"Sorry I'm late, my wife's been working too hard," I said to the elderly man. He was wearing work clothes and, with a youthful intensity, examining the parts of a disassembled Volkswagen Beetle electric motor. It was obvious he'd started work without me. This man... I should probably mention who he was. He was quite a significant figure, after all. Just Ferdinand Porsche.
"Is she an engineer too?" he asked with lively interest.
— Worse. A workaholic ruler with super-fast communication with any subordinate and a private jet capable of delivering her anywhere in the country in ten minutes.
"Oh..." He seemed to understand what was going on. "I wasn't messing with the timeline that much, since Ferdinand Porsche was supposed to have died in '51. I contacted him and convinced him I didn't need weapons, just cheap cars. He would get new technology and complete carte blanche to research civilian developments. Hitler had already fooled him once, so Porsche was suspicious. I told him frankly that any military technology that couldn't pass through the Stargate was useless, and that a glider could solve everything else. Besides, we were both engineers, and he was impressed with my electric motor, powered by a naquadah battery. I remember we talked for seven hours straight. I also treated him a little—he was an old man, after all, but his mind was as sharp as in his youth. So I ended up with Hitler's "best" engineer, or whatever Wikipedia says? Although all his projects for Hitler were complete and utter crap. Technological, yes, but on paper. In theory, a "wonder weapon," in practice, a dud. Porsche knew the battlefield well; he'd seen it in World War I. There, he created the best tractors for enormous guns, and he shoved an electric transmission into the Tiger tank (the one that went into production was from Henschel). An electric transmission in a tank that was supposed to drive in mud. Complete and utter crap, but this is how the man sabotaged the Wehrmacht's efforts. If Porsche were to be compared to anyone, in terms of talent, it would be Arnim Zola from the Marvel universe, but in terms of political ideology, he was closer to Erskine. And the fact that he worked for the Nazis... Guys, when Hitler comes to you and says, "You'll work for me," the answer is never "no." Unless, of course, you want to end up in a resort concentration camp where you'll be subjected to therapeutic fasting, labor that transforms you into a human being, and, of course, regular beatings by guards in the name of your health.
Porsche chose a far more sensible tactic—wasting the Reich's resources. He built a hundred tanks with electric transmissions, and then, after losing the competition to Henkel, converted them into the Ferdinand self-propelled gun—also the most useless piece of junk in history. Its visibility was only forward. Not to mention that he built the Maus, wasting scarce resources on something a billion times more useless.
The man wanted to work on his own cars, so I'll give him those opportunities. Let him set up Volkswagen production, build factories, and then a design bureau. I even gave him a computer with Goa'uld design software. Yes, there were some. True, Porsche will have to learn Goa'uld to do that, because adding a language to an engineering program is BDSM fun of an unknown scale.
I showed him quadcopter drones, explained how they could be used for delivering goods within cities, and introduced him to the concept of programming and the use of computer technology. Naturally, I only mentioned civilian applications, because I suspect Ferdinand was sick of the war—and that's the right word. So, we mainly studied setting up my factory with electric motor production lines to replace the gasoline engines in the vehicles I was buying. There were three product lines: engines for agricultural tractors, trucks, and cars. A motorcycle series was also planned, so that made four product lines. Because of secrecy, I buy various vehicles through intermediaries, so a certain standardization of engines was required that would fit all vehicles of the same line. That's why Ferdinand was studying electric motor components.
"Production needs to be completely rebuilt. The conveyor line you built isn't as efficient."
"That was to be expected," I agreed. What could I say? He'd been doing this for 50 years, and I... well, I worked in a design bureau until my untimely death, and the last thing I cared about was setting up production.
"Next, we need worker training and uniform standardization. Assembly-line production, of course, requires one worker to perform one operation, but this requires a more comprehensive understanding. However, I don't understand why you don't just build flying cars right away?"
"Because I don't want an inexperienced driver crashing into buildings. And the propeller blades would be too big, taking up a lot of space."
— I want to say that... the people here don't look like savages... But you described them as Ancient Egypt.
I raised an eyebrow.
