Confirming Carter Bk. 03 Changes Ch. 02

"I don't have the gene." Daniel said. "But I don't think Vala has ever been tested for it. Can we get that done?"

"As soon as we finish here." Carter said. "All of you that have the gene have been issued the ancient shields. Start wearing them. Andi and Daniel, I've ordered Kevlar vests that you can wear under your clothes like a t-shirt, that's what they look like. Gen. Landry is going to handle that for me, and send them along when they come in."

"Can I ask why your father and Landry came over yesterday?" Samuels asked.

"Sometimes a girl just needs to talk to her daddy, Andi. You should know that." Sam said with a sad smile. "It turns out that he was at Stargate Command when we called and asked them to find him for us. Landry asked if he could come too, and we said yes."

"It was good seeing him again." Caldwell said. "And it was nice to meet your father. He's an interesting character. Selmac was talking to me about my Goa'uld incident."

"Well, them coming here wasn't all upside." She said. "Jacob and Selmac were at the SGC talking to Landry about us. Apparently, the Tok'Ra have concerns about us being in possession of this city, and the ancient technologies here. Tammy and I talked to them about it last night."

She looked over at Samuels. "Andi, send that out to everyone, I want them to see it."

Samuels nodded, making a note on her tablet.

"I had another conversation with them this morning. I made it clear that the Tok'Ra have no say in how we run our city, and that they are not welcome here, or in the Pegasus galaxy. They can have the Milky Way."

She paused, looking around again. "I'm pretty sure that they know about St. Louis. Selmac turned the topic to us wanting to establish trade with the Jaffa, and Earth. He pointed out that trade is a two way street, and asked how we were planning on shipping back here."

"I told him that we were still trying to figure that out, and he suggested that we consider looking for ancient outposts to restore."

"Then they definitely know." Sheppard said. "Do we want to beef up the security team there, maybe send some jumpers or three-oh-two's over?"

"Yes, you and Stephen work out what you can give up." She said. "And Andi, I want that outpost maxed out on drones. Once you have it at capacity, keep loading it. Half of all drone production goes there effective now."

She looked at Daniel. "You just got back from there. How is it set up? Is the gate inside the main shield?"

"Yes, but there's a shield up on the gate too." He said.

"Have them pull the shield back around the outpost, so the gate is outside it, move the gate if you have to. If we get an intrusion, they'll still have to get through the main to get to the outpost."

"Now, before you all start asking me questions. Yes, this is because of this morning's intrusion. I've shut the STM bridge down, and won't turn it back on unless we need it." She said. "But that doesn't mean that someone else out there, in this reality, or another one, isn't playing with the same technology. I think we're safe with our gate where it is, since we have the secondary shield now, so I don't think we need to move it. Does anyone have any thoughts on that?"

"Having the secondary up all the time doesn't use that much more power, so that's not an issue." Chuck said. "And to be honest, we'd be alot more comfortable up on the balcony with it on, now that we've seen that things can come through the gate shield."

"I spoke to Dr. Zelenka. He says that these people passed through the gate shield because it was in such close proximity to the wormhole. If anything passes through it again, the secondary should stop it, because it will have reformed into matter or energy. At least, that's what I think he said."

"I'll talk to him about it, Chuck." Carter laughed. "I want to ask him about oscillating the gate shield too, to see what effect that might have."

"From a practical point of view, we might consider moving the gate to one of the production piers." Samuels said. "Once we begin actively producing and shipping goods, it would just make sense. At a minimum, we're going to have to look at redesigning the gateroom for easier access."

"Work something up. You'll need to get with Chuck to work out the logistics of it, and get input from the rest of the department heads." She told her.

She looked back at Chuck. "We'd really only have to move the gate, is that right? We could leave the DHD in the tower, or just use a DHD in a jumper?"

"Yes ma'am." He nodded. "There's no actual physical connection between the gate and the DHD. I don't know what the range on them is though."

