The Odyssey mystery
President Elizabeth Levy walked through the abandoned base and stared at the vessel, which had remained hidden for over two hundred years.
When she was first told of a secret base of the USAF that had suddenly appeared just a day a go she would have asked what her advisers were drinking and if she could have some.
Who would have thought that the USAF had an interstellar capable warship let alone one that was a strange mix of the archaic and the advanced technologies.
And to think that it was only discovered because it had apparently run out of power that was keeping it cloaked and out of phase with the rest of the Earth.
But the important questions was how could it have been kept hidden and why.
But those questions could wait.
The technological treasures the vessel held were just what were needed for the earth to survive the Minbari onslaught.
Barely twenty-four hours had passed since its discovery and already a bastardised version of one of its strange fighter's sensors, which had been torn out of one of the fighters and installed in a Nova dreadnought, had allowed Earths first victory over the Minbari.
And that was but the first of the technological marvels the Odyssey held
Now she was viewing the mystery ship and its marvels first hand and just one look at what had been deemed an alien computer core labelled the Asgard core possessed so much technology that it boggled her mind.
Not that it mattered Earthforce was already throwing money at anything that could be quickly duplicated and just with her quick tour President Levy was determined to ensure that the Odyssey program got all the funding it would possibly need.
The Odyssey program held the future of the Earth Alliance in its hand and she was determined not to lose her grip on that future.
In the month since the discovery of Odyssey all of the strange fighters had been cannibalised to provide targeting sensors for Earthforce.
During this time it had enabled Earthforce to actually fight the Minbari instead of being slaughtered.
Still the technology of the Odyssey remained locked away from Earthforce's research and development division.
The encryptions on the data were unlike anything that had ever experienced.
It was speculated that the vessel somehow had access to some unknown First Ones technology that could allow Earthforce and the Earth Alliance to be equal to any power in the galaxy.
By the third month after the discovery of the Odyssey Earthforce research and development discovers a video message that had apparently been timed for release three months after the vessel revealed itself.
President Elizabeth Levy found herself watching a video of an elderly man long since deceased.
The video began with, "Greeting to whoever discoveries the Odyssey. I'm Major General Hank Landry myself and my crew found ourselves stranded in a temporal domain that was not our own.
We have spent that last twenty-five years trying to discover a way home to no avail.
Not wanting to adversely affect the development of this Earth we built an underground facility and docked the Odyssey using its technology to keep it cloaked until the Odyssey's power reserves were exhausted.
If you are listening to this message then that time has come.
The Odyssey was built using various alien technologies but most important is the Asgard core, which was gifted to my people by a proud and powerful warrior race upon their deaths.
At the cessation of this message that standard systems will become accessible to you but the Asgard core has its own protocols.
You will have to pass tests to get access to the Asgard legacy these tests were put in place by that Asgard and even we have only just touched the surface of the Asgard's legacy.
By the time you listen to this message my crew and I will have long since passed into the long beyond.
Treat the Asgard's legacy with the respect that it deserves as the knowledge the Asgard core possesses surpasses the sum knowledge of my people by several orders of magnitude.
While the Asgard legacy could be your saviour if misused it could bring about your doom.
Farewell and I wish you well."
With the video transmission completed the Odyssey's systems came to life startling President Levy and the members of Earthforce research and development that were on board.
The startled exclamations from the Earthforce personnel soon convinced President Levy that some of the secrets that they Odyssey held were being revealed before her very eyes.
Two days after the video message had been played President Levy was being briefed by what had been discovered.
She was stunned by the news that the Odyssey had operational energy shields, plasma beam weapons and a power plant the appeared to use a highly refined stable version of quantium 60.
The power source wasn't the only thing using quantium apparently over half the Odyssey was built from quantium and another alloy which had yet to be identified.
Still if what had been discovered in the last two days could be successfully added to the fleet; then perhaps humanity might just survive this genocidal war with the Minbari.
The Minbari warrior castes were in an outrage.
The hated humans the dishonourable pests that the Grey Council had decided had to be exterminated were fighting back.
Somehow the hated humans had broken the Minbari stealth fields and what had been a slaughter was now a war.
Sure they were still winning but what had been a slaughter with minimal Minbari casualties had now turned into a battle of attrition.
The worker caste had been unable to discover how the hated humans had broken the Minbari stealth fields but now that didn't matter.
