"Igor…" Colonel Durov asked quietly, "This… gentleman here, he's reading a report regarding the treasonable activities of one Licinius Papilius?"

Dr. Diakonoff looked up from his notebook in surprise. "Actually yes." He said, "I've been noting some of it down, just as an exercise in understanding this dialect of Latin they're using. There a larger proportion of Greek in it that usual, which is interesting because-"

"Just confirm what he's saying for me," the Colonel interrupted, "Right… 'Shame on the principles of the age. The Senate is aware of this; the Consul sees them; and yet the man lives. Yes, he comes into the Senate'… something about an aqueduct… didn't catch the part, Tiberius Gracchus, killed on the order of Papilius, crucified as a slave, yet had Roman citizenship."

The Colonel turned back to Diakonoff, who was staring at him in open mouthed surprise. "How can you understand them?" he asked in wonderment.

"I have no clue, ideas?" Durov shrugged.

"Well…well I really have no idea; it's obviously something alien…" Igor said, "It could be the Gate, it could be exposure to some foreign body or energy… ez me ulertzen duzu?"

"See I have no idea what language that is or what you said." Durov shook his head.

Igor frowned, "Its Basque, I have a cousin in San Sebastián, but you couldn't understand me, which indicates something."

"What?"

"No idea." Shrugged Igor, "Something though."

Durov considered for a few moments, the scientists at home would probably want to dissect him or something; he shivered uncomfortably at the thought.

"It might be a side effect of Gate travel." Mused Igor, "It would make sense… The aliens who built the Gates might want the people who used them to be able to talk to each other."

"Well it's all we've got at the moment," replied the Colonel. But then there was the question of why none of the others understood what the Romans were saying, suddenly he had a thought, "How many times have you been through the Gate Igor?" he asked the archaeologist.

Igor shrugged, "Less that you I should think, given the number of other missions you go on, reconnaissance and such." He paused, "Ah, I see where you're going, you think the greater the exposure the greater the ability to understand people? Very possible yes, could be a sort of gradual thing."

"Hm." Grunted Durov, "Not bad."

"I assume you can take care of the Senate proceedings then?" Igor asked, making motions to leave to go further into the city.

"Oh no." Durov scoffed, "Your coming with me, there's no way I'm talking to them alone. Also, the tactical advantage of having them think I don't understand them cannot be discounted." He then grabbed Diakonoff by the strap of his backpack and hauled him towards the large palatial building of the New Roman Senate.

The city of Nova Roma had been rebuilt several times, each time the Beastmen invaded they had burned it down and driven the Romans out, however inevitably the stability of the Beastmen army would break down and they would fragment, leaving them easily defeated by the remaining legions. As such, the city had been constructed in a rather piecemeal fashion, no building was more than three stories tall, and there were no walls, even around the central district.

The suburbs where the team had arrived were one of the newer examples of architecture, built in such a manner as to be easily defensible by a smaller force, with large pillars lining the roads which could be pulled down to block passage deeper into the city.

Toward the south of the city on a short hill sat several governmental buildings, temples and schools. Among these the Senate building, a strong facade of columns and pillars, as well as a bronze statue of Aeneas of Troy, legendary founder of the city.

The inside was lavishly decorated to Colonel Durov's eyes, the floor a large mural depicting a map of the Empire which Durov studied with interest. Most of the Empire was a single landmass, with one large island off to the west. Nova Roma was clearly marked, as were a few other names that Durov could read as Latin, however there were a good deal of land marks that the Colonel could make no sense of.

What was clear was the Beastlands, the name undecipherable Latin, but the terrain unmistakable, a jagged line of mountains shielding the Empire from the north, with one solitary fortification in the centre of the range.

"Honourable Fathers of Rome!" announced the seneschal, "Caesar has called this body together to hear the words of the men who came through the Circulum Vulcani, they claim to originate from our ancient land of Terra, and Caesar in his wisdom has decided to grant them audience, listen now!"

