Chapter 12
Choices: Daniel and Delenn
The more Captain Adams saw of the scans of the surrounding sectors and the information provided by the crew of the Yeager, the less he liked and the more confused he became. But they had to do something. The Captain gave the order and they had jumped into normal space after they confirmed that the readings of the mammoth space ship in front of them, was indeed an Earth cruiser, in fact was one of several this deep in space. Nothing in the United Planet's military compared to what they were seeing right now. But the scans were confirmed; the crew onboard that ship, human. And they had to find out more information to make a valid decision for himself and his crew.
The vessel jumping from hyperspace into normal space simply seem to appear in front of the EAS destroyers which began powering up defensive weaponry systems.
"To Vree saucer. You are in a war zone. You are to move of to a distance of-" The transmission halted abruptly as scans revealed that the ship, although superficially resembling the standard Vree ship configuration, was indeed something completely different.
"Identify yourself," the voice ordered.
"This is the United Planet Cruiser C-57-D from the planet Earth, John Adams commanding. Please identify yourself."
"I am Captain Daniel Schall, of the EAS Nimrod." There was absolute silence for a moment. "Do you have visuals?"
"Affirmative," Adams responded. A few moments alter, as the signals synchronized, both Captains found themselves facing one another. Schall looked startled and a bit confused, but no less so than Adams. "I've never seen a ship like yours in the United Planets Corps."
"Forgive me Captain. We first assumed that you were a Vree spaceship, but we've never seen anything even close to your ships' systems. We've never heard of the United Planets."
The small saucer moved closer to the Nimrod. Beside them, two Hyperions moved to flank the small ship.
"It's kind of hard to explain," Adams said. He was still a touch disoriented from the deceleration protocols. "Approximately six months ago, we encountered a stellar phenomenon of some sort. It ah, well pulled us from where we were to where we are now," he added sheepishly. 'I know it sounds crazy, but we seem to be from another universe. And we're trying to get back. We're headed towards Earth to see if your people can help us get back." There was complete silence from the other end. "I understand this sounds strange, Captain Schall," Adams said. "But we have no reason to lie."
But Schall wasn't looking at Adams, but in fact he glared past the man at the 'thing' behind him.
It couldn't be!
"What exactly is that?" he asked, pointing past him towards the main console.
"That is our astrogator, Robby. It's a robot."
Stunned, Schall simply gaped. It was small proof, but still proof, ala Enterprise. Earth had nothing close to that level of technology. Building practical-functional robots was hard despite what the best engineers and technicians said. None of the working models looked like what he was seeing now. What caught his attention though was that it looked like someone had put it together in someone's home lab, in his or her spare time. That spoke volumes. After those incidents, a brick wasn't required to hit him to see the obvious.
"Do you have shuttle capability?" Six months ago, he would have called the captain a liar or a lunatic, but recently things had changed drastically and he now approached things with a much more open mind, this obviously being a first contact situation. He didn't want a repeat of history with these people. He wanted to see these people in person.
"No," we do not have shuttle capability. This ship is atmospheric."
Schall was in a quandary at this point. His ship was one of the blockade ships that, under Clark's orders, had contained and isolated the colony on Proxima III before the colony was destroyed and the fleet stationed there nearly wiped out. To say that he was a loyalist would be considered an understatement, but now, with everything that happened on Earth, with B5, and the Centauri, his loyalty was now become questionable. The possibilities of finding another vessel originating from another reality were almost astronomical. If EarthDome found out about this ship, he would be immediately ordered to bring it in. That would be repeating the exact same mistake that had been made with the Federation ships. The rumor mills were flying and although he was never one to be caught up in such trivial pursuits, he knew that Earth was not the safest place for these people, not that he really cared. Their technology would be stripped from them and what fate awaited these people there, he did not want to imagine. That brought a fresh wave of anger coursing through him. He wasn't supposed to have to be concerned about what EarthDome might do in the first place. Duty was simple. You followed the orders of your superiors and that was it. The secession of Proxima III colony was wrong. EarthGov had the right to blockade and force them back into the rightful hands of the government. The bombing of Mars had been a little heavy handed, but he understood the reasoning.