The war had taken a turn for the worse and with the humans having so many ships they were starting to turn the tide of the Minbari advance.
With their losses growing the worker caste had already started reactivating some of the reserve fleet as the losses were now out stripping the worker caste's new production rates.
Lieutenant Commander John Sheridan looked at the strange weapon that had been loaded into the Lexington's magazine.
He didn't know exactly what it was all that was stencilled on it was 'mark IX' all Earthforce command had said was that it was a new super powerful nuke and it had replaced his fusion bomb in his plan to draw in and destroy several Minbari ships.
John was surprised that his desperate plan was still going ahead.
After all the recent victories over the Minbari had turned the slaughter into a real war.
He suspected that the only reason his plan was going ahead was that the Earthforce High Command wanted to test their new weapon in battlefield conditions.
One thing concerned John however along with his sealed orders were instructions that he had to be half a star system away from the mark IX when it detonated.
John wondered just how powerful a weapon it was and what it was made of.
Still his plan had been adjusted to draw in the Minbari every hulk of Earth force had been collected and placed in the designated system to bait the trap.
It was hoped that the Minbari would believe that the hulks were in storage waiting for their time in the repair yards.
Still his plan had been approved with its modifications and if it succeeded then he would be a hero and would have dealt a body blow to the Minbari.
John Sheridan looked at the crushed and broken remains of his commanding officer,
He couldn't believe just how powerful the Mark IX bomb had been.
He had thought that they were at a safe distance yet it hadn't been safe by half.
There were already reports of over a hundred of the crew having been killed by the after effects of the explosion.
Yet his crews casualty rate was nothing in comparison to what had happened to the Minbari fleet that had been at the centre of the explosion.
The Minbari had come in with a fleet of nearly fifty vessels lead by the infamous Drala Fi and if the new sensors were to be believed not a single Minbari vessel remained intact.
Most of the Minbari vessels had been completely obliterated those few that remained were nothing more than shattered hulks.
Sheridan was sure that there were no Minbari survivors as the radiation from the detonation of the mark IX bomb had been so severe that even two astronomical units from the detonation the Lexington's radiation sensors had spiked to such a degree that the ships doctor had broken out the anti radiation medications just to be on the safe side.
Lieutenant Commander John Sheridan signalled Earthforce command that the trap had been successful and then he ordered the Lexington to head back to the Io shipyards for repairs to be made on the Lexington.
The Vorlon Kosh was concerned with the change of course in the Human - Minbari war and he wanted to know what had changed in the circle.
He had detected sensors that were at first ones level and that meant that the humans could now detect all the first ones vessels not just the Vorlons.
When he arrived at the Earth he detected a temporal abnormality and then his sensors detected a vessel that looked like a human construct but was a strange mixture of archaic and the advanced technologies.
The archaic technologies didn't concern Kosh but the advanced ones did
The first one computer core was at least a level forty civilisation but what little information he gained from the computer core indicated that it also held knowledge of a level ninety civilisation and if the information was to be believed that civilisation had successful ascended to a higher plane of existence while the Vorlon civilisation had only partly succeeded.
While Kosh contemplated this new development his ships sensors indicated that a human fleet was heading in his direction.
Knowing the importance of the information he had discovered Kosh took his ship into hyperspace and set a direct course for the Vorlon home world.
Captain John Sheridan was wondering why he had been ordered to the Neue Hanse Orbital Shipyards.
He had already been surprised to have been jumped a grade to full captain but then he had been ordered to the Neue Hanse Orbital Shipyards and to report to General Robert Lefcourt.
As his shuttle approached the Neue Hanse Orbital Shipyards he noticed the nearly finished experimental Omega class destroyers that were being rushed into service.
But as his shuttle made its final approach he noticed another vessel under construction it was similar to an Omega but it had obviously been heavily modified.
The most startling feature or lack of was the rotating section, which was missing entirely from this new vessel.
John was still mulling this change over in his mind when his shuttle landed and was greeted by General Robert Lefcourt in person.
After the formalities had been completed General Robert Lefcourt said, "Come Captain Sheridan, we have much work to do and not enough time."
John Sheridan replied, "Sir, the Lexington is still in the repair dock and will be for some time."
General Lefcourt didn't even break his stride when he replied, "You captain aren't getting the Lexington.
You are getting something new with lots of recently discovered technologies."
