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Chapter Text

"I need a 334 BR9 form. No, a 343 BR9 form. No, wait. A 334 DR6 form." General O'Neill rubbed his forehead and sighed, ear to the receiver of his desk phone. He scowled at the voice on the other end.

"No, I don't want to claim a tax exemption for hosting an federal agricultural event on my ranch! I want to release certain classified materials to a small group of people." Another pause, then, "Stop. I don't care. Just find me the forms and get them in here." O'Neill slammed the receiver down.

Working in the Homeworld Security headquarters had considerable advantages but he had come to realize that with each one there was a corresponding exponential increase in paperwork. Apparently the Universe had to balance out a great parking spot somehow. It was times like these that he wished he could simply 'zat his problems away. Those had been the days.

O'Neill picked up the top photograph off the stack and examined it again. The object looked Ancient. O'Neill picked up his receiver and typed a number from memory.

"Yeah, this is O'Neill. I'm looking at a very interesting file here having to do with a little place called Eureka and I'm wondering why Stargate Command has never been informed of the existence of an Ancient artifact, type unknown, being in the control of the US government in something called 'Section 5'?" He scowled at the answer he received.

"Wait. You're telling me that you kept this under wraps for years because you wanted to see what someone with an outside perspective could do with it? Of all the..." He paused, then continued, "Well, I'm clearing a group in Eureka for access to STC files and sending a team up there to check this out." Another pause, then, "Good thing I don't need your permission then, isn't it?" Dropping the receiver back into the cradle he picked up a stack of papers out of the file and continued to read.

*****

Elizabeth Weir, head of the Atlantis expedition, entered the briefing room and took a seat at the head of the table.

"Looks like everyone is here, so let's get started." She turned to Carson Beckett, Atlantis's Chief Medical Officer, and said, "First things first. What is the prognosis for Teyla's knee?"

Beckett's forehead wrinkled as he replied, "Not as good as I'd originally hoped. She's going to be grounded for at least 6 weeks, maybe longer. She has a small rip in her ACL and there's a lot of swelling."

Colonel John Sheppard winced, "Ouch."

Beckett nodded, "Aye. She'll not be putting much weight on it for a bit."

Weir straightened the papers on her desk and said, "As much as I hate the fact she is injured, it does make this easier." She looked at Shepard, "Colonel, your team is on a 6 week stand down."

Shepard's eyes widened and he said, "Well, it'll be tough not having her along but there's no need for us to stand down. I can always rotate through some of the Marines, give them some off-world training."

Weir shook her head, "No, in my last communication with StarGate command I received orders to send some personal through to earth and I hadn't decided who yet. I wanted to send you and Rodney, you two are the most qualified, but I thought the work you've been doing off-world was more important. This handles my dilemma."

Rodney McKay stopped typing and looked up from his laptop, "What? Why does the SGC want us?"

Weir shook her head, "This really isn't the place to get into it. But they sent me very specific directions on what they wanted. So, I'll be sending you and the Colonel, probably in a day or two. Make sure you don't have any projects started that you can't leave."

McKay started to protest, but Shepard cut him off, "No problem. Right Rodney?" Rodney's brow lowered and he opened his mouth just as John said, "Good. No problems then." He turned to Beckett and said, "How long will Teyla be in the infirmary?"

"Just another day or two, then I'll release her with some crutches. I already talked to the lass about it and I think she's going to ask Elizabeth about going to the mainland for a few weeks while her leg heals."

Weir answered, "That will be fine, if you're sure she'll be OK?"

Beckett answered, "Aye, Teyla knows how to follow instructions to take it easy." He looked straight at McKay and continued, "Unlike other personal on her team."

McKay got a hurt look on his face and said, "Please. Can you lay off on the guilt-trip yet? I really felt..."

Weir cut in, "Regardless," paused a beat, then counted, "as long as Carson clears her I have no problem with her going over to the mainland."

Weir looked to Ronon Dex but before she could say anything he spoke. "Take it I'm not going?"

She paused, then shook her head. "I don't think I'll be able to get a security clearance through."

Dex shrugged, "Fine. Sheppard had asked me to put the new military personnel through some extended training." He smiled, a look that would have sent the average man running for his life.

Sheppard only said, "Just make sure they're not too bad off to defend Atlantis if something happens." Dex grunted and nodded.

Weir looked between the two of them, then turned towards John, "I'll meet with you and Rodney in my office after we get through here to discuss the details."

"Yes ma'am."

"Now," Elizabeth continued, "There's the matter of energy consumption spiking rather badly several nights last week..."

*****

When Sheppard and McKay walked into Weir's office and took the seats in front of her desk she closed the doors with a push on a button on her desk. Smiling at McKay se said, "Don't look so depressed Rodney. You're not being punished."

He scowled and said, "If we're going to be down for 6 weeks that gives me time to catch up on some research that keeps getting pushed aside, what with me having to save everyone's lives every other day."

John raised an eyebrow, "But just think, if you didn't then you would miss me something terrible."

"Yeah, right. No one dragging me into dangerous, germ-infested cesspools of worlds where the locals would love nothing more than to eat me for dinner. Yes, I'm sure I would miss that terribly." McKay rolled his eyes.

Weir cleared her throat and both men sat back and looked at her. She said, "General O'Neill needs me to send two personal through for an assignment. It has recently come to his attention that there is a potential Ancient artifact in the possession of the United States government and wants someone to check it out. He wants someone with the technical knowledge to get a positive identification, and someone with a strong, natural, Ancient gene to try and control it."

Sheppard's brow wrinkled a bit and he said, "Why doesn't someone from the SGC go? I know they have personnel that are as qualified as we are."

"True." Weir nodded. "However, everyone who's security clearance is high enough to enter the facility where it is being held is busy with the Ori. Plus, we've had a lot more direct experience with Ancient devices."

McKay nodded, "Where is it? What does it look like? Why..."

Weir cut him off, "You'll have a full briefing once you get to Earth. But it's being held in a facility called Eureka-"

"Eureka?" McKay leaned forward. "Little town in the middle of nowhere Eureka?"

Weir glanced at her computer screen. "Yes, something like that. Have you heard of it before?"

"I've been there. It was years ago, before I started working with the Stargate program." He paused and stared off at the far wall. After a moment Sheppard cleared his throat. McKay started, and said, "Odd place."

Shepard laughed, "You live in a mythical city whose designers have turned into energy beings and you are calling a town on Earth odd?"

McKay nodded. "Yes," he said, "I am. But how did they get an Ancient device? They're more into the inventing devices department."

Weir shook her head, "I wouldn't know. My briefing was rather slim, but I'm sure you'll get all the details once you get to Earth."

Sheppard was still mulling over McKay's last response. He looked at McKay and said, "Odd? How odd?"

"Most of the personal would fit in around here."

"Well, this should be interesting."

Weir raised her eyebrow and cocked her head, "I believe that's all..." Sheppard shrugged and looked at McKay, who was staring off into space again. Weir shook her head and smiled, "I'll put in the call to see when they want you. Until then, enjoy your time off. You're dismissed." Her door slid open at the touch of a button and both men left.

*****

Nathan Stark, head of Global Dynamic, swore under his breath as he put his phone down. Steepling his fingers and frowning he starred off across his office in thought. His brief conversation with a Major Davis in Washington had been cryptic, at best. But the entire Department of Homeworld Security was secretive, a shadow hidden under Homeland Security. Stark wasn't entirely sure what they did over there, and really didn't care. Eureka was enough to keep him busy. However, he was confident that a good bit of the military applications leaving Eureka that seemed to vanish immediately thereafter ended up in that department. Still, not his problem. Well, not until now.

Now someone in that department had decided that Section 5 wasn't moving fast enough and was sending in a few of their own "experts" from the military to examine the project. Stark swore again. By the time they got through poking into things they would either set back research at least a year or kill themselves. Possibly both. Not that the second option was entirely unpleasant, but the mess of someone dying was always a nuisance and the paperwork and safety oversight boards would make life a living hell for months. Plus it would give Carter a chance to poke his nose in where it didn't belong. Again. No, he had to keep them alive and intact and away from anything valuable. Hopefully they would come and stare at it for a few minutes, look at the basic database of useless information, kept especially for these situations, and leave. All in a very short time. He could only hope.

Well, at least he wouldn't have to deal with them. Leaning over he pushed his intercom button, "Fargo, get in here now." Less than a minute later his door slid open behind him. "I have a job for you"

Fargo looked up and shifted his weight to his left foot, "What?"

"We're going to be having some... guests. From the military. I want you to keep them out of my way. Pick them up at the airstrip, get them lost, take them on a tour, whatever you have to do."

Fargo shifted to his right and bit down on his lip, then said, "Why are th..."

Stark cut him off, "It really doesn't matter, does it?" Fargo shifted back and shook his head. "If they make a big fuss bring them up here, but warn me first. And don't tell them anything." Stark spun his chair around and gave Fargo a cool stare. Then said, "do you understand me?"

Fargo nodded and shifted back to the right as he said, "Yes. Completely. I'll handle everything."

Stark continued to stare at him for a minute, then turned back to look out his window. Fargo looked around and chewed on his lip, then jumped when Stark said, "Leave. Now." Fargo nodded even more vigorously and turned toward the door, Just as it slid open Stark said, "And Fargo..."

"Yes?"

"Quit fidgeting."

Chapter Text

Sheppard walked toward the gate-room with a duffel bag over his shoulder, a hot cup of coffee in his left hand and a stack of paperwork in his right. He scanned the top page as he wove between various expedition members hurrying past him and in and out of doorways. There was a mumbled greeting to those who spoke to him, but his eyes didn't leave the page until he smacked into someone's back.

"Hey, what..." Sheppard sputtered and jerked the cup away from his body as the coffee splashed over the rim. He had run into Collins, one of Beckett's new nurses. She had, in turn, had stopped in surprise at seeing Zelenka, a couple of the scientists from the lab, and a botanist attempting to shove a large, slimy orange-ish plant into a box that looked entirely too small to contain it.

"What's going on?" Sheppard asked as he stepped around Collins. The men didn't acknowledge that he had spoken, irritating but a bit understandable as one of the geeks had climbed into the box and was now standing half on the lid and half on the plant while the other three personal attempted to shove the active vines in around the cracks. Sheppard watched for a minute, then turned back slightly to face Collins.

"Do you think we should call someone?" Collins voice wavered a bit as she looked at Sheppard.

"Nah, they look like they have things under control." He smiled at her, which turned into more of a smirk as she blushed slightly and looked away. Zelenka yelled something in Czech as he sat down hard on the floor, one vine around his feet and another slapping him in the face.

Collins jumped, then looked at Sheppard "But," she swallowed, "what if it's poisonous or something?"

"These guys usually have a good sense of personal preservation about things like that. If it were poisonous they would be behind a locked door yelling for some of my men." Shepard laughed, watching as one of of the men pushed another in response to a suggestion that he could try a little harder hold onto the slippery vines. "Of course, if you don't mind sticking around to make sure no one ends up killing one of the others I'd appreciate it."

"Of course." Collins nodded, then jumped again as one of the vines slipped by her foot.

Sheppard made a mental note to tell Beckett to leave her off the gate team rotation as he slipped past the confusion and continued down the hallway. If she was spooked by Zelenka's latest experiment into organic circuitry he didn't want her trying to treat someone in a truly dangerous situation.

Shepard stepped into the control room and paused, taking a deep breath. He knew Atlantis was in good hands while he was gone, he wasn't arrogant enough to believe that he was the only one holding things together. Still, he felt uncomfortable about leaving. Especially since McKay was going too. Sure , things had been quiet lately but that only reminded him of the old saying 'a calm before the storm'. But Weir could not be persuaded and, admittedly, it would be nice to kick back without any responsibilities and relax for a week or two. This assignment sounded like a cakewalk. All he had to do was babysit McKay, which on a secure base meant stopping by occasionally to make sure he ate and slept, and then touch some possible Ancient device. Wasn't like he didn't do any of that already.

Weir's voice cut into his thoughts. "Weir to Sheppard, come in."

He reached up and hit his earpiece. "Sheppard."

"Colonel, are you and McKay ready to leave? We're scheduled to dial-up in less than five minutes."

"Yes ma'am." Sheppard walked over to her office and slid the door open. Leaning against the frame he continued, "Well, I'm ready. Haven't seen McKay yet." He grinned. Weir shook her head but before she could speak Sheppard heard a voice behind him.

"What about me? I heard my name." McKay pushed by Sheppard and stepped into the office.

"Just discussing the fact you made us miss the dial-up window." Sheppard drawled.

"What!" McKay looked as his watch. "How? I left..." His voice trailed off as read the watch, then looked up at Sheppard's face. "You, you," he stuttered, "I'll..."

"Ah," Weir walked around her desk and leveled a look in their direction. "I think I'll have them go ahead and dial now. No sense in waiting since you're both here."

Turning and stepping into the control room Sheppard stopped when he saw two large bags sitting in the middle of the floor.

"What's that?" He pointed at them while giving McKay a glare.

"My baseball card collection," McKay rolled his eyes. "What do you think it is?"

"Half of the lab equipment?" Sheppard replied.

"Whatever, it's all going." McKay waved his hand at a Marine standing by the wall. "Move these down by the gate."

"Wait a minute," Shepard stepped in front of McKay. "You're using one of my Marines to move your luggage?"

"They're heavy and he has muscles just begging to be used." McKay answered, "You don't expect me to carry all of that by myself?"

Sheppard stared at him for a moment, then turned to the Marine. "You're dismissed." The man nodded and turned away, brushing by Ronon on his way out of the room.

