Back at EarthDome though, Varenska was enjoying her mild victory. The anti-alien lobbyists had dropped off in number, no small part due to the Velos company losing their contract, and hence their bankroll to help the lobbyists. For people who had wanted better shuttles, the twenty shuttles were being divided up among them. In fact, she had heard several people wanting to contact the Von Sluis Corporation to talk about contracts for refitting their shuttles.
Still, this was only a minor victory against Clark. He still had his unknown supporters, and she needed to meet with the investigation committee later, as they were still looking into the very suspicious accident that claimed President Santiago's life the previous year. If they could get enough leverage against him, they could force him out of office, and someone else could take over.
Someone like President Luchenko? She was head of the second largest political bloc on the planet, after the United States. China was fifth, because it was still recovering from the economic controls and the infighting that had occurred when the communistic government had been overthrown. In spite of the damage, its large number of farm communities had allowed the interim government to keep people fed, and it was slowly but surely building itself back up. The third and fourth places were the European Community and the South American Collective. Various other nations had been absorbed into larger governments, so those five were the critical groups. If Varenska could start to convince them to come over to her side, she would be able to get enough support so Clarke would be removed, and Luchenko put in his place. Even better, Luchenko was currently viewed as a moderate, and had been a friend of ex-President Santiago.
Now there was a possible thought. If she could gather enough votes on her side, and get enough other senators to support her when the time was right, Luchenko could effectively take over the office of the President. With the support of the new friends, she could start making proposals of off-world contracts. Earth-firsters, that support Clark, would make a large cry, but after the higher-quality items begin rolling off the lines, her position would be strengthened. Soon, Clark would be faced with either keeping his current support groups, or accepting the fact that the off-world suppliers were building better vessels, at higher quality, in less time than anyone else would think possible. If he kept his current groups, he would eventually get forced out due to a lack of support from them. If he changed his current position, he would be reacting to someone else, and that would violate his public appearance of wanting to be Earth First.
***
Arriving back at Babylon 5, Ivanova and Marcus met with the rest of the 'Code 7R' group. They were all startled at the change in the Mandelin 4 colony, and when they saw the sheer number of satellites, their jaws dropped. Everyone there knew Mandelin 4 was an ordinary farming colony, but this level of technology displayed was astounding.
"This is more along the lines of what we would expect from a fleet base or Earth, not a farming community. Where did they get all of this stuff? More importantly, why haven't they told anyone about it?"
"Also look at that scanner beam. That's more along the lines of a ship-mounted system than a satellite system. In fact I believe it did pick you up, and they let you get that close to begin with. I think they were setting you up for a trap the whole time."
"What do you mean?"
"Ivanova, look. You said that we should have been challenged by their spaceport when we got close to the moon, yet we weren't. However, those six fighters suddenly appeared in front of us later on, and we had practically no warning. There were two possible reasons why we weren't challenged. One is that they simply didn't see us, and the other is that they had already seen us, but didn't want to give it away. Since those fighters pounced on us so quickly, it would be fairly safe to say they had been getting continuous updates of our position. From there, I feel that they had spotted us to begin with."
"Wait, what do you mean the fighters suddenly appeared? Did they pop over the horizon, power up weapons, come through a jump point, or what?"
"Michael, what we mean is that those fighters suddenly appeared out of nowhere. I'll show you the relevant section of the recording." Everyone there watched as the White Star kept creeping over the moon, and the six fighters suddenly appeared. "There is a slight blur when they first appear, and I'll slow it down so we can see." The recording played itself again, and everyone could see how the fighters had seemed to blur in. Tracing back along the path showed nothing much, only that the fighters seemed to appear out of somewhere, and blur in.
"Is this a type of jump engine for fighters, or something else?"
"We don't know yet. If it is a jump engine, then they are apparently traveling at a high speed in hyperspace, and it looks like they just slide out of hyperspace when they get to their destination. If it is a stealth system, then it's a pretty good one, as we didn't detect anything.
"One thing that was noticeable about them though, is their firepower. Here is a picture showing the damage we took from their weapons." A low whistle sounded from Garibaldi, and a gasp from Delenn underscored the display. "As you can see, better than one quarter of the armor on that side was damaged by them, and that was from only a few shots. It took the armor over three hours to completely heal itself, and even with the armor's protection, our starboard engine was down to ten percent capacity. After those bolts hit, I decided to get the White Star out of there, and managed to hit one of the fighters on the way out." Another visual showed the plasma bolt hitting one of the strange fighters, and the fighter spinning out of the way.
"Can you show us a little more detail on that fighter?"
Telling the computer to focus on the fighter hit, they watched as it got hit by the bolt and spun out of the way. When it recovered within a couple seconds and began turning back, Ivanova paled. Marcus spoke up in the silence, "It appears as though our weapons didn't hurt it enough to be disabled. I wonder what damage we did do?" Manipulating the controls, he brought up a visual of the fighter before and after the impact. Telling the computer to do a comparison between its energy signature and hull between the two visuals, he waited a few seconds for the result.
"No physical differences detected. 3% change in energy signature detected," reported the calm voice of the computer.
