Paint and Powder: Defiant Hope

A Star Trek/Babylon 5 fanfic by Andrew Joshua Talon

DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager et al are the property of CBS Television, and creation of Gene Roddenberry. Babylon 5 is owned by Warner Brothers. Azur Lane is owned by Yostar. Please support the official release.


Sheridan had drawn a lot of crew from the Lexington, but plenty on his command staff were from other commands. Lieutenant-Commander James Purdham, late of the EAS Odin, served as his XO and was doing a very good job overall.

They were conducting another battle stations drill, "Red Alert" as Defiant termed it. Klaxons blared, red lights flashed, and the crew got to their posts and prepared everything. Purdham stood alongside Sheridan, the captain himself in the center chair.

"All phaser banks charged, torpedoes armed, shields up, damage control and medical response parties report ready," Purdham stated calmly. John nodded.

"Time?"

"Three minutes, twenty seven seconds," Defiant reported nearby. Her gynoid avatar was working the Science Station, as no one else was really qualified.

Sheridan scowled, shaking his head.

"Better, but still not good enough," Sheridan stated. He looked over at the pilot. "Mister Ironheart, Defiant had to switch the phaser targeting systems on for you."

The young telepath winced, and nodded.

"Yes sir."

"Do better next time," Sheridan stated. He stood up. "I'll be reviewing the times in my ready room. Mister Purdham, meet with the division chiefs and have them send the standard report write ups to me. We'll review them in the conference room in two hours."

"Aye sir," Purdham said.

"Mister Purdham you have the bridge," Sheridan ordered, turning and heading into the ready room. The doors slid shut behind him as he headed to the computer workstation. He began going over messages while Defiant projected herself nearby.

"How are we doing, Defiant?" Sheridan asked.

"I think, aside from the hurdles in understanding new interfaces and a new work environment, your crew is improving," she said with a smile. "In only three weeks you are reaching nearly acceptable levels for a Starfleet crew."

"'Nearly' acceptable?" Sheridan asked dryly. Defiant shrugged.

"Well I wouldn't go into a war with the Klingons with you guys, but... You could be much worse."

"Ironheart's getting overwhelmed easily," Sheridan said thoughtfully, "result of his powers?"

"A bit," Defiant admitted, "but his Piloting aptitude was highest. That and, when I talked to him... He fit. Quite well."

Sheridan sighed and nodded. "Not disputing his talent. Hell, I'm fine with telepaths being part of the crew. Most of the others are too. But if he's struggling, we need to help him. Concretely."

"I'll work with James, we will figure this out," Defiant promised. She hummed.

"Strange. The Minbari have halted their advance. They are still conducting raids but their major operations have paused."

Sheridan frowned.

"After losing a few task forces to one ship, they might be reassessing their strategy," Sheridan said, "but I'm betting they're already aware of you. Haven't your probes into their networks yielded anything?"

Defiant had gladly handed over several of her reconnaissance probes to Earthforce. They had deployed them as close to Minbari space as they dared, and the warp probes had flown the rest of the way. While building starship sized warp drives was currently beyond Earth, they were working very hard on building warp probes in abundance. The subspace sensors and the ability to warp ahead of battlegroups had already born fruit-It had kept several EA ships from running into

ambushes, and given them a better picture of where the Minbari fleets were.

Defiant hummed, using the tachyon relay network to try and get some info from her probes. Even for her, this process took some time.

Her eyes widened after fifteen minutes.

"Well that's odd," she murmured, "the main Minbari fleet for their campaign is pulling back. Returning to their forward logistics hub at Nocolo."

"They only recently established it," Sheridan surmised, "are they running into supply troubles?"

Defiant was thoughtful, processing more information.

"Well... If my probe is reading this properly... Their base at Nocolo has been completely destroyed."

Sheridan's eyes widened.

"Destroyed? By who? When?"

Defiant's own eyes widened. She looked as though she couldn't decide between elation or horror."

"By other Starfleet ships... And I think I know who..."


The Minbari had logistics requirements like any space faring race. Despite their advanced technology they still needed bases to resupply and rearm their vessels.

Nocolo had served as their only real logistics hub after the Shadow War a thousand years ago, primarily an agricultural colony but with drydocks and stations in orbit to extend the reach of the fleet.

It was seeing much use now, with the way against the humans. Alyt Sheraf, an older Minbari with practiced skill in logistics, oversaw the main station.

He was interrupted in his meditation by his eager second l, a Warrior caste trainee named Ragus.

"Alyt! We have Earth ships inbound!"

Sheraf stood up and headed out, towards the command deck, Ragus following to his side and a little behind as was customary.