"So you are volunteering to carry those?" McKay asked.

"You're volunteering to lighten them."

"Hardly."

McKay and Sheppard's staring match was broken by a voice, "Wormhole established."

Ronon looked at Sheppard and raised his eyebrow slightly. Sheppard paused, then nodded. Dex leaned over and easily lifted both bags.

"Everything is clear on this end as well. I'll send them through. Weir out." She turned to the men. "Take care of yourselves."

Shepard smiled and headed down the stairs with McKay and Ronon behind him. He paused as he got to the gate and turned, nodding at Weir before turning and walking through.

"Wait!" McKay let out an exasperated sigh and looked at the two bags, "Now what?"

"Go on." Dex said, "I'll send them through after you." McKay looked surprised.

"Oh." He shrugged, then said "Just be careful with those." He stepped into the wormhole.

Ronon waited a few seconds, grinned, then slung the two bags into the blue at shoulder height.

*****

General Landry, head of Stargate Command, watched as the personal from Atlantis came through the Gate. They were followed immediately after by a couple of large bags that almost knocked Dr. McKay off his feet and had reduced him to purple-faced stammering and emphatic finger-pointing at the Colonel. Landry wasn't sure why Sheppard was on the receiving end of McKay's ire, since he had come through the Gate before McKay, but he had not gotten to this point in his career by wasting energy on problems he didn't have to solve. He did, however, feel a momentary pang of sympathy for Elizabeth Weir.

Turning to an amused Dr. Daniel Jackson, an archaeologist and member of SG:1, he said, "Take them up to the conference room, Carter should be ready for them."

Jackson nodded, "Yes sir."

Colonel Samantha Carter gestured for an Airman by the door to flip the lights. Picking up a small remote she flipped on a projector to show a satellite image of a town. "Eureka is a small, government sponsored town in the Pacific Northwest. It was created to serve as a center for American research and development under civilian leadership. The military provides security and assistance in when requested or during emergencies but has no continual presence. You will be there as outside advisers only, should anything happen."

"Um," Sheppard raised his hand slightly, "what sort of 'thing'?"

"Anything." Carter replied, "Eureka has a higher than average yearly incident report. Not there's any reason to think that something will happen while you are there."

McKay snorted.

Carter looked at him, "Yes?"

"I've been to Eureka, before I worked for the SGC."

"And...?" Carter raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing." McKay shook his head. "Nothing at all."

Carter stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. "Anyway," she flipped to a picture of a large, glowing form, "this device has been under study in Eureka for a number of years but only recently came to the attention of Stargate Command. Visually, it is consistent with Ancient technology. Also, it appears to be of Earth origin, though far beyond our currently technological capabilities. However, the readings that have been taken of it are not consistent with other Ancient devices we have seen."

"In what way?" McKay asked.

"For starters, it is admitting extremely high levels of radiation on multiple spectrum's. In addition, energy bleed-off is immense, far higher than a single ZPM would account for, and steady. It seems to use a different power source." She paused to flip to another angle photograph. "Also, it has been the cause of at least one death. A core sample extraction was attempted with caused an energy spike. The resulting flare killed one of the scientists working on the project. Since then they have made little progress. Our hope is that using the technology found in the Pegasus Galaxy, coupled with the Ancient gene, will avoid a similar occurrence."

"If this is Ancient why not just have it moved to Area 51?" Sheppard asked, looking at Carter.

"For starters, moving it would raise a lot of questions. Although, General O'Neill has cleared some of the personal for our files so you won't run into any problems in that regard. Also, since the device it has now proven to be unstable there are concerns about moving it through civilian areas."

"How about beaming it?" Sheppard shrugged, "Just picking it up and dropping it off again."

"Bad idea", McKay said as Carter was shaking her head. "Big, unstable, unknown energy source being taken apart on the molecular level and put back together again by technology invented by a completely different race? Poof." He moved his hands in the universal gesture of an atomic bomb explosion.

"Poof? Mr. Mensa IQ is using 'poof'?"

"Well, I am trying to keep it at your level."

Carter cut in, "No one wants to risk it, not with the incident they had recently. Plus, the area where it is currently being held is extremely secure."

"Who's overseeing the project?" McKay snapped his finger a couple of times, "Uh, uh... Foster?"

"No. Global Dynamics," she looked at Sheppard, "the private organization overseeing the majority of the research in Eureka, including all the government contracts, is now being headed by a Dr. Nathan Stark." Carter flipped to a file photo of a somber man in a gray suit, "He's a..."

She was cut off by McKay's shout, "Stark? Stark is over Eureka now?"

"You know him?"

Shepard leaned away from McKay slightly as he swung to face him. "Yes, I know him. He's an arrogant know-it-all who thinks the world can't run without him." Sheppard heard Carter cough softly and chuckled. McKay cut him a look, "His science is faulty, he never listens, he's an idiot."

"He has a Nobel," Carter said, "and I've read several of his papers. They're not entirely right, but considering that he is working without the knowledge of we've gained from the stargate they are impressive."

"Lucky guesses maybe." McKay looked put out.

"Regardless, he is over Section 5. which means he is your primary contact." Carter sighed, "Try not to tick him off."

Before McKay could speak Sheppard cut in, "I'll keep an eye on him, make sure he's plays nice." He smirked at McKay, who gave him a dirty look.

Carter signaled for the lights to be turned back on. "Here's some files with more information on Eureka, and key personnel files. You can finish catching up on your flight over." She handed them to Sheppard. "Good luck."

Chapter Text

The trail of churned leaves and broken twigs curved out of sight behind a stand of trees. Something big had crashed through here, and recently. Taggart crouched and sniffed the air, he had smelled blood enough times in his hunting days to recognize the scent anywhere. He peered to his left and right, then moved forward slowly, trying to stay as quiet as possible. As he walked the wet smell of recently turned earth grew stronger, almost covering the odor of the blood, but not completely. There had been a major struggle and something had lost its life. Here and there he saw small drops of blood and tufts of fur, becoming more common as he rounded the trees. He considered calling for help, but dismissed the idea. The problem couldn't be that bad yet, it had only been a week. Give or take.

Senses at high alert. gun gripped in his hand, he pushed through the brush and looked at the scene of destruction. Some large bones and a broken skull were all the remained of the deer.

"Poor thing, you never had a chance." Taggart shook his head and frowned. This was bad. The effect must have spread further than he'd thought, he had expected to find a dead rabbit or something. Not a deer. He had to contain this before Stark found out. The project had been canceled for months, if Stark knew he went behind his back to keep looking into it he'd be sunk.

A sudden rustle caused him to snap his head up and swing his gun around. A few leaves on a bush moved, then grew still. Taggart shifted his gun into his right hand and arm, freeing his left hand to draw the hunting knife on his belt. Creeping forward he reached out with the gun barrel and poked at the bush, then jumped backward. The bush began to shake and then a small, furry head poked out. The squirrel stared directly into Taggart's eyes.

"Squeak?"

"No need to get hostile," Taggart licked his lips, "I'm here to help."

"Squeak."

All the bushes in front of Taggart started to shake like they were caught in a strong wind. Little heads started popping out and squeaking and chattering. Several of the squirrels jumped to the ground and stalked toward him.

"Oh bloody 'ell!" Taggart turned and ran for his life.

*****

"Why were you in Eureka before" Sheppard asked, looking across the plane to where McKay sat flipping through a stack of files.

"Research," McKay answered, not looking up.

"Research? Wow, now all my questions have been answered. Thank you, Mister Helpful," Sheppard said. When McKay didn't even bother to grunt in response Sheppard slowly crunched the top couple of sheets in his file into a tight ball. With careful aim he pulled his arm back and let loose, bouncing the paper ball off the sheet McKay was reading and directly into his face.

McKay jumped, then frowned. "You are so immature." He shoved the ball into the floor and snapped, "I was invited to go to Eureka after I earned my PH.D. My thesis caught someone's attention and so I had four months to put my theory on particle acceleration in a vacuum to the test in one of their labs."

"And?" Sheppard raised one eyebrow.

"And that's it. I already had an American government security clearance from my contract work with the Air Force but it had to be upgraded. Even then they kept me away from half of the facility and most of the personal. Very 'need to know only' place. Did my research, wrote my paper, left. End of story." He stared at Sheppard, "Now can I finish reading this or do I need to stay on the lookout for more aerial attacks?"

Sheppard chuckled and picked up a file off the seat next him. Eureka seemed like a nice place. The pictures even looked like small-town America. Giving the scientists somewhere to live with their families close was sure to help morale and it was good security. Less people and messages leaving town meant less chances of interception. Also, it reduced the chances of kidnapping, of both the scientists and their families. And there was always the knowledge that your spouse and kids were well within the government's hand if you did something illegal. That was quite an incentive to think twice before selling that secret.

McKay blinked as he stepped out of the plane and directly into the light of the morning sun. He had always hated jet lag, but it had nothing on gate lag. He glanced at his watch as he headed down the stairs, it read 14:15. So, early afternoon in Atlantis equaled early morning in the deep of summer of the Pacific Northwest. Just great. An early breakfast followed by an early breakfast. Humans were not meant to have to put up with this. How was he supposed to focus? His train of thought was broken by a voice.

"Excuse me. Dr McKay?" A small, nervous looking man was waiting by the stairs.

"Yes. And you are?" McKay said, his tone causing the man to flinch.

"Fargo. My name's Fargo. I work for Dr. Stark, at Global Dynamic." Fargo licked his lips and looked past McKay to Sheppard, "I'm supposed to get you settled in. Show you around."

Sheppard nodded, "Great. Hope you have a large car."

At Fargo's confused expression he gestured back toward the the rear of the plane where the luggage compartment had just been opened. Not only were McKay's original bags piled inside but they had been joined by several of equal size, Carter had sent along some Asgard-influenced equipment she'd developed for monitoring Ori and Prior activity. Sheppard guessed that the pile was worth at least 20 times his entire life's earnings, even with all his special duty and hazard pay.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'll have someone pick it up and take it to the lab." Fargo pulled out his cell phone and started to dial a number.

"Wait! I don't think so." McKay frowned, "There is some very sensitive, classified, equipment here. You can't just call some goons to come throw it in a truck. Some of this stuff is irreplaceable, and worth far more than you are."

"I think I know about handling equipment." Fargo drew himself up, "I've been working at Global Dynamic for years."

"I don't care if you've been working for the Queen of England, I'm not letting this stuff out of sight until it's in a lab, a locked lab, somewhere nice and safe." McKay said and crossed his arms. He watched as Fargo's faced bunched up.

"We can't go to the lab today."

"Why?" McKay asked.

"Because," Fargo cast around for an answer, "It's closed. Closed for the day. Everyone has gone home."

"It's," Sheppard checked his watch, "0700 hours and the lab is closed for the day?"

"Um, yes. A day off. For everyone. We'll go, um, on a tour." Fargo nodded and smiled, "I'll show you the diner and the library and the, um, post office. It'll be great."

Sheppard and McKay stared at him. Fargo shifted his weight back and forth a few times, then bit his lip when he noticed McKay's expression.

Sheppard cut in, "Look, why don't you call a truck and we'll get this stuff loaded. Then, you can show us the diner and we'll decide what to do over a plate of waffles. Fair?"

Fargo nodded and opened his cell phone. While he was talking softly with someone on the other end McKay turned to Sheppard,

"What are you doing?" he hissed. "Something is going on here."

"Exactly." Sheppard glanced at Fargo, "He's hiding something but Weir is always encouraging me to try tact. Plus, my bad cop is stuck back on Atlantis. Let's just give him a few minutes to spill."

"And my gear?" McKay challenged.

"Do you really think the US Government is letting a lot of petty thieves run around in a town so secret no one knows it exists?" He raised one eyebrow. "I think we can assume the stuff will end up where it's supposed to go."

"Whatever. But it's coming out of your pay if you're wrong"

*****

Stark finished sealing the envelopes on his desk. Each was clearly marked with a name and a disclaimer reading,

"Eyes only. Material within classified under Pentagon statute 12286.98.56 and applicable following statutes. Unauthorized use or release of this information is classified as treason. Material within must be stored in an approved class 3 storage facility or destroyed after use."

He tapped his finger on the desk as he read over the names on the 3 files laying next to his; Henry Deacon, Allison Blake, and Jack Carter. Henry he understood. Alison he understood. And she could be useful as a distraction. But Carter? Why did Carter need to know about the Stargate program? Furthermore, why hadn't anyone told him about the program long before this? The application possibilities were endless. Eureka should have been on the research from the start. Shielding, weapons, medical research. If he had access to the information hinted at in the files there could easily be an 100 increase in output from the labs within a couple of years.

As to Section 5; well, this was an interesting development. Alien involvement would explain a lot, but all the tests run had shown the artifact to be comprised of elements and materials found on Earth. It would be interesting to hear the theory's of whoever the government sent over. At least they might give him a starting point for his research.

Stark called for a courier to drop the envelopes off and the touched his desktop to activate the computer screen embedded in it. It was time to write some letters. They had kept things from him until now for their own reasons but since he had been told there was no reason not to let Global Dynamic have some the the research. And the funding.

Chapter Text

Fargo stopped the car in front of a small diner sitting in the middle of a quiet street. The neon light read "Cafe' Diem" and there were a few small wrought iron tables outside. Several folks were eating and talking amongst themselves, including a couple of kids.

"I still don't see anything different about this town." Sheppard said to McKay. "Looks like anywhere in the country."

