55 — Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
The next day was just as much fun, they all thought. Most of the adults tried out the trebuchets by the lake, having heard the stories from the foals and rumours back in Equestria from the Guards. Most also weren't from Ponyville and hadn't had the chance to test the entertainment devices installed at the lake.
To the surprise of everypony, a small herd of unicorns, no more than seven, appeared along the edge of the Forest, and watched the ponies playing on the lawns. What attracted everypony's attention, at first, was that three of the foals were shooting sparks. The Equestrian unicorns quickly congregated and started showing off some of the very basic spells they had learned as foals, themselves. It wasn't long before the wizards and witches were watching from a short distance away.
The cheer that went up when the first foal levitated a leaf startled the Forest unicorns away. That earned a disapproving glare from the others. It took another hour to coax the unicorns back to the lawn's edge.
Many of the older Hogwarts students were making serious efforts to meet with and talk to the parents. They were feeling out the possibilities for business connections and possible employment. Many of the Seventh-years were definitely planning on taking the next year off and visiting Equestria. Having a close understanding of just what the ponies did in their daily lives would be a big boost to any careers they might choose to pursue in the witchery world. The insights into how the ponies think would be invaluable.
He and Elly did manage to get together long enough for him to check her teleport matrix. It still needed tweaking, so they decided to try again next weekend.
However, as all goods things did, the day came to an end and the parents and siblings went home.
For the ponies, the glee from seeing their parents at Hogwarts carried over for the next few days.
Professor Moody was as different from Lockhart and Quirrell as anypony could imagine. His first class was revising every spell that they should have learned in First Year. His second class, he promised, would have them doing the entire Second-year, as well. Harry thought he and the girls had done quite well, as did the rest of the Gryffindors — they had worked quite a lot together last year. Plus, the book-walking spell had made a big impact in internalizing their study of magical theory. The only one who felt she could have done better was Hermione, of course.
To say Moody was surprised at the book-walking spell was an understatement. It took him only a few minutes to master the spell — he swore his assistant to guard him while he experimented with it the first time. He gave Harry ten points for telling everyone about the spell when he could have kept it secret and given himself a big advantage.
To which, Harry responded, with a blank stare. Like the others would have let him keep it a secret? The only way he could have kept it a secret would have been to not use it! The wizard was clearly as idiotic as all the other wizards and witches. A lot more paranoid, but still idiotic.
However, at least this wizard was competent, he had to admit. The urge to hex him when he wasn't looking was strong, however, just to see if the wizard's reaction time was anything like his paranoia seemed to suggest.
But he wouldn't do that. He knew his herdmates would disapprove. Only if the not-quite-incompetent wizard looked like he was going to attack any of them would he act.
Besides, if he hadn't shared book-walking spell, then they wouldn't be able to surprise the Professor next week. Harry was looking forward to watching his expression when he discovered that they had already mastered Second Year. And then started on the Third-year's material back in March.
Despite the . . . theatrics . . . of Lockhart, they had spent more than an hour a week going over The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 2) and, more lately, The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 3). Those books were on the official Hogwarts List for those years, after all. Fortunately, most of the Sixth-years, and a few of the Seventh-years, had been more than happy to tell them the books their D.A.D.A. professors had liked. Those, with what the older students had told them about their O.W.L. D.A.D.A. tests had been a big help.
That information had let them look up the books left to the library after each previous year, which had the other spells they needed. With the O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s being administered by the Ministry, and not their Hogwarts' Professors, knowing what they might find on the tests was vital.
Seeing how much damage resulted from the previous Saturday, both to the building and students, there was a heightened interest in protective spells. As a result, Harry and the girls found themselves as temporary unofficial instructors in the different shielding charms, and non-lethal methods of stopping an assailant. It made for rather busy afternoons after classes let out.
Their expertise in the Great Hall had not been missed by everypony.
Professor Moody probably would approve when he learned of that, if he hadn't already.
۸·_·۸
Hogwarts quickly fell back into its routine after the parental visits. The Fifth- and Seventh-years were deep into revising for the upcoming O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s. Thanks to book-walking, most were cautiously confident they would do well. The Seventh-years actually had a substantial benefit from book-walking, having actually finished their respective, normal, last two years of study four months before. They had spent their remaining time going over everything that would probably be on the N.E.W.T.s. It had given them ample time to revise those sections of magical theory that they were having trouble with, and many, many additional hours of practice for the practical side of the exams.
