The Final Circle

by Sufficient Velocity

This is a Babylon 5 centered tale. It explores a BSG style exodus due to the loss of the Earth Minbari war. It becomes a crossover with nBSG as of Interlude 1, and crosses with Firefly as of Interlude 2. Most B5 and BSG canon should remain unchanged, including EU. However, Firefly will mostly use series and film canon. Its EU began to expand after I had already merged the plots.

14. Chapter 13 - Rock and a Hard Place

Chapter 13 - Rock and a Hard Place

Hyperspace, En Route to Vreetan - Exodus Fleet - March, 2249

Lieutenant Catherine Sakai stretched her legs and tried again to pop out the kink in her back. She had been in this damned Drazi shuttle for over sixty hours now, with less than five hours sleep in that entire time. She was tired, cranky, and smelled absolutely terrible. And these damned Drazi seats just weren't made for human butts!

Worse, she was nauseous from lack of sleep, freeze dried rations, and nearly three days of zero-G. Not that she was under zero-G the entire time. This mission had meant a lot of acceleration, and the engines on this bucket could kick, which simulated gravity quite nicely...when they were on. But the continuous shifting back and forth from acceleration to zero-G was only aggravating her nausea. She didn't know how Jeffrey and the other men and women assigned to the zero-G warships handled it. She did know it was starting to become a medical concern for many of them, despite the frequent trips to vessels under spin, and even more frequent exercise regimen.

Worse still, she had almost gotten out of this tin can. Captain Sheridan had ordered her to get back to the Eratosthenes. She'd been preparing for boarding when some bright officer, perhaps even Sheridan himself, had gotten the idea that a Drazi shuttle would make a great rear lookout. On the unlikely possibility that the Minbari would head this direction, she would be the first to notice them, so that she could warn the rest of the fleet. And, while she would hopefully see the Minbari, they would see only a Drazi shuttle, likely an isolated trader.

Trying again to get the kinks out of her legs, Catherine monitored her velocity. It wouldn't do to overtake the fleet, but they were just so damned slow. She knew that Sheridan had prepared for a bit of a sprint, by stacking the slowest vessels to the front and the faster ones behind. As spread out as the fleet was, if they needed to run they could get a bit of a boost in just by the faster vessels stacking up on the slower ones further ahead. That benefit wouldn't last long though, and in the grand scheme of things was really of minimal value.

Drinking more cold coffee out of a spacer's bulb in an attempt to stay awake, she almost missed the spike on her sensors. Sweeping her sensors back and forth across her rear track, all she saw were the swirling hues of hyperspace. Had she been imagining things? On instinct, she rotated the shuttle 180 degrees, bringing her forward sensors to bear. They were were a bit more sensitive, though the improvement was really rather minimal. Still, she swept the rear track again. What was that? She zoomed the sensors in on a particular point, adjusting them for maximum sensitivity, then analyzing the results. Oh, shit.
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"Message coming through from Lieutenant Sakai, Captain," Takashima advised him.

Sheridan grunted. The Nova was currently riding at the head of the fleet; the tip of the spear in case they should run into trouble in Vreetan. If a message was coming through from the Lieutenant, it meant that she had requested it be relayed through the fleet, transmitted on forward from one ship to another, until it finally made it to him. That meant it was almost certainly not good news. "Put her through to my panel."

The moment Catherine's face appeared on his screen, she got to the point, not even waiting for his acknowledgement. "Bad news, Captain, the Minbari are following us."

"How did they know which route we picked? They should have expected us to go any direction except this one."

"They didn't, Captain. We must have left something behind in T'Lad'Tha that tipped them off to our presence. That, or the Descari ratted on us. But, there are only three ways out of T'Lad'Tha other than the way they came in. It looks like they split their fleet and sent a force down each route. At least, that's my guess, since there are only one hundred frigates and one Sharlin coming up behind us."

"Shargoti," Sheridan corrected her absentmindedly, his eyes drifting as his full attention focused on the looming catastrophe.

"Aye, Sir. They should catch up to my position within the next three hours. They'll certainly have detected the fleet at least a little before then. At that point it's only another three hours to catch the fleet. But, depending upon their firing range, they could attack us significantly earlier than that."

He took a breath and met her eyes again. "Better reel it in, Lieutenant. The area you're flying through is about to get very hot. Good work."

"Thank you, Captain."

Cutting the signal, John sent out a request to all of the Captains, convening an emergency staff meeting over secured comms. Over the course of the next two minutes, they each checked in, from their quarters or other private locations. They waited quietly for him to begin. "Lieutenant Sakai has just detected Minbari vessels closing in on us from the rear. They haven't detected us yet, but that won't last. Within a few hours, well short of Vreetan, they will detect us. A few hours after that, they will be within weapons range." He watched as their faces tightened. He tried to ignore the accusing glares coming from Elizabeth and Sandra, and even Bester. John noted with grim amusement that, even after all of this time, he still could not think of the man by his first name. He was less amused by the 'I told you so' expression on his ex-wife's face. It was an expression he was all too familiar with. No doubt the three of them, and possibly the others as well, blamed him for bringing them in this direction. It had been his call, after all. Perhaps if they had chanced heading for the Yolu, or even the Tal-Kona'Sha, they wouldn't be facing the grim odds they were now. But, that was the burden of command, and he'd be damned if he'd wish for that asinine Council of Captains back, or even waste time second guessing himself.

"I won't lie to you. The odds aren't good. But they have been this bad a time or two before. So we make the best plans we can, and we execute them to the best of our ability. For now, nothing has changed, save that we know the enemy is coming up on us. We still need the Nova up front, to deal with anything we find in Vreetan. Besides, we're out of energy mines, and no suicide play by a single dreadnought will so much as slow down that force. We have to lose them.

"To that end, we will be increasing the current speed of the fleet by fifteen percent. Since we have the faster vessels to the rear of the slower ones, this is going to cause the fleet to start to stack up. By the time we are ready to jump into Vreetan, we should be in a pretty tight knot. The Eratosthenes and the Mother will move to the front of the fleet, so that we can re-enter normal space through three jump points rather than one. We will do our best to jump into the system less than one AU short of the Vreetan jumpgate. We will then dash to the jumpgate and use it to re-enter hyperspace, and move on to our next destination."

"Which is?" Sinclair asked.

"Undetermined at this time. There are six routes leading away from Vreetan, other than the way we came in. There are different pros and cons for each of them. It will largely depend upon how this maneuver goes. If we've managed to break contact with the Minbari, then we go where they think we won't. Maybe they'll be kind enough to head in the wrong direction, and we'll be free and clear. At the very least, they'll be forced to divide their current force by six. Of course, if we haven't managed to break contact, then they'll just continue to follow us, and we'll be even worse off than we are now. So, breaking contact is the all important part, which makes what happens in Vreetan critical.

"There's a good chance we might have to engage the Vree, or that the Minbari will have damaged or destroyed our rear guard. We could have many damaged civilian ships, or everything may have gone off without a hitch. We can't decide on a final direction until the last moment, when we know our exact circumstances. We need to be prepared for the possibility that some of us in this room won't survive that long, including me. Remember your chain of command," he said, pointedly making eye contact with all of them, rather than a select few. "If I don't make it, that puts Elizabeth in charge. Jeff is next, followed by Sandra, then...Alfred...then Matthew. God help us if you have to take command, Michael."

"I don't know if I should be insulted or relieved to hear you say that, Captain,"Garibaldi replied. "Let's just go with 'in complete agreement.'"

John nodded in amusement, then continued, "We obviously won't have time to do any replenishment or maintenance while in Vreetan. Even with underway replenishment, we're liable to have ships running out of fuel, or breaking down. We're going to get all of our tugs up and running, to grab as many as possible. We have to accept that if enough vessels break down, we may need to leave some behind." The grim looks returned at this comment, but no one argued. "Once we're enroute to the next system, we'll need to slow back down to our previous velocity, or we'll bypass our slowest vessels and increase the rate of breakdowns."

"Captain," Bester cut in, "if we don't have time for replenishment or maintenance in Vreetan, then what is the point of going in at all? Why risk fighting the Vree, and putting our vessels through not one but two additional hyperspace transitions? Wouldn't it be wiser to just stay in hyperspace right up to the beacon, and transition directly onto another route without bothering to go into Vreetan?"

