Chapter 9

April 16th, 1946. Washington, D.C.

Paul sat down in the White House chair as he prepared to give his bi-monthly report to Truman. Both had agreed that occasional meeting in person would allow both to have a better exchange of ideas and better coordination between the Initiative and the government. Filling Truman in on the latest discovery, he could see a note of disappointment in the president's eyes.

"So the long and short of it is Professor, is that without this pedestal, we can't reliably connect our stargate to other planets?"

"Correct. Until we can secure it, or find an alternative system of dialing, it will be a crapshoot if Earth could connect with another planet, and as you're aware, we need Earth to be a primary support base. Heliopolis can't hold the large number of vehicles and other large pieces of equipment we'll need to explore and defend ourselves with. We've considered knocking out some walls to potentially expand and create room near the gate room, but with the unknown metal reinforcing the walls, and the general age of the structure, we're worried we'd end up doing more harm than good if we tried to do that."

"I understand that, but can't we continue to explore via Heliopolis until we figure out the gate situation here? I understand that was our plan originally anyways."

"I'd caution against that. I've been brainstorming with more of my compatriots, unless we can have a reliable system of back up to support our personnel in the field, it wouldn't be advisable to just send squads through without that potential for back up. I've been talking with Lieutenant Hammond and he agrees. While our infantry squads are versatile and quite competent, relying on them in their entirety wouldn't be prudent tactically."

Truman cupped his hands on the desk and sat back for several moments, deep in thought before he continued. "If that's the case Doctor, what are our options?"

Opening his briefcase, Langford withdrew several papers and maps.
"We've been tossing around the idea of building a base on a third planet and using that as a place we can call for back up. The trick being it would have to be a planet Earth could dial and a world that could support such a base. Fortunately, despite our exploration setbacks, we believe that ES-3 has the potential to be that base."

"Now correct me if I'm wrong doctor, but didn't we find nothing worthwhile on that world? Just lots of plains?"

"Correct, however, several days ago, we discovered that the world seems to have a large reserve of natural gas." Paul said sliding a paper over Truman. "Estimates are still rough, but we believe that there are millions of cubic feet of easily accessible natural gas on ES-3, well within range of the Stargate. We were so focused on looking for ruins or other useful above ground things that we didn't look below our feet; incidentally, we're rectifying any future survey plans for other worlds to reflect this, including geological surveys as part of the initial exploratory procedures. As for ES-3, with all of this easily accessible gas, we realized that we could establish an off world base that could be self-sufficient. If we set up basic equipment we could pump the gas into a small refinery and use that as fuel for a base, giving it power and a source of heat all at one area."

Reading over the paper, Truman took several moments before speaking again.

"That makes sense, and having a location that could be self-sufficient like that would be incredibly useful. However, mining and refining equipment, not to mention the supplies and personnel necessary to establish such a location would be quite expensive. Would the program be able to do this in conjunction with the money already set aside for Area 52?"

Wringing his hands, Paul looked down for several seconds before looking up to speak. "We've run the numbers, Mr. President, and between the costs of building and developing Area 52, bringing in supplies and personnel to Heliopolis and payments to personnel and such, we're still several million dollars short to build a base on ES-3 that meets the specifications. Ordinarily a location like that wouldn't have so many costs, but given the need for secrecy and the dual development of the bases, as well as our resource and personnel acquisitions we found that we would be short a bit. If these were just normal bases we could build several dozen with the funds allocated, but given that we're designing them to be sophisticated locations that can be self-sufficient and durable, the cost overlays for just two locations on top of our traditional funding concerns have left us with a potential dearth. As you know sir since the war ended so quickly after we brought the gate to your attention, we were only able to get some of the money allocated to the program, around only half of what we had planned. With the additional Congressional scrutiny, siphoning off an extra fifty million might prove to be a tad difficult if we don't operate within existing structures, lest anyone starts asking questions."
Truman nodded as he slid the paper towards the Doctor.

