Peliar Zel 2004-05-12 24 AnonymousKudos on the analysis of the EA! I've wondered if the EA wasn't an oblique warning about the United States. After all, fear of threats got us to permit the existence of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act in the first place, just as fear of alien influence put Clark and his ministries in power. I was wondering...would Deanna Troi meet Lady Morella, the Centauri prophetess and widow of Emperor Turhan? The actress was Majel Roddenberry, so her resemblance to Lwaxana Troi would throw our counselor off guard.
That was a good idea that I had not thought of with Lwaxana and Deanna. I might deal with that later on in the story. That is –if- Lady Morella survives the next couple of chapters…
I recommend tow stories right now: Final Flight by BobDL in the Home Battlestar Galactica section and 'Still not in Kansas' by Soladad in the Babylon 5 TV (crossover B5 and ST:Voyager) section. Both are very good and you should check it out when you have the chance. Talk to ya.
Have fun with this and remember not to take parts of this chapter too seriously.
Chapter 23
"Tongue in Cheek"
The Zocalo-nineteen hundred hours:
This had been one of the strangest weeks in Second Lieutenant David Corwin's time on B5, and that was saying a whole lot. His station had stood head to head with a Shadow force, whose representatives then came on the station. Those images coming from the conference room frightened him and the confirmation that Clark was really responsible from Santiago's death made his hair want to stand on their ends. The robot called 'Robby' was another strange experience. It looked somehow primitive; almost as if someone had tinker it together with spare parts whenever time had permitted. But what it could do proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was anything but primitive.
And where it came from simply made him shake his head in wonder. The owners were from yet another reality. It was getting to be a bit ridiculous and his head felt like it wanted to float away whenever he thought about it too much. When he got this job, he knew he would see wonders few other humans would ever see, but this was a bit much. Whatever; he reveled in it just the same.
He got up to leave when someone grabbed his shoulder and plopped him back down. Immediately David knew who it was. Only one person ever did that to him.
"Hi, Chris."
"That's Lieutenant Christopher Kelly to you," the man answered brightly. "I thought that I'd find you here."
"It's been along day, Corwin sighed. More like a long week, he thought.
"Of course it was," his friend said sympathetically. "Personally, I'm glad to be back on this old bucket of bolts. Don't misunderstand me," he added quickly. "I love my ship but after a period of time, it can get tiring. There's only so much room and you see the same people over and over again. This is like a breath of fresh air."
Chris' ship the Alexander had just returned in time to see the Shadow vessels parked in orbit around B5. The Drazi mission had been a bust; a good thing, too. The Centauri would have been a handful, even with the battlegroup's enhanced weaponry.
"It's a great place to work, I'll admit," Corwin told his friend. "But sometimes, I just want to run away and let my mind go blank. You did hear about President Clark?"
Chris gave him a non-committed shrug. "Everybody heard," he said softly. "The balloon has gone up, David. People are taking sides and Earth is more divided than ever. If this had been the only thing, I don't think it would have made a difference. But when you take everything that has happened and you put it together..."
"I believe that the only thing that is keeping us from starting a full scale civil war is this fight with the Centauri and that's kind of petered out. And now we're on alert against another possible enemy."
Chris laughed heartily as the irony slapped him. "We live in strange times. Who would have believed it? A real alien menace, if we believed what the Ambassador said."
"The Captain believes him and so does Commander Ivanova," he responded. "That's good enough for me. Besides, I've seen a little too much recently."
"Enough of this," he said slapping his hand on the bar. He ordered a drink, the turned to his friend. "I want to know what happened between you and your date'."
Corwin knew the man was completely serious now. There would be no peace now if he didn't tell him. "As you know, before you left, I was approached."
Chris' response was a series of loud barking. "Approached?" he asked. That's a good word if I'd ever heard one."
Slightly angry and slightly embarrassed, his response came out more harshly than he had wanted it to. He concluded that he had been around Commander Ivanova too long. "It turned out better than I expected."
