Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate Atlantis or Babylon 5
Summery: The Minbari have destroyed Earth and its colonies. But Humans are a stubborn race and on a world far from the scorched surface of Earth what remains of the human race will be transformed forever and even the Shadows will know fear. Vengeance is coming.
AN: Thank you to all those who reviewed. Several of you have giving me some good ideas about the direction of this story. In fact it was the review by Alatoic01 that lead to me including Sinclair so people let me know what you think and where you want this fic to go (This even includes you Samuel3)
AN2: Over 4,000 hits YIPPEE!!
Ch. 3 Michael
CENTAURI PRIME
Londo Mollari was normally a patient man, having learned long ago that rash decisions usually lead to disaster, and yet as he stared out across the Centauri capital he could not help but feel the overwhelming urge to do something, anything. It was like an itch he just could not scratch taunting him over these past few weeks. The worst part was that he could not figure out why he felt so restless. It was not his three wives, for even the hard-hitting Timov was giving him his space; the Narn Centauri boarder was quite for the first time in nearly a decade with both empires focusing on incorporating their newly acquired territory. That thought sent a wave of anger through his body.
"Absolutely unacceptable." Londo muttered angrily to himself.
"Did you say something sir?"
Turning from the window Londo glanced over at his assistant Vir Cotto. Vir was something of a black sheep by Centauri standards and Londo only agreed to take him on as his assistant because he owed Cotto's family a favor from a previous transaction. It quickly became apparent that Vir's family was merely trying to get him as far away from themselves as possible. Over the past year, Londo had come to accept the intelligent albeit naive man as his assistant and even had begun teaching the boy the finer points of Centauri politics, mainly to stave off boredom.
"Merely thinking out loud Vir."
"If I may be so bold sir what has you so troubled." He asked in his normal non-confrontational manner.
Londo cursed to himself at being so easy to read by a man such as Vir. "I am thinking about the end of the Human Minbari war, such a catastrophe."
"It was those poor humans." Vir replied his eyes falling to the pink marble floor.
Londo released a mirthless laugh that echoed through the room upon hearing Vir's words. "Vir you have a good heart but if you are to achieve anything on Centauri Prime you must find a way to kill it."
"Sir?"
"I was not speaking of the human's fate. They brought it on themselves when they ignored our warnings about the Minbari. I was talking about the actions of the houses that disregard the Emperor's order to remain out of the fighting and seized the human worlds on our boarder." Londo walked closer to Vir, a flicking flame of rage burning in his eyes.
"There was a time Vir when a mere whisper form the Emperor's lips would bring about absolute obedience from the great houses, but now…we are not what we once were. The great houses only act to satisfy their own base needs and care little for the Centauri Empire and the Emperor is too old and weak to halt our downfall." Londo released a long drawn out sigh, the fire in his eyes gone. "You pity the humans Vir, where as I envy them."
"Envy sir?" Vir replied utterly confused by the cryptic statement."
"Yes Vir envy, for while they died in a blaze of glory that will echo into eternity we, the Centauri, are dieing a slow quiet death that will last centuries. Destroyed from within by our own corruption and greed, so when, thousands of years from now, one looks back on the once proud Centauri Empire they will see only a diseased corpse."
"Sir I…"
Londo cut Vir off with a wave of his hand. "Vir fetch me a drink and make it strong."
"Yes sir."
DALACK SYSTEM
The second planet in the five-planet system was by human standards a lower class world with nearly forty percent of the planet covered by desert and no surface water to speak of, but to its native life forms the Tresed it was paradise. Physical larger than the average human the Tresed looked remarkable like the Klingons from 20th century Earth television. However, where as the Klingons were a violent race the Tresed were a relatively peaceful people having endured on the surface of Sedtre, their name for the planet, for nearly two centuries without a single war. This peaceful existence ended as massive beams of pure energy rained down from the heavens destroying the few military assists the planet boasted.
High above Dalack II a single warship one that once protected the weak orbited its plasma cannons and particle beam guns oriented towards the planet.
"Direct hits, initial scans reveal targets destroyed."
"Excellent. Move on to next targets and fire as soon as the guns recharge." Captain Sheridan ordered. Shifting in his command chair annoyed by the fact that he was being restrained so as not to float away. A light clicking sound drew his attention from the tactical screen and towards the person floating calmly upside down behind him.
Talia Winters once a member of Psi Corps watched impassively as the guns of the Phantom discharged into the atmosphere of Dalack II. Her bone white skin, a product of her transformation or rebirth as some had come to call it, glowed in the dim twilight of the Phantom's bridge. Her red hair floated freely around her head in the zero g environment. Clamped securely onto her shoulder so as not to float away was a mature Iratus bug, its mind enslaved by the woman it clung too.
It's incredible." She stated softly to no one in particular.
"What is?" Sheridan asked.
Talia smiled mischievously towards the Captain. "I can feel them, their minds, screaming out in terror. It is intoxicating Captain, before our rebirth it took all my effort to read the emotions of a single individual but now I can stretch my mind across this entire world as easily as I talk to you." She fell silent, her eyes closing for several moments before opening again.
"Is something wrong?" Sheridan asked while sending a mental command to his second in command to launch fighters.
