Chapter 24:

In the sessions to tell them relevant information about the area of space we are in, we went over the nearby civilizations. Describing the differences and relationship between Vulcans and Romulans was complicated, since it seemed different Star Trek timelines had different facts. Finally, I just gave an analogy, think of them as three of the previously warring peoples in former Yugoslavia. The same basic background, but ruled by different rulers for centuries, and now they consider themselves not only separate people, but enemies.

They were very interested in knowing more about the Ferengi. We explained, that they were in fact time travelers, and are in a distant area of space that we would not encounter for quite some time. However, while they were on friendly terms with Earth at that time, they can be unscrupulous traders with those who are not well informed and wary. Also, they can turn to piracy when they can get away with it, and smuggling again when they can get away with it.

As to the Klingons, I mentioned that we are both fluent in their language and their culture. That the key to dealing with them is strength and honor. They can be predatory when they can get away with it, but respect straightforward warlikeness from worthy opponents.

The German director's eyes lit up and he asked, "I heard about a little spectacle you two did in the Hogwarts defense class a few years back. Were you singing in Klingon?"

Luna answered, "Yes" and then she repeated it in Klingon.

The Vulcans were the largest part of our presentation, since they were currently watching the Earth. After the explanation, Luna added, "I can speak their language, and I also studied with their founding philosopher who lived centuries ago."

Peter Quahog asked, "You are time travelers?"

Luna answered, "An incidental part of where our knowledge comes from. We are also both mentally older than our physical ages."

Dumbledore interrupted, "We will leave this topic without further discussion for the time being."

Finally, we showed the memory of Luna's Boggart vision, about what could happen if we contacted the Vulcans before the planet could defend itself, and then the Andorians learned about us by spying on the Vulcans.

Director Morozov said, "I now understand why and how you two were responsible for the founding of Starfleet."

The next session was about technology. I presented, "For most of the technologies we have seen, we only know how they are used, not their technical details.

First, the last technology that we should develop, since its use will trigger contact with our neighbors in space. That is faster than light technology. This is one of the only ones I know something about.

Yes, I know you cannot go faster than light through space. However, the solution is to warp space. It is called a warp drive engine. It shrinks and expands the space around it, to result in traveling faster than light by external measurement. Ships always have two drive engines. They use antimatter, and most use a crystal calling dilithium. However, the first Earth ships in canon used crystallized lithium.

In a dilithium chamber, matter and anti-matter are mixed. Somehow the cystallized lithium or dilithium helps control the reaction and itself is not reactive to anti-matter. The result is somehow plasma which has conduits that lead to warp field coils. Each drive is usually placed away from the main part of the starship, one on each side, with a connecting structure to the rest of the ship.

A possibly related technology is sub-space radio, which is a faster than light communications method. Sub-space relays, in deep space, help improve this communications method over long distances.

A beam weapon is called a phaser. It is a beam weapon, possibly a particle beam. It is used on ships, and handheld versions are the preferred sidearm.

Photon torpedos has an antimatter core. It can continue above light speed when launched from a ship at warp. It is not guided, but travels in a straight line.

Deflector Shields, are some sort of energy shield that can absorb damage from the types of weapons in use. Ships generally have 6, one for each direction. I think the forward shield was normally used during travel to deflect space debris.

Artificial gravity, which are probably related to the inertial dampers used when a ship changes direction or speed.

Impulse engines. Slower than light speed drives, that need to be used near planets.

Food replicators. Can create almost any food item. I do not know what it requires for source material.

Transporters. A device that turns an object, or a person, into energy in a pattern buffer, transports that energy to another location, and then re-materializes. It uses sub-space, so it is not limited to light speed. It works best when a transporter room is at both ends, but after some development only requires the device at one end of the transportation.

Tricorder. It is a handheld device that measures and records everything relevant for the landing party arriving at an unknown planet.

Tractor beam. Pulls or tows another ship.

Universal translator. It can listen to an unknown language for a while, and then begin to be able to translate it. For known languages, it provides a method of understanding and speaking in a different language.

Holodeck. An immersive artificial environment in a large room, where the objects withing seem to be real.

Transtator. This was a component in many parts of technology of the 23rd century, including handheld sub-space communicators, phasers, and transporters. The crew at the time, when one was accidentally left on a planet that had Earth 1920's technology, believed that by reverse engineering the communicator, that planet would be able to replicate much of their technology."

On the trip back, while port-keys are nearly instantaneous, although slower than light, there were delays while waiting in line to use port-key stations, and parchment-work needed for international travel. During those waits, we used privacy charms so we could all talk.

My father Maurice Picard said, "There is some wonderful land for grape growing here. If you were to work in this region, I would buy a vineyard, and start a winery here."

