Chapter 3 – Some Assembly Required

April 20th, 2260 09:25

Bridge of the EAS Valiant

Andrea Wilson was ten years old when her father took her to the Palomar Observatory outside their home in San Diego. She had recently discovered one of his antique cameras. It was a relic from an age when they still used chemically treated film to take pictures. Tinkering away, she finally got the clunky old device working. He had been eager to develop her budding interest in science. So they made it a Father-Daughter day, trekking up the mountains to see the white domes of the ancient telescopes.

The site had long ago become a historic landmark, far too much light from the ever-encroaching cities had polluted the night sky. Robbing the sensitive instruments from seeing the stars above. But by this time all the real astronomy research was now done at the Armstrong Observatory on the moon.

This had hardly mattered to Andrea. She was entranced by the "Big Eye" Hale Telescope. A massive mirror three times taller than her father. It was here where men like Edwin Hubble had peered into the mysterious dark sky and revealed just how vast and ancient the universe truly was. And after that day, Andrea was hooked. She knew her future lay among the stars.

Her father had wanted her to follow in his footsteps of academia. A quiet life of research and study. That was not for Andrea. Humanity was no longer bound to their birth world. Why look at the stars when you could go to the stars. He appealed to her; she could work for one of the mega-corps like IPX or Edgar Industries research divisions. Be part of an expedition to an ancient abandon world. But she wanted no part in exploring some dusty old tomb. She wanted to travel and see the universe. Up close and personal.

When she told him she was joining Earthforce, his eyes had wearily closed, and he shook his head. "Andrea," he had said, "Why? You are so much more. You have the grades, the skill, and the opportunity for any number of universities. Why throw it away by joining a bunch of jackbooted thugs!"

"Daaaddd..." she had groaned out. That one word covering all her complaints. "Earthforce is not made up of a bunch of thugs. They're good people working to protect us and explore the galaxy. And I'll be there, right on the front lines."

"Yes!" he had thundered back. "Getting shot at!"

He had never really understood her. She was not like him, wanting to live in the safety of his books and research papers. And he still saw her as his impetuous little girl. Eager to run off on some make-believe adventure. Yet Andrea now sat at navigation station onboard the Valiant, piloting a real alien starship. On an adventure far beyond her wildest imagination.

Unfortunately, her father was right about one thing. She was being shot at.

"Incoming!" shouted Ensign Mashibe.

Andrea flicked her eyes from her console's display to the overarching wall of the Valiant's bridge. It was not necessary, she had all the same information outputted to her private holographic display, but a part of her wanted to see the controlled blast of plasma that was going to kill her. Up-close and personal. And nothing beat the gigantic view screen wrapping around the walls of the bridge. It made for a quite easy illusion one was floating in the middle of deep space.

As she looked into endless black, she saw the EAS Aegean hanging in front of her. It's blocky gray and blue design looked so inelegant compared to the exotic Valiant. Humans continued to struggle with aesthetics in their spaceships. Functional design still ruled. The Aegean was not the most artistic representation of humanity's skills, but it did not make it any less deadly.

Three bright flashes flared from the forward guns on the Hyperion-class cruiser. At their distance from the Valiant, it took no time to reach them. Andrea did not even have time to tighten her grip on the console before her and prepare for the impact.

But no violent explosions came. Not even the mildest of rocking of the ship. Andrea blinked. Nothing had changed. The Aegean still floated before them. The cratered surface of Nereid a backdrop behind the attacking ship.

Mashibe surprised voice spoke up behind her. "They...missed."

"Warning shots," explained General Robert Taggart with an irritated click of his tongue. "They don't want to damage their prize."

Andrea heard the 'tap-tap' of his cane and did not need to turn to tell he was right behind her. Only moments before she had carried out his order to get the Valiant under way. With the alien ship's gravimetric drive, they should be able to run circles around the less maneuverable Aegean. But after she had sent the commands into the ship's primary control system, nothing happened.

"Sergeant Wilson, report," called the General. "Why aren't we moving?"

