Confirming Carter B. 01

Day Seven

Interior-Kitchen

0750 Hours

There were five of them around the table now, Carter was at her usual place at the head of the table, Tammy in her place beside her. Andi was across from her, while Sheppard was at the foot of the table, with Jennifer just down from him.

They had eaten breakfast, and were reviewing the events of the night before.

Tammy raised her head suddenly, her eyes wide. She gripped Sam's hand so tightly that she cried out.

"Oowwww! Tammy, wha..." Carter said, trying to pull her hand away.

"Tammy? Are you al..." Jennifer asked as she stood up, moving toward her.

Samuels was on her feet too, but Tammy looked around, then shook her head.

"The bridge. It's radiation or some kind of energy leaking from the fucking bridge!"

"What are you talking about, Tammy?" Andi asked.

"Turn around, Tammy. Let me look at you." Keller said, turning her head and raising an eyelid with her fingers.

Tammy pushed her away, and looked around at them.

"Something from her bridge is affecting her. Both times she's had a major incident, when her brain started to reconfigure, she had been playing with that fucking bridge."

She looked at Carter. "Think about it. The first time, when you lost your speech and grew new brain cells, we had been down there the night before. Then last night, we were in the power room, just down the hall, Andi and Jenn were affected while the ZPM was charging."

"That does sound like the most likely cause." Andi said. "I just got flushed, like I was having a hot flash, but Jennifer got arou...She reacted too. Just differently."

Sheppard looked at Keller, and she grinned sheepishly, shrugging her shoulders.

"Um, can you do that again?" He said, then reached in his pocket and pulled out his comm. He put it on as he stood up, "Go on Sheppard." He said as he stepped out into the hall.

Jennifer blushed furiously, looking to see if Sheppard could hear, then burst out laughing. "Oh my god!" She giggled. "I almost raped him when we got back to my place." She turned to Andi, laying her hand over hers. "We ate a late dinner, but it was delicious. Thank you."

"How many times?" Tammy asked.

"Once, before we came up here," Jennifer said, blushing as she looked down at the table. "Then four more times after we ate. It just wouldn't go down!"

"Wow, I'm impressed." Tammy said with a smile. She looked over at Andi, but she was tapping at her tablet, and didn't look up.

"You might be right." Carter said. "I was feeling lightheaded, and my fingers and toes were going numb while it charged up. I..."

"Andi, Jennifer, can I have the room please?" Tammy said in an even voice, looking at Sam.

She waited till they had stepped from the room before she spoke. She just looked at Carter for a moment. Sam refused to meet her eyes.

"You lied to me. I asked you twice, and you said you were fine both times." She said slowly.

Carter didn't answer, but slid her hand over toward her.

"I'm sorry." she said softly after a moment. "I didn't think it was anything, and we had to..."

"No, That's not what we're talking about. I would have let you finish, I know that it was important to do that test." Tammy said. She took her hand and squeezed her fingers gently.

"You can't do that, Sam. You have to be honest with me. I know that I'm going to have to let you do things that will put you...us, in danger. I can accept that." She paused, her eyes filling with tears as she looked at her. "But I have to know what's going on, everything, no matter how small, so we can be ready in case something happens later. Do you understand that?"

Carter nodded, and she looked up a Tammy. "I won't do it again. I promise." She said, her voice barely a whisper. Her eyes dropped back to the table, and flicked over toward their joined hands. "Do...do you sti..."

"Of course I do." Tammy smiled, squeezing her had again. "Do we need a minute, or can I call Jenn and Andi back?"

"Let's talk to them. They need to know too." She said. "I'm really sorry, Tammy."

"It's okay. We're good." Tammy looked toward the door. "Andi, Jenn? You want to come back in?" she called.

They came back in and sat down, and they started to pick up where they had left off.

Sheppard stepped back into the room and looked at Carter. "I have to go over to my office. A coded databurst came in for me. I'll be back as soon as I can." He looked over at Keller. "Walk me out?" He said, holding his hand out to her.

They walked to the porter, and he stopped in front of the doors. "I had a great time." He said as he took her in his arms. "I'd like to come back, maybe take the rest of the weekend off. Once you're sure she's going to be okay, I mean."

"I'd like that." Jennifer whispered, laying her head on his chest.

