One of One

by zArkham

As the USS Voyager becomes embroiled in the war between the Borg & Species 8472, a strange anomaly is detected on the Borg Cube where Captain Janeway is negotiating for the life of her crew and maybe for all life in the Delta Quadrant. Within that anomaly hides a centuries old secret. A being who found that resistance was not futile and will continue to resist till the end.

21. Gravity - Pt 5

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.

XxXxX

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE – GRAVITY, PART 5

(Episode: Very AU version of ST:VOY Gravity)

(References: ST: VOY Shattered)

XxXxX

PITHY STATEMENT RELATING TO THIS CHAPTER: "How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure." (The Count of Monte Cristo) Alexandre Dumas – French novelist & playwright – 1802-1870

LAST UPDATED ON: 02-04-2024

Commander Tuvok's Mission Log, Year 8, 10 month and 12 days. We have finally completed the temporal receiving device from the plans Voyager sent 8 months ago. Sadly, even with the remains of previously crashed vessels, many minerals are very hard to come by on Tartarus. If not for Mr. Potter's magic, it would have taken decades, if not a generation or two to have been able to find and then mine the ore given the best source was close to the northern pole. The delay has had a negative impact on morale but I believe I have been successful in reminding all, to include the Talaxians, that everything on Tartarus is a challenge. Every task being a bit harder than it is expected to be. The receivers completion, however, will go a long way to lift everyone's spirits.

This is especially needed as while the initial contact contained a great deal of good news, the analysis of the data sent by Seven of Nine was daunting. While the Astrometrics lab and other sensors on Voyager can see into the pocket of sub-space with remarkable accuracy, the quantum method of data transmission is not easily applicable to other forms of energy transfer.

While it is theoretical that a small transporter window might be possible, it could only be used, at best a few times a year. Even at optimistic rates, it would take at least 50 Tartarus years to transport everyone out of our sub-space exile. Unfortunately, the time-stream differential works against us. Beaming inanimate objects down or up should be possible but living tissue still looks to be a difficult issue to solve.

The strain of keeping morale up and everyone on task is making my attempts to stave off the Pon Farr difficult. The bond created between Noss and our initial natural born children N'Pok and Trev pushed my mating urge to a manageable level at first. That and there are now twenty-two chamber-born children with my genes. However it is becoming increasingly more difficult to manage the burning in my blood. That N'Pok and Trev were still artificially conceived outside of Pon Farr is another factor working against me.

With Noss coming up on another window for natural birth, the urge to fully mate with her becomes stronger day by day. While Noss has proved surprisingly compatible with me, it is rare that a non-Vulcan comes away from a Pon Farr mating without issues, both mental and physical. It is to be hoped that she will be spared this but the physics of our exile are at odds with this desire.

XxXxX

TALAX TOWN, TARTARUS, SECTOR 366, DELTA QUADRANT – 9 YEARS, 2 MONTHS AFTER THE CRASH

Harry couldn't help but laugh as one of the children running after the football fell face first after she tried to kick it away from the other child making a bee-line for the goal area. It wasn't the fall that was amusing but the fact that she just got right back up without a word and charged back into the game. Harry turned to Prell, the elderly Devorian woman next to him, "If any of the kids had fallen like that outside the game, you can bet they'd wail up a storm."

Prell chuckled as well, "I do not doubt it. Even Tuvok's children are prone to theatrics if things don't go their way."

The pair watched as the non-Talaxian children continued to duel it out with the Talaxian team. Of course since all of them lived in Talax Town did make them less of an away team compared to the other two Arrakeen teams that were playing their own matches against Talaxians their age.

While it wasn't Quidditch, Harry had been happy that football ended up being the most popular game. He had dreaded that something like rugby or American-style football would have caught on. Of course one could only practice and play the game early or very late in the day due to the heat. Even so, all the adults loved that it gave the numerous children an outlet for all their youthful energy. Even if it was just sitting in the stands and cheering.

Harry turned to look at those stands to look at all the children doing just that. Life on Tartarus mirrored old Earth in many ways. Almost everyone from Arrakeen was temporarily staying in Talax Town for the week-long Harvest festival. The bulk of those who stayed behind were Skurk who had their own religious rituals for the season and preferred to do them alone.

Prell nudged him and pointed, "Your boy is doing well."

Harry looked back just in time to see Cedric score. He went to his feet to clap and cheer. Cedric saw this and got a big, goofy grin on his face.

As Harry sat back down, Prell sighed, "It is regrettable he so rarely gets to be with his own people. In fact, I am sort of shocked he does not play on the Talaxian team given he has lived among them the longest."

Harry shrugged as he watched the kids the referee (one of the few Skurk who was in attendance) started play back up. "It was his choice. I think he felt that being on their team would just further alienate him. I'm just glad that his sister Anthea sneaks off to see Cedric when she can regardless of what her mother thinks."

Prell snorted at that, "Amazing given how Wildman hovers so much."

Harry gestured to the stands, "Well with our munchkin horde, there are a lot of distractions."

Which was true. The over-all breeding plan had mostly gone off without a hitch. Before they had made contact with the other refuges, Zim had calculated that matching all the possible combinations of genes meant 51 girls and 30 boys. Out of those, 22 had Harry's X or Y chromosome even if only 4 were from the original 8 natural-borns.

It was decided to go with this for the first major round of births. Then the next group would focus on including the Devore, Brenari and Entabans. Even though Harry knew that a child with a paring of his X chromosome with say one of Treana's would be slightly different each time, Zim had wanted each generation to be as different as possible. They still hadn't decided on whether to concentrate on creating various 'races' to help focus on various genetic challenges. Certainly, the green tinted skin of those kids who had Orion lineage stood out the most.

There were many arguments for and against this. Harry could argue both sides. He mostly worried about creating racial factions that might fight in future generations. Of course his own upbringing and time at Hogwarts hadn't helped him view people in an optimistic light when it came to tolerance. The Eugenics War hadn't helped his earlier views on the issue.

Even so, the total population of non-Skurk children continued to grow as a new generation was born every two and a half years. Of course the women could opt in or out of this like Samantha had after Anthea and Cedric had been born even if she did later relent have two more natural born children with Tom. So even with Zim's robots and camera system, it was a trial for all the adults to try and keep up with them all. Luckily for Cedric, many Talaxian families had volunteered to foster many of the chamber-borns. The Talaxian love of children coupled with their low breeding rates was one of the few things on Tartarus which had given the exiles a break. The team Cedric was playing on was taken from those even if they were all a bit younger than him.

