Star Granger Season 2 - Chapter 10
Thoughts
"speech"
"Goa'uld speech"
SG SG SG SG SG SG SG
June 28th 1999 – Moon complex
Ted and Siya are again, in the observation room, watching entries turning green on a large screen. Kazuko and Jeremy are there with them.
Today's Brick's maiden flight, which is an important step for both of them. It includes our first self-designed power reactor, and our first-generation magic generator.
If HMS Hind was a short oval, The Brick, as its name suggests, is box shaped with a slanted front screen, a large back hatch, a small side hatch, and enough space for an extended section of infantry, an armoured vehicle, or probably three or four Centaurs. HMS Hind can carry two Bricks in its hangar. Larger ships are planned with enough space for three.
Machinery is kept under the floor. It has a capital class forward shooting plasma cannon, though the power available only enables a regular fire rate. It carries a couple of pebble ship cannon turrets; dorsal and ventral. Being large enough, it also supports an FTL drive taken directly from one of the pebble ships. More importantly, it's small enough for the pebble ships cloak generator to be effective, and has more than enough power to make it work.
Have you noticed that all this describes a vehicle formerly said to be unneeded?
Truth is, all those capabilities are surplus to the few ones we actually need which are a small enough craft for us to experiment with, and obviously, some fast, small shuttles to pop around the galaxy with. At the same time, it must be large enough and powerful enough to be a legitimate test example. For this reason, our next Brick will sacrifice about half of its inner volume for a capital class reactor, to run either FTL tests, or new weapon trials - using external detached pods.
The Brick, as well as its later built sisters, are set to be Jeremy's, Calvin's, and Kazuko's main testing platforms. It's already loaded with a few sensors and cloaking systems which were developed by Kazuko's team of programmers, while not even knowing what Runes and Magic are.
= Lunar, this is Brick. Troy here. All systems are green. Altitude, Angels 3 and holding =
Troy became somewhat of our test pilot. There was nothing intentional about this, but he was at the controls with every new craft launch we had.
= Roger Brick. Engage cloak =
= Roger =
Above us, The Brick disappears from sight. It disappears on one of the screens, at the observatory as well.
= Goa'uld cloak looking good, Troy = Ted acknowledges.
At another post, Kazuko's typing hectically. Strange forms appear on the screen in front of her and she's looking at them in deep thought.
= All right, Brick. Take it out for a spin. Sublight and under 60% as usual. Come back in an hour, uncloaked =
= Roger =
Obviously, we notice nothing different outside. On Kazuko's screen though, the forms change.
"We'll probably need to use triangulation to get any defined readings", says a very young chap, looking over her shoulder. She nods.
"One tracking unit on the surface, and a couple on some of the largest debris?"
"I'll set that up tomorrow morning," he agrees.
What are they doing?
I drift closer to take a better look. For the first time since the beginning, things are happening without us knowing.
Frustrating…
"We're looking for life signs," Kazuko notices me and explains. "We, well – mostly Paul, programmed a system to try and locate life signs."
Didn't even meet him before. Fleur probably signed him in.
"We're trying to use this new energy, radiation, something, to recognize life signs, and point towards them. The thought is that it might 'see' through cloaking, as long as something is alive inside. Obviously, we know bugger all about all this." He smiles at me mischievously. He then blushes, noticing he's hitting on the boss.
Kazuko winks at me behind his back.
Cheeky bugger!
"Plans for tomorrow afternoon?" Calvin asks me. "Keira is giving a lecture about gravity and energy for Doctoral Candidates at this meetup in London. Free beer and pizzas for all," he adds, at my non-answer.
Doesn't sound interesting?
"You should go," Kazuko softly tells me. "Lots of bright minds to meet, and Keira's an amazing lecturer. You can learn something new."
"Cheers."
A system beeps and we are all pulled back to the large screen. A point blinks and is coming directly towards us from behind the moon. It has a small label following its path, stating 4#0011b, and listing speed, size, mass, and energy reading.
Ted looks a tad sheepish, and after a short rush of typing the label changes to state 'Brick'.
= Lunar, this is Brick. All systems still green. Returning to the stable =
Cheers are all around. I can see Jeremy straighten up and gets his haughty smirk back. "Ace. Just as expected!"
