Confirming Carter Bk. 01 Ch. 06

Tammy smiled at him. "If we don't stimulate her periodically, and the frequency varies, depending on hormone and endorphin levels, she lapses into a childlike state. Her sexual aggressiveness ramps up, and she will hit on anyone available. She also either wanders off to masturbate, or just does it wherever she happens to be. When in that condition, she has no control over herself. She's masturbated herself to the point of cardiac arrest once. We embellished a little for the meeting."

She looked up at Carter, then back at Sheppard and continued. "Hormones appear to have the most significant effect. She just had her period, and we only had to give her a fix once a day while that lasted. I haven't figured out what part the endorphins play yet, but she needs a minimum amount in her bloodstream."

"There's also a physical effect if both levels drop below a certain threshold, but I haven't figured out what that threshold is yet, because I didn't get a blood sample following the first event, and it's only happened once since, shortly after her period ended. We got sloppy, and let our guard down."

She looked up at Carter. "We're not going to let that happen again. I promise."

"I know," Sam said, stroking her hair. She looked over at Sheppard. "My girl has masters degrees in Organic Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from Harvard, and a PhD in Pharmacology from Johns Hopkins. She figured most of this out by herself. She's also a highly qualified nurse."

"When the levels drop below the threshold, she starts to go into shock." Tammy went on. "The first time it happened we thought it was just her blood sugar, but quickly determined that it was something else. We did a quick review of the days events, and saw that there appeared to be a time constraint, she had to experience orgasm within a narrow window. That's when we discovered that stimulating her to the point of ejaculation brought her hormone and endorphin levels high enough where she could function almost normally. And the higher the levels, the longer she can go between sessions."

She looked up at Carter again. "That about does it for me. I have to pee, I'll be right back." She got up and walked across the room, disappearing through an arched doorway.

"Do you have any questions, John?" Sam asked, laying out on the couch, then pulling her knees up, hugging them to her chest.

"Are you two a...serious thing?"

She nodded. "Yes, we just see..."

He held up his hand, stopping her. "I don't care. She looks like she's good for you. And it's about time you settled down with someone that has a chance of making you happy. You should give her that chance." He sat up and took a sip from his drink. "I've seen how unhappy you've been, but I didn't think it was my place to say anything. I wish I had now."

"I know, and I'm sorry. I just didn't know what to do. I'm actually glad this happened, it makes this easier. I'm going to get to stay in Atlantis, and still be productive."

"So you were planning on doing the same thing Elizabeth was, disappear into the Pegasus galaxy?"

Her eyes went wide with surprise. "How did you..."

"We talked about it, and I helped her set up her escape plan. The IOA was breathing down her neck, and she wasn't going to be able to hold them off much longer." He sighed, and ran his hand over his face. "If she hadn't been injured, then captured and killed by the Replicators, we were going to fake her death, and relocate her to another planet."

"Oh my god! She never said...We talked about it, when I came to Atlantis that first time, with Cam and Daniel. She told me what she was planning, and I offered to help, but she never said who else was involved."

"So were you planning on relocating, or hunkering down in this building and hiding out? From what Jennifer said, you've already made some modifications to the buildings systems, and to the cities database." He took another sip of his drink. "You missed taking it off the power grid. When I came back the other night, one of the Ops techs mentioned seeing power usage over here."

She nodded. "Actually, I didn't miss it, not completely. I had it set up so that the floors I was using didn't show any usage, but I had started moving Andi, Jenn and Tammy into the lower floors. Bet it freaked them out, seeing power usage, and not being able to nail it down. They probably passed it off as a phantom, since the database shows this building as only being a hundred and thirty floors."

Tammy came strolling back, and sat on the floor next to Sam. She reached back and grabbed her hand, pulling it down and holding it in both of hers. She smiled at Sheppard. "You're handling this very well. Me-n-her, I mean."

"I just told her I thought it was a good thing. You two look good together." He said, smiling back. "I hope you can make it work. She deserves to be happy."

