Harry was in communication with New Buckingham regarding where his ship would be built. Currently, plans were leaning toward Utopia Planetia. The person helping him specifically was Lars Dresbach - the Royal Engineers were going to do a lot of the work or at least direct it.

There was another thing he wanted to know about. "How is the holo-program coming?" Harry asked with amusement.

"We've gotten Episode IV entered for the Han and Luke characters. We're still writing the Leia one. The trouble was coming up with alternate scenes if you decided to not follow the script."

Harry was curious, "What happens if you divert?"

Lars smirked. "You die. Horribly. The Empire catches up and you get blown up by the Death Star, or a Star Destroyer. Jabba the Hut's enforcers catch up. I think the hyperdrive malfunctioning and driving you into a sun was the most fun to program."

"You're a sick, sick man," Harry said in a deadpan voice.

Lars laughed. "It's a lot more fun to work on than we thought it would be, I'll give you that. Are you calling me to tell me you want to go with the Falcon design?"

"No. That was fun to play with and as a Holo-novel or Holo-game it's great, but for real life? Not really." Harry sounded regretful.

Lars was disappointed. "Well, the Lads – me included – are still waiting to do our part. Being Royal Engineer is good for planetside work but we don't get to work with star ships enough. Except shuttles and things like that – and that's boring. The King giving us permission to help design and build a ship was great. But now we want to get going on it."

Harry sighed. "I was going to ask you to get the keel started – I kind of liked the first NX as inspiration. But then I realized I had to scrap that because I want to add things. There's still a bunch of stuff I have to figure out magically. If I wanted off the shelf I could have gotten a ship built to a known specification. I want to inject what I call magic, which as far as science goes is a high level, psionically active and reactive energy manipulation which only succumbs to logical rationale on a limited basis."

Lars asked, "What does that even mean?"

Harry grinned. "Logic has no part of magic."

Lars snorted. "Okay. Could we help with getting you farther on magic?"

Harry replied regretfully, "I have to figure out what can be done. I've only just gotten my magical library into a storage computer. I got my magical cloaking scheme created, but now I need to figure out how to manipulate it. And I still have to try to figure out what else can be done magically instead of using science. I want to make this exotic."

Lars looked at Harry thoughtfully. "This magical library: Is there access here on Earth?"

Harry looked at Lars suspiciously but answered, "The King is the only one who can authorize access without me there. We created a backup in case my computer is lost and I have given Prince William the ability to enter backups of advances I've made. But only the British King has the security clearance to grant access and he promised to do so only with my approval."

Lars smirked. "Have you considered that you don't know enough to know what to look for? What you need is a team of engineers to envision all of the required systems for a starship and then to be able to accurately define the processes so that it can be defined by your mojo. Which would take more time: You learning the vast realms of science so that you can then attempt to write out what sounds like a magical program for effects you don't know you need, or letting someone else learn the magical programming language so that you don't have to do all the programming?"

Lars wasn't being very subtle – but he did have a point: It didn't take being magical to work out runic sequences for testing, it only took imagination. It took magical ability to actually test the rune strings – but having someone else write them would be much, much faster.

"Lars? I'm going to send a message to the King, giving the Lads permission. You'll all have to sign a secrecy contract." He was glad that had been worked out. "But I think you and the Lads can probably have a lot of fun with enchanting and warding and magical engineering."

Lars grinned. "We'll wait for the boss to talk to us."

Harry grinned in response. "Good. Now: I've got a Chief of Security and I'm sending him to you."

"Who is it?" Lars asked.

"A man named Krim, Krim Aldos. He's Bajoran. He was a General in the Militia and a part of the Conservative Bajoran political party, the one trying to kick out the Federation."

Lars was confused. "Why would you want him working for you?"

"Because he was doing it because he was convinced it was right. When he found out he was being duped, he immediately quit." Harry was earnest. "He's a man of principle. That's the kind of man I want working for me: Fully committed to what he's loyal to."

Lars considered that. "I can see that. Okay. Where to put him?"

"I'm going to want him securing the hanger we use to build my ship, get it scanned for sabotage or being bugged and then institute procedures to minimize the chance of it happening later."

"Why not use a Human or other member of a Federation race?" Lars tone was curious, not disapproving.

"Anyone we use could be a plant by Starfleet or anyone else. That's why I hired Krim and am paying him what's considered a good wage: When he accepts your money, he's loyal unless you screw him over– and then he walks away. He won't violate his agreement for illegal revenge; his principles wouldn't allow it."

