Interlude

A captive male Shadow some members of the younger races (who could wrap their tongues around what little of the name they could.  It was very long) referred to as Xuadishse, was one of those survivors.  Unlike some others of its kind, it had not succumbed to the manipulations of the telepathic influences of its enemies.  The small fighter it was piloting, mortally wounded by a plasma pulse, ceased to function just as another one of the enemy ships had lined him up in its sights.   It fully expected to die in flames, but the Squid-like ship merely pull its helpless prey io one of the larger capital vessels flooding the system.

Try as it might, Xuadishse could not help being intimidated by the alieness of its captors.  First, they were large creatures, almost twice its size, possessing multiple tentacles and what were undoubtedly cybernetic implants.  Originating from a watery environment, it fully expected the creature's movement to be in a form of a crawl, but these creatures lifted themselves up with their ten tentacles, moving easily across the floor.  It assumed that the aliens used more than just telepathy in order to communicate as their colors constantly flashed from deep violet to bright red and beyond.  Like the Shadows, the Terrors used organic technology, their long tentacles reaching deep into their computer analogs to control their ship's functions.  Xuadishse, like all of his race, had telepathic talents as well.  Carefully, and fighting intense pain, it opened up and reeled against the input slamming into its brain.  Hostility-aggressiveness-hunger-hatred-fear; all of those emotions in an instant registered into the Shadows brain with such violence, that it had immediately closed itself off from any more contact.  But enough was seen to appraise its enemy. 

The creatures histories were his now and the captured Shadow understood.  The Terrors didn't torture, they simple ate, as he unfortunately discovered.  Xuadishse was slowly being eaten alive.  Trained to resist pain, he fought against the telepathic questioning, but the creatures ate as it questioned…

The captor's questioning weren't words as much as transmitted images.  After an eternity and thirty percent limb loss, the Shadow lost control and bared its soul. 

"Where?" The Terror's images asked.  And in Xuadishse's mind flashed two shadow-like vessels-the Centauri hybrid and the Earth copy. 

The creature began chewing on Xuadishse once more.  In shock, the Shadow mind snapped.  A picture of Earth formed in his mind and a second later Centauri burst forth unbidden. 

In between swallows, the Terror pushed more images into his mind and the Shadow told him everything.  "Threats were the Minbari," his images screamed.  "The Vorlons are no more and have left…the others are weak.  Beware the Hand.  The Tashnix are power…"

The tortured Shadow would never know how much information was extracted from him.  In the end, the Terror, satisfied with the information given fell on him, consuming him in an orgy of slaughter and madness.

***

Chapter 15

    "Girl talk-Boy talk"

"It's nice to finally meet you person," Captain Sisko, "Captain Anderson said, looking at the one time adversary.

"Call me...Leonard, Captain."

"Okay, Leonard, it is," Sisko responded.  "Then please call me Benjamin."

"It is a pleasure," Captain Anderson answered.

And Ben was glad to meet him under more pleasant circumstances. The last time they met, within spitting distance of Earth, they were firing warning shots at one another. Turning slightly, he proceeded to introduce the third member of the party. "This is Command Worf, Son of Morg, First Officer of the Klingon cruiser K'mpec's Honor."

Worf bowed slightly. "It is ...interesting to see Human enemies together discussing whatever it is you discuss. If you were Centauri, most Klingons would gut you where you stood."

Anderson looked at him, not understanding what he meant by the comment. "EarthForce and the Federation may have had some disagreements, but I hope that we can get past that."

The word 'disagreement' amused him. "You claim to be EarthForce, but you sit here with your enemies, being polite," he added with distaste. But his tone was not as harsh as his words seemed to indicate.

"If I understand correctly, you were enemies with the Federation for years. But you're here and I don't see any phaser holes in the wall.."

"Circumstances have brought us to this point. But I wish to understand," he continued. "Your government will not look kindly on this unofficial meeting if they discover you have spoken to Captain Sisko."

For a moment Anderson was silent. The Klingon was correct. Other EarthForce personnel could indeed talk to anyone on B5 without overt reprisals. But he was not one of them. "You're right," he conceded. "I sent a message through Captain Picard stating to Ben that I was doing well. That one comment made my government considered me a risk and I was given what amounted to a desk job, patrolling between Mars and Earth."

"But you are here," Worf said.

"Yes. I escorted General Brindley here. And there was someone to escort us here."

