The next few chapters will include the state of affairs within the Milky Way, not just those with the humans and on Earth. For those who have concerns about the Shadows, they are taking note and they are slowly, and surely, drawing their plans against everyone with Earth as a pawn. But it won't happen for some time. Even the Shadows want humanity to be spread out across the stars, although they don't really care either way. Strength through chaos, and all that.
Enjoy.
A New Space Age.
G'Kar looked around the Great Meeting Hall of the Kha'Ri curiously, followed closely by his aide, Na'toth. The daughter of a close friend, Na'toth had been selected to be G'Kar's aide and assistant in order to give her greater experience before she followed her own career plans. As a high ranking diplomat of the Narn Regime, G'Kar was usually travelling the galaxy, seeking out allies and new alliances which would benefit the Regime in the future when they moved onto their most coveted goal.
The destruction of the Centauri Republic.
Like most Narns, G'Kar had grown up under the thumb of the Centauri occupation. His father had accidentally made the mistake of spilling hot Jallah over the lady of the household. As punishment, his father was strung up from the family's holy tree and he died a long, slow death. G'Kar had run away and joined the resistance movement and he killed his first Centauri that night.
However, G'Kar was a philosopher and a diplomat at heart, although some of his diplomatic skills made him appear bombastic and prone to throwing his weight around proudly but the Narn ambassador had always done everything for his people, his world.
For the last six months, G'Kar, escorted by Na'toth and a few other aides and bodyguards, had been visiting newly established Narn colonies on the borders of what had once been the Earth Alliance. G'Kar daily prayed for the humans. The Minbari had hemmed them into their own solar system, taking away their privilege to travel the stars, and preventing any races from opening a jump point anywhere near Earth. In many ways, the Minbari were no better than the Centauri; technologically advanced and had fallen into the trap of believing themselves better than everyone else because of that factor.
But what made it worse was the Minbari had, like the Centauri, devastated Earth and launched atrocity after atrocity against the humans, and refused to even admit it. The Minbari arrogantly termed the humans' savages, barbarians, but in truth, the humans were trying to survive. If they had needed to fight back hard, what of it? Unfortunately, the Minbari didn't see that. They believed everything the humans did to fight back against their mighty juggernaut was dishonourable. To G'Kar, that was hypocritical and rather shortsighted. Every race being attacked would fight back to defend themselves, and were the Minbari truly surprised when the humans did so?
It was madness.
But right now all that lurked within G'Kar's mind was puzzlement. His ship and his party had been summoned back to Narn for a full meeting of the Kha'Ri.
A full meeting!?
The Kha'Ri was made up of eight circles, each with a specific function and a degree of authority; usually the Ruling circle would meet with relevant circles to solve various matters. For more important dilemma's the Kha'Ri would organise a full meeting. G'Kar knew whatever had warranted this was going to be interesting, and he glanced at Na'toth.
"This will be your first full session as an observer. Observe and learn," he ordered before he took his place and waited for everyone else to do the same while he nodded at some of his friends.
"This meeting of the Kha'Ri is now in session," Administrator Kha'Mak proclaimed. "And now we shall turn our attention to important news we have just intercepted; Emperor Turhan of the Centauri Republic has died."
The various Narns chattered to themselves, however, none were surprised. The Emperor had been falling ill of late recently, and nobody was really sad to see it happen. Many remembered how Turhan's family had looted Narn, becoming rich off the proceeds of the planet and enslaving and executing the population.
But the news Kha'Mak had to relay was troubling. "Our agents on Centauri Prime also reported there were several incidents leading up to the death of Turhan, and now Prime Minister Malachi is dead."
The chattering increased. They knew the Centauri thanks to the arrogant strutting aliens' boasts about the glories of the Old Republic regularly assassinated or plotted the downfalls of their rivals; the Narn had opted to use similar tactics on a larger scale during the war of liberation, but had the Centauri slipped back so far?