Fumbling for a few seconds, Andrea ran through everything she knew about the control systems. She was sure she had entered the commands correctly. "I...I don't know, sir. It should be working. Drive systems should have engaged." She hesitated as her mind ran through the myriad sets of circuits interfacing the Human built control systems with the alien technology on board.

"Maybe-" she began.

"Stone!" thundered the General, not giving her a chance to continue, "What the hell is going on!?"

From his nearby workstation, the older professor's face was a mask of wrinkled tension. His eyes were rapidly scanning over his monitors. "Control systems show green. I can confirm what Sergeant Wilson is seeing. We should be moving."

"Well," growled out General Taggart, "we obviously aren't."

A tired and more than a little irritated sigh came from Stone. "Robert, these engines have not been used in nearly a thousand years. Beyond simulations, we've never even powered them up. There could be flaws."

Behind her, Taggart chewed out his next words like he was biting through iron. "Fix. It."

The two men were staring each other down, seeming close to coming to blows. Frustration and fear hung heavily in the space between them. For the moment, the dangers outside the ship took a back seat to the problems within.

Beside her in the copilot's chair, Connor meekly spoke up, "I think the drive might need time to initialize the field correctly. We must compensate for the gravity wells of Neptune, Nereid, and even the Aegean. So, if we change the gravity field like this-" and Connor's hand touched one the controls.

Then what felt like a giant hand was shoving Andrea into her seat. It was incredibly strong, but it only lasted a fleeting second. Gone as fast as it had arrived. But she was not the only one to feel the strange effect. Surprised yelps and cries came from around the bridge. Andrea was further startled as a grunt came from beside her. General Taggart was on his knees, his face gone pale with pain.

"Sir," she cried, grabbing on to her commanding officer, trying to support him as he worked to right himself. His bad leg folded awkwardly underneath him. His body was putting too much weight on the weakened limb.

With one strong hand on her shoulder, Taggart rose and steadied himself. In a much softer voice only she would hear, he said, "Thank you, Sergeant." Looking around the bridge, his pained expression was replaced with addled confusion. "What just happened?"

"I'm not sure..." muttered Stone as he worked over his console. "Checking systems."

Andrea looked down at her controls. Something was not right. A trickle of instrument readings showed something impossible. But it was Lieutenant Monroe, looking at the overall big picture of the room wrapping holographic display who realized what had happened. "We're moving...or well...we did move."

All eyes went to the display of the arched dome. The blue-green orb of Neptune was still there. But the small moon of Nereid was far behind them, and the Aegean was nothing more than a dot.

General Taggart hobbled on his good leg to turn and face Connor. "Mr. Olson, what did you just do?"

"Well...um...you see," stammered Connor as he nervously fidgeted under the older man's intense gaze. "I was saying...I adjusted...the gravimetric field to realign against the inverse of the local gravity distortion..." He trailed off as General Taggart expression clouded into more confusion.

"He popped the clutch," offered Professor Stone in the way of a layman's explanation. "He got the drive to engage. At least for a moment."

Andrea was working over sensor data, making sense of where they were. "I can confirm we're five hundred sixty kilometers from Nereid and receding. Orbital change of twelve hundred kilometers relative to Neptune."

Taggart let out a low whistle. "That is one helluva delta-v to get off in less than a second of acceleration."

"Yes," mused Stone, "about two hundred gees. Good thing the ship's internal gravity controls were working correctly, or we'd or be a pile of goo on the floor when the acceleration flattened us all like a pancake."

"Good work, young man," said Taggart. "Let's get out of here."

Connor grimaced. "Er...well..."

"What's wrong now?"

Stone cleared his throat. The professor was typing rapidly on his console. "Robert, we got a moment of acceleration but blew out the gravimetric propulsion field in the process. What Connor did work, but it's not how the Valiant engines are supposed to operate."

"Meaning?" glowered the Taggart as he looked impatiently between Professor Stone and his assistant.

"I think I see what we did wrong the first time. We need to bring the gravity field up slowly and correct for nearby objects of mass. Including the Valiant itself. It's like the whole drive system is out of alignment with the ship. Probably from such a long time of disuse."

"How long will-" and then Taggart stopped himself and said, "Let me guess, ten minutes?"

