AN: Not dead only sleeping! Remember to review/discuss! It helps keep the story nearer the top of the boards!
Once again this is a talking chapter, I didn't really see the point in writing 2k about how they go to the planet and do all the things they talked about doing. Let me know what you think. I don't mind inflating the word count by writing that sort of thing, but equally I don't think it actually adds anything to the central concept of 'Soviet stargate'.
-x-
"I fully understand you Vladimir." Mused the General, leaning back in his chair.
"I know I've mentioned it to you before sir, but if we're continuing this expansion we really do need the men. Better to promote than have to train up others from scratch I think." Continued Durov.
Abramovich grimaced, "And yet simply having the need for good officers does not mean they fall from the sky. Or, rather, rise from the ranks."
Vladimir took a breath to speak but Abramovich held up a hand and continued: "I'll say nothing against your Sergeants, they're fine men, as are many on this list, but this doesn't make them inherently good officers."
"But they can become so." Said Igor, "Just as they can become archaeologists, sociologists or whatever's needed of them. All it needs is a man able to think."
"We don't select our soldiers on their ability to think." Put in Basin with a grin, and indeed, everyone at the table laughed, though Durov gave him an exaggerated frown to teach him better. "Come now!" exclaimed Basin, "What do we look for in a soldier? Courage, steadiness, obedience. They need not even have any particular skill because we make sure the operation of an artillery piece or the firing of a rifle is a trainable quality."
"You should hardly say such things." Said Abramovich with a shake of his head, "And you as a political officer!"
"It's true though General." Replied Basin, and to be honest Durov nodded. "We work with what we have. I would hope that any person is able to grow and become more than they would be, to develop intellectually and philosophically, to truly be a New Man. But for reasons I've yet to decide on myself, that's not the case. Simply put, no matter what myself and my colleagues do, not all people have any inherent class consciousness, just as a soldier has to be taught to shoot. In many cases I would agree that this Program in particular is perhaps the most thoughtful I have ever taken part in. I can ask any man on this base for their opinion on some current event and they'll be able to give a good account of themselves, but we've segregated the SG teams and the Regiment for this exact reason haven't we? In part we've established a soldier-intelligentsia. An elite."
"Which remains a source of concern for me." Replied the General, "But like our irregular organisation and equipment issues, that will eventually be resolved, this segregation you speak of won't last forever. Having said that, we will always need exceptional men and officers at the vanguard of our interstellar efforts. I may say without exaggeration as you have done Comrade Basin, that this Program is the finest I've ever commanded, but I would then have to also say that SG-1 is the finest unit I've seen, but that if I had to choose between sending them or one of the Auxiliary teams out on a mission I'd choose Vladimir here-"
"Thank you sir."
"-but perhaps that's my own failing Comrade Basin? Should I pick the teams I send from a hat? Or flip a coin for them? You seem to imply that I shouldn't treat them any differently."
Basin was silent for a moment. "Are we speaking theoretically or practically sir?" he asked with a smile.
Igor laughed and a tension Durov hadn't noticed before evaporated. The Colonel glanced at his watch, "While this remains an important issue, I suggest we table it for now." He said, "Captain Krutoy should be here soon."
Abramovich agreed and they spoke of some lighter matters for a few minutes before the captain arrived.
"Sir!" came an exclamation from the door and a flushed Krutoy strode in, holding a sheaf of papers which he distributed.
"Ah Krutoy, good you're here!" said Durov.
"Yes sir, I'm afraid though sir I'm without my projectionist, if you'll give me a moment." Asked the Captain, gesturing to the slides he'd prepared.
"Certainly, and please take your time Captain." Replied Durov. Krutoy nodded and worked feverishly to work the projector. Krutoy had only recently been promoted. Between Durov and Abramovich they'd decided to split up SG-2 into two units, the first remaining SG-2 and the second forming into the destroyed SG-3 under Krutoy. Ivanovich hadn't been pleased his team was being split in half but Durov had assured him that his own promotion to Major wouldn't be too far away if he kept up his good service. He'd recommended that Ivanovich be awarded the Medal "For Courage" for his actions during the Elysian campaign.
