Ajax. The name tumbled over and over in the writer's mind. He needed someone to send, someone he could trust.

With a sigh, the writer sat down. He had known about alternate realities for some time, but he never knew that the stories written by bestsellers such as James Patterson were true, albeit in a slightly different way than most thought of truth and reality. He knew that there was something he was supposed to do, but he never could put his finger on it. Until now, that is.

"I might as well get started." he muttered, leaning back in his chair. He had been researching the idea for some time, and was finally ready.

"…relatively thin, wiry strength, wings…" he paused to flip through a leather-bound tome, jotting down a note here and there. "…likes metal and hard rock, wears an orange jacket with royal blue trim, jeans and a white tee, combat boots. Let's see, can't have perfection or he'd never make any headway. People are able to detect Gary Stu types so easily these days, and it's game over after that. We'll just give him a first-generation iPod. Brown hair, cropped, and in the 'John Sheppard messy' style. Piercing laser blue eyes, a watchful guarded expression. We'll give him a good pocketknife and a Leatherman multi-tool, no telling what kind of trouble he'll get himself into. Hell, we'll throw in a basic tool kit to go with. I guess I'll just put that in his backpack…"

The writer continued on, working out the basic appearance and personality of his creation. After four hours, he stopped, yawned, then after he flipped the lid closed on his laptop so it would go to sleep, he closed the leather-bound books he had strewn around the room, snapped off the light, and went to bed.

"That was the day I was created. He decided to call himself 'Hideout Writer', mainly because the room he did all his writing in was referred to as the 'Hideout'. Rumor has it that he wrote that room into existence before he did anything else." the stranger said, sitting at the bar. "I'll take a Sprite. Time for me to prepare for the night." This was directed at the bartender. "Thanks. Now, as I was saying, this man had found out how to send something -or someone- into different realities, ones that paralleled the works of fiction in his world." He paused to appreciatively sip his Sprite. "After he finished creating me, he gave me this," here the stranger removed a key from one of his pockets. "and told me to go to the Stargate reality. He said that there was a door in Cheyenne Mountain that would serve as a link between this reality and that one, but only when used with this key." He put it back in his pocket, patting it reassurance. "Well, it was great ratchet-jawing with you, but I have to shove on down the road. I highly doubt you'll ever see me again." With a final, jaunty wave, the man laid down a twenty on the bar to cover his drinks and the tip, and left.

I slammed the door after I got in, making sure the door latched. The car I have now is a piece of crap, but it runs, and gets an average of thirty-eight miles to the gallon. Sometimes I wonder if the car can actually hear and understand me, because occasionally, the miles to the gallon rate gets pretty bad, then I threaten to find myself a giant can-opener, and the miles to the gallon pick right back up again. Either way, I was not yet close to Cheyenne Mountain, and I needed to get there tonight. I'd probably sleep in some crappy motel as soon as I got there.

The drive was uneventful, and the motel seedy. I wearily paid for one night, and passed out on the bed, not even bothering to get under the covers. I woke again in four hours, refreshed, just as the sun was rising. I left a tip for room service on the table, and left, dropping my key card at the front desk as I walked out.

No one so far had noticed me but I saw several well-muscled men looking at me as I walked to my car, and I knew they weren't going to be good news. Sure enough, they weren't. Just as I was sliding into the driver's seat, they approached.

One of them pulled a gun, and I forced myself to relax. This wasn't going to go well if I got twitchy while they had weapons trained on me.

"Gimme your money." the leader said.

"Okay. I'm going to reach into my left pocket, and pull out my wallet." I said, wishing my relaxed demeanor didn't sound so forced. "Now, I'm going to open it, and hand you the cash I have inside."

Making sure to keep my hands where they could see them, I withdrew all the money, which came to seven hundred dollars and seventeen cents. They snatched at the bills, and thumbed them, checking to see if they were counterfeits. Satisfied, they left, and I drove out of the parking lot with a sigh of relief though on the inside I was boiling.

I was pissed that they had the temerity to rob me in open daylight, but with my weapons locked in the trunk, there was little I could do to stop them. Cheyenne Mountain was roughly twelve miles away, and I jacked in my iPod at the light, having decided I would listen to a little Hammerfall before I got to the mountain.

