Chapter 38:

In February 2014, the breakthrough of creating a shield using subspace aspects of plasma energy was ready for deployment. Each ship was fitted with six shield generators, one for each direction. The forward shield was made stronger since it would also deflect space debris.

Some detection of subspace signals was begun, but serious experimentation with subspace radio would need to wait until the warp experiments since the experiments might be detectable and might trigger contact.

Throughout the year mass production in space of spaceships increased. Ships were not made in the slow way that aircraft carriers were. Instead different factories in space churned out individual components which were then magically sent along to where larger sections were built, and then pushed along to snap into its place on the ship assembly. A small section of one deck of a ship would arrive already fitted out with electrical, water including water recycling, climate control, gravity, and communications all ready to be connected to the main ships battery. The section itself would have it own local battery which could run essential functions for a while even if the rest of the ship's power was offline.

Khan pointed out that this design would prevent an attack that he himself conducted in the Original Series, Space Seed, in which he cut off fresh air to the bridge. With this design, each section of each deck of the ship would have its own life support system.

To help fund Starfleet, the same factories would sell habitation sections made in space to customers on Earth. Those would be differently designed, not needing gravity, but needing weather proofing.

The next years were focused on research and building infrastructure and ships.

The Pikes bought a nice bit of land in Montana, yes the exact one seen in the Strange New Worlds first episode. Sarah Pike was born in December 2003, Mathew Pike in February 2005. Sarah was magical, while Mathew was not. Both were being trained to be on the command track of Starfleet ships. Their abilities to be advisors would be evaluated when they would be older.

The Potters restored Potter manor and lived there when on Earth. All members of the planning group had rooms in the Starfleet complex in San Francisco.

Section 31 and United Earth security dealt with any emerging threats that could turn against United Earth and Solar System or could make common cause with future adversaries. The general approach was to identify movements that could be problematic. Then to persuade, even bribe if that were to be helpful. Sometimes assigning people in distant places helped. On occasion violent covert action was used. Khan and I had agreed that we weren't going to use harassment of finding obscure laws a target might have violated to make their lives difficult. Either they would be persuaded or eliminated.

The flow of more than 2 million people joining Starfleet Academy in 2017 became a way for those who were dissatisfied on Earth to join a new frontier. While every graduate is subject to orders and deployment, in the vast majority of cases they went where they wanted to among the options available to them.

[Ship beam weapon test, February 2018]

Before the test started, Hermione explained, "While this cannot yet be called a phase canon, it is a plasma canon with more coherence. It has a range of 12 kilometers. We also added more independently targetable canons. The computer analyses the damage and either increases power, sending full power to one canon if needed, or uses all of its canons at once.

We have also overall increased the ships power level. Now the engines can be used at the same time as shields and at the same time as canons. There is a rather clever method of sending the plasma past the shields and firing them from outside the shields. All components used outside the shields have many duplicates that can be very quickly put back into place if the originals are destroyed."

Harry Potter asked, "Does someone have to go on a spacewalk and weld things together?"

Hermione laughed and answered, "Harry is joking. I'll show a video of how it is done. An automated process pushed the broken sections away and puts a new part in its place. It automatically locks into place."

Khan spoke to the Enterprise, "We await your demonstration."

From the Enterprise, "Captain Archer speaking. We will conduct the exact same drill we did with the earlier plasma canon. Base Alpha 9, simulated attack plan delta at a random time."

The helmsman said, "75 drones detected inbound."

We watched different views of the test, with labels explaining different parts of it. Hermione said, "Notice that the first attack didn't destroy that drone. Now another canon is firing at it with more power."

The helmsman said, "All drones destroyed. Minimum distance to ship, 8.4 kilometers."

[Planning meeting, July 2018]

Hermione's agenda statement was, "This meeting is to decide if warp experiments will begin. If not, we'll go over the steps to get us there. If so, we'll go over the plan to contact the Vulcans."

Khan said, "Our technical departments tell us that many areas of experimentation are being delayed due to fear of them being discovered by Vulcans and therefore causing them to contact us. Are we not being held back by the Vulcans without them even being aware of our abilities?

Then there are the unclaimed stars out there that might not be unclaimed in future years. We are missing opportunities."

Hermione answered, "That is correct, our research is now slowed down. Furthermore while we are building more space assets, we know from canon that there are superior materials that we do not have knowledge of except vague descriptions from canon. It may be that much of what we build now would need to be replaced when we have more access to these materials."

I said, "My view is that we can learn from the Tellarites and Andorians while also having things to trade to them that they will want. Let the Vulcans come visit. We will be polite and ignore their advice."

Tracey Pike asked, "Is it possible that they will give us any useful technology anyway?"

