Ch. 20 — Boldly Go!
"General?"
Hammond looked up to see Colonel Hacksaw at his door.
The colonel had a big smile.
The General waved him in and leaned back in his chair. He gave his guest an inquisitive look.
The colonel closed the door behind him. "We've lucked out. The Perseids and Kappa Cygnids have managed to give us a tiny bit better idea on the anomaly.
Hammond nodded and waited.
"Whatever it is, it's about two klicks long and one in diameter. At least," he added, "those are the points at which particles disappear, giving us a rough profile." He pursed his lips. "Based on the fact that we don't see any evidence of either shatter-debris or energy effects, I assume whatever it is has the capability to either mask the impacts or what it uses to protect itself doesn't emit any significant radiation that we can see. Several telescopes have reported tiny flashes of light, barely more than a match would make, both in visual and infra-red ranges. There's nothing in the ultra-violet or higher ranges. The energy released is far below that of anything capable of vaporizing the debris, so we're not sure what the means."
Hammond nodded, slowly. Whatever it was seemed to be simply watching. But why over England, and London in particular. "And the Brits?"
"Have nothing to add that we don't already know."
He nodded again. Then stretched his neck, getting a soft crack that only he could hear.
"It's been suggested," the Colonel started hesitantly, "That we should move one of our observation satellites so that the perigee leg of the orbit comes a bit close to whatever it is and see if anything happens."
The General stared at him.
"If they know anything about spy satellites," Hacksaw carefully explained, "they'll think it merely accidental, especially as the transit by them will be so fast. And even if they don't realize it's a spy satellite, it'll look like a random alteration of the orbit, nothing specifically aimed at them. We could manoeuvre several satellites at the same time, make it look like a normal rearrangement. They have no reason to suspect we know where they are, it'll all be a coincidence, from their point-of-view. And maybe, being that close, maybe we'll see something."
Hammond nodded. That could work. "Do we have any satellites nearing the end of their life cycle? In case something goes wrong and they decide to vaporize it?"
"We have an older satellite that should do nicely. This wouldn't appreciably shorten its usefulness if nothing happens, and if they do knock it out, it's not a big loss. It'll take about three days to get it in position."
"I'll run it by the Chief of Staff. If he gives the okay, we'll start tomorrow."
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"Captain?"
Harry was in his room, copying over his summer potion's assignment after both Sirius and Remus had read it, giving their suggestions. With a bit of conniving and careful sentence construction, they had managed to get it so that if you took the first letter of the first word on every line, it spelled out "Snivellus is a greasy-haired smelly despicable cowardly jealous Git who can't keep his crooked long nose out of other peoples' business." It was a twenty-four-inch essay on why the water base for potions had to be pure — with copious examples.
"Yes," he said after tapping the comm-link.
"I just got an alert from the ship."
An alert from the ship? "Yes?" he said cautiously.
"Well, you know how there are communication, weather, and spy satellites orbiting below us at about two-to-five hundred miles and above us at twenty-four thousand miles?"
"Yes?" he said curiously, wondering where this was going.
"Well, there are also satellites in elliptical orbits that go from four hundred miles to twenty-four thousand miles. But what's special about these is that they have a twenty-four-hour orbit, like the ones above the equator at twenty-four thousand miles. So, they're always directly over the same area for several hours every day. Which, I guess, is good for places not along the equator — like England — to use for weather satellites. It also means their orbits are fairly stable and unchanging."
"Have we been found?" Harry asked worriedly, rubbing his forehead. How had the muggles found them?
"I don't think so," Lee said uncertainly, "but the ship has sent a message indicating that one of those satellites is changing its orientation such that the lower leg of its orbit, the perigee, is approaching the ship. If we don't move, there's a remote chance it'll hit it. And it'll be moving at a really good clip, too, about a mile per second if it hits us."
"Why would they do that? I mean, are you sure they haven't spotted us?"
"Well," Lee said tentatively, "From what I can learn, the purpose of this type of satellite is to stay over a certain area as long as possible, and three satellites are usually staggered in their orbits so that as one is starting to get a bad view, the next one is just starting to get a good view. At the bottom of the orbit, it's moving so fast relative to the ground that things tend to go in and out of view in only minutes.
