Interlude 1
Mars
"Come on! Come on!"
Legs pumping, lungs burning, she ran towards the figure of her pressure suited colleague. He was waving frantically for her to hurry, from where his torso emerged from a hole in the ground. She dove, body slicing several meters through the light Martian gravity. He deftly grabbed her out of the air, and tossed her down into the hole. Quickly grabbing ahold of the nearby cover, layered in Martian soil to make it all but invisible from a distance, particularly from orbit, he rapidly pulled it into place above them. Mere moments later, a distant spec of light crested the horizon...a Minbari warship patrolling the orbitals.
She looked around, stepping down where the back of the hole opened out into a short corridor, and then into a small room; a bunker. It was a tiny space for the almost two dozen people huddling therein. The gear and supplies they had brought with them, and which had been stocked here previously, cramped it passed the point of claustrophobia. But, if they had stayed on the surface to be seen by the Minbari, they might as well have simply shot themselves.
Two dozen people. Such a tiny number for what was quite possibly all that remained of the human race. One of them was waving to her. "Anna. Thank heavens you made it!"
"It's good to see you too, Dr. Chang," she replied fondly, before he forcefully pulled her into a hug. That would have been unthinkable just a few months back, when he had been the lead on their archaeological expedition. So much had changed since then.
They had all had seats in the exodus fleet. Escaping the Minbari was almost certainly a forlorn hope, but they had to at least try. And she would have been able to spend whatever time they had left to them with John. But, it had also seemed like a no brainer to do some real work while they waited for the balloon to go up. After all, that was what had earned most of the IPX folks their spots with the fleet in the first place. When Dr. Chang had announced he was organizing a small expedition on the Martian surface, she and many others had jumped at the chance. It seemed foolish now.
It had been their plan to work while they could, and to pull out and return to the fleet at the first sign of enemy action. They should have foreseen how rapidly everything would devolve into chaos. How quickly transportation and communication systems would become overloaded and break down. Despite their best efforts to get to the spaceport, and then to the fleet, they had come within sight of the Mars colony just in time to see it carved up like overripe fruit.
That had just been the start of their long nightmare. She had cheered with everyone else when the giant flash in the sky had swept it clean of the Minbari monsters. It was a sure sign that someone was fighting back, and she knew without a doubt that someone was John Sheridan. But that had been the last truly hopeful thing that had happened to them. The ensuing months had been a nightmare slog of survival, movement, and resistance.
They had first made their way into the city. They hadn't truly been thinking at that point, more acting out of shock than any half formed thoughts of offering aide to the survivors of the dome rupture. They had found a fair number anyway. More than they could possibly help. People who had made it into suits in time, or been moving in or out of one of the airlocks. People who had gotten to some of the few shelters which had survived the bombardment, or were lucky enough to be in vehicles which were both pressure sealed and hadn't been breached in the attack.
Their efforts were disjointed and uncoordinated, but they did their best. They pulled people from rubble, found suits to get to those trapped in leaking bunkers or vehicles, gathered supplies. Their numbers swelled, and within a Martian day the population of their little group had swelled into the hundreds, perhaps even over a thousand.
And then the Minbari had returned, and in their anger over their lost ships they had bombarded the city all over again. The fledgling community of survivors had shattered like glass, those that survived this new rain of death scattering to the winds. Their little science cadre had managed to stay together, even keep a few of the rescued Marsies around them, but they had their first casualties in that attack. Fully a quarter of their number never left Mars Dome One.
The days that followed were a blur. Spreading out into the countryside. A steady stream of Marsies joining and then leaving them. Searching, always searching for food, water, air. Shelter. Never finding enough of any of it. Finding death instead. Death from relying on overtaxed and unmaintained infrastructure. Death from oxygen deprivation. Death from food or water poisoning. Death from Marsies coming to take what little they had.
And then the Minbari had put boots on the ground, and things got worse. Their actions were bizarre and indecipherable. Sometimes it seemed as though they were trying to round up any human survivors, to ship them elsewhere. Sometimes they seemed to be simply trying to find and eradicate any remaining humans, like vermin to be cleansed. And sometimes it seemed as though they were moving in, taking over.
Anna had been foraging in an outlying settlement, built around an old but still functional tracking station, when a Minbari shuttle had come in and landed. Terrified, she had maintained enough presence of mind to hide herself next to a leaky reactor in order to mask her biosigns. It was hard to tell one Minbari from another, particularly in space suits. But, while the first several Minbari to emerge were clearly heavily armed soldiers, she would have sworn that the dozen or so who followed were civilians. They were certainly unarmed, and lacked that bloodthirsty air she picked up from the soldiers.
