Disclaimer: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and any other characters, terminology and ideas are the property of their respective copyright holders.
Babylon 5, Crusade and any other ideas, characters and terminology is also the copyright of their respective copyright holders.
Inter Planetary eXpeditations, Harry's Journey
By Tangerine Alert
Chapter 3
Harry had all his bags packed…well his bag packed and was waiting for Max at the shuttle port.
"Harry, raring to go?"
"Oh yes, headaches, a world that some might say 'evil' lived on, can't wait, you?"
"Been there, done that, got the comically enduring headache."
"Oh fun."
From the shuttle up from Mars they were transferred to a not too sleek IPX investigator, minimal weapons, room for 2 shuttles and from what Harry saw as they landed 2 starfurys and a thunderbolt.
"Lean on the weapons."
"It generates its own gravity at least."
This particular IPX ship, like many in the new fleets was based partially on Earth's membership in the Interstellar Alliance…although according to IPX they had and used the technology in other places just not in view of Earth, now they could use it freely. It left the ships able to move and manoeuvre faster and better than the destroyer or passenger cruisers which spun a portion of their hull to create gravity.
While the ship was speedy it still took the better part of 4 days to get to Za'Ha'Dum, considering it was on the other side of the galaxy compared to Mars.
As they finally jumped out of hyperspace Harry looked out the window, it was good to see some stars again instead of red and black murkiness of hyperspace. Grabbing a flight suit as he went he wandered out to the bridge, everyone was IPX on the ship so it was a more relaxed attitude than the EA ships.
"Lambert. I see we've arrived, am I clear to have a look around?"
"James. We're just doing a scan, Max said you're space eager. You ready for the splitting migraines? I can feel it already."
Harry shrugged his shoulders around. "I can feel something…just on the edge of my periphery…"
"That would be the start of them…Captain Lambert, Harry." Max walked in nodding to the captain as he walked to a smaller console.
The captain nodded to one of his people.
"Looks safe…Professor James you're clear for an exploratory flight before we send out the shuttles."
"Try to find a big bit to land on Harry."
"I'll try to find some intact ruins as well how about that Max."
"Makes our job easier." Harry nodded and walked out down to the starfury bay, sliding into the cockpit and running through the checks he slowly eased the powerful bird into the empty blackness.
And then it hit him, it wasn't so much a smack in the face as a dull throb on his brain, like something was pressing inwards, a headache and a half.
"Professor…"
Harry concentrated pushing up his Occlumency shields higher and higher, he had kept them going, despite the removal of the Psi Core, but there were still supposedly others who wanted the old regime back…
"Max, I'm here, just getting used to the dull throb…like wrestling in honey."
"…Say again Harry we thought you said…" said the confused voice.
"It doesn't matter going out for search run…"
Harry felt his Occlumency shields slam into place and the droning was down to an ignorable throb. Flying around his sensors told him that there was exactly what he was seeing, rock, rock and more rock, nothing of note. He found a few that actually had some writing or carving of some sort on them, by sight rather than his sensors, noting their relative position he went further into the debris field, throttling down the Starfury's guns to an absolute minimum so he could nudge a lot of the rock with a small energy blast…hopefully not destroying it.
On the IPX ship the captain looked on grimly she and her crew watched the archaeologist fly a single Starfury into a densely packed debris field, ever so often a tiny energy blip registered.
"Mr Eillerson, what is your friend doing?" Fey turned to Max who was watching with a smile.
"Oh he's doing what he said, exploring, investigating…"
"By flying into a debris field."
"That's why I brought him along."
"To kill himself?" One of the crew said staring at the scanners.
"Because he doesn't just use the sensors, the spike's in energy is him firing the starfury's weapon's."
"That's too low for energy fire…"
"Harry mentioned something like this…keeping it low gives it momentum with out damaging it…hopefully."
"Marvellous…"
"Don't worry, you won't get the blame if he does something stupid."
"If not me then who?" Lambert stared at the Professor.
"Probably me and Harry." Max sighed and went back to looking at the screen.
"Anything else coming in through the scanners?"
"Well we know that that 'fury in somewhere in there…and that some of the debris might have markings on it…and that whatever field that causes the headaches is still here…" One of the science people said from the other side of the bridge.
Harry was working furiously as he navigated through the debris field, he had the scanners on active capture, capturing images of the writing, while trying to avoid being crushed, Harry saw a viable way out and looked at and thought yeah, should be able to get sliding out of the position he was in he slowly edged the 'fury, side ways though the field.
As he was out of the finer debris he saw a large chunk, no bigger than an asteroid…it looked big enough to land on…Marking it's position he almost gliding the 'fury out, using the minor pull of the ship to ease himself out of the field.
"IPX, got you a landing position and some pretty pictures, heading in…I could do with something to kill this head ache."
