Author's note: The site wasn't loading, or this would have been up a lot sooner!

OOOOOOOO

The room was filled with a sudden stillness; a mixture of astonishment and impending doom as the words hung on the air as everyone realized that McKay had somehow mistaken Ian for an aide of some sort, or a steward sent to deliver refreshments. Daniel thought that if it had been a Western movie, some shocked townsperson would be muttering that someone better call the sheriff.

Ian's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Excuse me?"

McKay was completely oblivious to the sudden tension in the room.

"Coffee…" he said, annoyed. "I take it black."

"I don't give a shit how you take it," Ian answered, over his shock and already well into angry.

"Doctor McKay," Hammond said, standing up before McKay could say something else – something worse. The last thing they needed was for Ian to take a disliking to McKay, since there was a good chance that they might end up working together – which wouldn't happen if Ian didn't like the man. "This is Lieutenant Ian Brooks."

"I don't care who he is," Rodney answered, his voice and body language clearly showing he was angry as well, now. "I asked him to bring me a cup of-"

"He's not your gofer," Sam said.

"You want a cup of coffee, you get your fat ass up off your-"

"Ian."

Ian scowled, but he turned to Sam.

"He started it."

"Just ignore him, okay? Come and sit down and-"

"Look, I just-"

"Shut up, Doctor McKay," Hammond ordered, cutting the man off before he could escalate things even further. He just didn't know when to stop, apparently. "Lieutenant Brooks doesn't fetch coffee or donuts or anything else – not for you, especially. I would appreciate it if you not antagonize the people of my command during your visit."

It was McKay's turn to scowl.

"It was a simple request. He doesn't need to get into such a snit."

"Fuck you."

"Lieutenant. Sit down."

Glowering, Ian did as he was told, walking over and sitting beside Teal'c, who had thoroughly enjoyed watching that particular exchange – even though you had to know him well to see it. Sam had been planning on getting up and going off to try and get through to Nathan, but there was no way she was going to leave such a potentially explosive situation. Instead, she settled into her chair.

Hammond waited until he was certain neither Ian or McKay were going to say anything, and then he looked at Ian.

"The Asgard responded to our hail, but Thor said he didn't think the Goa'uld would dare make a blatant attack on us."

"Which doesn't mean they won't," Ian said.

"Of course it doesn't," McKay agreed, wondering why Hammond was even bothering to explain what was going on to someone who was obviously a very junior officer. "They're Goa'uld, after all. It's not like they're going to stick to their treaty."

Hammond frowned at the interruption, but didn't say anything.

"Thor went to scan for any kind of invasion fleet that the Ha'tak might have been reporting to," he continued. "But he seems to think that it's an isolated event."

"Thor doesn't know everything, though," Ian said.

"He's an Asgard," McKay scoffed. "He knows a lot more than you do."

"It is Ian Brooks' device that denies the Asgard unlimited access to the SGC," Teal'c said, tiring of the way McKay was barely concealing his scorn for Ian.

"What?"

Ian scowled again, and ignored McKay.

"It's possible that Thor could miss a fleet of any size," Ian said. "If they're staging somewhere well off in the distance with just a quick jump to hyperspace to keep us from spotting them."

Hammond turned to Teal'c.

"You know more about how a Goa'uld invasion would take place, Teal'c. What do you think would happen?"

"The Goa'uld are cowards," Teal'c answered. "They will not attack until they are certain they will not take large casualties – especially if they are attacking a protected planet. If a system lord is, indeed, attempting to gather information about the Tau'ri, he would undoubtedly try to discover where the Stargate is located in order to neutralize that threat first."

"Threat?" Daniel asked.

"The Stargate could be used to summon the aid of the Asgard," Teal'c explained. "The system lord undoubtedly is unaware that we have access to the Asgard through the devices that O'Neill, Shawn Adams and Andrew carry. He or she would think the destruction of the Stargate would leave the planet vulnerable to attack."

"Well, that's bad, then," McKay said. "We need to start evacuating the SGC."

"We're not going anywhere," Hammond said, glaring at the astrophysicist. "We have a job to do, and we need the Stargate to do it."

"Besides, the Goa'uld aren't going to find the SGC," Daniel added.

"Yes, they are. I don't care how good you think this shield is, it's not going to hold against heavy bombardment of active scanning."

"It'll hold against anything the Goa'uld have to throw at us," Ian said, annoyed at the interruption. "The only scanners that might get through are seismic scans and maybe radar – and Teal'c says that the Goa'uld don't use either."

"That is correct," Teal'c agreed.

"How do you know what it won't hold against?" McKay asked sarcastically. "I seriously doubt that you have any idea-"

"I put the fucking thing there," Ian snapped. "I'm pretty Goddamned sure what it can and can't hold against, okay? The Ancients didn't use seismic scanners – and apparently never came up against anyone who did, so they didn't develop any defense against them – which means the cloak doesn't guard against them. But it shouldn't be a problem, since the Goa'uld don't use that method of detection. We won't be safe from archeologists or paleontologists, but they're not likely to be much threat anyways."

Daniel snorted in amusement.

"You built that cloaking device?" McKay asked, skeptically.

Ian ignored him.

"I'll double check the calibrations – just to make sure they're holding steady – but if Teal'c's right about the system lord sending his guys looking for us, they're going to be looking a long time."

"Unless there's a system lord that already knows the exact location of the SGC," Sam said.

Ian nodded.

"True."

Hammond looked at him.

"The shield won't protect us from an attack, right?"

"No, sir. It's just a cloak, not a protective shield."

"We might be able to rig something up, though," Sam added, thinking hard. "Maybe."

The general nodded.

"Good. You, Ian and McKay."

Rodney frowned.

"Wait a minute. I don't work with children. I'm sure the Major and I could manage to-"

"Fu-"

"You'll work with anyone I assign you to, Doctor," Hammond said, cutting off Ian's automatic response. "That's an order."

McKay looked like he wanted to say something, and Ian looked about ready to explode, but Hammond didn't give either of them the chance to say anything. He stood up, his attention on Sam.

"Keep me informed, Major."

"Yes, sir."

Oh, this was not going to be good. Not at all.