Starborn Smith [Massive Scifi MultiFusion / Celestial Forge]

[Mastersgt]

They will start worrying about it, but it isn't an immediate concern. At least not for a few years. Even in the worst case, someone can be thrown into Stasis for a bit for healing.

Click to shrink...

While it may not be an immediate concern for the Jaffa with Goa'uld Larva already, what I was more concerned with was their kids, who NEED a Larva implanted the moment they start going through puberty because their immune system shuts down.

 

[Mcalgar]

I may have missed something, but why would they be worried about procuring larval goa'uld for the serkha? In the show, the reason it was a problem was that all known queens (after Egeria's death) were allied with the System Lords and obviously wouldn't be handing out larva to rebel jaffa. I don't see how that matters since they have Egeria, a goa'uld queen, who can in theory start producing larva. Which would also (eventually) increase the Tok'ra's numbers. Sure, it'll probably be more than a bit awkward to tell her that they need her to start popping out larva, but it's not like they don't already have a solution to the problem. Was there was a reason she can no longer produce larva that I missed?

 

[BlazingHyperion]

While it may not be an immediate concern for the Jaffa with Goa'uld Larva already, what I was more concerned with was their kids, who NEED a Larva implanted the moment they start going through puberty because their immune system shuts down.

Click to shrink...

That is a very good point. For some reason, I remember the episode where Teal'c's son was going through the process. I remember Teal'c not wanting him to go through with it, and for some reason, I thought the Immune System only started failing once the Symbiote had entered the body.

I may have missed something, but why would they be worried about procuring larval goa'uld for the serkha? In the show, the reason it was a problem was that all known queens (after Egeria's death) were allied with the System Lords and obviously wouldn't be handing out larva to rebel jaffa. I don't see how that matters since they have Egeria, a goa'uld queen, who can in theory start producing larva. Which would also (eventually) increase the Tok'ra's numbers. Sure, it'll probably be more than a bit awkward to tell her that they need her to start popping out larva, but it's not like they don't already have a solution to the problem. Was there was a reason she can no longer produce larva that I missed?

Click to shrink...

This was the other reason that they weren't in a Hurry. Egeria is planning to start having more kids. The chances of a Prim'ta successfully bonding with a host are something like 50/50 that they both die or both survive. That is to say, the Serkha need new Prim'ta, and Egeria needs the Serkha to help raise her kids.

There is a very good relationship possible there.

 

[BlazingHyperion]

Author's Note: This chapter was written using text from the Stellaris paragon_1_l_english.yml file, which is part of the Stellaris source file. Certain lines are copied directly from the game file.
- - -
POV: Marcus Novak.

Through the camera, the room was full as we watched on as a syringe filled with a clear liquid was injected into a strange blob in a petri dish. As the syringe was pulled out and placed in a case to be sterilized, the blob seemed to bubble slightly before it began to fall apart.

A cheer filled the room. It had taken months of work, but we had finally neutralized the bacterium. As everyone started popping out the alcohol, I exited the room and prepared to send a message to James.

That the man had asked me to call him James really went to show how much he had changed.

- - -
One hour later.

I sat in the temporary presidential office. Just a few days prior, the elections had wrapped up. It was a close election, but Ariston Pyrros won the position of president with 42% of the vote. In second place was Elpir Stavrou with 36%. The remaining 22% was split about equally between eight other candidates, with third place getting 3% of the vote.

So, Ariston Pyrros became the first president of the Republic of Kaelastrum, and Elpir Stavrou the first vice president. A location for a bureaucratic center had been set aside, but there were still weeks of planning and design before construction would begin.

With me were the new president, vice president, and Ma'chello.

Ma'chello nodded. "Alright, tell us what you've got."

I smiled. "We have finished neutralizing the bacterium that was gifted to us by Astrocreator Azaryn. The thing is a marvel of biology. It could theoretically be directed to take any shape, and take in any material. Frankly, if we had a few decades of time and a few thousand researchers, this bacterium could lead to fully organic buildings, not to mention automatically regenerating ships."

The president raised an eyebrow. "I was under the impression that this gift was a test of some sort."

