Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis or Babylon 5.
The second reality. This a B5 story, set during the season three episode 'Severed Dreams'.
The Quantum Gate closed behind them and everyone on the bridge of the Orion sighed in relief. Major Jacob O'Neill, tapped the button for the fleet comm channel. Gathering his thoughts he prepared for what he wanted to say.
"All ships this is the Orion. We did it. After four years of planning, the sacrifices of our lost comrades, our worlds, our galaxies, we're finally free of the Ori. I would like a senior meeting of the fleet commanders and all military and civilian leaders in one hour aboard the Orion. We need to discuss our next course of action. Scout ships are to scan and recon the local area. We don't want to anger any of the natives if we've stumbled into their territory by mistake. All ships begin system checks, ensure nothing was damaged. City ships and civilian transports maintain position within the center of the fleet, Jaffa Ha'taks, Asgard Battlecruisers and Tau'ri Warships shall maintain a perimeter around all other ships. That is all, Orion out."
He didn't know how or why, but everyone from the Tok'ra, the Asgard and the Jaffa were all looking to him for leadership. It was probably because his parents led the charge which eventuall brought about the end of the Goa'uld and the Replicators, and were now looking at him to lead them into a new world. Speaking of his parents, he didn't know how his mom and Thor had managed it but they'd somehow talked his dad into cloning all of SG1 in younger bodies....well except for Teal'c...he was still quite young for a Jaffa, or at least Master Bra'tac kept saying so anyway. He was glad they'd found a way to give the Jaffa their own immune systems, almost equal in strength to that of a symbiote, which meant they'd live far longer than normal. It's estimated Master Bra'tac has another hundred years left in him at least. As for the rest of SG1 they were in stasis on Thors ship awaiting reanimation. Thor had left when his parents would awaken to Jacob, seeing as he was their son. Daniel and Vala would be awoken by the order of their daughter Sha're Jackson. Cameron Mitchell had declined the chance to 'start over' as it were, said he could here his grandma spouting warnings of hellfire and brimstone and him burning in hell if he did. Even though she'd been dead for years.
"Alright people....lets get to work!"
Suddenly alarms went off. The Comms and Science Officers recieving an influx of information from the area.
"Sir, there seems to be a battle going on at the other side of the planet ahead of us."
"Confirmed. Military comm channels using tachyons for faster than light communication. We're also picking up wide-band destress signals from multiple sources."
After a few tense seconds Jacob, debating what he should do in his mind he decided.
"Contact the Cheyenne, the Apollo and the Ark Royal and tell them to form up with us. Also contact four of the Ha'taks ask for assistance. Seeing as I already know the Asgard's responce, contact Thor and tell him to move all ships away from this location. We'll contact him in a few hours depending how much time this battle takes. We might make some friends and some enemies this day so lets make it count."
"Aye Sir!"
The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace. It failed. But in the year of the Shadow War, it became something greater: our last, best hope…for victory. The year is 2260. The place, Babylon 5.
Captain Sandra Hiroshi, like every other captain of a ship in Earth's history had heard the unofficial rule of 'Captain goes down with the ship.' It seemed today she'd be doing just that! But she'd be damned if she were going alone! Her ship was heading at ramming speed towards the EAS Roanoke. The crackling of the comm alerted her that something on her ship was at least still working. Major Ryan commander of the EAS Alexander's voice came over the comms.
"Hiroshi! Get out of there! Get to the life pods!"
If only there were time, she knew her fate.
"Too late to get out! Our primary systems are hit! We've got fire on all decks now! There's nothing we can do except…" There was a sudden burst of white light just as her ship hit the Roanoke and she felt a sudden weightlessness and then....she was somewhere else. She looked around and saw several of her crewmen scattered around a large room, looked like a cargo bay of somesort. A sudden voice caused her and several others to spin around.
"Welcome aboard the Orion. Many of you might feel slightly unsteady or even a bit queezy after a sudden transport while your ship was in the process of exploding. We managed to save two hundred and eighteen of your fellow crew, however we can only get so many off in such a short amount of time, the rest of your crew I'm afraid went down with your ship."
The person talking was human, or at least appeared human. He looked to be in his mid-to-late thirties, was wearing some kind of flightsuit with a patch on each shoulder. One had a representation of the constellation Orion with the letters 'TSF' beneath it, which she figured was were the ship got it's name from, and the letters probably the initials of whatever orginization he represented, since this ship was definitely not Earth Force. The other patch was some kind of trinagle with a circle directly above it. Finding her voice she decided to get some answers.
"Who are you? And where are we?"
