Ch. 49 — Reflections
President Clinton refolded the paper and put it in his coat pocket. "Thank you, Sergeant." The Marine saluted and marched back through the Portal.
The gravity dropped back to what it had been before the interruption.
They spent the next ten minutes jumping and trying to walk. Feeling a bit foolish, even Hammond made a few jumps. He was surprised at just how far, and how high, he was able to jump.
"If you'll follow me," Potter said, "There's a hidden elevator to a lookout above us."
Intrigued, they followed him and were soon staring out at the Moonscape below them, the Sun hanging barely above the horizon, the stars mere points of light. With no atmosphere, which meant no moisture or dust moving in currents above them, they didn't twinkle as they did on Earth.
"Unfortunately, we are located dead-centre on the backside of the moon to keep from being seen from Earth." He paused. "I do have a camera with me, though," Number One said, "if you'd like a picture of yourself with the Moon's landscape in the background. I can leave the negatives with the President to be developed."
No one refused. Not surprisingly, most of the subjects wanted the President and the Admiral standing with them.
It was a strangely exhilarated group that returned to Earth.
Once they were back on Earth, the Portal slab was sent back to wherever it belonged. Then they adjourned once more to the previous conference room.
"That was very informative, Admiral Potter," Clinton said, and grinned. "Quite fun, too . . . but I get the feeling that wasn't the sole reason you asked to meet with me today."
"You are correct, sir." Number One said and paused. She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a hand-sized, cubical rock. "I'm sure you understand how much of a security risk the Portal device is."
And it was, Hammond realized. Anyone who had one of those Portals, or access to one, could wreak havoc.
No place was secure!
Robbing a bank would be child's play — open the portal to the vault at night! Open a Portal to Fort Knox, even! Not to mention assassinations would be impossible to prevent. Militarily, you could attack an enemy position by appearing inside it, no matter how remote or well-protected it might be!
"This device," she continued and held it up, "prevents our Portal from forming within eighteen-point-four-four-zero-four metres of it, in all directions. Placing two of these thirty-six metres apart forms a lozenge-shape eighteen-point-four-four-zero-four meters in diameter by seventy-point-four metres long. Arranging four make a rough cuboid with rounded corners seventy-point-four metres wide and long by eighteen-point-four-four-zero-four metres high. Eight can make a cube seventy metres on a side. You can add more and arrange them how you want, as long as you don't exceed making them thirty-six metres apart.
"We thought you might want these to protect certain of your sensitive buildings and locations. We have a million of these made. We will send down ten thousand to the landing pad we first used, outside. Give Lieutenant-Commander Patil the co-ordinates of where you would like the others sent. We will open a portal to those locations and move through however many you need."
Hammond didn't know what to say. Nor did anyone else, at first.
"Are you afraid someone will steal your tech and use it against us?" the President said.
The Admiral shook his head. "Not exactly, Mr. President . . . as in all populations, there are some who feel that the laws do not apply to them for various reasons, and what they do is somehow, okay. Ours is no different. Once knowledge is out on how to form these portals, bad actors will make themselves known."
"Imagine if everyone knew how to make C-Four out of flour and other ingredient you can find in any kitchen pantry," Number One said.
They all shuddered.
Hammond frowned. "Well, isn't that true of your teleportation?"
Number One shook her head. "Remember, not all of our people can use that ability safely, and it is limited to what they can conveniently carry. There are also the limitations on needing to know where they are going. Jumping blind into a building could leave you partly in a wall, floor, or ceiling. Outside is safer, as you normalize to the ground."
Everyone looked a bit sick at that thought.
"However, if you are interested, we can provide similar devices to block our . . . ability, with the same area coverage features."
"We will make the devices do both at the same time," Potter said.
Hammond and the Secretary of Defence both were looking at the President and nodding.
"Yes, please," Clinton said, "We would like that very much."
"We'll drop off ten thousand of those devices tomorrow," the Admiral said.
"We will also drop off a thousand devices that will make a hole in the teleportation coverage so that you can have a secure room for us to use when we need to contact you or deliver something. You have to use them in sets of eight to mark the limits, but they can enclose a cuboid up to four metres on a side. One of the eight will come with an on-off switch for emergency use in areas you don't normally want us to access," Number One said.
There was silence for a moment.
