Strangers in a Strange Land
Colonel Sam Carter, Dr. Rodney McKay, Colonel John Sheppard, Deputy Jo Lupo and Zoe Carter sat at the counter in Café Diem, sipping coffee, coffee, iced tea, lemonade and coffee respectively. Some had known each other for years while others had only just met.
They sat there talking for aproxamately 20 minutes, awaiting the Sherrif.
Who just went running past the Café, then backed up, realizing he'd passed his destination.
"GA!" he shouted, throwing his hands up in the air as he entered, receiving several strange looks. "Yeepa!" only served to get him more.
"What's he saying?" John asked, trying not to laugh at the man who apparently had the intellectual grasp of a three month old.
"Sorry," Jo said. "There was an accident in one of the labs last week. The effects haven't totally worn off yet. He'll have a minor speech impediment for a few more days."
The man growled at her. Then opened his mouth to speak. He let out an "Ahh!" as he threw his head into his hands. A moment later, he looked back up, and with a look intense concentration he finally said "Follow me," then went running off.
"If you wanna wait a few minutes, it's really funny when he gets mad," Zoë said.
The man, who seemed to have heard her, reentered the café and glared at her before beckoning the others to follow.
"Let's go," Jo rolled her eyes, ushering Sam, McKay and Sheppard out of the café.
"Ah, good, Colonel Carter, you're here," a deep voice greeted when they reached what appeared to be a large crater surrounded by holographic police tape and several dozen people.
"How many times have I told you to call me Sam?" she asked him.
"Several," he replied.
She rolled her eyes. "You've met John, right?" she asked, indicating toward the colonel. The man nodded. "And this is Doctor Rodney McKay. Rodney, this is Doctor Nathan Stark."
"We've met actually," Rodney said, shaking his hand.
"Really?" John said.
"We considered hiring him a few years ago. We needed someone of his talents."
"Because he doesn't already have a god-complex," John muttered, shaking his head. Rodney glared at him. "So what happened?" he asked.
"He said he already had a great job. What was it, you never said?"
"Deep space radar telemetry," he replied automatically.
"Ha!" the speech-impaired man shouted, waving a finger in Stark's face
"What?" he asked.
"You owe me five bucks," he said.
"What are you talking about?"
"I told you… he… ah... worked for the um, SGC, and you didn't… believe me," he struggled to get the words out. "You said you'd give me… five bucks if I was right."
"I said no such thing!"
The man raised an eyebrow and reached into Stark's back pocket, retrieving his wallet. He began to flip through the numerous pictures and slips of paper.
"Haha!" Jack shouted triumphantly, holding up a small square of legal paper. He shoved it into Stark's hands.
Stark read the slip twice.
"You don't know for sure that he works for the SGC," Stark pointed out.
Jack gave him a look, trying to express the thought 'Well obviously he does. Who would give up a chance to work at Global if he's working on deep space radar telemetry? Well, anyone without a death wish should, but that's not the point. I won.'
Clearly, he was unable to express it properly, so he spoke, only getting a handful of the words out, but the others got the gist of what he was trying to say. Nathan handed him a five dollar bill.
"Wait a minute, back up," Rodney began. "You know about the Stargate program?"
"Duh."
Rodney was confused.
"It's fine, they have clearance. There are a few labs at GD that require clearance for the SGC, Area 51, etc," Sam said.
"So you're saying I could get into Area 51 to see all the dead aliens?" Jack asked.
"There are no dead aliens!" Sam, John and Nathan shouted at the same time, as though they'd told him that many times before.
"Well then why is it so damn top secret?"
"The same reason this place is!" Sam exclaimed. "Half of the viable technology here, and a lot of the ones that aren't viable for that matter, came from Area 51. Everything at Area 51 started off world somewhere. Now, while in most cases, the technology can't be traced back, we can't risk anything."
"So I can blame you for the crap I have to put up with on a daily basis," Jack accused. Then his eyes got wide. "Hey! I that got out… outwith any troub… damn."