Chapter 43

"You can always depend on Murphy"

Earth Space:

Right about now, Colonel Griffin was an impatient man, scanning the area for the arrival of the Federation starship to enter the Sol system. His home – his world, was in a state of disaster, his people withering away as the Drakh plague slowly consumed them from the inside out. As everyone knew by now, the plague wasn't designed to kill Earth's population; but it was designed to severely weaken Humanity. The Shadows had made their pestilence too well, however. The people would succumb to the ravages of other diseases and starvation long before the Sinhindrea arrived. If the cure the Federation claimed to have was real, then this would be the first real piece of good news that his planet had had in a long time.

The people 'were' slowly dying. Most were too weak to help themselves and medical services were becoming overwhelmed even by the simple act of humane care giving. Hospitals were starting to close because lack of supplies and loss of personnel. Food production was dropping off. Water systems were breaking down. Stores were closed. There were small towns, villages and cities across the world that had simply ceased to exist as the diseased townsfolk starved to death and succumbed to minor illness because there was no one in the area well healthy enough to come to their aid. Billions of people were at the brink. The basic infrastructure across the planet was coming apart.

Thousands of volunteers from neighboring colonies and the military protected by environmental suits did what they could. But thousands could not do enough to help billions. And the help wasn't enough. Earth Alliance under Clark had burned too many bridges. And Mars was all but dead. The death toll there from the attack by the Sinhindrea raid had been calculated to be over ninety-five percent.

Voyager exited slipstream near Pluto, dropping to warp two as the starship penetrated deeper into the system, then to impulse. Already, the evidence of the previous battles was present to greeted them. Drakh and EarthForce ruins everywhere littered the area causing the Starfleet crew to stare in morbid fascination at the devastation. Too many of them had been through the Dominion holocaust and the recent fighting against the enhanced Cylon war-machine not to feel empathy for the battered star system.

The newly developed sensors utilizing tachyons designed to specifically detect the Federations FTL signatures onboard the Evanston detected the unique distortion wave produced by the Federation starship as it entered the system. For months, EarthForce R&D had labored hard trying to find a way to accurately detect and track the FLT drive trails. So far, they had made little headway. Earth Alliance and most other races had no experience in the areas of subspace physics and learning a new science from scratch was going to be a long term process.

However, without their shields active, them moving at what they called impulse speed, and the Evanston using the first generation back-engineered sensor array copied from the Thunderbolt Starfury stolen from the B5 station, the Starfleet ships could be detected.

He and Captain Terrell Drake's eyes were glued to the screen watching the Federation vessel dodge over, under, and around derelicts as if it were a causal stroll around a parkway. The control the ship exhibited was almost unbelievable and the closest thing either man could compare it to were the three Whitestar vessels at B5. Sheridan's three vessels were smaller and designed to be more maneuverable as they used Minbari technology and possibly Vorlon tech. But there were no other ships that he knew of that could perform moves like Voyager was doing. It was casually dodging space debris and obstacles like a vehicle weaving through traffic.

"Transmit to Voyager," the Colonel ordered. "Send standard greetings.

Behind him a snaked-eyed Drake said nothing. Even after over a year, the Captain had not completely gotten over the humiliating defeat Babylon Five.

"Captain, we're receiving a communication from the EarthForce ship Evanston."

"Onscreen," Chakotay said.

"Glad to see that you made it," the Colonel who looked so much like a young James Kirk said. "We're to escort you into Earth. Do you have it?" he asked with a desperation that could be felt by the entire bridge crew.

"Yes Colonel," Chakotay answered as comfortingly as he could. We will be deploying a series of probes to aid in distributing the cure to be used along with your satellites to maximize the treatment."

"You're using probes to affect a cure?" Griffin asked. Once again Drake had inched closer, listening intently and violating Griffin's personal space in the process.

"Yes," the Starfleet Captain said.

