling her own images out for comparison.
“I didn’t either.” Tammy said. “That’s why I reran the scans and did an
EEG this morning. You said you wanted an EEG anyway.”
“Good thinking, and thank you.” Andi said. “This is an astounding change
in such a short period of time, but I can’t see how the korathis accounts for
it on its own. It has to be reacting to, or working in conjunction with
something else that’s already present!”
“There’s lots to choose from.” Sam said lightly. “You’ve been through
the files, pick something. I knew at least a few of them were gonna come back
and bite me in the ass someday.”
“We will, but in the meantime we need to monitor these changes in your
brain.”
“I agree.” Jennifer said. “But there’s an option I don’t think we’ve
considered yet.” She looked around the table, finally letting her eyes settle
on Sam. “You understand ancient, and have access to the cities systems. That
means you should be able to tell us how to operate the ancient medical
equipment in the
“I’d prefer not to go to the
“I understand. I may be able to get some of it out, I’ll talk to
Sheppard. If I can, do we want to set it up in the bedroom, or just make one of
the suites downstairs into a medical bay?”
“I like the medical bay idea.” Tammy said, turning to look at Sam.
“Having a few things here is fine, but this is home, and should feel like a home.
Having the scanner and all that other crap in the bedroom is creepy, and it
says we think you’re going to die. You’re not, so let’s put it somewhere else.”
“I was going to say the same thing.” Andi said. “You’re not some ninety
year old billionaire on life support. We can get you downstairs just as easily
as we can get you into the bedroom. It’s not like we’re going to be hiding it,
just getting it together in one place. Then, as we get other people onboard,
we’re already set up for them.”
“I like that idea. Not because it’s creepy, or I think I’m going to die,
but because I want to make that room into a theater. I miss going to the
movies. There’s a huge display down on the third floor, I’d like to move it up
here eventually, and put it in there.” Sam said. “I’m not kidding. I’m going to
tie that big monitor in Tammy’s suite into the cities media database, so we can
watch movies down there until I can get it set up.”
She got up and filled her glass with ice, and got two cokes from the
fridge. “We can worry about all this later, I’m not in any hurry. But I want to
talk about handling the IAO, and that’s what I want to do, handle them. I sent
you all an email, the file is encrypted, and the password is opensesame, one
word, all lower case. Save it to your tablets, because I’m going to delete it
from the servers when we’re done.”
She poured a coke in her glass as she waited for them to check their
mail and open the file. She knew by the smiles on their faces that she had
taken the right tack with her plan.
“You seriously expect me to stand in a meeting and say this?” Jennifer
laughed. “I doubt if I’ll be able to keep a straight face.”
“I don’t care if you sit or stand, and that’s why you’re going over it.”
Carter grinned as she looked over her own copy. She had thrown together some
notes the night before, sketching out the most outlandish scenario she could
think of. She knew it would have to be toned down, but thought it better to be
bold from the start. “This is just a rough draft, and the three of you are going
to go over it and clean it up.”
“I like the opening, it gives the what and some background in two
paragraphs, and doesn’t leave them much room for questions.” Andi said as she
read through it.
“This part about being blatantly sexual. Double, no, triple the number of times she masturbates a day.
That’ll throw them off balance, and keep them from focusing on other things.”
Tammy said.
“Write it down as you go, you can compare notes later. This is a
polishing session.” Carter told them as she stood up and picked up her glass.
“I want this finalized by fourteen hundred, so Jenn can talk to Sheppard by
sixteen hundred, and tell him that she needs a meeting with Stargate Command,
and the IOA tomorrow morning.”
She walked toward the door. “I’ll be in my office. Tammy, turn your eyes
on, I know it makes you feel better.” She blew her a kiss, and walked away.
Interior-Kitchen
1250 Hours
“We think we’re done.” Tammy said as she leaned against the doorframe of
Sam’s office. “And I made lunch, bacon cheeseburgers and fries. I thought you
could use a treat.”
“I smelled the bacon. I’ve been sitting here drooling.” Sam laughed. “I
need a couple of minutes to finish here. What did you come up with?”
“It looks good, straightforward where it needs to be, outrageous when
that’s called for. We stuck to the truth as much as possible. No point wasting
a lie when you don’t have to. Jenn is comfortable with it, and that was the
important part. Giving her something she could sell, and sound natural doing
it.”
Carter nodded, tapping away at the ancient keyboard as she listened. She
wrapped up with a flourish, and shut the machine down.
“Did you notice when I switched back over to city power?” She asked as
she came around from behind the desk. She walked over and took Tammy’s hand,
and they walked down the hall to the kitchen.
“No, when did you do it?” Tammy asked.
“About fifteen minutes ago. I didn’t even see a flicker, but thought I’d
ask anyway.” Sam said. She stopped and pushed the bathroom door open, backing
into it and pulling Tammy in with her.
“I missed you.” She said as she pressed her body against Tammy’s,
nuzzling her neck gently. “Have I told you how much I enjoyed being with you
last night? That was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever done, and the most fun
too. It was incredible!”
Tammy smiled and ran her hands down Sam’s back, letting them glide down
and squeeze the cheeks of her ass through her gown. “You did all the work, you
naughty girl. And for someone who says she’s never made love to another
woman...you know alot of tricks! Why wouldn’t you let me...”
