The Star Gate Program (Hetalia/Stargate SG1 X-Over)

Author: Ashynarr

Summary: It was the discovery of the century. A devise older than human civilization, capable of transporting people across the galaxy in an instant. But things have a way of quickly becoming complicated, pushing America and others to their limits as they find themselves embroiled in galactic politics and intrigue throughout the stars.

Disclaimer: Hetalia's not mine. Stargate isn't mine.

Warning: Alterations of the Stargate timeline/canon and Hetalia canon

[Inspired by Stargate Reopened; I recommend reading it if you have the time.]

[Chapter 3]

~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~

[March 1993]

It was nearly three years later when Alfred finally found the opportunity to check in on the Giza Project, and not just because of a pileup of meetings and paperwork and reorganization. Between him being bedridden from frostbite due to the unfortunate timing of the nastiest blizzard he could remember and the increasingly heavy flooding in the midwest that had him coughing up water at unfortunate moments, he was honestly surprised he wasn't being restricted to his house for the rest of the year.

Then again, he had sort of begged and pleaded with his boss to be able get out and at least do something, because really it wasn't like he was completely invalid, and it was boring being cooped up in the house with the warming weather; the man had only conceded once he promised to not do anything too strenuous.

The idea would have made him laugh if it weren't for the fact that he'd have probably ended up hacking up some water and thus invalidating all of his efforts up to then.

But he'd figured, since it wasn't too hard to just look around and check in on things and chat with people, that heading out west to Colorado was a good way to stretch his legs a bit. Even though he'd made no progress on the missing paperwork front, he could also at least tell Catherine honestly that he was still looking into it.

He wasn't in his military uniform, as he wasn't there on official business, so it took a moment to prove he had the clearance to get in, but once he did he was escorted to the elevator down to the lower levels. Only when they arrived on the floor did the escort leave, heading back up to their original posts and allowing Alfred to make his way to the computer room. As he'd hoped, Samantha was already there, running diagnostics on the computer with several others.

"Everything running alright?"

She turned to look at him, offering a friendly smile before turning back. "We're just about to run the first tests to make sure the computer and ring are synchronized correctly, sir."

"Sweet, hope you don't mind if I say and watch then."

"Not at all, sir." She gave several commands to the others in the room, then turned back to her own screen. "Start it on my mark….. and go."

There was a brief stream of smoke as the generators activated, blowing the cloud of nitrogen away from the ring, followed by a grinding sound of stone against stone. The seven triangles near the top all slid away from the ring they were on, but otherwise the ring did nothing.

"The ring's responding to the energy input! Levels are holding steady… everything seems to be responding…"

Alfred leaned forward, a thrill starting to go through him. Whatever this object was, it was definitely worth investigating. He looked to the triangles again, a thought entering his mind.

"Hey… should we try putting in a code?"

Samantha looked over to him. "We're just testing out the basic systems now, sir… those tests won't be for another week at least."

Alfred greatly resisted the urge to pout, as he was supposed to be a professional here. That didn't stop the captain from noticing, hiding her own amusement behind a light smile as she ordered the system shut down so they could begin to go through the data.

Seeing as there was nothing else to do here, he said his goodbyes and made his way over to the artefact room, the coverstone towering overhead in the back while tables covered with documents and other smaller trinkets from the same dig stood along the walls. There were only a few people in there comparing notes in the corner, not even noticing his quiet entrance.

The lack of others was actually what Alfred had hoped for, as it allowed him to grab a chair and sit in it backwards, his arms laying on top of the back while his head rested on them. He was positioned to face the coverstone, which had been bothering him whenever his thoughts had drifted to it.

He knew that the central symbols were ones he'd never learned, but he couldn't help but feel they were familiar and he was just missing something. He huffed quietly, brows furrowed as he stared at the stone, mentally commanding it to tell its secrets. The stone remained unphased, leaving him to concede with a frustrated groan as he hid his face in his arms.

"I see you aren't having much more luck than the rest of us." An amused voice said behind him.

Alfred lifted his head. "Oh, hey Dr. Langford. I just… I feel like I should know the answer, but it's not coming to me."

Catherine smiled sympathetically. "I doubt there's anyone who would get it right away. Ernest spent years working on this project before…"

"Your husband worked on the first Giza project?" He asked, sitting up straight.

"Fiance." She corrected. "We didn't have a chance to get married before the accident that shut the project down."

