Categories > Books > Harry Potter > The Wizard on the Edge of Forever
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 16: Spy Hunter
Lt. Harry Potter, after three months spent working in Admiral Kirk's office, went to his operations course as expected. When he completed the course, he was the honor graduate. The six month course was mostly on dealing with the paperwork and bureaucracy inherent to an organization the size of Starfleet. Harry was surprised to learn that, while flying was also a large piece of the course, they actually didn't do very much. Most of the flying courses were spent studying the flight characteristics of various federation craft and developing the familiarity with the helm and navigation controls that would allow a helmsman or navigator to operate them blind if necessary.
For Harry, Thursdays were simulator time. While he proved that he was an excellent navigator, his talents as a helmsman truly stood out. Harry liked the speed and maneuverability of the Destroyers and Frigates, but the lack of staying power didn't sit too well with him. The sheer power and force behind the new Enterprise and Excelsior classes of heavy cruiser and battleship was intoxicating, but Harry personally felt like they were being forced to maneuver with one foot nailed to the floor. Putting it indelicately, Harry said that at times they moved like overstuffed pigs.
Harry fell in love with the Miranda class light cruisers. They weren't as fast as a destroyer or as powerful as a heavy cruiser, but he felt that they were an almost perfect blending of the best features of both types. Harry quickly proved his belief in the class and soon was more than able to handle any problem tossed his way when operating one.
When course completion rolled around and their orders were posted, Harry's classmates thought that he would get posted to a ship of the line such as the Enterprise or Hood, mainly because he was the best pilot in the class and was up for honor graduate. The assignment code posted on the preliminary orders confused everyone, though. Most of Harry's classmates had assignment codes such as SB-12 standing for Starbase Twelve or NCC-4324 standing for the U.S.S. Gettysburg. The code by Harry's name was SFC-CJC1. After some investigating they found out that the assignment code stood for Starfleet Command, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff personal pilot. Harry just shrugged off his classmates exclamations with a modest, "Well, somebody's got to fly the guy around."
The next year of Harry's life was spent doing two things, duty-wise. He flew Admiral Nogura where he needed to go and gained valuable flight experience in all manner of craft. The other thing that he did was work out contact and contingency protocols for the discovery of wizarding communities that may be out in the galaxy. During the course of his work regarding the wizarding world he was able to approach two other wizards within Starfleet. One was his old exozoology instructor, Lt. Emerson Sharpe, who had finished his stint as an instructor and was now working for the sciences division, classifying new and different species as they were discovered and reported. The other person was an engineering officer by the name of LtCdr. John Evans. Despite Harry's mother having had the same last name, Evans was no relation to Harry in any way. Cdr. Evans reminded Harry a bit of Mr. Weasley, with his enthusiasm for engineering. He had developed a bit of a reputation in the fleet as a warp drive engineering genius, or certifiable whacko, depending on who you spoke with or which report you read. Both officers were at least peripherally aware of the magical world and their own abilities, though neither had ever learned to use a wand. Both men agreed to help Harry find others like them within the fleet.
When he wasn't ferrying the head of Starfleet around, in the evenings and on the weekends, Harry did everything he could to make Hui's life easier. Med school was extremely demanding for her and, while she was doing well, the little things that Harry did such as cook dinner or give her a massage when she was stressed made her life much better. Roughly three months before the completion of her second year, they received confirmation of her acceptance to the medical school at the Vulcan Science Academy to complete her medical training. Within a week of this, Harry received new orders posting him to the Federation embassy on Vulcan as the head of transport operations.
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One morning as Harry was at his desk doing some minor paperwork in regards to the admiral's next trip, Yeoman Hogan, Nogura's main office administrator, came over to Harry's desk. "Lieutenant Potter, the admiral wants to see you in his office."
Harry nodded and took a moment to lock his computer. "Thanks Hogan, any idea what he needs to see me about?"
"No sir, but I do know Admiral Grevais is still in there and the old man said to come right in." said Hogan.
Harry shrugged "Oh well, I wonder what they want with me?" Harry said mostly to himself. He had been in private meetings with Admiral Nogura in the past and was used to this, usually in regards to travel arrangements or the plans regarding the protocols for contact with magical humans. Something seemed different about this time however.
Hogan went back to his desk just outside the Commander of Starfleet's inner offices. Harry knocked on the closed door and immediately heard "Enter" through the polished oak.
Harry entered the office and said "Lieutenant Potter reporting as ordered."
"At ease Mr. Potter. You know Adm. Grevais," said Nogura. Harry did know the admiral and disliked the man. While Admiral Grevais was always polite and courteous to anyone he spoke with, and had never once done anything to give Harry a reason to dislike him, something about the man reminded Harry of Lucius Malfoy. With Grevais being the head of intelligence, this may not have been a bad thing, but Harry still disliked the man.
"Admiral," Harry said politely.
