Confirming Carter Bk. 01 Ch. 06

Day Six

Interior-Andi Samuel's Bedroom

0342 Hours

Tammy threw the dart up, watching it carefully. She grinned when it stuck in the high ceiling on the first try. Tugging gently on the line coming down from it, she satisfied herself that it was secure.

She let the thin line out, stopping when she saw that it was level with Andi's cheek, and tied it off. She picked up the shaving cream, and shook it, then slowly sprayed it into Andi's hand, cupping her other hand around it to reduce the noise. She stopped when she had her hand covered with foam from fingertips to wrist in a pile three inches deep.

She stood up, pulled the thread back, and released it so the feather tied to the end brushed Andi's face lightly, then she backed away until she was just outside the doorway.

She watched as Andi stirred in her sleep, turning her head, her face directly under the feather. She heard her grunt, and started moving toward the door. There was a muffled splat, followed by a sputterering sound, and Tammy held in her laughter as she darted out the door, and ran down the hall.

She burst out laughing as the elevator doors closed in front of her.

Interior-Bedroom

0401 Hours

"Where have you been?" Sam asked as Tammy slipped into bed beside her.

"I went and got a glass of water. Go back to sleep."

"Uh huh." Carter grinned to herself as she moved closer, throwing one leg over Tammy's. She knew she'd hear about it from someone in the morning.

Interior-Conference Room, Central Tower

1120 Hours

Jennifer Keller sat at the end of the table in the conference room off the Ops Center. Col. Sheppard and Dr. McKay sat on either side, just down from her, while Gen. Landry, Gen. O'Niell, and Richard Woolsey of the IOA, appeared on video conference, each on their own monitor at the foot of the table.

"I know you've all been curious about Col. Carter's absence over the past week." She said slowly. "And she's asked me to thank you for your concern. She's also asked me to explain why she's been absent."

She paused, looking at each of the men around the table. "Five days ago, Col. Carter was exposed to an herb commonly consumed by Athosian women. The exposure was voluntary, and was taken under the advice and supervision of a consulting psychiatrist, Dr. Andi Samuels." She hesitated, then continued. "The herb has been confirmed to have aphrodisiac properties, which appear to have an effect that is considerably stronger on Terran females, than on the local Athosian females."

"I'm sorry, Dr. Keller. But could you get to the point? And where is Col. Carter?" Gen Landry said, sounding irritated.

"No," Keller said, looking at his monitor. "This is difficult enough as it is, and I've been asked to give a full explanation of events." She paused again. "Col. Carter is in Atlantis, but has been moved into new quarters that we prefer remain private at this time." She glanced over at Sheppard, and he gave her the barest of nods.

"That doesn't sound promising." Woolsey muttered.

"What's wrong with her?" O'Neill asked quietly, his face ashen.

"The herb had an unexpected side effect, which has resulted in ongoing personality changes, physical modifications, enhancements would be a more accurate description, and most startling, a reduction in her metabolism. We're not sure if this is a reaction to the herb itself, or if its reacting to something that she was previously exposed to in her service with the SGC."

"Yes, yes...But what does all that mean, Doctor? What's the bottom line here?" Landry asked, the irritation obvious in his voice now.

Keller glanced at the monitors at the foot of the table. Landry was staring at her red faced with anger, Woolsey stared back at her blandly, waiting for the hammer to fall, and O'Neill had his face in his hands, shaking his head slowly.

"From the personality perspective, she has become sexual addict, where she had little, or no interest before. She is currently engaging in active sex, mainly masturbation, approximately thirty times a day, and the rate appears to be increasing. She has also had three cardiac events as a direct result of sexual stimulation." She said bluntly, then waited as they absorbed this. "She is also exhibiting strong exhibitionist tendencies, which is why she has withdrawn from contact with base personnel."

"Excuse me. Doctor. Would you define a 'cardiac event' please." Woolsey asked. He didn't do it, but Jennifer could hear the finger quotes in his voice.

"It means just what it sounds like, Mr. Woolsey. Her heart stopped, and she had to be revived with artificial measures."

"Jezzus!" Landry gasped. "How much of this stuff did she take, and how long has she been on it?"

