The door swung open and he stepped into the room after only the barest hesitation.

Sheppard squinted, wincing at the bright light coming off the device. Shifting the equipment to one arm he used his other hand to dig his sunglasses out of his pocket and slipped them on.

"Don't do anything until we have shut the door behind you," Stark's voice was back. "Just in case."

"You are a voice of reassurance." Sheppard took a few steps into the room to give the door a chance to thunk closed.

"How do you feel?" That was Carter, sounding worried.

"Fine." Sheppard took inventory. "It's bright, and a little warm. That's it."

"Interesting." Stark's voice again. When nothing more was forthcoming Sheppard checked over his shoulder to make sure the door was completely sealed, noting that it had no handle or keypad on this side. That was only mildly claustrophobia inducing. He shook it off, getting locked in was probably the least of his potential problems.

He sat the empty ZPM by his feet before walking slowly toward the device. Holding a reader in each hand he stopped just out of range of the whipping tendrils of light.

"We still doing ok in there?" He looked at the displays on the screens but one was completely new and he had no idea how to read it, the other was familiar but the types of readings it was registering weren't. He was completely dependent on McKay. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that Rodney hadn't gotten him killed yet.

"Fine, fine." McKay said.

He realized they didn't have him on an open circuit, but rather he could hear them only when they held a switch open, cutting him out of the loop the rest of the time and leaving the room he was in eerily quiet. Enough that he could hear his own breathing and the slight whisper of the machine as it ran.

"What are you waiting for?" McKay snapped, then, "Are you feeling OK?"

"Just looking, McKay. Some of us do not rush headlong into trouble without pausing to contemplate out options." Still, Rodney was right. He was stalling. He shifted both machines to one hand and extended the other, letting it enter into the space where the light was whipping around. The tendrils avoided him for a moment, moving around his hand, then they changed tactics and began to whisper along his skin, twisting around his fingers and wrist. It made the hair stand on end, but nothing more.

Stepping forward a couple more feet Sheppard let his hand drop as he stopped directly next to the machine. He examined the surface, looking for- yes, there is was. A tattletell smooth place between several rougher metal components. A hand pad.

"Ready Mckay?"

"Getting old waiting on you." His voice, however, held concern. Concern that Sheppard doubted the others could hear.'

Sheppard put his hand out and after the barest hesitation, placed it flat on the space. Willing his mind blank and relaxed, focused on on the lights. Something that seemed safe. The machined hummed a little louder, more felt through his hand than heard. The twisting of the lights picked up, flashing and dancing around him. He felt like he was holding onto a Vandergraph Generator, all his hair standing on end.

He waited, then shrugged. No one said anything, which meant either nothing had happened or else everything bad was happening all at once. He mentally told the machine he was there to use it and that it should cycle to active mode, on the assumption that it was in a standby phase at the moment.

He felt the vibrations under his hand increase dramatically. He forced himself to not let go. Ancient tech tended to react poorly when contact was lost while it was running.

"What did you tell it?" McKay's startled shout came through. "You touched it, minor power fluctuations. But then you told it something, didn't you?"

In the background he could hear Stark and Henry's voice's, though he couldn't make out their fight.

"Told it to power up, out of sleep mode."

"You told it to power up?" Cater sounded incredulous. "Does that seem like a good idea?"

"How else are we going to use it?" Sheppard noticed the humming was dropping now, into a lower octave. The twisting lights suddenly clicked off, leaving the machine looking far closer to what he expected something Ancient to look. Faint blue light shown in the now visible control panels, while gold light still shone from the top portion.

Sensing the machine was now in a ready mode he pulled his hand away, watching for any sign it needed to go back. Nothing happened, with the exception of the hand pad turning off, so he let it fall to his side.

"Think it's ready to work," he said to the quiet room.

"How bad is the damage from the drilling?" That was McKay again.

He circled it until he found the spot. "Looks like they blew out a panel, a set of circuits. This side is mostly dark. Still I think it was designed to old two at once so as long as the other one still works we'll be fine." He put his hand out but that panel reacted by sparking a little so he pulled it back. "I'd stay clear of this side."

"I'm coming in." McKay said.

"Thought you had to monitor readings."

"They're stable now, no different than the transporters on Atlantis. I want to see the damage on the hook-up before we attach anything to it." Sheppard heard more background talking but it cut off before he could make out what they were saying. He entertained himself while he waited for McKay by placing his hand back on the machine and focusing on diagnostics. A hologram of the machine appeared in overlay over it, showing the damage and wear it had taken through years of neglect. The systems were old, but mostly intact.

"That's useful." Carter's voice caused him to turn. Everyone had followed McKay in, leaving the doors open. Apparently whatever he had told them had been enough for them to decide he was right.

