CHAPTER TWENTY: TECHNO AND OTHER BABBLES
After Her refresher course with Chang, when Vicky was falling asleep she got a great idea, they way many people solve problems in that state somewhere sleep and being awake. Since Sam had built an interface between the Stargate and Earth computers she would get her help to build an interface between the base computers and the Asguard devices she use like laptops. Then she would get Chang to help her write a translation program between Asguard, Go'ould, and English.
When she had made her proposal to Sam at breakfast Sam was so excited that she wanted to jump up and leave her breakfast to start work. It was only the Colonel ordering her to finish her breakfast that kept her at the table. She did, however, shovel down her food at what had to be an unhealthy rate. When she finished she beamed at the Colonel and held up her plate for Jack to see.
"See, Sir, all done!"
Jack gave her more of a grimace than a smile, "Go, invent," he waved her off. He rolled his eyes as she sprinted out of the room. "Ya know, it's pretty san when I'm the adult here."
Daniel smirked up at him. "I agree, Jack."
"Indeed," Teal'c added with a smile.
"I get no respect around here," he grumbled.
"Jack, I'm sure you get every bit of respect that you deserve," Vicky shot at him as she, too, got up to leave. Daniel snickered and Teal'c smiled wider making Jack glower at them.
When Vicky got to her lab she contacted the Marine Company Commander to have SGT Chang temporally assigned to her for the project.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Daniel knocked on Dr. Schmidt's door for his first session. Alex opened the door himself, which surprised him. So far he was very different from Mackenzie, which to Daniel, did a lot to alleviate his fears.
"Have a seat. May I call you Daniel?" When he saw Daniel nod he continued, "I want you to call me Alex.
"I have been reading your file and it is amazing!"
Daniel with his head still bowed, peered up at him. "I'll bet," he replied sardonically.
"So, you died?"
"Ascended, actually.
"What does that mean, exactly?"
"Umm...evolved into a higher being."
"Wow, what was that like?"
"I...really don't remember."
"So why did you..."
"Descend? It wasn't my choice, I broke the rules and they sent me back."
"They have rules? I would think that when you're that evolved you wouldn't need rules."
"Oh, they definitely have rules. Just because one is a higher being doesn't mean one is perfect."
"I guess human faults or non-human, as it were, follow with the individual's persona even to a higher plane."
"Apparently." Daniel was obviously uncomfortable with the subject, so whatever Alex's fascination with it he decided to move on.
"I gather that you were the one who figured out that Victoria O'Neill was still alive."
"Yes, I guess a lot of what I do is putting together seemingly unrelated pieces of information and that helped me figure out she might be the one who buried the bodies of SG-19. Not that she was very grateful at first."
"Why do you say that?"
"She couldn't sleep one of her first nights back and when she was walking around saw the light on in my office. She came in and in no uncertain terms let me know that she was not happy with my interference."
"She had just been through a severe trauma. Apparently she had no idea that she was about to be returned to Earth until just seconds before she was beamed down." //and I so can't believe I just said something like that. I hope none of my collogues ever read my notes or I will receive a section eight and a padded room so fast my head will spin\\
"But she was right. I didn't stop to consider the consequences of what I did. As she pointed out, what if she had been married with children? I just thought I could do this for Jack and everything would be fine."
"Did loosing your wife have anything to do with this?"
Daniel leaned forward with his arms on his legs and studied his hands for a moment before answering, "Yes, I'm sure of it. I would do anything to have Sha're back."
"Daniel, I don't think that you should beat yourself up about this. I think that most men who had lost their wives would do the same. Vicky is starting to adjust and it certainly not good for her to just wall off her emotions like that. I'm not breaking a confidence here when I say that she didn't realize just how lonely she was until she came back. There are also a lot of problems that Jack has never begun to deal with and I think he will benefit form therapy sessions tremendously."
Daniel peered up again and smiled, "I'm sure Jack needs to talk about a lot of things, I just don't envy you trying to get him to open."
