Chelska, the land, the nation, is not a happy place. A hopeful one in some ways, but not really a happy one.

The long, narrow valleys nestled in between steep lines of mountain peaks, the highland lakes surrounded by barren scrub, and the nearly immovably thick coastal jungles all conspire to make that a geographic reality. But even worse than that, they have fought somewhere between four and six battles for their very existence in living memory. First, against the Dwarves, a vicious revolution and war of independence. Second, the sudden revanchist fury of their northern neighbor, at a time when they were still struggling to build a shambling mockery of economy, and there was perhaps one factory in the entire nation that could build something large and complicated. And to add to that, the western Goblins' manic decision to join in on the fun and try to claim some of the mountains, hungry for minerals. After that, the Blood Mire. Necromantic, possibly vampiric, cultists of some sort, unleashing the horrible built-up magical miasma of the world's first glimpse at modern trench warfare, creating a living sore in the world that only bred more monsters, the very terrain warped. And then just as they were recovering from that, a heroic effort that saw new industries, new weapons, new preparations just in case something happened again, the largest superpower in the world started launching bombing raids and threatening invasion. It was another long, drawn-out conflict, with the crude giant hammers of anti-aircraft guns and chemical-engine biplane fighters with only the barest half-functional magical shields unable to do much against the keenly enchanted death machines of the enemy. But eventually, this too became too expensive for Glitterdawn Vale to continue pursuing uselessly.

So at this point, they are rather done with looming threats and existential danger to the ideals of Communism, common ownership for common good.

When the mysterious device is located, the coal mine is shut down immediately, and specialized research teams very slowly, very carefully excavate and examine it. Passive only. They don't know enough to determine how it works, though they do manage to guess that it's a gateway or portal of some kind after extensive study. Innumerable passive scans and experiments revealed it to not be of Dwarven make, as was first guessed, nor any recognizable make at all. And there is no active magic, no energy of any kind, really. Active experiments were officially forbidden at the highest level, unwilling as they were to potentially accidentally unleash a horror to rival the Mystifying Miasma (though Glitterdawn still claims that 'an unknown actor' released it, only for them to heroically contain it...)

As far as Comrade Velkon, the Glorious Leader, was concerned, it was just a lump of metal that might do something horrible one day, and only a few thousand people ended up even knowing the specifics of the mysterious find; The coal mine was shut down for "ground stability" concerns. There is a small garrison assigned to keep people out of the coal mine and keep a watch on the thing. The place used to be rig to explode and collapse Just In Case, but at some point the dynamite was removed- Probably for the Glitterdawn War. All that contains it, now, is a couple dozen incredibly bored conscripts, two spooks in the know enjoying a vacation supervising them, and a lot of concrete and steel barricades, barbed wire, vault doors, and so on.

From the gate, a machine will exit. It doesn't seem to have anything resembling a weapon, unless a mechanical arm counts. What will it observe?

A long coal seam tunnel, dimly lit by a glowing red light above a rusty steel door in the distance, with tank traps and barbed wire laid out to prevent access except by a narrow man-sized path.

Lights! Steel door! A somewhat-advanced civilization!

They will send through the MALP, at max volume settings because there doesn't seem to be anyone in the room.

"Hello? We come in peace, this is our unmanned reconiscence drone, is there someone we can talk to? You can answer by speaking into the drone."

A young man peeks through the door, swears vehemently in something vaguely Greek-like, and slams it shut again.

The robot will move slightly to the side of the device, and will stay in this state until exactly 38 minutes since the activation pass, after which the device will shut down.

If nothing happens in that time, the device will activate again the next day.

They've taken apart the robot a ways down the shaft. And outside the mine, a lot more half panicked support and material is starting to gather. It's only been a day though, so not much yet.

There are guys with guns looking at it this time though. They look something like old bolt actions, but weird.

After they fail to get the telemitry off the MALP, they will send another one!

This time there are people! They will repeat the message.

Some foreign muttering.

