PRIME DIRECTIVE: Space may be the final frontier, but I'll never get there by any monies derived from this as Harry Potter and all properties of such are owned by the Dark Lady JKR. All content, characters related to Star Trek are owned by Paramount Pictures, Inc....except maybe some of that stuff that ended up being used in Starfleet Battles which is owned by the Amarillo Design Bureau who used much of their content via the Starfleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph Schnaubelt and published by Ballantine Books.
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Chapter Note: Small change from canon: the aliens on the planet and the ones which contact Voyager are different species in my story.
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN – GRAVITY – PART ONE
(Episode: Very AU version of ST:VOY Gravity)
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PITHY STATEMENT RELATING TO THIS CHAPTER: "Sometimes being lost is the best way to find yourself." (Ether: Into the Nemesis) – L. J. Vanier – American author ? – Present
LAST UPDATED ON: 03-20-2021
Captain's Blog, Star Date 51350.3. Well my life continues to be a shitshow. As V'Lana predicted, most of the fleet treats me like a leper. However, I'll take it as a win that no one is wearing a "Potter Stinks" button. Even so, I've spent almost all of my time on the Phoenix since even some of V'Lana's people were shaken by what I accidentally did. Luckily for me Cardassians are rather pragmatic and stoic so Alars hasn't jumped on the bandwagon of calling for my head.
In truth, I'm not surprised people were horrified, given the footage Uriash downloaded from the Devorian Starbase. It's chilling and that's coming from someone who previously had an up-close-and-personal encounter with Fiendfyre from the standpoint of a potential victim. What can you do or say in the face of the unthinkably awful?
I once called up Dumbledore with the Resurrection Stone because his portrait wouldn't answer my questions on the unthinkably awful. Because what else can you call his plan that led me from being taken from Sirius Black the night my parents were murdered to the Privet Drive? How would my life have been different if, burdened with his godson, Sirius had not gone after Peter and subsequently not been thrown into Azkaban without a trial? Both our lives would have been better but that wouldn't have gotten me to the point where I was willing to die in the Forbidden Forest at the hands of Voldemort now would it? So many terrible things he did, many of which I have heard rumor of but, for my own sanity, have never tried to confirm. His response from beyond the grave? 'I did what I felt was right' was his answer. That was it. Everything he did, good or bad, was all to get me to the right place, in the right frame of mine to go to my death so Voldemort could be killed for good. All his apologies and talk of regret falls a bit flat for me given me blatantly was lying to me my entire life. In the end, for the greater good, I was a means to an end.
So, I'm left to wonder if this isn't one of those things in life that are fundamentally unfair. Dumbledore told me to make a choice between what is right and what is easy. I did what I thought was right even though the easy path would have been to just slaughter those Devore out of hand. Would it give any comfort to the dead that I was trying to give them a chance? That I refused to just kill those who were inconvenient simply because I could?
I seem to be sleeping more of late and I find myself, in dreams, wondering if being the hero or villain just depends on who is telling the story? How many more sentients are going to die because of my need to save people? What is the easy path here? What is the right path?
And is there a right path?
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SHUTTLE BAY, USS EQUINOX, SECTOR 366 , DELTA QUADRANT – STAR DATE 51355.3
"I really hope Tridiva won't hold this mission against me," Maria Gilmore said as she packed more equipment into her tool bag.
"Why would she?" Ensign Samantha Wildman asked as she continued to likewise pack her own bag with various life-science sensors.
"Well back when we were on the Pit Stop, she had lamented how she hadn't been on any away missions for a long time. Since then, she's been on two but I'm a civilian now so I feel like I'm taking someone's slot," Maria explained. Around the two, the others of the mission bustled about, loading the Delta Flyer for its upcoming flight.
"Well it might be that you're linked with Tom and he called some favors in. That and you're still an engineer and I was already assigned to the mission in the slot Lieutenant Mohindra would be put into. Besides, because you're a civilian now means we get an engineer without any of the duty cycles being interrupted," Samantha said as she finished packing and zipped up her bag as Harry came around the corner of the Flyer.
"Are your bags ready, ladies?" Harry asked.
Maria zipped up her bag as well and brought it over to Samantha's. "We are now."
Harry nodded and, with a wave of his hand, shrunk the bags. He then took out what looked like luggage tags and stuck them to the bags that had gone from duffel bag size down to something you could fit in a purse. He then tapped both tags with his finger, causing them to glow for a moment.
Harry looked up, "These tags are something I learned back when I was working with a lot of non-Magicals. A lot of magic isn't much use without the mage to activate it. So if for any reason I'm not around, you just have to hold those tags for a minute while thinking about the original size. Just be sure to you leave enough room for it to grow back to its proper size."
Both Maria and Samantha nodded as Tom, Treana and Tuvok all came over with various bags and boxes to be shrunk. Treana was practically bouncing on her feet as Harry shrunk the rest, "I'm so happy you being able to shrink certain things means I can bring the really sensitive instruments which normally wouldn't fit along," she said happily.
"It does give us more mission capabilities as does using the Flyer," Tuvok said in that 'state-the-obvious' way he had.
Tom laughed, "I'm betting you wished we'd jumped on the Delta Flyer concept earlier."
Tuvok merely shook his head slightly, "In theory yes, however with the technology both Harry, Seven and many of the former drones brought to the design process means a previous version would have simply been a jumped-up shuttle not the improved runabout it ended up becoming."
Tom shrugged, "It's too bad we weren't able to snag any of the Devore ships on our way out of their space. With the Delta Flyer design, it would be nice if we had a designated carrier for the Earhart and Neelix's Baxial to say nothing of the Marauders. Then we could have room to replace our shuttles with more Flyers."
"I think just getting out of Devore space alive with no casualties was enough of a win," Harry said dryly.
Almost instantly, a stillness settled over the others. Harry cursed himself mentally for bringing up what was still very much the elephant in the room. Obviously there hadn't been any deaths (surprisingly given the damage to the Marianne) in their fleet but the loss of so many Devore at Galaron III was still a raw subject.
Predictably it was Tuvok that broke the silence, "We must continue with the loading in order to meet our launch window. With the fleet breaking up on the various supply missions, it is important we do not delay."
The team split up until only Harry and Tuvok stood by the Flyer. "I'm surprised you accepted me coming on this mission, Tuvok," Harry finally said.
"As a Vulcan, it is not logical for me to make judgements based on emotion. I can logically condemn your actions as well as understand the reasons you made the choices you did. Until such time as the Fleet Council calls for a vote to expel you from our fleet, it would be illogical not to use your talents. Additionally, those speaking in your defense put forth valid reasons why we should not jump to a decision."
Harry harrumphed at that, "That and the fact that you folks might not be able to get rid of me if I wasn't inclined to go."