"Just about, I could go faster, but I think we'd run a greater risk of tearing the ship apart. I'll need to take the gravimetric drives offline."

"Get on it," commanded the General. He bent down to retrieve his cane from where it fell on the floor. As he straightened up, he was already giving more orders. "Ensign Mashibe, what's the status of the Aegean?"

"Weapons are still active and they are trying to ping us with their fire control radar." The ensign paused, studying the sensor information. "They're getting under way. Engines at full burn."

"Amala isn't going to give up easily. It won't take long for her to get into firing range, " muttered Taggart. "Sergeant Wilson, get me what possible speed you can out of the ship's thrusters. Keep as much distance as you can from the Aegean."

"Aye, sir," obeyed Andrea. She began to work the aft maneuvering jets on the controls. In the seat next to her Connor was working out their course, plotting a course away from the encroaching Earthforce ship.

"That was good work," she whispered to him as she pushed as much power as she thought she could get away with into the Valiant's maneuvering jets.

"I just sorta guessed," breathed Connor as he inputted the last of his settings.

She smiled and he blushed in response. Connor Olson was even younger than Andrea. Really nothing more than one of Professor William Stone's grad students. She had not heard how he had gotten caught up in the General's little rebellion. If they managed to live through this, she was going to have to find out.

"Umm," mumbled Connor as he finished, "course heading twenty degrees by thirty-five. At our current speed, the Aegean will be able to intercept us in five minutes, twenty seconds."

"They'll be able to hit us long before then," said General Taggart with a scowl. He made a few tentative steps toward Professor Stone while leaning heavily on his cane. The Valiant's brief convulsion of thrust must have brought too much weight on the General's bad leg. But Andrea could see he was not going to show it.

"Stone," she heard the General say, "please tell me the interceptor system is still working."

"It is. The ship's point defense system is running, but it has to be fired manually."

"That, at least, I think we can manage." There was a beep of the General's ComLink, he was opening a channel to someone on the ship "Darius, you're going to get to fire the guns."

"Yes, sir!" came the enthusiastic response from Ensign Darius Zemaitis.

"This isn't going to be stationary targets like it was in the docking bay. They'll be very fast and very deadly."

Darius reigned in his exuberance. "I understand, sir," he replied in a calmer tone.

"We'll relay targeting info to you. Get yourself and whoever else you need to down to deck twelve and man the aft guns," ordered General Taggart

"We're on our way now, sir. We won't let you down."

"Damn well better not," replied the General as he broke the link. "Ensign Mashibe, keep a tight watch on the Aegean. If they fire off anything, get its course and heading to Darius."

With her focus very much tied to the instruments before her, Andrea managed to risk a quick glance behind her. She saw General Taggart was standing next to Arnold Mashibe, reviewing the man's sensor information. Carefully laying out what he wanted the Ensign to do. Her father was the same age as Taggart, but beyond that one fact they were completely different people. The General was loud, demanding, and had a quick temper. But he also had a great ability to bring people together. To inspire them and make them more than what they were. And he was always loyal to those under his command.

"General," broke in Lieutenant Monroe, "Colonel Patel is back on the line. She's demanding to talk to you."

"Of course she is," he said with a sigh. "Put her on."

The face of the Aegean's commanding officer appeared on the part of the arched wall of the bridge. She was strapped into a crash couch, her head pressed back into the protective padding. When she spoke, her voice was strained as she fought the acceleration of her ship clawing its way to catch up with the Valiant. "I say again, General Taggart. Surrender."

"Not going to happen."

The Colonel's eyes shifted to somewhere off screen. It could have been the g-forces pulling on her body, but she seemed to sag further into her chair. Then she made a small, weary nod of her head.

At once, Mashibe announced, "We've got two fast movers coming from the Aegean."

In space distances were immense and most objects moved at speeds far faster than the human eye could perceive. Yet Andrea still looked into the illusionary hologram wall of the surrounding darkness. Hoping to glimpse the two incoming missiles. But there was nothing to see. The separation between the two ships was too great. The projectiles were far too small. All she could do was look down at her sensor readings and see the two rapidly approaching dots.

