Disclaimer: I do not own Babylon 5 or its characters, those belong to Warner Brothers. I do not own Robotech or its characters, those belong to Harmony Gold. I do not own Macross or its characters, those belong to Big West and Studio Nue.

Chapter 7

The Pegasus Galaxy

The Robotech Factory

Doctor Lang was looking up at the massive warship when he was asked the question. He lowered his head to look at Captain Sheridan and the group of Captains. Then he adjusted his glasses and said, "That, Captain Sheridan is a Macross Cannon."

Everyone looked at Doctor Lang as if he'd grown a second head. Captain Richards was the first to say what everyone was thinking. "Where in God's name did that thing come from?! I've never seen anything like this in any of our history books, documentaries….What in God's name is that thing!?"

Doctor Lang continued to look at the group of Captains calmly as he replied, "I don't have all the answers I'm afraid. But apparently our predecessors built four of them during the war against the Haydonites, three were destroyed during the war and what you see is the last one, the SDFMC-03 Thor's Hammer.

"SDFMC? What does that stand for?", asked Captain Thar.

"Super Dimensional Fortress Macross Cannon.", Doctor Lang replied.

Captain Sheridan said, "Let's go take a look at this 'Macross Cannon'. Lead the way, Doctor."

As the group followed the Doctor to an elevator that would take the to the boarding level for the massive warship everyone was talking and making comments.

"Goddamn, what they hell were they thinking?"

"That the war with the Haydonites required very big guns."

"I hate to think about the crew requirements for that monster."

"That can't possibly mean it has four reflex cannons can it?"

There were many questions about the ship and they reached the boarding tube and quickly walked across to enter the warship.

Thankfully there was a map in the hall that they entered into and the officers studied it to look where to go. Finding the route to the Bridge they found that they were not too far away and made it to the ship's Bridge in less than a minute.

They looked around and saw that all the consoles and chairs were covered up to protect their instruments. Surprisingly there was very little dust.

Doctor Lang commented, "It would seem that the warship has recently been cleaned."

John looked around the ship's Bridge and saw how big it was in that it was multi leveled. Looking down he saw that there were more control stations below them, with more stations below that.

Doctor Lang moved down to lower levels of the Bridge and found the Engineering stations. He pulled off the covers and found the main Engineering consoles and he did a check and found that the ship was connected to the power of the Factory itself. He moved his hands to the console and pressed some buttons and the lights turned on the Bridge and computers, and all the systems began to turn on.

"Power's on sir.", Doctor Lang called out.

Captain Sheridan said, "Thank you Doctor."

Everyone gathered together to look at the stations except for Doctor Lang who was examining the Engineering stations to see the ships systems. He was very impressed with what he saw. According to the data it seemed that the massive warship was not a massive crew resource hog. Much of the ship was automated which is what brought the amount of crew needed aboard way down.

John and the others were looking over the different stations and Captain Thar found the weapons stations on the second bridge level. They were looking the different stations over.

Captain Ben Richards exclaimed, "Damn, it CAN do a modular transformation!"

"You were right Captain Jiina, it can fire four reflex cannon shots, one from each of the arms and one from the two booms.", John said.

Captain Thar pointed out that the warship had other weapon systems as well. They all took note that the massive warship also possessed twelve single barrel particle cannons, one hundred twenty tri-barrel heavy particle beam turrets, one hundred eighty missile launchers, and one hundred twenty point defense laser arrays.

Captain Jiina said, "This thing is a monster."

Captain Thar added, "She was clearly built to destroy warships."

"No", John corrected, "She was built to destroy fleets of warships."

Captain Richards was jubilant in expressing, "Well, we throw this against the Minbari, their fleets are toast!."

There were chuckles from the group.

Captain Jiina was looking at the CAG station which listed the squadrons of Veritechs aboard the warship. "She has hundreds of veritechs aboard, not familiar with these...VF2-SS Veritechs."

John gave a hum as he took in that information. "Definitely something we'll have to look into. Doctor Lang, go ahead and shut her down. Let's go look at the SDF-3."

"Yes sir.", Doctor Lang said.

The systems were powered down and the covers were placed back on the consoles and stations. Then they all walked out of the ship and headed to go look at the SDF-3.

EarthDome

The President's Office

The President, Secretary Sterling, Director Alexas, Attorney General Jennifer Walters, and General Lefcourt were gathered around the President's desk. They all had received word of what had happened at the Classified facility a couple of hours ago and the President had demanded a meeting in person immediately to discuss the incident. To say she was unhappy was a massive understatement.

Looking around the room with an expression that showed her displeasure she began, "Alright, explain it to me again. How the hell...no, how the FUCK did this traitor do this?"

Everyone was silent and Director Spiros Alexas, the Director of Intelligence pretty much knew that the investigation was a joint investigation, involving his people as well as EarthForce's Judge Advocate General's Office.