"We can do the same for the portals, too, if you are interested. Only those we will design so that the portal can only appear in one specific spot, say, one centimetre thick by three metres in diameter," the Admiral added.
The Potter and Number One looked at each other for a moment. "Those would only need four control units to mark the portal size limit," Number One said. "The size of the units would be the limit of the thickness of the space for the Portal."
"Well," Admiral Potter said, clapping his hands together, "I think that's everything." He looked at Number One, who nodded.
"If you'll excuse us?" He looked over at the President.
"Before you go, thank you very much for keeping us in the loop on this." Clinton stood and walked over to the Admiral and held out his hand.
They shook hands.
"It seemed like the best thing to do," Potter said. "Keeping secrets from allies about something like this would hurt us in the long run."
"Still, thank you," Clinton said firmly. He frowned. "What will these devices cost?"
The Admiral shrugged. "You have already paid for them in the assistance you have given us, and not treating us as a threat."
"Oh," Number One said, "we will be visiting the Queen tomorrow, so you needn't worry about informing her and the others in the Commonwealth about this."
On that note, the three members of the D.F.S. teleported away.
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They apparated into Buckingham Palace's Back Garden at the appointed time to find the Queen and other important members of the British government waiting for them. He recognized Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"Your Highness," Harry said, giving a short bow as he had been instructed. Hermione and Luna curtsied. "I see you've used one of your PiMPs — you're looking decades younger!"
She smiled, "And feeling decades younger, too," she said. "Your sharing of those devices has saved tens of thousands of lives, and will save millions more. We will never be able to repay such generosity — we are in your debt."
He bowed again. "Once we perfected the technology, we couldn't keep it secret from our friends and neighbours. We are delighted to share it with the rest of the world."
Then came a round of introductions: Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine; Foreign Secretary Robin Cook; Home Secretary Jack Straw; the Director General of the British Security Service Stephen Lander; Head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Sir David Spedding; and the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Charles Guthrie.
After that, they moved over to the back-garden terrace. The conversation about the Portal went pretty much the same as it had with the Yanks. Being already outside, summoning the Portal was fairly simple. This time, it was Number 10 Downing, the private residence for the Prime Minister, that Harry demonstrated. This time, Harry suggested that Tony Blair call one of the telephones in the Palace. While they watched from the lawn as he sat at his desk in his office, Harry and Hermione explained about the Portal Blockers, and the "Teleportation" Blockers. The last were actually anti-apparition shield generators.
The Security officials were most grateful for that protection.
Soon enough, an aide came hurrying onto the Terrace and with a phone on a ridiculously long extension cord and handed it to the Queen.
It was a bit amusing to watch the two talking on a phone when they could see each other — and many miles apart.
Then it was a trip to the Moon — with pictures as souvenirs.
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It was the Saturday before the regular end-of-year exams started when Angelina contacted him. He was with Hermione and a few others of the Crew studying for the NEWTs that would start the week after.
Harry had to prepare for Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Transfiguration, and Potions.
Hermione, meanwhile, was taking Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Transfiguration, Potions, Arithmancy, and Ancient Runes.
With Tommy's parasite gone, and his scar mostly healed, Harry was finding it much easier to memorize what he studied and concentrate on what he was doing or needed to do. He was also more powerful. Apparently, the parasite had been siphoning of some of his power to survive and prevent Harry's magic from removing it.
Rather ironic, he thought.
His reaction times were also faster, and his wand movements sharper. Plus, he was better at applying what he knew to the problems he needed to solve. As a result, over the last year he had mastered more spells, wanded, silent, and wandless, than anyone else in Charms and DADA. Although, for those last two it didn't take too many to achieve that status. Silent was difficult for everyone and only the most frequently used spells by each person were mastered. Very few mastered more than one or two wandless spells.
He was going to give Hermione a serious challenge in getting the highest NEWT scores for several of their shared classes.
"Admiral, I've found something I think you need to see," Angelina said to him over the Comm in a privacy mode. "It's not an emergency or anything, but it is important . . . really important. I don't want to discuss it over the air. I'm on the ship."
The privacy setting was working perfectly, none of the others reacted to her quiet request.
He leaned back in his chair and stretched. "I think I need a break."
Several of the others also sat up and stretched, too.
Hermione didn't move. He lightly tapped her foot with his. She glanced over at him, frowning. He motioned with his eyes and a slight movement of his head, up.
