No Beast so Fierce
Chapter 5
By Verbosity

Captain Julia Thorne sat, strapped into her seat in the zero-g of the EAS Dauntless's bridge, eyes glued to the tactical display. She was trying, by sheer force of will, to hurry the last of the shuttles into the bay. The station was evacuated, this was the last load and she had three thousand civilians stuffed like sardines into her ship.

"Thirty seconds to their weapons range, Mam." Her tactical officer's voice was tight.

Her communications officer said, "The Hermes reports their loading complete."

"Tell them to get out of here." She kept her voice level.

"Mam," tactical's voice rose to a shout. "Energy spike in the Minbari weapon systems! They're preparing to fire!"

Their estimates of the Minbari's weapons range had been wrong. Her hands clenched down on the arms of her seat. She could hear a whimper from someone toward the back of the bridge. Ensign Morgan probably; it was his first deployment. And he was going to die. Her crew was going to die, the civilians would die; she couldn't save them. She wanted to scream, to howl, to rail against the universe, the God, who would allow her people to be snuffed out as if their deaths had no more meaning than the pinching out of a candle.

But she didn't. She was proud of how little her voice trembled, even though she knew how useless the words were, as she said, "All hands, brace for contact."

* * *

"Unknown contact."

The crewman's voice carried clearly through the pickup and around the council chamber.

What? Delenn shifted her attention away from the human ships.

There.

Between the Earth vessels and war cruisers sat a lone ship. It was small, and strangely designed, consisting of a circular section and two long cylinders protruding away from the back. The hull was free of markings and a dark gray color. Delenn had never seen a ship even remotely like it.

"Who's is it?" Copelann's voice echoed in the chamber.

"Unknown, Satai. Sensors are unable to lock onto it. We are passively registering its presence but it seems to be absorbing the sensor beams."

Delenn felt a chill go through her. She knew of no race other than her own who had such stealth technology.

Glances were traded among the council members.

Morrann suddenly spoke out. "The Human vessel has completed its docking. We will deal with whomever these new arrivals are after we attend to them."

Various heads around the chamber were nodding. Delenn's was not one of them.

"Captain commence-"

Morrann's command was cut suddenly by the reception of a transmission from the unknown vessel. It filled the chamber with a female voice, utterly devoid of any emotion, that said, in perfect Adrinato, " Do not fire upon the Humans. If you attack the Earth vessels we will destroy you."

The calm certainty of the statement gelled the unease in the pit of Delenn's stomach to a cold fear. Something was seriously wrong. None of the younger races would dare to stand against her people, none of them could, and yet this small ship stood unflinching in the path of five war cruisers. A horrible suspicion began to creep into her mind.

In thought, she nearly missed the Trigasi's captain's order to open fire. Her head jerked up as she drew in a breath to order him to stop, but restrained herself, she could not be certain. Surely none of them would become involved.

Brilliant emerald spears of energy lanced out from the Trigasi as its weapons discharged. Delenn watched, her mind and spirit in doubt, as the ravening beams smashed into the alien ships hull. It seemed to shudder under the impact for a moment as the energy clawed at its gray hull. The beams ceased and she stared in growing horror at the undamaged vessel. No ship of the younger races could endure the fire of Minbari weapons unharmed. None had the technology to construct a vessel with such strength. That left only one possible conclusion: the First Ones. The awful realization flashed through her mind in an instant, and she opened her mouth to give an order, but it was already too late.

There was a momentary blip of energy between the alien ship and the Trigasi, an instant later the Trigasi exploded. Even as the crews of Minbari cruisers froze in a moment of stunned surprise, the alien ship open fire with some sort of beam weapon. Shimmering beams lanced out to probe, almost gently, at the drive fins of the nearest two Sharlin cruisers. Where the beams touched, the hull simply.disintegrated, melting away into billows of sun hot plasma.

"Quickly, get me the captain of the Trigati!" Delenn's voice was strident with shock and fear.

The other Minbari vessels began to open fire, energy searing out into the void, attempting to destroy. The alien ship surged into motion, moving impossibly fast, avoiding the opening salvo of the undamaged cruisers. Again there was an odd blip of energy between the strange ship and one of the cruisers and an instant later another Sharlin died in a fiery detonation. Meanwhile the shimmering beams never ceased, stabbing out to touch the fins that focused the energies of the gravitational drives. Leaving another cruiser dead in space.

* * *

"Captain," Lieutenant Reed drew Jon's attention. "The Minbari ships have stopped attempting to target us and are pulling back."

"Cease firing."

"Aye, Sir."

Smoke drifted across the bridge, and sparks showered from one of several overloaded consoles.

"That was a little too easy," Jon muttered.

"Sir," Hoshi spoke up. "There was a coded transmission from the large ship to the others just before they ceased."

Jon glanced at it in the view screen and nodded. Must be the command ship. "What's our status Malcolm?"

