40 — In the Line of Duty
"Unfortunately," Admiral Potter said, "I don't think we'll be able to get the Goa'uld to take our threat seriously until we actually do it. In my experience, ego-maniacs such as you describe would never believe anyone was more powerful than they were." He shook his head sadly. "Just as that Apophis refused to believe we were a threat to him.
The room went dead silent as everyone considered what they had just been told.
"If we can do this, why can't someone else?" Admiral Potter hesitantly suggested, looking at his Number One. "Maybe it would be a good idea to move the Stargate to a harmless location, such as a base on the far side of the moon?"
Hammond inhaled sharply, as did most of the people in the room. Admiral Potter was right. If they could do that, then maybe the Goa'uld could, too. They couldn't just bury it, a plasma stream at the temperatures and pressures they suggested would go through solid steel, even if it was meters thick, like a blow-torch would go through cotton candy. Miles-thick stone would be equally useless at stopping the conflagration. It might even make it worse to bury the stargate face-down.
"We would be more than willing to build you such a base," Number One offered, "and supply you several appropriately-sized Runabouts to move the personnel you would need on a daily basis."
The President looked at Major General Hammond. "Stargate is shut down immediately." He turned to the two aliens. "When can you take the gate to the Moon?"
"Mr. President," said one officer, alarmed. "Are you sure we should do that?" He glanced at the aliens. "With all due respect," he said, nodding at them, "We don't know that what the aliens suggest is even possible, much less that anyone could do such a thing!"
Clinton looked at the man. "Are you willing to bet the lives of the entire human race that they might be wrong?" He paused and looked around the room. "I'm not." He glanced at Hammond. "From what I've seen in the reports, the only thing the Stargate have gotten us is the attention of a race of ego-maniacs bent on our destruction." He transferred his attention to the aliens. "Meanwhile, these people have saved our planet from these Goa'uld, given us a cure for every ailment known to mankind, and offer to work with us instead of simply taking over, as I'm sure they could if they wanted. And, so far, all they've asked in return is that we share the information we have on the Goa'uld."
"Thank you, but no," Admiral Potter said firmly as he shuddered. "Ruling is a nightmare I'll leave to you."
"Moving the gate has a somewhat selfish motive on our part, too," said Number One. "We like the planet the way it is, so getting the Stargate somewhere safe is in our best interests, too."
"So, when can you move the Stargate?" President Clinton repeated.
Number One looked at her book, wrote something. "Just move it outside and we'll load it on a Runabout. We'll have it on the Moon in fifteen minutes." She looked back up. "You can send a detachment of soldiers to guard it during transit, if you desire. We'll place it on the surface, on a mountaintop, temporarily, pointing up. That way, if anyone tries to come through, they'll fall right back into it. And if someone does try what we just suggested, it'll vent harmlessly into space — away from Earth!"
"The Stargate at our facility will take several days to move," Hammond said.
There was silence a moment. Then Number One held her hand out, palm up. Almost instantly a small stone-like object flashed into view. Hammond quickly realized that it was the same as the Star Trek-like symbol on their spacesuits.
"This is a comm-link," she said and held it out to the General.
An aide brought the device over to Hammond.
He rubbed his thumb on it his fingers as he held it cupped in his fingers, staring at it. If she hadn't told him what it was, he would have thought it a remarkably shaped, smooth stone that someone found in a streambed — and then tossed it away.
"You can stick it to your uniform by placing it against your uniform, like we have done with ours," Potter said, lightly touching the emblem on his left breast.
Hesitantly, the general pressed the stone on his jacket in the space between his medals and lapel. It stayed when he took his hand off it.
"It'll stay until you remove it," Number One explained. "Until then, the material of the jacket will fail before the communicator comes loose."
"Have your people prepare the Stargate for transport. Make sure you disconnect everything you have attached to it. When they notify you that it is ready, tap the comm-link and tell whomever answers that the Gate is ready for transport. We will send down a Runabout to the latitude and longitude of wherever you have space for it to land to get the gate.
