Gate Room, SGC
General Hammond was seeing off SG9 as they departed for another off-world excursion.
"Good Luck, Major."
"Thank you, sir," came the reply as SG9 stepped into the event horizon of the stargate which closed behind them. He turned around to head back to his office when suddenly the SG1 team materialized in front of him in a sparkle of light. He had encountered transporter technologies but had never seen such a display before.
"What is going on here, Colonel. Care to explain."
"You bet General, we need to talk," O'Neil replied.
"Alright. Debriefing room."
Debriefing Room, SGC
Once everyone was seated around the table, Colonel O'Neil spoke up. "While we were on P3275, we made some startling new discovery sir." He went on to explain what had happened. The rest of the team added their comments as the General soaked in the information.
He finally replied, "Good Work People. Do you think they will be willing to help us?"
"I don't see why not. They're from Earth right?"
"Earth from an alternate universe, sir," Carter interjected.
"They're still from Earth," he shot back.
"Well, we should ask them. In the meantime, I will advise the president on this new development. I'm sure he will want us to proceed with a formal meeting," Hammond put in authoritatively. "By the way, how do we get in touch with them?"
"Well sir, they gave us one of these," Carter replied holding up a little device that looked like a chevron badge.
"What is it?"
"It's a communication device sir," Carter replied. She tapped it once and spoke into it. "Carter to Enterprise."
"This is the Enterprise. What can we do for you Major?" came the reply. She recognized it was the Commander Riker.
"Commander Riker, I have just talked to my superiors and they would like to have a meeting with your Captain."
"I will pass it on, Major. Please wait." He was back on momentarily. "The Captain has agreed to a meeting. With your permission, we will beam down in five minutes."
Hammond gave a nod to which Carter replied, "Affirmative Commander. You have permission to beam down."
A party of five consisting of Captain Picard, Commander Riker, Commander Data, Councilor Troi and Worf beamed down from the Enterprise into the conference room. After a quick introduction, the meeting started in earnest. As expected, the topic quickly boiled down to the transfer of technology.
"Captain, as you know, we are fighting a very advanced enemy whose sole goal is to eradicate us. You have demonstrated a level of technology that is far in advance of the Goa'uld. Would you consider sharing it with us?" Colonel O'Neil asked eagerly.
"Maybe the shield technology or phasers perhaps?" Carter added hopefully.
"Indeed, something like that would be a tremendous asset in the fight against the Goa'uld," Teal'c emphasized.
Picard studied them for a while and then replied, "I understand the predicament you are in and we would like to help. The Goa'uld do seem to be quite a formidable foe and pose a great threat to Earth. However ..."
"However?" Jack cut in.
Picard disregarded Jack's outburst and continued, "However, our hands are tied. Our law forbids the transfer of technology to any culture that is more primitive than us. We don't want to influence the natural progression of a society because it could have unforeseen consequences."
"Here we go again, just like the Tollans. Why do you guys always have to treat us as if we were kids?" Jack couldn't believe these guys.
"Colonel O'Neil!" Hammond gave Jack a reprimanding look. Jack just shrugged his shoulders.
"Captain Picard is merely stating a fact, Colonel O'Neil," Data added. "Transfer of advanced technologies to cultures who have not sufficiently progressed has been shown to be detrimental on numerous occasions. Various civilizations have met their ends because they could not control the power that advanced technologies bestowed upon them. It is considered so important that it is one of our major edicts called the prime directive."
"We have a bunch of snake-heads breathing down our necks ready to kill us given half a chance and you are concerned about affecting our culture?" Jack retorted angrily. "Pretty soon, there may not be a culture to ..."
He was cut off by the blaring of alarm initiated by unauthorized off-world wormhole access. SG team got up from their seats and bolted to the gate room. Not knowing what else to do, the Enterprise team followed suit. By the time they got there, the wormhole had already established but the iris was shut to keep the unauthorized visitors at bay.
"Do we have any SG teams off-world?" Hammond asked Master Sergeant Walter Davis.
"No Sir, all SG teams are currently on base."
Suddenly the iris started to waver and then buckled as a strange device emerged through the closed iris and rolled out onto the gate room floor. Everyone knew where it came from. Only the Tollans possessed such technology. Furthermore they recognized what it was.
"It's a bomb!" someone yelled.
