Back in the common room, Beecher was still playing with Yin and Yang. I just sat with a dopey grin on my face at the cuteness.
"You are welcome to stay, but I want to offer a heads up of incoming senior brass."
Beecher looked up smiling, "How senior?"
"General O'neill, at a minimum, probably Daniel and maybe Teal'c as well."
"Ah, very shiny brass. I think I'll stay until they arrive and be ready to leave unless you or they want me to stay. If nothing else, I want to offer myself for assistive services to you when available."
"I thank you very much. You have a knack for being helpful in a useful way and both asking questions about how to do things better and actually listening to the answer. That is more rare than you would think."
"I'm glad to help, and thus far I am happy to have met you. The kittens don't hurt either. They are great fun!"
"Yes. I am so grateful to General O'Neill for allowing me to get them. I just hope they stay this personable."
"Me too. Somehow I think they will."
"So, I hadn't asked yet, what all do you do here?"
"Soldier, obviously, but I work in the garage trying to find better and more efficient vehicles to be able to go farther through the gate. Our two main projects are a flying probe of sorts, like a drone, to go through the gate first to recon before we send people through, and a long range self contained rough vehicle. As we can't rely on available fuel, and standard fuel is too easily exploded by staff blasts, we need rugged and range without additional fuel."
"That sounds really neat. Are you leaning more towards armoured or minimal and speedy? Tank or speeder?" We have been looking at heavier vehicles like humvees, but you are right that something like a motorcycle might be better. Mostly we need speed, and we tend towards sneakiness in small groups than batallions anyway. I will talk to my bosses and see, Bikes have lower fuel reqs anyway, and if we can make them quiet and fast, they are already small. They will fit through a gate easily, and are more suited to scouting than something like a tank would be anyway. If nothing else it would be another approach. We tend to look for new tech rather than just maximize existing tech. What doesn't suit a unit sortee in the sandbox may do very well on the kinds of missions we take."
As she was musing aloud on this, General O'Neill and others walked in.
"I have seen some of these bikes you refer to. Do you mean the motorized ones or the mechanical ones? I agree they might have merit, though they might not be able to handle the terrain." Teal'c asked.
"Both actually. In fact some manner of hybrid might be best. Bicycles are incredibly quiet and they are efficient use of energy, far more so than running, and they can be easily adapted to help carry an injured teammate. There are already folding types out there so they can be compact, they can be equipped with an assistive motor fairly easily and quietly, and if fuel or power runs out they can still be pedaled, and they have more rugged types available like mountain bikes. It wouldn't reach the same speeds as a motorcycle, but it has some merit." Beecher replied.
O'Neill was looking interested, "If we make the motorized part removable, if we have to leave one behind they aren't too big a technological leap for the people to find either. Many of the cultures we discover are quite primitive, kept that way on purpose to maintain the image of godhood," he added as an aside to me. "Anyway, they wouldn't cause the same problems for any natives that a car would. Most of them have at least wheeled vehicles of some sort, even if it is just wagons and carts. Many are far more skilled mechanically than that. I like it. Do some research and set up a proposal for further development."
"Sir?" I interjected. "This may be an odd question, but how does this base pay for itself? Especially as classified as it must be? I imagine you can't release a lot of the research you discover as it has alien origins?"
"The never ending paper shuffle of black ops funding and the threat of the bean counters! The short answer is that we are always looking for ideas in that thread."
"Well, given the concentration of geniuses here, maybe you could make it a contest, best folding bike, best additive motor, best minimalist design, best cargo model, etc. The bike fanatics as well as those interested in concept vehicles and the major push lately for green vehicles, that is something that could be marketed to the public and declassified. If you had a corporation that was the public face for some of the marketable and declassifiable developments, you could fund things without being as dependent on tax dollars? Some people spend more on their bikes than they do on their cars!"
"True. We have been trying to pitch the affiliated business idea for a long time, but we have been framing the conversation as a way to release alien source tech, and been getting too much resistance. If we are talking about a better bicycle and things like that, it is practically a different conversation, and possible a much easier sell. I like it. I think I will keep you around a while longer to see if you have any other ideas like that." He grinned at me, and Beecher was looking a bit overwhelmed. He turned to Beecher, "I will cut orders for your CO to put you on this project if you wish, and credit the two of you with the idea. Keep 'em coming. Sometimes high tech isn't the only way to go. We really need to remember that."
