Chapter 11
"Foothold- Resistance"
Babylon Five:
"Well, the worst is over," said Neroon, "in a way that came most unexpectedly."
He, Delenn, her husband John, and Michael Garibaldi were in the ambassadorial room going over the latest of roller coaster events that had taken place in the last two hours. Delenn was still furious, although somewhat relieved that the threat of impeding war had at least been pushed away.
"The man apologized," said Michael in awe. "He didn't seem the type. Makes me wonder when the other shoe will drop."
"We are in agreement," said a somewhat perplexed and highly suspicious Neroon. The Satai was tense. As a newcomer to the political arena that was Babylon Five, this situation was very uncomfortable for him. The scope of the challenges involved was daunting, especially when dealing with subversive elements within his own government. "He has never apologized for any action of his before. I am…concerned that this action may be a ploy of some sort. However, as to what type of ploy, I am as yet uncertain."
Delenn, deep in thought, was uncertain as well. "We've avoided a civil war for the time being, but the actions he has committed are inexcusable and a simple apology is not enough!"
"I had no idea that he had imprisoned the rest of the Grey Council, until he confessed the crime. That alone will strip him of power, and the people, once they find out what has happened will hate him. And I can not see him giving that power up no matter what he says."
"So are you saying that a civil war is inevitable?" asked Michael. The way he phrased it clued everyone in that he was extremely worried about the answer he'd get. "You people are going to start shooting at each other before the real war starts? How are the other races going to react when they see the Minbari fighting among themselves?"
For a moment, Neroon glared at him. Humanity should not have been involved in Minbari affairs and yet here he was, listening in and commenting as if he were important enough to matter. Yet Neroon had come to – somewhat – value the paranoid security conscious Human's opinion. "We are not fighting. The threat however isn't over yet. That he confessed that he was under the influence of the Sinhindrea does not negate his desire to control everything." He turned to face Delenn. "We must free the others of the Grey council or there will be civil war and it will tear our people apart at a time we can least afford it. The arrogance of your Earth Alliance representatives didn't help our cause."
The Human Senator had been so smug in his responses that Neroon was sure that Shakiri wanted to start a war right then and there out of spite.
"They had the right to be relieved, Neroon," Michael countered. "Earth Alliance is not going to lie down and expose their throats every time the Minbari threaten us."
Neroon's glare intensified for a second, but then faded. He didn't answer, merely grunted his agreement – this time. No government could remain stable if they submitted every time another threatened. But Humans really did like to walk the lines between life and death.
"Well, this is one headache I am glad to move away from at least right now," John said. "Now what are you going to do about the Grey Council? Shakiri may have apologized but he didn't say anything about the Council's release."
"Shakiri, if he is being sincere, doesn't want a war now. This could destroy his reputation when we go to free them," Neroon said. "'Minbari do not kill Minbari'. That is one of our sacred rules. I do not think he will challenge our forces. But if he does…"
"And we must consider how our allies are going to respond to this," Delenn said. "Earth alliance is frightened and I am not sure how the Minbari are going to act once this becomes common knowledge. We are still recovering from the Drakh invasion, the attack by the Sinhindrea, and Shakiri's defeat by them. This may well fragment our government."
John shook his head. "This is the reason why I just wanted to be a Captain of a ship."
Neroon looked at him and silently agreed. Life was infinitely easier as a commander of a ship, rather than maneuvering through the fires of politics. That was another thing that Shakiri's foolish actions had damaged. His insistence on the return of the three modified Whitestars even after his apology hadn't endeared him to anyone. Neroon wanted them as badly as Shakiri, but they were a gift and this was a matter of respect and honor, something not to taken back. And if Shakiri didn't understand that basic truth, he wasn't the leader that Neroon once believed him to be. "Speaking of which, if I can provide two more Whitestars, will you agree to help mediate with the Federation on modifying those ships as they have the three you have here?"
John nodded. "I'll talk to them but I'm not sure how well it'll go in light of Shakiri's aborted attack. But all they can do is to say no."
Neroon gritted his teeth in frustration. Another opportunity all but destroyed by Shakiri's stupidity.
Babylon Five CnC
"Evanston, we have you on TWS scan; you're twenty minutes out JS. Your course is five by five for jump gate."
