Confirming Carter Bk. 01 Ch. 04

Jennifer blushed, giving Tammy a scathing look. Carter and Tammy laughed, then Andi spoke up.

"There's still a chance of contact based exposure of something she might be secreting or excreting. And we've all been in contact physical with her, ungloved. She was naked most of the first two days, then Tammy put her in a tank and panties, so she's still effectively naked. All three of us have had unprotected oral sex with her as well, I might add."

"We can test for contagion, it's easy enough, but considering that neither Jenn or I are showing any effects, I think we can rule it out as a cause."

She turned to Tammy. "I honestly think that what you're both experiencing is simple natural attraction. You're both healthy females in your early to mid-thirties, when women are most prone to seek out true love. We'll look at other possibilities, but I wouldn't let it worry you, either of you."

Interior-Gym

1150 Hours

Jennifer came out of the stairwell and saw Carter doing sit-ups on the other side of the pool by the windows. Tammy was kneeling at her feet, holding them down.

"Faster." She heard Tammy say as she walked closer.

She looked up and nodded at Keller. "We have a new development. Her strength and stamina have both increased overnight. Kinesthetic awareness is up too. She just went over three hundred on this set. This is her third. She did two hundred each on the first two. We were going to see where she maxes out, that okay with you?"

Keller nodded as she looked down at Sam. Her face was flushed, but she moved rhythmically, showing no signs of strain. She picked up the tablet off a bench, and scrolled back through the telemetry.

"Your heart rate hasn't gone over one twenty-five." She said. "That's amazing."

"Don't talk to her, she needs to focus on me. She's in the zone." She looked at Carter. "Four hundred. Keep going, you got some left."

Keller moved around and knelt behind Tammy, looking over her shoulder. Carter was wearing a sports bra and panties, and a pair of athletic shoes. She was soaked in sweat. She could see her abs rippling as she went through each sit-up.

Tammy reached down and put her hand on Sam's chest. "Stop, you're done." She said, pushing her back onto the mat. "Breathe."

Sam lay back, her arms out to her sides, taking in great gulps of air. Her breathing tapered off quickly, and in less than a minute she was breathing normally. She held her hand out, and Tammy grabbed her wrist, pulling her upright as she moved to the side and let her pull her feet up under her.

"Well?" Carter asked.

"Four eighty-seven in eleven minutes fifty seconds." She grinned. She held out a water bottle. "Swish, rinse, spit...then you can drink."

"You wanna get in on this, or you wanna watch?" She asked Jennifer as she stood up. "I was going to workout with her, but she blew me away on the first set, so I've been spotting her on each exercise to see what she can do."

"What have you done so far? And how long have you been at it?"

"We've been up here a little over an hour. I know I told you noon, but she was getting antsy, so I figured she needed to burn off some energy." Tammy said as she took the water bottle from Sam. "She banged out two hundred sit-ups, then rolled over into a hundred pushups without resting. I made her take a break, then she did two sets of sixty inverted pushups, with a one minute break in between. I made her rest for five minutes after that. Then another hundred pushups, and two hundred sit-ups, again with no break in between. I made her stop for another five, and talked to her about letting her muscles rest between workouts, then we started on the set you saw her doing when you came up."

She looked down at Sam. "You wanna show Jenn what else you can do?"

Carter nodded, and Tammy reached down, pulling her to her feet.

"Gimme a walkover, into a walkover, into a handstand, do a planche, then five press-ups. Bring your feet back up, do another press-up, then power out onto your feet."

Carter nodded, and moved over into a clear spot on the mat. She took a breath, then took two quick steps and went into an aerial walkover, then another walkover that ended in a handstand. She held the handstand for a moment, than her legs opened slowly, spreading until they were at almost seventy degrees in relation to the floor.

"She'll be able to get her legs out horizontal tomorrow, maybe the day after. She could only do forty-five degrees the first time she did that." Tammy said quietly.

They watched as she did five press-ups, brought her feet smoothly back up over her body, held the position, then eased down into another press-up. She bounced a couple times on her hands, then drove her body upward, arching up smoothly and landing on her feet.

"Wow! That's was incredible!" Jennifer said in amazement.

"She cheated on the powerout," Tammy said. "Did you see her bounce before she drove out?"