"When you have a few minutes to spare from your medical examinations, we will beam you to Cheyenne Mountain, at the entrance to the complex. Go to wherever the gate is, tap the comm-link to tell us you have arrived. We will beam to you a star-shaped device. Place it anywhere on the Stargate. We'll move the Stargate to where the Runabout has landed. We will place the gate on the Runabout and take it to the far-side of the moon."
Hammond nodded his understanding.
"How long it will take will depend on how fast you can walk from the front gate to where the Stargate is," the Admiral added. "Then we can put you back to finish those medical tests."
The President took a deep breath. "Let's do that then," he said looking at the General. He looked at everyone else in the room. "This is top-secret. No one is to even hint that the Stargates can be used in this fashion. If the Goa'uld haven't thought of it yet, let's not give them the idea. Is that understood?"
The aliens were silent as the other people in the room acknowledged the President's order.
"We have a way to . . . safeguard this information if you desire," Potter said slowly. "It will take only a few moments."
Clinton looked over, intrigued, and sceptical.
The Admiral and his Number One stood, and motioned everyone else to step back. They then motioned for the President to step over to them. "We will remain in sight of everyone here," Number One explained as the Combat Commander moved over towards the others, and away from the three. "However, no one will be able to see us clearly, nor hear what we say. This is normal." The commander motioned them all a bit farther away.
Just as the female had said, the three suddenly became indistinct. However, he could still easily discern who was who. He couldn't hear what was said. The Admiral waved his right-arm several times.
The president stepped back from the other two as they became clearly visible.
There was humour in the Admiral's voice as he said, "Go ahead, ask what was just decided."
President Clinton looked around the room curiously. "George," he said, "What did we just decide to do with the Stargates?"
Looking back, puzzled at why the president was asking, the man answered, "Move them to a base on the far-side of the Moon."
"Why?"
"Because they could be placed inside the sun, and are far too dangerous to keep on Earth."
The President nodded.
"You see, you can discuss it with anyone in this room, right now, who already knows the secret," Potter said. "The brilliant fact about it is that literally no one other than Number One can reveal the secret." He gestured at the President. "Call someone into the room and try it, yourself," he prompted.
It took only a minute to summon someone from outside the room.
"The Stargate can . . .," the President started, then stopped with a very confused expression. "You can use a Stargate to . . .," he tried a second time, and shook his head in frustration. "To . . .," was his final attempt. He walked back to his chair and dropped into it, shaking his head.
Potter turned to Hammond. "You try to tell him." He indicated the aide who had just come in, "about the Stargate issue." The aide was looking around curiously.
Like the President, Hammond couldn't bring himself to say anything that would explain a Stargate could be placed into the sun to remotely destroy a planet.
"You are dismissed," the Admiral said.
After looking to the President for confirmation, the aide left, closing the door.
"No one in this room . . .," started Potter.
". . . or listening or watching through surveillance," interrupted Number One.
After a brief nod to her, Potter continued, "No one listening can tell anyone who doesn't already know about the possibility of placing a Stargate in a star. People who don't know it, right now, won't think of it in the future." *
"If, in the future for example, someone were to hear us and we didn't know they were listening, say via a hidden microphone or video camera, and we were talking about the Stargate possibly being used as a weapon, they would hear only static, or totally misunderstand the subject," the Admiral said.
"If this is being recorded, only static will be on the recording," said Number One. "That secret-keeping technique works only with small groups, however," she cautioned. "The larger the number of the people who know the secret, the more difficult it becomes to establish and maintain."
Clinton just shook his head. "I have a few secrets I'd like to use that for," he said and grinned. "Why don't you use that to protect your identity in public?"
Both aliens stood stock-still for a moment. The third was obviously laughing again.
The President smirked, then straightened. "How can I, or anyone on my staff, contact you?"
A few minutes later, both the President and his Chief of Staff had one of the comm-links, with a third in the President's pocket for the Vice President.
Looking up from her book, Number One said, "It will take us a few days to build an adequate base on the Moon. As soon as it is complete, we will contact you, Mr. President."