Taking the initiative Director Alexas said, "The investigation is just getting started ma'am. Here is what we know so far." He had a small remote in his hand and he pressed a button and the wall video screen changed to show two images, the first image was the official ID picture of the man who had killed the two guards outside the interrogation room as well as the mysterious operative that had just been moved there to be interrogated. The second image was a crime scene picture of the same man.

"We have identified the shooter…", Director Alexas began.

The President interrupted him with an angry tone, "Traitor. This man was a traitor, call him what he is."

Director Alexas cleared his throat and said, "Yes ma'am.", Then he resumed, "The traitor has been identified as Colonel William Blake. He's served EarthForce for fifteen years and he was assigned to Military Intelligence for the last six years. He had better than Top Secret Clearance which is why he was able to gain entry to the facility."

"Was he supposed to be there today?", asked the President.

Nodding his head Spiros confirmed, "Yes ma'am. But he was not supposed to be near the prisoner. His job is analysis, not actual field work or talking to prisoners. He would have analyzed the interrogation footage and try to help us in determine if the prisoner was lying or being truthful. But when he showed up to see the prisoner, the guards knew he wasn't supposed to be there. They just did not expect or anticipate he would pull out a weapon and shoot them."

President Levy snarled, "So, he had the clearance to be in the facility, just not the clearance to be where he was. What else do we know?"

"Well, given the footage that we've recovered from the Interrogation Room, we know that both men appear to be members of Humans First, and that Colonel Blake displayed the symbolic gesture that is linked to Humans First's more militant wings as well as giving their cry in Latin when he killed himself. Tell tale signs that he's a member of one of their terrorist cells."

Then Secretary Sterling spoke up, "Unless this was a deception by some other group to throw Humans First under the bus."

Giving a huff Director Alexas said, "We will be looking into that possibility but I'm confident that this was not a false flag. The intruder was supposed to have killed himself and he didn't so they sent someone in to make sure he died before he could give us any information."

"Tear this man's life apart, find out everything there is about him. Make sure he's dishonorably discharged, I don't want this family of his collecting anything! Dig into his family, his wife, his wife's family, his mother, father, brothers, cousins...the works. When it's time, I want this traitor to be publicly revealed. Keep digging into the EarthForce HQ intruder as well, if he's not in any known database, drop his DNA through a genealogy database if you have to. He's got to be related to someone." President Levy hissed.

President Levy took a drink of water from the glass she had poured earlier. "Everyone, this organization had been a thorn in our sides for a long time. I'm giving the word, I want the Hammer of God to fall on this organization. Attorney General Walters", she paused so she could look at the green haired, green skinned Zentraedi woman. "The Justice Department can take point over those members that are clearly civilians. But the JAG and Spiros's people will handle those that are clearly members of the military. But let me make this clear to all of you. Get these traitors under arrest, charge them, try them, convict them and by God execute them."

Everyone had their orders and everyone acknowledged them and the meeting came to an end and they all left the President's office to get to work.

Dark Side of the Moon

EarthForce Lunar Facility

It had been a few days since President Levy had given her speech to the people, letting the world and the colonies know that Hope was coming. Since the broadcast media outlets have broadcast the either the entire speech or portions of it multiple times.

Former Zentraedi and half Zentraedi that had retired were lining up at EarthForce recruiting centers on planet Earth and on colony worlds that had fast access to transports back to the homeworld with some lines wrapping around the building. Tirolians and half Tirolians who also had a knowledge of the science of Robotechnology came forward to offer their assistance to not just the military but to advanced research laboratories such as DARPA that were now scrambling to pull out the data they had locked away on Robotechnology.

Granted, they had to wait for the Pegasus expedition to return but many Zentraedi who had combat experience with Robotech warships or mecha were now being spread out to train additional cadres of pilots, naval crews, and ground soldiers were now being introduced to Cyclones and Destroids of the last Robotech War.

With the word out, Miriya Sterling and Komira Parino were given additional resources to bring more simulators online for mecha and warship training.

The day after the President's announcement both Komira and Miriya assembled their respective training cadres all together in one of the largest conference rooms that the base facility had.

The two Admirals walked out onto stage and everyone was quiet. Miriya said, "As you know this facility is on a communication and media lockdown. Admiral Komira and I are now informing you all that last night, President Levy has made the official announcement that the Special Clause is being invoked and that the expedition to reclaim our Robotech ships and technology is under way."

With her hands clasped behind her back Miriya stepped forward to stand at the edge of the stage. "What does this mean? It means that the clock is ticking for all of us. My job is to get you all ready for piloting Veritechs to act as Cat's Eyes for our warships. Be prepared, things are about to become extremely harder as I'm going to push you all. You can expect to face me or any of my instructors in the simulator as an opposing force pilot. We will be receiving actual Alphas, Betas and Condors within the next couple of days and I will start assigning flight time to all of you."