“I was all messy down there,” Sam blushed. “But I’ve been paying
attention to everything that all of you have done to me. And it was easier than
I expected. I wanted to make you happy, so I just did what I thought would feel
good to me.”
“Well, you are a delightful lover Samantha Carter. And I look forward to
making love with you for a long, long time.” Tammy whispered in her ear. She
leaned back and looked at her. “But for now, gimme a kiss, and let’s go get
some of those burgers.”
Sam smiled, and kissed her lightly, then more hungrily. They were both
gasping for breath when they finally broke apart.
Tammy opened the door, and they went out into the kitchen.
“I told you they were making out in the bathroom,” Jennifer said,
grinning at Andi.
“Jennifer, what is your fascination with my love life? Not getting any
on your own lately?” Sam asked in a teasing voice.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, that’s exactly it.” Jennifer laughed. “And
I’m going to have to do something about that soon. But in the meantime, I’m
going to live vicariously through you!”
“Whatever floats your boat.” Carter said as she started putting together
a burger. “Talk to me. Let’s hear what you decided on for our show tomorrow.”
“Like I said, our main concern was giving Jenn something she could sell
comfortably.” Tammy said. “So we decided to embellish the facts, as opposed to
falsifying them. We have enough data to back up what we say.”
“The major selling point on the contagion we’re going to tell them
about, and that’s the only outright lie that we used,” Andi said, picking up
the narration. “Is that we sent a request to the CDC, and several other
prominent research labs a couple of days ago, asking that they to confirm our
results on a blind study of a fictitious patient. We’ve gotten several replies
already, and their findings will back us up when the IOA goes sniffing around.”
“I’m comfortable with what we have, Sam, and can sell it, no problem.”
Jennifer added. “But I want to use you to close the deal.”
“How would you do that?” Carter asked as she sat down.
“We bring you into the meeting. Remotely.” Keller grinned. “If I keep my
laptop open, and glance at it throughout the meeting, at some point someone,
probably the IOA rep, is going to ask if they can see what I’m doing. I’ll have
an IM window open, with prompts from you, which wouldn’t hurt anyway, then we
bring you in on audio, then video, for the big blowoff.”
“And what would I do for this blowoff, as you call it?” Carter said
slowly, not liking what she was hearing.
“I don’t know.” Jennifer said. “When we bring you in on audio, you sound
fine, rational and in control, then we bring you in on video, just a head shot,
still rational. I could say something, and the camera pans out, and you’re
naked. I do a routine about it being hard to keep you in clothes, and you start
diddling or something.”
“A workout, handstand press-ups maybe, then add her playing with
herself.” Tammy added, jumping in. “That would confirm half of what we’re
telling them with one visual.” She looked at Carter. “You can do this. Just
forget the camera, and do one of your gymnastic routines. Piece of cake.”
“You’ll need to say something sexual as you’re doing whatever you decide
on.” Samuels said. “Direct it at McKay. He’s going to object anyway to you
asking for an independent department, and that would be a good way to shut him
down before he even gets started.”
“I like that idea, Andi.” Sam grinned. “He’s been a pain in the ass
since I met him, and he’s got it in his head that I’m actually attracted to
him. It would be nice to shut him up once and for all, while showing him that I
still have the power, not him.”
“So we’re calling this the plan? I’d like to go talk to Sheppard.”
Keller said, looking around the table. “I can set up the meeting with the SGC
and IOA, and ask him about the medical equipment at the same time. I doubt if
he’ll object, but McKay might.”
“You can tell Sheppard that my ancient gene is active, and about my
being able to understand ancient. But ask him to keep it to himself.” Carter
told her. “He would anyway, but if you’re honest with him, he’s more likely to
help.”
“When did your ancient gene start working?” Keller asked. “Your initial
treatments failed with the gene therapy.”
“I noticed it a couple of days ago. Most of the systems were already
active over here, like the terminal in my office. So someone with the ancient
gene has been here.” Carter replied. “There were a few that were down, like the
power control systems in the sub basement. They came up for me the other night,
which is going to be a big plus. Now I don’t need to bring anyone in to finish
my project.”
“You need to tell us things like that, sweetie.” Tammy said lightly. “On
a scale of one to ten, that’s about an eight. You got anything else you might
have forgotten to mention, since we’re on the subject?”
“No, and I’m sorry. It never occurred to me that it was out of the ordinary
with everything else that’s been going on.” Carter said, looking at Tammy. “But
I could have sworn that I said something the other night when we were down
there, because I thought it was weird. Maybe I didn’t.”
“No, you didn’t.” Tammy told her. “I noticed that the lights came up
when we entered a room, and equipment stared powering up, but it does that most
of the time when I go in a room, and I don’t have the ancient gene.”
“You guys work this out, I’m going over and talk to Sheppard.” Keller
said as she stood up. “I’ll call if I have any luck with the ancient medical
equipment. Where are we going to want to put it, if he says yes?”
“Thirty-one.” Carter said immediately. “That’s our ingress point for
this part of the tower. You and Andi will have offices there, so set up your
medical bay there. One of those suites is being used for storage, but can be
cleared out, so we have three free to use for processing personnel. No, two,
make one of them the personnel office.”
“Yes, maam.” Keller said. She smiled at Samuels, then looked over at
Tammy. “Thanks for lunch Tammy. Can we workout out later? I can feel those fat
grams settling into my ass already!” She turned and was gone before Tammy could
say anything.
