AN:I think some of you have been looking forwards to this chapter, so here you go! Enjoy and I look forwards to seeing what you think.
Chapter Eleven: Interface
The lab was closer than the hydroponics bay, on the same side of the habitat ring as the converted fighter bays that held the living quarters. There was, again, a small, empty room between the corridor and the lab proper, Snape described it as an airlock, this time. He said, in an ominous voice, that the smoky shorts, gaseous accidents and explosions that accompanied a failed experiment required that the room have a separate atmosphere.
When the inner doors opened, Harry hung back, as much as he wanted to rush ahead thoughtlessly; the room was complicated. There were conduits running over all the walls, and both floor and ceiling, fermentation tanks stood in heavily built racks along the opposite wall, machines, lights and large pod-shaped containers utterly baffled Harry's picture of the room.
"This is so... cool!" There was a snort in response and Snape steered him down the central walkway; a clear patch of deck where the conduits were sparse or covered over with black and yellow rubber to prevent feet from crushing them. To their right was a large set of racks, filled with obscure containers, packets and tubes that Harry half recognised as part of his required equipment for his Organic Electronics course. Also know as cybernetics! Needless to say, Harry was rather intrigued by the whole thing. The book for the course was incredibly dull, but Harry had hope for it yet. The racks extended into the room in an almost honey comb structure; obviously good in zero g, but he could see that parts of the system were inaccessible at the moment.
His attention was rapidly diverted, even as he was tipping his head to one side to try and read the label of a tube with a large, green hazard label on the side, by the fermentation tanks, gel-ferm units, like he had bought. Large, small, complex and deceptively simple; the racks held them all. Some were active, doing something with their contents. The fluids inside glooped and bubbled and, in one case, fizzed, in a range of colours, from sea-foam green to a sickly, yellowish brown. The smell was... interesting; after the scrubbed clean air of the Thrace and the fishy smells of the 'ponics bay it was a serious contrast. Snape's hand drew him to a halt and he drew his attention back to his teacher.
They were standing in a roughly circular area of clear deck with a metal bench on one side, a rack of ingredients that had obviously been fetched from the stores on the other and machines Harry didn't know the name of.
"Stay there, I will explain in a moment." Snape ordered; it wasn't much of an imposition, there was much to look at. One of the large pods was nearby too, held horizontal on metallic struts bolted to the floor. Harry got a good look, but didn't move from his position, just in case he bumped into something dangerous. The outer shell was clear perspex or something like it, with ports and valves between its interior and a whole herd of conduits. Harry counted five, at least. The upper face, compared to gravity, was open like Hagrid's cockpit, once he'd lowered the dome and now that he looked, Harry could see a console on the inside, much like what Hagrid had had.
Snape returned then and Harry looked back to see that the man had fetched a large fermentation tank and was locking it to the work bench with the magnetic bolts on the 'bottom' of the unit. He watched and waited, expectantly.
"Given your rather... strong reaction to the Interface in Mr Ollivanders shop, I believe it best that you are gelled for the process." Snape said as he pulled out a stool to sit on; it was rather out of place and had probably been brought up from the habitat ring. Harry fidgeted nervously, they had 'talked' about that incident after dinner one evening; Snape had apologised again for speaking to him so carelessly and in anger but had made it explicitly clear that he expected Harry to think before he did anything, in future.
The lecture over, Harry had been asked to describe what he had been able to access. The man had been quiet after that; Harry hadn't been able to judge his reaction.
"Gelled?" He asked quietly, glancing at the pod.
"Indeed. We will spend the next hour fermenting a simple VC gel that will reduce the strain on your body and allow the Thrace to monitor your condition via the simulator," He gestured to the pod-shaped machine, "and relay information to the command station." He gestured to a half circle of screens and routing boards, a much more complex version of Dudley's game boards. In the centre was a chair, like the ones in the Norberta, that swiveled. The whole array was close enough to the pod, simulator, thing that Snape would be able to reach out and touch it, if he wanted to. That was a little comforting.
"Ok... I mean, yes, sir." He babbled, looking to the side, then down at the floor.