"That is a fact which V'Lana often made. It is regrettable that humans continue to invest time and emotional currency into trying to put balm on their conscience. While there are significant moral issues in play, the fact that we have few options clearly shows that such actions are counter-productive," Tuvok said with the look of a man who trying to accept the choice between two bad options.
"So, no use crying over spilt milk, Tuvok? Well I've been wrestling with my own demons. I wish more people understood it hasn't been easy one me. They can feel morally outraged all the want; they don't have to live with the guilt," Harry said darkly before signing. "Unfortunately, guilt and I are long, long-time dance partners. There is little any of the crew could do or say which is worse than what I'm already doing to myself."
"Which is one of the main reasons I felt it was important for you to be on this mission," Tuvok pointed out. "My work to master my emotions gives me an insight into just what those types of emotions must be doing to you. Staying in seclusion on the Phoenix is not healthy even if it does help keep tension among the crew to a minimum."
Harry smiled slightly, "I guess you're bloody well fucked when the Vulcans are the one looking after your emotional health."
Tuvok merely raised an eyebrow before gesturing towards the open hatch, "Be that as it may, we have a mission to finish."
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CRASH SITE, UNKNOWN PLANET, SECTOR 366, DELTA QUADRANT – DAY ONE
Harry looked out of the cracked main window and muttered, "And another fun-filled adventure in the bloody, balls-up life of Harry Potter begins."
He sat down in the now empty pilot's chair to take stock. He had already moved all the unconscious crew to back of the Flyer and found they were mostly fine and just suffering from the effects of a dampening field the Federation used as a sort of 'energy airbag' during crashes.
As Harry began to survey the damage, it was looking like a mixed bag of good and bad…mostly bad. Still, the Flyer had power and most of the structural integrity was intact. Beyond that, most system were offline due to the shock damage and from the crack cockpit window, Harry suspected that the Flyer would be lucky to fly in the atmosphere.
While the Flyer was mostly bad news, a tricorder reading showed the bulk of the good news. It looked like they'd crashed in some rocky desert, but it was a rocky desert on a very Earth like planet. The gravity was only 2% lower than Earth's and the atmosphere was similar. A little higher in oxygen but nothing that would cause them to have to wear breathing apparatus.
It was hot though. 40 degrees but Harry couldn't tell if it was mid-morning or mid-afternoon by the position of the system's sun. He hoped it was afternoon given it would get even more scorching if it was still morning. Tuvok might like it that hot but Harry found that for all his complaints about the cold, drafty Hogwarts, he did better in cold, wet climates.
Then there were the various life-signs Harry was reading. There was a weird interference to his scans but at least he could tell that there was one Terkellian and 13 aliens of a type which wasn't in the database. There were also a smattering of animal life-signs but it was hardly the picture of bio-diversity. Still, at least for now they were stable and the ship wasn't in danger of blowing up from an engine breach.
He flipped a switch and then typed in a command code. "Zim? Are you online?" Harry asked.
There was a pause before a crackly voice came from the overhead speaker, "Please state the nature of the medical emergency." Another pause and Zim sighed, "I really wish there were a way to remove that irritating bit of coding. I am online although until repairs are made, I can only function at 85 percent capacity."
"Crew status?" Harry asked as he continued to review the ship's assessment of the damage. Like Zim, it appeared the Flyer's computer wasn't running at full speed either.
"Scans show that Commander Tuvok should wake in under five minutes. Treana will be next within ten minutes. Ms. Gilmore, Ensign Wildman and Lieutenant Paris will not wake for anywhere from half an hour to one and a half hours. However, a basic stimulant shot will wake them without any risks. It appears that the dampening field kept injuries to minor bruising although I'm expecting everyone will have a sore neck."
Harry rubbed the back of his own neck, "I hear you. Okay, well if you can, fire up GO-4 and take stock on the Flyer. With you and the Flyer's computer running wonky, I'd rather not trust the readings. As soon as Treana wakes up, I think Tuvok and I should do a little recon."
"Understood," Zim replied.
OoOoO
"You're not even bloody well sweating!" Harry said as he came up to the top of the hill they had summited to get a better view of their surroundings. He was panting which bothered him given Harry couldn't remember the last time he had got winded just doing basic physical activities which didn't involve intense combat.
Tuvok didn't reply at first as he took in the rocky desert all around them, he's tricorder in hand and beeping quietly. "Vulcan is a harsh planet. Even so, it is good you are with us as we will need to adapt our clothing to deal with this environment. Even we Vulcans wear clothing similar to desert dwelling sentients across the galaxy do. I am assuming your transfiguration skills can do this easily?"
Harry nodded before pulling out his tricorder and doing his own battery of scans before finally muttering, "Not good. I was hoping for an oasis or maybe a river but nothing of that in range of my tricoder. I hope Treana can figure out what this weird interference is and compensate for it."
"Our current rations and stores of other consumables should be enough to enable us to comfortably survive till one of the fleet rescues us," Tuvok said. "Given our last known position before whatever caused us to crash, it is likely to be the Equinox."
Harry frowned as he stowed his tricorder back on his belt, "Yeah but that's the rub, isn't it? I checked the sensor logs and found there was some anomaly and you'd barely started a scan and bang; I'm thrown around the back of the Flyer till the dampener field came on for the crash. There wasn't a hint of a planet or a system for that matter on any of the scans we'd done or even on the astrometrics chart Treana used to plan this mission. So, we might want to be careful thinking of a quick rescue."
Tuvok nodded, "A very logical precaution." Tuvok looked down at his tricorder readings, "Even more so due to the number or wrecks in the general facility. Still, as worrying as the presence of so many crashes, it does give us potential resources to use if it takes longer than expected to be rescued."
Harry squinted at some movement to his left and far down the slope, "Speaking of being rescued, I think that Terkellian down there is going to need some help as those chasing her don't seem like they want to have a friendly chat over tea."
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10km FROM CRASH SITE, UNKNOWN PLANET, SECTOR 366, DELTA QUADRANT – DAY 10
"Ĉi tie! Mi trovis ilin!" Noss called out causing Tom to sigh. There were so many things one grew used to in the Federation and aboard their ships. The biggest (and in retrospect the most amazing) was access to the universal translator. The only time they could talk with Noss unimpeded was in the main hold of the Flyer. With all the damage, it was the only place the universal translator worked enough to be useful. Since that first day when Tuvok and Harry had saved the female Terkellian, they'd all been slowly learning each other's language. That included Treana as Tom had been shocked to find she only spoke her native Orion dialect as she'd never learned Federation Standard. It was another reminder that many of the former drones were assimilated long ago before a lot of things common in the 24th Century were standardized and made almost universal.
"Mi iras!" Tom called out as he carefully threaded his way through the craggy terrain. Not only would those damn sand spiders sting you if you weren't careful, the various snakes weren't any better.
Noss smiled indulgently as he came up. "No 'mi iras'!" She pointed to herself and then away. "Mi venas' ĝusta," Noss said as she pointed to where Tom had been and then back at herself.
