1
Earth Force Destroyer Diomedes
Earth Alliance Colony Ross 128
L1 Patrol Point
November 2261
Five Years Ago
"Captain, your orders?"
There was a long pause, far too long given the increasingly dire circumstances. Every second was vital, there was time to just stand and ponder.
"Captain? The crew needs orders."
Still no word was given, the commander of the warship continuing to just sit in his chair in the centre of the bridge while increasingly dire streams of information scrolled across screens and data tablets. There were no sirens on the bridge, no dramatic dimming of the lights or flashing red warnings, nothing external that would focus the pressure or urgency of the situation. It wasn't needed, the cold hard facts were more than enough to send the crew into a cold sweat.
"Captain, enemy ships on the scope. They are heading for the colony."
Kayano Akari battled her boiling frustration fighting hard to keep a lid on herself as the seconds ticked on. She was not known for her patience which often made her role as First Officer difficult, especially given her rapidly diminishing respect for the Captain. She waited a few more moments, time they absolutely did not have before pushing again.
"Ch'lonas forces have violated our space Captain, they are twenty minutes out from the Colony sir." She reminded pointedly. "We need to act now if we want to intercept them."
Finally, finally, Captain Mitch Barry turned his head to look at a different display. The half dozen officers on the bridge tensed, their anticipation growing to unbearable levels as a decision approached.
"Confirm enemy composition." Barry finally spoke.
"Eight cruisers with fighter escorts." Second Officer Matthew Gideon answered almost instantly, he too was poised on a knife edge ready to throw himself into battle.
"Ross station is launching fighters." Akari relayed as fresh data crossed her screen. "They want to know how we'll coordinate our attack."
"We won't."
It was not the response any member of the crew had been anticipating. One after the other they all turned to look at Akari for some sort of clarification.
"With respect sir we shouldn't dismiss those squadrons, they might not be as well trained as ours but they are effective."
"We won't be attacking Commander." Barry spoke louder, more firm in his tone now a decision had apparently been made. "Make preparations to jump."
Again there was silence as the crew waited for Akari to speak for them.
"Did you just order us to withdraw sir?"
"I did, we'll link up with reinforcements at Sirius and lead a counter attack."
Once again silence. The crew had been ready for a fight, they were dreading it, terrified of it, but prepared to do their duty and defend the colony world from attack. Most had been rapidly coming to terms with the fact they might well be dead in thirty minutes, not one of them had expected they would just leave.
"Sir, our orders are to defend Ross Colony." Akari carefully kept her voice even reserving her judgement for the moment. "We are the only ship in this sector, all our reinforcements have been pulled back by Clark to stop Sheridan."
"Which is why we are leaving Commander, we can't fight eight cruisers."
"If we leave the Colony will fall, it's defence grid was stripped to boost Sirius, they can't withstand an attack like this."
"We can't do anything, if we engage we're just serving up a destroyer for them to kill too. My order stands."
"You underestimate this ship and crew sir, we can win this fight. We don't have to destroy them all, just drive them off." Akari felt her voice rising bit by bit. "We can win this if we coordinate with Ross station, catch the Ch'lonas between hammer and anvil."
"I gave my order Commander." Barry matched her rising anger. "We are leaving. Take the ship into hyperspace."
She had often wondered how she would act in a situation like this where she disagreed with an order. The Alliance was in the grip of civil war, many ships had been forced to pick a side, to join either Sheridan's rebels or stay loyal to President Clark. Both she and Captain Barry had replaced supposed disloyal officers on the Diomedes already, neither had any intention to rebel so she had assumed there would be no conflict. She hadn't even considered her commanding officer would abandon his duty like this, it was unthinkable.
In the end the decision was far easier and far quicker than she had expected.
"I refuse."
"Commander?" Barry shot her a look of absolute contempt, one she returned with interest.
"I refuse to carry out your order."
"Consider yourself relieved. Mr Gideon, you are now the First Officer. Initiate jump."
"You will do no such thing."Akari snapped venomously. "I am assuming command of this vessel."
Barry leapt from his chair, the fastest anyone had ever seen him move. He covered the distance to Akari's station in all of three steps, rage boiling in his face.
"Security! Remove Commander Akari from the bridge!"
A pair of ratings stationed by the door gingerly advanced, both freezing as the Commander glared at them.