"Hurrmph," came Chris' retort. "What happened?" he repeated.
"Okay, okay. Knona came to the restaurant a little after nineteen hundred hours."
"What was she wearing?"
"Look, are you going to let me tell you or not?"
"Tell me, tell me!"
"Okay. She had on a blue jumper on. It looked like a cross between a pair of Federation pajamas and a hunting uniform. It was a nice fit."
"That good?"
"Yep. Her hair was combed and everything. Actually, she looked kind of nice in that 'warrior-I wanna-kill-you' kind of way. Her eyes were a deep green, you know."
"Why did she pick you? I mean, I thought Klingons hated humans."
"They don't like Federation humans," he corrected. "But all of them have been adjusting here at B5 and she's been volunteering on Captain Garret's ship for a while now. It was a cultural exchange initiated by Garrett to establish better relationships between their two cultures. Anyway she told me that she wanted to get to understand humans a little better. And I was the one she wanted to talk to in a more relaxed setting."
"Tell me another one," Chris smirked. "I will admit that she doesn't look as bad as some of the other ones, like the chick with the sharp teeth and muscles coming out of her nose."
"They're like us, Chris," David said patiently. "They come in all types just like we do. The people in her region don't have the prominent ridges as in other clans and in fact, they don't look as different from us as the Centauri."
In fact as they had talked that evening, he discovered one of the great secrets in Klingon society. He was sworn to secrecy under the penalty of a miserable death should he ever reveal what she had told him. To be perfectly honest, he didn't believe the tale she told him for an instant. But it was still entertaining and he learned a lot her and her people in the process.
A hundred or so years earlier, just before K'mpec came into power, most Klingons looked very similar to humans. They were so similar in fact that a few could actually pass for one-without a medical- if necessary. The Klingon empire was expanding everywhere in those days and the Federation was right there, interfering with that rightful expansion. This came to a head one day when the imperial cruiser Akomar visited a planet ripe for incorporation into the greater Empire. They beamed down onto the planet preparing to awe the populations; but the inhabitants there started screaming and begging for the Federation not to harm them. Her people were perplexed until they came upon the horrifying realization that the aliens thought that 'they' were humans coming to get them. When the report to back to the High Chancellor, he and the council raged for weeks at what they considered the ultimate humiliation.
"I've been insulted!" Knona had told him. Her ex-leader had repeated that phrase incessantly.
"Klingons did not look like humans! We are Klingons," became the catch phrase of the time.
Under his command, genetic specialists created a DNA mutagen, that changed the physical nature of all Klingons and the future children as well. Knona had admitted that Kaslok wasn't the most stable of leaders, and when he proposed the great change no one was caught by surprise. And no one said anything against him either, until it was far too late.
Unfortunately, the form he picked as the model from which all Klingons would forever look like, suffered from a rare bone deformity. For some reason, that appealed to his deranged mind. Once the airborne mutagen virus was released into the air, without the permission of the high council she added, Klingons lost hair and developed prominent ridges of various configurations. The more exposed they were, the more the ridges and skeletal structure changed. Their aggressive natures also increased dramatically. That was the upside. On the downside, thousands died from the mutagenic effects of the gene-altering virus.
The Klingon people were incensed and civil war broke out. Month's later when the fighting slowed and most of the people had recovered from the worst of the changes, K'mpec's faction removed Kaslok from power and K'mpec personally gutted him from head to groin, and threw the remains out an airlock towards the closest active volcano he could find. The body missed its target, but the people below, waiting to see the spectacle ripped what was left of the body apart and pounded it with enough stones to raise a small monument.
But the damage had been done and for decades, Starfleet humans constantly called them turtleheads. It was an obvious insult, but it had little meaning outside of Earth. K'mpec went on to become the longest Klingon leader to ever stay in power before he died of suspicious circumstances.
"We went to dinner, had some burnt fried bird wings…"
"Chicken?"
