CHAPTER 123

EPISODE…………………..QUARANTINE

(A.N. This chapter is pretty lame, since no action really takes place and I couldn't think of anything to have happen other than what happened in the episode itself.)

Sheppard came to Rodney's lab, hoping to drag him into playing virtual golf on the game system Ford had in his T.A.R.D.I.S. The same one Ford got stuck in with the Halo series once upon a time. The system was capable of playing any sort of game system game, thanks to a lot of ingenuity, K-9 and a couple of weeks of programming issues. Ford really liked a lot of games that were on the Commodore 64 system and on up from that, though only a few people other than Rodney and Ford played the Zork ones. It was rumored that he even had games that didn't come out for the next couple of years, but Ford denied it rather heavily since having the movies and TV shows ahead of time was stretching things as it was, but knew the release dates.

Anyway, Sheppard was really wanting to play a golf game he liked, with someone else. Ford tried it once, but wasn't really interested. And he kept hitting the ball past the hole on the first hit, by a good twenty yards or more, and quite often slicing it. He was still surprised as was Sheppard who still laughed about it when he hit the ball during a game they played on the mainland, and ended up smacking the ball into a tree several feet away that came back and knocked him out when it caught him in the forehead. Ford didn't wake up for over an hour and after nothing happening for first several minutes of him being complete out, Sheppard had to call Atlantis to have Sam come get them since the T.A.R.D.I.S. obviously wasn't going to respond to Sheppard, and he had no idea how to work her to begin with.

So, Sheppard was rather surprised when Rodney said he couldn't because he had a important lunch date with Katie.

"Just be late, girls like it when a guy is late." Sheppard said with a shrug.

"Ah, no they don't. Even Sam was upset when Ford was late to pick her up for a date once because of car trouble. She did forgive him, but didn't like the fact they lost their dinner reservations." Rodney said waving a finger.

"He told you that?"

"Yes. Haven't you noticed people asking him relationship advice? Those two have been married a lot longer than it looks. They rarely fight or argue, so much so neither remembers the last time they did so." Rodney said.

"Huh. So, how did it end?"

"What end?" Rodney asked confused.

"Their date McKay? I assume you know the rest…" Sheppard said rolling his hand.

"They went somewhere else instead of Ford cooking since she wanted to go dancing and it always takes time to cook. Anyway, today is very important because if this." Rodney said, pulling a little box out of his pocket.

"This is a ring." Sheppard stated.

"Yes, I hoping that our relationship will move to the next level. Mine and Katie's." Rodney said with a smile.

"Second base?" Sheppard said humorously.

"Ha, ha, very funny. I'm talking about marriage Sheppard." Rodney stated.

"I see that. What sort of carat?" Sheppard asked looking at the diamond on top of the silver ring.

"One. I was able to get a really good deal on it back home after mentioning to the store clerk I was a friend of Fords." Rodney said with a proud smile.

"Wait, what?" Sheppard asked thinking he heard wrong.

"So many other people had gotten good advice from those two, and the store was recommended by Ford so many times…" Rodney said with a wave of his hand.

"Seriously?" Sheppard said pretty much believing it to be true since it sounded very possible.

"No." Rodney said with a laugh before continuing. "Ford recommended the store, and this ring was on sale. He told me what I told you, as a joke and believed it like you did."

"I did not." Sheppard stated.

"You thought about it though. Look…" Rodney said taking the ring back. "I'll have to take a rain check on the gaming thing."

"Alright. We'll have a beer later to celebrate the occasion." Sheppard said patting Rodney on the shoulder.

"Or a pity party if she says no." Rodney muttered as he looked at the ring.

"No, no, no, don't say that. You'll just jinx it if you say that."

"Right. This is all going to work out and she'll say yes." Rodney said thinking positively.

"Good man. Now, go get the girl before you're late."

Rodney walked out with a happy stride, saying bye to Teyla as she entered. She was now known throughout the base as being pregnant, mostly because her abdomen was showing so. Instead of wearing her leather outfits, she had a white with floral print maternity shirt on, that had fluffy shoulders and was sort of fluffy around the chest area.

"Hmm, he seems extremely happy for some reason." Teyla said.

"Well, he's going to go have lunch with Katie."

"Ah." Teyla said in understanding. "Do you have a moment?"

"Sure. I was trying to get Rodney to go play golf with me, but…"

The infirmary was a bit busy as Ronan walked in. There was one team that had gotten into some trouble with the weather on one planet, that brought many stitches and bruises, not to mentioned one concussion from being hit by a large tree limb. According to the last report, the winds on the planet were still around fifty miles an hour. The said team had been in the infirmary for the last few days and were currently being discharged by other medical personal. Keller walked up seeing Ronan's right arm near the elbow to wrist bleeding.

"Let me guess, sparring accident?" Keller asked grabbing his arm and checking it as they walked to a bed..

"Nah, I slipped in the shower."

"Really?" Keller asked as he sat down on a bed.

"No, sparring accident."

"You know, this is the fifth time I have had to fix you up this week." Keller said grabbing some supplies.

"Yeah, the General has a mean swing." Ronan said with respect for the man.

"You were sparring with him again?" Keller asked while checking the wound. "No wonder you got hurt."

"Not today. He's busy with his daughter in that time ship of his." Ronan said.

