Enemy at the Gate Aftermath
White House Situation Room.
One hour after Atlantis touched down near San-Francisco
The moment President Hayes entered the room, Lieutenant General Jack O'Neill and the Joint Chiefs snapped to attention as he made his way to the head of the table.
"Please be seated gentleman," Hayes said then everyone sat down. "I have to say that we dodged a very major bullet today."
"I couldn't agree more, sir," O'Neil said. But with drone chair destroyed, three ships badly damaged and the Odyssey still away on its secret voyage, our defense posture is extremely weak at the moment."
"Agreed. But before we talk more about that, I want to hear about the status of the Atlantis quarantine. Admiral Brady, what's the status?"
"The Carl Vinson strike group has established a ten mile exclusion zone around the city. Civilian sea and air traffic has been ordered to steer clear due to the presence of an unknown object splashing down."
"Good. Jack, did you get an update from Colonel Carter on the status of our ships before coming here?"
"Yes, Mr. President. Thanks to the assistance from Colonel Caldwell's repair teams, the Apollo's engines are up and running again and the Sun Tzu's hull integrity has been restored to the point that she can towed back to Earth without breaking apart in hyperspace. But given the amount of damage she received from the Super-Hive, It will take a year to get her back to fighting strength. I'm pretty sure the Chinese aren't happy about their first starship nearly getting totaled in its first battle."
"Yeah, and the Daedalus and the Apollo?
"Repair time for them is twelve to fourteen weeks tops, sir."
"Mr. President, the construction of the George Hammond has been fast-tracked, she'll be ready to take orbit by the end of the month but in order to speed up her construction, we had to shift the team working on the Phoenix over to the Hammond," Air Force Chief of Staff, General Savage said.
"If we still had the drone chair, I wouldn't be in such a hurry to have a new ship in service. Speaking of which I want BC-304 production upped from two to three ships a year and production of F-302s kicked into overdrive."
"If we allow our international partners to contribute more manpower to shipbuilding, we could probably get more than that. Like six to eight or something."
"A very rosy assessment Jack. But keeping such a buildup under wraps is going to be easier said than done," Savage replied.
"Well keeping it under wraps won't be an issue for long, General. Because I've already decided that next week, I am going to give a speech revealing the stargate program to the world. I wish we could the keep the secret a little longer, but a Wraith Hive ship appearing and exploding in orbit has forced my hand. It probably won't be long before photos of the battle start appearing on the internet."
"Very well, Mr. President. I just hope this revelation doesn't cause mass panic."
"Me too, Jack. And when you get back to Homeworld Command I want you to contact the Odyssey and tell them I have changed their mission to finding a new Drone Chair."
"Yes, sir."
AN. This is just to answer some questions from the guest reviews.
The Atlantis Drone Chair is too critical to be stripped out and installed on Earth. They can use it for as long as Atlantis is on Earth but it would have to go back to Pegasus eventually.
After the original Phoenix was renamed the George Hammond, I like to think that the name itself was passed on to another hull. Phoenix is just too cool of a name not to pin on a ship.
Disclosure would make the acquiring of additional resources and personnel for fleet expansion easier. You would definitely see a retooling of certain industries.
I originally intended for this to be a one shot, but I might add on to it or make a few more short stories showing different points of view on this event. I haven't decided yet.