Unfortunately, I don't own Babylon 5. I only own this story.
Feedback would be very nice.
The Beginning of the Age of the Raiders.
John Sheridan was mystified as he walked into the conference room at EarthDome, his confusion increasing as he spotted a weird assortment of EarthForce captains, IPX officials, and senior fighter pilots. He spotted a few friends - well, those who had managed survive the Minbari and had gotten out with their skins intact, who had been promoted for valour or because their senior officers had been killed, leaving them as the only ones in command, but there wasn't enough time for him to say hello to them.
"John."
Sheridan turned and smiled when he caught sight of Elizabeth Lochley, his ex-wife before his own marriage to Anna because they had split up because they'd realised it was a mistake, who had been promoted to Lieutenant Commander and had been given command of a corvette following some skirmish.
"Liz," he grinned, hugging her gently; while they had both agreed their marriage was a mistake, they were still friends. "How are you?"
"Stressed. I can't tell you how good it is to be home," Lochley replied.
Sheridan nodded. He could see it in Elizabeth's slightly dark, haunted eyes. He knew how she felt because he felt the same way. Battles where the Minbari would come in, firing their weapons relentlessly which effortlessly sliced their way through the hulls of Earth ships, while fighters fought amongst each other with the star fury pilots being killed in droves. And the Minbari didn't stop with just destroying fighters and warships. They destroyed everything belonging to Earth in each engagement, be it shuttles and unarmed ships, to vessels that couldn't even fight back or had been battered down and decimated by the fighting, before they destroyed all escape pods that were launched by the desperate survivors who only wanted to survive…. only to be destroyed by the Minbari, the metal alloys of their life pods melting under the force of their terrible and yet highly advanced energy weapons only to be exposed to the airless vacuum of space where they'd suffocate to death.
What the Minbari were doing was sickening, and even after two years of hell, it still shocked Sheridan that any supposedly civilised race in the universe would contemplate something like that.
But what race is truly civilised? A part of his mind asked snidely.
Sheridan shut the voice down instantly, but he couldn't help but see the point the question was handing out. Even his supposed victory against their flagship, the Black Star had proven to be useless; the Minbari were now alerted to the possibility of tactics they hadn't even encountered, and every time they attacked an EarthForce ship, they made sure to destroy it, not make the mistake of letting the ship and the crew survive as they had with Sheridan during that unholy mess when the Lexington and its taskforce had been destroyed so they wouldn't lose any more of their people.
Seriously, Sheridan had thought the Minbari were bad enough, although he'd held out the slim hope that negotiations between Earth and the Minbari would work out before some mysterious party sabotaged the peace talks before they'd even begun, the fact some of them had been willing to talk pointed out clearly the Minbari wasn't just a race of murderers who held a grudge against all humans, although that thought had been dying slowly with each battle where even one person returning home was lucky, but the betrayal of the Narns and the Centauri…
Sheridan had to fight his internal anger at the thought of the former allies of humanity, former being the perfect word to describe them. The Centauri had given humanity the keys to the stars, with jump gate technology, and although they hadn't helped the human race during this mess of a war against the Minbari, they had introduced them to the galactic scene.
The Narns had given them weapons to fight off the Minbari, and while they hadn't proven as effective as many had hoped, their use had saved many lives against the Minbari.
In truth, Sheridan understood the Narns joining the Minbari more than he understood the Centauri. There had been a news blackout which stopped Earth from understanding what was going on in the minds of the Centaurum when they'd come up with this idea, and it turned out that Emperor Turhan and Prime Minister Malachi had both been killed, and power had been usurped by the relentlessly ambitious Lord Refa.
When the news had reached Earth, many had been surprised. Turhan may have been toothless, but he had been a wise, noble leader regardless, but Refa…
An example of a Centauri who yearned for the 'good old days' when the Centauri Republic was the Big Cheese of the galaxy, the all-mighty lion of the galaxy, Refa was one of a large majority who dreamt of those days of glory where the Centauri had control. Sheridan had met many Centauri during his career, but he had never met Refa although he knew him only by reputation. And he wanted it to stay that way. From what Sheridan had heard, Refa's voice was the strongest calling out for the Earth Alliance to be absorbed into the Centauri Republic. Everyone knew what kind of life that would have brought to humanity; slavery, threats of death while their worlds were being stripped of every natural resource imaginable. Go to Narn, and you saw what the Centauri had done.
