Chapter 5

Bridge of the TCS Yoshi-Iye: Commander Ross looked at the result of the latest scanner report.

"There you are you little bugger. Comm. contact the Mastiff, tell Lt Commander Langford we've found her jump point, and are probing."

"Aye ma'am."

"Scanners, prepare to launch a jump probe through the jump point."

"Aye ma'am."

Commander Ross looked at her XO. "Well Shahnaz, let's see were this rabbit hole goes to, shall we?"

"You got it Captain."

The probe was prepped and launched. The Yoshi flooded the jump point with anti-gravitons, and the area actively flared. The probe went through the jump point and was sending telemetry throughout its flight. On the other side of the jump hole, the probe emerged just outside of a solar system. The probe began to send its scan results to the Yoshi. Commander Ross and her bridge crew watched as the results poured in.

"Nav, compare the system results to our updated charts, and our original charts."

"Yes ma'am."

After a few tense minutes, the navigator looked at his Captain.

"The data is a match for the Sirius system ma'am."

"Comm. contact the Mastiff and forward our findings. Tell them we're standing by for orders."

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Bridge of the TCS Mastiff: The mood on the bridge was tense, the bogey was 15 minutes out, and people were beginning to worry. With everything they had been through, nobody wanted to get in a new shooting war. The comm. tech called Commander Langford, and passed on the Yoshi's initial message.

"Keep me informed as to what they find."

"Yes Commander."

Hershell went to the Admiral. "Sir, Commander Ross has located a jump point, and is sending a probe through now."

The Admiral just nodded, "Keep me informed Hershell."

"Yes sir."

The Admiral looked at the scanner feed on the main screen. He was hoping that they could talk the fleet's way out of a fight, but his people were ready for whichever way this situation turned out.

He looked at Captain Tate, "Well Leroy, what do you think are our chances of pulling this off?"

"Well Luke, I'd have to say about fifty-fifty. But I've seen you negotiate before."

Commander Langford came back to the Admiral, and she was smiling.

He looked at her, "I take it you have good news for me Hershell."

"Yes sir. The data from the jump probe shows a system on the other side of the jump point. The system corresponds to the Sirius system sir."

All three of them were now smiling. Captain Tate looked at the Admiral,

"It looks like someone up there likes you Admiral."

"Yes it does Leroy, Hershell, pass the jump point coordinates to all ships of the fleet."

She smiled at the Admiral, "Aye aye sir."

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Bridge of the EAS Nova Class Dreadnaught Nautilus: Captain Phillips was in the command chair of his ship. The scanner tech called him,

"Sir, we have an energy spike bearing 178 mark 275 on long range scans."

"Is someone jumping in?"

"Negative sir, there's no jump point forming."

"Helm, set a course to the contact point."

"Aye aye sir."

As the Nautilus moved closer to the area, they began to pick up a strong scanner signal coming from the area.

"Sir we're showing an encoded tachyon signal coming from the area as well."

"Were is it being sent?"

"Back to the point of the energy spike."

"Helm, increase speed to flank. Scanners, let me know if you pick up anything."

Soon the Nautilus was near the area, and was picking up a metallic object.

"Scanners show a cylindrical object, but the power readings for it are huge sir."

"What's it doing?"

"It seems to just be scanning sir."

"Launch a patrol of Star Furies to check it out. Have them grapple it and bring it in."

"Yes sir."

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Hydra squadron launched from the Nautilus, and was soon burning toward the object. As they got closer to the object, they ran scans on it, but their scans came back as static and noise. Lt Mackenzie contacted the Nautilus when he had the object in visual range.

"Nautilus, this is Hydra one. The device appears to be a probe of some sort. I'm not showing any weapons on it, but unable to verify with scanners."

"Roger that Hydra one, try to grapple it and bring it home."

Lt Mackenzie just shook his head for a moment, thinking that this was a bad idea.

"Roger that Nautilus."

He now called to his squadron, "Ok people, I'm going to try and grapple this 'thing'. I want all of you to pull back while I do this."

