The Star Gate Program (Hetalia/Stargate SG1 X-Over)
Author: Ashynarr
Summary: It was the discovery of the century. A device 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 7]
~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~
"-I promise you, Mattie, seeing the thing in real life is so much cooler than the pictures or videos make it look."
Matthew shook his head, grinning slightly. "I believe you, Al; we just have other things we need to focus on first before we stop by the control room."
Alfred sighed, grimacing. "I know, I know, need to update the General and all that about the new policies to phase in more NORAD personnel."
Though they were both in military uniform, neither felt the need at the moment to maintain any sort of formality, as they were the only two in the elevator heading down to the lowest levels, where the Giza Project was rapidly reorganizing in order to take advantage of the influx of room and personnel.
The Canadian shrugged. "It won't take too long, then we can go through all the films you wanted to show me."
"I guess." The southern brother sighed.
The elevator shuddered to a halt, prompted the two to straighten up and put on their more professional faces. By the time the doors opened, Colonels Jones and Williams were in place, stepping out and walking at a steady pace towards General West's office.
The man stood as they entered, saluting in respect to their unofficial ranks. "America. Canada."
"General West." Matthew greeted, sitting down in the proffered seat next to his brother after they returned the salute.
"I assume you've already been informed of the recent changes in base operations?"
"NORAD and the Canadian government have been informed of the Giza Project and its current status, to take advantage of the extra resources and space made available in exchange for a portion of anything discovered on the other side of the Ring."
"That's pretty much the gist," Alfred replied with a flicker of a smile. "Have you spoken with General Clements yet about bring him and his men up to speed on current ops and info?"
"I have a meeting scheduled with him tomorrow at 1400. I'm assuming both of you will be sitting in on it as well?"
"That's the plan." Matthew nodded slightly.
General West pressed his lips together into a frown. "Are you certain it's safe to bring other countries into the project so soon, sir?"
"General." Alfred cautioned.
He older-looking man continued. "I meant no insult to our closest allies; I couldn't imagine better support should we continue expanding our operations than our northern neighbors. However, as of now we have next to no information on what may lie beyond other exit points for the Ring."
The General stood, looking away from the two through the window looking out onto the mission room floor, where soldiers and scientists alike were hard at work. "Some of the best minds here have told me the Ring could potentially link to hundreds, even thousands of other matching Rings out there. Some of them could even be in the hands of other intelligent species, like the ones who built Heliopolis."
He turned to look back at the two Nations, straightening further. "There's always the chance, though, that some of those species will be less than friendly to our exploration efforts, and if they have sufficient technology they could pose a serious threat to the United States and to Earth as a whole.
"But as it stands, we have no plan in place for if we encounter such hostiles!" Here General West hardened, a new sharpness in his eyes. "We have no way to prevent them from walking straight into our base and catching us with our pants down. No way to disable the Ring, whether temporarily or permanently, on either side. And no way to recall our offworld forces should we be forced to rebury or destroy the Ring for an extended length of time."
"Destroy it?" Alfred gawked briefly at the idea before throwing his military face back on.
"A last resort, but one that needs to be considered if such hostile forces are too advanced for us to handle. I'd rather lose the program then risk the lives of this country and this planet."
The southern Nation, now recomposed, frowned. "...I won't deny you have a point. We don't know what's out there, and not preparing for the worst would just invite trouble that much sooner.
"But-" And here he held up a finger. "First off, this isn't something that can be solved right away. We need to decide what the most effective for cost defenses would be, and implement them without too much disruption to operations. That will require the input from the President, the Prime Minister, and all of the relevant brass and civilians.
"Second, we don't know exactly what the theoretical hostiles will have in terms of technology, which means that no matter what we do there are things we simply can't prepare for until we have that information, which all but requires further exploration. There's even the chance that the key to defending against or defeating hostiles will be out there as well, waiting for us to find it and bring it home to utilize.