"I appreciate the honest response doctor, I understood that a program like this would certainly cost a significant amount of money, I had just hoped that it would last a bit longer. I've been talking with Attlee, and the British government is willing to pay several million pounds to the program. Considering the war debt they've accumulated and the rebuilding efforts on the Isles this is quite generous. They've wanted to send additional personnel, which I've been happy to grant. Still if the numbers are true, then even that amount won't help cover all the gaps. You're right also in that with the limited amount of funds we secured, having everything established will be more difficult."

Tapping his fingers against his desk, Truman began to think. After several more minutes he spoke.

"Doctor, continue your construction as planned, I'll talk with Marshall about rerouting a battalion of engineers to the program so we can start work on ES-3. I'll need to hold a meeting with some of the joint chiefs. We might need to make some cuts elsewhere to make this really stick…"

August 16, 1946. ES-3
Simmons had somehow found himself in charge of supervising the assembly of the US Army's second off world base, which, from what he'd been told, was being unofficially called Fort Roosevelt.

At least it wasn't a difficult task; he mainly had to make sure the Army construction guys kept working and didn't screw up the assembly of the prefabricated structures that would make up the base until funds for a more permanent installation similar to the Initiative base on Earth could be appropriated. A simple barracks had already been assembled, as had a mess hall, latrine and gateroom, with a command center and garage for the vehicles well underway. With the exception of the gateroom, all the structures were temporary prefabrications. One of the first things he'd ordered put up was a Portcullis assembly over the gate, this one a slight variation on the Heliopolis assembly. It resembled the historical structure from which the name had been derived more closely, being mounted in vertical tracks and simply sliding up and down instead of swinging up and down. In addition, they had opted for a full plate design in lieu of a grate, the argument being that weapons fire could more easily penetrate a grate with all the holes than an armor plate that could completely cover the wormhole.

The gateroom design took advantage of the recent discovery that matter could pass through the rear of the event horizon of the wormhole unaffected, with a single .50 caliber machine gun mounted behind the gate, controlled via electronic trigger mechanism from a booth off to the side. Similar to the Earth base's design, there were additional firing slits located along the left and right sides of the room while facing the gate. A flamethrower mounted off to the side of the gate, slightly in front of the Portcullis, could torch anything that came through short of armored vehicles.

Just because they could block the door didn't mean an enemy couldn't find a way to affect it. For all they knew, the energy weapons employed by the Eagle Warriors could vaporize the grate. They weren't letting themselves think the facility invulnerable, that point was well driven home when he saw several soldier fumble around with a wooden pole trying to drive it into the ground. Thinking a military installation unassailable had dragged the US into a war just five years ago, and one he and the other soldiers would be reluctant to allow once more. Unlike the Earth base, if an enemy managed to breach the gate room position, they could easily overwhelm the base. Simmons shook his head at that thought, they had to secure the funding to make the base more fortified, and to get the equipment and personnel to start harvesting the natural gas beneath the base.

Simmons flicked his cigarette down and carefully stamped it out. They still had a lot of work to do…
The next supply shipment was due, and Simmons watched as the Stargate engaged. Moments later, a loud rustling sound erupted nearby, and he snapped his head over to look. A huge flock of bird-like creatures had burst from the grass where they were hiding at the sound of the gate's kawoosh. Simmons gazed at it for a moment, memories from school springing to mind of a time when the plains of North America were filled with herds of bison and flocks of birds so numerous they could block out the sun, as they always did when something reminded him of the state of this world. ES-3 had a lot of birds, and one of the Cub's exploration flights had spotted a herd of large land animals. This planet had never felt the yoke of industrial civilization until now. Simmons vaguely wondered how much longer these flocks of birds and herds of animals had before they too suffered.

September 1st, 1946

Langford adjusted his neck tie with tender care as he sat down at the small conference table. He'd received a call from Truman several days prior telling him to come down to D.C as soon as possible, specifically that this was regarding the SGI's funding. He wasn't quite sure what was going to happen, but he'd been told to bring the film reel and be prepared to bring several important people up to speed. He'd just finished setting up the film projector when the doors opened and President Truman filed in with George Marshall and several other men, most were in uniforms.