Grevais got up from his seat and began pacing around the room. "Mr. Potter, I find myself in a bit of a quandary. One of my teams has run into a problem and you may be the only one that can resolve it. This is mainly due to your unique talents and certain artifacts that you have in your possession. I'll be honest, I don't like having to go outside my organization to solve a problem, but in this case discretion is of the utmost importance.
"There is information we need, information held in a location that is highly secure and heavily guarded. It has so far not been possible to penetrate this location without setting off the alarms and risking capture. I could tell the team currently assigned to this to back off of their investigations, but losing this information could cost innocents their lives. On the other hand, I could tell the team to go in with guns blazing, but at what cost? Worst case, we could end up in a war for no reason.
"I'd rather not go that route, either. You present me with a third option that I don't think anyone would expect. You have the ability to get in and out with a minimum of fuss, and most likely undetected."
Harry thought about what Grevais was saying. While he didn't trust the man any further than he could throw him, Harry also didn't have any reason not to agree. "I understand, sir, and I'm willing to help. I hadn't really thought about using my abilities for this sort of thing; I don't know much about how the intel game works, though I do know the value of good intelligence."
Grevais looked at Nogura who nodded slightly. "Mr. Potter, don't sell yourself short on knowledge of how the intelligence community works. You probably know it better than you think. You're not aware of this, but one part of my organization is very interested in you and your 'abilities'. Truth be told, I wish I could disband them but I can't. However, I can get them to back off. I'd rather have willing assistance from someone, even if it's just on occasion, than an agent who was coerced into this business. I've found that in the intelligence business, the most loyal people are the willing participants. If you do this for me, regardless of success or failure, intelligence won't try to recruit you or your wife, just ask for assistance on the few occasions when your talents might be the only option left aside from violence."
Harry nodded and said, "Thank you admiral. I appreciate that. Sir just out of curiosity, what if this group decides to disobey your orders?"
Admiral Grevais's eyes hardened. "Mr. Potter, I dislike violence but there are times when it is necessary. That being said, if anyone tries to coerce you into working for intelligence, you have my permission to do whatever you like to disabuse them of that notion--no restrictions and no recriminations on your part. I loathe agents of mine that go rogue. As far as I am concerned, if anyone in my organization tries it, they've gone rogue and you can do whatever you want to them; I'll back you up one hundred percent."
Admiral Nogura spoke up at this point. "Lieutenant, Admiral Grevais is your commander for this mission. Good luck."
Admiral Grevais and Harry left Nogura's office and went to a secure briefing room, where the details of the mission were explained. In a few days, the Romulan consulate was going to be holding an open house. Harry was to go in and get to the Romulan military attaché's office and make a copy of the information in the storage device on the attaché's computer. Once that was done, all Harry had to do was leave. There were no plans for heroics or dirty tricks.
When Harry had asked why he was the best solution to the job, Grevais let him know that is was due to the security of the office. It was obviously alarmed and monitored, but the nasty thing about it was that you couldn't use electronic or mechanical lock picks on any of the possible entry points. If you did, there was a high powered Tesla field generated over the entrance points that prevented entry. As far as the technical division could tell, using Harry's magic would short circuit the defensive mechanisms and allow entry. In addition, the invisibility cloak that Harry had would allow for almost undetectable access and egress from the consulate. During some testing on the cloak that Harry had allowed, the R&D and scientific branches had found that if there were floor pressure sensors or an audio sensor, Harry could be detected, but against almost all other known forms of detection in the electromagnetic spectrum, Harry was invisible.
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Two days later, Harry got his chance. The first evening open house had begun and Harry was able to get inside with no trouble. He donned his invisibility cloak and grabbed two of the Weasley twins' inventions, his wand, and then he simply followed one of the curious visitors through the doors and past the guards posted there.
Once inside, Harry moved as carefully as he could so he would make as little noise as possible. He moved along the walls doing his absolute best to not snag his invisibility cloak on any of the artwork or displays. He found his way to a stairwell and made his way up the stairs to the second floor. Before opening the door to the hallway, he pulled out one of the two gifts from the Weasleys that he had brought along. Harry had seen and used the extendable ears before and while he had one with him, he didn't want to use it as of yet. He needed to get a look at what might be in the hallway.
The item that Harry took out was called the 'Eye Spy' by the twins. It was a visual version of the extendable ear, something they had developed in the war years after Harry had disappeared. They had included several in his 'care package'.
He put the viewpiece to his eye and a small whitish tube extended out and went under the door. By twisting the tube to the right and left he was able to see that there were no guards around on this portion of the hallway. A slight flick and he was able to see that directly above the door. There was a security globe, but it didn't appear that the optics were aimed down at the door, but instead out along the hallway.
After he removed the eyepiece, the tube retracted itself and Harry pocketed the small magical artifact. Taking a good look at the doorframe, he noted that it appeared to be alarmed but nothing indicated that it was actually hooked up. The wires going to the sensors at the top and side frames appeared to be disconnected. Harry kept in mind that this was an older building that the Romulans had been renovating; it was possible that they just hadn't gotten around to hooking the sensors back up just yet. On the other hand, thinking back to what he had learned in the Academy and various security briefings he'd gone through, he decided that there was little chance of that possibility. The appearance of disabled security was likely a ruse designed to lull intruders into a false sense of security.