By this time the Enterprise was running parallel to the Evanston and at the present speed, it would take another hour to reach Earth. "The agent poisoning your planet is nano-tech based. They can be specifically programmed to affect any species they come into contact with. The creators of this pathogen made sure that it is programmable and thereby controllable. In order to inactivate the nanites they would transmit a specific code. It took us a while, but the Doctor and his associates we were able to discover the code. Once the termination code is transmitted, the pathogen will become inactive. We want maximum effectiveness, so we will use our probes and your communications satellites to transmit the signal."

"If it works, how long before we see results?"

"According to the Doctor, the results should be immediate," Chakotay said. "The people should start feeling better in a matter of hours, but it will take about a week before most of the people are fully recovered. The treatment will need to be repeated several times. Six billion people will need time to rest and recover. They will need care until they can get enough strength to take care of themselves. I don't need to tell you that this is going to be a big job. You're going to need the resources and the help of the other worlds to get past this."

"Aliens?" Drake blurted out before could stop himself. "They were the ones who poisoned us and blew the population of Mars out of existence!"

"Your President gave orders to fire on your own colonies," Chakotay coldly responded. "Your forces attacked Babylon Five and our ships on several occasions. You fired on civilian ships. Your forces tried to hijack our ship. Your President conspired with the race called the Shadows to turn your government into a dictatorship with EarthForce's blessings," he continued. "Straighten out your own house before you try to place all of your problems on others."

Drake was about to start a blistering retort when he was cut off by his commanding Officer. "Enough, Captain," he snapped. He turned to Chakotay. "Politics aside, we appreciate you help. But we will deal with our own problems, Captain. I've read some of your Starfleet historical records and they've shown that your government hasn't been that sterling either."

"I agree wholeheartedly," Chakotay said evenly. "The Dominion war, which was not in the records you were shown, was an excellent example of what you are talking about. The Federation has made several mistakes. We allowed some of our colonies to be taken over by enemy forces in order to keep the peace. We also underestimated the Dominion's resolve. We've tried to maintain the peace by any means necessary and we paid for our stupidity. But we've learned from our mistakes. When the Federation first began we made hundreds of mistakes as we grew. We learned from them as we are still doing. Xenophobia wasn't one of them, at least not on a planetary scale."

"Earth Alliance hasn't had your experiences, Captain," Drake retorted. "We have the right to defend ourselves and determine our own destiny."

"True," Chakotay agreed. But do you have the right to continually fear your neighbors? Do you have the right to refuse help from those who would willingly help you simply because they're not of the same race? Babylon Five was – is," he corrected, "a good idea. It's time for all of you to start working together, because somewhere out there are forces just waiting to tear you apart. That is a fact of life. We can improve ourselves but there are others out there that want nothing more than to subjugate or destroy us, for being us. That is why the Federation was created – strength in numbers."

"Captain, are you trying to tell us to grow up?" the Kirk look-alike asked while smirking a little even as he did so.

Chakotay matched his smile. "Something like that," he answered.

"Oh, please," Drake murmured. "You people can't even get your own lies together. We found the Klingon derelict months ago. IPX's research is still tracking your down origins in deep space. This of course means that your extra dimensional claims are suspect, like everything else you've said."

"I take it you don't believe us?"

"You take it correctly," Drake countered. "Don't think that the fact that Captain Garrett looks like President Levy hasn't escaped our notice either. There are too many inconsistencies and coincidences for myself and others to simply ignore. Then there's your influence over Babylon Five, along with the constant interference by the Minbari. Earth Alliance is splitting apart and it's largely your influence that is causing this fracturing. You people a threat our very way of life."

"Is this the official line, Captain, is this the general consensus of Earth Alliance, or is this your own personal opinion?"

"Many of us don't trust you," he flatly stated. "You're Human but you don't act like it."

"And how are we supposed to act? Chakotay countered. "Like you?"

