Chapter 72:

At the end of 2025 Cora was engaged to Theoclymenus Vablatsky, who was the great grandson of the seer Cassandra Vablatsky. They met during one of Cora's visits to Kazakhstan. Theo worked in the Starfleet Research Center Kazakhstan. Cora and Theo, each had visions that they must search for a rare ash tree in the Charyn Canyon on a particular day. They both found the tree at the same time and were together ever since.

Ekdotis was married to Xalia Leatham from a minor wizarding family from Yorkshire England. The ceremony was at Starbase Sol, just beyond the orbit of Jupiter. Xalia was stationed there working on the detection and neutralization of pathogens brought by arriving people and cargo. Ekdotis published his news of the Federation section of Quibbler from there. Starbase Sol was a crossroads of commerce and travel, and place to get news stories from people, rather than press releases. Most arrivals and departures to and from the Solar System passed through Starbase Sol.

Renée had actual work to do during the return part of the fleets voyage. The first part was visiting known civilizations, the return part involved exploring uninhabited places. She said "The first part of the voyage wasn't boring, even though I wasn't on any of the diplomatic missions. The crews rotate around the different ships. I did research on board Human, Tellarite, Andorian, and Vulcan ships. It was more interesting than being in a research lab on Earth, and I had everything I needed. Occasional recerts made things lively also. I'm working on my stellar navigation recert right now, have to do that one every year. Oh, recert is what we call recertification. In case the ship gets blown to pieces, and I'm on the part with the controls, I have to be trained to fly it, command it, treat injuries, fight, aim ship weapons, repair ship systems."

Jean-Laurent and Victoire, with Bill and Fleure Weasley, and Luna and Cora, cleared the main curses from Picard Manor and Vineyard. They were now living there and were getting the vineyard going. Lean-Laurent agreed that if he'd find additional curses, he'd call on Luna and Cora before doing anything, and that Bill would come over to help. Also, Luna and Cora told him that they would let him know if they sensed any danger he might run into. Cora's fiancee Theo, as a seer, also sent him two timely warnings.

Theo joined Section 31. We intended to use seers in its future. It was time to think long term for how Section 31 should be run. Dumbledore now had the title of Director Emeritus, meaning no actual role, except as someone to occasionally consult with. Cora had the title of Assistant Director. It was explained to senior Starfleet leadership that she had the same access to timelines as her mother Luna. We needed a long term plan for Section 31 that prevented it from using its extraordinary power for corruption or for agendas not in line with actual Federation species long term interests. On the other hand we didn't want a majority vote of the Federation Alliance to be able to constrain it from its mission.

We tried to recruit some Aenar for Section 31. While they found our actions too violent to want to be a part of, they did agree to pass on visions that they thought we should know about.

There was a Federation debate about forming a conference center in the Babel system, the name that would be given to Wolf 424. The plan was rejected since there was no need for a neutral location. Instead there was an idea to build a colony where every member of the Federation Alliance could send people. The fact that the star changes its luminosity all the time was actually considered a positive, since the inhabitants of Babel would need to not only work together, but work together to live in a challenging environment.

The work on genetic engineering of sentients to increase magic was approved last year for a limited number of test cases, in every species within the Federation Alliance that wanted to participate. That group were now babies and determined to be at least at normal health and intelligence levels. This was the critical step to determine if larger numbers should be allowed, that the experiments were not harmful. Magical ability would be understood at later ages. Now a second group was approved in much larger numbers, and it was expected that within a year or two there would be unlimited approval.

The Xyrillians idea of growing edible plants on ship deck walls was put into the current design cycle. It would only be in limited areas of ships, and insects and weeds would be prevented from establishing themselves. Also, these would be plants that would not cause pollen or other allergens. There would specially engineered plants that would provide edible items that would mostly be used by ship kitchens, but in some cases would be usable by simply picking and eating.

The Xyrillians holodeck invention was added to all starships in the current design cycle which would be built in 2027. Magic was going to be added to ensure safety. The 24th century safety protocols for holodecks was not part of the Xyrillian invention.

It looked like the transporter would be available for this design cycle for non-living material only. The ships were going to be outfitted with transporters as if they were fully developed, so field upgrades could occur if available. In canon transporters were used in emergencies even though they were not certified for sentient life. In our timeline, only fully informed volunteers would use them, in extreme emergencies, before certification, and would never be ordered to.

The hand held disruptor power packs acquired from the Orions were part of all crew uniforms. Every crew member, when outside their cabins would have a power pack, a Starfleet advanced technology badge, a disruptor, a communicator, and an instantly deployable environment suit that would be powered by the same power pack. Usage of either the disruptor or the environment suit would send out an alert and bring help to the area, if possible. Certain conditions would trigger the environment suit even if the crew member were unconscious. The environment suit would also cushion uncontrolled acceleration and collision. They were encouraged to have the deployable environmental suit on their persons even when within their cabin, and there was a special deployment mode to attach it to a bed, to be automatically triggered in case of emergency without being noticeable when not in use.

