Part Nine
"Guns don't kill People Apes With guns Kill People"

Omega Dock 6
Beta Durani System
Two days later

The pressurised dock stood almost empty The corvette and the Battle cruiser both sat at opposite ends of the mile and a half long by mile wide dry-dock. Like all construction areas the base had, this dock worked in zero gravity allowing the structural members of each and every ship to be pulled into place easily, much more so than on a planetary surface.

At this moment the Achilles sat docked to a pair of large cranes, this had allowed the crew of the Battle cruiser to do a shirtsleeve inspection of the damage to their ship. The damage was as bad as believed with much of the outer hull armour seared away by the powerful explosion that had sent them spinning into space.

What was worse is that some hull damage had not been found the first time around, the trip through hyperspace and its unpredictable tidal forces had caused cracks and tears to appear in areas that had been thought to be intact. The vessel was a mess and nothing short of extended dockyard time would do anything to fix her, the loss of many of the weapons and defensive abilities of the Achilles as well as damage to the Hyperspace Window Generator (or HWG) meant that she was not going anywhere.

"Major Davis."

"Colonel good to see you again."

"Likewise, your commanding officer wishes to see us both as soon as possible in her quarters aboard Habitat One."

"Any idea why?"

"No I don't."

"GOT YOU, YOU BASTARD!" a voice shouted from the other side of the Achilles, there a small group of ship's crew were all but dancing a jig for some reason.

"Thomson what's going on?" Davis shouted to the head of the team.

"Sir, the main weapon's back online the damage is repaired and she's ready to go, we need to recalibrate the targeting systems but once that's done we'll be back in business."

"Good work. Inform the Chief and then close up the holes in the casing."

"Aye, Sir."

Turning back to the attractive colonel Davis simply said, "lead the way."

The Earthforce Colonel and Air Force Major floated towards the multiple small airlocks that studded the port side of the dry-dock, attached to each were shuttles and construction pods, some older types and some the newer Construction Fury class pods. It was the former of these pods that the two officers pulled themselves into, the pod was big enough for two people and meant they could get to and from the habitat quickly without the need of the larger shuttles.

Habitat one was the command hub of Beta Durani Station, the four thousand men and women aboard were the command and service personnel for fleet operations and system defence. It's thicker armour and heavier weapons made it a far more difficult target than the secondary station or indeed many of the stations in that section of the Alliance. Unfortunately it was well known to everyone in the system that is the Minbari came en masse not even the comprehensive station defences could stop the incoming ships, even if it could take a good few with it.

Close up, the station looked like a spinning wheel theorised by a 20th century scientist as being the best idea for a gravitational habitat in space, the wheel shape also gave excellent overlapping fields of fire for the pulse and plasma weapons that dotted the surface of the station, the interceptors and missile weapons while not a plentiful as the heavy energy weapons were also evident in all sections of the construct.

As the fury come up close three dual pulse cannons locked onto their position and requested confirmation of their orders, from inside the Colonel- former CO of the DSR point was already sending the required information to the station. Seconds later, the pulse cannons turned away back to their sentry points allowing the small construction pod access to the station.

Pulling around the station they settled into the positive gravity of the bay and clambered out of the pod, a group of technicians taking control of the small craft for maintenance and refuelling.

"Major Davis, Colonel Travmakov, I'm Commander Edward Brown, XO of this station. Please follow me. The rest of the participants are awaiting you in the main command briefing room."

A short stocky Australian approached them. "What's going on Commander, we were asked to come here but we've not been told anything about this meeting."

"I'm afraid outside of the briefing room that is classified, not even I know what's going on. Sorry, Sir."

It took time for the three of them to make their way to the depths of the station to the command hub's tactical control room which at the moment as the most classified and secure room on the base was being used as the meeting room to convene the most important gathering the Beta Durani's history.

Inside the room stood a half dozen men and women of the differing commands, members of the three military branches of Earthforce, the Fleet commander for the immediate sector, the R&D commander for the base and lastly the Commanding officer of the Achilles Colonel Taylor.

"Major."

"Colonel, what's going on?"

A tall portly man stood from his sitting position at the head of the table to address the people in the room. He was dressed in the Brown uniform of the Earthforce Ground Warfare Operations Division otherwise known as the GroPos or 'GroundPounders'.

"Ladies and gentlemen please be seated, this room is now sealed against all known surveillance and information gathering technologies. This meeting is also under the auspices of wartime confidentiality and as such any information given by any person in this room to any secondary agency will result in immediate execution under the treason laws of 2232." General Franklin told the assembled officers. "Furthermore on Earthdome orders, no records will be made of this meeting or anything about what transpires in the next few days involving the One Delta Nine and anything to do with it."

Older, stately women spoke up her voice tinged with a south English accent almost unrecognisable under the clipped martial tones "Thank you General, Colonel Taylor, Major Davis my belated welcome to Beta Durani. I am General Karen Fleming of Earthforce Naval command and head of fleet operations for the Durani system and the immediate surrounding sector."

She sat back down in her seat and proceeded to get the meeting underway.
"As you know the Alliance has it's back to the wall. In the last few months Minbari forces have annihilated entire colonies and wiped out most of our forward fleets and defence forces. Indeed the DSR posts are some of the last long range stations we have and now it seems they have been discovered with the destruction of post four two days ago.