I nodded again. "It most certainly is. It will take decades of research and development before we can make anything truly viable. That we could neutralize it within just a few months was only really because of Arthur cheating. It would have taken twice, maybe three times as long to solve the problem if it hadn't been for that."

The President nodded. "Then how do you wish to proceed?"

"According to Arthur, the Astrocreator will have another test for us. If he is correct, then solving this one will be easier than this first test." I responded immediately.

He nodded. "Alright then. Your mission is approved. Good luck."

I stood up. "Thank you."

- - -
Twelve hours later.

I stepped from the Stargate and once more arrived in the clearing of Azaryn's Vivarium. I was once more amazed by how incredible the inside of the ship was. In fact, I could barely even tell that I was on a ship at all.

Standing before us once more was the Astrocreator herself. She spoke the moment my eyes turned to her. "Have you neutralized my gift?"

I nodded once and produced a sealed container, which I handed to her as I approached. "We have."

She looked down at the small vial before carefully unsealing it. I nearly jumped back as she let the normally toxic bacterium into her hand. "Wonderful! I appreciate and applaud your efforts. Now, I have another question."

The bacterium literally dissolved in her hand, disappearing into thin air. I watched on in fascination, as did the others who had come with me. It took me a moment before I caught myself and returned my attention to the Astrocreator. "Please ask away."

She smiled and opened her mouth. "To escape death, would you take the life of another?"

I responded with a shrug. "That depends; I wouldn't hesitate to remove a parasite that was killing me, but I have faced death multiple times to save the life of another human."

She seemed to be surprised by his answer. "You would? Please explain."

I smiled bitterly. "I may be a scientist, a researcher before anything else, but I am also a soldier. It is my duty to follow orders and to protect those who depend on me. If I can save another life with my own, then I have died for a good cause. In the same vein, I would also kill an enemy to save someone else if the situation presented itself."

Azaryn seemed particularly fascinated by the concept. "I am afraid we will have to continue this conversation at another time. Before my next query, I have another gift for you. It is a Rafflesia Azathea, a type of flower, native to my ship. I challenge you to make it bloom."

Behind us, the Stargate dialed once more. I raised an eyebrow but shrugged‌. "Thank you for the gift. Hopefully, we won't be gone so long with this one."

She nodded as we left through the gate.‌ "Farewell for now."

- - -
The Next Day.

We had spent several hours ensuring that the plant was in the correct type of soil. From there, we spent several more hours taking cellular samples and analyzing the plant. It was unlike anything ever seen in any Star League record.

When a small current was driven through a cell, it was absorbed without seemingly any change. It was as if the energy had just disappeared.

With that as the starting place, we began ramping up the current. We only realized that we were missing something when the entire output of the Claymore's 650-rated fusion engine produced no detectable effect at all. The amount of power that had been shoved into the flower was enough to vaporize an entire mech if it was funneled through the ship's defenses. Instead, we got absolutely no response.

When we inspected the bud, we could not find any difference at all.

We all sat around the conference table. The room was silent. Someone at the back of the room spoke. "Maybe we can borrow the reactors from one of the Ha'tak?"

We all turned to stare at him silently. He seemed to squirm in his chair. I let out a sigh. "Does anyone have a better idea?"

Everyone was quiet. I let out another sigh. "Alright. I'll see what I can do."

- - -
POV: Arthur Sinclair.

As I connected the sixth cable, I stepped back. "Alright. Check the connections."

A few moments passed before I heard someone yelling behind me. "It's connected. Get yourself over here."

I exited the hall and entered a nearby room. Inside, a dozen people were staring at a display.

Major Novak, on the other side of the room, spoke. "Alright. Begin the test."

With the flick of a switch, the displays on the wall burst to life. Absolutely massive quantities of energy began flooding into the bud. We all turned to look at it, and it was as if nothing at all was happening.

After almost 10 minutes, there had still been no noticeable change in the flower itself. Finally, Major Novak spoke. "Cut it off."

Upon examining the flower, it was determined that it had indeed begun blooming, but with the reactor from a single Ha'tak, it would take almost 2 years for it to reach full maturity.

The major looked exhausted as he turned to me. "Arthur, can you connect a second reactor?"

