Disclaimer: All characters, names, settings etc belong to their respective copyright holders, only much of the convoluted plot, Night Wolf and a few other things are of my own creation (but inspired from many things under copyright, which aren't mine).
Chapter 31 – Maddening Revelations
Alistair Lethbridge Stewart relaxed in the cool afternoon breeze that came after a particularly hot day.
He was sitting in the agora, part of the internal courtyard at Night Wolf Command, he was sitting and relaxing on the orders from head of the Apothecary Division…and Birmingham's suggestion.
The reason was the same as why he had a tall much of a…concoction created by the Apothecary division.
Even now a couple of days later…he still felt a slight buzz…a vibration…an after shock from their attack on Little Hangleton.
There had been a slight possibility of this happening, but Max Robinson had assured them that a week or so of a specially designed 'food plan' would get everyone back to their regular selves.
Lethbridge Stewart sipped another portion of his…drink, it didn't taste that bad, a little bit of herbs with something citrusy, though he was pretty sure that wasn't even the half of it, knowing the apothecary division and Birmingham there was probably animal, vegetable and mineral in the…drink.
Suddenly the laptop in front of him flashed red, announcing something urgent for his attention.
Hitting a button it brought the message to the forefront of the screen.
Attention: Craft on sensors entering Earth space, initial scans suggest it conforms to missing craft designation Shadow Blaze…
The images that followed were of real time vision from the ASCS Flinders, it showed the various detectable things from the long range scanners it was the Shadow Blaze; a small black craft.
Continuing scan concludes ship will enter atmosphere in 2 minutes.
Lethbridge Stewart hit the open comms button and a voice came through clearly.
"Should we intercept the craft General?"
"Negative captain, ship will return to Night Wolf Command." Probably. Lethbridge Stewart thought silently to himself. "Do not engage."
"Sir."
Lethbridge Stewart allowed himself a moment to finish…the whatever it was and rose from the chair and walked over to the phone on the outer wall.
"Get a team down to the hanger, arrival of ship immanent…it's Harry…probably."
Alistair walked calmly to the meeting room, knowing Birmingham would most likely be there, he would have got a similar message as he did about the arrival of Harry Potter, or at least the ship that had 'befriended' him, for lack of a better term.
"The ship is approaching the atmosphere, Flinders has got it on scanners." Birmingham said as the Brig walked in, he was standing looking at the screen showing the Earth.
"Should be breaking atmosphere in 30 seconds."
The ship glided across the image…and then disappeared.
"Where'd it go?" Lethbridge Stewart said suddenly as he stared at the empty image save for the image of the Earth.
"Oh…" Birmingham leaned over to the table and hit a button bringing up images of the hanger, a group of video images from various points in the hanger appeared.
"There, far right, just near the exit." Alistair said gesturing.
"Focusing…it's a fair distance from the entrance to command. Our team isn't going to get there…"
"Is it Harry? I don't Birmingham want to have to explain that I let an alien in…" Lethbridge Stewart said calmly.
Birmingham muttered something and zoomed into the canopy, it…removed it self, or dissolved or slid back or something, he wasn't sure and a person who was most definitely Harry Potter, looking better than the previous images of him, though a little…bed regaled climbed out.
He seemed to take a pause to take some deep breaths before reaching in grabbing…something and disappeared.
A moment later the team arrived.
"Maybe we should ask him to join Night Wolf, he's certainly got some good skills." Birmingham said casually.
"It had crossed my mind Birmingham, you've helped far people from the Sorcery world that myself, will we be doing him a favour or an injustice?" Alistair reclined slightly in the chair.
Birmingham walked along the length of the wall for a moment.
"He probably already knows more than the average recruit, he's been in the library and not just for information pertinent to his situation…" Birmingham trailed off.
Lethbridge Stewart raised an eyebrow at the silence.
"I don't think Harry knows how to do nothing, if anything we will have to push him on leave."
"So you've thought about it?"
"I know how driven people work." Birmingham said looking at the Brigadier. "After Voldemort is sorted out…" Birmingham trailed off again.
