Louise was hunched over her computer looking at a long list of files she had been trying to organise for Daniel over the past week or so. She was totally involved when Teal'c entered the office. Because she was so engrossed in what she was doing she never noticed Teal'c even though he was stood there in silence for a few minutes observing her.
"Louise Robinson. I was unaware you were back at work."
Louise jumped at the sound of Teal'c's booming voice and quickly turned around to face Teal'c. "Teal'c, you scared me. What? Oh sorry, well I wasn't expecting to be back either but Thor had a different idea."
"I was also unaware that Thor was in the proximity of Earth."
"Well he wasn't, you see he told Mani, that's the Asgard that beamed us all up there, to beam me up because he wanted to see me."
"Mani beamed you onto the Asgard ship?"
"Yeah, me and Richie."
"Richie? I am unaware of anyone at the SGC by the name of Richie."
"Oh, Richie Ryan. He's my boyfriend, he's not part of the SGC. Mani, it seems, couldn't wait until I was alone to beam me up so he beamed the both of us up. Richie's either still on board the Asgard ship or he's in a meeting with General Hammond at the moment, going thorough the whole 'the SGC is top secret speech.'"
"Well, you'll be happy to know that he's neither of those places," Jack said as they turned into the office with Adam and Richie following closely behind. "Hey, Teal'c, how's it going?"
"I don't believe there is anything 'going', O'Neill."
"Right. Teal'c, meet Richie Ryan. Richie, meet Teal'c."
Richie held out his hand to shake Teal'c's hand but quickly pulled it back as Teal'c came to stand mere centimetres in front of him towering over him with a look on his face that could make any immortal no matter how big run for the hills. "If you bring any harm to Louise Robinson I warn you, you will live to regret making that mistake."
"Errrr. Ok. Sure man." Richie said trying to back up but was unable to do so as Adam was still standing behind him.
"Oh for crying out loud, Teal'c! Leave Richie alone! He's had a long enough day as it is with Mani and Thor. I think the last thing he needs now is an over protective Jaffa threatening him."
"I do not believe I was threatening him. I was only stating what I would do if he brought any harm to Louise."
"Yeah, Teal'c, but generally when you 'warn' the boyfriend of someone you care or look out for, you generally 'warn' them in a more 'subtle' manner so that they don't realise they have been 'warned' until they have had time to think things through."
"I do not see how that would work. If they do not realise that they are being warned then how will they know not to harm that person?"
"Teal'c, never mind!" Jack said sighing with frustration.
"So, is Richie free to go then?"
"Yeah, he's had the 'don't talk about it unless you wanna get shot' talk, although I guess getting shot really wouldn't work, met the Asgard, fallen asleep while undergoing tests for Asgard. Yyyeeeah, I think that's about all, he's free to go."
Louise tried to stifle a snicker. "Fell asleep while Asgard were doing tests on him?"
Adam grinned like a Cheshire cat. "Yeah, Mani was doing his tests while Richie was lying down on the table and I guess he must have had a few too many late nights." Adam's eye's glistened with humour at the shocked looks on Louise and Richie's faces.
Jack gave Adam a pronounced frown. "Adam, what have I told you about insinuating things like that in my presence."
"Oh, get over it Jack. I'm only having a laugh."
Jack opened his mouth, but Louise cut in before he could start any arguments over her and Richie's love life. "You know what? I think it's about time Richie and I head off home. We'll see you guys later."
With that Louise pushed her way past Teal'c and Jack and pulled Richie the rest of the way out of the office and continued on up to the surface and away from the bickering of Jack and Adam. At least she knew nobody was going to get hurt as Teal'c was watching over them.
Even thought the tests had finished for a while, Sam and Janet were still aboard the Asgard Research Vessel going over a few things with Thor and Mani.
They were not only going over the results from the scans Mani had taken earlier but also going through parts of Loki's ship's database which Thor had had transmitted to the Research ship.
"What exactly do you guys do on this floating research lab?" Janet asked when there was a moment of silence.
"As you know humans are a lot like our original form before our cloning deteriorated our DNA." Mani started. "This ship and many others like it are based around different parts of the universe scanning planets looking for anything that could help in repairing our cloning mistakes."
"So, you've been scanning our planet for a 'missing link', for lack of a better word, but for how long?" Sam asked, just as interested as Janet.
"As you know Asgard have had dealings with your planet in the past. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful so we discontinued our testing. When O'Neill encountered the Ancient download device, leading him to come to one of our planets for help to remove their knowledge, it was then that we realised how much the inhabitants of the Earth had advanced and their untapped potential and resumed our tests." Mani informed them.
"What about Loki? How long had Loki been experimenting with people of Earth?" Sam couldn't help but ask.
"Several of your centuries ago Loki was discovered to be conducting unauthorized genetic experiments on inhabitants of Earth. In going over his ship records we estimated that Loki had been conducting experiments on Earth every ten years for almost ten thousand of your years." Thor informed them. "At the time, we couldn't understand how his ship had managed to go undetected to the research ships orbiting Earth. Asgard engineers analysed his ship to find out how he had done it and it appeared that he had developed a new kind of cloaking device. At that time, Loki was severely reprimanded and sanctions were placed on him and his activities. Apparently, that was not enough to hinder his pursuits. It also means that he has found a different way to cloak his activities. Even as we speak, Asgard technicians are investigating his ship, atom by atom, in some cases. Also, based on his database, he started his experiments again some one hundred of your years later."
"So how come Loki didn't know you put a blocker in Colonel O'Neill's DNA? Until we contacted you about him, that is." Sam asked, as she couldn't understand Loki not knowing.