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When the Lt's Star Fury moved closer, it tripped the proximity alert on the probe. The AI on the probe immediately increased its speed, and began to pull away from the star fury. The Lt hit his thrusters, and was trying to keep up with the probe, but he felt his chances of catching it were nil, but he was determined. Soon the probe was on a course back to the original area it had been spotted at. As it neared the jump point, it flooded the area with anti-gravitons. The jump point flared again and the probe passed back through it. Lt Mackenzie's Star fury was right behind the probe, when he saw the area of space in front of him flash bright white. Before he could react, his ship was pulled into the event horizon, and disappeared from everyone's scanners.

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Lt Mackenzie found himself tumbling through some sort of energy chute. Almost every system on his ship was shorting out, and his canopy began to crack in several places. After a few seconds, he found himself floating in open space again, His cockpit looked like the Bordello district of New Orleans.

His flight computer chirped in, "All primary systems off line, all auxiliary systems at ten percent and dropping. Primary reactor beginning to fail, terminal overload in fifteen seconds."

" Oh crap."

The Lt pulled the emergency manual eject, and his cockpit section blasted away from his rapidly disintegrating ship. He pushed the manual thrusters of the escape engine to full power,

"Come on you cheap piece of crap."

The next thing he knew, his escape pod was hit by a shock wave, and the force of it caused him to black out.

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Bridge of the TCS Yoshi-Iye: Commander Ross was watching the telemetry data, when the probes proximity alarm activated. The scans showed some sort of one man ship approaching. The probe followed it's programming and increased it's speed and headed back to the jump point and activated it.

"Captain, I have a ship coming out of the jump point."

Commander Ross looked at the scan tech,

"On screen."

The bridge crew looked at the scans, and saw a small ship tumbling through space.

"Most of its systems are down ma'am, and I'm reading an energy spike. Its engine appears to be going critical."

They watched as the front of the ship detached, and saw that the pilot was trying to put as much space between it and the body of its ship. Then the ship disintegrated with a flash, and then the shock wave hit the escape pod. Commander Ross hit her comm. button.

"Emergency scramble of SAR shuttle. Scanners, keep a lock on that pod."

"Yes ma'am." ten minutes later, the SAR shuttle was landing with the pod in tow.

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Bridge of the Golden star: Shai Alyt Vassann watched the space in front of him, and was lost in thought, about what they may find. He was hoping for a quick kill of the earther ships, and then smiled to himself.

"Was there any other kind of kill?" he thought.

His reverie was broken by the scanner tech. "Shai Alyt, we're picking up something unusual on our scanners. We show the four earther ships, but we are getting other strange readings as well."

"Show me."

The holographic display was showing the earther ships, but all around them there were large pockets of interference and pockets of negative scanner return. They were only getting ghost-like silhouettes of ships.

"Are the scanners malfunctioning?"

"No Shai Alyt."

"Patch in all scanners to the area, and see if we can get a better view of what's there."

"Yes Shai Alyt."

After a minute, the tech looked at the Shai Alyt. "Sir, all scanners tied in, there is no improvement."

"Is it some type of stealth field?"

"Possibly sir, but if it is, it's the strongest I have ever seen sir."

Shai Alyt Vassann did not like how this patrol was turning out. First his ship was damaged by earther ships, then they lost their sister ship, and now this, an unknown type of stealth field. "What else could go wrong," he wondered.

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Bridge of the TCS Mastiff: Admiral Douglas watched, as the ship got closer. The scanner tech called out.

"Sir. Scans from the ship are increasing in power."

"Have they gotten through our EMCOM?"

"I don't believe so sir."

"Good. Comm. have all ships stand by, they are not to fire unless I give the order."

"Aye sir."

He now looked at Captain Tate. "Time to play my hunch Leroy."

"Yes sir, good luck."

"To us all Leroy, to us all."

"Comm., stand down from hail. Lt Kirhaka, tie in the translator programs and hail them. Hail them in Terran standard, Firekan, and Mopani."

The Admiral thought for a moment, "Add Kilrathi as well."

"Yes Admiral."

Captain Tate smiled at him, "You're really trying to confuse them aren't you."

"Every little bit helps Leroy."

Lt Kirhaka sent the hail to the Minbari ship, and awaited their reply.

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Bridge of the Golden Star: The comm. tech began receiving a signal from one of the large pockets of interference.

"Shai Alyt, we are being hailed in several languages."

"Run them through the translator, and see if any of them are in the computers."

