The Beauty of the Stars is only skin Deep.
-8-
The stars and the expanse of space, even here while Babylon 5 was nestled within the Epsilon system, was quiet and beautiful. Surrounding the station were stars, many of them hundreds of light years away; he knew that Sector 14 was only 3 hours away and relatively easy to reach with even the types of transport ships Earth had, while two days jump from here was Earth, and Centauri Prime was only 70 light years away.
Looking at the stars, it was so hard to even picture the nightmare the galaxy had been in for the past few years, even though it had been going on for millions of centuries now.
Clad in a space suit and standing on the forward cargo stabilisers, John Sheridan felt small in this expanse. Like so many aspects of his personality, Sheridan didn't have a clue where he had picked up the habit of walking outside, either on the surface of a dangerous world like Mars, or on the outer hull of a space station or a starship, or even Babylon 5; while EarthForce went to a lot of trouble to make sure their crews and soldiers were comfortable despite the militaristic nature of their jobs, it only went so far, and while the parks and gardens like the Zen Garden inside Babylon 5 were beautiful, they were marred by the artificial nature of the space station, so Sheridan often came out here. Outside, he could watch the traffic of ships as they came and went, and he could also watch the orbit of the planet the station orbited, wondering if the Minbari Draal was watching him.
The only thing missing was a breathable atmosphere, that would be perfect.
Sheridan had told Susan, Michael, Stephen and Corwin and Delenn what he was doing, and he'd told them not to link him unless it was urgent; he wasn't expecting any one coming, but he had been in command of Babylon 5 to know better than to trust any agendas.
Surrounding the Babylon station were a number of ships; Earth and alien. There were Minbari white stars, a Narn heavy cruiser, some Drazi sun hawks and a few Minbari cruisers, but there were squadrons of star furies, some thunderbolts, and Earth cruisers and even a few passenger liners. The sight of the battle damage which was being patched up by EVA teams from the station made Sheridan clench his space-suited gloves in rage.
More and more refugees were coming from the jump gate, straight from Earth space, the Centauri advance had forced Earth's space navies to use the same tactic of making the Centauri fight for every square inch of space, and since the Earth-Minbari war, all of the colonies had been given fleets of shuttles, liners, so if there were any signs of an invasion by aliens, the colonists could leave and evacuate, and thanks to Vir's information which he transmitted at great personal cost to himself, more people had managed to escape the colonies before the Centauri arrived, but so many of the Earth Alliance's worlds, hadn't been as lucky. Thanks to Draal giving his permission for shuttles to be landed on Epsilon 3, there is now a growing human population down there.
Not for the first time, Sheridan wished he knew where all of this happened.
He knew the roots of the current mess went back before the death of Emperor Turhan, instead, it all went back to the destruction of the Narn colony at Quadrant 47. According to Vir, Londo had been tempted to use the Shadows to prevent more embarrassments, like ceding more territories to the angry, expansionistic Narns, and he had enlisted the help of Mr Morden, once a member of the Icarus crew, who had landed on the world of Z'ha Dum, the homeworld of the Shadows, a race of First Ones, who'd stayed alongside the Vorlons, a fellow First One race, and who'd both decided to remain in the galaxy to help guide the Younger races along their different philosophies which were opposites of each other; the Vorlons had believed in discipline, order, obedience, but they had crossed the blurred lines of manipulation, lies.
In contrast, the Shadows started wars, sowing chaos, and destruction because they thought by causing as much damage as possible they would ensure evolution accelerated. Sheridan and the Army of Light had been surprised to receive all of this information after Vir had made sure they got it before the Centauri invasion of the Earth Alliance and other territories which saw many races now under the cruel whip of the Centauri Republic as they submerged back into the toxicity of their past, forgetting how their empire had fallen and not seeing the pattern repeating itself because of how blind and obsessive they were.
When he had taken command of the station a few years ago, Sheridan had never once imagined how everything would collapse around him like an avalanche; not only had he arrived on the station when President Santiago's death was still rippling throughout the alliance while his successor's policies of isolationism were masked in a desire to sort out Earth's problems which had been growing like weeds in the aftermath of the mystery of the Minbari's surrender at the Battle of the Line, but he and the rest of his station staff had been sitting on a bomb ticking down to hell.
And it did when Emperor Turhan's arrival on Babylon 5, something he had been happy about even in a galaxy where President Clark, according to his contacts, were slowly stripping away autonomy and giving power to himself and to his lackeys, especially in Psi-Corps, but the death of the old Centauri whom Sheridan had had the time to speak briefly too in private and saw that Turhan was an old, lonely, burdened man who wanted to do something good in his final days.
But the rest of his people, including Londo and Refa, according to Vir's information, had other ideas. They used the Shadows to attack another Narn colony, with Londo arranging with his co-conspirators to have the Centauri ships meet the Narns sent to investigate the loss of communication with their colony; the Narn would assume the Centauri were behind the attack, and they were, in a way. After that war was inevitable, and Turhan died fully aware of the failure of his plans for peace.
The war lasted for 8 Earth months, and in that time Londo underwent a terrifying transformation. He became a raving warmonger to the point where Sheridan was tempted have thrown off the station whenever he threatened Narns, the Drazi, the Gaim, and anyone else who even looked at him oddly. And he wasn't the only one as the galaxy turned to hell. The new Centauri emperor was seen as a raving lunatic, and many of his allies were no better.