"Oh I'm sorry ma'am. I'm Captain Stone, First Officer of the Orion, the ship you're currently onboard. Are you the commanding officer of the ship that just rammed the...uh...other ship?"
No other race except humans used a rank like Captain or names like Orion. So either this was all a big hoax or they were some kind of lost colony come home....god she hoped not. If Clark won them over that would just make everyone's day!
"Yes, I'm Captain Sandra Hiroshi of the EAS Churchill. So you're the first officer, so does that mean this ship is run by a General?"
"A General ma'am? No Ma'am, Major O'Neill is the C.O of the ship."
"If you're a Captain then why is a Major the one in charge?"
"We use the ranking system of the 20th century Airforce. ma'am. Major is a rank higher than Captain."
Weird. But understandable she supposed. It was then that Captain Stone gestured for her to walk with him towards the door ahead of them.
"I'm to take you to the bridge ma'am, if your XO or the highest ranking officer after him is here he can either accompany us or he can coordinate your crew."
She thought about it for a seconds then turned to one of her crewmen.
"Lieutenant, find Commander Richards and inform him to begin a crew roster, I want to know who was saved and who was lost."
"Yes ma'am!" He ran off to find the Churchills XO. Hiroshi turned to Captain Stone and nodded that she was ready.
"This way ma'am."
He lead her out the cargo bay doors and into the corridors of the Orion.
Orion Bridge
Five minutes before the Churchill rammed the Roanoake.
The massive space station before them was one hell of a construct. Impressive was the word and impressed he was. Now he just had to figure out who the bad guys were.
"Sir comm chatter indicates that the the station before us is called Babylon 5. The ship that was just hit on its starboard side is the EAS Churchill, the ship to our starboard that just fired a pulse cannon at the ship its attacking is the EAS Alexander. Both ships and Babylon 5 have declared Independance from the Earth Alliance due to President Clarke illigally ordering the bombing of Mars and issuing Marshal Law across the entire EA. The two enemy ships are the EAS Roanoake and the EAS Agrippa. Both ships are ordered to capture Babylon 5 and either detain or destroy the 'renegade' ships."
"Can we confirm these accusations?"
"Yes sir. We're picking up the echo of a signal that was terminated some time ago. The EA's media is called the ISN. Their news coverage channel was the echo signal we've pieced together and it confirms the story, that is until soldiers stormed the ISN building and the signal was cut off."
"Alright, I think we know who we're backing in this fight. Comms inform our ships and the four Ha'taks to target the Roanoake and the Agrippa, but do not fire unless fire upon or unless I give the order! Make sure they understand!"
"Aye sir!"
"Sir! The Churchill has been serverly hit, it's on a collision course with the Roanoake!"
"Emergency transport! Get as many of the Churchill's crew off that ship, now!"
The transporters of the Orion, the Cheyenne, the Apollo and the Ark Royal began beaming over the crew of the Churchill, but a little too late. At the count of two hundred eighteen transports the ship rammed into the Roanoake and both ships exploded.
"Sir, out of a crew of five-hundred forty-seven, we successfully transported two-hundred eighteen, including her Captain sir."
There was silence for a second until Jacob narrowed his eyes.
"Captain Stone, go down and find the Captain of the Churchill, bring him or her to the bridge. We might need some help when we contact Babylon 5."
"Aye sir." With that he walked off the bridge to the closest transport tube.
"Helm, take us in."
"Aye sir."
The eight ships, four Tau'ri and four Jaffa moved towards the battle. Reports came in that they had been scanned by the station, the two EA ships and a number of civilian ships taking cover above the planet. They wouldn't get anything off the scans however, with the upgrades in ship building technology over the years only Asgard level scanners would be able to penetrate the hulls of the eight ships and all the ships who scanned them had extremely poor scanning technology.
"We're being hailed by the Agrippa sir."
"Very well....audio only.
"Aye sir, channel open."
"This is Captain Dexter Smith of the EAS Agrippa. Alien vessels you will turn around and leave this system immediately or you will be fired upon."
"This is the Orion of the Tau'ri SpaceForce, along with the Jaffa Ha'tak we are here to assist Babylon 5 and the EAS Alexander. You will break off attack and return to Earth Alliance Space or you will be fired upon."
"The Earth Alliance does not give in to terrorist threats!"
"Terrorists? We don't bomb our own colonies Captain. So who's the terrorist here? You have one minute to comply! Orion out!"
Looking towards the Comms Officer he made a gesture of moving his finger over his throat as if her were slashing it. She nodded and closed the channel.