"Really?" McKay nodded at one of the tables, "Is that normal in Hicksville?"

It took a few seconds to register. The kids were putting on their backpacks and gathering up their stuff to leave, for school presumably, and one of them had dropped his baseball cap in the chair next to him were a man was seated. But the cap was clearly laying on the seat, in the guys leg. As Sheppard watched the kid reached though his dad to grab his hat, then jerked away as his mom tried to give him a kiss. Yelling bye to both of them he took off down the street to catch up with his older siblings.

The woman sitting at the table shook her head and shrugged, laughing. Then, she said something Sheppard couldn't quite make out and pushed a button on a small device sitting on the table. The man glowed for a moment and then disappeared. She dropped the device in her purse and stood up, then walked off the the opposite direction the kids had gone.

"What was that?" Sheppard asked.

"Portable holographic projector." Fargo answered from behind him. Walking around McKay and towards the door he continued, "Makes it a lot easier for folks to stay in touch."

"Oh yes," Sheppard said, "Everyone wants to eat with a hologram of their parent."

"Come on," McKay headed inside, "I'm starving and the food here is a step above the stuff they serve on-"

"Military bases?" Sheppard cut him off with a hard look.

"Yeah. Military bases." McKay nodded and sent Sheppard an irritated look. "Like I was saying before you interrupted me."

The inside of the diner was crowded with an assortment of people, each in their own little world. Some were talking into cellphones, others typed rapidly on laptops, still others talked to folks sitting at their table. Sheppard stared at several of them but couldn't decide if they were real or holograms. It was creepy, to not know if the people around you were really people or not.

Fargo cleared his throat, "Um... Here's a table." He gestured to one of the booths.

"Great!" Sheppard bumped McKay with his elbow in the direction of the one on the right and headed left himself. Sliding into the booth he sat on the very end of the bench and smiled, "I've got this side."

Fargo frowned and looked at McKay.

"Don't look at me. I don't slide." McKay crossed his arms.

Fargo opened his mouth, then closed it and sighed. "Fine." He slid to the back of his seat and frowned at the tabletop.

"Good morning Fargo," Vincent yelled from several tables away. "The usual?"

"Yeah." Fargo nodded.

"Oh, we have guests." Vincent walked over to the table. "What can I get for you gentlemen today?"

"Canadian sausage, the real stuff, and toast, wheat, and 2 eggs with tomatoes and spinach." McKay paused, "And coffee. A lot of coffee."

"OK, A, this is why your PT scores are dropping. We ate a couple of hours ago." Sheppard looked at McKay pointedly, "And B, am I the only one not seeing a menu?"

"Nope," Vincent said, "There's not one. Order whatever you want." He looked Sheppard straight in the eye, "If it's edible I can cook it."

"Anything at all? Regardless?"

"Anything."

Sheppard paused, considering his options, then said, "In that case I'll have kanafeh bi jabn." He stared at Vincent, obviously expecting him to draw a blank.

"Sure thing." Vincent smiled. "Coffee with that?"

"Yeah..." Sheppard nodded and narrowed his eyes as Vincent walked back toward the kitchen. Looking at Fargo he said, "Is this guy for real?"

"What?" Fargo looked up, "Yeah, part of our benefits package."

"So…" WHen Fargo didn't pick-up the conversational thread Sheppard added, "What do you do at Global Dynamic?"

"I'm Dr. Stark's assistant-"

"How is Stark? Same old know-it-all suck up?" McKay cut in.

"Dr. Stark is a brilliant scientist." Fargo looked offended that McKay would think otherwise.

As McKay and Fargo started to argue Sheppard tuned them out. It had taken practice but he had finally found the exact state of mind necessary to quit hearing McKay's normal prater. Of course, if the tone changed that was another matter. Certain tones of excited McKay normally meant death was imminent, others simply meant he had a new toy to play with. It had taken awhile to work out the difference. And a quiet and calm McKay was always a very bad sign. Still, not so hard once you got the hang of it.

Sheppard's thoughts were interrupted by the jingle of a bell hanging over the door. A man in a brown sheriff's uniform walked up to the bar and slumped onto a stool. He had a haggard look to his face and had skipped his morning shave. He spoke to Vincent briefly, then put his head on the counter with his eyes closed. Vincent set a coffee cup in front of him and went back into the kitchen.

Vincent brought out the food for Shepherd's table.

"Well?" Vincent crossed his arms.

Sheppard looked at the plate, everything was perfect.

"What is that?" McKay asked, jabbing his fork at Sheppard's plate. "Looks disgusting. Although, not as disgusting as his." He pointed at Fargo's cheeseburger and onion rings. "You do know it's breakfast, right?"

Fargo took a huge bite out of his burger and stared at McKay while he chewed.

"It's a little something I picked up a fondness for over in the Middle East." Shepard grinned, "And this looks exactly the same." He looked at Vincent, "I'm not sure how you pulled it off-"

"And you'll never know." Vincent gave him a smug look and walked away.

A few minutes later the quiet was broken by a loud rendition of a Spice Girls song. The man at the the counter started awake and tried to sit up but was thwarted by the fact he was already sitting. He slid off the stool but his leg buckled and avoided falling only by catching his arm on the bar. He was frantically digging through pockets with his other hand while the song continued to play. Several of the customers started laughing.

He finally got the phone out and open, "Hello?" A pause. "Yeah, that's why I called you." He nodded, "Yeah, me too. Want to meet up at Global?" He nodded again, "OK, 15 minutes. See you Allison." He looked around and noticed everyone staring at him. He rubbed his mouth, then held up his phone and said, "Zoey's idea of a joke." As the other diners went back to eating he muttered, "I'm going to kill her if she doesn't give me the password."

Sheppard slowly looked over at Fargo and gave him his best "I have a gun and you lied to me look". Fargo glanced back and forth and seemed to be considering his best plan of defense. Before he could come up with an excuse Sheppard got up and went over the the counter.

"Good morning," he said. "I'm Colonel John Sheppard, Air Force." Sheppard held out his hand.

The man blinked like he was trying to get his mind back on his surroundings. He gave Sheppard a once-over, then took his hand and said, "Jack Carter. I'm the sheriff around here."

"Nice to meet you." Sheppard smirked, "Overheard you there, going up to Global Dynamic?"

"Yeah," Carter said with a suspicious tone.

Before he could continue he was interrupted by McKay, "So are we. Catch a ride?"

"And this," Sheppard jerked his thumb toward McKay, "Is Dr. Rodney McKay."

Carter glanced at McKay, then looked past them at Fargo who was still sitting at the table and back to Sheppard. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Sheppard said. "We're just supposed to be heading up that way and we seem to be having some car trouble." He tossed his head back at Fargo, "Seems he'd rather stay down here."

Carter gave Fargo a questioning look. Fargo shrugged his shoulders and looked miserable.

"Fine," Carter glanced at his watch. "But I'm running late. I we get up there and you're not on the approved list you'll have to walk. I'm not bringing you back."

"Not a problem," Sheppard said.

*****

Fargo watched through the window as the trio got in Carter's jeep and left. He pulled a phone from his pocket and hit speed dial.

"We ran into Sheriff Carter. The Colonel and Dr. McKay are headed up to Global with him." Fargo winced as he listened, pulling the phone away from his ear slightly. When the angry buzz stopped he said, "What do you want me to do?" He waited, "Hello?"

"If you would like to make a call..."

Fargo shut the phone and stuck it back in his pocket. He glanced around the room, then he shrugged, sat down and continued to eat.

*****

Taggart sat in his garage and looked at his jeep. The bottom edge of the body panels were all covered in a fine coating of tiny scratches. The wheels were scratched as well, and the tires had tiny claw and teeth marks in them. One headlight was broken out, the bumper on that side was bent, and he had a small knot on his head all from running into a inconveniently placed rock.

"Poor baby," he said as he patted the hood. "Didn't see this one coming or I would have taken your big brother over there." He looked at his armored vehicle sitting a few yards away.

Going inside he went downstairs into his lab. Bumping the mouse to turn off the screen saver he studied the diagrams on the screen for several minutes. He traced the gently sloping graphs with his finger and muttered, then scribbled some numbers out a scrap of paper laying near-by. When he was finally satisfied he erased and re-entered a sequence of numbers, then hit the enter key.

He leaned forward and watched the hourglass slowly spin as the computer recalculated the equations. Finally, it chimed and flashed up a new graph. Taggart leaned in, then drew back and rubbed his eyes. Looking at the screen again he reached out as if to touch it and shook his head.

"Oh boy."

He ran his fingers through his hair as he turned and rushed across the lab. Behind him the jagged, nearly vertical graph lines flashed red and angry.

Chapter Text

The ride toward Global Dynamic was a quiet one. Sheppard tried to strike-up a conversation with Carter several times but each time he received a minimal answer. Carter was very distracted, driving more from habit and memory than actually paying attention. And McKay didn't even pretend to pay attention, he had pulled his laptop out and started typing before they had pulled away from the curb. Sheppard finally gave up and settled back to enjoy the ride, it had been a long time since he had been to the Northwest and the area was beautiful.

Shepard smiled as he saw a doe standing by the side of the road. The smile faded as a bit as further up the road he noticed an older man wearing camo and holding a hunting rifle. However, the man didn't appear to be hunting, instead jogging along the tree line. Before Sheppard could point him out he took off in a hard run straight into the woods. Shepard turned to question Carter but out of the corner of his eye he saw something that made his heart jump and his survival instincts flare. His head jerked around and his eyes focused on the point where the washed-out bridge's edge met open sky. He glanced at Carter but he hadn't even noticed, and they were already on the bridge.

Acting quickly, Sheppard used his most authoritative Colonel's voice and yelled, "Stop!" At the same time he grabbed the bottom of the wheel and pulled it hard toward him. Carter had, as Sheppard had hoped, automatically hit the brakes. When Sheppard grabbed the wheel the rear end slid to the right and scrubbed along the guardrail, the sound of screeching metal filled the jeep for several seconds, then silence.

"What was that?" McKay yelled, from the backseat. "Did we hit-" He cut himself off as he noticed the sheer drop only a few feet from his window. He gulped as his face paled.

Sheppard looked over at Carter, "You OK?" Carter just stared out the windshield, then he closed his eyes and put his forehead on the steering wheel.

"Fine. Better than my jeep." Came the muffled answer.

"Your jeep? Was almost plunged to our deaths and you're worried about your jeep?" McKay sounded incredulous.

Carter looked as if he couldn't decide between laughter and anger and so settled on annoyance. "We were fine." Seeing the disbelieving looks the other two were giving him he unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed out of the car. Walking around the front of the jeep he headed straight for the edge of the bridge.

Sheppard realized what he was doing and jumped out, "Look, let's just talk about this. You probably hit your head..." Carter didn't even slow down. When he reached the edge he stepped out over thin air but before he could put his foot down Sheppard darted forward, grabbing his arm and pulling. But with only one foot on the ground Carter lost his balance and fell, pulling Sheppard down with him. McKay drew in a sharp breath as the two men fell into empty space.

A breath he let out a few seconds later when he realized they were not plummeting to their deaths, but were instead were laying in the air at the same level as the road.

"Ow." Carter moaned, "Did you have to do that?" He rolled over and looked at Sheppard.

Sheppard ignored him and waved McKay over, "You need to see this."

McKay walked with care up to the edge and peered over. He slowly slid his foot over the edge.

"McKay," Sheppard said. "Neither of us are falling, what makes you think you will?"

"Maybe it's like those old Loony Tunes cartoons where only the guy who looks down falls. And I'm looking down." McKay said. Despite his protests he had continued to inch forward as he was talking and finally crossed the dividing line. As soon as he did an entire modern steel and concrete bridge appeared, replacing the rotten looking wood one that had been there.

"This is advanced holographic projection work" McKay said as he walked over and examined the projectors. He continued to mutter to himself as Sheppard and Carter climbed to their feet and dusted off. Carter groaned when he found a tear in the knee of his pants.

"Sorry about the jeep," Sheppard offered.

"Yeah, well, I nearly jumped out of the car the first time I came across here." Carter walked over to the jeep and put his foot on the wheel to gain leverage. He pulled the sheet metal away from the tire with a creak, the glanced at his watch. "Great. I'm late."

"Come on," Sheppard waved McKay over, "Time to go."

The rest of the ride up was uneventful, but Sheppard had completely forgotten about the man in the woods.

*****

When they reached Global's front counter Carter flashed an orange security pass at the woman behind the desk and stepped aside so the other two could check-in.

"Is Allison here yet?" Carter asked the receptionist.

"No." The woman typed in several numbers. "Estimated time of arrival is in 4.2 minutes."

"I guess I'll wait here." Carter leaned on the counter and watched McKay go through the security measures. When the woman was finished she handed McKay a red pass, Carter glanced at it, then snatched it out of McKay's hand.

"Red? How do you get a red pass?" Carter glared at McKay, then looked at Sheppard's still laying on the counter. "You too?"

"Give that back." McKay made a swipe at his pass but Carter pulled it back out of range. "Oh, that's mature." McKay said. He crossed his arms and frowned at Carter.

"I''m serious. I can think of only one reason to need a red level pass and there's no reason two men from NORAD's deep space thing-a-ma-jigger, one who's just a pilot-" He glanced at Sheppard, "No offense", and looked back to McKay and continued, "to need one."

"Unauthorized removal of a Global Dynamic security pass from any person is a felony." Stark walked up to the group, but froze when his gaze fell on McKay. McKay raised his chin and glared at him.

