"HOW MUCH?!" Isara exploded.
"Fifty million," I clarified, "I think we need to check the books and contracts, but yes, that's exactly it."
"Why do you need fifty million people?" Isara's bewilderment grew into anger.
"To populate the system's second planet, to create an industrial complex there that will provide these people with work. It will also give the Tok'ra the opportunity to practice leadership. Fifty enclaves of a million people each will be an excellent training ground for them."
Egeria, observing our squabble, maintained a healthy dose of skepticism and did not intervene.
"You bought fifty million slaves from the System Lords?" Isara asked.
"Not just the System Lords. Many needed additional funds, so they essentially paid me for what I then bought from them. That's how I came to terms."
— And the food?
"We'll synthesize it. With this mass of people, we won't have to suffer the slow degradation of agriculture or reduce the workforce. They'll be torn from their familiar world anyway, so they'll be immediately reoriented toward production. Essentially, we'll turn the entire planet into a factory floor of our capabilities. Given the presence of fifty autonomous enclaves, they'll be able to independently trade a variety of resources."
"This is too large an experiment, requiring enormous effort and resources.
"We already have the resources for such experiments. That same Clint in Ethiopia controls twenty-one million people," I pointed out the obvious. "He's doing a good job, and yet most people there live ten times worse than they did on Urvash before I arrived."
- But it will be necessary to build a lot of houses.
"Egeria, clay houses are built very quickly. A day at most," Isara replied. "So it's not a problem. They'll be coming from different planets, with different cultures and cults of different 'gods.'"
"Yes, that's all true, but the planet is large, and we have the technology to speed up processes. Isara, this will provide the necessary experience. The Tok'ra are poor rulers; they lack the comprehensive experience you have. They are learning, but they also need practical experience. We could deploy one Tok'ra for every ten thousand people. That would amount to five thousand Tok'ra—practically our entire administrative corps, those we don't use on Earth or in certain operations. Four thousand symbionts will gain the necessary management experience. In the future, when we begin to take over planets, this will serve us well."
- I can understand that, you just didn't discuss this decision with me.
- I thought you would have foreseen my actions, knowing me.
— Am I a telepath?
"Sometimes I think so," I answered honestly.
"No, I'm not a mind reader. I thought you were going to buy ten million," my wife said irritably.
— Actually, I wanted a hundred million, but they started demanding too much money, so I closed the bidding.
- RRRRRR!!! - the woman roared.
"Husband and wife are one Satan," Egeria commented.
"Shut up, Egeria!" we exclaimed simultaneously.
— You wanted to buy a hundred million people, expecting me to simply be ready for it?
— Yes.
"But I wasn't ready until ten. You could have just clarified that."
"I could have," I agreed. "But I thought you were ready for my madness."
"No, I'm not ready. Nanites, give me a sedative! Can you imagine what a logistical operation that would be?"
"Yes. Very stressful, especially in terms of transporting through the gate." "I can easily move the gate to another planet, and everything will be fine. Of course, with all the precautions, because we know some bastard who likes to plant bombs on people, and it's unlikely he's the only one. But at the exit, everyone will be given nanite controllers and a nanite pill. By the way, this way you can identify spies with symbiotes. You won't catch ordinary spies this way, but so be it. They'll have limited access to really important information anyway."
My goal is to turn the system's second planet into a factory for everything I could possibly need. Urvashi, frankly, is entering a post-imperial era, and I still need a developed industry. I'm moving some factories to Urvashi's moon to eliminate any pollution, leaving my world pristine. The moon is becoming a major resource hub: a multitude of goods from across the system are delivered there, where the ores are refined and converted into the necessary materials for building space stations—repair stations, mining stations (helium-3 and solar energy), and research stations. The space research stations study things that are best left unstudied but very much desired: for example, the naquadria problem. Despite the availability of all the possibilities for cheap energy production, I support diversification. Understanding how uncontrollable this phenomenon is, I relocated these stations to the system's edges. And there are also observation stations; they monitor hyperspace and detect any signs of exiting it.
The use of neural networks is becoming commonplace. True, I'm still deeply paranoid about what they might do, so this area of activity is constantly monitored. We haven't reached full artificial intelligence; it's not really necessary. But my energy field is going well. I, of course, handed over the results of collective research on extracting stellar energy. Since it was a collective project, many planets now have limitless energy sources—or rather, constantly replenished ones, since stars are a powerful and limitless source of energy. All that remains is to acquire Asgardian technology for the direct synthesis of matter from energy, and then we can begin anything. Perhaps we should build a "Star Forge." As for the gates, we're going in circles.
They're an extremely complex mechanism, since they transfer energy from one gate to another while preserving the structure. It's not teleportation, but direct matter synthesis, which forces the energy into the form I need. The Goa'uld already have restructuring capabilities, so they can produce anything for which they have the precise blueprint. True, one must take into account the availability of the materials used for the restructuring, which is why the number of different nanotubes I have exceeds the number of neurons in my brain. Both scientists and neural networks are working on this, searching for dozens, if not hundreds, of configurations. Technically, I can create an orbital elevator—there are even projects for it—so as not to waste ships' energy landing on Urvashi's moon, but to dock with stations that are already delivering everything needed to factories located on the surface.
