"This stargate enables people to reach other planets in a few seconds through a wormhole, mister Mallet?"
Although second maître Rousseau was utterly staggered by Louis Mallet's words, he remained calm and asked his question as he would have done for any ordinary question. The sailor was holding the photo the diplomatic advisor had showed him. It represented the stargate. Mallet, seeing his guest didn't flinch, provided more details:
"Indeed. The US Air Force initiated in the nineties a top secret program, the Stargate Program. The objective: explore the planets of our galaxy, find new resources and technologies..."
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Wlodarczyk was also explaining the program to lieutenant Rossberg. The young man was listening carefully, fascinated.
"We met many civilizations. Some, technologically more advanced than us, like the Goa'uld and the Ori, weren't peaceful and were trying to dominate the galaxy. Hopefully, we, with off-world allies, defeated them and helped the people they had enslaved to gain freedom. We also discovered Earth was the point of origin of several off-world civilizations. Our ancestors had been deported by the Goa'ulds on other planets to serve them like gods..."
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As for lieutenant Carter, she remained impassive at general Sheppard's speech.
"The Ancients, who built the stargate, had to leave Earth. They found their new place in the Pegasus galaxy. We sent, in 2004, and expedition to Atlantis, their space ship that was initially on Earth before being relocated to Pegasus. I was part of this expedition, and your aunt was the head of it for one year. She's now the head of Homeworld Command, and reports to our President and the International Oversight Advisory, aka IOA. Like in Milky Way, we crossed paths with a technologically advanced foe, the Wraiths..."
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Louis Mallet was now introducing an output of the Stargate Program:
"The F-302 was the first achievement. It's a space fighter interceptor. Ships were also built. They allow us to send crews for space surveillance tours and defend Earth and its allies if an enemy decides to attack..."
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Philip was still excited by Wlodarczyk's presentation.
"After the destruction of the Icare base and other events, and because of the terrorist threat on Earth, our government, along with the IOA, reduced the budget allocated to the program and reconsidered the missions in the past decade. A few months ago, SG1 and SG3 teams made an interesting discovery, which leads us to the Black Stone expedition."
The SOD agent stopped, to make an unofficial comment, rather for himself than for the lieutenant:
"Personally, I'm still surprised this mission had been approved... I suppose our President and the country members of the IOA found a new interest, but anyway..."
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John Sheppard was talking about the Black Stone project as well. This project turned out to be the reason why he came to Maryanne Carter.
"This is where you come into the picture. I'd like you to be one of the F-302 pilots and be part of the crew that will explore the planet full of an ore that will offer new possibilities to Earth. You may also be able to train on our new flying engine, but let's start with the F-302 first."