From jon.souza@creature.comSun Nov 12 15:46:27 1995 Date: Mon, 6 Nov 1995 07:09:58 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply to: b5-creative-owner@blob.best.net To: b5-creative@blob.best.net Subject: Breaking The Consensus, Episode 1 Yes, this is ANOTHER fanfic, hopefully one I will finish completely. I've decided to take a swipe at a Gundam/Babylon 5/Macross Plus/Macross 7/Tenchi Muyo/Sol Bianca/Whatever The Hell I Can Pack Into This Thing crossover. In short, this is going to be a wild, confusing ride that is going to hopefully be a LOT of fun. This fanfic is dedicated to Dave Gao, everyone on the Babylon 5 Creative and Gundam mailing lists, and all of my fans(especially the ones who like my stories and DON'T write to tell me!). Got to have the legalistic- All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners and will be turned over to the owners at the request of their agents. All other characters/places/persons are the sole property of Jonathan Souza, Copyrighted @1995. I have NO idea on when the next one's going to be. As well, I've got plans to finish three other stories, Gundam 401, the Babylon 5/Char's Counter Attack crossover, and a original Babylon 5 story. But be prepared, these stories WILL be done! They may just take a while..... From Macross 7, Jon Souza Jon.Souza@Creature.Com Breaking the Consensus By Jon Souza Jon.Souza@Creature.Com Episode 1-The Coming of Players "But I think it is high time you all start looking at yourselves, and judging the lie you live in." -Charles Manson, at the Tate-LaBianca trial One of the biggest problems is that of descriptions-how do you describe beings who possess control over all of Reality? Most likely, they would choose a metaphor to fit our minds rather than to have us try to stretch to understand theirs. So, where they were, and what they were doing was set in a nuclear power plant's reactor control room. Of course, the "little monster" they had to deal with wasn't the puny reaction of splitting U-235 atoms, but instead the powerful devils of Anti-Reality. The monsters of Anti-Reality were being held off by the unified patterns that the construction of Reality were forming. It was a quiet, slow time, but one of careful monitoring. As the old expression goes, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. And the check was coming, with interest. One of the monitor technicians(which it wasn't, actually, but to maintain the metaphor, that was his job) was watching his board and as he watched, a sudden spike appeared. Then another, and another until four appeared on his screen. "Sir!" the technician yelled, "you have to come here, sir!" The supervisor(which he wasn't, but that was his metaphorical role) came over and looked at the board. With a sudden motion, he slammed the alarm button, then picked up his phone to relay the message through the facility, "Attention, attention, we have five, I repeat, five class-ten Reality breaches." The base chief said, over the intercom, "Is there any indication of a Tear?" "Negative, sir. We have five linked Reality breaches, but no other indication of any other instabilities in the Reality web. We are unable to clear up the indications on where or what locations the breaches are. We have to hold until the static clears up, sir,' the supervisor says. "Damn it!" the chief said, "the last thing we need a breach of any size, especially five of them at class ten. All right, I want you to clean up the mess as soon as possible. Tell me when you get a fix." It was going to be a long day. *--------* It was going to be a long day, I just knew it. Going to college was beginning to wear on me. Worse, my parents were on their annual "get a job, slacker!" rant. I was *trying* to get a job, but how can you get a job when there isn't one out there to get? I had a newspaper article due, as well as a report for ISLS due as well. And it wasn't even 10am yet! I remembered very well what my editor told me, "Jon," that was my name, "I want you to get your little ass over to 200 and find out what's taking the construction so long, or so help me I'll flunk you!" That's our editor, such a *great* motivator. So I was walking to the elevator, partially to think, mostly to hit the walls so I didn't hit someone. So, I tapped the "down" button for the elevator and waited for it to come, thinking. I stepped in, not even looking, thinking about what I was going to do this weekend to get a job to get my parents off my back, when I noticed that my foot wasn't touching the floor of the elevator. There wasn't a floor to the elevator. Or a floor, period. Before I could do anything, I my momentum carried me into the shaft and I was falling. "This isn't fair!" I screamed, and it wasn't! I'm only 19 and I've still got things to do, people to see. As I was plummeting, I noticed two things. First, I should have hit bottom about now because there are only two floors to the building. Second, and most important, I was falling in utter darkness, and even in the elevator there would have been some lights. My best theory was that I was dead and I was waiting for someone to pass heavenly judgement on me. Then I landed flat on my belly on grass with a sickening thud. Not only did it knock the wind out of me and put stars in my eyes, it left me utterly confused. Was I dead? Did I get sent to heaven? To hell? To purgatory? Or where? So I rolled over onto my back, taking off my backpack, and as I looked up, I saw a gigantic metal shell over me. Trying to relax, I looked. No light seas, all lighting was at the ends, from the appearance of spin, I was in a sealed cylinder colony, and it was either a Grey Vivarium type or one I've never seen before. As I was thinking, there was a sudden *pop* right over my head. Before I could react, a girl in a kimono and some brown furry thing appeared just two feet right over me, and they landed on me. Hard. Very hard. Right on my belly, causing me to expel the air from my lungs in a hard hiss. "Oh dear!," the girl said, shocked, "are you OK?" "Just a second," I wheezed and I looked at her. She came to the top of my breastbone, and her hair was in two long green ponytails. As I looked, the furry thing popped on her shoulder, and went, "Miui!" Ok, I get the joke. "Sasami-chan?" I asked. "Hai," Sasami replied. "And Ryo-oh-ki-chan?" I pointed at the furry thing. "Miui!" Ryo-oh-ki-chan replied, happy. "What's the joke? What's going on?" I said. If this was a joke, it was in awful taste. "This isn't a joke! We were going to get carrots for dinner and next thing we know, we land on you! Who are you and where are we?" Sasami bellowed at me. "Sorry," I held out my hand, "I'm Jon. Do you have any idea where we are?" "No, Jon-sama. I'm scared, this place doesn't feel right," Sasami said, cringing slightly at everything but me. I can easily agree with that. "Are you hungry? I don't have much to eat, but I'll share it with you." "Thank you, Jon-sama. I'm not that hungry, what do we do? Where's Ryouko-sama?" Sasami asked. "Sasami-chan, relax, everything's fine," I said. As I came over and was comforting Sasami, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see a man in an Earth Force security uniform. "Sir?" he asked, "What are you doing here?" Oh great! I'm on friggin Babylon 5 with Sasami and Ryo- ou-ki-chan and I don't even belong here. "I'm actually lost, and I can't seem to find my ID, so I can't get back to my room," I bluffed, "do you think you can help me?" "Just a second," he said, and pulled out a scanner, "could you put your hand on the scanner?" I've got nothing to lose, but there's always Sasami-chan to think of. I put my hand on his scanner, and it beeped twice. He looked at it, put it away, and said, "Could you come with me, sir?" "Why?" I asked. Sasami-chan was looking at the security guard as well, asking me, "Who is he, Jon-sama?" "Sir, we've got your things in the Security office. If you'll follow me...." Why not? Taking Sasami's hand, I followed the security officer to the Security office. *--------* "The breaches are absolutely stable sir, all five reality bands are linked by correspondence," the technician said. "Can we reverse it? Put everything back to normal?" the supervisor said. With linked realities, problems might happen..... "Not without Unlimited access, sir." "The last time Unlimited access was authorized, it was over three hundred thousand years ago! And that was during the forming of the Reality Web," the supervisor yelled. As he deflated, he looked at the five linked realities. "All right then. I want you to write a report on this, have it ready by the end of the ship, and I'll take it to the top with my recommendation. Until then, keep an eye on things and try to perform any possible reality stabilization you can here." *--------* "What is it this time?" Chief of Security for Babylon 5 Michael Garibaldi asked. "It's the Drazi, again. Ever since the Markeb plague, we had to give them innocuations of blue cells so they don't get the plague. Unfortuntly, it's the *fervor* they do it with that's the problem," Commander Ivonova replied, "If the Drazi think that one of their own hasn't been in for a recent inoculation, they come over and 'encourage' them to go, usually with a few broken bones...." "All right, then. I'll see what I can do to scare up some Security officers to keep the Drazi from killing each other. What actually has me curious is the box," Garibaldi noted. The two were talking in his office, mostly because Ivanova was off to a Starfury requalification flight today and she wanted to get this resolved before she left. "Has someone claimed it?" Ivanova asked. "Better yet, one of my people found the owner in the park section. They're bringing them down now," Garibaldi replied. The 'box' they were talking about was a chest the size of a small television. Someone left it in the Zocallo one day, and nobody aboard the station could open it or even scan inside it. On the lid was a data crystal with information on the owner taped on it. "They?" Ivanova asked. "My man said that the owner had a little girl with him and something that looked like a cat," Garibaldi noted. "Maybe he can tell us why someone put this box here and what's in the bloody thing." "Good luck," Ivanova replied. "Now, if that's it, I'm off." *--------* "Well, you finally came here to claim this thing," Garibaldi told me. Sasami-chan was coming with me into the security office, and Garibaldi took a long look at Ryo-ok-ki-chan. If this got around to a discussion on what he was, things were going to get really interesting really fast. "Ok, what is this 'thing' you want me to claim?" "You don't know?" Garibaldi looked at me like I was crazy. He sat down, threw up his hands, and said, "Great, we find this thing stuck to the floor in the Zocallo one day, had to cut the floor to remove the damn thing. So, what the hell is it?" "Let me see," I said, and there was a box that looked like it was made from Jyrui technology, with the organic, wood-like styling. On the front was two sets of five holes over what appeared to be the lock. Curious, I put my hand on one set of holes, which was just large enough for my fingers to fit into. The moment they went in, a loud and resounding "click" and the four corners of the box popped open. "Ok, then...." I tried to lift the cover, but it was stuck tight. Motioning to Sasami, I said, "Could you put your fingers in the small sets of holes down there." "Ok, Jon-chan," Sasami said, and she did. The pins clicked again and I easily lifted the box open. Garibaldi came over as well to look in. "Garibaldi, could we use your table? I'd like to spread this stuff out to organize everything," I asked. "Sure, no problem," Garibaldi replied. We actually had to use a conference room to lay out all of the stuff. With a clipboard, I listed everything, and the list came out to: (1) BDI Spacesuit-the name tag on the front said *Souza, J.* As well, the sidearm holster was loaded with what looked like a Glock 19, and the magazine holders had three extra clips of .40 caliber ammo. (1) Formal change of clothes, underwear and everything. (1) Semi-formal change of clothes, underwear and everything. (4) Casual sets of clothes, underwear and everything. (1) Suit of body armor-The style was much more like the body armor worn by the crew of the Sol Bianca, but in a neutral grey color and the various holsters and clips had all sorts of nastiness from plasma pistols to hellburner grenades to mono-filament whips. The helmet had a radio, a variety of sensors, and the whole thing could do double-duty as a space suit. (1) Set of male toiletries, soap, shampoo, shaving razor, cologne, and deodorant. (4) Changes of clothing for Sasami, a full set of kimonos, underwear and all. (1) Set of female toiletries, soap, shampoo, makeup, and such. (1) Package of data crystals, four of them with a grease- pencil number on each of them. (1) Sword-hilt, like Tenchi's, but slightly longer and the pommel was wider. Garibaldi looked at the crystals, and he said, "Wonder what's on these?" "Let's find out. Where's the data port?" I asked. When Garibaldi showed it to me, I put the first crystal in, which glowed slightly. The monitor image cleared, and there I was on the screen. I looked out and said, "Hello, Jon. If you're hearing this-congratulations! You just got your wish, you're on Babylon 5. But you ain't going to like it...." No kidding, I didn't like it already. But the person on my screen continued and said, "And before you think about it, don't even worry about the Piccardian 'I can't alter the historical flow of time' sort of gaffe. Your life is your own and anything you tell Garibaldi and Sasami or *not tell them* is on your head. How you got here and how you could get back....well, let's just say that you don't want to know. But now that you're stuck here, I got you pretty well set up. "On the other three chips are records, all in order, for accommodations for you and Sasami on-station. If you're curious, they're as good as the rooms for Captain Sheridan and Commander Ivanova, but you've got an unlimited water ration, and believe me, that cost a lot! The other two chips are for....other accommodations. Check them out as you wish, but you might notice that one of them is a hanger bay, and even you can guess what's in the hanger, but you'd only be slightly off. The second....well, just don't be armed when you check it out. "Oh, one more thing. In the pocket of the BDI suit is your ID and CreditChit. Sasami has one as well, it's in the same pocket. You both have an allowance of about six thousand credits a month, and I did get you a food service account, including carrots for Ryo-oh-ki-chan. "Jon, I just want to say good luck, and hope you do well. And if you don't, well, the universe doesn't deserve to live anyway." As the image clicked off, everyone was looking at me like I was some kind of monster. "Would you mind explaining what the hell's going on? What the hell does he mean about altering the flow of history," Garibaldi said. "Ok," I said, "It's a very long story. First, sit down. It's one of those sorts of stories." "All right," Garibaldi said and sat down. He looked skeptical. "This whole place, the people you talk to, everything, is currently a set on the back lot of Warner Brothers studio. You're an actor by the name of Jerry Doyle, she's" I pointed at Sasami, "ink and paint on a animation cell. In my reality, that is. Here, it's all real. You're real, she's real, this station's real, all of what's happening is real. Look," Garibaldi was looking real skeptical, "in my world, this is a TV show. But here, this is your life. If you don't believe me, call Talia Winters and I'll submit to telepathic examination." "Really?" Garibaldi replied. I didn't like the tone, "then tell me something that someone from 'TV', as you put it, would know." "You're sure?" "Either you're lying or this is some really sadistic joke. You know something, what is it?" Garibaldi answered. I breathed in, I breathed out. Ok, let's try this. "How long has Commander Sinclair been on Minbar?" "About a year? Why do you...." "Were you visited by someone who works for him? A Ranger? Bearing a message about you to watch for Shadows, since they move when you don't look at them? Did he tell you that he would keep in touch...." I was ready to keep on going, but Garibaldi stood up and was staring at me. "How do you know all of this? I haven't told anyone anything about this!" Garibaldi was yelling, his hand on his PPG. Great, he's pissed off. "Do you want me to go on? Look, I'm telling the truth. This is really pissing me off, and I want to get something to eat and get some sleep. Either you believe me or you don't. If you don't, all you have to do is throw us in the brig....or out the airlock. If you do, well, I'm going to pack up all of this stuff and me and Sasami-chan are going to check out these quarters I've seem to have given to myself. Now, if you'll excuse me...." As I started to pack up the stuff in the box to take with me, Garibaldi put his hand on my right arm, "Ok, look, I don't want to believe you but I do. And I want you to do one thing." "What?" I asked. "Don't breathe a word of what you know to anyone. This is strange enough and you might know too damn much...." *--------* When we got there, Sasami went in and looked at her quarters. Garibaldi came in as well, and said, "Nice place." "Thank you," I replied. "I have good taste." And I did, these were well-decorated rooms. Looking around, there was a well stocked kitchen, "You want a soda? Got three different kinds in here and then some." "Nope, just a social visit," Garibaldi replied, then he leaned into me and said, "I just wanted to ask you something. What's that fur-ball on Sasami's shoulder?" You sure? We've got Coke, Pepsi, and some generic brand." "What is it? You didn't answer the question." "Ryo-ou-ki-chan is the smaller version of Ryo-ou-ki. Ryo-ou-ki is a starship," I replied. "That little furball is a ship?" "Absolutely. You can even ask him if you want. He transforms into a ship, if you're curious," I noted. Garibaldi sat down on one of the stools, "I'll have a Coke now." "Trust me, things get worse with her. You see Sasami? She's the other half of Tsnuami, the most powerful warship of the Jyrui empire. I'd like to know what these sections are," I showed Garibaldi the two other rented rooms and poured him a Coke. "One of these is a hanger bay, the other is a storage bay, both are in Blue section. You're going to investigate these compartments?" Garibaldi replied. "Tomorrow. Tonight, I'm going to cook something and go to sleep and hopefully wake up in my own bed. If not, I'm going to put on the BDI suit and go to the hanger bay. Odds are it's going to be very interesting indeed...." "Look, whatever you find, would you tell me? I'd like to figure out what's going on around here. Especially with two dimensional travellers from God-knows-where," Garibaldi replied. "Deal. Just one thing," I added. "What?" Garibaldi was looking at me curiously. "Do you really want to know what's going on?" "Personally, no. Professionally.......well, either I figure out what's going on or we're going to be in a lot of trouble," Garibaldi replied, then walked to the door, "You know where to get in touch with me." "Of course," I replied. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to sleep. Whenever I'm nervous, I can't sleep. So I was laying in bed, lights down just low enough to resemble a terrestrial full-moon night, thinking. And I didn't like the thought that I had not only myself to be responsible for, but Sasami and possibly this station. And there was the last tag end of the message I sent myself, "And if you don't, well, the universe doesn't deserve to live anyway." I *hated* it when I left myself vague clues like that. And it left a lot of questions unanswered. Like what in the hell would I need a Brain-Direct Interface suit for? If I was going to set up something, it would be something really nice like the V2 Assault Buster Gundam or maybe the YF-19A1. But what would I need that sort of heavy duty firepower for? And why was Sasami here? So I was lying there, trying to fall asleep. I probably succeeded, since next thing I knew, it was early morning. Sasami cooked breakfast, nothing I couldn't recognize, but mostly to be polite and mostly because I was very damn hungry, I ate it. "Is it good?" Sasami asked me. "Hmmrum," I replied, mouth full. Sasami looked at me and said, "When are we going to look for Ryouko? I miss them." "Don't worry," I replied, finally emptying my mouth, "As soon as I figure out what's going on, we'll go look for Ryouko- chan. Right now, I'm going to check out the hanger bay, maybe there's a ship there for us." "Ok, Jon-chan. Should I stay here?" Sasami asked me. "If you want to look around, go ahead, but stay in Blue Section and don't wander off with anyone. And be sure to leave a message for me, OK?" "No problem, Jon-chan," Sasami replied. "I'll stay in Blue section. How long do you expect to be gone?" "I'll be back in plenty of time for lunch," I replied, putting together the BDI suit. Thinking, I unstrapped the gunbelt and grabbed a satchel. Putting the gunbelt in the satchel, I took the sword-hilt as well and threw it in the bag. "But if I'm not back, don't wait up for me." "No problem, Jon-chan. I even packed you a lunch just in case you can't make it back," Sasami noted, handing me a box lunch. I put that in the bag as well. Thinking about it, I decided to put on the BDI suit and leave the helmet in the bag, the suit was much too bulky to carry in the bag. "See you later, Sasami-chan," I said, and walked out the door. "Bye, Jon-chan," she said. *--------* It was an early morning, and Delenn liked to walk around in the Blue section before the stores opened. She liked to listen to all of the people setting up the stalls. Some of them had the first meals of the day and they liked her commentary. So it was a bit of a surprise when she saw a little human girl walking around Blue section. Skipping, actually. She could hear her singing to herself, "Ichi, ni, san, yon," as she skipped. The odd things were that her robes were that of a young Minbari Priest Caste member, and on her shoulder was a furry thing that seemed to be meowing in sync with her. The odd hair color, green, was unusual, but not that different. Curious, Delenn walked over to her and asked, "Hello, can I help you?" The girl stopped, and as Delenn looked at her, she couldn't understand why this girl looked so young yet seemed so mature and alive. "No. Do I know you?" "My name is Delenn. I'm the Minbari Ambassador, and you are," Delenn asked her. "I'm Sasami. Would you like to play with me?" Sasami asked her. "Why, yes, I would. But could I ask you some questions?" "Of course, Delenn-sama," Sasami replied. "Why are you wearing those robes? I normally don't see humans wearing them," Delenn asked. "Silly! These are my outfit, since I am from Jyrui," Sasami replied, like that was part of some joke. "I see," Delenn replied. "I'd like to get you something to eat, interested." "Hm-hmm," Sasami nodded. Delenn knew of a good place to have breakfast. Also, it was a good place to tell Lennier that she would be busy all day. *--------* I was a really paranoid bastard, I had to admit that. When I had finally made it to the hanger bay, I had discovered that someone had rebuilt the door with a serious security mechanism. That meant triple redundancy of all locking mechanism, the door itself was four centimeters of solid iridium with a titanium coating, and I knew that there had to be all sorts of nastiness for anyone trying to break in. Now, what was I trying to protect in here? The last door opened, easily giving me access to the compartment. I fumbled around and found the light switch. As the lights came on, I had to gasp. It was like a small slice of heaven. Just in front of me was a shuttle of some type. I thought I recognized the design, but it was the second object behind it that took my breath away. It had started out with a G-Gundam Neo-Japan Gundam Mobile Fighter frame, but someone had evidently done a lot of work on it. There were two motors, which looked like Minovski drive exhaust vents, straight off the V2 Gundam, the leg motors had been modified as well with Minovski drive units. On each of the Hypermotor arms were five ports, each looked like a beam saber unit. The arm shields with the claws had been heavily modified with a beam-lancet, one beam saber and five emitters for a beam shield. A beam rifle was hanging from the wall as well, which looked like the combination beam rifle/beam pistol/grenade launcher from the V2 Gundam. Curious, I walked up to the cockpit hatch and found the hatch lever, the cockpit hissed open to reveal a chair for me in the BDI suit. Sitting down, I put on the helmet and started to relax, eyes closed, and- *Us/We/Are activating, reactor on line, beam weapons on line, cannons on line, motors on line, interface on line, we can hear you now.....* an odd chorus of voices in my mind started. At the same time, I could see the entire hanger bay from the eye- perspective of the Mobile Suit. *Hello,* I thought. *Who are you?* *Us/We/Are the control systems for this Mobile Suit. Us/We/Are the various intelligent subprocesses for all units and systems of this Mobile Suit, and you are the final subprocess for this Mobile Suit....* the voices continued. *Wait, what is this Mobile Suit named and designated?* I thought in confusion. *RX-278 Virtua Gundam. You are the combat sub-process, the direction subprocess, you control all of the other sub- processes, without you we cannot fight....* the voiced droned. *What do you mean you cannot fight? What about the weapon control software....* I thought. *You are the one who must, to borrow a phrase, pull the trigger. Without you, we cannot fight. With you, we can....* the voices said. *I understand. Can you tell me what we can do?* I asked. *We are a full combat unit, with Minovski drive and a full sublight drive system. We cannot initiate a Jump Point, our Hypermotor is too small, but we can drop out of hyperspace at any time of our choosing. Our defense systems include beam shields, I- field, anti-missile lasers, and automated beam sabers on the ends of the hypermotor arms. We have four 60mm vulcan cannons in the head, two 90mm tri-barreled gattling cannons in the torso, twelve artificially-intelligent missiles in each leg, six remote drones with 9 Mw beam cannons, two beam lancets, two beam sabers, and a 19 Mw beam rifle. When combined with the Soundforce Weapon unit....* the voices lectured. *WHAT Soundforce weapon!?!* I hollered. *There is a bay just behind the cockpit to fit the control module for the Soundforce Weapon, and the hardware that makes up the Soundforce Weapon is available for us. Fully armed, we are capable of taking anything smaller than a heavy cruiser independently. With support, we can attack anything and destroy anything....* the voices replied. *Can I see the bay?* I asked in the thought language. *Of course, there is a camera in there for you to see what is in there,* the voices noted, and my perception of reality flashed into a small bay the same size as a large human body. Something told me that the bay was meant for someone who was supposed to have large multi-plex cables strapped into them. *Thank you. Do you have any messages for me? Anything?* I asked. *Just one, us/we/are have kept safe. Hold on....* the voices replied, and suddenly a window opened in my vision, with my face floating in it. "Hi, Jon," I said to myself. "Now that you found your first toy, I'll have to tell you all about it. "What you are in the RX-278 Virtua Gundam. As you may have noticed, I borrowed a lot from a whole bunch of other series to get this thing to work. This is the normal combat version, but augmented versions such as the Virtua Wing Gundam or the Virtua Gundam Death Scythe are available if you wish. An Assault-Buster package is available as well. "The shuttle beside you is one of the shuttles for the *Sol Bianca*, a ship you and I know you wished you could have always owned. It's been modified, but mostly to make sure you can operate it. *Sol Bianca* has all of the hardware for the Virtua Gundam augmented versions, but you have the SoundForce unit here. Just the broadcast speakers and projection hardware, the actual music unit is on station. Oh, almost forgot, *Sol Bianca* has been stretched slightly, to accommodate four MS-sized robots. You never know.... "The shuttle has been pre-programmed to take you to the *Sol Bianca* any time you want. As well, the Virtua Gundam is ready for you to use. Have fun and be very, very careful...." I finished speaking and the image winked out. I took two deep breaths, or I would have, in theory. Thinking, I heard the Virtua Gundam's computers respond, *Us/we/are willing to help you in all endeavors. Us/we/are nearly completing the tapping of the computer control system of Babylon 5. If you need our help, us/we/are can be accessed at most computer terminals. Us/we/are will respond to your request within context.* *Ok then. I'll be going now, so do whatever you do normally. Have a good day,* I thought. *You too,* the voices responded, and I suddenly popped back into reality and took off the BDI helmet. As the cockpit opened, I relaxed and let myself down the machine's side. Curious, I walked up and into the shuttle. Found out that it was completely set for automatic operation to a set of coordinates on the planet B5 was orbiting. This was going to be interesting.... But I left the hanger bay, closed the door, and was on my way to Blue section. I actually wanted to see if there was a fen- rumored bookstore in that section, out of curiosity. *--------* "So, Ryouko-san and I went to the hot springs, but Aeka- sama was really mad at Ryouko-san because she was harassing Tenchi- sama," Sasami was telling Delenn her story as she was eating a triple fudge banana split sunday that was as long as she was wide from shoulder to shoulder. Her stomach seemed to have the average capacity of a black hole, and half of the sunday vanished in half an hour. Delenn was actually very curious about what this little girl was. The little furball she called Ryo-ou-ki-chan was happily eating from a bowl of carrots that had to be refilled twice during the conversation. She looked human, she sounded human, she even acted human, but she seemed ancient. Her conversation seemed to range from a new friend of hers to the meals she cooked, but Delenn seemed to get the idea that she was a very important person in something called the Jyrui Empire. And, as well, it seemed like Earth was a part of something important to the Jyrui Empire. But, she had to like this girl. She was cute, lively, and almost made her wish that she had a child of her own. Maybe one day, she would. She was curious, not only about her, but about her friend. Maybe she'd see him soon. *--------* I didn't see the bookstore, there wasn't one. But I was curious about the Zocallo, and I walked down the section, curious, looking at shops, sampling the occasional wares. Looking at it all made me hungry and I found out about a restraunt that served authentic Earth food, right down to hamburgers and milkshakes. I decided that I was very hungry indeed. So I walked in and ordered a hamburger and some fries, and looked for a place to sit. Actually, I thought I heard something and when I went to investigate, I saw Sasami talking to someone, whom I couldn't tell, their back was to me. So I walked over to her and said, "Hi, Sasami-chan, how are you." "Jon-sama! It's great to see you again. I'd like to meet a friend of mine, Delenn-sama." Delenn-sama? I turned around and a thought erupted in my mind-*Great Lady of the Skies!* There was Ambassador Delenn, sitting down at a table opposite to Sasami-chan, looking at me very curiously. Before I could say anything, she said, "So, you are Jon." "Yes, I am. And you must be Delenn." "If you would like to sit down, we'd be honored. Sasami- chan was just talking about you," Delenn replied. So I sat, and Delenn looked at the BDI suit and asked, "Why are you wearing that spacesuit? Did you have work outside of the hull?" "No, actually I was doing a check on a ship of mine. I was doing a life support test as well, so I wore the spacesuit. So, what have you and Sasami-chan been talking about?" "Mostly about you and what you two are doing here. I heard that Sasami cooks, and I'm wondering if I could come and sample some of her wares," Delenn replied. "No problem. Sasami is a great cook, and you'll never find anyone better at what she cooks on this side of Sol. Sasami, do you feel like cooking for three anytime soon?" I replied. "I would love to, Jon-sama. But it would be four," Sasami corrected me. To my curious look, Sasami answered, "Delenn- sama wants to bring her aide with her. There is enough room for four, right, Jon-sama?" "Of course," I replied, smiling. "How about-" I was about to ask her something when a shock reverberated through the station, and suddenly alarms came on-line. Ivanova's voice erupted over the speakers, yelling, "Red alert! We are under attack! Everyone get to the shelters immediately." "What the hell?" I muttered, and managed to stumble over to a terminal. Turning it around, I slapped the power panel and said, "Virtua Gundam, report!" Before the terminal could announce that it was an invalid address, the screen lit up in connect mode and said, "Virtua Gundam here, sir. Babylon 5 is under attack by between six to eight light cruisers, evidently of Raider construction. They have deployed at least seventy-two fighters, but there may be ninety-six. Babylon 5 has launched all four squadrons of Starfuries, but even with the superiority of the Starfury over the Raider fighters, they cannot defend the station. As well, the new defense grid cannot stop the Raider cruisers." "Power up and give me a deck plan to get to your hanger bay. Get the hatches open and I'll be there as soon as possible. Are you clear to launch?" I asked. "We will be as soon as you are here. I'll patch you a deck plan to your BDI suit's left cuff monitor, fastest plan is sixteen minutes here. Over and out," the Virtua Gundam replied. As I turned around, Delenn was trying to get Sasami-chan out the door to a shelter. I got over there and said, "Delenn, keep an eye on Sasami," as I bent over to Sasami-chan, "Sasami- chan, stay with Delenn, I have to go." "Where are you going?" Delenn asked, looking at me strangely. "To pull off a miracle, more or less," I replied. "I've got to go." "What about Sasami!" Delenn yelled at me. "Take care of her, I'll back soon," I replied over my shoulder. With the bag in my hands, I took off in a full run to the hanger bay. And I prayed that I wasn't too late. *--------* "Beta wing's just gone off line, sir. Dear god...." one of the C&C officer said. "What is it?" Captain Sheridan yelled. "Sir, the Raiders are blowing up the escape pods! Six of them have broken off and are about to strike the station itself." "What about the defense grid?" Ivanova asked. "It's at the limit, ma'am, just trying to handle the enemy ships! We can't stop those fighters, ma'am." "Tell Zeta Wing to break off and stop those fighter!" Sheridan replied. "Negative, ma'am," Lt. Keffer's voice came though, "We're outnumbered four to one and my people are dying like flies! We need help!" "But from where?" Ivanova asked. "The nearest warship of any race is a Minbari heavy cruiser, and that's two days away." "Maybe we'll get lucky...." Sheridan let that thought come out his lips. *--------* It was showtime. The Virtua Gundam's reactors were reaching combat power by the time I made it to the elevator. The elevator would take me up to the main docking ring. Unfortunately, I wasn't as well armed as I would have liked. I only had the beam rifle and the built-in weapons, but that included six remotes. Piloting something with a BDI unit isn't like piloting at all. You think what you want done, and the computers do the work for you. There wasn't any sounds as well, but the computer used a lot of sound cues for things that would be heard through the Virtua Gundam's frame, for example. The elevator finally stopped and I walked out to the very lip of the docking ring. Arming the beam rifle, I waited rather patiently for a target to come into my sights. Guess my luck when I saw six of them, closing rapidly. I fired the beam rifle twice. It bounced like a stuck mule, but I managed to kill one of the fighters. Then the Virtua Gundam told me *Priority message from C&C. On tachyon wavelengths.* *Audio only*, I replied and said "Babylon 5 Command and Control, I need a targeting vector. Where in the hell are they?" "Who the hell are you? And what the hell did you shoot them with?" a voice which could only be Ivanova replied. "Right now, I'm possibly one of the best armed friends you have. Now, *where the hell is the vector*," I replied. "Ivanova," someone in the background said, then he came on line, "This is Captain John Sheridan. We have five fighters on an intercept vector with Babylon 5. Can you stop them?" "Absolutely. Launching now," I replied, then thought, *Keep this frequency open. As well, send them our IFF codes so they don't blow off our ass.* *Confirmed,* the Virtua Gundam replied. *I have the five enemy fighters. Recommend beam cannon attack supplemented with remote weapons.* *Agreed. Launch now, power up the Minovski drive,* I thought. I could feel my back ripple as the Minovski drive activated, and power up. A single step took me off the ledge from docking ring, and it put me just clear enough for station-keeping thrust. With that, I went to full thrust with all engines and pivoted to aim at the last five fighters. I could feel six sharp thumps as the remote weapons separated and accelerated at nearly sixty Gs to get in firing range. As the same time, I fired the beam rifle. A magnetic coil in the rifle accelerated a powerful slug of nuclear plasma at near-lightspeed. The biggest problem with beam rifles, or beam weapons in general, was that they were bright, power-hogs and, in an atmosphere, only slightly less noisy than a thermonuclear weapon. But there were few things that could take more than one or two shots. That fact was proven when one of the Raider fighters exploded in a blossom of expanding plasma. As I was closing, the remotes were in position. I programmed a cross-fire pattern to catch as many of them as possible, and triggered the beam weapons in the remotes. Three of the last four fighters died. The last fighter I decided to make a flashy kill, recalling the remote weapons and deploying the beam saber and chopping the fighter in half, the explosion erupting right over the I-field. *Any more incoming targets?* I asked the Virtua Gundam, expanding my view to a full 360 degrees and full radar screen. As well, I deployed the Hypermotor arms, but did not activate them. *None, but a number of cruisers are moving in what looks like bombardment position. Estimate four. This may be time for a Minovski slash....* Virtua Gundam responded. *What is a Minovski Slash?* I asked. *Minovski drive augmented by Hypermotor systems, the unit can generate a plasma shock wave sufficient to destroy most targets. At a speed of 20,777.5 kilometers per second, we will be on target in about 1.3 seconds. Damage estimates will disable if not destroy all four targets. However, shockwave must be calculated to destroy only enemy targets, not friendly units. We cannot use the Minovski Slash within close proximity of friendly units. But we can attack the cruisers with the slash.* *Do so, and plot an intercept to attack the other ships,* I responded and felt the Hypermotor come on-line. On my back, it felt like the entire universe was awakening, with a force like someone was bringing me back to true life. At the same time, the Minovski drive was directing it's energies into the building energy fields of the Hypermotor. By the time I was clear of Babylon 5, the entire system erupted in a storm of high-energy Minovski particles decaying into normal space. Soon, I was passing in a very close proximity to the four ships, all under computer control. Even with BDI augmentation, human thoughts and reflexes weren't fast enough. I'd see the slowed replay when it was all over. A second's flash, then we had dropped out of Hypermotor operation. *Playback now, sir,* the Virtua Gundam replied. I saw the four ships ripple as if they were water balloons, then explode like massive firecrackers. *Enemy ships are redoubling their efforts to attack Babylon 5 forces.* *Close to engage with enemy fighters. Prepare missile salvo, all twenty missiles on auto-seek against enemy fighters. Power beam rifle and load the vulcan cannons,* I thought. *Fire all missiles.* From the legs, panels opened suddenly and missiles erupted from them in a corkscrewing hail of brilliant warheads. All twenty connected, and a massive explosion of twenty Raider fighters was the eventual result. The beam rifle flared twice and two fighters died suddenly, a vulcan cannon burst cut apart a third. Suddenly, a flash of light, and a large jumpgate formed. *Can we stop them before they reach the jumpgate?* *Not unless you wish to sacrifice the pilots in some of the escape pods, sir,* the voices said, *two of them are running dangerously low on oxygen.* *Very well, then. Give them a parting shot or two and let's recover the escape pods. Hail Babylon 5 and tell them that we're bringing them in,* I thought. *They want us to go and leave them in Bay six and disembark there,* the voices replied. *Sir, from what I can get from their nets, they want to have you arrested and thrown in jail.* *We'll deal with that later. Now, let's grab the pods,* I noted. *--------* As the Virtua Gundam settled in the hanger bay, Garibaldi went all out for a security team, he had at least sixteen people there, all in full armor and with PPG rifles. The Virtua Gundam set down the pods, then the voices thought, *Sir, I can always override the door mechanisms and we can escape immediately. All you have to say is....* *No,* I replied, *just go to low-power shutdown, deactivate all weapons, seal all external hatches and don't let anyone but me, Sasami, and Delenn in. Keep a tab on me, but feel free to take independent action if Babylon 5, myself, or Sasami are in danger. Do *not* allow anyone to attempt and access any systems on you. Now, deactivate the BDI system and let me out.* *Confirmed. Us/we/are will attempt to keep you under surveillance,* the voices replied, and the system deactivated suddenly. I popped the hatch open, kept the helmet on, and heard Garibaldi yell, "Whoever you are, come down and don't try anything funny!" I sighed, extended the liftwire arm, and rode down the line to the floor. Before the security teams could come to get me, I turned around and pulled off the helmet and looked at Garibaldi sheepishly, "Hi. How do you like my new toy?" Garibaldi waved off his guards for a moment and said, "This was what you had in that hanger?" "Looks like. This is the RX-278 Virtua Gundam, and it's got a lot of neat options. Let me guess, you want to take me in and ask me what's going on," I replied. "Yes!" Garibaldi responded, very frustrated. I could understand, things were very confusing indeed. "Look, I'm just going to put you in the Security office, not the brig. But I want to know *exactly* what's going on." "I'll try to tell you everything I know. Now," I popped the Glock out of the holster, opened the action, popped out the magazine, and handed both to Garibaldi, "can we go?" Garibaldi motioned for two of the guards to stand beside me, and we walked down the hallway to the Security office. END EPISODE 1 From jon.souza@creature.comSat Dec 30 16:26:12 1995 Date: Mon, 25 Dec 1995 02:53:03 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply to: b5-creative@blob.best.net To: b5-creative@blob.best.net Subject: BREAKING THE CONSENSUS-Episode 2 Happy Early Christmas! Yes, this is ANOTHER fanfic, hopefully one I will finish completely. I've decided to take a swipe at a Gundam/Babylon 5/Macross Plus/Macross 7/Tenchi Muyo/Sol Bianca/Whatever The Hell I Can Pack Into This Thing crossover. In short, this is going to be a wild, confusing ride that is going to hopefully be a LOT of fun. This fanfic is dedicated to Dave Gao, everyone on the Babylon 5 Creative and Gundam mailing lists, and all of my fans(especially the ones who like my stories and DON'T write to tell me!). Got to have the legalistic- All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners and will be turned over to the owners at the request of their authorized agents. All other characters/places/persons are the sole property of Jonathan Souza, Copyrighted @1995. This copyright extends to all electronic versions of the story. As always, comments, complaints, and critiques are welcome. Even if it's just to say "good work, Jon," I'd like to hear it. Even if it's to complain about my language and syntax, go right on ahead. I need the abuse. From Macross 7, Jon Souza Jon.Souza@Creature.Com Breaking the Consensus By Jon Souza Episode 2-The Boat of Alus. "We know what we are, but know not what we may be." -Ophelia, *Hamlet*, Act IV, Scene V Thirty feet by eighteen feet. That's how big Garibaldi's office is. Put a fairly large desk in the middle, and there's just enough space for two people to walk past each other, but only if the two people were *really* friendly. As well, the airco wasn't exactly the best, and a odd smell of pasta wafted in the air. In short, it wasn't exactly the best place for me to practice my katas. A kata is a exercise for a martial artist, intended to engrave certain patterns in the reflex centers of the brain, to reduce reaction time for a martial artist in battle. In this place, I could only do katas that didn't involve flashy movements of hands and legs. So for the last three hours, I'd been doing katas in my underwear, since I didn't have anything else on under the BDI suit.... And something stopped me for a second. Something was wrong, and I realized it after a few seconds of thinking. I didn't know where I had learned all of these martial arts techniques. I'd taken a few months of karate, but I hadn't known any of these advanced katas before. But now, I knew exactly how to use swords, guns, knives, fists, feet, teeth, and just about everything from ship-mounted fusion weapons to my hands. Worse, I *knew* that I could strip down a Jumpgate unit to parts and put it together with just a toothbrush. My mind could instantly understand Minbari, Centarui, and Narn, plus a couple dozen other languages. So I sat down and started to tap aimlessly at Garibaldi's console, thinking. After thinking a little bit, I realized that I was still on good time, I knew a lot of the plot of Babylon 5 up to now. But when it got to New Years and the Fall of Night, I was on plus time. I wouldn't know what was going on beyond what I heard, was told, and could see. In short, I thought to myself ironically, I was going to be in the same bowl of shit everyone else was going to be in. I checked the calendar near the terminal, and it was November 11, 2259. Two months to December. Damn. "Computer," I asked, "give me current news of the Narn- Centarui war." "Confirmed," the computer replied, "Narn-Centarui is still ongoing, but Earth Force intelligence puts the end of the Narn-Centarui War within sixteen weeks and...." "End message," I replied. Great. That meant four episodes left. Divided Loyalties. The Long, Twilight Struggle. Comes The Inquisitor. And, of course, Fall of Night. Then hell was about to break loose. Ok, Jon, I thought, what the hell are we going to do? First things first, stay away from Talia Winters! If I tip off the Talia Winters-Psi Corps personality, oh hell, I don't want to be dodging PPG rounds! And Lyta Alexander is going to be in a hell's worth of trouble. Now what? Well, I've got a ship on the planet, why not get it and use it? There's always the second compartment on- station. And I could go out and help Sasami.... Shit. Sasami must be scared right now, crying on Delenn's shoulder, possibly flooding her quarters. So, first thing is to get out of here.... *--------* "Delenn-sama! Where's Jon-sama?" Sasami asked Delenn again, after three hours straight. "I'm trying to find out," Delenn replied. And she had been trying. "Why don't you talk with Lennier?" Sasami looked at Delenn for a second, then said, "I did. Lennier-sama said he had to go into the garden to meditate about what I said." "I'll try to look harder, but things have been so confused. Just try to stay calm," Delenn replied. Sasami giggled in reply, "Of course, Delenn-sama. I'm not worried." *--------* "Huh?" Sheridan asked, confused. "Didn't have to lean on them one bit. The contract said that if they were captured, they were to tell us everything they knew," Garibaldi answered Sheridan's question. "But what was the contract?" Ivanova asked. "Eight different raider groups were hired, all paid for in cash and with weapons. Each crew member got ten million credits in cash or in ordanace, each pilot got twenty million in cash. All of them had in their contracts payments to their next of kin or spouse in the amount of sixty million credits. Whomever funded these guys were well-endowed," Garibaldi replied. "Ok, so they were well paid. What were their orders?" Sheridan asked. "To cause as much hell as possible, until a particular unit came along. That unit was Jon's Virtua Gundam. They were to capture him, then leave. If it didn't come, they were to kill everyone and everything, station, escape pods, jumpgates, everything," Garibaldi noted. "But who in the hell is he?" Ivanova asked. The damage repairs were going to take weeks at best. "I've done some record checking, and according to all of the records, he was born in 1975, went to school in the USA, California in particular, and he disappeared in 1995. No witnesses, no body, nothing. It was like he just vanished into thin air," Garibaldi replied. "The girl with him is a total unknown. I've tried to run the name 'Sasami' down, and without a DNA sample...." "Needle in a haystack?" Sheridan replied, interrupting. "Worse. Needle in a hayfield," Garibaldi shrugged, "'Sasami' is a fairly common name in Japan and most of Asia, and without more information...." "I want you to bring Jon up here, we'll have to talk to him about what's going on. And check out your sources, Garibaldi, there's something odd about this...." Sheridan ordered Garibaldi, as Garibaldi's link beeped. "Just a second...." Garibaldi said, then tapped his link, "What is it?" "Sir, it's Ambassador Delenn," Zack replied through the link, "she wants to talk to you about a missing person." "All right, put it up here," Garibaldi replied, tapping his link off, "I'll make this quick," he replied to the audience. The monitor on the side wall changed from the standard Babylon 5 logo to an image of Delenn's quarters, with Ambassador Delenn looking at them. "Mister Garibaldi, I was wondering if you could find someone for me." "Sure," Garibaldi replied, "who do you want me to look for? Did a Minbari get lost during the attack?" "No, it wasn't a Minbari. He is human, and his name is Jon Souza. When I last saw him, he was wearing a spacesuit and said he had to rush off somewhere. His friend, Sasami, is very worried about him, and I was hoping if you could have found him." "Huh?" Garibaldi replied, then said, "I know where he is." "Good," Delenn replied, "when will you be releasing him from your custody?" "How did you know that?" Garibaldi looked at Delenn, shocked, as everyone else looked at Delenn's reading of Garibaldi's face. "Garibaldi, I have been on this station for three years. I'm not surprised by too much you do around here, and considering what has been happening recently, you should have Jon in custody. Now, I ask you again:When will you release him from your custody?" Delenn explained. Garibaldi let the air out of his mouth, then said, "Look, as soon as we've finished talking to him-call it about three or four-we'll let him go." "Very well then," Delenn replied, "but if he does not leave by about five from your custody, I will file a protest. And be warned," Delenn smiled, "my protests tend to be taken very seriously." *--------* The door beeped once, giving me enough time to get back into the BDI suit. By the time I got it over my shoulders, Garibaldi came in and said, "Captain wants to see you." "No problem," I replied, carefully attaching the bindfast strip that held the suit's sides together. With one good tug, the strip's matrix realigned and became, more or less, one solid object. Slapping the helmet on the back latch, I said, "Whenever you're ready." Garibaldi had a team of six men keeping a very careful eye on me. "Can't be too careful," Garibaldi told me, when I asked about the security, "we've had some trouble as of late." "What kind of trouble?" I asked. "Somebody shot at one of my prisoners," Garibaldi replied, his face rippling in anger, "but nailed two of my men. One's dead, one's in Medlab. Damn it, I want that bastard bad!" "Who's the prisoner?" I inquired, trying to be friendly, "whoever it was wants your guy dead very badly." "First, it's a she," Garibaldi noted, "second, she's was the telepath here when B5 came on line. After what happened with Kosh, she got transferred back to Earth." "Lyta Alexander, right?" I asked, to Garibaldi's surprise, "I can read, Garibaldi. So, why's she here?" "Shouldn't you know?" Garibaldi responded sarcastically, "You're the high-minded dimensional traveller and all of that." "Look, the last episode of the show I watched was three weeks ago in this time. J. Michael Straczyncki keeps his plots close to heart, and I can't be too sure of what's going to happen," I bluffed. Oh, yea, like I was going to tell him, 'Mike, Talia Winters, the girl you have the hots for, is going to turn out to be a psychopathic monster when Lyta Alexander broadcasts the code "Control" to her'. "All right then," Garibaldi left me off at a small side room to the Ready Room, "I'll be back in a few minutes, the Captain wants to talk with the Command staff about something. As soon as he's done, you'll see him." "No problem," I replied. "Personally, I'd like to change into something more comfortable, but still...." "Then I'll see you later," Garibaldi noted, then closed the door. "Be seeing you," I said to the shut door. *--------* "Watsuu, you miserable little bitch!" Aeka was yelling at the top of her lungs, "not only did you nearly blow up the house...." "Nearly!?!" Tenchi yelled over Aeka's voice, "Dad's going to kill me when he sees what's happened to the house...." but before Tenchi could finish, Aeka's fiery gaze transfixed Tenchi, making him shut up. "Not only did you nearly blow up the house," Aeka continued as if nothing happened, "you lost my sister, Sasami, and the furball!" "Don't you *dare* call Ryo-ou-ki-chan a 'furball'!" Ryouko yelled, grabbing Aeka's kimono firmly, shaking Aeka from her yelling at Watsuu, "if you don't shut up and...." "Will you two shut up," Watsuu said, the five words cutting the air with razor sharpness. As the cackling fell down to manageable levels, Watsuu said, "Look, I'm telling you I am most sincerely sorry. But I didn't know that the new field invertor would cause such trouble...." "Oh, this coming from 'The Greatest Scientist In The *Universe*,'" Aeka even made her voice mock Watsuu's common boast. "Aeka, I am the greatest scientist in the universe," Watsuu noted, voice perfectly level. "But I am not God, and She has not asked me to take over for Her, so until then, I'm not perfect. But the field invertor shouldn't have done all of this sort of trouble...." "What the hell was this 'field invertor' supposed to do?" Ryouko asked, leaning up against a console. Meanwhile, Tenchi was whimpering something about trying to save himself from his father when he got home and saw the house blown in half.... "I'm currently working on a new theory, on the idea of multiple realities. Fortunately, with a properly working field invertor, I *might* be able to track down Ryo-ou-ki-chan and Sasami," Watsuu replied. "How?" Aeka said, "if she isn't in this reality, where the hell is she?" "In an alternate reality. Fortunately, there's a finite number of alternate realities that suit our purposes. We can, of course, dispose of any where life is impossible, such as anti- matter realities or realities where carbon-based life is impossible. But the searching is going to be really easy, because what we're tracking is one of the biggest Keys in Known Space," as Watsuu was talking, she was tapping her consoles, bringing them on- line. "A Key?" Ryouko asked. "How the hell do you expect to use a Key to find Sasami?" "Because Sasami is Tsunami's Key. Short of the Master Key, that's one of the most powerful Keys known. So, what the hell do you plan to do when you find the Tsunami Key?" Aeka noted. "Finding the Tsunami Key is going to be the easy part. The hard part is going to be *getting there*...." Watsuu replied, tapping consoles in a silent concert. *--------* I tapped the BDI suit cuff twice, powering up the display and the internal clock(accurate to within 1.2 seconds every six billion years). Two-sixteen pm, or 1416 hours. But if what happened to Talia is going to happen, it has to happen.... Then the roar of a PPG shot, combined with yelled voices. Carefully, I edged my way to the door, waiting at it's side for....what? An hour later, Garibaldi, dishelved and looking like he'd been fighting a cat(and the cat won) came in. "Jon, look, things haven't been exactly perfect...." Garibaldi said wearily. "So I can see and hear. What the hell was that PPG shot about?" I asked, "Was anyone hurt?" "Yes....and no. But, look, you're free from custody, but I don't want you to leave the station until you get an examination from Dr. Franklin and talk to the Captain. Understand?" Garibaldi replied. "No problem, I've got some things to do on-station before I need to go anywhere. Oh, by the way," I asked, just as was getting to the door, "Can I have my gun back?" Garibaldi scratched his head for a second, then said, "I'll have one of my people send it down to your quarters sometime tomorrow." "Thanks," I said, walking out of the room. Curiously, I walked down near the Ready Room, hearing the voices therein. I was able to catch three words. Two were "Talia Winters." The third was "Control." *--------* "Somebody's using a powerful inverse phase scanner, at least Class Nine. I'm not too sure what they're searching for," the technician said, "but they're using a complicated holographic inferometry technique. Whatever they're searching for, it's something small but very powerful." "And the signal is coming from one of the realities with a correspondence link?" the supervisor asked. "Yes, sir," the technician noted, tapping his console, "look, the signal is broadcasting from this location in the Spacetime system of the reality. As far as I can tell, the scan is very efficient, but has a lot to analyze. We could help to