She stared a moment longer, then sighed. "I could use a break, too," she said, closing her book and putting it in her expanded bag.
She followed him out of the Library. He headed for one of the "secret" passages that shortened the trek to the Gryffindor Common Room. Midway through it, they moved into one of the passages they had added that led to outside Hogwarts protective spells. While they walked, he told Angelina they were on their way.
Fifteen minutes later, they were on the Requirement. Angelina greeted them, and led them to a nearby meeting room.
"So," he said as they settled around the table, "What's up?"
She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "The PiMPS have scanned and treated tens of millions of muggles by now. I decided to see what genetic diseases the Medical Unit on-planet had come across. I wanted to make sure that it hadn't missed the tay-sachs disease markers, for example, because they are harmless by themselves. It's only when they combine in children that it's deadly." While Hermione knew what she meant, she had to explain it to Harry.
"Anyway," she concluded, "Just for grins, I asked what differentiated magic users from non-magicals — after all, it has treated thousands of magicals, too." She paused and took another deep breath. "It seems there's one major gene groupings that all magical users have, but non-magicals have most or all of those pieces missing. Only when all the pieces are present is someone a wizard or witch. If they're missing one or two of the more critical pieces, then they're squibs. Missing minor pieces seems to affect how much magic they can control, how well they control it, and any special talents wizards and witches have, but those aren't limited to any one piece or section. The only special talent the computer pinned down was the animagus. The sample isn't big enough, yet, for any of the others."
Hermione leaned back, clearly stunned. "You found the magic gene?" she said breathlessly, then leaned forward intently.
Angelina nodded. "I asked the computer, and it says it can add the missing clusters to anyone."
Hermione's jaw dropped. "We can make people magical?"
Angelina nodded. "Apparently so . . . and I have no idea what to do with that information."
Harry just stared at her.
They could make anyone a magical person!
"Hermione," he said quietly, "we need to make that a fidelius . . . like, right now! If the Ministry were to find this out, they would try to stop us from doing anything with the knowledge, if they didn't outright obliviate us."
After staring at him blankly for a moment, her mind obviously racing at the implications, she stood. "Angelina, you will be the secret keeper that we discovered the magical gene group and that the D.S.F. medical units can make anyone a magical," she said shakily.
"Shouldn't we make the knowledge completely secret?" Harry said.
She shook her head. "If we want to make someone magical, we have to be able to talk with them first. If we decide to push it in any way, I'm sure Angelina doesn't want to have to tell the secret to hundreds of thousands of people, right? And with that many secret knowers, the fidelius would probably crash."
Angelina readily agreed.
"By carefully wording it, we can talk about it and offer to make people magical without directly mentioning the secret. We don't have to explain how we know what makes people magical, and how we're doing it, keeping it a secret." She looked at the other two. "Only we three will know the gene groups exist, and that the medical units can add them to non-magicals." She paused. "We can even come up with a fake potion using really rare ingredients that we say makes them magical."
A few minutes later, no one would ever suspect that there were gene-groups that made mundane people magical, nor would they think the Crew's medical units, either on the ships or on-planet, had found the magical gene-groups, and that their ships and medical units, the PiMPS, could actually add those gene groups to anyone to make them magical.
"How do we know this will work?" Harry said. "I mean, it should, but how can we be certain? We can't just go up to a muggle and say, 'Hey, want to be a wizard?' Plus, it would cause problems when they attracted the Ministry's attention with accidental magic."
Hermione pursed her lips and started pacing. "We should probably start with a known squib. They already know about magic, and would jump at the chance to gain the ability."
Angelina nodded. "But who? We can't just start asking around for squibs! Beside most of the families with a squib in them are reluctant to admit it — except muggle-born with siblings."
"You forget, we hired squibs to run some of the Return to Tomorrow stores in England, on the continent, and India, not to mention the muggle restaurants paired with Quark's, Gus's Galaxy Grill," Hermione said, and grinned. "There must be at least fifty, including their families.
"I think we should start with Mr. Filch," Harry said. "If it works for him, then we know it's doable."
The other two looked at him like he was crazy.
He shrugged. "He would be a good start. If this works and he starts to show magic powerful enough to use a wand, we can start a rumour it's because he has lived in a magic rich environment for so long. That would deflect attention from us." He paused, then added, "We can say the same for the squibs working in the Tomorrow stores beside the different magical centres, like Diagon Alley, Rue Oblique, and Schiefe Straße."