"Thank you, Babylon Five. See you in little while."
"How many is that in the last two hours?" asked Susan. She had just relieved Captain Hiroshi and was just now settling down for a long six hours of minding the store. And Lieutenant Corwin would be on shift in a short while.
"Four," Thompson told her, "including a Narn freighter."
"Warp capable?"
"Yes, Ma'am. Single nacelle design, ugly as sin and faster than the old Thunderbolts at full burn."
The single nacelle designs freighters, a product of Klingon technology were becoming more and more common as the Narn added them and the necessary equipment to their ships. There were three of them making round trips on a weekly basis now. They were rumored to be heavily armed and because of their speed, the few pirates remaining in the area found them to be a waste of time trying to catch and too dangerous to intercept.
"Been kind of busy, I see." she said, referring to the Narn.
"Yes, Ma'am," the young man sarcastically added. "The Centauri may not like these new developments."
"A word of advice, Lieutenant. Stay out of politics. The pain's not worth it."
"Yes, Ma'am. Oh, and a message from the Dock Workers Union," added Thompson. "They said that I was to inform you that their representatives will be waiting for you at the hall at nineteen hundred hours."
Susan resisted the urge to scream to the heavens. It was that time again, the annual contract talks and John had once more palmed it off on her since she had done such a great job last year, proving once more that no good deed goes unpunished. Babylon Five had received a list of demands by the union. They weren't bad she had to admit. A seven percent raise was nothing considering how well B5's wealth was pouring in despite the fact that the increase of refugees. But the union's success had created unexpected problems.
The local Locals were more than happy with the working, medical, dental, and housing conditions at the station now and whereas they once couldn't wait to leave, 'the floating Titanic of space waiting to happen' a few years ago, one would have to be a fool to want to leave now. The Earth-based Local 1324 on Earth was insisting that more workers be sent to B5 and the older ones be rotated off whether they wanted to or not. And since the Federation station had Human workers doing union sanctioned work, they were required to join the union for their own protection. If the Federation refused, the union at home would order a strike at B5. The locals on B5 insisted that the Fed Humans were not part of Earth Alliance, or even from Earth. And as such they were not under the rules of Earth Alliance, EarthGov, Earth Dome, EarthForce or the local Union1324.
However the Local 1324 didn't care, which brought them into contention with the B5 union workers who were more than happy with the way things were as they were making more money that they dreamed of here in deep space. The two factions came close to blows at the table, and there was almost a riot on the docks. The Local had sent representatives to the station and now the two groups were arguing and the mediators required a mediator, least the B5ers leave the union and start a new one on their own consisting of the colonies and stations. And John once more had left this in her lap since she'd bee doing such a great job with the unions.
Great.
"Call them and let them know I'll be there."
Suddenly an alarm cut off further conversation. Thompson stared at the computer interface, his hands expertly flying through the sub-routines to identify the specific problem. "Oh, crap."
Susan was way ahead of him. Oh, crap summed it up nicely. She didn't need the confirmation of what she already knew. "That's a JGRP signal. Order all ships in the area to halt their vectors. Inform all ships on their finals to the station that we will vector them in."
All of CnC was fully active relaying instructions and vectoring ships within range to their local destinations with data supplied from the subspace-based beacons that were slowly replacing the tachyon-based ones through the sector.
"This is Sheridan-go."
"We just had a Jump Gate Reconfiguration Protocol activate."
How long?"
"A few moments ago, the entire system is starting navigational re-alignment."
"You've ordered all ships in local hyperspace to all stop?"
"Yes, sir."
"I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Acknowledged."
Chi Draconis Solar System
"Are the coordinates accurate?" demanded a concerned Shai Alyt Hurdann.
"As far as we can tell," answered the Minbari warrior. "Navigation is off." She looked desperate as she checked and rechecked her calculations. Tachyon transmissions are useless. The subspace beacon is still functioning."