Then as they approached the strange ship he saw under construction General Lefcourt continued by saying, "The Agamemnon is going to be a one off design.
As its internal frame had already been built it was decided to modify it instead of completing it as an Omega.
It will be the test bed for newly discovered technologies while a new design is completed to make the most of those technologies.
The Agamemnon has been designed so that it can be easily refit when other technologies become available.
As you obviously saw there are no rotating sections as it has artificial gravity, a new propulsion system that will make it the fastest vessel in Earthforce.
But most importantly it will have new armour and energy shields."
John Sheridan felt his jaw drop at this statement and out of the corner of his eye he saw General Lefcourt smiling.
Turning to John Sheridan General Lefcourt said, "Captain, I'll leave you with your new command the shipyard is working around the clock to get every vessel ready.
You are going to have to hit the deck a running and train your crew on the new technologies while the Agamemnon is being completed.
You will not have time for shakedown cruises instead the second the Agamemnon is ready it and your crew will be thrown straight into battle.
You need to hold the line against the Minbari until more of the new ships are ready and then we will do to the Minbari what we did to the Dilgar.
Now get to work captain we have very little time and the fate of humanity rests in your hands."
With this said General Lefcourt turned and walked away leaving John Sheridan to stare at the Agamemnon and wonder where he should start.
Captain John Sheridan sat in his on board office of the Agamemnon and read his new ships specifications.
After he had finished he felt slightly in awe of what had been added to the Agamemnon.
Many of the new technologies were so different from what was commonly used by the other known races that he came to the conclusion that some unnamed first ones must have taken pity on humanity and granted them this technological bounty as there was no way humanity could have developed so many different technologies so fast.
Even the new hull armour was developed of a metal that was thought all but useless as it was too brittle to be of any real use.
But somehow humanity had learn to refine and alloy it with other metals to produce an armour that was twenty time stronger then the normal beryllium alloys yet a third of its weight.
Captain John Sheridan read the operations order that General Robert Lefcourt had issued.
He had created Operation Mousetrap that involved every Earthforce ship that had the Odyssey sensor modification.
But it was the EAS Agamemnon function that concerned him.
The Agamemnon was to be the bait for the trap and as such it had large broken black stars painted all over its hull so that the Minbari would know that the starkiller was on board.
Sheridan didn't like being bait for a trap but it made logical sense for the Agamemnon to have this role.
After all the Agamemnon was currently the only Earthforce vessel that had all the current Odyssey upgrades which included new hyperdrive, shields, sensors and armour.
The Agamemnon's role was to draw the Minbari in so that the rest of the ships of operation Mousetrap could open jump points right in the middle of any Minbari fleet hopefully destroying many of them.
Still he had his orders and he would obey them.
As the EAS Agamemnon left the Neue Hanse Orbital Shipyards he stared at the latest class of ships under construction for Earthforce.
The Odyssey's Revenge class looked nothing like any previous Earthforce vessel.
It was over two and a half kilometres long and was full of even more of the Odyssey's technological bounty than the Agamemnon.
If the rumours were correct then the Odyssey's Revenge class had an entirely new energy production system and weapons that were similar to those possessed by the Odyssey.
But having this near first ones technology meant little if humanity was destroyed.
And it was Operation Mousetrap's function to buy the Earth Alliance enough time to get all that new technology into Earthforce so that humanity can survive the genocidal Minbari.
The other rumour was that Earthforce was developing a disposable pocket battleship that wasn't as resource intensive as the Odyssey's revenge class but uses the same technologies.
The EAS Agamemnon was under fire from the first Minbari fleet that had come across the Agamemnon.
Captain John Sheridan was growing concerned, the Minbari were closing in on Agamemnon and their fire hadn't let up.
His executive officer then shouted, "Captain, we can't repel firepower of that magnitude for long.
If the rest of the fleet doesn't appear soon we will be done for."
No sooner did these words leave the XO's lips then the fleet did put in an appearance opening jump points right on top of the Minbari fleet.
Captain Sheridan watched in awe as the first Earthforce assault fleet routed the Minbari fleet.
As he watched the Minbari fleet did something he had never seen before.
They turned tail and tried to run only to be blocked by three very strange looking ships who displayed firepower far beyond their relative size.
As the new arrivals quickly finished off the remaining Minbari vessels they turned and headed towards the rest of the Earth Alliance fleet.
