Chapter 18
Fort Roosevelt
One Week Prior
Sergeant Shepard was sitting on a bench outside Fort Roosevelt's main complex, which had expanded to include a proper aircraft hangar and runway, though in reality, even those were little more than a large building thrown together with corrugated metal and a smoothed out portion of dirt. It had been realized that they would need to expand their coverage abilities, so the base was now home to a fleet of three Piper Cubs, all modified for additional fuel capacity, while two more were stationed at smaller outposts, mainly just fuel caches, on the edges of the explored territory.
Shepard watched as Simmons oversaw the prepping of one of the Cubs, loading it up onto a trailer to be hauled out to one of the outposts. Normally again, these planes would be supervised by trained engineers, but since those were currently in short supply and the main engineer had some kind of stomach bug, Simmons volunteered. Luckily the Cubs were fairly idiot proof, and his job at the moment mainly involved making sure the fuel trucks got to all three, and double checking with the pilots to see if everything that was needed was there. The hangar like facilities also doubled as a machine shop, and so as Simmons went about his final inspection, Shepard glanced over to his tank and saw Morehouse furiously working at the back hatch, his body drenched in sweat and a black liquid.
"Hey Morehouse, that oil change coming along alright?" Shepard called out to his man as he sat comfortably on the bench
"Working on it sir!" Morehouse shouted as he wiped his brow, leaving behind a streak of oil.
"Well alrighty then!" Shepard finished as he took a long draught from his canteen, loudly slurping the contents before giving an extremely satisfied "Ah!" Leaning back, he cracked a smug grin as he looked back at his crew. "Hey Morehouse! Have you tried this Kool-Aid stuff yet? It's pretty refreshing! This cherry flavor is amazing."
"No sir, I'm just a humble man, who likes his simple water!" he shouted back as he took a swig from his own canteen, grimacing as the lukewarm water cascaded down his throat. "Yes sir, good ole fashioned water!"
As he left Morehouse to his work, Shepard began to walk over to the Cubs slowly. As much fun as it was to mess with Morehouse, he still couldn't do too much. The doctor had been very explicit about not straining himself for the next few days and Sanderson didn't seem like the type of doctor you'd want to ignore.
"How's it going?" Shepard asked Simmons as the latter finished making notes on his clipboard.
"Going well, we're just getting the flight ready to investigate those mountains we found a few days ago." he said as he jotted down and scribbled a couple more things before looking back up.
"Oh yeah, I remember hearing about those." Shepard said as he tried to recall the details of their scouting efforts so far. The extensively-explored area around the gate had a radius of nearly a hundred miles, while preliminary scouting had gotten out to almost three. The mountain range spotted on one of the more recent scouting trips was about one hundred and fifty miles further out west. There was talk of how the mountains might contain plenty of ores and minerals that could be useful. There might even be some kind of civilization out there beyond the peaks. The Cubs were being outfitted with radio receivers that covered a wider array of frequencies and each would carry a member of the team who'd work at the transceiver hoping to pick something up. The hope was to pick up any radio signals if there was a civilization out there that possessed such a technology.
…"Problem is, we're approaching the limit with these things." Simmons said as Shepard focused once more, his head still rang occasionally after that smack, but he'd insisted on getting out of medical as soon as possible, he hated sitting on his ass with nothing to do. … Of course, now he was outside medical and he still ended up sitting on his ass with nothing to do, but at least he could change the scenery.
"We've seen pretty much everything in a hundred miles?" Shepard asked
"Pretty much, it's plains in almost every direction, except for those mountains, we haven't seen much. A hundred mile radius isn't that big, Cubs might be cheap, and can glide if they run out of gas, but for long range scouting they're not exactly the best. And if it's more empty in those mountains, then we're going to need to go further out."
"Hmmm, so what kind of planes might we need for better scouting?"
"We need something with range, but is small enough to break down and fit through the gate."
"We should go with the Thunderbolt!" One of the pilots shouted.
"Yeah, if you want a piece of crap! the Lightning is the way to go!" one of the other Cub pilots yelled from his cockpit
"Please, if you guys want something reliable go with the Mustang!" the third pilot joined in as the three began shouting at each other.
"Hey!" Simmons shouted, what did I say about arguing over planes?!" Simmons shouted at the trio, quieting them down as they went back to their tasks "I swear it's like herding cats sometimes." he finished, shaking his head.
"Hmm, also, Simmons, what are you even doing here? Keeping track of the planes and the pilots seems a little out of your paygrade."
