Chapter 55 – There it goes….
Harry shook himself awake for the fourth day in a row, not that there was anything else to do.
He spent the next 10 minutes pecking at the energy bar, he thought about transforming back, but Shadow Blaze suggested not.
All power except for basic life support was going towards HWG and maintaining the transmat cage.
He had spent the first whole day, or at least 26 hours sleeping, part of which was unconscious, but he awoke feeling a lot better than when they had started out.
Harry stared at the small screen which Shadow Blaze had provided him, he was reading one of his Agatha Christie's, well a version that he'd inputted to Shadow Blaze at some point, it was the only thing he could do.
I'm glad this is the last time I have to do this…
"At least you hope it is."
If I do this again it's going to be in a ship, no offence that I can walk around in, stretch my legs.
"You can walk in here."
Harry looked around, he was in a mainly black area, which was large in relation to his current form, he had almost the length of the craft to 'walk' in his small raven form, but he didn't really have enough room to fly. He could stretch his wings out and flap them, no more.
Harry misted back into form, he'd over the past couple of days been working to stay in a 'misted' form, with no actual formed substance, as he had when he'd 'misted', his form of burning.
It required some conscious effort, but there was no real sensation, just a sort of non-sensation, no real sense of time just a feeling of staying in a non-form, it was soothing and disconcerting at the same time.
After all this Harry would be happy to go and practise Quidditch with Ron, or referee a practise game. Or anything really…
He began to think about them all, not for the first time.
He hoped they were all ok, he had left in quite a hurry, he hoped that Remus would be able to smooth over their ruffled feathers… to coin a phrase.
He still had to get back, finish his NEWTS.
Not quite the end then…
Harry stopped thinking about everyone on Earth long enough to peck open another bar and drink some water before returning to his non-form state.
Harry was nudged awake by Shadow Blaze.
What?
"We should be arriving in the system within the next few hours."
Harry took a few seconds to come out his sleepy daze, a real sleep not the non-form existence, it was only the 8th day of their trip.
"Less strain on life support has enabled us to make the journey in less time."
That's good, so when can I…
"In three hours…"
Good.
Three hours later the small craft tore out through a hyperspace window into the system, it was exactly how Harry remembered it, except there was a large space ship waiting for them.
Shadow Blaze glided past it as it turned to come into transmat range, both ships were looking at the sun.
"Shadow Blaze this is ASCS Flinders do you read…"
"This is Shadow Blaze, I read you, good to hear…a voice."
"Harry, how've you held up? We're all ready on our end."
"Birmingham, next time I'm taking a bigger ship. Ready here, let's finish this."
There was laughter. "We're just about to charm the portkey, you're a little early."
"Shall I go for a turn around the block then?" Harry muttered sarcastically.
"Transmat in progress, you have the element Shadow Blaze."
Harry could feel it, even in zero gravity there was still and effect on Shadow Blaze.
"Ready to launch Flinders."
"Clear for launch Shadow Blaze."
Harry flicked a switch on the control panel Shadow Blaze had provided for him, this was hard wired into the control system of the missile.
Harry felt the force and power of the missile as it launched away from his ship towards the bright yellowy orange sun.
"Clock is running Shadow Blaze." Harry glanced at his own clock which was counting down the minutes until the missile A; Reached its target and B: Activated.
"Running through test sequence on Transmat Cage and Transmat systems, four minutes until activation."
The voice said over the radio.
"Moving into final position." Harry said grabbing a hold of the control sticks and moving Shadow Blaze closer to the sun. There were screens around him showing everything and the canopy over him, Shadow Blaze was filtering, or there was some sort of shielding that stopped his eyes from being burnt out.
"Two minutes to portkey activation."
According to all the astrophysicists that had been consulted, removing the sun's mass that they were removing wouldn't cause it to go 'bang' straight away…supposedly, it wasn't as though anyone did this regularly.
It would take at least 2 minutes for everything to reach critical mass.
They would activate the transmat at the last possible moment.
"Portkey activating."
There was a gigantic flash on what Harry guessed was the other side of the system and a huge ball of…star stuff erupted.
"Two minutes until estimated sun detonation, one minute thirty second till transmat operation."
Harry nodded and then shaking his head remembered he was on radio.
"Received Flinders, waiting and ready."
Harry looked at the clock again, it was time.
"Transmat locked on, re-materialisation in progress."
Harry watched both on screens and in real time as the figure rematerialised near the sun, and quickly un-froze.
His wand the most combustible material burnt away almost instantly, somehow he had managed to create some sort of shield, his body was still being effected though.
Harry could see whisp of something building around him, similar to what he'd seen back in first year, the essence of Voldemort.
With all his sight seeing he didn't hear Flinders.
"Say again Harry, wake up in there, sun detonation beginning, get out of there!"
