Hey everyone. I am posting this small snippet to let you know that I'm still working on it. As some of you know, I have promised a double 'Veneer' so I have been working on that for a while. But I have also promised myself a short vacation from writing for two weeks which ends on the 8th of July. To that extent here is a small portion of the upcoming TWS chapter 38 as I have done on that 'other website' It's a small post but I hope that you will enjoy it.

Stone Cold: This is a long story, I will admit. I also never intended it to be as long as it is however…what can I say?

Anon: Spell checkers are somewhat untrustworthy technologies. However, we use what we have to. As I have said earlier, this is version 1 and things will be corrected when we sit down and go thought this story with a fine-tooth comb that will be presented as version 2. But first we have to get both stories down on paper.

More on this chapter later which I will probably call chapter 36B

Chapter 36 fan fiction dot net- posting only)

"(Eighteen Hours concluded-Part one)"

Lotna star system:

Two months ago

The Kor Lyon Republic, once home to four billion individuals inhabiting a total of four star systems, now existed only in the intimate memories of less than two thousand souls that managed to escape a slaughter they could barely comprehend. When the first attacks started and the futility of the Republic's ability to resist the invaders revealed, dozens of ships filled with politically connected and influential officials and their families fled their homes and headed directly to the Vree homeworld. Those who remained sent reports as long as they were able to. Once safe, the survivors told their stories to a terrified Vree military. The Sinhindrea were on the move.

The small destroyer-sized Republic ships were no match for the alien fighters equipped with energy shields, let alone the huge glowing mother ships that filled the skies of Kor-Lya. Planetary defenses were all but useless against what the survivors would later call the Hordes. The homeworld defenses fell in less than a day. Dozens of the horde ships descended onto their world near the larger population centers and hundreds of multi-tentacled creatures swarmed into the cities, slaughtering and devouring every sentient being that moved. Hand weapons and small arms fire were all but useless against the cybernetic organisms that ignored the injuries in their obsessive need to feed. In those first few hours, a sixteenth of the population were consumed alive.

Evidently these Sinhindrea preferred their food fresh.

Scores of the huge alien transport ships arrived and another type of creature emerged, much larger and naturally armored, and those creatures began to round up the remaining population to be transported to Z'ha'dum as nourishment for the young ones. Within a month, the planet's resources were being ravished in order to build ships in preparation for the swarming. What was unknown by the people of the doomed Republic at the time of the 'great slaughter' was that these new aliens were merely adult versions of the smaller squid-like invaders.

Those details would be discovered in the future.

Cooke star system-Earth Alliance:

Now

Cooke III colony was gone, the small space station obliterated with all hands, the fleeing civilians butchered and their remains consumed as an afterthought. Cook II, a small but growing colony located on the fourth world of the system had been scorched clean of life. Finally, Cooke I the first and largest Human colony in the system, although viciously attacked had survivors, but not that many. The enemy was more interested in taking out the power stations and communications array than wiping out the last remnants of the colony.

And they had also been interested in destroying the jumpgate. The Cooke jump gate was just another one in a series of jump gates in this region of space destroyed by the Sinhindrea. Navigation was becoming a serious pain as the entire system had to realign itself every time one of them was destroyed.

EA shadow Omega destroyer Papros:

Captain Charlotte Clark could only imagine the numbers of ships lost in the vulgarities of hyperspace because of these cowardly actions. This was of course exactly what the Sinhindrea wanted, confusion since they were not dependent on jumpspace as a source of FTL travel. She and her crew knew that they had attacked the Centauri, and recently Earth, just after the Drakh assault. Things were appalling at Earth and at this point there was no going back there for refugees. Babylon Five was packed with refugees from places she'd never even heard of. The Federation had at least three more ships there and at last report the Shadows and Vorlons fleets were orbiting the station. If this entire situation wasn't so potentially explosive, she would have thought it hilarious. No doubt her cousin Morgan would be having multiple stokes over what was happening there; if he wasn't already dead. News from home had been dire and she was honestly at somewhat of a lost as to what to do. EarthForce had wanted her to stay where she was, no doubt because she was Morgan's cousin and many of them wanted nothing to do with her. She's seen too much and had way too much information on too many of the officials during this time of crisis. Those same people wanted her as far away as possible while they brushed the political crap under the proverbial rug. Oh yes, she thought. The political ramifications were going to be a nightmare to come home to, if Earth survived its current crisis.

