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 Eight

Earth Alliance Diplomatic Shuttle

A Few Moments Later

"An imperial special envoy?"

Secretary David Sheridan repeated in shock from where he was strapped into his seat. They were only a few moments away from docking aboard the SDF-1 and Lieutenant Miller had just relayed from General Bradshaw what the Centauri battlecruiser - now identified as the Demarius - was doing here. In his entire career as a diplomat he had only once ever heard of one other incident of the Centauri Emperor sending a special envoy, and he'd been an intern with the Earth Alliance Diplomatic Service at the time. As he recalled it had been just after Turhan acceded the throne and had involved him sending said imperial special envoy to Narn to at the very least normalise diplomatic relations between the Centauri and their former slave race.

Like everyone else at the time he hadn't thought it would work. In fact there had been a sizable betting pool behind the scenes over how many pieces the Narn would send the envoy back to the Republic in. It hadn't happened as, against everyone's expectations, the envoy had succeeded in his appointed task and created both diplomatic relations and an uneasy peace between the Centauri Republic and the Narm Regime. A peace that - despite the occasional quite vicious border skirmish between them as the hatred born by the Narn for the Centauri was a deep and totally understandable one given what they had transformed the once green and fertile Narn homeworld into with their strip mining during the hundred years of occupation - held to this day.

"I've never heard of the Centauri sending an imperial special envoy. I didn't even know that it was a thing that they did," the telepath representative Adrian Patterson commented with a frown.

"It is something that they can do though it is an incredibly rare thing," David explained, "in my entire career as a diplomat I've only ever heard of it happening once in recent times. Even in historic times the Centauri would rarely send a special envoy to anybody as to do so the Emperor is entrusting whoever he sends with a great deal of political power. Imperial special envoys have what we would consider carte blanche authority to make decisions and deals on behalf of the Republic that not even the Emperor or a majority vote in the Centarum can overrule and given the machiavellian nature of the Centauri…"

"... that's not something the Emperor can or will do on a regular basis," Adrian finished for him with a nod. He had dealt with the Centauri a few times himself - mostly when Centauri telepaths were visiting Earth or another world in human space though he had worked with others in the past before his telepathic abilities had kicked in during his late teens - thus he was fully aware of what the fan-haired alien humanoids could be like. The Centauri after all were always plotting or scheming to improve their position and the position of their house amid the great and minor houses of the Republic's two houses of government - the Centarum and the larger Populum which handled the day-to-day running of the Republic - no matter who they had to step on, or use, in the process. It was a good rule of thumb that for every Centauri plot you uncovered there was usually half a dozen more that you would never find.

"So the question becomes why have they done it now," Alfred Bester commented with a puzzled frown.

"Thanks to those idiots at ISN the Centauri no doubt know that the SDF-1 is from another reality," Adrian pointed out giving the other telepath a look that said it should be obvious. "No doubt they want to position themselves in such a way that they can benefit from its technologies, including the sensors that let them see through Minbari stealth technology. No doubt the Centauri have long sought the ability to do that."

"Very likely," David agreed, knowing that it would be well within the Centauri's character to search for a way to nullify whatever technological and tactical advantages rivals had over them. Search for or find a way to do it themselves even if it took them decades or centuries to figure out just how to do it - the Centauri could be stubborn like that. In that respect they were not that different to humans. Which is probably why our races get along so well even as we also mistrust one another, he thought, we each see parts of ourselves mirrored in the other and neither of us like what we see.

"We will find out soon enough," he said, his tone clearly bringing the discussion on the Centauri envoy's presence to an end. "Lieutenant Miller, will our landing on the SDF-1 be delayed?"

"Yes sir we've been asked to move into the holding pattern around the SDF-1 until the Centauri shuttle is both launched from the Demarius and reaches our position," Miller replied from the cockpit. "The delay should be no longer than fifteen minutes."

"Understood, move us into the holding pattern as instructed. Inform me when the Centauri shuttle arrives."

"Yes sir."

Centauri Shuttle

A Short Time Later

Urza Jaddo would, if asked, admit to being somewhat nervous as he sat, strapped in of course as not even Centauri shuttles could generate an artificial gravity field, in the passenger section of the shuttle as it cleared the flight bay of the Demarius. Until just a day and a half ago he had been a simple vocator - one of hundreds who served in the Centauri Populum, making the laws and handling all the day to day matters that the Republic needed to function - and he had been content with the job. Yes it wasn't as glamorous as being in the Centaurum - but House Jaddo hadn't been a Great House for quite sometime not really since their monopoly on trade with the Earth Alliance had been revoked by Emperor Kran after an Earth Alliance carrier battle group tracked a group of raiders from a rival house back to their base and destroyed everything there - but it was an important job to do.