Flinders couldn't wait any longer and turned, the powerful HWG engines engaging and forcing the vast ship away from the system.
Harry waiting for as long as he could, longer than he should, he had to see the sun….
Then it happened the sun exploded out rushing towards Voldemort engulfing him.
Harry saw it on the scanners for at the same moment Shadow Blaze did a backward summersault, making Harry feel the g-forces and launched away engaging its own HWG engines the edges of the explosion on their tall.
They met in a nearby system a mere day away. Harry pulled himself out of Shadow Blaze onto Flinders' deck.
"It's over…" Harry smiled at Birmingham and the rest of the crew.
"Yes Harry, it's over…"
"Good." Harry promptly passed out at that stage.
He woke up in the infirmary thinking he'd been doing a lot of that recently, passing out, blacking out and whatever.
He woke up hearing someone…talking to someone else.
Very helpful Harry.
"Ah…I see you're awake." It was Birmingham, he pulled a chair over and was sitting by him.
"Birmingham…" Harry croaked out. A cup of water was pressed into his had as he pushed himself up on the bed.
Birmingham leaned over to the LCD screen next to him.
"We went back to the system, it's still a little warm, be a while until the sun settles down, there is no remains, trace or otherwise of Voldemort. Plus…" He clicked a button the screen changed showing a planet. "The planet is richer than we first thought in the jumpgate element. The Flinders' crew managed to recover the Dwarf Star Alloy, undamaged…"
"Ok so I'll bite, why did I collapse?"
"Apart from finally seeing the one person who wanted you dead?" Harry stared at him.
"Fine Harry, one of the many people who wanted you dead." Birmingham smiled warmly.
"Better. Apart from that yes." Harry said still slightly dazed.
"Your trip didn't do you the best amount of good…." Birmingham motioned to the various IVs he was hooked up to.
"Shadow Blaze informed me the life support was at a minimum sustainable level…to get there quicker…" Harry shook his head, trying to clear the memories.
"You were lacking a lot of oxygen, border line asphyxia the doctor tells me. Also malnutrition, and lack of many key vitamins, plus you've got a few extra scars, curse damage, and two stab wounds." Birmingham motioned over his body.
Knife wounds? Didn't even notice those…
"Marvellous. How long till we get back to Earth?" Harry asked after a moment.
"You've been unconscious for 3 days, we've still got 12 days to go, we don't fancy asphyxia."
"When can I…" Harry began to ask.
"The doctor says another 2 days of bed rest, to get your vitamin levels back up."
"Fine…at least I can stretch out." Harry said shuffling in the bed.
"How did you…" Birmingham began to ask curiously.
"Spent most of it in my bird form…or in a non-form of shadowy stuff."
"The Brig will want it all in a report." Birmingham smiled as Harry laughed.
Harry fell asleep some time after that.
Harry was sitting up in bed, he'd changed, well he had put on pants and shoes, he was just waiting for the doctor to come and remove the IV and to give him a clean bill of health…or at least not 'on death's door'.
Maybe I should talk to death, have tea…Harry wondered idly.
"Sorcerer Potter." Harry smiled at Doctor Whitemore, he was young, but older than Harry, which wasn't hard.
I think it's going to be hard for someone to beat my record at my age, star blowing up must be an elite sport…
"Doctor Whitemore, how am I?"
"No physical activity, no changing form, plenty of food and liquids…" He said removing the IV from his arm and placing a small bandaid over it.
He was in his mid 20s, he was one of those people that UNIT had approached and recruited as they did. Not fantastic scores through university, but he passed with some unusually written essays in psychology and other theories, it went a bit beyond Harry when he'd explained, but when it came down to it, UNIT had said he had what was needed. Who wouldn't jump at the chance to serve on a space ship…maybe that was what was needed.
Pulling on the standard army shirt and his basilisk jacket he began to refill his pockets of the things he needed to keep. His wands, a knife here and there, the other guns and other explosive had been taken by the armoury officer. Harry didn't need them.
There was other stuff, which he'd been carrying around, he replaced it all in his pockets before heading in search of the crew's mess.
Harry happily sat down with a large plate of food and a large drink of something juice based.
Many people passed and said hello to him, a few he recognised from his training at the Gibson Desert facility.
Slowly he ate through the large breakfast relishing the taste of actual food, and being able to breath…well air which was circulated and people, just being able to see and smile to people.
Harry wasn't sure why this recent trip alone affected him so much, maybe he thought that he might not make it, or that he'd get all the way out there and it wouldn't work.
But it had worked and Harry felt more alive than ever.
Which is what made what Birmingham said as he joined him so much of a downer.
"Dying?" He asked, Birmingham looked at him carefully.
"We can't be sure. The intelligence is less responsive, we believe it was exposure to the sun's radiation. The crew are extracting the data and they're hoping to shut the ship down cold to preserve it."