"Yes. The replicated stuff." He smiled at his friend's facial expression. Replicated food was the standard on the station these days. B5 was completely self sufficient, now. "She's trying to adapt and when I saw how hard she worked at it, I relaxed and went with the flow."
Well, he thought. It was better than those worm-snacks or peanut butter for that matter. "So you had a nice dinner," Chris said. "Then what?"
"We walked around the station a bit. I asked a few questions. We almost got into a fight. Then-"
"Whoa," Chris almost yelled. Back up."
"Oh, you mean the fight?" he asked innocently. He shook his head and laughed. "I made a mistake. I asked her why was it that everything she said had a military connotation to it?"
Chris had noticed that about the Klingons also and nodded in agreement.
"She thought I was insulting her heritage. She was more surprised than mad but she was about to hit me, and I was trying to explain what I meant to her. Evidently it worked. She calmed downed.
"You think she'd be used to it by now," she told me. "The way humans think, I mean."
David slowly nodded. "She's one of those people that takes-time," he said. "Anyway everything was going fine until she started sniffing my palm."
His friend immediately smiled. Finally! "Could you explain that?" he asked a little too coolly.
"She said she wanted to remember my scent," David answered. "Then she asked me if I was interested in poetry. I was surprised. I didn't think she would be interested in something like that. Then she told me that Klingon women enjoyed a good poem being spoken by the right person. Everything I could think of, I could tell she hated it. She wanted to hear about something with blood and guts."
"So, what did you do?"
"Honestly? My mind was a blank. Then I remembered the story of David and Goliath, grabbed a bible, found the story in 1 Samuel 17 and started reading about this who kid took out some oversized soldier with a slingshot, then cut off the soldier's head with is own sword. Then I continued and read to her how David's people slaughtered the offending army. Blood and death everywhere. God, she loved it."
Smiling broadly, Chris waited for him to continue.
"Then Knona picked up something, I don't know what it was, and threw it. And the next thing I know, I was flat on my back and she was on top of me growling," he said smiling.
"What happened!"
David yawned. "I'll have to tell you about that in the future. I'll talk to you later," he said to a stunned Chris. He patted his hand on Chris' shoulder and left.
A frustrated Chris watched him go. Then a slow smile crept across his face. "I'll get you for this David." Still smiling, he ordered another drink.
((((((((()))))))))
Marcus Cole was an excited man. Susan had said yes! They were going to have a real date! The man almost bounced when she came into the restaurant. He even dressed up for the occasion. No robes tonight! This called for a real suit!
The Epsilon Millennium café was the most exclusive restaurant on Babylon 5. The fact that it was a large holographic room run by Starfleet and B5 personnel mattered not at all. Every species in B5 came to this place. Even the carrion eaters had a special section that catered to their own particular desires. Special force fields and air filters were available so that other guests could dine in comfort without those unique smells interfering with their own sense of taste. Picard and his people needed a source of money besides the teaching classes and this little venture was very profitable and sported a serious waiting list.
The room today was patterned after an ultra exclusive, outdoors restaurant on some planet called Risa just after sunset. And as beautiful as the scenery was, Marcus never even noticed. The man's eyes were riveted on the woman who just came through the door. He tried to give the appearance of being relaxed, being in charge. He gave up. This vision of womanhood was his life. Marcus was a Ranger, the man in charge of protecting a rapidly healing Londo. That duty was now completed as Londo had gone, returning back to Centauri Prime onboard a Minbari warship. It was a bold move.
Being around Londo so much of the time was actually disturbing even for a Ranger. The Ambassador kept waking up at night, screaming about Z'ha'dum being destroyed and there being nowhere to run. The full details weren't clear but, Marcus really didn't like what little he did hear. But he pushed that back because he was too pre-occupied with Susan's seat. Old-fashioned? Yes.
