First contact

"Quadrant 7 by 11 by 2 clear", a voice spoke through the communicator in Akel's armguard.
"Quadrant 7 by 11 by 5 clear", another voice followed soon after.
"Good", she replied without lifting the communicator to her lips. "Finish your sweep and return to 7 by 12 by 1. I will pick you up there with the Tredano"
"Another job well done", Varas smiled as she stretched her legs, lifting them off the thrusters for a second. Another Nial fighter crossed her close by and then followed on her wing. Renati was smiling. Not just any smile, but that mischievous smile she carried often whenever she had an idea that got them into trouble.

"What is it?", Varas asked through a sigh.
"I think we should do an extra sweep", she suggested.
"We checked everything Renati. Our borders are clear, just as they always are. And if they weren't, the Warrior Caste would have intervened already. I don't understand why Akel sends us on border patrol – of our own borders! That's for our Warriors to protect, Anla'Shok patrol foreign borders. Why is she restricting us to Minbari space?", Varas wondered out loud.
"Perhaps she wants us to be Warriors", Renati joked, but Varas failed to see the humour.
"Oh don't worry Varas, it's her way of punishing us for the Centauri mishap", Renati smiled as she playfully twirled her Nial fighter around its axis.

Generally, Renati didn't like flying. The bigger ships yes, a small carrier, a battle cruiser, but Nial fighters – the horror of confinement! Even though they were twice the size other species' standard fighters were, Renati loathed them.
However, flying with Varas was different. There was less stress – probably because of the odd-ball's excellent flying skills. It felt as if there was always someone watching her.
With Varas, the confinement of the fighter transformed in the freedom of walking in space.
To most others, she was odd and shunned. No one liked to be paired up with her, however being Minbari they were more discreet about it than any Human would. Renati however believed Anla'Shok Na couldn't have made a better match.

"Never mind the 18 Narn that had survived thanks to our escapade", Varas complained and derailed Renati's train of thought.
"Of course there's that, but you know I think she has come to expect that kind of thing of us. Ever since the manoeuvre we pulled on IO-", Renati commented
"Ha!", Varas interrupted her friend in laughter, "The manoeuvre you pulled on IO!"
"You helped!", she retaliated.
"Yes, because you asked me to! But I told you before I didn't support it. I never thought generals would be that easily fooled", she retaliated.
"Good judgement", Renati grinned kiddingly. Varas didn't mind being teased by her friend. She could take a beating and give one back.
"Perhaps. Regardless, that's why you got credit for it", she replied.
"Yes I never got that", Renati replied, her mind in reminisce, "Why were you so reluctant of accepting recognition?"
"Renati it was your idea; yes I helped you execute the plan, but if it had been up to me I wouldn't have fired. I would have waited and we would have had a lot more casualties", she spoke with a sad voice and remembered the moment.

Renati and Varas had cleared a minefield of tremor-triggered bombs surrounding IO and thus clearing a path for the Warrior fleet. They remained in orbit of the planet however, against default protocol. They were supposed to get in, take out the mines and get out. But they both found it a good idea to inspect the defences of the planet further.
To their surprise they found far less resistance than expected. There were only 13 main carriers hovering in front of the planet's lines, waiting to ambush anything that got through.

They gave the clear to the fleet to assault the Humans straight away; however Renati had another trick up her sleeve. Together with Varas they circled the planet unseen and appeared in the back of the Human ships. During the time they were getting to the other side of the planet, they charged their weapons to maximum.

A Nial fighter can then launch 3 major bursts, equivalent to the smallest shot of the fusion cannon of a Morsshin carrier, before needing to recharge.

Renati's idea was to re-emerge from the darkness behind the Human ships at the exact moment the Minbari fleet arrived and fire from behind. She hoped to confuse them in that manner and put them in a serious disadvantage.
The move however was not without risk. If they would fail and the enemy realised it were mere Nial fighters shooting at them, they were defenceless long enough to be taken out even by a Human fighter on manual.

