Confirming Carter Bk. 03 Changes Ch. 02

"I need the room." She said. "We'll be with you shortly."

She waited as they filed out, then turned to face Carter. Ronin glanced down, and saw that she had her spoon in her hand.

"You stood by me today, defending my city and my love." She said softly.

"I didn't do it alone, colonel." He said, meeting her gaze.

"After...what we did...after." She said, stepping closer to him.

Ronin put his hand on Carter's shoulder, pushing down lightly. Carter looked at him and Ronin nodded. "Join us, in the brotherhood."

Carter stared at him, then dropped to one knee in front of her.

"Steven Carter, in recognition of your service to us, we wish to reward you with honors befitting your loyalty and your deeds. Do you accept this honor, and pledge to serve us faithfully and well?"

"Always, my queen." he said quietly, his head bowed.

She reached out with her spoon, and laid it gently on each of his shoulders.

"Rise, Sir Steven." She said. "Welcome to the Knighthood of Atlantis. May we serve each other well."

She took him in her arms as he got to his feet. "Thank you." She whispered as she drew back. "My sister will do her part when she returns. For now, let me introduce you to the family."

* * * * *

"Knights of Atlantis, stand forward." She said as they came into the living room.

The four officers stepped away from the group and assembled before her. Ronin stepped past her and joined them.

"Gentlemen, allow me to present your brother, Sir Steven Carter. Please make him welcome to the Knighthood."

The officers came to attention, with Ronin imitating them. They saluted as a group, then dropped it and gathered around him, drawing him off to the side.

"What di..." Caldwell began, but Ronin cut him off.

"He was rewarded for service to his queens, and our city." He said softly. "I was there, he's worthy of it. That's all you need to know."

Carter came up behind them, joining the circle. "I said make him welcome, not run off with him." She said lightly.

She looked over at Carter, smiling softly. "Now I need to figure out what to do with you. I like to keep my knights close."

"I need a captain of the guard." Ronin said. "Someone I can trust."

"And?" She asked, her smile widening.

"I want him."

"Steven?" She said, then shook her head. "That's not going to work. I already have a Stephen. And we can't just call you Carter, that will be confusing too."

"Cisco. My friends call me Cisco, ma'am." he told her.

"That fits." She laughed. "Especially with that big ass..."

She stopped, staring at him. "Oh my god, Your knife! What did I do..."

"You gave it back to me. But you still have my comm." He told her.

"And you said you wanted it back." She said, reaching up and pulling it off, holding it out to him.

"I finally got one that worked." He said as he took it and put it on. "I just don't want to jinx it."

"Can you tell us what happened?" Caldwell asked her. "We heard that a man came through the gate and started shooting at you, and that Tammy got hit."

She nodded at him.

"That about covers it." She said. "Ronin and Cisco's team took him out. I know how it happened, and it will never happen again."

"This has something to do with Prince Jacob, doesn't it?" Caldwell said, "There's more to this that you're not telling us. We can't..."

"Jacob and his mother...my sister, along with the intruder this morning were intercepted and brought here by my STM bridge." She said, looking at him. "I've taken steps to ensure that it won't happen again. Including shutting down the bridge. We really don't need it right now, so it's not a hardship."

Caldwell opened his mouth, and she glared at him.

"The situation has been dealt with, Stephen." She said, cutting him off. "We won't need to speak of this again." She looked at each of them. "Is that understood?

"Yes, ma'am." They all said.

"Ronin, Cisco. A moment if you will?" She said, then walked over to the windows.

"Ronin," She said as they came up behind her. "Get with Andi, and get him quarters near you. Introduce him to your teams, and get him into the rotation. I want you two to split the teams between you. One of you will be on at all times."

She paused, then turned, smiling at them. "I'm sorry, Cisco. But you need to audition." She glanced over at Ronin. "We'll do it in the morning. Let me know when you're ready. Make sure you bring Amelia."

Ronin nodded.

She saw Sheppard heading toward them, and she met him halfway. "John, I'm sorry, but..."

"We need to talk." He said. "Can we go in your office?"

She looked at him for a moment, then nodded. She led the way, closing the door behind them.

