Those Who Stand

by AlbertG

The B5StarTrek crossover. The Armageddon Conflict continues in Chapter 26. Janeway and her crew are here. Londo has made it to Centauri Prime and so have the Minbari! The tides of war are beginning.

27. Chapter 25

The Candle and the Star in Infinite Diversity

Chapter 25

  "The One Side of the Coin"

(The Armageddon Conflict:)

Thanks to Raneko for the character of Commander Gerald Higgins and the details of his Earth Alliance modified Monsoon gunboat.

I SERIOUSLY RECOMMENDT THAT YOU READ "The Search for V'ger" TO GET THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS STORY.

Footnote in the History of the universe of Babylon Five:  Historians generally agree that in the early days of the Armageddon Conflict, President Clark's timing in preparing to destroy Babylon Five once and for all came at a most fortuitous moment.  The gathering of the EarthForce's fleet in the Sol system essentially prevented the planet from being overrun by the Drakh.  It was believed that the Shadow plague that poisoned Earth was done as vengeful retaliation for Clark's rejection of the Shadow's request.  Most historians also believed that the revelation of his involvement is what finally pushed him over the edge.

The latter part may have been true, but the discovery of Clark's private diary turned the other theories on their collective ears.  According to Clark, the Shadow agent known only as a Mr. Morden, contacted him a few days before the attack to personally inform him what the Shadows planned to do to him and the Earth.  So the rumor that Clark was intending to destroy Babylon Five was just that, a rumor.  The Shadows Knew exactly how Clarke would respond to their threat. EarthForce was gathered at Sol system simply to protect him from his enemies, a fact that he kept secret at all costs.

 The second report that stunned everyone was that the Shadow plague wasn't primarily designed to exterminate humanity.  Instead, the plan behind its implementation was far more insidious.  With the invasion of the Sinhindrea and the subsequent defeats of the Shadow forces, they devised a plague that would cripple humanity and kill them slowly over a period of ten years.  Earth's gathered forces would be destroyed by the Drakh attack.  With Humanity weakened, the Terrors would easily defeat and consume them as was their pattern.  Therefore, Humanity was to be the vector in which to destroy the Sinhindrea without them ever knowing it until it was too late.  The plan had a good chance of success but events conspired against it, which was a good thing for mankind.

Earth:

By the time Advanced Destroyer Group under command of Captain Jake Thompson exited through the Terran jumpgate, there was bedlam throughout the entire region.  A couple of days earlier, the Sol system had been visited by four vessels of unknown configuration and origin.  The unidentified vessels simply appeared near the rings of Saturn, kicking off dozens of security alarms throughout Earth Force detection units.  There was no jumpgate signature, but neither was there a warp signature characteristic of the Fed ships either.  That they would have recognized since rudimentary subspace sensors units were now in place.  Three were scout-like, fast-moving, grayish vessels that ran interference for a larger identical ship, very likely a recon vessel of some type.  All of those vessels avoided direct confrontation for the most part.  The only exception was near Earth's moon where a Star fury squadron managed to intercept and fire on the vessels.  The return fire was overwhelming, resulting in the destruction of nearly the entire group.  The ships then left the system using the same unknown form of FTL propulsion.     

Babylon Five:

Captain Sheridan woke up to a headache.  Babylon Five was busier than ever, as refuges from something called the Kor-Lyon Republic had begun arriving.  First there was a single ship.  Eventually there would be thirty of them, survivors of an invasion by an unknown force that swarmed and destroyed their planetary system and captured millions of their population.  When the translators finally made since of the situation, Sheridan's blood ran cold.  Their Republic was situated within thirty light-years of Z'ha'dum.  The scant descriptions of the enemy ships corresponded to the information provided by Delenn's data. 

EarthForce was also acting skittish.  A private communiqué from EarthGov had sent most of the ships headed towards Earth.  Personally, he was glad that he didn't have to deal with the mess there.  On the other hand, there was a lot less EA loyalists to deal with next to his station.  Something was going down since his little broadcast.  How Clark would weasel out of that situation remained a mystery, but Sheridan would love to be a fly on the wall to see how he did it.  It was only a matter of time, and maybe that idea in the back of his head concerning invasion would be dead and buried.

But what was the most disturbing was the report that the Ross jumpgate had been destroyed.  That in itself was an act of war-terrorism, really- and that was one of the few things all of the races had an agreement on.  Everyone depended on jump-gates to move freely around the sectors and even in the worst conflicts; no one would even consider destroying one of them. 

When contact with the Leonis jumpgate had been lost, EarthForce sent two Omegas, were already in the area, to investigate the situation.  Two jump-gates lost within Earth controlled territory caused reverberations throughout the entire EarthGov.  Sheridan requested that the Enterprise and resistance EA vessel Revere travel to the Leonis system to check out the situation.  If what he suspected was true then, they'd need the extra firepower and Picard agreed.  Also arriving there would be the explorer ship Cortez still under the command of Jack Maynard.  If this were a simple malfunction, then the Cortez would be the ship to deal with that.

The Enterprise and the Revereentered the jumpgate and headed towards for Leonis at maximum acceleration.  

Z'ha'dum:

On the world so old that its original name had been lost to antiquity, its new name, Z'ha'dum invoked struck fear and loathing in the minds of countless sentients throughout the galaxy for thousands of years.  The whole galaxy knew of the name Z'ha'dum, but only a select few knew of its actual location.  Those few were allies of the ones called Shadows and the others who discovered the planet by mistake.  The homeworld of the Shadows was not their place of origin but it was still theirs nonetheless.  After their defeat a thousand years earlier, the elder beings congregated there to rest, recovering from their defeat by the hands of the Vorlons and their allies.  They had lost the great battle, but not the war.  On Z'ha'dum there was an opportunity to rest and recover from the enemy's relentless attacks against them.  Secreted away, the Shadows slept safe in the knowledge that their war would begin again at a time of their choosing. 

The communal hibernation was broken a thousand years later by an Earth exploration vessel.  Refreshed and re-energized, the Shadow aliens called their allies unto themselves and they were a power once more.  The Drakh were the most faithful and the most numerous, but there were other dark servants as well, that would have soon entered the battle for control of the galaxy.  At the call of Z'ha'dum, the servants would have stuck; however that call was never given, for the homeworld of the Vorlons had been shattered.   They were no longer a threat and the Shadows rejoiced.  The Minbari could not withstand the coming darkness and the other races were both too technologically and spiritually weak to put up much resistance without the backbone of the Vorlons to support them.   Now they would swept the galaxy and remake it in their image.

But at the very pinnacle of victory, something happened.  A chance discovery of a Vorlon artifact slammed the mouth of victory shut and opened wide the jaws of hell.  The Shadows found themselves battling an enemy older than they were and to their surprise, they lost the opening skirmishes for Z'ha'dum.  Things went downhill from there.  The Drakh abandoned their Centauri allies, returning to their master's homeworld to defend against those who dared to defy the Shadows.   Shadow fleets returning flushed from their victories at the Vorlon front threw themselves into the fray against the alien armada.  There was little coordination between the Shadows, the Drakh and their other allies.  Their only purpose was to stop the ones called Terrors from establishing a foothold in this reality.   That meant destroying the Vorlon's dimensional gate.  The battle raged for a month with neither side giving up or surrendering.  Both groups gave their all and the death toll was horrendous.  Three times the Terrors were nearly driven back to the gateway by sheer force of numbers but in the end, the Shadows lost.

Initially the two ancient races were closely matched in power and numbers; however, the Terrors had advantages that the Shadows could not compensate for.  The enemy possessed an energy field that protected their ships from Shadow weaponry.  The power required to break through those shields was enormous and took too much time; and that was disastrous for the Shadow defenses unused to responding against such alien defenses.  And the enemy used telepathy to coordinate their attacks and confuse their adversaries.  Shadow vessels under the influence turned to attack their own companions and that confusion ultimately lead to their defeat. 