"I'm Colonel John Sheppard, USAF," Shepard stepped between the two men and held out his hand. Stark paused for slightest moment before putting a barely social smile on his face and taking it.

"Delighted." He then looked towards McKay, put made no effort to shake his hand. "McKay"

"Stark." McKay seemed equally unwilling.

Carter cleared his throat, breaking the awkward pause and attracting Stark's attention.

"Don't you have someone to go arrest?" Stark asked.

"You know why I'm here, you sent the file over." The worried look he had lost talking the Shepherd came back. "Did you think I was going to just ignore it?"

Stark sighed and nodded, "I did expect you to show up." Turning to the receptionist at the desk he continued, "Send Allison and Henry up when they get here."

"Gentlemen, if you will..." Stark turned to Sheppard and McKay and inclined his head toward the elevator.

A puzzled look was on Carter's face, but he suddenly looked shocked.

"Wait!" He jogged up right behind the others. "They... you two... the file?" He stared at Sheppard, who looked amused, then back at Stark.

"As eloquent as ever, Sheriff." Stark replied, as the elevator door slid shut.

*****

Carter had a hundred questions he wanted to ask but he kept his mouth shut and watched the others. He noticed Sheppard did the same thing, although his focus was on their surroundings and the labs they were passing. McKay never even glanced to the side, he was intent on his civil but sharp conversation with Stark.

When they reached the secure conference room McKay promptly pulled out his laptop and Stark pulled out his cellphone. Carter walked over to the coffee pot where Sheppard was fixing two cups.

"So... you are involved in this Stargate thing?" Carter said.

"Yes."

"And aliens actually exist?"

"There's two on my team."

Carter blinked at that one.

Sheppard decided to help him out. "I head Gate Team 1 out of the city of Atlantis, in the Pegasus Galaxy. McKay's on it, and so are two locals, Teyla and Ronon."

"And I thought Eureka was a big secret."

"Well, if it makes you feel better I didn't learn about Eureka until this morning." Shepard said.

Just then the door slid open and two people walked in. "Allison." Carter said. She smiled at him, but it was strained. She looked over at Stark.

"Allison. Henry." Stark nodded to each of them. "This is Dr. Rodney McKay and Colonel John Sheppard, the the Star Gate program.' He turned back toward Sheppard, "This is Dr. Allison Blake and Dr. Henry Deacon, both of whom are employed here at Global."

Sheppard dropped one the cups of coffee off by McKay's laptop, then help out his free hand to Blake, "Nice to meet you."

"Same here" She held out her hand to McKay, but her smile faltered when he didn't even look at her, instead staring over her shoulder.

"Henry?" McKay sounded shocked.

"You're involved in Stargate program?" Deacon was staring at McKay as if he was looking at a ghost.

"You two know each other?" Blake asked.

"Uh..." Deacon shook himself slightly, "Rodney was a student of mine, at the same time as Stark. Although," he looked at McKay, "I never expected to see the two of you in the same room again."

"Life is full of surprises." Stark's voice was dry.

"This does explain why you quit publishing papers." Deacon shook his head. "I had wondered what government project you had ended up working on to disappear so quietly."

"You kept up with my papers?"

"I keep up with all my more promising students. Kept up with Nathan here." Henry smiled at Stark, who appeared unimpressed with being put into the same category as McKay.

"So," Blake smiled, "You two were classmates. Ever enter the science fair together?"

"Oh, you're funny." McKay said.

"Sometimes I thought it was a good thing they hated each other," Deacon laughed, "if they had worked together they probably would have managed to blow up the planet."

"Actually," Sheppard cut off whatever Stark was about to say, "you were right, seeing as how McKay managed to blow up a solar system all on his own."

There was several seconds of silence as everyone in the room stared at McKay.

"Half a solar system. And it's not like it was inhabited" McKay shot Sheppard an angry look

"Oh, well, that makes it okay." Carter was looking at McKay as if he expected him to push a button on his laptop and destroy Earth.

"As entertaining as this is, I have other things to do today." Stark gestured to the table, "Shall we begin?"

"No, wait." Carter held up his hand, "You blew up a solar system?" When McKay started to protest he amended, "Okay, half a solar system. How did you manage that?"

"Well, I could tell you I but I expect the only terms you would understand would be space-station, computers, and explosion so I don't see wasting my breath."

"McKay," Sheppard scolded.

"He does have you pegged." Stark looked smugly at Carter.

Chapter Text

After everyone finally settled in at the conference table Stark ordered the lights to dim and Sheppard did a quick overview of the Stargate program offering tantalizing bits of information but nothing concrete. Then Stark covered the history of the Artifact; where it was found, when, basic test results. McKay and Deacon slowed things down considerably, throwing in their opinions on the issue and then arguing the point into the ground. Even Blake seemed to be keeping up fine and had her own opinions on sub-space quantum flow and random quarks. Carter was quickly left behind as the conversation flowed away from aliens and space-travel and to spacial physics and particle behavior.

His only real consolation was that Sheppard had also lost interest and kept dozing off. No one else had noticed but Carter had learned the art of sleeping with his head up and his eyes half open while in college and could recognize someone else doing the same thing. As much as he hated to admit it, It was something of a relief when his cellphone blared to life, although the ring tone was even more embarrassing with Stark staring at him. Carter snapped it open to silence it, then covered the mouthpiece with his hand.

"Henry, you've got to fix whatever Zoey did to my phone."

Henry laughed and shook his head.

"Hello?' Carter put the phone to his ear. "What? Slow down." He listened for a few more seconds. "Jo, what is all that noise? I can hardly hear you." Everyone in the room could hear faint sounds coming from his direction. "Wait, the school?" Carter got up, "Attacking? What is attacking?" He started toward the door, then stopped. "What? Are you sure-" He pulled the phone away from his ear, "Okay, yes, of course you're sure. I'm on my way, just keep everyone inside and away from the... problem." He flipped his phone closed, then noticed everyone in the room staring at him.

"Um..." He looked embarrassed to have to continue, "There seems to be a problem at the school..."

"How bad is it?" Blake looked tense, running worst-case scenarios through her mind.

"I think I can handle it... It's some... uh... squirrels..." Carter sighed. "I've got to go."

"Of course." Stark bit his lip to keep from smiling.

"See what I meant about being an odd town?" McKay whispered to Sheppard, who had gone on alert when he heard the word "attack".

"Well, as interesting as this discussion has been," Sheppard got to his feet, "maybe I could be of some assistance with your situation." He looked to Carter.

"Sure," Carter shrugged, "Why not?"

*****

"So, I have to ask," Sheppard looked over at Carter's side of the jeep, "do you often have to deal with cute, furry little animals attacking schoolchildren? Not that I'm complaining, anything is better than being stuck in that conference room any longer."

"This is a first, but it is Eureka. I'm not discounting anything being a threat." Carter glanced at the speedometer and sped up a little, "I, well, a bunch of us, we were nearly killed by my house." At Sheppard's look he continued, "We're on great terms now, SARAH loves me. But it has made me a bit more careful." He failed to notice Sheppard eying him carefully after that last pronouncement. "Plus, it was Jo who called."

"Jo?"

"Yeah, my deputy. She's not the sort to get rattled easily, I've seen her face down power-mad super geniuses and freaky ice tornadoes without blinking."

"Ice tornadoes?"

"It's a long story."

The two men rode in silence for a few minutes before Carter spoke up, "So-" He looked at Sheppard expectantly. After a pause he said, "Come on. There has got to be some freaky stuff out there. Don't tell me you've meet aliens and traveled to other worlds without seeing some crazy stuff."

"More than I care to remember," Shepard shook his head, then smiled. "Once our city once tried to kill us."

"The city?"

"Yeah, Atlantis is pretty cool but she has her own ideas about keeping us safe."

"Tell me about it! Every time I come down with a cold I have to talk SARAH into letting me leave."

Sheppard started laughing, "Atlantis isn't quite that bad. But Carson can be, he's the doc assigned to the expedition." Sheppard paused and thought, "Then, of course, there are always fun surprises on new worlds like angry natives and evil bugs and nauseating bog pits filled with man-eating plants."

"Please don't give the botany department any ideas."

Before Sheppard could answer Carter pulled into the schoolyard. It was eerily empty but otherwise rather normal looking at first glance. As they got closer, however, the details were disturbing. Paint and wheels were scratched on a number of the cars. Several of the tires had been chewed all the way through and flattened. As they walked up the sidewalk the last leaf off one of the shrubs around the school entrance floated across their path. The doors had been scratched all the way down to silver along the bottom foot or so, tiny paint flecks littered the rubber mat that lay there. Well, what was left of it. Large hunks were completely gone. Most disturbing was a small collection of blue feathers and bits of fur blowing against the brick wall of the building. The one thing neither man saw was a squirrel.

Carter reached out and pulled on the door. When he was unable to open it he rapped on it with his knuckles. "Jo?"

"Is there any wildlife in the vicinity of this door?" A woman called back, her voice tense.

"No..." Carter said.

There was the sound of a bolt turning and the door swung open. A short but well-muscled woman in a uniform matching Carter's stood there. Her uniform had blood drops splashed across it and a small cut on her forehead had left a trail of blood to her ear. She was holding her service revolver in her hand, and looked past the two men and scanned the parking lot before lowering the weapon.

"Who's this?" She jerked her chin toward Sheppard.

"Ah, John Sheppard, he's Air Force... Jo, are you OK?" Carter asked.

"I'm fine, most of this isn't mine."

"And it belongs to..." Carter trailed off.

Jo pointed. All along the hall were bits of fluff and gore, and several bullets holes.

"You shot the squirrels?" Carter looked put-out, "They're so cute."

"Not these,: she replied. "These are possessed. They are behaving in an organized fashion and highly aggressive."

"Are the kids OK?"

"Yes. I got them all into the fallout bunker under the gym."

"What happened to you head?" Sheppard asked.

"One of the teachers thought his aim was sufficient to hit a small, quickly moving animal with a stapler at 25 feet-"

She was interrupted by the door swinging open again, Taggart staggered in. He was out of breath, had his rifle clutched in one hand and a data pad in the other.

"You." Sheppard pointed at him, "I saw you in the woods earlier."

"Yeah," Taggart took a deep breath, "Yeah, I was looking for something." He looked down the hall, then noticed Lupo. "Jo-"

She cut him off, "I'm fine."

"Taggart, why do I get the feeling you know what is going on here?" Carter put his hands on his hips.

Taggart looked away and tried to think of an excuse. Carter didn't give him the chance.

"Taggert..." His tone was a warning. "People are getting hurt."

"Aye." Taggart sighed and deflated a bit. "None of this was supposed to happen."

"I've found that when a scientist-" Sheppard paused and looked at Taggart, raising his eyebrow. Taggart shrugged. "-or whoever, says 'This wasn't supposed to happen' then generally it could have been prevented if they had checked with the people in charge of making sure things are a good idea before they are done."

"Amen." Carter's comment drew him Taggart's stare. "Still, that doesn't tell me what happened."

"It'll be easier if I show you. Come on back to my lab." Taggart turned and headed out the door.

Lupo and Sheppard looked at Carter, who shrugged and followed Taggart out of the building.

*****

"So, I'm guessing that the graph we're looking at is bad." Carter said.

"Aye, it is." Taggart pointed at a spot about halfway across the screen. "This is where we are. If the... infestation, continues at this rate we'll hit critical in about 38 hours."

"Critical?" Sheppard looked less than pleased by the word.

"They'll be past the point of containment."

"What will be past the point of containment?" Carter crossed his arms, "I want an answer now."

"The squirrels."

No one said anything for a minute. Then Jo spoke up, "Taggart, those squirrels are vicious, what did you do to them?"

"It was an accident, I never meant for them to be affected." He paused, taking a deep breath before continuing, "It's the nanites. When Stark ordered me to give up my research I couldn't do it, I was too close to the answer! He was being unreasonable."

"Unreasonable?" Carter sounded incredulous, "Those things nearly killed us!"

"But it wasn't there fault. They just had a flaw in their programming, all they needed was a second chance. So, I brought them down here." Taggart gestured to his lab. "I have a full containment system, it was perfectly safe. And, just to be sure I species-synced them to rats only, so they couldn't take over any other lifeforms."

"Then why am I standing here?" Carter's tone was low and dangerous. "There are people at risk because you couldn't give up an experiment."

"I know."

Shepard stepped forward and looked more closely at the screen. "This is more McKay's department, but can't you just turn them off? Or hit them with an EMP?"

"They stopped responding to commands as soon as they jumped species, and they are EMP protected."

"How did they jump species?" Carter asked, "I mean, you said they could only get into rats."

"That was the plan. But every rat I put them in died within a few minutes, lost a couple of my best boys." Taggart looked heartbroken at the thought, "I quit to work on re-writing the programming."

"And?" Sheppard asked.

"I deactivated the nanites, then buried the boys out back." Taggart sighed, "But now the graves are empty and the nanites are in the squirrels. I must have miscalculated one of the DNA markers and synced them to the wrong species."

"Well, there's got to be something we can do." Carter gestured at the lab, "What in here will kill them?"

"Nothing. The only option is to disrupt their communication like we did before at the party. But getting sound equipment out into the woods will be difficult."

"Before?" Sheppard asked Carter.

"Yeah, before. It's a long story but it turned out that cranking up the bass made them fall apart, into nanite dust." He looked at Jo, "Maybe we could get Henry to put some big speakers on the jeep."

Jo looked less than certain of the idea but before she could speak her radio squawked. "Jo, you there?"

"I'm here. What's wrong?"