Fleet Command had ordered the ships to remain in reserve as they furiously resisted the seemingly unstoppable enemy approach. The combat group of four Sharlins had reached home an hour earlier after receiving the call just in time to see the Valen'tha jump into hyperspace. The ships were moving at full burn not towards secured Minbari territory but towards open space. None of the Minbari could understand why until sensors detected an echo less than two light seconds behind the fleeing ships. Nevertheless, the echo's profile was unmistakable. It was Sinhindrea, one of the destroyers, pursuing them. What was more terrifying was that the ship seemed partially phased.
"It's not completely in hyperspace," one of his analysts had remarked in passing.
And he had to agree with that assessment. That was likely the reason why the enemy hadn't been detected heading for Minbar in the first place. They utilized hyperspace in a different manner than anything seen before. Three Liandras were supporting the combat group and the Shai Alyt ordered one of them to escape the interference and transmit all current data gathered. A second was tasked to follow and if possible give all support to the Valen'tha group and again transmit all data to the Grey Council and the races on BabylonFive, and the Centauri who were the closest possible allies that the Minbari could be called upon.
All that didn't matter right now. He was a Minbari warrior and his home was threatened as was every single person on the vessels under his command. "Our target has been selected. It is time to destroy it." His eyes never left the three dimensional screen as he begin issuing commands.
"Ship's status."
"All gravitic neutron and fusion bean cannons are hot and tracking. All guns and missiles are active. Reactor's running at one hundred fifteen percent."
"ECM."
"ECM active, stealth is on standby and all power is being shunted to engines and weapons," the Rii said. "Jump engines are hot. Ships are signaling ready."
"Jump!" the Minbari quickly ordered. Immediately the distortion opened and their target was selected even as they were catapulted into normal space. "And fire!"
Four sixteen hundred meter, crystalline re-enforced armored warships, the Sharlins Knife of Vengeance, Frozen Tide, Storm Runner, and the Sun Blade erupted from jump space less than four hundred kilometers distant away from a two thousand meter long Sinhindrea destroyer.
The destroyer, a victim of a precision, jump point attack was knocked off of its trajectory, its shielding glowing like a miniature sun as it tried to disperse the tremendous impact of the distortion energy wave. The bridge crews gaped at the spectacle, shocked that the destroyer survived the merciless attack. But the enemy shields were well into the red zone when three of the four Sharlins hit it with their main weapons. Despite the assault, the destroyer still managed to orientate its main canon at the Minbari. The forth Minbari warship hit it just as the energy shields into cascade failure while the enemy ship fired. Instead of a plasma burst, the ship had fired an anti-proton beam that cut Frozen Tide in half. The destroyed pieces of the Sharlin suffered explosions even as all of the sections of the ship disintegrated, ravaged by the energies that continued to eat away at until there was nothing left.
By then, the Minbari were past the destroyer just as the ships shields died and then the power source imploded immediately afterwards. The long rectangle-like shape of its bow glowed briefly as the fluidic polymer that held the vessel together and served as a liquid energy conduit congealed. The huge ball-shaped energy matrix located at the rear of the ship collapsed. Sun Blade too close to the destroyer, suffered close range contact with the exploding power matrix wave front. Power immediately died and the highly toxic radiation penetrated the entire ship, instantly the crew and the ship tumbled aimlessly through space. What was left of the Sinhindrea destroyer was so radioactive that it would take decades before any unshielded ship could come safely to within two hundred kilometers of the wreckage.
The two surviving Sharlins fled the area as fast as possible and into the middle of a titanic struggle. Hundreds of Minbari Nials and light ships swarmed at their shielded counterparts. Entire squadron went in; none came out as the First Ones slaughtered everything their beam and plasma weapons touched. In six hours of fighting, the first of the heavy destroyers had reached near orbit. Defensive weaponry, both planetary and orbital locked on and fired at approaching ships. The neutron gravitic cannons collided with and refracted off of Sinhindrea shields. A score of Sharlins backed up by half again the number of Tinashis and old style Tigara attack cruisers jumped into normal space at almost point blank range and engaged Sinhindrea destroyers and two of the huge, four thousand meter dual matrix battleships. The entire fleet was slaughtered in moments.
One hundred eighty-two capital ships and crews were destroyed in the final surge. Knife of Vengeance, Storm Runner, the three surviving Sharlins, one Shagotti, and two Tinashis managed to jump into hyperspace, and were now being tracked by Clovien hunter-killers intent on completing their mission.