"I don't know." Simmons sighed, shrugging his shoulders and letting them fall with an exaggerated droop. "Our whole command structure's been goofy as all hell, I'm hoping once that damned meeting happens we'll get some more officers in here and that's something I thought I'd never say in my life."
"Really, is it that bad?"
"Oh yeah. I'm still the go to guy to send through the gate with the bubble suit, so that'd be more of a technician rank, lower than what I'm at, but then I get told, "Oh go keep an eye on the Cubs!" so that's some kind of Warrant Officer rank. Then I'm doing a ton of side administration stuff and helping Don fix small problems here and there through the base and the rest of the program, so that's some kind of junior lieutenant grade stuff. For god's sakes, I'm a sergeant, I'm supposed to be leading a fire team, not coordinating base building!"
Shepard winced "Ouch, that sucks, hopefully they won't have you doing too much more weird shit. Me, I've got my tank and my boys, that's all it's ever been and frankly I like it that way, nice and simple. Which reminds me. Morehouse! I think those spokes need a good scrubbing! Make sure you get that after the oil!"
"Mrphm!" was all the tanker shouted as a jet of oil shot at his face as he frantically ducked down and began turning his wrench as fast as he could.
Heliopolis, same time
With the lockdown resolved, Ernest and Catherine returned to Heliopolis, to continue their research there. Ernest had been spending a great deal of time in the atomic projection room, trying to decipher the code used. So far, they'd recorded more than a thousand individually distinct molecular patterns, ranging from ones using known elements to strange compounds using many of the unknown elements.
Ernest tapped the projector, "turning the page" to a new display, and he and Catherine scanned it, looking for any of the now-familiar molecules to isolate them and begin working on discerning new ones.
"H2O!" Catherine called, pointing out what they'd determined to be one of the most frequently-shown molecules.
"CO … No, CO2!" Ernest called, recording furiously in his notebook. The two of them danced around the room, the changing perspective bringing to light unseen connections.
Their earpieces crackled. "Heliopolis base, this is Area 52. Doctor Littlefield, are you there?"
"This is Littlefield. Go ahead." Ernest answered, checking his watch. It was Heliopolis' daily dial-out to Earth so both sides could send status updates. Usually they didn't contact Ernest unless something was needed.
"We've got some … interesting news. The voice said "The Roswell wreckage … they've managed to recover some text from inside the craft. It wasn't much just some metal with writing inscribed on it."
"Anything we've seen before?" Catherine asked.
"Yes, Mrs. Marcus. It was runic text, actually they said specifically it was Proto-Norse script, very similar to-"
"The Norse script here!" Ernest jogged to the other end of the room, looking at the pattern of text splashed against one of the four corners of the room, splaying his hands against the wall as he scanned the runes, his eyes moving in a frenzy. He began babbling rapidly before Catherine got him to slow down.
"Catherine! Do you realize what this means?!" He labored as his chest puffed in and out, his breaths short.
"I do."
"At least one of the races that built this place is still out there! And they've visited Earth! Recently!" Ernest blurted out excitedly, missing what his former fiancee had said.
"Is that good though, Ernest?" Catherine raised her eyebrow. "So far all this proves is now there's two aliens we need to look out for. How do we know if they're friendly? Are sure they aren't allied with the Goa'uld?"
The words passed through Ernest's ears though as he continued to look as the runes, only barely aware of the room around him. "Have you deciphered what any of it says?"
"Two words. 'Asgard' and 'vessel.'" the radio replied.
"Any specifics as to the context of 'vessel?' Could it mean 'spacefaring vessel?'"
"Possibly. Again, we're looking into it more Dr. Littlefield, this is just the preliminary results."
"Again, how do we know they aren't in league with the Goa'uld?" Catherine asked again, gently grabbing hold of Ernest's shoulder as he gazed at the text.
"Well, look at this place, Catherine! We're pretty sure the Goa'uld script was added later, given how it's carved in above a lot of the original text. That probably means that this place was conquered by one of them, most likely Ra given that his name was written all over the place."
"That may be true, Ernest, but think about it, from what we know so far, the Goa'uld use Egyptian mythological motifs for their identity, from writings to how they style themselves. If these "Asgard" are using Norse motifs then you're right in that they probably visited Earth, but we don't know in what capacity. What if these Asgard are just Goa'uld who have a different culture than the Goa'uld we've met? No offense, but if they really are a few millennia old in terms of being a spacefaring civilization, then it stands to reason that they might have developed cultural offshoots. Look at how many cultures exist on Earth alone. Imagine the possible offshoots of a species that's spread across the universe."