"A valid question, Commander. We're jumping into Vreetan because it's the only way to disengage with the Minbari. Even with the increase in speed, they're going to overtake us. We need to not only slow them down, we need to push them back; buy ourselves some breathing room. The only way to do that is to take a little jaunt through Vreetan. To that end, I am initiating Operation Plan Nuclear Rain. The relevant ships are already in place. All intership transfers of nuclear devices should be carried out within the next three hours. I expect all personnel involved to be fully briefed within the hour. Questions?"

"How much of our nuclear stockpile are you planning to use on this operation?" Lochley asked.

"About half."

"That's a lot of nukes, Captain," Levitt noted. "General Lefcourt had a awful lot assigned to the fleet. To the point that Earthgov was complaining quite loudly. I have no idea how many strings he had to pull to get them all. Are you sure you need that many?"

"There are a lot of Minbari coming up behind us. And these aren't energy mines. Most of our fighter launched nukes run in the fifty to one hundred kiloton range. That's a tenth of a percent as powerful as our energy mines, and we used up nearly all of those to delay a single Minbari vessel. Even using our telepaths to maximum effect to improve accuracy, we'll need to use a lot of ordinance. Frankly I wouldn't think it was possible at all if Commander Bester hadn't briefed me on the augmentary effect hyperspace seems to have on telepathic abilities. That should give us just enough accuracy at range with our missile launches to force the Minbari back, and maybe even get a few kills."

"We'll need every kill we can get," Sinclair noted. "I'm sure it's occurred to you, John, that we are trying to use our Starfuries to push back a force that is capable of, probably is, carrying over six hundred Nials. Not to long ago we needed a six to one advantage to have a hope of victory in a fighter engagement. Now we're facing a six to one deficit."

"Which is why we're pulling out all the stops on the nuclear front. It's just like with the Sharlin that chased us into Epsilon. They're coming at us, and can't afford to stray too far from the beacon path. Multiple simultaneous detonations are going to cause a real mess in hyperspace, possibly even more so than fewer, more powerful blasts. The Minbari will be driving right into that muck. Their ships can probably handle it, but I'm hoping their fighters can't. Frankly, I'd authorize the use of even more nukes to slow them down, if I didn't need the rest for mining our point of entry."

"Wait," Sinclair said, holding up his hand, "you're planning on using all of our nukes?"

"We'll keep a handful for special occasions. But yes, I plan to essentially clean out the cupboards."

"And what do we use the next time we're in this situation?" Levitt asked tersely.

"We cross that bridge when we come to it, Commander. But we need to survive this bridge if we hope to see that next one. Nuclear Rain should slow the Minbari down, maybe even push them back a bit. It won't be enough. We'll have to slow them to a crawl once they get into normal space if we are to have any hope of being far enough ahead that they don't spot which route we took. We're going to toss out the rest of our nukes and cover the area around our emergence. We start them detonating at random the moment the Minbari are detected. If the Minbari jump in using our same entry point, they'll have a giant mess on their hands. I'm hoping they assume we're planning to follow our usual procedures and run and hide for the outer system. If they jump in early and attempt to catch us out there, they'll have bought us the time we need."

"But a minefield can't be aimed like fighter launched missiles? How do you expect it to have any effect at all?"

"Well, since most of our heavier nukes can't be mounted on fighter missiles, they go into the minefield by default. We're talking about everything from 500 kilotons to 50 megatons. We also know their stealth is less effective at shorter ranges. Since we are mining what we hope will be their ingress point, some of the mines may actually be able to get a sensor lock detonation, despite their poorer detection capabilities. Between that, the bigger bangs, and the random detonation pattern we'll be setting off, we'll hopefully be able to at least slow the Minbari down.

"Why not pull a Bonehead Maneuver, like you were considering in Epsilon?" she pressed. "It would save half our nukes for a rainy day, and the blast would be even larger anyway."

"I certainly thought about it, Commander. Two reasons. First, it would require that we sacrifice at least one of our jump capable ships, and we only have five. Two, the Vree gate is placed extremely close to their homeworld. It is just outside the range of their planetary defenses, presumably to avoid an accidental hit in the event of an attack. So we can access it without having to worry about their fixed homeworld defenses. However, if we were to blow it, we'd likely be wiping out all life on their planet. It probably wouldn't cause species extinction, but that's still billions of civilian lives. We don't know for certain that the Abbai were correct about the Vree siding with the Minbari. Even if we did, I don't know that I would condone that type of butchery."

Silence met his words, until Sinclair added quietly, "Three, we still have the option if things go badly for us."

"And if the Minbari anticipate we are heading for the jumpgate, and jump in closer into the system?" Gideon asked "Or if they use the jumpgate itself for system entry? Or what if the Vree have a blocking force the Nova can't punch through?"

Sheridan sighed. "Then we break up the band. All military ships, except the Eratosthenes, will engage the enemy forces and do as much damage as possible. I will be transmitting orders to the civilian Captains shortly. They will divide the civilian ships into seven roughly equal fleets. Should this eventuality come to pass, fleets one through six will attempt to run past the enemy and get into hyperspace, they will then each take one of the hyperspace routes, in the hopes that some of them can get away. The seventh fleet will stack up on the Eratosthenes, who will lead them out into hyperspace in the hopes of finding a route to someplace else. They will not be leaving a trail of beacons for the Minbari to follow."

"Captain," Jeff said softly, "that task is almost certain suicide. It would take a miracle to find another world on a single attempt."

"If things turn that far south, Commander, then all seven fleets are on suicide missions. We just hope and pray that it doesn't come to that. Or that, if it does, at least one of them gets their miracle." He met all of their eyes. "We're out of time, people. Get to it."
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"Susan," Lieutenant Jason Ironheart, newly assigned Squadron Commander for Red Delta, called as she raced into the ready room. "You have a call from Fleet Security on comms. She said it was urgent. Take it in my office, but make it quick. We launch in five."

What the hell? Susan thought, rushing toward the claustrophobic box Ironheart called an office. It can't be Tessa. She's the one who insisted on maintaining a strict cover. But, once she had closed the door and activated the comm panel, it was indeed Tessa's face which appeared.

She wasted no time on pleasantries. "Susan. I need to meet with you right now. Bring Talia and Lyta."

What the frag? "Tessa, in case you missed it, the fleet is on red alert. The Minbari are about to rear end us, and not in a way that some people might consider a good time. Talia and Lyta are already at their posts, and I'm launching to take on several hundred Minbari fighters in less than four minutes."

Tessa blanched at the news. "Is it really as bad as all that?"

"Yes. I'm probably not supposed to have told you any of that stuff, but what's one more secret between friends? Whatever you've got, it's going to have to wait to see if any of us survive the next few hours."

"Frag. Fine, but assuming we do all survive, I want to see the three of you the moment this emergency has passed. Until then, is there anything I can do?"

"Grab a bigger gun, in case they try another boarding action. Oh, and maybe say a prayer."

"Really? A prayer?"

"I'll take any help I can get right now."
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Lieutenant Catherine Sakai was finally within visual sight of the fleet. At the very rear were the Midway and the Lexington. Just a little longer now, and she could finally get back aboard the Eratosthenes where she belonged. She looked at the Lexington. Jeff was in command of it now. He might have to use his new ship to try to take on that giant Minbari fleet she had seen. That was a confrontation that he had no chance of surviving. She prayed there was another option.

She keyed her comms unit to transmit to the Midway and Lexington simultaneously. Better remind them she was about to pass. Their gunners were liable to be getting pretty nervous about now. "This is the shuttle Rokai. Requesting permission to pass the perimeter, heading for berthing on board the Eratosthenes."

It only took a moment to get a response from the Midway. "Hang on a tick, Rokai. Space is about to get very crowded. We'll let you know when you can pass."

A moment later, Starfuries started kicking out of the Midway. A few launched from the Lexington as well. Within moments they had formed up into four squadrons. As one, they kicked in thrust and shot off in the direction of the Minbari, passing by her shuttle in just a few seconds. As they passed her, she was clearly able to make out the heavily laden hardpoints on each of their wings. They were armed for bear. Or rather, for Minbari. Good luck, guys. She knew that many of them might never return.

A few moments later Starfuries from further up the fleet began trickling back to the Midway and Lex. It looked like those two vessels would be staging all of the fleet's Starfuries for the fight ahead. They'd probably rotate four squadrons at a time into the fight, keeping a constant presence going while the other four squadrons returned to rearm.