Admiral Komira stepped up to stand next to Miriya at the front of the stage and said, "To all of you learning the ins and outs of Robotech warship operation, I will be making sure you are ready to make the move over to our Robotech ships as soon as those Robotech warships that return from Pegasus become available. The higher ups will be wanting to take these warships into battle immediately and it will be your job to show the Minbari that we are no longer the ducks in a shooting gallery."

Almost overnight, the Lunar base had quickly expanded and built up to sixty Veritech simulators for Miriya's retraining program which allowed her to have two full squadrons in simulators at the same time. These worked on rotation basis, while two squadrons were training in the sims, the others were being lectured on mecha piloting and combat tactics.

Miriya was ruthless, she showed no mercy in the simulators, starting to put up simulations of Minbari fighters against the Veritech trainees on extremely very difficult settings for the pilots to up against. Occasionally she would change it up and put then through historical missions, going so far as to put the pilots through a full simulation of the historical mission on the day that Dolza's Zentraedi forces attacked Earth and unleashed the Rain of Death. That was a day a lot of the pilots came out of their simulator pods shaking like leaves.

That was the day Miriya reminded them all what they were fighting for. "This day came once, it may come again. It is already coming to many of our colonies. Your job is to make sure it does not happen to the homeworld once again."

Like in Miriya's case, Komira quickly got more simulators and she was happy to see more simulators up and running, now she had sixteen Ikazuchi Class and ten Eisenhower Class warship simulators along with more people to train but she also received more Zentraedi and half/Zentraedi and half/Tirolian combat veteran crew to assist her with training the people in operating a Robotech warship.

Having heard what Miriya had done with her trainees, Komira did the same thing and put her warship crew trainees through the Rain of Death simulation to motivate them and get them to realize what was at stake. For both Miriya and Komira, they had found the people they were training highly motivated and were pleased with their trainee's progress.

Somewhere in the former state of Texas, North American State

The former United States had merged with the nation of Canada and together they became the North American State. With so much destruction in the past, the notion of states was largely gone and now the country was broken into sectors. The state formerly known as Texas was broken into to halves, a western part belonging to the SouthWestern Sector and the eastern part belonging to the SouthEastern Sector.

Out in the vast open plains of this former state was a fairly sized mansion that was owned by a very wealthy individual. The identity of the person that owned this mansion and the surrounding acres and acres of land was not publicly known. A very fancy aerodyne was landing on the pad nearby to the expensive ranch style home and once it landed and powered down, the pilot exited and opened the passenger door to allow his VIP to exit the vehicle.

Senator Morgan Clark exited the aerodyne and saw a man with very short cut black hair and brown eyes in a very expensive suit waiting for him.

"Senator, he's waiting for you. Please follow me.", the man said.

Nodding his head the Senator followed his guide to his destination. It took a couple of minutes due to the size of the house he was led to the back of the home and out onto the expansive patio. The day was just turning to early evening and the temperature was now becoming more comfortable to be outside after the hot spring day.

Senator Clark walked out onto the patio and was led to an outdoor table where a group of three men and two women wearing far more expensive clothing than the man that had guided him to this spot.

The black haired man said, "Senator Clark is here sir."

One of the men who was sitting at the head of the table rose and greeted Senator Clark. The man was had a full head of blonde hair stylized professionally with blue eyes. Speaking with a natural Texas accent the man said, "Please have a seat Senator. Hungry? You've had a long flight, I can't imagine that the food on the private hypersonic aircraft was decent. Just say the word, I'll have some fine barbecue brought out for you."

Senator Clark looked at the assembled men and women. They had plates of food still on their plates and glasses half full of wine.

Senator Clark decided to play it cool. He sat down at the end of the table and replied, "I don't want you to go to any trouble."

"Nonsense", the man said. "We're just having a little barbecue." Snapping his fingers he gestured with his hand and pointed at Senator Clark. "Give the Senator some of this fine barbecue." As soon as he said that a chef was pulling out a plate and piling food onto it. In seconds a plate of food was placed in front of Senator Clark

"Trust me Senator, my pitmaster's barbecue is the best in the state, it is phenomenal."

Senator Clark looked his plate and saw it was filled with barbecue brisket, three spare ribs, and three sausage links with sides of potato salad and baked beans. Another servant placed a wine glass and poured an expensive red wine into it.

Senator Clark began, "My apologies for being late, there was an incident within EarthForce High Command and security has been tripled. That, coupled with the President's announcement, this was the soonest I could free up time to come meet with you. I wasn't aware that this would be a group meeting."

The blonde haired man had sat back down and took a drink of his wine. He was smiling but it wasn't a nice smile. "The board wanted to have a word to express their displeasure but I convinced them to let me do all the talking. Senator, do you realize what your actions have cost us? Have cost me?"