"Thank you sir. I would love to be on this project. I can recommend a few other avid cyclists who would love to have input as well. Should I talk to them yet, or wait to get this started?"
"By all means, get their input now, They could help you put together a research proposal and might help with the research depending on their departments."
"I will get right on that. Alianora, it has been a pleasure. I will see you sometime tomorrow, once you have some idea of your schedule. Thanks for allowing me kitten time. And Sir, thanks for the kittens." She saluted and left.
"That kind of idea is why it is useful bringing together people of different backgrounds. The soldiers were all focused on an ATV or HumVee, when they aren't suited to our needs for the most part. Any other ideas?" He asked in a joking way like he wasn't really expecting any real response.
"Actually I do."
"Oh?"
"You say you meet a lot of primitive-ish peoples, yes?"
Daniel answered. "Yes. We have met many people ranging from horse nomads to people who are so far above us technologically that we look like the horse nomads. But yes, many of the people we encounter are industrial era or earlier, with some odd skews to the spectrum because of the tech gifted by their 'gods', mostly weapons. For instance they may use staff weapons and see spaceships, but they are able to build wagons and swords."
"Do you try to trade with many of them?"
"Yes actually. Many offer mining and medicinal opportunities that we research. It is even more true in the pegasus galaxy, where they are actively trading for food."
"Do you have anyone here who knows about the fiber industry? Wool, Flax, Cotton, etc? Do you remember just how big a deal the cotton gin was to mill industries? What about knitting and spinning?
Daniel was almost bouncing in his seat with how excited he was. "I can't believe we haven't even thought about that! We focus on weapons, perhaps farming and medicine, but cottage industry would have enormous potential! And far fewer consequences to trade than weapons! Jack! This could be amazing!"
"Whoa, whoa, slow down space monkey. I barely followed what you were talking about, but I can see your excitement. I love the idea of trade items that aren't weapons, and has less risk of crop contamination. I am certainly willing to learn more. It sounds like you have a potential source right here." he turned to me, "would you be willing to help Daniel flesh this out into a cohesive proposal? I like this aspect of using what would be for us at least, old tech to trade. Also less craziness getting around patents."
"I would love to. I have only recently been getting physically fit enough to be able to enjoy my old crafts, and my favorite ones are still a bit out of reach without adapted equipment. I was researching a lovely electric spinning wheel that came on the market recently, and this is one of those things that you could absolutely sell for a lot of money as people pour money into their hobbies. Anyway, I can't use the treadles on my old wheel, and my shoulders aren't up for using a drop spindle, and there is only so much knitting a person can do. There is pretty enormous creativity out there in terms of home fiber industry. There are people out there spinning rose fiber, milk silk, seacell or seaweed derived fiber, soy silk from the waste of tofu production, I was reading about peppermint yarn the other day, my socks are all made out of bamboo in a rayon type process. There is a ton going on out there now. The dye potential is enormous also. I would assume that there are similarities to the plant and animal life? Is there an analog to cochineal? Red dye, a Good red, was incredibly difficult and expensive historically. I can get a synthetic red dye for a couple bucks nowadays. If you provided powdered dyestuff, it might be of very high value to them, and cost us practically nothing. Who knows, even the most basic of spinning wheels might be of high value. If you wanted to you could either buy from wheel makers here, or you could build them yourselves. I am sure there are people on base that would love to spend time in a woodshop. I, personally, really want to learn woodturning. It might be a neat way for folks to relax usefully. Also, this could be done above ground as there is nothing classified about a woodshop beyond the identity of the personnel perhaps and the reason behind it. Also buying supplies locally could improve relations with the town. We are in Colorado, so there is already a huge spinning and weaving industry here. The main publisher, Interweave press, is in this state as are a few major spinning wheel manufacturers. There is also a heavy fleece animal industry here. Same issues as with crop contamination, but well scoured wool and or dyed fibers should be safe as they have been all but boiled already. Some luxury fibers might make good trade goods, and again improve relationships with town. You might also find something like the cotton gin on one of these worlds. I know if there is a better way to make a linen analog it would be of incredible value here. The linen industry is dying here as the mills can't compete, and hemp is outlawed due to its similarity to pot, so we miss out on a huge potential money crop. There is a reason we use hemp rope. Hemp is a linen analog that is a lot easier to prepare and nicer to the land to farm. Linen as a wearable cloth has enormous value, though its current price at higher than silk in many ways is forcing it out, though it used to be so ubiquitous that we call things table linens and we call sheets linens though they have been mostly made of cotton for most of a century. The process of turning flax to linen isn't as mechanizable as the cotton process, so the price of cotton dropped and linen didn't. The labor cost is too high. It's utility as a fiber hasn't changed, but the price disparity is so large that it is now a luxury fiber when its niche is a utility fiber. The difference of wearing linen and cotton on a hot day, or a desert climate cannot be overstated." I stopped as I realized everyone was staring at me. "Ah...sorry about that. I really love this stuff. My best friend went to a college that taught the lost arts and her fiance trains oxen among other things. She ended up being the the TA for the woodworking lost arts class. They were considering opening a living history retreat where people can learn about the old world ways of doing things, more connected to the land and the process. I was interested enough to make some plans about what I would do as the textile maven of the place. She and I would likely have shared the cooking, I would have dabbled in the woodworking, especially given how many of my tools we would need to make, and her guy would do the farming and animal husbandry aspects. We would offer internships to her school for farm hands, and be sort of a bed and breakfast or a working/learning vacation for folks. I was really interested. I can tend to go on about it. The other future I was really working towards was math teacher with a heavy fiber crafts hobby. Being a fiber teacher wasn't much of a stretch. Also a lot more fun!"
