AN: This is just a small homage to today's (July 4th) Higgs-Boson/we-found-something-exciting announcement in the news from Geneva and CERN etc. The Large Hadron Collider has always fascinated me and the recent discovery after 50 years is, in my opinion what it is all about. So well done guys :)
Naturally as I have taken this across into SG-1-land there is only once super sexy scientist that I would have make the following connection...and because it is a homage piece is why CERN get a mention...so don't go bashing me about not including all the others who were involved in this discovery, okay! And as for Sam's behaviour, yes it may be a little OC but come on, when does she ever get the chance to do this :)
Summary: Sam, suddenly having her own eureka moment goes a little crazy in her lab out of sheer excitement. Sure that there is something wrong with her, Jack hurries to her side to figure out what's got his 2IC acting so strangely. Jack/Sam, K plus rated, Friendship/Humour one-shot.
THE HIGGS-CARTER CONNECTION
"Oh my God!" Sam literally bounced away from her microscope. "No, no way!" Her protective glove covered hands ran up into her hair and belatedly she remembered they were covered in chemicals, but she really did not care about that right now. Having her hair turn purple was the least of her concerns.
She tore across to the other side of her lab and began to root around in her file boxes. It was only when she opened the third one that she realised that she had yet to remove her gloves. They were off in a flash and lying on the floor, all safety protocols forgotten. "Where is it, where is it?" she muttered to herself. She had figured it out, she knew she had, all she needed to do was confirm the links between what was in her mind with the notes that she had jotted down two months ago. But where had she put them?
A fourth unopened box, definitely not the right one, hit the deck from waist height and spilled wildly out across the floor. Sam looked directly up "Ah-ha!" she shouted and climbed onto the now empty second shelf heading for the next row up.
The file box now in her possession was rather weighty and it was an awkward transition back to the floor but as soon as she was there the lid was off. "No!" she cried out frustratedly. What she had lifted was a box of naquada ratios and the generator specs, complete with samples, which accounted for the extra weight. She was back on her feet, it had to be here somewhere. "Thor!" she blurted out, her eyes scanning the room. Kirons were the link and any Kiron-based research was back in her 'Thor' file and that was yellow, because Thor liked yellow. Most of her Asgard-based research was jotted down on yellow paper she remembered.
And suddenly there it was. Behind the door on the very top shelf was the box she was looking for. Her stomach whirled in excitement and for just a moment she was stuck to the floor. Then with a tense sort of uncontained reserve Sam made her way over to where the ladder stood close to her target of her search.
If her preliminary theory could be proven correct it could change the face of physics forever! And not just in an it's-got-to-stay-classified sort of way. This could change...everything, for everyone, forever!
Slowly she climbed the ladder and simply held the file box for a moment, she inhaled deeply. Her rush of insanity was passing, her unthinking burst of pure uncontrolled excitement fading into genuine, bottom of her heart scientific glee. Grinning widely she attempted her dismount from the ladder.
OOo
He did not see it, he did not know she was there. All he knew was that he had got a call from the guys watching the security cameras saying that Major Carter appeared to be tearing her lab apart and he had to get there, he had to see what was wrong. So when Jack threw the door open and knocked her off the ladder it took a few moments to put it all together.
There was an almighty crash and a deep resonating silence. He looked about, boxes and files were everywhere, her lab was almost unrecognisable, nothing moved. "Carter?" he asked tentatively.
"Colonel?" she responded.
Jack's eye tracked around trying hard to place the source of the sound.
"What the hell?" she demanded.
Her angry words clued him in and he peeked behind the open door. "Gee Carter...did I do that?" Sam was laying flat out on the ground covered in everything that had been on at least two of her jam-packed shelves.
Sam stretched up onto her elbows amid the debris. "Yes Sir, actually you did!" she declared, indignantly glaring at him.
"Here let me help you." he offered automatically and a little sheepishly.
"No, no, it's fine. I can manage." Sam shot back, still feeling defensive from being knocked off her perch. She hauled herself to her feet, smoothed herself off and gave him a confused and still somewhat angry look. Clearly she wanted an explanation.
Jack simply returned the look and gestured to the disarray that was now her normally neat and tidy room.
Sam looked round at the devastation she had caused, surprised she blinked. If she did not know any better she could have been standing in Daniel's office. Suddenly the reason for her haste and carelessness came rushing back in on her. She whipped back round to here CO. "I found it Colonel!" She grabbed him by the arms and Jack startled at her actions. "I actually found it! Well I think I did, I won't know for sure until I write out the new equations and run a few simulations but I'm pretty sure I've actually done it!" She looked fit to burst and then without warning she kind of did. "Ha ha!" She threw her hands in the air and basically turned around in a tight excited circle before grabbing him again.
Jack felt his eyes going wide, for Carter that was quite a reaction. His 2IC had quite clearly turned into the mad scientist he always feared she would and he was a little worried. "Found what, Carter?" It was certainly not her marbles that was for sure.
"Higgs-Boson and Kiron based technology...it's the same thing I'm sure of it! Well not exactly the same but it's a step closer, it's got to be! I have to find my notes!"
Jack's jaw dropped in utter confusion, he shook his head, her words meant absolutely nothing to him and now she was back on her hands and knees behind the door, random sheets of paper being quickly scanned and unceremoniously tossed over her shoulder. Some of them were landing back on the pile and she was lifting them again and again. "Cart-" but she was not listening.
"If I can just find the right section of notes from after I came back from helping Thor save his home world I can get started." More paper flew out across the room.