"Most of the satellites for communication and weather forecasting wouldn't need to change their orbits once they were in position, so this must be a spy satellite. They're moving to look at something on the other side of the world, I would guess. At a mile per second, they're not going to get much of a view of us, even if they knew where we were. And I doubt that they want to crash something into us, if they did suspect anything."
"Yeah. Better move it then. Better safe than sorry, as Hermione likes to say."
"Where to? Hogwarts?"
Harry had to think about that. "No, I don't think so. Maybe we should make it more central? Cut down the distance of apparition for everyone? London isn't nearly as close to Scotland as it is Dover. We only chose London because that was close to where the seventh years lived, giving them an almost straight shot up. Get a map and chose what looks like the best choice for everyone."
"Looks like somewhere over the Isle of Man is best," Lee said, musing, having already pulled up a map on his tricorder, apparently. "That makes it about equidistant from all the most far-flung tips of England, Scotland, and Ireland — well below the distance from London to Hogwarts."
"Excellent! Let's do that, then."
"Okay, I'll have Marietta move it tonight."
"Anything else?"
"Nope. Second Lieutenant Jordan, over and out."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Captain, over and out."
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"General?"
Hammond looked up to see Colonel Hacksaw at his door.
The colonel had a rather rueful and unhappy expression.
Hammond leaned back in his chair and waved the colonel in.
Hacksaw sighed as he closed the door. "The anomaly moved before we even got close to it."
The General raised an eyebrow.
"Six hours before the satellite passed their position, one of the Kappa Cygnids shot through the space the anomaly was occupying, undisturbed. The closest we got was in the previous perigee which was about one thousand klicks away. And we don't even know if the anomaly was still there at the time."
The General nodded. "Any idea why?" he asked.
"I think they thought we were coming too close."
"How close were you going to get with it?"
"Roughly twenty kilometres."
He sat, thinking, for several moments. "I assume the orbit was locked-in on the ascent to apogee?
The colonel nodded his head.
"If you hadn't stopped the adjustment, how close would it have been?"
The colonel frowned. "Probably would have been almost on top of it."
"And if they had noticed it start changing its orbit right off the bat, they may have decided that was too close and moved well before you fired the thrusters to lock-in the orbit."
The colonel nodded. "Hmm. Yeah. I didn't think they would act so soon. They must be tracking everything in orbit, not just those things that might intercept them."
"Any idea where they might be?"
"None. Hopefully still over England, somewhere. Unfortunately, the Perseids and Kappa Cygnids are over in a day or so, so it's going to be really difficult to find them again."
"Keep your eye on the area, that's all we can do." He pursed his lips. "Too bad the Leonids aren't due until November."
"Yes, sir," the colonel said, and left the office.
So, whoever they were, they were keeping a close eye on the satellites. He was tempted to have one of their hunter-killer satellites target a dead satellite and arrange to have the debris field scatter in the right directions. But the Brits would complain, he was sure, about the debris field being a problem for their low-orbit satellites.
Plus, the "anomaly" might get suspicious if that happened so close to their other close encounter.
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Josephine looked up as the welcoming mat, which was just inside the door, announced the latest curious customer to enter Enterprise with a loud "Boldly Come!" It was Wednesday, the fourteenth, and traffic had slowed considerably from the weekend. "I'm sorry, we're not open yet," she greeted them cheerfully, as she always did, and then froze.
Lucius Malfoy stood on there, dressed in expensive and impressive robes, with a fancy and equally expensive cane in his hand. He looked around the shop with an expression of disdain, as if he had walked into a barn. His eyes darted around as he quickly took in everything. He radiated a sort of displeased interest that made Josephine's stomach churn.
"So, this is the new establishment," the man drawled, and tapped his cane impatiently on the floor. He eyed the racks of space-splattered robes and a sneer made its way into his expression. The sneer faded slightly at seeing the photographs and posters on display, and an eyebrow arched as he stared at the large model of the galaxy. He took another slow glance around and turned his eyes to the shelves full of candies and knickknacks. "An astronomy store. Hmmm," he said with a slightly less scorn than before.
Josephine strained to keep the dismay off her face. She kept her back straight and forced a smile. "I'm sorry, sir," she said apologetically. "We're not open yet. We're still getting merchandise in and setting things up."
"Who," he demanded snobbishly, "are you?" He arched an eyebrow, again.
