A/N: I have rewritten and updated Chapter 1 (17/4/21). It is now an 8000+ word chapter covering all of Season 6 Episode 17 "Disclosure", taking what I had originally written, and massively expanding upon, and improving it. It also has several new formats in it, that I've also used in this chapter. I will be updating and maybe rewriting chapters 2 and 3 to add in any information that is needed and to add in the new formatting.
Tuesday 4th February 2003
Defence Council Meeting Room, Ministry of Defence
As General Walker moved back to his seat, Admiral Boyce stood and took his place at the head of the table.
"Although the two races already discussed are the current major threats to Earth, and indeed the UK, they are by far not the only threats. Unfortunately, in the course of their activities, the SGC have encountered several other advanced races who are, for one reason or another, hostile towards us. For most of these races, the SGC has only encountered them once or twice, so we don't have much information on their capabilities, it is pieced together from what little the SGC were able to learn.
"The first is the Eurondan's. This is a group of humans living on a world they called Euronda. They were encountered by the SGC in 2000, following a request for aid coming through the Stargate. The SGC quickly learned however, that they were engaged in a World War with a group they called "Breeders", and that this was caused by the Eurondan's attempting to commit genocide on them due to their genetic diversity.
"Technologically wise, according to the SGC they were slightly above our level of technology, with various technologies including drone fighters piloted by a neural interface, and Deuterium powered fusion reactors.
"We do not consider this group a significant threat to Earth however, as there is no indication of space travel displayed by them, and it is believed that the majority of the nation were wiped out by a massed attack from the "Breeders", just after the SGC cut off contact with them."
Here the projector screen behind Admiral Boyce lit up once again, this time showing an image of another race, together with photographs and detailed descriptions of several pieces of technology.
"The next race is one that the SGC refers to as Mimics, encountered in late 1999. We actually know very little about this race, other than that they are capable of accurately mimicking other people. They were able to completely infiltrate the SGC, and even managed to impersonate the Pentagon's Liaison to the program. They were eventually exposed due to their technology not being compatible with Goa'uld biology, meaning that Major Carter was able to escape and expose them.
"Technologically, other than the handful of mimic devices remaining after they were exposed and managed to escape, we have no other examples of their technology, and so cannot determine their technology level in relation to Earth.
"We also cannot accurately determine their threat level towards Earth, due to the lack of knowledge of both their technological level, and their motives. However, as they have not been seen in over three years, we do not believe they pose a significant threat to Earth at this time."
"Although the SGC was able to disrupt the mimic devices, and now broadcast that disruption frequency in the Gateroom each time a team comes back through the Stargate, several were able to escape through the Stargate. As such, we don't know if they knew how the devices were disrupted and thus if they can modify the mimic devices to be immune to that frequency.
"There were also several mimic devices that were captured after their attempt to take over the SGC, and recently, the SGC learned that they had been stolen by the NID and used in an attempt to implicate various SGC personnel in a failed assassination attempt on a US Senator. They were able to recover the mimic devices and exposed the conspirators, but it shows just how much of a threat that technology can be."
Here the screen changed once again. This time to show several security images of an insectoid race, all taken from SGC security camera's, including some where the insectoid is only partially visible.
"Yet another faction that has proven hostile to Earth, and indeed humanity as a whole, is the Rebel Reetou. These are a breakaway faction of the Reetou, an insectoid race whose homeworld was destroyed by the Goa'uld. The majority of the Reetou decided to fight the Goa'uld directly, but a small faction, referred to by the SGC as Rebel Reetou, decided to go after the Goa'uld in another fashion, by destroying any and all potential hosts, which, among others, includes the entire human race.
"What makes this faction a threat to us, and the race as a whole, enough of a threat to the Goa'uld that they attempted to wipe them out, is that they exist out of phase with our vision, making them essentially invisible. The Goa'uld did develop a weapon to allow them to see and then shoot the Reetou, which the SGC were able to get ahold of, called a Transphase Eradication Rod, or TER, when a Rebel Reetou cell attacked the SGC. These weapons have since come in useful in being able to reveal Goa'uld cloaking devices as well.
