Chapter 2

January 23, 2248

She hardly recognized the face of the woman who stared at her from the other side of the looking glass.

Elizabeth Levy studied her reflection in her private lavatory mirror, her eyes wide with horror. When had she gotten so…old, she wondered. Only three years ago, she had looked good for a woman her age. Her skin had glowed and her complexion had been nearly flawless. Now she bore dark circles around her eyes. Her hair had lost its sheen; now it appeared to be dry, lifeless.

Perhaps her personal appearance was some sort of harbinger of the fate in store for her entire race.

No longer able to face the ghost in the mirror, Elizabeth closed her eyes and turned away from that ravaged visage to once again face the stark reality that she may be the one to preside over her government at Götterdämmerung, the very end of humanity itself on their side of the galaxy.

She staggered gingerly into her somber office with the slow steps of a woman decrepit and weary. When the presence of her desk chair finally registered in her mind, she flopped down onto it. As she stared at the papers on top of her desk, too exhausted to even begin to read them, her intercom buzzed for her attention. She pressed a button on her desk's control console and asked, "Yes, Martin, what is it?"

Her personal assistant said, "Madame President, Secretary Hannah and General Hague are here to see you. They say it's important."

The President sighed deeply. "Fine, Martin. Send them in."

She tried to paint a cheerful look on her face before they entered. Just then, the door to her office opened and Martin showed the Secretary of Defense, Josephine Hannah and General William Hague of EarthForce in. Elizabeth smiled thinly at both of her advisors. Jo had been a former dean at Stanford University, a brilliant woman who was highly regarded in interstellar relations circles. Levy had needed someone of Jo's stature after she had to basically 'clean house' in the Department of Defense.

It had been a group of high level idiots in EarthForce who'd been responsible for Janikowski's ill-fated encounter with the Minbari. After the Minbari had begun to attack Earth Alliance warships and the colonies, nearly the entire Earth Alliance Senate as well as many prominent citizens had demanded that heads needed to roll. And, Elizabeth Levy, in this case, had been quite happy to oblige them.

Planning a first contact situation with a reclusive and powerful race like the Minbari was a risky and dangerous venture from the outset that should have been directly and explicitly approved by her before it had been executed. Yet, apparently, the Joint Chiefs hadn't seen it that way. So they, for the most part, had to go.

After Levy had sacked Fleet Admiral Harris, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Thompson, and General Rajiv, she'd decided she needed someone she could trust to work with General Fontaine, the only member to survive her house cleaning, and Fontaine's subordinate, the Chief of Earthforce Operations, Lt. General Lefcourt. Even though those two men had been involved in the Janikowski debacle up to their eyeballs, she couldn't dump them because she'd needed their expertise and command ability to prosecute the war. So, she'd chosen Josephine Hannah both for her expertise in the field and her unquestioned loyalty to her old academic colleague's politician wife.

Now, as for William Hague, Levy had believed he was precisely the man she needed to head the reconstituted Joint Chiefs of Staff. Hague had been a smart, young hot-shot who'd flown through the ranks. The man was a brilliant space combat tactician and, even better, had had nothing to do with Janikowski's ill-fated mission. Hague had no need to cover his ass and Levy counted on him to give her straight answers during these trying times.

"General…Jo," the President said.

"Madame President," Jo said breathlessly, "It appears that the first of our visitors have arrived a day early!"

A warm sensation began to slowly displace the clammy cold feeling that had gripped Levy ever since the Excelsior had left for the Alpha Quadrant. She blinked at that. It was then she realized how much she'd been comforted by the visit of that Starfleet vessel and the regal ambassador from the planet Vulcan. "Why…that's remarkable!" she exclaimed. "Are the ships that have just arrived even faster than Captain Sulu's vessel?"

"Apparently so, ma'am," the general said. "According to the captain of this particular Federation ship, both his vessel and the Klingon warship that accompanied her are capable of higher sustained faster-than-light velocities for a longer duration than the Excelsior."

The President nodded. "Are we ready to receive them?"

Secretary Hannah smirked. "Yes, Madame President. We are scheduled to meet them at 2 p.m. sharp. They say that both Ambassador Sarek and the Klingon representative will meet with you regarding matters of state. Meanwhile, the Federation captain and the Klingon commander shall meet with Bill and me to discuss helping us with weapon systems and the installation of planetary defenses."

