The Spirits That I Called
Disclaimer: I don't own a thing: Babylon 5, all characters, places and related indicia belong to Warner Bros. and JMS. Well, no, actually all additional characters and things that seem new to you do belong to me.
Author's note: Ok, it's been a while.
About this story – I don't want to spoil anything by telling too much, except that even if you don't like it, I'm fairly sure you have never ever read this plotline before. If you have, please tell me, I would be extremely surprised . It's a bit
AU-ish but I try not to go there too much.
I actually have a detailed plot-line set out that I won't budge from, not just a vague idea about where I'm going, so I know how long it'll get (it'll take me a while) and I will finish this off as soon as possible. I want to get it off my mind, too.
Unfortunately I don't have a beta, so if you find any inconsistencies, or something that isn't right either because it's technically, biologically, canonically or otherwise impossible – please don't hesitate to drop me a line to tell me.
Finally – please enjoy! And please feel free to review – you'd make my day.
Prologue
All day he had been laying in his room, waiting for night to come, staring up at the stars his father had painted for him in the ceiling, and imagining how the small, bright dots represented an infinite diversity of life no one knew about and that was there only for him to explore.
There was only he and the universe, and the universe was his.
He was certainly not that boy anymore and he had never become an explorer but an important man dedicated to serving nothing but his known world. And yet here he was, looking all day at the small, bright dots through the window of the small shuttle, enjoying the serenity that only space brought him.
He had left a few days ago, not telling anyone, as everyone knew and no one dared to ask.
Silently, he had made his way to a corner of the galaxy he had never visited before, imagining that the stars were different there, as untouched by anyone's eyes.
It had been time to leave again, when he couldn't stand the constant bickering, the petty discussions and the everyday squabble anymore. Here he would sit and wait and look until the stars told him to return home, and the bickering and the petty discussions became meaningful again.
Or until he ran out of fuel, but it still gave him a couple of days.
One thing he had learned from his childhood was that after a while of waiting and looking, some things that were perfect constants started to move, and illusions filled the mind. Coincidentally it appeared that these illusions had come back to him, just in this moment of waiting and looking as he felt his world shake, and space giving way to a colourful swirl ejecting a perfect mechanic dragon.
His body urged him to let him return fully to the dreamy sleep that had overcome him a few hours earlier but his mind caught him just in the right moment to let him wake up. Suddenly he was widely awake, as he realised that the dragon that had lazily loitered in his dazed dream was a ship – a real, solid ship unlike anything he had ever seen before, that were right in front of his eyes.
It was the biggest ship he had ever seen, vast and dark, almost clumsy yet intimidating. It was seemingly unaware of the presence of his small ship as it slowly glided past him, moving to a point further away to his right where another jumpgate was formed.
The point had just started to open as he realised that he could not just stay behind as if nothing had happened. He had just found a new race, a new civilisation in the galaxy, and if that ship left, he could call for others to search for it but they might never find it again and something great might be lost. Without thinking for another second he steered his small flyer to be right behind the massive alien ship. Suddenly afraid that the jumpgate would close just in front of him, separating from the large ship he sneaked up closely until he almost could feel the massive engines of the ship and he only could see the dark metal compartment of the rear.
The first trip to hyperspace was exiting, as he was engulfed by the strange design and he felt a surge of adrenaline rushing through, fearing that he would be discovered. Being only in a small flyer, he had no trouble following the mammoth ship, which slid along in a graceful pace suitable only to mammoth ships.
But as nothing happened – he remained hidden and after a while it got tedious to examine the ship and occasionally make a jump. In fact, he had never imagined his adventure becoming such a dull pastime but eventually he realised that they were approaching their goal, when they emerged from hyperspace to a normal space that was filled with alien ships, small and great, all with the same tinny characteristics.
He was there and for a minute fear threatened to conquer him, as he remembered that he was all alone, surrounded by an alien race he literally knew nothing about. He had entered their home without an invitation, he most certainly didn't know their language and there was a large chance they'd shoot him at sight. Yet he was exited, that he himself had been chosen to find these aliens, maybe even establish contact - create a bond between races that would be important to his people.
There, right in front of him was what he believed to be their home planet. It was quite small, greenish but surrounded by a multitude of ships and stations and satellites, a constant buzz that nonetheless seemed to ignore him, or maybe they were just unable to read his signals, after all they probably knew nothing about his ships either.
Certain of being invisible behind the large ship he closed up, taking a closer look at the planet they were approaching. He imagined there being millions of beings running around in streets far down, he assumed they were quite advanced, due to their ships and the strange equipment they had sent up in space to protect the planet. However, they appeared useless, as it was easy for him to pass the radars in the shadow of the native ship. It suddenly struck him, that if he didn't put an instant end to his escapade he would soon indeed be landing on the alien planet, where they would surely find out about him soon enough. Then again, his fuel was low, and as the reality of his little voyage suddenly struck him he cursed himself for his curiosity.
There would never be a grand meeting between the races, because he soon would be dead either way, either by crashing on the planet or by being killed as an alien enemy by these strangers. He briefly wondered what was worse, but was abruptly torn out of his reverie, as he realised that he was about to enter atmosphere and his instruments showed strange readings. They had started acting strangely when he had come closer to the planet and somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that it was too late to return now.
The choice had been made for him – he was going down and he was going to crash and the aliens reactions to his existence all of a sudden became the least of his worries.
Atmosphere hit his little flyer hard and sharply, as he desperately tried to regain control of the ship. It was hot and while the entrance to atmosphere had he realised that he was approaching ground with absurd speed.
Having kept some of the steering capacity, the ship finally agreed to slow down, allowing him to manoeuvre.
Think! Think - the blue is probably water. The yellow – straight lines, it must be fields. Grey? Cities? Let them have photosynthesis and let that green there be forests!
To his left there was some white sticking up, mountains he believed, and decided that left wasn't the way to go. To his right, there was a very large patch of green; and behind it a large patch of yellow. Developed land, he would almost stand a chance of surviving if he landed in the open, despite the risk of discovery. As he flew over what he believed were treetops, he rapidly realised that there was no chance he would reach the fields. He was going down, and he was going down fast.
The highest treetops had started to come in his way. While slowing down his ship, they also threatened to cause serious danger as he descended. He felt the flyer shook and he was bumped around between the trees, while he desperately tried to remain what little steering power that he still had.
There!
He could not believe his luck as he saw the trees open up in front of him, while he tried to control his crude landing. His ship was cutting off large branches that bruised the hull and he believed it would take no more, as he realised he was only a few feet above ground. Then, all of a sudden, he saw it! He had reached the clearing he had just found! In a last, frantic attempt he tried to keep the nose of the ship up while attempting to land.
The flyer stuttered, bouncing up and down on ground like a toy, before it slipped and started to glide on the ground. He madly tried to put it to a halt, but was abruptly relieved of that task as the small flyer came to a brutal halt with a large thump. In the fraction of a second he recognized that he had hit a rock, before everything went black.
That was the prologue - hope you liked it. Chapter 1 will follow soon, as it is basically already written.