SDI ~ Stargate in 1984

Alar on the planet Euronda looked at the device that had been excavated when the bunker complex had been constructed.

After years of study they had final got the device to work.

Now it was just a matter of contacting whoever was on the other side and asking for assistance to end the war that showed no signs of ending.

With a nod to Tron who had volunteered to step through the device it was dialled and Tron stepped through the device into the great unknown.

As he stumbled out of the device Tron realised that he had exited the device in some kind warehouse.

This was the last thought he had apart from preserving his life when a group of large men charged in and ordered him to the floor.

What followed surprised everybody as what the investigation found quickly percolated to the highest levels of government.

In the White House Oval Office, President Ronald Reagan sat disbelieving as he read the report.

It then dawned on him that the device that this man had apparently come out of was the same one that Professor Catherine Langford had petitioned him to reactivate investigations into.

When she had first proposed it he had dismissed it as it couldn't help him win the cold war now things were different.

If this man Tron was to be believed then his people had deuterium fuelled controlled fusion reactors.

This fact suddenly had this stairway to heaven more important than every other US military program combined.

After discussions with his chief advisors it was decided to reactivate the stairway to heaven program as part of the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) organisation.

This stairway to heaven program would be a unified military command under the control of the airforce but with every military service having rights and funding obligations to the stairway to heaven program.

Further discussions were held with Tron who advised that his people didn't have to dial the device manually as they had the original control device which he described in vivid detail.

President Reagan was discussing the merits of an archaeological dig in Egypt to find this device when his vice president spoke up saying, "Mr President during my time as the director of Central Intelligence I remember reading a debriefing of a Soviet defector who described this device.

Apparently the Soviet Union seized it from the Nazis at the end of WWII and not knowing what it was as the Nazis didn't either they simply stored it in a warehouse where it was forgotten.

I'm sure Mr President that our defector might still have contacts that might be able to acquire this device for us.

If not there are always the various organised crime networks that will steal it if their price is met."

President Reagan thought for just a moment before saying, "Do it but never let it be known that it is our government that requires it."

While the dialling device was being acquired the intermittent contact with the Eurondans dialling in soon found both governments entering into detailed negotiations for trade and exchanges of other items of interest.

While the dialling device was being acquired President Reagan asked that all files at the Pentagon and the various intelligence agencies relating to the initial program be forwarded to Stairway to Heaven command at Area 51 where a purpose built facility was being constructed for its operation.

With the program having presidential approval recruiters were sent to get the very best of Special Forces operators across all the military branches.

Captain Jonathan J. O'Neill looked at his new orders in puzzlement.

He had been scheduled for a mission to East Germany by then he had received new ones along with a permanent change of duty station.

Normally he only went on temporary duty assignments but these new orders bespoke of a long term classified mission.

If there was one good point about his new assignment was that at least he would get to spend more time with his new wife Sara.

The only thing Sara might complain about however was the fact that his new posting was in Nevada.

At least Las Vegas was only a short drive away from the base.

Brigadier General Merrill Anthony "Tony" McPeak wondered what was going on with his career he had been happily advancing his career as chief of staff at the USAFE headquarters when suddenly he was reassigned without consultation to the SDI program in Nevada.

Tony didn't know what he had done to get this assignment but when he turned up to a facility that was still under construction where he had his identification and orders checked three times before he was even allowed to enter showed him that his new position was something special.

As he sat in his Quonset hut that was his makeshift office he was reading about the Strategic Defence Initiative and its various sub divisions.

While he was interested in the sub divisions, the rods of god and the laser weapons platforms his new command was the oddly named Stairway to Heaven program.

As he started reading he grew more and more astounded but then he came across the old Army Air Corp files and watched the movie reel vision of the device in operation he became a believer.

As he read further he suddenly realised that this Ernest Littlefield had been abandoned on the other destination and as he read further it became apparent that no rescue mission had been attempted.

Tony decided that this would be the very first thing he investigated when his new command was up and running.

If fact he knew that the device had been manually dialled several times and he decided to have this done at the soonest possible time to see if this Ernest Littlefield was still alive and if so to send him supplies until a rescue mission could be mounted.

President Ronald Reagan was astounded when he read the report that the Army Air Corp had managed to activate the device and send a man through before initiating a cover up of the fact.

If the reports were true then it appeared that the orders had come from Truman himself.

This discovery did lead to another interesting fact they now knew that there were at least three of these devices on different worlds and the scientists now attached to the project were speculating that perhaps there was a whole network of these devices scattered across multiple inhabitable worlds.

To Ronald this meant that America now had access to possibly countless worlds to exploit and it was imperative that the communists never get access to any of them to spread the poison of their beliefs.

Corporal Leroy Jethro Gibbs was wondering what was going on.

The entire 1st Battalion along with rest of the 1st Marine Division was being moved from Camp Pendleton in California to the Groom Lake Facility at Nellis Airforce base.

He didn't know why the Marine Corps were sending an entire division to play with zoomies but his was not to reason why.

He just hoped the move would be after the birth of his and Shannon's first child.

Viktor Kirov of the Russian mafia watched as his men loaded the artefact onto the truck.

He didn't know why his Egyptian associates wanted the artefact but he had been paid two kilograms of pure cocaine up front for the artefact so he had to deliver.

