Changed Circle
by Warringer
Chapter Fifteen
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John Sheridan stared at the holo screen in front of him. He knew that he had to get up to date, but this was a little too much.
"Shadows?" he asked out loud and looked around in the mess room.
There was quite an uproar in the crew and Sheridan understood all to good why.
The Terran Union had been manipulated, for about ten years and the attack of the AEGIS system on the Minbari was just the tip of the iceberg. Numerous things had been manipulated by them through humans they had controlled. The head of the CIA only being the most powerful.
Murmurs went through the room as a list with names appeared on the screen and Sheridan cursed. He couldn't believe that he had voted for one of the Senators who where controlled by the Shadows. The other one on the other side, Clark wasn't all that surprising.
The people who where imprisoned and had not been killed by the Shadows after the capture of Morden and Clark, were now on trial for high treason. And Sheridan believed that the jury would judge them guilty. And than they would be dead, since high treason was a crime worth death penalty.
Sheridan would be glad if he could push them through an airlock.
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"So," Sean McMichaels, the new director of the CIA said as he looked over the list of people.
"This will put a serious dampener to the Agency for a long time," the Vice Director of Operations said," Most of those used to be our best people."
McMichaels nodded. Ten years of Shadow influence on the CIA where taking their toll. A good portion of all CIA offices had been influenced by the Shadows directly and the operatives had to be removed from their posts. Again he was glad that he never had much to do with Mordan directly or he would be on the list.
"Most of them will be put on trial for treason, some of them will only be put on posts on Abbai or other worlds without real interest for us."
McMichaels nodded again.
"What about those excavations Mordan tried to push on Mars and Europa?"
The Vice Director shuffled through his papers than looked up at McMichaels.
"From what we understand at the moment, something is buried there. Something that is related to the Shadows."
McMichaels leaned back. He thought for several moments before looking at the other man.
"We are going to do these excavations. We need intel on the Shadows, but I want AIs on the job. They are less likely to be influenced by whatever is buried there."
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Delenn wasn't happy. She was still hurt and the decision of the Gray Council wasn't something she like either.
An attack directly on Earth. She could understand the decision, but there where already to many deaths on both sides and only the Religious Caste seemed to understand that the Terran attack on Minbar only proved how vulnerable they where in the case of a Shadow attack of the upcoming war.
And Minbar didn't need the deaths of thousands of Warriors in this war. They were all needed in the next Great War. Like the ships.d
She also remembered the last words Dukhat said before the attack of the Terran on the Valen'sha.
"The humans are needed," he had said.
Another thing came to her mind. The Terran could have destroyed the Valen'sha if they had wanted to, but they didn't. Instead they had fled the scene. Something about that didn't add up.
"We need peace," she muttered and grit her teeth.
And she needed to meet with her old friend first and than look for Dukhat.
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Neroon stared out into the swirls of jump space, again. His ship had just barley gotten away from that accursed place of their defeat and that only barley. It had all been a big trap.
The humans had lured the fleet to that cursed system with a few small ships and than sprung the trap by throwing more than a thousand ships at them. They had fought like warriors during the battle, but they still had resorted to a cowardly trap.
His ship had survived the battle unscratched and now he was part of the fleet that had set out for Earth. The planet would be destroyed, completely.
Three hundred Sharlins and nearly a thousand Tanashi would make sure of that. The humans would pay for the defeat and after the destruction of Earth the rest of the Terran Union would be destroyed and the Dilgar eliminated.
None of them should be allowed to exist anymore. They where to dangerous and too chaotic for the forces of light.
Neroon turned around and left the window, heading towards the bridge of the ship.