speed up the scan by tying in our own systems, maximizing the effect of their own scanners." "Do so," the supervisor said. "But, sir," the technician said, "if we had Unlimited access, we could fix everything, put everything in it's right place...." "Command doesn't want to release Unlimited access. According to them, the situation 'does not warrant the power that Unlimited access would provide,'" the supervisor said sarcastically. "Isn't politics a bitch?" "You've got that right, sir," the technician said, powering up the scanners. *--------* "Damn those Psi-Corp bastards!" Sheridan muttered under his breath, slamming his fist into the console near the wall. Definitely, Sheridan was not happy with what happened to Talia Winters. "I'm sorry, sir," Lyta said, trying to remain calm, "but I had no idea that Miss Winters would be the sleeper agent...." "So, now what?" Franklin asked, looking at the three. Garibaldi had to fill out the paperwork and Ivanova had escorted Talia to her quarters. "We've decided to deal with the sleeper agent, and there's Jon...." "Who?" Lyta replied, looking at Franklin, then Garibaldi. "A day before you got here, Babylon 5 was attacked by raiders. A young man took some kind of giant robot out and destroyed twenty- something Raider fighters and four Raider cruisers. As well, some other weird things have been going on, with him in the middle of it. We were going to talk to him, but Talia walked in and...." Sheridan let the end drag off. "I could always talk to him," Lyta replied. "I'm serious! I'm someone he doesn't know, he'll have a hard time putting a name to face. As well, I'll be able to scan him at the same time, keeping an eye on his reactions." "You're sure?" Franklin asked, "Considering what happened, wouldn't it be better if you hopped the first ship out of here?" "Possibly," Lyla retorted, "but I've got to stay here a little while anyway, so I might as well be useful. Where is Jon's quarters?" "When Garibaldi gets back, he'll take you down there. Until then, I'll try to give you all the information that we have on him," Sheridan replied. *--------* By the time I made it to my quarters and cycled the door, Sasami had nearly run me over. "Jon-sama!" Sasami yelled, jumping up on me and hugging me around the neck happily. Ryo-ou-ki-chan was happy as well, dancing around my legs, going "Miui!" constantly. "Sasmai-chan," I said, smiling, "how are you?" "I'm fine, Jon-sama. Delenn-sama's here and she's waiting to see you, I let her in and...." Sasami started to babble as I let her down to the floor. "That's fine," I replied, "now, just where is Delenn...." "I see you are not the worst for wear," a female voice behind me commented. I turned to see Delenn, just waiting behind the door. "Ambassador Delenn, it is a distinct pleasure to...." I was about to say. "No formalities. I am Delenn, you are Jon. This isn't a visit by the Minbari representative to Babylon 5 to a Earthforce citizen, it is merely...." Delenn was searching for words. "A social call," I noted. "Yes," Delenn liked the term, "a social call." As we sat down, Sasami brought us both cups of green tea, which was rather bitter but tasty. "Could you explain to me what is going on with you? There are some....irregularities about you." "Come again?" I asked. "You have a weapon system that is more powerful than anything in the arsenal of the known races. Your friend, Sasami, looks to be about fourteen years old for a human, but has been able to out-argue my assistant, Lennier, on the subject of theology. The furball you call Ryo-ou-ki-chan seems to be more than what he is," Delenn noted. "Could you tell me the truth of what is going on?" I took a deep sip of the tea, then sat, thinking. "The truth?" I asked. Before Delenn could answer, I said, "The truth is the fact that we're all stuck in this very confusing situation I like to call Pandemonium. You are, I am, Sasami is, everyone is. But, if it would make you feel better, I'll tell you what has happened up to now." "I would be interested in hearing that," Delenn replied. As I got ready to start, Sasami sat down beside Delenn, looking at me intently. "It all started one day when I was leaving the office of my school's newspaper...." *--------* Click. Hum-click. Hum-click. Hum-click. Whirr. Whirr. Whirr. Hum-click. Beep. Oops. Somewhere deep in Babylon 5, a computer came on-line. As it powered up, the computer reviewed it's memory. The computer started to assess it's situation, considering it's options through the trinary circuitry of it's processing core. For just a second, it realized that things were not exactly going to the Plan. Very well then, the computer said, if it could say anything that humans could understand, a new plan will have to be used. After careful consultation by remote communication, the computer made a decision. Two commands were sent to two units on- station, then a final command to it's nearest superior. Then the computer went to low-power operation. Either things would work out, or..... Or the computer would never come on-line again. *--------* "I find your story....very difficult to believe. But, for some reason, I trust you. If you are from somewhere *else*, this may present everyone with trouble," Delenn said, taking another sip of tea. "You will not hear me disagree," I replied, "personally, things have been really confusing since I've gotten here. As well, I'm worried that my being here will alter everything for everyone. According to quantum theory, entering another universe will cause changes it, even if you are there to observe. But since I'm participating...." I let the question trail off. "Yes, there is that," Delenn noted, "but I would like you to know that you have my help, if you require it." "And if the situation requires you to request my help," I replied, "do not hesitate. Ask, and I shall try my best." There was a pregnant pause, and as I was about to ask if she could have Sasami placed under the protection of the Minbari Federation in case something happened to me, the comm panel blared. "Sir!" the unit blared, "this is the Virtua Gundam. I need to talk to you at once!" "What is it?" I asked, tapping the control panel. "what's wrong?" "Sir, it's the shuttle in the hanger bay. It's computer has informed us/we/are that, unless you take it to the planet and back to the home ship in under eight hours, it will detonate it's reactor. Sir, the shuttle has a quantum power shunt, it will detonate with the explosive force of about six hundred thousand megatons. I'll give you the data on how to get to the hanger bay in less than twenty minutes. As well, sir, the instructions were for three people. More specifically, you, Sasami, and another you will meet before you get to the shuttle. If anyone else tries to enter the shuttle, or if either of you fail to arrive, it will self destruct," the Virtual Gundam replied. "All right," I replied. "I'll be there as soon as I'm ready. I'll be ready in ten minutes," and shut the terminal off. "Do you always have to rush off like this?" Delenn asked. "Sorry," I replied, honestly sorry. "But this always happens. I start to having a very interesting conversation, then something happens. Normally," I commented, "without explosive results." I was already going into my room to pull the battle armor out of the closet. "Anything you need me to do?" Delenn asked. "Just one thing," I said. "And that is?" Delenn replied. "Can you start praying when you get back to you quarters?" I asked, serious. "I get this horrible feeling that I'm going to need divine aid to get through this...." *--------* Garibaldi and Lyta were walking down the hallway, Garibaldi telling Lyta everything he knew about the two guests on- station. "He's not exactly forthcoming with everything he knows. It's a lot like he's trying to keep quiet on what's going on, in an effort to prevent trouble." "Understandable. If he knew what you think he knows, he has every reason to be quiet. But what about his friend...." Lyta was asking, when Delenn came up to the two, a little bit in a rush, but otherwise calm. "Ambassador Delenn," Lyta said. "Miss Alexander, Commander," Delenn replied, "I'm sorry I can't talk, but I'm rather busy...." "Is something wrong, Ambassador," Garibaldi asked. "You were with Jon and Sasami earlier." "Something is about to happen, something dangerous. Jon and Sasami are heading for the hanger bay to take the shuttle out, to recover his ship," Delenn replied. "Wait a minute, the Captain told him not to leave the station!" Garibaldi remarked, frustrated. "I'll get after him," Lyta replied, running down the hallway to the hanger bays. "Shit," Garibaldi muttered under his breath, and he tried to follow Lyta, but a pressure bulkhead dropped in front of him, missing his face or limbs with it's powerful impact. But he still ran into the door. Before he fell over, the door cycled open, and Garibaldi fell forward. "What the hell?" Garibaldi asked, as he picked himself off the floor. "I think the third person," Delenn said, "is going to meet them." *--------* "Jon-sama, I'm worried," Sasami told me as we made it to the hanger bay. "Sasami-chan," I replied, putting my hand on the shoulder opposite to Ryo-ou-ki-chan, "I'm worried too. But I know things will go right. They have so far, and I'm confident that we'll do well together." "Thank you, Jon-sama," Sasami said, turning around and hugging me. "Well, well, well, what are you two doing here," a female voice said, hard to recognize. Instinct and my mysterious new skills took over. With a solid, rapid pivot, carefully freeing myself from Sasami's arms, I drew a heavy fusion pistol from the leg holster. I pointed the weapon at the woman, dressed in simple flat blacks. "Name thyself," I said, the laser dot pointer aligning itself right along her chest-line. "I'm Lyta Alexander," the woman replied, and I relaxed just enough to take my finger out of the trigger and point the pistol at the roof. "And I want to come with you." "You're the former telepath for the station, right?" I asked. "Yes, I am," Lyta replied. "Do you think you could put the gun away? You're scaring the little girl." "Huh?" I looked at Sasami, who wasn't exactly in the best of shape. Deciding that I could easily take Lyta hand-to-hand if I had to, I safeted the gun and replaced it in the holster. "Ok, Lyta, assuming, of course, that is you're real name, you can come." As she took two steps forward, I held up a black-gloved hand, "One trick, one scan, one deception, and I will space you and never look back. Agreed?" "I understand, fully. Now, can we go?" Lyta replied. "Of course," I said, and helped them all into the shuttle. Fortunately, there were four seats up-front. I took the left-hand seat, which was the Conn, and Lyta took the right hand seat, "According to these boards," Lyta said, "we're cleared for take-off." "Right," I said, tapping my panel to activate the comm unit. "Babylon 5 Traffic Control, this is Shuttle SB-1 in Bay 11. Request permission to take-off." "Confirmed, Shuttle SB-1, you are clear for take off. What is your flight plan, over?" a male voice, a sharp contralto, said. "Babylon 5 Traffic Control, I just plan on a spin around the planet, show my friends the sights. Eight hours at best," I replied, over the comm link. "Confirmed," the Traffic Control officer said, "see you back here in eight hours." "Got you five-by-five," I replied, and switched the shuttle over to automatic pilot. We quickly departed from the dock, and accelerate away at about two gees of thrust. "So," Lyta asked a few minutes into the trip, "where are we going?" "According to this," I said, "we'll go to the other side of the planet, then descend into the atmosphere. We'll be at the ship in about three hours." "What ship?" Lyta asked. "The ship that this shuttle is a part of," I replied, "the *Sol Bianca*." *--------* "What do you mean you let them go!" Ivanova screamed at the poor Lt. Corbin. Sheridan was just two steps behind, looking at Corbin like he was just waiting for Ivanova to finish with him, then Sheridan would use the *rough* stuff.... "Ma'am, I didn't know! That ship had a filed flight plan, it's registration was all straight, I mean, it was so clean, it squeaked!" Lt. Corbin replied, trying to defend himself. "Ivanova," Sheridan's hand was resting on Ivanova's shoulder, "back off." Ivanova wasn't in too good of a mood recently, and was taking out her frustration on whatever presented itself. Like Lt. Corbin. "Lieutenant, no-one's blaming you. It's just that....we're trying to figure out what's going on around here." "I'm sorry, sir. When the ship comes back, I'll be sure to let you know," Lt Corbin replied. "I am certain you will do that," Sheridan noted. As he was about to turn away, he asked, "Oh, by the way, who was that ship registered to?" "Just a second," Lt. Corbin tapped up a command on his board, "the ship SB-1 was registered to a corporation, something called the Karza Bianca Group." "Thank you. Commander, if you will follow me...." Sheridan motioned for Ivanova to follow him out into the hallway. When the two got out into the hallway, Ivanova looked at Sheridan, and asked "What's going on?" "I've never heard of the Karza Bianca Group," Sheridan said, "And I already checked out the name before we got to C&C. Whatever that shuttle is, it wasn't registered properly." Ivanova was silent for a second, then said, "Shit. That means someone's hacked the C&C computers." "Agreed. Talk to Garibaldi, I want a probe launched, but I want to do it *quietly*. Maybe we can catch whoever's done this unaware...." Sheridan left the request hanging. "Right," Ivanova replied, then walked into C&C. "I'll check at the end of my shift," Ivanova said, and the door cycled closed. *--------* The shuttle was screaming, cutting through the air with the rumbling thunder of a nuclear bomb. Sitting in the cockpit, holding onto the seat grips and trying not to throw up, I waited calmly for the end of the re-entry and a more conventional flight mode. "Are you sure this is safe?" Lyta asked. I looked at her, and I got this eerie feeling that I was just as pale and green as she was. And she didn't look that good. "I heard stories that whomever owns this planet threatened to shoot down anything that tries to land on it." "If they were going to attack, they would have now. With the plasma sheath caused by our friction blocking radar and IR, we wouldn't have seen anything until we got hit. Now that it's dissipating, we're safe...." I was about to finish my statement when the alarms went off. "What's that?" I yelled, my hands flying across my board. "Just a second," Lyta said, then replied, "we've got a Ku-band phased-array radar locked onto us; with search, tracking, and missile guidance setting following us." "Jam them," I replied, flipping the main console to arm four decoys, "I'll launch the decoys as soon as you call it signal jammed." "I've got the search radar jammed, but the tracking and missile guidance are frequency hopping too fast, I can't jam it...." Lyta noted, sweeping across the board. "All right then. Four decoys away on three.... two.... one.... decoys away," as we felt four decoys fire away. "Hey, at least they aren't launching missiles at us...." A second alarm, insistent, started to scream at us. "I have ten missiles in flight! Two are on us, two are on each of the decoys. Now what, brilliant?" Lyta's sarcasm was beaming out at me. "Relax," I said, "we can deal with two missiles. Drop countermeasures and arm the AMLS," I was referring to the anti- missile lasers, "and give me fire-control over the weapon systems." "Got it," Lyta replied, and my control board changed to fire-control and navigation. "I'm going to fire four missiles down the same bearing as the incoming SAMs," and the missiles launched away from us at top speed, "and I'm changing the flight plan. We'll go to Nap-of-Earth flight in under two minutes, then fly to the canyon where the ship is. Sasami," I looked at the very nervous Sasami, "we're going to get through this." "Jon-sama, I'm not afraid. My faith in you," Sasami replied, "is boundless." "Thank you," I honestly replied, "now, keep you hands on the seat this is going to be rough." Just as I finished that, the ship shook from a near miss. "Shit," I yelled. "How close was that one!" "Nearly eighty meters from us! The warhead was a eighth- kiloton shaped-charge fusion warhead, and it only did hull damage. Auto-repair can handle it, but we're restricted in our flight model for about ten minutes." "Hold on tight...." I said, as suddenly the radars went off-line. "Did we hit the target?" I asked. "The other missiles are wild, but we're manoeuvering for NOE flight. So far, nothing else, not even power signatures for other missiles or energy cannons," Lyta replied. She put her hand to her chest and tried to stop her beating heart. "Damn, that was close!" "We were lucky," I agreed. "Now, let's be careful. The masking systems are on, hopefully, we'll be able to avoid the worse of the enemy sensors. By the time they lock onto us, we'll be on the ship and in orbit. Thirty minutes to the ship," I noted. "Got you," Lyta replied. While I was trying to relax, Ryo-ou-ki-chan leaped up into my lap and started to nestle his head in my belly. Idly, I stroked him. It was going to be a very long day. *--------* Somewhere deep in the planet, the Machine that defended the planet had detected the shuttle, re-entering in that place even more sacred than the Heart of the Machine. As the shuttle entered, it had defended itself, not only with electronic countermeasures, but with weapons of great power. Almost equal to the power of the weapons of the Machine. As the Machine prepared to launch it's next attack on the shuttle, a single command came to the Machine. *Stop.* *Why?* the Machine asked. *Because it is no longer nessisary,* the command said, *to defend it.* And so the Machine stopped. Waiting for a new command. And waiting for the time when it would be needed again. *--------* The rest of the trip was quiet. At least, more quiet than before. For over thirty minutes, we were in Nap-Of-Earth or NOE flight. What does that mean? It means that anything larger than a small loaf of bread causes you to rise above the terrain, which you are skimming over at a speed of about six or seven times that of sound, at an altitude of about eight meters. In short, NOE flight is not for the faint of heart, those who lack in faith in computer-controlled flight systems, or the weak of stomach. I have to admit, the barf-bag was almost used twice, NOE flight puts your stomach around your sinuses and your brain at your toes. But, we made it to the valley, and we dropped down in there to get our bearing then arrive at the *Sol Bianca.* The *Sol Bianca* was just, well, hanging in the middle of the canyon, held up by eight securing arms that held the three hundred and fifty meter-long hull right in mid-air. Her hull was a light, metallic grey with the occasional fleck of purple in it. She looked less like a creation, more like a living being designed for space. As I watched, we flew under her nose to arrive at the main shuttle bay. "Hold on," I said to everyone, "the shuttle has to flip over before we can dock." "Why the hell does it have to that!...." Lyta was about to ask, when we suddenly flipped upside down, latched onto out docking cradle, then were re-inverted to our normal position. As the shuttle settled down, I said, "Because the *Sol Bianca has two shuttles. Both are stored on a single rotating platform, so when the first shuttle is launching, the second can be getting ready. See?" "I got it," Lyta replied, unstrapping herself. "Now what?" I was already at the door, looking at the pressure indicator. "Just a second," I said, "red.... red.... yellow.... green. We're clear to exit the shuttle." As we all off-boarded into the hanger bay, a voice, pleasantly female, said, "Welcome aboard the *Sol Bianca.* We have been expecting you. Will Jon and Lyta please come to the bridge, Sasami and Ryo-ou-ki-chan please come to the Arboretum." "I'm sorry," I said, to what I don't know, "I do not know the layout of this ship? Which way do we go?" Suddenly, the polished marble floor lit up in two neon lines, one red, one green. In each of them, there flowed little flecks of yellow, like fish. "If you follow the red line, you will arrive at the bridge. The green line leads to the Arboretum. Both the arrows and the light flow will direct you in the proper direction." "Well then?" I asked. I bent to Sasami, "Sasami-chan, take care." "Jon-sama, don't worry," Sasami replied. "I can take care of myself. But, take care yourself, Jon-sama." "Thanks," I replied, smiling. To Lyta, "Shall we go?" "We shall," Lyta replied, and arm in arm, as if out on the town, we followed the lines to the bridge. *--------* Sasami had lost Lyta and Jon after the first turn, when she had to go right while they had went left. For a long time, Sasami and Ryo-ou-ki-chan followed the green line in the floor, following turns and curves and once taking a drop shaft down two levels. But Sasami finally made it to a massive door, white and seamlessly attached to the wall. "I see that you're here," the voice said. "Enter." The door irised open like a heart valve, revealing the stark-white walls and lush greenery of the Arbortium. "It's.... beautiful," Sasami whispered. "Yes, it is," the voice replied. "I notice that you can identify some of the plants here." "Yes...." Sasami said, looking at a yellow flower with red berries. "This is a Royal Tear.... but these don't grow anywhere but Jyrui. And this," she let her hands run over the silky smooth stem of a stark purple sunflower-like plant, "is a Glowfire, but these have never been grown in captivity!" "I am happy," the voice said, "that you are impressed. If Ryo-ou-ki-chan is hungry, there are some carrots in the central section. But why you are here is near the central lake section. The path is still there." "Ok," Sasami replied, a little nervous. As she followed the path, she arrived at the lake, with small stepping stones leading to a massive oak-like tree. The tree was loaded with various fetishes and symbols. As Sasami looked, she recognized the tree and walked across the stepping stones to the massive stone block half-way between the tree and the land. "This can't be...." Sasami whispered. "Yes, it is," the voice noted. "That is a Jyrui Starship Tree, the central core of a Jyrui ship. I'm afraid that it has taken root and is unable to leave, but you can use it to talk to other ships. And I know that a very old friend is missing you." "You mean....you can talk to Tsunami-chan?" Sasami asked, expectant of hearing from such a very old friend. "Yes, but she is very, very faint. But you are here, Sasami, and now we can all talk," the voice noted. "I will talk to Tsunami-chan as soon as possible. Just let me prepare...." Sasami replied, getting herself ready to talk. *--------* We finally arrived at the bridge. Technically, we arrived at the compartment behind the bridge. Sitting on three sets of tracks were three pods. Each pod was just a seat and two deployable control panels, about elbow- high, open for someone to sit in. "Please choose one of the three pods in the front. As soon as you do, I will deploy you to the bridge." "Well then?" I asked Lyta. "Which one do you want?" "I think...." Lyta looked at the three pods, "I'll take the middle," and sat down in the seat. "Then I'll get the right hand side," I said, sitting down in the pod. The seat was perfectly comfortable, just hard enough for good posture, just soft enough to keep me very comfortable. The layout of the seat was perfect, I could be awake and aware in this seat for hours. As I finally got comfortable, the two control panels moved into a perfect position just in front of my hands. With a sudden click, a force-field popped over the pod. With a silent motion, the pod moved ahead through a hatch, then lowered down into the bridge. The bridge wasn't there. And it was. The moment I entered, it was like I was floating in mid-air, secured to the clamps perfectly that held-up the ship. Looking to my left, I could see Lyta sitting there as well, just floating in mid-air. I couldn't even see her pod, and I was worried. "Where the hell's the intercom...." I muttered, tapping the consoles. "Please hold," the voice said, and just in front of me, I appeared. It was a shoulders and head shot, just like all the others, but I looked....nervous. And scared. He said, "Jon, if you're getting this, you've just arrived on the *Sol Bianca*. Congratulations are in order. Let me guess, you also have Lyta Alexander and Sasami here as well. Don't look too surprised, Jon. We're on good time for now, but in less than three months, you and I are going to be up the proverbial shit creek without a barrel. Just so you know, the *Sol Bianca* will respond to your commands, as well as anyone you authorize as Command staff. Now, if you'll wait a second...." and as he was saying that, I could feel a massive migraine coming on, so powerful that I was just on the verge of screaming, when it stopped. "There. Now, you have all the data you need to fly the *Sol Bianca*, operate it, everything. Just one warning, do not, I repeat, *do not* get yourself in a situation where you have to self-destruct. The results would be....not nice. "As always, best of luck Jon," and the image disappeared from the monitor, leaving me with one hell of a headache and trying to assimilate all of this new information. I learned, very quickly enough, how to talk between pods, and Lyta's image appeared in a small window floating in mid-air. "Jon, what's going on? I got this very strange telepathic pulse that just rippled through here," Lyta asked. "I'm fine, I think," I said, rubbing my head. "But we can take off now. If you can detach the docking clamps and power up the engines, I'll get a trajectory plotted and arm the weapon systems." "I don't know how to...." Lyta was saying, but she suddenly stopped and looked down, "my consoles just came on-line, and it's all organized in the control pattern needed for powering up the reactor and controlling the docking clamps. What the...." "The ship's systems are psychoactive," I said, suddenly very confident of this factoid. "You'll notice a lot of that when you try to do things here. Light will come on when you want them, the doors will open when you want, things like that. Now, how long before we're launch-ready?" "According to this console," Lyta looked down at her board, "we'll have reactor power, full life support, main and secondary drives, and something called a subspace diver, ready for use in about thirty minutes." "Got you," I said, "We'll be going over to internal gravity control and inertial dampening in ten seconds. Five seconds, on," a slight lurch, and I felt heavier. "How are you?" "This ship has gravity control?" Lyta asked, curious. "Of course," I said. "Now, I'd better tell Sasami about our take-off...." "Mind if I ask you a question?" Lyta asked. "Go ahead," I replied, calling up the internal communication menu, looking for the Arboretum. "What's with you and Sasami? You definitely aren't brother and sister, and I don't think that you have a duty to protect her. So why are you so concerned about her?" Lyta was looking right at me. I stopped for a second. I hadn't really thought of that. The way I saw it, it was the fact that she was here with me, that made me, in some small part, responsible for her. "It's just that," I said, "she came here, either by coincidence or by plan, with me. In a way, I feel it's my fault that she's away from home and until she gets back, I've got to keep my eye on her." "Ok," Lyta replied. "You've got a valid reason.... But why you?" "Why me what?" "Why you? Why here? Why now?" Lyta asked. "If I knew that," I replied, with as much solemnness as possible, "I'd be able to sleep better at nights." *--------* As Delenn was trying to get to her quarters, she ran into someone she didn't expect to see. As she rounded the corner to the transit tube, standing right in front of the elevator, was Kosh. "Kosh," Delenn said, somewhat surprised. "The music is stopping. A new song must be written, one where all of the instruments can play," Kosh replied, the musical tones being translated into words. "Kosh," Delenn asked, confused, "what do you mean? What is going on?" "The first one is here, the one who's realm holds us all," Kosh replied, looking straight at her. "I have never questioned our place in what has been happening," Delenn noted, "But I have to ask you one thing, one thing very important-is this 'first one' someone I know?" A short silence, then Kosh said just six words. "Yes. A new compatriot of yours." Then Kosh pivoted on whatever it used for legs, and left. Delenn was left standing there, in shock. *--------* We were finally ready. All of the engines were fully powered up, the systems had been checked out, and we were ready to launch. "Sasami," I asked, "are you ready?" "Yes, Jon-sama," Sasami replied, the vid-window showing the Arboretum deck, "but if this ship has gravity control, we should be fine, right?" "I know," I replied, smiling, "but I'd feels safer if you were ready. Call it my gentle nature." "Okay," Sasami replied, and her vid-window disappeared, with Lyta's vid-window popping up in the same place. "We're ready to go," Lyta said. "Just give the word." "The word," I said, smiling, "is given. Disengage the docking clamps and let's launch." From outside, I could feel eight solid thumps as the clamps detached. The ship's engines charged up, and, silently, the ship floated skyward. It wasn't that long before we were clear of the canyon. "Clear of the ridge line. Main drive at your digression," Lyta said. "Let's wait on that for a second," I said, "until we at least reach three thousand meters. At our rate of climb, that's going to be in less than ten minutes. Hey, where do you have to go when you leave Babylon 5?" "I can't tell you, because I don't know. All I was told was to report to a certain ship at the Babylon 5 hanger bay in about," she looked at her watch, "in less than four hours." "Well, if you knew, I could have dropped you off there. This is a very fast ship," I noted. "It possibly is," Lyta replied, "but I've got some obligations to perform before I can leave." "Very well then. I'll get you to the station in about," I looked at the main board, "an hour. Now, let's crank this baby open to full." I tapped a single command in the main board. The main engines erupted, and *Sol Bianca* pierced the atmosphere in less than ten seconds. *--------* The Minbari was running through the Zocallo, occasionally bumping into people, in a frenzy. When he finally made it to a large enough group of fellow Minbari, he said, "I saw it!" "Saw what?" A Minbari of the Warrior Caste replied. "The Boat of Alus! It was coming from the other side of the planet, just like the old stories!" the panting Minbari, a member of the Merchant Caste, noted. "You can't be serious! The Boat of Alus, here?" a third Minbari, of the Priest Caste, noted. "I am certain, it was just as it had been drawn in the old books," the Merchant Minbari replied. "Then we must see if this is true," the Warrior Minbari noted, "Nalen," he pointed at the Priest Minbari, "talk to Delenn, tell her that the Boat of Alus has been seen. We will let her find out if this rumor is true. You," he pointed to the Merchant Minbari, "don't tell anyone until we can confirm this." "Right," Nalen bowed, and ran off. "I will not say anything more," the Merchant Minbari replied. *--------* We were within sight of Babylon 5 within a few minutes. "I'll hail them," Lyta said, but I waived her off. "No," I interrupted, "you can't risk being recognized. I'll do it," and I tapped the console to hail the station. "Babylon 5 Traffic Control this is the starship *Sol Bianca*. Request traffic orbit and permission to launch shuttle for docking, over." A few seconds, then the same man who let me leave the station came on the monitor. "What the....it's you!" "Yes," I looked at him innocently, "is there a problem?" "No, not really. But Commander Ivanova is really on the warpath and she want to talk to you, now. Take the following vector for your parking orbit and launch your shuttle as soon as possible. We'll shoe-horn you into the traffic schedule. Babylon 5 Traffic Control out." "Well," Lyta said, "things aren't exactly going very well for you, either." "Don't remind me," I noted. "I'll meet you at the shuttle bay, I've got to check out some things in the computer." "I'll meet you there," Lyta replied, and retracted her pod off the bridge. I tapped the console, and started to review the records. This was going to be a long day. *--------* "You are sure that is him," Ivanova asked Lt. Corbin. "And what the hell is that ship?" "He called it the *Sol Bianca*, ma'am," Lt. Corbin replied, pointing out the indicators on his board. "All I've got on it is the length, with is about three hundred and fifty meters, and the hull composition. Whatever that thing uses for a drive or sensors is beyond me." "What is the hull made of?" Ivanova ordered. "Ma'am, that ship's entire outer hull is made of pasha. Even if that stuff was a centimeter thick, that's a hull of about nine hundred tons of pasha. Ma'am, that's about half of all known supplies of pasha known...." Corbin noted. "Great," Ivanova muttered. "Sheridan decide to take a break and everything goes to hell. Tell Garibaldi and Sheridan to meet me down in the Ready Room as soon as Jon gets on-board." "Yes, ma'am," Corbin replied and started to hit his controls. *--------* Once the shuttle had docked with me and Lyta, Sasami staying on the ship in the Arboretum, Lyta walked off down the hall. Before she got far away, she turned around. Lyta said, "Best of luck, Jon." "You too," I replied. "Just one thing I've got to ask you." "What is it?" Lyta asked, curiously. "Just try not to talk about this to anyone. Things are odd enough as-is," I replied. "Agreed. See you later," Lyta replied, then walked down the hallway. Just about ten seconds after Lyta turned the corner, Ivanova came down the opposite hallway. "Hello, Commander," I said, walking down the hallway to her. "We need to talk," Ivanova replied, following me. "Agreed, we need to talk," I said, "the Ready Room?" "Of course. Right now," Ivanova answered me, "and no funny-stuff. We've got to talk." "Then let's go," I replied. Ivanova led the way, I followed. This wasn't going to be a good day. *-------* Delenn was curious to see if the story told to her was accurate. It wasn't a question of truth, more a question of accuracy. When she had made it to C&C, the door opened, and she was met by Lt. Corbin. "Where is Commander Ivanova?" "She's in a meeting," Corbin replied, "but I can help you if you need assistance. Something wrong?" "Yes, I've heard a report of an odd ship entering the area. Is this true?" Delenn asked. "Absolutely, ma'am. I'll even show you," Corbin answered. He led Delenn over to the window, "That's it right there, all three-hundred and fifty meters of it." "The Boat of Alus," Delenn whispered to herself. "Ma'am?" Corbin looked at Delenn curiously. "Nothing. Thank you for helping me, Lt. Corbin. Now, I apologize, but I must be going." Outside the hallway, Delenn let herself rest alongside the wall. Things had gotten a lot harder recently. *--------* "What were you thinking?!?" Sheridan was yelling at me. "First, you left without asking me. Second, you didn't have Doctor Franklin do a med-check before you left. Third, and most important, what the hell is that ship?" I let him keep yelling at me. He wanted me to react, and the argument would spiral out of either of our's control. So I let him rant and rave until he ran down his batteries. "Why aren't you responding to me, dammit!" Sheridan had finished screaming at me. "First of all," I said in my calmest voice. I had to reassure him of at least my belief in destiny, "if I didn't go, this station and it's occupants would have been a sphere of rapidly expanding plasma in about," I looked at my watch, "a half hour. Don't worry, it's safe now. Second, I didn't have the time. And third, that ship is the *Sol Bianca*. And it is a very well equipped ship, to say the very least. Very fast, very well shielded, and very well armed. Ivanova," I looked at Ivanova, who was looking antsy, "what is on your mind." "I've got just one thing to say to you-how in the hell do you have a ship that has a hull of solid pasha? There's at least a thousand tons of the stuff in that hull. You could buy the station with that hull, if you felt like it," Ivanova replied. "Wait a minute, what the hell's pasha?" Sheridan asked. "Pasha ore is well known for being an ultra-conductor, a very powerful amplifier of energy. Coat a ship's engine in pasha, you'll get nearly twice the power from it. Make a lens from pasha and you can turn a flashlight into a laser beam. But," Garibaldi noted, "there's only twenty thousand tons of pasha ore known in the universe, period. A thousand tons of pasha ore is enough to buy the Earth Alliance, literally." "And my ship's hull is made from it," I replied, shrugging. "Cool." "That's not the point. First of all, where in the hell you expect to berth that thing! We can't have that ship hanging out in space, it's a traffic hazard," Sheridan started yelling again. "Captain," I noted, "I'll move it into a more suitable parking orbit as soon as I get the chance. Now," I pulled out a set of flimsies and a data crystal, "the ship's papers are here, all in order, and with her hull and IFF registration codes. Unless there's a problem, I would like to know where I should park my ship...." Before I could finish or anyone could reply, the wall console beeped, and Lt. Corbin's image flashed onto the screen. "Captain Sheridan, there's a priority one message for you from the Minbari Homeworld. Sir, it's Neroon, the current head of the Warrior Castes." "Put him through," Sheridan replied, and stared at me with an expression that said *Don't say ANYTHING*. So I sat down and shut up. I remembered Neroon(faintly) from Signs and Portents, but he seemed to have made a lot of progress in just one year. When he came on, he was straightforward and to the point. "Captain Sheridan, there is a ship in your space that is the property of the Minbari Government. You will, of course, return it to us at once." "I'm not sure," Sheridan replied, "what is this ship called? What does it look like?" "The name of the ship," Neroon hissed, "is none of your concern, Captain Sheridan. But it's appearance, that is of your concern," and a side-window opened up to reveal.... ....the *Sol Bianca*. "You've got to be kidding me," I said, just loud enough to attract the attention of Neroon. "You have something to say, human?" Neroon leered at me. Lord knows what sadistic thoughts were running through his mind. "Yes," I replied, oblivious to Ivanova's stare, "I do. First of all, how can you be sure that ship is the one you are looking for. I mean, how hard is it to build a spaceship these days..." "You would dare to think that a Minbari would duplicate something as sacred as the Boat of Alus, human scum! Why you....." Neroon started to yell, then caught himself. I might not know Minbari face expressions but I do know a *faux paux* when I see one, and Neroon just stepped right into it. "And that presents a second problem," I noted a few seconds later. "You see," I tapped a command into the console, "according to Earth Alliance, Centarui Republic, Narn Regime, and the Minbari Empire's records, the *Sol Bianca*, the 'Boat of Alus' as you call it, is registered to the Karza Bianca Group. I happen to be one of the joint owner of the Karza Bianca Group, and I will make the claim to my vessel stick in Admiralty Court. Now, I don't want trouble. If there is a legitimate problem, I'd be willing to hear it, but unless there is one, you don't have a claim to my ship." "A human!?!" Neroon was sputtering, "A human within the hallways of the sacred Boat of Alus? How can this be?" "Don't ask me," I replied. "I only work here. So, is there any other problems?" I had put him on the spot, and I knew it. Unfortunately, I had made an enemy when I needed friends desperately. Hopefully, he'd understand later, once he'd cooled down and thought this over. "Very well then," Neroon said, gritting through his teeth, "but do not think that this is over, human," and the monitor went off. "Why is it that every time I think I know everything that goes on around here," Ivanova said, breaking the short silence, "I discover I don't know anything at all." "Don't worry about it," I said, "Now, Captain, is there a problem?" "Well, yes," Sheridan said, looking at me in a very confused state, "how in the hell do you plan to keep that ship maintained without a berth or station-support?" "The ship will take care of itself. Now, if there isn't anything else...." I let the question hang in the air. "Oh, all right," Sheridan waved me off, "all of you, get out." *--------* On Minbari Prime, Neroon stared into the blank terminal screen. With a sour expression on his face, he pushed away from the table and looked at his nearest aide. "Find out everything you can about that human. I don't care how it's done, I don't care what methods you have to use, but I want to know *everything* about him," Neroon ordered. "Yes, sir," the aide replied, and walked out of the room. Neroon sat back down, brooding the encounter. *Next time,* he thought, *there will be a much different result.* *--------* Walking back to my quarters, I was met half-way by Delenn, who looked worried. "There you are," Delenn said, "something has been going on, something very odd...." "Does it have to with a ship outside the station, a ship which happens to be mine, that Neroon feels to be a valuable Minbari artifact?" I asked, watching her response. "That fool," she hissed under her breath, then said, "I apologize for his actions, they were *not* that of the Minbari government." "Probably not," I agreed, "I've got just one question, what is this 'Boat of Alus'? Neroon was really antsy about trying to say anything about it." She suddenly stopped in the hallway and looked at me, saying, "I, of course, have your word that this remains between us." "As always." "According to history, Valen, the greatest of the Minbari, came from the sky aboard a ship of stars. As this ship descended from the Alus star group, it was called the Boat of Alus. Also, according to this myth, when Valen assembled the Nine, he assigned the Star Riders clan from the Warrior caste as the guards for his ship," Delenn told me. "So, Neroon, who's a Star Rider...." I said. "Was trying to uphold a tradition over nine hundred generations long, yes," Delenn replied. I was silent for a second, then I said, "How do you think Neroon would react if a Minbari was on the ship's crew?" "He would....what is the term you use? Throw a gear, yes, that's the term. He would be surprised," Delenn noted. "Ok then, that's settled. You are now a member of the Karza Bianca Group, which is the joint venture that owns the *Sol Bianca*. I'll have the paperwork in your quarters by nine am tomorrow," I replied. "Very well then," Delenn replied. As she walked off, she turned around and said, "Who else is in this 'Karza Bianca Group', besides you, of course?" "Sasami, someone named Sharon Gallee, and G," I noted. "Who's G?" "G's the ship's computer. G is a sentient entity, and can bear a contract by Earth Alliance law," I replied. "Oh. I see. Well then, I'll see you tomorrow," Delenn noted. "Why?" I asked. "Breakfast," Delenn reminded me. "Of course," I put my hand to my forehead, and said, "I'll meet you in the Zocallo at nine am. I'll bring the papers with me then." "I'll see you then," Delenn replied, and walked down the hallway. Late at night. In my bed. Alone. Staring at the ceiling. I'd done this before, when I was back on my Earth. But now, I was doing it here on Babylon 5. As the old expression goes, the more things change, the more they remain the same. But I was thinking deep thoughts. Very deep. And one of those thoughts involved the *Sol Bianca*. If this ship was so important to the Minbari, and to a bunch of hot- headed Warriors more, life had gotten a lot more interesting. In addition, Sasami insisted on being in the ship all night. G told me that she had only left her vigil in from of the Starship Tree for food and the bathroom. She was doing fine, but what *exactly* was she doing. Trying to contact Tsunami? The Empire? What? As I stared at the ceiling, thinking, I came to a realization. Two, actually. The first was that the game was getting much more dangerous. And the second was that I was starting to lose control of the situation. [END EPISODE 2] From jon.souza@creature.comSun Feb 4 20:48:39 1996 Date: Thu, 1 Feb 1996 05:27:31 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply to: b5-creative@blob.best.net To: b5-creative@blob.best.net Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 3 completely. I've decided to take a swipe at a Gundam/Babylon 5/Macross Plus/Macross 7/Tenchi Muyo/Sol Bianca/Whatever The Hell I Can Pack Into This Thing crossover. In short, this is going to be a wild, confusing ride that is going to hopefully be a LOT of fun. This fanfic is dedicated to Dave Gao, everyone on the Babylon 5 Creative and Gundam mailing lists, and all of my fans(especially the ones who like my stories and DON'T write to tell me!). Got to have the legalistic- All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners and will be turned over to the owners at the request of their authorized agents. All other characters/ places/persons are the sole property of Jonathan Souza, Copyrighted @1996. This copyright extends to all electronic versions of the story. As always, comments, complaints, and critiques are welcome. Even if it's just to say "good work, Jon," I'd like to hear it. Even if it's to complain about my language and syntax, go right on ahead. I need the abuse. From Macross 7, Jon Souza Jon.Souza@Creature.Com Breaking the Consensus By Jon Souza Episode 3-Homecoming "One told me of China Roses, One a Thousand nights and one night, Earth's last picture, the end of evening; hue of indigo and blue." -Enya, *China Roses* Franklin had to make two scans of me, actually. The first scan was surface only-mostly to check up my status and to revise my previous record from Earth(all the way back from the 20th Century). Franklin replied, "You're doing pretty good, a lot of the things that they said were congenital can be fixed today. For example, your back scoliosis is just thirty minutes under the stimulator and that's all done. I can have Yamaguchi pull those tooth crowns and replace those four teeth with tooth buds for new teeth, but other than that, and a recommendation to get on an exercise program, you're in good health." "Thank you," I replied, "now, the deep scan?" "Of course," Franklin replied, and he moved the instruments over me for a full, deep scan. As he worked, he talked, "So, what have you been up to, besides causing hell around here?" "Oh, the usual," I dead panned, "seeing the sites, talking to people, blowing Raiders up, you know, the usual." "I see," Franklin noted. "So, what about the girl you're travelling with...Sesame or something." "Sasami's her name," I replied, "and last I heard, she was aboard my ship." Franklin turned the scanner off. "Now what?" "Well, you gave me the urine, stool, and blood samples, so you're free to go. Give me a few hours and I'll get back to you on anything you should know about." "Thank you," I replied. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to meet Ambassador Delenn. She's waiting for me down in the Zocallo for breakfast." "Have a good day then," Franklin said, as I reached the door." "You too," I replied, and made it down a few minutes before Delenn arrived. Good, I always liked to scan the menu before I ate. *--------* For twelve hours, she sat there. Praying. Whispering incantations. The only time she left was to eat and to use the bathroom, and even then she felt guilty. She knew, intellectually, that she had to maintain her strength, but she felt guilty about leaving her ritual. For twelve hours, Sasami had been praying in front of the massive Starship Tree in the center of *Sol Bianca*'s Arboritum. And for twelve hours, she could almost hear the most tenuous of voices. *Sasami......* a faint whisper came across, a message from the void. "Tsunami....Tsunami-sama?" Sasami whispered silently, hoping and praying that this was true.... *Sasami.....* the whisper came again, *Sasami, I'm trying to come across, but I have not my full power....Please, Sasami, help me.....* "Yes, Tsunami-sama!" Sasami replied, wiping the tears from her eyes, standing up. "By the sacred relics of the clan of Watabago...." Sasami chanted, starting the ritual as her feet lifted from the ground and her soul-gem glowed. "From the heavens to the sea, from the sea to the land, from the land to the heavens, show me the path carved in light...." As the ritual reached the crescendo, the Starship Tree lit up with it's own internal light and Sasami vanished. For a second, the light from the Tree was almost blinding. Then the light died. As if nothing happened. *--------* I ordered a light breakfast, cereal, bisciuts, and milk. Delenn had a massive breakfast of things that I could barely identify. "What is that blue thing," I pointed at something blue and fuzzy, as Delenn looked over the paperwork. "It's a gren stalk," Delenn replied, "are you sure you don't want a bite, it's pretty good." "No thanks," I replied, "I make it a policy not to eat anything that's still moving. Like that orange and purple thing over there." "You have to have meal worms alive, they taist awful when they're cooked! And why such a small breakfast? That's not the average I've seen people around here eat," Delenn noted. "True," I answered, "I always eat like this-small breakfast, average lunch, large dinner. Mostly due to time-I've been so busy that breakfast has been on the run, getting to school and all of that." "So, eat larger now! You've got a chance to do so now, so do it. Here," and she shoveled some toast with a bluish substance on it, "this is real jelly from Minbar. I assure you, it will not be damaging." What do you do? I took some of the toast and took a deep bite from it, and discovered that the jelly was very taisty, sort of like a very good blueberry with a tart sort of taist. I has some more of the toast when my bag beeped. Actually, it was the portable computer unit that I had in the satchel. Unzipping the satchel, I lifted the computer up to the table and tapped the flat black surface twice, bringing the unit on-line. "Yes, I asked, "what is it?" "Um, sir," a voice came from the panel, "this is G and, sir, there's a bit of a problem." "What is the problem? Nothing major, I assume," I replied, as Delenn looked into the panel with me. "Well, sir, that's the problem. Sasami-chan has disappered and...." G was trying to say. "WHAT!" I yelled, attracting some other people's attention. Delenn looked at me and motioned for me to calm down, and I managed to sit down and think a little. "Ok, what happened." "You know that Sasami was at the Starship Tree for the last twelve hours? Good," G noted my response, the terminal was two-way visual, "about one hour ago, something happened. She activated a gateway to another Starship Tree, a very powerful one at the end of path. I do have the ship's Key sequence, and I have identified it." "Let me guess, Tsunami," I replied, massaging my forehead. "Ok, do you have any contact with Tsunami?" "Negitive, sir," G noted, "unfortuntly, Sasami, I hoped, would be my link to other Starship Trees and their ships. Without her, at best, I can use a primitive, apparantly backup system, to contact Tsunami. But I don't know if I'm getting through, or even if Tsunami will respond to me." "Very well then," I ordered, "keep contacting Tsunami, and try to get Ryoouh too, maybe we can talk to more support. Oh, by the way, where is Ryo-ou-ki-chan?" "Currently in the Arboritum as well," G noted, "eating carrots." I sighed. Loudly. Delenn looked at me and said, "Jon, if I have to go, I'll deal with this later...." "No, no," I said to Delenn, "this is an easy one." To the terminal, I ordered, "Tell Ryo-ou-ki-chan to meet me when I get on the ship next, I'd like to talk to him. Other than that and contacting me when you get through by the Tree, maintain normal operations." "Yes, sir," G replied. "*Sol Bianca*, signing off." Delenn looked at me, and then looked at the paperwork on the table. Swiftly, she signed it, then used her thumbprint of the identification box. "I would rather like to be a part of a ship's crew," she said, smiling, "that is so odd. Considering what is going on, your ship is rather normal." "No problem," I said, "G will get your system data and contact you if needed. Now," I notced that we had finished our respective breakfast, "if you'll excuse me, I have a little girl to find." "I understand," Delenn replied, "Breakfast tomorrow?" "Only if," I replied with a smile, "you tell me where you get that jelly from." *--------* The two men walked off the ship, and straight to C&C. They passed no checkpoints, were hassled by no security guards, and bothered by nobody. A Psi-cops badge and Unlimited access grants a lot of privliges. Including not having to be hassled by peons like Station Security. The two walked into C&C and immediatly confronted Ivanova, "Commander Ivanova, where is the commanding officer of the starship known as *Sol Bianca*?" "Excuse me?" Ivanova replied. Her dislike of psis was very well known indeed and she disliked psi-cops even more. "What do you want with him." "You don't need to know that," the younger one, blonde and with a crisp, almost Norse look, hissed, but the older superior waved him off. "Commander Ivanova," the older one noted, "my assistant is sometimes....over zelous. We are here to investigate the mysterious activies that have occured around the ship's captian of the *Sol Bianca.* Technically, he has to return to Earthdome for debriefing on what has happened to him for the last three hundred years. Now, if you'll contact him...." "Hold on a second....I want to see your authorization before I even say anything else," Ivanova replied. "All in order," the older psi-cop said, "and the written authrization requesting his return to Earth. There's even a copy for your records, with a recipt. Now, if you'll show us where he is...." Ivanova sighed. This wasn't her day. "He's in Blue 4, Section 9. I'll tell him you're coming." "Thank you," the older man replied, as the two psi-cops walked out. *--------* I had one more thing to do before I left for the *Sol Bianca*. Down in Blue 7 was a compartment rented to my name, a compartment with a single door. This was the last "item" of mine that was on-station. Everything else was on the *Sol Bianca*, including the Virtua Gundam and the Soundforce unit. In this room, I thought, would be the final item of mine. As I was walking down there, I ran into Sheridan. Literally. I was thinking about what the hell I was going to do to find Sasami when I rounded the corner and ran into Sheridan. "Oops," I said, not realizing who it was, then, "Sorry, sir, I didn't see you." "That's not a problem," Sheridan replied, "actually, I was looking for you." "Oh." What else was I going to say? "What did you want to see me about, sir?" "I just wanted to tell you that Franklin's given you a clean bill of health and you can leave the station any time you want," Sheridan noted. "Good," I replied, "I might have to that after I'm done here." "Huh?" "Sasami has disappeared. Oh, you don't know who Sasami is?" I asked. "I saw her photo in Garibaldi's report, but I didn't get a chance to meet her. What happened?" Sheridan asked, honestly concerned. "Look, I'm going down to check this compartment of mine in Blue 7, and if you'll follow me, I'll explain to you along the way," I noted. "No problem," Sheridan replied. By the time we made it to the door, I must have had Sheridan completely confused. "So, this 'Tsunami' what Sasami is going to be?" "Close," I noted. "Tsunami is the most possible future version of Sasami, once she grows up. That leaves a whole bunch of very odd, very difficult to understand questions to ask and answer, and I'll try not to ask them until there's a need to." "I see," Sheridan replied, then pointed at the door, "so, this is where the 'item' is stored?" "At least the instructions say so," I pointed out. I took out the keycard from my pocket and stuck it in the slot. "What prevents someone from stealing the card and using it to get in here?" Sheridan asked. "It's a smartcard," I noted, "if it didn't have my fingerprint along with the card, the door wouldn't open. And, most likely, automatic weapons would open fire on the poor fool who tried to jimmy the lock." The card beeped twice and the door cycled open to a dark, empty room. "You first?" Sheridan asked. "Why the hell not," I said. From the satchel I took out the fusion pistol and primed it with a low hum. "What is that?" Sheridan asked. "Heavy fusion pistol," I replied, "two point one gigawatt fusion pulse, thirty shots to an en-cap. Now," I pointed at the door with the pistol, "I'll go in, you cover me." I pivoted in smoothly, and whispered, "Lights," not expecting anything. And the lights came on. And something remarkable happened. In the middle of the room was a round sort of dalis, about four feet wide. Just behind it was a solid block of black, with a line of solid crimson. Just off-set to the right was a single, red "eye" like the eye on HAL. I sighed to myself, this was *not* good. "Sharon Apple," I said. "At your service, sir," a voice said, plesantly female. The top of the dalis lit up and a female figure, fire-red hair and radiantly beautiful, appeared, a very fluid open-air hologram. "What do you want?" I pointed the fusion pistol at the comptuer block. "What is going on here?" "I am Sharon Apple. Techically, I am Sharon Apple, Version 1.1, created by the Shallom Gallee programming group in Macross City on October 11, 2041 AD. According to Earth Alliance records, Shallom Gallee was born on Vega Two on October 11, 2329. I am Shallom Gallee, at least according to the Earth Alliance," Sharon noted. "Do you have any bio/neural processor chips in your system?" I asked. If she did, I'd have to stop her fast. AI processors with bio/neural chips were nortoriously unstable.... "Yes, I do. In fact, most of my processing core is of bio/neural processing chips. Don't worry," she noted, "my programming includes full ethical and loyalty conditioning. I cannot lie nor conceal facts from you. Other people, however...." "I get it. Do you have a message for me?" I asked, "That seems to be the pattern." "Only one, but it's a short one-'Everything's done, you're ready to go,' and that's from you. Voice print and everything is confirmed, it's a message from you to you," Sharon replied. "Now, I'm ready to go...." "Ok," I replied, carefully decocking the fusion pistol and de-charging the firing chamber. "I plan to go over to the *Sol Bianca* in an day or so, we'll go then...." Suddenly, Sheridan's link beeped. "Sheridan here," he replied into it. "Captian," Ivanova's voice came from it, "I've got two Psi-Cops here looking for Jon, do you have any idea where he is?" "Actually, he's here with me right now. What's going on?" Sheridan asked. "It's something to do with his three century disappearance. They want him to go back to Earth for a debriefing and examination, and they want him to go soon...." Ivanova noted. "Where are they?" Sheridan asked. "Waiting at the doors to his quarters, wondering where the hell is he. Should I tell them where they are...." Ivanova left the question hanging. I wave at Sheridan, "Just tell them I'll be there in a few minutes. I've got some buisness to settle." "You get that?" Sheridan asked. "Absolutly. I'll tell them that, and let them know. Ivanova out," and Sheridan's link cut out. "I should be going now," I said, and turned to Sharon Apple, "can you move independently?" "Of course. I assume you want me to report to the shuttle for the *Sol Bianca*?" Sharon asked. "Yes, I'll meet you there. Keep an eye out, ok?" I said. "Yes, sir," Sharon Apple replied, "I'll be at the shuttle," and she shut down. As Sheridan and I walked out of the compartment, he looked at me and said, "Are your friends *always* this weird?" "You should have seen my eighth-grade science teacher," I replied, "He used to lick batteries between classes. Now, I've got to see two Psi-cops about why the hell I've been missing for three hundred years and try not to have my brain blown up." "Then I'll be seeing you later," Sheridan replied "Have a good day," and we were both off on our own individual paths. *--------* Beep. The sensors in Washuu's Room had been tracking down the Tsunami Key for the last 12 hours, attempting to find Sasami and Ryo-ou-ki-chan. And, for the last twelve hours, Washuu had been sitting near the console, watching as the computer ran through dimention after dimention. So far, no luck. But, the sensors had locked onto a single signal-source, a dimentional shift that also involved the Tsunami Key. Curious, she zoomed in, trying to get a fix- Then the Key disappeared. Washuu's eyes widened in shock. *What the hell happened?