Chapter 1

**********Somewhere in the Ida Galaxy**********

Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgard fleet was sitting aboard his new O'Neill class battleship ensuring that all systems were ready for its first flight the next morning. The view screen activated and one of the Asgard scientists appeared.

"Commander Thor I have been looking into Loki's experiment's like you asked; I found a file regarding O'Neill."

"Did you find anything other than what we already know?" Thor was looking for additional experiments that Loki may have conducted before his arrest. They had him in custody but thus far he had refused to give them any information. He arrogantly believed they would be unable to break the encryption on his files. It took almost half a year, but they were finally in.

"We did. There was one additional file on O'Neill; however it is connected to a rather extensive file regarding Samantha Carter. Sir, you are going to want to see this."

"Transfer it over and I will read it when I get back from the test flight tomorrow."

"Sir, I would suggest not waiting. You may want to make sure your test flight takes you near earth." Thor stopped what he was doing and looked up at the screen. "The file has been transferred to your console sir." The screen went dark.

Thor went to one of the rear consoles to access the information. He moved one of the controls and a plate of food appeared next to him. Picking up one of the yellow ones he took a bite. If he had been able to smile he would have at the memory of Samantha Carter tasting Asgard food for the first and last time. Moving a second crystal he pulled up necessary file and began to read.

Several hours' later and only half way done Thor stopped reading. His scientist was correct, he needed to get to earth as quickly as possible. While Samantha Carter was in no danger this was information that Stargate Command needed to know.

**********Stargate Command**********

"Carter, whatcha doin'? Colonel O'Neill was leaning on the work bench in Carters office. "We were told to leave the base hours ago." Major Samantha Carter was sitting at her work table watching her computer intently. Her blue uniform jacket was hanging neatly on the back of the stool she was sitting on. Her coffee had long since gotten cold as she was not able to walk away from the tests she was conducting.

"Yes sir, however this experiment…" Carter never took her eyes off of the reading on her computer, not even to ensure that the colonel didn't touch something he shouldn't.

"Ack, Carter I don't want to hear it." He picked a paperclip up from her work table and started to fiddle with it. He had learned long ago not to touch things that were brought back from other planets. "We have a mission in just over six hours and you need your rest." He straightened the paperclip out and was wrapping it around his finger.

"Sir, this only has fifteen minutes left, but I have to be here to regulate the power spikes or the artifact can overload." She looked up for a second and met his eyes. "I am not one-hundred percent sure what would happen if that were to occur, but I am about ninety-nine percent certain that we don't want that to happen." She went back to watching the readings on the screen, occasionally typing something into the computer until she was satisfied with the changes.

"Can't you finish it when we get back tomorrow?" He whined. He really was tired and wanted to get some sleep. However he know from prior experience that if left on her own she would work on the project until it was time to leave. The mission was just a recon and so in theory, a cake walk. But they had been ambushed on simple missions before. He didn't want her too tired to protect herself.

"Well I could sir, but I have been sitting here for the last ten hours looking at a computer screen. I really don't want to have to start over." She stopped talking long enough to type a few more commands into the computer. "If I stop now, I will have to start the whole experiment over as the data would be inconclusive. Not to mention it's only have it for another 48 hours before it is shipped off to Area 51, and Daniel is dying to get his hands on it." She continued to watch the readings on the computer while watching her commanding officer out of the corner of her eye. As long as he was content to play with the paperclip all was good. He was known for touching things out of boredom. "Why are you still here?" She glanced at him with a smile. "Sir."

"Paperwork Carter. Paperwork." He scowled at the paperclip as it broke in half. "Wait…you have been sitting here for ten hours without a break?" He looked at her in disbelief.

"Well…" She looked at him sheepishly. "Yes sir. I didn't anticipate having to be here for the whole test…" She started to explain.

"And there wasn't anyone that could have relieved you?" He was starting to look pissed. "There are a whole room full of scientists up stairs that pretty much work for you Carter. You're telling me not one of them would come down and let you go grab something to eat?" He looked at her in disbelief. Before she could come up with a good answer he turned and left the room. She was just glad that he didn't slam the door behind him. It was rare for the Colonel to get angry with her. Annoyed, irritated and frustrated, sure. She know she screwed up and didn't know what the repercussions would be. Was he even now calling General Hammond to have her taken off the mission tomorrow? Sam slumped in her seat and put her chin in her hand as she watched the fluctuations on the screen.

Several minutes later O'Neill walked back into her office and put a plate of food in front of her.

