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Harry Potter and the Alteran Gift

Chapter 38

PNA avatar (or any artificial intelligence or neural computer interface) speaking with Harry looks like this. Telepathy *looks like this*.

continued...

"Alright, Colonel, you get your people all stitched up and ready for a debriefing with SG-1 and SG-10 at 0800 tomorrow morning. I have a phone call to make to the President." said General Hammond.

"Yes, sir." answered Colonel O'Neill.

12/10/98 0800...

In the SGC debriefing room attendees are: General Hammond; from SG-1-Colonel O'Neill, Captain Carter, Dr. Daniel Jackson, Teal'c; from SG-10-Major Boyd, Lt. Colville, CWO Heinig, Lt. McLeod; from the Pentagon-Lt. Col. Samuels, Major Davis; and from the NID-Colonel Maybourne.

"General, there appear to be more people invited to this party than I was expecting." said Col. O'Neill.

"Easy there Colonel. After I spoke to the President last night he became far more interested in this alien who could command advanced technology with a wave of his hand than in the black-hole incident itself. He asked me to include a broad cross-section of interests in this meeting in order for him to get a comprehensive report from all perspectives." replied Gen. Hammond.

A quick glance around the room and Maybourne responded to O'Neill's reaction to that with his customary smirk but said nothing. Lt. Col. Samuels sat there looking like he was sucking on a lemon after being dressed down by his superiors at the Pentagon for his reported undiplomatic handling of the first contact situation.

"Major Boyd, I understand from Dr. Frazier that you and your team are suffering from a lot of residual pain from your experiences in time dilation, so we will start with your team and then we'll dismiss you to return to recovery." said Gen. Hammond.

"Thank you sir, that is much appreciated." replied Maj. Boyd.

"Very well, we will table a deeper discussion on the black-hole incident itself for another date, so in order not to keep you too long, Major, please describe your experience when Commander Hariel transported you to his ship and back to Earth." asked Gen. Hammond.

"Yes, sir. From our perspective we were running toward the gate having just successfully dialed it. We knew we were experiencing time dilation because we saw the black-hole, could feel the effect of the gravity pulling at us and our voices were distorted as we tried to talk. We were doing this and then suddenly in a flash of light we were tumbling onto the deck of the bridge of Commander Hariel's ship." answered Maj. Boyd.

"Then, he introduced himself as Hariel, told us that he was sent by Col. O'Neill to rescue us, and asked if we needed medical attention. Unfortunately all of us were in too much of state of shock to answer, I think I just nodded my head no, then he just said, 'okay then, please have a seat and don't touch anything and that he would have us home in 30 minutes'. After which we just did as he asked us until we arrived back in orbit of Earth and he beamed us into this room with him."

"Very well, Major thank you. Lt. Colville, CWO Heinig, Lt. McLeod, do any of you have anything to add or is this how you recall the events as well?" asked Gen. Hammond.

The rest of the members of SG-10 just answered in the affirmative, that was how they recalled the events also. Gen. Hammond was motioning to dismiss them when...

"Maj. Boyd, SG-10," Col. Maybourne nodded in their direction. "Before you go could you explain where all this pain is coming from, is this something perhaps that happened to you aboard that ship?" asked Col. Maybourne.

Col. O'Neill could be seen rolling his eyes and Daniel shook his head, as the General started to form an angry glare in his eyes when the Maj. responded...

"Yes, sir. Dr. Frazier explained to us that because of the time we spent in time dilation with the expanding gravity wave enveloping us, almost all the muscles and ligaments in our body were severely strained and although we didn't feel it immediately after being beamed to the ship, after sitting for a while it started to set in as a general stiffness. By the time we were in recovery in the infirmary, it began to be painful. Dr. Frazier said that with pain medication, muscle relaxers, and some physical therapy we should be fit to return to duty in about a week." answered Maj. Boyd.

"Thank you Major, SG-10. Please go get your well deserved rest. You are dismissed." ordered Gen. Hammond.

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." answered Maj. Boyd. Then SG-10 got up an left the meeting.

"Doctor Jackson, have you worked up that list I asked you to make for this meeting of bullet-points of actionable events, answered questions, un-answered questions, and other important remarks from our meeting with Commander Hariel yesterday?" asked Gen. Hammond.