It had been relatively easy to bribe the guards to allow the artefact to disappear and using his connections he had the artefact added to the manifest to an arms shipment that was going to Egypt.

Viktor was intrigued why the artefact was wanted so he decided to have his contacts track the artefact to its destination.

After all if he knew who the final owner was to be it might be an easy way to sell other historic artefacts that might be sitting in Russian warehouses.

Unfortunately Viktor was disappointed when the artefact disappeared somewhere in Central America.

But at least he knew that somebody probably a drug lord in the Americas was interested in strange artefacts.

Little did he know that the artefact in question had travelled overland to Mexico where it crossed the Mexico- Nevada border where it made its way to the Stairway to heaven program.

The arrival of the dialling device coincided with the completion of the purpose built facility for the Stairway to Heaven program.

President Reagan being fearful of the unknown had insisted that the facility be secure and could be easily defended.

This was why the device was at the end of a long access tunnel which the marines had designed a thousand foot long kill zone with armoured bunkers filled with every conceivable weapon placed the length of the access tunnel.

These bunkers could only be assessed from external entry points so there was no chance of an external threat breaking out of the base through these bunkers.

Around the tunnel was a vast base filled with armouries research facilities and warehouses.

At the end of 1983 the Stairway to Heaven program was ready to get into full swing.

The recently promoted Major General Merrill Anthony "Tony" McPeak looked over his command in awe.

He knew that this had to potential to be a disaster of massive proportions but it also held the possibility of immense benefits.

If it is the latter then his career could rocket to the highest levels or it could crash and burn.

The next few months would tell if his career flies like a bird or sinks like a brick but he was certain that the former is more likely than the latter.

Ernest Littlefield was stunned when the stairway to heaven activated for the first time in nearly forty years.

As he reached the device he noticed a trolley stacked with provisions and what had to be an incredibly small recording device that was playing a message to him.

After listening to the message he moved the trolley to a safe room and then found the incredibly small radio transmitter and returned to the stairway to heaven and waited for the earth to resume contact with him.

Major General Tony McPeak listened to what Ernest had informed then.

The knowledge that the dialling device was damaged was bad but not an insurmountable problem as the stairway to heaven had been dialled manually in the past.

The greater issue was the poor state that the structure the held Ernest's stairway to heaven.

If General McPeak had his way a team would be sent to rescue Ernest and then they would abandon Heliopolis.

Unfortunately this was no longer possible as President Reagan had heard about the atom library and was determined to have that knowledge for America regardless of the cost.

Luckily with the Stairway to heaven being a joint uniformed military command allowed him with presidential approval to requisition any military unit he required.

Knowing who would be best to deal with this situation Major General Tony McPeak rang the Secretary of Defence and has a Seabee battalion attached to his command.

After all if one world needed the unique abilities of the Seabee's then he'd be willing to bet his next pay cheque that there would be other worlds where the Seabees could be put to use.

Captain Jack O'Neill was glad that his team had been deployed to Heliopolis even if the first things they had to do was help the Seabee's move the stairway to heaven and the broken control device.

Still it was better than being with those Nazis wanabes.

Jack thought that Robert Makepeace would get along fine with the Eurondan bastards.

Sure he knew that the Eurondans had technology that America needed just like the USA supported all those bastions of democracy in the Middle East, Central and South America.

Still it didn't mean he had to like it.

But on Heliopolis it was better than associating with the Eurondans even if it meant his team was just exploring for miles around to see if there was anything of value.

At least they weren't going to be stuck here very long.

The eggheads had already determined the point of origin for this world by comparing the glyph plates with those from the earth and Euronda.

All they had to do was charge the stairway to heaven and they'd be heading home.

Well his team and Ernest would be.

The Seabee's and the eggheads drooling over the atom library were here for the long term.

He had smiled at the latest shipment of supplies from the Earth.

Five Betamax video recorders had been sent through to record all the data for the non-expendable scientists that had been forced to remain at Area-51.

Major General Tony McPeak watched as the first parts of the deuterium-fuelled controlled fusion reactor for Area 51 were delivered by the Eurondans.

Up until now the Eurondans had been provide deuterium fuel and other resources on credit.

Now the first major benefit of the stairway to heaven program was taking shape.

Tony just hopes that the Eurondans could meet their production schedule as President Reagan's aide contacted him every second day wanting to know when the president could announce to the world the USA's development of deuterium-fuelled controlled fusion reactors.

Along with the parts came schematics for the various Eurondan technologies and the scientific principles behind their development.

Tony didn't care too much about the morality of the situation as this was government policy and as long as he kept the president happy then funding for his program was assured.

With all that was going on Tony had forgotten one issue that was going to create problems for the program

Ernest Littlefield was scheduled to return in two days but as far as the rest of the world knew he had died in 1945.

It wasn't until Ernest was back on the earth that the magnitude of the problem of returning him back to life presented itself to the Stairway to heaven program and the US government.

This was especially so as Catherine Langford was still petitioning for the program to be reactivated not knowing that it already had been.

Her campaign was seen as a great cover as she campaigned for its reactivation nobody would even think that the program at Area 51 related to the same thing.

Ernest Littlefield stood with Captain O'Neill's team as the stairway to heaven activated.

After radio confirmation that they had in fact contacted the earth Ernest and Captain O'Neill's team stepped through the device and returned to the Earth.