"Good," the President murmured as she glanced at her watch and saw that she only had ten minutes left before their arrival. Then she looked up at her advisors and muttered, "I just wonder what accepting all of their help will cost us in the long run."

Secretary Hannah shot a confused look at Levy. "What do you mean by that, Liz?"

Levy smiled. She kind of liked when her cabinet members dropped formality and called her by her nickname. "Jo, most people don't lay everything on the line like the Federation and the Klingons seem to be doing on our behalf without expecting something valuable in return." Then she shook her head and muttered, "I just hope that their price to us won't be too high."

"Madame President," the general said, "Whatever their price may be, we have little choice except to pay it. As the old saying goes, beggars can't be choosers. The Minbari are hell bent on killing every man, woman and child wherever they may be. So my view is that we should be prepared to do whatever is necessary to survive, even if it means eating a whole lot of crow, swallowing our pride, and accepting our place as the 'red-headed stepchild' in regards to the humans of the Federation."

She nodded at the man. "Those are my sentiments, too, general. However, some of us aren't quite as practical as you are. Didn't you hear what one of our so-called experts said when he was told about the 'claims' that Sarek had made about the Federation?"

Hague snorted. "Yes, a Dr. Khali, wasn't it?"

Levy nodded. "Yes, Amir Rajiv Khali," she spat. Then she scanned the top of her desk, located the report, picked it up and said, "Listen to what this madman had said. 'Based upon my analysis of the material left behind by the representatives of the Federation and the notes taken during our discussions with the alien ambassador and the human captain from the ersatz Earth, the multi-species nature of the Federation makes it a mongrel power incapable of stability because there is no one dominant race keeping order in that nation. Allowing aliens to have strong voices in a single interstellar government is a recipe for disaster, if not civil war. Especially when that star nation is as large as the Federation representatives wildly claim it to be.'"

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"Oh Lord," Jo breathed as her eyes opened wide in disbelief. Had the man basically called Captain Sulu's world a cheap knock off of their own supposedly 'real' Earth?

She'd met Khali during some symposium on interstellar relations several years ago. He'd given a speech about why the universe as they knew it at the time favored stellar empires governed by a single dominant species by promoting his so-called 'defense mechanisms of nature' theory. He believed environmental constraints inherent to the home worlds of the major species in their sector of space ensured a particular species' survival in a hostile galaxy. Now, after all they've learned from their visitors about how other humanoids from the plethora of worlds in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants could interbreed with one another, the existence of the Federation called everything Khali believed in into question.

Now, Jo narrowed her eyes at her friend, the President of the Earth Alliance. "I hope the man didn't say that in a public forum or on TV. I wouldn't want the Federation to get wind of it and be offended by his small-mindedness." Indeed, she hoped Ambassador Sarek would never hear about the comments Khali had made about the "abhorrent nature" of Sarek's marriage to his human wife. Even though the ambassador had claimed that his people's dispassionate nature would lead them to ignore bigoted statements, Jo suspected that it was still wise not to get on the bad side of a Vulcan.

Now, she huffed and asked both Liz and the general, "What in the hell is wrong with some people? The Federation comes all the way from the other side of the galaxy to help us and this pompous ass decides to go out of his way to insult them?"

The President shook her head. "I know, Jo, I know. Don't get me started. I suppose fear of the unknown makes a lot of us do stupid things." Then she shot a glance at the ornate grandfather clock in the far corner of her office. "Well, it's time. Let's go and meet them as they, how do they say? Oh, yes…beam down from their ships."

With that, the trio left the President's office for the concourse in front of the presidential residence.

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A few minutes later, Secretary Hannah stood in the Concourse of Worlds alongside the President and General Hague as they awaited the arrival of the visitors. The plaza had been cleared earlier of all non-essential personnel by the honor guard of EarthForce marines who stood at attention nearby, their PPG's securely holstered, so there would be no chance of misinterpretations on the part of either of the parties or a senseless act of attempted piracy.

There had been a few zealots, notably Senator Morgan Clark among them, who'd wanted to take the advances of the Federation from the Excelsior by force of arms. Jo had been ecstatic that Liz had ordered those people to forget that notion 'now and forever' unless they wanted to be hanging on the end of a noose for treason against humanity. Even had Liz been insane enough to have gone along with such an idiotic plan, it would have been counterproductive and ultimately fruitless. The Minbari would have never given Earth enough time to learn the Federation's technology and to build a fleet of new starships using the Federation's faster-than-light propulsion and weapon systems. If Clark and his other short-sighted acolytes had had their way, all they would have done was ensured that humanity, at least on their side of the galaxy, would soon be nothing but a memory.