"I did General." replied Dr. Jackson. Dr. Jackson passed around a stack of briefing papers for everyone around the table to take a copy of.

"I've asked Dr. Jackson to take the lead on briefing us on the results of yesterday's encounter with Commander Hariel, beginning with what we know or think we know and don't know; after that I will turn it over to the room to ask additional questions and open it for discussion. Doctor?" said Gen. Hammond.

A/N: Readers, this will be a long list summarizing Hariel's visit to the SGC from the last chapter. If you feel like skimming it you can, although it might be interesting to see how Daniel summarizes some of the events. The important part is the observations Daniel makes in bold-underline that he believes is worthy of follow-up in their subsequent discussion, their briefing to the President, and for follow-up with Hariel.

"Yes. Thank you general. The following is just a simple bullet-point list of discrete items in chronological order that I believe are important to note or for further discussion. For simplicity I refer in this report to our subject as simply Hariel. I will only summarize and in some cases paraphrase some of the important points below. You will find a full transcript word-for-word of our conversations that occurred here in the SGC in the appendix in the back." started Dr. Jackson.

( ) Hariel appeared in the gate-room in the form of a hologram, exchanged greetings with Captain Carter, waved at the stargate, and it disconnected.

( ) Hariel merely followed Captain Carter around while the senior officers worked to restore order to the base, waiting for a time that everyone who needed to hear his story would be available to meet.

( ) Hariel, upon meeting Col. O'Neill in the infirmary and at Col. O'Neill's request traveled to P3W-451 in his space ship to rescue SG-10, which he did taking only one hour and two minutes to accomplish. **An important item for follow-up is how did Hariel know where P3W-451 was. ***Another interesting note is that Hariel's ship appears to be very much faster than a Goa'uld ship.

( ) Hariel answered 'That's classified information' when asked where he was from.

( ) Hariel answered 'I have not yet entered your facility' when asked how he entered our facility. Then went on to explain in response to Gen. Hammond's follow-up question that 'I am projecting my image to you using my ship's hologram projector'.

( ) Hariel answered 'Oh, well then, I guess I am just as alien as you are' -and- 'What I mean is that my people did not originate on this planet and neither did yours' in response to Lt. Col. Samuels questions about him being an alien. **An important item for follow-up is what did Hariel mean that we also did not originate on this planet.

( ) Hariel answered 'No' in response to Gen. Hammonds questions about whether or not he is a threat to the Earth and further explained that 'just as you keep your secrets for your own reasons I keep my secrets for my own reasons' -and- 'so I won't be giving you a road-map to my home-world today'.

( ) Hariel asked us in that same thread of conversation, if we were a threat to him and Gen. Hammond answered 'We're no threat to anyone' ... 'unless you are a Goa'uld or allied with them.'

( ) Hariel followed-up his question asking about the Earth as a whole, is it a threat and did he, the General that is, speak on behalf of the whole world - to this the General answered 'No, Mr. Hariel. It is not. We are just one branch of one government on Earth. We cannot speak for everyone.' **An important item for follow-up is how do we properly express to Hariel that the Earth as a whole is not a threat and that the world as whole agrees with that? ***More on this theme later as it appears to be a major concern of his in dealing with us.

( ) Hariel then levied several accusatory questions to us regarding the dangers this program has attracted to Earth and regarding our keeping the existence of this program a secret from the rest of the world, and even failing to inform the rest of world when the threat was imminent. **An important item for follow-up is our response to these questions. We never did answer him, we merely moved directly on to questioning him about spying on us and never returned to this. I would anticipate that in any further dealings with him, he will expect answers to these questions.

( ) Hariel answered when questioned about spying on us with his own question 'General, do you not spy on all the governments of your world, even those you call allies, in order to maintain a current threat watch in 360 degrees at all times? Do you think you are the only government who does this, or the only race in the galaxy who does this? Please don't play the naive card, General'

( ) Hariel then engaged in an exchange of questions from Dr. Jackson, in a layman's attempt at the Ancient language. To which, Hariel responded that a) he had come here to help people he considers friends, b) his people are the Alterans who we call Ancients, and c) his people are the builders of the stargates.