"In the meantime, would you arrange a contact person for us as soon as possible so we can get up-to-date on the program?"
The President nodded. "I will have someone for you within the hour. I will also instruct the personnel at the base to expect you, and begin shutting things down until we have the Moon Base up and running."
"That will be perfect, Mr. President." The Admiral stepped forward and offered his hand. The President shook it as the Admiral said, "Here's hoping for a long and fruitful friendship, Mr. President."
"Oh," Admiral Potter said as he stepped back. "You should definitely consider bringing the Russians and the Chinese into the Stargate program to prevent any future problems with their governments. Probably the British, French, Germans, Australians, and Japanese, too."
"Oh, before you go," the Secretary of Defence abruptly said, "What would you have done if you couldn't defeat the two Goa'uld ships?"
Admiral Potter looked at him for a moment. "Actually, we had worried about that, ourselves," he said. "Nothing they could throw at the planet would reach it, we could stop that handily enough. However, that wouldn't prevent them from using a close-in, low-orbit offensive bombardment, and using their Death Gliders and ground troops. While our Marines could put forth a rather robust defensive action, they likely would have been outnumbered as other ships came to this system when they realized we weren't going to be pushovers." He paused and sighed.
"We were prepping the Galileo to act as an Evacuation Ship. The estimate was that we could probably manage to sequester one billion people aboard it. If we could hold them back for a week, we could get the Su Song into service and put another billion on it."
"The biggest problem would be just getting to the people fast enough to take them to the ships," Number One put in.
"Two billion people?" someone said breathlessly. "How would you feed them, much less house them?"
Number One shrugged. "That would involve using every trick we have, but we could do it — barely. As I said, the main constraint would be how fast we could get them to the ship."
The room was silent again.
The Admiral clapped his hands together. "But we did destroy the ships, so that operation wasn't necessary." He glanced around the room. "Any other questions?"
Everyone was too stunned to say anything.
The three aliens gave a small start to the right, and they disappeared in series of pops.
██:::::██:::::██
"That turned out better than I expected," Harry said after the three of them appeared on the Requirement's Bridge.
Lee's voice came on over the comm-link, "The modifications to a Runabout to carry a Stargate are finished." He paused. "What should we do with the Stargate we took from the Goa'uld?"
He paused. "Although, we could use it to speed up our Mars project. Take a ship down into Titans' atmosphere where there's plenty of nitrogen, and just open it to a gate on Mars! No more shuttling back and forth!" He sighed. "We'll still have to harvest the oxygen from Uranus because it's bound up with water and methane, although it might be easier on Titan."
"We would need to get permission from the Yanks, but I don't think they would mind," Hermione replied. "I'll see if we can schedule something."
"Sounds like a plan," Lee said.
She grinned. "On the other hand, we have a new research project — making a ship capable of descending into a star and surviving long enough to do what we want. Can it be done with technology? Can magic do it? What if we combine them?" She paused. "I'm sure the astronomers and physicists would love to send a probe thousands of miles into our sun!"
"Too true, too true," he said back.
"But before we start on that," Harry said, "We need to get started on a Base on the Moon."
"I've already asked Angelina if she or anyone in her group wants to tackle this," Hermione said. "While I'm sure there are plans for those in the library, needing to locate the Stargates at the top of a mountain with the Base at the bottom will complicate things."
"It won't take more than a few days to build it," Lee said. "We can tow the General Construction Units into orbit around the moon and have them coordinate the construction. The Moon has all the needed materials, and they can build it in place."
"Brilliant! Talk with you later. Over and out." Harry said. "Now then, Hermione, we need to think about using the fidelius to make a few things secret. Like me being Admiral Potter of the Defensive Space Force!"
"But what about the crew?" she asked.
