Chapter 37:

2013 was the year of the vast movement into space. The meeting in August 2012 concluded that the budget of Starfleet could work better if it owned its own profit centers in space. Since adults moving to space worked for Starfleet, they could be assigned tasks that generate revenue. There were also some tourists and families of Starfleet personnel in space.

Many Starfleet personnel were assigned to be teachers in various branches of Starfleet Academy. Everyone went to the main one near the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge for a brief basic acculturation. After that they dispersed elsewhere since we were bringing in well over a million recruits in the next year. With magical transport to space there wasn't the previous extreme expense in going there, or even a major expense.

Large habitation centers were setup at Earth-Moon Lagrange points. There zero-g manufacturing was scaled up for any product where zero-g would help. Mining operation were throughout the Solar System with minerals heading for manufacturing centers in space. Products and some rarer minerals were sent to Earth to be sold.

A Lunar mine exported deuterium and helium-3, relatively rare on Earth, but ideal for fusion energy and that has a byproduct of some of the particles needed in the matter side of warp cores.

Universities throughout the world, and in the new one in the Asteroid belt, added new departments. Plasma engineering, subspace physics, antimatter engineering, warp engineering, and others. At this time there wasn't a lot of knowledge to teach, so students were taught how to research these fields and to keep up with the latest discoveries.

[June 2013 at Starfleet Headquarters]

We had a planning meeting at a high tech room with all sorts of viewscreens. Hermione as usual organized the agenda, "Today we are going to view the progress of our ship design and view it powering up, of course with no warp field. While earlier, as a Gryffindor I would have wanted to be on this ship and even press the button, now I understand that people of our rank do not endanger themselves by being on test craft.

You'll notice that the shape resembles the NX class from the Enterprise series. That is due to these ships being planned for multi-use roles. They will be battleships, cargo ships, and colony ships, all in one. They also will carry large amounts of materials needed for voyages without needing resupply. That reason, and to be close to canon. The only major change in appearance is due to moving the bridge to a more protected area in the middle of the ship.

For the first warp experiments we have a much smaller design, with a small central section with warp nacelles to its sides. These resemble some ships we found in the background in the Enterprise series as being obsolete at that time. As soon as experiments are done, the NX ships will get their warp field generators completed.

The engine room contains a combination fusion and magic generator that creates antimatter. Here is where the first major difference from canon appears. The heat from this engine drives an electric generator a short distance away. That in turn feeds a high capacity battery, which in turn powers the ship's life support, computers, and equipment. In canon the antimatter chamber which sends plasma to the engines has an electro-plasma system and an EPS converter to power the ship's operations.

The problem with this canon design is there no easy way to add a surge limiter to plasma flow. In canon when the ship sustains certain types of damage, the panels on the bridge catch fire or send out dangerous sparks. Instead we are using electricity which Earth has well over a century of experience with circuit breakers, surge protectors and other methods of using electricity on combat ships. We also have some years of experience of how to use electricity and magic near each other, knowing exactly the shielding needed.

Next to the antimatter generator is the main intermix chamber. Matter and antimatter are combined. Dilithium crystals help the precision of this step. A charmed device swaps in new crystals periodically. The ship carries a huge quantity of duplicated crystals each in stasis. If at some point larger quantities of original dilithium crystals become available then each ship can have an original crystal and the duplication spell can be done on board.

The plasma is now directed in different ways. There is still an EPS conduit. It sends plasma to power beam weapons, non-magical shields, and the impulse engine. When installed, a plasma conduit will go to each of the warp coils.

The ships mass is regulated by magic, and kept nearly mass-less for acceleration. Soon we will have a subspace method of accomplishing the same result.

The Ions volunteered to send a small colony to each ship. They will help keep the power generation and distribution well maintained. Tests have shown that the Ions can thrive with theta radiation which has a subspace component. It is a byproduct of the power generation at our level of technology.

Now we will speak to the crew, commanded by Steven Archer, great-grandfather of Captain Jonathan Archer of the Enterprise series. In canon he was in the US military and fought against Khan Singh. In our timeline he was an early recruit to Starfleet, transferring from the US military. Yes that was deliberate. He was referenced once in canon and we looked for him. We thought that having a Captain Archer in charge of the Enterprise will help us be close to canon even if about 140 years earlier."

Our viewscreen now showed the bridge which looked a lot like that of the Original Series. There were 4 people at stations facing outwards and one in the captain's chair. "Captain Archer here. Are all observers receiving?" Each checked in, including our meeting room, President Singh said, "Yes, and we offer our wishes for your success."