"We can figure that out. In the meantime, you two get me suggested locations, and what would be involved in getting it done if we decide to do it."

She looked around the table again. "What's next?"

"I was talking to Cisco this afternoon, he came over to do some paperwork." He said. He looked over at Ronin. "He had an idea, and we talked about it, along with some other stuff."

"He told me." Ronin said.

Sheppard nodded, and turned back to Carter. "Why not go with two man guard teams, augmented by marines until they get the manning up to where they want it on the guard. They cover you and Tammy, and the marines cover their back. That gives them some breathing room, and frees up some of my marines at the same time."

"Work it out with them, and let me know what you want to do. Next?" She said.

"He also mentioned something I hadn't considered, that I think we should start doing on a wholesale basis."

"And what was that?" She asked.

"Scavenging. He mentioned going looking for some of those hand cannons Ronin uses on Sateda. There's probably other stuff laying around too." He said.

He looked over at Ronin again. "Your people were fairly technologically advanced before that last Wraith attack."

Ronin nodded. "I think we should go look. I know where some of the armories were. But it's been eight years, and I know that Kell was selling weapons, and that's probably where he got them."

"Work it out, and let me know what you find. We can send the Apollo or Daedalus if we need to."

"Ronin and I were talking about the boys last night, and Tammy mentioned that there were more than twelve hundred children in the city now." O'Neill said.

"That number is closer the seventy-seven hundred." Samuels said. "We had a problem in the census, and the numbers I gave her were off."

"Anyway, she said that she would talk to Daniel about heading a department of education. With her down for a few days, I didn't want it to slip through the cracks."

"Thank you, Jack." She said, smiling at him. "What were you talking about?"

"Nothing you have to worry about for at least five years." He laughed. "They've just been asking him about stuff he didn't have the answers for. We handled it."

"Before you ask." Daniel said, smiling at her. "Yes, I'll do it. I'm spending half the day with Geraan and Phinnar anyway. Picking up a few more won't be a problem. I'd like to make the cut off age twelve, anyone over that should just go right on a teaching machine."

"Make it fourteen. Get with the other department heads, and make sure you talk to Pharris, she may have some ideas, and you can look at how their education system is setup." She said.

"God." She sighed, leaning back in her chair. "We said we weren't going to use nannies, that we'd raise our kids ourselves. And I promised Bra'tac and Pharris that we'd spend time with the boys..."

"It's going to happen Sam." O'Neill said. "But the boys are being well taken care of. Ronin and Bra'tac are teaching them warrior arts, not just how to fight, Daniel takes them out into the city to explore, Vala lies her ass off during story time, Amelia has them doing math and language lessons, and I've been teaching them how to fly a jumper. They're getting a well rounded education."

"I don't lie." Vala said softly. "I embellish."

"Thank you, all of you." She said, tears welling up in her eyes. "You know I couldn't have done this, any of this, without you."

"Yeah, you being the notorious slacker that your are." O'Neill muttered.

Interior-Med Bay-Tower Fifty-eight

1900 Hours

"Are there any other languages in that thing besides ancient?" Cisco asked Sam as she scrolled through the menu, setting it up for Ronin's first lesson.

"Probably, I haven't looked." She said, glancing over at him. She held out a headset to Ronin. "Put that on."

Ronin put the headset on, and she started the process. When the cycle ended, she picked up a pad and wrote on it quickly, then held it up in front of him.

"What's it say?" She asked.

"I trust you with my life." Ronin said, his voice catching in his throat.

"I do, so does Tammy." She said, coming over and hugging him. She reached in her pocket and pulled out one of the shield pendants and handed it to him. "Put this on, and take the headset off. Just sit it on the machine."

She tossed one of the pendants over to Cisco. "You too." She said. "Now, why did you want to know about other languages?" She asked as she scrolled through the menus.

"I was thinking that if we could find something obscure, we could hit our guys with it, and not have to work up a separate code system."

"Smart." She nodded. "And everything in here is going to be obscure. But why not just use ancient?"