— This attitude arose because of 19th-century writers who wanted to present their shit-stained cities not as unique, but as the norm. So they came up with all sorts of stories. People here are smart. Besides, let's be objective: despite universal education, most people, when asked how an internal combustion engine works, will say, "Well, that's technology." How is this different from the medieval "It's magic"? By a different word? I prefer to say of any technological means, "It's a slightly more complex watermill." Everyone understands how a watermill works and nods sagely. Everything immediately becomes clear to them. Besides, the Romans built the Colosseum in eight years, and that period included the destruction of Nero's palace. That's double the amount of work. People have never been stupid. Thanks to their intelligence, they have conquered all species on their planet. And this type of "magical thinking" arose in areas for which there were no tools to explain. The mechanism for understanding fire emerged much later than industrial use. And no one perceived it as magic, just as in many other fields. People are, by nature, rational beings; it's just that when situations arise outside the competence of an individual or a community, they become confused. To detect the sources of disease, a microscope was necessary, but this was difficult because glass was, for a long time, a monopoly product of a few countries, and experimenting with such an expensive commodity was risky. There were also many misconceptions. Ultimately, only John Snow managed to discover bacteria empirically through observation, rationalization, and statistical data collection.
Porsche nodded. He knew I had an intimate understanding of Earth's history and was using this knowledge to modify humanity on Urvashi. We also had certain agreements: I financed his company, or rather, his son's, and he acted as a subcontractor, purchasing machine tools and equipment for me. Yes, I'll fly to Japan if necessary. I need to elevate humanity from Ancient Egypt, and that requires a huge number of machine tools, for so many industries, that listing them all would fill a vast amount of text.
We talked about the thousands of technical details he recorded in his holographic computer. Actually, because I can't produce monitors, I give everyone holographic computers—a useful invention, really. It makes you wonder: are those monitors really necessary? Incidentally, the founder of Toyota should also consider their usefulness. He'll soon retire and die anyway, so that won't disrupt the timeline either. And soon, Japan will show the entire planet how to make cars.
So, I need to extend an entire planet into space, preferably by the 90s, so that said planet can produce a couple... dozen Hattaks a year. Okay, I'm overreacting. But by the start of the series, my Empire should be so resilient that it can quickly crush the weak Goa'uld, and then the strong ones. But that's wishful thinking. If production ramps up, we'll be able to, like Ford, churn out a bomber an hour. So all that matters is industry and economics. Distance from the rest of the Goa'uld will allow me to relax a bit and fortify just the gate. Although I'll also build defense satellites, just in case. I'll need no more than 100 of them. I'll be able to invest the naquadah that's already starting to accumulate in my warehouses. And Hathor had many technological innovations on her tape device... Five thousand years ago.
However, progress hasn't gone that far. I'm sure Ra would have enslaved me for another couple thousand years for such information. However, the same staffs haven't changed since then, nor have the Zetas, generators, and other interesting things. And soon, the ribbon devices of Osiris, Isis, and Set will appear. I hope they will. After all, the personal ribbon devices of such Goa'uld vary in quality and useful information. For example, Hathor's ribbon device is much better calibrated than mine, and there is a technology for making healing devices. And now that's interesting. Essentially, with a little tweaking, it would be perfect for paramedics. The healing device doesn't cure complex illnesses, but ligament ruptures, life support, and bone fusion are perfect. It's usually controlled by thought, but a program could be created. Essentially, you could create a table for analyzing problems (and such a function exists), then select the function for using the healing radiation, and that's it. I need to think about it. I also got a fair number of addresses—she's Queen Ra, after all—with some personal addresses. I searched for the name—Prague. Didn't find it.
Maybe it was colonized later? Egeria would have been a salvation of sorts, but unfortunately, I have no idea where that planet is. With the tape devices of three more System Lords, and potentially a fourth—Marduk—we can piece together a reasonable picture. Having a database for experiments... I wish I could also take Ra's tape device. And Sokar's. This is just a fantasy.
- The servants will take you to your room, I sent you the food available here in the chat, if you want something, enter the kitchen chat and place an order.
- Yes, I'm doing some light automation here.
"Thank you, but could I see space?" Porsche asked.
I smiled. "Of course, in this planetary system there are two habitable planets, even in the same orbit. We could set aside a few hours and fly around. There's no problem with that."
Porsche is certainly not Messerschmitt, and I don't want to deal with them. Unlike Porsche, Messerschmitt's products flew beautifully, but they can clearly establish some sort of spacecraft production capability. Again, military spacecraft aren't needed yet; essentially, they need a workhorse capable of mining asteroids. But that's a logical step. Should Porsche show off the Teltak designs? He might figure out how to automate production, maybe he has some ideas. The Teltak isn't a B52 bomber, and Ford was churning out one of those at a rate of one per hour. The main thing is not to overuse hyperdrives for civilian use; it's a bit early. Ra might kick the bucket, though.