Chapter 16:

Dumbledore asked me and Luna to meet with him that night, and said he blocked off a lot of time for this meeting. He didn't even offer any Lemon Drops and started with, "Perhaps it would be best if Miss Lovegood could start by explaining her fear that the Boggart showed."

Luna, for once, not serenely recounted, "The Andorians are a people who believe in vigorously dealing with potential threats. In the various timelines of Star Trek canon they have not been an enemy of Earth, and later became allies, along with the Vulcans and Tellarites, who joined into a Federation, which later included many others. They are weaker than the Vulcans, but strong enough to be able to cause what the Andorians consider to be unacceptable losses to the Vulcans if they were to engage in full scale war. They engage in raids against the Vulcans at times, while the Vulcans exhibit patience towards them. It is possible, that if they knew about Wizarding Earth, and considered us allies of the Vulcans, they would try to capture some of us and make us work for them."

Dumbledore asked, "Have you contacted the Vulcans?"

Luna answered, "Not in a way that present day Vulcans are aware of. I have spent years learning from an ancient Vulcan philosopher called Surak, who is considered the leading figure by present-day Vulcans. I am actually older than I appear."

Dumbledore asked, "What about your cryptic statement that you would be famous?"

Luna said, "Perhaps that was said in haste. I had not yet made a decision on how to proceed, and I am not a Gryffindor."

I recounted the explanation that Luna gave about how a Federation concept both in space and on Earth would work best with Vulcan participation. Also about what Firenze said.

I said about the Star Trek world, "In the main canon timeline, the Vulcans both helped Earth after it discovered faster than light travel, and held back its ability to learn even faster travel that would facilitate Earth vessels from contacting further away alien worlds, such as the Andorians. When Earth did emerge later, they regarded the Andorians as having similar grievances towards the Vulcans as Earth, and helped them in a way that led to all three, and an additional people, the Tellarites, becoming allies."

Luna added, "The Hufflepuff approach worked. The Slytherin approach could work, but we would become monsters and/or destroyed in the process. The Gryffindor approach would not work for now. Earth does not have the technology, even with magic, to deal with hostile aliens. However, the Ravenclaw approach would work eventually.

The non-magical humans have an ability to advance technology far faster than any of our neighbors, even if they are starting at a higher level. Wizarding Earth has not shown this ability. Its advances are relatively slow, similar to the way the Vulcans advance.

I am beginning to think that Earth should take this approach, and build a technological base that could defend against the Andorians or other neighbors before emerging from Earth. By combining magic and technology we might even be able to go beyond them."

Dumbledore said to Luna, "Before we continue discussing the fate of the planet, I would like to address one topic as your headmaster. I wonder about the effect on your magic core of studying non-magical subjects while apparently not aging."

Luna answered, "Headmaster, I did not neglect my magical studies during that time. I am quite advanced, as you may have noticed already."

Dumbledore said, "Getting back to the fate of the planet. Perhaps we can resolve the differences on our planet first, without involving other planets that have their own agendas. Can we agree on not contacting aliens unilaterally."

I said, "In principle. However, you should be aware, that some time ago, I talked Q out of dropping Luna and me off for a visit to the Klingons, a martial and warlike people. So, our agreements might not be sufficient to prevent these courses of action."

Dumbledore said, "I see. I assume that was the language you were speaking a while ago. Then I ask you to continue to use your influence to continue our idea of unifying and building up Earth first, before triggering contact with other planets.

Out of curiosity, why Klingon?"

I answered, "I've been sort of fascinated by the Klingons, I suppose in a similar way that Luna has been fascinated by the Vulcans. Klingon would be my Gryyfindor alter-ego. They believe in martial prowess and honour."

Dumbledore looked amused and said, "You could have been a Gryyfindor?"

I replied, "The Hat didn't think so. In fact I'm not that brave. I wanted to learn the ways of war and be seen to know the ways of war, to avoid having to fight. Si vis pacem, para bellum."