"You're Human! You should be supporting Earth and its rightful government, not some alien influenced régime. The political situation is different here. Earth Alliance is a sovereign nation and we have responsibilities to determine our own destinies, not to be controlled by outside, alien forces. The other races and governments can't be trusted. They would take advantage of any weakness we have; the Centauri, the Narn, the Minbari – just ask them. Self-interest means survival and we cannot depend on others to ensure our continued existence. It's dangerous out here, or haven't you noticed. Our 'neighbors' have been trying to kill us. Why should we trust them? For that fact, why should we trust you?"

"It may help if I explain this to you. My Earth is a founding member of the United Federation of Planets with over one hundred-seventy species worlds and over a thousand colonies. We're eight thousand light years across and growing. We've defended ourselves against the Klingons, and Romulans. We've defeated the Dominion and have hurt the Borg. We're holding our own against the Cylon Empire and we're still expanding. Humanity is spreading across the galaxy. We have no use for yours. Other than cultural exchanges, your little empire here is of very little interest use to us. We are not from this quantum universe as we have told you. Other than that bit of information, we are not obligated to tell you anything more. But I will tell you this," Chakotay said. "If we were aggressive and decided we wanted Earth Alliance, you wouldn't even be able to slow us down. This includes the Minbari Federation and the Non-aligned worlds helping you. We came here to help. But our very existence frightens you. That makes you and your governments look very backwards and provincial. We've put our lives on the line for your world, and in return, your people tried to kidnap our Officers and hijack our ship. Yet we are still here willing to help your people."

Drake huffed, not responding to the accusations. But he clearly didn't believe what he was being told about peaceful Federation intentions; in fact he was more convinced than ever that the Feds were planning something.

"If you want us to believe you, then we want a full accounting of everything," Drake said. "We want full access to your historical records and origins. We want a complete listing of your weapons capabilities. We want to know why you've abandoned Earth and conspired to live with aliens."

Chakotay almost sighed. Other crewmembers looked at the man as if he were one of the bigger idiots they'd seen. "You're a very small-minded man, Drake," Chakotay answered. "We can give you a copy of our database but access to our military secrets and technology is prohibited and you know it. The Federation has a non-interference policy called the Prime Directive. Because of the circumstances, the Ambassador, Yeager and Enterprise are the exceptions. All you have to do is ask and Voyager will leave and not interact with your government every again. This includes using our cure to help save Earth. So, contact your leaders now and decide if you want our help or not," he added with a trace of venom in his voice.

"Wait," Griffin said quickly. He had to salvage the situation. This conversation had gotten way out of hand. "True, the trust isn't that strong between us, but we can talk, maybe straighten out any misunderstanding. Drake doesn't speak for everyone in EarthForce."

"Glad to hear it," the Federation Captain said hotly. "I would hate to think that the military branch of your government would be willing to let Earth die just to acquire a few military secrets from us."

Battlestar Galactica:

"We are now entering system J-8241."

"They've lost us Commander," one of the threat-scans operators reported. "We have four of their capital ships two light-years distance heading away from us."

"Good," Apollo said. "Continue silent running. Head for that gas giant and establish orbit on the closest moon."

"Cloak is optimal. Emissions- in stealth optimal. Dropping from transwarp to warp.

Besides him Strike Commander Starbuck repressed the urge to pull out one of his very valuable Cuban cigars and light up. Despite the fact that Earthers didn't smoke as a whole, there were still a few of them that indulged in a good cigar. He had discovered such a place and ordered a few hundred. They weren't quite like his beloved fumarros but they'd do. This running from the enemy, hitting them hard, and running once more reminded him too much of the years trying to escape from the Cylons. There were of course some major differences, like the addition of Federation warp drives and Klingon heavy disruptors. And the Galactica's own light-speed engines, a primitive, but functional form of transwarp drive had been upgraded to units that equaled slipstream and Borg transwarp propulsion. The old girl was as lethal as they came. But going up against the Sinhindrea within their own backyard was considered by all insanity personified – even if they had done it a couple of times.