"But we didn't find any parasites in the aliens we recovered from the crash though."
"From what I recall Ernest, those bodies weren't in any shape to be looked at, between the crash and the fire. It took us nearly two months to be a hundred percent sure they weren't even human and most of their insides were soup because of the inertia when that thing crashed. If they had a parasite inside I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have made it either."
"We need to finish the translations here. I'm sure those would clarify some things. Or we could have them run tissue samples through the electron microscope, look for any trace of the Goa'uld canary substance. Or, hell, Kor'us might know something." His voice raised at the last sentences in the way of a person who hoped for something.
"Maybe, but in the meantime, let's get everything we can and make sure we double our recordings, the meeting is happening in week, the president needs all the information we can scrape together when he makes his case."Fort Roosevelt
Samuel stared at Kor'us for several seconds before speaking. "I'm here because a recent discovery has raised questions. Questions I hope you can answer."
"Then ask them."
"Does the phrase 'Asgard' mean anything to you?"
The gasp of horror and the terrified expression on the Jaffa warrior's face spoke volumes more than any words could. Samuel smirked.
"Thank you for that." He said, quite satisfied. If the mere mention of the Asgard elicited such a reaction from the Jaffa, he very much wanted to meet the freakishly proportioned aliens.
Earth
White House
Stargate disclosure conference
Truman nodded at St. Laurent's comments. To a large extent the Prime Minister was right, they had all the technology they'd captured at their disposal, not to mention the vast untapped potential that was Heliopolis. They had a secure and, for the moment, secret base of operations on not only Fort Roosevelt, but Earth as well. For all intents and purposes, they were secure and had the luxury of time. But…
"Under other circumstances, I would agree." Truman said, looking at the Prime Minister. "If it was just us and the Goa'uld, we'd have absolutely no need to press our luck, so to say. However, as I'm sure you saw in the film, we have conclusive proof that there are other aliens out there, the ones we're calling Asgard. And on top of that, those aliens know where Earth is."
"If I may?" Fraser asked, "How are we certain this second group of aliens knows where Earth is? From the docket, it says these was a relatively small craft, with room for maybe three or four crew. It strike me that this looks a lot like a scouting or possibly an exploration craft. What if it was just a group of aliens who stumbled across Earth?"
"That might be possible Mr. Prime Minister, but as I'm sure your scientific advisors have told you, believe me they've been impressing this upon me for weeks now, space is vast, almost infinitely so. In our galaxy alone there are hundreds of billions of stars in the mosaic of the sky, each one unique from one another. As uncomfortable as it may be to think about, our Sun is just one of those hundreds of billions, we're a speck in the cosmic sea. So already the odds of aliens finding us randomly are low, and if you look at the events that have been going on the past few years, it would have to be an enormous cosmic coincidence for an alien ship to just by happenstance come to our world, just as we're starting to explore the greater galaxy."
"Hence why using the gate is risky." St. Laurent spoke back up, his voice calmly carrying over the room. "It uses a unique address for each world it's on, and if an alien were to see us dialing Earth, they'd know exactly where it is, or at least what planet to dial. From what the report indicates, we're still trying to divine the exact meaning of the glyphs around the gate, but it stands to reason that the aliens who made these rings would know their true meaning. While the SGI has been using proxy locations for their return trips, it still will only take one compromised person to reveal the location of our off world bases or even Earth. If these aliens can really subserviate a person to their will so easily like they did to this Lieutenant Powell, then unless we compartmentalize our information to such a degree that our off world teams don't know the gate addresses back home, which comes with its own mess of problems, anybody is a potential security breach waiting to happen." The Prime Minister finished as he sat back down.
"I understand I might just be going in circles here, but when it's a matter of global security and the future of our species, I'm inclined to be a bit...cautious."
The group began to speak to themselves for a bit, as delegates consulted with their own parties or even began to converse with their neighbor for a bit. Truman decided to allow them time to process this next tidbit of information before they proceeded. He was trying to be as gentle as possible with these proceedings, as much as he just wanted everyone to be on the same page. St. Laurent was right, this was a matter of not just global security, but the future of the human race. They were all walking on eggshells, and no one wanted to be the one who brought the foot down.