"Aside from being out of phase with our vision, we have absolutely no idea of the level of their technology. We don't know if they have any of their own ships, or ship building capability, but it is likely that they could capture Goa'uld vessels and potentially then use them against other races or planets."
"Finally, we come to the last race that has been confirmed hostile by the SGC, which is called the Aschen. They are a human, or near-human, group from a world they refer to as Aschen Prime. Although we don't know the exact address of Aschen Prime, the SGC believes it to be the world they refer to as P4C-970."
Here the screen changes to show images of several known Aschen, including the Aschen Ambassador, Mollem, and several examples of their technology, including a video of an Aschen Harvester dropping grain though a tilted over Stargate.
"Although the Aschen as a whole appear to lack a sense of humour, leading SG-1's commander, Colonel O'Neill, to refer to them as a race of accountants, they generally have an extremely high intelligence and are both very practical, and work on a long-term basis, planning up to centuries in advance.
"This last point is the most worrying. When the SGC first encountered the Aschen, it was on a World known as Volia, a farming world with only a few thousand people living there, supplying Aschen Prime with large amounts of food. However, they soon learned that until very recently, within the past couple of hundred years or so, Volia was a thriving world with several hundred million people, and on a similar technological level to Earth at some point in the past 100 years, prior to contact with the Aschen. Following their contact, the Aschen offered them various technologies, including anti-aging medicines. This however, proved their downfall, as the medicines contained a drug which sterilised the majority of the population, leading to the decrease in numbers. Following that, the Aschen then converted Volia into a farming world, turning a Gas Giant into a second Sun, and using the remaining population as farmers, all to feed their own population.
"Due to their technological level, which is somewhere between 100 and 200 years ahead of our own, we consider the Aschen a significant threat. We know that they have the capacity for at least some form of ship building, and that their homeworld is highly populated and probably extremely industrialised, although we don't know to what extent. We do know that their hyperdrive capability is very limited, and the SGC estimates that it would likely take a decade or so for them to reach Earth from their current location.
"As such, they are not currently rated as a significant threat at the moment, although that is subject to change at any point."
Here Admiral Boyce stopped for a minute to gaze around the room and gauge the various reactions to what he had informed them of. The various members of the military seated around the table appeared calm, but he knew that was mainly due to a combination of their rank and experience, and the fact that they were the ones who had supervised the collation of this briefing, so had seen and heard it before.
It was the civilian members of the Defence Council that he predominately studied. Although they had previously been provided the same information as the military members, he knew that they wouldn't have looked closely at each race and considered how much of a threat they really were. They would simply have seen the numerous races that were hostile in one form or another towards Earth, and just panicked, quite likely in a similar manner to how the PM and DPM had done when informed of the Stargate Program.
Looking around, he could see range of different expressions on various faces. Being politician's, they were experienced in hiding their feelings, but due to his years of experience working with them, he was able to detect the micro-expressions that they revealed. He could tell that they were worried. He couldn't blame them. Being told just how outmatched their military, and by extension the world's military, was in comparison to alien races would be scary for anyone, let alone a civilian.
However, he had been watching them for the majority of the meeting, and by and large, after the Goa'uld and Replicators had been discussed, their fears and worries had actually calmed down significantly when informed about how little of a threat the other races were at this point, although it had again increased with the mention of the Aschen. He could understand that though, biological weaponry and genocide would have that affect on pretty much anyone, especially those that remembered the Bosnian War only a few years beforehand.
