Temporal Cold War: Earth-Minbari War.
President Elizabeth Levy was thankful the doors to her office were locked and she was alone in her office because it meant she could bury her entire face in her hands; she did not like how the Minbari had kept her on as a President. She knew only too well she was nothing more than a puppet ruler, someone to give demands and relay them to the population of Earth. She would rather die. A part of her knew the others in Earthdome felt the same. She knew others saw her and everyone working here as collaborators.
They were right to feel that way.
She wanted a PPG, but if she committed suicide then the Minbari would just give the job to someone else as they tightened their hold over Earth and their warriors committed more atrocities. This was a nightmare - Earth was now under occupation from the Minbari and the aliens were taking advantage of their advanced technology and brutality to take hold of Earth while their warriors felt free and happy to murder and imprison anyone unlucky enough to steer clear of them. And she was here, giving orders to the population to surrender and work for the Minbari.
She was a traitor, in every sense of the world. This was the ultimate nightmare and worse, it was one that had been orchestrated by several fools within EarthDome, EarthGov, and Earthforce command.
For God's sake, what the hell were so many people thinking when they had heard the Minbari were far more powerful and dangerous and that even the Dilgar hadn't been stupid enough to take them on?
Well, okay, Levy could understand where some of the generals and politicians like herself were thinking, they felt that just because aliens were more aware of a powerful race of aliens who had fought off a great enemy a thousand years before, they couldn't be that powerful. Oh boy, how they were likely eating their own words now.
Shortly after the Dilgar War ended with the Earth Alliance's place in the galaxy cemented even though many among the military, in the government and the civilian population really did not like the thought of so much loss of lives and equipment for the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, and fewer were even happier when the League refused to even allow them a membership to the greater galactic community, a piece of intelligence came to the attention of a select few - Levy really hated it whenever the government agents hid so much information from others, but this time it had gone too far and millions had perished as a result - that within the Centauri Republic there were several who would like to move the Centauri fleet into conquering the Earth Alliance and pushing humanity into a slave caste.
It was hardly a surprise. When Centauri history became easier to acquire shortly after their two races met, many in the government and many of her predecessors had been cautious about the Centauri. Even to this day, there were many people who did not trust the Centauri; their lives and exaggerations had been going on for decades.
When they had first met the Centauri, Earth was told the Centauri practically ran the galaxy, a 'huge empire' they called it. Several people were quite worried when they heard that, fully expecting an invasion fleet to follow the first contact team representatives sent by the Centaurum. But that fear lessened when they learnt the Centauri actually ran a fraction of the galaxy, and that fraction had been dwindling for decades, but many were still worried when they gained intelligence which stated the Centauri had a few conquered worlds under their control including Narn.
But that lie was more worrying than the one where the Centauri had tried to sell them the idea that Earth was in fact a long lost Centauri colony; yes, while that had led to some horrified people who worried that they weren't humans but were Centauri, it was quickly proven to be false. But ever since that day the Centauri wondered why humans rarely listened or believed them. Unfortunately, that distrust led to a world of pain and destruction because after the Dilgar War, EarthGov received intelligence that stated that some of the Centaurum were pressing for Earth and her colonies and a large chunk of the space nearby be annexed by the Centauri Republic.
Now, of course, this made little sense.
The Centauri knew that humanity was the polar opposite of the Narn, but that didn't mean they could not be dangerous. But would they risk it? Earth had acquired a lot of alien technology from the Dilgar War, a lot of it from wreckage found in various ships. They had even gotten hold of several pieces of Dilgar technology, but they had been slowly releasing the reverse-engineered hardware into Earth Alliance ships.
On top of that, the Centaurum knew Earth would fight to the death, so it was decided a show of humanity's mettle was needed. The only problem was nobody wanted to fight with the Centauri, Levy didn't know all of the details but she knew this bunch of idiots had come up with an insane plan to prove humanity's strength in another way when the smartest thing to have done would be to consolidate, found new colonies, build up the fleet and reverse engineer enough technology and hardware as possible and keep watch on the Centauri and the other powers but that would have been too much for those fools.
Levy knew new as soon as the whispers of the Minbari Federation, a powerful and reclusive race reached the ears of the idiots who came up with the stupid plan had found the perfect candidate for this show of force.