Alex laughed at that, "I don't think I would have been able to get him to co-operate. However, his wife has great instincts on dealing with him."
Daniel smiled a lot bigger then, maybe he really had done his friend a favor.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
When Lisa arrived at Vicky's office Vicky briefed her about the project they were going to work on. Chang was every bit as excited as Sam. Vicky then took Lisa over to Sam's lab so that she could meet the Major.
When Vicky knocked on the door she heard, "Who's there?" from inside. "Sam, it's me, Vicky."
"Come on in, I have my hands full."
When Vicky opened the door she saw that Sam did, indeed, have her hands full. She also looked like a kid in a candy shop; she was grinning and humming to herself.
Chang snapped to attention and saluted.
"Sam, could you put that stuff and return the girl's salute?"
Carter looked up surprised, "sorry." She set down her things and saluted and said, "As you were."
"M'am, yes, M'am."
Vicky looked at her and rolled her eyes. "I thought we talked about using only on "M'am" per sentence."
Lisa looked a little embarrassed and said, "Sorry, M'am."
"Sam, this is Tech SGT Lisa Chang, she's going to be assisting us."
"The one with the doll? I think that's a great idea. I wish I had something like that with I was a girl."
Lisa gaped at her as Vicky replied, "Action figure, Sam, they're called action figures." Lisa could not believe they were acting like this.
"OK, action figure, I still think it's great."
Chang stuttered, "b-b-but, M'am..."
"Now, sergeant, let's not waste the Major's time. We have to get back and start that translation program," Vicky interrupted her.
Sam beamed at them, "Nice to meet you sergeant." She then turned back to her work.
"Nice to meet you, too, M'am," she manager before the Captain dragged her off. "M'am, why did you let her continue to think there really was an action figure?"
"It's called fun, sergeant, you should try it more."
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
When they got back to Vicky's lab Vicky assigned her to the second desk that she had had brought in. When she was booting up the computer Chang noticed the picture of the Captain with Jessica and Elizabeth. "Are these your daughters, M'am?"
"No, those are my cousins, Jessica and Elizabeth. They're General Hammonds granddaughters."
"You're related to the General, M'am?"
"My mother was his sister."
"Wow!"
"Well, he's been my uncle my whole life so it's not anything special to me."
Just then Vicky's phone rang and Lisa turned to her work so that she didn't ease drop.
"Chang?"
"M'am?"
"Will you be OK here? I need to go see Major Carter for a moment."
"I'll be fine, M'am."
Vicky left and just a couple of minutes Jack stuck his head in the door, "hello?"
Lisa leaped up, snapped to attention, and saluted.
Jack returned her salute, "As you were."
"Sir, yes, Sir."
"Umm...could we have not quite so many sirs?"
Chang grinned at him, "yes, Sir."
"Is my wife around?"
"She went to see Major Carter, but I think she will only be gone for a few minutes, it you want to wait, Sir."
Jack smiled at her and wondered around and started picking up random things and playing with them. Lisa sat back down to work, but kept watching the Colonel out of her eye nervously.
"So, Chang, how's the action figure coming along?"
//OHMYGOD, they're trying to drive her crazy, deliberately. Gunny was right, Officers do sit around at night and think of ways to drive enlisted personal insane\\ "Sir! There isn't an action figure! It was a joke!"
Jack grinned at her wile he bounced on his feet with his hands in his pockets.
"Relax, sergeant, I recognized Vicky's twisted sense of humor. Not that I would go in for that sort of thing,' he said with obvious sarcasm.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Vicky was again in Sam's lab. Sam, have you ever heard of a day spa?"
Carter looked up at her slightly confused, wondering what that that had to do with any thing, "Huh?"
"Day spy, my cousin, Karen, called and told me about this place. They have massages, manicures, pedicures, facials, the whole nine yards."
"Yeah, I've heard of them, never been to one, but I've heard of them."
