Chapter 14: Discoveries and Responsibilities
'This really is a beautiful planet' Harry observed as looked out over the lush green valleys of Aya from his seat on top of the Tempest. The Pathfinder and his crew had returned to the angaran capital earlier in the day to deliver Moshae Sjefa back to her people. The rest of the released prisoners had remained behind on Voeld, spread out between the various settlements to help with their recovery while not straining any group's resource too much. It had been an uncomfortable trip for the wizard, to say the least. The Moshae had rapidly recovered from her capture, leaving the Tempest's sickbay within twenty four hours and at the explicit protest of it's doctor Lexi T'Perro. Jaal had fluttered around the elderly angara, determined to care for his old teacher in any way possible. This had lasted for a day before he had been shoo'd away, his instructor claiming to need private time for meditation to deal with all that she had experienced. Unfortunately for Harry, this meant that she always ended up in whatever room that he was currently residing in. No conversation ever occured, the elderly angara content to simply close her eyes and listen to his movements as if she was observing him on a different level than the normal five senses. Needless to say, the wizard had been happy to be rid of his silent stalker when she left the ship with the Pathfinder, Cora and Jaal to go meet with the resistance leader Evfra and the planetary governor Paran Shie.
It had been two hours since the Pathfinder had left the ship and the crew had spread out to work on their personal projects with the available freetime. For Harry, this meant his big book of magic would need a new entry for Aya. He had taken his trusty lab assistant Suvi with himself to the top of their ship, before conjuring two easy chairs with a small coffee table between them. The wizard sat back with a sigh as he sank into the cushions before hitting the lever to allow his feet to be supported in the air. He closed his eyes, contemplating putting the work off to just take a small nap as the warm breeze of the planet passed over him. Suvi clearing her throat brought him back to reality with a small frown, the scientist sitting upright in her chair with his book opened in her lap to the blank page that would soon be filled. At her insistent look, he sighed before releasing his wand from his holster and weaving the complicated spell work necessary. Harry was lucky that Aya's magical field was still strong enough to support him, Voeld's lack of magic causing him no small amount of worry at the costs of repeating the spell there. He heard Suvi gasp as he finished the final portion of the spell, the glow around him fading as it was transferred to the book. The two crewmen watched the planet take shape in the book, one hemisphere shown on each page with room for notes at the bottom. Harry frowned in worry though as the illustration seemed to end early, leaving almost three quarters of the planet blank. 'No…' he thought as he leaned in closer, 'not quite blank.' He traced his finger over the south pole of the planet, the picture zooming to show the area he highlighted. The ink actually left the poles in evenly spaced out lines before petering out a few miles from their origin.
"Are those the planet's ley lines?" Suvi asked softly, leaning in to study the picture. At his nod, she gasped in surprise "But.. those barely cover a portion of the planet. What about the rest of it?"
Harry shrugged, sitting back in his chair as he contemplated the new information. He had never seen a planet that had it's magic partially blocked before. Ley lines on Earth moved from time to time as natural events like earthquakes, volcanoes, or asteroid impacts altered the topology enough to affect them. Stonehenge had been built by druids on a spot that had a whopping total of five ley lines converging on it compared to Hogwarts's three, allowing for insanely powerful rituals to take place. It had only been magically viable for a few years before an earthquake in Chile had rerouted all the lines, leaving the monument in a magically dead zone and turning it into a modern day tourist trap for muggles. Harry's book showed a good number of the planet's ley lines had all tangled in one continent sized portion. Between that and the broken lines, it appeared that magic was being restricted from the rest of the world though he couldn't ascertain why.
His attention was pulled to his assistant as she pulled up a 3D representation of Aya on her omnitool, moving her arm next to the book to compare to the magical illustrations. "I thought so!" Suvi gloated to herself as she turned the omnitool to show him. "The volcanism that covers Aya coincides with the lack of magic. All of this lush jungle around us is growing directly over the still existing magical ley lines." Turning the page to show the recordings of Eos that Harry had taken earlier, she gestured for him to touch the area of the poles again. The wizard quirked an eyebrow at her excitement, reminded strangely of how Hermione got at the cusp of a break through, before doing as she indicated. The enlarged picture showed that while one in three lines still grew out and traveled the globe in random patterns, the others were cut off near their source just as on Aya.
