I don't own Harry Potter or Stargate.
Chapter 15
Harry came back to consciousness with his hands a couple of soft but firm globes. His morning wood was also pressing into a round firm arse so he did the only thing he could think of and froze. After a minute of that he decided to remove the temptation and went to slowly remove his hands only for Parvati's own hands to catch his and hold them firmly in place.
"I don't mind luv. Especially if you touch me in your sleep. You get special permission from both of us because we like. We like you a lot! You're the only guy we could let do this and not have to worry about you respecting us in the morning. So relax, yeah?" she said as he began to kneed her breasts.
Padma's hands were exploring his torso from behind and she was laying kisses on his neck and shoulders. She stopped suddenly and pulled away from the two of them and hopped out of bed.
"Its about 5:45. Don't do anything that I wouldn't do!" she cautioned playfully before she left the room.
Parvati rolled over in his arms so that now his hands were just on her back and kissed him deeply as her own hands explored his torso. His hands found the hem of her night shirt and dove under it to begin kneed her firm arse with only her silken knickers in the way. Finally having enough she pushed him onto his back and straddled him pressing her moist center on top of his shaft. Their underwear was still in the way but she leaned down and kissed him heavily and a head full of lust. They kissed passionately and bucked slowly and gently against each other before Harry pushed gently against her.
"We should stop." he said as he stilled his pelvis and clamped down with his iron will.
"We really should." she agreed as she climbed off of him, disappointed.
"I'm proud of you, Harry." said Padma from the doorway causing Parvati to jump, then blush.
"Huh?" he responded intelligently.
"I mean that my sister was really ready to go all the way just now but I don't think she's quite ready to be Lady Black just yet. And your alarms should be going off any minute now." she said just before the alarms went off.
"I came back because I left my pad and came to get it and find my sister all but riding our fiance. Damn it, Parvati, we need to be more cautious than that. Are you even on the potion? No, you're not. I know he's hot, and holy crap is he, but we got to keep our wits here. We can't afford to scare him off. And as for you, Harry, don't be afraid to tell us to back off if we seem to be a little too caught up in the moment, okay?" said Padma as she walked over and hugged her sister. He shot her a thumbs up while still blushing heavily as he was still standing at attention.
She looked at his lap appreciativly and left the room. Parvati gave his lap and him a lusty once over before finally leaving the room as well. There was an en suite washroom connected to the master suite and two hall baths in this floor so he didn't have to worry about sharing a shower with them as that would be a bit much after what just happened.
They all met again at the breakfast table for tea and an English breakfast. They each ate quietly while they poured over any early morning reports that may have come in with no priority time stamping. Priority was, of course, read first. There was a report from Hermione about the full Lantean they'd defrosted yesterday. She'd used the pad to great effect to submit plans for an exploratory ship powered by a miniature sun. Hermione countered that, with the right containment wards, it would even be safe to test. Education got up to an early day because the Marines and Aurors did as well as having a late night. Edward had gotten the projected effectiveness of the rushed training and decided to have a book written for each branch of the military and police force to keep the information close at hand and easy to memorize. He'd also switched the Aurors from rifles to the stun pistols.
The Aurors were waiting on a Chancellor of Law and to finish their rush training. Parvati had a single applicant this time as people were starting to realize that the chancellors had a lot of daily work to do. Medical reported that they were using the sensors and air recyclers to great effect in getting arrisol vaccines into the people living on Atlantis and Olympus had medi witches with medical scanners walking around the Potter training facilities making sure everyone, especially new arrivals got the vaccines as well. Joel reported nothing new on his end.
Intelligence reports, which were coming in even better now that they had two cities launching social satellites for recon. Some of the lesser lords had banded together in a small coalition and was surprisingly holding their own against Heru'ur and Ba'al. The more immediate threat, Apophis, was quietly snapping up undefended territories near his borders. Another lord would be along to push him back when they realized what he was doing.
