Chapter Fifty-Two: Shadow Play
A/N: Chapters 22 and 23 have been altered slightly now that the story rating has been increased to M. So you might want to go back and read those two at some point. It doesn't alter the content in any meaningful way, just more explicitly shows the spells and level of retaliation Harry and Luna use on the Jaffa that dared to torture them.
Monday, 6th November 2000 - Loop Day 94.
"Hello, Harry," Luna said, looking at her oldest male friend as he hunched over one of the control consoles in Aedis overlooking the courtyard containing the stargate, a hologram of Avalon shimmering in the middle of the room.
He simply grunted in reply, not looking away from the holograms showing the extent of the loop anomaly that had now been mapped by the Asgard. One would assume that actually getting to speak to his godfather for the first time in years might have left the man feeling a little bit of joy.
But once matters had turned to Qetesh and her plans for Earth, Harry had been distracted by their former home planet.
Luna perched on the chair next to him and simply stared, boring a steady hole into his head that she knew he would eventually be unable to ignore any longer. Though it still took over half an hour for him to actually acknowledge it.
"I'm fine." He finally replied.
"Of course, you aren't. If you were fine, you wouldn't be back to staring at things you have no control over." Luna replied, not moving her gaze at all, as Harry was still resolutely looking away from her.
"Let's be honest, Luna. I don't control anything around here." He replied, sourly. "Richard and Neville are working on the Asuran code, and we have complete scans of that entire planet. Nothing more for me to do there. You and Trebal are handling the transfer of the Aurora crew, and making refinements to the Mind Palace, with Elizabeth keeping them company when possible in both environments. Along with trying to get more information out of our Goa'uld and Wraith prisoners. No need for my help there either. Carson, Cyla and surprisingly Ronan are working together on the Wraith problem. And I lack the required understanding of biology to help there.
"And Hermione and her mother are still working on the halos for Sirius and Qetesh. Unless Rol is suppressed, I can't get anything out of either one of them. Hermione is far more skilled than I to make the halos themselves. All I've got left to worry about is Earth."
"Who was it who assigned each of us those roles?" Luna asked, still working on getting Harry to look away from the console.
His eyes finally flicked in her direction and she saw the first crack in his brooding armour. "The Aetherial Council." He replied, before turning back to the static screen.
"So you're saying that you feel useless?" Harry simply shrugged in response. Luna nodded, leaning back in her own chair. "And how exactly does staring at the anomaly help with that feeling? Glaring at the one problem you truly cannot do anything about."
Harry took a deep breath and finally turned away from the display, facing her front on and Luna smiled at him.
"Every time we fix a problem, another one springs up in its place. Or more. It's like we're dealing with a Trouble Hydra. Why did we go to Pegasus? We already had enough to deal with here."
Luna nodded, they had accidentally bitten off a bit more than they could easily chew, but they were gradually getting it under control.
"Originally, it was just Hermione's idea of a really nice birthday present for you boys, and the rest of us agreed. A quick visit to another galaxy in our shiny new spaceship, to make sure Atlantis was still safe and powered after so long. Then come right back home. We were not expecting to find a warship full of living Lanteans that would have soon perished without our intervention. Nor to have our first run-ins with the Wraith. And we certainly didn't expect to find the Asurans."
"So why don't we pull out? Return back here to Avalon and fix the problems here first?"
"You would simply abandon Ronan and the Crew to their fates then?" Luna asked, genuinely interested in Harry's response.
He buried his face in his hands and growled in frustration. "No!" He pushed through gritted teeth, the sound muffled by his hands and Luna reached forwards and laid her hand on his shoulder.
"Didn't think you would. It's not in your nature to leave others to fend for themselves if you can help in any way."
"A fat lot of good I'm doing at the moment." He snapped back, instantly looking like he regretted being so boorish towards a friend trying to help him, but Luna was not even slightly put off.
"Exactly." She said, and Harry looked up at her properly for the first time since she had arrived. "That's better. Bit of life in you now. You feel useless? Well then do something about it."
She could tell that Harry was completely thrown off balance now. He was at a total loss on how to respond.
"The smaller ships you designed are complete," Luna said plainly, bringing up a readout on the constructions occurring in a pair of the larger hangars under the city. "As are three of the satellites out between planets Three and Four. There are places in Avalon that could use those defences. No?"
Harry leant back, his arms coming up off his knees as he replaced them with his hands. "You want me to start dropping the satellites off?"
