Five Khattaks, now of greatness, slowly rose from the shipyards. Lacking ion engines, they hovered high, like mighty ships, controlled by thought alone. Unlike the golden scheme of the pyramid, mine were painted gray with green runes—a mere aesthetic addition. The Khattaks, bearing their power, rose high, and now my fleet numbered eleven such giants: five gifted by the Asgardians, two by Apophis, one by Ra with the Yu, and three captured thanks to Perseus. Thus, I had four full squadrons, three Khattaks each. True, my aged Cheops was part of one of them. To this were added over a hundred Alkesh and a thousand gliders. My fleet surpassed the combined forces of any minor lord, and I myself stood on the threshold of becoming a full lord. To reach the rank of Senior Lord, one needed to command a hundred ships, and for a System Lord, two hundred Hattaks. But this was only the minimum, and that didn't include vassal forces. Therefore, the ascension of a new System Lord is a long, painstaking journey, especially when it comes to quietly building such an armada. But of course, I can do it.
"Admiral," I addressed McVay politely, "two more squadrons joined the fleet today."
"Yes, this will open up new horizons, including in training. Training squadron-on-squadron combat limited our capabilities, but now we can conduct "two squadrons against two" training."
— Training is everything to us, the Jaffa mustn't suspect anything.
"I'm the only one who finds it strange that they don't notice our constant technological leap," the American remarked.
"When you constantly tell someone it's none of their business, they'll either become even more interested or stop meddling, especially with this kind of training regimen."
"I don't know how to train them anymore," the admiral whispered.
"You think I know? I'm afraid I'll soon run out of ideas for battle scenarios and have to throw them into real combat."
- Exactly, we need a fight that will show how strong they are.
"In three years, the forces of Apophis will arrive to fight me. Then they will be able to demonstrate their full prowess."
"That's three years away, and there's a lot we can come up with. Perhaps we should plant a sufficient number of minefields around Urvashi?"
- Bad idea, considering they could interfere with our defense system.
Yes, minefields in space are a different story. They can be bypassed from above, below, or to the sides, serving more as ambush tools, especially when I know exactly where the enemy will exit hyperspace. In fact, I can significantly improve minefields by equipping them with missiles, essentially turning them into missile defense platforms. Space combat is becoming increasingly complex: it's no longer a straightforward clash, but a multi-layered chess game employing all sorts of tricks and feints. Tactics designed to win in a variety of scenarios. The simple approach of amassing more ships and firing all guns blazing no longer works. Not to mention strategy. My ships are faster and more powerful than others, but this advantage must be used carefully, as other Lords might demand I share my inventions, something I have no intention of doing.
The main problem now is logistics. It's a year's flight to get there, and I'm six months away from them. That's still a long time, so I have to be extremely careful.
On the other hand, the fleet also performed "socially" useful functions, delivering various stations and observatories for space observation. Some scientists from Earth specializing in astrophysics requested this, and it was easy for me to help. I could distribute the necessary sensors across dozens of systems. In this sector of space, I can do anything. The scientists loved me because I gave them the opportunity to pursue their research without interfering too much with my military-industrial complex—pure science, for which I allocated funds. They still admire antigravity as if it were a miracle, although in the past world it was deemed impossible. From a certain point of view, this is true. As an engineer and scientist, I tend to agree with the phrase of the Jumper pilot who carried McKay: "Scientists are more often wrong than right." For example, there is a difference between theoretically describing neutron stars based on spectrograph data and actually flying to a star in a spaceship and taking measurements.
Every generation of scientists discovers something new and finds practical application in past ideas. Take the exoskeleton, for example—it was invented back in the 1960s, but it was cumbersome and impractical. Even in the 21st century, it hasn't been implemented due to the same impracticality. Electric cars were also invented in the early 20th century, but there weren't enough batteries to realize the project I accomplished with a snap of my fingers thanks to naquadah. A new tool can make many ideas once considered "unviable" and "impossible" both practical and feasible. My investment in science is enormous, as I consider myself a technophile and believe science is a tool for both understanding the world and for self-knowledge. By directly downloading information into the brain, the barrier to entry into science is very low, but it's a lifelong pursuit. Few people, for obvious reasons, are fans of long, methodical research.