"Good eyes" the wizard complimented, annoyed that he missed such an obvious fact. He comforted himself with the knowledge that unless one was looking for something specific, it was far too easy to gloss over the little details. "It looks like the magic was damaged on Eos as well, though it was spread more evenly over the whole planet. Might explain why was able to sustain itself better, even if it was still a struggle to survive there." He sighed to himself, frustrated that only more questions seemed to be popping up. Nothing was ever easy for him.
"I don't think you understand just how important this is!" Suvi exclaimed as she turned back to the page of Aya. "This is a scientific breakthrough of epic proportions! The planets appear to directly be affected by the presence of magic!" She quickly flipped back to the pages on Earth, examining the illustrations. "I wish we had more to go on than your recording of our home planet. How do we know if that's the norm or if it's the exception?"
"I don't think you're looking at this the right way. It's like the chicken and the egg " Harry said as he sat up to get a good look at her. "You're assuming that magic prompts life. We were taught that magic comes from life. Earth has as much magic as it does from all the life that has been on it for millions of years. Magic certainly helps a planet's life grow and develop but I don't think it's dependent on it. From what I remember in the briefing that Jien gave the Initiative's investors, the planets here were covered in lush jungles and such. That explains the magic being here." He paused in thought before pulling a small chest from his pocket before placing it on the ground and enlarging it. The wizard threw it open before bending over and putting the top half of his body into it while bracing his feet to keep upright. Soft *thumps* and the rustling of pages could be heard before Harry came back up with another book that appeared to be almost a twin of the one in Suvi's lap. "This was my first try at mapping the planets" he explained as he flipped through the pages. "I took readings of Mars and Luna when I initially travelled around our solar system, but they never shown any readings so I assumed that I hadn't cast the spell right and went back to researching it before I took the Earth reading you have now."
He felt Suvi take a seat on the arm of his chair as he found the Mars illustrations. It showed a planet bare of magic, with the prominent physical locations and colonies spread out over it. He swiped over the south pole with his finger, his breath catching in excitement as he spied a pulse of magic at the bottom of the red planet and the beginning of a ley line. It never would have been visible without knowing to zoom in. "It's been proven that Mars used to have oceans and at least microbial life on it before it's magnetic sphere failed as it's core cooled off" Suvi theorized as she viewed the evidence of magic. "There's plenty of settlers there now as well, so who knows what kind of magic could develop over time." The wizard nodded as he used his wand to transfer the pages to his current 'big book of magic'.
Harry's omnitool chirped, prompting him to activate it and show the Pathfinder staring back at him. "You have a moment?" Scott asked, not bothering to waste time with greetings. The Moshae has gotten Evfra to authorise us access to Aya's core and I want you to come along."
Suvi sighed in frustration, standing up and tucking Harry's book under her arm. "I'm borrowing this" she informed the wizard, patting him on the back before heading back to the ship's hatch. "I'll talk with you later after I study this some more."
Harry waved her off before turning his attention back to the Pathfinder. "I'll be ready to go in a few minutes after I clean up here. Where do you want me to meet you?"
"Don't worry about it" Scott said as he grinned at his friend. "We've sent someone to retrieve you. "They'll be there soon so keep an eye out." The screen winked out leaving a confused wizard at the Pathfinder's deliberate evasiveness. Deciding to ignore it for the time being, Harry vanished the chairs and table before shrinking and putting away his trunk. Walking down the length of the ship, the wizard sat down on the base of the ramp and proceeded to bring up a game to play on his omnitool while he waited.
He was so engrossed in beating the level that he never even noticed he had company until the world went dark as a slender pair of hands covered his eyes from behind. "Guess who" a familiar voice commanded.
The cool, somewhat rough texture of the skin narrowed down the choices. The skin's coolness eliminating humans while the lack of talons showing it wasn't Vetra. He sat there silently as he tried to figure out the identity before a tingle came from the hands, sending a pulse to his magical core. "Darra?" he questioned, feeling the hands fall away from his eyes and allowing him to spin around. Black eyes with icy blue irises over a soft smile greeted him as she took a step back to give him room to stand up.
"Greetings Harry Potter. It's good to see you again in a non combat environment. I have been sent by the Moshae to escort you to the rest of your crewmen who are visiting the vault."
"It's good seeing you again too Darra" the wizard said with a chuckle as he walked alongside her into the city. "My friends just call me Harry though." He waved away the angara's concerned look, "Trust me. You definitely are a friend after everything we've gone through together." He reached over and gave her hand a soft squeeze before letting go and continuing on.
