Chapter 7 Getting Started – Part two
After a very satisfying three days of teaching, the day of the meeting was finally upon them. With a quick goodbye from their colleagues, the Pendragons and Grangers (Rose too) phased out of the Headmaster's office to their home in Crawley. Due to the time differential (6hrs) it was decided to go to Smallville just after high tea. That would get them there in the morning with time to take a short nap to acclimate the group to the time change so they wouldn't fall asleep in the middle of the important meeting after being filled with the holiday meal. At about four pm London time the family gathered around the conjured hoop for the trip. With a command from Harry the group is whisked away to Kansas.
As soon as they arrive Harry and Hermione detects a powerful presence and turns to face it with their guard up. They immediately put up a powerful shield around the family group to protect them from this presence.
"Whoa Harry," Jonathan says," What's with the shield?"
"That would be my fault," an unknown to Harry and Hermione person answers," If you can detect me and put up a shield like that, I had better come clean and explain myself to everyone."
A girl steps out from behind Clark, who he had unconsciously stepped in front of to protect when the shield snapped into place around the visiting family. Clark turns to her with a questioning look on his face.
"Lana?"
"I'm beginning to hate my new job," she mumbles to herself as she steps up. Harry, Hermione and Clark could all hear her mumblings and were giving her their complete attention. She straightens up and continues.
"My name is Lana Lang and I am a level two mage," she says," and if after I reveal what I do for a living and Clark still wants me, I am his girlfriend and hopefully when he comes of age, life mate."
"You mean that Lana?" Clark asks.
"Yes I do, Clark," she answers," I love you and hated to have to keep secrets from you, but it is part of my job with the government."
"I know what it means to have to keep secrets from others Lana, you know that," Clark whispers to her as he puts his arms around her," One thing I haven't explained to you as I didn't think it mattered is the fact that I am twenty one years old in actual age due to the time my flight from my home world to here took. I was just waiting for my body to catch up enough to ask you to be mine."
Harry took the shield down when he heard that and cleared his throat.
"Ahem, could you …." He paused; Harry and Hermione again took a defensive stance. This time facing the door.
"Explanations later, we've got an incoming multiple apparitions."
Harry and Hermione automatically put up an anti-apparition and port key ward around the immediate house. Soon several pops were heard as whoever tried to apparate in was shunted outside into the court yard where several screams and yells of pain were heard.
"Non magicals," Harry commands," Stay inside and if you have firearms in the house Uncle Jonathan, you might want to get them out in case they are needed. The rest, wands out and with us; stay behind Hermione and me until we find out what is going on."
Mrs. Kent, Rose, Herman and Clark all take a window to back up the Pendragons, followed by Johnathan and George with shotguns. Lana, Hermione and Harry cautiously walk out the front door to see who tried to raid their aunt and Uncle's home. When they get to the front porch they spot several men and a couple of women on the ground in pain, clutching their wand hands with their wands on the ground turning to ash as they watch. Lana recognized one of the men.
"Harvey?" she asks in surprise," What are you doing here? This is my boy friend's house. They are no threat to national security."
"You don't know that Lang," he sneers at her," you are too personally involved. We knew you were involved with an unknown entity in one Clark Kent, who mysteriously appeared nine years ago. There is no trace of his parentage or the orphanage he was supposedly adopted from. When the magical signature of the aliens from the ship appeared in the port key signature today we knew you had betrayed your country."
"You've been using me," Lana accused," I knew it was a bad idea to trust you and your government."
"Yes," he agreed," We had a spy in the soldiers that were on the ship and he was able to get a reading on their magical signature and power. If it wasn't for the ship they would be just ordinary magicals. We were sent to apprehend them."
"Now," he yells out as his group all pull spare wands and several trucks with troops converge on the house with three helicopters start to circle around.
Harry and Hermione are enraged.
"Get in the house Lana," they say in unison," We will handle these incompetents."
She turns and runs crying as she felt used and betrayed by her own country.
"You Americans think you are the most powerful people in existence with your nuclear weapons and armies," Harry says in rage," Let us show you what real power is."
