Into The Fire
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around for my own amusement - sadly all Robotech and Babylon Five characters remain the property of Harmony Gold, Babylon Productions Inc and Warner Brothers respectively - I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs - also known as lawyers - firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Chapter Seven
Earth Alliance Starliner Calypso
Three Days Later
Sitting comfortably on a couch in the VIP lounge on the Calypso - which as an Asimov-class starliner gave its passengers a comfortable voyage due to the presence of centrifugal gravity - Secretary of State David Sheridan scanned the computer tablet he was holding. They were only a few minutes now from exiting hyperspace into the Altair system - the voyage having taken a day longer than expected due to a hyperspace storm having forced them to take an alternate route - and in an hour or so the first of a couple of meetings with Captain Gloval and the other senior officers on the extra-universal warship SDF-1.
Meetings that would hopefully see the Russian agreeing to provide them with the specifications for the sensors that had let them penetrate the Minbari stealth field at the very least. He knew there were a few individuals in EarthForce Command and the Senate who wanted full access to the entire vessel and its incredibly advanced, and powerful, technology. The former especially wanted weapons like the massive main cannon that had in one shot utterly annihilated twenty-two Minbari capital ships and nearly three hundred fighters. If that weren't possible then they wanted at least some of the secondary guns like the particle beams that had gutted two more Minbari ships in seconds and which seemed to have an impossibly long effective engagement range..
Personally David didn't think they would get anything weapons wise, certainly not for a while and he wasn't going to insult Gloval by asking. The overgrown children at EarthForce Command would just have to accept that they wouldn't be getting any cool new weapons to play with for a while, certainly not until Gloval got to know them more. It was far more important to gain access to the sensor technology as it wasn't like they needed new weapons to actually give the Minbari a serious fight - their current weapons were fully capable of blasting a Minbari war cruiser to bits in quite short order as the Battle of Altair had clearly shown - they only needed the ability to see them, see them and hit them at normal weapons ranges not very close - practically knife fighting - range which their ships rarely got into as the Minbari would normally have sliced even a Nova dreadnought - which could normally tank one or two neutron beams - to ribbons by that point.
Hence why his primary goal right now was to get them to share the sensor technology.
To that end President Levy had given him an almost unprecedented degree of leeway with regards to these negotiations. As long as the demands from the SDF-1 weren't too extreme - he very much doubted that they would be given that Gloval was Russian and in his experience Russians tended to be the pragmatic type - he could offer them a number of options. Especially given that they had an incredibly large civilian population currently aboard the ship, a population that had come from an island turned quite-sizeable asteroid after getting caught in something called a space fold. Which itself had gone wrong and exiled the SDF-1 from its own reality to their own.
Of course to further complicate the task he now had to deal with whatever fallout came from those idiots at ISN breaking the news of the SDF-1's existence and the fact that she was a) crewed by humans and b) that said humans came from another reality. How the hell they'd found that out he didn't know, there were after all very few people in EarthForce Command and Earth Dome who had known that particular factoid. Thankfully he didn't have to worry about finding out - that was the job of Alliance Intelligence as well as EarthForce Naval Intelligence - he just had to deal with whatever fallout came from it.
A beep from the overhead speakers brought him out of his thoughts.
"Attention all passengers we will be transiting the Altair III jump gate momentarily," came a voice over the public address system. "Will all passengers for Altair III please proceed to disembarkation stations. I repeat. Attention all passengers we will be transiting the Altair III jump gate momentarily. Will all passengers for Altair III please proceed to disembarkation stations."
I guess that's my que, David thought to himself as he closed the file he was working on - which was basically his initial outline for these talks, with another few files detailing what the Earth Alliance was willing to offer in exchange for the sensor technology which he also closed - and then switched off the tablet. After putting said tablet in his biometrically encoded, official Earth Alliance government marked briefcase he stood up and - after making sure he picked up said briefcase as it would be incredibly embarrassing not to mention a security nightmare if he left it behind - began making his way towards the zero-gee core of the ship where the shuttles would be waiting to transfer him, his delegation and any other passengers to Altair III or Altair Station and bring anyone leaving back with them.
It didn't take him long to get to the core. With an ease that could only come from long practice in doing it - in his career as a diplomat he had been all over the known galaxy after all - he handled the transition from the simulated gravity of the rotational ring - which gave the Asimov-class a vaguely barrel-like appearance - to the near zero gravity of the core. There was currently only a light gravitational effect due to the simply fact that the Calypso was under acceleration as they - having transited the jump gate with only the faintest of bumps, little different than if you'd been in a ground car and run over a speedbump - cruised through normal space to the docking perimeter around Altair Station.
