Carycomic (carycomix@aol.com) had a question: Is this time machine that Q mentioned the same one that caused a time-loop on a certain episode of "Stargate SG-1?" A time-loop that only Jack and Teal'c noticed? …The answer is no. Remember SG-1 and their technologies and story-line have nothing to do with this story here. Nothing of that timeline survived with the exception of one stargate and some stray memories… *** Renato's comments: Very good attempt at tying in the discrepancies in Star Trek and elsewhere. Perhaps the Temporal Cold War was what caused the Borg destruction of the El-Aurian homeworld. El-Aurians appear to have an innate sense of temporal shifts and as such, were dangerous to various temporal factions.
This was a very good point that I had not thought of. However I would have to say no, because I don't want to put everything on the TCW. Things happened and Guinan's people suffered like so many have at the hands of the Borg.
Texan: When is the next part of "Potentials" coming out?
Thank you, people. Now, on with the story.
Chapter 19
In the Face of the Enemy
Centauri Prime:
"Jump!"
President Clark's personal elite force of six shadow Omegas made the jump into Centauri space, prepared for the fight of their lives. They were alone with no backup, and faced with impossible orders to hit Centauri Prime with everything they had and get out with their vessels intact. It would be a major accomplishment for the President, giving him a much needed political boost and at the same time striking at the very heart of his Centauri enemies. With this war behind him, he could then concentrate on solidifying his hold on Earth and eventually Babylon 5. That was the plan.
Hyperspace probes forewarned the Centauri that they were coming but surprisingly they had met little resistance. It was assumed that they would be attacked the instant they entered normal space. The last of the new 'Black Omegas' were the most powerful ship ever created by EarthForce, but like the others lost at Proxima III they were rushed into service with crews not fully trained in the new technologies the ships used. In fact, the Captains were not entirely happy with the orders, but they were completely loyal to the Clark regime.
They expected fierce resistance the moment they hit normal space. But was they saw was unbridled carnage. As far as the eyes could see and scanners could detect, Centauri warships alongside Drakh vessels were engaged and being destroyed by a much smaller force of alien ships, that at first could have been mistaken for Vorlon fighters of some type. But these small ships looked more 'aquatic-like' in appearance. And they were fast too.
Traditional weapons of both Drakh and Centauri Capital ships barely affected the much larger enemy destroyers with the huge glowing balls that made up the bulk of the ship. They used weapons that ejected a kind of plasma pulse weapon that destroyed on contact. The energy discharges from those 'sphere ships' were so strong that neither the Drakh nor Centauri vessels survived a hit from one of them.
The Scanner officer onboard the lead Omega, was impressed by the slaughter going on. "There are only nine of those enemy ships, Sir; five fighters and four capitals."
"They're not our problem." The enemy of my enemy he thought. "They're just making our job easier. Proceed to Centauri Prime. Take the safety the safeties off the nukes."
The EA ships eased through crowded space with little difficulty, preparing to unload their ordinance on a planet that already had fires visible from orbit. Most of the Centauri vessels were far too busy trying to survive the attacking alien ships and were virtually ignoring the jet-black Earth ships making an attack run towards their planet.
But unexpectedly, two of the enemy fighters and one of the larger 'ballships' disengaged the Centauri and Drakh and attacked the lead EA vessel before it reached attack range of the planet. Weapons fire gutted the unsuspecting ship at a range that seemed unbelievable. The ship was drilled into deeply on the port side, bioarmor notwithstanding. Retaliatory strikes by the EA succeeded in destroying one medium fighter, but that simply allowed the larger alien ship time to get into range. The ship fired a plasma burst and hit another Omega. The energy weapon burned through the ship's engine and continued to burn through the aft middle and finally, the forward sections. The ship blew to bits before the energy pulse could finish the job. Returning fire proved fruitless against the larger alien ship. The enemy ships had electronic screens protecting them, not unlike the Federation shielding. Casually, it blew two more of his ships into vapor.
Captain Jake Thompson, Commander of the advanced destroyer battle-group had had enough. The remains of the battlegroup retreated, but not before they had been reduced to three ships. To his horror, the tactician in him understood that those alien ships were simply a probing force. He intended to return to Earth to deliver his report as to Clark as soon as possible. There was a new enemy on the horizon.
***
Captain Sandra Hiroshi felt confident. She felt terrified. She felt in command. She felt isolated. She felt lonely. She felt betrayed. She felt like a betrayer. She felt innocent. She felt guilty as sin.
-But, most of all, she felt alive.
