Chapter Thirty-Eight: Prototype


Friday, 30th June 2000.

Jack O'Neill sat in his usual position at the long conference table. General Hammond was to his right at the head of the table, with Major Coburn on his left. Which left the opposite side of the table open for the now-entering members of SG-15, looking a lot neater than when they had first returned from off-world an hour prior looking half-drowned and caked in mud.

"Take a seat, people," Hammond said, indicating the empty chairs, which the marines quickly filled.

As one of the newest additions to the SGC, having been recruited in late November, Riley and her team were still coming to terms with the realities of the Stargate Program. They had only been cleared for off-world missions for a month now. But Jack found that he very much enjoyed their presence.

Riley was amiable enough, and she clearly had the respect of her entire team. But most importantly, they had a pair of traits he did not often see in the SGC's marine squads; patience and curiosity. They would carefully consider a situation before committing to attack or retreat. Some of the other marine squads seemed a little too eager to bag themselves some Goa'uld and Jaffa kill to brag about.

"I've asked Major Coburn to join us, as SG-2 initially surveyed P3X-888 which led to your follow-up mission." Hammond continued, indicating the Major. "When you returned, you indicated you believed that this was warranted?"

Jack noticed the barest hint of a reprimand directed at Coburn for having pulled his team out after only two hours on the planet, having quickly flagged it as not of value and leaving it to someone else to further assess.

"Yes sir, General. While exploring a bit further off the beaten path in the area Major Coburn indicated for further exploration, Thomas and Grady discovered a small dried lakebed. In it were the remains of several creatures they identified as Goa'uld symbiotes. Given the complete lack of any sign of advanced civilization on the planet itself, this leads us to assume that 888 may very well be the original homeworld of the Goa'uld themselves."

"Frasier cleared you all?" Jack asked, knowing the dangers that the parasites posed to the planet as a whole. Having already lost several friends to the creatures. And how the buggers liked to pretend to be their hosts in order to trick others.

"Yes sir. We have some follow-up scans to go through after, but we've all been cleared for debriefing." Riley replied.

Jack turned to Hammond, who nodded and faced SG-15. "You also mentioned an incident."

"Yes, sir. On our way back to the gate, Corporal Johnson noticed a group of individuals hiding in the brush near the pathway. I was able to coax them out, though we were unable to understand anything they said. Though they did indicate that they were able to understand us." Riley summarised, turning to her second-in-command and gesturing silently for her to continue.

Sergeant Mawes nodded. "Phonetically, the language bore similarities to some older Earth languages, but none I am personally familiar with. I unfortunately lack Doctor Jackson's skill in linguistics. Their clothing bore definite signs of belonging to an advanced race. And they carried powerful energy weapons, unlike any design we've come across. I attempted a rough sketch before we began." Mawes said, handing forward a rough drawing of what looked to Jack like a cross between a long-barrelled revolver like a .44 magnum built into the more squarish body of a more modern automatic pistol.

"They were pretty poorly camouflaged though, being orange." Corporal Johnson added.

"It was how the corporal detected their presence," Riley noted as Hammond passed the image over to Jack for a closer look.

His initial thoughts solidified as he saw the image clearly, front on now. Though smaller details became more obvious. Where there might normally sit a muzzle brake, there was instead a squarish elongated nozzle with crystal emitters in the tip. And there was a note labelling the section that would normally be the cylinder and recoil shield indicating this part had been glowing.

"They were effective?" He asked, passing the drawing to Coburn.

"Very. Dropped an Unas with a single hit." Riley said, hesitating for a moment.

"Unas?"

"Yes sir. Loads of them."

"I suppose that it would make sense for the Unas and Goa'uld to share a homeworld," Hammond noted. " If our current assessment that the Unas were the first hosts to the Goa'uld is correct. How else would they have left the waterways and made it off-world, to begin with?"

"That was my assessment, sir," Riley noted.

"We saw no indications of any Unas activity in particular on our initial survey, sir," Coburn said, returning the drawing to Mawes. "Just signs of pathways through the brush that showed signs of occasional usage. Indicating some form of life approaching the large clearing around the Stargate from time to time."

"Thank you, Major. I am aware." Hammond said. "There is more?"

Riley glanced down the table to where Arthurs and Thomas seemed bothered by something. "Unfortunately. We were trying to communicate with this advanced group when the Unas attacked. In attempting to defend ourselves, there was some friendly fire."

"One of that group was hit by MP5 fire. They dropped and the rest seemed immediately became agitated." Arthurs offered.

"I ordered Thomas to provide aid, but when we approached, they fired some sort of kinetic repulsion field at us, knocking us down," Riley added. "Though I've no idea what kind of technology they might have used to achieve it. There was no sign of a ribbon device or anything of that sort."

"And then they vanished into thin air," Johnson said as if he still didn't believe it himself.

"In what way?"

"I've never seen anything like it, sir. They didn't shimmer away like the descriptions of cloaking devices. Just…"

Johnson held his hands up, above the table about a foot apart before he rapidly brought them together, rotating both hands in opposite directions, with a verbalized cracking sound. "Crack, gone. One after the other."

Jack glanced at the General, his eyebrow raised in question.

