The Omake Files – The Fifth Man
First Colony

"Retirement"

Planet P5A-944; otherwise known by 'First Colony', and derivations of. No Official Name.

Over the decades, the Tauri had started off as calling themselves human, and only somewhat grudgingly letting the Jaffa call them the Tauri. Eventually, it began to stick that much more, as to say you're a Tauri, is to say you are from the Homeworld.

After First Colony was established, 5 years after it began to prosper, with the secret about the Stargate and a lot of the attached details getting for some of it, unclassified (Emmett Bregman was handy in quelling fears, as he got to also show an updated version of his video from long ago, well, rather a supplement. A 'Before' and 'After' shot. Including that First colony was being built at the time) Another planet, this time simply habitable with no terraforming required, but similarly devoid of intelligent life. Although animal life had flourished there.

Five years after, and smaller moons began to be terraformed, with all the deep-ground artificial gravity generators to bring them close to planet-gravity. Varied from planet to planet, between 0.8g and 1.3g (With the scale set to 1.0g: Earth gravity)

First Colony was a heavy world, 1.2g, most moons were low-gravity, 0.8~0.9g, only two were 1.0g or above.

Humanity, had reached for the stars.

One, key point, that had been made with moving planets, was that it was a condition that they literally, after 6 months of living there, become citizens of those planets or moons, not exactly forfeiting their rights on earth, more of a, I am not going to balance the economy-based life on earth with the utopian life on Jegra, or any of the other weirdly named moons people moved to.

Another was that while yes, food was free, the extra stuff not required to live were priviledges, and you had to earn it, somehow.

That was a suggestion from one of the key advisors during the formation of the plan for First Colony.

A familiar name to those who knew about the Stargate program, and more.

At the time, Colonel Harry Carter.

He had a few ideas about how living in a society with the capacity to go, "living essentials are so abundant and unlikely to run out that we don't have to have an economy for it" could collapse into anarchy, when those responsible for keeping that source going... well.

Lets just say he shared that he knew of one society that should have been Utopian. People to learn because they want to, and all that.

But it didn't work. People coming into the society were locked out of being able to stay within it. Not being taught what they needed to get even food, relying on shopping...

Literally, the magic world shouldn't have required money. Long-term enchanters to lend their talents to conjuring or otherwise "duplicating" books to learn from, that would last a school year. Spells to enhance tree growth, in order to create a renewable source of material to create those that then go in the family libraries. Also usable on edible plants... So on and So forth.

Sure, some level of barter system would be in place.

But that is where Harry suggested a different system, than the economic model. He didn't know what to do for it though.

No, the idea of earning by learning and helping the community came from a quiet corner of the group involved.

And honestly, earning by learning, rather than earning by working and faking the learning and so on and relying on parents to enforce (when parents can be either too strict or give in without even a push from the kids etcetera.)

And on the economic model especially, if you didn't have the skills, you couldn't get the money to do something you may very well be very good at.

On this system, you can do that, and if it's something that's also beneficial to others, even better.

On this system, Kids were, perhaps through some kind of subtle yet morally-ok method of manipulation (which is what parenting involves usually, in droves) encouraged to learn.

Like to race cars? Fine... excellent driver though? Sure, so long as you help others to learn to drive... etcetera.

Most teachers on these colonies actually found themselves much preferring life out there, rather than on earth. With the revolving group of kids that were, year by year, easier than the last because they genuinely wanted to learn, was great.

Society could never be truly Utopian, but the incentives towards criminal activities, and related downsides of society that necessarily aren't illegal in certain places... well those incentives didn't exist.

Crime, a lot of it, was money related. Drug dealing, theft, etcetera.

Money, which those planets didn't use.

And of course, those who do it not for the money, but for the personal pleasure, are either, suitably placed into therapy (with even some, putting the skills gained into useful, beneficial-to-society tasks. Even on Earth, that was known to happen!) or for those lost causes, put into prison.