"Just remember what it felt like, that first time; you will be fine." Snape said; standing and giving Harry's shoulder a quick squeeze. Harry had had difficulty shutting up at how fantastic it had been, so he nodded and straightened his spine. "Now," announced Snape, turning back to the table, "I will give instructions, you will follow them, and there will be no mistakes. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!" He replied, hurrying to his side, by the rack of ingredients.
"We shall see." Snape said, with a raised eyebrow in his direction and a hard expression. "This is a gel-ferm Unit-1, larger and more versatile than the second in the series, though yours is more than sufficient for your lessons. Observe."
So Harry did. He watched Snape alter the temperature, light intensity and oxygen content inside the tank before setting them to twelve degrees above body temperature, ambient and atmospheric, respectively. The lid came off the tank easily then, and was set down on the bench; it too had magnetic bolts that held it in place, though they were unnecessary in gravity. Then the brewing could begin; the tank was hooked up to a conduit supplying clean water which snaked away to join a bundle of similarly blue-coded pipes emerging from a panel in the wall. In the same way, he had Harry hook it up to an additional power source, saying that the internal battery would last only so long.
Then Snape was giving him ingredient names, things he had never heard of: Korsakov's solution, Amytal agar, and they were carefully measured out, volumetrically. Harry realised that weighing them would be pointless; you would only be able to use that on-planet, since the illusion of gravity changed with the movements of the ship. Some of the substances they measured out were incredibly sticky or viscous, one behaved like jelly and one they had to grate off a purplish-black block. Harry watched a particularly gloopy, blue liquid as it oozed out of the measuring syringe and into the tank with fascination.
Time passed quickly enough; the lid went back on, the tank filled with the prescribed volume of water and Snape turned the tank's controls to manual and told Harry to stir and cool by two degrees every three minutes. The professor then settled in to be pestered with questions while he tuned the pod.
"What do you, um... see? Or feel, I mean, with the Interface?" Harry asked, glancing away from his task to where Snape was setting up,
"Many things. It depends greatly on the machines in the vicinity. My ship, the Thanatos, sends me telemetry. Times, speeds, distances, in a spatial format." Snape replied, leaving it to Harry to work out what that meant, or ask.
Harry imagined it like 'knowing' where the barriers had been in Ollivanders shop, and just nodded; it made sense. He set off another cycle of stirring and cooling, watching the chips of purple dissolve and turn pale yellow;
"I saw a lot... it was... wow. The Norberta was there, and you were really bright, sir." He said in a distracted, vague voice; buried in the recollection.
Snape raised an eyebrow at him, though he didn't see. The gel was turning pale green as the dissolving purple-turned-yellow mixed with the thick blue goop and Harry watched while he brought up the memories. Ollivander had been bright too, would his relatives have been? Was that a part of being a VCer, or just of being alive? And he'd heard the data tablet's doing something...
"Do I have to... um, listen to everything? All the time?" Harry asked, apprehensive and hunkering down on his stool.
"You grow accustomed to it. Some can be blocked out and some becomes as natural as seeing and hearing with your eyes and ears." Snape returned to the bench and the comforting hand on Harry's shoulder appeared again. They fell quiet, Harry deep in his thoughts and mesmerised by the swirling colours in the tank and Snape returned to programming in the gel type and Harry's profile to the simulator.
Eighteen minutes, six cycles of stirring and cooling, after the final ingredient had gone in, the display showed the desired readings and Snape stood;
"It is complete." He said, joining Harry at the bench.
Harry nodded and pulled his hands away from the bench so Snape could reach the controls. The gel was fully combined and even in colour. Harry swallowed and glanced at the gunmetal grey box containing his Interface.
"Out of the way, Mr Potter." Snape ordered quietly as he disengaged the magnets and hefted the large tank. It was a testament to his strength that he could lift it at all; the hexagonal tank was at least ninety centimetres tall, about the size of Snape's torso and full of the thick goop. He poured it unceremoniously into the pod, commenting;
"Where we in zero-g, I would insist on it being pumped and the pod closed but, that is unnecessary in this case." Harry peered into the pod wondering how one tank of gel was ever going to fill it but Snape hit enter on one of the keypads on the command station and water was pumped into the shell to join the gel. He watched incredulously as the gel grew in volume; not just mixing with the water but absorbing it somehow and growing to fill the space.
