A/N: For the purposes of this story, President Clinton is Hayes' predecessor, perhaps he was elected 4 years later in SG-verse! IRL, William Hague resigned in 2001, but I've kept him on here.
--
Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street, London, Earth, 23 February 2003
The Prime Minister entered his office and collapsed into his chair. Tony Blair had had a bad afternoon in the House of Commons, where he'd been given a hard time in his latest debates on public service reform with his Conservative opposite number, William Hague. Blair silently damned the voracious Yorkshireman and his oratory skills, wishing that he'd had the good grace to resign in 2001 after he'd lost the last elections. After that low point, Hague had taken some time to rethink and consolidate his party and his strategy, and now the Conservatives were more popular than Blair was expecting them to be. Still, it kept him and the Government on their toes.
He started leafing through his notes for the Agriculture Select Committee meeting later that day. The farmers wanted to know how the latest EU regulations would affect their set-aside payments, he noticed. He scribbled a notation in the margin and placed the file on his desk.
The Prime Minister was stretching in his chair and loosening his tie when his phone rang. It was his secretary, Rebecca Slater.
"Prime Minister, you have a call from President Clinton on line two," she said.
"Thanks, Becky," Blair said. What did Bill want now? Maybe it had something to do with that report that crossed his desk the other day about funny readings at the radar site in Yorkshire or somesuch. He punched the flashing button on his phone.
"Blair here," he said tiredly. Clinton's response was fresh and genial, probably because of the time difference. Damn the time difference, Blair thought.
"Greetings, Prime Minister! Say, you wouldn't happen to have a bit of spare time on your hands? You don't? Great. Now, do you remember that business a couple of days ago with the radar stations? Yes, that one. Anyway, I've got a bit of a tale to tell you about that, and oddly enough, it starts in the 1920s," Clinton said.
--
Two hours later, Blair had completely forgotten about the Agriculture Select Committee meeting, and was rapturously listening to the US president tell him about alien interstellar transportation devices, evil aliens posing as gods and one of their spaceships being captured.
The president had just asked him if the US Air Force could land their captured alien ship on Diego Garcia, an important tri-service base in the Indian Ocean. He was intrigued, but also he didn't want to let the Americans walk all over him, not like the ongoing Afghanistan business. He was glad that Clinton hadn't been pushed into invading Iraq. Blair had seen some of the 'intelligence' on WMDs and it was proved fairly rapidly to be faulty.
He spoke, choosing his words rather carefully, as was his way.
"Well, Mr President, we'd like to be of some help to this grand cosmic plan of yours, but we would expect something in return. How about I bring our Washington embassy staff up to speed on this, and we can come to some sort of arrangement over your use of Diego Garcia?" he suggested. He listened to the president's reply. "Excellent. I'll have the Ambassador and his staff waiting," he said.
--
Ha'tak vessel, Earth orbit, the same time
The ship now had swarms of scientists and engineers aboard, trying to decipher the ship's secrets, but SG-1 weren't interested in that. They were heading for the hangar bay at the urging of Major Davis, as allegedly there was something there that they 'simply had to see'. Stepping out of the elevator, they turned a corner and immediately understood what Davis had meant.
The hangar on a ha'tak occupied the lower decks of the central pyramid of the vessel, and it was huge. The room that SG-1 were now in was a vast triangle, nearly 300 metres long on each side. But it wasn't the hangar itself that made SG-1 pause, it was the contents. Rows of Al'kesh stretched away in three directions from the central spine of the room, where SG-1 were. Carter counted 12 of the mid-range bombers, waiting to be launched through doors in the floor of the room. Several squadrons of gliders hung in racks from the ceiling, to be launched through small apertures in the walls. Tel'taks were scattered throughout the room, seemingly at random.
"Holy...buckets," O'Neill said, almost disbelievingly. "We scored the jackpot here, didn't we!" His attention turned to the largest ships in the hangar, 3 in total, one in each corner of the room. They were slightly taller than Al'kesh. O'Neill had never seen such ships before. "T, what are those?" he asked.
"I believe that they are transport vessels, designed to ferry large numbers of warriors to and from the planet below. Though unarmed, they are more heavily shielded than Al'kesh," he said.
"Sweet," said Jack, who had started to wander along the gantry towards the nearest Al'kesh.
The team followed, eventually entering the ship and finding Major Davis on board, who looked like a kid at Christmas who'd just won the lottery.
Carter and Jonas immediately started to play with the computers, while Teal'c and O'Neill started discussing something with Davis, more specifically, what should their new mothership be called?