"Sure? I'd need approval to do so first."

Two hours later, sure enough, I was hooking up a second Ha'tak reactor. The results were not great. An increased power input definitely increased the speed, but it was nowhere near enough. It had probably shaved a couple of months off that two-year time frame. Even worse, a linear increase in power did not result in a linear increase in growth speed. Even attaching all seven Ha'tak reactors would only decrease the needed time to maybe a year and a half at best.

The major and all of his team looked devastated. Luckily, I had an idea. "What about the Dyson Shield?"

They all turned to me as I continued. "We don't know where the energy for the Dyson Shield comes from. If it produces excess energy, then it could probably force the flower to bloom in a short few days."

Major Novak frowned. "Why weren't we doing that before?"

I shrugged. "We haven't needed the power for anything. I can't guarantee that it will work, but we could probably go look at the emitters."

- - -
Four hours later.

I whistled out loud as I looked at the values shown on the display. As it turned out, the shield itself had an energy cost equivalent to 0.2% of the star's total energy output. That is to say, the Dyson Shield turned 99.8% of the energy the star released into usable power.

I felt confident in saying that was more than an actual Dyson Sphere, since those would produce a lot of infrared light, and likely required just as much energy for maintenance. Now, the main issue was actually finding out how to direct the energy to a place where it could be used.

Of course, the best way to go about this was to leave it to my first perk. I made sure to copy the maintenance schematics for the shield onto my compad and then hopped into a Tel'tak to take me down to the small hangar within the structure.

The entire emitter was shaped similarly to a candlestick. The base of the machine was only 30 kilometers across, while the main shaft was barely 500 meters in diameter with a height of 50 kilometers.

Of course, ‌relatively speaking, compared to even just the size of the Star Hold, let alone the Ringworld itself, the entire thing was pretty small. Despite that, it likely rivaled some DoME megastructures in sheer mass, if not purely in size. The Star League's Department of Mega Engineering had built some truly gargantuan solar arrays for terraforming inhospitable worlds. Some of those had diameters in the hundreds of kilometers.

We entered one of the half-dozen hangars that littered the entire facility. The inside had been pressurized for me to check out, so with a gentle tap on the wall, my first perk activated.

First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Cybrex Dyson Shield Generator. Energy Emitter

That was… pretty simple. The power was transmitted to a few locations, including the Star Hold, and a few receivers that were on the Dyson Sphere.

I got back onto the Tel'tak, which took me to the other generator.

First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Cybrex Dyson Shield Generator. Emitter Controls

That's what I was looking for. I got back into the ship and had my pilot take me back to the Stargate. After a quick walk, I was once more back with the good people from DoME. "I can get it to work."

A cheer filled the room. Of course, it wasn't quite that simple. Now that we actually had an official bureaucracy, I needed confirmation from someone higher up. The new president quickly signed off on the project, and before I knew it, I was making my way to one of the Power Receivers.

I had downloaded the information on the facility from the Starhold Databanks, so with the DoME researchers and the bud in tow, we approached the massive tower that pointed out of the surface towards the sun.

Using one of the larger hangars, we all entered the facility to find it completely devoid of any decoration. Luckily, we knew where we were going.

It took us just a few minutes to find one of the strange rooms through which the power was routed from the tower to the rest of the Ringworld.

In reality, the Ringworld could operate with just the power it received from the sun directly, but the extra power certainly didn't hurt. Though with the knowledge of the inner workings of the Ringworld's Environmental Maintenance Systems, I could say that these were not originally part of the structure. The EM systems had been cut away around the structure to fit it in.

With help, I disabled the power to the room and, using newly manufactured Naquadah wiring, I connected the bud. It didn't even take that long, which was a massive weight off my mind.

Once we were sure everything had been properly connected, and ran some connection tests, everyone left the room. Using only cameras that had been placed as far away from the flower as possible, we watched as I hit the button.

Instantly, the cables seemed to snap, as the massive magnetic field that was induced due to the massive current pulled on all the magnetic material within the room. Luckily, they had all been tied down sufficiently to prevent any damage.

For two long minutes, it seemed as though nothing was happening. Finally, someone seemed to have noticed something. "It's gotten bigger."