Over the next several hours she watched, terrified and fascinated in equal measure, as the Minbari began to tidy up the compound. They cleared rubble and debris, even making a few repairs. They began to unload equipment, the nature of which Anna could not decipher. They inspected and cleared several of the buildings, and even raised some premanufactured structures. Anna was certain she would be discovered at any moment, but apparently working on the reactor was not on today's schedule. The Minbari had eventually all climbed back into their shuttle and flown away.
Anna's oxygen had been running low by that point, and the relief she had felt was tempered with an ongoing concern for her continued survival. She burned to inspect the Minbari gear, but feared this might set off an alarm and cause the Minbari to return. Instead, she ran back to the hidden camp her colleagues had set up, barely making it before her oxygen gave out. That had been her first close up encounter with the Minbari. It would not be her last.
They had become almost common over the next several weeks. More and more, as their little group approached the various Martian settlements and outposts in search of supplies, they found Minbari there and were forced to turn away. Soon, running out of nearly everything, they became desperate enough to try something foolish. They had planned to raid a Minbari camp, and steal the supplies out from under them. They had been carefully sneaking up to their chosen outpost, which contained a single shuttle and a bare handful of Minbari. Approaching to within a couple of hundred meters, they were shocked when the shuttle exploded. Or, rather, the ground under the shuttle had exploded, taking the spacecraft and its attendant Minbari with it. The explosion was powerful enough that they felt it through the ground, though the thin Martian atmosphere didn't carry any real power to them.
For a while they just sat, watching in disbelief. But they simply didn't have the water or the air to make it to another site. They had no choice but to approach, and hope that some supplies from the site had survived the explosion. They had been rooting through still smoldering debris when a ring of heavily armed figures had sprung up from the sand, surrounding them and cutting off any escape. The troops were grubby, clearly having seen better days, but they were human and a welcome sight.
Both groups had been operating under the strictest radio silence, but there had been no mistaking the hand signals instructing them to follow, nor the guns enforcing that demand. They had been led across the Martian plain, frequently taking cover from what she would only later learn was observation by orbiting Minbari warships. Throughout the days that followed, they had travelled at a gruelling pace. Many of the scientists and civilians had difficulty keeping up, after so long with limited rations. Frequent prodding from weapons barrels had kept them motivated though.
Anna had spent a great deal of time studying local maps, in search of potential resources. She also had a very good sense of direction. So she was quite aware that there was absolutely nothing in the direction they were marching. At least, not for the next thousand kilometers or so. Which was why she was so surprised when one of the soldiers had stopped and pulled aside a sand covered tarp, revealing a narrow tunnel burrowing down into the ground. Her group was marched down the tunnel and, after several dozen yards of steep descent, through a pressure door and into a large airlock.
The apparent leader of the armed troops had gestured for them all to remove their pressure suits. Despite the potential dangers of the situation, she was more than glad to do so. The first thing to hit her as she removed her helmet was the smell. The smell of oft recycled and poorly scrubbed air. The smell of odious and unwashed Marsies. Both smelled sweet to her. Without a word, the leader of the Marsies had gestured for them to follow him and his men, through the far hatch and into a surprisingly large bunker. And that was how Anna and her party had joined the Mars Resistance.
Not that they had been welcomed in with open arms. At least, not at first. Quite a few of the members of the resistance had been all for kicking the "dirty Earthers" back onto the surface, without their pressure suits. Fortunately, the leadership had been far more practical than that. By that point, there was no real enemy but the Minbari, and the enemy of my enemy is most certainly my friend, if not my brother. And so her people, Earther and Marsie, civilian and scientist, had joined up with the only game in town.
Anna had spent the next several weeks learning to be a guerrilla. Learning to build bombs and emplace them. Learning to maintain and fire weapons. Learning to tell the difference between Minbari troops and Minbari civilians, and how to kill the latter and run from the former. Learning basic hand to hand combat techniques, though those were far more useful against overly amorous Resistance members than they would ever be against the Minbari. Most of all, learning the ins and outs of the Mars Resistance. They had a surprising number of hidden bases and bunkers, weapon and supply caches, and even some aircraft and other vehicles, all scattered across the near surface of Mars. Anna wasn't naive. She knew exactly why all of those facilities and supplies had been emplaced. Whom they were designed to fight and kill. She chose just to be happy they were available for fighting and killing the Minbari.