"No, Harry. I don't want you to do anything you don't feel like. I just came to help you get out of your own head. Something that a lot of my friends seem to like doing." She replied, drifting for a moment as she considered how frequently she needed to have a word with them like this. "You all seem to take the weight of everything happening around you onto your shoulders, even when none of it is your fault."
Harry looked like he was finally assessing matters more clearly.
"Better?" Luna asked, once more trying to catch his gaze with her own.
He nodded, allowing her efforts this time. "Yes. But I really shouldn't be going anywhere alone. And I haven't tested this new ship at all."
"Sounds to me like you have a path to follow and loads of things you could be doing," Luna said with a soft smile, gently shutting off the display on Harry's terminal.
He gave her a resigned but friendly smile. "Thank you."
Luna beamed wide. "You're welcome. I know that when I get down like this, nothing feels better than you or Hermione popping over to make me feel wanted and useful again."
"You're always wanted, Luna. Always 'useful'." Harry replied, a cheeky smile on his features on the final word. "Your friendship is one of my most treasured possessions."
Luna stood and gave his shoulder a firm squeeze. "Same."
Harry stared at her for a moment before he took a deep breath and turned back to the console, reactivating the screen, but this time it was showing the status of the beam engine. It seemed Luna had been successful in breaking his mood.
Knowing that Lia had the current crewmate's transfer well in hand, she simply stood behind Harry and watched as he prepared the new constructions for activation.
ϟ
Tuesday, 7th November 2000.
Ronan stepped out of the corridor and onto the thin walkway hanging over the incredibly large open space. The size of the artificial cavern was a considerable surprise, given that it was buried within the mountain underneath the city of Aedis.
He had to admit that Aedis was quite the sight, and explained just how this group of young people had so effectively repaired the City of the Ancestors back home in Pegasus. But it was difficult to believe that the mountain they now stood inside had not existed the year before. While he did not know this lot to boast, it was quite the claim.
Standing before him, awaiting his arrival were both Harry and the elder Granger woman, Natalie. But his attention was immediately taken by the impressive structure beyond the pair.
Given the space he was asked to come to was called a hangar, he assumed this too was some form of spaceship. But it was very different in design to the one he had seen hovering outside the central tower of Atlantis when he had returned to the city after almost a month with his people on Manaria. It was as compact as the others were massive. Only a couple hundred metres long at most.
Looking down over it from above, Ronan noted that this one seemed built around a long but relatively narrow curved oval-shaped central body in the middle of the ship, already eschewing the more jagged and sharp lines of the Aurora. Jutting out of either side of this bulbous central area were two more curved pods that seemed to maintain a uniform thickness for several metres before rounding down and ducking below the ship. The rear of the vessel thinned down before two large, presumably, engine pods swept back up from the surface.
At the front of the central bulb, a smooth trapezoidal shape extended forwards, gradually sloping down until it came to a sharp cutoff, inwardly-angled front end that hovered over the hangar floor below by a long way. It looked almost like a wide, flat snout with a large overbite.
"This feels kind of familiar," Natalie said to Harry, neither of them noticing Ronan's presence just yet while gazing at the big craft herself. "What does it…" She trailed off, scratching the hairless section of skin above her left ear.
Harry smirked. "I don't really know the name of the thing that inspired the design. Its general shape is based on a ship I recall seeing my uncle flick past on the tele one night. He was distracted for a moment by my 'unwelcome presence' in the room, and I got a good look while he yelled at me. It wasn't a very 'pretty' ship, but I remember thinking it looked like it could take a hit. Never found out its name, but the shape stuck in my mind when I was building these. I think I mixed in a little of those bubbly-shaped ships from that last Star Wars movie too. And hey presto."
"From tele?" Natalie queried. "Can you describe it at all? Or was it just like this?"
"No, these are quite different. The one on the tele had the pods sort of separate, and they stuck out a ways from the ship," Harry replied, pointing at the various sections as he spoke, "which was sort of narrow in the middle. But it had the big sloped front end and large engine pods at the back. And it was very white. But I figure that was just how spaceships looked back then, thanks to the technology and bits they used to make them. Given what the ships looked like in Star Wars as well. Made of model pieces and needing to stand out against the black background of space."
"Of course…" Realization seemed to wash over Natalie, and she let out an amused chuckle. "Oh, Harry. You made a cute miniature Battlestar."
"A what?" Ronan asked, really confused as to what the pair were going on about by this point. The pair turned and nodded at his presence, Harry gesturing him forwards.