"Actually, that was very informative, and your passion for it was easy to see. As I said, a resident expert right here. I will help anyway I can."
"I am a bit out of date, and I haven't done anywhere near as much historical research as you need. You should look into a textile historian, not a fashion historian. Also there might be quite a bit of old mill equipment rusting away that would be purchasable. I would love to help anyway I can. If nothing else, having skill with a drop spindle and awareness of the greater process of making textiles can help you, especially women, blend into a community. You can match the clothes, but in most older cultures, no woman had idle hands. As I don't think you would take a child for verisimilitude, having a drop spindle or some knitting might go a long way. Sharing skills might give you an in with a closed social group, an icebreaker. It is also meditative and calming, most of the time. My professors could tell if I had spun in the morning before class just by looking at me. I would be happy to teach anyone interested. I would even be willing to finance the equipment." I looked at my lap for a moment, "It turns out that when you heal someone and don't charge them for it, they often insist on paying you anyway. Sometimes a lot if they have it. The people at the retreat wouldn't accept it either. They were either people who were members of the tribe whose land we were on or people I had healed or their families. The devotion was truly humbling, but stifling. I am glad to help, but I can't take that anymore. I have a fairly ridiculous bank account at the moment. They barely let me pay for supplies and good food. And that is mostly because I said I wanted it, and just bought more of it than I could eat and they had to either partake or waste it. But even that was pulling teeth. As we were providing lodging and food, they would not accept wages! They would just donate it back to me. I imagine there is more of my stuff coming, the larger or more fragile things and some of my assistive tech. I was given ridiculous gifts. I have alcohol older than you are, let alone me. I have a really lovely silk quilt that is probably worth several thousand dollars, and I love it. It should be in one of the boxes in my room. On the other hand, if I let people see how much I loved it I would have been drowning in them. As it was I probably have enough yarn to start a store just because people knew I enjoyed knitting. I know Elina didn't send all of it as there would be far more boxes. If possible, I may at times need to go back there if there is a severe need as I don't want to leave people desperate, but I can't go back to that dynamic. Maybe after a bit of a rest from it we could work something out?" If I ever get to the point where I can teach someone how to do this, I would love to continue the retreat/clinic. I did some real good, but I don't think I can do it like that anymore."
"That sounds possible. I would be able to send a squad or two with you for a short trip, and they would help keep you grounded. And I agree, desperate people are dangerous as you know. Depending on the situation, we might be able to help someone here, though there would be confidentiality contracts involved. We shall see. I want to give it a little time first. I think you need a rest, and some time to determine your own priorities first. Then it would be you helping out rather than it being your life. That would help with the stifling aspects I would think." During this long conversation Yin had climbed up to my shoulder and curled up under my ear purring, while Yang was playing with O'Neill's fingers as he was booping Yang on the nose. Even Teal'c looked like he was all but cooing at the cuteness.
"Thank you. I feel like I have been saying it over and over nonstop, but you keep giving me reasons to be grateful. So thank you."
O'Neill nodded in response. We sat in silence for a bit watching him play with Yang who was now presenting his belly for scritches then trying to attack his hand before reverting to cute trap mode again. "Any other ideas? We would like to help you with your education as much as possible, I understand you have your Bachelor's in Math? Do you want to continue that? Would you like to something more like med school? If you got your MD credentials it would lend you a credibility that might be valuable in the future. I realize that the hospital setting would be a challenge, but we might be able to work around that. We were talking about learning Ancient if you wanted as it might be useful to you if you were to go to Atlantis. What do YOU want?"