"Right…mi venas," Tom muttered. He certainly had a bigger appreciation for his ancestor who had to go through this language barrier every time they went someplace new. Today was a day where they would only use Noss' language.
He pulled out his tricorder as Noss pointed again; this time towards a large rock which appeared to have a lot of tunnels underneath it. The tricoder confirmed what Noss obviously suspected; it was a nest of a bird-like species which nested near underground water sources. With their more sensitive tricorders, Tom and the others were working to triangulate if there was a large, underground water source. Tuvok predicted there had to be one due to the amount of life in the area given how desolate it was.
Tom gave Noss a thumbs up which she returned with a gesture Tom remembered as the Terkellian equivalent. Before he could say anything more, a beep sounded from a device on Noss' belt. Both went for their weapons; knife in the case of Noss and a modified phaser for Tom. Due to the interference which saturated the area (which Treana and Samantha were still having trouble figuring out what it was) they had had to modify their phasers with a clunky, add-on device. It limited them to a weak stun setting but it was better than a knife in Tom's opinion.
Even with the protective visor, Tom squinted as he looked around before he pointed and quietly hissed out, "There! Skurks!"
He and Noss both crouched down against the rocks in a way which gave them cover but still allowed them to keep visual contact on the small group of Skurk on the far ridgeline. Luckily for them, Harry had not only transfigured their clothing to better suit the environment, but also had replicated something he called a digital camo pattern. The various shades of beige, brown and orange made it easy for them to blend into the rocks especially with their hoods pulled up.
The aliens were called the Skurk, both the plural and singular name of the species. Not that Tom cared about such things enough not to use 'Skurks' instead. Noss knew little about them other than they had arrived a few months after her own crash and there used to be more of them but that quickly dwindled to what seemed to be the same thirteen she'd spared with for over a year.
Tom respected how much this showed what a real bad-ass Noss was. He would give her good odds of being able to take B'Elanna in a fight, especially if knives were involved. An irreverent thought popped into Tom's head. It was the 24th Century and yet so many of the people he knew (B'Elanna, Harry, V'Lana and now Noss) all were proficient in knife fighting. He wondered if perhaps Starfleet was wrong not to have more classes for dealing with such weapons if you didn't have a phaser handy.
Tom touched his comm-badge and hoped it would connect. After the second tap it finally beeped, "Paris here. We've got a party of seven Skurks on Ridge 14 near Butte 5 heading west. Not sure if they've spotted us." Tom was thankful had managed to get a semi-decent image of the area from Harry levitating GO-4 into the air. That same energy field had caused the range to be minimal but at least they were able to get a decent enough map to start labeling landmarks. With the overall beige color scheme and hazy atmosphere, it was far too easy to get turned around.
"Understood, Lieutenant Paris. I will inform Commander Tuvok. He, Mr. Potter and Ms. Gilmore are close enough to support if needed." Zim replied. Without the Doctor's mobile emitter, Zim was essentially tied to the Flyer.
Noss hissed an alarm. Tom cursed as he saw one of the Skurks holding a device and pointing in their direction, "Change that 'if needed' to 'we've been' spotted, Zim!"
Tom turned to Noss and used a phrase he made sure learned early on, "Ni kuras? Ni batalas?" It was important to be able to get the question of whether to run or fight across.
Noss was looking around her before grimly saying, "Ni batalas ĉi tie." She pointed to a group of rocks to their right. Tom could see it would keep the Skurks from coming at them at more than one or two at a time. That and it would take a lot of time to be able to flank them. Hopefully Tuvok's group would be there by then. With resources scarce, Noss said most fights ended if victory didn't come quick enough. It wasn't worth the risk of losing what little you already had.
Tom followed Noss to where they'd make a stand. Once in position, he checked his phaser and the knife at his side. He wished he'd taken a staff with him. Both Maria and Samantha used them to help them get around. Tom usually didn't unless he needed to go up the two bad hills he had dubbed Misery and Thigh-Buster. Tuvok had Harry transfigure things so their knives could be mated up with the staffs to make a socket-bayonet type spear. Given the terrain, Noss could have used it while he shot at any Skurk who tried to close.
When the approaching Skurks got to within 20 meters, Noss shouted out, "Ĉu vi Skurk pretas morti hodiaŭ?" Tom wasn't sure what the aliens yelled back in response but it didn't sound happy, that was for sure.
Noss looked at Tom whose questioning expression must have been easy to read as she smiled nastily. "Today die ready Skurk?" She said in Standard as bad as Tom knew his Paroli (the Terkellian language) was. Again, Tom marveled at how outnumbered as they were, Noss still was blatantly defiant.
With a roar, the Skurks began to attack. This began a long series of feints, charges followed by retreats. After ten minutes, this resulted in two Skurks stunned and dragged off while both Tom and Noss had moderate slash wounds. Luckily, the billowy desert clothing of Tuvok's design did help against the slashing type attacks the Skurk favored.
Tom was helping Noss bind up a wound to her left forearm when he noticed that all seven of the Skurks were up and milling just out of range. He clucked his tongue in annoyance. Not only was his phaser incapable of firing faster than once every minute or so, it was so weak that the Skurks seemed to be able to slap their friends awake.
Noss saw this as well and she hissed out, "Ne bona! Good not! Kolero batalas."
Tom worked faster. Kolero was a word Noss used about the Skurk a lot. It roughly translated as anger but Zim was of the opinion it was closer to rage. In this case, the Skurks looked to be working themselves up. Tom thought maybe berserker might even apply.
Sure enough, all seven Skurks let out a final howl and rushed towards them. Tom wondered if perhaps his phaser was seen as worth the risk of rushing them. Whatever the reason, the aliens didn't look like they were going to retreat this time.
Tom had always been shocked at how time seemed fluid in a fight. He knew quite a few minutes had gone by given he'd been able to stun three of the Skurks. Yet he suddenly couldn't recall how he got to be on his back, feverishly trying to keep the wickedly serrated dagger from being pushed into his throat by a very angry Skurk. He could hear Noss yelling something and screams of wounded Skurks.
Tom's strength was fading and the knife-point was inches from his throat when there was a green flash and the Skurk suddenly went slack. This was followed by phaser fire and then silence. Even the wounded Skurks went quiet.
Tom rolled the Skurk off him. He belatedly realized that it wasn't stunned; it was dead. Tom looked up to see Harry with his wand out looking at him, an obvious question on his face.
"I'm alright! I'm alright!" Tom said with a drunken wave as he struggled to his feet. The slash on his ribs was hurting like hell and he couldn't wait to get back to the Flyer and break out the dermal regenerator.
He leaned against a rock as Tuvok and Maria came up. The latter gave him a bright smile, "Hey there lover. Glad to see I didn't have to explain to Treana why you didn't come back."