"Okay Carter, obviously this has got you quite excited but..." he paused attempting to get closer to her. "If you don't calm down you are never going to find anything. I mean you are not even reading those sheets anymore." He crouched down behind her but was forced to throw his hands up over his face as yet more paper hurtled in his direction.
Sam halted in her actions and glanced towards her CO. He was right, this was getting her nowhere. Her hands went back up into her hair, her scalp was itchy. Absently she scratched herself. "You are correct Sir, I need to calm down or I could get this very wrong and that...well that would not be good." She turned in a shuffling semi-circle to face him, crinkling her notes under her knees as she went. Jack was now down on his knees beside her. He was looking intently at her forehead but she neglected to notice. "Don't you realise what this means?" she burbled.
Jack just blinked at her, refocusing his attention on her eyes.
"If I'm correct." she carried on without waiting for an answer, "Then our understanding of the construct of matter could be changed forever!" Her eyes sparkled. "If my theory is correct and what the Asgard call Kirons are actually part the missing formula in the Standard Model then...wow! Colonel O'Neill, Sir...Jack...I may have actually found the God Particle!"
"Jack?" he uttered in disbelief.
"Sorry Sir." Sam offered, she should not have used his name.
O'Neill's mind was still playing catch up. "The God Particle?" he asked, getting more and more confused, what the hell was that?
Sam grinned crookedly at her CO, she was being unfair on him. Most of the greatest scientific minds of this planet struggled with the information she was trying to give him and up until her eureka moment when working on a completely different experiment, so had she, but now she was sure she was on the doorstep of making the single most important discovery of her career. "Sir, if I'm right," she told him calmly "then this particle could change everything!"
"Change everything...a particle?" Jack frowned.
"Ye-es!" Sam exclaimed, a little exasperated. "It could have a huge impact, just like splitting the atom did, or, or landing on the moon. Sir...this could be huge!"
Jack was not so sure he liked her 'it could be like splitting the atom' notion. "You're not about to blow up the mountain or anything are you, Carter?" he asked, only half joking.
Sam started laughing. "No Sir, you don't have to worry. Even if I am right it will probably take years to prove my theory to a sigma-five level. I'm going to have to bring in a lot of outside help...I may not even be able to figure it out at all, I am just an astrophysicist after all."
"Just an astrophysicist?" Jack could not believe he heard her say that.
"Yes Sir, Higgs-Boson is firmly in the realms of particle physics. It may be a case of handing the information over to CERN and the team working at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe."
"Not Area 51?" Jack pushed up and away from the floor.
Sam pondered for a moment. "Well maybe there too, but this is not so much about alien technology as it is about recognising new boundaries within our own scientific research."
"But you mentioned Thor?"
Sam nodded and took his offered hand to get back to her feet. "Yes Sir, but only as a point of reference. When I was aboard his ship-"
"When you blew up The O'Neill."
Sam grimaced, he was never going to let that go. "When Thor and I made the tactical decision to sacrifice The O'Neill to save the Asgard homeworld, yes, I learned that the Replicators work using something known as Kiron-based technology. Now, when I told Thor I did not know what a Kiron was he simply said 'I know.' implying that one day I would. That tells me that we already utilise Kirons every day but are unaware of them...Higgs...it's got to be!"
Jack placed his hands on top of his head. "Oy!" He released a heady breath. "Okay, I don't get it Carter, but you clearly do and that's good enough for me." She smiled genuinely at him and he paused to return the look. "Now..." he stated, changing the subject. "Do you want a hand clearing this mess up so you can actually get started on your new brainiac discovery?"
Sam flushed a little. "Um, yes Sir, I would really appreciate it. If you want to take that side of the room, please feel free. It does not matter what goes into what box, I'll sort it all out later, just leave out any banded piles that have yellow pages in them...oh and be careful of those gloves over there, they contain some pretty strong chemicals. I guess I got too excited to remember proper protocol."
Jack's eye tracked back up. "Is that why your hair is starting to turn purple?"
"Is it?" Sam asked and glanced at herself in the refection of the door. "So it is, dang...not cool."
"On the contrary, I think it suits you." Jack teased and watched her blushing. His heart rate had returned to normal now and he looked up towards the cameras. "You know I really wasn't going to say anything but I got quite a fright when I got the call from the guys up in surveillance saying you were going berserk and wrecking stuff."
Sam watched as he shoved random papers into random boxes. "Berserk, Sir?"
"Yeah Carter, they told me you were going mad and trashing your lab, which was obviously correct, I mean look at this place!" Jack gestured once again around the small space. "But now I know it was only you turning into a mad, purple-haired scientist...which is actually kind of cool."
Comic book images filled his mind. 'When Carter looks down a microscope...' he thought to himself.
Sam watched him grinning at some obvious private joke. "I thought you didn't like scientists?" she challenged, in an attempt to deflect the conversation away from her erratic behaviour.
Momentarily Jack froze at his task and then conceded to her point. "Yeah well some scientists are alright...even if they are way smarter than I am."
Once again Sam was laughing and Jack was pleased that he could do that. Even if he did not have a clue what she was talking about with her Hiccup Particle he could still make her laugh and that was good enough for him.
END
AN: So for anyone that knows anything about science...which I do not, you are probably simmering in your boots about how stupid that theory is, but hey, I don't care, the Higgs-Boson news today got me excited and this is my meagre homage to the 6000 plus scientists etc involved over the last number of years, so it's not supposed to be accurate, it's supposed to be fun ! Anyhoo thoughts welcome...as always :)