Vincent's excited voice replied, "There is a pack, or is it a herd... a flock-"

"Vincent!"

"Yes, yes. Well, whatever they are there are a lot of squirrels running down old country road 42. And they look very angry."

"Where are you?"

"Up at the old fire tower helping set up a telescope. Thought I'd give you a heads-up. Oh wait, they just headed into the woods towards the creek."

"Stay where you are and do not, for any reason, get in their way. Do you hear me?"

"Loud and clear."

Carter took a deep breath and said, "Sheppard, you're with me. Taggert, you and Jo follow in your tank-thingy. It's time for us to get a look at what's going on."

Chapter Text

McKay followed Stark into a room filled with banks of computers and several large plasma screens on the walls, each covered with data. The thick steel door hissed shut behind him, effectively locking them into the windowless space. Claustrophobia caused his stomach to churn and the hair on the back of his neck to stand up but McKay forced the feeling down. He had made it living under a mountain in Colorado, he could certainly make it here as well.

"Here's our research data, about 5 years worth. Henry can walk you through it." Stark gestured to one of the computers sitting apart from the rest, "Have fun."

"Wait," said McKay, catching Stark's attention as he turned away. "I want to see it first, take some readings of my own."

"That's unwise, unless you want to join the last scientist who went in there. She was killed drawing a core sample last year," said Stark.

"And the artifact has been much less stable since then." Henry added.

"Wait, wait, wait. Back up. Did that really seem like a good idea?" McKay stared at Stark.

"At the time. We had exhausted all other resources."

"So you decided drilling a hole in was a good idea?" McKay was incredulous. "If it had been a naquadah generator Lake Eureka would cover most the western United States."

"Naquadah?" Deacon asked.

"It's an ore mined on some worlds that can be used as an energy source, highly unstable. We use it in some of our ships, and as a backup gate power source." McKay pulled an energy reader out of his pocket. "I'm here to figure out if this is Ancient and to do that I need to get a reading on it. With this." He shook the reader at Stark.

"Very well, doesn't hurt me if you're wrong." Stark turned and walked to a door set in the far wall.

"Nathan," Henry scolded, as he followed McKay over. Nathan pulled open the large door to reveal several radiation suits hanging inside.

"Put one of those on, press the green button once you're ready. We'll let you through, same procedure that the other end of the tunnel. If you survive, come back down here and stay suited until after the decontamination cycle has run." Stark gave McKay a smile that didn't reach his eyes, "Good luck."

McKay kept up the fearless front until after he had been locked in. Pushing the green button caused a crackle to come across his headset.

"It's not too late..." Stark's voice tickled his ear.

"Just open the door," McKay snapped. He was already sweating from the suit, and nerves, and had no interest in Stark's little power plays.

When the second door opened and he saw the artifact churning and twisting his breath caught in his throat. It was beautiful, in a deadly sort of way. "It's, it's not exactly like anything I've seen before, but it certainly looks Ancient." He took a couple of steps toward it and started tapping on his sensor.

"Careful there, Rodney. You don't want to get too close, even in that suit." Henry's voice buzzed against McKay's ear, "It dumps radiation across a broad spectrum."

"Huh, that's odd." McKay tapped more quickly on his pad, "My readings aren't showing that. I'm getting only minor radiation, and only on a few spectrums. Not much worse than standing outside. But this has got to be Ancient, the last time I was energy readings like these was on PR-763 and that turned out to be some sort of alien copier."

"A cloning device?" Nathan cut in.

"No," McKay snapped, "A copier. But instead of paper it copied objects. Useful, but we don't have the energy to run it. By the time I figured out what it did the ZPM had run down."

"ZPM?"

"Not now," McKay snapped. He slowly circled the object, taking readings and muttering in half phrases under his breath. He seemed oblivious to the passing of time.

"Rodney, you need to get out of there. It's been almost fifteen minutes." Henry's voice was concerned, "Much longer and you're going to need anti-radiation treatments." When there was no answer he spoke more loudly, "McKay, get out!"

McKay jumped, "Yes, yes. I'm coming." He took one more slow swipe with his reader, then turned and headed back to the access tunnel.

As soon as he stepped into the room Henry started running a small, round handheld over him.

"What's that?" McKay frowned, bothered by the intrusion into his personal space.

"It's a medical scanner, to see if you've given yourself a dangerous dose of radiation or not."

"I don't think there's any radiation." McKay turned his scanner toward Stark, "Look."

"It's broken," Stark said. "There is radiation pouring off of it, look at the readouts in here."

"Do you think I didn't think of that? I ran a diagnostic, it's working perfectly."

"Or it's so faulty that the diagnostic is useless."

"These scanner is highly advanced, alien technology. If anything in here is faulty it's your equipment."

"Gentlemen." Henry crossed his arms and glared at both of them. "This is pointless. We need to go over all the data before we start throwing accusations around."

Stark looked at his watch, "As much fun as that would be, I have several appointments this afternoon. Henry, I trust you can keep him out of trouble?"

McKay bristled, but Henry spoke up first, "We'll be fine."

*****

McKay's cell phones shrill ring startled him, making him jump. Henry looked up from the computer he was at going through old data from when the Artifact had just been discovered. McKay glanced at the id before answering, "Yes?"

His brow drew together, "Wait, did you say nanite squirrels?" Henry took a sudden interest in the conversation. "No, look, I'm busy-" A buzz came from the phone, causing McKay to pull it away from his ear. "Really Sheppard, I have no idea and I'm right in the middle of-" He tapped his fingers against the desk until he could jump in again, "Use an EMP." A beat, "Oh. Well, call the SGC and get one of their Replicator guns, I'm sure it could handle a few electronic squirrels. If you're done wasting my time I have my own problems here." A shot of surprise crossed his face, "Sheppard, wait-"

McKay sighed and shut his phone, putting it back down on the counter. At Henry's inquiring look he said, "Apparently the squirrels here are infected with nanites and are rampaging through the woods."

"Maybe I should call Jack," Henry said, reaching for his phone. "He's probably stressing out by now." He smiled and chuckled, "He really hates when experiments get out of hand." He paused and his brow creased, " Although, I'm reasonably sure Nathan put a stop to all nanite research after our last adventure."

McKay went back to staring at his screen. As many times as he went over the numbers they just didn't line up. Eurekas computers were telling him that the radiation levels were lethal, even a moment of exposure would be enough to kill a healthy adult. And yet his scanner, double-checked by a full diagnostic on the laptop, was assuring him that the radiation was safe, minimal and mostly harmless. Certainly nothing to worry about unless you planned on sleeping in the same room as the thing.

And his setup from Atlantis was telling him the same thing. The bags of equipment had been necessary, never mind Shepard's protests to the contrary, but he couldn't force his information to line up. Half of it was telling him one thing, half another. Suddenly he froze in place, a look of astonishment crawled across his face. Scooping up his laptop and scanner he headed over to where Henry was still on the phone, "Henry!"

Henry held up his hand to silence him, "Ok Jack, but call me if things get worse. Bye" He slipped his phone into his pocket, "Jack seems convinced by whatever Colonel Sheppard has told him about the," Henry gestured with the universal movement for quotes, "ray gun, he's getting from the SGC."

"It'll work," McKay said dismissively. "We had our own nanite infestation, but they were a bit more homicidal than yours." He jerked his head at the airlock, "More importantly, I need to go back in there."

"Rodney, it's dangerous. You've already been exposed-"

"I don't think so."

"The readings are clear," Henry smoothed his face into a more calming expression. "How about we take a break, get some air, eat something."

"No, no, no. I figured it out. The radiation readings are a decoy, they're fake." McKay pointed at a graph on his screen. "You can see the scanner readings here. It's an Ancient device and so the Ancients scanner can see through the illusion. The odd energy patterns at the top of the wave-lengths must be the decoy energy to create the false readings."

Henry looked doubtful, "If, and I'm not saying you are, but if you are right, then why? Why make us think this is too deadly to even get near if it's not."

"Who knows? Protecting it, keeping looters away, maybe the energy is just a side-effect of whatever it's doing." McKay shoved his computer onto the nearest table, sending papers flying off the other side. "The point is, I think I prove it once and for all. I just need to," he paused, "to take a reading on a band I missed before." When Henry hesitated he pushed harder, "I'll be out in two minutes, tops."

"Fine. Two minutes, got it?" Henry shook his head and muttered under his breath as he started the computer program for the airlock, "You and Nathan are more alike than you know."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Once McKay entered the chamber he walked straight toward the glowing column.

"Rodney," Henry's voice was worried, "What are you doing?"

"I have an idea." He was within range of the bands of light that played across the surface of the metal, several flickered around him without actually touching him.

"McKay, get out of there before you get killed." Henry considered calling Nathan, but decided he would only add to the problem.

"I'm fine. Believe me, I have a very strong sense of self-preservation." He stepped closer to the device, examining it. "I was right! This is Ancient, it has text all over it." He silently mouthed out the symbols, then said, "It's some sort of power-giving, or power-making, machine. It says something about reaching into the space behind..." He voice trailed off and he reached out his hand.

"No!" Henry shouted. "I had a friend killed by that thing, I don't want to see it happen again." But it was too late, McKay had already touched the surface.

There was tense few seconds, then McKay came over the headset, "I'm fine. But it's not responding to my gene, it must be the suit." Sighing, he started to slowly run his scanner over the surface of the sphere, "At least I can get a copy of these inscriptions and work on a full translation."

Henry didn't speak again until McKay stepped into the control room, and he stood directly in front of him, "If you ever lie to me again about an experiment I'll have you removed from the premises. Permanently. I don't care who you're working for."

McKay started to protest before he saw the expression on Henry's face. He stared him down for a minute but when Henry didn't give he deflated a bit, "Fine."

"Let's go," Henry signed out of his computer. "I was serious about us getting out of here for a little while."

McKay's immediate reaction was to argue but then he noticed how badly his hands were shaking, and his headache, from not eating lunch. So instead he slipped his phone and scanner in his pocket and followed Henry out.

Chapter Text

Carter parked his jeep by the creek and he and Sheppard got out. Standing on the bank of the water they watched as the armored car holding Taggart rolled a little further upstream before coming to a stop.

"I don't see anything," Carter was looking back and forth at the water.

"Don't get too far from your car," Taggart walked up. "May need to jump back in, when they show up." He adjusted his grip on his rifle and Sheppard had a sudden wish for his service revolver that was waiting for him on Atlantis. "They're fast."

"And meat eaters now," Jo had her gun out as well, holding it at her side.

Just then there was a sound in the woods, like the wind. Taggart whirled and watched with wide eyes. Everyone else stepped up beside him in a fan configuration, watching carefully. A minute later across the creek the bushes began to shake and move. Squirrels poured out, running in a tight pack, some of them in such a hurry that they were running on top of and over the others.

"That's terrifying." Carter watched, open mouthed, as they gathered on the banks and stared across the water at the group. The ones in the front of the pack stood on their hind legs and waved their front paws at humans, chattering and shaking their tails. It was a mesmerizing death dance, made less frightening by the fact the ones doing it were only six inches tall.

"We need to catch one." Taggart was staring at them with pity. "Can't dart it, I think the others will eat it."

"Why? Why could you possibly want one?" Carter had crossed his arms, looking less than impressed with this new disaster.

"To figure out the exact frequency that disrupts them." Taggart never took his eyes of the animals. "Need to run a test or two."

"They seem to not want to cross the water." Jo had moved away from the group. Shephard's mind filled in that she was creating cross fire if necessary

"Special Forces?" He asked her.

"Army." She nodded, then gave him an appraising look. "You a flyboy?"

"Anything with wings or rotors. And then some." Sheppard flashed her his most winning smile but was unsurprised when it didn't get him anywhere. She didn't seem like the type. "On the up side," he continued, "It's only North America that they will destroy."

Three pairs of eyes stared at him. He shrugged, "Silver linings."

A few minutes later nothing had changed. They were still watching, the squirrels were still chattering.

"OK, this is getting us nowhere." Carter rubbed his chin. "How are you planning to bag one, Taggart?"

"I've got a net," he sounded less than sure of that plan.

"A net." Jo gave him a withering look. "And it won't chew out immediately out of the goodness of it's little heart?"

"You have a better idea?"

"I do."

Everyone standing there looked at Sheppard again. He considered the water, it was maybe ten feet across at this point. "Why don't we get one of those traps," he pointed to some of the live animal box style ones Taggart hd strapped to his tank, "And throw it over there. One or more will run in, to destroy it if nothing else, and then a few of us can lure the others downstream. Then someone can collect the trap."

He waited as the other three evaluated his idea and looked at each other. He was used to waiting, and simply stared in the most diplomatic way he could.

"Better than a net." Jo walked to the tank and holstered her gun before swinging up onto it and loosening the straps on one of the traps. A few minutes later it was tossed, and true to predictions, three squirrels had rushed in before it triggered. They started screeching with tiny, rage-filled squirrel voices, audible even across the stream.

"Sheriff, why don't you and the Colonel here," SHeppard was impressed, not everyone picked up on rank, "Distract them. Get them to follow you. Jo and I will hide and then get the trap."

"Distract them? Why don't you do it and I'll get the trap."

They both stared at him in silence.

"Fine." Carter walked to the water's edge, muttering under his breath. Sheppard trailed after him and caught snatches, something about the U.S. Marshall's and careers wasted.

It took a minute to get the animals attention but once they did it was a little unnerving, all those angry eyes glaring at them. They talked loudly and walked away slowly, and the swarm on the other side followed them. They kept going till they were out of sight and then paused.

"So, normal day in Eureka?"

