Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate or any of its characters, places, alien races, etc.

Colonel John Sheppard stood at attention before General Landry. The last time they had met, Sheppard ignored a direct order and took a puddle jumper through the Stargate. To say that they weren't on the best of terms would have been an understatement.

"And let me be perfectly clear," Landry said, raising out of his seat and leaning on his desk. "If it wasn't for General O'Neill, I wouldn't have let you step foot back onto this base. In fact, I'd like nothing more than to see you court-martialed. But General O'Neill believes that you would be a great asset to the SGC, so I'm willing to give you a chance."

"Thank you, sir."

"I've assigned you to temporarily assume Colonel Mitchell's duties on SG-1. He and Vala will be off world for a few weeks in the Ori's home galaxy along with six other SG teams. Daniel Jackson and Teal'c will be staying here, so you'll only need to choose one other member. Good luck, Colonel."

"Are you kidding me?" Rodney McKay said without looking up from the computer screen. "I know you're itching to go out and fight bad guys, but my main concern is getting Atlantis operational again so we can get back to Pegasus."

"Listen, Rodney, that may be further in the future than you think. Woolsey says that the IOA wants Atlantis here until the guys at Area 51 get the orbital defense satellites up and running. The Wraith took out Earth's only defense against alien ships. We're sitting ducks without Atlantis."

"Well how long will that be?"

Sheppard shrugged. "More than half of Atlantis personnel have already been reassigned elsewhere. Teyla and Ronon have already decided to hitch a ride with Carter whenever she takes the Hammond to Pegasus."

Rodney stopped working. "They haven't said anything to me."

Whoops, Sheppard though. "I'm sure they were getting around to it. There's a lot going on."

"Yeah, well there's a lot more that's going to go on if I can't fix these power conduits." He began typing furiously again. "There's a damaged conduit somewhere in the east pier. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but for some reason a ton of power is being routed there. Since we need all the power we can spare to keep the city cloaked-"

"It becomes a big problem," Sheppard finished.

"Exactly."

"I'm a medical doctor," Carson Beckett said, picking up various instruments and scanners and putting them into boxes. "I have no business going through the Stargate unless there's an emergency."

"But I know you." Sheppard was grasping at straws. He had already asked half a dozen people from Atlantis, and they had all turned him down. Carson was the last person he was comfortable asking, and also the last person that would ever accept.

"Aye, and you also know how I tend to make things worse."

"Not true. You've been invaluable countless times over the years."

Carson stopped and faced Sheppard. "I'm going back to Pegasus, Colonel. There's still a lot of work to be done there. I can't just leave those people to the plague that I helped create, can I?"

Sheppard buried his head into his hands. For the past two days, he, Daniel, and Teal'c had interviewed dozens of candidates for the team. Most of them were military, but toward the end Sheppard began bringing in more and more civilians. None impressed him. There wasn't a Rodney, Teyla, or Ronon in the bunch.

"Maybe you should tell us what you're actually looking for," Daniel suggested, clearly agitated by being chained to the long oak table.

"I don't know," Sheppard said. "I'm looking for that 'wow' factor, you know? All of these people are just so… boring."

"These people are the best at what they do," Daniel said. "Any one of them would be a great fit."

"Really? Like Shawn Flint, the botanist who thinks a good time is picking flowers on other worlds? Or Lieutenant Graves who has never even been off world or in any type of combat? No, guys, there's gotta be someone out there that's a better fit."

Daniel snapped his fingers. "I've got it. Dr. Natasha Wile. She works at Area 51. We met her a few times whenever we would bring back advanced technology. She went to MIT and is incredibly brilliant, John. I mean she's on-par with Rodney McKay."

That's a big statement, Sheppard thought. "Well, let's get her in here."

"Dr. Wile, I see here that you did a stint aboard the Odyssey."

Tasha Wile wasn't at all what Sheppard had expected. For one, she was young. Very young. She looked like she would easily fit in with a bunch of high school kids. There was no way that she could have been more than twenty years old. But that wasn't the most striking thing about her. There was a stillness to her. She was one of those people who would never stand out in a crowd, even if it was a crowd of two. Regardless of who you would put next to her, you would always notice that other person before you noticed her.

"Yes, for about two weeks. I was assigned to study the Asgard computer core."

"Did you get a chance to see any combat?"

"Oh, uh no. The Odyssey was actually in orbit at the time while repairs were being completed."

Sheppard leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Daniel jumped in. "Were you able to learn much from the core?"

Tasha nodded. "Quite a bit actually. It's very user friendly."

Daniel laughed. That's just what Sam had said about it. "If you could only present one thing from the core that you learned, what would it be?"

There was no hesitation. "The Asgard were attempting to use nanites to fix their genetic problems. In fact, that process is still going on."

All at once, Daniel's mouth dropped, Sheppard's eyes opened, and Teal'c's eyebrow raised. Daniel leaned forward. "Excuse me?"

Tasha suddenly felt very much like she had said something wrong. She spoke slowly. "I believe that's what they were doing. That's how the holographic interface explained it."

"Wait a minute," Sheppard said. "Are you telling me that the Asgard were using replicators?"

She immediately understood. "Oh, no. Not at all. Well…" She rubbed her face. "Kinda, except they were closer to the Pegasus version. I've read a couple of Dr. McKay's reports on the nanites that the Ancients developed to fight the Wraith. From what I understand, if they were inside a biological organism, they would heal almost any injury, right?"

Sheppard nodded. "Yeah, they could heal you from just about anything." His mind went to Elizabeth Weir, but he shook the thought away.

Tasha was nodding. "Then yes, the nanites that the Asgard developed seem very similar."

"You said that the process is going on even now," said Teal'c.

"Yes, I believe so. Two Asgard, Thor and Heimdall, set up a facility on a planet in a small galaxy neighboring Ida. From what they could tell, no advanced races have evolved in that galaxy yet so they thought it would be a good choice. Anyway, they made a copy of all of the Asgard consciousnesses and programmed the nanites to construct new bodies for them based on the DNA samples they took from one of their ancestors that they found in stasis."

The three men looked at each other, then back to the young woman. Daniel spoke. "Are you telling me that the Asgard aren't actually extinct?"

Tasha shifted in her seat, then nodded.