"It's a television show from the late seventies. A form of popular entertainment on Earth." Natalie continued. "There are obvious changes here, but I can picture it now. I was obsessed with those space shows once I realized I couldn't be an astronaut. And it came out while I was pregnant with Hermione. So there were days where I would not be feeling up to work and would stay home watching tele."
Harry shrugged but seemed pleased that Natalie seemed to approve of the design. Ronan had to admit it had a sleek appeal to it that the bigger warships lacked.
"How is it for firepower?" He asked, and Harry glanced back at him.
"Significantly less than the Vis- and Aurora-class frigates and cruisers. It only has a half dozen drone launch tubes spread across it. A handful of plasma cannons on top and bottom, with another pair each on the upper and lower curves of the pods. Those are the small bulges across the hull. The front end of the starboard pod is an emitter for a much smaller version of the beam laser. So, I very much doubt it can kill a ship in one hit. This one is not designed for battle.
"In fact, I thought I'd call them the Vector-class," Harry said, pushing off the railing and heading towards a platform fixed inside the walkway with extra rails that cordoned it off from the rest. "Vector means passenger or carrier. Though I'm still not sure of a ship name for this one. It's designed more as a yacht, for comfortably getting around when we don't need to bring the big gun along. Though I suppose you could call it a corvette if you had to give it a military designation. Still got plenty of room inside for labs, storage, and comfortable living space. Come on."
When all three were inside the platform, Harry triggered a hidden mechanism using his remote that had them slowly descending towards the floor of the large hangar. As it descended, Ronan got his first look at the underside of the long snout.
The ventral hull of this ship mostly mirrored the upper side, though the underside of the central bulge was flattened off considerably. It almost looked like the entire central pod had been overheated and melted outwards under the weight of the ship. Which made it far wider than the upper section, and meant it meshed snuggly against the floor, with a set of landing gear on either pod extending down the short distance from their rounded bottoms. The biggest difference was under the nose of the ship. The bottom of the forward section was cut off flat until a second far smaller mirror of the dorsal section jutted out of the lower section about a dozen or so metres back from the front of the vessel.
On the side facing them, there was a wide opening that appeared to be another hangar inside the ship. Ronan estimated the opening was about thirty metres wide, part of it in the two side pods as well. Inside he could see a pair of the small tubular ships this lot were so fond of using, despite the matter beaming being a much faster way to get around.
Harry pointed to the wide opening tucked under the verandah of the upper section of the ship. "We can head inside through there. There are boarding airlocks at the walkway level, but I wanted to see this first. Then we can get on with the rest of the task."
"Which is?" Ronan asked, drawing Harry's attention once again as the three walked up the short ramp leading into the sizable hangar. He had only agreed to Harry's request to come along as he was already growing frustrated again, being surrounded by all that technology and seeing them refusing to use it against the Wraith.
Especially after learning that a group of over three hundred of his fellow Satedans were alive on Manaria and regularly trading with the people of Belkan. While only a small few had been familiar to him, it had been a relief not to be the last of his people.
The only black spot on his many days of merriment with the ones he knew had been learning that Kell had survived the destruction of Sateda. Had the man been present, Ronan would have killed him personally for the cost of his cowardice. But he did not live with the other Satedans. He had his own compound for his family on Belkan that would have been difficult to get into, much less out of. A problem for another time. That and the ever-present threat that those remaining could be wiped out at any moment by a Wraith attack or culling.
"Still a surprise for the moment. But trust me, you will like this."
Harry's smile faltered as Ronan did not share his enthusiasm, and it clearly showed on his face. Ronan simply stared at the boy. This was all taking time away from his renewed research on the Wraith. The revelation that more of his people lived had refocused him. Ronan was no longer content to spend his time training non-stop in the hope that he would soon be unleashed against his enemy. This lot needed to think and analyse, so he would do the same. Learn his enemy inside and out. He was already thinking of ways to assault some of them while they slumbered. Make the most of that glaring weakness.
Harry glanced at Natalie, who patted him gently on the shoulder and headed for the large doorway at the end of the hangar, that obviously led further into the ship.
The insides of the ship were every bit as comfortable and luxurious as Harry had implied. Even the hangar bay they had entered through seemed different from the far bigger warships back in Pegasus. Ronan was beginning to question the use of such a vessel if it had no real military benefit.
Harry led them quickly through pretty corridors lined with plush carpet and up into the forward section of the ship. As Ronan stepped inside the room with the others, Harry leaned back from the forward wall, his wand in hand, and the surface in front of them seemed to vanish before his very eyes.
"What is that?" Ronan asked, surprised.