"Well, that's information to think about. We hit it with our secondary guns and all we got was a three percent drop in its energy signature. These bloody things are tough and dangerous, not counting however they managed to appear like that. Also, what are they doing at Mandelin 4?"
"Well Marcus, from the looks of it, and how they reacted, they are guarding it. Also, from the way the farmland has been expanded, it looks like they are turning Mandelin 4 into their advance base, and the local people are benefiting from it as well."
Delenn suddenly stiffened, "John, didn't we get a crystal about Mandelin 4 earlier? We could try to watch that record again, and see if there are any new aliens on it. At least that way we would know what they look like."
"I tried looking at it several times, but the only beings I saw there are humans. From the looks of it, it seemed that only humans were the contacts between the locals and the aliens. Which means there is someone else out there that was found by them, and are acting as the go-betweens. The one bit of good news in the report was that these humans were cooperating with the local government, instead of dictating terms. What would be nice is if we could get an official investigation into the colony, and find out exactly what is going on"
Ivanova spoke up then, "can't we get some support from EarthForce to help look into this? We can show them the information showing how similar the two are, and maybe they can start looking for these new freighters and ships."
"Slight problem with that Susan, is when they ask us how we got that information in the first place. After all, we can't exactly tell them we have an alien ship and the command staff uses it to investigate things without EarthForce knowing about it. They might want to tag along for a ride."
Making a face at Marcus, who simply grinned, Ivanova turned back to the others. "Well, the least we can do is tell them that there is an unknown presence at the Mandelin 4 colony. At least then somebody will get interested enough to look into it."
"And they will promptly ask us how we know that something unusual is going on, and why we were interested. No matter how we cut it, EarthGov will want to know where we got our information. We'll just have to trust that they are able to put the pieces together and figure this out."
A few grimaces broke out at the classic joke of Intelligence services getting a complete picture before something critical happened, and the meeting broke up on that note. Everyone there knew of the connection, and how powerful those fighters were. Delenn would send the information back to her government, and they could try to find an excuse for a Minbari transport to swing by Mandelin 4, and report back on what it saw. By having an alien government make the observation, that should be enough to get Earthgov's attention.
***
A few hours later, Michael Garibaldi was tossing and turning in his bed. Something about that presentation had been missed, and his mind was refusing to let him sleep until he thought about it. He began reviewing the data again, how Ivanova had managed to make it in, how the fighters had caught them, and how they had managed to escape. They had been caught by the fighters, and managed to escape. They had been caught by stealth or jump-capable fighters and escaped.
They had escaped, when the fighters could have caught them easily, or damaged them severely.
But the fighters had damaged them severely when they had fired.
That didn't feel right. Getting up, he went over to the monitor, and called up the data concerning the White Star and its engagement with the fighters. He watched the fighters arrive, and open fire. He saw the fighters miss the first time, and circle back again. He watched as the shot detonated near the White Star, and cause the damage.
He saw one shot detonate near the White Star. Reviewing the other shots, he saw that they didn't detonate. "Computer, run a comparison on the containment for the shots. Show me the level of containment failure for all the shots fired by the fighters. Make the graph have time since firing as the independent variable, and field strength as the dependant."
"Running comparison."
Garibaldi paced for a few minutes, waiting for the results. Hearing a chime, he watched as the graph drew itself on the screen. Seeing only a group of lines gradually decreasing he asked, "Computer, are there any statistical anomalies?"
"Define anomaly."
"How much difference is there between the shots fired within the first five seconds of the video?"
"Approximately 1%."
"How much difference is there in the containment strength between the shots that hit the White Star and the shots in the first five seconds?"
"Approximately 480%.
"Show me the graph, but edited for the length of the shots that hit the White Star."
The graph came into view again, and it looked like there was a bare hint of a couple lines at the lower part, but it seemed to merge into the bottom bar halfway across.
"Computer, highlight the line that symbolizes the shots that hit the White Star."
A line began flashing on the graph. It was the ones that merged into the bottom of the graph, and Michael began to think harder. "The shots that missed had excellent containment, but the ones that hit had poor containment. Either their weapons are good for only a few shots each, or those shots was intended to detonate. Unless they were merely toying with the White Star-"
"Computer, show a tactical view of the fighters and the White Star, with the moon as the reference point. Also scan for any energy emissions detected between when the fighters appeared and when the White Star left."
The screen came to life again, and he watched as the fighters appeared and came barreling in. He watched a sudden energy spike be detected, and the fighters broke off their original run, and began maneuvering again, but firing to miss. The single fighter got in the White Star's way, and it was hit.
The other fighters had been firing the entire time, and the one that came nearby had detonated? "Computer, were there any other shots from those fighters that detonated?"
"Negative."
So only the shot that hit them was designed to detonate, and the other fighters were merely scaring them? But why would they do that unless-
"Computer, scan the recording of the White Star's trip back to the waiting point. Specifically, look within the visual records of a ninety-degree cone behind the White Star. Look for any vessel within that region. Scan the thirty seconds after the White Star went into hyperspace."
"Scanning."
Getting more nervous by the minute, Garibaldi began to suspect that the White Star hadn't really escaped after all. When the computer reported, "Six vessels detected," Garibaldi asked the computer to identify them. "The vessels are identical to the fighters already observed."
