Wow. I'm astonished at the response to Our Hearts are Stolen Goods. Now, it'll be quite some time before that, or indeed any of these, are published as full stories. And whether they get enough chapters to warrant publishing is another thing entirely.
A guest reviewer asked how versatile Harry's Semblance is. He can do pretty much anything Dio Brando or Jotaro Kujo can do with their own time stop abilities in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. So, basically, if Harry wanted to slit their throat, surround them with knives (or Dust about to be ignited), or, heaven forbid, drop a steamroller on them with a scream of "ROAD ROLLER DA!", he can, as long as he does so within the time limit of the time freeze. They also asked whether Harry and Neo's marriage with the Black family rings mean that they are Lord Black...and I'm going to go with 'yes'. Ditto their asking whether Marcus Black or one of his ancestors was another Black family member tossed through the Veil. However, that's about as far as we're going to go, so far, and I don't know whether that story will get far enough to be published.
As for this one, I meant to post it sooner, but Our Hearts are Stolen Goods got more attention. It's worth pointing out that, for now at least, I'm not intending to make any more contributions to The Cauldron. If I get inspiration for a story, that may change, but for now, I've two new published stories on my plate, not to mention other possible new stories, like this one, to post.
LOVING THE ALIENS
CHAPTER 2:
EXPOSITION OF AN EXPEDITION
"Actually, I have to admit, I've come to enjoy a nice cup of Earth tea since my mother introduced me to the beverage," Liara said as Remus poured them cups. "There are equivalents on other worlds, including my own homeworld, Thessia, but I enjoy learning about new cultures and experiencing them."
Harry nodded. He had, by now, gotten used to everything. Like the fact that he was currently in a spaceship. The fact that Remus was making tea helped normalise things. That, and the fact that Liara acted so, well, human. Rather gentle and dignified, too. "So…why are you guys here?"
"Officially? We're not," Liara said. "The Citadel Council has had a rather potted track record when it comes to First Contact scenarios. The Rachni and the Krogan come to mind. However, after an expedition to a nearby star system picked up radio signals, we came to investigate. We intercepted, quite by chance, a message encoded in a radio signal. We later learned that it was transmitted by a radio telescope in 1974. That we intercepted it was a miracle(1). It took some time to understand the meaning of the message, but eventually, an initial expedition was mounted. My mother volunteered to lead it."
"She is mostly an ambassador," Hermione explained. "Asari in general are noted diplomats, amongst other things. That way, if First Contact was ever actually made, things could be resolved peacefully, hopefully."
The door slid open, and Tali walked through. "Keelah, that was irritating. This is meant to be a new ship, and yet, that servo was being stubborn," she remarked, walking over to a dispenser.
"New technology sometimes has bugs to be worked out, Tali," Liara said. "At least it was acting on the failsafe."
"You're right. A malfunctioning airlock door had better stay shut instead of staying open," Tali said, taking out a bottle of drink and a straw, before inserting said straw into her helmet, and then into the drink bottle. "I've managed to fix it, though. I had to fix something like it back home on the Fleet as one of my first official repair jobs."
"You're not having tea, Tali?" Harry asked.
"As much as I'd love to, there's a couple of factors preventing me," Tali said, before sipping from her drink. "Firstly, Quarians have a dextro-based biology."
Hermione interjected. "She means the chirality of her amino acids, Harry. Quarians and Turians basically have different proteins to us. I know you probably don't understand this, but the upshot is, she can't have foods with our levo-based proteins. At best, she doesn't get any protein nutrition from that. At worst…she could go into anaphylactic shock. Even if she doesn't, it'll probably give her some bowel problems."
While much of that went over Harry's head, he took Hermione's word for it. Tali nodded. "Thanks, Hermione. Secondly…well, I wear this suit for a reason. Earth's atmosphere is perfectly breathable for Quarians, or really any species in Citadel space, barring the Volus, but my people's immune systems were weak, even before we were forced from Rannoch. It's almost nil now. Unless I'm in a sterile room or I take special boosters, I could easily die from infection. This drink is specially sterilised and filtered, as is the emergency induction port."
"She means the straw," Tonks said with a smirk.
"Emergency. Induction. Port," Tali said forcefully.
"To-may-to, to-mah-to," Tonks retorted.
Tali shot Tonks a glare through the visor of her helmet, before she said, "So, were you bringing Harry up to speed, Liara?"
"Yes. We were telling him about my mother's first expedition." Liara looked back to Harry. "The ruined manor house not far from this site was actually your own ancestral seat, Potter Manor. At the time, my father was living there with the Potters, until it was destroyed by Voldemort. My parents met for the first time in 1978 by your calendar. My mother, however, was forced to leave during early 1980. The expedition was deemed too risky for now, and not just because of Voldemort's terrorism."