Indifferent to their minimal losses the ones called by the Vorlons 'the terrors beyond comprehension', began their advance on the remaining planetary defenses.
Chi Draconis Solar System
A dark Ruler relaxed onboard the command ship watching the carnage being visited upon the sMinbp'kU. Their forces had been thrown into a momentary fit of confusion as their jump gate had just been obliterated by anti-proton plasma fire. His forces eliminated a second one few time units ago, further destabilizing the region. The creatures were too dependent on those structures and their destruction would cause any incoming help to be thrown into disarray. Other than the strange sensor readings being picked originating from outside the solar system, communications had been effectively isolated.
Data gleaned from the minds of those who called themselves Shadows – amusing name as they really didn't know the meaning of the word – had informed them of the sMinbp'kU leadership located on one of the aquatic-like vessels. But before it could be destroyed, the vessel had escaped into deep non-space and was tracking away from their doomed world. The Sinhindrea Lord was perplexed that the ship wasn't tracking towards another of the worlds under their domain, but instead was heading away towards some unknown destination. No matter. Escape was impossible. Clovien trackers had the ship's psychic scent and their destroyer would follow it wherever it went until it was destroyed.
The male creature observed the Clovien's transition into hyperspace as it began its hunt. Jump space was limiting; phasic hyperspace far less so. When and wherever the sMinbp'kU entered normal space, they would die.
Hundreds of small enemy ships attacked and had managed to destroy a group of Youngling ships. For every one of the race's ships destroyed they sacrificed three to four of their own. Even that ratio could not be tolerated so he had ordered his main forces in. The Bane-of-Life destroyers shattered all resistance within range suffering only the loss of one friendly. Antiproton-based plasma continued to decimate resistors and those whom tried to flee inevitability. Twenty more of the main enemy vessels had just entered the fighting. Two of those ships had performed an attacked known to be favored by their kind. One of the destroyers had been caught unaware and was ravaged by the dimensional energy, before being destroyed by for enemy ships firing on the damaged ship.
Nesy'az watched the attack with complete indifference. Two of his progeny were high priority crew members onboard and they were now dead. The creature was upset that their usefulness had come to an end but their actual deaths meant nothing to him. The crew had died fighting the lesser things. And if lesser things killed them because of their carelessness, then it was their fault. He forgot about them. "Continue towards the planet," the male ordered, and the entire remaining of the fleet continued forward crushing the resistance with impunity. Hundreds of stars were briefly born and then snuffed out and weakling ships succumbed to their fates. It was as it should be. "Remove all resistance. The world is ours."
Now it was time to determine where the unusual sensors with characteristics both mechanical and telepathic originated from, and then remove them.
EarthForce ship Evanston
"Captain, we've been ordered all stop by Babylon Five."
Terrell Drake was somewhat surprised and they would have his ship placed in a holding pattern so close to the jump gate. "Ask them…" He never had the opportunity to finish his command.
"Sir! We have a JGRP event," a young Ensign announced. "The navigational systems are now unconfirmed for acquisition to Babylon Five. Repeat we have unconfirmed acquisition to B5."
"All stop."
"Answering all stop, Aye."
The EarthForce Omega cut its engines and when into station-keeping mode. A Centauri light freighter and an Abbai transport, apparently receiving the same orders were slowing down and stopping relative to the Evanston.
"How many ships are in our immediate scanning range?"
"Eight, Sir."
Drake cursed softly. A jump gate had been either seriously damaged or completely destroyed and now the entire system was recalibrating itself. He grimaced. That would take hours if not days. A lot of ships deep in hyperspace were about to be lost before they realized what had happened. The only good thing was that many of the jump gates in the immediate area were now supplemented with the new subspace navigational beacons built by the Federationists. Those things could reconfigure at phenomenal speed, however most of the subspace beacons were local and the majority of the jump gates didn't have them yet and they would take far longer to reconfigure themselves. So in effect, the entirely of hyperspace beacon network had been compromised.
"It's B5 again. They will direct us to the station."
"Helm, follow the bread crumbs."
"Yes, Sir."
