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Painful Truth of the War.
It was all a mistake, a misunderstanding…the humans hadn't attacked the Valen'tha, killed Dukhat, the best of us because they were animals. They believed we were going to attack them! Delenn was paralysed with that awful thought, and it made her soul shriek in horror as she considered the bloodshed spilt over the course of the last few years.
It was all her doing. It had been her call for war which had led to the mass invasion of human space in retribution for Dukhat's death. The death of the Chosen One, the greatest leader the Minbari people had ever had since the days of Valen, had been a terrible blow against the Minbari people and it had resulted in the call for war.
NO MERCY! Delenn closed her eyes, feeling the tears well up in her eyes. She and the rest of the Grey Council had been confronted with the horrifying, painful truth of the war when they learnt about the human side of the conflict. The controversial decision to surrender to the humans following the discovery some of them carried Minbari souls was already having mass repercussions for the Minbari Federation; her people's philosophy of 'Understanding is not required. Only obedience,' only took her people so far. Like all sentients in the galaxy, the Minbari were organic and had minds of their own and she knew there were many, within all three of the castes, who were wishing for the humans to be utterly exterminated for what they had done. But Delenn knew that was impossible and she would never support it, and neither would the Grey Council.
When they had stepped foot on Earth for the first time, Delenn had been awed and impressed privately by the awesome beauty of the humans' homeworld. As they had walked through the building known as EarthDome to meet with the human president, she and her peers had seen portraits and photographs of different events throughout human history, depicting great achievements and great strife that the humans had fought their way through. As they had met with the woman, Delenn had sensed the trepidation and wariness in the humans' souls. They were worried that this was some kind of trap, and while it annoyed her sense of Minbari honour, she couldn't blame the humans since the Minbari had played some games with them. In war, there was nothing more honourable than victory, and she knew the humans knew and understood that only too well.
During the talk as they negotiated terms, the full story of the first contact came out. For the very first time, Delenn was saddened when she realised that over the course of the war, she and her people hadn't been interested in learning how the war started from the humans' point of view. Why would they? In their minds, the humans were responsible for the beginning of the war. They were evil savages touched by darkness who sought to conquer Minbar and destroy the Minbari way of life. They had killed Dukhat.
But once they had heard the story, it would have been so easy for the Grey Council to ignore it and to believe the humans were lying to them in much the same way they had which resulted in the death of Lenonn. But they couldn't. Why? It was because of how much sense the human story made.
The large formation of Minbari warships leaving Minbari territory which was something the Minbari had rarely done, despite the occasional cruiser venturing out on patrol, or freighters leaving their space.
The powerful scanner beams.
Opening their gunports while being totally ignorant of the fact the humans were likely ignorant of Minbari customs, although General Lefcourt had admitted Ambassador Mollari of the Centauri Republic had given them information, later analysis when the war began and casualties mounted, resulting in Earth Force retracing the steps of the explorer division who'd been despatched to Minbari space to make contact to see what happened told them Captain Jankowski hadn't bothered to open the file. Ignorance on both sides, both resulting in mistakes, and terrible pain and destruction.
The humans had arrived in Minbari space, and they encountered the cruisers. That she remembered, only too vividly. But her people's scanner beams and lack of contact, and their open gun ports had made them panic, and the result was the war.
Misunderstandings on a massive scale, indeed.
The Grey Council had asked the two humans why such a large number of ships had been despatched in the first place, and General Lefcourt admitted it was a show of force, to tell the Minbari while they came in peace, they were prepared to fight back. While she could understand the logic behind the human's point of view, especially when she learnt of their recent history of being under attack or being in wars, like the one they'd fought against the Dilgar, Delenn wished they had been more considerate and had thought, not only of the consequences to themselves but to the alien races they planned to visit. She could see that the humans had become complacent and even arrogant following their defeat of the Dilgar, who had been a savage, vicious, warlike race who had enslaved those unfortunate souls who met them, and it was worse because they were enslaved with highly addictive drugs and if they failed to work then they missed their next dose, a truly monstrous practice, and that arrogance had been snuffed out like a particularly bright candle by their war with her people.
There was talk of a diplomatic station to be constructed in neutral space to prevent anything like this from happening again. The humans had learnt from their mistake of sending a ship or a fleet of ships toward an alien power. They didn't want to lose any of their people again in the same manner, so they would want to take a more professional approach.
But it didn't matter because Delenn didn't care whether it would be in the middle of intergalactic space, interstellar space, a grotty building on Earth or on her own world, she planned to do everything she could to make up for what she had done. She wanted to make amends to the humans by any means necessary, and with the threat of the Shadows not far away if the hologram of Dukhat was right, they would need all the help they could get.