"The exposure was approximately one tenth of a milligram. Call it ten micrograms. That's about one fifth of a standard grain of salt, to give you some perspective. She has consumed the herb on only one occasion. As I said before, this was done under the advice and supervision of a physician."

"And the rest of it?" Woolsey asked quietly.

"Physical modifications, or enhancements include, but are not limited to, increased vitality, strength, range of motion and kinesthetic awareness, or knowledge of her body's position in space. In regards to her senses, she is currently able to hear a whisper at over one hundred feet, as well as accurately identify smells at the same distance. Her vision does not appear to be affected, she is still 20/10 in both eyes. Her sense of touch also appears to be unaffected. With the exception of her response to sexual stimulus."

She paused again before moving on to the next item on her list. No one said anything, so she continued.

"She is also showing signs of...not a reduction in age, but a reduction in aging. Which brings me to the next point." She paused again, taking several deep breaths before continuing.

"We've been monitoring her cellular decay over the last few days, and we'll have to continue monitoring her before we can give you a definitive answer on this. But as of this morning, she appears to be aging at roughly one half of one percent of the rate you would expect of a normal human female."

"Wow." Sheppard said softly.

Jennifer smiled, and looked over at him. "That's what I said when I saw the results."

"This isn't funny Doctor." Landry said. "Have you begun try..."

"I'm not finished yet, General." She said, cutting him off. "In consultation with the CDC, Currie Labs in Paris, the Beijing Medical Standards Institute, and more than a dozen of the top independent diagnostic practioners on Earth as a blind study of a fictional test subject, we've determined that her condition is contagious. Col. Carter will not be able to return to Earth. If she does, she'll have to be kept under permanent quarantine for the rest of her life. Which may be a very, very long time."

She continued before any of them could say anything. "Dr. Samuels has already been tested, and at the moment, appears to be unaffected, as have the other members of the expedition staff who have been caring for her. But we plan on continuing to test them all into the foreseeable future. I am currently awaiting results of my own tests as we speak."

"How is the contagion transmitted?" McKay asked, looking at her with a stone faced glare.

"Through bodily fluids." She said, looking right at him. "Specifically, vaginal secretions."

McKay gasped, and Sheppard grinned, turning his face away from the cameras until he got himself under control.

"So much for don't ask, don't tell," Landry said lightly. "I guess all those rumors were true after all."

"Actually, no General, they weren't. Col. Carter had her first lesbian experience the day she ingested the Athosian herb." She looked at the monitors again. "And I think that's a heartless thing to say about someone under your command. Someone I'm sad I have to remind you, has pulled your, my, and Earth's ass out of the fire more times than any of us care to remember. You should be ashamed of yourself!"

"You're right, Doctor," Landry said. "I'm sorry. And please pass my apologies along to Col. Carter."

"You...when di..." McKay sputtered.

"Shut up, Rodney," Jennifer said curtly, giving him a withering glare. "It's none of your damned business!"

McKay shrank down in his chair, looking down at the table.

Keller glanced at the monitors again, and saw O'Neill walking toward the door of his office. "Please stay general, there's more." She waited for O'Neill to sit back down, then pressed a button on her laptop, and took several sheets of paper from the folder in front of her, sliding sets over to Sheppard and McKay.

"I'm transmitting Col. Carter's resignation as commander of the Atlantis expedition, and her resignation of her Air Force Commission. She would like both to go into effect immediately."

She gave everyone a few moments to look over the documents, then continued. "Colonel, no...Sam has asked that she be allowed to remain in Atlantis. She feels that she can still make a contribution to the mission, and thinks that her knowledge and experience would warrant a position as head of a separate, independent department for a variety of different research and exploitation efforts."

She paused, then added, "Sam understands that she will have to isolate herself from any personnel that may be affected by her condition, which at this point, is only Terran females. We'll have to do more testing to determine if any males might be affected based on their DNA make up, but I'm pretty sure we'll be able to come up with some kind of test to determine who might be at risk."

"I don't have a problem with that," Woolsey said cheerfully, "Apparently this situation isn't as grave as you originally led us to believe, Dr. Keller. If Col...I'm sorry, if Ms Carter wishes to remain on Atlantis, as a working, contributing asset, subject to the IOA's jurisdiction of course, I'm sure the committee would welcome her involvement."

