Season 2 - Chapter 4
Thoughts
"speech"
"Goa'uld speech"
SG SG SG SG SG SG SG
December 4th 1998 – The Langham, London
"Miss Kazuko Matsui?"
The tall and slender Japanese woman turns towards me and looks me up.
The MI5 file we received details she is 28 years old, single, and lives in Tokyo. She is an undergraduate in computer science form Waseda University, Very good grades, though no distinction. Works as Product manager for NEC, at the mobile computing division. Enjoys rock music, rock climbing and a good drink.
The file doesn't refer to her magical education at Mahoutokoro, or her Mastery in Runes.
"My name is Hermione Granger, and I was pointed your way by Professor Bathsheda Babbling from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
I present her with my business card, with two hands. Just as the secret service has instructed me to do.
She is very guarded.
"I'm sorry to bother you at this time, after a long conference day, but I couldn't let the opportunity of you being in London pass. May I invite you for a drink and dinner, so we can chat for a while? I have a proposition you will be interested to hear."
I hope.
"What does the Hogwarts slayer have to offer to the likes of me?"
Ouch!
"Please," I answer. "This isn't something to discuss, standing in a hotel lobby. Will you join me?"
It takes her 20 minutes to change from her business suit and heels to something much more comfortable.
And flattering.
We walk in silence to the Artesian, just around the corner. It's not exactly the place to let your hair down, but it's comfortable, posh, and the cocktails and barmen are to die for. Calvin and agent Sidney are waiting for us at the table. Introductions, and some pleasantries are held, and orders placed. Kazuko raises a brow to the presence of a MI5 agent at the table. I wave my hand around, after our drinks and food are served, and raise privacy wards around us. That gains me a little appreciation from miss Matsui. Only few can do those without a wand, after all.
"Let us start by creating some credibility," I tell Miss Matsui and pose a small Sneakoscope on the table. "Otherwise, you will not believe a word we say," I smile, a bit impishly.
"My name is Hermione Granger." The thing stays silent.
"I love Quidditch." – It whistles in protest.
Agent Sidney looks amused. "My name is Sidney," he says, and the whistling continues.
I glare at him, but Kazuko finds it amusing too. She tests the Sneakoscope herself a little, and motions me to go on. She is much less enthusiastic when I present her with a short contract, and a distinctively sharp quill. Sadly, for this kind of contract to be binding over mages, a contract quill must be used.
"Sorry," I tell her. "We all signed this contract – the information is that sensitive. It works like this: You sign this, and we give you the two-sentence pitch. Then you have the choice to leave, or you can stay and get the long and detailed version, which is what we hope for."
"You really want to hear this, though," Calvin chuckles.
I glare at him. Not helping?
Hesitantly, Kazuko takes the quill and signs her name to the secrecy contract.
"Brilliant!" Agent Sidney enthuses. "She and Mr. Potter," he points at me, "Found a stranded spaceship and a cache of alien tech powered by magic. We would like you to work with Calvin here, on those systems."
Talk about the two sentence pitch. It's more like ripping off wax paper! After half a year of letting it grow wild…
Kazuko looks a bit shocked. She gives the silent Sneakoscope a pointed look, then reaches slowly for her drink and bottoms up, coughing a bit.
"The reactors?" she asks in wonder and clear curiosity.
"The reactors are our partner Keira's department. You are to work with me on computer systems. It's like nothing any of us have ever dreamed of." Calvin remarks.
"Runes?" she asks me.
"As I understand it, it's a stop-gap measure. We have magic generators, and we can harness it using Runes," I answer.
"Yes," Calvin agrees. "Until we manage to break into the code and actually program those things."
Conversation goes on for a couple of hours, and few rounds, but hey – MI5's paying. Finally, we walk her, staggering a bit, to her hotel.
"Hey," she calls. "When do you need me? Where is the office? Do I need to move to London? Can you help with relocation and work visa?"
Calvin looks all smug as he points his finger up. There, above us in the surprisingly clear December sky, shines a beautiful full moon. There's a howl sounding from the direction of Regent's Park. I tense for a moment.
Nah, popular music aside, English werewolves much prefer woods in York, over London.
December 7th, 1998 – Antarctica
"How lovely."
