STARGATE 4

Carl was distracted from adjusting a blueprint by a beeping alarm. Looking up, Carl saw that the Yamato was alerting him that his guests were stirring from the first normal sleep they'd had in a long time, after being healed from their various ordeals.

Putting aside his paperwork for the time being, Carl got up to go retrieve his guests, Alice the amnesiac Alteran, and two unnamed former hosts to Goa'uld.

Carl arrived outside Alice's room just as she was opening the door to leave. The five and a half foot talk brown haired woman was looking up and down the corridor, wondering where she should go when Carl arrived.

"Hello Alice. How did you sleep?" Carl asked.

"It was refreshing. Food?" Alice almost begged as her stomach rumbled.

"Of course." Carl chuckled. "This way. I've got two more guests to gather who have also just woken up. They also survived a terrible ordeal and may be feeling somewhat scared. Let's bring them along to eat with us and I'll explain what I can about what is happening."

Alice thought about his statement for a bit, before nodding agreement and falling into step with Carl as he walked towards the medical rooms.

Upon arrival, he noticed the two former hosts were talking to each other, babbling really, since they couldn't understand each other.

The host of Hathor had been in stasis in the sarcophagus since the time that Ra was ejected from the planet in the rebellion, so she only spoke the Egyptian dialect she grew up with and some few words of Goa'uld interspersed in. The reddish brown haired woman stood at 5'9" and held herself very firmly, as if she had a military background of some kind.

The host of Setesh was an American that had been taken host several decades ago, so he only spoke English. He stood at 5'11" with dark brown hair and a goatee that Setesh had grown out.

Since neither former host understood the other and there was no one there to explain things to them, they were feeling quite a bit of nervousness, fear, and uncertainty. Carl and Alice appearing caused the two to settle their focus on him.

"Yamato, please translate my words to the two patients, and when they speak, translate their words for each of the other people here." Carl requested aloud in the Alteran language. "Hello, I'm glad to see you two are doing so well." Carl continued in the Egyptian dialect. "Would you like some food and explanations?" Carl finished in English.

"Uh, yeah. That would be great." The former host of Setesh muttered, not sure how to handle what was happening.

"Are you the one that freed me from the evil one?" The former host of Hathor asked.

Carl nodded. "Yes, it was my work. My name is Carl Edwards." He offered.

The former host of Hathor kneeled down and bowed her head. "I thank you for the salvation you granted me, and pledge myself to your service. My name was Suan."

Carl placed his hand on her head. "I would be honored to accept you into my service, Suan." Carl told her in Egyptian. "Now, rise. It is time for food."

Carl's travels through different worlds, especially his time as part of the Royal family in the ATG world had made him aware of certain aspects of treating with others. Especially when they felt they owed a life debt, it would be the height of rudeness and insult for him to say or imply that the favor was nothing. That would sound like he was saying their life was worth nothing.

So when Suan felt she had such a debt that she adopted a more ritualistic or formal attitude and words, it was important for her that Carl match her solemnity with his own formality. It would impress on her that Carl took her and her word seriously, that he was not dismissing her as beneath his notice.

"Yeah, she does have a point. I owe you one. The name is Duncan Jackson." He offered a handshake. Carl shook his hand and looked in his eyes.

"Good to meet you. I'm glad to see you're doing well." Carl offered in English.

Carl had noticed that the former host of Setesh was uncomfortable with the kneeling and pledging her service that Suan had done. Carl wasn't offended at all, since he was also raised American and understood that the informality and straight forwardness wasn't meant as an insult, it was simply how their culture was.

Carl then introduced Suan and Duncan to Alice, and the group of four retired to the dining facilities where a meal was waiting for the group. Carl waited until after dinner before he started talking about their situations and what was happening in the world and galaxy.

Suan was quite ecstatic to learn that the rebellion back in the day had driven the Goa'uld off planet for so many years. Suan also expressed an interest in joining Carl's forces to continue to assault the Goa'uld.