Juan Singh answered, "We shouldn't preclude that. They might want to start by doing the equivalent of a sailing empire offering gifts to primitives who just invented the concept of the sailboat. We can offer our primitive gifts also. We should not let them start a colony. In canon Enterprise why did we let them have a huge self-contained compound in Sausalito, near Starfleet headquarters, and then listen to them like they ran the planet?"

Daphne answered, "Probably because they did give some information and technology, just in very measured amounts."

Juan said, "The Andorians didn't put up with it and even fought skirmishes with the Vulcans."

I said, "They are like Gryffindors. They attack a superior force and get away with it only due to Vulcan ethics and forebearance. Yes, you could argue that the Andorians could have been strategic in doing so, but I think they just got away with it due to luck. In any case, it would not suit our much longer range plans of Vulcan accepting our leadership much later. Remember, the Vulcans advance slowly, we do quickly. We need to the opportunity to advance beyond them, and that will not be accomplished best by fighting against them."

Khan said, "Sounds like a plan. We receive what gifts we can get from Vulcan, give them gifts that do not involve offering them our unique advantages. We do not let them setup a colonial administration on Earth."

[August 2018. Preparation for warp experiments]

We would have liked to have Zefram Cochrane be be involved. His age from the Original Series episodes, Metamorphosis, was not relevant since he was likely de-aged by a non-corporeal life-form. Based on his appearance in First Contact, he was likely born in the decade of the 2000's. There is a canon reference for him being born in 2030 or the 2030s. Whenever he will be found, he'll be fast tracked to be educated to be a warp designer.

We had a number of a series of small craft, each with a small central section and warp nacelles to the side. There was no need to have them fold out since they would be built in space. Each experiment would occur in a monitored empty area of the Solar System with lots of sensors and measurement in both space and on the spacecraft. Then the lessons from each experiment would be applied to the next ship. The original ship would be refueled, repaired if needed, and ready for its turn for an experimental flight.

Since we didn't know which experiment would actually be faster than light, the entire series of ships were called Phoenix, with a number.

The Phonixes didn't need a crew. They were fueled with stored antimatter. The warp flight would only be for a few seconds and then the engines would be shut down and tractor beams would be used to recover the ship. The tractor beams were magical for now, but subspace based ones were being researched. When the warp field is removed there is only a little forward momentum.

In the 12th experiment the ship exploded. Using uncrewed ships was shown to be a good idea. There were warp fields, but not enough to get to light speed. The challenge was also to align the fields and have the two nacelles in balance.

The 23rd experiment reached warp 1.19, on September 1st 2018. It was the first to go beyond the speed of light. While we wanted a Solar System celebration, instead every delayed experiment was immediately begun. The unmanned probe experiments continued without interruption to try to get faster warp speeds.

The eight NX class starships constructed were fitted with warp coils with the successful formula. It was expected to be replaced in a few months, but we wanted these ships warp capable now.

On September 4th, We were in a conference room in the asteroid belt. Khan said to the Enterprise, "We are ready to watch your historic crewed flight."

Enterprise Captain Archer said, "Let's Rock and Roll", deliberately using Cochrane's canon speech pattern.

A rising than steady tone was heard. Engineering said, "Power levels at nominal maximum. Ions report all nominal."

Helm said, "Accelerating to warp factor 1.19. Warp 0.9, 0.96. 0.98". Then the communications cut off and the external views of the ship disappeared with colors."

Eight minutes later, "Enterprise here. All stop accomplished. Maximum speed was warp 1.19. Inertial dampers worked fine, sending video now."

We watched the internal view of their flight which now put them a few more light minutes away from us.

Khan said, "Excellent. Excellent. Everyone on the Enterprise will go down in history as the first United Solar System citizens to go faster than light."

Now that we were expecting the Vulcans to arrive, we turned on our greeting lights. Near one of our outer visible space stations a little beyond the orbit of Jupiter, we put a manor house space station, with its usual large solar concentrator array so that it had Earth-like solar conditions. It turned to simulate an Earth day and had magical artificial gravity. Of course it had no house elves, since the relationship between them and magical humans would be hard to explain.

Many fixed lights turned on and off to indicate motion towards the manor house. Closer to the house, there was a landing pad and a visible large air-lock, even though the rest of the dome was transparent.

A ship that resembled the one in the Star Trek movie First Contact approached and landed at the obvious spot marked for landing. Lights on the floor indicated the way to the air lock. One Vulcan stepped into the airlock. We detected two others on the ship. When the inner door opened, lights indicated that he should walk past the doorway, which he did.

Six humans lined up facing him, and one stood in front. The Vulcan checked the atmosphere and removed his helmet. He paused when his ears became visible. There was no visible reaction from the humans.

He then said in English, "Live long and prosper" and held up his hand in a Vulcan split fingered salute. Commander Fredrickson gave the same salute and said, "Live long and prosper. Welcome to our space station."