"Computer, do the fighters show up the entire way until the White Star leaves hyperspace?"
Several seconds went by, as the computer checked the data sequence. "Affirmative."
Michael paled at the word. If the fighters had let the White Star escape, and more of them had followed it back to the rendezvous point, then they knew where the point was. If they knew where it was, and had ships of their own, then even now, they could be-
Tapping his link, Garibaldi connected himself to Lennier. Hearing a very sleepy 'yes' from the other end, Michael said, "I need you to meet me in my quarters now. I've got important information, if you follow me." By placing additional stress on the last four words, he hoped Lennier would recognize the significance.
Hearing the beep a few minutes later, Garibaldi told the door to open. It only took a few minutes for Garibaldi to explain his suspicions to Lennier, who quickly agreed with it. Heading back to Delenn's suite, Lennier explained that he needed to use the flyer, and his excuse, so Delenn could corroborate the story. He also advised Delenn that if she had any questions, Garibaldi would be able to answer them. After he did that, Lennier went to the Minbari flyer, and requested permission to leave, explaining that he had to run an errand for Delenn. Getting permission from the Command center, Lennier left the station, and made his way to the White Star.
Getting on board, he commanded the White Star to move to a different location, and on the way there he explained to the rest of the crew what made the movement necessary. The others dealt with the shock privately, as they had their jobs to do, but all realized what could have happened if the unknowns had managed to get a starship of theirs in range to capture the White Star. With the way a mere fighter had damaged them with one shot, they did not want to even consider engaging a full-sized or even medium sized warship.
Lennier had the White star drop him off at a close location, and it then went to the agreed-upon location to hide until they decided it was safe to return. From that close location, Lennier returned to the station, and went back to his job as Delenn's assistant.
The next morning, the entire command staff listened as Garibaldi told them what he had managed to figure out the previous night. All of them realized what could have happened if he hadn't picked up on that anomaly, and their faces showed it. When Delenn stopped by and told them of Lennier's trip, their worries faded into sighs of relief. Now they wouldn't have to worry about the White Star being dissected.
***
Lieutenant Bregin watched the ship disappear into the jump point, and sighed. She had managed to get here just a minute late, and the ship was leaving. Since the ship was gone though, and its crew alerted, there was no need to try to pursue. Although her ship could overpower the white one easily, it would take a lot of damage in the process, which would reduce the chance of any interesting technology being found.
Briefly she looked over the records of the fighters, as they had followed the ship through the red space. Looking at the records again, she noticed something unusual. There had been a dark discoloration where the turbolaser had detonated near, but at the end of the journey, it was gone. Commanding the computer to play back the video, and to show that section from a single perspective, she watched as the section began to lighten around the edges. Running the simulation faster, it looked as though the area was healing itself!
She chuckled lightly to herself. Experiments had been made in the past with self-healing armor, and even living ships and armor, but the armors had eventually been phased out. The self-healing armors had their repair capability destroyed by the massive damage a turbolaser could deliver, while living ships and armors had an even simpler flaw. In order for the armor to be alive, it required a constant flow of nutrients to itself, and those tubes had proven to be weak points in the design. Not only that, but the cells had possessed membranes that were inherently porous, so massive impacts would cause them to rupture. There had been several attempts to use living ships over the millennia in the Republic, but all of them eventually had relied on dead outer skin as the actual armor, and the time it took to replace a sufficient amount of living armor was far more than the time needed for a chunk of metal to be pulled out and replaced with new armor.
The Yuuzhan Vong had shown that living ships had some potential, but even they had relied upon dead skin and armor equivalents in order to function safely. The few living ships in the Empire were all pleasure craft, except for a few pirate vessels that used their ability to self-repair as a cheap way to get out of repair costs. Even then, those pirates always attacked fast, and if they did not win after the first few minutes, they always ran away to prevent their ships getting killed. The other main advantage of living ships was that they were fairly difficult to spot, and could use their camouflage ability to sneak up on unsuspecting ships. Unfortunately, even sneaking up like that only allowed them one volley of shots, and after that any decent warship usually vaporized them.
If the major powers in this galaxy used living, or similar technology, for their ships, then it would prove even easier to defeat them. Thinking back to the black ship they had seen at the beginning, and the others that had been destroyed since then, she began to wonder if those vessels were actually in the employ of one of the local powers. If so, then the Empire might want to start finding out more about them. Composing a quick message with her simulation and suspicions, she sent it off to the Imperial command at Fetoro 3.
For now though, she had her orders. If she couldn't find the white ship, she was to proceed to the other site, where the shuttle had exited the red space, and see what she could see. Giving the new orders, a jump point was created in front of the Skipray, and it darted through. It would take a couple hours for them to arrive, and she began composing exit points, where the Skipray would come out of red-space a few thousand kilometers short, engage in a scan, and proceed farther if desired.
***
Commander Ivanova was watching the status boards, and reviewing the day's traffic reports. There wasn't much that would be coming today, and that was good. It would allow her to think about the young monk who had been killed those days ago. He had turned out to be a serial murderer that had been mind wiped, and turned into a monk, but his new personality had been very helpful and kind. She still missed him, but she kept that part of her hidden. She began looking over the reports and manifests of what was going in and out of the station for that day and sighed. Still, she liked the boring days. The alternative, being scared out of her mind, was much less appealing.