When he stepped from the device Ernest fell to the ground and kissed it before the medical staff latched onto him and dragged him off to the infirmary for a complete medical examination before putting him on a treatment plan for the many ailments that had afflicted him in his time on Heliopolis.

Major General Tony McPeak listened to the report from the projects chief medical officer and started to understand just how many issues he was going to have with Ernest Littlefield.

It wasn't just the medical issues that his chief medical officer advised Ernest would become a major medical paper on extreme isolation for an extended periods if he was ever allowed to publish it.

But Tony was more concerned with Doctor Littlefield himself.

Doctor Littlefield had been declared dead for nearly forty years.

Tony wondered how they could return him to life without exposing the project.

And then there was the issue of back pay and entitlements.

Ernest had been employed by the US government as a civilian technical representative and as such he was covered under the normal military contracts.

As such if he was returned to life he was entitled to back pay and holidays and then there would be the other benefits he would be entitled to for his long abandonment.

Tony decided to send this issue up the line as he was sure that Doctor Ernest Littlefield's situation would become a political hot potato and that was only the internal situation.

If his situation was ever leaked then he'd better find a rock to hide under quickly.

This thought triggered another thought for Tony.

They were travelling out into the great unknown and who knew what threats existed out there.

Tony decided that it might be best if an off world site on no great importance was developed so that no potential enemies were led back to the earth.

With this decision made Tony decided to start a random dialling program in the hope of finding a suitable site.

But as they knew nothing of what was out there he wasn't going to send teams blindly into the unknown.

Instead they would send television / photo reconnaissance remote controlled vehicles to determine if a planet was relatively safe for him to send his exploration teams through to explore.

The random dialling program had found its first world by the similarity of the glyphs the scientists had determined that it was relatively close to the earth.

However when the remote controlled aircraft flew out the device it was nearly instantly destroyed, when it collided with a wall of what appeared to be an internal room.

Not wanting to risk a team a note was made to add this address for later exploration by other remote controlled devices when they were developed.

With this world disallowed for current exploration the random dialling continued in the search of suitable off world base of operations.

The political hot potato that was Ernest Littlefield had reached crisis point when the chief medical officer advised that Ernest was suitably recovered to be released from the infirmary.

After much discussion it was decided to send Ernest back to Heliopolis to lead the team of researchers studying the atom library.

Knowing that his presence would probably leak if no action was done it was decided to bring Catherine Langford into the program purely as a researcher and recruiter while the government decided on a plausible story on how to bring Ernest Littlefield back to life.

Professor Catherine Langford was incensed when she discovered that the Stairway to Heaven had been reactivated without her knowledge and even worse they had found her fiancée who they had treated and then duck shoved back to where they found him for political expediency.

She was of half a mind to tell the government to stuff it where the sun doesn't shine and expose them to the world.

But before she got the chance a Captain Maybourne from the recently created NID advised her that if she endangered any portion of the Strategic Defence Initiative she would suffer a fatal accident and her fiancé Ernest Littlefield would die as well this time for real.

Realising that there are unscrupulous people who are willing to kill to keep the governments secrets and they are probably untouchable to normal law enforcement agencies.

After careful consideration of her situation she decided that she would go along with them if for no other reason than she got to spend the few remaining years of her life with the man she loves.

The random dialling program has found a world that from the data received back from the television / photo reconnaissance remote controlled aircraft appeared perfect for an off world base.

After deliberation with his command staff Major General Tony McPeak decided to send Extra-terrestrial Exploration Unit One to the world to do a detailed exploration around that world's stairway to heaven before light aircraft are sent through to do a long range reconnaissance mission.

If this world proves to have nothing too hostile this this will become the main off world base for base the exploration and rapid response teams.

Jack O'Neill walked through the forest near the stairway to heaven and wondered why nearly every planet that the remote controlled reconnaissance aircraft explored looked like Canada.

Still he hadn't seen anything even remotely dangerous apart from a few native animals.

He knew that his report will indicate that this will be an excellent site for the proposed off world base.

All that was needed now was the long range aerial reconnaissance to confirm his findings and he suspected that the Seabees will be busy constructing another base of operations very shortly.

Sara O'Neill waited nervously for Jack to return from his latest mission.

She hadn't been feeling well lately and had gone to the doctor for a check-up.

While not shocked by the prognosis it certainly threw a spanner in her plans for her future career and possibly Jack's as well.

While she had been on the pill she hadn't known that it wasn't always 100 percent effective and that it also didn't work with some women.

Still a honeymoon baby had come as quite a surprise as they hadn't even really discussed having children yet.

At least with Jack's new secret mission he was home more regularly than during their courtship and that would help when the baby came along.

If there was one thing that Captain Jack O'Neill hated about his new assignment was the security at Area 51.

Nothing was allowed to leave the base to the extent that anybody leaving had to go thought three security checks that last of which included stripping naked and changing into the clothing that you wore to the base when you arrived.

Jack had thought of purchasing a personal weapon for home defence but Sara wasn't too keen on the idea and they did live in a military housing development outside of Las Vegas so he decided against it.

At least with the new security regulations he didn't have to worry about installing a secure weapon safe for his military firearms.

Finally Jack was outside the base and at his car were he could drive home for his weeks leave before reporting back to base for the next three weeks of earth based duties.

When Jack arrived home he knew straight away that something was wrong.