Sheppard held out a flash drive. "I watched the video feeds from the gateroom and the detention center. I copied them onto this, and deleted them from the servers. No one else needs to know what happened this morning."

She stared at him, then took the drive and slipped it into her pocket.

"Did anything happen here? Did you talk to..."

"No. Nothing that anyone can use to make a connection, even Andi." She said. "The most they'll see is me working at my terminal, and you can't see what I'm doing on it. There's no audio in this room either."

Sheppard nodded. "Good. I'll discharge Carter, and get him transferred over to Ronin. We should do that quickly. What do you want to do about the rest of his team?"

"Nothing, they don't know anything. The most they can say is they saw me with some blood on me." She said. "Promote one of them to sergeant, we should keep them together."

He nodded again and stepped toward the door.

"John?"

He turned and looked at her.

"Did I do..."

"Don't start second guessing yourself now." He said, coming back to stand in front of her. "It's done. Would I have done the same thing? Yes. My only regret is you didn't get to watch the bastard die."

She nodded, looking down at the floor.

Lifting her chin with his fingers so her eyes met his, he looked at her, then said, "Put this behind you. We need you. Our people need you, and Tammy is going to need you. Don't dwell on this. It's done, and we need to move forward."

Interior-Floor 140, North Tower

0940 Hours

"As captain of the guard, you'll report directly to Ronin. He'll give you duty assignments and brief you on what may be going on with the queens, or anything else you need to be aware of." Andi said as she led him into the suite. "This is a city view. There's two other open suites on this floor, so if you don't like this one, we can look at one of the others..."

"After two years in an open bay with twenty other guys, this is fine." Cisco said, looking around. He turned back to her after a moment. "When can I expect to report for duty? And when will I meet the guards?" He asked.

"You won't go into the rotation until Ronin and Amelia give you an audition." She said. "You're going to have to prove yourself to them before they'll let you go out with the queens."

He nodded. "The colonel mentioned that. She says she wants to do it in the morning."

"She's planning on being there?" Samuels asked, looking at him closely. "I wasn't expecting that. You must have impressed her. Just what happened this morning? I went to look at the video from the gateroom, and it had been deleted."

"I'm not at liber..." He began.

"Sergeant, I'm the foreign minister of Atlantis, and I've been in on this from day one." She said. "When I ask you what's going on in the city, you tell me, is that understood?"

"Yes ma'am, I understand." He said carefully. "But you'll need to take this up with the colonel. I'm sure she'll tell you whatever she thinks you need to know."

Samuels nodded, staring at him. She looked down at her tablet, then pulled a slip of paper from her pocket and handed it to him.

"This has your access code on it, you need it to get in and out of the royal residence, that's building fifty-eight on the southwest pier. The first set of symbols will get you into the colonel's suite. The next one is for your quarters. We're on floor one forty of the north tower. The conference room is up on forty-four. The last set of symbols is for the east tower. That's the formal dining room. With me so far?"

"Yes ma'am." He said, nodding as he looked at the slip of paper

"You and Ronin will be on call twenty-four seven." She told him. "He's been doing twenty hour days since he started, and I'm amazed at how well he's holding up. You can work out a division of labor, but one of the first things I'd like you to do is work with him on how we do things, and teach him how to use our computers. I'm not sure he knows how."

She paused, then smiled at him. "You can expect to put in some long days for the next few weeks. The colonel and Tammy are going to want to have you around so they can get used to you, and I'm sure Ronin is going to have you working with the guards, either teaching them what you know, or catching up to them."

"So how did you get the name Cisco?" She asked, changing the subject abruptly. "Got anything to do with the Cisco Kid? You a cowboy or something?"

"No ma'am." He laughed. "My dad works at Cisco. And when I first got here, he was sending me care packages from their mailroom. They let employees ship free to military family members. So every time I'd get a package, the sergeant would yell 'Cisco', and it stuck."

"That's precious!" Samuels laughed. "And I think we're done for now. Why don't you go get your gear and bring it over here. Sam is visiting with her father, and Tammy is still in the infirmary. I'm pretty sure it'll be a couple hours before we need you. But keep your comms on, and plan on joining them for dinner."