"How did he convince them that we weren't going to blow up the base?" Sheppard asked Carter, gesturing to the open door with his chin while leaving his hand in place to keep the display up for the scientists.

"You not dropping dead did most of it."

"Ah."

"This is," Carter shook his head, "Never thought I'd see proof that aliens exist."

"You've taken it better than a lot of people do."

"Living in Eureka has helped me learn to deal with news of almost anything. I mean, aliens are big," he leaned in to look at the surface of the machine, "But I've had a lot of practice in believing in things I would have once thought impossible."

Sheppard looked at the machine, and then at Carter, who was about as close as he could get while being careful to not touch it. A slight smile appeared on his face and he pointed to the Ancient scanner he had sat on the floor waiting on McKay. "Hand that to me, would you?"

Carter scooped it up. The face of it lit up brightly, glowing and beeping once.

"Automatically turns on, that's a nice feature." He held it out toward Sheppard, who shook his head.

"Come on," McKay sounded put out. "That's not fair."

"What?" Carter was looking down at it, puzzled.

"Hand it to one of those three," Sheppard said, indicating the small crowd now watching the conversation. Henry was closest, when he reached out and took it the screen went dark.

"That's weird." Carter reached back for it.

"Wait," Sheppard said, "Hand it to Stark." Henry complied, the screen was still dark. "And to Blake." It stayed dark. "Now back to Carter."

"I think we outgrew hot potato some years ago," Stark said as Allison handed it to Carter, where it began to glow again.

"Is this bad?" Carter looked up, nervous.

"Opposite,"Shepard smiled. "You've got the Ancient gene, which means you can use their technology naturally. Like me."

McKay had pulled a small orb out of his pocket and held it out to Carter. After a glance at SHeppard, who nodded, Carter reached out and took it. It blazed.

"Of course," McKay snatched it back and shoved it into his pocket again.

"What does that mean?" Allison was looking at Carter with concern.

"It means that not only does he have the gene, which, by the way, how did you know?" McKay looked at SHeppard, who only smiled and shook his head. No need to ruin the mystery and tell him the machine had responded to Carter being so close to it. McKay continued, "He has a very strong version of it. It is wasted on people who can't appreciate it, that's for sure." McKay began to pound on his keyboard as if it had personally offended him.

"Hey." Carter frowned at him, then looked back at Sheppard. "So, that means?"

"Nothing, really. Unless Eureka starts getting some of our tech now. In that case they are going to have you in here touching things all the time." Sheppard said this with the air of a man who had spent quite a bit of time doing that very thing.

Carter felt nervous when he saw Henry and Stark eyeing him with the same speculative gaze.

"Where did the gene come from?"

"The Ancients. Apparently they interbred with humans." At Carter's shocked looked Sheppard rushed to add, "A long time ago. Millennia. Because of that humans carry the gene, or at least some of us. I never bothered with the details."

"So I'm part alien?" Carter had a somewhat horrified tone to his voice. "My daughter is part alien?"

"Technically." Sheppard shrugged, "Like I said, so long ago it really doesn't matter unless you need to use Ancient tech."

Carter got more nervous at the looks Allison and Henry were giving him. He could imagine the amount of blood they would want to draw. "I don't feel quite so hot." Carter looked like he was still processing the idea that he wasn't fully human, no matter how far back that was.

"It explains a lot." Stark was eyeing him in a fashion Carter imagined he eyes lab rats during a study. "It's not really your fault you can't keep up."

"Humans carrying the gene tend to have higher IQs and at least slightly higher reflexes." McKay didn't look up.

Carter preened at Stark, who rolled his eyes.

"Look, come here." Sheppard waved Carter over to him. "I want to go around and make sure McKay isn't about to do something regrettable."

"And I'm going to?"

"Keep this display up. It'll be good practice for you."

He took his hand away, making the display wink out.

"I need that." McKay sputtered.

"Patience, Rodney. We have several days before we are due back. At least."

"Time that is all the more valuable now that we know what this can do."

"Ignore him," Sheppard jerked his head at the machine. "Put your hand on the flat panel."

"What is it going to do?" Carter kept his hand firmly at his side.

"Nothing, until you tell it to." Sheppard added, "Just try to not think of any commands when you are touching it, it reads your mind."

Carter had been extending his hand toward it but at that statement jerked it back as if he'd been burned. "Reads my mind? I don't think-"

"There's anything there for it to pick up? Yes, we know." Stark had crossed his arms and was watching the conversation.

"Stark." Henry scolded.

"Ignore them, unless you want to blow them up. It will probably do that if you ask it to."

Carter's head shot up in surprise but he saw the carefully hidden gleam of amusement in Sheppard's eyes. "That's tempting."