( ) Hariel then began to open up a little more with explanations and in response to Col. O'Neill's question of whether he would only give real answers that were asked in Alteran, he answered 'No not at all, to be perfectly honest with you I was just stringing you along a little bit. You see I'm known as a bit of a prankster on my world. And it amused me to hear Dr. Jackson attempt a few words in my language' **An important item of note is that he admittedly exhibited a sense of humor and pranking. This could be useful information for the experts who may wish to build a psych. profile on him.

( ) Hariel then responded to the questions of his ability with English and other Earth languages both in terms of his people having a gift of learning new languages very quickly and through there study of our languages through their spy satellite. **An important item of note is that he admitted to having a cloaked spy satellite in orbit of Earth. The intel. people will likely pay special interest to that.

( ) Hariel than began to open up more with answers to questions, apparently finding Captain Carters question of 'why the sudden interest' a question he was more prepared to answer. He went on to explain a little of their history which you can read in the appendix, he informed us that the gate we've been using must've been brought here from somewhere else because it wasn't the primary gate assigned to this planet, and he further explained that he has already found and recovered that gate. He informed us that his people only recently returned to this galaxy and are in the process of colonizing a new home-world for himself here and that they began taking an active interest in us at least 5-6 months ago when they scanned the stargate network for activity. **An important item of note is where did this second gate which is the one we are using come from and why. It might merely be academic at this point, but we don't know what we don't know. ***Another important item of note is his claim to having found and recovered the original gate assigned to Earth. This leaves more questions such as, has he been secretly operating on Earth, did he take that stargate away or is it still on Earth, if the answers to the foregoing are yes, are his people still maintaining a presence on Earth, and so forth. ****The larger item of note from all of this is his expressed interest in Earth's activities beginning 5-6 months ago, what exactly do his people want with us? Do they have an agenda and what is it?

( ) Hariel then identified himself as Supreme Commander of the Alteran Fleet and when asked to prove himself by Lt. Col. Samuels, he transported us all to his space-ship in orbit of Earth, which he called the Alteran Battleship Orion, where we could see a view of the Earth from orbit. **An important question is of course, how powerful is his ship? does his people have more than one? probably since he mentioned a fleet, but if so how many? Would they someday be willing to help us build our own ships? Would they use their ships to help protect us if more Goa'uld or another enemy comes to attack us again someday? Why is he willing to show it to us so easily if he is unwilling to share? etc.

( ) Hariel then used his hologram projector to show us a picture of what we know of as a standard DHD and offered to give us one in order to prevent us from having the same kind of re-occurring types of problems relying on our own dialing computer that does not have all the sensor and safety features of their DHD. He informed us that he is doing this because he only had two choices, to make it safer for us to use our stargate or take it away from us. At which point Lt. Col. Samuels told him 'you don't have any right to take that stargate, it is the property of the United States government' after which he transported him back to Earth and out of our meeting.

( ) Hariel then appeared to perform what I can only describe as some kind of magic but Captain Carter ensures me is just advanced technology so far beyond our understanding that we can't perceive it; then created or summoned a machine out of thin air that hovered there and made a bunch of flashing lights for about 90 seconds and fully constructed our new DHD. With a snap of his fingers his machine disappeared, then he transported us and the DHD back to the gate-room. **An important note here is how did he do all of that? Probably not magic as Captain Carter said, but exactly how advanced are these people, what can't they do? What is the limit of their capabilities? You look at this guy and you want to imagine he could snap his fingers and make a Goa'uld Ha'tak disappear just as easily. Who knows? This is something we need to learn more about. ***Then the remaining question of this dialogue is, could he have or would he really have taken our stargate from us? Do his people actually consider that lawful? Do we? It seems plain from what we observed that he could easily take the stargate from us, but again we still don't know what we don't know.

( ) Hariel then, in the closing dialogue before he left told us several things about his expectations and his concerns about forming a working relationship with us, concluding with a request that we ask our President to meet with him if he wished to discuss a greater relationship between our people. All of these points are important notes for follow-up as questions or concerns to discuss with the President that may inform how he might want to respond to him:

. . . [ ] In doing what he did there were two main reasons that he was 'bending our rules about non-interference'.