"Captain Barry is relieved of command on charges of dereliction and cowardice. Take him to the brig."
The two security ratings were caught between both officers unsure exactly which order to follow, their eyes darting back and forth.
"I am the Captain of this ship! I gave you an order!" Spat Barry. "Obey it!"
"You are a coward who would abandon thirty million people!" Akari snarled back. "You don't deserve to wear that uniform!"
The two ratings were leaning toward Akari's side, neither were keen on abandoning the colony, but they still held back, their obedience to the chain of command not something easily overthrown. It was an impasse and the colony didn't have time for this. Akari took action to break it.
Quickly and entirely unexpectedly she lunged forward surprising everyone on the bridge, especially Captain Barry. With precision, ruthlessness and more than a little relish she kicked her Captain between the legs in an uncouth but highly effective disabling strike. She didn't wait to see what happened next, flowing instead into a second attack grabbing her data tablet from the top of her console and hammering it down onto Barry's head. He dropped immediately taken entirely by surprise, floored both literally and figuratively by the sudden burst of violence. He made a wheezing noise as if speaking but no words were discernible.
"I have command of the Diomedes." Akari said simply, her rage magically vanishing as Barry rolled to the floor. "Get this coward off my bridge."
"Yes ma'am!"
The two security ratings lifted the former Captain from the deck, his body still contorted in pain and unable to speak, a highly satisfactory result which drew some appreciation from her fellow officers.
"Action stations!" Akari set the ball rolling. "Get our fighters launched and set an offensive posture. Comms, get in touch with Ross station and inform them we are on our way. Tell them to prepare for a long range missile salvo to back us up."
"Yes ma'am."
"Mr Gideon, you are still First Officer, congratulations."
"Yes Ma'am, thank you Ma'am." He gave her a sideways smile. "Permission to ask a question?"
"Granted."
"Did that feel as good as it looked?"
She broke into a laugh, the action helping relieve some of the tension. "Hell yes it did."
"That's going to be a Court Martial you know."
"Very optimistic Lieutenant Commander, they can't Court Martial us if we're all dead in an hour."
"I guess that counts as a silver lining." Gideon allowed. "So how do we kill eight cruisers with one destroyer and a space station they'll stay out of range from?"
"An Omega class is a match for any two Ch'lonas ships. The station can probably take three or four, our fighters can mop up the remainder. We just to strip away their fighters and stop them ganging up on us first."
"And we do that how?"
"A little faith, a lot of luck, and god like audacity." Akari grinned embracing the upcoming battle without hesitation or doubt. Already she could feel the crew falling in behind her, feeding from her confidence, believing in her. It was her job to inspire them to greatness, to go beyond what they thought they could achieve. They truly needed that today.
"Ross station standing by Captain...I mean Commander." The comms officer responded. "They are ready on your mark."
"Fighters launching." Gideon added. "All departments report ready for combat."
"We will not abandon this colony." Akari turned to make sure the entire bridge could hear her. "We will do our duty, we will win this fight, we will not die here today. I'm going to ask a lot from each of you but I know you are capable of it. What we do in the next minutes will change thirty million lives, will shape the future of all those people, all they will be after this day. That is in our hands, it is what we are here for."
She sat herself down in the Captain's chair radiating as much of a commanding presence as she could, an aura of infallibility and certainty necessary for people to follow her into near certain death.
"All ahead flank Mr Gideon. Weapons on my command. We'll show these fools how a real warship fights."
Mars Station Sun Quan
January 2267
The Present Day
The rhythmic buzzing in her ears brought her back to the real world, breaking apart her dream and dropping her uncomfortably into her bed. She fumbled for the alarm, squinting in the low light of her quarters until her fingers finally grasped the offending device and silenced it after a few seconds of eternity.
Akari was not a morning person even out here in the depths of space where time was much more subjective. She struggled upright, sheets as messy as her hair and forced her brain to grind into first gear.
"Computer, messages?"
"One message from..." The cheap computer system took a heartbeat to retrieve the latest updates. "Meddling ultra bitch."
"Delete." Akari reacted automatically, she had no desire to hear a word from her mother for the rest of her days."Next."
"Supervisor Dina Foster, Belt Alliance."
"Read."
"Meeting request at local office, eleven hundred hours Mars Central Time."
"Acknowledge and confirm." Foster was her immediate superior and the usual source of her contracts. Hopefully she wasn't going to be too upset about that small hiccup revolving around losing her ship.