And then it was time.
Snape opened up the Interface's box then adjusted the setting on Harry's breather to 'S', so it could take an air feed from the pod's support machinery. As he connected it, the screens on the command station sprang to life and the pod began to hum, the internal screens lighting up and internal sensors coming online. Harry understood very little of this, all he saw was the pale green gel lighting up from the inside and screens full of incomprehensible numbers, many of them zeros, appear.
"Once you put it on, I am going to put you straight into the gel, understood? It will ease the strain on your body as you compensate for the new input." Snape told him seriously, placing the breather's mask over his face. Harry nodded in understanding and checked his mask, as Snape had encouraged him to, by giving it two gentle tugs. The seal was complete and he looked up at his teacher with big, green eyes.
"Ok, sir. I'm ready." He said, feeling very small; too small to fit into the man-sized simulator. Snape's piercing gaze held him for a second before he nodded and reached out to pick up the Interface, in its box.
"Very well. In your own time." He said as Harry picked the Interface up from the offered box and it greeted him with a warm yellow light and a hum. It was soothing, Harry thought, as he stroked the smooth, slightly warm shell. Snape put the box down again and Harry tipped his head forwards and brought the arms into contact with the back of his neck.
The effect was immediate; Harry drew in a deep gasp of cool air as the information flooded his senses. Colour, feel, shapes and movement, all confused and mixed up. He could feel his back arching at the overload and then he was caught up, weightlessly in Snape's grip. He could see through the chaos to a familiar pale face and black features but distracting from that was the knowledge that a great awareness loomed over them both, cocooning them in warmth and safety.
The gel buoyed his limbs up and soothed away the tension as he was lowered into its warm embrace. He shifted slightly and the gel gave way and, so assured that he wasn't trapped, he discounted the outside world and focused inwards.
What?
He asked, silently, of the great hulking presence that had turned its attention to him.
Thrace, T-SG573. Home.
An image appeared in front of him, the screen activating in response to the answer to his question; the Thrace, in all her retired glory, rotated slowly in an image of the sea bed. She was truly beautiful, enormous, hulking, yes, but magnificent. Her hull was arched, like the head of a shark and then becoming cylindrical gradually. The habitat ring encircled the centre of the hull, disappearing underneath it and into the sand and weed of the bottom.
Yes. Safe.
He replied, watching the image enlarge to show what he recognised as his room, then shift to show the Hydroponics bay with its glass roof.
Ask. Vitals? Came the next enquiry, this time tagged with a code that Harry recognised as referring to the professor.
Permission granted. He replied, turning his head dazedly through the gel to look at Snape.
Routed. The Thrace's 'voice' was distinct, Harry realised; melodic and complex, while the message from Snape had been flat and empty in comparison, only the tag had made it recognisable.
Quiet. Query? Harry asked, his complicated question came down to just two words when he asked it of the Thrace; he wanted to know why everything had been so loud in Vertic, he'd heard many, many streams of data rushing by and the Norberta had been there, in the distance, along with a great many other ships of less consequence.
Traffic. Many messages, much to overhear. Thanatos sleeping, Professor reducing wireless transmission.
Acknowledged. Harry thought he understood, now. Vertic Alley was an incredibly busy, involved place. Here, in the middle of nowhere, there was little talking going on. The Thanatos was Snape's ship so of course he would ensure that it, he?, did not interfere.
Query, light? He asked next, wondering why VCers stood out so clearly.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Snape skimmed over the pod's readout as it came though; the gel had already eased out the tension in Harry's limbs and his heart rate was settling back to normal. The little flicks and jitters of the boy's hands and limbs were normal as the internal screens on the simulator changed, scrolled and zoomed in response to Harry's commands.
