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 44

The ASCS Flinders swept swiftly into a high geostationary orbit above the United Kingdom.

Birmingham let a small sigh of relief escape him as he watched the planet fill the screens on the bridge, it had been a long two and a half weeks something he didn't want to do again very soon…at least next time he'd bring something more than work to keep himself occupied.

"Happy to be back Birmingham?" The captain asked as he rose from his chair, they were going down to see Harry off at the teleport area.

Birmingham raised an eyebrow.

"The look up utter celebration at seeing the blue green hues of our planet." Jennings said with a smile.

"Yes…captain…something like that…I will be thankful to return to anything after…all this time on your ship."

"Can get like that occasionally…"

"Has it though?"

"For me? Never."

Harry was standing waiting for them in the teleport area itching to depart, Birmingham could sympathise with him.

"By the way…what's the date…all this travelling…" Harry started to count off days on his hand.

"It's about 2 weeks to Christmas, so no holidays for you yet." Birmingham said with a smile.

"Well you've got my report…I'll see you when…" Harry shrugged.

"When you've got all the explaining over and done with?" Captain Jennings asked with a chuckle.

"Something like that, and that reminds me, Hermione Granger." Harry asked looking at Birmingham.

"Hermione Granger?" Birmingham feigned a puzzled look for a moment. "We'll send you a letter, some time close to the end of school for you. Time and dates the usual."

"Thanks." Harry grinned walked swiftly into to stand in the teleport area.

A moment later Harry Potter dissolved to be rematerialised on the surface on the planet below.

Around 10 minutes later Birmingham and his fellow sorcerers were standing in the same spot awaiting them to target Night Wolf, Birmingham didn't fancy having to get from Hogsmede to Night Wolf at the moment.

"Hope to have you back soon Sorcerer Birmingham…"

Birmingham made a non-committal noise much to the captain's amusement.

"Send them back down to Night Wolf."

For a moment the ship and the captain dematerialised from Birmingham's view and then he was back inside Night Wolf command…and felt like he'd put on a lot of weight.

"Gravity…" Birmingham muttered to himself as he walked heavy footsteps to his office, dumping his bag full of ideas, plans and other work related things.

He walked calmly outside breathing in the fresh cold air, then the lines between his body blurred and shifted the next moment a wolf was bounding through the woods surrounding Night Wolf Command.

An hour or two later Birmingham walked back into Night Wolf Command, an amused Brigadier waiting for him.

"Better?"

"Over 2 weeks inside that ship Brigadier…2 weeks…" Birmingham shook his head as he ran his hands through his hair picking out a leaf or three.

"Come out for a pint Birmingham I'm meeting Doris…been a while since we talked…"

"With one less megalomaniac one the loose." Birmingham said.

--//

Lethbridge Stewart turned over another page of Birmingham's…well report was one word for it…except it was bound together in a large folder with recommendations, multiple lists of people and supplies right down to what sort of weapons they would need on his 'Research Base' of his. Birmingham must have had discussions with half of the Flinders' crew to work out more than half the information…what they wanted in a off of Earth base.

Birmingham hadn't been distorting his facts when he'd said he'd had nothing to do but consider this for the past…28…close on a month.

"Should have taken a trilogy or heptalogy." Lethbridge Stewart muttered to himself as he flicked read through all the information.

After a few hours of reading and making his own notes…Lethbridge Stewart frowned…there wasn't much he could fault Birmingham on with this work, it had been though out perfectly…and a large non-Earth based base would serve several purposes…as a second base of operations and placed somewhere out to serve as a stop in for ships instead of returning to Earth for supplies and basic maintenance…but close enough to have students, scientists…it would be their own university and research base for everything…something that neither Gibson Desert or Northern Highlands could accommodate…nor their current outposts which were constructed with singular purposes in mind…

Then there were the names… a few he'd met upon interviewing them, when they'd requested to work with UNIT…

Lethbridge Stewart instantly recognised the few highlighted names for who they were; Josephine Grant…Gilliam Brown (formerly Perpugilliam Brown), Melanie Bush and Elizabeth Shaw.

Liz Shaw was still working for UNIT, while she was at Oxford but she did some consultancy work for UNIT without actually knowing anything about Night Wolf's work.

Jo and he has last really spoken at a reunion dinner a year or two after her divorce.

