Disclaimer: The characters used within this are mostly the property of others. I have a few originals, but the vast majority are not original. Everything here is fiction. This is for entertainment only and not for profit.
-=oOo=-
To Green Angel Tower - Chapter 12
-=oOo=-
"Hey Bill. How is your family?" asked Harry.
"They are fine. Ron is still annoyed with you, but well, it is Ron."
"Sorry about that."
"Don't be. I heard you are on medical leave?"
"We are fine, but the last mission was kind of dangerous. I think we came close to dying. We were linked into the array that shifted that city out of this dimension long enough for the avalanche to pass."
"You do know your not supposed to be part of the ward set right?" asked Bill.
"We know the theory, but if your on the clock and seconds count, it saves a lot of them and gives you control you can't have any other way."
"That it does. It also kills warders."
"We know the dangers. Being linked in is actually part of the inherent design of Tempest. Yes, there are dangers, but not knowing what is going on instantly is more dangerous."
"When can we take her up?"
"We still have four days on our mandatory vacation, so we officially can't. You may be able to get Dave and Ken to take it up with you using the rockets."
"I think we will pass. I'm going to go meet Penny there. There is no doubt a lot we can do to come up to speed."
"Find a solution so we don't fry the non magical systems. The gold shielding works for the backs of things, but we need to protect the part we see."
"I'll try. Perhaps Penelope has some ideas."
"Thanks."
-=oOo=-
"You know if you put the opening a bit farther away, then put your eye up to it, you wouldn't need but a small hole to see these display things," said Bill.
"I have an idea. Wanna come along with me to go explore it?" asked Penny.
"Where are we going?"
"I was dating a muggle who had a wizard as a brother. He was on vacation in Britain. I think he may be back in the states now, but he talked about these little fiber things that transmitted images. I didn't understand what he meant."
"Can you contact him?"
"Yes, I have his phone number."
"Then let's go."
They went to the main offices and dialed out.
"Jacob?"
"Penelope, I was afraid you would never call."
"I am so sorry. I just got so busy and I'm really sorry to be calling now with a work question, but we can pay, if you can help," said Penelope.
"Don't worry about it. What's up?"
"If I had something I needed to shield, but could perhaps put a small hole to see, could that fiber stuff you mentioned work?"
"Well, you could use a small digital camera."
"Um..," she trailed off.
"Ah. Well, maybe you can use a fiber scope."
"What's that?" asked Penny.
"It's a bunch of fiber optic strands in a bundle. It's an old technique, but it still works to see something at the other end of the fiber."
"Are you still in Europe?"
"Norway now, actually."
"Would you like a job, at least to see if this goes somewhere?" asked Penelope.
"What kind of job."
"Can't tell you over the phone."
"Sure. Where can we meet?"
"We may be able to meet you. Can you get to the Norway airport?"
"You mean Oslo?"
"Sure."
Ken walked in.
Penelope asked, "Can we go pickup someone from the Oslo airport? He may have an idea we can use."
"I'll need a name to do a background check," said Ken softly.
"Jacob Flynn," said Penny while covering the phone.
Ken walked over to a computer and logged in.
"How long should I say?" asked Penny while covering the phone.
"A couple hours probably. We can take the unmodified jet."
"Jacob, could you be there in about two hours?"
"I can. It will be good to see you Penelope."
"You too. Bye."
She hung up the phone.,
"I feel like I'm leading him on. I don't mind dating him. He is really fun, certainly better than..."
"Percy," finished Bill.
"Well yes."
"Your personal life is your own. He does seem a nice guy," said Bill.,
"Well my quick background check revealed nothing of concern. I asked someone to do a better one while we headed out. Let me call Dave and have him meet us at the airport, then maybe one of you can apparate me there. Actually, before we do that, what was the idea?"
"He at first suggested a small digital camera thing, but then he noticed I wasn't enthusiastic about that and suggested a fiber scope," said Penelope.
