There's also the fact that I had to rewrite over half of this chapter because for some reason it wasn't saved. Once I'd realized that it hadn't been saved, a few days after the fact mind you, I was depressed and then it took me awhile to remember what I'd written and try to rewrite it. I'll admit, I liked the dialogue I had in the first version better, but since I can't remember it, this'll have to do!
As a treat for all of you who have hung in there and waited for chapters, I'm posting two chapters tonight.
WARNING: It will take me a while to post the next few chapters since I don't really know how I want the intervening chapters to go. But in the mean time please take the time to review and let me know what you honestly think of these chapters!
The next morning
Gate Room
"Everyone ready?" Jack cheerily asked as he stepped to the front of the VIP crowd gathered at the base of the ramp.
The neophytes to Stargate travel all looked at him with a range of expressions: anxiety, excitement, caution, fear, and other combinations. They were all excited at the prospect of traveling to another planet, it was the whole de-molecularization process that they were a little wary of.
"Close enough," Jack accepted as he looked up to the control room and nodded to General Hammond to start the dialing protocol.
Once the event horizon had been established, and the President's entourage had jumped back a step in awe, O'Neill walked up the ramp and began speaking to them. "Good morning ladies and gentleman, and welcome to Intergalactic Airways, servicing all your intergalactic travel needs. We are expecting a quick trip to the Alpha Site, covering…" he paused and looked at Carter.
"640 Light Years," she supplied with a smile.
"… In a little under ten seconds. Upon arrival at our destination please step away from the wall of water behind you to allow others to arrive as well. In the case that you should feel nauseous and have the urge to 'throw up', please step to the side before doing that. Those following you would greatly appreciate not arriving on another planet and not having their first steps be into a pile of puke. The weather at our destination is nice and clear and we don't expect any delays in transit," he smiled widely at them as they couldn't help but smile at his attempts to ease their minds. "Once again, thank you for choosing Intergalactic Air, we hope you'll de-molecularize with us again!" he told them before turning and walking through the event horizon.
The civilians each slowly walked up the ramp and paused before taking the plunge through the event horizon. When they landed on the other side most of them were looking very queasy and grasping their stomachs as they shivered and took deep breaths. They were pulled away from their self-assessments when they noticed a flash and looked for its source. What they all saw was an Airman standing before them with a Polaroid camera.
Jack O'Neill stood happily behind the Airmen rocking on his heels as he directed the Airmen to snap the pictures away. Once everyone had arrived, he gathered their attention, "Alright campers, I hope you all enjoyed your flight with Intergalactic Airways. This being your inaugural trip, we have arranged for mementos of this trip for each of you."
The Airmen then walked among the crowd of VIP's and delivered the pictures. Once they all saw the expressions on their faces their anger with having someone catching them in a vulnerable state vanished. Their anger was replaced with wide smiles and laughs as they all saw how funny they looked upon stepping out of the wormhole. They eventually all started sharing their pictures with each other and comparing reactions. Tony Bretano's Polaroid received the loudest laughs. In his defense, he claimed that he designed planes so that they didn't feel like that.
"Nice idea with the Polaroids, sir. Distracting them so they forgot their queasiness," Sam whispered to him as she walked up next to him to observe the group as they shared their photos.
Jack looked over at her from the corner of his eye, "That's what I thought!" He then turned to her with a serious expression, "Now am I allowed to actually enjoy your compliment? Or does your judgment not carry any clout?"
Sam chuckled and shook her head, "Savor away sir."
"I will… You know… I wish I had one of these set up on your first trip through!" he told her before he turned to the crowd and clapped his hands together. "Alright campers, now that the souvenirs are out of the way, how about we go on a little tour of this place."
An hour later they were entering the hangar bay, "And this, Ladies and Gentlemen, is where the Second Air Group of F-302's is stationed. The First one is stationed at Williams Air Force Base in Arizona. T-"
"Williams was closed in the early 90's," Robbie pointed out.