Hammerfall, we will prevail. Hammerfall, let us sail.

The drive was over before I knew it, and I pulled in at the parking lot near Cheyenne Mountain. After retrieving all my gear, I locked the car, and walked to the gate where a pair of guards patrolled back and forth in front of the complex. I knew that this would be easy to do, but I felt like playing nice instead of infiltrating like some filthy intruder.

"Please identify yourself." The man in the guard shack said as I came forward.

"My name is Ajax, I have business here." I said, holding up my ID.

"Right. I'll just call ahead, and see if anyone is expecting you." The guard disappeared back into his shack before coming back out for a moment. "Wait here."

"Of course." While I waited, I looked around a bit, trying to feel out the defenses available for use against me should they try anything stupid.

"You're good to go," the guard said, reappearing. "after we search you for drugs and weapons."

Well, that was to be expected. "Let me make it easy here, sir." I said. "All my weapons with exception to a pocketknife and a Leatherman multi-tool are all in the pack, and sewn in place until I get to where I'm going." I shrugged off the backpack, and handed it to him. "You should find that there is a sheath knife and a matched set of forty-fives in there, along with some odds and ends."

After he accepted the backpack, I pulled out the pocketknife and the Leatherman. After examining my pack, he set it down on the ground and retrieved a plastic wand from the guard shack. I presumed it was a metal detector, or maybe a drug detector. It didn't matter, as I came up clean. Just then, a Humvee came out of the tunnel, and the guard handed me my pack. "You're good to go." he said. "The two in the Humvee over there are your escorts. Don't try anything funny, or the whole base will come down around your ears, understand?"

"Yes sir." I replied seriously. "I won't do anything."

"Good."

With that done, I got into the back of the Humvee, and the driver drove back down into the tunnel. The ride was silent, and I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket.

Level 28, D section the note read.

The Humvee stopped suddenly, while I was mulling it over.

"You must be pretty special." The man driving said. "The brass doesn't typically allow people to just walk on in here."

"I called ahead."

"So, where are we escorting you to, then?" the woman in the passenger seat asked as we got out of the car.

"Level twenty-eight, section D sound familiar?" I asked as we walked through two metal doors. "Supposedly, there's a door there, with a lock that matches a key I have. I'm here to test it."

"Right." she said, twisting to glare at me over her shoulder. "Look, if you don't want to tell me why you're here, that's your business. But whatever you do, DON'T insult my intelligence!"

"I was telling you the truth, ma'am, just not all of it." I replied, feeling slightly defensive. Being in a slow elevator going down didn't help my mood.

"Then what is the rest of it?" she asked. "Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure I can handle it. Just because my reproductive organs are inside my body instead of outside doesn't mean I'm not just as smart."

"Calm down already!" I said, having had enough. "The key is supposed to activate a portal into a different reality via subspace. The closet I'm looking for was chosen by random, but the level was not. If everything goes according to plan, I'll end up in a different reality. If everything fails, I'll look pretty stupid."

"You already do." the man quipped.

"Yeah," I rejoined, "But at least I won't be here looking stupid."

The doors opened, and I bounded out of the elevator, eager to be out of that enclosed space. Finding section D wasn't terribly hard, and as we were rounding a corner, I saw a door to a supply closet. It was the first one I had seen in this section, and I figured I might as well try it.

"I'm making an attempt on this door." I said, pointing at the door.

"Why that one? It's just a supply closet."

"I know" I replied, walking up to it and twisting the brass handle. "But it might be the one with the portal in it. You never know."

"What did we do to deserve the fate of escorting some weird crackpot around NORAD?" the lady asked, rolling her eyes at the man.

"Beats me." the man grunted.

Ignoring them, I fished out the key. After fumbling with it a few times trying to get it to go in, I managed to insert the key, and unlock the door. Supposedly, the action of unlocking the door with this key was the trigger for the portal. I swung the door open, and saw a thin skin of energy stretched across the doorway. After pulling the key back out of the lock, I touched the sparkling web of energy, and the whole world seemed to blur as my body absorbed a massive electrical shock. The surroundings seemed to change slightly, and just before I passed out, an alarm sounded.

I slept soundly for eight hours.

When I cracked my eyes open again, I found several things to be different. The first was the presence of a gentle beeping sound. I also noticed that there was something gently clipped to one of my fingers. I could smell a strong scent of antiseptic, and opened my eyes a little more.