“Did she just maam me?” Carter said, glaring at the door after her.
1400 Hours
Sheppard met Jennifer at the porter near the
“We can talk today, we’re not being recorded.” He told her. “I disabled
everything that I know about when you called. And this,” He patted a small box
on the edge of his desk. “Will take care of everything I don’t know about.”
“I appreciate that,” She said, leaning back and crossing her legs. “I
need you to arrange a meeting with the SGC and the IOA, for tomorrow if you
can. I’m sorry for the short notice, but we have some information, and we’d
like to get it to them as soon as we can. I thought that a briefing would be preferable
to a report, so they can ask questions if they need to.”
“I can do that. They’ve been humping my leg for two days trying to get
information.” He laughed. “Can you tell me anything, or do I need to wait for
your briefing?”
“She’s stable, but we’re still testing her. We know that there’s been a
basic change to her DNA, and we just discovered that there are also changes
occurring in her brain. The brain matter itself is being altered, so new
neurons are being created. She’s already smarter than McKay, and by next week,
she might make Stephen Hawking look like a moron.”
“Rodney’s not going to like that.” Sheppard grinned
“We don’t care what he thinks. You’re more important to us, but I’ll let
Sam talk to you about that. We just found out that her ancient gene is active,
and because of the changes in her brain, she’s now conversant in ancient. She
can read and write in it. Which brings me to the other reason I wanted to see
you.”
Sheppard didn’t say anything, but sat waiting for her to continue.
“We’d like to borrow some of the ancient medical equipment. It would
help in diagnosing her, possibly even help in treating her, now that she can
operate it, or guide us through how to use it.” She said, leaning forward. “She
can also help interpret the results, and in the long term, teach others how to
use it.”
“So once you got her diagnosed, or treated, she would what, write up an
instruction manual?”
“I was actually thinking about going a different direction.” Keller
said. “We’re going to set up a medical bay, and once we get situated, I was
thinking we could train people in its use, so everyone in Atlantis can
benefit.”
“I know she’s over on the southwest pier, or she was yesterday, before
her STID signal went dead. I’m assuming she’s blocking it. She’s not coming
back, is she?”
“I ca...I need a minute.” She said, then pulled the comm unit Sam had
given her out of her pocket.
Sheppard raised his eyebrows, and she grinned, then shrugged her
shoulders at him.
“Andi, Tammy, are you on?” She asked, then waited for a reply.
“Yes, Jenn.” Tammy answered. “Did you get it?”
“Working on it.” Jennifer laughed. “I need to talk to Sam.”
“She’s right here, wait one.”
There was a pause, then Carter came on. “Yeah, Jenn. What do you need?”
“I want to read John in. He’s already figured out alot on his own, so I
don’t see any reason not too.”
“Go ahead, I thought I told you that already. What?” She said, then
there was a pause, and Keller could hear Tammy talking in the background. “Oh,
apparently I didn’t. Yeah, bring him up to speed, but don’t recruit him, I want
to do that.”
“Okay, I’ll be in touch.” She took off the comm unit and put it back in
her pocket. “Sorry, apparently we had a communications failure. She thought she
told me to read you in on everything.”
“So what’s she planning? You talk like you’re setting up for the long
term.” he said.
“We are. She’s going to resign her command and commission tomorrow, and
request that she be allowed to stay in Atlantis as head of an independent
department. We’re pretty sure that the IOA will go for it, once they hear what
she has in mind. Add to that the fact that she is now, or will shortly be, the
foremost authority on the ancients. We doubt if they’ll want to let that slip
through their fingers.”
“They’ll go for it.” Sheppard said, a look of disgust on his face. “If
they see a chance to exploit something, they’re all over it.” He shook his
head, looking at her again. “You’ve told me some of what’s happening to her,
and what’s she going to do, but you haven’t told me how she is. How’s she
handling all this?”
“She handling it very well, much better than I would have.” Jennifer
said with a smile. “I’ve seen her in a good mood, but for the first time since
I met her, I can actually say that she seems happy.” She thought for a moment.
“You know how there was always this...distance, like she never wanted to let
anyone get too close?”
“Yeah, she’s more afraid that they might get hurt than she is of herself
getting hurt.” He said. “And that’s not surprising considering what she’s been through
while she’s been involved with the SGC.”
“Well, that haunted look she had is gone, and so it the defensive
distance. And I can’t say I miss either. John, she appears so comfortable with
herself, and so at ease, it’s obvious that she doesn’t see what’s happening to
her as a bad thing. I really think she sees it as a blessing.”
“I’ll take your word for that.” Sheppard said as he stood up. “I just
hope what’s happening to her is more pleasant than my little brush with having
my DNA altered. I got turned into an arathis bug.” He shivered at the memory,
then moved over to the door. “Let’s go see what equipment we can move easily,
we’ll look at the other stuff later. As far as I’m concerned, you can have it
all, it’s not doing us any good. And now is the best time, Rodney is going to
be offworld for a few more hours, so I won’t have to listen to him bitch.”
They went down to the porter, then down to the science section. Sheppard
led her into a large storage room filled with equipment covered with sheets of plastic.
“Start moving this stuff out to the porter, and I’ll keep moving it in
to the hall.” Sheppard told her as he waved at the machines closest to the door. “You have
someone over there that can help you unload?”
