Chapter 10

Taking the hand of peace

On the C'n'C deck of Babylon 5 two gleaming white ships had appeared, they were directly ahead of the station, and by all accounts were just sitting there.

"Commander, what scans are you reading?"
"Captain all my scans are being reflected back at me"

This did not bode well, the feeling within Sheridan's stomach got worse, just as a bleep caught his attention, it was from the console in front of him, and they were being hailed.

"On screen Commander lets see who they are, at least there not trying to shot first this time, which I suppose makes a change" Sheridan quipped.

Looking at his console he saw a luxury bridge appear before fore him, and to his surprise they were all human. On the console before him he could see what a man in a red and black uniform, a uniform that Sheridan didn't recognize; behind him he could see other human working at the station.

"Babylon 5, I am Commodore Rothchild from the united federation of planets, onboard the USS Illustrious we come in peace, Captain Folds onboard the Astex has one of your pilots, a Lieutenant Pearce. We would like to arrange a meeting to discuses the reason why we're here, and offer our assistance to you. I offer the hospitality of the Illustrious for our meeting in say one hour; my staff will arrange the detail with your staff if that is agreeable?"

Captain Sheridan thought for a moment, if this was true and they had the ability to cloak their vessels, what else they could do.

"Agreed Commodore, we will be ready in one hour Sheridan out."

At that Sheridan turned to face Commander Ivanova, "I want you to get hold of Mr Garibaldi, and we'll assemble here in one hour, await their message then take a shuttle over to meet them. I want side arms for everyone, just in case."

Onboard the Illustrious Commodore Nathan Rothchild was in the ready room with Captain Folds, Commander Seven of nine, Lt Pearce and Samantha Parker. The tie was fast approaching when Captain Sheridan would be joining them; looking around the table his eyes fell upon Lt Pearce.

"If I may ask a few questions Lieutenant, what's captain Sheridan like to deal with, how does he act and have you any advice of areas that I shouldn't approach?" Nathan asked diplomatically.

"What I would say Commodore is that you deal with Captain Sheridan in an open and frank way, he'll appreciate that. He's no time for politicians but all the time in the world for an open and frank conversation."

"Then we have a lot in common"

Cassandra formed by the door, and walked towards the assembled officers, "Commodore we are being hailed by Captain Sheridan."

The assembled officers looked towards the monitor upon the wall of ready room as the C'n'Cdeck of Babylon 5 appeared standing within the shot were Captain Sheridan Commander Ivanova as well as another officer that stood behind them

"Captain Sheridan, nice to see you and your crew again"

"Likewise Commodore, we ready to start and board the shuttle, we should be wit you with the half hour."

"Captain if I may suggest a way of getting you here quicker, we have the technology to beam you over to our ship."

"Beam us our? Please explain what you mean by beam?"

"We transport you instantly from where you are to our transporter room instantaneously, its quite painless"

The look on Sheridan's face for a brief second showed concern he then sighed and replied "Very well Commodore Myself, Commander Ivanova, and Mr Garibaldi are ready to transport when you are."

"I will meet you in transporter room one momentarily."

"Very well Commodore, Sheridan out"

A few moments later Commodore Rothchild and Commander Seven of nine were waiting within transporter room one.

Tapping his com badge Nathan spoke again "Captain Sheridan we're ready to beam you over"

"Acknowledged Commodore"

"Energize"

Onboard Babylon 5 the three officers started to feel a little strange as the control deck of the station disappeared, and they materialized onboard the USS Illustrious.

The command crew onboard Babylon 5 looked on in stunned disbelief as the three officers disappeared from view in a blue haze.

"Welcome aboard the Illustrious, this is my second in command, Commander Seven of nine" Nathan said

Captain Sheridan looked a little ashen for a moment before smiling then looking towards the Commodore.

"This is Commander Ivanova and my chief of security Michaela Garibaldi"

"If you would like to follow me this way Captain Sheridan towards the ready room I'm sure we have a lot to talk about."