Clearing his throat, he brought the assembly's attention back to him and his table. Nodding respectfully. "Prime Minister St. Laurent is right to a large extent, there is quite a bit of risk involved with going beyond our own settled area of influence and yes we do have a wide scope of resources at our disposal, but to reiterate, we're very limited in what we actually know and what we're actually capable of right now. If we were to hunker down, we'd gain that measure of security, true, but we'd lose a lot of our flexibility. As we've seen there are in fact other civilizations out there, not just the Goa'uld and the Asgard, but based on the Heliopolis text, there are at least three other alien species out there we've yet to discover, and given the vastness of space, it stands to reason there might be far more. It's possible that some of these other civilizations oppose the Goa'uld. I have included a report of a session between the Jaffa Kor'us and Samuel Marcus. Kor'us reacted with abject fear to the mere mention of the Asgard. If we can find one, just one advanced civilization that opposes the Goa'uld, particularly these Asgard, then we'll have found not only a possible ally to help keep us safe, but also a partner who could help us bootstrap our technological development by leaps and bounds. Right now we're just scavenging and hoping for the best, if we can find allies…" Truman spread his arms as he let the sentence hang over the room. "It's a big universe out there gentlemen, and the reality is, Earth will need allies. We need to find these other civilizations and make contact."
"And then there's the tactical element." Jan Smuts spoke up, looking around the room. "The fog of war gentlemen. If we're going to be waging a campaign from the shadows, and realistically, that's all we'll be capable of for a long time, we'll need to know what the enemy's movements are. If we barricade ourselves behind our fortress, we'll lose that element. Even if we opt to not explore, not sending out expeditions is out of the question, we simply must gather any information we can about what they might be planning, be it so we can either strike ourselves, or assist any allies."
"Finally there's simple resources." Secretary Brevin piped in "If we're going wage a war against an interstellar empire, we'll need as many resources as we can get our hands on, so to speak. One planet alone will have massive numbers of resources to exploit, but to get them all would take time. If we can find other worlds with easier to access deposits or other resources, that's less time we'll have to worry about establishing such a supply network. If we can find trade partners, even better. Plus there could be more ruins out there, we're already prepared to reap enormous benefits from Heliopolis, and that's mostly from those ear devices. Imagine what we could find in an intact abandoned alien city, or other locals.
St. Laurent nodded as he heard the other leaders speak. "Those are excellent points gentlemen, I do concede that while it is a risk, exploring definitely does have significant potential benefits. If we are going to go down that route though, I have a suggestion."
"What?"
"Why don't we let the world know?"
"What?!" was the collective response
"It makes sense. The easiest way to ensure the most resources for this program is to bring the world in on it. Not only would we have access to the entire globe, but we'd better be able to coordinate defences and possible locations to stockpile sensitive resources, or even make fall back points for our populations. Make it public knowledge, in the face of greater threats, we've seen how different groups can work together. I mean, look at this group gentlemen, here we are, the leaders of the Anglo world side by side working together for the betterment of our planet. Imagine all of the world, united as one against this menace. The entire scientific community working on this technology and solving the mysteries presented before us. The entire manufacturing might of nations and colonies churning out not only the weapons of war we'll need but also the tools to settle the new frontier! The militaries of the world turned against these Goa'uld. Imagine, the numbers of the Soviets and the Chinese, combine with our own ingenuity and tactics with designed tools made by the Germans and other great minds. We'd become the most potent fighting force we've ever been. I believe it makes a great deal of sense to let everyone in."
"You would let the Soviets know?" Truman asked.
"I do not believe Stalin is beyond reason. We have a prisoner who's given us information suggesting the might of the Goa'uld. We know Stalin can recognize a greater threat. He aided us against the Germans and if presented with a credible threat to his nation, and I do believe the Goa'uld qualify as that, then we can rely on him to aid us against the Goa'uld."
"Assuming he doesn't have a fit over the fact that we didn't bring him in immediately. And by 'fit,' I do, of course, mean, 'declare war because he's a raving loony.'" Brevin quipped at the Prime Minister. "Don't forget we're talking about the man who starved out Ukraine a decade ago, how many millions died because of that? And as for the rest of his nation, how many millions more are in those god forsaken prison camps? Noto to mention we're also talking about the man who ordered most of his senior military leadership killed. Oh and the purges, we can't forget about the purges…"
"The point being," Truman said interrupting Brevin's tirade, "At this point, we do not believe informing the world would be a wise decision. People don't want another war, much less one they'll have been dragged into unwillingly. Hell in America alone, if it wasn't for Taft and his amazing cooperation, I'd be fighting an uphill battle just have this conversation with all of you. As long as we keep it secret, as long as the discrepancies caused by the program remain unnoticed, we believe it can eventually be declassified and revealed to the world with minimal backlash."