"I understand," Worf acknowledged. Klingon politics was as bad as the Federation's and in this universe it appeared to be no different either. "Then General Brindley has fallen out of favor with the EarthGov ruling counsel. In Klingon politics, you would have met with an unfortunate accident."

In the quick silence that followed, Ben realized that Worf wasn't that far off in his assessment. "Why do you remain with EarthForce?"

There was a flash of anger and resentment. But it was clear that it wasn't directed at Worf or Ben, but rather against his own people.

Ben knew.  "He is worried about his family," Ben answered for him.

"I am not a traitor," Leonard said despairingly. "One small message destroyed my career," he coldly stated. "But," he continued. "Clark and his people will not mess with my family. They've done too much of that already and the people are about ready to rebel. He has to walk a fine line now, with the Centauri war taking so up so many resources. You hurt us badly with that recorded message. Psi-Corps was put down like rabid dogs and Clark's resources dropped measurably. The best thing that could have happened for him was this war. The people rallied to him and his popularity polls actually went up. However, he's afraid to antagonize EarthForce too much because if they want him, they can get him and he knows it. So he created a scapegoat, General Brindley. His failure to secure your ships destroyed his career."

"Then why is he here?"

"Why am I here?" he countered. "Ask Captain Clark."

For the next five minutes, there was no talk between them, simply drinking and shared contemplation.

"Join the resistance," Ben said to him. "There are more and more joining every day. And it's not because of the fighting, but because of a shared desire to correct the wrongs in your government.

"I can't," came the answer after a moment. "I have a responsibility to my government and if I do anything, it will be from within the legitimate rules and regulations set up by the constitution. And I believe you would say the exact same thing." He nodded his head, as both the Federation Captain and Klingon Commander agreed. "So, Commander Worf," he said changing the subject, " How would you evaluate the Drakh destroyer's combat ability?"

By now, everyone had heard of the fight between the Narns and the Drakh ambush that had occurred before the Proxima III attack. "The Drakh weapons are formidable," Worf answered. "And the Narn warships would not have survived if they had not been modified with Klingon technology," he added proudly. An Earth warship would be hard-pressed to survive on its own against one of their destroyers. We disabled or destroyed several of their smaller ships and one or two of their heavier attackers to allow the Narn time to escape. Combined with the Centauri Empire, alone Earth would then suffer the fate of the Narn home world. Joining with the Minbari was wise then to ensure your survival."

"We haven't joined them as much as have an agreement with them since we're fighting the same enemy." It was less than fourteen years between the war between earth and Minbari and many of the old wounds hadn't healed.

"Then, you are fools," Worf said evenly. "Your survival is in doubt."

"Between internal politics and those trying to kill us, you may very well be correct. But, I will fight for my people as long as there is strength in me."

Worf smiled at Leonard's answer. His sharpened teeth gleamed. "You speak of honor. Do you have family?"

"Yes, my wife and daughter, my father and …"

Before he could continue, a junior officer walked up and stood stiffly behind him. "Sir," Cheryl Chambers said. "Captain Sheridan and General Brindley request your presence in CnC."

That's when he noticed the change in Ben, something he understood quite well, as he'd seen it all too often. His no-nonsense junior Navigational Officer was gorgeous. Between her and her twin sister Sarah, a doctor in the civilian sector, a lot of hearts had been broken. They had another, younger sister somewhere on Earth, but he had never met her. She was rumored to be just as pretty-and smart.

However, Ben seemed impressed by what he saw and by the intensity that Cheryl was completely ignoring him, the feeling was mutual. In fact, she was completely obsessed with the Yeager and had gone over every bit of data as it warped out from the Sol system, months ago. The type of FTL drive system they used was unheard of and she spent weeks in her spare time trying to understand the physics involved. But now she seemed indifferent, just like her sister did when something other than medicine jumped into the conversation. It must have been a family trait-something he was about to test. He already suspected the truth. After all, she could have just used the com-link to contact him.

"Captain Sisko, Commander Worf, this is my navigator Second Lieutenant Cheryl Chambers. I would love to continue the conversation, but duty calls. Maybe we can do this again." He got up to leave and Worf, noticing the same signals flowing back and forth between the two of them, got up to leave also.

"I must return to my ship," Worf said. "We will soon be leaving."

"Success, Commander Worf," Sisko said meaning every word.

"To glorious victory."