One of the worst things that happened was the gradual shift of Earth into a fascist galactic power, with organisations like the Ministry of Truth, the Ministry of Peace and thugs making up gangs like Nightwatch which harked back to the SA and the SS and the Gestapo from Nazi Germany; Clark wasn't even imaginative, borrowing so many aspects from his fascist predecessors as he gleefully undid the far-reaching and forward-thinking progress of his predecessors in favour of an isolationist state.
Clark didn't care about the alien powers, but Sheridan finally understood just how far he was willing to go when representatives of the Ministry of Peace came just before Clark finished signing the non-aggression pact with the Centauri Republic.
Sheridan sneered, recalling the words of Frederick Lantze, "I'm here to sign a non-aggression treaty with the Centauri. Before I leave here, there will be an Earth-Centauri alliance that will guarantee peace for Earth. We will, at last, know peace in our time."
It was truly amazing, Sheridan mused to himself how many similarities there were to the time of Hitler, since Lantze had quoted Neville Chamberlain before World War 2, so either he honestly believed it or he was so inducted into the fascism Clark embodied. Sheridan didn't know which, didn't care either.
When the war with the Shadows began, the Centauri and then Earth turned against the races in the galaxy, with the Centauri beginning wars against other powers with the Earth Alliance following suit, making the job of fighting the Shadows even harder, as many races didn't trust Earth or the humans on Babylon 5. They had conveniently forgotten the fact Sheridan and the station had joined Mars, Proxima 3 and several other colonies and leaving the Alliance until Clark was booted out of office.
But it never happened, and Sheridan's faith in his people, his Alliance…just started to die out. It got even worse when Clark openly used Earth Alliance warships which were merged with Shadow organic armour, which boosted their power tremendously even if they still had the features of previous Earth ships, such as rotating gravity. More than once, Sheridan had been forced to fight against his own government, and he and his crew had been forced to watch as their world became alien to them, with Clark running a propaganda campaign against them. It was too much, and he and the others reeled from the lies of the First Ones while they decided to plunder enough Vorlon and Shadow technology to reverse-engineer it. Draal had been disgusted at being used and what he was seeing through the Great Machine. He had given them the means to fight back even harder, and Susan had begun broadcasting Voice of the Resistance to show the galaxy Babylon 5 was still trying to spread it's mission of peace. The good news was when the League and the Minbari saw their efforts, even if the Grey Council had broken up, forcing Delenn to rely on the Worker and Religious castes.
And then the Centauri turned on Earth.
Sheridan closed his eyes; he had learnt over his career bad news could come when he least expected it, and the invasion of the Earth Alliance had begun. Like the Earth Alliance, Refa and Cartagia had made sure Centauri warships were bonded with Shadow technology, but the Centauri went further than that. They used biological weapons and mass drivers, levelling colonies.
Again, Vir had provided Sheridan and Babylon 5 with the information, but it was too late. What was worse was the Warrior caste, seeing the Shadow technology of Earth, had launched their own attack against the Alliance before the Centauri invasion attacked when Earth was vulnerable. But Sheridan knew a large part of it was out of a desire for revenge, many Minbari warriors and others were resentful for the surrender at the end of the war and wanted a rematch. But many Minbari paid the price, and the Shadows had even personally attacked Minbar itself. The cities were in ruins and millions were killed, the Warrior caste fleets were wrecked and the Workers and Religious castes were struggling to rebuild and fight the Shadows at the same time.
Sheridan often wished he could have been there when the Centauri showed their true colours against Earth, but a lot of it was a silent invasion. They had managed to capture Clark and many of his inner circle before the main invasion, taking them back to Centauri Prime, where they were executed and similar terms for surrender for the Narns were inflicted on Earth. But humanity was not a passive enemy. They had spirit and always would.
The fleets were shattered, and those who'd survived had fled to different parts of the galaxy - Earthforce units and civilians alike who'd managed to get away in time - and they were struggling to rebuild. Many of them had come to Babylon 5, especially the refugees from Mars, Proxima 3, and they had opened the doors for more refugees.
But the war continued, but this time a part of Earthforce was with them for the final battles to come with the Shadows and with the Centauri. But Sheridan was worried about these Drakh; just thinking about the servants who'd brainwashed so many people frightened Sheridan, they didn't really have the resources for fighting the Shadows, never mind the Vorlons, the Centauri and with Earth.
Yes, he had ideas, but he had so many things on his plate; first, they had to gather as many people out of Centauri-controlled Earth space, second they had to help the Centauri and Narn and Earth resistance movements, third, they had to continue reverse engineering the Great Machine put at their disposal by Draal, who had realised they needed the technology to help them shorten the gaps between themselves and the Shadows now Sinclair had gone back in time to take up his destiny as Valen, fourth they had to understand the organic technology of the Shadows and find more telepaths to dampen their tech and their ships, fifth, they had to contend with Minbari war leaders who might try something, and lastly they had to deal with the Centauri and retake what was theirs.
As he stared at one of the few Shadow-armoured Earth ships that had been stolen and crewed all the way here, crammed with refugees and a large number of GROPOSs, which was a massive help for their cause, with so many IPX EVA crews who were examining the ship, Sheridan hoped they could fight back, and soon.