THE END OF BEGINNINGS

FOUR

Marcus Van Scott had seen a lot of things throughout his life.  He'd grown up in one of the rougher parts of Oakland, California.  It was a place that inspired him to outrun every stereotype that surrounded his family and his neighborhood.  His career took him around the world, to the places beautiful beyond imagination and the places more scary than any nightmare his brain could conjure up.  They had left him inspired and then equally terrified.  He wasn't sure what to feel now.  He was standing deep underground in a mountain in Colorado staring out of a conference room window into a converted missile silo.  His eyes were fixed on the massive, metal ring in the busy chamber beyond the glass.  This was the first time Marcus Van Scott was getting to see the stargate for himself.
He realized, as he stood alone in the quiet room almost two stories above the silo floor, that he might have set his expectations a little too high.  After spending the last two months reading as many mission reports, memos, and briefings as he could from the Cheyenne base, Marcus had come to expect something pretty fantastical from the place.  He had been waiting to be awe-inspired by the ancient alien technology housed in the depths of the mountain.
The stargate did look ancient.  It's metal body was stone gray in color, like a finely polished rock.  Marcus thought of obsidian fragments he had seen near a volcano in Azerbaijan.  Those glass-like shards were far darker in color, yet the texture seemed identical.  Marcus tried to imagine how much mineral it took to be refined into the gate's functional body.  His brain combed through the portions of files and memos he'd been able to memorize, trying to remember what material the gate was made of was called.  It started with an N.  Marcus was sure about that.  And, it wasn't a mineral found anywhere on Earth-at least, not so far.  Noquah, he struggled to recall.  No.  Naqua?  No.  Ne-whatever, Marcus thought, giving up for now.  He'd try to remember to ask about it later.
His attention refocused on the idling structure and the work going on around it.  Being connected to couplings and conductors that were upgraded relics of twentieth century technology at best, the mighty stargate looked anything but high tech.  There was nothing glowing on its surface.  The raised markings on its inner ring looked like old Egyptian or Sumerian symbols rather than the writings of an advanced alien race.  Even the nine triangles spread around the outer ring were lacking any awe-inspiring characteristics for the former CIA operative.  Despite volumes of classified literature about the stargate, the base, and the program built around it, few-if any-photographs or videos existed.  There was nothing Marcus Van Scott had been able to see to help his imagination understand the powerful artifact prior to his arrival.
"General," a voice suddenly asked from the doorway behind Marcus.  He turned around quickly, his eyes immediately locked onto the slender form of Daniel Jackson.  Marcus had seen Daniel's face before, but only in a picture in the archeologists personnel file.  Marcus had made sure to do his research on all the members of the famous-and infamous, depending on the  political circle asked-SG-1 team.
"Oh, sorry," Daniel said, noticing the stranger in the white, fitted, oxford shirt and dark dress slacks.  The man was the only person in the room.  "I was looking for General Landry."
"Of course," Marcus said pleasantly.  "He stepped out for a few minutes."
"Ah, okay," Daniel said, looking at his watch.  "I guess I'll come back."
"You're Daniel Jackson."
"Dr. Jackson, yes," said Daniel, maybe a little too smugly.  He was already a little annoyed by the stranger.  Well-dressed characters randomly showing up in the base had a habit of making everyone there weary, especially members of SG-1.
"I'm Marcus Van Scott," said Marcus, crossing the room to shake Daniel Jackson's hand.
"Okay," said Daniel, watching himself as he awkwardly shook hands with the man.  Marcus Van Scott had smooth skin.  His hands were no exception.  Daniel detected a scar on his palm and callouses on at least three of his fingers.  The stranger couldn't have been more than thirty years old.  His posture was perfect, his stance and his smile examples of unshakable confidence.  Who is this guy, Daniel thought.  And why is he here?
"Tell me something, Dr. Jackson.  You're an expert on the stargate-if not the expert.  I've been standing here watching the activity around the stargate and I'm very curious...what exactly are they all doing?"
It took Daniel a moment to realize he was absently following the man named Marcus back across the conference room to the observation windows.  Daniel glanced down at the technicians in the gate room.  There were a handful working around the gate, checking its surfaces and components with probes and meters Daniel didn't have much knowledge about.  Actually, he had no knowledge about them.  He trusted the scientists and engineers to know what they were doing.  The others in the chamber were making last minute additions to cargo stacked on top of two long, robotic rovers parked at, and on, the ramp leading up to the stargate.
"Well, some of them are putting supplies for the expedition team onto those transports," Daniel said, not really sure where the mystery was in that activity.
Marcus Van Scott smiled.  "Yes, Doctor, I can clearly see that.  But the others, the technicians and airmen working at the stargate..."
"Oh.  They're making last minute checks and adjustments.  Our technology doesn't mesh as perfectly with the gate as we would like," Daniel explained, looking back and forth between the gate room and the man standing beside him.  "The macgyvered system creates stresses on the gate and our tech.  We're about to open a wormhole to another galaxy.  Imagine dialing a thermonuclear phone.  You'd want it to work as perfectly as it can, right?"
"Ideally," said Marcus.
"If you're looking for specifics on what exactly they're doing, I'm really the wrong person to ask.  I deciphered the symbols to unlock the gate.  Colonel Carter and countless other people way smarter than me were the ones who figured out how to power and dial it."
"Will the gate we're traveling to be rigged up like this one?"
Daniel Jackson turned his head sharply toward the man named Marcus.  "We?"
Marcus Van Scott smiled.  "Yes.  I'll be joining you on Atlantis."
Daniel cocked his head slightly to one side.  He couldn't hide his confusion.  He also didn't try.  "Who are you, exactly?"
"Ah, Dr. Jackson," General Landry said as he entered the conference room, his voice booming softly off the insulated walls.  "Oh, I see you've met Mr. Van Scott from the IOA."
Daniel blanched, looking back and forth between the two men in the room.  "The IOA?"
"Yes," Marcus said cooly.  "The International Oversight Advisory."
"Yeah," Daniel retorted, "know who they are."
"Just making sure, Dr. Jackson," Marcus said politely.  "Anyway, I've been appointed by the delegates to join the Atlantis team for a while."
Daniel furrowed his brow.  "Why?"
"Just to see how things are running with Mr. Woolsey being absent."
"It's only been three months," said Jackson, his annoyance edging on disgust.  "This wouldn't have anything to do with Teyla Emmagen having been put in charge by General O'Neill, would it?"
Marcus held his hands up submissively.  "Dr. Jackson, I'm sure she's doing fine and proving to be a great caretaker of the city."
"But..."
"But the IOA has its concerns."
"Of course it does."  Daniel turned his head to look at the other man in the room.  "General?"
Landry could only shrug his shoulders.  "I'm sorry, Dr. Jackson.  This is out of my hands.  Mr. Van Scott is going to Atlantis."
"I'm only going to observe," said Marcus.
Daniel rolled his eyes.  "I don't think that word means what the IOA thinks it means."  He looked toward the conference table at General Landry once more.  "Anything else?"
Landry shook his head.
"Okay then," said Daniel, walking toward the door behind Landry.  "I'll be ready with the rest of the team, General."
"I think that went well," Marcus said after Daniel had left the room.
"All things considered," replied Landry, "it did."