"Well, there you are!" a woman's voice said. I blinked a couple times, then tried moving. A woman in a white lab coat moved into my field of vision. She had a kind face, and it struck me that she would probably be the somewhat motherly type. She had a stethoscope around her neck, and even as I was blearily looking around, she put it in her ears, and began to press it to various points on my body. The metal part of it sent chills across my skin.

I pulled the white plastic clip thingie off my finger, and rubbed my eyes before swiping my hand across my face. "Feeling better?" she asked.

"Much, thanks." I replied.

"I'm Dr. Frasier. Do you have a name?" she asked, ceasing her prodding with the stethoscope.

"Yeah. I go by Ajax. So…what happened?" I asked, glancing around the room which was basically bare.

"We were hoping you could tell us. Do you feel up to walking around and talking?" her face seemed slightly concerned, but I figured it was just due to my experiment working perfectly.

"I feel hungry, but other than that, no, I'm fine." I said.

"Good. We'll get you something to eat, but while we're doing that, you need to go to the conference room. General Landry wants to know some things." Dr. Frasier said, pulling the heart monitor cuff off my arm.

"Okay. Say, was there a backpack with me when you found me?"

Her eyes lit up in recognition. "Yes, yes there was. It had a couple weapons sewn into it?"

"That's the one. Can I have it back?"

"Sorry, not yet." a man's voice entered the room. A few moments later, the owner of the voice walked into my field of vision.

I stood up, trying to remain steady, and held out my hand towards the man. "I'm Ajax. Pleased to meet you."

"Cameron Mitchell." he said, accepting the proffered hand. "I'm supposed to escort you to the briefing room."

"Lead the way." I said.

The man nodded curtly and walked out of the room. I followed.

As I exited the room, a rather large man with a golden colored object on his forehead fell in behind us.

After walking through several corridors, we came upon a bulkhead thick door. Cameron removed a card from his pocket, and swiped the card through a reader mounted near the door. The reader light turned green and buzzed, before there was a click, and the door hissed before rumbling open. We walked down another corridor, where we came to a plain door next to a bulkhead door.

As I continued to follow Mitchell, I felt the weight of the heavy man's gaze behind me, almost like he was daring me to try anything.

We went up a spiral staircase, and came to a long conference table, where there were three other people sitting. There were guards posted at strategic locations in the room, and as I came up the stairs, Cameron stopped short, and saluted to one of the people seated at the table.

"General Landry, sir!" he said. "I brought our guest as ordered, sir."

"At ease, son." the general said.

"Thank you, sir." Cameron's stiff posture dropped to a more relaxed form, though still to a degree of attention. I moved out from behind Cameron to get a better look at the people seated at the table.

"Everyone, sit down." Landry said. "I want to get on with this as quickly as possible."

As Cameron, the dangerous guy and I pulled out seats and sat, I decided I liked this person. He seemed like someone to get straight to the point, and not waste time with ceremony. As I was thinking this over, he looked me straight in the eye. "I want to know how you got on this base. I want to know who you are working for, and I want to know why you are here." by the end of his mini-speech, he was leaned forward rather aggressively.

Something happened in my brain, rewiring several sections, and I forgot about who created me and exactly how I got here. On the flip side, I now had memories corresponding to a laboratory and being treated as an experiment. I also had intimate knowledge of the Omega Project.

With this knowledge missing, I decided to wing it as best I could. "My name is Ajax. To my knowledge, I answer to nobody, and my mission is the betterment of the galaxy."

"That doesn't explain what you are doing here." Landry stated, leaning back into his chair.

"I heard rumors about a team of commandos who go around in this galaxy helping people, and handing evil factions such as the Goa'uld their asses on silver platters. There were a few chuckles echoing around the room but they were silenced by the General's glare almost immediately.

"Yeah," broke in the man with glasses, "we couldn't find any gold, so we had to use silver." he leaned back in his seat, a satisfied look on his face.

"Dr. Jackson, I would very much appreciate it if you would not interrupt. There will be time for comments later." Landry said, looking at the man in question.

Thus far, I had learned the name of a Dr. Frasier, and three relatively important-looking people, without even asking their names.