But what had happened on Centauri Prime which had spiralled out of control which had made Turhan and Malachi both die so quickly, and Refa became the Emperor of the Republic?
Now he was in power, it was hardly surprising the Centauri were taking some of Earth's former colonies, but Sheridan actually had doubts many of them had been killed as rumour hinted. It was more likely they were now slaves under the cruel whip of the Centauri. The thought disgusted Sheridan.
With that in mind, Sheridan imagined that the Centauri's actions were one of the big reasons behind the Narn Regime turning on them. They wanted and needed planets and technology to pose a threat against the Centauri themselves.
"John, do you have any idea why we're here?" Elizabeth's voice brought Sheridan out of his thoughts while they sat down.
"Not a clue," Sheridan took his seat, while other officers sat down and debated among themselves, asking about friends who'd been lost in the war while others tried to have conversations where they didn't even mention the words Minbari, war, death, or colony for fear it would bring the whole matter back. Sheridan had noticed that quite a bit as the war had progressed, many people were trying to push the horrible reality they might be the final generation of the human race out of their minds even though it hovered over them like the Grim Reaper. Now, whenever he heard conversations about families, children being born, there was little delight anymore, but more terror for what would likely be in their child's future.
Sheridan couldn't blame them for their fear, and while he tried to avoid thinking about it because he refused to believe they were going to be wiped out, his mind kept saying what if they did all die out.
The Minbari were relentless, and they were bad enough. Sheridan had fought them, narrowly avoiding his own death more than once, but the fights with the Centauri and the Narns who were just as aggressive were easier to fight. A part of him was relieved they were fighting enemies who were closer to Earth in terms of technology, but EarthForce was losing ground, they just didn't have the resources to fight off three enemies at the same time.
But why the hell had the Centauri and the Narns opened their fronts in the first place?
Sheridan liked to collect mysteries, conspiracies, secrets. They fascinated the hell out of him, and he loved meshing his brain trying to understand how a certain conspiracy worked although he didn't dare get obsessed with them - he remembered making that mistake in his early teens, and he had needed to be taken to hospital when he had suffered from malnutrition - but he still liked thinking about what caused them.
Right now he was trying to work out what had caused Emperor Turhan to be assassinated by his own people, paving the way for Refa taking his place.
"This briefing is classified. Ladies and Gentleman, the President of the Earth Alliance."
Sheridan snapped out of his thoughts, and he jumped to his feet as did everyone else. He watched as President Elizabeth Levy herself stepped into the room, followed by several senators whom he dimly recognised, but there was a man of medium height wearing a rather battered suit trailing behind her, looking uncertainly into the room. Sheridan studied her closely while he was puzzled by the man who'd come in with her. He was sure he had seen that man before somewhere but he had seen him before. When he realised he couldn't remember him off the top of his head, Sheridan instead turned his attention back to the President herself, seeing clearly the fatigue on her haggard face even though she was trying desperately to appear strong. She went and sat down behind the head of the table, gesturing to the officers around her to take their seats.
"Good day to all of you," she said clearly without giving any clues as to how the war affected her, although he could see it in her expression the war had taken a toll on her as well. "I wish I had good news for all of you, but as you are all no doubt aware, the Minbari advance has increased its pace, and several more of our outer colony worlds that haven't been threatened by the Minbari yet, have been attacked and have presumably invaded by the Centauri and the Narns. That is the current consensus at the moment since we have lost all contact with our people in those systems."
Sheridan closed his eyes, trying hard to push out the nightmarish thoughts of what awaited them. The Centauri liked putting out a flamboyant, pompous facade, but they were still a militaristic power who knew how to torture and enslave whole populations, and now Refa was the Emperor of the Republic, it was hard to picture those same colonists living long lives free of slavery.