We're flying low over the Antarctic pole, in circles, looking for anything that will pull our attention. Sadly, Precious isn't the best search and exploration vehicle, and the view is limited to what we can see out of the front screen, which is mostly the white of the storm. Precious offers no view whatsoever below. Kaden flies as low as we dare, and hopes we can get a 'ping' from the ring platform in the back, indicating another ring transporter is in close range.
"No use, really – we should be on the lookout for a weather window from Halley," Sidney remarks.
"We're here – Let's finish our round?" Harry offers.
"Be thankful that Precious isn't influenced by the weather. Any earth made vehicle, and we'd be crushed and frozen ten times over already, and that includes Challenger 2 tanks," Kaden remarks from the controls.
A gust of wind outside clears the clouds and the snow for a short moment.
"Alright, this is exactly what we were not hoping for," Sidney remarks.
"Nothing on the map in this location, sir!" Sergeant Pennock calls.
In front of us is a small concrete structure. Almost flushed with the ground and mostly hidden by the rock formations around it. Obviously, we can see no activity in any direction, given the lovely weather.
"We're already here, might as well check it out." Harry shrugs.
"Want to knock on the front door?" Sidney asks.
Harry shrugs again and raises his hand, wiggling his fingers a bit.
We let him and Sergeant Pennock out, behind some rocks, just out of sight from the structure. I can see him helping the Sergeant get behind him on the broom, just before they both disappear under his invisibility.
For about a minute we stand in silence and stare outside at the white nothing of the storm.
"Alright," I finally say. "This is going to be an interesting vigil. Scattergories anyone?" I'm plenty surprised at the enthusiastic response.
It's almost an hour into our wait, when a soft 'pop' notifies us of their return, followed by their appearance from underneath the invisibility, just above the Hopscotch court I've scratched over the ring platform. We stopped playing Scattergories after a few rounds in which I've wiped the floor with them all. Now, Kaden is killing us.
"Ouch," Harry cries, when the lucky hits him.
"Hard at work?" Sergeant Pennock mocks us. "Here Comes an Old Soldier from Botany Bay's next? sir!"
Harry laughs so much he almost falls off his broom. I would have loved to come back with a clever response, but the blush overwhelms me. Sidney looks like he doesn't know where to bury himself.
I'm never gonna live it down.
"Did you find anything in there?" Kaden asks, to move us onwards.
"The Americans," Harry sighs. "There's a Port, down there, and its keyboard. They are disconnected and dismantled, as if both are being readied for transport and opened for research at this time.
"There are also a couple of very bored scientists looking for ways to pass the time of isolation," Pennock adds. "Their way also involved quite a bit of bouncing, but much less clothing. In any case, there is no way to secure this Port without having issues with the Americans."
"There is something else bothering me, though." Harry remarks, looking thoughtful. "The way Bane talked about this place, I was expecting more. All there is down there is a frozen cave and the Port," he says looking at me now.
"We've seen a few Alteran installations by now. This was not one – No reactors, crystals, emitters, lines, nor devices. Just the Port and a bare cave."
"You're saying this isn't the Port we're looking for? How many Ports were on Earth?" I ask.
"I don't know!" he answers me. "But either this isn't the Port we are looking for, or there is more to be found around here."
We all ponder his words for a short while.
"Right. The ice around here is about two third of a mile thick. I don't think the rings will be able to pair with any platform down there, through this. We'll need a better location, or a way to scan through the ice, before we can explore this further," I remark.
"And better weather," Sidney agrees. "Take us home Kaden."
"Aye, Aye Sir!"
December 7th, 1998 – The moon
"Hey, look who's here bright eyed and early. Looking all chuffed! Do tell!"
Keira meets me at the entrance to the observatory canteen, leaving with a steaming cup of tea, just as I walk in from the rings.
"He said it! Finally said it!" I enthuse. Almost jumping on my toes.
Keira smiles at me. And turns back into the cafeteria to make me a hot cup of tea. "Well dear, go on?" she encourages me.
"Those three little words!"
"Good girl!" She hugs me again and we're actually jumping in place.
Even with all her goth roughness and that unbelievable intellect – she can certainly be the little girl when the time is right.
"Someone's radiating," we hear R voice from the door. "What are we celebrating?"
"He finally said it," Keira explains.
"Took him long enough," she says dryly. "Good for you girl".
I get a warm hug from her too.
"He's just a boy," I dismiss any excessive expectations, while my smile almost split my face.
"Bonjour!," I hear Fleur joining us.