"Excuse me but-", Senator Clark tried to respond but was cut off.

The blonde man cut off the Senator saying, "I didn't give you permission to speak. Sit there, eat, and listen."

After a moment the blonde man continued, "Senator, when you said you wanted to find out what was going on in EarthForce HQ, you failed to inform us of any of the enhanced security measures that had been put into place. Now, not only did the operative fail to get the job done, he got himself captured." The man was clearly upset but he kept presenting an expression of calm. "Then, to keep EarthForce from finding out anything, I had to order a very good man to make the ultimate sacrifice. I had to sacrifice one of our inside men to kill one of the best agents we've ever had and to kill himself to prevent his own capture and interrogation."

The man took a drink of wine and resumed, "You cost my organization two good men Senator. Humans First is going to be hurting for a long time after this. Law enforcement is going to be coming after our organization and we'll have to set off a series of strikes against the aliens and their supporters to give law enforcement something to think about. We'll have to allow law enforcement to get some wins in too. Make them think they've won eventually and that we've purged the more radical elements out of Humans First. We'll have to set some things further back."

Taking another drink of wine the man continued, "You're going to do me a service Senator. You will publicly disavow against the radical elements of Humans First Senator, call for investigations and speak loudly against these so called bad actors. The important thing is to make it a show, and get your scalp that you can show the people that actions are being done."

"Now here's what we will be needing you to do once things quiet down. When things have quieted down over this scandal, you will bring back the PsiCorp bill and get it through the committee so it can go before the entire Senate and passed."

Senator Clark finished a drink of the wine and protested, "Wait, that bill? PsiCorp? The Telepathic Monitoring Commission is firmly entrenched and reforming it to this...this PsiCorp is not going to pass through committee let alone make it to the Senate. It failed once already, it'll fail again even if I backed the bill and I don't want to back any losing legislation."

The blonde man gave Senator Clark a scowl. "You don't get to say no Senator. You will bring the PsiCorp bill out to be voted on the Committee and when it's rejected, things will proceed from there that will shake the Telepathic Monitoring Commission's grip and give us the opening to resubmit the PsiCorp bill where it will pass overwhelmingly and we'll have a new agency to control telepaths all throughout Earth space and her colonies."

Senator Clark shook his head. He said, "But that makes no sense! Humans have a slim lead versus those of Zentraedi or Tirolian ancestry when it comes to telepathic ability and power but those of Tirolian and Zentraedi ancestry are becoming more common with regards to telepaths! Why would you want an organization that has more Tirolian and Zentraedi ancestry with telepathic capability than Humans?"

The group of people at the table were looking at Senator Clark as if he'd said something offensive. He came to realize he didn't use their accepted term for those of Tirolian and Zentraedi ancestry.

The blonde man stood up and started to walk around the dinner table saying, "Watch your language Senator." Then he smiled and said, "Senator, we're playing the long game here. What we set in motion now will take decades maybe a century for us to see the desired results unfold. Setting up PsiCorp is just the first step."

Senator Clark started thinking. He pursed his lips in thought, then his eyes widened as he started putting pieces together. One of the women, a beautiful woman with Asian features smiled and remarked, "I think the good Senator has figured it out." She looked at the blonde man and added, "You were right, he is a smart one."

The man smiled and said, "Let's see if you're right. Well Senator, did you figure it out?"

Senator Clark growled, "Your plan for PsiCorp is to force telepaths to become a different class of citizen, and foment tensions between telepaths and normals until a war breaks out between telepaths and normals."

Everyone clapped their hands in appreciation. "Quite right, Senator. Well done.", the man complimented. "There will be a war between telepaths and normals eventually and the telepaths will win this war and they will be in charge. The telepaths will bring a new age of humanity. The lesser races will be purged out slowly so that in the end, only true telepathic humans are in power, making sure that the normals stay in their place."

"I wasn't aware you're telepaths.", Senator Clark commented.

Everyone laughed then the blonde man said, "I assure Senator that none of us are telepaths. What we are doing is setting things in motion for the telepaths that we want and have trusted to stick to the plan. It's all about loyalty Senator. Loyalty to Humans First. Now you have your marching orders Senator, see to it you carry them out. Now, your food's getting cold Senator, eat up now. We've got more to discuss."

Senator Clark looked at his plate of food and found his appetite vanishing as he realized what these people were planning. He had his own goals and it seemed that they were coming into conflict with the people that had helped him into power. He was going to have to think about an exit strategy.

The League of Non-Aligned Worlds

The various ambassadors that made up the organization that was called the League of Non-Aligned Worlds had gathered to meet and discuss the latest news of the Earth-Minbari War and any pertinent information from their governments that they were cleared to share.

