The Alpha Gate was the name given to the first Stargate found on Earth, currently in use by Stargate Command.
The Alpha Gate is actually Earth's second Stargate. Earth's original Stargate, known as the Beta Gate, was placed in what is now Antarctica by the Ancients millions of years ago during their original habitation of Earth. The Alpha Gate is, therefore, far newer to the planet than the Beta Gate.
History
The Alpha Gate as used by Ra in the year 3,000 B.C.
Originally brought to Earth by the Goa'uld Supreme System Lord Ra during his reign on the planet thousands of years ago, it was placed in Egypt near the Great Pyramids as a means of transporting human slaves to Abydos. However, around 3,000 B.C., the Ancient Egyptians successfully rebelled against Ra, who was forced to flee. The gate was later buried as a symbol of defiance against Ra after the surviving Jaffa loyal to Ra were herded through it. (Stargate, SG1: "Moebius Squared")
Three years later, the Stargate was unburied at the behest of an alternate timeline SG-1 who sought to use it to raid a prim'ta ceremony on Abydos for a new symbiote for Teal'c. A way was devised to disable the Stargate except for brief periods of time for SG-1 to return. However, when the mission went wrong, the Stargate was not properly secured again while Ra returned to reclaim the planet. The SG-1 of the correct timeline were able to use the open Stargate and the solar observation outpost on Praxyon to follow a group of rogue Tok'ra to the past. When Ra was forced to leave Earth again, he attempted to take the Stargate, but was blocked by one of the Time Jumpers. The intervention of Egeria forced Ra to leave without the Stargate to never return. As SG-1 prepared to return to their own time, they witnessed the Stargate being reburied by the Ancient Egyptians, this time for good. (SG1: "Moebius Squared")
The Stargate wouldn't be unearthed until 1928, by Professor Paul Langford and his expedition near Giza. (Stargate)
The gate remained in Egypt until 1939. Still having no knowledge of its purpose, they feared it to be some kind of weapon and had to prevent the Nazis from getting their hands on it, since they were at the brink of a second World War. The gate was transported from Egypt to the United States of America by the freighter Achilles. The Goa'uld System Lord Ba'al traveled through the Stargate from the future in an attempt to change history by preventing the Stargate from reaching America. However, he was foiled by a Colonel Cameron Mitchell from an alternate timeline who killed Ba'al and his Jaffa with the help of Bosun. (SG1: "Continuum")
Ernest Littlefield steps through the gate in 1945.
In 1945, Langford and the United States Air Force conducted research on the Stargate in the hopes that it was a weapon and even were successful in activating it. However the research was shut down with the disappearance of Dr. Ernest Littlefield after he stepped through the gate. Ernest had actually traveled to Heliopolis where he was trapped until 1997 when he was rescued by SG-1. (SG1: "The Torment of Tantalus")
In 1969, the gate was stored upright in a warehouse located in Washington D.C.. (SG1: "1969")
In 1996, Dr. Daniel Jackson discovered the point of origin symbol for the Alpha Gate and was part of a team, led by Colonel Jack O'Neill to Abydos. (Stargate)
After the mission, the Stargate was stored in Cheyenne Mountain, where it was left untouched until 1997, when Apophis attacked. The Stargate had been inactive for such a long time as it was thought that Abydos was the only possible destination, due to a lack of accounting for stellar drift in Earth's improvised dialling system. The Stargate Program was activated, where the gate was used by various SG teams to combat the Goa'uld. (SG1: "Children of the Gods")
The Alpha Gate as used by Russia.
The Stargate was used for three years. However, when the Replicators took over the Biliskner, SG-1 beamed the Alpha Gate up to the ship, so that they could escape before the ship was destroyed by the uncontrolled re-entry into the Pacific Ocean. However, the Stargate survived, as the Russians recovered it from the bottom of the ocean. The Russians brought the gate to Russian Stargate facility, where they started their own Stargate Program for a while. (SG1: "Nemesis", "Watergate")
Eventually the Russian Stargate Program was shelved after the DHD was destroyed when it was loaned to the SGC in exchange for Naquadah generator technology when the DHD was the only means of saving Teal'c after he became trapped in the gate's data storage buffer. The Alpha Gate was leased to Stargate Command after Anubis destroyed the Beta Gate, in exchange for full participation in the Program and considerable sums of money. The gate was briefly stolen by the Trust using Osiris's Al'kesh with the goal of using it to launch symbiote poison at Goa'uld-controlled worlds, but SG-1 were able to track it down and retrieve the Stargate before the Trust escaped. Finally, after the original lease agreement ran out, the Russians bartered the gate to the SGC in exchange for the Korolev. (SG1: "48 Hours", "Redemption, Part 2", "Endgame", "Crusade")
Alternate timelines
- In an alternate timeline created when SG-1 never returns to expose the NID's rogue operation, Earth is abandoned by her allies and attacked by Apophis. As the planet is destroyed, people are evacuated through the Alpha Gate to the NID's Alpha Site before the base is destroyed using the self-destruct. Ninety-eight years later, the Stargate, which is being excavated, is shown to SG-1 to reveal that they have been on Earth the whole time, the distinctive point of origin symbol proving it for them. A year later after the planet is liberated, the Alpha Gate is restored to operation in the rebuilt SGC, now with a DHD instead of a dialing computer. When the Arbellan President comes to Earth, he arrives through the restored Alpha Gate to be greeted by SG-1. (Stargate SG-1: Apocalypse: Hostile Ground, Insurrection)
- In an alternate timeline accidentally created by SG-1, the rebellion had partially failed as Ra managed to flee Earth and took the gate with him in 2995 B.C.. (SG1: "Moebius, Part 2")
- In an alternate timeline created by Ba'al, he and his Jaffa massacred the crew of the Achilles in 1939. The ship drifted into the Arctic, where the gate remained undiscovered until 2009, when the Russians recovered it from the ocean floor. The Russians set up a facility to study the Stargate which they named Anchor as it was found on the bottom of the ocean. During the Goa'uld siege of Earth, the Russian President revealed their possession of the Alpha Gate to President Henry Hayes and SG-1 was redirected to the facility. Using a small portable DHD provided by Teal'c, they dialed the Stargate to Praxyon and passed through as the facility was destroyed. (Stargate: Continuum)
| Abydos' Stargate • Alpha Gate • Atlantis' Stargate • Bedrosian Stargate • Beta Gate • Dakara's Stargate • Destiny's Stargate • Edoran Stargate • Gate of Mahg Mar • Icarus Base's Stargate • Kallana's Stargate • Klorel's Ha'tak's Stargate • Langaran Stargate • Novus' Stargate • Super-hive's Stargate • Tagrean Stargate • Taranis' Stargate • Tegalan Stargate • Tollan Stargate • Vorash's Stargate | |