Yes, technological innovation is not so simple, especially providing virtually everyone with high-quality computers and a knowledge base system. This system has taken root, especially when people sell their knowledge for money. Skill levels have now reached a ceiling, because even a "high-class" worker can become one quite quickly. Therefore, the scale of grading good workers has risen, as has the scale of Jaffa competence in matters of war. Officers constantly exchanged their knowledge on how to wage war and what tactics to use in various conditions. And, of course, I know all of this too.
The newcomers to my army will also learn this, immediately increasing their usefulness. Incidentally, my Jaffa faction already numbers one million two hundred individuals of all genders and ages. Jaffa prices have probably skyrocketed by now. I need to train troops, and I got them cheap when they were outcasts. I'm even happy with disabled soldiers; I make them cyborgs, and everything's fine. Everyone also received commando units, becoming masters in their craft, not to mention intelligence, which accumulated and cataloged the knowledge of hundreds of operations—both successful and unsuccessful. Not to mention the fact that knowledge-transfer equipment was used to allow scouts to hide on any planet and establish information networks. And now things are about to get even more fun.
"Don't worry, Isara, everything will be fine. We'll get fifty million competent and skilled workers who will be able to increase our country's productivity several times over."
"I have something else that worries me. However, we should probably enter the galactic market, supplying many goods, so that we don't have a crisis."
- Akhnur laughed when he suggested that I would start doing this.
"He is Ra's subordinate, not an independent ruler; he will never understand."
"That's also true," I agreed with my wife. "Fortunately, I can trade non-military goods with anyone, as stipulated by the Goa'uld code of conduct."
"You insist on these codes as if you don't break them every five minutes," Egeria pointed out. Something clicked in my head.
- You are a genius, Egeria.
- What?
"My armies will remain idle for five years. This cannot be allowed, absolutely not. Therefore, I will fight the replicators."
The two women looked at me strangely.
"Do you think the Asgard will pay me the same rate? Perhaps I should increase it. However, I need to keep this all under wraps, so they don't realize how much I'm betraying the Goa'uld Empire, which is precisely why I train them so hard."
"Universe, hear me! Give this Goa'uld some common sense!" Egeria cries.
"Common sense? I betrayed the entire Goa'uld Empire, where's the common sense in that?" I replied.
— I... I don't even know what to say to this, but I'll definitely think of something.
- Plus, they've already learned how to fight the Tyranids, I don't even know how.
"You need a healthier fantasy. Why can't you, like other Goa'uld, dream of a gangbang, instead of inventing a damn race that devours everything in its path?"
"There's only a mechanical race, and I made it biological," I pointed out the obvious. "There's no Warhammer in this universe yet, and I have to bear the brunt of 'inventing' it. I'm basically a sensible Goa'uld." True, I didn't know how the Asgard would react to my request for help. After all, they'd need to give me teleportation blockers, and they'd be thinking about that for a long time. I'd offered them an excellent tactic for containing the replicators, but they're still reluctant to implement it, weighing all the risks.
"Using time as a weapon... Really, why does no one take this seriously?" Egeria asked.
"Using anything as a weapon is generally quite bad, because the weapon's sole purpose is to destroy the enemy. To kill. This requires a different mindset. Where some see beauty, a weapons designer must see only the possibility of murder. Using all their accumulated knowledge to devise a quick and effective way to destroy something living. Once you set foot on this path, there's no turning back, and no taboo topics. The only things that stop you are logic and the stigma attached to this or that weapon. I'm sure people will soon find ways to create genetically engineered viruses, so they can use the beloved biological weapons to more accurately target."
My words caught the women's attention, and they certainly appreciated them. I completely understand the arguments of humanism and would like to live in a more peaceful galaxy. But I'm forced to be that bastard who turns everything into a weapon for the sake of that same peaceful galaxy.
"Are you sad?"
"Yes. Such intellectual potential is wasted on such nonsense. If I had directed it toward something useful, we would have achieved colossal heights. That's why the MIC exists—to do what I can't."
Egeria bowed her head.
"I understand that feeling. I'm condemning my children to war, even though I didn't want to, but it's necessary for the freedom of the galaxy."
"Yes, it is very sad. For the sake of a better world, the Goa'uld will be crushed, and science, freedom, and progress will triumph."
"People will be people," Isara noted. "This will be a journey that will last thousands of years."
"Even they may fall. But for the sake of a better world, it's worth striving for. Strive for victory, to give the galaxy a better tomorrow, and even other galaxies."
"But they consider you one of the most terrible Goa'uld, the embodiment of all their ideals."
"That's probably why your kids don't try to infiltrate me."
"They just don't know how to approach it," Egeria pointed out. "That makes sense."
"It's sad. The Goa'uld could have been overthrown sooner."
"We have what we have."