"Basically." Carter tried for nonchalant but could feel a trickle of sweat running down his back. Those animals looked evil. And there were a lot of them. "You know, destruction of public property by the scientists, life-threatening experiments, no respect. All in all, pretty average day."

Shepard grinned and picked up a small stone, tossing it across the water. The squirrels near it pounced on it, he could hear the sound of their sharp little teeth gnawing on it.

"That was not a good idea." Carter's vice had gone soft and low, triggering danger signals in Sheppard's brain. He immediately scanned the area but didn't see any threats. Cater pointer at the water.

Where Sheppard had tossed the stone the squirrels trying to eat it had pushed it into the water. Which was no problem. But it had made them look at the water. The water that had several large rocks sticking up out of it, just a few inches above the water's surface. The first of which already had squirrels perched on it, preparing to leap to the next rock. And then leaping. Two more leaps and the first ones would be on their side.

The men glanced at each other and then took off in a hard run in the direction they had just come from.

*****

"I've officially used up my Jeep budget or the year." Carter was holding a cup of coffee with both hands while sitting on a stool in Taggart's lab.

"On the upside, the damage I did to the bumper isn't really a problem anymore." Sheppard had his own cup and was leaning against a table.

"That's a plus." Cater absentmindedly rubbed his knee he skinned on the bridge.

The squirrels had been fast. Very fast. Unsure of their chances of making it into the jeep before they were attacked the two men had run for the tank where the other two were securing the cage they had retrieved. Jo had taken some shots at the front line which had slowed the animals down long enough for the four of them to climb inside and latch the vehicle shut. Some of the squirrels had attacked it, uselessly, but most of them had vented their rage on the Jeep. The last view of it was it being torn apart by the ever-increasingly angry, and strong, creatures.

"The nanites have supplemented their natural strength." Taggart pointed to the holes they had chewed in the cage on the drive over. "Even their teeth have been coated now, which is what is allowing them to eat metal."

"That's not a comforting sentence." Carter tapped his foot on the floor. "We have an answer yet?"

"Hm." Taggart was staring at the animals, now contained in a forcefield barrier. "I think I'm getting close to the calibration."

"We're running out of time. If those things make it into town..." Jo trailed off.

"We still need a delivery system." They all three looked at Sheppard.

"I'll check on it." He pulled his cell out and dialed the SGC. "Need to speak with Carter." At the looks of the others in the room he shrugged. "Common name?"

Taggart was still typing and muttering, staring at his screen while Jo watched over his shoulder. The Carter he was currently working with as paying close attention to him, however.

"I was wondering if one of those replicator gun thingys was ready yet?" He listened, "Uh huh, yeah, that might be too late. The situation is- well, it's going to get messy soon."

"So we can't-" He cut Jo off with a wave.

"So the Dedalus is- uh," he caught himself just in time, "Around, right?" He nodded. "Yeah, if they could it would be great. Send it to McKay. Thanks, Carter."

He snapped the phone shut. "The gun we're borrowing is being delivered to Global ASAP."

"Great," Taggart scowled. "Now Stark will find out for sure."

"Which wouldn't have happened if you hadn't restarted the research behind his back. The banned, deadly research." Taggart gave Carter a sad look. Carter sat his cup down and rubbed his temples. "OK, Jo,"she looked at him, "You're in charge of trying to keep the town protected. Spread the word for everyone to avoid the woods, avoid squirrels, and avoid getting too far from a building or car."

"General alert 453.b, right." She nodded.

"We have an alert for that?" Carter's brow wrinkled.

"We have an alert for everything. Which you would know if you would read the manual."

"The manual is about three feet thick," he said to Sheppard, who grinned at him. "Yeah, ok, general alert 4, uh, whatever. Taggart, you stay here and do whatever you're doing." He nodded. "Sheppard and I will go get the gun." He took a deep breath and then let it out, clearly reluctant. "And fill Stark in."

He walked to the door while the other three waited for him to figure it out. Which he did as he put his hand into his pocket and pulled out his keys. He stared at them, then put them back.

Turning, he opened his mouth but before he could say anything Taggart tossed him a set. "Those fit my jeep."

Chapter Text

"What is this again?" A meal in the Global cafeteria and an hour of being out of the lab had earned Rodney a fair bit of forgiveness for his earlier trick. Henry was examining the gun, or vaguely gun shaped device, that had appeared in the lab a few minutes before.

"The SGC developed that when they were fighting the Replicators." Rodney didn't even look up from his data, "Nantites."

Henry ran his hands lightly over the controls. "Looks reasonably simple."

"Hm." Rodney was not going to be distracted from his reading.

"And we're borrowing it?"

"Apparently Sheppard has managed to find trouble even here," McKay scribbled some numbers down on the back of a paperback book that was laying on the desk. "And whoever he is hanging out with wasn't cleared to see a teleportation delivery."

"Which is some technology I'd love to get my hands on." Henry sounded envious.

"Asgard." Rodney still didn't look up.

"Those aliens?" Rodney didn't acknowledge that he'd spoken. "Huh." Henry carefully rolled the gun over and checked the bottom of it. The sound of the door opening caught his attention. "Carter." His voice was warm in greeting. "How are things out there?"

"Not so good." Carter headed straight for the gun. "This the space gun?"

"Yeah. Appeared here a few minutes ago."

"Appeared? Like on Star Trek?"

"Actually, yes."

"Little guys who helped us build the ship are way weirder than anything on Star Trek." Sheppard reached out and casually snagged the gun, swinging it up and checking the power levels.

"Watch where you point that thing!" Carter jumped back and pushed the barrel down and away. "I don't want to be dissolved. Or whatever it does."

"Like this?" Sheppard kept a straight face and swung it up, aiming at McKay's back and pulling the trigger. There was a loud hum and both of the men from Eureka jumped in shock but McKay never looked up.

"Very mature, Colonel." He kept typing. "I have actual work for you to do when you get done playing with your Army toys."

"Air Force. We've been been over this." Sheppard raised one eyebrow at Carter and held the gun out. Carter took it from him, being more careful with it than Sheppard had been, but the demonstration had calmed him down quite a bit.

"So, this will work?" Carter was holding it, McKay was ignoring him. Sheppard reached over and snapped the laptop shut with one hand.

"Hey!" Rodney's face turned red. "You can't just, that was-"

"The Sheriff asked you a question McKay. It's polite to answer him remember? We've been over this."

"What?" McKay took a deep breath, "It has to be calibrated." He looked between the two men. "Which I'm sure I'll have to do." He reached out and tugged it away from Carter, who let go only after getting a nod from Sheppard. He hooked some cables up between it and the laptop he had reopened and powered back up. "Where are the readings you need to match?"

"Eh," Carter pulled his phone out and hit a button on the speed dial. "Hey Taggart, can you email those numbers to?" He looked at McKay, who snatched the phone out of his hand. "Hey-" He tried to grab it back and Rodney turned his back on him.

"Whoever this is, listen. I need you to read off the wave frequency reading on the upper spectrum, then the lower one." He put his hands on the keyboard while holding the phone between his ear and shoulder. "What? Listen-" He paused, "Just give me the under variable then." Henry was watching the program over his shoulder, seemingly understanding the jumble of scrolling text. The other two stood with their hands in their pockets, each wearing the long suffering look of people who were accustomed to being left out of conversations.

"So," Carter said, "I'm going to go tell Stark the bad news." He didn't actually leave however, looking like he would rather go back and fight the squirrels single-handedly.

"Is Stark in you chain of command?"

"No. Thank God." Carter shook his head, "But he runs GD. And almost everyone else here works for GD. And GD is the go-to place for getting the equipment I need to fix the problems his scientists create."

"So you have to keep him in the loop."

"Yeah. Something like that."

Behind them McKay and Henry argued over power consumption settings.

"Want some company?"

"Nah," he shrugged. "This is hardly the worst news I've delivered. I'm actually more worried about Taggart. Besides," he gestured with his chin, "Someone needs to keep an eye on those two." Sheppard looked back to where Henry and McKay were now arguing over a piece of writing on the gun, while the abandoned cell phone was sitting on the table with faint sounds coming out of it.

Sheppard waited until Carter was gone. "McKay." He was, unsurprisingly, ignored. "Rodney." Still nothing. "Wraith!" That got a response.

"What?" McKay spun on his heel, eyes wide.

"So you can hear me."

"That," McKay was sputtering, 'That's not even funny. Not at all."

"Wraith?" Henry frowned.

"Super scary aliens that suck your life out of you."

"Space vampires." SHeppard nodded.

"An over-simplification," Rodney snapped.

"I'm beginning to lose my jealousy over not being included in the program." Henry shook his head, "Are their any aliens who don't want to kill us?"

"A few," Sheppard allowed. "Not whole races, as such, but individuals or small groups. We have some very good allies out there, actually."

"Done." Mckay unhooked the wires coming off the gun and coiled them up. "Provided whoever was on the other end gave me good intel this thing is ready to go. You can take it and leave now."

"What? Am I your errand boy?" Sheppard picked the gun up anyway, resting it over his shoulder.

"If the shoe fits."

"We need to do a test run, make sure-"

"On what?" McKay cut Henry off. "Besides, I've wasted enough time on it."

"Wasted it on saving lives, you mean." There was definite heat in Henry's tone. "In stopping a potentially deadly threat to a town filled with children."

"Uh, well," he looked to Sheppard for help.

"Just the errand boy." Sheppard shrugged, looking completely unapologetic. "Play nice, boys." He headed for the door.

"Sheppard."

"Yes McKay?" He paused in the doorway and looked back.

"When you get done playing the hero I need you to come back here and play battery."

Sheppard flicked off a casual salute and slipped out.

"Battery?"

"Sheppard has a natural ATF gene."

"The one that activates certain types of alien devices."

"Yeah. I have a version of it but it was added so it's not as strong, and some stuff ignores it. Why he got the gene and not someone who could actually do useful things with it..." He slipped off into muttering went back to the translations he was doing from the device.

Henry had McKay's laptop, filling himself in on as much information as he could about the Stargate program while he had access to the files. Some of this was going to come in very handy in his own research.

Chapter Text

"That worked better than I had expected." Jo had met back-up with them at Taggart's after running the alarms for the town. She was leaning over and peering through the forcefield containing them.

"McKay is a pain in the ass, but he's usually right." Sheppard had blasted the squirrels through the field with the gun. It appeared to have killed them, an unavoidable side effect of the nanites taking over their bodies. But now they were starting to twitch.

"The poor babies aren't dead," Taggart was rubbing his thumb on his chin. "Just stunned."

"Or the nanites are reactivating." Jo sounded certain that if that was the worst thing that could happen then it was exactly what was happening.

"THey can do that?" Carter had placed himself out of the way of the gun, which he appeared to mistrust, and the squirrels, which he had vocally mistrusted.

"No." Taggart scowled.

"Wait," Carter held up his hand, "Isn't that what you said happened the first time? That started all this?"

"I remember him saying that," Sheppard volunteered.

"That's what I thought." Carter waved in the direction of the cage. "How do you know that isn't happening now? Or it won't happen as soon as you let them out?"

"I deactivated them, and then they reactivated themselves." Taggart rubbed the back of his head. "But if I'm understanding his tech right-" he pointed at the gun, "It breaks the nanites apart at the molecular level, down to their subatomic particles. There's nothing left to come back."

Sheppard nodded. "It worked on," he caught himself. "It worked on a problem the Air Force had in a test lab. It will work on these guys."

"You're keeping something big out of the conversation." Jo glared at Sheppard. She did not appear to have warmed up to him in the slightest.

"Military. You know how it is." Sheppard shrugged.

"We can argue about this later." Carter took back the focus in the room. "Right now we have a mass of angry, metal eating squirrels headed for town that we need to stop. WIth one small gun." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "We're going to be overrun before we can get them all."

"Right." Taggart held up a bottle. "Unless we use this. Create a distraction."

"What kind of distraction for squirrels is in a small glass bottle?" Sheppard looked skeptical. "Oil of acorns?"

"Close." Taggart grimaced. "I rigged the tank up with some fans on the back. to spread the scent. We can drive it through all the areas where the squirrels are, get them all to follow us to an ambush point, and then someone can blast the nanites while they are busy trying to get into the tank." He gave Carter a grin. "Just make sure you move pretty quick or they'll chew their way in, and I'll be in a world of trouble."

"Yes, of course." Carter paused, "But you didn't answer the question. What's in the bottle?"

"Pheromones."

"Come again?" Carter and Sheppard spoke simultaneously, then each gave the other a look that clearly said, cut it out.

"Mating hormones." Taggart shrugged. "They'll have one thing on their wee minds, and that is finding the squirrel who smells so very nice. Ought to keep them busy while you shoot them."

"Let me get this straight," Carter said. "You're getting the squirrels all horny for a squirrel that doesn't actually exist?"

"You got it." Taggart grabbed his backpack. "Ready to go?"

"Gonna be a lot of disappointed rodents running around." Sheppard said, following the others out to the vehicles. Carter nodded in agreement.

"The field out by the water tower is big enough to hold them all, I think." Carter said.

"Aye, it should be."

"I'll take point with my jeep," Jo said. "Clear the roads around there. Get everyone to the other side of town."

Sheppard settled into the passengers seat beside Carter, cradling the gun on his lap.

*****

"This is a lot more fun than I'd anticipated having on this trip." Sheppard said as he grinning at Carter, who couldn't quite hold back his own grin in return.

"I have to say, blasting squirrels with a ray gun is likely to be the highlight of my week."