There was serious consideration being given to Mjolnir, as a nod to Thor, who had been returned to his people via some computer crystals the day before. Also on the table were Iapetus and Atlas, after the father and brother of Prometheus. Jack would've preferred Enterprise, but for now Mjolnir was the favourite among the brass. Their argument was interrupted by a 'Wow!' from Carter.
"Sir, I think that this ship has been equipped with Asgard transporter systems!" she said with surprise evident in her voice. She didn't get a chance to continue, though, as they received a radio call from Colonel Emerson, who had been given command of the ship.
"SG-1, you're needed back at Stargate Command urgently. Orders from General Hammond," he said. "Major Davis, you're also needed at the Pentagon,"
"We got ya, Colonel. You might want to send some guys down to the hangar bay at some point, there's some interesting stuff down here," O'Neill said. He turned to Carter.
"Carter, can we use the beam on this thing?" he asked.
"Sorry, sir, but while this ship does have the beaming technology, it doesn't have the sensor resolution to be able to beam back to earth from this distance," she said.
"Shame," Jack said, "we'll have to teleport back the less classy way," he replied and started towards a ring platform.
--
Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, Earth
SG-1 stepped off of the ring platform, and out of the cargo ship that had been covered with camouflage netting, liberal amounts of vegetation, and a few licks of paint once it had landed on Cheyenne Mountain. Hitching a ride on a passing truck, they passed through the tunnel, where the dismounted in order to move through the security checkpoints and down the lifts to the SGC.
When they arrived at the briefing room they encountered a surprise in the form of Thor, recently restored to his full physical self. O'Neill was of course, the first to jump in with a quip.
"Thor! Nice to see you. How's the, er, 'new body' working out?"
"I am well, O'Neill. My ability to use this new body is as a result of your courageous actions, and we are once more in your debt," he said in his traditional laconic manner.
"That's very kind of you to say, Thor," Hammond said as they all took seats, including Thor. "What news do you bring us?" asked the General.
"General Hammond, as a sign of the Asgard's thanks, I have been authorised to offer you what you might refer to as a 'helping hand' with some of your technological research and development efforts." he said. "However, I am not yet permitted to provide any actual Asgard technology, only aid you with understanding that which you already have,"
"Major, how would you like working with Thor for a while, provided it doesn't clash with any of SG-1's missions?" the General asked. Sam's enthusiasm was shining from her eyes as she answered in the affirmative.
"Are you kidding, sir? I'd love to!" she beamed. This was going to be great fun, she thought!
--
British Embassy, Washington D.C, Earth, a few hours later
The British ambassador to the United States, Sir John Eastwood, was eating a quiet lunch in his office when his phone rang. Quickly finishing his mouthful, he picked up the phone. "Eastwood here," he said, expecting it to be his secretary.
The voice that replied was definitely not the one he was expecting.
"Sir John, I hope I haven't caught you at a bad time," the Prime Minister said amiably. "Your defence attaché should be receiving a visitor from the Pentagon in about ten minutes. The visitor is going to brief the two of you on a secret program in Colorado Springs, run by the US Air Force, called the Stargate program. In short, they want to use Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to hide a rather large and classified object, an alien warship to be precise" Blair said. Eastwood absorbed the news well. He'd seen his fair share of madness in his diplomatic career.
"Yes, Prime Minister. I assume you're aiming to get some benefits for UK plc out of this?" he queried.
"Indeed, Sir John. As well as the use of the base, I am going to allow you to offer British resources and manpower to the Stargate program, but in return, we wish to become partners in it's operation," the Prime Minister said. "I believe that the officer from the Pentagon will also be acting as the US negotiator, Sir John. Good luck!" Blair said.
"Thank you, Prime Minister. I shall go and inform Lt. Commander Sykes of our appointment immediately," said Sir John, and concluded the conversation.
--
Lt. Commander David Sykes of the Royal Navy, the British defence attaché in Washington, had just been visited by the Ambassador.
Sir John had apparently had been informed of an imminent top-secret briefing by a Pentagon officer, relating to something called the 'Stargate' program.
He was mentally puzzling over what it could be when one of the secretaries stuck his head through the door, informing them of their visitor.
"Send him in," the Ambassador said.
A few seconds later, a USAF major in full dress blues stepped through the ornate door, with his hat tucked neatly under one arm, and carrying a laptop case in the other hand.
Discreetly, both Sykes and the Ambassador sized him up. He looked to be in either his late thirties or early forties, with a receding hairline, but his eyes glimmered with intelligence and he had a air of politeness around him. The two British officials took a liking to him almost immediately.