White Star Three was her ship now. There were Minbari onboard, once enemies now crewmates and friends. There were members of her old crew onboard as well who now understood the vessel almost as well as those who had made it. And everyone worked together in a spirit of –what was the word she was looking for?
Ah, yes-peace.
But she was also angry. The Ambassador had received a transmission. Her friend and companion Gerald Higgins was alive and had turned his modified Thunderbolt over to EarthForce. She cursed loudly when she had been informed. She should have seen it coming. All the signs were there but he had ignored them because he was her first in command and her friend. But she should have known. When threatened, family came first. Could she have lived with herself if Clark had killed Higgins family out of retaliation for the defeat of EarthForce at Babylon Five so long ago? Could she have pushed back the guilt knowing that Gerald hadn't wanted to defect in the first place? The answer was yes and no. She was responsible for him and she was responsible for not seeing the signs. War is never simplistic, and civil wars are the most grievous of all. She hated what he had done but- she couldn't blame him. What was done was done and it was time to move on. Besides there were going to be too many skeletons unearthed when this was over. What was one more? And just maybe it was for the best. The universe itself is never black and white, merely trillions of colors and shades of gray.
She got up from the command chair and stretched for all she was worth. Minbari 'beds' (she preferred to call them torture racks) didn't allow her to rest the way she wanted to and so she was a touch restless. But the food wasn't bad, especially with the replicators onboard. And short-ranged communications kept her in contact with her companions quite nicely.
-And she missed William. The man was a flirt, but she was her flirt. And of course she liked to flirt back. Indeed, some of her happier times had been with him on B5 despite all the dangers and uncertainties. He and that stupid trombone helped her get over the terrible losses that seemed to be so much a part of all of their lives recently. The psychological recovery from her injuries was greatly sped along by his serenades. If nothing else, it had helped her get away from med bay, where she was trapped forced to listen to his playing day and night. And actually to be fair, his playing wasn't that bad at all.
There was a kindness about him beneath that hard exterior. As Captain, she had seen her share of combat, but not continuously for twenty-two years. At night, sometimes he woke up in cold sweats, barely suppressing screams. She had talked with him about it for weeks and between their sharing, love started to bloom. The best thing about it was that he made her dinner for her everyday for a week to quote, 'make her feel better and appease his guilt,' unquote. His Japanese cooking was excellent. One day when all this insanity was over she would have him make dinner for her family.
When she thought about it, she was still in a state of semi-shock. With all the men available in the world, there was something ironic about finding a 'friend' from an entirely different Earth. Another universe, another Earth, another reality. When she discovered the truth about the Federation, she was hurt. Riker should have trusted her and told her the truth. She didn't want to speak to him for a while as she adjusted the incredible truth. It was all crazy, but it made sense and answered a ton of questions she had concerning these strange people who weren't so strange anymore.
But now wasn't the time to dwell on that. They were at the edge of the solar system called Dum and according to orders, they were about to enter normal space. This was her first time being so far from an Earth base and she felt more like an explorer than anything else. Her First-in-Command was a Minbari named Telrak who she came to depend on and trust as a friend. He was full of quiet humor, none of which was showing now as they prepared to exit hyperspace.
For the last twelve hours, hyperspace was littered with the remains of Shadow craft of all types, along with Drakh vessels and several other alien ships that computers had no records of. There was one Drakh carrier so large that at first Hiroshi thought that the scanners needed recalibration. It was a shade less than sixty kilometers in size, pot-marked by weapons fire, adrift and abandoned in hyperspace. There was damage seen in every section of mammoth vessel. Parts of the ship were melted while other sections simply had large kilometer-sized holes in it. Surrounding the ship were hundreds of Drakh combat-class fighters and others not immediately identifiable. Three Shadow vessels were seen and tracked in the distance, but they didn't come near the convoy, on a course headed away from their destination. The ambassadors and aides watched the devastation in mute silence, their fears slowly growing as they closed in towards their target system. Onboard Ambassador, Kosh merely observed, speaking only once when a particular vessel, wrecked and partially decapitated, a warship of some kind, floated by on the view screen. "They are here," he said.
When Sandra heard that from Rachel, she blanched. She knew a bad sign when she heard one.
***
The Papros and the Blue Nova exited together, vectoring towards the outermost planet. Her White Star and the Ambassador paralleled them. It took about five seconds for Charlotte, her crew and the others, to realize that they weren't going any closer. As far as the sensors could detect, there were remains of Shadow and Drakh vessels scattered throughout the area for nearly a light-year in very direction. The four ships came back together and began deep scans of the area. There have been a big fight here and they'd missed it and she felt absolutely ecstatic about it.