Those who are passionate about science try to invest in education through the implantation of new knowledge, joining various scientific communities, and developing a wide range of interests. I gave them access to Goa'uld technology, which was generations ahead of Earth's. The Tolans also shared some knowledge, but only in the context of theoretical physics, chemistry, and mathematics. It is widely known that many physicists struggle with mathematics, like Einstein, for example. And here, a completely new mathematics, tied to the Goa'uld number system, is needed.
The star station project faces a number of challenges. Technically, penetrating the star wasn't difficult, given the Goa'uld shields, the uniform distribution of solar pressure, the reconfiguration of the shields to contain the solar energy, the maintenance of gravity systems that compensate for the star's gravity, and, of course, finding a way to absorb stellar matter. The batteries, however, are fine—thanks to my experiments with lightning, I found a way to absorb and redistribute the enormous energy flow into the batteries. The energy battery security system must be extremely reliable, otherwise everything will simply explode.
The amount of energy will be infinite; some even suggested building a factory with access to such a flow. But I wasn't yet ready to create a "Star Forge," also because I didn't have the technology to transform energy into matter. The Goa'uld only had a system for conversion and reconfiguration. Basically, you insert the necessary ingredients into large teleportation rings, enter the program into the computer, and voila, you have, say, a car. An energy-to-matter transformer—it's easier to ask the Asgard for a Beleskiner than to obtain this technology; they'll likely give me the middle finger, and they'll be right. So all that remains is to reverse-engineer the teleportation rings and understand the principles of matter transformation. Oppenheimer is about to meet an unenviable fate; I can arrange an "accident" for him, and he'll disappear from official history. I did the same with Einstein; in the end, he wasn't opposed.
On the other hand, I was raising my own generation of scientists—hungry and eager for discovery, who joined the star station project as graduate students and assistants. They offered countless valuable ideas. I'm tempted to give them a laboratory in space, as long as they don't blow up the planet. Such laboratories are built on asteroids that aren't commercially viable. The fleet launches them into safe orbits, and contractors create bunkers where scientific facilities can be set up. For example, one such laboratory studies naquadria—I'm simply curious, as are those who research it. We use literally grams to prevent any incidents, and the shielding is top-notch. Similar measures are used only when studying the "Cube," which is located on a fully shielded station, and where there are no people at all—only samples. Research is primarily conducted using "Surrogates."
Accumulating statistical data is of great importance in the scientific community. Tests are currently being conducted on plants: the results are being compared between pure plants and those irradiated for a minute, an hour, and a day. Energy levels are being determined. Scientific work on the "Cube" unites many people from different planets; the humanitarian benefits of a safe sarcophagus are simply too great. Living to 700 years is an excellent motivator for this work.
I also had a Stargate research department. I really want to build one and learn how to do it, so I can travel, not to mention use it as a weapon and a means of rapid transportation for equipping ships. Ships with Stargates are less dependent on supply points. Research into teleportation, fusion energy, naquadah reactors—and many more lie ahead. There were countless topics and phenomena that could be studied forever. Self-knowledge was becoming the central vector of civilization's development.
I didn't interfere too much with their military projects, as I preferred to maintain military equipment myself. Besides, they themselves don't realize how they create some military technologies. For example, they adapted antigravity drones, which they use to deliver various useful products. But they can also carry missiles and sensors. In fact, we can argue about who first used drones. I also used them in a quadcopter-like manner. So, a drone is both an instrument of peace and an instrument of war, although the military versions are much more protected. Scientists develop science, but this science can be used for both peace and war. The duality of science. It's a shame it happens this way.