Opening my compad, I compared the images, and sure enough. The bud had grown ever so slightly bigger. I gulped and turned to the major. "How much power is that thing taking?"

The major looked rather pale as well. "About 2000 times the output of a Ha'tak reactor."

I shuddered. That was… absolutely batshit insane. It wasn't even close to a fraction of a percent of the overall production of the Dyson Shield, but it was far more energy than we had access to anywhere else. Over the next four hours, the bud slowly opened up to reveal an absolutely beautiful red and yellow flower of not inconsiderable size.

The stem itself was already a meter in height, and this flower was almost as wide. Luckily, the cylindrical structure that had been used to keep it contained was actually large enough to prevent it from getting squashed.

After 10 minutes of inactivity from the flower, we finally cut off the power supply. The Major turned to me. "Thanks for the help. There is no way we would have been capable of opening her up without you."

I nodded. "Absolutely. We needed to get an understanding of the Ringworld's power generation at some point. It's good that we figured this out now rather than in an emergency."

We began packing up. The flower was wheeled off while I began inspecting the Naquadah wires. Naquadah was an absolutely insane wonder material. This wire could conduct an absolutely massive energy flow, and as far as I could tell, it resulted in no flaws or breaks within the material itself.

While the intermission had been fun, it was time to return to the XJF project.

- - -
Author's Note:
So, the researchers don't have a regular powersource capable of making the flower bloom, so they have to use a power source that is several thousand times over-kill (power-wise). 2000 Ha'tak reactors is not even a fraction of a fraction of a percentage of the total energy output of a star. If anyone knows how I could explain that better in the story, then lemme know.

Chapter #65 was out yesterday on Discord, and the return to the Inner Sphere has finally begun. 65 itself is still technically in the Deep Periphery, but its within the sphere of influence of the Inner Sphere, so I'm going to count it.

If you wanna read it, then join at this link: [ LINK: https://discord.com/invite/dbVKfqYw5T ]

 

[Mastersgt]

So... the MC never got a Blueprint for the Flower?

 

[Trek]

Flower is bio probably why he didn't get a blueprint.

 

[BlazingHyperion]

So... the MC never got a Blueprint for the Flower?

Click to shrink...

Flower is bio probably why he didn't get a blueprint.

Click to shrink...

Nope. He should have. I'm just an idiot. Will fix immediately.

 

[BlazingHyperion]

- - -
POV: Marcus Novak.

I stepped through the Stargate and once more into Azaryn's Vivarium. Behind me, the Rafflesia Azathea was wheeled through the gate on a trolley of sorts. The Astrocreator's eyes shot open in surprise. I smiled. "We had to use some rather drastic measures to get her to bloom, but here she is."

The Astrocreator's surprise seemed to morph into glee. "I'm impressed you were able to apply the required amount of energy to induce it to bloom. The Rafflesia Azathea sure is an interesting plant, wouldn't you agree? Evolution truly is a wondrous thing."

I raised an eyebrow. "We were under the impression that it was an artificial creation."

The Astrocreator gently shook her head. "No. Quite natural. It grows at the top of mountains and collects lightning strikes. It takes decades for the flower to gather enough energy to bloom under normal circumstances."

The Astrocreator turned away from the flower and nodded. "Come, we have some things to discuss."

I followed her on a short walk into her home, where we both took a seat. The Astrocreator began the moment I had sat down. "Would you sacrifice your own kind if it meant you could save lives elsewhere, on a massive scale?

I let out a sigh. "I don't know. If it were just two or three people for the lives of millions, then I probably would, but more than that and it gets blurry."

She frowned. "Guess, then. If you absolutely had to choose, would you?"

I was silent for a moment, but I already knew my answer. "No. I wouldn't. I don't think most people would."

Azaryn nods sympathetically. "Indeed, it is not an easy thing to do. I appreciate your honesty. It is my belief that for the betterment of all, intelligent life must always give precedence to the selfless choice."

I raised an eyebrow. "I don't agree. It isn't the purpose of everyday people to consider such things. That's what leaders are for, and in times of war, that is what soldiers are for."

