************************Chapter 7*****************************************
This new design of White Star was different enough from the originals that it was really a new class of ship. It carried more firepower, was faster and more manueverable and was quite a bit smaller than the older White Stars. There are only 7 decks or levels. There is no shuttle bay or cargo bay. There is a ramp that leads down from the last deck. This is the only way to enter or leave the ship, except for the one airlock found on each deck.
The last third of the ship is taken up by the engines and engineer stations. The weapon ports are almost invisible from the outside. If it didn't have the same sleek bird of prey appearance of the old style, it would have been utterly unrecognizable as a White Star. They are not ships of war. This was a scout and exploration ship. The interior was as beautiful as the exterior.
It was a model in efficiency, wrapped in beauty, tied together with strength. As are most Minbari constructs. The number 3 was sacred to my people. Almost all was done in groups of threes. 3 casts, 3 main languages, 3 capital cities. Strength, efficiency and beauty tied together with unbreakable bonds. Warrior, Worker, and Religious. The Nine and the One. The three who are One.
The White Stars had gone through several changes. The first completed was designed as a flag ship. It had one central seat for the captain, my father, to sit in while the rest of the command crew stood at their stations a few feet behind him. It had been designed with my father in mind. It was a gift to him from my mother, and the workers who built it.
The rest of the fleet had taken the Minbari idea of three into account. There was still the captain's seat in the centre of the bridge, but there were now stations on either side of him, slightly lower to indicate the captain's prominence, but otherwise, no different than the stations you find on human ships. One was a comm station, while the other was a tactical display station whose main function was to control the holographic displays and hull cameras.
There were other differences, but they were mostly minor matters. There had been no individual quarters on the first models. There were a few on each of the newer ships. The controls were all the same, except that on this ship, there were four main stations. The captain's chair, slightly forward and higher than the comm and weapons stations. And directly behind them, forming a cross, was another station. I was confused. I had seen the plans for these new ships and did not remember that station from the specs.
"This ship is a very special little thing." Uncle Mike answered when I asked him about it. "For one thing, it was finished only a few weeks ago. It was also built with a specific crew in mind. It's even faster than the others like it and carries a few surprises that none of the others do."
"But it still has everything the White Stars do, right? It can open it's own jump points and has the same weapons and shielding?" asked Shannon, her curiosity aroused.
"Yes. In fact, the jump engines on this thing are more advanced than those I've seen any where else. If I didn't know better, I'd say the Vorlons had built them. They require only a few minutes to heat up and cool down, unlike the ten-twenty minute cycle of most other ships. At most, it will take five minutes to cycle through the start up and shut down of the engines."
I whistled my appreciation. "That's amazing! I envy the crew who gets this ship." Uncle Mike's eyes lit up with a hidden smile that I didn't understand. It was like he knew something that I didn't and was enjoying the fact that I didn't know. I hated when he did that.
"Look. I'm tired. I've been up for nearly 24 hours. I need some sleep." He nodded to my friends. "I happen to know that you've had training on the White Stars. Why don't you four pilot this thing for a few hours while I rest. It can be run from any of the center stations. Just pick a spot. I should be up in about 8 hours. Don't call unless something happens, but if something does . . . "
"We will contact you immediately, Mr. Garibaldi." Marcel filled in, Kahlen and Shannon quick to agree.
Uncle Mike grinned. "Since we're all friends here, I'll let you call me Micheal or Mike. You're friends of David's and that makes you almost like family. Only my employees and enemies call me Mr. Garibaldi."
"Aye sir." "Yes, Micheal." "Sure thing, Mike." My friends chorused.
I grinned. "Does that apply to me?"
He let out a bark. "Hell no, kid. You still get to call me Uncle." He left the bridge, Aunt Lise and Mary following after him. Mary seemed reluctant to leave, but Uncle Mike firmly pushed her along.
We stood still for a moment, looking at each other. As one, we grinned wildly. There was only one thing left to decide.
"I call captainhood." said Kahlen as she leapt into the air and floated over to the command center.
"Captainhood? Is that even a word?" Shannon asked, a smaller grin on her lips.
"No, it isn't. And I don't think this 'calling' is a fair way to select who gets that chair." added Marcel.
"Then how do we chose?" I asked.
"I know! I'll flip you for it." Kahlen said, her face taking on a mischievous look.