Interior-Guest Quarters, North Tower

1000 Hours

"I'm sorry I couldn't get over sooner, Dad." Carter said as she came into the suite. "It's just been a busy morning." She walked over and hugged him quickly, then went over and sat down on a couch.

"It looks like it." Jacob said as he came over and sat beside her. "Selmac and I have been going over what we talked about last night, and we have some ideas." He glanced over at Ronin and the marines standing by the door. "Can we speak privately?"

"We are speaking privately, Dad." She said. "I trust these men with my life. None of them will repeat anything they hear."

"I see." He said. "So you don't trust us either."

"Dad, I haven't seen you in over a year, and before you found out about the stargate program, I was a disappointment to you because I didn't want to be an astronaut, and fly on the shuttle."

"That's not tru..."

"Yes, Dad. It is. But I'm over it, and I like having you in my life again, accepting what I'm doing. It makes me feel good. But to be honest, I don't trust the Tok'Ra anymore than they trust me. That's why I can't be alone with you."

"You believe that I would try to blend with you." Selmac said, taking control.

"I'm just not sure, Selmac. And I don't want to put you in the position where you might be tempted." She said. "I've always liked you, as an individual. You have a better sense of humor than most Tok'Ra I've met. And I'll always be in your debt for what you've done for my father."

"I owe you a debt as well, and if only for that, I would never blend with you without your consent." He said. "But I understand that you must protect yourself, and your people. I take no offense."

"Good." She said, leaning back on the couch. "My Dad said you had some ideas. And can I have him back? I really need someone to rub my feet for me, and..."

"Martouf enjoyed having his feet rubbed as well." Selmac said, a small smile on his face. He held out his hands as he slid back on the couch. "If I may? I can assure you that your father does not enjoy this activity. He believes it to be unsanitary."

"Knock yourself out." She grinned, twisting on the couch so she was leaning back against the armrest. She lifted her feet into his lap and sighed happily as he began rubbing them gently.

"Given what we saw last night, and I must admit, the view of your city, lit as it was, was magnificent." He said as he massaged the ball of one foot. "But what you told us about your plans, with what the Asgard have told us, has convinced me that our best course of action is to leave you alone, and let you progress at your own pace. This is what I will tell the High Council."

"I'm glad to hear that." She said, sighing as he increased the pressure on her foot. "But you said basically the same thing last night, you just didn't commit to it. I haven't heard anything new yet."

"You mentioned establishing trade with the Jaffa." He said. "We know that you can deliver goods to anywhere in the Milky Way galaxy, but trade implies an exchange of goods and services, or compensation for goods delivered. How were you planning on moving goods from my galaxy to this one?"

"That's one of the issues we're still looking at." She said. "And to be honest, it's our biggest roadblock. We're still trying to figure it out."

"The ancients left many outposts in both galaxies, perhaps if one could be located and restored, it could be used as a gateway of sorts." He said.

"That's a great idea. Do you know of any outposts like that?" She said. "Having you assist in locating some of those outposts would go a long way toward convincing me that we can work together, as partners."

"I do not have specific knowledge of any at the moment." He said. "But should the council know of any, why would they wish share that information, given your reluctance to allow them into this galaxy."

"Well, to begin with, I wouldn't expect them to do it out of the goodness of their hearts. I'd be willing to compensate them, probably in the form of technology and research. I might even throw in training with our ancient teaching machines if they got me a really good one."

"That is an attractive offer, and I will pass it along to the council." He said. "But I fear that it still may not be enough. They will wish to be active participants in any venture you establish between our galaxies."

"Well, the best I can do there would be to make them my agents in the Milky Way. They can act as brokers, managing the network on their end."

"The High Council will not accept simply being merchants, and shopkeepers." Selmac said.

She lifted her feet from his lap and sat up on the couch. She smiled at him as she spoke again.

"Let's put it all on the table, shall we? I don't need the Tok'Ra. I already have the Jaffa looking for ancient outposts for me. And their asking price isn't anywhere near as high as yours is. Sometime in the next few months, we'll normalize relations with Earth, and you can bet they already have teams out scouring the galaxy for outposts. They both need me to provide them ZPM's to power them, and my asking price for that is full control, with no interference. My people run them, and I say who and what goes through them. They'll both give it to me, and you know it."