"You and me both!" Tom said as he pulled back his hood and scratched out the sand which invariably ended up in his hair no matter how careful he was.
While Tuvok worked on Noss who had taken another knife wound during the fight, Harry went over to the stunned Skurks and healing the ones with serious injuries. To Tom's eyes, the wizard looked tired. It was odd. Harry had always had this odd sort of stasis to him. Even when he yawned and went off to sleep back in the Fleet, he'd still looked like fatigue didn't touch him. Now he seemed deflated. While Tom knew guilt could really do a number on a person, this seemed different.
Harry finished up what he was doing and turned to Tuvok. "Okay we need to end this today. We know Noss thinks there are a lot more Skurks back at their ship. So, I think we need to parley before this escalates any further."
Tuvok moved so he could continue to work on Noss' injuries but make eye contact with Harry as needed, "What do you suggest?"
Harry gestured to Noss, "So these Skurk chaps know a smattering of Paroli enough to know when their being insulted. However, that's not enough to set up peace negotiations. We can't be fighting among ourselves in this wretched place. I'd also rather not bring these folks back to use the translator on them because that's going to be a lot of back and forth and that opens up risks I don't like. I have a way I can talk to them in a way that I think will make them stand up and take us seriously. Serious enough to also show that they need to stop pissing us off."
Tuvok nodded slightly at this even as Tom's eyes widened at Harry's words. With the memory of the disaster at Galaron III fresh in his mind, he hoped that the Skurks were smart enough not to keep pushing Harry."
"Look, we need to stop this because the longer we're stuck here…well I really don't want to do what I did far too many times during the Eugenics War. They are castaways just like us. Trying to survive. So, I say we use that fact that we have six prisoners to at least force them to hold off long enough for me to talk to them."
"Is this some magical spell that will allow you to talk with them?" Maria asked. It was obvious she was wondering why he hadn't used it with Noss.
Harry smiled in a way that had nothing to do with mirth, "Sort of. Special case. You'll see."
Maria looked at Tuvok, "Well I for one think Harry's right. The basic fact we can't see stars at night and we literally had no inkling of this system before we crashed could mean it might take the fleet a long time to find us. It's bad enough here without having to watch our backs."
Tuvok finished with Noss' bandage, "What is your plan, Mr. Potter?"
As much as Tuvok hadn't seemed to take sides after the whole Devore debacle, it was telling that he had stopped calling Harry 'Captain Potter' in Tom's eyes.
Harry didn't seem to care as he made a dismissive gesture, "I magic up same travois or something and we haul them to their base. If they still have that air-powered bolt thrower Noss told us about, I can shield us. I'm betting between not being able to hurt us and having their people will at least give them pause enough to parley."
Tuvok turned to Noss, "Paciĝi kun Skurk? Vi bone? Vi malbona?"
Tom watched as Noss mulled this over. Of course, Tuvok was learning Paroli like he hadn't used it for a long time and only was just recalling what he used to know. If Tom hadn't known how touchy Vulcans were about mind-melds, he would have asked why Tuvok had initiated one to help him learn the language even faster.
Noss finally nodded, 'Mi bonas pri tio…I am good."
Harry clapped his hands together, "Well then, let's get this party started."
OoOoO
Noss and Maria maneuvered around a rock and she once again marveled at the power that Harry possessed. Not only had he once again done the miraculous by creating stretchers out of rocks, he had done something to make them weigh almost nothing. They had two of the unconscious Skurks just as Tuvok and Tom did. Harry, however, had the last two plus the corpse of the dead Skurk on a pallet that floated behind him.
Noss shook her head slightly at this. So many amazing things she'd seen since the Federation ship had crashed. First being saved by Tuvok right when she felt that her luck had finally run out. Then to see the amazing technology the newcomers had available to them. Their Flyer was the first ship Noss had ever witnessed which remained in a condition anything other than a wreck. Even though it was doubtful the Flyer would ever fly again, the fact they had been able to slowly move it to the wreck of the star-liner Noss been on when she had crashed. While she knew her people weren't in the same league as say the Krenim, they had managed to survive and thrive. This even with the ever-present danger in the form of the Borg. Still, the technology evident in the Flyer made her wonder what Voyager might be like? Back home, friends and family had felt her reckless for going as far afield as she had yet crossing past Devore space was trivial compared to how far Voyager had gone and how far they still had to go.
The last ten days had been intense. Noss had warned the new arrivals that she believed the Skurks might have people in stasis to keep their numbers manageable but the lure of the Flyer might cause them to wake up enough to chance swamping them. It hadn't happened but Noss felt it was because of Harry who had been able to hide so much of what they did. She certainly appreciated her new desert garb. So much better than the scraps she'd had to throw together. It saddened her how so few had survived the crash and none of those had survived the rigors of the planet. The Skurks weren't the only danger. She had personally helped wipe out two groups of hostile aliens. Out of those allies and former ship-mates, none remained alive or had left in hopes of finding a better place to live. She had yet to have any who left return. She wasn't sure if that was a good or bad sign. All she knew was every ship that crashed always came out of the same place in the sky. If there was a chance for rescue, she felt it would come through that portal somehow. This was a common thought and was the reason so many had stayed. That the Delta Flyer had almost managed to survive as well as it had showed might be possible after all.
However, till that time, Noss was happy she had allies again, especially the enigmatic Tuvok. She had found herself becoming more and more captivated by the Vulcan even as it was difficult to get any sort of read on what he was thinking. Zim, the machine being, had explained to her about Vulcans and their dogma of logic and seeming lack of emotion. It was fascinating as it mirrored a similar doctrine that a minority of Terkellian had adopted. While the Terkellian method was more akin to stoicism, it was obvious that the Vulcans had successfully taken the idea to its (no pun intended) logical conclusion."
It was interesting watching the interactions among them. Tom was connected to both Maria and Treana while the other three tended to be more solitary. In the case of Wildman, Noss could empathize given she was away from not only her child but her husband back in the Alpha Quadrant.
Harry Potter was the most isolated. Noss wasn't sure if it was because of his magical powers or something else. A few times she'd be in range of their universal translator, a recent event in the Imperium had been mentioned and everyone would get quiet, especially if Harry was in the room. No one had volunteered the information and Noss didn't want to anger her new allies by asking a potentially uncomfortable question.
As much as she hoped that Tuvok's people would find them and rescue them, Noss felt that if they were as stranded like all the previous castaways, life would certainly be more interesting.
Her musing were interrupted as Tom called out something she couldn't understand even if it was obvious they had been spotted as everyone else halted.
OoOoO
Harry made a motion for the rest to hang back as he eyed the five Skurk who were guarding their wrecked vessel. As Noss had noted, one was behind a cobbled-together dart thrower. He held up both hands, palms facing the Skurk. He called out, "Pacbabilado!" It meant peace talk, truce or parley in the pidgin which had been in place for as long as Noss had been stranded here. He continued to walk forward with the pallet trailing behind him about a meter off the ground. He hoped this would confuse the Skurk into letting him get close enough to do what he came to do.