***
Lieutenant Bregin nodded at her pilot, and the Skipray opened its jump point, and proceeded through slowly, trying not to be detected as an anomalous ship, even though its unannounced jump point would have already triggered alerts if anyone was in range.
***
Ivanova looked up as one of the scanner personnel called, "Commander, I've got an unscheduled jump point opening about five thousand kilometers away."
"Show me."
Ivanova looked at the jump point, and where it was forming, and was very curious. Whoever was opening up that jump point would take several minutes to arrive at Babylon 5, but they obviously weren't in trouble, or they would have used the jump gate. Deciding to find out who they were, Ivanova opened a channel to them, "Unknown vessel, this is Babylon Control, please identify yourself and your purpose here."
***
Lieutenant Bregin heard the transmission, and glanced up. So the vessel had come from Babylon 5, or somewhere nearby. In fact, since the shuttle had been seen exiting the jump gate that was obviously under Babylon 5's control, then obviously whoever was in command of Babylon 5 was either responsible for the ship, or knew who was.
But it didn't matter either way. She had the necessary information, and it was time to leave. Telling her pilot to get them out, they opened up another jump point, and left.
***
"Any response?"
"None Commander, wait, they just opened up another jump point and left."
Ivanova sighed. Whoever had popped in like that apparently wanted to do some sightseeing while she was on duty, and that meant she had to fill out the contact report. Calling up the checklist, she began filling it out. She attached to the report all the scanner data they had managed to pick up, and decided to look over it herself. Sending the report up to Sheridan for his review, she started looking at the power signature from when the jump points opened. All races had their own distinctive style of how they used Quantium-40 to open a jump point, and those styles were all but a fingerprint of what race had built the jump engines. Calling up the unknown vessel's jump signature, she began running a small program to compare it with known races' jump signatures, wanting to see if there was a match.
A few minutes later, the conclusion came in. She looked over the report again, not believing the results. She then called up the original data and compared it herself. But the results were the same. The closest match to the jump point signature was an Earth jump generator. Now she was definitely curious. Why would an Earth ship jump in, not even identify itself to an Earthforce station, and jump out again? There were a few differences in the signature, but those could be looked into later. Sighing lightly, she began directing the first few ships of that day's traffic into the two main transit areas, hoping that the day would be nice and boring.
***
Lieutenant Bregin relaxed as the Skipray exited the red space and went back under hyperdrive. The slow speeds that went by in the red space seemed far too long to her, as she was used to being able to go anywhere in the galaxy in a matter of hours or days. In that red space, it took days to move within an empire, and weeks to get from one empire to another! She supposed she was a little impatient, but once back under hyperdrive she could relax, knowing nothing in this galaxy could touch her, except for another Imperial ship.
***
A few hours later, Ivanova got curious about the anomalies seen in the scan of the unknown intruder. The jump signature had appeared similar to EarthForce engines, but the anomalies stood out. Moving over to the Captain's console, she began punching in a program. The program would look over the unknown's jump signature and a standard Earthforce signature, and attempt to figure out the difference. Setting the program to have a low priority, to avoid interfering in normal operations, she set it to sound a chime when it was finished. She knew that she should be running the program on the main console, but the chair at the Captain's station was much more comfortable than the smaller one at the main console. Since the computer did not know what to look for, there was no way to tell how long the program would take, and she kicked back and started to relax.
***
A couple of hours later, Captain Sheridan arrived, and Commander Ivanova quickly got out of his seat. Her program hadn't finished yet, so she still had no answer yet to why the jump signature was different. But she was now off-duty, so she couldn't see the results.
But as she was walking out the door of CIC, a beeping sound was heard from the Captain's console. She began walking over to the console to see what the results were, when Sheridan looked at her.
"Mind if I ask what that sound is and why it is coming from my console Commander?"
"I was running a program to try to identify the contact that popped in earlier. Apparently it finished, and I'd like to see the results."
"Well, normally I'd agree, but since you did use my console, I get first crack at the data."
He had moved over to his console by this time, and began to call up the results. Looking over the data, he said, "That explains it."
At this point, everyone else in CIC was wondering what was on the screen. Several of them had their replacements sitting in their seats, yet they were still there, wanting to hear what the cause of the unknown contact was.
"Attention everyone. According to this data, and certain data packets that have been for Captains only, the jump point was caused by a prototype Earthforce ship. It is using a new type of jump engine, and apparently went off-course. Since the crew is obviously under orders to keep their vessel completely secret, they jumped out again without identifying themselves.
"As a result, this information never leaves this room. I want none of you to discuss it with anyone else, or to let any hint of this slip out. If asked, you will not admit to anything, and merely tell the person that nothing happened. Also, I will not be passing on the contact report due to the potential security breaches involved in passing it further up."
Everyone there suddenly opened their eyes wide, as they knew the results if they let the secret of this leak out. People had disappeared for similar reasons, or sent to the farthest outpost in Earthspace for less, and they liked their jobs in a space melting pot.