At the end of the battle thousands of Shadow and allied vessels littered space for nearly two light-years in all directions.  The magnificent dark spires on Z'ha'dum were now melted puddles of unrecognizable scrap.  Z'ha'dum's cities suffered multiple plasma strikes from orbit and those strikes scoured the planet of life.  There was no one left alive except one…

Retreating to more distant sectors would only prolong the inevitable.  With the loss of Z'ha'dum, there was only one choice left available to them.  The Shadows would rendezvous and retreat towards the Rim-maybe.  For the first time, the race of Shadows were afraid, not of losing but of being exterminated.  And now the victory over their ancient rivals, the Vorlons, grew bitterer with each passing day.   Frantically, the Shadow s contacted their allies to warn them of the coming fire, so that they could defend themselves-or flee- as best they could.  The former inhabitants of Z'ha'dum decided not to help, as they considered their time in the galaxy finished.  Not lost to the Shadows was the irony was that Babylon Five, the one place where the Shadows had fought hard against to keep the younger races from uniting together, might shape up to be the one place where the last best hope for salvation for the younger races.       

Many Drakh soldiers were captured, but were quickly disposed of as their worth and information was considered of relatively little value.  Beings known as Shadow were not always killed outright in the battles.  Thousands were wounded in the defense of Z'ha'dum and a few were captured and allowed to live.  One Shadow lived long enough to transmit its findings to group mind. Before it was eaten, it retained enough of its sanity to telepathically warn the others of its kind.  In the final moments Xuadishse realized that it captors wanted him to do so.  And a part of him was indeed curious about his captors. So, he complied.

The Terrors originated from an aquatic, highly predatory world and their instincts had only grown as they extended themselves into their galaxy.  There was a very high tendency towards cannibalism, something that threatened their civilization.  With cold Intelligence and the survival of the species pushing them, they came upon their first civilization of sentients some ten light-years from their home.  The Terrors fell on them like a pack of animals.  Using the population as a food source, they were no longer had to cannibalize their own young, injured and weak.  As a people they began to grow in numbers and spread to other systems destroying or devouring everyone they came into contact with.  Their stellar neighbors didn't take kindly to this and bombed them back into the stone-age.  A mere three thousand years later, they came back, once again swarmed several systems and caused to repeat itself as they were again nearly bombed into extinction.  This occurred four times over a period of five hundred thousand years. 

But the stellar alliances made a critical error.  They should have wiped them out, but instead, they extended mercy by allowing a few of their enemies to live.  They didn't take into account the telepathic survivor's knowledge was passed from generation to generation.  The strongest survivor of the last conflict was one of the more paranoid of their species and it produced the largest surviving number of progeny.  Generational paranoia joined with extreme predatory instincts and race memories of their technological prowlness, to create a race of monsters.  As the older races in those sectors of the galaxy moved away or died out for one reason or another, the Terrors were forgotten and they grew strong.  Determined that never again would they suffer near extinction, they went from hunters to killers.  Once again in space, they smashed everything that dared defy them.  In a span of three hundred years, they had destroyed nearly two thousand inhabited worlds and lay siege to nearly two thousand more.  Anything not apparently useful to them was destroyed.  And nothing stood against them except the expanse- a large gap in their section of the spiral arm, devoid of anything, except empty space spanning almost ten thousand light years in all directions.  They were cut off from the main cluster, so they continued their attacks on targets of opportunity, turning their part of the galaxy into a sepulcher.

Its curiosity satisfied, the Shadow died screaming as it was eaten alive.

The creatures known as Sinhindrea prepared themselves for battles to come.  With the data taken from the Shadow, previous information was confirmed.  There was little that could stop them from establishing a presence in this universe.  The hated Vorlons were diminished, gone.  The other races were weakened and fighting amongst themselves. 

The place called Babylon Five, a space station were prominent in thoughts of the dead Shadow, but with the details provided, it was not considered a threat.  It had no significant defenses, no shielding and was considered little more than a meeting place for various races who barely got along with one another.  It was a low priority target.  But the Minbari were considered strong in this region of space.  The Centauri had ships protected by Shadow technology and as such were a primary target for culturing and extermination. Small expeditions into Centauri space confirmed that they were weak.

The Earth Alliance used Shadow technology, inferior in nature to either Shadow or Centauri designs but they still were associated with Shadows; therefore they were slated for culturing and destruction. The Narns were nothing.  The hated Vorlons had removed themselves from this area of space and the small Leagues would fall quickly.  The Hand, who were from this universe, were far away and not considered a threat to be dealt with yet, if they dared to show their faces.  The Old Ones, those who could be a threat were long gone and what remained were few in number and would be overwhelmed as required.   The Sinhindrea needed to spread out or die.  Hundreds of worlds were here and ripe for feeding the newly established colony.  The gate was open and protected, never to be closed again. 

In their portion of their galaxy, Yonji Sinhindrea reigned supreme over all and nothing could successfully oppose them.  In their universe, the separation of their domain from the rest of the Galaxy had them confined and isolated.  The T'kon Empire had been too far away to be a threat to them.  During the last great cleansing, the feared powers had again just about destroyed their species.  But they too were now long gone.  And as the Yonji climbed back the long road, regaining their ability to once again travel in space, it was discovered that the threat of the T'kon had long since vanished in that portion of the galaxy the lusted after.  But with their current level of technology, there was no way to get there.

Then, a hundred years ago, a distortion in space and time formed, a dimensional-hyperspace bridges connecting their portion of space to the core arm of what was called the Beta quadrant.  It was but one of several, created by the children of V'ger to get rid of unwanted interference.   It also other races at bay as well.

Three ships never before seen by Sinhindrea eyes emerged.  They were huge menacing, aberrations.  "We are the Borg," the vessel transmitted over communications.  "We will add your technological distinctiveness to our own.  You will service us."

Immediately understanding the threat these new vessels represented, Sinhindrea weapons vaporized the first cube.   But the second cube fought back and destroyed three Sinhindrea capital ships.  The Borg weapons had burned through the defensive screens and the Sinhindrea were destroyed.  But the Sinhindrea were an ancient species and they understood that this new enemy had adapted to their attacks.  They adjusted their own shielding and used their powerful ships to ram the Borg cubes.  Those ships penetrated the cube and shock troops swarmed into the Borg stronghold.  The telepathic attacks began to compromise Borg hive mind.  The Borg tried to assimilate but they failed.  The Sinhindrea were cybernetic organisms also and their resistance to Borg assimilation nanite technology was total.  With four times the strength of a combat drone, the shock troops destroyed everything in their paths.  The Borg killed hundreds of the aliens, but in the end, they acknowledged failure and defeat in this instance.  The self-destruct code was initiated and the cube destroyed itself taking several of the Sinhindrea ships with it.  The last cube, uninterested in continuing a conflict that would deter it from its primary mission, which was to secure the children, left by way of an unknown form of FTL.   But the shunt remained open. 

The Sinhindrea had not yet completed the conquests of their part of space, so they essentially ignored the shunt while they continued destroying hundreds of more species within their sphere of influence.  Finally they realized that they had performed their job too well.  There was nothing left but their own kind and soon cannibalism would rear its ugly head once more.  

Throughout the decades, many ships from different races had traversed through the shunts.  Most were damaged in one way, or another.  The Sinhindrea destroyed them all.  They began looking at the shunt.  An expedition went though.  It was disastrous.  A species called Imperixe swarmed over the ships and killed them all.  Their weapons were unusual and they also had shield technology.  Undeterred, the two fleets sent broke through the hastily created blockade that the Imperixe created, established a front and the war between the two powers began.  The Sinhindrea raw had the power, the Cionas, the sheer numbers.  The Sinhindrea used hyperspace drives while Imperixe used warp technology.  After ten years of fighting, the Ciona Imperixe were slowly being pushed back.  But here, in this new universe, there was the chance to start again, to grow and propagate.  And to do that they intended to destroy any threat in their paths.  All was going as planned. 

Then disaster struck, and Earth and the place called Babylon Five required serious re-evaluation.   The Cloviens began their hunt.

Centauri Prime:

There was something happening at Centauri Prime that had caught that of his people and he was sent to investigate further.  Although none of the major powers were aware of it, the Technomages kept them all under surveillance.  Galen's Pinnance scoutship had little trouble tracking the Minbari fleet through jumpspace.  Their stealth technology was sufficient for their military needs. The Council of Technomages rejected this as inferior and developed their own stealth tech.  Technomages navigated in real-time and becoming lost in hyperspace to such as them was impossible.  And they had no need for hyperspace beacons because they understood the secrets of jumpspace travel.

Untruths had been told about the nature of jumpspace and none of the races, not even the Minbari had known of it.  The point was that they should have.  All it would have taken was the examination of two questions: at what point could one be deeper in jumpspace and how could one define the phrase deep into jumpspace' in the first place?  There were lies buried in misdirection, covered by genetic tampering.  His people had discovered the truth and even for them, those manipulations by the Vorlons had kept them from discovering other truths.  There were other forms of hyper drives available.  

