The Lady of Downbelow
+++++PART+05+++++
0900 November 24, 2257
"Commander Sinclair?"
He tapped the communications link on the back of his hand. "Here," he replied.
"You have a priority gold transmission coming in from Earth Central." There was a slight pause. "It's Gold Channel One, sir."
Gold Channel was of the highest level of security and had priority-one over any other messages being transmitted at the time. Only Earthforce command-staff or high-level diplomats were allowed access to the channel. Any transmission on Gold Channel was considered official Earth Alliance business and thus could not be used for personal reasons under penalty of a court-martial. Gold Channel One was a direct line to the Office of the President of the Earth Alliance.
Jeffrey Sinclair, commander of Babylon 5, raised his eyebrows. He couldn't think of anything off the top of his head to warrant such a call. "On my way." Jeffrey knew that any call from the president or his staff would need privacy, so he made his way to his office at a quick pace. (Fast enough to move efficiently but not fast enough to warrant suspicion.) In less than five minutes he was in front of his private office console, he tapped the screen to accept the call.
Jeffrey thanked his great many years of experience to holding a perfectly flat expression when the face of Morgan Clark, the Vice-President of the Earth Alliance, appeared. "Mr. Vice-President, what can I do for you?"
Clark wasn't quite glaring, but it was close. He apparently wasn't in the mood for pleasantries. "Someone on Babylon 5 used the E.A. database at 1317 hours yesterday to look into one Nova Morganson. They spent the next 23 minutes going through every Nova Morganson in the system before settling on one incredibly specific Nova Morganson." He also wasn't in the mood for playing around either. A half-blurred photo of a nondescript woman with blue-purple eyes at a three-quarter view suddenly shared the screen with Clark. "THIS woman. Who is looking into Nova Morganson? And why?"
Sinclair wondered what his first officers had neglected to tell him. "I'm afraid I'm not aware of the situation, sir, but I will speak with my command staff at the earliest opportunity."
The not-quite-glare became a full glare. "I expect your call within the hour."
The screen blinked off.
Sinclair took a second to gather his thoughts. Then he tapped his communicator. "Sinclair to Garibaldi. I need to see you and Takashima in my office A-SAP."
When his Security Chief and First Officer were in front of him eight minutes later, he looked at the pair incredulously. "I just got a call from Morgan Clark. Who is Nova Morganson?"
Laurel Takashima looked appropriately baffled, shrugging in confusion. Michael Garibaldi, however, blinked. "Clark called you about her?"
"Yes, your channel search on her yesterday put up flags. I'm to call him back in less than an hour with a status update. What's going on, Mike?"
Quickly, Garibaldi laid out the situation as best he understood it, from the Kosh incident to his conversation with her the day before. "She's basically set up a community center in Brown-12. Once I had her name, I ran a search. But the weird part is that the only Nova Morganson that fit the description of the woman in Downbelow has only a list of contacts. There's no listed date of birth, area of residency, species, no records of employment. Nothing. I thought the system had been hacked and decided to check my other contacts."
Sinclair had remained silent as his friend outlined what he knew. "Who were the listed contacts for her?"
"Jack Harkness, location unknown, but there must be some mistake in Records. It had his date of birth in the year 1869, and no date of death. There was a long list of deceased contacts, one of which was former PM Harriet Jones, of the Golden Age of Britain, if you believe it. The last wasn't even a name, it was a crack phone number."
Jeff frowned. "What do you mean?"
"It was an actual phone number, not a call sign, channel number, or extension. One of the old ten-digit phone numbers." Michael looked just as annoyed as he sounded. "I don't even know if that technology exists anymore, let alone how someone would DIAL it."
"Ten digits?" Takashima had been quiet during this; now she expressed her own bafflement. "Phone numbers haven't been that short for over a hundred years."
"I know," Michael nodded. "Nothing about this woman makes sense. But she doesn't seem like a threat to me, and you know my instincts are pretty good."
Sinclair tapped the desk as he thought through the information tossed at him. "Alright, back to your duties. I've got to call Clark." They both nodded and left him in privacy.
The Gold Channel One call went through in record time. The Vice-President must have been waiting right beside the console to accept the call that quickly. "Well?" Clark demanded.
Sinclair outlined what he had learned as quickly as he could. When he was done, he asked, "Sir, who is she?"
Morgan Clark had gone from pacing in front of the view screen to sitting behind his desk, much more relaxed. "Was there any mention of a man with her?"
"Several children and a group of non-humans that live in Brown Sector. Any specific male?"
Clark snorted derisively. "If he had been there, someone would have said something. He's hard to miss."
"Is she a security risk?"
"Not in the way you mean."
Sinclair narrowed his eyes. "Mr. Vice-President, I understand this is difficult for you, but this woman, whoever she is, is on Babylon 5 right now. Who is Nova Morganson that just a general database inquiry sets off red flags? Who is she?"
Morgan took a deep breath, leaning back in his chair with a sigh. "You and Babylon 5 have managed to stumble upon one of the best kept secrets in the E.A. I can't tell you everything," he held up a hand to forestall the expected protest, "simply because I don't know. I'll tell you what I do know."
"Thank you, sir."
"Nova Morganson has a backup hardcopy file that even the vice-president doesn't have complete clearance to view un-redacted." As if to prove his words, he held up a page—and actual physical paper page!—that looked almost solid black. Only a single word here and there to indicate it wasn't a printer error. "This file," he tapped a stack that Sinclair had assumed was a To Do pile, "is over twenty centimeters thick and there's more on the floor, just as thick.
"From what I've been able to read, Morganson herself isn't a main factor…but she travels with one of the most dangerous people I've ever had the misfortune to learn exists. We'll pray this is one of the few times she travels without him."
When Clark paused as if lost in his thoughts, Sinclair asked, "Sir, when my security chief looked into her file, he said that she had no birth listed, no residence, no—"
The vice-president held up a finger. "That's because she doesn't have one. Officially, Nova Morganson is not part of the Earth Alliance."
Sinclair blinked. "She's not human?"
"No, Nova Morganson is completely 'other'. Species redacted." Clark sighed. He seemed to be doing a lot of that. "If you can, I'd recommend getting her on the Advisory Council or the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, but if you can't I wouldn't be surprised. She, and the man she travels with, are notorious for being somewhere between indispensable and catastrophic. BUT," again he forestalled the objection he could see on the commander's face, "if, as your man reported, she has been there, without him, for more than a year and nothing has happened…then that bodes well."
He sat fully upright and Sinclair understood that this was the Vice-President ordering the Commander of Babylon 5. "Babylon 5 is to render all assistance to Nova Morganson for as long as she is in residence. No one is to hinder her in any way. She has the full authority from the President," at these a flash of the presidential seal of the entire Earth Alliance appeared, certifying his words, "to command any and all Earth Alliance personnel, including you, as needed. Approach her at your own discretion. There will be an advisor on the first available transport, who you will report any interactions with Morganson. Details to follow."
The screen went blank.
Jeffery Sinclair blinked several times as he thought.
Who WAS Nova Morganson? And what was she doing on his station?
Perhaps he should go introduce himself…
"Commander? We've got a problem."
He stood, straightened his uniform, and went to find out what had gone wrong now.
09.22.2021
+++++DW+B5+DW+++++
Awesome betaing skills go to denise3, BarbedCaress, emptyvoices, and Random_human1511! Not all of them know B5, but all were willing to take a peek and offer their opinions. Thanks bunches guys! -This is all I've written so far (as of 09.27.2021)
Please let me know what you think! Worth continuing? I know its not perfect, but I've done my best. Reviews are love and remind me to keep writing!