"Magic. I know we haven't shown you much of it yet. The entire front of the bridge was integrated with a runic array that allows us to make the hull transparent. Means that the window is just as strong as the rest of the hull. And there are a couple of other arrays that tie into the controls that can tint the window if we need to as well."
Ronan could see the field expanding through the wall before him and he could see that, if what Harry said was true, the hull here was about as thick as he was wide. If it was made of the same resilient materials as Atlantis, then this ship could probably indeed take a hell of a hit.
"Take a seat. We'll be heading out in a second." Harry advised, taking the central seat in front of the widening cockpit window.
Ronan dropped into the seat on the far left side, just as the disappearing material ran past that section and he noticed that the wall in front of them, where they had entered the larger hangar bay, had split open and was slowly widening itself. He could see the walkway they'd been standing on way up the top, and the now-sealed doorway if he squinted against the light pouring in from outside.
"Alright, here we go," Harry commented, adjusting the controls at the central seat of the wide bridge and the ship began to move.
Ronan had to admit, he was impressed. He didn't feel any sensation of movement as the luxury ship passed out of the mountain and angled upwards over the mountain range beyond, aiming for the sky. He watched silently as the craft zipped up and out of the atmosphere of the planet. While he supposed this wasn't really his first trip into space, it was mostly of his own volition this time. And it was his first time in space in Avalon rather than Pegasus. The first thing he noticed was that all of the stars were different.
None of the constellations that his mother had taught him on Sateda were visible at all, though a couple of clusters came close to a few of them. While that had often been the case in his short time Running, due to the planets he visited being in different parts of Pegasus, it contributed more to the sudden feeling of alienness than anything he'd seen since his arrival in this galaxy.
As the ship zoomed rapidly through the system, he noticed something even stranger in front of them. An absence of stars visible in several places.
"What is that?" He asked, nodding at the phenomena.
"That's where we are going," Harry replied, and Natalie smirked, obviously understanding something Ronan did not.
"Being that it is made of energy," she explained, "the field we surround large constructions with can be altered, colourwise I mean. On Verda, we make it bright white so that you can't mistake it for the sky and accidentally run into it."
"But out here?" Harry took up, "shouldn't be anything flying around we didn't invite, so we don't much mind if it randomly smacks into one of those fields and destroys itself. And it prevents the star system from looking oddly bright by having dozens of brilliant white construction fields everywhere. That would encourage looky Lous."
Ronan must have looked confused as Harry felt the need to explain further. "When you see a particularly bright or twinkling star in the sky, it's usually because it is a binary star system. Two sources of light adding together as they cycle around one another. If we had dozens of construction fields everywhere in bright white, they'd change the way this star looks from other systems. And that would encourage curiosity."
Ronan simply nodded as they approached one of the blank expenses. It now almost filled the viewport with its emptiness. Harry once more operated the controls and the ship stopped, holding its distance from the void.
"This will take a minute. Have to upload the new operating system as well." He said, turning to a different portion of the controls and sending a signal into the black space before them. After several long and silent moments, the panel chimed and Harry smiled. "Excellent. I'll be right back."
Without further warning, his head was covered in a weird bubble and he vanished in the bright flash of a beam transport. Leaving Ronan looking at a smirking Natalie, watching him quietly.
"Thoughts?" She asked.
"That this is a waste of time. We should be worrying about the Wraith."
"We are. As you know, Carson is busy trying to figure out everything he can about their physiology so that we might best attack the problem."
Ronan shook his head. "Pretending they can be human is foolish. You can't undo their nature, no matter how you change their appearance."
"Quite possibly true. But options are a good thing." She replied, and Ronan felt he was being given a talking to like his father used to when he wasn't getting the lesson the man was trying to impart.
He turned away from the woman to see the black field suddenly replaced by a large triangular shape. He pulled back at the sudden appearance out of the darkness and it took him a few moments to take in the scale of the thing.
While they were still some distance away from it, the object dominated the forward portion of the viewport. Ronan noticed a handful of the small plasma turrets arranged along its face and had an inkling of what this might be for.
Harry's reappearance took his attention for a moment before he refocused on the now-turning structure, noting that it seemed to be made of multiple such triangular faces.
"You like it?" Harry asked the both of them.
"What is it?" Ronan replied.
"It's a defensive satellite. We place it in orbit above a planet and it will discourage an invasion force."
"How? It only has those little plasma guns." Ronan said, noting that there were only half a dozen on each face.