That was then.
Now, the President was preparing for an all-out assault against the Centauri holdings, with complete and utter disregard for the facts that the Centauri and their allies could very easily wipe out the fleet therefore leaving Earth holdings completely unprotected and vulnerable to attack by a host of other alien nations or aggressive Terran pirating. Several well-known and respected high-level officers had been either removed from their posts or stripped of rank for disagreeing with the President on this issue and for the first time, he feared for Earth. What worried him even more was the fact that, he wasn't alone sharing these thoughts. The underlying military structure was cracking apart even worse than before and if Earth Force splintered again, then Earth would lose this war, not to mention Clark's plan. Earth needed had to be re-unified, but here he was, about to add another crack in the structure.
"Captain Adams," Schall grimaced. "It is not in your best interests to proceed to Earth at this time." How he hated to say that! "I strongly recommend that you change headings and go to the Babylon Five station located in the Epsilon Eridani star system."
There, he'd said it. His career was ruined. He wanted to look around and see how his crew was reacting to his decision but he didn't dare. But there was a presence behind him-
"Sir, are you sure you want to recommend that they go to B5?" Commander O'Shay, his second-in-command, asked tightly. The blond haired young man wore the armband of the Ministry of Peace, and wore it proudly.
It served as a constant reminder that he and the rest of the crew were being watched, another thing that Schall hated. His loyalty had been unquestioned, until this arrogant little snot started spying on him, second-guessing his command decisions, as though he were incompetent. "Yes. The station is safer." For them he added silently. He could tell that the Commander wasn't about to back down.
"They could be league with the Federation, sir," he insisted as his voice rose slightly. "You know the President's standing orders. If we let them go we won't have a chance to examine these people and their technology. That will compromise our ability to defend ourselves when they come. We made that mistake of letting the Federation ships go free once before and you see what happened. Babylon Five is more of a danger than ever and the conflict has split our nation in two."
Schall was losing it. "We didn't let Picard and the others go. We didn't have them in the first place! Are you blind?" Violently he snapped his fingers and in an instant the Sergeant-at-arms was at his side. "Arrest Commander O'Shay, search him and confine him to quarters." To his Comms Officers get the other Captains: "This is Schall. I am escorting this ship to Babylon Five. If you have problems with this, let me know now." He ordered communications cut. "Go to battle stations."
The Nimrod went to battle stations, further stunning the EAS battlegroup. One of the Hyperion Captains responded to the action.
"I can't do this, Randy," she said. "But I won't fight you, either."
"Then do I have permission to shuttle over, members of my crew who no longer wish to serve under my command?"
"Permission is granted."
Gratefully he acknowledged her with a bowing of his head. He fully understood what this course of action would bring.
A half hour later, three shuttles, packed with crewmembers, from various ships made their way to the remaining Hyperion and Omega. And quite unexpectedly, a shuttle flew over to the Nimrod, filled with crew who wanted to join with him. Secretly he was delighted that no shots had been fired, but the delight warred with his distress. The EA was fracturing once more and the cause was himself, a man who had up until a half hour ago had been utterly loyal to Earth Force and his legitimate government. He and the others with him had effectively destroyed their commands and would be branded traitors by the same government he loved. The one good thing was that he didn't have to shoot O'Shay. This could not go on, he thought as he and the other two vessels jumped towards Babylon Five with the United Planet's saucer in tow.
***
At first, Clark wanted to say no. After all this time, Morden had finally lowered himself to talk to his servant, and that made him fume to no end. For months, there was nothing. Now Morden practically ordered him to attack Centauri Prime. Clark had a thousand questions but the most important ones were-would the Shadows support him in subduing the Centauri home world and would they help him finally get rid of Sheridan and solidify his hold on Earth?
The answer had been yes. Morden had said yes so quickly that it caused Clark's hair to stand on end. And the brevity of the call brooked no argument. There was a threat in his voice that Clark had never heard before.
