McKay was getting a lecture on why patients stayed in the infirmary unless they were given permission to leave – a lecture Ian had heard several times before – but as enjoyable as it was to have someone else be on the receiving end of Fraiser's sharp tongue, Ian couldn't help but speak up when there was a lull in the argument.

"Did Cassandra come?"

Fraiser looked over at him, annoyed at being interrupted in the middle of a first class ass chewing. When she saw that the question was sincere, and wasn't just a way to be annoying, however, her expression softened just a little.

"She wanted to, but until things calm down a little, Hammond won't allow visitors."

"His parents were allowed to come yesterday," McKay said, putting his nose in things as he was wont to do.

"That's different," Fraiser said, and Ian knew it was the truth. Cassandra wasn't military, and even though there weren't any real secrets in the SGC that she wasn't familiar with, it didn't mean that she could just come and go at will – especially with all the big wigs that were at the mountain – and their security forces.

"I don't see how."

"She's right," Ian said. "It's different."

McKay rolled his eyes.

"Oh, well as long as both of you agree, I suppose it doesn't matter that there's no-"

"My dad's a retired general, retard," Ian snapped. "With security clearances coming out his ass. That makes it different."

McKay made a hurrumphing noise and looked like he was going to say something, but before he could, he looked at the bag on Ian's bed, which Jack (the dog) was sniffing with interest.

"What's that?"

Ian scowled.

"Nothing."

"Really? Because it smells really good in here and I know it's not-"

"Don't you have some kind of tests you should be running on him?" Ian asked Janet.

She smiled, although she did reach over and take the bag from him, looking at it suspiciously. Of course, breakfast had been devoured and was gone, so there was very little evidence for her to use against him.

"I have tests to run on you, actually."

"What?"

"Ha!"

Ian tossed McKay another annoyed look, but then glanced back at Fraiser.

"What kind of tests?"

"They want you in their debriefing this morning, so I need to make sure you can get out of bed and stay awake… it'd be bad form to fall asleep in front of so many diplomats, after all."

"What about McKay?"

"What about him?"

"Yeah, what about me?"

"He was there. He should be in the debriefing."

Besides, there was no reason Ian should have to deal with the beaurocratic bullshit all by himself, after all.

Fraiser nodded.

"He's going, too."

"What?"

This was from McKay.

Ian smiled.

"Look on the bright side. You'll have that many more people to try to impress."

The astrophysicist actually brightened at that, and Fraiser just shook her head.

OOOOOOOOOO

The briefing that morning included all of the world leaders – including several more who had arrived the evening before – a collection of high ranking military personnel from not only the United States military, but also several of the other countries, the commanding officers of all of the SG teams, SG-1, including Sam, Jacob Carter, Elizabeth Weir and several other civilian personnel who were deemed people of interest in this matter, Rodney McKay – who was pale and looked tired – and was presided over by Hammond, since he was the commanding officer of the facility they were using. It was decided that having Thor present would just make the debriefing into a spectacle, and it was too important to allow that to happen.

The first thing that was discussed was exactly what had happened with the weapon in Antarctica, which meant that Jack and the rest of SG-1 were the first to go on the hot seat – although none of them were pressured at all since they were all used to being questioned in a formal setting.

Jack answered most of the questions – although he was more than willing to pass the technical questions over to Sam. Since she didn't know all that much about the weapon itself, she wasn't able to tell those assembled how it worked – only that it required a massive energy source, and a certain gene in order to be able to make it operate.

"Everyone has this gene?" asked the British Prime minister.

Sam shook her head.

"As far as we understand, it's not very common."

"But you have it, Colonel O'Neill…" the Soviet ambassador pointed out. "How rare can it be?"

"Maybe one in a hundred thousand people have it…" Sam told him. "Maybe less. We just don't really know all that much about it."

"But we can find out," Elizabeth Weir said, from her position in the seat right beside the Soviet. "I'm told it's not that hard to find a particular gene – if you know what you're looking for."

Sam had a feeling it would be trickier than Weir thought, but she wasn't going to point that out. There was too much else to discuss that morning – and the press was waiting to find out what was being said.

"What about the spaceship that crashed?" the French ambassador asked. "Any chance of putting it together and using it in the event of another alien invasion?"

Sam shook her head.

"It's a total loss. We are, however, going to try and use the technology to build our own…"

"How can you get technology out of a totaled space ship?" asked one of the military officials.

"It's not that hard," McKay said. "Just because the thing isn't working, it doesn't mean we can't figure out what made it work in the first place. And it doesn't mean that we-"

"Who are you?" asked the man, obviously ready to put him in his place for interrupting his question.

"Rodney McKay. Doctor Rodney McKay," the astrophysicist answered, smugly. "I'm one of the people who was in the ship in question when it crashed – and I helped blow up the Goa'uld mothership."

Ian shook his head, silently amused although he didn't show it.

That hadn't taken long at all, had it?