The lone figure wept for the humans who where falling in battle. His race had opted not to interfere in this war, or as he had put it, slaughter. "The boulders cried not for the pebbles. The pebbles are plenty and the circle preserved." they had told him.
Kosh Naranek hated it with a passion. To him all life was precious. Unlike the Ulkesh faction of the High Command, he felt that they to be caretakers of the younger races like Lorien told them to be. Yet no one seemed to want to be a caretaker anymore. They spoke of their task as if it was a job they wanted to leave behind.
"Kosh" a voice beckoned him.
An array of musical sounds and what humans would call gibberish echoed as the translator in the Vorlon's suit said "who are you?"
A brilliant light floated towards him, it metamorphosed into a humanoid shape. It appeared to a human male in his early 30s. The being had a slight smile on his face and didn't seem to be surprised by what the inside of Kosh's ship looked like.
"Hello old friend" he replied in Vorlon.
"You are Human? Who are you? How can you speak my language?" the shocked Vorlon asked.
"Oh, this" he focused as his shape changed into a Minbari. "I prefer my original form, though this rather infamous persona will be helpful. You do not know me, yet you will, it is a matter of time. Though it is amusing. You always seemed to have the answers, yet now the shoe is on the other foot."
"What are you? What do you want" the terrified Kosh asked.
"Ah the two questions which plagued my reality as well as this one. As for who I am. Your race knew me as Valen. I am here to tell you. The circle is broken."
"What impossible!" Kosh Naranek bellowed. Yet the possibilities came into his mind. The being in front of him was so far above him and it intimidated him yet it comforted him in the strangest of ways.
"Do not hesitate, I sense in you the will and the power. Take those who will help. A great war will come. You will be needed. Have faith." Valen said to comfort Kosh.
"What should I do?" Kosh asked.
"Go to the Epsilon Eridani system, the other players will arrive there soon enough" Valen said with a hint of amusement "You don't want to be late for this."
-
The Grey Council was in a meeting. The war had been going well and they where going to decide in which direction to advance. Of course the 'war' was what humans would call a turkey shoot. It was only half a step above a simulation to the Minbari warrior caste. Humans couldn't hit them because of their stealth and the Minbari could destroy an Earthforce ship with ease.
"Delenn, I am deeply disappointed in you." A loud booming voice said.
The Council chamber erupted in an uproar as a figure appeared in the middle of them. Then came the big shocker. The figure was Dukat. He was the one they fought the war in the name of. A man who was also to their knowledge was very dead, and his soul a part of the universe.
"Dukat? How is this possible?" one of the shocked Grey said. They never heard of Minbari souls that had become part of the universe to return.
"Starting a war of genocide against the earth alliance over my death. I had hoped better of you all." Dukat said bitterly.
"Am I dreaming or is it really you? And why do you defend these humans? They killed you! They attacked us without provocation" Delenn said with complete shock.
"Oh no Delenn, we provoked them. We where just to blame as they where. As to why I defend humanity?" he laughed "You know the law. Minbari do not kill Minbari."
"Yes, Every child knows this. What of it. Their humans." One of the Warrior caste council members said. He also made humans sound profane.
His laughter grew greater as he explained " Irony is the way of the universe. Yes. They are human, but they are also of Minbar."
The Council chamber went completely crazy at that statement. Everyone but Dukat screamed their protests at being related in the slightest to humans. Dukat just sighed. His people had become brittle and inflexible. They also became unable to use compassion with their strength. And that was going to become extremely important.
"Enough!" Dukat bellowed. His voice echoed in the chamber and silenced the Grey Council.
"We have human souls, as they have minbari souls." Dukat said.
"But.." one of the Worker leaders said.
"Don't forget your history, a Minbari not born of Minbar. He came at our greatest time of need. He helped our culture grow beyond what it was. He became our greatest hero. He was human. And he is even more angered by what you have done then I am" Dukat said.
Almost as one the Grey Council gulped. Valen was also watching them? And was a human of all things? Things were changing faster then the Grey Council could take in.
-
The once silent chamber hummed to life, as screens, dormant for a few million years, sprang to life. The captain of this ship, like the rest of the occupants, where cryogenically frozen. It was the best way for them to take a journey that would otherwise be much longer then even their life spans.
The computer activated the process which would lead to his eventual awakening. It was thawing out his body from the deep freeze and rejuvenating and all dead tissues. Once this had been done, his soul would be downloaded back into his body as the man known as Aleridan sprung back into life. Though it wasn't necessary, he felt like he needed a hot shower.
Aleridan took a deep breath, as the chamber opened up allowing him to exit. He found that other members of his crew where awaking. Several of them were exercising their bodies. Others were trying to get rid of some imaginary stiffness in their muscles.
"We made it" he laughed deeply "Wealin," he directed to his subordinate "what is our status?".
"Checking.." then Wealin added suddenly, "we are approaching a spiral galaxy, we will be inside it within 10 minutes"
"Good, how far till Earth?" Aleridan asked.
Wealin checked his readings and was shocked. He double checked them and knew this was not good. Not good at all. And he honestly had no idea how there could be a near copy of that system in this galaxy.