Sara's car was in the driveway while she was supposed to still be at work.

When he opened the door the house was completely dark and the only sound came from upstairs.

As he walked up the stairs he heard the sound of retching coming from the on suite.

Jack had just entered the main bedroom when Sara came out of the on suite looking under the weather.

When she noticed Jack standing there looking at her she ran over to him and threw her arms around him.

After their brief reintroduction Jack held Sara against him and said, "Are you alright honey? You don't look well and I heard you in the on suite."

Sara smiled wanly at Jack and said, "I'm fine Jack. We're fine."

Jack repeated quizzically, "We're fine?"

Sara then smiling impishly said, "Jack I'm pregnant!"

Jack stood stunned for a moment and then pulled Sara into a tight hug and kissed her before saying, "We're going to be parents" over and over again.

After a few minutes Jack released Sara and said, "This calls for a celebration why don't we try the new Chinese place before we come home to other celebrations."

Sara just rolled her eyes and went to change before they headed out to start their celebrations.

Major General Merrill Anthony "Tony" McPeak found himself in the Oval Office personal briefing President Reagan over the discoveries that the Stairway to Heaven program had made.

President Reagan was pressing hard to have the deuterium fuelled controlled fusion reactors to be released at the earliest possible time.

But he had to concede that having one deuterium fuelled controlled fusion reactor but not being able to manufacture more would look very suspicious.

So instead he started pushing for the ability to build them be brought forward in the negotiations with the Eurondans.

As he left the White House Major General Tony McPeak thought politics.

The president wanted to be immortalised as the man who gave America near limitless cheap energy and won the cold war with the communists.

He couldn't really fault him for that after all the man was a politician with the ego that goes with it.

Still he had his orders even if the Airforce wants to duplicate the production lines and control stations for those remote controlled aero-fighters.

Thinking about it some more Tony decided that why didn't he just go for the grand slam and get the Eurondans to duplicate all of their technology and manufacturing base on the earth so that he could use America's greater population to supply them with more equipment and resources than the Eurondans could possibly imagine.

Alar was stunned by the proposal that was placed before him by these Americans.

Sure it meant handing them all of Eurondans knowledge but it also meant that they could have a limitless flow of resources.

Ever since they had contacted these Americans their situation improved daily.

They had even retaken their access to the sea so they weren't as dependent on these Americans for deuterium fuel for their controlled fusion reactors.

Still the food and resources that these Americans poured into their war efforts meant that they could conceivably win the war in another few decades they just needed to pump more poison into the atmosphere to prevent the breeders breeding too much.

Then there were those American pilots who came for a week at a time to train and use the remote aero-fighters so that nobody suffered the prolonged effects of constant use of the neural interface.

After a quick discussion with his inner circle it was decided to accept the American offer.

After all, the American liaison officer Captain Robert Makepeace certainly had no qualms about the Eurondan situation and had even suggested no mentioning it in detail to his government as the politicians might become squeamish about doing what had to be done to win both their hot and cold wars.

Major General Tony McPeak smiled at the report he was currently reading.

One of the randomly dialled worlds had been found to be a treasure trove of natural resources.

So much so that it had been decided to start extracting and selling them through front companies as a means of funding the stairway to heaven program without having to get congress and the senate briefed on what they were doing.

Even black programs needed funding but with the resources they'd discovered they would never need to get funding from congress again.

All the military personnel would simply be part of the payroll system of their parent services so there would be no need for congressional oversight or briefings for politician with dubious motives.

The first of the ores were going to be mined by the Seabee's but it was hoped that they could contact other people like the Eurondans who wouldn't mind working for them for salary and social benefits.

Professor Catherine Langford was reviewing a doctoral thesis for a brilliant new young up and coming archelogy student named Daniel Jackson.

Having read his thesis she knew he was perfect of the stairway to heaven program and being such a young man he wouldn't be missed as it would be assumed that he had merely gone to a long term archelogy dig to make a name for himself.

Having made her decision she would submit his name to Major General McPeak for the required background checks before he would be approached to come and work for the program.

Captain Jack O'Neill wasn't very enthused for his rotation to go through the gate to have come along again.

It had only been a month since he had discovered that he was going to be a father and he would have preferred going home every night to Sara but he had his orders and he would obey them.

Still it didn't look like it would be a difficult mission the remote controlled aircraft had showed an industrial society that appeared to be fifty to a hundred years behind the USA.

Still they needed people to work their new mines and Jack was sure that a suitable agreement could be reached with these people.

After all if they are that far behind the USA then he was sure that there were plenty of non-classified items that could be traded with them.

But now it was time to go introduce the earth to these newly discovered people.

Mannem, The First Minister of Pangar was shocked when it was reported that strange solders had come out of the chappa'ai.

At first he had thought it was the legendary Jaffa of old but the reports didn't match his peoples few remaining records of the Jaffa or the Goa'uld's.

He thought it was unlikely to be them as they would have hardly asked the first person they came across to introduce them to their government.

After the initial introductions had taken place Captain Jack O'Neill and the rest of ETEU-1 are shown around the city and Jack mentions that he noticed an excavation site near the stairway to heaven.

At first the first Minister didn't know what Jack was talking about and then exclaimed, "Oh you mean the old Goa'uld temple complex."

Confused by this comment a confused Jack enquires, "Goa'uld's who are they?"

