Back Home – The Dual War
by Warringer
Chapter 39 (Partly written by Psychosama over at the Maximum Addventure)
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While he hid it well, Battle Master Len'dar was a man at the edge of a small nervous break down. One caused not by stress, but by confusion. The behavior of these Terrans was incomprehensible. While he did not wish to disrespect their kindness, a kindness no one other race had shown his people, it was intimidating. To a military commander, it is critical that one at least have an idea how to predict the behavior of those they encountered. Usually he could, but these humans? They seemed to act according to no logical pattern he could decipher, like no other race in the galaxy.
While most races would condemn them for past crimes, the Terrans made no mention of them. While most races would have left them to starve, the Terrans arrived with enough food and supplies to drastically change their standard of living, offering it without charge. While most races would have pulled out and left them at the tender mercies of the Doranians, the Terrans fought to protect them with the fury of a species protecting their own. And now, if only to confuse him more, the Terrans had arrived in force, not to seek vengeance upon the Dilgar for their lost ships, but to offer his people the protection of their fleet.
Through all of this, Len'dar was left with his head swimming. Why? Why were they doing this? Was it to secure the Dilgar as a vassal people? If that was their objective, he was ashamed to say, all they would have done was offer them a pittance of the bounty they'd already delivered and his people would have gladly sold them their souls. If this was an attempt to court an ally, then the Terrans were speaking to the wrong people. The Dilgar couldn't fight a war, they could barely fight to protect themselves. He just hoped that they didn't take the news... badly, when they were unable to assist.
Sighting deeply, he looked at them man on his main view screen. It was time that this charade came to an end. Before he could accept any more of their kindness, he would have to know why they were doing this.
"Admiral, before I accept this, I need to know why you were doing this?"
Admiral Scheidt blinked in confusion, responding like he'd just been asked a strange question. "What?"
"Why are you doing all of this for us? What do you want from us?" Len'dar replied, his strained tone of voice beginning to show his confusion and anxiety.
On his side of the channel, Admiral Scheidt was honestly confused. They were doing it for humanitarian reasons, what else did he need.
"Sir," his communications officer cut in, "We're getting a transmission from the Saber."
Scheidt nodded to him and a second line was opened, while the line to Len'dar was temporally muted. "Yes, Captain Garrett?"
"Let me explain to them," Garrett stated.
Scheidt paused for a moment, then nodded in agreement. "Alright."
Switching back to Len'dar, he stated, "Captain Garrett on the Saber will it explain to you."
Len'dar nodded and closed the connection, while hailing the Saber.
"Battle Master?"
Len'dar nodded to the Force Master at the communications station. "Yes?"
"They are inviting you to their ship to speak in person."
Len'dar stood up, and nodded solemnly. Regardless of what happens, he was going to discover the truth.
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Captain Garrett calmly sat in his conference room, carefully considering how he was going to speak to this Dilgar. Now, he knew from his own experience that the Dilgar were a proud and paranoid people, though in this universe they'd lost their pride and likely had gained a great deal more paranoia. Not that he could blame them, after all they'd been through, it was a wonder they were still alive. An unfortunate wonder that had not been repeated in his own universe.
Maybe it was just guilt that had him sitting here, in front of two plates of Swedish meatballs, one normal and one served with guacamole and soy sauce, but regardless, he was going to set this man at ease if only for the sake of his own peace of mind.
Breaking his train of thought, the door chimed.
"Enter," he stated.
With a hiss, the portal opened, and in walked Len'dar. The man really was a sorry sight, he had to admit. While over the comms he'd though he was a serious step down from the proud Dil'gar he had fought during the war, seeing him in person was like a blow to the gut. He was dressed in rags, and he had a stench to him that could curl hair.
"I apologize about the smell," Len'dar sighed. "Our air filters are highly taxed and we rarely have enough water to bathe, though I must say its nice to be in an environment with clean air..." Len'dar trailed off as he looked down at the table. In a voice that was almost a squeak, he managed to choke out "Is that... ombra?"