Most were talking about the latest visits that Minbari warships had made to their homeworlds expressing once again that any attempt to assist humanity in any shape or form would be considered an act of war and that the might of the Minbari Warrior Caste would punish those races severely should any race from the League give aid or comfort to Humanity.

Many of the Ambassadors grumbled and complained, a couple like the Drazi were more defiant and tried to gain support for humanity since they had come to the League's aid against the Dilgar and they felt that the League should honor that debt.'

The problem was that too many others were just afraid of the Minbari since they were so powerful. Now, they had received news that Earth was sending someone to speak to the League again and ask for the League's help. Many Ambassadors had already been instructed that they were to vote against any measure brought before the League that would give assistance to Earth.

The Pegasus Galaxy

The Robotech Factory

The Executive Officers of the four warships were working together aboard one of the warship simulators as Delinda guided the other three during a navigation exercise where Delinda was acting as the Captain and the other three were working different stations for this exercise which was a simple navigation mission to move the warship across a solar system.

The four would take turns manning different stations as they would redo the exercise so that each officer got a feel for how the Robotech warship operated compared to a EarthForce vessel. They worked with the additional officers and crew that they had brought with them. They'd been doing this for a few days as everyone got familiar with the warships operations. Soon they would start moving warships from the mothball yard to either dock with the Factory or to be within range of the Factory's fold bubble for the fold jump back to Sol.

The four captains were meeting with Chief Engineer Sevina and Doctor Lang in the Factory Control Center to discuss the completion of the diagnostics that Doctor Lang and Chief Engineer Sevina had been running.

Standing at the top level tier of the Control Center with the other captains, John Sheridan said, "Alright Doctor, you said the diagnostics were done, tell us what the situation is."

The expert on Robotechnology was sitting at one of the control stations and he smiled as he said, "Sir, the diagnostics reported no major issues. All systems are in the green."

Everyone cheered and there was applause from the four captains.

"Outstanding!", praised John. "So, the fold engines are good?"

Chief Engineer Sevina smiled and said, "Sir, the fold engines are fully operational. We can fold at any time."

Captain Thar asked, "Are the fold engines Nichols drives?"

Both Sevina and Doctor Lang replied, "Yes."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. A couple of the captains were afraid that the Factory didn't have the more powerful interstellar fold engines that Louis Nichols had perfected that they had used to arrive here in Pegasus aboard the Achilles.

"Protoculture reserves?", asked Captain Richards.

Doctor Lang replied, "The Factory's Protoculture tanks are full, even the reserve tanks are full."

John said, "So, we can fold home, and everything's working. Doctor, have you located the Protoculture Matrix?"

After they had visited the Macross Cannon, the four captains had boarded the SDF-3 Pioneer and explored the warship. It was repaired from its final battle against the Haydonites and it showed that it had been upgraded from its last refit from 2044.

As they explored the warship, it was discovered that the Protoculture Matrix was no longer aboard the SDF-3. While this caused an initial panic, Captain Sheridan urged everyone to remain calm and to not run around the massive station complex or they'd get lost just trying to find the invaluable technological marvel.

Doctor Lang adjusted his glasses and replied, "Yes sir, the Protoculture Matrix has been located."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and Captain Jiina asked, "Where is it?"

Doctor Lang pressed a button and a holographic image of the Robotech Factory appeared and a dot was flashing in a part of the Factory that was on the opposite side of the massive complex in one of the attached smaller structures.

"The Matrix is located over there.", Doctor Lang declared.

John studied the image and said, "Someone needs to go check it out, make sure it's operational."

Doctor Lang volunteered, "I can do that right after this meeting sir."

John nodded his head and said, "Alright, that's fine. Let us know what you find of course."

"Naturally.", the Doctor acknowledged.

John then said, "Now, what's in the mothball yard? We need to start moving ships out of there and start moving them to the Factory."

Doctor Lang responded, "Let me pull up the mothball yard inventory." The scientist/historian started typing into the computer he was working on and after a few seconds, he frowned. "That can't be right.", he commented.

"What is it?", everyone asked. Then everyone looked at each other and Captain Jiina pointed at her fellow captains and cried, "Jinx!" The woman giggled and Captain Richards and Sheridan chuckled while Captain Thar looked confused.

Doctor Lang said, "The inventory...it can't possibly be correct."

"What's wrong?", asked Captain Sheridan.

Doctor Lang was typing some more and still not liking the answer the screen was telling him.

John pressed, "Doctor, I need to know what's wrong."

Doctor Lang turned from the monitor display and looked at the four captains and the chief engineer. He took a breath and said, "Sir, according to the computer, there's nothing in the mothball yard."

Everyone stared at the Doctor in shock.

EAS Donegal

The Hyperion Cruiser Donegal was traveling at great risk to carry their Very Important Passenger to a meeting with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds to make another plea for their assistance or if not, the permission to move human civilians through their space so that civilians could escape from the Minbari.