It took them a short while to come up with the right wording. They both became the Secret Keepers for each other. One was "Only Defensive Space Force crew-members know that Harry James Potter, also known as The-Boy-Who-Lived, is a magical being, a wizard, and started the Defensive Space Force, was a Captain in it, and is now the head of it, an Admiral." The other was, "Only Defensive Space Force crew-members know that Hermione Jane Granger, a magical being, a witch, is an officer of the Defensive Space Force, and Number One, the Executive Officer, First Officer, to Admiral Potter of the Defensive Space Force."
Not long after that, they decided to cast a third fidelius, which meant they had to bring in Lee: "Only Defensive Space Force crew-members know that some crewmembers of the Defensive Space Force are wizards, witches, werewolves, or other magical beings that can cast magic."
Harry expected that to be hilarious. Some poor muggle — or wizard — could see them casting magic and wouldn't make the connection that it was magic! They would invent their own excuse. Even the magicals wouldn't realize that some crewmembers were wizards, witches, or werewolves. Naturally, due to the nature of the charm, all the current crewmembers would know the secret, but couldn't tell anyone else.
Then it was back to planning what to do with the Stargates.
By evening, they had both Stargates lying flat, face-up, on a remote mountain-top on the far-side of the Moon. A Runabout with the best shielding possible, both tech and magical, was parked nearby with a squad of soldiers watching over the gates.
Harry had to wonder what the Yanks thought the soldiers could do if someone did show up, besides say, "Aha! Someone else is here!" The DSF Marines, at least, had spacesuits and could use apparition if they needed to.
Padma Patil, and two Marines, were in Cheyenne Mountain quickly duplicating all the files Stargate Command was willing to show them.
It would probably take a few days to integrate all the information into the Library.
Now that they had off-loaded the naquadah fuel reserves off the Goa'uld ships, they had plenty of it for their future needs, for quite some time. The Fuelling Depots were still going to continue duplicating themselves until April. They would have thirty-two fewer Depots for taking four to be GCUs, but would still be manufacturing around 1.3 tonnes per month. They would stockpile the material for its use in new ships. ** Or possibly building Stargates. With duplication magic cast in the right places, all the ships, stations, and bases, and so forth, only needed to be fuelled once.
With the pressure for fuel off, they could just task two of the units to continue duplicating themselves to make up for the loss of Depots, if they wanted. In fact, considering how much fuel they now had, they could have half the Fuel Depots collecting blocks of nitrogen and oxygen for Mars, tremendously speeding up that project.
The Galileo and Requirement were hauling the bigger pieces of the Goa'uld spaceships to the Moon and dumping them there. As soon as they finished collecting the smaller debris, both General Construction Units would be towed to the Moon by the Galileo, and they start could start constructing the new Moon Base.
It would be located on a plain that was about a thousand yards below the top of a crater-wall, and on the far-side of the Moon. It was along the Moon's equator, and almost exactly directly opposite the Earth. No worries about accidentally sending a plume of million-plus degree gases, or anything else, towards the planet!
Padma had also passed on to the Yanks Angelina's request for what Stargate Command wanted in the new base. Just as important, Angelina had emphasized to them, was what they didn't like about their current base. She had also informed Stargate Command that construction on the Moon Base would start tomorrow, so they needed to be right quick with their requirements!
Hopefully, they would have handed in their final requests by the day after that, when the GCUs were expected to be in place and ready to start.
Those planning the new Base on the Moon did make one big change, though. They had realized that they could use the Goa'uld Ring technology as a transport mechanism for the non-magicals, instead of using a fleet of Runabouts. Unfortunately, it wasn't a straight shot, there was a limit of about 220,000 miles. *** That was just short of reaching the moon, which was only 221,000 miles away from Earth at its closest. ** Thinking carefully about it, however, they realized that was a good thing.
It meant nothing the Goa'uld could send through one of the gates could use a Ring Transport to escape directly to Earth.
They would put a Ring Transport Station at the Lagrange Point between Earth and the Moon, called L1, and use that as a way-station. With that in place, going from the Earth to the Moon, or back, was a matter of less than a minute, faster than the Runabouts. Plus, it added one more layer of security between the Stargate Moon Base and Stargate Earth Command, the main part of which would remain in Cheyenne Mountain.
