Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 84

Chapter 84 - Price Check

For reasons that weren't readily apparent to Eventus the IOA had ended up deciding that this time the SGC would be an acceptable location for their meeting. Significantly more convenient for him given the circumstances, but he was a bit disappointed that he wouldn't have a chance to get away from the increasingly stifling interior of the SGC's metal and concrete halls.

They’d chosen what looked to be a conference room that seemed to have been specifically set aside for their use with a pieced together crescent shaped table, some strategically placed sculptures, and a giant flat screen television that was currently set to display a static image of the IOA’s emblem.

“Thank you for meeting us again, High Councilor.” Carl Storm offered with a slight smile.

“It’s really no problem.” Eventus returned, and he was still well within his budgeted time for dealing with them. “Though tomorrow I’m scheduled to fly up to Antarctica with SG1 to install the backup generator in the outpost and do some work there. And after that I’m probably going to be with the Prmoetheus flying around the solar system for a day or two.”

It had been nice of the SGC to volunteer the use of their ship to cart his Jumper around the solar system on its investigative mission.

“Yes.” Woolsey put forward with a frown. “General O’Neill mentioned that, something about a concern with Mars?” 

Eventus winced. “Ah right, well, we made sure to cleanse it of all organic life before leaving the galaxy. So all that should be left there now are ghosts and psionic echoes of whatever horror occurred there.”

He would fully admit that “should” was doing a lot of heavy lifting given the type of things that tended to pop out of interdimensional rifts. However he wasn’t planning to try and access any of the buried ruins, or even go down to the planet in the first place, so it would probably be fine.

“You’ll have to forgive us for putting it this way.” Carl began, seemingly pretending Eventus hadn’t just said what he did. “But several of our people's governments have raised the question of why we need to trade with you at all when you’re already providing us free access to Atlantis.”

That was a fair question, however it was also one Eventus had been prepared for.

“Because I'm not offering your people things that can be found there.” He answered simply. “Atlantis's database had large amounts of technical information curated out of it before my people returned to this galaxy as a fail-safe against the Wraith potentially capturing the city after we left.”

And also because, after hearing from the time traveling Doctor Weir, the Council had decided they didn't want the humans to get their hands on various things.

“So yes they'll be able to find designs for say, a cold fusion power station, but building it would require access to large scale molecular construction capabilities and multiple rare non-terrestrial elements.”

He took a moment to offer each member of the group a grin before continuing.

“Meanwhile I'm going to be offering to trade you designs for a power station that utilizes deuterium based fusion which your people would be able to begin constructing today using elements native to Earth.”

Five of which when hooked up to Cheyenne Mountain's power grid would be enough for the SGC to dial Atlantis without the need for the ZPM they had brought back.

“Of course, this is all predicated on you continuing to want to keep things a secret.” 

Carl narrowed his eyes. “And if we didn't?”

“I could functionally up tech your entire civilization to a level roughly on par with my own about fifty million years ago. Which for comparison's sake would be somewhere between the post Anubis Goa'uld and the Asgard.”

“Which is still somewhat below that of your own.” Chekov offered in an oddly amused tone.

“Well yes.” Eventus admitted with a shrug. “But as loath as I am to say this, you're not ready.”

“Why am I not surprised.” Woolsey muttered nearly under his breath.

Eventus shook his head and sighed, not even remotely surprised they didn't understand given how groups like the Asgard and Nox seemed to not want to explain things. “I don't mean it in the Star Trek prime directive sense. I mean it in the sense where your whole civilization would collapse. Because a bit past that point is what your people would consider a post scarcity existence.”

The IOA representatives exchanged confused looks, very obviously not understanding how those two things were connected.

“How would that lead to our collapse?” Shen finally inquired.

It wasn't really a surprise they were unable to realize the problem with that. After all, the closest analogy they probably had was the progress of mechanization. But while it certainly shared some similarities, it was still about as different as night and day. 

“Because most of your people haven't figured out who they are.” Eventus said simply.

“Since I'm sure you all know them, let's use the original SG1 as an example. Jack O'Neill does what he does because he wants to protect people.”

And because he was in love with Samantha Carter, but they didn't need to know that.

“Samantha Carter does what she does because she loves plumbing the scientific depths of the universe.”

To the point where if Eventus didn't know better he would think Sam was one of his people in disguise.

“And Daniel Jackson continued the trend by wanting to meet new cultures and search out the hidden truths of the past.”

The Archeologist honestly reminded Eventus enough of Dea in that way that the Lantean was half tempted to check if he was her most recent reincarnation.

“But they, like you I suspect, are the exceptions. The vast majority of your people however spend their lives doing things they hate because of material based necessity. So what happens when every single material necessity is met and suddenly they are left with nothing to do in life but whatever they want?”

“There would be mass anarchy.” LaPierre murmured in understanding.

“And suicide.” Eventus confirmed with a pitying shake of his head.

“Of course.” He continued with a happy grin that he hoped made the whole decision hurt just a little. “Since you're all set on keeping the existence of aliens and the stargate program a secret, we can just do things this way with you functionally trading with me for advanced technologies that you can pass off as home grown.”

Amusingly awkward glances were exchanged between the IOA representatives until Carl Storm brought them back by coughing into his first. “Yes, well, our governments are very much interested in such trades. Though of course we will need to know exactly what you are offering first.”

Reaching into one this suit pockets, Eventus pulled out a small stack of papers and began handing one out to each of the representatives.

“My original plan was just going to be to let you tell me what you wanted and then us working out things from there. But I was talking with General O'Neill yesterday and he suggested an itemized price list might be a more useful way to go about it.”

You included weaponry in this.” Chekov exclaimed in surprise as his eyes skimmed across the paper.

“Anti-orbital pulsed plasma cannon emplacements.” Eventus confirmed as he returned to the center of the crescent shaped table. “Firepower wise they're roughly comparable to the plasma cannons utilized by Wraith cruisers.”

The emplacements when built would be roughly the size of a naval corvette. So they shouldn't be that difficult for them to put together compared to starships like the Daedalus.

“I'd suggest building a couple hundred per planetary hemisphere spaced so you can bring at least half of their number to bear against any single target. And maybe pairing each with a shield generator similar to the ones on the Daedalus to give them that extra bit of survivability.”

Even an Explorer class vessel would be hard pressed to take that level of sustained fire for more than a few minutes without a ZPM backing its generators up. A fact his people had learned all too well during their war with the Wraith.

“And how would we explain building these weapons to our people?” LaPierre inquired with a disdainful huff.

Chekov shook his head and let out a mild laugh. “I do not know about you, but it is far past time we updated our country's ballistic missile defenses.”

“They would absolutely work for that too.” Eventus confirmed with a nod, glad someone realized the obvious on that front. “And also be able to shoot down attacking aircraft.”

Though since the plasma pulses didn’t follow a ballistic trajectory their use as an offensive weapon against forces of their own world would be somewhat limited.

“That would upset the balance of power on our world.” Sadru Desai protested.

“And?” Eventus said, not sure why the man thought that would concern him. “As things currently stand, the Americans could wipe each of your countries off the face of the Earth with little trouble while your ability to meaningfully strike back at them is minimal at best.”

From the looks the IOA representatives exchanged at his words it was clear that had been something of an unspoken understanding up to this point. And the Lantean had little doubt there must have been a lot of behind the scenes politics going on to keep one group or another from testing just how deep the American’s patience ran.

He clapped his hands together and grinned. “So, shall we continue with any questions you want to ask about the various technologies on the list?”

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Author’s Notes: You almost have to feel bad for the IOA at this point, but when dealing with things that much bigger than you, sometimes you have to be prepared to get run over.