With a blinding speed that only Data could pull off, he drew his phaser, set it to maximum discharge and fired at the bomb that had just rolled to a stop. It disappeared when the phaser beam hit it.
USS Enterprise-E, Earth Orbit
After the incident, the Enterprise crew retreated back to their ship to discuss the event. Although the prime directive explicitly forbade the transfer of technology to younger cultures, this was a very different situation. Picard wasn't comfortable with the idea of disseminating advanced technologies to a culture who still hadn't come together as one let alone advanced enough to develop warp drives. It went against all his years of training and experience. But a show of hands revealed how most of his senior staff felt. He could understand their predicament. Although it was not their own Earth, this was the only link to their own origin. As far as they knew, they might not be getting back any time soon and might have to settle for this one. They had a vested interest in saving this one. But the burden of the final decision was his. He was the captain of this ship, the senior-most officer representing the Federation.
After what felt like an eternity, he made up his mind. He would act according to the council of his senior officers. It was clear what they wanted.
Everyone agreed that when the Enterprise was in orbit around Earth, it could easily provide protection to the planet. The problem was that they could not be around all the time. Besides, the Tollans or some other race could send another bomb through the gate.
"Data, do you think a force field would prevent another incident like the one in the gate room?" Riker asked
"I have done some research into that Commander. I do not think that a regular force field would be up to the task. The Tollans used some kind of phase shift mechanism to defeat the iris. However, a special a force field designed to prevent phase shifting should be able to thwart another incident."
"We could also add an energy dampening field and secondary force fields around the gate room should anything get through. It may not be fully able to contain the force of the explosion, but it would definitely contain the majority of the blast," Geordie added.
Picard contemplated for a second and asked, "Councilor Troi, do you think we can trust them with all these technologies?"
"I believe so Captain. They were genuinely concerned about their safety and their ability to protect themselves against advanced weapons and powerful enemies that wield them. Besides, I don't think they have the technology or understanding of these devices to replicate them. I don't think it should be a big concern as far as technology transfer goes."
Everyone agreed with it. "What about orbital defense when the Enterprise is not around?" Worf asked.
"We can manufacture some cloaked self-replicating automated orbital defense platforms. Since we are no longer in our own universe, we are not obligated to the Khitomar accord to produce cloaking devices. However, it might take a while given our circumstances. What do you think Geordie?" Data asked.
"We would need at least 6 platforms to provide full coverage. That could take a couple of months given our current resources. Perhaps if we forgo the cloaks, we could expedite the manufacture of the platforms," Geordie replied.
"Shouldn't we be worried about the civilian population from detecting our presence?" Picard was worried. After all, the vast majority of the world had no idea of extra-terrestrials.
"It shouldn't Sir. Radar technology isn't sufficient to detect our presence. We shouldn't be worried about optics either. There are plenty of satellites in orbit and ours should easily blend in."
"We can also use our shuttles to supplement the defenses," Data added.
"Are the shuttles powerful enough to defend Earth against those Goa'uld ships?" Picard asked.
"If it were a one on one static encounter, the shuttles wouldn't stand much of a chance sir. However, after having reviewed footages of Goa'uld Mother ships in combat, I have formulated a plan. We can equip the shuttles with a simple projectile weapon that can be fired at high impulse speeds. A ten kilogram projectile fired at say half the velocity of light will pack 112.5e+15 joules of kinetic energy which is equivalent to 28.125 megatons of TNT. This may seem like a small yield compared to a standard photon torpedo but the energy is projected over a very small area making it extremely effective. It should have no problems at all defeating the Goa'uld defenses. Now, this wouldn't work against an agile starship like the Enterprise because the deflector dish would simply push it out of the way. The Goa'uld mother ship on the other hand are slow and unwieldy and would provide a perfect target,"
"Excellent idea, Data," Geordie added. "With your permission Captain, I can have my staff fabricate this by the end of the day."
"Get on it Geordie. In the meantime, I shall inform General Hammond of our decision."
"What about the other countries? Wont they be worried about all these technologies being transferred to only one country." Deanna brought up the question.