St. Laurent didn't say anything at first, merely resting his hand on his chin as he thought, he looked as though he gave a small nod before he spoke once more "Nevertheless, even if we keep this secret for now, we still have to plan for the inevitability of public disclosure. A global operation of this magnitude is simply too massive to remain secret forever, no matter how secure we try to keep it. And when the secret gets out, we have to make sure the world is ready. The simple existence of some of these technologies are going to shake some people's worldviews, throw in aliens, other worlds, wars in the heavens, and you have a recipe for a panic as people's perception of what is normal and what is not is shattered. We'll have to make sure we have effective screening processes in place since these Goa'uld can hijack our bodies, and that's the perfect proxy for any kind of witch hunt. We must, if nothing else, have a plan leading to eventual disclosure, a plan which will ensure that the world does not react negatively to it. Nothing breeds a ground for ill conceived reactionaries than a panic at the unknown."
"What would you suggest?"
"We should start by ascertaining the reactions of the public of various nations to the idea of intelligent life. This 'Asgard' vessel's crash-landing may well be in our best interests. We can discern who believes the initial reports that it was, in fact, an alien vessel, which I must say, your suppressing almost immediately can only serve to fuel rumors. With that in mind, we can begin to see how many people respond positively and how many respond negatively. I would suggest a slow dissemination of any technological benefits down to the public, using any knowledge and technology gained to begin to advance the people."
"That would make sense." Truman said "We've already got several surpluses of tools from the War that we're preparing to roll out to the civilian market. If we can slowly parcel out technologies to the public, especially ones that we can live with the Soviets likely acquiring through purchases, we'll be able to improve everyone's lives and get the rest of the world closer to a technological base that'll be useful for a possible war."
Evatt and Fraser whispered to each other for a moment, before Fraser spoke up to the assembly. "We also need to keep our populations moving forward in terms of wanting more and more scientific discovery, as well as to create a possible smokescreen for releasing so many new technologies. Perhaps we should start small, focus on our own solar system and exploring it. If we can advance the worldview of the populace piecemeal, slowly adjusting them to a new, larger reality, in time, perhaps they will simply look at disclosure with interest and acceptance."
"And what would you suggest for the next step after that?" St. Laurent asked.
"Well, while it may sound pie in the sky, as the phrase goes, the best chance to kill two birds with one stone here is to start a public space program. We have to achieve spaceflight. We have to open people's minds to the possibilities of whatever may lay beyond Earth."
Truman nodded "As is noted in the brief you all received, one of the concessions made by my government when the decision to cut the Navy back was that they would be permitted to have control over military space development. We can certainly open up the doors to international cooperation there."
"I don't mean military spaceflight. While certainly we'll need to keep up development there, I believe the people would respond best to a civilian space agency, one without potential ulterior motives, versus a military program, which would almost certainly be seen as an antagonistic move." Fraser said as he returned to scribbling his notes
"Given the purpose of this meeting as the first step to establishing an international coalition for mutual protection and cooperation, perhaps one of the first principle points of this international organization's charter could be the establishment of an international space program, one with the intent of promoting the exploration of space as an endeavor for all mankind. Perhaps, eventually, we could open this space program to nations not directly involved in the organization, widen our pool of minds to draw from as technology advances." Evatt said, extending an open hand forward.
There was a low murmur of agreement and Truman had to agree that it sounded like a good idea. All the governments would probably have to do a little legislative jockeying to get their constitutions onboard with funding an international space program, but if they could frame it as saving money since each nation would be kicking in a bit rather than one going alone…
The meeting continued for several more hours as the group began discussing the minutiae of implementing a civilian program for space exploration. While they still had a lot of work to do on the rest of the alliance, it seemed to be unspoken they'd hammer out this portion of the proceeding first so they'd have a framework to work with for the rest of the conference. Notes were passed back and forth and percentages were discussed to say nothing of the myriad of other small details. After several hours, Truman suppressed a yawn and looked at the clock, they'd been at this for nearly the entire day
Clearing his throat, he stood. "Gentlemen, I believe we've made good progress so far here today, I motion that we adjourn for tonight, and resume this meeting tomorrow. No doubt many of you will probably have things you'll want to discuss with your fellows." Gesturing to an open safe he continued "If you'd just go ahead and put your documents in there, I think we can call it a day. Tomorrow I'll have more technical information to present to the rest of the group…"