Chapter 32:

"Was there or wasn't there a crew on that space probe?" I asked Space Research and Development Chairman Ace Castillo.

He answered, "We think so. Afterwards we realized that canon says that Vulcans have copper based blood. There are some Earth animals that also do, such as horseshoe crabs, so we will develop a new spell. What we got back from the probes were non-conclusive. We will also try to have a spell that is much more conclusive about detection, without it being set off by stray microbes or even insects that an uncrewed probe could have.

We intend to have a much more robust detection network out beyond the orbit of Jupiter, and some sort of network well beyond that. All of this needs to be with unmanned Nomad probes. We simply do not have enough spell casters to cover that distance.

Another research project we expect to complete soon is to add fusion weapons to Nomad probes. Since they do not have a soul, we can freely use them as mines or cruise missiles. They would need to be authorized to fire, since otherwise they could be starting a war with a peaceful visitor.

Another project I want to bring up is space mining. While we do not have the extreme cost of launching to space that we did without magic, it can still be convenient to make things in space that are going to be used in space. It would also help fulfill President Singh's promise to make space available for ordinary people to move to. Mining and manufacturing would provide opportunities for people of ordinary abilities, not just spell casters and scientists."

All of those projects were approved, mostly in the Asteroid belt. High energy physics research was also going to be done there and built mostly with materials mined in space.

There was a meeting about a seemingly trivial subject, "Khan said, I know we are supposed to keep to Star Trek canon for names and such, but the United Earth Space Probe Agency has a logo just showing the Americas with olive branches. At least use the UN projection that has a north polar projection of the entire planet except Antarctica. And why olive branches?"

Draco answered, "To look like we believe in peace. We haven't yet decided whether to act weak and be strong, or act strong while being weak. Since we do not yet know how we will rank amongst the civilizations nearby, acting weak might present the worst combination of acting weak while being weak."

Hermione said, "Stealth forces seem to be our strength. Perception will be based on whether we actually use our stealth forces in combat.

I still want to go back to what we talked about a long time ago, the Vulcans seem interesting and all, and not hostile, but I don't want us to be their colony to be guided towards civilization."

I said, "Let us address the Vulcan issue after. For the logo, why not skip right to Starfleet, and not even have something called United Earth Space Probe Agency? At the moment we did launch a few probes, but we are mostly focusing on Solar System defense."

Jonathan Pike said, "I agree, and no star field around the logo. It might be interpreted to mean the limit of our claims, or be interpreted as claims that we have no ability to claim."

We agreed to this as a consensus.

Harry said, "The Vulcans are not going to invade. They might assume that we want to learn from them and use that as a way to take control over our development. Let us be stubbornly independent when dealing with them, making it clear that no guidance is wanted."

Khan said, "I do not think they would be too upset if we used some nonviolent spying to get some technology from them. It would however put us in the category of primitives in their view.

Perhaps their occlumency abilities vary, We could have legilimencers as powerful as Dumbledore meet with them using eye contact. See if he can get some secrets out of them that way. Since the ICW still exists and he is still the Supreme Mugwump, it would be logical for him to meet extra-terrestrial visitors. If they detect the intrusion, he can apologize and say that it is automatic for him and he'll try to stop himself in the future, but that he has less control over that ability at his advanced age."

Daphne said, "We are still arriving in space as a first year student. Is there any way to arrive more skilled? Perhaps with research instead of trying to gain other's research. Perhaps we can redirect Earth's economy to have much more research in Star Trek technologies mixed with magic. If we stay in the Solar System and do not have warp engines, we'll probably be left alone for a while."

Hermione asked, "Would that be too much of a Ravenclaw plan? I'll just preface that by saying that I could have been in Ravenclaw. I perhaps have some Slytherin traits, but the hat would never offer that to myself, who would have faced discrimination based on ancestry status. As you know, Harry was offered Slytherin, but also chose Gryffindor"

Daphne answered, "Q explained to me that he wasn't expecting every tactic to be what looks like a Slytherin one, but instead the motivation for choosing a tactic should be Slytherin. If our motivation was truly Ravenclaw, we would want to understand the secrets of the universe and agree to a prolonged period of study and tutelage from the wise Vulcans who have studied these secrets for many centuries. You also seem to understand the Slytherin motivation. It is possible you have more Slytherin traits than Gryffindor and Ravenclaw ones."

Hermione answered, "The hat shouldn't take our 11 year old opinions so much into account. I am embarrassed to admit, but I was a fan girl of Dumbledore at that time, which is why I asked the hat to put me in Gryffindor."