"The plasma cannons are just point defence against those little Death Gliders or Darts and the like. In case something gets in really close trying to attack it. Not that anyone's likely to penetrate the shield on these before we can arrive as backup, if required. And the plasma cannons still pack quite a punch on their own, trust me. But the main defensive weapons are in the corners, which are beam cannons. Big ones. The kind that can rip through shields and hulls with a single shot. And this sucker can fire all four simultaneously in multiple directions."
The viewport tinted heavily, an example of the feature that Harry had described a few minutes beforehand as the familiar white beaming field surrounded the giant satellite for several long moments and it vanished from view, leaving them looking out onto the stars once more.
"Given that Aedis, and by extension, Verda have just about every single weapon ever conceived by the Alteran and the Lanteans, this one is going to be placed in orbit above one of the Asgard Protected Planets. I was thinking of Vanaheim." Harry said as he piloted the ship over to the next void in line.
"Hmm," Natalie mused. "That makes sense. Still not advanced enough to notice it in orbit, unlike Galar or Svoriin. But of the planets under the treaty apart from Earth, it is probably the one most on its way to posing a threat to the Goa'uld. It would definitely be a target if they learned Tyr had given the inhabitants Asgard weapons technology. Primitive though it may be."
"That was my thinking."
"And the others?" Ronan asked, now understanding each of the voids was one of these supposedly powerful weapons satellites.
"One I am holding here in reserve for dispatch to Earth the moment the time loop and its spatial anomaly are broken. I can think of nowhere that could use such a defence more than there. And with the inbuilt sensors, linked directly to dedicated systems in Aedis, Aether, and Merlin, we'd have advance warning of anything approaching the planet from over five hundred light-years out."
Ronan saw Natalie watching Harry closely, and even he noticed a twitch in the boy's features. It truly bothered him that his homeworld was currently out of reach and that Ronan could most definitely understand.
"The other one, I was thinking Tier for now. News of the technology present there has spread thanks to the program Maybourne was running. While the satellite won't stop people coming through the gate, it will certainly ward off anyone in ships."
"What about Pegasus?" Ronan asked. These satellites sounded like they could really help in the fight against the Wraith.
"I plan to deploy them there as well. They don't take too long to integrate, despite their size and complexity. But for the moment, we're trying not to give away the fact that there is a new advanced group in Pegasus."
"These could save thousands." Ronan rebuffed, his anger growing again at their reluctance.
"Millions," Natalie said, drawing his eye. "And immediately give the few Wraith currently awake cause to wake their brethren and begin searching for this new threat in earnest. Something we would not survive."
"While the satellites can handle a skirmish with ease," Harry added, "if the Wraith mobilized the same numbers Atlantis recorded during the siege against one, it would be destroyed in the space of a day or two. We would waste a valuable resource on a guaranteed failure. And while the new models we are making of the potentia will degrade into a violent acid or outright explode if installed into Wraith technology, I have not had the chance to make many of them just yet.
"We only have the one potentia foundry at present in the Verdan Mountain Range, and it can only grow so many at a time. We can't risk the Wraith getting their hands on any potentia that might be used to restore those cloning facilities."
Ronan's anger must have been showing on his face, as Harry turned away from the controls to look at him directly.
"I promise you, Ronan. I will do whatever is needed to help you and your people defeat the Wraith. But you have to understand the scale of the imbalance between us right now. We could fly after the ones going around culling right now, and destroy them all with Vir and the upgraded Aurora, no question. But that would bring every single other Wraith in the galaxy down on us. The Ancestors already deemed that an unwinnable scenario.
"If we want to succeed where they failed, we need to be cautious. We need more information. And we need to be sure of our course before we start to act. But do not think we won't."
"Harry?" Natalie asked curiously, eyeing him from behind.
"I've lost too many people to inaction, and even more to bad intelligence. I am not committing all of you to it, but I couldn't sit here, hiding safely in Avalon, pretending that Pegasus isn't being ravaged by the Wraith. I wouldn't be able to live with myself. If you all decide not to help, I will be happy to let you remain out of it. But I will find a way to end the Wraith problem." Harry said, staring Ronan directly in the eyes.
He could clearly see that Harry meant every word. That their delay was only to ensure their eventual victory, not a case of cowardice masquerading as peace.
"I have hope that Carson will find some alternative, but if it comes to it, I will fight. I hope you're still amongst us when that day comes. Your people will need you afterwards to help rebuild Sateda. I'm sure your experiences with us will be invaluable when that time comes."