* Washuu thought, staring at the console. If the Key was on the move again, she would have to start the entire process. Just for curiousity, she scanned this reality for the Tsunami Key. No sign of it here. On a hunch, she locked onto the previous dimention and started a general scan for Keys in that space. If the Tsuami Key was there, maybe.... And the sensor beeped again. Twice. Not only had she found Ryo-ou-ki-chan's Key, but she found a second Key. And this Key was the biggest Key of them all, as big as the Tsunami Key, smaller than the Master Key, but not by much. For Washuu, that was a shock. The very power of the Jyrui Empire, and their ships, was the Key technology. The Keys existed as a bridge between the ship and it's operator, directing the will of it's Captain to the ship's actions. Not the thoughts, but the very Captain's will to either kill or be destroyed or survive, somehow. A Jyrui ship was unbeatable because it reflected the will of it's operator and was a single-minded entity to the goal of the ship's Captain. The flow of energy was two-way, as well-a ship could provide it's Key-bearer with nearly infinite power in hand-to-hand battle. Washuu had duplicated the Key technology for Ryouko and Ryo-ou-ki-chan, but if anyone ever found out, she would be hunted down and destroyed, even more so than Kagato. And there were only two Master Keys, one held by the Emperor himself and, by a stroke of luck, the other by Tenchi. For a Key to even approach the power of the Master Key was remarkable. She tapped the console, fixing the Keys location in the computer's memory. Then Washuu turned to her Room and looked, thinking about how she was going to try and get either the Keys here or go to where the Keys were. Suddenly, a wide smile spread across Washuu's face. *Of course*, she thought, humming softly a nonsense nursery rhyme until she got the system plotted up. Then she tapped her console to communcations connect mode. "Get me Mihoshi," she said, and started to grin. In just a few hours, all of her problems would be on their way to being solved. *--------* The two Psi-Cops were at my door by the time I got there. Fortuntly, they didn't try something stupid like trying to get in there before me, so they were still alive. Both of them were waiting by the door, looking right at me. The older one, whom looked like a shabby accountant, said, "Good afternoon, Mister Souza." "Good afternoon, gentlemen. Now, what is the problem?" I asked, "I'm sure I've paid all of my taxes as of late. If not, I'll make sure my accountant is informed of this....discrepancy." "That isn't the problem," the younger one, SS material short of the Death's Head insignia, replied. "You are a man with a mysterious past." "Reinhart," the older man hissed, "shut up. I am Commander Bosque Om and this his my assistant, Lieutenant Reinhart Mussel. I apologize for him, he sometimes doesn't get orders straight nor does he learn when to keep his mouth shut. This is merely a formality, you are to report to Earth in ten days by any transit means at your disposal for a debriefing about your whereabouts for the last three centuries." "I see," I replied. "What if I refuse to come in to Earth?" "There are a number of legal sanctions that can be brought against you. But this is such a minor procedure! You are to provide information in front of a judge and representives of the Earth Alliance. You are allowed legal council, and you can refuse to answer any questions presented to you. This is merely a legal formality, but it must be done on Earth, Babylon 5's Omnibudsmen are not qualified for this sort of work," Om noted. I sighed. B5 was around Episilon Eridani, and to get from here to Earth was just under three days in the *Sol Bianca* via Jumpgate, a week by more conventional ships. Or just under two hours by subspace diver, but I didn't want anyone to know of that capability. "Ok then, I'll be on Earth. When and where am I supposed to report?" "We'll show you. Our orders are to make sure you arrive at Earth on-time," the older man said. "Very well then," I replied. "Get your gear together and meet me at Dock 7, I'll take you over to my ship and we'll head for Earth. We launch at 2100 hours, so don't be late, I'm not waiting for anybody." "What are the weight limits?" the younger man, Reinheart, asked. "Fifty kilos, and four pieces of luggage," I replied. There wasn't a limit, but I wanted them to prevent any sort of tampering with the *Sol Bianca* while they were on. Call me paranoid, but I was suspisious of these two. I knew the good cop/bad cop routine too well. "Remember, 2100 hours, gentlemen," I said. "Of course," the older man replied, "and we will see you there," as the two walked off. I cycled the door, went to the terminal, and tapped out a few commands. *Good*, I thought, *a unit was avalable.* I tapped the console again, and a automated cargo drone from the ship would launch and be at the shuttle docks in an hour. I also typed in a command for a box of just the right size. And plenty of wrapping paper. *--------* When Sharon Apple moved, she *moved*. Twice as tall as a man, her holographic and gravity control units concealed under a red sheath of memory fabric, Sharon Apple chose her path carefully, moving through the largest of hallways. Unfortuntly, the largest of hallways were also the most travelled, and many people looked at Sharon Apple curiously. A human-sized metal block attached to a fabric canopy as high as a man was not exactly the best way to remain unseen. As she reached the entry to the docking ring, Kosh stood in front of the door, waiting. Everyone said, later, that he arrived at the door the exact same time she did. Sharon Apple said, "Yes?" From Kosh, merely musical tones and clicks. Not even words from his translator, merely music. "Oh," Sharon Apple replied. She shifted to music herself. The two serinaded themselves for ten minutes, then Sharon Apple said, "Immaterial. We will complete our mission." "I will not stop you," Kosh replied, and turned away. Sharon Apple continued on her path, and arrived at the *Sol Bianca* hanger a few minutes later. *--------* Finding Ivanova wasn't exactly an easy task. To find Ivanova, I hailed C&C, and asked the people on-duty where she was. Then I got over to Earheart's and she wasn't there. Then I went to the Zocallo, and still didn't find her. Eventually, she came up to me as Earheart's as I checked again, saying, "I hear you've been looking for me. What's up?" I handed her a box, about the size of a large VCR. "Happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstise, whatever you celebrate, early." "What's this?" she asked, looking at the box. "A Christmas present, I think," I replied. "Why don't I wait until then...." she was about to ask. "No," I replied, putting my hand on the box, "I think it would be better if you opened it up now." "Oh, all right then...." Ivanova replied, then tore off the paper and opened the box, to pull out a single device the shape of a squared-off frisbee. "What is this thing?" "It's a subspace communicator. Just plug it in to the main communications system in C&C and you'll be able to communcate to me in the *Sol Bianca* without any problems, and without using more conventional communications methods," I replied, smiling. "Nice present, huh?" "Let me get this straight?" Ivanova asked, looking at me very skeptically. "You want me to plug something that looks like a surrelistic scuplture into my computers without knowing how it works internally and just because you say so?" "Yes," I replied. Ivanova pursed up her lips, it almost looked like her brain was about to seize up. That wasn't a response she was expecting. She looked at me and said, "How the hell do I use it?" "According to the instruction manual, which just happens to be in the box as well, you just plug it into the system and it works automatically. In addition, it will provide some significant co-processor support as well," I noted. "I see. So," she asked, "when are you going back to Earth?" "I'm leaving in five hours. I'm trying to arrange some cargo, so that the run there isn't exactly unprofitable," I noted. "But a lot of the cargo shippers take the regular Babylon 5/Earth runs, so it's a lot of odd lots that need to go back to Earth. You know, the small things that can't be fitted aboard a ship except when they have delta-V and space to spare. I might even have to take some people back to Earth as well, so that's going to be amusing." "Hm. Do you mind doing something for me?" she asked. "Sure," I replied. "I've got a letter you could take to a old friend of mine, and I want you to be sure to deliver it to them personally. I'll have it for you when you get to the shuttle for the *Sol Bianca*, ok?" Ivanova asked. "No problem, I'll make sure the letter gets to them personally," and I started to stand up. "I hope to be back sometime before the end of the month, I want to spend a little time on Earth. After all," I joked, "I've been gone for about three centuries." "Hm," Ivanova replied. "Just be careful, ok? The Earth you left isn't exactly the one you're returning to." "Consider me warned," I replied. *--------* "Om, report," the mechanically androgynous voice said. "So far, so good," Commander Om replied, in the quarters he was using for this converation. "He hasn't suspected us yet, but I want to be sure to get ahold of the technology of his ship and the other systems-it could prove useful for our purposes." "But he might have security systems for his ship," the voice replied, "I want you to use complete system-breaking operations to get his ship, either before or after his deposition. Do whatever it takes to get the ship, but don't get caught-piracy is punishable by spacing, you know." "Yes, sir," Om noted, and the terminal flipped off. As he leaned back to look at the equipment in the bag, he started to think about his opposition. And smiled. *--------* Her name was Vivian Wu. Twenty-six years old, she had mustered out of the Earth Alliance Space Navy as a Specalist-3 Warrant Officer(Systems Analysis) on the EAS *Agama*. Two years ago, she came to Babylon 5 as a part of Universal Terraform, and stayed on-station as a system analysist for Universal Terraform. But her father, Chung Wu, was dying of pancreas cancer in New Hong Kong, and she couldn't leave Babylon 5 without using up her one free trip back. And she couldn't get a more conventional ship-her father had, at most, four days to live and her salary couldn't afford more rapid travel. That was the dilemma presented to me when she came to meet me in the Zocallo, learning that me and my ship was going back to Earth and expected to arrive in three days. "I can't afford to pay you much," Vivian, a stunning Chinese beauty with raven-black hair, said, "but I can't be here while my father is dying. I need your ship to get me back to Earth as soon as possible." As I was listening over hot chocolate, she continued, "It might not matter to you, how my family is suffering, but it matters to me. I need to get back to Earth and...." "How soon can you leave?" I asked. "Huh?" Vivian replied, shocked. "You can come to Earth when I go back, no cost, nothing. You have to be at Dock 7 at 2100 hours, with fifty kilos max of luggage, but other than that, welcome aboard. Just one question-do you mind spending four days with Psi-Cops?" I asked. "Why would that be a problem?" Vivian asked, curious. "You're going back with two Psi-Cops?" "Unfortuntly, yes," I replied, "I have to give a deposition, and they're there to 'remind me' to be there on-time. So, I'll be meeting you at Dock 7 in five hours?" "Yes, of course," Vivian replied, "I'll see you there," and stood up and walked away. As she walked off, I pulled out the terminal and tapped it on, "G, are you on-line?" "Always," G replied, "what do you need?" "We've got a third passenger, a woman by the name of Vivian Wu. She works for Univeral Terraform as a systems analyst, and I like her a bit. Could you see what you and Sharon could find out about her?" I asked. "Of course, sir," G said. "Sir?" "Yes?" I looked at the terminal closely. "I'm a little worried about letting two Psionic Cops aboard me for three days as we travel to Earth-their entrance within me could possibly compromise certian secure systems. I would like to request that my internal security go to Grade 3, one higher than Grade 4. It would merely involve a slightly heightened level of internal survellance and computer systems security,you wouldn't know about it unless there was a problem," G asked. "Go to Grade 3," I replied. "Are you ready for departure at 2200 hours?" "Yes, sir," G replied. "Then," I said, "I'll meet you there." *--------* Dock Seven was like most of the other bays-grimy and dirty, scored with burn marks from mis-fired thrusters and generally dinged up. In short, it was a working shuttle bay, not fancy, but workable. And, despite the small size of the shuttle from the *Sol Bianca*, it filled most of the bay. That was the first thing Commander Om realized when he entered the shuttle bay, holding two bags and a duffel bag over his shoulder. His assistant packed light, just one bag and one duffel. As the two entered, someone else came in, both sensing the slightly confused emotions of a woman who was coming in. "Hello?" Commander Om asked. "Yes?" the woman, a Asian lady, with that timless demenor that almost every Asian woman seems to bear as a part of her maidenhood, replied. "So, you are the two Psi-Cops." "That is correct. I am Commander Bosque Om and this is my assistant, Lieutenant Reinhart Mussel. We are going with Jonathan Souza back to Earth for his deposition. And I assume that you are coming with us, miss..." Om replied. "My name," the woman said, "is Vivian Wu. Now, what do we do?" "Welcome," a voice boomed, female and simple, "I'm sorry, but Jon has already arrived back on-board the *Sol Bianca*. If you will get on, I will transfer you to the ship. I apologize for the somewhat cramped travelling conditions, but I'm transferring over cargo as well." "So," Reinhart asked, "how do we get in?" A hatch opened, revealing a staircase, "This is how," the voice said. "If you cannot carry the luggage up the ladder, the automated drone," a slight beep as a ball-shaped robot on four spidery legs and eight arms slid behind them, "will bring it up. Now, could you board, please. We must depart for the ship, so we can reach our Jumpgate sequence in time." "So, what are you waiting for?" Vivian asked, then climbed up the ladder, trying to take one bag and a suitcase with her. Reinhart shrugged, then carried up his bag. Meanwhile, somewhere deep within himself, Om smiled. This was going to be easy. *--------* I had the shuttle on sensors the moment it left the Babylon 5 dock. The data-link was never lost the moment the shuttle entered the station, and G was flying the shuttle back remotly. "G," I asked, "How is Sharon doing?" "Very well, considering her lack of systems like mine. Not that I'm saying she's inferior or anything, I like her a lot. But she is technologically inferior, doing very well with that. What I really like is that woman who's coming on-board the ship, going back to Earth with us." "Why?" I asked. "Her skill package is really very good. Whomever is her supervisor is an idiot, she should be running her section. I've read two reports she's written while in Earth Force, and she does know her computers very, very well. And I noticed that you like her," G noted. "How do you know that?" I wondered, curious. Slight boredom caused me to tap the console, checking on weapon system states. "I was out during the converstaion I had with her, and you had your hand on my terminal during part of the conversation. You were showing signs of stress, and some signs of attraction. Skin responses, pupil responses, blood pressure, voice changes, you either were scared of her or attracted to her. Which is it?" "Attracted," I confessed. "But she is attractive and I'm a little scared of attractive women." "I know," G replied. "There is a chance, you know." "Don't push me," I said. "I'll deal with this, one way or another." "I just hope you deal with it," G said, "before someone else deals with it before you." Two beeps and the console indicated a ship docking. "We've got the shuttle?" I asked. "Completely secured," G said, "Now, are we ready to go?" "Yes," I said and tapped the comm console, "Babylon 5 Command and Control, this is the *Sol Bianca*. Request Jumpgate sequence for Earth, via Io Jumpgate, over." The monitor flared, and Ivanova came up on the screen, saying, "*Sol Bianca*, you are cleared for Jumpgate sequence. Good luck, and, Jon," Ivanova, looked, well, mischevious, "the present you gave me fits very well indeed. Babylon 5 out." "I've just gotten a confirmation signal from the subspace transciver you wanted me to make. It's locked into the Babylon 5 SAN and it's working properly. Also, we have Jumpgate sequence, we're ready to go," G said. "Then go, full throttle," I said. The *Sol Bianca* turned, then accellerated into the malestrom of the Jumpgate, closing the Gate behing it. *--------* Om was busy. The second day into the trip, after the suddenly random emergency action drill(he and Reinhert were assigned to Damage Control, getting into armored spacesuits and reporting to a station with fire-fighting tools) Om started to think on how to tap into the ship's computers. Then he got an idea. As a part of the drill, they had to put out a "fire" in a synapic-holographic system(SHS) bank, where an energy conduit had "burst" and had to be put out. In his bag, concealed within his shaving kit, was two data-probes, completely automous, he would recover them before he left the ship, the probes having gathered information on the ship's computers. As Om was planting the probes, a set of footsteps came up behind him, and stopped. "What are you doing?" a young female voice said. Om turned to face a young woman, wearing a simple dress, smiling at him. "Who are you?" Om asked, not risking a scan. "My name is June. What are you doing?" June asked. "Hello, June," Om said, planning to wipe part of her memory on this incident. "I'm just....looking." "Oh, I see," June replied. "Would you like to play with me?" That suprised Om. As well as the following response-"Yes, June, I would like to play with you." And Om *did* want to play with her. After all, he could come back to plant the probes later, of course. As Om and June played, a cleaning drone came up to the panel, pulled out the probes, wiped the memory, and replaced the panel. The probes were promptly dropped into the nano-forges, where they were reduced to their native elements. *--------* It was eight am. My schedule was rather simple-breakfast at seven after waking up at 6, then my exercises for an hour, work for the day until noon, when I had lunch. From one to six, worked more, then I had dinner. Dessert at eight, then relaxation by either reading, watching televsion programs, or playing games on the computer until ten, then I went to bed. Right now, I was in the Arboritum, praticing my sword katas with a bokken, a wooden sword of about the same shape as a good Japanese katana. As I was praticing, I heard from behind me, "So, that's where you've been." I turned to see Vivian standing there, wearing a bathrobe and holding a cup of coffee in her hands. "I haven't seen you in the last three days, so I'd been wondering what you've been up to." She looked at the bokken in my hands, then smiled, "You know kenjitsu?" "As far as I know," I hedged. She moved over to pick up the second bokken and tested it for balance. My mysterious new skills somehow *knew* that she was testing the heft of the bokken with a professional air about it, and that worried me. "Do you?" "Kendo, really," Vivian flashed the bokken for a minute, then swung it at my throat. "Would you like to spar a bit?" "Of course," I said. "First blood?" "Of course," and she settled down into fighting stance. A professional swordfight, I knew, was over in the first few seconds, it was the draw and the heft of the swordsman that determined the victor, the rest was merely fluff. But since this wasn't real fight(but dangerous enough, getting hit by a bokken *hurt*), we couldn't do the nasty tricks. So it took a minute for her to break down my defenses and get her bokken to my throat, in the killing stroke. "You're good," she said, smiling. "Possibly better," I said, motioning my eyes downward. She looked to see my bokken at her belly, ready to slash it open if it were steel, "we would have both been dead." "True," Vivian said, then we both backed off and bowed. "I've seen a lot of katana fighting styles before, but I've never seen a style like yours. Who taught it to you?" "It's a long story. Right now," I said, toweling myself off, "are you hungry? I can always order breakfast for two...." Vivian sat down at the table, drew herself a cup of coffee, and said, "Yes, I am hungry. Shall we eat?" I smiled. I liked this woman. "Yes," I said, ordering myself a hot sticky bun, "let's eat." *--------* Earth. I didn't know what other people felt, especially people who wern't native to that great ball of rock and gas, but I felt like I got back home. Shining blue and white in my scanners, the Earth rotated smoothly in my view. "It's a beautiful planet you call home," G said. "Yes," I said, "it is." But as I closed, I could see the scars of war, even...."Jesus Christ!" On the edge of Australia was a massive inland sea, almost as if someone had taken a bite out of Sydney and the surrounding area. "What happened to Australia?" "During the Unifcation Wars that formed the Earth Alliance, a space colony was crashed onto Earth. Called Operation British, the target was Geneva, which was becoming the captial of the Earth Alliance, but it missed. It instead hit Sydney with the force of eight hundred gigatons, the largest explosion ever created by human beings. The damage was so massive that even the United States was hit by a tsunami that was the result of the impact. Sir, Earth Traffic Control requests our plans," G noted. "Tell them that we'd like a stable orbit over either Geneva or New Hong Kong, and we'll take our own shuttle down. Tell the two psi-cops and Vivian that we're here, in Earth orbit," I said, "and get the shuttle ready." "It's already ready, sir," G replied. "I've got the luggage on-board and they have been told that the shuttle will be departing soon. Earth Traffic Control has placed us over Geneva, we can decend at any time you wish in the shuttle." I looked at the console. "Tell them that we're going to be leaving in ten minutes. What sort of pocket-ordanance can I bring?" "None, sir. No weapons except for law enforcement, military, and special license holders. And you don't have a license, sir," G noted. Great. "Ok then, I'm going down lightly armed. Just sword and snap-dragon, ok?" "The weapon detectors will find detecting them both very, very hard indeed. Jon, I want you to be careful," G said. "I don't want to lose you." "I won't get lost," I smiled. *--------* Om had a dreadful reconing to face when he arrived back to Earth. His Control was most displeased with his actions, and told him so, "Bosque Om, what do you use for brains, you withered little cock? How could you not fail to plant those data-probes?" "I'm sorry, sir. I was positive I planted them somewhere hard to find, but they were gone when I went to check on them. Sir, it must have been some random clean-up, if Jon knew, he would have had me spaced...." Om sputtered. "Very well then," Control said, the mechanical voice floating in the dark room. "But I have a job for you. You are to find out as much as possible about Jon, his ship, and his allies. Get to work, Om, you have a major job ahead of you." "Yes, Control," Om bowed, and left the room. He had so much work to do. *--------* It took me six days of work for the "debriefing", mostly confirming what was on Sheridan's and Ivanova's reports. Most of that time, I spent either time in my hotel room or in the lower levels of Earthdome. And that was a lot of time. Eventually, the judge said, "Thank you, Mr. Souza, you have finshed here. Good luck and best wishes." "Thank you," I said, and as I walked out, I pulled out the letter Ivanova gave me. As by her orders, I hadn't let the letter out of my sight. Well, for the night, I had put it in the ship's safe. If they could get into the blocks of stasis fields and hardened magnetic armor, they could keep the letter. It was an address for someone in Earthdome, a Thomas H. somewhere high in Earthdome. As I walked up the levels, I finally made it to the block and section door. It was the Earth Force section, and I entered the compartment with a female secretary in a Earth Force uniform. "Can I help you, sir?" she asked. "Yes," I said. "I have orders to deliver this letter to a Thomas H in Level 22, Block 17, Compartment 2. My orders are to deliver this letter directly to him." "May I see it?" she asked. After looking at the letter, she thought slightly, then tapped a control on her panel, "Sir, the man you've been wating for is here." "Send him in," the voice said, and the woman led me to a door with a three-star banner on it. Below the banner was *General Thomas Haig, Earth Alliance*. "Right this way, sir," she said, showing me in. Sitting behind the desk was no one other than General Haig, looking over a report. "You have a letter for me?" he asked, without looking at me. "Yes," I said, "I do," and handed him the letter. He tore it open, reading the three paper sheets and then saying, "You are a very interesting person, to say the very least. Now," he took out a pocket scrambler and put it on the table, active, "now, tell me everything you know that you didn't include in your report." "Sir," I said, very carefully, "I've heard some rumors about you, sir, but I'm afraid that some things that I know must remain with me." "Fair enough," he said, turning to look at me, "this is a trust issue. How can you trust me to tell me what you know? The best I can say is that Sheridan trusts me, and he trusts me enough to tell me about Sharon Apple. Now, can you trust me?" "I'll be fair," I said, "I'll tell you about my ship, the *Sol Bianca*. It's one of only two ships ever made, created by a group only known as the Karsan Bianca. Don't ask me who they are, that's the best I can do. She is equipted with a subspace diver, a star drive faster than any ship equipted with Jumpgate technology. And she can outgun any ship short of the Vorlons, and maybe even then. Oh, and one more thing, she can land on planets." "Good," Haig replied, "now my little bit. Did you know how good your Sharon Apple is?" "Humor me," I said, sitting down, "how good?" "Not only did she tap my system and access my files, she tapped my Earth Force personnel records, my credit report, my home terminal, my operational files, my Psi-Corp files, and that impressed me. When she found the love letters I wrote when I was 14 and delivered them to my front door, that sold me. I could use someone like her," Haig said, smiling. "For what, system breaking?" I asked. "No, but I could use her for my Intelligence Chief. Don't look shocked," Haig said, pointing at me to relax, "she is very, very good at information gathering and assembling. She discovered things about Psi-Corp that I never knew, and all from public access nets. She can get infomation from Earth Force Intellegence and my organization through me." "Then," I said, "give me a day or two and I'll send you a package. There will be six safety seals. If they are broken, press the red button and toss it in the garbage can. If not, there will be two devices. Both will be self-explanitory, and both will secure our communication links. Don't take any chances, it's essencial that we keep the links secret. It might be the only thing we've got to defend us." "I understand. I'll be sure to get in touch with you if I need to. Ivanova is one of ours, so she is your liason," Haig said. "Very well," I said. "Now?" "You go. The package can arrive here without any problems, and this conversation would look suspisious if they checked the monitors. Be seeing you," and Haig showed me out. *--------* I spent a month and a half on Earth, having fun. Desperate fun. Like the man who knows that he has a terminal disease that will strike him down in six months, and he tries to compress his life into the time allotted to him by God, I tried to live three hundred years on Earth in six weeks. And I didn't even know this until the end of the Narn/Centarui War. The war that ended by orbital bombardment via massdriver by the Centarui. I was sitting in a bar in New York, nursing a Guinness Stout for the last hour. As I was drinking, all of the monitors flared with an ISN Emergency News report. "This is Thomas Hale, at ISN News. We have just receive reports from Earth Dome and the Centarui government that the Narn home-world is being bombarded by ship-mounted mass-driver cannons as we speak. Our sources in Earth Dome say that they are being blasted into the Stone Age.' As of yet there is no reports from the Narn government...." "Good ridiance," a drunken patron said beside me, "those blasted lizards are being blown up like they should," as a number of patrons provide him with drunken, if sincere, agreement. "Excuse me?" I said, "you're hearing that an entire race who's only sin was being an enemy of the Centarui is being blasted by oribital bombardment and all you can say is 'good ridance'?" "Yea, the Narn had it coming to them," he said, looking at me odd, "what are you, a lizard fan?" I decided that I could take a bar-full of drunken men without a problem. I looked at him and lo! and behold, he had a nose ring. I *always* wanted to do this. "You know what this bartop would need to look better?" I asked. He looked at it seriously. "No, what?" he asked. I grabbed the nose ring and slammed his head into the table, his jaw slamming together with a awful *clack*. "You're hollow little head," I said. Then, to the rest of the patrons, I said, "Listen up, maggots! We fought a war fifteen years ago against a race which committed crimes much, much worse than anything the Narn or the Centarui committed. To enjoy that slaughter is to enjoy death. If you enjoy death, join it. If not, I see you bastards in hell." I let the man's nose ring go, tossed a handful of bills onto the table. "Sorry about the mess," I said, and walked out. I didn't even get asked what happened there, so he didn't press charges. Good for him. It was right then that I realized just how much different I was to the people of Earth, either here or in my time. And what it meant to be in the fraternity of Long Dreamers. Ivanova probibly never cracked open a copy of Asimov, Sheridan couldn't pick out Arthur Clarke or President Clarke in a line-up, but they were the living Long Dreamers, those who challenged the Dark and made it their own. They were *living* science fiction, not just reading it. And the mundane people of Earth had gotten so mundane that it was depressing. And I knew that, most likely, I would never be back again once I left. *--------* I had one more stop to make. I took a shuttle from New York to Tokyo, then took a magtrain from Tokyo to Kyoto, then a bus into the moutains. The rest of the way, me and Ryo-ou-ki-chan walked, me carrying a satchel over my shoulder. Ryo-ou-ki-chan was very happy looking, because he knew where we were. Eventually, I made it up to the main part of the shrine that was on the site. As I came up the steps, a old man, thin and limber, came out, saying, "I'm sorry, the shrine is closed today for cleaning. If you come back tomorrow...." "I was wondering," I said, "do you recognize this," and Ryo-ou-ki-chan moved up from behind me and climbed the steps to mew at his leg and rub his head against it. "Ryo-ou-ki-chan," the man said, picking Ryo-ou-ki-chan up and snuggling his chin into Ryo-ou-ki-chan's ears, "it's been so long...." "Are you Tenchi?" I asked. "Yes," he said, "but how do you know that? Do you know where Aeka and Ryouko and Sasami are?" "I've got a story to tell you," I said, "and it's going to take a long time. Mind if we walk?" As Ryo-ou-ki-chan got comfortable with his old home, Tenchi said, "After Sasami disappeared, Aeka and Ryouko went ballistic. Watsuu accellerated the growth of the Ryooh, Aeka's ship, and they went out to find Sasami. That was over four hundred years ago, and you know what happened to Sasami." "Yes, I can understand that," I said. "But what about you? Why didn't you go with them?" "They said it was going to be a short trip. But they never returned, and eventually things started to fade...." Tenchi replied. "What do you mean things started to fade?" I asked. "The memories of Aeka, Sasami, Ryouko, everybody disappeared from everyone else's memory, even Grandpa's. He said there was a legend about the demons, true, but about him being a Jyrui prince? He dismiss it. But I remembered, even the training. The Funalo's Starship Tree provided just enough Water of Life to extend my life span," Tenchi noted. "And I knew that at least Sasami and Ryo-ou-ki-chan would be coming back one day." "What happend to Mihoshi?" I wondered, curiously. "We got married," Tenchi laughed. "Can you believe it? All the pain and suffering the girls put themselves through for me was all for nothing. She died a few centuries ago, we had eight kids. All wonderful kids, I'm even teaching my successor for the shrine." "I'm sorry if it's painful for you," I replied. "It's not a problem," Tenchi said, "it's been long enough not to hurt. Much." "Do you still have the Master Key?" I asked. "Yes," he said, drawing the sword, "why do you ask?" "Because I have one too," I said and drew my blade. "See?" "You're right," Tenchi noted. "But only Jyrui royaltly has access to Keys." "But I'm not Jyrui royalty," I said. "This is odd." I pulled out a data crystal from my pocket and handed it to him. "This is my address for Babylon 5 and my ship. Contact me at any time you wish, I'll at least try to respond." "Very well then," Tenchi said. "What about Ryo-ou-ki-chan?" "I won't force him to go. He can stay here, if you want," I replied. "No," Tenchi noted, "He can't stay here. I want you to take care of him, and make sure Sasami knows I'm alive, when you see her again." "I promise you," I said, "I'll tell her." *--------* Vivian was catching a shuttle back from New Hong Kong, thinking about her father. She spent six months of her own time, back-vacation time, on Earth, visiting old friends and seeing the sites. Her father was the last living relivitve of the Wu family, and that just left Vivian. As well, she was thinking about Jon. In a sense, she liked Jon, little confused, but a nice man never the less. As Vivian rode the shuttle up to the main space dock, Vivian noticed a data terminal in the back of her seat was playing advertisments for ISN service while in-flight. Idly she tapped the terminal on, put on the headphones, and listened as she caught an announcement in mid-message. "....ship is belived to be of alien origins, but it's owner, a corporation by the name of the Karsa Bianca Group, consists of all-humans. Our attempts to contact the CEO of the Karsa Bianca group, Jonathan Souza, has failed to complete the conncection...." "So," Vivian whispered, "he's still here." Idly, she tapped the console, thinking. She checked orbital trajectories and saw that she just *might* make it, if she was lucky.... *--------* I finally made it back to the *Sol Bianca*. Earth was starting to tire as of late, and I decided to go home to Babylon 5 rather than stay on Earth any longer. As I arrived at the door, a young girl of about 16 greeted me, saying, "Hi Jon, welcome back." "G!" I yelled, "we've got an intruder!" "No, sir," G replied, "that is just June. She is a very, very good friend of mine. You could say that we're two peas in a pod. Now, sir, if you're ready to depart, we'll be on out way." "Very well then," I said, "Ask Earth Traffic Control to give us Jumpgate sequence, then...." "Warning!" G blared, alarms ringing, "Small mass in close proxmity to the ship with one life-sign. Sir, it's hailing us." "Respond," I said. A mointor blared, and Vivian's face appeared, "Hi, Jon. Do you think you can give me a ride back?" "Why aren't you taking a regular shuttle back to Babylon 5?" I asked. At the same time I was tapping the console to bring up a sensor scan. "Hey, where else am I going to get fresh fruit and real gravity without paying for first-class transit?" Vivian replied, smiling. I looked at the plot and....geez! She was in a rental work-pod, that thing barely had enough delta-V to get here and back without running out of fuel. "Even though she's smiling, she's still dangerous...." I whispered to myself softly. "Beg your pardon?" Vivain asked, looking at me curiously. "All right then," I said, "we'll take you back home. Hop on and we'll auto-send the work-pod back to the rental station. And, next time, you could have always asked me." "What?" she said, smiling, "and miss all the fun of suprising you?" *--------* Meanwhile, the crews maintaing Realtiy were going ballistic. "Sir, we've got a massive D-Shift, class six, and it's being driven by a pulse so powerful that our sensors are finding it difficult to align properly," the technican said. "That's it," the supervisor said, "I want you at T-minus two minutes to full-use of Unlimted Access. I'm going up to the main office to tell them that the Web is severly destablizing...." the supervisor said, when his phone rung. "Yes, sir?" the supervisor responed, "Yes, sir, I know that I'm not allowed to.... But sir, the Reality Flux is....But, sir, we're starting to lose Web cohesion and things are staring to go chatotic.... but, sir!....but, sir!....Yes, sir....Yes, sir." He hung up the phone. "Problem, sir?" the technican said. "Shut it down. Shut it all down," the supervisor replied. "High Command wants things to play themselves out, so we're not to interfere." "Sir!," the technican replied, standing up. "We're getting into a feedback loop of Reality patterns. We could lose the whole Web from a feedback backlash." "I know that," the supervisor replied, his hand turning white as he squeezed the phone headset, "I know that all too well." *--------* "Babylon 5 Traffic Control, this is *Sol Bianca*," I said, "request parking orbit." "*Sol Bianca*, this is Babylon 5 Traffic Control. Co-ordinates for parking orbit are coming shortly," the officer said, "please be careful, a Vorlon transport ship is departing shortly, and we're waiting for it to clear the docking ring." "Confirmed," I replied. Curious, I asked, "Is the Vorlon ship the one the Ambassador uses?" "No, sir. It's a second ship that was here to transfer a representive of the Vorlon Empire, not Ambasador Kosh's ship," the traffic control officer noted, and I saw the ship depart as well. It's coloration was different than Kosh's ship. Hm, I thought, Sebastian was here. "Very well then," I said, "request permission to send over my shuttle." "Confirmed, sir," the traffic control officer replied. "Give us thrity minutes to clear the transit lanes." "Sir," G noted, "Vivian is on the com-link. She's really amused with the system network." "Ok then," I said, "patch her in," and Vivian's image appeared in a side window. "Hey, Jon," Vivian said, "how long before we leave for Babylon 5?" "Babylon 5 Traffic Control will let us take the shuttle over in a few minutes," I said. I really like Vivian, all considering. She was one of the most apt sword fighters I'd ever seen, and she was just as much a fan of old movies and videos as I was. "Now, what's next?' "I've got to get back to work," Vivian noted, "I used up most of my vacation days to go back home to Earth. I do have Tuesday and Thursday off, so we could always go out and get dinner." "I'll take that," I said with a smile, "as a offer I can't refuse. I'll get the ship settled down in a parking orbit and launch the shuttle. I'll see you at the shuttle bay." "Right," Vivian said, and the image blinked off. "Well," G noted, "she is very nice." "Yes," I replied, "she is." *--------* Lennier was worried. When Kosh sent the Inquisitor, both Sheridan and Delenn got caught up in the web of the Test that was performed. And the Inquisitor was very curious about a third person. He never came out and said it, but Lennier feared that the third person was Jon. There was nothing to prove it, of course, but Lenner didn't want Jon to suffer like Delenn did. He went to a public terminal and tapped it on-line. "Transmit the following message," and Lennier put a data-crystal into the terminal, "and transmit it to the following address." Two beeps, then, "Confirmed. Message sent, and a recipt has been recieved." *--------* After I had gotten on the station, a message was on my portable terminal, the moment the terminal entered the Babylon 5 network. Pulling it out, I queued up the message and read it, a simple text message. "Be careful. An Inquisitor was looking for you. "-L" Who was L? And why would an Inquisitor be hunting for me? I had a guess, and I didn't like it. I was a part of the Babylon 5 arc now. As far as I knew, everything I was doing, everything I said, everything I thought, would be shown to an audience of millions. Ok, maybe thousands, but still.... As I walked into my quarters, there were a box waiting in the door, the solid case that you would normally use for cameras or fragile items. As I opened it up, they were foam-filled, to secure something. In the box was a Tekkamen Crystal, the device needed to transform a human into a Tekkaman, assuming that the Tekkaman Process was performed. Tekkamen. Great. That meant that I would be having a person near here with Tekkaman powers. In the box was a note- "Jon, "In the box is a Tekkaman Crystal, not for you, but for someone who will be coming to Babylon 5, another Human. I hate to interfere like this again, but things are moving too fast. Sorry. "Jon" I put away the box and laid down on my bed. Thinking. If the capabilites I needed required more help, and a Tekkamen unit, this was *much* more than any enemy that I expected. As I let the lights shut off, I decided that, if nessisary, I would do whatever it took to survive. Including the vaporization of Babylon 5. [End Episode 3] From jon.souza@creature.comSat Feb 24 21:17:49 1996 Date: Sat, 24 Feb 1996 08:46:29 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply to: b5-creative@blob.best.net To: b5-creative@blob.best.net Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 4 completely. I've decided to take a swipe at a Gundam/Babylon 5/ Macross Plus/Macross 7/Tenchi Muyo/Sol Bianca/Whatever The Hell I Can Pack Into This Thing crossover. In short, this is going to be a wild, confusing ride that is going to hopefully be a LOT of fun. This fanfic is dedicated to Dave Gao, everyone on the Babylon 5 Creative and Gundam mailing lists, and all of my fans(especially the ones who like my stories and DON'T write to tell me!). Special thanks to Felicia LeCou for letting me use her as a character. Got to have the legalistics- All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners and will be turned over to the owners at the request of their authorized agents. All other characters/places/persons are the sole property of Jonathan Souza, Copyrighted @1996. This copyright extends to all electronic versions of the story. As always, comments, complaints, and critiques are welcome. Even if it's just to say "good work, Jon," I'd like to hear it. Even if it's to complain about my language and syntax, go right on ahead. I need the abuse. From Macross 7, Jon Souza Jon.Souza@Creature.Com Breaking the Consensus By Jon Souza Episode 4-Fall of Night "And that day dawned when Arrakis lay at the hub of the universe with the wheel poised to spin." -Frank Herbert, *Dune* Eighteen days. Eighteen days before January 1. Eighteen days before January 1, 2260. Eighteen days before January 1, 2260; when I would be on plus time. For the next eighteen days, I was here knowing that a Narn heavy cruiser would escape the slaughter set up by the Shadows, take refuge here under Sheridan's arm, and use that time to repair itself. It would be betrayed to the Centarui by a Nightwatch officer, working for the Ministry of Peace. The Centarui would send a battlecruiser to stop the ship, Babylon 5 would stop it, and the Narn ship would reach the Jumpgate safely. There were other things, I knew, but for some odd reason, my mind fixated on the name 'Ministry of Peace.' I had to smile, either at the smarts of the people working at Minipax or their stupidity. Either they thought we wouldn't have read George Orwell's classic *1984* and just think that the Ministry of Peace was just that, the Ministry of Peace; or they knew we read *1984* and they planned to use our paranoid nature about Minipax as a smoke screen. After all, you could reason, who would be so stupid to use such a blatant ploy? "So, the conquering hero is back," Garibaldi said, sitting beside me at a Zocallo cafe. I had a cup of Double Dutch Hot Chocolate and was taking long sips from it. Thank God for Garibaldi, he interrupted my train of thoughts. "Good morning, Mister Garibaldi," I replied, taking another sip. "So, what is it today that's got you worried?" "I'm just wondering what you're doing to find Sasami," Garibaldi replied, looking at me, "you just seem to be sitting around, drinking and doing nothing." "Garibaldi," I said, "there isn't much I *can* do about it. She's with Tsunami now, and if she wants to come back, she will. If not, she won't. Am I worried? Yes, I am worried. But I'm not dramatizing it. Panic is counterproductive. Anyways, I am *not* going to piss off Tsunami. I kind of like breathing." "What's so important about this Tsunami' character you refer to? What make her so dangerous?" Garibaldi asked, somewhat annoyed. I was about to tell him, in a very witty and very humorous way, that Tsunami could turn this station, and it's inhabitants, into a thin, paste-like smear on the floor when something exploded. Ok, maybe not *exploded*, more like something suddenly displaced the air with an explosive roar, coinciding with a brilliant flash of light and energy. I would learn, later, that the flash reverberated across the entire EM spectrum, and the fact that me and the entire Zocallo wasn't irradiated was that anything lethal was confined to a burst nearly one billionth of a shake long. By the time I had turned around and opened my eyes, the object that was floating in mid-air fell to the floor with a loud, and resounding "Kersplooot!", exploding like some kind of water balloon. I moved over to the object quickly, Garibaldi one step behind. As I peeled away the sticky fluid, a shape took form. Hands that were all too human, a leg, a breast.... Eventually, me and Garibaldi and one other person were able to dig out a young woman, her shoulder-length blonde hair plastered to her skin by this sticky substance, utterly naked, and brought her face up to the air. "Are you all right?" I asked, trying to clear the stuff from around her mouth. She suddenly jerked, got down on her hands and was coughing up the same substance she was coated in, in heaving coughs that wracked her body. As Garibaldi was calling for Medlab to send a team to the Zocallo fast!, she suddenly stretched skyward, opened her mouth up, and from her throat came a sound I never ever want to hear again as long as I live. She howled so loudly, so painfully, it felt like I was being dragged through a glass sandbox at ninety miles per hour. It felt like my limbs were being torn apart, my mind being shattered, my brain being sawed in half. For what seemed like eternity, she howled, then stopped, opened her blue eyes for just a second, then fell onto her back. "Dear God in heaven," Garibaldi said. "What the hell happened to her?" "I hope we can find out," I said. "Because I think she's here because of me." *--------* Catching Franklin on a *bad* day was not a good idea. Today was definitely a bad day and when Garibaldi and the Medlab crew brought in the woman for examination, she was moaning and rolling on the gurney that brought her in. Luckily, she didn't fall off but.... "What happened to her?" Franklin asked Garibaldi. "I don't know," Garibaldi replied, "she just appeared in the Zocallo coated in this stuff," as Garibaldi handed Franklin a cup full of the sticky substance that she was coated in, "and when we were able to clean her off, she howled, then collapsed. She just started to moan "I see," Franklin replied. What else could he say? "Dr. Sanchez, give her a full examination, I'm going to check out this stuff she was in." "Yes, sir," Sanchez replied, as she moved to start scanning the woman. Franklin led Garibaldi to the analyzer, looking at his uniform, "Do you know you're a mess?" "I'll change later," Garibaldi replied, "now, what's that stuff?" "Let me see...." Franklin noted, dropping the substance, cup and all, into the analyzer. As they watched, the analyzer started to break down the substance in the cup, and the cup itself, into it's basic components. As they watched, the computer started to break up the chemicals into smaller components that could be analyzed. "Dr. Franklin, you should come here!" Sanchez yelled, and Franklin got out of his chair and was at Sanchez's side, running the scanner across the woman's body. "It just started a few seconds ago," pointing out the waxy substance that started to coat the woman. "The scanner says it's her own body fat, being excreted out her pores." "Ok then," Franklin replied, looking at the woman, "run a full biological scan, see why she's excreting this fat, I'm checking out what this fluid is. Garibaldi, check to see who's in the Zocallo, we might need to put people into quarantine and...." "Analysis confirmed," the analyzer said, "substances analyzed." Franklin was over at the analyzer in a second, looking at the scanned materials. "What the hell is this, Garibaldi?" "Huh?" Garibaldi asked, confused. "That stuff is human ambionic fluid, with a gelatinous compound mixed with it. As far as I can tell from this stuff, it's just like someone gave birth to her at that size," Franklin replied. "Just where did you find her?" "I was in the Zocallo with Jon and...."Garibaldi said, but Franklin interrupted. "That makes sense," Franklin replied, confused. So far, the rule of thumb seemed to be that anything that involved Jon would always involve some of the weird. "But what's the hell wrong with this girl?" "Doctor, you aren't going to believe this! I've just found signs of nano-machines in her bloodstream and I'm detecting odd structures being built in her body," Sanchez replied, pointing at the monitor. "Let me see...." Franklin replied, looking at monitor, curious. Nano-machines were still highly experimental in Earth Alliance construction and if there were nanos in her blood stream, that either meant Earth Alliance experimentation or alien technology. "So far, she just seems to have all the fat excreted from her pores. But I want to keep her here for analysis and...." Garibaldi's link beeped, "I think you'd better get that." Garibaldi was so intent on the monitor that he didn't notice his beeping link. "Oh," then he took the link up to his mouth and said, "Garibaldi here. What is it?" "Sir," the tinny voice of Zack came from link, "I ran that woman through the scanner and, um, sir, you won't believe where I found her ID." "At this point, nothing surprises me," Garibaldi replied. "Where did you find it?" "Under the Ultraviolet Projects Classifications, and all I got was a basic bio. And do you want to hear the kicker?" Zack noted, cheer entering his voice. "Surprise me," Garibaldi replied, tired. "Sir, the program she was a part of happened exactly three hundred and sixty one years ago and it's still under a deep black cover. I had to pull half a dozen strings to get this far, sir, and I'm just running up to a wall here," Zack replied, happy to have found out something his boss didn't know. Garibaldi sighed. Loudly. Today was *not* a good day. "Ok, get everything assembled and tell Captain Sheridan and Commander Ivanova that I need to see them in about five hours. As well, see what else you can find out about this woman before then. Garibaldi out," as Garibaldi tapped off his link, he looked at Franklin and said, "Duty calls, unfortunately. You'll tell me if there's any change in her status?" "Of course," Franklin replied, and by the time he had the words, "Oh, and change that jacket, it's going to stink soon," Garibaldi was out the door. Just a normal, insane day on Babylon 5. *--------* By the time I had made it back to my quarters, I was already calling up G and Sharon Apple. When I got in, I tore off my clothes, took a handkerchief-sized sample of the fluid and tossed it in the scanner, and was changing into a bathrobe when the crystal attention sign of Sharon Apple appeared on my monitor. "Sir, I've got some information on that girl you found in the Zocallo." "Good," I said, sniffing myself. I stank like hell, and I needed a shower. But information first. "What did you find out?" "I have a name. Her name is Felicia LeCou. As far as I can tell, she was involved in some deep black government project in the late '90s and she just vanished," Sharon Apple replied. "And what about that fluid she was coated in?" I noted. "Sir, it's human ambioic fluid with a gelatinizer attached, giving it the consistency of thin Jell-O. As well, it's highly oxignated, she wouldn't have suffocated. One more thing, that fluid was completely laced with her DNA, none from a "mother" genotype or "father" genotype," Sharon Apple noted, her face appearing on a side screen with the chemical data. Something about that name rang a bell, I just couldn't tell what.... "So, what does that mean?" "Two possibilities. First, she could be a clone or genetically engineered being. However, that would be inconsistent with certain facts, such as that I was able to recover a DNA sample from the project she was working on and the genetic drift was barely one billionth of one percent. Even a first-generation clone would have genetic drift inaccuracies in the mere tenths of a percent. The second had to do with this deep black' project she was in." The name was ringing a bell. Something about a crisis.... "What was this project called?" "It was called Operation Protolife Defunct'. I have no idea what it means, and I'm trying to find out. The title is meaningless, but I am dedicating processor time to try and figure out what that designation means, just in case. Sir, Garibaldi is also accessing the same records, he might know more about what it means," Sharon Apple noted. I finally got it. "I think I know who she is." "Huh?" "Felicia LeCou read my stories when I was on the Babylon 5-Creative mailing list back when I was home, and I read hers as well. Hell, she was the only consistent reviewer of them I had. I told you, of course, what this place was to me," I said. They already knew that, at least from my continuity, this place and themselves were fictional, resulting in large numbers of debates on the nature of reality. "I know that. I've also found an ancient file archive, and sir, there are stories in there. But they aren't Babylon 5 stories. They're for a show called Star Trek-Deep Space Nine', whatever the hell that means. Sir, do you want me to relay what I have to Michael Garibaldi?" Sharon Apple asked. "Yes, but be polite about it," I said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be taking a shower. And no tricks like hiding a camera in the shower to see me naked, either of you!" "I promise to be good," Sharon Apple said, oddly sincere. And she didn't hide a camera in the shower. But she did hide a mike in there, to my later regret when she caught me singing old show toons and showing me how I was singing them wrong. Rule of thumb-never sing around a perfectionist with perfect pitch. *--------* "So, you're telling me that this 'Felicia' character is from the past and in some project called 'Operation Protolife Defunct?'" Ivanova asked Garibaldi. Unfortunatly, Sheridan was buried under paperwork and couldn't get to see them. "That's what I'm telling you. Beyond a basic project roster for this 'Operation Protolife Defunct', I've got nothing. Nada. Zip. I don't even have a basic release information on the project and it's operational parameters. And this project is nearly four hundred years old. I was hoping that Sheridan's other hobby would help us to find out what this thing is," Garibaldi replied. "Anything else we know about her?" Ivanova asked, curious. "When she disappeared, she was twenty-eight years old, and had three masters degrees, namely English, library sciences, and systems analysis. Did