This had resulted in an interesting situation where not only did all the adults work on their Paroli but also had to learn Talaxian as well. There were days Harry never said a word in Standard except to himself. Given the nuances of the languages, he often wondered how things might be different when they were rescued and had the words instantly translated via the universal translator. Harry felt conversations had a different feeling when they had meetings in the room covered by the only working universal translator. Not better or worse; just different. Even so, Harry was currently wearing one of the only three working comm-badges whose universal translator was still working. He usually kept it off but on times like this, he didn't want the hassle of speaking with the proficiency of a primary school kid working on their first foreign language.

"Harry, can I ask you a personal question?"

Prell's voice broke Harry out of his thoughts. He looked around to see that the two of them were still a bit away from the others. The fallout from the break-up of him and Samantha had most people keeping their distance as a matter of principle. As with everything, factions had grown up in Arrakeen and there was a more conservative one which Wildman was a big part of. Like with Tom, it was easier for people to pretend to ignore Harry and talk with him in private. Prell, on the other hand, cared little for such things. She'd been on Tartarus for over 60 years by her frame of reference and cared little for the opinions of others.

Harry looked back to the elder Devorian, "Hit me."

Prell smoothed out the folds of her desert cloak over her knees before going on. "We know Cedric has expressed the energy you call magic. Others might as well since Tom mentioned to me you had told him that children usually express this 'accidental magic' later in their childhood. If rescue comes later than expected or not at all, there will come a time when there might be a sizable group able to access this magical energy. Will they be able to do feats such as yours?"

Harry turned away and just watched the game for a bit before answering, "No or at least not in the same way. It's funny. When I was a kid, there was this fictional series set in an equally fictional universe. You've been to my home. That model of the Marauder fighter? The overall design was taken from that series. In that show, there were these sort of space wizards called Jedi. They could do various things that might as well been magic even if they called it the Force. I find it ironic that Cedric and others might end up being like low-powered Jedi."

Prell frowned, "I don't understand."

Harry chuckled, "I don't suppose you would. You see for most wizards and witches; we need a focus." Harry manifested the Elder Wand. "I often look like I'm doing what we called wandless magic but I am the Wand and the Wand is me. The problem is wands require a magical core which was usually from a magical animal. Even if some of the snakes, spiders and the like might be magical enough for this, I don't know anything about how to make them. So for Cedric and any others, I will have to try and teach them to manifest their magic without a wand. What I find ironic is a lot of things which are the easiest to do without a wand, or don't need one to begin with, are all things these fictional Jedi could do."

"I see. What could these Jedi do?" Prell asked.

"Well the main thing was to move things with their mind. Well one of the most common aspects of accidental magic is to either summon something to you or banish it away. Then there were some mind powers which I can do a few of. Those are the powers which most wizards rarely bothered with or were highly regulated. Still there are things like divinations of which I'm not good at but I know the basics. The Jedi could channel the Force into their bodies to energize them and do things like jump farther or resist injury. Well Magicals are tougher by nature so we're already mostly there. Since they won't have wands, I'm betting that the kids will learn through trial and error how to do more than that because it will be the most logical way to express their magic. So while I doubt any of them will be transmuting items, I can see them being able to do rune work and moving stuff around with their minds just like the Jedi. It's a good thing for them that I took up Runes and Arithmancy after I left Hogwarts or a whole branch of magic would be possible but I wouldn't know what to teach them. Beyond that, with the magic, they should also live longer."

Prell mulled this over for a bit before nodding, "So impressive but nothing like you."

Harry shrugged, "It's all relative. I never had to deal much with wandless magic but I came to believe a lot more wizards could do it if we weren't so wedded to wands. Sure they are easier but it's like never learning to cook because you can always just replicate food. I'm thinking these kids might surprise me with what they can do. Still, I'm not sure how much they will be able to do after rescue. Is there magic in space to tap into? I don't know but if and when we're rescued, I think I will find out given it seems wizards tap into the magic of the planet. We store some inside us but how long will that last?"

"This is good to hear. Your destruction of Galaron III makes it easier for us Devorians and Brenari to look at you with suspicion and drift towards Wildman's group. The Skurk seem to accept you one week and view you with suspicion the next. That any new wizards would be much diminished will hopefully make things easier," Prell said sagely.

Harry sighed, "I think that I can call up the shades of the Dead is going to creep anyone out. Even some of my closest friends were put off by it." Even the more tolerant Entabans had been weirded out by the tales of him using the Resurrection Stone. "On the other hand, not to ding another group's beliefs but I think the issue with me sort of mirrors a problem we had back on Earth. A lot of the major religions of that time held magic to be sinful or demonic. So it was always a tight-rope walk between being seen as inherently evil or people having to accept that their holy books weren't always correct. Luckily for me, I'm used to being hailed one year and hated the next only to be the man-of-the-hour the following year.

Prell laughed at that, "My father was like that. He was a senior comptroller and when he was able to get supplies in high demand, the navy officers loved him. Of course they vilified him when he'd report on them for waste or deny them requests which were frivolous or wasteful."

Harry chuckled in return, "Yeah, they always love you when you are useful to them. Not so much when you make them play by the rules. I never understood how my friend Ron ended up with my other friend Hermione given they had a relationship which was like that. Ron loved Hermione dearly when she helped him yet bitched up a storm when she kept at him to better himself."

A cheer went up and Harry turned to see Cedric make another goal which brought him to his feet clapping again. It warmed his heart that Cedric seemed to be just as good as his namesake in sports.

XxXxX

THE TOWER, ARRAKEEN, TARTARUS, SECTOR 366, DELTA QUADRANT – 10 YEARS, 4 MONTHS AFTER THE CRASH

Harry handed Tom another jar of honey-mead. Normally they'd limit themselves to one jar, two at most. Tonight, however, was sort of a special occasion. Or at least the following day was. Tomorrow was the day they tested out the transporter enhancers on living beings. The Fleet had managed to squeak in a transmission before the latest window of opportunity had closed. Since these windows were months apart and lasted only a short time (relative to Voyager's frame of reference) made it difficult to get meaningful information sent in every window.

Even then, it took over a month on Tartarus to fully download these transmissions. The last message had contained plans for devices which would make it easier for the transporters to lock on anything within enhancer units. The problem was, beaming from point-to-point looked completely possible it was whether or not anything living would still be that way at the other end was the big question mark.