The new arrivals were barely a third of the size of the Agamemnon and as they drew closer he saw that they were indeed Earthforce ships.
In a couple of minutes he was able to read their names being EAS Admiral Graf Spee, Deutschland and Admiral Scheer.
John suspected they the new arrivals must be some of those pocket battleships he had heard rumours about.
The way they made such short work of the Minbari survivors gave John Sheridan hope that for the first time the Earth Alliance might actually be able to win this war.
And if the Earth Alliance shipyards can churn out these pocket battleships like other ships as was their want.
Then it might be possible that the Minbari would be forced into unconditional surrender or face extinction.
The Minbari Grey Council was speechless when they received reports that the humans had somehow gained first ones level technology and were using it to destroy their fleets and force their warriors to run way or face certain death.
When Delenn sort out the Vorlon ambassador, Kosh didn't speak in riddles like he usually did.
His response was a simple, "Make peace or die!"
After he had made this statement Kosh left the room and headed for his own vessel to return to Vorlon space.
On the Vorlon home world the elders of the Vorlon race quizzed Kosh Naranek as to whether the message had been delivered.
When Kosh Naranek signalled the affirmative the elders stated that the only way for the Minbari to survive against the humans new technologies and continue the circle is for them to surrender and to be subservient to the humans.
The Minbari Grey Council was stunned when they heard that the Vorlon's would not support them against the humans and their first ones technology.
Yet how could the council possibly make peace when the humans had killed Dukhat.
It was then that Anla-shok Na said that they had rescued a human from the last defeat and they had discovered something extraordinary.
When a triluminary accidentally brushed against the human, Jeffrey Sinclair it had radiated a brilliant white light.
Proving beyond doubt that he was related to Valen.
This shocked the Minbari Grey Council as their greatest law was that no Minbari could kill another.
Now if the new evidence was correct then Minbari souls were being reborn into human bodies.
This meant that the humans or at the very least some of them held Minbari souls and they were killing them.
It was quickly decided to end the war by releasing the human Jeffrey Sinclair and sending with him the Minbari request for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
President Elizabeth Levy was stunned when out of the blue Commander Jeffrey Sinclair was returned in a Minbari Nail fighter with a written unconditional surrender from the Minbari.
Many in Earthgov and Earthforce wanted to continue the war now that they had the upper hand.
The main person leading the charge was one Senator William Morgan Clark.
Morgan Clark had been the bane of her presidency but she like many others knew that to continue the war out of sheer bloody-mindedness was folly.
The Earth Alliance's finances were in tatters with the cost of the war, rebuilding and all the money that had been thrown at the Odyssey project.
It was the latter that was highest on her mind.
The Odyssey project continued to produce miracles and she knew that the Earth Alliance couldn't afford not to continue funding research into the Odyssey's databases and technologies.
She decided to accept the Minbari surrender but the only repatriation that she would ask of the Minbari is that they fund the construction of the Babylon project so that the Earth Alliance can focus its finances on rebuilding from the war and the Odyssey project.
In the aftermath of the Earth-Minbari war the Earth Alliance decided to create the Babylon project.
The Babylon project would be a series of massive O'Neill type space stations that would be used to hopefully avoid misunderstandings like that that had caused the Earth-Minbari war.
But the Babylon stations would be constructed without any of the Odyssey technologies as the political and military leadership of the Earth Alliance didn't want any of that technology to leave their control.
The Narn Regime, Centauri Republic and the races that made up the League of Non-Aligned Worlds were stunned by the human's sudden reversal of fortunes and their defeat of the Minbari.
This worried and scared them as all had seen the videos from the Interstellar News Network of the new human ships destroying the Minbari ships with relative ease.
They were concerned because they all had essentially abandoned the humans and ignored their debts of honour and alliances for their own benefit.
And now the race that they thought would be destroyed by the Minbari had become the Alpha predator of the younger races replacing the Minbari as the strongest of the younger races.
But more frightening was the fact that the humans seem to have acquired first ones levels of technology and was busy incorporating into their own technology.
Fearful of humans coming at them in revenge for having been abandoned many governments started listening to representatives of other first ones who told them that only through military strength could they defend their worlds.
The Shadows were pleased with the outcome of the Earth-Minbari war as it proved that strength through conflict was the correct way to develop.