"I had to," Carter said. "My left arm was starting to give."

"I didn't see it." Tammy said. "You were clean till right at the end. Your leg extension was better this time. You almost hit seventy degrees."

"Really? Lemme try something." Sam said, holding out her hand. "Spot me."

Tammy stepped closer and took her hand. Carter eased down into a vertical split, her legs going out in front and in back of her. She finally stopped, bouncing slightly as she bottomed out.

"That's it, I can't get any lower."

"You've got less than a hand width between you and the floor." Jennifer said. "What can you do side to side?"

"It's at least double that." Sam grinned. "I need to stretch the muscles some more, but I should be able to go flat in a couple days."

"I did gymnastics in high school, I was all state my junior and senior year." She said as she brought her legs under her and let Tammy help her up. "But it's been ages since I've done anything like that."

She looked over at Tammy. "I'm starving, Can we go get something to eat?"

"After that performance? Sure. You want hot or cold?"

"Cold is fine, I don't want a lot, I just think I need to get something in me."

"Tuna, or tuna salad on wheat?" Tammy asked as they headed for the stairs.

"Can I have chips?" Carter asked.

"Sure," Tammy laughed. "Ten chips. But you can only have one piece of bread."

"Awww, That's not right!" Carter pouted. "I worked hard! I should get a reward!"

"You're right. I'm sorry." Tammy said, turning and taking her in her arms, and kissing her lightly. "You can eat all the tuna you want. With one piece of bread. And ten chips."

"Awwwww!" She whined, stomping down the stairs.

They saw her going into the hallway as they came off the stairs.

"I'm gonna take a shower. Have it ready when I get back!" She called back over her shoulder."

Interior-Kitchen

1215 Hours

"That was mean of you." Jennifer said as she went over to the fridge. She got out a bottle of apple juice, and a glass from the cabinet. "You're not gonna go with her?"

"Nah, I can see her from here. And she needs some alone time. She'll sulk for a few minutes, and she'll be in a good mood when she gets back." Tammy said as she opened a three cans of tuna and drained the water from them. "Hand me the mayo, will you? And the pickle relish."

Keller handed her the mayo, then the relish, and took her place at the table.

Carter came back into the kitchen a few minutes later. She was in a fresh tanktop and panties. She walked up behind Tammy and wrapped her arms around her waist and laid her head on her back.

"I feel good." She said. "I haven't worked out like that in forever. Can we do it again later?" She raised her head up and nibbled on Tammy's ear. "Or maybe go downstairs and make-out a little...in the pit?"

"Mmmmm, I like that idea." Tammy said as she spread a thick layer of tuna salad on two pieces of bread. "I need to work up a sweat myself!"

"Meanie!" Sam said, smacking her on the shoulder.

"I sure hope that pit cleans up easy..." Tammy laughed as she turned around. "With both of us sweating all over it, I mean."

Sam went to wrap her arms around her, but Tammy held the plate in front of her. "Eat first, play later. What do you want to drink, the usual?"

Sam nodded as she took the plate and sat down, and a moment later Tammy sat a glass of ice and two cokes next to her, then opened a big bag of chips and sat it on the table.

"I'm gonna hop in the shower too, I'll be right back. Jenn, hang around for a bit?"

Jennifer nodded, and watched as Sam took a big bite of her sandwich, moaning happily, her eyes rolling in her head.

Carter ate steadily until Tammy got back. By that time, she had eaten three sandwiches and half the bag of chips. She was eating tuna salad right out of the bowl when Tammy walked in, drying her hair.

"Bet you didn't save any for me, did you?" Tammy said as she opened the freezer.

"Sawwy." Sam mumbled around a mouthful.

"That's okay. I'll just eat...lemme see, chocolate ripple looks good!" She said.

"Awwww, don't." Sam whined, but her eyes were glassy, and she started to smile again almost immediately.

Tammy took the lid off a carton and tossed it on the table as she came around and sat at her usual place. Two handwritten R's were showing on the top of the lid as it sat on the table.

"You're still cruisin' on those endorphins, huh sweetie?" She smiled as she dipped out spoonful of ice cream.

"Is that what it is?" Jennifer asked. "I was starting to wonder."