The Narns were more basic. It was almost ironic, really; the Narns had been held under the cruel whip of their Centauri masters for a century, but now they were out in the universe, they had taken the lessons a bit more zealously instead of trying to push it out of their souls. They were lashing out, obsessed with conquering whole worlds and expanding their territory while gaining technologies in order to shorten the gap between them and the Centauri.
Sheridan had met many Narns, and they shared the same desire, to conquer the Centauri Republic and make the peacock haired aliens pay the price for their century of oppression. But the Narns were proving they were no different from their oppressors, and Sheridan didn't want to know what would be found if they ever found a way of liberating them.
"However, as much as I would like to talk about liberating them," Levy's voice snapped Sheridan out of his thoughts (he was annoyed with himself for getting distracted, lost in his thoughts, but he could not help it), "we can't. We have problems of our own. According to our projections, the Minbari should be arriving in our home system in another three weeks."
Three weeks.
Sheridan looked around the table and the rest of the room and he saw looks of dread and most terrifyingly of all, acceptance of the news. They knew the Minbari would be arriving quickly. They had been pouring all their military might into the conquest of the Earth Alliance for months, sending more than enough ships in answer to the Alliance making them fight for every inch. There was even a flow of reports stating the Minbari were using mass drivers on the colonies to bring them down before they moved in and killed any colonist they found, but intelligence was sketchy in those areas, so nothing was confirmed. Personally, Sheridan hoped the Minbari hadn't gone that far, but since they didn't care what others thought and likely believed they were above things like treaties, then he wouldn't be surprised if the rumours were true.
"Refugees are coming into the home system all the time, and our resources are stretched thin while we send out more and more of our warships augmented with captured Narn and Centauri technology that has been quickly reverse-engineered, and while we have scored a few victories against the Minbari, they are still advancing. In three weeks time, the Minbari will launch their attack on Earth. Once they've finished, all they will need to do will be to seek out the last survivors, and that's it, the human race barring those who are likely slaves of the Narn and the Centauri, will be extinct," Levy forced each word out painfully while Sheridan noted the certainty those captured by the Centauri and the Narns had been turned into slaves by now.
The news broadcasts hadn't stated anything, but it was obvious really.
"But we're not going to let that happen," Levy smiled.
General Fontaine leaned forward interestedly. "We have a way of driving them off, take the fight to their homeworld?"
President Levy's smile faded a little. "No, General. We have found a way we can survive. Which many people will consider just as important as finding a way of, as you say, taking the fight to the Minbari homeworld. If you would all turn your attention to the screen, everything will be made clear."
She slipped out of her pocket a data crystal and slotted it into a reader before she turned her chair around to watch what came on the screen.
Sheridan frowned, watching with interest as the recording played. It was obvious that the recording came from three different star furies since there were three fighters in different frames. Everyone in the room watched as the recording showed the fighters outflying and outmanoeuvring a squadron of Minbari fighters.
Sheridan watched with interest, impressed with the skill of the leading pilot who got lucky and shot down a small number of fighters. But his interest was sparked when the fighters discovered some anomaly in the gravity well of a gas giant, opening up a tunnel. Sheridan looked around him, and saw the surprise on everyone else's faces, aside from one or two. They had clearly known about this phenomenon. He turned in his chair again and paid close attention.
He watched as the fighters travelled through the corridors, avoiding the different branches which appeared out of nowhere which led away. He was even more surprised when they finally exited the corridors and came out in Earth's own solar system.
"What you have all seen," Levy said, "is the discovery of what has been called the Underspace, a network of corridors that appear to be woven throughout the galaxy. Until now, no race has ever discovered them, although why is a mystery, it's a fortunate one since no-one knows about them. When the corridors were first discovered, it shaved off the travel time the star fury pilots experienced in hyperspace until they shaved off a 30 light-year trip down to a few minutes."
30 light-years? A few minutes?
Sheridan was amazed, and he shared a look of surprise with Elizabeth and a few of the other EarthForce officers around the table who weren't even trying to hide their own surprise at what they were hearing.