Duncan had been a host for the Goa'uld Setesh for nearly 60 years. He had been taken host a few years before World War 2 started. Knowing that everyone he knew was dead and gone, and how much Earth had changed threw Duncan for a loop. He wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. So he was grateful for the offer of employment and something to do.

Alice only had a few sketchy memories remaining to her, so she didn't really have the full Alteran attitudes towards peace and interfering with less advanced cultures that were instilled in the Alterans with their education while growing up. And seeing the haunted look on the two former hosts made Alice decide that freeing humans from the Goa'uld's depravations was the right thing.

Suan and Duncan were astonished to hear that Alice was an Ancient who had been frozen in the ice for millions of years. The Ancients who had built the gate network were myths and larger than life figures that they had learned about from the Goa'uld that had possessed them. It was astonishing to meet one such figure of myth.

Carl was feeling good about the three people he had saved. It felt right to train them and assign them as leaders in his organization. So Carl started explaining about his short term plans, how they would be trained and what they would learn, if they so desired.

Suan was the first to enthusiastically agree to joining in on the training. She wanted to learn the skills needed to be powerful and never be taken again by the Goa'uld. She wanted to fight them and destroy their empire.

Alice was more than willing to join as well, and work on the science and technology aspects. She was also feeling hopeful about the idea of Occlumency training. Since the Alterans abilities were so close to wizard's magic, Carl thought it might help her recover her memories.

Duncan didn't have anything to go back to, but he wasn't as gung ho to go out and fight. He was willing to settle down into being the administrator for their future forces. Carl stressed to him that he would still need to train and know how to fight, and he was more than willing to do that.

Carl then brought the trio to an entertainment room and showed them how to access Earth's internet, such as it was in 1997, as well as the libraries he had accumulated on his travels in the Yamato's computer storage. They wouldn't enter time dilation for training until the weekend when Tera joined them.

He then put on some movies so they could relax and start getting acclimatized to Earth culture. He didn't plan on having his future Empire's people's being estranged from pop culture references, that would be a horrible fate for him.

XX

Carl knocked on the apartment door in front of him. He only had to wait a few moments before the door was wrenched open by Tera.

"Carl. You made it. Of course you made it. You set the appointment, why wouldn't you be here?" Tera babbled a bit. Carl chuckled a bit at Tera's excitement.

"Oh, so you're the one that's got Tera all hot and bothered!" A male voice sounded from inside.

"Shut it, Dan! Maria, hit him for me, will you?" Tera yelled at the guy inside her apartment, accompanied by the sound of a hand meeting the back of a head with a whack.

Carl chuckled at their antics. They seemed to be good friends with lots of history. "So, can I come in, then?"

"Yeah, please do." Tera stated and opened the door wide.

As Carl entered he just hoped there were no vampires in this world. He would have to add a warning to all his employees to be wary of that kind of thing. Better safe than sorry.

Tera soon introduced her two friends as Maria Smithe M.D., and Dan Robertson, Detective on the police force.

"I'm not sure what you're looking for as far as personnel, but they are my best friends, they're good people, and I want them to join us." Tera explained her friend's presence with hope in her eyes that Carl would recruit them.

Carl hummed in thought as he focused on Maria and Dan for a bit to get a read on them. They seemed to be good and hardworking people. "Am I to assume by their lack of rings that they don't have any significant others that they would be neglecting?" Carl questioned Tera.

"That's right. The only thing that might hold them back is their jobs and if they'd leave them behind." Tera replied.

Carl looked over Dan and Maria, seeing they were more than a bit confused about just what was going on. "Okay." Carl finally judged. "I'll give them the recruitment speech, and if they choose to join us, they will get a similar hiring package as you did."

"Hey, just what is-" Dan began demanding when the flash of the Yamato teleporting the group onboard interrupted his question. "…going on…?" Dan finished, his question trailing off. He stared around him with bulging eyes as he took in the ship they had been teleported to and especially the view of Earth from the screen.