"Passive sensors only. Bring us to a complete stop. We'll remain here for a while. I want an analysis on the weapons the Sinhindrea used against us. Their battleships used something else besides their normal pulse beams."

"I noticed that, too," Starbuck said. "It was almost as if the plasma was tracking us. But it wasn't a missile. I've never seen anything like that."

"I want two Cobras launched. Make sure that they use their cloaks at all times. I want to keep as low a profile as we can."

Starbuck gave the order. His eyes darkened as he thought about Voyager and the inter-dimensional doorway to another reality. "What do you think it's like over there?"

"I have no idea," Apollo answered knowing full well what his friend was talking about. "It's a different universe, mostly likely filled with aliens we can't imagine in our wildest dreams."

Every since we've come to this part of space, I have seen so many aliens and Human look-alikes that it still sends chills down my spine. It makes me feel that if it hadn't been for the war, I would have wanted to become an explorer."

"You mean after you got passed all of the drinking, arousing and gambling?" asked an amused Apollo. I can see you exploring now, a fumarro in your mouth and a gun in your hand, the result of you exploring a bit too much."

Starbuck laughed. "Probably true," he conceded. "Ah, the good old days. I wasn't even married then."

"You're not married now."

"Not officially. But when I get back..."

"Did you hear anything more about her sister?"

"Jewenne?" Starbuck asked as Apollo nodded. "She's okay. Her and David Thompson are married now with a kid on the way. Starbuck smiled. "Fast workers, those two."

"And you're gonna seal with her sister?"

"By the gods, yes," he answered emphatically. "You know, I really did love Cassie but there's a difference here. There's a bond between us that I don't even want to think about breaking. Whether she's Niddel or Fenna makes no difference," he spoke with conviction. "She loves me." Her psychic projection of Fenna only comes out in times of stress. When I left, Fenna was just as hurt as Niddel which I take as a good sign."

"But, she's not that strong," Apollo said carefully.

"True, but she's mine and that's enough," replied his lifelong friend.

"Congratulations, Starbuck. That's really love."

"I guess it is, isn't it? Well, I guess I will follow your lead, get Sealed, and be welcomed into the ranks of the living dead."

"Being Sealed isn't that bad!"

Behind them Adama listened to his two children – men now in every sense, talk. Starbuck was in everyway his son, not a substitution of Zack his lost one, but an addition he claimed as his own. Niddel wasn't Human as the Colonials understood the term, but Starbuck didn't care and that alone showed how much the man had matured.

Adama knew that despite all of the medical advances by both his people and the Federation, he wasn't long for the world; but he was content. His family would continue on in spite of everything the Cylons would throw at them. They weren't alone now. There was a whole galaxy of Humans and Humanlike brethren that would guarantee their survival.

In the end, the evil that was Iblis would lose. Of that, he was sure. But until then there were many things still left to do and one of them was to keep the Sinhindrea from gaining full access of the doorway to that other universe. The other was to make sure that the Cylons didn't gain access to the Great Machine Intelligum of the Baroni cluster the creator of V'Ger from the Voyager Six probe.

The probe, vastly enhanced by the Intelligum became self aware as it pursued its purpose to lean all that was learnable. It eventually returned to earth seeking its creator-mankind. It literally joined with its creator; a representative of humanity, a man named Willard Decker, and added a perfect mechanical copy of a Deltan navigator named Ilia. That combination produced a new life form unlike anything in this galaxy. Adama still remembered the words of the Entity called Q, so similar to Iblis yet so vastly different.

"And that is exactly why the Borg lusts after V'Ger," Q had said, "or should I say the children. The union between V'Ger and Human ape and Deltan sex-fiend produced unexpected results. The Deltan aspect required a lot of attention if you know what I mean, and shame on you Picard if you don't; and the Human aspect, Decker who had a previous relationship with real Ilia, fit the bill perfectly. The Union became a duality, which produced several offspring, humanoid in appearance, Intelligum by design, with the mindset both organic and mechanical. Only two children were viable, but their energy and intelligence were remarkable, if I must say so. Each contains the best of both worlds. This of course attracted the Borg in droves and the fight to assimilate them has lasted until now. The kids hate the Borg and will instantly destroy anything that approaches them containing Borg technology."