Captain Ed Harris was sitting in his ready room as the ship was traveling through a hyperspace route that was basically the long way to reach their destination but given the fact that the Minbari were not respecting Earth's Diplomatic flagged vessels it was necessary. If they encountered the Minbari, the Minbari would kill them, it didn't matter that they had an ambassador aboard.

The Captain was in the midst of writing his latest log entry when there was a beep from his terminal and the Captain pressed a button to answer. "Yes?"

His executive officer said, "Sorry to bother you sir, but we're due to reach our destination. We'll be reaching the jump gate in thirty minutes."

"Any sign of our boneheaded friends?", he asked.

"Negative sir, looks like they're not around. Though there is a chance there might be one in normal space."

"Well that's a chance we'll have to take when we get there. I'll be there soon, go ahead and inform Ambassador Lurco that we're almost there."

"Aye sir."

League of Non-Aligned Worlds Meeting

The various alien races that made up the League of Non Aligned Worlds gathered together and sat in their seats. Everyone knew the reason they had gathered together for this meeting. Earth had sent an ambassador to speak to all of them in yet another plea for assistance in the war that they were engulfed in with the Minbari Federation.

The Brakiri representative, a male of the species named Gahutyhr was acting as the head of the delegation. He rose from his seat and the room quieted.

"Gentlebeings, it is my honor and privilege to introduce the representative from Earth who has come here at great peril so that he may speak to us. Allow me to introduce Ambassador Caius Lurco of Earth."

Walking into the meeting hall to polite applause. The man was thin and tall with pinkish skin and blue hair. He was wearing a blue suit with a gold tie. He looked at the various ambassadors that made up this delegation. He was also not the person they were expecting.

The Drazi ambassador rose and spoke, "Forgive me Ambassador, but we were expecting your Secretary of State David Sheridan. Where is he?"

Smiling, Caius said, "I apologize on Secretary Sheridan's behalf, but he is on a top secret mission on behalf of Earth. I am one of his most senior diplomats. I am Deputy Secretary of State Caius Lurco."

Finally, he took a breath and began speaking, "To this delegation of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds on behalf of the President of Earth, the Senate, and all of its people I bring you greetings."

He paused briefly then resumed, "I know you know why I am here. I am here to ask this august body for its help in our time of need. Fifteen years ago, this body asked for Earth's help against the threat of the Dilgar, a race that was committing genocide in its war of conquest. Many races here in this room were at the same risk my people now face."

"My government realizes that horrible mistakes were made in our disastrous first contact with the Minbari. We put the wrong man in charge and that man has cost us dearly. At first, we welcomed him a hero, we thought he'd done the right things but as word reached us of what really happened, the damage he had wrought, we stripped him of his duties, put him on trial, and a court found him guilty."

"We have tried to contact the Minbari directly, to offer apologies, to offer the man responsible to their people so that he may face their justice, every attempt to communicate has been rebuffed. We have gone through intermediaries such as the Centauri, the Narn to speak on our behalf and our messages were returned unopened unread and unwatched. We have offered to unconditionally surrender and that has been rejected!"

"Is this the rational behavior of an elder race? To refuse an unconditional surrender so that they can continue committing genocide!? We have heard stories that the Minbari are an elder race, older than any race here in this room and that only the Vorlons are far older. An elder race should not be this quick to go to a war of genocide over the death of one person or even a handful of people. Explain to me how these actions are excusable by a so called civilized race."

Caius started moving around the room as he spoke, looking at the delegates as he did so. "What the Minbari are doing to my people is wrong. They are killing us all, no mercy is given to women and children, the elderly, or the sick and infirm. Like the Dilgar, the Minbari are killing everyone. They have bombarded our worlds from space to the bedrock. The two times that they have landed forces on the ground, we forced them to retreat on one, fought them to a stalemate on another. Their response was to bombard those worlds to the bedrock and since then, they've never landed an invasion force on our worlds. Is this truly what the galaxy is going to allow?"

Spreading his arms out wide Caius continued, "Gentlebeings of this august body, fifteen years ago this body came to our people for help and we gave it." He brought his arms down. "We listened to your pleas for help, and we rose up to join you to face the Dilgar threat. We did not have to help you." He looked around the room as he said that last sentence. "Let me make myself clear, Earth and her people did not have to help you. We were not at war with the Dilgar, they had not attacked any of our colonies nor any of our warships when you came to us to ask for our help."

Stopping his walk around the room in the center of it he said, "But after hearing you pleas, seeing what the Dilgar were doing to your people, we could not allow such actions that the Dilgar were doing to stand." Caius was resolute in his expression to the delegation. "We joined with you, we fought with you, we bled with you, all the way to victory as we defeated the Dilgar and ended their threat to the entire galaxy."