"This is Chelska. You speak Elf, so we don't have a lot of trust to extend. We'll talk if you don't try to break the perimiter."

"We would like to arrange a diplomatic meeting, so we don't have to talk through a MALP, and we would only ask for you to guarantee the safe return of anyone who comes, and you can ask for your guarantees."

The probe's camera will look around the room. "Eh, also, there doesn't appear to be a DHD in sight, is there one present at all? It looks like a pedestal with buttons, and a blue sphere in the middle, should be near the gate."

(When Chelska dug up the gate, there wasn't one).

"The excavation records are classified. I will have to wait to hear from my superiors regarding diplomatic guarantees. We do have another... Malp. We were unsure if it was a threat and disassembled it. We are very interested in these devices."

"MALP isn’t a threat, it’s a reconnaissance probe that we use to make sure the gate destination is safe. You can have the one you disassembled, as a token of goodwill. Though if you also take this one we will assume you don’t want to talk, and won’t send any more through”

”We can schedule another dial, to give you time to ask your superiors. Would a day be enough?”

So they can control when it opens. Lovely.

"I will have any relevant guarantees and a diplomat available by then. They will be sent with high priority. What or who do you represent? What is your purpose in coming here? We regarded this object as an unknown and a potential threat, and it appears correctly so."

"We are explorers. We come from a different planet. This device is called a Stargate, and enables travel between planets. It has the potential to be dangerous, but I assure you, we bear no ill intent, and should we reach an agreement, we might help you with security considerations regarding it."

"We thank you for the gift to common knowledge. Is the Stargate liable to explode or create other mass damage? Emit foul poison or necromantic energies? Should we evacuate the whole valley, or just the immediate area?"

"The gate itself mostly isn't dangerous. Do not stand in front of it during activation, do not enter an incoming wormhole or the backside of one. Energy and radiowaves can be transmitted both ways, but matter - only from dialing to receiving gate. Explosions are known, but don't happen unless a gate is a target of a specific attack, and the only such weapon we know about was destroyed. You can monitor the amount of energy in the gate casing to look for abnormal buildup, if you're worried about it."

"Main potential threat from a Stargate is an adversarial party or device coming through. But if your gate was buried for a long time, it is unlikely, until you make yourselves known to the galaxy. We won't reveal your existence to anyone until we have a chance to negotiate."

"We are not interested in another new war front. We just finished the last fucking one..."

"You can bury the gate again, but you will be losing valuable opportunities. We can provide to you security measures against gate-intrusions, and establish trade relations, both between us and with other people of the galaxy, potentially share technology."

"We will have a diplomat tomorrow. Will you be coming through? Shall we prepare a meeting area?"

"Yes, that would be helpful."

"Any specifications?"

"Not particularly."

"Very well. What now?"

"If you have conditions for our diplomatic party, you can state them now. If you won't be able to find a DHD, we would also need to bring through a power source and a control device, to be able to dial the gate out. We can assure you of its safety."

"One moment, I will discuss with my superior."

The guy leaves for a bit, comes back after a couple of minutes.

"Our primary condition is to not attempt to leave the mine or find things about outside of the meeting area until we have more understanding of what is going on. We will also enact a scan for weapons. We will not harm diplomats who do not take aggressive action, we will return them if they act in good faith, though if they take the opportunity to perform espionage or sabotage like other Elves we have met, there are no guarantees. Assume that you will need to bring those things over."

'Not attempt to find things about outside' is concerning, but workable.

"Very well. We will dial again next day."

The guards stand there warily until the thing closes.

It does indeed close!

And, the next day, opens up again.

"We are ready to send a party through. Have you been able to locate a working DHD, or should we bring our equipment?"

The tunnel has been renovated! Somewhat. The walls and floor are smooth now, the dust and malaise in the air is gone, it's pleasantly warm instead of dreadfully chilly, all the rusty fortifications have been moved back some to allow a sturdy wooden table with plenty of plain wooden chairs on both sides to sit a few meters in front of the gate. There are metal standing lamps illuminating everything, without any cords.

