Chapter Two: Meeting

Dozens of workers strained under the hot sun of the Giza Plateau. Ropes pulled taught slowly lifted a large ring from its long rest buried beneath the ancient sands. Standing alongside her father and Foreman Taylor she heard her father ask in a voice filled with quiet awe, "What in God's name is that?"

The sound of voices not fitting with the men who stood beside her father brought Catherine Langford back to the present and out of the memories of her past. She looked to the various military officers and other important government officials quietly conversing amongst themselves. Looking for a familiar face the 73 year old Archaeologist began to feel a bit isolated. Not for the first time she had to wonder at General Downing's request that she attend this briefing.

"Thank you for coming Ms. Langford."

Jumping slightly in her seat Catherine turned sharply to look over her left shoulder. A relieved chuckle preceded her responding with a simple, "I'm glad to help General."

General Wayne Downing pulled out the chair beside the former civilian director of Project Giza and sat himself on the edge. "I know this isn't the sort of meeting you enjoy attending Ms. Langford.."

"Please General, just call me Catherine."

"Catherine then; as I was saying I know you have a lot on your plate, but I want to try and put faces with the names that everyone here today is going to have to work closely with. I also want to establish, from the start, that this is as much a civilian operation as military."

"I admit I'm still a bit overwhelmed by what you've put in my lap. Despite that I do owe you for both the opportunity, but also for..."

"Not at all, Catherine. In time the world is going to know, at least to some degree, about all of this and I want to make sure that the contributions your family has made are finally recognized. That aside, I firmly believe that the expertise your civilian scientists provided to Project Giza was invaluable. I want to ensure we have access to that same resource base going forward. Remember we're not just considering the archaeological aspects either; LRI is going to be handling all the non-technical sciences."

Closing her eyes briefly as more memories of the past threatened to overwhelm her emotions Catherine smiled briefly. "Thank you General. For my father, Ernest,...everyone who, well everyone. I promise you that we will do what we can."

"I didn't doubt it. The President agrees that the Langford Research Institute will be an excellent resource not just for what we're doing here, but for humanity as a whole. I'm sure you all will be able to make all sorts of new discoveries here on Earth as well."

With a smile and a chuckle the General stood. "Now if you'll excuse me Catherine, we're only a few minutes away from the Secretary's arrival."

"Of course General."

A soft smile played over her lips. Nearly seventy years since the discovery of the Stargate and finally her father would receive the credit he deserved. Ernest would no longer just be a casualty of a lab accident, and countless hours of her life would no longer just be a crusade to see her father's work completed. After all, if the origins of ancient Gods had been discovered among the stars...who knew what else was waiting to be found.

"Yes," she said quietly to herself while watching the other meeting attendees take their seats, "we will make it worth the sacrifices papa."


Major General George Hammond leaned back in his chair and swept the room with his eyes. Around the central collection of tables was a veritable buffet of the top names, both military and civilian, in the US defense community. The Texas native was used to being among the "top brass", anyone with a star on their shoulder was, but this gathering was something else altogether. His blue eyes shifted from their roving observation to the large briefing binding on the table before him.

The black 5 inch d-ring binder was a rather imposing bit of reading material. Large red print emblazoned on the front cover proclaimed the contents to be "Top Secret", "Sensitive Compartmented Information" and a "Special Access Program". The fact that the binder came with a customized and code-locked seal that Hammond had never seen the likes of had all but confirmed in his mind that this meeting was going to be anything but typical.

"Why do I get the feeling those thoughts of retirement were premature," he considered with a quietly resigned exhale.

"Attention," called out the young Army Captain stationed by the briefing room door. The military personnel immediately rose to their feet while the civilians did so only a moment later.

David Swift, the Secretary of Defense, walked briskly into the room and with a waved gesture gave a simple, "Please be seated," to the gathering.

Once behind the center-most seat at the head table Swift looked out over the attendees and got right to the point. "Thank you all for being here. We have a lot to cover today and most of it you're not going to believe. I hope you can all appreciate that I, at the direction of the President, would not call you all here on a joke. That said we're going to jump right into things."

Looking to his right at an aid standing near the back of the room the Secretary simply nodded. The young woman, armed with large black binder, briskly began to move around the room. Stopping before each attendee she had them sign a sheet within the binder before handing them an almost paper-thin credit card sized hard plastic case from a sleeve on the same page. Once the attendee cracked open the case and removed the thin paper within the aid would move onto the next person on her list.

"The codes you are receiving," Swift explained as the aid worked, "are your personal access codes for the binders before you. Each code is unique to the binder in front of you. Please unlock your binders as you receive the codes, but wait until we're all ready to open the briefing material."

After nearly fifteen minutes everyone had received their codes and the aid had exited the room. A nod to the Captain still standing beside the door preceded the young man securing the room totally. Turning his attention back to the attendees Swift began the official briefing. "Please open your briefing binders and let's get started."