Simply put Susan was his idea of the perfect woman. It wasn't that she was perfect, her temper being a good example of several undesirable traits he wished she didn't have. But she was the perfect woman for him. In his life, he couldn't ask for anything else because she possessed all the qualities that, for him a woman should have. There was no one else even close. So, he couldn't help himself. Even if Susan were an ogress, he'd still love with the same passion he had to constantly deny.
"Thank you for coming," he stammered. He knew it was a lousy first line but he couldn't help it. It was a miracle that she came in the first place he thought as he sat down next to her. What was that perfume she was wearing? It was something new. No, he wouldn't embarrass himself he thought by getting to close.
Susan was watching him with a mixture of amusement and irritation. She hated being the object of too much attention, especially from him. Therefore he had to say something quick before this date was ruined before it started. Anything business-related was out of the question if he could help it.
"I really expected you to turn me down and I was rather surprised that you decided to accept my invitation."
"Well, with everything that's been happening lately, I wasn't about to turn down a good meal. Besides, Stephan's been complaining that I need to gain a little weight. And on top of it all, I am so sick of that stupid Kobayashi Maru that anything is better than thinking about that stupid scenario. I owe her one."
Marcus would later swear that he had no reaction to her comment, although there must have been something because Susan's entire demeanor changed.
"I'm sorry," she quickly said. "I shouldn't have said that to you. You haven't done anything to have me to speak to you like this. It's an insult and disrespectful." She paused for a minute looking embarrassed. She got up and he knew what was about to happen.
"Please don't go, Susan," he implored.
She looked at him as though he were nuts. "I don't understand you, Marcus," she said. She wasn't moving off, but neither had she sat back down. "I have treated you like dirt and still you come back for more. You take everything I've thrown at you and you haven't complained. You're like a sic puppy I can't get rid of." To his relief, she sat back down. "Why do you even care?"
It was another insult, but he didn't mind. "You can't get rid of me by insults," he answered gently. Then, on impulse, he finished his answer in Minbari.
"What?" she asked astonished.
Marcus smile was devious. Her Minbari was still lousy and if she remembered any of the words, well, he'd worry about that later. Satisfied that he could still aggravate her, he answered her question. "It doesn't matter. When you understand Minbari, you'll understand."
Full of mirth, he watched his date try to figure out what he had said. She liked puzzles and it kept her interested, which is why he treated here the way he did. He needed to keep her interested. The waiter was coming and he quickly sipped his water before he would order.
"Is that true?" she asked astonished. "You really think I'm the most beautiful woman you've ever seen?"
Marcus never imagined that he would almost drown from a small sip of water. "How?" he blurted before the coughing completely took him. She didn't have a full understanding, let alone a command of the Minbari language yet.
She was too busy laughing to answer his question immediately. But when she did understood how deeply he'd put his foot into his mouth. "I have a sub-dermal implant that allows me to understand just about any language spoken on B5. You didn't know because of your assignment."
With the waiter there and Marcus recovering from his near drowning, she ordered for them. The woman quickly left; the food would be there soon.
"Are you okay?" she asked, slightly amused at the look on his face.
"Yes," he choked. She was about to lay into him now. He just knew it.
"Good," she responded. "Because I wanted you to hear this." She turned as Michael and Deanna entered the restaurant and headed towards their table on the other side of the room. "I believe that was the most beautiful, wonderful thing anyone has ever said to me. You meant it and I know that. Thank you."
"I did mean it, " he said softly trying to ease his tension. This wasn't what he had planned. "I can't help it. I-"
"Marcus, let me say something first." He nodded and she continued. "I am sorry that I've treat so badly for so long. My past relationships haven't been the best and I confess that I've been frightened of getting involved with someone else. And you're so different. I want to use the word weird, but I promised to be polite," she added quickly. "You've asked for so little, just one kind word and I couldn't even give that to you. I was afraid of losing control. Then I've been grounded and I feel like I'm not making a difference."
"I heard about that. May I ask what happened?" he said as if he didn't really know.
"It details don't matter," she answered. "I simply got carried away and almost got my crew killed. Everybody from Captain Sheridan to Captain Garrett chewed me out, one way or another. That was bad enough, but then I had the dream."