Draco said, "The Vulcans didn't want to be seen. They used stealth to an extent. If we make our apparent sensor range more obvious, maybe they won't do visits that would likely be detected. Maybe stations all around the sphere at a certain distance from the sun, with lights and obvious sensors. Then we add our stealth Nomads in other places."

Khan said, "Those stations would be sacrificial in case of attack. We would have a stealth trap against any attacker, while the stations themselves would likely be destroyed."

I said, "Lets let the engineers at the newly named Starfleet Research do what you said. Starfleet Command can recruit people who understand the risks but want to live on a space station anyway."

Later Khan made a speech to the planet, "My fellow Earthers. United Earth is ready to announce our next phase in protecting our planet from any extra-terrestrials that were to attack us.

We have combined several agencies, and vastly expanded their scope to a new organization called Starfleet. Starfleet will coordinate the research into the technologies we will need for space, the construction of space assets, and as its name suggests, build and operate a fleet of ships that will travel the stars.

We are soon building a network of space stations at various places in our Solar System for defense. For this, we are going to need volunteers to serve on those stations. While in times of peace these stations will be comfortable places to live, in the event of an attack, they will likely be the first targets. We will do what we can to give you a fighting chance to prevent any attacker from reaching Earth.

If this challenge speaks to you, visit a Starfleet recruiting office, or contact them in the ways that will be publicized."

Khan's speech didn't include the secret Nomad probes, since Earth still used radio and television broadcasts that were sent out to space in an unencrypted way. There were plans to upgrade every communication method to an encrypted one, but that would take years, and wasn't an investment we wanted to do at this time. We also worried that extra-terrestrials would be able to break planned encryption methods.

There was a huge response to President Singh's call for recruitment. The ones chosen went to Starfleet Academy, located on both sides of the Golden Gate in the Presideo of San Francisco and in Marin County. There they would learn the skills they would need, while the space stations were being built. Its motto for now was changed from the canon "Ex Astris, Scientia" or "From the stars, knowledge" to "Scientia Ad Astra" or "Knowledge to go to the stars".

102 space stations were placed in a sphere beyond the orbit of Jupiter. Each had mostly transparent walls, brightly lit from within. With magic, space could be viewed without reflection from the lights within. There was normal Earth gravity and atmosphere. There were greenhouses with artificial light. The personnel were mostly non-magical. They had an array of sensors and some nuclear missiles. Those missiles were assumed to be useless against a spaceship due to their limited acceleration, but were more to make it obvious that they were armed. They were the only non-magical weapon that Earth could presently use against a spaceship.

The actual defense of the Solar system were magically hidden Nomad probes with nuclear bombs that might reach hostile ships attacking the space stations that were unaware of the Nomads magically accelerating towards them.

Starfleet Academy also started a coordination program to invent Star Trek technologies. It mostly setup programs in Universities around the world, but also held lectures and did some research at its own campus.

The Antimatter division was trying many methods at once. Isolated labs were used for actual experiments, and quantities kept low. A half gram of antimatter reacting to a half-gram of matter would result in a 20 kiloton equivalent explosion. Containment was understood. Only produce antiprotons and use magnetic bottles. Technology can create antiprotons but at extreme cost. Magic was being studied to as a better method of antimatter production.

Starfleet Research had to also sift out feasible plans from many ideas sent to it. A researcher at Fermilab sent in a an idea to both produce antimatter with technology at a much lower cost, and also to create a uranium spaceship sail, bombarded by antimatter, to easily get to a speed of 0.1c. The challenge for Starfleet was that if you asked a team of scientists, they would tend to say such plans would not work, but yet major new inventions often started from ideas considered unfeasible. Starfleet put together a team of creative thinkers to evaluate these proposals, with a budget to distribute to further develop ideas they found promising. Then after that round of funding, some sort of result would be expected to justify further rounds of funding.

Another set of ideas Starfleet needed to evaluate was using Astral Projection for space reconnaissance. One group in Brazil, the Wai-wai, said they routinely astral project to the Moon. If they could expand that to 100 times further, they could be very effective in detecting any aliens around the Solar System.

The Centaurs seemed to understand distant space objects. Based on their warning about the asteroid called Apophis, it was discovered in 2004. A plan was started to place nuclear engines to move it to an orbit safer for Earth. It has a mass of 61 megatons and a speed of 30.7 km/s. Some steady pressure over a few years should easily adjust its orbit.