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The Ark and the Desert	By : Dreamwind Category: Harry Potter Crossovers > Slash - Male/Male Views: 4005 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own any version of the Harry Potter series or the Star Trek series. I make no profit from this work of fiction.

Chapter List
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Chapter 1

Unknown Area of Space, The Ark; 2254

He wasn’t sure how long he had been sleeping, only that it had been several lifetimes. Longer than he had wanted but not quite as long as he had thought. Of course he wasn’t sure why he was suddenly starting to awaken. He could feel the millions of lives around him and almost all of them were sleeping. He could feel one on the same deck as him, three rows south and twenty pods to the left, that was starting to awaken and another one four floors below that was already entirely awake. Suddenly the glass door of his pod hissed and lifted up and a blast of cool air hit his flesh causing goosebumps to rise and a shiver to work its was down his spine. He wanted to step out but his legs felt strangely heavy, almost like they were made of lead and yet his head felt light as air. Wicked strange feeling, really. Blinking he tried to focus on the blue figure hovering in front of him. About the size of a Barbie and a shade of blue like tropical water with a shock of golden hair told Harry everything he needed to know. It was one of the American’s Fairy Post Dolls. He had been amazed the first time he had seen them. They were what Hermione called ball joint dolls and they had been designed to look like fairies in a rainbow of colors, although the ones they had used during the war had been charmed to be camo colored to make it harder to see. Like the golden snitch they moved at amazing speeds and were incredibly agile, almost impossible to see let alone catch.

“Master Harry. Master Harry! Up! Up,” it called out in a sing-song voice. “The Ark is needing Master Harry.”

“Ugh…I’m up!” Reaching out Harry gripped the edges of the pod and pulled himself out. His legs trembled and for a moment he though he would collapse to the metal floor but the little Fairy pressed a small vial into his hand. The familiar scent of Pepper Up hit his nose and Harry had to fight the urge to grab the little doll and kiss it. With a grateful sigh he tossed the contents of the vile back and then handed the empty tube back to the Fairy who darted to the end of the row and waited for him. Grumbling about impatient Fairies, Harry stumbled and groaned to the end of the row and followed the Fairy through the corridors leading out of the Cryo-bay and into the corridors leading to the Ark’s bridge.

The inside of the Ark was as beautiful as could be imagined. It wasn’t at all like what he had thought a spaceship would be. It looked more like the inside of an exotic house formed from a mixture of Egyptian, Japanese and Indian design. The doorways were curved and rounded but almost looked as if they were made of wood and paper like a traditional Japanese door. Support beams looked like Egyptian pillars and intricate designs and bright fabrics were all over the public rooms. Over all it was a rather exotic miss mash of styles that somehow formed a beautiful homey feel. The corridors and public rooms were filled with tapestries and the portraits Harry was used to seeing at Hogwarts along with many new ones from around the globe. He had become rather fond of the painted Goddess down the corridor leading to the music chamber. There were Muses, Nymphs and even some exotic Asian goddess painted by Zeng Hao. Hermione was especially fond of those and so was Harry, not that he would ever tell her that. Three hours of her explaining the importance of each one was more than enough.

There was also a large garden and an orchard that took up four levels and was as large as London. Thank Merlin for Wizard space! If they didn’t have that they never would have been able to essentially create a forest of trees both muggle and magical, that people were generously calling an orchard. They never would have been able to get as many people or animals onboard either and the muggle scientists had said they didn’t have the technology to build and launch a ship large enough to hold everything needed without Wizard Space. So in the end being able to work together with muggles was the only thing that saved the Wizards from extinction. It was quite fitting, Harry thought.

“About time you got here, sleepy head.”

Harry blinked as his eyes stopped looking inward and took it the sight of the near empty Bridge before him. Kat Everson was standing only a few feet away smiling at him, a pair of Fairies circling above her. Kat was three years younger than him but was also a halfblood. She was also the person responsible for having created the Fairies that had become so critically important to their people. “Morning, Kat. Any idea what woke us up?”

Kat smiled and waved him towards the science station off to the right of the Captain’s chair. He moved up beside her and looked down at the monitor, trying to piece together what was showing on the screen.

“The ship woke us and Dr. Cole to check out the planet we are currently orbiting. According to the ships scanners it has detected three potential planets in this solar system that we could colonize. The one below us has the strongest magical core and the closest magical resonance to Earth’s own. The down side is that it is a bit closer to the sun and it is more of a desert world than the other two which are further out.” Kat brushed a lock of honey blond hair behind her ear and glanced up at him. “I think we should plan to go down to the planet and scout it out. The ships magic scanners have located a massive underground cave system. Or at least it looks to be a cave system. I can’t be positive since what is showing is an echo of the magic under the planets surface.”