Out of the corner of his eye, G'Kar noticed a few of the older members of the Kha'Ri looking concerned and others were writing down on pieces of parchment. He wondered if they were writing notes or plans.
A councillor he recognised as the governor of the colony of Zok leaned forward. "Kha'Mak, do we know how Malachi died?"
Kha'Mak sighed. "He was apparently found in his bed, died of natural causes. However our agents within the palace report from a secret autopsy they found signs of poison."
G'Kar was unsurprised their agents had been suspicious. Everything the Centauri did was suspicious to a degree, and since the species preferred the sly approach vigilance and paranoia were the only ways to get to the bottom of their operations.
"Who is the new Emperor?"
Kha'Mak spat the name out of his mouth, loathing dripping from every syllable. "Lord Antono Refa."
"Refa?" A few of the councillors repeated in surprise while others among the council cursed as well. Refa was well known among the Narn Regime for his beliefs the Republic should never cede any kind of concession to the Narns. G'Kar closed his eyes, suddenly regretful Turhan had died, much to his own surprise at the irony.
But it wasn't without foundation.
Turhan might have been old but he had known while his people were shrinking in terms of power whereas the Narn were only getting stronger and more dangerous in diplomatic and territorial power, to say nothing of militaristic and technological power, the old emperor had likely been more than aware that the only way to stop the Narns would be to consolidate as much power as possible.
However, Turhans' successor was nothing like him.
Refa was one of those Centauri who wanted nothing more than to restore the Republic to their glory days, and by that, it meant the Centauri Republic would likely try to reconquer the worlds ceded to the Regime by Turhan in the past, but the new Emperor's eyes would be looking outward with a keen eye. And one of those glances would be settling on Narn itself. However they had time, but they would need to get ready for the inevitable; Refa was likely celebrating his new ascension to the throne, the highest position of the Republic, but none of the Kha'Ri was in any doubt what was going to happen.
They had sworn long ago to never allow the Centauri Republic to reconquer them again. Their fleet was large, impressive, but every Narn present in the Great Hall were aware they were no match for the Centauri, who possessed a much larger territory and their ships contained a greater technological advantage over their own. They just pretended never to admit it.
Hopefully, with the new colonies they had founded, especially on worlds once owned by Earth, they might have the resources needed for a prolonged fight, but G'Kar hoped Refa was smart enough to wait; from what he knew the Centauri themselves would need time for preparing themselves.
But Kha'Mak had more to say. "Refa has already, according to our agents stationed on Centauri Prime, met with the Centaurum. He has begun filling it with members of his organisation, Centauri who wish the same things he does. They were in session for three hours, making plans to reestablish themselves throughout the galaxy. Unsurprisingly Refa's address of the reconquest of Narn went with great applause, but the new emperor seems more ambitious. He wants to conquer the Drazi, the Markabs, but what he wants to do is to conquer Earth, the human homeworld. According to our agent on Centauri Prime, Refa claimed they should have conquered Earth long ago when they had the opportunity when they were still weakened from their world war, but now they have a chance, as Refa claims, to redeem themselves."
While everyone debated with themselves what they had just heard, G'Kar considered what he had just heard. From the sounds of it, Refa was not only one of those Centauri obsessed with the "good old days," he was apparently one of those Centauri who had long since wanted to bring Earth into the Republic. G'Kar had sometimes wondered, especially when he had learnt of the history between the Centauri and Earth why the Republic hadn't conquered the humans in the past in the first place. Apparently, at the time the Centauri couldn't find the funds needed for an occupation army needed to put down any potential resistance; personally, G'Kar would have been pleased if the Narns had had a brother in the humans if they had been conquered. The humans had shown themselves to be excellent soldiers when pushed, and they were incredibly inventive and creature as enemies, as the wars between the Dilgar and the Minbari had proven.
But that was a fantasy. An alternate universe that was now likely to happen in reverse here, but he found it incredible the new Emperor wanted to expand to encompass those races, and he wondered if Refa's ambitions were more encompassing.