Pulling his wand from its ankle holster, Harry placed the tip close to the door's latching mechanism and whispered, "Alohamora". As he had suspected, there were other sensors in the door that would have set off alarms had he opened it. These shorted out with a flash of sparks at the influx of magic. Pushing down on the lever, he opened the door as slowly as he dared and slipped into the second floor hallway.
Moving a quietly as he could he reached the door leading to the outer office of the attaché's sanctum. Once again he cast, "Alohamora," and opened the door.
Closing the door behind him, he took stock of the room. It wasn't all that different from any number of executive assistants' offices that he'd seen over the past year as Admiral Nogura's pilot. Noting that there were two other doors in the office, one behind the assistant's desk and one to the side, Harry made a mental coin toss and went to the one behind the desk.
Whispering another unlocking charm, Harry once again blew out the alarm system on the door. This door also had sparks shoot out of the frame as well as several electrical arcs cross the doorframe.
Turning the doorknob, Harry entered the room beyond. As he guessed, it was the attachés office. Quickly looking around the office for the computer he was supposed to copy to contents of, he saw no sign of any computer at all.
Rapidly going over the bookcases and portraits on the walls, he found no hidden data terminals or electronic devices, but he did find an old fashioned wall safe. Deciding to look at that last, he went back over to the desk. Harry remembered from one of his security briefings that one thing most executives and senior government officials tend to forget to do is lock their desks when they leave for the day. Taking a chance, Harry lightly pulled on one of the drawers. Sure enough, it opened right up. Inside was a pad of paper and three data chips. Thinking quickly Harry tore off three sheets of paper and quickly transfigured them into duplicates of the data chips. He replaced the originals with his transfigured copies. The copies were outwardly identical but would not function. To someone not expecting magic, they should simply seem to have been corrupted or damaged, so no one should suspect theft. Pocketing the originals, he closed the drawer and completed his investigations of the desk.
Finding nothing else of interest in the desk, Harry went back to the wall safe. Noting that the safe itself looked strangely out of place in an office such as this, he wondered why the Romulans kept it instead of replacing it.
Deciding to risk it, he did one last unlocking charm on the safe. With a click, it opened ever so slightly and a beep could be heard in the office.
'Bloody Hell,' was all Harry thought when he heard the beep. He hurried out of the office and away from there as quickly as he could; that sound had undoubtedly been an alarm tripping. He was heading down the hallway when four centurions rushed towards him. They sprinted past him as he flattened himself in the doorway of another office, holding his breath. He observed them going onto the office he had just vacated, and proceeded to sneak down the remaining distance to the stairwell he had come in from.
Luckily, the stairwell on the first floor was partially hidden in an alcove, but Harry didn't take a chance on somebody being there anyway. He pulled out the 'Eye Spy' and took a look. There was no one in the alcove at the moment, but Harry didn't think it would be long before someone decided to check the stairs for an intruder. Extending out the 'Eye Spy,' he took a look around the corner. The straight shot that he had when he came in was gone. The front doors were closed and there were several guards milling about, giving the visitors evil looks.
Looking about quickly, Harry spotted what appeared to be the entrance to a lavatory across the hall and a few doors down from the alcove. Quickly pocketing the 'Eye Spy,' Harry slipped out the stairwell, closed the door as quietly as he could and shot across the hall. Entering the room, he found that it was what he'd thought and he saw his way out.
On the far wall was a fairly large window. It was solid transparent aluminum and, under normal circumstances, would not break even if something large and heavy was thrown at it. It was thus not considered an access point as far as security was concerned, but Harry had magic on his side, something that the Romulans hadn't come across before. He cast a 'Reducto' at the window, sending shards of clear metal flying outwards onto the grounds. Spinning around, Harry cast a second spell at the wall next to the doorframe. The resulting blast made it appear that a bomb had gone off in the room.
Diving out the window, Harry made his way to the fence line. He discovered that the fence was at a minimum electrified, so he cast one Reducto at the fence as well. The section he had aimed for blew apart in a shower of sparks and Harry walked calmly outside the fence line. Taking one last look at the consulate, Harry decided to leave a calling card of a sort. He cast an illusion that the twins had come up with and included the instructions for in the care package entrusted to Daniel. Apparently, sometime in the past, the twins had seen the movie Ghostbusters and developed an illusion of the poltergeist 'Slimer'. Harry's 'Slimer' headed for the shattered window and the Romulans who were already investigating the blasts.
The Romulans started yelling in fear at the illusion and fired several disruptors at the harmless image floating in their midst. Harry, not wanting to be around when they figured out it was harmless, disappeared into the night.
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Harry turned over the Data chips to Adm. Grevais and gave him a rundown of what he had done to get in and out. Harry had thought that Grevais would be angry about the less-than-stealthy exit from the consulate, but instead the Admiral laughed.