“And the other two planets?”

“They were already checked out by another trio who were awoken a few weeks ago,” Dr. Cole’s deep voice echoed across the Bridge from where he was leaving the entryway. “This may be the best magical option but if the surface or this cave system doesn’t provide good shelter from the sun then we can scratch it out. Professor Snape’s team left a detailed opinion on the other two before they went back into cryo sleep.”

Harry frowned. “Why didn’t they check out this one as well?”

“It was nearly a weeks journey from the last planet to this one. None of them were willing to stay awake for that length of time with only the other two for companionship.”

Harry snorted and shook his head. He may be getting along better with Professor Snape but he knew just how much the man’s personality could rub a person against the grain. “Alright then. So we head down to check it out and then return and awaken the Council to determine our choice?”

“Pretty much,” Dr. Cole ran his hand back through his dark auburn hair. “If none of these pan out we’ll have to look further a field.”

“Joy,” mumbled Kat. Harry could quite agree with that sentiment.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Harry tried to hold back yet another cruse as his skin felt like it was drying out and shrinking around him. The sun was relentless in its heat. They had waited for mid-day on the planets surface to pass before they took one of the small taxis down from the Ark to the planet. They had hoped that this would make it easier for them, and if the heat now was anything to go by they had made the right choice. The oxygen levels weren’t the same as on Earth and all of them had to stop on several occasions to catch their breaths before continuing on. Besides the dreadful heat and low oxygen content the planet was magnificent. The gold sands and red cliffs of the desert where amazing against the backdrop of the tropical blue sky. They had taken samples of over a dozen different desert plants so far to test later on. They had also spotted a large heard off in the distance of some type of desert herbivore. Harry assumed it was this planets version of a camel since it was almost the same size. Kat had been intrigued enough to send two of her Fairies off to follow the herd for a closer look, their eyes working like a video camera, recording everything they saw. Harry could hardly wait to get back onboard to look over the film.

Taking a long drink of water from his canteen, Harry looked over the other two members of his team. Both were red faced, their skin already sun burnt from the three hours on the planet. It would probably be wise if they made their way towards the cliffs and looked for an entrance to the caves the ship had sensed. At least out of the sun they could prevent themselves from ending up burnt liked overcooked meatloaf.

Kat and Dr. Cole nodded their agreement to Harry’s suggestion quickly enough and the three headed off at a brisk pace to the nearest cliffs. The two Fairies would be okay up here scouting the animal life out further for a few hours. They still had two other Fairies with them that could record the tunnels and caves they were hoping to find.

“Let’s hurry this up boys. I don’t like looking like a lobster,” whined Kat.

“I think our resident lobster back might argue that being an insult.” Dr. Cole shot Harry an amused grin.

For a moment Harry was unsure what the two Americans were talking about but then a vague memory from primary school popped into his head. Lobster Back was a term the Americans coined during the war for independence for British soldiers, since they worse bright red jackets. “You yanks always go for the low blow?”

“Ooh! Diss!” Kat burst out laughing and lightly shoved at Harry’s shoulder. “We don’t mean nothin’ by it, Harry.”

“Shh!” Dr. Cole waved his hand at the both of them. Harry and Kat quieted instantly on the alert for whatever sound the older man had heard.

It was very faint. Harry wasn’t sure how the other man had even heard it over the sound of the wind, but he could hear it now as well. A light tinkling sound of water moving over rocks. Glancing at each other the three sped up even more and made a mad dash for the closest set of rock. The boulders were as large as a giant, rising out of the depths of the sand and Harry had to wonder how much of the rocks were hidden by the ever shifting sands.

There were a lot of boulders, more than he could see at first, forming a winding maze of rocks that rose higher and higher out of the sands until Harry could only feel the solid touch of rock beneath his feet. Small shrubs and desert trees were becoming more numerous as they moved deeper into the rocks and the closer to the sound of water that they heard. The trees here were healthier looking as well. There branches heavy with fruit and flowers and without pausing Harry and the others grabbed samples of the fruits, leaves and flowers from the trees. Gasping and nearly tripping over their own feet the three came to an abrupt halt at the edge of a rocky cliff. The rock maze they had been running through was one large cliff face rising up out of the desert forming a massive bowl around a spring. The spring was nearly as large as the Black Lake back by Hogwarts but was filled with a clear blue-green water that appeared to be bubbling up from beneath the surface, so perhaps it was more lake than spring.