Voyager would beam up a sand-spider, a pit snake and a pair of Tuft-Tuft birds. Then they would send down live eggs which would hopefully hatch and help them with their food diversity. Along with that would be some of the mice-like creatures The Doctor had been using going back to their days of dealing with the Kazon. Hopefully both groups would transport without any problems. Unfortunately, the probability of survival was low for this first round. The maddening thing is after the beam out, it would be almost 4 months before the next window that Voyager could beam a signal to them so they could compare notes. Regardless, tomorrow was a big day no matter how it went.

"So how are things back at home, Tom?" Harry asked after sitting back down. Twilight was just beginning so the cooler air was a nice break over the heat of the day. They weren't the only ones enjoying it as the sounds of music, laughter, and playing children wafted up from below.

Tom took a swig from his drink and shrugged, "Better, I think. Sam has calmed down a lot after the last village vote. Your friend Prell really has the death glare down to an art-form."

Harry laughed, "She reminds me of my transfiguration teacher. Old Professor McGonagall could quiet a room with just a pursed lip and a squinting of her eyes."

"Well I'm glad she and the moderates have gotten things calmed down. I know I'm biased as I remember when they were trying to kill us, but sometimes I wish the Skurks would move and take over one of the old Talaxian towns."

Harry chuckled darkly, "Yeah, they can be moody wankers at time. Sometimes I think they milk their status as being some of the last Skurk in the galaxy a bit too much. Still, at least Prell was able to hammer out some of the differences. Tuvok can only do so much and still come off as impartial."

Tom scowled, "Bad enough he's having a harder time holding it together. I don't think he can stave off the Pon Farr for long. I keep telling him that no one is going to hold it against him but you know Vulcans are just really sensitive on being seen losing control."

Harry sighed in return, "I really wish I had learned more about enchanting. Making up those tags so you can unshrink items wasn't that much of a big deal. But I just don't know enough to enchant a ring or bracelet that might toughen Noss up if Tuvok gets rough when under the mating urge."

"Well Noss is pretty tough. But you're right; it's easy to forget how strong Vulcans are since they are always so calm," Tom agreed.

The pair drank in silence before Harry had a thought, "By the way, sorry if I caused some domestic tension the other day. Maria and Samantha came in half-way between an important lesson with Parrex and his apprentices. Given the hassle it still is to get people to and from Talax Town, I wasn't going to let them ruin it."

"So what did you say that got her so worked up?" Tom asked. "Neither Maria nor Sam would tell me."

Harry toasted Tom with his jar, "Oh I just finally got a little tired of Samantha going on about how Auoda, Jean and Oliver have no mother when all of her own kids with Treana and Maria don't have a father. It's just another one of those old prejudices that slips in, I've noticed. Having no mother figure seems worse than having no father figure. That and the fact we're all working really hard to raise all of the kids together means our kids have plenty of mothers."

Tom sighed, "Damnit, not that again! You're right, though. If our kids are unnatural then they all are. Frak, it could easily be argued that all the kids here are unnatural given even natural-born are artificially conceived after some gene tailoring and then implanted. None of the children should have to think they are freaks or something because of that."

"Well I think we know Samantha's thoughts on that," Harry said darkly.

Tom made an impatient gesture, "Yeah, yeah; easy for you to say because you don't have to live with her anymore. I'm working my butt off trying to keep Maria from getting even more radical. I think I've finally got things turned around before this. Still, I'm not judging you. You were totally right to call her on her crap about our kids."

Harry drank some more before frowning, "Well other than the other day, I have to admit Sam has been really quiet. I really thought after the last town meeting that she'd throw herself right back into the fight. I mean it's not like Skurk who are backing her got anything close to what they wanted from the various votes."

Tom belched, looked contrite before belching again. Ignoring Harry's snickers, Tom got up and began to pace, "I know how much having the Skurk around is great. It's just that with their ability to change gender, their breeding is speeding up just almost as fast as ours. The issue is they have more adults. That translates to more voice and I'm worried how things are going to look in the future if we don't get rescued. Frankly, the Talaxians and Skurks have very different world views and I fear that we could be looking at a split where a big part goes with the Skurk and another go with the Talaxians."

"Then we could have another civil war in the future," Harry said quietly. "I worry about it too. More so because unless something very weird happens, I'll be there to see it. Which means I'm going to probably be the one who will have to keep it from happening. Which, I'm thinking, won't make either side happy."

"Damn I hope this works tomorrow," Tom muttered into his mead. "I want to believe that we can make a great, mixed society here if things don't pan out with the Fleet. I'm just worried at some of the seeds of future conflict already sprouting."

OoOoO

While the beaming experiment was critically important, the large number of children to be raised meant few of the adults were there to see it. Since the tech involved was all Federation, only Tuvok, Maria, Tom and Harry were there to watch as one of Zim's robots lowered the cage filled with the Tuft-Tuft birds to rest within the circle of transport enhancers to join the other two cages. While not present, most of the village was watching via remote.

The robot turned to Tuvok. "I am estimating we have anywhere between 5 minutes to 3 hours before Voyager begins transport," Zim said. While his matrix was still embedded in what was left of the Delta Flyer, Zim mostly communicated via the working comm-badges or through the robots. Early on in the exile, Zim had used these floating remote spheres to monitor the camp and could speak through them. However, over time, the exiles (especially the Skurk) felt Zim was violating their privacy at best or spying on them at worst. So except for certain speakers spread throughout Arrakeen, Zim mostly communicated through the three former drone bodies.

Harry was rather proud of how this version of Zim was doing. Both Tom and Harry had worried how badly they'd be screwed if Zim ended up having a similar psychotic break as the Doctor had after Ensigns Kim and Jetal had been injured on an away mission. They had attempted to create a back-up of Zim's matrix but unless they had to use it, they weren't sure if their jury-rigged back-up system would work. Yet so far, Zim had adapted well even if the A.I. felt it ironic that he had pruned down his medical sub-routines only to end up filling the role of an EMH.

Again, both Harry and Tom thought it would be interesting to see the actual differences between the Zim back on the Phoenix and the Arrakeen version when they were rescued. That and upgrades they'd make to the Flyer design to allow a more robust version of The Doctor/Zim's matrix.

Tuvok merely nodded to the robot. Harry thought how tired Tuvok looked. While the Vulcan's impassive mien rarely conveyed much, it was obvious that the strain on their leader was beginning to show regardless of his mental discipline. Tom had said that he felt Tuvok's mastery of the Kolinahr was probably the only reason the Pon Farr hadn't hit him yet.