"Lieutenant, what you did explains some of the communications we've intercepted coming from the compound this evening. The Romulans are going nuts about hiring every paranormal investigator in the Bay Area. They think the place is haunted. I remember from your briefing that it is possible, but this is a classic. I don't think any real ghosts would mind at all. Hell, if any are around, they might even want to join in the fun. Anyway, thank you for getting these chips. We'll see what's on them and hopefully it was worth the effort. Dismissed."
As Harry got up from his chair and headed out of the room, Grevais called to him. "Lieutenant, if for some reason we need your services again, you'll be contacted by my office, and my office only, in regards to project 'Ghostbuster'."
"Yes sir, I understand," Harry replied with a smile. He left the debriefing room to go home and relax.
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During their last month on Earth, Harry and Hui spent most of their time packing up the apartment for the movers to take to Vulcan. With Harry being part of the Embassy staff, they would be assigned a large, two-bedroom apartment on the compound when they arrived. For Hui, this was convenient as the Vulcan Science Academy medical school was only a few blocks away; if she wanted to, she could walk there for her classes each day.
Fawkes decided not to come with them to Vulcan. Apparently the idea of other worlds appealed to him and a world full of Vulcans just excited the immortal bird of fire to no end, but Fawkes had managed to convey that Earth was his home and the source of his magic. The swan sized bird also didn’t want to take the chance of having a burning day aboard a fragile space ship.
There was no lack of Vulcans on Earth for Fawkes to play with, anyway. Usually, when Fawkes wasn't around the apartment or downstairs at Mickey's bar, he could be found over at the Vulcan consulate, usually having some sort of mental 'conversation' with one of the staff members. He found Vulcans, with their calm, logical, non-violent ways, quite refreshing after centuries among volatile wizards and witches.
Daniel had been offered the chance to go as well, but had decided to stay at Mickey's. Mickey had built Daniel a clear case so that he could talk to anyone in the bar and be protected from any of the more exuberant patrons, when they had a bit too much to drink.
On the Saturday evening before leaving, Harry and Hui were just finishing dinner at the bar when Admiral Kirk entered the bar with Admiral Grevais. Mickey had given Kirk a man's bracelet that allowed him to get around the notice-me-not charms on the bar. Since then, if Kirk needed a spot to conduct a private meeting with an individual that he knew wouldn't be monitored, he brought them down to the bar for a good meal and a bit of privacy.
"Evening Jim, need the room for a bit?" asked Mickey when Kirk walked in.
"Nope Mickey, just going to see the kid brother and your granddaughter off, and wish them well," responded Kirk as he headed towards the Potters.
Harry and Hui made room for both admirals and Harry put up a privacy charm to make sure that no one listened in. Kirk and Grevais made some small talk for a few minutes with the Potters before Grevais came to the real reason he had come with Kirk.
"Lieutenant, the real reason I came by tonight was to let you in a bit on what that job you pulled for me netted," began Grevais.
"Job? What job? Harry, just what have you been getting yourself into when I'm at school?" asked Hui. She was drumming her fingers on the tabletop in annoyance.
When Harry had gone on his mission into the Romulan consulate, Hui had been taking one of her finals for her summer semester at medical school. Harry hadn't mentioned this to her as he didn't want to blow her concentration on school.
Harry ran a hand through his messy black hair. "Hon, well you see, it's like this," he began.
Grevais held up a hand, stopping Harry. "Mr. Potter, you can let Mrs. Potter into the details of why you took the job after we're gone. She's a Starfleet officer, too, and has the proper clearances; she deserves to know why you did what you did. That being said, I wanted to let you know that one of the chips was blank, but with the other two you struck gold. While they didn't have what we sent you in there for, the information on them was much better than what we initially wanted, and has allowed my department to take care of several things that we had no idea about. Mrs. Potter, good luck with your studies. Mr. Potter, I was able to hold up my end of the bargain but remember what I said, it's open season, and no restrictions."
With this Grevais and Kirk took their leave.
"Harry what have you been doing when I've been in class? You're supposed to be flying Nogura around, not playing Spy," said an annoyed Hui.
"Hon, I know. But I did it because…" Harry explained out his reasoning behind his decision to do this and not letting Hui know. In the end they worked it out so that if something like this should happen again, she'd be brought in on it so he'd have some sort of magical backup and a doctor nearby to help if he got into something over his head.
Early Sunday morning the two of them said goodbye to Mickey and made their way to the shuttle that was to take them to spacedock. Fawkes accompanied Mikey to spacedock to say goodbye as well and sang a joyful song to wish them well on their journey to Vulcan.
The two of them watched Earth recede into a small bright point of light before they warped out of the Sol system for the three day trip to Vulcan. Harry played a recording of Fawkes singing a melancholy song when they went to warp that slowly changed to one of happiness as they were going to be on a new world with new adventures to await them.
Three days later, they arrived at Vulcan. Though they had visited the planet as cadets, this was a new world for them to call home, and while Hui would be in school and Harry would be working in a quiet job for the next two years, they both were sure that this was the start of a new set of adventures.
