Ch. 32 — A Change of Plans
"And . . . the Jaffa is down," came the comment through the comm-link.
"Any chance of suspicion?" Harry said.
"Nope, hit him from behind with the stunner just as he was blinking. When he wakes, he'll suspect nothing."
"Excellent, Ginny, excellent," Harry said.
While Lee had distracted the Stargate Command people as they finished up dinner, additional Marines had portkeyed into the last room in the corridor behind the door. Two had snuck into main room using a notice-me-not spell on the door so no one had noticed it opening and closing. Then, with the four Marines who had already been there, each had used their hoverboards to slowly get behind each person. Once in position, they had simultaneously cast an extremely mild sleeping-charm — one mothers used to encourage their babies to sleep. They each had been at point-blank range to hide the minor flash of spell-light.
Not enough to knock them out, but just enough to make them think of bed. The other Marines had hidden themselves in each of the nine rooms. By the time their visitors had started exploring the rooms, they had positioned themselves against the ceilings. Then it was a simple matter of waiting until each person had climbed into bed before stunning them.
Well, except for the one wearing glasses, Daniel. He had placed his book on the writing table and settled in for what looked like some serious study. Hopefully, he wouldn't be surprised to find that he had fallen asleep over his book instead of in the bed.
Harry watched as the twins stood beside Littlefield's bed. They were the most experienced with extracting memories, based on all their work with creating the day-dream candies they sold.
Forge leaned close and cast a nursery version of the rennervate.
Usually, with rennervate, you want the target to be instantly awake and alert. Waking was abrupt and heart-pounding, Harry knew from experience. Not a gentle experience. You went from nothing to being ready to jump up and run circles in the room.
This was the exact opposite of what parents would want to use for their children. It would leave their children hyperactive and impossible to control for the next several hours. Especially the two-year-olds who seemed to have a limitless supply of energy, anyway! A true parental nightmare.
The nursery version was a gently prod to the psyche, one that pushed you over the edge of staying asleep. It gave you a more natural experience in waking up.
Why Madam Pomfrey never used it was obvious. Why waste time waiting for a student who had done something dumb to slowly regain consciousness when you could have them wide-awake and ready to answer questions? Or exit the Hospital Wing and leave her in peace? Plus, an unpleasant experience to help remind them to think twice before doing something stupid.
Just as Littlefield's eyes started to flutter, Forge whispered, "confundus." With their cloaks active and the room dark, there was nothing for the doctor to see, but the spell would help conceal what they had done when he woke in the morning.
"You're dreaming," he whispered, "About the day you became stranded on that planet. Think hard about how you woke up and how the rest of the day went until you fell asleep again." He paused a second. "Are you concentrating on the start of that day, and how it went? If so, nod."
The old man gave a slight nod.
Forge placed his wand-tip at the side the muggle's forehead and slowly drew out a long, silvery strand. He carefully dropped it into the pensieve they had brought. He leaned forward again.
"Now dream about how today started, ending with when you stepped through the Stargate." He pulled a second strand from the man's head, then dropped it into the pensieve, too. Then he pulled a vial of the Draught of Sleeping Death out of his pocket and dripped several drops into the man's mouth. He straightened.
"There," he said in a jovial tone, looking proud of himself. "Done!" He glanced at the pensieve his brother was holding. "Now let's see what we can see!"
It was, they discovered, 1945.
"Look at that!" Angelina exclaimed. "They're actually manually turning the ring for the address!"
They watched as the inner ring of Stargate slowly spun. The triangular lower half of the Stargate's top chevron extended and retracted while apparently locking in one of the glyphs in the inner ring. Dialling was done by moving the glyphs to the topmost position. The gate rotated clockwise for the first glyph, then changed direction for the next, alternating until the point of origin, the last glyph, was selected.
It was heart-breaking to watch as the man realized he was stranded.
Seeing the condition of the place, how it had deteriorated over the last fifty years in the second memory, was sobering. No wonder they were in a hurry to return!
Fortunately, the pensieve replayed memories at mental speeds when you were in one. Reviewing what they had placed in it took far less time than the person who had lived it by a considerable margin. Being able to fast-forward, and replay certain sections was helpful, too.
Forge duplicated and replaced the memories, and they moved on. Based on what they had seen, so far, they decided to go to the scientist, next.