Captain Archer said, "Begin sequence alpha now." The engineer said, "Yes sir." and pressed a button.

There was a steadily rising tone which sounded smooth, which indicated a normal startup sequence.

The engineer narrated what was happening, "Antimatter generation up to nominal power. No anomalies." The voice generator in contact with the Ions said, "Power is clean."

Next the engineer said, "Antimatter and matter mix proceeding. Expected power output. Ships system battery now being charged by engine. Plasma running through conduits."

The Ions said, "All systems nominal."

The Engineer said, "Excess power now being vented while we continue to run at nominal full power awaiting orders."

Captain Archer said, "Maintain full mass and apply impulse engines."

The Engineer said, "Impulse engaged. Ship accelerating on pre-approved course." There were different sounds made by the bridge stations, a generally smooth music that went up in tone and then remained steady.

Captain Archer said, "There was the slightest shake while the magical inertial dampers adjusted. Now experiencing normal 1g. Full stop and then power down."

After the ship's engine was powered down the Engineer reported, "All measurements within acceptable margins. Warp coils could have had expected power levels."

[At a planning meeting a few days later]

Hermione reported, "We are technically ready for warp tests, just waiting for the decision. We expect a period of fine tuning, experimentation, and improvements before reaching warp speed. After that we expect to keep experimenting to increase the warp speed we can achieve using our present power output."

Khan asked "What is the status of weapons?"

Hermione answered, "The Plasma Cannon tests were successful. These travel at less than light speed and are only effective up to about 9 kilometers. The plasma normally going to engines would be directed to the plasma cannon while it is firing.

We are still developing phase cannons. We do not expect either to be very effective against shields. Stealth torpedoes will still be the main weapon. The beam weapons are more useful against unshielded drones and torpedoes.

Phasers as seen in the Original Series is still far beyond our knowledge or ability.

Non-magical shields have been tested, but not ready for use yet. When they are we expect to be able to use non-magical and magical shields at the same time."

Tracey added, "The crew's review of the ships controls has been positive. With the audio indicators, even we on a video-conference could hear that the engine was working correctly."

Hermione said, "Now we will see a weapons test. Viewscreen on, connect to Enterprise." There were some beeps and we could see the bridge of the ship.

Khan said, "We are curious to see how the beam weapons work."

Captain Archer said, "Enterprise to Base Alpha 27, release drones in simulated attack plan delta at us at a random time."

The helmsman reported, "75 small objects headed towards us in randomly shifting courses. Shields were of course on in default configuration."

Hermione explained, "The ships always have the shields on except for specific times they need to be down. More energy can be directed to shields in combat conditions."

We had several view screens give different perspectives.

The helm officer said, "Power core automatically raised to full power. Plasma headed towards canons with full sphere coverage. Computers automatically tracking threats and firing when possible. Computer has identified the flight pattern as a threat, and will fire unless told not to."

The canons rapidly fired and changed targets and fired again.

The Helm said, "All drones destroyed before reaching 2 kilometers from ship."

Khan said, "Job well done Enterprise. Screen off."

Hermione said, "You saw what they can do, but not what they cannot do. If they were magically hidden or had other types of stealth that we cannot detect we could not have stopped them. If they had beam weapons they could have fired from a little over 2 kilometers. However, if they had explosives the distance probably would have been sufficient for the shields to prevent serious damage."

Tracey said, "The ship controls need a better faster way to determine threat from non-threat. What if those were the equivalent to mail owls? Still, automatic fire with manual cease fire seems better than the opposite.

We are also working on the sound effects for a detected threat. We need calm reactions from the crew, not panic. The continuous alert sound, that resembles the air raid sirens of the mid-20th century is perhaps too harsh."

[In 2013. Planning with the Starfleet Medical research department]

I told the leaders of that research that we need to handle both extra-terrestrial diseases and also emergent diseases native to Earth.

They showed a ship decontamination plan similar to the series Enterprise, and I said, "That is just silly. They can do that on their own time if they want to. We need a magical way to remove infectious agents and by the time they return from a planet, it won't just be on their surfaces. We also need ways to remove infections that get past quarantine methods."

We made it a general technology challenge on Earth, and a lot of ideas poured in.

Most of the magical answers were that while there were some magical diseases such as Dragon Pox that were resistant to magical treatment, most non-magical diseases could be cleared by potion and some by spell.

There were plans put into place until better ones could be found to monitor for infectious diseases and swoop in to treat with magic and potions. When returning from unknown planets, a broad spectrum potion would be given preventatively, and magic cleaning spells would be applied.