"That's brilliant. Oh, it isn't a complete solution, since we would have to make the image bigger, but I'd bet we could do that with magic."
"So are we still going to pick him up?"
"Yes of course. You did promise, and the idea was clever enough to warrant an interview in any case."
-=oOo=-
"This is an awesome jet," said Jacob.
"Yes it is. We originally planned to use it, but kept it stock. Now, I know you know about well Penelope's..."
"Magic yes. I have a brother."
"Okay, just checking. So, do you really want a job? You would probably have to learn French, eventually, and I can't guarantee you would work on the main program."
"I did IT work for six years before I took off this year. I'm mostly just keeping my expenses low and exploring, but yes, I do need work. If it is interesting work, that would be great. If it actually matters, well the stuff I did before never really seemed to."
"What did you do?"
"I did work for Microsoft's cloud division. They paid enough I could afford this trip, but it wasn't much fun."
"Where would you get a fiber scope?"
"Not a clue. I remembered the tech, but I have no idea where to buy one. Presumably I'd start at Google."
"Do you know what we actually do?" asked Ken curiously.
"No, Penelope mentioned changing jobs, but not much else."
"Sorry, it's always hard to know what I can say. I know you know about magic, but all this work is pretty secret," said Penelope.
"We are the ones beyond the French space ships."
"They are magical in nature aren't they, or at least partially magical in nature."
"I need you to sign some forms." He opened a briefcase and handed them to him.
Jacob carefully read them. "This is mostly just saying you can come after any and all money you ever paid me, or any other legal measure if I violate secrecy."
Ken shrugged. "Your not a French citizen, which limits our legal recourse. We are, however working in joint work with the Americans. I think somewhere towards the end it notes they could go after you for espionage act violations. Basically, if you don't feel you can keep secrecy, then don't sign."
"Ah. I had a clearance. Some of Microsoft's cloud work dealt with defense contractors. It's been lapsed for a bit more than a year, but it was because it was no longer needed. Presumably I could get that reinstated without a lot of work."
"We probably would want you to get that reinstated and increased. Your not eligible for the French equivalent unless you become a citizen."
Jacob turned to Penelope. "It's worth it right?"
"The job is yes. If your doing it for us, well, I like going out with you but I haven't wanted to do more than that, if that makes sense?" asked Penelope hopefully.
"That's fine, and no I'm not taking a job just for that." He smiled. "Though I wouldn't pass up a French dinner."
"I'd gladly take you up on that in any event."
He nodded and signed the forms, before handing them back.
"Yes," said Ken.
"I didn't really need you to tell me. Nothing else fit. So your solving the problems of magic, tech, and space. Count me in."
-=oOo=-
"So, you want me to make the image out of that bundle of glass fibers bigger?" asked Adriane.
"That's our goal. Think you can do it?" asked Ken.
"My first thought is a magnifying glass," admitted Adriane.
"We can go that route, using pure optics. In fact there is a company optimizing that route for us right now, so I leave that to them. There are problems expected keeping everything clear, and viewable from any angle."
"I'm pretty sure I can do it. I just need to look up the pattern used for the Hogwarts ceiling, or go there and figure it out."
"I'll let you to it then."
"Do you have to leave your test television on muggle news?"
"The remote is there. You can change the channel."
Adriane looked at the remote dubiously but soon figured out the button to change channels.
-=oOo=-
A year later they were ready. All the electronics were fully hardened with only magical interfaces exposed. Some of the displays were harder to read, due to the limitations of the fiber optic bundles, but it was not a serious issue.
"Is everyone sure they want to go? This is a bit dangerous," said Ken.
"We are all going. We aren't missing this," said Nicholas.
"Hell, I mean, heck yes," said Penelope.
"I'm certainly not missing it," said Jacob.
Fleur sat in the pilot's seat. Daphne was beside her today with Harry and Hermione behind her.
"Tempest, you have a go for takeoff at your discretion. Please do try to follow the launch profile."
