Chapter 80

Pluto

Accelerating away, with Arkos station in the distance a massive hyperspace window tore open. Speeding into the rift Borealis was visible for a brief second before the window closed and she could no longer be detected. Borealis was once again returning to Pegasus.

Aboard Arkos station General Jack O'Neill looked out the large viewing window as the city ship departed. Aboard that ship were two people he counted as his closest of friends. Raising the single beer he had brought with him from Earth for the occasion he toasted their departure.

"Good luck Danny boy" he said softly before taking a long pull off the cold beer.

Earth

Before the creation of the IOA the sole funding body for the SGC and off world activities to include research and development of future systems had always been the United States government, through the auspices of the highly classified and impossible to track black budget. After the IOA was created the participating member nations reinforced this budget with black funds of their own. While this process had worked and worked well for the many years of the programs existence it was recognized that it would not remain a workable solution.

At the behest of the United States the member nations of the IOA were tasked with finding a more permanent solution to the matter of funding. After three long years of studies and focus groups tackling the problem a viable long term solution was found. Spear heading the effort with the international community the member nations of the IOA began a very public push for patent law reform at the local level and through the United Nations. International patent law reform would allow for the lifespan of a standing patent to be greatly increased while also increasing the royalty's payable for use of such patents and their derivatives to the patent holders.

With the tremendous influx of advanced technology in the preceding seventeen years with little trickle down to civilian use programs a mass of technology was available to patent. This quantum leap forward in technology on the open market was to spur a planet wide upgrade of everything used in daily life. Patents on medical technologies, agriculture, crystal based computer technology, power generation, and materials science were the first to appear. This was just the initial trickle of what would be thousands of patents to be filed in the coming year. With changes in patent law globally royalties would increase from a paltry three to five percent to a much larger fifteen percent. The trillions generated globally from this would flow directly into the coffers of the SGC program, the IOA, and the member governments.

As products were developed using these patents the funding fire hose brought in incredible amounts of capital. Estimates predicted correctly that the computer industry would see the highest initial return, and this proved correct. Companies reviewing these patents were astounded at the genius of the crystal computer over traditional solid state designs. These systems would be among the first brought to market on Earth. A new generation of computing was born, sounding the death knell of traditional circuit design.

While this system was adopted to provide the much needed funding for further off world expansion these were also the first steps in public disclosure of the SGC program. The world was slowly being prepared for the great reveal of the planets role in several galaxies. In the future it was widely known that more manpower would be needed among the stars and public disclosure would make that possible. Someday the entire planet would be a part of Earth's efforts in the cosmos, not a select few hand chosen for the purpose.

Dissemination of advanced technology in this manner would spur development worldwide. Cutting edge systems were needed to combat the many threats known and unknown in the universe. Earth's industrial capacity would be the new engine of that effort. Utilizing advanced production techniques incredible quantities of very advanced products needed for the off world mission could be rapidly produced. As the people of Earth took a technological leap forward they would also be unwittingly financing their planets development on the universal stage.