An arse he might be, but he's one of us who knows best that the devil is in the details, and what he's responsible for.
June 29th – The HUB Islington
Angel tube station is one of my favourites around London. There is something special standing on this long, long escalator rising from so deep underground to the world above.
Would have probably thought differently before escalators were installed.
Another important part is that above is Islington, which is one of the loveliest places around. From a farmers' market, to all those unique little shops scattered around, the many cosy cafes filled with young people debating all kinds of existentialism, to the well-to-do, yet unassuming living streets. My parent's neighbourhood is a bit like that, but is missing those sparks of uniqueness.
The HUB is one of those new places around for people to get out of home and work at. I hear the start-up scene is flourishing here, but also many self-employed and impact activists frequent this place.
There are cheers and applause as soon as we walk in. Keira has become quite a celebrity in certain circles, and the people gathered here are certainly some of those. Verve are on the speakers, courtesy of our goth keynote.
I need to hear some sounds
that recognize the pain in me.
As promised – pizzas and beer are a plenty. Calvin is immediately in recruiting mode. And people here are certainly interested. I'm getting quite a bit of attention myself. BCE Inc. made a name for itself for only taking in the best and brightest, then setting them to work with science and technologies they couldn't even imagine beforehand. Nothing ever came out.
Obviously.
But Calvin's white paper and crystal computing demo, together with Keira's reactors, set the tone nicely. Also got the Prime Minister an annoyed call from a certain President, about our ways 'risking state secrets'.
What is it with them and everything being this huge secret? Crystals have nothing Goa'uld in them. Just Quartz.
Keira is supposed to speak about energy needs in relation to gravity. Maybe touch on artificial gravity 'theories'. However, as soon as she steps on the small stage, beer in hand, she's swamped with questions.
"Have you seen the footage of that meteorite hitting Mars?" A guy, in all black asks the question on everyone's mind.
"It's completely slanted all the way deep into the gamma range. So much energy!" exclaimed another chap, in good-boy slacks and plaid button up.
"Can't even see the asteroid in the footage. With this much energy released, you'd expect something quite visible!" adds a third bloke, in jeans and a jumper.
Almost a boys only club…
On the stage, Keira is getting a tad red in the face, and trying to hide it behind her beer. "All right guys. That explosion was a wee bit too distinctive to ignore. Let's hear some theories?"
At the back of the room, Calvin chats with a couple of blokes and almost chokes on his pizza, trying not to laugh his head off. I slap his back, not too gently. "Please try and chew well, dear? We are in polite company."
Theories offered are getting more and more extreme,
Absurd?
and I stop trying to follow those, and calculate in my head the energies and probabilities.
I find one of the very few women in the room, sitting on a sofa, drinking her beer and nibbling on her pizza, quite daintily. She invites me to sit, then takes a second look at me.
"You're Miss Granger from BCE Inc," she states the quite obvious. "Keep up the good work!" she adds.
I point at Keira, on the stage. "Her work mostly, though Francis Reads, our CEO actually made it happen." I defer the rights, as I usually do. "Hermione," I add, reaching to shake her hand. "No one misses me, outside board meetings, and conferences." I smile.
"Neta Lev," she presents herself and shakes my hand.
"Don't you play the 'let's present guesses as theories' game?"
She smiles at me thinly. "What guesses I have are too farfetched to be presented as theories, and I don't quite dare say those out loud, to keep my academic prospects up."
I give her a raised eyebrow.
"Didn't you hear about that Dr Jackson and his theory about the pyramids?"
She gets a snicker for that.
A bloke in the crowd suggests a crushed Klingon Bird-of-Prey, and gets laughs all around. I give Neta another raised eyebrow.
"That's Timothy," she explains. "From the University of Manchester," she tells me, putting such disdain into her tone of voice, possible only for Oxbridge graduates. "He's in physics, but mostly does research in the worlds of Biology. I'm not sure he'll even try for a post. He's also a bloke," she shrugs.
"And what is your farfetched un-theory?"
"I find it hard to believe it's a natural occurrence. The energy is just too high. Even if the meteorite was made of a heavy element, with a mass, just shy of critical, then turned critical by the pressure and heat of the impact – Well, I ran the numbers for a hypothetical plutonium meteorite, and the numbers just aren't high enough," she concludes.