That caught his attention. "What dream?" he asked.
"It was a crazy dream, actually. It made no sense, but I remember it so clearly. And it was the main reason why I agreed to come here."
"Sounds interesting," he prodded. Dreams were the windows to the soul Rolling her eyes in surrender, she relented. She had to tell someone, he realized.
"I know it's probably a result of the fight at Proxima III, but my dream took strange direction. Instead of fighting the Centauri, I was fighting the Clark's ShadowForce Omegas. I was enraged because they had a greater force than I had and they had prepared a trap for us and the resistance forces. They were demanding my surrender. I didn't care, and I started spouting poetry and attacked. Why, I don't remember, but I do remember that we won, but most of my crew had died and I was badly hurt. And you were there, smiling and saying everything was going to be all right. But you were going to do something terrible to keep that promise. You saved me, but I don't know how and then you were dying and I didn't get the chance to tell you."
"You think it was a premonition of some sort?" As she spoke he could feel the depths of her emotions raw and untainted. "It was probably nothing."
"It was probably nothing," she agreed. Her eyes didn't quite hide her doubts, however. "But I'm here now talking to you because of it. I couldn't live with myself if something were to happen. You would sacrifice everything for me. I know it."
"I would." He found he couldn't lie to her. Not now.
For a brief second something warred within her. She sighed. "Marcus, let's dance."
"Thought you'd never ask..."
"You do know how to dance, don't you?"
"I am Anla'shok," he answered. 'Rangers walk in the dark places. We can do everything and we're quick studies."
"That means you can't," Susan smirked. "But that's okay. If you can invite me on a date after how I've treated you, then I can teach you to dance."
"Lead on, wonderful lady," he answered, bowing deeply.
She grabbed his hand and led him towards the dancefloor. "My pleasure."
He forgot all about food.
((((((()))))))))
Babylon Five detention area:
"You had no right, John," Anne Sheridan told her ex-husband. "You locked me in a cell. Kept me from choosing what I wanted; and for what?"
"Whether you understand it or not, whether you agree to it or not, it doesn't matter," John answered her coldly. "I will not allow a member of Earth Alliance to be dragged off and used as breeding stock for an alien race, even if she is my ex-wife."
"We're not really divorced yet, John," Anne retorted. I'm not dead and therefore I am your wife by law, if not in spirit," she countered, pronouncing every word in excruciating detail. "The Shadows offered you a chance to get rid of me and I'm sure that Delenn would have been delighted to help pack my bags. But instead, I'm in jail. Why am I in jail, John?"
John's demeanor softened a little. "I can't let you go, not like this. They took everything from you, from us. I will not let them take your life." The look she gave John stunned him. She truly didn't understand. The emotional ties were really destroyed. "Your life is gone and I couldn't protect you," he said. "I will make sure that what you have left will be yours."
"And will you be part of what I have left?"
He sighed. "Anne, as with everything else, you'll have to
start from scratch. You don't love me and what we had is long
gone. At least I have the memories, but you don't even have
that. But because of my memories, I promise that I will help you
make some of your own." He turned away. "Your Shadows have
run away and left you," he said, still facing away from her. "Now
it's my turn to help give you a chance to build something for
yourself. That's why you're in that cell."
(((((((())))))))))
Ensign Tumar felt a sudden twinge of guilt for the poor life form they were keeping prisoner. The Andorian security guard watched the poor alien move around its cell in a fury trying desperately to get out. "It must feel so alone trapped like some type of animal," he said to Ensign Sadat. "It's an intelligent being. Even the Captain has to know that if we can communicate with it, we can avert this war before it's too late."
Ensign Sato looked at her partner as though he was a stranger. "Excuse me, Mister 'I-want-to-wipe-out-the-Klingon–people-with–my-bare-hands'-Tumar of the Rishana clan? What is wrong with you? Look at it." Sato pointed it the screen. The creature had stopped its thrashing now and ceased its screeching. It was looking at the monitor-right at them. If evil had a form, it was this thing looking at them.