"He'll have a small break, enough to take in what is happening, make sure those he cares about are ok, and then after working towards his goal…he'll look for something else to do…" Birmingham smiled at the Brigadier. "After all that's what I'd do." Lethbridge Stewart muttered to himself.
The following day Lethbridge Stewart was looking at the new revisions of the amended agreements for various powers, armed forces and other situations which Night Wolf Command might need in the future, there had been a further push at their last meeting in Geneva to outsource more of their parts for their space craft; in Australia they already had a relationship with certain companies who had agreed to the Official Secrets Act to produce certain parts for them. But soon there would be a time in the future when they would need main industry to assist in the production of their space craft systems rather than doing it all 'in house', it was for the moment only in the initial planning.
They had all agreed both within the Night Wolf at Geneva and UNIT that any sort of disclosure to the world was many, many years away that currently there were still to many unknown factors to risk such a sizeable effect on the world.
Alistair looked up from his reports as his computer beeped, announcing that someone had materialised in the corridor outside his office, not the sort of materialisation which would set off alarms and bring the teams armed to the teeth to eliminate a potentially hostile intruder, this was fortunately the other sort of materialisation that he had been waiting for.
A moment later Harry Potter knocked and then entered General Lethbridge Stewart's office.
"Brigadier…" He said with a smile, looking much better off than he had previously.
"I have a report here; you were at the Gibson Desert Research Facility more than two weeks ago." Lethbridge Stewart tapped his keyboard and on the larger screen on the wall showed a looped playback of Harry appearing, papers swirling around, grabbing something and disappearing.
Harry at least had the manners to look slightly ashamed.
"Harry, explain."
Harry held up a folder which appeared to be full of various reports, maps and whatever else.
"Got a folder." He said as if that explained his absence from Earth for the past 15 or so days. "If you can get Birmingham I will explain…" He trailed off a slight look of worry passing across his face for a moment. "Just don't call me crazy when I do." Harry added helpfully.
Lethbridge Stewart picked up the phone hitting the Sorcery Division's extension.
A minute or two later Birmingham walked in.
"You're looking better Harry. Been working yourself to the limit?" Birmingham asked casually as he sat himself down in his usual chair opposite the Brigadier.
Harry tilted his head almost considering the inquiry.
"The camera footage, you looked pretty wrung out." Birmingham offered.
"Yes…I worked it through…Brig could I use your comp?" Harry asked nervously holding up a memory stick. "Just need to display some stuff…could you…umm sit over there with Birmingham." He gestured so they had their full attention on the main screen on the wall.
"Very well Harry." Lethbridge Stewart rose while Birmingham just raised an eyebrow at the Brigadier who just shrugged glancing at Harry Potter.
Harry appeared to be flicking through scans from a ship, just not the conventional ASCS or RSCS ships, he finally settled on one scan.
"This is a system about 10 days away using a HWG, a hyperspace window generator." He said casually as though someone were talking about the weather.
"Harry…did you do there…alone?" Lethbridge Stewart asked slowly of the young man before him, who simply shrugged.
"Yes." He held up his hand. "Just bare with me before you start making noises." He paused seemingly composing himself…or waiting for the argument which didn't come. Birmingham and Lethbridge Stewart were more interested as to why he potentially risked his life travelling out into deep space than berating him for doing so. "For a while I've been thinking about what to do about Voldemort…I think I've come up with a way."
"A way that involves a star system 10 days away, using I'm assuming that Shadow Blaze's drive which might I remind you Harry is supposedly faster than our ships…"Alistair felt he needed to remind Harry of this, sometimes even he and others within Night Wolf forgot what sort of distances they were dealing with out there in space.
"Yep." Harry said acknowledging the fact, but continued. "I got it from cross referencing various sources…it has only two planets and is surrounded by a radiation field, it's well hidden…one of the planets has an amount of the element used for the jumpgate construction at it's core."
Lethbridge Stewart's eyebrows both raised at the same time in surprise, this was certainly a good piece of information, even a small amount of the Q40 element would enable them to construct several jump engines or jump gates.