. . . [ ] 'One is because on the balance I have become rather fond of the work your SG-1 team has done and how they have grown since they started exploring other worlds and I wish to continue to give them a chance, whereas the rest of your government on the whole still gives me pause.'

. . . [ ] 'Two, and really the only reason why the first has any weight for me is because I am aware of the Goa'uld threat in the galaxy to the human race and others, but Earth is only one of 40 planets in this galaxy with permanent human settlements on them. However Earth is the one that has the greatest chance of standing up to them and you have shown compassion enough in some circumstances to go to other's aid when you can.' -and- 'Nevertheless, we believe some of you are learning, it would be a shame to stop your progress now. Dr. Jackson, I have it on good authority that Lya of the Nox is particularly impressed with you, as am I. Having spoken recently to Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgard, he believes you have future potential as a race as well. Both of these were good endorsements on your behalf. So, we will try to work with you when we can. But, most of that is up to you.'

. . . [ ] Followed by, 'Normally I wouldn't speak to representatives from a planet at all unless they justly represented all the people of the planet.'

. . . [ ] and 'While the Goa'uld are no threat to us, we wish to help the human populations of this galaxy against the Goa'uld. However, as powerful as our technology is, there are few of us and few enough of us that we do not wish to risk our population in the type of ground engagements and espionage as you people seem to have built your teams to do.'

. . . [ ] and a message directed to the President'At some point after I leave I know you will brief your President on the events and my words here today. I ask you to take a message to him for me. If he is prepared to lift the veil of secrecy regarding the existence of the stargate, your country's monopoly on use of the stargate, and unite with all the other major powers of the Earth in an endeavor to fight the Goa'uld, I would be willing to come to talk to the group of them and negotiate some form of defensive alliance to assist you. If not, I cannot promise you will hear from us again, but we will be watching you.'

( ) Hariel then concluded with a brief history explaining the alliance of Four Great Races from millions of years ago then departed, activating the gate apparently just as easily as Lya from the Nox did.

**An important note here is that it appears to be possible to engage the stargate without creating the initial vortex of energy and immediately connect to a remote address without dialing. It probably doesn't bare repeating but, it still looked to this observer like magic. concluded Daniel.

"Thank you Dr. Jackson, that is a thorough and comprehensive report with your usual keen eye for piercing through issues with first contact situations." said Gen. Hammond.

"Thank you General." replied Daniel.

"Very well, let's go around the room and find out from everyone if they concur with Dr. Jackson's report or if anyone has anything to add, or perhaps additional questions or observations we need to bring to light when I brief the President."

"Colonel O'Neill, your thoughts?" asked Gen. Hammond.

"I have nothing to add to the report, I think it is all accurate. The only thing I would say is that Hariel seemed very accommodating when I asked him if he could rescue our team for us. That impressed me and earns him points in my book. He seems like a good guy." replied Col. O'Neill.

"Captain Carter?" asked Gen. Hammond.

"I have nothing to add General. It occurred just as Daniel said it did, the only thing is that I would like to personally be involved in any of the scientific follow-up's with him if we get the opportunity and would like to delve deeper with more detailed questions than Daniel suggested but it is a good outline of what we need to look into." replied Captain Carter.

"Very well, Teal'c?" asked Gen. Hammond.

"General, I cannot speak for Earth but if this Commander Hariel has as strong an interest in opposing the Goa'uld as he said he does, then I believe we should work toward forming that defensive alliance he mentioned." replied Teal'c.

"I agree Teal'c, that will be one of the items in my recommendation to the President." replied Gen. Hammond.

"Lt. Col. Samuels?" asked Gen. Hammond.

"I can't dispute the facts General. But, I think the characterization of my questions is over-stated or misunderstood. I merely wished to support the interests of the United States and this program." replied Lt. Col. Samuels.

"Thank you Colonel, I will take that under advisement. Major Davis?" said Gen. Hammond.

"Sir, I was around for very little of Commander Hariel's visit. As you know sir I was mostly involved with you on the surface for a brief while. However, last night I was informed by my commanding officer at the Pentagon that the President has re-assigned me to Stargate Command to be his personal liaison with the program from now on. He complained of getting confusing and sometimes differing reports from other offices at the Pentagon and from even the NID who to the best of our knowledge were not even directly involved yesterday; yet he felt that he got the most timely reports of accurate information from you and myself, sir. He wishes me to remain here and travel back and forth between here and Washington as often as necessary as your personal liaison to help you to maintain contact with his office from now on."

