6
Ma'Krat Zahn Has Disappeared
(A Fan Fiction Story based on the T.V. series "Babylon 5" created by J. Michael Straczynski)
Chapter One: Ma'Krat Zahn
Ba'Kira brought her compact Medical Transport Ship into the docking bay of the Narn Military Base in Quadrant 37, referred to as "Base 37" officially; and unofficially, it was nicknamed by the soldiers who ran it as Ma'Krat Zahn, or "Monster Mollusk" because it looked like one of the multi-armed mollusks which inhabited Narn's oceans. It was a huge Orbital Base which circled the planetary outpost below it. It was located near the edge of Centauri space, and its function was to protect the people of Narn from the aggression of their hated enemies from Centauri Prime.
Ba'Kira never got involved with military and political games. Her only interest was in delivering medical supplies, services, and equipment to the Narn colonies, and making sure that their populations were as healthy as possible. She used Ma'Krat Zahn as her base of operations because it was located in a central area with strategic access to most of the colony worlds.
As she powered down the small vessel, she gave orders to her crew members to initiate docking procedures. After they were securely docked, the ship was transitioned into "slumber-dock" mode. It needed to be ready to leave at a moment's notice if there was an attack or other emergency on one of the colony worlds. If there was no emergency, and everything was "business as usual", then Ba'Kira and her crew would leave on their next scheduled visit in about five days. In the mean time, the crew would receive a well-earned rest and a chance to see their families.
Although Ma'Krat Zahn was a military base, many of the soldiers and service providers brought their families there so that they would not have to be separated from them for such a long period of time. Most of the base was used for military purposes, but there was a small section of it which was used to house the civilian populations who came to it. Although the civilian population occupied a small section in comparison to the number of military personnel, it was nonetheless large enough to house at least a couple of thousand family members and others.
Ba'Kira and her crew were amongst the "others". She was not one of the Military Medics, but rather she worked with them in a cooperative manner in order to keep the colonies properly supplied and serviced.
"Bring out the young girl!" she ordered one of her medics, "Take her to the Station's Medical Facility."
The medics obeyed immediately, transferring a little four-year-old pouchling onto a child's stretcher and carrying her out of the vessel. The child's pouch-father, an anxious young soldier who looked to Ba'Kira as though he would rather not be serving in the Narn Military, hurried along behind. The child had fallen down a make-shift hydra-well which had been installed by the colonists there. Life was especially difficult on that particular world, as the air was not breathable without the protection of a bio-dome. Ba'Kira and her crew had been brought in to rescue the child, who had fallen a considerable distance and had nearly drowned in the Narn-created water supply. They had been successful in rescuing her, but Ba'Kira knew that she would not survive without intensive medical procedures and therapy. Her legs had been badly scratched up when she had fallen and then tried to climb up the long well-pipe, and they had become badly infected. Ba'Kira knew that they would have to be amputated, and she had performed the operation on board her Medical Ship the Ti'Quan. In order to secure some prosthetic legs, however, the girl needed to come to Base 37.
The Ti'Quan and her crew were not well equipped for rescues, but they were often called upon to do so nonetheless. The military Medics were unlikely to go to such trouble for a mere pouchling, and that was where Ba'Kira came in.
She had created her own "Medical Services & Supply" company, which sought out contracts from the military to service the civilian populations on the colony worlds. Civilian colonists were often left out of the equation because they were not "essential" to military operations. Ba'Kira had, for the past twenty years or so, done a good job convincing the Narn Military that her services were essential. She and her team had saved many lives, including those of the soldiers' families.
As she walked into the busy "Civilians' Quarter", a guard took her identity card and ran it through a scanner. He gave it back to her without a word. Some of the Narns here tended to be rather taciturn; the Military seemed to cause them to withdraw into themselves. Ba'Kira was definitely not a flag-waver for the Narn Military. She found their policies aggressive and their military campaigns ethically questionable. She was, however, not in a position to challenge them. She had served her mandatory four-year term in the army on the Narn home-world and had been glad to leave at the end of it. Subsequently, she entered the University of the Healing Circle and trained to be a nurse-Medic for the Regime. In order to be given off-world experience, she had been obliged to work with the Military, if not for it.
She had borrowed money as a young woman to purchase the Ti Quan, had launched her business, turned it into a success against all odds, and had not looked back since. She had been making Medical runs aboard her ship all of her adult life, and she was proud of the work that she and her crew performed.
Along the way, she had mated with a young soldier whom she had also fallen in love with. He had provided her with a cherished son, and he had helped to pouch the boy before he was sent off and killed on a mission for the Narn Military.
Kar Malka, her son, was now seventeen years old and working with her as a Medical Trainee. When he had finished transporting the young girl to the "Med-Fa'ch", as the hospital was called here on the base, he returned to "The Civilian's Cafeteria" to meet his mother. He sat down quietly, receiving the Blackrock tea that Ba'Kira had ordered for him. She offered him some Grok Root to eat, which he accepted gratefully.
"So," Ba'Kira said to him, "Is working with the Old Woman better than the Narn Military, or would you like to go back to whips, drills, and guns?"
Kar Malka grimaced.
"You know the answer to that one," he replied, "I'm just glad to be out of there...it was like prison! I thought the four year mandatory term would never end; but now that it has, I'm happy that I began it at age thirteen instead of fourteen. I'm out a lot earlier than some of my poor friends...plus, I get to see something of the galaxy now that I can actually go on-planet with you and the crew."
Kar Malka had grown up aboard the Ti'Quan, but he had never been allowed to go down to any of the worlds that they visited. Instead, he used to stay in orbit with his Pouch-Holder and the rest of the command crew while Ba'Kira led the Medical Team on missions. When he was very young, Ba'Kira had made arrangements for him to stay with her mother, but as he grew older, she felt that it was important for him to gain experience in space; and so, she had brought him along.
When he went to the Military Academy for four years, however, she saw little of him and she had missed him greatly. It was wonderful to have him back with her once more.
"Well, Malk," she said to him with a glint in her eye, "I think you're going to like our next destination."
"Is it the Human space station?" Kar Malka asked eagerly, "The one called...Bubble-One-Five?"
"Babylon 5," Ba'Kira corrected him, "and yes, we're going there after a stop-over here. I have to deliver some medical equipment and supplies to the Human Healer there. This will be the Ti'Quan's first trip to a non-Narn station, although there are plenty of Narns on Babylon 5."
"I've heard there are plenty of other aliens that go there, as well," Kar Malka commented excitedly, "but I wonder why the Humans allow so many of them access to their station? Aren't they afraid of alien filtration?"
"Your grandfather Ra'Mogh has been there," Ba'Kira responded to her son's questions, "He says that they want all the different aliens to come to the station so that they can get to know them, and try to work out any differences peacefully. It definitely makes sense to me, as a Medic—I am in the business of saving lives rather than taking them."
Kar Malka chuckled at his mother's rebellious statement.
"Careful! Don't let the Military Officers hear you say that. They're not happy unless they can go somewhere with guns blazing."
Kar Malka, like his mother and his grandfather, Captain Ra'Mogh, was covered in rusty-red spots as opposed to the black spots that peppered everybody else's heads. The eyes of those three Narns were also a fiery orange color rather than the normal red eyes of the majority of the Narn population. Like all Narns, they were hairless and had furrows which formed a triangular point just past their eyes and around the sides of their large heads. It gave them a vaguely "reptilian" look, although they were in fact marsupials whose males carried their young or "pouchlings" around in their belly-pouches.
The server arrived with their meal, and the two Narns ate hungrily.