Then everything had changed.

He had been reading in his office when Prime Minister Malachi himself came to see him and told him the emperor required his presence. Naturally he had immediately gone to Turhan's presence - one just did not refuse a summons from the Emperor himself, well not if you had any sense anyway - and what they had discussed had completely rocked his world. It had also ultimately led him here to Altair entrusted with more authority than any member of the Centauri government could normally wield. Indeed with the authority he currently had as an imperial special envoy not even Turhan himself could overrule him.

Of course the task that he had been set was as big and important as the authority he had been given to execute it. The task being to establish formal relations between the Centauri Republic and the extra-universal warship known as the SDF-1. A warship whose firepower was almost beyond belief - given how in one shot from its mighty main cannon it had completely annihilated twenty-two top-of-the-line Minbari warships including a Shagotti-class battlecruiser and nearly five hundred of the normally deadly Niall fighters - and which was crewed amazingly by humans who came from the same reality as the ship. Meaning that these humans had to have a level of technological knowledge and power that was beyond even the greatest dreams of the Centauri or any other known race - well except for the near mythical Vorlons.

As if that wasn't enough he also had a secondary mission. One that was more than facilitated by the fact that Secretary Sheridan himself was here, certainly for the same reason he was, as it gave a path to the highest levels of the human government. It would let him relay the plan that Emperor Turhan and Prime Minister Malachi had worked out in concert with representatives of numerous other governments to demonstrate to the Minbari just how much the Centauri - and indeed the other races, even the Narn - disapproved of the war, the reasons for going to war in the first place and their stated plans to genocide the humans. While the death of their leader was undeniably a terrible tragedy - what little the Centauri knew of Dukhat, which mostly came from contacts with the anla'shok and some others usually from the worker caste, indicated that he had been a very wise and capable man - it wasn't sufficient reason to want to commit what was perhaps the greatest of all crimes against sentient life. That was an overreaction if ever there was one.

"Envoy Jaddo."

The voice of one of the two Imperial Palace Guards assigned as his escorts/bodyguards for this mission brought him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see the guard floating in front of him in near zero gravity, acceleration only providing a minor amount of gravity not really enough to keep someone from floating. "Yes," he asked.

"The pilot wanted me to inform you that we have entered the approach pattern for the SDF-1," the guard replied. "We will be joining up with the Earth diplomatic shuttle and landing aboard her within the next five to six minutes."

"I see. Have all weapons been left on the Demarius as requested?"

"Yes envoy they have," the guard replied looking like he'd - what was that Earth expression eaten a sour apple? Even after a near century of contact human sayings and expressions were still very much a mystery to the Centauri - as he said that. Urza understood why, the guard saw it as a slight against his honour that he had had to leave all weapons, including the largely ceremonial coutari short sword, aboard the Royal Navy battlecruiser that had brought them here. But they had been asked not to bring weapons aboard the SDF-1 and the guards would abide by that, though even unarmed they were far from helpless since both guards would be very well trained in the Centauri unarmed fighting arts and Urza himself - having once served in the military - was no slouch there either. Not that it was a guaranteed advantage when dealing with humans as they had numerous unarmed combat forms themselves which were downright formidable.

Not that he believed there would be any threat towards them here and if the crew of the extra-universal warship did intend them some kind of harm then he doubted having weapons would have made any real difference. If their technology was indeed as advanced as their weapons seemed to make them out to be - anyone who could wipe out twenty-two Minbari warships in a single shot was not someone he would want to get on the bad side of - then he doubted that any weapons they brought would make that much difference.

"Is there anything else to report?" Urza asked.

"Yes we have been informed that the Demarius has successfully made contact with Altair Base and arranged for the dispersal of medical supplies and the use of the medical staff we brought with us to attend to the wounded Minbari. Most of them have been moved to a secured dormitory at a currently unused domed mining facility on Altair III."

"Well that makes sense that the humans won't want their prisoners near sensitive military equipment for long," Urza replied, pleased to know that the medical supplies and doctors would soon be put to use. Though he was also aware that some of the medical personnel were not doctors or nurses at all but operatives from Minister Drano's security services, likely well trained and powerful telepaths at that there to gleam any scientific and technological secrets they could from the minds of the surviving Minbari discretely of course. He didn't necessarily approve though he knew full well why it was being done given how much more advanced than them the Minbari were.