"Thank you Major Davis, the help will be most welcome. Welcome to the team." replied Gen. Hammond.

"Colonel Maybourne?" asked Gen. Hammond.

"Saving the best for last, eh General?" Colonel O'Neill couldn't resist saying.

"Colonel, please!" exclaimed Gen. Hammond with a glare to O'Neill.

"You see, this is part of what gives us a black eye. I don't know how the President got the idea our advising him yesterday contributed to his problems regarding yesterdays event but, if there is a problem I trace it back to the unwillingness to cooperate in good effective two-way communication between the SGC and the NID." said Col. Maybourne.

"What I don't understand," started Col. O'Neill. "Is why there are so many active duty military officers working for a civilian branch of the government which is supposed to just provide civilian oversight of top-secret military operations. Keywords, civilian and oversight, which is to look over, not to be directly involved. I find it curious that so many active duty former? covert operatives are recruited and employed at the NID." responded Col. O'Neill.

"Oh be careful Jack, you know one of the first rules of compartmentalized security is to not be too curious or at least not to openly express your curiosity, of programs you are not briefed into." answered Col. Maybourne.

"Enough, Colonel's, you are senior flag officers, act like it. Col. Maybourne do you have anything to add in regard to yesterday's events? Any questions that Dr. Jackson's report does not answer?" said Gen. Hammond.

"No, I don't General. I just seem to set off the worst in Colonel O'Neill for some reason. The fact is I am here only to listen and to learn, so that I can give our civilian leaders informed advice." answered Col. Maybourne.

"Okay then, everyone. I will ask Dr. Jackson and Major Davis to accompany me with my appt. this evening to personally brief the President. Gentlemen, wheels up at 1200 hours. Dismissed." ordered Gen. Hammond.

"Colonel O'Neill please see me in my office directly after this meeting." ordered Gen. Hammond.

...

"Colonel, what was that in there just now with Col. Maybourne? How is it that he provokes you so much?" asked Gen. Hammond.

"Sir, just Maybourne's presence provokes me, then when he begins by getting defensive about his crummy organization that is corrupt and packed with lies it just puts me over the edge." answered Col. O'Neill.

"I understand that Colonel, I truly do but as a Colonel in this man's Air Force and a trained combat pilot at that, I would expect a bit of a bigger edge to you. Work harder to ensure he does not provoke you in the future and set a better example for your junior officers. Is that understood?" said General Hammond.

"Yes, sir." answered Colonel O'Neill.

...

2000 hours at the White House...

Attendees: President Bill Clinton, Secretary of Defense William Cohen, Senator Robert Kinsey, General George Hammond, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and Major Paul Davis.

After having pre-read Dr. Jackson's report and engaging during the afternoon in Q&A with other advisors cleared for knowledge of Stargate prior to the SGC team's arrival; the President didn't put the General and his team through repeating the report again verbatim, he simply got down to what he believes are the brass tacks going forward that are necessary for his office to focus on.

"Gentlemen, General, thank you for dropping everything and rushing here to Washington tonight. I have been through your report Dr. Jackson and I agree with most of your observations. General, there are a fair few open questions we would like answers to of a detail or technical nature that I will let your command continue to focus on in their time if we can establish a good relationship with these Alterans." began Pres. Clinton.

"What I want to focus on in our discussion tonight is how to go about accomplishing that, without risking the security of the United States." said Pres. Clinton.

"Mr. President," started Sen. Kinsey. "Don't you think it is premature to immediately react to form an alliance with these aliens? For all that we know this could be a back door plot for them to take over power on our world without ever firing a shot." said Sen. Kinsey.