Harry smirked.
"You do know we are about to try going faster than light, and you want us to start using that?" asked Daphne in mild annoyance.
"You'll live."
"We will comply," said Fleur.
"Good."
"Beginning acceleration."
"Looking good Tempest."
Twenty seconds later she said, "V1"
A short time later she pulled gently back and began climbing into the sky.
"Tempest can do vertical takeoffs, but we try not to advertise that," said Kevin.
"Tempest your course is clear. Climb at your discretion."
Fleur gunned it, pushing everyone back in their seats as they shifted to a near vertical climb rate.
"You do know discretion implies reasonable," said the tower controller dryly.
"This a perfectly reasonable maneuver in this ship," replied Fleur.
"Next time clear thirty thousand first please."
"Will do."
-=oOo=-
They spent a week getting far enough away not to be easily monitored, and to move far away from any course where they might conceivably have anything in front of them, no matter how distant.
"So, shall we try it again?" asked Daphne.
"Yes," the others said, even as the ones behind laid a hand on the bare arms of those ahead while Daphne held Fleur's hand directly.
It didn't work.
Six hours of trying resulted in more failures. They quit for the day.
The rest of the week was a repeat, with different people trying.
Monday morning Harry said, "I've got an idea. You know how we learn?"
"You want to focus on those memories," asked Hermione.
"More than that, I want to try to loop it," said Harry softly.
Hermione goggled and then grinned. She nodded her support.
"Let's do it," said Daphne.
Harry took the pilot seat, sending what he remembered to Hermione, teaching her how to do it, as he could feel she did to Fleur, and Fleur did to Daphne and then she did to him.
"So, that is how it works," they thought.
The loop passed again. Somehow their combined intelligence and link to magic, no not magic, it was more than that. It was always more than that. It was so very simple.
It was working, really. It was working. What do they do now? Stop? Why? Plan. Okay. Well that is simple enough. Tempest came out of FTL.
Now what? Plan says we stop this. Really? Why? No idea.
"Stop what you are doing," commanded Adriane sharply.
Should we do that? Guess so.
They all passed out.
-=oOo=-
"Wake up," snapped Perenelle.
"What happened?" asked Daphne.
"You almost died, again. We had to give you another does of Elixer. Yes we have enough for ourselves."
"How could we have almost died? It was all so simple," said Fleur.
"Where are we?" asked Harry tiredly.
"Well we did the equivalent of twenty times the speed of light, so no where close to home," said Ken dryly.
"It wasn't for that long thankfully, so we can get back without your trick, though it will be a couple years, at a wild guess," said Kevin.
"I think we can do it without the loop thing," said Harry.
"I think that is what was dangerous. Magic was somehow helping us think faster and faster and clearer and faster, but it was draining us dangerously," said Hermione.
"It was addictive," admitted Fleur.
"True. We didn't want to stop," added Daphne.
"Even if you can, your not touching magic for two weeks. That scared the hell out of us," said Perenelle.
"Write down what you remember, in as much detail as you can remember," said Ken.
-=oOo=-
Two weeks passed. They spent another day flying at normal speeds and rotating between everyone, and then they finally got permission to try it.
"Listen. You were not listening before. You are to repeat what you did for a second or two only, then stop. If you fail to do so we will smack you or do whatever is necessary to get you to stop," said Ken.
"Understood," said Harry.
They held onto each other again and slipped right into FTL. Harry counted one, zero, and they were out.
"Excellent," said Ken.
"We need to figure out where we are. I suggest some normal travel with point me used to try to place where we are in space," said Kevin.
"Agreed," added Ken.
They took another three days to estimate their position.
"The software we bought to estimate our position in space via the stars is crap," said Kevin.
"Yes, but we have it figured out pretty close. One more direction change and about a second at FTL, and I think we just do the rest normally," said Ken.
"Agreed."
"Actually, I'd like all of us to have a turn, if possible," said Harry.
