Apparently, some loon of a B5 fan actually has made map of all the stars systems in B5, and it's canonally (is that a word?) accurate. Well, that' just great. In keeping with a more realistic (relatively) accurate geographic picture (Actually I'm the obessive perfectionist type), the following changes will be made from no on. Instead of something I just made up.

Planet Valini is now Planet Quadrant B. (Hay those don't knock it, the Centauri call earth Beta 2)

Planet Lurshan is now Planet Morigol.

Now we return you to the regularly schedule program…

Story by Oberon, Beta: Entilza

Star Trek: The Next Expansion

Chapter 4: A Klingon's Honor Part 1

Alyt Nandroom's thin lips curled into a twisted maelstrom of emotion. For two days his ship, the Sharlin class War Cruiser Shield Breaker, had been trailing a human convoy escorted by 3 EA Hyperions in hyperspace. The prey had a head start but the Minbari were closing in with every jump. The bloodlust had been hard to contain and the anticipation was like a fine sword begging to be wielded in combat – it called to his heart with a seductive song. But now they were lost.

"You have lost the beacon signal?" Nandroom exclaimed to his navigator. He was less than pleased with the young warrior before him. If it was his incompetence that had caused him his prize, the young Minbari would be scrubbing the decks for an entire year. It would prove to be a valuable lesson for the warrior.

"Alyt, the signal suddenly went out 5 minutes ago. I can't explain it. It isn't a sensory malfunction." The young one panicked, he had heard stories of ships that had been lost in hyperspace. It was gruesome and repulsive to their warrior senses, to think crew members would consume their brethren to survive.

Nandroom believed him; he had another check the sensors as soon as the young warrior reported the problem. There had been a brief flux in the tachyon transmission a few moments before the signal was lost. "Very well, power up the jump engines. We'll wait until the network realigns." Thankfully they had not wondered too far off course before discovering the disruption in the network. He thought of the Humans. Had they noticed the disruption too? He hoped they did, he would not be denied the honor of ending their lowly existence.

The question was: who would dare to destroy jump gates – the life blood of civilization?

The Temet had stumbled onto the Shield Breaker when they escaped from the battle after destroying the Generex. From beyond the Minbari's sensor range the Romulans observed these aliens who were currently at war with the humans in this sector.

"So Lieutenant, what do you make of that ship?" Argelian marveled at the complex organic looking design. It was like some sort of aquatic fish swimming in a colorful ocean of the void.

"Our computer identifies it as a Minbari Sharlin class heavy cruiser. Intriguing; the outer hull is made of a crystalline composite that has energy refractive properties. The armor would give it a definite advantage over the primitive weaponry used by many of the local races. However, it is extremely brittle and susceptible to kinetic impacts." The lieutenant then noticed some thing odd. "Commander, the Minbari vessel had come to a full stop. It is not possible for them to have detected us at this distance." At least she thought it was impossible.

"Something could be malfunctioning on their side," a crewman suggested.

"I believe I have discovered the problem. The beacon system is no longer transmitting." The lieutenant displayed a layout of the entire hyperspace network. "The disruption seems to cover an area of twelve light years around the Morigol jump gate, with the effects diminishing the further away we go. This part of the network cannot be traveled by the local races until the beacons are recalibrated."

"Twelve light years…" Argelian muttered. This was a grave situation. "That's much more than we predicted. Would our own beacons be affected as well?"

The lieutenant, for a brief moment, wanted to comment of the idiocy of the question. But she refrained. "Negative, our own beacons are subspace based. The main fleet is in no danger of losing their way in hyperspace." The arrogance of her fellow crew must be rubbing off on her, the lieutenant mused. "We will need to apprise the Admiral of the situation."

Indeed, Argelian thought. The locals would get rowdy about this. Still… he was not about to just leave the Minbari.

"Not just yet," Argelian suddenly had a thought. "This is an opportunity. We will capture that ship for study. They are more advanced than the other races. Perhaps they know why the humans are here." There was no argument form the crew.

"They are powering up their vortex generator." The lieutenant reported.

"Excellent, prepare to exit hyperspace. Once we're out, engage our cloaking device."

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Alyt Nadroom had ordered his Sharlin into normal space until the beacons had recalibrated. The heavy Minbari warship found itself in interstellar space far from any stars or planets. It was an unsettling first few minutes for everyone.