"Darius," came General Taggart voice. He sounded so calm, thought Andrea. "you're up."

"Ready," came the tiny voice over the General's Comlink.

While she could not see the rockets rushing toward them, from the bridge she had a perfect view of the Valiant's point defense system. All along the alien ship's outer surface were hundreds of small dark green hexagonal nodes. They varied in size from smaller than a basketball to ones nearly as large as a man. When they had first started exploring the Valiant, no one had understood the function of bizarre crystals protruding from the ship's hull. It was only by accident when Ensign Zemaitis wired power into what he had incorrectly thought was a ventilation system did they learn. Instead of activating air circulation, Zemaitis caused one of the jutting emerald spines to hurl out a swarm of crystallized carbon shards. They had slashed through the protective webbing of struts around the Valiant as if it were wet cardboard.

Now a section along one the larger spires at the rear of the ship came alive. At first, it was nothing more than a few bright flashes. A glint of sunlight from the distant sun reflecting off the fast-moving interceptors. But soon dozens more nodes began firing. All of them casting out thousands of razor-sharp projectiles at the incoming warheads.

In the cold starlit night, a larger flash flared into existence and one of the dots on Andrea's monitor vanished. A few seconds later the other dot blinked into nothingness.

The picture of Colonel Patel registered surprise at the destruction of the missiles. General Taggart spoke up, trying to keep back a slightly smug grin. "The ship still needs some work. But we're not defenseless."

Patel's image showed no further reaction. Instead, it was Mashibe who reported her response. "Two more...scratch that...four more missiles inbound."

Again the ship's defenses lit up. Round after round of launched outward as Zemaitis and his team fired madly at the incoming rockets. The first two torpedoes went down quickly. Then seconds later the third vanished in a hail of shards. But the fourth managed to get in close before it was taken down. A brilliant yellow-orange explosion erupted just behind the Valiant. A quick check of her console told Andrea the missile had been intercepted at a distance from the Valiant of less than two thousand meters.

"Damn it, Amala," growled General Taggart as the explosion faded on the domed screen. "Stop shooting at us!"

The Colonel's expression hardened. "Then you stop! Taggart, you are the one creating this situation. Stand down and no one will get hurt."

A snort of irritation came from the General. He thumped the tip of his cane into the ground, like a judge banging his gavel. "Do you even understand what been going on? On Earth? Out here? Or at the colonies? You've got Nightwatch dogs running around like they're running the show. Earthforce shooting at colonists. And Clark is twisting everything media channel he can get his hands on and disappearing anyone who dares speak up. Everything from our so called president is a lie."

"We've been attacked," shot back Patel. "I've seen the carnage on Ganymede base. It's not been faked. There are alien influences at work. Now, more than ever, we need to protect ourselves."

"By burning down everything!? Destroy anything that doesn't fit into Clark's regime? Follow any order no matter how wrong it is?"

Even under the g-forces pressing her into her seat Colonel Amala managed to shake her head. "We all took an oath to obey the government. We don't get to decide what orders we follow."

"The hell we don't!" thundered General Taggart. "You show me the people who bombed Mars and I'll show you a group of mass murders."

The other woman's face went ashen. Her eyes again flicked to some place off screen. Andrea had to wonder if there was someone else on the Aegean giving the Colonel orders. Patel licked her lips and said, "I know...my brother's family is on Mars."

"Then don't be a tool for Clark's machine. Stand down." The General paused and then turned, sweeping his hand out to indicate the Valiant. "Hell, come with us! We're going to need a crew to get the ship fully operational. We can work together."

"To what end? Where would we go?" questioned Patel. "Robert, my crew have families back home. We need to protect them..."

She vanished mid-sentence, the holographic display reverting to the midnight black of space. General Taggart's face was drawn tight with concern over the drop in communication. But there was little time for discussion, for Mashibe shouted out a warning. "We just fell into the range of the Aegean's plasma cannons."

"Wilson, Connor, do whatever you can for evasive maneuvers," urgently ordered the General.