Seconds later, I found myself being turned upside down by invisible hands. I looked around wildly, trying to see what was going on. Marcel and Shannon were also hanging in mid air, their heads barely inches from the floor. Shannon was trying to keep her robes in place, as they were being pulled to the ground. Marcel simply planted his hands on the floor, in case Kahlen lost control of her powers. Though we all knew that we weighed little compared to some of the loads she had lifted, we also knew that she had never tried something like this with more than one person or thing at a time.
I looked at her and saw a single bead of sweat forming on her forehead. "Ok, Kahlen, you've had your fun. You can set us up right, now."
She did so, her lips setting in a pout. "You never let me have any fun." she whined.
"Hah. This from the girl who convinced me to switch G'ten's ceremonial dagger with a rubber chew toy?"
"Hey, it's not my fault that it happened to be a Narn holiday that required the use of the dagger. I'm not from around here. I don't know any of the aliens here. You, however, have spent you life learning about other races and their beliefs. Why didn't you know about the ceremony?" she asked.
I blushed. "I got confused with the time of year. I forgot that the Narn homeworld is a few calender months ahead of us. It was the middle of winter on their main continent. The time they celebrate the leaving of the darkness and the coming of the light."
"What does that mean?" Marcel asked. He knew very little about the beliefs of the other races. He had learned only a little of their biology but none of their beliefs from the computers who grew him. He was having the most trouble in those types of classes.
"A thousand years ago, the Shadow War raged. Some of their ships landed on a primitive planet called Narn. They wiped out all the natural telepaths and set up bases on several continents and small islands. Eventually, a Narn by the name of G'Quon rose out of nowhere and with the help of a 'being of light with the face of Narn' directed the Narns in driving off the enemy."
Marcel frowned. " 'Being of light'? Why do I know that from somewhere?"
Shannon idly ran her hand along the nearest of the stations, the one that formed the cross. "That's how the Vorlons were described. My people have had a long relationship with them. They have been on Minbar for a very long time and helped Valen form the Council and without them, we would still be as we were before Valen." Minbari can not cry. But they do have ways of showing sadness. And right now, Shannon was displaying many of those signs. "The Warrior cast was dominant and Religious were totally aloof. We, the workers, were mere pawns for them in their struggles for dominance." Her face brightened. "Valen changed that. When he arrived, he preached that the casts were equal. The Warriors fight, the Religious pray, and the Workers build. No one cast could survive without the others. Valen even took a Worker as his mate. The Warriors hail him as the greatest of them, while the Religious worship him.
"The workers -we- know that he was a great man. He was the embodiment of all casts. He was the greatest of warriors and a holy man. But he was also a builder. He built a Minbar where all were treated equally and preference shown to no one cast or clan. Where it was safe for people to live without worrying about their safety from the wars that raged. He gave us a sense of purpose and being. He made us whole. The Grey council he created was his greatest achievement. Three members from each of the three casts, and one more. This one, the greatest of us chosen, was the leader. Worker, Warrior, Religious. It did not matter which of these he belonged to for upon being chosen, he was no longer a member of that cast. He was above the casts. His word was law by Valen's decree." Shannon was now sitting in the seat behind the console. She was keying in commands to the board.
She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "Anyway. We were trying to decide who get's the Captaincy. I believe that I will give up any claim to that title. I will take this station, if there are no objections."
"Which one is it?" I asked.
"It is the engineering/science station. This is the station that monitors the ship functions and also has the scanning controls." She explained. "From what it says here, we are only 35 hours from Minbar." She looked up, an expression of surprise on her face. "This is indeed the fastest ship I have ever been on. Normally, we would still be nearly three days from Minbar."
Kahlen smiled. "That leaves the three of us." She looked at Marcel and I eagerly. "Either of you have straws handy?"
Marcel looked puzzled but I understood where she was going with this. My parents had occasionally made decisions about things using this ancient human process. I remembered when they had tried to explain about sex. They had had to resort to the straws to see who would have the duty of telling me.
"No. But there has to be someway to decide fairly."
Marcel smiled. It was still strange to see him doing that. "I know how to cut it to two choices." he said.
"How?" asked Kahlen while I echoed her.
"I also renounce any claim." He walked around to the other side of the chair and took position at the right hand station. "This is the weapons center. I will take this."
"Why?" I asked. "It's unlikely it will be used."
"Perhaps, but I would like to get to know this station better." He scanned the controls. "Some of these weapons are unfamiliar to me and I would enjoy the chance to study them."
"So what's left?" asked Kahlen.