"We cannot win this war. The Minbari outnumber, outgun and outrange everything we've got. The few ships we've destroyed have been at the loss of five to one in combat, fighter losses are worse, we have maybe a year, a year and a half before the Minbari come knocking on Earth's door."

A third man, in the blue of fleet command but with the insignia of Starfighter command spoke up. "Colonel, we are requesting your help."

"Our help, we're only one ship with half a squadron of fighters. I doubt we could do much."

"It's not so much your ships colonel, although those Interceptors you have are damn good. It's more what of your ship represents."

"Such as?"

"That ship is one of the smallest capital ships I have ever seen, yet by all accounts it is capable of taking out any ship in known space Your ship destroyed eight Minbari ships in only a few days, that's more than any of our fleets have ever done without taking immense damage and losses."

"General, where we are from we need assistance to fight an enemy much more deadly than the Minbari could ever be. That's the only reason we even have the Prometheus Class Battlecruisers."

"What kind of assistance?"

"That's well… classified information General."

"But surely you would not refuse us help with the entire human race on the line."

"General, we've talked to the Minbari and I agree with you." Davis Said. "But our orders are signed by our Commander In Chief and as such is under strict confidentiality. We are not authorised to give out certain information about our ships or its technology."

"Even if it would save the human race."

"General, from what I can see here if we give you this technology it will put you as far above the Minbari as they are to you at this moment."

"Yes."

"But would it stop with you holding the line against Minbari incursions, will you go on to destroy every Minbari ship and planet in revenge, and then what after that you take on the other races, just annex or destroy those who get in the way? Ladies and gentlemen this war in unjust and we will help you at this moment to halt this war, but we will not in good conscience allow you access to our defensive technologies."

The officers around the table looked decidedly angry at the presumption of this 'Major' that they would do anything more than protect themselves.

"However, we will share some small parts of our technology. The systems created by us without assistance, our sensor systems and railgun technologies are both in advance of basic Earth Alliance technology. Both are easily adaptable to your tech base and will allow you to increase the defensive and offensive systems on your warships."

"Antifighter equipment and sensors are all well and good Major," the General said. "But the armour and shielding your ship has as well as those incredible nukes could shorten this war by months if not years."

"General, the technology is not ours to give and we will not break the treaty with our allies or break our orders. We will assist to bring this war to an end but that is it, we will be attempting to find a way home as soon as this war closes."

"That's not…"

"I'm sorry General but that is all we can do, the systems will help you to combat the Minbari but making you a power that could steamroll over everyone in this immediate area of the galaxy is not something we can do in good faith."

"But…"

"General, please that's enough." The Head of the station said, "There is nothing that will change you mind into giving us your defensive technologies."

"I'm afraid not, classifications mean as much to our Military as it does to yours," Taylor spoke up. "I'm well aware of the Minbari and their 'Holy War' and we can help you to make peace or at least to hold the Minbari back until they see sense. Railguns, ECM, our sensors and possibly a copy of our hyperdrive and Sublight systems. All were created by our own military using reverse engineering of enemy systems, hence most can and will be exchanged for repairs, provisions and equipment. But that is it."

"Thank you for your candor Colonel."

"I'm sorry we can't be of more help."

"Thank you anyway."

"We need to return to the Achilles to oversee the repairs and to copy the require systems Data for you to work with."

"Thank you, the guards will show you to a shuttle."

The two officers left the room, the Earthforce officers were by and large disappointed, angry and bewildered by the short meeting between the two sides. The fact that this ship of humans were refusing to shared their technologies with the humans of the Earth Alliance was in their eyes short sighted and unfair.

These people had the ability to change the face of the war overnight and now refused to do so by claiming that they would use these new systems to remove anyone that got in their way.

"Bastards."

"Calm down, Franklin."

"The damned Minbari are coming closer and killing every human that they come into contact with and they sit there with the powerful ship and refuse to give us what we need."

"Franklin you know as much as anyone what classifications mean, they cannot give us their most powerful systems because they are under orders not to, the USAF may not exist here anymore but they believe that their Oaths are valid. We have no jurisdiction with them in any way."

"Earthdome will not like this."

"For now all we can do is hope the systems we do receive can help us turn this around for all our sakes."

EarthDome
Geneva
One Hour later

It had only taken a few minutes for the information gathered from the meeting to make it back to the commanders at Earthdome, the predictable response had indeed been one of shock and anger across the board. The Generals were angry that their best chance to end this war was being held back, even more so were some of the senators of the Earth Alliance Government. Indeed, like the military they believed they needed whatever they could get whatever the cost to end this war.

"What the hell do you mean we won't receive the shield tech." The Senator shouted at General Leftcourt

"The commanding officers of the Achilles refuse to allow their most classified technologies to fall into our hands, they believe that we cannot be trusted with said tech because of the war footing we are on. The FACT is we believe that they are afraid that we will not stop with the Minbari and the alliance will continue to expand no matter what happens."

"They are scared alright, scared that once we have their secrets that we will not have any need for them. Very well leave them be for now we'll have to try something else to get hold of their precious shielding tech."

"Yes Sir."

"That will be all General."

"Yes Senator, Clark."