"Third, as it stands the Giza program has the potential to provide more wealth and technological advancement than any other program in human history, even Apollo. Destroying the gate should and will be the absolute last case scenario. Reburying the Ring temporarily is something more likely to be approved in case we need more time to deal with threats, but destruction of the gate - if it's even possible with our current technology - will prevent us from ever reactivating the program at a future point.
"And fourth…" Alfred softened a bit. "For every hostile race out there, there has to be one that will be friendly or at least neutral to us. Races that we could interact with, trade with, make alliances with. I know there are friendly beings out there - at least one I can be positive of - and where there's one, there has to be more, right?"
General West said nothing for a moment, though Alfred could see him mulling over his words with a small frown. "You have good points, sir. And I will concede that the benefits of continuing the program far outweigh the risks at this time. We cannot, however, keep going forward without at least some precautions to minimize the risks involved."
"Completely understandable," Matthew injected, shooting a fast look to his brother to keep him from arguing further. "And something that should definitely be brought up during tomorrow's meeting, when we have more people to discuss ideas and necessary measures. In the meantime, you could have some of your people here start coming up with basic designs to put forward in the meeting so that we have a better idea of what is and isn't feasible going into the planning stages."
"I can get that started immediately, then." The General nodded in thanks.
Matthew smiled lightly. "It's a good thing you brought your concerns up now - we'll have more time than if we were scrambling later on to react to something none of us suspected. Was there any other concerns you wanted to bring up before tomorrow?"
"That was my only major worry, but I doubt I'll have to worry about it for too much longer. Thank you both for taking what I said under consideration."
"No problem, General." Alfred smiled, accepting the handshake offered before standing, waiting for his brother to do the same. "We're looking forward to whatever you manage to bring forward tomorrow to deal with it."
Only once they were well away from the office did Matthew turn on his twin, frowning. "Did you have to almost start a fight with the General? We're trying to stay on good terms with the people leading the project."
"I wasn't going to start a fight," Alfred frowned. "I know exactly where he's coming from, but that doesn't mean I can just let him all but stop any sort of significant advancement in the program."
"What do you mean?" The Canadian frowned, his mind going back over the meeting.
"He was in Vietnam during the war," That derailed any train of thought the norther brother was considering. "And that breeds a certain type of officer. One that wants to keep things under as tight a control as possible in the face of futility."
"-oh." Matthew shook his head. "Full militarization?"
Alfred simply nodded. "With the check and balances provided by the civilians and the President, most of his stuff has been reigned in to reasonable levels. Left to his own devices, though…"
"Hopefully, it won't ever come to that."
"Hopefully."
There was a long stretch of silence after that, neither of them willing to admit out loud the stronger possibility of such an event coming to pass. All they could do was prepare for it, in the end.
Eventually Alfred shook himself out of the mood, grin back in place. "Now that that's all done, did you wanna go see the Ring for yourself? There should be another check-in with Exobase-01 in about seventeen minutes."
Matthew smiled as well, shoulders relaxed. "That sounds good. We need to let Dr. Langford and Colonel O'Neill know about the changes as well, right?"
The American just groaned, drawing a burst of laughter from his brother. "God, let's just enjoy the moment and not think about more work, alright?"
"Sure, Al, whatever you say."
"Ass," was muttered with a hint of bemusement as the two resumed their walk towards the control room, putting the meeting with the General to the back of their minds in favor of more uplifting things.
Neither of them forgot, though.
~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~
AN: Sorry for not updating sooner! I sort of got distracted by other things. Like school. And AmeCan drabbles. and movies. Speaking of which, Maleficent and How To Train Your Dragon 2 were both excellent, so go see those if you haven't!
So yeah we're working through Heliopolis and slowly transitioning into Abydos. I know this story isn't all that popular, especially next to Hero Training, but I'm still open to whatever any of you want to see! ...Well, if it fits within my plans, anyways.
Should have another chapter of this out soonish! And a chapter of Hero Training maybe possibly.