He took much longer. Surprisingly, he had been involved from the very first. It was a relief to see that the Yank government hadn't been mucking with aliens for the last 50 years! Merlin knew what sort of trouble they might have stirred up!
Abydos, the planned shut-down of the gate, Daniel staying among the natives, the arrival of Apophis and his kidnapping of a woman for use as a "host", and then the seven missions he had been on after that took several hours. He was a treasure-trove of information about the Goa'uld. The final memory was a composite of everything that Daniel thought was important to know about the Goa'uld and the Jaffa. They made copies of all the mission memories, and that final one, too, for the Marines to review later, before returning them to the man.
The Colonel gave them valuable information about Stargate Command itself, which they also copied for future reference. That, too, took many hours to collect.
Then it was Captain Carter's, Samantha's, turn.
"Well," Harry said on the Requirement, afterwards, as he ran his hand through his hair, "It's clear these Goa'uld won't leave us alone." He sighed deeply. "Not that I can really blame them, the way the humans keep meddling in their affairs." He looked at the others. "The Goa'uld are treating the Tau'ri, just the way the Death Eaters, and most wizards and witches, want to treat muggles." He shook his head.
"Fortunately, it is also clear the Goa'uld, like the muggles, don't know anything about magic. They also don't seem to know that much about the capabilities that seem to be a part of the Requirement, even though they appear to be using the same technology." He looked around. "Does that mean that they have merely picked up pieces of this tech without realizing there's so much more?
"This Apophis that the muggles have pissed off certainly won't back off, now that he knows about them," Angelina said, musing.
"Finding a habitable planet that isn't on this Stargate network just shot to the top of our list," Harry said shaking his head and staring out the windows at the moon below.
"Before that, we need to protect this one," Hermione said emphatically.
"Maybe we should we sacrifice the Stargate we have for the Naquadah we need for the ships?" said Lee.
"We know it's useless to us," said Forge.
"The Yanks clearly have one they are using," continued Gred.
"We could use our drones to spy on their Stargate Command . . .,"
". . . and tag along on their missions."
"We'd always know what was going on."
"We could react appropriately . . .,"
". . . if we had to do something."
"We could tell the muggles that we took down our Stargate."
"To avoid attracting any attention from the Goa'uld!"
"What would happen if one of those Goa'uld were to take a magical host? What would that mean for us?" Angelina suddenly blurted out
They all stayed at her in dismay.
"Some wizards in ancient times used to pretend to be gods. With the tech these Goa'uld have, adding magic would make it almost impossible to convince someone they weren't gods!" Lee mused, shaken.
"Killing Tommy was hard enough when he only had magic, but if he had this tech, too, with competent followers?" Harry said, horrified.
"Hermione," Ginny said shakily. "Is there a way to create a spell that would prevent a Goa'uld from surviving if it tried to take over one of us? An amulet, ring, or necklace?"
"Maybe we could enchant a tattoo?" suggested Luna. "Or train blibbering humdingers to attack them?"
Hermione had a thoughtful expression. "I'll ask the Healers we've hired if there is a spell that can repel or kill parasites that we could use." She frowned, then smiled. "The first time one of them tries and then dies will probably make quite an impression on the Jaffa."
They all just stared at each other mulling over the situation.
██:::::██:::::██
Jack was not surprised to find that Daniel had fallen asleep over his book. It had been hard enough to drag the man away from that records chamber on Heliopolis. Not to mention the man hadn't slept a wink after discovering it, originally.
He walked over and gave him a good shake.
"Huh? What?" the man said, jerking up.
"Morning, sunshine. Our hosts say it's time for us to go home." He headed out the door. "Breakfast is in the dining room."
Teal'c insisted he had stayed awake all night, and he seemed as awake as any of them, despite not sleeping. Jack shook his head.
"It is regular training for all Jaffa to stay awake for days at a time," Teal'c had said, then had added, "I considered waking you, but your debriefs will be longer than mine. You need your sleep more than I."
After barely escaping the collapsing building, Jack had to admit getting a full-night's sleep had helped his composure this morning.
Teal'c hadn't seen or heard anyone, or anything, in the entire time he had kept watch, except for the snores of his companions. One of the voices, a male they hadn't heard yet, had finally told him that he should wake the others for the trip back to Earth. The male had told him that they had time to freshen up and have a decent breakfast before they were taken to whatever landing site they wanted. Considering travel time, not that long, they would arrive a bit after eight o'clock on the west coast of the United States, if that's where they wanted to go.