But the Captain had a lot more immediate problems to be concerned about than her political future. Her Shadow Omega, the first vessel out of the docks and begun to show signs that the synthetic-organic material was eating into her ship at a much faster rated than her engineer's previous estimates. She and her crew had noticed small signs that all was not well months ago, as power relays burned out and several members of her crew began suffering nightmares and unexplained nose bleeds. Garrett had informed her some time ago that her ship was a deathtrap waiting to happen, but no one had anticipated what had happened barely a day after they arrived in the system. The Starfleeters had transmitted updated data to her that her ship was 'environmentally unfriendly' to all types of organic life, with chilling detail. Her crew's health hadn't been the best for the past few weeks and things had gotten much worse in the past few days, which confirmed the data given her. Her ship now suffered a series of major cascade systems failures. The pseudo-shadow technology integrated into 'her' vesselwas starting to fall apart.

Six hours ago, a portion of engineering had to be abandoned when the crew found what appeared to be blackish-mode growing eating into the internal bulkheads of the ship. A couple of the engineers saw the fungus-like growth, not unlike some form of exotic mushroom, sprouting from the protruding shadow material. By all of the laws that they knew of, this was impossible since the Shadow material was a synthetic approximation -as far as they had been told. But the material had been 'grown' and continued to grow in spite of EarthDomes' insistence that it was simply a composite they'd created back-engineering what little that they could understand of the Shadow tech.

"Well, somebody lied," she said harshly after her engineering crew told her what was happening. And that was the truth in a nutshell.

Despite the secrecy of R&D, she was a Clark and information flowed her way, sent by informants hedging their bets, putting themselves in her good graces in case the President should somehow recover his powerbase. The growths had produced spores which spread throughout the room. Every organic object it touched including the crew members died within seconds of contact. And they died horribly. Wherever the spores rested, Shadow growth sprouted. Steel, titanium, plastics electronics organic issue; nothing was immune. It seemed to act like a cancer more than anything else.

After a very tense series of meetings, the officers and crew came up with a series of theories. The most prominent theory was that Earth R&D most likely used actual samples of the living Shadow vessel discovered on Io and somehow managed to combine it with an inferior substrate that allowed the sample to grow into the armor covering the Shadow Omega vessels. But the organic technology was so incredibly advance and alien, that there was no way that R&D could have created a stable template. The material grew on its own accord. And this was the result. The armor was alive and that crap was eating into her ship.

Three Omegas would have been enough for their needs, but the two EA ships with her, minus her own, weren't large enough to carry the colonists to the Proxima system. This presented several problems that were giving everyone here a royal headache. Sol was out of the question and B5, was already straining with refugees. Proxima was the largest most defended of the Earth colonies complete with a major military defense force now going out of their way to play nice with the colonists there. Without her ship it would be impossible to carry them all and her crew, so that left her with one choice. She and her crew would be forced to remain behind so that the colonists could have enough room to evacuate with the two remaining Earth cruisers. No one was happy with this idea, but no one had any better suggestions either. With everything that was going on, no other vessels would return here for months. Cook had already been targeted and charlotte knew what the Sinhindrea were capable of if they came back.

EarthForce's reputation was deep in the can and given what had happened, it would take years for them to rebuild the trust among the other races. Rebuilding the confidence of the people they served began now and that meant sacrificing herself and her crew as necessary. Lieutenant Governor Akinson had been most insistent that they leave as soon as possible and none of the Captains could disagree with her. With so many colonials, the evacuation was still going to be a challenge to the remaining two vessels. The hyperspace beacons were constantly reconfiguring themselves throughout the sector and navigation would be extremely hazardous.

She had never expected that her command would end like this.

Idly, Clark wondered if Commander Ivanova felt this way with that Kobayashi Maru simulation Garrett had given her. One would have though that she would have given up after the fifth try. It was unbeatable, yet Ivanova kept trying to defeat it. There was something more to that test, she suspected, something possibly more to do with choices rather than beating a no-win scenario. The more she thought about it the more she began to compare the Maru scenario with her situation here. Well, she would have some time to think about it as she waited on a rescue ship-no matter how long it took.

