Franklin Roosevelt welcomed Indy into the car as if he were an old friend despite the fact that they had never met before. The president of the United States even pulled a little information out of thin air, “you know my uncle spoke of you once. You went on one of his little safari’s I believe.”

Indy shrugged that one off as well. Earnest Littlefield was actually surprised by this revelation to the point of almost being sick. He whispered to Indy, “is there anyone you don’t know?”

Now it was Indy’s turn to be taken by surprise. Another man in the room stood up from where he had been sitting comfortably. He pulled the pipe from his mouth and walked over to Indy where they shook hands. He had a thick German accent as he said, “the President has told me a great deal more about you Doctor Jones.”

Indy eagerly shook the man’s hand, “I’m sure they’re all lies Doctor Einstein. Believe me, when I say, the pleasure here is all mine.”

FDR settled back in a spot that was obviously for his chair. He had a horde of files sitting to either side as well a night stand that held his more personal effects, one of those items being a martini. He picked it up and took a sip before asking, “I’m told they call you Indiana or, Indy for short.”

“So they do Mister President,” Indy replied with hat in hand.

“Good,” FDR replied in a warm and friendly way, “now that I know that much about you I’m going to speak a bit more candid than what you’ve probably encountered up till now.”

Indy motioned to Ernie Littlefield, “well if you’ve talked with Doctor…”

FDR waived the man off, “we’ll get to the Stargate in a minute.” Indy felt surprised at how casually the president mentioned it and he must have showed it because Roosevelt went right on with, “yes I know what it’s called and, more important, I already know you do as well. Have a seat Doctor.”

They were all sitting when the President continued, “Indy, being that you are the man who has brought back several of a growing number of artifacts that are, shall we say, unusual in nature, you should be the last person I need to tell this too.”

Indy nodded and replied, “if you’re talking about the ark of the covenant, mister President, I’m still a little peeved that it was snatched right out from under the museum.”

FDR also nodded and replied, “as you well should be Indy.”

Ernie’s jaw dropped, “ark of the bloody… where the hell did that come from?”

Indy mumbled, “long story.”

FDR said it anyway, “it was found not far from where your ring was discovered Doctor Littlefield. It’s also of no great concern at this moment since it is quite safely out of anyone’s hands and, forgotten about once more.”

Indiana could not help himself when he gave the President a nasty stare. FDR did not back down from it, “yes Doctor Jones, I’m the man who ordered that thing buried again. The military has it shelved somewhere out in Nevada and even they don’t know what they’ve got. I’d personally like it to stay that way.”

Jones sat back and opened his hands as if asking for the entire world to be given to him at once. The irony was that he was not so sure that really wasn’t what he was asking for here, “so what’s your interest in Ernie’s ring? I’d think you might want to bury it as well.”

“The thought had crossed my mind,” Roosevelt sternly replied. “The problem is that events have now transpired that leaves us with little alternative, we can’t just forget about that ring now. As you may or may not be aware, several of my Generals, George Marshall being foremost on that list, has been convinced for some time that the ring was a weapon. That’s exactly why we got it out of Egypt when we did. It took a bit of doing and the British weren’t very happy about it but, at the time, they had little choice in the matter since they already owed us way too much.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Indy responded, “what did they charge us for it?”

FDR was extremely candid and much more so than Indy had expected, “their turning of a blind eye is going to cost us plenty. We’re going to be calling it Lend-Lease. Congress might not agree with it but, given what we know I really don’t care. Doctor Jones, do you have any notion of what all these objects really are?”

“Speculation Mister President,” Indy replied. “I don’t think anybody can really know. Not if we can’t study these artifacts at any rate.”

Up till this point Einstein seemed to be rather content to sit in his high back chair and puff away on his pipe. Now he calmly put forth, “there is only one thing they can be Doctor Jones. The great ring has brought us direct evidence now. There is no longer any speculation.”

“To put it simply Indy,” FDR said with no small amount of confidence, “they’re alien devices, little green men from mars.”

“I have to admit I wondered that myself,” Indy told them. Then he asked, “you said you have direct evidence. What evidence?”

“You’ll find out Doctor Jones,” FDR told him. “For the time being, the reason I had you drug into this is not just because Ernest here has told me enough to convince us that you are not a security leak. You are also a man of many talents that make you quite indispensable to what we are going to attempt to do.”

Indy wondered greatly about exactly how much Ernie had said. The fact that the president didn’t seem to know all of the details about how the gate got out of Africa, spoke volumes about that. It meant that Ernie had managed to conceal at least something. How long that would last was yet another question that Indy had to worry about now.

He told the president something else though, “I’m afraid I don’t follow you Mister President. I’m just a University professor and…”

“Oh come now Indy,” FDR told him. “I’m getting too old for beating around the bush. You’ve personally brought in several artifacts that we have now classified as objects of interest. In that whole business with the ark, I read that you actually, single handedly, wiped out an entire convoy of nazi’s in the process of recovering it.” FDR actually chuckled as he went on, “I’d have to say, I wouldn’t want to get caught cheating on an exam in your classroom.”

“All right Mister President,” Indy replied being a little more open, “what is it that you think I can do?”

Ernie had finished processing what he had just heard and with astonisment he blurted out, “did you really bloody well do all of that?”

Everyone ignored Ernie as FDR went on, “it seems that our shaken Doctor Littlefield here was right and that General Marshall was wrong. The ring is not a weapon or, at least, not of the kind we usually think of. It is a transport device and, right now, we are attempting to figure out how to turn it on. From what we’ve been told, it might be impossible at our current state of technology but, I’m not one to give up so easily. I’d like you to be apart of that operation Doctor.”

Indy took a deep breath and then said with an easy smile, “where do I sign?”