Arriving at the VIP docking birth set aside for his delegation he wasn't surprised to see everyone waiting for him. From his own office he had two aides Margaret Stark and Lien Xi, there was the representative from Psi Corps Adrian Patterson, a pair of Psi Cops Alfred Bester and Juliet Markhouse who were along to assist in the interrogation of those Minbari taken prisoner after the battle and lastly - also along to assist with the Minbari though in medical care this time - one Doctor Stephen Franklin who was the only known human doctor to have any knowledge of Minbari physiology. Something that had until this mission was launched got him thrown in the stockade by General Fontaine for refusing to hand over his notes on Minbari biology to their biogenetic warfare teams.
After a moment the final member of their party, their pilot Lieutenant Jennifer Miller, appeared from the launch bay where she had been overseeing the final preparations of their official transport for launch. "Everything ready lieutenant," David asked.
"Yes mister secretary it is," Lieutenant Miller replied immediately, "we have priority to depart the ship and have been given a straight course to the SDF-1. General Bradshaw will be joining us on his own shuttle."
"I see. Alright then everyone aboard the shuttle," David ordered before deciding to lead by example and beginning to make his way aboard the shuttle, moving carefully in the low gee environment as the Calypso was now decelerating and would soon come to a complete halt putting the core in zero-gee once again.
In moments everyone was aboard the official diplomatic shuttle and the hatch sealed. Lieutenant Miller made her way forward to the cockpit while the rest of them made themselves comfortable on the seats and strapped themselves in for the short flight to the SDF-1. For another few minutes nothing happened then a jolt ran through the deck as a platform lift raised their shuttle into launch position. After a moment the landing thrusters fired gently lifting them off the pad before directing them out into open space - the protruding zero gee command bridge of the Calypso passing by them in seconds.
"We are clear of the Calypso and commencing our approach to the SDF-1," Miller reported over the PA system. "Estimated time to docking is seven minutes."
"Thank you lieutenant," David replied, "can you route a video feed of our approach back here please."
"I can sir one moment please."
After a few moments one of the wall monitors - that were a specialised feature of the diplomatic variant of the standard Earth aerospace shuttle, meant primarily to allow quick and easy visual comms with Earth Dome - lit up with a feed from the shuttle's external optical pickups. It clearly showed an image of the SDF-1 floating silently there in space, screened by the same dreadnoughts that had supported her during the Battle of Altair and a series of fighter craft that looked more like they belonged in a planet's atmosphere than space. Though he knew not to underestimate those craft as some of the footage from the battle showed them tearing Minbari fighters apart with ease using pulsed lasers, small missiles that had a very powerful punch for their size and hypervelocity autocannon rounds of all things. There had also been some reports from Starfury pilots that the fighters could change shape and turn into humanoid robots - though they had no visual records of them actually doing that so currently EarthForce Command wasn't sure if they should believe it or not.
"She looks so ordinary doesn't she," the Psi Corps representative Adrian Patterson said in a warm voice that had a distinct Cockney accent to it. "Hard to believe that she has more firepower than an entire fleet of our ships, especially that main weapon. And the fact that she's from another reality altogether… well it's hard to believe."
"It is on both counts though the evidence is clear that she is from another reality," David replied, while he had never dealt with Adrian before he was good at reading people and could tell that the telepath - a P11 if he remembered his psi rating correctly - was a very level headed individual lacking the arrogant, snobbishness that some in Psi Corps were known to display when dealing with non-telepaths. Thus dealing with him seemed like it was going to be a bit of a breath of fresh air and he wouldn't find himself throttling down the impulse to punch some arrogant telepath on the nose.
"Indeed. It will be interesting to find out just how that happened," Adrian commented, "I know they've told us it had something to do with a fold going wrong - whatever they mean by that - but other than that…"
",,,we're all a bit clueless," David added, getting nods from all around. "If I had to guess I would say that folding is their version of faster than light travel. From the sound of it instead of opening a portal to another dimension - as we do with hyperspace - they fold space-time somehow. Though how that would work I haven't a clue I'm a diplomat not an astrophysicist."
"You can bet that there is going to be a legion of astrophysicists back home wanting to examine the ship to answer that question," Lien Xi pointed out, "especially now that ISN has spilled the beans on them being from another universe. Do we still have no idea how they learned that?"
"Nope. The spooks are investigating though hopefully we'll get some answers soon as we're bound to be asked about it."