He tipped her head up, and kissed her again, then stepped back, into the porter. The doors closed in front of him.

Jennifer walked back into the kitchen, and saw Carter grinning at her. "So he wants to spend the weekend, huh?"

Jennifer nodded, grinning back at her.

Interior-SGC, Earth

0800 Hours

"I have a databurst to send to Atlantis, Walter." Landry said lightly. He pulled out a chair and sat down next to Sgt. Harriman. "Dial the gate please."

"Yessir." Harriman said as he started typing at his keyboard. "We have a scheduled dial up at sixteen hundred, sir."

"It's critical that they get this as soon as possible, Walter." Landry said. He looked up as the vortex burst from the gate, and the event horizon established.

"Is the databurst in the system, sir?" Harriman asked, turning to his laptop and bringing up the message screen.

"No, it's on this." Landry said as he plugged a flash drive into the laptop. "Send it from there."

"If I send it from that flash drive sir, there won't be any record of it in the database." Harriman said, glancing at the general out of the corner of his eye. "I'm not supposed to do that."

"This is classified, Walter. Do it on my authority." Landry said casually. He watched as Harriman opened a message window, typed in 'priority databurst' in the subject, then 'see attached' in the message box. He found the file on the drive, and added it, then hit send.

A moment later Harriman said, "Atlantis confirms they received the databurst sir."

Landry pulled the flash drive from the slot and stood up.

"Thank you, Walter." Landry said as he walked to the door. He stopped and looked back. "Walter?"

"Yessir?" Harriman asked as he turned around.

"Why didn't you say chevron locked as they did it?" Landry asked him.

"It was just you and me sir..."

"I like it when you do that, Walter." Landry grinned. "So keep it up."

"Yessir." Harriman said, trying not to smile.

Landry went back to his office. He had already disconnected the network cable from his laptop, so he felt safe enough doing what he did next. He plugged the drive into his laptop, and did a low level format on it. When it was finished, he copied pictures of his daughter and his dog onto it. He repeated the process several times, then copied the pictures onto the drive again, and took it out of the slot. Opening his desk drawer, he put it in the tray next to the three identical ones he had there.

Interior-Ops Center

0815 Hours

"Send that databurst to my terminal." Sheppard said as walked toward his office.

"Yessir." The duty tech replied as he leaned over his console and began typing.

Sheppard went into his office, brought up his terminal and opened the databurst. He took a code book from his desk drawer, checked the calendar, and ran his finger down the list of codes. He typed one into his keyboard, and a video window opened.

"Col Sheppard, I wanted to thank you for your help yesterday arranging the meeting with Col. Carter." Gen Landry began. "As we discussed, you will be in command of the expedition until the IOA appoints a new commander. They haven't given me any indication of who that might be, and I don't want to speculate."

Sheppard stopped the recording and started it over. Landry was doing something with his hands, and Sheppard wanted to get a second look in case he was missing something. He muted the audio, and just watched for a moment, then restarted it again as he picked up a pen. He started writing down numbers and letters as he watched Landry move his hands around on the desk. When Landry closed his fist and laid the other hand over it, he closed the video window, opened the databurst again, and input the code he had written down.

A new window opened, showing Landry again, standing in front of a camera, this time in his quarters.

"They're gonna fuck her John. I've been given orders to reroute a ship to Atlantis. I'm sending the Daedalus. From its present position at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, it will be there in nine days. When it arrives, Caldwell will either have orders in hand, or be ordered on arrival to try to beam her out of the city. The IOA knows she's up to something, and they're afraid of her."

He paused, looking down, then back up at the camera. "This is wrong, John. Never in all my years of service have I been ordered to kidnap a member of my own command. One that we should be supporting at that. Carter is still one of us, and by god, we can't let this happen." Landry paused again, then continued. "I can't give you the orders, John. But you know what needs to be done, and you're in the best position to do it. We'll help as best we can from this end. I'm attaching a list of personnel you for you to review, you probably have a few to add to it."

Landry smiled and reached toward the camera. "Good luck, John. And give Sam my regards."

The video ended.

Sheppard pulled up the attached file, glanced at the list, then printed three copies. He deleted the file, then copied the databurst onto a flash drive, and deleted it from his terminal.

He tapped his comm. "Jennifer? I need a ride." He said.