"You still haven't answered the question." Landry said, starting to look impatient as his eyes fell on me once more.

"I wanted to join up with the good guys, and be a driving force in the galaxy. That's why I'm here." The General was silent for a moment, studying Ajax with experienced eyes. Then, he nodded ever so slightly as if he like what he saw.

"Very well. We have some other questions for you. Dr. Carter?" Landry sat back, seemingly finished, but I knew he would jump back into the conversation at any time he chose.

"What are you?" The woman asked. I presumed that she was the Doctor Carter.

"I am a human-avian hybrid, with all the trimmings."

From there, it degenerated into a question-and-answer free-for-all. Finally, after everyone had run their course, the heavily muscled one with the golden thing on his forehead spoke up.

"How familiar are you with the art of defending yourself?" he asked.

My head whipped up. "A demonstration can be arranged if you want." I offered. "You could see first hand what I can do."

"I accept." he responded, inclining his head.

"Before we do that though, I haven't eaten anything since before I passed out on your floor, and I require just about double the daily caloric intake, or at least, I'm supposed to get double the daily average for a male human my age. Could I have something to eat?"

Carter nodded. "Sure, we can get you something to eat." she said. "The commissary is right this way."

Five minutes later, I had taken a pound of meat, and pound of cheese, a bottle of ketchup, and two foot-long bread rolls. I attempted to whip out my pocketknife, but it wasn't there.

"Anybody got a knife?" I asked.

One of them handed me a knife, and then they decided to get food for themselves. When they came back, Dr. Jackson, Cameron and the heavyweight sat down at a table across from me, but Dr. Carter sat down across from me. Her tray had some light snacks on it, crackers and vegetable sticks.

"So what's it like?" she asked, considering a carrot stick.

"What's what like?" I asked, feigning confusion.

"Flying." She said, opting to eat the carrot stick and not meet his eyes. "What's it like to fly with nothing aiding you but your wings? What's it like to fly?"

"You are very eager to know, aren't you?" I asked, bemused.

"Yes. It's the scientist in me, always looking for something new to learn." Carter admitted, acting slightly embarrassed.

"Well, take the best roller coaster you've ever ridden, add the feeling of being in complete control, and pour in two teaspoons of magic. Stir well, and bake at 350 for two hours, or until the toothpick comes out clean. In all seriousness though, it's the best thing you can ever imagine, times ten."

She seemed satisfied with that, and we finished our respective meals without conversation.

We walked through some more grey concrete tunnels, and came to a gym. I strode in confidently, then ducked left as the heavy-set guy attacked with no warning.

He came at me again, this time like a freight train. I sidestepped him, then twisted, tapping him from behind with my elbow bent. He grunted, but didn't go down like I expected him to. I was surprised, but tried not to show it.

From there, it took me five whole minutes to regain control of the situation, as he had sensed my surprise almost at once.

Along one of the walls was a rack with sparring rods on it. Figuring that having one might be instrumental in my victory, I decided that I would get to the rack, one way or another. I managed to get away from the big guy just long enough to remove my jacket, which I dropped near the door. Finally, I maneuvered my way around to the point where my back was to the rack of sparring rods. I opened my wings wide, and the person I was fighting with stopped for a second, his eyes wide.

The spectators standing near the door had a look of complete shock and awe on their faces. The moment didn't last, as my opponent shook off the stunned moment, and continued his attack. I lightly jumped up, gave a powerful flap, pushing me back towards the rack with incredible speed. He blinked, as if that would bring me back to my former position, and rushed me. I plucked a rod off the rack, and rolled away from the freight train that was coming my way. I looked at the clock. Nearly half an hour had gone by already, and the spectators had gone from standing to sitting. Had it really been that long?

No time to think about time, he's got a rod, and is willing to keep right on going! Block, duck, evade, attack, feint, block, twist, and repeat in mixed order. This went on for a grand total of three hours before the other guy rapped my fingers with his rod so hard that tears sprang to my eyes, and I dropped the rod, cursing quietly.

Instead of pressing the attack, as I might have and expected, he stepped back and dropped his rod. It clattered on the floor as he asked "Have I harmed you?"

"No, no harm done." I replied, looking up at him in confusion. "A bit of hurt, a little bit of pain, but no harm."