Harry and the others watched as the robot turned back to the circle of transporter enhancers. Given most of the robot was made up of the non-organic part of a Borg drone, it didn't need any sort of tricorder or other sensors as it had plenty of inherent capability. The exiles were lucky that one of the dead drones had a type of arm unit which was very much medically oriented. Zim had been ecstatic when Harry had first brought the dead drones to Arrakeen when he'd scan that. This unit, along with the maturation chambers Harry was able to make, allowed for the genetic tailoring needed to make their breeding plan work.

After only ten minutes of muted conversation between the watchers, Zim's robot raised a palm toward the circle. After a slight scan, Zim spoke up, "I believe beam up is imminent."

All around the circle, the watchers spread out a bit as the lights on the enhancers got brighter and began to pulse. A hum began which pulsed louder in tandem with the lights.

Zim began a count-down and the group all seemed to hold their breath. A breath they all let out with various yells as Samantha suddenly came rushing out from behind some empty shipping containers holding her daughter Anthea tightly to her breast. She jumped into the circle just as the pulsing went to a full-on unified hum.

"Sam! Get out of there! Are you crazy?" Tom shouted. Only Harry's restraining him kept the man from jumping in after her and his daughter.

"I won't let my daughter grow up like a filthy dirt-sider! Not with all the freakiness here! She'll grow up right back on Voyager!" Samantha yelled back.

Harry threw Tom to the ground and manifested the Elder Wand but then a terrible thought hit him making him hesitate. Before anyone else could respond, the blueish sparkles of the transporter whisked everything in the circle out of existence.

XxXxX

FLEET COUNCIL ROOM, USS VOYAGER, SECTOR 366, DELTA QUADRANT – STAR DATE 51359.4

"Report," Janeway said curtly as she made her way to her chair. The room was already filled with the other Fleet council members. Their experiment had definitely not gone off as planned and Janeway wanted to know way.

Seven nodded and moved towards the main viewer screen in the Fleet council room. All of the Fleet council (except Harry, Tuvok and the Doctor) were present.

Seven brought up various schematics of the beam-out, "While it pains me to admit this, we were lucky. There was hidden variance involved which I had not accounted for. Indeed, I must admit I did not even think to look for. Fortunately for Ensign Wildman and her daughter, had I been aware of these variances, I would have mistakenly worked to correct what the temporal team felt to be the best harmonic to be used. Our failure led to her surviving the transport."

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Seven," Ransom said. "You weren't the only one working on this. We all signed off on your science."

Janeway nodded, "Very true. This does highlight that perhaps we should break up into teams to work on the problem. Less chance for one concept to be seen as the only way. As you said, we were lucky but sometimes luck is part of the equation. But just like Chakotay is fond of saying, I don't want to rely on luck with so many lives on the line. Continue."

Seven nodded, "A preliminary scan of the data shows the good news is we now know we can beam up without difficulty. Additionally, there does not seem to be any pattern degradation we can detect at this time."

Lieutenant Thelan made a gesture as he turned in his seat towards Commodore Janeway, "While this is true, it will take the Doctor and I a bit to confirm there aren't other issues, especially mental ones involved. There are indications that Ensign Wildman is suffering mental distress. Yet at this point we don't know if this was caused or affected by the transporter."

"Would a mind-meld help determine this?" Captain Tahl asked. "I believe Lieutenant T'Pev is skilled enough to initiate such a meld with the finesse needed with Commander Tuvok not being available."

Seven pursed her lips as she looked to Senior Lieutenant Walter Baxter who was filling in for Tuvok. The man looked uncomfortable as he too turned to the Commodore, "Yes…well there is a little bit of a problem regarding Lieutenant T'Pev we've learned.

OoOoO

"Was it really necessary to stun Tom, Harry?" Maria asked from the floor where she cradled the man she had been sharing with Samantha to her breast. While Treana still dallying on the sly with Tom, the Orion woman mostly stayed in Talax Town or with Harry (and in his bed) when she was in Arrakeen. So for the last five years or so, it had just been Maria and Samantha with Tom.

Harry sighed, "Sadly yes. I've seen a full-on freak out starting enough to know the signs. Don't worry; he's fine. I can't say that the wait to find out about whether Sam or Anthea is going to be easy on him, though. On him or any of us actually."

Maria closed her eyes and nestled her forehead against Tom's, "Why did she take such a risk? I knew she was unhappy here. I knew she was angry at how things were going. But to take such a risk, such a selfish risk! I just can't understand it."

Harry looked over to where the transport enhancers were back to pulsing slowly, "Sam had issues, Maria. You know that. I still think she's suffering from what Arturis did to you all. We just didn't really work that issue enough. All the weirdness with all the inspections of the Devore made it easier for me to just stay on the Phoenix. So most of the rest of the fleet rarely saw me. It's one thing to have a little bit of Arturis' voice in the back of your head when you see me for an hour or two at a meeting. It's a whole different ball of wax to be living with me."

Maria continued to rock Tom and said nothing.

Harry sighed in a rather defeated way, "Plus, I don't like to admit it but in a way, I am a freak. I always have been. I've never had anything normal about me. I survived an unsurvivable curse, survived the bite of a rare, unsurvivable venom long enough for an equally rare cure to be administered. Time and time again, weird things have been my life, even to other witches and wizards. So on top of all the stress of being away from her husband and all the crap Voyager has had to go through, is it any wonder she might not be alright upstairs?"

"I sometimes wonder how all of us haven't gone crazy here in the Delta Quadrant," Maria said in a ghost of a whisper. "I never imagined life would ever be this way when I left my homeworld to join Starfleet."

Harry laughed bitterly, "I know the feeling. My life has been a shit-show from the beginning. It only got worse when those first owls showed up inviting me to Hogwarts. Now here I am, almost 400 years older, across the galaxy trapped on a planet between time. It's like a bad TV show! Some days I want to scream, 'I want a better writer!' or something. My life is just getting to the point where even I don't believe it anymore. I just wish you all weren't all along for this hell-ride."

Harry gestured to Tom and his index finger flared. Tom gave a start before he groaned. Maria kissed his forehead, "Hush Tom. Take it slow. We all have to just take it slow till we know."

Tom was obviously still groggy for a bit before his eyes flew open. Maria put a hand on his chest and kept him down, "Slow, Tom. There is literally nothing we can do now but wait."

Tom groaned again and sagged back against Maria, "I should have drank more mead last night. Then I could just imagine this is all some fevered, hang-over dream."

Harry snorted at this but was happy that Tom seemed to have calmed down. After a bit, Maria helped Tom to his feet. "How long have I been out?"