And then their training was complete, and they joined the other Resistance members scattered across the surface, doing their best to return a little pain to the enemy. And doing it well. Anna specialized in bombs. She was personally responsible for blowing up a pair of Minbari shuttles, and killing dozens of their soldiers, and perhaps hundreds of their civilians. For a few glorious weeks, they were the scourge of those Minbari foolish enough to try to inhabit the surface of their planet.
And then the Minbari officially took notice of them, actually treating them as a threat. They all knew it was coming. They all thought they were prepared. And not a one of them failed to be stunned by the ferocity of it when it came. A dozen "hidden" bases were burned from orbit in the first minute. Every Minbari garrison on the surface quadrupled in size, and thousands of troops came down to the surface, scouring the areas in which the Resistance had been operating. They had brought along better scanning equipment, and many previously effective hiding techniques became utterly worthless. One after another, resistance cells began to go dark.
The order had gone out: retreat and evade. Stay alive to fight another day. It was far easier said than done. The days and weeks which followed were a nightmare struggle to survive and escape. It was somewhat reminiscent of the days right after the fall of Mars Dome One, but far, far worse. The Minbari were everywhere. Anna and a few of her compatriots made one narrow escape after another, not by virtue of being good enough or smart enough to escape. No, simply by virtue of being lucky enough, again and again, to be among the few survivors of the Minbari's lightning fast attacks. They seemed to be more interested in eliminating as many positions and people as rapidly as possible than in ensuring any given attack killed every human in the area. After all, if they removed enough of the organization and infrastructure from the Resistance, then Mars itself would exterminate them.
All around them they saw the signs of the Resistance dieing. They made their way to safer ground as rapidly as possible, doing their best to remain covert. But during that trek their party was whittled away. The Resistance members accompanying them. The civilians they had rescued, or who had joined up with them during the resistance. The original members of the scientific expedition. Their numbers dwindled so fast that Anna couldn't keep track of the names or faces. By the time they got out of the large area on which the Minbari were focusing, there were barely two dozen of them left. They saw no signs of other parties having escaped the Minbari operation. And they needed to keep moving.
They might be beyond the focus of the Minbari extermination effort, but they were far from safe. Minbari ships frequently crested the heavens in their various orbits. To be seen by one of them was tantamount to death. And the hidden Resistance bunkers and caches were far fewer and farther between way out here. And entirely unmanned as well. They were on their own. And now, here they were.
Returning her attention to Dr. Chang, she asked, "Do we have a plan?"
He waved her over to a dimly lit table at the far end of the crowded room. He'd spread out the map they had received from the Resistance across it's top. "We're here," he said, gesturing to a tiny point on the map. "The largest bunker in this area is over two hundred klicks away. But records indicate it is very well stocked, in both gear and supplies. With just a couple dozen of us, we should be able to survive on those supplies for at least a couple of years. I'm hoping we can use the materials there to make the facility self sustaining. It's a longshot, I know, but we have some pretty smart folks with us."
"And then what?" she asked. "The last remnants of the human race live like mice in the Minbari's cupboard? In perpetuity?"
"We do, anyway, unless you have a better plan?" When she sighed and shook her head he continued, "But perhaps we aren't the last of the human race. Your boy John may still be out there with that fleet of his. Perhaps some day their descendants will come and rescue ours."
Anna knew that the words were meant to be reassuring, but she found them incredibly depressing instead. She had almost as little hope for John as she did for herself. She tamped down those feelings, and instead asked, "Alright, how do we get there. That's a long walk. If those orbital patrols see us, we're done for."
"Agreed." He traced his finger from their current position to a line of low hills. It looked deceptively close on the map. "If we push very hard, we should be able to make it to these hills in less than eight hours. The Resistance noted several caves in the area, so we make for the nearest one. The Resistance never explored it, so no supplies or facilities of any kind. For all we know, we'll all be huddling in a small depression in the hillside, but it should at least cover us while the Minbari pass overhead."
"Eight hours is a hell of a long time. Are there even any openings that large in their coverage?"
"Assuming they maintain their current patterns? Not for another five days. That's good, actually. We've got plenty of food, water, and air here for that duration. We all need to rest and fatten up a bit. Rebuild our energy reserves. We'll need them for the trek. We'll be spreading out, same as before, to ensure an accident or a Minbari attack gives at least a few of us a chance to escape. Of course, that'll make the time frame that much tighter."
Impossibly tight, most likely. She could read the map. Even with rest and recuperation, trying to cover that distance in eight hours would burn them. They'd be dropping with fatigue well before they got there, and they couldn't afford any stragglers. But there was no room for doubt anymore. "We can do it," she assured with well feigned confidence.