"What you say is true. Both the humans and the Jaffa will be eager to deal with you on your terms. They would both benefit immensely." He said. "I fear that the Tok'Ra will be left behind as other races do business with you."

"Then your people think less of themselves than I gave them credit for." She said. "With the last of the system lords out of the picture, the Tok'Ra have access to more Goa'uld technology than anyone in your galaxy. And you not only know what and where it is, you know how to use it."

"What are you suggesting, that the Tok'Ra do as you seek to do, and distribute Goa'uld technology to any that ask for it?"

"Not quite. I'm saying that you should use the technology you have to help people live better lives, not try to tell people how to live their lives."

She stood up and stretched, then looked back down at him.

"Tell me something, Selmac. Why did the Tok'Ra begin fighting the Goa'uld in the first place? I thought it was because you objected to how they treated the people under their control, that you wanted to help free them. Was I wrong? I was there when they found Egeria on Pangara. She was proud of what your people had accomplished fighting the Goa'uld. What would she think if she knew that you were making moves to replace them?"

"That is not what we are doing, Samantha..."

"That's what it sounded like to me last night. The first thing you said was that the High Council had concerns about humans having control of ancient technology. That told me that they wanted to limit our development, just like the Goa'uld did with the rest of the galaxy."

"Yes, I can see how you would interpret it that way, but that is not what was meant." He said. "We only wish to prevent you from making mistakes that will cause harm. Not just to the Tok'Ra, but to the galaxy itself."

"But what gives you the right to make those decisions? The fact that you've been running around the galaxy longer then we have? You didn't make any of the technology you use. You stole it from the Goa'uld, who stole it from the people that developed it. We came into possession of technology abandoned by its creators. That falls under the law of finders keepers in my book. I'm doing the same thing you did, and you want to tell me I can't. That's just not right."

She paused to catch her breath. "There's one more thing I want you to tell the council for me." She said. "Tell them not to confuse experience with wisdom. And remind them that the capacity for intelligence, doesn't guarantee it. Just because you're older than I am, and genetically disposed to be more intelligent than I am, doesn't mean that you're smarter or wiser. Tell them to think about that."

"Wow, you knocked his socks off baby. " Jacob laughed. "The Asgard were right about you. And I think we're going to have to get you to meet with the High Council, that's the only way we're going to get your case across."

"I'll do a video conference anytime they want, we do it with Earth all the time." She said as she walked over to Ronin.

"Comm." She said, holding out her hand.

"Carter to Cisco." She said as she put the headset on.

"Go on Cisco." He answered immediately.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm putting my gear away ma'am."

"Good, what do you think of the new place?" she asked.

"It's nice, and the view is great." He said. "I'm going to have to stock up, the cupboard is bare."

"We'll take care of that." She laughed. "Meet me in the infirmary in ten minutes. We're doing lunch with my Dad and Landry, and I want them to meet you. I also want to spend some time with you."

"Yes ma'am, I'll be there."

"Dress is casual. You won't be wearing a uniform anymore, so wear your civvies till we get you something else."

"Yes, ma'am." He said. "Anything else?"

"That's all for now. Carter out."

She handed the comm back to Ronin and turned back to Jacob.

"I have to go down to the infirmary for a few minutes, Dad." She said lightly. "Ronin is going to take you over to the house, and when I get back, we can eat lunch before I send you and Gen. Landry home."

She turned to Ronin and grinned. "Have Landry brought over to the house, and call ahead and have someone order food. You can go ahead and start eating, I don't know how long this is going to take."

He nodded, smiling as she moved towards the door, motioning to the three marines.

"You three, on me." She said as she walked through the doorway.

Interior-Infirmary

1140 Hours

"Jenn?" She said, standing in the door of Keller's office.

"Sam. I was just about to call you." Jennifer said, standing up and coming around from behind the desk.

"How is she?"

"Oh, she's fine." Jennifer said as she led her out the door. "The bullet went in and out through the transverse abdominis on her right side, here." She said, running her hand over her own side just over her hip. "She's going to be sore for a few days, but she's in no danger. It never got close to a major organ."