With a wave of his hand he froze all of the soldiers in place. The helicopters quit circling around and were frozen in place. The guns of the soldiers turned to slag in their hands, causing them to drop them in haste. Then Harry and Hermione started to glow. The glow got brighter and brighter as their power went off the scale. The magicals in the surrounding areas of the country all stopped and looked in the direction of the power surge in awe. At the Kent's, the invading magicals all went to their knees whimpering in fear. Inside the house the family was in a euphoric state as they felt the love of Harry and Hermione protecting their family.
ooOOoo
In Washington DC where the headquarters of magical North America was located, all of the detectors went off the scale and the equipment started to overheat.
The head auror in charge knew about the operation in Kansas and called his boss, the magical president.
When the phone answered he said," I think we just made a massive mistake sir. I think you better get down here right away."
The magical president of the North American Confederation showed up within two minutes of being summoned and looked at the board.
"What are we going to do?" He asks," these orders came from the President of the Unites States himself. You know the charter says I have to follow his orders."
"Yes sir," The auror answers," I don't envy you having to tell him his idea was not a good one."
Just then all power went out for everything.
"Merlin," the auror says in frustration," I thought we had generator backup for power failures."
"We do," a junior auror says," they aren't working either."
ooOOoo
When Harry and Hermione started to glow; in orbit above the planet the Phoenix materialized directly above Washington DC. Military telemetry and telescopes immediately locked onto the ship. They watched as hundreds of small silver spheres emitted from the bottom of the ship and went into stationary positions around the planet. A few seconds later all power went out, everywhere around the planet. All electrical power was neutralized, including traffic. The only exceptions were things like planes in flight, ambulances and hospitals.
Hermione points her finger at the leader of the invading group of magicals.
"You can tell your government to leave our family alone or the consequences will be too terrible to contemplate. I have half a mind to let the Borg invade when the time comes and not do anything about it. It would serve you right to be turned into mindless automatons to do what the hive mind tells you to do. Lucky for you we are not without compassion. We were sent here by the Creator of all things to save your sorry asses from your self-delusions of grandeur. We are not alone in this galaxy and there are things out there that would turn your blood cold in fear. We intend to prove it to your president."
"You're delusional," Mr. Harvey sneers," the Borg are imaginary beings on TV. They don't exist."
"We don't know if they call themselves Borg or not," Harry says," But the Borg from TV are a very good analogy of what these creatures are and do. We intend to try to dissuade them from their path of destruction. It will be decades before they make it to this side of the galaxy and we intend to make Earth a formidable foe for them if they do reach our section of space."
While he was saying this to the government man Hermione was implanting images of the creatures and what they can do.
With a wave of her hand the non-magical soldiers and helicopters disappear and reappear back at their base with their minds obliviated of the incident. Support personnel run out to find out what happened and discover disoriented solders with slagged equipment and no memory of why they were kitted out in combat formation with no target and no weapons.
The magicals were all sent home to their families with no memories of being at the Kent's; all except Mr. Harvey. He was reliving the images over and over again, imagining himself as a victim of the creatures in the images. The healers at the hospital all tried to obliviate the images from his mind but could not. The images made it throughout the magical community of North America and finally faded out after a few weeks. They were not forgotten though and everyone became a bit paranoid about a perceived threat from outer space. In the coming months and years the paranoia would fade away as the threat never materializes. That doesn't mean the non magicals let their guard down though, not after what the President learned that fateful day.
ooOOoo
Back on the day in question Harry and Hermione calmly walk into the house after sending all of the bad guys away.
"The magicals will leave us and you alone now," Hermione says to the family that had gathered in the sitting room," we still have to deal with the non-magical government. We won't be able to do anything that requires electricity for a couple of hours. You are welcome to come with us to entertain the President and vice President today if you want. We are going on a little trip. Lana, you are welcome to come as well. If you really want to be a part of this family, you will need to know everything."
"If Clark will still have me after leading those assholes here," she answers.
"You know my answer," Clark says," If you can do even a bit of what we just saw today, you should be safe enough being associated with me. I was worried someone would try to use you to get to me."
"Hardly," she snorted," I was worried about protecting your secret. That is why I went to work for the government. I systematically removed all references to you having any mysteries about you at all. All they have now is conjecture and no proof. I made all references to your birth legitimate and altered a few memories at the orphanage named in your papers so the older ones remember you being there as a toddler. That was the one thing your ship couldn't do when it put the records there to begin with. Now you will have living workers that will remember you if you go visit the orphanage. It might be a good idea to do that in the near future to establish your legitimacy with any agencies that are still spying on you."