"Please explain." he rumbled, rubbing his chin as he gazed at me.

I shook my wrist and said, "Harm is lasting damage, damage that can't be fixed, at least, not all the way fixed." I said.

"Kinda like my 302 crash. Left me with a metal rod in my leg." Mitchell said, standing up.

"Does it not pain you, Colonel Mitchell?" the giant asked.

"Aw, yeah, it hurts from time to time, but it's not too bad. I did all that therapy and stuff, so aside from setting off metal detectors in every airport, I'm good." Cameron replied.

"Teal'c," Dr. Carter asked "How was he able to hold you off for so long?"

I remained silent, hoping that Teal'c was the name of the person I had been sparring with. It was.

"He is most proficient in the art of self defense, Colonel Carter." Teal'c replied.

"It was an honor to spar with you." I said, bowing my head. "Had this been a real fight, you or I would have been dead within thirty minutes."

Teal'c merely inclined his head down and slightly to the right.

"So, Mitchell." I said, putting the rod back on the rack. "Can I have my pack 'o' shit back yet or what?"

"Unless we're in a briefing with Landry, or in some other highly political situation, just call me Cam. Everyone else does. As far as your backpack goes, I think I can arrange something."

Just as he finished speaking, the phone rang. To his credit, he didn't jump or even flinch slightly before realizing what it was. He just reached up beside his head, and pulled the receiver off the hook as if he was expecting it to happen right at that moment.

"Mitchell speaking." he said.

Whoever was on the other end of the line asked a question.

"Yes sir."

"Yes sir, do you want me to put him on?"

"Yes sir, I'm on my way." Mitchell hung up the phone. "Landry wants us in the briefing room. Apparently, Janet finished the blood work from our guest, and the General wants us to see it, also, there's the question of his pack." Mitchell glanced at me and I nodded.

We walked back to the briefing room, where we found Landry seated at one end of the table, and Dr. Frasier standing nearby, with folders in hand. On the table was my backpack, unzipped for all to see what was inside.

"Please sit down." Landry said, after the proper military formalities had been exchanged.

I sat at the end of the table opposite Landry, having sensed that we would see a bit more confrontation than last time. I needed the end spot so I could pull out the theatrics if I deemed it necessary.

"Thank you for coming." Landry said. "We have much to discuss."

He reached down, and picked up my backpack, throwing it on the table. I winced; there was a tablet computer in there.

"Before I even consider giving this back to you, you'll need to prove yourself." he said, looking at the pack. "But I might consider giving some of the objects inside back to you."

"Okay." I said, playing it cautiously. "I'm going to hope that the objects in question are my iPod, tablet computer, Leatherman, and my nice knife."

Carter smiled slightly at that, but didn't comment.

"We can give you the iPod, seeing as how it's a first generation model, but we're going to have to hold off on the tablet for now. As far as the Leatherman and knife go…I might consider that." Landry replied. He stood up, and walked over to the large picture window, staring at what looked like a metal or stone hoop for a while.

I stood up, and stood beside him, hands clasped behind my back. "So how do I earn your trust?" I asked at last.

"First, we need to do a psych-test, then you need to go through training, and then you get to be given all the responsibilities of an SG officer, without the privileges for a year." Landry glanced at me as I stared at the hoop. "Pass the tests, and you get full access to the base, except for restricted areas."

"Okay." I said. "I'll play nice, and if you and yours play nice, I'll give you the info on the tablet PC."

"We could take that data right now if we thought it was important." Landry replied.

"Maybe, but I doubt it. There are sixteen passwords that you have to put in just to boot up the computer. It also requires a thumbprint, and voice analysis, and another twenty passwords to log in. From there, each document is protected with it's own unique password. I highly doubt you'll get anything from that machine without some seriously hard work. I coded the whole thing myself."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier that you were an arrogant super-genius?" Landry demanded, his eyes blazing.

"Because I'm a paranoid super-genius, not an arrogant one. Out of everyone in this room right now, the people most likely to crack the code would be Drs. Jackson and Carter."

"Really?" Landry said. "And why do you say that?"

"I'm not even that good with computers." Daniel added.

"No, you're right about that." I said, addressing Jackson. "But you are good with codes, and secret cyphers, and puzzles so old you have to dig the dust off of them. Things in foreign or no longer spoken languages, that sort of thing."