Andrea was already rushing through her operational controls to pitch the Valiant into a downward angle relative to the other Earthforce ship. With only simple thrusters pushing the ship, the change of course was a slow, sluggish turn. They were not even halfway through the maneuver when the Aegean again opened fire.

This time, there was no warning shot. No missile to shoot down. A dazzling ball of tightly compressed plasma lobbed out of the Aegean's forward cannon. It arched through the cold vacuum and slammed into the side of the Valiant.

The ship shuddered under the impact. It was quickly followed by two more. Andrea's stomach knotted as she realized her last ditched maneuver was not enough. As a momentary flicker went through the wrap around display, General Taggart yelled, "Damage report!"

Mashibe consulted his board and replied, "Power failures on decks nine and fourteen, and a breach on deck fifteen." He took a steadying breath. "So far it's all minor damage."

"They don't know where to focus their fire," put in Stone from where the professor was hunched over his console. "Their scans can't penetrate the hull. They're just guessing where we might be vulnerable."

"How about we don't give them a chance to figure it out," snapped the General. "Stone, get us out of here."

A dismayed groan came from the squat little man. Holding his hands up, he made a beseeching gesture of begging for more time. "I don't know if the field is even remotely stable. We could do more damage..."

"William," interrupted General Taggart and his voice had gone surprisingly soft and pleading. "They will pound us apart until this ship is nothing but a ruined, burning wreck. Everyone here will die. Take your best guess and try."

Punctuating the General's point, a bolt from the Aegean's guns smacked into the side of the ship and a longer flicker went through the view screen.

The old professor gave a shaky nod of his head and said, "Oh hell, we're going to blow up one way or another. Might as well be on our terms." He touched one of the controls on his console and Andrea once again felt the faint electrical charge run across her skin as the Valiant's main engines powered up. "Gravimetric drives online," reported Stone after a few cautious seconds passed. Then looking directly at Andrea he added, "Take it slowly. Don't push the engines too hard."

Andrea switched her console from thruster controls to the primary navigation. The ship shuddered again from another impact. Her heart in throat, she pressed the button to move the Valiant forward. A seemingly endless moment passed and then the ship began to move.

She shouted, "We're moving!"

There was a quick cheer from the others on the bridge. Beside her, Connor confirmed, "We have point five G of thrust, our vector is stable."

Putting a damper on their rejoicing, General Taggart argued, "That's not very fast. The Aegean can match that."

"Yes, thank you, Robert. I did my best to make sure we didn't tear the ship in two with an unstable gravity field and kill everybody inside with an acceleration which crushed everyone's organs," Stone deadpanned.

A harrumph of disdain came from the General, but he said nothing more to the professor. Instead, he directed his ire at Andrea. "Sergeant, get us out of their line of fire!"

"Already on it, sir," she replied as her hands leaped across buttons and switches. Her previous attempt to move the ship downward and away from the pursuing Aegean had been lethargic turn. But now with the main propulsion working the ship spun with surprising ease.

Pivoting downward, she put the ship into a gentle spin. Two more plasma bolts were hurled after them, but with the ship's twisting trajectory they narrowly swept past the ship's outer spires. Even though they were more than twice the length of the Aegean and with only their modest speed, the Valiant was now far more agile.

"They're turning," reported Mashibe. "Trying to regain a weapons lock on us."

From above the Aegean sprayed a furious blast from her plasma cannons, trying to catch the fleeing Valiant. But many of the shots went wide, flying far to the astern of the ship. As Andrea continued to pivot the ship, she guided it like a graceful dancer and avoided the remaining incoming fire.

"Sloppy shooting," commented General Taggart as the Aegean fired. He had a puzzled look on his face, but with a shake of his head, he dismissed his confused frown. "Bring us about," he ordered. "They put everything into catching up with us, now they'll have to bleed off speed to reverse their course."

She complied and once again the ship spun on axis and effortlessly launched in a new direction, heading back towards Nereid. The Aegean could not change course so quickly. They would have to spend time coming to a relative stop and then set a pursuit course.

Lieutenant Monroe spoke up. "It's amazing," she said in soft wonder. "It doesn't feel like we're moving at all."

"Gravimetric propulsion. An artificial gravity well holds us to the deck while we move," said Stone.