"Now, the situation is reversed. My people are under threat of extinction, I am here asking this body to do the right thing, to stand with us as we stood with you fifteen years ago and help us fight back against the darkness that comes for us."

Caius raised his arm and pointed his finger at the delegation. He turned in a circle keeping his finger pointing at the delegation as he spoke, "As one united body, you can stand up and say "No more!" to the Minbari people, to their leadership! That message will spread far and wide and it will tell the Minbari that what they are doing is wrong and that the other races in this galaxy will not stand for it!"

"There is strength in numbers, this august body is composed of close to a dozen races. Twelve races to stand up with us and fight with us. I know the Minbari are advanced, believe me I know. Their technology is powerful but they are not unbeatable! We are working toward defeating their stealth and we will soon have the means to fight them on more even footing and when that happens, the tide of war will change and that's a promise!"

"When we find a way to defeat the Minbari's stealth it will change the war, it will change the galaxy, and we will bring war to the Minbari the likes that they have not seen in millenia and we will win."

Caius looked at everyone again as he moved from the front of the room to the back then to the front of the room as he was speaking. "The Minbari have killed millions of my people and have bombed habitable worlds into uninhabitable rocks Gentlebeings, the Minbari are committing war crimes! Are you going to stand idly by and say silent?! Or are you going to stand up and do the right thing and join us?!"

Caius took a breath and finished his speech saying. "Gentlebeings, you know what the right thing to do is. The Minbari have gone too far and they must be stopped. They have gone too far and you know it! I'm here to ask you to vote in favor of joining with us in our fight against the Minbari Federation. Failing that, I urge this body to impose trade sanctions against the Minbari Federation. Hurt them in their bank accounts, hurt them financially and I'm sure the Minbari people will pressure their leadership to at least open a dialogue with us. I'm also asking you on behalf of my people that you allow safe passage for our civilians to flee through your space so that they may escape from the Minbari."

Ambassador Lurco implored, "Please think about our requests and help us. Thank you for your time."

The Brakiri ambassador Gahutyhr rose and said, "Thank you Ambassador. We must consult among ourselves and contact our governments. We will contact you once a decision has been made."

Nodding his head, Caius walked out of the meeting hall and returned to the quarters that he had been offered to him. Once inside he went straight to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a shot of a very expensive whiskey which he downed quickly.

The young female aide that was waiting for him said, "I take it that it didn't go very well?"

Taking another shot of whiskey Caius sat on the very expensive couch and said, "I think I reached more than few, but I don't know. I'm hoping and praying that this time they will see what the Minbari are doing is wrong and will join with us. God, I wish David had been here to do this instead of me."

He sighed and looked at the young half Zentraedi half Tirolian young woman that was his assistant. She was tall with light blue skin and green hair. She was looking at him now and she said, "Sir, he's busy hopefully bringing our former allies from the Sentinels alliance back with him."

"I know Corina, but I still wish he was here.", Caius responded.

"Do you think they'll help us this time?", Corina asked.

Running a hand through his hair he let out an explosive breath. "I hammered how we helped them against the Dilgar when we didn't have to, so I hope they got hit by the clue by four. Now, the hard part is here...the waiting. Could you please bring some food over from the ship? I'm starving."

Corina smiled and said, "Right away sir. I'll be back soon." The young woman left the room.

It had been over twelve hours of waiting when the call came in that the delegation of the League were ready to meet with him once more.

A feeling in his gut told him that it was not good news. He opened a channel to the Hyperion cruiser that he had traveled on at great risk to get here.

The screen flashed and he saw the Captain of the warship Donegal on the screen now. "Captain Harris", Caius began. "I'm about to go see if the League will put up or shut up, but I'm not having a good feeling about it, prepare the ship for departure as I have no reason to stay here if it goes the way I think it's about to go."

Captain Harris replied, "Right away sir, we'll be ready to depart within thirty minutes."

Caius smiled, "Very good. I'm hoping to have good news but…", he paused. "There were just too many of them looking as if I was a walking dead man. I'll see you soon."

The connection was closed and Caius stood up from the desk and asked, "Corina, everything's packed?"

"Yes sir, even the whiskey we brought with us." she smiled as she replied.

Caius waved as he was walking out of the room. "Right, go ahead and board the Donegal, I'm sure I'll see you soon."

Caius made the walk to the meeting hall and did his best to prepare himself. This was it, this was the moment that he hoped the galaxy would rise up and do the right thing as they had done fifteen years ago.

Walking into the room, he saw that the Ambassadors were quiet, that they weren't even talking among themselves, some weren't even looking at him. Right away he knew this was not good.

Moving to the center of the meeting hall he turned in a circle to gauge the room and that sinking feeling in his gut was like a lead weight.

Clearing his throat and doing his best to present the calm facade he was presenting to the delegation he waited for the hammer to fall.