Lars nodded. "Okay. I will talk to the King and make certain it's Utopia Planetia we're going with."

"Good." Harry paused. "How's Rebecca?" He was trying not to sound too invested.

Lars saw through him. "She's alright. She got the surgery, but is still in rehab. She'll be back in a few weeks."

Harry nodded. "When you next talk to her, give her my best."

"Will do."

"Deep Space 9, Out." Harry disconnected.

After the call was done, Harry sat back in his chair. In truth, he felt a great weight lift off of his shoulders. The biggest problem he was having with creating his ship was knowing what was needed. He had to figure out the "programming" for magical effects. Having someone else, someone who understood modern science, working on that aspect meant he wouldn't be stuck spending all his time on theory. He could practice the enchantments.

He would still have to check over the Lads' work first, but as it stood, he couldn't see any reasons why this wouldn't be a plus.

He had never been the research guy – that had been Hermione. He was the practical guy – he would be doing that again, which suited him down to the ground.

He cheerfully put together the message for King Charles and sent it off.


It was six days since the station had returned to its normal position. Harry had no interest in sitting and eating alone and so he made his way to the replimat often used by the command staff. He had permission though he often used Quark's.

Bashir and Garek were, once again, eating together. And from what Harry could see, Garek was once again pushing Julian's buttons and leading him on. He paused by their table. "Good afternoon gentlemen."

"Good afternoon," Garek said and Julian echoed.

Harry looked at Garek. "Aren't you tired of riling him up yet?"

Garek said with perfect innocence, "I have no idea what you mean?"

Harry gave a brief grin and said, "Sorry for interrupting – I was just passing by."

Garek, Harry noted, was distracted. "Now isn't that interesting." Harry looked and saw a young Cardassian, likely a teenager. Garek's expression became very friendly, as though he was turning on the charm. The teenager saw Garek – and that was not a look of approval. Garek moved to stand up – Harry pushed down on his shoulder. "Sit down."

Garek actually looked emotionally hurt. Harry modified his tone even as he sat down. He said quietly, "I understand that you long for contact with other Cardassians, and intend nothing more than to greet him politely, but he did not look happy to see you. He is not a legal adult, or so I guess. Going up and talking to him would be inadvisable."

Harry mustered his courage to say the next bit. "I know that you are only trying to be friendly but you are an adult and your feelings of kinship might be misconstrued as interest of a more personal nature. Do you want to be viewed as a possible pedophile?"

Garek looked at Harry as though slapped even while Julian winced. "I would never!"

Harry sighed. "I believe I know that. I am only pointing out what it could appear like." He looked at Julian. "Doctor. Go and politely introduce yourself. Greet the man – not the teenager. Assuage your own curiosity as you rarely get a chance to meet Cardassians – mention the only resident Cardassian is a friend."

Julian looked dubious. "I really have no interest in getting involved."

Harry sighed and turned. "Sir," he said to the Bajoran man, who looked slightly pugnacious. "If I am not offending, I am not from this reality – I'm from an older version of Earth. Is it common for Bajorans to care for young Cardassians?" Harry's tone was very polite.

Before the Bajoran man could answer, the Cardassian teen spoke in righteous tones. "Do not brand me with the same name as those butchers. As far as I'm concerned, I'm Bajoran."

Harry raised his hands. "I apologize – I was not trying to offend. Sometimes I just get curious. Have a good meal." He deliberately turned back to the two men. "Something about that is just wrong – but Garek, I hope you see why I intervened. His expression was not one of social acceptance when he saw you."

Garek looked truly upset at the rejection. "I do understand. It is probably better. But I find I have quite lost my appetite. If you will excuse me …." Garek stood up and with only the briefest glance at the Cardassian teen, withdrew.

Harry turned to Julian. "I think you need to report this interaction to Sisko."

Julian nodded. "You're probably right." Julian also withdrew and Harry quietly ate the meal he had brought, deliberately ignoring the other table and the people sitting at it.

Harry made himself available to give information as needed, but it was not asked for. He tried to keep informed, but it was a deemed a private matter. All Odo would tell him later was that custody records for Cardassian "War Orphans" were now all being reviewed as regards propriety and legality.


Garek seemed unaffected as ever, but Harry suspected that was a ruse. The Cardassian tailor was more distant in the days following.

Harry noticed something else too: Julian Bashir was distracted.

If he had Dobby and Winky, he'd have them spy for him and find out, but they were still several weeks from returning. Finally he couldn't stand it and marched himself to Sickbay.