"Now we wait," the Alyt proclaimed. It was safer than wandering in hyperspace. He resigned himself to an anxious few hours before the hunt for the cowardly Humans would continue. For awhile he stood on the bridge, vigilant. He faltered some time later and almost fell to the floor. He had thought himself simply tired from the chase but when he noticed others around him fighting to stay conscious he realized it was not simple fatigue. In one desperate attempt he tried to warn the rest of the crew but it was too late. The last thing he saw before the darkness fell over his eyes was the appearance of a large predatory bird.

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"The anesthetic compound has been disbursed throughout their life support system sir. The Minbari crew is unconscious."

Argelian smiled. The Minbari Sharlin would prove to be an excellent source of intelligence.

"Lock a tractor beam, then set a course back to base." Argelian looked forward to seeing what these Minbari were made of.

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Earth Alliance Space:
New London Colony:

Captain Eisenbarth of the cargo freighter Patemkin stood unflinchingly over the radar display. His face contorted in pain. An old wound troubled him when he stood rigidly for hours on end.

"Dave, jump point formation!" the Patemkin's first mate, John Holland, cried out. The Minbari were here, Eisenbarth thought darkly.

"Has the last shuttle docked yet?" Three hundred colonists were on their way up from the planet below, but if his ship stayed any longer they would endanger the lives of the three thousand already packed in the Patemkin. David's face fell and the many lines were more evident than ever.

"The last of the civilians are boarding the shuttle now, Dave. They wouldn't clear the atmosphere for at least 10 minutes."

"Damn," David Eisenbarth swore silently. Right now the Earth Force ships were engaging the Minbari, trying to buy the evacuees more time with their lives. On the Patemkin's viewport they could see one of those ugly Bone Head fighters break through the line of Starfuries. It made a beeline for a Hyperion that was trying to eyeball the small fighter before it was too late. But it was, for the crew of the Hyperion. With a single volley from the Nial the gigantic Hyperion, the Nautilus, went out in a smoldering chunks of burning metal as the Nial's weapon punched through a deep tear in its armor left from a previous battle.

David made a decision. "We're not staying any longer. I will not endanger the people on board. Signal Earth Force, we're leaving." Hopefully the remaining combat capable ships would be enough to buy them the precious minutes it would take to reach the Jump Gate.

Holland did not object. It was a terrible thing to leave those other colonist behind but at least he would be safe. And that was the important thing. The Minbari could have everyone else for all he cared. "Take us to the Jump Gate fast as you can, Meggie." He placed a hand on the helmswoman's shoulders and watched her like a hawk as she took the ship out from its hiding place. From behind the moon the Patemkin powered up it's engines. The shadows had obscured them thus far, but once they started moving the Minbari saw them in an instant. A single Nial was sent to deal with them.

From the helm display Holland saw a single Nial coming their way. "One of the Nials is breaking formation!" he panicked.

"Earth Force says they'll cover our back," Mark Polanski, the comm. officer replied.

"Thank God, can we go a LITTLE faster Meggie?" Eisenbarth crossed his fingers. The Nial was fast but it had to go through the gauntlet.

Three minutes later they were almost to the jump gate but the Nial had broken through all but the most stubborn defenders.

"Shut up and let me do my job!" Meggie screamed at the top of her lungs. "40 seconds."

To the horror of everyone on the bridge, the Nial finished off the last Starfury that got in its way. It headed right for them at speeds the Patemkin couldn't hope to match. As the Minbari got close to weapons range the Starfuries behind it fired wildly, hoping to get its attention or score a hit.

Thirty seconds had passed since the Nial broke free, but the Patemkin was still too far from the Jump Gate. The Nial prepared to fire while casually dodging random attacks from its pursuers.

The Minbari pilot grinned. He was a young warrior that revered their leader Dukat like everyone else. He too felt the sorrow and the lost of a dream at Dukat's death. Now was his chance to do his part, finally. For Dukat! He pressed the trigger, but just as his Nial fired it was shot from behind. A lucky hit by one of the Earth Force fighters; it was enough to throw off his aim. He had paid far too much attention to thoughts of revenge and forgot about the Earthers trying to stop him. The Nial went off course and the shot aimed at the Patemkin went wide but still found its mark.

Now adrift, its hull punctured, the Patemkin was helpless. The young Minbari marveled at his work. It would be a slow death for the Earthers, their atmosphere leaking into space, the jump gate just out of their reach. He wondered if the Alyt would deem them worthy to be put out of their misery. The Nial still had partial power to its gravimetric drive, although his fighter was somewhat more sluggish than before. He could still fight. He searched for his next opponent.

Captain Eisenbarth tugged his jacket around himself tightly. It was becoming cold on the bridge and it would get a lot colder still. "What a way to go…" he sighed. Holland was beside him, trying to patch the system back together, anything to keep the life support system working for just little while longer. David wanted to tell him to sit down and shut up; to take it like a man, that he was just working himself up for no reason. He wanted to tell him that his laughable attempts were just wasting everyone's oxygen.