"Keep in mind, Harry, that was when the Cold War looked like it was heating up again," Remus said. "In addition, there were some issues back at Thessia, so…"
"My mother left for home. She did not realise it initially, but she was pregnant with me as a result of the last liaison she had with my father," Liara said, blushing slightly. "We returned to Earth for a brief recce, only to have my father stumble across us. We decided to take him to the Citadel, and then to Thessia. Unfortunately, that meant he wasn't here for when you got involved in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. I'm sorry, Harry, I was so overjoyed to meet my father, and…"
Harry waved her off, though he did feel a slight pang of jealousy at the blue-skinned alien girl who monopolised the godfather he hadn't even gotten to know properly. "It's okay," he said, a little insincerely. "So you're back now?"
"Yes. For a longer term mission," Tali said. "My friend Prazza and his parents were hired as the maintenance and SIGINT personnel for this mission. I volunteered when another position was available. Technically, this doesn't count as my Pilgrimage unless I bring something really useful back, and it'd be hard on a world like this one that hasn't even discovered FTL travel…oh, sorry, you don't know about the Pilgrimage, do you, Harry?"
"No. What is it?"
"It's like a coming-of-age journey for Quarians," Remus said. "They leave the Migrant Fleet, their home, and travel the galaxy, looking for something of worth to the Migrant Fleet. It can be anything from vital supplies like food, fuel, and so on, as long as it's in large quantities, all the way up to starships."
"Even knowledge and information can be useful, like new computer programs, or new tactics for fighting the Geth," Tali said.
"Geth?"
"The AIs that drove the Quarians off their homeworld," Liara explained. "The Council's treatment of the Quarians during and after that fiasco is an understandable source of conflict. Many view Quarians as vagabonds at best. The Quarians hold a lot of resentment for the Council in their turn."
"They're treated a bit like the Gypsies," Hermione said. "Apparently, it's not helped by Quarian criminals being exiled off the Migrant Fleet and onto other worlds."
"…And the fact that you're all speaking English?" Harry asked.
"Omnitools," Tali said, summoning an orange hologram around her arm. "Like a computer you can wear on your wrist, only with a lot more. Translation functions are standard, and Liara's mother learned English when she was last here."
"Actually, where is she? And Sirius?" Harry asked, fighting a pang of annoyance at the fact that Sirius wasn't here to greet him.
"Conferring with the Citadel Council," Liara said. "We have an experimental Quantum Entanglement Communications system. And given that we have a SPECTRE on board, it would make things even more complicated."
"SPECTRE?"
"The nearest translation to the term in English," Tali said. "SPECial Tactics and REconaissance. When we explained it to the humans, they said it was like a hybrid of an SAS soldier and James Bond. SPECTREs are elite special operatives answerable only to the Citadel Council during their operations. Spies, assassins, detectives and special forces soldiers rolled into one. They're pretty much all Asari, Turians and Salarians. The one we have on board, Tela Vasir, is an Asari, and she's brought along a Turian that she thinks would make a good SPECTRE, Nihlus Kyrik. Anyway, the Council's probably getting on their cases because they brought you here."
"Me?"
"We're here on a covert mission, and the more humans we expose ourselves to, the more the mission can be potentially compromised," Tali explained. "Especially if said humans have abilities that make biotics look tame by comparison. I'm still trying to wrap my head around your mother's theories that it relies on virtual particles as opposed to the mass effect. The things I've seen this so-called 'magic' do…Keelah, it's strange. And eezo isn't involved."
Before they could say anything further, one of the doors slid open, and a trio of people walked through. Two of them were clearly Asari. One of them had a rather stern, but still beautiful face, dressed in black, vaguely reminding her of McGonagall, if she was a sexy blue-skinned alien. The other looked younger, but appeared to have tattoos on her face, and was wearing armour. And the lone human…well, he looked much less haggard, his hair was more neatly trimmed, and he was dressed in rather more modern clothing than Harry expected. But it was Sirius, who was saying to the armour-clad Asari, "…Turian Councillor could do to remove the ten-foot staff lodged firmly up his…"
The black-clad Asari cleared her throat pointedly. "Sirius, a little more decorum, please." A faint smile twitched at her lips, though she indicated Harry. "He's here. And clearly has been for some time. How is he coping, Little Wing?"
Liara nodded. "Very well, Mother. Harry, allow me to introduce you to my mother, Lady Benezia T'Soni, and SPECTRE Tela Vasir. Sirius needs no introduction."
Sirius smiled, and walked over to Harry, hugging him. "Hello, Harry. Sorry it's been so long. But…I think this might be worth it. This is Benezia."
