The Bruce was on top of Griffon once more. Selene had calculated a warp field modification which could allow the warp field to be extended more securely. As a result, the ships could travel at Warp 9.2, the maximum cruising speed for the Griffon.

The location for their pickup was Cestus III, almost entirely as far as could be from Deep Space 9 and still be Federation space. The Cestus III colony was a large one. A century earlier, the Federation had to justify the need for the planet even after the legendary conflict between a Federation captain and a Gorn captain. The Gorn Hegemony's border was not that far from the Cestus system and there was a watchful peace between the two governments.

During the trip, Harry had nothing but time. He stopped in and met several of the colonists, worked on cataloging possible potion ingredients from the Federation botanical database, practiced his magical combat, and studies tactical and strategic management of starships.

The colonists were receiving training on required things to get the colony running but were cheerful and almost relaxed. All were impressed with Griffon. They had originally thought that they would need to travel piecemeal and/or be incredibly cramped during the trip to Secarus IV. Griffon was large enough to load the entire number and still let them be comfortable.

Harry was on the BSS Bruce, watching as the Runabouts flew the colonists and the supplies up to Griffon.

Dawkins spoke. "Cap'n. We've got company." Harry looked at his XO. "We've got a Gorn ship at the edge of the system, and its sensors are focused on Griffon."

Harry recalled what he knew of that race. "Really tall lizard people, right?"

"Yes, Cap'n."

"What's their status with the Federation?"

Stolel supplied, "If I may, Commodore?"

Dawkins waved his permission and Harry said, "Go ahead."

"The Gorn Hegemony controls a number of worlds just coreward from the edge of Federation space. Cestus, in fact, was originally considered a part of Gorn space, which the Federation was not aware of when it was first colonized. The Federation built a colony and the Gorn razed it, considering it's presence as encroachment. The USS Enterprise, NC-1701, pursued the vessel in the attempt to destroy the attackers as the Gorn had not explained why they had attacked. The Metrons caused Captain Kirk and the Gorn captain to be locked in personal combat to resolve their differences. Kirk won but spared the Gorn. The Metrons returned both ships to their respective areas. Since then, there has been minimal contact as the Gorn and the Federation do not appear to share mutually prevailing characteristics or ethos."

"How often are they seen?"

Stolel lookup up some information. "They are rarely seen, but when they are, Cestus is where they are seen. Some Gorn products make their way into t he Federation via other races but rarely."

"Such as?"

"They do business with the Orion syndicate whose members have claimed that the Gorn have the best meridor available. That is a drink much like Romulan ale, though not illegal."

Harry considered that. "Anything else?"

"No, Commodore."

"Do we have a record of their appearance?" Stolel found an appropriate one and put it on the screen. Harry looked at it. "More Lizard than snake, I think."

Stolel asked, "Is that important?"

Harry said, "It might be."

Stolel finally reported, "Lizards and snakes are related. The Gorn eye doesn't appear to close, which indicates snake ancestors. Other aspects indicate lizard. There is no guarantee."

Harry considered it. "Inform Griffon we are going to check out our visitors, peacefully. We'll be back."

"Aye, Cap'n." That was quickly done.

"Set course for Gorn position, half impulse."

"Setting course, Aye," Martinez reported.

"Engage."

Halfway to the edge of the system, Harry ordered, "Open hailing frequencies."

"Hailing frequencies open."

"Hello. This is Sir Harry Potter, Captain of the BSS Bruce. I am speaking to the observer from the Gorn Hegemony. Can I assist you?" There was no immediate reply. The Gorn ship didn't really react either.

Harry considered what he had been told about the Gorn. Finally he said, "Turn off the universal translator on our transmission."

Dawkins peered at him for a moment and then said, "Aye, Cap'n." He made the changes. "Done."

"Are frequencies still open?"

"Yes."

Harry concentrated and, for the first time in years, spoke parseltongue. "Hello. My name is Harry and my moving nest is called Bruce. Why have you brought your nest close to mine?"

Everyone on the bridge was shocked into silence, even Stolel. Harry ignored that. Dawkins said, "Signal coming through, audio only."