A destroyed Centauri vessel whose configuration was totally alien, yet eerily familiar caught her eye.
"Captain Kanyunn?"
"I see it," the Minbari Commander answered. "It seems that your President wasn't the only one who somehow acquired Shadow technology."
She bristled once more, but said nothing. The vessel in front of her was evidence enough. It was a Primus version of the Papros. It was covered with Shadow organic armor and spines just like hers, with the exception that it was thoroughly wrecked. There were also several modified Sentrii fighters, analogs of her own shadow-modified Starfuries. They all looked as though they had tangled with a nuke and had lost. Next to it were two of the strangest ships she'd ever seen. Almost squid-shaped in appearance they floated in space looking almost bloated in death. It was a hideous sight."
"Can you detect any lifeforms anywhere in the area?"
"Nothing yet in the immediate area, but it's hot the closer we scan towards the planet.
"We may have come out here for nothing," she murmured as she watched the information coming in. "I've never seen ships like those. So many."
"Captain Hiroshi is on low-band, Ma'am."
She nodded. "Clark, here."
"I'm going in," Sandra said. "I need a distraction."
"It's too dangerous," Charlotte responded. "We can get the readings from here and get out."
"We need to know exactly what's going on. That's why we came out here."
"The Shadow vessels, the Drakh, all these others-all destroyed. What kind power are we dealing with?"
Hiroshi didn't even hear her. "I need a distraction," she repeated much louder this time. "Straight in and straight out. I'll jump to warp and meet you at the prescribed rendezvous point."
"These things are fast, Captain Hiroshi. Will you be able to dodge their counter fire at the speed you'll be going?"
"This is a White Star," she hissed. "If they want to hit me, I'm going to make them work for it."
"Head's up, people," Garrett said breaking in. "Go to battle stations."
"We haven't detected anything," Delenn said over her comms.
"Kosh says we've been spotted and that's good enough for me."
"We should retreat to hyperspace," Clark suggested rather forcefully.
"Too late," Delenn said. Our scanners have them."
"How did they know we were here?"
"Kosh said they're telepaths," Garrett responded. "They didn't need to use their ship's scanners to track us. They might have followed our brainwaves."
"They're that strong?" To have that much power seemed unthinkable to Clark. Telepaths. She really didn't like them and this wasn't helping at all.
"No, but something is enhancing their abilities."
"I'm going in," the former EA captain said. A moment later White Star Three started its run toward Z'ha'dum.
The first of a dozen of the squid-like ships finally cleared the debris field. It didn't attack but simply waited for two of its mates to join it, which they did a moment later. That it simply waited well within the strike forces weapon's range spoke of arrogance and a confidence that it could handle whatever weapons fire would be thrown at them.
"Captain, shall we launch a fighter screen?"
"Negative," Clark answered. If they launched their fighters, they would be spread everywhere. "No," she confirmed. "Not right now. Target those ships. Defensive batteries prepare to repel enemy counter fire."
"We've been locked. Weapon's spike!"
The squid ships fire three energy pulses at the Papros, which was now moving forward, being flanked by the Blue Nova and the Ambassador. The Papros' powerful defensive batteries managed to block the first two strikes but the third one got through and rocked the ship. The Papros returned fire and blew one of the offenders out of space. The others survived the attack and fired again, hitting the Minbari cruiser.
Neroon grimaced as he nearly lost his footing. "They have shielding, like the Federation ships," he snarled stating the obvious. He held his peace and remained with Delenn allowing Kanyunn to continue. They both watched as their ships main guns tore into the two enemy ships cutting through the shields, destroying them. And it took a lot of power to do it, something that hadn't been anticipated.
Taking a hit, the Papros jerked from an enemy strike. "Wonderful," Captain Clark whispered as she held on to her chair. That blast had nearly burned thru the first and second layers of her ship's defensive armor. The good thing was that there were no injuries or vitals systems hit, as of yet.
"We have a small group coming from the planet, another twelve of their fighters and a big one vectoring in on us. ETA, nine minutes."
On the screen to her right, Clark watched as Hiroshi's ship's engines started their burn. The ship disappeared quickly amidst all the debris. "Red alert people. Main weapons to full power. We're going to be bait for a while." Next to her she saw the Ambassador's power signature flared up. Her ship's sensors couldn't determine what Blue Nova was doing, however she assumed that it was preparing to respond to the oncoming treat as well. She hoped their combined firepower would be enough.
"Helm, start moving. I don't want us standing here like sitting ducks."
"Aye, Ma'am."
***
TBC