The Way Home – Going Home rework
by Warringer
Chapter 10
--
At the point Jeffrey Sinclair just wanted to get back into cold sleep.
"I just had to taunt Murphy..." he muttered under his breath.
He had taunted Murphy when he had wondered what came next. And Murphy had delivered. He had delivered exactly what he had asked for. Ninja Dragon and at least one Pirate Wizard, or at least close to it.
"Jeff," he heard the voice of one Jack from behind, one that was dressed in an Earth Force security uniform," try not to damage the bulkhead please? I heard that Minbari heads are quite hard."
Sinclair stopped banging his head against a convenient bulkhead, very well aware of the various strange looks he was getting at this moment, and stared at Jack.
"Thats all your fault," he said silently with a voice filled with loathing." It has to be..."
Jack grinned and held a mug, twice as large as normal mugs, of coffee under Sinclair nose, just as he was about to continue banging his head against the bulkhead.
"Pleace?" Jack wondered." You need to be sowhat presentable to the Shin'bi and Potter crew."
Sinclair all but ripped the mug from Jacks hands and gave him another loathing filled glare before emptying the mug half the way in one go. He breathed in deep.
The commander of the Hyperion just had to be Harry Potter, hadn't it? And from the info dump Jack had received and told Sinclair one Harry Potter who used to be a slave for the last three years and freed himself and some more slaves just a few hours ago.
Of course Sinclair remembered reading 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone', it had been required reading during Junior High after all. And he remembered reading the other six novels and watching the movies as well. Once again this was showing that he was not in Kansas anymore.
He wondered how this Harry Potter would be like through.
"Here they come," Jack said with a grin and Sinclair looked up from his coffee.
In one corner several of the Colonial Marines had gone to try out the cake one Jack had brought, while the Ferrons and the Dilgar were talking about their mutual problems with these Doranians.
A pair of airlocks opened and as if Jack had choreographed it, a pair of Jacks, both dressed up like Yeomen Warders. Behind them were two different groups.
Sinclair knew that the Shin'bi had arrived with a shuttle, while the Hyperion had docked with the fixed port pylon of the inner cylinder.
He tried to suppress a sigh as he looked over to the Colonials who just stared at the Shin'bi, those who were eating cake, dropped it. He could literally hear them say 'Dragon' silently.
Sinclair himself was less prone to something like that. His time as commander of Babylon 5 had trained him to take aliens of all shapes and forms as more or less granted.
The Shin'bi were really looking like humanoid dragons, including wings and tails, with various skin or rather scale colors and hair on top of their heads. Before he had been forced to take what Jack said as face value but seeing them himself left him rather awed.
And all were dressed in dark colored or outright black skinsuits that bore close resemblance to the Ferron's skinsuits, but since skinsuits where based around the same principles that was not very strange.
Several of the Shin'bi were armed, the helmets of their skinsuits closed and Sinclair could see several strange distortions in the air next to the apparent leader.
"Some sort of thermoptic camouflage," the EA Jack noted next to him." Most defiantly Ninjas."
The other group was very mixed. A young man in uniform, most likely Harry Potter, an elder man in uniform, of about the same age as Sinclair himself, maybe a few years younger, one massive man in some sort of medival armor, a skunklike alien in skinsuit, two Shin'bi, a blueskinned alien, who looked very much like a stereotypical nerd and twitched like one, and a flying Maraca with a strangely smiling face.
The leading Shin'bi of the Shin'bi group eyed the pair of Shin'bi in the other group, nodding silently.
Sinclair sighed and slowly walked up to the two groups, while the other groups came closer.
"I am Jeffrey Sinclair," he said after a moment, repeating himself once again." The... caretaker of this station."
The Shin'bi who seemed to be in command eyed him for a moment and again glanced over to the other pair of Shin'bi.
"Admiral Takano of the Yamamoto clan," he introduced himself." Leader of the Sakugenchi fleet."
Than he looked over to the young man in uniform who twitched slightly, while the Maraca could be heard snickering.
"Harry Potter," he said and breathed in deep." The... captain of the Maru..."
"Quite official at that," the Maraca said with a smirk and than seemed to wink at one of the Jacks.
As if on command the Jacks all around began to smirk as well and one or two were outright laughing as a Jack dressed up in a robe with star and moon print and a pointed hat, with 'Wizzard' printed on it, burst into the atrium and made a beeline towards Potter.
The Wizzard Jack grabbed Potter's hand and began to shake it rapidly.