"Jezzus, what an asshole." Sheppard muttered under his breath.

"I agree with you Colonel. And it's still Col. Carter, Mr. Woolsey. I'll have to take this to the Pentagon. But there's no way we can force her to stay in the Air Force, even if we wanted to." He paused, looking down at his laptop. "She really covered all the bases didn't she? I suppose she already has transportation and a safe haven set up in case we say no?"

"I sorry, General. I have no knowledge of any such plans or arrangements." Keller said lightly.

"I'll take that as a yes, Doctor." Landry smiled. "If I know our girl, she had everything set up before she outlined how she wanted this meeting to go with you. Col. Sheppard, would you turn Dr. Keller's laptop around please?"

Sheppard reached over and spun the laptop toward a camera before Jennifer could get to it.

"Just as I thought," Landry said when he saw the IM window on the screen. "She's been watching and listening this whole time, feeding you lines when things looked like they might get tight."

Landry leaned back in his chair, looking relieved. "Okay, Sam." He said. "We'll try it your way. I'm sorry this has happened to you, but if you think you can make this a win/win, I'll back you on it."

Sheppard's eyes widened suddenly, and he reached out and pressed a key on the keyboard.

"Thank you, General." Carter said as she paced back and forth in front of the window wall of her apartment. "And it's Dr. Carter, not Ms, Mr. Woolsey. I'd appreciate it if you would have a representative contact me as soon as possible, to work out the details of my contract and compensation package. I'll transmit an outline of what I have in mind for my new department by close of business today."

"Excellent, Dr. Carter. I look forward to seeing it." Woolsey said, completely nonplussed to hear her join the meeting. "Would you include your salary, personal, or other requirements along with that outline? I prefer not to go into negotiations blind, if you don't mind."

"Are you going to be okay, Sam?" O'Neill said quietly, looking into the camera.

"Beats the fuck outta me, Jack." She laughed. "But on a scale of one to ten, I'd say this is a solid forty. I feel better than I have in years, I have no responsibilities except to myself at the moment, and I've dumped alot of excess baggage." She paused. "You want the truth, I think I'm sitting on that win/win Gen. Landry was talking about."

"I'd like to see you."

Sheppard reached out and pressed another key on the laptop, and she appeared on the overhead monitor above the door.

"Like I said, Jack. I've dumped alot of baggage." She laughed and turned, pacing back and forth, naked in front of them as the camera panned out. She faced the camera again, did a quick pirouette, followed by a back flip ending in a vertical split. She rolled out of the split with a scissor kick that brought her back to her feet, then continued. "That train you're looking for pulled outta the station a long time ago, and neither of us got on. Oh well, shit happens."

O'Neill's monitor went dark, and Sam laughed. "Fuck him if he can't take a joke."

"This would be an example of the exhibitionist tendencies, personality changes, and enhanced physical abilities you mentioned, Dr. Keller?" Landry said wryly.

"Yes sir," Jennifer smiled. "It's been diff...Sam do you mind? They really should know."

"Nah, go fer it, hon." Carter said as she did a handstand, spreading her legs out in a planche, and started doing press-ups.

All four men's eyes went wide at the display. None of them said anything.

"It's been difficult, if not impossible to get her to wear clothes. She finds them too restrictive. I have to warn you, that when you interact with her, she will probably be as naked as she is now. And you can expect her to wander off unexpectedly to masturbate, that's if she doesn't do it right in front of you." Keller paused, looking around the room. All four men were watching Sam on the monitor. "Her mind has not been affected negatively as near as we can tell, she still has full command of her faculties, and we have observed no loss of memory. But her attention span for anything other than sex is...well, limited. She does, however, function at a high level, even in a state of extreme sexual arousal. We've had her doing advanced computational equations in her head while subjected to electro-stimulation of the clitoris and Grafenberg, or G-spot, and masturbated vaginally."

"Mmmmmm, that was fun! I wanna do that again!" Sam purred as she lifted one hand from the floor, moving it between her legs, beginning to rub her clit. She continued doing press-ups on one hand as she began masturbating, showing no obvious sign of strain.

"Oh my god!" Rodney gushed, his face turning cherry red.