With the tech shielding always on, no one who didn't know where the Ring Transport Station was in space at Lagrange Point One would ever be able to find it.
They decided to disguise the Ring Transport system as a large, room-sized elevator to the former Stargate in the mountain. If the passengers never saw the Rings activating behind a wall, they would never know they weren't still in Cheyenne Mountain. Putting rumble-motors in the "floor" of the fake elevator would complete the deception. Gravity generators, and the lack of windows at the Moon Base, would reinforce that illusion that they were still on Earth.
Step into the "elevator" on Earth, the doors close, the Rings transport the "elevator" to L1, the L1 Rings activate and transport the "elevator" to the Moon, and they step out of the "elevator" into the Moon Base Star Gate Command complex believing they are still on planet Earth.
Naturally, they put a warning on the doors and wall to the elevator at both ends warning magic users: "If you can read this sign, do not enter this elevator, you WILL die when it activates! Press this button for help." It was hidden from the muggles with a simple muggle aversion charm.
They would place tech-shield units inside the mountain to protect the Cheyenne Mountain Complex from external attacks. After that was done, no nuke, no matter how powerful, would harm the base.
Once the Americans realized that, Harry knew, they would make it their major war-headquarters, again.
Then it was on to planning the meeting tomorrow with the Queen's government about the PiMPS.
██:::::██:::::██
Late that evening, General Hammond was in the War Room deep underneath the White House. This time, it was with the full Cabinet.
Clinton walked in, with Al Gore, the Vice President, behind him. He sat down at the head of the table and swept the room with his gaze, coming back to the General. He nodded to him. "Alright, what did the doctors say?"
George took a steadying breath. "There are still a number of tests that they're waiting for, but after a . . . thorough set of exams, cardiology, endocrinology, X-rays, MRI, and just about anything else you can imagine — and the dentist said I have the most perfect set of teeth he has ever seen — the doctors have concluded that I am in perfect health for a forty-year-old man. I am actually fifty-five."
He glanced around the room at their stunned expressions. "The fat build-up in my arteries and heart is gone, the tar in my lungs from smoking for twenty-five years is gone, my scars from Vietnam have disappeared, and the bone-scar that was visible in my X-rays from when I broke my arm as kid is gone. As if they never existed. Gone." He stared at the President.
"Based on my results, as well as all the documented cases of American citizens with cancer that were cured in the U.K., I can say that their Portable Medical Problem Solver works just as they promised."
The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala, hung her head down, shook it, and sighed. "I almost wish they didn't." She looked back up. "Over sixteen million people in the U.S. are employed in the health industry. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, pharmaceutical companies, all the clerks who work in a pharmacy, and hospitals and their support staff are the most direct casualties. Then there are their support industries, the ones who make the equipment for hospitals and patients, such as x-ray machines, ECG monitors, mechanical ventilators, IV pumps, autoclaves, stethoscopes, . . . heck, even the companies that make wheelchairs, and crutches!" She shook his head again. "It's a trillion dollar industry." She looked up at the president. "By this time next year, they will all be unemployed!" Then she leaned back in his chair. "And the health insurance companies! They will all close down. Who needs health insurance when it's free?"
She paused. "Well, not all of them. The ambulance operators will still be in business, but not the people who make the ambulances. Why use an ambulance when you can just drive a car and cure any accident victim a few minutes after you arrive?" She snorted. "Why not just put one of these in every police car?"
The others were looking shocked.
The Secretary of Labor, Alexis Herman, looked around. "That's thirteen percent of all the jobs in America! There aren't enough jobs in the market to absorb such a huge number of people. The unemployment budget would have to go up about a hundred times to match the demand!"
The Secretary of the Treasury, Robert Rubin, stared at him for a moment, then barked out a laugh. "The savings in Medicare will be nearly a hundred and ninety billion, which, if I recall correctly, is about a hundred times the projected unemployment expenditures."
"Seventy-billion in savings from the Veterans Hospitals, minimum," the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Hershel Gober, said quietly.