Six months into the war, Earth had only come across those galactic history records by chance and when they had learnt the aliens whom the Minbari were fighting were many thousands of years older, and how the Minbari had fought them as part of a small coalition of worlds, well it made many choke on their own vomit. But still, the decision to send Jankowski had been a risk; the trigger happy fool was perfect, but he had done the job a bit too well. Too bad their intentions blew up in their faces, and now Earth was under occupation from the Minbari.
Levy closed her eyes, feeling them burn with tears. How could people be so unutterably stupid? Like everyone else, Levy didn't understand why the Minbari had suddenly changed their minds; in the war, they had made it very clear they planned to exterminate the whole human race, but when it came to the Battle of the Line, they suddenly disabled every single ship which had been unlucky enough to be still within the home system at the time of the battle. She envied the people who had managed to escape, but it was soured by the thought of what they were likely facing right now.
They were facing dozens of threats not just from the Minbari but with anybody else in the Outer Rim. What about natural phenomena like black holes, supernovas, asteroids? But at least they were free.
"I'm amazed you are still in office, but then we both know the Minbari are keeping you here to pass on orders."
Levy shot bolt upright, wishing she had a PPG but with the Minbari guards and officials who had taken over the planet and forcing hundreds into virtual slavery while the Warrior Class massacred whoever they liked, a PPG in here would be suicide. A woman was standing in the office but Levy didn't recognise her, and her clothes were completely different from what Levy had seen in her time. A purple tunic over a pair of black leggings and black boots.
"But then again the Minbari need to be in control, no?"
"Who are you?" Levy asked the only question on her mind.
"My name is Noys Lambent, and if I were you I would look out for those who ask 'Who are you?' And 'What do you want?' The Vorlons and the Shadows ask those questions in that order."
"The Vorlons?" Levy's head was beginning to ache. But at the same time, she was curious. Where had she heard the name 'Noys Lambent?' "Why would you bring them up?"
"I'll tell you in a minute. I'm just here to help you," Noy's face could have been carved from granite for all the emotion it showed. Levy snorted in disbelief and contempt for the simple statement. "Help me, how?"
It was Noy's turn to show contempt. "Help just you? Please. I'm here to help all of humanity. I'm a time traveller, President Elizabeth Levy," Noys spent the next 5 minutes telling Levy about little tidbits about her life, even some of her secrets. "Personally I don't care if you believe me or not. I have no time to waste convincing you of that, but I don't really need to do much. My life revolves around creating new histories, and this is one of them."
"Are you responsible for the occupation?" Levy jumped on the explanation with an accusation.
Noys shook her head with an expression of pity and contempt. "No, I'm not."
She was telling the President a half-truth. She was not responsible for the actions of the Minbari but she was responsible for 'tweaking' the possibility which led to this timeline. She was hoping with this new timeline new possibilities would come into being, and while the Babylon project was good in theory it led to something a bit too much like the Federation for her tastes. She would rather humanity became more akin to the Terran Empire or the Khanate of Earth run by the Children of Khan back in her little point in reality for a change.
"But I am going to help you repel it," Noys went on, trying not to think of the amount of trouble she had needed to go through in order to make sure the two Vorlons present onboard the Minbari flagship did not interfere with her manipulation of the Grey Council.
"Oh, and how do you plan to do that?" Levy asked sceptically.
Noys grinned for the first time. She reached behind her and pulled out a stoppered jar that was longer than an athlete's baton and it was filled with a shimmering dark blue substance that let out a low glow. "This is one of 17 such jars. When I open this one, the others will be triggered. Inside are trillions upon trillions upon trillions of nanites. They've been programmed to manipulate and rewrite human DNA only, so the Minbari won't be affected. When it merges with human DNA, you will become cybernetically and genetically enhanced. Your brains will become more refined, increasing your overall intelligence and your physical speed and strength will become greater."
Noys did not add that humanity would begin to change, seeing only humans and everything they valued as more important. In some ways, they would become diluted versions of Khan's augments with a dash of the sadistic side of the Terrans of the 'Mirror Universe.' Combined with the knowledge she'd gleaned from the Asgard database, information about hyperspace, hyperdrives, plasma and ion weapons, neutrino ion generators, beaming technology and advanced sensors, the human race was going to put every race in the Milky Way of this reality in its place. It would be the biggest reality check ever.