"Only for a few minutes; you were freaking out and as Maria said, there just isn't anything we can do but wait. Even if the mice from Voyager come through fine…well the beam up wasn't calibrated for human transport."

"Why'd she do it?" Tom asked, unconsciously aping Maria's earlier comments.

Maria took Tom by the shoulder and guided him over to sit in the shade of one of the buildings. The day was heating up quickly.

Harry watched as Maria comforted Tom before turning and making his way over to where Tuvok and Zim was talking to Prell and an Entaban male name Andrik. He, along with the Skurk Jengo had been the main life science types who worked with Samantha. With her gone, it would definitely leave a hole in the work schedule to say nothing of being someone all the children would miss. Harry didn't look forward to how all the kids, especially Cedric, were going to act when they found out about today. Even if Sam and Anthea survived, in effect they were dead to the exiles till rescue. Even then, depending on when that rescue happened, years will have past for those on Tartarus.

As Harry came up, Prell looked at him, "I am surprised you did not stop this from happening."

The scowl on Tuvok's face made it clear he did not like the implications inherent in Prell's question.

Harry just shook his head, "I was checking on the connection of the feed to Talax Town when it happened. She was already within the field before I could act. That and I was trying to keep Tom from jumping in as well. I couldn't risk how my magic might have interrupted everything. As much as I wanted to get Sam an Anthea out of there, my magic could have ended up killing them and botching up the beam-up at the same time. I was running through my options but they beamed out too soon."

Prell nodded, "I thought as much. Still, I'm sure there will be rumors."

Andrik shook his head, "It doesn't matter. Harry was right not to interfere. Bad enough that Samantha did that by putting the beam-up in potential imbalance. Maybe everything is fine, given we don't have access to all the science they have up in your Fleet. We know they can't send us everything in the short time they've had to transmit to us. For all we know, we could have packed the transit zone with people."

"And we won't know for another four months or so," Tuvok agreed. "I concur that it was best for Harry not to jump to the natural response to pull Samantha and Anthea from the field. It is very likely they might have been half-way out when the beam-up was initiated."

"That's what I was thinking," Harry admitted. "I know people might talk that I didn't do anything but I figured that doing nothing was better than potentially having half of Sam and Anthea here and the rest up on Voyager."

Before anyone could respond to that grisly, mental image, the transport enhancers went from a slow pulse to a sudden hum of power. Then, in almost an instant, instead of the normal, slow transport beam, there was a flash and suddenly the circle contained boxes and cages filled with loudly chittering mice creatures.

That and unexpectedly Lieutenant T'Pev carrying a large duffel-bag.

The Vulcan looked around and smiled in the restrained way of hers, "Excellent. This goes to show the Astrometrics people are not the only ones who can do complex, inter-phasal mathematics. I knew some of the old Cochrane Equations would be relevant. Seven will not be happy that I was right all along."

She put down her duffel-bag and walked out of the circle of transport enhancers to where everyone was staring at her in shock. She raised her hand in the Vulcan salute, "Greetings to you all. It is good to see that you all have been prospering in such harsh conditions. I have brought some interesting things I believe can help. However, I believe Commander Tuvok and I have some personal business to attend to." She looked at Tuvok, "Is this agreeable?"

Tuvok had an uncharacteristically stunned look on his face. Finally he visibly pulled himself together before replying, "That is affirmative. However, such business will have to include my consort Noss as well."

T'Pev raised an eyebrow, "Noss is it? Would she be the Terkellian? Your bio-signature was detected quite often in her proximity."

Tuvok looked uncomfortable. Before Harry could say anything, Tom jumped in, "Ah yeah, well I'm sure we have a lot to talk about but it's getting hot so why don't you two find Noss and we'll take care of things from here. Sound good?"

Tuvok didn't seem to register what Tom had said as he continued to gaze into T'Pev's eyes. T'Pev merely smirked slightly and took Tuvok's hand, "That does indeed sound agreeable. I can get my personal items out of my duffel-bag later. Most of the bag is filled with items for the colony anyway."

With a tug on Tuvok's hand, T'Pev made a gesture with the other, "Come Tuvok, I am eager to see what sort of quarters you have constructed in such a place."

As Tuvok quietly allowed T'Pev to take him away, Tom looked at Harry. Harry looked at Tom. Both broke out into chuckles when Maria finally couldn't hold it in and began to giggle. "Someone is getting so lucky tonight!" Maria said with a wide grin.

Grinning as well, Harry turned to Tom, "So, with T'Pev here, will Tuvok go right into Pon Farr? If so, how long is that going to last?"

Tom shrugged, "I think if not by tonight, soon. As for how long, I'd give it a day or three. On one hand older Vulcans don't normally have that hot of a run, but Tuvok's been away for so long and under so much pressure, I'm betting he's going to have to replace his bed."

"At least T'Pev can bear the brunt of it. I'm betting Noss is going to be pregnant out of this as well," Maria said, continuing to grin happily.

Tom nodded, "Well given Terkellian women have a lot more control of their cycle, I wouldn't bet against it." He looked at the robot, "Of course unless either one ends up with twins, I'm sure you already know which one of the planned gene-mixes to implant."

Before Zim could reply, Harry chuffed, "Who cares about that? I'm just happy that while we lost Samantha, we gained another adult back. That and T'Pev is perfect. Vulcan enough to be calm and collected but her Romulan dad's influence means she's a lot better at dealing with all our weirdness. That and I'm sure Zim here is happy that now he has two sets of Vulcan genes to work with."

"That is correct. Even better is the fact that T'Pev is half Romulan. While there is little actual difference physically between Vulcans and Romulans, the genetic drift does mean her genes are even further from that of Commander Tuvok's," Zim agreed.

Tom looked over to the transporter circle. "Well let's get all of this taken care of. I'd hate for the heat to kill any of these critters. That they and T'Pev made it gives me hope that Sam and Anthea got up to the ship alright. Damn me if it's not going to be a long four months before we know for sure."

Harry put a hand on Tom's shoulder. He knew that while Anthea was his daughter, Tom had become very attached to the little girl. "Let me try a little divination. Maybe I can get an answer to a simple question like 'Will I meet my daughter Anthea again?' If I can get a positive answer, it that means she's alive even if the when I finally see her is up in the air."

Tom looked relieved, "Thanks Harry; that means a lot to me."

XxXxX

THE CRADLE, 25km OUTSIDE OF TALAX TOWN, TARTARUS, SECTOR 366, DELTA QUADRANT – 14 YEARS, 7 MONTHS AFTER THE CRASH

Zim lowered the arm of the robot and turned it Harry, "Scans show structural integrity to be within parameters. I believe there is nothing keeping the next phase from beginning."