That last part was wrong, Adama knew. There were at least four children that had proven viable. And one of them was pregnant. And that was another one of the main reasons they were out here, to prevent the Cylons from convincing them to join the Borg, whom they hated, or introducing the Cylons to the Machine Intelligum and gaining access to their unbelievable technology. However, Janeway had the codes that would again capture the children's attraction, hopefully long enough to talk to them once more before they would be ejected from their presence again. What could they say to these creatures before they once again ignored them? That was indeed the question he had asked himself over and over. His thoughts were interrupted by one of the warrior shouting a warning.

"Sir we're being scanned," he said. Very narrow bandwidth."

"Frack," Apollo said before he could stop himself. "From where?"

"Can't lock onto its source, Commander. Whoever it is knows we're here."

"We really didn't need this. All stations, prepare to go active on my command."

The Sinhindrea had found them quicker than anyone had assumed. 'War had away of ripping assumptions apart,' Adama thought gloomily.

EAS Evanston:

Captain's Quarters:

"Explain yourself, Captain," Griffin demanded. "Why do you feel this need to antagonize the very people who may be able to save our planet? Where is your professionalism?"

"Permission to speak freely?"

The Colonel's hazel eyes were ice cold when he spoke. "My permission hasn't stopped you so far, Captain." It was a warning 'don't go too far', but the Captain never noticed or he didn't care.

"I don't trust them, Sir."

"I don't fully trust them either," the Colonel stated. "However, I am not as belligerent in their presence as you are."

"With all do respect, Sir, what they've given us is a bunch of bull," Terrell said. "Another dimension? Why is it that Captain Garrett looks like she could be President Levy's twin sister? The same thing goes for that Kirk person that looks like you and even that Psi-Cop's name I can't remember at the moment. It can't be coincidence, Sir. They are playing with our minds. They obviously have the technology to clone people and I believe that's what they're doing."

"To what end?" Griffin asked. The thought had occurred to him as well but he could never connect a reason for it so he was genuinely curious about the Captain's take on the matter.

"To the eventual domination of our government," he said matter-of-factly. "Look at what's happened since they arrived here. At first there were two ships, then, the Klingon ship arrived. Then the Yeager, and now Voyager, the Rantoul and the AzetburIPX has never found any evidence to substantiate their claims of coming through some sort of dimensional rift. That Klingon derelict they did find, points to evidence to the contrary. But they just happen to come here, flaunting their technology, interfering with Earth Alliance business, and joining Sheridan's rebellion just at the right time to guarantee his success."

"I agree," the Colonel said slowly. "There are a lot of questions that need to be answered, but they have not shown any decisively," and he stressed that last word, 'decisively', "aggressive actions when they could have."

"It's still not enough of their ships here to matter," Drake speculated. "Also the local politics have been playing havoc with their plans. Maybe they don't like conquest though purely military means. Maybe they use more insidious ways. Sir, they are offering a cure with no strings attached! And we're going to take it because we have no other choice," he added sourly. "Then we'll owe them and believe me, we will pay for it. Clark had it right when he said that outside, alien influences were one of the greatest dangers that we could possibly face. Look at what the Vorlons have done to us, creating those telepaths."

Here, Griffin agreed wholeheartedly. When Earth Alliance had heard about Vorlon tampering among the younger races, they went ballistic. For too many people this seemed a confirmation of President Clark's assertions about alien interference with Human affairs. He was just as concerned about the revelations as everyone else. "The Vorlons did it t all of the races," said Griffin.