Dumbledore nodded and said, "Ah. That originally came from Vegetius Renatus who actually said, Igitur quī dēsīderat pācem, præparet bellum, let him who desires peace prepare for war, which some say is a paraphrase of Plato. So, what do we need to invent, to prepare for peace with the Andorians?"

I answered, "High energy beam weapons. Anti-matter torpedos, that can continue at warp speed. Energy shields that can stop some of the same weapons. For planetary defense, faster than light speed is perhaps not needed, but its absence would allow an attacker to do attrition style attacks using hit and run tactics."

Luna answered, "Advanced aiming and guidance systems. Faster than light communications. Advanced sensors. Orbital platforms on which to base weapons to defend Earth. Ability to fight enemies before they get closer than the orbit of Jupiter."

I added, "And finally, the ability to cause damage to Andorian interests light-years away. Otherwise, they could continue to probe defenses without consequence."

The next Advanced Study Group meeting had Dumbledore begin, "I am pleased that all of you have chosen to remain in this group. It will continue here even when only two of you remain in Hogwarts as 7th years, looking at Colin Creevey and Luna. Since the group's contracts have worked during the most dangerous phase of fighting the Death Eaters, I will provide more context as to what happened, and information about future challenges. I would like this group to be a sounding board for decisions to be made, and to develop into eventually taking over leadership from the older generations.

You know that Tom Picard started this group, and you know that there was a seer. I'll connect the two. There were two seers, Tom Picard and Luna Lovegood, who both had unusually detailed information of a history that would have been from the summer of 1991. That information led to our victory in the war. Without them, we still would have won, but at extreme cost.

They also have additional information about the implications of future development of non-magical technology and of extra-terrestrial civilizations."

Hermione called out, "1947, Area 51?"

I answered, "Accidentally time traveling aliens. They left the same way, and their people won't be encountered for quite some time."

Luna added, "Others are already watching our planet."

I continued, "The nature of our knowledge is going to be withheld for now, but we can answer almost any question of this group."

Michael Corner asked, "In this other history, which of us would have been killed in the war?"

Dumbledore interrupted, "If anyone does not wish to hear this answer, I'll block the sound for you."

When he signaled I could resume, I answered, "I think, but am not sure that you survived. The ones I know did not are Albus Dumbledore, Fred Weasley, Colin Creevey, Lavender Brown."

Fred Weasley said, "Then I thank you for your time marauding, or whatever it is you did, then. Much obliged."

I said, I'll also add family members I know of, "Amelia Bones, Mrs. Abbot, Sirius Black"

Hermione had a presentation on computers planned, which got delayed to the next meeting.

Dumbledore also started regular meetings with Xenophilius Lovegood and the Picards, along with Luna and me, since they were under magical contract and he could talk freely with them.

"In order to get the ICW or Minister Bones to plan seriously for preparing for extra-terrestrials, I need some sort of proof. Are there any ideas?"

I said, "I thought about extremely high powered magical telescopes, since Vulcan is a planet around the star traditionally called Kein. Andor is either Procyon or Epsilon Indi. However, actually seeing a planet requires sophisticated analysis of orbital disturbances of the star, in order to know where to look. Planets are relatively tiny compared to the space within an orbit."

Dumbledore said to Luna, "You said once that Vulcans have some mind arts, that we would regard as magical, and that they sometimes fly within our solar system?"

Luna thought for a moment, and said, "Magic detection over even that distance? If we did that, might not they detect us?"

Xenophilius Lovegood said, "Based upon a detailed description of Star Trek canon that Tom recounted to me, I have been investigating Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania. There might be a Vulcan who lived there starting in 1957, and remained on Earth, hidden even from other Vulcans, after 3 Vulcans survived a crash landing there and two were later rescued. So far, I have no evidence, and in fact have found some discrepancies in the canon story with the history of the muggle invention of a product called Velcro."

I added, "Canon isn't proven wrong. Velcro was patented earlier, but maybe the Vulcan did sell the invention to an American company, for cash, who was not aware that it already was patented. It is not like it was a widely known product in 1957. Then, there wouldn't be any further record, since the American company would have done a patent search and seen that it was already patented, and have no way to get ahold of the Vulcan who they paid cash to."