"My name is Josephine Edgecombe, sir. I work here."
"Where are your masters?" he said imperiously.
Josephine barely held back her incredulous reaction. She did feel her teeth clench for a moment. It was how he said it, as if he were talking to someone barely worthy of his attention, like he would talk to a house-elf. The Weasley twins were in a back room, working on the Vanishing Cabinet. Lee was . . . somewhere beyond Hogwarts. Harry Potter . . . who even knew.
"I'm afraid the owners aren't here, sir," Josephine lied. She did not want to turn her back on this wizard — although it took most of her self-control not to run away. She was terrified he would see what they were doing with the shop.
He frowned. She tried not to panic.
"I can take a message if you have something to ask of them," she said, relieved that her voice didn't shake. "Or if you want to meet with them."
"Hmmm," Malfoy answered, somehow conveying with that simple utterance his contempt for everything he saw. He looked her up and down, and took in her Milkyway robe with narrowed eyes, and then looked around the store again. "No need," he said. "An astronomy store," he scoffed derisively. "We already have one here."
The astronomy store in the Alley was owned by a pure-blood who gave steep discounts to pure-bloods.
"This one," he continued as he looked at her as if she were something unpleasant on his shoe, "I don't expect to stay in business for long."
He whirled around then; his robes billowed as he turned to leave. "Good day, madam," he said. His tone clearly indicated he was saying it only for formalities sake.
The welcoming mat bid him "Boldly Go!" fittingly enough, as he left the shop.
Josephine slowly sat back on her stool, and took a few slow deep breaths to calm her rapidly beating heart. The wizard was just as unpleasant as she had been told. And arrogant. He clearly thought that the only opinion that mattered was his.
He had no idea, not the faintest suspicion, she thought faintly. He had accepted everything at face value. It had worked. The shop worked.
It still took her a while to calm down enough to inform the Weasleys about their most recent customer — and his conclusions. Not to mention, hers, too.
They were thrilled to hear how well their deception was working. Fred's eyebrows lifted. "Didn't say anything about the muggle stuff?"
"I don't think he realised there was muggle stuff," Josephine admitted with a relieved smile. "He didn't recognize the Star Wars or Star Trek glasses and plates." She smirked. "He didn't even notice the sign to the new telly room."
Fred nodded slowly, thinking about it. "Good," he said, and smiled.
"We thought about notice-me-not charms, you know," George said as he returned to the conversation.
"Unfortunately, they're rather . . . noticeable . . . when you know how to look for them."
"So, we just decided to see if the pure-bloods would notice anything without the spells."
"If they thought we were up to something, they wouldn't find anything."
"Exec called it hiding in plain sight."
"Aren't you worried about him?" Josephine asked. She certainly was.
Fred smiled wryly. "It's a shop owned by a half-blood and bunch of blood-traitors."
"Of course they're going to check it out," added his brother. They both gave a resigned shrug.
"They'll have some of their half-blood devotees drop in occasionally," Fred said.
"They'll watch for unusual traffic, too, in case the place is just a front."
"We have ways around that, though." Fred rubbed his hands together gleefully.
"Oh?" Josephine asked.
George grinned. "You noticed that the store is . . . a bit long, haven't you?"
Josephine frowned and considered the shop's shape. With all those separate back rooms, it was a bit long, now that she thought about it.
"It goes all the way to the muggle side," Fred said, and snickered.
"There's a shop there too. We own it, too." George said, and smirked.
Josephine stared at him, startled. "You . . . do?"
"Mm-hmm," the other red-head said. They rocked smugly on their heels. "An old muggle hair-salon."
"Exec's parents bought it for us just the other week."
"We're going to turn it into a movie rental shop."
Josephine stared. "Miss Granger's parents?" she asked faintly.
"Muggles," George said and looked at the cabinet.
"We haven't brought them in yet because things being the way they are . . ."
"It's just not safe, yet."
"We asked them to do it for us because they already own a business."
"And they know all the muggle details."
"But they don't know anything about the ship."
"Too dangerous for them, right now."
"The place is being renovated right now."
"When the muggle contractors finish, we'll put a door in the wall between the two shops."
Was that why the room at the end of the hall wasn't being used, even though it was second in size to the shop itself? And why would they want a . . . oh. That was . . . rather clever, actually.
