Chapter 34:

Assistant Director Anguri Bakshi from Starfleet India said, "Means, Motive, and Opportunity. These are not just standards to assign guilt to past crimes, but a method of determining risk of future crimes. We have seen that the means will be widely available. The motives for some non-magicals are obvious, less so for magical traitors, but in any population there will be a few who are self-destructively willing to lash out. The opportunity is, in this case, merely the combination of means and motive alone.

What can we do to reduce the probability of this threat? Remember danger is probability times magnitude, and the magnitude would be catastrophic, so therefore even a small probability is a high danger. Also remember that with the proper motivation, the non-magical population could cause all sorts of damage, even without this particular attack vector. Still, as a particularly threatening attack vector, we should monitor, and prevent certain actions, on all machines with the possibility of creating genetic structures. Today, the number of such machines could be zero, but eventually they might become as plentiful as networked digital cameras are today.

To reduce the motive to attack, much more thought is needed. The grievances shown in that vision are quite correct. What we might see as beneficence, recipients might not see as benignly. Just as we are trying to avoid being the recipients of assistance from our extra-terrestrial neighbors, and want to meet them as equals, so might the non-magicals feel towards us."

Starfleet US Director Ace Castillo spoke next, "We need a structured plan. We already have a goal of having what we consider a sufficient technology level and planetary defense system before then researching and developing faster than light travel. We need to also plan for how we would like the way we would want magicals and non-magicals to interact at that time. Note that we assume when the planet is contacted, non-magicals will be aware of that contact.

If we can decide on a goal of where we want to be, then we can plan on how to get there, and how to prevent what we could call sparks that could cause a conflagration, during that time. We cannot just keep pushing off the decision of what we want. We should put together a plan, at Starfleet, and then bring it to the ICW for debate and approval."

Dumbledore asked, "Director Castillo, what end goal for, what might as well be called contact day, would you prefer?"

Director Castillo answered, "An open acceptance of magical and non-magical people, with their interactions becoming routine. At the same time a strong preventative peace keeping on any elements in both groups that could cause sparks.

MACUSA has dealt with both witch hunts in its past, and a groups of magicals, descended from a group called Scourers, that could easily do what Assistant Director Picard warned, about how a small group of magical traitors could create a bioweapon that would kill magicals, even if that included themselves.

No plan we can come up with will have full agreement in both communities, and probably any plan, including no plan, could result in the type of outcome seen in Assistant Director Lovegood's vision."

Soledad Manna, the Director of Starfleet Bolivia, spoke next, "I have a different solution to propose. What we want to ease, is a feeling of lack of control and fear of what might happen next, by all sides. At some point soon, we should give an open account to non-magical populations, of what we did, how, and why. Make future assistance something non-magicals ask for and is agreed to. Let national governments make separate decisions. Keep the governments separate, and to the extent both communities want, the communities within each nation either separate or combined, or some combination thereof.

When we inform non-magicals, we get our message out to all their media, full histories of magic, the reasons why we have been hidden for 300 years, our interactions with ancient history, and how we have been helping since 1993 for some regions, later years for others. Finally, we report on the situation of extra-terrestrials, including that they have been viewing our planet for decades, that we learned what would cause them to initiate open contact, and how the planet needs to be united and ready for that event."

There was a lot of follow-up discussion, but Director Manna's basic idea became the consensus. We spent eight days going over it, and coming up with a formal proposal for the ICW.

One point of contention was that if national government would formally ask for assistance from their magical counterparts, wouldn't that result in the type of differences between region that was one of the causes of the resentment in Luna's vision? The conclusion was that it would be understood to be a negotiation, not something imposed.

There was a lot of discussion about how first generation magicals had been handled in the past, and how, in the US as an example, non-magicals might be extremely upset. Other obliviations of non-magicals, for any reasons would also be a grievance perhaps, by itself, enough for them to go to war with the magicals.

After a consensus over most elements of the plan, the timeframe was a major issue to resolve. The R&D groups estimated that maybe 30 or 40 years would be the time needed for Earth to stand by itself, before meeting other civilizations. Therefore the question was when within that period should changes to the status quo be made. Also, it was discussed, what would happen if aliens openly contacted the Earth before it was expected.

During breaks between the long meetings, Luna said that she didn't see anything about the future of this plan would bring, neither good nor bad. We also decided who to send our wedding invitations to. We thought that excluding any of our colleagues could be seen as a snub, but we wanted to make it clear that we weren't pressuring anyone to attend. We invited everyone at the meeting, and a few others, such as the new Starfleet Academy Director, that we also interacted with, but who wasn't at the meeting. Of course we invited all who were members of the Advanced Study Group at Hogwarts, and those of their families we knew, or who British Wizarding customs would expect us to invite.

The ICW had its full meeting to discuss the proposal from Starfleet. They agreed for detailed preparations to be enacted in case of non-magicals becoming widely aware of magicals. They agreed to another plan, to respond to alien contact that became widely known to non-magicals. That plan would focus more on responding to the extra-terrestrials with a united Earth response, and leave the intraplanetary issues for later. Finally they agreed to periodically review the progress of the plans and to consider again the question of ending the Statute of Secrecy, during future meetings.

When Luna and I were alone, we both said to each other "2027". Luna said, "Federation", I said "Io". Luna said, "That is what I was saying years ago." I asked, "I wonder if Renee will have magic?" Luna answered, "Only one way to find out."