The white screen behind the secretary flashed briefly as the projector warmed up before an old black and white photo came into focus.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, today I am going to be briefing you on Project Giza and the results thereof..."


Nearly two hours later George Hammond couldn't help but consider that in his long career Hammond he had only felt so out of his depth once before. He blinked at the thought and couldn't help letting out a quiet wry chuckle to himself as he realized that both situations were most likely connected somehow. "It would certainly explain a few things."

His thoughts were interrupted before he could ponder the potential connection any further. Shifting his posture more upright he gave the Secretary of Defense his full attention.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, if we're all ready to continue," began Secretary David Swift. "Now that you're all up to speed on where we currently stand, General Downing will explain where we're going. General," the Secretary concluded with a nod to the man in question.

At the head of the room the large screen flashed on once again and after a moment a unit seal appeared. Everyone gathered leaned forward in their seats to get a better look at the brand new emblem. The circular image resembled the Stargate's inner ring and positioned inside it with a "wireframe" globe of Earth. Over the top of both the ring and globe a pair of angled swords rose up to support a circular shield at their points. After a moment everyone realized it to be a stylized version of the Stargate Symbol designated as Earth's "point of origin".

After giving everyone a moment to examine the seal on the screen While the meeting's attendees considered the image before them General Downing moved to stand at the center of the collection of tables. When he saw that he had everyone's attention he the General began his portion of the briefing.

"Good afternoon. As the Secretary said you are all now familiar with the particulars of the Air Force's Project Giza and its results. Ever since the mission team returned and filed their briefing discussions have been held at the highest levels as to what our next course of action should be."

Light blue eyes swept the gathering before he continued.

"It has been decided that the Stargate and Abydos present far too great a potential to simply give up. However, the that potential presented by the Stargate should not, and will not, be limited to the Air Force alone. As such, effective last night a new Unified Combatant Command has been established and I have been assigned as the Combatant Commander. The emblem you see on the screen is that of the United States Stargate Operations Command."

Murmurs broke out around the room. After giving everyone a moment to process the news Downing continued.

"My first act as the CCDR was to relieve General West of his command of Project Giza and the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Effective immediately, I have named General George Hammond as his replacement."

George Hammond blinked in shock. When he received his orders to attend this meeting there had certainly been no mention of this. He had been told that the meeting would designate his new assignment, but he hadn't been expecting to hear he would be replacing West. Realizing his thoughts about a delay in retirement had been correct George quickly threw off his shock and refocused on the General. Judging by what they had learned so far at least his new assignment would be anything but dull. What he wasn't clear on, however, was what exactly that assignment meant if the Project was being shifted under General Downing and a new command. His confusion showed on his face and with a smirk Downing addressed the issue.

"General Hammond you will be taking up the role of Commanding General, US Air Force Stargate Operations and will report directly to me. Congratulations are in order as well as the position comes with a promotion to Lt. General."

A quiet round of congratulations crossed the room from those who knew Hammond.

"Thank you sir," was all that the Texan could really think to say at the moment, but thankfully it was enough.

Downing responded with a wry grin, "Don't thank me just yet Hammond."

George Hammond chuckled and nodded. He understood the message; the job was by no means going to be low-stress.

"Joining Hammond will be General Ryan Hayston as Commanding General, US Army Stargate Operations. Vice Admiral Kurt Lathman will be acting as Commanding Admiral, US Navy Stargate Operations. Last, but certainly not least, will be General Frances Winndon and Vice Admiral Lindsey Donavin as Commanding Generals US Marine Corps Stargate Operations and US Stargate Material Command respectively."

Nods of acknowledgement and congratulations once again passed around the room as the newly appointed commanders took a moment to take in the news. Downing hated springing these changes like this, but time was not something on their side. They needed to get out ahead of so many different issues that he was already feeling a month or ten behind.

"Additionally, from the CIA Craig Vandermill will be taking up the position of Deputy Director, CIA Directorate of Stargate Services. Yvonne Blake will be acting as Deputy Director, NSA Stargate Intelligence Directorate. Jose Deroya will be rounding things out as the Deputy Director, DARPA Stargate Technologies Office."

General Downing paused in the briefing to offer his own congratulations to the civilian directors who suddenly found themselves assigned to branches of their organizations which didn't exist five minutes before. Around the room the air began to have an almost tangible feel of anticipation. The vast majority of the meetings attendees were just coming to realize exactly how deep this rabbit whole was going to go.

"I can tell most of you are starting to see just how big this thing is. It's unprecedented to task entire branches of our civilian agencies to a military command. However, it's necessary in this case. The security behind the Stargate and its associated projects must be as tight as possible. Thus, we must do everything in-house and that means a totally dedicated command structure for all possible areas."

Suddenly the image behind the General shifted from the Stargate Operations Command emblem to a simple logo displaying the letters LRI.