"Patricia, have the Secretary of Defense come to my office, now. I have a job for him."
An hour later the very last ships, twenty of the Black Squadron Omegas in various stages of completion were on their way to Centauri Prime. Their mission: a lightning attack to turn the Centauri homeworld into a wasteland.
***
Babylon Five:
The swirl of reddish light, characteristic of hyperspace, gave way to the natural black and the specks called stars of normal space. Babylon Five was still there, more crowded than ever, Delenn noted with some unease. She had been gone too long, the war with the Drakh and trying to keep her government from folding in upon itself, had taken up much of her time. Now she was home.
Home, she thought harshly. What is home for me? John is here, but so is Anne. I thought, even hoped that she was dead, another victim of the Shadows, but she lived through that horror and now she is back with John. What do we do now?
Throughout the conflict, she'd rarely thought about, indeed couldn't think about the two of them together all this time while she was desperately trying to keep her people from being slaughtered by the Drakh hordes. There was a mutual understanding between her and John when it came to matters of state. Each of them worked better alone, each better able to concentrate on the things at hand and for her part she was almost able to put him behind her. This was especially true when it came to the war.
The Drakh had attacked the Minbari Federation, not for vengeance, not to even conquer, but simply to destroy as much as possible, to weaken them for the darkness to come. Their Shadow masters demanded the blood of the Minbari for daring to defy them and joining forces with the Vorlons a thousand years past and possibly to remove the Minbari threat from whatever convoluted plans they could conceive of.
The Drakh were shown to be as sophisticated as the Minbari in technology and in some cases surpassed them in weapons technology. But there was one thing that her people excelled in. When needed the most, the stealth capabilities served the Minbari well. Otherwise the losses of three colonies and nearly two hundred capital ships would have been far greater. Now, there were nearly five hundred ships, some hundreds of years old, were pressed into service and battle.
And what terrible, glorious battles they were. The Drakh motherships, some almost five times as large as Babylon Five, released swarms of destroyers, fighters and even carriers. So much so, that the Minbari specialists were unsure as to how so many could be conceived and built in the first place. Those motherships usually stayed out of reach, relying on their support ships to do the actual fighting. That had come as a bitter lesson as ten ships of the line were destroyed in a sneak attack carried out by fifty destroyers that exited jumpspace almost on top of them. It was a one-sided slaughter that filled the Minbari with a rage not seen since the Earth-Minbari war.
It also guaranteed eternal blood-enmity against the Drakh hordes and Minbari.
Rage aside, the warrior class had been humbled by the sudden loss of so many ships and crew by beings they, at first, considered inferior. There had been a general feeling that the military couldn't really be hurt unless the attackers were Shadows. But this defeat had opened their eyes. There were cases where the warrior caste had actually praised the Earth-Minbari conflict because they felt that their caste would have been unprepared for this more vicious conflict.
There were still bitter feelings for the apparent surrender of their forces just as they would have completed their revenge upon the more primitive inhabitants of Earth for striking down one of their most beloved leaders. Even she had succumbed to the blood lust, taking it upon herself to give the order to release her people's full wrath down on an unsuspecting and venerable Earth, whose ultimate crime was that of stupidity and arrogance of a few selected individuals. That was something she could never, ever tell John or the people of Earth. It was her fault that so many people died. Revenge had held sway when reason should had prevailed. But that was the past and she had made peace with that even as she had made peace with the passing of Dukhat, her mentor and leader of the Minbari, when an Earth destroyer for the most flimsy of reasons struck him down.
Now, five worlds, two of them colonies and one a part of the Minbari Federation central core affiliate had been attacked and the death toll had been staggering. But that hadn't been the worst of it. In the conflict that followed, several members of the warrior caste had attempted to assassinate her, something unheard of among her people. Neroon, a member of the Grey Council and a member of the warrior class, discovered the plot and stopped it in time, but that had caused a rift between the warrior caste against the religious and worker classes, a terrible thing in time of war. Heedless of the consequences, the two castes nearly went to war with the warriors, refusing to support them, even as they fought and died protecting them all. Sensing weakness, the Drakh had attacked, striking several worlds. The Minbari responded far to late to strike back or defend those worlds. The government was in turmoil and something had to be done.