Varas had – obviously – been reluctant, but Renati had pushed through her will by counting on her friendship.
The move worked a lot better than anticipated. After their joint bursts took out one of the destroyers, six of the other 13 turned to face them, thereby exposing their vulnerable backs to the Sharlin and other cruisers launching a full assault on them.
Even though the Humans should have had visual on the two Minbari Nial fighters firing at them from behind, it was probably the high rate of confusion and unbelief that fighters were never alone that brought them down so easily.

The Minbari people didn't lose a single soul in that strike, an event that happened less than their pride allowed them to admit.

That day, Renati was taken aboard the Sharlin cruiser Trigati by her mentor Akel and was awarded the rank of Alyt by Zha'den Na(1) Branmer. The event brought back mixed feelings for Varas as well as for Renati, not because of Varas' distance from the recognition, but because of the Rigel 3 massacre that happened soon after. An event not often spoken of, but carved in the memories of the Fi'Sularae(2).

"It shouldn't have happened in the first place", Renati broke the silence with the last thought leaving her mind. Varas looked at her friend flying next to her, feeling guilty for bringing it up.
"Tell me Renati, where are we going?"
The Religious Caste snapped out of her trance and smiled. "You mean, we are?"
"Don't I always follow you wherever you go?", Varas teased.

Renati broke off formation and flew away. Following at medium speed, Varas calculated where her friend was headed.
"7 by 1 by 5?", she queried.
"Rumours", Renati replied.
"Oh no… who and what this time?", Varas switched to auto pilot.
"Vitri told me he had spotted something strange there last week", she replied.
"Vitri? You believe the Worker Caste who never gets his bone out of the engine room?", Varas mocked her friend.
"It has a window", Renati stated blankly.
"Renati", Varas sighed, "You should stop chasing rumours. They either lead to nothing or escalate. In any case, the end result is not good"
"We're Anla'Shok, finding out the difference between the nothings and everythings is what we do for living! And what better way to find out than to check it out for yourself?", Renati grinned.
"Indomitable", Varas sighed and switched back to manual.

More flying – a lot more flying - brought the two Anla'Shok to the location in question. To Varas' surprise, they were not disappointed with more blackness. In the distance, their scanners picked up some activity.
'Full stealth', Varas received through text from Renati. They changed the configuration of their ships to fly slower, but virtually undetected – especially to inferior technology, which of course for the Minbari was everything but the Vorlon.

'What in Valen's name is that?', Renati's screen lit up when they enclosed on the phenomenon. She couldn't quite make it out herself. There were several ships gathered in a small location and it looked like – well it looked like they were building something in space. A huge space platform, or the likes of it.
Her ship's scanners were busy deciphering the information, while she manually zoomed in on one of the ships.
'Can't be up to no good', she messaged back when she saw what they were dealing with.
'Why?'
'Torrbari(3)'

A large group of Human transport ships filled the base of the structure, guarded by a minimal occupancy of war ships.
Would they do this on purpose, to make it look not important?
If they were building a space platform in neutral space, so close to the border of Minbari space, this would amount to no good.

But appeared too large for a space platform – even in Human standards.

The lack of guns was another oddity. Of course, this was still a rough skeleton of the finished product, but it didn't look very mobile or efficient for battle. Too… round.
But if not for battle, what were they building this platform for?

'We're not alone', Varas signalled through to her friend. Renati looked on her scanner, but saw nothing. 'Increase sensitivity', she commanded the ship.
There they were: two small ships of unknown silhouette.
'Bring up visual'

'What in the name of the earth of Minbar are those?', Renati texted to Varas.
"No idea, but they've seen us", the Anla'Shok's voice sounded through the speaker.
"Are they hostile?", Renati asked.
"Well either they want to talk to us real badly or they're approaching fast to have us within firing range", Varas commented sarcastically.