Darra looked at her hand for a second, still able to feel phantom sensations from how easily the wizard was able to interact with her bioenergy. "Thank you... Harry. Was touching my hand a human custom?"
The wizard simply waved it away as he followed her. "Physical contact is an important way of communication between humans. A handshake can signify greeting someone, while a touch can be used to convey anything from sympathy to romance. Even authority can be expressed by taking a person's hand and leading them like a parent would with a child. It just depends on your intention at the time." He grinned to his friend as they walked through the docks, dodging around a group of angara haggling over a price on an item. "Part of learning about humans is learning to interpret what we mean though physical contact as well as language."
"I understand…" Darra said softly as she walked along. Reaching over she took his hand in hers as they continued on, the familiar pulse of their energies mixing, giving her a relaxing feeling. "I see no reason to stop my lesson early."
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"Thank you for joining us Wizard of the Initiative." Harry stopped short at the new greeting from the Moshae, unsure of just what was going on. He could almost hear the capital letters in the new title. A light shove to his back by Darra prompted him to step forward and join the elder angara at the remnant holographic table. He looked around the room, searching for the other members of his team, only to realize that he was alone with the two aliens. The Moshae gave him a soft smile as she ran her hand along a glyph on the table, making the screen come to life and show Aya rotating above them. "Do not be alarmed young one. Your crew members are being escorted by Jaal as they explore the remnant facility. The Pathfinder has already agreed to work with us to activate the remnant facilities on each of our planets in the hope of aiding my people." She gestured to the planets holographic image, the volcanic fields highlighted as they consumed most of the planet's surface. "Darra has told me about your gifts that she has witnessed being used to help our people. I hoped to get your input on what could possibly be done to improve my people's chances of survival. This facility is already fully active, but only seems to be targeting a single portion of the planet to heal after the scourge nearly destroyed it."
Harry weighed his options carefully in his head, the need for keeping his knowledge secret warring with his need to help others. Coming to a decision, he raised his omnitool and activated the comm function. "Suvi, can you please send me digital images of Earth, Aya, and Eos from my book? I need them to explain a theory."
"If you're sure Harry…" the scientist said, her voice showing her worry.
The files instantly downloaded before Harry loaded them to two spare data pads for two ladies in the room. "I did a scan of the energy I refer to as magic a few hours ago. If you look at the other images, they also show scans of Eos as well as my home world of Earth back in the Milky Way." He waited for the Moshae to review the files, nodding her understanding before he continued. "If you switch to Earth's image, you'll notice the presence of magical ley lines that run under its surface and criss cross all over the globe. Eos has this as well, though in far less numbers. Aya seems to only have them in the same portion of the planet affected by the remnant facility."
"Do you think that one affects the other?" Darra questioned, gesturing with her pad towards the large display in the center of the room. "Does the magic only work in healed parts of the world, or does the remnant only work in areas with magic?"
Harry shrugged, unwilling to guess on such an important subject to himself. "I don't know what is cause and what is effect. I do believe that they are connected though since my magic seems to resonate with the energies used by the remnant technology."
"You 'believe' doesn't mean the same thing as you 'know'" the Moshae observed shrewdly as she turned to the map herself, frowning as she processed the new information and making connections in her brain. "I can't help but wonder how the lack of this 'magic' could possibly affect my people's physiology. Living on Voeld since the ice age began has required our people to use portable sunlamps. Without the light we start to lose our bioelectricity until it severely damages our health. Could it just be a coincidence of this lack of magical energy or something more."
"My bioenergy synced with Harry's magical field almost as easily as if he was Angara" Darra commented as she moved to the wizard's side. "The other five all reported a similar experience when questioned later after the rescue was completed." She ran her hand through his hair again, shivering slightly at the sensation of it's softness against her skin while the wizard barely noticed as he was used to it by now. The Moshae smiled softly as she watched the interaction, interested in the way her new pupil reacted to the physical stimuli.
"We don't have any real proof yet for any of it. It's just theories until then" the wizard said, noticing movement out of the corner of his vision. Harry looked up, spying Scott waving him over from across the room. Offering a quick apology to the Moshae he walked towards his boss, unaware of the disappointed look that crossed Darra's face as contact was broken between them again.
"I didn't mean to pull you away" the Pathfinder apologized as the wizard approached him, "but SAM needed you for something and didn't feel comfortable interrupting you. I'll keep them busy until you get back" he gave Harry a pat on the shoulder before walking towards the Moshae.
