Thirteen

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Shutting Down The Shelter

Twenty-five years. The station had lasted twenty-five long, hard years. Years which saw the galaxy go through the most traumatic and dramatic changes in its history. Years that saw friends and enemies fight and die. In this short amount of time, a relative eye blink in the life of the universe, the galaxy had been changed forever.

But it was soon to be over. Garrison Hollifield, president of the Earth Alliance, had fought hard to keep the dream of his mentor, Luis Santiago, alive, but the end of the line had been reached. The Earth Senate was about to bring up shutting down the station again in budget negotiations, and he didn't think he had the votes to keep his veto from being overturned. He knew that the fight was over, and that the station would be decommissioned.

However, the mark of a great politician is the ability to negotiate from a position where you don't have much, if any, leverage. So, in the spring of 2081, his aides discussed with aides of prominent senators about what he could get in return for ending his long-standing opposition to the decommissioning. He knew he had to do something to help find a new home for the Colonials, so he put together a proposition to do just that.

In it, a secret base would be set up at Kobol to assist the Colonials in settling the planet. Earthforce would help them build a colony and help them maintain it. In exchange, Roslin and Zarek had agreed to allow the Colonies to become an independent member of the Earth Alliance, but with much greater control of its own internal affairs. Shipyards would be built there, and a heavy and constant Earthforce presence would be maintained there. The Colonial fleet would still be utilized, and Admiral Adama would be in control of it.

The date was March 8, 2081. Hollifield would have rather signed the bill in private, but even his own party wanted him to do it in public, to give the public the chance to honor the station and its mission. The signing would be held in the Robinson room, a huge expanse that was similar to the East room of the White House in Washington. There, members of the senate as well other high-ranking officials from political parties were assembled to witness the beginning of an end of an era. Hollifield came into the room to a standing ovation and it continued as he stood behind the lectern and prepared to speak.

His eyes found American Senator Clarissa Cally, his likely opponent in the next presidential election in two years. She sat on the first row, beside the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Earth Senate, smiling like she was a shark looking at a bleeding corpse that it could devour. He glared at her, thinking that she'd be in for a surprise if she thought she could take him easily.

He turned away from her and focused on the floating camera bots that were recording the events of this day and sending the all though the Earth Alliance. He activated his microphone and began to speak as the applause ended.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is a hard thing for me to do. As you all know, Babylon 5 was the vision of our late president, Luis Santiago, and I have always believed that the station was vital to keeping the peace in our galaxy as well as being a key location for interstellar relations. However, the reality is that a lot of the station's functions are now redundant. The Interstellar Alliance has taken up the mission that the station was charged with, and the sad fact is that hardly anyone goes there anymore, despite our best attempts to attract investment and development there.

"So it is with heavy heart that I sign this bill. Maybe some of you just consider it a place, some gigantic tin can spinning around in space. You'd be wrong, because that five mile long hunk of metal is a living being, and it has done so much to foster the peace and prosperity that not only ourselves, but the entire galaxy now enjoys. It was the focal point of so many hopes and dreams in such a short span of time, but now that has shifted to Tuzinor on the Minbari homeworld.

"Babylon 5 will be remembered for bringing together warring races and helping them find common ground to allow them to make peace with one another. It will be remembered for being the headquarters of the Army of Light that won the Shadow War, as well as helping defeat the brutal regime of President Clark. It was essential in the events of the Telepath War as well as the Drakh Plague. Now, though, its time of service has ended, and we shall send her off to her resting place."

He sat down at the desk where the bill was lying. It was inside a synth leather binder, and as he opened it, he saw the line in which he was expected to affix his signature. Hollifield took up the pen lying next to it and signed it, feeling shameful and guilty as he did it. He asked the spirit of his late mentor to forgive him for this as the crowd applauded again as he shut the binder and placed the pen down beside it.

As the senators and other officials went to the various media representatives to pay tribute to the soon-to-be demolished station, Hollifield retreated back to his office, not wanting to show the reporters what he was really thinking. As he walked inside, Sheridan, Garibaldi, Franklin, Delenn and Ivanova were waiting for him. They looked at him and he could barely meet their eyes.

"I'm sorry. I wished I could have saved her, but…" Hollifield said solemnly.

"It's all right, Garrison. You did the best you could. You held out longer than I dared hope." Sheridan said as Hollifield walked around them and sat down behind his desk.

"John's right, Garrison. The station has served its purpose. As much as it pains my heart to see it go, it's time has come." Delenn added.

"Fitting, in a way." Sheridan said, and Hollifield caught the reaction on Delenn's face when he said it. She knew that her husband didn't have much longer to go now. Her face looked as if someone had walked over her grave, and he could tell she was barely holding back tears.

"Indeed. But we still have work to do, though. Resettling the Colonials won't be easy, especially since there may still be hostile forces on Kobol." Hollifield said, changing the subject.

"We're dispatching the 201st and 234th Expeditionary forces, as well as other elements to Kobol to prepare for the resettlement. We're looking for any Cylon Centurions as this time, but we've been unable to find them so far." Ivanova added.

