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POV: Arthur Sinclair.
With a click, my helmet connected to my suit and I stepped through the Stargate. Instantly, I was met with the blackness of space. Activating my EVA pack, I moved out of the way of the gate as the people behind me began to walk through as well.
Waiting on the other side of the gate were several hundred large steel beams. Most of them had already been welded together to form the beginnings of a structure. Of course, this work had started less than a day ago. Over the course of the next week, this station's frame would be laid out. After that, work on the pressure hull would begin.
That wasn't what I was here for though. I was here for the first test of my automated mining rig. The first prototype had been created in orbit of Kaelastrum, and it had even seen some use there, but it was discovered that the Kaelastrum system was rather lacking in significant heavy metals. The system mostly contained rare earth elements, actually, which was a rather unpleasant surprise. It meant that we would be even more dependent on an external industrial base than we already were.
So, the second automated miner would be set up here in the Voragine system. Just a couple of days ago, an asteroid rich in Naquadah had been jumped into orbit of the world. Now, we just had to set up the mining apparatus.
My new perk has been an incredible boon. The blueprints provided by my first perk were already a font of knowledge. Now, my fourth perk allowed me a modicum of understanding on the actual concepts behind how each of the blueprints worked. The difference was stark; At least for a lot of more basic technologies, I could actually improve them, rather than just reuse and copy them.
So, after a few hours of thought, I had an idea. I would build an entirely custom set of Gravitic Pushers for the fighter's propulsion system. That's what we needed the Naquadah for. The vessel had officially been designated XJF-01 (Experimental Jump Fighter One).
The Death Gliders were the most basic of Goa'uld vehicles. They were designed specifically so that the only crystal based part that the vessel needed were the computer systems. The main thrusters for the ships didn't actually require any sort of crystal based technology. Just some incredibly intricate applications of hyperspace physics.
So, I turned back and watched as the parts for the mining rig were brought through. The concept behind this miner was the same as with most large scale modern mining devices. It slowly gouged out the surface, picking up all the debris and sending it to a location where it would be processed. This was different in that it used large magnets to collect all of the loose dust and debris. From there, the raw ore would be transported back to a primary holding container which could then be taken to a smelter.
I had no doubt that the machine would work, even on heavier ores. Now my main issue was that I needed to create a Smelter. That would be my next big project. Though now that we had the constructors up and running, I doubted it would take more than a week to actually build one, and once I had one of them, making more of them would be a walk in the park.
Now our main issue was that we were starting to run out of Compads to use for system control, and that was more than a small issue, unfortunately.
I turned to the distance. I couldn't see it, but the Pax Magellanic was definitely watching us. I'd looked over the reports and video we'd gotten from her, and she seemed remarkably sane for a 25,000 year old Warship AI.
I turned back to the task at hand; assembling the constructor. It would likely take a couple days, but after that we'd have plenty of raw resources.
- - -
Two days later. Mycena.
It was strange, coming back to this world. More than just being strange, the very air itself was off. The Serkha were rushing about in a rather uncharacteristic manner. They were all clearly excited.
I continued forwards until I stood before Arktos. He smiled down at me. "Welcome back. Are you ready to begin?"
I smiled and nodded. "I am."
Without any hesitation, he turned around and we began to walk. Just behind several of the Ha'tak class vessels, all landed in a field in perfect order, were nearly a hundred Al'kesh bombers, twenty Tel'taks, twenty two Cheops, and several hundred Death Gliders. All of them just sat there on the flattened ground.
It was… a LOT of ships. That wasn't even mentioning the nine other Ha'tak, seven of them now behind me, and two on other worlds.
With a deep breath, I approached the nearest landed Al'kesh and began slapping the vessels' hulls. I didn't stop as more and more information flooded my mind.
First Perk Activated. Complete Blueprint Acquired: Al'kesh Bomber
Al'kesh Hull, Neural Interface, Subspace Field Initiator, Goa'uld Medium Hyperdrive, Hyperdrive Computer, Medium Gravitic Pusher, Al'kesh Ion Engines, Medium Subspace Field Distorter (Cloak), Medium Shield Emitters, Al'kesh Staff Cannons, Al'kesh Plasma Charges, Al'kesh Naquadah Generator, Subspace Sensors, EM Sensors, Goa'uld Transport Rings, Al'kesh Inertial Dampeners
On the sixteenth Al'kesh, the final pieces of the blueprint were filled in and I finally stopped. I grabbed my bottle and chugged down what was left of the water within.
Taking a deep breath, I nodded. "Now the Tel'taks." After a short walk, I began on the smaller transport shuttles.
First Perk Activated. Complete Blueprint Acquired: Tel'tak
Subspace Sensors, EM Sensors, Goa'uld Transport Rings, Tel'tak Naquadah Generator, Tel'tak Inertial Dampeners, Tel'tak Hull
I already had several parts of this blueprint from when we captured Enyalius' fortress, so I only needed to go through six of the craft to get the rest of the blueprint filled out.
I turned my attention to the Cheops next, and with a deep breath I began going through these vessels as well.
First Perk Activated. Complete Blueprint Acquired: Cheops Troop Transport
Cheops Hull, Pel'tak Control Room, Cheops Computer Core, Cheops Subspace Transmitter, Subspace Field Initiator, Large Goa'uld Hyperdrive, Hyperdrive Computer, Large Gravitic Pushers, Cheops Ion Engine, Large Shield Emitter, Death Glider Docking Bay, Cheops Naquadah Generator, Goa'uld Large Subspace Sensors, Cheops Navigational Sensors, Goa'uld Transport Rings, Cheops Inertial Dampeners, Cheops Landing Supports, Goa'uld Life Support Systems, Cheops Maintenance Decks, Cheops Living Accommodations
As it turned out, getting the full Cheops Blueprint just required 20 of the craft. It was interesting looking through the ship's blueprint. It was clear that the vessel was supposed to have weapon emplacements along the hull, but this variant of the vessel simply didn't have them.