"Right…how did you know all of that?" Jackson asked.

"I was about to ask the same thing." Cam said.

"I guessed. The way I lived…" I lifted a shoulder and let it droop back down again. "One gets to be a pretty good judge of character after a while. Either that, or dead." I then turned to face Landry again. "What sort of training did you have in mind? I went sparring against Teal'c for three hours."

If Landry was surprised, he didn't show it. "What else can you do?"

"I can fly for extended periods of time, carrying the load of that backpack plus twenty pounds of reserve food, often flying for distances of a couple hundred miles straight on longer trips. I can eat up fifty miles in a day on foot, and I'm street-smart, and woods-smart. If necessary, I can live off the land with little to no trace of my existence, for several years. I've done it once, a three-year-long leave-no-trace campout is how I thought of it." I finished my explanation of myself, and returned to staring at the hoop-thing.

A silence settled over the conference room, and I found that while it wasn't the easy silence of old friends who had nothing more to discuss, nor was it an uncomfortable silence. I put it down to being the silence of people lost in their own thoughts, and continued to look at the hoop.

It was Teal'c who finally broke the silence. "What are you contemplating, General Landry?"

The man in question roused himself, as if he had been sleeping. "I'm just wondering what to do with an over-qualified human-avian hybrid." he said, leaning back in his chair as he stared at me.

Just as he finished saying that, a siren started up, and the hoop began spinning. Within a few seconds, six lights on the ring had lit up, and then the seventh one split slightly, turned on, then closed the gap again. A split second later, a wave of water was ejected from the ring, then retracted.

I looked on in wonder, my mouth flopped open slightly, then eight people stepped out of the water, and the water evaporated with a whooshing snap. The sirens stopped, and the people that had walked out of the water continued down the ramp. I heard a muted buzz and click, then one of the massive blast doors rolled open.

I turned back towards the table where everyone was seated. After a moment, I found words to put to what I was feeling. "That was, quite possibly, the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life."

Most of the people at the table laughed, and Carter said, "Strange. For me, seeing you open your wings and use them to back up was the coolest thing I've seen thus far in my life."

"Just wait until we can arrange a proper demonstration of my flight abilities." I said smugly. "What I did during that fight was nothing, just assisted maneuvers. I bet I could outdo your best aircraft."

"I doubt that very much." Cam said, thinking of the F-302 that he flew.

"Really." I said, knowing he was thinking of his 302.

"I can do nearly three times the speed of sound, undetected, and insert covertly with two weeks worth of rations and batteries for a camera." I paused to grin at Mitchell. "Even your prized 302, which is technically a space superiority fighter, can't drop down in some tiny town in Afghanistan, and do recon work for two weeks, can it?"

Mitchell looked at me, shocked. "Ah, no. But it can do circle around the rings of Jupiter."

"Psssh, whatever. I could too, if there was an atmosphere there." I said, waving my hand as if it was boring.

Everyone at the table looked at me. "What?" I said, spreading my arms defensively. "I'm not lying. If there was an atmosphere around Jupiter's rings, I could do circles around them."

"Colonel Carter, could you escort our guest to the temporary holding quarters?" Landry said. "I'll talk with him later."

As Carter stood up, I reached into the backpack that contained all my stuff. Teal'c drew an odd, s-shaped weapon, and as I looked at it curiously, it folded open, and Teal'c took aim at me with it.

I withdrew my hand from the backpack, bringing the iPod out in my hand. Teal'c eyes narrowed, and I showed him the stylized print on the back: Ajax's Imaginarium.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow as I slid it into my pocket, draped my earbuds around my neck, and gently wound the wire around my neck.

As Carter showed me the way to the temporary holding quarters, I plugged in the jack, and began listening to music as I walked. We turned a corner, and came upon a dead-end hallway with a door at the end. It was heavily reinforced, but not to the same level as the blast doors. There were two guards on either side of the door, and as Colonel Carter nodded to one of the guards, one of them turned about, and slid a card through a reader set next to the door, then his partner opened the door for Colonel Carter.

She stepped in, and I followed after a cursory glance at the guards. Once inside, I spun around slowly, taking in all visible aspects of the room as I did so. There was a lamp hanging from the ceiling and a bunk bed. In addition, there was a pair of chairs, against the wall, and a desk in the corner.