Tera started bouncing in place, excited to see the view again, but more amused and excited to not be the one receiving the big shock. She was enjoying her friends shock immensely, judging from her smiling face.

"Well, I'll go ahead and give you the same information that I gave Tera a few days ago. We are not alone in the Galaxy…" Carl continued briefing Tera's two friends about the state of affairs in the galaxy and on Earth, and a general idea of what he was planning to do.

Once Carl had finished his briefing, he paused to watch the 6'3" detective and the short 5'3" doctor as they struggled to take in the information Carl had given them. It was definitely wrecking their world view.

"So, why aren't you approaching the military or the government? Isn't this their expertise?" Dan asked after he regained his equanimity.

Carl chuckled a bit at the question. "I don't believe murderous tyrannical aliens out to enslave humanity is anyone on Earth's specialty." Carl pointed out. "And no, I don't trust anyone to be in charge of me or my technology. The people that are the most honest that I would consider working with are the military members, but they are beholden to the politicians who are themselves beholden to their constituency at best, or their corporate paymasters at worst."

"I won't stand by and let anything bad happen to Earth, but I will not put my tech into Earth's hands to be misused. Aside from building my own organization to handle the large threats in the galaxy, I have plans to uplift Earth to the point they will be able to defend themselves soon. But beyond that, anything the different nations on Earth choose to do is their choice. I don't plan to be some kind of dictator over Earth, simply protect it."

Carl paused to let it sink in that he wasn't going to be playing dictator on Earth. Frankly speaking, there were too many different nations and cultures for Carl to want to spend time welding them into one Empire. It would be the headache beyond all headaches to do it peacefully. And attempting to do it forcefully would still be a headache beyond the bounds of what Carl wanted to put up with. He would have to kill too many good men and women to force the rest to capitulate, and Carl had no desire to start his rule by miring the Earth in civil war and terrorist actions for the next century, at least.

"So if you choose to hire on, you will owe your loyalty to me first and foremost. And I'll make sure you get all the training needed to accomplish amazing things, that you never thought possible before." Carl finished his spiel. "Take some time to think about it. If you agree, I'll have you sign a secrecy agreement. If, however you don't wish to join me, I'll return you home, but without memories of meeting us today. You can go back to your normal life."

Carl looked at the three of them, and suddenly came to a realization from looking at Maria and Dan's expressions. "Hmm, or I suppose I could just make it so you can't talk about it to anyone when you go back to your normal lives, but with your memories. Up to you to decide."

"Well, I'll give you some time to think about it." Carl offered and wandered off to give them space.

From looking at Maria and Dan's faces Carl realized that most people wouldn't appreciate being told their memories would be erased if they chose not to join him. He had suddenly realized that it might spawn some conflict or resentment if they felt like it was a choice of join him or lose memories.

After so long with his magical abilities, it felt completely normal to offer to wipe someone's memories if they weren't going to be part of his group. It was only when he'd read the horror in their faces when he so casually told them he would wipe their memories that he'd realized that maybe the way he'd pitched his offer of employment had been a bit on the heavy side for people who were so used to the normal life, especially coming out of the blue like that.

Magical contracts, enforced loyalty, extreme measures to make sure betrayal didn't happen. Those were all things Carl had grown comfortable with over his time in the Jumpchain. Things that would seem crazy or overbearing to normals. Carl warned himself that he'd have to watch out for that kind of thing in the future and adjust his approach depending on the person.

Carl soon joined Alice, Suan, and Duncan in the entertainment room watching The Princess Bride. He'd instructed the Yamato computer to guide Tera, Maria, and Dan to the entertainment center once they had made a decision.

The trio arrived in the middle of the movie, so they sat down and relaxed with the rest of the group after a quick exchange of names. Popcorn and Root Beer was passed around, and Carl could tell that Dan and Maria were finally calming down from their earlier freak out.