It didn't work as the Skurk manning the dart-thrower let fly. Still, Harry noted that three of the Skurk yelled at the one who had fired in a manner which seemed to imply they were willing to talk. The other, who appeared to be their leader if the gold band around their neck was anything to go by, just stood there. It seemed unfazed that the bolt had just deflected away from Harry when it got within a meter. Harry knew personal force shields weren't something out of science fiction in the 24th Century so he hoped it meant the leader realized they couldn't hurt him.
After a bit of a debate, the leader made a cutting off gesture before beckoning him forward. Harry got to about 2 meters before stopping. He gestured and the pallet moved to between them. He then woke up the two stunned Skurks. He waited as they drunkenly got up, were obviously confused before they went back to their comrades who began questioning them.
"Amikoj!" Harry called out and raised up 4 fingers on his left hand while gesturing towards where Tuvok and the others stood. "Amikoj bono!" Harry said and pointed towards the two he'd just woken up. While friends wasn't the best fit, it was the only Paroli word he knew to use.
The leader seemed to catch his meaning that the other Skurk were okay if still stunned. He (or whatever gender [if any]) gestured for quiet and made a gesture Harry took to mean he wanted to know what Harry wanted.
Harry said, "Nomo!" and then thumped his chest a few times, "Harry." He then knelt and pointed to the corpse. "Kia nomo?"
The Skurks began to mutter again amongst themselves but the leader didn't move. Harry pointed to the corpse again and said louder, 'Kia nomo?"
This still didn't get a response even though Harry figured "what name" was basic enough for them to understand, especially given their reaction to his question. Finally, Harry thrust out a hand and stunned the Skurk next to the leader. "KIA NOMO?" Harry shouted as he kept his finger pointed directly at the leader.
Harry was about to start stunning again before one of the Skurks Harry had previously stunned called out. "Saartjie! Nomo Saartjie!"
Harry stood back up and made the peace gesture again. He then manifested the Resurrection Stone in his left palm and held it over the corpse's chest. "Saartjie of the Skurk; I summon you!"
There were gasps from not only the Skurk but Harry's shipmates as a translucent image of the deceased Skurk appeared floating near the body.
"Why have you pulled me from my ancestors, my slayer?" Saartjie asked in the typical breathy voice every shade he'd summoned used.
"I need you to talk to your comrades. We can understand each other because I summoned you. So, I need you to help me broker peace between our two groups. We can help each other or we can continue to fight. If that latter, it will not end well for your friends."
Saartjie nodded, "You killed me with a wave of your hand. I will speak to my kin." It then turned and spoke in a language Harry felt sounded vaguely like an Eastern African language he'd heard at an Auror conference before he had learned their world was ending.
Saartjie turned back, "Speak. Gazali recognizes your power and will listen. However, I beg you to be merciful, slayer. The dead whisper your name in fear. Few Skurk remain due to the Borg. Please do not let some of the last of us be sent to our ancestors."
Harry blinked at this, "The Borg assimilated your people?"
Saartjie nodded, "Long ago. Few of us remain for we have been unlucky in trying to find a new home. Each time we felt safe, a new disaster struck. There is little room for the weak in this area of space. Again, I beg for mercy."
Harry shook his head, "There is no need to beg. I do not want to kill anyone. In fact, tell Gazali that we too have had issues with the Borg. One of our number here used to be a drone before I saved her. We come from far, far away from this part of the galaxy. We're just trying to get home and so we have no issues with the Skurk or anyone in the Delta Quadrant. We just want to have peace till our fleet can find us. We are more than willing to help everyone survive till then. From what the Terkellian Noss says, we have access to technology and power no one has ever had here. I'm offering them access to that in exchange for peace."
Saartjie looked at him for a moment then shook its head. "I will tell them. I will tell them they should accept. But you are a fool if you think you will escape here. No one has ever escaped. We have tales going back decades and longer still. Ships crash and bring new refuges. Most die out. None have ever been rescued. This land will be your grave." It turned and began to talk to the leader Gazali.
Harry thought on the dead Skurk's words. There had been no hint of this system or whatever portal that led them here. At night, there were no stars in the night sky. All they could see was the two moons, the system's star. The only three other lights in the sky were probably other planets in the system according to Treana.
The weird energy field made taking in-depth readings to be mostly worthless so far. Harry was worried that while the Federation's technology seemed to above most of the Delta Quadrant races, it wasn't that far ahead. The Devore Imperium certainly had technology which was similar and yet none of the many Devore who had crashed here had made it out from what Noss had said. This area was contested space by a few races, the Neyser being the biggest. That meant a lot of traffic going through it without having to worry about tariffs, inspections and the like. That no one had ever been rescued was chilling.
XxXxX
ARRAKEEN, UNKNOWN PLANET, SECTOR 366, DELTA QUADRANT – DAY 36
Maria was careful to be not grumble too loudly as she worked to extract herself from the bed without waking up Tom or Treana. She made her way to the cooler unit and got out some water. For the most part, simple drinking water was something that wasn't in short supply due to Harry. Now it was all they had to drink given even with rationing, their emergency supplies were never meant to last more than two weeks. At least so far the Delta Flyer's power was stable and thus they squeaked out a sonic shower once a week. It was helpful that the ship Noss had been one when she crashed had been geared towards moving lots of passengers over long periods of time even if it had been mostly empty when it crashed. So, there were some creature comforts available if only very sparingly.
As an engineer, she knew they could jury-rig only so much given the Delta Flyer's engines were design to move the ship, not be a power plant. Still, they had made progress in the week since Harry had magicked the Skurk's ship to where Noss' ship, the Trell had crashed. Only Tom and Tuvok had understood the name Harry had dubbed their impromptu camp site. She kept forgetting to ask Tom about it, though.
She changed into the clothes that Harry had transfigured from their original uniforms. Even staying mostly in the wrecks wasn't something which was comfortable in a standard Starfleet uniform or general clothes used throughout the Federation. She was rapidly beginning to hate the sand and grit. One got so used to the hyper-cleanliness aboard a starship that one always forgot how dirty a planet could be. She was living the life which made spacers sneeringly referred to being on a planet as being dirtside. She certainly was dirty enough, even with the occasional sonic shower, to merit being called a dirtsider even if that was normally slang for those who never left their planet of origin.
She went out into the main hall which had originally been a common room on the Trell. It was their main living and workspace now. The Skurk's ship, named the Vaartig which simply meant vessel in the Skurk language, didn't have much in the way of room as it housed over 40 Skurks in cryostasis. Almost all the power the Vaartig still was able to produce went into keeping those stasis pods running. The majority of the work of the camp had been working on fusing the two wrecks together along with a bay for the Delta Flyer. It was hoped it could be made to fly again which could be vital in finding more food and resources.