Breakfast was everything dinner had been. No matter what they asked for, it was presented within seconds — piping hot or refrigerator cool, as the item required.
"Whenever you are finished, please make your way to the main hall," the mysterious male voice said, after it was clear they were through ordering and now were digging in.
Whomever the aliens were, they clearly weren't in a hurry!
The surprise was when they went back to the man hall — the Stargate was gone!
While the text on the wall the same, the animated stick figure was different. Instead of whistling innocently, it now had a sad face and was kicking one foot at the "ground." The text beside it was the same as before: "Nothing to see here."
The other change was that wall beside the door to the corridor they had just left now had a door centred in it. The door, a bright red, was set flush with the wall, and their lack of noticing it before could be attributed to it having been hidden behind a false wall.
"Moving a Stargate is no easy feat," Daniel said, staring. "I'm not sure we could have slept through it."
"Do you think they moved us last night?" Sam said suspiciously.
"No," the voice said, "You were not moved. Teal'c will tell you he stayed awake the entire time you slept." There was a brief pause, then he said, "After a careful review of our library records, plus what you have told us, we have dismantled and removed the Stargate. There shall be no more surprise visitors dropping in on us." It paused a moment. "Which also means that there is only your Stargate in this address-block."
"What about the snakes?" Jack asked. "They won't leave you alone just because you removed the Stargate. They have spaceships measured in kilometres!"
"We are taking steps to ensure they cannot find us. If they do not know we exist, they will not look for us."
"That won't matter if they do find you."
"When we finish out preparations, they won't find us. We are exceptionally skilled at hiding from those who wish us harm. We can even live among them without detection, if need be."
"Confident of that, are you?" Jack said, raising his eyebrows.
"Yes." There was a pause. "If you would go through the other door, we will see about returning you to your home.
The red door split open, each half disappearing sideways into the wall with a hiss, as they approached.
The sight that met them when they stepped into the next room left them speechless. It was a room they were all extremely familiar with, except Dr. Littlefield. It was a rectangular room with a circular, panelled, platform cut into one corner. The walls were a bluish-purple, the floor a non-descript grey. The platform was only three steps above the floor, and red with six circular lights spaced evenly in a circle in both the platform and its ceiling. Nine green-lit panels made up part of the circular wall that enclosed three-quarters of the circle, and stretched from ankle height to a hands-length from the ceiling.
A control panel on a two-legged pedestal was set about three meters from the platform, in the opposite corner. Behind the panel was a red manikin in a matching red, thigh-length dress and knee-high black boots. A red visored-helmet completely covered the head and appeared to be part of the manikin.
"You're shitting me," Jack said, coming to a full stop and staring.
The others were equally astonished.
The room was a dead-ringer for the famous Transporter Room in Star Trek. The manikin was dressed to look like a female Star Trek engineer.
It was only when the manikin moved its head to look at them that Jack realized it wasn't a simple prop.
"If you will all please take your places on the Transporter pads," she said in a soft soprano tone.
"Are you going to beam us down to Earth?" said Sam incredulously.
"No," was the response. "We are far too far away for that to work. This is to get you to a ship to take you to Earth. Tell the pilot where you wish to land."
Somewhat hesitantly, still not quite believing it, they all stood on a lighted pad. Dr. Littlefield was staring around in wonder. Jack couldn't help but shake his head at the man's reaction — wait until he saw a Star Trek episode and the Transporter!
Once they were all on the pads, the alien "looked" at them. "The staff here at Enterprise Base hopes your stay was relaxing and enjoyable. Don't be shy about sharing your experience with us with your friends and colleagues. Goodbye and safe journeys!"
Jack lifted his right hand and said, "Live long and prosper," just as she slid her hands down the face of the control panel. The familiar tones of the Star Trek beaming filled their ears, as well as a disembodied voice that sounded suspiciously like Leonard Nimoy echoed Jack's "Live long and prosper." Their surroundings disappeared.
Before Jack even realized he had been moved, he saw that he was in a long rectangular metal box. There were seats like you would see on a wide airplane arranged at one end, ten, it looked like. They were in rows of two, and generously spaced with a wide aisle between them.
A female voice came from the end of the room with the seats. It was clearly a different one from anyone they had heard so far.