"Excellent point Councilor. However, there's not much we can do about it at the moment. We will keep the transfer of technology to a minimum. Right now our main priority is safeguarding Earth which means some of these devices have to be at the stargate. Whether we like it or not, we will have to deal with the consequences as we go along,"
Conference Room, SGC
Commander Riker beamed down to the SGC to discuss the terms of the technology transfer with General Hammond. Although, the general was not ecstatic about the terms, he was more than happy to live with it if it meant safeguarding Earth from the Goa'uld. This was his first priority after all. "Although I don't like all the terms of this treaty, I would be more than happy to abide by it. However, I do not make treaties around here, I will have to take this up with the president. I am sure he will agree to it too,"
"It is agreed then, Chief Engineer Geordie Laforge, will start work on the installations as soon as we reach an agreement with your government. He will have to bring with him some technicians to assist in the installation. He will then teach your technicians on the proper use of all equipment," Riker replied.
"Thank you, Commander. I will inform you as soon as I receive instructions from the president. In the meantime, Chief Engineer Laforge has my permission to beam down any time he feels he is ready." He wished there was something else he could offer as a token of their gratitude. "How would you like to accompany SG1 on their mission to Tollana. It could be a risky mission but it could also be worth it. The Tollans are a highly developed race and you could find something to aid you in your search for a way to your own universe."
"Thank you for your offer General. I will take it up to Captain Picard,"
Gate Room, SGC
An hour later, Commander Riker was back at the SGC ready to go on his new away-mission. He watched very closely as the gate started dialing the chevrons one by one. After the final chevron was encoded, the gate came alive in a wash of swirling energy and after a whoosh of excess energy it settled down to a shimmering blue vortex.
Riker was transfixed. In all his years in the Starfleet, he had never encountered something like this. He tried to remember what Major Carter had told them about the workings of the stargate but it only made him more nervous. These people only had a vague concept of how it really worked. Maybe, he should have Data and Geordie take a closer look at it, that is if General Hammond would allow it. It could be a big breakthrough in travel if they could unravel the mystries of the stargate.
Slowly he made his way up the ramp towards the shimmering blue wall of energy. His apprehension grew as he approached the event horizon. Like a small child testing the water before jumping in, he touched it gingerly with the tip of his fingers. He saw Major Carter flash him a grin as she walked right in. Summoning up his courage, he followed them into the vortex.
General Hammond was seeing off SG9 as they departed for another off-world excursion.
"Good Luck, Major."
"Thank you, sir," came the reply as SG9 stepped into the event horizon of the stargate which closed behind them. He turned around to head back to his office when suddenly the SG1 team materialized in front of him in a sparkle of light. He had encountered transporter technologies but had never seen such a display before.
"What is going on here, Colonel. Care to explain."
"You bet General, we need to talk," O'Neil replied.
"Alright. Debriefing room."
Debriefing Room, SGC
Once everyone was seated around the table, Colonel O'Neil spoke up. "While we were on P3275, we made some startling new discovery sir." He went on to explain what had happened. The rest of the team added their comments as the General soaked in the information.
He finally replied, "Good Work People. Do you think they will be willing to help us?"
"I don't see why not. They're from Earth right?"
"Earth from an alternate universe, sir," Carter interjected.
"They're still from Earth," he shot back.
"Well, we should ask them. In the meantime, I will advise the president on this new development. I'm sure he will want us to proceed with a formal meeting," Hammond put in authoritatively. "By the way, how do we get in touch with them?"
"Well sir, they gave us one of these," Carter replied holding up a little device that looked like a chevron badge.
"What is it?"
"It's a communication device sir," Carter replied. She tapped it once and spoke into it. "Carter to Enterprise."
"This is the Enterprise. What can we do for you Major?" came the reply. She recognized it was the Commander Riker.
"Commander Riker, I have just talked to my superiors and they would like to have a meeting with your Captain."
"I will pass it on, Major. Please wait." He was back on momentarily. "The Captain has agreed to a meeting. With your permission, we will beam down in five minutes."
Hammond gave a nod to which Carter replied, "Affirmative Commander. You have permission to beam down."
A party of five consisting of Captain Picard, Commander Riker, Commander Data, Councilor Troi and Worf beamed down from the Enterprise into the conference room. After a quick introduction, the meeting started in earnest. As expected, the topic quickly boiled down to the transfer of technology.
"Captain, as you know, we are fighting a very advanced enemy whose sole goal is to eradicate us. You have demonstrated a level of technology that is far in advance of the Goa'uld. Would you consider sharing it with us?" Colonel O'Neil asked eagerly.