"Let me hear it."

"Who are you to speak as our ancestors spoke?"

Harry took a moment to parse out the message because the "dialect" was strange. "Pardon my speech. I am a warm-blood two legs. Among my people there are a small number who can speak the tongue. I am the only one here. Your speech is different enough that I ask that you allow the non-living metal to change the speech." Parseltongue wasn't particularly versatile when it came to technology.

There was a long pause. Then the message came through in a machine-like English. "Why do you have such a large ship moving so many of your kind? Are you planning on invading our space? Are you abandoning this world?"

Harry chuckled. "No. Some of the people are moving to a new world, but only a very small part. The large ship can carry all of them. This is easier than using many smaller ships. We do not want to do anything which would cause us to move into or through your space or harm your people."

There was a pause and then the message came through. "We will watch and make certain."

"You can do so. We will not prevent you."

"You are the warm-blooded one who can speak as our ancestors did?"

"Yes."

"I invite you to visit our ship."

Harry considered that. "Would you prefer I transport, a shuttle, or that we dock?"

"We do not use transporters the way you warm-blooded do if we can avoid it. Docking is our preference."

Harry considered that. "That's fine."

The crew was a bit nervous, but the USS Bruce did connect to the Gorn ship via a small docking port. The temperature on the Gorn ship was 30 degrees. That was a bit warm for Harry, but comparable to a Cardassian ship it was a bit cooler. Harry used a cooling charm.

The Gorn ship was strange. While the Gorn were quite tall, the ship was a bit cramped.

Harry demonstrated that it was he who had spoken parsel, which the Gorn had been suspicious of, thinking they were being lied to. Harry's demonstration shocked them. They did become more polite once he had done so.

Harry was offered food, but admitted that the live insects were not his preferred repast.

"My people prefer cooked meat and vegetation."

The Gorns almost shuddered. "Why eat burned food when the blood is so much better warm and liquid?" They laughed in their own way.

"I imagine it's hard to get warm food on a long voyage."

"We have small insects and other small live food. We must store dead meat for most of our diet. We warm it to blood temperatures of course before we eat it," the Gorn Captain said.

Harry replied, "I understand. Such is not for me, but if it works for you that is well." He did ask, "My people told me you have the best meridor. Is this true?"

The Gorn, who had a name which was impossible to pronounce, called for meridor. While waiting Harry asked, "Do your people eat rodents live?"

"We do. Rodents are much easier to eat than larger creatures. Larger creatures are warmer, but much heat is lost when the beasts are taken apart. Small rodents can be eaten whole and so provide more stable heat."

Harry imagined that being a large lizard had its troubles. "I was curious. It's too bad you are not closer to Cardassian space. They often have too many voles and no one who would want them. They breed too easily for the Cardassian people to control them well."

The Gorn said, "We have our own food source, but variety is good. What do these voles look like?"

Harry had the Bruce send over a video image. "That is what they look like."

The Gorn captain looked at the image. "It looks tasty."

Harry couldn't comment on that. "Well, if I ever have the chance, I'll bring some." The meridor was delivered and Harry gave a positive review to his hosts. It was a very good drink.

He had a thought. "Can I call my ship for something?"

"Yes."

Harry made a call. "Potter to Bruce."

"Go ahead."

"Can you call Griffon and find out if they have captured any rodent stowaways?"

The call went through and, as chance had it, there were some rodents captures. Because the colonies did include some flora and fauna, it had been possible. But it was only a small amount. "But Cestus does have rats, though they don't have them in the cities. But rats came on the early colony ships, before the prevention systems we use now."

"What do they do with them if they catch them?"

There was a pause. Dawkins voice came back. "They destroy them now. A few decades ago, they had someone who thought it was inhumane to kill them and so transported them out of the colony into the countryside. Then they became too much. Currently, they leave the ones outside the cities alone but they kill them when they come into the cities. Pretty standard for any colony older than a century."

Harry nodded. "Stand by." He looked at the Gorn. "Have you ever eaten Earth rats?"