"We can make a donation in your name Clark," Hermione says," You can even deliver it for us while you visit with your parents. You can tell them it is in appreciation of the care they gave you when you were young and for their help getting you parents."
"Okay everyone," Harry says," let's go enlighten a president on the facts of life."
With a short blink of her eyes Hermione commands the Phoenix to beam them up and they disappear in a rapidly swirling coalition of lights and sound.
ooOOoo
On board the Phoenix the Pendragons take the helm of the ship and drop it into a lower orbit above Washington DC and the White House. The only ones who can see the ship now are people with manual telescopes that don't require electricity of any kind. (Automatic motors that keep a scope aligned to a star as the Earth rotates) Although, as close as the ship is, a good set of binoculars would enable a person to see it, if they knew where to look.
On the ground, the joint chiefs of staff were meeting with the president in a White House conference room, trying to figure out what to do about the power outages and the failed raid in Kansas. While they were sitting around the conference table they started to feel a tingling sensation all over their bodies and the next thing they knew, they were in a large room with light grey painted walls with blue carpeting on the floor. There was a large TV type screen on the wall and they were all seated around a different conference table than the one they were at before. They had just regained their voices asking each other if anyone had an idea of what was going on when they all turned to a swishing sound of a door opening in the back corner of the room. Two teenaged looking children walked in and stood at the end of the table nearest the door. The president stood up and demanded.
"What's going on here? You have no right to kidnap us and bring us here; where ever here is."
"And you had no right to order a raid on our family's home; especially on Thanksgiving," the girls says," I hope you survive the ire of the voters when they find out it was your fault their Thanksgiving dinners were ruined by your action. It was us that cut off the power grids all over the planet. At the present time the electricity has been neutralized all over the planet except where needed to keep people alive. It will last another hour and forty minutes before power is resumed. Stores can't make sales as the cash registers will not open, banks can't operate, money flow is halted, and stock markets are shut down. The economy is at a standstill because you would not listen to us and tried to take us from our family. As for where you are…"
She turns and waves her hand at the view screen, which comes on to show them that they are on board the Phoenix three hundred miles above Washington DC.
"Welcome aboard the Phoenix," the male says to the group," you are in orbit three hundred miles above your city. My name is Harold Pendragon and this lovely lady next to me is my wife, Hermione Pendragon. We are from an alternate reality and were sent here by the Creator of all things to fix this planet. Even though our physical ages are as we appear, fourteen for me and fifteen for her; our subjective ages are sixty four and sixty five. We are the Elders of the Universe and are immortal."
On the bridge, the main view screen is tied in to the conference room so the family can monitor the meeting.
"I thought the Elders were just a legend," whispers Lana to herself," No wonder they are so powerful."
The others overheard and look over at her.
"They are not legend," Clark says," they were known, even on Krypton. They always show up when great need is at hand. This planet must really be in trouble if they are here."
Back in the conference room.
"That's a bunch of poppycock," one of the generals says," how can you be from another reality and who is this so called creator? You are just a couple of kids with a powerful toy, probably invented by some genius on the planet below us."
Harry turns to Hermione and she nods. The president and generals watch as they morph into their older personas of Hawke and Kendra.
"Would you prefer us in this form?" Kendra asks," maybe so you won't feel talked down to by a couple of kids. We are telling you the truth, so you will understand we are very serious in our actions and intent for this planet. We will destroy any aggressor and take away their ability to be aggressive to others. I'm sure you have heard of the parallel universe theory. Well, it's true and we are the proof. As for how we got here, The Creator who made us what we are sent us here. As for whom he is; the creator just is. He is the entity that created all of the universes and though he doesn't think of himself in the manner your texts portray him to be, you would call him God."
"You're now claiming to speak directly to God?" another general ask incredulously.