"Yup, natural high. My baby probably still has four times what she's used too surging through her system, and she feels so gooooood. She is sooooo stoned." She reached out and pinched Sam's cheek. "I wish she could take a nap, but that ain't gonna happen."

"I was looking at the telemetry, and I noticed that her endorphins were way up. She hit six times what she was at this morning. Her estrogen is way up too. We probably won't have to stim..."

"Don't bet on it." Tammy grinned.

Carter stood up suddenly, and started for the door. She turned around and picked up her glass, and started back out.

"Where ya goin, Sam?" Tammy asked her.

"Office. I just thought of something, and I need to work on a few things." They heard her say as she disappeared down the hall.

Tammy switched views to the office camera, and saw her walk in and sit down a moment later.

"She's gonna be like this for a couple hours, till she comes down a little, but she's not in any danger. I'll keep an eye on her..."

She stopped when she saw Jennifer grinning as she looked at the tablet propped up on the table.

She looked over, and saw Sam holding up a piece of paper with BITCH written on it.

"Don't feel bad," Keller said. "The first one said, I Love You."

As they watched her, they saw her reach out and touch the monitor, a soft smile creasing her lips. Then she touched the desk and the Atlantian computer came up, and she started tapping away at the keyboard, checking some notes every so often as she went through the buildings systems.

"Does that machine have access to the cameras?" Jennifer asked.

"Yes, but I'm the only one that can modify the software."

"That's not why I was asking. She can see us, and she's watching you."

Tammy looked at the tablet again, and a moment later, Carter looked at her monitor, and waved at the camera without taking her eyes off the screen. Tammy waved back, and Carter smiled, then went back to work on the Atlantian machine.

"Do you have any idea what she's working on? I thought she had all the buildings systems configured already." Keller said

"She said something about wanting to check some simulations that she had running. She has something going on in one of the sub basements, we went down last night after you left, and she spent half an hour playing with a device she has down there. Some kind of bridge? She said that McKay messed it up when he did it, but that she had figured it out. I missed alot of what she was talking about because she spent most of the time bitching about how arrogant he is."

"I've heard people talk about that experiment." Keller said. "They put up a bridge or something onto another universe, and brought back another McKay. His sister was here helping them do it. That was before Sam or I got here."

"She was talking about making the bridge jump, and not stay in one place for too long. I think she has that part worked out. She was more concerned about why it wasn't stable coming this way, but I didn't recognize the terms she was using."

Tammy looked back at the tablet. Carter had an application open on her desktop, and the camera was minimized in a corner. She also had a laptop open, and was rotating between the three machines.

"She's not referencing her notes as often, and look at how she's banging away on the ancient machine. Andi said we were intellectual equals, and she was right to a point, our IQ's are close, within 10 points or so." She paused as she watched Carter work on the ancient machine. "But I don't think that's going to last..." She said quietly.

Interior-Office

1435 Hours

Tammy came into the office with a fresh glass of ice and two cokes. She had her laptop under her arm.

"Do you mind if I join you? Jenn went back to the Infirmary, and I don't know where Andi is." She said as she sat the drinks down on the desk, safely away from any papers. She took the other glass and sat it on a table by the door. She sat her laptop on the edge of the desk.

"Huh? Oh yeah, come on in." Carter said absently as she flipped the pages of a thick, hand written book. She found the section she was looking for, and Tammy could see her lips moving as she ran her finger over the page.

"Can I take a look at that book, Sam?" Tammy asked.

Carter glanced up at her, nodded, then started typing on the ancient keyboard again. She checked some calculations on the desktop machine, wrote the numbers down, then wrote a series of symbols under them and typed them into the ancient machine.

Tammy picked up the book, slid a piece of paper between the pages to mark her place, then sat down and started flipping through it.

The book was filled with neatly hand printed notes, in English at the beginning, then again on the edges of the pages later on, but most of it was drawings of ancient buildings, devices, artifacts, and what Tammy assumed were ancient symbols. It was a journal that had expanded into a reference book as the author learned more about his subject. The pages filling the last third of it were nothing but row after row, and blocks of symbols, with English translations under them. She recognized a few that she had seen on different stargates over the years, and around Atlantis.

"These pages toward the end, and the stuff you're working on, that's all in ancient?" She asked.

