Confirming Carter Bk. 01 Ch. 05

"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 eighteen. 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 the 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 ma'am me?" Carter said, glaring at the door after her.

Interior-Ops Center, Central Tower

1400 Hours

Sheppard met Jennifer at the porter near the Ops Center, and led her up to his office. He closed the door as he waved her into a seat, then took his place behind his desk.

"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 getting hurt herself." 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 into 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 Col. 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 teach me ancient and show me how to use it." 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 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 fortieth 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."