What convinced Galen that the Starfleet ships were from another reality was their warp drive.  And there was the fact that they were at the edge of discovering the truth about jumpspace in less than nine month of being introduced to it.  But the real question that continued to elude his people was why had the Vorlons manipulated the younger races concerning jumpspace and other forms of FTL in the first place?

Now, tracking the Yeager (and the other three ships)was a different matter altogether.  It used warp drive; there was no way his ship could keep up with it from jumpspace-if it wasn't for the little tracking spell he'd slipped on it.  It was an amazing little piece of technology that he had just about figured out without violating his promise to Guinan.  That would be a boon for his people when they understood the principles and practical applications.  No longer would his people be depended only on hyperspace for faster than light travel. The transporters were interesting as well. True the mages had the secret of transporter technology but the Feds used a different approach and he was always one for learning new tricks.

The acquiring of those technologies could have been achieved a long time ago if it hadn't been for Guinan.  How she continued to thwart his spells were as intriguing as they were infuriating.  That promise he made was a mistake, not to steal Federation technology without her permission.  What was he thinking?  A second later, he understood exactly what he was thinking.  The woman was more than what she seemed.  Guinan was power, the type you didn't want to mess with.  Therefore he didn't, and rationalized it as professional courtesy.   Besides, there were other things of interest at B5, as in a certain robot from another reality.  That would come later. 

Galen's exit from jumpspace went undetected.  He was immediately struck by what he saw Centauri Prime was an armed camp and the reason was obvious.  Several fires could be seen from orbit.  Radiation profiles were very specific but the type of weapons used couldn't be determined.  Someone other than the usual powers had attacked recently and from all of the reports from his people he knew who they might be.  Civilian and military channels were flooded with information.-over sixty million dead and another forty million injured by the initial attack.  With those kinds of causalities, the Centauri could not afford to continue making war against their neighbors.  As he looked at the causalities, Galen felt a profound sense of loss for all those who had been needlessly killed.  But now wasn't the time for sentimentality.

"Filter out the civilian channels," he ordered his ship's computer.  "I want to see the ships that attacked Centauri Prime."

Obediently, the computer complied and quickly produced several holographic images of several ships of unknown configuration.  Galen studied the images intently, trying to divine the purposes of the various structures on the larger ships.  They looked evil.  The smaller ones appeared vaguely organic, or at least the front half did.  The back half, the engine compartments and thrusters appeared relatively typical.  Analyzing replays of the attack, extracted from the military communications revealed something remarkable. These aliens used a third form of FTL propulsion.  For a second he was nearly intoxicated by the possibilities, however he focused on the task at hand.

Undetected, his ship slipped into the planet's atmosphere, headed towards the imperial city, or what was left of it.  Once the city was something beautiful but now it was a smoking ruin.  He continued on.  What he was searching for wasn't here.  Scanners confirmed this and slowly he widened the search area.  Ten minutes into the search the computer signaled for his attention.  There, one hundred miles south by southwest. 

At twenty miles, Galen saw what he was looking for.  The stealth vessel landed in a fairly dense area of woods.  He dared not go any further.  Centauri patrol ships were patrolling the area and even he couldn't evade them and the security sweeps circulating in the region.   His vessel secured, his image shifted to that of a Centauri Captain, high enough to get things done but low enough to avoid serious scrutiny.   He headed towards the palace.

Dozens of Sharlins, along with support craft and hundreds of fighters of the Minbari Federation bypassed several Centauri Military strongholds and entered normal space less than three A.U. from Centauri Prime.  They had met no resistance and now, the proceeded directly towards the homeworld.  Hundreds of Centauri warships were in front of them but made no move to attack.  Their weapons were active but none were targeting the oncoming ships.

Rannaonn, Captain of the Blood of Saints and the Commander of the Minbari fleet was faced with a quandary.  The blood of millions of his people screamed for vengeance. He expected a fight, but none was being offered.  The Centauri were allied with the enemy however, they weren't attacking and there was no record of them ever attacking any Minbari.  But his heart was divided.  As he observed the planet he could see several of their cities had already been destroyed, millions already dead or dying.  That little fact should not have mattered. 

The there were others here from B5,  EarthForce and those Federation humans and even the Narn, watching to see Minbari justice in action.  They were witnesses that would judge what the Minbari did here for a thousand years.  Rage filled the Minbari during the War of Vengeance against Earth and that rage would have destroyed a world and all of the people.  Rage filled him now once more.  He was a warrior.

But he had learned.

"The fleet is to remain at station," he ordered.  He would wait a short while and if they attacked, he would kill them all.  The choice would be up to them.   

Never let it be said that Galen didn't have a sense of humor.  In the Federation database there was a species called the Kronjye, antlike creatures with big humanoid eyes, whose image he now put to good use.  One third meter long, carrying large guns, these holographic nightmares, running and chasing the guards did their job splendidly. 

Already panicked by the recent attacks, these holographic projections were assumed to be the enemy.  A few explosives placed in convenient places, nerve agents to paralyze the people and the illusion was complete.  The result was uproar in the lower palace where the prisoners were located.

Earthspace:

Onboard the EA Hammermill , patrolling the outer edge of Sol system on orders from President Clark, Colonel Griffin stood behind the ship's Captain staring blankly at open space.  All of those conversations with Sheridan and Brindley had struck home.   Clarke, he didn't even want to use his title, literally held the world at ransom.  The world knew of the deal he had made with the shadows and there was rioting in the streets. 

The attempted coupe had failed miserably.  When the Senate had tried to arrest them he reminded them that his hand was on the trigger.  He alone had the codes to Earth's orbital defense platform and had made it clear that he would use maximum force to maintain control.  Everyone in EarthForce had known what that meant.  The Senators who finally developed some sort of spine were arrested and put in prison.  EarthForce was in an uproar. EarthGov was in an uproar.   Everyone was in an uproar.  Clark's days were numbered but he would hold on to every last second.  However the order for two EarthForce fleets, by him, to return to Sol had baffled everyone.  He had mumbled about a secret attack by the Centauri but no one believed anything he said anymore.  Due to the recent revelations from Babylon Five there, generated another, separate rebellion among EarthForce crews.

Several of the Hyperions and Omegas command staff had been busy.  There was going to be a concerted effort to take out the orbiting platforms.  These defense platforms if turned against Earth, could conceivably scorch forty percent of the planet.  And to a man, they all turned towards him for leadership.  This came as a slight shock, a man who had never really expressed his opinions to anyone outside a small circle of close friends and officers.  But many regarded Griffin as an honorable, as well as capable officer.  The stain of Brindley's political disfavor had not rubbed off on him.  Hazel eyes blazing, he resolved to do something about the situation now.  Sheridan and griffin weren't the only threat facing Clark now. 

Jake Thompson, Commander of the Advanced Destroyer Group or ADG, an unwavering, stanch supporter of Clark and his ideals wasn't overly pleased with the revelations from B5 and the fact that Clark had directed several of the G.O.D's platforms at Earth.   A stanch loyalist to his soul, he voiced his objection to Clark's moves loudly in light of the threats that he'd just experienced while at Centauri Prime.  But the question was what would Thompson and his group do if Griffin implemented his plan? 

What the Colonel and the others didn't know was that question was about to become a moot point.

Centauri Prime:

What was that noise? 

It had been ten days-as far as Sela could tell.  For ten days, she remained inside a blackened, windowless, damp cell; enduring continuous sessions of torture from the Centauri guards under the watchful eyes of their mad leader.  He truly was mad, she knew.  His mood swings, paranoia and manic-depressive-explosive rages were much too consistent to be any type of act.  His own people were too frightened of him for it not to be an act.  His dribble and constant babblings about godhood was almost as bad as the torture itself.   And the sad truth was that both would get worse as time went by because Romulans didn't talk and there was nothing that these pathetic creatures could do to make them. 

S'hnula, with her broken leg and multiple contusions had laughed in the Emperor's face when he had asked her to give him the command codes for their shuttle.  She was rewarded with an immediate beheading.  She'd done her duty, but Sela was saddened by it.  S'hnula had been a good companion and hadn't even considered Sela's mixed heritage a problem in light of the current Cylon crisis.   The small group of Romulans couldn't afford another loss, but at the same time they had no intentions of explaining anything about the shuttle to these creatures. 