"Welcome aboard, Captain," he said and grinned madly." What are your first orders as new commander of Babylon 4?"
Sinclair, Potter and the others of his group stared at the Jack that was still shaking the heavily scarred hand, still grinning madly.
"Wha?" Potter managed to make and than swallowed.
" What do you mean 'new commander'?" he than yelled as he continued to stare wide eyed at the Jack.
The Jack just continued to grin and shake the hand.
"Oh, you are quite officially the Captain of the Maru under Earth Force rules, signed by Enesby and countersigned by me, making you an Earth Force officer," he noted and laughed so what manically." As Commander Sinclair isn't an Earth Force officer anymore, you are the senior Earth Force officer on this station and as such the commander of the station."
Potter and Sinclair continued to stare at the still handshaking Jack.
"What? How? When? Why?" Potter managed to get out.
Jack frowned a little.
"I certainly didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition..." he noted and seemed to wait for something.
"HAH!" came from one of the entrances to the atrium and three Jacks dressed in red robes stood there.
"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" he first said." Our chief weapon is surprise!"
Neither he, nor the other two were able to say much more, as their heads exploded in rather spectacular displays after being hit by a PPC blast each.
"You killed Kenny!" came from one Jack.
Sinclair slowly turned around to look at Potter, who had a PPC in his hand, pointed in the general direction of the now collapsing headless Jacks.
"You Bastard!" came from another Jack.
Potter was breathing in deep and slowly put away the PPC.
"Good to know that my ward targeting works with guns too..."
--
Admiral Takano eyed the Shin'bi standing opposite to him. Behind them, the other groups were talking among themselves and Sinclair was speaking with Potter and several others, whole Takano's adjutant was taking care of the Shin'bi side of things.
"Pirates?" he wondered as he looked at the other Shin'bi, one of the two that were in Potters group.
"Yes," was the answer," two weeks after you and the Sakugenchi fleet left Zataki, uncle Takano."
Takano grit his teeth and breathed in deep, furrowing his wings slightly. It just had to happen. A pirate attack just when a third of the fleet left.
"I'm glad you're okay, Shinosuke," he said and sighed." I hope the pirates didn't have... 'fun' with you..."
Shinosuke frowned.
"They didn't," he said and sighed." At least until after they began to paralyze us and killed Master Naruto."
Again Takano breathed in deep and his face grew hard.
"How?"
"A sniper from their landing ship," Shinosuke said." And they used a suppression collar on me."
"You're his heir," Takano noted." You are the Master of his school than. You have finished your training after all."
Takano crossed his eyes and nodded to himself.
"I will send you all back to Zaitaku with a scout than," he said after a moment." You have to take over the..."
Takano didn't come any further as Shinosuke interrupted him.
"I can't," he simply said and looked his great uncle into the eyes.
"What do you mean, you can't?"
Shinosuke looked over to where Potter was speaking with Sinclair and the strange android and the floating robot.
"I have found the Shogun."
All of Takano's thoughts came to a screeching halt. Of course he knew that Shinosuke was the Shogun's kanpaku, but that he had actually found him...
"What?" he asked, using every bit of self control he had so that he didn't scream that question, staring at his grand nephew.
"I have found the Shogun."
Shinosuke was still looking towards Sinclair and Potter, the later being busy to try and strangle one of the Jacks, who in turn flailed around his limbs.
"Who?" Takano asked and for a moment his eyes looked at von Bismark and than at Sinclair. The former was pulling the Jack away from Potter, while the later was keeping Potter away from the Jack.
"Harry Potter," Shinosuke said and sighed.
Takano blinked, looking at the red face of Potter who was screaming on top of his lungs in that language of his. A moment later and a loud scream of 'Reducto' later another Jack was falling to the ground in a pile of junk.
"Are you sure?"
Shinosuke sighed and slowly nodded.
"Yes, I know all oracles concerning the Shogun, three of them how he will be found. He has already completed two of these oracles completely and nearly completely finished the main oracle about his discovery."
Takano continued to eye Potter, who now looked at the flying robot with murder in his eyes.
"I think it would be better if we tell him later," Takano said and sighed." He looks a little stressed..."
On the other hand... He had to send that scout back to Zaitaku anyway. With the Shogun found...
--
Not far away from Babylon 4, in orbit around a cold but terrestrial planet dubbed New Caprica by one group and Sakugenchi by another, the Dilgar fleet hovered.
