Goa'uld are feudal. The fight between Heru'ur and Apophis will end with one of them dead, but most of the other goa'uld who survive to that point will be given the opportunity to bow to the victor. At that point, if we haven't supported the victor they might well decide to pay off their supporters with our space. We need to have done enough fighting that the victor will feel obliged to negotiate our submission instead.
"I believe that figure can be improved within a relevant timescale."
Ah, the joy of having specialised in logistics rather than military fields.
He frowns. "How? Labourers can only work so fast before the errors become unacceptably frequent. Even if I move trained jaffa crewmen to construction duty, these figures will change little and our fleet performance will suffer drastically."
"Provide them with better tools."
I shudder to imagine what they're using
now.
He tilts his head slightly to the side. "Better..?"
"Much better."
In other words, closer to the
modern age than pre-Renaissance... Which has its issues.
He stares at me, his eyes flaring for a moment. "That is a risk. If we were discovered, the other System Lords would use that as a rallying cry to crush us utterly. And that is leaving aside how unruly the humans would become."
"I have long believed that a more technologically advanced level of human civilisation could be maintained without sociological collapse. My original plan was to experiment on Syrania, on the grounds that I could kill the rebellious human population with a viral weapon easily enough if I was mistaken."
I worry that even if that wasn't his original plan, he's been drinking the kool-aid long enough to consider it valid...
He looks curious. "Is Lord Bastet aware of your actions?"
"She is not unaware of them. It is a gradual process and I have not yet breached Ra's laws."
To be fair, once System Lords reach a certain level of power, the laws become more like
guidelines.
He considers out logistics plot, and then shakes his head. "Even if we throw out those laws immediately, it would take generations to educate them sufficiently."
I nod. "True, but I… Believe that I could acquire sufficient devices to speed up the manufacturing process without the need to fully educate the workers on their function."
Tools simple enough that 'point here, press this' is sufficient for them to use them? That has its own risks. Usually the sort whose visual footage would often be accompanied by a '
Liveleak' logo, once upon an Internet age.
"From where? Your own wrecked ship? The fleet Ra granted you, whose ships even now fight for Heru'ur?"
"It is no great secret that Ra did not use jaffa for his armies. He… Was less than rule-abiding in other ways, as well. Heru'ur had little enough interest in where the ships he fought with came from."
That is an interesting way to resolve the visual difference between the movie guards and the TV versions.
Nonsense, of course. Oh, I'm sure that Ra had better construction technology than he was sharing with the System Lords, but I'm going to be making whatever machinery we need with the ring.
"What will acquiring that cost?"
Heh. Only a matter of time, a few asteroids and some
privacy...
"Cost? With Ra dead I'm probably the only one who knows that such devices exist. The only question is, how much does our production need to improve for the difference to be significant?"
He presses some buttons on the tactical computer, and with Am-heh's help I'm truly astonished at how inefficient goa'uld techniques are.
Don't tell me they're building their ships by
hand, with hammers and nails?
Surely they'd use
some measure of advanced technology.
"We would need to increase production by two hundred percent in two years. By which I mean that at the end of two years we need three times as many ships as we would have had otherwise."
"Hm. That should be possible. Mechanical drills to improve the output of the miners, ground penetrating radar to locate new seams of minerals, plasma smelters to increase refining speed…"
See, that's more like it. He with the better manufacturing will win the resource war. ...Just look at
World War II...
And thanks to Am-heh I just know this stuff. I see where the goa'uld attitude comes from. Modern humans might be able to understand goa'uld technology well enough to use it but every goa'uld knows how to make just about everything their civilisation ever developed. Compared to us… Them, humans are a bit slow. Even advanced humans from worlds like Earth.
I access the computer myself and feed in the timelines and improvements. Crystal production appears to be the bottleneck now, but even allowing for a margin of error 200% doesn't look like it will be that hard.
I saw that little 'Us...
Them,' Paulmon. Remember, you are
not one of these people, regardless of your act.