Once the movie was over, Carl gave everyone a more in depth introduction. Suan and Duncan gave the three newbies short histories of their time and memories as Goa'uld hosts. The raw emotion, the evilness of the parasites, and realization that their government really couldn't handle the problem worked to change Dan's mind.

While Maria had been convinced from the start to join for the amazing medical knowledge she was sure to learn, Dan as a detective and employee of the government had been leaning towards going back to his own life, and maybe finding a way to alert the authorities. It was where his loyalty had been. But when he heard about the plight of the former hosts, and the Jaffa, he decided he couldn't turn away anymore.

After all, Setesh had been on the earth for thousands of years, never being caught. He'd even spent a lot of time in America. Suddenly learning how unprepared even his own government was to handle the threat gave Dan a change of mind. Here was an opportunity for him to act now, as opposed to simply going back to his normal life and waiting for the hammer to drop.

Dan somewhat understood now why Carl had offered to wipe the knowledge from his mind. The idea of knowing a disaster was coming but being unable to speak about it while going about his normal life would have driven him crazy.

"Okay then. After everyone signs the confidentiality contract, we will start the training." Carl announced once the six recruits indicated that they were willing to join. He pulled out a sheet of parchment for each of them to sign, aside from Tera who had already signed one.

Once that was out of the way, Carl pulled everyone into his Time Pearl with him. The research and training facilities that he had the Petes make in the inner world of the Time Pearl previously was standing in front of the group. Off to the side were the magical and profound farms that he'd established to grow the simple herbs that didn't take too long to mature.

Carl waited for the exclamations of shock and awe to die down before he took them on a tour of the facilities. While showing them around, Carl sent out some orders for the Petes that were still there to build and furnish rooms for everyone as well as classrooms.

Everyone took the rest of the afternoon to settle in. In the evening before bedtime, Carl gathered the group together for Occlumency training. He wasn't sure if everyone could benefit from the magical practice, but some time in meditation couldn't hurt them.

The next morning Carl began their training, starting with basic exercise to work on getting them to the point they could access their Ki. It would be a while before they could feel and manipulate their Ki, but the sooner they started the better.

Throughout the day, they would switch up between exercising and classroom learning. The first thing Carl was teaching the group was the Alteran language. All of the technology and sciences in Carl's database was in that language. It was better that they learn that language rather than having to translate everything to their native language. Not to mention they didn't even have the vocabulary in their native languages for many of the concepts.

Since Alice already knew the Alteran language, she helped Carl by slowly immersing the group into hearing it spoken on a regular basis. When Carl had everyone in a classroom setting, since Alice already knew the Alteran language she used the time as occlumency practice, trying to piece together her mind.

During this time, Carl went full on Torturous Akisame Sensei Mode. He made sure to work his students to the bone in exercising. His medical skills proved a valuable aid in making sure they recovered after every workout.

He made sure to have sensors everywhere to focus on the group and chart their progression as they worked their way up to being Disciple class. This was the baseline knowledge he needed. The transition from normal human to martial artist. Working to build up their Ki reserves and learning to feel the body energy.

Carl suspected that it was his time in the HSDK world learning to feel and manipulate his Ki that made him so easily able to practice the Great Way of the Buddha. Without that foundation, he was sure he wouldn't have mastered the technique so quickly. So Carl stuck to the basic Ki training that he himself had learned before he would consider sharing the Great Way of the Buddha technique.

Carl was impressed that Alice was making great progress in her Occlumency training over the several weeks since they started, and she was soon diving into her mind to find lost or misfiled memories. A few weeks after she began fishing up old memories, she found her old identity as an Alteran. Alice confided in the group after she reviewed her life as an Alteran that she liked being Alice a lot more than she ever liked being Cyla Urbanus, Alteran technician.