The two of them were trading off after a few shots so they could both enjoy the fun. Taggart's plan had worked beautifully. So smoothly that Carter was nervous. The local population of the animals was far larger than he would have anticipated, the clearing was filled with thousands of the things. In an effort to survive Taggart hadn't parked but had rather kept driving in large circles around the edge of the clearing.

Some of the squirrels would cut him off and jump onto the vehicle, whenever a notable amount got up there Carter and Sheppard would use the next few shots to clear it off again. The process was went smoothly but it took some time because the blast wasn't very large. They two of them took turns, trading off every couple of minutes. In part because it was heavy, in part because they both wanted a turn to blast the squirrels.

"You two having fun?." A voice from behind them made Sheppard half turn, his hand instinctively going towards his belt. Where there was no gun, currently. Carter didn't even look back, instead firing off another shot. Jo smirked at Sheppard, patting her gun and looking meaningfully at where his would be hanging.

Carter took another blast, then looked over his shoulder. "You want a turn?"

Jo took the gun without hesitation and rolled it, looking at both sides. "Do I need to avoid the vehicle?"

"Nope." Sheppard drawled, "In fact, I'd say it needs clearing off again."

"My pleasure." She took aim and fired rapidly, efficiently clearing the roof and sides. The swatches a sleeping animals were growing and Taggart was being forced to make smaller and smaller circles. The mob, however, was also getting smaller and less of a threat.

A few minutes later Jo shot the last of them, unwilling to give the gun up because "they'd already had their turns". Sheppard was both amused and disturbed by how quickly she took to the new weapon. She would be a real asset on a 'Gate team and he made a mental note to mention that that to Landry when he got back to Colorado.

Taggart climbed out the now parked, and trapped, tank and picked his way across the field carefully. Stepping over mounds of squirrels, some of which were starting to move around and run off, he headed for their vantage point.

"Nice shooting," he yelled up to them and waved his hand at the animals.

They all three climbed down the ladder to join him on the ground.

"I hope we got them all," Carter looked mildly worried. "I really don't want to have to do this again in a few days."

"My tracking program," Taggart held up a small tablet, "isn't picking up any nanite communication waves. So odds are good that's all of them." He gave Carter a lopsided grin. "No harm, no foul, aye Sheriff?"

"Tell that to my jeep. And the school."

"And the Norson's." Jo shook her head, "Ripped through their yard and house, did a lot of damage."

"Oh." Taggart seemed to deflate a little. "Suppose I have to go talk to Stark, then?"

"I'd wait a day or two, clean up the mess first." Carter shrugged, "Let some other crisis come up so this one doesn't seem as bad by comparison."

"You get crises that often?"

All three regular residents of Eureka stared at him. Sheppard waited, but when no answer was forthcoming he nodded, "Ok then."

They divided up, Jo going with Taggart in his jeep, giving the keys to her's to Carter so he and Sheppard could head back up to Global.

*****

As they approached the lab where Rodney had a temporary office they could hear raised voices.

"-won't kill half the US population if I screw up."

"No, it's just guaranteed to kill one person."

"He'll be fine."

"Why do I get the feeling you're talking about me?" Sheppard asked as he entered the room.

"Good, you're here." McKay was standing by the table, working off two laptops with a third perched on a pile of paperwork to the side. "I have a job for you."

"A death sentence, you mean." Henry was infuriated, his face tight with anger. "The radiation levels are lethal."

"They aren't. They just look that way. How many times to I have to explain this?"

"This is the top research lab-"

"-One of the top research labs-"

"In the country." Henry pointed his finger at an ominous looking chart. "These readings are accurate. And deadly. They already killed a colleague of mine."

Sheppard wandered over and read the numbers over McKay's shoulder . "Gotta say, Rodney. Those don't look so good."

"They're not. They're lethal. That's rarely good."

"You just said it wasn't lethal." Carter was looking between McKay and Sheppard, trying to get a read on the situation.

"The device isn't." At Henry's move to protest he cut him off. "I mean, it has killed. But it was being damaged. That was either a malfunction from the drilling or a self-defense measure. I'm guessing the second."

"Guessing?"

"Yes Sheppard, guessing. But I'm not guessing about the safety of the thing. The readings are lethal, but they aren't real."

"We've been over this. The equipment is sound." Henry sounded as if he were on his final nerve.

"And we've been over this, I'm not saying they aren't." Rodney didn't sound any better off. "But they are decoy readings. Designed to keep away those who aren't advanced enough to see through them. Like humans."

"You aren't human?" Carter looked like he wanted to step back from McKay.

"It's open to debate."

McKay shot Sheppard a glare and rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm human. This equipment isn't though. It's a mix of Ancient and Asgard, two highly advanced races."

"That are mostly dead now." Sheppard pointed out.

"You aren't helping our case much."

"I didn't know it was our case. I thought it was your case, to use me as a lab rat." He ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand on end. "Again."

"I know what it is." McKay seemed to suddenly remember and whirled on Sheppard, his eyes a little too bright.

"And?"

"It's a ZPM recharger."

All joking suddenly aside, Sheppard froze. "Say that again."

"It recharges ZPMs."

"Are you sure Rodney? This isn't-"

"Ninety-nine percent." He cut Sheppard off. "Look, the translations are a little rough but it's talking about taking from the other side, collecting the energy, preparing charges. It's a way to capture zero point energy and contain it."

"Which would be amazing, if it were possible." Henry looked between the two men. "It's possible? Are you telling me that there is a way to use zero point energy?"

"Atlantis runs on it." Sheppard stared at the translations. "But we have a very limited supply, the modules the Ancients left behind are mostly depleted and there is no way for us to make new ones. Unless this works." He straightened, "Have you contacted the SCG?"

"Briefly. I didn't go into details, no need to get everyone excited if it's not going to work. But I did ask for a depleted canister from Area 51."

Sheppard looked around but didn't see it.

"Oh, the Dedalus got called away. SG:1 got themselves into trouble again. So they're dropping it off with a jet this evening."

"It's evening already, Rodney." Sheppard checked his watch, "After your supper time, in fact."

"Look," Henry straightened from where he was examining the data. "Regardless, the thing is unstable. It's dangerous. And-"

"I'm hungry too." Carter broke in. At Henry's look he added, "Let's go eat, take a break, then come back and face the problem fresh."

After some grumbling from both of the scientists that they really didn't have time, and weren't really hungry, the other two managed to get them corralled out of the room and into the cafeteria. Stark remained behind, watching the device through the glass.

Chapter Text

"I don't see a problem with it."

"Nathan, you can't be serious." Allison stared at him in shock. She had caught up with them in the cafeteria and joined in the debate that restarted as they moved back into the lab area.

"The possible value of the energy source more than balance out the risks."

"Easy for you to say," Carter muttered. At Stark's look he added, "You're not the one who will get turned into a glowing crisp." He nodded at Sheppard, who only shrugged as if that was an everyday threat.

"No, but I will have to fill out the paperwork, which I assure you is a painful and tedious process."

"I won't allow it." Henry crossed his arms.

"You don't get a vote."

"As head of the-"

"They," Stark cut him off, "Are here at the request of the Department of Homeworld Security. They are to be given full access. As long as what they are doing does not endanger anyone else my hands are tied." He gave Henry a tight, insincere smile.

"Good." McKay started typing rapidly. "Sheppard, you need to take this with you when you go in so you can monitor the energy readings where you activate-"

"Whoa," Carter interrupted him. "You're not serious, are you?"

"About what?"

"About potentially killing him to prove your point."

"He's not going to die!" McKay jabbed the screen. "I've said that every way I know how. And if I wanted to kill him on purpose I'd do it off world, not in front of a room full of witnesses."

Sheppard watched the conversation with his arms folded, leaning against one of the work tables.

"You're not concerned about him threatening to kill you?" Carter was giving Sheppard a look that implied he was beginning to think less of the man' survival instincts.

"Can't say I wouldn't do the same." He shrugged and ignored the hurt look McKay gave him.

"You don't have to do this," Allison said, turning to him. "We can call someone, get-"

Sheppard waved her off lazily. "I outrank McKay, actually. As much as he likes to forget it."

"But the way he acts-" Carter trailed off.

"Tell me about it."

"How do I act?" McKay shook his head before anyone could answer. "Never mind, it doesn't matter. You have to make sure you keep the energy reader turned toward the center of the mass at all times, so I can watch for spikes."

"Does he always assume you'll go along with his insane ideas?" Henry was still unwilling to let the argument go.

"A, not insane." Rodney said, "B, that's why he's here. One scientist who understands Ancient technology," he pointed at himself. "One person to touch it and make it turn on," he pointed at Sheppard.

"And why haven't you shot him yet?" Carter asked.

"As I said, considered often."

"As wonderful as this conversation is," Stark broke in, "Some of us need to be productive today."

SHeppard looked at the faces of the others, one challenging, three worried, and one impatient. He took McKay by the elbow and tugged him away from the group. "Need to have a word with Rodney here."

Ignoring the spluttering and protests that he had things to double-check Sheppard drug him out into the hallway and shut the door.

"Listen Rodney, tell me the truth. Is this safe?"

"Of course it's safe." He looked offended and bristly.

"I'm not asking in front of them for a reason, McKay." Sheppard let go of his arm but stayed in his personal space. "You tell me that you are positive that there is no real radiation or danger and I will do this. But if you are just trying to prove something to your science buddies-"

"No." Rodney looked a little hurt. "I wouldn't risk your life for my ego. It's not that big."

Sheppard only stared at him.

"OK, not anymore. Not after-" He chewed on his lip and settled down. "I can't guarantee it isn't dangerous, we've never experimented with one of these before. But if we were off world we wouldn't even be having the radiation fight because it wouldn't have registered on the scanners I use. The Ancient scanners."

"So you're saying something might go wrong, but I'm not going to get cooked just from walking in there."

"Yeah."

Sheppard contemplated that, weighing the pros and cons. Finally, "Let's go charge a ZPM."

The moment broken, Rodney relaunched into full obsessive mode. "You need to take it with you but we want to get some power readings before you use it." They reentered the room, catching the attention of the other three. "Scans before and after you touch it. I'm interested what kind of reaction it's going to produce."

"That makes two of us." Despite his reassurance that Rodney was thinking this through Sheppards was still a little apprehensive about turning on a previously lethal machine.

McKay didn't notice the comment and kept rambling, pulling out different machines and setting them back down again.

"You're going to do it?" Carter asked, frown on his face.

"McKay has a point. We need this, badly. It's worth the risk."

That seemed to be the final straw for Henry. He shook his head and walked to the other side of the room, trying to get control.

"You do acknowledge that GD has fully warned you of the dangers involved and has," Stark glanced at Henry, "made it abundantly clear that we do not support this experiment in any way?"

"You're covered if I get killed, yes." Sheppard said, with a fake smile. "Nice to know you care."

"Safety is our number one priority." Stark's smile was no more authentic.

"This is insane." Allison shook her head.

"Here," Rodney shoved a hand held scanner, an energy reading device, and the depleted ZPM at Sheppard. "You'll need all this."

"And you aren't doing this because?" Carter asked. "Since it's so safe and all."

"Someone has to monitor the readings." He pointed at the computer. "Make sure everything is working correctly."

"You've never seen one of these before, how can you tell?" Carter pounced on the question with the air of someone who had finally found the argument he was sure would win.

"It's still Ancient," Rodney's voice was already taking on the tone he used when he was tuning someone out, "The levels of energy are basically consistent between all their different devices when active. If I'd never seen a dishwasher before but I had studied a washing machine and a refrigerator I'd be able to tell if it was using roughly the right amount of power."

"That sort of makes sense." Carter turned to Stark, "Why don't your explanations ever make that much sense?"

"Because I don't have to practice dumbing things down and explaining them before I'm allowed to do them."

"Hey." Sheppard's eyes narrowed at Stark, "That's not nice."

Stark only shrugged in response.

Rodney bundled Sheppard over to the airlock door and double-checked everything. "Don't drop any of this stuff, it's expensive."

"I'll try to hold onto it, seeing as how IT is valuable." His dry tone was lost to McKay.

Stark reached over and typed in the code to open the airlock door.

"Sheppard," McKay was suddenly hesitant.

"Go monitor things, McKay." He gestured with his chin. "Make sure I don't get blown up."

"Well, don't attack it and you should be fine." McKay fussed as he hurried over to his laptop station. "In fact, don't even think hostile thoughts. Just in case."

"Oh, believe me, I remember that lesson very well."

Sheppard walked down the hallway, swallowing hard when the door hissed closed behind him and hid him from view.

"It's not too late to stop this," Allison's voice came through the speakers. "At least put on a radiation suit."

"He needs to touch it," Rodney's voice floated out as well. "They are contact activated machines."

Shepard made his way to the end of the hall, trying to balance all the stuff Rodney gave him. "Ready," he called out.

"You sure?" Rodney's voice was small and hesitant. Sheppard knew most people would have second thoughts about the plan when the one pushing for it so hard suddenly had them, but he had learned that a doubting Rodney was one who was thinking things through. One that could be trusted. It was over-confident Rodney that blew up planets.

"Open the door, Stark." Sheppard shoved the niggling fear down and locked it away, ensuring only steady command was in his voice.

Chapter Text

The door swung open and he stepped into the room after only the barest hesitation.

Sheppard squinted, wincing at the bright light coming off the device. Shifting the equipment to one arm he used his other hand to dig his sunglasses out of his pocket and slipped them on.

"Don't do anything until we have shut the door behind you," Stark's voice was back. "Just in case."