"So, people traveling to and from the ship won't go through Diagon Alley, will they?" Josephine asked, speculatively. "They're going to come through from the muggle side?"
"Exec's idea."
"She said it would be safer."
"No pure-blood would go hunting through the muggle world for a hidden connection to Diagon Alley."
"The muggles won't notice anything amiss as the 'customers' will always be carrying movie boxes."
"But yeah, it's safer if we don't have periodic huge influxes of people coming in through the Alley, and yet the shop looks empty without them leaving," George said.
"Or an empty shop that suddenly has lots of wizards and witches coming out."
"A bit suspicious, that, don't you think?"
Josephine nodded slowly. "I . . . didn't think of that. And you have other places you own?" she asked.
They grinned mischievously. "We own six, actually."
"Hogsmeade, Godrics Hollow, Ottery St. Catchpole, Cork, Holyhead, and Appleby."
"This is the only one we've been working on for now."
"Not enough people, yet, to need the others."
"Eventually we'll have those places open."
"By then we hope have a direct way to the ship, and won't need Hogwarts, anymore."
Josephine swallowed. And just when she thought she knew the scope of this thing . . ..
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"Josephine, just in time!" George exclaimed when she opened the shop that day. He grabbed her by arm, led her down the hall to one of the rooms, and pointed at the cabinet that stood against one wall. "We fixed it! It works!" he crowed, and danced a jig.
The cabinet's door flew wide-open and inside was Fred Weasley.
"You really fixed it?" Josephine repeated. "It works?"
"It works!" George agreed, and closed the doors. He waited a second, then opened them to reveal an empty cabinet. He stepped in and closed the doors, leaving her alone in the room.
A moment later, the doors opened and they both stepped out and to the sides
"Ta-da!" they shouted, each with one arm held down and the other held up, to frame the cabinet between the two boys.
"It took some doing, but it works now," Fred said with a wide grin.
"Honestly though, the hardest thing we had to do was figuring out how to hide it in Hogwarts, seeing as we can't really put it in the ship," his brother said.
"And it's just too bloody awkward to hide it in a Room of Requirement room, and then have to step out again and bring up another room for the ship."
"And, if the Room of Requirement is in use . . ."
"Like because someone is on the ship."
"You can't open another room."
"So, it's just too much of a hassle."
"Instead, we had to find a way to hide the cabinet just across the corridor from the Room of Requirement with the door to the ship."
"Room of Requirement?" Josephine repeated slowly.
"That's how we get to the ship," George said. "It took some doing."
"It wasn't enough just to make it invisible, after all."
"But we got it done," they proudly proclaimed.
Josephine swallowed a little at that. They shared information so . . . freely . . . with her now. It was heartening, and utterly terrifying. The more she learned, the less she seemed to know, she realized. Not to mention, the bigger their ambitions seemed.
"Now we're just waiting for the Captain and Exec to hash out the details," Fred said. He clapped Josephine on the shoulder.
They both grinned widely.
"Exec?" she said curiously. "Granger?"
"Executive Officer," George explained.
"Number One," said Fred.
Josephine nodded slowly, staring at the cabinet. "And what are the details we're waiting for?" she asked carefully. "Just to join you on the . . . ship?"
George hummed for a moment. "Not . . . exactly," he said and eyed her.
"It's bit bigger than just the ship," Fred said.
"Well, sure, on the ship . . .."
"But it's the whole thing that's the . . . well, the thing."
They frowned at each other, thinking.
"The D.S.F.?" Josephine asked hesitantly.
"Yeah," Fred said and smiled.
"It's so much bigger than just the ship, you know," his brother said.
"It already is. The Exec can tell you more once they're done."
"Before that, however . . .," and they exchanged mischievous grins.
"Do you want to see D.S.F.S. Requirement?" Fred asked, and grinned like a maniac.
Josephine's eyes opened wide in surprise, and she stared at the black-coloured cabinet. Did she want to see the ship? The ship that had changed her daughter so much in less than a year? Of course she wanted to see the ship!
The cabinet was fixed. She could go, now, and see what this all was about!
"I'd . . . like Marietta to take me?" she more asked than stated.
George nodded. He tapped the command stone under his robe's lapel. "Lieutenant Edgecombe?" he said.
Meanwhile, George was using his to inform the crew that the Vanishing Cabinets were complete, and that they now had a more convenient way for everyone to get to the ship.