Turning to Ivanova, Sheridan spoke to her, but with a lowered voice. "Commander I could give you seven reasons why this has to be kept secret, but just make sure nobody else finds out. In the meantime, the best thing for you to do is go back to your quarters and get some rest."
Still, this was only a minor victory against Clark. He still had his unknown supporters, and she needed to meet with the investigation committee later, as they were still looking into the very suspicious accident that claimed President Santiago's life the previous year. If they could get enough leverage against him, they could force him out of office, and someone else could take over.
Someone like President Luchenko? She was head of the second largest political bloc on the planet, after the United States. China was fifth, because it was still recovering from the economic controls and the infighting that had occurred when the communistic government had been overthrown. In spite of the damage, its large number of farm communities had allowed the interim government to keep people fed, and it was slowly but surely building itself back up. The third and fourth places were the European Community and the South American Collective. Various other nations had been absorbed into larger governments, so those five were the critical groups. If Varenska could start to convince them to come over to her side, she would be able to get enough support so Clarke would be removed, and Luchenko put in his place. Even better, Luchenko was currently viewed as a moderate, and had been a friend of ex-President Santiago.
Now there was a possible thought. If she could gather enough votes on her side, and get enough other senators to support her when the time was right, Luchenko could effectively take over the office of the President. With the support of the new friends, she could start making proposals of off-world contracts. Earth-firsters, that support Clark, would make a large cry, but after the higher-quality items begin rolling off the lines, her position would be strengthened. Soon, Clark would be faced with either keeping his current support groups, or accepting the fact that the off-world suppliers were building better vessels, at higher quality, in less time than anyone else would think possible. If he kept his current groups, he would eventually get forced out due to a lack of support from them. If he changed his current position, he would be reacting to someone else, and that would violate his public appearance of wanting to be Earth First.
***
Arriving back at Babylon 5, Ivanova and Marcus met with the rest of the 'Code 7R' group. They were all startled at the change in the Mandelin 4 colony, and when they saw the sheer number of satellites, their jaws dropped. Everyone there knew Mandelin 4 was an ordinary farming colony, but this level of technology displayed was astounding.
"This is more along the lines of what we would expect from a fleet base or Earth, not a farming community. Where did they get all of this stuff? More importantly, why haven't they told anyone about it?"
"Also look at that scanner beam. That's more along the lines of a ship-mounted system than a satellite system. In fact I believe it did pick you up, and they let you get that close to begin with. I think they were setting you up for a trap the whole time."
"What do you mean?"
"Ivanova, look. You said that we should have been challenged by their spaceport when we got close to the moon, yet we weren't. However, those six fighters suddenly appeared in front of us later on, and we had practically no warning. There were two possible reasons why we weren't challenged. One is that they simply didn't see us, and the other is that they had already seen us, but didn't want to give it away. Since those fighters pounced on us so quickly, it would be fairly safe to say they had been getting continuous updates of our position. From there, I feel that they had spotted us to begin with."
"Wait, what do you mean the fighters suddenly appeared? Did they pop over the horizon, power up weapons, come through a jump point, or what?"
"Michael, what we mean is that those fighters suddenly appeared out of nowhere. I'll show you the relevant section of the recording." Everyone there watched as the White Star kept creeping over the moon, and the six fighters suddenly appeared. "There is a slight blur when they first appear, and I'll slow it down so we can see." The recording played itself again, and everyone could see how the fighters had seemed to blur in. Tracing back along the path showed nothing much, only that the fighters seemed to appear out of somewhere, and blur in.
"Is this a type of jump engine for fighters, or something else?"
"We don't know yet. If it is a jump engine, then they are apparently traveling at a high speed in hyperspace, and it looks like they just slide out of hyperspace when they get to their destination. If it is a stealth system, then it's a pretty good one, as we didn't detect anything.
"One thing that was noticeable about them though, is their firepower. Here is a picture showing the damage we took from their weapons." A low whistle sounded from Garibaldi, and a gasp from Delenn underscored the display. "As you can see, better than one quarter of the armor on that side was damaged by them, and that was from only a few shots. It took the armor over three hours to completely heal itself, and even with the armor's protection, our starboard engine was down to ten percent capacity. After those bolts hit, I decided to get the White Star out of there, and managed to hit one of the fighters on the way out." Another visual showed the plasma bolt hitting one of the strange fighters, and the fighter spinning out of the way.
"Can you show us a little more detail on that fighter?"
Telling the computer to focus on the fighter hit, they watched as it got hit by the bolt and spun out of the way. When it recovered within a couple seconds and began turning back, Ivanova paled. Marcus spoke up in the silence, "It appears as though our weapons didn't hurt it enough to be disabled. I wonder what damage we did do?" Manipulating the controls, he brought up a visual of the fighter before and after the impact. Telling the computer to do a comparison between its energy signature and hull between the two visuals, he waited a few seconds for the result.
"No physical differences detected. 3% change in energy signature detected," reported the calm voice of the computer.
"Well, that's information to think about. We hit it with our secondary guns and all we got was a three percent drop in its energy signature. These bloody things are tough and dangerous, not counting however they managed to appear like that. Also, what are they doing at Mandelin 4?"