"Sir, this is bad, we are not approaching the right galaxy!" Wealin said.
"What? They could not have betrayed us." Ferius, who was the gunner, snapped "We did so much for them. We risked our lives to betray the Ori so they could leave. They promised we could follow!"
"No, I do not believe it is their deception, it appears the computer had to make course corrections and had apparently lost its lock on the earth system and regained it in this galaxy. We are headed there." Wealin said.
"That makes no sense what so ever! What do you mean there is an Earth in this galaxy?" Ferius asked.
"This galaxy, has a system which is very similar to our destination. However there are a few exceptions. It has only 9 planets and the orbits are a bit off" Wealin explained.
"So the navigational computer found a close approximation of our original destination and attached to it?" Aleridan asked.
"Yes. We can get raw materials there for our manufacturing needs. We also do know the location of the galaxy true earth is supposed to be at. We can easily get there once we get our ships repaired. But that is not all" Wealin said.
"Like it can't get any worst?" Ferius muttered.
"Our trip took longer then expected." Wealin stated.
"How long?" Aleridan asked.
"Eight million years..."Wealin said breathlessly.
"My god, I wonder if any of our kindred are alive. Can we scan the system now? I don't want us to go into hostile space while our ships need repairs" Aerlius, the second in command said.
"We are picking up signs of life and technology, sir, their Alterran." Wealin said.
"All the way out here? Maybe another fleet came to settle here. Thank god, we are not alone. We need to investigate before we commit all of our people to the system, we can outrace the rest with our drives. Send the signal to the fleet. We will go ahead and contact the Alterrans here." Aleridan ordered.
"Sir, they could be the enemy" Ferius asked "And I'm sure the Ori would still remember what we did. They always did have knack for holding long grudges."
"I don't believe so, from the scans it shows that while extremely low tech, they are well above what the zealots would allow such a culture to develop." Wealin said.
"Ok, set course for one of their ships, tell the fleet we will contact them and they should stay a few
light years out of the system just to be safe." Aleridan commanded.
-
For the next few hours the crew of the Orion Pax studied and picked over every bit of information they could find on Earth. A few Alterran ships were ordered to go light years out to obtain the primitive signals that had been sent off the planet.
"We have been monitoring their broadcasts, they use tachyons for communications. They not only use this method of communication for military applications but also for entertainment. It also appears that they are from the earth like planet in this galaxy, they even call it earth!" Wealin stated.
"Interesting, have we matched hailing frequencies? " Aleridan asked.
"Yes sir, our scans also show they do not employ hyperspace as their form of ftl. Their ships are extremely primitive " Wealin said. He found what they did use interesting, though that dimension, jump space, was extremely turbulent and like riding in a rough sea with a primitive sail boat.
"Hmm. Then we appear to have the upper hand. Drop out of hyperspace and hail them." Aleridan ordered.
-
Alarms rang on the Lexington as an unidentified space craft suddenly appeared 100 clicks from their ship. The unidentified ship was unlike anyone they had ever seen before. It looked unlike any ship anyone on the Lexington had seen.
"What the hell?" Sheridan said.
"Commander Sheriden we have an unidentified vessel approaching us at high, I repeat high speeds." Ensign Steven Corbin said.
"Try and hail them" Sheridan ordered.
"They are hailing us." Corbin stated.
"Put it on screen" Sheridan ordered.
John's eyes widened with shock and amazement as a human face appeared on the screen, then again the Centauri looked human as well. So there being another humanoid species out there wasn't unheard of. The questions were how they got all the way to Earth without anyone knowing until they showed up, what they wanted, who they were and if they were going to help against the Minbari.
"I am Aleridan, captain of this vessel. We come in peace. We greet our brethren in this galaxy and wish to reunite our kindred" Aleridan stated.
"Our race? Kindred? I'm a human from earth. I do not know what species you are but you look human to me." Sheridan said. Of course that didn't mean anything. The Centauri said Earth was a lost colony of theirs…and they weren't even close to being genetically related to homo sapiens.
"That is because we are human, as you put it, just like you. We are the same species. In fact you are our decedents; this earth is one of our colonies" Aleridan explained.
"Are you telling me that human life began out there? In another galaxy? And what did you mean by this earth?" Sheridan asked. His gut said they were on the level, but he wasn't going to be sure without any proof.
"All in good time, we wish to open dialog with your government." Aleridan said.
"I wanted to warn you that this is not a good time, we are at war with a ruthless race. They started attacking us a month ago." John said. Secretly he hoped that these 'humans' would help kick the Minbari's butts across the galaxy.
"The Minbari yes, we intercepted your communications. We will help you deal with them . They seem like your typical arrogant younger race."
"Younger race? The Minbari have been in space for over a thousand years!" Sheridan yelled.
"And our race, the Alterrans, or human as you call our species, have been in space for over 10 million years. The Minbari are to us nothing more then mere children." Aleridan said with a hint of amusement.
John Sheridan, despite his years of training, nearly fainted. He never expected to ever encounter anything remotely like this. He had the gut feeling that Aleridan was telling the truth. He wondered what the reaction back home would be to that tidbit of information. What those humans were going to say and how everyone was going to make encountering the Centauri look like small potatoes.