"By the time we regained our footing and made it to where they fell, the Unas were in full retreat. Thomas flagged the site so that we can inspect it further once we return, though I would advise a much larger security contingent for any such efforts. I would have investigated further there and then, but I felt it was necessary to get back here and report. Hopefully, whoever those folks were, they don't hold a grudge."

"Not exactly ideal first contact, sir," Jack said, trying to gauge Hammond's reaction to the news that there was another advanced group out in the galaxy, and that they'd made a pretty poor first impression by shooting one of them.

"For the moment, we'll just have to wait and see," Hammond said. "You don't think that this advanced group is native to the planet?"

"No, sir. Judging by the state of them, they were visiting, just like we were." Riley said.

"Very well, Lieutenant. I want your full report on my desk tomorrow morning. And I want any and all information your team can recall collated and provided to Doctor Jackson as soon as possible. Perhaps he can begin looking into who these people might be. I'd rather we not be caught out like this again. Major Coburn, I want you to prepare a team to further investigate 888. Make sure there is sufficient security detail to protect against the Unas. Dismissed." Hammond said, bringing the debrief to a close.

Jack sighed as the man headed for his office and the other personnel filtered out. The last thing they needed right now was another enemy. Especially not an advanced one. Not after the whole Eurondan mess.

ϟ

Saturday, 1st July 2000.

Jack stood quietly as he watched Harry lying on the couch, his breathing shallow but steady. The boy's eyes were closed but he knew that he was aware of Jack's presence nearby.

He took a step closer. "Harry?"

"Jack. How can I help you?" The boy said, not opening his eyes.

"I wanted to apologize." This seemed to get Harry's attention and he turned towards Jack. "I swear if I knew those things were there I wouldn't have arranged the training there. I picked that planet because the database listed it as uninhabited and lacking in any useful minerals that might mean someone else had a presence there."

"It's fine," Harry said, gently adjusting his position and groaning slightly as he bent his still-sore chest. "We know for a fact the forest around here is still a bit too dangerous to go randomly walking around in. And you were there for three days setting things up and never saw them. Obviously, they are either very nomadic, or they like to hide. As for the database, we don't really know the last time that information was updated. It could very well have been that way millions of years ago. I'm not angry at you. Just as I hold no ill will towards the poor grunt that shot me. They weren't trying to hit me."

Jack listened to the long explanation and couldn't help but smile at the end of it all. "How does one so young seem so wise." He asked.

"You've read my file. I've 'seen some shit'." Harry replied, playing up the last sentence like in the movies they had been watching.

"You and me both. But nothing quite like them before."

"Eh, close enough. Honestly, after dragons and basilisks, you kind of get used to it after a while. Once, I was nearly drowned by a pile of dead bodies. And my luck tends to swing dramatically from one end of the scale to the other at the whim of some unseen force." His eyes drifted closed again as he spoke and his hands swayed back and forth as he made his point. "One day everything is going swimmingly. I make the Quidditch team in my first year without even trying. The next, I'm trying to help a friend and luck bones me big time by getting me caught and losing us hundreds of points so that everyone hates me again. Or I build an incredible city with a bunch of great friends, and a few days later I'm getting shot by accident. See what I mean?"

"Can't say I like the fact that you know things like that. Youth is a treasure we can never get back." Jack said solemnly.

"Not your fault. Not mine, nor anyone else around here. Blaming others or dwelling on it doesn't change the fact that it happened. And it sure doesn't make me feel any better. But if you really want to do something as penance, help Hermione. I'm sure she's fussing over how to make our gear bulletproof this time around. I can't stand up for too long at the moment so I'm no help."

"You know, it's kind of maddening that you're so okay with everything. I'd be pissed."

Harry opened his eyes again and trained them on Jack. "You are a lifelong soldier. It's how you think. I'm a lifelong martyr. I'm used to it. Er, don't tell Hermione I said that." He added, looking somewhat frightened by the idea of her learning he'd thought that, much less said it aloud.

"Deal. And we'll stick to on-site training for the foreseeable future."

"Sounds like a plan," Harry replied and he settled back into the couch once more. "I know Hermione and Padma were coming along nicely with the new training room."

Jack decided to let him rest and take the boy's advice. He'd try and help Hermione in whatever way he could for the time being. Hopefully, that way he might one day earn her forgiveness as well.

ϟ

Monday, 3rd July 2000.

Charlie Weasley eased back in his chair and prepared to take another sip of his mead, having finished a long hard day of dealing with a colicky three-week-old Ironbelly that just refused to eat.

As he leant back, four shimmering white lights appeared before him and within a moment they formed into people before his very eyes. Disbelief was his first reaction, immediately followed by instant regret as he realized the drink he'd been about to take was now pouring down the front of his shirt.

"Bugger." He said, lowering the mug and grabbing his wand off the table, waving it over his chest before glancing up at the four smiling figures now watching him. "Er, hi."

"Hello, Charlie." One of the two girls said, looking at him with far too wide a smile.

"Hello. Can I help you?" He asked, still not sure exactly who these people were.

"Right, introductions. I'm Parvati Patil, this is Luna Lovegood and these two are Richard and Natalie Granger."

"Granger, as in Hermione's…"

"Parents, yes," Natalie said with a kind smile. "How do you do?"

"I was better a minute ago." He said, looking at his now half-empty mug with regret. "What can I do you for?"