"We've overloaded half the relays on the polarized plating, Sir. We can't take any more hits. They'll go through the hull like tin. One of the phaser banks is out and I'm reading fluctuations in the warp core."

"Status of the Earth ships?"

Hoshi said, "One identified as the EAS Hermes is already entering a jump point. The EAS Dauntless is right behind them."

* * *

Whoops and yells of elation filled the bridge of the EAS Dauntless, after a moment of stunned surprise, when the first Minbari cruiser exploded.

Julia had had a feeling of surreal disbelief when the small ship had appeared out of nowhere to place itself between the Minbari ships and the fleeing Human vessels. Every alien race had refused to give aid to Earth when the Minbari had declared war, so the thought of someone coming to their assistance was unbelievable.

She could feel the collective holding of breath as the Minbari ships opened fire. They had seen so many of their fellow vessels torn apart without mercy by those terrible weapons. There was a collective sense of astonishment and a feeling of excitement that ratcheted even higher as the little ship took the punishment without flinching and then returned fire. Armor that human weapons had barely succeeded in singing dissolved before the alien weapons.

The small ship surged into motion and she stifled a swear at the sheer acceleration it displayed. It avoided the Minbari salvos and an instant later another Minbari cruiser exploded.

The Minbari vessels ceased firing and began to pull back even as the jump point closed behind them. Julia slumped back into her chair. Not caring, for a moment, if her crew saw her relief.

Maybe God was listening after all.

* * *

"They're away, Sir."

Hoshi reported the closing of the jump point, but Jon didn't take his eyes from the Minbari vessels. Two were spreading fields of debris, one was drifting, its drive apparently nonfunctional due to phaser damage to the drive fins, but two were still operational. And with Enterprise's current damage even one would be way more than they could handle.

"Sir," Malcolm said. "The Minbari are trying to burn through the stealth field with their sensors."

Jon nodded slowly. The Minbari didn't know who they were. He had them uncertain and off balance. Best not to give that advantage up. "Is there any danger of it?"

"No, Sir. The field generator is undamaged."

* * *

This was unforeseen, and that was impossible. That ship could not be here.

Kosh examined the Minbari sensor feed. It was play fit for a Vorlon child to tap into a computer system a primitive as the Minbari's, and so Kosh had done since he arrived on the ship. Though he hardly had need of them, his senses being more than a match for many of the technological devices of the younger races. He, though Vorlons did not have the same genders as many other races Kosh was closer to a he than a she, did not truly need to monitor events. Yet he felt closer to these young races than most of his kind, so he watched over them, even though he knew the necessary path they would tread.

The events of the last few minutes had broken the circle. The ship should not be here. Something critical had changed and the path that had been so clear was suddenly shrouded in uncertainty.

One part of his awareness observed the Gray Council as they argued over what action to take, another swept over the Minbari ships tasting the shock, tension, and fear, a closely related branch of his mind reached out to brush at the departing Earth ships to determine if they knew the identity of this mysterious vessel. As he touched the minds of those who were supposed to have died, he understood that they had no more idea than the Minbari.

The Gray Council was divided; part wished to call reinforcements, attack, and crush the ship that had hurt them, while the others wished for more information. He could feel the anger, fear, and turmoil inside of them.

And Delenn, Delenn's thoughts were in turmoil; she thought the ship was of the First Ones. The group of ancient races his own people belonged to.

He contemplated that for a moment and reached out to touch the Vorlon's group consciousness, a sort of communal knowledge pool that was shared among all Vorlons. No, it was not there. The ship was not anything that had ever been encountered.

Very well, the next step might be dangerous, but the Minbari sensors were being blocked, so other methods were required.

He reached out a part of his mind to the small alien ship. There were a number of minds there. They felt.human, all but one. That one was distinctly different, more evolved. Where they were turmoil it was calm, where they were impulse it was logic and control. Kosh approved.

Even as he touched that mind, shields slammed up around it with surprising strength. Kosh took a mental step back; the mind was far stronger that any of the younger races he had ever come across.

But not nearly so strong as a Vorlon.

Extending himself again, he wrapped around the other's mind and began to exert pressure. He was careful, ever so careful. He had no real wish to harm the being, but he must know more.

* * *

Jon swayed in his chair as the world suddenly wavered around him.

An alien presence. Pressure. An overwhelming power, a mind so vast it dwarfed her own.

He was vaguely aware he was hunched over clutching at his head. T'Pol. Something was happening to T'Pol.

It was an effort to look to look toward her. She was rigid at her station and her eyes gazed unseeing at the console. Her attention was turned inwards with her entire form radiating strain.

He could feel her desperately trying to keep something out. Some vast presence had wrapped itself around her mind and was moving inward. The pressure was hideous.

"Captain!"

He was aware of Malcolm's shout and he tried to make his mouth work, to force out words. He couldn't. The spillover from T'Pol's mind was too much.

He could hear Malcolm speaking, "Travis, get us out of here! Maximum Warp!"

And then only blackness.