"So, a Klingon Anti-Matter core gone critical?" I offer. "Unless that imaginary meteorite is made of a much heavier, yet stable element, than Plutonium."
Neta, looks at me. Probably considering what she knows about my occupation.
"Contrariwise - if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic." she concludes, and gets a huge smile from me.
I like her!
"In any case, the way the world is going lately – I'll believe almost anything. Did you guys notice the time distortion, just before Christmas? Very few people noticed, and even fewer were in a position to do any actual measurements. No one will talk about it, because we're afraid of what might have caused this, but I've seen reliable measurements of time distortion of up to 3%. Makes it hard for you to sleep at night."
"7.4% between Tokyo and the Midwest." I answer without actually thinking.
"You did that?!" she looks at me with huge eyes.
What? No!
"We were just quick enough to notice, and lucky enough to react on time. Sorry – not allowed to elaborate, but still have nightmares." I say, heading her next question.
"What are you researching?" I ask after a long lull in the conversation, during which we listen to some rubbish Keira is hypothesising – though it's well calculated, at the least.
"Superconductivity," I hear Calvin answering. He's just beside us, without us noticing.
Or without me noticing.
"Calvin," Neta acknowledges him softly.
"Neta," he answers, somewhat coldly.
I find myself looking between one and the other.
"Did you finish your thesis?" He asks.
"Last semester. I'm negotiating now."
Ehm, excuse me?
Some applause marks Keira's descent from her dais. She approaches us with a small, somewhat sad smile on her face. "Neta," she greets her softly.
Now I'm looking between the three of them, not understanding.
"Keira and I used to room together, back when we did our Master's, and I was dating Calvin back then. It all ended in tears, though, those were mostly mine," Neta finally fills me in.
I still look at my friends impassively.
Keira smiles softly. "Good to see you, it's been a while," she says and hugs Neta lightly. "We should meet with less people around, and some time to talk. Do you still use the same address? I'll mail you, then," she adds after Neta nods, and walks back to say other goodbyes.
Calvin shrugs at me, mumbles goodbye too, and walks away. I'll have to sit them down with some beer and a few pointed questions, though it's probably none of my business.
Neta looks a bit gloomy, so I put my hyper face on, and give her a huge smile. "Say, can you meet me Thursday, late morning, at the Battersea park lakeside tea house?"
"Recruiting?" she teases me lightly.
"Always – for the best minds this country has to offer." I easily agree. "You'll be able to work with Keira and Calvin? They're partners, you know." I drop my mask for a moment.
She nods easily. "Not at your offices?"
"There are reasons," I just say. A handshake and I'm off too.
July 1st 1999 – Battersea park
We finish our morning run a few minutes after my meeting time, to find Neta sitting patiently at a table. Tea and scones in front of her. R, Kaden, and Sidney wave us goodbye and are on their way back and up. Luna is at a table on the other side of the terrace. Harry is already on his way there. He is about to hug her, when stopped both by his self-awareness and Luna's cute, disgusted look.
Giggle.
He's satisfied with kissing the back of her hand and brings her over for introductions. Luna is dressed in what can be best described as 'modern hippie' with a flowing thin skirt, tight top, a hair band, and lots of braided flowers. It looks great on her, so much that one hardly notices her wand, ever tucked behind her ear.
Neta's dressed for a London job interview
"I have never seen you so infested with Wrackspurt. You were doing so much better!" Luna tells me, when at our table.
"Oh no," I reply. "Running is actually good for you. You'll even grudgingly learn to like it."
"Let's make haste?" Harry offers, and presents a short secrecy contract in front of the two of them. Luna makes a face at the contract quill but signs it without batting an eye.
Neta reads the short contract through. "Your solicitor is on the loose side of things," she remarks.
"This is all that is needed." She's about to take out a pen from her jacket, but I get a raised eyebrow from Harry, and present her with the quill Luna used. "Sorry, but you'll need to use this nasty thing. We all did."
Neta makes a small, surprised sound, and rubs the back of her hand.
