Ch 60
Two days later, Major John Shepard arrived at the SGC and saluted Sam who was waiting for him
"Colonel Carter, ma'am. I'm Major Shepard," he said as she saluted him back.
"Yes, Major. I was expecting you. If you follow me," She grinned as they walked towards the first checkpoint. They stopped for him to sign the papers and after that, Sam guided John to the infirmary
"Janet," Sam grinned when she spotted her friend.
"Sam! What can I do for you?"
"Well, I come for a blood test. For him," she said pointing to John. "Janet, this is Major Shepard."
"Ah, yes. Major, I'm Dr. Frasier. Please follow me," John nodded and followed Janet to one of the beds. He took his jacket off and rolled his sleeve.
"Colonel Carter, know that I'm already getting my blood taken," John started. "Can you tell me why I'm doing this?"
"At the moment, the cause remains classified for you, Major."
"Shall we?" Janet said to Sam once she had the filled tube ready.
"Yup, Major, please stay here. We will be right back."
They walked out of the infirmary and down to the labs where the gene and DNA testing where made. As Janet went through the blood test, Sam got ready the ATA test. Finally, when they got the results, Sam grabbed them and went straight to Landry's office.
"Colonel Carter," Landry said once raised his eyes from the folder he was reading. "What can I do for you?"
"Sir, I have the results from Major Shepard's test," she said giving him the folder. He read it and frowned. "We will need his security forms, sir."
"I see," he grabbed his phone and called Jack. "General O'Neill," Landry said putting the phone in speaker
"Yes, Hank?"
"I have here Colonel Carter and Major Sheppard's results."
"And?"
"He's ATA positive, Jack."
"Well, you know what to do, make him sign the forms and introduce him to our little secret."
"Ok, Jack," Hank said
"Sam, have you filled out the request form?" Jack asked
"Yes. General Landry has it"
"Ok. Hank just give Sam anything she needs to build these laser guns."
"I will Jack."
"If that's all?"
"Yup."
"Okay, I need to go." Hank ended the call, picked a file from a drawer and gave it to Sam.
"You know what to do, Colonel."
"Thank you, sir," Sam left Landry's offices and went back to the infirmary searching for John. "Major," she called him, and he stood up. "Sorry to keep you waiting, please follow me."
Sam took him down to the second checkpoint and lowered to the briefing room. The protection was up in the walls, and there was a pen seating on the table. She grinned looking towards Landry's office before offering a seat to John.
"We need you to go through these," she said giving him the forms.
"What exactly are these, Colonel?"
"National security forms, Major. The faster you read them, the quicker we will get you up to speed." He nodded and read the forms before signing the papers. He closed the folder and pushed it to her again. "Please, wait here." She ordered him as she walked towards Landry's office.
"Colonel?"
"I need your signature, sir." Landry signed the received form and filed the folder with the other ones. "We are all set, Colonel." He grinned, and she nodded walking again towards John.
John followed Sam's movement with his eyes and noticed as she inhaled deeply, something that told him that whatever he had just agreed to wasn't as simple as the blood sample. Soon, he knew for sure it wasn't. Sam told him about the Stargate, the ancients and everything in between.
"Colonel? Why are you telling me this?" Sheppard asked after a couple of moments of silence.
"We had some indications that you could have the ancient gene."
"Indications?"
"Yes, they were correct too. Your results show that you are ATA positive. Do you have any questions or you want to see the gate?"
"If you are offering, ma'am. I guess we can walk while I question you?"
"Let's go then."
"Yes, ma'am." They stood up and followed Sam to the windows that were lowered. "So, that's the Stargate?"
"Yep"
"It looks… round." Sam chuckled and continued walking towards the stairs and the gate room.
Later that night, when Jack walked into the kitchen after being greeted by their kids, he wrapped his arms around Sam's waist and kissed her neck.
"Hmm, how was your day?" Sam smiled as she kept stirring the sauce
"Good. How did it go with the Major?"
"Great, the usual, he was pretty shocked and then amazed… and now he can't wait until he goes off world," Jack chuckled.
"That might be earlier than he thinks." Sam frowned. "I went down to the outpost to have a chat with Daniel before coming home."
"Oh? He found the address?"
"Yes, he did." Sam turned on Jack's arms. "Are you going to send any teams?"
"Not until your project is done." She grinned and kissed him. "How long until dinner?"