Even though the Earth humans had received a technological bounty from outside this subdomain it still took their grit and ingenuity to be able to quickly reverse engineer the technology and use it against the Minbari.
President Elizabeth Levy was really annoyed by the Xeno expulsion act that had been pushed through by Senator Morgan Clark.
The act essentially banned all non-humans from the solar system and restricted their movements in human colonies.
Under the act any aliens were only allowed to frequent the Babylon stations for business or governmental business.
The alien embassy's on the Earth had been given only six months to be removed from the Solar system before force would be used to expel them.
Captain John Sheridan was looking forward to the refit of the Agamemnon.
The Earthforce New Technologies division was planning to use the Agamemnon as a test bed for new technologies.
As such the Agamemnon would be spending more time in the refit docks than actually out on patrol.
He had heard that so successful had been the pocket battleships Admiral Graf Spee, Deutschland and Admiral Scheer that nine more were under construction.
When the Von der Tann, Moltke, Goeben, Seydlitz, Derfflinger, Lützow, Hindenburg, Bayern and Baden joined the Admiral Graf Spee, Deutschland and Admiral Scheer Earthforce would have three full squadrons of pocket battleships.
Sheridan liked the fact that pocket battleships all had German ship names to go with the German principle of having ships faster than anything stronger and stronger than anything else.
John then shook that thought from his mind as he thought about his upcoming nuptials with Anna Keller.
He hoped that Anna liked the surprise present that he had got her.
John had used his contacts at the Earthforce New technologies division to get Anna a position as a xeno-archaeologist studying the Odyssey as he was sure that there were things in that alien database that while not interesting to the Earthforce New technologies division a xeno-archaeologist would find them fascinating.
It was a prestigious posting that most a xeno-archaeologists would kill for but John had an altera motive.
With Anna attached to the Odyssey project she would be safely based at home on the Earth and wouldn't be missing for months at a time on some god forsaken alien planet that was only of interest to xeno-archaeologists.
At their wedding reception the newly married Anna Sheridan stared at her husband in shocked awe when he whispered to her that he had used his influence to get a her posting on the Odyssey project.
Anna was flabbergasted that she had gained a position on such a prestigious project even if she had only heard rumours about it.
She guessed that it explained all the security checks she had to undergo.
She had thought that they were because she was marrying a senior Earthforce officer who had access to advanced alien technologies.
Now she knew the truth she would be extra accommodating to John more so than was normal for a new wife and she would start tonight right after their wedding reception was finished.
The Odyssey project was taking on a life of it's own.
There was so much information to be studied that the Earthforce new technologies division had started outsourcing mundane information that didn't require top secret special access gold level clearance just to clear some of the backlog.
The Shadows were fascinated and intrigued by the humans development of technologies from the first ones database of another reality.
It didn't matter much to them what the humans did with the technologies.
They would either destroy themselves or become far more powerful.
And that was the natural order of things, survival of the fittest strength through conflict.
The Earth humans had a fascinating history of having fought amongst themselves and with every war their technology progressed faster and faster.
Though now that the Earth humans had the technology to detect their vessels it was decided that perhaps it would be prudent to recover their vessels they had left of Mars and Ganymede now before the humans developed sufficient strength and technology to prevent the recovery of the vessels.
Senator Morgan Clark and Psi-Corp were annoyed when some obviously advanced aliens swooped into the Solar system and recovered some buried alien vessels, one buried under Syria Planum on Mars and the other on Ganymede.
The vessel on Mars had been known about but they had been shocked to learn that another of this alien race, vessels had been buried on Ganymede.
Morgan Clark was ranting at the ineptitude of Earthforce in not preventing the aliens from recovering their vessels.
He worked himself into such an apoplectic rage that a blood vessel burst in his brain leaving him in a vegetative state that he would never recover from.
Anna Sheridan rubbed her swollen belly and thought she really should be really angry with John for getting her pregnant in the first place.
But she had to admit that it takes two to tango besides she really wanted to reward John for getting her a placement on the Odyssey project and a quick roll in the hay at his fathers farm had seemed adequate at the time.
At first she had thought that she had picked up some kind of bug but after a couple of weeks she went to the doctor who pronounced her pregnant.
While she had always planned to have children she hadn't planned on have one before the end of her first year of marriage.