The Vulcan said, "I am Sorek. On behalf of Vulcan, we welcome your star system into the community of worlds that have faster than light travel ability."

Fredrickson answered, "And on behalf of the Solar System, we welcome your greetings. Please join us in the house and your crew members on your ship are welcome also."

Sorek sent a signal and the other two stepped down from the ship and came through the airlock.

Our signals intelligence noted that there was a radio transmission recording the entire interaction being sent to the ship, and that the ship was creating a subspace disturbance that must have been subspace radio transmitting to other Vulcans.

"I am Jorok". "I am Sypar". Our other six people introduced themselves also. Fredrickson indicated the way to the front entrance to the manor house and brought them to a dining room.

Fredrickson said, "It is customary among Humans to share a beverage in social occasions. We have a variety to choose from, please make a selection. The ones at this end of the table contain ethanol, traditional for greetings for many Humans, but not required. This is distilled water, this is mineral water, this is mineral water with carbon dioxide bubbles. These are sweetened, these are fruit juices, these are different types of tea, and this is coffee."

Sorek analyzed them with his hand-held device and selected one of the teas. The other two chose the exact same tea. The members of Starfleet chose hot beverages also, to be welcoming. One of the members pressed a button and all the other beverages disappeared from the table. Jorok's eyebrow went up briefly, but no other reaction was noted.

Sorek said, "Were you expecting our arrival?"

Fredrickson answered, "It would be logical to assume that you would wait only until we demonstrated interstellar travel ability to contact us, after you had traveled to our Solar System without initiating contact."

Sorek said, "A correct assumption. Since contact during interstellar travel would be inevitable, we initiated this contact first."

Sypar asked, "You do not seem surprised by our different appearance."

Petrovna answered, "Actually the close similarity is more difficult to understand. While it could be argued that the hominid overall shape is a design that would provide evolutionary advantages, there are too many other similarities to be explained by that hypothesis."

Sypar answered, "We have found many such similar species with minor visible differences, although usually more significant less visible differences. For instance our blood is based on copper and we detected that yours is based on iron. We do not have a settled explanation for this observation."

Fredrickson asked, "When did you have the opportunity to make these studies?"

Sorek answered, "We have periodically monitored your planet Earth, without interfering, waiting for your discovery of warp travel. In addition, there have been some observations on the ground, again being careful to not interfere with the development of your planet."

Fredickson said, "We would like to provide a meal. If you could specify your biological and cultural requirements for meal ingredients and preparation we can make preparations."

Sorek answered, "We thank you. Our diet is mostly what you would call vegan. There are perhaps some Earth ingredients not handled well by us. Our scanners would detect if any of those were to be present."

Fredrickson said, "Wonderful. We will prepare a wide variety of vegan dishes and hopefully at least some of them will suitable for you."

Sypar asked, "I was curious about why this location appears to use far more resources than needed."

Starfleet Lieutenant Negasi answered, "We are not Spartans. We believe that our habitations off of our planet Earth should incorporate luxuries. Neither are we hedonists. We strive for a balance and that the development of our species includes, in part, improvements in our material conditions."

Sypar asked, "Was that a plural usage of species?"

Sorek said, "We have several sentient species on Earth, and one found on a moon. While Humans are the major part of our population, our organization, Starfleet, reports to the United Earth and Solar System."

Sypar raised his eyebrow and said, "Fascinating."

After they had a meal, Fredrickson said, "We will have planetary leadership visiting here in 32 Earth time units called hours. You can have rooms assigned in this building. You can even setup a permanent consulate to the Solar System here."

Sorek understood that they weren't being invited to Earth, at least not immediately, and said, "We will remain, perhaps alternating between our ship and the rooms you provide."

For the meeting it was decided to have President Khan Singh, Director of Nations Joaquin, and Harry Potter. Khan said, "I want everyone in the meeting to give the impression of being ready to do impetuous actions. Let them continue their impression of the Solar System as being volatile, but with unknown depths to its abilities."

Harry Potter replied, "I assure you Khan that no offense was taken, even if offense was meant."

Khan smiled and said, "I am describing you as I describe myself. I can probably out impetuous anyone here." He then showed a video clip of him threatening Doctor McCoy in the Original Series episode, Space Seed.

Khan arrived while the rest of us watched a live stream of the meeting. He arrived in a sleek looking ship powered only by magic that arrived smoothly. It gave something away to demonstrate it, but at this point appearing to have unknown strengths was what we decided to project. We expected that their ship was analyzing and recording everything going on around it.

Khan gave the Vulcan salute and said, "I am President Singh of the United Earth and Solar System. Representatives of Vulcan, Sorek, Sypar, and Jorok. I welcome you to the Solar System. Let me introduce Director of Nations Joaquin, and Lord Potter. You have traveled to our Solar System to greet us. What message do you have for us?"