"Senator, as elegantly stated as always. As I said, my objective is to discuss how we can go about establishing a good relationship, note I did not jump forward to alliance, and without risking the security of the United States, which is the equivalent of all the rest of your hyperbole. Now, please Senator you know that I fully understand your position as Chair of the Senate Finance Committee or I wouldn't even allow you into this room for this discussion; but let us hear from our experts before we decide anything shall we? And let me remind you of the decisions and actions we've taken since the Apophis fiasco that you almost led us into oblivion in because I followed your advice on that day. Namely that under the 'War Power's Act' I can and will keep the SGC funded as long as this country needs it to be funded, as in my judgment we are at war with the Goa'uld, one that they declared which automatically puts us in a state of war, whether we officially declare it alongside of them or not-is that clear Senator?" replied Pres. Clinton.

"Mr. President, you know I never agreed..." started Sen. Kinsey.

"Stop right there Senator," started Pres. Clinton. "I neither sought or need your agreement. By the time you can get a measure to the Supreme Court to challenge my decision in any way that would matter before the law, a decision I fully expect to be upheld by the Court by the way should that day come; I probably won't even be President anymore. I may have made some mistakes in my career Senator, but no longer will taking your advice be one of them. Now sit there and listen or leave." calmly stated Pres. Clinton.

At that Kinsey having got all red in the face slammed closed his briefcase and stormed out of the Oval Office.

"Good Lord, I am glad that man did the right thing for once." said the President. In his thoughts where the archive recorders cannot record, at least the thinks so, he privately mused that 'I'm glad that bastard took the bait and got out of here. I was afraid that wouldn't work. Good thing he wears his attitude on his sleeve.'

"I'm sorry Mr. President, Senator Kinsey doesn't seem to like the stargate program very much or perhaps it's just me in particular." said Gen. Hammond.

"Oh no, General. Do not worry, and I'm sure it's nothing very personal, I believe his problems have more complicated motives than that, but we'll leave it at that for now shall we? Anyway, with him gone I expect we can have a productive conversation. I have already discussed some of this in advance with Secretary Cohen here and we are of one mind that we should try to meet with this Commander Hariel and see what he has in mind." started Pres. Clinton.

"As I said at the start, your people have good detail questions that you should continue to follow-up on but, it is plain on the surface, certain truths seem to come at us in any case. 1) He obviously is from a very advanced race given the empirical evidence of his actions. It doesn't really matter right now if he is an Alteran as he claimed, or he is the Senator from Pluto. If we become friends with his people, we will know what we need to know in time; and 2) He went out of his way to help Captain Carter shutoff the gate, he didn't hesitate to make the journey to go rescue your team that was stuck on that planet, he voluntarily stayed behind to answer questions waiting until you could get the base sorted out, and he gave us a dialing device to work the gate properly-he appears friendly enough to at least have a conversation with him and hear him out and to this politicians eyes it appears as though he came here -with- the intention of becoming friends and offering an opportunity for alliance. He after all was the one who suggested that, none of you solicited it." continued Pres. Clinton.

"However, from there it gets complicated right? Let's start with 'beware of Greeks bearing gifts.' Let's hope that his motives are as pure as he made them sound. Great. What if they are not? So we need to be mindful of this and proceed as cautiously as we can. If we do tie up with his people in some way we should leave ourselves contingency plans if the deal goes sour at some point. With the power these people seem to have that might be the greatest challenge of all, but we need to try. I will count on you General and your team to watch our backs on all this." continued Pres. Clinton.

"So, finally I will quote his direct message to me and I will shut up and hear any advice you may have. He gave you a message directly for me, and I quote 'If he is prepared to lift the veil of secrecy regarding the existence of the stargate, your country's monopoly on use of the stargate, and unite with all the other major powers of the Earth in an endeavor to fight the Goa'uld, I would be willing to come to talk to the group of them and negotiate some form of defensive alliance to assist you. If not, I cannot promise you will hear from us again, but we will be watching you.' quoted Pres. Clinton.

"As you all know, while I do enjoy the highest office in one of the three branches of our federal government. I don't make these decisions on my own. Despite my authority, I do believe if I went entirely against the unanimous 'advice' of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other key members of the Military and Intelligence complexes in and out of uniform, they would just have me shot. Now, I realize General and Secty. Cohen that you two are only a small representation of that group, but I've never heard from either one of you that it is time to take the stargate public or to share it with our competing governments around the world, not even with our staunchest allies. So, I ask you. If we cannot move forward to 'lift the veil of secrecy' what hope do we have of even reaching back out to these Alterans and forming any kind of relationship? Or do we simply do nothing? Do we just file this report away and wonder if we'll ever hear from them again?" concluded Pres. Clinton.

