Luna, Lua, What?
Luna looks around the strange house that they've found themselves in. It doesn't really make sense, there's an invisible voice, a person without a voice who just watches her, creatures without a working mind that Harry joins with to make a whole person. Lots and lots of what she assumes are weapons based on the shape of some of them, and cuddly toys. Enough that she could cover her bed at home without leaving anywhere for her to sleep. The house is also currently floating over the moon, and her mother has stopped them from leaving so that she can look out the window. Oh, and there's the cat that is sometimes invisible. Then there's the thing at the back that whispers like the arch that mummy showed her when she took her to work once. Yawning, she makes her way back to the bedroom and looks at the pod. It's the only thing she hasn't looked at, so it's probably where Harry sleeps. Opening it up she gets in and settles down to sleep, as she does she feels something nudging her mind. Letting it in she can feel a touch of magic, opening her eyes she's surprised to find herself outside the pod floating above the ground. Ah well, she's still tired so she lies down on the floor and goes to sleep.
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The journey back to the Orokin system goes smoothly enough, apart from the delay in leaving the moon while Pandora looks at the stars for a few hours. Xeno tries to talk to the Man in the wall, which Pandora can't see. All six house elves cling onto Harry when they enter the void, and Luna has managed to go missing on a ship that doesn't have any where to get lost in. The man in the wall seems to think something is absolutely hilarious while they're looking for Luna. Oh, and Harry's Wisp has lain on the floor for some reason. They're almost at their exit point when Luna comes into the cockpit rubbing her eyes.
"Did you have a good sleep dear?" Pandora asks
"Mmmm, was comfy"
"Where did you sleep sweetie?"
"Black pod in Harry's bedroom."
Pandora was sure she looked in there, but maybe she just looked at it, "Well, we're almost there now. Do you want to watch?"
Luna nods mutely.
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A few months after they'd arrived, Luna approaches Aunt Natah on Lua.
"Aunt Natah."
"Yes Luna."
"Would you be able to help me?"
"What do you need?"
"Can I have a sleeping pod like Harry's?"
"Sure, there's plenty around here."
"Could you also help me to get a Wisp, as she was nice but I don't want to keep borrowing Harry's as it feels wrong somehow."
Natah frowns at Luna and disconnects her subframe so that she could sit down with her, "How do you know that?"
"I slept in Harry's bed on the way here, and she said hi. I've visited her when Harry's been here, but he's not here that often."
"I think we should talk to your parents about this."
Luna's eyes turn silver as she continues talking, "No, they won't take you up on your offer if we do. Well, Dad will, and then Mum will follow suit. Then she won't die because this will be home instead of home. Then I'll get a brother. It's already almost too late for Mum, but work was delayed because Harry came here instead of there as a baby."
"We should still tell your parents."
"We can tell them once Harry is at school. Night in day will give me balance, the queen of the fae will teach me to fly, and the fly stuck in amber will anchor me to now; but it all starts with the gateway to the stars." Luna's eyes return to her normal bluey silver look.
Natah shakes her head, "I can't promise anything as the blueprints can only be found in one place, and your parents can't afford the platinum to buy one outright. However, you can use the console to talk to my Tenno and see if any of them would be willing to get the blueprints for you. Are you certain that you've communicated with Harry's wisp before?"
Luna just nods.
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It's another couple of months later when Xeno is laying stuff out for the Quibbler that Natah casually says, "Your alignment is off."
Xeno narrows his eyes at the three frames in front of him before pulling out an old steel ruler and measuring the position of the picture on each page.
"You're right, how did you know?"
"I've got better senses than an organic."
"But you're working on your own research."
"Better senses."
"Must be nice."
"Nothing stopping you from having them too. One moment. Tenno, this is an Extermination mission, the Corpus were investigating this Orokin Tower when they tripped the security systems. They are now fully controlled by the AI managing the tower, they can't be allowed to leave. Wipe them all out."
"Why do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Order the deaths of so many people."
She sighs, "It was easier before. But even now I do it because I know that the alternative is worse. Same as we have to wipe out everyone involved on a ship that get's overrun with the infested. If one of those towers gets out of the void, the AI will sense the lack of Orokin signals and assume that the current inhabitants overthrew them. It will then go on a rampage destroying every colony and outpost until someone stops it. Which gets harder the longer it's left as it enthrals the people in those very settlements. The sentients left in this system don't have the firepower needed to destroy one of those towers, so we'd need to rely on the Tenno to go in and take control. Very few alive now have ever seen that happen before. Those that have are the ones that help pay for the Tenno attacking the tower."