He handed me a book on the history of California wines. I was leafing through it, and showed Luna a picture of Steven Spurrier, who helped California wines be considered world class. He looked exactly like our former potions professor Severus Snape. I showed the picture to Albus Dumbledore and asked if that was Snape. He looked amused and said that to the best of his knowledge Snape never lived in California, and at the time the picture was taken, he was a student at Hogwarts, not the adult in the picture.

Xenophilius Lovegood said that he found some intriguing information about the mysteries he was investigating and will be publishing some articles in the Quibbler. He said that he can show how the ancient wizards of the tribes in the area, called medicine men at the time, did prevent the Spanish from finding parts of California. However, in the 1700's, a hidden wizard on one of the Spanish ships recognized the magic nature of the fog, and dispelled it so that the bay could be explored.

We got back in time for a New Year's eve party at the Longbottoms and a New Years 1996 party at the Grangers. At the latter, Hermione and Harry announced their engagement, with a planned wedding date in August 1998. We all congratulated them. Harry Potter said he was going to be working at Starfleet Kazakhstan.

Luna and I were wondering if we could try to recruit him as a covert Section 31 agent. We also were trying to understand what he would be doing there. His natural inclinations seemed towards combat, not research.

We decided that, after a lot of careful preparation, we would make the pitch to the entire Advanced Study Group. If they accept, fine. If they reject the offer, also fine. They won't be able to tell anyone that they were made the offer, or even who else was offered.

I was reading the Times of London and found an article about Vietnam,

Vietnam, the new manufacturing hub of south-east Asia

Vietnam has seen in GDP per capita quickly rise. That is due to a huge wave of factory construction. Most of those factories are affiliated with companies based in Kazakhstan. That would seem a logical choice, since Vietnam has had recent conflicts with both the United States and with China, although it now has friendly diplomatic relations with both.

The reasons motivating Kazakh companies to setup shop in Vietnam would seem to be a combination of locating at a convenient transit hub, a labour shortage in Kazakhstan, lower costs of labour in Vietnam, and a skilled workforce.

There are entire districts being build rapidly, throughout Vietnam, that include modern factories, workforce housing, clean efficient transportation, fusion energy sources, universal health care, fast internet service, mobile phone coverage, and recreation facilities.

We got reports from the ICW standards committee. With our new roles in Section 31, we get a lot of reports. For the moment, they are delivered on paper, not parchment. As soon as we can get our magic-PC's we'll be able to get them by email in the PDF format and be able to read them on a PDF reader in our Linux installation.

Starfleet Chief of Staff Peter Quahog introduced a resolution for an official language for operations in space, recommending English, details to be filled in after discussion.

Director Morozov spoke, "I support this resolution. When people from Earth meet people from other planet, is essential that we present ourselves with unity. That mean we speak to each other in one language. While, personally I prefer Russian, or a logical language such as Esperanto, there is great inertia in global use of English. People all over world can understand English even if not first language.

By number using as first language, order would be Mandarin, then Spanish, then English. Russian would be only seventh. But for international communication, no question, English is first. Today if Kazakh want to speak to Vietnamese, he do so in English, possibly French if both know, or less likely in Russian.

I would add to this proposal that all Starfleet personnel be taught English, and ICW encourage all magical schools to include English language classes, magically enhanced preferably. Also, that where possible, non-magical governments be encouraged to add English learning to primary or secondary school."

There was a lot of discussion. Only in another session was it approved, along with Morozov's additions. There was a lot of debate about space operations, which basically said that people can speak to each other in other languages, unless official business is being discussed, but when people are present who do not understand another language they should not be made to feel excluded and English use should be encouraged.

The debate about joining the magical and non-magical internets continued. Luna and I were amused to find a quotation from Hermione Granger in the debate. For now, it was agreed that one way transfers of data from non-magical to magical can be done, but the other way requires every last item to be approved by a qualified expert in non-magical relations, and never automatically.

There were so many technical proposals from Japan, that I wondered what the role of the non-magical International Standards Organization is anymore. I suppose the ICW must have infiltrated it, and they would just copy what the ICWSO approves, which would also be agreed to by most companies.

The International Space Station was being started on the ground. Each of the 8 centers of Starfleet research was assembling their components, ready to be launched starting at the end of 1997. By mid-1998 they plan for a crewed and operational small station, that would then continue to grow.

The DY-100, long distance space transport, was being planned to be built on the International Space Station, starting in 2003. The first would fly around the moon and dock again with the ISS. Then within 2 years after that, the plan is to have 1 new transport built every 6 months, using raw materials sent from Earth to the ISS.

A network of defensive satellites, some manned, some unmanned, was also planned. For now, they would be equipped with nuclear explosion powered X-ray lasers, nuclear missiles, high speed rock launchers, all to defend against external attack.

There was a lot of debate to make sure that there were fail-safes that would make it impossible for any of that ordinance to be directed at Earth itself, or at non-hostile space assets.