"Ah. You know, there are better ways to spend your free time."

"They aren't as fun though." Ronan said as she shook her head with a smile.

"Ever the warrior." Keller said shaking her head.

Carter was walking through the halls, heading for the command tower after seeing Sally and Ford off. Being a bit of a hot day outside, and wanting to drive Ford a bit crazy, which she not only loved doing, but did often, she wore her black leather SGA outfit again, coat open, since the cities cooling system was working a bit harder than usual to keep the city cool from the hot sun and cloudless skies above. Saying hello to the various personal and answering a few questions of some others, she started for the transporter when Radek walked up.

"Hey Radek, where you headed?"

"Control room."

"We can share then." Carter said as the door opened as two other people walked out.

Rodney walked into the botany department finding her putting some plant into a pot on the table that had other plants, tools, food, and gardening stuff.

"Katie."

"Hey Rodney. I'm just finishing up this and we can go." Katie said happy to see him.

"I hope you are hungry."

"Starving. I heard the General made several different pasta dishes, some with sea food." Katie said as her mouth watered at the idea.

"Yeah, he did." Rodney said nervously as he rubbed his hands.

"Are you okay?" Katie asked a bit worried.

"Yeah, just fine."

"You're sweating." Katie said setting her gloves aside as she walked around to him.

"I am?" Rodney said feeling his forehead. "Hmm. Okay, maybe I should jump right into this…"

"Jump into what?"

"Jump, I was being figurative. Metaphor. I'm…." Rodney said nervously as he began rambling.

"Rodney, calm down, and just tell me what you want to say." Katie said touching his arm.

"Okay.." Rodney said talking a deep breath as he reached into his pants pocket. "We've been…"

They both looked up hearing the alarm go off and then looked over as the door closed.

Keller had just finished with stitching his arm and was in the process of putting the bandage over it when the alarms went off and the doors closed. All over the city, people noticed the alarms, especially as the city closed all the doors and the various emergency barriers came down. Like the one that was in Rodney's lab that almost hit Teyla in the back.

"Rodney, what's happening? Why'd the doors close? And what is the alarm for?" Katie asked as they both tried and failed to get the doors to part after waving their hands over the panel next to it.

"It's locked. We're trapped in here." Rodney said as he spun around looking.

Teyla waved her hand over the panel and it only beeped at her as Sheppard tried to force it open to no avail.

"We are locked in." Teyla stated as Sheppard touched his earpiece.

"Rodney, come in."

Keller and Ronan tried the two doors, finding themselves locked in the medical room alone.

"This one is locked too." Keller said.

"What the hell is going on here?" Ronan asked still trying to force it open.

"Doctor McKay, this is Doctor Keller, are you there?"

"Rodney, this is Sam, do you read?" Carter asked while pushing various points on the transporter diagram of the city, in hopes that they'd end up somewhere else.

Radek was looking at the internal systems of the transporter that were in a port that slid out of the wall.

"The control system is not responding. Perhaps, we can physically open the door. The transporter doors are lighter than the other doors in the city." Radek said.

She turned around helping, which didn't as the doors stayed sealed.

"Okay, that didn't work." Radek stated.

"Rodney, this is Sam, respond please. Are you getting anything?"

"No." Radek said trying his and getting a cackle noise. "Communications must be down."

"Great, and I left my cell phone back in my room. I really have to take that with me everywhere anymore." Carter grumbled.

"Does the General take his everywhere?"

"Everywhere. Even off world." Carter said rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"Do you have a radio?"

"Yeah, but it is in there." Katie said while pointing at the room that was on the other side of the door.

"What? Why not in here?"

"Because this is the plant cultivation room. We've never needed it in here. Moisture can build up in here…" Katie said.

"Yeah, I get it." Rodney said while glancing around. "That was the quarantine alarm."

"Quarantine?" Katie asked a little alarmed.

"Atlantis self protection against an outbreak. All the doors are shutting and locking down to prevent the spread of the disease. I tweaked the system after the recent Kirsan Fever outbreak." Rodney said while looking around, past plants or between them.

"But there was no lockdown during that outbreak." Katie asked while watching him look for something.

"Hence the need to tweak the system. Institute more vigorous protocols. Okay, I need to get to a computer and asses the situation. See if it is only a few doors or the tower, perhaps the entire city." Rodney said coming back to her and seeing her pointing. "The computer is in the other room, with the radio."

She only nodded lightly as he sighed.

"There must be another disease outbreak." Keller said as Ronan kept trying. "Rodney said he was going to go over the quarantine system in case there was another outbreak."

"What does it have to do with shutting down the radios?"

"Obviously, there is a glitch system." Katie said glancing around as she crossed her arms. "With no communications, he can't tell me where the disease is or what pass codes are needed to open the doors to the areas that are deemed safe."

"Great." Ronan said sarcastically as he stepped away from the door.

"Well, I need to get ready to treat the sick as they come in. Will you help me?"
"Sure, tell me what to do?"

"I could really use Ronan's gun right about now." Sheppard said while looking at the large wall door before him.

"John, look."

He walked over as she pushed a button making the screen give more info on the laptop.

"It appears there is another outbreak. What is a category five?"