"All right, this is done. Just so you know, everything you learn, relating to our efforts, is covered by the contract. If disclosed to anyone, not already signed in, you'll just forget it all, a moment beforehand. Did you know you have Magic in your family line, somewhere?"
"Magic?" She looks at us strangely. "And what do you mean 'forget'?" She turns around to the waiter, then turns back confused.
I shake my head exasperatedly.
Harry is outright laughing. "Keira did exactly the same thing, when she was signed!"
I explain the contract to Neta. Again. And ask her kindly not to test it again. "Let us just get to the offices?"
The Battersea Power Station is just a short walk from the park. On our way, Luna waves her wand at Harry and me, and all of a sudden, we feel all clean and smelling like roses. Literally.
"Thanks Luna, we needed that!" Harry smiles.
Neta looks at us with huge eyes.
"Where are you travelling to, this year?" I ask Luna. "Luna and her father are zoologists, and reporters. They travel the world in search of new species, and report those in their newspaper." I update Neta. She seems to be moderately impressed, until Luna elaborates.
"We are travelling to Costa-Rica for about a month looking for Moon Frogs and Dabberblimps, though a sighting of a Crumple-Horned Snorkack will always be a delight."
"I was actually searching for Moon Frogs for you, but couldn't find any?"
"Oh," Luna looks a bit crestfallen. "Where were you looking?"
"On the moon?" I answer, as if it's the most obvious thing.
"But I wouldn't despair yet in your place," Harry adds. "They might only come out after dark, and on the dark side."
Neta still follows us, though by now, the poor woman probably thinks the whole thing is a cruel and elaborated practical joke on her. We're at the main office doors and Harry holds those open for us to enter. Our Public offices are a tad underwhelming. You know – offices. Marketing is here, and sales. Accounting too. There's a large window to the manufacturing floor, and beyond it, one can see the Thames. Luna starts moving directly towards the small green door on the eastern wall, but Harry holds her. Neta is pulled towards the work floor.
"Where are your labs?" she asks me, as I join her.
"Think about the content of the contract you signed."
She now notices the green door and cautiously walks towards it. "WIB?"
"Wait till you see agent R – our boss," I smile. "Now, don't you want to see what's behind the door?"
Behind the green door is a small grey and nondescript room, with a metal ring in the floor. Most of our employees will take the rings directly from here to the moon, never visiting the London WIB offices. For this visit though, I make an exception. One of the things clear to those who learn the secret to the inner door is that both BCE offices, and whatever space which is behind the green door are the same. Offices, manufacturing floor, Thames view – the works. Only behind the green door, the WIB science labs of your dreams take the place otherwise occupied by the BCE offices.
Precious is on the work floor. Frankie too. Precious was fitted with a Pebble ship cloak and is phasing in and out of view. Frankie has neither the power, nor the space for that device. A small team is using Frankie's sensors in an effort to locate Precious through the cloaking system, while another team is working on adopting that system for use on smaller, less powerful vessels – the likes of Frankie.
"That's magic?" Neta asks hesitantly.
"No, that's technology," Harry answers.
"We should probably put a hold on that explanation, till we're upstairs, and in a safe office." I stop this discussion early on. "That's Precious. The first spaceship we found, and which started all of this. I can now acknowledge that it's mostly a POS, but it's still mine." I smile. I get the first small smile from Neta today and feel a bit better.
"Come, let's take the lift." Harry leads us back to the ring in the floor. He steps on a green button with an arrow up marking, and the rings come down. We are now in another nondescript grey room, and the ring on the floor gained another button. This new one is red and carries a down pointing arrow. Harry steps on the green 'up' button again, and after the rings clear, the view in front of us changes to the moon surface with the open shipyards just outside the building.
Both Neta and Luna are pulled towards the observation window. Luna is leaning on Harry, hugging him tightly.
I have never seen Luna so shaken.
"No frogs?" she asks timidly.
Neta is standing in front of the window. She has a small, satisfied smile on.
"So, makes up for the prick on the back of your hand?"
"Oh, yes!" she answers. "What do you expect me to do here?"
"Don't really know. You're one of the bright ones – find a way to contribute and push us forwards. You'll need to learn and discuss it with Calvin and Keira to find your niche, though. In the end – they head research and science, and as much as I like and appreciate you – No one here will undermine them."