She had been right. They had rested and eaten like kings for five days, healing and preparing for the trek. And it hadn't been enough. They were most of the way there, perhaps a few of them had already reached the cave, but they were all ready to drop. The eight hours were almost up, and Anna could barely pick up one foot to set in front of the other. She was bringing up the rear, and was already doing her best to assist the pair of Marsie civilians, a married couple in their middle years, who had been in front of her. They had slowed to a crawl, and even in her exhausted state she would have passed them. But, if the Minbari saw the pair, then they would almost certainly be able to snap up the entire party. So, despite her exhaustion, she found herself propping up the pair, half dragging them forward. She just wanted to collapse, and they fell farther behind schedule, until finally all three of them dropped to their knees.
And then a tall figure was looming over her. She recognized her friend and colleague, but had no breath with which to greet him. Unceremoniously he scooped up the female Marsie, tossing her over one shoulder, then took a firm grip on the webbing of her husband's suit, and practically hauled him to his feet. Then the bastard began to jog forward.
He looked over his shoulder at her, and apparently he had taken the chance of setting his radio to minimum power, because she heard him when he said to her, "Move your fat ass, Dr. Keller."
Well, she couldn't let that go, so she climbed exhaustedly to her feet, and made after him at her best speed. They made it to the cave just in time, and from under cover she watched as the lights of a Minbari orbital patrol slowly climbed its way across the sky.
The two Marsies had moved off deeper into the cave, but her friend was waiting for her. She stepped deeper into the cave, and he unrolled a metal screen across the opening. It acted as a Faraday cage, allowing them to use their radios safely; at least at low power. When he finished, she turned to him and said, "Fat ass moved, Dr. Morden."
He chuckled, and seemed about to say more, when they received a broadcast from Dr. Chang, deeper in the cave. "Dr. Morden! Dr. Keller! Get down here! You're never going to believe what we've found."
"You go," she said to Morden. "I want to keep an eye on those Minbari ships for a bit. I'm getting a bad feeling, for some reason." He nodded silently and headed into the cave. She continued to watch the lights from the Minbari patrol. She'd seen a thousand of them before, but for some reason the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck were standing straight up.
Her irrational fear had only grown more acute when, a few minutes later, the screaming started. Anna didn't hesitate. She turned and sprinted deeper into the cave. Fear had grown into terror, but these people were almost certainly the last humans she would ever know. Whatever happened, she intended to stand or fall together with them.
The Minbari patrol, a trio of Tinashi, were almost directly overhead when the awakened Shadow Vessel shrugged off the hillside under which it had slumbered for a thousand years. Spinning upwards, it fired its Molecular Slicer, carving easily through all three of the Minbari vessels. They died before even realizing the danger, much less being able to report it. Then the ancient vessel transitioned to hyperspace in a shimmer which shook the now deserted landscape.
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Quadrant 24, Narn Space
G'Kar sat nervously aboard the bridge of the Chad'rasha Narn, watching the Minbari Cruiser as it sat motionless in space while they slowly approached. The Cruiser had popped out of hyperspace a few hours ago, and then an Alyt had commed the fleet base, demanding that he come aboard for consultation. The pure effrontery of these people, he seethed to himself, summoning me as though we were not in the heart of a Narn system. Demanding that Icome to them. To make matters worse, the Minbari had come in well out system, forcing G'Kar to find a ship and spend nearly a day travelling to them.
Of course, that meant G'Kar had been able to use the Chad'rasha Narn, a Bin'Tak class Dreadnought, easily the mightiest ships in the Narn fleet. It lent him confidence as they performed the final approach to the Minbari vessel. He would need that confidence. If he was being honest with himself, he knew that he was far more nervous than irritated. Not that he would ever let the Minbari know that, of course. He did miss the presence of his uncle G'Sten though. The Warleader had been away from his flagship, consulting with the Admiralty on the homeworld. There had been no time to summon him.
G'kar reflected that the rush was also fortunate in at least one way. There had been no time to assemble an escort fleet. The last time this ship had come face to face with the Minbari, they had felt free to destroy the escorts, a pair of G'Quan class cruisers, to prove a point to him. They would be far less likely to fire on G'Kar's own ship to try to make a political point. At least, that was his hope.
"Receiving a message from the Minbari," advised the communications officer, a young female Lieutenant whose name he did not know. "Ambassador G'Kar...they instruct you to come aboard."
This news met with hisses of displeasure from most of the bridge crew, but Captain Na'Ston turned to him professionally and merely asked, "May I suggest you take an armed escort, Ambassador?"