"Moving on, there are several races or factions that have allied with the SGC over the years, the Asgard, Nox, Tok'ra, Rebel Jaffa, Tollan and Orbanian's. The Tollan and Orbanian's are both advanced humans, with a technology level ranging from approximately 50 to 100 years ahead of us, in the case of the Orbanian's, up to several hundred years ahead of us for the Tollan, although unfortunately the Tollan were attacked not too long ago by the Goa'uld and believed wiped out. The Tok'ra is a sub-faction of the Goa'uld, acting as infiltrators and saboteurs, to the Goa'uld they would be considered terrorists, in a similar fashion to the IRA. The Rebel Jaffa are a slowly growing group of Jaffa, inspired by certain members of their race, such as Teal'c, who works with the SGC, who no longer believe the Goa'uld are gods, and now actively work to bring an end to the Goa'uld. And finally, the Nox and Asgard are two members of an ancient alliance, which includes the so-called Ancients, the builders of the Stargates, and are millions of years old."
"The Tok'ra and Rebel Jaffa use the same technology and equipment as the Goa'uld do. While they are currently allied with Earth, mainly thanks to the efforts of the SGC, there have been incidences where the Goa'uld have attempted, and in at least 2 cases, almost succeeded in breaking these alliances. However, the Rebel Jaffa in particular come from the service of multiple different Goa'uld's and no doubt have long memories of wars fought against each other. As such, while they are currently bound together in their hatred of the Goa'uld and desire to see them overthrown, once that happens they could well break back down into their separate factions and start fighting each other again, or even us.
"At the moment, the SGC is working relatively closely with both factions, supplying and receiving intelligence on Goa'uld movements and weaknesses, as well as occasionally performing combined operations with one or the other faction. Both of the these factions are a good option for us to gain various technology and equipment, such as Goa'uld ships.
"The Orbanian's were first encountered by the SGC in mid 1999. By that point, they had developed nanite technology, allowing knowledge to be passed from person to person. However, they did this by implanting these nanites in certain children, known as Urrone, what we would call an apprentice, who then learnt about a subject before the nanites were extracted and a single nanite was implanted into each Orbanian adult, gifting them the knowledge the Urrone had learnt. The main issue with this is that afterwards, the Urrone is reduced to an infant-like state as all their knowledge is removed, and while they are cared for, the Orbanian's had lost any knowledge on other teaching methods, such as what we use here on Earth, leaving those Urrone in an infant-like state for the rest of their lives.
"SG-1 took exception to this, and showed the Orbanian's a way to educate the Urrone, very similar to how we teach children here, and have been working closely with them on that ever since. Technologically wise, the SGC did develop the Naquadah Generator technology with the help of the Orbanian's, but do not seem to have looked at any other possible technology they could assist us with, such as environmental, power or medical technologies.
"The Tollan were another advanced human faction, that unlike the Orbanian's, had developed weapon technology which allowed them to withstand a Goa'uld attack, and destroy it. If I remember correctly, the SGC reported that only a single Ion Cannon, of which they had dozens across their planet, was able to destroy a Ha'tak class vessel in just 3 shots. Their downfall happened because they were too fixated on that technology, and once Anubis started appearing, his technology was advanced enough to completely negate the Ion weaponry, ultimately rendering the Tollan's defences void, leading to their destruction.
"As with the Orbanian's the SGC seems to have focused on a single technology, in this case Ion Weaponry, and ignored all other possible technologies that the Tollan could provide us. The main reason for the Tollan's refusal to share any sort of technology with the SGC is due to them providing energy technology to a neighbouring planet within their original system, who ultimately weaponised it and used it to destroy themselves, and eventually the Tollan's homeworld. However, the SGC could have worked with the Tollan's to help develop our own technology, even if it was the occasional hint as to whether we were working in the right direction or not, but unfortunately it does not appear that the SGC did so."
"Moving on to the last two allied races, we have the Nox and Asgard. These are both highly advanced races, although according to the SGC, the Nox do not appear as such, preferring to live in harmony with nature and are pacifistic to the extreme, not even fighting back when faced with death. The Nox generally prefer to be left alone, even going so far as to render their Stargate impassable. As such, the SGC has had little contact with them, aside from their initial visit to the Nox homeworld, and a handful of times when a Nox representative has arrived on Earth.