Harry decided to leave things until later. Instead, he proffered his hand towards the black-clad Asari, Benezia, though he fought down a clench of irritation at this woman who kept his godfather incommunicado. "Hello…umm, what do I call you?"
"Lady Benezia will do for now," the Asari said, but she took his hand anyway. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Harry Potter. Your godfather speaks highly of you. And I met your parents shortly before I had to leave. I was saddened to hear of their passing."
Tela took his hand next. "Call me Agent Vasir," the Asari SPECTRE said. She looked at Liara and Tali. "How much has he been brought up to speed?"
"A potted lesson on the basics of galactic society, and why we're here," Tali said. "We were trying to make him feel at ease."
"Especially after meeting Wrex," Tonks said, grimacing. "If he's meant to be a more thoughtful version of his people, I'd hate to meet the average Krogan."
One of the doors had slid open by that point, and Wrex was waddling through. "I'd be insulted," rumbled the reptilian alien, "but I know you're right from experience. Can't even blame the nuclear winter or the genophage for that one. So, what did those self-important pyjaks on the Council have to say?"
"The usual contrarianism," Tela said, grimacing. "In theory, it's because, being accountable to only the Council, we SPECTREs get more scrutiny from them to compensate for the lack of legal oversight. In practise…well, I know for a fact that Councillor Caligus rides roughshod over any SPECTRE who isn't a Turian, and they want more information. And Caligus is putting pressure on me to fast-track approving Nihlus becoming a SPECTRE. Nihlus is a good agent, and he'll make an excellent SPECTRE, but there's a reason for the little probationary period we're doing. Better him than that other one Caligus suggested, Saren."
Benezia frowned. "Saren is indeed a good agent, when used in the right way. But he seems to be overly ambitious and with a low opinion of too many. He would lack the tact needed on a mission like this."
"And in other breaking news, Tuchanka is a shithole," Wrex scoffed.
"And you have tact?" Tali asked, her tone suggesting a certain amount of credulity.
Wrex scoffed. "Tact to the average Krogan is not headbutting everyone they meet, kid."
Harry looked at the larger alien. "…That bad?" Wrex nodded.
Sirius cleared his throat to gain attention. "Anyway, Harry…welcome to the…um, Illuminating Eye, I think it is in English. You've met some of the crew already. Now, the mission is mostly a scientific one, meant to observe humans and their culture. The Citadel Council are very interesting in wizards and witches, given that they have abilities, well, different to what is known in the galaxy. They do have some abilities not unlike some forms of magic, called…biotics, weren't they? Anyway, this mission also has another reason. We're hoping to pave the way to a First Contact scenario eventually, a peaceful one. But there's something else." Sirius closed his eyes. "Harry…I don't think Dumbledore is doing enough to prepare you for what's to come. Moony told me that Dumbledore claimed he wanted to 'give you a normal childhood', but that's bollocks. You've faced Voldemort…how many times now?"
Harry frowned. "Not counting when I was a baby…three times?"
"Keelah…" Tali murmured. "Given what Sirius has told us about this Voldemort, you must've been considerably lucky."
"My luck is bipolar," Harry explained. "I get into a lot of bad situations, but manage to claw my way out of them." He scowled at the thought of Cedric, sprawled in the graveyard, and said, quietly, "Not everyone did."
Sirius nodded solemnly. "But that's not my point. Luck doesn't last forever, and without some more help, I don't think you're going to live to enjoy adulthood."
"Officially, we are here unofficially," Benezia said. "And even if we were, we cannot be seen to take sides in a local conflict. However, personally…I wish to help you, Harry. You mean a lot to Sirius, and you are a symbol of hope to Magical Britain. They doubtless look to you as a shepherd of sorts. Well, when they are not lambasting you in the press. Magic and biotics are not dissimilar in some regards, from our investigations, and there are certainly things that would help you. We will not force you into this, of course…but we are offering to help."
"In exchange for what?" Harry asked.
"Helping us with our expedition. A human perspective on the information we gather. Being the face of humanity for the Citadel."
"So, no pressure," Wrex remarked.
Too bloody right, Harry thought to himself. He needed time to think about this. Not making the decision itself: anything he could use to stop Voldemort, he'd take. But the enormity of the decision, becoming the face of humanity to bloody aliens…he needed to contemplate things…
CHAPTER 2 ANNOTATIONS:
So, Harry's been reunited with Sirius…but it's not the best of reunions. He's feeling some discontent still, and maybe when the shock goes away, he might start getting ornery.
1. They are referring to the Arecibo Message, a famous message sent out into space in 1974. Although sent towards the Hercules Globular Cluster, I thought it could have been, potentially, intercepted by another alien race, though it would have to be pretty lucky to do so…
