Chapter 20
"Kosh Knows"
White Star Three was moving fast now towards the brownish, murky, intimidating planet known as Z'ha'dum. It looked like a giant mud-ball with a few clouds dotting the landscape. She could see several fires still burning on the planet and surrounding it were hundreds of ships of various sizes. Many of the smaller ones appeared organic in nature even more so than the Vorlon ships she'd seen. In most cases, these strange vessels were squid-like in appearance, their configurations identical except for size. The first was comparable to a Starfury, the second was a bit smaller than her White Star.
The others were of a bizarre design containing one or more large blue globes at what she assumed were the rear of the ships. Her sciences officers speculated that those power sources were actually engines of some kind, possibly using either gravity enhanced fusion or housing some type of matter-antimatter reactor protected by some form of gravimetric shielding. There were other, larger vessels of similar design orbiting the planet as well. But their 'energy ballon' reactors were far smaller and Hiroshi surmised that they were transports of some kind.
Then, Hiroshi was yelling for evasives, as two of the fighters began to match her every movement, trying their best to get a lock on her ship. They were of the smaller design but were almost as fast and now they were joined by two more their kind.
Sandra didn't worry about what was chasing her. The White Star was incredibly fast and the Minbari piloting the ship seemed inspired by his job in avoiding the enemy while getting through to their objective. It was the object in front enraptured her completely. It was the artifact that Kosh had told them about, glowing a radiant, brilliant blue. And in the center, the object generated a jump point, or what she assumed was some variation of a jumpoint, allowing twenty more large warships and transports to transit into normal space. That was what it was, she remembered; a portal that opened not to hyperspace or subspace but some other type of space, a third space for a lack of a better name.
Sensors also indicated that there was an energy shield around the doorway, powerful enough so that warships couldn't easily punch through without a lot of backup support. That would take up valuable time when the inevitable assault began. For the some reason, the device had just reduced power output as if it were conserving power. Then the White Star was past it, moving into deep space.
The pursuing enemy ships had been joined by another much larger warship that, incredibly, gained on her, closing into attack range. It fired. A plasma pulse erupted from the front of the alien vessel, and the energy readings on the White Star went off the scale. They should have been evading the energy pulse. They weren't.
"Telrak? Telrak!" Sandra yelled.
Her pilot seemed to be in some type of trance, but her yelling broke whatever it was, in time for him to reorient the ship's trajectory to keep from being hit. She gasped at the blast that screamed by when she saw that it was larger in size than her White Star, looking for all the world like a small blazing sun.
"Telrak?"
"Forgive me, Captain." It was apparent that he had been stressed by whatever had so completely mesmerized him. "I could hear something calling to me telling me that everything was fine. I almost killed us," he muttered. Now his concentration improved by the second, and he was able to respond while the smaller ships peppered the White Star's shields with long-distance weapons fire.
"They're telepathic," she reminded him. "You have to fight it."
"But I can't-don't want to," the Minbari answered. His voice was hoarse. "They're calling me."
"Let them call all they want," she retorted. "Just don't give in to it."
"It's like nothing I have ever experienced," the Minbari said as he tried to understand what he'd experienced. "The calling is on a most fundamental level, not completely compatible with my mind. But I know what it wants."
"They're firing again. They've launched three of their pulses this time."
"Rear defensive fire," Sandra urgently ordered. "Try to detonate them. Warp speed, same direction."
The fleeing White Star fired it rear weapons as it jumped to warp six, fleeing the area. Most of the returning fire was simply absorbed by the energy globes but one of the plasma charges detonated. Twenty square kilometers of space rocked from the resulting explosion.
***
Captain Garrett and all those who witnessed it were shocked by the violence of the blast. White Star Three had gone to warp just before the shockwave would have caught up to them. "It was an antimatter annihilation blast of some sort. Plasma based," she said. "Reminds me of a Romulan plasma weapon but with a lot more punch. Have our research people perform a full analysis of that explosion and pass it on."
"Captain?"
"I see them. Fire."
She said nothing more as forward phasers drilled the small ship attacking her, burning thru its force field and eviscerating the offending vessel. The second vessel retreated, opting to wait until it had more support. Delenn's ship was doing a fine job of keeping another set of smaller fighters at bay as well. So far the enemy hadn't really made a big push. But as soon as four more of the medium-sized fighter vessels joined the survivor, they attacked once more.