"Shuttle Rokai," her comms crackled, once the activity had died down, "Midway. You are now cleared to pass. Better hurry. Things are liable to get pretty exciting around here before too much longer."

"Acknowledged, Midway. Good luck."
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"Alyt Vastor," Hiai'sa Duraal said to him conversationally, walking over to stand next to him. "No further sign of that Drazi shuttle. Given how fast they ran, we must have put quite the scare in them."

Vastor chuckled fondly at his First Officer's comment. "Can you blame them Duraal? A single shuttle faced with an approaching warfleet? Given the recent hostilities between our peoples, they were no doubt terrified."

"Should we have sent out Nials to haul them in? We are supposed to have the Drazi under quarantine."

"I doubt they escaped the blockade. No doubt they are traders, out here well before the Zahbar incident. Our mission is to run down the human fleet, not play shephard to some hapless Drazi merchants."

"I just want to be doing something, Alyt. I feel that we are wasting our time running down this route. We know where the humans are. The report said they were headed for Llort space. To be taking a third of the fleet off on this tangent..."

"And yet we found spent fuel canisters in T'lad'tha. The kind we know are used by a number of the human ships. It is possible they stopped there for repairs."

"Yes, but those rods could have been from long before the war. The humans traded extensively in the region of space. Besides, even if they were there, they'd hardly be heading for Vree space. Not after the Vree declared their support for our cause."

"Ahh, but that happened after this fleet had left the Sol system. The humans might not even know about that. And it is best that we cover every possibility. To date this chase has been rather haphazard. We've been assuming that our technological advantages would just hand the humans to us. They've demonstrated a real penchant for finding the holes in every net we have cast so far. If we want to stop them from escaping, we need to ensure that we leave them no possible routes for escape. That we investigate and eliminate every possibility. You are most likely correct that the humans are nowhere near here. But ensuring that is the case is far from a waste of time."

"As you say, Alyt."

The words had no sooner left his mouth than the Kor manning sensors called out, "The sensors have made contact."

Duraal turned to him, now in a lighter mood. "The Drazi again, Kor?"

The Warrior stared at the readings for a few seconds without responding, then looked up and met the First Officer's gaze. "Four squadrons of human Starfuries. They are headed this way under high acceleration."

Duraal grunted as though kicked in the stomach. Turning back to Vastor, he said, "It seems, Alyt, that your wisdom was more valuable than I could understand. I thank you for sharing it."

"The human fighters are launching missiles," the Kor announced. "Forty-eight missiles inbound."

"At this range?" the Alyt said to Duraal. "They'll be lucky to get a single missile into range of us. Despite his words, however, a loud rumbling was soon heard through the hull, and the ship rocked and shook. "It seems my wisdom is not as complete as you believed, Duraal. If this vessel is being rocked by these detonations, then our Esharan frigates may very well be taking damage. Status of our stealth systems?"

"Fully operational, Alyt." called out the Hiai'i assigned to monitor, maintain, and operate those systems.

"Then the humans must have substantially increased the power of their fighter launched nuclear warheads."

"Sir," Duraal offered, "it would seem the humans have made a mistake. Our frigates outnumber their fighters two to one. May I suggest we launch our fighters and wipe these vermin from our path?"

"Agreed, Durall."

Moments later the vessels of the fleet began launching their fighters into space. A short time after that, Durall reported, "All fifty-two wings formed up, Alyt."

"Attack."

The Minbari fighters swept forwards, streaking towards the massively outnumbered human craft. Durall expected the humans to turn and flee. Instead, they opened fire again at extended range. "Massive missile launch...multiple salvos...seven launches per Starfury."

Vastor grunted. "They flushed their racks at us? Why would they…? Scan those missiles. Are we detecting radiologicals?"

"That would be an awful lot of nukes for the humans to be using, Alyt," Duraal noted as he watched the sensor operator run the scans. He received a short nod from the Minbari. "Confirmed, Alyt. At least some of those missiles are nuclear."

"Order our Nials to slow and shoot down as many as possible. It seems they were attempting to draw out our fighters. It shouldn't do them much good. The fighter stealth systems should keep them from too much harm."

The moment the missiles came into range, the Nials opened fire, killing them in droves. The humans had launched well over three hundred missiles, but with over six hundred fighters, the Minbari eviscerated the flights of missiles. However, it was still an awful lot of missiles to kill, and the humans had elected to use a time on target attack, adjusting the speed of each successive salvo so that they all arrived at roughly the same time. There were nearly fifty left when they all detonated simultaneously, just a little short of the Minbari formation. Which is when the Minbari discovered that all of the missiles were nuclear.

"Simultaneous detonations, Alyt," Duraal noted. He had walked to the sensor station and was reviewing the displays directly. "All nuclear. Those detonations are not more powerful than anticipated, but seem to be far more accurate. Reading...Valen's name...reading nearly two hundred of our fighters destroyed. My apologies, Alyt. My rash suggestion has killed many of our Warriors."

"Ni Moshna, Duraal. I did not see it coming either. The humans have used up their missiles. Destroy those fighters!"

"Our surviving Nials are moving forward again now, Alyt. The Starfuries are pulling back now….new contact!" he called out in consternation. "I am reading four additional squadrons of Starfuries coming into range, bypassing the previous squadrons. Reading radiological emissions from those craft."

Vastor didn't hesitate. "Pull our Nials back immediately. Have them return to their home ships."

"Alyt?" Duraal asked in shock.

"I am not going to lose more fighters to this ridiculous attack. It is a delaying tactic at best. Have the Nials reboard our ships," he repeated. "Once they are aboard, we will press the fleet forward, using our point defense weapons to deal with any inbound missiles. The humans will have a much harder time slowing us down."

"Si dromo."

"And keep an eye on the accuracy of those weapons. I don't like how lucky they have gotten. If this keeps up, we may have to consider the possibility that the humans have figured out a way to compensate for our stealth systems."
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Commander Alfred Bester led the second contingent of fighters past the first. "Commander Lochley," he commed to the CAG, who was heading back to rearm with the rest, "excellent shooting."

"It wouldn't have been, if it hadn't been for our telepaths. See if the Minbari are willing to let us wipe out some more of their fighters. If not, hold the line 'till we get back."

"Acknowledged, Commander. Black Omega Leader out." After cutting the channel, Bester began spreading out his four squadrons, placing them into a firing line. It had looked for a moment as if the Nials would make another try for them, but then they had pulled back to their ships. Too bad, he thought. The next part will be harder.

It looked like that part was starting now, as the entire Minbari fleet increased speed, coming right for them. "All fighters, begin random evasive maneuvers. Minbari point defense is incredibly long ranged. Even this far out they could…" His words were interrupted as a green bolt streaked forward and blotted one of Ironheart's fighters from the sky. "Launch first salvo," he ordered, and forty-seven nukes went streaking towards the Minbari. This is the tricky part. We have to make just eight missiles per Starfury last until Elizabeth gets back. He didn't even notice that he had thought of the mundane by her first name. "Maintain evasive maneuvers. We hold the line."
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"This is intolerable," Duraal hissed. "What can they hope to accomplish by this tactic? And how many nuclear weapons can they possibly have?" The humans had rotated their formation a half dozen times already, and each time they came with their weapons racks loaded with their fission warheads.

"I cannot answer the second question, Hiai'sa," Vastor stated. "But, as to the first, they are clearly trying to buy time. For what, I know not. But as tricky as these humans have been, I can only say that I would rather they not get that time." He paused and thought for a second. "Relaunch our fighters. We will perform a joint push, with the fighters supplementing our own interceptors. We spread out around the beacon signal, as much as is safe. This should minimize the effectiveness of their weapons, while the increased point defense will reduce it even more. We run right over the top of them. It will likely mean increased losses, but once that screen is out of the way, we can close on and destroy their fleet."

"Fighters launched," Durall stated a few moments later.

"Fayzen shok!"
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"Black Omega Leader, you are cleared for docking."

Bester guided his damaged Starfury towards the Midway docking bay. It had been a very long and trying day, the last couple of hours in particular, and he was beyond exhausted. He was getting more than punchy. He probably shouldn't have been flying anymore, but it wasn't like anyone was going to dock for him. Pushing that level of telepathy that hard for that long would have had him bone weary alone. But he had also been responsible for piloting and fighting his Starfury through intense combat maneuvers, as well as commanding four squadrons throughout the engagement.