"Great! Want to go with us?"
"When?"
"Saturday, Karen is making reservations and I thought you could join us."
"I don't' want to intrude."
"Nonsense, I think that I'll do you good. Besides if you go do something like thins maybe Jack will get off your back about relaxing for a while."
Carter brightened at the thought of no harassment for a while. "Sure, when you put it that way!"
Vicky snickered at her, Jack did have his uses, and using him a threat was one of the best. "Great! I'll let you know the details later."
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
When Vicky got back to her lab she saw Jack bouncing on his feet and Chang gaping at him. "Jack, what the hell did you do to her?"
Jack look at her with his best quizzical, "who me? I'm innocent, "look. "Me? I didn't do anything."
She was more than a little suspicious, "Sergeant?"
Lisa blinked at her, "M'am, the Colonel was teasing me and I didn't realize it at first. It's OK, M'am."
She looked the Sergeant over carefully, and then looked at Jack who had switched to a slightly confused face. Kind of like, "What's the fuss all about?"
"If you're sure, Chang."
"Yes, M'am."
"How did you get her to cut on the "M'ams"?"
"Simple, I ordered her to keep them to one per sentence."
"Smart."
//geez, he like Tigger, bounce, bounce, bounce. I wonder how the Captain stands it. He is damn cute, though\\
"Did you want something, Jack?"
"No, no, just wanted to hang out for a while."
"OK, but don't be a pest, don't harass the Sergeant, and don't touch anything."
Jack gave her "who me" look.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
They had persuaded Chang to join them for lunch. She and Vicky went to the commissary while Jack gathered the rest of SG-1 and they met them at the regular table. Lisa was so excited that she didn't think she would be able to eat. //wow, I can't believe that I'm going to have lunch with SG-1\\
Vicky introduced her to Teal'c, who was the only one she hadn't met. Teal'c bowed his head at her and she said, "it's nice to me you, Mr. Teal'c."
"It's just Teal'c," Daniel said.
Jack smirked, "or T."
Sam giggled, "or Murray." With that Vicky and Lisa turned and gaped at Carter.
"Murray?" They said together.
"Well, we really can't call him Teal'c off base c we?"
Vicky looked at his "First Prime" seal, "and how do you explain that?"
"Hats."
"Yeah, I can see that. Any particular kind of hat?"
"He's fond of Stetsons right now."
"Indeed."
Captain turned to Sergeant and said, "seen any large white rabbits lately?"
"No, but I expect to at any time." They others broke up laughing at them.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
After lunch it was time for Jack's second individual session with Schmidt, so he meandered over to his office and rapped and opened the door and let himself in.
Alex laughed and said, "Come in. What if I had been with a patient?"
"Nah, SG-1 has enough problems to keep you busy for a lifetime and I just left all of them at lunch."
Alex couldn't argue with his logic.
"So, where do we start, Doc."?
"Well, how did Saturday go with Vicky?"
"I'm sure she told you all about it."
"Yes, but I want to hear your reaction."
"It was great. I'm sorry about keeping her out so long, time just got away."
"That's OK, Jack, as long as she didn't seem stressed or upset."
"No, she seemed to have a great time. We talked about a lot of stuff, nothing all that serious, didn't want to push her so soon."
"That was very intuitive of you, Jack. You care a lot about her, don't you?"
"Of course, I do. I'll always be there for her. Get her nice and settled and she can move on with her life."
"So, you've decided that you want to get a divorce?"
"No, not really. I just think she deserves someone better than me."
"Maybe she doesn't want anyone else."
"Why? Has she said anything?"
"Even if she had I couldn't tell you, patient confidentiality, you know."
"Yeah, I know. Couldn't you give me a hint?"
The Doctor laughed again, "no, maybe it should be something you should talk to her about."
"I don't know, I don't want her to feel pressured."
"Or, we could cover the subject in a joint session."
Jack thought a minute, "Yeah, you bring it up, that way if she gets pissed it would be YOUR fault!"