As Gen. Hammond and Secty. Cohen sat silently contemplating how to respond to that and Major Davis sat quietly thinking he is definitely not jumping that far ahead of his chain of command to say a word, Daniel with really nothing to lose decided to speak.

"Mr. President," began Daniel, "while our military friends are figuring out how to respond to that. I have a few thoughts if you don't mind?" asked Daniel.

"Oh, no, please go ahead Dr. Jackson, I realize I could have a dozen more high ranking officials in the room to discuss this with us right now but they would understand the stargate side of this equation less than any of us in this room, so please speak openly." replied Pres. Clinton.

"Well sir, my first comment really isn't about the gate but it is the situation you find yourself in. Of course having been associated with the military and what is probably one of the biggest secrets ever for several years now I have become a bit less naive in regard to politics than I was as a simple student or professor of archeology. But, as a ordinary citizen I feel appalled to hear that a President feels so threatened by the people who are supposed to report to him that he feels he cannot make the best reasoned decision he is put into office to be able to make. I'm not doubting the veracity of your words at all, in fact they frighten me." started Daniel.

"I am a civilian who works for a military operation, led by General Hammond here of course, but also head by a line of higher ranking Generals above him until we come to Secty. Cohen here and finally yourself. I always took some comfort in knowing as a citizen and as a civilian working with this organization, that the civilian elected leader of our government who is meant to represent the civilian population and have primary oversight over these types of actions of the government, at the end of the day called the shot, or made the big call after all reasonable debate and arguments for a decision is heard. But, sir, you describe a government that is run solely by it's military and intelligence apparatus at this point and possibly the corporate handlers that crony up to them. If that is so, I can understand more seriously some of the pause Supreme Commander Hariel said he has of working with our government." continued Daniel.

"I mean for one thing, he as a foreign power, external even from our world, needs to at least know that when he is negotiating and dealing with the leader of our government and in his case he wishes it to be a world government that he deals with, but nevertheless, the head of government, that he is actually negotiating with the right person, the person who makes those calls, and the person who has authority and accountability to back it up. It sounds like the truth is at least one level worse than he accused us of. That not even speaking to the President of the United States is going to put him in front of the actual people who make these decisions for our own people or is the one truly representing our people. And back to the citizen side of this again, if what you say is true, I would have to be appalled because those people you speak of, we don't elect any of them. Not a one of them are accountable to the people. And no personal disrespect intended General, but by God who the hell do you people think you are?" concluded Daniel.

"Dr. Jackson, Daniel?" started Gen. Hammond. "I can't speak for the President of course or why he feels the way he does about the position he is in when making the decisions. And I don't know if what I have to say to you will put you at ease or not. But, most of us and I wish it were all of us, as I believe you do, merely follow orders. On top of that we get blamed often enough for merely following orders, but that -is- our lot in life. Of course the higher up you go, the more your knowledge and experience is sought out by political leaders and the President for our advice. But, we shouldn't be putting the President in a position to feel threatened to make whatever decision he feels is right. I hope that the President could at least re-assure you for my sake that I'm not that kind of person. But, this is not about me. I just want you to know that if there is a problem like the President is implying, that I do not believe it involves the vast majority of us, even in the higher ranks. I hope that he is exaggerating but I simply do not know. There are possibilities of bad people in any community or any organization. However, I would be first in line or standing next to you with my citizen hat on to protest the situation if it is as bad as you think it is." said Gen. Hammond.

"If I may gentlemen," started Secty. Cohen. "Perhaps I can bridge the gap a little bit here in terms of perspective both from the civilian political side which admittedly is my stronger suit, as well as the military side, as both come as part of my job description. I know because I sit in a lot of those meetings, that leaders as high up as the Joint Chiefs and so forth don't appear or sound threatening in those meetings, at least I don't think they intend to. I think a lot of the pressure any President feels comes from the Intelligence side of things because every day the President has to hear a risk, threat, and vulnerability assessment involving terrorism and other plots tying right back to secrets and espionage, and foreign powers suspected of doing one thing or another and as civilians with no prior experience of our own of course, we rely on the training and the briefings the Intel. community gives us when we come into office and throughout our day each day we are reminded that one slip up with secrets like this and people can die. After a while every single decision, every single thought you have begins to feel like a life and death decision and before you know it, otherwise good people with fairness and reason, even compassion and open-mindedness, are reduced to fear mongering intel. analysts themselves." said Secty. Cohen.