Drake sighed. No doubt the station could see exactly where they were in hyperspace with their sensors, something that Earth Alliance was just receiving because of the newly signed treaty. Ten minutes later, the Evanston exited the jump gate followed by the other vessels.
This was the most boring, irritating part of the voyage; the final approach to Babylon Five. When the station had first opened for business, the jump gate was positioned two hours away which was standard operating procedure since most ships too that long to properly decelerate without crushing the ships and their crews. A couple of years later the gate was moved closer. Now, due to security concerns, and rightly so, the gate was back at his original position. For the Evanston, breaking would take forty-five minutes BTB (by the book).
Drake studied the viewscreen carefully as his ship closed in on the station. He was far less concerned looking at B5 than he was staring at its fast growing counterpart on the opposite of the planet. "Federation Starbase La Barre," he whispered to himself.
How long had it been since these people had arrived and ruined everything?
Picard.
They were allies now. Most of EarthForce were taking to them like long lost second cousins.
He still hated him. He couldn't let it go and the dreams hadn't gone away even after more than a year and a half. The EarthForce Omega warship Pournelle's destruction sometimes still haunted him at night.
"Pournelle," Drake had screamed just a few nights ago before waking up in a cold sweat. "You were not authorized to use nuclear weapons!"
And they weren't, but Captain Robert Hawthorne should have used them all. The Enterprise would have been destroyed, the Ambassador disabled and captured. EarthForce should have been a lot stronger than it was now. At least that's how his dreams ended. Reality had turned out somewhat differently.
"This is Picard," the Federation Captain had told him after the humiliation. "Your fight is over. I have every one of my weapon systems locked onto your vessel. I suggest you leave while you can. This is your last opportunity."
Drake found himself running away like a whipped dog. He was an EarthForce senior Captain. The Omega was the most powerful ship EarthForce had ever developed. Its weapons couldn't even scratch the Enterprise's paint
In his dreams he tactically retreated, not ran like he had in front of that bald-headed…
Damnation.
"Can we see the Enterprise from here?"
"Yes, Sir. Their defensive shields are inactive; we can see them and the Ambassador, but they're still blocking our scans with their navigational shields."
"I want a good look."
"Magnifying now."
Drake studied the ship as much as he was able. It still looked the same but everybody knew that it had been upgraded to what Earth Alliance was quietly calling the 'Voyager standard'. "Unbelievable," he muttered. They were bad enough as they were and now they were even more powerful. The SHATTERFIST particle cannon, something EarthForce had banked on to break those hated, but admittedly very impressive shields of the Feds, would have been a resounding failure. He and the others admitted now that the particle weapon would not have effectively worked and the prototype had been destroyed in battle against the Centauri. However, the principle was sound and the cannons with improved power sources were rapidly becoming the standard as the G.O D.s were being quickly updated.
All of which would do little to nothing against a Fed ship. The Evanston had more powerful ECM and armaments but it couldn't even begin to handle one of the smaller Sabers in a straight up fight let alone the pocket battleship Ambassador, or Picard's ship. And who knew what those smaller vessels could do? He just wished that he could have seen how badly damaged the ship had been by those aliens that attacked it. Some small part of him had to admit though, that he might have been more disturbed by the fact that it had been damaged and what that could mean to Humanity and everybody else for that matter.
"Sir!" a voice said, breaking him away from his musings. "There's been another JGRP event," the same Ensign announced.
The Captain stifled another curse. Someone was purposely destroying jump gates the same as last time, and he didn't have to wonder who was doing it. The question was where?
"Open a channel to the Federation Space station La Barre."
"They're answering, Sir."
"This is Commander Williamson."
The man looked harried to Drake. No doubt they were trying to figure out what was happening. "Captain Drake. Have you identified where the gates had been destroyed?"
"No."
Drake merely nodded. He had to remember that these people weren't miracle workers despite their technology.
"We've been working on a map based on the beacon network but it has not been completed yet," he continued. "There are a surprising number of jump gates that are not officially on the network and we have an incomplete record. However we do know that the jump gates that have been destroyed are on the network and we are working to find out where."
"Sir," a crewman said. "Signal coming from EarthForce Command, IDENT confirmed."
