Chapter 34:

The Vulcans 2010 visit was well publicized, although no mention was ever made of knowing about the Vulcans by name. All TV broadcasting was changed over to high definition, and encryption was added, which every receiver could decrypt, but noone off-planet would have access to. Radio was also changed over to digital, and encrypted in all public broadcast bands. Internet traffic was also encrypted. Still they didn't want to chance the Vulcans being able to decrypt.

Khan addressed the planet, "On March 4th 2010 we had a second known visit from an extra-terrestrial spacecraft. This time the craft observed our space stations and left the Solar System.

Now we must redouble our efforts to make our defenses effective in case any hostile force is not dissuaded by our equivalent to a fence. While it is possible that this visitor will continue to respect our defenses, there could be others visiting later with different intentions.

There might be a time where we do want to meet our neighbors, but not now. Let me tell you an example from Earth's history we do not want to repeat. In 1492 Christopher Columbus led a voyage to an island that he named San Salvador, but which the native Taino population called Guanahani. Just as a note for you to remember, there are no Taino people today, just some people with some Taino ancestors.

The Taino didn't even understand that they were seeing ships. They only knew of canoes that were hollowed out of one tree trunk. Greetings were made. Gifts were exchanged. And yet, the Taino culture did not survive.

This is why we are discouraging extra-terrestrial visitors at this time. When we can greet them as a civilization that can defend itself and negotiate for what it wants, then we will invite visitors."

United Earth introduced titles of nobility. Some of the physics researchers that led to breakthroughs in subspace research got lifetime nobility titles. The close advisors to both myself and Khan got inherited titles.

Just to mess with people, the only staff member at Hogwarts given a title of nobility was Sybill Trelawney. She made sure to lord it over Headmistress McGonagall. She also was the only one to actually significantly help the planet with her prophecy about the Vulcan ship, so it was sort of justified. Another title was given to Firenze which was important to show that United Earth was not exclusively favoring humans.

Dumbledore became a researcher for Starfleet. Flitwick did also, but part-time, still keeping his teaching role at Hogwarts, but no longer being head of house Ravenclaw. We really needed adaptations of magic to living in space and for combat in space.

At a planning meeting I said, "From our understanding of the modified canon that Q came up with, the only visitors we should expect should be the Vulcans. Even the Klingon crashing on Earth in 2151 was indirectly due to time travel, so should not be expected. What we do not know is if any visitors would appear after 2063 if we do not have warp by then, since the timeline would be altered by us."

Hermione said, "I have been overseeing the Subspace Technology Program for the United Earth Safe-Guarding the Future Department. The main technical issue with waiting until 2063 for warp travel, is not being able to do experiments using warp fields. Getting to Warp 5 will take trial and error, not just theoretical work. Some other advances would require materials from other star systems.

However, there is a lot we can do without warp fields. Just to remind everyone, warp engines do not generate power. They use the power generated by antimatter reactor core. Sometimes in canon that is referred to as the warp core, but that is just a shorthand. The power generating core and the warp field generator are separate components.

What that means is that we can develop beam weapons, shields, impulse engines, even transporters, without ever creating a warp field. Therefore our development plan is to be ready to fly at warp 1.2 at any time. Meanwhile, we will develop the rest of our technologies as fast as we can. We do know from canon that we will need dilithium crystals to increase the power flow from our power cores.

We do not know if dilithium can be found in the Solar System. Lord Malfoy was given the Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual, a semi-canon work. We do not know what parts of that book were added to the timeline Q created. It indicates that dilithium can be found on a moon of Jupiter, possibly Io. Note that this is the same moon that should contain a sentient microorganism.

Parallel to trying to find dilithium we will determine if magic can be used to align the power of antimatter reactions. It would help to have a sample of dilithium so transfiguration or duplication can be applied."

Draco answered, "If we can be capable in most areas, but limited to warp 1.2, or 1.728 times the speed of light, that would suit our introduction to other civilizations. We would be able to defend the Solar System, even if we couldn't go elsewhere as fast as they could."

Harry Potter added, "More power flow would mean more powerful beams and shields."

Hermione added, "Also, we think that speed is the warp factor cubed times the speed of light. They changed that in Next Generation, but we plan to keep that scale. Some exceptions occur, where they seem to travel many light years in a few days, but we assume Q fixed those canon inconsistencies."

Jonathan Pike added, "Maybe magic can give us the advantage in these areas. Stealth torpedoes being our mainstay instead of beams. Can torpedoes get warp speed?"

Hermione answered, "In canon, but we think only when launched from a ship traveling at warp, and only for a short distance. Otherwise we would need to create a small warp field generator, and presumably power it from stored energy. Note that Cochrane's warp ship was missile size, although it unfolded in space a little, making it a little larger.

We are also developing fusion power using various possibilities since some of the power handling abilities we would need is used in these technologies.

Another area we are investigating is how to increase the physical power that magic can create. For example, can we create anti-matter directly more efficiently at a ley line intersection on Earth than in other places?"

Khan said, "Be sure to regularly nominate researchers for lifetime nobility awards. We want to motivate this research."

I added, "Also, just as we increased the efficiency of spell casters by offloading all other tasks to non-spell casters, you can do something similar for your top researchers. You can give them assistants to handle everything else they need to do, from setting up their computers to doing their laundry.

Tracey, how is the ship ergonomics coming along?"

Tracey Pike answered, "We have some constraints to try to stay close to Star Trek canon. Therefore we have a bridge with a central captain's chair, flight controls in front of him, and outward facing work stations in an outside circle.

