Night found them sitting in a rough circle around the vehicle pool, the leaders of each SG team, some individual officers like Konovalov, and a harsh faced man in a dark leather jacket, who Dr. Diakonoff though looked like a soldier who didn't know how to dress when out of uniform.
"Thank you Dimitri, take charge of the perimeter, you have enough exposure to understand some of the Roman don't you? Good, you'll act as out gatekeeper then." Durov was saying as he sent Dimitri off.
"Let me know what happens!" he whispered to Ilya as he left.
Igor did not know whether Vladimir considered Dimitri unsuitable for such a meeting, or whether he had just seen the soldier as a capable watchman, and trusted him with the task. Ilya was sitting on a tank just to the left of Igor, and some other subordinate officers and men were sitting or standing in a wider ring around the group of more important officers, so it seemed unlikely the big man was to be excluded from the meeting. Igor assumed their officers had brought them along, and saw a few of the other civilians and scientists in the program who were attached to SG teams.
"Who's the leather jacket?" he murmured to Ilya.
The sniper leant forward, "Basin, a commissar, or at least he was. We know him from Stalingrad. Him and the Colonel don't like each other."
Igor had not heard good things about political officers from the men of the SGC, nor had he thought the SGC would be receiving political officers. He also wondered why Basin was in such unusual clothes, compared with the rest of them (even the civilians were in uniform, though they had no rank) and why Basin was even here if Vladimir didn't like him. The Colonel after all handled a lot of the officer recommendations to the program, just as Igor did for the scientific staff.
"Comrades!" Duvor announced, "We've all seen the enemy, and I have no doubt the superior qualities of the New Soviet Man will swiftly overcome them when the time comes…"
He paused and regarded the camp, meeting the eyes of the assembled soldiers.
"However, we cannot forget out mission! We are not here only to win battles, but to win a war. This means it doesn't matter if we capture Vulcan and his technology, we will still lose eventually if we don't create the conditions necessary for victory."
'Rather vague' Thought Igor.
"We've all done this before." Continued Vladimir, "You were with me during the infiltrations, some even before, so we know what is necessary. This will be our mission every time we head through the gate, to create the conditions necessary for the liberation of the people. The only problem here is none of us speak the language or know the customs!"
A murmur of laughter came from the assembly.
"Happily however, our more learned comrades are here to help us. Doctors Lebev and Diakonoff, please, briefly give us your opinions on the people here."
Vladimir had mentioned this to Igor earlier, and he had been going over things in his head. Lebev was a good scholar, but, Igor thought, tended to see connections where they didn't exist. They stood as Vladimir sat back down.
"If you would cover the government, I'll discuss the society Comrade Lebev?" said Igor.
"Of course Igor, of course!" replied Lebev excitedly, almost bouncing up and down, likely happy someone was paying attention to him, or so Igor suspected. "Well, Rome began as a monarchy, but due to tyranny became a republic. Eventually greed and the accumulation of power by bourgeois leaders eroded the republican ideals, the Senate's fell, and an emperor became the most powerful figure in the Roman society."
Some of the more attentive officers had gotten notepads out.
"The Imperial period was characterised by misspent funds, failures to harness productive forces, and foreign wars to acquire slaves to power the economy. Trajan, the emperor who ruled when the legion was taken here, was well regarded, but relied on oligarchs from both Italian and Greek society, which I suppose Igor will tell you about…" Lebev ended.