Of course they had heard about the meeting with the other fleets and the station, but landings were already done.
Olympus Pride was one of the most heavily damaged ships that had managed to flee from the massacre the Doranians had made among the surviving Dilgar. It was a miracle that she had managed to make it this far. But it was not to be.
Olympus Pride should have dropped through the atmosphere of the planet, acting as housing for the Dilgar that would soon after her drop to the planet. She didn't make it.
Her shields were not even barely able to take the stress and heat of reentry and the multiple cracks, rents and tears in the hull did their own. As a wall of plasma raced through the corridors of the ships, it destroyed several already damaged control circuits of the ships reactors.
Soon the reactor lost containment and detonated with the force of a high yield thermonuclear weapon.
Thankfully only the twelve members of the minimal crew died in the detonation of the ship.
However the large amounts of radiation reacted with the unique energy field that filled the solar system, resulting in a spectacle that could be instantly seen over several hundred lightyears. But only if you were happening to look at the right direction and the right frequencies.
--
Harry sighed and leaned back. About half an hour ago, they had all moved to one of the conference rooms of the station, in the wake of him trying to destroy as many Jacks as he could. It was safer this way, both for the Jacks and him.
Currently there was only one Jack in the room, keeping as far away from him as he could, and putting several people between him and Harry.
Moving to the conference room had been the moment Harry had stopped to care too much about having been put in command of the station as well. Fatigue was coming to him fast and he just wanted to get through this and than sleep as long as he could.
"I don't see why it would be a problem of sharing the planet," Jack said, the current remote acting rather sane." It about the size of Earth and the even if only about a fifth of the surface is ice free, there is enough space for everyone."
Harry looked over to the Colonials, Baltar was breathing in deep and his eyes locked with an empty couch.
"One question," he said after a moment." I wanted to ask this earlier. But... you know of Earth?"
Harry noticed that Sinclair raised an eyebrow as Jack answered.
"Yes, this station was build by the Earth Alliance, a star nation based around Earth."
Baltar nodded and looked at Adama, before his eyes went back to the empty couch for a moment.
"That means that we can get help from Earth to deal with the Cylons."
"I doubt it," Harry talked up and sighed." Earth was invaded by the Doranians three years ago."
The Dilgar and Ferrons looked over to him, their faces showing that they knew how that felt.
"I was born on Earth, but the Doranians took me as a slave during the initial invasion. At this moment I don't have any idea what is going on on Earth."
Sinclair frowned.
"That we can't do much more than remain here," he noted.
Harry noted that Takano and Shinosuke looked at each other for a moment and it seemed like they had an entire conversation just with their looks alone.
"Which brings us back to the planet," Mal'ak said.
"Like I said," Jack noted." There is enough space for everyone on the planet. In the six hundred years this station has been here,I took the chance to do a full survey of it to pass time."
Pretty much everyone looked at him and he shrugged.
"Six hundred years are a long time to be bored..." he said than than coughed." Well... I have found several places that are very useful for colonization. Relatively high temperatures throughout the year, good soil, places with ores and other natural resources. Everything that is needed for the fledging colony."
"Maybe it would be best to build up a single colony rather than several," Makar noted." It would bundle resources from everyone. It would be the best for the Dilgar and the Colonials, who have very little in the way of resources."
Harry nodded to himself, it sounded like a good idea.
"That may be the case," Takano spoke," but that would take away resources from us and you Ferrons."
Makar chuckled a little.
"We don't have any problems with resources or manufacturing," he said." The fabbers of the Pride of Ferrol can build nearly everything and we have left several mining ships in the asteroid belt."
"Technology," Mal'ak said." We Dilgar would be willing to trade our technology for help."
Harry looked around. The Ferrons and the Shin'bi looked interested, but he was a little more interested in the Colonials. Baltar and Adama were whispering to each other and it looked like they were in a heated, through low voiced discussion.
A few moments later Baltar looked up.
"I will have to talk with the Quorum of the Twelve about this," he said.
"Jack, is there a way to move the station to the planet?"
"Yeppers," Jack answered cheerfully." This is a mobile station. No problem moving it at all. We could enter orbit around the planet in four days. Faster if someone could help..."
"The gravitic field of our Warp drive can be expanded to cover Babylon 4," Makar noted after a moment." It would reduce travel time down to twelve hours."
Harry nodded.
"I think we should continue tomorrow. I need some sleep..."
Much sleep, he thought to himself.