"We should know soon, the Corps has been asked to lend support so it shouldn't take too long to find and plug the leak," Bester commented, wishing he could be there to interrogate the reporters himself and not out here to interrogate some alien prisoners. But orders were orders.
"Sir I'm sorry to interrupt your discussion but a ship has just come through the jumpgate that you should be made aware of," Lieutenant Miller called back from the cockpit.
"Show us please lieutenant."
"Yes sir."
Immediately the monitor changed to show an image of the ship that Lieutenant Miller had just said about and David's eyes widened at what they saw. What the hell are they doing here, he thought as he beheld the sight of an alien warship that everyone in EarthForce knew well and gave a well founded degree of respect to. It belonged to the first race humanity had ever officially encountered, the race who had given them the stars when they'd given them jumpgate and jump engine technology.
The vessel was a Centauri Primus-class battlecruiser.
SDF-1
A Few Minutes Earlier
Dressed in his dress uniform - and quietly hating every minute of it - Captain Henry Gloval resisted, just, the impulse to fidget as he waited patiently outside one of the SDF-1's numerous docking bays for the Earth Alliance diplomatic shuttle to dock. Standing beside him General Bradshaw - also decked out in his dress uniform and looking about as uncomfortable as he felt - was also waiting patiently along with a small greeting party of other SDF-1 and EarthForce personnel along with Mayor Luan - who would be representing the civilians currently aboard the ship with them.
"They're taking a while to get here," Mayor Luan commented.
"The shipping lanes outside are packed with transports right now," Bradshaw replied, "we've begun evacuating as many civilians as possible from the colonies on Altair III and IV so they're out of harm's way should the Minbari return. As a result the diplomatic shuttle will be travelling quite slowly to avoid crashing into anyone."
"Are the Minbari likely to return," Luan asked.
"Possibly though they have lost a sizeable number of heavy warships in their previous attack by anyone's standards," Bradshaw replied, "that on top of their losses when they sent a fleet to attempt to attack Deneb means their expeditionary forces are probably significantly weakened right now. They're have been no signs of Minbari ship activity anywhere for two days now so we guess they're currently regrouping and bringing in replacements for the destroyed ships.
"Once they're done with that, everything we know about them says the Minbari are quite arrogant, prideful people. They will certainly see the two defeats as slights to be avenged as bloodily as possible. Thus we're not going to take any chances and get as many of the civilians out of harm's way as possible."
"It's a good idea," Gloval agreed before asking curiously, "though what happened at Deneb? Until we arrived here I was under the impression that you couldn't lock your weapons on the Minbari warships."
"We couldn't but what happened is that Lionel - sorry General Partenza he's the guy in charge of our fleet assets in that sector - got sneaky," Bradshaw explained, "you see the hyperspace route to Deneb is not an easy one. There's a black hole in the next sector and those create an even bigger gravitational maelstrom in hyperspace than they do in normal space - there is only a narrow safe path past the singularity and its hyperspace storm that you can travel along to reach Deneb."
"So what happened?" Gloval asked.
"Lionel had a Hyperion in hyperspace watching for the Minbari fleet that we knew was coming as their stealth technology doesn't work quite so well in hyperspace," the other man replied, "when they spotted the Minbari and when the Minbari were too far along the path to easily backtrack to the previous beacon the Hyperion jumped into normal space and Lionel shut down the hyperspace beacons. The Minbari immediately became lost and the vast majority of their fleet got pulled into the singularity and destroyed. Intelligence indicates only a handful of ships survived to retreat to Minbari space with severe damage from the gravitational shearing forces; only two or three out of the hundred and sixty ships sent to Deneb."
"So in the last few weeks between Deneb and the battle here the Minbari have lost over two hundred capital ships in the last few weeks," Gloval commented knowing that that was a serious defeat by anyone's standards. Well possibly aside from the alien giants who had attacked them back in their own reality as that fleet had been a thousand ships strong. But then something that Bradshaw had said caught his attention. "But what are hyperspace beacons and why would shutting them down cause the Minbari to lose their way and get pulled into the singularity?"
Bradshaw looked at him in confusion for a moment, then the penny dropped. "Oh right you wouldn't know," he said, "you are aware that hyperspace is another dimension?"
"Of course. As I understand it, space folding technology creates a wormhole through a hyperspatial domain between two separate points in space and time."
"Really! I would love to hear more about that but back to the hyperspace beacons. In this reality there are no landmarks visible in hyperspace - no star patterns, nothing - just a never ending constantly shifting sea of red and black light. To enable navigation the jumpgates and stationary bases like the ones here constantly emit a stream of tachyon particles into hyperspace. These tachyon streams are referred to as beacons as they enable vessels in hyperspace to navigate from point a to point b. Without them navigation is impossible."
