FicWad

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Star Trek. For that matter, I don't own much of anything except a lot of debt. If I could claim the two series and all their spin-offs, I would. So please don't sic the law demons on me ok?


Chapter 8: Cadet Potter


Harry looked around the bus one last time as they arrived at the gates of Starfleet Academy. There were roughly 60 cadets aboard in various states of excitement. Harry himself was excited but was thinking, "What have I gotten myself into?"

He suddenly remembered what he felt the first time he saw Hogwarts. He had the same trepidation and fears now as he'd had then, but the feelings were more refined and sedate. After all, having a madman try to kill you several times tends to dampen ones nervousness in a non lethal situation.

As soon as the bus stopped, a Senior Cadet came aboard and yelled out, "ALL RIGHT YOU POLLYWOGS! YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS TO GET OFF THIS BUS AND TWENTY ARE GONE! MOVE IT!"

In the mad scramble to get off the bus, Harry had only one thought. "Oh boy."

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After getting into a semblance of a formation and marching to a low, nondescript building, Harry found himself in a large room. In the room were several Andorians, a species that Harry had never seen before. The blue skinned aliens looked curiously at the new arrivals before going back to looking around the room taking in the various plaques and images that were on the walls. One of the officers in the room asked for everyone to find a seat. No sooner than everyone had been seated, the Cadet that herded Harry's group off the bus yelled out "AAAHHTEEENNN---HUT!"

Everyone in the room leapt to their feet as they had been instructed to by their chaperone before arriving at the Academy.

An elderly Oriental man, dressed in a command officers' uniform with gold braid that went up to his elbows, walked up to the podium at the front of the room.

"Be seated," the admiral commanded. He looked around the room of new cadets. To Harry, it seemed that his gaze met every cadets eyes and none at the same time. Harry thought to himself, If Dumbledore were still alive, he would have met his match with that look.

"Greeting cadets, I am Admiral Heihachiro Nogura. Commandant Weatherwax is not able to be here to greet you and asked me to step in. You are about to embark on a journey that for some will last a lifetime and for others will be far shorter. Regardless of how your journey turns out, you have taken the first steps on a path that many have taken before. Your predecessors set a high standard to meet and all of you have within you the ability to meet and exceed those standards.

"I want you to look around at your fellow cadets. Some of you will rise to command your own ships, be it a small patrol craft or one of the new battleships that are on the drawing board now. One of you may even rise to become Starfleet Chief of Operations. Others will become the leaders of other parts of Starfleet: Security, Logistics, Sciences, Medical, Engineering, Operations. All are needed and none can be ignored. Some of your class may wash out. This is a fact of life, and as regrettable as it is, it does happen. Remember it is the choices that you make that will determine what you will become.

"On the walls around you are images or notable figures and ships from the past. Einstein of Earth, Surak of Vulcan, Alrheem of Andor. Neil Armstrong, Jonathan Archer, Garth of Izar, T'Pol, Commodores Decker and Mendez, Fleet Captain Pike.

"All of these people are ones you should look up to and try to emulate. They all have many notable accomplishments, but most importantly, when the time came, each one did the right thing. For most it wasn't the easy thing to do, but it was the right thing to do. And that is why you're here. All of you are capable of knowing right from wrong. In addition to knowledge, Starfleet Academy is here to bring to the fore in each of you the knowledge and certainty that when your time comes, you will be able to do the right thing, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.

"I'm going to leave you now with this: You are taking your first steps into a wider galaxy. Study hard, do the right thing, and make the right choices. Someday you will be the ones that new members of the Federation will look up to as the pioneers and leaders to emulate. You are the next links in the Long Grey Line that stretches back to each of your worlds' traditions of explorers and defenders. Thank you."

"Group AAAHHTTEEENNN---HUT!" yelled out the cadet that brought them into the building. Admiral Nogura walked down the aisle. As he walked, he seemed to give various cadets a look of acknowledgement, almost as if he knew them. As he reached the row Harry was at, he looked straight into Harry's eyes and nodded before moving on. Harry thought to himself, I've passed some sort of test, but what? I guess I'll find out eventually.