"Maybe the shield technology or phasers perhaps?" Carter added hopefully.
"Indeed, something like that would be a tremendous asset in the fight against the Goa'uld," Teal'c emphasized.
Picard studied them for a while and then replied, "I understand the predicament you are in and we would like to help. The Goa'uld do seem to be quite a formidable foe and pose a great threat to Earth. However ..."
"However?" Jack cut in.
Picard disregarded Jack's outburst and continued, "However, our hands are tied. Our law forbids the transfer of technology to any culture that is more primitive than us. We don't want to influence the natural progression of a society because it could have unforeseen consequences."
"Here we go again, just like the Tollans. Why do you guys always have to treat us as if we were kids?" Jack couldn't believe these guys.
"Colonel O'Neil!" Hammond gave Jack a reprimanding look. Jack just shrugged his shoulders.
"Captain Picard is merely stating a fact, Colonel O'Neil," Data added. "Transfer of advanced technologies to cultures who have not sufficiently progressed has been shown to be detrimental on numerous occasions. Various civilizations have met their ends because they could not control the power that advanced technologies bestowed upon them. It is considered so important that it is one of our major edicts called the prime directive."
"We have a bunch of snake-heads breathing down our necks ready to kill us given half a chance and you are concerned about affecting our culture?" Jack retorted angrily. "Pretty soon, there may not be a culture to ..."
He was cut off by the blaring of alarm initiated by unauthorized off-world wormhole access. SG team got up from their seats and bolted to the gate room. Not knowing what else to do, the Enterprise team followed suit. By the time they got there, the wormhole had already established but the iris was shut to keep the unauthorized visitors at bay.
"Do we have any SG teams off-world?" Hammond asked Master Sergeant Walter Davis.
"No Sir, all SG teams are currently on base."
Suddenly the iris started to waver and then buckled as a strange device emerged through the closed iris and rolled out onto the gate room floor. Everyone knew where it came from. Only the Tollans possessed such technology. Furthermore they recognized what it was.
"It's a bomb!" someone yelled.
With a blinding speed that only Data could pull off, he drew his phaser, set it to maximum discharge and fired at the bomb that had just rolled to a stop. It disappeared when the phaser beam hit it.
USS Enterprise-E, Earth Orbit
After the incident, the Enterprise crew retreated back to their ship to discuss the event. Although the prime directive explicitly forbade the transfer of technology to younger cultures, this was a very different situation. Picard wasn't comfortable with the idea of disseminating advanced technologies to a culture who still hadn't come together as one let alone advanced enough to develop warp drives. It went against all his years of training and experience. But a show of hands revealed how most of his senior staff felt. He could understand their predicament. Although it was not their own Earth, this was the only link to their own origin. As far as they knew, they might not be getting back any time soon and might have to settle for this one. They had a vested interest in saving this one. But the burden of the final decision was his. He was the captain of this ship, the senior-most officer representing the Federation.
After what felt like an eternity, he made up his mind. He would act according to the council of his senior officers. It was clear what they wanted.
Everyone agreed that when the Enterprise was in orbit around Earth, it could easily provide protection to the planet. The problem was that they could not be around all the time. Besides, the Tollans or some other race could send another bomb through the gate.
"Data, do you think a force field would prevent another incident like the one in the gate room?" Riker asked
"I have done some research into that Commander. I do not think that a regular force field would be up to the task. The Tollans used some kind of phase shift mechanism to defeat the iris. However, a special a force field designed to prevent phase shifting should be able to thwart another incident."
"We could also add an energy dampening field and secondary force fields around the gate room should anything get through. It may not be fully able to contain the force of the explosion, but it would definitely contain the majority of the blast," Geordie added.
Picard contemplated for a second and asked, "Councilor Troi, do you think we can trust them with all these technologies?"
"I believe so Captain. They were genuinely concerned about their safety and their ability to protect themselves against advanced weapons and powerful enemies that wield them. Besides, I don't think they have the technology or understanding of these devices to replicate them. I don't think it should be a big concern as far as technology transfer goes."
Everyone agreed with it. "What about orbital defense when the Enterprise is not around?" Worf asked.