"No."

Harry nodded. "Dawkins?"

"Go ahead, Cap'n."

"See if someone can capture a few healthy rats with transporters or whatever. I want a container of them brought out here."

"Are you sure?" Dawkins incredulous voice came through.

"Yes. The Gorn enjoy the taste of small rodents. I want to give a gift to thank them for their hospitality."

There was a pause but soon the Dawkins said, "Aye, Cap'n."

Harry spoke with the Gorn about the differences between them and the similarities. Harry regularly checked in to reassure his ship. An hour later, a runabout arrived. "We're ready to beam over the container."

Harry called back, "How big is the container?"

"It's a crate about one meter cubed. There are about 140 rats inside."

"Hold on." He looked at the large lizard-man hosting him. "Do you have a cargo entrance? Your gift has arrived."

"Will it fit through our connection?"

Harry shrugged. "I can do that." He had the crate delivered to the Bruce and then watched as the Gorn came through and picked up the heavy crate with no equipment. "Your people are strong."

"Yessss."

Harry showed the Gorn how to open it. Looking inside, the Gorn seemed quite interested. "Please try these. It they are not to your taste, I will not be offended if you refuse to keep them."

The Gorn brought something out that looked like a kitchen device but had a light. It turned out to be a scanner. The Gorn pronounced the rats compatible (they could be eaten) and healthy. One was caught and Harry looked away as it was swallowed whole after the Gorn's put it inside of its mouth.

The Gorn considered it for a moment. "That is good."

Harry said, "I'm glad you liked it. You can have all of them. Our rats eat most anything. I'm sure you have methods of caring for food animals."

"Yes. Thank you for the generous gift. If we would want more of these Earth rats, how could we get them?"

Harry chuckled. "Well, give me several containers of meridor. I will talk to the other Humans on Cestus and find out if they would be willing to trade captured rats for meridor. Would that be acceptable?"

The Gorn stood there thinking. "I believe the elders would accept that. I will bring back your gift and ask them."

Harry replied, "Okay. I will have my people bring over some grain and fruit to feed the rats to keep them healthy." Soon, a canister of dried cranberries and canister of wheat was delivered. He looked at the Gorn and said, "I will be leaving soon, but I will speak to those who live here. Let me make arrangements for how to speak to those here."

The Gorn approved it.

Harry flew back to Cestus and quickly hired someone to manage the trading, explaining that his new agent would have to negotiate with the Cestus government regulations and the Gorn contact. A dialogue was set up and Harry started considering how and where he would ship Gorn meridor. He also considered how he might transport Cardassian voles to the Gorn and if it was worth it (it was a long distance).

He was happy to find out that the Danube-class runabout was becoming almost ubiquitous. Cestus III had a Starfleet presence and two runabouts had been assigned. They were almost useless for long-range missions but for emergencies or for residents interested in chartering them to deliver goods to and from orbit they were terrific.

If things worked out, Harry would arrange for more trade with the Gorn. As it was, most of the work would be done by his new local agent, a man that Dawkins happened to know.

After another stop at another world, the Griffon had finally arrived at Secarus IV. It was almost exactly as Harry remembered it.

There was a difference: The ruined encampment of the Albino had been cleaned up. The power station had been repaired from the attack and expanded. The encampment was not central enough, but the colony planners had arranged for power lines to already be run to the nearest location suitable for a capital, about 4 kilometers away.

Harry peered at the image on the screen as Griffon began its unloading. "Why are the power lines above ground?"

Ollie, his own Chief Engineer, was on the bridge. "Those are temporary. They'll run underground plasma lines and then switch over. But that takes time."

Harry nodded in a distracted manner. Finally he said, "Alright then." He looked over. "Well, I'm fully satisfied with the Griffon's ability to do a colony launch. I've seen enough, I think." He looked around at the command staff present. "I'm going to take our Aeroshuttle over to Griffon and talk to Krim and Prince William. When I get back, I'm going to want to go to Vulcan to pick up the former prisoners and then we'll be going back to Deep Space 9."