"We don't talk to him like we are now talking to you," Hawke says," it's more like he gives us instructions and we answer him. He has manifested himself in a form we could see a couple of times and if there is a god above him, he has not shown himself. The Creator is the one who made all of us. You can call him what you want, it doesn't matter to him. He is only concerned that you don't destroy yourselves in your foolish one-upmanship of each other. Amassing more and more nuclear weapons is only asking for trouble. They are not needed. If you keep going on the way you are some small country that everyone is ignoring will find a way to smuggle one of those weapons into a large city and set it off just to make a statement for themselves. You will always find an idiot that will do anything if the price is right. Look at the militants in the Middle East; they use their religion to justify the atrocities they commit. They would love to show the infidels of the west who's the boss. This has to stop now. We are going on a little trip to show you another reason we are here. Stay in your seat. If you are hungry or thirsty, just speak to the table in front of you and the ship will provide."
The group watches as the pair fades out.
"Well, I'm game," the President says after he settles from watching them disappear," As a politician I've learned to take advice when it is good. No matter how strange it sounds. I'd like a porterhouse steak, medium rare with a baked potato, tossed salad and iced tea to drink, please."
He sat back to wait and see if anything would happen when his meal materialized in front of him; complete with utensils and a napkin. That was enough to get the others to follow suit and soon they were all enjoying a hardy lunch. As they were eating they were watching the monitor and noticed the stars changed to look completely different from what they were used to looking at.
ooOOoo
Up on the bridge the pair fades in already seated in their command seats. Hermione enters the coordinates for the trip into the computer by touching a few pads on her console. With a nod from her, Harry touches pads on his console and a portal appears in front of the ship and the people with telescopes and binoculars watch as the ship translates through the portal like a person walking through a door but not coming out on the other side. The portal shuts off with a small flash of light.
"Cloak the ship as soon as we arrive," Harry orders.
"By your command," the AI replies.
A few seconds later they arrive at their destination and the ship cloaks. They were detected by a couple of octahedron (picture two pyramids with the bases together) shaped ships that were huge in size compared to the Phoenix. The faces of the ships looked like a conglomeration of pipes and conduits that made no sense as they seemed to go everywhere with no discernible pattern. They sent out an active scan that ran over the area, but the Phoenix wasn't detected. After a few minutes of scanning, the ships turned and went to warp. Harry followed in the Phoenix. Hermione sent a passive scan at one of the ships and was able to tap into their main frame. She activated a very narrow beam scan at the node she had found and started to download the data base. The beings in the ship detected the data stream, but couldn't find where it was going. They tried to shut it off to no avail. Security protocols kicked in and they still couldn't get the data stream to stop. The hive mind contacted the queen for instructions and she tried to follow it back to the source, only to find an alien entity she had never encountered before and could not overpower. The ship exploded as she kept adding more and more power trying to overcome the alien thoughts that were compromising her security. After analyzing the data for a few seconds, Hermione touched a pad on her console and on the side of the Phoenix a port opened and a single ball of bright white light exited and shot toward the massive ship in front of them. The light entered through the conduit structure of the ship and passed into the interior by burning through the structure as it went. When it reached the center it expanded exponentially until the ship was engulfed completely with light and then the light blinked out. The light and the ship were gone. The queen felt the loss of all of her subjects on the two ships. She knew she was responsible for the first, but not the second. She searched through her vast data base and could find nothing that would cause this. She sent two more ships to inspect the area and they found the debris from the ship she exploded to disconnect the invading data stream, but of the other, there was no trace. Hermione sent out balls of light to those ships and they disappeared in the same manner.
"We have what we need," She says to the group," they are a hive mind of machines with bio matter parts. They invade other planets and slaughter the inhabitants for the purpose of building more machines like themselves. They will not negotiate and will show no mercy to their victims. We have to find a way to turn off the machine."
She touches another pad and her face appears on the screen in the conference room.
"This, gentleman is why we are here," she says to them," If this race of machines are allowed to continue, they will eventually take over the galaxy as they assimilate more and higher technologies from the races they destroy. We are going to visit the hub and try to slow them down a bit to give us time to be able to counter them before they come to our side of the galaxy."
"Where are we?" The Air Force general asks.
She puts a map on the screen for them to see. A couple of icons start flashing.
"Our home is here in what we call the Orion arm of our galaxy, approximately half way in from the edge. Where we are now is about eighty thousand light years from Earth on the other side of the galaxy about two thirds the way around the Scutum-Centaurus arm. At the cruse speed of a normal warp capable ship it would take us about seventy five years to get back home. Lucky for you we have our portal drive which will get us there in a few seconds. For now we have to slow down this machine race to hopefully contain them to their present domain."