"Indeed your excellency."

"Now I suggest you strap in to wait for us to land."

"Yes, your excellency."

Earth Alliance Diplomatic Shuttle

Five Minutes Later

Secretary David Sheridan resisted, just, the impulse to sigh in relief as the diplomatic shuttle came under the influence of the SDF-1's artificial gravity field and weight returned to his limbs. He was starting to come to the conclusion that he was getting a bit too old to be spending long periods of time in zero gravity. Weightlessness had never really been a fun experience for him, though he had gotten somewhat used to it over time especially during the Dilgar War when he had been almost constantly on the move solidifying the coalition between the Earth Alliance and the League that had ultimately defeated the Dilgar, but it had been especially trying this time.

Of course the fact that the SDF-1 had artificial gravity meant he had another thing to negotiate for, though the initial sounding out of Captain Gloval by General Bradshaw indicated that Gloval was quite willing to provide them with the knowledge to create gravity plating like what the SDF-1 used to create an Earth normal gravitational field. From Bradshaw's report the universally displaced Russian had been aghast when he had found out that they didn't have the technology - aside from centrifugal gravity on space stations and some ships like the Asimov-class liners - as apparently it was a common technology in his universe with even shuttlecraft having the ability to generate a standard gravity of 1g for the health and comfort of passengers and crew.

A faint shiver ran through the deck breaking him out of his thoughts.

"What was that," Bester asked looking up in surprise.

"We just passed through some kind of gravitational/electromagnetic force field," Lieutenant Miller reported from the cockpit, "there's now a full oxy-nitrogen atmosphere around us. It appears to be specifically designed to keep the atmosphere inside the ship."

"I think I remember reading about that in Bradshaw's initial report," David commented though it was one thing to read about this ship having the ability to do that, quite another to actually experience the realities of such a force field. Even before we land this ship show's just how incredibly advanced it is in comparison to ours, he thought. As if they needed anymore evidence of that given that these people could see, target and completely destroy Minbari warships with an ease and power that almost defied belief.

"Doesn't prepare you for experiencing it though," Adrian commented with a smile, before inwardly frowning as he suddenly began to hear something strange. It was faint, like music in the distance, and it was coming from inside his own head. "Can you two hear that," he thought spoke to the two Psi Cops.

"We can," Bester confirmed, speaking the same way and sounding confused. "What the hell is it?"

"I have no idea. I've never heard anything like it before. You?"

"No," Bester confirmed.

"Is there a problem," David asked, seeing the looks on the telepath's faces and guessing that they had just been discussing something telepathically among themselves.

"Not such a problem but a puzzle," Adrian admitted though he could instantly sense the disapproval of the Psi Cops in telling this to a non-telepath, personally he flatly refused to use the Corps preferred term of mundane as he wasn't one of those who saw telepaths as different or superior to normal people. To his mind having telepathic ability was no different to a normal person having a special talent for things like art or music, it didn't make them superior as so many in the corps increasingly seemed to believe. Not that the Psi Cops could stop him speaking, as being a high-level P11 he was almost as strong as them and thus they couldn't shut him up telepathically without great effort. "As soon as we passed through that energy field all three of us began hearing something, something almost like music. It's faint, almost like it's in another room but it's there."

David blinked. "Any idea what's causing it?" he asked. "And is it uncomfortable?"

"No it's just strange," Bester admitted, mentally throwing a glare at the other telepath for mentioning this. Only to get the telepathic equivalent of an emoji blowing a raspberry thrown back at him by the other man. Mentally groaning in annoyance, Adrian Patterson was far too friendly and sympathetic towards mundanes for his own good, unfortunately his telepathic strength - and the political power of his non-telepath extended family - meant correcting his unhelpful attitude was impossible.

"Let me know if it gets any worse," David said, "I can always enquire with our hosts about it."

"Of course," Adrian agreed, especially as he would be staying here with the secretary of state as the Corps official representative unlike the Psi Cops who would soon be shuttled off to assist in the interrogation of those Minbari prisoners well enough to be questioned. A jolt through the deck brought an end to future discussion as the shuttle had set down.

"Mister Secretary the Centauri shuttle is landing next to us," Lieutenant Miller reported, "honour guard approaching."

"Alright then lieutenant extend the steps and unlock the hatch."

"Yes sir."