It took many hours, sometimes it could take days for a ship to traverse star systems in hyperspace, which was essentially a reflection of normal space, which had been crunched into itself meaning travel time was much less, but it still took hours or days to cross from one part of the galaxy to another. Hearing that another kind of space existed which allowed interstellar travel at a much faster degree was a surprise, however, if Sheridan looked at it logically then he supposed it made some sense; hyperspace existed, so what was to stop nature and the universe to give them another type of space to travel in?
Sheridan leaned forward, eager to find out what the President was going to say next.
However, another Captain leaned forward with a question on her lips. "Can we use these corridors to mount a counter-attack against the Minbari, or use them to rescue our people from the Narns or the Centauri?"
"Not at this time, unfortunately," Levy said before she turned to someone wearing a smartly pressed suit which showed just how wealthy they were, but what struck Sheridan the most was the IPX badge on her breast. "Doctor, if you wouldn't mind."
The IPX official stepped forward as Levy stepped aside. "For those who don't know, I am Doctor Carol Marcus, and I and some of my colleagues in IPX have been tasked with the exploration of the Underspace for the last few months. At first, we assumed this would be problematic considering how impossible it is to map out hyperspace since there are no landmarks to use, and only tachyon beacons in both hyperspace and in normal space are the only ways to prevent ships going missing. When we began exploring as much of the Underspace as we could, we went with that approach, only to discover it was unnecessary. The tunnels, despite being a maze crisscrossing the galaxy, are stable which means it's easy to navigate through them. At the same time, because of their stability, it makes mapping the corridors easier.
"However, due to the enormous strain on our resources with the war, IPX and EarthForce don't have the manpower or the ships needed to fully explore the Underspace, so as a result, we have only been able to map out a meagre number of corridors, many of going to our outermost colonies, while a few are towards our inner colonies. The bad news is we haven't been able to map the corridors out all the way into Minbari space so we can launch a surprise assault and do enough damage to their infrastructure," Marcus said grimly, "however, the good news is we've managed to make some maps of the corridors, we have managed to use radio communications because we can't risk the Minbari detecting and intercepting our tachyon transmissions to the colonies which haven't fallen to either the Minbari, the Narns, or the Centauri through the corridors as a base to chart corridors which lead as far out to Grid Epsilon, and some even more beyond that, far from all territories in the galaxy."
"We're going to use some of those corridors to evacuate our population to these areas," Levy interrupted, "unless we can find another solution to the war."
"We're going to run away?" There was sheer contempt in General Franklin's voice.
That was the wrong thing to say.
Levy turned to him slowly, glaring at him in contempt.
"Do you see any other options, General?" Levy snapped. "I don't like the thought of running away any more than you do, but our civilisation is under threat. Think about it! If the Minbari wipe us out because we gave into arrogant pride instead of using the Underspace and the sanctuary they represent, our entire civilisation, thousands of years worth of history, art, literature, culture, and thought and philosophy will be wiped out forever. I will not let that happen. I will not let one, never mind three alien powers destroy us. And if you don't like it, I suggest you personally grab a small fleet, and go in a blaze of glory, if that's how you feel.
"I'd rather you didn't. You and the rest of EarthForce are our lines of defence. You have defended our culture for decades, and I can say we are beyond grateful. Everyone in EarthForce has lost friends, even family to the Dilgar, the Narns, the Centauri, and the Minbari. We need you all to continue to defend us, protect our way of life so it will not be destroyed. I ask you, General, what's more important to you? The human civilisation, or your pride?"
Franklin had been looking down at his feet while Levy ranted at him. When she was finally finished, he looked up.
"You're right, Madam President. Our civilisation is more important, but I just don't like the thought of just running away," Franklin said so emphatically Sheridan could see his argument.
He didn't like the thought of running any more than anyone else in the room, but he accepted it better than most since perhaps with the corridors, they might be able to catch their breaths and later become strong enough to take on the Minbari, to say nothing of the Centauri and the Narns.
XXX
As she listened to Franklin's apology although truthfully she didn't care at this point if he was truly sorry for his defiance of the decision of Operation Exodus, Elizabeth Levy still felt some degree of sympathy for his point of view.