"Aggressive, aren't they?" Castillo said.
She was still impressed by the nerve of one of the smaller ships trying to cripple her vessel, and even more impressed by the overall power it possessed. The moment the pilot had understood that her ship had energy shielding, it had released a full, concentrated salvo at her bridge, in an attempt to overwhelm her forward shields or more likely to gauge the strength of the shields.
Clark did a quick comparison of her own, to the standard output of a standard Star Fury. Again those shields made all the difference. It would take at least six shots to overcome and begin damaging one of those shielded vessels and that would spell doom for the pilot. The overall weapons fire itself was more than three times a Star Fury's weapon's output.
"The big one is almost within weapon's range. Their weapons are powering up."
"We really don't have time for this," Rachel said. Ready photon torpedoes, full spread…Delenn, Charlotte?"
Long-ranged missiles are loaded and locked," Clark announced. "Jump engines online. Power up at my command.
"Captain Kanyunn has long ranged batteries targeted and ready."
"Acknowledged. Fire."
Four photon torpedoes sped directly towards the alien destroyer. All four explosions were repelled by its shield, but those shields had been weakened and the multi-megaton warheads from the Papros slammed into them a moment later weakening them even more. The alien vessel's armaments went cold as all available power was needed to shore up the weakening shield just as another volley of photons hit, followed by intense energy weapons bombardment from Bright Nova. The shields died just as it reached optimum firing position. The Minbari ship wasn't letting up and the blue ball that was its energy generator began faltering even as the ship tried to get away from the devastating and unrelenting attack. Continued phasers bursts pushed the enemy's shields into the red. Several of the smaller squid-ships threw everything they had against the Minbari warship in a desperate attempt to relieve the pressure, but they found themselves under heavy EA and Minbari counter fire.
The blue energy ball went out like a blown light bulb then shattered into a million pieces; pieces with enough energy to promptly destroy anything they came in contact with.
The two remaining ships tried to flee only to be hit by the Papros once more. One was destroyed. The other was seriously damaged, its systems energy output began to falter.
"Ambassador, can you transport the creature?"
"Affirmative."
The creature was beamed into the brig, supported by heavy security. Its ship was transported into cargo bay one.
Delenn came online. "Everyone," she demanded. "Look at your sensors."
There were at least ten fighters and three of the Destroyers advancing rapidly towards their position.
"We've done what we came to do. White Star Three is gone and I suggest we do likewise."
As one, the small group began turning, powering up their jump engines minutes before the enemy arrived.
An hour later, White Star Three rendezvoused with its three companions in hyperspace. Linking together once more, they began their rapid journey home.
***
USS Ambassador:
In Conference Room Two, Delenn, Sandra, Charlotte, Kanyunn, and Neroon on vidline compared their results and began the process of preparing their reports. All the representative ambassadors were present or online, waiting cautiously for detailed information concerning the mission and about the captured alien. Only Kosh failed to appear. But that was to be expected.
Doctor Selar is at the brig," Rachel began. "We've transported our prisoner from the wreckage which is being analyzed now. So far, from the little data we've gathered, we have been able to determine its life support requirements."
"What are its requirements?" Neroon Asked.
"From our prelim bioscans and analysis, we've determined that it can survive in a variety of atmospheres, ranging from oxygen to methane to ammonia-based atmospheres. It is primarily a water-breathing being that originated from an oxygen based planet. But, as I said before, it can handle a large variety of different environments."
"How did it adapt itself?"
"The creature is a cybernetic composite organism," she explained. "It's very intelligent and very hostile. Although injured, we can't get close enough to examine it properly. We know It's telepathic but it has also exhibited a wide vocal range. Attempts at conventional communication with it have been almost completely useless, very likely because it simply chooses not to. The telepaths onboard my ship have not been able to directly communicate with it. They believe that the 'frequency' the alien uses is very different from known telepathy we've encountered so far. Of course, it may not want to."
"But I remember that Kosh said that the aliens were able to subvert some of his own people using telepathy."
"True. He believes that the aliens somehow modified the gateway to enhance and make their telepathy compatible to influence others not of their species."
"They certainly are aggressive, but are they really that much of a threat? They may be able to be reasoned with," Garrett said. Then more coldly: "Federation policy dictates we should always try the diplomatic approach before we start blowing things up. Let's try to reason with it a little more."
