Changed Circle
by Warringer
Chapter Twenty Seven
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President Mark Ryan sighed. This wasn't exactly what he had in mind, but it worked.
Attacks from the Minbari had stopped at the same time as Lexington had reported back to the Pentagon, that the leaders of the Minbari, the Gray Council wanted to talk face to face about peace.
That was about two weeks abo. Even if it failed, it had at least gotten some time for reinforcing the front line with new vessels, ready to commerce 'Operation Okinawa' in case the peace talks failed.
The problem was that there was no place that could have been used for the talks. The Edding system was compromised as meeting spot when the Centauri had turned up to destroy this chance for peace.
Oh, Ryan had had a talk over a Red Channel with Emperor Tuhan, but he claimed that he knew nothing about it and that, while the ships had belonged to the Refa family, had been reported as being abducted by Raiders.
Ryan knew it was Bullshit and Tuhan knew it was bullshit too. But it was exactly what Lord Refa had told the Emperor and there was nothing that pointed into another direction. Anyway, Mossad was already on the case, but they were under orders not to deal with anyone who may be involved in that.
Back to the present. They had been forced to look for a place to talk about the peace and the Foreign Office had come up with a system closer to Terran space. The Eridani system. Two suns orbiting each other, Euphrates and Tigris. Several planets one, Eridani III, with a hin atmosphere. A Battle Plate had been in the system for several week before the war to monitor strange occurrences on Eridani III, but before they found any clue, they had to retreat to enter front line service.
Now a small Terran fleet was floating close to Eridani III, waiting for the Minbari fleet to arrive. It was only four ships. Three Ticonderoga class Fast Attack Cruisers, including Lexington, on a request of the Minbari, and Air Force One the ship of all Presidents before him.
Sure, Air Force One wasn't a plane or a shuttle, neither was there a Terran Air Force anymore, but the name had stuck since the foundation of the Terran Union and the first use of a space ship for travel of the President.
Air Force One was refit civilian Aida class luxury cruiser, outfitted with the latest in communications technology, mounting one of the most powerful sensory and ECM suits after Battle Plates, but it all fit since there was enough space on the one kilometer long ship converted for use of just the President and his staff.
"Mr. President," a female voice said behind him and he turned to look at the holographic projection of a woman, several bands of alpha numeric data floating around her.
"What is it, Cortana," he asked his personal AI assistant who chuckled a bit in turn.
"Our guests have arrived, Sir. One of the ships classified as Black Star class, two Sharlins and four Tanashis."
Ryan frowned.
"It figured that the Minbari wouldn't come without a show of force."
Cortana chuckled again and gave him an evil grin.
"Do you think they know that we have Third Battle Squadron around Pillar of Autumn just a light minute out in interplanetary space under full EMCON?"
"I kind of doubt it."
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Samuel Dawson wasn't a happy camper. He hated what would happen in the near future. Mainly because he would do it. He hated something else even more. The fact that he was pressed to do it.
He knew that he would die when he did it, but he had to think about his family. If he didn't do it all of them would die.
He closed his eyes and sighed. He would never let that happen.
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Ryan looked at the holographic projection in front of him and at the six armed Minbari shuttles coming closer towards Air Force One. They were bringing the Gray Council on his ship, together with a good number of guards, Warriors according to intel and Lennon, who had negotiated this meeting with Major Sheridan.
Sheridan and his XO Rommel were already aboard Air Force One, as the Minbari had requested his presence during the peace negotiations.
Ryan was curious about the members of the Gray Council, especially this Dukhat. He seemed to be quite the charismatic leader. According to intel sources he had been in coma until recently and it was a testament to Mnbari medical technology that he was ready to get through this obviously stressful negotiations.
He looked back at Cortana, whose Avatar body was standing next to him, holographic projections of alphanumeric symbols floating around her. She obviously was one of the few AIs who wanted to be recognized as being an AI, whereas most AIs were posing as humans if they had an Avatar body.
"Do you really think that it would be a good idea?" he asked her finally.
"I think we all want them to see what they have done to Delphi and the other destroyed colonies," she said," Kind of like showing the Germans the KZs after WWII. They are going to know what they have done."
Ryan sighed. He had seen the images from the destroyed colonies. It was like watching the movies from Hiroshima and Nagasaki in color. Or the images from Sidney after Terrorists detonated a 500 kt nuke in the city in 2043.
Worse still was that he had nightmares about the images, of failing in his duty as President. But he knew that he hadn't failed. He and the whole Terran Union had been manipulated by the Shadows.
"Lets hope the vids have the same effect on the Minbari as they have on us."
"They will," Cortana said confidently," They will."