A part of her wanted to grab a PPG and go out and kill every single Minbari warrior, Centauri and Narn she came across out of revenge for what they had all done to Earth, but she knew she couldn't. She needed to remain here and protect her people while she tried to find a diplomatic solution to the three-sided war, although she knew it was hopeless since the Minbari had just ignored all transmissions from Earth, the Centauri were ignoring them as well, and the Narns were following the example of the others.
"I'm glad you feel that way, General," Levy said diplomatically, hoping that this domestic issue would be easier for her to work out that the current mess they were in now. "Like you, I had little doubt we'd be fighting the Minbari in our home system without an easy advantage at our disposal, however, it was always in the cards we would be sending some of our people off into space to hopefully survive, even though they would likely be refugees for the rest of their lives. But now we have a chance to survive, and hopefully, in the future, we can mount a future attack on all three races and make them pay for what they have done."
Levy was serious. She knew what she had in mind for Operation Exodus to work would astound them all while it would have profound effects on the human race for generations to come, but she really wanted to make all the worlds and races who'd betrayed Earth after so many had died fighting for them against the Dilgar regret their treachery for the rest of their existences.
She wanted to see the Minbari home system devastated while the Minbari paid the price for massacring so many people in their desire to exterminate a species while she wanted to see the Narns brought under the cruel whip of humanity - they had thought the Centauri were cruel, but the Centauri had nothing on humanity. At the same time, she would love to see every member of the Centaurum and Refa himself either dead or enslaved for their crimes.
It both scared and amazed Levy she was already making plans in her mind to enslave the three races even though humanity had come out of that dark chapter of their history a long time ago. But she didn't care. She would like to see the three races pay for the devastation they'd wrought on humanity, to say nothing of making the League of Non-Aligned Worlds regret the day they decided to stand back and let humanity fight alone after everything they'd done for them during the Dilgar invasion.
She took a deep breath and looked away for a second before she turned back.
"The plan is called Operation Exodus," she announced while she pushed Franklin and what she'd personally like done to the Minbari, the Centauri, and the Narns out of her mind for the time being, "we will launch every space-worthy ship into the corridors, where they will travel to a world that has been chosen for its distance from both territory and from the nearest jump gate. Once there, we will establish a colony or a series of colonies in the outer rim territories. Hopefully there, we can rebuild and regroup. At the same time, we will map out the Underspace. Hopefully, from there, we can keep the Minbari away."
"Madam President."
Levy turned, slightly annoyed by the interruption but her annoyance changed when she took in Professor Carnahan. "Yes, Professor?"
XXX
Carnahan had been waiting for a long time for something like this. Not the Earth-Minbari War where millions of people were being slaughtered by a more advanced alien race, but for the human race to stop suckling the teats of aliens for technology. Carnahan had noticed for a long time the technology of the galaxy, although for the various races Earth had encountered they each had their own spin and level, was fundamentally the same like an ancient race had developed the same technology over millions of thousands of years, and then passed it down to the other races in the galaxy without allowing them the chance to develop on their own.
Carnahan hadn't liked that, he found it insulting as a scientist that instead of being allowed to develop on their own, humanity was expected to follow the paths of the Vree, the Narns, the Centauri, and likely the Minbari in terms of technology.
"Madam President," he interrupted although he was happy when the President said they would be mapping out the Underspace; hopefully while they mapped it out, they would make new discoveries about the nature of the universe, and develop from there.
Levy turned, and while he saw the annoyance at his interruption he could see she was waiting to hear what he had to say. "Yes, Professor?"
Carnahan stepped forwards. "It's time for us to get real," he said bluntly, "ever since we began exploring the galaxy, we have found every race follows the same tech base. In a thousand years from now, it's likely the Narns will have technology at the Centauri's own level, while the Centauri could have full access to the technology level of the Minbari. The Underspace offers us a chance to develop, but at the same time don't forget about TOMTIT."
"TOMTIT?" someone asked.
"Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time," Carnahan explained. "It's essentially a teleportation device. It converts objects into light waves, and transmits them through interstitial time, which I detected after studying tachyon particles."