As the men quickly sat down, Paul realized that they were the Joint Chiefs, along with Marshall, there were Admirals Leahy and King, and General Arnold. The other two men who filed in last he quickly recognized as Secretary of War Patterson and Secretary of the Navy Forrestal. The most important men behind the United States military apparatus were all assembled here.

Truman spoke up. "Well, professor, now that we're here, could you please bring those of us here up to speed who haven't already been?"

Nodding, Langford started up the projector and for fifteen minutes briefed the senior military leaders of his nation about the Stargate, the Initiative, Heliopolis, the Eagle Warriors, and everything else related to the program. By the time he was finished, he saw that many of the men were diligently taking notes and scribbling other things down on the notepads in front of them.

Standing up, Truman, looked at the men assembled in front of him. "Well gentlemen, now that you've been brought into the loop, we need to discuss a matter of great importance, how we are going to fund this project."

Immediately, Admiral Leahy spoke up "Excuse me sir, but I was under the impression that you had already started to fund this effort. Why do you need us here to discuss that, I'd have though you wanted us here to discuss strategy." He finished to a small mummer of agreement in the crowd.

"So far, General Marshall has been coordinating with our soldiers in the program to effectively defend our off world positions, as Professor Langford said, the main issue is now, building advance facilities we can use as footholds, research facilities and even manufacturing locations. The need for secrecy has been taking up quite a bit of our funding as well as providing the sophisticated technology necessary to enable to program to have a better chance of understanding any potential alien technology and combat any hostile forces."

"Apart from the bases we're trying to build, the need to recruit personnel who can keep a secret, and bringing in enough support to keep them maintained in secret. That has raised the cost overhead significantly. We're projecting that if and when the SGI's attached military unit reaches it's projected division size, it will be operating on the budget of one or even two corps. That's also not including the start up costs of establishing the bases, support networks, facilities, and other things needed. " Marshall chimed in.

"When the Professor approached me with the program, I approved a budget of one hundred million dollars, we were still at war at the time and we could sweep a lot of the budget under the rug, but the Japanese surrendered far sooner than we thought, and while we managed to secure a good portion of that money, for future budget allocations we need our branches to help chip in and redirect some of the budget flow. We won't be able to keep a big ticket item like Area 52 on the docket and not raise a few eye brows. If you open your packets gentlemen, you'll see the proposals General Marshall and a few others have come up with to help supplement the budget."

The officers opened their manila envelopes and began to scan the documents. Professor Langford began to slowly read his papers. The proposals listed out potential cuts for the armed forces in various areas. The first on the docket was the Army, he was looking at a reduced number of armored cars when he heard a fist hit the table."

"Unacceptable!" Paul saw Admiral King exclaim. "You're asking us to gut our Essex-class battle groups and are cancelling the rest of our Midways? We need our battle groups and their carriers to remain effective!"

"Admiral, with all due respect, the operational costs of our carrier battle groups is one of the highest in the military, surely you can see why we had to make certain cuts there?" Marshall piped in trying to calm the admiral.

"Bullshit! The Navy has to cut out some of its core while the army only has to cut some of the homeland divisions who never went overseas? You're going to make us scrap the Coral Sea, stop producing any further Midway-class carriers, AND decommission 16 Essexes!"

"We're planning on introducing upgrades to the Long Hulls in the reserve fleet, while we assign 6 short hulls to mothball, the rest of the short hulls will be in line for upgrades. They'll still be within reach should we need them, but for our current purposes this will be sufficient."

"And what is that current purpose, General Marshall?" SecNav Forrestal chimed in. "Our navy is the front line for the protection of our nation, while yes we have a significant amount of forces stationed overseas at the moment, it will be our fleet that protect the mainland."

"Protect us from what Mr. Secretary?" General Hap Arnold asked "The Germans and the Japanese have been defeated. With our atomic monopoly and current airpower, which will remain largely unchanged, we have more than sufficient force to stop any threats to America."

"The Soviets. Do you really think they're just going to sit back and do nothing while we rebuild Europe while simultaneously cutting our forces?"

