Chapter 36

With that, General O'Neill and Colonel Sheppard went off and the door closed behind them.

As soon as the door was closed Carter started in on Felix; "How do you know where I work, Sergeant?"

Felix smiled that small smile of his and replied, "I have my sources, ma'am — and no, it isn't NID or any of those whack-jobs. Just a guy I saved years ago owed me a favour, I called it in, debt cleared — that's all. I also watch what goes on and I listen to what is said or - not said."

Carter asked, "How come it is that I have never heard of you before, Sergeant? I mean — it's like you didn't exist."

Felix smiled a bit more and replied softly, "That's the way it should be, ma'am — you don't know we are there until you need us, and then we go away just as fast. Anonymity is how we stay alive," he paused and reflected that his team was now dead, "Or I should say, stayed alive."

He looked down at the table in regret that he would never see their laughing faces again as they defied the odds time and time again to rescue friendlies from behind enemy lines and bring them home. Manny his Number 2 with his infectious laughter; Pete and Repeat with their practical jokes all the time — he had to let go of the past and move forward.

Carter saw the bit of regret and distress wash through Felix's face and she asked, "Are you okay, Sergeant? You look a bit out of sorts."

Felix looked up at Carter and saw the sympathy in her eyes and replied, "Just remembering my team, ma'am — they were a dammed good team but they're gone and I have to move forward. And besides, if I'm going to be forming a new CSAR team out of Force Recon Marines, then I better get my shit squared away. Jarheads aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed — I don't know if you've ever had to work with any of them before?"

She shook her head no.

He continued, "They are good troops, don't misunderstand me — I just have to get them to think outside the box and be unconventional when needed. They have a set doctrine and you really have to break them of that, otherwise all you have is a bunch of gung-ho clowns that want to kill everything. Don't need to be like that — got to be selective — except with Wraith."

He stopped there and then added, "But that isn't what you are here to talk about, is it ma'am?"

Carter answered, "Right — I'm here to talk to you about how you adapted the Ancients drones to become Wraith ... busters I guess would be how it can be called. What can you tell me?"

Felix stood up and said, "How about I show you instead of me talking your ear off, ma'am? It's down in Dr. McKay and Zelenka's lab down the way — if McKay hasn't blown it up yet."

She stood and smoothed her skirt and replied, "I take it you know Dr. McKay?"

He replied as they walked to the door, "I wouldn't exactly say I know him as much I know about him, and therefore I am able to somewhat work near him, ma'am."

She laughed, as she understood perfectly what he was talking about: McKay may be brilliant but he was an insufferable ass to work near.

She had to known more so she asked, "So how did you come to be in the Pegasus Galaxy, Sergeant? I gather from your initial reports that you were on a rescue mission to a downed X-302 crew in our galaxy. How did you end up here in Pegasus?"

So as they walked to the labs, Felix explained as much as he could remember about the one particular gating which brought him to the Pegasus Galaxy. Carter stopped outside the labs to think for a minute about what could have caused this freak occurrence to happen and there was nothing that would logically explain it. She shook her head and said, "I don't suppose you happen to remember what planet you were on when this happened, do you?"

Felix replied, "You mean like the planet we went to — P3R299 — that sort of designation? No, I wouldn't know that."

She replied, "Of course not — you were supposed to be on a one-time trip, so how would you know about the system set-up?"

Felix added after a pause, "I do however, have all my notes from my time since I left Earth 2 years ago, ma'am. I made a point of drawing the symbols I chose every time I gated as I was trying to get back to Earth, plus I made notes in my short-hand about each planet that I visited. I think the Boss Man still has it somewhere being figured out or something like that; hang on! He was entering all the dialling info about which was friendly and which was hostile."

Carter exclaimed, "Felix — you're a treasure! This will save us hours if not days of transcribing someone's gibberish into logical data."

Felix had a thought that he had to mention before she got too excited; "Nobody has sat down with me so I can relate my notes and memory into logical data as you phrased it, ma'am. So they may have scanned it already but personally I would find it useless until my notes are transcript into English."

She nodded and replied, "That makes perfect sense. Hey — you want to come back to Earth and work with me at Area 51? I do a lot of field testing of some cool stuff and you sound like you would like that sort of thing — what do you say?"