"You think he would trust us?" Angelina said incredulously.
"If we're honest and tell him we think this will work, but we aren't positive. And if it does, it might even take time for the effects to make themselves evident."
"He'll probably think we're trying to prank him though," Hermione said.
"I'll offer to swear an oath we aren't pranking him. Maybe give him a bag of galleons or gems to prove we're serious."
Hermione turned to Angelina. "If this works, have the medical units automatically upgrade any child under eleven they find who is a squib to a full-magical." She glanced at Harry. "Children being detected as magical would not draw any attention. Maybe even notify the parents of squib-children the units have already discovered that their child needs an 'additional' checkup, and do it to them, too."
Harry and Angelina nodded.
"We also have some squibs in the Marines, most from the Royal Marines. If it works with Filch, we can power them up and just have classes for them, the Were's teaching at Uranus Base won't mind a few extra students. They can then take their OWLs later." She paused. "Some of the Were's are squibs, too."
"I still think we should start with Filch," Harry said.
Hermione frowned. "But if it's a gene cluster," she said, musing, "why do the Gates and beaming cause a problem?"
Harry shrugged. "Maybe the Gates disrupt the magic and it takes time for the magic to re-establish itself? The magic disappearing so suddenly causes the magical equivalent of a heart-attack? Maybe that's how the Death Curse works, it stops a person's magic and the shock of the loss kills the person?" He paused. "After all, if you stop someone's heart, it doesn't restart itself. Maybe a person's magic is the same?"
They talked a bit more, then Harry and Hermione headed back to the castle. Once in the castle, they pulled out Harry's map and tracked down Filch — there really wasn't a reason to delay. Plus, trying to do any studying while wondering if they could give a squib magic would make it nearly impossible to concentrate.
"Waduryawant," the unpleasant man growled when they came up to him. He was mopping the floor outside one of the classrooms on the fourth floor.
Filch was a rheumatic man with hunched-shoulders and a hunchback. He had a horrible, pouchy and pasty face and bulging, pale eyes, along with sunken, veined cheeks. His hair was long appeared greasy — but not as greasy as a certain professor they knew. He also had a bald spot on the top of his head, quivery jowls and knobbly hands.
Filch usually wore a worn brown coat over his robes.
Hermione stepped forward. "We have an experiment we want to try that only you can do." She paused at his incredulous look. "This isn't a prank; we're willing to swear a wizard's oath to you about it." She opened her bag and took out another bag. She held it out to him. "We're willing to pay you for your time."
He hesitantly and distrustfully took the bag and looked inside. His eyebrows shot up seeing the large amount of galleons and gems it contained.
"There are a hundred galleons in there, plus gems worth much more." She paused. "They're all real, not fashioned from Leprechaun gold or glass to fool you."
"What is this experiment?" He said suspiciously as he shoved the bag into one of his work-robe's pockets.
"Could we discuss this somewhere more private?
He scowled at her, but led them into the nearby classroom.
She started casting privacy charms as soon as the door to the classroom closed. He watched suspiciously.
"This is so no one can overhear us," she said turning to face him at the end. "We," she gestured at Harry and herself, "think we have a way to give you magic . . . enough to use a wand."
He stared at her for a moment, then snorted and sneered at her and Harry. "Right!" He started for the door. "I'm not a simpleton."
"And I'm serious! What have you got to lose?"
"If you don't let us try, you'll always wonder if you missed your big chance," Harry added quietly.
The man stopped, his hand on the door's handle.
"As I said, this is an experiment," Hermione said, "We think it will work, but we aren't positive. If it doesn't, you've lost nothing and you're several hundred galleons richer."
"It'll only take a few minutes," Harry said, "And it won't hurt. If you feel anything, it'll be your magic." He paused. "Unfortunately, we don't know how long it will take after we do the experiment for the magic to appear in you." He glanced at Hermione. "It might take a few minutes; it might take a few days."
Filch stared at them with narrowed eyes. "Not a prank?"
"Not a prank," Hermione stated earnestly, "I swear! This is an honest to Merlin experiment."
He stared at them both a moment longer, then gave a loud "harumph" sound as he left the door and took a few steps back towards them.
Probably because Hermione was one of the few students who had never given him any trouble, nor been anything but polite to him.