Maria went to check the main conduits which were power their camp before she headed off to get breakfast. Hopefully, they'd have better food options soon. Tuvok, Noss and Gazali had been working on a plan to do a systematic search of the surrounding area. It seemed that with all the dangers, most castaways had kept close to their ships or lived with allies. Even with resources being so scarce, the risks of searching for other down vessels was great. Noss had lost two crewmembers of the Trell on such a mission. What was sad was it appeared that the sentient (Noss hadn't been close enough to tell who they were) had been alone. They had chosen to panic and fight rather than see if they could work together. With their phasers and a group big enough to send out a larger search party as well as defend their camp was a good sign they could get more resources and maybe get other small groups to join them. Maria just hoped it meant a break from snake, spider, or bird stew. She was already sick of their limited diet.
Finishing her initial chore for the day, she went into the dining area which was the area they'd been able to keep free of the grit and sand which seemed to penetrate everywhere no matter how hard they cleaned. She found Samantha already there. Surprisingly, she was nibbling on a chunk of a ration bar. "I can't believe you have any of those left!"
Samantha swallowed, "This is the last half of the last one. I'm not feeling all that great given the time of month." She frowned, "I'd kill for an analgesic hypospray right now."
Maria nodded. She wasn't looking forward to when her own period came. Like the universal translator, access to various medicines which took any pain or discomfort away was something one began to miss almost immediately."
Samantha took another small bite of her ration-bar. "So I decided I needed something that seemed like anything remotely normal. How messed up is it that this is all I could come up with? Sad how an emergency ration bar which you'd only eat if you were forced too is now a delicacy to be missed."
Maria chuckled at this as she worked on gathering up her morning food ration. Samantha was doing calculations on her PADD so Maria ate in silence. By the time she was done, Samantha sighed, "Well I guess it's time to get back too it."
Maria nodded in agreement, "You know, maybe you can ask Harry to magic up a rock which radiates heat. That could help with the pain."
Samantha made a non-committal type grunt but nodded at the suggestion anyway. It was obvious she was not looking forward to the day. Even with some of the tools from the various ships (now with power to some which had been previously unusable) and a dash of Harry's magic, a lot of their daily work involved physical labor neither women had been exposed to before. It was worse for Samantha, Maria felt, given at least she got to go to bed with someone. Samantha was cut off from not only her husband, but her child as well. Maria only hoped that with the amount that Samantha did, she was falling asleep almost immediately at night and not lying awake and brooding.
That being something even Tuvok seemed to do on occasion. Each day that went by was stressful. How long would the fleet look for them before giving up? Maria was especially worried about this given their crew and its relation to the Commodore. She tried to take comfort in the thought that Janeway was going to want Tuvok back as well as Samantha given she was Naomi's mother. But then there was Tom. With him being an ex-con and one she had discipline harshly in the past, how invested was she in her former pilot? Treana was useful but had barely been in the fleet longer than Maria herself. Janeway wouldn't be as emotionally attached to either one of them.
Then there was Harry.
A lot of fleet scuttlebutt had been about what to do with the wizard. Now the fleet might see losing the Flyer as regrettable but something that did fix their intractable problem of what to do with Harry Potter. Just that reason alone made Maria worry that the Commodore would pull the plug on the search earlier than she might otherwise do.
The door opened and Harry came in wearing the full outside gear. He even had his hood still up and only took off his visor and the facial scarf used to help keep windblown sand out of one's mouth. He tiredly plopped down in a chair and tossed his PADD on the table, "Well today's a wash. Sandstorm is about 30 minutes away and looks to be bad enough for everyone to have to stay inside.
Maria groaned even as she was happy she wouldn't have to go outside. Noss and the various Skurk had made it quite clear that the sandstorms were the biggest danger the planet threw at them. If you got caught in one, it was easy to get buried or even pass out from not being able to breathe the sand-soaked air. Maria had seen quite a few alien skeletons from previous castaways who hadn't been able to find shelter and had their flesh shredded off them.
"I really need to see if we can rig a floater unit to get a better warning for these storms," Maria said as she poured herself more water and sat back down.
Harry shook his head, "Right now I don't think we have enough power for something like that."
Samantha snorted in such a way which made both Harry and Maria look at her, "What?" Maria asked.
"You're such an engineer. You always go for the highest tech solution to a problem," Samantha said with a sly grin.
Maria pursed her lips, "And you have a better solution?" It was rare for the life-science oriented ensign to ever gain-say her opinion on mechanical options.
"I do. Even with all of our high-tech toys, sometimes you still need to go low-tech if you don't want to compromise your data. A lot of species are not going to act naturally if say you are using a floater camera to record their behavior. So, in this case, instead of some sensor using a powered lift, we can use a simple balloon. All we need to do is ensure the tethering cord is strong enough to deal with wind gusts and a reliable way for the sensor to tell us when it thinks the wind is going to get too strong and it should be hauled down. Even if Harry can't magic up some helium, we can easily go with a hot air approach. Sure, it'll be a pain having to bring it up and down to heat the air back up but it's still better than having to rely on our short-ranged tricorders."
Maria and Harry traded looks before Harry chuckled, "I should have thought of that. Too many wizards always jumped to the magical option and if there wasn't one, they'd normally give up even if there were normal ways of doing it. I used to piss off a lot of my fellow aurors by using regular forensics to solve crimes. Too often they'd just cast a few spells and if it came up negative, they'd call it good and stop looking. I knew better." He turned to Samantha, "And yes, I can probably manage helium. Lucky for me, magic is mostly intent to I don't need a degree in chemistry or something to create it. I just have to clearly imagine what I want."
Before Maria could stop herself, she blurted out, "Is that why things went so bad on with the Devore?"
Samantha looked worried Harry might react badly to the question but the wizard simply sighed and leaned back in his chair. "In a way, I think it did. Fiendfyre is a tricky thing."
"Fiendfyre…that doesn't sound ominous at all," Samantha muttered.
Harry gave a wan smile, "No, it's just as nasty as it sounds. It's pretty much literally summoned hellfire. There is a lot of debate on whether or not its semi-sentient or is just responding to subconscious thoughts of the caster."
Harry paused and both Maria and Samantha kept very still. They both wanted to hear from the horse's mouth what really had happened that day.
"So first off, as you can guess by the name, Fiendfyre is a dark spell. Unless you're trying to destroy something that is magically resistant to pretty much anything you throw at it, using it means you're probably an evil wanker. I'm surprised it was never grouped in with the Unforgivable Curses given how dangerous it is."
"I think we all saw how dangerous it can be," Maria said quietly.