"I'm assume, for now Harry that you didn't go out there for 20 days just out of curiosity." Birmingham asked. Harry smiled nervously…or slightly madly, a man with a plan sort of smile.
"No…my plan is a little…audacious…'the power he knows not'…something no one can wield directly…" He paused chuckling slightly. "The mineral is at the core so you would need to strip away all the outer layers of iron to get to it…" Harry said changing subject slightly.
"Harry what are you going to do?" Birmingham said slowly trying to get Harry back on his train of thought.
Harry seemed to shake himself, almost like a bird coming out of the water.
"I want to use the transmats to dematerialise Voldemort, and then hold him, carry him to this system and then…" Harry paused to take a large breah, Birmingham wondered for the half second if he was doing it for dramatic effect, but concluded that he was probably just a little bit nervous, he'd obviously been planning this…whatever it was plan for some time.
"I want to blow up a sun." Birmingham stared at Harry Potter for a few seconds.
"I've thought about this for quite a while and…" Birmingham was trying to drink a glass of water and swallowed it the wrong way.
"Harry that's…an interesting plan…" He managed to cough out.
"How do you propose to achieve it Harry?" Lethbridge Stewart asked calmly, Birmingham turned and stared at his friend beside him.
Harry stopped for a moment, faltering slightly, as though he hadn't expected such an easy acceptance of his plan.
"By using something like a missile, or something that will survive the extreme temperatures and making it a portkey on a timer, when fired into the sun and then activated, it will remove a portion of the sun's mass it doesn't have to be far, thus making it unstable and causing it to blow…I'll drop Voldemort as close to the blast radius as I can and then get out of there before the sun goes nova." Harry sat down opposite them pouring himself a glass of water, seemingly savouring it.
"Presumably when the sun blows up the planet with the element is far enough away to be stripped of its outer layers without harming the element?" Lethbridge Stewart asked generally.
"According to Shadow Blaze's calculations." Harry stated.
"Interesting Harry…I understand your need to research this…had you simply told me you wanted to blow up a sun I would…" Lethbridge Stewart paused trying to think of what he would have done. "I'm not sure." He looked at Birmingham who appeared to have recovered from the initial surprise of Harry's plan. "Birmingham what do you think?"
"Harry…it's unbelievable…it's…I don't know…it could work…" Birmingham admitted and then added. "I suppose…although I'm not sure what's strong enough to survive a journey into the sun."
Harry just nodded to them, or himself.
"Well…I'm glad you didn't call me insane…" Harry muttered to himself once more.
"In theory your plan is…agreeable Harry…" Lethbridge Stewart started. "You have my approval…"
Lethbridge Stewart went on to explain to Harry in vague detail the trouble Voldemort had been causing around Britain.
"And while I share no love you the UK Ministry of Magic, a stable government in much easier to predict than an unstable one." Birmingham added.
"Getting rid of him once and fall all, with no chance of returning is also a point on the side of your plan." The Brig added. Harry nodded.
"That's why I needed something final and total, I know a simple spell or whatever isn't going to fix it, it didn't work the first time so…"
"Harry you're going to have to stick around for a while, explain this plan to everyone at Night Wolf, work out some scenarios, a plan and the beginnings of a report for me to take to Geneva." Lethbridge Stewart stated to Harry Potter, who nodded and accepted easily.
Later that evening after Harry had left Birmingham and Lethbridge Stewart were alone in his officer once more.
"So what do you seriously think?" Lethbridge Stewart asked Birmingham.
"It's an audacious plan." Birmingham said sipping his drink.
"But?"
"But it might just work, isn't that why you gave the go ahead to him?"
Lethbridge Stewart nodded slowly.
"Conventional thinking isn't going to remove Voldemort, that's been to our benefit fighting him in so far, but Voldemort is something else, and as Harry is governed by the Prophecy, then he would need something just as unconventional to finally destroy Vodemort with, and while the plan may be…unusual."
"To put it lightly Alistair."
"You still put your weight behind it Birmingham."
"Yes…Harry is convinced, and as you say an unconventional plan…and blowing up a star is certainly unconventional." He chuckled.
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