Chapter Two: Sneaks and Creeps
Page Nine3, July 1999 Saturday Sam wasn't about to take Daniel's heat, so wasn't the slightest bit guilty when the Colonel suddenly relaxed, his eyes roaming
over Daniel who was now starting to flush a bit.
The threatened archaeologist's quick question caught her off guard.
"So, there might be a way to remove Teal'c's reliance on the Goa'uld?" She barely noticed the Colonel pushing the
plate across the table top to sit in front of Daniel before looking at her for an answer, sobering at the thought of the transformation Teal'c had undergone because of their ignorance of what was
happening until almost too late.
Not to mention the complications of Col. Maybourne's intervention.
Sam sighed heavily, the sparkle in her eyes dimming at her answer. "From what I understand, probably not. If this works, what happened with that alien insect's venom may be circumvented, though. If they develop an
immune system that can help the Goa'uld larva, then the few things that do get past now might be prevented. I think Janet's hoping this new technique can be improved over time, eventually
eliminating his dependence, though, so we'll see." Daniel lifted his mug in a quick, silent hope before drinking the
last few sips and getting to his feet. "I need to check on something before we leave. I'll meet you in the
GateRoom." Sam watched him leave, laughter from another table catching her attention.
Her eyes latched onto Lt.
Edican just as he busted up those at his table again.
Only one person there looked over at SG-13, but it was enough to make Sam turn and look, too.
Her glance couldn't miss the straight
back and highly tense posture of Captain Frome and no one in the room missed the way Maj. Gorowitz stood before leading his team out of the room, not glancing even once at any of the snickering
lower ranking officers. "Carter?"
Startled, Sam looked over…and down.
She hadn't realized she'd stood and it looked like she'd even taken a step toward the offending table.
Holding her breath for a moment, she let it out
slowly and nodded to her CO before stepping out of the way to let him lead her out of the room.
She guessed that he'd gotten sick of the atmosphere, too.
Sam checked her watch as she entered the corridor.
Twelve forty.
Twenty minutes until they shipped out.12:50 PM Amber pulled the glove off with a snap, dropping it with its mate into
the biohazard bin before waving the Airman over so he could properly dispose of all the contents when he left.
Without the Goa'uld symbiote, Teal'c was helpless to fight infection or reject
transplanted tissue.
She'd thought that removing the Goa'uld larva and then transplanting immature human immune tissues and/or immune cells into him might give him a chance to lose reliance on
the Goa'uld.
Unfortunately, something in Teal'c's changed DNA kept causing the helper T Cells to mutate so she'd been forced to test ways to enhance the Goa'uld instead.
She made her
expression bland from long practice while trying to figure out how to keep the Goa'uld from manufacturing autoantibodies to force Teal'c to reject even the modified immune tissues she'd attempted
to introduce.
Picking up another file folder, she flipped through the pages of notes and test results, her fingers sliding down each paper until a noise alerted her to the fact she was no
longer alone in the lab.
She tried to gracefully raise her head, going very still when she recognized Col. O'Neill.
Each muscle in her brain tensed, waiting for him to do something
unexpected and highly annoying.
At least he didn't look comfortable, the way he was looking around the lab.
"Doc. Fraiser's not in here anymore?" "No, Colonel. She was called to the infirmary eleven minutes ago."
"Ah…well then I'll go there then." Amber
started to dismiss him and go back to her work, but paused when he seemed to want to say something more.
"Colonel?" His jaw worked a moment and then he pivoted and walked out.
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