It was while she'd been reflecting on the insanity of Clark's approach when she heard a sound like the buzzing of thousands of angry bees. The noise then drew her attention to an area several meters in front of her party where she could see eight bluish wave-like effects appear in the air right before her very eyes. Soon, people began to take shape and form within the waveforms as the buzzing sound changed into a nearly deafening whine. Then maybe two or three beats of her heart later, the whine faded away, leaving eight people standing before her.

Jo immediately recognized one of them. Ambassador Sarek had returned to them and had clearly brought some help with him.

After Sarek, the first man she'd noticed had made Jo, a confirmed single woman, desire to ask him if she could please have his baby. The man was simply beautiful to behold! His skin tone reminded her of the color of caramel, his features were masculine yet charming, in a boyish sort of way. He was tall, lean and fit. His eyelashes were dark and full and long and dreamy and he flashed a smile at her…er…at them which was somewhat risqué and full of steamy promises that this man could definitely make her get her groove back!

His uniform appeared slightly different from the two females who were with their group. He wore a jacket in the same color as their uniforms but its style was more like an old bomber jacket common in the twentieth century.

It was this comparison of uniforms that had finally drawn her attention away from the gorgeous man to the women. Then she stifled a gasp when she realized that both women weren't human at all!

The first woman was blessed with exquisite brunette hair enhanced by chestnut highlights drawn up in an intricate bun that revealed pointed ears like those of Ambassador Sarek. Even through the red tunic of her uniform, Jo noticed how well-endowed the woman was, which seemed so grossly unfair considering her Amazonian stature, tiny waist, and what could be seen of her long attractive legs under the conservative skirt she wore.

As for the other woman, Jo had never seen her like even when she'd met the crew of the Excelsior. This woman was slightly shorter than the Vulcan female yet just as trim and fit. She had beautiful red hair pulled into a pony tail and an odd bone structure in the midst of her forehead. Yet what struck Jo were the woman's haunting eyes. They reminded Jo of those of a cat.

The other four men looked very different considering they were holding items that appeared to be weapons. Their uniforms were drab and grayish-green and practically screamed 'Marines!'

Just then, Ambassador Sarek broke her reverie by raising his right hand and spreading his fingers so that his ring finger and middle finger parted to form a 'V.' "President Levy, we come to serve," Sarek announced.

Then Jo received the first of the shocks of her life that day, when Liz responded with a cheeky, flirtatious grin and said, "Your service honors us, ambassador."

Sarek reacted by the slight lift of his right eyebrow toward his hairline. "Ah, yes. You must have studied the materials I left concerning my planet's customs, Madame President."

Liz shrugged and smiled mysteriously at the alien. "Well, a good leader should always be prepared." Then the President added, "Ambassador, you remember Secretary Hannah, of course."

"Yes, I do. Greetings, Ms. Secretary."

"Hello, ambassador."

Levy then said, "Ambassador, I would like to introduce General William Hague to you. The general is the new Chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff."

"Greetings, general," Sarek offered. Then the Vulcan turned to his party and said, "Madame President, Secretary Hannah, General Hague, allow me to introduce the members of my party to you. This," he indicated by an elegant sweep of his hand toward the gorgeous man, "is Captain Jason Tynen of the USS Valkyrie. The young Vulcan woman by the captain's side is Commander V'Lar, his first officer."

V'Lar nodded elegantly to Liz and said in a smooth monotone, "We come to serve, Madame President."

Liz returned the commander's greeting. "Your service honors us, commander."

"Madame President," Sarek said, "V'Lar is a member of my family as is the captain by marriage; I would be what you would refer to on your world as V'Lar's 'uncle' and she is the captain's wife. Normally, my people do not reveal private matters such as this to others; however in the interests of what you would term as transparency, I determined it would be best to disclose this information to you to avoid any…unpleasantness."