He reached out and paused just above the pad. He took a deep breath but before he could move McKay grabbed his hand and shoved it against it. "Hurry up." Carter shot him an incredulous look but didn't try to pull away, instead staring at the machine.

"Cool, huh?"

He gave Sheppard a look of amazement. "Wow."

"Yeah."

"Where is the display?" McKay sighed, "I can do it, but I need to type and I can't do both." He waved his hand at Carter in a hurry-up motion.

"I can see why asking it to kill people would be tempting." Carter said as he grinned, staring at the thing in wonder.

Sheppard smirked back, which faded when the machine began to hum ominously.

"Wait," he grabbed Carter's hand before he could pull away. "Think calm thoughts, but don't let go. That confuses it, and it could go into a protective mode."

"Calm thoughts?"

"You were just thinking about killing, right?" The machine hummed louder and the other three residents of Eureka took a step back. McKay went back to staring and typing, more rapidly.

"So stop, right?" Carter sounded rattled.

"Yeah," Sheppard kept his tone pitched down, all soothing like, and let go of Carter's hand so he wouldn't feel trapped, trusting the man to keep it there. "In fact, just think about diagnostics. That overlay I had, imagine it coming back."

Carter took a few deep breathes and the humming died away. A few seconds later the display flashed into existence.

"Finally." McKay sounded snappish but he gave Sheppard a wide eyed look and swallowed hard.

"See, nothing to it." Sheppard put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. "Just think about what you want it to do. Saves a lot of time."

"Yeah." Carter seemed to be calming down again. "Handy."

"If terrifying." Allison gave it a wide berth as she walked over to stand behind McKay.

Henry had walked back over and examined the plate under Carter's hand. "I can touch this, right?" McKay kept typing. "Rodney?"

"What?" He glanced up, "Yeah, sure."

That wasn't the most complete answer but it would have to do. Henry ran his finger along the edge of the lite plate. When nothing happened he grew bolder, examining the bolts and edges of the pieces. Stark wandered over behind McKay and watched the data flashing up on the screen, trying to get a handle on the power flow options available to them.

"Ok, grab the ZPM." McKay said to the room at large. When no one moved he looked up, "Really? No one?" He stomped over and grabbed it himself, coming back to the device. "We have to install this in that area, I think" He waved at a seemingly identical portion as he consulted his notes.

"There doesn't appear to be a hook-up or outlet there." Henry ran his hands over the area.

"Carter."

"What?"

McKay pointed at the general area. When Carter only stared at him he added, "Open the hatch."

"I don't know how to do that." He shook his head, "I can't just say, hatch open."

There was a soft chink sound and a hatch slid open on the side, right where McKay had been pointing.

"Oh." Carter looked at his hand with suspicion.

"Still, maybe-" McKay cut himself off and looked at Sheppard.

"Good point. Maybe I should take over this part, just in case."

"Gladly." Carter started to pull his hand away, then stopped. "It's not going to freak out, right?"

"It should be fine, now. Just not when things are going wrong." Sheppard slipped his hand onto the pad as soon as Carter lifted his. The display flickered out of existence. "Ok, Rodney."

McKay lifted the ZPM canister carefully and slid it into the hole. Halfway in it got stuck.

"Let go," Sheppard ordered.

Rodney complied and the canister lit up from within before sliding the rest of the way into the machine and the hatch closed.

Sheppard kept his hand there for a moment, then pulled it away. "It's charging."

"Yes, it is." Rodney was holding one of the scanners again. "The power levels are through the roof." He and the other scientists gathered around the laptop, talking over each other and pointing at things on the screen.

Thirty minutes later and Carter was running out of questions to ask Sheppard about the gene, and Sheppard looked to be running out of patience to answer them.

"McKay." He didn't get an answer. "Rodney." When he still didn't get one he put his hand in front of the screen. Four pairs of irritated eyes looked at him.

"Anything interesting?"

"It appears to be working." McKay sounded excited. Sheppard understood that, if this worked it would be groundbreaking.

"How long?"

"A few days." He stared at the numbers. "Or weeks. It's hard to tell."

"So we could call it a night, check on it tomorrow..."

McKay waved him off with one hand, not even bothering to look up.

"I think our work here is done." Shepard looked at Carter. "Got a place to get a beer in this town?"

"Come back to my house. It's bound to be better than where ever they've got you.. I've got a spare room, a tv that covers an entire wall, every sports channel in existence, and eight different beers on tap."

"Sweet."

"And a teenage daughter." Carter lifted one shoulder. "Watch out for her. She's got an evil side."

"Oh yes, the ringtone." Shepard grinned as he followed the Sheriff out of the complex. "What did you do to earn that?"

"It's a long story, starting with Parent's Night at the high school last week..."

Fin