***
Commander Richard Castillo felt more uncomfortable by the moment as he and several guards continued to observe the prisoner inside cell three. Although the creature could survive easily in a variety of conditions, the cell was filled with salt water, attuned specifically for its needs. Lighting was dimmed to half normal. The water was cold, barely above freezing, but the alien seemed not to be distress because of its own body temperature. It was backed up against the wall, breathing quickly as though in panic, or more likely, it was a defensive posture. The huge alien was definitely aquatic and odd-looking but not as unusual as he could have imagined it to be. It had appendages, three sets of them and a mouth-like structure not unlike an Terran squid. There were two sets of large liquid-gray eyes near the top of its scaled head. The skin of the creature itself seemed to blend into the surrounding prison cell, a sort of camouflage, but the creature gave off a lot of heat, almost twelve degrees higher than normal humans and the cell's sensors were tracking its every movement.
Next to Richard, Doctor Selar stood with Vulcan steadiness, carefully watching her would-be patient, who seemed to be watching her just as intently in return.
"Chromatophores, Commander," she said, confirming his own suspicions.
"That was my guess," he confirmed. "There are several species that can blend into their surrounding environment like this. The aliens of Marcellous XII can do that. We have Terran creatures like the octopus and squid that change colors, but the way this creature's blending with the cell is incredible." The truth was they could barely see it backed into the corner like that.
"This creature's ability is impressive," Selar stated. "I am not familiar with Earth's aquatic fauna Commander, but I believe that the analogy is correct. My initial examination detected cybernetic implants situated throughout the cerebral and spinal areas, extending from the frontal tri-lobes throughout the length of the spinal chord and minor nerve branches"
"Any idea why?"
"Unknown commander. I am not familiar with these types of implants, but it seems logical that they aid in communications and may be used as an interface with their vessels."
"Communicating with its vessels," he mused. "That would have some definite advantages. Their response time could be a lot faster than ours. "
"Yes." Selar's curiosity got the better of her and she moved closer to the cell to get a better look at her subject.
The creature let out a high screeching wail that threatened to damage the eardrums of the crew. Then, another appendage appeared, literally materialization from nowhere. It possessed a metallic tip, which the creature proceeded to thrust into the center of the forcefield. The tip penetrated the field and fired some sort of weapon into the room. Castillo and Selar evaded the blasts as security opened up with phasers. The tip was destroyed and the beams passed through the field and knocked the creature into the far wall. The appendage and tip remained on the outside of the shield, while the creature began wailing in frustration, once more.
Shaken, Castillo quickly ordered the field to be strengthened. "Personally, I wouldn't want to meet something like this unless I had my phaser rifle already pointed and firing in its direction."
The creature was easily twice his size and with those tentacles, over three times his length. He wouldn't have stood a chance unarmed and alone. He tapped his comm.-link. "Captain Garrett."
"Garrett here."
"Sir, the alien tried to break out. It generated a new arm with some type of weapon which penetrated the cells force field." The creature was screaming. He could barely hear her.
"Was anyone hurt?"
"Only it," he answered. "Its strength in tremendous and we used lethal setting before it decided to back off. Stun setting was barely effective, Ma'am. We may have to resort to lethal force if it attempts to break out again."
"What is that horrible noise?"
"It's upset with us," he said dryly. "The creature has cybernetic implants. I don't think we will be able to fully examine the creature considering how uncooperative it is."
"This is Doctor Selar, the Vulcan interjected. "It is my belief that the creature is healing itself. It is telepathic on some fundamental level that I am not familiar with. It has been trying to impress upon me its willingness to be friendly. It wants me to release it."
"Don't," she ordered.
"Agreed. I recommend a remote site in which to observe the creature in addition to security here to make sure that the guards are not affected. And we need to adjust the force shield to keep that noise," he added pointing to the alien's cell, "down to a minimum."
"By all means Commander, do it."
"Yes, Captain."
***
Lieutenant Commander Facar, Engineer Lonnis, a Minbari on loan, and Lieutenant Sonya Gomez finished their preliminary scans of the alien vessel's remains approximately six hours into the returning journey back to Babylon 5. Despite their initial beliefs, the alien ship was not organic based like the Vorlon or Shadow ships, but the majority of the vessel did have organic components. The ship's 'shell' was apparently the remains of some unknown space dwelling creature. It was remarkable resilient to weapons fire and the rigors of space. The internal area was strictly non-organic as the creature had been hollowed out. One thing was clear; the gel-filled cockpit had almost no instrumentation other than a series of holes.