"Mr. Secretary, while I can safely say that none of us here enjoy the Soviet Union or what it stands for, pray tell, how will they attack us or invade our lands?" Truman asked. "We hold a monopoly on atomic weapons, and the carriers we will have remaining still outnumber the Soviet Navy by a significant margin."

"Infiltrators, saboteurs, other agents. Do you think the Soviets are going to start a fight right out of the gates? No, they'll work slowly at first, weeding their way into society and the governments of our nation and our allies. They'll weaken us, then they'll strike. Our navy and our marines will be at the forefront of any possible engagement, they'll be among the first to fight and die against the Red menace, and instead of strengthening them, you're prepared to cut their operational costs the most? For what? A gate that goes through space, which could also connect us to more potentially hostile powers."

"Well with the gate being under the auspice of the Army, we'll need the budget to maintain it's operations, and since the Army Air Force is the group that's responsible for delivering our atomic weapons, both groups will need to keep their strength." Marshall said.

Still fuming, Admiral King spoke once more. "Don't lie to our faces, George, and say that this is all unfortunate. We all know what's going on. You've been pushing this damned Armed Forces Unification plan through for years, and now that we have some new toys, you're going to try and force it!" Standing, he angrily gathered the papers in front of him "This nation needs its Navy and Marines! Until this actually becomes a civilized conversation about protecting our nation and not gutting its defenses, I'll be in my quarters!" With that he marched out of the conference room. Admiral Leahy and Secretary Forrestal both stood as well.

"Unacceptable." was all Leahy said.
"The war may be over gentlemen, but the threat to this nation isn't gone." With that both men departed as well.

The room stewed in silence for several minutes. General Marshall adjusted some papers, Truman was pinching the bridge of his nose, while Professor Langford sat and looked at the papers. Finally, the president spoke.

"Well that could have gone better." He said.

"Don't feel too bad, Mr. President." Marshall replied sympathetically. "Between the Army and the Air Force, our nation is well secured; the Navy and Marines are just going to have to accept a smaller role in the new world."

"Still we need them here to agree on a budget proposal, I don't want them sneaking to Congress over this." Sighing, he turned over a paper. "Anyways, Dr. Langford, I'm going to have to ask that you be patient as we try and sort this out. Keep building your bases as best as you can, but be prepared."

"We will."

"Now before we adjourn, I'd like to bring up another topic. As we all know, the SGI will need the most qualified personnel in its command, considering the potential threats we face, we'll need skilled personnel and crews for operations. While we already have combat squads in place, we still need to acquire tanks and their crews as well. With that in mind, we also have to realize we have a number of skilled personnel in our military who currently don't receive the recognition they deserve and who are quite skilled."

Confused, Langford looked at Truman. "Mr. President?"

"Doctor, I've been discussing this at length with Generals Marshall and Arnold, and we want to start integrating our military."

Paul let the sentence hang in the air for several moments before speaking again "…Sir?"

Standing up, Truman walked over to a window before continuing "I've seen the papers, read the reports, we're getting more and more of them each day. Non-white soldiers are coming home after having risked everything for this nation, and are they getting the ticker-tape parades and the congratulations? No, they're coming back to the same mistreatment, the same abuse. Meanwhile, while we try and champion the fact that we're the shining beacon of freedom and liberty to the world, the Soviets are putting their money where their mouth is. How can we claim to be the true arbiters of freedom and equality when so many in our nation can't even use a clean bathroom without getting beaten? I can't force the states to change, but we can damn well make sure our military is equal."

"We want to use the SGI as a test bed, we're planning on having an African American tank crew join the Initiative, and if that holds well enough, we'll start integrating the units as a whole. Slowly at first, obviously, we're not going to break up your team's cohesion, but we're planning on eventually bringing in more nonwhite forces." General Marshall said.

Langford looked down for several seconds before speaking. "I, personally, have no problem with this; I've studied enough of the past to know that humanity is the same regardless of where one is from … But a lot of my soldiers are from the South, general, and while they're good at following orders, I can't watch them all the time."

