Author's Note: This chapter might be boring to some… but I have to write it, because there has to be more of a briefing than just a few sentences!

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Many people in the room, of course, already knew who McKay was. Even if they didn't know him by sight, they'd been briefed about the alien ship crashing and who had been on it, and they recognized his name when he'd said it. Most, however, didn't have a clue who he was (nor did they care) until his somewhat grandiose announcement. They had only had the shortest of briefings when they'd arrived (or on the flight to Colorado) and most of that had been about the deadly weapon that had been discovered in Antarctica. Now, suddenly, all eyes were on McKay. Which was exactly how he preferred it to be.

"You flew the ship?" Asked a woman who was representing Romania.

"Well, no…." McKay admitted. "I was more along the lines of the copilot, you might say."

"You set the bomb on the alien mothership?" another asked.

"Well… no. That was Lieutenant Brooks here. But I was there."

Ian scowled at the mention of his name, but sat up a little straighter when everyone in the room looked over at him.

"You're Ian Brooks?"

This was from one of the American Generals, and the disbelief in his tone made Ian scowl again.

"Yes."

"You don't look much like your dad…"

Before Ian could respond, Hammond spoke up quickly.

"Since we're on the subject of the Goa'uld mothership, I'll have Lieutenant Brooks brief all of you – without too much technical jargon, if you don't mind – about the other part of the mission."

Briefings weren't something Ian had practiced, really, and not something he had the people skills to really do all that frequently – especially to the audience he had just then. But it was obvious that Hammond wanted a first hand account of what had happened delivered to those assembled. And just as obvious that he didn't want him to go into anything too in depth, which was fine with Ian, since it'd make the tale that much shorter and maybe he'd be able to go back to bed. He was, after all, still injured – even though it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it could have been.

He didn't make it past the initial statement, however, before he was challenged.

"I don't believe it…"

This was from the Japanese delegate.

Ian stopped in his description of their original op plan, annoyed at the interruption. Before he could say anything – or ask what the man didn't believe – the diplomat continued, outraged.

"If you had technology to make yourselves invisible, you would have used it long before now."

"Unless they only recently developed the technology," the Soviet ambassador said, just as annoyed at the interruption as Ian was. "And there is no reason to believe that it doesn't exist, even though-"

"I've never seen anything – short of science fiction movies," proclaimed the Japanese delegate, more than willing to get into it with the Soviets. "And neither have my technicians. We've been working on that sort of technology for decades and-"

"Then maybe you have the wrong people working on it," Ian interrupted.

The diplomat was caught flat by the rude statement, but the others were already clamoring for the briefing to continue, and Hammond gestured for Ian to keep going – and gave him a pointed look that was obviously designed to remind him that he was supposed to be on his best behavior.

The New Yorker didn't even scowl, but it was obvious that he was just as annoyed. After all, he'd been trying to give a briefing, hadn't he? He wasn't the one who had interrupted. He continued the story, mentioning only briefly that they'd gated to another planet to find the gateship – not mentioning which planet or where it was – and then went on to tell about how he and McKay had arrived alone, and had continued the mission – mainly because they didn't have any choice.

He was interrupted once more when he mentioned reaching the Goa'uld ship, but this time it wasn't quite as insulting.

"So the ship could make itself invisible?" the German representative asked, amazed and unable to stop herself from the interruption. "Like in your Star Trek show?"

Ian hesitated.

"I haven't seen-"

"Yes," McKay answered. "Just like the Romulans and the Klingons could."

"Amazing."

McKay nodded.

"It really is interesting technology. I don't know exactly how they explained the way the Klingons used their cloaking devices, but the real thing works on the premise that-"

"Doctor?" Hammond interrupted. "We can discuss that later, perhaps."

"What? Oh. Yes, of course. Sorry."

"Ian? Please continue."

"There's not much left to say," Ian said. "We landed, planted the bomb, and got the hell out. The blast concussion knocked out the controls of our ship, and we crashed."

"You're lucky to be alive," Elizabeth Weir said, softly. She, of course, had heard a lengthier and more detailed version of the story, and was impressed that either of the two had walked away from the mission alive. Much less barely injured.

Ian just shrugged, and looked over at Hammond, his part done.

"Does anyone have any questions for Lieutenant Brooks?"

"You're not a pilot?" asked a woman from Brazil.

"No."

"Then why were you chosen for this mission involving flying? Surely someone else would have been able to bring the ship back in one piece…"

"The ship flies itself," Ian told her – far more patiently than might have been expected. "But if you don't have the Ancient gene, it won't work."

"I find it hard to believe you don't have any pilots that have this gene…" the German delegate said.

"We didn't have a lot of time to test for it," Hammond said.

"Not to mention we don't actually have a test for it," Sam added. "Lieutenant Brooks was the best choice for that part of the mission."

"Or we could have put him in charge of the weapon in Antarctica," Jack added, drolly.

Predictably, no one seemed to like that idea. Ian looked far too young for so much responsibility.

Satisfied with her answer, the woman nodded, and Hammond looked around the room for any more.

"How did you know you have this gene thing?" the Soviet asked.

"It's not the first time I've used the technology," Ian answered. "I knew it would work for me."

Since they all knew they wouldn't receive an answer, none of those assembled asked him when he had used it before, but Kinsey, who had been sitting very quietly in one corner of the room paled and felt a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature in the room.