"Finally?" she asks/says, as soon as she sees my smile. "Félicitations chèrie! I'm going to have so much fun over dinner tonight!" We hug too.
"Lemme see the memory?" I smile, a bit meanly. I am still not completely over Molly entering my and Harry's tent without knocking, and then rushing to tell my parents, again without knocking.
I'm not above petty revenge.
"Did we miss the party invitation?" Calvin asks while walking in with Ted, "Or is it a girl-only Knee-up?"
We help them to some tea and biscuits, and almost push them out the door.
"Need to get back to the lab," Keira sighs. "We don't have enough fun here, lately. Fancy a girl's night this Friday – What say you?"
A date it is.
December 9th, 1998 – Battersea Power Station
"Calvin!" Keira all but shouts out from her lab. "Did you fiddle with the computer systems again last night?"
There is a perfectly good intercom on her table, but sometimes we forget that it's not just the seven of us here, as it used to be.
"Get your arse in here, you plonker. System's all dodgy – can't work like this."
"All right, all right, what's got you knickers in a twist?"
"I'm transferring runtime information from our installed reactors to the moon lab to run optimizations before our next build. Francis wants our next reactor version to be 5% more efficient in power management."
"Can you do this?" Calvin queries.
Keira rolls her eyes. "I can probably do 20%, but Francis doesn't want the reactors to get too good too soon. The original design isn't that good, given it's almost five thousand years old. Even the capital ship's reactor wasn't such a jewel. The Hind's reactor is half its size, and only about 27% less in power, and we're yet to genuinely understand the technology. It's like the Goa'uld reached a result they were fine with, and just let it be."
"Bonkers." Calvin agrees. "So, what got you all shirty this morning?"
"Look! There's a 4ms latency from here to the lab, over system tolerance."
"Did you reset the system?"
"Sure, luv. Disconnected the cable and reversed it too," she sneers.
Calvin taps on a nearby computer for a minute and turns back to her. "Here, reset. Can you try it again?"
R and I enter Keira's lab by now and are watching from the door.
"4ms latency still," she huffs.
"What? That's the kind of latency that gets you killed?! Budge up, lemme see this."
"Is there a problem?" R finally asks.
"We're having latency in an internal system, where there should be none," Keira explains, while Calvin clicks away.
"That's a direct, narrow beam, wavelength modulated laser system. There should not be any latency at all," Calvin mumbles. "Here, I've run diagnostics, both here and on the moon – all green. Can you test it again?" He asks.
By now we've gathered quite a crowd. R shush them out.
"4.1ms" Keira deadpans.
"Bugger! Do you have a line to all the reactors from here?" he asks.
Keira nods, just as the intercom in Calvin's lab pings.
"Rose," R answers it.
"Right you are, agent smith" we can hear Ted's sarcastic voice through the open door. "Are you girls running some kind of maintenance on communications? We're receiving latency on remote controlled systems. It annoys Siya," he adds.
"Please hold. Calvin's on it."
"Keira, I want you to run the same test between here and the reactors in Japan, India, France, and the US?"
Keira nods. "2.1ms to France, 2.8, and 2.9ms to Japan and India, 4.9ms to the US," she reports.
"How can this be?!" Calvin almost tearing his hair off at this stage.
"Sorry for asking again, but – do we have a problem?"
Keira ignores the question, and turns to R. "Can you reach communications at the Service and ask for a latency test on all lines."
"Do you think communication was compromised?"
"Not in the sense you're implying." Keira shrugs.
"We need more information," Calvin cuts in. "Please?"
"It will probably take a couple of hours," R acknowledges.
"Ask for information to be sent as soon as any test is back?"
She nod and walks out. "Can you help me around?" I hear her ask Harry, and they're gone.
"Calvin, I would like to test something." Keira follows. "I'm sending you a file. Let's have it played at all stations at the same time – if possible, record it, and compare the recorded files?"
"You reckon?" he looks at her disturbed.
"Don't even want to think about it…" she replies.
Time crawls by, and the tension in the base rises.
In her lab, Keira and Calvin sit in front of the large screen, watching the numbers flow in.
"4.2ms," she softly remarks."
"How much time has passed?"
"Three hours."
There is nothing but clicking sounds for a while.
"All right," Calvin finally says. "Wrote a script to run latency tests on all stations, every full hour."
She only nods.
"Got your files back," he says.