"Well, there's the captain's chair that your sitting in and there's the navigation center."
"What's the difference?" she asked. She was losing her enthusiasm for the captaincy.
"Well, the captain is the one that makes all the decisions and issues all the orders. The navigator is the one who actually gets to make the changes in course corrections and pilots the ship."
"Well, we already have a course set in and there are no decisions to make. What's the point of all this?"
I grinned. Kahlen knew less about hyperspace travel than I did about her world. "Well, you see. We do have a set course. But hyperspace isn't like normal space. There are sort of currents that push against the ship. There are things, sort of like clouds and water vapour, that bump into the ship, occasionally knocking us off course. The pilot is essential to correcting these slight changes and keeping us on course. They also have to locate the larger of the 'clouds' and go around them, always remembering to stay on a relatively straight course so we don't lose sight of the beacons."
Her eyes were glowing. "So it's better to be pilot, than captain? In that case, you be captain." She floated herself out of the chair and into the pilots station. She nodded to me and moved me over to stand before the chair, setting me down lightly on my feet.
Somehow, as I sat in that chair, it felt right. The chair fitted me like it had been made especially for my body. It was just the right height for my legs and the back was perfectly molded for my back. There was even a small indentation in the head rest that my crest fit into perfectly. Except for a few of the minor changes I had had done in the carvings. Shannon had a talent for bone carving. She said she had been honoured to do it for me. Bonecarvings were usually done by a close member of the family or clan who specialized in the art. Unfortunately, they hurt like hell if done improperly.
"Keep us on as straight a line for Minbar as you can, Kahlen." I ordered, deepening my voice and putting as much authority as I possessed into it.
"Yes, Captain." she replied giggling. The others also laughed lightly.
"Shannon, scan the area. Let me know if anything comes into range."
"Yes sir." The Minbari was struggling valiantly not to break out laughing as she listened to me issue orders.
"Marcel, run through a systems check. I want to be able to fire at a moments notice should something go wrong."
"Aye Captain." he replied, starting to run a diagnostic of the weapons systems. I sat in the chair, feeling pretty happy with my life. I was on a ship with my best friends and some members of my extended family, and I was on my way home for the first time in a year. *Life is good*, I thought to myself.
This new design of White Star was different enough from the originals that it was really a new class of ship. It carried more firepower, was faster and more manueverable and was quite a bit smaller than the older White Stars. There are only 7 decks or levels. There is no shuttle bay or cargo bay. There is a ramp that leads down from the last deck. This is the only way to enter or leave the ship, except for the one airlock found on each deck.
The last third of the ship is taken up by the engines and engineer stations. The weapon ports are almost invisible from the outside. If it didn't have the same sleek bird of prey appearance of the old style, it would have been utterly unrecognizable as a White Star. They are not ships of war. This was a scout and exploration ship. The interior was as beautiful as the exterior.
It was a model in efficiency, wrapped in beauty, tied together with strength. As are most Minbari constructs. The number 3 was sacred to my people. Almost all was done in groups of threes. 3 casts, 3 main languages, 3 capital cities. Strength, efficiency and beauty tied together with unbreakable bonds. Warrior, Worker, and Religious. The Nine and the One. The three who are One.
The White Stars had gone through several changes. The first completed was designed as a flag ship. It had one central seat for the captain, my father, to sit in while the rest of the command crew stood at their stations a few feet behind him. It had been designed with my father in mind. It was a gift to him from my mother, and the workers who built it.
The rest of the fleet had taken the Minbari idea of three into account. There was still the captain's seat in the centre of the bridge, but there were now stations on either side of him, slightly lower to indicate the captain's prominence, but otherwise, no different than the stations you find on human ships. One was a comm station, while the other was a tactical display station whose main function was to control the holographic displays and hull cameras.
There were other differences, but they were mostly minor matters. There had been no individual quarters on the first models. There were a few on each of the newer ships. The controls were all the same, except that on this ship, there were four main stations. The captain's chair, slightly forward and higher than the comm and weapons stations. And directly behind them, forming a cross, was another station. I was confused. I had seen the plans for these new ships and did not remember that station from the specs.
"This ship is a very special little thing." Uncle Mike answered when I asked him about it. "For one thing, it was finished only a few weeks ago. It was also built with a specific crew in mind. It's even faster than the others like it and carries a few surprises that none of the others do."