"No, but thank you, Captain. We don't know how the Minbari would react to that. I will pilot a shuttle over myself. While I am gone, be on your guard, but be polite should the Minbari request anything of you. I will try not to be too long."
The Captain simply bowed shallowly in respect and returned to his duties. G'Kar turned and left the bridge, making his way to the shuttle bay. Since the incident with the Minbari several months ago, he had stationed himself aboard the Chad'rasha Narn so as to be able to rapidly respond to further Minbari provocation with a dual show of force and diplomacy. He had become quite familiar with the vessel, and despite the distance it did not take him long to reach his personal shuttle. Climbing in, he performed pre-flight checks with practiced ease, distracting himself from his concerns over the upcoming meeting.
Once completed, G'Kar commed for and received permission to launch, then did so and transited the roughly twenty kilometers between the Narn and Minbari warships. He did not need to request permission to board the Minbari vessel. By the time he had come within three kilometers of it, a tractor beam had locked onto his vessel, rudely taking control away from him and dragging his little shuttle into an open hangar.
Upon being deposited onto the hangar deck, he habitually checked the external sensors to validate the presence of a breathable atmosphere. He need not have, given he had already made eye contact with a pair of robed Minbari, breathing normally, walking up to stand in front of his shuttle. Their easy stride proved the presence of the artificial gravity his bones were telling him was present. The Narn had yet to master that technology. Perhaps at some point he could convince the Minbari to share it with them. They certainly owed the Narn after their unwarranted aggression.
G'Kar opened the hatch and exited his shuttle. He greeted the pair of Minbari with a shallow bow. "Good eating to you, my friends."
The Minbari said not a word, merely returning slight bows of their own, then waving him to follow as they turned and led him off of the hangar deck. G'Kar became somewhat concerned when a trio of Minbari warriors fell into step behind him. Perhaps he should have brought an escort. Well, at least the Minbari troops appeared to be unarmed. Hopefully that was a good sign.
They walked silently through the massive vessel for several minutes, ignoring all of G'Kar's attempts at conversation. Finally they opened the door to a small room and waved for G'Kar to enter. A table loaded with food and drink was set up along one wall, but the room otherwise bore the esthetic of someone's personal quarters.
The pair of Minbari turned to leave, and G'Kar called out to them, "When will someone be meeting me?" They gave no response, merely closing the door behind them. He did, however, notice the Warriors taking up position on the other side, preventing him from wandering off. "I guess I shall wait here then," he muttered to himself.
The wait was less than fifteen minutes, but his nerves made it feel much longer. The slight tremor which rippled through the room after several minutes of waiting simply put him further on edge. Finally, the door opened and a young Minbari female entered, dressed in robes very similar to the previous two, bowing slightly to him.
G'Kar felt it was time for him to assert some dominance by showing a bit of temper. "It's about time," he snapped. "Do you know how long I have been waiting? My time is not to be wasted. I demand to speak with whomever is in charge!"
"My name is Delenn…" she began, but he cut her off viciously.
"I do not care who you are," he snapped. Her eyes widened, and he chastised himself. Perhaps he had gone too far. It wasn't her fault her masters were toying with him. Taking a breath, he began again. "Young woman….Delenn, was it? Delenn, you are a lovely creature, and in any other circumstance I would be delighted to get to know you better. Perhaps much better. But, for now, I am afraid I must insist that you take me to someone...of importance."
She gave another shallow bow, which he took as a good sign, until she began to speak. "My name is Delenn," she repeated, "Ambassador for the Minbari. You have been summoned so that I may advise you of the events which are about to transpire."
G'Kar tried not to show his surprise. This waif had been appointed Ambassador? What were the Minbari thinking? And she was here to tell him what was about to happen? He supposed that could be innocent, but the phrasing certainly got his hackles up. Still, he bit back a retort and simply responded, "Please, illuminate me."
The girl began to pace. She was clearly troubled by what she had to say, but she still said it confidently and without hesitation. "You have, I'm certain, been following our war with the humans." G'Kar nodded, allowing her to continue. "You may not have heard that the war has finally ended. The last system has been subdued, the last extant fleet eliminated. The human threat is no more."
She paused, looking directly at G'Kar to confirm he understood. He gave another small nod, but otherwise said nothing. "During the war we chose to focus exclusively on the humans. However, there were actions by other species...assaults upon the Minbari...to which we must respond. The time for that response has come. Those who dared to challenge the Minbari must learn the error of their ways.