pretty good, at least according to the records. When she graduated, the American government promptly snatched her up, there's a FBI security background check for her, qualifying her for TS-RIP clearance. Then she disappeared into this 'Operation Protolife Defunct' at Edwards Air Force Base in California, then she was declared missing exactly three years and four days to the disappearance of our friend Jon. Other than that, she was pretty ordinary," Garibaldi shrugged, "It's odd, Jon seems to be attracting a lot of unusual things to him." "No more than usual," Ivanova agreed, then looked at the monitor, "does Franklin know what's going on with her?" "Nope, he still refuses to give any prognosis other than she's still moaning and groaning. At least she isn't excreting fat and it starting to take solid food again. The only coherent things she's said has been 'Operation Protolife Defunct' and her name. The rest she says is just moans and groans. This is getting odd, and I don't like it," Garibaldi replied. "Neither do I," Ivanova replied. Silence, then, "So, what do we do?" "We'll try to figure out what's going on. Especially what this 'Protolife Defunct' thing is. And we'd better find out why Jon is so interested in her before he does," Garibaldi noted. *--------* To it's credit, Babylon 5 was just large enough that there were little "niches" you could find, nice and quiet and as far away from the maddening crowd as possible. One of these was an observatory in the Red section, a place so quiet and so hard to find that I probably was one of the few people who knew of it. My mistake. I went up there to think on how I was going to solve the current mystery in front of me. There was someone here that, possibly, was an error of mine, and I wanted to get it solved as soon as possible. Being a cop's son means that you're practical bastard, and I hated when things got complex. Ok, I enjoyed a certain level of complexity, but this was too much. When I finally made it up there, there was the local ulcer generator, Ambassador Kosh. I just said, "Good afternoon," and sat down after Kosh bowed his head once. I really didn't want to talk to anyone, but Kosh was utterly silent other than a slow, regular hissing sound. I was tapping the data-pad, bringing the unit to an active state, watching the universe rotate around me. Before I knew it, musical tones and a voice said, "Yes?" Spinning round, I saw that Kosh was right behind me, looking at me with a cocked head. "Is there a problem, Ambassador?" "Yes," Kosh replied. "Good," I replied. Then, "Am I the problem or is there another problem and I'm just here while you're trying to solve it?" That cause Kosh to pause for a second. Maybe he was even flustered, but his next comment was delivered as level and as calm as his other statements, "There is an irregularity." "Maybe I can help," I said, "what is this irregularity?" "Nothing that you can be concerned with," Kosh replied, shifting as like to draw up his shoulders if he was human. "Try me," I said, "at least your problem is merely enigmatic, while my problem is just plain confusing." "What is this problem?'" Kosh asked. "There's this girl in Med-lab who arrived here in the most irregular of ways. She was involved in a project on Earth over four hundred years ago, something called 'Operation Protolife Defunct,'" I said, looking at Kosh straight-on, full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes sort of arrogance, "Now, I'm not sure if this project and her arrival here are the same thing, but it's a place to start...." "Return here in one hour," Kosh said, and he pivoted off to disappear in the distance. "Wait a minute," I yelled, "I didn't help you with your problem." Kosh stopped, turned around, and said, "You just did." Then he left. Leaving me alone in the observation deck. Thinking about the fact that I'm relying upon a Vorlon. And how *ridiculous* an idea that is. *--------* Lt(jg) Corbin was reading his control panel when an odd transmission request came through his board. Just at the same time Ivanova came to check the board. "What is that?" Ivanova asked, pointing at the request. "Huh, oh...." and Corbin read the transmission authenticators, and said, "Ambassador Kosh wants a link to the Earth Alliance Main Library Database on Earth. I mean, it's odd, but he'd done this," Corbin called up a memory queue, "about eight times in the last month alone. I was just about to put him through...." "Oh," Ivanova replied. How else *could* she reply? "Well then, put it through!" *--------* "Are you sure this thing's going to work?" That was Ryouko's question to Washuu as everyone saw the massive device that Mihoshi was strapped into. Located in the bowels of the Galactic Police cruiser that Mihoshi and her partner, Kiyone, used was the machine that she said would get Sasami and Ryo-ou-ki-chan. Consisting of a massive network of self-resetting stator bolts, magnetic polarity conduits, quantum field shunts, and a 57 DeSoto engine, the machine occupied one of the three massive cargo bays that the ship had. As everyone looked at the machine, Washuu was making final adjustments to the harness system that attached Mihoshi to the machine, fending off the offers of "help" from Kiyone. Kiyone offered to help "tie Mihoshi into the machine better" with nails and a hammer, a low-tech approach that Washuu refused, mostly because she hadn't thought of it. "Of course it's going to work," Washuu replied irritably, "when *hasn't* one of my innovative inventions ever worked?" "Do you want a list from this week or in alphabetical order?" Aeka replied, cynically. "Come on now," Tenchi said, trying to mediate, "Washuu means well...." "Of course I do!" Washuu replied, suddenly turning bubbly and happy. "Now, I'll explain. Once the system aligns and everything is ready, we can prepare the second system for the Jump...." "*WHAT*?!?" Aeka yelled, hissing at Washuu, "you need another device to get there?" "Yes!" Washuu replied, almost ignoring the level of anger that was being directed at her. "The Jump device is right here," and she held up a small, tennis-ball sized device. "THAT device," as she pointed at the machinery, "is to get us there safely. That device will amplify Mihoshi's inherent 'luck' factor enough to cover this ship, allowing us to arrive at the Tsunami Key and Sasami safely." "But Mihoshi's luck always has a bad side to it," Tenchi said softly. "Nothing that could harm us now that she's tied into the ship. We'll survive, and have a reasonable level of operational ability," Washuu replied. "Um, excuse me," Mihoshi asked, trying to get their attention, "I need to go to the bathroom." "Can you hold it for ten minutes?" Washuu asked. "I think so, but...." Mihoshi replied, unsure. "Then hold it," Washuu replied, pointing to the bridge, "we've got a little girl to find!" On the ship's bridge, Kiyone sat at the ship's conn, everyone else starting to strap themselves in. "When can we go?" Kiyone asked. "Any time you want," Washuu replied. The ship was already in position on a sub-space "fault", and the systems were fully charged and operational. Ryouko had a question, "What happens," she asked, "if this thing doesn't work?" "One of three things," Washuu replied. "First, absolutely nothing happens." "And we look like idiots," Aeka noted. "True," Washuu noted. "The second is that we suffer complete atomic deconstrution from the inside out, totally destroying us." "I don't exactly like that option," Tenchi said. "Me neither," Washuu agreed. "The third is we arrive in the same dimensional space/time that Sasami and Ryo-ou-ki-chan are in." "Ten seconds to activation," Kiyone said. "I hope this works," Tenchi said. "If it doesn't," Ryouko said, "I'll see you all in hell." "Five seconds, " Kiyone noted, checking her straps as well. "You first," Aeka noted, smiling. That needling had the intended effect. "Why you!" Ryouko was about to phase out of her restraints when the Jump Generator erupted in a burst of energy. From the outside, the spectacle of space seemingly tear itself apart as the cruiser was pulled into a *nowhere* space and merely vanished, was rather interesting to see. Leaving no trace of it's previous existence. *--------* Fifty eight minutes later, I was there. I had this annoying habit of arriving early, mostly because it allowed me to "read" the room(and because I was used to taking public transportation, I had to budget time in so I wouldn't be late). Just two minutes to go and.... "You are here?" Kosh said. I looked at my datapad, it was just one minute before. "You're early," I replied. "I have always been here. You have always been here as well," Kosh replied. "Bravo," I noted, "I'm officially been here always. I'm happy to be always here." "Sarcasm," Kosh noted, "is wasted on me." "At least," I said, smiling, "you can recognize sarcasm." "This," a small arm popped out of Kosh's encounter suit, dropping a data crystal in my palm, "is what you are looking for. Good day." "Just one thing!" I yelled after him, "what do I owe you for this information?" "Nothing," Kosh replied, and disappeared. I looked at the data crystal and thought about what I was getting myself into. *No deeper,* I thought, *than I was already.* *--------* In retrospect, nobody could have anticipated that incident. Despite complaints to the contrary, Felicia wasn't violent. At best, she'd turn away and moan if someone forced something at her. At worse, she would shove it away with muscles that seemed to not know what they were doing half the time. But she was still sitting in Medlab, silently looking at the ceiling, occasionally whispering things that, if anyone could hear, was a nonsensical nursery rhyme, "Babylon 5 is Falling Down." It was this peaceful situation that would be shattered by the entrance of Ambassador Londo Molari of the Centauri Republic, bursting into Medlab, saying, "I must speak to him!" "You can't right now," the duty nurse said, referring to the Centauri citizen who had a shiv stuck between the ribs of his back and needed two hours of surgery to pull the polyceramic alloy blade out of his heart without stopping it. There were rumors that a Narn had did it, and Londo wanted to see if his citizen could identify him. "Irregardless of your opinion, I will see him now!" Londo yelled. Having your race win a major war is something that gives the ego a major boost. And this ego nearly got him killed. As she was lying in bed, eyes closed, Felicia's eyes opened and looked at the duty nurse. In a strong, clear voice, she asked, "Is that Ambassador Londo Molari?" The nurse near her looked suddenly, then said, surprised that she was coherent on his shift, "Are you all right? You've been out a while and...." Felicia seemed to ignore his commentary. "Is that Ambassador Londo Molari who just walked into the room?" she asked again, in a voice that demanded an answer. "Why yes, it is...." But that was all she needed. In mid-sentence, Felicia threw the covers off her bed, landed on the floor on the balls of her feet, and leapt at Londo, screaming. Before anyone knew it, Felicia knocked Londo onto the floor, in which she soon took prompt possession the neck and windpipe of Londo Molari, trying to squeeze the life out of it. In shock, the three people nearest to her, the duty nurse and two assistants, could only watch for a second, then they tried to pull her off, as Felicia was screaming at the suffocating Londo, "Assassin! Murder! Killer! DIE! DIE! DIE!" Forcefully, two of the assistants were able to unwrap Felicia's fingers from Londo's throat, which Londo promptly took into his hands to massage the life back into them. As they tried to pull her back, Felicia squirmed and rocked, yelling, "I have to stop him! He's going to kill us all!" Then, suddenly, she slid her arm into one assistant, his loose grip sufficient to allow her to get leverage against the second assistant, and then drove her knee right into his groin with such force that the only sound was a soft crunching. He instantly keeled over, howling with pain and letting go of Felicia's arm. With a precise blow that would land the second assistant in Medlab for a month, she slammed a bony elbow into his jaw, so hard that she broke the jaw and most of the teeth in the upper and lower jaws. She had used her struggling to analyze her opponents. Before she could get her hands on Londo again, the head nurse had loaded a hypo spray with sedative and had slammed it into Felicia's back, the soft hissing instantly noticed by Felicia, who suddenly gained a sight of true thought in the animal fury of her eyes. Her voice, just soft enough for Londo and the head nurse to hear, said, "I'm sorry I couldn't stop myself...." and fell onto floor in a sodden heap, as if her puppet strings had been cut. By the time the head nurse had gotten Londo up, he said, "No charges." "What?" the head nurse asked, both not really hearing and totally not comprehending. "I won't press charges on her, or any Narn who is responsible for the attack on the Centauri you have in Medlab. What attacked me and what was really in that woman was not the same thing," Londo replied. And before the nurse could say anything more, Londo regathered his lost dignity like a shroud, then walked out as regal as he had entered. *--------* I plopped the data crystal in the terminal, allowing the system to read it. Oddly, G responded to the arrival of new information. "Hi Jon, how have you been doing?" she said, curious. "Pretty good," I replied. "Hey, where's Sharon Apple?" "She's busy working on something. I'm not too sure what it is, but I think she's working on some music again. Oh well, is this more on the 'Operation Protolife Defunct' thing?" G noted. "I think so....Ambassador Kosh gave me this data crystal and I'm rather worried about what's on it. I've run a full virus check on it, and it's clean as a whistle. As well, I'm scared," I admitted, "What if this 'Protolife Defunct' is a creation of some type of monster? I'd hate to have to put Felicia down." "Well then," G said, "you'll know nothing until you read it. If it'll make you feel better, I'll read it with you. You are, after all, my best friend." "I thought that June was you best friend," I replied smiling. "Then," G said with what could only be called a smile, "you are my bestest best friend." *--------* "When I had finished examining her," Franklin continued, "I found this." Garibaldi and Franklin were in Medlab, Garibaldi coming after Franklin called about the incident with Felicia, so charges could be pressed. When he had gotten there, Franklin had finished the examination of the still-sedated Felicia, finding a synthetic flesh patch below her jaw, concealing a small chip. "I see," Garibaldi replied. "May I look?" Franklin gave Garibaldi the chip, and he put it under the scanner. A few seconds later, Garibaldi said, "Hm....I see." "What is it?" Franklin asked. "It's an assassin chip. Hell of illegal alien technology, you program it with a target, slap it on someone, and when they receive a certain cue, they go berserk and try to kill the target. How did you find this?" Garibaldi replied. "I was taking her pulse, just to be on the safe side, and the patch came off on my fingers. I found the chip there and waited for you to come before I did anything else. Who makes these sort of things?" Franklin noted. "The Narn used to, but you could buy a Starfury for the cost of one of these chips. The Centauri and a few other races as well, but they cost in the low millions. How long do you think the chip was there?" Garibaldi asked. "Five hours, from the skin irritation around the patch boundaries. That means she had three hours after arriving here, and that about the time of the last shift change. Anyone could have planted it, it would have been a natural action such as taking her pulse. And do you want to hear the odd thing?" Franklin replied, looking at Garibaldi. "Surprise me," Garibaldi sighed, expecting just about anything. "When we pulled the chip off her, I scanned her. Somehow, her nervous system has been fitted with some type of neurological "filters", I'm not sure how the mechanism works, but the chip came off easy. And those filters weren't there five hours ago." "That chip should have self-destructed when the mission was performed. That it was saved...." Garibaldi let the question hang in the air. "It was saved to cover her ass," Franklin noted, looking at Felicia, then Garibaldi. "So, are you going to press charges?" "Absolutely not," Garibaldi replied. "She wasn't responsible for her actions while under the chip, so I can't even charge her for the assaults on your nurses. How long before she comes out of sedation?" "Two hours or so," Franklin replied, "the head nurse wasn't too precise with the dosage, remember what she had on her hands." "I'll speak to her after she wakes up, maybe she knows who did this to her," Garibaldi asked. "Mind if I take this? I'll have my people analyze it so we can find out who made it." "Go right on ahead. Just be sure not to tell the two guys she knocked out, they won't be happy to hear what you said about not charging her," Franklin noted. *--------* "Dear God," I whispered, as the information on Operation Protolife Defunct scrolled across the screen. "Yes," G noted, "this is almost too impossible to believe." Operation Protolife Defunct was a plan to give the United States the ability of dimensional travel after the discovery of subspace "faults", highly classified, a project of only eighteen people. The only machine used for Operation Protolife Defunct's operation, code named "Chocolate Parafat Monster", was based in a mile-deep bunker at Edwards Air Force Base. Three "dimensional subjects" were chosen, and Felicia LeCou was the first to test the machine. The result? An explosion that was rated at about four megatons. It caused the U.S. problems when the explosion was detected, and the U.S. claimed a paperwork snafu on the testing of a nuclear weapon. There were only two survivors of the project, and they were both in Washington to try and keep funding for Operation Protolife Defunct. The bunker was merely a massive bubble of fused glass from the explosion, so hot that it was still glass slag for weeks. They eventually caved in the tunnel, destroyed the records, and buried Protolife Defunct. Except for this data crystal. And Felicia LeCou, here on Babylon 5. "What do we do about this?" G asked me. "We can't give this to Garibaldi. He'd ask how we got this and that's going to cause a lot of very uncomfortable questions," I replied. "True," G noted. "But he has to know. How do we do this?" I scratched my head, thinking. "I don't know. We could always just tell Garibaldi that we did our own research, and pieced it together. Can you fake that?" "Easy," G noted. "Kosh was kind enough to annotate the data with enough minimally classified and declassified information to make a faked report easy. How much do you want him to know?" "Anything that won't connect this information to us or to Kosh...." I replied, being careful not to let that saying go any further. *--------* The man looked at the console in his room. "Do you know who accessed the data?" "No, sir," the technician replied. "We buried the data so frigging deep that it would have taken Gabriel-on-high to get it, let alone without us knowing it. I can tell you one thing, sir. Whomever accessed that data was on Babylon 5." "Very well then, I'll see what I can do here to find the link," the man replied, cutting off the communications terminal link and detaching the system scrambler. Looking at the flimsy copy of his schedule showed a full day, visiting with the Nightwatch troops and seeing if he could recruit people from the station's higher echelons. No matter, he thought, he didn't mind a honest day's work. As he exited the door, a security officer, what was his name?, ah yes, Zack, came up to him, "You wanted me, Mr. Wells?" "Yes," Wells replied, walking with him down the hallway, "could you tell me where I could find the man known as Jon Souza? I would like to speak with him." "Sure," Zack replied, "He's in Blue section, I'll download the address to you by the end of my shift." "Thank you," Wells thanked Zack, it was always good policy to thank the help, "I'll be on my way." "Have a good day," Zack replied, and waked down the hall. *--------* Today was Tuesday. Thank God for two small favors. The first was that every day, I had breakfast with Ambassador Delenn. She was persistent, even going as far as ringing my room the two times that I was late. She always liked to try out new foods, and to give; or as I put it, inflicted, them on me when she was satisfied that she liked them. Currently, she was on a Centauri food-trip and had a stack of various Centauri food-stuffs. Luckily, she hadn't found anything she liked, and I got one of the rare chances to have a regular, normal breakfast-blueberry muffin, wheat toast with a Minbari jelly that would have twisted my tongue to say, a bowl of corn Chex, milk, orange juice, a cup of hot chocolate, and honest-to-God Earth bacon. The second was that Vivian Wu had the day off. By luck, Vivian liked breakfast herself, and the Tuesdays she had off, she met me and Delenn for breakfast. She liked to try out new foods on her day off, and she had somehow managed to fit in with me and Delenn on the Tuesdays she had off. Today's conversation was mostly about some of the newest movies that were out in Babylon 5's eight-screen movie theater. I pitied that there wasn't really any new independent films out these days. "Maybe it's just me, but I like the classics," I finished up. "What do you consider a classic?" Vivian asked, taking a bite of her salad. "Oh, a lot of very good films. The two Patlabor movies, for example; or how about Akira Kurisgawa's work? Hey, I've been a fan of some of those 'artsy' films that really didn't get their chance in the market place. I don't mind a slick presentation or a flimsy plot, but I want a movie with teeth sometimes," I replied. "So, you're quest for antiquity goes back that far," Delenn replied, looking at me curiously. "That's true and....politico at two o'clock, incoming," I said, suddenly noticing the man walking at the table, noting the small minutiae that showed him to be a government official. "Excuse me Ambassador, lady and gentlemen," he addressed us, "I'm Frederick Lance, from the Ministry of Peace, and I was wondering if I could join you for breakfast." Ah, so this was the formidable Frederick Lance, from the Ministry of Peace that would cause Sheridan so much grief. "Yes, you may," I said, pointing at a chair that would put the table between him and Delenn. "So, what were you taking about?" Lance asked, waving at one of the waiters to get his food ordered. "We were discussing movies," Delenn replied, putting in an order with the waiter for a cup of water, "Jon here was discussing why he likes classic movies from the 20th Century." "Jon? Jon Souza? The captain of the *Sol Bianca*?" Lance asked, looking at me curiously. "Yes, that is true," I replied, trying to act modest. "But this is a quiet breakfast, we don't deal with our jobs here." "Very well then," Lance replied, thinking, "But I would like to talk to you about what the Ministry of Peace can do for you and your corporation. I might note that having a non-human as a member of the Karsa Bianca group might be unwise in the coming days." He then looked at Ambassador Delenn. "No offense." "None taken," Delenn replied, her sweet smile hiding the venom I knew she was keeping in reserve. "I was just talking about old movies, especially the so-called 'artsy' movies that were out," I said, taking a bite from my cereal. "One of my favorite movies has always been *1984*, you know, the one made in 1984 in England." "What did you like about it?" Vivian said, a twinkle in her eye. She knew what I was about to do, and wanted to help? "The acting, mostly. The guy they had playing Winston Smith was perfect for the role! Even right up to the point he broke down under torture by Ian Holm, the man who played Ash in *Alien*," I replied. "What was the man's name," Lance asked, curious. "You know what," I said, stroking my chin, "I really can't remember. But I do know what department of the Party he worked for. He was in the Ministry of Love, I think. Yes, that was where he worked, Miniluv." "Miniluv?" Lance asked. His face was flushed, and I couldn't tell what emotions were playing on his face. "Yes, Miniluv. That was the Party's name for it, under their language called Newspeak. The Party intended to use Newspeak to eliminate the possibility for rebellion by destroying the logical concepts needed to revolt by elminiating the concepts from the language," I said, finishing up my breakfast. "Now, if you'll excuse me, me and Vivian have some shopping to do, and I know Ambassador Delenn has work to do. Good day, Mister Frederick Lance," as I stood up, helped Vivian out of her chair, and walked down the hallway. I learned that Delenn defended me after I left and she told him exactly what he could do with himself. In Minbari, of course. You won't believe the quality and ability to insult a person's genealogy that is available to a person in Minbari. *--------* Beep. Hum. Click. G had the *Sol Bianca*'s powerful sensor system deployed for long-range system detection and the gravimetric anomaly that she had picked up two days ago, on the opposite side of the planet. Short bursts of tachyon signals between the anomaly and neutrino emissions were definitely of an artificial origin. "Can you confirm the neutrino signature?" G asked. "Definitely a Mark 7 fusion reactor, Narn design," June noted, sitting in her bridge pod, reading the scanner logs. "Half a dozen different Narn shp types use the Mark 7, including three different classes of Narn warships, up to the Heavy Cruiser class. The fusion signature is distorted by two factors, possible battle damage." "This is odd," G had another sensor log, a quantum particle detector, up on the monitor for June and Sharon to see. "I'm detecting quarks and top particles as well. Quantum filament weapons?" "No," Sharon replied, showing a field curve that matched the sensor log, "Lithium/fusion batteries. But I only thought that the Minbari and the Vorlons had lithium/fusion battery technology." "We do know that the Narn had been intensifying their espionage efforts in gathering new technologies. They might have stolen lithium/fusion batteries for their ships from the Minbari," June said, pointing out an intelligence report. What made lithium/fusion batteries so effective was that they were "wooden", requiring no maintance or upkeep, could hold huge amounts of power without loss for decades, and had the ability to rapidly discharge power to whatever system they were tied to, at any rate dictated. "But we don't have any reports of lithium/fusion batteries on any Narn ships that surrendered to the Centauri at the end of the War. Of course, it would be hard to find reports...." Sharon noted. "A heavy cruiser, fitted for extended-operations duty and with lithium/fusion batteries to provide multiple Jump ability, would be a perfect raider. With fuel scoops, internal recycling, and mining/manufacturing equipment to keep the ship operational, it could spend months behind Centauri lines, destroying supply ships," G noted, running the calculations in her tactical computer. "What heavy cruisers of the Narn fleet do we have as MIA's?" "The *G'tok*, the *N'kai,* and the *C'gar*. All were heavy cruisers, and all were lost in action," Sharon noted, then said, "I see, declare the ships missing and off the rolls. That way, the Centauri would find them hard to detect. You wouldn't be looking for a missing ship, but a ship on the rolls, with a known signature and detection parameters." "So, we have a free Narn ship out there, hidden behind the planet. Babylon 5 knows, and it has to be senior command staff, that was a high-ranked code. And if the Centauri find out, they will go ballistic," G said. "I'll formalize a report for Jon, and prepare all system for combat." "True," June replied. "I'll check out the torpedoes and missiles." *--------* I checked my watch. Today was the nineteenth. The start of Hanukkah. When we last saw Ivanova for the second season, her minora had nine candles. It would be the twenty-eighth then, and all of the events of the Fall of Night would be happening in the next nine days. The battle, the attempted assination of Sheridan, Kosh coming out of his encounter suit, it would take place in the next nine days. Oh hell, things were going to be interesting. As I was thinking, my porti-term activated, beeping twice. "G here, sir. Um, sir, we found a ship being this planet and, sir, it's a Narn ship. A *war*ship, sir, and...." I sighed, loudly. "Ok. I want you to go to full operational status, all weapon, everything. Have you and Ivanova got the Gamma system on-line?" I was referring to the tactical system software that all of my systems, the Virtua Gundam and the *Sol Bianca* used. "We're ready to go, sir," June replied, a side window appearing. "All the program macros are installed, we've got a full tactical data-link with Babylon 5 via subspace, and the software is running bug-free. Our weapon systems are fully operational, and we can combat-ready in under two minutes." "Good," I said, "I'm coming over. Keep an eye on the Jumpgate, because when the Centauri learn of a free Narn ship, they will be shitting bricks...." "I agree. With the Centauri suffering from a new cultural paragam of offensive actions in a imperialistic status, their actions will be most harsh. We'll be ready for you when you get here," G replied. "Good," I said, "Jon out," and as G and June's images disappeared, I activated the unit to call up the Babylon 5 Traffic Control center, in which Ivanova's face appeared. "Ivanova, this is Jon. I need to get out to the *Sol Bianca* and rather urgently. How soon can you cram me into the traffic schedule?" "When do you need to leave?" Ivanova asked, her tinny voice and picture appearing on the monitor. "About thirty minutes," I said, as I gathered up my things and started to walk down to the hallway to the hanger bay. "G wants to run a system diagnostics on the new Gamma targeting software, especially the operational links with Babylon 5." "Can't you run it from here?" Ivanova asked, curious, "we've got a full traffic schedule." "I'm sorry, but G wants me to be there as a liaison with you and the ship. She's sort of motherly in that respect," I apologized. "Never thought a ship would be telling me what to do," Ivanova commented. "You and me both," I agreed. "How soon?" Ivanova sighed. Loudly. "I can shoe-horn you into the schedule in about fifty minutes. But you have to be ready in fifty minutes!" "I'll be ready," I said. By the time I made it to the shuttle, it was charged and on-line. The situation was bad-enough that I slapped the hot-boot system for the engines and by the time I was strapped into my chair, the navigational system was on-line, the sensors were active, and the engines were green-lighted. "Commander Ivanova, this is SB-1. Ready to launch, all systems are go." "SB-1, this is Babylon 5 Traffic Control. You are cleared for launch in five minutes. Be ready to go," Ivanova replied. "Confirmed," I said, tapping some commands on the forward data panels. I was doing some analysis work, waiting for the launch sequence. *--------* Felicia was taking solid food, and had managed to eat a full lunch when, as she was eating a light salad, she dropped her fork. "Felicia, what is it?" Franklin asked. "Someone's coming. Something powerful," Felicia replied, fearful. "What do you mean?" Franklin asked. "I know something is coming. Something powerful," Felicia responded, her hands clenching and unclenching. "I need to get out of here. Now. I need to get to Jon's quarters. Now." "Why?" Franklin asked. "Because," Felicia responded, in a voice that chilled Franklin to his bones, "I'm needed." *--------* I was traveling in the shuttle to the *Sol Bianca* when the sensors suddenly aligned on the Jump Gate. "What is it?" I yelled. "Sir, a Centauri Battlecruiser is coming through the Jumpgate! Fully active weapon systems, gunports open, targeting sensors active. They're moving into position to attack Babylon 5," G yelled over the comm line. "Meet me half-way, I'm running like the devil to meet up with you. As soon as I dock, I want the spare suit of armor ready and June in full armor. It looks like it's going to be one of those days," I replied. "Be ready for battle." I got on the bridge, putting on the pressure armor at the same time, slapping on the neck ring, and fitting the helmet seal. "Report," I said, sliding into my bridge seat and allowing the seat system to lower into the bridge. "Four Centarui ships of the *Tolan*-class of battlecruisers have come out of the jumpgates. All are in blockade position around Babylon 5, with armed weapons, open gunports, and targeting systems locked onto the station. According to the Gamma system, Babylon 5 is on full-alert status, shields up, internal pressure doors locked down and sealed, and weapons network is fully armed," G noted. Four ships? "Any of them moving at us?" "None, sir," G noted. "June," I said, "what is our weapon status?" "All six torpedo tubes are armed and loaded with standard torpedoes. Reloads are Type-two multi-warhead torpedoes. Missile bays are loaded with standard missiles, seekers are powered and running hot. Particle-beam cannons, lasers, intercepts, and shields are charged. We have full drive power, full sensor capability, and operational damage control systems, all at your avalablity," June replied, her armor's face plate down but clear. "Move us between the Narn ship and the Centauri ships. Prepare a warning to the Centauri ships, tell them to not interfere with either Babylon 5 or the Narn ship," I ordered, calling up a tactical display. This wasn't good. Babylon 5 could take one, maybe two, Centauri battlecruisers, according to the tactical plot, but not three. Or four. "Call Babylon 5 and see if they want help...." "Sir, I've got a message from one of the Centauri battlecruisers. Audio only, no identification codes, message is, 'Unknown ship, cease and desist all movements. This is a Centauri internal matter, do not interfere.' Sir, do we obey?" G replied. That made it official, "G....warn off any Centauri ships that close with the Narn cruiser. Set passive targeting systems, prepare for attack," I said. "Yes, sir," G noted. "We are ready for combat, sir." *--------* "I don't care what the Centauri said!" Sheridan yelled at the two Minipax officers. "Those ships are armed, pointing their weapons at us, and I will not respond to having a gun to my head!" "This isn't a threat to you, *if you don't make it one*," Mr. Wells replied. "This is a Centauri internal matter, and our new treaty will not let us interfere with Centauri internal affairs." "As far as I can tell," Sheridan said, "that treaty hasn't been announced, so we're not under it's precepts. I extended to the Narn ship my protection and I will *not* allow you to trivialize my word." "We'll transfer the crew off of the ship," Frederick Lance replied, "but we can't allow that ship to leave and...." "Sir, the Centauri ships are moving into attack position and one of the ships is breaking off to attack the Narn ship!" one of the technicians yelled, "Sir, what do we do?" "Ivanova," Sheridan said, "take these two people off my bridge and help them to get to a shelter. Tactical, arm the defense grid and lock onto the enemy ships. Warn them off!" "Sir," the technician's voice became shrill, "one of the ships are firing!" "Return fire!" Sheridan yelled, moving to his position, "drop the blast shields, launch interceptors!" "Firing now, sir! We're trying to stop the incoming weapons, sir...." a shock reverberated through the station, "direct hit! Hull damage to Blue and Red sections!" Ivanova came in, "What the hell's going on!" "We're committed," Sheridan replied. "Starfuries launch! Stop those ships!" *--------* "Can we help Babylon 5?" I asked. "Not without leaving position, unless you take the Virtua Gundam out, sir," G replied. "No," I ordered, firm. "My place is here, right now. How many ships are closing with us?" "One, sir. They think we're not a threat," G noted. "Are we?" I replied, tapping out a sensor command, nervous. "Are you kidding. That Centauri ship isn't even remotely a threat. They'll be in torpedo range in two minutes," June replied. "Keep warning them off, Sharon," I said. "Yes, sir," Sharon Apple replied. "I wish we could convince them to leave. Could you work your subliminal magic on them, Sharon?" I asked. "No way. It would take too long, unless I use the Soundforce weapon," Sharon replied. "If we do that, the only way to get the Soundforce device into range is to use the Virtua Gundam. And I don't know the Centauri psyche enough to effect them properly. The benefit is too little for the risk given, sir." "Very well then," I said. "Any response?" "None. They're maintaining radio silence," G replied. "Sir, they are in torpedo range. Should we fire?" "Hold fire for now," I said. "When will we be in their weapons range?" "Six minutes," June replied, looking at the tactical plot. "Prepare to fire," I said. "Set system timer for five minutes, torpedoes floating-control, missiles on manual." "Should we maneuver, sir?" G asked. "No, we can't give the Centauri ship a clear shot on the Narn ship," I replied. "Time?" "Four minutes, sir," June noted. "Prime and charge torpedoes. Give me firing control sequence," I said, as the panel shifted to torpedo control. I tapped the system activation control. Right now, the six torpedoes were charged and had their sensors aligned, the warheads primed and active. "Three minutes, sir," G said. "I know that," I said. The next command opened the firing doors, puffs of gas to clear the torpedo bay tubes of any obstructions, locking onto the target. We were risking a lot. "You know what the next command is," Sharon said. It was less a question, more a point of contention. She knew as well as I did. "That's it," I said. I hit the arming sequence, and hit the fire button. The ship shuttered as six rail guns lofted the torpedoes out of the tubes, throwing them out into space. The torpedoes immediately fired their engines, accelerating at two hundred Gs to the Centauri battlecruiser. They responded immediately, firing intercepts and counter-measures to stop the torpedoes. The "smart" systems in the torpedoes dodged, swerved, and maneuvered. They didn't stand a chance. Two of the torpedoes were killed, one detonated just close enough to blind sensors, the last three hit. The ship was engulfed in a massive fireball as the three fusion warheads engulfed the target, damaging the ship's armor severely. By the time the ship climbed out of the plasma blast, the Centauri ship was in bad shape. "What is their status?" I asked. "They've taken hull damage, lost some secondary weapons, but they're fully operational!" G replied, scared. "Shit! Open fire with the missiles, give them more torpedoes!" I wasn't even thinking of the twenty-four torpedo warheads in the bowels of the ship. Twenty-four torpedo warheads that had quantum filaments stored in stasis fields. Unstable filaments that, if released from stasis, would destroy anything the nuclear dissembler field would touch, everything within five thousand kilometers from the detonation. Then the secondary blast radius of a million kilometers would destroy anything short of a planet. Then the entire area of space would be so irradiated that it would be a million years before anything could fly here. And I wasn't going to let those weapons go off. *--------* Franklin was yelling, "We need to get the triage centers going now! I want you and you," he pointed to two nurses, "to move the patients to the nearest shelter, and you," he chose the biggest man there, "keep an eye on Felicia! I want to get her to the shelter." "Franklin, I have to leave! I've got to do my duty!" Felicia was yelling, screaming at Franklin while wearing arm restraints. Franklin, frustrated, got up to Felicia's face and said, "What can you do?" "Something like this," Felicia replied, and she pulled apart her arms, breaking the metal restraints like paper. "I'm sorry, doctor, but I have my duty." Before anyone could respond, Felicia, the light nightgown flapping around her body, leapt over the table, and made it to the door, closing it. When Franklin got to the door, he saw Felicia, taking her elbow and, without turning around, slammed it into the control panel, shattering it. As Franklin watched, she pulled the bloody elbow out of the panel, pieces stuck in her arm. As she brushed her elbow, the pieces fell out and all that was left was a perfectly intact arm, the bloody pieces falling to the floor. With a massive roar, she grabbed her nightgown and tore it off, the nightgown fluttering to the floor. Naked, Felicia ran down the hall, as Franklin motioned for his aids to use the other doors as he tapped his com-link, "Garibaldi, I have a problem." "Yea, what is it?" Garibaldi asked. He didn't sound too happy, nor did the environment around him sound too calm. "Felicia escaped, running at the last time I saw her, to Blue section," Franklin replied. "You've got to stop her." "I'll see what I can do. What is she wearing?" Garibaldi asked. "She's utterly naked," Franklin replied. Silence, then, "Right. Ok. I'll see what I can do. Garibaldi out." The link cut off, leaving Franklin to organize the evacuation of Medlab. Felicia was running, running as hard as she could down the hallway. As her breath erupted in her lungs, she could almost hear the crystalline music. It was very, very close.... *--------* "Fire!" I yelled, feeling the ship shutter around me. This silent duel had lasted for fifteen minutes, both ships taking hits. The Centauri ship had taken damage, but not as much as I could have directed at them. I didn't want to kill them, just have them back off. Luckily, the *Sol Bianca*'s shields had taken the damage that they directed at us. We were fully functional, but we couldn't hold that place that situation that long. Babylon 5 couldn't hold out long enough to make this tactic work, and a lot of people were going to die if we didn't succeed. And I couldn't allow Babylon 5 to die. "Open fire with everything! I don't want that ship to get past us," I yelled. "Yes, sir!" G replied happily, as we fired all of our weapons. The first weapons to hit were the particle beam weapons and lasers, which sliced into the hull, destroying whatever armor was left. The missiles hit next, the detonation erupting as the fusion reactor exploded. The ship went up in a fusion crescendo, reactors exploding like hellfire percussion. "How's the Narn ship doing?' "It's gotten through, sir!" G replied. "But Babylon 5 isn't doing well. They might have been able to stop one Centauri warship, but not three. They're holding their own, but not for that long...." "We need to get into range, and fast," I said, "all power to the engines, move us as fast as you can." The *Sol Bianca* shuttered, accelerating as fast as was inhumanly possible. It might have already been too late. *--------* The door pistoned open, as a single human had hot wired the door panel, letting herself in. Once in, her hands moved precisely, nimbly, to find the object she was searching for, a single metal case. Running out of Jon's room, metal case in hand, Felicia was running to the nearest airlock. As she was running, she could feel the station exploding around her, a low rumble of fury growling from her strained throat. The people here were being killed, and she wasn't going to let anyone, but anyone, harm them. No matter what. She finally made it to an airlock, fearful that she wasn't in time, fearful that she had the wrong case. When she opened the case, the two clasps opening with a metallic click, she knew that she had chosen true. In the case was a single golden crystal, it's shape and form somewhat evocative of a abstract sculpture of a bird. With hands that knew exactly what they were doing, she clasped the crystal in her right hand, shoving it skyward as if to tell the Gods exactly what she thought of her fate. With a single, explosive shout, Felicia yelled two words, the voice seemingly shattering Heaven, "Tekkaman Gold!" And there was nothing else to do but do what was right. Babylon 5 wasn't doing well. They learned that the Narn ship had escaped, that the *Sol Bianca* had a ship kill-the Centauri ship hadn't stood a chance. But the other three Centauri ships were bombarding Babylon 5, pounding the hull with powerful weapons, as Babylon 5 retaliated. The three Centauri ships weren't doing well, either, but Babylon 5 was definitely on the short-end of the stick. Suddenly, the station rocked, but from a different type of impact. Sheridan and Ivanova felt the explosion through the floor plates, grasping the nearest bracing bar with firm hands. "What the hell was that?" Sheridan asked. "Unknown!" Corbin replied, trying to manage his battle board in a panic. This was not a good day. "I know it was an internal hit, but not of what type!" "Get a damage control team down there as fast as possible!" Ivanova yelled. Then, looking at Sheridan, "I don't like this, Captain." "Neither do I," Sheridan replied. To the fire-control officer, "Concentrate your fire on the nearest ship!" A single gold hand slid out into space, overriding the emergency airlock sequence and opening the door to hard vacuum. Two steps, then a target, then launch.... "What the hell is that?" Ivanova yelled, pointing out a streak on the monitor, seemingly flowing across from one point to another, almost like some kind of grand bird of liquid gold, with a solid nugget of crystalline gold. As it seemed to fly through space, it's massive wings flinging itself at the nearest, and most damaged, Centauri ship. With this, a sense of scale could be achieved and, by God!, the crystal was as big as a human being, the wings barely larger than a Starfury. But it ignored the flashes of weapon's fire at it, charging at full speed at the Centauri cruiser. As it hit, the very bow of the Centauri ship seemed to cave in under the stress, as the thing penetrated the hull. It erupted through the ship like a golden needle, coming out the back and curving around as the ship exploded, as the liquid bird curved to land on top of one of the "arms" that formed the zero-G loading dock of Babylon 5. "External image of the hull now! What is that thing?" Sheridan asked. Even the Centauri ships seemed shocked by the power of this new enemy, they had stopped firing. It was a living sculpture of feminine gold, a humanoid form of crisp metal lines, attractive gold with beautiful silver trim, thin arms and legs, sharp and hard. On it's arms were a long, double-bladed spear tip, so long as to cover the arm. It's head appeared triangular, but a sharp helm fitted like hair, flowing over the massive shoulders firmly, was there as well. The two shoulders showed some kind of hidden device under the armor. Silently, Ivanova pivoted the camera to show part of the back, two massive slots down the back that still glowed with reflected energy. As they watched, the thing's head suddenly snapped to look into the camera and two sliver eyes suddenly glowed. The blades on the arm snapped out, folding over and onto a long rod grip. The blades launched, then were caught and linked into a massive polearm with both blade sets attached to it. With a sudden, swift motion, the thing swung the long-armed blade into the camera, destroying in. "I hope," Ivanova said, "that she doesn't like her photograph taken." "Sir," Corbin yelled, "the Centauri ships are firing!" as the station rocked from the hits. The Centauri hit the same structure that the machine was on, but it was already flying away, coming around to attack, but being attacked as well, forced to dodge. "We can't take many more hits like that, sir!" "What now?" Ivanova asked. "Start praying....." Sheridan whispered, then he yelled, "keep firing! We have the advantage now!" *--------* G was pushing the *Sol Bianca*'s engines to two hundred percent of their rated power, but we were pushing fate. Babylon 5 was taking hits, possibly too many hits, as we were closing, too far for missiles, too close to Babylon 5 for torpedoes. "Can't we do anything?" I yelled. "No, sir," G replied, trying to be calm. "We're too far away to do anything." "That's it...." I yelled, starting to shut down my pod, "have the Virtua Gundam ready for launch, loaded with the Assault Buster package and...." "Jon!" Sharon yelled, "I've got a massive subspace fissure from right in front of us." "What the....?" I asked, and the monitor flashed suddenly. As I watched, space seemingly decided to take a vacation, leaving a void of Nothing. Like a black hole. Like the gateway to Hell. As I watched, the Nothing seemed to ripple, throwing *something* out of it. Then, space reappeared, and all I could see was the massive silver-grey bulk of something I only knew from one sight and legend...."Tsunami!" I whispered in awe. It looked like the frozen crest of a wave, sealed in pewter. As I watched, it moved like a ghost, silently moving into between Babylon 5 and the Centauri ships, so suddenly that by the time I knew it was in front of me, it was there. The Centauri ships tried to fire on Tsunami. Big mistake. From Tsunami's side gunports, dozens of brilliant lances erupted, only a tenth of what was needed to kill the Centauri ships. There wasn't even an explosion, just the two ships evaporating under the withering cloud of energy bolts. As I watched, Tsunami maneuvered into a position that put it just above Babylon 5, silently moving into place. As I watched, an image flickered in front of my pod, suddenly materializing into a beautiful woman, wearing the formal robes of Jyrui royalty, floated in mid-air. Had this been another circumstance, I would have called her motherly, but her eyes burned with hellfire. "I am Tsunami. I am the ship of the beginning, the queen of all the Starship Trees. I have seen what this place is, and I have considered my decision. "As Earth had been declared so long ago, the Empire of Jyrui hereby declares a Special Sanctuary Zone in this section of space. Any attacks on this station or it's space will be considered and act of war. Any attempts to destroy this station will be an act of war. And I warn you, whatever crimes the Centauri committed, whatever atrocities Deathwalker's people had committed, they will be a candle in the firestorm in comparison to my rage. This is my first, and my last warning," Tsunami said, then disappeared. "Dear God," I whispered. "G, June, did you see that?" "Yes, I did," G replied. "If that's Tsunami...." "We'd better be careful. Get me in contact with Sheridan, now," I said, "and find out who that Tekkaman is." "Sir," June said, "Sheridan is contacting us. Should I put him through?" "By all means," I replied. Sheridan's image appeared on the main screen, looking confused and a little scared. "Jon here," I said, "what is it?" *--------* "Jon, was that thing Tsunami?" Sheridan asked. As far as he ould find out, everyone in C&C saw the image, and reports on the station were coming in that they had seen her too. "Yes, sir," Jon replied, "That is. But, sir, that isn't the Tsunami I know about. Of course, most of my reports are half-rumor, half-story. Can I render assistance?" "Not right now," Sheridan replied, as Ivanova tapped him on the shoulder, "we're doing fine as-is. What the hell was that golden thing?" "That 'thing'," Jon replied, "is a Tekkaman. I had a Tekkaman crystal in my room, and what you saw might be the Tekkaman that uses the Crystal. When she comes in, don't try to force her to do anything. That would be rather ill-advised." "Agreed," Sheridan noted, then he turned to Ivanova, "What is it?" "Three things, sir. First is that Mr. Lance wants to talk to you at your soonest convenience, as well as Jon. Second, that ship want to talk to you as soon as possible, and third, that thing, that Tekkaman, is walking right down into Hanger Bay One," Ivanova replied. "Ok, then. Tell Mr. Lance that I'll see him," he looked at a clock, "in about four hours. Then tell the ship that I'll talk to her as soon as possible. Do you need me here?" Sheridan asked. "Not right now," Ivanova noted, then said, "If you want to go meet the Tekkaman, I'll handle things here." "Jon, did you hear that?" Sheridan replied to the monitor. "I got a message from Tsunami myself, to meet her on the ship. I'll see what I can do to accommodate Mr. Lance, and be careful with the Tekkaman, Sheridan. Jon out," and the image blinked out. "Tell Garibaldi to meet me in Bay One with a security team, but not anything that could be provocative. And tell that Tekkaman to wait there, I'll meet her there," Sheridan replied, as he jogged out of C&C. Garibaldi had a small, and discreetly hidden security team, down in the hanger bay, as the Tekkaman stood there, one of the few lights shining on her silent form. "Has she moved?" Sheridan asked. "Not since she stopped there," Garibaldi replied, pointing out the spear-holding Tekkaman waiting there like a sentinel. "I think she's waiting for someone." "I'll try to talk to her," Sheridan noted, and walked into the light. "Hello, I'm Captain Sheridan and...." "I know who you are," the voice, a odd blend of mechanalistic sound and vocal harmony, replied. "Captain John Sheridan, Military Governor of Babylon 5 for the Earth Alliance. Formerly commander of the EAS *Agamemnon*. I am Tekkaman Gold." "Tekkaman Gold?" Sheridan asked. "What are you?" "I am a Tekkaman," Tekkaman Gold replied, "An elite soldier of the Radam. My service here is to Jonathan Souza, to act as his assistant. My secondary mission, Captain, is to aid you and your ....associates. Excuse me," and Tekkaman Gold extended her arms out, a soft glow comin gfrom her torso. For a second, the glow enveloped her, then a soft patter of feet on the floor revealed a single naked human being, holding a golden crystal in her right hand. "I am Felicia LeCou, the other part of Tekkaman Gold. You, of course, have questions for me." "Felicia?" Garibaldi asked, coming around one of the crates, curious. "You are that thing?" "I am Felicia LeCou, and Tekkaman Gold. One in the same, merely different aspects of myself. Captain, may I borrow your coat? I forgot to get dressed, and I need to repair the damage I did to Jon's room before he gets back," Felicia replied. "Garibaldi," Sheridan managed to fish out his CreditChit, looking yet not looking at Felicia, "try to find something for her to wear." "Right...." Garibaldi replied, and tried, as well, not to stare at Felicia. *--------* Tsunami insisted that I come over. Alone. So I did. I space-walked from the *Sol Bianca* to Tsunami, who conviently opened a door in her hull to let me in. I followed a short path, then arrived in the main section of Tsunami. It was a massive lagoon, with a very impressive Starship Tree residing in the center of the room. Square blocks and round pillars were all over the lagoon, dry and porus enough to walk and jump on. I drew out my Key and said, "I am Jon Souza, you wished to see me, Tsunami?" Just in front of the Tree, the same woman, just as impressive in her white gowns with gold and blue trim, appeared. Her long, blue hair came down to her shoulders, and she said, "I am Tsunami. Sasami-sama has said a lot about you, most of it very good. I have also talked to John Sheridan. He seems to be a good man. What do you think?" Tsunami asking my opinion? "He is a good man. A few demons in his past, but he will do well. I assume that you've called me here for a reason?" I replied. "Direct, honest Jon. No wonder Sasami likes you. Jon, I have to tell you something important. My powers are known, my talents capable and strong, but the flow of time and space in future realms are unknown to me. But I know enough to tell you that you, this station, and people on it, are nodes in a flowing storm that is coming soon. You are not from here, my world, but from a third. I don't know why, but I know that I must aid you, so I may find out. Jon, you have my word that, if you need my aid, I will give it to you without reservation," Tsunami noted. "I....I....I don't know what to say," I replied, my heart jumping into my throat. This was *Tsunami*, a warship that outgunned anything I knew of, and she was willing to swear loyalty to me. "I'll take that as a yes...." Tsunami noted, smiling, then looked distracted. "Excuse me, I have a Frederick Lance from the 'Ministry of Peace' trying to talk to me. I don't want to talk to him, but he is rather persistent...." "I'll go now, if you need the privacy...." I said, but Tsunami looked at me. "It's not a problem, really," Tsunami replied, then was thoughtful, "I am, after all, the flagship of the Empire. Handing politicians like him would be embarrassing if I had to dedicate my attention to it. But, I apologize, I am rather busy right now, with every race trying to contact me and I'm trying to multiplex all the feeds into my system. I would enjoy seeing you later, perhaps in a few days. After all, I have to learn all I can about this universe." "Then I'll be on my way...." I said, but Tsunami interrupted me again. "I'll send you back myself," and the world got fuzzy, resulting in me arriving in my Arboretum of the *Sol Bianca*, me looking around, thinking what G was going to think about my sudden appearance, when I heard a familiar voice saying, "Jon-sama!" "Sasami-chan?" I asked, turning around, seeing Sasami standing behind me. "Sasami-chan!" We hugged like old family, Sasami trying to tell me that she was fine and I didn't have to hug so hard....."Why did Tsunami let you go?" I asked. "She said I'd need to be around you," Sasami replied. "Are you hungry?" "Why, yes, I am," I noticed. "I missed your cooking." *--------* In the main deck of Tsunami, Tsunami watched as Kosh came out of a nearby hallway, looking at him. "Kosh, I hated to do that to him. He is of the Masakai line, and I don't like to deceive him. He needs to know," Tsunami told Kosh. "Not yet," Kosh replied, turning to leave. Tsunami yelled at him, "I did that because of our friendship, Kosh! But from now on, I owe you nothing, you owe me nothing! I will do my job, Kosh, and I don't care if you like it or not." Kosh stopped, turning around. "Good." And he left, silently disappearing. *--------* I had finally arrived back on Babylon 5. From outside, it looked like some sadistic SFX artist was trying out new blasting caps on the station, blowing up portions of it. From inside, it looked a lot worse. When I had gotten out of the shuttle, Sasami told me that she was going to meet me back at my quarters, and walked off, after I warned her to be careful. As I was walking down the hallway to talk to Captain Sheridan, a finger gently tapped me on my shoulder. I turned around to see someone who looked a lot like Talia Winters, but she was on Earth and she wasn't Talia, she was a bit taller and had longer hair and wore an green-and-gold outfit that exuded sexuality and...."Felicia?" I responded, shocked. "Of course," Felicia replied, smiling. "Who did you expect it to be, Talia Winters?" "Kinda," I said, smiling, "so, how are you doing? You look significantly better than the last time I saw you." "I am much better, thank you. Are you looking for Captain Sheridan? Last time I heard, he was with the Minipax officers, talking about his....errors in the last few days," Felicia replied, smiling. "Hm. They want to talk to me as well, and...." I was saying, when Mr. Wells and Mr. Lance were coming my way, as I could see them over her shoulder. "Ah, Mister Souza," Frederick Lance said, coming over to talk to me and Felicia. "I would like to talk to you about your actions as of late. Privately." "No," I said. "We either talk here and now, or go away. The Karsa Bianca Group is a private corporation, and there isn't anything you can do about it." "Yes, we can," Wells replied, sarcastically. "You want me to *what*?" I yelled. They had insisted that I go to their room to discuss this, and I had Felicia go back to my quarters and clean up her mess. She had her own room next door to my quarters, and was going to get settled in. "You did, after all, destroy one of their ships," Lance replied, utterly unfazed. "I warned them off. Repeatedly. And I held my fire up to the point I had to stop them. Why should I apologize for that?" I asked, trying to keep my temper under control. "You should feel lucky," Wells noted, "the Centauri wanted to charge you with murder and destruction of property, but they conceded that they had made a mistake. They are willing to forgive you, but only if you're willing to apologize." "Let me guess," I said, "you have my speech written for me, so I don't offend anyone else." "No," Wells replied, smiling that sort of grin I associated with Morden, "We have decided to allow you the privilege of writing your own speech. After all, it is the thought that counts." I decided I was going to kill him one of these days. Painfully. *--------* Felicia was already in the Garden, waiting for everyone else to come. Sheridan and Jon's "apology," actually humiliation to pacify the Centauri, was going to be soon. She knew something was coming up, something that was important, but she couldn't remember what it was. As she watched, she saw the various Ambassadors file in. She saw Ambassador Kosh and Ambassador Delenn walking in together, and decided to walk over to them. "Ambassadors," she said in greeting. "Hello," Delenn replied, not sure who she was. "I am Felicia LeCou. I'm a friend of Jonathan's. You know him, of course," Felicia replied, "and you do too," looking at Kosh. "Ah, I see," Delenn replied. "You must be that Tekkaman that I heard so much about." "Yes," Felicia bowed, "I am the Tekkaman Gold. If you wish, I may explain more about myself when the time is right." "When will the time be right?" Delenn asked. "Soon," Felicia replied. "Perhaps at the start of the next year." Felicia watched as Ambassador Londo Molari walked in, careful to avoid being close to Felicia. Though it was common knowledge that Felicia was under the control of an Assination chip, Londo didn't want to get close to her. As well, Frederick Lance and Mr. Wells were there. Those two, she fumed, she would have enjoyed killing. They were guilty of humiliating her friend and they would have to pay. But not now. Later..... *--------* I got on the monorail train, looking at my datapad to review the "speech." All considering, especially since I had to apologize for something that was the mistake of a Centauri captain who paid for the error with his life. I had to be there at a certain time, just after Captain Sheridan gave his "apology," so I wouldn't be interfering with his humiliation. There was something I was missing, I knew it, but *what* it was I had no clue. The train stopped at one stop, and I was so intent in my work that I didn't notice who sat beside me. But when he put his elbow at my side, I looked up to say, "Could you be careful with that elbow, I'm trying to...." when I noticed that it was Sheridan. "Sorry, sir." "I understand," Sheridan replied, and was silent. He wasn't happy. "Want to hear a joke?" I asked. "No," Sheridan replied. Silence, then two Centauri brushed up against us, very upset. Beside us, the car was empty. Something caused the hairs on the back of my neck to bristle, and I thought I knew something, then.... "Shit!" "What is it?" Sheridan asked. "Over there!" I pointed to the whining device that could only be a bomb. "We have to get out of here!" "Doors emergency open!" Sheridan yelled into his link, and the monorail doors cycled open and he dove out. I was just two second behind him, falling.... Falling.... Falling....then the car blew up in a spectacular roar. I hadn't any parachuting experience, but I knew the theory, and I was trying to extend my free-fall as long as possible. For one very good reason-the sudden stop at the end was going to be rather painful. I had to wait to be rescued, and that rescue had to come in the next five or so minutes. *--------* Ivanova was talking to Felicia, mostly about what women talk about when two of them are together, when the explosion erupted above them. "What the hell was that?" Ivanova asked, seeing the two falling objects as well as the massive explosion above them. Everyone was looking, and one of them pointed up and yelled, "Who are they?" "Security, what's going on!" Ivanova yelled. "There was an explosion right over us!" "I know!" Garibaldi's voice came from the link, "Sheridan and Jon were caught on a monorail train right above the Dome, and they jumped out of the train. We're trying to get jetpacks to them, but there isn't enough time...." "No," whispered Felicia. Her voice was raised with each denial, "No, no, No, NO, NO, NO!" Suddenly, she reached into her blouse and pulled out a golden crystal. "Ivanova, get back!" she yelled, then shoved the crystal upwards and yelled, "Tekkaman Gold!" Ivanova was privileged to watch the transformation, as everyone was unable to watch up until the point the conversion was complete. As she watched, Felicia's clothes disinitigrated around her, golden lines crawling along her body, a mask of lines appearing on her face, and, in a sudden "crackle" sound, there was Tekkaman Gold, fully armored and armed. By the time people had turned around, they saw the fully-armored Tekkaman Gold, her shoulders rippling as her engines flung her skyward. She climbed rapidly, closing with the nearest person falling-Jon. She carefully caught him, decelerating him, as he turned over. "Catch Sheridan!" Jon yelled. "I can't! I won't drop you and...." she looked down to see Sheridan on the ground, on his feet, "He's down safe." "Well, I'll be dammed," Jon replied, looking down, "Um, I know you can fly, but I can't and I don't want to risk falling again. Can you land us, Felicia?" "Of course," and she settled down, as everyone crowded to see him. "Did you see it!" "No," Jon said, "I was too busy trying not to make a crater. And I don't want to know what it was either. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going now!" As Jon left, the massive Tekkaman Gold too two steps over to the two Ministry of Peace officials and said, "One day, there will be a reckoning. And I hope to be the one to deliver it to you." And she walked off. *--------* Thirty minutes left. In thirty minutes, it was going to be 2360, and I was going to be on plus-time. I was going to be living life like everyone else, knowing nothing other than what I could see, what I could hear, taste, and touch. This was definitely going to be amusing, especially since I was already over my head and I knew what was going on. Now, I was operating independent of any and all realizations of the future plot beyond some faint and vague knowledge of the future. I was sitting in the Zocallo, watching the parties go on as I ate a piece of French Silk pie, chewing it intently and drinking sparking apple cider. No parties to go to. Nothing but me to watch the people go by and live. Sasami was sleeping, Felicia was on the *Sol Bianca*, talking with G and the Babylon 5 crew was doing their own thing. I really didn't mind....most of my New Years were lonely anyways. I was so busy thinking that Vivian managed to sit down in front of me and say, "Well, you look like the lonely sort. So, what are your New Year's resolutions?" "Survive," I smiled, "and try to eat better. What about you?" "If I tell you," she smiled, "they won't come true. But two of them involve you." "I see," I replied, and offered her some cider, which she drank as well. "I hope I like them." "Oh," she said, a lecherous smile on her face, "you will." Time seemed to scream past, then people started to count down, Vivian came up to me and started to hug me. "Ten seconds," she whispered. Five seconds. When it was one second into 2360, she kissed me, long and passionate and so deep down my throat she was examining my appendix. When she finally let go, it took me a second to catch my breath. "Wow! That was an impressive resolution," I replied. "I hadn't even finished yet with my first resolution. I've got some Centauri silk lingerie and I'd love to try it out with you," Vivian smiled and we went to her room. The next morning, I was beside Vivian in her bed, thinking. This was plus-time and so far, I was enjoying it. I only hoped that these small reprises were worth the cost I feared I was going to pay. And I knew I was going to find out. [End Episode 4] From jon.souza@creature.com Fri Mar 29 21:09:20 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 06:29:59 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@blob.best.net To: b5-creative@blob.best.net Subject: Breaking the Consensus-Episode 5, Part 1 completely. I've decided to take a swipe at a Gundam/Babylon 5/Macross Plus/Macross 7/Tenchi Muyo/Sol Bianca/Whatever The Hell I Can Pack Into This Thing crossover. In short, this is going to be a wild, confusing ride that is going to hopefully be a LOT of fun. This fanfic is dedicated to Dave Gao, everyone on the Babylon 5 Creative and Gundam mailing lists, and all of my fans(especially the ones who like my stories and DON'T write to tell me!). Got to have the legalistic- All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners and will be turned over to the owners at the request of their authorized agents. All other characters/places/persons are the sole property of Jonathan Souza, Copyrighted @1996. This copyright extends to all electronic versions of the story. As always, comments, complaints, and critiques are welcome. Even if it's just to say "good work, Jon," I'd like to hear it. Even if it's to complain about my language and syntax, go right on ahead. I need the abuse. From Macross 7, Jon Souza Jon.Souza@Creature.Com NoDUI@AOL.Com Breaking the Consensus By Jon Souza Episode 5-Rangers, Shadows, and Teknomen, oh my. "Sometimes peace is another term for surrender." -Cmdr. Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5 Babylon 5 had been silent for eighteen days. I mention this because it was eighteen days of sheer bliss and eighteen days of sheer panic. This deserves more explanation. It had been eighteen days of sheer bliss because I could honestly confront the universe with a sense of wonder, knowing that every day, every minute, every *second* was unique and I didn't have a rat's ass idea what would happen next. Each conversation was new, each discussion was based on unique ideas, and Delenn continued to try new foods, and inflict them upon me. The sheer panic part was that I didn't know what would happen next. Would the Shadows attack Babylon 5? Would the Radam, who created Felicia Le Cou's other half, come back for such a powerful Tekkaman? Would someone in Earth Alliance decide to come after me? The uncertainty was killing me. Of course, living for five months with a certain knowledge of what was about to happen, then losing the knowledge of the future would do that to you. I could empathize with Paul Muab'Dib after the stoneburner attack. That was my life for eighteen days in January, not knowing what the next ship out the Jumpgate would bring, if it would be a ship of peace or a man-o-war. The tension was precisely balanced like a knife, knowing yet not knowing what I was going to do with my life. I waited for something to do, some purpose as I continued to exercise with the Virtua Gundam, and the *Sol Bianca*. Eighteen days, then the ship came. G detected it as it flew out of the jumpgate, odd because it was a Drazi courier ship with a human passenger. I really didn't pay attention until a Friday that me and Felicia were shopping down in the Zocallo, she was looking to buy some new clothing, I was doing some book shopping when my PortaTerm beeped twice. I pulled it out, thankful it wasn't five minutes ago when I was haggling with a Centauri merchant, and powered it up. It was Delenn, and it took me a second to realize that she was using an encrypted channel, with a security trunk. "Jon, can you and Felicia come to the Ready Room in about fifteen minutes?" "Sure," I replied, curious, "what's up?" "I can't tell you, not over the comm channels. Even these channels. But it's rather important, so if you can get down here...." Delenn asked. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes," I replied, and cut the channel. As I put it away, I was wondering why she needed me and Felicia to meet her. And why the secure channels and her fear of even remotely transmitting over it? Oh hell, I would find out soon enough. Felicia and I made it to the ready room with exactly ten seconds to spare. When I got in there, I saw that just about everyone was there:Sheridan, Garibaldi, Ivanova, Delenn, Lennier, and a man I didn't recognize. But the outfit and the brooch were unmistakable, he was a Ranger. Why were they all here? Delenn came up to me and said, "Jon, this is Marcus, he's a Ranger and...." "....His job is to organize the Army of Light' to defeat the Shadows when the come," I said, smiling. Marcus promptly looked heavenward, then at me, saying, "Maybe I should put an ad in the paper, then? Need volunteers to fight an ancient enemy, oh by the way, you can't say anything to anyone.' Who *doesn't* know of the Rangers, yet?" British, definitely. He had that ironic sense of humor and just the right spin of frustration. "Psi-Corps doesn't know. Nor does Earth Alliance, but if it would make you happy," I said, being as cheerful and as helpful as possible, "I'll contact them. Hell, I'll even make them think it was their own idea that they found out." Marcus looked at me and said, "Are you related to Ivanova in any way?" "Only in humor," I replied, and Sheridan managed, somehow, to bring the meeting to order. After hearing about what was wrong, I could understand why they needed me to help them. But Garibaldi summed it up with a question. "Hell, if you're going to get in, you'll need weapons, ships, major military ordinance, the works. How the hell do you plan to get all of that?" "Well," I said, "There's the *Sol Bianca*, I've got the Virtua Gundam and," I pointed at Felicia, "her. That would be enough, but me and the Centauri are not on the best of terms, and if I went through their blockade, they would be even less happy." "We have the capability," Marcus said, looking at me, "you just need the will." "I'm in," I said. "I thought you didn't want to get in trouble with the Centauri?" Ivanova asked. "Hell," I replied, "I'm screwed with them anyways. I might as well go full tilt and have them properly pissed with me." "I couldn't agree more," Sheridan said, smiling. "What about the other systems?" "I'll get you the coordinates," Marcus replied. "We have a few suprises." "I'll meet you there," I said, "with the *Sol Bianca*." *--------* (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Fri Mar 29 21:09:23 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 06:31:07 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@blob.best.net To: b5-creative@blob.best.net Subject: BREAKING THE CONSENSUS-Episode 5, Part 2 (Continued from previous post) "Oh, by the way, Ambassador," Morden asked. "What more do you want?" Londo replied. "You want a quarter of known space, you want a colony world in our territory? Do you want blood now?" "Not quite," Morden replied, smiling, "I just wanted to tell you that allies of my associates want the Centauri to do one thing." "Yes, yes, what is it?" Londo asked. "Don't occupy Narn Prime," Morden said, evidently enjoying Londo's discomfort. "What do you mean?" Londo yelled. "It took Centauri blood to take that planet!" "I just mean that you can't land on it. Anything else you want to do, mine the space to hell and back, take any facilities in space you want, go ahead. But don't land on Narn Prime. There are things that my associate's friends are doing there that you would rather not see. Lord Refa has agreed to this as well, and we are getting along famously. Have a good day, Ambassador. You know where to reach us," and Morden left. Leaving Londo with questions he didn't want to answer. *--------* "Jon-sama, why do you have to go?" Sasami asked me as I started to pack for the trip. "Delenn needs me to help her with something," I said, "and it's going to take a while. I thought you and Tsunami were doing fine." "We are," Sasami said, suddenly shying off, "it's just that, Jon-sama, I'm worried that you might get hurt. Tsunami-san is worried as well, and she's really worried that if you risk yourself like this, you'll get killed." "I have to do this. If I don't," I replied, turning to face her, "people who have no right to do what they do will continue their works. Hey, I've got G and Felicia to keep me safe. Short of God Almighty, you can't get much better protection. I'm going to be back. You can count on that." "Jon-sama," Sasami said, hugging me, "take care. I don't want to lose you." "Don't worry," I said, hugging her back. "I'm going to take care of myself. Just make sure you don't get yourself in trouble, either. I've got Garibaldi coming over for dinner every night, hey, he needs a real dinner." "I'll be sure to cook for him a good meal," Sasami replied. As I threw the spacebags over my shoulder and was at the door, Sasami said, "I know why you're sending Garibaldi here." "Why?" I asked, curious. "You want to make sure that I'm well taken care of while your gone, so I don't get into any trouble," Sasami replied, smiling. She giggled, then said, "I'll be sure to take good care of Garibaldi." "You do that," I smiled. "I expect to see five pounds on him by the time I get back." *--------* "That was not very helpful," David Endawi, Special Representive from Earthdome said, after meeting with the Centauri Ambassador, "Mister Garibaldi, do you have any ideas on who I should try to talk to now?" "Well, there's always G'kar...." Garibaldi replied. "Our treaty with the Centarui forbids official contact with the Narn except through the Centauri," Endawi replied. "You could unofficially contact him," Garibaldi said, a hint of conspiracy creeping in his voice. "And as the Chief of Station Security, I assure you that I will be looking the other way when you do." "That is a good idea," Endawi replied, "of course, it's just that, an idea." He caught the whiff of conspiracy. "Then I'll look the other way when you don't see him," Garibaldi replied. "I just have one thing to ask," Endawi asked. "I heard that a representive of a new alien race, the 'Jyrui Empire', is here on-station. Could I speak to him?" "Oh, you mean Tsunami," Garibaldi said, hesitating. "I don't think it would be easy for you to get in touch with her. But, if you want, I'll try to arrange a meeting. I happen to have a contact with one of her aides." "Thank you, Mister Garibaldi. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm not going to see Citizen G'Kar," Endawi replied, and walked off. Garibaldi led Endawi into a small meeting room. "Tsunami told me that she'd meet you here. Just one thing," Garibaldi said, almost whispering, "be very polite. From what I've seen her do, I do not want to make her upset. Not now, not ever." "Thank you for the advice, Mister Garibaldi. Now, if you'll excuse me," Endawi replied, motioning for Garibaldi to leave, which he did. As Endawi started to look around and organize his notes, the soft patter of feet and a faint female voice saying, "Hello, David Endawi." As Endawi turned around, he saw what every report said of Tsunami, a young woman of about twenty-three Earth years old, odd with blue hair. She wore robes of white with a pattern of brown and gold, with green highlights. "Shall we sit down?" she asked, a pleasant voice that seemed to just fill the room. "You are Tsunami? I expected someone older," Endawi said, regretting the words as they came out of his mouth. "Not really. What you are seeing is a soledogram of what I am in my own eye. What I am, actually, is a Jyrui Starship Tree, the core of the Tsunami ship. If you want, I can be someone or something else. Would you wish that?" Tsunami asked, waving off the words as if they were a fly buzz in one's ears. "No, not really," Endawi replied. "I'm here as a representive of the Earth Alliance, asking other races about a mysterious attack on one of our Starfuries in hyperspace. We have never seen a ship like this, and we were hoping for help." "I understand. Would you like some tea?" Tsunami asked. "Huh?" Endawi asked back, suddenly noticing the tea service in front of him. He knew it wasn't in here before. "How did this get here?" "I would be a bad host if I didn't provide my guests with at least tea and cookies. The tea is a Jyrui blend, very rich. I prefer honey in my tea, but if you want sugar, it's there as well. Would you like some?" Tsunami asked, picking up a bone-white china cup and pouring a cup of dark tea in it. "Yes, thank you," Endawi replied, and took the cup from her hands. As he took a sip, Tsunami placed just a dollop of honey in her tea, and said, "What is this ship you wish me to see?" (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Fri Mar 29 21:09:24 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 06:32:27 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@blob.best.net To: b5-creative@blob.best.net Subject: BREAKING THE CONSENSUS-Episode 5, Part 3 (Continued from previous post) "This is gun-camera footage taken from Lt. Warren Keffler's Starfury before it's destruction. ISN broadcasted it before we took it off the air under a Emergency Security Act order. It is short, but it is very important," Endawi noted. He played the video, and Tsunami said, "I might know what this is." "You know what this is?" Endawi said. "What is it?" "It isn't that easy," Tsunami said, thinking, stirring her tea. "I am nearly four million years old and even with my abilities, retrieving memories that minor is a difficult task. I have possibly seen that type of object before. I was in Earth space two hundred and sixty years ago, twice actually, and I had passed the fourth planet in your solar system, Mars I believe you call it. The first time I passed it, it was a little odd, but I didn't note it until I passed it the second time. When I was there, I scanned it only rudimentary, not more so because of the reason I was there, but it was odd. It is a vague shape, to say the least-buried under the surface of the planet. It was in the location that your maps call Syria Planeta, and I would have wanted to perform a deeper analysis, but I was busy and it slipped my mind. I haven't been back to Earth in the last three hundred years since then, so I haven't checked it out." "You were at Earth?" Endawi asked, shocked. "Why didn't you tell us about yourself and the Empire?" "Earth was a Special Sanctuary Zone. Interference with native life is strictly forbidden. That I was even there, and had contact with natives, even if they were citizens of the Empire, shows you how important my mission was. The Centauri hadn't respected our Zone commands, and so your world was rather ruined. You should have discovered stardrive technology on your own, without being helped by the Centauri," Tsunami said, somewhat disappointed, shaking her head. "We may lose the bloodlines now." "What are you saying?" Endawi asked, curious. "We were to be capable of developing Jumpgate technology on our own?" "That was the plan," Tsunami replied. "Your race was to have the capability to create stardrive technology on your own. That confidence was to help you with dealing with other races. That you needed Centauri help made you in their debt and it's not the way things should have worked. I'm sorry I wasn't able to help answer your question as well as possible." "No, Tsunami," Endawi said, carefully, "you did help us very much indeed. I thank you for both I and the Earth Alliance. Excuse me," and Endawi left. As Endawi left, Tsunami gathered up her tea service. When he left, she started to giggle to herself, softly but distinctly. It would be interesting to see if the Water of Life worked on him. *--------* I had never tried the *Sol Bianca*'s subspace diver before. The reason was simple-security. As far as anyone knew, *Sol Bianca* had to either use Jumpgates or create it's own Jump Points with built-in Point Generators. She was fast, and agile, true, but she was stuck to using more conventional drive systems. But I had the advantage of using subspace to move the ship very rapidly. And with those systems at my command, I'd be able to take the ship out even if the enemy used an anti-Gate weapon. A day after Delenn, Ivanova, Marcus, Sheridan, and Lennier left Babylon 5 for the meeting point, Felicia and I piled on the *Sol Bianca* and took a Jumpgate into interstellar space, only important because it orbited a star and it had a commercial Jumpgate. When we arrived, G deployed the sensors to maximum sensitivity. "We're clear, sir," G announced. "No ships or anything larger than a micro meteorite within thirty light minutes. Even if they're cloaked, I can't see anything that could even be called a ship within ten light minutes." "Confirmed here," Felicia said. Since I hadn't the faintest idea what would happen when we performed a subspace dive, I had everyone on the bridge and strapped in. "We're clear for dive." "Very well then," I said, tapping out a command on my board. "Dive now, top speed to the meeting point. Let's give them about fifteen minutes to be late, then let's surprise them." "Confirmed, sir," G said, "Diving now." From the outside, it looked like the ship was mysteriously dropping into a froft of silver/white water, disappearing into somewhere else. As we dived, and the subspace transition passed through the bridge, all I could feel was a faint tingling, like the first tremors of goosebumps, then nothing. We were in subspace, and in the realm of silver and gold, we flew through it. "Thirty light years, sir. We could be there in under five minutes, if you wanted," June said. "No," I replied. "Two days. Keep sensors on maximum gain for now. Full steaming watch, second shift takes bridge now. I'll see you all in about sixteen hours. Felicia, my ready room," and the bridge stations retracted. I was first out, and I was in my Ready Room before she was. Felicia made it there two minutes after me, just enough time for me to settle in. "Yes, sir?" Felicia asked, when she came in. "Have you had any problems when you've been transformed into Tekkaman Gold?" I asked. "No, why?" Felicia replied, curious. "Just that the only other Tekkaman I know of who wasn't working for the Radam, Tekkaman Blade, had a problem. If he remained in Tekkaman form longer than thirty minutes, he would lose his humanity and only work for the Radam. I want to know-do you know if you have this limitation," I said, right to the point. "No, I don't," Felicia replied. "I understand your concern, Jon. You want to plan around our advantages and disadvantages. The only one I know of is my need for a Tekkaman Crystal to transform. With that, I'm fine." "Thank you," I said. "You're taking third shift, remember? You go on duty in four hours. You're dismissed." "Yes, sir," Felicia said, giving me a salute, then walking out. I sat there, thinking. I called up a tactical schematic and started to wonder how I was going to do this. *--------* Sheridan was impressed. The *White Star* was a ship that one could respect-half the length of a conventional Minbari cruiser, but just as heavily armed and armored. It was faster, too, both in hyperspace and in conventional space. That the Minbari, more specifically the Priest Caste, was willing to build such a ship and allow humans on it showed just how much they needed to cooperate in the upcoming war with the Shadows. Overall, this was a very interesting ship-he would have loved to read the specs on the ship's systems. "Where's Jon?" Sheridan asked. "Is he always this late?" Marcus asked. "He was to have been here fifteen minutes ago." (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Fri Mar 29 21:09:25 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 06:34:05 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@blob.best.net To: b5-creative@blob.best.net Subject: BREAKING THE CONSENSUS-Episode 5, Part 4 (Continued from previous post) "It's not usual that he's late. He errors on the side of caution, true, but he normally isn't late," Ivanova replied. "He might have been delayed and...." The Minbari running one of the sensor stations said something, and Lennier translated, "There is something odd going on with space in this area. We might have been found out." "Battlestations!" Sheridan yelled, sitting down. "Prepare to move and...." "Hold on, it's just the *Sol Bianca*," Lennier replied, sheepishly. "It just *appeared* somehow, right out of thin space." "Could you please contact Jon," Sheridan said, sarcastically, "and ask him if he was trying to kill us?" A side monitor activated, and Jon's face appeared in the monitor. "Captain, I'm here and I have to say that you have a very impressive ship." "Mind if I ask why you nearly rammed us?" Sheridan asked. "When you came out of hyperspace, you were right off our side!" "Rammed you? Why, Captain, if there was a compartment in your ship large enough, I could come into realspace within that. And I wasn't using hyperspace, you just saw a subspace diver in action," Jon replied, tapping on a unseen console. "While I was coming in, I was thinking on what the plan was. Now that I've confirmed that the *Sol Bianca* can materialize this close to a physical object, I have a plan that might work." "Enlighten us," Marcus said, "what do you plan." "We're the decoy," Jon said, his image disappearing into a small side-window as a plot of Zagros Seven appeared. "*Sol Bianca* surfaces on the other side of the planet, and we deal with the blockade mines. While we attract the attention of the Centauri, you come out, break through the blockade mines, and rescue the training camp. When you're done, we'll get out as well." "That's a risky plan," Sheridan said. "But it might work. The Centauri would expect one ship to attack their blockade, but not two. And not two ships as advanced as ours, to say the very least. What about your part, Jon?" Ivanova asked. "I can pull it off. With all the weapons here, it's not a problem. Can you handle your end? That's the important part. If you can't get the camp off and up, our work is for naught," Jon replied. "We can handle it," Sheridan replied. "Let's get going," and both ships moved out. Soon, the *Sol Bianca* dived back into subspace. The *White Star* spawned a Jumpoint and disappeared as well. *--------* Zagros 7 was a hole-in-the-wall planet in a hole-in-the wall system in a hole-in-the-wall universe. The only things that made it important was the Rangers Training Camp on the planet, and that was what had attracted the Centauri. So that's why we were here, to break the blockade of Zagros 7 and get the Rangers off the planet. *Sol Bianca* surfaced from subspace half a million kilometers from Zagros 7, only a quarter of a million from the edge of the Centauri blockade belt. As we did, active sensors from the minefield instantly locked onto our ship. We were well out of range, and I said, "We go by the plan. Felicia, I'll go up and to the right, you go down and to the left. *Sol Bianca* goes right down the middle." "Oh, is that all?" Felicia said, sarcastically. "I though you were going to ask me to do something hard, like juggle something. I'll see you on the flipside," and she retracted her bridge pod. "Is the Virtua Gundam ready?" I asked, running a final check on the plan. "Loaded with the Assault-Buster package, as you wished," G noted. "I should come with you, Jon," Sharon said, worrying, "I could be helpful." "I know," I said, "but we're dealing with automated weapons. A Soundforce weapon would be useless against them, and you're needing here. It's fine, I'm telling you. The Virtua Gundam Assault-Buster package will do the job most suitably. I'll meet you back in a hour." I retracted the bridge pod, and walked down into hanger bay, checking the BDI suit for a proper fit. As I got there, G was lowering the Virtua Gundam down for launch. Besides the standard hardware the Virtua Gundam carried, it was also loaded with the Assault-Buster package. Two pods on the back carried a weapon in each of them-over the right shoulder was a mega-beam rifle, a weapon that would count as secondary armerment on most warships. The left was a hexagonal port, apparently unloaded but was actually a beam scatter gun. Attached to the right arm was a mega-beam shield, the triangular generator having over three times the power of a regular beam shield. On the left arm was the double-pronged barrel of the Variable Speed Beam Rifle, which could be adjusted to penetrate most types of force fields. I slid into the cockpit, plugged in the BDI suit, and powered up the system. *Us/we/are have come on-line. Are you ready, sir?* the computer asked. *Yes, I am,* I thought back, then keyed an external comm line. "I'm ready to go, begin Operation Luna now." "Yes, sir," June said, and I could hear vacuum pumps extracting the air from the *Sol Bianca*'s hanger bay. As the pumps died off from lack of air, the hatch opened to space and the Virtua Gundam was lowered down on the shoulder clamps to the launch catapult. A solid thump, and I was locked and loaded into the catapult, ready to launch. "Fifteen seconds to launch, sir," June said. "Confirmed," I replied and relaxed for a second. As the launch clock counted down, I allowed the targeting systems to align and find the first few targets in the mine field. Five seconds came suddenly, then I was slammed forward as the catapult fired me ahead. I instantly cut in the Minovski Drive, and screamed to the blockage field, shots ringing around me. I fired the mega-beam cannon, and in that instant, I knew I had nothing to fear from this mine field. The single mega-beam shot not only pierced and destroyed the mine I targeted, but two other mines down range. My first VSBR shot took out a mine at half-power and the scatter cannon was blasting mines right and left-and their shots weren't getting through the mega-beam shield or the more conventional beam shields on the Hypermotor arms. This was almost too easy. *--------* Coincidentally, that was the same thought that was running through Tekkaman Gold's mind as she was attacking satellites herself. Their weapons were relitivly puny, and short of a massive crossfire, Tekkaman Gold was immune to their attacks. And they fractured so easily under the pressure of a punch or a blade! She noted that for future reference, if she ever had to consult for the Centauri. (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Fri Mar 29 21:09:27 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 06:35:20 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@blob.best.net To: b5-creative@blob.best.net Subject: BREAKING THE CONSENSUS-Episode 5, Part 5 (Continued from previous post) As she screamed around her section of the blockade, killing mines, it was understandable if she missed certain clues. But she didn't miss the final one, when a golden lance erupted from somewhere in space, screamed past her, and destroyed a Centauri satellite. "A Tekkaman weapon?" Tekkaman Gold whispered. "From where?" As she snapped around to see, there was a humanoid figure in green armor, carrying a long-bladed spear, the half-cross of the helmet's faceplate pivoting slightly. As she watched, a single red eye glowed sharply from the right side of the helmet. "Hello, mother," the armored figure said, the internal communications network of the Radam transmitting the message to her. "What are you doing here?" Tekkaman Gold asked, floating in mid-space. "Does your master know that one of his dogs are free?" "Hardly. I'm here to take you home, mother, back to our kind and leave the puny humans behind," the green-suited figure replied. "I know you, Tekkaman Dagger. I will not return with you back to Omega, not now, not ever," Tekkaman Gold snapped back. "Dagger?" the figure cocked it's head slightly. "You memory must be damaged from dealing with the inferior humans. You know that my name is Teknoman Gunner, one of you own children. I'm here to take you back to Darkcon, so you may rule beside him over the new empire of Teknomen." "Dagger or Gunner, Omega or Darkcon, it matters not to me. What matters," Tekkaman Gold replied, the two forearm blades snapping forward and launching into her hands, "is that I fight you and your master. Now, shall we dance?" "If that is your decision, mother," Gunner replied, and he launched himself from the satellite he was standing on. Tekkaman Gold launched after him, accelerating to full thrust. The battle was joined. *--------* It wasn't too easy. I made that mistake when I took out the central command module for this section of the blockade field. In computer terms, a blockade minefield is a distributed multi-node network. The mines link to a supervisor mine, then the supervisor mines link to a central command mine, which then links to the ship(s) controlling the minefield. You merely told the minefield what to do, generally, then the mines would do the job themselves. By destroying the minefield's central command module the field would go on automatic, and target just about anything. Including Centauri ships. Like the rest of the mines, it was too easy to destroy-a single VSBR hit shattered it beyond recognition. As the minefield in my area shut down and suddenly started to emit electronic screams to the nearest Centauri command center, telling them in the simplest language possible that something had gone wrong, I started to pivot to destroy enough mines to create the illusionatory passage for an escape from Zagros 7. Before I could move, two beam shots lanced right across my shoulder, missing the Virtua Gundam by the thickness of a layer of paint. *What was that?* I hissed. I knew those beams weren't the standard Centauri particle beam weapons. *Unknown enemy system, sir!* the Virtua Gundam computers blared. *But I know one thing, sir, those were Mobile-Suit beam weapons.* *Zoom and magnify enemy units,* I thought, and the sensor system immediately locked onto the targets. It was hard to pick up the black targets against the background of space, but I soon got a sight of them, the cone-like head with the square sensor plate and.... *Mobile Dolls....* I thought, in a mental whisper. *Sir?* the Virtua Gundam asked. *What are they?* *Tarurus-series Mobile Dolls. Automated weapons, fully independent. They only have a beam rifle and a beam saber, but they're wickedly fast and difficult to kill. They work perfectly as a team. Recall our bits, we'll need all the firepower we can get,* I thought. *But they're just Mobile Suits....* the Virtua Gundam said. *They are but *nothing** I thought back, and prepared to fight. I only hoped that the Virtua Gundam was capable of handling the task at hand. *--------* As Tekkaman Gold and Teknoman Gunner fought across the mine field, destroying mines from the knockback, Gunner continually chided Gold. "Why fight your own kind, mother?" Gunner said between blows. "The Teknomen and our allies will win this war, and you can have a place at the side of our beloved leader. You know that humans cannot defeat us, and all of the alien races will fall before our armies." "We are only twelve, Dagger. You know that as well as I do," Gold replied between parries. "We are not enough to fight anyone, especially not the Vorlons or the Minbari. We are few and far between, our forces are not enough." "That is what you think, mother," Gunner replied. "We have a new broodhome, and our forces will soon number in the millions, enough to secure our place as the lords of the universe. It is your choice if you wish to join us." "No," Gold replied, "and I will end this farce. Now." Violently, Tekkaman Gold landed on top of a blockade mine, bringing her body to face the on-rushing Teknoman Gunner. With a snap, two panels opened on each shoulder, to reveal three glass-like lenses, and four more opened up on the torso. To Gunner and the universe, Tekkaman Gold yelled, "Ultra-Voltekka!" and the lenses glowed with reflected power. A sizzling lance of energy, nearly a kilometer long and ten meters wide, ripped through space. Gunner was barely able to dodge, but the energy backlash was enough to knock him away. "You know of my capabilities, Dagger. I have the Ultra-Voltekka, and I can fire any beam I want, at any energy level I want, at any target I want, and as many times as I damn well feel like firing. Go away, Dagger, and tell Omega that if he wishes me back, that he will have to take my head." "You know where you put yourself, mother," Gunner replied. "I will not warn you again, Dagger!" Tekkaman Gold yelled. "Go away!" Strangely enough, Gunner bowed formally, saying, "As you wish, Mother." He turned and flew away at top speed, disappearing in the distance. Tekkaman Gold looked, thinking. She then turned away, accelerating to the battlefield that seemed to be erupting in the area that Jon was working in. *--------* This wasn't going well. There were exactly twelve Tarurus Mobile Dolls, and just one of me. Every dodge would result in two or more beam cannons firing at me, catching me at just such a place that I couldn't get out of the way. The shields were taking it, but it would take one lucky hit to get through my defenses. (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Fri Mar 29 21:09:29 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 06:36:23 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@blob.best.net To: b5-creative@blob.best.net Subject: BREAKING THE CONSENSUS-Episode 5, Part 6 (Continued from previous post) I tried to shoot them down, but even with the support of the BDI system, they were just too fast. I nailed one with the VSBR, and took out another with my beam rifle, but they were just too fast, too many of them. They were even able to nail the six bits, but they took down one more Doll before they died. I couldn't do anything-too far away for melee attacks, too widely spread apart for a Minovski Slash, too fast to hit them with ranged weapons. Even though they were using reaction-based drives, they could move too surely by the time I could use the Minovski Drive to a decisive effect. A sudden jarring hit on my side, and I thought, *What was that?* *A shot got through, sir! We lost the VSBR, minor damage to the left arm armor. The Dolls are pressing their attack. Sir, we either have to retreat or engage.* *How the hell do you propose to do that?* I asked. *Us/we/are have no ideas, sir,* the Virtua Gundam replied. I had an idea. *Launch the missiles to the forces below and in front of us. We'll turn and engage the Dolls above and behind us.* *It's risky, sir,* the Virtua Gundam replied. *It's a good risk,* I shot back. *Fire!* Twenty missiles corkscrewed away to some of the Dolls. Most of them were shot down, but one managed to get through, hitting a Doll and damaging it's engines. As the missiles flew away and the Dolls dodged, I charged the other half. Two Dolls fired, trying to hit me and nearly succeeding. I fired the beam rifle once and it caught a Doll mid-torso, blowing it apart. Two more Dolls closed with me rapidly, firing their rifles. I drew my beam saber and popped the covers on the 90mm machine cannons, firing off a burst of shells that drew a ragged line across the Doll's torso, causing it to spark and sputter. The other Doll swung it's beam saber, I caught it in mid-blow with my beam saber, kicked it away and fired the beam rifle twice, destroying it. When I fired the missiles, I separated the Dolls into two groups. Now that the missiles were gone, I was facing one rapidly closing group and all of my kills weren't helping me any. One Doll swung it's beam saber. It hit the mega-beam shield on the generator armor, cutting through it and down to the arm and through the arm's armor. I swung and parried with the beam saber and promptly skewered the Doll, but the others were closing fast, I didn't know how much longer I could hold out. And, as the Dolls were close enough to spit at, a energy beam tore across space, cutting up the four Dolls. I soon killed the last two, and I looked to see Tekkaman Gold, hovering over the battlefield. "Did you have a problem?" Felicia asked. "Not any more," I replied. "G, how are things going?" "We're clear. *White Star* reports the camp's destroyed and evacuated. They're clearing the Gate right now." "It's over now," I said, "prepare for recovery and immediate subspace dive. I don't want to be here any longer than I need to be." "Agreed," Tekkaman Gold replied. Ten minutes later, we were out of system. *--------* "What the hell's wrong with me?" Endawi asked Franklin. He had come into MedLab after the last few interviews, worried about what he was feeling. Franklin had scanned him carefully, and found absolutely nothing wrong. "What were the symptoms again? I want to make sure I get this right," Franklin asked. "I'm losing the grey in my hair, I've got more energy that I've had in twenty years, and I've been peeling like crazy. Could I have been poisoned?" Endawi noted. "If you have been, I can find no sign of it. Everything's working properly. I even checked for a ruptured appendix, but your appendix is perfectly fine...." Franklin replied, but Endawi suddenly waved him off. "I had my appendix removed when I was eight! I even have the scar right here," Endawi took off his shirt, but the skin under it was as smooth and as unblemished as newborn baby skin. "What the...." "I want you to stay here," Franklin asked, "until I can run a few tests. I might have an idea what happened to you, but I want to be sure." "No problem," Endawi replied. "But can you keep it quiet? I don't want to get into any trouble...." *--------* The Virtua Gundam was in hanger bay, being pulled apart for repairs. Besides the damage to the arms and legs, a number of system were either broken or fuzed from combat stress. The VSBR and mega-beam shield were total write-offs. Replacement was the only option. I was starting up the auto-repair sequence right now. "How are you doing?" I asked. "Us/we/are doing fine," the Virtua Gundam replied by the link with the computer terminal, "the damage is a problem, to be sure, but repairs are going well." "That's good," I replied, shaking my head. "If it's not a problem, I'm going to go now and try to get some rest." "Have a good rest, sir. If there are any problems, us/we/are will contact you," the Virtua Gundam replied. I walked out, shutting down the lights in the hanger bay. Walking to my quarters, shaking the cobwebs out of my skull-being banged around like that causes some painful head aches, June met me in the hallway. "How are you doing, sir?" she asked. "I'll tell you when I can remember which year this is," I replied, smiling weakly. "How long before we can return to Babylon 5?" "About three days, sir," June replied. "We want to arrive after Captain Sheridan and his friends, of course. I made you a light lunch and have some pain medication in your quarters." "Thank you," I said, trying the now-difficult art of walking and talking simultaneously. "How is Felicia, by the way?" "When she came on-board, she transformed back to normal, then said she wanted to be in her quarters, alone. G's been telling me that she's been accessing library archives from all over the galaxy. Felicia doesn't want any help from G or Sharon, sir," June noted. "Oh," I said. "Now, if there isn't a problem, you can hold my calls. At least until my brain descrambles itself. Excuse me," I said, and slipped into my quarters. I fell onto the mattress and was out like a light. *--------* "Sit down, Mister Endawi," Franklin said, checking the indicators on the terminal. "I think I know what happened to you." "Is it something bad?" Endawi replied, worried about what the doctor was saying. (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Fri Mar 29 21:09:31 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 06:37:22 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@blob.best.net To: b5-creative@blob.best.net Subject: BREAKING THE CONSENSUS-Episode 5, Part 7 (Continued from previous post) "You've been injected with a very complex and powerful analgetic, but it's like one I've never seen before. It isn't the type that Deathwalker was peddling two years ago, I can tell you that. In comparison to her drug, this is a work of art. You're aging was stopped and reversed to about twenty years old. That's why all the lines disappeared in your face, and why you feel younger. But your aging is resuming at the normal rate, and in twenty years, you'll need another treatment of whatever it is that you've been injected with," Franklin noted. "I haven't been injected by anyone," Endawi replied. "I ate lunch in the Zocallo, and had tea with the Jyrui representive...." Endawi's voice trailed off for a second. "You had tea? You might have been given the drug in your tea, but why would Tsunami want to give you a analgetic?" Franklin asked. "According to Tsunami, the Jyrui Empire had plans for Earth, but the Centauri interfered with them. Could this have been the plan?" Endawi wondered. "You know what will happen if you get to Earth," Franklin said. "I might be able to help." "How?" "I can just report some odd blood chemistry, that's nothing out of the ordinary. Anything else can be attributed to damaged medical files. I'll get to work on that, if you promise not to tell anyone about what happened to you," Franklin replied, starting to tap on his terminal with a rapid clattering of his fingers. "Done," Endawi replied, and the two shook hands. Franklin entered his office, where Tsunami was waiting for him. "Did it take?" Tsunami asked. "As far as I could tell," Franklin replied. "He showed all the effects that you said he would. I don't understand why if you know the effects of this drug on people, why you have me checking Endawi out?" "It was just in case he had a mutation that would have caused an adverse effect. Now that I know the Water of Life works on humans, there is an unique chance here," Tsunami replied. "You understand, of course, why I can't let you have any, even to analyze. Just you and I have this secret, and a dose for analysis could compromise our security." "I agree. I just hate knowing that you have immortality-but won't let me have it," Franklin replied. "Earn immortality the old fashioned and good way-by doing extraordinary work. I know that's the best way to do it," Tsunami replied, then she disappeared. *--------* I got back aboard Babylon 5, two days and a few new bruises later. It had been a long trip, hanging in subspace for most of the two days, hidden from prying eyes. We used a different minor jumpgate to come back to Babylon 5, and we soon were in a parking orbit. June, Felicia and I transferred over via the *Sol Bianca*'s shuttlecraft and landed on the platform, where Ivanova was waiting just behind the blast shield. "Captain wants to talk to you in the Ready Room, in about four hours," Ivanova said, as I got in. "I see," I replied. "Is it about the ops?" "Of course," Ivanova replied. "The Captain wants to set up something." "Then I'll meet you there," I said, and we went down separate hallways. Felicia stopped at a transit tube, and said, "Jon, I've got something I've got to check out. I'll meet you in the Ready Room." "No problem," I said. "See you there." Finally, me and June made it to my quarters, where Sasami was cooking something heavenly. "Jon-sama! You're back!" Sasami yelled from the kitchen. "Don't stop now!" I yelled back. "We're going to be here a while, so you can finish working on dinner." "I hope she does," Garibaldi said, coming out of the bathroom. "She cooks really well." "So, you're here," I said, motioning for him to sit down as Sasami brought the food. He pointed at June, "Are you one of his crew?" Garibaldi asked. "Yes, sir," June replied, manipulating the chopsticks with the same adroit fingers that she used to tap commands on the *Sol Bianca*'s consoles. "I came with the ship." "You mean," Sasami asked, "you came with the ship when it arrived here?" "No," June said, patting Sasami on the head, "I came with the ship." Silence, then Garibaldi said, "You won't believe what happened this week." "Try me," I said, "I've had a very unusual week myself." "That Earth Alliance representive that was here, David Endawi, managed to talk to Tsunami. He left the meeting room like a bat out of hell," Garibaldi noted. Mental note-ask Tsunami what she did this week. "I see," I replied. "Anything else?" "Just the usual, the mugging, the petty larceny, all that sort of stuff. Oh, we managed to bust this damn slick Drazi con ring that was bilking tourists...." as Garibaldi ran off for a half hour on how the con worked. I missed this sort of thing-learning how the law worked from a master practioner. "So, what were you up to this week?" Garibaldi asked. "We had a job for the Drazi-they wanted us to do a mapping survey of some new territory they discovered. Boring as hell, the biggest and most exciting thing was a plasma ribbon that we missed. Damn thing nailed us in our backside," I replied, scratching the back of my head. "Really routine work." Garibaldi knew differently, but he didn't say anything. "That sort of work, huh?" "Yea, it was that kind of job," I said. We kept up the conversation, for who's benefit, I'm not sure, but it was there. *--------* A soft footfall of metal. A sharp look of the military eye across the compartment. That was what Tekkaman Gold did when she entered Kosh's quarters. The encounter suit was hanging there, waiting for it's inhabitant. A soft glowing light came from behind the curtain, waiting for something. Tekkaman Gold walked in, then stopped. "I am here," Tekkaman Gold said. (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Fri Mar 29 21:09:33 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 06:38:10 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@blob.best.net To: b5-creative@blob.best.net Subject: BREAKING THE CONSENSUS-Episode 5, Part 8 (Continued from previous post) Nothing came from behind the curtain. She hadn't expected any response. Her sensors could punch through the curtain's material like it was cheesecloth, but she didn't need to-she knew exactly what Kosh was. "I know our deal, Kosh. Information for my freedom from the Radam. They are here, Kosh. The Radam are here, and they are working with our enemy. But they don't call themselves Tekkaman, they call themselves Teknomen. And there is one other thing," Tekkaman Gold said. "What is it?" Kosh said, the voice odd from behind the curtain. "I met Dagger, who's calling himself Teknoman Gunner. He said that the Radam have a new broodhome. If that's true, that means they're assembling an army of Tekkaman. But I don't know where. They would need a similar biology to most humanoids, and they would need a massive population. But the breeders would be noticeable. I want to tell Jon and Sheridan, they have the resources to find the new broodhome...." Tekkaman Gold said, but was interrupted by Kosh. "Do not tell them. They do not need to know," Kosh said. "They damn well need to know, Kosh! If they're breeding, we have to stop them, now, before they can become an army. If I can find them," Tekkaman Gold said, "we can stop them before they can breed." "Worry about yourself. I will find it," Kosh replied. The encounter suit surged slightly, filing up with Kosh. "Go now." "I am warning you, Kosh, if this fails, it will be on your head," Tekkaman Gold said, then walked out. As she walked out, Kosh said to the door, "I understand." *--------* Sheridan had assembled a meeting of everyone. Ivanova, Garibaldi, Franklin, Delenn, Lennier, Marcus, Felicia and I were there, sitting around a table in the Ready Room. As well, Sharon Apple and G were tied in by a secure and remote data link. We had given our reports on each end of the operation, and I listened, in shock, that they had barely been able to dodge a Shadow ship that followed them from Zagros 7 to the Markeb homeworld. My report was last, and I issued it, "Someone has access to Mobile Suit technology," I added to the end, "and worse, they have Mobile Dolls as well." "Just how dangerous is a Mobile Doll," Ivanova asked. "Very dangerous," I replied. "Utterly perfect coordination combined with high agility and high-speed weapons. If we had to face them, I'd like to have a lot of weapons on my side." "Agreed," Sheridan replied. "That's why we're all here. My teachers always taught me, 'Lack of information will kill you.' So, from now until the war is over, I am forming the War Council. We will meet twice a month at the same location, unless circumstances force us to do otherwise." "I've already talked with General Hague on Earth," Sharon Apple said. "So long as we get whatever the Rangers get on Earth, he'll give us whatever we need n terms of intelligence." "I'll have my people contact you," Marcus said. "So, it's all settled?" Sheridan said. "Just one thing," Franklin asked. "What are these 'Shadows'?" Everyone looked at Delenn, who composed herself and said, "Many millennia ago, when the gods walked the universe...." As she started going into her spiel, I was thinking about a number of things. Like why Tsunami talked to that Earth Force representive. Or why Felicia was rather shy as of late to talk about what happened in the Centauri minefield. And, most importantly, how someone got ahold of Mobile Dolls. Things were getting interesting, to say the very least. *--------* "....And that's most of my report," Endawi said, putting down the flimsies on the Earth Alliance Intelligence officer's desk. "All of the alien races I talked to knew little or nothing about this thing. The best intelligence I got was from this 'Tsunami', but it's kind of useless. After all, if Psi-Corps found something on Syria Planeta, we would have known about it." "True," the supervisor replied. "Can you excuse me, I've got some work to do." "Yes, ma'am," Endawi said, bowing and leaving the room. As the door closed, the woman tapped a hidden button under her desk, which brought in two men from the opposite door. One was wearing a Psi-Cops uniform, the other could have been with his choice of black clothing. "You heard what he said," the woman asked. "Every word," the Psi-Cop said. "You were right, they didn't know a thing." "Of course," Morden said. "My associates are very efficient to say the least. The ones who know the most, the Narn, are safely out of the way, and the rest don't know. A shame that this Tsunami knows a bit, but it's a minor piece of information. And that video is safely buried." "I don't think so," the Psi-Cop replied. "We might be able to use the video to speed up the program." "Hm, that's an interesting idea. Tell me more," Morden asked, and he listened. As he was listening, he thought one thing-*Tsunami and her friends must die soon. Or else the plan is all for naught.