We are investigating how to interface to ship's computers better. We have rejected using touch screens, as well as a keyboard and monitor setup. We are looking at dedicated buttons with lights, so operators can learn to rapidly use the controls, without having to set different modes. The lights themselves would be indicators based on color and whether they are blinking. At a glance a trained operator could understand the status of their station, and with well practiced motions could operate it quickly. It would look a lot like Captain Pike's Enterprise.

We also are experimenting with a steady hum of various sounds, each indicators for something. That way, operators would get used to the music of normal operations and be able to instantly detect anomalies. This was more pronounced on Kirk's Enterprise in the Original Series than on Pike's Enterprise.

The science station would use gaze control instead of a mouse, and scrolling wheels. We are trying to add thought control, but that won't be for a while. The navigation and helm controls will be mostly computerized, with the operators just handling the part that the operators need to handle. Both stations would also have a completely manual mode, as well as a completely automatic mode."

Khan asked, "Why is the bridge on top of the vessel? No actual windows are used, only viewscreens. It provides a vulnerability by having it exposed."

Tracey answered, "Because canon had it there, but they also used battle bridges in the center of the ship. I think canon might let us relocate the main bridge there. Too many times in canon there were difficulties getting to necessary parts of the ship from the bridge. The isolation of the bridge didn't seem to help with security of the bridge either. By placing in the center of the ship we can put extra armor around it, and even some spring type inertial dampers."

A few months later at another meeting Daphne said, "We completed what we call Operation Luxury for Researchers. Due to light speed delays in communications and the need to keep our high energy research off planet, we do our experiments in the asteroid belt, and now have the researchers on a space station nearby."

She showed a 3D projection of a large traditional English manor house with well tended grounds and continued, "This is our research base. A strong non-reflective base, about 8 meters of ground above it. The grounds have plants and trees. There is magical artificial gravity. The station tilts to give the illusion of a 24 hour day. The sunlight is enhanced to resemble Earth normal. There is a huge cone of reflectors that track the sun. Solar energy is also gathered, in addition to magical energy production. Fog and rain are introduced at times.

The building provides the same luxury as that of being a guest at a traditional English manor. Other rooms have the computers and libraries of magically duplicated books. There are rooms for researchers to discuss ideas, with white boards as well as computerized shared surfaces.

Note that there are conspicuous displays of research progress, numbers such as power output, or particles discovered. We took this idea from Hogwarts, where instead of showing house points, we gains only. We found positive reinforcement works best."

Draco asked, "I know that we are using Slytherin methods to motivate Ravenclaws here, but is this the most optimal method? I hear that some of the best breakthroughs in the past happened in improvised work areas. Cochrane in canon didn't have all this."

Daphne answered, "We have been doing experiments. We believe that positive reinforcement helps. Researchers, and we can call them Ravenclaws as a shorthand since most of us have been to Hogwarts, want to solve difficult research problems. Our goal is to help them do what they already want to do. Giving them a sense of luxury is simply to show them that they are regarded as better than others. We are not assuming that they would respond as a Slytherin would."

Harry Potter added, "I'm not convinced that Ravenclaws all have that purity of wanting research. Remember how they sabotaged Luna's course work?"

Daphne answered, "True, and we do look out for that. With great rewards like nobility we want to make sure that they are still looking out for Earth, not the reward."

Juan Singh spoke next. He was a new member of the planning group, Khan's son. He was born in 1988, and quickly rose through the ranks of Khan's army. Khan and I had agreed that both Juan and Draco would inherit our roles, that both had the aptitude for that. "I have found two additional method of recruitment. Those who would do anything to serve their planet. We have been searching for those in their younger years. We give them a battery of abilities tests. The ones who might be a researcher are directed in that track.

That attitude doesn't become clear until they reach a certain age. Another method is at age 7 we evaluate potential abilities. Even before that we encourage enrichment for those whose parents have special abilities.

At age 7 we can begin training camps for the best fighters, the best spies, and the best researchers, etc."

Hermione said, "I could have used that, instead of being taught with those who didn't like me for my intelligence. At age 11 I was eager to go away to magical boarding school. I would have felt the same way at age 7."

Harry Potter said, "Dumbledore really messed things up with my upbringing. If I was prophecied to fight the ultra-powerful dark lord of the time, I should have been taught magic and combat intensively from age 7."

Draco said, "I was taught from age 8. I recognize now that it is an advantage some of us from traditional families had, more than inborn ability over those who first pick up a wand at age 11."

Daphne said, "My education was more about protecting my mind and protecting myself, and from age 6."

In the early 2010's many changes were happening in everyday life on Earth, not just in space. Magic-based conveniences were affordable and popular. Existing appliance makers had magic versions of clothes washers and dryers, dishwashers, ovens, refrigerators. Stasis chamber food storage also reduced food waste. Food duplication spells were popular, but always considered to be a lower quality.

The Nomad artificial intelligence started to find its way to household uses. It was often the hub of household automation.

The internet evolved differently than in my home timeline. It was more controlled, and the major apps were official United Earth ones.

New ground vehicles were mostly silent and ran on magic or electricity. Older gasoline and diesel powered vehicles were still around, but were more costly to run, so were on their way out. Rail connections were widespread in all areas with sufficient density and mostly replaced long distance air travel. Local air travel was common, and had many rules to direct traffic.

E-commerce was popular, as was local food delivery. However, United Earth encouraged local gathering places to thrive, and tried to encourage communal daily walks, a long-standing practice in parts of the world. Some other areas had the equivalent in enclosed shopping malls, but as e-commerce became more popular, there needed to be incentives to get people to actually go these places.