"I don't care about the other races," Drake responded harshly. "I do care about what is going on with our people and our planet. We're EarthForce for God's sake," he snapped. "We're worse than useless. We're the laughing stock of the whole galaxy. That must stop. We need to build up our strength as a unified whole so that we can defend ourselves from these types of intrusions. Look at the Minbari," he continued; using those he hated the most as an example. "Barely fifteen years ago, they tried to exterminate us and we couldn't do anything to stop them. And no one came to help us. One small mistake almost killed us all. Think about it," he continued. "Jankowski wasn't completely at fault. His judgment was somewhat poor but he didn't do anything that most any other Captain might have done in his shoes. But to condemn an entire race for the death of one person is something the Human race would have never have imagined doing to someone else. They go extremes. That's why I do not trust the Minbari." He took a breath before continuing. Whatever he was about to say was exacting a price from him. "But Picard and his people are worse."

"For the sake of argument, I reiterate; they are not our people."

"You're right about that, Sir. They're not our people because they have been contaminated. Whether they are a lost colony, possibly kidnapped by aliens thousands of years ago, or from some other reality, they are different than us. Deep down, they still have some humanity, so there should have been some connect between us and them. However, they work and involve themselves with aliens on a level that borders on the obscene. Their whole mindset is unnatural."

"So let me try to understand you your feelings here," said Griffin. "Your anger stems from the fact that they involve themselves with aliens in ways that seems unnatural to you?"

"No, Sir, that's only part of it," he said slowly. "That's bad enough." He stopped speak. For almost a minute neither man said anything as Griffin waited fro Drake to finish. "The real reason I do not like these people," he said slowly, "is because they lord it over us with their science and technology. I was there when the Enterprise and Ambassador took our ships apart at Babylon Five." Griffin watched in fascination as Terrell's entire demeanor change. The man was reliving the fight that had so changed his life. "Sir, our objective was clear. On orders from the President of Earth Alliance, we were to secure the station and I was part second wave to come in."

"When I jumped into the system, I didn't expect to see that kind of carnage. There were dead and dying soldiers everywhere, each one of them wearing EarthForce uniforms and I was angry. Sheridan and the others had no right to force so many people to choose and die like that. I wanted it to end and that was exactly what I planned to do; complete my mission, arrest Sheridan and his cronies and finish this slaughter once and for all. Then Picard's ship was there. We thought it was an alien vessel waiting to pick up the pieces like some kind of scavenger. I wanted it removed from our territory as a warning to others."

"That's standard procedure."

"Yes, Sir. We were wrong, Sir, and my biggest mistake was in underestimating that ship. When Picard showed his face for the first time I naturally assumed that he was one of Sheridan's people. Enterprise was so small that I didn't consider it too much of a threat – until they began firing on us and all hell broke loose. Those two vessels tore us apart and we couldn't even slow them down, not with their shields protecting them. Pournelle hit them with two nukes at point blank range and I was enraged, but at the same time delighted, because Enterprise was shooting holes in my vessel. You have no idea how helpless I felt when that ship just stood there bathed in nuclear fire. Then it fired two of their own missiles at the Pournelle and when it was over, there was nothing left of her and her crew except maybe a few stray atoms. By then it was over and Picard was online again, smirking. He had me and I knew it. My crew stared at me, awaiting orders and there was nothing I could do. I had to tuck my tail between my legs and flee like a whipped dog. He destroyed me in the eyes of my crew." Terrell slumped for a moment and then drew himself to his full height. "If it had been the Minbari who had challenged us then it would have been different. But Picard was Human and there he was, ordering me away from the battlefield like I was some little child. There was nothing I could do. I had to endure the taunts while other Captains laughed at me behind my back."

"You hate him because he beat you," Griffin finally said to him.

"Yes, I hate him!" The captain was trembling. "I hate him because his ship is better than anything we have. I hate him because they take their artificial gravity, weapons and the technology onboard their ships taken for granted. They even make their own food! At this very moment, we're escorting them to Earth. What a joke. We're moving as fast as we can, while they consider this speed barely a craw. Why is it that their technology is so advanced and ours isn't? You said it yourself, Sir. The Ambassador is less advanced than Enterprise. But what about Voyager? How much more advanced is it compared to the others?"