Alice explained that she hadn't been given many opportunities to show her worth when she was growing up. Something her parents had done, which she never learned what that was but was supposedly the reason she was orphaned at a young age, caused the Council to view her with the same suspicion as they had for her parents. The Council put her under probation, assuming that the apple wouldn't fall far from the tree.

So all her life as Cyla, she had been struggling under the weight of suspicion from her fellow Alterans. She tried so hard to gain acceptance from her peers, and failed. At the end, when the plague was spreading across the galaxy, they hadn't even warned her they were leaving Earth. They abandoned her on the planet when they left for the Pegasus Galaxy.

She was left behind as an unwanted and unneeded member of their society. She had subsequently caught the plague. In despair that she was abandoned and left to die, she made her way out into the ice of the Antarctic to be frozen to death, so at least her end would be on her own terms, and less painful than dying of the plague.

She had certainly never expected to wake up again. She certainly didn't miss being an outcast from her own people. She loved being Alice, with the acceptance and friendship of the group comforting her greatly.

Carl and the group hastened to assure her she would always be Alice to them. That she was and always would be a valued member of their group. They all vowed to themselves that she would never feel so alienated again.

The recounting of Alice's tale, that made the Ancients seem more human and fallible, changed something in the group dynamics. Especially for Suan and Duncan, they let go of the previous sense of awe that they viewed Alice with for being part of that technologically advanced race. From then on, the group viewed her as one of their own, and grew more closed knit.

Carl was secretly relieved that he wouldn't need to worry that Alice might have some lingering feelings of loyalty to the ascended beings that used to be Alterans. The Alterans had killed her loyalty for them by their own actions.

After the first few months, when they were gaining confidence, Carl introduced his students to the Room of Requirement he had set up. He had loaded the room with memories of the opponents he had fought in his own time as a disciple, to give them challenging opponents to fight.

Carl even let them fight a recreation of himself with the same amount of time and training that they had. While the memory figure of Carl could never be a perfect representation of the real thing, Carl was amused and secretly pleased to find that of his group of six, only Suan and Dan came close to beating the memory of him, even though memory Carl still won in the end.

After the first year and a half, the group was fluent enough in speaking, reading, and writing in Alteran. So Carl switched up the classroom portion to be the general education and sciences that the Alteran's had. Carl made sure to take out the "morality instilling" portions of the education, and only provided the education, not the brainwashing.

His students were already adults and good and decent people. Lecturing them about morality was a waste of time, since they were already good people. Besides, Carl didn't want to try to make them into copies of the Alteran people, who had failed so hard, in Carl's opinion.

Once Alice had mastered Occlumency and regained her memories, she no longer needed the general classes that everyone else was taking. So Carl set her class time to spend learning skills from his magic library. Her abilities to manipulate vacuum energy was similar enough to magic to have some crossover.

After five years of hard training, the group had all reached the Master Class. They were all looking incredibly fit. The confidence and feeling of strength was amazing to them.

While Carl was pleased with their advancement, he wanted to make sure that they didn't get complacent or too arrogant. So he demonstrated some of his power and abilities. He made sure to do so quite a distance from them so they wouldn't get caught up in the destruction.

The infernos of the Golden Crow flames he summoned nearly gave them a sunburn, even from so far away. Then he moved on to ice, summoning devastatingly arctic temperatures and giant ice spears. The raging lightning storm that he created next caused a frizzing in the air that caused their hair to stand up. And the gloomy and depressing danger they felt when he summoned his darkness element made them itch to get away from the darkness. They felt as if the darkness couldn't wait to devour them.

Now that they had an idea how powerful he was, they realized how far they still had to go. Dan especially was affected, realizing only now how ridiculous the idea was of Carl submitting himself to the whims of politicians or military members.

Once Carl had demonstrated the power of the dark side-er, Profound Cultivation, he opened their Profound Veins. He started his group off with 30 open Profound Entrances. With that number open, they would be considered incredibly talented anywhere on the Blue Pole Star back in the ATG world, and it would give him some leeway with gifting them more Profound Entrances in the future.