After Her refresher course with Chang, when Vicky was falling asleep she got a great idea, they way many people solve problems in that state somewhere sleep and being awake. Since Sam had built an interface between the Stargate and Earth computers she would get her help to build an interface between the base computers and the Asguard devices she use like laptops. Then she would get Chang to help her write a translation program between Asguard, Go'ould, and English.
When she had made her proposal to Sam at breakfast Sam was so excited that she wanted to jump up and leave her breakfast to start work. It was only the Colonel ordering her to finish her breakfast that kept her at the table. She did, however, shovel down her food at what had to be an unhealthy rate. When she finished she beamed at the Colonel and held up her plate for Jack to see.
"See, Sir, all done!"
Jack gave her more of a grimace than a smile, "Go, invent," he waved her off. He rolled his eyes as she sprinted out of the room. "Ya know, it's pretty san when I'm the adult here."
Daniel smirked up at him. "I agree, Jack."
"Indeed," Teal'c added with a smile.
"I get no respect around here," he grumbled.
"Jack, I'm sure you get every bit of respect that you deserve," Vicky shot at him as she, too, got up to leave. Daniel snickered and Teal'c smiled wider making Jack glower at them.
When Vicky got to her lab she contacted the Marine Company Commander to have SGT Chang temporally assigned to her for the project.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Daniel knocked on Dr. Schmidt's door for his first session. Alex opened the door himself, which surprised him. So far he was very different from Mackenzie, which to Daniel, did a lot to alleviate his fears.
"Have a seat. May I call you Daniel?" When he saw Daniel nod he continued, "I want you to call me Alex.
"I have been reading your file and it is amazing!"
Daniel with his head still bowed, peered up at him. "I'll bet," he replied sardonically.
"So, you died?"
"Ascended, actually.
"What does that mean, exactly?"
"Umm...evolved into a higher being."
"Wow, what was that like?"
"I...really don't remember."
"So why did you..."
"Descend? It wasn't my choice, I broke the rules and they sent me back."
"They have rules? I would think that when you're that evolved you wouldn't need rules."
"Oh, they definitely have rules. Just because one is a higher being doesn't mean one is perfect."
"I guess human faults or non-human, as it were, follow with the individual's persona even to a higher plane."
"Apparently." Daniel was obviously uncomfortable with the subject, so whatever Alex's fascination with it he decided to move on.
"I gather that you were the one who figured out that Victoria O'Neill was still alive."
"Yes, I guess a lot of what I do is putting together seemingly unrelated pieces of information and that helped me figure out she might be the one who buried the bodies of SG-19. Not that she was very grateful at first."
"Why do you say that?"
"She couldn't sleep one of her first nights back and when she was walking around saw the light on in my office. She came in and in no uncertain terms let me know that she was not happy with my interference."
"She had just been through a severe trauma. Apparently she had no idea that she was about to be returned to Earth until just seconds before she was beamed down." //and I so can't believe I just said something like that. I hope none of my collogues ever read my notes or I will receive a section eight and a padded room so fast my head will spin\\
"But she was right. I didn't stop to consider the consequences of what I did. As she pointed out, what if she had been married with children? I just thought I could do this for Jack and everything would be fine."
"Did loosing your wife have anything to do with this?"
Daniel leaned forward with his arms on his legs and studied his hands for a moment before answering, "Yes, I'm sure of it. I would do anything to have Sha're back."
"Daniel, I don't think that you should beat yourself up about this. I think that most men who had lost their wives would do the same. Vicky is starting to adjust and it certainly not good for her to just wall off her emotions like that. I'm not breaking a confidence here when I say that she didn't realize just how lonely she was until she came back. There are also a lot of problems that Jack has never begun to deal with and I think he will benefit form therapy sessions tremendously."
Daniel peered up again and smiled, "I'm sure Jack needs to talk about a lot of things, I just don't envy you trying to get him to open."