First Minister Mannem looks at Jack strangely and says, "You don't know of the Goa'uld!

How fortunate your people are.

The Goa'uld's are a parasitical race that use humans as hosts and slaves we are only as advanced as we are because the Goa'ulds abandoned this world for some reason and never came back.

That is why we want a treaty with your people as you are obviously more advanced than us and could help us better defend ourselves if the Goa'ulds ever decide to come back."

Shocked by this revelation Jack says, "What do they look like?"

After careful consideration and the suggestion that some of their modern weapons could be provided for the Pangaran military to test a Goa'uld symbiote was given to Jack O'Neill to take back to his people to experiment on.

Along with O'Neill went a young diplomat to represent the Pangarans in the initial negotiations.

When Captain O'Neill radioed that he was returning from the alpha site with a representative of the Pangaran government and a hostile alien lifeform Major General McPeak had Area 51 placed into lockdown.

After they had learned from the Pangarans just what the Goa'uld symbiote was capable of it immediately became mandatory for all returning off world personnel to be ex-rayed and MRI'ed before they were allowed to leave the medical facilities to complete the security screenings before leaving the base.

Later that day Major General Tony McPeak was reporting to President Reagan that the universe had just become a lot more dangerous.

Ronald Reagan was apprehensive and wondered if the program should be shut down before realising that if these Goa'ulds had placed the stairways to heaven on all these planets than they must be advanced and have interstellar capable vessels as well.

For how else could that have placed these devices on so many worlds.

Realising that it was too late to put the genie back into the bottle Ronald Reagan changed the programs mandate.

They were no longer just getting technology to defeat the communists they now had to gather technology to defeat these Goa'uld's should they ever return to earth as it was only logical that that had been to the earth before as how else would have humans got out amongst the starts in the first place.

As he was returning to Area 51 Major General McPeak decided that the Alpha site would become the permanent contact point for all ETEU teams and nothing would leave from the earth unless the site was already under his command.

After consultations it was decided that all permanent off world sites would have on site command grade officer of at least colonel's rank to administer the site and report back to him.

Dr Daniel Jackson had expected his doctoral thesis to ruffle some feathers as it was based around his belief that the Egyptian pyramids were far older than had been previously established.

He was expecting some heated debate from the academic community but what he wasn't expecting was a visit from Professor Catherine Langford and a couple of men in civilian clothes that screamed government.

He was totally stunned when Professor Langford offered him a job with unlimited funding.

The only proviso was that he wouldn't be allowed to publish anything without the paper being vetted by Professor Langford and the government agency that he would be working for.

The unlimited funding was nearly irresistible but it was Professor Langford who said that if he wanted to prove his theories correct the program she represented was the only way he would ever be able to achieve this.

After thinking about the offer for several days Daniel Jackson rang Professor Langford and accepted the position.

Daniel was surprised that he was sent travel documents sending him to Las Vegas where he would be collected and taken to his final destination.

Major General Tony McPeak looked on as the Seabees cut a long trench in the floor leading to the stargate.

When the facility had been constructed just a year before it hadn't been envisioned that they would have to transport liquids from the stairway to heaven.

Now the Seabees were laying a pipeline that would transport the newly discovered crude oil from the facility to another pipeline outside of Area 51 that was being built by the vice presidents family.

Tony didn't really like the fact the George Bush was going to use his families' oil business Arbusto Energy as a cover for the programs sale of crude oil but it was the obvious way to do it using an established oil producer.

If anybody asked the cover story was that a stratigraphic trap had been discovered at Area 51 and the Bush's had won the tenders to sell the oil on the behalf of the US government.

The side effect of getting this contract was that George Bush and his family didn't end up selling Arbusto Energy but continued to run it as a family concern.

Doctor Daniel Jackson was studying the cover stones that had originally buried the stairway to heaven.

Both Major General Tony McPeak and Catherine Langford were both surprised that he had not only completed the translation in record time but had appeared to have got it correct as his term of stargate seemed far more appropriate than Stairway to heaven.

Tony decided that internally he would adopt the term stargate relating to the project but on all external documents it would remain the stairway to heaven.

It would help camouflage the project further and if people took it at its literal meaning them they might think that the US government was trying to build a space elevator.

Tony was still pondering this when Doctor Jackson asked, "Oh by the way what were these cover stone covering in the first place?"

Major General McPeak looked at Professor Langford and then said, "Well he was always going to find out eventually."

And with this said Doctor Jackson was lead towards the stargate facility.

Daniel Jackson stood staring at the device with his mouth hanging open as he saw people exiting the device.

Turning to the general and Catherine Langford Daniel asked. "What is that?'

Smiling at him Catherine replied, "That is your Stargate Daniel.

So many of your beliefs and perceptions are going to change in your time here.

We have already discovered more in the year since it has been in operation than you could possibly imagine.

Now let's take you to another site that we need your assistance in deciphering some other languages."

With this said Catherine took Daniel by the hand and led him towards the now dialling stargate for his first off world trip and to introduce him to Ernest.

The newly promoted Major Jack O'Neill was annoyed to say the least here he was the leader of the premier exploration team and now he had been lumbered with escorting a nerdy archaeologist to Pangar to help translate the hieroglyphs in the Goa'uld temple that the Pangarans were excavating.

Jack secretly thought that his recent promotion directly related to his accidental discovery of the threat that these Goa'uld's potentially represent to the Earth.