The torture had been dreadful.  Being the leader, she had suffered the tender mercies of this world's leader first and foremost.  Three fractured ribs, four broken bones, three missing teeth, a damaged eye, a destroyed eardrum and loss of blood hadn't humbled her.  And she knew that her teammates, even the maddened T'wyn, hadn't broken.  Then the psychic scans began.  They were the worse, but again these people misjudged Romulans.  Sela's mental shields were as were T'wyn's a product of Tal Shiar training.  And Tarok was a senator and his natural shields would allow nothing to penetrate.  Frustrated the telepaths redoubled their efforts, but it was useless.  Their Emperor had them executed as well.   Romulan technology was safe for now, but how long that would last was anyone's guess.

The amazing thing was that subspace technology was completely foreign to them.  These people had no concept of subspace technology!  That was one of the first of many surprising discoveries, especially when they nearly blew up the shuttle playing around with the engine's core computer.  Evidently someone was smart enough to understand a countdown when they heard it.  However someone else wasn't as smart when they played with a disruptor, accidentally setting it to overload.  The explosion took out much of their science building.   Even through the pain, Sela managed to laugh at that.  That was also the fact that Romulan technology as a whole was so unfamiliar to them that it would take months, even years before they could even begin to understand the basics without help.  They required a translation matrix, something that she and the others refused to give them.   The translator devices had began working again so they understood the Centauri language, but since their enemies didn't speak Romulan standard it didn't help them.  On the other hand the Romulans learned a lot about their captors.  They were at war with some called the Narn and also with the forces of Earth.  Must have been a short war, she mused.  Even with the Cylon war going on, it must have been a massacre, which may have explained why there were so many warships packed into their system. 

All of that was of course speculation on Sela's part.  She really didn't know where she was.  Q had made sure of that. But that gave her comfort because she and her crew had endured his little test.  They could handle torture and stress, better than humanity.  Dance indeed, she snarled.  The Romulan people were never weak like humans and that's why she and the others had survived his little experiment.  Even if she died, she could go to the grave assured of Romulan superiority.

Again there was a noise, more defined this time.  It was the sound of several bodies dropping to the floor.  Cautiously she backed away from her cell.  Even in the dark, her good eye was well enough to detect the dark, purplish mist that seeped under the door.  She backed up further when the mist began to eat the metallic structure.   Within seconds, the door was gone.  A man dressed in black stepped the door, drank in her body carefully and then signaled for them to leave. 

She hesitated for less than second before walking out of her cell as best she could.  T'wlyn and Tarok were with him, each armed with a Centauri weapon.  Around them were several unconscious Centauri guards.  Surprised, but pleased, she picked up a formidable looking rifle, and pointed in the general direction of her savior.  "Who are you, human?" she demanded to know.

"Who I am is of no importance," the man answered.  I am here to help you leave this dreary place, unless of course you wish to stay?"

She really hadn't expected an answer to her question, but the man spoke Federation standard, although with an unusual accent.  She didn't know whether to be happy or furious.  The Federation again had come to Romulan aid. 

This planet is about to come under attack by people who really have a distaste for the Centauri," the man continued as they moved down the hallway. 

Everywhere she looked within this prison, there were unconscious guards draped on the floor. The surveillance cameras and security devices were inoperative and the doors were opened.  She wondered how he managed all of that. 

 "It would be best if we were not here when that happened."  Galen locked onto here with is strange almost alien gaze.

"I agree.   How do you plan to get us out?"

"I don't plan to," he answered.  "Someone else will take care of that for us."  He stopped at another cell went in and saw a female prisoner unconscious on her cot.  Quickly he mumbled something and the female awaken.  Startled she started to fight back until she saw that he wasn't Centauri. The female began to cry.

"Na'Toth," he whispered.  "You're needed."

"What are you?" T'wlyn asked the man who had so far not given his name.  "Section Thirty-one?"  Only a few of the Tal Shiar knew of that organization and both he and Sela were aware of it.

"No," Galen answered.  "I believe my group is more exclusive than anything that you are aware of."  Quickly he changed the subject.  "How did you know that I was human," he asked Sela.

"Only humans would attempt such a foolhardy rescue like this."

It came as not surprise to Sela and the others was the fact that they were in a palace dungeon of some sort instead of a real prison.    There were times when they were out in the open for all to see, but the people scurrying about were far less interested in aliens walking around than what was happening in orbit.  They were waiting for another attack.  That didn't matter.  What did matter was the shuttle and its secrets.  She determined that the secrets there would never see the light of day on this planet.  No matter what the cost.

Cartagia cringed with the command center when he saw the Minbari, accompanied by EarthForce ships and even one of the federation vessels converging on Centauri Prime.  To his everlasting hatred, his forces hadn't begun firing on the intruders yet.   What was wrong with them?  Didn't they understand that the Minbari were coming to kill him?

"Give the order to fire," he told the Supreme General.

"Sir," the Supreme-General said very carefully.  "Our people are hesitant to begin a conflict with them.  We are not officially at war with them.  An alien force with firepower that surpasses the Minbari fleet that approaches us even now has attacked us.  The man began to sweat as his Emperor's gaze burned through him.  "It may be advantageous for us to consider negotiating for peace, so that we may have time to defend against the true enemy."

Cartagia in a rage pulled out his knife and stabbed the offender.  Blood dripping from the blade he turned his murderous rage towards the rest of the staff.  "My ascension to godhood has not been completed yet," he screamed.  "The Minbari may agree to negotiate for peace but their price will be Our head!   We will not be subjected to such an injustice by those who should grovel at Our feet.  As Emperor, We demand that our people expend out dying breaths defending Us and our planet form these aliens."  He turned to the next in line.  "Centauri Prime cannot endure the humility of surrender to such as them.  I demand that you give the order to fire, or you shall join your superior in death."  Besides him, three of the Emperor's personal guards moved into position and pointed weapons directly at the officer.

At that moment, a young officer chose to announce more unpleasant news.

"My Lord Cartagia, the prisoners have escaped."

The Centauri leader seemed to fall back.   "They can't have gone far," he moaned. "Find them!"  Completely forgetting his last order, he rushed towards his prize to make sure it was secure.

The relieved military officers watched one another nervously, waiting for someone to make the first move.  Eventually someone did and a single order was issued to the Fleet.

It was plain and simple.

-Do absolutely nothing.

Babylon Five:

Nichols hated being stuck on duty while everyone else enjoyed themselves inside the station. He and a few others were still making final adjustments to the hyperdrive system of the ship.  As small as their ship was, the United Planet Cruiser C57-D's energy source was three times more than any EarthForce ship.  UPC space ships used shredded ion energy as their power source, necessary because of the huge amounts of power required to run the hyperdrive engines.  Their FTL was much slower in comparison, but with the influx of information recently discovered about jumpspace and its relationship to hyperspace, that had changed.  With their sensor scans and data about jumpspace, they were able to modify their ship's engines to attain speeds of nearly three thousand times the speed of light instead of the original four.  An engineering exchange with the Ambassador gave them inertia compensators far superior than what they possessed.  

Now, deceleration point stasis stations were no longer needed when transitioning from hyperspace to normal space.  All of that excess energy from the twin power plants were used to significantly boost the structural integrity fields to withstand the new stress of high-speed hyperspace travel and to power the blasters.  And now the structural fields could be used as true defensive shields for protection.  Needed materials created by Robby made the job easier, and all in all, Nichols believed that his little ship could stand toe to toe with just about anything he's seen in this universe so far, no matter the size.  But hopefully they'd never had to test it.    

-Which is why he was so uncomfortable now.

The klystron hyperspace scanner had activated automatically, as it was supposed to when evidence of hyperspace travel was detected.  The surprised Lindstrom had called Nichols to the bridge to confirm what he was seeing. 

"I picked this up about a half hour ago when I was still calibrating the system.  That's when I discovered those," he said pointing to the scope.  "I thought it was a glitch and I double checked.  There are several signals, Sir.  One is on a direct course to the Centauri system where the Minbari fleet was headed and a smaller signal is heading in our general direction.  They're both traveling relatively slow but the larger one, well, they're almost on top of the Centauri sector.   Then there is this third one, about ten light years over here in grid four sector.  It's like they're following something."

 "Isn't that where they lost the jumpgate?"   Lindstrom shook his head.  "Contact the skipper." 