The Fifth-years would have been four months into the Sixth-year materials, if they hadn't instead decided to concentrate on getting the best scores possible for O.W.L.s. So, they, too spent the last four months going over areas that they were weak in, and perfecting their casting for the practicals. The Fifth-years would be in fantastic shape when their N.E.W.T.s came around.
If the Ministry officials had been surprised at the elevated scores from last year's exams, this year's would surprise them again. As would every year for the next six.
However, the First- and Second-years weren't nearly so fortunate. Their tests would be administered by their professors. Professors who knew exactly how far along the material they were, and how well they had performed in classes. Plus, their professors had been happy to add deeper theory, and material that hadn't been there before. As a result, their upcoming tests would be adjusted for the increased knowledge they actually had instead of what previous First- and Second-years should had known at year-end.
The ponies had indeed made a lasting change to Hogwarts, already. Seeing how well they took to the spells was inspiring for the other students. Especially the pure-bloods who didn't want to look bad by comparison.
The extra work the last two years, though, would pay off in big dividends when the Second-years reached their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s. In fact, at the pace they were progressing they would be ready for their O.W.L.s in October of their Fifth Year.
Harry thought that when his Year took their O.W.L.s, almost everypony would score Outstandings or Outstanding Pluses.
They could take their N.E.W.T.s at the end of their Sixth-year if they continued at their current pace! Book-walking could remove an entire year from Hogwarts curriculum, if they devoted that extra time to working on the Sixth-year classes instead of revising for the O.W.L.s
Naturally, the professors were already taking advantage of that extra time to increase the amount of material presented. Unfortunately, the professors could really pile on extra work that would restore Hogwarts normal seven-years-to-complete schedule.
On the other hand, it would take several years before the ministry authorized any new textbooks for their subjects. In the meantime, telling parents they had to buy the First- and Second-year books for the First-year students would raise quite a lot of objections. As would telling parents to buy the Third-year book for Second-years, and so on.
The new texts, when they arrived, would either give more material for each year, or they would redesign the curriculum to account for the faster rate of learning.
In the not-too-distant future, these would be the normal expectations of the professors for all the Years. No matter which route the Ministry decided to follow, it would be a while before becoming the new standard at Hogwarts.
Plus, the Ministry would adjust their expectations, too. That however would take longer. Bureaucracy moves at a snail's pace at the best of times. And a witchery bureaucracy that had people who had been in their positions for a century? A snail was practically a racehorse compared to how slowly those witches changed their minds about what the testing curriculum should cover.
The Firsties, of course, didn't realize this. They assumed that the slightly accelerated pace that would have them finish the old First-year curriculum in only eight months was normal. After, all, it was what the Second-years had gone through before them, right? Plus, the Professors had already adjusted their lesson plans, so there was nothing the Firsties could do in classwork that surprised them.
Unlike last year.
The new pass/fail approach for the Equestrians seemed to be working on the assignments and spot tests for the ponies, too. No-longer were the witches and wizards locked out of the top slots for their classes or Houses.
It also had the effect of reducing the pressure the ponies were under. In their Equestrian schools, they had been struggling against other ponies to edge out the top spots for themselves. With the pass/fail system, that pressure dropped considerably. With that barrier gone, the top students were more than willing to help out the under-performers — they didn't have to worry that helping somepony else meant they had to take time off studying for themselves, or lowering their own position in the group.
The herding instinct for everypony to succeed kicked in.
۸·_·۸
The rest of the New Martians' Monday was spent in pursuing their various tasks on the red-planet.
Thomas completed the first experiment, a verification of the translocator. He grabbed a random rock, about the size of his fist, dropped it into a box not much bigger, sealed it, then tapped the translocator control. It vanished. Eight nail-biting, fingers-crossed minutes later, the ESA message arrived that the box had made the journey intact.
The Mission Specialists decided to locate the habitats three kilometres to the north of the Buran, while the scientific instruments were three kilometres to the south.
They didn't want the activities at Mars Base to disturb the readings taken at the other. By mid-afternoon, both habitat domes were raised platforms on pillars drilled a metre into the Martian ground. A fabric skirt was fastened to the pillars, staked at regular intervals, and the bottom edge buried, to prevent any wind from going underneath the domes and building up enough lift to flip them.