He stood, once he was sure that Harry was experiencing no ill effects. He had been concerned, given the large capacity of Harry's Interface, but he seemed to be experiencing the normal range of data input. Thrace was beginning to take over the consoles; alarms that would tell him if anything changed appeared, a feed of what Harry was asking and the answers he was getting popped up. He stood over the control station, ready to move away and check the pod itself and watched the feed for a moment; Harry was asking about the Thrace's sensory systems:
Query, see, how?
The text came up, with a flash of images as part of the question; the view out of Harry's window and the see-through roof of the 'ponics bay, a schematic of the ship. He wondered where Harry had seen that, but not too hard; Harry studied well and promised to be a good student, on par with his mother. His chest tightened and he stared blankly at the flickering, rotating and zooming images that Harry was manipulating; Lily Potter would always be a source of pain for him and the loss of her friendship had been something it had taken him years to recover from, if he even had. True, he did not need to retreat into his lab every time he was reminded of her anymore, to hide and distract himself, but still... the gap remained; no one could compare to the robust vibrancy and strength she had been overflowing with.
Snape buried the flash of grief and turned to the simulator; now was not the time, her son was his priority now. The surface of the gel had sealed over properly, forming a thin skin that would stop the gel floating away in zero g. It was also the proper colour and viscosity, he noted as he pressed a hand against the surface. A flurry of commands at the control panel showed systems green. The internal sensors lit up the occupant eerily through the green substance; Harry looked almost monochrome as the greenish tinge washed out the colour in his skin and turned it white to his hair and clothes' black. Only his green eyes stood out as they flicked rapidly from screen to screen, Snape was surprised that he had two running and frowned slightly; VC was taxing in its own way and at this level, more screens meant more exhaustion. He couldn't see their display from where he was standing, so he returned to the command station and looked at his copy of the feeds.
Once he had, he slumped down in his chair and watched with a mixture of amusement and dismay; Harry had managed, in the two minutes it had taken him to run the simulator's checks, to make contact with the Norberta via the Thrace's comm. system. Hagrid's response was appropriate; surprise, curiosity and a quick call to Snape.
The man's face appeared on a new vid screen, joining the flock around the command station. "Professor? Yeh got 'Arry there?" He asked, obviously looking off at the feed from Harry. Snape's copy of it showed that they had exchanged a few lines of text already, basic greetings mostly.
"Afternoon, Hagrid. Yes, Mr Potter is Interfacing with the Thrace for the moment, in a simulator." He replied, sending Hagrid a few seconds of video of Harry in the pod using a quickly typed code and an Interface command. Harry smiled at the camera, to Snape's amusement, and sent another line of text straight from his mind to the comm. system.
HarryPotter: Thanks, professor. See, Hagrid, I'm nowhere I shouldn't be!
Snape frowned and glanced back up the logs, to try and see where the callsign had come from, but there was no indication that Harry had chosen it specifically. Usually a callsign started out as initials and a list of numbers, so the use of Harry's proper name was decidedly un- usual. Hagrid's screen showed him busy with replying to the brat, so Snape queried the Thrace about it. An image of Harry's scar appeared, taken from the feed he had sent to Hagrid, along with an excerpt from the Poseidon Handbook;
Callsigns.
Section 3, subsection b. Person's of significance, for the sake of convenience may use full and/or recognisable names in place of a traditional callsign.
The next line was strangely ominous, to Snape's mind and his expression became grave.
The Boy-Who-Lived. The Child of Stars. Hope.
He deleted the entire string, angry at the Thrace for falling into the mindset that he had managed to keep Harry away from so far. His own infamy would be hard enough to handle aboard the Poseidon, even with just the students, if the AI's got into it as well, Harry would have nowhere to retreat to. A dialogue box popped up in the same screen that he had deleted his search string from;
Thrace: Query, deletion? She asked, and Snape gave himself time to think by checking Harry's vitals and skimming through his conversation with Hagrid. He was at a loss as to how to explain to the ship; how do you convey a gut feeling, an inference based on experience and observation of a person, in code?