A swirl of light and flash of red marked the entrance of Blue Nova, the Ambassador and the EA Paphos.  The Paphos moved slowly towards the Loyalist group stationed near B5 and immediately began her report.  Sheridan was there at C & C waiting for the others.  A now familiar hum enveloped the room and General Brindley, Captain Garrett, Delenn and Neroon, materialized in front of him.  The looks on their faces told him all he needed to know.  Quickly he led them to a secured room.  Garibaldi was there and few others.  Susan entered a few minutes later, having rushed from grey sector to deal with problems there.  She gave Garrett a relatively dirty look, to which Garrett returned a sweet, devious smile of their own.  It was so completely innocent that it reeked of deceit.

Delenn never noticed the little exchange.   "It's worst than we thought," the Minbari said to all of them present.  "I am confirming all of our reports.  "Z'ha'dum has fallen to a species known as the Yonji Sinhindrea.  These aliens are the ones that the Vorlons  fought millions of years ago."

Rachael smirked at that comment a bit but said nothing.  As Guinan said, 'Vorlon truths needed to be taken with a grain of salt'. 

 "Their power is unbelievable," she continued.  "We will need all of the resources from every world to defend ourselves against them.  You know they nearly destroyed the Vorlons and they are no longer here to fight against them.  The Shadows are defeated.  We only have ourselves and we must be ready.  On that point all of the ambassadors agree.  Even Kosh will implore his people to turn away from the Rim and join us in this fight."

"And to that end," Rachel added, "I have been in contact with Captains Picard and Sisko.  We agree that this threat to great to ignore.  If our information from Ambassador Kosh is accurate, they will come for us-all of us.  Therefore, I formally offer the construction and use of full shield generators to protect Babylon Five.  Estimated completion time would be one week.  This will increase B5's survivability by sixty percent over the polarized plating.   In addition we also offer four auto-command defense platform satellites to assist in B5's defenses.  This will be under your direct supervision Captain Sheridan, as per our agreement with exchanges of technology."

The smile on his face was palpable, but the seriousness of the situation had also hit home.  "A lot's happened since you left.  I have information concerning the Shadows and President Clark…"

Centauri Prime:

For an hour Galen and his entourage made their way to the secured shuttle. Hidden inside a small maintenance room, Galen activated a sound suppression spell.  The Romulans were more than a little impressed with the Technomage's stealth skills and confidence in working his way around the palace guards with injured people in tow. 

Tarok, although injured was a formidable fighter as demonstrated by his ability to beat Centauri guards to a pulp.  T'wyln as worse.  He was of the Tal Shiar elite, a trained killer and covert specialist.  Although his allegiance was dubious, he was still Romulan and his priorities were clear at this point in time. 

The Tal Shiar had fallen into disfavor recently with the two debacles that almost destroyed the political and military power-base of the Empire.  The first error was the pre-emptive attack on the Dominion's homeworld.  Most of their resources were used up in that foolhardy gamble. The ships and crews of the Tal Shiar were destroyed or captured and the loss of prestige was unimaginable.   The Praetor took the opportunity to gut the organization and take direct control effectively bring it under his command.  That turned out to be a rather pleasant situation for a while.  Then the Cylons came and the few remaining free operatives raised their ambitious heads again and cost the Empire dearly. 

The late Praetor's son had been influenced by a member of the Tal Shiar to attack prematurely and that caused the destruction of an entire Romulan fleet.  Undeterred, a member of the Tal Shiar threatened Praetor Tomalak in the middle of the war.  That insane plan failed and the fool had been spaced with prejudiced.  Now, the Tal Shiar had only a few agents under direct control of the Praetor.  T'wlyn was one of them and now he had been influenced by some malevolent entity called the Travigen, or to use his other name, Count Iblis.        

"Why did these people keep the shuttle so close to the palace?" Tarok asked Galen.  "Surely, there were more secure places to keep it safe and study it."

"The leader of this society is not stable," Galen whispered back.  "He trusted no one to protect it other than himself.   This planet has recently come under attack by unknown forces.  It was good thing that he is so paranoid otherwise the shuttle and you would have been destroyed in the blast that destroyed the Imperial city.  He was very proud of your capture.  As you know, the Enterprise, K'mpec's Honor  and the others Federation have given him and his forces grief.  Your Vulcan shuttle provided a means in which he could counter their threat."

"We are Romulan," Tarok said darkly.  "Not Vulcan."

"It hardly matters to Cartagia.  Your technology is unique and as such is of value.   I will send a message to Captain Sisko so that he can pick up the shuttle with the transporters, so that you can keep your secrets."

Sela frowned. Q must have put them back into the Alpha quadrant.  "Captain Picard will honor our agreements."

"I am sure he'll be happy with his crew safe and sound."

"We are not part of his crew," Sela hissed.   Quickly she calmed down.  "Can you scan the shuttle and determine its general status.  We were captured when the power died.  I want to know if anything has changed."

"Your wish is my command, Galen replied.  To the astonishment of the onlookers, from his pocket he produced two butterflies.  In grand style he whispered something to them and released them.  They fluttered to the floor and crawled underneath the door.

Understanding dawned.  "Technomage," Na'Toth said.  "I thought you were myths."

Galen merely smiled.

The stealth butterflies fluttered towards their target, virtually ignore by security and technicians.  They entered the opened doorway and landed gently on the control panel.  As they did so, the melded and spread across the entire panel, then the secondary controls, then everything else of interest.  When the job was completed, they reformed and fluttered away back from where they came from.  The entire process took ten minutes.

Galen 'collected' his butterflies and generated a small screen on the back wall.  The image was crystal clear with every little detail showing.  The Narn was very impressed; the Romulans merely concentrated on what they were seeing.

"The power is still at zero," Tarok said after he analyzed what he was seeing carefully.   "The backup power for the weapons appear to be functional."

The Blond Romulan nodded.  "Curious that Q allowed us that little amenity."  Towards the end of the transmission, they saw a large contingent of officers followed by Cartagia enter the room…

Well, well, well.  Armed with that little piece of knowledge, T'wyln could have cared less about anything else.  "Q is powerful but he is nothing compared to Iblis," he whispered more to himself rather than the others.  "My family is protected through him, and I now forfeit my life.  These arrogant creatures are not worthy of the life given them."   

In one fluid movement, the Tal Shiar pulled a small flap of skin away from his elbow and squeezed it before anyone what he was doing.  Both Sela and Tarok understood an instant later, their eyes going wide with shock.  It was a signal device usually used to detonate explosives.

"It is over," T'wyln whispered in his native language.  Arrogantly, he looked at his fellow Romulans.   "Did you believe that Iblis would have allowed Janeway to contact the children?"  he asked them, voice rising.  "It's as you've said Command Sela," he sneered.  They're too trusting and that will ultimately be their downfall.  Q has been contaminated by them as well.  This is why Lord Iblis and his forces will rule our galaxy and no one will stop it."

"You're insane,T'wlyn," Torak spat out.  "I care nothing for these people.  But you didn't give us time to get away."

"You're Romulan," he countered.  "These people have tried to usurp our technology and they have defiled Romulan citizens and the Senate.  They must be taught a lesson.  And you must be ready to die giving them such lessons.   Is that not what we've been taught since birth?"  He took a breath and said,  "You die for the Empire.  I die for Iblis.  But we will not die alone."

Tarok shot him.  

Galen didn't understand the language but he did understand the intent.  "How long?"

"Seven standard minutes."

" He turned to his companions.  "I must go.   He looked at the wounded Romulan and placed a small flower on his torn shirt.  Then turned away.   "USS Yeager, emergency.  Three to beam up to beam up, ASAP."

"This is the USS Yeager.  Who is this?" a voice demanded.  It was Captain Sisko.

The response was instant.  "Scan us and find out."  Without a second's thought he left the startled aliens.  Ship," he ordered.  "Come now."

The sound of weapons fire drew security from everywhere.  The door was kicked opened and they found one prisoner almost dead from a shot to the stomach.  Dragging him out, of the storage room they took to their Emperor.  Cartagia was disgusted by the prisoners green blood spilling everywhere. 

"Where are the others?" he demanded.

T'wlyn looked at the Emperor though dimming eyes.  "I am Romulan," he said in his native language, "and I will die spilling your blood."  He managed to smile a little before he died.

The escape of the prisoners had given Cartagia time to think.  Attacking the Minbari would be foolish.  However he could ransom these Federation prisoners and sue for peace, giving him time to escape their wrath.  No doubt they would want his head in a jar.   He had to get away which is why he wanted this ship functional.  But his scientists were useless.  They had no idea what they were doing and he would have them executed before the day was out for their incompetence.   He needed the knowledge those prisoners possessed, if he was to live long enough to ascend into godhood.