The translocator dome wasn't merely inflatable, it had a metal strapping grid in it, much like some mountain climbing tents, that held its shape regardless of pressure. This allowed the airlock doors to be locked open for moving large pieces of equipment outside — such as the large outdoor target that they were planning on sending through from Earth, later.
The plan was that a much larger dome would be placed over that target to protect it from dust build-up during the Martian storms. Too much dust covering the target would prevent the distant translocator from getting a fix on it.
For Thomas and Yelena, the important experiments were with the live animals they had brought. The first cage was a common hamster. Activating its translocator first placed the small rodent into stasis, then sent it back to Earth. The spell on the second translocator transfigured its hamster into stone, then sent it to Earth. The next three cages did the same but used different materials: steel, wood, and glass. The various materials shouldn't make a difference, but with "Special Technology" it was always better to check.
The target dome for the translocators was tested as soon as they filled it with an atmosphere, and finished an hour-long check of its integrity, that afternoon. A flag and pole assembly came through from Earth — the UN flag.
That would settle any disputes about who claimed what. Naturally, the U.K. was prominently displayed on the outsides of all the domes, habitats, and equipment.
Soon after, all five cages returned to Mars, with their respective passengers apparently in fine shape. They ran the necessary Special Technology tests to ensure the animals were in excellent shape, then returned them to Earth with the tests' "no change" conclusions.
They didn't finish their tasks until the end of the next day, though. The surprise was, however, the arrival of several astronaut-scientists just after lunch.
The Buran headed home Wednesday morning with a crew of four. The other five were taking translocators after assisting the new crew of five that had arrived.
Take-off and return was as simple as the landing had been, with the exception that they dropped off four high-orbit satellites to maintain a constant watch over the new Base and a constant day/night backup communication network.
The four spent their first day in space writing up reports on what they had seen and done, as well providing feedback on the plane's operation.
Thomas had never thought he'd say it, but the last day as they decelerated towards Earth was kind of boring. Not that he would ever admit that.
Milking it for all the publicity they could, the government made their Friday afternoon landing in Heathrow into another media event. The two million pounds the BNSC paid the administrators for the "disruption" made the Airport Authority a tiny bit less disgruntled at the delays created.
The next flight would be an extended exploration of the asteroid ring between Mars and Jupiter, with a brief stop in the trojan positions for both planets.
Major Thomas had already decided he wasn't interested in that flight. Besides, it was about time to let others in on the fun — and he wanted to make sure he was on that first Interstellar flight.
|
- - -(_)- - -
Lieutenant Searle was waiting patiently in the conference room at Number 10 Downing Street. He was meeting with The Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, the Home Secretary, Kenneth Baker, Sir Patrick Walker, head of Military Intelligence Department Five, Sir Colin McColl, head of Military Intelligence Department Six, and the Prime Minister, John Major. It was the end of the week and he would be giving a briefing to them, to bring them up-to-date on the Riddle situation, and a few other things.
Walker and McColl arrived first, one after the other, and quickly took their seats, each setting a stack of folders on the table from their briefcases. Hurd and Baker arrived next, conferring about the successful Mars Mission.
The Buran had performed flawlessly, Castor knew, having landed back at Heathrow that afternoon, to great fanfare.
The Yanks were apparently chomping at the bit to put an entire research base through the "Special Technology" transport system. The landing site was quickly turning into a boom-town, almost as fast as the two bases on the Earth's Moon had grown. Growth was carefully herded away from the sensor platforms the Buran had placed six kilometres away.
Every scientist with even a casual interest in off-planet sciences was in the queue to stay at one of the three bases, if not already scheduled to visit all three.
Terra-forming was even under discussion. The quest for life on other planets was moot. The ponies proved humans weren't alone in the universe.
The U.K. had edged the U.S. out as the country that the rest of the world was watching for new innovations. While the bases were all "international" in scope, everyone knew that without the U.K. none of the bases would exist.
No one knew what was coming next, in engineering, astronomy, physics, or commercial applications that were revolutionizing entire industries.
The U.K universities were drawing the most promising of graduates in the sciences to the U.K. for their post-graduate studies, especially in the mathematics, high-energy, and theoretical physics fields. For the first time in decades, the so-called brain-drain had reversed. It was almost like the sixties and seventies all over again. Only this time it was the sciences that put the U.K. at the forefront of the world's consciousness, not rock-and-roll music.