Xeno lays a hand on her chassis, "I can't imagine having to make those choices. It was bad enough fighting in the last war, well, we called it a war. This puts it in a different perspective."
"Thank you, how have you been finding your time here?"
"A little frustrating actually, I would love to visit Demios and see the animals there. Same with the surface of Venus. I'd love to investigate the inside of one of those towers. However I'm the fragile one here. I'm about as strong as the people on earth, and that's it."
"My cousin and father developed a process to turn an organic into a Sentient. I've turned the theoretical process to give a Sentient a soul into an actuality. Combined you could get the resilience of the Sentient without losing yourself."
"So what would be involved in this?"
"Not a lot. You get into a pod, I give you an implant which contains a small antimatter power source and a nanite factory and then you go about your day. In a couple of months it will have taken over your immune system, so you won't need to worry about the infested. As in becoming infested. Over the next few years you'll grow your main chassis. That's really the key difference between my approach and my relatives approach. They sought to make organics into sentients, I'm not replacing you, I'm adding to you."
"That's sounds interesting, let's do it."
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"There you go, it's done."
"Oh, ok. It's just occurred to me that I should talk to Dora before I go ahead with this. She might veto it as me having a Xeno moment."
"But it's alre...ady done. Of course they can teleport."
A few minutes later Pandora comes back in with a sheepish looking Xenophilus.
"Xeno tells me that his thinking about taking you up on an offer to turn him into a Sentient."
Natah shakes her head, "It's actually already done and implanted. He agreed to it and then immediately said he needed to talk to you before he went ahead with it."
"Ok, can you take it out?"
"No?"
"Is that a question or a statement?"
"Yes."
"Ok, I'm a smart woman, why don't you try explaining it to me."
"At this stage it should be possible to reverse the changes by sending the right program to the nanite factory. That would then take a few days before the implants can be removed. However, I haven't written that program yet, and it will take a few days for me to write it. During which time the nanites are progressing and converting his spinal cord to use sentient technology. Once that's complete I'd need to clone him a new spinal cord which will take a week, during which time it's spreading out along his nerves and into his brain, and those nerves would also need to be replaced. Once it takes over his brain, which will take about a week, there's nothing I can do. We could also take him to Venus and give him a full body prosthetic. But then the only part of his body that will be organic will be his brain, it would also prevent the spread of the nanites into his brain, but is also irreversible. I could send out a mission to capture a fresh Grineer clone that hasn't been imprinted yet, and try to work out how the Orokin did their transfer thing. However, he would then be genetically programmed to follow the orders of the Grineer Queens, and also subject to the same frailties as all Grineer. There's also a high likelihood that he'd lose his magic.
"The process I designed was supposed to work to preserve the person undergoing transformation and be as light a touch as possible on their original body, while the original process focused on changing the body first and then modifying the brain. Which worked faster, but seems to have driven the recipients out of their minds as they couldn't cope with the new senses. Given that they tested on an Orokin first, and he remained lucid, I'm not surprised they made that mistake. The Orokin already had so many implants in their brains that they may as well already have Sentient senses."
"I see, and of course we can't use a stasis spell on him, as we don't know how it will interact with the reactor, and testing it, even if it proves to be safe, will take enough time to make the effort pointless." – Pandora turns around and slaps Xenophilus before pulling him into a hug – "Oh you silly man, why do you have to have your Xeno moments."
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Staring up at the ceiling in the bed they're using, Pandora says, "Xeno."
"Yes love?"
"We can't go home again, can we?"
"Not for a few years, no."
"It won't be home then, will it."
"No."
"I love you, you silly oaf. I just wish you'd talk to me before you do things like this. What am I going to do with you."
"Join me?"
"I probably should, shouldn't I."
"I'd like it if you did."
"Xeno."
"Yes dear?"
"You're not allowed to explore Demios until you can defend yourself."
"Yes dear."