Without words, Varas and Renati simultaneously spun their ships around and sped off in the opposite direction. When reaching the desired distance, they split up and returned to attack the ships that were following them. Both ships' computers would log the entire fight, as they logged everything.

Renati narrowed her eyes and focused on the enemy in front of her. One eye tracked the scanner stats through an extra mini screen, while the other was focused on visual. One of the advantages of being Minbari was that their general nerve system was twice as developed as that of a normal Human; hence they saw twice as far and more detailed. The disadvantage of course is the intense emotions they have, but being well-disciplined, most manage.

"Vim're!(4)", Renati grinned and swirled around her axis as she approached the enemy. A move she wasn't fond of, but was necessary when approaching an unknown enemy. Even in visual she didn't recognise the ship's shape or markings. What were these creatures?

Suddenly she was startled as a burst hit the side of her ship. "Rath!(5)", she yelped and spun around firing at whatever had hit her.

The second ship? Ce'fa Bar(6)?
Renati dodged its second attack – barely – but made sure she hit it with hers. Her shot damaged the wing of the fighter, but did not leave him defenceless. He too had attempted to dodge, but too slow.

Where is she?, Renati wondered, hoping there weren't more of those. What if Varas was being chased down by two others herself?
She had to get out of here, this was too sticky.

Renati saw the two fighters circling around her, leaving no room for escape.
"Guess I'll have to find out how badly they want me", she figured.
She powered up her weapon to medium force, allowing her enough concentrated power without ending up defenceless.
With a thrust of her feet against the forward engines, she sped off to the one gap in their pattern she could determine. Renati was not good at flying, but she sure was in algorithmic.

The ships noticed what she was up to and closed the gap, as she had expected for them to do. Renati moved the fingers of her right hand to the crucial crystal and fired two successive bursts at either of the ships, while changing direction by tilting her body.

It was no secret that the intuitive controls of the Nial fighters were the reason for so many impossible moves from certain fighters. The pilot of a Nial fighter lies down on his abdomen, facing forward out the window. In front of the window there are several view screens which can be called or recalled at any time, but the real genius is in the base controls.
Acceleration is done by pressing the feet of their elongated legs down on some pressure plates that control the forward thrusters, while movement is controlled by slightly tilting the body. The ship's built in motion sensors pick up the variations of speed and direction to determine the movement.
Weapons are manned by a set of crystals within range of their fingertips. Left for the left guns, right for the right.

The Worker Caste Sara, who designed it, a ship craftswoman, was befriended with a Religious Caste Master Philosopher named Fakil. During one of their gatherings, Fakil had complained to Sara about how hard it was to train the Warriors to use the small Tishat fighters(7). The controls were overly complicated, which caused for a high learning curve. It were his friends' complaints that gave Sara the idea for the Nial concept.

Now, many thousand years later, the Nial fighter design is virtually unchanged from the original concept, aside from the obvious technological upgrades.
In practice it is designed to comfortably fit one, but it can be used to support two life forms for a short period of time. Manoeuvrability decreases, but it is possible.

It was the geniality in design that saved Renati that day. While opening fire on both ships, a quick pelvic twirl tilted hers to its side and allowed her to slip through the narrow passage between the enemy fighters.
The enemy ships were not suicidal; they broke formation before colliding with the back of the Nial fighter. The already damaged ship malfunctioned during the manoeuvre and hit the side of the other one hard, exploding a little further on.

One down, one to go.

But the other fighter was vicious. Even though Renati had a head start, he tailed her in a matter of seconds. She swept left and right, curved up and broke the curve halfway to fall further down in order to avoid his continuous bursts.
The situation was not looking good for Renati. The enemy was too agile, too close. She didn't know how much longer she could stay ahead of him. And where was – Varas!

A Nial fighter approached Renati from the front. She sighed in relief, but then her heart stopped when she saw an EMP charge being fired in her direction.

What in the– ZWONG…..

The burst covered an area just larger than the two ships, rendering them both immobile.

What in Valen's name was she up to?