Still being pregnant didn't preclude her for doing research for the odyssey project plus the fact that she spoke Latin helped.
Anna had quickly discovered that the alien database had four distinct languages one that she suspected might be a precursor language to Latin and another similar to Norse runes.
In the seven months she had been studying the database she had found dozens of weapon programs that had sent Earthforce New Technologies into a frenzy.
She had heard that they consider her their lucky charm as she had discovered more programs that interested them of any other researcher.
Because of her uncanny knack of discovering programs that Earthforce new technologies were interested in she had unfetted access to the entire database and her own office in which she had twenty four hour access.
Because the little critter inside of her wasn't letting her sleep Anna decided she might as well do some more research.
For when the baby comes it will cut back her research schedule even if the Odyssey project promised her and other female employees unlimited free creche and child care.
As she skimmed the headings she came across one that read Astria Porta.
Doing a quick translation in her head, Astria meant star or Astrum can mean constellation while Porta could mean portal or more loosely gate.
Coming to the conclusion that this device was a star or constellation portal or gate she then cross referenced what she had discovered with the alternate humans records.
What she discovered left her stunned.
The Astria Porta or stargate as the alternate humans called was an artificial wormhole generator made from highly refined and purified Quantium 40.
This artificial wormhole generator had let them step from one world to another like moving from one room to another by stepping through a doorway.
Anna sat stunned at the realisation that if the Earth Alliance could duplicate this technology then spending weeks or month travelling between colonies would be a thing of the past.
The strategic advantage of such a device was mind boggling.
If the Explorer ships could place stargates on suitable unclaimed worlds colonies could be established in weeks to months instead of years and decades.
Not to mention that if such a device is possible then food and resources from one place to another would be as simple as opening a door and pushing it through.
Anna was just finishing typing up her latest discovery when the little one started her having cravings for fish tacos and chocolate sauce.
The Earthforce New technologies division was fascinated by this stargate.
They had details schematics on their construction and all the scientific principles behind their creation and operation.
The scientists and engineers that had been commissioned to see if they could make functional units were galled but just how advanced these Alterans were.
To the alterans the astria porta were simply tools machines nothing more.
But to the Earthforce new technologies division these so called stargates could enable them to establish colonies, mines, farms and military bases far from all the established powers.
And if these stargates were added to the improvements being made to hyperdrive technologies then there was even the possibility of the Earth Alliance going intergalactic in the next decade or two.
But first their scientists and engineers had to construct at least two stargates so that they could be tested to see if they are even feasible in this temporal domain.
John Sheridan was playing with his baby son as Anna watched on protectively.
Miranda Sheridan smiled as she watched her son play with her grandson while her daughter in law hovered protectively nearby.
She continued smiling and thought that Anna definitely had the new mother syndrome bad.
Still she knew it would wear off quickly especially if she had more children which was entirely possible as Earthforce new technologies was bending over backwards to ensure that their female staffers had every bit of support and encouragement to continue being productive.
Women who might have been lost to motherhood but now could continue their careers with the incredible arrangements made for them so that they could continue working on their projects.
She certainly hadn't seen John so happy even when he was married to Elizabeth Lochley.
Miranda was sure that when Anna needed help she would ask her or her own mother and they would both be more than willing to step up.
For now she would just enjoy watch her new grandchild and hope that more would be forthcoming.
Captain John Sheridan of the Agamemnon was wondering what seemed to have the entirety of Earthforce's new technologies divisions in a tizzy.
He had had a secret cargo delivered to one of the Agamemnon's cargo holds guarded by an entire company of gropos.
John didn't have a clue what it was only that it was round and about twenty-five metres in diameter.
Still he had long since stopped wondering what comes out of the new technologies think tanks he just accepts his orders and then carries them out.
And his orders were to transport that gigantic ring shaped crate to Proxima 3.
Where the technicians, scientists and engineers who had also come aboard would do their thing.
Doctor Anna Sheridan was waiting in the observation room.
A subspace tachyon communication from Proxima 3 had indicated that final installation of the Earth Alliance version of the stargate had been completed.
Because she was the one who had discovered the information about the stargate she had been invited to its first activation.
But even if it worked she had been told in no uncertain terms that she wouldn't be going through it as they didn't know what effects it would have on her in her condition.
Anna sighed, she really wanted to try the stargate but being pregnant again ruled her out.