"Find them," he ordered the nearest officer-in-charge.  Or you and your family will take their place in the chambers."

The Officer gulped and rushed to obey his Emperor's orders.

Turning, he entered the shuttle.  He needed time to think.  Strangely, one console wasn't dark and it drew him to it.   One of his aides followed and stared at it  as well.

"It reminds me of a… countdown," the aide mused a second before he realized that that was what it was.  A moment later he was stumbling blindly out the door, oblivious to everything but the need to get away.

Cartagia screamed as everything clicked.  The strange smile of the prisoner, the one console, the lack of prisoners, transporter technology…

Terrified, he ran mindless towards the nearest exit with his entourage following.  The elevator opened just as he noticed that his guard's skeleton was visible.  One microsecond later there was only blackness.    

Two twenty isoton antimatter warheads vaporized everything within an eight square kilometer area.  Loss of life was total within a twelve mile radius and all that marked the once beautiful palace and township was a smoking crater.

Leonis Jumpgate:

Captain Jack Maynard's Explorer ship Cortez, detected the jumpoint first.  One ship was identified as a Hyperion.  The other, his scanners didn't even detect until it slowed down.  The Cortez was out near the edge of known space in the middle of a five year mission and as such information was far and few in-between.  The one thing they had heard of was the battle at B5 and the small ships that took out heavily armed EF ships without breaking a sweat.  They had also heard of snippets of information about battle at Proxima III. 

The Cortez was almost the length of Babylon Five, but its armament was relatively weak and they relied more on speed for protection than anything else.   The two Omegas had arrived about the same time as the Cortez and Maynard's crew was relieved.  Out at the edge, one saw a lot of strange things and most of the crew were light sleepers these days because of it.  A flash of light and the ship called Enterprise was there. 

"Captain, we're receiving a hail," a very nervous radioman said.  "No one wanted a fight. Not now.

"Answer it please."

There was a little static before they heard the voice.

"This is the USS Enterprise and the Revere coming to assist you from Babylon Five.  We are not hostile."

"Thank God," Maynard said softly.   "I'm Captain Jack Maynard of the Cortez.  We received the message two days ago and since we were in the general area, we came to investigate."

Near the Cortez were the two Earth Alliance warships.  Both ships were weapons active and their support Star Furies were out, but none of them were targeting anyone which was a wise precaution.  And in order to maintain the peace Jack decided to keep the lines of communication open. 

"As far as we can tell, the jumpgate was destroyed about four days ago."  All four of the struts were twisted and melted.  Most of the remains were barely recognizable.  "Weapons fire of some sort."

"I don't understand it," the Captain of the Hera said.  "No one destroys a jumpgate, except under the worse of circumstances and even then…" 

"The first might have been a mistake," Maynard said.  "But this does not happen twice.  We have the supplies to build another one,  but I don't see the point.  We need to find out who is doing this."

"Could it have been the Centauri?" Commander Riker asked.

"Absolutely not," Jack said.  "Even at their worse, they wouldn't consider that."  He was interrupted by his scanners officer at the same time that Tasha called for Picard's attention.

"We have a spatial disturbance one thousand Kilometers to our stern," Tasha said.  "Two ships-" Tasha's face reddened.  "The configuration matches the data given to us by the Ambassador."

"Red alert," Picard ordered.  The bridge darkened and the cold professionalism of combat-readiness took over. 

Captain Walton of the Hera was one the line again.  "This was a trap.  They were waiting for us.  We didn't detect them in jump space.   The Cortez is a non-combatant.  She needs to get clear."

"Agreed," Maynard said.  "We're powering up now."

"We'll give you the time to get away," Walton said.  "Head for Proxima II or Earth."

"Roger that.  See you on the other side."

The huge ship had already begun powering up; its massive engines starting to move the vessel away from the fighting.  The modified Hyperion Revere had launched its six Thunderbolt  Star Furies - first generation modifications of the B5 updates- which raced ahead to join the others.    Already the EA warships had turned to face this new threat bearing down on them. 

The twin enemy vessels, both sporting the characteristic bulbous power cores, changed course slightly to intercept the fleeing Cortez.  They were huge vessels, a hundred meters larger than Minbari Sharlins, immediately targeted long distance fire at the Cortez.  Interceptor fire from her kept her from being hit, but the resultant explosions rocked her hard. 

Two-dozen fighters, squid-like in design seemed to 'unmerge' from the front of the vessels and immediately went after the Star furies.  These two ships and their support fighters-to be known by everyone later as a cloven strike team-attacked the EA fighters, most of which found themselves immediately in desperate straits.   Maynard watched and listened as the battle played itself out. 

Black 4:  "What are these things?  They look like mutant Vorlon…"

Black 6:  "They're in range…firing…a hit…no go.  My shot was deflected …bounced off…"

Raptor 3:  "I hit it twice…no effect…R2 , look out !  You've got two on your five!  Get out…no!"

Raptor 6:  "Loews!…that was me!…(static) who taught you to shoot?!!"

Raptor 5:  "Sorry!…R6, it's coming around again!"

Black 4:  "I'm with my wingman…we got it…had to double-team one…took fourteen hits…we cant handle this!…they just took out  Black 3…My god…it's coming.  Somebody he…"

Raptor 4:  "These things are kicking our butts…"

Raptor 3:  "They have shields…(static)…too much time to break through…lost  half the squadron…we…"

Silver 3:  "Raptor and Black squadrons, back off…we'll handle your six…"

Silver 1:  "Everyone, Hellfires on my mark….in three, two, one…fire!"

Raptor 4:  "Jeez!…what type of missiles were those?" 

Silver 4:  "Raptor 4, go evasive!…we're coming."

Raptor 4:  "You're too far away to take the shot…What?…How the (static) did you…"

Black 6:  "This is insane!...(static)…We have to fall back!…let Silver squadron cover our retreat…"

Silver 3:  "We just lost Silver 2…they ganged-up on her."

"Silver 1:  "Phase cannons are effective.  Repeat PCs are a go."

Silver 3 and Silver 5:  "Roger that…"

Raptor 3:  "Silver 4 got broadsided!…wait, he's still moving…Why…"

Raptor 7:  "What kind of modifications do you have?"

Silver 1:  "Later on that R7…S3 and S4, missile sweep…targets a seven two mark eight  in five, four…"

Black 2:  "It's (static) me down…  Need assistance…"

The rest was lost to Maynard and the crew of the Cortez as the jump-point collapsed behind them.

"Godspeed to them all," Maynard heard his First Officer say. 

He agreed.

Instinctively, the four defenders attacked two-on-one.  The Hera began her attack run with the Adrastus less than a kilometer behind.  Both sets of main guns fired in unison, the heavy particles slammed into their targets, hitting dead center.  The target barely felt it, as its protective field deflected the far majority of energy.  As it continued on a straight-line course towards the Hera, it fired a plasma burst and it was all the Hera could do to counter using its defensive fire.  The explosion knocked the Hera about as it scrambled to get out of its way.  Laser and particle beams the continued to rake the alien vessel, which simply shrugged it off. 

The Adrastus fired several nuclear-tipped missiles that hit the Sinhindrea's first vessel.  Multiple explosions raked the ship, the shockwaves buffeting both Omegas.   Arrogantly, the ship sailed through the nuclear holocaust and fired at the Adrastus.   A blinding beam stuck the vessel and it simply disappeared.  The ship then began targeting the Hera.  

The second Clovien was doing less well.  The Revere had fired two salvos of photonic missiles at their target and the Enterprise had followed with a full spread of torpedoes.  The combined strike rocked the ship and reduced its shielding to forty percent.  Cautious now, it fired on the Enterprise with a vicious combination of plasma and beam weapons.  Hit, the Federation shields nearly collapsed.  Energy beams burned through shielding and blew out a section of armored hull plating.   The Enterprise accelerated and the second attacked missed.  The second ship fired on the Revere to stop its continued harassments.  The pulse destroyed an engine and a fifth the rear of the vessel.  The only reason why it was still in action was that the new plating had taken most of the brunt.   It limped away, while the Enterprise retaliated with its phasers and succeeded in destroying one of the twin gun ports. 

Aware of the threat of the Enterprise, the second Clovien ignored the Hera and the Revere to aid its partner in attacking this fast moving enemy ship.  It had been identified as a prime threat, like the other one…

"This is Captain Picard to the Revere and Hera.  Collect your fighters and evacuate the area immediately!"