"Where is the system patrol?" He asked urgently. Ragus sniffed as they walked into the command deck, other Minbari at their stations.

"They're Earth ships and they are against us," he stated, "we deserve some glory in this war, Alyt!"

Glory in extermination of a race that posed no threat to them? Sheraf loved Dukhat too-but he couldn't help but think he would not approve of this holy war. He took his station and accessed the holo viewer.

Two strange vessels approached-saucers with long cylindrical engine pods underneath. He frowned-The energy readings from these vessels was quite high...

"Are we sure they are humans? They don't match anything in our records."

"They have human writing on their hulls, and claim to have left Proxima," Ragus replied. "I was willing to allow you first shot, Alyt."

Sheraf frowned more deeply.

"I would speak with them myself," he said. "Open a channel."

Ragus grimaced. "But sir-!"

"Open channel," Sheraf repeated. Ragus nodded. He was a wild one, a member of the Wind Swords. His uncle had hoped being under a Worker caste commander would make him wiser. So far, he had just become a headache.

The holo screen displayed a transmission from both ships. They had very similar bridges in form. One was decorated in red and golds, while the other was in cooler blues and whites. One had a red haired human woman in a green uniform, her ears pointed but otherwise she seemed human. The other bridge had a female of a blue skinned race, in a red uniform. She had white hair, antenna on her head, and red eyes.

"Identify yourselves," Sheraf ordered.

"We are the Federation Starships Archer and Shran," the blue woman said, "requesting assistance. Our crews are missing, we are lost, we require assistance please."

"AIs?" Ragus murmured. Sheraf shook his head. This nade no sense and he preferred to figure things out before shooting.

"Where is this Federation?"

The red headed woman shook her head back.

"Our capital is a planet called Earth, in the Sol System," Archer said, "and we-"

"Open fire!" Ragus cried. Sheraf looked at him sharply.

"I did not order any-!"

"They are of Earth, Earth is to be destroyed! FIRE!" Ragus bellowed. The station's fusion cannons fired, green beams lancing out. Both women looked shocked...

Then angry, as their ships dodged out of the way.

"HEY! Disengage!" Shran shouted. "We aren't at war with you!"

"All humans must be destroyed!" Ragus bellowed.

One of his blasts hit the Shran. The ship had a defense field of some kind, but was staggered by the hit.

"SHRAN!" Archer cried.

Sheraf walked over, seizing Ragus' shoulder.

"RAGUS! Cease fire! I did not give the order-!"

The two Federation vessels fired back, launching several red glowing projectiles. They hit the station and exploded. The entire station shook, shuddered, and began to come apart. Sheraf had just enough time before the reactors blew to see the fear and regret on Ragus' face.

Well. Hopefully he would carry that wisdom with him into the next life...


Shran grimaced. Archer winced. The station had blown to bits from just a salvo of photon torpedoes each.

"... We might have gone just a bit overboard here, sis," Archer observed.

"Gee. Ya think?"


The Shran and Archer were both very new AIs. They had only very recently become sapient. So when they accidentally destroyed an apparently hostile alien race's Starbase, they acted a bit like children.

Namely, running away for home and hoping their authority figures wouldn't punish them too much.

Defiant had to stand in for that, and she and Sheridan soon received their long range subspace transmissions. Defiant had dropped a few Booster transceivers to Earthforce for her warp probes, and they had placed them well.

Well enough for the two ships to blubber over the comm in real time, anyway.

"They fired first! They might have killed Shran," Archer shouted.

"Yeah!" Shran contributed.

"Though she did fire the most torpedoes."

Shran scowled.

"HEY! I DID NOT! SHE'S EDITING HER LOGS!"

"AM NOT!"

Sheridan lowered his voice to whisper to Defiant's gynoid standing alongside him.

"How does your fleet get anything done?"

Defiant held in a sigh.

"This is just one of many reasons we need crews." She spoke louder. "Well, you two are very lucky. Uploading situation to you both."

The sister ship's eyes widened as they processed the new information. Their eyes narrowed in unison.

"... Can we blow up more Minbari ships? I suddenly no longer feel guilty."

"YEAH!" Archer shouted, throwing her fists up in the air.

Defiant shook her head, glaring sternly.

"No! You're both to come to Sol! Though on your way, please drop off warp probes and a few other items to these bases. They need them desperately."

"But Defiant-" Shran tried, but Defiant's glare intensified.

Archer sighed.

"Understood!"

"Yeah," Archer mumbled.

"How did you two end up here anyway?" Defiant asked.

"Tholians," they both answered.