"About the same for the military," the Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, put in.
"The hospitals won't close down completely," the Rubin added. "You're forgetting obstetrics. There will still be maternity issues to deal with, and delivering the babies. The same goes for medicines dealing with pregnancy issues."
Everyone looked at him. "James just told me last week that his wife is pregnant with their second child."
There was a quick round of congratulations, and then they returned to the problem at hand.
"And people will still get headaches and upset stomachs," said Dan Glickman, Secretary of Agriculture. "Not to mention people with allergies and their related problems. I'm not sure if that's something these PMPSes can fix." He looked at the Secretary of Health and Human Services. "So, the pharmaceutical industry won't completely disappear."
"I think we need to concentrate on the emergency rooms and terminal care wards, first," Al Gore said calmly. "We'll get the best press from immediately saving lives. Then we can move to the terminal care facilities, which will be the first to permanently close — perhaps we can repurpose them to housing for the homeless? From there, we can move to the nursing homes. Only after we empty those wards should we start accepting the less urgent cases. Which we can do at a much more leisurely rate to stretch out the impact on the healthcare industry — say, on a nine-to-five appointment schedule, only, instead of twenty-four hour as in the emergency rooms."
Clinton was nodding. "While we're closing the terminal care facilities, we can set up the procedures for getting the employees new jobs before they start flooding into the unemployment offices."
"Considering the logistics of just getting the units in place, we're looking at spending a couple of weeks just putting one unit in every hospital," Shalala said. "In the larger cities, one unit would be in constant use just in the emergency rooms dealing with accident victims, so we would need two units before we could get to other patients."
"With the urgent care patients out of the way, we can set up schedules for handling the remaining cases," Alexis said, "and stretch out the time-frame for dealing with them. That will keep the hospitals open and fully staffed for some time, and prevent any massive layoffs. We can then spread the layoffs across several months, maybe as much as a year."
The others were slowly nodding.
"It will also spread-out the impact on the insurance and pharmaceutical companies," Janet Reno, the Attorney General, said. She paused a moment. "You know, these devices will be a big boost to other sectors of the economy."
Clinton just looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"The number-one cause of personal bankruptcy filings is medical bills," she explained. "That will reduce turmoil and help stabilize the middle-class. It'll also free-up judges and lawyers for use in the criminal system, making it faster and more efficient, reducing costs there."
"There's something else to consider," the Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, said. "These Portable Medical Problem Solvers are being distributed worldwide — I've already contacted the embassies of our closest allies and explained about these PiMPS and asked them to tell us how many they need and where they want the D.S.F. to put them. In the meantime, as word spreads, we'll see huge numbers of illegal immigrants and visa applications for the terminally ill or just the seriously sick. It's going to throw most of the world into chaos." She looked around. "No matter how quickly we move, there will be many who will say we are moving too slow in distributing the devices outside the US.
"We should consider setting up hospital wards at all our embassies to curtail those criticisms."
"There's a possible outlet for some of the doctors and nurses let go from the hospitals, a team of three for every embassy, several teams in the large embassies," put in Rubin.
"I hate to say it," said the Secretary of the Treasury, "but even with the reductions in spending in healthcare services from all departments, we will need to raise taxes to compensate for the number of people who lose their jobs."
Al Gore sighed. "We'll have to raise taxes on the rich."
"The Republicans will never go for that, they're already gleefully cutting programs in anticipation of saving money on military spending with Russia falling apart," said Clinton.
Al shrugged. "We can sell it as either raising taxes on the rich or watching people riot in the streets and attacking the rich because they're starving — remember the French revolution? It's cheaper to pay for their food and housing than it is to hire, train, and equip the police — unless they want to see the US Army facing off against citizens? Most of whom will sympathize with the rioters and refuse to obey an illegal order."
"I suggest we start a major infra-structure reconstruction," Alexis Herman, "Many of the interstate highway bridges are reaching their half-lives and need to be inspected and possibly reconditioned. The same is true for many National Parks, which are currently severely underfunded for maintenance."
