Errands
"Captain, I have determined that the operational effectiveness of the planet's detection grid should allow you to land your orbiter near the original beacon with a 0.003% chance of detection. They also have a primitive communications network in orbit around the planet and one manned habitat. Though I question the use of the term habitat, it fits. I am currently analysing their communications in order to build an analysis of their data."
"Thank you Cy, I'm heading back in. There should be enough of a hollow to hide the Railjack in now if you need to."
"Understood."
Half an hour later Harry was following a flight plan over the rotational axis closest to the beacon before dipping down to nearly sea level to avoid the almost ubiquitous EM emissions that were sent out in pulses around the edges of the land masses. Then it was a short flight over land to a stone building next to a small commune of some description. After he exited the lander with his Kavat and cargo Cy directed the lander to a clearing in the local forest they'd spotted on the way in. Now on foot he deployed his K-Drive and made his way to the large stone building.
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Minerva is sat doing some paperwork using the small Orokin computer that Natah gave her before she left. On the corner of the desk is an Orokin desk ornament that raises a set of concentric rings into the air, spins them around only for them to scrunch up again. Notably, there is nothing keeping those rings attached to the base, she'd checked with a sheet of parchment. Privately she would admit that the computer made the calculations that were needed for the advanced classes and her own research much easier to perform, and changed a solid afternoons work into a matter of minutes. Even better, everyone else thought it was a new paperweight. She was just lowering her quill to make a minor adjustment to a question when a phoenix Patronus came through the wall.
"Minerva dear, you are needed by the main gate."
With a sigh she puts the quill back in the ink pot and places some blotting paper on the ink spot that fell from the quill. Making her way down to the entrance hall she is surprised to see a pitch black warframe with glowing dots of red lights. Hanging at it's waist is a golden disk with a black handle, she can also see a couple of firearms now she knows what they are. He is standing on a K-drive, and again she curses the linguistic program for providing the name of things but no knowledge of what they actually are. Sat on the front of the board is the strangest cat she's ever seen, it has large golden ears, a gold stripe down it's back, and golden socks. It's tail splits out into 5 tails, and the rest of it's fur is emerald green. Standing behind him is Hagrid with his crossbow pointed at him.
"Harry what are you doing here?"
The cat jumps off the board and turns invisible, a moment later she can feel it moving around her legs. She realises that it distracted her from what Harry was saying.
"Sorry, your kavat distracted me."
"That's ok, I was doing a test flight with my Railjack. So I decided to run a couple more errands while I was at it. Would you be able to show me how to get to Diagon Alley? And could I prevail on you to act as translator again?"
Minerva looks at Hagrid, "Don't worry Hagrid, this is Harry Potter. I'm surprised the headmaster isn't here."
"'e was, but 'e left when 'arry didn't answer him."
"I see." – She focuses back on Harry who's waiting patiently – "We can take the Floo from the Three Broomsticks in the local village. Also, what sort of kavat is this?"
"A Smeeta Kavat, I bred her myself."
"I see, and you'll be bringing it to school?"
"I see. Let me inform people that I'll be out for the afternoon, then we can go."
After 5 minutes of learning how to pronounce Diagon Alley without saying Diagonally they make it to the alleyway and then the bank. Once they arrived Harry tried to walk straight in but was stopped. With a sigh, Minerva translated, "You must leave your weapon with us at the door."
Harry laughs before saying, "You take, you keep. I see manager." With that he walks into the bank and up to a free teller materialising his key as he does so, "Want Manager".
The goblin takes the key looks at it the sneers, "What are you trying to do, giving me a fake key." Which Minerva repeats with a sigh before turning to the Teller.
"We would like to see the Potter Account Manager. Mr Potter was wearing a different suit of armour last time, but had a split sword."
The sneer disappears from the face of the goblin almost faster than you could blink, "Naplock, takes these two to see the Potter Account Manager."
Once they get to the Account Manager, they are once again led to the arena. Harry's shoulders slump and he turns to Minerva, "Can you ask them to clear the arena so that I can demonstrate my weapon before the idiot enters the arena?"
When the Account Manager starts barking in his own language Harry shakes his head, "Another language to learn, English is hard enough."
Once the arena is clear, Harry jumps down and starts to throw the weapon around. Initially it's just thrown and returned, but then he starts charging it and leaving scoured floor in circles where the charge explodes on contact. After 5 minutes of this he returns to the Account manager, who is wearing a frown.
Meanwhile, Minerva is explaining a very brief history of Warframes, and what they were designed for. As well as what they still do. To her complete lack of surprise, the guard failed to take the field after that display.
