Chapter 23: An Interlude

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Stargate Command HQ
Area 52, Earth
June 16, 2008
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Major Davis walks into the general's office as he done hundred of time since SGC was formed. The general's desk looks completely clear of clutter. Not that Hammond is an unorganized person. It just that he has lot of paperworks. Davis recognizes that this is unusual. The cordial commanding officer is always buried under paperwork, but not today.

"At ease," the general finally says. Davis fails to loosen up his stance. For him, it's much easier to remain at attention anyway. "You're promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, congratulation."

"What?" He is glad for the promotion but it's completely unexpected.

"Your superb organizing skill and ruthless efficiency has been and continues to be instrumental to the success of SGC. Without you, we would not be able to evacuate the refugees from Abydos in a timely manner, and we would not have moved as hard, fast, and efficient as we like. It's time for you to stop being my de-facto assistant and do something greater."

"What would that be, sir?"

"You'll be the head of the Research & Development division, working with DARPA and other groups. Don't get me wrong. You're not being demoted, it's just that the SGC is expanding rapidly. Returning to your root, so to speak."

"I see, but doesn't that harm the efficiency of the organization if you don't have me as your assistant?"

"Don't worry about that, Colonel. I intend to hold the people in my command to the standard you set for us. Not to worry, if I need you to cut through the bullshit or organize something critical, I'll call for you. You're dismissed and here is your envelope containing all the information you need to set up your team." The general hands over a yellow envelope.

Smiling, the newly minted colonel walks out the office.

-o0o0o0o0o-
Research Complex
New Abydos
June 18, 2008
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From the tallest story in the building, Lieutenant Colonel Davis looks down into the landscape below. From time to time, the air force likes to gaze at a scenery alone. It allows him peace and the ability to think without distraction.

The cityscape lacks lighting fixture. No street lamps adorn any of the utility poles. They are completely unnecessary on a planet in which lights shines on for all hours of the day. But there is a lot of canvas that cover part of the streets, some of which even adorn utility poles, recreating the darkness that humans need to regulate their circadian sleep cycle.

His phone beeps. It's time for Davis to stop looking at the landscape below. Davis takes the elevator to the first floor, where a mini conference is currently being held. Ever since the stargate program restarted, scientists and engineers are hard at work advancing humanity's ability to defend itself from alien threats, laying the foundation with theoretical research, and generally busying themselves with research and development. But that has not been Davis' primary focus for a while. He got recruited by General Hammond to help run SGC in an efficient and effective manner. Now, it's his primary purpose to lead the R&D department. The first thing he did is to organize a conference to find out exactly the state of scientific research.

Sure, he could just read the summaries that his scientists submit, but it's often far better to get the scientists and engineers to present something he can feel, hear, taste, or just experience. This way, he has a better idea of what his scientists are up to and allocate resource more wisely. Presentation of research is not free. It uses up resources that could be spent on jus doing research. But the benefit outweighs the cost. Davis is not the only beneficiary. Far from it. His scientists benefit from cross-pollinating ideas and understanding how their work fits within the whole.

The ride in the elevator isn't long, as the building is only about 10 stories high. The colonel walks directly into the conference. It is crowded and busy, with lot of colors, television screens, lab rats, and actual prototypes. Despite being supposedly only a mini-conference, the eggheads pull out the stop for this one.

The focus of SGC research centers on xenotechnology, spaceships, weapons, and robots, especially the robots. Robots which are sorely needed yesterday because of the lack of manpower caused by the need for secrecy. Thus, robot parts and prototypes liter the conference floor, as if it were a disassembled factory. The building already has an industrial feel to it. There's lot of pipes and electric wiring that hangs out in full view in multicolor, along with the grey steel that form the structure. So, the exhibitions reinforce the industrial atmosphere.

The Colonel, chief egghead of SGC, takes a deliberate stroll so that he can get a better overview of the projects that his scientists and engineers are currently engaging in or proposing.