While she really liked the fact that her husbands ship was rarely away for more than a couple of weeks at a time it also meant that John was around more for fun times.
Hence her current condition.
Her son David was barely eighteen months old and now she was pregnant again.
Perhaps she should have John fixed but then decided against it for the time being.
After all she had always wanted a family and John was giving it to her in spades.
Before she could continue there was whoosh from the stargate and an unstable wavefront erupted from it before it stablised and the probe unit from Proxima 3 came through.
The scientists, technicians and engineers took their readings and seemed satisfied with the stargates function.
Now it was the Earth's turn to dial Proxima 3 and this time a person would be sent through.
Though person was perhaps too good a word to use for that man.
As she watched the former Earthforce Captain, Michael Jankowski stepped through the ring.
Jankowski had been chosen as he had previously had top secret clearance and as a prisoner after his court martial he was willing to do anything to get released from his dreary cell.
Anna thought he showed not a bit of fear as he stepped through the stargate.
But according to John he wasn't lacking bravery merely common sense.
The transmission had come though saying he had arrived safely and now Jankowski would under go a battery of tests to see if he had been affected in any way.
Once those were complete he would step through the stargate again and the procedure would be repeated every day for the next two weeks to ensure that the stargate was safe for use.
Once that was determined they would be installed on every colony and the new Explorer corps ships would all have supplies of stargates to place on planets so that they could be colonised or exploited by the Earth Alliance.
As she got up to return home she overheard an engineer saying, "If these tests work out then well start building the ship sized prototypes.
They will have to be modular in design but imagine being able to get a fleet anywhere in seconds.
The only problem is getting enough Quantium 40 to be able to build sufficient numbers of stargates."
Anna smiled at this overheard comment she should have guessed that Earthforce new technologies wouldn't stop at stargates to transport goods and people.
Lieutenant Matthew Gideon was giddy with excitement as he watched the new Explorer Class ships the Hendrik Brouwer finish its shakedown cruise.
Because of his experience with the black spider like ships during the Minbari war and the fact that two had escaped the Solar system he had been given a position on the Hendrik Brouwer.
The Hendrik Brouwer was the very latest explorer class ship and had all the latest human technologies.
He barely understood half of what he was told but the hyperdrive was the fastest yet build and instead of fusion reactions for main power they were merely back ups on the Hendrik Brouwer.
The Hendrik Brouwer was the first explorer class powered by a neutrino-ion generator.
The technicians said that with the neutrino-ion generator the Hendrik Brouwer could cross the galaxy in a few months but the Hendrik Brouwer would never go that fast for long.
The explorer corps missions was to find planets and resources and Matthew was sure that they would find plenty as the Hendrik Brouwer went where no man had gone before.
The Shadows were gloating to the Vorlons that the humans had gone into isolation attacking any who came near their boarders.
A Shadow said to Kosh, "Strength through conflict.
The fires of battle have hardened them like a diamond harder then steel and impervious to flame."
Kosh could only reply with, "Yes harder then steel they are but like a diamond cold to the touch."
As he left Kosh heard the Shadow laugh that outsiders had broken the Vorlons precious circle.
The Hendrik Brouwer was exploring the outer rim of the galaxy and discovered that mass extinctions had happened out here in the distant past.
The Hendrik Brouwer new hyperdrive had allowed it to travel further than any of the younger races had done before.
Then they started finding garden worlds that had been decimated in the distant past by some unknown war.
But the passage of time had made them habitual again.
Not wanted to waste any time the Hendrik Brouwer placed one of their precious stargates on the main world and then sent a message to Earthforce.
By day's end exploration teams would be here and then if the Hendrik Brouwer were correct colonists would follow shortly there after.
The Shadows and Vorlons followed the Hendrik Brouwer and observed the actions of the humans.
The humans were recolonising the outer rim of the galaxy that the Vorlons folly with the third space aliens had been left lifeless.
The Vorlons hated the fact that they had to call on the Shadows and the other first ones to defeat the third space aliens.
But what they hated more was that the Shadows never shopped reminding them of their folly.
Now the humans were expanding out on the outer rim and they had also become very isolationist.
How could the Minbari and Humans become one if the humans refused to interact with the Minbari.
Hopefully the Babylon stations would create enough interactions for the circle to continue.
For now the remaining first ones would watch the growth of the humans as they searched for more worlds and resources.