"It has been a while since I felt safe answering that kind of question. I want to help out. I would like to continue to explore what I can do, it would be wonderful if I could reliably manifest telekinesis. I would like to help you where I can. I can see some of the scar tissue in your systems, and I can actually see the pain flaring in your knee. May I soften that please? I would like to do what I can for you who have literally saved the world and who can't receive the recognition you deserve due to security concerns. The least I can do is minimize the after effects. I have been thinking about my education. Keep in mind that I have only been conscious for just over a year, and it is only in the last four or five months that I have started to be mobile and capable again. I would like to start learning again, beyond the anatomy that I was learning to get better at healing. I want to continue that too, but I would like to learn Ancient. We may have to take it slowly, but I will not let that Asshole take from me my love of learning languages. Just not that format for a while." There were some grins at the ferocity with which I said that last bit. "I was thinking that I might want to head into sports medicine or orthopedics. Thus far, that type of healing is the easiest to work with, and the least traditionally hospital like. I was rather surprised you don't have that type of specialist here, actually. I would imagine that you end up with a lot of unreported pulled muscles and sprains just from sparring."
"That is definitely true. One of the ideas we were throwing around earlier is setting up a space that would work for meditation that you and Teal'c could use to teach others, and might include something like a space for massage?"
"Actually, if you have the ability to do so, you might want to get a massage professional or more here. A lot of people consider massage to either be intimate in nature or the providence of yuppies. In reality it is a fairly critical analog and compliment to things like chiropractic work. As is frequently the case, medicine and medical practice that is about the prevention or mitigation of injuries is frequently discredited or at least undervalued. Ideally you could hire a massage trainer and offer classes to base personnel so they can help care for each other on mission when small stuff goes wrong to help prevent it turning into major injuries. How often has it happened that you have something like a pulled muscle or a bad bruise, then you take a fall or dodge into a root or something and you end up with something like a full back spasm, or a dislocation because the musculature of the injury site was too tense or inflamed to handle the impact or overstretch? It's happened to me and I am not a front line soldier dodging weapon's fire. I can't imagine how much worse it is for you. Also soldiers are generally overly stoic about nuisance injuries I would imagine. No one wants to spend time in the infirmary, so things don't get reported and are only haphazardly made better, sometimes worse. I literally see at least three injuries in this room right now that qualify. I would be happy to help out, though I would need power to deal with all three." There were intrigued looks from most of the room. I am interested in Sports as apart from the more casual atmosphere it is frequently associated with, I can sneak my special healing in more discretely than many other specialties, and they are the most frequent injuries that people face. It might help if there was somewhere to get help with minor injuries staffed by someone who could differentiate between actual minor injuries and more severe problems brewing without incurring the same reporting requirements as going to the infirmary. How many soldiers have their own advil rather than deal with the infirmary? How many more just grin and bear it? You can even site security concerns as this will help both with soldier readiness and retention, reducing turnover of soldiers, thereby minimizing the number of people requiring disclosure and reducing the amount of unit retraining required to integrate new or even returning soldiers to a new squad. Probably worth it to the bean counters for a few rehab soaker tubs and some other tech. In fact...I mentioned that my bank account is somewhat ridiculous, didn't I? I realize this is a hard sell to even get to the bean counters as this is the military and also a very non traditional approach, but what about civilian sponsored programs? Could you sell this to the military machine as a test program if it was privately funded for the first say two or three years? If it showed sufficient positive merit then the daily costs would be taken over by the military at that point as well as the costs of replacing or adding new equipment even if the original gear is effectively donated? Or perhaps offered for buyout on favorable terms?" It was fun watching the General's eyes light up at the idea, he clearly approved. "I know all soldiers learn a certain amount of emergency first aid, and they pick up a fair bit of effective care by default, but this could be really useful on mission too, and not just for care of fellow soldiers. Basic sports medicine is often non-medicinal, more about what kind of stretches or exercises and PT-physical therapy rather the physical training-benefit the body to recover after injury and how to wrap acute and recent injuries for support. Without needing to trade medicines that have potential agricultural or scientific consequences, if you are being sheltered by an everyday family and you help Pa with his back so he can be more effective on the farm or in the mine, can you imagine how useful that might be in a hearts and minds campaign before you even start the trade initiatives?" Now Daniel looked like he had swallowed a pogo stick, he was practically bouncing in his chair. O'neill was now sitting back in his chair looking flabbergasted.