She turns back to her console and enters new coordinates. Harry sets the ship to go through the portal and they come out on top of a planet that looks very gray and lifeless. The planet is actually a planet sized city with a very smoggy atmosphere. No life signs are reported as they are all machines. They scan the planet with a very powerful scan that shuts half the planet down as they look for the main control node, where the queen is. They find it and phase to the control room where she is connected to the matrix of her hive mind. She disconnects directly, while keeping a mental link with the mind, which is a mass of bio-protoplasm. She looks sharply to her left and a pair of drones tries to apprehend the pair, but can't get past their shield. She commands the room to scan the pair of newcomers, but the scans come up with nothing, as if they aren't even there.
"What are you and why are you here?" she finally asks.
"We are the Elders of the Universe," they say in unison," You have been judged by the Creator of all things as a threat to all other life forms in this galaxy. You have turned your native organic forms into machines that feed off those forms and then have enforced your will on others whether they wanted to be like you or not. You have destroyed countless civilizations for no other reason than you can. We cannot allow this to continue."
"We seek perfection," she responds," only by integrating the machine to the organic can we achieve this. Your statement is irrelevant. Your species will be consumed by ours and we will continue. That is the way of it."
"If you seek perfection, you are looking at it," Hermione says," the organic form is the way the Creator intended life to be in the universe. You are going against the creators wishes. It is time to turn the machine off."
With that said Harry and Hermione eject their wands, which then expand into staffs and fire two blasts into the bio matter brain of the planet. They send a virus into the bio-matter to spread throughout the species systems through the hive mind, shutting down the machine parts. Without the machine, the organic parts start to deteriorate and die. Their large spaces ships start to drop out of warp and come to a standstill where ever they are. Other species in this part of the galaxy investigate and start destroying the ships as soon as one is detected.
"Remember this lesson," Hermione says to the queen as she sinks to the floor," If you survive this, we will return to see if you learned anything."
Harry and Hermione phase out to the Phoenix.
"Let's go home," Hermione says," I need a shower to get the filth off me from this place."
She set the coordinates for Earth and folds space the get there. The Phoenix fades into view above Washington DC at the same place it left two hours before.
Her face comes back on the screen in the conference room.
"I hope you gentlemen learned a lesson in humility today. Our planet is vulnerable to aggressive species like that and we are here to make sure we survive long enough to counter the threat. Our immediate neighbors are much friendlier and you will get to meet them in the near future. We hope for a world government here and a coalition with other species in our area of the galaxy. The first step, gentleman is to stop our posturing towards each other and learn to get along. We will be sending a broadcast of this trip to the whole planet so everyone will know what we are up against. The planet below is back to normal for now. Please enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving day with your families."
She reaches over and touches a pad on her console and the group in the conference room is returned to their previous positions in the White House via the transporters. Harry and Hermione's family group move to the transporter room where they transport back to the Kent's sitting room. Hermione goes off to find the shower she feels she so desperately needs. Harry follows her to comfort her for what she had to do. The rest of the family sit around and contemplate what they learned today. After the shower, Hermione and Harry return to the sitting room. Hermione looks over and spots Arial with a frightened look on her face. She walks over to her and squats down.
"What's the matter, Ariel?" she asks.
"What were those things we saw on the screen?" Ariel asks.
"Those were bad machine people that attack other planets and kill all of the people on them,"
Hermione says," What Harry and I did was to make sure it will take a long time before they can do it again."
"Are they going to come here?" Ariel asks.
"No sweetheart," Harry says as he joins Hermione squatting next to Ariel," They will not ever come here. We will make sure of it. We will keep you and planet Earth safe from them. That is one of the reasons we are here."
"Is that the only reason you came back Hermione?" Ariel asks her sister.
"Oh Ariel," Hermione says as she hugs her sister," If I had known you existed, I would have been here a lot earlier. I thank the Creator every day that I have a sister as wonderful as you. We will be here for the rest of your life and more. I love you very much."
"So do I, Ariel," Harry adds," We will be here to protect you. I'm sure our other big brother and his betrothed will help as well. Then, of course, you have your cousin Clark. He is like us except without magic. You will definitely be safe."
"You are the best sister in the world," Ariel says as she hugs Hermione," I love you too, Hermione."
ooOOoo