But then, he could have cursed at his own foolishness, the ships; Thrace, Poseidon, even the Hogwarts Express, would always place pilot welfare first, and that would include what they could perceive of Harry's situation. He just needed to make it a little easier... Minutes later and the request was off to the data relay to be sent out to all Poseidon Fleet ships, for AI 'eyes' only. Now, he would not be the only one looking to shield the boy from the expectation people would heap on his narrow shoulders.
Thrace: Acknowledged. Command forwarded.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Harry grinned into his mask when Thrace told him that Hagrid could see him,
HarryPotter: Thanks, professor. See, Hagrid, I'm nowhere I shouldn't be!
His name had appeared as soon as they had started using text to send messages to Hagrid. He thought about the request Snape had sent for the information about his vitals and how it had been recognisably him, but he didn't think there had been a name tag like that; he was pretty sure it had been a code, instead.
"Aye, well, 'ow were I supposed ta know tha'?" Came the gruff reply, dispensing with typing out his answers. Harry had been a little aghast at how long it took the man to get out a few words, using a standard keyboard. There was the feeling of lots of chatter on the lines around Norberta, so Harry wasn't surprised that Hagrid wasn't just using his Interface, but all the same; he was glad Hagrid was talking instead.
HarryPotter: I doesn't matter, I guess. How're you? Do you have anyone with you? He asked. It had been three day's since Hagrid's last check in at the Thrace,
"Can' complain! The nice lass wi't cookies went ter t' Alley today, met 'em at t' Leaky. Bit o' trouble wit' her books, but nowt as can't be 'andled." Hagrid replied.
HarryPotter: She's alright though? And... and her parents went too? He sent, glad that he wasn't using his voice, even though he hadn't been able to avoid the break in the words.
Hagrid's voice was sorrowful when he replied, "Aye, 'Arry. Her parents came' too." He paused and cleared his throat, Harry turned his face away from the vid screen and curled up slightly; the gel was comfortable and warm and right now, he wanted to hide.
"Dunnae think about it, 'Arry. Ye've got us, now." He finished gently, "Now, 's nigh on time fer tea, why don't you head on an get yerself fed."
"Kay, Hagrid," He muttered aloud, realising how tired he was beginning to get. To his own ears, his voice sounded thick and muffled by the gel, but Hagrid seemed to understand him; he did wonder how Hagrid sounded normal, though. "I'll see you soon?" He asked, feeling very small.
"Aye, lad, day af'er t'morrow. Sky speed, 'Arry."
"Sky speed." Harry replied and the vid screen blinked out of existence, replaced by a small 'connection terminated' sign. The screens he had had open before he'd heard the Norberta caught his attention again and got him to smile again, just a little bit; the Poseidon was very, very cool... The habitat ring was big, but the rest of the ship was massive. The picture was from the Thanatos, as Snape had pulled away from the fighter deck; the huge shields on the ships spineward side had pulled open and the enormous solar panels that they usually protected where open to the sun. Harry zoomed in on the hydroponics bay until the image's pixels where just visible and there was no point in going in any closer; it was like a jewel, sparkling in the sunlight. Scanning aft along the ships back, he found gun emplacements, huge antennae and transmission dishes, and every so often he would spot a porthole when the sun was reflecting off the glass. Or what he thought was glass, anyway.
He straightened back out from his curled up position and reached out to manipulate the screens manually, like a mudder would do. It was so slow in comparison... but, he realised, it was taking much less energy, even though the gel dragged on his limbs and slowed his movements down. All the same, it gave him a reason for being tired now and he sent a quick message to Snape; he'd learned to just say something, Snape would just see it eventually, anyway.
Looking over, he couldn't see the professor straight away; for a moment he panicked, his limbs jerking, but Thrace quickly assured him that he wasn't alone, even as she set of an angry alarm to call Snape back from collecting towels. She showed him an internal feed of the man striding back, looking thunderous and worried all at once, with a stack of folded fabric under his arm.
Sorry. I'm ok now.
Acknowledged. However, constant supervision recommended.
Harry cringed a little; when she put it like that, it made him sound like a toddler. He did want Snape to come back though, and he recognised that he was being contrary in his own head. The man-shaped shadow near the pod reappeared and Harry tried to move towards the surface of the gel.