The wizard's omnitool glowed orange as the AI inhabited it. "I apologize Mr. Potter but I did not want to interrupt your conversation with a leader of the angara species. The Pathfinder had the political clout to pull you away."
"Don't worry about it SAM. These things happen." Harry automatically began to follow the directional arrow broadcast by the AI, already trained to do so after working together to repair the Hyperion. "What was so important that you needed to pull me out of the control center when we were getting close to a break through?"
"That wasn't the control center Mr. Potter" the AI informed him as he turned a corner, waving at Jaal and Cora where they were taking readings on another alien tree planted in an underground garden. "You were merely in the communication hub used to coordinate between the different remnant facilities. The control center is around the next corner, access appears to be similar to how Eos was."
The wizard sighed as he found another gravity well surrounded by an energy field holding up shifting pieces of metal plates. "If we're going to do this again, then I'm not going alone this time. Let's get you back in your new body SAM." He pulled the shrunken robotic body from the pouch around his neck and returned it to its original size. He had initially planned on pulling it apart with PeeBee but had been side tracked with the multiple projects that he had already taken on.
Sweeping his omnitool over the motionless body, a stream of orange particles appeared to leap from his omnitool to settle on the robot. Silence reigned for a moment before the head slowly raised up, orange eyes glowing on an otherwise featureless mask as the rest of the body began to activate. Arms flexed as the snake like tail stretched itself out before propelling the robot forward to Harry's side. "I am ready Mr. Potter" SAM reported, his eyes already scanning the energy field for any hidden surprises.
Nodding, Harry sucked in a deep breath before placing his hands against the energy barrier. He winced as the energy entered his body again, forcing his mind to ignore the pain as he pulsed his core. The surge felt much less powerful this time than on Eos as it flowed into his magic core and back out through his other arm again. It took less than three seconds for the remtech to identify his magical signature and lower the barrier for him and SAM to enter the gravity lift.
They arrived in a small room with one wall covered in a giant glass window that overlooked an enormous cave that housed multiple reactors identical to the ones in the previous vault they had visited. What made things interesting though was that only one in three of the reactors were active, much of the energy generated arced off of the active reactors in giant bolts only to hit a dead one and disappear with no visual effect. "It's almost like it is malfunctioning" he observed out loud as SAM slithered over to a console behind him and began to interface.
"You are correct Mr. Potter" the AI said as it examined the data. "It appears that whatever source the remnant use for power doesn't have enough to activate the full complex resulting in only a partial recovery of the planet." The robot paused for a moment, his eyes flickering rapidly as it's processors rapidly compiled the data from the remnant servers. "I can give you admin access to this planet's vault, but you will have to repeat the interface process again" it indicated towards a specific chair in front of the main console much to the wizard's dread.
"Fuck my life" the wizard muttered to himself as he slowly approached the admin chair, dreading what would happen next. The security barrier he found himself under last time had been one of the few moments in his life when he had been truly helpless and he was not eager for a repeat performance.
He felt a metal hand land on his shoulder, pushing him forwards lightly. "Do not concern yourself Mr. Potter" SAM reassured him as he slithered forward to stand beside the chair. "I have already entered your credentials into the system to avoid the security features. You must do the actual activation process though. It appears that the creators of this facility didn't want an AI to have full access without an organic presence."
"That's understandable… no offense SAM" Harry muttered as he stood behind the chair, looking out over the machinery below. An idea began to form in his head, but he held off for the moment as he raised his omnitool to call his leader. "Scott, I need you to evacuate everyone from the vault. SAM and I found the control room and I'm ready to try to interface with it. I don't want a repeat of that security sweep with the death cloud again though. Can you let me know when everyone is safe?"
"Will do Harry. Give me a few minutes to brief the Moshae on what you want to do and I'll give you her decision. Is there a reason for why you want to change things when the facility is already operational?." The Pathfinder questioned as he viewed the room as Harry panned his arm around himself slowly.
Harry panned his camera to show the reactors before bringing his arm back up to his face, surprised to show the Moshae and Darra's faces filling the screen instead of Scott's. "Hello ladies…" he greeted slowly, taking a moment to gather his thoughts as they awaited the answer to Scott's inquiry. "I think we can optimize how the reactors are functioning so we can get more of a bang for our buck." He flinched at their confused reactions, making a note to avoid using phrases like that in the future. "Apologies, I mean I can get a better output by adjusting where the power goes since they seem to possess a synergy when the ones next to them are active too. The hope is that we might be able to recover more of Aya's land from it's volcanism for the angaran people."