Harry walked quietly following Birmingham through the ship until they came to the bay where Shadow Blaze was being held.
There were still scientists swarming around it, making him think of a swarm of insects.
He felt, rather than heard the Shadow Blaze within his mind, it wasn't words, not as they had been, more a sense of au voir. Not goodbye, just…he couldn't put it into words.
He walked forward running his hand over the pitted scared outer skin of his craft. He could feel it respond, or want to respond, but felt the tiredness or something.
"We think it's going into a coma…or something, but we can't be sure. It expended a lot of energy protecting the pilot from the radiation burst."
"It did…" Harry began.
What I was made for… The words, or possibly the ideas echoed within his mind.
-/
He'd ended up wandering the ship, the conflicting things in his mind, after the pain that he'd suffered thus far, it was the ship that had gotten him through a lot of it that was taking its toll on him at the moment, even though the ship had told him (not in words so much) that it was what it had been intended for, that he shouldn't mourn it.
Or perhaps that was just him.
He wasn't sure.
He'd ended up at the back of the ship where all the engine control systems were, and of course the people who controlled and maintained the engines, Harry had smiled talked to them about nothing in particular. They were excited by the possibilities of the jumpgate technology, pointing to an area at the side of the room which was empty.
"That's where some of the energy monitoring equipment will go."
"Will?"
"Flinders is one of the newer ships, she was built with the possibility they would add a jump engine to the ship."
"So where would the jump engine sit I don't…"
"The front of the ship, most people make that mistake." The second office said.
"How come it's at the front?"
"The ship open a vortex into hyperspace, but it has to go through it, so the vortex has to open at the front…" The first office waved his hands about in an approximation of a ship and vortex.
"Oh…this is probably an odd question…but are there any plants on this ship?"
"Plants?"
"I dunno, thought there might be something…"
"Hydroponics up 3 levels. There's also secondary oxygen processing the level above that…"
Harry raised and eyebrow and nodded.
Upstairs, there were actual emergency stairs, but he took the lift, no sense in exhausting himself, remembering the Doctor's warnings he found Hydroponics first, it was a large room, with different plants in each bay and specialised lights. All of them were food plants, or herb bushes, it all looked very efficient. Harry noticed in the corner of the room some magical plants, which were used primarily for medically based potions and salves etc. Obviously they had cultivated them to grow hydroponically.
Up another level and Harry was in a garden, which was odd considering he was on a spaceship.
Most of the plants were bushes, the ground covered with a thick grass like plant. There was a narrow walkway, it seemed to cover the same amount of area as the Hydroponics did downstairs.
He was startled out of his study of a shrub by someone, a scientist walking through with a clip board.
"I'm sorry I didn't know…who are you?"
"Sorry, didn't know this place was off limits. Sorcerer Potter, Harry Potter." Harry said smiling holding out his hand.
"Jane Turnful, part of the Biology division here." She had a light middle European accent.
Harry nodded and then motioned around.
"What is all of this for?" He asked curiously, he was pretty sure he'd seen something like it on the Hattah he'd just never asked anyone.
"This is the 'Secondary Oxygen Processing Room', some of the oxygen gets passed through here on a daily basis, all oxygen on the ship passes through these plants, it helps to give the oxygen that…extra bit of cleanliness….also in theory we can use this as an emergency processing plant should main and backup oxygen processors be damaged."
"It could actually provide oxygen for the who ship?" Harry asked amazed. She laughed shaking her head.
"No, but it would afford some extra time and allow the processors to not be at maximum…"
"What about downstairs…down a level?"
"Hydro? Foodstuffs mainly, but it also serves the same function."
"I saw some plants associated with magical potions…"
She nodded. "Tests to see how well they grow in varying environments…" She trailed off and looked at him. "Oh you're the one who blew up the sun…"
Harry sighed. "I hope I'm not going to be stuck with that name…"
"Why?"
"Doesn't matter, was it a good show?"
"The way they're talking about it yes, plants are my thing, sun is great…not so great when you blow it up…but generally natural light is the best…"
"Then why not…"
"Windows don't lend themselves to a spaceship, something to do with the structural integrity…"
"Could always have a magical window…" Harry muttered.
"I looked into that." She had heard him. "The light, being a wand user magical creation doesn't put out any of the energy, while you might feel it, you couldn't for instance stand in front of it and get sunburned."
"Interesting…" Harry walked to the door. "I'll leave you to…your work…thanks for…enlightening me…" Harry smiled to her.
"Sorcerer." Harry nodded and walked out.
Harry spent the rest of his day hanging out in the mess, on an off writing his report starting right back to the Saturday morning to, when he'd woken up.
It was long and little bit rambling.
It eventually took him two days to write.