"Energy Weapon. AK-47 of the future?" Doctor Lee catches the colonel's attention. "Allow this video to demonstrate." The video plays a slow motion video of a flesh wound taking out a chunk of a rhino's body.

"As you can see," Lee continues. "The staff weapon is no joke. It can kill. However, it is a poor substitute for a battle rifle. It has terrible accuracy, range, and firepower. Nonetheless, it has one prime advantage." Lee plays the next video. This time, the video is a time lapse of the staff weapon endlessly firing as time progresses into hours, days, weeks, and then months. "We are still firing this weapon to this day. This is the great advantage of Ra's staff weapon. It uses energy very efficiently, backed by a virtually limitless power supply, what we now know as a naquadah-based compound, the same element that is used in the stargate. Logistics? Who care, as long as you can supply your soldiers with those weapons, assuming that they are easy to make."

"Nonetheless, we still don't know much how the weapon works," Lee concedes. "For example, for an energy weapon to work, it must generate a magnetic field that contains the discharging plasma or else the plasma will just disperse. Though, our experimentation did produce a promising mean of propulsion. " Colonel Davis smirks. Research have a tendency to spin off unexpected questions and unexpected technology. "Another example is that we do not understand how the staff weapon procures energy from the naquadah fuel cell. Such an energy source will revolutionize our technology base provided that we find more of Naquadah to mine and figure out how to use it." Doctor Lee can go on and on about his project, but Davis already understand the gist of it.

He is ready to move on to the next exhibition, but before he could do that, his phone beeps.

"What is it?" he answers the phone.

"We found something new from the new blimp drone," Harriman informs. "You want to see it, sir."

"Is it another bizzaro animal? I can have the biologists catalogue it."

"No, not at all. We found a floating island, sir."

"What?"

"A floating island," Harriman repeats. Ok, New Abydos just got even more bizarre.

"How far is it?"

"Six hundred miles from our location. At the direction and speed it is going, it will be floating above our city in about a month." Davis's smile turns into a frown.

"Trouble in paradise, again," Davis remarks.

"Sir? I thought it would be of interest to you."

"It is very interesting, but New Abydos full of things that want to eat us. That island might contains something particularly nasty. Contact SGC and let Hammond know. Also, we need more troops."

"Colonel Beck is already ahead of you, sir. Plus, he wants an actual airfield."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"And he wants aviation grade fuel from Langara and train tracks, complete with a container yard. An airfield, too. He's already ordering RED HORSE to start on the project."

"Contact the Langarian embassy on Diplomatic Planet Alpha and get a RED HORSE unit there. Let the Langarian knows that we may need to talk to them about a potential trade agreement."

-o0o0o0o0o-
Stargate HQ
Area 52, Earth
A few minutes later
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"...Reports indicate that shipping containers to Area 52 slows down to a trickle in recent weeks..." Hammond reads Rob Littleton's blog. The general jolts down a quick note on his tablet, furrowing his eyebrow and thinking long and hard about what he just read.

Normally, Hammond's staff does all the work of researching and finding secrecy leaks and the bald general signs off high level orders after a brief summary or debriefing. But Hammond has a policy of learning the job function of his staff through doing part of their work from time to time. It helps his command function efficiently.

The blue phone rings. Something urgent from New Abydos. Hammond pauses his work on secrecy leak.

"What is it, Alpha Colony?"

"It's requisition again, sir. Colonel Beck wants to build up in response to an unknown threat. Colonel Davis wants aviation fuels from Langara, as well a logistic infrastructure."

"What is this threat?"

"A floating island that is heading our way within a month." Hammond can only lower his head in frustration. With a quick mouse click, the budget spreadsheet on New Abydos appears on his monitor. Already, it grown an order of magnitude in demand. But the SGC cannot abandon the place. The strange biology that makes the place absolutely terrifying also makes it incredibly valuable. Studying jet equipped flying predators will eventually be turned into something valuable technologically, someday, somehow. The general just hope that the exponentially growing budget will taper off at some point.

"What else do they need?"