There were quite a few lawyers but only one that wanted the chancellor job, knowing the work that would go into it. Parvati had already established offices in Atlantis and Olympus and set up a system in which jurys were selected from among those without jobs and those with just to try to keep things even. She'd thought about professional jurys but had shot the idea down from trying to avoid lazy jurys. They had plenty of lawyers, some 50 or so so some of them got jobs as prosecutors and some as public defenders and another smaller subset became judges. The offices and such were all ready set up they just needed the guy to run it. Or, in this case, woman. She reminded Harry of Madam Bones, but with silver hair, and no monocle. She was the former head of the Veela enclave, which she'd passed on to her own daughter years ago and had been serving as the chief judge in the Veela enclave's courts. Unsure, he'd called her up with his pad and had a short conversation with her and approved her right after. With the legal offices taken care of by Alice Resch they were lucky they had no pending cases to deal as there were no Aurors to have that human touch that everyone was missing.
He now had 7 chancellors to help him get things done and Parvati was hard at working figuring out how to clear the lawn. The remaining really wanted to join the Navy, Marines, or Aurors so there was just no where to put them except the lawn for now. Security bots and a handful of Aurors would stay at the facilities, partly for continued training and to help with training more Aurors.
"I think I should authorize another couple of floors for housing at least. That should clean up the yard or grounds or whatever." he finally said.
"I wondered for a while there as to what you would eventually have to do with that. That would make the place 5 stories high with most of it being housing. They trickle in at almost the same speed they trickle out these days and we need to add enough housing that if we got another big influx we would be able to house a good majority of them right off the bat. I hate to say...but go tall. Add 5 floors to bring the place to a total of 8 stories. The second floor and up was all housing anyway...so we just keep doing that. 6,000 because of the way we've expanded outwards a bit, then another 6,000 per level that's 48 thousand we can hold at a time. Then we could stop rushing crews and captains through." said Parvati. "And there is the added benefit that I just got word that a hidden Chinese enclave, that is hidden from the mundanes, is looking to relocate. They are only just short of 4,000 but they are currently leaving that country by boat and will portkey when they are far enough away from shore. The Chinese mundane government hunts down their wizards and kill them all because they are so hard to control." Harry turned a little pale. He hoped Kingsly succeeded in calming the Prime Minister enough to keep that from happening in Britain.
He sighed and and approved the changes and got a completion time of only 24 hours. Framing in and roofing would be done first so everything didn't need to be mopped out before use. It was expected to rain tomorrow but perhaps the build would be mostly complete before then.
He was looking over funding requests from some of the chancellors as they each had pet projects that they wanted to complete. The New Lantean government was operating on the 2 million galleon loan from the Potter-Black account and the influx of gold and precious stones from the two industrial planets. Research wanted some trinium and carving tools that would work on it and he had to inform them that a softer trinium alloy and pure trinium carving tools would be the best he could provide. He realized that they were working on possibly creating a better ward stone so sent the idea to try it with naquada instead of the mostly inert trinium.
There was a request to dump some funds into the court system that would really help later as far as holding cells as opposed to using the small prison for everyone. There was also he idea to expand the prison before it became a problem for both cities. Their ancient ancestors may have had fewer problems with crime than they were expecting but they weren't their ancestors. They had found, due to sensors recording and tracking every magical signature, a thief trying to get more than his due in the commercial ring of Atlantis as he was unemployed at the time. Of course being a thief would make it much harder to find a job in commercial or anywhere else. The bots quickly tracked and incarcerated him to await trial. The denizens of both cities quickly realized that the internal sensors would keep track of everything, especially magically, and those records would be used as evidence against them if they violated. The prison could currently hold 100 people, so he denied the increase to the prison and added holding cells for the Aurors and bots to use.
The social satellites had detected a small strike force of 4 Ha'tak gathering on the outside of Apophis's territory, the Earth side, and he would be surprised to see the defensive cordon he would run into. Joel and the captains agreed that it would be best to keep the majority of the picket's ships cloaked and keep them that way so as not to give away the full strength of the fleets. That was also the reason for moving the carriers, even though they would be useful for hunting down any stray death gliders. As it was, Joel was beginning to put together tactical briefings. He would get more personal briefings at the meeting before lunch. They finished their breakfasts and transported to the facility.
Harry got an alert on his pad almost as soon as he arrived. He quickly pulled it out of the pocket that he kept it in and unshrunk it to check what had gotten someone to send him a priority alert. It was from Arthur and the Minister of Magic. Wondering what they could possibly be sending him a priority message about opened the reader.
