Chapter 4: Don't Even Think About It
Isabel sat at the computer screen typing away; she was starting to come to the last of her ideas. Pages and pages of useless notes and in half an hour she and Sam were supposed to give a report to the General. Every twenty-four hours. Sure it was their first check in but she felt like she could be doing a lot better than she was. Then it hit her, she only needed to see the heat. "What else is here, other than the stargate?" She asked. Sam seemed a little shocked by her sudden outburst.
"Well, we're stationed under NORAD; they help us track un-cloaked objects in the solar system, why? They can't track a cloaked mother ship." Sam felt a little stupid after asking that last question, as soon as she saw the grin that Isabel had plastered on her face, Sam was onto her.
"You were thinking that the solution was right in front of you but you just couldn't see it." Isabel exclaimed as she reached for a note pad and pen, she frantically drew a few diagrams and shoved them underneath the Colonel's nose. "Don't ask how I knew what you were thinking. It gets a little hard to explain." She informed the colonel as Sam looked over the information she had been provided with.
"We need to show this to the General. It's not much but it's a start." The colonel handed Isabel back her pen and paper. "I'll let you do the talking, it is your idea." Sam smiled as they left the lab. "I have to confess, I wasn't completely focussed. I was, well, I was…" Sam was starting to struggle with getting the words out.
"You don't have to explain, I know. I was the one who had to listen to it, on top of all the mumbling and humming. Yes, you do hum when you're happy" Isabel informed Sam in a very off hand manner. "Please don't tell the General about this. He'll send me to the infirmary and I'll have to see another needle." Isabel sounded very desperate.
"Don't worry, I won't tell him about the mind reading if you don't tell him about what I was thinking. That would be a bit awkward." Sam back mailed.
"Just a little bit… control your thoughts though, I don't want a re-run of what of what you were thinking when he told you to go to bed!" Isabel sounded very stern, and Sam started to laugh awkwardly. The moment was getting a little tense. "Well, are you coming with me to see the General?" Isabel asked Sam when she noticed that she had stopped walking.
Turning around she saw that Sam was clutching her stomach. "No! One, you can't send me to the General alone and two, you can't be serious! It's forbidden, how can that even be possible? Mind reader, remember!" Isabel walked over to Sam and examined her closely. "Maybe you can leave me, you look like you're about to be sick. I'll take you to see the doctor; I've still got fifteen minutes before I have to see the General." She suggested.
"No, you need to be there as soon as you can. I'll see Janet on my own." Sam started walking to the elevator again. When they entered, she first pressed the button to the General's floor. When they arrived on level twenty-seven, a strange looking man was clutching his wrist. 'Poor Siler.' Sam thought. "Isabel, you'd better go you're cutting it close."
Isabel nodded to Sam and made her way to the General's office, the door was open but he was on the phone. Jack looked up to see that Isabel was still wearing the same clothes but had her hair tied up. She and Sam must have pulled an all-nighter to get the situation figured out. He motioned to her to take a seat and she obeyed it hastily. He ended his call and saw the empty chair. 'Where's Carter?' he asked himself a little worriedly. 'Crap! She better be alright.'
"She was having bad stomach pains so she went to see the doctor. She'll be fine." Isabel relieved him.
"How did you know what I was thinking?" Jack questioned of her. "Actually, I don't want to know. What have you got?" Jack asked of the fourteen year old. He accepted the note pad but looked a little confused by all of the diagrams.
"When Colonel Carter said that the answer was right in front of her and that she just needed to see it, it gave me an idea. There are lots of ways that we can see and measure different wavelengths of energy." Isabel explained. The General still looked confused so she continued. "Do you know how infra-red sensors work?"
"Yeah, sort of. Aren't they the ones that allow you to detect heat?"
"They're the ones. Now a mother ship would require massive amounts of energy to get here right, not to mention all of the extra energy to power shields and a cloaking device." Isabel hoped that the General understood all of this. "The ship's power source would give off massive amounts of heat. The cloak and shield would be blocking out most of that but there will still be some coming from the shield itself. We use an infra-red sensor to pick up that heat and we've found them." Isabel leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath. She was glad that the General was starting to understand.
"Let's move onto the matter of you knowing what I was thinking." The general leaned onto his desk and looked directly at her.
"Lucky guess?" Isabel said uneasily, anybody would be able to tell that she was lying. "I take offense to that statement!" she exclaimed, looking a little shocked. "I am not crazy!" she immediately knew that it was a mistake to respond to his statement.
"Don't bother saying it; I'll go down to the infirmary." She said throwing her hands up in a mocking surrender. "And yes, I'll tell Sam that you'll visit her once you've finished all of your paper work. Can I have mine?" The General handed Isabel her note pad as she turned to leave. "I can hear your thoughts." She said as she neared the door.
"That too, you have some very colourful language!" She exclaimed as she turned to him in the doorway. The General had a large smirk on his face, shaking his head with a mild laugh. "Don't even think about it!" he heard her voice ring through the halls.