As Renati's fighter slowly spun around in space, she caught a glimpse of her assaulter. Clad in dark red armour, there was a creature she had never seen before, but registered deep in her mind. She could only see three quarters of his face, but when his ship spun further in her direction, she was suddenly jerked up at high velocity and dragged away.

"Varas! What did you think you were doing?!", Renati let out, more angry about the fact she didn't get to study his face longer than her friend's risky assault.
"It worked, did it not", she replied bluntly.
"Yes, but-", Renati protested.
"No but or I'll drop you!", Varas teased. She had grappled her tractor beam together with an extra hook onto Renati's fighter and was toeing her to safety.
"I contacted the Tredano. She will meet us a little further up", Varas explained.
"What about the survivor?", Renati worried.
"We'll worry about that later. We have to make sure we live to tell the tale. Did you get a good look at him?", she wondered.
"Good enough", Renati replied, grateful for her life.

"Enter", the old, hoarse voice allowed the Warrior passage.
"Akel Zen, what brings you to my quarters? Another one of your students' mishaps?", the old man talked down on her.
She bowed before looking at him. "One could say that, Anla'Shok Na", she replied submissively.
A loud, enjoyable laugh cut the tension. The laugh was honest and sincere, coming from deep within the heart.
"Akel, dear Akel. What would those two do without you?", he smiled.
"They are good Anla'Shok Anla'Shok Na, they just lack the finishing touch…", she defended them.
"Now now Akel, don't be so defensive. You know I have my heart set on those two, otherwise I would have grounded them a long time ago", he said and walked over to her, facing her closely. He brought his eyes near hers, locking her gaze.

"There is great promise in those two, even though they cause great worry. They have proven to be more resourceful, creative, understanding and efficient than any other team we have had in Rilz'Valzha(8). I will treat them with the grace I give every Anla'Shok and will leave the difficulty of punishment to their master"
Akel looked down for a minute, but pulled her eyes back up to face him.

Anla'Shok Na, Lennon of the Family of Mir, was a medium-sized aged Religious Caste. He had lead the Anla'Shok for as long as Akel could remember. He was a role model as well as mentor for all, for he had the exceptional gift of allowing his gentle spirit to guide.
He was just yes, he could be crude as well, but always merciful.
Lennon the merciful.

"I have assigned them to border patrol – Minbari border patrol – in order to give them time to ponder on their actions", she explained. Lennon grinned, as if he already knew the answer to the question he was about to ask.
"And?"
"As expected, it backfired", the proud Warrior admitted. Unlike some more fanatic Vonilbok Akel had no trouble admitting she was wrong, the problem with Akel was usually to get her to realise she's wrong. Lucky for her, she's usually right.
Lennon's grin evolved into chuckle as he walked over to the acolyte who had just entered the room with tea.
"You will share their newest endeavours with me over some Ris(9), will you not?", he offered.
"Of course", Akel smiled and accepted the deliciously prepared tea.
Lennon, renowned Religious Caste as he was, was a Master in many things. But if Akel had to choose which was his top skill, she would pick his Master in hospitality.

"Once they swept through quadrant 7 to my satisfaction, they were required to return to base, however – by Renati's suggestion – took a small detour", Akel spoke, now comfortably in the large headless sofa.
"Of course, and Varas followed I presume?", he smiled while sipping.
"Unfortunately she always does. As is customary for the duo, they stumbled upon something very interesting", she said and placed a data crystal in the centre of the nearby table. A beam of light projected the silhouette of the space station in production Varas and Renati had discovered.