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Dear Ginny,
I hope this letter finds you well. I've had a wonderful year since I last saw you. Yesterday I met my first Crumple Horned Snorkack, and it was glorious. I wasn't allowed to pet it, as I didn't have the right immunisations, but it was everything I thought it would be. Mum and Dad have been exploring now that they're sentient, so I've spent most of my time in Africa or on the Moon. Did you know it's not actually made out of cheese? I'm hoping that I'll be able to see a vampire cat soon. Mr Teasonai said that he'd let me see one next time I'm around when one is caught. I'm not allowed to go out to find one on my own yet.
I've also met a man called Onkko, he's funny like grandmother was. It's always fun trying to work out what order things have and are supposed to happen in when talking to him.
Sorry I've been gone so long, I hope you haven't been too bored.
Your friend
Luna.
"Mum!" Ginny runs down to the kitchen while continuing to call.
Molly wipes the flour off her hands when she hears the call, "What is it dear?"
"You know the Lovegood's went on holiday a few days ago. I just got a letter from Luna."
"Well? Can I read it?"
Ginny hands over the letter which Molly reads twice, "Oh dear. It looks like the Lovegood blessing has bred true."
"What do you mean Mum?"
"Oh, never mind. It's just an old story. Nothing to worry about."
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Master Teasonai looks at the 6 diminutive beings that Tenno Harry left with him a year ago, "Let me get this straight, you've found a magical grove that's perfect for your needs."
"We have."
"And the grove talks to you."
"It does, it can also give us work."
"And you want to live there."
6 heads bob.
"But you don't want to leave us without help."
"That is correct."
"So you've come to me for permission to do what?"
"We would like to go live there and make babies. We's would come back every day to help village. Grove would be home."
"So why are you asking me for permission?"
"Scary Master said to treat what you say as coming from him."
"And you think you can protect yourselves from the Grineer."
"Bad same same people no match for house elves."
"You know what? Fine, go make a home and have kids. Great Er, you shouldn't need permission to do that. Just promise me that you'll be careful and will come back here if you or your children are in danger."
"We's promise."
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"Director, we have received a shipment from Simaris, the expanded trunk worked almost as expected. The mice and rabbits arrived dead from void exposure. However, the data-slate arrived intact with all of its information. The seeds were also sterile when they arrived. However, he has requested that we purchase an owl for him, as well as a Harness with a voice activated expanded trunk. In return he has sent us 6 Sunpoint Mining Lasers, 3 scouting drones, a server with an AI, and a fusion power source that requires pure water to run. There is also a charging tree and 200 of his own design of scanners, a Helios companion drone and a mining MOA, and 5 Data-slates. He's also installed a loader drone in the trunk that has its own internal power source."
"Very good, how are the apprentices getting on with the new equipment?"
"Very well, it's drastically cut down on the number of errors in preparing materials. Which has saved us time in re-smelting the raw materials. We've also identified 2 tons of counterfeit coins. It seems like most of them have come from the Ministry in terms of wages to their workers."
"Next time it happens, send them back with a copy of the relevant part of the treaty that gives us the sovereign right to mint Galleons, Sickles, and knuts, along with the penalties that can be recovered from the sitting minister and treasurer if they fail to abide by the terms of the treaty."
"What about the workers?"
"What about them?"
"Won't they have problems?"
"They will, but that's not our fault. Scratch that, add a note on the account for the Tellers to inform them of why their wages were returned to the Ministry and what would have happened if we found out about it after it had been put in their accounts."
"Talks with village of Cetus have run into difficulties due to the difference in the flow of time. We estimate that if we discuss things for the normal length of time, then there will have been 8 different leaders on their side. We will need to find some way to send a delegation to them that can negotiate with full authority of the board."
"Draft a letter to Mr Potter and see if he could transport a few directors before School starts. Failing that, do it over the Christmas Holidays."
"Finally, all of our owls have been rotated through delivering post to the Orokin system. Since we completed this we've seen a 0% failure to deliver where the recipient was alive. By all reports the Black account manager was ecstatic and dancing in the halls when the heir confirmed they would be willing to take up the lordship if they could get past the problem of illegal imprisonment. We've also being able to finally serve account closure notices to the Lestranges. They have 30 days to appear in person to contest it before we can seize the accounts and do a full audit before putting them in storage for a legitimate heir."
"That's great news."
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"Croaker"
"Yes Shade?"
"How is there a Gringotts owl on your desk?"
"Honestly, I have no idea."
"I will call in Shotgun from warding."
"You do that."