And unlike some prisons, where they get TV, PS3/PS4s, or Xbox Revolutions, or Nintendo Wiid (A gamble to be sure by the company on naming the successor to the Wii) these guys weren't given the priviledges that economically-strapped people on earth couldn't get even working 72 hours a week, that the misbehaving teens who are not always necessarily doing wrong on purpose, or doing anything to earn.

No, those released had proven themselves reformed, and any repeat offenses on certain charges were, perhaps ruthlessly, but in the day and age of unquestionable proof, not as morally ambiguous as it used to be, put on the death penalty.

Those whose original and repeat offenses both, weren't that bad, well, certain crimes were on a two-strikes rule, while others were on the three but with life in prison sentence rather than the death penalty.

Having a moon as a prison reminded two retired generals of some problems such prison systems had shown in science fiction, so when that passed, Ret. Generals H. Carter and C. Mitchell had strongly suggested that children born on prison planets were not left there.

The echoes of having whole planets' societies not based on currency, economy, (and being able to do it mostly right) had reverberated through a lot of aspects of human life too.

Foster children were often seen in a certain way, and unfortunately, a lot boiled down to that foster families sometimes couldn't actually afford to have the 'top brand names' on the kids clothes... or otherwise economy-based materialistic lifestyles of the teenagers of many countries on earth.

On the other planets, there wasn't that aspect.

They knew, the foster parents were taking them in because they wanted to, because they cared.

They knew that they didn't need to complain about not having clothes, because they could have some of the best clothes around. Production and style wasn't infinite, by any means, but it was no longer the days were someone could go to a clothes boutique and get half the store.

With laundrettes using technology in the cleansing of clothes, giving old clothes back wasn't even an issue. Don't wear it anymore? Okay. Exchange for the same but in your new size? Sure.

Women found that their wardrobes weren't nearly as big on these colonies, as they used to be on earth. Yes, they could have their casual wear in the closet alone, and special occasions involve, one day, going to those clothing boutiques, seeing themselves all done up in the shops' special holographic alcove to show the person what they'd look like with different styles of hair and makeup and all that. Those boutiques weren't just clothes.

Tailored clothing wasn't just an elite-only now.

Kids weren't restricted to the cheerleader clique, jock group, and nerds of old American high school. Simply by the part where, on these colonies, it didn't matter that their parent was a billionaire or down-and-out-of-pocket looser unable to get a job.

You couldn't tell the fostered Jock from the "rich" Jock, and so on.

With the planets each essentially independant, and drawing a lot of the earth's populous away, religions either dying out or adapting (and indeed, the hostile-to-other groups largely disappeared) Earth was slowly but surely, adapting (in a very controlled manner) to loosing that economy basis of its' worldwide society.

Indeed, alliances and wars were, while the latter not entirely gone, they were not such a big thing anymore.

The lessons learned by the SG teams during their first 15 years of operations from Cheyenne Mountain were not ignored.

After they had two colonies out in space, an idea was drawn up that any planet could agree or disagree to, one attached to another idea: The Formation of the "Tauri Alliance". Geeks the galaxy over saw the inspirations for what they were: Babylon 5, Star Trek, and the like.

Each planet, independant 'states'. But, allied together.

The attached idea was relatively simple when suggested.

'I defend my home, my neighbour defends his home, and together, we defend our homes.'

No, not an enforced draft.

The threat of invasion was occasional, and the lesson learned from Goa'uld, Ori, Ori's Armies, and a variety of other outside threats was listened to.

At the age of 68, Governor of the planet named "Selmak", in honor of his Father-in-Law's dead Tok'ra Symbiote, had this to say about his world implementing the final version of what became law.

"The moment we decide, 'I am not going to raise my gun and defend my land', and say 'Let those defend us', do we forfeit the right to our land? When the Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, Sisters, Sons and Daughters in our militaries are injured defending those places, or even killed, would it therefore be the right of their family to claim that land as their own? Defend what is yours. If your neighbour does his or her best but separately, you cannot win, but together, you can, then that is what we should do!