"So when General Partenza shut down the hyperspace beacons the Minbari weren't able to navigate and so were pulled into the singularity," Gloval finished, "inventive."
"It was though the government was bombarded with official protests from numerous other governments as well as the private sector," Bradshaw admitted, "the shutdown caused a brief disruption in the entire hyperspace beacon network affecting shipping schedules and so on across a sizable chunk of the galaxy. Plus the Minbari have adapted somewhat by sending out more hyperspace probes and scout ships like the one you destroyed ahead of their attack fleets."
Gloval nodded but before he could speak again the comm unit on his right ear bleeped. "Excuse me for a moment," he said to the others before tapping the unit. "Yes?"
"Sir an unknown ship just came through the jumpgate," Lisa reported immediately.
"Put a visual of if down here please Lisa," Gloval replied, "I'll see if General Bradshaw can identify it."
"Aye sir."
Gloval signed off and looked over at his guests. "What is it?" Bradshaw asked, seeing the look on his face.
"An unknown ship - well unknown to us - has just come through the jumpgate," Gloval explained, "I am having Lisa send an image of it to the monitors here. Hopefully you can identify it."
Bradshaw frowned slightly wondering who that could be as they certainly weren't expecting any ships from the local races to show up. The Minbari had forced many of them to cease trading with the Earth Alliance, using the threat of military force to ensure their compliance. Only a handful still traded with them - like the Narn and the Centauri - to any real degree. "I'll do my best," he agreed.
As he spoke one of the monitors in this waiting room lit up. Bradshaw followed Gloval over to the screen and his eyes widened in surprise and recognition. "It's a Centauri Primus-class battlecruiser," he said, "and from its markings one from the Royal Navy as opposed to one of the house fleets meaning it's certainly been sent by Emperor Turhan himself."
"So the question becomes why is it here?"
"No idea," Bradshaw replied, "is it possible for me to speak with them from here? I should be able to find out just why they're here then."
"Of course. There's an auxiliary control station just down the hallway from here. You can speak with them from there."
"Thank you, would you be so kind."
"Not a problem. Mayor Luan, will you remain here?"
"Of course captain."
"This way please general."
Bradshaw nodded and followed Captain Gloval back into the vast corridors of the SDF-1. As they walked he, not for the first time, couldn't believe just how big this ship was inside as it seemed far larger than it should have been. Especially for a ship that was roughly in the high end cruiser classification at least in dimensions, when it came to firepower the SDF-1 was in a league of her own. He had thought that the Minerva as a Nova dreadnought was powerful but the SDF-1 just blew her out of the water in both the sheer amount of destructive power that she could put out and the number of weapons arrays spread over the hull. This ship never stops being a puzzle does she, he thought, though I am glad as hell that she's here. Otherwise me and my command would likely all be dead now, more victims of the Minbari's genocidal campaign.
Their arrival at the indicated auxiliary control station brought him out of his thoughts. He watched as Captain Gloval activated the console and logged in before accessing the SDF-1's communications matrix. "We're ready, we can hail the Centauri cruiser from here," he said before gesturing to a console. "If you go over there I will hail them for you."
"Right," Bradshaw acknowledged as he made his way over to the indicated console. "Okay I'm ready."
"Right I'm hailing the Centauri battlecruiser now," Gloval added giving the appropriate command to the console. A moment later there was a response. "Hail acknowledged, response coming in. I am routing it to your console."
Bradshaw nodded a moment before his console screen lit up bringing in an image of the captain of the Centauri battlecruiser. "Centauri vessel I am General Kyle Bradshaw of Altair Base. Please state your reasons for travelling here at this time."
"General Bradshaw I am Captain Larconi commanding the Centauri battlecruiser Demarius," the Centauri officer replied. "I bring you greetings from Emperor Turhan and the Centarum. My mission here is two fold."
"And that is?" Bradshaw asked.
"We are aware that in your recent victory over the Minbari you have taken a number of them prisoner," Larconi replied. "Since you have not had any dealings with the Minbari before this unfortunate war began the Emperor decided that we would send you some medical personnel who are familiar with Minbari physiology and appropriate medical supplies."
Bradshaw blinked. "That is very generous of Emperor Turhan," he replied, "I admit I was concerned how we were going to treat those of our Minbari prisoners who were injured in the battle. I will inform my people on Altair Base to contact you and arrange distribution and put your medical personnel to work."
Larconi nodded. "I look forward to speaking with them," he answered.