“Yeah,” Keller replied, and got her comm out again. She called Tammy as
she pushed a piece of equipment out into
the corridor, and parked it next to the porter. “What is all this stuff?” She
asked as she maneuvered another unit toward the door.
“You’ll have to ask Carter when you get it unloaded.” He said. “I quit
listening to Zelenka and McKay after the first few months when they’d start
going on about this stuff. If it ain’t a big, honkin’ space gun, or a little
space gun, I got no use for it.”
Keller pushed the machine down to the porter, hit the pad, and pushed it
inside. She pulled the other machine in after her, and entered the symbols for
Sam’s building.
When the door opened, Tammy and Sam were standing in front of it. She
pushed one machine out, then pulled the other one out behind it.
“Keep the hallway clear, it looks like I’ll be making a few trips.”
When she got back to the science section, the corridor around the porter
was full of equipment. She grabbed closest one, moved in into a rear corner,
then loaded another right next to it. She filled every foot of space she could,
then climbed up on the one in the door, and reached over to tapped the symbols
on the panel.
When the doors opened, she hopped down, pulled the first machine out,
then stepped back, breathing heavily.
“You empty it this time, let me catch my breath.” She said, leaning
over, her hands resting on her knees.
“What is all this stuff? Tammy asked as she pulled another machine out,
and moved it down the hall.
“No idea,” Keller panted. “Sheppard said Sam could figure it out later.
We just want to get it all out before McKay comes back and wants to know what’s
going on.”
It took five more trips to empty the storage room. When they were done,
Sheppard took her to another floor. There were three marines standing outside
the door when they got off the porter, and he waved for them to follow.
“Stay with the porter, Jenn, and keep the door open. We’ll bring it to
you.” he said. He turned to the marines. “This is a need to know operation. You
weren’t here, and you know nothing about what happened here today. Is that
understood?”
“Yes sir.” They said in unison.
“Good, come by my quarters later. I’ve got a couple cases of beer I need
to get rid of, you can help.” He grinned, knowing the beer would ensure their
silence better than an order.
Keller waited as they shuttled gear from the store room to the porter.
When it was full, she went back over to Sam’s building, and helped them unload
it. Another load was ready when she got back to Sheppard. She stepped out of
the porter, and watched with him as the marines loaded everything onto the
porter.
“That’s everything we can move easily.” He told her. “I’ll talk to
Zelenka about what can be unmounted and moved, and we’ll make arrangements to
do that later. I doubt if you’ll be wanting Rodney’s ascension machine.”
“Not right now, maybe in a few years if she can’t manage it by herself.”
Jennifer said offhandedly.
She stopped and looked at him, realizing what she’d said.
“Forget I said that, huh?”
The marines were finished loading the porter, so she stepped on and
turned around to face them.
“Thanks guys. John, I owe you dinner. I’ll call you.” She waved as the
doors closed in front of her.
Interior-Tower Fifty-Eight
1550 Hours
“Last load.” Jennifer said as the porter doors opened on thirty-one. She
picked up an arm load, and stepped into the hall. “Which way?”
“First suite, the door is open.” Tammy said as she stepped into the
porter.
The first thing she saw was Sam playing with one of the machines off to
one side.
“You could help, you know.” Jennifer said as she sat the equipment
carefully on the floor.
“I’m management. I don’t do grunt work.” Carter said, not even looking
at her.
Jennifer laughed and stepped out into the hall, and saw Tammy walking
toward her. Tammy waved her back into the suite, and followed a moment later.
“I emptied the porter. We can move it later. Let’s see what this stuff
is.” She walked over next to Carter. “Whatcha got here, Sam?”
“Looks like a scanner.” She said, turning to look at her. “Hold your
hand under the head for a second.”
Tammy put her hand under the head of the scanner as Sam touched a series
of controls. A moment later, a three dimensional display of Tammy’s hand
appeared. Sam tapped out a series of commands, and the display changed to show
the veins, arteries and capillaries in her hand.
“Think this might come in handy?” Carter asked, looking between them.
“Not until you show me how to use it, and teach me ancient.” Jennifer said
as she looked around the room. A third of the machines were uncovered, and
nearly half of them were powered up. “In the meantime, you got any clue what
these any of these others do?”
“They’re all marked.” Carter said as she moved over to another machine.
“And this is the first one I’m going to play with. The label says it’s a
teaching machine.” She grinned as she looked at them. “Don’t ask me what that
means, because I don’t know.”
She picked up a headset hanging from the machine and slipped it on, getting
it seated, then tilted her head back and closed her eyes.
“Sam...” Tammy said as she started for her.
“Relax, it’s not turned on.” Carter said a she took the headset off and
sat it on the machine. She turned to look at another one. “I just wanted to see
how it feels.”
“Then why is this panel lit up?” Tammy asked as she looked over at her.
She looked back down at the machine. “And the symbols on it are changing.”
“What? Let me see.” Carter said as she stepped over. Tammy moved to the
side and so she could see the panel. “It scanned me. This is a readout of what
was going in my brain.”
“What the fu...” She tapped on a series of keys, scrolling through
several screens. “Apparently I’m not as smart as you think I am, kids.
According to this, I’m in the bottom fifth percentile for intelligence, I’m in
the top ten percent based on spatial reasoning though.” She looked over at
them, then back down at the machine. “There’s a list of suggested training here
too.”
She reached around and grabbed one of the headsets.
“Sam, don’t,” Tammy said. “Please? Not till you learn more about it.”