Chapter 16: Spy Hunter
Lt. Harry Potter, after three months spent working in Admiral Kirk's office, went to his operations course as expected. When he completed the course, he was the honor graduate. The six month course was mostly on dealing with the paperwork and bureaucracy inherent to an organization the size of Starfleet. Harry was surprised to learn that, while flying was also a large piece of the course, they actually didn't do very much. Most of the flying courses were spent studying the flight characteristics of various federation craft and developing the familiarity with the helm and navigation controls that would allow a helmsman or navigator to operate them blind if necessary.
For Harry, Thursdays were simulator time. While he proved that he was an excellent navigator, his talents as a helmsman truly stood out. Harry liked the speed and maneuverability of the Destroyers and Frigates, but the lack of staying power didn't sit too well with him. The sheer power and force behind the new Enterprise and Excelsior classes of heavy cruiser and battleship was intoxicating, but Harry personally felt like they were being forced to maneuver with one foot nailed to the floor. Putting it indelicately, Harry said that at times they moved like overstuffed pigs.
Harry fell in love with the Miranda class light cruisers. They weren't as fast as a destroyer or as powerful as a heavy cruiser, but he felt that they were an almost perfect blending of the best features of both types. Harry quickly proved his belief in the class and soon was more than able to handle any problem tossed his way when operating one.
When course completion rolled around and their orders were posted, Harry's classmates thought that he would get posted to a ship of the line such as the Enterprise or Hood, mainly because he was the best pilot in the class and was up for honor graduate. The assignment code posted on the preliminary orders confused everyone, though. Most of Harry's classmates had assignment codes such as SB-12 standing for Starbase Twelve or NCC-4324 standing for the U.S.S. Gettysburg. The code by Harry's name was SFC-CJC1. After some investigating they found out that the assignment code stood for Starfleet Command, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff personal pilot. Harry just shrugged off his classmates exclamations with a modest, "Well, somebody's got to fly the guy around."
The next year of Harry's life was spent doing two things, duty-wise. He flew Admiral Nogura where he needed to go and gained valuable flight experience in all manner of craft. The other thing that he did was work out contact and contingency protocols for the discovery of wizarding communities that may be out in the galaxy. During the course of his work regarding the wizarding world he was able to approach two other wizards within Starfleet. One was his old exozoology instructor, Lt. Emerson Sharpe, who had finished his stint as an instructor and was now working for the sciences division, classifying new and different species as they were discovered and reported. The other person was an engineering officer by the name of LtCdr. John Evans. Despite Harry's mother having had the same last name, Evans was no relation to Harry in any way. Cdr. Evans reminded Harry a bit of Mr. Weasley, with his enthusiasm for engineering. He had developed a bit of a reputation in the fleet as a warp drive engineering genius, or certifiable whacko, depending on who you spoke with or which report you read. Both officers were at least peripherally aware of the magical world and their own abilities, though neither had ever learned to use a wand. Both men agreed to help Harry find others like them within the fleet.
When he wasn't ferrying the head of Starfleet around, in the evenings and on the weekends, Harry did everything he could to make Hui's life easier. Med school was extremely demanding for her and, while she was doing well, the little things that Harry did such as cook dinner or give her a massage when she was stressed made her life much better. Roughly three months before the completion of her second year, they received confirmation of her acceptance to the medical school at the Vulcan Science Academy to complete her medical training. Within a week of this, Harry received new orders posting him to the Federation embassy on Vulcan as the head of transport operations.
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One morning as Harry was at his desk doing some minor paperwork in regards to the admiral's next trip, Yeoman Hogan, Nogura's main office administrator, came over to Harry's desk. "Lieutenant Potter, the admiral wants to see you in his office."
Harry nodded and took a moment to lock his computer. "Thanks Hogan, any idea what he needs to see me about?"
"No sir, but I do know Admiral Grevais is still in there and the old man said to come right in." said Hogan.
Harry shrugged "Oh well, I wonder what they want with me?" Harry said mostly to himself. He had been in private meetings with Admiral Nogura in the past and was used to this, usually in regards to travel arrangements or the plans regarding the protocols for contact with magical humans. Something seemed different about this time however.
Hogan went back to his desk just outside the Commander of Starfleet's inner offices. Harry knocked on the closed door and immediately heard "Enter" through the polished oak.
Harry entered the office and said "Lieutenant Potter reporting as ordered."
"At ease Mr. Potter. You know Adm. Grevais," said Nogura. Harry did know the admiral and disliked the man. While Admiral Grevais was always polite and courteous to anyone he spoke with, and had never once done anything to give Harry a reason to dislike him, something about the man reminded Harry of Lucius Malfoy. With Grevais being the head of intelligence, this may not have been a bad thing, but Harry still disliked the man.
"Admiral," Harry said politely.
Grevais got up from his seat and began pacing around the room. "Mr. Potter, I find myself in a bit of a quandary. One of my teams has run into a problem and you may be the only one that can resolve it. This is mainly due to your unique talents and certain artifacts that you have in your possession. I'll be honest, I don't like having to go outside my organization to solve a problem, but in this case discretion is of the utmost importance.