"You said your mission here was two fold," Bradshaw replied, "what's the other part?"
Larconi looked slightly uncomfortable. "I am carrying a special envoy from Emperor Turhan," the Centauri answered. Bradshaw raised an eyebrow. A special envoy from the Centauri Emperor was a rare thing indeed given the amount of power and authority that the Centauri Emperor had to entrust to such a person as they would essentially be speaking for Turhan, though he had a very good idea why one would be here now.
"A special envoy from the Emperor that is a rare thing indeed," he replied, "I assume that they are here because of this ship."
"Indeed it is not everyday after all that you hear about a ship from another universe," Larconi admitted. "The Emperor has sent this special envoy to learn a bit more about them if that is agreeable."
Bradshaw looked over at Gloval silently asking a question. After thinking about it for a few moments Gloval nodded in agreement. Bradshaw turned his attention back to the patiently waiting Centauri captain. "Captain Gloval has no objection to that," he said at last. "A representative of the Earth Alliance government is already approaching this ship for important talks. Your special envoy will be welcome to join him however be advised that no unauthorised weapons are permitted aboard this ship that includes blades like the coutari."
"I understand I will inform the envoy and his guards," Larconi replied. "Though I can assure both you and Captain Gloval is it? That the envoy will respect the lack of weapons rule. They should be ready to shuttle over to the SDF-1 within fifteen minutes."
Out of the corner of his eye Bradshaw saw Gloval nod in agreement.
"That's fine," Bradshaw replied. "I am sure Secretary Sheridan won't mind waiting for your envoy's arrival."
Larconi's eyes widened in surprise, clearly recognising the name of the Earth Alliance Secretary of State. The Centauri Republic had known that the Earth Alliance was sending a high profile dignitary to meet with crew of the universally displaced warship - a warship that if their reports were right was more powerful than any warship they had ever seen before - but they hadn't realised that it would be the highest ranked diplomat in the entire Alliance. Someone in their intelligence services had clearly messed up somewhere as they had clearly missed that Sheridan himself was travelling to Altair.
Of course Sheridan being here gave the envoy a few additional tasks as it would allow a discussion about how this unfortunate war with the Minbari was disrupting the normally quite brisk trade between the Earth Alliance and the Centauri Republic. As well as a possible solution that Emperor Turhan, Prime Minister Malachi and the rest of the Centarum had thought up to deal with the situation as well as express to the Minbari their displeasure over the war in a way that they might actually listen to.
"I will inform the envoy," Larconi answered after a moment, clearly mentally shaking off the very telling surprised reaction. "I assume I will be hailed by the base in a couple of minutes to arrange the deployment of our medical support?"
"Yes."
"Then I will await the contact. It has been a pleasure speaking with you General Bradshaw. Larconi out." The transmission closed down from the Centauri end making the communications screen go blank.
"I can have Lisa contact the station and relay to them about the Centauri medical supplies and doctors," Gloval said.
"I'd appreciate that," Bradshaw replied with a smile. "Though I guess you have questions for me about the Centauri given that they are coming here."
"Just a few though I admit it will be interesting to deal with aliens who aren't trying to kill me for a change," Gloval answered. "But first let me give Lisa a few instructions then we can talk as we head back to Mayor Luan and the others - Maistroff should have the honour guard organised by now."
Bradshaw nodded and waited while Gloval used the comm device on his ear - which he had to admit was placed in a far more logical position to the comm link on the back of his right hand - to contact the SDF-1's bridge and give the beautiful but cold as ice young lady who was his first officer a few orders.
"Okay that's done," Gloval said. "Lisa will relay to the base to contact and arrange things with the Centauri battlecruiser. Let's head back to the others and you can tell me everything you know about these Centauri. Starting with what the hell is a coutari?"
Bradshaw nodded and, as they began walking back towards where they had left Mayor Luan, began telling the universally displaced Russian starship master all about the machiavellian, imperialist fan haired aliens who were one of humanities - well his humanities anyway - oldest, and most powerful, friends. He concentrated on the basics and what the other man needed to know to talk with the Centauri without offending them…
…after all he would soon be meeting them face-to-face.
Author's Note: Well another chapter bites the dust, still cannot believe how quickly this story is coming together it's practically writing itself lol. Now I know that I said that I was going to have the meeting between Secretary Sheridan and Captain Gloval in this chapter but the sudden idea for the ISN story arc - which began in the interlude chapter - gave me a few new options to make the story far more interesting so I am running with them. The meeting will now be in the next chapter along with the revelation of who the Centauri special envoy is - and no its not Londo or Refa. Until next time.