"A guillotine Harry?" Came the sarcastic remark from Max.
"Yes Max and the next time you say you have a sore throat I'll hand you a noose."
Harry chuckled as he guiding the Starfury back into the bay and grabbed the data crystals out and went to change and meet the team. As he loaded the pictures pointed out where he had obtained them he showed them the landing area.
"Can we land on that?" One of the people asked.
"Well, its got enough mass to have gravity according to these scans, around that of a very small moon. If we land I wouldn't go jumping around. But is there anything on note? Otherwise I won't authorise a venture." That captain said as she called up an analysis.
Everyone looked at Harry. "Well…it's got some writing on it, but it's only stayed together because it wasn't part of any structure, it was probably part of an uninhabited portion of the planet, undeveloped…so we might get some idea of what minerals they had to work with…but not a lot else…"
It was eventually decided that they would send a shuttle down…and as Harry was the resident expert…he was instructed to land them on it, as the shuttle powered down Harry felt the chunk shift slightly, calling up scans he called backwards.
"No more than an hour people, two at the most." There were calls of protest.
"Why?"
"Because as we landed the chunk is shifting lightly on it's axis, any longer than an hour maybe an hour and half and it's going to be pretty dangerous leaving, and since we've only got enough air for about a day, it would not be good."
They did eventually leave after about an hour, the field seemingly incapacitating everyone after that time, however they had samples of the rock, the minerals and everything to do a detailed analysis for the large scoups to come in for wide base analysis.
They were finished in a little under two weeks, and everyone was glad of it. They were all heading to Babylon 5, the IPX science cruiser heading off with Max to mysterious pastures…well another planet, which was on the cusp of disputed territory…but IPX had staked their claim.
Harry was being dropped at Babylon 5 to await the arrival of the Revolution and the rest of his team that he was joining for another mysterious planet, it didn't even have a name, just an IPX classification which wasn't even locked in yet. All it had was a trace report of what tech bases, which was sufficiently high, but the trace report said the surface was nill, so digging fun.
Harry was set up in a nice, small room on Babylon 5 for the next 4 days while he waited for the Revolution.
The first thing he did was make an appointment with a certain Captain Lochley.
Wandering into her office early in the afternoon she was seated behind a desk with a large amount of paperwork.
"It never ends does it?" Harry said as he walked in looking around.
"I'm sorry?"
"The paper work…I'm sorry, Professor James…" She looked at him blankly before nodding.
"You wanted to speak to me?"
"I won't take up much of your time Captain."
"I could do with a break, anything to escape…that." She waved at the desk before motioning to chairs and offering him some juice.
"Now what was it that you wanted to speak to me about?"
"Just to thankyou…"
"Thank me?" She stared at him, arguments yes, people blaming here all the time, thank you's that was something else.
"You looked after an old friend…a friend I didn't know was around, or alive until recently…"
"If I could ask who…?"
Harry held up his hand reaching into a pocket and pulled out a small pen-like instrument, it was in fact a jamming device; activating it he put it on the table.
"Mione Granger…she said she…dropped in on you…quite a few years ago."
"Granger….Granger…how much do you know about her?" Lochley paused looking down at the device. "Jamming device, you're either paranoid or…"
"Paranoid. Shall we talk here or would you prefer to get outside?"
"Outside…?"
"Well with plants around us, the jammer will work fine here…"
"Best to stay here…if I ignore it for too long…"
"It won't disappear…as I was saying…let's just say that she and I are from the same world…and came here the same way…while she spoke to you upon arriving…I dropped in on the Rangers on Beta Colony…they said I should speak with the Entil'Za."
"Delenn?"
"Mmm."
"Funny old universe…so you and Mione…"
"Just friends…but considering when and where we came from…it was a surprise that we both went into the same profession."
"You both work for IPX?"
"Archaeology yes…although she's on Felsecar right now…I prefer going out to planets…all that sort of stuff."
"Yes…I sometimes wonder if I should have agreed to run this place."
"Why? Because of it's past? Or because you're a Captain, you want to be on a ship, not in charge of a city in space…"
"Something like that…"
Harry scooped up the jammer, switching it off in front of Lochley.
"Well thankyou for seeing me Captain…"
"Thankyou for coming to see me Professor, how long are you with us?"
"Just till the Revolution comes…"
"Enjoy your stay."
"Thankyou." Harry smiled and left. Lochley turned and looked back at her paperwork and gave it a dirty look.
Harry met his friend a few days later as the ship arrived at Babylon 5 and began to take on supplies. James and Harry had had various liaisons here and there. They both made ample use of James' cabin and it's distinct lack of gravity, which he liked and as such afforded him a larger cabin as it was away from the grav generation…
It would take them a good week and a half for the mighty ship to make it's way out to sector 1020, as it made checks on jumpgates along the way, they were dropping the IPX group off and picking them up on the way back…