"Ambassador sir, Lieutenant Commander, thank you for seeing me, I am Major Paul Davis," he said pleasantly.
"It's our pleasure, Major Davis." Sir John said affably. "I understand you wish to tell us about a rather secret project of yours," he said. "Please, take a seat,"
"Thank you Mr Ambassador," Davis said, and did so. He took his computer out of his bag, placing it on the table so that the British officials could see the screen clearly. He pressed a few buttons and a diagram of a ring appeared.
Sir John could see that it had nine vaguely triangular shapes on it's face, beneath which there were a series of pictographs. Davis cleared his throat softly, and began to speak.
"Gentlemen, this is a diagram of an object discovered in the 1920s by a Doctor Langford, buried in the Giza Plateau, an object which we now know to be of extraterrestrial origin," he said.
Both British bureaucrats were outwardly calm, with Sykes sporting a raised eyebrow. He pressed on. "It was shipped to the United States in 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War. It was forgotten until 1945, when a research project was started in order to determine it's purpose, and if it could be a weapon of some description. During the project, it was believed that one of the team members was lost in an accident, and the project was shelved until the 1990s, when the object was moved to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado Springs.
The team made little progress in discovering the function of the object at first, but a newcomer to the project, Doctor Daniel Jackson, managed to accurately translate the carvings found with the object, which was called a chappa'ai by the Ancient Egyptians, into English. We found that the object was a device, an alien device, capable of instantly transporting matter and energy across the galaxy. We call it a Stargate," Davis said.
"In 1996, a reconnaissance mission was sent through the Stargate to a planet we now know as Abydos. This mission, led by Colonel Jack O'Neill, encountered humans on Abydos whose ancestors had been taken from Ancient Egypt, for use as slave labour in a mining operation,"
"Who kidnapped these humans, Major Davis?" Sykes asked.
"The Abydonians were abducted by a powerful alien, who called himself Ra. While O'Neill's team was on Abydos, Ra arrived and landed in an enormous pyramid-shaped spacecraft."
"After a period of fighting between Ra's troops and O'Neill's team, aided by the Abydonians, Ra was killed when his ship was destroyed by a nuclear weapon," Davis slid copies of the Abydos mission report across the table, "and after Colonel O'Neill's return to Earth, the Stargate lay dormant for a year, mainly because we thought that it could only allow travel between Earth and Abydos. We were proved wrong when the Stargate activated about a year later, and another Goa'uld, Apophis, invaded the facility with several of his warriors, known as 'Jaffa', who killed several airmen and kidnapped a female sergeant before retreating back through the gate."
"General Hammond, the new base commander, sent O'Neill and company back to Abydos to investigate. While the team was on Abydos, Apophis attacked, killing several Abydonians and US personnel. Fortunately, one of the men was later able to remember the symbols Apophis dialled. General Hammond ordered O'Neill's team, designated SG-1 and consisting of the colonel, Captain Samantha Carter and Daniel Jackson, who had been living on Abydos since the original mission, to go to the co-ordinates and investigate, along with Major Kawalsky's team, SG-2. To cut an already long story short, SG-1 and 2 were able to rescue a large number of Apophis' prisoners, and they also received a defector, Apophis' former First Prime, Teal'c. He joined SG-1, and has become one of our strongest allies."
"Ever since, four-man teams have been exploring the gate system, trying to secure allies and advanced technology to help us in our fight against the Goa'uld System Lords," he said.
Eastwood and Sykes were not quite open-mouthed, but there were raised eyebrows all round. The ambassador responded cautiously.
"Well, Major, that's quite a story. I assume that the two large flashes in the sky several years ago and that 'meteor' that crashed into the Pacific Ocean, causing a Russian submarine to be lost have something to do with this," he said. Receiving a nod, he continued. "Now, what of these allies you've made, and the technology you've obtained?" he asked.
Major Davis could see that this was going to be quite a story. "Well, Mr. Ambassador, we've made quite a few friends out there, but we have two particularly important allies,"
The Major launched into a description of the Tok'ra and Asgard, detailing each race, their technology, and their first contacts with Earth. The Ambassador was highly impressed.
"I daresay that the Scandinavians will be awfully pleased. Anyway Major, now that Lt. Cdr. Sykes and I have some context of the situation, what can Her Majesty's Government do for you?" he asked, with an amiable smile on his lips.
--
Apologies for the long and slightly boring exposition!
Reviews and comments appreciated as always.