Harry nodded, "Yes but even I was surprised at what happened. As I said, Fiendfyre is tricky. It doesn't always act the way you'd expect. For example, during the final battle in the civil war I was involved in during my teen years, an enemy of mine cast it. Now first off, I was shocked this guy, who was no winner in the IQ department, was able to cast it in the first place especially since he was a student like I was at the time. Secondly, while it's not unknown for it to happen in regard to Fiendfyre, normally if the caster of a spell dies then any spells they have active stop. This didn't happen that day. Maybe it was because the Fiendfyre itself did the deed. You following?"
Both Maria and Samantha nodded.
Harry went on, "But that day had another weird thing happened. We were in a special room, a room magical even to wizards. It was called the Room of Requirements and before you went in, you'd imagine what you want and it would make it happen. Sort of like a magical holodeck. It didn't really create things but it would draw things from inside the magical castle of Hogwarts where it was. One of the major aspects of this room was The Room of Lost things. Hogwarts itself has long been thought to be semi-sentient and if something were lost it would eventually end up there. Either by the house elves moving it there or the castle itself calling it there. When I first accidentally ended up there, it was this huge hall of stuff you'd expect to find getting lost or not needed in a school over a thousand years old."
"So, a big lost-and-found slash storage room then?" Samantha asked.
Harry nodded, "Yup. The house elves used it as such. Those were little magical helper creatures that were bound to the castle. This room was filled with broken junk, stored items, lost items and stuff people had been desperate to hide. That was part of the magic of the room. My old headmaster found it once because he was desperately trying to get to a loo and went past where the room was and it manifested as a one. So, students trying to ditch contraband before a prefect or professor found them often found it. My enemy Voldemort stashed one of the items keeping him from dying in it probably because he'd been thinking so hard of a place to hide it. Which is why I was in there the day Vincent Crabbe cast Fiendfyre to try to kill me and my friends. Ironically, he ended up destroying the very item I was there to destroy and he was tasked to protect."
"The idea of a magical civil war having a fight in a school is rather terrifying to think about," Maria remarked.
Harry laughed bitterly, "It was worst living through it, believe me. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is the Fiendfyre didn't disappear when Crabbe died. However, even as it consumed everything in the room, we managed to contain it simply by shutting the door! So, the fire was able to destroy all these magical items and yet couldn't go through the door? Maybe it was an aspect of the Room of Requirement's magic but I often wondered about it over the years."
"Shouldn't that have meant those Devore ships would've been destroyed that much sooner? If the stone of the castle wouldn't burn, does that mean metal wouldn't either?" Samantha asked.
Harry shook his head, "Oh no, things that had been machined can fall victim to Fiendfyre, but here's the thing. I purposefully directed the Fiendfyre to toy with the Devore, to frighten them more than destroy them. I can do that because I've got access to some unique magical items."
"Your wand, your cloaking device and that dead summoning stone, right?" Samantha asked.
"Yes, the Deathly Hallows. The Elder Wand really amps up a wizard's magic. It allows me to do things only the most powerful and learned wizards could hope to attempt. They are a part of me now and that gives me options most Magicals don't have. So, my desire was for the Fiendfyre to be more of a tormentor than a destructor. I figured that would retard the inherent destructive nature of the Fiendfyre so that they'd be able to get far enough away to stop being a threat before enough of their ship's systems failed and they had to abandon ship."
"But they got to Galaron III faster before that happened," Maria pointed out.
Harry sighed again, "Well as I told V'Lana, it's hard to let go of your upbringing. To me, when I hear the term 'light-year' I still default into thinking that takes a long time to travel. The original Phoenix, a DY-100 ship, was scheduled to take 26 years to get to the system we called Gliese 667 in the old nomenclature. Too bad we hit a micro-wormhole before we got there and ended up practically on top of a Borg Cube on the other side. My point is I don't automatically think of space travel in a measurement of days or even hours. So that was strike number one against me."
Samantha looked at Maria who nodded back. It made sense to her. She'd already noticed that Harry, for all his time hooked up to the Collective, was oddly backwards in terms of technology. She'd passed it off at first to being a wizard, but in light of what he'd just said it made sense that he could make such a mistake. His formative years had been when humans had barely landed on the moon as well as landing a few probes around the solar system. It was easy for her to forget this fact given humans, from Maria's perspective, had had warp travel for more than two centuries.
Harry tapped his fingers idly on the table before going on, "Now when the Devore ships got to their base is when things get wonky again. Remember how I said that Fiendfyre is semi-sentient and is like hellfire? Well that's the thing. Historically Fiendfyre is like a demons in the old myths. If you summon one, you have to be very careful how you give it commands because it will always interpret them to their own ends. Fiendfyre is aptly named. It is cursed fire and it wants to consume and destroy. Also, this was the first time Fiendfyre was physically so distant from its caster. Right there puts us into unfamiliar territory. The way I see it, the Fiendfyre jumping into the transporter stream sort of makes sense if you think of the fire as being alive enough to realize its prey is running away. I told it to torment them after all."
Harry looked away for a moment before he went on in a more hushed tone, "What I could never imagine is that the Fiendfyre could sustain itself for as long as it did. There are of incidents of Fiendfyre getting stronger as it consumes things. It's why even when I should be able to dispel Fiendfyre I cast that back in the Eugenics War, I always used special ward stones to keep the Fiendfyre contained. Once it had consumed everything, it would die out even if I didn't dispel it first."
"But Galaron III didn't having such stones, "Maria said.
Harry nodded, "It also had eaten a lot of life. Given I doubt there was any magic there, the Fiendfyre had gorged on the thousands on the battle station and then started feeding on the ambient life on the planet. Samantha, you'd be the first to know how much bio-mass can be found in simple life forms on a planet."
Samantha nodded, "It usually is the bulk of all life on a planet but is overlooked for actual flora and fauna you can interact with."
"So basically, you're saying that since the Fiendfyre was able to keep eating life, it didn't have to die off?" Maria asked.
Harry nodded, "That's my theory. Also, it reverted to its base nature to consume regardless of my initial intent. That planet is dead down to the microbial level because the Fiendfyre would eat any and all life before dying out. Unless someone seeds that planet with off-world life, Galaron III is going to have to evolve life all over again."
"While I'm sure it's cold comfort, but that's something at least," Samantha pointed out. "A lot of planets wiped clean in wars are left irradiated or worse. An unimaginable disaster but at least it is a reboot if you will."
"That's what I try to tell myself when I think of it," Harry agreed. "Still doesn't mean I didn't accidentally destroy an entire planet's bio-sphere. All those sentients dying in horror because I can tell you from personal experience that Fiendfyre assumes shapes of diabolical creatures. It's not just a wall of fire you can't outrun. No; you get the feeling of being chased and finally killed by monsters made of fire who are enjoying killing you."
Harry hung his head and went quiet. Both Maria and Samantha weren't sure what they could say in response to that. They were saved from saying anything when Treana came in with a haunted look on her face.