The twins kept her entertained for a few minutes, then Marietta and Hermione Granger walked in. Granger had her ever-present book in hand.
"Ms. Edgecombe," Granger greeted her with a smile which only widened as she saw Josephine's new robes. "You're looking well, ma'am."
"Thank you, Miss Granger," Josephine said, as she hugged her obviously excited daughter.
"Fred, George," Granger greeted the twins, and studied the cabinet carefully. "I really thought it would take you longer than this." She gave them a brilliant smile.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Fred said, with a sniff.
"Really warms my heart that does," said George, placing his hand over the aforementioned organ.
Granger snorted and shook her head at that. "The cabinet's mate?"
"Invisible, imbedded in the wall, covered in all sorts of charms, yadda, yadda," Fred said, with another sniff.
"We were going to hide it in a room."
"But rooms are easy find and easier to break into."
"Walls are bit more inconspicuous."
"We need to hide it on this side, too," Granger said. "If someone gets into the shop, they have direct access to Hogwarts." She arched an eyebrow at them.
"We'll spell the room, and use the Requirement to replicate a tech-cloak for the cabinet here," George said. He folded his arms, and stood beside the cabinet with a blank expression like rowdy-pub's bouncer.
They had decided to call the conjurator a replicator, and the things it made, replicates, Marietta later told Josephine. There had been a little confusion a few times as to whether someone meant they were going to use their wand to make something or the machine. In the interests of clarity, Star Trek's replicator terminology had taken over — and the fact that it was Trekish. The non-pure-bloods were a bit geeky, after all.
"For now, I'm going to stay here, watch the store," George concluded.
"Executive Officer Granger," Fred said, as he stepped back and gave her an overly stiff salute. "You are cleared for transport, sir!"
Granger rolled her eyes. "Thank you, Lieutenant," she said and looked at Josephine and Marietta and gave a small smile. "You two ready to go?"
"Yes!" Marietta said excitedly, clutching onto her mother's hand. "Come on, let's go."
Josephine hesitated. She half-wanted to ask if it was really safe, if it was wise, what if something went wrong . . .. They had just repaired the cabinets, after all. But, then again, this was magic. If it worked once, it would work a second time and a third and . . . well, so on.
So, instead, she took a deep breath and nodded. "We're ready."
Granger went first, and closed the door behind herself. Her voice came from the air beside them, "Clear!"
The cabinet was empty when they re-opened the doors. She looked at her daughter, and then they stepped inside Vanishing Cabinet. They turned around, and stepped out.
The quiet Hogwarts corridor was rather anticlimactic to Josephine She looked around, trying to orient herself. She vaguely remembered the trolls in ballerina costumes on the wall beside the cabinet — it was one of the more unusual tapestries in the castle. Lee was standing to one side. He grinned at her.
It was weird, being in Hogwarts again. It had been a long time since she'd been a student, the familiar stone walls, the feeling of the building, like it was welcoming her, it was like she had never left. At almost any moment she expected to see one of her Ravenclaw friends turn the far corner and call out a "Hey, wait for me."
It also felt a little like breaking and entering because she knew she wasn't supposed to be there, welcoming atmosphere or not. She was fairly certain that if they were caught here, it wouldn't be good for any of them. They were trespassing, after all.
For some reason, she couldn't help but wonder, just who did own Hogwarts?
"It's all clear, ma'am," Lee said, "I've already checked the corridors. And Captain says there's no one on this floor at all."
Granger nodded, and then walked back and forth a couple of times. Marietta leaned closer to Josephine.
"You'll love this, mum," she promised. "I swear, it's so amazing. There's nothing like it."
Josephine swallowed and nodded, holding onto her daughter's hand as she breathed in the almost forgotten but, oh so familiar, scent of the castle, and tried to keep calm. Just what were they going to show her?
Abruptly, a part of the wall beside Miss Granger changed into an oval-shaped, recessed metal wall with a steel rim.
Then it split in half and opened.
Marietta was right.
It was beyond anything she had imagined.
The ship, Miss Granger told her, was named the D.S.F.S. Requirement, after the original defence club they'd had. "In the beginning it stood for Dumbledore's Space Ship, because we called the group Dumbledore's Army," Granger said. "But we decided later that that might have some unfortunate connotations in the future."