Harry smiled as he looked at the Ark. It had been years since it had first dawned on him that moving their entire population was going to be problematic. This had proven prophetic given while the initial beaming of Samantha and Anthea up while T'Pev came down had been successful, it had been a lucky fluke. Like with the data transmission, it was found there were small windows beam up/down could be attempted. Worse, the transport window was limited to a very small window each year.

Since then only four people had been beamed up to Voyager. All had been involved in an accident in Talax Town and had been severely wounded. While Zim had kept them alive, they all needed more medical attention that the colony could provide. Again luck had been with them as the next transporter window had only been two months away.

There was concern that the beaming was also altering the surrounding sub-space and could potentially close the anomaly. Therefore, except for extremely needed supplies, only data transmission had been allowed.

Harry looked over to where there was a stack of cargo containers. One was filled with one such batch of important supplies from Voyager. While it had taken scrapping all but two of the Regeneration Alcoves, Seven of Nine had been able to provide what was hopefully enough devices which would create a chroniton field which Borg Cubes used to deal with temporal stress when they went through Borg transit corridors. If not, Harry felt he had enough Borg tech available to cover the difference even if it did limit the amount of maturation chambers. Of course, if this worked, they wouldn't need any of them anymore.

The issue at hand was with this chroniton field, the math seemed to give a good chance to breach the anomaly going the other way. The bigger issue was simply that getting through the anomaly wasn't the biggest hurdle. The entire population of the colony, to include the Talaxians was at about 1,200. More than they had expected but with better food and medical options, the Talaxian colony had grown larger than expected. That was a lot of people which would have to be able to stay alive for an indeterminate amount of time inside the Ark till the Fleet could get them to a planet or somehow come up with a ship big enough to hold them all.

Obviously, their numbers meant they'd trade Tartarus for living out of tents and the like on some new planet till more transports were found. Even though only it had been 2 days since T'Pev beamed down, the Equinox had already been dispatched to look for the best planet to base out of until things could be dealt with properly.

It did put the Fleet back into the danger of being tied to a point in space longer than expected. On the other hand, once back in real-space, transporters would allow easy commute between what essentially would be a small, hollowed out asteroid and the Fleet. Towing it, however, would definitely slow the Fleet down and speed had been one of their best defenses since the Caretaker had pulled the Equinox and Voyager into the Delta Quadrant.

Harry shook his head. All manageable problems if they could just get off Tartarus. Besides, it might be easier to see about creating a new Pit-Stop. Then they could create a whole new Ark with its own engines. Finding a planet might be difficult in this region of space but any avenue they chose was going to be dangerous.

First step, though. Getting off Tartarus. All else could be addressed when they had access to all the resources of the Fleet.

Harry turned back to Zim, "Well let's get to work."

XxXxX

Paris' Personal Log. Tomorrow it will be 16 years and exactly 2 months since we crashed at Landing. Sixteen years. I sat down at the controls of the Delta Flyer when I was 35 and now I'm 51 and boy do I look it. Still, I'm betting the gals back in the Fleet are going to love my bronzed body even if it's going to take a bit to fix up all the damage from 16 years living in the sun, heat and grit. Hell, I'm already going grey around my temples! In fact, I think I have more grey than Chakotay has and he's almost 35 years older than I am!

That being said, if we get through the anomaly tomorrow, wow is there going to be some adjustments. I haven't flown anything faster than a hover-bike since we crashed. To the bridge crew on the Equinox, I pulled a shift 10 days ago. Once I sit back down, is it all going to come back after 16 years? What's it going to be like to fall asleep listening to the hum of the engines instead of the wind?

Then there is Samantha. I haven't seen her for six years. It's only been 3 days for her. She might not even be out of sickbay yet if I know the Doc. How is Anthea going to act? Cedric had only been two hours older than her. Now he's thirteen while she's just seven. Oh well; at least Anthea is old enough to interact on a more equal level with Naomi. Not sure how the little tike is going to deal with suddenly having a half-sister 3 years younger while her half-brother is 3 years older. Then again, with all the chamber-born, Naomi has a lot of new siblings.

I have to wonder if, after all this time, will I be able to don the Federation job-jammies and pull duty shifts again? The old cliché of it takes a village to raise a child has never been more apt than here on Tartarus. Even with the children suddenly having a whole host of new adults to interact with, few of them will be able to relate to the kid's experiences. Then there are the Talaxians. Unless they just want to be dropped off at the first planet that looks good to them, they essentially will need some form of generation ship until their kids learn enough to join the rest of the fleet in their duties. Given how long it's going to take to get back to the Alpha Quadrant, I'm not thinking that's a bad idea. If anything, the Fleet now will have a pool of people very much aware of how to farm and fish. The culture we've started here might end up continuing along the journey.

Odd thought that. Harry said over drinks the other day that if it takes the 60 years projected, almost all of those who grew up in the Alpha Quadrant will be either dead or close to it. What will tie those remaining to any one planet in the Federation when the Fleet will be the only home they know? Might our descendants get to Earth and go, "Huh…neat" and then just keep flying? So many will be descended from those who joined Starfleet to go exploring. Perhaps they may just wish to keep going and seeing what the galaxy has to offer.

THE CRADLE, 25km OUTSIDE OF TALAX TOWN, TARTARUS, SECTOR 366, DELTA QUADRANT – 16 YEARS, 2 MONTHS AFTER THE CRASH

This was it.

Harry felt the data wash through him. He was connected to the Ark through his Borg data-ports. The only others in the command pod were the two former drones who come out of their modified maturation chambers only two years ago. Klyrince Bodiker was a male Krenim while K'Pen was a Garenor female. Both still had quite a bit of Borg hardware which would have to wait till they got back to the Fleet to be removed. Still, this made them the best choices to ride out what was looking to be a rough trip.

The command pod was made up of most of what was left of the old Borg scout cube along with various components from the Flyer. It was embedded in the prow of the Ark.

An Ark that was thrumming slightly from the engines which was amazing given it was essentially one giant, hollow silicate orb. An orb which contained everything worth taking off Tartarus.

It wasn't just the danger involved with trying to get through the anomaly. The exiles had to basically dismantle all of the non-stone parts of Arrakeen to make this work. All that was left was Harry's tower and the stone buildings which they had erected in their 16 years of exile. There was quite a bit taken from Talax Town as well. The Talaxians culture was over 2,000 years old and they had accumulated many things of cultural significance they did not wish to leave behind. This applied, though to a much lesser extent, to the Skurk.