"Well, I am guessing it is a lot worse than categories one through four." Sheppard said as she looked at another laptop next to the other one. "Listen we could be in here for quite awhile."

He touched a couple of buttons while giving her a couple of glances.

"What?"

"It's just that every time this happens in one of the movies, the pregnant woman goes into labor." Sheppard said worried.

"I can assure you, I am still many months away from my due date." Teyla stated.

"They say that in the movie and then…wham."

"I am just fine."

"Why don't you sit down?" Sheppard said still worried and unsure of her belief.

"I am all right." Teyla said as he grabbed the chair nearby.

"Okay, you sit down, so I don't worry. And then, we can try to find out what we can on these."

"Very well." Teyla said sitting down to alleviate her fears.

"This is the quarantine lockdown." Carter said.

"Yes." Radek said.

"But why would it effect communications?" Carter asked in confusion.

"Well, Rodney did say he was going to work on it and change some of the Ancient protocols."

"Wonderful." Carter said turning to look at the diagram again. "Wait, we can check what is happening by linking up with the mainframe."

"Um, we will be limited with this. Being only used for read only diagnostic programming, the RAM is small." Radek said as she picked up the tablet he had left on the floor.

"I may be able to increase it…" Carter said reaching into her coat and pulling out her Sonic Screwdriver and instruction book. "Hold this."

"Um, General…"

"Yes?" Carter asked while flipping through the little book.

"Perhaps you can open the door with that?"

She tried her best not to look stupid, but shook her head as she pointed it at the port that Radek reopened in the wall.

"Um, do you need to lie down, eat, or need a drink or something?" Sheppard asked after a moment.

"John, this is exactly what I came to talk about." Teyla said still typing as he was.

"What?"

"Your decision to remove me from the teams missions."

"We already talked about this. Even both General's and Doctor Keller said no more because you are far enough along, one mistake and you could have a miscarriage or a still born baby, possibly even die because of complications…" Sheppard said trying not to but unable to think of all the wrong that could happen, especially with their current situation.

"No, it is all right, I understand."

"Look, it's not permanent. I think I told you that already. Once you have him, after a week or two, you'll be back out there, making a difference with the rest of us in a more active role once again." Sheppard said.

"Will I be? If it is wrong to place myself and my unborn child in danger now, will it be the same after he is born?" Teyla said worried.

"Both the General's do it. They were working with SG-1 after Sam had the baby, leaving Sally with the grandparents until they got back. Sure, the General will live, practically forever, but Sam is just as vulnerable as the rest of us. If she can do it, so can you."

"I would like to believe that. However, I have no family to leave him with and he may end up growing up without a father. If I was to be seriously hurt or killed, he would grow up, not only without me there, but also knowing he was the last of his people. I do not know if I can take that risk." Teyla said extremely worried.

"I know. It is very tough to think about. I have this friend from collage. She's a cop." Sheppard said as he got a confused look. "You know, those people who are law officers in a few of those movies."

"Ah."

"She's not one of the big cops, having to do the seriously hard jobs, just a normal walk the beat type. Do her job and go home, nothing heroic if she can help it. She has three kids, so each day is tough for her and each day she comes home safely is a blessing. But she looks at it as she is out there keeping bad people off the streets to keep not only her kids safe, but other kids to." Sheppard said as she nodded with a smile. "Look Teyla, if it happens that we never find your people, god forbid, and something happens to you, he'll have a family here with us. We wouldn't leave him to some strangers fate."

The door, after a minute of finding the right setting, finally opened enough they could get their fingers into the crack and pull it open. Three doors later, they were rather tired.

"You learn anything yet?" Carter asked while using her device on the open panel.

"The city is in a category five situation."

"Category five? That would mean a full city wide lock down." Carter said. "No wonder communications are off."

"It is." Radek said showing her the tablet. "All doors are shut, emergency barriers are in place and most of the cities systems are offline."

"Including ventilation for the tower. At least we were able to get transported there before the shut down happened. According to this, the cities operating system is on the fritz." Carter said.

"Yes, I noticed."

"Well, knowing Rodney, he is at some computer right now, trying to fix this as we speak. Ford may or may not be doing the same, unless he is in the T.A.R.D.I.S. and hasn't noticed yet" Carter said setting the tablet aside. "Let's see about this door now."

Ford had noticed, and had been working on it for several minutes before calling K-9 in to help. He had been working on some of the Tok'ra tunnel crystals he was trying to modify and had been for over a month now.

"Damn it Rodney. You have left one really big mess for me to clean up." Ford grumbled while working at the large console in their room. "K-9, have you been able to fix anything?"

"Not at present Master. It will take another twenty minutes or more for you to be able to break the lock down protocols." K-9 stated.

"Nice." Ford muttered while typing away. "Good thing I kept this system linked to the city."

"How's it coming?" Jacob asked as he walked in.

"Slow. I knew I should have helped Rodney with the quarantine protocols. How's Sally and Amy?" Ford asked somewhat worried.

"Doing okay since we have access to the T.A.R.D.I.S. Amy is helping Sally with her schooling since you're here and getting lunch ready. Can I help?" Jacob asked sitting in a chair by him.

"Can you read Ancient?"

"On second thought, I'll go help with lunch." Jacob said patting Ford on the shoulder as he got up. "Oh, have you heard from Sam yet?"