He doubted the Minbari would care. They'd barricaded Earth from the rest of the galaxy and then went on their way back to Minbar, but while a few Minbari might care, they wouldn't act. In fact, many of them would likely be pleased the race they had tried to exterminate because of a mistake had been conquered and enslaved by a different race.
"How much time do we have to prepare our people, prepare our forces?" G'Kar looked up and glanced at the speaker. A Narn war leader he did not recognise, but judging from his face he was a young officer, recently promoted by the eager expression on his face. G'kar mentally sighed, hoping this war leader was seasoned by experience and wisdom, but he knew the military command would never have promoted him if he was incapable.
"Our agents within Centauri space report the Republic is stepping up production of their warships. Refa might be ambitious, but he knows he'll need time to properly prepare his people for their return," one of the first circle replied.
"In that case, we need to make preparations ourselves," Li'Dak shook his head, clearly thinking of the monumental job right in front of them. "The question is, can we defend ourselves?"
"Our military budget is luckily strong considering the planets we've colonised recently and the asteroids we're mining at this moment, but it will take time to build up our forces," a councillor pointed out.
"But would that be enough? The Centauri are devious fighters, and I don't like how Refa ascended to the throne immediately following Turhans' death, and how conveniently Malachi met his end," Shu'Toth, Na'Toth's father and fellow councillor, pointed out.
"You believe if Refa ensured their deaths, he will use the same underhanded tactics with us?"
"It wouldn't be the first time the Centauri showed the same ruthlessness with their enemies," G'Kar added his own opinion before he looked around the Hall, "we must remember that. The Centauri may be arrogant, but we should not underestimate them. In the meantime, I recommend we make preparations. My immediate concern is this; in a prolonged war, on land and in space, can we win? Over the last decade, we have made great strides in expanding our territory and developing our technology. We have acquired pieces of Minbari technology left behind carelessly when the Minbari retreated back to their territory and we have claimed a few planets near the humans' home system. We have managed to lessen the technological gap between us and the Centauri, we have built newer and more powerful ships, and thanks to the gravimetric fins found in space, we have addressed our own problems with artificial gravity, but is it enough?"
"Those new ships are nothing but prototypes, G'Kar," Shu'Toth pointed out grimly, "we have never tested them against anything but small Centauri outposts. We have no idea, no way, of knowing if they would be more than a match for a Centauri warship."
"They might be. Think about it; we ensured our scientists and engineers spent years reverse-engineering Earther and Minbari technology at the same time; while the humans were at our level on the galactic scale, they had some innovations and technologies we lacked. The Minbari debris has allowed us to gained a much greater percentage on our targeting lock capabilities, and we've begun encasing new ships and fighters as well as space stations with polycrystalline plates; its half as good as what the Minbari use, considering our own limited understanding of the science, but we know the Centauri lack that technology, so things have improved. However, G'Kar, you are correct; there is much we don't know," Councillor Ha'Rok interrupted.
"We can't send any of our newest ships into Centauri space to test our ships, not if we want to spark off a war now," T'Bar, one of the eldest councillors in the Kha'Ri interjected. "Right now the Centauri are building up their fleets for a major offensive, they are planning on taking us with one of them, while they attack the Drazi and the humans with the other two. Why not take advantage of that, we can build up our own fleets, step up production of our newest ships and increase patrols around our borders. In the meantime, we need to create strategies, so if the war comes sooner rather than later, we'll be prepared. One idea I can think of is we send fleets to our colonies, setting up supply depots in between while preparing other planets as well. We have also begun producing defence stations, automated battle stations armed with missiles and beams. Why not step up production of those stations and place them in orbit of our worlds?"
"That would certainly buy us the time we need to defend our worlds, but what will happen if the Centauri brings ships with more powerful technologies to bear? I doubt we were the only ones looting through the remains of the Minbari warships following the end of their war with the humans," Li'Dak pointed out.