"Welcome aboard the Midge. We are currently underway to planet Earth. Travel time will be approximately one hour. Would you like the viewscreens turned on so that you can view the outside? We find that some find the lack of a view to be disorientating."
Jack looked at the others, who were all nodding. "Sure, why not?"
Abruptly, a row of windows appeared down the side walls. These windows were as unlike an airplane as you could get. These were more like those on a bus, rectangular and reaching from armrest-level on the seats to just below the ceiling, and running in a continuous row from the first seat to the just past the last.
The view of the stars was spectacular. Dan, Catherine, and Ernest quickly found seats and just stared. Jack, Sam, and Teal'c slowly joined them. Teal'c didn't seem that interested, he had probably had plenty of time to see the stars when he had been onboard Apophis' ship. He was more interested in examining the "ship" they were on.
"Put wheels on this and you'd think it was an executives' bus," the colonel said dryly bending slightly and looking out the windows. He sat down.
A moment later, the seat suddenly shifted. "Hey," Jack said, surprised and delighted, "these are recliners!" A footrest rose and the backrest swept back. "Oh," he said, wiggling in place. "These are comfortable, with decent armrests, too." He looked at the rest of the group and grinned, "I wonder what the inflight movie is?"
He looked over the chair a bit more carefully, and noticed a recessed button near the front of the left armrest.
Intrigued, Jack pressed it. "Oh, god," he said his voice shaking, "It's got a built-in vibrator!" He sighed deeply. "I want one of these."
"What's your address?" the female said. "We'll have one delivered there for you tomorrow."
Jack stared at him. Then gave his address, with a faint note of disbelief in his tone. Then he laid his head back on the chair and relaxed. "Boy, you guys know how to travel in style," he said, thinking of the spartan conditions in most airplanes, especially military transports.
After a minute, he suddenly straightened.
"You said viewscreens?" Jack said to the air, addressing the . . . pilot? Stewardess? Navigator?
"Putting holes in the fuselage of a spacecraft just for the purpose of seeing outside is engineering of the worst sort. There are cameras on the outside of the hull that relay what they pick up without introducing unnecessary structural weaknesses."
"That's a lot of cameras," he said, looking at the screens.
"There are forty-nine."
He was quiet a moment. "So, this could be a recorded view we're seeing."
There was a delighted laugh. "Wonderful!" she purred. "Yes, this could be a recording."
His window suddenly displayed a view as if he were flying just above the surface of the Moon. He knew it was the Moon because he could see Earth in the distance. After giving him just enough time to realize what he was seeing, the view changed to that of an ice-covered plain with jagged fissures crisscrossing it. In the distance, dominating the horizon, was a giant something. After a moment, he recognized from the bands of swirling colours that it was a planet, a gas giant. A moment more, and he saw the giant red spot that was a prominent feature. The view again changed to that of a ringed planet, then returned to the view of the stars.
"Yes, this could be a recording, you have only my word that it isn't. I could be shamelessly lying to you to misdirect you and your government. But why would I do that? I might be doing it as a prank, but why do that when the prankee doesn't know it's a prank? Half the fun of a prank is the other's expression when they discover they've been pranked!"
She sighed.
"And, yes, we are trying to hide where we are. However, even if you knew where our closest space-base was to you, it would take an enormous amount of effort and time on your part to even get there! Never-mind the impossibility of finding us where we live!"
The others had listened in and were exchanging glances.
"How shall we contact you if we find something we think you should know?" Daniel said, looking from his friends to the "front" of the ship. "There's a lot we haven't discovered yet about the Jaffa and the Goa'uld."
"That is true," she mused over the speakers.
It was quiet for a long while. Jack wasn't sure if the voice was finished for the moment, or if they were working on something. After about ten minutes, a paperback-book-sized brick appeared on the armrest beside him.
"If you need to contact us, tap the communications device firmly with a finger, then say that you want to speak with us. Someone will answer within a few minutes, if not seconds."
He picked up the thing, and discovered it was quite heavy — far heavier than he had expected. It wasn't light like a walkie-talkie or those cell-phones that were starting to get popular. Its weight felt as if it were a solid block of something very heavy, like lead, almost.
"I'm sure your superiors wish to keep their 'secret' facility secret."
He could almost hear the quotes on the word secret.