Captain Smith obviously ignored the threat of eight ships against his one and moved towards them. He fired his ships pulse cannon and hit the Orion's shields. The shields flared and there was a noticeable drop in shield strength, but nothing serious.
"Shields at ninety-six percent. No damage to systems. I estimate multiple hits of that weapon from multiple targets may not be a good idea."
"So noted Lieutenant. Charge weapons, power to thirty percent. Fire!"
Even with the drop in power, the damage the Agrippa had already taken was too much for it's brutalised hull to take. The two energy bolts of ionised-plasma fired from the reversed engineered Ha'tak pulse cannons tore through the Agrippa's hull, causing a massive explosion in it's foward section. Secondary explosions soon followed, blowing out entire compartments of the ship until the reactor itself blew, leaving nothing but a few stray pieces of hull that got thrown clear before the rest of the ship atmoized.
"Perhaps next time we should set the cannons to fifteen percent. Seemed a little bit like overkill to me."
There was a gasp from behind him. He turned and saw a woman, obviously the Churchill's Captain he'd sent Stone after. Said Officer saw his C.O turn towards them and introduced them.
Captain Sandra Hiroshi, meet Major Jacob O'Neill Commanding Officer of the Orion."
"Captain Hiroshi, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Major O'Neill, did you just blow an Omega into oblivion with a single shot?" She was still in a little shock over it. A single shot from the ship enough to destroy an Omega.
"Well technically, the ship was already a mess thanks to the Alexander, we just finished the job when she refused to leave Babylon 5 and the Alexander alone."
"Sir, the dimentional gateways we've seen various ships use to flee the system have opened again! Two ships coming through!"
The Comms officer taps a series of buttons as she listens to comm traffic.
"Sir they're ordering Babylon 5 and the Alexander to surrender."
The Science Officer sees more readouts appear from the sensors.
"Dimentional Gateways opening over Babylon 5!"
Hiroshi getting the gist of what she's saying corrects her.
"We call them Jump Points."
"Eh..ok...Jump Points opening."
"Sir, these are odd looking ships."
"Onscreen."
The screen showed three Minbari cruisers and another smaller ship. Hiroshi felt a little hope at the sight of them.
"Those are Minbari cruisers, hopefully they're here to help."
"The smaller Mimbari ship is contacting the Earth Alliance ships. Activating audio."
"This is Ambassador Delenn of the Mimbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw...or be destroyed!"
"Negative. We have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ship."
"Why not? Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else."
The Comms officer cut the audios. Hiroshi looked a little relieved after the Earth Alliance ships had left. Understably so. The Major and his crew take this time to review the battle and technology used. It's something of a shock when sensor logs of the power output of the Agrippa reveals that the Earth Alliance ship's weapons shouldn't have effected the shields as badly as they did. The engineers and physicists believed that the nature of this realities laws of physics had alterered the nature of the shield dynamics. A report had been send to Thor hoping he and the rest of the fleet could investigate it further while they were dealing with the current situation. Finally Major O'Neill turns to Captain Hiroshi who was sneaking a peek at the tactical station and walks up to her.
"Captain Hiroshi, might I talk with you for a moment in my office?"
She nodded and followed him through a door located at the front left side of the bridge. The Major's office wasn't large but it wasn't small either, there was pleanty of room for at least five or six people to stand in. She had taken notice while on her way to the bridge that this ship wasn't cramped like the Earth Force ships. The corridors were roomy enough for two or three people to walk down them side by side, not that they do. Every room she had been in so far was comfortable, but not overly large like those old 20th century sci-fi shows made them look like. It was functional and compfortable. Captain Stone hadn't told her much about the Orion, it's capabilities or where they came from, obviously not sure what the Major would have wanted passed on to her, but it was obviously more advanced than anything the Earth Alliance had. What she'd found the most amazing was that when the Minbari ships had arrived, the tactical station showed clear sensor data of all four ships. She'd never heard of any race being able to actually see the Minbari with their sensors before, especially when they were armed and ready for war.
The Major sat in his chair and gestured to the seat infront of his desk. She sat and waited for whatever he wanted to talk about.
"Captain, as you've probably already seen we don't know much about the area of space around here." She nodded but remained quiet so he could contined. "Obviously we need information on the area, what races to trust, which to avoid, who the major players are and so on. Which is why I would like you to act as our go between, between ourselves and Babylon 5. It doesn't have to be permanent, just for the introductions and whatnot."
She concidered it, well he had saved her life and the lives of over two-hundred of her crew, not to mention blew the Agrippa out of creation. Clark would never have send a ship like this out as some kind of spy to infiltrate 'renegades'. No he would have just sent something like this to blow every renegade ship, station and colony into atoms, while sending a message to other races that Earth was more powerful than ever before.
