Chapter 10
"I can't believe it. This is amazing." Sam was marvelling at the results of the x-ray after processing the uncanny accuracy with which Noli had described the contents of a few sealed containers. There really was something in that rock, to the best of her knowledge mostly resembling some kind of machine.
"So... You're like the human ultrasound", said Jack, humbly underneath the friendly sarcasm.
"Guess so." Noli had been patiently suffering the process leaning against the desk. She looked around and asked: "So that's it? You really believe me?" She didn't dare believe that they did just yet. Sam shrugged in amazement.
"I don't see how you could know all this if it wasn't true. Plus, it explains a lot", she said, thinking of Noli's strange manners. "I mean..." She got a little worried as she realised what she was saying. Noli smiled sadly.
"Normally I'm very good at hiding it, but circumstances have been unusual... I know I've been a little weird with the unnatural attraction to alien objects and all... But you don't know what it's like to get a chance to get aquainted with a new material. It's like adding a piece to a huge puzzle." She looked to Sam. "I also know I've been elusive about certain things, in my research. That's because so much of it has been about figuring out what questions to go with the answers I already had."
Sam thought of what Noli said about them working on the material scanner. That was the one strange thing she had noticed about Noli's methods in the lab - it just seemed to go too fast.
"You really were filling the registry without checking the meter first", she said.
"Yeah. I felt kinda sorry that I had to let you go on doing that when I could have done it all in a jiffy", Noli replied. "Such a waste of time. I really was just trying to get lost", she then said to Teal'c, who smiled in recognition. The others looked a little confused. Then Daniel thought of something.
"If you're... aware, of everything all the time... Like seeing in another sense, I mean you can shut your eyes and you won't be aware of what's around you but can you... switch this off and on? For example I imagine it would get frustrating feeling your clothes all the time."
Noli smiled. "The sensibility is mostly concentrated to my hands. Plus I can tune out, things like clothes and, you know, the floor, I don't feel. I can if I want to..." Noli's gaze became distant for a moment and then suddently she went "Damn it!" and started tugging at the side of her t-shirt. "I just bought this", she said and poked a finger through a hole in the hemline. "But yeah, it would be overwhelming if I was 'on' all the time. It's like tinnitus I guess, the more you listen for it the louder you hear it."
"Can you detect any matter?" Teal'c was starting to sense the tactical possibilities of this strange ability. So was Jack, who quickly looked at him and then turned to Noli with an expecting look.
"As far as I can tell, yes. Of course there's the matter of identifying what I'm sensing too... it didn't come with a manual. I've been spending a - lot - of time straightening that out." Noli was relaxing more and more, her face taking on a shine. "Oh, living tissue. I can't 'hear' living tissue. I think there's too much going on in there, it's so busy it... overloads my system and it goes quiet."
"Guess that's a relief", said Daniel, thinking how distracting it would be to be aware of the molecular structure of anyone you touched.
"I'll do without it." Noli smiled brightly. "I don't think you can imagine what this feels like. I mean, I never try to tell anyone about this. Do you know how discredited I would be if I did? They'd lock me up. Flush all my work down the drain. But you're all looking like it's everyday stuff." The feeling of being taken seriously - and treated like she was normal – had Noli soaring. Her new colleagues smiled.
"We're just glad you're not NID", said Sam.
"Yeah, what is that?" Noli wondered.
"Oh, just a covert organisation of scumbags trying to get their hands on whatever they think serves their purposes at the cost of innocent lives," Jack explained casually.
"And you all thought I was a part of that?" Noli's expression faded into disappointment. Spirits sank all around as they felt a twinge of shame. It seemed unfair to ever have distrusted her, now that they knew what she had really been hiding.
"Yeah, I guess we did," confessed Daniel uncertainly.
"Wow." Noli looked at the floor. "I've had people think I'm crazy before... but no one's ever thought I was evil." Her voice was low and sad. That was it, Daniel thought, her confidence in them was forever damaged and she would never trust them again. Goodbye, any chance of a friendship, hello, chilly work conversations. A glance around the room told him the others were thinking something similar.
Noli looked up.
"You guys are so buying me drinks tonight."