Appearently the Prime Minister wished to speak to him immediately and wasn't taking 'no' for an answer. Harry set his pad's transporter access to voice command and turned to Padma.
"There's a big stink coming up from the Prime Minister's office about wanting to speak to me. He's leaning on the Minister of Magic hard for a meeting and it would be rude to deny him. Keep an eye on the chatter as I'm guessing he really just once a share of the technology and doesn't understand that it won't work for most of his citizens. Only wizards, witches, and squibs." she nodded and pulled her pad and got to work, heading for the control room and her station.
Harry headed for the floo, still dreading that he was going to get spat out at speed. He traveled to the Ministry of Magic and, as he predicted, nearly face planted. Arthur was waiting on him
"Sorry for the priority alert but we didn't know what else to do. The Prime Minister is threatening to take the Ministry of Magic if we didn't put him into contact with you immediately." said Athur. Harry shook his head.
"Not exactly making a good first impression..." responded Harry.
"Kingsly tried to make him see that you are the leader of a small allied nation but he insists that you are a British citizen and that we demand you come meet with him immediately for matters of nation defense and security." Harry rolled his eyes.
"It sounds like what I was afraid of. He wants magic technology and doesn't seem to care how he gets it. He's going to demand that I turn over what he wants or he threatens to go to war." said Harry as he read the Padma's update on his pad.
"I can't say for sure, but he's making that sort of impression." said Arthur.
"Well then, lets see Kingsley and make our way over to his office." said Harry before he saw the Minister of Magic making his way from the lifts.
As Kingsly approached, Harry could see his frown. He wasn't happy with this bullying either. He smiled thinly when he reached the pair.
"Sorry about this Harry. This is a borderline violation of the Treaty of Separation and if he pushes it too much farther we have the right to contact the Queen directly. The problem is that the best way to do that is through the Prime Minister's office." said Kingsly.
"Actually I could swing a couple of hard light projectors for you and her so you can keep in touch with us and the Queen if you would like. I could beam it directly into her audience chamber to address her if you've got the language correct from the treaty..." he left that hanging. Kinglsy smiled a real smile for the first time today.
"Yes. Lets go with that. What do yo need?" Harry was already putting the requests in through his pad.
"Padma will have them ready in a few minutes and the transport will be ready in about 10 minutes. Lets give her a bit, then head over." he responded after a minute. Kinglsy and Arthur nodded.
The next few minutes they were still standing near the main floo for the Ministry of Magic when the confirmation alert sounded that Padma had everything ready. There was another flash and a projector was sitting on the floor in front of Harry. He picked it up, it being mostly an orb with a flat bottom so it could sit on a desk and was a little smaller than a baseball.
"This one is for the Prime Minister's office. He won't be able to activate it on his own unless he's a squib. According to my pad, the Queen's family is a long line of squibs so she should be able to activate hers whenever she feels like it. There's one on your desk, Kingsly. The Queen is aware of what's going on now and has been given a crash course in how to use hers by Padma. She was a little peeved that we had to go around her PM for better treatment. She asked that we wait for her to make the call herself before we even mention her." said Harry with a smile.
"The floo address is 'Prime Minister's Office'. There are cameras watching his office and security personnel on standby watching in case we go for our wands. It's how they found out that Fudge and Thickneese were bespelling the PM from the previous administrations. Be careful of using magic. Ask first. I'll go first. 'Prime Minister's Office!'." Kingsly said as he tossed in a pinch of powder.
The two of them, Harry and Kingsly transited to the Prime Minister's office and found a luxurious office for state meetings designed to not insult visiting ambassadors. It was spacious and Harry couldn't find the cameras at first glance. The Prime Minister had a scowl on his face and it seemed he wanted to seem stern and bully technological might out of the wizards in the room. Harry spoke first.
"First I would like to give you this hard light projector. It will come into play later in this meeting, I think. It projects holographic images that are mostly solid. You won't personally be able to use it without help but it will be a help for gaining future meetings if you can find a wizard or squib to work it. It will project anyone in the room to the designated meeting place." he said. The prime minister frowned deeper at the technology that was designed so that he couldn't use it, so he put it on the desk to later give to Military R&D.