"It's far more powerful than either of the other ships and more luxurious. They do believe in their comfort."

"Yes they do," Drake snarled. "Sir, they could run all over us and look relaxed while doing it," he said. "Even at our best we couldn't stop them from taking over. I hate the fact that they can help us and not ask for anything. The Centauri-Drakh war proved to us what those Federation ships could do. That makes me afraid of what they could do us without half trying. Did you see what the Ambassador did to that Minbari warship? Even the Minbari are concerned about them, so concerned that they had to prove that their ships were better than the Fed ships. And they lost!" there was a bit of laughter shared between both men. "I wish I could have seen their faces. They probably want to declare war just to reclaim their lost honor," Drake added bitterly. "Half of EarthForce is wetting their pants, praying that we won't ever have to go up against them. The other half thinks they're Gods gift to Humanity and probably would join up with them in a heartbeat. And you saw the recordings yourself; Voyager stood up to one of those spider ships. And did you watch the whole conference?"

That was a stupid question Griffin thought. Everyone had watched the conference at Babylon Five.

"The Vorlons. We know as much about them as we do about the Federation. They were supremely pissed at the Feds. And they. Backed. Down. I think the Vorlon ships are even more powerful than the Shadow vessels and they're cautious around the Starfleeters. What does that tell us?"

So Drake was frightened of the others and used Picard as a focus for his hate and fear against the Federation, thought Griffin. Many in EarthForce shared that fear of the unknown and he understood that. But that same fear threatened to cloud the judgment against the real threat. The Sinhindrea had all but sterilized Mars and EarthForce was more desperate than ever to acquire new technology, and Starfleet had it to spare many times over.

Drake seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Why are we so far behind them? Why is it that we have to steal technology in order to advance whereas they seem to develop things at their whim?" Drake asked, frustrated. "When they came here, they claimed not to even know anything about hyperspace. Now they have more knowledge about it than we do, can travel faster and really don't need the beacons to navigate. Why are they so different? Why are they advancing so quickly?" he murmured.

"I'm not sure," Griffin confessed, "although I do have my suspicions. However that isn't the point. Your actions are interfering with your duty and your personal opinions are immaterial to this situation," he told Drake. If you can't maintain control, I will relieve you of duty right this second."

The Captain's mouth opened, then closed. He was shocked. "You can't relieve me of my command," Drake hissed.

"I can and I will," Griffin said. "If you jeopardize Earth's chance at recovery, your career will be over before the day is out. Try me if you want. EarthForce will hang you out to dry. You will lose your ship, your possibilities for promotion will be distant memory and your dismissal from the force will happen so fast you'll barely feel the boot than kicks you out the door. Then, I promise you, your life will go downhill from there. Listen to me. Earth needs this."

Babylon Five:

The Vorlons heard it and understood.

The Shadows heard it and were, at first, mystified.

The call originating from Z'ha'dum echoed throughout the subspace-hyperspace ether. Both of the First Ones understood its significance. The signal had originated not from the planet but from the gate. It had come through the gate, magnified by some artificial source near the shadow home world.

It was a transmission generated by a younger race.

-A very powerful race.

It was a Federation signal.

That meant that the rumors were true. The 'other' Humans were from the other side. They were from another universe. The unique quantum signature observed so long ago wasn't an anomaly as previously thought. There were no other First Ones keeping their Federation secret, away from the ever-searching eyes of the Vorlon Empire as first believed. It explained why their technology deviated so completely from what was deemed normal. It explained why they were so dangerous. It explained so many things.

This revelation changed everything.

The question was; what to do about it without alerting Lorien?

The Vorlons began to plan.

The Shadows were more alarmed by something else that had just occurred. The 'other' Humans weren't their main concern. Right now their survival and journey to the Rim were of the utmost importance.

Something was interfering with those plans and they intended to do something about it.