Chapter 60

Disturbing Domestic Tranquility

San Francisco, Earth, United Federation of Planets

December 23, 2377

12 noon

Morden walked around the city as if he were a native. It was laid out differently than the one he remembered visiting with his late wife before the birth of their daughter. The Federation's city by the bay had been affected by the same sort of massive earthquake that pretty much wiped out the one he knew of, but this city hadn't also suffered from the neo-Catholic purge of the late 2040s. He remembered hearing the old joke that the Catholic leity did more damage to the gays and lesbians living in the city than the earthquake did. He smiled at the thought, as he thoroughly enjoyed chaos.

He was one of the few who knew the great truths about Human religions: each was started out, with noble intentions, by those who did not know they were influenced by the Vorlons. Moses, Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammad,to name a few, thought they were prophets of God, when in fact they were mere messengers of the Vorlons and their desire for order. Through his association with the Shadows, he'd learned that the Jesus story had been played out on at least two hundred different alien civilizations over the years. Of course, the Shadows were there to throw their monkey wrenches into those plans. It was the Shadows who secretly influnced those who were behind the Inquizitions, and it was the Shadows that were behind the rise of religious fundamentalism in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, leading to neo-religious purges in such sinful hot beds as Amsterdam, Rio de Jaineiro, Las Vegas, New York, Los Angeles and, of course, San Francisco.

Eventually, those purges failed, as they were bound to do. To the Shadows, religion was a straight jacket that bound up the limitless potential of the other races. It was a fatal flaw, to them, for a planet's evolution. However, they weren't afraid to warp it and abuse it to their own ends. He remembered seeing something about how some of the televangelists of the late 20th century had once been very different, until they encountered the Shadows, posing as the voice of God.

His smile faded as he reflected upon the fact that Sheridan and Delenn had driven off the Shadows and the Vorlons from their own galaxy. He wasn't around to see it, though, as he had been beheaded by that bastard, Londo Mollari, just as the Vorlons were approaching to wipe out the Shadow influence on Centauri Prime with their own planet killer. He wondered why the Ragendora had somehow pulled him from death to serve their purposes, but whenever he reflected upon what Mollari did to him, his wonders vanished, and the rage returned.

To him, the Ragendora made the Shadows look like amateurs. He could see now that the Shadows flaw was that they were not as patient as they needed to be in their preparations to conquer. They thrived too much in chaos, and it blinded them to the reality that wars are won and lost before they're ever fought, because preparation is essential. That is why the South lost to the North in the first American Civil War, and why the Shadows lost to the Alliance of Light in the last Shadow war.

He'd already found out that the Ragendora were patient, and had been planning their attacks on their Legendoran ancestors and their allies for eons. When the chance came to serve them, he willingly signed up without hesistation. He found that the Ragendora had also pulled many of the old Shadow operatives back into duty for them, and he was, at this very moment, on his way to meet with some of them to execute their plans for this Earth. Instead of simply wiping out the place, the Ragendora had decided to work to cripple from within.

He opened the door to the home and quickly entered. On the third floor of the abode were twelve people he had personally hand-selected to do his bidding in this city, and he smiled as they has assembled the equipment they would need for what they were about to embark on. He scoffed at Starfleet Security, as they were obviously too lax for their own good. He had the weird thought of wishing that Michael Garibaldi were in charge of Starfleet Security, so as to make this all the more challenging.

"So have you placed the devices where we need them to be to do the most damage," asked Morden of a petite blonde sitting on the couch.

"Yes, Morden, we've spread them all over the city. When the time is right, they'll hit the Federation harder than the Borg or anybody else had ever thought possible," replied the blonde with relish in her voice.

Morden smiled and got on with the meeting. The next day, they bought mag-lev train tickets to New York, a journey that took a mere leisurely two days on this particular line.

The next day, as they were entering the station in Dallas, Texas, the rail line suddenly powered down. Fortunately for them, the train was stopping anyway, and inertia allowed them to pull in without problem. Morden and the rest of his group thought nothing of it as they got off and proceeded to a station restaurant to eat. He wasn't surprised to find that the partons and employees of the restaurant were not worrying about food at that moment.

"We've just received word that Starfleet Headquarters, as well as the entire Federation Council complex, have been destroyed in a series of thermonuclear explosions. The loss of life is catastrophic, and exact numbers of those lost may never be fully known.," said one reporter on one of the video news channels. Those in the room were in tears and in stunned silence. Maggie, the blond who had answered Morden's question in the now-vaporized townhouse, said musingly, "If I had to guess, I think the terrorists used fusion bombs."

Morden nodded his head and said, "You may be right."

DisneyWorld

Orlando, Florida

June 14, 2271 11pm

Vice President Fabiana Santos was just wrapping up her address to the masses in front of the American exhibition in the World Showcase section of the ancient EPCOT themepark when the bullet smacked into her chest. The crowd gasped as the report from the rifle raced by the crowd, and the billowing blossom of red on Santos' chest made a mess of her white linen blouse. She fell hard onto the platform, never knowing what hit her. They rushed her to a nearby medlab unit, but it was too late. She had died as soon as she had been hit.

President Hollifield hurried back to EarthDome to get a handle on the situation, as well as make sure that the Earth Senate didn't appoint someone he didn't want as his successor. His shuttle was escorted down from space by two entire squadrons of Thunderbolts, and the entire Geneva spaceport was closed down to allow the president to get back to EarthDome safely.

He entered the Cabinet room without ceremony and got right down to business. "Ok, all I want to know is what happened and how a shooter could have gotten into that theme park. Anybody have any answers for me?"

His Attorney General, a fussy Norweigen named Olaf Shon, spoke up. "The EAI (Earth Alliance Intelligence) is conducting the investigation and should have a report finished within a few days. But, from what I can tell, the bullet that struck the vice president came from virtually close range!"

"That's impossible! No one had a rifle within ten thousand meters of the venue. I know, because we scanned the area. You tell me of a rifle that can hit a target like that from THAT far away," said General Penny Baumgartner, whose precise Oxford accent had a keen edge to it.

Hollifield slammed his fist on the table and yelled, "ENOUGH! I will not let this spin out of control into some sort of blame game. Now, I want answers and I want them in 48 hours, or I swear to God somebody's heads will roll because of this. Get on it and I don't want to hear from any of you until you have some answers. Dismissed!"
The various ministers and their aides quickly made their way out of the room, with Baumgartner shutting the door behind her. He leaned back in the chair and asked aloud, "So what do your sensors tell you?"

A technomage named Astrud revealed himself at the same time as Alwyn did. Astrud was an outcast from the technomages, and a longtime friend of Alwyn's and Hollifield's. "I sensed this energy pattern from roughly two hundred meters in front of the platform." She produced a image in three dimensions in the palm of her hands.

Alwyn's face fell as he said, "Good Lord! That looks like a transporter signal."

Hollifield leaned back in his chair and hit a communications link. "Get me Dan Tanner, and tell him to meet me in my office ASAP. Tell him we have a new problem to worry about."

Astrud nodded and said, "My condolences, Mr. President."

Hollifield looked at the both of them and sighed. "Looks like we've just had a whole new element introduced into this war."