Gilliam Brown Lethbridge Stewart only recognised briefly by name, she was one of Night Wolf's better xeno-archaeologists, but as yet hadn't been taken off Earth, pending a psychological…there was also the fact that she was 20 or so years older than her birth certificate.

The second last name had made a small name for herself developing computer software, she'd also 'called in' to UNIT London…but hadn't specifically requested anything, neither work nor assistance…her name had been connected with a electronic robbery in the early 90s…

Lethbridge Stewart sighed looked at Birmingham's proposals and corrected himself there was one admittedly large problem that he hadn't thought of…

Funds.

Night Wolf had a…well it was quite a large budget all things considered, but they needed a large budget.

But this would be pushing their limits just slightly. With the new ships already being built and those on the books to be built, along with Preston's proposed jump gate construction ship….Lethbridge Stewart looked at him computer for a second wondering exactly how much that ship of hers was going to cost.

Typing in a series of passwords he found the 'initial' budget for it.

It was a lot…much more than even the Gibson Desert Research Facility could find.

Birmingham's plan would need funding as well, both the Earth based ones and the off of Earth base.

Funding which currently was tied up, or more to the point used on what they already had on the go.

"We're going to need more money…" Lethbridge Stewart said to the empty office, which he thought to himself probably wasn't any better than talking to himself.

Alistair rose from his chair and wondered down the corridor and fixed himself a mug of tea, it wasn't the best solution, in fact he just wanted to get out of his office so he could think.

When he got back to his office he stared at the piles of paperwork, and the pseudo-paper work that occupied his computer.

Then there was the more pressing, or at least thing that required some genuine thinking rather than rubber stamping.

How to get more money out of UNIT, the United Nation and everyone else that put (a generally substantial amount) of money into Night Wolf.

Around 2 hours later and many budget sheets and sketches on various piece of paper littered around his desk Lethbridge Stewart restrained himself from chuckling to himself like an old enemy of UNIT used to.

His 'plan' Alistair smiled thinking of Harry, consisted of a little bit of coercion, some preplanning and convincing the UN that it was best to increase everyone's budget…but first he had to make an unpleasant call.

Flicking through a few buttons he sealed his office out from the rest of Night Wolf he didn't want to be interrupted.

Then he put through a call to Professor Fiona Preston of the Gibson Research and Construction Facility in Australia.

"Lethbridge Stewart…what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?"

"Professor Preston…why should I need a reason to call a fellow member of Night Wolf?" He asked trying to be pleasant.

"Because we see each other in a week's time and you only ever call when you need something…" She paused. "Or to try and convince me of something."

Lethbridge Stewart restrained himself from hitting the end button on this conversation.

"I do have a proposal for you."

"See." She said looking smug about herself.

"I'm forwarding a proposal Birmingham has come up with…just the bare bones of the idea…" He said hitting the send button, it was only a two page report he had written up, briefly explaining the need for more personnel and the suggestion of an off Earth base.

She actually looked surprised as she read it.

"Interesting Lethbridge Stewart…but…"

"Why should I call you before our meeting in Geneva?" He asked stopping himself from smiling.

"Yes."

"I've been looking through the materials allocation for the Gibson desert…along with the ship you're currently building officially you're also constructing a second."

She betrayed nothing.

Technically it wasn't unofficial, each of the subsidiaries of Night Wolf worked independently as well as part of the larger organization, and if they were able to make their supply go further it wasn't technically against the rules.

"Of course there's nothing wrong with that, we need all the ships we can get."

She nodded her head.

"How would you like to be able to construct even more?" Lethbridge Stewart asked calmly.

"How?"

"How much of your jump gate construction ship have you built on the ground?"

She stalled for a moment.

"The truth Preston." Alistair said gazing into the camera.

"Most of the control systems, the jump engine control relay, some of the support structures, we can put together most of the secondary systems quickly…why" She said after a moment.

"I want to give the ship to the UN."

Lethbridge Stewart raised an eyebrow as Preston came out with swear words he hadn't heard since his time as a Lieutenant, he could understand it was her and her facility's 'baby', and would be a proof of concept for a large zero-gravity ship…except there were a few problems…fore amongst it the money that it would cost, even the huge funding that the Gibson Desert Facility received which was he had to admit smaller than the Northern Highlands…

"Why Alistair?"

