A/N: Hey look, an update only a few days later! And this one's a decent chunk longer than the last one. Well, shenanegans!

Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own none of this stuff, just the demented mind that put it together.

Part 3

Chapter 10: The Price of Curiosity

"Um…sir," a young A1C said hesitantly. "I'm getting reports of strange thermal irregularities from various places around the base."

"Someone's playing with the thermostat, Airman?" Asked the bored-sounding lieutenant serving as shift supervisor.

"I…I doubt it, sir. There is nothing in the logs to indicate tampering with the thermostats, and several of these reports are coming from the temperature-regulated labs."

"Relax, Airman, I was joking. Could you define 'thermal irregularities'?" The lieutenant said soothingly.

"Cold-pockets, sir. Small areas of the labs and corridors that show a marked decrease in temperature from the ambient."

"Only decreases? No corresponding warm areas?"

"None that have been reported as yet, sir. It could be nothing, but..."

"But it could be something. Good work, Airman, I'll pass it on up the chain."

*BAAARRRINNNG*

Daniel Jackson, absorbed in translating a particularly tricky passage of Ancient, gave a little start before reaching for the phone in his office.

"Jackson." He said amiably.

"Doctor Jackson, we've got a bit of an odd question for you."

"Like there are any other kind around here? What is it, Siler?"

"We're getting strange readings and reports from around the base, and we were wondering if you've noticed anything odd."

"Odd? You'll have to be a bit more specific."

"Temperature fluctuations, like…cold pockets."

"I thought it was just the AC on the fritz—"

Daniel was cut off by a new voice on the phone, the head of base security. This was definitely something more serious than a broken AC system. "Does your office feel abnormally cool right now, Doctor?"

"Um…no…"

"Thank you, Doctor Jackson…General Landry would like to see you in his office in 20."

"Umm…ok…Colonel, what's this all about?"

"We'll discuss it in 20, Doctor Jackson, but we may have a Foothold situation, so use caution."

Daniel sat up straight in his seat in surprise as the Colonel's words sank in. Possible Foothold…oh god no, not again.

Twenty minutes later, SG-1 was assembled in General Landry's office. "What's going on, sir?" asked Colonel Mitchell, "What's this about a possible Foothold?"

"We don't know exactly what it is yet, Colonel." Answered Landry, his grandfatherly amiable façade gone in the face of a threat to the base. "There have been strange localized temperature fluctuations or 'cold pockets' reported around the base. We would ordinarily attribute this to a glitch in the Air Conditioning system, but this phenomenon seems to be moving in a somewhat deliberate pattern. Colonel." He nodded towards the security head to continue.

"Here are the reported fluctuations with approximate times marked around the base. As you can see, the phenomenon seems to move around, sometimes staying stationary for a while and sometimes continuing to move on. It's almost as if it's—"

"Exploring," Sam cut him off. "Look at the places it moved right through and look at the places it stayed put. It breezed right through the infirmary, but stuck around for a while in the gym."

"That was the time Colonel Mitchell and I were sparring in that location." Stated Teal'c in his usual stoic matter when this was pointed out. "I almost thought I'd detected an additional presence in the room."

"You did seem a little distracted, T."

"Right, and here…it looks like it stopped by Daniel's place for less than a minute before moving on."

"Guess its curiosity wasn't strong enough to handle watching Daniel study." Quipped Mitchell. A half a beat later, he registered what he'd just said. "Wait, are you saying we've got a sentient temperature-thingy taking a look around the base?"

Sam gave him a withering look. "No, Cam. I'm saying that the temperature abnormalities might just be an indicator of something invisible investigating the base."

"Like a Reetou?" Landry asked with not a small amount of trepidation. "Could another one of them made their way on base?"

Sam shook her head, "I doubt it, sir. We've never seen nor heard of any temperature indications of Reetou presence. And besides, the only way a Reetou could've come in is via the Stargate, and there was no gate activity for at least twelve hours before the first fluctuations were reported."

"There's one thing that doesn't make sense to me on this," said Daniel, peering at the map, "It looks like it's limited itself to just the lab and the 'Gate floors, and it spends more time in areas where there are 'interesting' things…why hasn't it entered the Gate Room?"

"That's a good question, Doctor Jackson." Praised Landry, "Now what do you think that means?"

"Well, sir," said Sam, thoughtfully, "I don't think that we've just not noticed it. We have every kind of sensor known to man and a then some monitoring the Stargate. I also highly doubt our cold explorer would not find the 'Gate interesting, since we have been dialing out for scheduled contacts with off-world teams. Hmm…what's different about the Gate Room than the other areas on these floors?"