Everyone in the Hall knew that was likely true. Minbari technology was really high on the scale of technology in the galaxy, far above them and above the Centauri. The other races would have wanted to ensure their own people were defended in case they encountered the Minbari and everything went wrong. And considering how many among the Centauri population wanted to return the Republic to the golden days of conquest and glory and power, they would not have wanted to lose the chance of gaining pieces of Minbari technology.
Kha'Mak took a deep breath. "How are we in terms of defence?"
"We have installed numerous defence battle stations in orbit above our worlds. Currently, we have a dozen in our home system."
"Can we increase that number, take it up to three or four dozen?"
"We could. But what about our other systems, we haven't produced many of them yet?"
"That will have to be our top priority," Shu'Toth stated firmly, his red eyes narrowed and his expression set to ensure nobody even thought of arguing against his word. "We should also think about setting up contingencies in case the Centauri have reverse-engineered Minbari technology and gained a bigger lead than us."
"We could set up underground bunkers in our colonies," one councillor suggested. "We already build them anyway, but we can build more that are bigger and stronger; constructing them deeper would be challenging but deep beneath the ground and reinforced with alloys and concrete as well as being deep beneath the surface of the planet means the rock will be reinforced. At the same time, we begin looking into ways of mining our systems; if the Centauri appear, we can activate the mines and watch as the Centauri are destroyed."
"That's plausible. Also, I think we should double our exploration of the outer rim," another councillor stated, "if we can find enough suitable worlds we can colonise them beyond the Centauri's reach."
"You'd have us run away?" One of the war leaders, not the one who'd spoken earlier, spat.
"No, we need to accept the inevitable. There's a chance the Centauri will conquer us and we need to prepare for all contingencies."
Although he hated to admit it G'Kar sighed, admitting the councillor was right. "I agree. We need to prepare for the worst. At the same time I think we should contact both the Drazi, and if we can, the humans as well. If we make it clear there's a chance the Centauri will attack them, the Drazi military will be prepared. And at the same time, we can liberate the humans."
"And anger the Minbari?" Tal'Rok pointed out.
"We need allies. If we make it clear what the Centauri have in mind, we might have enough strength to fight them if we had help. The Centauri are just one race, but if we join with the humans and the Drazi-."
"G'Kar, there's no guarantee the Drazi will believe us, and then there are the humans; their fleet was destroyed by the Minbari. They wouldn't be of any real use to us," Mu'Pok pointed out.
X
"How many Narns are on this asteroid?" Sheridan demanded while he hefted his new blaster. The blasters were a more powerful weapon than the old PPG, but while the weapons were still in the testing stage, there were many who hoped they were used in the field. As for himself, Sheridan knew the weapons would be needed soon, but not right now while Earth was in the process of reopening their colonies.
"Three. We've got their life signs. They're a long way from where you are now, in case you're interested," Ivanova said, making Sheridan wonder about his first officer's dry sense of snarky humour.
"We're always interested, Ivanova. Have the Narns detected us?" Sheridan asked, desperately hoping the answer was no while at the same time wondering if there was a chance they could get the Narns on their side, but he discounted it for the same reasons as before.
The Narn were an opportunistic species; ever since their world was conquered and occupied by the Centauri for a hundred years, they had become determined to make the Centauri pay, and ever since they had managed to build a small space force and launch it into hyperspace to find new worlds to conquer and colonise to ensure the Narn species never died out. They had their world back, but what if something happened to their local star?
But when the Narns came across inhabited worlds, they conquered them, battering them down, looting the planet of its resources and enslaving the populations until they began fighting back at the Narns. And on and on it went.
Sheridan could understand the mindset of expanding, of course.
It was the same mindset behind Earth's original expansion into space, and it was behind the space expansion of every species that discovered hyperspace throughout history. The human race at the time had been overcrowding their homeworld, consuming their resources daily until they had a polluted world before they'd developed the technology to get ships off the ground and into space in a renewable way.