"We thought about making it the Wizarding Space Ship or Magical Space Ship," Marietta said.
"Or even tying it to U.K., H.M.S.S. had a nice ring, you know?" Hermione sighed.
Lee laughed, and said, "The twins suggested Wondrous Wizarding Wessel."
"So, now it stands for Defensive Space Force Ship, and we are the D.S.F. — the Defensive Space Force. It's a lot more neutral if the Ministry hears of it," Hermione concluded.
"Very neutral," Josephine agreed, and nodded. She'd been watching Star Trek with her daughter lately, and knew the prefix for the U.S.S. Enterprise stood for United Space Ship, which tied it to the Federation which had made it. D.S.F.S. and D.S.F. weren't tied to anything but the concept of Defence.
They could be coming from anywhere, from anyone.
"At some point in the future we know we'll run into muggles in space," Granger explained, "They do have a space program, after all." She paused and took a deep breath. "Or even aliens. The very fact that this ship exists is proof that they're out there. Having that sort of tie back-to-home . . . well, it might cause problems. So, we decided that neutral was better."
Josephine didn't answer. She was too busy staring out the window of the room at the end of the corridor they had walked down during the explanation.
There, across the entire breadth of the room-wide window, floated an enormous blue expanse of a planet. It glowed against the darkness, vast and overwhelming and unspeakably beautiful. Just like the incredible painting hanging in the shop.
And right in front of them there was a semi-skeletal structure of . . . something, floating in space. It was big, had a metallic gleam, and she could tell it must be at least several hundred feet in length. What was to one side of them, though, drew her wide-eyed attention. Three giant mountains drifted there. Two were dark-grey; the other, a rusty-red colour, although she knew it couldn't be actual rust. Both dwarfed the structure she had first seen.
As she watched, light flashed here and there on the structure — adding to it, she slowly realized. And lights were flashing on the asteroids, too. After a moment, she realized the two asteroids must be supplying the materials.
Now she knew why the crew had so much gold, and were so free with it. They must have found an asteroid of gold. Even a small one of only a few hundred yards in diameter had more gold than all that had been mined on Earth for the last ten thousand years. If they brought even a fraction of that to Earth, it would destroy the gold markets.
"What is that?"
"Space station," Granger said, and proudly smiled. "And a mining platform. We're hoping to finish it in a few more days."
"You mean — you're making that thing?" Josephine asked, pointing.
"Yes." She gave a heavy sigh. "We ran into a few problems, though," Granger said glumly.
"Yeah, turns out the replicator we have on the ship isn't quite designed for big construction and non-stop operation," Lee agreed, sadly. "It had to stop every eight hours to vent the excess heat. And it's really hot — like five hundred degrees hot — so that takes a couple of hours to cool down. Which sorta worked out, actually. While we couldn't use it for big stuff while it's cooling, we could use it for smaller projects just before it restarts construction — like making stuff for the shop." It was his turn to sigh. "But, yeah, it went a bit slower than we thought it would."
He grinned and rubbed his hands together delightedly. "But now, the mining station's major components are finished and it can actually complete itself. Its replicator is designed for non-stop use. So, things are going much faster, now."
"You're . . . you're making a space station?" Josephine said weakly.
Then, it finally caught up with her.
They were on a spaceship. It was real.
They were on a real spaceship.
And making another.
"We're on a spaceship," Josephine said, her voice very small, barely able to make her lips move.
"Yeah, Mum, we are," Marietta said, then grabbed and squeezed her hand. "Welcome to D.S.F.S. Requirement."
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Josephine was relieved when they arrived back at Enterprise. Her knees still shook after the tour she'd been given on the ship. She'd seen . . . a lot of things she had no way of putting into words.
Things like what seemed to be the entire Hogwarts Library. More furniture from Hogwarts than she could easily count. The mysterious replicator which was the source of the Requirement's crew's wealth. Star charts, command centre, a room full of the armour and spacesuits they wore, the power core, and — and it was all a bit too much for her to take in all at once.
"So, what do you think?" Marietta asked nervously, later, back home. It was late evening; the shop had been closed and locked. The twins had remained inside, taking things to the ship where they eventually would be duplicated with the replicator, or just stored for future use.