"Forgive me Mr. President I am not saying you have been reduced to that, or perhaps not yet. But, I think Dr. Jackson brings a fresh perspective to this that we rarely see in this building and the fact is, what I just described is a perspective one such as you Dr. Jackson need to hear. The sad truth of the matter is, the work is just as hard as I described it combined with so very often the decisions or the information we have to base them on are not always black and white, in fact they rarely are, there are always so many other shades of gray and on top of that big dark holes of emptiness where there is no information, which is made even worse because those holes often get filled by people with agendas who do have our ear, many of them civilian and a lot of them indeed elected by the people, that fill them with hyperbole or assumptions, or deliberate misinformation. Anyway, I am not saying that I have a clear answer to your concern, there is a problem here. But, I want you to understand the dynamics behind it. I doubt anyone actually thinks about shooting someone like a President over a decision they may disagree with or that would be so unpopular in certain constituencies, but sometimes when you are in a position such as President, that is what if feels like. Then that feeling itself becomes a driver and feeds the problem." concluded Secty. Cohen.

"Well gentlemen," started the President. "I feel like I have just received one very intense therapy session. I hope you all don't charge too much. I'm afraid poor Major Davis here might be left drooling on the carpet if we keep giving him an earful of what Cabinet level internecine geo-politics is like. Sorry Major Davis, only kidding. But I can imagine you are feeling rather uncomfortable right now, me too as a matter of fact, and this is supposed to be my office." continued Pres. Clinton as he tried to loosen the mood up a bit. Privately he wondered if he should try bringing out his sax, that usually works to lighten things up.

"Folks, especially you Dr. Jackson, I am sorry. I am told that sometimes I do have a flair for the dramatic. But, I would say that Secty. Cohen has hit the nail on the head on the psychology behind this line of thinking and that along with the statements made by General Hammond, that I whole heartedly agree with; I don't think the situation is as bad as I made it sound. That having been said, let's get back on topic because, at this stage I still am uncertain what to do. At least you General and you Secty. know as well as I do that nothing on this scale has been breached out to with the other major powers before. Is it unprecedented I don't know? But an argument can be made that some large scale movements like this have been done by past Presidents, such as President Nixon with China, such as the formation of the UN itself even though it has been reduced to an ineffectual debate club and does not have a charter as our world government despite what people want to believe." continued Pres. Clinton.

"I don't know, but this situation is very unique. Normally Dr. Jackson you would think that in a situation like this we could just openly debate it in Congress with the full House and Senate. That would be ideal wouldn't it? Then we would get the best cross-section of diverse opinions as elected by the people and really get to what would our people want to do. Problem is, it -is- a big secret and those people don't know it, so we can't take the debate to them where it belongs. Oh, yes, the irony is not lost on me either. The problem of course is that simply briefing all members of Congress in on the secret so we could then debate the question of if we should release the secret would defeat it's own purpose because the full Congress couldn't keep a secret even if it meant the end of the world. So, it falls back to me."

"Secty. Cohen what I want you to do, is to convene a meeting of the leaders of every organization that has people briefed on this program, and from within the military everyone of flag rank or above, so Colonel or above for SGC that is just you General and Colonel O'Neill correct? But also in your case bring Dr. Jackson again, Captain Carter and Teal'c because I would just like to have your full SG-1 team available to meet the right people and answer questions openly in the room. So, this includes Sen. Kinsey, Lord help us all, also the same of the NID, Pentagon, NASA, Area 51, if there is a group of civilian scientists working on a project, bring their dept. head and so forth. I don't know how big this meeting will get, but make it as big as you need it too. We will call this a Stargate Futures Conference, sounds ominous doesn't it? We'll get the widest most diverse opinions in one room at one time as we can get, then I will make my decision. And make this happen as soon as possible, tomorrow works for me if it were possible but, quickly you understand. Does this work for everyone?" concluded Pres. Clinton.