When they met the Centauri, all Earth had on offer were a few Slower than Light sleeper ships, but when the Centauri gave them access to jump gates which gave them hyperspace, Earth finally colonised their part of the galaxy to ensure the human race expanded. It was no different from the Narn; they merely wanted to ensure they colonised enough planets to ensure their civilisation survived and that they were strong enough to fend off the Centauri and other powers who could prove to become a threat.
Is that what's going to happen to us? Sheridan asked himself.
Sheridan knew there was a movement back home on Earth, a movement which had been growing in size as the years of being isolated and imprisoned on their own world by the Minbari passed, a movement which had been calling out for humanity to conquer the stars and the aliens as soon as warp drive was first invented. A few psychologists called it 'the Narn syndrome,' a psychological condition where everyone wanted to push their anger and their fury towards a goal they thought they could achieve.
Named after the Narns and their desire to become strong enough to fight off against their century-old enemies, the Centauri, human psychologists had been studying those people who openly stated that instead of letting themselves be almost destroyed again by another alien race they instead conquer and crush them so then they were easier to control.
The idea was horrifying for Sheridan and it stood against everything he had sworn to protect, and it went against everything that he believed in about the Earth Alliance, but it was becoming incredibly popular back home, but at the same time… he acknowledged that he personally was one of many who wanted to destroy the Minbari Federation and erase their civilisation and culture from the face of the galaxy in revenge for what they'd done to them.
But he did not want Earth to suddenly become the Dilgar.
Unfortunately, it looked like, if certain people had their way, and things turned out the way they hoped, that was what was going to happen. The popularity of the movement mostly came from the younger generations, children who had grown up watching as their world was fire-bombed by the Minbari, forced to watch as their friends and family were killed. Was it any wonder they were furious and wanted the galaxy to scream with them?
No, Sheridan did not blame them. But he did not want them going too far. It would lead them to a dark place, one they could never hope to escape from in time.
"Hard to be sure. But I can tell you something that's bothering me. The good news is their ships' scanners are turned off."
"What about the rest of their systems?" Sheridan asked, wondering what the hell a Narn shuttle was doing all the way out here on its own, but then he realised it couldn't have been; it was impossible for a shuttle or a fighter to open a jump point as the power and the technology needed for that was simply too big and would likely burn the ship out and blow it up.
"They're off as well; according to our scans, the Narn shuttle's reactor has been powered down for four days, but as soon as they switch it back on and bring their engines to full power-."
"They'll be able to detect us," Sheridan nodded, but then he looked puzzled as a thought crossed his mind. "Wait a sec. You said it's a Narn shuttle, right?"
"Right. And we've already checked it out. We've just detected several beacons with different frequencies compared to ours before the Minbari shut them down. There's also a transmission being sent by that ship. It looks like a locator beacon. That means the Narn shuttle will rendezvous with another ship."
Sheridan stiffened as he heard Ivanova's grim tone. It was possible the Narn ship on the asteroid had been left here by a much larger and more powerful Narn cruiser which had gone away for another mission and the cruiser would be back soon at a pre-arranged time. "Don't jam that transmission, we don't want the Narn to know we're interfering."
"How do we make sure they don't detect you when you're in the asteroid?"
Good question. "Check with sciences and engineering if there's a way we can use our scanners to block off their own sweeps, but hopefully when they first got here, the Narn first detected no-body around. But I'm worried about Phoenix. Susan, I want you to bring the invisibility cloak online."
"You think the Narn will be leaving soon?"
"We don't know anything; just get us the scientific data to adjust our scanners, and for god's sake, hide yourselves. Our orders when it comes to aliens is very clear, do not make any kind of contact. Earth did not make any exception."
"Understood, Captain."
X
The Phoenix's hull slowly started to shimmer out of existence as the invisibility screens were brought online.
Like all races in the galaxy, Earth had possessed a stealth screen that prevented aliens from breaking through their defences and give their ships protection in battle; while it worked against races like the Narns and the Drazi, it had no effect against ships used by the Dilgar, the Centauri, or the Minbari.