"Mr. Potter. It has come to the attention of this administration that you have come into advanced technology that would be of great help to Great Britain and her allies. We found that there is little about the stargate we could discern that was useful and formally request that you turn over what technologies that you have that could be used by the allied governments to build our own ships in defense of this planet." the Prime Minister stated. "It is in the best interests of your nation to do so."
"My nation is New Lantea. As a citizen of Great Britain I was abused and starved. That did not, in any way, make me beholden to Great Britain or her allies. If you make gaining the technologies the deciding factor in whether or not you storm the Ministry of Magic and take over Magical Britain you will see penalties that you have not yet begun to comprehend. I've read the Treaty of Separation and the penalties would be paid to the royal family and their retainers. That would mean the House of Lords and the Prime Minister's office as well. Magical contracts are not to be taken lightly, especially not old ones. If we violated the treaty on purpose we could loose our powers. If you violate it you could very well loose your life." said Harry. Kingsly laid a calming hand on Harry's arm and he took a deep breath.
"Don't you threaten me! You will turn over those technologies for the good of Great Britain!" the PM raged.
"First, you couldn't even use it. The technology is DNA locked. It is also tamper proof, at least the versions we use. If we gave you some of it you wouldn't be able to use it without having Lantean bloodlines. Demanding it from some sort of sense of entitlement gets you nowhere." responded Harry, much more calmly. Harry jumped as a voice intruded.
"That is quite enough Lord Potter-Black." the orb on the desk flashed and an old woman wearing robes of state appeared.
"We found that we could watch what was going on without fully activating the projector and chose to do so. Lord Potter-Black is correct. If a private citizen has developed technologies that are useful to the administration we are to purchase a share and buy the devices. We do not demand it. We are not Chinese. Tell me, Lord Potter-Black, how old is the stargate?" asked the Queen. Harry pondered for a moment.
"It is several million years old. They were spread across this galaxy long before our ancient ancestors retreated from the engineered plague that nearly wiped us out and it was old technology then." he responded.
"And if our scientists could not find anything useful from it?" she asked.
"Then you are not advanced enough to understand the gate. It means that you don't understand the science behind it. It may be the nearly lost technology of magicals but even magic can be measured. That means that it can be studied and is therefore not really magic to begin with." he stopped, realizing that he was about to get up on his soap box.
"We agree. We realize that your people need things from us. It is not a violation of the Treaty of Separation to trade aid across lines. We trade you what you need and you work with us on the underlying technologies that we may join you among the stars." she proposed. The Prime Minister was seething.
"Don't worry for our minister. He is not up for reelection and wants something to mark his time as an influential leader of the century. The magical civil war and the terrorism that were a symptom therein has nearly ruined his career. So, I ask you, what do you need?" she asked again. He paused before speaking.
"It would be grand if the magical and mundane governments could communicate back and forth in peace. There is very little your society produces that we cannot just buy. We use a gold standard. I would first suggest a gold for pounds sterling exchange for my people. Currently we have to make our way into Magical Britain and exchange through the goblins. But it would be best to be able to negotiate a new lasting and enforceable peace between the two worlds. For that we could be willing to part with some equations that would lead to things like anti-gravity and shield technologies and advanced sensors. It wouldn't give the technologies to you, as you wouldn't understand it yet, but it would drag your knowledge forward." the Queen smiled at his speech.
"New Lantea, as I understand it, is relatively new and yet already mostly independent?" she asked.
"We have replicators so we don't need to grow our own food or ship it in. We still do so anyway to run restaraunts and such. Our population is low, but growing steadily. We've only gained decreed independence from Magical Britain in the last week. We are self governing already using a system that served our ancestors well through millions of years among the stars and we hope that it will serve us just as well. We've agreed to defend this planet from outside threats but ask that allies in control of that stargate keep stupid mistakes in search of advanced technologies to an absolute minimum. Declaring war on the rulers of the known galaxy counts as stupid mistakes." he said. The Prime Minister huffed.
"The Americans made that mistake on their own. We had nothing to do with it." he objected.
"And if it wasn't for New Lantea, you wouldn't even know about it. We were the ones to inform the Minister of Magic and ask him to pass the message." Harry pulled out his pad and typed out a message to Hermione requesting the introductory math he mentioned as a courtesy for her so she would be informed.