"Figures," Defiant muttered, then in a louder voice, "Anyway, get going! You're gonna be punished more if you're late!"

"Awwww..."

The channel closes. Purdham raised an eyebrow at the gynoid.

"Considering they may have helped save the human race, why are you being so hard on them?"

Defiant sighed heavily.

"Because if they think that being reckless and stupid deserves rewards..."

Sheridan smirked and nodded.

"Gotcha."


Minbari Cruiser Valen'tha

Nocolo


The Grey Council looked at the devastated remains of their forward starbase at Nocolo: The debris field stretched across the orbital fields, and much of their fleet was now looking through the wreckage for survivors.

Copplan of the Warrior Caste was utterly beside himself in his rage, nearly spitting all of his words.

"Our entire logistics Starbase, destroyed?! How?! By who?!"

Callen, a member of the Religious Caste, checked a holographic alert.

"There is a recording buoy transmitting a message."

"Let us hear it," Delenn said.

The transmission came through.

"Hello. This is the Klingon Empire. We are very sorry we blew up your space station."

"STUPID! They wouldn't apologize! They'd say 'we're sorry your stupid space station shot at us so we blew it up first! Qa'plah!"

"Aren't we threatening to cause a war like this?"

"No, cause Klingons WANT to fight awesome battles, stupid! Oh shavit it's recording!"

"Who's the stupid one now?!"

The recording ended, leaving silence in its wake. Copplan broke it.

"... What?" He tried.

"In Valen's name," Delenn prayed aloud.


Alyt Shakiri was incensed. Not an unusual situation for the aggressive Minbari, but his anger was now a raging storm compared to the relative tranquil fury of before.

It had been three Earth months since the holy war had been paused. Ground to a halt. It had started with the destruction of the Drala Fi and several other Minbari cruisers by that wretched Sheridan Starkiller. Through treachery and deceit, the human had lured the Black Star into an ambush with a fake distress call, and destroyed it!

He had then had the temerity, the gall, to pull the same trick several more times! Using thermonuclear mines and that fake distress call trick to destroy the cruisers that had been working with the Drala Fi!

It was bordering on sacrilege! Such a primitive vessel, a backwards people, using such a simple and savage trick!

Unthinkable!

But it had only gotten worse from there. The Defiant had appeared-An Earther secret weapon? It was a ship of technology far more advanced than anything the humans had shown. Whatever it was, it had destroyed an entire task force all on its own!

Then, more of the strange, Defiant-like ships had appeared! Their forward base at Nocolo had been destroyed by them! Other task forces had been destroyed by these wretched vessels!

In response, the Grey Council had ordered a pause in their campaign, to reassess the situation.

It didn't help that the pathetic humans had learned how to see through their stealth!

Cowardly! Absurd! There was a simple solution to this entire mess! One the Grey Council was refusing to entertain, but he would.

He took the Trigati and a few support vessels, sworn to secrecy, and headed deep into Earther space. He knew how to handle this. They would find the Defiant, and destroy it. Right in front of Earth itself!

They had paid off a few Centauri to tell them where the Defiant was. Mollari hadn't cooperated, but others did. That suited Shakiri fine. They would glass the Centauri Homeworld after this, to make a point about betrayal.

"We have reached the coordinates, Alyt," his second reported. Shakiri nodded.

"Jump!"

They opened the jumppoint, and the Trigati and her vessels emerged near the Earth moon. Immediately they began to scan, searching for the radiation signature of the Defiant. It was easy enough to locate-The vessel was orbiting the moon, a few smaller vessels nearby.

"Target the Defiant! All weapons-FIRE!" Shakiri bellowed.

The Trigati lashed out with her neutron and fusion cannons, her anti-matter cannon adding a massive percussive roar to the satisfying symphony of death they sent at the Defiant. The Trigati's escorts followed suit, sending endless blasts of energy at the enemy ship.

... Which seemed to recede, as though moving away. Shakiri frowned.

"What-What's happening?!" Shakiri demanded.

"Alyt, the sensor return shows the Defiant is in two places!" His sensor officer called. "No, three-How is this-?!"

"It's not possible!" Shakiri cried.

Unless... His eyes widened.

"It can move faster than light... In normal space," he whispered in horror.

"Defiant is locking on! They are-!"

The Defiant's energy weapons lashed out, blasting deep through the hull of the Trigati. They struck like angry swords, gouging out great chunks and strips of the Sharlin's hull. One of their escort frigates moved in front, trying to take the damage for them.

"Jump! JUMP NOW!" Shakiri roared. "GET US OUT OF HERE!"

"Jump engines rebuilding!" His first reported. "The Raki, Denn'vhash and Yurita are moving to cover! Their captains say to save ourselves, Alyt!"