"But it still has everything the White Stars do, right? It can open it's own jump points and has the same weapons and shielding?" asked Shannon, her curiosity aroused.
"Yes. In fact, the jump engines on this thing are more advanced than those I've seen any where else. If I didn't know better, I'd say the Vorlons had built them. They require only a few minutes to heat up and cool down, unlike the ten-twenty minute cycle of most other ships. At most, it will take five minutes to cycle through the start up and shut down of the engines."
I whistled my appreciation. "That's amazing! I envy the crew who gets this ship." Uncle Mike's eyes lit up with a hidden smile that I didn't understand. It was like he knew something that I didn't and was enjoying the fact that I didn't know. I hated when he did that.
"Look. I'm tired. I've been up for nearly 24 hours. I need some sleep." He nodded to my friends. "I happen to know that you've had training on the White Stars. Why don't you four pilot this thing for a few hours while I rest. It can be run from any of the center stations. Just pick a spot. I should be up in about 8 hours. Don't call unless something happens, but if something does . . . "
"We will contact you immediately, Mr. Garibaldi." Marcel filled in, Kahlen and Shannon quick to agree.
Uncle Mike grinned. "Since we're all friends here, I'll let you call me Micheal or Mike. You're friends of David's and that makes you almost like family. Only my employees and enemies call me Mr. Garibaldi."
"Aye sir." "Yes, Micheal." "Sure thing, Mike." My friends chorused.
I grinned. "Does that apply to me?"
He let out a bark. "Hell no, kid. You still get to call me Uncle." He left the bridge, Aunt Lise and Mary following after him. Mary seemed reluctant to leave, but Uncle Mike firmly pushed her along.
We stood still for a moment, looking at each other. As one, we grinned wildly. There was only one thing left to decide.
"I call captainhood." said Kahlen as she leapt into the air and floated over to the command center.
"Captainhood? Is that even a word?" Shannon asked, a smaller grin on her lips.
"No, it isn't. And I don't think this 'calling' is a fair way to select who gets that chair." added Marcel.
"Then how do we chose?" I asked.
"I know! I'll flip you for it." Kahlen said, her face taking on a mischievous look.
Seconds later, I found myself being turned upside down by invisible hands. I looked around wildly, trying to see what was going on. Marcel and Shannon were also hanging in mid air, their heads barely inches from the floor. Shannon was trying to keep her robes in place, as they were being pulled to the ground. Marcel simply planted his hands on the floor, in case Kahlen lost control of her powers. Though we all knew that we weighed little compared to some of the loads she had lifted, we also knew that she had never tried something like this with more than one person or thing at a time.
I looked at her and saw a single bead of sweat forming on her forehead. "Ok, Kahlen, you've had your fun. You can set us up right, now."
She did so, her lips setting in a pout. "You never let me have any fun." she whined.
"Hah. This from the girl who convinced me to switch G'ten's ceremonial dagger with a rubber chew toy?"
"Hey, it's not my fault that it happened to be a Narn holiday that required the use of the dagger. I'm not from around here. I don't know any of the aliens here. You, however, have spent you life learning about other races and their beliefs. Why didn't you know about the ceremony?" she asked.
I blushed. "I got confused with the time of year. I forgot that the Narn homeworld is a few calender months ahead of us. It was the middle of winter on their main continent. The time they celebrate the leaving of the darkness and the coming of the light."
"What does that mean?" Marcel asked. He knew very little about the beliefs of the other races. He had learned only a little of their biology but none of their beliefs from the computers who grew him. He was having the most trouble in those types of classes.
"A thousand years ago, the Shadow War raged. Some of their ships landed on a primitive planet called Narn. They wiped out all the natural telepaths and set up bases on several continents and small islands. Eventually, a Narn by the name of G'Quon rose out of nowhere and with the help of a 'being of light with the face of Narn' directed the Narns in driving off the enemy."
Marcel frowned. " 'Being of light'? Why do I know that from somewhere?"
Shannon idly ran her hand along the nearest of the stations, the one that formed the cross. "That's how the Vorlons were described. My people have had a long relationship with them. They have been on Minbar for a very long time and helped Valen form the Council and without them, we would still be as we were before Valen." Minbari can not cry. But they do have ways of showing sadness. And right now, Shannon was displaying many of those signs. "The Warrior cast was dominant and Religious were totally aloof. We, the workers, were mere pawns for them in their struggles for dominance." Her face brightened. "Valen changed that. When he arrived, he preached that the casts were equal. The Warriors fight, the Religious pray, and the Workers build. No one cast could survive without the others. Valen even took a Worker as his mate. The Warriors hail him as the greatest of them, while the Religious worship him.