The difficulty will be in convincing the others to go along with it.
Mahes sighs.
At least on will, by the looks of it. And with his help, you can convince Bastet, who can order the rest to fall in line.
"That will work. Can your spies locate a source for new crystal forges?"
"They haven't yet, but I can make enquiries." I give him a sidelong glance. "You could sound happier about it. Are you seeing a risk that I am not?"
Presumably the crystals are one of the few things he
can't easily reproduce. Interesting. Because of exotic materials, or an exotic process the Ring can't duplicate?
"I like war."
"You'll get a war. You just have to wait two years instead of jumping right in."
And you'll have the advantage going in. Never go into a fight with less numbers than your enemy.
"I will live with my disappointment. Enjoyable as conflict is, it is better to win."
I offer him my right hand, and after a moment's hesitates he.. clasps my forearm.
Jolly cooperation! ...With a tyrant who's part of an oppressive empire. Still, things can change.
"You do realise that Bastet sent us in here as a test, don't you?"
He frowns curiously. "Who else would she send? You were the one arguing against my proposal."
Not a test of skill, one of
character.
"Exactly. The mouthiest underlords get sent to work on a plan. If we can't get along, she could berate both of us and take whatever course she wants. If we can, she gets a better plan and no one argues about it."
He looks mildly irritated as he releases my arm. "I don't care for that sort of thing."
"Oh?"
Politicking not to your taste, Mahes? Understandable from a soldier.
"I've served under dozens of different gods in my life. When I was much younger I was more politically aware, always… Scrabbling for the slightest piece of influence or power, retaliating against every slight. Now? I stick to fighting. It's what I enjoy and what I'm best at. Lord Bastet respects that, and so do the other underlords. But you…" He eyes narrow. "I don't know what you want. I know of the Lord Mammon of old, but he could not have killed Lord Am-heh so quietly. What has happened to you?"
Less stress, less problems. A good way to live... If it weren't for the fact it's built on the backs of your people.
"Two hundred years, Lord Mahes. Two hundred years, trapped under a crashed starship, under a mountain. I had to rethink a great many things."
"Such as?"
Ah, really deepening that fake background story, Paulmon. Nicely done.
"What happens next time we have to fight the Asgard? It is fortunate that they do not consider our treaty to have been invalidated by Ra's death, because we have no one who is his equal. No Supreme System Lord to unify us. We know so much, understand so much, yet those few of us who truly innovate hoard what they build to themselves and all others would be more likely to kill them and destroy their work than attempt to copy their example."
Ooh, that
is a good question. The
Grey boys may be higher tech, but they're less potent overall due to cultural prerogatives and stagnation... But if they're roused, they can make one hell of a mess..
"You have examples, I assume?"
"The helmets we give to jaffa. Ra designed them originally, but did you know that his own have a number of features he omitted from the version he shared?" He looks curious. "Starship control systems are the same. He and Ptah, and… Me, in the old days, got the good stuff. Everyone else got the dumbed-down version. What do I want? I want us to be the glorious shining gods we deserve to be, eternal, powerful, terrible. We could do so much and we actually do so little. We disappoint me. And if living up to our potential means dragging the jaffa and humans up to where we are now, then so be it."
Though hopefully nudging them into a more
benevolent fashion in the long run. Also, it sounds like you're paraphrasing the Emperor.
He grins. "You're a madman! But from the sounds of things you will at least be entertaining." He thinks for a moment. "Do you know where I might find some of the fully functional helmets?"
"I might be able to lay my hands on one or two. And I might be able to trade them to you."
Sidetrip to Abydos, perhaps? Or has he got a few hidden away in his wreck?
"In exchange for what?"
"I would like to borrow one of your Second Primes, and a squad or two. I have some thoughts on how our doctrines could be improved, and I would like to test it with them."
He doesn't hesitates in nodding. "I look forward to hearing what you discover with them."
Doctrines that focus on 'fighting to
kill, not to scare'? Or things that would be considered 'dishonourable', like ambush and covert operations?