More clicking sounds.
"Pitches vary. -0.3% in Japan and India, 0.04% in France, +0.6% in NYC."
We bring them lunch. We bring them dinner. We sit and look in silence.
"How fast?" I hear Calvin softly asks.
"about 20%," she answers. "Unless it's gravity…"
"How?!"
She shrugs. "Romulan warbird crashed on Earth?"
They are silent again, watching the screens updating.
"4.4ms", Keira says to the silent room.
Can you please explain?" I finally ask.
"We are following distortion in the time continuum around the globe." Calvin finally answers. "It started last night and has been getting worse since."
"Relativity?" By now I understand enough to make the connection. He nods in silence.
"We don't know how, or why." Keira finishes the discussion.
It's the middle of the night when Calvin finally calls R on the mobile.
"R, can you please get back to the base? We have enough information for now."
Few minutes later she pops in with Harry. They both look knackered.
"We need to speak with the Prime Minister."
"Right now?"
"It's the end of the world, kind of urgent," Keira shrugs.
That's hopelessness…
Prime Minister Blair isn't happy to be awoken in the middle of the night. He's even less enthusiastic about the Earth coming to an early, unscheduled end, much less so since we don't know the why or the how of it, and we have no theories for saving it.
"Run that by me again?" he asks.
"Ever since last night, the time continuum around the globe has been distorted by 6.7%. This phenomenon is accelerating. Any explanations we have for it are from the realm of relativity. We can't think of any practical way this phenomenon can happen on Earth, but if it won't stop – Earth won't survive." Keira answers in a flat tone.
"How long?"
"Without knowing the cause?" Calvin shrugs.
"We do know that it's centred in the US – Colorado, Utah, Kansas, New-Mexico. About there," Calvin elaborates.
"So, it might actually be in Kansas, after all," Harry whispers to me.
The Prime Minister hears him and gives him an evil eye. I shush him up.
Not now, prat!
"Magic?" Prime Minister Blair asks.
"Not any kind that we know of." I replay.
"Our American friends?"
"Maybe, but I can't even speculate about how." Keira answers.
The Prime Minister sighs and moves to his table. "Nora? Please get me the US president on the phone?"
Few minutes later his phone rings.
"What do you mean 'he can't take my call'? Who is available over there? I'll speak with him."
A minute later the phone rings again. Prime Minister Blair listens for a very short time, then cuts whoever is on the other side.
"No, listen Josh," he says. "If Bill's busy dealing with the world ending, because of that big round toy of yours, please advise him the Prime Minister of your country's closest ally would appreciate a little of his time, regarding."
He listens again
"Thank you very much – I'll hold."
He manages a thin smile towards us.
"What have you done, Bill?" he cuts to the chase. "How do you stop this?" he listens again. "Indubitably you are doing your best. Who do you have working on this?"
"Captain Samantha Carter," he whispers to us, and Keira gives him a thumb up.
"Please don't explain it to me? Listen, I'm sending a team to lend a hand. More likely, lend a mind. Where should I tell them to go?" He listens again. "With utmost respect to your people, this was not a suggestion. I need a location for them to reach."
"Thank you, Mr. President. Please tell your people to expect them sooner than expected."
And he finishes the call.
"They had their Port connected to a black hole," he sighs. It's in Cheyenne Mountain Colorado. I'd offer you transportation, but you're probably quite capable," He thinly smiles. "Godspeed."
We are all quite dead on our feet when we get out of the Prime Minister's office. R wants us to be on our way, but I look pointedly at Harry, and stop them.
"Listen guys. We are all too tired to be of any use to anyone and everyone. We can get six hours of sleep outside time. It will be this time exactly when we're up, on our feet, and on our way. The catch – we must use this time for sleep and not do anything else, and you can't ask us any questions regarding, or we will destroy the world, before having a chance at saving it."
Before any of them can respond we are at Harry's place, six hours back. R, Keira and Calvin are under sleeping charms, Obliviated and in their beds. The alarm clock is set.
Desperate sex is the most horrible and wonderful thing. I find myself crying in Harry's arms, till sleep takes me too.
Haven't called my parents in three days…
Félicitations chèrie – felicitations dear
Huge shout to flyboy38, my beta, who takes the time to make sure the story is a much better read.
Also to Dalwolf For doing Brit-Picking for, well - you all, and help my British.
Cheers!
SFD