"I was just contacted by the Queen, there has been a change of plans, nothing that concerns you however so continue as planed, prepare the ground troops and remind your men that we want live prisoners.
"My troops are standing by."
DALACK III
Dr. Cottle walked silently through the endless caverns that existed beneath the surface of Dalack III. After the transformation reeked upon them by the Iratus bug, the survivors of Earth had abandoned their scrawny above ground dwellings and cramped transport ships in favor of the dark caves that were the natural home of the Iratus bug. Felling more comfortable living ungrounded in the dark as apposed to above ground in the light was but one of many changes forced upon the survivors of Earth.
Increased muscle mass and denser bone structures were but two of the smaller changes the residents of Dalack III underwent. Their digestive tracks were rendered useless by the effects of the Iratus DNA, forcing the Earth survivors to use one of the darker gifts giving to them by the bug; the ability to feed directly on a living being. Realizing that this dark feeding method could not be used on plants, for reasons not yet understood, the Earth survivors immediately began harvesting the planet of its local wildlife. Of course, there was little chance that a single planet, even one as rich in life as Dalack III, could support their new dietary requirements so the decision had been reached to expand their hunting grounds to the other life sustain planet in the system, Dalack II. However, this was the last thing on the mind of the Doctor as he passed by two warriors and entered what had become known unofficially as the Queen's chamber.
The Iratus bug affected both male and females in roughly the same way with one major exception. The females after being exposed to the Iratus bugs DNA became increasingly territorial and in the days following the transformation the new society on Dalack III threatened to tear itself apart as the females staked out their individually territory. Thankfully, the actions of Captain Sheridan prevented civil war when he threw his support and that of the military's behind President Elizabeth Levy who now ruled over the others with near absolute control declaring herself queen. Despite however the near absolute control she commanded over the others her rule was a fragile one with a number of other females plotting to take the position for themselves. With this in mind, it came as no surprise to Dr. Cottle that when he entered the Queen's chamber that she was the only female present. Ignoring the hard gazes of her personal guards, he walked directly up to her, inclining his head slightly in recognition.
"Doctor." She stated coldly, her green reptilian eyes never moving from the data pad she was studying.
"I have been continuing my studies of the Iratus bug and one of my assistants has come across something that I think you should hear."
"And what is that?" She questioned placing the data pad down and turning towards him her eyes flicking briefly to the person standing behind the doctor. "And who is this?"
"This is my student Michael and it is his work with the Iratus bug that has brought me here. Michael explain to the Queen your findings."
"Of course Doctor." Michael replied coming to stand next to his mentor. "My Queen during the final rebirth of our people I was able to study a number of the final transformations first hand making numerous observations that when combined with the data myself and Dr. Cottle have acquired recently concerning the Iratus bug have revealed a means by which to increase our military might perhaps by a factor of ten.
"And how is that?" The Queen asked giving the male before her, her full attention.
"As you know when the Iratus bug attached itself to one of our people it formed a mental link to make removal imposable. This link however has another purpose and that is the transformation of the hosts mind, this is the source of our newfound telepathic ability.
Before we began our attack on Dalack II you made it abundantly clear that no non-humans were to be exposed to the bug, ensuring that none of the vermin that inhabit that rock will be able to match our newfound power."
"Yes, yes I am well aware of all those facts so get to the point and tell me what you have found." The Queen snarled at Michael causing Dr. Cottle to visible flinch at her tone.
"As you are also aware your majesty." Michael continued his speech seemingly oblivious to the Queen's anger. "We have gained a form of control over the Iratus bug allowing us to direct it with our mind utilizing them as a form of defense. It is this control that is the key to increasing our power."
"How?" She demanded as the thoughts of increased power keeping her from snapping the fool's neck.
"It is simple; we merely introduce the Iratus bug to the life forms of Dalack II."
"WHAT!" The Queen erupted in anger causing the guards and Dr. Cottle to step back in fear. Michael however remained standing calmly in the same sport as she came to stand in front of him. "My orders concerning those worms were quite clear. We will not share power with them." She spat, her sickly sweet breath causing Michael's nostrils to flare slightly.
"I am not talking of sharing power with those vermin. We will use our influence over the Iratus bug to order it not to form a mental link with the host preventing the formation of the strong telepathic abilities that we have been giving."
The Queen's anger diminished slightly upon hearing his explanation of his plan, but something still bothered her. "They will still maintain the mental levels they had before the transformation as well as their memories."
"No they won't." Seeing her questing features, he continued. "With the use of our own telepathic abilities as well as some innovative drugs we will degrade their minds to the point that they are little more then mindless drones, incredibly strong drones, but drones none the less."
The queen stared unblinkingly at the man before her before closing her eyes. Michael could feel her mind stretching out, the reason why however eluded him. Finally, after several moments her eyes reopened and bore into Michael. "I have contacted Talia onboard the Phantom, she will see to it that a number of the life forms are giving to you as test subjects, but Michael be warned if you are unable to break their minds then you are to destroy the test subjects, utterly, or I will feed on your worthless flesh."
AN: At first this chapter was going to be longer but I decided to split this chapter into two. Hope you don't mind. Next chapter we find out the results of Michael's experiments as well as my answer to the technological gap between the Wraith and the Minbari( and other races).