Those three races had technological sophistication that was higher than anything used by Earth. After the war, a scientist inspired by a movie released in 2020, a remake and rethought of HG Well's famous novel, The Invisible Man, decided to come up with a stealth technology that was simpler than the technologies out there.
Instead of creating a new generation of electronic jamming technologies, the scientist began working on an invisibility technology that used an array of micro-cameras linked to a number of projectors. With access to modern technology and backed with all the support needed when initial experiments yielded great results, the scientist was able to provide a system that took images from all angles and projected it around them. Armed with the most advanced computer technologies and projection systems which provided a great holo-projection screen of remarkable quality which was only growing as the technology was constantly improved upon and researched on Earth, Phoenix's hull as well as that of her sister ships and the new generations of fighters and orbital defence platforms which were being produced in great number these days.
It might be seen as primitive by some species, but it worked perfectly. Nobody among the crew had the slightest idea of how the technology would work against the Minbari, but they were hopeful the optical stealth technology in conjunction with the warp engines of the Phoenix, would mean they had closed some of the tech gaps with the Minbari.
There were many in Earth dome who wanted to send the ship and her crew into Minbari space and see if they could get through the Minbari's territory and spy on them without being detected.
Unfortunately, it would be some time before it happened; in any case, they needed to conduct a number of tests.
The Phoenix had been invisible for over an hour before a jump point formed; the vortex funnel was heralded by a blinding but brief flash of light which expanded as the entrance into hyperspace appeared, and a large Narn heavy cruiser emerged. A few minutes later the Narn shuttle lifted off and flew towards the mother vessel.
As soon as the Narn shuttle was docked, the large Narn cruiser turned and opened a new jump point to re-enter hyperspace.
On the bridge of the Phoenix, Susan sighed with relief. Things had been tense as soon as the Narn warship had appeared, but the sight of the jump point opening had brought back many memories. Most of them were bad as well as good.
"Ivanova to Sheridan," she opened a channel to the away team. "The coast is clear."
"Okay, good. Did they detect you?"
"No, they didn't even bother to scan the area when they jumped in," Susan mentally rolled her eyes at the question; she would have said otherwise.
X
As soon as the Narn was reported gone, the landing party were joined by more of their fellows from the ship. Once they arrived the investigation of the asteroid began in earnest. It didn't take the xeno-archaeological team long to find an archive that contained an extensive account of the aliens' history. Sheridan's first thought about the computer was how similar its design and function were to the ancient computers found and used on Earth.
He knew from his talks with Anna many races differed from each other when they got into space, but John Sheridan had never encountered an alien race who used this type of technology.
"This computer is extremely primitive," Douglas commented as she gently examined the primitive metal squares which gave off a rainbow finish with the torch beams shining on them.
"It looks like these people did not encounter anyone who could help them develop data crystals," Hendricks added as he examined the squares himself, turning them over thoughtfully in his hands. "Mm, these remind me of old CD-Roms."
"Those went out years ago," Sheridan commented, remembering from his time in the academy the lectures on early spaceflight, those trips to science museums…but he'd once had a friend who'd collected all kinds of old Earth music on vinyl records and CDs.
"Data crystals added more processing power to the computers we later developed after our first contact with the Centauri, but while this computer is extremely primitive we can still easily collect whatever information is on these," Douglas said.
As he watched the scientists gather as many of the information squares as they could place inside the carrier cases they'd brought along for this mission, Sheridan looked around the chamber and he could not help but wonder about the people who built this place.
It was obvious they'd originally possessed the technology to move through space, but after what they'd seen Sheridan couldn't help but wonder if some great calamity had forced them off of their own planet and take refuge in this asteroid. It would make sense, but Sheridan had learnt never to be sure of anything in his life. He hoped as soon as they'd finished examining the squares, they had an idea of the species who'd taken refuge and likely died on this asteroid.