"I rest my case," Jennifer laughed, spinning the laptop back toward her, and turning off the feed from Sam's camera. "As you can see, almost anything takes her off on a sexual tangent. Any mention of sexual activity is guaranteed to result in a prolonged masturbation session."

"Don't I have a pretty pussy, Rodney? Too bad you'll nev..."

Jennifer turned off the audio from Sam's apartment, and looked up at the table, trying not to smile.

"I think we're done with Dr. Carter's part of this meeting." She said lightly. "Mr. Woolsey, I'll ensure that you have that package by close of business, local time. Gen Landry, if you'd contact me when you have confirmation of the pentagon's response, please? You can both consider me Dr. Carter's official liaison until she decides to replace me. I will be staying on as Chief Medical Officer of Atlantis, until such a time as the IOA sees fit to replace me. At which point, I will transfer into the employment of Dr. Carter as her personal physician. Either way, I'm staying in Atlantis for the foreseeable future."

Both men nodded, and their monitors went dark. Jennifer closed her laptop, put the folder on top of it, and stood up. "Then I think we're finished here. John, would you wait a moment?"

"What?" Rodney sputtered. "I'm the head of Research and Technology on this base, and I should be cons..."

"I'm pretty sure Sam is going to get her own independent department, Rodney, sooner, rather than later. And I would suggest that you not push it. Like she once told me, her contacts go alot higher than yours. You could find yourself out of a job, or even worse, working for her again."

Rodney blanched at the prospect.

"That's what she thought you'd say." Jennifer laughed.

She held her hand out to Sheppard. "Come with me John, we need to talk."

She reached in her pocket and pulled out her comm unit, tapping it lightly and waiting for the beep. "Sam?" she said softly.

"Go ahead, Jenn."

"They bought it. Didn't even ask for copies of anything. They'll do that later though. Woolsey's one smart sonofabich, and he's gonna be a problem if we're not careful."

"I can handle him," Carter laughed. "How'd my show go over?"

"Perfect! You even had me fooled. We're on our way, I'll see you in little bit."

"She wants to see you." Jennifer said softly, glancing at Sheppard as they stepped out onto the balcony. She led him down the stairs, stopping just short of the transporter.

She turned so she was facing him. "She's not the woman we knew John, I hope you understand that. If you don't, you need to get your head around it fast. She's mostly under control, but she has lapses. What you just heard in there about what she does was mostly bullshit, but it has a basis in fact. If she doesn't get...well, we can go into that later."

"What does she want from me?" Sheppard asked quietly.

"You're her friend John, you've stood by her, cared for her and about her, she knows she can depend on you, and she doesn't want to lose that. Or you." Jennifer looked around, seeing several people approaching. She led him into the porter and pressed several symbols on the pad, a moment later, the doors opened behind them.

Interior-Keller's Ingress Office

1205 Hours

"We're in her building, but she's several floors above us. You're not ready to see her yet. Come on, one of my suites is just down the hall."

"One of your suites?"

Jennifer grinned at him, holding up her free hand, rubbing her thumb and first two fingers together in a universal gesture. "Perks, baby, perks. We're going to be taking over this building, and probably most of the southwest pier eventually. She has lots of plans she never thought she'd get through the IOA. We're gonna make Atlantis a money making operation in two galaxies if she has her way."

She stopped and held her hand to a pad on the wall, and the door swooshed open. She led him into the suite, letting go of his hand and twirling in circles like a little girl. "Isn't this great? It was already decorated like this. I'm going to make this my office when I go to work for Sam." Walking over to the windows, she looked out over the city. "She found this building the first week she was in Atlantis, on what she calls one of her walking tours. She fell in love with the suite up on one forty-four, that's her place. She been living there part time for several months."

"I knew she disappeared into the city sometimes. You know I have her STID programmed in my jumper so I can find her if I need to. So I knew she came here. I just didn't know why." He paused, then added. "Are you trying to hide here? If you are, you need to try to mask it better. One of the Ops techs mentioned power usage over here the other night. I bet it got logged."

"I know you have her tagged, she was pissed when you came snooping around the other day. And it doesn't matter now if they know we're here. This building is going to be the headquarters of her operations." She stepped over behind the bar, holding up a bottle. "You want something to drink? I'm gonna make a gin and grapefruit juice."