Alex laughed at that, "I don't think I would have been able to get him to co-operate. However, his wife has great instincts on dealing with him."
Daniel smiled a lot bigger then, maybe he really had done his friend a favor.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
When Lisa arrived at Vicky's office Vicky briefed her about the project they were going to work on. Chang was every bit as excited as Sam. Vicky then took Lisa over to Sam's lab so that she could meet the Major.
When Vicky knocked on the door she heard, "Who's there?" from inside. "Sam, it's me, Vicky."
"Come on in, I have my hands full."
When Vicky opened the door she saw that Sam did, indeed, have her hands full. She also looked like a kid in a candy shop; she was grinning and humming to herself.
Chang snapped to attention and saluted.
"Sam, could you put that stuff and return the girl's salute?"
Carter looked up surprised, "sorry." She set down her things and saluted and said, "As you were."
"M'am, yes, M'am."
Vicky looked at her and rolled her eyes. "I thought we talked about using only on "M'am" per sentence."
Lisa looked a little embarrassed and said, "Sorry, M'am."
"Sam, this is Tech SGT Lisa Chang, she's going to be assisting us."
"The one with the doll? I think that's a great idea. I wish I had something like that with I was a girl."
Lisa gaped at her as Vicky replied, "Action figure, Sam, they're called action figures." Lisa could not believe they were acting like this.
"OK, action figure, I still think it's great."
Chang stuttered, "b-b-but, M'am..."
"Now, sergeant, let's not waste the Major's time. We have to get back and start that translation program," Vicky interrupted her.
Sam beamed at them, "Nice to meet you sergeant." She then turned back to her work.
"Nice to meet you, too, M'am," she manager before the Captain dragged her off. "M'am, why did you let her continue to think there really was an action figure?"
"It's called fun, sergeant, you should try it more."
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
When they got back to Vicky's lab Vicky assigned her to the second desk that she had had brought in. When she was booting up the computer Chang noticed the picture of the Captain with Jessica and Elizabeth. "Are these your daughters, M'am?"
"No, those are my cousins, Jessica and Elizabeth. They're General Hammonds granddaughters."
"You're related to the General, M'am?"
"My mother was his sister."
"Wow!"
"Well, he's been my uncle my whole life so it's not anything special to me."
Just then Vicky's phone rang and Lisa turned to her work so that she didn't ease drop.
"Chang?"
"M'am?"
"Will you be OK here? I need to go see Major Carter for a moment."
"I'll be fine, M'am."
Vicky left and just a couple of minutes Jack stuck his head in the door, "hello?"
Lisa leaped up, snapped to attention, and saluted.
Jack returned her salute, "As you were."
"Sir, yes, Sir."
"Umm...could we have not quite so many sirs?"
Chang grinned at him, "yes, Sir."
"Is my wife around?"
"She went to see Major Carter, but I think she will only be gone for a few minutes, it you want to wait, Sir."
Jack smiled at her and wondered around and started picking up random things and playing with them. Lisa sat back down to work, but kept watching the Colonel out of her eye nervously.
"So, Chang, how's the action figure coming along?"
//OHMYGOD, they're trying to drive her crazy, deliberately. Gunny was right, Officers do sit around at night and think of ways to drive enlisted personal insane\\ "Sir! There isn't an action figure! It was a joke!"
Jack grinned at her wile he bounced on his feet with his hands in his pockets.
"Relax, sergeant, I recognized Vicky's twisted sense of humor. Not that I would go in for that sort of thing,' he said with obvious sarcasm.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Vicky was again in Sam's lab. Sam, have you ever heard of a day spa?"
Carter looked up at her slightly confused, wondering what that that had to do with any thing, "Huh?"
"Day spy, my cousin, Karen, called and told me about this place. They have massages, manicures, pedicures, facials, the whole nine yards."
"Yeah, I've heard of them, never been to one, but I've heard of them."
"Great! Want to go with us?"
"When?"