As soon as the admiral had left the room, the cadet in charge for the moment herded the incoming cadets out of the building and onto in-processing for the actual start of the next four years of their lives.

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Within seventy two hours of arrival at Starfleet Academy, Harry was wondering if his sanity had gone on a Jamaican holiday and left the rest of him behind to suffer. In those three days he'd signed his name so many times that he had to wonder if he'd be able to write again. Medical had been fun, in that his medical record were exceedingly current and test results from a lot of what he had been through had been included. Fortunately, nothing relating to the testing regarding his magical abilities was included. It was so thorough that he was pulled aside and forced to wait an hour or so as his records were confirmed with Dr. Liffereth.

By the end of those first three days, Harry had been poked, prodded, clothed, fed, run ragged and mentally run into the ground. Every night he was so tired he just fell into bed, asleep before his head hit the pillow. Nothing in his research prior to going had prepared him for this.

Once the in-processing phase had been completed, the real summer training, commonly known as 'Beast Barracks', began. It had been explained to the new cadets that this phase was designed to train cadets in teamwork, discipline, obedience to orders and the hundreds of small details that are part of being a member of a military organization.

By the middle of the second week at the Academy, Harry had developed an active hatred of the word "drop." Anytime one of the senior cadets or an instructor said or yelled that word, you were supposed to do twenty pushups and then ask for permission to recover. It seemed to Harry that his squad or his platoon spent more time doing pushups than anything else.

Other days he would have liked nothing better than to introduce some of the instructors to the business end of his wand. It was a good thing that it was safely hidden in the case for the bat'le'th. Normally cadets were forbidden to have weapons, but due to the circumstances surrounding Harry's receipt of the Klingon sword, and the political considerations regarding it, Harry had been allowed to bring it with him. The blade was safely secured in the Academy armory for the time being, with his wand hidden inside the padding in the case.

In later years Harry would better understand that the days he was so ticked off at his instructors were the days that they were trying to prepare the cadets for times when, no matter what you did, you failed at a task. Dealing with failure, learning from failure, and recovering from failure were essential skills for any Starfleet officer.

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About halfway through the summer in beast barracks, Harry had an accident on the confidence course that made him thank God, Merlin and any other higher power that was listening that he was a wizard, not a muggle. He had just reached the top of the obstacle known as the skyscraper and was about to go over the log at the very top to land on a platform and go to the next part of the course when he lost his grip. Harry fell backwards and landed hard in the sandpit at the base of the structure twenty five feet below.

Cadet Johansson, who had entered the Academy to become a doctor and was acting as the platoon medic during this phase of training, ran up to Harry's groaning form, opening her first aid bag on the run.

"Don't move, Potter, let's see how badly you're hurt." She began running the medical tricorder over Harry and was surprised to find he was uninjured. Frowning, she took another scan and received the same results. By this time the duty medics had arrived and began the same checks. Johansson made sure that she had done the scans correctly and verified what she had done with the senior medic and they both agreed that Harry was unhurt.

"Is it okay for me to get up? All that fall did was ring my bell but good. I need to finish this off," stated Harry as he began to move to complete the course.

Lt. Sai'tek, the Andorian officer in charge of training for the day, stopped Harry before he could completely get off the ground.

"Cadet Potter, that's the right attitude to have. You don't need to finish this. You pass. Now go over to the others that have completed their runs and relax. Cadet Johansson, good work on getting to Potter as fast as you did."

"Yes sir, thank you sir," responded Harry and Johansson simultaneously. The two cadets moved off in different directions, Harry to where the cadets that had finished the course were at, and Johansson back to her post by the side of the tall tower. Had anyone been listening, they would have heard Johansson mumbling, "How did he manage to not get hurt? I wonder...."


Several days later, Harry's company went to the Phaser range. Harry had never touched a firearm in his life, and his shooting technique was initially unlike anything in the book, but he found that his last two years of target practice with his wand in the equipment barn had an unexpected benefit. Harry just didn't miss.