Each of them found that they had an affinity with a specific element. Dan's element was fire. Suan's was lightning. Duncan's was earth. Alice's was also lightning. Maria's was water. And Tera's was wind. Carl gave them each a high class cultivation technique that was suited to their element. (Dan didn't receive the Golden Crow's techniques because he didn't have any Golden Crow blood.)

Carl also switched up the classes, now that they all had the basic education down. From then on the classroom portion of the day was dedicated to guided self study. They could focus on whatever was of interest to them, while Carl made himself available to them for assistance in learning.

The group continued to grow closer together over the next five years as they cultivated and learned to use their Profound Energy.

They had all just reached the Sky Profound realm, which was a decently good pace. Each year on the anniversary of their opening their profound veins, Carl opened up another two of their Profound Entrances as a reward for their hard work.

Over their time in the Time Pearl, they had grown incredibly strong. They could fly under their own profound energy now that they were in the Sky Profound Realm. Their intelligence and education was head and shoulders above anyone else on Earth.

Suan and Dan had decided on a military focus. Carl would make them in charge of his future military and police forces.

With the entire database available to her, and without the council holding back her access, Alice dove in joyfully to study the advanced sciences. Carl would put her in charge of his science and technology minded people in the future.

Duncan was of a more administrative and organization mind set. He would be in charge of the people that made sure the logistics and administration work gets done.

And Tera would be in charge of the legal situation of the future organization / Empire.

As a final gift before exiting time dilation and their training, Carl had made a ship similar, if not quite as advanced, as his own Yamato that he gifted each one of his students with.

The reason he didn't make an exact duplicate was because none of his students had access to magic. Even Alice's vacuum manipulation abilities were not an exact match for magic. Carl didn't want to have magic be an integral part of their ships since they couldn't do anything to fix or adjust the magic elements of the ship if something went wrong.

But while they wouldn't have most magical functions that Carl's ship had, each of their ships would have a magical ward system to keep any of those nosy ascended snot balls away from his people, tech, and databases.

Other than that, Carl wanted them to be able to adjust their own ships to their own standards and needs. But it would give his six students all the mobility, technological, and computer aided help they would need for their part in building his organization.

They spent the last couple weeks getting used to their ships, running them through their paces, and personalizing them.

Finally, it was time to exit their training and return to the regular world to begin organizing things for Carl's Earth based company, which would be a front for recruiting for his galaxy wide organization / Empire.

XX

Upon returning to the Yamato, Carl's first act was to pullout each of his student's ships from his pocket space and place them in orbit so they could access them whenever they needed. With that done, Tera got started on making new identities for Carl, Alice, Suan, and Duncan. What would have been a long process for her before, was relatively easy with the advanced computers that could hack into the databases on Earth and create the needed identities, even creating and teleporting the needed paperwork into the files of the appropriate organizations.

For Tera, Dan, and Maria, returning to the regular world after spending 10 years in training and learning was quite a jolt. The normality and mundanity was both familiar and odd after so long away.

Each of the three sent in their resignations to their previous jobs and began to work on establishing Fire Crow Industries. Carl naturally made his bank accounts and resources available for the founding of FCI, until it could make a profit on its own. A large amount of land was bought in Colorado so they could begin construction of their facilities.

The only reason Carl went with Colorado for their headquarters was because it was near the SGC. If there was any foothold situation, or other crises, his people would be on hand nearby to intervene.

Tera, as their legal expert, began setting up their legal team and making sure they wouldn't run afoul any government agents. They all knew about the major players in the government, especially the NID, so they would be on their guard in the case of nosy agents.

Dan and Suan started recruiting and building the security branch of the company that would make sure their intellectual property remained theirs. In other words, they protected against corporate espionage of all kinds.

