Chapter 91

Babylon Rising

Babylon 5 Space Station

Orbiting Episilon Eridani 3

August 6, 2271

The Vorlons and Shadows had run off the Ragendoran forces and guarded the space around the station as the Legendoran forces assisted their allies to the station for repairs. Captain Lochley was still dealing with the battle going on aboard her station, but she was able to breath a little sigh of relief as Earthforce Marine transports came through the jumpgate and began to dock with the station.

She was hailed by one of the Vorlon ships and she answered it. Instead of seeing an alien in an encounter suit, she saw Zoë on the video display screen.

"Hello, Lizzie," said Zoë, and Lochley's voice caught in her throat as she held down a sob.

Zoë and Lizzie had run away from home, making it to the rough back streets of Washington, DC. They were hooked on booze and drugs, and they were wallowing in the bad crowd that each of their parents had warned them against. Lizzie's mom had died not long before all this, and the pain of the loss had slammed an emotional door between father and daughter. So she had rebelled and this was the result: a young woman who was a promising student had been reduced to running around the streets of the former capital of the old "free world" looking for scraps of food as well as money for drugs and booze.

Lochley shook her head hard and fought the memory away. She focused and said, "Hello, Zoë. Tell me, why are the Vorlons and the Shadows here?"

Zoë replied, "They have settled their differences out in the space between galaxies, and they have come here at the request of the Legendora. They said that they would give you control of the galaxy, and they intend to protect you. Once we're done, we'll once again journey past the Rim."

"Tell them, thank you!"

"They know. And, Lizzie, it's good to see you again!"

"You too, Zoë!" Lochley logged off from the call, brushed away the tears, and settled herself. Then came her worst fear.

"Captain! The Jem'Hadar are trying to breach the reactor! Their attack cruisers are on a collision course with it!"

All the Jem'Hadar cruisers began to make a suicide run at the back end of the station, but the Vorlons and the Shadows cut them down one by one. None of the ships made it to the core, and the Jem'Hadar soldiers inside the station began to feel the trap beginning to close around them.

Lochley called into Knox and asked, "What's your position,"

"Captain, we're driving them towards the back of the station. Look, I have an idea. If we can corral them into the atmosphere monitoring station, can we drop pressure doors on them and expose them to space?"

"I think so. Keep driving them back and I'll get my techs to work on it for you."

"Make it fast, Captain, because the closer we get to the end of the station, the more likely we'll have to deal with them in a last stand,
and I don't think they'll go down gracefully!"

"Understood, Sergeant Knox. We'll get back to you ASAP!"

Knox and his troops fought hard, in grueling level-to-level battles that made the urban combat drills he went through back in basic training look like child's play. He'd already been slightly wounded by blasts of phasers coming too close to him. His gal, Jean Laurence, was also banged up herself, but she still held herself tall and drove herself as hard as he was doing. She was dirty, her uniform was torn and filthy, and she smelled like she hadn't had a bath since last Christmas, but she looked like the hottest woman in the universe to him at that moment.

"What the hell do you think your doing ogling me, Knox? Let's go," she said to him, elbowing him in the stomach after she dragged him up from their break. He smiled and said, "I'll ogle whoever the hell I want, you bitch, and you can't stop me!"

She turned back to him and smiled and said, "Well, you sorry ass prick, I'll just have to kick you in the balls for that!" They looked at each other and laughed out loud, as their troops looked at them in bafflement.

They got serious. "Ready to raise hell on some Jem'Hadar, babe," Knox said with a wink.

Laurence winked back and replied, "After you, sweet cheeks!"

They drove the Jem'Hadar back with furious intensity. Despite being genetically created to be superior to humans, the Jem'Hadar hadn't counted on the human heart and its power, and they were finding that they were no match for it.

The Jem'Hadar retreated to a large warehouse just inside the hull, where they had breached to get into the station. Little did they know, but they were heading straight into a trap. The last of them entered into the warehouse and shut the pressure door. Knox smiled and personally sealed it shut. "Lochley, they're inside. Give us thirty seconds to get the hell out of here, then let them eat vacuum!"

"You've got it, Chief," said Lochley, who turned to a tech. "Blow open space doors in thirty seconds from my mark...Mark!"

Knox heard her say that over the link and he called out to his troops. "Pull back quick! She's gonna blow!" They laughed as they hustled and ran to put as much space between them and the warehouse, just in case the pressure doors were breached.

The Jem'hadar soldiers were in position for an attack when a sudden rush of wind came over them. They hadn't planned on this, and they were without any kind of gear to protect them from the vacuum of space. Within four minutes, all of the soldiers were dead.

Hours later, after the battle had ended, Lochley joined her security chief Zach Allen in the warehouse as officers were clearing out the bodies. "Damn, you know you'd think you'd see it all with all the years I've pulled here.," said Allen.

"Tell me about it! This place is a magnet for trouble," Lochley replied. "But we survived, after a fashion."

In his billet, Knox and Laurence were making passionate love to each other. Their billet mates had scrammed for the night, heading out into the station to party. As she was riding Knox, she said to him, "Ain't nothin' hotter than screwin' after puttin' your life on the line, eh babe?"

Knox pulled her down to kiss her and said, "Nope, nothin' hotter than that!" They made love late into the night, not caring if anybody came into their billet.