Azaryn smiled once more. "An interesting viewpoint. It is a shame I had not contacted a militaristic race such as yourselves before. They could have offered much insight. I have one final question for you. Would you hesitate to remove a threat?"

I blinked. "If it were an immediate threat? No, I would not."

The Astrocreator smiled in response. "I agree. Decisiveness is vital, but some situations require extra consideration. What if you do not know whether something is a threat? Unfortunately, one does not always have the privilege of extra time. Decisions must be made, and a moment of deliberation could be the difference between success and failure."

I smiled bitterly. "Decisive action is just as likely to get one killed as a moment of hesitation. It's just usually a much slower death."

Azaryn is quiet for a moment. Then concludes, "Well, I have asked you enough questions. You possess admirable patience. I will take some time to collate this information. Give me a few days, and I will contact you again."

I raised an eyebrow. "Before you presented your gifts, we were actually hoping to hire you to help with terraforming a unique world."

Azaryn smiled. "Give me a few days. We will have time to discuss this in depth then."

I eventually gave up and shrugged. Azaryn saw us back through the gate. As we left, I asked a rather important question. "Would you like to have the flower returned?"

She smiled lightly. "No. It is a gift. It would be uncouth to request it be returned. I will tell you this: the flower can be coaxed into releasing the energy poured into it."

That changed a lot. It meant that the flower was effectively just a battery… or a bomb. "Explosively?"

Azaryn smiled this time. "No, it will just slowly release the electrical energy poured into it."

I let out a slight sigh of relief while I nodded once. "Thank you for the gift."

- - -
POV: Arthur Sinclair. Two weeks after the completion of the first Universal Smelter.

The Smelter had been a great success. Our main issue was with the secondary products. The device ripped molecules apart into their base components. The issue was that it struggled to separate away lighter elements such as oxygen, carbon, and (most importantly) fluorine. So, these elemental atoms would immediately form random bonds, and many of those with fluorine as a component were quite toxic.

For now, the consensus was that we'd just dump all of it into space. As long as everyone had a spacesuit on, these byproducts were totally harmless. Long term, however, that was incredibly wasteful. So the plan was eventually to create a chemical factory that could convert these elemental atoms into more stable forms we could use for later projects.

Now, we had about thirty smelters that were constantly taking in material and outputting pure Naquadah. We also had plans for aluminium, titanium, copper, germanium, molybdenum, silver, tungsten, and gold.

All of this led to our current issue. At our current rate of development, we would start running out of computing devices. That would put a full stop to any continued industrial plans.

There were three ways to remedy the issue. The first was to produce a machine capable of producing computing devices. Likely some sort of circuit etcher. The issue is that such a device would take many months to create. In terms of sheer complexity, it would be above even our current Jump Fighter Prototype. This would be our long-term solution. We were not currently at a point where we had the resources for such a project.

The second was simply to wait until the fleet reached the Inner Sphere, and then purchase compads en masse. That was currently our medium-term solution, but the fleet was still five and a half months from reaching the Inner Sphere.

That's where the third option came in. We try to purchase electronics from the Pax Magellanic. The High Guard Glorious Heritage Class Cruiser, the Pax Magellanic being one of the earliest vessels of the class commissioned, was loaded with extensive production facilities. According to the history we had purchased from the Curators, all vessels of the class could produce their own ammunition (including so-called "Smart Ammunition"), replacement hardware for the Ship's AI, and attendant small craft.

So, the next step was finding out whether I could use Systems Commonwealth computer tech. So, before me were the thirteen flexis that we had taken from the Garuda Class Slip Fighters.

First Perk Activated. Complete Blueprint Acquired: Systems Commonwealth Flexi. Systems Commonwealth Translation Software, Flexi OS, Nanopixel

The Flexi comprised quadrillions of nanoscale robots, which operated together to form a computer. Each of the Nanopixels was an independent computing device, but when you connected enough of them together, you could get an easily scalable screen.

The typical size for a Flexi was about the size of an A5 sheet of paper, which meant there were about four quadrillion individual nanopixels within. The total data storage of a Flexi was truly insane.

Now that I knew what I was working with, I was pretty sure that a Flexi was entirely too much for what I needed. Excellent!