That engagement had gotten very messy at the end. He had been commanding the firing line, Lochley back and rearming, when the Minbari had made their big push. Hundreds of fighters moving forward in perfect coordination with their frigates. They had spread out to weaken his fire, and were carefully interlocking their point defense. He had ordered salvo after salvo of nukes, trying to stop them. Nothing had worked. He had even tried to target limited portions of their line at once. A few limited hits, but nothing that would stop the Minbari. They had grown closer, and their fire had grown more accurate and deadly. He was down nearly two squadrons...almost half his force….when he had finally cut and run, retreating under maximum accelleration. Staying would only have gotten everyone killed.

The Nials were faster. Seeing his line broken, they surged ahead, intent on the kill. Chasing down his broken formation. They would run him under and slaughter his entire force. His exhausted pilots stood no chance in a furball with those killers.

Fortunately for him and his pilots, the Minbari didn't seem to be very good at counting. He had retained a single nuke on each of his Starfuries. Just as the Nials were closing into firing range, his entire force spun as one and released their final salvo. The range was so close that he actually lost a couple Starfuries to the blast. His own and several others had also gotten more than a little cooked, but the Nials were practically wiped out. Three quarters of the remaining Nials simply ceased to exist. It was really too bad nuke kills didn't count towards Ace status. Ivanova and Ironheart would never catch him. The surviving Nials ran for the relative safety of their mother ships.

Those frigates seemed far less impressed, continuing to charge steadily forward, taking his force under long range fire. He had once again turned to run, just in time to see Lochley's returning force release three salvos at a limited portion of the Minbari line. Fifteen Esharan class frigates had broken up under those nuclear fireballs, and the Minbari had finally had enough. They pulled back to the edge of sensor range, just far enough to ensure they didn't lose contact.

Lochley took up position to guard the back door, but it looked like the fight was over for now. The Minbari were ceding the hyperspace chase. No doubt they planned to overtake the Exodus fleet in normal space, where the terrain would favor them far more. Things were only going to get harder, but this was at least a minor victory. Hopefully he could catch a couple of hours of sleep before the fecal matter struck the rotary impeller once again.

He felt and heard the solid clank of his Starfury being secured, and his head jerked up. "Wha…?" While he had been wool gathering, he had somehow docked his fighter. He had no memory at all of anything after the voice telling him he had been approved for docking. That was a complex and somewhat dangerous procedure. It certainly shouldn't have been performed in a semiconscious state.

Air. He needed air, and to be up and walking around. He barely remembered to ensure the bay was pressurized before popping the seals on his cockpit. The ones on his helmet followed shortly thereafter. He climbed out of his fighter and, on sheer instinct, began to perform his post flight inspection.

It took several moments for the strange sound to register on his ears. He spun around, trying to understand what it was. Applause. The hanger crew had come out into the bay, and they were cheering for him. God he hated mundanes. He hated their fake applause. Their condescension. The way they always feared and hated any telepath. He wished he had been able to dock on the Mother, where he could be surrounded by other telepaths. But he had to operate from here for now, which meant dealing with the mundanes.

Worst of all, he was so tired, his telepathy so exhausted, that all of his barriers were down. The stench of their emotions was washing over him already. The fear, the suspicion, the loathing...wait...what? He looked about him in confusion, as more crewmembers arrived in the hangar bay and joined in the cheers. This couldn't be right. There was no hate. No suspicion. Not a hint of loathing. Instead they were feeling….pride. And hope. And that other thing, that was...camaraderie? And maybe...hero worship? That...that's not possible. All mundanes hate telepaths...don't they?

Alfred Bester looked around the hangar bay at the normals who had come out to meet him. He wore a very confused and exhausted look on his face, but he managed to give them all a little wave. When the cheering finally abated, and the crew went back to their duties, he sat down on the hangar floor and leaned back against his Starfury. Staring up at the ceiling, he spoke to himself. "Huh...we might actually survive this thing." And then he slept.
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"Closing on Vreetan jump gate, Captain. If we're going to jump in before then, we should do so in the next ten minutes."

John Sheridan gave a sigh of relief at his First Officer's pronouncement. They had made it this far. That in itself was more than a little surprising. He had been nearly shocked when Bester and Lochley had managed to get the Minbari to pull back. Now they just needed to make it through the Vreetan system fast enough to disengage with the Minbari altogether. "We might actually survive this thing," he muttered to himself. Louder, he responded, "Make certain that all of the ships we have designated for mine laying are prepared and in position. We're only going to get one shot at this, and that field has got to be thick if it's going to have a prayer of stopping the Minbari. I want them to get started the moment they break into normal space."

"Aye, Captain." Takashima was certainly good. She did the job flawlessly, and without question. She would certainly have made a viable replacement for either Sandra or Elizabeth, if that had been necessary. John was just as glad it had not been. He wasn't quite as glad that he could see no immediate career path for Laurel. A few minutes later, she turned back to him and reported, "All ships report ready, Captain. We can break into normal space at any time."

"Activate jump drive." The swirling blue tones of a hyperspace exit vortex sprung up on the main screen, joining the reddish tones of hyperspace. In the center of that vortex, a field of stars could be seen. On the periphery of the screen, he could see additional jump points being opened by the Mother and the Eratosthenes. The Nova charged through into normal space, followed by the rest of the fleet.

"Mines being deployed, Captain," Takashima advised.

"Good. Let's get a look around the system, see what the Vree have handy that might try to stop us or slow us down."

Laurel nodded without comment, studying the feeds being piped to her system. John noticed the moment when all of the blood drained out of her face. "What is it, Laurel?" She didn't respond. She hadn't even seemed to hear him. "Report, Lieutenant Commander," he said in a more forceful tone.

She shook herself, but did not look up at him. "We have Vree ships sitting in front of the jumpgate, Captain."

"That wasn't unexpected," he said reassuringly. "How many?"

Finally, she looked up and met his gaze. "Five hundred, Captain."

A stunned silence descended over the bridge. The Vree had been waiting for them. It was a trap. That was the only possible reason that a fleet of that size would be sitting in that exact location. The human race would probably be extinguished in the next few hours, and John Sheridan knew that it was all his fault.

He drew a deep breath and gave himself a mental kick. Think! He ran the situation over and over again in his mind, pushing back the despair, thinking furiously. He didn't see any way his crew, his ship, or he had any chance of survival. They were going to have to make an absolutely futile assault against the Vree, attempting to draw their attention and buy time. He'd take the Mother down with him. It had no real offensive weapons to speak of, but it had excellent point defense, and could soak up damage for a while. Just a little bit more time for everyone else to run. Maybe, just maybe, they could get the rest of the fleet out. If the Minbari didn't jump in too close, that might even include the Midway and the Lexington. There just might be hope for humanity yet.

"Alright, people," he heard himself saying, "things look grim, but there is hope. We just might be able to save the rest of the fleet." He didn't bother to add that they wouldn't be able to save themselves. They knew already. "We're going to advance on that fleet, moving towards the jumpgate as originally planned. Just before we enter weapons range, the Nova and Mother will each open a jump point...behind our ships. The Eratosthenes will open one in front of itself. The fleet, including the Eratosthenes, will hurry through the jump points back into hyperspace, while this ship and the Mother assault the Vree lines with everything we have." Despite the ridiculousness of the statement, no one laughed, or challenged his plan. They watched him silently, prepared to do their duty. "Whether the fleet disperses at that point, or continues on together in the hopes of losing the Minbari...that will be up to whoever ends up being in command." He checked his panel. "We have less than an hour before we get to that point, and a lot to do before then. Let's get ready, people. We'll be in for the fight of our lives." So saying, John activated his a comm channel to advise the Captains.
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"Alyt, our forward observers report that the human fleet has made transition to normal space. Oddly, they did not use the system jumpgate."

"Why is that odd, Hiai'sa? The humans often forego the use of the jumpgate, so that they may enter into the outer system, hiding like vermin."

"It is odd," Duraal stated, "because the humans were already very close to the Vreetan beacon when they transitioned. They would have been well within the inner system."

Vastor grunted. "A mistake perhaps. Or perhaps an intentional ruse, meant to make us second guess whether they intend to head towards the outskirts of the system or run for the jumpgate. If that is the case, however, then they truly have made a mistake. We are fully capable of dealing with that dilemma.
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"Two minutes to weapons range of the Vree fleet. They have assumed a combat formation, but are otherwise unmoving."

