The Star Gate Program (Hetalia/Stargate SG1 X-Over)

Author: Ashynarr

Summary: It was the discovery of the century. A device older than human civilization, capable of transporting people across the galaxy in an instant. But things have a way of quickly becoming complicated, pushing America and others to their limits as they find themselves embroiled in galactic politics and intrigue throughout the stars.

Disclaimer: Hetalia's not mine. Stargate isn't mine.

Warning: Alterations of the Stargate timeline/canon and Hetalia canon

[Inspired by Stargate Reopened; I recommend reading it if you have the time.]

[Chapter 10]

~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~

Daniel Jackson wasn't certain how he felt about being left in the rain with nothing but his luggage, an eviction notice from that morning, and a job offer from the US Air Force that had something to do with Ancient Egypt and his theories.

He was mostly surprised, needless to say; not even his peers took his ideas seriously, and it was hard to believe the military would be any more inclined to believe them. But it had been Dr. Catherine Langford who had handed the envelope to him, one of his role models thanks to her lifelong work the world over, and that was enough to convince him that this couldn't be fake.

Surprise thus lead to confusion - why was she working with the military? Did it have something to do with her sudden disappearance from the regular digs and academic circles she used to frequent?

And why did it involve him? Sure, he knew a lot about the ancient cultures of southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa, colloquially known as the Fertile Crescent, but that wasn't knowledge that would serve for any sort of modern day military campaign, not that he thought Dr. Langford would ever be involved in such a thing.

Daniel briefly remembered he was being soaked through, along with his bags, and ducked back inside with them before returning his attention to the envelope. He ran a finger along the flap, wondering what he was going to do. He had no job, no money, no apartment, and no possessions aside from those he had with him. This was the break he had been hoping for, but it was from the military, something he wasn't sure he wanted to get involved with.

There were only three things inside the envelope when he cracked it open - a small stack of papers swearing him and his work to secrecy, a note with the line to call should he accept, and a one-way plane ticket to Colorado scheduled the following afternoon.

They'd offered him just over a day to think about it before making a decision one way or the other. He wasn't sure whether it was generosity or they just knew he had no other options at that time.

"Well, curiosity killed the cat, I guess." Daniel sighed, running a hand through his hair as he looked up at nothing, lost in thought. A job was a job, and he had to trust Dr. Langford if nothing else. "I hope I have enough antihistamines to last me to my paycheck…"

~0~0~

Travel was hell on his sinuses, as was going to new places. Even through the familiar misery of an ever irritated nose, he couldn't help but stop and stare in wonder at the massive coverstone on display in the room he'd been led to. "How old is this?"

"Approximately ten thousand years, give or take a few centuries." Dr. Langford told him, looking amused at his wondering gaze.

"Wow…" Stepping closer, he traced an imaginary line along the hieroglyphs and symbols ringing around the center. "Why doesn't anyone know about this? I mean - something this old would be huge in the scientific community."

"That's because it was dug up in Giza back in the 1928, brought back to the country, and left in a government basement until several years ago."

"Really? How come?" He looked to the older woman, blinking in surprise, before being briefly distracted with the whiteboard containing copies of the inner ring's writings, frowning as he mentally translated them himself. "Hold on, those are wrong-"

Against protest from one of the other archaeologists, he started mumbling about faulty textbooks while rewriting the translations. "A thousand years into the sky is Ra, the sun god, sealed and buried for all time." He crossed out 'Doorway to Heaven' on the last line, writing next to it instead, "Stargate."

"So," He asked as he stepped back, looking to the small crowd that had gathered. "Why is the military interested in old Egyptian writings?"

"It's not the coverstone, it's what was found with it." Dr. Langford gestured to the side of the room, where the large fossils were displayed.

Once again, Daniel found himself awed, quickly making his way over to it and examining it closely. "Incredible, I've never seen fossils anything like this. Why hasn't anyone else found something like this yet?"

The people in the room glanced between each other, before one of the younger officers asked Dr. Langford, "Do you want to show him, or should I?"

"I think I'd like to enjoy his surprise firsthand, but thank you, Colonel."

"Show me what?" Daniel asked, cycling back to confusion as Catherine turned back to him with a smile.

"You'll see," was the only reply she offered, leaving him rather concerned as he was led down several bustling halls to a computer room with several dozen people hard at work and ignoring their presence.

That, however, was not what caught his attention. For on the other side of the blast window was the most geometrically perfect ring he had ever seen, surrounded by metal and wiring and held up by six strong clasps.

"What is that?" He asked, wondering how many times he was going to be asking that question over the next few days.

"That," Dr. Langford replied. "is your Stargate, Dr. Jackson."

His gaze followed the outer track, eyes widening as he recognized the same symbols as those that rings the coverstone in the other room. "It matches the coverstone exactly…"

"Excuse me?"

He turned to the older woman, waving a hand. "The symbols on the outside of the ring, they match the ones on the outside ring of the coverstone."