“Huh?” Carter said looking over at her. “Oh, I wasn’t going to...I’m
sorry, I wouldn’t do that.” She held the headset out to Tammy. “Put this on. I
want to see something.”
Tammy took the headset and looked it over, turning it slowly in her
hands. She looked back over at Sam. “This things not going to zap me is it?”
She asked.
“Um...I’m not sure. I doubt it.” Carter told her. “It’s set to scan, and
that’s all it did to me.”
“But you don’t know for sure. Great.” Tammy said as she gingerly put the
headset on, moving it around till it was comfortable. “You didn’t even notice
that it did anything to you, so what’s the wor...”
She stiffened suddenly, her eyes rolling back up in her head. She collapsed
, falling to the floor, jerking and twitching.
“Tammy!” Sam screamed, dropping to her knees beside her. She gathered
her up in her arms, hugging her tightly. Jennifer came over and tried to make
her let her go, but Carter pushed her away roughly.
“Gotcha.” Tammy whispered in Sam’s ear, grinning up at her as she pulled
back, looking at her.
“You were fucking with me?” Carter whispered, staring at her.
“Well, you were going to use me as guinea pig, so yeah. Turnabouts fair
play.”
“Don’t do that again.” Sam said as she helped her up. “You scared the
shit out of me.”
“Good.” Tammy said as she put the headset back on. “We need to be
careful with this stuff, at least until you figure out what they all do. You
should go through and see if there are help screens, or maybe a manual built
in.”
Carter nodded as she looked at the panel on the machine again. “You can
take that off.” She said, glancing over at Tammy. “It already did you.”
She scrolled through the screens, then tapped back to the first scan the
machine did. She flipped back and forth between the two scans, then looked over
at the equipment Keller had put by the door.
“I need a piece of equipment. It has a connector like this on it.” She
said, opening a door on the side of the machine, and pointing to a series of
slots. “I don’t know what it will look like, but it won’t be that big, there’s
room for five of them here.”
She went over and started going through the boxes piled by the door.
“There’s more out by the porter.” Tammy said. “Come on, Jenn. Let’s go
look through that.”
She started for the door, but Carter stood up, a small device in her
hand.
“Hold up, I think I found one.”
She went over and plugged it into one of the slots, and a blue light
came on over the panel. Carter tapped though a series of symbols on the panel,
then pressed a button next to it. She looked down at the smaller device, and
noticed that there was now a slice of yellow showing on the end of it. She
reached down and pulled it out of the slot, looking at it.
“Memory card, or their equivalent. Kewl.” She said as she looked over at
Tammy and Jennifer. “Let’s go upstairs. There’s slots for these on my machine
up there. I want to look at something.”
Interior-Office
1630 Hours
“You said didn’t have the ancient gene.” She said to Tammy. “Didn’t the
treatment take?”
“I never got it,” Tammy replied. “They did the science teams first, then
the military types. They never got around to me or half a dozen of the other
nurses. I think they meant to hit everyone, but when they got approval to go,
and then all that stuff happened with the Wraith when we got here, I guess it
got lost in the shuffle.”
“Go get her a dose.” Carter told Keller. “And tell Sheppard to have
someone look at the records and see who never got the gene therapy. This is
going to be important.”
“What do you see there?” Jennifer asked. “There’s something about
Tammy’s scan that has you excited.”
“I’ll tell you when you ge...”
“No, Sam. Tell me now.” Keller said. “I’m pretty sure Tammy wants to
know too.” She said, glancing over at her. Tammy nodded. “This is a team, not
the Samantha Carter show. So when you find something that’s going to affect all
of us, and maybe other people, you tells us. Maybe we can help.”
Carter looked at her, then glanced over at Tammy. “You’re right. I’m
sorry, I’m just used to working alone, or telling other people what to do.”
She tapped out a series of commands on her keyboard, and a large section
of the wall lit up. She entered another set of commands, and an image appeared.
She scrolled down through the information, stopping when a graph appeared.
“This is my scan. The graph shows where I stand in relation to other
ancients in the database.” She shrank the image, and brought another one up
next to it. She scrolled down till both images showed the same graph. “This is
Tammy.”
“Are you kidding me?” Tammy said as she stepped closer, looking at her
scan. “You didn’t doctor this? You know, to get back at me?”
“Nope, wouldn’t do that even if I knew how.” Carter laughed. “According
to this, you’re in the top ten percent in very category, and in the top five in
more than half of them.” She paused, and typed for a moment. Her scan
disappeared, and a document replaced it. “It says here, that they were looking
for people like you. You’re an anomaly. Less than one percent of the ancients
were in your class.”
“And what do you think the gene therapy will do?” Keller asked. “There
have been negative reactions to it, not many, but I’d like to know if it’s
worth the risk to see if it will work on her.”
“It’s worth it, just so I can initialize and operate things as we find
them.” Tammy said. “And we use ancient gear down in the Infirmary. It sucks
that I have to get someone to do my work for me.”
“I was thinking that if it takes, we study that training machine, figure
out how it works and what it actually does, and if Tammy wants, see what she
can learn from it.” Carter said looking at Tammy. “Based on what I see, She
stands a better chance of succeeding than I do.”
“Okay, I’ll go over to the Infirmary and get it.” Keller said as she
turned toward the door. “I should be back in about fifteen minutes.”