"What has gotten you in such a tizzy?" Harry asked bluntly.

Julian looked up from his screen. "Hello, Sir Harry."

"Hello, Doctor Bashir. What has gotten you in such a tizzy?" Harry repeated the question.

Julian sighed but smiled. "Sorry. We have a visitor coming."

"Oh?" Harry asked.

"An Elaysian – the first Elaysian to join Starfleet in fact," Julian said with cheerful interest.

"And what is so exciting about the Elaysians?"

"Well, for one thing they evolved on a planet which has extremely low gravity – as a result their bodies must have external support to operate in what we consider normal gravity."

Harry's eyes widened. "Wow. They must be an odd-looking species."

Julian immediately protested, "Oh, no. If you ignored the slight difference in facial structure, they could actually pass for Human."

Harry looked at Julian. "That makes absolutely no sense."

"Why do you say that?" Julian asked.

"If they evolved in lower gravity, it would stand to reason that their bones would be of a much lower density, their musculature modified to more efficiently manipulate their bodies when other forces aren't putting a great stress on them. Some muscles would be stronger but most, I assume would be much less dense. They would be taller, I assume, thinner. Their tendons would be adapted to control rather than acting as pullies to allow greater work than the structure alone could accomplish."

Julian was confused by Harry's statement. "I don't know where you're getting all of that."

Harry sighed. "Speculative and theoretical studies based on what we knew of science on old Earth. But even the evolution of Humanity seems to follow that. There are so many 'species' around the Federation that were originally Humans that escaped Earth post World War III, who have adapted to the worlds they found themselves on. Their bodies, colors, muscles, even their hair: Each of these aspects adapted and changed over the generations due to the environment. Why would a species adapted to low gravity look generally Human?"

Julian paused. "I admit that I did not do an evolutionary studies class at University. I was concentrating on medicine. Humans are, you are correct, especially adaptive – they change due to environmental factors much more easily. They also tend to be able to adapt to a more Earth-normal environment no matter where they grew up, which is a factor as to why Humans make up such a high percentage of Starfleet. But getting back to our visitor: She grew up in low gravity and I am ensuring we are prepared for her."

Harry was embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I know you are far more intelligent than I am when it comes to bodies and all – some things that I see in this timeline just don't make any sense to me. Why wouldn't her bones be less dense?"

Julian nodded graciously. "The reason is that even though they evolved at a lower gravity, inertia is still a large factor. The Elaysians move around as though they were old Earth acrobats. They run into things, have to grab on and redirect themselves, and so forth. As a result, their bones had to adapt to the added shocks and so they are as thick, and in some cases even thicker, compared to other Humanoid bone structures."

Harry was impressed. "So they don't have weak bones because they tend to run into things?"

"Basically," Julian said with humor.

"Wow. An argument for allowing children to fall and get up themselves. Anyway. So the real issue is muscle thickness and control."

"Yes. I was studying some work done thirty years ago on Neuromuscular adaptation by a man named Nathanial Teros. He didn't achieve success, but the principles he used were sound. With advances in medical science since then, it's possible his research could lead to a stable method for Elaysians and other low-gravity races to adapt to higher gravity environments."

Harry looked at Julian. "You are really excited about this, aren't you?"

"It would be wonderful to actually help a whole race to overcome barriers. I would really like to try."

"Well, if I can help with anything, let me know," Harry said easily.

"Okay. Do you want to see the chair I have to generate for our guest?"

"Sure," Harry said.

Julian showed Harry the schematics on the chair. Harry commented, "That looks almost like the wheelchairs I saw in Britain growing up."

Bashir replied, "It has some passing resemblance. But this is designed particularly for Elaysians – Ensign Pazlar specifically. Although I think I will have to modify it for Deep Space 9."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"It's designed to go over small bumps and obstacles – the Cardassians designed things with higher lips in door ways."

Harry nodded. "Likely for the same reason Navy ships on Earth had high lips – made the bulkhead sealing points obvious. You don't have small gaps things can fall into."

Julian was taking aback for a moment. "Actually, I didn't consider that."

Harry shrugged. "I only know that because I got a tour of an old American aircraft carrier and I had to ask why they made the ships so that you would trip at the doorways if you weren't paying attention. Our tour guide, an old Navy petty officer, was glad to explain it to me."

Julian nodded. "Anyway, I'll modify the design to increase the lift and possible angles it can travel." Harry looked less than impressed so Julian asked, "What?"

"Do you think someone who has to give particular specifications will be happy if you go willy-nilly making changes? Make a better one if you can, sure, but you better provide the one she asked for first. That's all I'm saying."