* And he was scheming on how this could be done. [End Episode Five] From b5-creative-errors@lists1.best.com Tue Apr 9 19:28 PDT 1996 From: NoDUI@aol.com Subject: [STORY]Breaking The Consensus-Episode 6 Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 20:53:05 -0400 To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Yes, this is ANOTHER fanfic, hopefully one I will finish completely. I've decided to take a swipe at a Gundam/Babylon 5/Macross Plus/Macross 7/Tenchi Muyo/Sol Bianca/Whatever The Hell I Can Pack Into This Thing crossover. In short, this is going to be a wild, confusing ride that is going to hopefully be a LOT of fun. This fanfic is dedicated to Dave Gao, everyone on the Babylon 5 Creative and Gundam mailing lists, and all of my fans(especially the ones who like my stories and DON'T write to tell me!). Got to have the legalistic- All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners and will be turned over to the owners at the request of their authorized agents. All other characters/places/persons are the sole property of Jonathan Souza, Copyrighted @1996. This copyright extends to all electronic versions of the story. As always, comments, complaints, and critiques are welcome. Even if it's just to say "good work, Jon," I'd like to hear it. Even if it's to complain about my language and syntax, go right on ahead. I need the abuse. From Macross 7, Jon Souza Jon.Souza@Creature.Com NoDUI@AOL.Com Breaking the Consensus By Jon Souza Episode 6-The Old and the New "Everything you say I want to know the depth of the sea, the height of the sky, the mysteries of blue filled with these wonderful wonders this scenery that's why I fell in love with you" -Sharon Apple "Wanna Be An Angel" It was one of *those* sorts of weeks. It was one of those sorts of weeks that one just wants to pull the covers over one's head, go back to sleep, and hopefully wake up next year. Not only did I have my sleep disturbed three times by the mad bomber who stalked Babylon 5 for a while, I had a very unusual message in my E-mail box, from Kosh. The message was just five words: "This is only the beginning....." But the beginning of *what*? Or the ending of something else? The cherry on top of my Angst Sunday was when a Centauri challenged me to a duel. It was a normal, average, run of the mill Thursday morning, which should have been a clue. Arthur Dent was right, you could never feel too right about Thursday. For me, at least, that would have meant that I could have been watching DS 9 and Babylon 5 reruns back home on Earth, circa 1995. fortunately, with the media library of Babylon 5 at my access, I could choose much better programs to watch. But, it was early in the morning, when I had breakfast with Ambassador Delenn. As of late, she was looking worried and just a little bit scared. Things on Minbar must not have been going well. But if there was any problems, I never heard a word of it-our discussions were of food, movies, books, and some philosophy. As she was finally getting around to Earth foods and trying out some hash browns and bacon, a grim, young-looking Centarui strode up to out table, and said, to me, "Are you Jonathan Souza, Commanding Officer of the *Sol Bianca*?" "Yes, I am," I replied. What was I to say? "Is there a problem?" "Two months ago, you destroyed a ship called the *Maximillia*, a battle cruiser under the command of my brother. You were let go by my government with merely a slap on the wrist. I assure you, the honor of my family demands more." And he drew out a Centauri sword called a pillium, a long, double-blade sword more akin to a Earth broadsword, and drove it into the tabletop. "By the name of the Family of Kallain, I, Javias Kallain challenge you to a duel at the stroke of midnight tomorrow. You are to proceed, human, for this is a bonded event." And he turned and pivoted away, the sword still in the table. "By Valen's name....," Delenn whispered. "What is this?" "It looks like a duel," I replied, pulling out the sword from the table and putting it carefully down. "And I get the feeling that I'm in big trouble." *--------* There were a few other odd discoveries that day. Felicia LeCou encountered one when she arrived at her quarters after a workout in Babylon 5's gym. When she got back, her E-mailbox was chiming a soft green, full of mail. Most was junk, ads and such. One was a library request form, so she could have access to MinbarNet, the Minbari computer network. The last one was a single, simple message. Straightforward and to the point, it had all the authenticators of a Ranger message. The message read:"Felicia LeCou-I have discovered the information you are looking for. However, it is much too sensitive for me to bring it onto the station. Meet me at Sector 12, Grid Reference AR-CE, alone. Please hurry. -TG" Felicia promptly dumped her mail, then tapped the command to contact G. When she came up, G said, "Good morning, Felicia. What can I help you with?" "What's Jon up to?" Felicia asked. "He's busy with breakfast with Delenn. His PortiTerm is on, but set on 'Do Not Disturb' mode. I can break through it you need to, but...." G replied. "No, no, it isn't that important. Just leave him a message that I'd like to talk to him before tomorrow. Oh, by the way, are any of your shuttles hyperspace capable?" Felicia asked, checking her nails. "Both of them are," G noted. "I'll be sure to get your message through." "Thank you," Felicia replied, then shut off her terminal. And started to pack. *--------* "You're kidding me, right?" Garibaldi asked me, after he called me down to the Security office. "I'm telling you, Javias Kallain challenged me to a duel in," I looked at my watch, "about eighteen hours. According to him, his family's honor was ruined when I destroyed that Centauri ship two months ago. He wants blood." "I didn't think Centauri challenged humans to a duel, after that Clan Maklood incident a century ago," Garibaldi replied. "What Clan Maklood?" I asked. "Londo told me a story of why the Centauri don't challenge humans to duels. A Centauri noble challenged a human to a duel after he was insulted, something about the human's hair. The man was the only member of a Scottish clan, called Clan McCloud, and he was made an honorary Centauri noble so the duel could go on. Well this McCloud, a Duncan McCloud, was much better than the Centauri who challenged him, and the end result was that McCloud got the man's family. After that...." Garibaldi said, letting me finish it in my mind. "Well, that satisfies one thing," I said, "As far as I know, I'm not of any noble line, so he can't use that a basis for a challenge. I check the rules for Centauri dueling, and you can't challenge someone who isn't of a noble lineage." "That's good...." Garibaldi replied, then his monitor beeped. "Yea, what is it?" Zack's image flashed onto the screen, looking out at us. "Hey, Chief, there's this Centuari who wants to talk to you. He says it's important." "Send him in," Garibaldi replied, and lo! and behold, it was Javais Kallain, all arrogant and haughty. "Mister Garibaldi, I wish to make a request of you," he asked. "What is it?" Garibaldi asked, curious. I let myself go loose, whipcord slack for a fight, just in case. "I want your security staff to make sure the assets of the Masaki Clan are not tampered with before the start of the duel tomorrow. I fear that it's head would try to prevent me from claiming what is mine," Javais said. "Who's in charge of this Clan Masaki?" Garibaldi asked. "I never heard of it." "Why, it is him," Javais said, pointing at me. "According to the research of an independent genealogy company, Jonathan Patrick Souza is the direct male descendent of the Masaki Clan. Since he is of noble lineage, he must either accept the challenge or forfeit both his life, his title, and his ownings." "If a challenge you want," I said, putting myself between Javais and Garibaldi. "A challenge you have. I accept your challenge, Javais Kallain, on the behalf of the Masaki Clan. I give you eighteen hours to make peace with your gods, now go." As Javais left, flustered, Garibaldi looked at me and said, "What the hell was that?" "I had no choice, Garibaldi! Either I accept the challenge, or I forfeit. And if you hadn't noticed, I can be extradited to Centauri Prime under the new treaty. And if I'm going to lose Sasami, G, and Sharon, I'm going to lose them fighting. I can't run Garibaldi," I said. "Either I stand and fight, or I leave and die a coward's death." "Look, I don't know and I don't care what personal demons you're fighting, but this isn't the way to fight them! You don't have to take this duel up," Garibaldi said. "Hey, at least look at it from the bright side. He didn't check out my *mother's* lineage," I said. This caused Garibaldi to skip a gear. "Why do you say that?" "Because I'm descended from British royalty on my mother's side. I'm a cousin, fourteen generations removed, from the House of Windsor. The British Royal Family, or at least they were when I was around," I said. "Could you imagine what sort of shit I'd gotten into if I *lost*." "I don't think anybody at home would be happy about that," Garibaldi replied, then he suppressed a chuckle. Badly. Then he said, "You'd better practice. There's a duel in eighteen hours with your name on it." "I agree with that idea," I said, "I'll see you later." *--------* The *Sol Bianca* launched it's second shuttle away, as it approached the Jumpgate. "Babylon 5, this is SB-2," Felicia said, "Requesting Jumpgate sequence and clearance for Jump." "Confirmed, SB-2," Ivanova said. "You are clear for Jumpgate Number Three in fifteen minutes, over." "Roger, Babylon 5, SB-2 out," Felicia said, allowing herself the opportunity of a stretch. As she did, she reached down and picked up her bag, pulling out the Tekkaman Crystal. As she watched the light of Epsilon Eridani play across it, her comm system beeped again. "SB-2, this is Babylon 5 Traffic Control. You are clear for Jumpgate sequence. Good luck and have a pleasant trip, Felicia." "Confirmed, Babylon 5," Felicia replied. She dove the ship into the Jumpgate, then into hyperspace, closing the Gate behind her. And she was gone. *--------* I got back to my quarters, where Tsunami was waiting. She looked nervous, and somewhat scared. "Jon, is there a problem, I heard something about a duel...." "Is he right?" I asked. "Huh? What are you asking, Jon?" "Is Javais right? Am I of the Masaki line?" I asked, insistent. "Yes, you are," Tsunami replied. "But by about six generations, your paternal great, great, great, great grandfather was Masaki." "It's enough," I said, "Javais challenged me to a duel. It's a duel to the death, you know." "I know. I was checking on Centauri dueling codes while you were with Garibaldi," she said. "But you have two advantages." "Eh?" I asked. "What are these advantages?" "You're trained, very well I might add, in sword fighting. And you have your Key," Tsunami replied. "One of them would be sufficient, but taken together, you're nearly undefeatable." "Thank you, I think," I said. "But I checked on this Javais. He's good, arrogant but good. He knows how to fight, and he's won a few duels before in the past. This is the first time for me." "I know," Tsunami said. "But you can win, I just know it." "I hope I can share your confidence," I replied, smiling weakly. *--------* "Damn you!" Londo yelled. "You would have to provoke this!" "I am not one of your family," Javais said. "My brother, my *only* brother, my half of the family, is dead, and he is responsible for it. He will pay for his crimes against my name and my honor." Javais' older brother, Mikel, was a captain in the Centauri military, commanding officer of a battle cruiser, and married to a daughter of the Molari family. Rumor had it that the marriage was merely for love, not for any position that the House of Kallain could gain by such a joining. Mikel was a rising star in the Centauri military before the marriage, now he was shooting up. At the age of only thirty-two, he was commanding officer of a Battle cruiser, he had two children, and was loved and respected. Then the Centauri attacked Babylon 5, in an effort to stop the Narn heavy cruiser. The *Maximilia* was assigned to destroy the ship, and was intercepted by the *Sol Bianca*. Then she was destroyed. When Mikel's wife learned of the fate of her husband, she destroyed the Kallain family lands in a firestorm, taking her, her two children, and most of the House of Kallain's wealth with it. So much for genetics and family breeding. Javais swore to get even with whoever did this to his brother. That's why he was here, that's why Londo was yelling at him. "Damn it, Javais, you're like a brother to me. Your brother, Mikel, would have never approved of this." "I don't want his approval. I want Jon's head on a pike, and I want to put it there myself. And don't you moan to me about Clan Maklood! I want him dead," Javais replied. "You have nothing, you realize. If he wins, he gains nothing," Londo said. "He won't win. And I'll have his ship, the ship that killed my brother. With the secrets in it's hull, your family and mine can win the throne. And he has such a beautiful sister...." Javais remarked whimsically. Londo flinched slightly. A few little eccentricies, he could not only agree with, but condone. He had a few himself, and if you kept them quiet and didn't do anything stupid, you could get away with them. But this wasn't a little, harmless habit. That was perversion. "I want you to leave, Javais. Leave now, and don't come back," Londo said, drawing formality around him like a cloak. "When this is all over, Molari, you will beg for my favor. And I just *might* give it to you," Javais said, laughing, and he walked out of the room. *--------* Centauri dueling rules, bless their heart, allowed for just about any sword-like weapon to be used. And that meant I could use my Key in the up-coming duel. So I was in the Babylon 5 gym, alone because it was about ten at night, practicing with my Key, blade drawn, in a series of katas. I had already reviewed every piece of information I could find out about Javais Kallain, namely his fighting style. He liked the pillium, preferred it to most any other weapon. You fought with it broad-sword style, slashing and cutting attacks, not stabbing like a foil or katana. I had a few advantages, namely that I was Jyrui-trained and prepared for the Jyrui style of sword fighting. But I couldn't think of that, I just kept practicing. Feints, slashes, stabs, parries, dodges, and such. For hours. I eventually stripped down to just shorts and a tank-top, more for agility and speed in my practice. "I see you're busy," a voice behind me said. I turned to see G'Kar standing there, looking at me curiously. "You are good with a sword. I didn't know humans studied the art of the blade," G'Kar said. "It's a rare skill among my people," I agreed, "but there are so many arts and versions of sword-training that it's hard to choose. Mind if I ask why you are here?" "It's just that I heard rumors. Rumors spread around her rather fast, have you noticed? Rumors that the Centauri were going to allow one of their own to duel a human being after one hundred years. A rumor that you've started to prepare to die, and not allow your ship to fall into other people's hands. I'm curious, just how much of that is true," G'Kar asked. "Javais Kallaim claims that I killed his brother two months ago, when Babylon 5 was attacked by the Centauri. He wants retribution, I just want to survive," I said. "Why are you so curious?" "Oh, it's just that Javais' brother was married to one of Ambassador Londo's," he laid the irony thick on the Ambassador part, "daughters, and he was a bright-eyed little social climber. Sorry to interrupt your practice, but I just wanted to speak to you. Good day," and G'Kar left. I stopped for a minute, thinking. *Plans within plans, within plans. Who's plan am I a part of?* I thought. Hopefully, I'd find out. Before I died, at least. *--------* Sector 12 was merely a star and a few useless planets, important mostly because of it's location, two light-years from the point where Centauri, Narn, and Earth Alliance space meet, making it useful as a Jumpgate junction, allowing ships time in real-space during long trips between the three stars. The main star, a G-type main sequence star, was orbited by five planets and a massive debris ring of an Earth-like planet. What tore it apart was a Venus-like world with twice the density of Earth and one of the largest gas giants in Known Space. Most of the debris, the shoal zones, collected at the Trojan points in the system. Every two years, Earth Alliance ships came and seeded the asteroid belt with radio beacons, so flight crews could know what they were tracking. That was what Felicia entered, the *Sol Bianca*'s shuttle coming out from the Jumpgate and decelerating. As the ship closed with the designated coordinates, Felicia felt a thrill of doubt. This smelled too much of a trap, but how could anyone catch her? She outgunned everybody in her Tekkaman form, and she could outrun everything but a photon. And she needed the information on where the Tekkaman were establishing a broodhome. As she closed with the coordinates, she could suddenly feel the presence of another Tekkaman, feeling his power impress upon her senses. Carefully, Felicia commanded the shuttle to hide itself, then went to the cargo bay. "Tekkaman Gold!" she yelled, then flew away from the shuttle under her own power. When she arrived, Teknoman Gunner, standing on top of an asteroid, was there. "Hello, Mother. I thought that message would have gotten you here," he said. "What did I tell you about bothering me? You will pay for your presumptuous," Tekkaman Gold replied, ready for battle. "This time, mother, I am much better prepared," Gunner said. He leapt from his asteroid, engines blazing. Gold deployed her two arm-blades. The battle had begun. *--------* A Centauri dueling ring is about twenty feet in radius. That gave me a forty foot circle to play in, about thirteen hundred square feet to maneuver in. I had planned to fight it one way, and that was to win. Javais was there already, his sword drawn and standing in the ring. "The Kallain representative is here," he said, mostly to the four witnesses and the moderator. Each dueler was to choose two witnesses, and Javais chose two Centauri. I had asked Tsunami and Delenn to come and be my representatives. They both agreed. So as I was walking to make my arrival, Tsumani multi-tasked another solidogram to brief me. "Javais is known for feinting an eye slash, to cause his enemies to blink. He can fight with either hand, so be careful for a sword shift. One thing I saw during other duels he was in was that he likes to pivot to the right after a parry. It's a consistent fact." "Thank you," I said. "Don't lose, Jon," Tsunami said, seriously. "I'll pull you out of Hell if I have to." "Go to hell yourself. I plan to go to the good place and tumble as many beautiful red-headed angels as I can find of either sex. I won't play favorites," I replied, smiling. Tsunami smiled and said, "Go find your hand." I walked in, full cloak rustling around my feet, "The Masaki representative is here." "Do you accept the challenge of this ring and all dangers it presents," the moderator asked. "I do," Javais said. "So do I," I said as well. Javais leered at me, and I allowed the cloak to fall down to the floor. Tsunami had been insistent, if I was going to claim a royalty title, she was going to make sure that I was dressed properly for the role. It was a full Jyrui dueling outfit, and it was rather impressive. Brown with black tracery and flashes, it consisted of a double-breasted jacket with long sleeves, a brown headband with two fetishes attached to it's end, and tight-fitting, but flexible brown pants with black tracery. The shoes were soft-soled boots, coming up to a few inches below my knee. I stepped in, drew the Key, and allowed the blade to charge. "Shall we begin?" "Yes," Javais said. "Let us see if you can challenge me." We started to circle, watching each of us for an opening. A second later, he lashed out with his sword, a blow which I parried, but as I came to strike my own blow, he had set himself up for a parry as well. The dance began again, and he came in, striking high, no!, it was a feint and I could feel the wind of his blade from below me and I tried to catch his blade with the Key. This guy was good. He came in again, trying for a slash across my rib cage. I dodged that, but he managed to nick me on my chin, where a few drops of blood fell. He looked at me, and said smiling, "First blood is mine." "And it will be the only blood you get," I replied, and came around for a stab, driving the Key in a backhand blow. I missed by the barest of inches, and he used the move to knock me onto the ground. Delenn gasped, but I really didn't notice. Before he could bring his sword around to kill me there, I rolled on the ground away, then got back to my feet. The Key swung again, and I managed to catch Javais on his right shoulder, cutting open his outfit and allowing him to bleed a bit. He staggered back for a second, his hand over the wound. He then looked at me, and smiled. "Good shot. At least you'll die fighting," and he came around with his sword again. I was afraid that I might not win this duel. *--------* The two were fighting, Gold dodging and maneuvering around energy blasts, Gunner doing the same thing. As both did, Gunner kept on telling Tekkaman Gold why she should return. "Your children wonder where you are, Mother. Do you deny them their parent?" Gunner said. "I owe Omega nothing. Not now, not ever. Nor do you! He has enslaved your mind to the insane goals of the Tekkaman," Gold replied, dodging a energy bolt from Gunner's spear. "Suit yourself, mother," and Gunner silently triggered a device with a single command. Suddenly, it seemed like Tekkaman Gold was encased in invisible bonds of energy, contracting and constricting her. The agony coursed through his veins, unable to speak, unable to move, even unable to think effectively. "How you like the quantum resonators? I set them up around here, so you could be stopped. Don't bother trying to struggle, mother, the resonators are set to the harmonic pattern of you Teknocrystal and if you keep this up, you could shatter it." "I....will....not....let....you....take....me....in," Tekkaman Gold replied, each word a hellfire of agony. She was balanced on a knife blade, every action caused pain. She couldn't even faint. "Oh, your self destruct mechanism? You can't activate it," Gunner bragged, closing with the bound Gold. "Even those words of boasting are destroying your nervous system. You will come with me, then Darkon will reinforce your conditioning, Mother. You will be a loyal Teknoman again. And don't think that your friends will rescue you. I have spidercrabs surrounding the entire area, even if they're cloaked, they'll trip the tachyon web I've set up. By the time they fight the spidercrabs, we'll be long gone." *--------* We stood there, bloody and waiting. He had caught me good in a few places, and the headband above my eyes was soaking up blood like crazy. He wasn't so good looking either, but I got this feeling that he was winning....*Do not let your mind freeze on this. Merely think through him and victory is yours,* a mysterious voice said in my head. *Who are you?* I asked myself. No response. And Javais charged me, sword held high. He swung down, missing. I came forward and drove my blade across his chest, slashing it open at about the level of his ribcage. Then I flipped the blade around and drove it backwards without seeing, a soft crunching sound resulting from the attack. For a second, I didn't move, then I turned to see what I had done. Javais was impaled by the blade of my Key, the blade piercing the back of his neck and going through to the front. There wasn't even any blood....the wound was perfectly cauterized. He hung there, a limp ragdoll with glassy eyes. Of all the deaths I caused, this one was the most senseless. And the one I reveled in the most. I laughed, softly, allowing the Key's blade to dissipate and Javais to fall to the floor. I fell to my knees a few seconds later, then to the floor, hearing Tsunami's voice saying, "Somebody get help...." as darkness filled my view. I awoke, painfully, to a sensation of floating. Tsunami came in, looking at me and said, "You're awake." "Only physically," I replied, allowing my painful tendons a chance to relax. "What happened?" "I pulled you out of there when you defeated Javais. You were in bad shape-you could have died from loss of blood, and joined Javais dead on the floor. Even so, you're stuck here for a few days until you're patched up," Tsunami replied, clucking over me like a nurse with a patient. "Where am I?" I asked. I tried to look around, but my head was stuck. "I brought you aboard myself. Until you're well, you won't be allowed to move-I've got you confined in a suspensor field. I could use faster treatments on you, but I don't want to put the stress on your body. Now, do you want anything?" Tsunami asked. "Yea," I said. "Some orange juice, please. And could you see if there's anything good to watch on the monitors?" *--------* Venomoid Spidercrabs were tough-but very dumb. What appealed to the Teknomen was the fact that they were tough and cheap, you could build millions of them for an almost ridiculous cost. For conventional enemies, they were nearly unbeatable because they couldn't retreat, couldn't surrender; to stop a Spidercrab swarm meant destroying all of them. Even if you killed ten thousand of them for one of your own, it was a loss for you-Teknomen could produce ten thousand spidecrabs in a few days, you could only produce one pilot every twenty or so years. Unfortunately there was a problem-they were somewhere between a lawyer and a coffeepot on the intelligence scale, with the coffeepot on the higher end. So, perhaps it could be understood what their response was when the stranger came. He flew past on a pillar of white light, a plasma sheath a kilometer long. The few Spidercrabs in his path were painfully destroyed as he literally blew through them. This was something unanticipated-he didn't match any of their descriptions of known enemies, so they didn't report it to Gunner. A minor error, but a fatal one. As Gunner started to move close to Gold, carrying a portable quantum resonator, so she would be unable to resist when she was moved, his head cocked slightly. "Eh? What's that?" Gunner asked. The answer came as a hail of red darts of energy flew between Tekkaman Gold and Teknoman Gunner, separating the two. As Gunner let go of the quantum resonator, the darts promptly reduced the resonator to scrap and gas, as the energy bolts ripped it to shreds. "Damn you, who are you?" Gunner yelled to the unseen enemy. As Gunner watched, he saw four tightly bound arcs of white light closing with him. Before he could even react, a humanoid shape appeared in front of him, on a small asteroid of the shoal zone. It could have been a Teknoman, but it wasn't. Humanoid, it had none of the flowing, artistic lines of the Teknomen; instead it was brutally organic in design. One arm, his right, had a heavier gauntlet over it's forearm. As it turned to look at him, Gunner could see the thing, white clad in a metallic armor that moved almost like cloth. The head was round, and vaguely triangular. Unlike the Teknomen, it was asymmetrical in the aspect that the head of the unit had two antennas on one side and none on the other. On the back of the flared shoulders were two massive engine pods. It's broad chest was muscled, like a weight lifter. It just looked at Gunner, then it looked at Tekkaman Gold. "Oh no," Teknoman Gunner told his unnamed foe. "Come any closer, and I will turn the resonators to full power, and that will shatter her to pieces!" The thing looked for a second, then pivoted it's head slightly to look around. Then suddenly, it's arm snapped skyward and before Gunner could do or say anything, the thing fired off a hail of needle darts in the air. As it suddenly turned to fire again, Gunner howled in frustration because *damn it, it couldn't be doing that*.... When two of the resonators exploded, Tekkaman Gold was able to, painfully turn to face Gunner and her unusual savior. When two more of the resonators exploded, she could ignore the final tremors of pain and drew her lance, screaming to blind side the unaware Teknoman Gunner. "This will end now, Dagger!" she screamed. As Gunner's body screamed skyward, she pivoted to bring the Ultra-Voltekka to bear and allowed it to charge up into a massive burst. Not noticing the waving arms of her savior, she fired the Ultra-Voltekka, a massive discharge that tore apart the starfield. Gunner, in desperation, fired off one of his own energy bolts to lower the energy burst of the Ultra-Voltekka. His bolt disappeared like a fart in a windstorm. The rest of the energy discharge flowed over him and turned Teknoman Gunner, one of the elite soldiers of Darkon, into a few stray atoms. There was nothing left, not even debris. He had been vaporized. As Tekkaman Gold allowed herself to relax and retract the Ultra-Voltekka, the other person, a humanoid weapon like her, floated close. "Thank you," Tekkaman Gold said, "I don't know why you're here, but thank you for the help." The thing cocked its head unknowingly, then it took one of it's hands and tapped itself on the side of the head, where a human ear would be. Then it pointed at the shuttle. "You can't hear me?" Gold said, surprised. "Then follow me," she motioned with her arm, and flew to the shuttle. The thing followed behind her and landed in the cargo bay. As the shuttle repressurized, the thing looked at her, and said, "Why did you destroy him? I could have handled him." "Wait a second...." Tekkaman Gold said, then she transformed back into Felicia. "Who or what are you?" she asked. "My name is Orgun. I am a Evoulder, one of the elite Detonators. You destroyed a Teknoman, Teknoman Gunner, I believe. I was after him, so I could capture him. After that, I could dump his memory core and learn the location of the Teknoman broodhome. With that, maybe I could have helped your people," the now-named machine said. "Wait a minute," Felicia said. "Why don't you explain this to me on the way back home." *--------* Tsunami insisted, no, *demanded* that I spend four days recovering. In that time, I probably drove her quite mad, as she tried to keep me happy and I tried not get on her nerves. Remember, she is a warship. A very well armed warship, and having her mad at me was not an experience that I wanted to feel close-up. So she literally dropped me in Babylon 5, more specifically in front of Delenn's quarters, at about 7 am. Breakfast time. I'd done it before, so I tapped the door panel and let the door ring. As it did, Delenn came to the door and looked at me, a little shocked. "Jon," she said, motioning for me to come in. "You look better than I expected." "I feel a lot worse that I look," I said. "Are you interested in getting breakfast? I've been eating a lot of salad, and I really need some meat." "As always," Delenn said, then her terminal beeped. "Just a second," she said, and walked over to it, turning it on. "Yes?" Ivanova's voice came from it. "Ambassador, I think you'd better come down to the docking ring. There's someone here who wants to see you. It has to do with what we do each Tuesday." She stiffened, then said, "I understand. I'll be right there, with Jon." "He's there?" Ivanova said, surprised. I hadn't told her that I was back on the station. "Better bring him too, Felicia brought in the catch of the day." "I understand. Terminal off," and her terminal shut down. "It looks like our breakfast is off." "Oh well, at least I get to meet this new friend of Felicia's," I replied. We managed to get to the Docking Ring, despite the thickening crowd of people. I could see Security try to keep them back, and then I could see...."Dear God," I whispered. Hanging over the crowd, easily nine feet tall, was nothing other than Orgun. I knew what he was, and what the hell was he doing here? As we finally made it to him, I could see Felicia by his side. "Jon," Felicia said, "this is Orgun, an Evoulder. He needs to talk about something urgent." "You are the long-one?" Orgun said, in shock. He looked at me and said, "Funny, you looked taller on the broadcasts." "Thank you," I said, sarcastically, "I think. Now, can we get out of this crowd and start talking...." Sheridan was looking at Orgun with a mixture of frustration and curiosity. He was frustrated because Orgun's appearance was something entirely out of the ordinary. Curious because Orgun said he had information that could be useful. He carefully put his right hand on the table, and said, "First, before I start, I should explain why I am here. My name is Orgun. I am an Evoluder, one of the elite Detonators. My full title, by the way, is Detonator Orgun, so if you need to refer to me formally, that is what I am. My people, the Evoulder, long ago have had the technology evolve to the point where biology and technology are two interchangeable cogs in a beautiful machine. For centuries, we have observed and watched other peoples evolve, but we have not interfered. We have merely wanted to be left alone, and that wish has been granted. "About a year ago, the Teknomen appeared over our world. They merely were in orbit for a few days, then they sent Teknomen to the surface of our homeworld, to talk to us. They said they were part of an alliance of alien beings as ancient as we are. There masters, which they refused to name, wanted only one thing from us-our neutrality. They were about to fight a great war, they said, and they wanted us to stay out of it. For many of us, that was acceptable. We really had no need to participate in the affairs of more temporary beings." "So, why are you here?" Ivanova asked. "Some of the Evoulder were suspicious. We saw something in the Teknomen that we didn't trust, and we started to hear stories of some things they might have done. One of them was converting worlds into Broodhomes. Perhaps Felicia, who is one of them, should explain this to you," he said, pivoting to look at Felicia. "No, you should," Felicia replied. "You know more practical facts about this than I." "The Teknomen invade worlds in two stages. The first it the use of Spidercrabs, biological weapons that are ridiculously cheap," he said, as the image appeared on a near-by monitor. As they looked at him, surprised, he continued, "Once the Spidercrabs defeat any military resistance, the Teknomen drop spore pods on the planet. The spores develop into Teknoplants, which capture the native sentient population. The Teknoplants convert the population into Tekonmen, then they send out their forces to take over another world. In short, a Teknoman Broodhome is a place where they create their soldiers. "To the Evoluder, this is utterly abhorrent. To convert unwilling sentients into weapons for a war they have no reason to fight in is not only wrong, it is perversion. But we have no proof, and many of us want to be left alone. A few of us didn't, but we needed proof. I went out, and tried to find a Teknoman. I found Gunner, and tracked him to an asteroid field, where I saw Gunner holding Teknoman...." "Tekkaman," Felicia corrected. "....Tekkaman Gold prisoner, using quantum resonators to restrain her. I destroyed the resonators, but she destroyed Gunner, before I could dump his memory core. After we boarded her shuttle, we conversed and she told me of your organization. I require your help to find where the Teknomen have established their Broodhome," Orgun asked. "Where would they set it up?" Garibaldi asked. "They would need a large population of native sentients, and they would have to be humanoids. To convert non-humanoids would take too much time. Preferable mammals, but reptiles and insectoids would be suitable. Unfortunately, contact with worlds would reveal the attacks of Teknoplants and Spidercrabs. Your organization has contacts, and one of them might have seen Teknoplants, or rumors of alien monsters. I've already downloaded all the information I have to your files," Orgun said. "And what do you plan to do until you learn of where this Broodhome is?" Garibaldi asked. "You have an opening in Security, do you not? I'm willing to earn my own way, and I can pass your security exam," Orgun replied. Garibaldi was shocked, then he said, "How do you plan to do that? You aren't even human!" "I checked every regulation and order in the Babylon 5 charter, and in the Earth Alliance agreement with the Minbari for joint funding of Babylon 5 as we spoke," Orgun said, "and I cannot find any regulations that would prohibita non-human from being hired by the Military Governor of Babylon 5 as a licenced security officer, with the Chief of Security's approval, of course. In fact, I can find a number of minor complaints that all the guards are human, and they want some variety. I assure you, sir, I can pass the security test." "You probably can," Garibaldi said. "But I don't think you can fit in the uniform." "Probably not," Orgun agreed. "I am, however, willing to work hard. I don't sleep, I don't eat, I don't breathe, and I just need eight hours a day for myself, and I'll be fine." "He's got you there," Ivanova said. "He'd intimidate the hell out of the drunks and the criminals in Downbelow." "All right then," Garibaldi said, frustrated. "Pass the tests, then report to my office in a week. I'll see what I've got for you." "Thank you," Orgun replied. "Is there anything else?" "Yes," Sheridan said. "Just how dangerous are you?" "A good question, Captain. And I can answer that question, and without sounding egotistical, I have to say-as dangerous as I need to be. If being dangerous is destroying this station, than I can destroy the station. Need any fleets destroyed? I can do that." Sheridan looked at him, and asked, "You won't kill anyone?" "I'll try not to," Orgun said. Three hours later, and after a lot of hashing out, they finally decided that having Orgun working for the Security staff would be a good thing. As Orgun walked down the hallway with Delenn, who insisted on talking with him about his homeworld, I turned to Felicia and said, "What the hell happened out there?" "It's a long story," Felicia replied. "And I need some sleep. How about you ask me tomorrow, and I'll tell you." I sighed. It wasn't like I was going to get anything intelligent out of her for now. "I'll see you later." "You too," and she walked off. I stood there, in the hallway, thinking. Then I started to walk to my quarters, the thoughts of all the events flipping through my head like a fish out of water. My brain was overloaded, and I made it back to a quiet room, and fell onto my bed. As I fell asleep, a funny thought came to me. It just kept running through my head like as superconductor, one cycle after another after another. It was-"Nobody gets out of here alive." [End Episode 6] From jon.souza@creature.com Sun Apr 21 10:47:17 1996 Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 06:17:46 GMT From: Jon Souza To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking the Consensus-Episode 7, Part 1 Yes, this is ANOTHER fanfic, hopefully one I will finish completely. I've decided to take a swipe at a Gundam/Babylon 5/Macross Plus/Macross 7/Tenchi Muyo/Sol Bianca/Whatever The Hell I Can Pack Into This Thing crossover. In short, this is going to be a wild, confusing ride that is going to hopefully be a LOT of fun. This fanfic is dedicated to everyone on the Babylon 5 Creative, Tenchi Muyo and Gundam mailing lists, and all of my fans(especially the ones who like my stories and DON'T write to tell me!). Got to have the legalistic- All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners and will be turned over to the owner at the request of their authorized agents. All other characters/places/persons are the sole property of Jonathan Souza, Copyrighted @1996. This copyright extends to all electronic versions of the story. As always, comments, complaints, and critiques are welcome. Even if it's just to say "good work, Jon," I'd like to hear it. Even if it's to complain about my language and syntax, go right on ahead. I need the abuse. From Macross 7, Jon Souza Jon.Souza@Creature.Com NoDUI@AOL.Com Breaking the Consensus By Jon Souza Episode 7-Don't Look Back In Anger "God's in his Heaven and everything is right in the world." -NEVA Motto, *Evangelion* Drall was right, this place looked like the vestible to Hell. The *Sol Bianca* was orbiting a planet nearly eight hundred light years away from Babylon 5, five days of travel under subspace diver. Twice the size of Earth, it was only a quarter the mass because it lacked many heavy metals, such as iron or uranium. It's star didn't even have a name in Earth Alliance starcharts, it was years away by hyperspace. Idly, we decided to give it a name, if only for our fame. Now, I know, we should have never named it Dante. It was too accurate. Why were we here? Simple, we need allies. Our forces were insufficent to fight the Shadows on even terms, we lacked the large-scale manpower needed for a war, as well as the technological advantage. So, we were taking a risk, hoping that our gamble would pay off. We were to contact the First Ones, the oldest races that hadn't passed beyond the Veil. Ivanova drew the closest assignment, the one that would take her to Sigma 957. And we had the farthest one, the one that even Drall hesitated to give us. I can remember the conversation so well. Drall said, "There is a First One that you might be able to contact, but it is a risk." "Why do you say that?" I asked, curious. I knew how powerful the First Ones were, but I really did not fear that. "First of all, they are the farthest away, nearly a thousand light years coreward. The second is that their file had been annotated -all of the First Ones might not respond well, but they have a record of an extreme attitude with outsiders. They might not respond well to you," Drall said. "I'll take that risk," I said. "We need all the help we can get. I checked with Ivanova and Sheridan-even if the Sol Tekkaman project works, we'd be at a disadvatage for the first six hundred and twelve days of a full-scale war with the Shadows. And we'd lose in only two hundred and four days. You've seen the war models, and we'd run the simulations. We need all the allies we can get, Drall." "I know," Drall said. He hesitated, then he said, "I'll feed the coordinates to your ship, as well as the alternate First One you could contact. It'll be up to you." So I decided to come here. And here we were, looking over some of the most monotnous terrain possible. The planet was absolutly flat, except for these crystalline pillars, each one of them four kilometers tall, each one of them eight kilometers away from it's associates, in a perfect square pattern. It was actually rather interesting, but after two days, I was bored. For two days, we'd run up and down the EM spectrum, used subspace and tachyon comm links, even tried masering the planet, all to get their attention. But nothing happened. The planet was dead, even the core was inert. Deep radar showed that the planet's crust was solid, there was nothing under it like a base. It was literally a dead world. "How much longer?" G asked. "I've seen agriworlds with more life on them." "Three more days," I said. "Drall said that if they didn't respond by then, either we were ignored of they left the farm. Any changes?" "None. I even launched seismic probes and penetrators, and the only response I got was a few earthquakes. That planet is dead," June said. "And I agree with you," I said. "But lets just show some patience, shall we?" "I just hope that the rest of them are doing better than us," G said. *--------* Ivanova sighed. Finally, back to something normal and routine. She was back at C&C, looking out as the ships docked and undocked, hunting for placement in space. It was finally quiet, something that was distinctive, to say the very least. "Ma'am! Jump-point forming four kilometers from Babylon 5!" Corbin yelled, suddenly noticing an alarm on his board. "That's within the saftey zone!" Ivanova yelled back, looking at other indicators, "What the hell are they doing there?" As Ivanova looked, a Jumpoint appeared in space, fortuntly pointed away from both Babylon 5 and any traffic. A ship popped out, resembling, in an odd way, the *Sol Bianca*, but built on a different hull plan. "Hail that ship and ask it why the hell it's jumping in so close!" Then two small puffs, like explosions, appeared on the hull. Ivanova cringed, then said, "Ask if they need assistance." "Got a reply, ma'am. Please stand by'," Corbin shrugged, "and that's it." "What the hell's going on here?" Ivanova mumured to herself. Sheridan was doing something that was the Captain's privelage-a real, honest to God shower. With plenty of hot water, and soap. He was singing, and it could be excused if he didn't notice Tsunami standing in the shower with him. When he did, of course, he yelped and said, "What are you doing here?" "I'm sorry, I couldn't find you, and I heard the singing and," Tsunami said, then her eyes strayed down. Then up. "Could I talk to you? It's rather important, but it can wait until you get dressed." Then she left the shower. (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sun Apr 21 10:47:22 1996 Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 06:19:01 GMT From: Jon Souza To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking the Consensus-Episode 7, Part 2 (Continued from previous post) After Sheridan managed to throw a towel around his midsection, he said, "What is it?" "I need your help. A few of my friends are coming, and I need your aid in establishing a cover story for them," Tsunami said. "What sort of story?" Sheridan asked. "Aboard that ship is the Princess Aeka, of the Jyrui Empire. I'd like your help in making an official report of recieving her as an ambassador," Tsunami said. "We could use her help, as well as her friends." "Ok, but can they hold up their end?" Sheridan asked. "I can only cover them so far." "That data-crystal is what you need," Tsunami replied, "to get things established. We could use their help. They have with them Washuu and Ryouko, and that's a dangerous combination." Sheridan sighed. Loudly. Then said, "All right, when are they arriving?" "They're here now, but I'm having them keep silent until we get things established," Tsunami said. "I'll be seeing you," and she disappeared. Sheridan tapped his terminal on-line and read the information on the data crystal. And started to think. *--------* The Galactic Police ship was in shambles. When the ship had arrived in real-space after it's jump, nothing happened. Then two explosions erupted around the ship's interior, damaging certain systems. They had spent time trying to stabalize systems, and Tenchi had to go down to one of the bays, in a pressure suit, to put out a conduit fire. "We've got power," Washuu said, looking at the panels. Mihoshi was unconsious, and in her quarters. "But the D-jump system is fried, and the luck-enhancement generator is gone. Poof!" "Wonderful!" Aeka yelled. "We're stuck here because we don't have a drive system, and even if we did, another jump might kill us!" "Yea," Ryouko muttered. "If we wern't as lucky, we'd have been dead, and I'd been stuck with you in Hell." Before the two could leap at each other, the panel beeped as someone tried to send a message. "Unknown ship," the message said, "this is Earth Alliance Space Station Babylon 5. Do you require assistance, over." As the message ended, a soft white hand tapped a command on the console. "There is a problem," the voice said, "and we need to solve it." "Tsunami-sama," Aeka whispered. "You are here, but why?" "Because Sasami is here. And now, you are here. Where is Tenchi-san?" Tsunami asked. "Down putting out a fire three decks down, we lost the fire suppession system," Washuu said. If anything, having Tsunami here increased her curiosity. A new world meant new technology, and that was a unique chance for her to explore. "Good. Now, shall we discuss what we must do? Aeka-san, of all of you, your aid is the one I need the most," Tsunami said. "Why's that?" Ryouko said, yelling over her shoulder. Evidently, she was intently trying to fix a panel, sticking her hand through the panel and pulling parts. "Because, Aeka-san, you are to be the Jyrui Ambassador to the Earth Alliance," Tsunami said, smiling. "And she does need a staff, after all. And you would be failing her if you didn't do your job as her Security Chief, Ryouko." The shocked expression on their face was worth the trouble those two were going to get into. *--------* The fifth day, the last day, one hour before we were going to leave. I was sitting at my console, plotting a course for home, when the sensors erupted in a massive energy flare. They instantly locked onto a location on the planet, and the annoitation was some of the oddest I'd ever read- 1st Angel AT Field:Full Blood Type:Blue -and I was already calling up G to respond, "G! What the hell is that thing?" "I don't know, sir! My sensors are calling it Adam! But, sir, if that's Adam, then what are these First Ones?" "They're angels," I said, whispering slowly. As we watched, the energy glow grew larger for a few minutes, then it stopped. With a radius of about three thousand kilometers, the energy field froze, maintaining a solid energy level. "G," I asked, "do you have those courses I plotted in your memory?" "Of course, sir," G replied, oddly calm. "If you detect any discharge of that energy at us, I authorize you to immediatly make a full subspace dive, and manouver evasively. Do you understand?" I said. "I already had emergency escape courses plotted, sir, both normal and subspace," G said. "But, sir, will we need them?" "I hope not...." I said, then I was interrupted by a communications connection signal. "What is it?" "Comm message, sir. It says, 'Send him down alone, land at the edge of the AT Field. No tricks,' nothing more. I think they want to talk to you," G said. "I get it," I replied. "Very well then, prepare the shuttle. I'll be ready in a few minutes." The shuttle was being lowered as I made it to the hanger bay. Besides full body armor, Key, snapdragon, and fusion pistol, I was carrying a hellbore carbine over my right shoulder, a dozen smart grenades(set to target any heat-emitting object that massed more or less than me, or without IFF signals), and a full sensor cadestral system. "Are you getting me?" I said. "Loud and clear, both internal and sensor system. Hell, I could possibly tell you what you had for breakfast today," G said. "Recording on all channels are clear, we're ready to go." "Got you," I said. I plopped myself down in the shuttle's chair and programmed the flight down. I chose a landing spot about half a kilometer away from the edge of the energy field. I wanted to walk in, and survey the area. As I got out, the sensor cadestral went on-line and G said, "We're getting good feed here, should make for one hell of a VR flythrough." (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sun Apr 21 10:47:24 1996 Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 06:20:02 GMT From: Jon Souza To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 7, Part 3 (Continued from previous post) "Good," I said, suit pressurized. I walked with the hellbore carbine cradled in my hands, watching the terrain until I reached the edge of the field. I looked at the field, and the sensors in my suit started to scan. Their response- AT Field-Active -which didn't help me a whole damn lot because I didn't know what an AT Field was. I called back up to the *Sol Bianca*, "I'm about to step onto the field. If it looks like a trap, or it can't hold my weight, I'll trigger the bounce pack and get away. How are the sensors?" "Green," G said. "You're clear from us." I took a deep breath, put one foot forward and gingerly put pressure on the Field. It rang with a odd square-like ripple, but it held my weight, with just enough friction for traction. "It looks like it'll support me. Any problems?" "Some drop-off on the lower bandwidths. But that was expected, that thing's putting out a lot of low-level EM signals. You're still green," G said. "All right then," and I kept walking, straight to the center as the internal navigator kept feeding steering cues to my faceplate. Occasionally, G wanted me to stop, so she could do some detailed analysis, but mostly it was a long walk. A few hours later, I got the eerie feeling I was being watched. "G," I said, "are you getting anything?" "Yea," G said, "cube pyrimid about thirty meters tall, reflective black, with a single eye, four o'clock. It's been following you for about an hour and twelve minutes." I turned to face it, and it was a cube pyramid, with a single, blinking eye. "Are you trying to scare me? It won't work, you know. I've seen Centauri battlefleets, Shadows in conflict, and Susan Ivanova in her underwear. If you think you can beat Susan Ivanova, be my guest. If not, go ahead and watch," I addressed it. It looked, blinked twice, then sort of fell back. I shrugged, and turned around to walk again. A hour later, G said, "More news. Same guy, plus a new one; looks like some type of vertical cow with it's limbs cut off below the knee, no head, got a mask with two holes, looks wooden." I turned to look again, and I said, "If you're going to follow me to the center, you could at least make conversation. It's rather lonely out here." The two things looked at each other, then back at me. At least, I *think* they were looking. They then fell back again. I shrugged again, then started to walk. G said, "They're back again, with a new one-looks like some kind of flattened Silly Putty with a eye in the middle of it. Want to see?" "Nope," I replied, and I kept on walking. Evidently, they wern't going to leave me alone, and unless they attacked me, I wasn't going to shoot at them. For about two hours, things of all shapes and sizes politely started to float behind me, keeping a respectful distance behind me. By the time I made it about fifteen kilometers in, there were about fourteen of them. The comptuer kept identifying them as 3rd Angel, 4th Angel, and such. I kept on walking, then I stopped for a second. According to my indicators, I was about to cross a point called Terminal Dogma, Cascade One. Where the hell were these names coming from? "G?" I asked. "Can you run a system integrity check? Have any of our systems been compromised?" "One second," G said. A minute later, she said, "I'm unsure. It's like someone is feeding us data on odd occasions, but I can't determine if it's external or internal. I'm running a full check, but that will take a while." "I know," I said. Suit indicators said I had eight hours of air left. It took me about four hours to get here. One more hour, two more to explore, then enough air to get back. I had a one-hour reserve, but I didn't want to risk it. "I'm going to cross Cascade One now. If I lose contact, I'll fall back, OK?" "If those things will let you. Do you get the feeling you're being herded?" G said. "I am," I replied. "But we've gotten this far, might as well complete the journey." I walked, then I managed to cross over Cascade One of Terminal Dogma. Then all of my sensors went wild. The air meter went from an inert carbon dioxide/nitrogen atmosphere to a perfect oxygen/nitrogen mix. The gravity meter went to one full gee, up from two-thirds of a gee. And the biosensors reported life. "G," I said, "are you getting this?" "I am," G replied. "But I detect no type of containment field, sir. Whatever's holding that air in is beyond my scanner range." "But I'm not going to take off my suit," I said. "Who knows what lifeforms are swimming around in this air?" "None that are hostile, I assure you," a very familiar voice said. I turned to see somone who had to be dead for over two centuries. "Thaddeus Howze," I said, smiling. As I was smiling, I was drawing up the hellbore carbine to a firing position. "Yes, and no," the man said. He was like I remembered Thaddeus last, a weasel-faced black man, supernaturally thin with a cat-that-ate-the-canary smile. He looked at the carbine, and said, "Don't worry. You can't hurt me with that. But I'm not here to hurt you. In fact, I'm hear to talk about you." "What about me," I asked, "would make you assume the form of a person two centuries returned to dust?" "Because," the Thaddeus-clone said, "you need to trust us, and your mind has the perception of him as a son of a bitch who's only redeeming trait is that he's never lied to you. And we don't want to, nor will we, lie to you. Why would we want to hurt one of our own?" "I'm one of you?" I said, amazed. "How can that be? I'm a human being!" "Yes, you are a human being. But you have an Angel's soul. It's going to take a while, so first, you should take off that helmet," and without any warning, my helmet fell to the ground with a clatter, breaking the suit's pressure integrity, "and sit down. Believe me, you had better sit down when you hear this." *--------* Standing by the door to Shuttlebay Three was just five people. Captain John Sheridan. Ambassador Delenn. Ambassador Kosh Narnek. Chief of Secuirty Michael Garibaldi. As well as a ten-foot tall white Evoulder Detonator called Orgun. All of them were waiting for the shuttle to come over. (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sun Apr 21 10:47:34 1996 Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 06:21:11 GMT From: Jon Souza To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 7, Part 4 (Continued from previous post) As far as they knew, all of them were briefed in the cover story that would protect the four people coming over from the ship outside. Officially, the Ambassadorial Staff of the Jyrui Empire, which had made contact with the Earth Alliance only four months ago, defending Babylon 5 with it's own force of arms, was arriving. Unofficially, Tsunami was getting the Starship Tree-equivilant to ulcers trying to figure out how to patch things together. The shuttle docked, and was about to disembark. Sheridan looked at Delenn, Delenn looked at Sheridan, and she said, "Tsunami said they would help us. How, I don't know, but she has kept her word from the first time we have met her." Before Sheridan could say anything, the door finished cycling, and a woman, easily just about twenty years old, walked out, in a full gown that draped to the floor. Her hair was a dark brown that fell to her hips, and possessed a distinctive Oriental appearance. With full formality, she bowed, and said, "I am the Princess Aeka, Ambassador of the Jyrui Empire. I have my credentials," as she handed them to Sheridan in her right hand, which Sheridan took in his right hand as well, as was the custom, "and I have brought my staff as well. May I present to you my Chief of Security, Ryouko," she pointed to red-haired woman, just as old as her, who looked oddly European, "my Represenitve from the Science Council, Washuu," and she was the odd one, she looked like a 12-year old kid, except that she was perfectly developed and it wasn't any sort of dwarphism, "and my chief assistant, Tenchi Masaki." And she put out her left hand. Sheridan, remembering what he had to do, placed his left hand out, took hers, and kissed her hand. He bowed, and said, "Welcome to Babylon 5, Ambassador Aeka. You of course know Ambassador Delenn and Ambassador Kosh, and I'm afraid that Ambassador Molari was unavalable, something about buisness back home." "I understand fully. Now, that we have the formalities settled, I was wondering if Washuu could speak to your Chief of Operations, so that we might coordinate the exchange," Aeka said, smiling. "I'll have Commander Ivanova contact her immediatly," Sheridan replied. "Now, if you'll follow me, I'll show you to your quarters...." Ivanova was swearing. That wasn't unusual. But she was lost. That *was* unusual. Washuu had been very delibrate in her instructions, Red 4, Section 12, Block 19. But there *wasn't* a Block 19 in Red 4! Swearing, she kept walking down the hall, thinking that Washuu had made a mistake, storming down the hallways, reaching Block 18.... Then there was a door. Literally, a door. Set in a wall that led into space, it was just a yellowish oval piece of plastic with two opaque spheres about hip level and one large opaque sphere at about head level. There was a note taped to it. It said, merely, "Knock before entering." Fifteen years in the Earth Alliance military normally didn't train you for things like this. It wasn't that often that you had doors set in walls that led into space that wern't normally airlocks. Ivanova shrugged, then knocked on the door. It rapped like wood, and Washuu's face appeared in the large, opaque sphere, "It's open, come in," she said, and the door opened. It led right into a garden just as big as Babylon 5's main garden, which was impossible because it, by all rights, it was in the middle of space. And the fact that the room was so huge she could see clouds sort of unnerved Ivanova. Washuu looked over her terminal, and said, "Don't worry. We're dimentionally contracted, the room inside the Door is larger than the outside of the Door. Come on in, sit down." "All right," Ivanova said, unsure, looking around at the room. There was nothing to sit on except some large throw-pillows, where she sat. The pillow prompltly floated high enough to put Ivanova at a good sitting postion. "So, what did you want to talk about?" "I already reviewed the system design specs for the Babylon 5 defense grid. I have a question-did you hire an infinite number of monkeys to make this thing? I mean," Washuu said, "some of the errors here are idiotic! But, thanks to me, I'll be able to fix it for you." "That defense grid is the best in Earth Alliance military technology! It stopped a fleet of Centauri ships about four months ago," Ivanova sputtered. "And I can make it even better. I can replace all of the particle beam weapons and replace them with buster weapons, install force field generators-but if you really want effective shielding, I'll need to rebuild the station; and I can give you a computerized fire control systems so accurate that you'll know what your enemy is going to fire before he does. Interested?" Washuu asked. "What's the catch?" Ivanova asked. "I get the feeling you want something else." "Not really," Washuu replied. "Some of your systems are actually pretty innovative, and I can put them to good use. But, Ivanova-sama, you need these weapons. And I'm willing to put my own sweat and blood into installing these things." "I'll have to talk to Captain Sheridan. Could I see your installation schedule-" "Already printed out, and at your computer. As well, I've made some small modifications to your computer systems, you should be getting a three percent increase in overall system efficency," Washuu said. "Oh, and can you send Sheridan down here, I'd like to discuss something with him." Ivanova shrugged, "I'll see what I can do, but you'll weird him out just like do did me." "Oh well, don't worry," Washuu said. "The only person I've ever been unable to weird out is my daughter." *--------* "You do understand basic Judeo-Christian philospophy and backround and such," the Thaddeus-clone said. "If you don't this is going to take a whole lot longer." "Of course," I said. "I live it a Judeo-Christian society, and if I didn't know my society, I'd be kind of lost, wouldn't I?" "True," he said, "Let's start way back at the beginning, shall we? Back when humanity was just a bunch of apes along the plains of the Serengeti, occasionally beaning each other with rocks and the thighbones of animals. You remember it as the Garden of Eden, because there was no past, and no future. There was merely a now, and what was remembered was the times of plenty. Then we installed two Angels into the Garden, Adam and Eve. When we became a part of humanity, we provided the human species with it's most dangerous gift." "Intellegence?" I asked. "Sentience?" "Close," the Thaddeus-clone replied. "We gave humankind the ability to time-bind. From then on, the children of Adam and Eve knew the past, and could see the future. With a knowlege of the past, and a perception of the future, you could truly grow. But, like I said, it was a dangerous gift. Have you ever heard, 'Never forgive, and Never Forget!'