Still he had his orders so he was heading back to Pangar to play nursemaid to this Doctor Daniel Jackson.

Daniel Jackson thought to himself that he would never get used to travelling through the stargate.

On top of that all the travelling he has to do now is playing havoc with his allergies.

He had only just got settled in with Doctor Littlefield to study the four languages on Heliopolis when he was recalled by General McPeak and sent to this world Pangar to help them translate some Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Only he now knew that they weren't Egyptian at all but rather an alien language of that Goa'uld species.

Still he didn't like the way the Airforce major and his unit treated him with disdain.

At least the Pangaran archaeologists accepted him for who he was and what he had achieved.

Daniel had been translating the hieroglyphs for a couple of days when he sat up startled by what he read, "Here lies Egeria, betrayer of the Goa'uld. May she suffer for all eternity."

When he read this Daniel realised that the Goa'uld queen that Pangarans have is the greatest enemy the Goa'uld ever had.

He realised that he had to inform General McPeak immediately as who the Pangarans have in that tank might be the greatest source of intelligence on the Goa'uld that the Earth will ever have.

Major General McPeak listened to Doctor Jackson with considerable interest.

So the Pangarans had unwittingly been experimenting on the Goa'uld's greatest enemy was something that had to be resolved.

He knew that Goa'ulds needed hosts and he just happened to have the perfect candidate.

Jennifer Le Beau was the daughter of the Colonel in charge of the marine force recon battalion that had been seconded to his command.

She was also a nurse in the base infirmary.

But more importantly she had just been diagnosed with incurable cancer.

He had heard from the Pangarans that the Goa'uld can provide their host perfect health.

The only problem now was getting the Pangarans to agree to release this Egeria.

Perhaps she would know where to get more symbiotes for the Pangarans to experiment on.

Major General Tony McPeak had been in negotiations with the Pangarans for what seemed like eons.

The Pangarans didn't want to surrender their sole source of symbiotes and were driving a hard bargain.

Eventually an agreement was reached with the Pangaran military being supplied with enough M-16s to equip their army along with a several squadrons of jet fighters.

What the Pangarans didn't know was that the jet fighters were old F-104 star fighters that were being salvaged from the boneyards.

So the only cost to stargate command was the transport of the aircraft and the expense of the weapons.

Egeria swam in her tank and watched as a strange woman approached her.

The woman stopped in front of her and said, "Egeria, I'm Jennifer LeBeau and I've been told that you can cure my cancer if I share my body with you.

My people's government need intelligence on the Goa'uld badly and the Pangarans want a more stable supply of symbiotes that you might be able to direct them to.

To me it seems that we both have no real choice other than to join together and live as one."

With this said Jennifer lent over the tank and waited for Egeria to make her choice.

Egeria decided that this Jennifer Le Beau was willing to help her if she was helped also, so without overly thinking the situation Egeria leapt from the tank and entered Jennifer LeBeau.

Major General McPeak watched as the Goa'uld Egeria entered Jennifer Le Beau and rushed forward to catch Jennifer as she collapsed but before she hit the concrete.

Cradling Jennifer in his arms he signalled the corpsmen to place her on the stretcher before having her taken to the alpha site.

Egeria trawled through her new host memories as she started the process of repairing the damage the cancerous growths had caused her hosts body.

She was so startled by what she discovered that she nearly stopped the repairs.

Jennifer LeBeau was from the Earth, she is a Tau'ri of the first world.

Egeria thought what a wonderful ally they would make for her children if they survive.

For now she would concentrate her abilities on healing her host and then she would talk to this Major General McPeak and see what kind of deal she could make the would benefit both her and the Tau'ri.

The first thing she really needed to do was to breed a new queen as she wasn't young anymore and the forced spawning had taken their toll on her longevity.

Still that shouldn't be a problem as her host Jennifer already had a man she was intimate with.

Egeria idly wondered whether this Captain Robert Makepeace was a good man.

The corpsman watching over Lt Jennifer LeBeau was startled when she suddenly sat up and her eyes glowed.

Her eyes then locked onto him and an eerie voice said, "I am Egeria! May I speak with Major General McPeak we have much to discuss."

Major General McPeak pondered what he had learnt from his initial discussions with this Egeria.

To think that there were potentially tens to hundreds of millions of human slaves forced to work and worship these Goa'uld System lords as gods was shocking.

But more concerning to him was the potential for these Goa'uld's come to the earth in spaceships to which no country on earth currently had any defence against an orbital attack.

At least the Pangarans were happy as Egeria had supplied them with the original homeworld of the Goa'ulds.

Now the Pangarans could harvest as many Goa'uld's as they wanted as well as collecting the queens for their own breeding program.

Once he had assimilated what he had been told Tony picked up the red phone and spoke to the president.

Before the hour was out he was on a plane to Washington DC to brief the president in person on what they had discovered.

What really interested Tony however were these Asgard creatures that from Egeria's description resembled the Roswell greys.

If the Goa'uld System Lords were scared of them then the Asgard had to be a priority for the USA to make friends with.

Major Jack O'Neill and his ETEU-1 team exited the stargate to one of the world's that Egeria had provided the address too.

Unfortunately for him that nerdy archaeologist Daniel Jackson has been attached to his unit on a near permanent basis.