A few of the Range officers took him aside and gave Harry some tips and made corrections to his stance and grip. This only made him even more accurate. Seeing Harry's skill, they made a minor change in the qualification cycle that was perfectly within the boundaries of the regulations. By the end of the first day on the range, Harry had qualified and was acting as a peer instructor for his company. The Academy range master, a grizzled old retired Master Chief, commented on Harry's skills, comparing him to a young cadet named Chekov who had set the range scoring record roughly seven years earlier.

At the end of August, Beast Barracks completed its cycle and Harry's squad was assigned to their permanent cadet company. Harry felt proud of the squad he was a member of. Other squads had lost members during Beast Barracks, while his had jelled together almost immediately and hadn't lost a single member. Their squad leader, an Andorian named Cis'ka Rus'san, had gathered them all together and explained that even though everyone there was different, he felt they were a family for the next four years and beyond. No matter what, families stick together and help each other. And that was the secret of their success: everyone helped each other. The squads that had members wash out didn't have this dynamic and the weaker ones of those squads were left to sink or swim on their own.

It also helped that the only cadet in their beast barracks company that was going to the Academy to be a doctor, Johansson, was part of their squad. Johansson was an attractive young woman with blonde hair and slightly Oriental features, a legacy of her Chinese mother and her mostly Scandinavian father. She had always wanted to be a doctor. Her maternal grandfather, who had raised her in San Francisco's Chinatown district from when she was a little girl, had enrolled her in every available first aid course that a teenager could take in preparation for the Academy and med school. She had made it a point that every evening she went over every squad member as best she could to ensure that they were all healthy and stayed that way. In return the squad helped her through the parts of initial training that she had trouble with. All in all the entire squad looked at Beast Barracks with a philosophy first voiced by Benjamin Franklin: "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

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New cadets were not allowed to go into San Francisco unless they had earned a pass during the academic week. These rules relaxed in the cadets' second through fourth years but even then, if they did something that earned them more than 5 demerits during the week, they were restricted to campus. With the upper years, demerits generally were earned for not completing assignments on time or arguing with a professor, unless the cadet could prove the professor wrong. This occasionally happened and when it did, the cadet was automatically awarded a weekend pass. During a cadets' plebe year, demerits were earned for offences as minor as boots not polished to a mirror shine, missing a spot when shaving, or bed not made tightly enough. The whole purpose of the system was to teach cadets attention to detail in the first year, and carried over to the upper years to reinforce this.

Harry's first few weeks of actual classes were tough. He had never studied as hard as he did now, not even for his OWLs. In many of his classes, despite the excellent instructors, he felt that he was falling behind. He made appointments with each of his instructors for help and all were more than willing to assist. By mid October he felt that he was finally getting a handle on things and began to relax a bit. Harry had written when he could to both Nana and Kim, and their replies had helped ease his fears as well. Nana had regaled him with stories of Sam and Jim Kirk's exploits back in their cadet days. Kim had given him nothing but encouragement and had been sharing some of the gossip that she had been hearing in the sorority that she had pledged to. The more relaxed attitude enabled Harry to finally earn his first weekend pass the last weekend of October.

As it turned out, one of the other first year cadets in his company that earned a pass was in his squad. San Franciscan native Johansson offered to be Harry's tour guide. Harry had laughed at the young woman's imitation of a loud travel show host when she told him, but that evening as soon as they had signed out from the company on their passes, Harry had spoken up with a jovial, "Oh great and fearless leader, what sights will you expose this humble tourist to?"

Johansson smacked Harry on his shoulder and smirked at his turn of phrase. "Come on, Potter. I know a great little Mexican place by the cable car barns. It has some of the best Mexican food outside of Mexico itself."

"Okay, sounds good to me," replied Harry as they hailed a taxi to take them to the restaurant.

Harry found the food at 'El Toreador' extremely good though he would be the first to admit that his British/Midwestern palate wasn't prepared for the spicy nature of the food.
Johansson had played a bit of a joke on Harry. She had ordered an appetizer of fried jalapeño peppers and encouraged him to give them a try. What she neglected to tell him was that, having grown up in Chinatown, she was quite accustomed to very spicy food and a Jalapeño was nothing to her taste buds. Harry, on the other hand, had never had the vegetable before. Having finished off high school in the Midwest, he had grown used to the thought that if it's fried, it's tasty, so he took a big bite out of it.