“We’re going to go get that machine and bring it up here.” Tammy said.
“If we’re not back before you are, you’ll know where to look, okay?”
Interior-Living Room
1705 Hours
The teaching machine was sitting against the wall when Jennifer stepped
from the porter. She found Carter and Tammy huddled over Sam’s terminal. Sam
was pointing out things as she scrolled down the page.
“We found a help file, and dumped it onto the memory card.” Tammy said
as she looked up at Keller. “She says it looks pretty straight forward, and she
thinks she can operate it. You got that gene therapy for me?”
Keller nodded. “Got one for me too. Turns out I never got it either.”
She grinned, holding up a small grey case. “I looked at the database, Andi
already failed. Twice. I called Sheppard, and he’s going to have McKay go
through and see who else got missed. He was pissed too.”
“Let’s do me first.” Tammy said, coming around the desk. “We can get
Andi up here for when we do you, once we make sure that I don’t show any of
those negative effects you mentioned earlier. Let’s go out into the living
room, so I can stretch out on a couch.”
Jennifer led her out to the other room, and Tammy laid out on one of the
big couches. Keller knelt beside her, and pushed her sleeve up, tied a rubber
strap around her upper arm, then sprayed her arm with an antiseptic. She saw
Carter’s hand come over the back of the couch, taking Tammy’s other hand in
hers.
“It’s going to be fine.” Tammy said as she looked up at her. “This
should have been done along time ago.” She looked over at Keller. “Ready when
you are, Jenn.”
Keller nodded and slipped the cover off a syringe. “This works best
intravenously.” She said as she eased the needle into a vein, and injected a
pale green liquid. She pulled the needle out and sprayed the area with
antiseptic again, then released the rubber strap. “That should kick in immediately.
We have anything we can test her on?
Carter went into her office, and came back a moment later with a life
signs detector. She held it up so that they could see that it was active. She
handed it to Keller, and she looked at it, then turned it so they could see
that the screen was dark. Jennifer looked at Tammy, then held it out to her.
The screen lit up as soon as Tammy touched it. She looked at it, then
grinned up at Sam. “Is this thing telling me that there’s three life signs in
this room?”
“Sure is. Welcome to the ancient club, girlfriend.” She grinned.
“Excellent!” Tammy said as she sat up. “Bring your new toy over here, I
know you’re dying to try it out.”
“I don’t know if tha...” Sam began.
“You read the manual, or at least the help file, and you said you could
operate it, right?”
“Well, yeah. But...”
“Then roll it over here, go through the menu, and see if there’s a
language lesson in there somewhere.” Tammy said. “I want to do it, Sam. And I
don’t think it will hurt me, honest.”
“Jenn? What do you think?” Carter asked still looking down at Tammy.
“I think she’s right. There are safeguards built into most of the
ancient devices.” Jennifer said. “The ones we’ve had trouble with, or that
actually hurt someone were still in the experimental stage, or people just
started playing with them before we knew what they were, or did. That machine
looks like something that was in common use, there’s even some wear on it.”
“You’re sure about this?” She said, looking down at Tammy.
Tammy nodded, and Carter went over and rolled the machine up behind the
couch. She took one of the headsets off its holder, and handed it to Tammy.
“Jennifer, sit next to her, if you see anything you don’t like, you pull
that headset off.” Sam said as she worked the controls on the machine. “Tammy,
if you feel anything weird, or if it starts to hurt, you raise your hand, and
I’ll shut it off.”
They both nodded, and Carter tapped out a string of commands on the
panel as Tammy put the headset on.
“Here we go. Intro to Ancient101.” She entered another command, then
said, “Forty seconds...Thirty.”
“She’s smiling, and her pulse is steady, color is good too.” Keller
said.
“Ten seconds...Done.” Carter said as she pushed the machine aside and
leaned over the back of the couch.
Tammy turned and looked up at her. She spoke, but neither of them
understood what she said.
“What did you say? Tammy?” Jennifer said, shaking her leg. “Say
something else.”
“She’s speaking ancient. But I don’t speak it, I can just read and write
it.
“Get me a pen and a piece of paper, and I’ll tell you.” Tammy grinned.
Sam went back into her office, and was back a moment later. She handed
Tammy a pad and a pen, and Tammy wrote out a line of symbols, paused for a
moment, then added a line under it. She handed the pad back to Sam.
Carter laughed, then looked over at Jennifer, holding the pad up so she
could see it. “She wrote ‘I love you’,” She said, moving her finger over the
top line.
“What’s the other line say?” Keller asked
“That’s personal.” Carter said, blushing slightly. She looked down at
Tammy, watching her take the headset off. “And I’d love to.” She said softly.
“Sex. I knew it.” Jennifer pouted as she stood up. She turned and headed
for the kitchen. “You two are doing it every time I turn around, Andi’s boffing
Wilkins, why can’t I find someone to boink me? I mean, I’m cute. I’m good
in...” Her voice trailed of as she went down the hall, and into the kitchen.
“We gotta get her laid. Soon.” Tammy laughed. She stood up and stretched,
then looked at Carter. “Let’s go get something to drink, it feels like that
machine sucked all the water out of me.”
“I wanna hear about Andi and Wilkins,” Carter said as she took Tammy’s
hand and headed for the kitchen. “She just doesn’t seem like his type.”
