Chapter 19

Mysteries to be Revealed and Crimes to be Avenged


On board Babylon 4

August 11, 2377

4:15pm

"Muh...Muh...Muh...Marcus," said Captain Susan Ivanova before she fainted and slumped down onto the deck of Babylon 4. John Sheridan, Delenn, Michael Garibaldi, Garrison Hollifield, and Dan Tanner were all staring at their deceased friend who, very suddenly, was very much alive.

In his typical British accent and style, although he himself had never been on Earth, Marcus Cole said, "I know this is going to sound strange, but there is a perfectly good reason as to why I am alive."

Flash Forward

Franklin Xenobiological Research and Medical Center

Tuzinor, Minbar, Interstellar Alliance

July 22, 2881

12:45pm

Marcus woke up, blinked his eyes, and pondered exactly why he was alive. Last thing he remembered was standing beside the deathbed of his love, Susan Ivanova, and using the alien device that Dr. Stephen Franklin had found years earlier, he was passing all of his remaining energy into her. Just as he was losing consciousness, he heard her cry out,"Marcus," but he heard no more as he allowed death to swallow him whole.

Or so he thought.

"Ah, you're awake! We weren't expecting you to be alert this soon since we brought you back to life, but since you are awake now, we'd better get started.," said the Thai woman with an Australian accent, clearly a doctor. She pressed a button on a nearby console, and a variety of people began to show up outside his room.

"Why am I here? Why am I alive," asked Marcus, clearly shocked at this current state of events.

The Thai doctor first introduced herself as Dr. Thelma Hull, joking that "if you had to pronounce my Thai name, your tongue would probably snap off!" She then looked him in the eyes and said, "You never officially died, Ranger Cole. Dr. Stephen Franklin had you placed into cryogenic containment in the hopes of reviving you someday."

"Let me guess, a thousand years into the future?"

"Nope, you overshot by less than half a millennium. You're in the year 2881."

"Excuse me, doctor, but did you just say...Twenty-eight-eighty-one?"

Dr. Hull nodded and said, "Welcome to the twenty-ninth century, Marcus.
The more things change, the more they stay the same!"

It was several weeks before Marcus was allowed out of his hospital suite, having gone through an intense process of catching him up to speed as to what had been going on in the galaxy while he was in suspended animation. Marcus visited the gravesites of Ivanova, Delenn,
and the main memorial of the Rangers, of which he was one of the first Human members over six hundred years ago.

Dr. Fabian Bartez worked with him intensely to get him back into proper shape, both physically and mentally. It was necessary to prepare him for the information he was about to receive. "Sad to say, but Earth had a pretty bloody civil war about a century ago, and things have gone back to a medieval time. We've got Rangers on the ground there, but we have to be careful, because most of the survivors were those in rural areas, and they have turned their back on technology."

Marcus was shocked to see that Delenn and Ivanova had established an account in his name, in case he ever was awakened from his state. Marcus had planned to just go back into the Rangers Academy and get re-certified, and perhaps teach, but with his newfound wealth, he decided on a different course.

Draal, the Minbari who had taken control of the Great Machine, looked skeptically at Marcus after he had been informed about what the long-asleep Ranger had planned. "There's no guarantee that you'll even go back to the right time to find her."

Marcus was growing impatient, and practically begged him to allow his ship to pass through the rift. "Please, Drall. I have to at least try to find her."

Draal acquiesced and Marcus went through the rift, and eventually found the woman he loved, but in a roundabout way.

On board Babylon 4

August 11, 2377

5:45pm

Ivanova still could not believe her eyes and ears as she stood to the side of Marcus as he told his story. "And I came back as Valen was returning to Babylon 4 to live out his final years. It was here that we met the Legendora, and how we became involved with all of this."

Garibaldi asked his old friend, "How did you survive the time jump forward to our time? The first time you and I went into that rift was when B4 reappeared four years after it vanished, and we had to evacuate its crew. You later told Delenn and Ivanova that you'd die if you jumped forward again. So what's up?"

Valen, who, as the Human Jeffery Sinclair, was Garibaldi's best friend, looked at him and explained, "It was the Legendora who repaired the damage of the first time jump. They were the ones who helped me, along with Zathras, Catherine, and Marcus to come forward and across into another dimension. We had seen the attack coming through the Legendora's technology, and we knew we had to act. You can thank the Legendora for the new ships and new defense grid. Nice little battlewagon we have here, eh?"

"I'll say! This makes Babylon 5 look naked," joked Hollifield, who walked up and embraced his old friend.

Sheridan turned to Valen and asked, "So do the Legendora know what's coming next?"

"To a degree. It's not exact, you understand, but they are able to see converging lines of time where history turns, like a nexus. They're studying the data and they'll let us know what we need to do. I've known them for quite a while now, and have come to believe in their cause."

Sisko walked into the room, saying, "I'm sorry for the interruption, but we have a problem."