"Do we have firing solutions?"

"Yes, Captain. Solid targeting locks on every enemy combatant. The data has been fed to all gunnery sections."

He nodded. "Vree saucers depend upon speed and maneuverability rather than heavy armor. Let's take advantage of the fact that they are holding still. Have every turret take aim at a different saucer. Maybe we'll get lucky and take a bunch of them out with our first salvo." It was the epitome of a long shot. And even if every single turret managed to kill a Vree saucer, that still left their four hundred and eighty two friends. But, it was better than nothing.

A panel chimed, and the ensign manning comms, spoke up. "Captain Sheridan, we are receiving a signal from the Vree. It's a standard comm channel."

What could they possibly want? It wasn't as though talking would change anything that was about to happen. He certainly wasn't going to surrender. Might as well. It can't hurt. "Put it up on the main screen. Let's see what they have to say."

The screen flickered, and then displayed the pasty skin, black eyes and bulbous head of a Vree. The Vree raised up one of their language cards. Sheridan felt like swearing. He had forgotten about the Vree language difficulties. What a waste of time. He was about to try to kill this Vree, and every other that currently sat in his gun sights. But, that was no reason to be impolite. "I'm sorry sir. I do not know your language, and we have no translator available at this time. My apologies. As well, for what is about to happen."

The Vree hurriedly grabbed a second card from the stack it carried in its off hand. When Sheridan only shook his head, it seemed to almost desperately grab for and display a third.

A chime sounded. The young lieutenant manning sensors called out, "Jump points forming. Three AU out. It's the Minbari! They assumed we were heading for the outer system!" The news brought elation to Sheridan. They had done it! The Minbari were too far away to catch them. It would take them far too long to get here. Even if they decided to immediately jump back into hyperspace to cut the time, the maneuver had slowed them down far too much. Now, if he could just get the fleet past the Vree, the Minbari would have to guess which route they had taken. Humanity might survive.

"Wait," the officer called again. "Something's wrong. I'm only reading twenty seven Minbari ships…. More jump points forming! They're on top of our system ingress point." He inhaled sharply. "I can't be sure, but I think that was another twenty-seven ships. They came out of hyperspace way too fast, and ran right into our minefield. They didn't even have a chance to use their point defense. Not a single ship survived." There was a half hearted cheer from the back of the room, but it seemed the officer was not done. "More jump points forming, Captain. Directly to our rear. They're practically within weapons range of the fleet! Twenty-two ships, including the Shargoti."

This was it then. All hope was gone. They'd never lose the Minbari at those ranges, and if any of the fleet actually made it into hyperspace, the Minbari would just chase them down. The Lexington and Midway would die quickly, and with them would go the last hope for humanity. He took a deep breath, and felt resolve settle in. He wouldn't give up. If this was the end of the human race, it was going down swinging.

He turned hating eyes on the Vree who was wildly waving his language card. "Are we within firing range of the Vree fleet?"

"Yes, Captain," Takashima said quietly.

"All guns, simultaneous fire on my order."

The Vree seemed to come to a decision. He threw the language cards in both hands over his shoulder, and walked left out of the camera shot...and a second later emerged out of a rectangle of light directly onto the bridge.

Sheridan shouted incoherently and leaped to his feet, almost forgetting to brace himself in the zero-G environment. Several others officers, reacting similarly, did forget, and went sailing across the bridge. Sheridan grabbed for his sidearm, ripping it out of it's holster and pointing the PPG at the intruder.

The Vree threw up his hands to shield his face and cowered. A voice, gravelly but also just slightly high-pitched said, "Away put your weapon! I mean you no harm!" The voice emerged from a device at the Vree's waste rather than his mouth, from which came a high pitched whistling noise, but it was clear as day for all of that.

"You can talk?" Sheridan asked in astonishment.

"More importantly," Takashima followed immediately, "why are you doing Yoda?" Sheridan glared at her, though the aim of his PPG never wavered from the Vree's head. Laurel suddenly displayed the vivid blush that Sheridan hadn't seen since the very first day of the exodus.

The Vree, realizing that he wasn't being seared by plasma bolts, slowly lowered his hands and stood up. "Yes, I can talk, after a fashion," he said to Sheridan. The voice was exactly the same, but the strange speech pattern had disappeared. The whistling noise coming from it's mouth was also still present; soft and strange and disconcerting. "And I was doing Yoda," he followed up, looking at Laurel, "because I assumed none of you humans would get the reference. You practically have to live on Vreetan to find decent SciFi fans these days."

"Who are you? What are you doing on my ship? How did you get here?" Sheridan demanded, refusing to lose control of the conversation, and still pointing his weapon at the Vree.

"Captain," Laurel interrupted, "all guns report ready to fire. If the Vree fire first, we won't survive to retaliate. Should we…"

"Please do not," the Vree stated, turning that disquieting stare upon her. Turning back to Sheridan, he said, "to answer your questions in order, Captain, my name is Milashi Voktal, and I was, until recently, an Ambassador for the Ventuki Conglomerate. I am on your bridge, because it seemed to be the only way to avoid a conflict and get you to listen to me. As to how I got here, it is a technology the Vree have had for some time. Quite spectacular, though much more limited than most would assume. It is one of our carefully guarded secrets. A secret which you now share."

Should he fire? Were the Vree just buying time for the Minbari to catch up? "And what did you want us to listen to, Mr. Voktal?

"That I wish to help you. That I wish to ensure the survival of the human race. That I will give my life, if necessary towards that goal. That is my penance."

"Your penance? Then you did betray us at Earth," Sheridan said bitterly.

"Yes. We arrived well after your Battle of the Line. We brought this very fleet to support you, but we were too late. We emerged surrounded by Minbari ships. Your fleet was gone, and your world burned, and the Minbari wanted to know why we were there. I feared for my life, and for the lives of every Vree in the fleet. More than that, I feared for the very survival of my race. And I acted upon that fear. I told the Minbari that I supported them, and that I hated you. It is the greatest shame of my life."

"The Abbai stated that your fleet bombarded Earth," John accused.

"We did not," Milashi stated quietly, "but only because the Minbari did not trust us to use our weapons. I did offer to do so."

John's grip tightened on the PPG. "And why exactly shouldn't I just kill you right now?"

"Because then I cannot help you. You are free to kill me afterwards, if that offers you comfort, Captain. It would be a mercy. My life if already over. When we returned, the Vree people reviled us for what we had done. There were riots. The Ventuki Conglomerate nearly fell. In order to appease the people, we were barred from landing, from returning to our homes. We have been sitting in exile out here ever since, just rotting away. None of the Vree on my fleet has been allowed to see or even communicate with their families. Many have simply ended their lives. We've just been waiting, and we had no idea what we were waiting for. We know now, Captain. We were waiting for you. To help you survive. Kill me if you must, Captain. I am so sorry, but I know that apologies cannot redress what I have done. But our actions were entirely my fault. Please allow the crews of my fleet to redeem themselves."

John stared at the Vree in stunned silence. The story was outlandish...ridiculous. But he found himself believing it. Besides, this really was their only hope. If you were dead anyway, you might as well cling to hope. He lowered the PPG. "Ah, hell, Ambassador. I'm not going to kill you. That's the best apology I've heard all day. Get us out of this, and we'll call it even. What exactly did you have in mind?"

The odd little Vree told him, and then left through that even stranger rectangle of light. John sat down in his command chair, hope blossoming once again. Finally, he turned to his First Officer. "Tell me something, Lieutenant Commander. What the hell is Yoda?"
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Alyt Vastor ground his teeth in anger. He had lost another twenty-seven ships to another one of Starkiller's ambushes. Surely the humans were out of nuclear devices now. His maneuver had worked. By splitting the fleet, he had sacrificed a third of his remaining vessels, but he had covered every possible move the humans could have made, and still had more than enough firepower to wipe them from space. The plan had worked. Not flawlessly; that was too much to hope for where Starkiller was concerned, but it had worked, and he now had the humans exactly where he wanted them.

And it didn't matter at all. He had no idea how the Vree had anticipated the humans, but they had a massive fleet blocking them from accessing the jumpgate. The humans would die within sight of their goal, and it would be the Vree who would get all of the glory. Vastor felt sick.

Duraal looked at him strangely. "Why has no one fired, Alyt? Both fleets are well within weapons range of each other, but they only continue to accelerate towards each other."