“Fabulous,” Dr. Cole cried out before finding a small animal trail down the side of the cliff to the small sandy beach around the lake. “It’s a lake formed from an underground aquifer. And if it is this large during this incredible heat, imagine what it must be like when it rains!”

Across from them Harry could see the rocks rising up out of the lake and along the cliff on the opposite side where no real beach was, were stained and covered in trees and vine-like plants. Perhaps a sign that there was some kind of yearly rain that would flood the bowl around the spring. If that was true this was making for a very promising start.

Harry glanced up as the two Fairies, one orange and black like a Monarch Butterfly and the other iridescent white with black hair, went zipping off across the lake. The wind, which had grown fierce outside the rock maze just before they entered was now nothing more than a light breeze causing flower blossoms to drift down into the spring and send a riot of heavenly scents into the air around them. Beneath his feet Harry could feel the planet sing with life and magic. While they would still had not located the caves and would still have to speak with the Council, Harry knew they would find no better planet to call home. He could feel it in his bones…in his soul, whispering words of welcome. It was like the first time he saw Hogwarts from the little boat on the Black Lake. Something powerful and wild was welcoming him Home after having been away for far too long.

“This is it,” whispered Harry.

“Pardon? Did you say something, Harry?” Kat gave him a curious look.

Harry smiled and looked back out over the lake to where the Fairies were now focused on a small section of the cliff face near the waterline. “Did they spot something?”

Kat looked over at the Fairies before pulling out a hand mirror. It worked a lot like the two-way mirror that Sirius had given him years ago, but these were tuned so that they would show you what the Fairies were seeing. It didn’t take long to find the “channel” with the monarch Fairy and the white Fairy on it. Harry and Dr. Cole hovered around Kat to look down at the mirror as they played back the last few minutes until they saw what had captured the attention of the Fairies. A dark black mouth in the rocks. An entrance to a cave!

Kat quickly instructed the Fairies to go inside, their eyes better able to see in the low light of the cave entrance. It was wide, perhaps two hundred feet wide give or take and one side had and uneven shelf of rock heading deeper into the ground and on the opposite side was a channel where the water from the lake flowed back into the earth forming small series of waterfalls. Harry was sure that with a little magic they could turn the uneven slop into a set of stairs and they could perhaps set some kind of magical barrier in place or build a flood wall to prevent the entrance from flooding if the spring rose beyond it’s normal height.

“We need to go in there.” Harry looked up at the others, who couldn’t seem to drag their eyes from the mirror.

“Agreed,” Dr. Cole murmured distractedly.

“Alright then.” Harry clapped his hands together, the noise snapping the other two back into the present. “Lets get over there and take a look at what we’ve got here.”

Kat frowned. “My Fairies aren’t strong enough to get us over the water and we don’t have the time to build a raft of some kind.”

“Are we wizards or not?” Harry smiled and pulled out his wand. It wasn’t his first wand, his beautiful Holly and Phoenix feather wand that Ollivander had given him; no this was the Elder Wand. Now it was the only wand that would work for him other than Draco’s old wand that is. The two American’s didn’t show any sign of recognizing what he held in his hand and Harry couldn’t help but be thankful for that. The only people left who knew what he carried with him were Professors McGonagall and Snape along with Ron and Hermione. He rather wanted it to stay that way.

Raising his wand and giving it a flowing swish with a sharp snap of the wrist at the end of the movement, Harry called out “Aer Pontus!” The air in front of them shimmered and seemed to solidify before them into an almost glass like appearance, rising from the ground at their feet and arching over the water to the other side at the mouth of the cave.

“Awesome,” Kat tossed Harry a grin and took a tentative step onto the near invisible bridge. “It feels solid enough.”

“It is. Trust me.” Harry tossed her a wink before pushing Kat fully onto the air bridge. She gave a little yelp and turned to glare at him while Dr. Cole stood to the side laughing.

“Asshat.” Kat muttered playfully before walking across the bridge to the other shore.

The two followed after her, carefully taking note of the water and the landscape around them. There in the center of the lake the view was strikingly beautiful. Of course it was even better to step out of the heat and into the cool, misty dark of the cave. Even just a dozen feet in the temperature difference was drastically noticeable. What was unbearably hot without a cooling charm became tolerably warm, like summer in Surrey without one. The ground was slick from the mist rising up off the series of small waterfalls and moss had grown over some of the cave walls. Casting a quick Lumos, Harry lead the other two deeper into the cave, one Fairy ahead of him and the other trailing behind them.

