Washington, DC, Fall 2008
The hearing... hadn't gone well. The Senators yelled at Dr. Rush, Rush yelled at the Senators, everybody yelled at Rush's assistants, and Jack, who was supposed to be "facilitating" the hearing, had just buried his face in his hands. The SECAF had been there at the beginning, but left the room in frustration somewhere along the way.
Jack could have had a much more PRODUCTIVE meeting if he'd had two sockpuppets, one yelling "SCIENCE!" and the other "MONEY!"
"Science!"
"Money!"
"SCIENCE!!!"
"MONEY!!!"
"Your Science costs too much Money!!!"
"I need more Money to do my Science!!!"
... Actually, he HAD done that, and that was a large part of why the hearing adjourned when it did.
Afterwards, Senator Armstrong and his aide -- she was actually his daughter, wasn't she? -- caught up with Jack in the hall. "Listen, General, I'm a reasonable man, but you're asking for a LOT of money, and I'm concerned that Dr. Rush hasn't given us a single good reason for this project."
Jack just shrugged. "He's a scientist, Senator. To him, 'because he can' IS a good reason."
"Then YOU give me a reason," Armstrong countered. "You think this is important. Why? What do you hope to find when you dial the ninth chevron?"
Jack shrugged again, more emphatically. "I don't know," he answered truthfully. "The problem is, Rush doesn't know either. But that's the beauty of it -- we DON'T know. When he says that this could significantly increase our knowledge of the universe... well, sure, he's blowing smoke out of his ass, but it's the truth."
"Well, I..." Armstrong was chewing that over, Jack could tell. And the aide seemed like she was agreeing with what he was saying.
"After all, isn't that the Stargate Program's mission?" Jack added, waxing poetic. "To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before?"
Armstrong rolled his eyes at that and walked away. His aide gave Jack a sarcastic thumbs-up and mouthed "good one" before she followed along.
Still... That was progress, wasn't it?
...Sort of?
Jack needed another vacation.
[NFI, NFB]