"Swedish meatball, actually," Garrett remarked, "There are just some things that seem to be a universal constant. Take a seat, dig in."
Len'dar nodded and slowly sat down, looking at the tray of food as if it were an item of religious significance.
"I haven't had ombra since I left Omolos," he remarked as he took the first bite. Len'dar paused, and a distant smile appeared on his face, as if for a moment, he was back home and that the destruction of his world was just a fading nightmare.
"Are you alright?" Garrett inquired.
Len'dar paused for a moment. "I am. Thank you." taking a deep breath, he sighed and added, "Yet another unexplainable kindness. I need to know why you're doing this for us. Why the kindness. We have nothing to offer in exchange for it, yet your generosity seems to know no end. I need to know why."
"Ideology," was Garrett's only reply.
Len'dar blinked. "What?"
"Ideology," Garrett repeated. "Humans in general, are driven by several major ideological concepts that define who we are. If you'd like, I'll describe a few of them"
Len'dar slowly nodded, as he enjoyed his meatballs.
"First, there is a basic assumption that is at the core of most modern Terran National Goverments, as well as part of the GDI's mission statement: sentient rights."
Len'dar looked at him in confusion.
"Sentient Rights are based on the assumption that all sentient beings have a number of natural rights, rights that are possessed by all sentients beings and that cannot be lawfully taken from them. Rights like the freedom of speech, the freedom of choice, to equal treatment under the law, to due process of the law, to participate in their government... the list goes on and on..."
"I don't get it," Len'dar admitted, "How can your government accomplish anything with those kinds of 'rights'?"
"That brings us to step number two of our driving ideological forces: Popular Sovereignty. Most GDI governments are based on the idea that all political power and authority are derived from the will of the people. We elect our leaders, based on the promise that they will act according to the wishes and interests of the people. If they don't, we elect someone else."
Len'dar nodded.
"Next is the concept of humanitarianism. Its rooted in the concept of human rights. The core belief of Humanitariansim is that people should help on another and treat each other with dignity and respect. If you see someone who is starving, and you have the food to spare, give it to them. If you see someone who cannot protect themselves, but you can, then you fight." Garrett sighed, "
"Thats why?" Len'dar asked, "Because of your 'humanitarian' ideology?"
"Yes."
Len'dar nodded. "So, I just want to go over this again, Terran ideology is based around the concepts that all sentient lives are in a way sacred?"
"Yes"
"That the will of the people is absolute?"
"Yes"
"And that people are responsible for those around them, and that they should aid and protect one another?"
"Yes."
"And unlike most species you, for some insane reason, don't limit this to your own race?"
"We've learned that is is far better to look for the similarities in people than the differences in people," Garrett remarked.
"Alright," Len'dar stated, "But that still leaves me with one important question, why us? After all we've done, why are you helping us?"
Garrett sighed and looked the Dilgar in the eyes. "There is an old human saying that I think applies here: 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone'."
One again, Len'dar blinked in confusion. "What?"
Garrett sighed. "I told you what you asked, and I hoped you've enjoyed your dinner, but we both have our duties to attend to. I'll give you a copy of our historical records, and maybe after you've reviewed them we can speak again."
Len'dar stood up and nodded to the Captain. He was right. They both had to clean up in the aftermath of a battle. He was glad to finally have an understanding of the Terran's drives, no matter how 'unique' they may be, but he did have work to do.
"I look forward to it, Captain."
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Sailor Pluto had closed her eyes as she stepped in front of the Time Gate, a device build by the most powerful minds of the V'Ampier, the Ancients. Originally designed to be a device to test a theory about time, they had found that it could be a very powerful tool, but also a great temptation. The 'Silver Millennium' faction of the V'Ampier, based on the Moon, had financed the device and so it was their job to send a guardian to guard it from use.
