This episode is called Small Victories and takes place in Season 4, Episode 1 of Stargate SG:1


President Bartlet sat working in the Oval office discussing mandatory minimums with Toby, Sam and Leo before Al Caldwall arrived when there was a commotion outside his office.

Charlie!

Yes Mr. President

What's going on out there?

Madame Ambassador from Russia is demanding a meeting with you. She's threatening to go the press room if you don't see her.

Really? Has she said what it's about?

She says the fallout of the disused space station was a cover story.

Ok. Toby, Sam, we'll have to discuss this another time. Charlie let her in.

Toby and Sam exited the Oval office via the door to the hallway, knowing the sticky situation that the President had just found himself in after having found out the truth from their dinner with SG1 a few weeks ago. The Russian Ambassador made her accusations as she entered the room.

Mr. President, you can't honestly expect me to believe the story your press office has released regarding the entry of a space craft into earth's atmosphere! We have it on satellite surveillance!

Madame Ambassador, couldn't you possibly wait until the room has some privacy?!

No I cannot wait. You have abducted a Russian submarine of the coast of California. We have not received contact from our Foxtrot class attack submarine in over 1700 hours. We have surveillance of the submarine towed into the harbour and your military guarding it. Do you deny this Mr. President?

Madame Ambassador, I haven't received any intelligence to confirm your claim. Leo, could you please get Admiral Fitzwallace in here?

Yes Sir. Leo moved into his own office to make the call.

Admiral, we've got the Russian Ambassador in the Oval office after demanding an audience with the President. You better get up here now. I'll be in my office, come here first.

Not waiting for a reply he hung up and sat down behind his desk. Leo sighed, knowing the mess they were in and hoping it could all be settled quickly, but already knowing it was highly unlikely.

Margaret!

Yes sir.

I need you to reschedule all my meetings for the rest of the day. I'm going to be in between the Oval office and Situation Room.

What about senior staff?

Only if they really stuff up, otherwise let Josh handle it.

Okay, what should I tell them?

Tell 'em what I just told you.

Yes sir.


It wasn't long before a knock on the door and Admiral Fitzwallace entered Leo's office.

Leo, I don't appreciate being talked to like that. What's going on?

I don't know, you tell me. The Russian Ambassador is claiming we've abducted one of their class attack submarines.

Leo, I've only just found out about this now. Approximately 1700 hours ago the sub was spotted by aircraft off the USS Nimitz, it was already surfaced and any attempts to communicate were returned. It was boarded, the crew was found dead.

All of them?

Yeah. We got the bodies off and while that was being done a guy with a camera took a photo of a large mechanical bug.

O God... I thought we got all of them when the Bilisner was destroyed.

So did I; the Pentagon advised the Navy to tow the sub into shore to assess the damage. The harbour has been evacuated and the entire area cordoned off. The cover story we're using is a dangerous chemical spill.

Okay. Well, we're going to go into the Oval office now and sell that to the Russian Ambassador. We'll say nothing of the Replicators. We'll keep up the cover story about the Bilisner and hopefully that will stick for now. We at least need to placate the Russians so we can get a grip on the situation.

Admiral Fitzwallace agreed with Leo as they made their way into the tension-filled Oval office, to explain all they had just talked about. The President was relieved that Leo and the Admiral were taking charge of the conversation, as he really didn't know what they were talking about. After more than half an hour of discussion, the Russian Ambassador was still not pleased with the information she was being provided with, but was willing to let the matter be investigated further by the President, and so returned to her office.

Thank God you guys were here. We need to talk now about what's really going on.

Sir, I suggest we move this meeting to the Situation Room. We need to contact the SGC.

Let's go. Charlie, rearrange my schedule, it's going to be a busy day today.

Yes Sir. Charlie watched as the President, Admiral Fitzwallace and Leo strode past the outer office; his day just got worse.


Once seated in the Situation Room with Major Davis on conference call, Admiral Fitzwallace began to brief the President and Leo on the facts he'd left out of his meeting in the Oval office.

Mr. President, one of the bugs survived the destruction of the Bilisner. We have photo confirmation by one of the marines who retrieved the bodies off the Russian submarine.

Okay, if SG1's report is anything to go by, that one bug has already started replicating. They said the bugs were destroyed by gunfire. Can we nuke the sub? That should kill it surely?

The Russian's already know we have it.

The Replicator's are a much more serious problem than international relations. Either way we can't blow the sub with the possibility that the replicators can survive, Leo commented.

Major Davis?

Yes, Mr. President

I want you to brief SG1. Take on board their experience in this situation; let me know the outcome of the meeting.

Yes Sir.

Admiral, call me once Davis has more information. Thank you.

President Bartlet made his way back to the Oval office, checking in with Charlie about his rescheduled day.

As the President and Leo resumed most of their schedule for the day, Major Davis had his meeting with SG1.


I decided to mostly show this story from the position of the White House, as you can see what happens in this episode on-screen.