"It's beautiful," Tumar whispered. "A new life form we have never even conceived of. It should be freed."
Sato hit the panic button.
Castillo was on the comms instantly. "Report."
"I believe Ensign Tumars under the creature's influence," she said quickly. Just as quickly, she pulled out her phaser and trained it on Tumar who was slowly moving from the secured room towards the cell where the Sinhindrea was imprisoned. "Stop."
The Andorian ignored her at first. Then ever so slowly, he began drawing his weapon. "You shouldn't try stop this," he said.
"Sorry, Tumar."
She stunned him. Just as Commander Castillo and several security guards entered the holding room. Seeing the Ensign on the floor he was somewhat surprised. "What happened?"
"He was under some type of influence," she answered. "I had to…"
Inside the cell the creature went crazy. It slammed itself violently against the force shield and bounced back. Immediately, it slammed into the detention's force shield once more but this time, it generated another cybernetic arm and pierced the shield. The disruption shorted the power matrix, causing several thousand gallons of water to pour out of the cell.
"Get back!" Sato managed to scream before she found herself under water, being washed down the corridor. That's when she heard that scream of something completely inhuman splashing towards her.
Her phaser rifle was missing and her fear was extreme. Blindly reaching for her hand weapon, she lifted it up to fire trying frantically to defend against an attack she knew was coming…
Commander Richard Castillo heard Sato's high-pitched wail at the same time her phaser was fired point-blank into the prisoner. The corridor was brightly lit and he saw the whole thing unfold. One of the creature's tentacles wrapped around Sato's arm and ripped it from her shoulder with almost no effort all the while being bathed by her phaser's energy. He didn't remember the next few seconds after her arm came flying in his direction. He did remember the creature lifting itself with its six 'normal' arms and half-running half-swimming towards him, screaming hideously with the intent of ripping him apart. The creature was so loud that he and the others could barely think.One guard had smashed into the emergency forcefield and had lost his own weapon in the confusion and swirling water. The other guard still retained his weapon and was firing at the Sinhindrea homing in on them. The creature seemed to take little notice of the grievous wounds it received. Castillo added his weapon's fire to the guard's.
-And kept firing.
"Emergency alert!"
Garrett was ordering the water to be transported out or the corridor. Sato was beamed directly into sickbay and the frantic operations to save the woman and reattach her arm. Dr. Selar started stabilizing the mutilated woman as soon as her patient completed beaming onto the diagnostic bed. Her team had their work cut out for them.
Castillo and the guards had survived the assault, but all of them were in sick bay, suffering for some type of neuropoison. The alien had secreted it into the water during the attack and it was sufficiently virulent enough to paralyze all of the humans on contact.
Little remained of the creature itself, only two small secondary tentacles that continued squirming until they were put into stasis. Both organelles reeked of toxin.
She was as angry as she had ever been. And beneath that was an underlying current of fear. Each time she choose to be merciful to someone, the deed came back to bite her. She was getting tired of it. "How did it break out of our detention cell?" Garrett demanded to know.
Sonya Gomez was the first to answer. "The creature is as much a cybernetic being as an organic creature. We believe it was able to analyze the frequency of our shield and apply enough power to disrupt it. The pressure of the water within the cell was enough to complete the rupture and short out the field. The corridor shields activated automatically to secure the prisoners and contain the water."
Security monitors picked up the action between the Sato and the alien. Sato had fired into her prisoner's mandibles just before the creature ripped her arm out from her socket. That act alone gave the observers an idea of how strong these creatures were. It was also an indication of how hard it was to kill these things. There was a momentary flicker of sadness as she realized that she would once again be responsible for taking life in this inevitable conflict. But she steeled herself and returned to the conference room and the anxious ambassadors.
"Ambassadors and gentlebeings," she said. "There has been an incident. If you would turn to you monitors, I will explain…"