As the whirring sound of machinery filled the interior of the shuttle David undid his restraints, stood up and retrieved his diplomatic briefcase from the slot next to his chair where it had been stored before standing up and making his way towards the hatch. The rest of the diplomatic party did the same, with Lieutenant Miller following a few moments later…

…it was time to get this show on the road.

Earth Alliance Supply Convoy J64

Quadrant 15

That Same Time

Lieutenant Daniel Stevens was bored.

Around the cockpit of his starfury the eternally, chaotically shifting red and black mists of hyperspace glowed and pulsed. While he loved flying a 'fury, nothing to his mind beat its perfect combination of speed, agility and heavy firepower well nothing that wasn't made by the Minbari, he hated convoy escort duty. He and a couple of other 'fury pilots had been attached to a merchant ship refitted into a light carrier and four Olympus-class corvettes that were escorting a group of cargo ships loaded with supplies and equipment to New London.

It was a routine mission, one that was the bread and butter of a Starfury pilot's life out here. Quadrant fifteen was neutral space, not claimed by any known spacefaring race due to the fact that there was nothing here really worth claiming. What was here were several lifeless star systems that skirted the edge of a large supernova remnant nebula that had a binary pulsar at its centre. None of the systems had any really usable resources in them, certainly nothing worth investing the time, effort and money in extracting, though they did have several large and quite dense asteroid fields. Asteroid fields that were favourite hiding places for the raiders that preyed on the shipping lanes that connected the remote but very productive colonies of New London and Canton to the rest of Earth Alliance space. Shipping lanes that - due to the gravitational effects of the pulsars - had to run through quadrant fifteen.

Hence the reason for escort missions.

Daniel knew he should keep his eyes on his sensors looking for any sign of approaching ships - especially now that there was a war on, especially as quadrant fifteen was very close to the borders of Minbari space, - but it was proving hard as he had already been at it for nearly six hours. The vast majority of that time had been spent here in hyperspace and nothing ever happened in hyperspace.

A bleep from his console drew his attention. He glanced at the monitor and noted that they were approaching their next beacon transfer point. In another few minutes the convoy would jump into normal space and begin a four hour cruise through normal space to the next jumpgate. A gate that would be the last one they would have to travel through before re-entering Alliance space and arriving at New London.

Thankfully he wouldn't have to spend the whole time standing here in this cockpit. Within half an hour he'd be relieved by another pilot and be able to land on the carrier for a vibe-shower, something that passed for a hot meal and some desperately needed sleep. He forced himself to pay attention as the convoy was moving closer together into the formation that would let them all transit the jumpgate into normal space together.

For a few moments nothing more happened then his sensors let him know that the lead corvette, the McKenzie, was transmitting the jumpgate activation sequence. The response was immediate as a twisting vortex appeared ahead of them with normal space visible beyond the event horizon of the jump point. Daniel braced himself as well as he could for the transition shock as the fleet transited the artificial portal between normal space and hyperspace. It didn't help much as he still felt like his stomach jumped into his throat and back down again as his fighter passed through the jump point into normal space.

"Damn I hate that," he muttered even as his screen's showed the last of the fleet clearing the jump point. All of them immediately set course for the next jumpgate which was a full four hours cruise away at full burn. The first obstacle that they would have to cross was ahead of them, one of the asteroid fields that made this route such a dangerous one as the mass of dust and rock had the annoying habit of scattering long range scanners.

Something that the raiders knew well and exploited ruthlessly.

Half hour of keeping watch on the sensors then some rest, Daniel thought as the convoy began a slow, relatively speaking as the cargo ships were much slower than the corvettes, cruise across the system.

They were just adjusting course to go over the asteroids - as only an idiot tried to fly through an asteroid field - when all hell broke loose.

Without warning a coruscating green beam came from within the cloak of rock and slammed into the underside of the McKenzie as she began to rise above the field. The Olympus-class vessel had no chance as the beam sliced straight through her thin armour, the intervening decks and exploded out of the top in an eruption of fire and debris. The doomed corvettes engines died but inertia kept her going allowing the neutron beam to steadily saw the vessel in half - at least until the beam reached the vessels fusion fuel tanks triggering an explosion that tore the vessel apart.

"What the hell," Daniel breathed as the time from the beam appearing to the McKenzie disappearing in a brilliant explosion was less than five seconds. Then he realised who it was who had just killed the corvette and a cold sweat appeared on his forehead. "Oh shit it's the Minbari."