"No further messages."
She dragged herself out of bed, her weariness making gravity seem three times as strong as normal. It always took about a week for her to get back to normal after a long haul run in a zero gravity ship, even with careful exercise it still had a negative effect on human muscle mass. Getting used to gravity again was a pain but necessary to keep fit and healthy and mandated by Belt Alliance blasted out of a lifeboat didn't help much either.
She took a sonic shower, tidied herself up and refuelled with the strongest coffee available. At the end she felt mostly human again and picked a suitable outfit before taking a step outside her little grey box of a room.
It was of course busy, it was always busy with a steady stream of persons swapping between transports and liners running deep space routes and various shuttles travelling to the Martian surface, but lately it was even more hectic. It was two weeks since Earth had been attacked by the Drakh. While their main attack was driven off they managed to deploy a bioweapon against the planet forcing a full quarantine. Nobody in and nobody out. That had of course triggered repercussions across the galaxy, one of them elevating Mars to the new central hub of the Sol system as cargo destined for Earth instead stopped at Mars. It was overwhelming but was so far being just about managed with a lot of help from other colonies and Earth's allies in the Interstellar Alliance.
She and her surviving crew had been transported directly back to Mars after the attack for medical attention which had gone well, all were recovering or already back on duty where they were vitally needed.
For Akari it had not changed her priorities, she was a captain for the Belt Alliance, the largest mining and transport guild in human space and among the largest in the galaxy.
The war had forced Earth to mobilise and increase its military industries which meant the freighters of the Belt Alliance were going to be busy moving strategic materials between military bases and perhaps serving as fleet refuellers. That meant plenty of vital work for Akari which she relished, guarding such convoys was a good way to do her part for the war effort.
"Captain Akari Kayano reporting for duty."
She managed a stiff salute which wasn't really necessary, the Belt Alliance wasn't nearly so rigid as Earth Force, but it felt right. She was still stiff and aching after abandoning ship in the battle over Earth with a few extra bumps and scars to remember it by. She and her crew had been recovered by Gibson's Carrier and brought back to Mars while the military secured Earth, the Belt Alliance keeping its distance and waiting to see what happened next. An attack on Earth was an act of war against the entire Earth Alliance including Mars despite its recent autonomy, which in turn meant the Belters were going to be needed.
"Good to see you up and about Red." Dina stood up and offered a hand from across her desk, Akari taking it with a relieved shake.
"I wasn't sure you'd be happy to see me." She smiled nervously. "I did lose one of your ships."
"We can fix the Roulette, tough old bucket." Dina waved away her concerns. "You did good, did your job, tried to protect our assets and customers which in this case was the entire planet Earth."
"I like a challenge."
"You are a challenge." Dina spoke the truth. "Anyway you won't be sent to a tribunal, you'll still get your bonus, and you're fired."
"Glad to hear it." Akari exhaled in obvious relief. "I was going to offer to pay for the repairs in instalments over the next eight thousand years but..." She stopped. "Wait, what was that last bit?"
"You're fired." Dina smiled wider. "Surprised you right?"
"Just a little."
"Don't sweat it, nothing to do with what happened." She opened a drawer in her desk and handed Akari a white envelope. "I've fired a thousand people this week alone thanks to that."
She took the envelope and examined it, the crest of Earth Force Personnel Command emblazoned upon it. Akari didn't have to open it to know the contents.
"Call up papers."
"Earth Force called up every Belter with previous service which includes you. We just lost about eighty percent of our pilots and a third of our gunship crews. You included." Dina clarified. "We have the option to maintain vital crew so we can continue running convoys and mines, and I did think about keeping you on, but frankly you're needed in the fleet more than here."
"I'd choose you guys over the Navy any day of the week."
"I know, which is why you're fired. You don't get a choice." Dina resolved. "You'll have a job waiting here when all this is done, shiny new gunship with your name on it."
"All due respect Ma'am, if you can fix up the Roulette I'd like to take her back. That old bucket has character."
"You really are as crazy as they say." Dina scoffed without any real judgement. "Alright, but right now you don't work here anymore. Get gone."
"Yes Ma'am."
"And Red? Try not to get killed. You're hell on our insurance premiums but you've never lost a freighter under your protection. That makes you a valuable asset."
"Now a good time to ask about a pay rise?"