The look alone was enough for Maria to leap out of her chair and rush to Treana's side, "Treana! What is it! Is Tom okay?" Maria was glad they were in a room covered by the universal translator. They had had to move their initial bedroom because it was a pain for her and Tom not to be able to talk with Treana otherwise. She was worried because Treana's normal green Orion skin seemed to have a gray tint in her face.
Treana shook her head, "No, Tom is fine. I…I just read over the data I've had the computer working on. It finished during the night. I finally know why we can't see any stars."
"I'm sensing some cosmically bad news coming up," Harry said in a flat tone.
Maria led Treana over to the table and quickly got her some water.
Treana drank and stared at the glass in her hand in a way that made Maria wonder if she was actually seeing it.
Finally, the Orion woman said, "The reason we can't see any stars is this system is in a pocket of sub-space. It's the reason we have that weird energy field. I think it is solar energy rebounding off the borders of the sub-space bubble. There are various points in this pocket which are thinner but it appears only one interfaces with normal space. That being the anomaly everyone falls though."
"That explains why all the castaways end up here," Samantha said. "That doesn't sound too bad. Seven is pretty sharp. Shouldn't she be able to pinpoint this anomaly with the Astrometrics sensors?"
Treana looked up with a sick, sad smile on her face, "I sure she will. That's not the cosmically bad news. She will be able to find us alright. The trouble is when she will find us. Time runs at a different rate in this pocket of sub-space. From what I can tell, it is on the order of every month here equates to only an hour back in normal space. So, to the fleet, it's only been a little over an hour since we fell into the anomaly. We had checked in two hours before we went down. So that means it'll be nine hours for before we're expected to check in again. So to us, it'll be nine months before anyone has their first hint something is wrong unless one of the ships tries to contact us before that time."
Maria felt her face go slack and she was betting her face was looking just as horrified as Samantha's. "That means it could be years before either Voyager or the Equinox aborts their mission to look for us."
Treana nodded grimly, "Yes. Figure we fail to check in. A day goes by before they decide to abort to come find out what happened. About another two days depending on which ship comes to look for us. Then it's up in the air about how long before they figure out what happened. So best case, call it 3 days with four being more realistic. And that's 3 days past us already being here for the next 9 months."
"Six years," Samantha said hollowly. "Six years for us to just get to the earliest we can expect them to just discover what happened. Who knows how long it might be before they can attempt to contact us or figure out how to rescue us?"
Harry sighed, "I'd say we need to plan on spending at least the next decade here." He looked at Samantha, "Not a problem for Tuvok or me given I'm functionally immortal. For you? Naomi might wonder how her mother aged a decade in a few days even if she had her own growth spurt."
Maria's heart broke as Harry's words resonated with the ensign. "My god! I won't see my baby girl for years!"
"I feel like I need to apologize for all of this. My life is a long list of one disaster after another. You just got dragged into another," Harry said as he finally pulled back his hood and ran a hand through his typically messy hair.
Even as the news they'd be trapped here for years was pinging around her head, Maria noticed something off. "Harry…you said you're functionally immortal. What does that mean?"
Harry shrugged, "I can be killed. Wizards are tough and with my magical items I'm bonded too, I'm even harder to kill. I don't age though. If I hadn't forced the issue, I'd still look like I did a few months before my eighteenth birthday."
"If you don't age, why is your hair turning grey then?" Maria asked.
Harry blinked at this before conjuring a mirror. On seeing the weathered face, with age lines and salt & pepper grey hair, Harry exclaimed, "Bloody hell!"
Maria reached out and took Harry's other hand, "Maybe those ten years will be just as bad for you!"
Harry just kept looking at the mirror and seeing a middle-aged man staring back at him. He realized that maybe him being tired and sleeping more wasn't just stress but him just being more normal.
It suddenly hit him. He'd been away from Earth a long time but until recently he hadn't used any magic. Using Fiendfyre used a lot of magical energy and he'd used even more to help keep the Phoenix from being destroyed when it rammed the Devorian dreadnaught. Could it be that the last bit of Earth's magic was finally draining away? Was his actual age finally catching up with him?
Harry dispelled the mirror and realized how what would have been something he did without a thought had become something like it felt when he'd been at Hogwarts. He'd been so preoccupied with things, the guilt from destroying Galaron III being the biggest, he hadn't noticed.
He was almost 400 years old. Older than the oldest magical had ever lived. Harry realized he might not last 10 months let alone ten years. Bloody hell indeed!
XxXxX
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Next chapter we'll finally get to see what Harry thinks on being a planet killer and not what he says to others! Hopefully, I can write it before the air quality kills me. As I'm posting this, I'm on day 4 in a row of air quality rated as Hazardous and worst in the world. Again, as I post this, the current air quality index is at 509 which is 209 point above what is rated as hazardous.
Voyager or Harry Potter: So there has been a lot of reviewers who brought up something I hadn't thought about. That being this is a Harry centric fic even though it's listed as a Voyager/HP cross-over and not the other way around. Well I see it as a Harry Potter fic based in the Star Trek universe but it is mostly a Star Trek fic regardless. Same as Spider-Mage is a Harry Potter fic but it's more set in my MCU than it is in the Harry Potter magical world.
That being said, we're getting into episodes where we can get more focus on the other characters. Still, I'm used to writing Harry as the POV and so I'm sorry many of you are here more for the Voyager stuff than the Harry Potter stuff.
The Skurk: One thing I've brought up in regard to Voyager crew is how they can have background characters which are seen in multiple episodes who aren't even given names in the script. So the actor playing the character I made into Jonna Hommein never had a name. I find that odd from a production POV. "Hey you! Yeah you, crewman 18! Don't hunch over the console so much!" Likewise, the aliens in the episode Gravity don't even rate a name. Not even one to put on their masks during production. I guess they were just "Gravity aliens" which is just weird given how in Star Wars land, EVERYTHING has a backstory. Well in the Memory Alpha page for this episode's write up, there was a line about 'marauding aliens' so I ended up going with Afrikaans Google translation of the English word marauder.
Paroli: Anyone who can speak Esperanto will recognize what everyone is saying. Normally I'd just say cut and paste this into Google but you can't do that from . Remember, all the speakers are deliberately speaking simply.
Ĉi tie! Mi trovis ilin! = Here! I found them!
Ne 'mi iras'! and Mi venas' ĝusta = No 'I go" and "I come correct" Basically Paris said, "I go" to stand in for "I'm coming" and Noss corrected him.
Ni kuras? Ni batalas? = We run? We fight?
Ni batalas ĉi tie = No we fight
Ĉu vi Skurk pretas morti hodiaŭ? = Are you Skurk ready to die today?
Paciĝi kun Skurk? Vi bone? Vi malbona? = "Peace with Skurk?" You good? You bad?"
Mi bonas pri tio = I'm good with that
Amikoj bono = Friends good\