At first both the President's and Jo's eyes flew wide open at Sarek's disclosure. Wow, Hannah thought, another Vulcan – Human marriage! Although the Secretary of Defense had already begun to lament that the man of her dreams had already been taken, the President had already recovered and nodded solemnly to Sarek. "We appreciate your foresight, ambassador. And a warm welcome to you both on behalf of the Earth Alliance, Captain Tynen and Commander V'Lar."

V'Lar nodded once again while Tynen smiled warmly at the President. In kind, Liz responded with a coy smile of her own. Even though the guy belonged to Sarek's niece with her pouty lips and her legs-for-days, Jo couldn't stop the naughty thoughts about the man from racing through her mind.

"On behalf of the crew of the Valkyrie, thank you for your considerate welcome, Madame President," he said, shaking Levy's hand. Then, smoothly, he guided the President to the red headed woman. "May I take the opportunity to present my Tactical and Security Officer, Lt. Etana Mazan of the planet Ktaria VII? It's a planet in the Alpha Quadrant known for its cuisine and as a popular planet for tourists to visit."

Liz smiled pleasantly at the young woman. "Lt. Mazan, welcome to Earth."

"Thank you, Madame President," the attractive alien officer said.

"Finally," the captain said, "these gentlemen," he indicated the men who held the items that appeared to be weapons, "are my security team for this visit. They are members of an organization we call the Military Assault Command Organization, or 'MACO' for short. The Military Assault Command Organization works in tandem with Starfleet but it's a separate agency. However, during times of war, MACOs are assigned to serve on Starfleet vessels. While on board the Valkyrie, the MACOs accept orders from me and my command staff."

"Captain," the general said, "although I'm glad to see that you've taken your security posture quite seriously by bringing your MACOs along, I'm slightly confused about why you wanted to project such force for a meeting with a pair of civilians and an armchair quarterback like me?"

Tynen regarded the general with a neutral expression; he'd obviously not bought into the general's attempt to camouflage his own military associations. "Sir, my intent wasn't to project a particular posture for your personnel's benefit. My intent was to project it for the benefit of the people who are beaming in…right…about…now," he said as six new forms began to materialize within golden yellow waveforms in the same place where the Federation personnel had been standing minutes before. Now, though, instead of seeing the familiar, albeit somewhat alien forms of some of the Starfleet personnel, the Earth Alliance party faced beings most would associate with depictions of demons from the depths of Hades itself.

Although they were roughly humanoid in appearance, these new beings were dusky in color and their skulls appeared to have a kind of crest beginning on their foreheads and continuing up beyond their hairlines. They were tall and burly looking. They also wore their hair long but appeared to keep it neat and well-groomed. Their black uniforms, armored collars, and very large and fortunately holstered sidearms added to the menace that oozed from their every pore.

When one of them, an individual who appeared to be older than the others, approached, Jo had to fight down the urge to run screaming in sheer fright in the opposite direction. Then when the creature smiled, its predator's teeth were plainly evident for all to see. "Ah, my dear Ambassador Sarek, my dear Captain Tynen and my dear Lady V'Lar, who do we have here?"

In response, both Vulcans simply nodded to the creature while Tynen actually gave it a warm smile. "Ah, my dear General Koloth, may I introduce you to Earth Alliance President Elizabeth Levy, Secretary of Defense Josephine Hannah, and EarthForce General William Hague?"

The creature bowed stiffly to the President and the rest of her party. "Madame President, Ms. Secretary, General Hague, I am Klingon or, in my native tongue, tlhIngan. I am Koloth of the House of Rahnaz. I have been sent by our Chancellor Gorkon to represent my government's interests during our campaign to engage the Minbari and defeat them wherever they may crawl and hide from our righteous might! As for your government, let me assure you that our intentions are both peaceful and honorable."

Liz seemed to recover rapidly as she shook the Klingon's hand. "Thank you, general, for you and your people coming to our aid in our time of great need."

"Actually, it is we who are thankful, Madame President. Recently, we had approached the Federation to discuss peace terms and to establish a new compact between us. Fortunately for us, you humans on the other side of the galaxy had managed to anger the Minbari to the point they decided to exterminate you. Subsequently, your war caused the Minbari to stumble upon both Federation and our space in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Believe you me, when those Minbari dogs destroyed the Regulus colonies, the faux pacifists of the Federation finally showed their true colors. Now, Starfleet is out for blood alongside us…for a change."

"Excuse me, General Koloth," Hague asked, "are you saying that Starfleet is made up of people with falsely pacifistic natures?"