Sailor Pluto had done so for the last thirty thousand years, after taking over the job from her mother, the previous Sailor Pluto. It was a long time. She had seen how the 'Silver Millennium' and the rest of the V'Ampier were destroyed by the Shadows and the Vorlons before it actually happened in the Time Gate, but she had never thought that it would have such a high possibility that it actually happened. It had been a slap into her face and the actual destruction of her race, her species, had send her into shock and denial. Perfect for a being from the future to install geas into her mind.
She never really know how the being had been able to come from one of the possible futures into her present, but it had happened nonetheless. The geas had changed her mind, her way of thinking, only trying to work towards the goal of Crystal Tokyo. The same being that had gone back in time to install her geas had later come back in the form of Chibi-Usa and Wiseman had his ilk.
Now she was free of the geas, thanks to the tender mercies of her dimensional analogue, an extremely powerful telephat. It had been millennia since she had been able to think as free as she was now. And she could remember more than she would like, as the geas had screwed up her memories. Everything she had remembered before DarkKnight had come back, had been a perverted version of the real past.
She breathed in and for a moment she smiled, before intoning the sung prayer to the Goddess that had created the V'Ampier, her people. As she sung the prayer, she felt better. It had been millennia since she had done this. Of cause she knew that the Goddess Washuu really existed, but that hadn't stopped some of her kind to pray to her. Humans always needed to believe in someone or something. And the V'Ampier had been all too human.
She ended her prayer and looked through the dome of the Time Gate into the black sky of Pluto.
Than she turned towards the Gate.
"Show me Crystal Tokyo," she said.
As the Time Gate began to show her the Crystal Pillars of the city, she shook her head. That possible future was dead to her and to the rest of the world. It would never come to pass. She closed her eyes as she thought that it would have been a nuclear war between the USA and China that had resulted in the Great Ice, nothing more than Nuclear Winter. The remains of mankind would have been in Toyko and the life there would have been... monotonous.
"Would Crystal Tokyo have been destroyed?" she asked and the Time Gate showed her the answer.
She watched as a Shadow Fleet approached Earth. Shadow Battlecrabs were orbiting above Crystal Tokyo, their beams lancing deep into the atmosphere to destroy the city before a Dearth Cloud started to envelope the entire planet, its nanites converting the surface into nuclear weapons and detonating them at the same time, destroying the last remains of the planets life.
"Is time stable?" she asked again and the Time Gate answered by showing her a Mandelbrot figure.
She breathed in deep. Time was getting in to a special direction, but still changed.
"Will there be a danger of Shadows or Vorlons to mankind?"
Again the images in the Time Gate changed, but there was still a very small image of the Mandelbrot figure in the corner of the gate.
She looked into a large room that looked like it was somewhere in the Pentagon or something similar. High ranking Admirals of multiple races were sitting around a table with a hologram floating between them. She was surprised to see humans side by side with Narn, Dilgar, Ferrons and other alien races.
The hologram over the table showed a star map of the galaxy where a number of stars flashed white before going dark. The hologram changed and showed a planet she knew, Za'ha'dum, surrounded by large amounts of Shadow ships. Suddenly there were rapidly growing white hot spots in the centers of several of the Shadow fleets, washing over the black spider like ships before the image changed to static.
"Gentlemen," one of the Admiral said and smiled grimly. He was human as far as Pluto could tellö.
"That concludes 'Operation Shadows Dawn'," he continued." We have successfully destroyed about ninety percent of the known Shadow fleet assets, planets, colonies and other bases with Jump Bombs. It would be best to get to DefCon 2, before we purchase the Vorlons to leave quitely towards the Rim or we do the same to them."
Pluto stared. In that potential future mankind had all but annihilated a good number of the Shadows and now they thought about sending the Vorlons beyond the Rim. She breathed in deep.
"Where is that debreifing," she asked, her voice shaking.
The image in the Time Gate changed again, showing a massive black shape and zoomed out. Again she was in shock, as she saw the orange-yellow shape of Dark Knight next to the large dark triangular ship. The Vorlon-Warlock had the same size as one of the main cannons of that massive vessel, and that ship had four of those weapons.
She swallowed as the Time Gate zoomed in on the large name of the ship.
CBV-00 ISS Executor