Interior-Kitchen
1835 Hours
“So Sgt. Wilkins likes milf’s, huh?” Tammy said as Samuels walked into
the kitchen.
Sam and Jennifer giggled, and Sam hit Tammy on the arm. “You weren’t
supposed to say anything!” She laughed.
“What? How di...” Andi said, her face coloring as she looked at the
three women giggling like schoolgirls around the table. “You.” She said,
looking at Jennifer. “Who have you been talking to? And what did they say?”
“Nothing really,” Jennifer grinned. “I heard a few of your boys talking
in the Infirmary, and it seems that whenever you take them food, you and the
sergeant disappear, and when you come back...well, it’s pretty obvious what
they think.” She looked up at Andi. “And last night, when you mentioned his
name, your eyes kind of glazed over.”
“Really?” Sam asked. “I didn’t notice that.”
“That’s because I am a trained medical professional, and know to look
for little things like that.” Keller said smugly. “Now come on,” She said,
grabbing Andi’s hand and pulling her down into a chair. “Fess up. I want to
hear everything!”
Andi pushed her away and stood up, going to the fridge and getting a
bottle of orange juice, then a glass from the cabinet. “We’re just friends,
Jennifer,” She said as she poured a glass. “Okay, okay. Friends with benefits.
It’s nothing serious. We just, you know, like each other.”
She came back over to the table and sat down, looking at each of them.
When her eyes returned to Keller, she leaned forward. “Jennifer, you are not
going to believe this.” She said slowly.
Keller leaned forward eagerly. “Yeah?”
“But you really have to get laid. Soon.” Samuels grinned, then sat back
and looked over at Sam and Tammy.
“Just tell him, Jennifer.” Tammy said. “I doubt if he’ll say no, he’s a
guy for god’s sake. And he’s probably interested too!”
“Enough about my sex life, and Jennifer’s lack of one.” Samuels said as
she leaned forward, resting her arms on the table. She looked at Carter, then
glanced at Tammy. “What kind of mischief have you been up to today.”
“Let’s see.” Carter said lightly. She leaned back in her chair and
started ticking things off on her fingers. “I did a test on my STM bridge, and
ran the building off of it for a few hours. Jenn talked to Sheppard, and we’re
on for a meeting with the IOA tomorrow. We got some of the ancient medical
gear, or at least the stuff that wasn’t bolted down, it’s in one of the suites
down on thirty-one.” She paused, looking back and forth between Tammy and
Jennifer. “Anything else?”
“You forgot to mention that we activated my ancient gene.” Tammy said.
“And you left out the part where you taught her ancient with that
machine we found.”
“So I’d have to say nothing out of the ordinary, Andi.” Carter grinned.
She looked around the table. “Who’s cooking tonight? Jenn, you any good in the
kitchen?”
“Useless. My favorite thing to make for dinner is reservations.”
“Did you say she used an ancient machine on Tammy?” Samuels asked
Jennifer. “And you let them? I can understand Sam, or even Tammy doing
something wreckless like that, but you dressed me down and wanted to fire me
for flying by the seat of my pants. It sounds like you forgot to puts yours
on!”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Andi.” Tammy said lightly.
“You know what I meant, and I’ll get to you in a minute.” She looked
around the table, but before she could say anything else. Sam spoke up.
“I read the manual, Andi.” She said. “Well, the help files actually. I
had a pretty good idea what it would do, and how to operate it.”
“I told her to do it, after we activated my ancient gene.” Tammy added.
“You need to see the initial scans the machine did. Once you do, you’ll
understand why.”
“And I gave Tammy the gene therapy once we heard that she’d never gotten
it.” Jennifer said. “And I need you to give it to me later, I never got it
either.”
“We didn’t just grab a machine, and go, ‘hey, what’s this do?’” Sam
said.
“Actually, that’s exactly what you did. You just didn’t ask the question
out loud.” Tammy said. “We had just finished moving all that gear over here, and
Sam was telling us what the different machines were, apparently they’re
labeled. She picked up a headset from the learning machine, because she thought
it was turned off, and put it on, just to see how it felt I guess. And it
scanned her.”
She got up and filled her glass from the tap. “I told her that the
machine had gone active, and she looked at the readout on it. Then she scanned
me, and got all excited.” She sat back down and looked at Samuels.
“We weren’t being wreckless, Andi. Once we knew what it was, and part of
what it did, we brought it up here and checked it out. Sam spent almost an hour
going over the manual, then once we knew that the gene therapy had taken, I
decided to go for it.”
She looked at Sam and smiled, then looked over at Jennifer before she
looked back at Andi.
“I can read, write and speak ancient now. I think it was worth the
risk.”
“You got lucky.” Samuels said. “But you’re probably right. I would have
done the same thing in your place.” She paused, looking at Tammy. “You can really
speak ancient?”
Tammy nodded. “
“She thinks she’s so smart now. Look at me, I’m ancient girl.” Sam said
in a mock huff. “Don’t forget who got there first girlfriend. If I couldn’t
read it, you wouldn’t be talking it.”
“Go ahead, have your fun, but all of you know that you got lucky.”
Samuels said. “Can I suggest we hold off using any more of those devices and
machines until Tammy and Sam can go through them, and read the manuals, help
files, or whatever? They may look benign, but we don’t know what they may do on
an individual basis. And I’m talking about both the machines, and to the people
involved.”
“I don’t think that’s a bad idea.” Keller added. “We can use the time to
monitor Tammy for any unexpected side effects.”