"Yes sir. But for the past decade or so we've built an underground base and construction hangar to house the Prometheus and F-302s… We've been using a part of the base that the restoration committee has forgotten about."
Tony Bretano shook his head in amazement, "My God! How many more secret bases can there be in the military that I don't know about? … No wonder people are leery of the military and come up with all their conspiracy theories!"
Jack shrugged his shoulders, there was nothing he could do about that. "Carter you want to tell them about the F-302 and the Prometheus?"
"Yes sir. The F-302 is our reverse engineered version of a Goa'uld death glider. It is capable of carrying two people and can travel at sub-light speeds. Sub-light speed is anything slower than the speed of light. We are actually capable of surpassing the speed of light on the Prometheus, or F-303. It is capable of creating a stable wormhole through its hyper drive which requires a rare and unstable metal called naquadria, it's not found on Earth," she explained. "We actually tried to modify a hyperspace drive for the F-302 when it was still a prototype. Unfortunately, we were never able to create and maintain a stable wormhole. Due to the instability of the naquadria, a large heat exchanger is necessary to divert the heat and energy and utilize it efficiently. Since the-"
"Carter!"
Sam looked at her CO sheepishly, "Sorry sir."
"What have I told you about technobabble?"
Sam stared back at him, she wasn't going to dignify it with a response.
Jack smirked before turning back to the crowd, "Anyways, now that you are all thoroughly confused… How about we take these babies for a spin?"
"We get to go up?"
"That's the plan!" Jack informed them as wide grins appeared on most of the faces surrounding him. There were a few serious expressions. "If you'll all follow me so we can get geared up…"
"Mr. President," Andrea quietly spoke as she walked up next to him.
"Yeah?"
"Sir, I can't let you go up. It's not secure."
"What? Come on Andrea, what could happen?"
Andrea stared at the President. "Any pilot who will have the President on board undergoes a very rigorous background check and psychiatric evaluation. I can't let you go up there with just anyone, sir." She then looked over at General O'Neill as he slowed down to join them, "Seeing as to how we weren't informed of this little side trip, we haven't been able to perform the necessary security precautions."
"Come on Andrea, this is a once in a lifetime chance! To get to go up into space in a space ship?"
"With all due respect sir, so is traveling to another planet. Sir, I know there are things you want to do, but it's my job to keep you safe so that you don't have to worry about your safety. Now, I've already had to set aside a lot of normal precautionary measures for this trip, sir." And thus went another battle between the Secret Service and POTUS.
The President called over his old friend, "Jack, convince her that traveling in one of those is perfectly safe!"
"She not going to let you go up?" O'Neill asked as he looked between the two. "Why not?"
Andrea answered, "For one, we haven't been able to do a background check on any of the pilots here. Second, we haven't been able to secure the… aircraft prior to the President riding in it and ensuring that it hasn't been tampered with."
"Well, with respect to your second concern, no one here on base knew about the President's visit until this morning. So no one would have the opportunity to do anything even if they wanted to, which they wouldn't," he assured her. "And as for your first concern about not having been able to run background checks, there's nothing I can really do about that."
President Ryan's face fell.
"But, if it's all the same to you, Teal'c, Carter, and I are all certified in the F-302… In fact, Teal'c and I tested the first prototype." Jack conveniently left out the fact that he and Teal'c had almost died somewhere beyond Earth's solar system.
Ryan tried to entice his Agent, "You and the other agents can go up at the same time!"
Andrea considered their suggestions. She looked over at her President, she saw a man who anxiously wanted to fulfill every child's dream of going into space. She hated saying 'no' to the President, but it was a constant battle between the Secret Service and the President. As the President practiced politics and played to a crowd, it was the job of the Secret Service to worry and keep him alive.
