Confirming Carter Bk. 01 Ch. 03

"Then we have a plan." Andi said. "I'll come back for dinner, I have some bread and salad stuff in my quarters, so I'll bring that. See you then."

After she left, Sam went into her office, and Tammy put up the cameras around the suite. The high ceilings presented her a problem at first, but she just mounted them on the walls, high enough that they would have a clear view of each room.

Interior-Kitchen

1940 Hours

After dinner, Andi and Jennifer cleared the table, then they sat back, relaxing as Sam and Tammy reviewed what they had gotten accomplished.

"Comms are up, we're using five channels on the upper band, and our signals will float on them, never using the same channel for more than a few seconds. you shouldn't notice the changeovers, but if you do, let me know and I'll take a look at it. I did it that way so the Ops Center won't see continuous traffic on any one channel. If they even notice it."

She pointed to a pile of boxes at the end of the table. "Grab a headset, and two of the desk units before you leave." She said to Samuels and Keller. "I want both of you to take a suite on thirty-one, that's going to be our ingress point. Since we have to be careful about my sensitivity to smells, we might as well use those spaces for that. Make them your offices, I'd like you to keep your suites up here for down time."

She looked at them, then got up and went to the fridge and got a coke. "You two need to block some time into your schedules for yourselves. You're both still doing your jobs over in the Central Tower, and bouncing back and forth over here, and its starting to show already."

"Now that we can reach you if we need to, you really don't have to be here unless there's a problem, or you just want to come and visit." She grinned as she sat back down. "You're both welcome anytime by the way, I enjoy your company. Call first. There's no door, so we can't hang a sock on the knob."

"My turn?" Tammy asked.

Carter nodded.

Tammy picked up a tablet, brought up an application, and turned it around to show them the screen. They were looking that the four of them sitting around the table.

"This application is called Watchdog. You just touch one of the pictures here on the right, and you can bring up that camera. You can't pan, but you can zoom. Don't worry about resetting it afterwards, the software automatically resets all of them to the widest view every ten minutes."

"We found a box of wireless routers downstairs, so we put one, along with a new desktop and monitor, in your suites. Sam's got us tied into the buildings network, and apparently some of our technology is compatible with the Atlantian's. Whoodda thunk it?"

"The whole central tower is run off its own internal network." Sam said. "Rodney told me that they brought tons of networking equipment, but never had to use it, except they needed routers to interface some of our computers. I just did the same thing."

"I gave you a desktop because the software will capture both the audio and video from the cameras, and we needed the hard drive space. The tablets are flash based, so don't have the storage we need." Tammy said as she continued her review of the monitoring system. "I have Sam's bedroom, the living room, and the kitchen set to save for seventy-two hours before it starts to delete them. The recordings are saved in thirty minute blocks, so all you have to do is enter the time you're interested in looking at, and the application will pull up an hour on either side of that time. I set the other rooms to save for twenty-four hours each to save drive space, because we don't spend as much time in them."

"This is amazing, Tammy." Jennifer said as she played with the cameras in different rooms. "Can I pull up a recording from my desktop and watch it on here, or do I have to do it there?"

Tammy shook her head. "You can't do that from this one, because I haven't set it up for that yet. But I'll get both of yours configured so you can do that. There's a desktop in the small bedroom, the kids room. It looks like that's going to be our sickbay, so I figured that would be the best place for it."

"My main concern is having eyes on her. If I'm not around, or I'm asleep, I want someone to be able to see if she's in trouble." Tammy said, looking back and forth between Keller and Samuels. "So whoever is on duty is going to have a tablet within arms reach, and is looking at it every couple of minutes. Everything else the system can do is just window dressing."

"My turn again," Carter said. She looked over at Keller and Samuels. "I still want you to bring in more people Jenn, and I'll talk to you about that in a little while. But I want you to know that I asked Tammy to stay here, on a full time basis. She agreed. She's going to keep her suite downstairs, but for all intents and purposes, she'll be living here with me."

She gave them a moment, then asked, "Do either of you have an objection to that?"

"I actually think that's a good idea." Keller said. "She's the most knowledgeable about what we're dealing with. And the way you relate to her, you're going to tell her what's going on with you before you tell us. That's if she doesn't notice it first."

"My only concern is getting Tammy some of that down time you were talking about." Samuels said, looking at Sam. She made a point not to look at Tammy. "Having her here round the clock is fine for now. I'm worried about what happens next week, or the week after that. But I'm okay with it for the moment, at least until we see how she holds up under the stress."

"I have another nurse I want to bring over, but that can wait a day or two if you want to wait. Jennifer said. "I'll block out a schedule once we get the staffing settled, and put Tammy on it. I'll give her the day shift, since we'll probably be doing most of the testing during those hours. I'm assuming that she'll be sleeping with you?"

Carter nodded. "Is that a problem?" She asked.

"Not for me," Jennifer grinned. "I think it's a bonus. I know she's a light sleeper. If anything happens overnight, I've got two sets of eyes on you, and my most experienced nurse on the scene."