"Well Marcus, from the looks of it, and how they reacted, they are guarding it. Also, from the way the farmland has been expanded, it looks like they are turning Mandelin 4 into their advance base, and the local people are benefiting from it as well."
Delenn suddenly stiffened, "John, didn't we get a crystal about Mandelin 4 earlier? We could try to watch that record again, and see if there are any new aliens on it. At least that way we would know what they look like."
"I tried looking at it several times, but the only beings I saw there are humans. From the looks of it, it seemed that only humans were the contacts between the locals and the aliens. Which means there is someone else out there that was found by them, and are acting as the go-betweens. The one bit of good news in the report was that these humans were cooperating with the local government, instead of dictating terms. What would be nice is if we could get an official investigation into the colony, and find out exactly what is going on"
Ivanova spoke up then, "can't we get some support from EarthForce to help look into this? We can show them the information showing how similar the two are, and maybe they can start looking for these new freighters and ships."
"Slight problem with that Susan, is when they ask us how we got that information in the first place. After all, we can't exactly tell them we have an alien ship and the command staff uses it to investigate things without EarthForce knowing about it. They might want to tag along for a ride."
Making a face at Marcus, who simply grinned, Ivanova turned back to the others. "Well, the least we can do is tell them that there is an unknown presence at the Mandelin 4 colony. At least then somebody will get interested enough to look into it."
"And they will promptly ask us how we know that something unusual is going on, and why we were interested. No matter how we cut it, EarthGov will want to know where we got our information. We'll just have to trust that they are able to put the pieces together and figure this out."
A few grimaces broke out at the classic joke of Intelligence services getting a complete picture before something critical happened, and the meeting broke up on that note. Everyone there knew of the connection, and how powerful those fighters were. Delenn would send the information back to her government, and they could try to find an excuse for a Minbari transport to swing by Mandelin 4, and report back on what it saw. By having an alien government make the observation, that should be enough to get Earthgov's attention.
***
A few hours later, Michael Garibaldi was tossing and turning in his bed. Something about that presentation had been missed, and his mind was refusing to let him sleep until he thought about it. He began reviewing the data again, how Ivanova had managed to make it in, how the fighters had caught them, and how they had managed to escape. They had been caught by the fighters, and managed to escape. They had been caught by stealth or jump-capable fighters and escaped.
They had escaped, when the fighters could have caught them easily, or damaged them severely.
But the fighters had damaged them severely when they had fired.
That didn't feel right. Getting up, he went over to the monitor, and called up the data concerning the White Star and its engagement with the fighters. He watched the fighters arrive, and open fire. He saw the fighters miss the first time, and circle back again. He watched as the shot detonated near the White Star, and cause the damage.
He saw one shot detonate near the White Star. Reviewing the other shots, he saw that they didn't detonate. "Computer, run a comparison on the containment for the shots. Show me the level of containment failure for all the shots fired by the fighters. Make the graph have time since firing as the independent variable, and field strength as the dependant."
"Running comparison."
Garibaldi paced for a few minutes, waiting for the results. Hearing a chime, he watched as the graph drew itself on the screen. Seeing only a group of lines gradually decreasing he asked, "Computer, are there any statistical anomalies?"
"Define anomaly."
"How much difference is there between the shots fired within the first five seconds of the video?"
"Approximately 1%."
"How much difference is there in the containment strength between the shots that hit the White Star and the shots in the first five seconds?"
"Approximately 480%.
"Show me the graph, but edited for the length of the shots that hit the White Star."
The graph came into view again, and it looked like there was a bare hint of a couple lines at the lower part, but it seemed to merge into the bottom bar halfway across.
"Computer, highlight the line that symbolizes the shots that hit the White Star."
A line began flashing on the graph. It was the ones that merged into the bottom of the graph, and Michael began to think harder. "The shots that missed had excellent containment, but the ones that hit had poor containment. Either their weapons are good for only a few shots each, or those shots was intended to detonate. Unless they were merely toying with the White Star-"
"Computer, show a tactical view of the fighters and the White Star, with the moon as the reference point. Also scan for any energy emissions detected between when the fighters appeared and when the White Star left."
The screen came to life again, and he watched as the fighters appeared and came barreling in. He watched a sudden energy spike be detected, and the fighters broke off their original run, and began maneuvering again, but firing to miss. The single fighter got in the White Star's way, and it was hit.
The other fighters had been firing the entire time, and the one that came nearby had detonated? "Computer, were there any other shots from those fighters that detonated?"
"Negative."
So only the shot that hit them was designed to detonate, and the other fighters were merely scaring them? But why would they do that unless-
"Computer, scan the recording of the White Star's trip back to the waiting point. Specifically, look within the visual records of a ninety-degree cone behind the White Star. Look for any vessel within that region. Scan the thirty seconds after the White Star went into hyperspace."
"Scanning."
Getting more nervous by the minute, Garibaldi began to suspect that the White Star hadn't really escaped after all. When the computer reported, "Six vessels detected," Garibaldi asked the computer to identify them. "The vessels are identical to the fighters already observed."
"Computer, do the fighters show up the entire way until the White Star leaves hyperspace?"
Several seconds went by, as the computer checked the data sequence. "Affirmative."