"Uh huh."

"And you can read that?"

"Some of it." Carter said, running her finger over the screen on the ancient machine. She typed for a minute, checked her work, then looked over at Tammy. "Why?"

"I'm just curious." Tammy said. "How much of it could you read last week?"

Carter looked like she had hit her upside the head with a brick. She looked back at the machine, then back at Tammy.

"Oh my god, you're right." She said softly. "I've only been glancing at Daniel's translations when I hit something I wasn't familiar with."

"I know, I was watching. But you knew that." Tammy flipped back to the front of the book. "Daniel Jackson wrote this?"

"Yeah, Jonas Quinn added to it while he was with SG-1, after Daniel ascended." Carter said as she turned back to her machines. "Jonas made some breakthroughs that made it possible for Daniel to finally translate most of the ancient language."

"And now you understand it well enough to type forty words a minute on that thing."

"What are you trying to say, Tammy?" Carter asked her, reaching over and picking up the glass and a coke.

"I'm not saying anything. I just want to make sure I understand what's going on." Tammy said as she sat the book back on the desk. "And just to clarify, last week, you had a passable understanding of ancient, and today you understand it well enough to do calculations for that gizmo you've got in the basement?"

Carter looked at her, but before she could say anything, Tammy went on.

"I may not understand high level physics, but I recognize it when I see it. It shares alot of the same math I deal with in chemistry." She leaned back and stretched her feet out in front of her.

"I guess I'm busted." Carter said. "I wasn't trying to hide anything, and if you want the truth, I hadn't realized that I was going as fast as I was. I've made alot of progress this afternoon. I was setting up simulations with different parameters this time, to make sure it doesn't bite me in the ass like it did McKay."

"So you want to tell me what that thing downstairs does? You were talking it about it last night, but alot of it bounced off my forehead. And you spent more time bitching about McKay. You really don't like that guy, do you?"

"It's a Space Time Matter Bridge, or a bridge between universes. I've got it configured to jump from reality to reality every few micro seconds, suck a little energy from each, and send it back to us, where we capture it and use it." She shook her head. "I don't know why someone didn't think of it earlier. The bridge McKay set up was locked onto one universe, and it almost tore it apart. That's why the alternate McKay showed up."

She stood up and stretched, then looked at Tammy. "Would you like to go for a walk? Outside I mean? I haven't been outside in weeks, other than a few minutes on a balcony every now and then, and I miss it."

"Sure." Tammy said as she stood up. "Where did you want to go? And do we need shoes? I don't think you have any here."

"There's boots and sneakers in my closet, but I'd rather go barefoot." Sam smiled. "There's a small park at the base of the building, on the oceanside, no one will see us. We have to take the elevator down one floor, then take another one down to ground level because of the way I have them locked out."

Interior-Kitchen

1745 Hours

Andi Samuels was in the kitchen when Sam and Tammy returned. She announced that she was cooking dinner that evening, and ordered them out. Sam went back to her office, while Tammy went over to the Central Tower to finish clearing out her quarters.

She packed up what little she had left in her locker, stripped the bed, and left a short note for her current roommate. Her next stop was the commissary, where she got toppings for sundaes and batteries for her boombox, then went on to the mess. The steward behind the counter looked at her like she was crazy when she told him that she wanted six quarts each of chocolate ripple and french vanilla, and three each of chocolate and rocky road. She'd had to call Keller to have her order the mess sergeant to give it to her. She took six sundae glasses from the fountain to make up for the aggravation.

She went back to her suite, put her things and the ice cream away, and straightened up in the living room. After a quick shower, she changed into her favorite jeans, and a blue chambray work shirt. She was bummed because she couldn't wear her favorite perfume, but she was getting used to going unscented. Just before she left, she laid out her korathis and massage oil, and made sure that the batteries in her boombox were fresh.

The first thing she noticed when she stepped out of the porter was the delightful smell of italian cooking. The second thing she noticed was Jennifer Keller on her knees, feeling around under the couch.

Tammy couldn't resist, and she walked over quietly, leaned close and ran her hand over the full, round cheek of her ass. Jennifer squealed and leapt forward, bumped her head on the back of the couch and fell face first onto the floor.