"Eat!" He ordered. She glanced down at the food. It was meat loaf, mashed potatoes and corn and of course, blue Jell-O.

"Sir! You raided the mess?"

"Yes Carter, I did. At the very least, you could have called one of us to bring you up some food." He scolded her. "I am just going to sit over here and wait until you are done." O'Neill glanced at his watch. "You have exactly twenty minutes to finish up here and then I am dragging you out of the mountain." He smiled at her. "And instructing the guards that you are not allowed back on base until 0800 unless the fate of the world depends on you coming back. Got it?" He added that last part for good measure. He had kicked her out of the mountain before only to have it bite him in the ass when she was needed for a malfunction with the gate or something that only she could take care of. The guards at the gate called him at 0300 to get permission for her to enter the base.

"Yes Sir!" Carter smiled to herself. It was always nice when one of the team had her back otherwise she could get so caught up in what she was doing that she forgot to do the basics. "However since it is so late, I was actually planning on crashing in my base quarters sir seeing as we only have a few hours until the mission."

"Will it be necessary to put a guard on the door to keep you from coming back here?" He seriously wanted to know.

"No sir, I am really tired and I wouldn't want to make a mistake analyzing this data. This is one time that you really don't have to worry about me coming back."

**********Old City**********

"Well Magnus this mission was a major bust." Will Zimmerman was so tired he didn't think there was a word to describe exactly how he was feeling. "I am going to go take a hot shower and sleep for the next three days." The team walked in the front door of the sanctuary and headed to the elevator.

"It was not a complete waste Will." Helen Magnus, head of the Global Sanctuary Network, glanced back at the newest member of her team. "Yes I would have preferred to capture the creature alive, but at least the native population is safe." She sighed heavily. "I still don't know what kind of abnormal it was though." She stopped talking and looked to be in deep thought. "Will I would like you to bag your cloths, I will use the DNA to see what is identifiable. Ash I really wish you had not blown it up, there must have been a better way." When she got no response she touched her daughter on her arm. "Ashley are you listening to me?"

"Sorry Mom, but it was trying to eat Will; I made a snap decision. One dead bad guy, a small tribe that will no longer be terrorized and Will in one piece; slightly messy, but alive." She smiled back at Will.

"Slightly messy Ashley? I am covered in the bad guy. It's disgusting. Magnus mind explaining again why I couldn't shower before heading back? This stuff has dried and my clothes are glued to my skin." The elevator stopped at the residential level and all but Magnus stepped out.

"I am headed to the labs. Will, may I have your jacket so I can start running tests?"

"Magnus we have been on the move for 48 hours you need your rest as well." Will was always trying to get her to slow down. She had never listened to him before and he was fairly sure she would not listen to him now either.

"William I am just going to get the tests started and then I will be heading off to bed as well. They will take several hours to complete and if I don't do it now it will be up even later tomorrow." She glanced at her watch. "Or rather, later tonight." She leaned against the door of the elevator to keep it open.

"Fine. Here, you can have it." He stripped off his jacket and everyone cringed at the tearing sound it made as he pulled it off. He looked at it with distain before tossing it to Magnus.

"Ashley you're in for the night correct?" Magnus was even more watchful of her daughter since Johns return. She was pretty sure that the blood she had given him would put him down for a while if it didn't kill him out right. But she could never be too careful, not when her daughter's life depended on it.

"Ya mom, even I'm beat after this one." She grinned at her mom while walking backwards. "I do have a meeting with Angelo tomorrow to check out some new weapons though. I'll let you know before I take off." Ashley continued walking down the hallway to her room. "Night everyone!" she called over her shoulder yawning as she went.

"Don't forget 8am briefing." Helen stepped back into the elevator and pushed the button to take her down to the labs before she had to listen to any complaints. Contrary to what she told Will she had some paperwork to take care of after she got the DNA tests running. She had been gone from the Sanctuary for more than two days and since she had Will with her nothing had gotten done in the way of administrative duties. First thing in the morning she needed to contact Declan at the London Sanctuary for an update. Helen looked at the clock in the lab, it was just after one a.m., and she figured she would be up until three before she would be able to head to bed.

Helen sighed and shook her head as she scraped some of the dried abnormal off of Wills jacket and into a test tube. She added some saline to help liquefy it and placed it into the thermal cycler to start the DNA replication process. Placing Wills jacked into the freezer to maintain the integrity of the sample, she headed up to her office.