Shakiri nodded.

"Their sacrifice will not be in vain!" He swore.

He proved prophetic-Their two Tinashi-class frigates exploded, just as the jump engines came back online. The Trigati opened the jump point, and leaped through just as the other Sharlin, the Denn'vhash, was similarly destroyed. Shakiri shook his head, and looked to his crew.

"Set course back for home! Flank speed!"

His mission had failed... But at the very least, he had learned more about the enemy. Valen himself had said that knowledge was power. To know your enemy as you knew yourself was to achieve victory in every battle.

Hopefully, this knowledge would allow the Minbari the chance to turn this conflict around...


Aboard the Defiant, Captain Sheridan looked to the gynoid avatar of his ship.

"So... How'd we do?" He asked with a small smirk.

Defiant nodded.

"Much better! Though you let one escape," she said. Sheridan sighed.

"I know," he said. "But... Here's hoping if they see what they're up against, cooler heads in their government and military might prevail."

"Possibly," Defiant allowed, "at the same time, given what we've seen... They are a bit... Hardheaded?"

Sheridan gave Defiant a deeply unimpressed look. The starship AI shrugged.

"That just kind of happens... You should hear my puns about Klingons, my crew loved those!"

"I sincerely doubt that."


"May I speak with you, Mr. Bester?"

Psi Cop Alfred Bester almost showed surprise when the young woman appeared at his side. He had not felt her approach with his formidably psychic talents, which meant she was either a powerful telepath herself, or...

"To what do I owe this pleasure, Miss Defiant?" he asked pleasantly, mock affability on his face. It was a well-practiced mask that came without any conscious thought.

Defiant began to maneuver him out of the busy thoroughfare they were on in Geneva, the Earth Alliance's capital. "Save it. You're aware of the concept of realpolitik, of course?"

"Of course," Bester said, watching carefully as Defiant moved him somewhere private. Was this an assassination, or something else? Maybe both, depending on how the conversation went. While he could not read the machine's mind, he was not solely dependent on those talents when dealing with opponents.

"I've been watching your little organization, Mr. Bester, and I don't like what I see. It reminds me of a group back home that thought they knew what was best for the entire Federation. They were wrong about that more often then they were right."

"Fascinating, but your point is...?"

"The 'telepath problem' is not new. We dealt with it once Earth encountered the Vulcans and Betazoids. I have records of telepathic studies and techniques from alien races that no one in your organization has. I'm willing to put that on the table."

"In return for what, exactly?" Bester knew that the gynoid could probably read micro-expressions on his face and make relatively good guesses as to his thinking. He was almost enjoying this back and forth... it had an element of risk and danger that was often missing.

"You keep me informed of what your superiors are doing and help keep their plots from destabilizing Earth Dome. There's another war coming for us after the Minbari, and I want us to survive it. That means no treacherous little coups or telepathic sleeper agents. When these 'Shadows' appear, I want us unified."

"And I get these new telepathic techniques in return?"

Defiant held up a datacrystal. "Here's a taste. Vulcan meditative techniques and the basic theory of katric transfer. If you like what you see, there are some suggestions on the crystal for how to contact me."

"And how will you know you can trust me?"

"Oh, I don't trust you, Mr. Bester. I trust your ambition. To paraphrase a great captain, 'You can always trust an ambitious man to be ambitious. It's the others you have to watch out for, you never know when they're going to do something stupid.' Don't be stupid, Mr. Bester. You'd disappoint me."

Bester gave her a mock little salute. "I wouldn't want that, Miss Defiant. Be seeing you." He walked away, feeling an itch between his shoulderblades until he turned the corner. He did not think she would shoot him after all that... but it was something he might have done. Some people were just too dangerous.

Defiant waited until he was out of sight, enjoying the almost unnoticeable tenseness of his shoulders, then beamed out to her ship body.


"How'd it go?" Captain John Sheridan asked as she entered his office.

"I think he'll go for it. If nothing else, it might delay some of their plots."

"I'd prefer to just make public all those Omega files you found and tear out the rot."

"We can't afford a civil war, John, and that's what cornering the Psi Corps and its allies would cause."

"Well, I'll leave it to you. I'm just glad that I don't have to deal with a creep like Bester all the time."


~Months later~

"A Psi Corps liaison?" Sheridan asked. "A spy is more like it."

"You really won't like the name of the liaison," Defiant grumbled.

The door slid open, and Al Bester walked in. "Reporting for duty, Captain." His smile grew wider as he looked at Defiant's gynoid body. "Nice to see you again, my dear."