"Okay. Let's go into my office." Carter said. "I want to talk to you about Susan, and you can fill me in on who else you have in mind." She looked at Samuels as she moved toward the door. "We're done for the day, Andi. You can hang around if you want, but it's your choice. I'm going to make it an early night. I just want to review a few things with Jenn."

"I think I'll go downstairs. I still need to get settled down there, it's a mess right now."

"You want some help?" Tammy asked. "Jennifer can call us if there's a problem."

"No, but thanks. I'm probably going to go to bed early myself." Andi said, giving her a wan smile. "I'll see you all tomorrow then."

She stood up and followed Sam and Jennifer down the hall.

Interior-Office

2050 Hours

"I'm not sure about Susan, Jennifer." Carter said as she sat down behind her desk. She waved Keller into a chair.

"Can we talk about Susan in a minute, Sam?" Jennifer said slowly. "I'd like to talk about Andi first."

"Sure," Sam said, leaning back in her chair. "What's on your mind?"

"I want to remove her from your case, for a variety of reasons." Keller said as she opened a folder on her lap. "Do you want me to make my case, or will you trust my judgment?"

"I've always trusted your judgment, Jennifer. But I'd still like you to make your case."

Keller nodded, looking down at her folder.

"I originally referred you to her because she had shown amazing results with some people that hadn't been helped by other mental health treatments. I wish I had known more about her methods before I sent you to her now." Keller sighed. "First and foremost, and I know you don't want to assign blame, but she did this to you. Even if you think of this as a benefit to you in some fashion, she put your life and health at risk because she didn't do a little research, and follow a few basic protocols."

She flipped through the folder, pulling a form out and putting it on top. "Tammy was right, she's a fly by the seat of her pants kind of person. And that's no way to practice medicine. I pulled her files from the database, and there's more than a few instances where she actually caused serious medical problems, while helping to resolve complex mental issues. The trade off just isn't worth the risks, not when you're talking about peoples lives."

She looked over at Sam. "As a psychiatrist, she's top notch, but as a physician, she leaves much to be desired, and I can't trust you in her care."

"The last thing is her relationship with Tammy. Tammy stepped on her pretty hard today. In front of you, her patient. Tammy was right, but she handled it the wrong way. She should have come to me, and I've already talked to her about that. But my concern now, is that Andi might do something to sabotage Tammy, that ends up hurting you."

"I understand how you feel, Jenn." Carter said slowly, bringing her hands up and steepling her fingers together in front of her. "But I'd like to keep her on. Not just as our resident brain mechanic, which you say she's qualified for, but I can use her skills when we start up our program later. She's going to be very useful running the exploitation branch. Having a psychiatrist as head of marketing...well, it just makes sense to me."

"Another reason I want to keep her around is Tammy thinks she's going to be useful too. We talked about it earlier. She thinks that if you do the physical medicine, and just let Andi worry about my head, things will go alot smoother. She suggested we give them some time to work out their issues. What do you think about that?"

"I trust Tammy. She's the best nurse I have on my staff. She was my first choice even before I found out about her experience with korathis. I sorry that she didn't get an MD instead of just an RN, but I understand why she did it. She cares about people, and genuinely likes caring for them."

She paused, considering what Sam had said for a moment. "If she thinks that she can work things out with Andi, I don't have a problem with that. But I don't want Andi prescribing any medications for you, except if there is no other choice. Not until she reassures me she actually knows what she's doing there. And I'd like you to avoid being alone with Andi. I don't want her to have a chance to work on you. I already told Tammy that too."

"I can do that." Sam said, leaning forward and smiling softly as she looked at Jennifer. "But the most important reason I want to keep her, is that I like her. Jennifer, she cut me open, stripped away all the shields I had up, and was walking me around inside my own head in the first ten minutes I was in her office."

"Even before we started drinking, she demonstrated a knowledge and understanding of me that no one, not even my closest friends have." She shook her head. "On one hand, that's scary as hell. But on the other, it's comforting. She didn't pull any punches with me, and I hope she doesn't start because of what happened today. I need her to keep being straight with me, I think I can learn alot from her."

"We'll have to see what happens. But we'll do it your way, Sam." Jennifer said, pulling another set of forms from her folder. "I talked to Susan today. She was thrown off little by being pulled out of her comfort zone, and I think once she relaxes, she'll be fine. She's an excellent nurse, and you just have to let her take care of you."

She handed a sheaf of papers to Sam. "These are the other nurses I have in mind. I'd like..."

Interior-Living Room

2210 Hours

There was a movie playing on Tammy's laptop, but she was asleep on the couch when they came out. Sam leaned over the back of the couch, smiling down at her.

"Hey sleepyhead, Jennifer is leaving, and I'm going to bed. You coming?"

Tammy sat up, closing her laptop.

"Goodnight, Jenn. I'll see you tomorrow." She said, standing up and coming around the couch. She blew Sam a kiss as she walked toward the bedroom. "I'll see you in a minute, Sam. Don't take too long."

"Goodnight, Jennifer. I'll see you tomorrow too." Carter said.