"There is information we need, information held in a location that is highly secure and heavily guarded. It has so far not been possible to penetrate this location without setting off the alarms and risking capture. I could tell the team currently assigned to this to back off of their investigations, but losing this information could cost innocents their lives. On the other hand, I could tell the team to go in with guns blazing, but at what cost? Worst case, we could end up in a war for no reason.
"I'd rather not go that route, either. You present me with a third option that I don't think anyone would expect. You have the ability to get in and out with a minimum of fuss, and most likely undetected."
Harry thought about what Grevais was saying. While he didn't trust the man any further than he could throw him, Harry also didn't have any reason not to agree. "I understand, sir, and I'm willing to help. I hadn't really thought about using my abilities for this sort of thing; I don't know much about how the intel game works, though I do know the value of good intelligence."
Grevais looked at Nogura who nodded slightly. "Mr. Potter, don't sell yourself short on knowledge of how the intelligence community works. You probably know it better than you think. You're not aware of this, but one part of my organization is very interested in you and your 'abilities'. Truth be told, I wish I could disband them but I can't. However, I can get them to back off. I'd rather have willing assistance from someone, even if it's just on occasion, than an agent who was coerced into this business. I've found that in the intelligence business, the most loyal people are the willing participants. If you do this for me, regardless of success or failure, intelligence won't try to recruit you or your wife, just ask for assistance on the few occasions when your talents might be the only option left aside from violence."
Harry nodded and said, "Thank you admiral. I appreciate that. Sir just out of curiosity, what if this group decides to disobey your orders?"
Admiral Grevais's eyes hardened. "Mr. Potter, I dislike violence but there are times when it is necessary. That being said, if anyone tries to coerce you into working for intelligence, you have my permission to do whatever you like to disabuse them of that notion--no restrictions and no recriminations on your part. I loathe agents of mine that go rogue. As far as I am concerned, if anyone in my organization tries it, they've gone rogue and you can do whatever you want to them; I'll back you up one hundred percent."
Admiral Nogura spoke up at this point. "Lieutenant, Admiral Grevais is your commander for this mission. Good luck."
Admiral Grevais and Harry left Nogura's office and went to a secure briefing room, where the details of the mission were explained. In a few days, the Romulan consulate was going to be holding an open house. Harry was to go in and get to the Romulan military attaché's office and make a copy of the information in the storage device on the attaché's computer. Once that was done, all Harry had to do was leave. There were no plans for heroics or dirty tricks.
When Harry had asked why he was the best solution to the job, Grevais let him know that is was due to the security of the office. It was obviously alarmed and monitored, but the nasty thing about it was that you couldn't use electronic or mechanical lock picks on any of the possible entry points. If you did, there was a high powered Tesla field generated over the entrance points that prevented entry. As far as the technical division could tell, using Harry's magic would short circuit the defensive mechanisms and allow entry. In addition, the invisibility cloak that Harry had would allow for almost undetectable access and egress from the consulate. During some testing on the cloak that Harry had allowed, the R&D and scientific branches had found that if there were floor pressure sensors or an audio sensor, Harry could be detected, but against almost all other known forms of detection in the electromagnetic spectrum, Harry was invisible.
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Two days later, Harry got his chance. The first evening open house had begun and Harry was able to get inside with no trouble. He donned his invisibility cloak and grabbed two of the Weasley twins' inventions, his wand, and then he simply followed one of the curious visitors through the doors and past the guards posted there.
Once inside, Harry moved as carefully as he could so he would make as little noise as possible. He moved along the walls doing his absolute best to not snag his invisibility cloak on any of the artwork or displays. He found his way to a stairwell and made his way up the stairs to the second floor. Before opening the door to the hallway, he pulled out one of the two gifts from the Weasleys that he had brought along. Harry had seen and used the extendable ears before and while he had one with him, he didn't want to use it as of yet. He needed to get a look at what might be in the hallway.
The item that Harry took out was called the 'Eye Spy' by the twins. It was a visual version of the extendable ear, something they had developed in the war years after Harry had disappeared. They had included several in his 'care package'.
He put the viewpiece to his eye and a small whitish tube extended out and went under the door. By twisting the tube to the right and left he was able to see that there were no guards around on this portion of the hallway. A slight flick and he was able to see that directly above the door. There was a security globe, but it didn't appear that the optics were aimed down at the door, but instead out along the hallway.
After he removed the eyepiece, the tube retracted itself and Harry pocketed the small magical artifact. Taking a good look at the doorframe, he noted that it appeared to be alarmed but nothing indicated that it was actually hooked up. The wires going to the sensors at the top and side frames appeared to be disconnected. Harry kept in mind that this was an older building that the Romulans had been renovating; it was possible that they just hadn't gotten around to hooking the sensors back up just yet. On the other hand, thinking back to what he had learned in the Academy and various security briefings he'd gone through, he decided that there was little chance of that possibility. The appearance of disabled security was likely a ruse designed to lull intruders into a false sense of security.