"She left her cell phone on the nightstand, again." Ford said rolling his eyes.

"What about your watch coms?"

"Something is interfering with all communications systems. That's what K-9 is trying to restore right now while I try to shut down the lockdown." Ford said with a grumble.

"But not the cell phones?"

"No one else on Atlantis has a cell phone that I know about and no one is picking up the one in the Command tower. And if they do, besides you and Amy, they aren't modified to make interstellar and intergalactic calls."

"Let us know when you got something." Jacob said walking out.

Rodney was unfortunately, not at a computer, and had no idea along with anyone else knowing that the problem was being worked on. At the moment, he was standing next to Katie as they both leaned on the table in the middle of the room.

"I'm sure others are working on the problem. Doctor Zelenka, Doctor Keller, General Carter…"

"Which one?" Katie asked.

"Probably both. If there is a problem, Sam would call on him." Rodney said.

"Let's hope she did, or that the others are doing something."

Ronan was back to trying to force the door open, to still no avail. He had tried using a medical light that was on a tall metal pole, only to fail as it bent and broke, making Keller come into the room.

"You've broke your stitches, again." Keller said grabbing his arm. "I have never seen someone with such reckless aggression."

He stopped near the bed as she grabbed gloves.

"That was not a compliment." Keller said as he smiled. "Now lay down so I can fix this, yet again. The door is not opening until we get help, so don't go back at it. We are better off waiting for McKay and the others to figure out what needs to be done. Those doors probably aren't even safe to open anyway."

"So, we are just suppose to sit and wait until then?" Ronan asked.

"And be ready at a moments notice to treat the sick when they are brought in."

"I'm not very good at sitting and waiting." Ronan stated.

"I've noticed." Keller said while cutting his bandage off. "Well, since it looks like it might be awhile, and you need to do something to pass the time, other than break your stitches or other medical equipment. How about we get to know each other better?"

"What did you have in mind?" Ronan asked in a way she took wrong.

"Oh, no, I mean, just talk. I didn't mean…" Keller said as he kept looking at her. "Just talk. I tell you someone about me, you tell me something about you."

"Like what?"

"Well, something that others might know about and you might feel comfortable telling me as well. Something I don't know about you, I mean." Keller said as she began wishing she hadn't started that conversation.

Katie tried to pull the panel off the scanner next to the door as Rodney was still standing by the table thinking.

"Can't you pull the panel off, fiddle with it and get the door open?" Katie asked.

"No. The controls are shut off and the commands disabled. That's what the quarantine protocol is for, to keep people from getting out, or in." Rodney said biting his nails. "If I had a Sonic Screwdriver of my own, that might so something…"

"Rodney, everything will be okay…" Katie said walking back to him.

"We have no idea of that! Zelenka could be infected, even Sam, possibly Keller. We have no idea what is going on, how bad things are and if the quarantine is confined to this section or the entire city." Rodney said with a panicked voice.

"You're are thinking worse case scenario."

"Hello, this is what I do! Someone needs to think ahead and work out the worst possible situation in order to come up with a way to defend against it." Rodney stated.

"Any situation? Even the good ones?" Katie asked with her arms crossed.

"Any good situation can turn into an ugly one in an instant."

"Hello? Hello? Is this even on K-9?" came over the speakers.

"Affirmative Master."

"Then why isn't anyone responding?" Ford asked.

"I am still attempting to correct that function Master. Until I or we repair those functions to the program for two way communication, all that will happen is the populace hearing us." K-9 stated.

"Great." Ford muttered. "Okay…um, this is General Carter, but you probably knew that already. Anyway, I am stuck in my room on the pier, and from the results of the scans I am been able to perform, the city is in total quarantine lock down, category five. I am not sure when I will have things functioning again, but I am trying to restore the systems. From what I can tell, there is no sickness or disease, just a massive computer glitch trapping people wherever they are at. If there is anyone else working on this problem, I have no idea since K-9 and I aren't seeing much tampering with the system at the moment, other than by us. So, I'm asking everyone to try and sit tight, this is being worked on and I'll let you know when I get something else accomplished."

Rodney and Katie looked up and then at each other, as did most of the people in the city.

"He must not be able to get to his ship." Rodney said. "Which is why nothing is working."

"He's got K-9 and we both know that dog is very capable of handling most computer problems." Katie said.

"Well, at least we know someone is doing something."

"Where is Rodney?" Teyla asked.

"Probably in the commissary with Katie. They had a lunch date. But, that explains why nothing has happened sooner." Sheppard said.

"What should we do?"

"Well, I'm going to keep at this, and hope I do something that helps or gets the General's attention. He didn't answer a lot of questions I had…" Sheppard said.

"He already made it clear that communication was one way." Teyla stated.

"True, but we have no idea what is happening to everything and everyone else."

"Your husband has it all wrong." Radek said as they were sitting by a closed door in the corridor, resting from prying open doors. "What Rodney did to the protocols has almost nothing to do with our situation. It is a malfunction, almost easily repaired if he were to notice it."

"Malfunction?" Carter asked as he handed over the tablet. "And he didn't notice?"

"There was an intense ionospheric storm that happened earlier today, which caused a huge power spike…" Radek said.

"I see it. A few recalibrations here and there, and this would, for the most part, be over." Carter said.