A very tired looking middle-aged man in a brown and black military uniform is sitting at the table, as well as a younger man in a nicer vest-and-jacket sort of thing. There's also a young woman in a simple dress, with a rough notepad and a pencil.

"We have no means of returning you."

"Alright, we are coming through."

And a party of five will come through. In front, a woman, clearly a civilian.

A man, visibly military, though not carrying a weapon right now.

A man with a look of extreme arrogance, holding a small device in his hands.

A woman, less clearly identifiable.

And a man who looks like he can wrestle five people at a time, carrying a black plastic case.

"My name is Dr. Elizabeth Weir, and this is Lt. Col. John Sheppard, Dr. Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan, and Ronon Dex. I welcome you on behalf of my people."

The woman starts writing.

"I am Major Tresso Valdir," the military uniformed man says. "To my left is Mr. Ernest Udaloy, a representative of the interests of Chelska. To my right is Mrs. Casso Agonosila, she is..." He frowns. "...Meeting writer. She will write what we say, for reference."

"Hello!" Ernest Udaloy smiles and stands to perform a short bow. "We are pleased to make peaceful contact with another nation, even in an unexpected way. While we have reservations, we have great hopes for this meeting as well. It is unfortunate that this language is an invitation to discord."

"We are pleased as well." She will mirror the bow, and take one of the chairs, with the rest of the party following.

"May I inquire, what is troubling with the language? So far we've observed it to be a common language in most of the galaxy, which is surprising in itself, but it appears it has some additional baggage here?"

"It is the language of the Glittering Meadow, those that proclaim themselves lords of all. They are responsible for wars and atrocities. We have numerous disagreements."

"Huh. What is your language then? Perhaps it will be familiar to me, and may be useful if your people are discomforted by English."

"Chelskan. Named for the... Land area, more than the nation we have formed in it."

He proceeds to speak several generic sentences. It sounds... Sort of like a weird patois pidgin of Greek and a lot of random other Slavic-family languages? With a bit of Arabic, maybe.

She's fluent in Russian and Arabic, knows a fair bit of Greek. Can she understand it? Speak it?

She can mostly-sort of understand it. He's saying things like 'this is an example sentence' and talking about breakfast (potato soup). But there's a lot of potential for misinterpretations. Speaking it would be pretty ugly.

"Thank you. It is similar to some of the languages I know, and while I don't think I could speak it just from that similarity, I look forward to learning it properly."

This is very unlikely to be complicated Wraith or Genii plot by now, faking a language really doesn't sound like either of them.

"Let us begin then. I am from a planet called Earth, which is located in another galaxy, and I am the leader of an expedition, sent to explore this galaxy and make contact with the people here. We posses considerable technology, but limited resources. I believe we can establish mutually beneficials relashionships between our people."

"We do have resources. And you do have interesting technology. However for now I believe we should get to know each other, our priorities, our goals... Do you represent all of Earth? We represent the people of the Chalk Valley and surrounding mountains. The Chelskan Common Union is formed to serve the people."

"I represent Atlantis Expedition, which is under the oversight of international committee, containing representatives from most nations of Earth." 

"Exploration, you say? And yet you mentioned Resources almost immediately. These first moments are the most difficult, especially when we have no other way to learn more."

"Yes. Our expedition does have a strategic objective as well, but revealing everything so early would be unwise. If you are worried about us subjugating other people, I can assure you that we possess neither the intention nor capacity to do so. We can discuss what we can do to proove our intentions to your satisfaction."

"That is our primary worry, yes. We must be cautious. The world has not been kind to Chelska in recent years. I would see what proof you would offer without specific request?"

"Proving a negative is hard. We can give some of your people a tour of our city, and some of the planets we are in contact with. We can provide you with some defensive technology, though we will need to know more of your world before giving anything that can be used offensively. We can outline the current situation in the galaxy, and while you won't be able to independently verify it until you can use the stargate yourself, you can see whether it fits together."