Vastor frowned. "Clearly the humans do not know that the Vree declared themselves our allies. They must be hoping the Vree fleet was in position to deal with us. The Vree weapons are far more effective at short range. They must be holding their fire until they can deal a truly devastating blow; eviscerate the human fleet with their first salvo." He watched the holographic display of the two fleets rapidly closing on each other, both still accelerating. "They will fire any moment now…" Several moments later, not a single shot had been fired. "Any moment now…"

Still, nothing.

Duraal spoke up again. "We are nearly within range of the human's rearguard. If the Vree hold off for just a bit longer, we may get to kill the heavy cruiser and the carrier."

Vastor ignored him, staring at the display. "Valen's name! Do they mean to ram?!" The two fleets interpenetrated, but their was not a single collision. As the human vessels came out the far side of the Vree fleet, they began to rearrange themselves into a single file line, and they finally began to decelerate. They clearly meant to dive directly through the jumpgate, and didn't want to be moving so fast that one of their Worker craft might accidentally stray into the pylons. That might damage the jumpgate, and strand the remaining vessels in the system.

Vastor continued to stare, in astonishment. The Vree were letting the humans get away! "Open a channel to the Vree fleet." He waited for the Warrior manning communications to signal that the channel was opened, then demanded, "Vree fleet. Just what do you think you are doing? Stop those humans!" He waited for several seconds, but there was no response. "Answer me, or you shall regret your actions!" he roared. Still there was no answer.

"The Vree fleet continues to accelerate towards us, Alyt," Vastor said in confusion. "The range is closing rapidly."

Vastor finally felt a small twinge of alarm. "Target their leading ship and destroy it," he ordered. He wasn't allowed to instigate a war, but he was certainly allowed to defend his ships and his Warriors.

Almost immediately, green beams streaked out from his ship. Not a one touched the Vree saucer. Durall glanced over at him. "The Vree craft are extremely maneuverable. We were unable to connect, Alyt."

"Compensate and fire again." This time, the beams slammed into the saucer, and it immediately erupted into a fireball.

"No change in the bearing of the Vree fleet," Duraal reported. "They are getting rather close."

"All ships, pick a target and fire!" It took a few seconds, but every one of the twenty-one frigates destroyed a Vree saucer. His own Shargoti destroyed three.

"Still no change,"Duraal stated. "Wait! They're maneuvering." The Vree saucers were extremely close now. Suddenly, every saucer reared up, exposing their ventral sides, and weapons fire streaked out and towards his own vessel. The Shargoti shook, and a distant rumbling could be heard, but otherwise the world was calm. The Vree fleet flew past, and began to slowly turn, attempting to loop back around.

"What happened? Did they miss? Did our stealth systems protect us?"

"No, Alyt." Duraal said stiffly. "They hit. Every one of our vessels has been shorn of its dorsal drive fins. Acceleration is significantly reduced. We'll never catch the humans now. Why? Why did they target our drives?"

"Because they didn't want to kill us," Vastor replied. "And because they also wanted us to know that they are fully capable of killing us." He kept a very tight rein on his anger. "Change course. We will link up with our fleet farther out in the system. Have them make their way towards us as well." That fleet could be brought in. They could maintain range, ensuring their stealth systems would keep them safe from the Vree. They could exact retribution, and wipe out that detestable Vree fleet. But, that would be an act of war, and he was not allowed to make that decision. "We are leaving the system. We cannot catch the humans, so we will pull back and await further orders. Duraal, open a channel to Shai Alyt Branmer and request a moment of his time. I will have that conversation in my quarters. There will be much to discuss. The Minbari will be back, and the Vree will regret the choices they made on this day.
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Hyperspace, Leaving Vreetan - The Olympic, Exodus Fleet - March, 2249

Deputy Tessa Holloran sat alone, waiting for her guests to arrive. There was a gentle knock at the door, followed immediately by Susan, Lyta, and Tessa coming through, without waiting for a response. They entered the small room Tessa had reserved, closing the door behind them and looking around curiously. It was a small conference room, with a table and the half dozen chairs around it being the primary furniture, save only for a small kitchenette against the back. The three ladies were dressed for a party, Lyta and Talia both showing a lot of skin. Susan's dress was far more conservative, but festive for all of that. When they saw her sitting there, in her uniform, they each looked surprised.

Talia spoke first. "Tessa, why aren't you dressed? The whole fleet is celebrating, and we need to be out there taking advantage of it."

"I didn't call you here to party," Tessa responded quietly. "We have urgent matters to discuss."

"But we still need to keep up appearances, don't we?" Lyta replied. "Girl's night out, remember? Like every other time we've all met together. You're the one who told us that we all need to start dressing more provocatively. I'd still like to know why, by the way."

Tessa sighed, standing up. "If this meeting goes well, and you all still feel like going out afterwards, then I'll change and go with you. But, I have a feeling none of you will really feel like spending time celebrating, much less celebrating with me."

Susan took a step closer and grasped her shoulder. "Tessa, whatever it is, we'll get through it. I really appreciate everything you have done to help me. Why don't you just tell us what's going on, and we'll deal with it."

"I appreciate your saying that, Susan, but you're not going to like what I have to say. None of you are."

"Well, just spit it out then," Lyta said in exasperation.

Taking a deep breath, Tessa plunged ahead. "I need you to do that deep scan on Susan."

"What?" Talia blurted. "Why? I thought you trusted her."

"Because, if we don't, then sometime very soon Susan is going to be arrested for treason. She'll be stripped of her pilot status for certain, but she may even be executed, or more likely suffer the Death of Personality."

Susan grunted and grabbed for a chair, sitting down before her wobbling legs could give out. Talia, became angry. "That's crazy!"

"I've been chasing down evidence on multiple investigations...the serial killer, the King Solomon's mines, various sabotage cases, and even a major conspiracy that the Chief asked me to investigate, and the evidence is all starting to come together, linking them all. And the evidence is pointing at Susan. I need you to perform and record a deep scan as evidence...to save her, and protect her from the worst of that."

"I thought you were going to protect her from that," Talia snapped.

"I have been, by trying to find the actual culprit. But more and more it's starting to look like that culprit is Susan. The Chief has access to my research. I've been stonewalling him, but fairly soon he's going to dig into what I've been doing. The minute he does, I'll lose my job and Susan will be arrested. Evidence of a deep scan exonerating her will be the only thing protecting her from real harm. It probably won't save her pilot status, though."

"So you're worried about your job," Talia snapped, bitterly.

"Talia, aren't you listening? I'm trying to protect Susan's life. Besides, I also have a responsibility to protect every other life in this fleet. If the evidence I am finding is correct, Susan really could be the perpetrator, and a danger to everyone. She's my friend, but I have a responsibility to ensure she's isn't actually a killer."

Lyta interrupted, latching onto something Tessa had said earlier. "You said that the serial killer case was related. How? You caught the killer. He was tried and punished already."

Tessa met her gaze. "Gunter Mansfeld was definitely guilty. However, we were only able to tie him to about half of the killings. I continued investigating after his sentence had been carried out. He had rock solid alibis for at least a third of the killings. Which means, unfortunately, that there was more than one killer. I've been able to confirm that Susan had access to the locations of about ninety percent of that third, at the times in question. She doesn't have alibis for any of the remaining ten percent. Not that I've been able to find."

"That's ridiculous, Tessa," Lyta countered. "Susan is a telepath. She wouldn't kill her own kind."

"She wasn't very happy about being discovered as a telepath, though. That's on record." Sighing again, she continued, "Look, I want to believe Susan is innocent as well. That's why we're here. To prove that she is. For ourselves and for others. This evidence is really damning, and we need to take this step to protect her. It's not just the serial killings. She had access and means to destroy the King Soloman's Mines. We've thrown tons of resources at that, and so far Susan is the only suspect, and I'm the only security officer aware of that fact. It's not well known, but we've also managed to prevent a couple of sabotage attempts. In each case, military explosive matching the kind Susan had were recovered. And then there's the conspiracy. It's starting to look like the Mars Resistance has made an alliance with the Psi-Corp."

"The Psi-Corp doesn't exist anymore," Lyta argued. "We did away with the power structure."

"Well, the Mars Resistance certainly thinks they have an alliance. I found out that much. And somebody has been pulling strings, moving a lot of telepaths around the fleet, concentrating them onto just a few ships. It'll start to be obvious to the average citizen before too much longer. I think whoever has been doing it will move before then, but I still have no idea what it is they want. I was working a couple of informants, but they were both killed trying to get some important information out to me."