"And we thank you. The Prime Minister Cornfoot will work with your Minister of Magic to help you set up the exchange you asked for. We will make sure he facilitates its operation. We would be most displeased if he were to drag his feet in this. The Americans are on thin ice with the allied nations as it is with keeping us all out of the loop already. When can we expect the math tutorial?" she asked. There was a flash of light in Harry's hand and he held up the crystal as Cornfoot frowned.
"It's ready now. We use quantum computers, therefore crystals for information storage. Magical technology is slowly filtering it's way through the magical governments and enclaves across the world as it is but you will have to find a way to read the crystal yourselves." he said. Kingsly and Arthur continued to watch but looked frightened that he had just shot the whole exchange in the foot, however the Queen smiled.
"I'm sure that we can put the best scientific minds Great Britain and her allies has to offer on the problem and find a solution. I doubt that the problem is insurmountable. I have heard of quantum computing but it was deemed many years into our future. This may very well bring us up to speed more quickly than you expected. I doubt we will catch up to millions of years of advancements but I can see many decades of struggles with technology coming to an end and more decades finding technologies that you may be unaware of. Perhaps we could find a way to trade again when that time comes. And the ledger is not balanced as of now to begin with. You ask for nothing when defending this planet from our own mistakes." the Queen said. Harry shook his head.
"A large portion of the wizard population lives here too. It is currently in our best interests to help for now. Atlantis and Olympus do not have the space to take on all the wizards of Earth." he said.
"And when you have the capacity?" she asked.
"Earth is still home. For all of us. That could change if we found a suitable enough, uninhabited planet but it is likely that mundanes and magicals will be partial partners or a long time." he said diplomatically. She chuckled before glaring at her minister.
"And that is how you barter for technology. By asking what you could possibly have to buy it or trade for it. Leave the projector on your desk. It amuses us to be able to speak to you, Minister Cornfoot. You will make sure they get a good exchange rate, I'm sure. We have other engagements. Until next time, Lord Potter-Black and guests." with that there was a flash and her image was gone from the room. Cornfoot growled and glared.
"How dare you go behind my back to the Queen?!" he barked.
"We were trying to prevent a mundane and magical war. You seemed convinced that such a war would give you what you wanted but the Queen set that to rights. War should never have been your first option. As a leader, you should know that Prime Minister Cornfoot." said Kingsly.
"And it is likely that the Queen is still listening." interjected Harry with a small smile.
Cornfoot palled and recoiled from the orb on his desk as if it were a poisonous snake. Looking between it and the the three men in his office he finally pointed to the fireplace and barked a command.
"Get out!"
The trio shrugged with displeased expressions and each flooed out of the man's office without another word, though Harry left the crystal on his desk. Harry shook hand with each of them.
"Kingsly, would you like a specialized pad like Arthur has? It would belong to the Ministry of Magic for use by the minister's office to keep in contact with an ally. Your projector is the same and the Minister of Magic, as long as they are favorable with New Lantea will have a seat with the council to know what's going on in the galaxy." he said. Kingsly nodded.
"A lot of the Wizengamut thought that you would be making demands but instead you've been giving to us and working with us, not against us. The overall consensus is that New Lantea is good for business and the traditionalists love that you're slowly cleaning out the 'undesireables'. As it is, the mundane born are being told to continue to follow their schooling after they join us so that they have a better chance to join a society working along side us that is filling the mundane born economic boost that they used to provide to keep Magical Britain going." he responded. Harry nodded and flooed back to the Potter Facilities.
When he arrived, the currently Earth bound chancellors met him and led him to the chamber. As they all took their seats the hard light projectors flashed and Hermione, Joel, and Edward shimmered into their seats. The meeting had been pushed back to later due to the meeting with the PM.
"Is there any new business." Harry started off. Hermione nodded.
"When you asked for the basic calculations for anti-gravity, shields, and sensors I thought it was odd but I did it anyway. I learned from Padma you were in a meeting with the Prime Minister and the Queen. Please tell me you didn't just give them advanced technology?" she prompted.