"We can manufacture some cloaked self-replicating automated orbital defense platforms. Since we are no longer in our own universe, we are not obligated to the Khitomar accord to produce cloaking devices. However, it might take a while given our circumstances. What do you think Geordie?" Data asked.
"We would need at least 6 platforms to provide full coverage. That could take a couple of months given our current resources. Perhaps if we forgo the cloaks, we could expedite the manufacture of the platforms," Geordie replied.
"Shouldn't we be worried about the civilian population from detecting our presence?" Picard was worried. After all, the vast majority of the world had no idea of extra-terrestrials.
"It shouldn't Sir. Radar technology isn't sufficient to detect our presence. We shouldn't be worried about optics either. There are plenty of satellites in orbit and ours should easily blend in."
"We can also use our shuttles to supplement the defenses," Data added.
"Are the shuttles powerful enough to defend Earth against those Goa'uld ships?" Picard asked.
"If it were a one on one static encounter, the shuttles wouldn't stand much of a chance sir. However, after having reviewed footages of Goa'uld Mother ships in combat, I have formulated a plan. We can equip the shuttles with a simple projectile weapon that can be fired at high impulse speeds. A ten kilogram projectile fired at say half the velocity of light will pack 112.5e+15 joules of kinetic energy which is equivalent to 28.125 megatons of TNT. This may seem like a small yield compared to a standard photon torpedo but the energy is projected over a very small area making it extremely effective. It should have no problems at all defeating the Goa'uld defenses. Now, this wouldn't work against an agile starship like the Enterprise because the deflector dish would simply push it out of the way. The Goa'uld mother ship on the other hand are slow and unwieldy and would provide a perfect target,"
"Excellent idea, Data," Geordie added. "With your permission Captain, I can have my staff fabricate this by the end of the day."
"Get on it Geordie. In the meantime, I shall inform General Hammond of our decision."
"What about the other countries? Wont they be worried about all these technologies being transferred to only one country." Deanna brought up the question.
"Excellent point Councilor. However, there's not much we can do about it at the moment. We will keep the transfer of technology to a minimum. Right now our main priority is safeguarding Earth which means some of these devices have to be at the stargate. Whether we like it or not, we will have to deal with the consequences as we go along,"
Conference Room, SGC
Commander Riker beamed down to the SGC to discuss the terms of the technology transfer with General Hammond. Although, the general was not ecstatic about the terms, he was more than happy to live with it if it meant safeguarding Earth from the Goa'uld. This was his first priority after all. "Although I don't like all the terms of this treaty, I would be more than happy to abide by it. However, I do not make treaties around here, I will have to take this up with the president. I am sure he will agree to it too,"
"It is agreed then, Chief Engineer Geordie Laforge, will start work on the installations as soon as we reach an agreement with your government. He will have to bring with him some technicians to assist in the installation. He will then teach your technicians on the proper use of all equipment," Riker replied.
"Thank you, Commander. I will inform you as soon as I receive instructions from the president. In the meantime, Chief Engineer Laforge has my permission to beam down any time he feels he is ready." He wished there was something else he could offer as a token of their gratitude. "How would you like to accompany SG1 on their mission to Tollana. It could be a risky mission but it could also be worth it. The Tollans are a highly developed race and you could find something to aid you in your search for a way to your own universe."
"Thank you for your offer General. I will take it up to Captain Picard,"
Gate Room, SGC
An hour later, Commander Riker was back at the SGC ready to go on his new away-mission. He watched very closely as the gate started dialing the chevrons one by one. After the final chevron was encoded, the gate came alive in a wash of swirling energy and after a whoosh of excess energy it settled down to a shimmering blue vortex.
Riker was transfixed. In all his years in the Starfleet, he had never encountered something like this. He tried to remember what Major Carter had told them about the workings of the stargate but it only made him more nervous. These people only had a vague concept of how it really worked. Maybe, he should have Data and Geordie take a closer look at it, that is if General Hammond would allow it. It could be a big breakthrough in travel if they could unravel the mystries of the stargate.
Slowly he made his way up the ramp towards the shimmering blue wall of energy. His apprehension grew as he approached the event horizon. Like a small child testing the water before jumping in, he touched it gingerly with the tip of his fingers. He saw Major Carter flash him a grin as she walked right in. Summoning up his courage, he followed them into the vortex.