"Saturday, Karen is making reservations and I thought you could join us."
"I don't' want to intrude."
"Nonsense, I think that I'll do you good. Besides if you go do something like thins maybe Jack will get off your back about relaxing for a while."
Carter brightened at the thought of no harassment for a while. "Sure, when you put it that way!"
Vicky snickered at her, Jack did have his uses, and using him a threat was one of the best. "Great! I'll let you know the details later."
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
When Vicky got back to her lab she saw Jack bouncing on his feet and Chang gaping at him. "Jack, what the hell did you do to her?"
Jack look at her with his best quizzical, "who me? I'm innocent, "look. "Me? I didn't do anything."
She was more than a little suspicious, "Sergeant?"
Lisa blinked at her, "M'am, the Colonel was teasing me and I didn't realize it at first. It's OK, M'am."
She looked the Sergeant over carefully, and then looked at Jack who had switched to a slightly confused face. Kind of like, "What's the fuss all about?"
"If you're sure, Chang."
"Yes, M'am."
"How did you get her to cut on the "M'ams"?"
"Simple, I ordered her to keep them to one per sentence."
"Smart."
//geez, he like Tigger, bounce, bounce, bounce. I wonder how the Captain stands it. He is damn cute, though\\
"Did you want something, Jack?"
"No, no, just wanted to hang out for a while."
"OK, but don't be a pest, don't harass the Sergeant, and don't touch anything."
Jack gave her "who me" look.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
They had persuaded Chang to join them for lunch. She and Vicky went to the commissary while Jack gathered the rest of SG-1 and they met them at the regular table. Lisa was so excited that she didn't think she would be able to eat. //wow, I can't believe that I'm going to have lunch with SG-1\\
Vicky introduced her to Teal'c, who was the only one she hadn't met. Teal'c bowed his head at her and she said, "it's nice to me you, Mr. Teal'c."
"It's just Teal'c," Daniel said.
Jack smirked, "or T."
Sam giggled, "or Murray." With that Vicky and Lisa turned and gaped at Carter.
"Murray?" They said together.
"Well, we really can't call him Teal'c off base c we?"
Vicky looked at his "First Prime" seal, "and how do you explain that?"
"Hats."
"Yeah, I can see that. Any particular kind of hat?"
"He's fond of Stetsons right now."
"Indeed."
Captain turned to Sergeant and said, "seen any large white rabbits lately?"
"No, but I expect to at any time." They others broke up laughing at them.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
After lunch it was time for Jack's second individual session with Schmidt, so he meandered over to his office and rapped and opened the door and let himself in.
Alex laughed and said, "Come in. What if I had been with a patient?"
"Nah, SG-1 has enough problems to keep you busy for a lifetime and I just left all of them at lunch."
Alex couldn't argue with his logic.
"So, where do we start, Doc."?
"Well, how did Saturday go with Vicky?"
"I'm sure she told you all about it."
"Yes, but I want to hear your reaction."
"It was great. I'm sorry about keeping her out so long, time just got away."
"That's OK, Jack, as long as she didn't seem stressed or upset."
"No, she seemed to have a great time. We talked about a lot of stuff, nothing all that serious, didn't want to push her so soon."
"That was very intuitive of you, Jack. You care a lot about her, don't you?"
"Of course, I do. I'll always be there for her. Get her nice and settled and she can move on with her life."
"So, you've decided that you want to get a divorce?"
"No, not really. I just think she deserves someone better than me."
"Maybe she doesn't want anyone else."
"Why? Has she said anything?"
"Even if she had I couldn't tell you, patient confidentiality, you know."
"Yeah, I know. Couldn't you give me a hint?"
The Doctor laughed again, "no, maybe it should be something you should talk to her about."
"I don't know, I don't want her to feel pressured."
"Or, we could cover the subject in a joint session."
Jack thought a minute, "Yeah, you bring it up, that way if she gets pissed it would be YOUR fault!"