Noys opened the jar. The moment it was opened, a subspace signal would be broadcasted over the planet like the ripples sweeping across the surface of a lake and the nanites within them would be unleashed.
'Wait a minute! Why are you doing this?" Levy demanded; she didn't have a clue what was going on and she did not like that feeling, not one bit. A part of her suspected this was nothing more than a dream, but she knew it wasn't.
Noys was silent for a long moment. When she finally replied Levy was left even more confused. "To deliver a major blow to the timeline."
Levy blinked in surprise when her mysterious visitor just vanished into thin air. But she didn't have time to think before she suddenly felt herself becoming dizzy and everything went black…
X
Noys barely blinked as she stepped through the Time Portal back into her own timeline.
She was glad to be back. Full-scale meddling of the timeline, preventing Jeffrey Sinclair from getting a posting had been neigh impossible, but it was worth it for the outcome she wanted, a galaxy where not only were humanity on top of the other races, that ridiculous Interstellar Alliance would never be formed, but more importantly a more aggressive and dangerous human race would reign supreme.
When she had seen the timeline where the First Ones had not left when the Ancients and the other members of the Alliance were around, before being overthrown by races like the Shedai, the Tkon, and the Iconians, and the Earth-Minbari war, which was a temporal nexus in space and time, and responsible for the divergence of millions of possible timelines from the primary timeline, Noys had been intrigued. She had opted to create one of her own. As she looked around her base her eyes caught the Tempograph she had set up before she had travelled into the timeline she had just returned from. Already there were massive changes taking place as the humans revolted against the Minbari. It started off as small with basic passive resistance before the Minbari found it increasingly hard to fight the humans in hand to hand as their new genetic and cybernetic enhancements rendered the Minbari's former toys 12 times stronger and faster and more smarter than the Minbari were.
While this was going on the humans began creating crude Asgard derived weapons and beaming technology when they acquired their old resources, and soon they transported whatever leftover nuclear weapons onboard the war cruisers left in orbit, while beaming Minbari crew members off into the vacuum of space where they died en masse, leaving the ships to be replaced with humans. The remaining Minbari on Earth were likewise interrogated and killed. Within two years, the Minbari occupation force was removed from Earth. Once the Earth and the rest of the solar system were liberated, work immediately began to make use of the new technologies - many questioned how it was possible for them to suddenly collectively possess knowledge of an infinitely advanced civilisation, but what made it all the odder and more frightening was how humanity seemed united through telepathy.
In the meantime, the Minbari Federation, outraged by the loss of their people and the theft of the war cruisers, unanimously decreed a new Earth-Minbari War out of offence for the way the humans had stolen their technology and killed their people.
Typical boneheaded aliens.
But the humans hadn't wasted time; they had gotten hold of their old ships, rebuilt them and refitted their weapons and sensor technology, installing artificial gravity (there was something really wrong with this galaxy; why the Vorlons insisted on ensuring every race had to follow the Tech path of themselves and all of the First Ones, she had no idea; why they were so obsessed with Order was beyond her but this was a form of control she despised and was one of the very things she fought against) and so when the Minbari returned, they not only had to fend off the newly modified human warships left behind from the Battle of the Line, they had to cope with being blasted to pieces by nuclear warheads beamed onto their ships while the humans could bypass their stealth systems with ease. But what made it worse was how the humans had already decrypted and bypassed the Minbari computers on the war cruisers and picked clean the tactics of the battle computers and inputted them into the computers on their own ships to counter the Minbari onslaught. The Minbari didn't stand a chance.
Noys laughed as she saw the Minbari get a beating, but as she switched off the computers. She had no idea what the long term consequences of what she had just done were, but she was not finished.
There were possibilities still open, such as opening a timeline where the Centauri actually conquered and occupied Earth. That would have opened many interesting possibilities for later, and as she prepared the Time Portal equipment to open a portal into the past, Noys wondered how this one would go and what it would show up as for the Temporal Agents, to say nothing of the main fighters of the war; Vosk and that idiot who gave the Suliban weapons and genetic enhancements were too limited, in her mind if you wanted to change the past or alter time, you had to do it many times over in a more subtle way.
She had no idea what would happen in the reality she had just tampered with but truly she didn't care.
X
Author's Note.
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