Duncan began recruiting office type workers to make sure all the paperwork and finances were looked after properly, as well as the supplies of materials to the needed departments was run smoothly.

Alice began recruiting for the science and technology division. Carl was quite amused when he found out a few weeks later that Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay was hired, because he remembered the high strung man from the show.

Dr. McKay was a very brilliant astrophysicist that joined the expedition to Atlantis, and helped to save the day many times, while also causing some issues simply because he didn't have the needed background in Alteran tech to be safe. After his induction and education, Carl didn't think the man would give them too many problems.

Meanwhile, Maria started looking for brilliant minds that would join her in the medical division of their company. They would always need doctors and medics, especially as they started operations against he Goa'uld.

Carl had trust in his student's abilities, so he let them go and start doing the work he hired them on for. Meanwhile, Carl started on his own projects. One of which involved something he had earned several worlds ago, but never used, until now.

He pulled out of storage the World Seed he had won from the SAO world for giving Kayaba Akihiko the ending for his death game that he wanted.

Carl held the world seed in his hand, watching as it continually shifted shapes every few seconds. First it was a sunflower seed, then it was an acorn, then it became an orange seed. And so on. Carl chuckled in amusement while looking at the freaky seed.

Carl then looked at the computer server that he'd built specifically for the World Seed. It was a mix of everything he knew, combining technology, magic, and profound crafting to make it. The users of this particular game would be able to access it anywhere in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Carl pushed the World Seed into the server while thinking of what he wanted the dream/virtual world to be. The seed began glowing and pulsing, which spread to the server. The pulsing sped up, shining a bright white until Carl was forced to cover his eyes. The light abruptly cut off.

Ideally, the people that Carl authorized to enter his virtual world could do so via magical means through their dreams, or they could connect via technology.

But in this jump world nobody had magic, so people could only access the virtual world through the VR helmets that FCI would manufacture and sell. The virtual world would have different partitions. Each partition would be a game world that had a different genre that people could play with full VR immersion. There would eventually be giant robot games, space battles, martial arts and weapons fighting games, civilization building, and many more.

And similar to the movie The Last Starfighter, FCI would monitor the game play of the user base. They would see who had the most skills, as well as judging the players based on the content of their characters and morals. Those players who were the best and of decent character would be offered a chance of recruitment for his Empire. If they accepted, they would receive training, a place in his Empire, and land on his future capital world.

So now that Carl's disciples were all busy building the company, Carl could go and do something that he'd been wanting to do for a while. Infiltrate the SGC in person to see just what those guys were up to.

XX

In the infirmary lab in the SGC, Dr. Janet Frasier pulls out a freshly taken X-ray of Cassandra's chest. The 12 year old girl that they'd found on the planet Hanka was asleep in the bed in the room nearby.

Captain Samantha Carter and Dr. Daniel Jackson join Janet in looking over the X-ray to evaluate the object they found that was nestled next to Cassandra's heart that was causing her pain and impacting her health.

"The layer of fatty tissue between the two sides of the object is decaying. Very slowly, mind you, but still…" She tapers off, gnawing on her lip in worry.

"What's the significance?" Daniel blankly asked. While he may know languages and ancient civilizations, he was usually lost when it came technology.

"I'm about to do an experiment to find out." Sam explained as she thought out loud the implications. "One side of the object is made up of a combination of iron and potassium; the other side is made up of the element that makes up the Stargate."

"What?" Daniel asked, still not clear on what Sam was saying.

"Uh-hm. I'm assuming it's the Naquadah that was in her blood. Somehow the object is collecting it." Janet explained to Daniel.

"Now, potassium can be one of the most volatile alkaline metals on Earth. Combined with even a small concentration of Naquadah, and…" Sam trailed off, unwilling to voice the possibility of Cassandra blowing up.

"That doesn't sound good." Daniel, with keen talent for understatement, said.

