NOTE: This set shortly after S3 Deadman's Switch.


The silence blanketed the room for a solid thirty seconds before the Major regained control of himself and broke it. "How? Are you a telepath?"

Alex laughed before replying "Nope, not a telepath. Well… not in the sense you're thinking of anyway. It was kind of obvious really." Here he waved in the direction of the blueprints and equations. "Seriously, you expect to leave all that stuff lying around in plain sight and for someone as smart as me not to figure it out? Ludicrous! That equation there is quite plainly for crystal based circuitry, over there we've got weather patterns that don't match anywhere on Earth and finally we've got a blown up version of what is a rather crudely modified, but still identifiable, version of an oversised ATMOS. So, back to the original question, how'd it get off-world?"

Silence reigned once again for several seconds before the explanations began. Apparently the NID had once again screwed things up—'This better not become a habit for them'—and had been attempting to reverse engineer the ATMOS device in an off-world base. A minor Goa'uld in service to Yu was in charge of a small mining operation there which the NID's scouts had missed. In the ensuing battle the Goa'uld had secured the blueprints present and had, in a rare show of creativity for the Goa'uld, turned ATMOS into a Chemical Weapon Factory. He was currently testing both it and the weapon on a small planet that was currently a Tok'ra staging ground.

Major Carter was stunned. This complete stranger walked in without signing any NDFs and in the space of thirty seconds had not only endeared himself to practically the entire team working on the problem, but also had somehow convinced them to completely disregard all procedures and tell him what was happening. She knew why they were so eager to please, he was after all the creator of ATMOS and seemed to have a 'trust me, help me' feeling about him. Almost as if you were scared to dissapoint him. It was this last part that had her concerned though, memories of Hathor and Seth flashed through her mind. 'I'll need to talk to the General about this.' Her thoughts were interrupted by Mr. Smith asking another question.

"So, you've got all this stuff and you are all quite obviously competent so the real question that needs answering is… What do you need me for?"

A rather arrogant looking man spoke up from the back of the room. "We need to understand how you've made the ATMOS device work. Every simulation we've run and all of our calculations say that that device is an impossibility. It fails, it overloads, one of the simulations had it exploding! The Goa'uld have adapted with their technology but it is impossible for ATMOS to work using Earth technology and materials."

Smith shrugged and replied with, in Carter's opinion, an extremely smug tone in his voice. "Well, I guess I'm a fraud then."

The scientist, a Dr. Heinslatch if Carter remembered correctly, didn't take Smith's reply too well. "Don't play with me! All testing done on ATMOS was under supervision, I have a friend who was part of the team who verified the results! It does work and you are going to tell us how!"

Something about the way Smith's eyebrow rose reminded her of Teal'c, not a happy Teal'c either, and Carter rushed to prevent anything happening that they'd regret. Well, she'd regret and would get Heinslatch fired.

"That's not true."

Smith turned and faced her; Carter could have sworn a smirk danced across his face.

"Oh?"

"We need to know if there are any weaknesses we can exploit. The Tok'ra are trapped in their lair and the toxin will reach them in 12 hours. Nothing we've thought of so far has held up on paper let alone practice, and we're running out of time."

The next few seconds would haunt Carter's dreams for weeks to come. As Mr Smith looked her in the eyes her world fell apart. Every cell in her body told her to run and hide because he wasn't just looking. He was seeing. Everything about her was stripped and laid open for his perusal and it terrified her. Just as quickly as it had started it stopped, with Smith having apparently liked what he saw as he gave an incredibly boyish grin before clapping his hands together.

"Right then! I want to know everything, what this program is, how long it's been working, mission reports, all of it." Smith walked over to the wall before spinning about, his trainers making a small 'squeek!' on the floor. "Oh! And I want everything you have on Goa'uld technology."

The room was silent and still for several seconds before he got impatient. "Oi! Get to it!"

Once again the Major was the first the regain control "I'm sorry but none of the people here have the authority to give you that information."

In response he got an incredibly dry look from Smith "You're a smart man Major. Surely you know who is capable of getting me that information." Smith gave his head a small shake tutting as he did so "Until then, could someone get me a cup of tea?"

While most of the room were given the impression that he was thirsty the more astute of those present realised with a jolt that he had no intention of doing anything until his demands were met. One of the more opinionated scientists next to Carter took offense and had opened her mouth to berate him for his immaturity when Carter nudged her.

A hissed "What?" was given in return.

"Don't make things worse. He's obviously smart, he designed ATMOS, and he's young and rich. How do you think he's going to react when you tell him what he should and shouldn't do?"

The scientist seethed for a couple of moments before reluctantly nodding her head. Carter placed a hand on her should in support before joining in a debate over the power distribution systems of the Goa'uld ATMOS.

Alex sat in the corner of the room, hands folded under his chin with his eyes focused on something only he could see. If any of the Doctor's previous companions, or even foes, had been present they would have promptly told the SGC to run, because the healer had left the building and in his place was the being that had changed destinies on a whim and destroyed planets on a fancy. Somewhere among all those maps, blueprints and notes Alex had seen something he didn't like.

Things like that tend to meet rather sudden ends.


AN: Sorry 'bout the delay. Things got rather busy and I had a difficult time avoiding jumps. As it is it's rather brief.

At anyrate, 'till next time.