Ronan watched Harry through his impassioned speech. He no longer had any doubts that the boy had endured hellish hardships of his own. And he truly believed that he was being honest about his desire to rid the people of Pegasus from this terror for good.
He noticed the woman behind Harry smiling at the boy. "You are definitely a unique boy, Harry. I will certainly be helping you. Have you discussed your plans here with Thor yet?"
Harry took a steadying breath before he turned back to the now visible second satellite. "No. If I informed the Asgard, by the terms of the Treaty, they would need to inform the Goa'uld of the satellites. And right now, I don't have enough satellites ready for all twenty-seven planets. Yet."
"Surely someone will notice." Ronan agreed with Natalie.
"I'm sure they will. But these are very clearly not of Asgard design. And while I intend to start with the Protected Planets, I also intend to place them above several other non-protected worlds as well." Harry replied, as he left the second satellite in place and headed for the third satellite. "Goa'uld knowledge of such protections will also raise questions about what they were doing in the protected systems in the first place. So long as the Asgard can claim ignorance, the Goa'uld won't be able to act, and might even be put on the back foot and forced to make concessions to the Asgard.
"Whereas any Asgard ship visiting the system will get a short greeting from the satellite in Alteran, which should be enough to clue them into their source without us explaining it in advance. Right now, we're an invisible hand in the galaxy. We should make the most of it where we can."
Natalie laughed softly. "Very clever. Shore up the defences of the worlds most likely to come under Goa'uld attack if they learn the Asgard are unable to enforce the Treaty."
"Exactly. If the Goa'uld do complain, or threaten to void the Treaty as a result, the Asgard would be hard-pressed to make a reasonable show of force without opening themselves to renewed attack from the Replicators. Best to have these worlds as safe as possible before that happens."
Ronan noted Harry glancing at him once more. "And I would like you to begin going through the data from the vulcator scans of Pegasus. Start making a list of planets that we should work to defend there, once we can start installing such things. And any potential allies we might want to make contact with to help us in any fight that might occur."
"You're really committing to it?" Ronan asked, having felt nothing but indecision from Harry in the past.
"Yes. One way or another, the Wraith's grip on Pegasus will end. I can't promise complete eradication, but I will fight them in whatever way I can. We just need to carefully plan our approach. Agreed?"
Ronan held the young man's gaze for several long silent seconds before he nodded. "Agreed."
"Good. Now, I'll be back." Harry said, before vanishing over to the nearest satellite once again.
ϟ
Sunday, 12th November 2000.
Natalie sat quietly in the rather comfortable chair that her daughter had provided for her without prompting before the girl departed to continue her work with Qetesh. She quietly watched Sirius, who was just finishing up a story of the time he and Harry's father had been caught in their animagus forms by one of the teachers coming out of the Forbidden Forest.
She had to admit, it was very rewarding to see their work, though admittedly Hermione was responsible for most of it, coming to fruition. After confirming that Rol was indeed still present within Sirius, they reactivated the field and had not disabled it since. And the man's demeanour had improved every day since.
"So, Harry's off doing something incredible again?" Sirius asked, drawing her eye away from the results on the tablet in her lap that monitored both Sirius and the symbiote within, keeping track of how the suppression was working long-term.
"You could say that," Natalie replied with a smirk. "He's finished testing the Vector ships and the satellite weapons. Another of the satellites finished integrating this afternoon and he is heading out with Cyla to place it."
Sirius looked overjoyed to hear that Harry was living so well. Every new sliver of information, no matter how brief or seemingly insignificant, filled him with wonder and pride. And not just pride towards Harry. It seemed to Natalie that he too had seen something developing between 'their children' even from his first meeting way back in '94, and as such, he was never shy of heaping praise on Hermione. Much to her daughter's embarrassment.
"James would be thrilled by all of this. And Lily… she'd be buried to her neck in this research you are all doing. She mentioned the 'space race' that the then USSR and USA were locked in a few times during our schooling. Even told us that 'man set foot on the moon' a couple of years before we started at Hogwarts. Incredible…"
"They very much did. Six missions landed there all up, between 1969 and 1972. I can remember sitting in front of the tele watching history being made. Back then, I still wanted to be an astronaut. To be the one on the very frontier of human existence, paving our way amongst the stars. While we were in Australia, Richard and I made it a priority to visit Parkes. One of the three radio telescopes that were in the right position to pick up and relay those first precious moments out to all of mankind. Still as functional now as it was back then. And just as humbling to behold." Natalie said wistfully.