G'Kar chuckled. "Yes, I had heard that the Drazi gave you quite the drubbing. And something about the Vree as well, though I don't know as much about that as I would like. Would you launch another war so soon after the last? All over a species simply defending their own system? Against the Drazi or the Vree? Even you people could not be so foolish as to go to war with two races at once. At least I assume so, since you waited to finish off the humans before taking this step."
The girl's expression never wavered, despite his barbed comments. She merely waited for him to finish. "No, we will not be going to war. Ask the humans, or the Garmak, or the Wen'dan Horde what it means to fight a war with the Minbari. If you can find any. No, we have decided that the actions of the Vree and the Drazi were not without honor. They aided the humans by fighting Minbari. However, they both had strong connections to the humans, and only aided them and fought us within their own territory. However, their attacks upon us used methods we deem to be dishonorable. So while those races have not earned the annihilation that would come in a war with the Minbari, they must be taught the error of their ways. They must learn that there are...consequences."
G'Kar became distinctly uncomfortable with where this conversation was heading. "What sort of consequences?" he asked, red eyes narrowing.
"Their warships and spaceborne military assets will be eliminated to the last. Purely nonmilitary facilities in space and all planet borne assets shall be left alone. Unless, that is, those assets participate in resisting us. Surface installations, military or otherwise, which attempt to attack or otherwise interfere with the Minbari will also be destroyed. As will any nonmilitary space structures or vehicles which act against us."
G'Kar attempted to hide his disquiet. "They will resist you. You cannot expect the Drazi, or even the Vree, to just let you destroy their military."
"We do not. We anticipate and accept that they will fight back. Our Warriors welcome it. And, so long as they fight honorably, only their Warriors shall suffer. We will leave their cities and infrastructure intact so that they can rebuild, having learned the lesson we strive to teach them."
G'Kar mentally shook himself, doing his best to shrug off the unease which possessed him and focus on diplomatic niceties. He needed to step very carefully with this Delenn. Straightening, he gave a slight bow and offered her his best smile. "Well, I certainly thank you for the notification, Ambassador Delenn. I shall ensure that my government is notified, and that our civilians are withdrawn from Vree and Drazi space. We will certainly get out of your way until the...hostilities…have ended."
"I did not call you here to warn your government to 'get out of the way,' G'Kar," Delenn said, her expression still unchanging. His blood ran cold at her next words. "You were summoned so that I might explain the rules of the punishment the Minbari are about to deliver, and so that you might understand why the Narn Regime is being included in this punishment."
"What?!" he shouted. "That's preposterous. We didn't attack you. It was one of your ships which brutally destroyed a pair of G'Quan class cruisers. I know. I was there."
"An indiscretion for which we have apologized. However, like both the Vree and the Drazi, the Narn have aided the humans in fighting us."
"How? Because they passed through our space? We didn't know! The humans are very sneaky. Will you attack every species whose territory Sheridan led his fleet through? I believe that is a very long list."
"The assistance the Narn gave was intentional, Ambassador G'Kar," she said flatly.
"Ahh," he said, understanding dawning, "you have been speaking with the Centauri. I urge you to ignore everything they say. They lie. They are very good at it. It is all they are good for."
"And is this one of their lies, G'Kar?" she asked, reaching into a pocket and retrieving some sort of print out, which she handed to him. G'Kar couldn't tell what the page was made of, feeling different than paper, plastic, leather or even cloth. But it was the content of the page which made G'Kar want to scream in horror. He had seen them before. It was the schematics and technical information for a Narn Heavy X-Ray laser cannon. He had personally delivered those schematics into the hands of Earth Force.
He maintained tight control over his features, brutally beating down his fears. "Yes, it must be. This is clearly a Centauri Heavy X-Ray Laser. I'm not sure why you would think it comes from the Narn. Clearly, the Centauri have been assisting the humans. But I do understand the confusion. The Narn did copy this weapon and its technology from the Centauri. We got it when we broke free from Centauri imperialism, and threw them off of our world."
Delenn nodded. "Yes, you did take much of your technology from the Centauri. But you were not able to copy it all perfectly, were you? Some of the most advanced technologies of the Centauri were beyond your grasp. You were forced to devise work arounds. The capacitor technology and power runs of Narn vessels are significantly less efficient than their Centauri counterparts. This causes them to be both bigger, and to produce a slightly different power signature. Something which is easily detectable to Minbari sensors.
"Did you think the Minbari did nothing but rampage through Earth Alliance space, destroying everything? I assure you, we put forth the effort to capture some of their records and documents, including those schematics. We took the time to build the weapon, as well as test it, and compare the results to our sensor reading of both Narn and Centauri ships. Tell me G'Kar, whose weapons do you think it was a perfect match for?"