"Doesn't mean that they aren't there. We'll need to search every inch of the surface to be secure the planet." Garibaldi added.

"We'll just have to do that then. We don't have much choice, do we?" Hollifield added.

The resettlement held off the inevitable for a while longer, as it would take several months before they were all off the station. Once that was done, it would be a few more to shut down the station and prepare it for decommissioning. By the end of the year, though, Babylon 5 would only be a memory, as the station itself was scheduled for destruction in mid-December.

Roslin took the news in stride. She knew it was coming, and she had agreed that Kobol was the best place to resettle the Colonials. They would go over in Earth transports, which were more capable of a movement of this many people over a short period of time. It would also enable them to use hyperspace to travel to Kobol, and to be protected by Earthforce ships, which would escort the ships along the way.

The Quorum of Twelve could have opposed the move, but by a unanimous vote, decided not to do so. As Dee Dualla put it, Babylon 5 wasn't their home, just a place to stay until they were ready to move to a new homeworld. Roslin and the others tended to agree, but it felt wrong to the President of the Colonies for this place to be shut down.

She sat in the chambers where once the Babylon 5 Advisory Council met, but now held the meetings of the Quorum. The session had adjourned some time ago, but she had stayed behind, along with the vice-president, Admiral Adama, and Representative Dualla.

"Damned shame." Zarek mused.

"We don't agree on much, Mr. Vice-President, but on that, I am in total agreement with you." Adama said, and Zarek nodded.

"When will we be sending a team to Kobol?" Dualla asked.

"In the next few weeks. I'm going to ask for Starbuck and Helo to help us out. It'd be nice to have them back with us, if only for a while." Adama said.

Roslin smiled and added, "I'll be traveling to Earth soon to discuss all of this. Dee, you're welcome to come and help out, if you'd like."

Dualla smiled beamingly and said, "Thank you Madam President!"

Roslin nodded, then said. "It'll be nice to get under sky again. To feel the rain on my face."

"It's going to be tough, though. Even with the help of the Earthers, it's going to take a lot of work to build up the city. But I am looking forward to it. To live where the Gods once resided!" Zarek mused.

"Never thought you were the sentimental type." Adama said.

"That's because you don't know me that well, Admiral." Zarek said without any heat.

The Colonials were, for the most part, excited to be heading to Kobol, but a great many of them wished that the station could be salvaged. Several of them formed a "Save Babylon 5" committee, and pleaded with the admiral to find some way to move the station to Kobol, but he gently let them down, calmly explaining that the move would be difficult at best, and there was no guarantee that they could pull off moving something this massive several light years away.

Galactica soon departed with several Earthforce ships for Kobol to help set up the ground team to built the temporary colony that would house the Colonists as the permanent settlement was being built beside the City of the Gods. The Forum would be rebuilt to house the Quorum as well as the Colonial government, and the Opera House would also be rebuilt, but not on their original locations. The City of the Gods itself would remain in ruins, a monument to those who had left this place so long ago.

In addition to the settlement, a major spaceport would be built near it, which would be maintained by the Ranger compound that would be built there. It would house the liaison offices of the Earth Alliance as well as the Interstellar Alliance. Also, it would help the new colony with establishing commerce, which would be vital to the long-term survival of their new home.

The transports soon arrived, and the first of the Colonials began the process of moving to their new home. As Adama ordered his ship to jump to Kobol, he looked back through the newly installed video monitor at the station that had been his home for the last few months, and he was struck by sadness as he thought of Saul. He wondered for a moment what his former executive officer would think of this move. Much had changed since they had arrived here months before, and, as it would inevitably happen, much more would change once they arrived at their new home.

Roslin was staying behind for now at the station. There was still much to be worked out between the Colonies, the Earth Alliance, and the Interstellar Alliance. Resettlement wasn't the only thing on their minds, as Adama well knew. The other major item on the agenda was the inevitable next step: the retaking of the Colonies from the Cylons. Kobol would play a key role in this, especially with the shipyards being built in orbit above the planet. Adama very much looked forward to working with the design teams, as he knew it wouldn't be long before they would be in use.

They jumped into space around Kobol, and they were met by a fleet of Earthforce ships, including three Explorer class ships: the Magellan, the Cortez, and the Aldrin. Civilian ships were also in orbit, which housed the contractors that would help the Colonials build their new settlement. Adama smiled when he spotted the Whitestars, which he knew were under the command of Starbuck, who was like a daughter to him. The Colonial Rangers would have a lot of work in establishing their new home, as well as securing it.

Adama boarded a Raptor and flew down to the surface of the planet, followed by a shuttle from Starbuck's Whitestar. They landed close to where the Raptor that crashed almost a year ago, and Adama walked off the shuttle, breathing in the moist air of the planet. Starbuck's shuttle landed nearby, and she along with the others walked over to the Raptor.

"What are your orders, sir?" Starbuck asked when they arrived.

Adama looked around and simply said, "Let's get to work!"