"Yes. We will also have to make sure to account for the possibility of more storms in the future."

"Wonder why he hasn't noticed it already? I'm sure I would have noticed it already and had it fixed." Carter muttered. "Where the hell is his eyes and mind?"

"According to this, there are life signs all over the city." Teyla said.

"But the ventilation system…." Sheppard said pointing at his screen. "Just came online. Okay…"

"Attention folks, the air system is functioning again, same with water, plumbing, a few other redundant systems, but the doors are being a pain in the ass along with the other critical systems. It's like the lockdown is the non-existent virus." Ford said over the system before signing off.

"Well, air problem is fixed. God I hate waiting." Sheppard muttered.

"Hmm, it says here that there was a storm in the ionosphere which seems to be causing the problems." Teyla said.

"New planet, new problems." Sheppard grumbled. "Maybe he hasn't noticed it is the cause. Strange…"

"Master, the city is broadcasting a warning…" K-9 stated.

"As part of the protocol, I know. Can you shut it off or disable the…" Ford said bring up a different screen. "Ah, damn! Rodney's calibrations to the protocols aren't the problem! It was a stupid storm! Why didn't this come up earlier K-9?!"

"I am uncertain Master. You were working on this before you called Master."

"Well, now that we know the problem, we can fix this easily." Ford said typing in a few commands. "Access denied? We'll see about that…."

"Master?"

"Yes K-9?" Ford said still typing.

"We have inadvertently changed too many command protocols while attempting to shut down the quarantine lockdown." K-9 stated.

"So?"

"Access is denied because there is no access Master. It was deleted with several other protocols."

"And we can't undelete them can we?" Ford asked knowing the answer already, but hoping K-9 could do something anyway.

"Negative."

"Nice. All I've done for the last ten minutes or so has made things worse." Ford said rubbing his face.

"Affirmative."

"Okay, that means there is only one choice left." Ford said pushing a couple buttons. "Attention all personnel, we have a new problem. Your esteemed General has made a seriously bad mistake. What I thought was a problem, was in fact not, and I have made things worse. Rodney, I hope you have a back up of the lockdown protocols you changed, because I ruined it, badly. Not FUBARed, but getting there. Everyone be ready. The city may or may not shake, I have no idea. I have to go and shut down everything. We are broadcasting our position to the galaxy, and doing a complete shutdown should make a deep routed program take effect. If this works, the doors will open, or at least partly open."

Grabbing K-9, he went straight into the T.A.R.D.I.S. and landed in the room with the two ZPM's.

"We're just, pulling the plug, waiting a couple minutes and plugging everything back in?" Jacob asked.

"Essentially. Kind of like that safe mode crap they have on computers. There are a couple hidden programs, which I didn't not tamper with, but created, for emergency future use. Sam and K-9 also helped." Ford said while hooking a laptop into the ZPM controls. "Depending on the situation, will depend on what happens with a certain protocol. For the situation I am about to do, the doors should all open and all reserve power is used to keep the city afloat."

"And if not?" Jacob asked.

"Well, any number of things. Worst case, the power feeds back and overloads the ZPM's, blowing the city and probably a good chunk of the planet with it. But I know I have it right."

"How so?" Jacob asked worried.

"Well…" Ford said as the ZPM's came out of the top of the system.

Once he pulled them both out, the entire city completely died. The naquada generators ran a few things along with whatever battery operated device was working, but everything else shut down as the doors and barriers partially opened.

"Now, we count…." Ford began.

The city shook as the reserve power left, not keeping the city afloat anymore.

"Okay, counts over." Ford said putting the less powered ZPM in and reactivating it.

It sucked a few percentage points of juice as the city shook, again, as the stabilizers kept the city floating while activating everything else once again. All the doors finally opened and the lockdown was over. As people started talking over the com lines again, flooding the communications channels quickly, things began to shut down once again as all but critical systems were left online.

"Ford, what have you done?" Carter asked over the line.

"Only the critical systems are functioning along with lights where people are. Until Rodney, probably me and K-9 as well, can get the protocol system repaired, we are running on minimal power. I'll meet you in the control room." Ford said.

Half an hour later, things weren't back to normal, but people were getting around better, and others were getting treated. Rodney, Ford and K-9 were in Rodney's lab, trying to fix all Ford's mistakes as everyone else was doing, whatever. From what Sam could tell, using the T.A.R.D.I.S. in the command tower, no one heard or responded to the alert beacon, so everyone was still safe and secure, though in the dark in many ways, until tomorrow when all the systems would be back online and working, since those three were spending the rest of the night working.

Going back to the T.A.R.D.I.S. to rest for the night, or to sleep since he had been up all night with Rodney fixing the cities systems, he met Carter in the doorway, getting pulled in quickly as she left a note with one of the personnel in the command center. The T.A.R.D.I.S. left seconds after she went in, with the people finishing the night shift thinking they were taking it back to their room. Which it did, but about five minutes later, which was usually the most the T.A.R.D.I.S. was gone when the two or one of them had had a hard day and needed to get away from work.

"What's up?" Ford asked as he leaned against the console with a yawn.

"You must be really tired to forget the plans we made with Sally."

"Oh, right. We were going to amusement park. Damn, I had to work all night." Ford said rubbing his tired eyes.