"Don't make me call security."
The Earth Force recruitment office wasn't much further away along the station promenade located close to the main tramway hub. It had been overflowing in the initial weeks after the attack on Earth as patriotic citizens rushed to sign up and defend their people, but by now it had subsided to a lesser level. Akari was able to walk straight in without waiting, noting a handful of faces she knew from Belter fighter squadrons, and zeroed in on a currently unoccupied Marine Sergeant.
"Can I help you ma'am?" The green clad NCO faced her with a smile. In response she held up the envelope which answered most of his questions.
"I need to get these papers processed and cancelled so I can get back to work."
"Alright." He took the envelope and began typing in her name. "I can run them but I can't guarantee a cancellation. You're aware of the current situation?"
"I am, and I'm aware I can do more good defending convoys." She replied simply.
The Sergeant paused as her details scrolled up on his screen, an eyebrow rising briefly as he made it to the end. He glanced back and forth a couple of times letting Akari know he was reading the more exciting parts of her career.
"As you can see I'm not really a good fit in the fleet, but I can do some good out with the Belters."
"Can you wait here for a moment?" The Sergeant seemed a little flustered, his demeanour not doing a great job of hiding it. He stood and sought out his supervisor for a brief chat, the young officer staring her way before nodding and tapping the comms link on the back of his hand and releasing the Sergeant to return.
"We're looking into it." The recruiter returned to his desk. "Won't be long."
He was right, it took less than a minute for the supervising officer to return.
"Miss Akari? Can you join me in my office?"
"If I must." She pushed up from the chair. "I trust this won't take long?"
"I'm not sure Ma'am, this is above my pay grade."
He led her away from the main recruiting floor to his office set aside and isolated. He offered her some water which she refused and then promptly left, abandoning Akari without a word. She'd forgotten how rigid the military could be and was in no mood to be messed around. She began to get up to go find and yell at the junior officer for wasting her time when the door opened again. This time though she was facing someone entirely different.
This was no junior officer and no desk pilot, instead she was met by an unusually tall dark skinned woman with tied back hair and the swagger of a warrior. She walked straight to the officer's desk and dropped herself in his chair as if she owned the place, which based on the stars on her shoulder she quite possibly did.
Akari settled back down and put aside her flash of anger, this was a little more intriguing than she had been expecting and worth a bit more of her valuable time.
"A Major General?" She read the rank badge. "Just for little old me?"
"Yes, just for you." The tall General answered in a jovial Kiwi accent. "I was here making some arrangements for my task force and saw your name on the lists. I had to come down and check you out, Kayano Akari herself, biggest pain in the ass after Johnny 'Nuke 'em' Sheridan."
She beamed a genuine huge smile as she observed the person opposite her, weighed her up and noted her first impressions. Akari did the same, it didn't take much reasoning to guess who she was talking to.
"Helena Tennant." She guessed correctly. "You made General, congratulations."
"Thanks." She nodded back happily, waiting for the terminal on the desk to accept her security clearance.
"The fleet needs officers like you, people who'll get the job done." Akari signalled her approval. "War like this might get rid of the fat and put the real soldiers in charge."
"I was thinking the same thing." Tennant continued watching Akari. "The fleet has taken a beating, it needs rebuilding and expanding. New ships, new crews, new officers to lead them. Officers who know how to fight."
Akari pursed her lips and raised a hand. "I can see where this is going and no, it's not going to work out. Earth Force and I never really fitted together. Trust me General, I can do more good on my own defending convoys."
"It is a vital task and one that requires a lot of courage. I respect you aren't trying to dodge the draft here." Tennant accepted. "But it is a waste of your talents. You need to be at the sharp end Miss Akari, you're a sword not a shield."
"If you have my file up you'll see I was Court Martialled and discharged, forfeiting my pension and privileges."
"That is what it says, and I read the actual court notes."
"How can you have done that in the last two minutes?" Akari said, tilting her head as it struck her. "This isn't random is it?"
"You didn't read the letter." Tennant correctly surmised. "You were personally requested by me to serve on my team."
"Why would you do something that dumb?"
Tennant broke out in a sudden roar of laughter, the athletic woman throwing her head back in a typical larger than life display. "You are about the tenth person to ask me that! Why you? Why a walking anger management issue?"
She levelled her gaze, dropping the humour.