Plus, Castor had recently heard of a student at Cardiff University, in Wales. Miguel Alcubierre Moya was in its graduate school, and his professors had brought him to the attention of the physicists in the BNSC. He had just published a paper proposing a "warp" drive that would allow the equivalent of faster-than-light travel between stars. There were just as many physicists ridiculing the proposal as there were who were praising his preliminary calculations.
The Special Technology people, and the Equestrians were extremely interested. They were, to put it mildly, chomping at the bit. They had already made the decision that the test would take place on the other side of the solar system from Earth — just in case something went apocalyptically wrong.
Alpha Centauri and its sister stars might not be as far away as everyone thought. Was it a race to see which would get there first? The as-yet unbuilt, warp-drive-equipped ship or the Bristol Bloodhound, Ad Astra II?
He idly wondered how long it would take to retrofit the Buran, once they moved out of the testing phase for the warp drive. Or would it require a completely different physical design? Something purpose built, but which could still hover or land like a plane?
The fight to be on that ship, whatever it's configuration, would be legendary.
The Prime Minister finally made his appearance. He didn't wait to mince words. "What's the status of Project Gilgamesh?"
Walker sighed and tapped his stack of folders with one finger. "He appears to have either slipped out of the country, or gone to ground so thoroughly that we can't find him." He slid a folder he had over to the Major and the two Secretaries.
"The full report is in these." He shrugged. "We believe the suspect left the Leaky Cauldron at ten-thirty hundred hours, Saturday. The suspect took a cab and checked into a small bed-and-breakfast off Bexley High Street at about eleven-thirty hundred hours. He took a room and wasn't seen until the next morning at zero-six hundred hours. He used Specialty Tech to confuse the on-duty clerk, walked out, and wasn't seen again." He looked at each of them in turn.
"Major Castor and his teams arrived at the Bexley High Street Post Office Building at roughly zero-five hundred, Saturday, and it took them the better part of an hour and a quarter to locate the bed-and-breakfast where the suspect had overnighted. Anticipating a possible fight using Special Technology, another seventeen minutes was lost planning and evacuating civilians from that building and the ones on either side." He shook his head. "The boy, Gregory Goyle, was inside, dead. The coroner put the time of death as Saturday, sometime between twelve-hundred and fifteen-hundred hours."
"Princess Twilight, using Special Technology, had managed a brief contact with the boy at about fourteen-hundred," Castor said. "Unfortunately, the contact cut off before she could get a definite location. She believes that that was his time of death."
Walker looked around the table, again.
"We had teams of our Special Technology people working with our new Infiltrator Specialists at all the major ferry terminals and airports in England, Scotland, and Wales. Most were in position by zero-five hundred Sunday. None of them detected the presence of our suspect." He gave a wry shake of his head. "We did catch twenty different attempts to smuggle cash and goods out of England on Sunday, alone, though." He flashed a brief smile. "The Infiltrator Specialists were the only reason we caught any. They picked them out almost as soon as they saw them."
His audience was not happy at the revelations, so far, as their scowling expressions indicated, despite the capture of the smugglers. The Prime Minister was leaning back in chair, one arm across his chest, his other elbow resting on it while his index finger covered his mouth.
"We had to curtail the patrols as we had insufficient personnel to maintain a watch at all locations during all their hours of operation, primarily the airports. The Infiltrator Specialists were willing to stay at work the entire time, most said they could stay awake for days without a problem. However, we discovered they were rapidly burning through their rations because none were available for food runs. There was some danger of collapse if we continued past Tuesday if some weren't released to collecting more.
"If the suspect hasn't already fled the country, then he probably won't, based on the personality profile we were able to work up. It's in the folders." He stopped and looked down for a moment. "We will continue to monitor the ferry crossings for the next few weeks in case he does try to flee. Those are, after all, the methods the suspect is most familiar with, and most likely to use. Plus, they require the fewest resources." He shook his head. "We simply don't have the 'Special Technician' resources to cover the airports twenty-four hours a day."
Then it was McColl's turn. "I managed to get agents to all the ferry crossing by zero-six hundred hours," he said with a sour expression. "I also had agents at the five largest airports in Western Europe, but they were unable to detect our suspect." He slid three folders down the table. "No one matching any of our photographs was seen at any of the locations we monitored."