"She understands, only because she understands the time issue better than most people." Carter said as they walked back towards their room in the T.A.R.D.I.S.

"Still need to say sorry. I really wanted to go there too."

"She and my parents are in Atlantis. Once we get more rest, we can go back, get them and go have fun for awhile before coming back here to work again." Carter said.

"I like the sound of that. I don't have a lot of energy, but enough for you." Ford said with a sly smile.

"We do need to pick up Jack and his family too. Janet and Cassandra want to come along as well."

"Maybe we can even get the rest of SG-1." Ford suggested. "No, that wouldn't work would it."

"Daniel is spending another week off world helping, um….SG-7, or was it twelve? They found some ruins that he was ecstatic about, as was his parents, so…"

"Yeah, he'd rather do that then play. Since SG-1 is on down time somewhat, I doubt the rest would want to come." Ford said thinking.

"Teal'c is helping the Jaffa Council or with Ishta. Mitchell and Vala are helping another SG team during some dealings with some planet Vala knows about."

"How do you know this stuff?"

"I spend more time in the, office as it were, than you do. A little over a week from now, Mitchell wants us to come help look at some planet, as members of SG-1. Unless something extremely pressing comes up here, we'll be going." Carter said.

"Ah."

"How's the Tok'ra crystal thing coming?" Carter asked as they entered their room.

"Slow. I thought I had it right, but ended up putting a three mile long hole only a inch in diameter in the asteroid I've been experimenting on." Ford said rubbing his tired face. "At least I got the design look right."

"Design?"

"Yeah, it creates a octagonal shape to walk through instead of the oval like shape the Tok'ra use. Now I'm working on size of the tunnel and length. So far, not getting anywhere what I want." Ford muttered as he sat on the bed beside her.

"I'll take a look at it later and see if I can give you any help or ideas."

After the two got some sleep, the arrived back five minutes after they left and got the family, headed to Earth and got the other two groups that wanted to go and then made a quick trip up north. Seeing as they were all going, it made it easier to go in the Hummer and Sam's Mustang, since it was a short trip and they planned on getting prizes and such. They parked the T.A.R.D.I.S. in the mountains nearby, disguising it as a large Ponderosa pine near a parking spot for tourist, hikers, or bike riders, or even people who just wanted to walk. The only downside was driving a few miles back to get to Silver Wood, but the scenery was worth it.

(A.N. I live a few miles from this place and have been there a few times. Though am scared as hell to ride a roller coaster. The Silver Wood Amusement Park has gotten to be a large attraction over the years and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't been there. Especially if you are a devoted Garfield fan as I am.)

Seeing as none of them had been to Idaho, or at least anytime in a long while, though for Jacob, Sam and Jack it had been, at different times, a duty thing and not amusement, it was worth the scenic view. Buying the tickets, the group walked in, all wearing casual clothes, especially Ford who had a blue jean jacket like Sam, with jean pants and wearing a white shirt that had Garfield with a heart in the background and the letter I above it. Though Sally's favorite character was Renamon, she did like Garfield as well. Jack was a fan, at least of reading the comic every morning, but beyond that, he wasn't collecting things like Ford did.

Sally, Cassandra, and Charlie all had a lot of fun riding the different rides, with each of them shifting out to allow them all to try while the others held the others personal belongs. The two water rides soaked Ford quite a lot, as did Jack and Charlie and Sally. None of the others went on it, which was no surprise since Sarah had a dress as did Janet, and Sam wasn't looking to get wet if possible. A few trips on the Timber Terror dried the group out as did the walking around.

After eating, they took a trip on the train, and it was no surprise, at least not much, when Ford, Jack and Sam all went on alert when the train was, being robbed as part of the show, which involved the firing of guns. It was an embarrassing moment for the three as they sat back down, at least feeling better about knowing they weren't the first to react that way. The actors were extremely happy the three didn't do anymore than just getting up and reaching for weapons they didn't have, as where another time, a guy got up and tackled one actor and took the gun trying to defend himself before realizing what he did. Thankfully, the actor was only bruised and not seriously hurt by the service man who got back from Iraq just over a week ago.

After the trip, they went and looked at the planes, Charlie and Cassandra getting a ride with Sam and Jack going along, especially after showing their Air Force I.D. From there, they played a few games, one of which was the bumper cars. Jack got bumped a lot by Sam, Charlie, Cassandra, and Janet. Jacob was on Jack's side as was Sarah. Ford and Sally just watched and took pictures, since Sally was a bit too young and Ford would have been a bit to aggressive, or so the rest of them said.

Getting different stuffed animals was fun though. Sam got it every time, Jack missed twice but got it the next two times. Ford ended up breaking the gun that fired the ball on the stick when he squeezed the handle to hard, but afterward managed to get a large Garfield in the end. Sally was happy to get pictures with her and Garfield that was walking around, as was Ford who ended up getting a couple pictures of him hugging the large cat and even did the two finger peace sort of sign. They all ended up getting a large picture of them all together with Garfield in the end and Ford somehow managing to talk to someone in charge, in the end buying one of the Garfield suits for twice its worth.

After having dinner, since they had been there most of the day now, they started out even though the park would be open for another few hours, when Sam spotted something nearby.

"Hey, let's try that." Carter said.