"No but I gave them the means to discover it for themselves through setting up a gold to pounds sterling exchange so that we can buy what we want or need from the mundanes. It will be years before they can make those calculations do anything worthwhile for them. They first have to figure out how to read the crystal, then they have to figure out the math and see where it takes them. They wouldn't be able to build a shield, anti-gravity system, or an advanced sensor with that information. They still need to develop it. The Queen dealt fairly, but the Prime Minister started out all but demanding that we turn over all that we have to him or he would declare war on the Wizarding World.
"The Queen put and end to that and proposed a trade and dealt with me as the leader of a separate country or private citizen that made a breakthrough. She said that they would put the best minds the allies have to offer on it but I think reading the crystal is going to be the part where they'll have the hardest time. Once they figure out computing from crystals they can go over the math and see what they can make of it. It will be months before they manage to crack the crystal, even though there's not much on it. Then it will months to a year before they understand the underlying principles the math outlines. From there they will develop their own way to create the technologies without the help of trininum alloys and naquada that our ancestors had to help them on their way. They will probably find a way to procure both through the stargate program. They already had theories telling them that the technology was within their grasp." the counsel nodded at the explanation. Padma was next.
"There was a unilateral stand down order given to the British military pertaining to the operation to raid the Ministry of Magic. The stand down was grudging from the PM's office but it was given. The allies have since stood down their own raiding forces once they realized that the technologies and healing techniques we have wouldn't work for them to begin with so forcing the wizards into mainstream society in such a way wouldn't work well. It would basically make for witch hunts again. Some of the governments are coming together to find a scaled plan to reveal the magical world with as little bad press and publicity as possible. The best was a scaled plan that took 50-70 years.
"On the Goauld front, Apophis has lost his patrolling fleet that was snapping up territories from his distracted opponents. He's been forced back to his original territories while the victors turned on each other to fight it out over who would continue to hold the reconquered territories. We figured it would happen so we were not surprised. Every one of the System Lords have laid down new construction for their fleets but they actually cost them a lot more than it costs us with nannite mining and construction. In 2 days we'll have 45 total Destiny class ships to do with as we please. Sorry if I'm stealing a little of your thunder, Joel, but intelligence gets to name them." she said.
"I'll use it to segway into fleet logistics. Other than filling up on biomass and the construction buffers so that we don't have to come home every time we launch drones, we are good on defense fleets. A new site would call for another reshuffling of resources. The carriers are all with the Aether when she's crewed.. Each of those little fighters can fire from a single rapid fire quantum/magic cannon with half the power of a Ha'tak cannon behind them. Their fire is much more focussed though and they fly in squads. I know that the High Chancellor designed them and, as such, he did a good job. They have single sheieds so they can survive. They're powered by a mini potentia each and are faster and more manuverable than death gliders. If I didn't know better they were designed for fighting something else..." Joel trailed off.
"They were. The carriers are my answer to the Wraith hive ship and its complement of cruisers and darts." Harry answered the unasked question. Joel nodded and continued.
"I looked at the Aurora's specs in the library and realized that there were two different ones. We are flying an upgrade, it seems. The hospital ship with its ability to hold so many people comfortably is also new. I wouldn't recommend fighting an offensive war yet.
"The Pallas doesn't have drones at all but does have ship to ship weapons but no point defense. We rightly guessed that the fighters were supposed the take care of that for them so there is always one coordinator controlling the last 4000 fighters in defense of the ship. The other 36,000 go on the attack. Each of the manned ships is powered by a potentia. There are no life boats or things like that. May I ask why?" Joel wanted to clear this up. Harry sighed.
"When on the attack I expect that there isn't much that can stand up to any one of the ships we have in the fleet. The next build is all for the patrol/combat fleet by the way. If you run into something that can rip you a new one I expect you to run for it. By no means stay and fight. Atlantis and Olympus are both in orbit right now instead of grounded. Both of them can also run for Earth in either case if the odds of winning the standing fight are against them. Its only at Earth that the stand and fight option exists and, even then, I expect the captains to activate the automatic combat option if the battle looks lost and transport themselves and their crew to the surface." Harry said. Joel smiled.
"That's what most of the captains thought you'd say. The detractors pointed out your own history as a case study of the stay and fight to the last mentality they thought you'd wanted." he said, relieved. Harry shook his head.