She nodes.
"Come, let us show you around," Harry offers, and leads into the indoor hangar, on our way to the main control room.
The Brick is here being pulled and pushed from existence to nothingness, and back again. Given the way it behaves, whatever they did with it is probably Fidelius derived.
"Well, it works," says a bloke, that I don't even know, with some satisfaction.
"What did you do?" Harry asks.
"We used that strange energy to pull and push The Brick in and back out of something like a pocket dimension. It works all wonky, like anything using this energy. If you don't look at a control panel – you won't even remember The Brick ever existed. If one does look at the controls, he won't see anything happening at all, and the only indication it works at all is this light at the dashboard, which you need to take on faith. But it's tested and working. We just have no propulsion at all when 'on'. As soon as we try to manoeuvre – it drops back out."
Luna walks around the ship tracing the almost recognizable Runes on its exterior. "Did you try to put the…" She points at the Runes, not knowing what she's allowed to say.
"Anchoring circuits," I hear Kazuko's voice coming from the control room.
"Well, push those away from the body," Luna concludes, a bit lamely.
And unlike her.
"Good Idea! Liam, how far out are the gravity drivers affecting?"
"Twelve, fifteen ft? – not sure. Also, depends on the power applied."
"Put those Anchoring circuits on telescopic rods, some fifteen ft long, on the underside of the craft, and see if it helps. If it does, play with power and length to find a sweet spot." She instructs him.
"Who are you, smart kid?" she asks, as soon as we're inside the control room.
"Introduction!" Harry states. "This is Miss Kazuko Matsui. She's a computer developer, and also a witch with mastery in Runes. She's the head of any research involving uses of the energies we call Magic."
"Though we try not to use that term here – you'll be thoroughly briefed later, regarding." I elaborate.
"Right, this is our friend, Luna Lovegood. She was a year behind us in school. Was with us at the fight where it all began."
"She's as good with Runes, maybe even better than I used to be. She's also a Magizoologist so we're banking on her for when we encounter the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal. Obviously, she has a few year's learning curve ahead of her, like Harry and I both are having."
"And this is Neta Lev. She's a Physics PhD, and will do whatever you, Calvin, and Keira, together with Neta herself, decide is her niche. By the way – where are R and Keira?" Harry asks.
Kazuko and Neta shake hands.
"Took The Hind to Mars," Kazuko updates us. "She pushed her reactor to 95% this week, and the manifold finally exploded. Great news, we only measured a small energy spike, so containment held!"
"The meteorite?" Neta asks with interest.
"What meteorite? Can you think of a meteorite able to create so much energy, not being noticed for years in advance? Keira needed to test how far she could push her reactors. She was cautious enough to do it far away, but didn't even consider the explosion might make a large enough show, visible from Earth. Couldn't find a hole deep enough, when the first images were published," Kazuko smirks.
Neta smirks too. Then starts chuckling. Finally breaks out in full laughter.
Just then, one of the controls pings, and pulls our combined attention. It's that life signs system of Kazuko's.
"Paul to main control. Hurry!" she calls into the PA, and turns back to the system. On her screen, the shapes are much better defined now, yet certainly not focused. Colouring is also different from what was displayed a few days back.
"Did you set the new sensors?" Kazuko asks Paul, as soon as he runs into the room.
"This morning. Troy took me out, but then had to go with R to Mars, and The Brick is in use, so I didn't have a pilot free for testing yet."
"What are we looking at?" I ask.
"Life signs", Kazuko answers. "On the other side of the Earth from us. Looks like a geosynchronous orbit, approximately above the US." She adds.
"Isn't it too high?" Neta asks
"It is, so this thing has propulsion. Also, we don't have it on any other sensor, so it must be cloaked," Paul agrees.
"And if I read this right, this life sign is both single, and entirely not human." Kazuko remarks. "I haven't written the sodding manual for this system yet, so we have no idea if it works at all, though."
"All employees, this is Harry Potter," Harry calls on the project wide PA system. "Until further notice. No activity is permitted outside cloaked permanent bases. I repeat – No activity at all, outside permanent shielded and cloaked bases. Will update when able. Potter out!"
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!