"Because everyone in the city speaks it, and word is going to get around that we speak it." He said. "So other people may start trying to figure it out, and I want to be a step or two ahead of them."

"Anything else you want while we're looking?" She asked.

"Jumper training, how to use the terminals like yours, weapons systems, math, medical or first aid training, and anything else that looks like it will be useful." He said as he watched her.

"I'll hit you both with jumpers, first aid, and the terminals now." She said. "Tell Andi to put a terminal in each of your suites, along with the standard desktop. Talk to Tammy, she has the boys tablets running games out of the ancient database. Ask her how she did it, or get her to set some up for you."

She was working rapidly through the screens on the teaching machine, and after a couple minutes she looked up and tossed Cisco the headset.

"Put that on. I included how to use the teacher so you can do your guys. This is going to take a couple minutes, so get comfortable."

"I'm fine." He said

"Have it your way." She said as she started the cycle.

It was almost five minutes before the process ended this time, and Cisco swayed slightly as he took the headset off. Ronin grabbed his arm and led him over to a bed, and helped him get up on it.

"Sit or lay down." He told Ronin as he handed him the headset. "I started getting woozy toward the end."

Ronin nodded and sat on the other bed, then put the headset on and laid back.

"Okay, I'm ready." He said.

Carter started the machine again, and came over next to Cisco.

"You give any thought to what we talked about?" She asked, not looking at him.

"A little."

She looked over at him, a small smile on her face. "You don't give up a lot, do you."

"You already got your answer."

"I did?" She asked. "When?"

"Think about it. You'll remember."

They waited quietly for the process to end, and when it did, Ronin sighed, then groaned.

"Just lay still for a few minutes, Ronin." She said as she took the headset off. "Open your eyes and look at me."

She felt his pulse as she looked at his eyes. They were glassy, and it was obvious that he was disoriented.

She stayed with him, holding his hand until he turned his head and looked at her. "Feel better now."

She nodded, and helped him sit up. She smiled at him.

"You had me worried there. I thought we had hurt you."

He shook his head. "So much...just so much."

"Just relax, it should get better." She said. "Do you have a headache? You're looking better than when the process ended."

He shook his head. "I keep seeing pictures, all jumbled up."

"What do you for a severed femoral artery?" Cisco asked.

"Apply pressure above the wound and clamp it off, then medivac." Ronin said immediately.

"Think about a jumper. Can you see the control panel." Cisco asked.

"Leave him alone, he needs to rest." Carter said.

"No, this helps." Ronin said. "I can see it. Now what?"

"Find the control for the HUD."

"Got it."

"What's right next to it, on the left."

"The emergency hatch release, it's a handle."

"Good, Just think about one thing at a time. That's what I'm doing." Cisco said. He looked over at Carter. "It is a little overwhelming at first, but it gets better."

"So we just do one lesson at a time, and let you get used to them." She said.

They both nodded.

She made them sit for another fifteen minutes to make sure that they were okay.

"I'm staying with Daniel and Vala tonight." She said. "Who wants to take me over?"

"I will." Cisco said. He looked over at Ronin. "Sheppard said something about wanting to have a beer with you. Why don't you give him a call? I want to touch base with Samuels, I didn't get to her earlier."

"And if he's still at his desk, tell him he's fired." Sam laughed. She turned to Cisco and held out her hand. "Come on, I want to talk to Daniel about his education program."

Interior-Dr. Samuels Quarters-East Tower

2030 Hours

"I'm glad you came by, I was going to call you." Andi said as she let him in and led him into the living room. She waved him toward a couch, and poured them both a drink.

"Nice place, doc." He said as he sat down. He sat his glass on the table and looked at her.

"Please, call me Andi." She said. "We're kind of informal around here. That'll probably change after the coronation."

"I wanted to talk to you about getting the guard moved into the residence, and where we're going to put them." He began. "Ronin and I just got some training on the teaching machine, and one of the things we got was how to use the ancient terminals. The colonel said to talk to you about getting one of those, and a desktop in our quarters."

