Chapter 2: Willing Exiles

Yedor, Minbar

Alisa Bendon had lived in the Capital City of the Minbari federation for a little over a week, having come to Minbar directly from Babylon 5. Though once she got to Minbar she heard the news from the Earth Alliance, which while not commonly heard news, was feed into the house she was given. Alisa wasn't sure if she would call it a house though, given that it was carved out of the crystal growing from the ground, it was pretty though.

She was still getting accustomed to living in her new crystal house when the door chimed; she had a guest, which she thought was odd. Granted she figured a telepath would come by to help train her, but she thought it was still kind of soon for that to happen. Never the less Alisa went to the door and saw three figures standing there. The three figures were a man in brownish green robes, with the hood up, a woman in flowing black robes, white hair, and a strange device on her chin that went up around her head like a helmet, and a Vorlon. The site of them was very shocking to Alisa, and she was still standing there in shock when the man in the robes spoke, "May we come in Alisa, we have much to discuss."

Blinking in surprise and confusion Alisa backed up and invited them in with a wave of her hand, the ability of speech still lost to her. She guided them into a meeting room type of place that had been set aside on the room for when she would help people with her telepathy and motioned for them to sit down. The man in robes and the strange woman both took a seat on a couch, or at least what Alisa called a couch. The Vorlon remained standing, and Alisa wasn't sure if they even sat down in the first place.

"Um, what can I do for you? Wait, uh, first can you tell me who you are? I'm kind of new at this." Alisa said nervously as she took a seat herself.

Strangely enough it was the Vorlon who spoke first, "Willing exiles, sacrificed to the Circle."

After the Vorlon said that, and while Alisa was still in shock from hearing a Vorlon actually speak the hooded man lowered his hood, revealing a man that Alisa recognized, Commander Jeffery Sinclair. With a warm smile on his face he said, "To be entirely honest with you Alisa, a lot has happened lately, and I am not aware of everything, and to be honest with you, I am not sure I ever will be. However, I have been told that I am to train you to be a ranger."

The woman raised her hand, indicating that Sinclair should stop talking for the time being, and given what little he knew about her, primarily that a Vorlon was accompanying her. When she spoke, it was like an ancient sadness entered the room, weighing upon all who sat there, "You do not know it, but you came into contact with a powerful mind and it is what awoke your telepathy. We, The Eldar, my people, foresaw this and we decided to aid the Minbari in training you. Do not presume to ask why."

Babylon 5, Alien Sector, Kosh's quarters

"How could you let this happen?" The red haired woman in Arabian dress cried out at her encounter suited companion.

"Ah, you seek meaning, then you should listen to the music, not the song," reply Kosh through the vocal unit on his encounter suit.

The woman in the Arabian dress narrowed her eyes as she looked at Kosh, and after a moment she spoke, "Do not play the cryptic parent act with me Kosh Naranek. You may be old compared to the Mon-keighon this station, but we still remember your race all those millions of years ago. Flittering about in the trees, singing you mating songs and afraid to fly to the ground. Looking at you now, I can see that you haven't changed much."

The optical hole on Kosh's encounter suit narrowed in anger, no one spoke to him like this and when he spoke it was practically a hiss, "You dare…"

A curt wave of the hand was all that the woman needed to silence the Vorlon, her words now cold as the void itself, "Of course I dare, I am not one of your children to be talked down to. We are the Eldar, and we stand vigil over the dead. Your race had not developed sentience yet when the great enemy of life was defeated in the War in the Heavens, and because of your actions They Could Wake Up! You have forced us to intervene far sooner than we had wanted, there will be repercussions from your inaction."

With that said the woman with the red hair in the Arabian garb turned and left the room leaving Kosh standing there, anger practically radiating off of him. Elsewhere on the station, Talia held her head and dismissed her client, as waves of rage the likes she had never felt before washed over her, and though she couldn't explain it, she suddenly felt as though there was some great force out there, laughing, and sitting on a great throne of skulls. She could not explain it, and she had never been more unsettled in her life.

Babylon 5, Red 7, Joe's Bar

Captain Mark Smythe of the IPX survey ship Nimrod was sitting at a bar, drinking. This in and of itself was not unusual, given that it was a bar and drinking was common, the fact that he was drinking alone was something that he did not like and he silently whished that he was instead drinking in the company of a beautiful woman. Well, as Captain Smythe would soon learn, sometimes you shouldn't wish at all, because the result isn't what you would have liked.

He was sitting at the bar, nursing some kind of Centauri drink, and muttering about how he would prefers Human Scotch so much more, when an attractive woman in with red hair, pale skin, and Arabian dress walked up to him and sat down. Once she had sat down she looked at Captain Smythe and said, "Greetings Captain Smythe, my name is unimportant, but know this, I have seen the future, and if you travel to the world you call Kronos, you will find only death, and shall unleash a nightmare you cannot comprehend onto the universe."

Smythe turned his head and looked at the woman and said with a sneer, "Bah, your just some lousy alien, trying to prevent us humans from being the power we are. We got all the right permissions to dig on that rock and nothing you can say will stop that. So go whine to someone else, ya boot licking alien piece of trash."

Given the particular reek on Smyth's breath the woman had little choice but to turn her face away from him. She decided that he had quite a lot to drink, but she had warned him and that was enough, she left him alone now, and she decided that he had better savior that drink, it would be his last.

Space outside of Babylon 5

Over the comm. The stern voice of Commander Susan Ivanova could be heard, "Transport Nimrod, you are cleared for gate access, and… my god… Launch all Starfuries, NOW!

The IPX transport Nimrod sailed through space toward the jump gate, it was roughly half way between the station and the gate when something changed, there was suddenly a ship, out there with them, it was white, bulbousy and had a look that was very reminiscent of bone. And it did not look friendly based on how it was standing. Sensors could tell nothing from it, as its stealth field was advanced, far more advanced the Minbari's .

It was over in an instant. Starfuries were still being launched as a bulb of light struck out from the ship and slammed into the Nimrod. From the starting point where it touched the ship, flames and explosions ripped through the Nimrod. And then in an instant the Nimrod was gone, leaving nothing but derbies and a fast moving ball of light in its path. The ball of light kept moving on and over ever comm. In the area, military, personal, and private, a message could be heard, "You failed to heed the warnings. This is the Price. Stay away from the world you know as Kronos, or this will be just a taste."

And then the ship was gone, in a flash of white light.