The two female angara began to talk excitedly before the camera panned back to Scott. "Good job selling it. Now what's the bad news?" the Pathfinder asked, dreading the answer. Nothing in Andromeda came free for the Initiative. Everything was earned the hard way.
"No bad news" Harry said before SAM signaled him to look at a screen that showed an image of Aya. Two familiar symbols showed at the borders of the liveable continent sending a cold sensation up the wizard's spine. "You just had to fucking jinx us Scott." he complained as he swung the camera to show the screen. "There's two architects here and we need to make sure they won't attack the angara. It looks like I'll need that admin access now more than ever."
The Pathfinder grimaced at the news, his mind flashing back to the battle on Eos that they barely survived with the last titanic remnant machine. "We'll handle this step by step. First things first, let's get this facility operating properly for our allies. I'll let the Moshae know what's happening. Let's get to work."
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"I hate you so much right now Scott." Sara stood side by side with her brother on a grassy hill overlooking the start of Aya's volcano fields. It was an incredible site with miles of constant eruptions as far as the eye could see, spewing tons of super heated rock into the air. None of this held her interest though as she watched a spaceship sized remnant snake robot from hell slowly circle the air above them as it scanned the area for threats.
"I wouldn't have anyone else here to watch my back Sara" the Pathfinder replied seriously, earning him a small smile from his twin. "Just be glad that we don't have to do the talking. It can always be worse…" he trailed off, pointing towards the lone figure a few hundred feet ahead of them. Sara bit her lip as she stared at thier friend as he slowly made his approach towards the architect. She shouldered her assault rifle, keenly aware that if this went belly-up, there wouldn't be much she could do to help.
"Scott?" the comm on his omnitool came to life with the wizard's voice. Scott stared at it dumbly for a second before an elbow to his side from Sara rebooted his brain. He gave an affirmative to the wizard, looking up to see Harry turned towards them in the distance. "Do you feel that?"
Sara frowned in concentration, closing her eyes to try to block out the distractions around her. She took her helmet off, letting the super heated air from the nearby lava flow over her skin yet she still couldn't feel whatever the wizard did. The ground trembled. She looked to Scott in alarm, his features reflecting her emotion as they both recalled the events from the last time the ground shook. The tremors began to grow, making it tough for her to keep her footing. All of a sudden the earth nearby raised up as if it was a bubble before beginning to sink downwards. "Run!" Scott shouted, shoving her hard in the shoulder towards where their angaran friends were parked in thier shuttle. Sara sprinted for the ship, her brother's heavy breathing behind her confirming that he was able to keep up with her pace.
Daara threw open the door to the shuttle, waving them in as she looked behind their backs in shock as the ground began to cave in on itself in a giant sinkhole. "Hurry!" she urged, grabbing Sara's hand and pulling her up into the cargo bay. "Jaal is prepping for take off right now!" She looked past Scott, before her face took on a look of panic. "Where's Harry?" she demanded of the Pathfinder as he pulled himself up. "Why isn't he with you?"
Scott wordlessly pointed towards the wizard as he stood his ground in the distance. "Don't worry Darra, he has it handled." He prayed that his friend wouldn't make a liar out of him by getting himself hurt. "Believe it or not, he can speak to the remnant. He managed to talk down the last architect we encountered before it turned into a complete bloodbath." He moved to the cabin, signalling for Jaal to take off and circle around the scene below while staying well out of range. Darra and Sara remained at the cargo door as the ground fell away, both suffering from anxiety as they watched a second architect emerge from the hole. The snake like robot gently floated into the air before letting out a metallic screech that was returned by it's brother a moment later. They began to lower themselves, landing in tandem on either side of the wizard and boxing him in between them. Slowly their heads lowered, maws opening up to reveal energy building in preparation to fire. They screeched again, though this time the wizard responded with a hissing shout of his own while an opaque blue energy dome flared to life around him.
"I can't believe it" Sara whispered to herself, though Darra cocked her head barely able to hear her over the rushing air. "He's actually doing it again." The maws had closed at this point, though both snakes still remained dangerously close to the wizard as they began to converse.