The deeper they went the cooler it became and the darker it got. The walls around them were still wide but Harry spotted several narrower corridors branching off the one they were on. Stalactites and Stalagmites filled a circular cavern off a short corridor to his right and Harry could spot a stream of water moving through the room and out deeper into the cave through a small opening in the far cave wall. The ceiling of the room was high and they noted a large group of bat-like animals clinging to the ceiling. Harry paused and cancelled his Lumos.

“I’m going to step in and see if I can get a better look at those things.”

The other two cancelled their Lumos spells as well and for a moment the world was nothing but darkness. Then it was as if the entire world was awash in light. The moss that they had first seen was more prevalent and Harry realized there was small white glowing blossoms sprinkled in the glowing blue moss. It made the walls and look like a field of stars.

“Wow.” Harry wasn’t sure who spoke or if they had all voice the same opinion at once, but it was true. The room was amazingly exotic.

As he glanced upwards he noted that the bat like creatures, which had at first appeared to be a solid black now had softly glowing purple rosettes on the fur of the bodies. At first he wasn’t sure that the wings would glow. The outer edges that he could see folded about their bodies appeared to be a dull black and leathery just like a bats from Earth. Then one near Dr. Cole’s right let out a large yawn, its amber eyes glowing in the dark and it’s wings stretching out shocking them with the electric glow of an “eye” print in the middle of the wings. The center dot was as amber as the bats eyes surrounded by a bright crimson ring followed by a glowing violet. It had to be one of the most amazing animals he had ever seen. And certainly, it was the most beautiful they had seen on the planet so far.

“Man, I wish we could catch one to bring back to the Ark for study.” Kat and Dr. Cole shared a look before turning to Harry.

Shaking his head Harry glanced once more at the now sleeping bat before turning to leave the small side cavern. “Maybe latter. We still need to go deeper in.”

“Psh! You’re no fun, Harry.” Kat bounded after him, dancing around him and into the lead. “But I suppose you’re right. I don’t think I’d wanna carry it deeper in and then all the way back up and out to the taxi.”

They went further down the main tunnel, their way lighted by the glowing moss and it’s flowers. They must have been walking for another ten minutes before the tunnel opened out onto a cliff looking down into the largest cavern Harry had ever seen. It was massive! The bottom of the cavern had to be at least seven hundred feet below them and the ceiling of the cavern was easily the same distance up from where they stood. It looked to be miles across, further than they could see without a greater amount of light, but assuredly large enough to fit all of Hogwarts and a city three times the size of Hogsmead. If they could find more caverns, or create more safely, this would be perfect. He could once more hear the sound of water from somewhere below him. Maybe a river running through the cavern or an underground spring?

“We should try to find a way down, right?” Kat looked over to Harry, excitement and a little bit of worry in her eyes.

“Why don’t we send the Fairies down for now. If it looks promising we can head back and wake up another party or two to explore further.”

Kat nodded and directed the two Fairies to circle the rim of the cavern looking for any way down and any other tunnels. The three stood waiting in the dark as the Fairies sped off into the darkness. Time seemed to be standing still. Without some other force like sunlight to gage the passage of time Harry couldn’t tell how long they stood there. It could have been all of five minutes or it could have been an hour. He didn’t know but he wished he did, because his skin was tingling and his hands and feet where aching with the need to climb down to the floor, to search out each and every mystery in that cavern. To trace the sound of the water and the throbbing pulse of the wild magic that circled them.

Finally, when it seemed like he could take the waiting no longer the Fairies returned. Kat checked with the other two and then directed them back into the cavern to scout out the ground level of the great cavern while they looked over the recording the Fairies eyes had made on her mirror.

Five more tunnels were found around the rim along with a large outcropping of rock that could be reshaped into a series of steps or an incline to reach the bottom. It wasn’t ideal as the outcropping was still fairly steep, but it was workable and since many people would be able to Apparate out, it shouldn’t be too much of a concern right away. By the time they finished watching and discussing what they had seen the Fairies had still not return. Worried Kat flipped the mirrors setting to pick up a live feed from the Fairies eyes. The night vision from their eyes showed they were entering a smaller tunnel at the bottom of the cavern. It went on for two minutes before it opened up into another cavern where they could see a large underground lake filled nearly the entire cavern before the water seemed to exit out through a small opening.

“Well,” Harry smiled at the other two. “Why don’t we call them back and head up to the Ark to review this. Then we can get a team of zoologists, botanists and their magical equivalents set up along with Snape’s team to come back down and do a more through look through.”

Pleased with what they had found and the potential to start building their new home within the week, the trio made quick time back to their taxi.

Tbc…

*~*~*~*~*~*

AN:
1. Aer Pontus – Latin for “air bridge”
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The Ark and the Desert