Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate Atlantis.

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Who you gonna call, the fix it Tribble of course!

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Keeping the ancient city of Atlantis going sometimes gave the technicians headaches. Everything being 10,000 years old didn't help.

There were some places that were so tight and small that you could not get your hand into it or go far enough in to fix it.

Thank goodness for the Tribbles. Those little guys could crawl into the smallest places so the technicians and engineers who had Tribbles trained them to help fix things.

They even made them some small tools and a tool belt to carry them on. Tribbles learned quickly and were a natural at fixing things.

Everyone was happy that the little guys were around to help, everyone except for Sergeant Markham one of the ATA gene puddle jumper pilots.

As you guessed he did not own a Tribble and did not know just how smart the little guys were, that is until one day one saved his life.

Sergeant Markham heard the announcement over the city wide address system.

I repeat we are missing a dark green male Tribble that has escaped from the adoption center. He is a very shy Tribble and may be hiding somewhere.

"Tribbles," Markham thought, as far as he was concerned they were just a nuisance. They were everywhere these days. Almost everyone walking around had one on their shoulder. The preferred place of the Tribbles so they could see all that was going on.

And now they had one running amuck. He would keep an eye out all right because the sooner it was caught the less trouble it could get into.

The dark green Tribble was scared. At first he was scared when he heard people in the infirmary talk about adopting the Tribbles out. "What if I don't want to be adopted?" He thought. So he had run away.

After what seemed like hours and the endless hallways he found his way into the jumper bay. He heard some people talking and hid. One of the puddle jumpers was being made ready for planet PF1-956. After the people walked away and left the jumper open the dark green Tribble went inside to have a look around.

The Tribble hopped on in, he walked around looking at everything, and then he heard people coming so he hid. So when jumper number five left Atlantis is had one extra passenger on board.

As Sergeant Markham reported for duty that day Colonel Sheppard told him he would be needed to pilot a puddle jumper to planet PF1-956. His assignment was to take a scientist who was to check out an energy reading on the planet and a botanist to collect some samples. He would also have two marines with him in case of trouble. You will leave in 30 minutes.

"Yes sir," said Sergeant Markham and left to get ready for the mission. He would need to get to the puddle jumper first to preflight it.

"Oh great," Markham thought as he left, "a babysitting job." All the marines hated the babysitting of scientists and the botanists were the worse. They tended to wonder off.

Sergeant Markham was in the jumper ready to go when the rest of the group arrived. As soon as everyone stowed their gear he made ready to leave.

"Puddle jumper five ready to launch," Markham said. The bay doors that lead to the gateroom opened after Chuck dialed the gate for PF1-956.

The puddle jumper descended into the gateroom and hovered in front of the gate.

"Have a good trip," Chuck said as they went through.

Sergeant Markham brought the puddle jumper down at the spot the botanist Dr. Alan Bush wanted.

He opened the back up and out everyone came out. The botanist almost running as he saw one of the plants he wanted to bring back. Markham sent a marine after him and said, "Keep that guy in sight and don't let anything happen to him."

"Yes sir!" barked the marine and went after the botanist.

Dr. Kyle Gordon the scientist was already taking energy readings. "Sergeant the energy reading is about two miles away and erratic. I want to get a closer look at it and could you please take me in the puddle jumper to go find it?

Sergeant Markham did not like to split up but the planet had been declared safe. He left the two marines with the botanist and climbed back in the jumper with Dr. Gordon. He had told the marines to call him over the comlink if they needed anything.

The closer they got to the energy reading the more excited the scientist got. Maybe there would be a ZPM there!

They were almost on top of the energy reading when a laser beam shot out of a building below and hit the jumper.

Sergeant Markham lost control of the jumper and crashed it. It was a very rough landing and the Dr. Gordon who had been standing had hit his head and broke his arm.

Markham was in better shape but may have bruised or cracked ribs from the crash.

Markham leaned over the scientist and bandaged his head wound which was bleeding very badly and then put Gordon's arm in a splint.

Then he checked for damage. Only two things were wrong with the jumper from the crash. First one of the engines was not working and the other was the DHD in the console. It was not working either and they would not be able to dial out. The reason they needed it was because the planets DHD was also broken and they needed the console on the jumper in order to be able to dial out to go back.

Atlantis would not miss them until their check in time in 5 hours. They needed to fix the shuttle so they could bring Dr. Gordon back.

Markham radioed the rest of the team and told them what happened. He told them to stay by the gate for when Atlantis called so they could ask for help. In the meantime he and the scientist would try to fix the ship.

Dr. Gordon located the problem in the console to fix the DHD but could not fix it. It was a circuit in the control panel but it was way inside the console. So far that he could not reach it with his good arm.

Markham gave it a try since his arm was longer but his fingers were too big to grasp the circuit that needed replaced.

While this was going on the dark green Tribble came out of his hiding place and walked over to the Sergeant. The scientist and Markham realized that this was the missing Tribble everyone was looking for. He was small enough to go in and get the circuit and replace it.

"Come here little guy," said Dr. Gordon. But the Tribble would not come to him.

The Tribble walked up to Markham and squeaked at him. The scientist said, "He must like you better than me, see if you can get him to understand what we need him to do."

Markham spoke to the Tribble and pointed out which circuit they needed to change. The Tribble squeaked at him and then went into the console and pulled out the bad circuit and brought it out to him. Then Markham gave the Tribble the good circuit and the Tribble went in and put it in.

Dr. Gordon checked the DHD controls. They were working. Then he went to see what was wrong with the engine and with the Sergeants help fixed it. They flew back to the gate and picked up everyone and dialed Atlantis.

On the ride back to Atlantis the Tribble crawled up on Sergeant Markham's shoulder and sat down. Markham turned his head and looked at it, "Comfortable?" The Tribble squeaked yes.

Later that day when Sergeant Markham went for his debriefing he forgot about the Tribble on his shoulder.

He arrived at Colonel Sheppard's office knocked and was told to come in.

Sheppard looked at the dark green Tribble on Markham's shoulder and said, "I see you found the run away Tribble." "Where did you find him?"

"Oh sorry sir, I forgot he was there," said Markham. "He hid on our jumper sir and it's a good thing to for he helped up fix the ship." The Tribble squeaked his agreement.

"Well it looks like you got yourself a new pet," said Sheppard. "Better go by Dr. Keller and tell her you found him and that you are keeping him." "You are keeping him aren't you?" asked Sheppard. "Yes sir I think I will," replied Markham.

After the briefing he went to tell Dr. Keller he had found the Tribble and was keeping him.

"If I am going to keep you, you need a name," said Markham. "I know, how about Scout?" "Do you like it?" The Tribble squeaked that he did.

From then on everywhere that Sergeant Markham went his new pet Scout went to, for Scout had become a certified fix it Tribble and was allowed to go with him where ever he went.