"Goodnight Sam, Sleep well." Jennifer smiled as the porter doors closed in front of her.

Interior-Sub Basement Three

2230 Hours

"I need to go downstairs for a few minutes. I just thought of something and need to check it out." Carter said as she came out of the bathroom

"Okay." Tammy said as she pulled her gown back on. "Where are we going?"

"I have some equipment I need to check in one of the sub basements. I haven't been able to get to it in the last few days."

Tammy nodded as they walked through the living room. She grabbed a gown off the back of the couch as they went by. She waited as Sam tapped on the elevator panel, and when she turned around, she dropped it over her head, taking one arm and putting it into a sleeve.

"N...I'm just..." Carter said as Tammy got her other arm in the sleeve, and smoothed the gown down over her.

"Shhhhh, be good." Tammy said as she stepped back. "I swear, you're like a six year old that doesn't want to go to school! You look nice in that gown, and you really need to wear something. I want you to start wearing shoes when you leave the suite too."

The elevator doors opened, and a long corridor stretched in front of them. Carter stepped out and moved at a brisk pace, stopping and going through a door about fifty feet down the corridor.

As they stepped inside, the lights came up, and equipment started to hum, but Tammy was used to that because it was a regular occurrence throughout the city. She looked around, but didn't see anything special about the room. There were lighted panels lining three walls, and a large boxy device stood off to one side. A few feet away from it, there was a smaller device with an open front. It was about the size of a washing machine, and blue and green bars of light chased each other in random patterns around a large ring inside it.

"What is all this?" She asked Carter as she turned and looked at her.

Sam had her gown pulled up over her knees as she squatted in front of the bigger machine. She opened a panel and pushed a button several times, then touched the screen and made an adjustment.

"My STM bridge." Carter said as she stood up and looked at the laptop sitting on the machine. She scrolled through pages of data, then started typing on the keyboard.

"That doesn't mean anything to me." Tammy said. "What is it? And what are you doing."

"It's a Space Time Matter bridge. A gateway between universes." Cater said, not looking up from her laptop. "McKay tried this a couple of years ago, and as usual, he fucked it up, because he didn't think it through. They brought his sister Jeannie in to help, because she made the real breakthrough on it." She glanced back at Tammy over her shoulder. "Basically, what they were trying to do was connect to another universe to siphon energy out of it to charge the ZPM. But it backfired on them."

She moved around to the end of the machine and opened another panel. She looked at her laptop, then bent down and changed the positions on several switches, and pulled two levers down, locking them in place. She looked at her laptop, and a small smile creased her face.

"Better." she muttered.

"I remember that. They brought another McKay over from the other universe." Tammy said. "I met him. I liked him alot more than the one we got."

"Close. The other universe sent their McKay over, to tell them that they were flooding that universe with exotic particles, and it was destroying that universe. He came over to ask them to stop. That was a ballsy thing to do."

"So what if you do the same thing? Kill another universe?" Tammy asked her.

"I'm taking a different approach." Carter said as she entered commands on her laptop. "They locked onto one universe, and were just gonna pull energy till the ZPM was charged. I'm playing hop, skip and jump. My bridge connects to each universe, snags a little energy, then moves to the next one. It doesn't stay in any one place long enough for the exotic particles to form, and if some do, there aren't enough of them to cause any trouble."

"Why didn't they do it that way the first time?" Tammy asked, moving over and looking over her shoulder.

"Cuz McKay is an arrogant dumbass, and doesn't think about anyone but himself." She turned around and looked at Tammy. "Do you know that he hadn't talked to his sister for more than four years? Four years! And the only reason he did, was because we made him. Then he picked her work apart looking for any reason he could find to say she was wrong."

She turned back to her laptop, checking her work. "I've got that part worked out. I took information from the original experiment, and over the last few months, I've been pulling everything I can find on anything similar, or even remotely related that anyone else is doing. I've even swapped emails with Jeannie Miller, his sister. She's really nice. She's smarter than McKay is too, but down to earth about it. And her daughter Madison is a real cutie."

"Now I'm trying to figure out how to get the energy coming back toward us from all those other universes to feed into my containment chamber, that disco looking doohickey over in the corner, so it can combine it into a coherent form that we can use."

Tammy looked over at the containment chamber. "The lights have changed in your ring." She said.

"Really?" Carter asked, turning around and looking at it.

She glanced back at the laptop, typed in a command, and looked back. The lights in the containment chamber flickered, then changed again. The alternating bars of blue and green were moving faster now, and in a steady pattern. She looked at the laptop again, bringing up another screen.

"I think I got it." She said. "Take a look."

Tammy leaned forward and looked over her shoulder.

"Power levels being output are steady." She said, pointing at a graph on the screen. "I can do the rest of this from upstairs. I want to run some simulations, but that will only take a couple of minutes to set up."

She looked around the room one last time. "Let's go upstairs. I'm tired. I think I'll go bed as soon as I get those sims going."

"Okay." Tammy said, taking her hand. "We got up early this morning. So I'm not surprised."

(-)

That's all for Chapter Three. Please read Chapter Four to see what happens next...