"We were hoping you could help us with something," Luna asked, stepping forwards and leaning on the table. "We're looking for some dragon parts."

Charlie's look darkened immediately. "You what? This is a dragon reserve. We care for them, we don't farm them."

"I think you misunderstand us. We're not here to poach them, lad." Richard said, defensively.

"Hermione said that most breeds of dragon shed at least once every two years." Natalie said, "And that with the sheer number that you take care of, you surely need to offload that excess skin and scale."

Charlie watched them all cautiously for a moment. If they were who they claimed to be, then Richard and Natalie would be muggles. They were pretty well informed for muggles, but Ron had explained this Hermione's penchant for research. And he was aware of who the Lovegoods were as well, having lived nearby most of his life. Though he'd never met the daughter.

"What for?" He asked.

"Harry was shot on a little excursion two days ago," Luna explained. "By a bullet. He's going to be fine." She added as Charlie shot up at hearing that someone his mother claimed as an honorary son had been attacked. "We just want to improve our outfits for such excursions. Hermione believes that either dragon scale or dragonskin might be what we're looking for."

"We only need a little each from as many different species as you can spare," Parvati added. "We're willing to pay whatever your costs are, plus a little extra for the service."

"You know you can get it easily enough on the open market. Skin and scale are not non-tradable goods." Charlie said.

"True enough, but we have to make do with what they have in stock." Natalie clarified. "You have access to just about every breed of dragon in the world. We only need a small piece of each. Fifteen to twenty scales and a patch of skin about yay big." She said, holding up her hands and making a square where the tips of her fingers and thumb were about four inches apart.

Charlie eyed them warily. While he knew of these people, he did not actually know any of them personally. And poachers had been getting rather clever of late. "I agree, in principle. But before we make any arrangement, I'm going to need something."

"Anything you need," Richard said confidently, as though there was nothing Charlie could ask for that they could not procure.

"It will take a couple of days to check our stores, and see whether we even have what you want. I'll send an owl…"

"Send it to Augusta Longbottom," Parvati said, further confusing Charlie who paused for a moment.

"Right. I'll send it to the Longbottoms. When you come back, I want Harry and Hermione to accompany you. Deal?"

Charlie figured if they were who they claimed to be, that would be no issue at all. But he knew that the pair were off being interplanetary explorers, so if these were run-of-the-mill poachers, they'd have a hard time faking those two for an exchange. And the reserve would be well ready to punish them if they failed to prove their claims.

"Of course. They'd have come today, but Harry's still nursing a nasty bruise." Luna said confidently.

"One more thing," Richard said, as the three women prepared to leave, and Charlie gave a nod. "When we come back, can we see some of the dragons?"

The excited look on his face and the hearty laugh his supposed wife gave him left Charlie feeling completely out of sorts now. Nothing about this little chat had been what he had expected and he found himself nodding. The man roughly shook his stunned hand and without further ado, the four disappeared in much the same way they had arrived.

Charlie looked about himself, rather glad that the mess was empty of other folks so they hadn't seen him make a fool of himself. Shaking his head from the crazy situation, he leaned forwards and grabbed his mug and took another long swig of the sweet drink, hoping that maybe it would help clear his mind once more.

ϟ

Thursday, 6th July 2000.

Harry sat gingerly in the second chair of the navi as Richard powered up the small craft. He'd not seen the man so eager for anything that he could recall, but the notification they'd found on the computer this morning informing them the new vessel was complete had the elder Granger running about like a kid on Christmas.

"Ready?" The man asked, swinging in his chair to look back at Neville, who nodded.

Harry nodded as well, leaning back in his chair. While the wound had been completely sealed and the bruise salve had removed all visible evidence of his recent shooting, his chest still hurt if he leant forward too far or too fast.

Richard adjusted the controls and the craft took to the air, swivelling in place to aim for the mountain exit. It shot forward and Harry was very thankful for the inertial dampening the vessel employed, otherwise, that would have really hurt.

They were soon on course for the large white field in the sky, and Neville piped in from the back. "How come the field is still there if it's finished integrating?"

Harry glanced back at his friend and answered for Richard, who was focusing on flying them towards it. "That field is what is keeping it in the air. Even the navis have to be activated before they can hover under their own power. Right now, there is a shiny new ship under there, but if we turned off the field before turning the ship on, it would plummet."

"Right. I didn't think of that. I'm so used to stuff just being there once the integration finishes." Neville said, nursing a large box on his lap.

"Don't worry, life support at least should be running at its base setting by the time we get on board," Richard said. Slowing as they approached the massive field.

"Should be?"

"It'll be fine, Nev. That's why we wore these." Harry said, pointing out the suits that Hermione and Padma had designed so long ago. With the modified bubblehead charm woven into them, they would function as spacesuits, protecting them and providing oxygen as needed while they got the mystery ship up and going, as Richard still hadn't told anyone which of the many designs he had created. And he had somehow figured out a way to obscure the information in the system as well. Harry was sure he could override the lock if he wanted, but he didn't have many opportunities for nice surprises.

Harry could feel the power of the field as they came to rest parallel to it, even through the walls of the craft and he was impressed at it all. "Can you fly through that?"

"No. This is where we put this puppy on hover and beam over. You got those?" He asked Neville before helping Harry out of his chair.