"Conspiracies?" Talia sneered. "And you're tying that to Susan why exactly? Because she's a telepath? How do we know it's not normals, concentrating the telepaths to wipe us all out?"

"I'll do it," Susan said softly, but no one seemed to notice.

Talia continued to rant. "I thought you were more open-minded than that, Tessa. I can see now that you're just as..."

"I said I'll do it," Susan practically shouted. "She's right, we need to know. Talia, Lyta, I would consider it a personal favor if you would perform a deep scan on me. Please, let's just get this over with."

"Alright," Lyta said calmly. "We'll do this...for you." Talia started to protest, but Lyta grabbed her shoulder. "It will be alright," she said reassuringly, though whether the comment was meant for Talia, Susan, or herself was unclear. "And Tessa is still our friend. We do this, and then we all need a girl's night out. Agreed?" she asked, meeting Tessa's gaze.

Tessa wasn't sure if the sound which escaped her throat was a laugh or a sob, but she only said, "Agreed."

Talia and Lyta sat down next to each other across the table from Susan. They linked hands and then concentrated, digging deeply into Susan's mind. For Susan, the process was invasive, incredibly uncomfortable, and flat out painful at times. And it just went on and on. Tessa had moved to stand behind Susan, and kept feeding them things to look for, times to analyze, names, associations, and possible crimes. Each search simply increased Susan's discomfort. Finally, after more than ninety minutes, Lyta said in a tired voice, "She's clean. It wasn't her. There are some blacked out periods where I assume she was asleep or drugged. But there is simply no indication that she did any of those things. Are you recording this, Tessa?"

"I am."

"Then, for the record, Susan Ivanova is innocent of any wrongdoing. Do you concur, Talia?"

"Yes, I do. You're innocent, Susan," she said with a huge smile, receiving one in return.

"What about drug induced actions, hypnosis, or any kind of...I don't know...split personality or psychosis or something?" Tessa asked.

"Each of those things would be extremely obvious to this kind of deep scan. They're impossible to hide. There is simply no indication of anything like that. Is there anything else?"

"Just one last thing," Tessa replied. "My two informants who were killed, they were able to get me one word. Control. They indicated it was a program and a password, but I don't know what that means. See if you can find anything on that." Talia frowned, but Lyta just nodded, and returned to her task, feeding the word into Susan's mind, to look for any echos.

Susan screamed, her face a mask of pain, her hands flying up to her head, while Lyta reared back, gasping in horror. "Susan!" Talia shouted, leaping out of her seat and lunging forward across the table to check on her friend. Susan's hand darted forward, winding itself into Talia's long hair, and then pulled sharply forward. Talia's lunge was transformed into a sweeping curve, bringing her head down with dizzying speed to impact the surface of the table. The sound of the collision was shocking in the small room, and blood spurted out across the table top. Tessa started to take a step forward, but Susan was still in motion, standing and kicking backwards in one smooth movement. Her chair went skittering across the room, but it was the impact of her foot into Tessa's abdomen which drew Tessa's full attention. Pain blossomed in her midriff, and she found herself literally thrown across the room and into the wall by the power of the kick. It was a distance of only a few feet, but it still hurt like hell.

Susan had leapt onto the table top, kicking Talia's limp body out of the way. Lyta belatedly turned to run, but Susan hooked an arm around her neck and yanked her backwards, slamming her down onto the table top with her hips and legs dangling off the side. Susan planted a knee on her chest and began raining blows down onto her face. She was shouting. "You blew my cover, you bitch! I'm going to kill you! I'm going to rip your brain out of your skull and flush it with the rest of the waste!"

Tessa drew her sidearm. Susan glanced up, and the PPG simply disappeared out of Tessa's hand. She gasped in astonishment as Susan laughed, still pummelling Lyta. Tessa darted forward, sending a roundhouse punch towards Susan's head, attempting to knock her off of Lyta. Susan rolled backwards, bracing both hands onto the tabletop, and kicking out with both feet, planting them directly into Tessa's face with shocking speed. She was hurled backward into the wall once more, this time bouncing off of it and collapsing to the floor. The room was spinning, and it felt like someone was trying to drive a spike into her brain. Fragging fighter pilot reflexes! Thank God she wasn't wearing heels. She could still hear Susan pummelling Lyta. Lyta's cries were becoming disjointed and weaker.

Tessa activated the Link on her wrist. "Emergency! Officer needs assistance!" She gasped as the Link also vanished into thin air. She looked up and met Susan's gaze.

"Really, Deputy Holloran?" she said, wearing the darkest smile Tessa had ever seen. "You're not trying to break up our party, are you?" A punch came out of nowhere, sending her back to the floor. Susan was standing right over her. How had she crossed the distance without Tessa even noticing? A kick to her ribs and another to her face sent agony spiking through her.

"She's using telepathy on you," Lyta gasped weakly, trying to sit up. "She shouldn't be able to do that." She concentrated, and Tessa found herself looking at her PPG where it had been dropped on the floor just a few feet away. Apparently her Link had reappeared as well, because she could hear Garibaldi's voice shouting out of it.

"Tessa! Tessa, please respond! Hold on! We have officers en route to your location. They should be there any minute."

"Naughty, naughty, Lyta," Susan said with an evil grin. Striding over to the table, she grabbed Lyta's head and slammed it into the table three times in rapid succession. Lyta stopped moving.

Tessa's thoughts were fuzzy, clouded with pain. A trickle of blood rolled into her eyes. What should she do? Link or PPG? On the table, Susan was pressing her elbow into Lyta's throat. The sickening gurgling sound emanating from the table made Tessa gag. She's really going to do it. She's going to kill Lyta. That thought settled her course of action. Lurching forward, she dove for her PPG. She managed to wrap her hand around the butt when Susan's foot drove down. Braced by the floor on one side and her knee on the other, Tessa's forearm snapped with a sickening crack, the middle part of the arm driven all the way to the floor. Tessa clearly saw the pure white fragments of bones shear through her flesh to protrude sickeningly into the air. She screamed, until Susan's knee came up under her jaw, mercifully driving her into darkness.
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Proxima, Former Earth Alliance Space - Valen'Tha, Minbari Fleet - March, 2249

The Grey Council was once again in session. The news coming from Vreetan was particularly shocking, and no one wished to be the first to face it. So they stood there for a lengthy period of time, silently and in the dark.

Finally, Coplann strode forward, lowering his hood and standing in a pool of light. "We must face up to the matter at hand. We have been betrayed by those who claimed to be our allies, who said they sided with us. The end of human resistance was at hand, and the Vree attacked us, in much the same way the humans attacked us. This cannot be borne. Our course is clear."

Once again, it was Delenn who strode forward to stand in opposition, another pool of light appearing around her. "Yes. Our course is clear. Once again it was Minbari who initiated that attack, not the Vree."

"Would you have our people not defend themselves Delenn? It was not a Warrior Caste officer in charge. Alyt Vastor is Religious Caste."

"And I shall discuss the matter with him. But, as with the Drazi, we Minbari fired the first shots. It was the Vree who were defending themselves. Most likely doing what the Drazi were doing; playing games to slow us down, when that wouldn't have helped the humans escape at all, if we had only kept control of the situation and not rashly opened fire on another alien species."

"They declared themselves our allies, and then turned upon us, Delenn. They aided the humans. You cannot deny these facts. The Minbari cannot stand by and allow this kind of betrayal!"

"And we shall not. But, as you said, our course is clear. The decision of how to handle this situation has already been made, the precedent already set. We focus on running down the human refugee fleet, and only after that task is complete do we decide what to do with the Vree."

Coplann looked at her in astonishment. "Am I hearing you correctly Delenn? Are you suggesting we treat the Vree the same as the Drazi? How could you possibly suggest we blockade another race's territory? Where would we get the ships? Better to crush them and be done with it, so our ships are free to continue the human pursuit. I will not agree to your suggestion."

"It was not a suggestion, Satai Coplann. And you have already agreed to it." She waved her hand to the side, signalling someone, and suddenly a holographic recording of Coplann from an earlier meeting appeared before them.