"The workers -we- know that he was a great man. He was the embodiment of all casts. He was the greatest of warriors and a holy man. But he was also a builder. He built a Minbar where all were treated equally and preference shown to no one cast or clan. Where it was safe for people to live without worrying about their safety from the wars that raged. He gave us a sense of purpose and being. He made us whole. The Grey council he created was his greatest achievement. Three members from each of the three casts, and one more. This one, the greatest of us chosen, was the leader. Worker, Warrior, Religious. It did not matter which of these he belonged to for upon being chosen, he was no longer a member of that cast. He was above the casts. His word was law by Valen's decree." Shannon was now sitting in the seat behind the console. She was keying in commands to the board.
She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "Anyway. We were trying to decide who get's the Captaincy. I believe that I will give up any claim to that title. I will take this station, if there are no objections."
"Which one is it?" I asked.
"It is the engineering/science station. This is the station that monitors the ship functions and also has the scanning controls." She explained. "From what it says here, we are only 35 hours from Minbar." She looked up, an expression of surprise on her face. "This is indeed the fastest ship I have ever been on. Normally, we would still be nearly three days from Minbar."
Kahlen smiled. "That leaves the three of us." She looked at Marcel and I eagerly. "Either of you have straws handy?"
Marcel looked puzzled but I understood where she was going with this. My parents had occasionally made decisions about things using this ancient human process. I remembered when they had tried to explain about sex. They had had to resort to the straws to see who would have the duty of telling me.
"No. But there has to be someway to decide fairly."
Marcel smiled. It was still strange to see him doing that. "I know how to cut it to two choices." he said.
"How?" asked Kahlen while I echoed her.
"I also renounce any claim." He walked around to the other side of the chair and took position at the right hand station. "This is the weapons center. I will take this."
"Why?" I asked. "It's unlikely it will be used."
"Perhaps, but I would like to get to know this station better." He scanned the controls. "Some of these weapons are unfamiliar to me and I would enjoy the chance to study them."
"So what's left?" asked Kahlen.
"Well, there's the captain's chair that your sitting in and there's the navigation center."
"What's the difference?" she asked. She was losing her enthusiasm for the captaincy.
"Well, the captain is the one that makes all the decisions and issues all the orders. The navigator is the one who actually gets to make the changes in course corrections and pilots the ship."
"Well, we already have a course set in and there are no decisions to make. What's the point of all this?"
I grinned. Kahlen knew less about hyperspace travel than I did about her world. "Well, you see. We do have a set course. But hyperspace isn't like normal space. There are sort of currents that push against the ship. There are things, sort of like clouds and water vapour, that bump into the ship, occasionally knocking us off course. The pilot is essential to correcting these slight changes and keeping us on course. They also have to locate the larger of the 'clouds' and go around them, always remembering to stay on a relatively straight course so we don't lose sight of the beacons."
Her eyes were glowing. "So it's better to be pilot, than captain? In that case, you be captain." She floated herself out of the chair and into the pilots station. She nodded to me and moved me over to stand before the chair, setting me down lightly on my feet.
Somehow, as I sat in that chair, it felt right. The chair fitted me like it had been made especially for my body. It was just the right height for my legs and the back was perfectly molded for my back. There was even a small indentation in the head rest that my crest fit into perfectly. Except for a few of the minor changes I had had done in the carvings. Shannon had a talent for bone carving. She said she had been honoured to do it for me. Bonecarvings were usually done by a close member of the family or clan who specialized in the art. Unfortunately, they hurt like hell if done improperly.
"Keep us on as straight a line for Minbar as you can, Kahlen." I ordered, deepening my voice and putting as much authority as I possessed into it.
"Yes, Captain." she replied giggling. The others also laughed lightly.
"Shannon, scan the area. Let me know if anything comes into range."
"Yes sir." The Minbari was struggling valiantly not to break out laughing as she listened to me issue orders.
"Marcel, run through a systems check. I want to be able to fire at a moments notice should something go wrong."
"Aye Captain." he replied, starting to run a diagnostic of the weapons systems. I sat in the chair, feeling pretty happy with my life. I was on a ship with my best friends and some members of my extended family, and I was on my way home for the first time in a year. *Life is good*, I thought to myself.