I nodded in satisfaction, it was simple, but had everything I needed.

"I'll leave you to it, then." Carter said. She backed out, and I heard the door close and lock behind her. The first thing I did was grab a chair and look in the top bunk for any bugs -electronic listening devices. Finding none, I put the chair back, and examined the second one. I didn't find any bugs there, either. After careful examination of the frame, I concluded that if there were any bugs, I wouldn't be able to find them. I checked the desk, then the chairs. After that was finished, I brought a chair close to being directly under the security camera, and stood on the chair to examine the camera.

I found that it was working, had zoom capacity, and was able to swivel and pitch as needed. I moved the chair over to the other one, and found it to be identical in every way, except for the fact that it was mounted in the opposite corner of the room. I grinned at it, imagining the poor sucker who was set to watch over me. What a cruel punishment.

After putting the chair back, I pulled my iPod back out of my pocket, and carefully laid down on the lower bed. Taking my jacket off, I extended my wings slightly, and reached back to get at them, combing through the feathers with a practiced ease. I figured that whatever they were going to watch, it might as well be as mundanely interesting as I could make it.

After nearly half an hour, there was a click as the lock was released, and Landry stepped inside along with two guards and Teal'c. I paid them no mind, rooting around in my secondaries at the base of my right wing.

"I've come to talk about what to do with you." Landry said.

"Okay." I said, not really caring.

"You got here somehow, almost not even tripping the alarms, you have extraordinary abilities, and quite frankly, we could use someone like you around here." Landry said.

"Okay, you've laid your cards out on the table." I said. "Some of them anyway. What is it you want from me?"

"I want to know how you got here, all the way to level twenty-eight, Section D before being detected." Landry said threateningly. "You put the whole base into lockdown with that energy surge of yours."

"Energy surge?"

"You honestly don't know what I'm talking about? I find that hard to believe." Landry said.

"Maybe you could let me and that Colonel Carter analyze the surge, and see what it seems the closest to, extrapolate a little, and see where we end up." I said, deliberately speaking in a light tone of voice so he wouldn't know whether I was serious or not.

"Or, you could just rot here until you tell me how you got here!" Landry exclaimed, having grown sick of verbal jesting.

"Fine." I said, dead serious. "Give me my tablet, and a copy of all the data relevant to the surge, and I'll give you the best explanation I can give you. I honestly don't know how the hell I got here, I just know that I saw the area of the base that you picked me up in, for just a second or two, before I passed out cold on your lovely concrete flooring!" I was furious at this point, and hiding my confusion well.

Landry looked at me, shocked. Teal'c and the other guards had their strange, s-shaped weapons unfolded and pointed at me, and I slowly sat back down again.

"You truly don't know?" he asked quietly. It should have been too quiet for any but him to hear.

"Yeah, I truly don't know. Now, here are my terms, take it or counter-bargain." I took a deep breath, and started: "I get all my shit back. That's everything that you found on my person, or in my backpack. I get a place to lay my head at night. If that means this room, so be it. I get three square meals a day. I get one of those chains like I see your soldiers wearing, with my name on one, however you work all that stuff. I also get free run off the base, in essence, I can go anywhere on the base. Now, that's all the stuff I stand to gain should you decide to accept. On your end, I swear fealty on my honor to this organization until such point as I find it to be corrupt, or until I am freed from my oath. Know this, General Landry. I. Do. Not. Take, my honor lightly. Are we completely clear on that matter?" I sat back in my chair, and popped my knuckles.

The general in question sat back in his chair and regarded me for several long moments.

"Fine." he said at last. "But I would add one thing to the list."

I kept my face unreadable as he spoke. When the one thing wasn't forthcoming, I asked. "What is this 'one thing' you want?"

"Teal'c goes wherever you go on the base during the probationary period." Landry said. His face seemed to suggest that he was expecting me to protest, but I didn't object in the slightest.

I considered for a moment, my head cocked slightly to show that I was thinking about it, then I held out my hand. "Deal."

Author's Note:

This was more of an intro than anything else. Ajax leaves on his quest for the Infinatus key puzzle in the next chapter. He will jump across many worlds, many realities to do so, so if you have any ideas as to where he should go, by all means, tell me!