So this trip, if it failed, was going to be a major set-back for everyone involved. Plus, a more vibrant ecosphere had grown up due to all the imported water which they had brought into the area. Harry had worked to ensure a lot this was in the form of water stored in cisterns he had created to expand on the natural caverns he had found so long ago. Harry didn't want all the critters who had depended on that excess water to suffer a fatal die-off. The extra water would let the ecosphere slowly revert back to what it once had been.

For the exiles themselves, the reality of what they had had to do caused them to take an extra year just to build up a surplus of food and supplies which would tide them over if thing didn't work out as planned and they had to reconstitute what used to exist.

That, of course, was if the attempt didn't kill them all.

Harry carefully reviewed the data being fed to him. There were a lot of things which all had to work in order. Many of them gave little to no time to adjust if they failed. Harry worried most about the lifter system. If the drives failed, he could manage. If the temporary inertial dampers field inside the Ark failed to engage, everyone was strapped in tight and unless there was some unknown element of acceleration going out through the anomaly they didn't know about, they should be fine. If not…well they'd all be dead before they could react.

The plan was simple. The Ark needed to be high enough to intersect the anomaly and it needed to be going at a high rate of speed. The first wasn't a problem in the sense that the lifters could easily do the task…as long as they didn't fail. The problem was the speed. To get the Ark up to correct velocity, Harry would have to pilot it into the upper atmosphere to a point where the Ark was in a constant state of 'falling' towards Tartarus. Similar to how he had used a star's gravity to accelerate him back in time to create the Pit-Stop, this maneuver would allow them to generate the needed speed. This was necessary as they simply didn't have engines capable of generating such thrust. Simple in execution but it also meant more time for the lifters to be engaged.

Then there was the issue of 'threading the needle' of when they were at the right speed to correct their fall to enter the anomaly at the calculated insertion angle. This is why Harry was at the helm instead of Tom. Harry and the former drones were the only ones fast enough to make the calculations in time to deal with the unexpected. Zim could, but Harry had put his foot down and Zim's matrix was in a carefully protected area with the rest of the Delta Flyer's computer. They would need Zim if they couldn't make it through. Harry wasn't going to take the risk given all of them had portkeys Harry had made for emergencies. Not something Zim could use.

Ironically the one system which was the most complex, the chroniton field generator, was the one aspect Harry felt the most comfortable with. While so much of the Ark's tech was cobble-together from what they had, by nature Borg tech was easily able to be 'grown' when stimulated properly. Changing what he already had had been easy for Harry. Dangerous to use for long and he had already planned to ditch all of it if they escaped but it was the one thing Harry felt wasn't going to fail.

A beep in his ear got Harry's attention, "Go ahead."

Tuvok's voice was calm, "Mr. Potter. All preparations are complete."

Harry smiled, "So we're a go for launch?" He'd always wanted to say that. Ginny had had a fondness for movies about rockets and going to the moon and the like. He felt she was envious of how fast the astronauts got to travel at. So he'd watched a lot of films and documentaries about space travel with her when Ginny was in the later stages of her pregnancies. Unlike other Muggle films, Ginny had been more inclined to learn about the science behind what was being shown on the screens. It had proven that she was her father's daughter after all.

"We are indeed. I realize we have had our differences, Harry Potter. As odd as it may sound under the circumstances, if things go poorly, I would like to wish that you may live long and prosper."

Harry couldn't help but smile at this even as it did hide a grim truth. If things went pear-shaped, chances are the command crew would be able to portkey away and be the only survivors. Then the three of them would only have to bide their time for another two months before the next transporter window. So even if everyone else died, chances are Harry would still be stuck living out his seemingly immortal life.

Not that he'd ever be crass enough to point this out, "To you as well Tuvok. I do not think we could have gotten through the sixteen years as well as we did without your calm leadership. All aboard should feel very glad we had you. But before we get too maudlin, let's get this show on the road, shall we?"

"Indeed., Tuvok said. Before the connection was broken, Harry heard Tom's voice yell out, "May the Force be with us!"

Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes at this. As he and Prell had discussed years ago, quite a few of the children with Harry's genes had manifested magic. And as he had predicted, Cedric had surprised him with his wandless skills which Harry had used as a basis to start training Cedric's younger gene-siblings. It turned out that Zim had a copy in his matrix of quite a bit of Star Wars stuff. He had told Harry it was due to his work with the Marauder fighters that got him interested in the series. So he'd made copies of all the existing shows that Tom had collected in his personal movie stash before getting stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Due to its popularity before the Eugenics Wars made the movie industry go under, almost everything had survived into the Federation era.

Harry guessed he shouldn't have been too surprised about that. A lot of what made it through the nuclear war came from hardened military bunkers and what else are bored soldiers going to do but listen to music and watch movies? Given by the time of the Eugenics War, almost everything was digital and digital storage was cheap, a lot of pre-war popular music and movies had survived.

The upshot of this was a lot of the kids had taken to the whole Jedi thing. He had put his foot down, however, when the kids started to call him Mr. Yoda. Mr. Wizard had been bad enough and he'd spiked Tom's mead one night in retaliation since he found he'd been an instigator of the nickname in the first place. The horrific nightmare of a hangover Tom had suffered had been a good revenge for Tom's attempted prank.

Still, Harry had to admit the fictional series at least gave the kids a framework to work with. Magic was intent. A lesson Harry had long internalized. If thinking they were Jedi made it easier for the kids to channel their magic without a wand, he wasn't going to complain since it wasn't like he had textbooks or any of the other things he had had access to back at Hogwarts.

Harry closed his eyes and sent out a silent plea to the universe. All his life his luck had mostly been bad. Yet if there was one thing he usually got right was saving people. Now more than ever he was invested in saving the people of the Ark. No matter whose genes a child had, all of them had worked together to be their family. Even the prickly Skurk kids were special to him.

He had to get them out of here. He had lost so much to lose what he had now.

Harry sent a pulse through his command link to Klyrince and K'Pen, "Begin the launch sequence."

The thrum throughout the ship intensified. The few elder Talaxians who had refused to leave, preferring to die in the only home they knew, were the only witnesses to seeing the Ark shudder in its bowl-shaped cradle. Finally, with a burst of visible energy, the Ark began to slowly rise into the air and then equally slowly begin to drift up and eastward, those few Talaxians called out their blessings and hopes for success.