"Yes Shai Alyt."

After a few moments, the tech looked at her commander. "Two of the languages register sir."

"What are they?"

"One is the earther language, the other is a dialect of Pomanan."

"Pomanan? They're a backwards race on the edge of our federation. There is no way they could have this sort of technology. Are we receiving a visual signal?"

"Yes Shai Alyt."

"Show me."

Soon the Shai Alyt was looking at the face of a strange alien. The creature looked like a Temshwee, but was much larger. The message from the unknown creature repeated, and the creature just waited there patiently.

"Let me hear their message."

"In which language Shai Alyt?"

"I will not use earther, use the Pomanan translation."

"Yes Shai Alyt." the tech adjusted her controls, and the message came through in Lennau, translated from Pomanan.

"This is the Mastiff. My flock leader wishes to know your intentions?"

"Do we respond Shai Alyt?"

Vassann stepped forward. "Translate to Pomanan. This is Shai Alyt Vassann of the Minbari Wind Sword Clan Frigate Golden Star. We have been tracking the four ships that you have with you. We claim them by right of conquest."

The creature did not seem to be impressed with his statement, and the Shai Alyt wondered if this creature even knew of the Minbari, but then dismissed that notion. All of the younger races knew of the Minbari.

The creature spoke again, "My flock leader wishes to know what you intend to do with these ships?"

"We will destroy them, they are our enemy."

"My flock leader wishes to inform you that these ships were captured by us in fair combat. We are taking them back to our world to be used as labor workers."

Vassann felt his victory beginning to slip away, and he decided to press his point.

"We are on a holy mission to destroy all earthers. It is our sacred duty to destroy them. Would you deny us this right?"

The creature stood there for a moment, and then responded.

"We sympathize with your plight. But we have already captured these creatures, and they are needed on our home world. My flock leader will allow you to withdraw from here, but the ships will be left alone. If you try to interfere, we will disable your ship and then take you as labor workers as well."

Now Vassann looked at his crew. This creature had an air of confidence about it. A type of confidence that only comes from believing that your technology is superior to all others. With all of the pockets of interference, there stealth technology was definitely better than the Minbari's. And if all of the pockets of interference were warships, then he and his people were vastly outnumbered. As much as he wanted to destroy the earther ships, he knew that he could not just throw away the lives of his crew. He now made the hardest decision of his life.

"We will withdraw for now. But know this, you have not made a friend today."

"My flock leader says that you are a wise being Shai Alyt Vassann. There is no honor lost in acknowledging a stronger force. He wishes you a long life and many fledglings." the signal from the unknown ships ended.

Vassann looked at his XO, "Take us out of here. Open a jump point and set a course for home. The Clan elders must be made aware of this immediately."

"Yes Shai Alyt."

The Golden Star turned away from their goal, and soon a jump point to hyperspace opened, and the ship disappeared into it.

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Bridge of the TCS Mastiff: Admiral Douglas had been watching the signal from the Minbari ship, and was pleased by the way Lt Kirhaka had handled it. He watched the face of the Minbari Commander, and could see that he was not very pleased by the response to his demand to be given the Earth ships. He also saw that the Commander was smart enough to realize that he was greatly outnumbered, and knew when to withdraw. The best reaction he saw was when the Lt wished him a long life and many fledglings. Then everyone watched as the Minbari ship turned and began to move off. They were all surprised when a strange vortex opened in space and the Minbari ship passed into it and disappeared.

The Admiral looked at Commander Langford, "I trust you got that Vortex on your scans Hershell."

Hershell just nodded her head. Now the Admiral was looking at Lt Kirhaka.

"Lt, you did an excellent job. Remind me never to play poker with you."

"Yes Admiral."

"But Lt,"

"Yes Admiral."

"Flock leader?"

"Well Admiral, that is a term of respect in my language. And you are my current flock leader."

The Admiral stifled a laugh, "Very well Lt, your dismissed."

"Yes sir."

He now turned to Captain Tate. "I think it would be a good idea if we got out of this area Leroy. Have the fleet move to the jump point coordinates."

"Yes sir."

Soon all of the ships were headed for the new location, and Admiral Douglas knew that he would have the moniker of 'Flock Leader' going through the fleet for a while.