"Okay three more it is. We can figure that out."
They took several more short bursts and then they were in store for a month of conventional travel to finish.
"Well this is now boring," mused Daphne.
"We figured out FTL, but since you can't really navigate during it, well, it is the best we can do for now," said Ken.
"It would be nice if you could teach it," mused Kevin.
"We have tried to explain," tried Hermione.
"And it makes no sense," said Adriane.
"None at all," agreed Nicholas.
Harry laughed. "We solved one more problem, only to find another problem that keeps us from using it as well as we could."
"That's science for ya," mused Ken.
"I have no clue how to solve this one, and don't you dare try that loop thing. It nearly killed you," said Kevin.
"We can use this as is. A trip to the Andromeda galaxy is now feasible," said Ken.
"We could go there now?" suggested Daphne hopefully.
"Nope. We have a lot of reports to write. The absolute most important thing about this mission is to report all we found, so if we do get killed in the next, they at least have that."
"And I want the program that gets a fix via optical sensors fixed. We have optical fiber running to the exterior of the craft all over. This was supposed to be able to determine our location. I want that fixed before we go further," said Kevin.
"Good point," added Fleur.
"Our shielding did work. We may not have nearly as clear of displays, but none of them died, nor did the computers," said Ken.
Kevin nodded.
-=oOo=-
They spent three more trips getting the automatic star position finding software correct, with the third bringing the lead developer with them along with three hardened laptops they stored in gold containers to protect them during FTL events. One of them burned out anyway, but they now had working software to find their position.
They were just on the way back when they were informed that severe rains were destroying northwestern Turkey. The tech for the Star Finder, one Anthony Edwards asked, "What can you do about that?"
"I think we can setup a gate and direct some of the water to Pluto, assuming they can use it there," said Adriane.
"I'm sending them the message. It will take a few minutes for them to get it," said Fleur.
"Heading towards Turkey," added Hermione from the pilot seat.
"I'll send a message to our primary site, to make sure they fully power down their site, to avoid a potential miss connection," added Daphne.
"You need to reroute to our base for the printed rune arrays that are intended for temporary connections," said Adriane.
"Alright," added Hermione.
"Daphne, you will help me add detail to these to limit the transport to water. Fleur, Harry, hurry and go get the plates. If anyone wants off, when we land is the time."
"Tower, please give us priority landing clearance," said Hermione.
"You are cleared to land Tempest. Welcome home."
"Executing powered landing. Please have access to the storage building with the transport rune sets ready. We are on the clock."
"Confirmed Tempest."
"Strap in. We are about to decelerate."
Tempest came to a precision halt a hundred feet from the end of the runway as everyone's seat belts held them in place. The craft floated above the ground as the main cargo ramp came down. Harry and Fleur removed their belts and ran out of the bridge and out of the ship. Adriane and Daphne immediately started modifying the panels as they were brought in.
Ten minutes after that they got notification from Pluto that they would have a site ready to receive the water in two hours.
Ninety minutes later they were done with the modifications and were back accelerating down the runway and back into the sky. Fleur had the pilot's seat this time.
"I have a priority list of locations now. I want one of you to stand by near the portal, to make sure no one gets sucked in. The other will have to power it. We will pause as needed between sites to allow sufficient rest," said Ken.
"Understood."
-=oOo=-
Anthony looked down at the massive whirlpool that was sucking the six foot deep water out of the street. Harry was powering that one, even as Daphne stood on a nearby tall truck with her magic constantly searching for other people. That ran for nearly an hour before they closed it down. A small explosion occurred as the collapse of the gate as the one time use runic array destroyed itself. Daphne and Harry flew up into the open ship before they moved to their next location.
It was another week of work, with the main limitations being how much those four, and occasionally Perenelle, Nicholas, and Adriane could do. Even if they weren't too tired to do more, the wizards on Pluto were, so that was their rate. One week of work to cut the severity of the disaster in half before they again returned to their base and an army of techs began going over Tempest to verify its condition.