Dumbledore said, "If a Vulcan is secretly on Earth now, we'd have a much better chance of magically finding him, than if they are far away."

Luna added, "Most Vulcans do not use their mind arts on a regular basis, and then only with consent. So, he probably will not be found due to use of magic. However, their blood uses a copper based oxygen transport. Another difference is their heart is approximately where the human liver is located."

My father, Maurice Picard, said, "Apparently we Picards have an affinity towards space travel. If I were observing a planet such as Earth, I'd be flying near it to take a look. Perhaps your Vulcan detector can look not only for a hypothetical Vulcan on Earth, but also ones that might appear in orbit."

Luna said, "If they were to be in orbit, they must be somehow shielding themselves from radar, light reflection and other present day non-magical means of detection of space anomalies."

Dumbledore summed up with, "It looks like we have a plan. I consult with appropriate experts, and we can start monitoring to see what we find."

At the next Advanced Study Group meeting, Hermione gave her delayed presentation, "I'm giving each of you a copy of a PowerPoint presentation I made last summer using my family's computer system. It shows the exponential growth of computing power by decade, during the 50 years that electronic digital computers have existed.

The fact that I made this presentation myself, shows this trend. 20 years ago, the same report, done on a computer, would require a large room of equipment with unusual power and climate control needs, and a staff of people to maintain and use it.

I have been talking with others in this group about the difficulties in keeping the Statute of Secrecy as non-magical technology advances. With my computer setup at my parents house, I can publish the equivalent of a newspaper myself, and could mail it to people with the non-magical Post.

Even more alarming, is that I can post messages, which would be seen within seconds or minutes, by other computer hobbyists all over the world. If you turn to page 6 of my report, you'll see examples of Usenet, a method of written conversations, grouped by topic.

Page 8 shows examples of Internet Relay Chat. Here realtime communications, with only seconds of delay happen around the world. A non-magical person in London could write about magic they had witnessed, and within seconds, other people in Los Angeles would be reading it. There would be too many people who have read it to be obliviated,"

I added to the presentation. "Again, a knowledge of a future, that might already be quite different, but here is what would happen next. Internet use increases rapidly. In the later part of the decade of the 2000's cameras on mobile phones become common, and instant publishing of videos becomes common. This is qualitatively difference than desktop computers. With mobile devices, people take pictures and videos and instantly make them available to those who are interested. For some that could be many thousands of people, later even millions.

As of now, someone could describe magic, but the readers of that description would tend to think it was a hoax, or a joke. It is when videos become common, that the danger of exposure grows.

That was great work Hermione, and this sort of presentation could help convince the Wizarding world that changes in relations with non-magicals will be needed.

The second great challenge is going to be extra-terrestrials. To even start to plan on dealing with that we'll need to provide evidence that they exist. Right now, one people, the Vulcans, are watching Earth, waiting for us to be able to travel faster than light, which they themselves discovered much earlier.

Here are three approaches being looked at for how to prove they exist. One, we know that they live on a planet around Klein, also called 40 Eridani A, about 16 light years away. Can we somehow see their civilization there? A second approach, is knowing that the Vulcan people, while otherwise non-magical, have mind arts similar to legilimency, but rarely use that ability. Can that magic be detected? It is believed that there might be a Vulcan on Earth now, unknown to his own people. It is known that Vulcan starships periodically visit our region of space and keep a watch on Earth. Third, is that their blood is copper based. Can we detect that?"

Hermione answered, "Mollusks, spiders, crabs, octopuses. Many of these and others have copper based blood, so that would be a difficult way to detect Vulcans."

I continued, "Let's all continue thinking about these topics. In order to defend our planet for eventual threats, we will need to rapidly invent new technologies that non-magical science does not yet even know is possible. Some of us believe that we will need a sort of partnership with non-magicals in order to both prevent an eventual accidental knowledge of magic and possible negative events that could follow that, and also, to together bring up our combined magic and non-magic technology to live in a region of space with advanced technological civilizations, some of them aggressive towards those weaker than them."