He looked up at Carter. "I'd like to hear more about how you plan on getting around the shipping problems from Earth. They're not going to want to use the ZPM just to ship materials to Pegasus for sale, and going by ship is almost three weeks each way. Prohibitively expensive." He paused, then added. "I guess we could set up another Midway station, the gate bridge is still basically in place, it just needs the joining gates."

"I was planning on doing just that. Rebuilding the intergalactic gate bridge, I mean. But only as a backup. I have an easier solution."

"What's that?"

"Just recharge the ZPM's."

"Do WHAT?" He said, sitting bolt upright, staring at her wide eyed.

"Yup, I've been playing with Rodney's Space Time Matter Bridge research, and I also pulled everything I could find on anything similar anyone else had been doing. I've been shooting stuff back and forth with his sister Jeannie too. A little over a month ago, I figured out how to make the bridge jump from reality to reality, only staying in each one for a few micro seconds, then moving on to the next. That was actually the easy part. Getting it to maintain a constant flow of energy back to us while jumping around was trickier. I still have to do a live test, but it's worked fine in over three hundred simulations using a variety of test conditions."

"Why would you keep something like that to you..." He began, then stopped. His face clouded up with anger. "You were gonna use it as what, a bargaining chip?"

She nodded. "Yeah, something like that. And I'm not going to give them the research either, or tell them how I do it."

"But we could have used that to defend ourselves against the Wraith!" He shouted. "And they could use a fresh ZPM to power the chair in Antarctica. Good god, Colonel! How could you be so heartless?"

"I wasn't being heartless, John. I was being practical." She said evenly. "Like I said, I figured it out a little over a month ago. You know what would have happened if I had said anything. McKay would have hemmed and hawed, and insisted that he have time to go over the research, then the IOA would have demanded that they be allowed to review the material as well. Then they would have drug their heels because of what happened the last time. So they'd still be fucking around, and you'd be exactly where you are now, while I'm ready to do a live test right now if I want."

She grinned at him as she added, "And do I have to remind you that Rodney almost killed you, and destroyed three quarters of a solar system playing with that vacuum point energy device, because he just knew he was smarter than everyone else? He depleted the ZPM last time he played with his STM bridge, instead of charging it. The man is the smartest idiot I know."

She took her hand back from Tammy. "Do you have any ice cream in your suite?" She asked her.

Tammy shook her head. "I took it all upstairs, sorry."

"Stock up, chocolate ripple and french vanilla. Get some hot fudge and whipped cream too. You know, more sundae stuff." She said as she stood up. "I need some upstairs too. I think I went through close to a gallon today."

She started walking for the door. "Come on, let's go back upstairs. If I don't have any up there, one of you is going to have to go down to the mess or commissary and get me some."

They caught up to her as she was stepping into the elevator.

No one spoke on the short ride up, and Sam went right to the freezer. "Shit! I took the last one." She turned to Tammy. "Would you go get some for me? John can stay with me, or you can call Jenn or Andi."

Tammy glanced at John. "I'll call Jenn, and wait till she gets here."

She glanced at Sheppard. "It's not that I don't tru..."

"I understand, it's not a problem. Really."

"...trust you, but its not fair to you, and I won't put her jeopardy again."

She stepped into the next room, and was back a moment later. "She'll be here in a minute." She said. She turned to Carter. "Will you show me some of that stuff you were talking about? I've heard about some of it, and it sounds like fun. I'd like to learn more about it. We talked about it the other day, but didn't really get in to it."

"Probably not a bad idea anyway." Carter said, nodding. "We teach each other our disciplines, then we'll each know what the other is talking about!"

They both laughed, and Sheppard looked back and forth between them, a look of confusion on his face.

"Anybody home?" Jennifer called from the hall.

"We're in the kitchen, Jenn." Tammy said.

"I found this in my freezer," She said as she stepped into the kitchen, holding up a quart of ice cream. She was still wearing her white print dress. "I forgot that I got it earlier. I was getting cravings watching Sam eat it earlier, so I got a couple quarts for me."

"Gimme, gimme, gimme." Carter said, stepping over and grabbing it out of her hand. She ripped the lid off and dropped it on the floor, and stuck her face in it, licking at it as she walked over to the table. She picked up a spoon as she sat down. Wiping her mouth off on her sleeve, she stuck her spoon in, dug out a big spoonful, and shoveled it into her mouth.