"There was no where to go. That and the enemies we have would either enslave us or eat us, depending on which galaxy we were in, if we used life boats. I have every intention of going back to the Pegasis galaxy and cleaning up our technology that was left behind. I know that the Wraith will be around but they were our ancestor's mistake and they feed on life force. The best I can figure is that the humans of that galaxy are used as farm animals by the Wraith and have been for 10,000 years. We really can't afford the Wraith getting their hands on an intergalactic hyperdrive. We left at least one of those lying around over there." he said gravely.
"Earth would be a buffet to them then. Yeah. A much as I don't like the thought of starting another war when this one hasn't even started, we really need to clean up after our ancestors at the very least." said Hermione.
"Well the Destinys are good cannon fodder and are worth like 5 Ha'tak. With 15 of them per defensive position we can effectively hold off an assault from 75 Ha'tak with the Destinys alone. The manned ships are worth more each with their dual shields and the fact that the Ha'tak in the simulations are much stronger than the ones we'd actually have to face. I suppose that's by design?" Harry nodded. "We don't have much more to talk about as far as the Navy is concerned. We'll have more next week when we have to get the Marines sorted."
"That leads in to education. We have schools set up already and the kids aren't happy with you Harry. They realize that they will have to go and that it is in their best interest but you've added Lantean sciences on top of magical studies. We have a few squib children and they will go through runes, potions, and arithmancy anyway as well as sciences. There are only a few school age children, only a couple of hundred anyway but I have to take a moment to thank Ms. Patill. She did such a good job setting things up for me to take over that it's been smooth sailing so far." Parvati smiled and nodded.
"We currently have research and development working on a virtual reality training module that simulates fighting on the ground and not just stomping through your woods, Harry. The modules will be ready, regretfully, after the first set of Marines finish their rushed training. We also have field medics. They are also being rushed in. We also switched the Aurors from rifles to pistols for their training and they were happy they weren't going into the warfare training bracket. Now the training is separate. " said Edward. Alice sat forward.
"Law is taking a step in fixing a British oversight. Love potions are illegal in every country except Britain and we would like the councils' vote on whether or not to make it so for us as well. In most countries they are considered 'liquid rape' and banned outright." Alice waited for the counsel to look around at each other before everyone focused on Harry, so he spoke up.
"I find myself liking the description of 'liquid rape' so we'll do that. Illegal except for married couples trying to reinvigorate their love lives." he said. Alice was shocked.
"I hadn't thought of that as a use for love potions but I agree. Not everyone has allure to keep their husbands interested. I'm sending the modified law over to you pad to approve. Now, in the interest of the thief caught in Atlantis we were thinking of holding him for as long as it takes to have Aurors on duty then trying him. I'll get a bill of rights, stolen from the mundanes, on your desk by the end of the day for approval. Almost everyone seems to learned from the one thief that they will be caught and the sensor data will be used against you. I would, however, suggest that the Aurors carry some sort of scanner to quickly identify potions and cursed items. I'm pushing the request for hardware to research and development now. That is all I have." said Alice. Harry nodded. Hermione sat forward in her seat on Atlantis.
"Research and development is getting a lot of requests lately for hardware. We're managing to fill the need so far but it's tough going. The younger people think that it will be boring to join and the older people want something quieter. It's the real intellectuals that join the division. We need more exposure as a valid job posting. As for the Auror scanners, on of the researchers is a Star Trek fan and is currently working on tricorders. These are augmented by ancient technology so can pick up magic and, if it is in the master library, ingredients and potions. They also do well as a medical scanner. It would be perfect for a field medical kit as well. There are a couple, as in two, potions masters working on potions around the clock and the medical corps is helping. We almost have a full stock now since we've been working a week non-stop."
"This is a good point to step in as Medical Chancellor. We emigrants brought the better part of our Outcast Hospital supplies with us when we came. Having to take care of ourselves, most of us are decent brewers. The greenhouses of Atlantis and Olympus will take time to start producing a decent amount of ingredients. Then there's the animal parts. There are Outcast organizations all over Europe that would welcome the business we would bring them to get the parts for us. I bring this up because of medical potions. Also, there are life extending treatments we can go through that will see all of us seeing our 300th year or more. Harry is very powerful so his magic would see him to 150 easily and he could see 300 with the treatments. The younger you are the better it works.