"Fortune telling? Are you the same woman I married? We already know that stuff is bogus." Ford said.

"Yeah, but I'd rather give it a try anyway. We can laugh about it later about how many things she got wrong." Carter said.

(A.N. For the record, I do not believe in fortune tellers or anything dealing with those sort of things. This is just in here because I read it in another story that was really good and an idea came up from it. Further, I haven't seen nor think there is a fortune teller at Silver Wood.)

The tent was well over tent feet tall and over ten feet wide, with another smaller tent in front that had a short hallway leading into the larger one. Obviously, the business part of the establishment was in the smaller tent where a cash register, table and chair that was manned by a black man in a turban and outfit that was usually found with people wearing turbans. It kinda reminded the Carter family of the outfits they saw in the Aladdin cartoon Sally had. It was no surprise when the man, after taking their money and finding out who was and wasn't getting read, said, they were expected.

The lady inside the rather large tent had a table in the middle, no crystal ball or tarot cards or anything at all. Apparently she was a palm reader and didn't use anything, other than the various aroma candles on different styles of pedestals that lines the large tent walls. She didn't have anything like a fancy costume on either, other than the large earrings that hung to her shoulders and her hair in a bun with a couple very fancy clips lined with fake sparkly jewels. The rest of her outfit was a gold dress with frilly puffed up shoulders and chest. She either had a dark tan or was light black skinned, none of them could tell in the light only provided by candles.

Cassandra went first, being told she was going to be a great and important person later in life and that her aura was really strong. A few other minor details were told before she was finished and went to the next person.

Janet did it only because her daughter wanted her too. She was told she was a exceptional healer, which surprised no one. Janet was also a very strong and determined person, also no surprise. And would be married soon, which surprised everyone except Janet who admitted she was seeing someone and had the feeling the guy might ask. Janet then told the others she'd tell them the story about that later. Ford figured the lady said something about it because of a ring, but he then saw Janet didn't have any rings on her ring fingers.

Ford was starting to think something was up, and realized he wasn't the only one when she read Charlie, she pointed out how he would be a great military man and leader, going to the moon one day. Or he'd be a great baseball player playing in the major leagues, if he chose that path instead. This only bothered Jack because Charlie did want to follow in Jack's footsteps, but he also wanted to play baseball since he was really good at it too. He was currently one of the top players at his school and assistant captain of the team.

Sam did it, being told she had a very exceptionally strong aura and that she would live a long time, have several children and was very brilliant, and incredibly strong willed. Something was off about her life force though, but the lady couldn't understand what it was, even though she didn't think or believe it was something bad. She also said that Sam had traveled farther than anyone she had ever came across, but didn't elaborate on it. Though a great leader, her talent was being wasted, which Sam did say she agreed to, but was enjoying being in charge at the moment.

When Ford sat down next, things didn't go well, which didn't surprise anyone, least of all Jack. It started off well with her saying Ford had the greatest aura and life force the woman had ever came across, so much so it shocked her hand when she touched his. Ford blamed it on just having that sort of body that gets easily shocked, or shocks others. He almost always got shocked when he opened the freezer doors at the grocery mart. They all laughed, though Ford groaned as the woman said that Ford, despite being older than he looked and technically a grown man, was still living like a child in many ways. He traveled even farther than Sam had and wasn't as strong willed as Sam was. Ford only attested this was because he couldn't say no to her on almost anything, which made everyone laugh. For the next minute, the lady said nothing as she looked like she was concentrating as her eyes showed her thinking as they were closed. When she opened them back up, it was in surprise and shock, so much so she got up and nearly fell backwards as her chair toppled over from her sudden movement.

"You're….not human." she stated in a low and fearful voice.

"Huh, could have fooled me." Ford said with a laugh he forced rather well to cover up. "Okay lady, thanks for your time."

"You're one of those Immortals." she whispered. "But something else as well…"

The group had no idea what to say or do at first when they heard those words. Ford only sat back down as she got up and sat in her chair quickly.

"What are you?" she asked grabbing his hand hard enough he was shocked when he couldn't pull it away. "There is more than one heart beat…"

"Ford, we need to go.." Jack began.

"I can't get her to let go." Ford stated as he stood, but couldn't get his hand back. When he turned to ask for help, he did a double take on his friends and the lady holding his hand as he realized it was way to quiet.

"What the hell…." Ford muttered as he got his hand free.

"You know, your mother and father are very proud of you, as are many others, while….well, we won't go there." a somewhat glowing man with dirty blonde hair that was rather long said as he walked past Ford's friends and family that weren't moving. "We stopped time for five seconds, which won't pass quickly for us, so we can talk, or argue for awhile as you are prone to doing to some people. Anyway, for a exceptionally bright guy, you are a complete idiot too. Didn't you feel the tug to walk away from this place we were doing to you?"

"I felt something, but didn't think on it much. I barely say no to Sam, so for any further tugs that may come in the future, someone from up there…" Ford said pointing up with distain. "Better come down and talk to the both of us or I'm probably going to just go with what she wants."

The unknown man sighed with a grumbled as the glowing faded and he was wearing a white robe and pants get up that Ford knew to be clothes the Ancients used to wear. Making a chair seem to appear, the man sat down and shook his head.