"Yeah, I'm good," Neville confirmed, tapping the array on his chest that initiated the bubblehead charm.

A visible distortion flared up around his head and shoulders, dipping into the suit itself and Harry nodded in approval. He'd never actually seen the feature at work. He tapped his own and Richard's suits, activating their own charms before Richard entered the necessary commands into his remote. The three of them were surrounded by the beam energy and a moment later they were in a dark room.

Harry quickly fired off a detached lumos spell, illuminating the space. He was stunned by what he saw. The room was massive, easily able to fit one of the navi inside, with a dozen consoles and chairs placed about the area. A single chair stood in the centre on a slightly raised platform, less than a step really, looking a little like a more comfortable version of the Chair platform they'd used before.

"Just how big is this thing, Richard?" Harry asked, walking forwards and looking at the powerless controls.

"You'll see." The man replied, walking to the large central chair and waving Harry over. "Take a seat."

"Why?"

"Because the ship requires initialization by the High Councilor," Richard said with a smirk.

"What? Why?" Harry asked, not finding this as amusing as Richard seemed to be.

"Because it is funnier that way." The man said, reminding Harry a great deal of his daughter when she was in a cheeky mood.

"I hate you all," Harry said as he took a seat, once more taking care to do so slowly so as not to put pressure on his chest. "Now what?"

"Don't we need to install these first?" Neville asked, moving up next to them and indicating the box in his arms.

"No, actually," Richard replied, folding out a control panel from the arm of the chair Harry was sitting in. "Those are supplementary power for specific systems that can be used to boost other systems or run the whole ship in the event of a powerplant failure. But first, Harry needs to use his command code to fire up the main ion drive."

Richard took a step back and simply smiled at Harry, now sitting in what he realized was the central command chair of the vessel. He gave Richard a look that promised retribution, before he held out his hand, pressing it flat against the panel of the screen. He closed his eyes and focused on sending his command instruction, really a coded memory of his own choosing, into the system.

Harry had chosen the same feeling he first used to conjure a patronus. The idea of his parents that had filled him with joy enough to produce the powerful presence that was Prongs. And not something anyone else could ever fake.

He immediately felt the response, and it felt reminiscent of using the Chair, but also had its own unique flavour. He could feel the systems of the ship sitting there, unpowered. One, in particular, seemed to be more obvious than the others, and it was awaiting activation. He focused on it and his eyes snapped open as the three heard the ship hum to life beneath their feet.

"Wow," Neville said, looking about as lights began coming on all over the bridge, giving a much greater sense of just how large it really was.

The consoles began to power on and Harry realized that they were looking at a large opaque half-dome before them.

"Excellent. Nice to see that worked. First time making one of those powerplants. There may have been the teeniest little chance of the whole thing blowing up." Richard said, moving to the nearest console and entering a few commands. Completely oblivious to the wide-eyed stares he was receiving from his two companions.

Harry heard another whine begin to mount somewhere in the rear of the ship and after a moment he felt the floor shift slightly.

"My bad. Inertial systems first, Dick." Richard said to himself, entering a new string on the console and Harry felt the gravity shift from Verda's slightly angular pull to a more comfortable level he knew was now tethering them all to the ship itself. "And life support is already operating at fifty percent and rising. We can almost lose the suits."

Richard smiled as he turned back to face the two confused boys. "So what exactly are these for?" Neville asked, indicating the box again as Harry slowly stood from the chair.

"Come with me and I'll show you." Richard began to walk towards the door at the rear of the room before he seemed to decide against it. "Actually."

With a few taps on his remote, the three were beamed away from the bridge to a new room. It was trapezoid-shaped with three equally sized vertical walls facing the one they were now in front of, which had a single door leading out. Harry could easily see the sockets that were waiting for Neville's luggage to be installed.

"If the ship runs off this ion powerplant, what do we need three potentia for?" Harry asked as he helped Neville open the box and pull out the crystalline power source they could now easily grow in a small out-of-phase facility buried in the depths of the mountain range near Aedis. He passed one to Richard, and took another for himself, leaving the three of them standing there each holding a potentia.

"Redundancy. This is the exact centre of the ship, the most protected part of the entire structure. Because these will primarily provide redundant backup power for a single system each under normal operations. Life support, shields and weapons."

Richard stepped over to the right socket and inserted his potentia which instantly pulled into the socket and began to glow.

"Is that remotely necessary?" Neville asked, copying Richard's actions on the left socket, leaving Harry to approach the middle one.

"No. The design would be fully functional with only the main powerplant. But these systems are partially segregated from the rest in order to ensure continuous function. They are directly tied into their socket here first, before also running into the main conduits. Power cannot be removed from those systems unless the powerplant is disabled and these three potentia are removed. That and my reading suggests that the big gun I added to the design works better with a direct power source." Richard finished with a waggle of his eyebrows.

Harry rolled his eyes at the man's blatant enthusiasm. He could easily see where Hermione got her excitability from, not that he truly minded.

"Can other systems draw power from here?" Neville asked, looking at the diagnostic panel above his socket.