"The bio-bed technology makes a decent healer in a few weeks instead of years. Master healer is still something that takes years to train. The medi witches and wizards have been reclassified as nurses while healers and master healers keep their distinctions. There is a master healer in charge of the medical staff of each Asclepius class ship and one each for Atlantis and Olympus. Back to life extension, I would like to see all squibs get the treatments. It would extend their lives by as good as 40 years. Most of them would love to see their hundreds." said Antonia.
"Personnel is next and with the additions to the facility we are going to be able to house everyone that comes this way unless we get multiple tens of thousands again in one go. Unless something happens to them, we should be getting some 3600 Chinese immigrants in two days. That will bring our population to above 40,000. There are other enclaves waffling about it as they know there will be a lot of work to do if they join up but few of them can say that their happy about their situations. I plan to snatch as many of the outcasts as we can get out from under oppressive ministries. All told...another 80,000 peoples worth to take in if we can get them. That number includes people we would pick up from China, the Middle East, Europe...we're talking about a worldwide migration. We'll get some of the types we could really do without this way as well but we are pretty much building from scratch and will be a melting pot of emigrants when we're done with the all call. At best we will populate the cities and encourage everyone to have an heir and a spare.
"There are some people that are happy with how things are going talking about having a Harry Potter Day. It would be on Harry's birthday every year and a big celebration." she stopped to see the look on Harry's face. "Harry, it's not so bad. It will be one of our first holidays. It will be a working holiday too as you were working when your birthday came around this year anyway. Venders are talking about sales and discounts for that day and you get to eat wherever you want free then so don't knock it. It's for something you've actually done."
He nodded. At least there was a sense of accomplishment this time. This was nothing like the whole 'boy-who-lived' thing. He'd earned the 'man-who-conquered' appellation as well. And he was using it to help clean up Magical Britain. He took a deep breath and set aside the knee-jerk reaction to reject recognition. The people who programmed it into him weren't worth his suffering.
"Okay. Do what you need to. Do I have to sign off on it?" he asked. She shook her head.
"No. The codes you've assigned to me allow me to work the official calendar. There a couple on the calendar that we can't remove that factor into the history that we should probably observe and haven't for thousands of years. They are tied to a calendar based on a planet in another galaxy. It's probably best to see about the ones that we'll keep and the ones that we won't and have you modify the calendar to fit." she said.
"There are some industrious people that we took in, in some cases. Inventions as far as spells and potions that people want patented and sold or rented out...I figured that that was something for the legal department so I sent it there. That's all I have." Alice flinched and reached for her pad.
"I know I have to get better at using this thing. Yes. I see it now. It looks like I get to set up a new office. I will send the space and funds allotment request to you when I've had time to read through all of this." said Alice.
"If you're having trouble learning to use the pads talk to Parvati. Parvati, I hate to ask this, but could you write up some sort off manual or should I write a tutorial program that runs on every pad the first time it's booted up and locks for the user?"
"It's probably best to make a program. You have the most experience." she said. Hermione perked up.
"You can program the computers? We are trying to teach ourselves how but it's slow going. It's basically learning another language the hard way. Can you write a program to teach us that too? Or maybe a book on the programming language our ancestors used? You're usually helping out wherever else you can be a help but we're stuck using presets for the virtual reality that are totally alien to what our Marines are likely to face. We would like to get something that works better but we can't program it yet." she said.
"Alright. I can do that. We should set these meetings for once a week from now on. Remember to CC each other when there's something that even remotely deals with that section and I get them no matter what. Keeping in the know takes a lot of time but so does programming. I'll start on the book after the tutorial. Oh! Better yet, I'll send send a few books now. I have a few in my memory." he grabbed his pad and a file popped onto it which he sent to Hermione. "Your people will still have to learn it the hard way but it will be much easier not having to guess what each string of code means."
"Do we have any other business?" there were no takers. "Then I guess we're done here."
The people actually on Earth filed out of the room and Harry made strait for his workstation to start on the tutorial. It was the best way he could help out right now and he knew just what to do. He'd be programming most of the rest of the day, and he would still cheat quite a bit by using old tutorials and modifying them, but he would be done by the end of the day.