As both crew sat round the table Nathan started to tell them about the history and principles of the federation. How it all started with Captain Jonathan Archer with the first Enterprise and how it continues to this very day. Then he started to talk about the dominion war, how the war enveloped the federation into an almost unthinkable defeated, the war had been full of hellish savagery. Nathan told of the many worlds that had been annexed by the Jem'Hadar, the fall of Betazed, the destruction of the federation fleet sent to stop the dominion, and how it had been complete destroyed. He continued to tell of how the Illustrious had been one of the only starships to make it out of the hellish nightmare that blossomed that day, and the atrocities encounter there.

"According to the federation we were losing an average of 51,900 troops per month during the war. That works out to around 1,245,600 casualties in total for the war, the chances are that the final figure is higher" Nathan said as his voice trailed off, as he looked towards the plaque on the wall.

"After the war, I retired from service and went back to my home in England, but Starfleet had other ideas, and so the Illustrious and myself we called into service once again."

The figures that the Commodore bounded around seemed horrific, that many people within this Starfleet had to die in this war. As their war had taken apart their galaxy so the shadow war that they were fighting threatened to do the same in this galaxy. The offer of help came at just the right time, how could they refuse the help of Commodore Rothchild?

"So where you guys come from, it seems pretty strange that all of a sudden, here you are, I'm sorry I'm having a little difficulty accepting that you came from another universe, and just in our time of need, hay presto here you are!" Garibaldi spoke his words dripping with sarcasm.

"Mr Garibaldi." Sheridan said sternly, "I apologise on his be half, but he does have a point."

"And if I were you, I would be concerned too. However as I said we are a long way from home, we don't know even if we can get home, therefore it is imperative that we need to make new allies and forge friendships. We have monitored transmission of ISN and we do not like what we see, you here have from what we have been told be Mr Pearce the start of something special, and we would like to play our part. The first Earthforce ship we came across was the Thuderchild, who demanded that by order of President Clarke we stood down and surrender our vessels, which obviously I refused to do. They then opened fire without warning and this is what happened; Cassandra please run the playback of the Thuderchild incident"

As the models of the Thunderchild formed above the ready room table, the Thunderchld had opened fire at the Illustrious and Astex, as the Tunderchilds weapons systems and engines were disabled by the Illustrious within a matter of moments. Six warheads were launched at the Illustrious which resulted in a blinding flash, the Astex immediately opened up with a broadside attack and destroyed the Thunderchild. With that the images vanished from view leaving a shocked looking Sheridan.

"Your weaponry capabilities are impressive Commodore, if I may ask who much damages did you take from a full assault from the Thunderchild?" Commander Ivanova asked in a quite voice.

"We took some minor damage commander" Nathan said as he smiled back at her.

Minor Damage from one of Earth force's destroyers and al they did was minor damage.

"We offer our service to you freely and if they're acceptable with you, we would like to offer some of our technology to Babylon 5, starting with replactors"

The next thirty minuets were spent talking about the effeteness and usefulness of the replicatores, and other such up grades that would be made available to Babylon 5.

"So you wish to offer us replicators, and other such upgrades as time goes on" Sheridan said carefully, "So what's the catch, what can we offer to you that can be so useful, you've advanced technology that we could only dream of."

"True" Nathan said as he took a slurp off coffee, "But we have no place to call a home port, its not that I've given up on ever getting back home, far from it, but using Babylon 5 as a base of operations would be very useful, for both of us."

Just then the com channel opened, "Captain we are being hailed from Babylon 5 it's for Captain Sheridan."

Sheridan looked up as he heard his name, and then looked towards the commodore who spoke "We'll take it in here."

A moment later the view monitor came to life and a humanoid female appeared she had long brown hair with a bone type crest.

"Ambassador Delen, is everything alright?"

"No John we have a problem which I'd like to speak to you privately about" she looked serious for a moment.

"Commander if you could escort Captain Sheridan to the transporter room"

"Thankyou Commodore I'll leave you with the capable hands of Commander Ivanova and Mr Garibaldi."
With that Seven of nine and Captain Sheridan left the ready room and went towards the transport room.

"Tell me more about this federation of your commodore" enquired Ivanova.

The meeting continued for an hour finishing with a tour of the Illustrious, at the end of which arrangements for an engineering team to install a replecator in the Captains office on Babylon 5.

Back aboard Babylon 5 in John office, John and Delen were talking, Delen could see that in one hand John was excited at what he'd just seen, but in the other he was a little worried.