"Yes, if necessary. There are secondary and tertiary conduits running separately over the entire ship in both directions. Every single corridor has redundant, cross-connected conduits running through them. That's why they are pentagonal." He began to use his hands to indicate the shape. "Flat floor, then the lower angled sections cover the control circuitry, for easy access. And the sharper upper-angled sections are where the power conduits themselves run. It should be virtually impossible for us to lose power, to any system. So, who wants to be the one to take her out?"

"I'm sorry?" Harry asked, looking confused after that info dump.

"Oh come on. Haven't either of you ever wanted to fly a giant spaceship for the first time?"

"I can't really say it's been a childhood dream," Neville replied, looking at Harry with a smile. Having grown up in a traditional pureblooded magical family, Neville had really only learned of space travel in the past year.

"Be my guest," Harry said, noting the naked glee on Richard's face and pointing to the doorway.

"Fine, suit yourselves." Richard walked through the doorway, the others following behind as he peeled to the right. As they went, Harry noted that the design was slightly reminiscent of the work Luna had done with Aedis and Aether, but still quite different in its own right. First and foremost the wide pentagonal corridors Richard had just explained.

It sounded odd when he had described it, but now walking down the wide spaces, it made perfect sense to use the 'wasted' space the angular nature of the walls made to conceal all the wiring and circuits. The soft rounded edges where the faces of the surfaces came together made the entire thing look incredibly sleek. And they were plenty roomy. Harry estimated they were at least three to four metres across at floor level.

"How much did you tweak the design?" He asked as they followed Richard as he wound back and forth through a few corridors and up three different ramps as they trekked back to the bridge.

"Not much. Added the redundancy. Multiple shield and cloak emitters, not to mention the beaming tech. This design was already pretty tough, but I beefed up the density and thickness of the armour and got rid of the excess parts we definitely don't need. Like the plant that manufactures ferrum. Believe it or not, the original design was even bigger than this ended up. And I added a compact version of that satellite beam weapon. It runs through the lower portion of the ship from slightly aft of the potentia room all the way to the bow, with the emitter at the front. Power basically channels straight out of the weapon potentia directly into that weapon."

"Hermione wasn't kidding when she suspected you'd gone a little overboard then."

"As you said, we will be alone against any enemy for now. I wanted to ensure we could take anything they could throw at us, and retaliate decisively." Richard said, turning to face them as they approached another doorway. "I do not want to be responsible for losing any of you because I cut corners on this thing."

Harry nodded, knowing exactly what the man meant. "I can't argue with that."

Richard activated the door and Harry noted they were back at the bridge again. He tried to estimate the size of the ship from how far they had walked and figured that, while it was indeed big, it probably wasn't quite as massive as he had first feared.

"Oh, right. We're probably going to want to bring the navi aboard. We'll need it." Richard said, turning to Neville.

"Sure, I'll fly it into the hangar. I assume there is one, given the size of this thing?"

"Yes. You should be facing the primary ventral bay when you get back on board. Should be hard to miss." Richard confirmed, moving to a console on the wall. "Ready?"

Neville nodded and disappeared in a flash of light. Richard moved over to the edge of the big dome and Harry followed, unsure of what he planned to do now. The man turned to him and smiled.

"Shall you do the honours? I definitely can't do this."

"What honours?" Harry asked.

Richard pointed to a small array of gold filigree that Harry now saw ran all around the dome. This dome was meant to be transparent, and Richard had encoded the beam engine to inlay magically-treated runes throughout the design. But as good as he was at using Alteran tech, he was still a muggle and could not activate this array. As it was not designed to be muggle-accessible like the ones in the suits.

"Alright," Harry replied as Richard walked away.

He pulled his wand from his sleeve and focused on charging and activating the array. When it finally triggered, he was momentarily blinded by the field still holding the craft aloft.

"Aedis, this is Vir. We're running under our own power. Please deactivate the field." Richard said, now sitting in the central chair.

"Are you sure?" Natalie's voice came over the radio.

"Yes, dear. Everything is running properly. And Neville needs somewhere to park." He replied with a smile.

"You're weird sometimes, honey. Deactivating field." Natalie replied.

Harry waited for the field to drop before he turned back to face the slowly widening see-through portion of the dome and his breath caught in his throat. He had clearly not been paying enough attention to the path they'd taken from the potentia room back to the bridge. They were not, as he had thought, standing at the front of the ship. In fact, the ship continued quite some way beyond the bridge. And it was massive.

He turned to look at Richard who simply smiled happily, leaning forward as he looked out on his creation for the first time.

"Excellent. Neville, are you on board?" He asked, keying the chair's controls again.

"Er, yeah." Neville's voice came in reply. "Um, Richard… which way is the bridge from here?"

"Never mind, I'll beam you back to the bridge and we can head out." The eager man said, triggering the system in question.

Neville appeared by Harry's side, also looking gobsmacked at the size of this thing as Richard activated the engines and the ship began to move through the air, heading rapidly for space.

"It's huge. I think we're roughly in the middle of the thing." Neville explained, and Harry realized that the other boy had just seen it from the outside.

"Richard, what could we possibly need a ship this big for?" He asked, turning to face the elder Granger.

"You never know." He said in reply, giving them a big smirk as the ship picked up speed and rapidly left the atmosphere.