Pulling his wand from its ankle holster, Harry placed the tip close to the door's latching mechanism and whispered, "Alohamora". As he had suspected, there were other sensors in the door that would have set off alarms had he opened it. These shorted out with a flash of sparks at the influx of magic. Pushing down on the lever, he opened the door as slowly as he dared and slipped into the second floor hallway.
Moving a quietly as he could he reached the door leading to the outer office of the attaché's sanctum. Once again he cast, "Alohamora," and opened the door.
Closing the door behind him, he took stock of the room. It wasn't all that different from any number of executive assistants' offices that he'd seen over the past year as Admiral Nogura's pilot. Noting that there were two other doors in the office, one behind the assistant's desk and one to the side, Harry made a mental coin toss and went to the one behind the desk.
Whispering another unlocking charm, Harry once again blew out the alarm system on the door. This door also had sparks shoot out of the frame as well as several electrical arcs cross the doorframe.
Turning the doorknob, Harry entered the room beyond. As he guessed, it was the attachés office. Quickly looking around the office for the computer he was supposed to copy to contents of, he saw no sign of any computer at all.
Rapidly going over the bookcases and portraits on the walls, he found no hidden data terminals or electronic devices, but he did find an old fashioned wall safe. Deciding to look at that last, he went back over to the desk. Harry remembered from one of his security briefings that one thing most executives and senior government officials tend to forget to do is lock their desks when they leave for the day. Taking a chance, Harry lightly pulled on one of the drawers. Sure enough, it opened right up. Inside was a pad of paper and three data chips. Thinking quickly Harry tore off three sheets of paper and quickly transfigured them into duplicates of the data chips. He replaced the originals with his transfigured copies. The copies were outwardly identical but would not function. To someone not expecting magic, they should simply seem to have been corrupted or damaged, so no one should suspect theft. Pocketing the originals, he closed the drawer and completed his investigations of the desk.
Finding nothing else of interest in the desk, Harry went back to the wall safe. Noting that the safe itself looked strangely out of place in an office such as this, he wondered why the Romulans kept it instead of replacing it.
Deciding to risk it, he did one last unlocking charm on the safe. With a click, it opened ever so slightly and a beep could be heard in the office.
'Bloody Hell,' was all Harry thought when he heard the beep. He hurried out of the office and away from there as quickly as he could; that sound had undoubtedly been an alarm tripping. He was heading down the hallway when four centurions rushed towards him. They sprinted past him as he flattened himself in the doorway of another office, holding his breath. He observed them going onto the office he had just vacated, and proceeded to sneak down the remaining distance to the stairwell he had come in from.
Luckily, the stairwell on the first floor was partially hidden in an alcove, but Harry didn't take a chance on somebody being there anyway. He pulled out the 'Eye Spy' and took a look. There was no one in the alcove at the moment, but Harry didn't think it would be long before someone decided to check the stairs for an intruder. Extending out the 'Eye Spy,' he took a look around the corner. The straight shot that he had when he came in was gone. The front doors were closed and there were several guards milling about, giving the visitors evil looks.
Looking about quickly, Harry spotted what appeared to be the entrance to a lavatory across the hall and a few doors down from the alcove. Quickly pocketing the 'Eye Spy,' Harry slipped out the stairwell, closed the door as quietly as he could and shot across the hall. Entering the room, he found that it was what he'd thought and he saw his way out.
On the far wall was a fairly large window. It was solid transparent aluminum and, under normal circumstances, would not break even if something large and heavy was thrown at it. It was thus not considered an access point as far as security was concerned, but Harry had magic on his side, something that the Romulans hadn't come across before. He cast a 'Reducto' at the window, sending shards of clear metal flying outwards onto the grounds. Spinning around, Harry cast a second spell at the wall next to the doorframe. The resulting blast made it appear that a bomb had gone off in the room.
Diving out the window, Harry made his way to the fence line. He discovered that the fence was at a minimum electrified, so he cast one Reducto at the fence as well. The section he had aimed for blew apart in a shower of sparks and Harry walked calmly outside the fence line. Taking one last look at the consulate, Harry decided to leave a calling card of a sort. He cast an illusion that the twins had come up with and included the instructions for in the care package entrusted to Daniel. Apparently, sometime in the past, the twins had seen the movie Ghostbusters and developed an illusion of the poltergeist 'Slimer'. Harry's 'Slimer' headed for the shattered window and the Romulans who were already investigating the blasts.
The Romulans started yelling in fear at the illusion and fired several disruptors at the harmless image floating in their midst. Harry, not wanting to be around when they figured out it was harmless, disappeared into the night.
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Harry turned over the Data chips to Adm. Grevais and gave him a rundown of what he had done to get in and out. Harry had thought that Grevais would be angry about the less-than-stealthy exit from the consulate, but instead the Admiral laughed.