"Because you are a killer Miss Akari, one of the best this fleet has had. You weren't a very good officer because you didn't play the game, didn't make friends in high places, didn't care if you embarrassed your superiors. Beating the crap out of your last Captain probably not helping either."
"Yeah, I can imagine that looked bad on my last review."
"Your service record is fifty percent disaster, fifty percent legendary." Tennant assessed with a little drama. "You have a habit of punching people, especially in the Academy."
"Only when provoked." Akari replied flatly, firm in her belief she had done no wrong. "I have a code of honour General, part of that code is when I am challenged I respond appropriately."
"Did you win those fights?"
"Some, lost plenty too." She shrugged. "The point isn't only to fight when you know you are going to win, it's to fight because it's the right thing to do."
That drew a smile from the General.
"These days you'd be kicked out of the Academy but you were the first class after the Minbari war and we needed the people. Good thing too because all your commanding officers wanted to adopt you."
"That's an exaggeration."
"Captain Allenby of the Amphion literally wrote that he would swap you for one of his own children and not regret it."
"Well..." Akari cleared her throat. "He was a good fighting Captain."
"He was, you know he was killed in action over Earth?"
"I didn't." Akari felt herself sink inside at the news. "He helped me out a lot when I was young and stupid."
"And then there is the Diomedes." Tennant kept reading. "The Court Martial talks a lot about you disobeying orders and violently removing your Captain. It says less about the fact you saved that colony, that your actions not only drove off or destroyed the raiding force but that you then followed them to their staging post and blew that up too."
She looked back to the ex officer scrutinising her.
"You went over the Ch'lonas border, alone, in a damaged destroyer and hit one of their bases."
"It was the last thing they expected, took them entirely by surprise." Akari smiled. "If I hadn't they might have regrouped, repaired, tried again later. But without that staging post they never got the chance."
"Captain Barry had enough friends to get you thrown out but not by dishonourable discharge, and you still carried away an armful of medals." Tennant noted. "Word is you took full responsibility so none of your crew would be tried beside you. That true?"
"I just did what a real Captain does."
"Good thing too, you see what happened to Matthew Gideon? Someone gave him the Excalibur, I wanted that ship. Badly."
"I don't think Earth Force will take me back, it would be embarrassing for a lot of high command."
"They are stuck on Earth, I'm out here and I have the freedom to pick my own officers." Tennant dismissed curtly. "We are the frontline, not them, and if they want to play games with me I've got a lot more friends and admirers than they have. Bottom line is this war is going to be hell and to fight it I need killers, brigands, people who get the job done and don't care about the pleasantries. I need warfighters Miss Akari, and you certainly qualify. You're overqualified."
There was a long gap of silence, Tennant's words perhaps getting through to Akari, penetrating her hardened defences.
"Why did you join the Force anyway, back when you started?" The General wondered.
"It was the Minbari War. As soon as I was old enough I volunteered but it was over by the time I graduated."
"That's what caught my attention, you volunteered, didn't wait for conscription. Any reason?"
"I have a code of honour." She returned plainly. "And my father served. He commanded a cruiser in the Dilgar war and then against the Minbari."
"My condolences." Tennant nodded sincerely. "We lost too many good people, Earth Force was diminished because of it and we still haven't recovered. Maybe after this war we'll be as great as we were after beating the Dilgar."
"Maybe." Akari nodded. "Honestly I never really fitted into the Force, I didn't handle the red tape or politics well."
"After reading your records, duh." Tennant half smiled but meant no mockery. "Why did you stay?"
"To honour my father, to carry on his legacy, fight the battles he no longer could, defend what he couldn't anymore. It didn't end well but if the defence of Ross Colony was my final act in the Force I think he would have approved."
General Tennant turned off the terminal and folded her hands on the desk, dropping the jovial atmosphere she had carried until now.
"This is why I wanted to meet you. My father taught me to trust myself, to make my own judgments and not rely on reports written by small people trying to bring down their betters. I can promise you I won't bury you in red tape, I won't hold you back or knock you down because my ego is threatened. I'm going to go out there in a few days time, I'm going to build the scariest task force this navy has ever seen, and I am going to kill all the Drakh. All of them, that is my goal. How does that sound?"
"I think if anyone can do it you can."
"Damn right I can, but I'm not greedy, I'd like to share the slaughter with equally vicious officers. Come back with me and I'll give you your chance."
"My chance for what?"