"Alright, I agree."
He smiled reached his hand over the desk and she shook it.
"Major incoming transmission from Babylon 5. They want to know who we are sir." he hit a button on his desk.
"I'll take it in here."
"Aye sir."
"What's the name of Babylon 5's commander?"
Seeing as they were going to eventually introduce themselves to each other anyway she didn't see the point but she had agreed to be a liason of sorts between them.
"Captain John Sheridan."
He smiled.
"Thanks."
Pressing a button on his desk, two thirty centemeter long metal cylinders emerged from it. Both were approximetally a foot from the side edges of the desk, with about a foot inbetween them. As the two cylinders locked into place, they both began emmiting a soft blue glow as a holographic screen appeard before the Major. Writing scrawled across the right hand of the screen in some strange blockish language that she'd never seen before. The top left corner of the screen showed a live video feed of Captain John Sheridan. Beneath his screen was a live feed of Delenn from her ship.
Babylon 5 C&C
Thirty minutes after the EAS Nimrod and the EAS Olympic departed.
"Delenn, can you tell me anything about those eight ship."
John Sheridan had in all honesty forgotten about them when the EAS Nimrod, EAS Olympic and Delenn's ships had arrived. But now he wanted to know who they were. He was thankfull they'd stepped in to help, but why would they? He went over the lead ship's discussion with the Agrippa. Obviously they either knew or had heard about the Mars bombings. And the name was odd. Orion was an Earth word. Even more confusing was that the conversation hadn't gone through any of the translation programs, hadn't needed to. The commander of the Orion spoke perfect English, as if he'd been speaking it all his life.
"No John, they are not ships I am familiar with. Have you learned anything of them?"
Had he ever!
"They'd appeared about ten minutes before you, just as the Churchill was about to ram the Roanoake and the Agrippa was attacking the Alexander. That's when those eight came foward, stopped for a minute then continued on until both the Agrippa and the Alexander stopped firing on each other to check them out briefly."
Delenn nodded wanting to hear more.
"That's when we scanned them. We couldn't get anything off them. Our scanners knew they we're there but couldn't seem to penetrate the hull. That's when the Agrippa challenged them. Here I'll play the recordings."
"This is Captain Dexter Smith of the EAS Agrippa. Alien vessels you will turn around and leave this system immediately or you will be fired upon."
"This is the Orion of the Tau'ri SpaceForce, along with the Jaffa Ha'tak we are here to assist Babylon 5 and the EAS Alexander. You will break off attack and return to Earth Alliance Space or you will be fired upon."
"The Earth Alliance does not give in to terrorist threats!"
"Terrorists? We don't bomb our own colonies Captain. So who's the terrorist here? You have one minute to comply! Orion out!"
"After that the Agrippa fired its pulse cannon and hit some kind of energy shield. When the Orion returned fire it blew the Agrippa into atoms."
Delenn looked mildly shocked but soon composed herself. It was then that Ivanova walks into the C&C, her ejected cockpit having been retrieved twenty minutes earlier. Sheridan smiles and give her a slight nod, glad she was ok.
"Orion? If I'm not mistaken that is an Earth term. For one of the constellations in your planet's night sky correct?"
Sheridan nodded, already knowing that himself.
"But Tau'ri, Jaffa and Ha'tak are words I am unfamiliar with." She did a quick search in the White Star's detabase, nothing. She shook her head. "There are no records of those terms in our database, whoever they are they are as you would say, 'new players'."
"Then why don't we find out." He turned to Ivanova. "Open a secure channel to the Orion."
Ivanova having seen and heard the Agrippa and the Orion's original confrontation nods, sent a request and waited, read the reply they'd sent to her message for a secure communication channel between themselves and the ships Commander. It was then that her earpiece started playing music.
"They just put me on hold."
Sheridan looked at her from where he was still talking to Delenn.
"What?"
"They've put me on hold, they've even got that god-awful music playing over the comm." She looked back and saw another response. "They're ready sir." He nodded, gave her an odd look then put them on the screen next to Dalenn's.
"This is Major Jacob O'Neill of the Orion. How can we help you Captain Sheridan?"
Sheridan, Ivanova and Delenn were a little shocked by a number of things. The first being, the commander of the ship was human, with a human name and a human rank. The second, he knew Sheridan's name and rank before he'd introduced himself. The third... that a human was in command of a ship powerful enough to blow an Earth Alliance Omega Class heavy cruiser to atoms in one shot. True the Agrippa was already heavily damaged, but it would have taken the Alexander quite a few more hits to blow the Agrippa into pieces.