"Knowing you, you'd go do it anyway just to aggravate us." the man said as Ford stood in anger.

"Damn straight. I happen to agree with everyone here and some many others out there in the universe that you, no, the people I came from are complete idiots and stuck up assholes! I swear, the Q continuum would come intervene before letting humanity be totally destroyed." Ford yelled as the man sat calmly and listened. When he started to open his mouth though. "And I swear to God, you pull that shit about not interfering with lower life forms or dare even try the Star Trek Prime Directive rule on me like mom did once, I will built that ascension energy destroying machine and force all of you to start thinking more clearly!"
"Sadly, we know you'd do that and because of the T.A.R.D.I.S., you could build it, correction, already have in case another problem arises like it did with the Ori, and in order to truly stop you, we'd have to sacrifice a lot of us to ensure you, that weapon and the T.A.R.D.I.S. ceased to exist." the man said with another sigh. "The downside of doing that is it would compromise our rules that you hate, not to mention it would also break the rule I don't need to mention because you did a moment ago."

"You just came down here to argue with me then about what I really would like to do to a people I am extremely ashamed to say I came from." Ford said as sarcastically as possible. "If that's the reason, just to make my blood boil, I suggest you leave before I do try something."

"This is why many of the others thought you were a major mistake in the beginning." the man said with the same calm tone he'd been using. "But no, I didn't come to argue and really wanted to avoid it."

"Then why the hell are you here ruining my day?" Ford asked as he sat down again with a huff. "I had a really great day until you showed up."

"Not all fortune tellers and those sort of people are….phonies is the best term." the unknown man said casually. "Most of them are, while others have a measure of power to read things others can't. We had always hoped and believed you'd be someone smart enough to keep away from people like them as you have always believed them to be, as you said, bogus."

"So, this lady does have a degree of higher brain function than the normal person, is what you are saying?" Ford asked as he sat back and looked at the frozen in time woman.

"Some. She can't tell the future and well over 95% of them out there that say they can, really make it up off what they see about someone. This lady here, who is a descendent of some of us that stayed behind all those many years ago when we left this planet with Atlantis, has her ability only because of those descendents." the unknown man said waving a finger at her.

"So she knows who I really am, as to being from another planet and stuff. Considering her profession, she won't be believed." Ford said with a shrug of indifference.

"If that was the case, I wouldn't be here. She can and will cause trouble, which will get her kind of people more attention and cause a lot more problems. Now while we don't interfere with lower life forms as a rule, you are still technically one of us and are the one thing that could start a whole mess of trouble we'd rather not deal with, again." the unknown man said with a tired but determined to get a point across look.

"Whoa, this has happened before?" Ford asked surprised, that went away quickly. "Wait, you're lying to get me to go along with…"

"Not all those so called witches and warlocks as they were called back then were complete frauds. Some were good people who knew how to live off the land while others managed to gain control of, for lack of better words, darker abilities." the unknown man said as he got up. "It is possible to kill someone with your mind, and even though you have the ability to do so along with quite a few other abilities the other Alterans learned while trying to and eventually ascending, we are sure it will be a very if not extremely long time before you start to realize how to use them. Some of the older Immortals have the potential to do things, but don't really know it. Some younger ones gained it within their first hundred years and joined us while the rest continued on living and or eventually dying. Methos seems to realize it sometimes, but usually, drops the ball, as the favorite saying goes."

Ford looked at his hands as he thought about the idea and did notice he had what was best described as brief telepathy as it were. Mostly, he could sometimes feel how Sam was doing or feeling and it did explain why they were so easily able to answer questions or talk together at the same time.

"One of the reasons you can't draw on those abilities fully, is because we are keeping them at bay. It is bad enough you piss off enough people by not giving into their demands. You don't need them trying to experiment on you because you can do things they want. Know what I mean?" the unknown man said with a look.

"Because I'd use them for the wrong purpose or kill by accident in anger." Ford said as he clenched his fist.

"Now you're thinking." the unknown man said as he patted Ford on the shoulder. "Don't make us intervene again. Everything will start again and she'll have no memory of seeing you or touching you."

Ford stood and backed away from the chair as the man disappeared. Time suddenly resumed and the sudden change of silence to a lot of noise startled Ford. The rest of the group was surprised since their memories weren't altered.

"Thank you ma'am, but I really don't feel comfortable doing this." Ford said steeping away from the chair with his hands up. "I've got a past I don't like and share with few people, and you are a rather good at what you do, so you scare me."

The woman blinked a few times and shook her head as she squeezed her eyes shut as though they were pained.

"I understand sir. You are not the first to voice such concerns." she said getting to her feet slowly. "The aura in the air has changed, to such a point I am unable to focus as well as I need to read a person. Please, have a nice day."

Ford nodded and walked out with the others following quietly until they got back to their vehicles, where he went over what happened. They were all surprised and while Jack wanted to do something, Ford and a few others were able to talk him out of it. Heading home for the night, they had dinner and enjoyed themselves before going back to daily life the next day.

Jack later had the lady checked out anyway and found she came from a family of fortune tellers and gypsies. Plus the blood check they did showed she had a rather high gene count for using Ancient devices, much similar to John Sheppard. Putting her on the list of potential needed people with the gene for the future if the situation ever arose, Jack went about the rest of his day.