"This is the Revere.  We will not abandon you."

"This is the Hera.  The same goes for us.   We will support the Furies but we will be back."

"Negative," Picard yelled over the increasing din.  Twin plasma pulses shredded the last of the shielding.  "Tasha, target the first ship engine full spread, maximum yield.  Phasers fire at same target.  I want it destroyed.  Mr. Crusher, continue your evasives.  Give us some room."

With the threat of the Revere's Silver squadron, the Sinhindrea fighters concentrated on them, trying to eliminate the greater threat.  Most of them failed to see the Hera swing around and box them in from behind.  The bloodbath finished, both the Hera and Revere collected the surviving Furies and prepared to flee the area.  However before they did, both ships targeted all of their remaining nuclear and photonic missiles on the rear most ship. 

-And fired.  The impact of sixteen missiles destroyed what was left of the damaged Clovien's shielding and ruptured the huge energy matrix reactor.  Trying to avoid the shockwave, the Enterprise turned into the surviving Clovien's beam weapon.  The beam connected with the saucer section- and went completely through. 

The hit had been felt all of the way to Picard's soul. 

"Get us out of here!" he yelled to Mr. Data.  Wesley was on the floor, bleeding, as was Tasha.  Riker, with a broken knee, was manning the weapons station now, at least until he passed out.  Something was on fire and the suppression units hadn't activated.

"They're coming into range," someone yelled.     

"Mr. Data, warp drive."

"I cannot, sir.  It is off-line."

"Geordie!"

"Two minutes.  I'm working on it.   That last hit did a lot of damage.  Deflectors are gone.  All we have is impulse right now."

"Phasers offline but rear photon torpedoes tubes are okay," William said before he hit the floor in a sickening thud.

Auxiliary bridge crews were filling in for the wounded and EM teams were trying to put out fires.  Someone was filling in now at the weapons section. 

"Ensign Miller, I want you to fire all available torpedoes at the target.  Also I want one Alpha Mark III's configured for a directed strike." 

"Yes, Sir."

He sat down and discovered that his wrist was broken.  Waves of agony passed over him and it was almost a minute before he could speak.

Another enemy pulse managed to touch the ship, and the main defector suffered major damage.

"Ready."

"Sir, I must remind you that we are too close," Data said.  "And the Alpha Mark III is not designed for space to space combat. 

Picard ignored him.  He already knew that.  "Mr. Data, maximum acceleration.  Ensign, fire."

Eighteen photon torpedoes and one Alpha mark-III planet cracker erupted from the rear launchers and struck the remaining Clovien that was just now realizing the extent of the danger it was in.  It tried to break off but didn't succeed.   

The shockwave buffeted the Enterprise and added to the damage.  Badly hurt, the ship began limping away.  A jump-point formed and the Hera and Revere exited, ready for another round with the enemy.

"Enterprise, Enterprise!  This is the Revere."

"This is Enterprise," a very tired voice said.  "I'm afraid that we are not at out best right now."

"You don't want to know what you look like from out here.  We have to leave the area.  Can you maneuver on your own?"

"One quarter impulse."

"I shall assume that that means 'yes'," Captain Walton said.  "We're generating a jump-point for you and the Revere.  Follow us in."

"Your President might not appreciate your actions," Picard responded.

"Screw him.  I didn't see him out here trying to save our butts."

"Then by all means, lead the way," Picard said. 

That was the last thing he remembered before he fainted.

Centauri Prime:

For a Technomage, six minutes can be a life-time. 

It took two minutes for his ship to land in the middle of the palace garden and it took another two minutes to make his way to it.  The stunned security guards were stunned yet again when the ship unleashed a potent toxin into the area. 

In moments everyone was unconscious, a mercy really, considering what was about to happen.  Once inside, Galen raced for the stars with several pursuit craft in tow.  A minute later, there was the flash of a nuclear (or worse, since it was Federation technology) detonation. 

The mad Emperor was gone.  Now Galen could only hope that the rest of the Centauri people wouldn't follow their leaders into destruction.

Captain Benjamin Sisko couldn't believe his ship's sensors.  Romulans on Centauri Prime.  But his mother and the one he thought of as his brother, had told him that the rift was closed.  Yet, here they were on the Yeager.  Two of them, one a blond!  Both were in bad shape, evidently tortured by the Centauri judging from the bruising. 

The female was just as surprised as he was, judging by her stares.  She also seemed surprised that he and Commander Lawson were holding phasers on them.

"Captain Sisko, what is it with Starfleet and uniforms? Can't you people ever decide once and for all and stick with it?"

Commander Lawson's contempt was so obvious that it chilled the room.  "Identify yourself."

With the phaser pointed at her, Sela attitude was becoming less flippant.  "Captain Sisko, I know we hadn't officially met but I don't believe holding weapons on us is warranted.  We had nothing to do with the explosion.   And even if we did, it would have been in our rights to make sure Romulan technology didn't fall into Centauri hands."

So you are saying that you were not responsible for destroying the palace and several kilometers of populated land?"

"That is exactly what I am saying," Sela answered.  "Voyager would have never allowed our shuttle to dock with it if they felt we were a threat."  That was only half true she conceded but there was no need to tell Sisko that.  "In any case, Q's little game failed.  We need to know what the situation is with the Cylons and Deep Space Nine."

"Deep Space Nine?"  Lawson asked.

And Sisko froze.  His Other had shown him DS9.  

Both Sela and Torak ignored the junior officer for speaking out of turn.  "I don't remember a planet called Centauri Prime in the Alpha quadrant but as of now they have made enemies of the Romulan Empire. "

"I will ask you again," Lawson stated.  "Identify yourself."

Sela sighed.  Humans.   I am High Commander Sela, attaché to Praetor Tomalak of the Romulan Star Empire and this is Senator Torak.  We were on a joint mission with Starfleet to prevent the Cylons from acquiring high profile weaponry," she adlibbed.   There was no reason to give him full details.    "Q hijacked us from Voyager and placed us here at Centauri Prime with a disable shuttle as some sort of childish prank.  This mission is too important.  I demand that we establish contact with Voyager."

Sisko's face was stone as he said, "put them in confined quarters and have the medics take care of them."

"Confinement?  Why are you doing this.  Our people…"

"You are a Romulan onboard a Federation starship.  That is something we do not suffer lightly.  Now move."

"Torak was surprised.  "Why are you so hostile towards us?" he asked.

"I knew it," Sela spat.  All of her hatred and anger came spewing forth.  "Federation respect.  Your policies are all lies."

"Get them out of my sight," Sisko angrily ordered.  But then he held up a finger and looked at the fuming blond.  "And just who are the Cylons?" he asked her.

Sela's mouth hit the floor.

Ambassador Londo Mollari of the Centauri Republic was alone.  Locked in a small room that reminded him of a cell, he found that all he could do was wait.  The Minbari ship was a cold alien place and he felt quite uncomfortable on it.   That the Minbari allow him onboard in the first place was something of a political miracle.  The Centauri hadn't officially declared war on the Minbari (Cartagia wasn't that insane) but they were allied with their enemies and that made them enemies by default.

Held in general isolation, the only individual he saw was a Minbari servant that attended to his needs.    He had no idea what was going on, so he was more than ready when the Minbari fleet Commander walked boldly into his room.

"Ambassador," Rannaonn said bowing slightly in a way that indicated that it was a completely false gesture.  "Six hours ago the Minbari fleet reached Centauri Prime.  Surprisingly I've chosen not to bomb your people, as the humans so quaintly put it, back into the stone-age as you so passionately did to the Narn.  Wisely, your military has not made any hostile actions against us.  But your planet has been attacked by other forces and tens of millions of your people are dead and dying.  We don't know who those forces were, although I have my suspicions, as should you," he added darkly.  

Quickly, he raised his and stopping the Ambassador from asking the first of a million questions. 

"There is more," he continued.  "Two hours ago, there was an incident.  The Imperial Decar Palace home of Emperor Cartagia and the several kilometers of territory associated with it is now nothing more than a hole in the ground.  We believe that Cartagia was at the center of the blast along with most of your Imperial cabinet.  If that is true, and we think this very likely, then there is no effective leadership to rule your world.  This promotes chaos and chaos promotes strife.  If your military attacks us for whatever reason, we will turn the rest of your world into a smoking ruin.  So, the question becomes, what are you going to do about it, Ambassador?"