-=oOo=-
They were in the Elysee Palace grand meeting room. The room was filled with press and VIPs as the French president took to the podium.
"It is my great honor to announce the Pathfinder Mission. During Pathfinder our astronauts will conduct the first attempt to reach another galaxy."
"How long do you think it will take to get there?"
"A lot of that will depend on our new FTL technology. Our group plans to travel for a year. We will be honest. The most likely explanation is they return in another year. If, however, they think they can reach it in their lifetimes, they are free to continue on."
"What about food and such? How could they possibly have enough?"
"Some of our new discoveries, are, I'm afraid secret. Never fear though, they will be sending back video messages, including video periodically. The launch will of course, also be covered."
"What if you succeed?"
He smiled. "We have great plans then, but we don't want to spoil them."
"Oh come on."
"Sorry, though again, in all odds they won't get that far. We have tested our FTL technology, but not at such ranges, so I suppose we shall see."
"What is your FTL technology?"
"And once again I cannot say. We have to protect our hard earned secrets."
"Some are saying your technology is a fraud."
"And yet both us and the Americans have been to Pluto. They operate a base there now, in partial thanks to us. We were also pivotal in the asteroid mission awhile back."
"You still haven't explained how you destroyed it."
"And I still won't. Suffice it to say that two good men died to save us, and leave it at that."
"That you won't even give names for."
"Their families did not want notoriety. Sorry."
-=oOo=-
"So how long do you think the statute will hold?" asked the president tiredly.
"Not long enough?" opined Ken.
The president sighed and nodded. "Good luck on your flight."
-=oOo=-
"You know it is fortunate that whatever you are doing isn't affected by relativity, or we would have some severe problems," said Kevin.
"Yes, I would greatly prefer if everyone I know isn't old and dead when we return," said Fleur.
"The first part of our journey is a one hour FTL event starting with Hermione," said Ken.
"That is double the time we have done before, and our average velocity seems to be taking marked jumps as time increases," said Kevin.
"Let's hope so. This trip might become actually feasible."
"I'm ready," said Hermione.
Harry was to her right. He held her hand as Fleur behind him held loosely onto him while Daphne behind Hermione did the same.
The view ahead shifted to nothing but blues and whites as they entered whatever it was they were doing and stayed there.
Penelope started singing softly a familiar Bon Jovi song.
Whoa, we're half way there
Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer
Take my hand, we'll make it, I swear
Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer
"Keep singing," asked Fleur softly as they continued.
Tommy's got his six string in hock, now he's holding in
When he used to make it talk so tough, ooh, it's tough
Gina dreams of running away
When she cries in the night, Tommy whispers
"Baby, it's okay, someday"
We've gotta hold on to what we've got
It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not
We've got each other and that's a lot for love
We'll give it a shot
Suddenly, about forty minutes in they all abruptly stopped.
"Is there a problem?" asked Ken.
"There is something up ahead. I don't even know how I know that, but I know it is true," said Hermione.
"According to this we just traveled an estimated seventy thousand light years," said Kevin.
"The hell?" asked Ken.
"I can't explain it either. I recommend setting this duration as our new max. That would put us at Andromeda at thirty six of them, which is frankly ridiculous," said Kevin.,
"Agreed, but what is ahead?"
"There is nothing on sensors," said Bill.
"Which given our speeds means almost nothing. Accelerate conventionally for now and try to figure it out with magic I guess."
They kept trying, using such examples as, "Point me asteroid," and "Point me planet." Nothing worked till they said, "Point me ship." That worked.
"Well, I certainly didn't expect that, let alone in the gulf between galaxies," muttered Ken.
"Change course one degree. Run an hour like that. Get a new fix. Get a distance," said Kevin.
After a bit of work it turned out that they were about two weeks away in conventional travel, which was insanely close in their FTL speed. Whatever warning they got, was clearly not enough. Of course space was big. The odds of actually colliding was still minimal.