Dotty left almost immediately. She wasn't needed there – at least not yet – and all of her gadgets and gizmos that might help her with Ian's problem were all at her house. Jack left with her to arrange a ride for her, leaving Sam and Daniel alone with Ian. There was a very familiar look in Daniel's expression and Ian knew he was going to start asking questions as soon as he'd organized them in his mind.
Before he could, however, Teal'c returned. Carrying Ian's bag.
"The security team has declared this to be free of any risk to this facility," the Jaffa told him, handing it over. "They could not access your technology, however."
"I knew they wouldn't be able to," he said, taking the bag from Teal'c and setting it on Sam's workbench. "It's coded."
"The brightest minds in the world work here," Sam told him.
Ian's smile was smug.
"I know. They do in the future, too."
Her own smile was slightly chagrined.
"Good point."
He opened his bag and pulled out his laptop, with the three of them watching with interest. Daniel looked a little disappointed when it didn't look much different than his own. He'd expected something a little more futuristic looking, he supposed.
"So what do you do in the future, Colonel Brooks?" he finally asked, figuring that was as good a place to start as any.
"You can call me Ian," Ian replied. "I'm certainly not going to call you Mr. Jackson." He turned on his laptop, but while he was waiting for it to power up he answered Daniel's question. There really wasn't any reason not to. "I suppose you could call me the training officer for Atlantis," he said.
"The tech people or the military people?" Sam asked. She had a feeling he was comfortable around both.
"Usually military," he answered. "McKay prefers to brief the techs himself – and he's a bit more patient with them than I am."
"We're talking about Rodney McKay?" Sam asked, frowning.
He smiled.
"Yeah, you didn't like him all that much when I met you, come to think of it. I suppose there's no big shock that you don't think much of him, now…"
"He's pretty arrogant," Daniel said, trying to be as diplomatic as he could.
"That he is."
"And you really live in Atlantis?"
"Yes."
"What's it like?" Sam asked.
He gave a nonchalant shrug.
"You've seen one Ancient flying city, you've seen them all…"
Sam smiled, knowing he was messing with her.
"Flying city?" Daniel asked, missing the joke, completely. Not much of a surprise there; he was far more interested in the Ancients than Sam was. "It flies?"
"At the moment, it floats," Ian told him. "But it can fly, yes."
"And I discovered it, you say?"
"As far as I understand it, you had some help, but for the most part it was you, yes."
"Way to go, Daniel," Sam congratulated him.
He smiled.
"What of the Jaffa in your time, Ian Brooks?" Teal'c asked. His face was expressionless, but Ian knew he was curious.
"There are a lot more free ones than not," Ian told him, pulling a cord out and plugging it into the laptop. "And more rebelling every day."
"That is good to hear."
Ian looked up from what he was doing.
"It's good to see, too."
"What are you going to do?" Sam asked, changing the subject before the guys could ask more questions. Not that it wasn't fascinating, but she was more interested in the technology Ian had brought with him. Every little bit helped, and they had a lot of enemies. Who knew what she might learn just looking over his shoulder?
"I'm going to interface with your device and see what kind of pull it gave the wormhole," he explained, more than willing to explain – especially to her. "Then I'll have a little bit more to go on when I get into my tracking program."
"Anything I can do to help?"
He shook his head.
"Just watch what I'm doing with your machine to make sure I don't do something that might blow us up."
She smiled.
"I think we'll be okay."
But she did watch, because while she knew he was joking, there was also the chance that he might actually make a wrong move dealing with something he'd never used before. She'd spent a long time working on that device, and didn't want it messed it.
By the time Jack returned, the two of them were deep into their work, Daniel was bored but unwilling to leave and maybe miss something. Teal'c had left to finish some project of his own. O'Neill watched them for a minute, as Ian was explaining something that sounded incredibly complicated to Sam, but he didn't have a clue what they were discussing – which wasn't that big of a shock, really.
"Should we leave them alone?" he asked Jaffer, sitting in a chair and scratching the big lab's ears affectionately as he watched Sam.
Jaffer wagged his tail, but he didn't make a move to the door. His eyes were on Sam, too, and Jack wondered – not for the first time – what was going on inside his baby's head.
"You want to stay?" he asked, softly.
Jaffer rumbled deep in his chest, cheerfully. It was as close to a yes as Jack was going to get, he knew.
"Do I need to stay?"
The lab wagged his tail, showing no signs of mistrust as he and Jack turned their attention to Ian Brooks instead of Sam. Obviously he didn't want to stay to keep an eye on Sam. Jack shrugged and slapped his shoulder, standing up.
"Well, campers…" he said, drawing their attention. "If you need me call. I've got more interesting things to do.
Like watch paint dry.
They went back to what they were doing, and Daniel was the only one who watched him leave.