"So, they will want to place the communications device at another location, which is to be expected. However, do not attempt to cut or drill into it, nor use any X-ray, MRI, or similar device to 'see' inside it. We will know it has been tampered with by the flash of light and the small, village-sized hole in the ground it will leave behind."
Jack very quickly set the device back on the armrest and moved a couple of rows away from it.
"Do not lose it, we will not replace it."
They all nervously stared at the device.
"Now, then," the voice continued, "where you would you like to disembark? We can be anywhere in the continental USA for a time of nine-to-twelve o'clock in the morning, local, Hawaii and Alaska would be seven o'clock."
The others looked at Jack. He pursed his lips for a moment, then said, "Abilene, Texas." It was only an hour ahead of Cheyenne Mountain, time-wise, and Dyess Air Force Base would get them easy and fast transport.
"Abilene . . . Texas . . . that would be thirty-two twenty-seven degrees North and . . . ninety-nine forty-five degrees West. Ah! Dyess Air Force Base."
They exchanged startled looks. The aliens were very well acquainted with Earth, it seemed. Enough so that they could easily use the global latitude-longitude system for navigation.
There was silence for the next fifteen minutes, by Jack's watch.
"Let me turn on the forward viewers, for you," the voice abruptly said. "I think you'll like to see this."
The front wall suddenly seemed to turn transparent from knee-high up to the ceiling and side-to-side to the walls. For a moment, there was nothing more than the stars they were already seeing. Suddenly, alarmingly fast, a sliver of a globe — it was a globe because they could see the round shape of it blocking out stars — grew from miniscule to taking up the entire left side of the ship's windows. They had a brief impression of craters from the brightly lit sliver surface, then it was behind them. A black ball, limned in light, shot from hand-sized to filling the left-front view in a matter of a few seconds. Catherine gave a small scream, and the rest of them gave loud gasps.
They had slowed significantly, Jack could see, just from the changes in how fast the planet grew as they got closer, even though there was no sensation of movement.
The ship, several hundred miles up, followed the curve of the planet until the vast expanse of the brightly lit North American continent took their entire view.
"Our ETA," came the relaxed voice of their pilot — at least Jack assumed it was the pilot, "is about twenty minutes. I could make it quicker, if we were in a hurry, but I'm not sure the hearts of our older passengers would take it."
"Or mine," muttered Jack. Sam and Daniel were nodding, with wide-eyes.
The trip to Abilene was harrowing. The aliens apparently had no concept of vertigo, and little regard for physics, as the ship curved from flying over the surface to diving straight down in a move that should have smashed them all against the walls to leave a gooey mess.
Jack couldn't help but grab the armrests at the manoeuvre.
It seemed as if they were about to drill straight into a monstrous cliff dead ahead, and not the falling down at a speed high enough to leave a significant crater in the ground. It was quite at odds with them sitting in comfortable recliners, rock-steady, as if they already on the ground.
The grid of roads that was the city, and the interstate highway that curved around part of it, were clearly visible. The ship slowed sharply, again fast enough that it should have thrown them all out of their seats — yet they felt nothing. They angled towards a road that was at one edge of the town, near the mountains that rimmed three quarters of the city, without any nearby buildings. They seemed to hover for a moment, then settled down directly on the road. To their astonishment, the ship then began to move along the road as if it was being driven!
After only a few minutes, the ship slowed and pulled into the parking lot of a lone a Seven-Eleven quick-mart store. There was a brief pause, then a door that they had never suspected was there suddenly opened in the side, back where they had "beamed" in.
The six shakily got to their feet. Jack made sure to grab the communication device. There were now a set of steps leading down to the door, much like the ones you would find in a bus. Just as Jack reached the steps, the voice said, "We weren't sure if you had any change to call your superiors, so there are a few nickels, dimes, and quarters in the cavity beside the door."
Looking, Jack could see a small bowl-like extension sitting beside the door by his right hand. They were right, of course. None of them carried anything that might identify them individually — and who bothered with change when traveling into the unknown? "That was very thoughtful of you," he said, scooping up the coins and dropping them in his pocket.
He resolved to carry an emergency stash of coins. Next time, they might not be so generous.
"Just part of the service of Enterprise, Colonel. We never want our clientele to have reason to criticize. I hope you all have a pleasant day. Good bye and good luck."