"We know, but this decision is final, plus it opens up your group to more potentially skilled personnel than would be available otherwise."
"I realize that, I just hope the men will see it that way…"

September 2nd, 1946. Heliopolis

Lieutenant Hammond was not pleased.

"A colored tank crew? Professor Langford, are you joking?"

"No, Lieutenant, I'm not. One of the tanks assigned to the ES-3 base is going to be from the 761st Tank Battalion."
"What the hell is Truman thinking?" he muttered.

"Do you have a problem with serving with colored men, Lieutenant?" Langford asked.
"I'm a Texan. I'll admit, maybe I don't have the same views as you people from up North, and I have my preferences. Hell, I especially don't like not having a say in the matter of how my teams will be operating."

"Lieutenant. Will you have a problem serving with men from a negro unit?"

Taking a deep breath, Hammond spoke, slowly and deliberately. "I know the 761st's reputation, they're good soldiers from what I hear. If these men can serve as well as they did in Europe, I won't complain. They're fellow soldiers after all. I'm worried about how this will affect unit cohesion and combat effectiveness. Some of the other people might not be so accepting. A lot of my boys are from the South, too, and they will not take kindly to having to potentially answer to a negro."

"It's a tank crew, not a command unit."

"Yeah, it's just some ground pounders like us, but how long until Negros of higher ranks might be called in? Plus this is probably just the start, isn't it? More colored personnel will come. You'll be asking us to share our mess halls, our common areas, our showers, our beds. A lot of the soldiers will be uncomfortable to at the least, and who knows what some might try and do."
"Can you keep it under control?"

"I can keep my men in line, Professor." Don said stiffly. "But I can't change the way they think."

Later that day, Hammond was talking to Simmons.

"Simmons, be honest with me: what do you think of the decision to bring in a colored tank crew?" Hammond asked.

"Frankly, sir, I think it's a bad idea. And so do most of the men I've talked to. A couple of the boys from Alabama haven't exactly had kind words about the President or the Professor."

"How bad?"

"I think the term 'Nigger lover' and Spooks were tossed around with more gusto than usual."
Sighing Hammond closed his eyes for several seconds before he spoke again "We'll have to keep an eye on those two then. As for the rest of us, well, we'll just have to grit our teeth and bear with it, we're soldiers after all."

"Right sir, doesn't mean we have to like doing this is all."

"I understand, Sergeant, but I expect you and the others to treat them as you would any fellow soldiers. The Professor is sympathetic, but he's not exactly going to be arguing for our case. At the very least we're getting some men from a well-respected battalion and we'll show them the courtesy they are due. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sir. Perfectly clear, sir."

"I expect you to let me know if there are any problems."

August 20th, 1946. ES-3

"Now that is a scary sight." Simmons commented as they watched as the first of a half-dozen M4 Shermans rolled through the gate and down the ramp that had been placed over the steps.

Lieutenant Hammond nodded. "It sure is." he replied. "You know, if those Eagle Warrior types don't use ground vehicles, they may be in for a hell of a rude awakening."

Simmons nodded a few moments later as the last tank rolled down. At the top of the copula was a dark skinned man with a serious look on his face, after a couple of seconds he ducked his head down and barked several orders before reappearing.

"Those them?" he asked.

"Yep, Staff Sergeant Harold Shepard and his crew. Saw action at Moyenvic and Morville-lès-Vic. They were with Patton's march to Bastogne and were part of the spearhead that helped breach the Siegfried line."

"Sounds like you did some homework sir."

"I read the personnel files, same with the other crews; we're getting two veteran tanks from North Africa and three other Normandy crews. All in all we're getting a good crop of personnel with this shipment and I hear word the Brits are going to send a trio of Cromwells as well."

Simmons nodded as the tanks pulled into the hastily erected hanger, disappearing from sight. "I'm just nervous about air support. If they have something like a fighter plane, especially if it has anything like the energy staff that killed the probe, I don't know how much good the armor will do." Simmons said.

"We'll figure it out. Hopefully, it'll be a long time before we have to deal with serious engagements, though..."