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"We're currently eight m-Sorry, fourteen kilometres away from the asteroid and going around it. Shields are stable and power consumption is within acceptable parameters."
Yet another change they had to get used to. Knowing they were planning on recruiting magicals from all over the world, Parvati and Michael had insisted the crew start using the metric system. Harry would have preferred it the other way but he could see the logic since only a handful of countries used imperial units.
"Well done everyone, I think that's enough for today. Cho, get us back to the station, please."
"Aye aye, captain."
With the Room now connected to the station, and the fact that they couldn't open it from this side, the ship had lost its permanent link to Hogwarts. Gone was the door in what they had come to know as the entrance to the ship. On the occasional days when they decided not to get back to Neptune to dock the ship, one of the crew members that stayed behind on the station would go back to Hogwarts and open the Room to Requirement. It wasn't a smooth process but it would work until the engineers found another way to travel between Earth and the station.
Tonight, however, they'd stopped the ship next to one of the station's arms and stepped through the docking tube that had automatically extended at their approach. The crew dispersed, some going to their respective sections of the station to rest or work on their own projects, while a majority of them talked and laughed as they made their way to the communal deck. They spread out across the room in small groups, talking in hushed voices, reading books or just enjoying the view and each other's company.
"So, when do we get to see something new?"
As Harry picked up a couple of bottles from the fridge, turned his head to see Zacharias, leaning on the counter they had installed.
"Something new?"
"Don't get me wrong, this is amazing," He turned and raised a hand to show the view of Neptune that took a significant portion of the observation bay. "and I doubt I'll ever get bored of it. But we've gone around the system a few times already. Isn't it time we moved on?"
His wide gesture drew some attention and the conversations around them slowly died out as people started listening in. Harry gave a sight and stood up before closing the fridge behind him as Seamus joined the discussion.
"Wasn't that the point of this whole thing? To get out there and see stuff? To find the aliens who built this ship?"
"Yeah, we got an entire galaxy to explore. Why are we limiting ourselves to the solar system like that? It's not like the ship can't make the jump."
Harry sent a bottle in Ron's direction and opened his own, gulping before he answered.
"Believe me, I'd like nothing more than to tell you that we'll go tomorrow. But it's not that easy. We can't just up and leave in the middle of a war. The trip itself could take weeks for all we know."
"And what if something breaks down and we get stuck out there? We would be leaving everyone we know to Voldemort's mercy." Ron added, opening his own butterbeer.
Not that he had any...
That put a damper on everyone's enthusiasm for a minute, as they shivered at the thought. Not all of them had lost family during his first rise to power, but everyone had heard the tales and knew many who did. Things down there were already taking a dark turn, and it was only the beginning.
There is, however, something to be said for the stubbornness of teenagers, and pleading voices could soon be heard once more.
"Couldn't we go, just for a short while? Like, we take a weekend and go visit another system while being extra careful. And I'm sure we can do something about the travel time."
"Screw that! If we go, I want to stay at least a week to visit everything."
"You know how big a planet is, right? I mean, look out the window man, you'd barely see anything in that time."
The room quickly filled with a hubbub of voices as everyone wanted to share their opinions on the matter and couldn't wait for the others to finish.
In Harry's mind, a little voice kept needling him, and even he had to admit the prospect of just taking off and starting exploring the stars, of leaving this country that saw him as little more than an attention-seeking nutjob to fend for themselves. Even just for a weekend so he could rest without having to think of the war...
Harry shook his head to scatter these thoughts and took a big swing of his drink. Ron had been right, and he knew himself well enough to know he'd never be able to relax while thousands of innocents were suffering as he played around.
The sound of a book being closed forcefully was quickly followed by a shout of a voice he knew all too well.
"It wouldn't work anyway!"
The cacophony toned down at Hermione's exclamation, and every head turned to look at her. She looked supremely annoyed at all of them and clearly regretted that she hadn't gone to her office earlier.
"We ran some numbers and we found out that with our current rate of energy generation, we are unable to maintain a stable hyperspace jump long enough to go the whole way to another system."
Disappointed looks came upon most of the people present, but a few of the more technologically literate still held their hopes.
"Isn't the whole point of hyperspace the fact that you don't have to cross the whole distance but a fraction of it?"
"That's true, but the energy required to open a stable hyperspace window and then maintain our speed while also keeping the shield up to protect us is ridiculous. It doesn't even compare to what we use to move around the system." Lee followed up.
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