As he watched Daniel sneeze the strange hammer shaped obelisk started emitting a screeching sound before a beam of light shot out of it and swept over all the members of ETEU-1 before the hammer shaped device shut down.

Daniel immediately ran towards the device and started examining the runes on the hammer shaped obelisk.

He quickly realised that the runes were very similar to Norse runes on Earth and also one of the languages on Heliopolis.

With this realisation Heliopolis suddenly became far more important than Stargate command had originally envisioned.

President Ronald Reagan was concerned with what stargate command had leant.

That there were probably countless human populations being forced to work as slaves for Goa'uld masquerading and the Gods of old appalled him.

What frightened him was that these Goa'uld's had vast fleets of spaceships that could lay waste to the earth whenever they desired to.

After carefully considering the situation Ronald Reagan ordered that all future missions were to travel via this Cimmeria so that the Goa'uld couldn't track the extra-terrestrial exploration teams back to the earth or any American colony world.

Ronald also ordered that any human slaves were to be removed from Goa'uld control where feasible and relocated to one of America's worlds where they will be resettled and offered employment and education while still respecting their cultural heritage.

Major General Tony McPeak thought about his new standard operating procedures.

It was going to make life very interesting for his command.

He had already started planning to issue recall to duty notices to all those reserve forces that had perquisite skills he required.

Unfortunately many of those people will probably have to have out of range promotions as their civilian skill sets when incorporated into the military would see many becoming officers.

This would also cause other issues as bringing them into a black operation meant that there was a high degree of risk that the stargate program could be exposed.

He would have to consider this issue more closely before he started the recalls.

Egeria felt this Robert Makepeace roll off her host Jennifer.

It hadn't been an altogether unpleasant experience but more importantly Robert had supplied the required DNA to allow her prim'tah to blend more easily with human hosts.

Robert hadn't been happy that Jennifer had become her host but he eventually accepted the fact that it was better for Jennifer to share her body with a symbiote then to have died of the cancer that had been ravaging her body.

Daniel Jackson was intrigued by the atom library.

He had determined that Heliopolis had actually been a meeting place of four great races somewhat like an intergalactic United Nations.

What they did here he didn't have a clue but he and the other scientists had concluded that the basic building blocks of the universe would be the perfect universal language as a means to learn the languages of others.

He knew that these mythical Asgard were one of these races he just wondered who the other races were.

For now Daniel would go back to the translations and perhaps he will discover something that is yet to be discovered.

Gunnery Sargent Leroy Jethro Gibbs watched as the Alpha site grew before his very eyes.

He knew that Shannon would have loved to know what he knew but secrecy had to be maintained.

Perhaps in the future he might be given the opportunity to move his family to a new world and then he could tell his family the secret of the stargate.

President Ronald Reagan smiled as he watched that last of the components for the deuterium fuelled controlled fusion reactor installed.

Tomorrow it would be activated for the first time and once they knew how to build the components he would be able to lord America's technological superiority over the communists.

Major General Tony McPeak watched as President Reagan preened in front of the cameras as he announced that the USA had developed an experimental deuterium fuelled controlled fusion reactor.

That was the best concession that Tony could get from the president who was desperate to announce a major technological breakthrough before the end of his presidency.

At least the experimental part explained why they couldn't start immediate commercial construction of deuterium fuelled controlled fusion reactors.

The press seemed to accept the fact that commercial units were still five to ten years away giving his program the time to duplicate the Eurondan industrial base.

Luckily he wasn't part of the political dog and pony show as his program was still black but his superiors were only too willing to join the president in his announcement.

After he had returned to Area 51he received a report from Dr Daniel Jackson who had compared the writings on the stargate cover stone and those on Pangar and had determined they were about the same Goa'uld, the Egyptian Sun God Ra.

What was disturbing was the fact that the address that Doctor Jackson had discovered on the cover stone was the same as one of the addresses that he had ordered not to be redialled due to the fact that the remote controlled aerial reconnaissance drone was destroyed nearly immediately upon its exit from the stargate.

After considering the matter he decided that if the stargate was inside a building then that could explain the drone's destruction.

This time Tony decided to send a wheeled remote controlled drone to see what was on the other side before deciding to send a team to this new world.

With the decision made he issued orders to the alpha site to prepare for the reconnaissance mission.

Major Jack O'Neill was annoyed his team had nearly finished its rotation when this priority mission had come through.

He was irritated that his archaeologist Doctor Daniel Jackson was so excited about this mission and knew in his heart that one of his reports had caused his team to have their rotation extended.

So instead of being at home with his wife and new son he was going to another world for god knows how long.

Jack was already plotting his revenge when the stargate started dialling Cimmeria for the first trip to this new world.

At least the Cimmerians were friendly and allowed them to build a staging post for their off world explorations all for the cost of a few shotguns and hunting rifles.

Jack had a bemused look on his face as he watched Daniel Jackson press his face against some Egyptian hieroglyphs he was trying to translate.

He was half tempted to walk up and smack his head against the wall but instead he did what he saw one of the marine gunnery sergeants do and instead smacked Daniel on the back of his head to get his attention.

Once Jack had got Daniel's explanation and the external reconnaissance had shown nothing but desert and a large pyramid they redialled Cimmeria and made a report.

He was sure he would be returning to this desert world of Abydos but not until he and his team had had some much deserved leave.