 
EarthSpace:

Things had changed so much since Commander Gerald Higgins had returned to Earth.  Considered a hero by the Clark regime, he steadfastly continued his unwavering support no matter what happened.   But that was simply the outside persona he was forced to wear.  Inside, he was a terrified, frightened man.  He was afraid not for himself but for his family.  They, meaning Clark's people, were watching him closer than ever and being such a high profile 'hero', the decision to keep him loyal had become paramount.  It was a joke, really.  Everyone hated the man, yet no one spoke up for fear that he would do to them or their families. 

When the news broke concerning the deal between Clark and the Shadows, he hadn't doubted it for a second.  He was overjoyed when the Senators came after Clark, but even he was surprised when Clark turned one of the GOD platforms towards Earth to keep everyone in line.  But that served only to enflame the entire population.  His once friend and Commanding Officer, Sandra Hiroshi had been correct about him. When this mess was over, it would take years for the wounds to heal, or maybe longer if the rumors were correct. 

He popped a couple of pills the doctors said would cure his recurring headaches which began after he returned to Earth.  Of course his wife had noticed the change in his attitude, and the increased gray streaks in his preciously brunette hair. The increase in stature served only to make him more of a prisoner of Clark's.

Now, instead of patrolling at the edge of space, he patrolled Earth system's core with a ship he helped design.  The Monsoon Raneko variant was considered one of the premier vessels recently developed by Earth's R&D.  The ship was a hybrid of EarthForce and stolen Federation technology.  Although it couldn't travel at the velocity of his modified Thunderbolt it did sport first generation polarized hull plating.  It was inferior to what was being produced at B5 but it worked and Federation tech didn't kill you if you touched it, unlike shadow tech. The ship was directly opposite of Clark's huge intimidating vessels which got larger with every design.  But with the introduction of the Starfleet ships even he had to admit that size wasn't everything.  It just made the President angrier.

The new fusion engine designs copied directly from his fighter generated enough power to more than compensate for this flying tank.  In addition to all of the standard weapons, it had a first generation reverse engineered, Klingon disruptor canon.  The information acquired from the remains of the Klingon derelict had been valuable indeed.  But having the equipment and understanding how it worked, was another matter altogether.  By back-engineering the hand disruptor, the smallest weapon developed by R&D had to be mounted on a two hundred meter ship. 

The Raneko gunboats, easily modified and retrofitted, were quickly becoming the ship of choice for system patrols which left the larger warships free to be used elsewhere.  Older, obsolete ships could now be retired.  Nothing would be retired soon if the rumors were true.  EarthForce was gathering for an all out push against Babylon Five.  Otherwise, the rumor said, President Clark would obliterate a few cities with the G.O.D.s pointed at the planet.  

His thirty-six hour patrol was just about over, when gold channel lit up.  The hyperspace beacon warning system had been triggered.   Jump points distortions, dozens of them, were forming across and from behind the moon.

It was a Drakh invasion force.  Four-dozen Drakh three thousand, three hundred sixteen meter-long ships supported by hundreds of Raiders.  In a bold move, the ships had successfully bypassed all of Earths early warning systems in order to get at the planet.  The EA ships closest to the attackers died before they knew that they were under attack.

But EarthForce already on a war footing was quick to respond.  Particle beams, lasers plasma and pulse canons, and fusion missile quickly saturated the area.  The EF juggernaut moved to engage the enemy.  There was no time for organized combat.  Ships picked a target and went after it.  The Star Fury engaged Raiders by the dozens, then hundreds.

Higgins and the other gunboats went in firing everything they had at the rearguard cruisers.  The half-dozen gunboats swept in by twos, strafing a cruiser with heavy particle and disruptor weapons.  By the time the last pair were completing their run, the vessel shuttered visibility, then exploded when the gravitic reactor went critical.  The gunboat crews were ecstatic.  The Drakh war machine was comparable to the Minbari military and the Monsoon variants had proven for the second time that they could hold their own in a fight.   Now as a group, the Higgins crew, as they would become to be known as, went after the Raiders supporting the Star Furies.  And any Drakh vessel damaged by the fighting became fair bait.

Caught by surprise, EarthForce as a whole were being slowly pushed back by the superior firepower of the Drakh's brutal quantum canons.  The losses began to mount as the humans lost an average of two capital ships to one.  But there was a reprieve when twenty EF ships swept into the system.  Under the command of Colonel Griffin the ships ripped into the flanks of the enemy.  Now caught between two forces, the Drakh committed a full fourth of their forces to crush the newcomers.  And to add to the carnage several Drakh fired nuclear missiles at Earth.  Sixteen were fired and the G.O.D.s stopped fourteen of them.  Los Angeles and most of Peking melted in radioactive fire. 

The EA had an added handicap.  Fighting so close to Earth meant that scores of civilian vessels were caught in the crossfire.  Desperate screams permeated the comm channels-screams that the warships couldn't dare respond to.  It became readily apparent that the Drakh preferred using civilian ships as cover for their attacks and EarthForce ships that hesitated, died.  The hesitations cease and horrified EF crews began firing on their own civilians in their need to protect Earth.

But the collective shock tactics worked and a small wedge of cruisers broke through the EF barricade.  Seven Drakhs fired on the Novas serving as the last line of defense before the G.O.D.s.  Quantum beams hit the first the first ship near the bridge decapitating it and that ship drifted into another.  Responding dreadnought plasma canon and particle beams were so thick that those looking though unfiltered lenses were instantly blinded.  Despite that, three of the cruisers crashed through and released small vessels that vectored directly for the planet.  G.O.D. platforms were firing now and two of the cruisers were caught in the crossfire and blown into bit.  The platform particle beams and missiles also fired on the small vessels but they continued onwards into Earth's atmosphere.  Then they began to spay a dark powder-like substance into high orbit.

The President of EarthGov wasn't on Earth.  The instant Earth was attacked he and most trusted aides were in orbit, about to break away the instant it seemed that EF would lose the battle.  But that also meant that his dreams would be crushed as well.  If this planet was lost, then Mars would have to do if they could hold on to it.  Right now they needed more ships.  

He activated Gold channel's military one commline.  "This is President Clarke of Earth Allegiance," he said shaking.  "We are under attacked by the Drakh.  All EarthForce vessels are ordered to Sol sector immediately.  Repeat Earth is under attack.  Immediate assistance is requested."

The Hammermill and it escort had just survived a brutal confrontation with a Drakh capital ship twice their size.  Sadly for the Drakh it was only half as large now but it had taken a lot of both crews with it before it blew.  Griffin's ship was losing atmosphere and since the Captain had died he was about to give the order to abandon ship.  The was nothing they could do now.  That's when he heard the transmission.

"This is Admiral Kathryn Janeway of the United Federation of Planets," the voice said, "responding to your distress calls. We will be there in two minutes."

Shaking, Colonel Griffin grabbed the mike.  He couldn't believe what he'd just heard.  "This is Colonel Griffin of EarthForce," he yelled.  "Did you say you were a Federation starship?" 

"Yes," the Admiral responded to a stunned Griffin. Had Garrett and Picard lied to them about being from another universe or was this another spatial intrusion?  And why now?

"Explanations can wait until later," he woman said.  She cut communications leaving him confused but relieved. 

He prayed that they could help.  Now, his crew needed him and he gave the order.  "Abandon ship."  

Commander Higgins gaped at the sight.  It was a Fed ship; that much was unmistakable.  It was similar but different, with dual nacelles instead of the singles like the others.  Then there was another ship just like the Yeager that just appeared and took out a Cruiser as if it was just an inconvenience in the way.  But what made him freeze was the unmistakable Klingon vessel, bigger and meaner than anything he'd imagine that also appeared in the middle of a Drakh formation, its shields casually taking everything they gave, before it began tearing every offending ship apart with some type of horrible energy weapon.   Every fear he had came rushing back.  The Federation was here, Picard and the others had lied and Earth's freedom and future may have just been ruined in a way Clark could have never achieved. 

Okay, he ordered.  "Let's get back into the fight!  Roberts-pick a target."

That's it for now everybody. Comments?  Questions?

 I am about to go on a break and will pick this up in September as I stated in the other story  I am not dropping off the map so I will be answering questions, etc as they come up.  To all of you, thanks again and see you soon.  Also you might want to read the 'Those who Stand' to find out what's going on with the other side. Take care, folks.    Albert