"Oh no, girlfriend! You are NOT doing that shit!" Tammy said, bending down and picking up the lid of the container and sitting it on the table. She went over and took the ice cream out of her hand, and slid it down the table out of her reach. "Get up! You have to change your gown! And you just put that on." She pulled Sam to her feet and pulled her out of the kitchen.

Sheppard and Keller could hear Tammy berating her all the way down the hall.

"Hi." Jennifer said, and she gave John a small wave.

He grinned at here. "Is it like that alot around here?"

"Not usually. But she can get pretty feisty when her levels drop. We have to keep an eye on her blood sugar too, she gets bitchy if..."

"I do not!" Carter yelled from the bedroom.

Keller stepped over to the door. "Tammy!" She yelled. "Make her put her ear plugs in! And why isn't she wearing them anyway?"

"Sorry about that." Jennifer grinned at John.

"She could really hear you from her bedroom? How far is that?"

"A hundred and fifty-three feet." Carter yelled.

Jennifer sat down and typed something on the laptop, then turned it so Sheppard could see.

He grinned and nodded, then walked over to the fridge, got another coke and returned to his seat. He opened it, took a sip, and turned to her.

"We went down to the next floor, and picked out a suite for me. Tammy said you passed on it. Why? It's a nice place."

"It was a little too masculine for me. I really didn't like any of the ones I saw on either of the next two floors down. There's two suites on each of those. Then it goes to four, then six each as you go down. You saw my little one on thirty-one. My other one is three times that size. I'll show it to you later if you like."

"Jezzus! The one you brought me up to is five times the size of my quarters! And the one I was just in is even bigger?" A shit eating grin slid across his face. "Too kewl. I think I'm going like working here!"

"You didn't look around?"

"No. I liked the room I walked into, and told them that it was fine."

"Damn. Not as picky about real estate as you are about clothes, are you?" She laughed. "Mine has ten rooms, and I think Andi's has twelve. This place takes up the whole floor. There's only seven rooms, but they're all huge."

They spent the next few minutes talking about the suites in the building. Jennifer did most of the talking. Sheppard didn't really mind, it gave him time to review and digest what he's already heard.

Carter and Tammy came back into the room about twenty minutes later. Sam was wearing a dark grey gown now. She stepped over in front of Sheppard. "I'm sorry, John. What I did was extremely rude. I didn't realize that I was going into my crazy time. I'll be better now, we've taken care of the problem."

"I got blood samples," Tammy said to Keller. "That's what took us so long. She went all whiney on me when I tried to get the before samples, and I had to get physical with her." She remembered Sheppard, and colored slightly as she glanced at him. "I'll process everything later, and send you the results." She continued as she walked around the table. She sat down and clasped her hands in front of her on the table.

"You said that you could do a live test any time you want." Sheppard said. "What does that mean?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know too." Tammy said.

"Well, I'd have to get one, but I could try charging up a ZPM right now if I wanted to. I didn't see any reason to hurry. I wanted to run more simulations. Then this came up. But I have a couple of hundred sims running right now, and I've already had this building running off the power output from the bridge. It's running off of it right now. So it might actually be a good idea to go live on the ZPM's in the next day or so."

"Where would you do something like that?" Sheppard asked. "Rodney had the containment chamber tied into three floors of equipment and computers in the central tower, and all that was tied into the ZPM."

"And where would you get a ZPM?" Tammy asked. "I know it runs the city, but I don't really know what it is. Don't you have to plug it in somewhere?"

"It's a Zero Point Module, or a vacuum energy device. It's really just a fancy battery. I've got one in my office, bottom desk drawer, it's depleted at the moment. There's another one in my foot locker in my quarters. I have access to others. And there's a receptacle for them in subbasement three." Carter said. She looked at Sheppard. "I'd appreciate it if you waited to say anything to anyone. We've only explored, what, fifteen, maybe twenty percent of Atlantis?"

"That sounds about right." He said. "With everything else that's been going on, first with the Wraith, then the Replicators, exploring the city was a low priority item." He paused, then looked up at her. "Wait a minute. Where did you get ZPM's, depleted or otherwise?"