"Perhaps not give whole heartedly…it would still be an Australian designed and partially constructed ship…but it needs more funding than you have…plus by your engineer's own notes you're going to need some more engineers with expertise in zero-gravity construction."

"Fine…but why give it to the UN?"

"Because Professor, they have been requesting a degree more involvement."

"Without the hassle of setting up their own facility." She countered.

"Yes. Your ship…will need various people…who better than the European Space Agency?"

"The ESA, that's who you want in charge of my ship?"

"It hasn't even been built Preston…but perhaps a joint crew, on a UN vessel."

"What's all this leading to Brigadier?" Preston stared at him through their video link.

"More funding for more ships…we're going to need them, not just for mining, but research and if the theorisers in Geneva are right defence…"

"Especially as we move out into the universe." She muttered.

"Then there's the off Earth base…it makes sense to have something like a base to serve our ships rather than have them track all the way back to Earth…then there's the benefits of an all purpose base off of Earth brings." He said down the video link.

"And you think the UN is going to give us that big of a budget increase for one ship?"

"Not just that, more ships means better efficiency, a facility off of Earth would mean specialised training in an alternate environment. Plus there's the fact that you've already begun the ship…"

"Less of the bill for them to foot, have you spoken to Wynne about this?"

"I wanted to speak to you first."

"The more difficult to convince?"

"Yes…but there is something else."

"Really?" She asked amazed.

"We're also going to need to work closer with our governments or intelligence services to make the other half of the proposal work."

"That's in the long term, and workable. Let's get the money sorted first."

"Very well…Thank you Professor Preston." Lethbridge Stewart said with a smile.

"See wasn't so hard. See you later in the week General." Then the video link cut out.

Alistair leaned back and chuckled to himself, it wasn't battle against hoards of aliens but it was still satisfying when a plan begins to come together.

--//

Lethbridge Stewart smiled to himself as he walked out of the meeting, he…well they had got everything they had requested.

It seemed that the UNIT and through them the UN had been moving their money around preparing for such an event as an off planet base and if he thought about it, it would be the next semi logical advancement of their Research Outposts, but previously they had been too busy finding resources to consider a permanent base.

Night Wolf would additionally be receiving more personnel to liaison with the intelligence services in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Europe for when they began looking for more scientists, engineers and students for their new base.

One idea that Paul Wynne had suggested was disclosure, a word and an idea most people were in many places about.

In theory it would make their lives marginally easier, but in the more advanced theory by the psycho-sociologists within UNIT it would be a disastrous event, especially in the current climate, it was better that some fringe groups thought there might be aliens, than everyone knowing.

Even after the Martian landing of 96, where thousands of people had witnessed the event, it soon became an event of the recent past easily forgotten.

Moore and Winter had been pleased that the UN would be getting their own ship, wholly (more or less) their own, Preston even showed a detailed computer model of the (still unnamed) ship, it was 3 times the length of their current ships coming at around 1200 meters long with three experimental rotating sections which if he recalled correctly were partially based on an old Mars mission design. It was obvious that Preston had had the original plan redesigned several times since she last updated her computer system, but it would be a efficient and probably powerful ship in its own right…just probably not in a battle. It would though be able to carry all the components necessary for building a jumpgate, something their current ships couldn't.

"Fancy a pint Wynne?" Lethbridge Stewart asked as they exited the building.

"After 6 hours of meetings Brigadier?" Wynne chuckled.

"Don't mind if I tag along do you gentlemen You're not the only ones who were in that meeting." She said.

Lethbridge Stewart shrugged, he just wanted to sit down and drink something made from hops and be satisfied that he'd got more than what he wanted, if Professor Fiona Preston came along…she'd be buying the first round.

--//

Not too many more chapters to go (I know I've been saying that for a while) but I know now how many chapters there are left (actually I don't, I write from week to week), but I know how much time (story time) there is left in Sorcery…so I know how much I have to work with here.

So three chapters maybe four, maybe less it depends really how I pace everything out. But no more than four chapters (most likely) before the end.

I am currently working on the sequel, so there shouldn't be anything more than the regular week's gap between the end of this story and the beginning of the next.

This week's chapter was a little bit of an 'info dump', but as with the previous chapter there are some things I want to set in motion to explain for the future, (I want to have the possibility of having a big space battle, for which I want alternatives to my four ships; Firefox, Victory, Hattah, Flinders).

Thanks for reading.