No sooner than the words left his mouth than the group of Minbari ships that had secreted themselves among the asteroids made their appearance. There were three of them, each around six hundred metres long, with an arrowhead-shaped main hull and two outboard engines on the end of sleek wings. Unlike other Minbari warships encountered so far in the war these three were not covered in blue coloured armour but a green one that looked slightly more metallic while being crystalline at the same time.

Within seconds of appearing all three vessels opened fire sending out multiple streams of white-hot fusion plasma bolts along with single narrow green neutron beams from their bows.

Training kicked in and Daniel began taking evasive action even as the other corvettes started firing blindly towards the Minbari with a combination of light pulse cannons and railgun slugs. It saved his life as a fusion bolt that would have hit him dead on didn't instead it struck his upper right pylon - snapping it off and sending his 'fury spinning out of control.

"Upper starboard engine pylon destroyed," his computer reported dispassionately, "defence grid at zero, propulsion systems at zero, weapons offline. Fusion power cells overloading… recommend ejection."

"No kidding," he muttered before speaking into the squadron communication frequency. "This is kappa three, engines at critical… ejecting."

As soon as he finished speaking he reached up and pulled the controls that fired the ejection charges. Instantly, and with a very violent jolt, the entire cockpit module of the Starfury separated from the rest of it and shot away. Seconds later the damaged fusion power cells overloaded and the rest of the fighter disintegrated into a fireball.

Now reduced to being a helpless observer Daniel could only watch as the three Minbari warships - which were probably their equivalent of corvettes - closed in on the convoy firing relentlessly into the remaining Olympus-class ships and the carrier-converted transport. His fellow pilots did their best - streaking towards one of the Minbari corvettes firing with everything they had.

Before his horrified eyes it did little good as the Minbari simply picked them off like they were annoying insects. After what seemed like seconds - but was probably a minute or two - the Minbari ships ceased firing. All the corvettes, fighters and the carrier had been destroyed; only the cargo ships were left unharmed. What are they waiting for? Why haven't they destroyed the cargo ships?

Anla'shok Attack Ship Natara

That Same Time

"Shok'na, the last of the human military vessels, have been destroyed."

Sitting in his command chair Shok'na Durli nodded, he could see it himself. Defeating the human warships had been easy, far too easy and it honestly left a foul taste in his mouth. There was nothing right or honourable about the war with the humans, humans who couldn't really defend themselves against the power his people had. Well until a few days ago when an unknown race had intervened, intervened and not only began providing them with the technology to penetrate their stealth technology but had fought alongside them at Altair. Fought and helped defeat and virtually destroy an entire fleet.

He couldn't help but feel his people deserved it. They had been slaughtering the humans for nearly a year now, while being almost immune to counterfire, it was only right that they finally feel the sting of repellent force.

"So I see," he said. "What of the cargo ships?"

"As per Anla'shok Na Lennon's orders they are being allowed to continue on," the other Ranger reported.

"Good."

"Durli I should point out that the Grey Council will not approve of letting the humans go," Tulann, his Shak'nali commented. "At least the warrior caste won't."

"I am aware of that but only a direct unanimous order from the Council can override Lennon's orders in this and you and I know Tulann that will not come."

Tulann nodded, aware that disquiet about the war was starting to grow among some members of the Council. Especially the religious caste and some in the worker caste; workers who were dealing with mounting logistical problems as the Federation suddenly realised just how complacent they had let themselves get with regards to some of the more mundane things of waging wars. The warrior caste liked to prattle on about honour, duty and sacrifice but they never really thought about such things as logistics.

Unfortunately Durli knew - thanks to his own background in the worker caste - that the logistical problems they were facing had no quick or easy fixes.

"Shok'na," the Ranger at sensors called out.

"What is it, Farlan?" Durli asked.

"Sensors have detected a single human fighter lifepod floating nearby," Farlan reported. "One lifeform aboard."

"Orders?" Tulann asked.

Durli considered for a moment. The standing orders from the Grey Council and the Council of Caste Elders was for all human military escape pods to be destroyed, just like any disabled warships were to be destroyed. Thus he should destroy the pod, a single blast from one of their fusion pulse cannons would be more than sufficient for the task, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Plus a prisoner could help them a great deal in understanding the humans and possibly helping find a way to stop the madness that had enveloped the Minbari.

"Tractor it in," he ordered. "A prisoner will be useful and might help us find a way to put an end to this madness."

"As you wish."

"I hope you know what you're doing, Durli," Tulann commented.

"So do I Tulann. So do I."