"I think we would be interested, but would take some time to find the right person to take such a visit, to evaluate everything properly. We're a bit hesitant to offer something similar to you because in the past, major disasters have occurred due to single malicious actors. Perhaps something could be arranged under escort, though."

"We would be interested in learning more about this world, when it can be arranged. Would you like us to describe the outline of situation in the galaxy now, or should we discuss trade opportunities? There are things about the galaxy that you should be discussed today, but they shouldn't affect our initial negotions."

"If you intend to warn us about great dangers upon the horizon, let's do that first."

"That is a fairly apt description, very well."

"Let me start at the beginning. Around five million years ago, a race we call the Ancients, who inhabited Earth at the time, suffered from a great plague, that consumed the whole galaxy. Some of them decided to leave and come here, in a city-ship called Atlantis. They built a network of stargates, and seeded some of the planets here with human life - we don't know exactly why, but that's a thing they did back in our galaxy as well. In this way, they lived for many generations, until around ten thousand years ago. In their confidence, the Ancients missed a growing threat - a species of insect found on one of the planets has been feeding on humans, and slowly transforming into a hybrid species called the Wraith. They can feed on human 'life-energy' - we don't understand the process exactly, visually it looks like people getting old at a rapid pace, but medically it's different. When the Ancients learned about them, they tried to exterminate them, but their first attempts were overconfident, they allowed some of their ships to be captured and Wraith had numerical advantage. The war raged on for hundrends of years, and eventually the Wraith controlled most of the galaxy, leaving Atlantis as the only remaining Ancient outpost, under constant siege. The Ancients abandoned the city, and used the stargate to get back to Earth."

"Since then, the Wraith were the dominant force in the galaxy. They treat humans as food source - allowing them to breed while the Wraith hybernate, and then performing Cullings, taking away most of the population. If any civilization develops to the point of threatening the Wraith, they are wiped out of existence. We believe your planet hasn't encountered them because they don't know you exist - your gate was buried for a long time, and they won't be trying to get to unreachable stargates many times."

"A few years ago, we uncovered an Ancient outpost on Earth, containing the location of Atlantis, and mounted an expedition to explore it and the galaxy. We had an encounter with the Wraith, in which they learned some information about Earth - importantly, because Earth has never been culled, its population is many times that of any planet known to them. Since then, they've been trying to reach it. Fortunately, they have neither the location of Earth, nor a ship capable of crossing the distance between galaxies. They have also made attempts to destroy Atlantis."

"And so, we are currently at war with the Wraith. Their numbers have been greately diminished since their war with the Ancients, but they are still a formidable foe. As long as location of your planet is a secret, they should not come for you, and I intend to guard it as safely as the location of Earth. We can't ask you for your support in the war, but we hope you will understand our position."

"We are familiar with those who use life as fuel," the Major snarls in fury. He pounds the table. "Our very nation was founded on an uprising against those who used the blood and life of slaves to enrich themselves further! The Ironbones were driven out with blood and fire. The war was terrible, we were reduced to living in shacks using broken roads and crumbling bridges, and only the Bull's steel-clad guts pulled us back together again with a carefully planned economy. Fighting against such an awful foe would be in the interests of Chelska."

The diplomat frowns at the military man, but doesn't contradict him. "I must agree. If the Wraith are as described, they are the foe of all right-thinking people. If, our observers report that what they learn is consistent with this, there will be much work to do."

Ronon responds with a smile and a satisfied chuckle to a Major's speech.

Well, that went well, if in an unexpected way.

"We appreciate your bravery and enthusiasm. Should we move on to discussing potential trade deals?"

"We are most interested in technologies, since the gate seems difficult to use for bulk resource transfer- Unless a train could be run through it? We have some engineers who were available on short notice."

"Osmium," the diplomat says dryly, "Is very useful for certain special applications, we value it more per weight than gold. I would like to keep the discussion confined to potentials until we can send an observer and have them report back, as well."

