Chapter 66:

The design committee for the new starship to be shared between Starfleet, Andorians, and Tellarites, was reaching an agreement. Starfleet presented the canon Enterprise B, with some modifications. It was a very large ship, and improvements over earlier Enterprises included a more secure connection from the saucer to the rest of the ship, with room for very large multiple warp cores in the that area. The saucer can detach, so non-combat personnel can be dropped off on a ship with impulse power and a good combat ability on its own, while the lower section could do the bulk of the fighting. One modification was that the bridge was moved to the center area of the saucer section, and the top part of the saucer was made smooth and less vulnerable.

We thought that the Andorians and Tellarites would think that the ship was too large for their needs, but they agreed, and also agreed with the doctrine of the ship carrying a cloud of drones and mines. They assumed that there would be smaller ships also as part of fleets. Obviously the technology on the starships would be far less capable than the actual Enterprise B, but would have a similar size and shape. It would have manufacturing ability and redundant warp cores, allowing magically duplicated items to be swapped in, constantly switching which cores were in use.

We had simulations of space combat that showed that the combination of a very large ship, which could have a large amount of power for shields and weapons, combined with a huge number of unmanned drones launched from the same ship, would be the most efficient use of resources.

As expected the Tellarites argued about every decision, but afterward agreed it made sense. Adding a lot of empty structure to a ship did not require extraordinary resources, while allowing it to carry a lot of cargo or passengers. They were thinking of the starships as almost mobile Starbases. They could offer considerable help to a planet, and help repair and resupply other ships. They also wanted the saucer section to have its own warp engines. We all agreed to make it an optional expansion, with two small warp nacelles normally kept flush to the saucer, but extended when in use. The basic design only gave that section a warp 2.5 ability, but included enough power to be combat capable on its own. When the saucer was not separated, the warp cores on the saucer section would not help with travel, but would power phasers, tractor beams, and shields.

The ship design was modular and designed to be upgraded. If we ever got the Vulcan's level of technology these ships could be upgraded without needing to be replaced. Of course, we couldn't adapt the Vulcan dual circle warp field generators to that design, but in canon it didn't seem to be a Starfleet design ever, and dual nacelles seemed to be preferred.

The combat capability was officially calibrated to Orions and what we assumed the Romulans had. In reality, we only had the Vulcans to closely observe. We also had to decide what to do about warding and magical hiding. We decided that no hiding against non-magicals would work, even just for Starfleet, since the Vulcans could see it. We, looking at canon, could not say for sure if the Romulans would have the same ability. There were some who thought that the Romulans purged the magicals from their early population and created the Remans. For some reason, they do not make use of the magical abilities of the Remans, perhaps their abilities are minor. Why did they seize and Aenar from the Andorian world instead of using their own Remans? Presumably because the Remans did not have the abilities to control a drone over light-years away that the Aenar had. We concluded that we had to assume the Romulans had some ability to perceive magic until proven otherwise.

We talked about allowing Human magicals to be hired to work on Andorian and Tellarite ships. We were still worried about magicals being seized by Orions or Romulans so didn't allow this for now, without explaining the reasons, which partly was our no person left behind doctrine.

Ships components would be freely traded among the three civilizations. Our shipyards were for hire and had full export licenses to sell to the Andorians and Tellarites, including enchanted items. Shrinking charms were heavily used, as were wards.

In the Picard household we were preparing for our son Jean-Laurent's marriage to Victoire Weasley's in July 2020. Obviously this 2020 was very different from the one of my home timeline, for one thing, Starfleet was using magic to detect and eliminate disease outbreaks, both from Earth, and brought from other planets.

My father Maurice was satisfied that there wasn't a curse on all Weasleys that would effect Victoire. He managed to bring the possibility up to Bill Weasley in a very diplomatic way that didn't cause offense.

Jean-Laurent and Victoire were both getting ready for graduation at Starfleet Junior Academy. They would be continuing on at Starfleet Academy Adult Magical Education. They already were mostly taking classes there, and very little would change in their classwork from one term to the next. Jean-Laurent was also privately studying as an apprentice of Bill Weasley to become a master curse breaker. His main reason for doing to so was to clear Picard Manor and Vineyard in France. Even though Bill and Fleur were going to help, Jean-Laurent felt that he needed to be part of the operation, and to be able to handle any surprise curses that might turn up later when they he is living there.

Jean-Laurent and Victoire were both also studying Starfleet warding. This course of study was not to aim to be a unique expert in the field, but to learn how to efficiently cast large numbers of wards as needed by Starfleet, contractors, and private companies. Starfleet operated on an industrial scale and taught, for free, magicals to be part of that operation. After being certified in that field of study, a Starfleet ward master could work part time or full time as they preferred and earn good money creating wards for starships, bases, basic living centers on Earth and elsewhere, space stations, starbases, anywhere where Starfleet existed. They learned not just about wards, but how to maximize their ability to cast them, how to create as many wards per week as possible.