"Starbase La Barre, I will get back to you in a moment," Drake said before he had the feed cut. He quickly moved over to the Captain's chair. "Drake here."
The image on the screen was someone the EA officer was well acquainted with. "Captain Drake," General Brindley Acknowledged. "You have a new assignment. You are to proceed to the Federation Starbase La Barre and place yourself and your ship under the command of the Officer-in-Charge."
Drake stared at the General completely, and utterly dumfounded. The crew found suddenly found something, anything as far away as possible to occupy their time as the tension around their Captain radiated through the bulkhead and into the hallway beyond.
"Sir is there a reason for this, this action?" he asked through clenched teeth.
The smirk Brindley gave him chilled his soul. "Two hours ago, The Federation asked if we would be interested in an officer exchange program. An hour ago we said, 'uh, yes,' and since you happened to be one of the closest ships, you got volunteered. Three more ships will be arriving at B5 as soon as they receive their orders."
"Sir," he hissed. "We have had two JGRP events in the last hour! With all due respect…"
"Right time, right place, Captain," the General responded, cutting him off. "That's it. Your orders are coming through. I expect you to act in the best tradition of the men and women of EarthForce. Find out through the stations what you can. Oh, and have fun. Brindley out."
The silence on the bridge was deafening.
A fuming Drake was absolutely, completely, and totally convinced that someone in EarthForce didn't like him and that this punishment certainly didn't fit any crime he might have committed.
Minbar
Dravanlpore Province
Rii-nan'shok Donaan, his trusted friend and assistant, and four members of the warrior caste were stunned by the chaos they were witnessing among the population as they rushed towards the Cynthyra Institute. The city of Dravanlpore located in the heart of the province of the same name had been griped by panic. Thousands were leaving the city for the far off safety of distant mountains, days away when traveling by foot. Roads were hopelessly jammed with vehicles heading away from the city. Many more thousands were shut up inside their homes, glued to their communications and information centers. It was an amazing thing what an invasion will do to a people used to a thousand years of order and discipline, self enlightenment and peace.
The small transport skimmed over the city, its clean emissions and quiet antigravity engines barely noticeable by the people as it flew by. Most of the people never bothered to stare at the lone ship which was nothing compared to the display in the skies of Minbar. Defensive combat systems, the Minbari counterparts of the Earth Alliance's Global Orbital Satellites, brightened the dark night with their beams weapons that were powerful enough to be seen from the surface. Every few seconds, there was a flash as nuclear ordinance and worse cooked off in deep space, or when one of the defensive orbitals died. It was a spectacular spectacle and tens of thousand looked into the sky with dread.
"The people seemed frozen," Tryn-Rii Cren'tia. "Are they even aware of what is happening?"
"The citizens of Minbari are an orderly people," Rii-nan'shok Donaan said. "They're more than aware. It is the unknown that frightens them."
"I'm disturbed as well," his friend said watching the skies.
There was another flash in the sky, much brighter this time. One of Minbar's huge stations had just been destroyed. They could almost see pieces beginning to burn as they fell into Minbari's atmosphere. All eyes were drawn to a huge flash and explosion, this time on the surface. Somewhere in the south a city had suffered an attack. The flash looked nuclear in nature but no one could tell. The enemy hadn't used nuclear ordinance but no one was sure of anything.
"Valen preserve us!"
"They're bombing the cities! We could be next!"
"If they hit this city, we'll never feel it," one of the grim-faced warriors stated coldly. Yedor was foremost on his mind. The cool air felt refreshing despite the seriousness of the situation and perversely, the warrior had never so alive. "I believe that that was a military installation that was destroyed, one of the ground-to-space defensive units. I believe that is what was destroyed about two hundred kilometers south of here. But I am not sure."