"I've got it now sirs," said Krutoy after another minute and the screen brightened showing a grainy image of a small town, dominated in the centre by a large steepled hall. Around the streets the people walked with large coats and broad brimmed hats. A waggon lay without beast of burden next to the hall, its contents covered.
"Following the occupation of the Goa'uld hatchery planet PD-4 following your orders Colonel Durov, Major Reniv ordered a close watch on the Stargate kept to prevent a breach of quarantine. Around a week ago my team was on watch duty and we had a 'gate activation. No incoming traveller appeared and after receiving confirmation Major Reniv ordered us to dial the address and investigate. We found a temperate planet with agriculture and forestry present and a small settlement as you can see."
"Did you find the dialler?" asked Igor looking up from his briefing pamphlet.
"No Comrade-Doctor," replied Krutoy, "Though we did find what looked like a child's tracks leading back toward the settlement. Our theory so far is that a child was playing with the dialling device and when it activated they ran away."
"And they didn't return? The boy who cried wolf did so several times as I recall."
"Not while we were there sir, at least, not that we could see…"
"Thank you, please continue." Said Igor, head back down to his papers.
Krutoy showed them a series of other slides, images of the town from different angles with some closer on certain buildings. "As you can see sirs, the technological level of the natives approximates 17th or early 18th century. They have complex metallurgy including a large foundry, but we saw no evidence of gunpowder or oil usage." Said the Captain. "What we found most interesting is this."
The next slide was indeed most interesting, and they all leant forward. The image showed a crowd of men standing around a platform with one man and one unas standing on the platform. The Unas's eyes and mouth appeared to be glowing and its face was fixed in a cry of pain while the man behind it pressed something against its back.
"We stayed there three days, sending updates back every few hours as usual, but on the second day it looked like they were preparing this event in the town square. So I sent Dudin up into a barn one night with a camera. He came back the next night and we've had these developed sirs."
Durov made a note on his page: Teams to routinely carry cameras in future? Get Chernov to build us a darkroom?
"This was, as best as we could think of it, a slave auction." Krutoy changed the slide and it showed cages of Unas and others chained to ploughs or other equipment. "We didn't see any horses, oxen or any other animal used to pull equipment, and we saw domestic servant Unas as well. This one they've caught. The stick-" the slide changed again, "seems to be some sort of torture device, the Unas would growl and shy away whenever the auctioneer used it on them."
"I see staff weapons there." Said Basin.
"Yes Comrade-Commissar, I didn't see any organised military but the auctioneer had one, and several of his companions did. We counted about 30, but they might have more."
"Did Dudin get a good look at what the painstick was made of when he was there?" Asked Durov.
"Black metal sir, slightly iridescent."
"Sounds like Naqudah to me." Said Igor. "It seems unlikely that two alien races with separate technological development would have left their things there."
There was a murmur of agreement.
Abramovich looked at Durov, "We'll be needing a closer look at that stick. We don't have anything like that in anything we've seen so far."
"I agree sir, but first, I'd like to hear Krutoy's opinion on the situation."
Abramovich nodded and Durov continued, "Captain, how do you think this situation occurred? Are these slave holders using the Stargate to go to PD-4 or some other planet with Unas and then bring them back to this world?"
"I don't believe so sir." Said Krutoy. "We got… pretty close to some of the Unas back on Elysium, and these ones looked different. Sort of like how you can tell a Negro from a Korean if you looked at them both. I think that like here on Earth, the Goa'uld abandoned that world, either after a rebellion or because the resources were exhausted, and they left a lot of them materiel behind."
The others had a few more questions for Krutoy but the man answered them admirably before he was dismissed, and after that they discussed some other matters around who Durov would take on the mission.
"This does raise an interesting question." Put in Igor, "One of a theoretical and practical nature, you might say." He continued with a look toward Basin.