All crew and passengers were told that unusual accidents and novel forms of enemy attack are possible and that Starfleet wants them all to survive their voyage. That while realistically some hazards are not survivable, others would be if they would wear their environment packs. Everyone went through drills of sudden depressurization or sudden acceleration, so they could experience how their instant suits would make those survivable, even if they found themselves floating in space.

In my memories of canon, most star charts were too blurry to be of use, but certain names caught my interest when viewing the series and the tighter focus on those helped in remembering them. There were star systems called Nehru, New Berlin, New Brooklyn, and New France. Of those New France was off limits until Starfleet would travel past Orion influenced areas. New Brooklyn was fairly far away and wouldn't be colonized until there were other bases in its region.

That left New Berlin and Nehru as possible locations to colonize. The location of Nehru was visited by the exploration fleet on its way back from Vissia. It was found to be habitable with a little geoengineering and terraforming. The Earth nation of India said that based on its name, it could be assumed that it was a colony that followed the Hindu culture in canon, and that they would like to recreate this. The Federation Alliance agreed, and 320,000 people, mostly from India, announced their intention to settle this planet. It would have two official languages, Hindi and English, and would follow Hindu customs and culture.

Similarly New Berlin was approved. A fleet from Earth would arrive with German speaking colonists. It would establish a Starbase in a strategic direction towards the Romulans. The colonists understood that in the even of conflict with the Romulans, they would be on the front lines. Similarly, Nehru might be a target of the Xindi if there were ever conflict with them.

The exploration fleet after Nehru went to 13 Ceti, 69 light years from Earth, a binary star system. This is were Renée had a mission. There was a radioactive moon with lava, not that unlike Io, and she directed where the drones would search, and then went to the surface to investigate life forms. There were some good discoveries there, but nothing sentient. She published papers based on the data collected there.

The next stop was Mu Cassiopeiae, 25 light years from Earth. A moon was found that usually had ice, but periodically would have liquid water, and life forms that were usually dormant but became active when there was water. Renée was on this mission also, and made some discoveries.

The fleet returned to Terra Nova, and then dispersed to their next missions after a few weeks of shore leave there. Some just went to the Starbase, but most, including Renée, toured the planet. While the crews were on shore leave, the starships had upgrades performed that could be done quickly and were thought to be likely unchanged during the 2027 refits. It was already June 2026.

Some of the crew on shore leave went back to their ships to try out the newly installed holodecks. At the same time, Starbases got their own holodecks. They were free to use for Starfleet crew members, even visiting ones, with a waiting list. There were additional holodecks opened by private companies for those who didn't want to wait for an available opening on the free ones, and for civilians. Planets were mostly getting paid holodecks, but educational institutions were getting ones for educational purposes.

Many Vulcans were completing their third year of magic school. Those who were accepted were able to keep up with their year levels. In some areas, mostly the mind arts, they were advanced of human magicals, in other areas not as advanced, but overall considered to be magicals. They didn't take summer breaks, considering it important to be able to contribute to Vulcan as soon as possible.

At the Lorillia trading center many different civilization's ships arrived to trade. The Orions were turned back as being in a state of hostilities with the Federation. Other ships were allowed and searched and well guarded on their way to Starbase Lorillia. No ships were allowed to go to the planet. Security around the Starbase was very tight.

Even the Nausicaans showed up and they were allowed on the Starbase. They, along with all other visitors were told about standards of behavior while visiting. No attacks were allowed, and automatic intervention would shut down violence. There were dueling centers setup. Any who wanted to fight each other would be enabled to do so, with rules and without endangering bystanders or property. Automatic prevention of theft was enabled. Visitors were told about it in a way that officially was to reassure them that they will be protected from theft, without accusing anyone of being a thief.

The materials available on Starbase Lorillia excluded technology beyond what was already available in that area. Other than that, there were very few restrictions. Traders from systems that had trade agreements with the Federation would be restricted from anything that those trade agreements forbade. Those from other systems could buy anything authorized for general export. The Federation was not going to worry about what they were allowed to possess in their own systems.

The hotels, restaurants, bars, and stores tried to provide what the different species preferred. Some foodstuffs would be considered unpleasant for some species to see, so if not illegal in Federation space, would be provided in restaurants for specific cultures. In some cases, chefs from non-Federation systems were given work permits. There were multi-lingual signs cautioning different species about specific foodstuffs that were not safe for their consumption.