Michael paled at the word. If the fighters had let the White Star escape, and more of them had followed it back to the rendezvous point, then they knew where the point was. If they knew where it was, and had ships of their own, then even now, they could be-
Tapping his link, Garibaldi connected himself to Lennier. Hearing a very sleepy 'yes' from the other end, Michael said, "I need you to meet me in my quarters now. I've got important information, if you follow me." By placing additional stress on the last four words, he hoped Lennier would recognize the significance.
Hearing the beep a few minutes later, Garibaldi told the door to open. It only took a few minutes for Garibaldi to explain his suspicions to Lennier, who quickly agreed with it. Heading back to Delenn's suite, Lennier explained that he needed to use the flyer, and his excuse, so Delenn could corroborate the story. He also advised Delenn that if she had any questions, Garibaldi would be able to answer them. After he did that, Lennier went to the Minbari flyer, and requested permission to leave, explaining that he had to run an errand for Delenn. Getting permission from the Command center, Lennier left the station, and made his way to the White Star.
Getting on board, he commanded the White Star to move to a different location, and on the way there he explained to the rest of the crew what made the movement necessary. The others dealt with the shock privately, as they had their jobs to do, but all realized what could have happened if the unknowns had managed to get a starship of theirs in range to capture the White Star. With the way a mere fighter had damaged them with one shot, they did not want to even consider engaging a full-sized or even medium sized warship.
Lennier had the White star drop him off at a close location, and it then went to the agreed-upon location to hide until they decided it was safe to return. From that close location, Lennier returned to the station, and went back to his job as Delenn's assistant.
The next morning, the entire command staff listened as Garibaldi told them what he had managed to figure out the previous night. All of them realized what could have happened if he hadn't picked up on that anomaly, and their faces showed it. When Delenn stopped by and told them of Lennier's trip, their worries faded into sighs of relief. Now they wouldn't have to worry about the White Star being dissected.
***
Lieutenant Bregin watched the ship disappear into the jump point, and sighed. She had managed to get here just a minute late, and the ship was leaving. Since the ship was gone though, and its crew alerted, there was no need to try to pursue. Although her ship could overpower the white one easily, it would take a lot of damage in the process, which would reduce the chance of any interesting technology being found.
Briefly she looked over the records of the fighters, as they had followed the ship through the red space. Looking at the records again, she noticed something unusual. There had been a dark discoloration where the turbolaser had detonated near, but at the end of the journey, it was gone. Commanding the computer to play back the video, and to show that section from a single perspective, she watched as the section began to lighten around the edges. Running the simulation faster, it looked as though the area was healing itself!
She chuckled lightly to herself. Experiments had been made in the past with self-healing armor, and even living ships and armor, but the armors had eventually been phased out. The self-healing armors had their repair capability destroyed by the massive damage a turbolaser could deliver, while living ships and armors had an even simpler flaw. In order for the armor to be alive, it required a constant flow of nutrients to itself, and those tubes had proven to be weak points in the design. Not only that, but the cells had possessed membranes that were inherently porous, so massive impacts would cause them to rupture. There had been several attempts to use living ships over the millennia in the Republic, but all of them eventually had relied on dead outer skin as the actual armor, and the time it took to replace a sufficient amount of living armor was far more than the time needed for a chunk of metal to be pulled out and replaced with new armor.
The Yuuzhan Vong had shown that living ships had some potential, but even they had relied upon dead skin and armor equivalents in order to function safely. The few living ships in the Empire were all pleasure craft, except for a few pirate vessels that used their ability to self-repair as a cheap way to get out of repair costs. Even then, those pirates always attacked fast, and if they did not win after the first few minutes, they always ran away to prevent their ships getting killed. The other main advantage of living ships was that they were fairly difficult to spot, and could use their camouflage ability to sneak up on unsuspecting ships. Unfortunately, even sneaking up like that only allowed them one volley of shots, and after that any decent warship usually vaporized them.
If the major powers in this galaxy used living, or similar technology, for their ships, then it would prove even easier to defeat them. Thinking back to the black ship they had seen at the beginning, and the others that had been destroyed since then, she began to wonder if those vessels were actually in the employ of one of the local powers. If so, then the Empire might want to start finding out more about them. Composing a quick message with her simulation and suspicions, she sent it off to the Imperial command at Fetoro 3.
For now though, she had her orders. If she couldn't find the white ship, she was to proceed to the other site, where the shuttle had exited the red space, and see what she could see. Giving the new orders, a jump point was created in front of the Skipray, and it darted through. It would take a couple hours for them to arrive, and she began composing exit points, where the Skipray would come out of red-space a few thousand kilometers short, engage in a scan, and proceed farther if desired.
***
Commander Ivanova was watching the status boards, and reviewing the day's traffic reports. There wasn't much that would be coming today, and that was good. It would allow her to think about the young monk who had been killed those days ago. He had turned out to be a serial murderer that had been mind wiped, and turned into a monk, but his new personality had been very helpful and kind. She still missed him, but she kept that part of her hidden. She began looking over the reports and manifests of what was going in and out of the station for that day and sighed. Still, she liked the boring days. The alternative, being scared out of her mind, was much less appealing.