The expression that crossed Harry's face when the spiciness hit had caused Johansson to burst out laughing. Once she had calmed down, Harry's admitted that they were very good, and thought She's got the pranking abilities of the twins, I'm gonna have to watch what I eat with her around.

Harry made it a point that for the remainder of the meal, he sampled small bites first before digging in.

Once dinner was over, they hopped on a cable car for a tour of the city. Harry's breath was taken away by the nighttime view of downtown San Francisco from the top of Nob Hill. At the end of the ride, the two of them agreed that she would be the tour guide on Saturday and Sunday as well.

Saturday morning the two of them had breakfast at the Academy mess hall and set out for the day. As soon as they had left the Academy grounds, Harry looked over at Johansson "You know, while we're out here on pass, feel free to call me Harry, I know it's not exactly by the regs and all that, but we're off duty so to speak. There's really no reason to just go by last names right now."

Johansson just looked at him oddly for a moment before responding. "Your name is Harry? Okay, Harry, call me Hui. Hui Johansson, world famous San Francisco tour guide at your service," she finished off with a cheery tour guide voice.

Harry laughed as they set off. "Lead on!"

The pair made their way to Pier 33 and took the tour ferry to Alcatraz Island. Harry found the tour informative and fun. He'd had no idea that the island had been a military fortress guarding San Francisco harbor before it became a prison. Through most of the tour, Harry was lively and asked many questions regarding the old prison, but when they stopped at Frank Morris' cell, one of the three men that had escaped but were never found, Harry became very quiet.

Staring at the cell and listening to how the men had escaped, Harry couldn't help but think about Sirius. How did he manage to keep his sanity in a cell like this one? I mean, I know he was an animagus, but twelve years in a cage. With Dememtors and Merlin knows what else on that island. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the guards beat the hell out of him when he first got there; I damn well know that most people thought he was guilty even though there never was a trial. I wonder if they ever caught Pettigrew and cleared his name.

Hui saw that he was lost in thought and asked, "Harry what's up? Something bothering you?"

Startled out of his musings, he replied "Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about my godfather. He was locked up for twelve years before he got out. Turns out he was innocent of the crime he was in jail for. I was just wondering how he kept sane in a cage like this one."

"He's out and okay now, right?" she asked.

"Well, I lost him a few years ago, but he was doing the best he could the last time I saw him alive."

"I'm sorry to hear that. But at least he was free."

"Yeah," said Harry. He looked at the cell one last time and shook his head, almost as if he was shaking off the depressing thoughts.

"Okay. Time to get back to the tour," said Harry while putting on a bright smile. He put Sirius behind him. It would do no good to dwell on the past right now.

On the ride back to the mainland, Harry was fascinated by all the life that seemed to be in the bay and surrounding area. Hui explained that the bay at one time had been fairly polluted but had been cleaned up and now just teemed with life. He had a grand time trying to spot different animals and to his pleasure, had spotted a shark fin breaking the surface and what he thought might have been a pod of dolphins racing one of the boats that were sailing along.

They decided to have lunch over at Pier 39 and spend the afternoon shopping for Winona, Peter and Kim as well as messing around the amusements on the pier. Initially, Harry hadn't thought it would be a good idea to get something for Kim, as she was his ex, even thought they were still writing and seemed to be on good terms.

During lunch, Hui put a stop to that line of thinking.

"Harry, look...yes, I know she's your ex, but everything you've said about her is telling me that one day she may want to get back together with you. It's the little things like this that show her that you still care. If she decides that she's going to try and patch things up and make a go of it with you, it's the little things that are going to win her over. Not going back to Iowa as the all-conquering hero."

"What makes you say that?" asked Harry. He was a bit confused by this line of reasoning.

"Who's the girl here? I may not have been going out with anyone when I went came to the Academy, but when I dated, that's the kind of stuff I liked from my boyfriends. Not the big school champion, but someone that did little things, and those meant more to me than winning a game. A lot of guys just don't think that way. You seem to want to, but are acting as thick as they come when it comes to doing something like this."