The captain eyed the jump gate just out of their reach. The battle was over, the Earth Force ships now flaming wrecks in space. The Minbari had left them alone, to die in space a slow death. At least they offered the colonist left behind a better deal. Those on the last shuttle died brutally, but swiftly as Minbari Neutron beams cleaved through them.

The first mate finally collapsed and, for no particular reason, he bellowed and laughed uncontrollably on the floor. Not knowing why, Eisenbarth joined in the fun.

Hypoxia, David finally figured out why everyone was laughing. In the final moments of his life he laid still, too tired to move or even to stay awake.

It seems like an eternity later that Dave had another thought. He felt his eyes burn with the intense light in his face. He tried to go back to sleep, it was comfortable there. He could just close his eyes and forget the atrocities and the threat of genocide to his people. But he was bombarded by sensations. Sound, it pounded at his eardrums, too loud to be ignored. For awhile the captain of the Patemkin couldn't figure out what the sound was telling him. Then it dawned on him. It was a question.

"Are you their-" the voice said but he couldn't make sense of what it was asking. "Are you-" they were asking him something. Again they asked. "-captain?" Finally he put it together.

Consciousness returned rapidly. "Yes, I'm the captain."

His eyes focused. A face took form. In a moment it became more distinct and David could see some features. It… he was human, though he looked pale and dressed oddly. His eyes still hurt when he tried to take in more details so for the moment he was content that the man before was human, even though he couldn't tell what he looked like exactly.

They had been rescued, the thought occurred to David. "What happened? Are the colonists safe?" He tried to get up, but the sudden action made him dizzy and he fell back on whatever he was lying on.

"Your crew and the passengers are recuperating. We rescued your people after the Minbari departed."

"Thank god," David let out a sign of relief. "My ship?" he asked. It was his livelihood, though at the moment he was just grateful to be alive.

"We had to leave it. Your ship was damaged beyond repair." The man told him.

Dave relaxed, there was nothing he could do at this point, he thought of his family – how happy they would be to see him alive. That was more important than any ship. "Thank you… my crew and everyone on board would be dead if you didn't find us. We thought Earth Force assets in the system had been all but destroyed."

"We watching the battle but had to wait until the Minbari fleet departed. We thought it would be too late, but you and your crew survived."

The bout of dizziness passed and in a moment David's head cleared. His vision finally focused on his rescuer. He was shocked by what he saw.

"We have a few questions for you to answer." The man, if he could be called a man, spoke fluently to him.

David pulled himself back together. He reasoned that if they had saved him, and in defying the Minbari by doing so, these pointy eared guys must not be all bad. His mind turned. He was no diplomat but even he understood the implications. At last, Earth may have found its first ally – someone not afraid to stand up to the Minbari.

"You're… you're not human." Despite his little voice telling him to be polite and diplomatic, these were the only words that came out of his mouth. He cursed himself silently. Good going David. The alien's expression turned at his sudden reaction.

"What we are is unimportant; we only require your cooperation."

Hearing more than seeing the hostility in the alien's voice; Eisenbarth couldn't help but ask. "I thought you saved us…" once the words left his lips he knew his initial assumption may had been a mistake. The alien's expression changed again. The pale alien was much more open this time.

"We saved your, but for a short time you and your people will be our guests. We, as the good hosts that we are, simply want to know a few things concerning with the races we associate with."

"I see…" he said slowly. Perhaps the earlier hostility was just a cultural misunderstanding, the captain of the Patemkin reasoned. Yeah that was it, a cultural misunderstanding. "My name is David Eisenbarth." The captain introduced himself. It was only the polite thing to do under the circumstances. "I'll be happy to answer any questions, but first I wonder will it be possible to send a message back to our people? To let them know that we are safe."

The alien's face was bland and unreadable. "Of course, but we are currently far from your previous coordinates. Real time communication will be impossible. However, if you would like to send a recorded message we can arrange that. We will just need the comm. frequency of your communication net. Your message should arrive in two to three weeks."

"Oh thank you, can I make the recording now?" David was elated. The news of his rescue will bring hope to so many back home.

"You will have time for that later. But first we would like for you to answer a few questions."

"Of course, please. I'll do my best to help with knowledge of our people." Maybe, just maybe these aliens would lift a finger to save humanity. This was the miracle everyone human has been preying for back home. He just hoped these aliens would help, and that he could convince them to help. David felt the weight of the world on his shoulder. "And may I ask to whom am I speaking?"