Once he stepped outside, he turned and took a look at the yellow, square-fronted, very long school-bus he had just left. It was clearly smaller than the inside suggested it to be. The door he had exited was two-thirds of the way to the back. There was a row of the standard windows he would expect to see on the side of a bus. He tried to look inside, but the reflections from the windows prevented him from seeing anything inside. They were more like mirrors than windows. The side had Abilene I.S.D. painted on it, all capitals.
The door scissored closed with the customary clunk every school bus he had ever seen did. Then the bus lumbered out of the parking lot, making all the right noises and rocking motions for a bus. It headed back in the direction they had come from. He tried to read the license plate, but although he could see the plate, and that it had letters and numbers, he couldn't make out what they were. Similarly, the bus number was impossible to discern.
They were all staring at the departing bus with astonished expressions. There was absolutely nothing to indicate that the bus was capable of space travel. Or that less than fifteen minutes ago it had been in deep space moving at a speed the quite simply boggled the mind.
Maybe they could hide in plain sight!
Jack moved to the edge of the road, watching the "bus" drive off. There was a bit of blur at the bottom where the wheels were, but that could be the heat-waves coming off the road — they were in Texas, after all.
He pulled out his mini-binoculars and watched as the bus got smaller and smaller. When he estimated it was about two miles away, it shimmered and took on another appearance.
He couldn't quite make out what it was, except now it was white and seemed to have big circular things on the back. Then it abruptly tilted up and took off straight up.
It was a dead ringer for the Eagle One from Space: 1999, he realized, disappearing from his view, despite the binoculars, within seconds. If not for the built-in camera, he doubted anyone would believe him. The shots, the few he managed to squeeze off, would be blurry, but more than clear enough to prove what he had seen.
The non-zoom pictures of the aliens' Stargate, hall, and inside the spaceship that Daniel had taken wouldn't be as useful, though. There really hadn't been anything there to take pictures of, except the gate, DHD, bedrooms, and seats.
The Transporter Room though, that would raise more than a few eyebrows.
How the ship had avoided being seen by the nearby Air Force Base radar installation would drive the techies absolutely bananas.
Even though it was only ten or so in the morning, it was already oppressively hot. Ninety degrees, according to the temperature gauge on the building's front wall. Far too hot, especially for people used to the cooler clime of Colorado or the sea-front of the Stargate facility on Heliopolis. Even the "bus" had been a comfortable temperature, neither too cold nor too warm.
The six of them headed inside the store. The only pay-phone was outside, so, back outside Jack went.
He fed in the first quarter, then two more, and dialled a number he had used several times before, but never from this far away.
"General Hammond's office," he told the airman who answered. "This is Colonel Jack O'Neill."
It took only a few seconds to be put through.
"General, We're in Abilene, Texas. And if you thought my last story was a whopper, wait until you hear this one. It's downright unbelievable. But this time, I got pictures!"
██:::::██:::::██
"So, Lee," Harry said, "How long will it take to divvy up the naquadah?"
"Not that long, actually. I thought we'd do the X-wings first, that way we could safely test the duplication charms — we want to make sure our duplication spells work as well as they should. It'll give us a chance to fine-tune both the spells and the amount of naquadah required for optimal operation. If we botch-up one of those it's no real loss. Then, do the Galileo and the Base, finishing up with the Requirement. That way no one is too inconvenienced." He paused a moment and frowned. "With testing? We'll probably be done with the big ships by the weekend."
Harry grinned widely and looked around the Bridge. The others were watching him curiously. He tapped his comm-link. "Attention all ship personnel! Due to changing circumstances which will be explained later, this coming weekend the Requirement will be making a tour of some of the closer Star Systems. Anyone who would like to come along is cordially invited! Admiral Potter, over and out."
Curiosity changed to surprise, then wide grins of their own. Marietta pumped her fist into the air, saying, "Yes!" She looked at him, "I've got courses laid in for about a hundred of the closer systems. Depending on how long we spend at each of them, and our actual travel time, we can have a truly grand tour!" She sighed happily, "Plus, it'll give us a chance to scout the resources closest to us and map the systems."
Hermione sniggered. "The muggle astronomers will be soo jealous!"
Harry looked back at Lee. "We'll have enough drones to keep up with the Stargate Command people?" he inquired.
"As soon as we can verify that that storeroom in the mountain is empty of observers or detectors, we can portkey in as many as we want." He grinned. "With the tech cloaks, the muggles will never suspect we have them there.