I asked Arktos about it, and he was rather surprised. I theorized that the vessels had once been used as proper warships, but had since been replaced with the Ha'tak. Something to ask Egeria about.
Rather unfortunately, something else came to light with the appearance of the Cheops Hyperdrive blueprint. It wasn't optimized for Stealth. If any of the Cheops entered Hyperspace, it would immediately give itself away.
Finally, there was just one more type of vessel left. My attention turned to the Ha'taks that stood nearby.
First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Ha'tak Mothership
Hyperdrive Computer, Goa'uld Capital Grade Sensors, Goa'uld Capital Grade Subspace Transmitter, Ha'tak Self Diagnosis Systems, Ha'tak Naquadah Reactor, Capital Gravitic Pushers, Capital Inertial Dampeners
As I walked around the ships, I was surprised by how complex they really were. They were warships after all. If you made them too simple, they wouldn't even work. Nonetheless, the scale of the ships and the complexity behind them was almost overwhelming.
With the unfortunate news regarding the Cheops class vessels, I returned to Kaelastrum. The location of the to be constructed Academy had been prepared, near the edge of the plateau. The chosen area was a hexagon with sides 10 kilometers long. In total, the area was just shy of 260 square kilometers.
The current plans for the capital of Kaelastrum was for it to take up an area of less than 100 square kilometers. It might have been overkill to provide so much space for just an academy, but we had a LOT of space to use, and no reason not to.
I entered the current office and found Elder James working away at a terminal. I knocked on the wall once as I entered. "I've finished up with the Goa'uld vessels."
The Elder turned up to me and nodded. "How did it go?"
I took a seat across from the Elder. "Well. I have bad news though. The Cheops will be detectable through the same method as the Ha'tak."
The Elder sighed and nodded. "We'll have to go with Plan B then."
I raised an eyebrow. "Plan B?"
The Elder nodded. "Fling them into Deep Space with a Stargate until we have a way to transport them at FTL speeds. In a few days, you'll be assigned to work on removing the FTL drives from all of the Ha'taks. We can't risk someone activating one of the Hyperdrives and giving away their position."
I blinked at him. "I have a lot of work already."
The Elder turned back to his noteputer. "I am aware. Unfortunately you are currently the leading expert on the design of both the Ha'tak and Cheops class vessels. You'll just need to plan out how to do it, the Serkha will take it from there."
With a weary sigh, I nodded. "Understood. When will that begin?"
"Eight days. Everyone is rather busy with the elections at the moment." I nodded and stood back up. "If that is everything, then I'll be on my way. I need to complete work on that smelter device."
The Elder seemed to hesitate for a moment, before he asked a question. "Arthur, how far away is Kobol from the Colonies?"
I raised an eyebrow. "Well, as far as I remember, Earth – the Cylon Earth – was 2000 light years from Kobol and 2000 light years from the Colonies. Why?"
"Egeria has claimed that the old name for Terra, during the time when the Goa'uld Empire had control of the world, was Kobol."
I raised an eyebrow. The timeline didn't quite make sense in my head, but Egeria would be the one to ask. She had been on Terra during the time when it was basically the capital of the Goa'uld Empire.
We stared at each other for several long moments. "Arthur, what other very powerful immortal humans are supposed to be on Terra?"
My brain shut down for a moment. "You mean the perpetuals."
The Elder inclined his head once. "Do you think there is a connection between them and the Lords of Kobol?"
I furrowed my brows. "I don't know. I only know of three perpetuals that were alive before the first millennium. The person who would become the Emperor, Olanius Person, and Erda. There were definitely more of them, but those are the names that I remember. There were a few others mentioned later, but they were all born well after the 4th millennium."
Elder James pursed his lips. "Guess."
I shrugged. "I'd say that it is a safe assumption. It is also possible that the Lords might be Lanteans who returned from Atlantis."
With a deep sigh the Elder nodded. "Well, I'll let you know once Egeria has decided to tell us more."
I nodded and stood up. It was time to get back to work. The next project would be completing a working smelter.
- - -
Twelve Days Later.
I stared on as the first large cube of ore entered the smelter. Suddenly, there was a massive power spike. Before it dropped back down. I looked on as out the other end of the large machine came an ingot of a silvery metal.
I turned to the person beside me and he began to disable the power connections into the machine. Once he was certain that all the power was disabled, we entered the safe room with the prototype and approached the ingot. I could feel the heat radiating off it, so we made sure to stay away from it while it cooled down.
On the far side of the machine, I removed a small tank that had been sealed as soon as the naquadah atoms had been separated from their collected molecules. Luckily, the tank wasn't hot. I removed it from the side of the machine and handed it over to one of my assistants. "Get that to the people over in the DoME dropship. I want to know what byproducts we're dealing with."
He nodded and ran off. We waited another twenty minutes for the last of the heat to radiate off the bar, before I tried picking it up. Unsurprisingly, it was entirely too heavy for me to move on my own. Luckily, we had a cart nearby to move the thing.
I ground off some flecks of the rather soft pure naquadah, and after running some tests I was able to confirm a purity of at least 99.99%. If that wasn't a success, then quite frankly, I didn't know what would be.