Chapter 48 (John Sheridan)
"Are you sure it will work?" John asked, trying to get across the gravity of the situation to the young technician.
"It will work. The technicians back on Casabianca have worked around the clock to install the new shield emitters and initialise the main cannons."
"I hope you are right. We're about to enter the heart of Minbari territory and I don't plan on engagement."
"You have nothing to worry about. Just remember, Captain, the shields are estimated to be able to withstand three direct hits before they're drained. It will take ten minutes to recharge the capacitors before the shields can be reactivated again. It's not like the shields on the cities, where the power plants can continually keep the field active."
John knew that power was a deciding factor on the shields. It was a relatively new technology that had been taken from another race when the main cities were built. They sucked huge amounts of energy to activate and if attacked, the emitters would drain unimaginable amounts of power from the capacitors.
Because the cities had hyperspace static converters, they had unlimited power to keep the shield up indefinitely. But smaller ships would have to build up a charge in order to put up a protective field around them.
Ship-bound shields had been tested to last hours with exposure to normal space elements, but once attacked, the power was drastically drained until the shield collapsed. But the Agamemnon shields had not been tested. The president was so determined to execute this mission that everyone had been tossed onboard and they'd departed immediately. He hadn't even had the time to grovel his wife's feet for forgiveness.
Still, what was done was done and there was nothing he could do about it now. He had to think about the future. "What about the cyborgs? I've heard stories about them going haywire. What assurances can you give me that they'll remain in their standby state?"
"Again captain," the technician said frustratedly. "What we're about to do has never been done before. You will just have to go on faith."
"Faith!" Sheridan replied sarcastically. "The last time I relied on faith, I was hurled out of my home and dragged into this mission."
Sheridan dismissed the useless technician and fixed his gaze on Susan, who was standing by one of the rear control panels. She gazed back, as if she knew he was about to ask a question.
"So, what's your story?" he asked.
Susan wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve and yawned. "I used to do trading in this area before the Minbari moved in and wiped out all the human settlements. The president figured I could be useful if you guys got into trouble." Susan tapped a few keys on the control station and a bank of red lights turned green. "So, what are we transporting, Sheridan? The president told me nothing."
Sheridan wrestled with the question and ignored the fact that this new individual should have called him Captain. After some careful deliberation, he decided to fill her in on the top secret. After all, everyone on the ship was human and it would be too late for any traitors to warn the Minbari. Once they'd left the comfort of the city, all communication had been disabled and any means to leave the ship were also blocked. But none of that mattered; every human hated the Minbari.
"Very well, the president has asked me to transport a new super warrior to a Minbari colony. Find a suitable place to drop it off and then watch it cause complete chaos. She said it should be quite a show and it will be our first counter attack."
"Sounds simple enough," Susan replied, slight doubt in her tone. "But are you sure this will go according to plan? The last time I was in this sector, it was crawling with Minbari. How do you expect to get close to their world?"
Sheridan walked around the bridge and over to Susan. He was grinning like a scientist who had just invented the light bulb "We're going to jump right into their atmosphere, deploy the warrior and ride the ion storm currents that plague the planet."
Susan stepped back in shock, rejection plainly etched across her face, along with dismay. "You can't be serious. Do you know how many ships attempted a trick like that?"
"Last time a recall, over twenty ships."
"Yes. Now, do you know how many ships made it out alive?"
Sheridan thought for a moment and tried his best to remember any successful candidates. Coming up with a definitive answer he replied. "Nobody."
"Exactly my point. What makes you think you're any different?"
"You know Susan, you're very negative person."
"It's because I'm Russian."
"There's a first time for everything." Sheridan took his stand and allowed the words to flow from his heart. "I know my idea might not sound perfect, but it's time we took drastic action. The Minbari will never expect a surprise attack and we're the only ones capable of pulling off a stunt like this. My crew and I have escaped worse scrapes than this."
Susan backed down into her own corner, but not before she had the last word. "I suppose if I'm going to die, I might as well go out in a blaze of glory."
"That's the spirit." Sheridan smiled in victory and turned back towards his view screen that showed the swirling depths of hyperspace. With just a few days of travelling left to do, he decided that a break was in order.
The place smelt like burned flesh and it was dark. The lower parts of the ship held a weapon that would undoubtedly change the course of the war, but at what cost?
Sheridan weighed up all his options as he strolled down the metal-grated floor, inspecting the cargo as the swirling clouds of hyperspace glided past the dark film windows. No amount of light could brighten up this part of the ship.
Sheridan felt a tingle all the way to his bones as he stood in front of the mighty warrior. It had hard armour plastered all over its body and its face was encased in a helmet that was part of the man. Sheridan wondered what crime the poor man had committed to deserve such punishment, but when he looked at the paper chart beside the still juggernaut, he learned that the human was no person, it was a clone. A pure man with no thoughts other than to follow orders.
He tossed the metal clipboard onto the floor and sighed with pity. It would have been good to have a data pad with the information, but paper was easy to burn and he just did not trust the hybrid machine that was hooked into everything.
Upon closer examination the creature breathed as normal. Its chest heaved to and fro as it stood there motionless. Sheridan stared at it, hand hovering over his sidearm, expecting the thing to move and attack.
It did not.
"It won't give you any problems." A voice spoke out from the entrance. "The prototype will not move or attack until we reach the planet."
"And why is that? This thing looks like it could wake up at any moment and tear this ship apart."
"It could," the scientist said. Sheridan recognised him from the command deck just a few hours ago. "This thing could cause chaos and there would be nothing we could do to stop it."
"So how do you have it under control?"
"We don't, Sheridan." The scientist said, pushing his luck with authority.
"You will call me Captain."
"Very well…Captain," the scientist slurred his words, deliberately. "The creature is only sedated. The tubes running into its neck feed it sedatives to keep it asleep. If I were to remove any of the tubes, it would wake up immediately and begin its attack."
Sheridan analysed the creature and the network of tubes that hung from the machines. Clear liquid was pumped into the creature and he knew that one jolt or nudge would spell disaster.
"So why do we have to transport something so dangerous, which is clearly unstable. I mean, come on, you have a bomb that needs to be kept asleep?" Sheridan complained, seeing no sense to this situation.
"These are desperate times, Sheridan, and with the Minbari cutting off all our supplies and hunting us down, it's time we take the fight to them." He moved closer. "You might feel unsafe with this thing in the belly of your ship, but it's my responsibility to keep it sedated until we can deliver it to the planet. After that it's none of our concern. It's been given free reign to run amuck on the surface and that's exactly what we intend to let it do."
"Do you really think this creature will do what you say it will?" Sheridan pointed to the half-human, half-robotic machine. Its huge cannon twitched as the creature fought to wake from its sleep-induced state.
"We tested the stability of the weapons and the organic system. It completely destroyed all life on a dying planet and after that, it took weeks of bombardment from orbit to finally take it out. We lost one orbital ship and it damaged three others once it gained enough power to shoot into orbit."
The scientist looked towards the semi-twitching warrior. "So, in answer to your question, this thing will do what it's designed for and more."
Sheridan took one final glance at the half-human monster and despite his better judgement; he left the subject alone and waited patiently to see the results.