"But how are we moving?" asked Monroe with a perplexed frown. "This ship doesn't have anything that looks like a rocket engine."

"By using a controlled gravity field, we are effectively shifting the mass of the Valiant through the fabric of space-time." Seeing the Lieutenant's confusion only deepened, he added, "To put it more colloquially, Miss Monroe - We are literally pushing against the universe itself and the universe pushes back. Makes for one remarkably effective springboard," explained Professor Stone with a wizened look that could only come from years of lecturing to students.

"The Minbari and Centauri have had the tech for centuries," added General Taggart. "As you can see it allows for a considerable advantage in space combat. If we don't want to engage, we should be able to dance around the Aegean all day long."

A silence fell among those on the bridge as they pulled away from the other ship. By the time the crew saw the Aegean turn around and begin to reverse, the Valiant had already passed the dark gray surface of Nereid. Andrea could feel the stirring of the muscles in her neck and back start to relax. They were going to make it!

Breaking the quiet came the voice of Captain Edward Shane. "Well congratulations," sneered the Nightwatch officer. "Just where are you traitors planning on going? Back to the jump gate at Io station? To Mars? You'll need some place to hide."

Andrea had almost forgotten he was still on board. Beyond her brief meeting with him when he arrived at Nereid Station, she had made a point of keeping her distance. The man made her skin crawl. He was too close to what her father feared the military to be – thugs in fancy uniforms. However, at present Captain Shane did appear very fancy. He was beaten and bloodied and the crew of the Valiant was responsible in one form or another for his beating. She had played a minor role, acting as a temporary detraction while General Taggart prepared the ship for their escape. She looked away, right now she did not want to think about it.

Apparently, the General was in the same mood as Andrea, for he did not respond to Shane's questions. Instead, he bent in close to Professor Stone and the two men conferred in muted muttering.

"I bet they're talking about the Valiant's jump drive," said Connor in a soft voice next to her.

"Does it work?" she asked. They had been so busy trying to get the ship's engines working and avoid getting destroyed by the Aegean, Andrea had given much thought about escaping into hyperspace.

"Professor Stone has powered it up before. Didn't blow up the ship," replied Connor with a weak smile. "Beyond that? No idea."

In confirmation of Connor's theory, General Taggart soon called out to her. "Sergeant Wilson, how are you with hyperspace navigation?"

"I've never done it," she admitted.

General Taggart offered her a genuine smile. "Well, time to learn. We've pushed our luck this far. Might as well keep at it."

Andrea grinned. "We're on a roll, sir. I'm game."

April 20th, 2260 12:35

EAS Valiant - General Taggart's Quarters

The ever-shifting colors of red and black of hyperspace wavered beyond the porthole in Taggart's stateroom. It was a true window to the outside, not a virtual display found in other places on the ship. One of the reasons why Robert had chosen this compartment. It was an old need of his, to see with his own eyes where he was going.

Neptune, Nereid Station, and the Aegean were all far behind them. There was no sign of pursuit. He had not expected there to be. For the time being, they would be left alone. How long that situation would last was hard to say. Clark and his people in EarthGov would be busy consolidating their current holdings. Earthforce was busy trying to clamp down on the Mars rebellion. They had only been able to spare the Aegean to claim the Valiant. And the old Earthforce ship was almost able to take them down.

Or had they? Had Amala Patel pulled her punches? Letting them get away? It was hard to say. Taggart settled into his armchair, finally able to get off his feet. He closed his eyes, weary over this morning's narrow escape. He had too many questions and not enough answers.

His moment of quiet was short lived. A soft electronic buzz came from his quarters only door. The buzzer was a bit of electronics and wiring Robert had hooked up to the door's primary powering crystal. A simple doorbell. Apparently whoever built the Valiant had not needed or wanted any form of signaling to enter a room. In fact, there were few true doors on the ship. Nearly everything was a continuously complicated maze of rooms and corridors.

"Come in," he said.

The door, which had multiple shards of azure crystal retracted seamlessly into the floor and adjacent walls. Leaving a hexagonal opening to the outside hallway. Through the open doorway stood Lieutenant Jessica Monroe and Professor William Stone.

