Tides Part 5
Conclusion.
Jack was off world. Daniel Jackson was off world. It made sense. That ... well he could understand why without Colonel O'neill it moved to him... especially if they had a ship in orbit... or near enough. There would have been... well not no consequences, but few serious ones to a holographic information at Cheyenne mountain, or even at Groom Lake. Oh base security wouldn't be happy either at the SGC or Area 51, but there wasn't really anything that could have been done... here at the pentagon... well the issue wasn't really the pentagon per se so much as the meeting in progress. "Thank you prelate." He replied weakly. They had the attention of the room including the ambassadors of the three other major nuclear states who comprised the UN Permanent Security Council membership
... and there was the probability that if their satellites had a vantage point to watch the mothership others might well have noticed... even no other satellites had been retasked every moment the asteroid was up there was a chance that someone groundside would see it with a telescope not unlike the one Colonel O'neill had on his roof.
They hadn't seriously considered this scenario. There were no plans or frameworks for this scenario. The Asgard had demonstrated little to no interest in Earth political nuance. The likelihood of a goa'uld vessel showing up in orbit had always been assumed as to be a prelude to invasion.
The raptor exhaled and nodded with great solemnity, "The asteroid will be transported away from your solar system, and official reckonings presented to all appropriate authorities in accordance with the Treaty."
Treaty was the magical word that brought the attention of the ambassador from Great Britain. The French Ambassador, and the Chinese Ambassador also understood, but the englishman was moving on the matter, "A treaty?"
"A certain number of worlds have for various reasons been set aside and placed under the protected planets treaty. The Asgard's planetary representative is absent, but the Dragon has already spoken with the member for treaty arbitration at large."
It was a legalese response.... and Colonel Kennedy was likely already weighing the likelihood that they might be able to get through this with just aliens are real, and that they'd known about it. That aliens were a known factor, would also explain a Russian Liaison at NORAD. They had been directed that disclosure of the stargate should only be done if it was deemed necessary, that exact discretionary disclosure had been left ambiguous as how and who should make the call of what was necessary.
It was probably an intentional pitfall to foist blame if something went wrong, cynical as that consideration was. The NID was opposed to a number of proposals that might be perceived as compromising the US national security position... whatever they were quantifying that as at any given time.
"The Asgard," Chekov straightened, 'They have been contacted, will we see some form of response or will just let the matter be?"
"The Asgard envoy has referred matters to higher counsel, I suspect that the final decision will be to convene an investigative body in several months of an equal number of representatives aimed at establishing some process to prevent such a problem in the future."
"I see." Chekov replied, "Yes, that makes sense."
The alien had the attention of the room, almost, but not quite to the exclusion, of the spaceship in the feed from orbit. The Ambassadors had already apprised their governments several hours earlier about the asteroid... and in turn presumably the the dispersion of that information had begun to trickle down to the strategic services, to space and missile forces, and civilian scientific apparatus in order to look for an answer.
"Excuse me," The Chinese ambassador was eyeing Chekov, "I do not wish to misunderstand, but the implication which I take from this is that, bluntly that the United States, and the Russian Federation have been aware of Alien Intelligences for I assume some time now."
Kennedy cleared his throat, "That's-"
"We were informed, yes. In 1999 the Treaty was amended to allow earth to be added. As the name implies it protects the planet." Chekov shrugged trying to play it cool.
The prelate nodded, "Indeed."
"And this inquiry, to prevent this from happening again?" Hammond pressed glancing to the ambassador, all too aware that sooner or later this was going to trip, and spill over into the nature of the galaxy at large... he was surprised that the mention of the Asgard hadn't lit any light bulbs.
"The object in question, extra solar in origin was cast by Anubis, in violation of the treaty. Its mineral composition, and content are evidence enough of foul play, though that by itself would not be enough to ascertain guilt. However, the Dragon maintains sufficient vigil over the treaty worlds to detect hyperspace travel in their proximity." There was another ripple of light, and the hologram of the raptor was joined with a projection of the milky way, Pinpricks of light from uncountable numbers of stars dimmed as the planets of the protected planets treaty were highlighted against the backdrop of territories ruled by individual system lords.