"How do you know my name?" Sheridan was suspicious now. Major O'Neill looked off-screen slightly at what he didn't know but he gesture for someone to come closer, then looked back at the screen.
"I have a friend you're going to be glad to see Captain."
With that he move over slightly so that someone, a female someone from the look of it, could come over and then squat down to eye level with the screen. John and Ivanova gasped. Hiroshi!
"Captain Sheridan, good to see you again!" She smiled brightly.
It was impossible. He'd seen the Churchill explode, and only a few escape pods had launched, none of them from the area around the bridge. Plus he'd heard Hiroshi's voice over the comm as the Chuchill plowed into the Roanoake!
"Impossible!"
Major O'Neill looked at Hiroshi and smiled a little.
"Not impossible Captain, Improbable. We managed to save Two-Hundred and Eighteen of the Churchill's crew before it crashed into the Roanoake, including Captain Hiroshi here."
"How!?"
"Let me ask you Captain, what do you know about matter transport systems?"
"Uh....nothing?"
"Understandable. It's only recently we've come anywhere near understanding the technology for ourselves. We originally obtained the technology from some allies of ours, but in recent years we've attained a greater understanding of the technology."
Delenn spoke up for the first time then.
"None of the crew were harmed by the device were they?"
"No, for one thing we'd never have installed it if it were harmful, another being the allies we got the technology from have been using it for thousands of years and they've never complained of ill effects."
That caught their attention. It was a well known fact that Minbar were one of the first among the younger races to achieve space travel. The Vorlons and the Shadows being the only races they knew of that had been at it longer.
"I know you all have lots of questions but for now I'd like to send as many of Captain Hiroshi's crew over to your station, those with serious injuries are being treated as we speak." He looked toward Hiroshi who had a very relieved look on her face. "As for Captain Hiroshi, if you're agreeable to it I'd like her to act as a liason between us Captain Sheridan."
Sheridan looked at Hiroshi who gives the slightests of nods meaning she's agreeable to it.
"Of course, I'll have shuttles prepped to pick up Hiroshi's crew within the next two hours."
The Major nodded, looked at something to the right of the screen and frowned before nodding again.
"Very well Captain. I just recieved a report saying that the Churchill's First Officer is ready to come over to the station for debriefing on the crew's condition, if you and his Captain give the ok."
Hiroshi frowned slightly, wanting to talk to Richards herself, but she could probably get a report on her crews condition from the Major. She nodded.
"Very well, we'll have a shuttle preped and read..."
"Actually Captain he's ready to come over now, one of my ships cargo shuttles is ready for take off. Around twenty-five of the Churchill's crew will be going with him, along with materials to help with your repairs."
"That's very gracious of you." Sheridan was a little bit supicious of all this. Never had he ever had anyone not a member of the Earth Alliance or Earth Force come and get him out of a jam....well except for Delenn...and provide materials. "What do you want in return?"
"Information."
"What kind of information." He narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Nothing Earth shattering I assure you. Just information on who's who in the galaxy. Who we can trust, who we can't. Who we should and what areas of space we should avoid."
That sounded reasonable enough to Sheridan. He looked at the Delenn and she nodded as well. Obviously these humans were far more cautious than their Earth Alliance cousins, and probably would actually avoid Z'ha'dum, like they'd told Earth who'd ignored their warnings, which cost John his wife.
"Very well. Will you be coming aboard yourself?"
"When you send shuttles for the Churchill's crew I and Captain Hiroshi will come over. Orion, over and out."
Ivanova looked at Sheridan and asked.
"Well what do you think?"
He concidered the question, what should he think?
"I'm not sure. I'll wait until we meet face to face until I make my judgment, he might be legit. But there's an old Earth saying. 'Beware Greeks bearing gifts'."
Ivanova nodded, turned to Delenn's screen who looked to be contemplating something.
"Perhaps we could talk with Abassador Kosh, if they are servants of the Shadows he would warn us."
Sheridan nodded, said his goodbyes to Delenn as she cut the transmission, then turned to his XO.
"This is another fine mess you've gotten us into."
"Me!?"
"Yes, you're my lucky rabbit's foot, but you were out there being lucky all by yourself."
She hurumphed, slightly amused by their banter.
Then they both turned their attention to ensuring nine billion tons of space station kept working.
To Be Continued.....
Author's Notes:
I'm not an expert on the B5 verse, so I'm not all that sure I got the character exactly right, but anyway tell me what you think.