Meanwhile, we still needed to build the Section 31 organization. Since, in this timeline, it was not a secret organization, we could be a little more direct. We sent an email to every Starfleet employee.

Seeking help to secure the future

Do you have a question about a decision and how it might effect the future of the people of Earth? Contact us.

Do you see a danger on the horizon? Do you see a danger from what you are working on, or know about being worked on? Contact us.

We also can answer your questions, to the best we are able to, about how your Starfleet work fits into the future of humanity.

Contact information is attached, to be able to send us messages without others knowing. Only if you specifically say that you want your organization informed will we reveal your contact with us.

We also sent out a regular newsletter to all Starfleet employees, and then specific newsletters to certain specialties or ranks. For instance, the senior leadership we met with would get a summary of all information we have that pertains to the future timeline.

We also hired a few employees to go through all magical and non-magical media to look for issues of interest or alarm. The scale of intelligence reports was so far, low enough for Luna and I to go through them all ourselves, so we so far didn't need any employees for that.

In addition, we were looking for employees that could report to us what is going on in the various directorates. Besides the people we directly knew, we planned to recruit from those who do send us good information in response to our emails.

We got some responses fairly quickly. From Starfleet China someone was worried that the non-magical government is making too many direct demands that they be helped with economic development. Another was complaining that the non-magical government was trying to directly interfere with Tibetan magical society, even that part in exile in India. A few from South and Central America were talking about what they called frozen conflicts. That while wars have been prevented there, grievances continue, and could be extended against magicals when they learn of magical interference. Another complaint was there was flooding and levee break on the Yangtze river, and the non-magical government asked for urgent help from the magical Ministry of China.

The Advanced Study Group members who worked for Starfleet would periodically send background information, mostly that everything seemed fine from what they could tell.

An official report from Starfleet Dakar was saying that they needed to use heavy handed measures to halt the start of a war in Guinea-Bissau. Starfleet Germany reported that in Northern Ireland a car bomb went off, by a splinter faction of the IRA that did not agree with the peace agreement. The Ministry of Magic of Britain and Ireland, Amelia Bones, immediately sent notices to the ICW that their forces would eliminate the particular cell that conducted that attack, and setup magical scans to prevent future such attacks.

In December 1998 there was a need for Section 31 to mediate between Starfleet Egypt, representing the interests of Iraq, and Starfleet US. The US said that Iraq was violating the peace agreement that ended the Gulf War in 1991, by not allowing certain categories of inspectors to prevent certain weapon categories prohibited under that agreement. The US was planning to bomb Iraq after a breakdown in talks. We in Section 31 got Starfleet US to get the US government to focus on its vital interests only, which were to prevent the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq, and to accept Starfleet Egypt's mediation.

Starfleet Egypt mediated the dispute, by getting both sides to agree to Egyptian inspectors in Iraq who would do an even more thorough job of inspection than the previous group. At the same time, the US would pledge not to provide material support to rebel forces in Iraq. An additional part of the agreement was that Egypt guaranteed the prevention of invasion of Iraq by any of its neighbors, in case the purpose of Iraq wanting it thought that it had weapons of mass destruction was to dissuade Iran from invading Iraq.

Another Section 31 issue we needed to do was to tell Starfleet Kazakhstan's Director Morozov a little more of the Star Trek canon than we thought we could tell the others, and also get him to agree to internationalize the Starfleet Marines.

We stayed a week in Kazakhstan, visiting our Hogwarts friends there, and meeting with Vadim Morozov. He greeted us on arrival, "My friends Luna and Tom! I am so happy for you and look forward very much to wedding and visiting Picard California Vineyard."

He showed us around Akmola, and it was even more impressive than during our last visit. "You see multiple experiments in architecture and organization of home, work, school, shopping and recreation. Just as different directorates can use different methods, and show which ones qualified workers want to move to, so can different districts within city, and different cities in region. We do not have all answers, but constantly experiment. Newer technology change things again."

Eventually we got to business. We showed him the Star Trek episode Space Seed, from my recollection. We explained that it was a dramatization of a particular timeline, which is not necessarily this timeline, but has eerie similarities. He said, "There will be room for you on Botany Bay. Just joking, not about room for you, which will certainly be, but about need for evacuation ship. 100 survivors among all magicals, is unimaginable disaster, must be stopped at any cost."

I said, "Vadim, Another area of business to discuss is the Starfleet Marines. Having it local and dispersed might actually be preferable to only having it at Starfleet Headquarters, or any one location. We were planning to introduce a resolution to have a levy system. Each region would maintain a certain sized Marine force, and that force would be called upon by Starfleet as a whole if needed. A region could veto their own levy if they concluded, with acceptable good reason, that the call-up was a rogue operation or one specifically aimed to the advantage of a regional faction, instead of Earth as a whole."

Vadim Morozov replied, "I agree with plan. I was wondering why it was not earlier. What about training location?"

Luna answered, "There should be a unifying aspect of training. Since the research and development was and is being done in Kazakhstan, I think the training base should be here, of course conducted in English. Every Marine should also have some part of their training at Starfleet Academy. We want one cohesive army, not regional ones."

I added, "One reason though, to have locally marines stationed in their own regions, is it would make it less likely to become a force of repression against regions by Starfleet. At a later stage, when marines are mostly off planet, we should change to a model of having units from throughout human locations, and maybe even have the main training center be in space."

Vadim Morozov agreed, "I will offer my support to your resolution."