Looking at the account manager Harry says, "Will that stop the idiots from trying to take my weapons from me? It was entertaining the first time, but they really aren't the calibre of opponents I'm used to."
"Mr Pot, Mr Potter," – The account manager licks their lips – "Mr Potter. While I understand where you're coming from, ours is a martial culture. Taking up a challenge in the face of certain death is one thing, however when death is less certain."
"I see, lets us see to our business and then I will introduce you to something."
Once they arrive back at the Account Managers office, Harry materialises a small cube of gold, around 30cm to the side on the floor.
"While I was bored I did a little mining on Earth in the Orokin system and gathered a small amount of Auron to convert into your resource tokens. Would you be able to turn these into tokens for 5% of the volume as a fee?"
"I will get our assayers," – The account manager licks his lips again – "assayers to value that and transfer the equivalent amount of Galleons to your vault."
"Yeah, sure whatever. Anyway, the next bit is a solar powered scanner, and a Corpus Data-Slate. This canister contains nanites that will teach you to speak the Orokin language and read the Corpus language. If you send Minerva a message once you've used the nanites I'll come back and teach you how to use those. Oh, and the canister, just place it on its side against your wrist and press the glowing button. It will do the rest, you may want to be lying down too."
Once she's finished translating Minerva adds, "Mr Potter's key also seems to have lost it's magic, maybe you could provide some other identification and keep the key here for him."
"We will come up with some way of doing that. For the moment, take this Seal. It will be accepted in the Alley in lieu of money while we work out how our largest depositor can access his account without a key."
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To Minerva's bemusement, Harry's next stop was the menagerie, where he asked for a breeding pair of every animal they have in stock, to be delivered to the school as soon as possible. Minerva managed to persuade him to instead buy a massively expanded trunk, and a special belt to keep it on that way the creatures could be transported easily and safely, and the shop keeper wouldn't need to worry about transporting so many animals. His next stop was to the House Elf relocation agency, where he picked out 6 house elves, 3 of each gender. Finally, he ordered two subscriptions to the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler. The Quibbler was, interesting.
"Ah, Mr Potter, I see your mother is not with you. That's a shame, I was hoping to interview her about her opinion on the impact of rabid quiffles on the stability of society."
"Ah, what?"
"Oh, manners. Sorry, I'm Xenophilius Lovegood, owner, editor, and primary reporter for the Quibbler. Would you mind terribly if we, my family and I, accompanied you back through the veil when you next go?"
"Pardon?"
"I'll throw in a lifetime subscription to the Quibbler for free. You never know, we may even find a crumple horned snorkack while we're there."
"What's one of those?"
"They're purple quadrupeds that has a horn on its nose that look like someone's squashed it. Their ears are on top of their head with purple tentacle things coming out of them, claws on their feet and a flat tail"
Harry goes strangely quiet for a minute, "Sure, you can come and visit, I think I'll be leaving in a day or so, so meet me at the school."
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Natah was confused, all of her diagnostics came back normal except for a couple of precepts having their importance changed. But everything is different. She's been having trouble concentrating on tasks that would have been trivial, if lengthy to complete. She's been unhappy with her accommodation; despite the fact they provide everything she needs. She's found herself calling Maroo and Varzia more often, even going so far as to visit them on occasion. The worst part is randomly remembering her childhood, such as when she chased Erra through the canyons, and he got stuck between two boulders because he wasn't paying enough attention to where he was going. Granted, it was funny, however she hasn't even thought about it since they came to this system. Or when her mother showed her how to guide the evolution of bacteria so that they formed into a multicellular organism. At one point she raids Harry's stash of decorations in his orbiter and goes crazy just to get rid of the unrelenting white of her quarters.
The weirdest part is wanting to eat and drink. Her humanoid chassis was designed to convert food and drink to fuel, and to be able to differentiate tastes and textures in order to blend in. However, it's never something she's needed to do. It's just infuriating, and Harry's been gone for forever. She snatches a plushie up from a chair and squeezes it in her arms. Wait, she has owls, they deliver messages. Swiftly she heads over to the Owl enclosure where A and B were resting. No, that's no good, can't really identify them like that.
"You, the pure white one, you're Tau. And you can be Hed. You must be awfully bored in here, how about once this message is delivered I take you to Earth so you can stretch your wings?"
Both owls bob their head.
"Look at me, talking to you as though you understand me. Right, the message. Which one of you wants it?" – Hed lifts her leg – "Right it's going to my child Harry."
Once Hed flies off, she turns to Tau, right I'm going to study some books if you want to watch me.