"No, General Hague," the Klingon snapped. "Only a soon-to-be-dead fool would believe that Starfleet personnel aren't consummate warriors. They and they alone are all that stood between the Federation and its subjugation by the Empire or the Romulans. And Starfleet never faltered in more than a century and a half in its protection of the Federation. Yet, even with its proud history of combat, there are those in the Federation's society who'd desire peace at any cost. They would cripple Starfleet by demilitarizing its vessels. Fools, the lot of them!" the Klingon spat. "They clearly are too stupid to realize what you have discovered for yourselves," he noted to the Earth Alliance people. "It's a cold, cruel universe out there. It is neither for the timid nor the weak."

Hannah blinked twice at that. Perhaps EarthForce's assessment about the Federation's warrior ethos required a serious reevaluation if Klingons like Koloth believed Starfleet people were truly 'bad ass.' "General Koloth, if I may," she asked, "why did you decide to ally with the Federation against the Minbari?"

He chuckled lowly and the rumble of his laugh brought chills to her very soul. "My dear Secretary Hannah, the Federation was kind enough to allow us to share the glory of the Minbari's subjugation with it. That, in and of itself, forced many Klingons to see it in a new light. However, even had the Federation decided to pursue this campaign on its own, we still would have found a way to come here and teach those arrogant boneheads a lesson they'd never forget. Why, they had the unmitigated gall to attack Klingon vessels in our space and transmit a message saying that their attack was in retribution for our Chancellor daring to aid your refugees! Then they compounded their error by 'ordering' us to never interfere with Minbari business again."

Tynen smirked at that. "General Koloth's people did not take kindly to that, Ms. Secretary."

Koloth laughed heartily. "No, my dear Tynen, we did not! I believe, as you humans would say, that it went over with us like a 'lead balloon.' So, here we are, comrades-in-arms with our old foes in Starfleet, to demonstrate to the Minbari what 'retribution' truly means. Isn't the irony of the universe truly glorious?" the Klingon mused.

As Hannah tried to seek congruity between the creature's brutish appearance and his suave, albeit sinister, manner, Koloth turned to an officer who appeared to be in the early stages of middle age if he were human. "Madame President, Ms. Secretary, General Hague, allow me to introduce Commander Klagh of the proud House of K'naiah."

"Commander," the President said, "we welcome your ship and crew to Earth Alliance space."

"Thank you, Madame President." Then the commander turned to the captain of the Valkyrie. "Tynen, I see you've brought along your MACOs on this little excursion. Why, I'm surprised at you! Didn't you know that nothing causes the blood of a Klingon warrior to sing as the possibility of facing the elite warriors of your Starfleet in glorious battle?"

Jo spied the nervous look on Liz's face at the Klingon commander's question when Tynen simply chuckled and said, "Well, Klagh, although you know that Etana, the boys and I are always up for the challenge, at the moment, we don't have time for the joys of hand-to-hand combat. We've got a lot of work to do to prepare the proper 'welcome' for our Minbari friends. Why, even as we speak, my engineering team aboard the Valkyrie is delivering the first of the shield generators to this area to protect Earthdome."

Klagh snickered and nodded. "Tynen, although you sorely tempt me with the notion of engaging in par'Mach with the glorious Etana, you are right about the need to use our time to prepare for battle. You should know that Gemma, the nasty, old wench who leads my engineering team is already deploying the Starkiller satellite we brought here on the Pagh in geosynchronous orbit above this world."

When the Klingon commander had finished his little speech, the red headed alien woman had a concerned look on her face. "Captain," Jo overheard the woman ask, "what in the world does 'par'Mach' mean?"

Tynen stared at the Klingon with narrowed eyes. "Lieutenant, trust me, you don't want to know," he murmured lowly.

Just as Hannah was trying to piece together this business about par'Mach and determine what in the hell were 'shield generators' and 'Starkiller satellites,' the President said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I know we have much to discuss. My aides have prepared a conference room where we can engage in more substantive talks. Would you care to follow me?"

As Federation and Klingon personnel trailed behind the President and her honor guard into her residence, Jo had finally started to believe that maybe, just maybe, the human race on her side of the galaxy may have been given a reprieve from their death sentence at the hands of the Minbari by the arrival of these unlikely allies from beyond the farthest star.

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