“And how are we supposed to know what counts as an unexpected side
effect?” Tammy asked.
“Growing another head would be bad, I bet.” Carter pitched in, earning
her a glare from Keller.
“Nah, then I’d be twice as smart as you.” Tammy told her. She turned
back to Keller. “Seriously, Jenn. What would you suggest I look out for, and
don’t say ‘anything’, I hate it when people do that.”
“I really don’t know what to tell you Tammy. But I think the place to
start is in the ancient’s medical database. They probably had some problems
with some of these machines when they were used on the general population. Some
of them had to have had some kind of negative side effects, and there should be
some documentation.”
“Or their research files. They tested them somehow, or on someone, that
might be a good place to look too.” Andi offered. “Now that there are two of
you that can read them, it should go half as fast.”
“I’m going to need my own terminal up here.” Tammy said to Carter. “We
ca...”She stopped, and turned, looking at Andi. “You made a funny. Did you hear
her?” she asked Carter. “Two of us can get it done half as fast...”
“I heard her. She boned us.” She looked at Tammy. “what do you think we
should do about that?”
Andi was on her feet heading for the door before Sam finished speaking,
and was moving at a run by the time they got to the doorway. By the time they
got to the end of the hall, the porter doors were closing in front of her. She
smiled and waved at them.
“There’s always tomorrow!” Tammy yelled. “And I’m coded to open your
door.” She said to herself as they turned back toward the kitchen.
Interior-Office
2050 Hours
“I’ve got the outline for my proposed department finished, but I’m not
sure what to do about the compensation package. I’m sure they’ll ask for that
up front.” Carter said to Tammy.
She was standing across the room, in front of her own terminal. They had
moved two more of the ancient computers up into Carter’s office from suites on
one of the lower floors. There was a diagram of one of the ancient medical
devices on the wall screen in front of her, and she was skimming through it
quickly.
“I’m going to need a course on crystal technology when we start using
that teaching machine on a regular basis.” She muttered. “This schematic is
eighty percent crystals, and I don’t have the background for it.”
“Don’t worry about how the damn things work.” Carter said. “We want to
know what they do, and how to use them first. We don’t need to know about the
guts till one of them breaks down. Except the teaching machine, we need to know
how to fix that one of it goes wonky on us. And we have three of them, so it’s
not a problem.” She looked back down at the document she was working on. “Did
you hear what I said? What should I ask for in my compensation package, go big,
and let them negotiate me down, or lay out what I want and tell them to take it
or leave it.”
“That depends on how big you were thinking about going. If you’re going
to ask for this building, you might want to scale back the salary, which you’re
not really going to need anyway.” Tammy said as she sat down and brought up
another document on her terminal. “They’re going to balk when you tell them
that you want it. They’ll say that it’s not theirs to give you.”
“I covered that in the outline for my department. This building is to be
the headquarters for my operations. I’m going to propose that I be given an independent
department, which will be run as a separate corporation, a wholly owned
subsidiary of the IOA, with the sole purpose of generating profits to offset
the costs of the Atlantis expedition, and eventually, the SGC itself.”
“So you’re giving them ownership of the company. What do you get out of
it?”
“They can have it, and the lions share of the profits too. I don’t need
them, and since the stated goal is offsetting operating costs, they’ll go for
that.”
Carter sat back and closed her eyes. “I’m thinking I should ask for a
base salary, and profit sharing. But what I really want is the patent and
distribution rights to any discoveries or technologies developed that are not
directly related to ongoing IOA research. Basically, What I come up with on my own,
I get to keep.”
“Which is everything related to the ancients, and what we’re going to
learn from them, I take it.”
“You got it. Rodney and Zelenka have a hundred different projects going,
very few, if any of them related to what we’re going to be doing. And none of
them involve any of the equipment we got today.”
She looked over at Tammy, but didn’t say anything for a few moments.
“What the IOA’s not going to realize, is that in the long term, you and
I are going to be around alot longer than they are, and I have an idea of what
I want to happen over that time, and where I want things to go. And we’re not
going to need Atlantis forever.”
Tammy turned off her terminal, and gave Carter her full attention. “You
have a plan. Have you got it worked out yet, or where are you still putting it
together?”
“It just hit me this afternoon, when we had you hooked up to the
teaching machine. It just popped into my head when you started speaking
ancient.” Carter said slowly. “We know where there’s another ancient city,
Sheppard’s team found it a couple of years ago. It’s occupied by a medieval
society right now, but from what I’ve read, and I’ll get you the reports on it,
the city is intact, it just needs power and probably some repairs.”
“And you’re thinking, that if there’s another one out there, there might
be more?” Tammy asked.
“No, but that’s not a bad thought for later.” Carter said. “I was
thinking that once we get geared up, and have the Atlantis operation up and
running, we quietly start working on acquiring and repairing that other city,
for our own use. Then we can deal with the IOA, but won’t have to listen to
them any more.”
She got up and came around the desk. “Can we go down to your place, and
forget about all this for a little while? I think I can hook up your laptop to
that monitor, and I’d really like to watch a movie, maybe an action adventure
flick. I just want to spend some time with you. How’s that sound?”
“I’d like that.” Tammy said as she stood up. “Let’s get some snacks, and
maybe a bottle of wine. Come on, I just got a bunch of new movies, and we can
watch whatever you want.”