"The contributions to Project Giza by Doctors Langford and Jackson cannot be overlooked. Point in fact, had it not been for Dr. Jackson the mission team would never have been able to return home and we'd have never learned the true history of Ra and the people of Abydos. To that end we are helping Dr. Langford organize and start the Langford Research Institute. The LRI will be acting as our non-technical science house. Dr. Langford will speak more about LRI in a bit."

All eyes shifted briefly to the elder woman seated at the head table. She offered a friendly, if somewhat embarrassed, smile.

"Now," the General once again began as the image behind him shifted again, "let me introduce you to Stargate Command; the US's first off-world base."

Jaws dropped and eyes went wide around the room as the image on the screen resolved into what was obviously an artist's conceptual rendering of a brand new military base. The aerial view of the base revolved around a series of building complexes spread around a wide open space. In the center of the base four large buildings formed what was labeled as the SGC HQ. Near the mines of the Stargate mineral a massive collection of obviously industrial buildings were marked as refineries, power plants, factories and foundries. Other building collections were titled as Intelligence Command, and Area 51. Located near the edge of the base, and between Nagada City and the Temples was a large building marked "Gateway Center".

"Stargate Command, or the SGC, will be a totally self-sufficient installation located on 390 square miles of Abydonian land. We have leased the land and associated mineral rights from the Abydonian People in exchange for a wide array of goods and services. I want everyone to take a good look at these images and listen closely because most of you will be spending a great deal of time at the SGC in the years to come."

General Downing continued to detail what the overall plan for the SGC was to be but only a fraction of it was truly registering with Hammond. The entire meeting, as surreal as it had been before, was just becoming a bit more than he could process in one sitting. As absurd as he later realized the thought was, he couldn't help but wonder where they had gotten artist renderings for the base so quickly.


The Cheyenne Mountain Complex, home of NORAD and formerly Project Giza, was a madhouse. The sounds of heavy machinery, shouted orders, and a plethora of power tools echoed through the cement corridors of all 28 levels of the facility. Since its inception the Complex has been an impressive site considering the engineering effort to cut into a mountain and then 28 levels down into the Earth. Now, however, the Mountain was truly turning into something to behold.

Redesigning an underground complex is far easier said than done. Massive excavation work to further expand both into the mountain and underground was required to install 3 Mass Cargo Elevators. The elevators themselves were easily built following similar specifications as those on aircraft carriers, but making the space for the elevators was another matter altogether. However, once the excavation was complete the rest of the remodeling was far easier as larger equipment could be brought into the existing complex.

If remodeling an underground facility was a headache then trying to process through hundreds of tons of materials into the base and through the Stargate was simply insanity. Yet, that task was exactly what had fallen to Vice Admiral Lindsey Donavin as the Commander of Stargate Material Command. Working from temporary offices roaming throughout all levels of the complex during construction Admiral Donavin and her staff were tasked with making sure one of the largest construction efforts ever undertaken by the US Military, much less in secret, was done on schedule.

It was days like this one that made the Admiral wonder why she ever accepted the position.

Looking around the massively disarrayed and distinctly not ship-shape office Lindsey couldn't help but laugh quietly. If any other Flag Officer's staff had let an office get to this condition there would have been courts marshaling all around. Here and now, however, it was a sign that she had been blessed by what was turning out to be an excellent staff. Despite the apparent chaos of the room Donavin knew that her staff would be able to find whatever she, or they, needed at a moment's notice.

Standing and stretching for a moment she reflected on just how much had actually been accomplished in such a short period of time. Originally she had claimed it would take at least two years to complete the massive renovations to the complex. That was before the she practically had the Army Corps of Engineers "storm the keep". Apparently the single greatest way to get something built was to tell the Army they couldn't do it in a short time frame. If only that method worked with the crews working the Navy Yards.

Nodding to her aid she stepped out into "the warzone" as she liked to call the under-renovation halls of the complex. A short walk and long elevator ride later she reached level 28 and approached the mostly-intact control room for the Stargate. Through the observation window she watched as pallet after pallet and crate after crate was pushed through the wormhole to Abydos.

"That was shipment 18 correct?"

"Yes Ma'am," replied one of the Air Force Technical Sergeants working the controls.

Nodding mostly to herself Donavin couldn't help but be further impressed by her staff. The sheer tonnage of supplies they were proving to be capable of moving every 38 minutes was staggering. She would be putting every last person under her command up for commendations once things settled down. The rate things were moving the Stargate Command base on Abydos would be completed far ahead of schedule.

Abruptly the gate shut down and the "supply train" halted at the base of the ramp. Almost immediately the sound of the gate dailing echoed up from the gate room. Within minutes the connection to Abydos had been reattained and the supplies began to move again.

"Fine work everyone. Let's keep it up. Our supply transfer rate is going to drop once we start sending people through too so we need to make this time count."

A chorus of "Aye Aye" and "Yes Ma'am" rung in the air and Lindsey couldn't keep the proud smile off her face. Yes, she was proud of her command despite all the headaches she had to endure each day.