***

Ben's full attention turned to the woman standing in front of him. This was the first time anyone had so captured his attention since he lost his wife. He intended to make the most of it. "So Lieutenant, you were on the Charon when the Yeager was in Earth's system?"

"Yes, Captain," she answered dryly and he was relieved that he had guessed rightly. "You upset the entire EarthForce security network when you just happen to appear out of nowhere."

"I guess so. That was the point, after all."

"Sir, may I ask as a question?"

"Yes, Lieutenant. Feel free."

"How do you, navigate at such speeds in non-normal space? As you know sir, we use beacons to help us get from point A to point B. How can your computer calculate the proper positioning vectors in non-normal space?"

"Our sensors do it on the fly," he answered easily, and then proceeded to go into a long detailed explanation only an engineer could love. "Would you care to sit down?"

"Yes sir, thank you," she responded, sitting quickly.

"I am not your superior officer," he countered. "So, lets' do away with the formalities. I'm Benjamin Sisko."

"I'm Cheryl Chambers," she responded as she sat down in Worf's vacated chair. "My military forces don't know what to make of you," she said. "Everything you are, the cultures you represent are different from anything we've come to expect from humans. Frankly, your advancements in physics makes us nervous.  Intel and Strategic operations analyzed every single move your people made in the Proxima fight.  The Enterprise's speed and maneuverability is nothing short of amazing.  The same goes for your offensive and defensive capabilities.  If we had had you on our side during the Minbari war, it would have turned out completely differently.  Our ships can't compete with that sort of power.  You're at least a hundred years in front of us.  We're still are not advanced enough to even able to overcome our gravity limitations.   When your ships accelerate, you create inertia forces strong enough crush our crews into paste.  And that's just one example of what I'm talking about."

Ben noticed that she was very straightforward. 

"Scuttlebutt is that the Proxima III battlegroup wants to make you honorary members of EarthForce. Some of the others are really scared of what you and a fleet of your ships could do to us. And the rest of us  are simply relieved that we're trying to work together. And you could have damaged the Charon, but you didn't."

"It was unnecessary and wasteful to take life simply to make a point. Besides your Captain didn't hit me and I made sure I didn't hit the Charon back.."  His smile was absolutely predatory.

"We weren't close enough to get a confirmed target lock.  It was a ranging shot," Cheryl insisted. 

"Mine wasn't," he said. He could almost see the chill running down her back.

"Will you invade us?" There, she said it. She prayed that she wasn't insulting him too much by asking that question.

There was something about her intensity that almost entranced him.  "We have better things to do than invade your world, Cheryl.  When we came to this area of space, the first things I heard was your ISN news-feed talking about alien conspiracies and peace and justice, while you were bombing your own people. We were strangers here, ones who chose to fight against what we saw as oppression against fellow humans and other intelligent beings. You attacked your own colonies, including B5. We're talking about the beginnings of a second civil war! Leaving you to our own problems was seriously considered, but instead we chose to make a stand."

"We wanted to come to Earth, walk on its soil, and enjoy a little peace and quiet while we tried to find a way back to where we belonged. There could have been an exchange of technologies and information. Both our cultures could have benefited from what we could have learned from each other. The Federation would never invade your people or even your area of space. It's not part of our charter. We believe in peaceful contact, which is exactly opposite of what has happen since we got here."

"So you won't invade us?"

"Cheryl," he said.  She wasn't hearing what he was trying to tell her.  "We will never invade you.  The Federation has enough problems without beginning to even think about invading anybody.  We-don't-invade.  Besides, the rumors are true and you know which ones I am talking about. Now, changing the subject slightly, would you like to have dinner?"

"Sorry," she shrugged. "I am on duty."  She blinked as she realized that she was sorry. "Maybe some other time?" I hope.

"Yes. I will be looking forward to it."

"I believe I will also. I'll call you, Ben."

Reluctantly, Ben watched her leave. He seriously hoped that she would call.

***

A very tired Michael nearly flopped into the chair offered to him by an equally stressed John. "Lightning has stuck twice. Can you believe it? It's a real honest-to-God Terran flying saucer complete with robot. What next?" He was completely exasperated and was laughing to himself. Did you see that thing?"

"Yes, Michael, I saw it." He was equally amused.

"Half the station saw it. I had to place guards around the entire group to keep people from trying to touch the thing. Not that they would if they could have."

"Yes, it's amazing," John said. "In a way it looks so primitive but it represents something that our sciences can't duplicate."