"Lieutenant, what you did explains some of the communications we've intercepted coming from the compound this evening. The Romulans are going nuts about hiring every paranormal investigator in the Bay Area. They think the place is haunted. I remember from your briefing that it is possible, but this is a classic. I don't think any real ghosts would mind at all. Hell, if any are around, they might even want to join in the fun. Anyway, thank you for getting these chips. We'll see what's on them and hopefully it was worth the effort. Dismissed."
As Harry got up from his chair and headed out of the room, Grevais called to him. "Lieutenant, if for some reason we need your services again, you'll be contacted by my office, and my office only, in regards to project 'Ghostbuster'."
"Yes sir, I understand," Harry replied with a smile. He left the debriefing room to go home and relax.
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During their last month on Earth, Harry and Hui spent most of their time packing up the apartment for the movers to take to Vulcan. With Harry being part of the Embassy staff, they would be assigned a large, two-bedroom apartment on the compound when they arrived. For Hui, this was convenient as the Vulcan Science Academy medical school was only a few blocks away; if she wanted to, she could walk there for her classes each day.
Fawkes decided not to come with them to Vulcan. Apparently the idea of other worlds appealed to him and a world full of Vulcans just excited the immortal bird of fire to no end, but Fawkes had managed to convey that Earth was his home and the source of his magic. The swan sized bird also didn’t want to take the chance of having a burning day aboard a fragile space ship.
There was no lack of Vulcans on Earth for Fawkes to play with, anyway. Usually, when Fawkes wasn't around the apartment or downstairs at Mickey's bar, he could be found over at the Vulcan consulate, usually having some sort of mental 'conversation' with one of the staff members. He found Vulcans, with their calm, logical, non-violent ways, quite refreshing after centuries among volatile wizards and witches.
Daniel had been offered the chance to go as well, but had decided to stay at Mickey's. Mickey had built Daniel a clear case so that he could talk to anyone in the bar and be protected from any of the more exuberant patrons, when they had a bit too much to drink.
On the Saturday evening before leaving, Harry and Hui were just finishing dinner at the bar when Admiral Kirk entered the bar with Admiral Grevais. Mickey had given Kirk a man's bracelet that allowed him to get around the notice-me-not charms on the bar. Since then, if Kirk needed a spot to conduct a private meeting with an individual that he knew wouldn't be monitored, he brought them down to the bar for a good meal and a bit of privacy.
"Evening Jim, need the room for a bit?" asked Mickey when Kirk walked in.
"Nope Mickey, just going to see the kid brother and your granddaughter off, and wish them well," responded Kirk as he headed towards the Potters.
Harry and Hui made room for both admirals and Harry put up a privacy charm to make sure that no one listened in. Kirk and Grevais made some small talk for a few minutes with the Potters before Grevais came to the real reason he had come with Kirk.
"Lieutenant, the real reason I came by tonight was to let you in a bit on what that job you pulled for me netted," began Grevais.
"Job? What job? Harry, just what have you been getting yourself into when I'm at school?" asked Hui. She was drumming her fingers on the tabletop in annoyance.
When Harry had gone on his mission into the Romulan consulate, Hui had been taking one of her finals for her summer semester at medical school. Harry hadn't mentioned this to her as he didn't want to blow her concentration on school.
Harry ran a hand through his messy black hair. "Hon, well you see, it's like this," he began.
Grevais held up a hand, stopping Harry. "Mr. Potter, you can let Mrs. Potter into the details of why you took the job after we're gone. She's a Starfleet officer, too, and has the proper clearances; she deserves to know why you did what you did. That being said, I wanted to let you know that one of the chips was blank, but with the other two you struck gold. While they didn't have what we sent you in there for, the information on them was much better than what we initially wanted, and has allowed my department to take care of several things that we had no idea about. Mrs. Potter, good luck with your studies. Mr. Potter, I was able to hold up my end of the bargain but remember what I said, it's open season, and no restrictions."
With this Grevais and Kirk took their leave.
"Harry what have you been doing when I've been in class? You're supposed to be flying Nogura around, not playing Spy," said an annoyed Hui.
"Hon, I know. But I did it because…" Harry explained out his reasoning behind his decision to do this and not letting Hui know. In the end they worked it out so that if something like this should happen again, she'd be brought in on it so he'd have some sort of magical backup and a doctor nearby to help if he got into something over his head.
Early Sunday morning the two of them said goodbye to Mickey and made their way to the shuttle that was to take them to spacedock. Fawkes accompanied Mikey to spacedock to say goodbye as well and sang a joyful song to wish them well on their journey to Vulcan.
The two of them watched Earth recede into a small bright point of light before they warped out of the Sol system for the three day trip to Vulcan. Harry played a recording of Fawkes singing a melancholy song when they went to warp that slowly changed to one of happiness as they were going to be on a new world with new adventures to await them.
Three days later, they arrived at Vulcan. Though they had visited the planet as cadets, this was a new world for them to call home, and while Hui would be in school and Harry would be working in a quiet job for the next two years, they both were sure that this was the start of a new set of adventures.
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