'Caesar' was sitting on a throne, attired in white toga with purple strip and a golden crown of laurel leaves. Beside him were two men holding axes bound in pack of rods, a symbol Colonel Durov was well acquainted with from his battles against the Italians in the Great Patriotic War, however, he had done his research before appearing at the Senate, and knew the real symbolism. It had shocked him to learn that the swastika, a symbol hated across Europe, was actually a symbol of good luck.

Dr. Diakonoff stepped forward, "Honourable Fathers," he addressed them in Latin, "Many thousands of years ago, the people of Egypt were visited by a being known as Ra, this Ra, using technology not understood by the Egyptians established himself as a god in their eyes, and subjugated the Egyptians, taking their people as slaves, with this tribute Ra went through what you call the Circulum Vulcani, but what we know as the Stargate."

"Ah Colonel Durov I presume?"

Durov looked at the strange man outside Abramovich's office, a small, skinny captain, a young man with slick black hair. "Who are you?" he asked the man.

"Captain Ivan Konovalov sir." The aforenamed announced with a salute. "Minister Vasilevsky has assigned me to liaise with the SGC and his department; I have a number of issues I'd like to discuss with you."

"Well we can talk after I see the General." Durov answered, knocking once at the door and striding into Abramovich's office, which was empty.

"The General has been called to Moscow sir."

Durov paused, "Has he really… well I don't suppose he'll mind us using his office then." He gestured for Konovalov to sit while he took Abramovich's chair. "What did you want to discuss?"

Konovalov opened a leather folder and looked through the papers. "At first the Minister assigned me to manage public relations pertaining to the program."

"The SGC is a state secret, there are no public relations."

Konovalov smiled, "Not yet sir, as such my job was to think up situations in which disclosure to the general public and our allies. These included but were not limited to," he glanced at his folder, "space-based attack, alien pandemic, infiltration by enemy agents, and similar technology surfacing in another nation unaligned with the USSR."

"I can think of contingencies in place for all apart from the last one." Durov said after considering for a moment, they had made sure that no evidence went out pertaining to Earth's place in the galaxy, and there was planning in place for an off world colony in case of a catastrophic event on Earth. Pandemics and infiltration were mainly taken care of by not allowing people to leave the SGC, and screening all teams on return.

"Yes sir," continued Konovalov, "The only weak point so far that we at the Ministry have discovered is the cover story, though your suggestion of the 'Stargate Program' as a space based system was a good one if a spy got hold of the appropriate documents the story just wouldn't make sense."

"Like?"

"Well the equipment for a start," Konovalov explained, "A space based weapons system might need thirty two scientists and fifty three engineers, but it would never need over three hundred military personnel on base. Nor would such a system need vehicles."

Durov shrugged, "Well I'm sure your people can think something better up, what I'm interested is the Stargate Regiment."

Captain Konovalov leafed through his folder to a different page, "The 107th Mobile Rifle Regiment is approximately 40% complete. We've been drawing from all over the country in various surplus dumps of equipment left over from the restructuring following the war, as you know the 'Stargate Regiment' as it is unofficially known will work in tandem with the planned sixty SG teams. The regiment will be specialised, lacking most of the airborne support and long range artillery capacity of a normal formation, relying on smaller vehicles and scouting operations. If you look on page 55 of the report you'll note our calculations on the Stargate itself, the wormhole is 6.7 metres in diameter, this means that whatever we bring through the Gate must be able to fit through a 4.7 metre square. The mechanics of the Gate system also prevent heavier vehicles from using it, given the lack of infrastructure such as bridges to support their weight."

"So how much of this," Durov waved a hand at the list of men and equipment, "Do we have so far?"

"Three hundred and twelve soldiers, four SU-76 self-propelled guns, fourteen 76mm divisional guns, one IS-3 heavy tank, seven T-34s, fourteen Katyusha launchers and assorted ammunition, and a further amount of various reconnaissance vehicles, most notably, eleven T-70s of assorted variants and four Dnper M-72 motorcycles."

"Why do we have more tanks that we do motorcycles?"

"Motorcycles can be adapted to civilian usage, tanks cannot."

"Ah."