The door to the lab opened, and a janitor pushing a cleaning cart entered while the group of three were focused on a monitor. Janet looked back briefly to see who entered, but when she saw the janitor in his blue coveralls enter, she ignored the man and looked back at the screen.

The janitor pulled out a rag and a spray bottle and began cleaning various surfaces as he wandered around the area, looking around curiously as he perfunctorily cleaned.

"The room you're looking at is in the sub-basement floor of the complex. It's lead sealed. Let's see what happens when we put the two objects together." Samantha said, focused on the screen.

"Where are the samples?" Daniel asked, since all he saw were two robot arms that appeared empty.

"I'm only using a microscopic particle of each." Samantha replied.

On the screen, the two robot arms moved together, and they saw a brief impression of an explosion before the screen turned to static, indicating the video camera was having transmission issues.

"The reading's off the scale. Gamma and particle radiation." Janet commented in a concerned tone of voice as she looked at the readout on a nearby computer.

The Janitor moved over to the room with a little girl lying on the bed. He tut-tutted when he saw her simply lying there. Moving over, he nudged the girl gently on the shoulder for a bit. "Hey, there little girl. You're sleeping during the day. You're gonna be up all night at this rate. Why don't you wake on up and you'll be just fine."

"Are we safe?" The voice of Daniel came from outside the room where the little girl and the janitor were.

"Yeah, but we have a big problem." Samantha answered.

"Well, if two microscopic particles can cause that…" Daniel trailed off in worry.

"Then the object inside Cassandra could cause a nuclear reaction a million times bigger." Samantha concluded.

The little girl, Cassandra, had woken up in time to hear that she could cause a huge explosion, and her eyes widened in alarm.

"Hey, little girl. There's nothing you need to worry about. You'll be just fine." The janitor explained to her in a calm tone of voice.

"Who are you, and why are you in here?" A female voice demanded from the doorway of the room the janitor and Cassandra were in.

The janitor turned around and saw Janet, Samantha, and Daniel glaring at him. He shrugged. "I'm just the janitor. When I saw the little girl was waking up and wasn't feeling good, I just had to reassure her that she'd be fine, don't ya know." He explained calmly. He patted the 12 year old Cassandra on the shoulder one last time. "There, there, you'll be fine little one."

He then picked up his rag and moved toward the door. The three adults didn't move for a bit as they glared at him.

"If you've upset her…" Samantha gritted out.

"No, he's a good guy, Sam." Cassandra unexpectedly piped up from her bed.

"Fine. But you better be on your best behavior." Sam looked at the janitor's name tag. "Carl. Don't think I'll let you off if you're not!" She warned.

"No worries, little lady. I'm always on my best behavior." Carl smiled, attempting to reassure the astrophysicist who was doing a reasonable imitation of a mama bear. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some rounds to make and some cleaning to do."

Once they parted to let Carl pass by, he started whistling a tune as he pushed his cart out of the lab. He smiled as he patted the pocket that he'd stashed the Naquadah ball that he'd pulled out of Cassandra before dissolving and pulling out the iron and magnesium creation of Nirrti.

Nirrti was a Goa'uld who liked to experiment with people, or turn them into bombs. She was definitely on Carl's to hunt list. He wasn't particularly impressed with what Nirrti had done to little Cassandra.

But for now, Carl was happy he'd turned up in time disarm the bomb, pull it out of Cassandra, and heal her up so she wouldn't have any future problems from her time with Nirrti. He didn't want to rely on the possibility that the bomb wouldn't go off if she was far enough away from the Stargate.

Relying on luck for the life of a little 12 year old girl wasn't something he wanted to do.

Carl continued on his way. He wanted to make his way to every corner of the base, except maybe the bathrooms. He was taking the time to plant recording devices so he could monitor everything that happened in the base. He didn't want to let some simple things destroy the world if he could do something about it.

And he was having a ball, wandering around the base, invisible in plain sight as a janitor.