Changed Circle
by Warringer
Chapter Twenty Four
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Lennon's mind was still racing as he entered a room Sheridan had called 'Briefing Room'. He had just witnessed the destruction of a Centauri force by a single Terran warship, while he had been aboard said Terran warship.
The Centauri had been second only to the Minbari technology wise and this single Terran cruiser had 'bitchslapped' the Centauri and destroyed two Primus and nine Vorchan. If someone had told him that a Terran cruiser, who was more than out massed and out gunned was able to do so before today, he had thought that the one had been mad. But now he wasn't really all that sure if he hadn't gone mad.
"'Always out numbered. Never out gunned,'" he muttered, remembering a quote a Marine had used.
"What?" Sheridan asked and Lennon blinked a few times before coming back to the present.
"Sorry," Lennon said and sighed," I was thinking."
His look went towards G'Kar, who was ginning like a mad man. Not really a surprise, considering that he had just witnessed the destruction of a Centauri force.
"I really need to speak to President Ryan again," G'Kar muttered," The Narn Regime could really need such weapons."
Lennon twitched a bit. Of cause the Narn would like to get their hand on these weapons. That way they could deal with the Centauri once and for all. Or at least not fear that the Centuari came back in force anymore.
"Please sit down," Sheridan said after a moment and gestured to two of the seats in the room.
Lennon sat down first, as he needed to sit down, while his mind tried to wrap itself around all what he had seen. Not just the defeat of the Centauri, with only little damage to Lexington, but the fact that this ship had landed on the surface of a planet and launched back into space in less then two minutes. The proclaimed use of forcefields, the excessive use of holographic projections almost everywhere. Not to mention the fact that his shuttle had never even seen Lexington, while she was hidden beneath a holographic projection.
The humans were more than they appeared to be at the first glance. They had advanced faster in technology than every race before them and Lennon somehow knew that the hadn't stolen this technologies or found it in old ruins or something like that. The way the humans treated the technology, they had to be the ones who developed it in the first place.
"Okay," Sheridan said and broke Lennon's string of thoughts," lets get back to business."
"Yes," Lennon said and sighed," It would be the best."
He really needed to make this peace. After the display a few minutes ago against the Centauri he wasn't sure if the Warriors believe in a victory over the Terran Union was something they could realize. Not with the fall of the Protectorate and the Battles of Zendamor and Earth to show that the Minbari could be defeated by someone else than the Shadows.
For the first time since he had heard and read the letters from Valen, he believed in them. The Minbari needed the humans to win the next war against the Darkness.
"First," Lennon said and sighed again," I would like to know why you opened fire at the Valen'sha."
He saw a brief flash of pain going over Rommel's face. The strange human had been in the Briefing room before they had entered it and it was a bit strange that the Executive Officer hadn't been on the bridge during the fight against the Centauri.
"It was a bug," Rommel said and also sighed.
Lennon blinked. He didn't understand how an insect that caused a ship to fire at another.
"A bug? An insect?"
Rommel shook his head.
"No. A bug is an error in a computer program. There was an error in the AEGIS Fire Control System of the Von Braun. The ship had went to yellow alert before the meeting and combined with the unique way of scanning used by your ship, the Valen'sha, the error came to the front, causing the AEGIS System to designate the ship as enemy and go into Armageddon Self Defense Mode."
Lennon stared at Rommel, unable to fully understand it.
"An error in a computer system?"
"Our weapons systems are more dependent on computer control than those of other races. And our computers are more closely liked with each other."
That Lennon could understand. And again it showed him how much even he ad underestimated the humans.
"But," Sheridan said," The error was placed there during the last refit on Von Braun."
"Placed there?" Lennon echoed again.
"Yes," Rommel continued for Sheridan," The head of one of our intelligence agencies was under influence of a foreign force and that force wanted to play the humans and Minbari against each other, so that we would destroy each other."
Lennon stared at Rommel again.
"Who would do something like that?"
Lennon knew the answer to his own question, but he prayed that the answer wouldn't be the one he dreaded.
"They call themselves 'Shadows'," Rommel said and Lennon slumped fully into his seat.
His worst fears had just been confirmed. The Shadows were back. And they were already playing with the Younger Races.