G'Kar was desperate, "Centauri lies and intrigue. They must have given the humans schematics that would specifically incriminate the Narn!"
"Because they are liars?"
"Yes."
"Because they arevery good liars?"
"Yes!"
"You are correct, G'Kar," she said, and his hopes flared. And then she continued, "the Centauri must be very good liars indeed, becauseI certainly believe the tale this document offers. As I said earlier G'Kar, you were summoned so that I might explain the reason and the rules of the punishment which is about to befall the Narn, not so that you could argue its merits. I have completed my task. My decision stands. Thank you for coming, ambassador."
She turned and began walking away, but this was too much for G'Kar. "AHHH!" he screamed in frustration. "I should have known better than to waste my breath," he shouted at her. "You're even worse than the Centauri. They dream of conquest, but you...you approached a first contact situation with gun ports opened, and your sensors blazing so brightly that primitive Earther sensors couldn't tell whether or not you weapons were powered. Blazing so brightly it even prevented them from fleeing into hyperspace. And when they dared to fire at you, did you bother to question your own culpability? When they attempted over and over again to surrender, or to offer up in sacrifice the officer responsible for the act, did you even consider mercy? Were you satisfied with completely and unequivocally defeating them? NO! You brought the Earth Alliance to its knees, and ground it into the dust. Why?" he ended in a near hiss.
Upon hearing his tirade, Delenn had hunched her shoulders slightly, as though to brace against a blow, but she never broke eye contact with him. "We had our reasons," she responded with quiet intensity. Then turning away from him, she began to raise her hand to a nearby wall.
G'Kar was uninterested in her actions, and turned away, continuing his rant. "On Narn we heard that the decision to go to war, to destroy the Earth Alliance completely and without mercy, came from your...holy men. A secret group called the Grey Council. Weak, frightened old fools with no vision or mercy. And now you…" he spat, spinning back around. And then he sputtered off, gasping for breath. He distractedly noticed that Delenn was approaching him, left hand raised and outstretched. And on her finger was a ring which had not been there before. Bulky, red and crystalline, it immediately drew his full attention. He barely notice the cabinet behind her, previously concealed but now standing open. Within the cabinet were nearly two dozen additional rings in varying colors; a circle of vertical rods bearing them in place of the fingers upon which they might eventually rest. No, what really drew his attention was the massive force, pushing inward on his chest, his entire body. Squeezing him in place; making it nearly impossible for him to breath. He stumbled back a few steps.
In an only mildly strained voice, Delenn stated, "You are being held by a force of two Minbari gravities. You will swear, here and now, that you will never again mention the Grey Council in my presence." When he grimaced, about to speak, the force suddenly increased. "Three gravities," she noted, as he grabbed at his chest, still struggling to take a breath. "Six would crush your ribs to jelly, and explode your heart. Four gravities." Pressing his hand to his chest, G'Kar struggled against the invisible force for several long moments. "Five," she spat.
"Alright," he squeaked out, the noise barely discernible.
The pressure disappeared almost immediately as Delenn lowered her hand. "I suggest you leave now."
"Oh, Delenn," G'Kar gasped, attempting to collect himself. "Oh, Delenn. You had a chance for mercy, and you threw it away. Whatever happens now," he panted, "let it be on your own head." He turned, beginning to stumble out of the room.
"I have been advised that your shuttle has an interstellar communications unit," Delenn called out to his turned back. "I suggest you use it to contact your government and advise them of the situation. They will need to act soon if they are going to keep your nonmilitary and planetside assets out of the conflict, and a vessel that small will take days just to reach the local jumpgate."
He turned back, looking at her in confusion. "The Chad'rasha Narn will take less than a day to reach our fleet base."
"But you won't be taking it," she corrected him. "We destroyed your dreadnought several minutes ago. You may have felt the weapons fire. For that matter, by the time you launch your shuttle, the assault on your fleet base will likely have begun. You should get to watch the whole thing. Oh, while I am thinking of it, do not bother playing games with your beacons as the humans did. While we were chasing down the humans, we took the time to lay down our own, separate beacon chains throughout local space. There is no place in Vree, Drazi, or Narn space which is not open to us."
Now it was Delenn who turned to leave, but G'Kar paid her no mind. Realizing what was about to befall his government and his people, he dropped to his knees and howled at the ceiling. Moments later, a pair of Minbari Warriors entered the room, picking up G'Kar and dragging him back to his shuttle. They had barely closed his hatch before the tractor beam was picking up his small vessel and tossing him out into space, amidst the scattered and drifting wreckage of the once mighty Chad'rasha Narn. Bare moments later, the Minbari cruiser tore open a hole in space, taking its leave through the spinning reddish vortex. Just a few seconds after that, his long range comms and sensors began picking up the telltale signs of the Minbari assault on the fleet base. Delenn was true to her word. He got to watch the whole thing.