"I'll be right there." She said.

He closed the channel, then went out to the Ops center. He told the duty tech to call Maj. Lorne and tell him to cover things until he contacted him, then jogged down the steps to the porter.

Interior-Kitchen

0840 Hours

They were watching the video for the second time. Sheppard was standing behind Keller, his hands resting on her shoulders. He looked over at Carter as the video ended.

"None of my officers or NCO's are on that list. And I trust Landry. He took a big risk sending us that message." Sheppard said. "There's a couple names I'm surprised to see on his list, and I added a couple already."

"I can't believe they'd actually do something like that." Jennifer said quietly. "To one of their own."

"I'm not surprised." Carter said, looking around the table, then grinned at them. "I just didn't think they'd have the balls." She looked over at Keller. "And I'm not one of their own, Jenn. I...we, are the tools those carpetbaggers use as they stumble along, fighting with each other for the biggest piece of the pie."

"So what are we going to do?" Tammy asked.

Carter glanced over at Sheppard, and he nodded.

"We don't have any choice." he said, squeezing Jennifer's shoulders gently. "We have to take the city, or at least try to. I'll need to read Lorne in, we can't do it without him. I don't need to worry about the junior officers or NCO's. If they see us working together, they'll follow." He looked back at Carter. "This is going to put you back in command. Are you up to that?"

Carter looked at Tammy, and she nodded.

"You're going to have problems, but we'll deal with them as they arise." Jennifer said as Carter looked over at her.

She looked over at Samuels.

"We all know that you're up for the job. The question is, do you want to do it?" She said lightly. "This is all you, Sam. If you don't, we can load this place up with supplies, throw the shield up, and laugh at them."

Carter looked at her, then nodded. "I've been asked to do things I knew were wrong, for reasons I knew were wrong, and I did them, because I believed it served the greater good." She paused, looking around the table. "What they've been doing with this city is stupid, and what they're about to do is wrong, so we have to stand up, and say enough."

"I wasn't going to screw them, everyone was going to benefit." She said as she shook her head, then looked around the table again. "I'll do my best by you, and everyone else under the influence of this city. Let's get to work."

Interior-Ops Center

0930 Hours

"Colonel?" Lorne said as he knocked lightly on Sheppard's door.

"Come in, Lorne. Close the door." Sheppard said.

Lorne closed the door behind him and stepped over in front of the desk.

"If this is about last night, sir." Lorne said, "You don't have to explain, really."

Sheppard shook his head, looking up at Lorne.

"Evan," Sheppard said softly as he opened his desk drawer and took out his Glock, sitting it on the desk between them. "When I get done, you're either going to slide that back over to me, or use it on me." He leaned back and looked up at Lorne.

"Then I think I'm going to need to sit down for this, sir." Lorne said, pulling a chair over.

Sheppard nodded, and Lorne sat down, waiting patiently for him to begin.

"You know Col. Carter resigned her command and her commission yesterday." He began.

"Yes sir. I was sorry to hear that." Lorne said.

"It was because of a medical problem, one which I'm happy to say, was exaggerated for the IOA's benefit." Sheppard continued. "I've spoken to the colonel, I just came from there as a matter of fact, and she's fine. Better than she was actually."

He paused, gathering his thoughts. "She proposed that she be given her own department, independent of Atlantis, for research and exploitation, and let me tell you, she has some good ideas. She wants to do things that we could never do the way things are setup now."

"I knew there were projects she wanted to start, but could never seem to get off the ground." Lorne said.

"Well, they gave her the impression that they were going to agree to her proposal, but I got a private message from Gen. Landry this morning." Sheppard told him. "They're going to say no, but string her along, and then they're going to try to come get her."

He turned the monitor so Lorne could see it, and played the video.

"Those bastards! What are we going..." Lorne said, his face reddening with anger.

Sheppard held his hand up and leaned forward. "I'm going to stop them, Evan. But I need your help. The only way we can do it, is to take the city, and lock it down so they can't get at her." He looked at Lorne, then down at the gun. "It's time to make a choice, Evan."

"Put the gun away colonel." Lorne said, a slow smile spreading across his face. "Just tell me what you want me to do."