"Has anyone entered the Gate Room since the phenomenon was first reported, General Landry?" inquired Teal'c.

The Lieutenant Colonel in charge of security answered for the General. "Yes, they have…but the door has only been open at times the phenomenon was on some other level or at the other end of the complex."

"Stopped by doors, huh?" mused Landry, "Well that's something, at least. What do you propose, Colonel Carter?"

Sam's brow furrowed in thought. "I'm not sure, sir, but before we can do anything, I think we should make certain we can see it somehow."

"It seems to be surrounded by cold. Couldn't we switch the base security cameras to infrared mode or something?" asked Daniel.

"Good thought, but the calibration wouldn't be right. IR cameras are designed to pick up warmer signatures and let the cold ones fade into the background…but…hmm…I may be able to recalibrate a few of them so that normal room temperature shows as warm." Mused Sam.

"Why can't you do it to all of 'em?" inquired Mitchell.

"That much of a change would need to be done manually to each camera one at a time, Cam. Plus it would cripple the rest of our security, since everything else would be whitewashed out in heat on the cameras. No, I think the best idea would be to set a little honey trap."

Jack had absolutely no regrets about following that trio down that elevator. This place was absolutely incredible and he'd only really seen a few floors! What other wonders did this place hold? Those two guys, one being that "Cam" guy he'd followed, practice fighting with staves had been awesome. He'd watched the two hungrily, filing away certain moves to try later with his crook. What had Justin called that friendly practice-fighting thing again? Oh yeah! Sparring. Jack had never really had anyone he could truly pretend-fight against; it was a fascinating concept to him.

Carter's lab had been interesting in its own right, too. She'd been fiddling with some weird little thing that looked like a keyboard in the shape of a set of choir risers. A laptop and a somewhat cylindrical device the size of a duffel bag with a ball on either end sat next to the little thing. Periodically, she'd fiddle with something on her computer and two flashes of light—barely five seconds apart—would engulf the room. After this she'd either frown or look extremely excited; either way, she'd rapidly jot down notes before making additional tweaks. Jack found the entire thing baffling and fascinating…for a while at least. He'd never been the most patient Spirit, and after the fifth such cycle went looking for something more interesting.

The Jackson guy…well, at least he looked like he was having fun. Because of Justin and Cyndi his literacy had improved by leaps and bounds—and he'd even read some books for pleasure—but, well…studying and Non-fiction were not his idea of fun. He left the man in his own little literary haven and went on to better things.

There were interesting things all over the base, but he noticed that a lot of traffic seemed to be going towards a central area. I think I'll head over there now. Maybe I'll get lucky and someone'll actually be going in that one room with the guards by it. Eh, if not, I'll go into that room next to it that's getting a lot of traffic.

And so he followed a young soldier into the elevator and down to level 23 and padded on his bare feet towards the central area. To his surprise and delight, the doors in question were wide-open. He grinned at his luck and excited, flew through the openly-inviting doorway—only to slam head-first into an invisible wall.

OW! What the hell was that? He thought, massaging his head for a moment before tentatively reaching out to the offending space with his hand. He drew his hand back with a pained hiss at the sharp, sparking bite of the invisible barrier. Ookay, painful bitey wall, fine, I'll go over it. He began to fly up and hit another painful barrier. Above, too? Wait…please no… He backpedaled in fear, only to have is back impact yet another invisible wall.

The Winter Spirit started to panic. He was trapped, and his mind went back in a panic to that day in Santiago. He started frantically throwing himself against the sides of his prison, completely oblivious to the pain each impact caused him; he could not get trapped like that again. His mind was a blank of panic, filled with one thought. NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

He was so far gone in fear that he didn't notice the three people observing from the side. He didn't notice the pained, sympathetic expressions on two of their faces at the sparks he created with the barrier at each impact. He didn't notice the third, a stoic frown on his face, raise a small black S-shaped device and point it at him. He didn't notice the high-pitched noise it made, and when the beam of energy it fired hit him, he didn't notice anything at all.

A/N: Yep, with all the stuff that the SGC's encountered over the years, do you really think they wouldn't have some way of detecting Jack? We're finally getting to the meat of the story =D.

Review Response Time!

Kagiranai-Eternal: Heehee, you had the same response to reading the Gibbs-slap as I did to writing it. Made me giggle so much. And yes, so wrong for Jack.

Evenmoor: Yep, there's a reason I titled that chapter "Taunting Murphy"

Danny Hellcat: Glad you're appreciating it.

Moar Reviews!

Tzapporah Signing Off!