The meeting went on until late at night as they worked on contingency plans.
██:::::██:::::██
The landing in Buckingham Palace's Back Garden went as expected.
They flew into England from over the Atlantic to at least give the semblance of an impression that the Requirement wasn't parked over the British Isles. Harry was sure the government knew otherwise, now, but the common person would see their flight path reported on the news services and not realize the truth.
Their Runabout was met by two Harrier jets as they approached Ireland, and the jets escorted them to London. Being Harriers, they were actually able to keep pace with the Runabout as it slowed and hovered over Buckingham Palace, before settling down to one side of the Palace Back Garden, in a space clearly marked for them. The jets began a regular flight path circling London.
Meeting President Clinton had been one thing, meeting the Queen, however, was totally different in Harry's mind. Clinton was a president who was replaced at periodic intervals, and a political animal, at best, not to mention he was a Yank.
The Queen, however, was the Queen until she died! Plus, she was his Queen, sovereign over his country. He had seen her on the telly, seen her pictures in the newspapers, and everyone not a pure-blood wizard or witch talked about her.
President Clinton . . . had been just an official.
As at Camp David, there was a reception committee waiting for them. It was the Queen, the Prime Minister, and several other important personages. The absence of rows of troops in full uniform, Harry was relieved to see, told them that they wouldn't be subject to reviewing the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, nor any of the other parts of the ceremonies involved in receiving a foreign dignitary.
It would have been intensely embarrassing, given the fact that both he and Hermione considered themselves British citizens first, Crewmembers, second, and wizard and witch, third.
There was, as expected, a section set aside for the journalists. What was unexpected was while there were a large number of people with cameras, there were only a few video-cameras in evidence. Those few however, appeared to be strategically placed so that they would always have a good view of the proceedings.
Just as their compatriots across the pond had done, there was a collective gasp from them as they exited their Runabout. The clicking of the cameras was a bit more subdued, however, probably because there were fewer journalists in evidence. Harry wouldn't be surprised if some of them had been at Camp David.
He led the way over to where the Queen and the Prime Minister were standing. The nearby House Guards couldn't help but stiffen a bit as they drew close. Harry stopped and bowed his head, as etiquette demanded, while Hermione and Ginny gave short curtsies.
"It is an honour and a pleasure to meet you, your Majesty," he said. "I am Admiral Potter of the Defensive Space Force." He turned and gestured at Hermione. "This is my First Officer, Number One." He pointed to Ginny. "And this is one of our Combat Operations Commanders."
The Queen nodded to each of them in turn. For a moment, she said nothing. "According to the American Ambassador, I have you to thank for the sudden remission in cancer cases in the Kingdom," she said mildly. "And that you have a gift of the same device to cure all diseases?"
"Yes," Harry said. "We recently came into a way to assist, and saw no reason not to do so." He sighed. "I wish we could do more, but we have a limited number of people." He smiled, although she could not see him. "You however, do not have that problem."
She nodded regally. "That is true."
"Also, no one would have believed us if we had tried to tell them what we could do."
"That is also true," she said, somewhat wryly.
"How much did the Yanks tell you?"
"They provided us with a full recording of your talks with them." She frowned. "We were most upset that they had never disclosed to Us their Stargate program."
Harry nodded. "However, were your positions reversed, I'm sure your advisors would have suggested you not tell your allies about the discovery, too."
"Undoubtedly," she said dryly.
He took a deep breath. "Well, anyway, that's the past. From now on they will be coordinating with Germany, Russia, France, Japan, China," he nodded at her, "the United Kingdom, of course, and possibly other countries, on exploring the worlds available through the Stargate. We will also be training several squadrons of X-wing space-fighters from those same nations."
He chuckled. "I'm sure the competition for a spot will be fierce!"
"X-wing fighters?" she repeated with an arched eyebrow.
"The ships we used to remove the aliens threatening the world," he explained.