Minutes passed before Sara's omnitool activated itself. "Guys?" the wizard's voice brought both women a rush of joy as it confirmed that he was still alive and unhurt. "I need you to land again and make your way over here. All four of you. This is going to be delicate."
Darra had begun to wring her hands as she stared up at the mammoth remnant machines as the shuttle gently touched down. This was not how she pictured her day would turn out when the Moshae had requested that she assist the Pathfinder and his team. "Do not worry" Jaal said to her as he passed by and jumped down to the ground with the two humans. He turned back, offering her a hand. "The wizard has not led us astray yet. We must place our trust in them like they have in us or we will both fall."
"I know" she reassured her fellow angara as they slowly walked towards where the wizard stood. "I trust Harry with my life. It's those that I don't feel safe around" she indicated towards the architects with a slight shudder."
They arrived just in time to hear Harry give one long final hiss. At the end of it, the first architect opened its core for Scott to interface with it using SAM. The process was repeated a moment later with the second machine before both gave a low screech. "Your orders have been updated" he hissed to the architects, "Your primary role is to heal the planet and protect its inhabitants" he gestured towards the angara.
"New order is unnecessary" the second robot hissed, turning its head to regard planets natives. "We have already been ordered by the creators to protect their legacy. New additions to both friendly and hostile lists have been updated as requested."
"Well isn't that interesting…" the wizard mused to himself before gesturing to Daara. "You will take orders from this angara, designated Darra until instructed otherwise" he hissed to the first architect. Daara blinked as the mechanical snake turned towards her and seemed to bow it's head. Her omnitool, gifted to her earlier by the Pathfinder, lit up with a new link to the architect. She felt light headed as she realized the responsibility that had been placed on her by her friend. She came out of her thoughts just in time to see the second machine being assigned to Jaal. Her fellow angara taking his new position much better than herself, his eyes practically shining with thoughts of how he could help his people.
All of a sudden, both of the snakes' heads jerked towards the sky as if tracking something unseen. With a mechanical roar, they took off. They disappeared from the naked eye within moments as they gained altitude at an amazing pace. Feeling her arm vibrate, she looked at the new message on her omnitool. "They detected a kett ship inbound to Aya" she said in a near whisper. It was every angara's worst fear that the kett would eventually discover the hidden sanctuary of her people from its hiding place within the scourge.
Kallo's voice was heard coming from Scott's omnitool as he updated the pathfinder to the status of the intruder. "The kett cruiser is damaged from the scourge. It's listing badly to the side indicating compromised stability and inadequate thrust ratios. Fighters are deployed around it for protection. They have not detected us from our hiding spot on the dark side of the planet's moon. ….. Wait! Remnant designation architect has just engaged the kett ships. ….. Kett cruiser is severely damaged from particle beams, attempting to escape back into the scourge field …. Cruiser has been obliterated! Direct hit to their engine core only cause for such destruction …. Fighters cleared from air …. Remnant are returning to Aya …. Will sweep system for any hidden kett before returning to port."
No one said anything for a moment back on the grassy field, each lost in their own thoughts. Daara felt her body practically sag with relief as her people were still safe, the kett not having long enough to send a warning before they were destroyed. Jaal could only grin in pride, showing Daara a note on his omnitool indicating that his architect was the one to get the killing shot on the cruiser. His fellow angara rolled her eyes at his antics before shoving his shoulder in exasperation. The twins held a whispered conversation between the themselves, discussing the possible diplomatic implications this would have between the Initiative and the angara. Harry simply looked around himself before loudly clapping his hands and gaining everyone's attention. "So…. Who's hungry?"
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Harry sighed to himself as he sat on a bench on the upper level of the arboretum in the Nexus. The amount of work he had to put in to get a moment of free time was getting larger and larger. The wizard had managed to distract PeeBee by giving her SAM's appropriated remnant robot body to play with. The asari had given him a quick peck on the cheek before taking her new prize off to who knows where to begin taking it apart. Vetra had received an expensive bottle of dextro-brandy on the condition that she enjoy it with Sid. The turian had given him a quick nuzzle on the top of his head before walking off, already calling her sister to find a place to meet up.
Cora had refused to be bought off, having demanded for him to spend some free time with her in repayment for not getting to work with him at all on the last mission. He chose to introduce her to his trunk that he had used to store all of the seed samples he had collected from the open market that he kept under stasis charms. It was effectively his own personal seed vault from not only Earth, but also had samples of common plants from most of the council homeworlds and a few of the larger human colonies. He had left her there after she had found his rose selection, her face pressed up to the glass containers like a kid outside of a candy shop.