Her brow furrowed. "The symbols don't match up at all. It's one of the things that has been puzzling the team for years."

"No, I'm pretty sure they match, though I'd need a copy of the coverstone to be completely certain." Daniel frowned as well, certain he wasn't being pranked but unable to explain how they could see different things.

"We have a copy of the symbols on both if you want to compare them." Dr. Landford turned to one of the other people in the room, gesturing for him to go get said copies. Within a few minutes the man was back with two rolled up sheets, which were quickly spread out next to each other.

Daniel frowned more, looking over the Stargate copy with a frown. "Yeah, this isn't what I'm seeing at all. I'm seeing these-" He pointed to the copy of the coverstone's symbols. "Around that."

"But… that's impossible, unless…" The older woman frowned. "Can someone bring Captain Carter and Dr. McKay here please?"

Several minutes later had all four of them pouring over the two sheets, Daniel matching each coverstone symbol to the Ring symbols everyone else saw. Dr. McKay shook his head, leaning back. "This is impossible; he has to be joking. Someone would have noticed before now if people could see different symbols on the Ring."

"No, it's possible." Samantha countered. "It's not like many of us were actually trying to compare what we saw, because we all assumed we were seeing the same thing."

"That still doesn't explain why the Ring would do that; in order for us to see different things would mean the symbols are projected individually into a person's brain-" Rodney stopped, eyes widening. "Wait, there was that one room in Heliopolis that had that chair that almost no one could activate."

"Until Colonel O'Neill sat down and it instantly lit up, giving us access to other parts of the complex that were still working." The captain sat up, understanding dawning in her expression at the same time as Rodney's.

"It reacted to something in his genetics, but it worked by mental command." He looked back to the sheets. "What if the Ring was designed the same way?"

"But why would they do that?" Samantha frowned, looking over the sheets again. "It seems like a waste unless it was for some purpose-"

"Constellations." The two blinked and turned to Daniel, along with everyone else in the room who had been silently listening in. "I just recognized a few of them - the ancient Egyptians sometimes used them when describing the timing of certain events like comets or the deaths of rulers. It isn't brought up much because the constellations have changed since then, and we have an entirely different set of constellations to what they used back then anyways."

Samantha clapped her hands together. "That's why there's seven symbols - it's a coordinate system in three dimensional space using references most people would be familiar with on any given world. Six to locate the gate in an area of space, and one for the point of origin. "

"Then why don't we see our constellations on the Ring?" Rodney shot back, though he was looking thoughtful as well. "No, wait, all of us were given the photos and sketches of the Ring well before we saw it, so that's what we expected to see. And because they matched the Archive addresses, we never thought to question what we were seeing."

"I bet if we looked now we'd start to see our constellations instead because we know about the coordinate system now." Samantha nodded, not turning to look just yet. "I think what we were seeing before was the original constellations from when the Ancients who made the Gate were using it to travel around the galaxy. Those must have been engraved into the Rings in case the telepathic feature broke so that they could still use the system, which is why they're what shows up in all the photos we've taken."

"Yeah, you're right." Rodney looked past her to the Ring. "They're a bit off, but I recognize Orion, Leo, and Cygnus near the top there."

Samantha turned to look, as well as almost everyone else. "Yeah, I'm seeing it too, but I also see the original symbols underneath it? My brain's trying to see two things at the same time."

"That's crazy," Rodney sat back, boggled. "How many other features does the Ring have we know nothing about?"

"I have no idea, but we should definitely have the translation work on that information put to a higher priority." She paused, just remembering something. "Wait, that means we can just convert the original symbols to our constellations and we'll be able to pinpoint where Heliopolis is in our sky, and with Dr. Jackson's help we can translate the address on the coverstone and finally figure out who was in contact with the Ancient Egyptians ten thousand years ago."

Daniel blinked when their attention returned to him. "I'd love to help, but…" He looked between them. "Heliopolis?"

Samantha and Rodney exchanged glances. Dr. Langford, who had remained quiet, shook her head in quiet awe at what had just transpired. "I suppose there's still quite a lot to catch you up on, Dr. Jackson. I hope you're ready for a long explanation."

~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~

AN: And so we get into the events of the movie, hoorah! And finally Daniel makes his debut as well. Of course, as always, in the middle of my research I find out some very concerning things, like how even though the Gates were made millions of years before the story, they somehow use modern western constellations.

Let me tell you, I spend two hours debating with a friend over how to solve that plot hole without causing others, and eventually managed to settle on the Gate having a minor form of telepathy which has everyone seeing what they expect to see for the symbols. Since most of the base had seen the footage or the images of the Gate from older pictures first, they saw the same symbols, but because Daniel saw the coverstone first, he saw those instead.

So yeah, there's my explanation on why the Ring has modern western constellations despite being millions of years old with no one questioning it, and also how they didn't match the coverstone symbols with the ring symbols before then. Does it all make sense? I really hope it does…

(On a final note, poor Jack…)