Harry let the matter drop as he enjoyed his first transition into actual space, having only flown the navis in the atmosphere of a couple of worlds until now, never actually breaking through that imaginary line that delineated the edge of space. It was quite the sight watching the blue sky slowly darken and give way to the black expanse full of bright stars. It was a few minutes of quietly enjoying things before he realized that Richard had set a course for something that was rapidly approaching.

"Er, Richard. What is that?" Neville asked, pointing to the fast-approaching band.

"The asteroid belt. Where we got all the molecules we used to make Aedis and Vir."

"Vir?"

"Oh, it's what I named the ship. It means strength or force."

Harry rubbed at the slight headache forming at Richard's unabashed glee at all of this. "Is there anything subtle about this thing?" Harry asked, understanding how his girlfriend could become frustrated with her parents.

"No." Richard replied simply.

"And why are you taking it to the asteroid field?" Neville questioned.

"Shield test."

Harry and Neville looked at each other stunned. "A what now?"

"Relax. We park Vir inside the field, turn the shield to maximum and tractor beam a big one towards the ship. Then we hop in the navi and watch from outside. Worse case, we break the ship and have to build a new, even stronger one. Or, much more likely, we get to watch as an asteroid breaks apart around the shields on this baby."

Harry looked at Richard's gleeful face in stunned shock. Admittedly it would be a valid test. If the asteroid could achieve enough speed, it would give them an excellent indication of the strength of the shields, at least against physical impact.

"I'm going to go and make sure the navi is ready. And shielded." Neville said, walking out the door, shaking his head as he went.

"THERE ARE DIRECTIONS ON THE WALLS" Richard yelled at the retreating figure. "If you could go to that console there," Richard said, pointing to one of the upright stations at the edge of the dome, "you can prepare the tractor beam while I pick our target. I'll try and set us up broadside so we can use as many as possible. Get some real speed going on it."

"Is this really a good idea?" Harry asked, following the instruction and finding the panel was already searching the field for a suitable target.

"Of course. The navi's shield will keep us plenty protected. And should the worst happen, we can be home in a couple of hours."

"Hours? How far are we from Verda?" Harry asked before a hologram popped up in front of him answering his question.

Finally looking at the system in detail, he could see that there was only one other planet with a closer orbit to the star than Verda. However, out here beyond Verda's orbit, there were twelve other planets. The asteroid field they were currently entering was between planets three and four.

"Give or take, about five hundred million kilometres from the star. Verda's orbit is around one hundred and eighty million. So…"

Harry easily did the math. "How fast is this thing? We've only been flying for what? Half an hour?"

Richard just grinned at him as Harry's console beeped several times, indicating that it had identified the largest, and apparently densest, asteroid in the nearby section of the field. Richard appeared to have received the information as well as he adjusted their course to leave a clear path between them and the rock, not overly difficult as the field was nowhere near as dense as movies tended to make asteroid fields out to be. Even the massive Vir passed through with miles of clearance from the nearest rocky chunks, and Richard ensured they were as side-on as possible.

"You're really sure about this?"

"Absolutely. How many emitters can you get to lock on?" Richard asked, stepping over to where Harry was working.

Harry sighed. "Every single one on that side, dorsal and ventral. Neville?" He said, over the radio, "are you ready to fly?"

"All good here, beam over when you're ready and I'll fly us out."

Harry looked at Richard who was still grinning like a loon. With a shake of his head, he triggered the tractor beams and the whole ship shuddered under the weight of suddenly trying to alter the massive rock's course.

"Ready," Harry said and he and Richard were immediately beamed away.

Harry took the same seat as before, only now Neville was beside him as Richard stood between them, leaning on the control console.

"Shield is active," Neville said, and Harry noticed the large bubble form around the navi before Neville guided it out of the massive hangar bay.

Having seen the size of the asteroid now hurtling in their direction, Harry was very glad that they had brought one of the navi with its own in-built potentia power source. It would mean extra power for the small vessel's shield.

Harry finally got his first proper look at their new… battleship, he guessed was the word. It was even bigger than he'd thought after seeing it from the bridge. He knew of no other vehicle that even came remotely close. Even parked on its tail end next to the largest buildings on Earth, this would still be far taller than them. It had to be almost a kilometre long. Neville gave the navi a slow glide over the ship, heading to wards the aft section and giving them all a clear view of the enormous craft.

Most of it was the same pale grey colour as the stargate and the navis, but there were large patches of earthy colours in places. Dark and dusky reds, browns, and oranges mostly. Harry could now see the illuminated dome of the bridge tucked in at the forefront of a thick octagonal section that swept down to shallower angled sides that jutted out in odd places. This was all directly above the broad hangar they had just exited on the underside, and Harry could understand just how 'protected' the potential room would be through all of that hull and other rooms. Two arms jutted out from that central block before angling forwards, almost a mirror of one another, though the starboard one extended quite a bit further forwards, appearing to contain another, far smaller hangar.

"So cool," Richard said as they slowly moved along the massive vessel. "The central hump there contains most of the housing, recreational areas... in fact it has most of the same facilities as Aedis. With loads of extra room if we have passengers. The starboard arm contains the secondary hangar, while the port side contains most of the sensor packages and even more facilities, including a pool with a view, once you activate the array of course. But the back section is where all the mechanical stuff is. The powerplant takes up the entire connection between the hump and the tail with the engines fully contained in the rear."