"Wado I do?"
Harry took out his wand and transformed one of the desks to a bed. "Lay down on this, first. It won't take long at all; we just want to check your health."
Giving them distrustful looks throughout, the man slowly moved over to the bed and laid down on it.
Hermione pulled one of the PiMPS out of her expanded bag.
Filch stared at it. "What's dat?"
"It's a simple diagnostic tool St. Mungo's uses on their patient. This will tell us how healthy you are and make sure that you don't have any problems that would prevent our experiment from working," she said as she enlarged it.
She placed it on his chest. "Just relax," she said soothingly, and activated it.
He stiffened up.
She studied the display, which the man couldn't see, of course. "First, it says you have several small ailments, but nothing that will have an impact on our experiment." She looked up at his face. "I suggest you go to St Mungo's, it can fix all these, including your bald spot and back. It'll even make you look and feel years younger."
He stared at her, disbelievingly.
"I suggest you ask Madam Pomfrey about their new 'Black Box'."
He rolled his eyes, clearly not believing her.
She lifted the PiMPS and put it back in her bag.
She pulled a vial out of her purse and handed it to him. "Drink this."
"A potion?"
She nodded. "It has some really rare ingredients that arithmetically should do what we want, giving you the ability to cast and use magic."
They had had the ship materialize a mouthful's worth of a ginger-and-chili fizzy drink in a vial before returning to Hogwarts. It was red, cold, and bubbly, with a sharp burn to it after you drank.
"Just down it all at once."
Filch eyed it suspiciously, then drank it. His eyes bulged and he appeared at a loss to breathe for a moment. He wasn't used to spicy foods, apparently.
She handed a cup. "It's water," she said by way of explanation.
He grabbed the cup and gulped the water down.
"And . . . we're done."
"That's it?" he said, surprised, when he could finally get words out.
"Yep."
Filch slowly got off the bed and stared at them distrustfully.
"Like we said, we don't know exactly when this will take effect," Harry said. He held out his wand. "Give it swish."
Glancing back and forth between Harry and the wand, Filch took it, and sceptically gave it a wave. Nothing happened.
He stared at it, frowning, then stared at the two of them.
Harry shrugged. "I had hoped you'd get an immediate response, but . . .," He shook his head.
"Try again," Hermione urged, "Take a deep breath, let it out, and want sparks to come out of the wand when you wave it!"
Staring at them mistrustfully, he did take a breath, then stared at the wand, frowning, and gave it a more vigorous wave. A tiny spark, so dim they almost missed it, flew off.
His eyebrows shot up almost to wear his hairline used to be and he had a stunned expression.
He waved it again, and two tiny sparks flew off.
Harry and Hermione exchanged looks as Filch stared at the wand in shocked amazement. "A wand never did that before!" he said, astounded.
"You should go to Madam Pomfrey and tell her you've been feeling odd the last few days. Have her do a scan to see if she can detect anything different than normal for you." She paused. "She has treated you for injuries, before, hasn't she?"
"Eh?" he said glancing at her from the wand. "Yeah, sure, several times."
"Then she can tell if you appear to have started getting magic."
"Don't tell her we did anything!" Harry warned. "If the pure-bloods hear about it, they'll try to stop us from doing it for other squibs."
"Suggest that maybe living in the castle for so long, its magic is so much more powerful than anywhere else, that that must have finally built up to be noticeable." Hermione said.
"We don't know if this is all the magic you'll get, or if it will increase with time," Harry said. "Hopefully, if we are correct in our analysis, you will eventually be as strong with magic as most anybody." He smiled. "How strong your magic gets depends on how well you understand the magic you cast, and how well you understand yourself."
"You don't need to tell us anything directly," Hermione said. "I'm sure the gossip mill will keep us adequately informed."
Harry held out his hand, and, after a moment, Filch reluctantly gave him back his wand.
She pulled out her wand and cancelled her spells on the room. "I'm sure we'll see you later, Mr. Filch," she said as the two students left the room.
Filch watched them go with an odd expression of joy and disbelief, combined. They hadn't gone far when they heard him exit the room and close the door. They watched as he hurried off in the opposite direction, towards the Hospital Wing. He did stop long enough to grab his mop and broom and drop them off in the maintenance closet at the end of the hall on the way.
They headed back to the Library. Harry sighed. "And now . . . we wait."