The Brakiri Ambassador Gahutyhr rose and began to speak, he was trying to project an air of solemness and seriousness. "Ambassador Caius, you have made a passionate speech, it was indeed very moving, and you presented a very compelling call to arms. However, after conferring with my esteemed colleagues and all of us conferring with our respective governments I'm sorry to say that we will not be offering any assistance to your government at this time. You and your people have our thoughts and prayers and we hope and pray you can indeed turn your war with the Minbari around."

Caius blinked. Did he just hear what he just heard? Thoughts and prayers?! Caius blinked again. Then he cleared his throat as he saw the ambassadors standing up, getting ready to walk out of the room and just leave him standing there.

"So, that's it?! Thoughts and prayers?! That's the best you can do?!", Caius asked loudly.

Everyone paused. Some turned to look at him.

"I must ask this body, you have rejected our request earlier, but I am asking you again on behalf of my people, on humanitarian grounds. Will your governments open their borders to allow human refugees to seek shelter within your borders? Will you grant refugees safe passage so that they can escape from the Minbari?"

Ambassador Gahutyhr shook his head. "I'm sorry Ambassador, we cannot open our borders to allow your people to flee from the Minbari, even if they are civilians. The Minbari have threatened us-"

Caius interrupted Gahutyhr and snarled, "We saved your asses from the Dilgar fifteen years ago and this is the thanks we get!? My government and our people took in many of your people as refugees as they fled from the Dilgar. We offered your people shelter, food, medical care, a refuge from the storm that was the Dilgar and this is how you repay us!?"

Gahutyhr said, "Ambassador Caius, there is no need-"

Caius asked, "Have you imposed trade sanctions on the Minbari? Closed your borders to Minbari merchant shipping? Have you raised tariffs on Minbari goods? You need to send a message to the Minbari people that what they are doing is wrong and hurting their economy will send a clear message that your governments do not approve of what the Minbari are doing!"

Ambassador Gahutyhr said, "Ambassador Caius, these actions you suggest would only anger the Minbari Federation against the League and while it would harm their economy, they would see it as an act of war and attack us. The other problem is that by closing our borders to Minbari trade, we would be damaging our own economies."

Caius was incredulous. He just couldn't believe that these aliens cared more about their own economies instead of doing the right thing. "So that's it?! You're too afraid of damaging your own economies to send a message to an empire committing genocidal war crimes?! My people died and bled for this League, we saved your worlds, your people and you repay us with your cowardice!"

He spun around and pointed at the Gaim Ambassador then at the Drazi and others as he hissed, "Fifteen years ago, the decision to aid the League against the Dilgar was not a unanimous decision, there were many in my government that advocated for us to just let you all die!"

"I was one of many that argued against it! I fought for you, I argued in favor of coming to the League's aid, that we had a duty, as human beings to come to the aid of those that needed such assistance. That what was being to done to your people was a war crime and that in time, should circumstances bring about a situation where we would need help and aid that the League of Non-Aligned Worlds would return the favor and come to our aid." With a scoff he snarled, "Way to prove those that spoke against saving you all in my government right!"

Gahutyhr tried to interrupt but Caius would not let him speak, Caius raised his voice louder than the Brakiri as he yelled, "When we win this war, and I promise you that We Will Win, the day will come again where the League will need our help. That once more you will come to us and ask us for help again, you will beg us, you will plead as I have begged and pleaded before you all and I promise to you right now in this chamber that our answer will be "No." Any technologies that we develop to defeat the Minbari will not be shared with any of you! You all can go fuck yourselves!"

Caius walked over to a statue that had been erected to symbolize the League's triumph over the Dilgar and League unity. With strength granted by his genetic lineage he shoved it from its pedestal and the statue fell to the ground and was smashed to large pieces.

Everyone was stunned. Pointing at the pieces of the statue Ambassador Caius roared, "That is the future of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds! You betray EVERYTHING you claim to stand for by rejecting us! The time will come and each one of you will fall, one by one, until the last one of you is all alone in the darkness and you will only have your cowardice, your arrogance, and your pride to blame!"

I am going to leave you with a poem that we've changed the words to fit various persecuted peoples and organizations over the decades and centuries. I say that these words are a prediction of things to come. First they came for the humans, and I did not speak out—because I was not a human. Then they came for the Brakiri, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Brakiri. Then they came for the Gaim, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Gaim. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. Remember this day and remember what you chose not to do."

With that, Ambassador Caius stormed out of the meeting hall leaving the various ambassadors stunned and shocked at the explosive outburst and destructive protest. After a moment where they all regained some measure of composure the ambassadors walked out of the meeting hall, some with their heads down in shame while Ambassador Gahutyhr stared at the broken statue and and felt a terrible fear that his government and the League of Non-Aligned Worlds had made a terrible and costly mistake.