Neroon, supported by Delenn, and both the Religious and Worker Castes fought against and subsequently won the power struggle over a period of months. The result was a changed Grey council in which there were now four representatives of the Worker and Religious castes and only two of the Warrior Castes. The phrase 'if you would lead, then one must serve' took on a whole new meaning. They were once more united, if not bruised. Then the Drakh suddenly ceased their patrols and attacks and simply disappeared, and the Minbari were even more furious. They couldn't; be found anywhere. The orders were given. Find them! The only trail detected lead straight to the one place even they feared to tread.
Z'ha'dum.
John contacted them and requested that she come to Babylon Five. At first she refused but he insisted. Something horrific was happening, his insistence told her that much immediately. There was something in his voice, something that was so rare that she had trouble putting a name to it. Then she saw his eyes. They were full of fear. She immediately assembled the council and told her of her intentions of going to Babylon Five. The council agreed...
Not that Neroon was overly happy with the results, Delenn mused. There was another threat on the horizon and that threat was Earth, or more specifically the technology that could be gained by the humans in the guise of the alien ships that had arrived some six months ago. His initial meeting with them went well, but he was still cautious. Despite the multitude of claims that they were not taking sides when it came to technology, he was uncomfortable with what the Federation represented. The battle reports of the Proxima III battle did not help to ease his mind one bit. The Enterprise stood toe to toe with the Drakh destroyers, several times their size, surviving and even gutting a number of them in a four-to-one battle, that no single Minbari ship could have survived. He understood (and had seen it first-hand), that in a fight between a Sharlin cruiser and two Drakh destroyers, the outcome would be highly questionable. That made the Enterprise and the other Federation ships-and the smaller Klingon cruiser, too-something to be feared, if their technology got into the wrong hands, especially a government as unenlightened as EarthGov was at this time. Whether they were from Earth or some distant colony, most of them were human and he was sure that that commonality called to one another, despite their differences at the moment.
His nightmares were of the known versus the unknown. What if this 'Federation' decided to make their presence known in this area of the universe? What they were experiencing now would be nothing compared to the war that that might precipitate. Their sensors, the weapons systems, the alien FTL drives and the truly frightening transporters-oh, the possibilities there! -pointed in one direction that he could see...
This was another crisis point, waiting to happen. Delenn thought that if he understood the full truth, he might rest easier, but she wasn't sure. However, under the promise of the strictest security, she told him.
Oh, how Neroon had laughed, as much in relief as with shocked amusement. He didn't doubt her story for an instant. She never lied to him and her explanation was a good as any other he'd heard. He felt even more at ease when she had told him of the classes on the Ambassador in engineering, medicine, sociology, and a dozen other sciences, made available-for a hefty price-to those governments who wanted to learn. Much of the Federation tech was incompatible to what Earth standard and the majority of the other races used, however, the principles were solid and real. With a little work, that technology could be understood and converted to working analogues by the various races. It would take a few years to properly develop the new technology according to the dictates of each culture's technological base, but it was being offered. In fact, other than the Centauri, EarthGov members were not receiving any sort of training and as such were actually behind most of the other races clamoring to take said classes. Neroon relaxed and the crisis was averted for now. One never fully knew with the warrior caste, but she firmly decided that she would trust him. Of course, he insisted on going with her.
Now she prepared for another, far more personal battle. She didn't know how John really felt towards her now. She'd lied to him, after a fashion.
Captain John Sheridan's face appeared onscreen and the instant he saw Delenn, his eyes lit up and she felt hers do the same thing. The connection, tenuous as it was, was still there and she reveled in it.
"Delenn," he said bowing his head slightly. "We need you here as soon as possible. Neroon also," he added when he saw him at her side.
A chill went down her spine. "We are there."
***