Mani looked at Thor unsure about what to say.
"Loki was not informed about the blocker put in O'Neill's DNA as he is no longer a member of the genetic community, Major Carter. That was one of his punishments for his earlier actions." Thor answered honestly then seemed to hesitate. "Mani became aware of Loki's presence when he investigated the sudden disappearance of Colonel O'Neill from his home. Mani contacted me to informing me of Loki's apparent activities. Unfortunately, I was unavailable at that time due to a Replicator attack on one of our planets. Once the situation with the Replicators was under control I came straight to Earth, that is why it only took me a few moments to reach Loki's ship when you contacted me."
"You knew about Loki but you didn't do anything about him?" Carter asked having a hard time believing the Asgard would let someone like Loki to have access to Earth.
"We were unaware that Loki had restarted his experiments until the aforementioned incident with Colonel O'Neill." Thor said. "We were unaware of Loki's ship orbiting your planet, so we had no way of knowing what he was doing."
"But, surely you would have noticed he was beaming people back and forth?" Janet spoke up for the first time in a while.
Thor looked over at Mani then back over to Sam and Janet. "From examination of both ships databases we now know that Loki coincided his transports to match when Mani was transporting, in effect causing his transports to go undetected." Thor answered and Sam could have sworn she saw regret in his eyes.
"So, even though he had been a bad boy before, you just left him alone and didn't keep an eye on him?" Sam asked trying not to sound patronising.
"As I said we were unaware of what he was doing. After he was stripped of his title when we discovered him conducting unsanctioned experiments on humans we believed that he had learnt from his mistakes. He had not ignored our rules to our knowledge since then until cloning O'Neill. Until I boarded his ship and saw the evidence myself, I would not have believed that Loki had gone against the wishes of the other Asgard. It was so unlikely to me that I instructed Mani to not approach Loki until I arrived." Thor informed them.
"So has an Asgard ever disregarded your orders before?"
"It is highly unusual for an Asgard to disregard orders, but unfortunately like any other race, the Asgard have people that believe we can not achieve things by following orders." Thor continued to answer their questions.
"But it does happen?" Sam asked puzzled. "Yet you still let Loki have access to our planet?"
"We did not believe there was any possibility that Loki would abduct and withhold O'Neill from you, especially after we had put the blocker in O'Neill's DNA."
"But you just said that he didn't know about the blocker." Janet was confused now.
"Although Loki was not informed about the blocker when the genetic community was, we believed that one of his colleagues..." Thor didn't get very far before being interrupted by an annoyed Janet.
"So, you're saying that the Asgard didn't bother about checking up on Loki and his ship even though he had been regularly 'missing' from Asgard influences? And the timing of this 'missings' just so happened to follow the same pattern that had previously been established! All because of a lot of assumptions…"
"Loki is normally well informed with new information regarding the cloning procedure and possible solutions regardless of the fact he was no longer part of the genetic community. Therefore we assumed it was common knowledge about O'Neill's DNA blocker." Mani informed them speaking up since the beginning of the conversation.
"If you don't mind me asking. Where is Loki now?" Carter asked not sure if she was going to like the answer she was about to receive.
"Loki is now on the Asgard home world stationed in a lab working on the Replicator issue."
Carter rolled her eyes and placed a hand on her forehead. "So he's not in a prison or anything."
"The Asgard does not have any requirements for a prison as there are very few instances of disobedience. Anybody that does something as Loki did are re-educated and placed back into the Asgard community with limited privileges until such a time when they can prove they will be no longer a rogue element."
"So, he could get hold a ship any time he wants to and start his little DNA games all over again."
"It is highly unlikely that Loki will be granted access to a ship for many years to come."
"Isn't that kind of like the thing you said about an Asgard hardly ever breaking the rules?"
"Major Carter, I understand your concern in this matter but I can assure you that Loki will not be about to gain access to a ship without the Asgard High Council knowing about it. In the highly unlikely circumstance of that taking place the Asgard High Council would contact Mani as Earth was where Loki did a high amount of his research."
"So it's basically 'don't worry about Loki because if he does gain access to a ship the research ship in orbit of Earth will know about it before anybody else does."
"I believe that is just what I explained."
"I'm sure Colonel O'Neill will feel reassured about that bit of information." Mani said to further alleviate Major Carter.
"I truly believe that Colonel O'Neill will not feel reassured about that bit of information."
"I do not understand Major Carter, I would think that Colonel O'Neill would be reassured about the fact that in the case Loki did gain access to a ship the Asgard in the proximity of Earth would be the first to be warned."
"O'Neill would feel more reassured if there was no chance at all of Loki gaining access to a ship."
"I am unable to guarantee that Loki would not be able to get access to a ship but I do believe it is highly unlikely."
"I don't believe O'Neill will consider that good enough."
"I am, unfortunately, unable to give more reassurance in this instance, Major Carter."
"Ok, I'll just let you be the one that tells him that."
"As you wish."
A/N: Ok people. FirstI would like to once again thank all those who reviewed and please continue reviewing asI like reviews, a lot.
Second we've caught up with my beta so from now on I'll only be able to up load a chapter as soon as he returns them to me. I must state tho for those people who think this is a WIP it isn't. I have the completed story I'm just waiting for it to be beted. You can't blaime my beta either because his wife has just had a baby so he's doing him best. AllI ask is for you to be patiant andI will post as soon asI get each chapter back form him.
Thanks and keep reviewing.
P.S. Anybody interested in been a beta for a highlander story that I've wrote e-mail me and let me know.