Jumpspace Cook star system:

Alyt Aalaan sat in his ready room, his face an expressionless mask as he studied the reports from the probes already inside the Cook system. The colonies had been savaged by weapons of unknown, but immense power. His staff was still deeply suspicious of the EarthForce vessel reeking of Shadow technology and who knew what those Federationist had given the Babylon Five Humans and their cohorts? The strange jump drives described by Alyt Menroi, Satai Neroon and the others were a source of concern among the entire Warrior and Worker castes. The possibilities that EarthGov would obtain these new technologies and what the Earthers might do with them, frightened them severely. Less than twenty years had passed since the Earth-Minbari war and many hostile memories were still burned in the hearts on both sides. Attempted genocide was a hard thing to get over when the losing side developed equalizers.

However Delenn and the others were very confident that the representatives of the United Federation of Planets, or UFOP as some of his people had taken to calling them, were not a threat to the Minbari. Their personal assurances counted for a lot but, but for most Minbari it was really too early to tell. But those concerns were for the future. For now, the destruction of so many jumpgates needed to be addressed. Some thought it might well be the Humans doing this in anticipation of the new warp drives of theirs that could soon be filling space. But he and the majority of the Minbari didn't accept this explanation as a viable possibility. This was the work of a new power asserting itself, not the Earthers doing insane things. For all he cared, they could kill themselves off, but even they wouldn't destroy the jumpgates.

Now the Federationists were a different matter; them he wanted to meet. Human combat strategies were interesting and innovative in ways his people had never imagined. Some of their tactics during the Centauri and Drakh confrontations were fascinating and he was tempted to meet with them simply to discuss comparative strategy. As a child, he'd been fascinated to the point of obsession with ancient, pre-space warfare on Minbar something that many superior-minded Minbari officers had derided. The Alyt had come to the realization that after a thousand years, the Minbari people had become too contented with their so-called technological superiority for far too long. Most were satisfied in their own technological supremacy, something that had now been shaken to their very core since the newcomers had arrived. Nearly obsessed, he studied combat strategies of as many of the races as he could find.

He was also interested in the holographic technologies that Alyt Menroi and some of the others had mentioned in such glowing terms. There was a program that several warriors stationed or visiting had used and their reactions to the program had been so profound that he wanted to try it himself. None of the warriors would fully describe what really happened during the exercise; however their lives seemed changed after the experience. They all seemed more reflective. There were vague rumors that the test was designed to test one's moral strengths, flaws, tactical abilities and above all, their command instincts. He wanted to take it and see for himself why it had garnered such respect among his peers. All he had were second-hand reports. He was sorely tempted to take some of the classes being offered at Babylon Five just to interact with the Fed teachers, but duties kept him away from the place and the overall instability of the region made him wonder if he would ever have the opportunity to speak to them.

Another point of interests were the classes being taught at Babylon Five. Initially, many of the Minbari who'd taken the classes offered by the Federation onboard the station were openly suspicious of everything and many didn't bother hiding their generalized contempt. Classes were ridiculously expensive and most of the workers who participated were little more than spies trying to determine the validity of the so-called new sciences.

By the time those introductory ten-week classes were done, most of the students were clamoring to continue to the next level, all of them agreeing that those classes were more than worth it, even if the costs were twice the price. Over time, the worker castes were by far the most comfortable with the Federation than either of the others. The religious caste's attitude, as a whole, had remained somewhat indifferent to the Federationists. On the other hand, many of the warrior caste were openly hostile by the overall threat to Minbari supremacy and the challenge presented by the Federation. It mattered not at all that the other Humans had done nothing to provoke the Minbari. They just were-and that was enough.

Rii Mazik, his Executive Officer stood close to his side as he finished the reports. Quietly, he waited for his Alyt to recognize him.

"What is it?" he asked as he turned to face him.

"Alyt Shaka is anxious to jump into the system," Rii Mazik said. There was a hint of exasperation in his voice. "He wants to find out what these Humans know about the Sinhindrea. He is 'requesting' that we jump now before the Humans leave."

Aalaan sighed loudly. Once more he had cause to regret having that arrogant creature accompany him. His attitude for pushing his betters to the brink was well-known and his hatred for Humans legendary. He respected none of his equals and few of his superiors, which is why Shaka was with him on this mission. Someone had to keep watch over him and few others had the patience. "Open communications…Alyt Shaka, my friend," he said. "We jump in two minutes. Do not open your weapon's pots."

"It is a matter of respect," Shaka sneered. "It's been our tradition for a thousand years. The Earthers are aware of this tradition." Shaka glared for a long second. "If they're not, then they should be reminded what happened."

"Shaka, do as I have requested."

"As you wish," he responded sullenly.

Sometimes friendship was extremely stressful, Aalaan thought. "At my command, we jump," he ordered."

Needless to say: to be continued