"Please Doctor." Replied Abramovich with a wave.
"We've interfered with the Roman civilisation on Elysium and General Thurius is now 'Defender of the People' or whatever it is he calls himself, having exiled the Senate to the outer colonies, and in general we've overthrown their societal system. I know you well enough Vladimir that I know you'll want to do the same on this world and liberate the Unas, which, I'll not deny is commendable, but while I can comprehend that slavery as an institution is one of the more barbaric regimes of accumulation, it remains that I don't know what we should do in this situation."
"And I'll admit that I do indeed want to go there and help these people." Replied Durov immediately, "As communists, we can't do anything less."
"But as a soldier of the Soviet Union you serve the interests of the Soviet people first. Before the interests of the workers of other states, or of other planets. Once again, that is the reality of it, even if we make proclamations to the contrary…" Said Basin. "While I understand Diakonoff's point, I don't necessarily see a large issue here. If they use slaves now as labourers we introduce them to a tractor, or give them the plans for a modern irrigation system. It shouldn't be a problem."
"I agree; it seems relatively simple to me." Said the General.
Igor shook his head. "That's not what I mean… Look, say we find a planet which has some advanced technology which may allow us to defend ourselves better, that pain device, or some more of Vulcan's things. Let's say that the only way we can get access to that device quickly and with reasonable ease is to perpetuate some unfortunate circumstance that we ordinarily, not even as communists, just as moral people, not allow."
"Granted, go on."
"Then what do we do?" asked Igor in exasperation. "I don't think we can morally allow this slavery to go on, so we maybe trade them a tractor or some horses I don't know. But, Basin makes a good point. Who do we serve in this Program? The Union? Earth? The interstellar community of enslaved peoples across the cosmos? Eventually there'll be a point when we have to prioritise gaining a special alien box over helping some tribespeople dig a trench."
"Or if someone else has something we think we can use better than they are currently, and we decide to steal it. You already took that sack of Naqudah ore when we got to Abydos Vladimir." Said Basin.
"I did, and we helped them afterwards. Nothing was missing."
Igor gave him a look. "That's not the point and you know it. By what right do we interfere? If we eventually liberate the galaxy and kill all the Goa'uld what do we do after? We would be supplying half the galaxy with military equipment, our teachers would be in their schools, our… our dentists would be in their mouths! Look at Elysium. Your friend 'Ivan' is going about getting the Unas there into order, doing as you've taught him, using the rifle you gave him. Thurius is reorienting his whole society after you spoke to him. I don't care about this mission, or even the one after it, and maybe your responses would just be that you're soldiers and follow orders, but we need to consider these issues as we go forward."
There was silence after Igor's speech. Durov considered the archaeologist's words, and indeed, they were much the same as he'd been considering. Igor had a tendency to compartmentalise, deciding not to care about certain issues due to his distance from them. They'd had many conversations over the last couple of years about similar things, and Durov had tried to get his friend to be more compassionate. Basin meanwhile had the opposite tendency. He would overthink, and get stuck into whatever debate he could, without any particular effort to adapt the discourse into policy.
He didn't know what Abramovich would think. The General, though he tended not to advertise it, was a keen thinker, especially on issues of this nature and the proper conduct of a communist. He had, after all, taught Durov almost all he knew, their association being a long one. As he was thinking about it Abramovich cleared his throat.
"Firstly," the general said, "I will thank you, Doctor, for your contribution. This is indeed a very important point. I once considered it from the opposite perspective, of how we would portray ourselves to more advanced but essentially benevolent aliens, and how in turn their perception of us would affect the Program. All I will say for the moment though is that you should all discuss this with your comrades. Vladimir, speak to Tarelkin and see if he has any expectation of what we're to do in these situations, especially his perspective on what Comrade Vasilevsky thinks. Comrade Diakonoff is entirely correct to highlight the importance of this issue, and I encourage you all to continue to consider it… On your way to find out if they have any more of those pain sticks."