Dawkins glanced around to see the other officers surprise, and then answered, "Aye, Cap'n. We'll start making ready."

"Good." Harry stood up and said, "You have the conn, Bill."

Dawkins moved to the Captain's chair even as Harry left the bridge.

Harry soon landed on Griffon. He was avoiding interfering with the transport schedule and so used a launch bay that wasn't being used for the various runabouts. It would be a Federation colony and two of the runabouts had been picked up at Earth: USS Darling and USS Barwon. Added to the four permanent runabouts from Griffon, there were six being used to launch the colony.

Harry mused that the number of possible runabout names was in the thousands – Earth had a lot of rivers. Why names were limited to the rivers of Earth was a mystery to him though.

He reached the CNC which was a hive of activity as the launch was coordinated. Harry waved off people interrupting themselves to greet him. He finally reached Krim. "Captain."

Krim glanced over. "Have a seat, Commodore."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Just call me Harry. I'm just visiting and we aren't military."

Krim smirked. "Yes, Commodore." Krim became more serious. "We're twenty percent launched. We've gotten about 500 people down, but the majority of work has been landing the equipment and supplies first."

Harry said, "Replicators too, I assume."

"Yes. They're hooking those to the power lines quickly. Their biggest problem is not enough garbage." Harry looked interested. "Replicators use an amount of stored matter as a source of energy and matter. Much of that is recycled material. There hasn't been enough used to recycle. The trees and foliage being used as a matter source takes time to be cut and then transformed."

Harry shook his head. "Its things like this which emphasizes how different technology is compared to where I am from."

Krim replied, "I know. I look at this and think of how hard it was for Bajor to be supplied such things when the occupation ended and the Federation came in."

Harry said, "You have to admit that part of the trouble there was Bajorans not wanting to be beholden to the Federation." Krim nodded, though he didn't look happy at the observation. "But I do agree. They should have brought more in immediately." Krim looked happier. "How much do you have to supervise?"

Krim shrugged slightly. "It's being coordinated by the CNC staff. Truthfully, I am doing very little than watching."

"Well, let's go see William. I'm going to leave soon back to Deep Space 9 and we need to coordinate."

Krim stood up and turned command over to his XO.

Harry, Krim and William sat down. William asked, "What are your plans, Sir Harry?"

Harry sighed. "As much as I feel that Griffon's presence and use as a tool of peaceful transport is the most vital thing we have going, I believe I need to return to Deep Space 9. Sisko's mission to engage in peaceful contact with the Dominion didn't work out. Despite the power of Defiant, the Dominion overpowered her and manipulated her crew into a test of resolve. Sisko and his crew passed, but I think they could use more support. The Dominion is not done with their machinations."

Krim said, "I agree. Your personal skills fighting could be more important than any influence you might have."

William asked, "Other reasons?"

Harry sighed. "Voyager somehow disappeared on her mission to find the Val Jean, a Maquis ship which also disappeared. I also found out that another ship, the Equinox, disappeared from that area. I plan on doing my own search."

William looked pensive. "Are you certain you wish to do that? With ships being lost so easily, yours could be in danger."

Harry replied, "I'll be careful and stay cloaked as much as possible, but I am going to look."

William saw that Harry was resolved. "We wish you the best of luck. Report in with your findings."

"Of course, Highness."

"Captain Krim. What are your plans following the launch?"

"This is our first attempt. Several operational steps were found to be done inefficiently but I plan on reorganizing the operational procedures to better fit such mission. Our second colony launch is scheduled for two months from now. I do expect more calls for our services now that our existence has been observed."

William replied, "I believe my father has been fielding questions."

Harry asked, "Our procedures will remain as they are now? I still plan to send requests to you, Sir. Until we set up a permanent agent, that would be most convenient."

William said, "That's fine. You will have to hire a permanent agent which is on Earth."

"I know. I have the new man I hired at Cestus to work on the Gorn deal, and I need to hire an agent at Bajor as I am no longer permanently there. But I'll think about someone to be at Earth to represent me. I would welcome suggestions."

William said, "I'll consult my father."