The moment he said the word teleportation, the audience was immediately captivated.
"Teleportation?"
"Can we use that against the Minbari?"
"We already have, haven't we?"
Carnahan focused on the speaker, a young black woman wearing an EarthForce uniform. She was looking at Carnahan with misty eyes, and she appeared to be on the verge of crying tears of relief. "A few days ago, another squadron of ships went toe to toe with the Minbari," she explained. "I heard there was top secret technology on them, and they were able to destroy the Minbari with nukes. But I've heard of similar stories and how there's a rumour they didn't even fire a shot!"
Carnahan nodded, although he was not smiling. He didn't like the thought of his technology being used in such a manner, especially since he knew it would only increase the belief science fuelled the military and were subservient to the loss of life. However, at the same time, he had become furious when he had heard his sister and her family had been killed by the Minbari, although he didn't know the details. He'd had enough of the aliens, and so he had contacted EarthForce and showed them what he had available.
TOMTIT wasn't ready for use with organics, but the technology was not a problem, and after a bit of work he had managed to install the technology on several Earth warships to use in the war, and while they had certainly worked in bypassing some of the Minbari stealth, he knew they had a long way to go before he could perfect it so they could develop true teleportation.
"Those aren't rumours. Those events actually happened," Carnahan said. "Originally I wanted to create a technology where we could use to travel from one planet to another, even from one solar system to another without using a space ship to do it for us. I studied teleportation experiments developed two centuries ago, and I've even studied the technology of the Vree to help me here and there to show me some new directions I could take my research. I'd managed to develop it before the war, but I became so frustrated and furious with the war, I approached EarthForce. A teleport device doesn't need intricate targeting systems to transport a nuclear bomb, not if it materialises outside the hull and is close enough to cause incredible damage."
"Can we use this teleport to travel to the worlds occupied by the Centauri and the Narns, and free the people there?" someone asked hopefully.
Carnahan sighed. He realised in hindsight he should have expected that particular question, but he hadn't sadly. "No, I'm afraid not. I've only just perfected it for short-range teleportation, and in any case, as I've just said I haven't worked out yet how to safely transport people, even though my research is improving in leaps and bounds."
Disappointment settled in the expressions of several of the audience, but Carnahan pushed on. "However, TOMTIT is but one piece of technology," he went on, "we need to turn around, and start developing technology of our own. I found out TOMTIT can work thanks to tachyon particles, and we know tachyons travel faster than light. Why not study them and see what else they can do? We need to make the human race better than ever before. Stop relying solely on plundering alien worlds, start thinking and start developing. I know there's a war on, and we need new technologies to stop the mindless advance of the Minbari, but I am thinking of what's coming after. TOMTIT's only the beginning, but surely we can use it as an example for the development of our race? This war has proven humanity, on the whole, are nothing more than a bunch of babies scavenging technology from different sources with little research being made to look outside."
Silence settled over the entire room. Many of the listeners were torn between mentally scoffing at some of the things being said, still locked in the belief some technological innovation would save the day, but the rest of them….
They had to admit to themselves Carnahan had a point.
Ever since they had encountered the Centauri and gained interstellar travel in the form and the shape of jump gate technology, they hadn't really tried to innovate with their new technologies. Things like teleportation were still being studied, but it was a very primitive form of research and it hadn't really developed since the 21st century where quantum teleportation merely transported particles and atoms, and even with jump gate technology, there wasn't really any research into intergalactic travel.
Sure, while Carnahan was only half wrong about the lack of true innovation or development, they did make some advances, small as they were.
XXX
"We shall definitely look to rectifying those concerns of yours later, Professor," President Levy said diplomatically, although she made it clear she wasn't going to dismiss what he had said.
Indeed, she herself would like to see humanity and Earth develop into a powerful race.
Especially now.
Ever since the war had started, the Senate had issued an order for any invention that could help be presented. But at this point, only TOMTIT's appearance in the equation had proven to be beneficial. Teleportation may have been a staple of science fiction for decades, but the idea of having a teleportation machine capable of transporting nuclear weapons close to the Minbari to either slow them down or destroy their war cruisers had done wonders for morale. Even better, TOMTIT's presence in the human-technology list meant they had something few races in the galaxy possessed.