Major General McPeak, Professor Catherine Langford and Doctor Daniel Jackson discussed the discoveries on this desert planet of Abydos.

Dr Jackson was arguing for a more through exploration of the immediate area around the pyramid as he stated that the pyramid was probably only part of a much large complex.

Professor Langford agreed with Daniel and after Tony McPeak had agreed Catherine present Daniel with her lucky charm the amulet of Ra that her father had found on the 1928 dig.

Catherine was too old to go herself besides she had Ernest to look after.

The government still hadn't found a way to return him to life but they had compensated him by deeded the whole world of Heliopolis to him under squatters rites.

That and his back pay had made Ernest and her very comfortable on Heliopolis.

Sara O'Neill smiled as she watched as her husband playing with their infant son on the rug in the family room.

Even though Charlie was only six months old he squealed in delight as his father blew raspberries on his stomach.

She liked Jack's new secret mission whatever it was as he was around more for her and Charlie.

She and the other military wives had of course tried to find out what their husbands were doing but every single one of them had failed regardless of the means used to try to elicit the information.

What was even better about Jack's new assignment was that it was a long term posting.

He had informed her that they were here for at least the next decade and there was plenty of room for future advancement.

Major Jack O'Neill watched the images of the remote controlled aircraft they has sent up to explore the surrounds of the pyramid while Daniel Jackson and the other eggheads babbled over the Egyptian hieroglyphs written on the inside of the pyramid.

He was about to call the mission a bust when the remote controlled aircraft spotted a native animal.

The remote controlled aircraft followed its tracks back to its point of origin which appeared to be a primitive human settlement with high palisade protecting it from something.

We he now knew there were humans here and the executive order said that they had to be taken to a place of safety.

It was obvious from the images that the primitives were mining something and the conditions from what Jack could see were appalling.

Deciding that he now had orders to fill he went and dragged Daniel from Egyptian hieroglyphs and gathers the rest of ETEU-1 team to go and meet the locals.

Ronald Reagan was in the last year of his presidency and hadn't felt so good in ages.

The Pangarans as a sign of thanks for a limitless supply of Goa'uld symbiotes had given him a supply of their experimental drug tretonin and that along with the beta-cantin from the Eurondans had reversed or halted many ailments that had afflicted him.

His popularity was at an all-time high and the economy was going well thanks in no small part to the military being increasingly self-funded due to the Stargate programs gradual release of patents from technology recovered through the stargate program and the sale of resources.

Future projections even indicate that if the income streams increase the entire military will be self-funding within the next two decades.

But he was very concerned by the reports he had received about those primitive people on Abydos and was glad that the major in charge had decided to initiate contact to try and rescue them from their life of slavery.

For now all he could do is wait for the next briefing to see how this contact turns out.

It will probably set the protocols for first contact for years to come.

Skaara noticed the strangers approaching from pyramid and notified his father Kasuf of their approach.

Kasuf organises a welcoming party and order the gates opened for the strangers and rides out to greet them.

Major Jack O'Neill seeing the approaching natives orders his team to halt and remain friendly while on guard.

He calls Doctor Jackson to the front of the party to help establish communications with the natives.

O'Neill knew something strange had happened when Daniel lent over to get something from his pack and the Abydonians all fell prostrate before him on the ground.

Turning to Daniel Jack asked, "Daniel what did you do?"

Daniel replied, "I don't know, Egeria taught me some of the language but I'm far from fluent.

The all dropped to the ground when the Amulet of Ra Catherine gave me came out from beneath my shirt."

Before Daniel could continue Kasuf clapped his hands and Eteu-1 were escorted into Nagada for a grand feast.

As the feast was coming to a close containers of fire water were passed around and after Daniel had nearly choked much to the amusement of ETEU-1 Daniel was dragged away by many of the older women which caused more laughter from the members of ETEU-1.

After having been given a rough bath Daniel found himself in a room all alone.

He had absolutely no idea what native custom he was an unwitting participant in but his orders were not to offend the locals.

Daniel was still pondering what was going on when the flaps of the tent room opened briefly to admit the most beautiful woman Daniel had ever seen.

No sooner had the flaps swung shut then the young woman started to undress until Daniel stopped her.

Attempting some kind of communication Daniel drew the symbol of Ra on the sandy floor before the young woman who called herself Sha're quickly rubbed it out with her foot.

Daniel spent the rest of the evening trying to communicate with Sha're by pointing to various objects and saying their name getting Sha're to repeat them in her language.

At some point during the night Daniel drifted off to sleep.

When he woke the next morning he was surprised to find Sha're snugged up against him.

His startled jerk woke Sha're who smiled at him before standing and moving out of the room.

Final awake and wondering what the hell is going on, he wandered out of the room and was trying to find ETEU-1 when he ran into Skaara who gripped him by the arms and greeted him with, "Brother!"

The confusion of this form address must have been obvious on Daniel's as Skaara continued, "How is my sister's husband this morning?

Sha're pleased you?"

Daniel thought quickly and realising what had happened was some kind of marriage ceremony and not knowing what would happened to Sha're if he rejected her Daniel replied simply, "Yes!"

Smiling Skaara led Daniel back to the hall where the rest of ETEU-1 had stayed.

All the while Daniel was thinking about what to do.

He didn't know if honour killings were the norm in this society and he certainly didn't want Sha're hurt for not doing her duty.