"From you." She grinned.

"From me? I don't remem..."

"Apparently no one else did either. I don't recall the specific mission details, but your team discovered a cache of ancient equipment and materials the first year you were here. Among them, were thirty depleted Zero Point Modules. When I found the receptacle downstairs, I went looking for them. They were buried under a pile of junk in a storeroom near Zelenka's lab. So I took them. I figured that after three years, no one was going to miss them."

"As far as how, like I said, I've been going over the research, and I just refined it a little bit. My STM Bridge device is smaller than this table, and my containment chamber is the size of a washing machine. It only took me a little over a week to build them both, working on my own. They're already in place downstairs."

"So that's what you've been doing here." Sheppard said quietly

"Yeah." She turned to Jennifer. "As soon as we get things settled with the IOA, I'm going to want my STID disabled or removed. In the meantime, I've already setup a blocking field. You know where to find me John, but no one else needs to be able to right now."

"You know, if you give the IAO a fully charged ZPM, and tell them that you can get them more, or charge the ones they have..." Jennifer said slowly. "They'll tear this city apart looking for them. And you."

"Already thought about that, and I'll get to it in a minute." She said. "Like we were talking about John, we've explored very little of the city, mostly the central tower and the area around it. This is the main building for this pier, it's central tower if you will. I haven't checked, but I'm betting that the main buildings on the other two piers are set up with a receptacle for a ZPM too. It just makes sense. Redundancy. Why put all your power in one place, you want to have a backup somewhere. Right?"

Sheppard nodded.

"So I'm thinking, with a ZPM on all three outer piers, that takes the strain off the mains in the central tower, especially when you're using the stardrive. Make sense so far?"

They all nodded.

"Now, back to your last question Jennifer. Let them come. They won't be able to get at me. I'm gonna have a shield."

She sat back, smiling smugly while all three of them threw questions at her. She let them burn themselves out, then continued.

"I have control of the systems in this building. This suite belonged to either an administrator, or a senior engineer, somebody big in city operations. I have direct access into all the systems on the southwest pier, and one of them is a shield." She looked around the table. "I'm thinking that in flight, the three subsidiary shields interlocked, and provided protection for the entire city. The main shield could be run at reduced power to cover just the central section if needed, and tie into the other three, or ramped up and extended if it looked like one of the outer shields might fail. I may be wrong, but that's how I'd do it."

"Sonofabich. You might just be able to get away with it." Sheppard said softly.

"Even if I can't put charge in a ZPM, if I pulled the shield in to the base of the tower like you did when you moved the city here, I could hold them off forever on the power I'm pulling in through the STM bridge."

"But I'm getting way ahead of myself. Jenn already told you that this building, and eventually the southwest pier, is going to be the headquarters of my operations. What I'm going to get out of this is being able to stay here in Atlantis, and living comfortably here in my tower. Throw in the satisfaction of doing what I love, figuring out how shit works, and I'll be one happy camper."

"I'm not going to need money as long as I stay here, except to pay senior staff and buy supplies. I'm going to make the IOA provide transportation, logistics and manual labor. And somewhere along the line, some whiz kid is going to ask themselves, 'if we're doing the leg work, what do we need her for?'"

She grinned again. "That's where the research arm comes in. I'm going to suck every bit of research out of Atlantis that I can and get it under my direct control, keeping the really fun stuff for myself and a select team. So when they try to take the exploitation division away from me, I'll cut off the flow of information, along with the related functions, and make them come begging. That'll only work once or twice, but by then, I'll have come up with some other way to hold them off."

Sheppard got up and came around the table. He stopped beside her chair, dropping to one knee. "My queen," he said, bowing his head, "I offer my sword and my fealty in your service."

Carter laughed, reaching down and tapping him lightly with her spoon on either shoulder. She lifted his chin and smiled at him. "I'm going to hold you to that, Sir John."

He nodded as he stood up, taking her hand. He reached over and took Tammy's hand, and drew them together. "A queen needs her consort." He said quietly, holding them together until their fingers began twining together on their own. He released them and walked over to the door.