Unfortunately, thinking on the topic let her mind drift to the movie about that very telescope and event that was due to come out, a month or two ago. Or a month or two to come. Depending on how one saw Earth's current predicament. Sirius seemed to notice the change in her demeanour.
"How long have you been out of contact now?" He asked. All signs of his usual joking nature were now gone from his voice.
Natalie took a deep breath as she checked the math. She gave a short chuckle when the value appeared on her tablet.
"Today is officially one hundred days since we lost contact with Earth."
"Bloody hell. No wonder it makes you lot look devastated every time you think about it. I know I've been away longer, but Qetesh always wanted to talk about Earth, for her plans. Meant I always knew she was still there, healthy and hearty. Even if she was in constant danger from these snakes."
Natalie nodded and cleared her throat, dislodging the feeling that was welling up inside. "Yes. And as much as I do love your stories, that is why we are here today." She said, facing the smirking man once again as she wiped a bit of moisture from the corner of her eye. "Shall we get back to it?"
Sirius nodded. Gentlemen enough, when he wanted to be, that he did not mention her tears. "Ask away."
"We have covered your general experience in captivity, as you have preferred to call it." She noted, and Sirius grinned at his irreverent method of describing his time with Rol. "But we need to know what Qetesh knows of Earth and what her plans involve. In case she left some sort of dead man switch plan in place to attack if she should disappear. Earth's… out of the way from harm for the moment, but the SGC are resourceful. They could break the loop at any moment."
"Well, she knows all about magic, as you figured out. Rol told her all about Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Very glad to know that's all over and done with. She had plans to infiltrate that lot and use them as generals in her army. Even talked of taking my mad cousin as a new host to garner magic for herself."
"Augusta made sure that is not an option. She's dead and gone."
"Right, so Harry told me. With the Sword of Gryffindor, no less. Which Neville had pulled from the Sorting Hat. Impressive. Frank was a fighter, but I'd never seen his mum in a fight. And I barely even saw little Neville in the Ministry that night. So I have no idea what she was raising him like. But I know that both Alice and Lily were fierce if challenged, while Alice still had a softness to her. She loved everything. But nothing more than her little boy."
Natalie considered her daughter's resilient young friend. "I have only known Neville since Hermione found us in Australia. But he seems like a hardy lad. Kept down by insecurity, which occasionally rears up every now and again. Something I hear his family may be a little guilty of inspiring at first. But he shed it almost completely in those short years of war. Something I dearly wish we could have kept them from."
"You and me both. When Albus came in and told us Harry was at the Ministry that night, my heart nearly stopped. I would not take no for an answer. I was coming, and I would take down anyone who stood between me and my godson. And then, there he was. Standing toe-to-toe against the Death Eaters. I was so proud, and absolutely terrified for him, all at once."
"Your experience at it may have been unusual and cut far too short, but parenting is a strange creature. It often shows you just how insane the human body is that it can feel so many patently conflicting emotions all at once. Fear and pride is a pretty normal mix if I'm honest." Natalie said, shaking her head at some of the memories of her daughter and the stories she would tell of their school.
"As much as I may have wished for it, I don't think Harry and I ever really had a parent-child relationship. I was too broken after Azkaban. Even sometimes saw him as my former best friend, ready to run about causing some mayhem. I do him a disservice by not seeing Harry for who he is."
"As terrible as I am sure it must be sharing the mind of one of these monsters, from what I can tell, your time with Rol has helped you a lot, Sirius Black."
"It certainly isn't easy. But when you've spent almost a third of your life imprisoned by demons that squash your happiness and feed on the darkest parts of your soul, it makes a maniac with despotic desires a little easier to handle." Sirius replied his cheeky smirk back in full force. "Especially given that Rol seems to be quite young, with no real horrible deeds of his own to boast. He just happened to be available when Qetesh needed a symbiote when I was found. Guess I got lucky there."
"I've noticed that you all seem to get 'lucky' a lot. I think it might be a bit of the universe balancing out how crap it made Harry's youth." Natalie mused and Sirius smiled.
"Possibly. But we're becoming distracted, and I wouldn't want your daughter coming in here and yelling at us."
"True. So, the plan mostly consisted of capturing and controlling the Death Eaters. Do you think she would continue their crusade?"
"Not in the slightest. Her interest lay solely in magic's 'usefulness'. Not the purity of blood. And with the Goa'uld's advanced understanding of human physiology, she'd likely have been able to silence the debate on the matter for good."
"Then why so focused on the Death Eaters?"
