Into the Fire: An Alternate Timeline, From Lorien's Point of View.
Prologue:
`` We will only tell you this one last time, then we will show you just how serious we are`` said Ambassador Kosh, of the Vorlon Empire. ``We have no reason to wish to go to extremes to show anyone that we are serious, but.....the Shadows, they push too far. This will NOT be tolerated any longer. ``
Lorien stood looking at the Vorlon ambassador, noticing how the Vorlons seemed to be following in the footsteps of his people. He remembered how they had gone to encounter suits that would shield them from the elements, and from hostile situations. He also remembered how they had left from the environment suit approach once they felt more confident in their abilities that allowed them to take solid form once again. The encounter suits did allow them safety, as well as having a large intimidation factor, allowing them to avoid some complications that could have been fatal for one or both of the parties involved. Neither the Shadows nor the Vorlons were able to realize that the First Ones had developed past the need for encounter suits a million years before they had even gotten to the stage that they even needed the suits. The First Ones had nurtured and guided both races during their growth, but, they had reached the point that they, like any children, knew better than the parents, as things were "completely different than it was in their parent's days".
The Shadows had taken to using bio technology for their Encounter suits, but it was so primitive, Lorien didn't even class it as alive. He thought that the Shadows had designed their suits to resemble the insectoid that they were. They were very advanced insectoid, but insectoid none the less. The Shadows were rarely seen even in these council chambers without their encounter suits. They seemed to have a need to be surrounded by their creation. A million or so cycles had done nothing for their self esteem it appeared. Their encounter suits, unlike most races at that stage, actually looked almost identical to what the shadows appeared as before they changed.
The Vorlons had gone with synthetic compounds, and had veered completely away from organic technology for their suits. The suits did indeed show what they had evolved from. They were originally aquatic creatures, and evolved from both land and sea, proving that at some time in the past, they were capable of adapting to new things. Somewhere along the passing of years, that all changed. They were designed with composites, and had incredible resilience, but were limited to the fact that they could not be used for extended periods of time, due to the problems of interfacing Nano technology with an ethereal being.
The Vorlons and Shadows had both gone from a Corporeal to an Ethereal existence, and neither was proficient in their interface.
Both had embraced Bio-tech for their ships however, and while neither had perfected it yet, they were well on their way towards it, but taking very different paths to achieve the result they wanted.
The Shadows used living beings, usually from their protected races, as their way of controlling and running their ships. They had no Artificial Intelligence at all, but were still very tough and resiliant, with fierce weaponry aboard each one, and it did not matter if it was a scout ship or a warship, it was, to all the others that came after, a fierce opponent.
The Vorlons on the other hand, they had found a way to link to their ships, so they shared the same consciousness, which worked well, but also had their own issues. Unique ways to solve the problems involved, but not the best way for sure. They had developed better engines, and were indeed the reason why the other races were able to travel, as they had developed 'jump gate' technology to transfer them, and others into hyperspace.
Cringing, Lorien remembered the incident when they tried to do a 'thirdspace' jumpgate many millenium back. It was an unmitigated disaster. The enemy had almost totally destroyed everything they came accross, until the Vorlons and Shadows had banded together to petition Lorien to intervene. Even with Lorien helping, it had taken almost a century to beat the enemy back, reversing the damage done to the universe in the process. It was the Vorlons that discovered the enemy first, as they built a gate that trancended dimensions, and they were succeptable to 'phsycic' coersion from the enemy, promising a faster, safer way to travel from one place to another. It was that incident that had led other race in their quest to find different methods to enter hyperspace, as the Vorlons had the monopoly on hyperspace technology with the younger races, and the younger races no longer trusted the Vorlons. This changed after a few millenia, but....by then, there were many ways to enter into hyperspace.
The other thing that the Vorlons had suceesded in, was to create a ship that could navigate without a pilot. They were known explorers of uncharted territories, and they had sensors unlike anything known to the younger races. The main drawback was, the ships all had to be linked to a Vorlon somehow. That was how they 'gained' sentience. If the Vorlon died, so did the ship. If the ship died, so did the Vorlon. This just showed Lorien how limited the Vorlon really were. They refused to allow anything 'lesser' than them to think for it/ them selves.
`` You must understand Ambassador, we have been watching both of you for quite some time now, and we cannot interfere. This means that the younger races must be allowed to make their own choices, and their own paths in the universe. Your actions will take away the very things that are to be held dear. The freedom of choice and the right to advance as the universe sees fit to allow. You cannot be expected to guard the whole universe, yet you seem to feel that we, both yourselves and us, are responsible for the very same peoples that deny we have the right to do so. `` ``We have hadENOUGH. This conversation is over Lorien. `` Kosh stormed out of the council chamber, leaving Lorien with a stunned expression.
Lorien was deeply troubled by the conversation he had just had with Kosh. He did agree that the Shadows were pushing the younger races too far, and too fast. Both had valid points, he had to agree with both of them to a degree, but...to wage war for the sole purpose of advancement and evolution....the Shadows had that part wrong. The Vorlons on the other hand, wanted to protect the younger races, and added to their technological advances only as survival saw fit. That led to the problem of earning the right to have the said technologies as well. To be given the technology without earning it was dangerous on both sides of the argument. Passive advances with no idea of the awesome power and responsibilities involved while imposing their own ideas, beliefs, and laws on the others, or Aggressive advances, with no care for the resulting mayhem due to being given the technology as an edge over your opponents. Neither was a good way to get the technology, and neither would be helpful to the recipients.
Something had to be done, but, the rules of conduct limited what they could do. There had to be another way, but they only had to discover it before it was too late. At that, Lorien decided that he needed to get away, and relax, hoping the universe would once again make a choice, proving yet again that Lorien and his kind were not the oldest sentient in the universe. The fact that they were living in a sentient universe was terrifying, and that most peoples would never realize, nor accept that fact. Lorien sighed, as he went to his chambers to decide what he wanted to do next.
Lorien left the Council Chambers in a very disquieted state. How the Council had decided to just leave for unknown space was beyond his comprehension. Understanding as they did about the Shadow-Vorlon War that was coming, they had decided to remove all the First Ones from this section of space. The consensus was that the Shadows and Vorlons would come with them. No one understood the Holy Crusades of the Vorlons, and no one seemed to understand the drive of the Shadows to force the Known System advance to its potential through wars and conflicts. This was not an acceptable solution, and He desperately sought a solution that would not involve running away from the problem. He knew, and was sure that others would realize the situation as well, that neither the Shadows nor the Vorlons would be willing to leave their endeavours at this, or possibly any, stage.
His idea, which he had not mentioned to anyone, was to try to find an untouched race, and try to create a balance. This would involve a lot of patient planning, some modifications, on both the social and genetic levels. This automatically meant that he would have to find a race that showed potential for evolution and advancement, as well as being primitive enough to be easily influenced, and separated. He would have to watch closely, and be willing to destroy whole batches of the species that he chose to develop, if they were to show too much of either trait that he was trying to balance. He needed to find a race that would be aggressive, serve justice, and not seek dominance nor seek unchecked expansion. This should prove interesting to say the least. Time for a trip to the uncharted rim.