"Ten minutes. And you should go change before you distract me too much and I end up burning the sauce," Jack chuckled.
During the following weeks, Sam worked in the laser guns; she tested the first one against an inch thick steel sheet that Siler helped her hang. After the first shot, they walked to the sheet.
"Wow, that's some hole," Siler whistled, looking at the inch round hole.
"Amazing, and there's no sound. Better than a gun or zat. Let's test on wood."
"Yes, Colonel."
They went testing on several varied materials and once Sam was pleased with the results she walked back to her lab Sam where she started building other laser guns. She took a moment to inform Landry who in turn informed Jack. While Sam started mounting the guns, Jack started figuring the teams that would go. Jack showed up in Sam's lab an hour before he was due home
"Hey." Sam looked up and smiled
"Hi, you are..." she looked at her watch then back to Jack, "an hour early."
"Yeah. The IOA is a pain in the ass." He told her leaning against one of the tables.
"How so?"
"They are complaining about the amount of money we are spending on the laser gun. I told them that I don't know the specifics, but I was going to make sure to order you to make a lovely long, detailed report about it. So here I am." Sam smiled
"Well, if they want results we should show the results, right General?" she smiled, and Jack nodded. "Let me call Siler, and then you can see the results." They walked to the secured weaponry and took one of the several already finished out of the secured place before they walked to the test area. Siler was already there waiting for them, a video recorder set.
"Ok, sir. We are all set." Sam said as Siler started recording. "These are our current available test targets," she showed him a wall covered by different materials and Jack frowned when he noticed as two airmen brought a beef and lowered it on the table. Jack frowned.
"Beef?" he raised his eyebrows. "You use this as one of the targets?"
"Yes, we used it since is quite similar to the human or alien structure."
"But it's frozen."
"Yes, sir. We noticed that frozen it showed even better results."
"Well, you are the engineer. What's the best test?"
"The beef." She answered. The same two airmen picked the beef and hung it twenty-five meters away from the shot line. "Here you go, General," Sam said giving him the gun. "You just need to flick this switch and then aim it and fire it like a normal gun."
"What about glasses and..."
"You don't need them, trust me."
"Ok," he said not quite as convinced by the lack of protection in a testing environment. But trusting Sam, he did as she instructed him. A red light hit the beef before it was blown apart.
"Whoa! It blew it apart!" He turned to a grinning Sam, placing the safety switch again.
"Anything else you noticed about it, General?"
"This weapon is amazingly light," he said looking at the gun. Sam raised her eyebrow, and Jack frowned. "and I didn't hear it being fired."
"Exactly! They will be extremely practical, our guns or even the zat's make a lot of noise which in turn alerts the enemy of our positions."
"That is true. Shall we proceed to test it in other objects?" Sam nodded and with the help of Siler and one airman, they changed the targets several times obtaining different positive results. As the test went along, Jack asked Sam questions about the weapon, the result and the production of the remaining others. Finally, he was satisfied with the test, and they returned the weapon to its place before heading home.
After a good amount of time and discussions, the IOA and Homeworld security approved one Dr. Elizabeth Weir as the leader of the Atlantis expedition. Once that happened, the expedition was organized, and when the day came, Landry, Jack, and Sam were at the SGC briefing room with John Sheppard, Elizabeth Weir and some other important members finishing the last reports. Jack dismissed the meeting, and everyone started to walk away to complete what they needed before going away.
"Dr. Weir, Major Sheppard. Can you remain for a little while?" Jack asked, and they both nodded turning away and returned to the table. Jack looked at Sam as they waited for the room to be cleared.
"Something wrong?" John asked.
"Nope. Just some delivery." Jack added. Sam took two envelopes out of the folder she had with her and gave them to Jack.
"Delivery?"
"Yes, these are for you. Instructions are that you need to wait until you are on the other side to open them."
"Why?" Elizabeth asked.
"I don't know; those were the instructions." Jack shrugged standing up.
"Colonel, do you still have that glorious cake in the mess hall?"
"Yes, sir."
"Care to join me?"
Sam smiled, and they walked away leaving them behind. Later that day, they were standing in the gate room, watching as the teams crossed the gate. Once they were all gone, Jack uncovered the box that was left behind and took a couple of bottles of champagne. He nodded to Sam who took a couple of bottles herself and they walked to the wormhole. Laying the bottles on the side, they rolled them to the gate, once the disappeared from their side, Jack nodded to the control room, and the wormhole was disengaged.