"From the pensieve, we know they have five exploration teams, at present, with thirteen as medical and tactical emergency backups. I've already contacted the weres on the station, and we have more than enough volunteers to operate each drone on a team-member while in the mountain, and then analyse their downloads when the teams get back. We can attach a drone to each team-member before they leave on a mission." He sighed happily. "Plus have a few on watch in their Embarkation Room and in their briefing rooms so we know what they're expecting, and if anything is going wrong."
He frowned, planning. "I'll need to modify the subspace-relay beside Hogwarts to include a continuous feed to Uranus Base for the weres." His expression cleared. "That won't take but a few minutes."
Zacharia raised his hand. "How about drones with a subspace homing beacon? That way we can actually figure out where these gates are instead of having to blindly guess which of a dozen star systems has the planet with the gate on it!"
That was a good point. In fact, it would let them make their library map of the galaxy more accurate, too. Harry nodded.
"Okay, the first priority should be the modifications to the Hogwarts subspace relay," he said softly. "No, make the drones and the control room, first; we can use the Galileo as the relay station for a short while. Then work on Zach's homing beacon. When that's complete, then work on modifying the relay station." He tilted his head, thinking.
He looked over to Angelina. "Angel, could you check the library for something that would be small enough for us to sneak through with the outgoing team? Maybe have it do a survey of the area before coming back with the team? Or relay what it finds to the drones to bring back? Whichever would work best?"
She nodded and turned to her console.
He turned to the twins. "We really need your help here on training all those weres. Think you can spare the time from your store?"
"For the D.S.F.?" said Forge.
"Not a problem," said Gred.
"Our lovely assistant . . .,"
"Verity . . .,"
"Can easily handle the customers."
"It wouldn't hurt to hire a few extra employees . . .,"
"For the rest of the month, too."
"It'll give us more time to think up great items!"
"And finish the ones we've started."
They both nodded firmly.
Harry nodded back.
"And I," said Hermione, "shall see about remodelling the Requirement to carry not only a dozen Runabouts, but a complement of X-wings. Just in case. The spaces formerly allocated to the helium-three fuel tanks should do nicely as hanger spaces for them."
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Things did not go as expected, unfortunately, something Harry was intimately familiar with. The "Grand Tour" had to be postponed to the following weekend, ten days away.
It wasn't the tragedy Harry had expected. He was itching to go, but most of the crew seemed happier with the additional time to prepare. A full-week's warning meant more families would be able to go along for the ride!
The stumbling block was, of course, the conversion and testing of the first Runabout and X-wing fighter. Those had been built from the beginning with helium-three as a power source. Retrofitting them should have been easy, but it meant rebalancing the smaller ships, which wasn't so simple. Getting the Galileo and Requirement ready had been trivial by comparison — until you factored in the testing for the duplication spells.
Still, by mid-week all the ships were ready for operation and Uranus Base had a new section devoted to controlling the dozens of drones in constant use. It also gave the twins a bit of additional time to come with a training scheme that got the weres as familiar with the drones as the twins, themselves, in a very short time. Their pensieves got quite the work-out as they weres watched the memories of how the drones worked. They got days of training in only a few hours.
The only downside to working drones through the Stargate, they had discovered, was that the radio transmitters had to be close enough that the gate would receive an appreciable part of the signal. Which meant a focused beam had to be used.
Basically, if the transmitter wasn't in front of the gate, within a few dozen yards, nothing made it through. So, the system they came up with was that each member of an exploration team — usually four — had a cloaked drone attach to their shoulders. A much larger drone would be on Stargate Command's Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probe that always went first.
The M.A.L.P., of course, made sure the Stargate team could survive on the target planet before anyone came through! The D.F.S., naturally, had no such restriction. They just wanted to know where the bloody gate was, physically!
The device was their homing beacon. It would drop off the MALP as soon as it transited the Stargate and head for a stable orbit. It wasn't fancy, just the bare minimum needed to reach orbit and say, "Here I am!" It would contact the D.S.F. via its subspace transmitter and relay everything it could about where it was. It also relayed what the other drones were reporting if a team actually followed-up the MALP and came through the gate.
Its battery would hold for year, which should be more than enough time to recall it back through the gate for reuse. If that stargate wasn't one that Stargate Command ever went through again? Then abandoning the drone in orbit wasn't a hardship. Maybe someday they would retrieve it.
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