Now that they knew that the pilot had implants, these 'holes' were very likely interface points for the pilot. If that assumption was true, then it would be a true symbiotic mating of the organic and inorganic. Sonya had seen something like this on the Binar home planet, but that was nothing as remotely complex as this was.
The Minbari simply shook his head. The exterior of the ruined vessel changed colors as though it had been stained and that gave the impression that it was decaying before his eyes. "I have never seen anything like this. We will not be able to access the onboard systems, even if we wanted to. I am not sure if we should even touch it thing."
Sonya Gomez was in fully agreement. It reminded her of something rotting. "That is assuming that there are systems onboard. It is possible that the pilot of this vessel may be the computer."
"It is an abomination," Lonnis said. "These creatures should not be allowed to live."
***
In his quarters, Kosh waited. He warred within. The ancient enemy was close enough to face but so far he had chose not to confront the creature despite Delenn's suggestion. Was he afraid? Even he wasn't sure of the answer to that question. The memories of that terrible time had been imprinted in his people's genes and passed in from generation to generation as a warning. And now with some reservations, he accessed those memories once more.
The creature locked inside that cell almost close enough to touch, was an ancient species, older than even his people. And he felt somehow lessened now that it was onboard. The racial memory was strong, constantly warning him of the danger present. Kosh could feel the hatred bordering on insanity, for all things not its own emanating from the creature. His people never understood why they hated so much, but now this was the opportunity to find out. The creature was attuned to him and he felt its constant telepathic probing. There had been a sudden sensation of pain as the being tried to break through the forcefield containing it, in order to destroy its captors. He felt the rage and terror it tried to inflict onto the younger races but they were too far away and the 'frequency' it needed to affect them wasn't fully within its range without the artificial enhancements. Frustrated at having failed its rage built once more. Ithat unrestrained emotion slammed into Kosh like a wave.
Kosh prepared himself. It couldn't directly influence him now that he was prepared. He reached out, his mind touching the creatures' coldness waiting to greet him.
"Vorlon," the creature hissed in recognition.
"Enemy," he returned discovering the name for the first time. "Why?"
"Life is worthy for those who claim it. Life must deserve to live or it is worth nothing. That life deserves nothing but death or to be food."
"But you destroy life in all forms."
"Life must not be allowed to rise up and try to destroy us again. It has tried to annihilate us many times. We survive and remember."
Kosh shivered against the waves of pure menace spreading from the creature and he remembered:
***
Long before he was, his people the Vorlons had opened the gateway. They had sent another, identical gateway to the 'other side' and surprisingly it had worked. There was a connection. A dimensional doorway opened and his people were able to pass through to what they considered a higher level of existence. What they discovered was not another higher plane, but another universe not unlike the one they were escaping from.
The great experiment had taken a left turn but the lure to explore a new universe was irresistible and several convoys went through. To their chagrin a higher level of existence was the last thing they'd discovered. What they found was desolation on a level undreamed of. World, after world, after world, after world; destroyed, wrecked, abandoned, poisoned, and burned. So many uncounted trillions perished. The Vorlon expeditionary force eventually discovered a fleet of ships, another unwelcome surprise and confirmation that they were way off in their calculations.
By their standards, the ships were primitive, a motley group of nations banded together to wage war on their neighbors. The young never learned. This universe was just as chaotic as the home. But as Vorlons, his race couldn't help it. They interfered. The Vorlons approached them and discovered that this great amalgamation was friendly. They were a confederation of survivors embroiled in a great conflict between them and a terrible enemy. It was assumed by them that the Vorlons were simply another race intent on destroying a common enemy. They were surprised as Kosh's race didn't commit to their cause and chose to simply move on.
The affairs of lesser beings were not their concern, but curiosity got the better of them, as they had nothing else better to do while their scientists search out the errors in the calculations. They were too close to be denied their rightful place in the cradle of creation itself.
The Vorlons watched impassively as the fleet encountered and were summarily destroyed by a power that dwarfed anything seen since the last war, between the First Ones, five thousand years earlier. The Vorlon Commander ordered several of his ships to observe the battle, however the observers were swept up into the war. A group of the enemy ships surprised them, using an unknown method of hyperspace faster than light propulsion.