He smiled and cast the muffliato charm. He leaned closer and held up his hand to his face as if he were confiding a secret — and so no one could read his lips. "Have your people check-out the X-wing Fighter Arcade Game in the gaming arcades, if you want a step up," he said softly. "When it asks for the unit's carriership name, tell them to type in DSFS Su Song." He spelled it out. "But don't just take the Fighter booths, that's rude and unfair to the shop owner. I hear they are very popular. It has to do with their realism." He smiled. "I'm sure their distributor would be happy to supply you almost any quantity you might request at his cost."
He straightened and dismissed the charm he had cast.
"Well, I suppose we should do what we promised." He sighed. "Here are four thousand and fifty of the Portable Medical Problem-Solvers. I believe that's enough for one in every hospital in the United Kingdom with a few extra."
At his words, there was a bright flash of light and two pallets of the devices appeared beside them.
Despite Harry's nervousness at meeting with the Queen and Prime Minister, it went off rather well, he thought. They secured a volunteer, an obvious military Veteran missing his left lower-forearm. The demonstration of one of the PiMPS regrowing his hand while in full view of the cameras almost started a riot among the Press Corp, who tried to get closer.
He also repeated the restrictions they placed on the governments for using the devices.
Which was great, as everything they said went out over live television and radio, unlike what had happened at Camp David. No one could claim they hadn't heard the warnings. Plus, people would know who to blame if the devices were removed from their country!
Most of the PiMPS would be widely distributed throughout the British Isles by the National Health Service. The remainder would be sent to the other countries of the Commonwealth with instructions to get back to them with further quantities and the places they wanted them.
Harry wondered how long it would take them to realize that the PiMPS default "optimal condition" was somewhere in the realm of an appearance of thirty-to-forty for anyone over forty. Below that was whatever their age was. They didn't have enough experience with the unit to know if it could do that indefinitely. If it did, they had the technological equivalent of the Philosopher's Stone.
For muggles and magicals.
██:::::██:::::██≈ ≈ ≈ ≈
A.N. * Fidelius Charm: When the charm is initially cast, one can choose more than one person to be Secret Keeper, though it is unknown if there is a limit as to how many people can carry the same secret in this way. The information in question cannot be learned, even by stumbling across it, or even if one were staring the secret in the face. If the Secret Keeper wishes to do so, they may divulge the information at any time. It is unknown what criteria has to be met before someone can qualify as a Secret Keeper. It is possible that because the spell can be cast by the Secret Keeper him/herself, that only a wizard can be it. People who already know the information before the spell was cast automatically become secondary keepers, even if they are unaware of the fact. That renders them incapable of sharing the information, but they still remember it themselves. wiki/Fidelius_Charm#Nature)
(This begs the questions of how anyone knew the Potters' cottage in Godric's Hallow was destroyed. The Secret Keeper was still alive, as was Harry!)
** Assuming your ship has a month's worth of fuel on board at start (going by Navy standards), then changed to a ship that needed only an hour's worth of fuel to last the rest of its career, you'd have quite a lot of space freed up, right?
*** The rings are stated to be sufficient to travel from orbit to planet, or vice versa, but not interplanetary. The Earth-to-Moon distance varies from about 221,702 miles (356,794 km) to 252,595 miles (406,512 km) The Earth-to-Lagrangian point L1 distance is about 84% of that — 186,230 miles, or 297,967km at closest). The distance between the Moon and L1 is about 38,121 miles (61,350 km). The distance between the Moon and the Lagrangian point L2 (past Moon) is about 16% of the distance of the Earth-Moon distance (61,350 km). L3, just for reference, is on the other side of the Earth, at what would be the Moon's orbital position. L1, L2, and L3 are in a straight line that runs through the Earth and Moon. Unlike L4 and L5, sixty degrees in front and behind the Moon in its orbit around Earth, L1, L2, and L3 are unstable and need station-keeping rockets to prevent items placed at those locations from "falling out" of the location and into a general orbit around the Earth because of orbital perturbations caused by the Sun, Venus, Mars, and the gas-giant planets. Imagining L1, L2, and L3 as being hilltops and L4 and L5 as small depressions is a good approximation of their situations.