The rumour mill came through for them. At dinner they heard the Madam Pomfrey had been astounded to discover that Filch was no longer a squib. Her tests showed he was slowly gaining magic. At the moment, a wand barely reacted to him, but that was a distinct improvement over previously.
She thought that maybe staying in Hogwarts for decades, a very magic-rich environment, had somehow caused this change.
At the rate of improvement, she estimated his magical abilities would stabilize sometime this summer. He would have a wand before school resumed in September.
He was wandering around with a smile, which creeped out more than a few of the students. A couple of days later, he visited St. Mungo's.
The change when he came back made him almost unrecognizable, and everyone stared at him in disbelief. Even his cat, Mrs Norris, didn't recognize him until he got close enough for her sniff his fingers.
He looked decades younger, as if he was in his twenties: He had a full head of thick black hair, his hump was gone, and he stood straight. He was still pale, they were in Scotland, after all, but he looked healthy!
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The NEWTs were everything they had been promised, and worse. By the time they were over, the Seventh-years felt as if their brains had been put through a sieve.
But they were over!
Unfortunately, NEWTs took place after the regular exams, which meant that the Express left Hogwarts the next day, so there was no massive celebration party. Most just wanted to sleep!
On the other hand, Argus Filch, Hogwarts lowly squib janitor, was indeed now a magical. The morning before the Express left, while everyone was rushing around making sure they had everything before heading to the train, Harry tracked down Filch and discovered that Madam Pomfrey had told him that he appeared to be becoming an average wizard. He would be getting a wand before the month was out.
With that endorsement, the order went out to all the PiMPS to automatically upgrade any squib child under twelve to a full magical as soon as they are detected. The proper procedures were to be locally stored in all PiMPS.
The Marines who were currently squibs were all being contacted and gentle inquiries were made to make sure they would want to be made magicals. All, it was anticipated, would say yes, so the Were's at Uranus Base were informed that they soon would have adult students. The squib werewolves were also being informed, and it was less sure how many of them would be interested.
The trip to London was their party. For those who were not Crew members, they spent their time racing up and down the train, saying goodbye to friends, and making plans to meetup during the summer.
For the Crew members it was different.
While they did make plans to meet friends, they didn't have to worry about getting jobs — whatever they wanted as pay, they could get from the ship. As long as they didn't upset the goblins in Gringotts, no one cared. The same was true for almost anything else they wanted — the ship only needed the pattern to supply what they wanted. That meant, of course, that the pay wasn't very important.
With money being no problem, they truly could do anything they wanted, be that exploring new planets, helping with the challenges in terraforming Mars and Venus, piloting the X-wings, researching magic, researching the tech available to the DSF, researching how to integrate magic with the DSF tech, running any of the Enterprise stores, Return to Tomorrow Videos stores, Quark Restaurants and Groceries, Gus's Galaxy Grill Restaurants, Ten Forward Restaurants, any combination of those, or anything else they could think of!
They spent their time discussing which option was best for them!
Naturally, when they arrived in London, they all apparated straight to the Requirement overhead. Their parents, and siblings if there were any, had already been picked up by Runabouts disguised as buses or taxis.
It started with a lavish dinner. Over dessert, a quick summary of the stages of the different projects was presented. Terraforming Mars was well ahead of schedule, thanks to the new Portals. Harry and Hermione had created two three-hundred-yard-diameter Portals on Venus that led to Mars. They would have raised the temperature of Mars by a significant amount if not for four Portals on Uranus that were pumping nitrogen and oxygen at near-liquid temperatures to Mars at the same time.
Each one had taken a day, and exhausted both teens. Fortunately, they had been spread out over the weekends.
Although still near the freezing point of water at the Equator, the pressure was beginning to approach Earth-normal.
Similarly, Venus' air pressure was falling, although the temperature hadn't fallen at all. The tech sun-shield had reduced the amount of sunlight energy reaching the planet, but it would take time to bleed-off the energy stored in the rocks and atmosphere.
The Merworld project was proceeding nicely, and they now had four villages scattered around the main island. A small colony of centaurs had established themselves, on the island. They were mostly the ones from Greece. where they were being tightly squeezed for space. The unicorn colony seemed to be thriving, according to the centaurs — and the small bits of magical forest they had taken from the Forbidden forest and the Grecian forests were flourishing nicely.
It would still take centuries for the magical forests to spread across the island.