To not retroactively degrade the actual title of Ward Master, those were now called Ward Designer Master, and were actual experts who designed new types of wards. The Starfleet Ward Master, was a title of being competent in casting already designed wards, and doing so accurately and efficiently.

In the time of Jean-Luc Picard, the philosophy of Starfleet, was one where people worked only for enrichment. In our era, magicals and skilled non-magicals were encouraged to work for money, and then to pursue enrichments that require money. In Jean-Laurent's case he wanted to build an interstellar industry of high-end fruits and wines. Those would be risky investments, but by earning extra money he could pursue those without risking the Picard's existing businesses. Even wanting to be a colonist on a different world required money, since the waiting lists for free Starfleet transport were very long, and only expert initial infrastructure experts were assigned by Starfleet as personnel.

Starfleet Academy Adult Magical Education was flexible. Students could attend with flexible hours and online. They were however expected to complete the Starfleet acculturation classes before getting any certifications.

Cora was busy studying for some of the international ordinary wizarding level tests, similar to the British OWL tests. The difference is that students can take the tests whenever they feel they are ready, not only at the end of their 5th year of Starfleet Junior Academy. She already completed her tests in divination and magical history last year, and could have done other ones earlier but decided to wait for those. There were also non-magical classes she was taking, which had their own testing.

Renée was completing her three year program at Starfleet Academy. Her specialty was first contact and investigating native life for intelligence. However, in Starfleet even a mission specialist on board, was required to be competent to handle every duty station on the ship. Enough examples were found in canon where in emergencies, personnel were needed to handle roles other than their usual ones. So, everyone serving on a ship could pilot the ship, run sickbay using the various automated devices there, handle communications, command the ship, and every other essential function. The ships ran on small crews, so duplication of ability was essential, while automation handled as much as possible.

At Starfleet Academy everyone went through intensive combat training, armed and unarmed. Spell casters were given additional training to incorporate magic in combat, but also to be trained to fight without magic. All students were also trained to handle intense situations and respond properly. Strange cultural practices should not put them into combat mode, unless that were the appropriate response.

On a typical mission, Renée would do research in her field while traveling, while doing continuous retraining to maintain all qualifications needed, and maintain fitness and fighting ability. A spell caster, such as Renée, was also expected to spend some time casting spells to help resupply and maintain the ship, reducing the resources needed when the ship goes to a Starbase.

Ekdotis was in year three of Starfleet Junior Academy. He wrote articles for the Quibbler whenever he had the idea for one. He got permission from the Academy to write a column describing his experiences as a student. He avoided negative articles and only mentioned other people by name with their permission.

We had a Section 31 meeting, which now also included Cora, discussing Vulcan. I said, "In canon, Earth destabilized Vulcan in 2154. In this timeline it happened since 2011 when Vulcan's first contact with Earth was far different from expectations. The humans were ready for them, and already spoke Vulcan. The human space station had technologies that not even Vulcan had, which they later learned were magic. That was just the beginning of disturbances from Earth. Luna professed to know more about their own founding philosopher, Surak, than Vulcans did."

Luna answered, "Exactly. Professed. I never provided any evidence for my claims."

Cora said, "Is it our mission from uncle Q to set the Vulcans on the path that they were in Original Series and Next Generation, following the true path of Surak? Similarly is it our mission to set human magicals on the path to be like the Organians?"

Dumbledore said, "Do we have the leverage to remake Vulcan culture as how we may see it should evolve? Do we understand the consequences? Do we know what the backlash may be if they should perceive this attempt at interfering in their culture?"

Luna said, "I have kept strictly neutral on the question of what Vulcan should do. I was given knowledge of Vulcan that the Vulcans do not have, and treated it as their intellectual birthright to teach them, without considering consequences."

I said, "As Starfleet, what do we want? We want Vulcan to become full allies and share technology with us. We want them not to combine or ally with the Romulans. We want to avoid a war with the Klingons, which at the moment is really Vulcan's responsibility, as the only one of us in contact with them. We want cooperation against Orions.

Whether Vulcans follow Surak, follow logic, believe in IDIC, do mind melds, or discover their magical abilities is not directly germane to our goals."

Dumbledore said, "However, if they develop their magical abilities will that align them more with us? Will it give them more power which could be helpful to us as allies, but dangerous if ever they became an adversary?"

I asked, "You are sure that they have magical abilities?"

Dumbledore said, "Even if it is nothing more than those abilities we know of, I am fairly certain we could use our magical knowledge to increase their capabilities, even if not to full spell caster level."

Luna said, "It works the other way also. There have been some Earth magicals that have asked the Vulcans about their meditation practices. Some of the were actually forthcoming about it. Some of those who asked joined them in their practices. Their occlumency abilities became much stronger, and they also learned to suppress their emotions."

Cora said, "We should find a way to be friends with Vulcans and Romulans. Uncle Q might have let Luna visit Surak without having the goal being the Vulcans to follow the true teachings of Surak. Our goal is to be friends with them whether they be logical or emotional. We must also not make them afraid."