Harry's eyes drifted over the areas as Richard narrated their purpose, noting that to the rear of the central block, the ship tapered down dramatically into a narrow, relatively speaking, angular tube before it flared into a large star-shaped tail structure. Which matched the width and height of the forward sections evenly. Harry was no longer surprised that the powerful sublight engines contained in the enormous tail had allowed them to travel halfway across the system in barely any time at all. The scale was mind-boggling and he wouldn't have even dared guess at the dimensions of any of these sections.

Neville swung the navi back around and they soared forwards once more, past the bridge showing the mostly flat surface Harry had seen from within. It sloped downwards as it flared out, almost looking like someone had pressed the tubelike shape of the front of the ship from above and below, but left the slim, almost bulbous front untouched. A narrow spine ran from the head at the front down along the centre of the wide section, dipping into the surface before the thicker portion where the bridge was located.

Richard looked down at his creation with undisguised joy. He pointed out what appeared to be several small bumps on the wide surface, but were likely over a dozen metres across each. "The turrets there, pulse cannons for point defence. They will protect against smaller incoming attacks, but can also focus fire on bigger targets. There are several banks across the top and bottom, split fore and aft, to give full coverage. The tiny openings that line the hull are drone deployment channels. About sixty of those across the entire ship. And of course the big gun underneath. We should be able to fight off a fleet single-handedly with what she's got."

Harry glanced at the excited man for a moment before Neville guided the navi away from Vir. As powerful as they knew Alteran shields could be, they weren't really keen to test the navi's against the asteroid or any of its debris with only a single potentia aboard. He eventually settled into place high above the trajectory of the incoming chunk of debris, and Harry wondered if the others had figured out how the belt had formed in this system yet.

"There it is," Neville said after a few minutes, indicating the massive asteroid that had appeared from below the navi, now hurtling towards their new starship.

Harry couldn't believe they were doing this but watched on the edge of his seat as the rock continued to pick up speed as it approached Vir. The impact would happen any moment now and Harry held his breath as he watched.

Suddenly, the asteroid seemed to stop and shudder as a wide bubble of energy became visible around the ship behind it. The rock itself cracked violently while it tried to continue forwards, shards being blasted off in every direction before the thick material gave way under the stresses and split into two slightly smaller, yet still massive, chunks that soon parted around the still completely intact Vir with a slew of 'small' pieces blasting outwards in nearly every direction.

"YES!" Richard shouted, startling Harry as his breath began to come again. "I mean, I knew she could take it. But that was wicked."

Harry rolled his eyes and tapped the console in front of him, checking the connection to the larger ship, disabling the tractor beams and reading the status of the shield. He could barely believe his eyes as he watched the levels, but the reading was confirmed. The shield had barely even registered the impact. There was an obvious indicator of the event where the system had drawn heavily on the potentia powering the shield, but it had not lessened their overall strength at all. Depending on how good the inertial dampers could be, it was possible that had they stayed aboard, they wouldn't have even felt the impact.

"Ok, that is one heck of a shield." He said, thoroughly impressed.

"Well, I made sure it had the design used on the cityships. They were kind of fragile, so the shield had to be super tough. The one that was originally on the design was pretty great too, but I wanted this thing to have the best we could fit it with. And it still has the 'weaker' inner shield too, as a backup. Redundancy." Richard admitted, and Harry began to understand why the ship had taken the hit so well.

They all watched in silence for a few minutes as the scattering debris from the collision spread slowly out between the other asteroids, an oddly beautiful display given the violence that had bred it, to begin with.

"If you don't mind, Neville, wanna take us back aboard? We have got a few more tests to run now that we know it can take a hit. Head into that starboard hangar, it's closer to the bridge."

Neville gave the man a sideways glance before his eyes drifted to Harry who was trying to hide his own smile at the elder man's behaviour. When the Grangers had first joined their endeavours, Harry had wondered if they would be constantly clashing with the adults, should they try to exercise authority over the younger members and tell them what to do or constantly second guess their actions.

Instead, they had helped elect Harry as their head and had made some of the rasher choices of their group to date. He now worried that sometimes he would need to reign them in.

He shook his head before speaking. "C'mon, Neville, let's go. Time to see what else that thing can do."

ϟ

Parvati watched as Hermione and Padma prepared to test the next couple of patches of dragonskin they had collected the day before, Luna simply watching quietly from the nearby bench. Stretched over a soft analog for the human bodies that would be underneath the outfits they planned to make, these two belonged to the same breed of dragon that Fleur had once confronted before a baying audience at Hogwarts so many years before. That had been the first time that Parvati had ever seen a dragon in person, and yet, she believed she had handled it better than Natalie and Richard had the day before.

Charlie had been easily convinced once Harry had arrived and vouched for them all. Seeing the way Harry had been nursing his bruise, the elder Weasley quickly understood their need and was most cooperative.

Just as Hermione was lining up the coilgun device that Jack had helped her assemble to fling variously sized lumps of metal at bullet speeds with the large patches, an short klaxon sounded twice before dying out. The four girls looked at one another before rushing towards the transport cabinet at the end of the hallway.

As they stepped out into the control room, Parvati noticed Natalie was sitting at a control console seemingly dumbfounded at what she was seeing. The girls quickly joined her and upon reading what the screen was showing, they too were at a loss for words. It wasn't until they heard the sound of cheering coming from the console that Padma reacted, triggering the communication system.

