Chapter 204 - 205

P3R-112

The forested and temperate world had once been the site of a summit of sorts for the many Ba'al clones scattered throughout the galaxy. In true Ba'al fashion, he used the summit to gather and then assassinate his many clones, before attempting to take the Orici as host. Control of Ori forces had far outweighed the value of his clones, was his thinking at the time. That his plan later failed was really beside the point of this history lesson on an otherwise singularly uninteresting planet.

Sitting on the planets surface now was an assortment of equipment commonly found on Earth. Prefabricated housing, a small administrative center, and dining hall sat in one corner of the growing compound. In other corners sat impact crushers, jaw crushers, Raymond and vertical mills, in addition to heavy loaders and excavators. In still other ends of the camp sat refining facilities that would continue to grow in size, as equipment arrived from Earth.

Molycorp of the United States, Lynas Corporation of Australia, and Sumitomo of Japan, had formed a joint venture to mine the seventeen elements referred to as rare earth elements. These elements were vital to the production of everything from Ipad's to the most innovative defense technology. At a price approaching fifteen thousand dollars per kilo for scandium, and six thousand dollars per kilo for terbium, this off world venture was projected to be potentially worth hundreds of billions of dollars. As the planet was also rich in platinum, gold, iridium, and low alpha lead, in the future mining operations would expand to harvest these materials also.

Material mined would be transported back to Earth via cargo carriers built on Arkos. In return for transport, site security, and licensing of off world mining, each company in the joint venture agreed to pay a yearly before taxes surcharge of fifteen percent of total proceeds yearly, to their individual home nations governments. Aware of exactly how lucrative this arraignment would be for government coffers, plans had already been drawn up to greatly expand the program. Already, a second venture was being prepared for P5C-768, also known as the world of Edora.

Trading agricultural equipment and supplies, the people of Edora readily agreed to the mining treaty. Negotiations for the rights to establish the mining outpost on Edora led to one unforeseen development though. Years before, during an event the locals referred to as the fire rain, a large asteroid had impacted the planets surface. In the process, the stargate was buried, stranding then Colonel O'Neill on the planet for three months. Living in a state of common law marriage with a woman named Laira, Jack had fathered a son who was later also named Homer. Already, jokes were swirling throughout the SGC about the longest distance paternity suit in human history. General O'Neill's only comment was "Homer? Good name."