"To make your father proud." Tennant smiled warmly. "Just like I'm doing."
"I'm not a career officer."
"Bold of you to assume you'll live that long." Tennant chuckled. "But if we do, then just go back to your day job. All I want is dead Drakh and for that I want the best weapon for the mission. Follow me off this station, put the blue back on and do what you are best at."
It was tempting, it was so tempting. Earth clearly was in dire need and sure she was doing vital work with the Belt Alliance. But to get back out there on a warship, to have the power to inflict real damage? Join grand battles? It sang to her, awakened her youthful instincts and cravings for adventure. It also whispered to that part of her that riled from her defeat, from the loss of her ship over Earth. She knew that sooner or later the Drakh would hit a convoy she would be guarding and she'd have a chance for a little retribution. But here was General Tennant giving her a guaranteed ticket back to the front line.
"Your parents cast a long shadow, and believe me I know." Tennant waved a hand. "But your father wouldn't expect you to be carrying his burden. You are your own person, have your own strengths and goals, if you follow me do it because it is your wish. Nobody else's, just yours. I want you Akari, your skill, your instinct, your risk taking craziness because that will win this war. We are at a serious disadvantage, conventional strategy isn't going to cut it. I need unconventional officers but not idiots. Crazy enough to do the unthinkable and incredible enough to make it work. There are maybe five people in the Alliance who I'd trust with this, and Sheridan stole one for the Excalibur. I need you on this, all I can give you in return is the chance to be the sort of officer you actually deserve to be. I'll take you off the leash and give you every opportunity to wreak havoc, to smash as much as you can see, who can ask for more?"
"You know how to pitch an offer, I'll give you that."
"You saw the size of those Drakh motherships? Sixty kilometres long, sixty!" Tennant's eyes lit up. "Tell me you don't want to kill something that big! Hand on heart, you know you do!"
"It... well it would be a challenge." Akari began to smile. "Would be a hell of a fireball."
"See! We're on the same page here! They picked a fight with the wrong people! So come on, you know the old EAS Nemesis still holds the record for tonnage killed? I want that record."
"If, if I decide." Akari tested the waters. "I don't want to be betrayed again. I gave everything to Earth Force and it threw me aside. If it happens again I'm joining the Narn and that's not a joke, they have a Foreign Legion you know."
"I know, hell of a fighting force." Tennant nodded. "You have my word, if I'm breathing I'll back you. Unless you crash on Earth Dome or something, then you're on your own. Plus if I die, the best I can offer is a damn good haunting."
Akari snickered. "Fine, I guess that'll be good enough. This might be the stupidest thing I've done but I'm in."
"I read your academy record, this is nowhere near the stupidest thing you've done." Tennant smiled. "That's a big weight off my mind, I wasn't just trying to butter you up, I really am recruiting the most violently destructive people I can find. Welcome to the team."
"So what's my posting? Been a while since I served as XO but if it's under your command..."
"I have an XO, teep called Harriman in fact, good man, lot to prove." Tennant cut her off. "I'm not wasting you as a support, you are promoted to brevet Captain, you're getting a destroyer."
"Really? I am?" Akari blinked. "Officially?"
"It'll give the brass a seizure when they see your name but what are they gonna do? Leave Earth and chase me? Pfft!"
"You really do have that much faith in me?" Akari shook her head. "Why?"
"Because I think I understand you. And because when my father took the Nemesis onto the Line he killed two Minbari Warcruisers before his ship went down. He only managed that because Captain Tomon Akari sacrificed his ship to shield the Nemesis as she made her attack run. I don't really care for destiny, you are here because you fit the job. But maybe there is some poetry in you and I fighting side by side the same as our kin did." Tennant grinned. "Except let's make sure it ends better this time."
"Yes Ma'am." Akari exhaled. "I'm sure it's like riding a bike, the Omega class hasn't changed since I retired."
"Ah, no, no my new recruit. You're the spearhead now, cutting edge of the fleet. Your command won't be an Omega. It will be a Warlock."
"A Warlock class destroyer?" Her eyes widened.
"The most powerful instrument of war ever made by human hands." Tennant nodded proudly. "Just think how much stuff you can break with one of those. Excited yet?"
"Getting there."
"Good, because we're going to make history. We erased the Dilgar, missed the Minbari, let's see if we can make it two massacres out of three with the Drakh."