Sheppard slid a sheet of paper across the desk. "We'll talk more in a little while, and I'll fill you in completely then. But I have to go back over and talk to Col. Carter first. For now, I want these people assembled in the gateroom at fourteen hundred. Save McKay for last. Don't move on anyone until thirteen-thirty, and just bring them, no equipment, no personal items."

"Yessir. We'll be ready." Lorne said as he stood up and turned for the door.

"Evan." Sheppard said, holding out his hand as Lorne looked at him. "You understand what we're doing don't you?" He said as Lorne took his hand.

"Yessir. We're doing the right thing." Lorne said.

Sheppard nodded. "I think so too."

Interior-Bedroom

1010 Hours

"Shut up and lay down." Carter said as she pushed Tammy down on the bed. "You're the only one that didn't react to that damn machine last night, and I want to A, make sure you're all right, and B, see if we can figure out why."

She looked over at Keller. "Tie her down, knock her out, I don't care. I want her scanned from head to toe, and checked against current scans." She looked down at her. "I'm not sending her back in there unless I know she's going to be okay. Do both of you understand that?"

"Yes ma'am." Keller said as she moved the scanner into position over Tammy.

"If you ma'am me again, I'm going to find a dungeon and put you in it." Carter muttered as she walked out of the room.

"She's scared." Tammy said as she stretched out on the bed, closing her eyes and trying to relax.

Keller shook her head. "No, she's psyching herself up. She does that when she knows an op is going to be tough." She touched the controls on the scanner, then stepped back and watched it travel slowly down its track. "When we get into it, everyone will be looking to her, and she'll be directing traffic and talking to people like she was at Sunday tea."

"You haven't spent as much time with her as I have, Tammy. There's a lot to Samantha Carter you haven't seen yet." Jennifer said as she adjusted a control. "She's dependent on us right now, that's a big part of what's scaring her, she's not used to needing other people like she has to right now. But when we need her, she'll be there, standing tall, ready to take on all comers."

"I know, I was in the control room when we landed the city here, before she took over." Tammy said. "Lots of people were scared, and she was talking to Sheppard on comms. The two of them sounded like they were talking about a round of golf."

She looked up at Keller. "I think An..."

"I know, I tested it. Viagra." Keller said. "I'm gonna have to talk to her about that."

"Don't forget to thank her. Four times?" Tammy grinned.

"Five...if you include the first one. And let me tell you, he really knows how to swing his sword. He's got a little dagger he's pretty good with too!"

"Bigger than a babies arm...lucky you."

"Not really." Jennifer said, leaning closer. "I'm was sore this morning, but after we got going, it was better."

"This morning too? What is he, part goat?"

"Must be...Okay, you're done. Let me move the scanner out of the way before you sit up."

Tammy sat up, and they went over and sat at the bank of laptops. Jennifer pulled up the scan data on her laptop, and hit a control key. The image popped up on all three machines, and Keller centered the head on her screen.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, a little more activity in the parietal and temporal lobes than could be called normal, but I'm betting that's from the teaching machine. There's no new growth, or change in cell density. You're just using what you have more efficiently."

"Hormone levels are up, are you due to start your period soon?" Keller asked.

"Probably tomorrow." Tammy nodded

"Well, I don't see anything on this scan to be worried about. You're well within the norms, You look like the picture of health, Tammy.

"Okay, let's go tell her."

They walked into Carter's office, and she looked up at them from behind the desk.

"I heard." She said, letting them see the earplug hanging from her ear. "Let me see your headset." She added, holding out her hand.

Jennifer took the headset off and handed it too her. Carter looked up at her as she put it on.

"Six times in twelve hours?" She asked Keller, waggling her eyebrows.

She tapped the comm, and looked back at her keyboard.

"Carter to Sheppard." She said.

"Go on Sheppard."

"How are we looking, John?"

"Lorne's onboard, I'm filling him in now. I think you found your man at arms. We have teams set to round everyone up and have them in the gateroom just before fourteen hundred." He said.

"Good. I need you to go over to the mainland for me, John, and pick up a few things. Ready to copy?"

"Go ahead."

She gave him a list of coordinates, general descriptions of the areas, and told him how to find what he would be looking for.

"Next item. Access code, you need one. Yours is sirjohnsirjohn." She paused. "That's right, just put sirjohn in twice, and it will get you where you want to go."