"I am Centurion Solos."

"Centurion… this is a military vessel?" he was surprised again. Why was a military vessel doing in Alliance Territory – were they spying on the Minbari or us humans?

"Yes, we have to protect ourselves from various enemies. We are simply being cautious. Now, if you please. I have quite a few things I must ask."

But this is the miracle we been waiting for, David reminded him self. "Alright, go ahead." He told the alien.

"First, are the humans here a member of the United Federation of Planets?"

"What kind of question is that?" he wanted to blurt out. But he kept his mouth shut. "I have never heard of this United Federal Planets organization." It was the truth. However the alien's question sounded as if there were humans in this Federal Planets system. But that's impossible.

If this was not the answer the alien wanted David couldn't tell. The alien's face remained passive. "Are you from the planet Earth?" the alien asked again.

"Yes, I am." This was much simpler question. "But I thought you knew that?"

The alien did not answer but instead he asked another question. "When did your people leave Earth to colonize this part of space?"

"The New London colony was founded in 2214. We've been colonizing space since we had star travel in 2156." This was not making sense to the captain of the Patemkin. Why did these aliens know about earth and speak their language so fluently yet know nothing of what should have been public knowledge?

To Solos, it confounded the senses and defied common logic. Everything this human said had been contradictory to everything the Romulans knew of Federation history. If they had left earth in 2214 there was no way wouldn't know about the Federation and furthermore, humanity gained faster than light travel in 2063, not 2156. Either the human was lying, which Solos didn't think he was, or something strange was going on. He glared at the human. It was frustrating him with the answers he received so far.. "If you're lying to me, we'll find out. We'll make being left on that ship feel like a good idea compared to what we'll do to you if we found you have lied to us." He turned to the people beside him. "Guards, take him to the brig."

Two pairs of strong hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him up. For the first time David noticed where he was. He being was escorted out when he found the first mate among one of the people being treated.

"Do you have any idea who I am!" the first mate screamed to the alien. "My brother is a very high ranking official in Earth Force. I demand to be returned to my government immediately." He continued to struggle but an unseen force held him down. "When my brother hears of-"

David saw what happened to his first mate as he attempted to rush the Centurion. Although he never liked the man much he felt sorry for him. He was stupid and a loud mouth at times, he picked a very bad time to make that known, as the aliens had had enough of him. One of the guards pulled a fancy gun and the next moment the man was just gone. Completely vaporized, there was nothing left of Holland save for the last horrifying screams that still filled Eisenbarth's ears.

His soul chilled. They weren't rescued, they were captured. This was an interrogation.

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Planet Quadrant B, Beta Quadrant:
Romulan Forward Base:

For the longest time Admiral Sela contemplated what her next actions should be. The battle at Morigol had taken more of a toll on their resources than expected. The lost ships and personnel could not be replaced until the main fleet arrived in a month. Moreover, according to reports by commander Argelian, the destruction of the jump gates had created more of a ruckus than originally intended. Now it seemed that the other powers might move against their forces here before they were ready. Thankfully, this part of the galaxy had been cut off from hyperspace travel. Still, if the locals form a unified front they might present a challenge to the main fleet, due to their superior numbers and the wide variety of technology available to them. Therefore, Sela decided to take radical action to prevent the local governments from unifying.

"Computer, begin recording." For what she had in mind, the Admiral would require authorization to expand the war. "To Praetor Tal'aura, Romulan Senate. Jolan Tru, Praetor. We have managed to secure a forward base of operations on the planet Quadrant B. However, while attacking the facilities at Morigol we suffered casualties at the hands of the Centauri. We were ambushed by their waiting fleet. You'll be happy to know that subcommanders Ehhelih and Ruwon were among the ones lost in the battle. Before we retreated I ordered the destruction of the…"

The Admiral was interrupted when the duty officer sent for her.

"Pause recording, yes?"

"Admiral, please report to the CIC. There is a situation developing." The Romulan's voice on the comm. system was a slightly higher than normal, tension and anxiety lightly coating his words.

Sela entered the Command Center moments later. "Report Lieutenant,"

"Three minutes ago I detected the formation of a hyperspace vortex at the edge of our system." His hands moved over the controls.

Sela wanted to tell the Lieutenant that it was impossible. A moment later the replay from their sensor grid was on the display.

"This object just emerged from hyperspace." The Admiral had seen it before. A squid like creature that was actually a living ship. It was the same race that had killed Commander D'varo and the Makar. Secretly she suspected the probe they encountered was also from these people.