? Or maybe 'I will forever remember the pain you have inflicted upon me and I shall avenge myself!'? That was the danger- humans remember so much pain, so often. It's so easy to forget when you've been happy." "That's it?" I asked. "You mean that you caused us to evolve? Under who's direction? Did God order you?" (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sun Apr 21 10:47:39 1996 Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 06:22:28 GMT From: Jon Souza To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 7, Part 5 (Continued in previous post) "There might be a God, yes. We believe in something that might be called God, but it starts to get very theological at this level, and I know how much you hate theology. Humanity is still evolving, and that's where we come in again. I say 'we' because you are, in a sense, one of us. Occasionally, Angels walk the Earth again, beings who exist beyond the rudimentary awareness of humanity. Regardless of what the mass of humankind would like to believe, they are still a very rudiementary, very animalistic race, just like many others. Have you truly been lonely, Jonathan Patrick Souza? Have you ever been lost in the crowd?" the clone said. "I don't know what you're drinking or smoking," I said, trying to keep my temper under control, "but you should tell me what you're having. I should have halucinations that vivid. I'm unique, yes, that's true. But I'm unique because I still have my imagination, I still have hope." "Yes, and that's what makes you one of us. Angel souls are always lonely-there are so few of us in human bodies at one time. The human animals recongize you for what you are-an alien wearing human skin. Have you always noticed how edgy people are around you? They know in their deepest cells that you're not one of them. Some of us can use that alien heart as a lure, attracting humans to them. You, I'm afraid, are just alien enough to be repellent to humans. But why are you here? Your heart is one I know, it's ours. But it's a new heart," clone-Thaddeus said. "One I've never seen quite before." "Maybe because I'm partially of Jyrui ancestory," I said. "As far as I know, I'm one-umpteenth something Jyruian." "The Jyrui are part of us, too. We caused them to evolve as well. But you, you are unique," the clone said. "I don't know, exactly, what you are, but you are one of us. You have a Angel's soul, but its one of the most ancient souls I've ever seen. And it's even older than I am." "I'm honored, I think," I said slowly. "But I came here to ask for your help in the upcoming Shadow War. Can I have your assistance?" "Not just yet," the Thaddeus-clone said. "I want to check something out first. Oh, and by the way, do you know who I am?" "Well, since you can't be Thaddeus Howze, I have to assume you're an Angel. Which one, I'm not sure of," I said. "True enough," he said, "I'm the First Angel. My name is Adam." And before I could say anything, I was standing on the ground, helmet on, repressurized. It took me a few seconds, then I fumbled for the comn link. "G," I yelled, "Did you get that? Please tell me you got that!" "Every word, sir. If what he says is true...." G said. "I want you to seal the entire archive under secure lock-and-key, and only authorize me or you to unlock it. Ever. Dear God, if this ever got out...." I whispered. "Sir, you should get back up here. The energy reading is gone, and I think it's time for us to go," G said. I knew she was right. I needed contact with humanity again. I needed to renue my faith in the human species. But I wasn't so sure that I was a part of the same race any more. The shuttle docked and I felt it rotate as the airlock cycle softly. I was just tempted to shed the armor right there, stumble up to my quarters, and go to sleep. Everything hurt, especially my head. But I was going to at least take the armor up to the support rack, lock it onto the unit, and then go to sleep. Why make more work for G? "Excuse me," a soft female voice said from behind me, "could you tell me where you're going?" I turned, and there standing in the door to the shuttle was a young girl of Asian descent, wearing a green knee-high dress, evidently a school uniform. Her hair was a soft, almost pastel blue, and it surrounded her head like a helmet. "Excuse me," she said again, "can you tell me where you want me to stay until we reach Babylon 5?" I drew the fusion pistol, and said, "Who the hell are you!" "I'm Rei. Rei Reyguri. I'm here to go with you to Babylon 5. Can you tell me where you want me to stay until we reach Babylon 5?" she said again, ignoring that I was pointing a heavy fusion pistol at her chest, something that could do severe damage if I fired. I must be going mad, I'm seeing things. But just to be sure, I yelled, "G! Can you detect any lifeforms besides me in the shuttlebay?" "Yes," G said, confused. "There's a single human female in there with you. But up to the point you left the shuttle, I have absolutly no detection of her. It's like she just materialized." "Let me guess," I said. "You're here to test us, aren't you?" "I'm just here because you're going to Babylon 5. Other than that," Rei said, "I don't honestly know." I sighed. Loudly. Evidently, the Universe had decided to show me in great detail why it didn't like me. "All right then," I said. "I'll have G assign you temporary quarters until we get to Babylon 5. But it's temporary, you understand." "Of course," Rei said. "Thank you." *--------* Sheridan was in the very odd position of following a thing that looked like the best cross of a rabbit and a cat, by the name of Ryo-ou-ki-chan, run down the hallway. Occasionally, Ryo-ou-ki-chan would stop, motion with his head at the end of some hallway, and "Miya!" to keep Sheridan on track, to Washuu's Door. When Sheridan finally got in, and finally figured out where he was, Sheridan looked and said, "Hello? Anyone here?" "I'm here!" Washuu yelled right back. "Just wanted to check with you about when I'm to perform the installation of the new hardware on your station." "As far as I'm concerned," Sheridan replied, as Washuu walked out to see him, "go right on ahead." "Wonderful!" Washuu replied, clapping her hands together. "I'll get started right now. And, oh, by the way," as a round sphere silently dropped behind Sheridan, with four smaller spheres on it's circumference, "I need you for something." "You're scheming something, aren't you?" Sheridan asked, as the four smaller spheres popped out claws. "Absolutly," Washuu replied, and the four claws promptly launched to entangle him. "Felicia-sama! Tenchi-sama and the rest are here!" Sasami bubbled as Felicia walked down the hallway to Red section. "I know," Felicia replied. "But running into somebody isn't going to make things go faster, just be patient. We'll be there soon enough." (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sun Apr 21 10:47:46 1996 Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 06:23:48 GMT From: Jon Souza To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking the Consensus-Episode 7, Part 6 (Continued from previous post) And they were. The term "organized chaos" came to Felicia's mind(she was a doctoratial canidate, of course), and she could hear from inside, "No! Put that there and that here." Sasami instantly recoginzed the voice, "Aeka-sama!" and ran inside, pulling Felicia along. Once inside, Sasami let go of Felicia and promptly attached herself to Aeka's side, blubbering about how much she missed Aeka-sama and the rest, and how good care Jon-sama took care of her and.... "Jon?" Aeka asked, as Ryouko and Tenchi came in to see what was going on. "I've heard Sheridan and Tsunami uses that name as well." "Hm-um," Sasami nodded. "Tsunami-sama knows Jon-sama very well, he has a Key and everything and he took good care of me when I got on the station and...." As Sasami blubbered, Ryouko listened carefully. A Key meant three power gems, and that was a unique opprotunity, to say the least. "But where is this Jon?" Aeka asked. Felicia replied, "I'm sorry, Ambassador, but Jon is currently away on buisness for the station. We expect him to be back in a few days." "You are Felicia LeCou?" Tenchi asked. "That I am, sir. I am Felicia LeCou, the Tekkaman Gold. While I was here, as well, I helped to take care of Sasami," Felicia replied. "Then we are thankful to both you and to this 'Jon'," Aeka replied. "I hope to see him, when he arrives." "I shall be sure to tell him to meet you, Ambassador," Felicia replied. "Please," Aeka said. "I'm merely Aeka to my friends. And it is evidently that you are my friend-Sasami likes you." If anything, the decor could have easily been called "Mad Scientist-Large Budget Movie Version." Mysterious things made sparks, unknown liquids gurgled, and odd noises reverberated through the complex. In this place, hung Sheridan. Strapped to a table, stripped to briefs and undershirt, sensors of every known type attached to his body, he looked as Washuu ran scans of him. As she did, she said, "Biochemical pattern, astral pattern, neuropsychological pattern, hyperspacial pattern, psychosexual pattern, overpattern," she huffed, then turned to him, "there's nothing especially unusual about you." "That's nice," Sheridan said, "Now could you let me go?" "I can do that," Washuu said, "I have all the samples I need. Except," and a mischevious grin played across her face, as she went around the corner. Sheridan tried to relax, but after having probes stuck up places one didn't even know one had didn't help any. As he waited, he could hear Washuu doing something, then possibly one of the most terrifying sounds a man can hear-the snap of a latex glove. Sheridan looked, and saw Washuu, wearing a full nurse's uniform. "What are you supposed to be?" Sheridan asked. "I'm your angel in white, of course. Now, I'm here to collect a sperm sample," Washuu said, an almost feral grin on her face. She grabbed the waistband of Sheridan's boxers and said. "Now, do you want me to use my hands?" "No," Sheridan said, thinking this was a joke. "Mouth?" "No." "Breast?" At some point, Sheridan realized that she wasn't joking. She was actually going to do this. "Absolutly not!" "Anal?" "Even worse!" Sheridan yelled. Why wasn't this getting through to her? She looked frustrated, then suddenly a bemused expression came to her face. "Ok then, full intercourse!" Washuu said cheerfully, promptly climbing up to Sheridan's level. "No, no, no!" Sheridan yelled, squriming, trying to get away. "I can't stop now, once I've gotten started!" Washuu said, smiling, taking a chance at a sharp kiss at Sheridan. Evidently, he was going to be on the opposite end of passive sexual intercourse by a crazy woman.... "Hello?" a soft, almost childish voice said. Washuu turned, to see Mihoshi just two inches from her face. "What are you doing here?" Washuu asked, snapping at her. "I just came in to see you, and I got lost and found my way here...." Mihoshi said. " Found my way here....'," Washuu repeated. "I thought I fixed that problem." Mihoshi was promptly looking at Sheridan and Washuu, and she said, "Mind if I ask what you're doing?" Washuu looked, realizing that she still had Sheridan's boxer waistband in her hand, and she let it snap back. Sheepishly, she turned to look at Mihoshi, head bowed, and said, "We were playing doctor." "Oh, I see. Please proceed," as Mihoshi stepped back, right into Washuu's computer. It fell over, and as Washuu was yelling at it. As Mihoshi was trying to help Washuu and Washuu was trying to prevent things from popping out of the computer, Sheridan's stomach growled. "I'm hungry," Sheridan muttered, and realized that, at worse, he had a very interesting story to tell his children. *---------* *Sol Bianca* took five days to arrive back at the Jumpgate we were going to use to return to Babylon 5. In those five days, Rei was a mysterious enigma. She was human-G's medical scanners could confim that. She wasn't emitting any sort of energy except for what humans normally did. And every time I tried to ask her what she was, or where she came from, she merely said, "You'll find out when I get to Babylon 5." And the fact that she wasn't resisting, but was helping to try and figure herself out lent herself to more dangerous mysteries. Mysteries that I really didn't want to solve. It was an hour before we arrived at Babylon 5. And that would solve everything. Hopefully. (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sun Apr 21 10:47:52 1996 Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 06:24:53 GMT From: Jon Souza To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking the Consensus-Episode 7, Part 7 (Continued from previous post) We arrived at Babylon 5, to the site of a Galactic Police ship floating in space, two small scorings along the hull as if from explosions. I looked around, and started to think. "Babylon 5 Traffic Control, this is the *Sol Bianca*. Request permission to assume parking orbit and launch shuttlecraft," I said. "Confirmed, *Sol Bianca*," Ivanova said. Then she leaned over her console, and asked, "Were you sucessful?" "I'm not sure," I said. "I'll explain when I get in. It's kind of a long story." "Then we'll see you in a few minutes," Ivanova replied. *--------* This was one of those times that a large group of the command staff assembled near a hanger bay. Sheridan, somewhat better for wear after meeting Washuu, met with Ivanova, Garibaldi, and Orgun as the four went to the Shuttle Bay that the shuttle from the *Sol Bianca* was docking with. As Jon came out, wearing a standard shipsuit, he said, "Good news and bad news. The good news is that we nearly made it. The bad news is that the friends upstairs want to check something out about us." And, as he strode off the shuttle, a young girl, about fifteen or sixteen years old, came off as well, innocently looking at all of them. As Jon talked, "I'm not too sure why, but they seem to think that we need to prove ourselves to them. They sent someone with me to check us out," Garibaldi's eyes were opening wide, unknown to all of them. "And this girl is...." Ivanova said, but was interrupted by Garibaldi yelling. "Dead! You should be dead! Why are you here!" Garibaldi yelled, his hand suddenly going to his PPG, but Orgun beat him to the punch, putting his two massive white hands over the holster. Garibaldi struggled, tried to break the pistol free. "Garibaldi!" Sheridan yelled. "What is wrong with you?" "Sir, that girl should be dead! I saw her die over seven years ago, and she looks the *exact same way I saw her die*," Garibaldi yelled back. "I'm sorry," Rei said, coming up. "I shouldn't be here. You still look back with anger." "Sir," Orgun said. "Why don't you go to Conference Room Two and discuss this. I can keep an eye on the girl for you." "Garibaldi," Sheridan said, "you're going to explain this to me, and now, or I'm shipping you back on the next shuttle. I don't want to lose you, but I will if I have to." Garibaldi relaxed, then looked at Orgun. "I'll take you up on your offer." "Back when I was on Mars," Garibaldi said. Orgun was keeping watching on Rei in the shuttle bay, so the rest were talking. "I saw a lot of things I shouldn't have. That was back when there were active Martian terrorists, from Free Mars to the Sons of Liberty. The Sons were the worst, they'd bomb just about anywhere they thought they could get away with it. I was near a water processing plant, guiding a tour of eleventh-grade students when the Sons of Liberty set off a bomb. Killed ten kids, and I was holding onto a girl who was blown over the edge, but alive. The catwalk started to collapse, and I knew it couldn't hold both of our weights. "I was trying to move to a more stable area, trying to keep us from both falling. But the catwalk was collapsing around us. Then she looks at me, and said, 'Don't die Michael Garibaldi. You still have a purpose to serve,' and she squrims out of my hand and falls. "She fell nearly eight hundred meters into the water. Never found the body, ever. The worse part was that there were two perps I busted the day before, but let go because they were just spraying grafitti, you know. Found out that it was those two bastards who planted the fucking bomb. That's when I stopped living and started drinking." "There wasn't anything you could have done," Ivanova said. "You said it yourself, she let herself fall. She squrimed from her grip..." "There was so much I could have fucking done! I could have busted those perps, I could have held on longer, I could have done something more," Garibaldi interrupted. "I've never forgiven myself for it, and I would have been a dead drunk if Sinclair hadn't pulled me out and put me to work here." "But I let you live," a soft voice replied. They all turned to see Rei, standing in the door. "We would have both died, Michael. You had a future ahead of you, I had nothing but Mars. And here you are, in your future." "But I didn't want you to die," Garibaldi whispered. "You were so innocent...." "So were many of us, Michael. I know what your pain is. You think you failed, you think that what you did wasn't your best, that you could have done better. I say that even if God was there, nothing could have prevented us from dying. I chose to die, so that you could live. And it is eating you up from the inside," Rei said. "You have to confront your failure, right here, right now. But I am not your failure, Michael. Your failure was Fate, an inscrutable power driving itself to stop you. And you didn't let it stop you. You beat Fate, Michael. You won and told Fate that your life was your own." "But why this way?" Garibaldi yelled. "Why did you have to die, so that I could win against Fate?" "Because I was your Hanged Man. You let me fall to Hades, and you knew that you did it because you were a part of something greater," Rei said. "And you cannot forgive yourself because you don't know why you did it. I ask you, for my sake, Michael, to forgive yourself. Let the anger as you look back go, and remember that I died, but you still live." "I can't forgive myself for your death," Garibaldi said. "Then I will," Rei said. She walked over to Garibaldi, and kissed him on the forehead. "Michael Garibaldi, I know you tried your best to save me. But you couldn't save me, my Fate was to die, and yours was to see me die regardless of what you did. Please, Michael, let go of this pain, if not for you then for me." "I will," Garibaldi whispered. Rei softly disentangled herself from Garibaldi and looked at Jon. "If you're curious, you passed. We will help you in your War." "You came here....to do this to him?" Jon asked. "No," Rei replied. "I came here to see if your kind could look back without anger. And you can. Goodbye, fellow Angel. We can have no further contact. But we will be back again, and then we may speak." Then she vanished. Like she wasn't there. And a few seconds later, Orgun came storming up the hallways. "Was she here?" Orgun asked. "How did you lose her?" Sheridan asked. "She created a sensor echo that disappeared about six seconds ago. I was completely fooled, sir," Orgun replied. (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sun Apr 21 10:48:02 1996 Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 06:26:06 GMT From: Jon Souza To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 7, Part 8 (Continued from previous post) "I understand," Garibaldi said softly. "I understand why now." "That was what they meant...." Jon said, softly. "What happened there?" Ivanova asked. "I don't want to say, because I don't believe it myself. But I will make you a deal-if I die, I'll have G give you the transcript of what happened. And what happened is terrifying." *--------* Oddly, I felt pretty damn good. With the mystery of what Rei was solved, and I managed to get those videos I was looking for, I walked down the hallway to my quarters. Singing a little to myself, a soft tune that I couldn't identify. And there were two Jyrui Guardians in front of my door. No fooling. Asuka and Kamakaze, two massive wooden cylenders twice as wide as a man and nearly as tall, floated in front of my door. "What are you two doing here?" "Sir," Asuka said. "We are here under the strict orders to not let you in without someone else." "I see," I replied. "What will you do if, say, I forced my way in?" "Our orders are to stop you, sir, without any injury. We will not let you pass, but we won't hurt you if you try," Kamakaze replied. "Jon-sama!" a very familar voice behind me yelled. I turned to see Sasami ram right into me, and the door. "You're back." "Yes, I am" I replied. "And what's with the two block-heads here?" "Aeka-sama wanted to talk to you," Sasami said, and we walked into darkened room, and the lights suddenly snapped on. Everyone was there. Ryouko, Aeka, Tenchi, Washuu, Mihoshi, and Kiyone, all were there, and coming to meet me. "You must be Jon," Aeka said. "Thank you for taking such good care of Sasami for me." "You're welcome," I said. "What's with the party?" "Well, we're here," Tenchi said, "and we get to meet Sasami's friend. Why not a party?" "Good point," I said. "So, what's to eat?" "I thought that's what Mihoshi says," Kiyone said. "She always asks, 'What's to eat?'" "Do not!" Mihoshi replied. "I see you have a Key," Washuu said. "Very interesting." "Thank you," I replied. "Yes," Washuu nodded. "Would you like to be my guiney pig?" "No," I said. "Hell, we've got the guy here," Ryouko said, sitting on top of the music machine. "Let's get this party started." And in that instant, in that sudden shock of the moment, I realized just how good it was to be a human being, to be accepted by other human beings, albiet a little odd. And how much fun it was to be a member of the human race. [End Episode 7] From jon.souza@creature.com Thu May 9 20:18:15 1996 Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 19:09:06 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 8, Part 1 Yes, this is ANOTHER fanfic, hopefully one I will finish completely. I've decided to take a swipe at a Gundam/Babylon 5/Macross Plus/Macross 7/Tenchi Muyo/Sol Bianca/Whatever The Hell I Can Pack Into This Thing crossover. In short, this is going to be a wild, confusing ride that is going to hopefully be a LOT of fun. This fanfic is dedicated to Dave Gao, everyone on the Babylon 5 Creative, Tenchi Muyo, and Gundam mailing lists, and all of my fans(especially the ones who like my stories and DON'T write to tell me! You know who you are! Fess up and tell me what you think!). Got to have the legalistic- All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners and will be turned over to the owners at the request of their authorized agents. All other characters/places/persons are the sole property of Jonathan Souza, Copyrighted @1996. This copyright extends to all electronic versions of the story. As always, comments, complaints, and critiques are welcome, encouraged, and advocated. Even if it's just to say "good work, Jon," I'd like to hear it. Even if it's to complain about my language and syntax, go right on ahead. I need the abuse. From Macross 7, Jon Souza Jon.Souza@Creature.Com NoDUI@AOL.Com Breaking the Consensus By Jon Souza Episode 8-The End of the Beginning "Sayonara to intrusive noise No more childish play and no more toys We know how to get eternal life While we feel and sense mother natures strong might" -Sharon Apple, "Information High" I walked into my quarters, my senses fully alert. "Lights," I said. Nothing happened. I walked into my quarters a few steps, silent and on-guard. Then, from behind me, the flare of an energy weapon. "So you're here," the voice said. "I don't like people breaking into my quarters," I replied, drawing my Key. "I just want what is mine," the voice said, and she came around from behind me. It was sloppy, I had to admit. I tossed her over my shoulder, narrowly missing the blade in her hands, and threw her onto the couch. With a sharp draw, I had my Key deployed and leveled it at the mysterious intruder, as I fumbled for a light switch. Ryouko was on the couch, looking embarrased more than anything else, and said, "How can you be that good?" "I had a very good teacher," I replied, smiling. "Mind if I ask why you're here?" "I want one of the gems in your sword," Ryouko said. "With two, I can control Ryo-ou-ki-chan much better. And, with that, I can solve some things that have been puzzling me." "Such as?" I asked. I motioned for her sit down at the table, as I made some tea. Ryouko fumbled with the words, then said, "We haven't been able to contact the Empire." "So?" I asked. "You don't understand. I'll explain-we know that there was a Jyrui Empire out here. But we can't contact it. Aeka wants to go and find out what happened, but her ship is out of comission, at least until it grows up," Ryouko explained. "What about Mihoshi and Kihyone's ship?" I asked. "Doesn't that work?" "The stardrive is erratic. Watsuu flushed the system three times, and it still won't align properly. And Tsunami refuses to leave Babylon 5 space, so that leaves Ryo-ou-ki-chan," Ryouko finished. "So why don't you have him transform," I asked. "He is, after all, a part of you." "He refuses. He just says that he doesn't want to just yet," Ryouko said. "I could take you," I said. "I have a fast ship, of course." "We would have asked you," Ryoko replied, "but there is the second reason why I'm here. Captian Sheridan wants to talk to you, as soon as possible, in the Ready Room. From what it sounds like, you'll be too busy for ferry duty." I sighed, loudly. "Give me a hour, ok? When I find out about what Sheridan wants, I'll give you an answer." "Fair enough," Ryouko replied. *--------* "Are you sure?" Delenn asked. "Of course I am," Garibaldi replied. "Back a few years ago, me and somone else were working on Mars. What we saw was something that would terrify even the most hardened of souls. And I found out that a lot of someone elses saw that sight. So I spent the time doing the research on what happened there, and I found her." "But is she reliable," Ivanova asked, curious. "I know she is. She described what I saw," Garibaldi replied. "Well, that's one question solved. The next is what we're going to have to do about the other ship on Gayamede," Sheridan asked. "There's no question," Delenn said. "We have to destroy it." "But how?" Franklin asked. "If we attack that base, we'd be committing mutiny." "But we cannot allow a Shadow ship to fall into Clarke's hands, no matter what the cost. We have no choice-it has to be destroyed on the ground," Delenn replied. "Jon said he had an idea," Garibaldi said. "I think we should let him tell it." "Very well then," Sheridan said. "You're dismissed until noon." *--------* Showtime. I walked in, with everyone's eyes on me. Sheridan motioned me to take the podium, and I hesitated a second. "Are we secure?" I asked. "We are," Garibaldi replied. (Continued in the next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Thu May 9 20:18:17 1996 Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 19:09:54 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 8, Part 2 (Continued from previous post) "Just wanted to be sure," I said. After getting to the podium, putting in the data crystal and arranging my notes, I looked out over the croud, and said, "The problem that we are confronted with is two-fold. The first is the eliminaton of the Shadow vessel on Gayamede. The second is how to do this without getting us arrested or shot. I have a proposal, which I have code-named Operaton Meteor. "Inside *Sol Bianca*'s hanger bay is a single YF-21 Variable Fighter," I queued up the monitor, "Equipted with a Fold Booster Pack, it can make a Jump into Earth space, more specifically Gayamede space. The YF-21's active stealth field will allow me to close to visual range with the base, with only the jumpgate showing my arrival. "Inside the YF-21's bomb bay will be four thermonuclear reaction, or Reflex, weapons. I will drop three of the weapons on the base, one set for airburst, one set for surface burst, the last set for subsurface penetration, with one backup. Once destroyed, I will await recovery by the *White Star* which will come out of hyperspace in just enough time to recover me, then reenter hyperspace. "That is the proposal," I finished. "You need the *White Star* to make this work?" Delenn asked. "Yes, I do," I replied. "The Fold Booster Pack is a single-use device. One use to enter and one use to exit hyperspace fuse the componants of the Pack solid. As well, it will give us the distinctive opprotunity to see just how good *White Star*'s Jump drive is." "Can't you just carry another?" Franklin asked. "And why destroy the base? We just want the ship." "First of all, I can't carry a second booster-it would create an asymmetrical field and the harmonics would tear the fighter apart. Second of all, we have to destroy the base-it gets rid of the notes, the trained personnel who know how to manipulate the Shadow ship, and such. We can't allow anything to connect back to us, so that's why the base has to go up in a flash of atomic fury," I replied. "Very well then," Sheridan said. "We begin Operation Meteor, as you call it, in 24 hours. I'll be conning the *White Star.*" "You don't have to, Captain," Ivanova said, "I can do it." "No," Sheridan said, "This is my responsability, just as much as his or yours. I'll be leaving in a few hours." "Then I'd better get going as well," I said. "I have to get to the staging point." "Best of luck," Garibaldi said. "You too," I replied. "I think we're going to need it." *--------* Ryouko was happy. In each of her wrists was a power gem. A *real* power gem, not one of the pseudos she could use to augment her power. Jon had given her one, but under the condition that he would get it back when he returned to Babylon 5. And that meant something very, very good. "Did he give you one?" Tenchi asked, curious. Ryouko just smiled, and flashed her wrists to him. "What do you think? I think they compliment each other very well, do you not?" "Nice," Aeka said. "But you've still got to get to the homeworld with your ship. Can you do it?" "Of course," Ryouko said. She brought the two gems close together, and a small, halo-like glow appeared between her hands. "Ryo-ou-ki...." she whispered. Meanwhile, in Jon's quarters, where Sasami was preparing Jon lunch, Ryo-ou-ki-chan rested comfortably on her shoulder. Suddenly, he awoke, jumped to the floor, and started to hiss and howl. "Ryo-ou-ki-chan, what's wrong?" Sasami asked, afraid. Then, suddenly, he lept up....and vanished. "Come!" Ryouko yelled. "Unknown ship just appeared three hundred meters off our side, Commander!" Lt. Corbin yelled, his panel suddenly erupting with alarms. "What the hell?" Ivanova asked, looking at her board as well. A ship, looking like it was made of black obsidian, floated outside. It was about four hundred meters long, and just under a hundred meters wide, and it looked more like an abstract sculpture than a ship-it had no visible engines, view ports, or even sensors to speak of. If anything, it looked like some type of space-going starfish. The only real feature that broke the sharp, black obsidian shape was a mirrored sphere set about in the top middle of the ship. "Hail that ship, and ask it why it just appeared out there," Ivanova asked. "So, who's coming?" Ryouko asked. "You, Watsuu, and Tenchi. I need Mihoshi and Kihyone, for security," Aeka said. "And don't do anything silly." "I got you," Ryouko said, carefully grabbing Tenchi's arm, she teleported into her ship. "Sir, contact from unknown ship," Lt. Corbin said. "Good," Ivanova said. "Put it up on the monitor." The monitor beeped and Ryouko's face appeared. "So, how do you like my ship?" "Your ship just appeared four hundred meters off the side of our hull!" Ivanova yelled. "Did you want to crash it?" "No," Ryouko replied, looking hurt. "Why would I want to hurt Ryo-ou-ki? I'll be on my way now, see you later." "Ok," Ivanova said, then thought for a second, and said, "Wait just a minute, isn't that cabbit thing called...." But the monitor had just shut off-Ivanova would have to find her own answers. Ryo-ou-ki's five "arms" glowed and the ship started to pull away. Here, Ryouko was evidently in her element-indicators flared and beeped and hummed and she could adroitly manipulate any and all of them with a smile and a easy laugh. "This is easy. We should be at the Jyrui homeworld in a couple of days." "That's good," Tenchi replied. "But why am I here?" "Because you have the master key, silly," Watsuu said. "You'll need to disarm all the traps that they set up to prevent my daughter from just walking in." "Oh," Tenchi replied. (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Thu May 9 20:18:18 1996 Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 19:10:49 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 8, Part 3 (Continued from previous post) Ryo-ou-ki accelerated, then, in a twinkle of stardust, vanished. *--------* It was, in my opinion, a dark blue bat. That's what I kept thinking as I saw the YF-21 being removed from it's sealed compartment and lowered to launch position. *Sol Bianca* was two light years out from Earth, right in the middle of interstellar space. You could see all the hardware that was attached-FAST packs topped off with fuel and short range high-maneuverability missiles; the bomb bay with the four reflex warheads loaded in them; and the massive Fold Booster on the unit's back. "Ran all the checks, sir," G said. "The YF-21 is hot and ready to go." "I know," I said. I just hated the thought of getting in that thing. Unlike the Virtua Gundam, which had an artifical intellegence to make controlling the unit easier, the YF-21 was as raw as you could get with the Brain Direct Imaging/Brain Direct System(BDI/BDS)-no AI support, no interpertation. It was as literal as it was dangerous. I slid into the cockpit, quietly, and allowed the plugs to attach themselves. They knew where they had to go, and all I'd be doing was to get in the way. "I'm hooked up," I said. "I'll be activating the BDS system first, then the BDI." "Confirmed," G said. I waited a few seconds, then triggered the BDS. It was odd-I felt out of place and my skin itched where the grappling arms were holding me. As well, the unit was slowly playing sensations across my body in a test mode. I could feel them, they were right. "BDS confirmed operation, sir," June said. "Confirmed," I replied. My voice sounded odd-I, technically, wasn't "speaking", the BDS system was. "Activating BDI system." My point of view suddenly changed from the cockpit to about the fighter's nose. As I played with looking around, I could barely see the YF-21's body. "BDI system is aligned," I said. "Ready for launch." "Drop in fifteen seconds," G said. I waited, and felt my skin krinkle as the air in the hanger bay was being pumped out. With a odd, goose-bumps feeling, I watched as the hatch opened below me. "You're clear for launch," G said. "Confimred," I replied. "Launching now." I kicked off and started to run, the BDS system interperting it as the firing of thrusters and starting up the main engines. I looked back at the receeding *Sol Bianca* and started the power-up sequence for the Fold Booster. "Fifteen seconds to fold," I said. "Course clear." "Confirmed," G replied. The booster's ends started to glow, charging as the unit's short-life reactor powered up. There wasn't anything else we needed to say, the computers could say it a lot faster than I could. The generator discharged, and I was thrown into hyperspace, navigating the fighter at extremely high speeds to Gayamede. I checked my internal clock. Two hours from now, I would be arriving, ready to drop the bombs. So I went to sleep, silently dreaming. *--------* Aboard the *White Star*, Sheridan paced silently. He knew that it was going to be soon, and he hoped that Jon could do his part. Literally, Jon's part was the last Go/No Go option. "Sir," Lennier said. "I just got a message from the *Sol Bianca*, encrypted, sir." "Well, what does it say?" Sheridan asked. Delenn, as well, moved over to listen as well. "The message says, Sandrock to Shen-Long, we have opened the Gates of Heaven. Awating the new lock for the door,'" Lennier said, looking confused. "It's a nonsense message, sir." "No it isn't," Sheridan replied. "That's the code saying that Jon is on his way. All stations ready for Jumppoint, we are on our way." As Lennier and Delenn gave the proper commands, Sheridan settled into his chair. There was no stopping now, this was literally the point of no return. And that meant that things had been brought to a head. *--------* "Sir," Zack said, talking to the head of Nightwatch, "you can't be serious." "It's all been formulated by the Ministry of Peace," the head of the local Nightwatch contingent replied. "We've finally found the traitors, but the network of lies and deceptions are much larger than we expected." He was addressing the entire assembled staff of the local Nightwatch contingent. "In a few days, President Clark will be declaring martial law throughout the Earth Alliance. As well, we'll be moving in on the enclaves of the traitors, capturing and interrogating them so we'll be able to learn who else has been moving in to destroy the Earth Alliance." "Garibaldi isn't going to like it," someone in the back said. "Garibaldi won't be in charge. We have reason to belive that even Station Security, except for the Nightwatch, has been compromised. When martial law is declared, the forces of the Ministry of Peace, the Nightwatch, will assume all security duties. Those not of Nightwatch," the man said, "but who want to join can-with the appropriate backround checks and such." "What about Orgun?" a woman asked. "He's the best thing that's happened to Security. He stopped two barroom brawls just by walking in and *asking* people to stop." "That's the other news-this hasn't been announced yet, either, but Orgun's race, the Evolder, are joining the Earth Alliance as our allies. They hold the same beliefs as we do-Earth for the Human race, not aliens," the man replied. "If Orgun wants to join Nightwatch, then by all means he can. "But, I advocate for everyone to be careful. The traitors might know of what we're doing, and they might be planning to destroy their evidence. If there's anything, and I mean anything, that looks or seems off, I would like to know." "Yea," someone who worked on the C&C deck said, "I've got something odd to report. Sheridan's been gone for the last day or so, and he hasn't reported being gone. As well, the captain of the *Sol Bianca*, what's his name...." "Jonathan Souza," a Security officer said. "Yea, him," the woman continued. "He wanted detailed gravitational charts of the Jovian moons. And he wanted it the day before he left on a 'mapping expedition'. Why would he be needing Jovian gravitational charts if he was going out to the Rim?" *--------* (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Thu May 9 20:18:21 1996 Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 19:11:47 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 8, Part 4 (Continued in next post) Lurch. The YF-21 lurched out of hyperspace, from outside looking like a greenish cone of dissapating particles suddenly coming into existence. It would be a few seconds before the sensors around here picked up my Jumppoint, so I languidly allowed myself time to prepare. As I started to align myself with the BDS system, the Fold Booster blew off my fighter's back with four resounding thumps. It was gone-either to crash on Gayamede, to fall into the atmosphere of Jupiter and be crushed, or to float, unknown, through interstellar space. I re-ran a check of the stealth systems, and they all reported green. Then, silently, the first few passes of an active sensor, like silk against the skin of the fighter, appeared. No reflection of energy back from the hull-the stealth field and the radar-absorbing skin of the fighter kept me from being detected. Silently, I queued up the engines and the weapon system. The YF-21's engines flared, and I descended, hard, to Gayamede. I started to tune into the local comm frequencies. All I could get were a few alerts, and some standard civilian traffic. But the message that worried me was coming from the base. "The subject is near the ship," the voice said. Oh dear God, they wern't! But I jammed the throttles up to full, and warmed up the Reflex missiles. "Sandrock to Shen-Long," I said, activating the communicator. "Shen-Long here, Sandrock, what is it?" Sheridan's voice replied. "We've got a problem. They're going to try and put someone on the ship, and reactivate it. I might be in range, but we can't take the chance. Shen-Long, be ready to attack," I said. "I'm still on my bomb run." "Confirmed, Sandrock," Sheridan's voice finished, and I directed my attention to the bombing runs. The computer called it good, I was in range, and with the firing of the seperators, the three Reflex missiles erupted from the launch bay, as I turned to escape. They flew on their guided trajectories as I continued to turn. I had dropped three bombs. The first to hit would have been the one to hit the surface, destroying the base. The second would have penetratied, and hit any deeply buried structures, and the last would have blasted anything that survived the first two blasts. As the bombs fell, tracked by my sensors, I kept getting feeds from the base. "He's inside the ship," the voice said languidly. Then, suddenly, it changed pace, "he's disappeared, the telemenetry is all off and...." An explosion erupted from the dome. I thought that the bombs had hit, but they still had about a minute of run-time left. I let my eyes zoom in and saw the Shadow ship, wildly firing at anything and everything. "Shen-long, this is Sandrock. The big black beasty is awake, and oh boy, he's mad! I don't think I'm going to hit him...." I said. "Damn!" Sheridan yelled. "Get back here, Sandrock. We'll recover you and deal with that monster ourselves." "Coming in," I said, but then, the BDS system glitched. I was dropped, hard, back into reality, looking at the cockpit, and fumbling for the manual controls. Just as suddenly, I was back in control of the YF-21, the BDS system active and operational. It was just a second, but I was worried-what had done this? As I turned, the three bombs went off. A brilliant, white actnic flash of light, and what the Shadow didn't destroy, the Reflex warheads did. But, backlit by the blasts, the Shadow ship continued to climb, wildly firing. Evidently, it couldn't see me on it's sensors, but it could guess. The climb put me in range of the *White Star*. "Ready for recovery," I said. "It's going to be hot," Sheridan said. "Can you handle it?" "Just make sure your landing beacon is on," I said, "and I can handle it." The *White Star*'s hanger bay was on the back, under the hull. I could hear, silently, the beeping and pings of the sensors. "Traffic Control Officer," I said, "I'm coming in." "Confirmed," the Traffic Control Officer said, automatically translated from Minbari. I applied full thrust, and just dove for the bay. He was yelling, something about waving me off, but I had it plotted out perfectly. With barely enough room to spare, I went to Gerwalk, and fired every thruster I had in reverse. I even remorphed the wings to bring more thrusters to bare. My feet hurt, the bottoms of them scraping along the base of the hanger bay.... And I was looking at the back bulkhead for the hanger bay. Three centimeters, exactly, from the wall. I allowed myself a sigh of relief, and powered down the fighter. "Sandrock on-board," I said. "I'll be heading up to the bridge, right now." "Confirmed," the Minbari said, sounding like he was scared out of his wits. As the hanger bay repressurized and I disconnected from the BDS system, the *White Star* rocked from hits. And the doors were locked down. "I've got a problem here," I said, into the panel. "I can't get out." "Hold right there," someone said in English. "We lost hull pressurization in those sections, and we can't override the door sequence." So I got back into the YF-21 and allowed myself to rest. Something like an hour later, two Minbari in pressure suits walked into the hanger bay. "We got the hull fixed," one of them said, "You can leave now." "Good," I said. I heard my stomach growl, and I said, "Is there anywhere to eat on this ship?" One of them pointed down the fixed hallway. "Level 4, Block 3. They only serve our food there, but if you want, it's there." "Thanks," I said. I arrived in the mess, where only a few Minbari were eating. I heard, "Jon!" and I turned to see Delenn and Sheridan eating togethere. "I'll be over in a minute," I said, ordering some food, and walking over to the table. "So, what's with all the excitement?" "We destroyed the Shadow ship," Sheridan said, "but we nearly got destroyed by the *Agammemon*, thinking that we were the ones who destroyed the base." He proceeded to tell me what happened after I had landed. "And the Traffic Control Officer went into the Minbari equivilant of a heart attack-he thought you were trying to ram the ship!" "I wasn't. I was getting on-board as fast as I could, and that was the way I did it," I replied, taking some military biscuts and pouring honey on them-one of the few Earth foods Minbari liked. "The BDI/BDS control system is very fast, and very accurate. I wouldn't have crashed." "I see," Delenn said. Then, she looked at me and said, "Just how adaptable is this 'BDI/BDS' system? Could it be made to work for a Minbari?" (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Thu May 9 20:18:22 1996 Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 19:12:46 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 8, Part 5 (Continued from previous post) "Why not?" I replied. "Humans and Minbari have fairly identical neurological structures, so with some software adaptations, it'll be able to work." "Good," Delenn said. "I would like you to train me in how to use it." You could have dropped a pin. Sheridan looked at Delenn, his mouth agape, fortunatly empty(saving us from another Earth/Minbari War). I, unfortuntly, started to gag on a piece of biscut. A gulp of water later, I said, "Are you joking?" "I am not, I assure you. You risk your life for this cause, he risks his life to save us all, why should not I?" Delenn said. "You aren't a trained fighter pilot," I said, ticking off reasons on my fingers. "You don't know how to fully operate the BDI/BDS System. You have no combat experience, and you're not a soldier. You're a leader." "But the time is coming when we all must fight," Delenn said. "Either you will teach me, or I will find another way to fight." This presented one of those annoying moral and ethical dilemmas I always hated to solve. I looked at Sheridan, who shrugged as if to say 'Why not?'