Walker resumed speaking. "The Invisible World's agents believe that a," he stopped and cleared his throat, then said, "vampire was responsible, because of the way the situation unfolded at Hogwarts before the suspect was discovered. The Professor was discussing and demonstrating how you could use Special Technology to find a Renfield — someone under the control of a vampire. The suspect took advantage of that and arranged the crime scene to fit the Invisible World's expectations. Their agents firmly believe the suspect fled shortly before daylight, confusing the bed-and-breakfast clerk into believing that he hadn't yet left."
He shook his head. "Because the Headmaster has not confided his suspicions about the suspect to the Ministry regarding the suspect being the terrorist surviving the Nineteen-eighty-one attack, there is no way to convince them of either their error or the danger this suspect presents to both our worlds." He glanced around the table. "The only bright side to this is that the Equestrians have promised us assistance should we ask for it.
"The Princess has said they have around five hundred trained Guards who will be ready to go on patrols with our own people in another month. In addition, she is working on a . . . Special Technology that should be able to detect our target if he comes close enough. When she finishes it, she thinks that we should be able to find him if he is still in England. Or be able detect him when he tries to sneak back in."
He shifted forward and put his folded hands on the table.
"We are carefully monitoring unusual incidents across the country; in case he hasn't fled." He shrugged. "It's a small hope, but one we can't overlook."
The Prime Minister slowly nodded and pursed his lips. "And we can't warn our allies that he is on the loose."
"Not without breaking the Statute of Secrecy the Invisible World hides behind," McColl said, shaking his head.
Hurd leaned forward and pressed his forearms against the table's edge. "Could we say a criminal or enemy of the Equestrians managed to sneak through the portal, and use that to disclose some of this man's abilities?"
Walker and McColl exchanged a quick glance. "I'm not sure that would be wise," McColl said slowly. "It would tip-off both our allies and enemies to abilities we have at our disposal that we don't want them to realize, just yet. The yanks, especially, would have problems with their version of the Invisible World, who are even more reclusive than ours! As it is, their Invisible World is already very put-out with our Special Technology devices being on that borderline. The only reason their . . . Congress . . . hasn't interfered on the international scene is because we have done such a good job of disguising what we're doing as just advanced science. For it all to suddenly disappear would raise more curiosity about why than just keeping quiet about what we're doing.
"We can't even warn them of the truth about our suspect," McColl continued, "The British Ministry for the Invisible World would just contradict us." He huffed, "And all of them, both sides of the pond, are notorious for thinking nothing the non-magicals say is relevant to them. So, why should they believe us over the British Ministry, now?" He leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling.
Major sighed. "Do your best."
Castor took a small bundle of envelopes out of his expanded coat pocket and set them on the conference table. He looked up at John Major. He grinned. "Princess Twilight wanted me to pass on that the Blackpool facility is going through final testing procedures. They'll use a standard-sized shipping containers — short, medium, and long — on rails that can be directly lifted on and off flatbed railcars or lorries. The containers are all internally expanded by a factor of four. Those sizes were chosen to hid the extent to which the Undetectable Expansion Technology can be used in transporting goods — and to make it easier for them to control just what goes through the portal.
"Each container will be thoroughly examined for contraband before sending it on to the Portal.
"She has built a series of Special Technology devices that scan for, and remove, any living matter bigger than a bacterium. The devices will then sterilize the container and its contents. If anything magical is detected, they will seal and quarantine the container and alert the operators."
Major was nodding approvingly, as were both the Home and Foreign Sectaries.
He looked around the table. "She said they have something similar on their end. She also asked if you wanted to make this an official inauguration of the facility. If so, the earliest would be Wednesday next, although she thought doing it Friday next or on that weekend might be better. She could even put it off for another week or two. She will gladly coordinate with whomever the Home Office sends to arrange the details. She did suggest the first official shipment both ways be books, records, and movies, as a symbolic representation of the intellectual growth this will bring to both cultures."
He coughed with his hand covering his mouth, and looked at the Prime Minister from under his eyebrows.
"She also said that they intended it to be a big open-house celebration for the city, with an extensive party planned for the workers and their families. She thinks it would be a big morale booster for the region. Plus, the Equestrian Embassy will be escorting several other Equestrian races to examine the facility for their use, too. She said that would include Zebricans, Saddle Arabians, Griffons, and Minotaurs."
Major stared at him with wide eyes and raised eyebrows, then he smiled broadly, shaking his head wryly.
۸-_-۸