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, "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."