"John," he cautioned. "I thought so, too. But I have changed my mind. Adams said if we can come to an agreement, they might share some of the technology with us. The composite metal Robby is made out of is harder than anything I've ever seen, but it's flexible. Watching it walking up and down stairs is one of the strangest things I have ever seen and I seen a lot of strange stuff."

"I know," John said. "I talked to Adams and to Robby. It was a unique experience."

"Like talking to Data?" He was glad he could talk about Data. For obvious reasons, it wasn't common knowledge that Data was an android. Most knew him as an exotic Federation alien of some sort.

"Yes and no. His command of language was better than Data's but at the same time, it seemed far more subservient, more like the A.I. on B5 but a thousand times better-and more pleasant. His processor is more powerful than our entire computer core, just like Data's. And he's a lot stronger than anything I've seen. He can lift and walk away two of our shuttles if he wants to. He also has a built-in replicator."

That caught his attention. "Like the Federation's?"

"Yes, but it works on a completely different principle. He whipped up some of his composite metal. 'Krell' alloy he called it. Our people are busting their chops examining it now."

"When I sighed up for this gig, I didn't expect to get visitors from other realities knocking at the door every other day."

"The rift is closed, Michael."

"So I've heard," he answered. "Deanna," he said, by way of explanation.

"Then you're finally beginning to believe that they are from another reality."

Michael simply shrugged and then grinned.  "With everything's that happened?  I'm convinced now.  But it wasn't the big things that finally did it. It was all of the small things adding together.  As you know, I'm not the most trusting person around."

"Yes," John said dryly.  "What convinced you?"

"It was a small gift from Deanna," he answered.  "She gave me some recordings and those were what finally convinced me."

"What were they?"

" It was 'Duck Dodgers of the twenty-fours and a half century'.  You know I love the Warner brothers cartoons and I love Daffy duck.  But here, there were less than five vids made of the DD's.  On the Ambassador, she found the compete series, two years worth.    They are real and our earth never made those because I checked just to make sure.  That's what convinced me." 

John's eyebrows raised a notch. "Are you two…?"

"Relax.  We're just talking," he answered hastily. "And after all this time, I'm not sure about her. She's definitely empathic and when I'm around her, it drives me up the wall because it's so darn hard trying to keep things from her. And I know she's trying, but she does it like you or I would use our eyes. She sees nothing wrong with it and from her point of view, there isn't. But you and I have know how Psi-Corps has worked all these years."

"And old prejudices die hard," John finished for him.

"I have to admit that that's true. Lyta is different. She's human, from our reality," he added. "And because of that, I understand her and the culture she's been raised in. And you know what they did with Talia."

John said nothing as he noticed the anger in Michael's voice. Talia Winters was part of the Psi-Corps and unknowing to anyone, including herself; she was a deep cover spy for Psi-Corps. Lyta discovered the truth and blew her cover. By those actions, Talia's personality was destroyed and the implant took over. She returned to Earth and died soon after, very likely by the hands of Psi-Corps, who, as rumored by Alfred Bester, 'accidentally' slipped up and told Michael that they had dissected her. Michael wanted to kill Bester right then and there. John had always wondered what might have happened between those two; but, there was no hope for that, now.

"I have to adjust to her and her differences," he stated. "And," he sighed. I am getting used to her. She's been through a lot of hurt, and I understand that kind of pain. That's something we have in common."

"Do you believe it's possible that you two have a chance?"

"Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Despite the differences, I think that we can at least give it a good try. I said that I understand the pain, but I'm beginning to understand the woman and I like what I've seen. I'm just happy that her mother isn't here.  From what I understand, she'd probably turn the entire Earth on its collective ear."

John thought about it. Michael was embarking on an interesting journey, much like his. Delenn.  Anna. 

-His past and his present together, on this same station.

Anna was his great love. But this person on B5 wasn't the woman he married. Her soul, as he knew it, no longer existed. Only the body and something transplanted inside of her remained. And that was the question. "Michael, when we love someone, do we love the body or the soul?"

"Trick question, Captain. I don't know if there is such a thing as a soul. But for argument's sake, I would say that it's the soul that's important. When it comes down to it, no matter what you call it that is what really defines your relationship to one another."

For better or worse, those words continued to cross his mind over and over since she first came back. "I have a responsibility to help Anne, but she's not the woman I married. That soul is no longer there."

"I don't envy you position, John."

"I have to find Delenn. I need her."

Thirty minutes later he discovered that he'd been correct.

***