Julian was about to argue but then stopped. "You may have a point." Bashir looked a bit embarrassed. "That's one of my trouble areas."

Harry asked, "What? Your puppy-like enthusiasm?" He was smiling as he said it.

"No," Julian said with amused annoyance. "I get ideas and I want to try them. Sometimes, I overlook how people might react."

"In other words, you get impressed with your own intelligence."

Julian rolled his eyes. "If that's the way you want to put it."

Harry chuckled, "I get impressed with my own viewpoint – primitive and uneducated as it is. I tend to get condescending when I think about the norms here. Sometimes I'm really impressed when all of you that know me don't smack me when I start on a rant."

"We try to accept you that you have a different background and social education," Julian said diplomatically.

"Well, I appreciate you all humoring me. But at least in this, I can make an accurate prediction: Change what she asked for and she'll get upset with you."

"I'll take that under advisement."

Harry smiled and said, "I'll leave the rest to you. See you later, Doc."

Julian gave a cheeky half-salute. "Ciao."

Harry turned and started walking away. He then stopped at the door and then looked back. Julian asked, "What?"

"The problem is that her muscles are too weak?"

Julian considered that. "The effect is that they are too weak. The cause is that her musculature isn't adapted and isn't dense enough."

Harry thought about it. "There is a potion that we were taught to brew when we were in fifth year – though we first learned about it in second year, when we were twelve."

"What potion?" Julian asked curiously. Sometimes Harry's potions were just completely insane.

"Strengthening solution. If a normal wizard took it, they would end up immensely strong for a few hours with no adverse side effects when it wore off."

Julian's eyes widened. "Do you have any stock?"

Harry sighed. "No. It has to be brewed in two stages but anyone who passed a Potions OWL should be able to brew it. It has to mature after the first stage – so it's five days total minimum. But that's not my problem."

"What's your problem?" Julian asked.

"I have enough supplies for, oh, quite a number of doses. But one ingredient is Salamander blood. I know they exist here so that wouldn't be hard to make sustainable. The other ingredient is griffin claw. I am certain that there aren't any griffins in this timeline to replace that ingredient when it's gone."

"How much does it use?" Julian asked.

Harry thought back. "A teaspoon of ground griffin claw, not much really but it is preciously bought."

"Do you have a sample? We could scan it and search to see if there are any possible alternates in our database."

Harry sighed. "That's something I planned on working on long term – finding replacement ingredients for potions. But when does she arrive?"

"Four days," Julian said.

"I'm going to go do the first step of brewing. Tomorrow I'll bring a sample of griffin claw for you to scan. Let's hope there is something that can be found to replace it." Harry turned and quickly went to set up his brewing station.

BY the end of the day, Harry had a cauldron of the potion and it was set to mature. When it was done being brewed, he would have eight doses.

The next day, Harry went to Julian with a very small vial of ground griffin claw and a small unground claw as well. Julian scanned it and returned it. "The chemical structure is slightly unusual. On Earth, a number of species have the same basic structure to their claws or hoofs or fingernails. What I've done is to analyze not only the chemical structure but the way it is formed, what would be it's crystalline structure if it was crystal. Somehow, I get the idea that form might be more important than composition."

Harry considered that. "You might be right. Worst case: We don't find any replacement. Best case: It's easily accessible. The worst thing that can happen is that if fails."

"Right." He looked at the computer. "Come back in six hours?"

Harry nodded – there were other things he could do.


When he came back later, Julian was excited. "It came up with a possible match."

"Oh?" Harry asked. "What is it?"

"A Vulcan Sehlet – their horns and their claws both, but the claws are likely to have the structural similarity."

Harry moved to the computer. "Call up a screen shot?"

Julian did so and up popped an image. Harry peered at it. "Entirely land based – the Griffin is a mixture of lion and eagle and so runs and flies; its claws have to be very strong to not break. How much does a sehlet have to endure?"

Julian called up another page. "This is the Vulcan Forge – wild sehlets survive there." Julian read out the extreme circumstances which existed in the forge.

Harry nodded. "If anything is likely a good substitution for griffin claw, that's got to be it." Harry's eyes lit up. "Dobby and Winky are a couple days from Vulcan on their way to the Science Directorate. I'll ask them to obtain wild sehlet claw, hopefully from an aminal that live in the Forge."

Julian was dubious. "Perhaps I should inquire – it will be more plausible from a Starfleet member."

Harry shrugged. "Whatever works."