***
Lieutenant Bregin nodded at her pilot, and the Skipray opened its jump point, and proceeded through slowly, trying not to be detected as an anomalous ship, even though its unannounced jump point would have already triggered alerts if anyone was in range.
***
Ivanova looked up as one of the scanner personnel called, "Commander, I've got an unscheduled jump point opening about five thousand kilometers away."
"Show me."
Ivanova looked at the jump point, and where it was forming, and was very curious. Whoever was opening up that jump point would take several minutes to arrive at Babylon 5, but they obviously weren't in trouble, or they would have used the jump gate. Deciding to find out who they were, Ivanova opened a channel to them, "Unknown vessel, this is Babylon Control, please identify yourself and your purpose here."
***
Lieutenant Bregin heard the transmission, and glanced up. So the vessel had come from Babylon 5, or somewhere nearby. In fact, since the shuttle had been seen exiting the jump gate that was obviously under Babylon 5's control, then obviously whoever was in command of Babylon 5 was either responsible for the ship, or knew who was.
But it didn't matter either way. She had the necessary information, and it was time to leave. Telling her pilot to get them out, they opened up another jump point, and left.
***
"Any response?"
"None Commander, wait, they just opened up another jump point and left."
Ivanova sighed. Whoever had popped in like that apparently wanted to do some sightseeing while she was on duty, and that meant she had to fill out the contact report. Calling up the checklist, she began filling it out. She attached to the report all the scanner data they had managed to pick up, and decided to look over it herself. Sending the report up to Sheridan for his review, she started looking at the power signature from when the jump points opened. All races had their own distinctive style of how they used Quantium-40 to open a jump point, and those styles were all but a fingerprint of what race had built the jump engines. Calling up the unknown vessel's jump signature, she began running a small program to compare it with known races' jump signatures, wanting to see if there was a match.
A few minutes later, the conclusion came in. She looked over the report again, not believing the results. She then called up the original data and compared it herself. But the results were the same. The closest match to the jump point signature was an Earth jump generator. Now she was definitely curious. Why would an Earth ship jump in, not even identify itself to an Earthforce station, and jump out again? There were a few differences in the signature, but those could be looked into later. Sighing lightly, she began directing the first few ships of that day's traffic into the two main transit areas, hoping that the day would be nice and boring.
***
Lieutenant Bregin relaxed as the Skipray exited the red space and went back under hyperdrive. The slow speeds that went by in the red space seemed far too long to her, as she was used to being able to go anywhere in the galaxy in a matter of hours or days. In that red space, it took days to move within an empire, and weeks to get from one empire to another! She supposed she was a little impatient, but once back under hyperdrive she could relax, knowing nothing in this galaxy could touch her, except for another Imperial ship.
***
A few hours later, Ivanova got curious about the anomalies seen in the scan of the unknown intruder. The jump signature had appeared similar to EarthForce engines, but the anomalies stood out. Moving over to the Captain's console, she began punching in a program. The program would look over the unknown's jump signature and a standard Earthforce signature, and attempt to figure out the difference. Setting the program to have a low priority, to avoid interfering in normal operations, she set it to sound a chime when it was finished. She knew that she should be running the program on the main console, but the chair at the Captain's station was much more comfortable than the smaller one at the main console. Since the computer did not know what to look for, there was no way to tell how long the program would take, and she kicked back and started to relax.
***
A couple of hours later, Captain Sheridan arrived, and Commander Ivanova quickly got out of his seat. Her program hadn't finished yet, so she still had no answer yet to why the jump signature was different. But she was now off-duty, so she couldn't see the results.
But as she was walking out the door of CIC, a beeping sound was heard from the Captain's console. She began walking over to the console to see what the results were, when Sheridan looked at her.
"Mind if I ask what that sound is and why it is coming from my console Commander?"
"I was running a program to try to identify the contact that popped in earlier. Apparently it finished, and I'd like to see the results."
"Well, normally I'd agree, but since you did use my console, I get first crack at the data."
He had moved over to his console by this time, and began to call up the results. Looking over the data, he said, "That explains it."
At this point, everyone else in CIC was wondering what was on the screen. Several of them had their replacements sitting in their seats, yet they were still there, wanting to hear what the cause of the unknown contact was.
"Attention everyone. According to this data, and certain data packets that have been for Captains only, the jump point was caused by a prototype Earthforce ship. It is using a new type of jump engine, and apparently went off-course. Since the crew is obviously under orders to keep their vessel completely secret, they jumped out again without identifying themselves.
"As a result, this information never leaves this room. I want none of you to discuss it with anyone else, or to let any hint of this slip out. If asked, you will not admit to anything, and merely tell the person that nothing happened. Also, I will not be passing on the contact report due to the potential security breaches involved in passing it further up."
Everyone there suddenly opened their eyes wide, as they knew the results if they let the secret of this leak out. People had disappeared for similar reasons, or sent to the farthest outpost in Earthspace for less, and they liked their jobs in a space melting pot.
Turning to Ivanova, Sheridan spoke to her, but with a lowered voice. "Commander I could give you seven reasons why this has to be kept secret, but just make sure nobody else finds out. In the meantime, the best thing for you to do is go back to your quarters and get some rest."