'But he's not playing politics right now… He just wants to go up there…' she noted. 'And I will get to go up as well…' She was having a hard time deciding whether or not to allow this trip. She really didn't want anything to happen to him or his wife, and that extended beyond her sense of duty; she really liked and respected this President.
"General… You, Teal'c and Colonel Carter will pilot the President, First Lady, and Vice President's flights. Agents will be in the air at the same time. Also, sir, I won't allow for you and the Vice President to be out there at the same time."
"That's fine!" Ryan eagerly accepted. "Thank you, Andrea," he gratefully told her.
Andrea merely nodded at him. "General, is there anything else I should know about concerning our activities for the rest of the day?"
"Well, we're scheduled to travel to several other planets in a couple of hours… You know, kind of a galactic tour of cultures and planets!"
Andrea looked at him with a sideward glance and was about to comment on the security nightmare that would be for her and the rest of the Detail.
Jack quickly tried to assuage her concerns, "We've already sent teams to all the planets to monitor them and make sure that there aren't any surprises. Before actually traveling to a planet, we'll dial them up and make contact with our teams there. Does that suit you?"
"It'll have to, now won't it? Sir, I'm going to have to ask that the Vice President not accompany us on those trips."
"He's going to hate that," Ryan commented.
They reached the locker rooms and were about to enter when Sam walked up to her CO, "Sir."
"Yeah Carter?" he asked as held the door open for the others to file in.
"I just spoke with the engineers here, they've been having some problems with integrating some of the technology we received from one of our allies with our systems..."
"So are you asking me if you can abandon me today?" he asked wisely recognizing the sound of her voice.
Sam smiled at him.
"Don't you want to go say hi to the Tok'ra?" he asked her hoping that he could entice her to accompany him.
"My dad's on a mission right now, so he won't be there… Besides I can trust you not to destroy our alliance, right sir?"
Jack mockingly clenched his fist, "Damn… my favorite Tok'ra won't be there! Now what am I going to do?"
"Probably perform the introductions yourself, sir!" she teased him.
"Hah!" He then motioned her into the locker room. "Actually that might work out…"
"How's that sir?"
"Well Agent Price is forbidding the Vice President and President from going up in the F-302 at the same time, and she's not going to let the Vice President accompany us on our trip around the galaxy. Think you can babysit him and take him up in an F-302 later?"
Sam nodded her head, "It'd be my pleasure… And for the record, sir, I doubt he needs a babysitter!" she told him as she walked over to the Vice President to speak with him.
"Sir?"
Vice President Jackson looked up as he continued to unzip his jacket, "Colonel Carter."
"Sir, you can hold off on changing just yet. General O'Neill has informed me that Agent Price has forbidden you and the President from riding in one of those at the same time and from both of you going on the rest of the trips to other planets we have made contact with." She saw the VP's face fall, she wondered if it was at the prospect of not getting to go up or getting to go out to visit more planets.
"Sir, the engineers here have asked me to stick around and help them with testing and integrating a few systems. The First Lady informed me that you studied electrical engineering at the Naval Academy, perhaps you'd like to see how some of the technology works?"
He nodded his head, "Yeah, that'd be great Colonel, thanks."
"And I promise, I'll take you up in the F-302 at some point, sir."
She saw the wide grin return to his face. "If you'd like sir, I can have one of the other pilots familiarize you with the F-302's systems and handling before I take you up."
"That'd be wonderful!" he told her as he barely contained his joy. He, the son of a preacher from Mississippi, was going to fly in a spaceship! "Wait, you know how to fly these things as well?"
Sam looked up and smiled as she finished removing her pack and gear so that she could go work with the engineers and scientists. "Apparently that was one of Agent Price's conditions, that I take you up… Well, sir, if you'll follow me."
TBC
So, I just reposted this and fixed one error... the first time I had the alpha site being 650 light years away, I'd actually guessed that number. Turns out it is actually 640 light years away according to the transcript for the episode Covenant, thanks Yahoo Transcripts... But how cool is that that I was only ten light years off?