Felix replied slowly and honestly, "Ma'am - I can't leave these people here and abandon them to the Wraith — could you? Besides, General O'Neill has charged me with setting up CSAR here in Atlantis, and I get the feeling that if you were actually successful in getting me to Area 51 that he would be some pissed at both of us. Much as rank doesn't intimidate me — a pissed off General of his calibre — time to get off world in a hurry, I'd say. But that is just my opinion, ma'am."

Carter stared at the shorter Sergeant and said, "I like your honesty — it's refreshing."

He flourished his hand and said, "Shall we enter the 'McKay Zone a place of sight and of sound' and see what silliness awaits us?"

Carter actually laughed at the way Felix described McKay's lab — it seemed quite apt.

Felix noticed that she seemed to be relaxing a bit finally instead of always being the tough SG-1 officer, and was smiling genuinely.

They entered the lab to see McKay look up from what he was doing at a table and said in surprise, "Samantha! Good to see you again. What brings you here? Are you wanting to see the latest toys we have to play with?"

Felix could see and feel Colonel Carter flinch and grimace at being near McKay again and was about to say something but she answered Rodney; "Hi McKay. Yes, I am here to see the latest toys but General O'Neill kind of wanted the person who made them to show me about them, rather than being talked down to by someone who hasn't figured it out yet. Am I right? You are still trying to figure it out?"

Rodney shrank back but then rebutted, "Yes well, fine then, see if I care — go ahead and blow yourselves up. And I have figured out how they work, so you can tell General O'Neill that I have figured it out. And then I"

Felix placing a hand over his mouth just to get any words in at all cut off his words. He said, "Dr. McKay — that's fine — you want all the credit — take it — I really don't give a shit. But when it comes to IEDs, well that's my area where I take over for a bit. We know you are smarter than the rest of us — fine — good for you. But you have to work with these people, and if you keep going off like this, then one day one of them might just stuff you into a cardboard tube and launch you who knows where. Stop treating everyone like they are stupid idiots and let them do their job — treat them nicely and they will do the same for you — got it? Good. Now, can I see one of the drones that I modified, or a drone that hasn't been modified? I just want to show Colonel Carter how I did it the first time, and then we go from there." He said all of this gently but firmly and it actually shut Rodney up and woke him up as to what Felix was saying.

McKay responded, "There is one drone disassembled over there in the corner but there isn't a sac for it."

Felix smiled at him in return and gave a thumb up and said, "Thank you," and went with Colonel Carter to the corner table.

Right next to the corner table was Dr. Zelenka working on a laptop and muttering in Czech under his breath as they walked up.

Felix understood what Radek was muttering about: McKay and his distrusting ways and how he treated people.

He looked up and his face brightened when he saw Samantha Carter smiling at him, and he barely noticed Felix, but that was normal for Felix.

Radek jumped off the stool he had been sitting on and greeted her with an affectionate hug and said, "Samantha - good to see you again! I take it you saw McKay on the way in? Since he got that award this morning he has become insufferable — driving everyone crazy here."

Carter responded happily, "It's good to see you as well, Radek. Sergeant Grey shut McKay down good a minute ago - I've never seen him act that way. He shut right up after Felix explained the bare facts of life to him and well, here I am." She looked around for Felix but couldn't see him — he was deliberately hiding directly behind her with a smirk on his face until she whirled around and saw him there.

She asked, "What are you doing, Sergeant? I thought we were here for some serious work, not to play around."

Felix responded, "Ma'am, you could cut the tension in this room with a knife. These people need a seriously deep belly laugh to lighten the atmosphere in here, otherwise ... who knows?"

He then looked at Radek and said some words in Czech to Radek, whose jaw dropped and he responded, "You speak Czech? So you understood what I was..." he trailed off as the realization came over him.

Felix just smiled and said, "Don't worry — I already told McKay what would probably happen if he keeps treating you folks the way he has been."

Carter stood there dumbfounded at the smaller Sergeant with the warped sense of humour, who seemed to understand what it was that people needed in their busy lives sometimes: laughter.

She came back to reality when Felix started giving a ridiculous spiel as if he was the cheesy car salesman that you never trusted as he talked about the drone modifications. After barely a minute Carter and Zelenka were laughing at how Felix sounded.