"You should see it Delen, their technology is far in advanced of anything that Earth Force have and there willing to share it with us. They say that while they're here they want to use the station as a place to call home, and for this they've offer an exchanged of technology."

"I see", Delen said a little worried, "and are you sure that's all they want?"

"Well there's only one way to find out, and that's to wait and see what the motives revile. Their Commodore Rothchild spoke of a great war of their own how it engulfed there galaxy, and tore everything they cherished apart."

John Sheridan then relayed the information about the Dominion war how whole worlds had been annexed and whole fleets destroyed, the founders and the Jem hadar.

As she listened to his information Delen's face hardened, she sighed then spoke softly, "I would like to meet with this Commodore Rothchild. But that would have to wait until later, the reason I called you back here, it not good news John. The Shadows have started to attack races in the non aligned worlds, Drazi boarders are being attacked, and the rangers are reporting major loss of shipping and of life within this area destabilizing the area in a whole. It would seem they are trying to plunge the whole area into chaos. We need to see for ourselves what's going on there and form a plan of action."

"Agreed, and I've just the idea to see if these federation ships can help or can be trusted."

Delen looked on with a quizzical look, "What do you have in mind John?"
He smiled, then tapped him hand com unit "C'n'C"

"CnC here, yes captain?"

"Get my Commodore Rothchild"

A few minuets later Commodore Rothchild responded.

"Yes Captain who may I help you?"

"We have a problem that I think would could use your help with, we need to speak in person, myself Ambassador Delen and yourself."

"Very well Captain standby to beam"

"Beam?" Delen said with a worried look.

A few seconds later the worried look upon Delen's face was exchanged for one of fear as the room around here stared to vanish and a strange room appeared where she found herself standing on a raised platform, and a human was looking at her smiling.

"And I fought the Minbari held all the surprises", she said quietly to john.
Who turned round and smiled, then spoke "Delen, you ant seen nothing yet!"

"Captain Ambassador, if you would like to follow me this way, Commodore Rothchild is waiting for you."

The young ensign lead the way towards the captain ready room, inside the room Commodore Rothchild listening to Commander Ivanova who was explaining about the war with the Minbari.

"Arh good I'm glad to see that you are all here" Captain Sheridan said, "This is Ambassador Delen, who has news of the shadows attacks on Drazi of the league of non aligned worlds. And I feel it's only right that we should bring you up to speed on another war you have stumbled into."

"Well I think the first thing is to ask who the shadows are, and why there's a war here at all?" Captain folds asked as she looked to Delen for answers.

Delen looked towards the Assembled officers then spoke

"There are beings in the universe billions of years older than either Minbari or humans. Once, long ago, they walked among the stars like giants, vast, timeless. Taught the younger races, explored beyond the rim, created great empires, but to all things, there is an end. Slowly, over a million years, First Ones went away. Some past beyond the stars never to return, some simply disappeared ... Not all of the First Ones have gone away. A few stayed behind, hidden, or asleep, waiting for the day when they may be needed, when the Shadows come again."

Walking gracefully around the tables Delen continued to speak;

"The Shadows for we have no other name for them, were old when even the ancients were young. They battled one another over and over across a million years. The last Great War against the Shadows was ten thousand years ago. It was the last time the ancients walked openly among us. The Shadows were only defeated, not destroyed. A thousand years ago, the Shadows returned to their places of power, rebuilt them, and began to stretch forth their hand. Before they could strike, they were defeated by an alliance of worlds, including the Minbari and the few remaining First Ones who had not yet passed beyond the veil. When they had finished, the First Ones went away.

After she had finished talking about the shadows Delen sat down next to Captain Sheridan, who briefly held her hand before standing up.

"Now the shadows are setting race against race causing whole systems to become unstable and in effect letting them wipe each other out; so that when they choose to fight out in the open there'll be little of us left to stand and fight. We would like to request that one of your ships be dispatched to the Drazi system so we can verify the situation there. I will assign Commander Ivanova to assist you within this goal, if you have no objection?"

" Captain Sheridan, Ambassador Delen, we'd be happy to help defend what is now our new home port. Captain Fold, if you'd like to take the Astex with Commander Ivanova to the Drazi system, I would ask that I transfer Commander seven of nine to the Astex; she has the most experience in dealing with new and potential hazardous situations. I'd also request a transferral of Commander Korf to be assigned to the Illustrious while Commander Seven is serving onboard with the Astex."