While the individual components of the device were already amazing enough, the OS was incredibly robust. It had clearly been designed to work and survive in high-radiation environments, such as the depths of space.

Finally, likely the single most important part. The translation software was an incredible piece of work. By default, it included nearly 13 million individual languages, and at least four times that in various planetary and individual dialects.

Even better, it could easily accept new languages as well. I would have to work on getting this program transferred to a compad immediately, though on second thought, it wasn't likely that anything but a flexi or the most advanced Goa'uld computer system would even be capable of running it, so maybe not.

This just confirmed what I was already thinking. We needed more of these devices. They were incredibly powerful, incredibly compact, and incredibly versatile.

Even better, I was pretty sure I could make some significant improvements to the OS and the translation software by applying Star League compression algorithms.

That was something for later consideration. I turned back to find Ma'chello rubbing his hands together. "What's the verdict?"

I nodded. "It's an incredible piece of technology. Retrofitting it for our use should be pretty easy. I would just need to design a connector of some type, but once that connector is defined, you can use basically any spot on the device as an output."

Ma'chello blinked at me. "Really? That is incredible."

I nodded once more and began explaining how the device worked. It was several hours later when I had finished with my in-depth explanation.

I didn't need to bother with creating a direct interface between the Flexi and the Compad. Ma'chello had already created one when we found it in the first wreck. The thing was clearly made to be as universally applicable as possible, which made sense coming from a Republic of potentially thousands of separate species.

- - -
The Next Day.

I entered the room and nodded to Arriston. "Mr. President."

He smiled and nodded back. "Arthur. What do you have for us today?"

I nodded and presented a Flexi. The next thirty minutes were spent explaining the device and what it could do. As I finished the final round of explanations on the device, I finally began explaining why I was showing them off. "At the moment, we have about 500 compads that are ready for industrial applications. Frankly, at our current rate, that won't last us more than a couple of months. Now, we plan to purchase more of them once our fleet reaches the Inner Sphere, but it will stop the expansion of our industrial capabilities for at least five to six months."

I paused for a moment before continuing. "Unlike the compads though, we have a potential avenue for getting more flexis. We can try to purchase them from the Pax Magellanic."

Arriston nodded. "Alright. What security measures do these devices have?"

I explained what I knew. "The Flexi has absolutely no wireless capability, but assuming you can touch it, it has very little security. Of course, I could add further measures if needed, but for our current applications, this is more than enough."

The President tapped his desk a few times. "We really need computational devices, don't we?"

I nodded, and he continued. "Our main issue is that we have nothing that the Pax Magellanic would be interested in."

I nodded bitterly. "That is only partially correct. It is likely that she would be interested in both the list of Systems Commonwealth Warships and the history up through the Battle of Witchhead. Other than that, we can offer her raw materials, though whether she would accept them is questionable at best. We can also offer her examples of Goa'uld technologies; we don't know how much Goa'uld technology has advanced since her time, so she may be interested in examples of modern Goa'uld vessels."

I hesitated for a moment before continuing. "At least as far as I've seen, Star League data compression techniques are more efficient than what I've seen from the Systems Commonwealth. She may be interested in the Star League computational technology."

The President seemed silent for a while. "Alright. You've convinced me."

He turned to Ma'chello behind me. "How many of these flexis would we need to deal with the computing shortage?"

Without any hesitation, Ma'chello answered. "For Industrial Applications? 10,000. If we want to use them for military and civilian applications as well, then we need at least ten times that."

He nodded. "We'll be preparing a negotiation team then. We should get in contact with Captain Pearce within a week."

I nodded. "Thank you." As I moved to stand up and leave the room, I was hit with a notification from the forge.

Special Achievement: Recruit a Legendary Paragon (Astrocreator Azaryn) Perk 'Ars Magus Creation | Armagus Creation' missed due to insufficient points. (Available Points: 300, Required Points: 600, Points Doubled, New Point Total: 600)

I stood there speechless for several moments. That was certainly an interesting notification.


- - -
Author's Note:
Thanks to [NOH]AmosTrask and simianpower for proof reading and editing.
Chapter #66 just came out on Discord: [ LINK: https://discord.com/invite/dbVKfqYw5T ]