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The Refugee Fleet
Man, I love the night shift, the young officer thought to himself as he wandered the halls of the slumbering warship. Of course, no ship was ever truly asleep. Crew duties like conning and maintenance continued day in and day out. But, at this hour, the lights were dimmed, and the bulk of the crew would be racked out.
He slowed his steps a bit. Lieutenant Kevin Riley was a dutiful officer, but he didn't want to show up early. That always made shift change a little bit awkward. Still, it would be just a few more minutes now, and he would get to be the man. He'd be stepping into the saddle and grabbing the reins of the flagship of the fleet, with firepower that boggled his imagination. Theoretically, while the Old Man was sleeping and he was in charge, he'd even have authority over the other ships of the fleet, which had all synchronized their 'nighttime' hours. It was a godlike feeling, and he simply couldn't get enough of it.
Right on time, he strolled in and assumed command, wandering amongst the duty stations, getting a feel for how things were going this evening. He couldn't help but smile. He loved the night shift. Even better, these days the primary stressor of the job, the worry that you might end up being in charge of the end of the human race, seemed to have vanished. There had been no sign of enemy pursuit or action for weeks. It was really starting to look like they had successfully escaped.
Relaxing into the duty shift, he began to do the requisite paperwork. Hell, he even loved paperwork. Most officers hated it, but it just made him feel even more in command. He peacefully spent the next couple of hours reviewing and filing reports about the water reclamation facilities and requisitions of janitorial supplies. Far and away the biggest issue on the shift reports was the status of the ongoing work on the drive. Given the apparent lack of pursuit, they had taken the opportunity to pull the jump drive offline for some badly needed maintenance. It was a risk, but a necessary one, given the mounting stresses and wear that had been put on that drive. Of course, work on such a crucial system was top priority, and repair crews would be working twenty four-seven until it was back online.
"Contact!" The call rang out across the room, cutting off all conversation with the efficiency of a razor.
Shocked, Riley looked up at the display, and its looming designation of an unknown target directly ahead of them.
Impossible. There's no way the enemy could have gotten in front of us. Not and kept us unaware they were out there. Shaking himself out of the surreal feeling which had overcome him, he called out in a crisp, clear voice. "Take it easy people. Let's not get spooked over a possible sensor ghost. What do we know?"
Ensign Randi Janica, standing watch as Tactical Officer, a young woman whom he had always found attractive, responded professionally. "Unidentified contact, Sir. Bearing…" she paused as the screens updated. "Correction two contacts…" A pause. "No, five." She gasped as contacts, still designated as unknown, began popping up like raindrops across the forward vectors. Stunned, she continued to report, although with the soft voice she now used, it seemed to be an internal conversation with herself, rather than a vital communication with a superior officer. "There's dozens of them." She squeaked, her breathing accelerating. "Hu...hundreds. Varying sizes, I think."
Riley rocked backwards, hunching up as though gut punched. Impossible, he thought numbly. There's no way a pursuit force that large could have gotten this close without us getting some warning from our long range patrols, much less in front of us. This can't be happening. And then the screens swarmed with fresh contacts; appearing as though spat out and moving rapidly towards the fleet.
"Over a hundred new contacts," Janica said, her fear obvious in both voice and eyes.
He stared numbly at the screens for a bare moment. "I know a fighter launch when I see one," he whispered to himself. He wanted to flee, but the jump drive was down, and over a dozen ships in the fleet were in the same condition. Lack of enemy activity had lured them into a false sense of security. With that many enemy ships...they were doomed. But, he was an officer with a duty to perform, and that duty was clear. He would do his duty.
Grabbing the nearest handset, he raised it to his mouth, the cord banging repeatedly against his forearm, and keyed the intercom for a shipwide broadcast. "Action Stations, Action Stations. Set Condition One throughout the ship. This is not a drill. Repeat, Action Stations, Action Stations. Set Condition One throughout the ship. This is not a drill. Launch the alert squadron." He paused for a moment, then continued. "Admiral Adama to the CIC."
Dropping the handset back into its cradle as the alarms began their warbling buzz, he gave the DRADIS one more baleful glance. Gods, I hate the night shift. Finally, no longer able to control himself, he slammed both fists down onto the plotting table in front of him, then spat a single word. "FRAK!"