Sirius seemed to understand the depth of the question. "I don't think it was anything more than the fact they had proven themselves an effective magical fighting force. If she located stronger magicals, she would not hesitate to incorporate them into the fold. Once she had her army, she planned to mobilize it against the SGC. Torture and killing curses would have been their preferred treatment as she 'rewarded' them for their actions against her."
"Picking the worst possible fight she could right out of the gate." Natalie acknowledged. Her understanding of the magical world was still limited by her being kept from many of the central portions of it. But she knew that a magical terrorist force assaulting one of the most top-secret US Military installations on Earth would utterly destroy the Statute of Secrecy and put a bounty on every magical head in the world.
"You see the problem," Sirius said.
"Yes. That would be bad. Revealing magic and probably the reality of the galaxy in one poorly thought-out act of vengeance. And yet, the more I consider it, the more I think that might be exactly her hope. Even with Earth being part of the Protected Planets Treaty, the Asgard would be helpless to get involved unless they could prove Goa'uld involvement. Especially given what we know of their limited ability to project strength in Avalon, and that they have not detected magic on Earth throughout their many previous visits. It would be up to Earth to sort its problem out. We'd either get over ourselves and come together against the threat of the Goa'uld… or more likely, given our ample history at it, we'd tear ourselves to pieces to the point any Goa'uld could just walk in and take over again."
"There it is. She never shared such an end goal with Rol. But I was able to see the more distant ramifications of her choices. A successful, hell even a failed attack on the SGC by magicals. British magicals at that… War would be inevitable."
Natalie sat quietly for a moment, considering her next comments carefully. "I've not spoken much with the others about it. Hermione and I have been working on the necessary paperwork involved in getting the Aetherial recognized as an official nation. And I find myself curious about this Statute of yours. How much does it truly protect each side these days?"
Sirius was clearly taken aback, not expecting the change of direction. "Well, can't say I've had much of a chance to get out and about in society in the last twenty years. It was mostly instituted to avoid future persecution, as ineffective as it was at the time with simply burning witches. Implementing it was difficult. There was so much debate on what needed to be hidden and what could simply be left to its own devices. And as a result, much of magic faded into myth in the muggle world, according to Lily at least."
"There are some technological innovations occurring on Earth at the moment that may make it impossible to maintain for much longer. Are you aware of security cameras?" Natalie enquired.
"Vaguely. Lily mentioned them once or twice when she and James would discuss the Statute. She seemed worried about Harry's future if it remained. But obviously, they had other, more immediate concerns."
"I wish I had gotten a chance to know her. She sounds like an incredible woman. But that was the early eighties. Most of the technology that the SGC now runs on was in its infancy. The entire structure is covered in these security cameras. And they are only getting better. Digital storage is really coming along, meaning no more swapping tapes. And it makes remote storage and backup far easier.
"Heck, London has had some form of CCTV coverage since the 60s. And they're rolling out more and more every year. Eventually, some wizard, or magical creature, is going to be caught on camera. A camera that they either won't know is there, or will think simply zapping the camera itself will destroy the footage."
"So you think Lily was right? That it's inevitable that someone will make a mistake?" Sirius questioned.
"From what Hermione tells me, there are people in the muggle government that are already in the known about magic," Natalie stated, and Sirius nodded in confirmation. "So if magic is caught on camera, most people would dismiss it as a hoax and move on. But those people in the government would know. As it begins to happen more and more, they would be forced to act. If it was recorded in a secret military base? Chaos. Frankly, the kids got lucky that Harry's Cloak is so good, or they could have triggered such chaos themselves all those months back."
"True enough. But what can we do about it? You lot don't even live on Earth anymore."
Natalie sighed. "I don't know. But it's yet another thing to keep in mind going forwards. We may not live there anymore, but this damned loop has proven beyond all doubt that we all retain a vested interest in Earth's continuing safety and survival. Be it from internal or external threats. Just because we might have stopped Qetesh doesn't mean another Goa'uld or other alien influence won't learn of magic and come up with similar plans."
Sirius seemed to become thoughtful for a moment before he shifted into a more serious position. "Then let's get this thing down in full so that we can start figuring out how to counter each step successfully."
Natalie smiled at the man. He definitely preferred to use humour as a shield against actually addressing his feelings more often than not. But when push came to shove, he would always be a fighter at heart. Even if that fight was one of thought rather than spells.
A/N: For those wondering, the Vector-class is a mix between a slimmed-down version of the 2004 BSG reboots Galactica in shape, with a bit of the Normandy SR-2 and a belly like Thunderbird 2 around the hangar bay.