After 5 days Harry had been cleared by the doctor and was allowed to do some exercise, which helped to fill his day.
One of the days he'd found the astrology section of the ship, they were busy looking through ever part of his expedition, they were also analysing some of the data extracted from Shadow Blaze which he had been informed was cold though they couldn't quite tell if it was dead or just hibernating or something.
He had decided, perhaps forced himself, to move forward, that was what all this had been about, moving on with his life, not letting things like Voldemort tie him to the past.
There was huge amounts of data, including video footage.
Harry had asked to see the destruction of Voldemort again, they'd been a bit surprised to see him and had quickly set it up on a huge screen which covered one wall. Harry watched in full colour and clarity as Voldemort materialised…right to the end where he'd been engulfed, he watched that frame by frame…he watched it over and over again before he was satisfied.
They were staring at him when he'd finished, he'd watched that section at least 20 times.
"Thank you." Then he'd walked out with his palm computer loaded his report and some novels, he eventually ended up in the Secondary Oxygen Processing Room, he leant against the only wall, which wasn't a wall but the door and read silently for the next few hours.
Until late in the day when he fell backwards into the corridor as the door opened.
"Jane." Harry said as he looked up and saw Jane standing there.
"Sorcerer, what are you…" She began.
"Just wanted a place to read…sorry." He said beginning to stand.
She smiled. "I'm here to monitor the watering."
"Ahh…" Harry got up and watched as the sprinklers fired up there were many near the roots and above some of the fronds.
They were 3 days out from Earth, Harry was having an informal lunch with Captain Paul Jennings, captain of the Flinders and Birmingham and a few other sorcerers who'd accompanied Birmingham to create the portkey.
"I've been meaning to say Birmingham that was a huge amount of star for such a small portkey." Harry said as he passed the salad to Birmingham who looked a little guilty.
"We had to be sure that there was going to be enough of the star taken, plus working out how much power not matter how much information…it wasn't as though we could walk into Flourish and Blotts and ask for the tome for setting portkeys to move pieces of suns." Harry laughed as did the other sorcerers on the table, the captain looked a bit left out, Harry explained to him Flourish and Blotts and other things.
Birmingham and the others had left Harry and Paul talking about random things.
"So Harry where are you going from here?" The captain asked casually.
"You know you're not the first person to ask me that." Harry admitted.
"So…what was your answer to them?" The captain asked curiously.
"My answer to you is…when we get back, return to Hogwarts and finish my schooling…"
"Schooling, you just…"
"I know…and I doubt that anyone would care…well I can imagine some people might shout at me a little, if I didn't. But I've gotten this far I might as well finish it…then a bit of a rest, hang out at the beach…"
"You live near the beach?" He asked curiouslty.
"Sorrento, Victoria."
"I thought you…"
"Go to school in England…got a nice house in Sorrento, beach views...nice and calm…"
"Cool, I'm in Launceston when I'm not here. Tassie born, Tassie's where I'm going to stay…when I'm not here…"
Harry nodded.
"After that…well I am in UNIT…I thought about maybe serving on a ship…" He trailed off thinking of "his" ship, not that it was, it was UNIT's craft that he'd used, at least that was one way to think of it. "or maybe get some experience in everything."
He laughed. "After spending 9 days alone in a ship plus the 14 or so here and you want to come back?"
"Well hopefully I'll have something to do." Harry said.
"Instead of hiding out in the greenhouse…" Harry looked at him puzzled "The Secondary Oxygen…"
"Right."
ASCS Flinders was sitting in orbit over England.
Harry was waiting in the teleport room, Harry had said they could land and then he'd go from there, but they were hanging around in orbit for a while longer to run some tests.
Birmingham and the Captain came to see him off.
"By the way, what's the date?" Harry asked suddenly, aside from counting back the days he didn't really count what month they were in.
"It's about 2 weeks to Christmas, so no holidays for you yet." Birmingham smiled.
"Well you've got my report…I'll see you when…"
"When you've got all the explaining over and done with?" Captain Jennings offered.
"Something like that, and that reminds me, Hermione Granger."
"Hermione Granger?" Birmingham looked puzzled. "Your friend who was curious…yes…we'll send you a letter, some time close to the end of school for you. Time and dates the usual."
"Thanks." Harry shook both their hands and grabbed teleport rock and stood within the area.
He felt the world dissolve away and then he was standing just off the path leading up to Hogwarts.
Looking up it was day light, some time after breakfast, he'd already eaten, although Harry was pretty sure that the Flinders's time was set to the southern hemisphere, so being in the Northern it didn't really line up.
Harry pushed open the doors to the great hall, obviously he'd interrupted a meeting of The Order as not all the teachers were there and they were sitting around a round table in the middle of the hall.
It was totally silent as they all turned to look at him.
"Miss me?"