Robert asked Jessica as the two entered his room. "Settling in alright?"

"As much as one can in an alien ship where this no furniture and everything is made out of some type of crystal," she replied. Her gaze wandered over the room and his meager belongings. "Yours, at least, looks like something a human being could live in."

"I moved in here nearly two months ago. Before that, this place was just as spartan as everywhere else on the ship." He pointed to a nearby narrow table and several chairs which severed as his makeshift office desk for his two guests to sit down.

"Unfortunately, we weren't able to retrofit many of the crew quarters before we were forced to leave," added William as he took a seat. "Hopefully when we get to the Orion colonies, we can acquire some furnishings for everyone."

Jessica gave a dry laugh as she joined them. "Ahh, about that..."

"What is it?" questioned Robert.

"With all the fun this morning, we haven't had time to sit down and actually talk. We need to scrap the plan to meet up with General Hague at Orion VII."

"Why?" asked both William and Robert.

"He's not there anymore. The Alexander was hit by the Clarkstown on the way to the colony. They had to make a run for it."

Robert frowned, this was not what he wanted to hear. "Do you know their condition or where they went?"

Jessica gave a shrug. "I kept my ear to the ground while I was on Io station like you asked. Plenty of juicy details to get if you knew the right junior officer to liquor up. But since martial law was declared it has been hard to hear much of anything. Only thing I was able to dig up on the Alexander before we left on the Aegean was they were reported heading to Babylon 5. From what I've heard the station declared independence after Clark started bombing Mars."

"Well now," said Robert with a sigh as he leaned back in his armchair. "That's interesting. Hague was smart enough to keep his little resistance compartmentalized, but I still had enough connections in Earthforce to have an idea who he had on his side. I would not have thought John Sheridan would take up arms against Clark."

"Do you know him?" asked William.

"Sheridan? I met him once. My overall impression was the man was an overgrown boy scout," reflected Robert.

To Jessica, the professor asked, "What of Babylon 5? News has been extremely limited since ISN went off the air."

"Not much," she admitted. "There were rumors a strike force was being sent to the station to seize control. But I have no idea what happened."

Robert let out a sigh of frustration. His plans were already in free fall. The Valiant was going to need more work before the ship was actually operational. And they would need an additional crew to run the ship. But if he could manage that, Robert could take on anything Clark threw at him. If the ship's primary gun were functional, he could quickly turn all of Earthdome into a massive crater. So, the question became which path was going to get the Valiant up and running? Go for the Orion colonies or try for Babylon 5?

Even though Robert had not asked, Professor Stone was quick to offer his advice. "I suggest we head for Babylon station. It's our best chance to reconnect with General Hague's resistance."

"You're a little too transparent, William," said Robert dryly. "You're just want to have the chance to run after your pet theories about the Valiant's builders."

"It's in our best interest to do so," defended the professor. "You want to get the ship fully functional, learning about who built her and why could become essential."

Robert's face still shadowed doubt. William leaned forward in his seat, his tone growing soft. "I know you are not a fan of the Babylon project. You think the station is a waste of time."

"It is a waste of time," confirmed Robert. "And an expensive boondoggle."

The sheer cost of building four stations before the fifth one was finally opened made even the cost of salvaging the Valiant look like pocket change. True, the Minbari Federation had helped pay for the construction on the fifth station. But as far as Robert Taggart was concerned it was only the beginning of what the Minbari owed humanity. He felt his right leg ache. The old war wound was a constant reminder of much he hated those pointy-head bastards. If they went to Babylon 5, he would have to deal with the wretched alien race.

With a little effort, he pushed himself out of his chair and crossed his room to the porthole. The constantly churning ruddy colors of hyperspace flickered on his face. Perhaps, considered Robert, it was past time that he did. Their warrior caste had taken so much from him. With the Valiant at his command there was the possibility of some retribution.

He touched his Comlink. When it beeped, he said, "Sergeant Wilson, we're making a course change."

There was a brief pause and then the Sergeant replied, "Umm...yes, sir. Where are we heading?"

"Babylon 5"