He paused, looking at her for a moment. "Did you want to set up a contact for us, or would you prefer that we go through you?"

"Let's go through me." She said. "I've been dealing with Ronin, and the house guard is under my department. Plus I'm Sam's resident psychiatrist, and I need to know what's going on with her."

"I can't do my job if I'm left out of the loop on what she's doing." She added.

Cisco just looked at her.

"Did you know that their suite is monitored?" She asked. "There are video cameras in every room, and they're reviewed daily."

"Can Ronin and I get access to that system?" He asked. "If the system is already in place, we can have our people monitor. Are any other floors monitored?"

"Not that I know of." She said. "And you'll have to talk to Tammy about access, She set it up and installed the cameras."

Cisco nodded, waiting for her to go on.

"There was some interesting video this morning. Right after the intrusion, she came back to the suite and did something on her terminal, then went into the kitchen with you."

"That sounds about right." He said.

"She came back half an hour later, naked, with blood all over her, and did something else at her terminal, then left again. With Ronin this time. Oh, and one of the house staff found these in the porter." She said, reaching under the table and pulling out Sam's bloody clothes. She dropped them on the table.

"The Ops tech said that the three of you came in, she had them open the gate to a random address, and a comm channel with a wide frequency spread, then cleared the gateroom."

When he didn't say anything, she continued.

"She didn't show up in the infirmary till forty-five minutes later. That's about the time it would take the gate to do a full thirty-eight minute cycle, and for the three of you to walk to the infirmary."

He reached down and picked up his drink, tossed it back and reached for the bottle. He poured another shot, and sat back on the couch, looking at her.

"You're not going to tell me what happened, are you?" She asked.

"No." He said, tapping his comm. When he heard the beep, he said. "Cisco to Dr. Jackson."

A moment later he said, "Yes sir, I need to speak to the colonel please." He waited, then spoke again. "Yes ma'am, Dr. Samuels needs to speak to you...yes...no, this needs to be handled now."

He listened, then took the headset off and leaned over, handing it to her.

Andi put the headset on and said, "Yes Sam?"

She listened for a long moment, then said, "Of course, Sam. I can do that. No, that's fine. Have a good night, I'll talk to you in the morning."

She closed the channel and tossed the headset back to him.

"She said that that get up is all the civvies you have. Leave me your sizes, and I'll have your closets stocked. We can move you in in the morning, we should have everything setup in your quarters by then." She said.

"Thank you." He said. "Do you have an opinion about how we should dress the guard? I'd like to avoid uniforms for the ones that go out with them, maybe put them in Atlantian style clothes? I've been seeing lots of people running around in them recently. I'm guessing that they're just raiding closets around the city."

"They were. We started emptying the closets and clearing out personal items when we started moving people into buildings on the outer piers." She said. "We've got several warehouses full of clothes. Mail me names and sizes, and I'll get it taken care of."

He looked at her for a moment, then said. "I know this has been an unusual day. But there's something I have to bring up. Emotionally, she's been all over the place, and the changes happen quickly. I'm going to need to know about her medical history, and what we need to do if she has some kind of incident."

"Ronin already knows the whole story." She said, reaching out and picking up the bottle. She filled her glass, then held the bottle up. He nodded and held out his glass.

"Sam was exposed to the Athosian herb korathis, but I suppose you already know that..."

They spent the next two hours talking and making plans..

Interior-Infirmary

0110 Hours

He stopped and talked to the marines at the door, then went into Keller's office and pulled her chair out from behind her desk. He rolled it out and put it next to Tammy's bed, then pulled a stool over in front of it.

He sat down, and had just gotten settled when she said, "Did you come to keep me company?"

"Yeah." He said. "Go back to sleep."

"Okay." She said, smiling at him. "Thanks."

He nodded and closed his eyes, and was asleep in moments.

(-)

So ends Chapter Two of Book Three, Changes. Read Chapter Three to see what happens next.

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