Chapter 7: The Status of Earth

After Harry had finished his lunch, Pansy returned with the laptop he had bought a few days ago. It was quite clumpy and very slow. But it was enough to interface with the sensor array. He had spent the whole day yesterday studying the level of technology behind this laptop and creating an optimized OS for it, pushing the laptop to its limits. Also, he created software able to interpret the data the sensor array would collect.

It wasn't a supercomputer or something more modern, like a crystal-based computer. But it would do its job. This was miles better than spending a few hours creating a rudimentary computer, which he would only use once or twice. After all, once he had access to a stargate, he would be able to access ancient technology that would allow him to create far more advanced machines with much less work.

"So, what does it do?" Pansy asked as she watched him connect different cables from the Sensor Array to the laptop and boot it up.

"You will see," Harry said as he typed something into the laptop. And the screen began to show an exact 3D model of the planet, while a loading bar was filling up on the bottom of the screen.

Soon the loading bar completely filled up, and multiple different-colored dots appeared all over the model of Earth. There were more than Harry had expected. There shouldn't actually be any besides the two he could see in Antarctica.

"Okay, there are different dots spread over the different continents," Pansy asked, not really impressed by what she was seeing. It looked a bit underwhelming in comparison to how excited Harry had been about this whole thing.

"Oh, my dear Pansy," Harry said, making the girl blush slightly upon hearing the word dear. "You have no idea what you are actually seeing here. Some of these dots represent the legacy of our ancient ancestors, who were far more advanced and powerful than our current people or the Muggles today. They once ruled over the stars we can see in the sky before they left for another place a thousand years ago," Harry explained in a short summary.

"The stars?" Pansy asked, now completely confused. Of course, they had studied astrology at Hogwarts. But traveling to the stars was impossible. There was no air there to breathe.

"Indeed, a lot was forgotten by our people over time. But I will bring it back." Harry nodded while clicking on one of the dots in Antarctica, reading the data he had gathered about them. "See that place. This is an outpost left behind by our ancestors. The dot next to it is one of their gates, allowing people to travel to the stars."

"I don't believe you. You are making this up," Pansy said stubbornly. There was no way any of this was true. He was just making fun of her by showing her some dots on a Muggle thing.

"I know that you don't believe me for now. But you will see," Harry said with a smirk, pleased with himself that his sensor was working as intended.

"Even if this were true, why would you tell me about it?" Pansy pointed it out. She wasn't naive. There was no way Harry was truly trusting her right now, not with their history.

"I am not. But who would believe you? You aren't even believing me right now. And I am the only person who is helping you right now. So would you really throw it away by betraying me? You experienced how your former friends are," Harry pointed out, while adding in his head that it was also a test to see whether he could trust her a bit.

Even if she were to betray him right now, they wouldn't know what they were looking for and would only have rough locations on a global map. Right now, she was no threat to him, but he needed to know if he could trust her if he truly wanted to employ her in the future.

Pansy nodded in understanding. He had a point. There was actually no one in her old friend circle who she could trust. Many of her old friends were in Azkaban or dead; the few Slytherins still free and alive had either thrown her aside or she wasn't really close to them.

"Okay, I am glad your project is working as you intended. Although I am still not sure what it really is, But my shift starts soon. I need to go to work. Don't forget to drink like this morning," she reminded him as she left the yard.

Harry just nodded as he focused on the data the sensor array was gathering. There were multiple shocking anomalies that were outside of his expectations. The amount of dots is only the most superficial one. It only meant that there were more opportunities for him to study or even get some useful tools early on.

The dots in Antarctica were inside his expectations, like he thought the outpost had run out of power but was still safely there. The ancients built their structures to last. In the meantime, the Stargate left behind by the Ancients, originally a few hundred meters away from the outpost, had moved multiple kilometers thanks to the glacial shift. It was intact but deactivated, just like the Ancients had left it behind. Its clavis still had power, but according to these readings, barely enough for around four dials.

These were the expected things; the unexpected ones were, for example, another Stargate on the planet. One is located somewhere in Colorado, inside the Rocky Mountains. Even more unexpected was that it was active and in use; he recorded a few minutes ago an outgoing wormhole somewhere. Hopefully, it was just the United States having discovered a stargate and figured out how to use it; he didn't like the other possibilities of extraterrestrial life establishing a base on Earth. Members of the great alliance wouldn't do this; they have agreed to let the human race develop by themselves. Other civilizations could spell trouble for him. So the best-case scenario was that it was the U.S.

A more pressing question was: how did the Gate get here? It wasn't left behind by the Ancients. They knew that Earth or Terra had a stargate at the Outpost Terra Atlantus and knew how to activate it.

So a few things must have happened in the last ten thousand years on Earth. The few other dots confirming it, for example, were two dots again in the U.S., or rather, close by, just in the ocean in front of the state of New Jersey.

Based on these readings, he could confirm the presence of a small amount of Naquadah and an advanced energy source. Both dots were the same and right above each other.

There was one other dot in the U.S. only, indicating the presence of some smaller devices using Naquadah. But nothing major. Just north of the city of Seattle.

Then there is another dot in Russia; this he could confirm was another Clavis to control the Gate, most likely from the second Stargate in the U.S., and it had enough power to last easily another million years.

But the most interesting dot was in Egypt; these were energy readings and amounts of Naquadah big enough to indicate an actual spaceship or some bigger device of advanced technology. Not as advanced as anything of the ancients, but advanced enough to be of hyperspace quality.

Whatever it was, it could become immensely useful. If it were a ship, it would give him more freedom to travel than he had expected to get so soon. Hopefully, this was an actual ship; it would make getting to the outpost far easier, as he could install the energy drill directly on it. He could probably reuse some of the ship's systems and their Naquadah to build a ring transporter to access the outpost more easily.

He also should get the two small devices in front of the U.S. Coast, at least to study them and later use their Naquadah to save some of the ship's systems in order to build the ring transporter. They weren't enough for a full transporter, but they would help to not sacrifice any critical systems.

Checking the dot above Seattle could also be worthwhile. But it is quite close to a populated area, so it's possible that they aren't left behind but actually used by people.

Well, if it was a ship, Whatever it was, it seemed he would go to Egypt and the U.S. soon. It was probably also better to take a short look at the second Stargate in Colorado, although he had to be careful; if it was an advanced alien race, they could have technology to detect life signs and cloaked objects. After all, the disillusionment charm was only another version of a cloak.

If they were humans, he needed to take a look at what they were doing and maybe get some of their intelligence. If this was a full-blown military operation, it is possible that they have gathered intel about the state of the galaxy—maybe even a few pieces of useful technology.

Seeing how they were using their gate without a clavis would also be interesting. He doesn't believe they were dialing manually. But he was sure that if they were humans, they were using the gate not for long yet. The technological level of Earth and the amount of advanced readings with his sensor array were too low.

He wasn't even sure if there were more sources of alien technology on the planet. The energy readings and the amount of Naquadah in the two devices were pretty much the lowest his sensor could detect. Smaller weapons could also be on Earth, but they weren't picked up by his sensors. They simply weren't good enough for this.

Of course, he knew of another location right here in Britain that was hidden from such rudimentary sensors, but it was of no interest to him since he already knew what there was. After all, the Avalon Vault hidden below Glastonbury Tor was hidden by Merlin, who left him all his knowledge.

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