"Agreed Commodore, Captain Sheridan I'm at your disposal, I would ask that Commander Ivanova transfer over to the Astex."

Within the hour Commanders Ivanova and seven of nine were both in the spherical chamber onboard the USS Astex. Sitting at the console were Seven, behind her Susan Ivanova looked around at this Astrometrics Lab, wondering what exactly an Astrometrics lab was. Then the holo emitters filtered in showing the exact region of space where Babylon five resided. It looked to Susan that for all intents and purposes as if she was floating in space, and she started to feel disorientated.

"As you can see Commander we are here in the Epsilon system, according to the navigational charts supplied Captain Sheridan, our destination is here within the Darzi system."

As Seven of nine began to speak the whole start system pulled away showing a galactic map, which pivoted upon its axis and zoomed in towards the Drazi system.

"Our course of action is to arrive in the system here and cloak while watching and gathering data upon the attacks, and if need be engage a shadows vessel to test its resolve."

"Do you think that's wise Commander?" Ask a concerned Ivanova, "When we've engaged a shadow ship, we've had to use telepaths to block the capital ships and even then it has taken several powerful vessels to destroy them, we are only one ship."

Turning to face Ivanova seven raise an eye brow and simple stated "We shall prevail commander"

"Do you have telepaths on the Astex Commander Seven? And please call me Susan"

"The commanding office of the Astex is from the planet Batazed; she's from a race that is Telepathic by nature."

This shocked Susan, a whole race of telepaths, a thousand and one fears and apprehensions raced though Susan's mind.

"But what's to stop her or anyone from her species from violating my mind, or anyone's mind for that matter?" she said with a worried undertone.

"There are rules within Starfleet she would not violate your mind. Now I suggest we get back to the matter in hand." Seven said firmly.

"The quickest route to get to the Drazi system is through the Jump gate, and follows the beacon ….." Susan was cut off in mid sentence which she did not appreciate too kindly.

"Most of the federation fleet use what we call a warp drive, this bends space and allows us to travel to a specified point, however the slipstream drive which is installed in this star ship gives us the option of travelling at a faster velocity then if we were at warp 9, thus making Jump gate technology obsolete for our point of view." Seven said efficiently.

"oh." Was all that Susan could think of saying before Seven, herself were summoned to the Captain ready room.

As both Commander's stood infront of the Captain Susan felt a wave of unease wash over her, although she had worked with telepaths before, however this was different, for now Captain Folds was in commander of the USS Astex, this was going to get some getting use to.

"Welcome onboard the Astex, for this mission Commander Seven you are to be my second in command, I will be relying on your expertise for this mission commander. Commander Ivanova, welcome on board, I have prepared quarters for you, to which ensign Rickman will show you too shortly."
"Thank you Captain Folds" as she snapped to attention.

"I will also be relying on your expertise as well in this area of space, and as such I have assigned you to work with Commander Seven."

"Ensign Rickman to the ready room" the Captain called.

A chime at the door announced his presents, as Commander Ivanova left the ready room to be shown to her quarters by the young officer.

On the main view screen upon the bridge of the Astex Commodore Rothchild look upon the bridge crew of the Astex, standing to the left of him was Captain Sheridan and Ambassador Delen.

"You're to gather intel. Find out what's going within the Drazi sector, offer what assistance you can. I want a full tactical report of the shadow vessels Captain, and what it take to kill one, use what ever means you have to, good hunting Captain" Commodore Rothchild said firmly.

"Aye sir, Folds out."

With that the screen went blank, and the view of the Illustrious and Babylon 5 filled the screen, helm set a course the Drazi system, punch it." Captain folds ordered.

The Astex swung towards open space and jumped to slip stream, leaving Babylon 5 behind, and watching the event unfold out of one of the observation ports was Mr Morden. Turning back towards the room, he saw a member of the security staff approaches, as he got closer the officer asked to see Mr Morden's identi-card to which he checked, smiled then handed it back, as he did so he also slipped a crystal over as well.

As the officer walked away, Mr Morden mumbled to himself " Its always good to have friends"