Pre-launch calculations had them having to make seven rotations after they began their controlled fall out of orbit. Each time just missing falling back into the atmosphere dense enough to drag them down. If all went well, that meant 14 hours of tedious, but potentially dangerous, travel before they had to worry about their descent and ensuring their speed and angle matched what was needed to get them through the anomaly.

As they began to rise, Harry quipped, "So what's the in-flight movie?"

OoOoO

"Lifters 5 and 8 offline. Restarting."

"Inertial Dampening field down 15%."

"Lifters 10 and 15 are back online."

"Speed is 13% above target, deploying flaps."

"Engine heat is increasing, activating tertiary cooling lasers."

"Lifters 5 back online but lifters 11, 14 and 15 are operating at only 36% capacity."

"Warning! Angle is off by 3%. 5 minutes before angle incompatible with insertion."

Klyrince and K'Pen's voices echoed through Harry's brain via the interlink net that connect the three to the Ark. Harry had a frisson run through him. Connected as he was it was as if he was the Ark and the Ark was him. If this were true, then perhaps there was something he could try. Harry gathered his energy and sent out a wave of magic, like a giant Exsercio spell throughout the Ark.

"All lifters online and at 100% thrust!"

"Engine heat dropping and power increasing back above 75%"

"Angle correcting. Estimated 1 minute, 35 seconds to return to necessary angle."

Harry nodded to himself with a grim smile. Even if he'd just burnt all the reserves of magic within him, it was well worth it. It didn't matter it this meant he died again of old age in a month or so, at least everyone wouldn't be a smear on the Tartarus landscape.

"Anomaly insertion in 3 minutes, 30 seconds…mark!"

All of the data crystalized in Harry's mind's eye. It was like focusing on the Snitch after all these years. Everything had to be right, speed, angle, his grip on the broom. At least in this case the anomaly wasn't moving.

"Chroniton field active and at 100%! Insertion in 30 seconds."

Harry pushed the engines to the limit to get more speed since the actual velocity needed wouldn't be fully known till they were within 100 kilometers of the anomaly. Their luck was holding as they had enough thrust to not have to abort.

"Fortesfortuna iuvat!" Harry yelled out the motto of Gryffindor house which differed from the Quidditch motto of 'Victoriamforti' that Harry had chanted with his teammates so many times back before a game or during the party after a win. He needed Fortune's favor more than a victory right now.

OoOoO

"Ark, this is Voyager, are you receiving? This is Voyager, if your coms are out, please signal us in some other way."

Harry groaned as the message from Voyager kept repeating in his ear. He knew residual energy from the chroniton field would keep anyone from beaming on or off the ship for a while so Voyager could do little but try and call them…

Harry's eyes snapped open. Voyager was trying to contact them. That meant…

With a mental command, the protective field over the command pod's screen clear to show the blackness of space speckled with the light of billions of stars. Lights Harry hadn't seen in anything but his dreams for 16 years. He quickly called up a diagnostic. Everything seemed good. Everyone else was unconscious but all life-signs were stable. The Ark showed no breaches and everything looked like they just needed to be reset.

Harry worked a bit before finally getting the communications back online, "Voyager, this is the Ark. We are receiving. Everyone but me is still out but life-signs are stable. Amazingly enough, it seems everything went according to plan for a change."

There was a wellspring of relief in Janeway's voice, "That is incredibly good news to hear, Captain Potter."

Harry almost snorted at that. He hadn't been called Captain Potter since right before the mission which led to the destruction of Galaron III.

Janeway went on, "Let me be the first to welcome you all home."

Harry stared out at Voyager with the Phoenix and Marianne flanking it and frowned. Home? Prior to the crash, Harry hadn't had a home for a long, long time. The last sixteen years felt more like home than anything since before he had to send all the Magicals away to save them.

Even though they had sort of brought their home in exile with them, Harry had to wonder, what would become of all that their former life had been?

Harry could only mull this as he began to wake the Ark and all within it back up.

XxXxX

AUTHOR'S NOTES

If there is one thing which is rather irritating as an author is when you write a chapter and quite a few write in saying they didn't like it but they don't say why. Please, I really enjoy feedback of all kinds, but if you don't tell me what your like or didn't like, I don't have much to work with going forward.

The Universal Translator: From what I can gather from online sources, while I might speak to you in one language, the UT works on your brain so that you 'hear' my voice speaking to you in yours. So to someone without a comm-badge with a UT one would hear Neelix and Kes speaking a completely different language. It does bring up something which seems to be ignored all the time is that while this might work on spoken languages, it wouldn't work with written ones. So a lot of episodes where there is a lot of work being done on computers and the like wouldn't work because neither group could read what the other's computers were telling them. So in episodes of a First Contact nature, you could easily ask where the bathroom was but you wouldn't be able to read the writing to tell you which bathroom to go into unless there was a generic symbol you could suss out.

Chakotay's Age: I know by canon that he was born in 2339 so is around 45 at this point in the story. Still, unless he comes from some sect of people who don't want to use life-prolonging medicine, there is no reason he should be going grey that young. With all the technology and gene therapies, you'd expect humans to live a long time. I'm thinking Chakotay is not only in his mid-eighties, but he didn't join Starfleet till he was around sixty or so. One thing you learn in fighting global terrorism is that while the grunts are often young, the types who fly planes into buildings or blow themselves up are often middle-aged, well-educated people. So an older Chakotay would be the ideal type of person to feel the Federation is morally wrong and thus go off to join the Maquis. I'm also thinking that he let his hair go grey a little bit because his culture might be against a certain amount of vanity so even dyeing the grey might be seen as not wanting to acknowledge the age you rightfully earned. Your own fan-wank milage may vary.

Krenim & Garenor: Just a reminder for those who don't want to do the Google. The Krenim were the race featured in the whole Year of Hell arc. The Garenor, however, are one of the races mentioned but never shown. I am using their name to be for the unstated race P'Chan is of in the ST: VOY episode Survival Instinct.

Latin Phrases: Just a reminder people, I feed off the tears and anger of those who can't get it through their heads I refuse to use a lot of the doggerel Latin/Greek mix JKR used for spells.

Exsercio: Latin for Repair. While if you plunk 'reparo' into Google translate, you also get repair, my whole take on using Latin for spells is that it's a language modern witches and wizards don't use anymore. Thus the language helps get the mind into thinking of non-mundane work. Reparo sounds far too much like repair to work using this context.

Fortes fortuna iuvat: Fortune favors the Brave. The house motto for Gryffindor in my fics.

Victoriam forti: Victory to the Brave…but only if you get the spacing and the capitalization right in Google translate. Motto in my fics for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.