The ambassadors had no frame of reference for the size... the distances involved. One of the first programs the stargate had stood up for permanent off world installations had been looking for worlds in proximity to earth to detect ships approaching the planet by hyperspace. Those plans of course had been scrapped at the realization of the complexity involved, but this underscored the significant FtL velocity of a modern capital ship.
--
Oskyld smiled and rested his chin on his knuckles, and then with his other hand waved the report away. He wasn't surprised that the Air Force had not disclosed the existence of aliens, even just denying Roswell, and the Asgard crash there had become so institutional... and of course they could hardly admit the reason for the disappearance for the majority of the scout ship crash had been that they didn't know what had happened to it. The Asgard had collected much of the debris, it wasn't unlikely that they had missed some, but a transporter sweep tended to be very effective, but the humans of the time likely had no frame of reference... and he doubted the modern Air Force had given it real further consideration even after dialogue with the asgard.
The Russian knowledge of the Stargate, and of the goa'uld was interesting. The goa'uld wouldn't care about the nuance of a multi polar planetary nation state affair. The protected planets treaty didn't care who, how or what administered the ground side matter. Earth's lack of single planetary government was irrelevant... unless someone attempted to bypass the treaty by playing one against the other.
"Direct the humans I will station a handful of defensive platforms here as an interim solution," Which would be a trivial expense compared to the naquadah he'd be able to recoup from the bolide... and those same stations would give him a much more clear picture of Earth's political developments as it played out.
"And Hammond's petition?"
"that will have to await a board of inquiry." He replied. Nirti a fugitive, Cronus involved in a war... Yu Huang Shang Ti was the only system lord of the previous comittee to available. Olokun and Ishkur were both possibilities to sit on any committee. No, the bigger concern would be seeing who among the Asgard would join Thor, assuming that Heimdall and Freyr didn't simply cede their votes as they had done last time. Oskyld paused and gold eyes glittered, "Tell the assembled humans that I will insure that the matter will be addressed on the solstice," The longest night of the year, he was tempted not to send a magic bauble to hold that, but decided his word would be sufficient.
"And the rogue's attack?"
"There is nothing the Tauri can do to meaningfully impede Anubis, we will deal with him in time. They embarrass him most by living well."
The prelate bowed, "It shall be done," and returned to the orrery to relay the word.
The ambassadors of the three other nations hadn't yet been able to inform their host countries, but tracking suggested the French space agency had turned one of their telescopes to look towards objects closer than it was normally looking at. He hadn't identified any obvious British signs, but by this point the chance of ground observation of Harvest was over and estimated fifty percent, and presumably some ground observatory had observed the asteroid, if not the spaceship.
Oskyld rose, "If you're quite finished eavesdropping..."
The beach bum stepped out of the recesses of the archway, "Do you intend to stop Anubis?"
"I am not his mother," he replied turning luminescent eyes towards the sandy blond brown haired man, "And I have no intention allowing his medaling in my own projects."
"The goa'uld have failed to demonstrate an ability to replicate the technology with them, at least not effectively. You're changing that."
"Information is not knowledge. Just because you know something doesn't make you intelligent. I appreciate Ptah actually works to understand what he knows, and can only hope enough of the maturing ones will follow that course."
"They're directing hundreds millions of worshippers your way certainly doesn't hurt."
"It doesn't hurt, but I don't require it either." Oskyld replied, "Why are you here?"
"There are people on this planet that are important to me." ... ah the Asgard might not have been in a position to do anything, but apparently not everyone had been keen to let it just lie. "I wanted to say, thank you."
"It is nothing. I have made an agreement. The Asgard's inability to act does not change that the bargain was made. Will you visit your human friends and tell them?" The other man was gone, as the archon's hologram appeared, "Ulfrikr have you had time to review my proposal?"
The asgard nodded. "The council is unlikely to support cybernetic modification without extensive study before hand." a pity, "But the biological studies, and gene sequencing does I admit seem promising."
--
Notes: And in the next chapter we get the revelation from Sam going confirming Oskyld is not Sokar, with this confirmation that the shipbuilding machinery is gate builder in tech base, very recently built gate builder machinery.