"It's a bio-ship, much more complex than the ones used by the Breen. I'm detecting cybernetic implants and an artificial power source. It does not match anything in our records." Sela already knew all of this; it was in Argelian's report that had been classified by Tal'aura herself.

"What's it doing?" Sela asked. It was more important to find out where these people came from and what they wanted.

"Nothing, it's just been sitting there for the last few minutes."

"They're spying on us, thinking we don't know they're here." Sela muttered.

"Should we send ships to intercept?" The Lieutenant suggested. Sela paused. With modifications to Romulan shields and weapons, Sela was confident they could capture the alien ship, but these aliens had proved that they could get to them even when hyperspace travel was down. Capturing the alien might incite a war with a powerful foe when their hold in this sector was still tenuous at best.

"No, tell one of our ships to hide near the gravitational well of the planet. They are to follow the alien back to its territory once it leaves. In the meantime our other ships will go to alert status in case they decide to do more than peak in on us."

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Romulus, Beta Quadrant:
Location unknown:

Chairman Koval of the Tal'Shiar did not smile when he came across a report from Admiral Sela deep in the Beta Quadrant. It wasn't that he thought it was good news, and on the opposite end of the spectrum he wouldn't had frowned had it been bad. The simple fact of the matter is that Koval's face would shatter into a million pieces at the slightest hint of a smile, or at least that was what people close to him always said. To setup the mood even more, Koval always wore black, always. And the black covered his entire heavy set body except for his hair, which was gray.

"…An unexpected result of the gate destruction was that the disruption to the network was much larger than we had anticipated. We now face the possibility of the once isolated governments uniting to face us…" So, not everything was going as smoothly as the Praetor would lead the Empire to believe. Sela continued. "…Possible to redirect blame of the jump gate destruction. Using a modified Centauri hull we can refit it with warp drive engines and use it to attack targets of opportunity..." Cleaver, Koval internally commented. He remembered Admiral Valdore had tried a similar plan. It didn't end well for him.

Koval remembered a history text he had read as a young man. "Forever in history Valdore would be known as the Romulan that created the United Federation of Planets." He quoted that text now - not a hit of amusement on his deeply lined face. Personally he didn't like the writer much, too extravagant.

His attention returned to Sela's message. "Should they perceive the Centauri as no long needing hyperspace for FTL travel they would come to the conclusion that the disruption of the hyperspace network is a Centauri prelude to invasion. In reality, the Centauri in its current form stands no chance of repulsing their attack, but by the time they realize something is amiss our fleet will have arrived. Once we have the numbers, my plan is take out the entire hyperspace network. The bulk of the enemy fleet will be trapped in Centauri space and the local civilizations will collapse within days, leaving the entire sector vulnerable."

It was an audacious plan, even Koval had to admit. He had to give credit to the half-Romulan for coming up with something so underhanded.

"On another note I have included data from the interrogation of a captured Human officer. We have also captured one of the ships fighting the Humans in this sector. Their technology is more advanced than most of the civilization we encountered here thus far, but they would still be vulnerable to disruption in the hyperspace network."

That was certainly interesting. Humans deep in the Beta Quadrant and no one knew about it. Even with his position as Chairman of the Tal'Shiar, Koval wasn't privy to this information. Tal'aura was doing a real good job of hiding her secrets until now. He was certain his associates in the Federation would find this information very interesting indeed. Amused, Koval did not smile.


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Romulan space, Beta Quadrant:
IKS Slivin:

The Federation spy in the Romulan government had been known to the Klingons for quite sometime. They didn't know who it was, as the spy was meticulous in his profession, but they knew it was someone high up and well placed. They had found him; or more precisely, his carrier signal almost by accident. The Slivin was just at the right place at the right time several months ago when they intercepted a subspace signal disguised as galactic background noise.

It was an ingenious system and had the Klingons not been at those precise coordinates for their own espionage mission they never would have known. Even now they couldn't track down the source of the transmission, and in fact only one out of twenty communiqués from the spy were intercepted.

Mor'tah, captain of the Slivin, had the chance to read over their latest find before he had to relay it to Starfleet Intelligence. Something caught his attention. He grinned, exposing sharp fangs.

Mor'tah and the Slivin had been in the battle of Trelka V some years back. He had nearly gotten Chancellor Martok killed because the Slivin was hit during a critical phase of their escape. Now he would have a new chance for battle and to satiate the blood lust left over from the Dominion War.

His deep bellow resonated through every bulkhead on the ship. It was a horrible sound that filled the hearts of his fellow Klingons with dread.

To be continued in Chapter 5

A Klingons's Honor Part 2