"The Asgard however, are a lot friendlier to Earth, having worked alongside the SG-1 on several occasions. Indeed, it is likely that we can attribute their friendship to Earth mostly due to the actions of SG-1. As a result of this friendship, the Asgard have been willing to provide the SGC with Asgard modified shields and weapons for their X-303 Battlecruiser. I should hasten to point out that these technologies are not of Asgard design. The shielding technology is a modified Goa'uld shield generator and the weapons are a more refined and efficient version of the railguns that the SGC were in the process of designing and installing on the X-303. I will be going over the X-303 in more detail later, so we'll go through the information then.
"The Asgard were also willing to join the meeting that the US held to disclose the SGC to us, both in support of the SGC remaining under the control of it's current personnel, and also in an attempt to prevent the Stargate falling under the control of another US organisation, known as the National Intelligence Department, or NID. The reason for that I will get to shortly.
"Other than the USAF, and Marine Corps, the only other organisation involved in the SGC in any major way is the NID. This is a civilian run organisation with top-level oversight of top-secret military operations, in particular those pertaining to extraterrestrials or space in general. The NID have on multiple occasions attempted to gain control of the Stargate and the technology obtained through it, most notably on 2 occasions. The first being in late 2000, when several members blackmailed the head of the SGC into resigning, by threatening his granddaughters, in order to place their own man in command there. Luckily, that was revealed soon afterwards and General Hammond reinstated to the SGC. The second attempt was during the disclosure meeting, when Senator Kinsey attempted to persuade the Ambassador's to recommend placing the SGC under the control of the NID, rather than the USAF, which incidentally would have resulted in the SGC coming under his direct control.
"Another argument against the NID are the actions of certain 'rogue'," Here the sarcasm in his voice was palpable to the other men sitting around the table, "members, who, over the years, have attempted to steal technologies from multiple other worlds, including from our allies, resulting in significant damage being done to various populations, and even the threat of our various allies ending their alliances with us, possibly resulting in them becoming hostile towards us.
"While the NID claims that these were the actions of several rogue agents, the number of these agents and their high ranks within the NID, to us at least, indicate that their actions were at least known, if not sanctioned as well, by the upper echelons of the NID.
"The last race I have to mention is the Serrakin/Hebridan's. I mentioned this race at the beginning of the meeting as a possible threat, but to be honest, we don't know enough about them to say whether they are going to be a threat or an ally. The SGC only encountered them last week, and that was with 4 members of that race, 3 of which were prisoners being transported to prison, when their ship malfunctioned and was forced to land on a planet. SG-1 was able to assist in repairing the ship and the pilot did appear to be friendly towards them, so hopefully that bodes well for future contact with them, although we will have to wait for them to contact us due their planet not having a Stargate and we don't have any ships to reach Hebridan."
With that, Admiral Boyce stepped back from the table and returned to his seat as Geoff Hoon stood and looked around at the various members of the Defence Council.
"Gentlemen," he started, "both myself and Admiral Boyce have already discussed our recommendations to put to the PM regarding the Stargate program and our participation in it. Our purpose now is to discuss those recommendations, as well as listen to those from yourselves, to attempt to provide the PM with the best advice that we can, bearing in mind our current commitments across the world, current and planned military procurements and expenditures, as well as the deployments currently taking place in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for the invasion of Iraq."
A/N: This concludes the Defence Council meeting. Next up we have the second meeting with the PM, where we find out what the Defence Council recommends with regards to the SGC.
Side Note, the scale I am using for the ships and fighters comes from Stargate Now Facebook group, which uses the actual studio models scaled correctly. As such, the ships will be far larger than what is commonly quoted. The X-303 for example, is commonly said to be 195m long, whereas in actuality, it is 520m long.