They were at the dinner table, and her George was listening carefully. "I . . .," Josephine started, and then stopped, unsure. "It was amazing," she finally admitted, staring at the two command stones she'd been given. She could, George could, now communicate with the crew. She could even call Harry Potter himself, if she needed to. It was . . . amazing.
The whole thing was so much bigger than she'd feared. Much bigger than she and her husband had ever thought possible. Not in their wildest imaginations had they suspected it was something like this. Josephine stared at her daughter, at her husband, and then at her plate.
It was starting to make sense now. It had always been big, bigger than it had any reasonable right to be. The wealth, these kids, their incredible, terrifying plans . . . it was actually bigger than any of it.
The crew probably didn't even realise how big it really was, Josephine was beginning to realise.
They had access to not only to space, but the tools to build an infrastructure of . . . of something huge. Something truly enormous. A wizarding space agency, Miss Granger had said, but, oh boy, was that not ever all of it.
They had unlimited resources with their ability to mine asteroids. Unlimited capabilities because of the replicator. A replicator, and the blueprints for much, much more, left behind by a highly-advanced alien race.
That alone was almost too much for Josephine to wrap her mind around — but at the base of it all . . . they had muggle-borns and half-bloods.
They had an enormous group of discontented wizards and witches, who she knew would grab a chance like this with both hands as soon as they realized that it existed.
With this, the crew could — and inevitably would — build an empire.
They were building infrastructure — soon, they'd start screening and hiring crewmembers, who'd be quickly drawn into this truly alien culture. The same culture which had seduced the current crewmembers. There'd be people, Josephine already knew, who would want to live on the ship, or on the station, who'd want to leave earth behind. The magical world in England hadn't been kind to the muggle-borns — they'd be happy to leave it behind. They didn't fit well, anymore, into the old, non-magical, world they'd been born in, and the new world of the wizardkind rejected them as inferior. But space! That was something new, that was something no one knew anything about! There were no limits — literally! — to what they might be able to do.
They had already abandoned the muggle culture — where they had family — for the magical. How much easier would it be to abandon the magical to which they had even fewer connections? The culture that didn't want them anyway!
That would give them their D.S.F. They'd have their space force. Then, as Miss Granger had said, there'd be the muggles. Who were also exploring space.
It was the dream and nightmare of a lot of muggle-borns and half-bloods. They looked forward to and dreaded the day the magical and non-magical worlds finally met. It was coming, they all knew it, except the pure-bloods — muggle technology would see to it.
But now, Josephine knew, it wouldn't happen on ground.
It would happen in space. The D.S.F. would drag all three of them into a new era.
And they, the kids, probably didn't even realise it. At all.
Josephine laughed and ran a hand through her hair. She looked up and gave her perplexed family a shaky grin. No wonder Fred and George hadn't been worried about Lucius Malfoy. Compared to this, Dark Lords and Dark Wizards seemed such petty and small concerns.
"You'll need to take you father, tomorrow, you know. It's only fair," she said.
Her daughter nodded eagerly and launched into a long description of what the two had done earlier that day. Her husband leaned back, eyes wide. He spared his wife a long look, to which she subtly nodded. It had happened exactly as their daughter said, no matter how unbelievable.
She watched, smiling.
But when the truth finally broke free, the magical world — and the Ministry — would find out about space and the D.S.F., then there'd be opposition. Oh, how there would be opposition.
There'd be opposition soon, anyway, just because of who owned the shop and who was in it — blood-traitors, half-bloods, and muggle-borns. As soon as they began to realize the shop was here to stay, and the tellys and robes it sold were making their way into the magical world in a steady and growing surge, it would start. The Ministry, Lucius Malfoy, and others who pushed a traditional agenda, would start to push back, even before they knew what they were pushing against!
Josephine looked at her daughter, who practically glowed after showing her mother the ship, and space. That was going to be her daughter's life's work, Josephine realised. Marietta was . . . she was a space-witch now, as was everyone else in the crew.
And, probably because of that, she couldn't see what was really happening, couldn't see what she and her crew represented.
Parents always tell their children that the world is theirs, when they grow up. For her daughter, and her friends, the stars . . . no, the universe . . . was theirs!
They were beautiful. And the traditionalist wizards would come after them as soon as they realized the threat. It was only matter of time.
And when they did, they'd have to go through her, Josephine, first.
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