"Was that really necessary?" She asked.

"Hell yes!" Richard said back immediately, with a pair of younger voices laughing in the background.

"I can't believe it's that strong," Neville said and a hologram showing the boys appeared beside the one now showing a perfect line through the asteroid belt in front of the new ship having been blasted into minute dust. Nothing that had been in the path of the ship had survived the blast intact.

"As soon as we get back, I'm going to work on figuring out how to make a few of those satellites," Harry said, turning to face the hologram. "A couple of these in orbit around Verda and we would be totally protected from attack. Earth too, now I think about it."

"Are you quite done now? You've tested all the weapons against those poor defenceless asteroids." Natalie said with a voice Parvati heard occasionally when she thought Richard was behaving too immaturely.

"Oh come on, Nat. You've always wanted to be an astronaut. Don't try and tell me you think this isn't incredibly cool." Richard argued.

"Of course it is, but we're using those to build. If you obliterate them all for fun, we will have to find other sources of matter for the converter." She replied matter-of-factly. Ignoring the fact that even blasted apart, the matter converter could still use that material.

"Speaking of, nice work on that beam engine, Luna. I didn't realize just how far away this asteroid belt was until now." Harry said, smiling at her through the hologram.

"Thank you, but I had a lot of help building it," Luna replied, gesturing to the other girls who blushed at the praise.

"Yes, well. Come on home before you turn the entire field to dust." Hermione said, smiling at Harry and turning about, shaking her head as she headed back to the lab to further research which materials would best suit her new plans. While they had also found a personal shield design in their most recent research, they wanted to ensure their outfits would be bulletproof even if they somehow completely ran out of power.

Padma nodded to the group and followed Hermione, Luna also on her tail, but Parvati chose to sit with Natalie for a moment, considering the boys, as the holograms faded away.

"I swear, sometimes it's like I have two children." She said after a moment, shaking her head softly. "But, while the boys were off making a nuisance of themselves, I've been checking the progress of the ley line now that it isn't making the elves sick anymore."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. It has stopped ascending, making it to about twenty metres below the mountaintop. With small fingers extending up as far as forty-five metres into the bases of the towers themselves. But interestingly enough, it seems most ingrained in the power plant and the beam engine."

"Ok, that is odd."

"That's what I thought, especially since both were inactive during the ritual. So I tried to make something with it just before they devastated the asteroid belt and distracted me. I can't really tell for sure, but I thought you might like to test something for me."

"Sure," Parvati said, very glad that everyone was so happily including her in their work. She shifted in her seat to better see as Natalie leaned over and picked up a small ball off the console. "What is it?"

Parvati looked at the smooth sphere in her hands, turning it over and noting no seam anywhere. It appeared to be nothing more than a solid metal ball.

"I want you to try and activate it. There is an array inside that should make it peel open and sprout a flower if I read Hermione's notes correctly."

She turned away for a moment, tapping a quick command into the console before holding out Parvati's wand to her. Parvati looked at the woman curiously, wondering just when she had borrowed her wand and why, before she took the offered focus and pressed it against the top of the ball, focusing her magic into the shape. After a few seconds, a bright flash surrounded the ball and it indeed peeled backwards, a slender stalk pushing up out of the inside and blossoming into a wide purple flower.

"It's beautiful," Parvati said softly.

"Even better than that, I didn't use any treated material in it. Just bog standard hydrogen from the second gas giant. All the magic was in the matter the moment the converter integrated it."

"Wait, what? How?" Parvati said, now staring at the flower in disbelief.

"I think that with the ley line intertwining with the beam engine, it can now funnel magic directly into integrated objects. I thought you girls might like to test it out further and see just what the limits are. I'll just take that back though. You'll probably want to use your own, I'm sure."

Natalie plucked the wand from her hand and Parvati looked at her confused. The woman simply smiled back at her and gestured to her sleeve. Parvati looked down and reached in with her right hand, pulling her wand free from its place and she froze in shock. There were now two of her wand.

"How?"

Natalie's smile widened. "Looks like we can duplicate magical items as well. Did it feel any different?"

"No. I didn't even realize. It feels exactly the same."

Parvati felt her head spin. Until now, they'd had to specially treat any magical material in advance if they needed to use a rune array. She'd spent five days helping the others to ready the supplies that Richard had asked for so he could use them on Vir. But if this truly worked, they could forgo that work and simply integrate things with the magic already inside.

"Glad to hear it. I'll make copies of everyone else's too, just to be safe. Thank you for helping me with that."

Parvati nodded as she slumped back in her chair. Her mind swam with the possibilities. Perhaps now they would be able to actually build a proper Room of Requirement within the mountain below, as Luna had originally hoped to do at Aether.


A/N: For those having trouble picturing the ship, I apologize. Ancient designs are often hard to describe in words as they were always made for a visual medium. Vir is basically a slightly modified Aurora-class warship from the SGA spin-off show, if you want to google image search it. Same overall shape but with a hangar in the long arm on the starboard side instead of antennae. Still pretty massive at a kilometre in length, but not nearly the 3km length that is supposedly their canonical size. Navigating a ship of that size would be like being stuck inside Denver Airport all day.