"You are a voice of reassurance." Sheppard took a few steps into the room to give the door a chance to thunk closed.

"How do you feel?" That was Carter, sounding worried.

"Fine." Sheppard took inventory. "It's bright, and a little warm. That's it."

"Interesting." Stark's voice again. When nothing more was forthcoming Sheppard checked over his shoulder to make sure the door was completely sealed, noting that it had no handle or keypad on this side. That was only mildly claustrophobia inducing. He shook it off, getting locked in was probably the least of his potential problems.

He sat the empty ZPM by his feet before walking slowly toward the device. Holding a reader in each hand he stopped just out of range of the whipping tendrils of light.

"We still doing ok in there?" He looked at the displays on the screens but one was completely new and he had no idea how to read it, the other was familiar but the types of readings it was registering weren't. He was completely dependent on McKay. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that Rodney hadn't gotten him killed yet.

"Fine, fine." McKay said.

He realized they didn't have him on an open circuit, but rather he could hear them only when they held a switch open, cutting him out of the loop the rest of the time and leaving the room he was in eerily quiet. Enough that he could hear his own breathing and the slight whisper of the machine as it ran.

"What are you waiting for?" McKay snapped, then, "Are you feeling OK?"

"Just looking, McKay. Some of us do not rush headlong into trouble without pausing to contemplate out options." Still, Rodney was right. He was stalling. He shifted both machines to one hand and extended the other, letting it enter into the space where the light was whipping around. The tendrils avoided him for a moment, moving around his hand, then they changed tactics and began to whisper along his skin, twisting around his fingers and wrist. It made the hair stand on end, but nothing more.

Stepping forward a couple more feet Sheppard let his hand drop as he stopped directly next to the machine. He examined the surface, looking for- yes, there is was. A tattletell smooth place between several rougher metal components. A hand pad.

"Ready Mckay?"

"Getting old waiting on you." His voice, however, held concern. Concern that Sheppard doubted the others could hear.'

Sheppard put his hand out and after the barest hesitation, placed it flat on the space. Willing his mind blank and relaxed, focused on on the lights. Something that seemed safe. The machined hummed a little louder, more felt through his hand than heard. The twisting of the lights picked up, flashing and dancing around him. He felt like he was holding onto a Vandergraph Generator, all his hair standing on end.

He waited, then shrugged. No one said anything, which meant either nothing had happened or else everything bad was happening all at once. He mentally told the machine he was there to use it and that it should cycle to active mode, on the assumption that it was in a standby phase at the moment.

He felt the vibrations under his hand increase dramatically. He forced himself to not let go. Ancient tech tended to react poorly when contact was lost while it was running.

"What did you tell it?" McKay's startled shout came through. "You touched it, minor power fluctuations. But then you told it something, didn't you?"

In the background he could hear Stark and Henry's voice's, though he couldn't make out their fight.

"Told it to power up, out of sleep mode."

"You told it to power up?" Cater sounded incredulous. "Does that seem like a good idea?"

"How else are we going to use it?" Sheppard noticed the humming was dropping now, into a lower octave. The twisting lights suddenly clicked off, leaving the machine looking far closer to what he expected something Ancient to look. Faint blue light shown in the now visible control panels, while gold light still shone from the top portion.

Sensing the machine was now in a ready mode he pulled his hand away, watching for any sign it needed to go back. Nothing happened, with the exception of the hand pad turning off, so he let it fall to his side.

"Think it's ready to work," he said to the quiet room.

"How bad is the damage from the drilling?" That was McKay again.

He circled it until he found the spot. "Looks like they blew out a panel, a set of circuits. This side is mostly dark. Still I think it was designed to old two at once so as long as the other one still works we'll be fine." He put his hand out but that panel reacted by sparking a little so he pulled it back. "I'd stay clear of this side."

"I'm coming in." McKay said.

"Thought you had to monitor readings."

"They're stable now, no different than the transporters on Atlantis. I want to see the damage on the hook-up before we attach anything to it." Sheppard heard more background talking but it cut off before he could make out what they were saying. He entertained himself while he waited for McKay by placing his hand back on the machine and focusing on diagnostics. A hologram of the machine appeared in overlay over it, showing the damage and wear it had taken through years of neglect. The systems were old, but mostly intact.

"That's useful." Carter's voice caused him to turn. Everyone had followed McKay in, leaving the doors open. Apparently whatever he had told them had been enough for them to decide he was right.

"How did he convince them that we weren't going to blow up the base?" Sheppard asked Carter, gesturing to the open door with his chin while leaving his hand in place to keep the display up for the scientists.

"You not dropping dead did most of it."

"Ah."

"This is," Carter shook his head, "Never thought I'd see proof that aliens exist."

"You've taken it better than a lot of people do."

"Living in Eureka has helped me learn to deal with news of almost anything. I mean, aliens are big," he leaned in to look at the surface of the machine, "But I've had a lot of practice in believing in things I would have once thought impossible."

Sheppard looked at the machine, and then at Carter, who was about as close as he could get while being careful to not touch it. A slight smile appeared on his face and he pointed to the Ancient scanner he had sat on the floor waiting on McKay. "Hand that to me, would you?"

Carter scooped it up. The face of it lit up brightly, glowing and beeping once.

"Automatically turns on, that's a nice feature." He held it out toward Sheppard, who shook his head.

"Come on," McKay sounded put out. "That's not fair."

"What?" Carter was looking down at it, puzzled.

"Hand it to one of those three," Sheppard said, indicating the small crowd now watching the conversation. Henry was closest, when he reached out and took it the screen went dark.

"That's weird." Carter reached back for it.

"Wait," Sheppard said, "Hand it to Stark." Henry complied, the screen was still dark. "And to Blake." It stayed dark. "Now back to Carter."

"I think we outgrew hot potato some years ago," Stark said as Allison handed it to Carter, where it began to glow again.

"Is this bad?" Carter looked up, nervous.

"Opposite,"Shepard smiled. "You've got the Ancient gene, which means you can use their technology naturally. Like me."

McKay had pulled a small orb out of his pocket and held it out to Carter. After a glance at SHeppard, who nodded, Carter reached out and took it. It blazed.

"Of course," McKay snatched it back and shoved it into his pocket again.

"What does that mean?" Allison was looking at Carter with concern.

"It means that not only does he have the gene, which, by the way, how did you know?" McKay looked at SHeppard, who only smiled and shook his head. No need to ruin the mystery and tell him the machine had responded to Carter being so close to it. McKay continued, "He has a very strong version of it. It is wasted on people who can't appreciate it, that's for sure." McKay began to pound on his keyboard as if it had personally offended him.

"Hey." Carter frowned at him, then looked back at Sheppard. "So, that means?"

"Nothing, really. Unless Eureka starts getting some of our tech now. In that case they are going to have you in here touching things all the time." Sheppard said this with the air of a man who had spent quite a bit of time doing that very thing.

Carter felt nervous when he saw Henry and Stark eyeing him with the same speculative gaze.

"Where did the gene come from?"

"The Ancients. Apparently they interbred with humans." At Carter's shocked looked Sheppard rushed to add, "A long time ago. Millennia. Because of that humans carry the gene, or at least some of us. I never bothered with the details."

"So I'm part alien?" Carter had a somewhat horrified tone to his voice. "My daughter is part alien?"

"Technically." Sheppard shrugged, "Like I said, so long ago it really doesn't matter unless you need to use Ancient tech."

Carter got more nervous at the looks Allison and Henry were giving him. He could imagine the amount of blood they would want to draw. "I don't feel quite so hot." Carter looked like he was still processing the idea that he wasn't fully human, no matter how far back that was.

"It explains a lot." Stark was eyeing him in a fashion Carter imagined he eyes lab rats during a study. "It's not really your fault you can't keep up."

"Humans carrying the gene tend to have higher IQs and at least slightly higher reflexes." McKay didn't look up.

Carter preened at Stark, who rolled his eyes.

"Look, come here." Sheppard waved Carter over to him. "I want to go around and make sure McKay isn't about to do something regrettable."

"And I'm going to?"

"Keep this display up. It'll be good practice for you."

He took his hand away, making the display wink out.

"I need that." McKay sputtered.

"Patience, Rodney. We have several days before we are due back. At least."

"Time that is all the more valuable now that we know what this can do."

"Ignore him," Sheppard jerked his head at the machine. "Put your hand on the flat panel."

"What is it going to do?" Carter kept his hand firmly at his side.

"Nothing, until you tell it to." Sheppard added, "Just try to not think of any commands when you are touching it, it reads your mind."

Carter had been extending his hand toward it but at that statement jerked it back as if he'd been burned. "Reads my mind? I don't think-"

"There's anything there for it to pick up? Yes, we know." Stark had crossed his arms and was watching the conversation.

"Stark." Henry scolded.

"Ignore them, unless you want to blow them up. It will probably do that if you ask it to."

Carter's head shot up in surprise but he saw the carefully hidden gleam of amusement in Sheppard's eyes. "That's tempting."

He reached out and paused just above the pad. He took a deep breath but before he could move McKay grabbed his hand and shoved it against it. "Hurry up." Carter shot him an incredulous look but didn't try to pull away, instead staring at the machine.

"Cool, huh?"

He gave Sheppard a look of amazement. "Wow."

"Yeah."

"Where is the display?" McKay sighed, "I can do it, but I need to type and I can't do both." He waved his hand at Carter in a hurry-up motion.

"I can see why asking it to kill people would be tempting." Carter said as he grinned, staring at the thing in wonder.

Sheppard smirked back, which faded when the machine began to hum ominously.

"Wait," he grabbed Carter's hand before he could pull away. "Think calm thoughts, but don't let go. That confuses it, and it could go into a protective mode."

"Calm thoughts?"

"You were just thinking about killing, right?" The machine hummed louder and the other three residents of Eureka took a step back. McKay went back to staring and typing, more rapidly.

"So stop, right?" Carter sounded rattled.

"Yeah," Sheppard kept his tone pitched down, all soothing like, and let go of Carter's hand so he wouldn't feel trapped, trusting the man to keep it there. "In fact, just think about diagnostics. That overlay I had, imagine it coming back."

Carter took a few deep breathes and the humming died away. A few seconds later the display flashed into existence.

"Finally." McKay sounded snappish but he gave Sheppard a wide eyed look and swallowed hard.

"See, nothing to it." Sheppard put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. "Just think about what you want it to do. Saves a lot of time."

"Yeah." Carter seemed to be calming down again. "Handy."

"If terrifying." Allison gave it a wide berth as she walked over to stand behind McKay.

Henry had walked back over and examined the plate under Carter's hand. "I can touch this, right?" McKay kept typing. "Rodney?"

"What?" He glanced up, "Yeah, sure."

That wasn't the most complete answer but it would have to do. Henry ran his finger along the edge of the lite plate. When nothing happened he grew bolder, examining the bolts and edges of the pieces. Stark wandered over behind McKay and watched the data flashing up on the screen, trying to get a handle on the power flow options available to them.

"Ok, grab the ZPM." McKay said to the room at large. When no one moved he looked up, "Really? No one?" He stomped over and grabbed it himself, coming back to the device. "We have to install this in that area, I think" He waved at a seemingly identical portion as he consulted his notes.

"There doesn't appear to be a hook-up or outlet there." Henry ran his hands over the area.

"Carter."

"What?"

McKay pointed at the general area. When Carter only stared at him he added, "Open the hatch."

"I don't know how to do that." He shook his head, "I can't just say, hatch open."

There was a soft chink sound and a hatch slid open on the side, right where McKay had been pointing.

"Oh." Carter looked at his hand with suspicion.

"Still, maybe-" McKay cut himself off and looked at Sheppard.

"Good point. Maybe I should take over this part, just in case."

"Gladly." Carter started to pull his hand away, then stopped. "It's not going to freak out, right?"

"It should be fine, now. Just not when things are going wrong." Sheppard slipped his hand onto the pad as soon as Carter lifted his. The display flickered out of existence. "Ok, Rodney."

McKay lifted the ZPM canister carefully and slid it into the hole. Halfway in it got stuck.

"Let go," Sheppard ordered.

Rodney complied and the canister lit up from within before sliding the rest of the way into the machine and the hatch closed.

Sheppard kept his hand there for a moment, then pulled it away. "It's charging."

"Yes, it is." Rodney was holding one of the scanners again. "The power levels are through the roof." He and the other scientists gathered around the laptop, talking over each other and pointing at things on the screen.

Thirty minutes later and Carter was running out of questions to ask Sheppard about the gene, and Sheppard looked to be running out of patience to answer them.

"McKay." He didn't get an answer. "Rodney." When he still didn't get one he put his hand in front of the screen. Four pairs of irritated eyes looked at him.

"Anything interesting?"

"It appears to be working." McKay sounded excited. Sheppard understood that, if this worked it would be groundbreaking.

"How long?"

"A few days." He stared at the numbers. "Or weeks. It's hard to tell."

"So we could call it a night, check on it tomorrow..."

McKay waved him off with one hand, not even bothering to look up.

"I think our work here is done." Shepard looked at Carter. "Got a place to get a beer in this town?"

"Come back to my house. It's bound to be better than where ever they've got you.. I've got a spare room, a tv that covers an entire wall, every sports channel in existence, and eight different beers on tap."

"Sweet."

"And a teenage daughter." Carter lifted one shoulder. "Watch out for her. She's got an evil side."

"Oh yes, the ringtone." Shepard grinned as he followed the Sheriff out of the complex. "What did you do to earn that?"

"It's a long story, starting with Parent's Night at the high school last week..."