But Carnahan had a point.
They needed to develop their technology. They needed to look for answers on their own without looking to aliens for them, and they needed to develop on their own. Granted, they would need to actually survive the onslaught by the Minbari, and they were bad enough, but thanks to the betrayal of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds who were terrified of the Minbari, and the way the Centauri and the Narns had gone even further by attacking and conquering human worlds, but Levy could see the attraction.
She closed her eyes and pushed those thoughts aside. She needed to focus. They had a lot to discuss right now, and thinking about the future of technology was not on her agenda today.
"However, we need to discuss Operation Exodus and any development of technology will have to wait, although the mapping of the Underspace is important.
"Operation Exodus is simple; we are going to forcefully evacuate all of the planets closest to Earth, and they will head for the areas determined by IPX to be habitable, and far from the major powers, so we can survive. The Order hasn't yet been given, but I have already briefed a few EarthForce generals and the Joint Chiefs of Staff to make it happen, so it's not widely known. I have sent an order to the colonies telling them not to send anyone through the gates, but I have no idea if that has been obeyed. Unfortunately, to do that we need to slow down the Minbari. There are two ways of doing that, to mine hyperspace with fusion bombs, delivered by EarthForce ships we can spare - we don't need it anymore, and refugee transports will be given command to those who are aware of the Underspace. The outer colonies will be sending our people off to areas IPX have found far from the frontlines. The Inner colonies, however, will be sending their refugees here. Earth's system is to be used as a transfer point for the colony routes we haven't yet mapped.
"The moment Minbari, or any other ships' silhouettes are detected or only when they have been detonated by a signal, the bombs will explode, and cause enough disturbance in hyperspace to slow the Minbari down and give us the time we need to get everyone away. With luck, maybe the gravitational anomalies will be severe enough to cause whole Minbari fleets to be lost. I don't think I need to remind any of you of what would happen if that took place," Levy looked around the room seriously.
Everyone looked at each other, surprised by what was being proposed and they knew this was incredibly big. Early in the war when it was clear there was no way EarthForce could ever hope to match the Minbari, many of the more desperate generals proposed using hyperspace and its gravitational hazards to even the gap.
Travel through hyperspace was delicate, not only because of the dangers of getting lost if a ship's engines lost power suddenly, then it would be drawn off course, and everyone would be lost. In a war, the energy use of energy weapon fire and the energy released by explosions would create a suction effect, and ships and people would never be seen again.
Many strategists within EarthForce likened the tactic to a battle taking place on the summit of a volcano where the combatants would be fighting on the rim of the crater, during the middle of an eruption. If the enemy didn't kill them, the volcano would.
With the losses the Earth Alliance were taken in lives and equipment, the plan had been shelved although many favoured the plan since it could allow them to fight the Minbari on a more even footing.
But with the losses of people and equipment, it had been feared the losses would quicken the end of humanity.
Not now.
With the discovery of Underspace and the wormhole-like tunnels, they no longer needed hyperspace. That meant it could be weaponised without risking any more human life.
"Unfortunately, we have a problem with our timing, putting Operation Exodus at risk. The Minbari are advancing quickly, followed by the Centauri and the Narns. We need time to put our plans into place. To that end, I am asking for a group of EarthForce ships to use the Underspace to evacuate the colonies that we know haven't been touched while we send the order to the various colonies to evacuate them," Levy said. "This has to be done NOW!"
General Hague stood up. "Madam President, I can get the third, fourth and fifth fleets ready within an hour."
"Thank you, General," Levy smiled.
"Madam President," General Franklin leaned forward. "We should be aware the Minbari will suspect something."
"I know," Levy said grimly. "But let's hope we have the chance to do some good and save our civilisation."
"Madam President," John stood up, looking respectfully at the leader of the Earth Alliance while he detected a flaw in the plan. "Why are we sending colonists from the inner colonies here instead of to the worlds IPX have found?"