"The gate is not very suited to bulk transfer, but a significant quantity of material can still be transported."

"As I'm sure you understand, we are disinclined at this point to offer technologies or resources that are likely to be useful for offensive purposes. I'm certain you would have appreciated this precaution if the stargate happened to be located in another country's territory. We can offer medical assistence - in medicine, knowledge, and technology."

"We're not sure what of our technology is going to be applicable to your current state of knowledge, but we do possess a lot of knowledge in material engineering and various other fields that we may be willing to share."

"I would like to know more about 'special applications', but that can be negotiated."  

"It is no great secret on this planet. Osmium is very valuable for shielding against magic."

"Magic."

Rodney fiddles with the tablet in his hands, looking increasingly annoyed over the course of the meeting.

"I believe there's some langauge issue. Can you say what 'magic' is? Also, is the rock around here radioactive? Please tell me it's not radioactive."

"Magic is the use of energy known as mana. Recent advances have enabled it to be effectively industrialized, and there is great promise of further development. These lights, the ventilation systems, and so much more... Either magic or steam to power it all. I'm not familiar with the term Radio."

Someone with purple skin runs forward from the party hanging back by the door. "Radio is a kind of light! I don't think there's a lot of radio light here, no."

The Major glares. The diplomat looks resigned. "...This is Bost, the engineer I mentioned. Bost, I believe we wanted to do more confirmation first before introducing you."

"Hi!!" Bost ignores that comment, and grins and waves eagerly. He- She?- Is four foot nothing, long pointy ears, sharp teeth, purple skin and deeper purple hair, and carrying an improbable amount of tools. "Those copper motors on the thing are really interesting!"

Uh. What.

"Nice to meet you, Bost."

"Uh, Rodney, what is going on?"

"Okay, checked MALP readings again, the place doesn't seem radioactive. Sorry to do this in the middle of the talks, but can you tell me a bit about what 'mana' is, and whether it interferes with electrical systems?"

To Elizabeth - "My equipment's breaking down - both the tablet and the MALP, though the dialler seems fine. Looks like radiation wrecking memory, but nothing out of the ordinary on MALP sensors."

"I don't know any way to define mana other than as raw energy, or perhaps excitation of the ethereal field if Gaspodan's theory is right! High excitation can definitely cause all sorts of unpredictable effects including sparks and lightning! I can bring in the Osmium plates and smash together a flattener if you want to try that!"

"I think further experiments can wait, but we would like to gain understanding of magic, if you will consider it a safe trade. Anything else we should discuss?" 

The Major seems a bit more cheerful at their seeming incomprehension of magic.

"Much like you, we will have to consider carefully what knowledge of magic we trade. It too has potential for potent offensive weapons that we would not necessarily want going to unknowns."

Rost frowns. "Does that mean-"

"We'll talk later. Medical technology seems like something that would be more difficult to use to make things worse, for example."

"Very well. Then we can move on to the question of the stargate. We are capable of providing you with devices and knowledge to operate the gate in its normal functionality, but that is a major decision that affects your whole planet, and also the rest of the galaxy. I would like to know more about the political situation before making that decision."

"We can, however, provide you with the ability to dial Atlantis, a limited power-source for the gate, and security measures under your control."

"We currently intend to heavily fortify the area against any possible intrusion. Seeing Atlantis should be the next matter, aside from perhaps a discussion of medical technology."

"Very well. You can perhaps send someone with the observer party to also have a conversation with our medical officers about what would be the most valuable trade."

"Will recording devices be permitted?"

"Yes, of course…"

"Ah, there might be a problem. If they are based on magic, I’m not sure they will work anywhere besides your planet."

"We haven’t observed anything like your mana anywhere else, it seems to be specific to your planet. If they have their own power source, it might be fine, but if they rely on whatever mana seems to be doing to the environment, it’s going to be tricky."

"Most magical equipment is powered by crystals or by personal mana. It may be prudent for us to prepare shielding to prevent contamination, if you... Don't... Have mana at all."