"It is not the sole job of the Tauri Alliances' armed forces to defend us. They are just a few lines of defense out of many layers.

"Even if you choose to become Teachers, Artists, Musicians, Programmers, Engineers, Designers, Athletes, chefs or anything else, you can remember this:

"Those who defend our worlds, when they are young, they need to be taught. By rights, no one should not have the privilege of knowing beauty in the world around them. When they are off duty and trying to relieve stress, they may listen to your music. They rely on the software of their computers to get things right and the hardware to not crap out at an inopportune time. Anything they use will have needed to be drawn out by someone, made to look the way those things do. And the knowledge of how to stay in shape is often gained by those who are professionals at it. They may not have the time to see to what are otherwise basics for you. How to cook the food they eat.

"In battle, even just hearing a familiar song from a fellow soldier can strengthen their resolve. Knowing that their team mate can get them out of a jam, or figure out what the enemy are saying and therefore know what they will do. When Communications are out, as I know too well can and will happen, we may need a person to get from one location to another in record time. To reprogram something to do a job it was not meant for, or built that item.

"SG-1 was not a team of grunts. First there was then-Colonel O'Neill. He was a pilot and Special Forces veteran before he even stepped into Stargate Command the first time. He still had to be taught what he knew. Second, there was Doctor Jackson. He was not a soldier. He was a triple-doctorate certified genius of ancient history. Philology, Anthrolopology and Archeology. He needed to get fit to have any hope of surviving on his own. And indeed, he survived, even when he died. Third, my lovely wife, then-Captain Carter. Yes I took her name. She was an astrophysicist and soldier. She also had a lot of training and skill with Engineering and Programming. To quote, It took her two years and a supercomputer to Macguyver a Dialing device for the Stargate, the first time. Fourth, There was Teal'c, a Jaffa. He knew nothing of Earth when he came to us. He later became the galaxy-renowned philosopher, artist and athlete that we know today. Fifth, was Jonas Quinn. He was initially on the team for a year, and after a several-year-long period on his homeworld, Langara, he then came back to us. He was a frighteningly quick learner. His base was in science, but he took over Doctor Jackson's duties during Daniels' infamous year of absence. Then... there was me. I had already participated in a few missions, helped out around the base, prior to joining SG-1. I wasn't even a college graduate or Air Force Officer. I had to be taught. From Scratch. I knew nothing of science, engineering. Only the difference between right and wrong. Everything else was instinct or guesswork for awhile. Today you see me here, The man who aged decades in seconds, married his fellow teammate, and became the most famous engineer on Earth once the truth about the Program was released. When my good friend, Then-Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell joined SG-1, or rather, put the band back together, He had read almost all of our mission reports. And I must say, 8 years of missions counts to a lot. He came to us as a pilot. We had to turn him into a decent SG Team member. To this day, he works, now as a civilian advisor for the Tauri Alliance, keeping them on the straight and narrow... a rather big switch in roles. A year after Cameron, came Vala. A Con artist, thief, former host to a Goa'uld and many other things. And I am proud to say I knew her. They were all on the team during the years I spent as a part of SG-1. Years that could only have played out at all well because of my key point.

"Teachers, Musicians, Programmers, Engineers, Designers, Athletes... Those civilian careers are all possible after being in the forces, whether or not you actually go for a support or front line role.

"I am not telling you all that you will serve several years.

"I am asking you to give at least the minimum service period... a year. A year where learning how to defend yourself, how to use a weapon, is only a very small part of it."

Authors Note: Not much "pro" some of these ideas. And yes, they sound, er, communistic to me. But keep in mind that much propaganda prevents people from really seeing which parts of a society are actually communistic features and those that are not.

Now you try and think of a society that with matter replicators could have that "utopian" society and not have flaws.