Levy sighed. "As has been explained to all of you in this room, the Underspace is virtually unexplored. By the time we had discovered it and sent ships through, a large portion of our territory had already been conquered. IPX is still exploring it as fast as possible, but the lack of resources to properly study the phenomenon is taxing as it is. We have managed to map out where some of our inner colonies are, and we've found some of our outer colonies that have not yet fallen. We simply don't have all the paths to find the inner colonies and send them off to anywhere but Earth."
"What are we going to do about our planets which have fallen to the Narn and the Centauri?" a female EarthForce officer asked.
"We can't do anything for now, not until we have completed Operation Exodus," Levy was becoming annoyed with all the questions since she hadn't yet reached the important part. "Until we have found planets to regroup and to colonise far from the major powers, we can't do anything for them with all our military resources aimed at stopping the Minbari. But the real problem begins at the final end."
"Why?" Lefcourt asked.
"None of our enemies must gain access to Earth. To that end, we are going to destroy the jump gate."
XXX
Destroy the Jump Gate….
It was amazing how a few simple words could have such an effect on a whole room. But the announcement had completely taken everyone by surprise, especially since it could have devastating consequences if anything went wrong.
"Destroy the Jump gate?" Lefcourt repeated, looking around the room to see if he was the only one who must have misheard this before he returned his focus on the President. "Madam President, surely-?"
"You didn't hear me wrong, any of you. We are going to destroy the jump gate and the tachyon beacons surrounding our solar system. Not only here, but in every untouched system."
"But we can't-!"
"Why?" Levy challenged. "We don't need them anymore. If we cut off the beacons and the gates, we ensure Earth does not fall into the hands of our enemies. The Narns, the Centauri, and the Minbari must not gain access to our homeworld."
"Madam President, I think I should point out the race known as the Deneth did what you are proposing," Sheridan spoke up, looking at the President seriously.
The Deneth were, like the Narn, former conquests of the Centauri. They had managed to drive the Centauri away from their world by blowing up the local jump gate. While they succeeded in throwing off the Centauri occupation, they had been deprived of trading partners because jump gate destructions caused shifts in the beacon network. The Deneth had become a race of space pirates as a result, and EarthForce had encountered them several times in the past, but they were not a threat.
"I know," Levy said stiffly. "However, I'm going to ask why we should care? At this point, the other races have abandoned us, and two of our allies have joined in the purge to wipe us out. Who will be next, the Brakiri? The Vree? The Drazi? Yes, we might lose allies, but they have turned their backs on us because they're too scared to do anything for us. In any case, you all know what the Narn do with the worlds they subjugate, to say nothing of the Centauri; do you really want Earth to become nothing more than a bombed-out ruin of a planet, strip-mined of all life and mineral wealth?"
Everyone was quiet as they took what the President said on board. No-one denied what she had just said because it was true, especially the officers and people who had actually seen the heavily polluted state of Narn. Every race who encountered the Narns for the first time and learnt of what their world looked like assumed they were a desert-dwelling species. Not so. The planet had once been as lush and green like Earth currently was, but the Centauri Republic had spent a hundred years stripping the planet of every resource it had. When the Narn resistance pushed the Centauri away, they were left with a barren wreck of a planet. In the intervening years, the Narn Regime had expended much of their resources colonising everything close to their home system as possible, and they had spent a lot of time trying to restore the lost forests of their world to their former glory. At the same time, they conquered worlds and made slaves of their victims because they wanted to become stronger.
But the ironic thing was the Narn had done all that to become stronger, to find an advantage to wiping out the Centauri to make them pay for the oppression and destruction they'd caused, but they had become what they were trying to destroy. They had conquered several races, and while their methods were more extreme than the Centauri, no-one doubted that at some point the Narns would find themselves fighting off a revolt much like the one they had waged against their former oppressors.
But the point had been made.
No-one in EarthForce or what was left of the rapidly shrinking Earth Alliance wanted that to happen to their homeworld. It was too late to worry about their other worlds, but Earth was the ancestral home of the human race. One by one, an hour later, they agreed with the plan.