He had made it to the top of the loading ramp when he heard a throat cleared behind him. Turning slowly revealed Sara leaning on the door frame wearing a hoodie and a pair of spandex pants, her arms crossed and a light scowl on her face. She said nothing as if he was simply expected to automatically know why she was mad at him. Harry could have played twenty questions with her to figure out the source of her irritation, but just didn't find the patience to deal with it right then. It was time to use one of his secret weapons. Taking the burnette's hand, he led her back into the main area of the ship, pausing in front of the door to the Pathfinder's quarters and indicating for her to open it. Sara placed her palm on the panel, opening the door before her hand was grabbed again. She was drug to the foot of the large bed, a blush glowing on her face as her mind began to picture all kinds of kinky scenarios, each dirtier than the last. Harry reached into his pocket, pulling out a long piece of silk that he proceeded to tie around her eyes and blocking her vision. Sara's breathing quickened as her excitement grew. She felt herself slowly turned around before she was gently pushed backwards. Her back landed on the bed, her body tensed as she waited to feel the weight shift from him joining her. She frowned in confusion when she felt something light and warm land on her chest instead. She reached up to it, feeling her hand brush through soft, fluffy fur. Pulling her mask off, she found she was alone in the room with the familiar orange kitten curled up in a ball on her chest purring contentedly. Sitting up, she realized that there were at least ten more kittens of various breeds all playing with each other on the bed. Her heart melted at the sight.
Harry had just made it to the top of the ramp again when he heard a girlish squeal of happiness echo from farther in the ship. Grinning to himself, he hit the button to open the ramp and walked down into the hanger. The first blast of recycled air hit him, the smell just slightly different than the ship and reminding him that he was finally on board the space station proper. "It's about time husband" a low, yet feminine voice greeted him as Kesh pushed herself off of her place along the wall. "Are you spending the day with me again, or do you plan on buying your way out of it?"
"I do plan on hitting the bar with you later" Harry admitted, getting a wide grin from the krogan as she remembered the last time they had gone out. "I'm taking a little time for myself first though. I have something that you're absolutely going to love." Pointing his palm towards the far wall, he cast a quick bombarda with just enough power to punch a hole through the armored surface.
Kesh growled lowly at the damage done to 'her' station by the man she had been pursuing. "There better be a good reason for doing that. Even you won't get away with causing harm to my baby." Her rant was interrupted as she caught a strange gun by its handle that the wizard had suddenly tossed her way. It looked like a standard handgun but it had a circular disk at the end of the barrell with a purple gem in it's center. A large block sat at the base of the grip with a digital display on it showing '100' at the moment. The wizard pantomimed shooting the gun at the damage, receiving a raised eyebrow from the krogan before she duplicated his movement and fired the gun. A white beam left the pistol, crashing against the wall before the energy seemed to be absorbed by the surface. She was about to start complaining that nothing had happened when a large piece of debris flew from across the room to the center of the hole. More chunks followed before the hole was soon filled in. She fired the gun once again causing the damaged area to fuse together, looking as if the wall had never been harmed. The display on the gun blinked a red '15' at her before it slowly started moving back up to '100' again a moment later.
"Repair gun, self charging. Don't use on anything with too many electronics" the wizard explained as he walked towards the door to the docking bay. He was lifted off the floor as a pair of scaly arms encircled him before spinning him around as Kesh cackled with glee. She put him down before walking back towards her office, casually shooting anything that struck her fancy. A path of cleanliness marked path, looking almost out of place on the damaged station.
XXXXXX
The wizard closed his eyes as he listened to the leaves in the tree move with the air flow. It reminded him of happier times back at Hogwarts when he would sit by the lake with Hermione during spring. She would work ahead on her homework while he would simply lay there with his eyes shut and just 'feel' the magic as it almost flowed around him. A shadow fell across his face prompting him to open his eyes, revealing Jien Garson as she stood over him with a soft smile on her face. "Hey there Harry. How about you buy me a drink and we can discuss the last mission? I just finished speaking with the Moshae and she had an interesting request I wanted to float by you." Taking her hand, the wizard allowed himself to be pulled to his feet and towards the bar.
A/N: The divergence has begun. The main plot line will still be upheld to an extent, but we'll see how many plot holes can be filled in along the way.