The Werewolf colony on 61 Virginis' planet, Lycaon, was also flourishing. All the werewolves they could find in England and the continent had been relocated to either there, Uranus Base, of one of the Battlestars.
As yet, the goblins had not made a decision on 107 Piscium's planet, but it was expected that a large number of them would move there. The offer of a set of portals that led to each of their major banks was a strong incentive, however.
Now that the DSF could create the portals, getting the larger magical creatures to another planet wasn't the onerous and dangerous task it would have been. Instead, they could open a portal and trick the creatures through it, either to the Contents Under Pressure or directly to the destination planet
The goblins were not averse to sharing their planet with dragons, giants, trolls, hippogriffs, griffins, and other dangerous wizarding creatures. They wanted something against which their warriors could test their mettle!
By then, it was fairly late. The graduation party would officially start tomorrow. The twins promised it would be one that no one would ever forget. As part of that celebration, the Requirement would visit Merworld, Lycaon, and the as-yet un-named goblin world at 107 Piscium.
Centaurs were at each one, assisting the Crew in establishing proper magical forests for the magical creatures that were being introduced.
Lee had managed to setup a fidelius on the three planets with a simple secret: The Goa'uld do not know that 107 Piscium, 61 Virginus, and Rigel Kentaurus have habitable planets. Since none of them did, it was easy to establish. It had the advantage that the secret was a secret from only the Goa'uld. Any number of people or creatures could know the truth, but the number of Goa'uld was a tiny number by comparison.
Harry and Hermione were up early the next morning, as they always were. Lee took the opportunity to brief them on the DSF.
First, the DSF Dogon had been completed and was being used as a training ship at Uranus Base for the Battlestars, Runabouts, and X-Wings. It was being manned mainly by Indians, with a growing number of Yanks from the Enterprise/Return to Tomorrow stores in New York, Los Angeles.
Gathering discontented Japanese was turning out to be difficult. Their magical culture was more accepting of new magic users.
The more experienced English Crewmembers were officers as the others were brought up to speed on operations of everything they needed to know, including fluent English and the ancient runes.
The Indians, especially, had a long learning curve. Most were from the lower castes and poorly educated in both technology and magic. The Indian Magical Ministry had no idea of the talent they were throwing away once these people were properly trained!.
The continentals had been using the Galileo and Su Song as their practice vessels up till now. The Galileo had taken semi-permanent station over the fake SGC Base on the moon where they had practiced the basics of the X-Wings' launching and retrieval, as well as general ship activities. The Su Song had been for exploration training cruises and running errands pertaining to SGC.
So far, the Su Song had visited the closest hundred star-systems, spent a day making a preliminary examination of each, and left survey drones to be picked up next year.
Each of the Battlestars now had three squadrons of X-Wings, and two Platoons of Marines for the Drop Ships.
No one was exactly sure how it had happened, but it seemed each of the ships had a "crew" of house-elves in residence. Lee didn't know how many there were because each time the ships were close to each other, they seemed to trade and share house-elves. Apparently, despite the automation on each ship, there was plenty for the house-elves to do.
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Author's Note: * Blocking stone: 11-foot height is 3.3528 metres: 3.3528 times 11 is 36.8808 metres. Two stones are 21 x 3.3528 = 70.4088 metres, and reshape to a square instead of a figure-eight shape.
BTW: People keep saying it's illogical that the Magicals can't use the Stargates. It's actually quite simple. Canon says that only certain people can use the Ancient equipment, that is the equipment must detect the Ancient gene. Naturally, it isn't just one gene, but a group of genes. (99% of the human genome is shared with most animals on Earth, there is no single gene that makes you a human instead of a horse.)
The magical gene is a group of genes that are coincidentally attached to the Ancient genes. Unfortunately, both Beaming and the Stargates have a routine to prevent the group of genes known as the Ancient gene from being corrupted even a tiny bit by their use. Thus, they strip out the "superfluous" variations — which, in this case are the magical genes. Since it is usually assumed that removing a magical person's magic will kill them, using one of those devices turns them into a muggle, which kills them, so they arrive DOA.
A safety routine is thus responsible. The Crew haven't inspected the coding that controls those devices for a routine that would kill them. Why should they? Who would make equipment to remove a gene that doesn't yet exist? Plus, safety routines don't routinely kill people if you follow them!