Alfred frowned, turning in his seat to properly face her. That hadn't been mentioned in the report in much detail. "Accident? What happened?"

"I was told by my father there was some sort of explosion that damaged the old testing facility; Ernest was the only casualty. They shut the project down after that to prevent anyone else from getting injured."

Explosion? He was more confused than ever - he had seen the room where the tests had happened the first time around, and there was definitely no sign of an explosion. Was all this part of the cover-up too? Still, Catherine had just become his best lead whether she was aware of it or not.

"Do you know anyone he worked with who would still be around?"

She bit her lip in thought. "The only names I recall off the top of my head are Erik Holland and Duncan Fraiser. I don't know if either of them are alive though."

Alfred, however, did. The former had died just last year from a heart attack, but the latter was still alive and currently living with his granddaughter in Maryland. If he was lucky, he'd finally be able to get the information he needed, or at least a good lead towards it.

However, he couldn't get too excited now. Instead he smiled and shrugged, leaning back into the seat. "Ah well, they would've been pretty helpful working on this project."

Catherine seemed to sense something in his tone, though, because she gave him an odd look. "Yes, it would have."

He stood up, stretching a bit to ease out the crinks he'd developed while sitting awkwardly in the chair. "Anyways, I'm gonna check out some other things before hitting the hay; thanks for the chat."

"You're welcome."

Alfred could almost feel the eyes watching him leave the room, making him crack another smile. He wondered idly if she'd make another more thorough search into their locations; it wasn't completely out of the question considering the flags and questions he'd probably raised with his own.

Ah well, anything she found would come well after he'd already had his chat with the man. Being who he was certainly had its conveniences sometimes-

He stopped, hand slapping to his mouth as another wave of hacking coughs left him short of breath and his hand soaked. Luckily no one was there to see, or he'd have some quick thinking to do.

Sometimes was definitely the emphasised word in there.

~0~0~

"Boss, I found the documents."

President Clinton stopped, looking up from his papers to see the young man who'd just walked in, a serious expression on his face. "Which ones?"

"The ones from the first Giza project. They were being kept in the Pentagon's Army wing; someone purposefully mislabeled them so they wouldn't be found." Alfred's face softened a bit. "I got a few trustworthy guys from there to help me go through the stuff and get it out, and I think we managed to find everything."

The president sat up straight. "Good work, Alfred. Did it have any more information on what the ring does?"

"Yes sir… there's hundreds of hours of footage of their experiments with the ring, along with piles of documents and recorders." The expression on Alfred's face was sobering. "They managed to activate it."

"What?"

"Through trial and error, they managed to find a combination on the ring that activated it. They sent someone through the portal that it formed, and when the portal cut out they decided to cut the program rather than risk any more lives on this 'death gate'."

President Clinton sagged back into his chair, feeling much older suddenly. "Does that mean we should cut the program?"

Alfred softened again. "I don't think so, sir; whatever that gate did, it didn't kill him."

"What?" The president felt rather foolish repeating the question, but he truly felt out of his depth.

"Ernest Littlefield; I can't describe it, but I can still sort of… sense him, I guess. I didn't try looking for it until I saw the footage, but wherever he is, he's not dead." He man pursed his lips. "It's really weird though… it's so faint I can barely feel it even when I'm focusing on it."

"...what does that mean?"

"Well, considering the stretch I felt when the astronauts were on the moon… either there's something blocking it somehow, or he's really, really far away."

"And how far are we talking?"

"Outside the solar system."

"...oh."

Well, what else could he say to that?

~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~

AN: ...yeaaaaaaaaaah, hahaha... this is the main divergence point from the canon timeline. I was trying to make it so that Abydos came first, but Alfred refused to budge on the matter. So yeah there'll be focus on the Heliopolis arc first, with the build up to Abydos in the background.

Also, not to worry, Jack and Daniel will be coming in soon. I've just been waiting for the right points to introduce them so it doesn't feel like I threw them in just to say they're there. I pride myself on my stories making sense, damnit! (Also, if you can guess the hidden reference I made to another character, you win a cookie!)

The two OC names I threw out there are actually the names of the actors who played Paul Langford in the movie and series respectively. Any other OCs I name will probably be the same, so I guess that's something to look out for.

This is the end of the stuff I had prewritten before I posted chapter one. We'll see how progress goes from here, but I hope everyone else is enjoying this story as much as I am right now. I've really wanted this AU for a long time, and by the Gods I'm going to have it!