"Out of the mouths of babes…" he muttered under his breath, though it came out louder than intended. "That is not to say I in anyway consider you a child. Even if you were child aged, with your experiences you wouldn't really be a child anymore anyway. But you have provided several potentially highly beneficial and actionable ideas that might have a truly significant impact on what we do here in truly rapid succession. I am almost afraid of what you come up with next. You are making me need to do paperwork. I would ask you to minimize that in the future, but your ideas are potentially so helpful and are possibly ways around some very strident objections that I might actually pull some of them off! Anything else up your sleeve?"
"Actually I have a longer term or bigger question. I realize that the rest of the country and most other countries have no idea what is going on here, but are there plans for when that eventually ceases to be true? You are talking about intergalactic travel here. That is not a genie that will not ever be rebottled barring apocalyptic situations. I can't imagine that this mission will ever meaningfully shrink. I think I have heard mention of actual home-built spacecraft in some of the stories? I assume you are building more?" The affirmative nod had me continuing, "Has anyone considered that this is not navy or air force or army directly at all and even marines need so much additional training to maximize effectiveness off-world that it seems that you are effectively creating a new military branch of service given how divergent from earth-bound service your training must need to be? This program has to be several years old, right?" nod. "You probably poach the cream of the crop regularly. I would imagine that even the upper brass that isn't read in has a vague awareness and possible resentment for the black hole of highest quality troops that vanish from the available roster." "That is all very true, and is starting to become a problem. There is even some significant resentment starting among some of our allies who would normally be read in to at least some degree. There are endless discussion on how to integrate some of them, but apart from selected scientists, it mostly hasn't happened. Everyone wants to do it their way, and no one is compromising."
"What if you combined it all into one giant proposal to address all of the above. You have been here since the beginning, yes?" Again the nod. "So your recommendation would hopefully carry significant weight. What if you came up with a proposal that addressed all of those concerns? Would it be taken seriously?"
"That depends entirely on what it contains and how much it costs. And how many favors they can curry by sneaking in cousins and the like. What are you suggesting?"
"Well, you already have specialized training here, yes." Nod. "What if you codify it into more of a true school or training course, like flight school or OCS. If nothing else you need to find the xenophobics and weed them out before they hamstring you, and the sheer volume of what soldiers need to learn means you must be practically doing that already in a less formal way. If you could formally codify the basics and have additional training available as needed, it would be ready for when you eventually include your allies and a unified force or at least a multinational one. Murphy's law being what it is, the secret will pop eventually. You have to know that. I am sure you have had innumerable close calls already. Wouldn't it be worth it to prevent as much of that crisis as possible? Do you really think that the future of the space race and genuine flexible space flight and exploration can really be in the hands of just one country?"
O'neill was staring at me like he was trying to read my soul. "No. I don't think that would work at all. There are a few of our allies who know something, some know more than others. There is definitely resentment because we control the stargate, though it is not a politic opinion to hold. I would very much prefer to dodge that warhead if possible. You are talking about creating something like starfleet. A multinational force that unlike the UN can actually accomplish things. There have been many backroom discussions about this, and a lot of conference room chest beating and bragging, but yes, I know that the reveal is inevitable, and the longer it takes the worse it will be. Again, not a politically healthy opinion to have, but I definitely agree with you."
"If we codify our training for our own troops, then invite some of our more important allies to come once it is established, and as it grows we begin to include others, the US gets to stay in the effective lead by dint of sheer volume of experience for a while, meanwhile we get help with the future manpower needs by relying on our allies. As our allies get folded into the program, if the secret stays kept that long, we look a lot better as we were merely keeping op sec rather than greedy hoarding, or at least we will have made enough overtures in that direction for the spin doctors to go to town on. This will also open the door for some of our off world allies to participate. You have the best of all available unifiers, the hybrid of an epic mind-blowing challenge like the space race like in the fifties and sixties, and a universal enemy or several. Who knows, maybe we can spark a golden age and make it stick! That is something I could really get behind and help in any way I could."
"I think I will take you up on that." The respect I could see in his eyes was like balm to the soul.
"I would like that"
Chat moved onto fluffier topics from there after a bit of thoughtful silence. I think this might be a very nice home for a while.