Epsilon Eridani
It took Draal's complete concentration to break through the interference. Nuclear furnaces were at eighty percent now, feeding energy to the sensor packs attempting to break through Sinhindrea interference. Draal's physical form was taking a beating as exhaustion began to take its toll, but the wall crumbled and he was inside the star system. And what he saw nearly broke his own heart. The Minbari, his people were being slaughtered. Scores of Minbari's finest home guard units and others close enough to heed the call were destroyed, or ruined almost beyond recognition. This couldn't happen again, he thought furiously. The city of Yedor didn't exist anymore because of these monsters trying to make a point, trying to make the Minbari afraid. And they had succeeded. Nearly ninety million people had died from the raid and that was what it was – only a raid. Minbari defenses had been insufficient to halt their advance that time and six out of every ten warships had been crippled or destroyed. Only ten ships had humbled the Minbari war-machine. But his people had attacked in unison against only a handful of enemy ships and this was completely different. The Minbari had increase defenses in the system but no one expected a full invasion. Their ships were stretch out to far to get back in time.
Panicked, he focused his attention on Minbar –
– And was forced back.
Something barred the way, a strength never before encountered other than at Z'ha'dum. Draal had never traveled there directly because of the searchers, Guardians of the Dark, Shadow telepathic protectors, were ever vigilant. But those intelligences were different; they were searchers, eyes that screened the night. This was something different.
Four pairs of eyes, completely devoid of emotion searched him out, discovered him, and grabbed him. Psychic tendrils seized his mind. He felt small pieces of the memories of his youth being forcibly stripped from him and discarded, dissected as if they were less than nothing. He felt the losses and in extreme fear, Draal fought back using the power of the Great Machine. Generators kicked in, increasing power to one hundred-ten percent. All available power was shunted into the sensors and from there into Draal and as the sensor sweep retracted, so did his mind. But the thing refused to let go of its morsel.
-+-
Nesy'az was an elder of the First Order. Over two thousand years old, one of the strongest telepaths of his race, he had personally grabbed the sensor entity and held it with the power of his mind. Only a very few of his species had the ability to seize and hold a mind without the aid of instrumentation. Blotting everything including the thoughts of thousands of his own species from his mind, he focused on the intruder. The Sinhindrea was mildly surprised that the taste was sMinbp'kU. It was strong but under the tendril mind attack, it was weakening. Holes in its defenses allowed him to push his way past the artificial sensors and into the morsel's mind. Now that it was in it began to peel and taste the primitives mind through the images it began to rip from its consciousness, trying to find its point of origin. The creature didn't understand the individual thoughts but certain impressions, no matter how alien and primitive, were universal.
The sMinbp'kU called itself Draal in its own language. It was in control of a machine that allowed him to free his mind from the body. Interesting. The primitive had a youngling called Dreynlena that it felt some affection for. The dwelling place of the machine was located in a system called Epsilon Eridani. There were others there…
-+-
It was old, old and utterly devoid of feeling as Draal could understand the term. The Minbari wasn't a natural telepath, the alien machine simulated it for him, but the results were the same. Draal screamed and sent a sensor feedback into the mind of the Sinhindrea. The Ancient one screamed back and started to follow the sensors and Draal's mind back to the point of origin. Minbari and Sinhindrea were joined in that instant. Terrified, Draal fought back with everything he had and managed to break the connection.
In those milliseconds, Draal discovered a name to the source of his pain. Actually it wasn't a real name, more like an impression that his mind could wrap around. The creatures were completely telepathic however they had no concept of speech that younger races could comprehend. Their powers over others were more primal. They touched the emotions of their victims to learn and influence them; extracted the memories so that they could understand. Regrettably, the victim rarely survived the extractions. The name or concept that the Minbari could wrap his mind around was called Nesy'az, a sane name for an insane creature.
Pain.
And Surprise.
The sMinbp'kU had tried to hurt him and had failed. Angered now, the Sinhindrea Lord prepared to shred the sMinbp'kU entity's mind. It had begun the dissociation rend, but the fragile connect had been disconnected and the morsel had fled. However it was too late. The 'taste' was there. The Sinhindrea transferred the telepathic imprint to a Clovien. The younger moved away to prepare for the hunt.
The feedback surprised the creature and in that second Draal ripped away and fled for his sanity and his life. The creature had tasted his mind. It knew where he was and how to find him. It knew what the Great Machine was and the threat it represented to it. And before Draal could fully disengage the sensors, the creature sent a psychic arrow into his mind. And Draal escaped, his mind partially ravaged by the assault and burning with pain. The old Minbari had never experienced as much sheer dread as he felt now. He had to prepare.
It was coming for him.