Several of the Vorlon people were captured interrogated and tortured. Only one Vorlon ship was known to have survived the resulting slaughter. The FTL speed of the enemy ships was slower than jumpspace, but in several ways it was more efficient. The Vorlons were still unfamiliar with the subtleties of jumpspace in this new reality and so were at a severe disadvantage.
The newcomers had been discovered, however Kosh's people didn't understand the full extent of their predicament. Vorlon obsession lay elsewhere and it drove them to ruin. The weapons of the enemy were terrible in their power, able to penetrate Vorlon defensive screens with frightening ease. Stunned, then enraged, the Vorlons fought back and defeated a small squadron of ships that had so completely caught the others off guard. Vorlon weaponry was powerful, but hadn't been improved upon for millennia, because there hadn't been a need to do so; and that arrogance proved to be their undoing. They found themselves outmatched by weapons and defensive technology that surpassed anything they'd ever experience. The explorers were driven back to the gate, where it was discovered by the Ancient Enemy.
In waves, they attacked without warning and dozens of Vorlon ships were destroyed before they even reacted to the threat. Vorlon heavy destroyers had taken damage on scales unimagined by them, and were forced back or destroyed. The battle raged for weeks before the Vorlons finally admitted defeat and began to retreat back into the gateway. There were those who were willing to disable the gate and give their lives so that the rest could flee to safety. They had chosen not to destroy the gate in the new universe, assured in their minds that the enemy would be unable to repair the gate to full functionality. It was too valuable to destroy and the consensus was that they would try to save the precious gate so that it could be used some other time and place when conditions were better.
Once again, they underestimated the resolve and the intelligence of their new enemies.
According to history, the events that transpired next were unclear but the alternate gate wasn't disable or destroyed. But it was altered, sending waves of telepathic transmission into the other gate that hadn't been yet closed. His people had been so arrogant that they believed that the enemy didn't have the knowledge to make it through the home gate. But to their chagrin, they once more found themselves in error.
Kosh shuttered with memory.
The enemy slipped through before the gate could be properly shut down. Telepathic waves captured a few of Kosh's people and together the brain-locked Vorlons and the enemy modified the home gate to enable that gate to increase their telepathic influences. As the influence increased many of his people had been turned.
Filled with a single resolve, the Vorlon race fought back with a collective intensity never before experienced by their people and they finally destroyed the enemy, or pushed the alien invasion back thru the gateway before they could establish a solid foothold. Millions of Vorlons had died in the process but the gate was shut down and the survivors hunted down and killed. But the gate itself was never destroyed. Some of his own people, still under the influence of the enemy managed, to steal the gate and abandon it into the currents and eddies hyperspace before they could be stopped. So great was the shame and embarrassment of what they'd done and what was almost allowed to happen, that it was never spoken of, lest the other elder races derided them. It was known only as the 'great mistake'.
One of so many…
***
"We are here," it whispered to him. "We will feed and you will die know that you have failed like so many others."
"You will be stopped."
These creatures were supremely territorial and once in this universe, they claimed all that was available to be in their grasps. Nothing was safe anymore, not even the Rim.
Why they had chosen to come to this universe took a few moments more to figure out. In that other universe, the location of their homeworld lay at the edge of a spiral arm, surrounded by a great expanse over a hundred thousand light-years wide. There were thousands and thousands of worlds within their reach but that reached was still limited by the great distances needed to get to the connection portion of the rest of the arm. The enemy could travel no further but they could and did destroy the thousands of worlds that harbored alien life not their own. They destroyed and procreated like some foul disease. No inhabited system was safe from them and they had free reign until they met another power as aggressive and vile as they were. The only good thing to come of this was that their enemy nearly stalemated them for a period of time. That universe had its hands full, but that wasn't Kosh's concern. The gate on this side was opened and they had found another way to spread forth-into this universe.
This galaxy will be ours," the creature told him. "We will propagate and we will survive. The Imperixe will succumb; the Borg will not prevail. Other life shall whither, as will yours. Your great undertaking failed. You've let us understand. And now we are here. We will propagate among the young. They will fail and they will die."
Kosh now had a name to go with the terror. "Yonji-Sinhindrea," he hissed, before closing his mind to thing in the cell.
He needed to tell the others.
***