The hologram spoke. "All right, Delenn. I will agree to your proposal. But, I will need you to agree to a couple of additional items. First, we begin modernization of all of the vessels in the reserve yards, to be completed in no more than ten years. Most of them have needed it for centuries. We also need to double the rate of our new construction. Agree to this and I will not oppose blockading the Drazi or any other species who oppose us." Upon uttering those final words, the hologram vanished.

The real Coplann looked thunderstruck. "But...I was not literally agreeing to…"

"Satai Coplann," Delenn cut him off sharply, "you convinced this Council to undertake a massively expensive program of simultaneously pulling thousands of ships from our reserves, modernizing our reserves, and doubling our rates of new construction. You created a situation whereby the Warrior Caste would receive a considerable power increase in the military balance of the castes, at the significant military detriment of the Worker Caste, but also placing you militarily in excess of the Religious Caste. This is an unprecedented situation since the days of Valen. Are you now telling us that you are unwilling to live up to your end of the agreement?"

Coplann looked desperate. "But, from where do we get the ships, Delenn? Much of our fleet is spread out across the coreward portion of the League. We can retrieve them, but it will take time. Even pulling ships up from the reserves takes some time. We can't reduce the Drazi blockade, and we can't reduce our home defenses, per your insistence. The nodal reaction force we had in place for exactly this situation has been decimated by the Vree and Starkiller. Every ship we throw into blockading the Vree is one less that can search the rimward portions of the League. So where, Delenn? From where do we get these ships?"

Delenn canted her head to the side in thought. "What about the ships searching the Earth Alliance? Could they not be retasked?"

"There are still human colonies unaccounted for Delenn. We are still hunting them all down."

"Those colonies are not going anywhere. The humans are sneaky, but they have not yet learned to move entire planets. Besides, you have assured us that there can be no more than one or two left out there. We can return to hunting for them when our ships return from the further reaches of League space."

Coplann nodded in surrender. "Alright Delenn, it shall be done. You do realize, of course, that this will leave the Earth Alliance territory almost entirely unsecured?"

"Territory our fleets have scoured. Territory in which we now have significant stationary assets. Territory from which any possible aid to the human fleet has been stripped. No, the humans are almost certainly heading rimward through Vree space, being supported and protected by their new allies. If our blockade is in position quickly enough, it may even catch them trying to escape."

Coplann bowed in acquiescence. "You are, of course, correct Delenn. Even Starkiller would not be mad enough to return to the Earth Alliance."
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Kapteya, Former Earth Alliance Space - Exodus Fleet - April, 2249

Captain John Sheridan stood in his ready room, just off the bridge, bathing once more in the light of an Earth Alliance star. Or rather, the light of the displayed image of that star on the wall viewscreen. If he were standing at a window, not that there were many of those on a dreadnaught, then the star would appear quite tiny from this distance, hardly appearing larger than any other star in the firmament. Once again they were hiding far out in the local Kuiper Belt. And, technically it was a star few of them had even seen, being very much on the bleeding frontier of the Earth Alliance. But by God it is an Earth Alliance star. We've been gone for months, and we won't be staying long, but it's still good to be home.

After several long moments he turned around to review the five people, two men and three women, awaiting his pleasure. The two men could not have been more different. Garibaldi was hovering darkly behind the three women, silently pulling his best bad cop routine. Franklin was pulling his best mother hen routine, hovering with concern over his three former patients, released from the med bay and into Garibaldi's custody less than an hour before.

John spent well over a minute studying the three women in question. They were standing in a rough line, each attempting, badly, to imitate an attention stance. They were each beautiful in their own right, but right now they looked like complete hell. Broken and shattered bones, lurid bruises covering their faces, and ripped flesh which had needed to be stitched back together. They'd been beaten to within an inch of their lives, and the intent had been murder. Garibaldi had stated flat out that if his officers hadn't been so close, if Susan had just a few moments more, then all three of them would have been dead.

My God, how could it have been Susan Ivanova? The one camera shot they had recovered of her after the attack had shown her sauntering calmly out of the room, mere seconds before security rounded the corner, and walking calmly away. After that she had simply vanished without a trace. There was a massive fleet wide manhunt under way, but not so much as a trace had been found to date, and the trail was growing rather cold.

John would have walked a circuit around the prisoners, for that was what they were, if they had been under spin or gravity. In zero-G the movements simply looked awkward rather than imposing, so he stayed put. It shouldn't matter anyway. He had no doubt they grasped the gravity of their error. Being released from Intensive Care and immediately arrested by none other than Michael Garibaldi had a tendency to do that. They each looked like they might collapse at any moment, so it was probably good that they were currently weightless. John couldn't tell if that state was more due to their injuries or the fear of their pending consequences. Probably a horse apiece.

"Well," he began, "you ladies have seriously fragged the pooch…" He actually saw Talia's eyeballs waver and begin to roll up in her head. Jesus, she's going to faint! "Oh, sit down, the lot of you! You're not in any trouble, and you look ridiculous, trying to stand at attention. Besides, none of you are actually proper military, though I'd be more than happy to change that fact if any of you are willing to do the work. Jesus, Michael, did you have to scare them to within an inch of their lives?"

Talia practically leaped for a chair, but both Tessa and Lyta remained frozen in place. Dr. Franklin pulled out a couple of chairs for them to sit, and then went to assist them. John noted that he went immediately to Tessa, and seemed to have eyes only for her. That's right, they're dating. He felt a brief pang for his missing Anna. Seeing as Lyta was still just standing there, he moved forward himself to assist her to a seat.

"You trying to poach my deputy, John?" Garibaldi asked with amusement.

"Don't you mean my deputy?" he responded. "You're still in the command structure and, civilian or not, so is she." After all three ladies were seated, he continued. "Alright ladies, let's dispense with formalities. None of you are being charged or penalized. You all showed incredibly bad judgment in this matter, but you're young, and Susan was your friend. You fragged the pooch big time, but so has nearly every officer in this fleet, at least once, myself included. If we were going by pre-war or even pre-exodus standards, not a one of us would still be in uniform. But we're each needed to do our part towards the survival of the species. So you won't be going anywhere. Just make better decisions next time. Understood?"

They each nodded their affirmatives, and he suspected that Lyta was crying a little, but with both of her eyes nearly swollen shut, it was awfully hard to tell. "Alright, I've read each of your reports, but I want you to go through it all with me, right from the beginning. Don't leave anything out, we've got time." He sat down with them, and the three of them shared their tale, from the moment Talia and Lyta had walked in on Susan with incriminating evidence, right up to the final attack. Every decision, every piece of incriminating evidence, every single odd occurrence was reviewed. John let Garibaldi and Franklin ask most of the questions, content to just listen.

"I've never felt anything like it," Lyta was saying. "One moment it was Susan, and nothing at all seemed wrong. A deep scan should have been able to detect anything. The next moment, it was like something dark just rose up and swallowed her."

"It had to be some kind of telepathic sleeper program," Garibaldi said.

Franklin shook his head. "I just don't know how that would even be possible in the human brain."

"Well something happened! She's got too much history for her to have been faking things all along."

"She wasn't faking," Lyta insisted. "There was a literal mental transition. Something overtook and subsumed her personality."

"Then we need to find her, and save her from whatever this is," Tessa insisted.

"Bester's got to be involved!" Garibaldi insisted. "Only a Psi-cop could pull this off."

Sheridan finally cut in. "He's a former Psi-cop, and a valued fighter pilot and leader within this fleet. You have no evidence of any wrongdoing."

"So we just let him go? Pretend none of this ever happened?" Garibaldi asked with disgust.

"No, you do your job. You investigate. But you do so legally and respectfully. There are plenty of other Psi-cops in this fleet for potential suspects, as well as this conspiracy you've been working on. Commander Bester may not be tied to them at all. It's not like he has a ton of spare time for plotting. And your top priority is finding Susan Ivanova. I'm not sure what kind of telepathic spell she's under, but we don't leave our people behind. She's in trouble and in need of rescue. Find her, and then we figure out how to deprogram her."

"I'm sorry, Captain," Lyta said insistently, "but I don't think you understand what I was saying. Susan hasn't been brainwashed or possessed or even reprogrammed. An alternate personality was put into her head, somehow hiding in the background. When it rose up, it didn't imprison or incapacitate her personality, her 'self.' From what I could feel, Captain, that personality was completely wiped away. I'm so sorry, but the woman we know as Susan Ivanova...she's dead. This thing killed her. You're hunting someone else wearing Susan's body."