Lennon sat up and studied it closely.
"It's Human. Where is this?", he asked, less interested in his beverage now.
"At the very border of our space with theirs. We have not yet established what it is, but it's too large for a space platform. The location is another mystery", she said and pointed it out on the map, "It is of no strategic value whatsoever, not even trade routes pass by there.
We presume they are building whatever it is there to remain undisturbed"
"By whom?"
"That, we weren't sure of until Renati and Varas told me the rest of their endeavour", she said and displayed the fight the Nial fighters had recorded. Lennon watched with great concentration, trying to grasp the situation.
His heart grew weary because the silhouette of the fighters reminded him of a similar silhouette he had seen in one of the prophetic scriptures.
"This is not possible", he gasped, having abandoned his tea entirely.
"You recognise the silhouette?", Akel reacted in surprise.
"Vaguely, but there is no guarantee it is the same. Actually, I hope it is not or we are further behind than expected", he panicked without losing his calm.

Lennon got up and walked over to the console next to the wall. He touched some crystals for activation and scrolled through different projections for a long while. Akel followed through the ancient Minbari scrolls with him, before noticing the similarity on one page.
"There", he said and turned towards Akel's projection.
"The resemblance does seem to be more than a coincidence", Akel confirmed, "What do the scrolls say?"
"They speak of the ships being the omen for the Ancient Enemy's return", he spoke darkly. Uncomfortable silence filled the room. Akel only realised how important this information was, again she brought Lennon news he didn't want to hear. She was making a habit out of it.
"This means we are further behind than expected", he spoke in disappointment.

"You are", an angelic but heavy voice sounded out of nowhere.
Akel and Lennon faced the voice and saw the impressive encounter suit of a blue Vorlon. Lennon had seen him several times before – in the past and present – but for Akel this kind of encounter was new. She didn't know whether to speak or be silent, to bow or remain standing. But the Vorlon showed no clear preference.
"How can we reverse it?", Lennon continued the conversation as if the Vorlon had been there all along, which he probably had.
"Creation", the Vorlon replied.
"Of what?"
"A different ship", he explained shortly, as Vorlons always did.
"The Minbari fleet already has exquisite ships. Our fighters were able to take on theirs", Akel defended her species, unsure of whether that was wise.
"Not enough", the Vorlon replied and projected a rough design of a new ship.

It was different from current Minbari designs, yet carried a certain familiarity. It was cruiser sized, but its shape indicated a much higher manoeuvrability. The curves carried a beautifully sparkling white, which changed to a more purple shine in starlight. A small demonstration of the ships capabilities stunned both Minbari.
"But how will we make it? The Worker Caste will protest against making a design that is not their own, not to mention the Warrior Caste's protest against the construction of a ship outside of their fleet", Lennon considered the social difficulties surrounding the creation of a weapon like this.
"No one other than the Anla'Shok should know", the voice with no lips replied.
"Then who will build it?", Anla'Shok Na wondered.
"The three chosen will choose the others"
"Where can we find the chosen ones?", Lennon asked the Ancient respectfully.
"One is beside you, the other two behind. They will choose, the others will follow", he explained.
"Will you assist?", Akel wanted to know.

"Yes"

Footnotes

(1) - Zha'den Na (Adrenato): War Leader

(2) - Star Riders: One of the 5 Warrior clans of the Minbari people. They are flamboyant and outgoing and, as their name suggests, have high aspirations. They are generally not as good flyers are the Ahael'den, but make up for that with their ability to lead. The last couple of hundred years however, their name has lost resonance, especially due to the continuous increase in arrogance in their brood.

(3) - Torrbari (Adrenato): Humans

(4) - Vim're (Vik): Gotcha!

(5) - Rath! (Vik): Dammit!

(6) - Ce'Fa bar? (Adrenato): What in the world?

(7) - The Tishat is a small fighter class ship that has been around longest in Minbari history. It used to be the standard flyer class ship for the Minbari until the Nial fighter was invented. The Tishat flyers are efficient, but clearly inferior to the newly developed Nial figher. With only speed and maneuverability as advantages over its successor, most Tishat are going out of service, their part cannibalized to repair and refit damaged Nials.

(8) - Rilz'Valzha (Adrenato): Minbari equivalent of decennia. As they count with base eleven, not ten, they use eleven for referencing large periods of time as we do ten.

(9) - Ris (Adrenato):Tea