Harry realized the logic of her argument and acquiesced "Well, okay. But you're gonna help me pick something out for Kim."

"Deal," was Hui's cheery response. She liked shopping, and in this case she was helping a friend, which made it all the more fun.

Going through the shops on Pier 39 took most of the afternoon. But by the end of the day they had found gifts for Winona and Peter. In Peter's case they found a color changing T-shirt showing several Pirates drinking in a bar. Harry's reaction when he had seen it was, "Perfect!" as the shirt reminded him of his and Pete's little 'excursion' on K-7.
Winona was going to be receiving a blue Alpaca cardigan for those winter days and nights on the farm when it just didn't seem to get warm no matter what you did. It was Kim that they were having trouble with. None of the clothing stores or souvenir shops seemed to have anything that really appealed to Harry or Hui. Hui fully admitted that she was going off Harry's description of Kim, but she felt that she had a good idea of what Harry's ex girlfriend might like. After grabbing dinner at a restaurant that overlooked seals cavorting on some rocks by the pier, they resumed their search. About a half hour later they struck paydirt. At a small jewelry kiosk, Hui spotted a pair of small pearl earrings that were mounted in yellow gold. Harry took one look and agreed.

On their way back to the Academy for the evening, Hui told Harry that they were going to Chinatown in the morning and that her grandfather wanted anyone that got a pass with her to come by for breakfast. When Harry asked why, she explained that her grandfather liked meeting new people and with her at the Academy, he'd be able to meet her classmates.

The next morning Harry and Hui set off for Chinatown and breakfast. During the ride to the edge of the Chinatown district, Hui gave Harry a general history of the area and explained that even today, roughly 400 years after it had become the Chinese area of the city, the residents still tended to be insular in some ways and a bit suspicious of new people at first.

Walking through the area Harry was fascinated by the brightly colored displays in the various shop windows and the difference in building styles from the rest of the city.

Turning down a small side street Harry saw a sign hanging over a doorway and asked "The Jade Dragon. Is that your grandfathers' place?"

Hui hesitated for a moment before answering, "Yeah, that's his restaurant and bar. Like I said, he likes meeting new people and with the bar, he gets to do that all the time."

Entering the establishment, Hui ran behind the bar and hugged an elderly Oriental man who had been polishing a glass. Hui waved Harry over. As soon as he approached the old man stuck out his hand saying "Mickey Kwok. It's nice to meet you Harry."

Shaking Mickey's hand Harry responded. "It's nice to meet you to sir. Hui has been going on about coming here for breakfast since yesterday afternoon."

"Oh, has she now? Well, I'd better not disappoint. So what are you two going to have?"

Harry ordered two scrambled eggs some sausage and toast while Hui got some sliced fruit and a bowl of rice porridge with minced pork.

While waiting for breakfast, Hui told Harry about the bar and its history. As he listened to Hui, he couldn't help but compare the Jade Dragon with the Leaky Cauldron. Yes it was newer and brighter, but somehow Mickey reminded him of Tom the barkeep and the whole atmosphere seemed the same.

Once breakfast was served, the two began to eat and in between bites, Harry said "Mmmm. This is great. Sirius would have loved this. "

Hui stopped in mid bite. "What did you say?"

Harry looked at her and repeated "’Mmmm, this is great’?"

"No, after that."

"Oh, Sirius would have loved this."

Hui's eyes narrowed slightly. "Harry, who is Sirius?"

Harry took another bite of his breakfast before answering. "Sirius was my godfather. He turned into a bit of a foodie after getting out of prison. I told you about him doing time yesterday at Alcatraz."

An odd look crossed Hui's face. It was almost as if she was solving a riddle but didn't quite have the final piece.

"Harry, what year were you born?"

Harry looked at her oddly. He wasn't sure what that had to do with anything.

"You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Go ahead and try me," said Hui.

Harry shrugged and said, "I was born July 31, 1980. Why?"

Hui's eyes widened dramatically while her complexion quickly drained of color. The spoon slipped out of her fingers and clattered on the table they were at.

In a loud voice she exclaimed, "YOU'RE HIM!"