Infirmary

On board Babylon 4

Dr. Julian Bashir was scanning Odo over and over again, and still perplexed by the results. Odo clearly showed signs of exposure to the vacuum of space, but how he was alive was beyond him. Dr. Stephen Franklin was with him, and the two doctors had forged a strong working relationship in the short time they had known each other. They fed the results into Bashir's medical tricorder, which was linked to Babylon 4's computer to help in the diagnosis.

Franklin was the first to break the silence. "Well, he'll live, that's safe to say, and he's in relatively good condition, according to your data. Just some exhaustion and stress from the exposure. Him being a shape shifter probably helped in that, as a normal humanoid body would have been effected much quicker than he was."

Bashir nodded and went over to Odo, "Do you remember much of what happened to you, Odo?"

Odo, who had managed to have the strength to assume humanoid form, looked at him and said, "What I remember was watching the beams shoot down into the planet's surface, and feeling the heat and the rumble in the ground. One of my kind came up to me on the island and asked me what was happening, but before I could come up with anything, I saw a beam hit nearby and saw the blast wave heading towards us. Next thing I remember was being on board a ship with Sisko and Valen."

Kira Nurys stood beside Odo as he explained all of this. She looked at him and asked him gently, "So all of your kind are dead?"

Odo nodded his head, not saying a word. Stephen Ashcroft ran into the room and produced a data crystal, explaining, "This is the data we got from a probe we had in that general area. Dan Tanner helped me to download it to this crystal and we have a visual of the ships attacking the planet."

The data screen produced an image of the planet straight ahead, but the view shifted to a swarm of Jem'Hadar ships heading to the planet.
Straight behind them was an object so massive that it dwarfed the Founders' homeworld. Franklin immediately recognized it, "That's a planet killer, all right. Different, somehow, but the same class as the Shadow kind the Drakh almost used on our Earth and against Minbar."

Ashcroft nodded and said, "Similar but different, yes. We compared them to the readings we got from the Wildstar's encounter with the one that was headed towards Minbar, and Captain Gideon on the Excalibur sent over the information from the first attack that was launched against Earth." He punched up some data on the console, and the three planet killers were shown side by side. "Note the differences. My guess is that the one that attacked Odo's homeworld wasn't of Shadow design. If I had to guess, the Ragendora are behind this."

Valen's office

On board Babylon 4

9pm

"So, what do we do now," asked Hollifield. Valen looked at his old friend, remembering the year and a half they spent on Minbar acting in their roles as ambassador and deputy ambassador, respectively, while helping the Minbari reawaken the Rangers from the slumber the order had been under since the last Shadow war of a millennium ago. He said to him, "We must get all our ships to Iscandar and let the Legendora retrofit their technology onto them so that we can be better prepared to battle the Ragendora when they make their presence known to us. This is just their first move in this game, and we simply don't know what to expect next."

Hollifield looked around the room at those assembled and added, "I've recalled all the ships on standby in Babylon 5 orbit and they are making their way here as we speak. I'll be boarding the Freedom and heading back with the Wildstar and Yamato shortly. Hopefully the plan for the station will work, because we need those modifications if the Ragendora plan to attack it."

Derek Wildstar nodded, adding, "We'll do what we can to help. O'Brien, Dax, and Bashir will accompany us on the Yamato. Hopefully we can be there as soon as possible."

Sheridan interjected his thoughts, "Loughley isn't going to like this, and neither is Earthdome. Hope you have a good explanation for them,
Garrison."

Garrison looked at Sheridan and said, "Don't worry, I'll think of something."

Valen rose from his desk and addressed all those gathered in his office, noticing that he should have moved this meeting to the conference room, but realizing it was a bit too late for that. "I think we are ready to move. We'll prepare ourselves for the launch in two days' time. Since Genon will be going with you, he'll be able to help you get Babylon 5 jumped into the right place and time."

Delenn said, "I've always believed that faith manages, but I must admit that I cannot grasp how it can manage all of this."

Valen walked up to his old friend from his Human days, took her in his arms, and smiled down to her, saying, "All things are possible, Delenn. You just have to be willing to dare greatly to make them happen."

On board the Freedom

11:45pm

Hollifield and Captain Twanissa Hudson were in her quarters, eating a very late dinner, when the message arrived. It was Sheridan, "We're ready to proceed whenever you are, Captain, Mr. President."

Hudson looked at Hollifield, who said, "Good, Captain Hudson will have the Freedom head out as soon as you're ready. We were just getting ready to head to the bridge after we finished eating."

Sheridan nodded, "Yeah, I think we'd better get all the food and rest we can over the next forty-eight hours, because when we jump with Babylon 5, anything is gonna be possible, and we'd better be ready for it. Sheridan out"

The display went blank, and Hudson turned to Hollifield, saying, "I want you to know that, no matter how this turns out...I love you, Garrison."

Hollifield hugged her and rested his hand on the back of her head, looking into her eyes, "I love you too, Twanissa. If we get through this alive, we'll see how far we can go with this!" He leaned down and kissed her passionately, only breaking apart reluctantly moments later when the two of them knew they had to be on the bridge. There was a time and a place for everything, and their love would have to wait until matters were settled. When that would happen is anybody's guess.