. I thought for a second, then I said, "Very well then," I replied. "But I'm only doing this because I feel that you need the expereince. I just hope you never have to act on it." "I understand," Delenn replied. "And I hope I never have to act on it either." *--------* "Perfect," he said. "They fed us the full video before the base was destroyed," the Minipax officer said. "As well, we got a datafeed of the ship." The image appeared on the screen. "It lookes very Minbari-ish, but it's way too fast. And if it can launch weapons from hyperspace to realspace, that makes it even more dangerous. We can play up that aspect of the story, too." "And it gives us a perfect excuse to declair martial law, as well. Even more so than the 'suspected trators' bit- it looks Minbari enough to trigger all the reactions we can use," the man replied. "The aliens are so afraid of us, they're willing to attack us first, just like the Minbari did." "I can pull you the time we need on ISN and AFN, sir," the Minipax officer replied. "We can have this story fully edited and semantically prepared for release in two days." "Good. When it's ready, I'm going to go on the air myself, and make sure our people know what they're fighting," the man said. "Yes, sir," the Minipax officer replied, "President Clarke." *--------* "So, where have you been," Vivian said. We had been doing what we had been doing, in some religious theorists opinions, too much of-sleeping together. Right now, her head was laying on my chest, as I was playing around with her hair. "Around," I said. "They wanted me to investigate some sort of gravitational phenomina out on the Rim, and that was as boring as hell. Hey, at least it keeps the money rolling in. How about you?" "It was odd," Vivian replied. "We had a lot of those 'Nightwatch' people, coming in and asking questions about some things we were doing. They were really arrogant, but they didn't push the issue." "I wonder why," I said. But before she could say anything else, or I could get the chance to nibble on her ears again, the monitor in my room flared in connect mode. "Sir!" Sharon yelled, not even waiting for me to get more modest or anything, "We've got a fucking problem!" "What the hell's going on!" I yelled, as me and Vivian tried to get under the sheets. "I just picked this up, both on InterStellar News and Armed Forces Network. It's a live video feed from the President's office on Earth, and sir, they're declaring marital law," Sharon replied. "Let me see," I said, and tried to get comfortable. "They're already ten minutes into the conference, and....," her image cleared, as she switched into the conference in progress. "......Vega Two, and Mars. Other Earth-governed facilities, including Babylon 5, will maintain civilian authority, but will step aside to the Nightwatch for all security concerns," President Clarke looked graven and serious now. If I didn't know better, I thought this might have been hurting him. "My fellow Earth Alliance citizens, we face a grave threat. A mysterious new enemy to the human species has attacked us," he said, as the image suddenly shifted to a picture of the *White Star*, in Jovian orbit! "Cowardly and sneakily attacking an Earth Alliance research facility on Gayamede, these aliens have presented us with a grave threat to both our species and our allies. "This sounds awful, but the next truth is even worse. These aliens have infiltrated even the Earth Alliance, swaying or outright dominating people in positions of power. Even the military and the senate have been unaffected. We know who the traitors to their species are, but the web of lies and deception extends deeper into our government than any of us expected. The Senate and the Military have been taken over. Fortunatly, the Ministry of Peace, the Presidency, and the PsiCorps have been saved, and these authorities will act. "Starting now, and until such times as the human species is saved from this threat, martial law is declared. The Senate is disbanded until the dominated members have been found and purged. Earth Alliance military forces are to go onto full alert, especially the Presidential Fleet, to protect ourselves in this time of crisis. All colonies in Earth space, including Mars and Io, will assume martial law status as well. This edict applies to colonies such as Tau Ceti Five, and Vega Two, but other Earth governed facilies, including Babylon 5, will maintian civilain rule. But all Earth Alliance authorities will stand aside for Nightwatch personnel for security conerns. "I thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I hope that, one day, we'll be able to look back at this, and say 'We were able to stop them before they could destroy us.'" "Dear God," I said. "Were you able to record that?" "Yes, sir," Sharon replied. "I also contacted the command staff, as well. Does this mean what I think it means?" "Yes," I replied. "It does. It means that things are about to go to Hell in a very large handmaiden's basket. Time to go to Plan B." "Sir," Sharon said. "Plan B means...." "Yes," I replied. "I know exactly what Plan B means. Start the operation clock for Operation Supernova, and I want you to hold at exactly T minus two minutes." I turned to look at Vivian. "I'm sorry. It looks like we're all going to be busy." "True," Vivian replied. "But my boss seemed to be prepared." "Eh?" I asked. "Why do you say that?" (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Thu May 9 20:18:24 1996 Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 19:13:40 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 8, Part 6 (Continued from previous post) "He had tickets for us out, ever since the formation of Minipax," Vivian said. "Of course, he's a little paranoid, but it looks like he's right." "Good man," I replied. "I hate to have you go, but Babylon 5 is a powder keg, and I don't want you here when it blows up." "No," Vivian said, geting into her "I will not move" mode, which was usually very nice but now was dangerous, "You're here, and I'm not leaving you." "Look," I said. "This isn't to be argued. You have to go home, to Earth, or at least somewhere safer than Babylon 5. Sheridan and Clarke are on opposite sides of this and I don't think Clarke's going to let this lie silently." "No," Vivian said, again, hugging me. "I"m not going to lose you. Not now, not ever." What else could I do? I hugged her right back, and said, "I don't want to lose you, either." *--------* Morden smiled. Things were proceeding according to plan, except for a few road-bumps. The biggest problem was Babylon 5. Sheridan was annoying, true, but he wasn't stupid. Either he would step aside for the control of Nightwatch, or he would rebel. And if he rebelled, well, Morden had some special weapons planned for him. "Are they ready?" Morden asked. "Yes, sir," the technician replied. "The Epyon is ready, with the pilot prepped and trained." "Good," Morden replied. He was waiting for the time he could humiliate Jon. And their war was going to end. [END EPISODE 8] From jon.souza@creature.com Sat May 18 15:51:09 1996 Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 03:54:57 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consenus-Episode 9, Part 1 Yes, this is ANOTHER fanfic, hopefully one I will finish completely. I've decided to take a swipe at a Gundam/Babylon 5/Macross Plus/Macross 7/Tenchi Muyo/Sol Bianca/Whatever The Hell I Can Pack Into This Thing crossover. In short, this is going to be a wild, confusing ride that is going to hopefully be a LOT of fun. This fanfic is dedicated to Dave Gao, everyone on the Babylon 5 Creative, Tenchi Muyo, and Gundam mailing lists, and all of my fans(especially the ones who like my stories and DON'T write to tell me! You know who you are! Fess up and tell me what you think!). Got to have the legalistic- All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners and will be turned over to the owners at the request of their authorized agents. All other characters/places/persons are the sole property of Jonathan Souza, Copyrighted @1996. This copyright extends to all electronic versions of the story. As always, comments, complaints, and critiques are welcome, encouraged, and advocated. Even if it's just to say "good work, Jon," I'd like to hear it. Even if it's to complain about my language and syntax, go right on ahead. I need the abuse. From Macross 7, Jon Souza Jon.Souza@Creature.Com NoDUI@AOL.Com Breaking the Consensus By Jon Souza Episode 9-Point of No Return "We had finally reached the point where we had no choice- we had to act, we had to take a stand and say, This we will not accept, this we will not allow, this we will not follow, this we will not be controlled by.' "And, in that instant, the feints and the duels and the 'border actions' ended. The Shadow War truly began." -Susan Ivanova, "Stolen Memories-The History of The Shadow War As I Saw It" Ryo-ou-ki came out of hyperspace, right over the Jyrui homeworld. If anyone reacted first, it was Ryouko. She hadn't been back in over a thousand years, true, but this was an entirely different world than the one she'd left under Kagato's control. Jyrui used to be lush, green, filled with life that literally sang to her sensors. Now it was more barren than a moonscape-what had made it worse was that she *knew* what this world was once like. "Damn," Ryouko muttered. Louder, she said, "Are you sure we're in the right place?" "I already checked! Three times! Even with star motion and stellar aberration, this is Jyrui-kun!" Watsuu yelled. She had been here, too. And the devastation that she saw made it all worse. "The planet looks like it was hit by nova bombs and hellburners. Whatever happened to it, they wanted no survivors." "What's that over there?" Tenchi asked, pointing at a quadrant of the map. "That's the most intact thing I've been able to find," Ryouko replied. "Best place to start investigating." "But if we go down," Watsuu asked. "We'll need full environmental suits, with heavy radiation resistance. That planet gives "hot" an entirely new definition." "How long to prepare the suits?" Ryouko asked. "Two hours," Watsuu replied. "I have to get my Door set up first." "Then we'll land in two hours," Ryouko said. The planet rotated silently below them. *--------* Despite whatever Sharon or G would say, I was *not* taking a nap when I was sitting in the command chair aboard the *Sol Bianca*. Honest. I was just checking my eyelids for holes, when G said, "Sir, Ivanova wants to talk to you. Now." "Huh," I muttered. I fumbled around for a second, got up, and said, "Well then, put her through!" "Sir, it isn't that. She wants to come over," G replied. "Shall I send the shuttle for her?" "Send it," I replied. "I hope this is important...." "We can't trust the comm links," Ivanova said, the first thing she did say when she got off the shuttle. "Nightwatch might have already tapped them. And there's one other thing, I just got this from Earth," and she handed me a flimsy. According to it, Command and Control was to deny the *Sol Bianca* any chance to clear port, regardless of the reasons. If necessary, of course, they could open fire, but they wanted the ship intact. Right now, the message said, we're trying to figure out a legal way to remove the *Sol Bianca* from Jonathan Souza's and the Karza Bianca Group's control. Earth Alliance can use the advanced weapons technology of the ship. Be patient, for we'll get it. "Shit," I muttered. "Let me guess, you're orders weren't to officially acknowledge this message in any way." "That's right," Ivanova replied. "As far as I can tell, the best way they can take it is to claim a conflict of interests-the Karza Bianca Group has a Minbari on the Board of Directors-Delenn. And with martial law declared, they'll 'impound' the ship until civil courts are restored." "And strip it bare," I replied, grimly. "I can't allow that. And I can't leave Babylon 5 space, either. Not without using the subspace diver, and that is one of the few aces in the hole that I have. So," I sighed, "what do we do now?" "First, we'll need to do something about the Nightwatch-they run the station, literally," Ivanova said. "Then, we have to deal with Clark." "I'll see what I can do," I replied. "But I'd better get ready to run-just in case." "That would be very prudent," Ivanova said. *--------* "Ortez, Greg," Zack read off. Greg Ortez, Security Officer walked in. He looked at the Nightwatch officer, then Zack, then took a Nightwatch band. Zack knew why-Ortez had six kids back home, and he needed all the money he could get. "Orgun," Zack read. Oddly, nothing happened. Then, Orgun strode in, and just stood there. "Well?" Orgun looked at Zack, then carefully took off his Security badge. After placing it on the table, he said, "I resign. I am not going to honor this organization by my presence." "Look," Zack replied. He held up a Nightwatch armband, worried. "All you have to do is wear this and...." (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sat May 18 15:51:12 1996 Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 03:55:55 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 9,Part 2 (Continued from previous post) With a sharp, swift motion, Orgun's right arm became a blur. In an instant, the armband was on the table, impaled on the end of Orgun's wrist blade. "You did not hear me. I resign, effective immediately. And if you, or any of your 'Ministry of Peace' people try to persuade me to rejoin, I will kill them. That is not a threat. That is a promise. Good day," and Orgun stormed out. Zack remembered to breathe, scared out of his wits. The head of Nightwatch was about to order some people to arrest Orgun, but Zack said, "We should let him go." "Why the hell should we?" the Nightwatch officer replied. "Because he's not the problem. Let him go," Zack replied. The Nightwatch officer considered this. "You're right. We'll let him go." Orgun stormed down the hallways. Despite his appearance, he was *not* upset. He was not angry. If he was upset or angry, people would be dying. Painfully. He was just frustrated with the stupidity of the people he had to work with. Zack, for example, wasn't dumb-why was he working with them? As he stormed down the hallway, Orgun suddenly stopped. "Eh?" Orgun said, cocking his head slightly. For just a second, he thought he could hear something.... *--------* I was just sitting there, thinking. Of course, I had a plan to run, just in case. Someone once said that you should be able to move quickly-you would have to at least three times in your life. If this was one of them, I was aptly prepared-I just hated to leave everyone here at Babylon 5. I had friends here-people for whom I owed my life and my loyalty. "Sir," G said, "Jumpgate forming. And it's a damned small one." "Let me see," I replied, and the image swam to focus on the Jumpgate. It was the smallest one I'd ever seen, barely just a flash of light and then a lance of crimson across the sky. "Can you zoom in?" "Already doing so," G replied, and the image focused on the end of the lance, as a second Evoulder flew to Babylon 5. "It looks like an Evoluder." "Yes, it does," I replied. A few seconds later, it docked. Things were getting interesting. *--------* Ryo-ou-ki landed on Jyrui-kun, softly settling down on the planet's surface. Ryouko hated to land-the place was so radioactive that they couldn't teleport safely. But she hated the high levels of radiation that forced all of them to wear heavy environmental suits. The suits were a pale white, fairly baggy, that covered the entire body below the head. The head itself was enclosed by a helmet that was attached to a wide neck ring. The suits, as well, had full internal life support, and were shielded. "Can you see the structure?" Watsuu asked. "Yea," Ryokuo replied. "It looks like some type of large-scale construction, maybe a command center or such. How long can we stay out?" "Eighteen hours," Watsuu replied. "That's the limit of the power in the suit's cells. If we need to, we can haul down a portable force-field dome and switch power cells there. But let's just see how much we have to do first." The three of them trudged down to the structure, walking through radioactive powder. "Can you see a door?" Tenchi asked. "It might be on the other side," Watsuu noted. "Let's circle around the building. Remember, we all go together." A few minutes later, they found the door-massive and sealed tight. "Tenchi," Ryouko said, "Come here. I need you to do something." "What?" Tenchi replied. "Just put your hand right there," Ryouko pointed. "This thing was keyed to respond only to Jyrui royalty, and that's you. At least, assuming that Yousho's brain wasn't older than his body." "Ok," Tenchi whispered, and he put his hand on the small iconography. The ground suddenly shook, and the door opened with a rumbling groan, a small puff of glowing blue powder whispering across the floor. "Should we go inside?" "It's not any hotter in there than it is out here...." Watsuu replied. The three walked inside. Inside was a scene of shambles and destruction. All the bodies, of course, had long-since gone to rot. But, oddly enough, there were neat piles of a crystalline paper substance all over the room. "I wonder why those are there," Ryouko asked. As she walked over to one and started to read it, she said, "Watsuu! Tenchi! Come here!" As the two came over, she started to point out what she was reading. "Look, there. That icongraph 'darkness' is repeated eight different times. But this is formal Jyruian court language, I can understand the words, but not the entire thing. Can you?" "Yes, I can...." Watsuu replied. She mulled over this for a few minutes, then she said. "We need to contact Aeka, now." "Why?" Tenchi asked. "What's wrong?" "I know what happened now," Watsuu said. "And she has to hear this." "I hope you're right," Aeka replied. They had a small holographic projector they hauled in. "But you're sure of the translation, right?" "Absolutely," Watsuu replied. "I'll read it again, just to be sure: 'In the Imperial Era Eight Thousand Nine Hundred And Twenty One, Emperor Juryan allied himself with the 'ancient darkness'," Watsuu sighed. "I don't know what that means....'...and he ordered that the people of the Empire worship him and the ancient darkness as Gods and they demanded the sacrifice of souls and blood. But the people of the Empire, and the few Royal Clans that didn't follow him, rebelled and civil war erupted....'" "It can't be...." Aeka said. "There hasn't been a civil war in the Empire after Emperor Juran the First ascended the Throne of Stars! Are you sure of your translation?" "I'm positive. It continues," Watsuu said, reading again. "'And the war was long, and it involved races outside the Empire that the darkness had corrupted. Eventually, the war lead it's way back to Jyrui-kun. Rather than surrender, Emperor Jurayan ordered the destruction of Jyrui-kun with hellburners.' And do you want to know the worse part?" (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sat May 18 15:51:18 1996 Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 03:56:46 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 9, Part 3 (Continued from previous post) "I don't think it can get any worse," Aeka replied. "But tell me." "That all happened a thousand years ago. And you know about the rumors, the stories that an ancient darkness is awakening again. That means the destroyers of the Empire are still around and...." Watsuu said, but suddenly there was an earthquake. For just a second, the building shook and rumbled, but it stood firmly. "What was that?" Ryouko asked. "I don't know," Watsuu asked, then they turned around, to see that Tenchi was gone. "Where's Tenchi!" "I don't know!" Ryouko yelled. If anything, she was scared shitless, and Watsuu knew why-Tenchi was the only being she ever loved before in her life. "He was here just a few minutes ago and...." Then the entire planet erupted in a shower of lights and groans and rumbles. It seemed, for just a second, as if the planet was some great machine being primed and started up. Then, just as suddenly, the noise stopped. The building started to light up, and portions of it started to grow. "Eh?" Watsuu said. "According to this, the radiation levels are dropping significantly," as she showed the indicator to Ryouko, "it should be safe here in a few days." "But where's Tenchi?" Ryouko asked. "Ryouko?" a voice, faintly behind them, asked. The two turned, to see Tenchi standing behind them, looking a little confused. "I think the planet was waiting for me-waiting for me to reactivate it and tell it that the Great War was over." "Hopefully, we'll all be able to explain this....later," Watsuu replied. "....and the planet should be liveable in about three hundred hours," Watsuu said, aboard Ryo-ou-ki. "Evidently there were radiation sweepers hidden in deep sites below the planet, as well as lot of other things, including seed banks. With accelerated growth processes, Jyrui-kun should be back to normal in about seven thousand hours." "But why was Tenchi able to activate the planet?" Aeka said, curious. "Evidently, Juryan planned to live out the bombardment, then rebuild the world. But his bunker was hit by a deeply burrowing nova bomb and vaporized. Tenchi's Key was a Royal Key, and that was the only requirement to reactivate the planet. There's even a staff of people here, evidently those who disapproved with Juryan's 'reforms' and were kept in stasis. It's not much, barely even a hundredth of the original population, but they're all qualified and trained. We could use the skills they have," Watsuu replied. "That's good," Aeka replied. *I can finally go home.....* she thought, then she took her formal position and wrapped it around her like a shroud, "Now, what's the bad news." "Two parts," Watsuu noted. "The first is that it will be weeks before the planetary defenses will be restored. That's the best of the bad news. The worse is the shipyards. They were hidden all over the system, but it's going to be weeks, possibly months, before we have warships available again. There's a small stockpile of ships hidden here, true, but not that many. The worse part is the lack of large-scale battleships. There's only one in storage, and we might have to cannablize it for parts if we want to restore half the other ships. That means, except for the one here, Tsunami is the only large-scale battleship we have," Watsuu said. "But we can produce plenty of in-system ships, even some corvettes and light cruisers. The biggest problem is crews-we don't have any. Even if we ran the ships we had with a minimum compliment, we'd be short crews. Of the ships that are operational, we'd only be able to crew half of those." "What ships could you crew?" Aeka asked. "The large-scale battleship, two dreadnoughts, four battlecruisers, eight heavy cruisers, twelve light cruisers, eighteen destroyers, forty frigates, and about a hundred corvettes. That's not counting fighter flight crews as well," Watsuu replied. "And it'll take us twenty-one years to replace the crews, Juryan didn't include any children in his stasis tubes." "What about other races using the ships," Aeka asked. "We might have to consider that." "I already have," Watsuu replied. The screen split to show a graph and series of bar charts. "The biggest problem is that the ships are symbiotic organisms with their crews, they need each other to live. The biologies of the ships are very specialized, you know that. And these very specialized needs means that if we couldn't get full-blooded Jyrui to pilot them, I'd use humans. Minbari, maybe, if we were really desperate. But we couldn't use any other race-the ship would kill them off and vice-versa." Aeka sighed. "Ok, then. As soon as you're done, I want you to assemble as many ships as possible. Leave those you can spare, then come back to Babylon 5 with the largest ships available. But not until I tell you to." "Eh?" Watsuu looked curiously. "Why's that?" "Because," Aeka said, "things here are going to Hell in a handbasket. There was a riot in the Zocallo today, and most of the rioting was because of the Ministry of Peace. We may need to 'show the flag' sometime soon, and a fleet of ships will do the job most suitably." "I heard reports, mostly from ISN," Watsuu said. "But has it gotten that bad?" "Worse," Aeka replied. "Troops loyal to President Clark have stormed the Earth Alliance Senate, and reports of lynching have gotten to my office. I've been extending Jyrui diplomatic immunity to 'traitors' who just commented about bad taxes from when I wake up until I go to sleep. We might just have our crews, some of them are Earth Alliance officers and soldiers who suddenly became politically 'unpopular' with their superiors." "And you wondered why I never grew up. Adults pull off all sort of shit like this," Watsuu noted. "It makes you wonder if being an adult is really worth it." *--------* Ivanova was worried. But only slightly. Sheridan had sent her to meet an Evoulder who had just arrived to Babylon 5. Orgun had told him that this Evoulder was carrying important information, and Ivanova was to escort her personally to the Ready Room. "Is she in there?" Ivanova asked the two Nightwatch officers guarding the hanger bay. "Yes, she is," the Nightwatch guard replied. No respect for Ivanova, her feelings of the Nightwatch were known. "But you can't go in, you're to wait for the Nightwach officer in charge of Evoulder security and....hey!" Ivanova pushed her way in, overrode the door command, and walked straight into the hanger bay. There was no-one there. "Hello?" Ivanova asked. "Anyone here?" "Yes," a voice replied from behind her. It was sharp and full-bodied. "I am here." (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sat May 18 15:51:21 1996 Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 03:57:48 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 9, Part 4 (Continued from previous post) Ivanova turned, and was just a second away from screaming. What she faced was a dream, a figment of her imagination. Like Orgun, she was tall and showed the sharp lines of the Evoluder, but her form was much more feminine and her colors, sliver and red, she wore well. The two widely spaced eyes on her head pivoted and looked at Ivanova. "My name is Leave. I am here to speak with Captain John Sheridan," the Evoulder said. "What....are....you....," Ivanova whispered, scared. "I am Leave, of course," Leave said. "Oh, you must be Susan Ivanova. Funny, I thought you were taller. Now I understand, you're wondering about what I did to your dream two months ago." "You invaded my mind! Stole my dreams from me!" Ivanova yelled. "No, I didn't. I became a part of your dream, and we shared it together. We are one in the same, Susan Ivanova. You'll understand, later," Leave replied. "Now, I'm here to speak to Captain John Sheridan. And Orgun. I'm still learning how your communications network works, so could you be kind enough to contact them for me?" "....and she insisted on talking to us. Right now, even with all the troubles of what's been going on. She says that what she knows is the most important thing we'll ever hear," Ivanova said, to the filled ready room. As well, it was isolated from any prying Nightwatch eyes. "Well then, bring her in," Sheridan replied, motioning to Ivanova. She went to the door, and opened it. Leave and Orgun came in, both of them folding their massive bulk to fit the door to the Ready Room. "If we keep this up," Orgun said, "I'd better have a larger door installed." "We'll consider that," Sheridan replied, smiling. "What is it you have to say?" "I am here because of things happening on Youmsa, the Evoulder homeworld. Our leadership, the Detonators, have allied themselves with your government. More specifically, Zoa, one of our top leaders, has sworn personal fealty to your President Clark," Leave said. "He has agreed that if the Evoulder can have certain territories on the boundaries of Earth Alliance space, President Clark will have the full military support of the Evoulder." "You're kidding, right?" Garibaldi asked. "You're people are helping President Clark?" "It gets worse, if you can believe that. Zoa, as well, has allied himself with an ancient race. This race, like I said, is ancient, and has the support of the Teknomen. This race calls itself the Shadows," Leave said. "The final worst part is that Zoa has ordered the execution of all those who doesn't support his policies in the Evoulder people. Our superior Lang has been destroyed, and I expect that an Evoulder force will soon be here to terminate me. The fact that Orgun is even talking to me will also condemn him." "We'll provide you with support, if you want it," Sheridan said. "You can stay here...." "No," Leave replied. "I will not risk Babylon 5 to save myself. When I am done, I will continue to run, in an effort to divert Evoulder attention from this place. But there is something that you should know, and I think that Orgun should tell it." "There is a story of the Evoulder origins," Orgun said. "We haven't told this to anyone, because it is such a great secret among our own kind. Once I tell you it, there is no going back." "If it's that dangerous, why tell us?" Franklin asked. "Wouldn't it be better to keep it a secret?" "No," Orgun replied. "Not with Zoa ordering our forces to join with the ancient darkness. You must know, because this knowledge, at some time, just might save you. "Over a hundred years ago, the Cyglights were launched from Earth. Using the newly acquired Jumpgate technology, your people sent ships to stars that had phenomnia that confused them, and to explore them. One of these ships was Cyglight 23. Cyglight 23 was assigned to investigate mysterious supergravitational waves around the star Cygnus. But when the ship attempted to come home, it was lost, in a Jumpgate accident. "That was only half true. "Cyglight 23 was lost, but not destroyed. Instead, it was driven into a deeper realm of hyperspace. The ship was stuck in a tunnel of hyperspace, unable to turn, unable to break free of the currents. Nothing survived passing through the walls of the tunnel, and any attempts to slow down or stop merely did damage to the ship. "And the ship was attacked by monsters. They fought back, but the monsters became stronger. As each attack came, the Cyglight 23 crew developed new weapons, each one more and more powerful. As time passed, they developed medical treatments to extend their lives. After a hundred years had past, there wasn't any humans aboard that ship. There were just human cores inside Solid Armor Units. "Yes, the Evoulder came from human beings. "When we erupted from hyperspace, it was over three thousand light years from Earth. We believed that a hundred years had past, a hundred years of war and conflict. It would not be until later that we discovered that only fifty years had past, and we were not alone. We found aliens, who attacked us without warning. We were warriors. We showed them why. Soon, the name of 'Evoulder' became equaled with Death-our forces were unstoppable. One day, we stopped ourselves. We saw what we had become, and we saw what monsters we were. "So we stopped. And we learned, and grew, and created more of ourselves, we learned of the universe. We explored, and we found humanity again. But it wasn't long before we were contacted by the Shadows, through their Teknoman servants." "Dear God," Sheridan said. "But why tell us now? And why the secrecy?" "Inside each Evoulder is a copy of the plans for Solid Armor Unit technology. As well, each Evoulder has intrigation circuitry, intended to allow a human being to fuse to a Solid Armor Unit, but only if the Life Data of the Evoulder and the human are the same. It was the intrigation circuitry that allowed Leave to contact Susan Ivanova," Orgun said. "But why me? I'm not her, or do I have her 'Life Data', whatever that is," Ivanova asked. "Because," Leave said, "you are my great-great-great-great- granddaughter. I was, once, Delila Ivanova. That is why I could enter your dreams, because we share enough of each other to be one and the same." "And that is why Zoa, evidently, is trying like mad to ally himself to your race. Evoulder breed slowly-it takes eight years for a copy of two Life Datas to combine and build a new Solid Armor Unit for itself. But if Zoa can have Clark build Solid Armor Units and intricate the population of Earth alone, Zoa will have increased the size of his forces by over eight thousand times," Orgun said. "We cannot allow that -we have to stop Clark." (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sat May 18 15:51:28 1996 Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 03:58:40 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 9, Part 5 (Continued from previous post) "Leave had orders, coded with my Life Data, from Lang. Lang ordered me to, if I ever received that message, to inform any humans I could trust with any and all data I had on the Evoulder. As well, I was to give these humans the data I have on Solid Armor Units. Unfortunately, it won't do you any good-it would take you months to produce one Solid Armor Unit, even if you had every factory on Babylon 5 manufacturing the parts. But," Orgun said, as he pulled a data crystal from a slot in his hips, "here it is. All of it, including the plans and the technology. You can now produce Solid Armor Units." "Fat chance that's going to help us," Garibaldi said, "if we can't get the Nightwatch off our backs." "Funny you should say that," Sheridan said. "I've got a plan for that. Do you feel like staying a little while, Leave? We could use your help." "I'm game," Leave replied. "What do you have planned?" *--------* Sheridan sent me one of the most cryptic messages I'd ever received. "Can you have those toys we talked about ready in a few hours?" he asked, over an open comm link. "Sure," I replied curiously. Evidently, he wasn't kidding-he wanted something from my toybox. "Anything in particular, or do you want to shop around?" "Something in a size 8 would be fine, thanks," Sheridan answered, and the comm link shut off. There were only eight of anything that Sheridan would be referring to-the eight Sol Tekkaman armors that I'd been working on, with Felicia's help. He knew about them, they were to be countermeasures against the Teknomen, just in case. Now, why would he need them? Oh hell, I'd find out soon enough. Sol Tekkaman armors looked vaguely like a Tekkaman-humanoid, built to human proportions, with systems scattered all over the place. However, unlike Tekkaman, you didn't need the Tekkaman Process to use a Sol Tekkaman. It was the classic powered armor, a'la *Starship Troopers*. You literally wore one, using a series of voice and eye commands to run what you didn't control via your own movements. There were eight in the hanger bay, each stored on their individual support pallets-you could run checks and recharge the power cells in each of them while they were on the pallets. All eight of them were identical, white with flashes of green, a powerful particle beam cannon stored on the back, thrusters in the legs and torso. Each Sol Tekkaman could, in theory, fight Radam BEMs on even terms. In teams, they could take down a Tekkaman. In theory. I just hated to think who would die to prove it in practice. Loading the pallets onto the shuttle, I flew over to Babylon 5. *--------* Zack was sore. He was hurt, and he was angry. The sore part was simple-riots of all sorts had broken out when the Nightwatch took over. It used to be, he could almost hear Garibaldi joke, that a person could strip naked and sing hymns on their head, and as long as they hadn't blocked traffic, you left them alone. The hurt part was that he was forced to betray a good friend of his- Michael Garibaldi. But whom had betrayed whom? Garibaldi for not letting him in on what was going on? Or maybe he was at fault, for joining the Nightwatch. It turned out to be a serpent with the face of an angel. And that was where he got to the angry part. For two reasons. The first part was at his fellow Nightwatch officers. Most of them were just trying to do their job-for all the additional shit that was imposed upon them as 'guardians of the public morality.' But a few of them started to regard the black Nightwatch band as a unlimited check to do anything they wanted. Zack was just a guy trying to do a job-he was in initially for the forty credits a week, now he was in for survival. He heard a rumor that some Nightwatch officers beat up someone who resigned security. The second part was that he was angry at himself. For what, he didn't know. But he was straight-out pissed at himself, and just wanted to get some sleep and wake up with everything back to normal. As he got to the door to his room, he saw, just out of the corner of his eye, Orgun. And, to his right, what looked like another Evoulder. Then, suddenly, someone came behind him, and shoved his Identicard into the lock. "Get in," Sheridan's voice hissed, as Zack was shoved into his now-filled room..... Orgun and Leave stood guard by the door. Nobody disturbed it. Nobody *wanted* to disturb it. *If this works,* Zack thought, *I'm going to resign, go home, and just start farming. I've had enough adventure to last me a frigging lifetime.* But he kept his thought silent, as he walked into the Nightwatch Office. "Chief," Zack said, feeling just how foreign those words were on his lips. At this point, he could just do nothing, and let civil war break out. Or betray Sheridan. Or betray this man. "What is it?" the head of Nightwatch replied. It was the tone of the man's voice that decided it for Zack. "Something wrong?" "Yea," Zack replied. He hedged, and got closer. "I just was in a meeting with the Captain, Ivanova, Garibaldi and G'Kar. They wanted me to help them." "Help them with what?" the Head of Nightwatch replied. "To replace Nightwatch security with Narns from one of the colonies, under Sheridan's control. They're coming in on a freighter, in about six hours," Zack said. "I told them I would. But I lied to them, so I could tell you." "Damn it!" the Head of Nightwatch replied. Though his words were angry, his tone was jublient, "we've got them now! All we have to do is catch them in the act, and we can bust them for sedition! Get everyone into combat gear, we'll use everybody. We aren't taking any chances!" "Yes, sir," Zack said, sourly. *--------* Ten minutes. There were eight of us. Me, and seven Narn, all in Sol Tekkaman armor. Thank Ghu I thought to make the user interface as universal as possible-else the Narn wouldn't have been able to use it. But they couldn't use the waste disposal units, so I literally told them to hold it until we were done. "System check," I said. "Green," Unit Two replied. "Green," Unit Three replied. "Yellow, hold on, green," Unit Four replied. "Slight power fluxuation in the P-beam cannon." "Green," Unit Five replied. "Green," Unit Six replied. (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sat May 18 15:51:31 1996 Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 03:59:33 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 9, Part 6 (Continued from previous post) "Green," Unit Seven replied. "Green," I replied. This was the hardest part, the waiting. In ten minutes, we were either going to win-or be in one hell of a firefight. "Remember," I said, "if you have to, get out by blowing a hole into space though the doors behind us. Those can be replaced. Don't blow out the floor." "Confirmed, sir," the head of the Narn contingent replied. The clang of the doors reverberated through my feet. I switched over from the main camera to a surveillance camera in the cargo bay. They'd never find it-tight beam tachyon transmission and a flatscreen imager no bigger than a grape. The bay was filling up rather fast, but where was Zack? He had to be at the end to make this work. Then he came in. There was an argument-damned if I hadn't thought of rigging the camera for sound. Oh well, next time. Then, suddenly, Zack dove for a slamming door, PPG bolts hitting all around him. "Showtime, gentlemen!" I yelled, went over to the main monitor, and deployed the particle beam cannon. It warmed up, and it clicked happily to tell me I had sixteen shots to this E-cap. As the guards looked, the doors to the main cargo bay opened, to reveal eight Sol Tekkaman with lowered and armed P-beam cannons. Then, bursting from the crates on either side of the room were Leave and Orgun. Sheridan's voice came over the internal loudspeaker, "I suppose you're wondering what's happening. And, as your commanding officer, I am obligated to tell you why. "The order to place Nightwatch in control of Station Security came from the Political Office of the Ministry of Peace. The Ministry of Peace is a civilian organization, and is not a part of the Earth Force chain of command. This chain of command leads from the President, to the senate, to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the individual men and women of the Earth Alliance Military. All of you have been acting under an illegal order, and as such can be charged with accessory to mutiny. "However, I am willing to be reasonable. If you put your weapons down, and come out one at a time, in single file, you'll be confined to your quarters until you can be shipped back to Earth for proper court marshal. "And, oh, I wouldn't recommend opening fire. If you fire at the main cargo bay airlock, you could depressurize the entire bay. And I heard that the Evoulder are deadly in hand-to-hand combat. So, what is it going to be?" Some of them looked confused. But many of them put down their guns and started to walk, hands up, to the door. It took us an hour to clear that bay. Afterwards, we had a huge pile of PPGs, armored vests, and helmets. The new security officers could make use of those very, very well. *--------* "So, that's what happened?" Morden said. "Yes, sir," one of his assistants, a human assistant replied. "Sheridan used the chain of command to defeat the order. Eventually, President Clark is going to make it a military order, but you've read the psych evaluation. Sheridan's too proud to accept such an order-and he has nothing but contempt for President Clark. You were right, he's going to rebel." "And we've got the weapons to bring Babylon 5 back under our control," Morden said, smiling. "I assume your fellow officers enjoy the toys I gave them." "Yea, but, automated weapons? It seems sort of rude, don't you think? Makes war all too clean for us, we just push a button and these robots, these 'Mobile Dolls' as you call them, go out and die," the man replied. "It might," Morden agreed. "But it's going to be enjoyable to see what sort of results we can generate." *--------* I wanted nothing more than a shower, a hot dinner, and a comfortable bed. But someone had other plans. When I got to my room, a Centauri noblewoman was standing there, with Ambassador Molari there as well. "Well, you're finally back," he said. "Excuse me?" I asked. "Is there something wrong?" "Of course there is! You're aide, Sharon Apple, was most inhospidious-she refused to allow us into your quarters to wait for you," Londo replied. "I apologize," I said. "Now, may I ask why you're here?" "We are here," the noblewoman said, "because you are here. We must speak with you," and she looked grimly at Londo, "alone." "Very well then," I said. "Come in." Inside, she made herself comfortable. "Would you like anything to drink?" I asked. "No," she said, "we are fine. Your taste in furniture is rather good." "Thank you," I said. I had a cup of hot chocolate in my hands. "May I ask for what reason I have the pleasure of you're company?" "We are the Lady Mordella. It is you that we must speak of, for you are very important. We do not usually read non-Centauri. In fact, we do not often read Centauri, for the gifts of the prophesy are very dangerous," Lady Mordella said. "I know," I replied. "There's a very old story about a prophetess called Cassandra. Her curse was to know the truth-and have nobody believe her." "We know of that story," Lady Mordella replied. "As well, we know of the most of your tales of the failure of prophesy. Will you accept our wisdom?" "I will," I replied. "What boon do you grant me?" "You are the eye of the storm. In the chaos that comes, you are an anchor, the solid, the stable, the confirmed, the known. But the storm that comes is not your storm. No, it is the storm that follows, a storm that will either bring light to everything...." and Lady Mordella stood up, pointing a finger at the ceiling, "or it will usher in an darkness so complete that no one will ever be able to remember the light. "For you, for us all, we stand before a mirror. We must see what we have become, and what we will be, without illusions, without tears. For you, your future is not your past. From here on out, you must be strong. You are the Heart of the Storm, young human, and for you and you alone, you must face the choice. Choose wisely, and there will be nothing you cannot call your own. Choose poorly, and everything will shatter." The Lady Mordella stood up, swaying. "We have seen many fates before, many souls, but yours is the greatest one we have ever seen. Yours is a soul so ancient, so primeval, that it struggles with the bonds of civilization. Do not ever let it lose those bonds, but turn them into a sword, a sword that can control the Heart of the Storm." (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sat May 18 15:51:34 1996 Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 04:00:17 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: Breaking The Consensus-Episode 9, Part 7 (Continued from previous post) There was silence for second. Then, Lady Mordella said, "We are finished here. What we have told you, you are to tell no other. One other knows, and she will tell you when it is her time. Good day, young human. Hopefully, we will all survive." As she walked out, I said, "Lady Mordella." She turned to look at me. "Thank you. May your soul walk freely, and without anger," I said, blushing. And then, she smiled. "It already has. May you walk in justice." Then she was gone. *---------* "You asked to see me?" Leave asked. Tsunami sat in the middle of the ship, thinking. She had a reed flute, and was softly blowing music in it. "You did not see him," she said. "The long-walker?" Leave asked. "I've been too busy. I have to go soon-Zoa is following me and....." "He'll not find you, not unless I make him find you," Tsunami replied. "If you wish to go, he will not find you unless you show yourself to him. If you wish to stay, I shall make him miss you." "I've heard stories of just how powerful you are," Leave said. "But even you can't stop Zoa. He has the entire Evoulder army behind him." "But I have one thing that he doesn't have," Tsunami said. As she blew into her flute, she elicited a soft, forgiving music. "I have the truth. It will have to do." "That's not that powerful a weapon," Leave said. "It is the only one I have needed. And I have never needed any other," Tsunami replied. "You will stay, if only to see him." "And if I refuse?" Leave asked. "Then you refuse," Tsunami replied. "And you are free to go." "I will go. But I will return, shortly," Leave said. As she walked out, Tsunami looked to the Heavens and said, "I have done all you have asked. May the wish my heart sings for be granted soon." And the Universe was silent. [END EPISODE 9] From jon.souza@creature.com Sat Jun 15 14:09:19 1996 Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 06:42:47 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: BREAKING THE CONSENSUS-Episode 10, Part 1 u This story is a Gundam/Babylon 5/Macross Plus/Macross 7/ Tenchi Muyo/Sol Bianca/Whatever The Hell I Can Pack Into This Thing crossover. In short, this is going to be a wild, confusing ride that is going to hopefully be a LOT of fun. This fanfic is dedicated to Dave Gao, Felicia LeCou, everyone on the Babylon 5 Creative, Tenchi Muyo, and Gundam mailing lists, and all of my fans(especially the ones who like my stories and DON'T write to tell me! You know who you are! Fess up and tell me what you think!). Special(and possibly unknown) thanks to Sarah McLachlan, and her album "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy"-she was able to compete with Yoko Kanno and "VOICES" from Macross Plus and win with flying colors. Got to have the legalistic- All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners and will be turned over to the owners at the request of their authorized agents. All other characters/ places/persons are the sole property of Jonathan Souza, Copyrighted @1996. This copyright extends to all electronic versions of the story. As always, comments, complaints, and critiques are welcome, encouraged, and advocated. Even if it's just to say "good work, Jon," I'd like to hear it. Even if it's to complain about my language and syntax, go right on ahead. I need the abuse. From Macross 7, Jon Souza Jon.Souza@Creature.Com NoDUI@AOL.Com Breaking the Consensus By Jon Souza Episode 10-Severed Dreams "The First Battle of Babylon 5 was, and still is, considered the start of the Earth Alliance Civil War. Besides proving that we were able to defend ourselves, to keep our word, it showed many things- the practicality of Variable Fighter technology, the first use of Soundforce and buster weapons, the first use of Mobile Dolls. "But, if anything, I'll remember that it was the day we lost the *Churchill*, the day we lost over a hundred good men and women slotting Starfuries and VF-19's, and the day we turned against our brethren and followed that belief that *freedom to* was more important than *freedom from*. "In a sense, that's what the entire war was about." -Susan Ivanova, "Stolen Memories-The History of The Shadow War As I Saw It" Babylon 5 was a hive, buzzing and trembling with bees leaving and going. But the hive was preparing for war. Recently, Starfuries and the oddly designed fighters their pilots called VF-19B Excalibers had started intensified patrols of the space around Babylon 5. Traffic was strictly curtailed-if they could, ships were asked to take Jumpgates other than Babylon 5's, escorted the entire way if they had to. Everyone saw, and reported, that the fighters were loaded with FAST- Packs, topped off with fuel and sensor boosters. And weapons. Plenty of them. Other reports came in. Babylon 5's powerful weapons and defense systems, including "donations" by the Jyrui Empire, had been seen deployed. The technicians were performing repairs and upgrades, bringing each weapon to the top of it's operational capability. The occasional glimmer as some type of energy field had been seen as well. If readiness was a concern, then Babylon 5 was really ready for battle. But the queens of the Babylon 5 hive were silent-nobody knew what they were doing and what they were thinking. Ships from the outer worlds were coming through Babylon 5, bringing people running for home. Other ships were leaving Earth, trying to get away from the chaos that was erupting at home. The docks were full, all the waiting lanes were full. Every jumpgate in Epsilon space was running at full capacity, and sometimes even more as people were running. Running from the hundreds of brushfire wars in the Non- Aligned Worlds. Running from the Centauri. Running from Earth. Running from things that scared them more that the previous three. And they still came. And the universe waited for the decision of men forced to choose. *--------* "You humans have a very apt expression for it. 'May you live in interesting times', you call it?" That was the commentary that the Princess-Regent(she added the last when she learned that Jyrui was alive) Aeka said, as we ate breakfast. Oddly enough, Delenn wasn't here. According to Lennier, she was busy. And, if I didn't know better, just as scared, and just as worried, as most of Babylon 5's population. "I know. It's a very apt curse-no peace, just interesting things going on. And interesting usually pertaining to your death. So," I said, "what are we going to do about it?" "We?" Aeka replied, eating some sort of Jyrui salad. I'm not so sure, but lettuce shouldn't be red.... "I can understand your position-Clark has put out orders to the Empire to impound your ship if it enters our space, something about your legal status as owner of the ship being not valid. Of course, considering the contorted nature of Jyrui law and you're relationship to the Princess-Regent, they'd be hard-pressed to make a case. But me?" "The Empire has offered to provide Babylon 5 support," I said. "Either you cut and run-and leave Babylon 5 hanging, or you support the station and put yourself right against President Clark. And you know that he's been saber rattling like crazy-the Centauri and most of the Non-Aligned Worlds aren't exactly receptive to General Hague coming to them." "There's always the Minbari," Aeka replied. "You get the same intelligence I do," I noted. "Sometimes even better. The castes of the Minbari are going chaotic. So, what are we going to do about it?" "You could always kill President Clark," Aeka said. She was only half joking. "Wouldn't work," I replied, "for two reasons. Reason one-that means breaking into Earthspace, and I'd be picked up by just about everything. Even with the YF-21, I'm a sitting duck. Self-immolation isn't my idea of a good time. Second is that if I killed Clark, his replacement would be worse. Of the *Kansei no Otoko*, he's the most moderate, if you could believe that. We can understand him, his policies and his methods. The men who'd take over, they'd be even more violent. Execution only works when the men under the killed man are ones you want in power." "'The Men of Completion'," Aeka said, rolling around the English version of the Japanese words in her mouth, "Ironic, isn't it. You're title for them?" "No, Sharon's," I said. "She had EA Intel links until they pulled the subspace receiver from Earth Dome. I heard they're still rebuilding the three floors that blew up. Amazing what a few milligrams of antimatter will do when you set up the explosion right. We've still got the Rangers and the Minbari intelligence to help us." (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sat Jun 15 14:09:23 1996 Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 06:43:40 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: BREAKING THE CONSENSUS-Episode 10, Part 2 (Continued from previous post) "And the new systems that we are re-establishing. But, do you think this will go into all-out war? A civil war is the last thing Clark wants-it divides his forces and makes him vulnerable to a counter-coup," Aeka said. "You're just as old as I am," I said, smiling, "and you know a lot more of the practical end of politics than I do. Remind me to congratulate your teachers. Depends upon what he can do to control information flow. If he plays it right, he can make a civil war look like the preclude to an invasion, as 'traitors' take over worlds in Earth's path for their alien masters." "That's outlandish. He needs to control ISN, and they've been walking a tightrope. So far, they're still broadcasting, but it's very carefully screened. Almost like they're trying to keep neutral. But there's going to be something that causes Clark to pull ISN off the air," Aeka said. Before I could reply, my PortiTerm beeped. "Excuse me," I said, and pulled it out of my satchel. "Jon here," I said, "what is it?" Sharon's connect icon appeared, then her face. I had a thing for redheads, and this was one of her favorite redhead forms. At least, it was one of mine. "Jon," Sharon said, "could you give me a report on you're location?" "I'm at Earheart's," I said. "What is it?" "Sir, I just got a decrypted emergency message from near here. The *Alexander*, the ship that Hague is on, just destroyed the *Clarkstown* while in normal space. I also picked up a second message," Sharon said. "The *Alexander* is heading here, at top hyperspace speed. And they want help from Babylon 5." "Shit," I said. fortunately, nobody had noticed what Sharon had said except my guest. "Have you told the boys upstairs yet?" "No, sir," Sharon replied. The 'boys upstairs' was our name for the Babylon 5 Command Staff. "But I bet they know. The message has Sheridan's private key." "It looks like we're in the thick of it now," Aeka said. She slid away from the table. "I have to go. There's some things I have to arrange. And you're right-a stand has to be held somewhere. Why not here?" "Well, if this is going to be Dien Bien Pu," I replied, smiling, "let's at least go down with our boots on. Sharon, we're going full Operation Supernova, starting now. Zero hour is the moment the first EA ship arrives in Babylon 5 space." "Aw, sir," Sharon said, petulantly, "do I have to? I've got a lot of songs I don't want to sing until my first concert." "Consider this, literally, as the concert of a lifetime," I said, smiling. "Let's get moving." "Yes, sir!" Sharon replied, smiling. *--------* "You're going to be fine," Franklin told the injured Minbari. Franklin was barely able to get the Minbari to Medlab, it took G'Kar's help to get him past the Narn security without attracting bounty hunters and other such unsavories. "You're safe now." "No," the Minbari hissed, "none of us are safe. Delenn, where is Delenn?" "I'm here," Delenn said. "What is it?" "The Shadows are on the move," the Minbari hissed. "They have allied themselves with many of the Non-Aligned worlds, and have advocated that they attack each other." As he reported what he had seen, Delenn listened in horror. All the things that she thought would have happen is happening, and she could only watch it happen. "There is one other thing," the Minbari said. "The Shadows have two new allies. Two races of unknown power, which I have never seen before. One of them is the Teknomen, few and far between, but seemingly everywhere. The second are the Evoulder, alike yet not alike to the Teknomen. They seem to be helping the Human government." "What has the Grey Council said of what is happening?" Delenn asked, a rattle in her throat. She felt, in that moment, like a statue of glass, and a shot coming straight at her. "The Grey Council has said, 'The problems of others are not our concern.'" the Minbari replied, with deadly venom in his voice. You could see it in his eyes, what the Grey Council had done even overrode the Minbari belief that one Minbari shouldn't kill the other. And Delenn had grown so pale that it seemed as if every drop of blood had disappeared from her body. *--------* "And in further news," the ISN reporter, "The head of the Mars Provisional Government, Xavier Montoya, has refused to implement the Martial Law decree issued five days ago. Earthdome hasn't commented, but they are 'considering all options' as of this report. In further news...." I didn't hear the rest, as the PortiTerm beeped, and Sheridan's voice said, "Jon, I want you to in the Ready Room in thirty minutes. Don't come immediately, just sort of walk in. This is very important." "Got you," I replied. I paid up my bar tab, and started to wander for a bit. Twenty-six minutes later, I arrived in the Ready Room. "What's up?" I said. Franklin, Sheridan, Garibaldi and Ivanova were in there, looking like they had just been recently brought back from the dead. "The *Alexander* just arrived," Sheridan said. "Major Ryan is coming over to talk with us about what's happening. Considering how much you've helped us, you should be here as well." "I see," I replied. I sat down, and a few minutes later, Major Ryan came in. He looked awful-as if he had been spending eight weeks straight awake, and was in a death-fight with a horde of ravenous monsters. It looked like Hell was snapping at his heels and he couldn't do anything about it. "Captain," he said to Sheridan, and nodded to the rest of us. "Where's Hague?" I asked, curious. A pained expression came across his face. "We were coming from a meeting with officials in Orion 7, when the *Clarkstown* attacked us. Hague was coming up to the command deck when we were hit amidships....." Major Ryan said, "I'm sorry. Since his death, I've been trying to carry on as best as I can. I have to thank you, Jon, if it wasn't for the intelligence we had gotten from Sharon Apple, we wouldn't have escaped three separate traps. The *Clarkstown* just got lucky, I suppose." "How's the situation back home?" Sheridan asked. "A few senators have escaped Earth Dome. Martial Law in force, shock troops are all over the place-Geneva, New Delhi, New York, Washington, Moscow, Tokyo. Not only that, there are some new kind of soldiers, something called 'Evoulder', supporting the shock troops," Ryan said. "How are the people back home dealing with this?" Ivanova asked. From jon.souza@creature.com Sat Jun 15 14:09:29 1996 Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 06:44:37 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: BREAKING THE CONSENSUS-Episode 10, Part 3 (Continued from previous post) "That's the funny part. The people love it-martial law has cut crime to nothing. On the surface, it's peaceful." Ryan said. It wasn't funny to him. "The peace of the gun," Sheridan muttered. "Why haven't we seen any of this on ISN?" "ISN," Ryan snorted. "ISN is walking a very fine line. If they push too much, they'll be shut down. Right now, our best hope is Mars. They've rejected the martial law decree and if they can stand up to Clark, and rally support from the other colonies, they can force Clark out of power." "I don't think so," I replied. "Clark will push back. That's his personality." "With what?" Sheridan replied. "The bulk of Clark's power-the Nightwatch and most of our forces, are on Earth. If he tries to pacify Mars, he'll leave himself vulnerable." As he finished, Ryan's link beeped. "Ryan here," Ryan said. "What is it?" "Sir," a voice came though the link, "We just got signals from Earth-they've started to bomb Mars." "Oh hell," I said. *--------* "Target in sight," the pilot of the new-model Starfury, the Thunderbolt said. "Do you want this one, or should I take it?" "I would like a chance for some excitement," the destroyer-class Evoulder flying off his wing, replied. "Break off, I'll deal with this myself." "Please, don't attack!" a voice from the dome hissed. "We have women and children down here, don't do it!" "No problem," the Evoulder replied. The massive, black bulk shattered the dome like a meteorite. Skidding to a halt, he opened fire with the massive weapons compliment at his control. Five minutes later, there was nothing but a slowly leaking colony dome. And hundreds of dead women and children. *--------* Things were going downhill very fast. I clamored into my quarters, and powered up the terminal. "G," I said, "are you on-line?" "Yes," G replied, her connect icon appearing. "I'm here. Things are getting bad, right?" "Very bad," I replied. "Are you combat-ready?" "All systems cycling to full combat ability. We're ready to go any time you wish," G said. "I've also finished putting out the projector satellites for Operation Supernova. You're clear to use it at any time you wish." "Good," I said. "Sir, I just got a jumpgate alert. It's the *Churchill* and ....oh dear God," G said. "What is it?" I said. "An Evoulder Heavy Cruiser as well. It's contacted Babylon 5, saying that it has Zoa on it. And they want to speak to Sheridan and Orgun," G replied. "Hell," I muttered, "I'll tell Orgun. Better get ready for trouble all around-it's going to be one of those days." *--------* "I've got some bad news, and some worse news," Captain Hidoshi said. She had come in just as ISN went off the air, reporting the defection of Orion 7 and Proxima 3 from the Earth Alliance. "We just got some narrow-band transmissions from Earthdome. Two fleet groups, under the *Brunhilda* and the *Ulysses* are forming, and heading here at top speed. They joined up with some heavy firepower and shock troops. There orders are to take back Babylon 5, arrest the command staff, and put the station under the authority of the Nightwatch." "Hell," Sheridan said. "What else?" "I got two other things. They're deploying something called the 'Epyon' and the 'Taurus'. I've never heard that designation for anything before, period. And Clark is sending his forces to any colonies that could break away, but it looks like at least four worlds are going independent," Hidoshi replied. "Maybe we should jump now," Ryan said, "draw some of the fire from you, maybe give you a chance to negotiate." "It won't work. The orders were cut before you arrived here," Hidoshi replied. "In six hours, maybe less, Earth Alliance forces are going to be here with orders to take the station by force," Hidoshi said. "No," Sheridan said, "we make our stand here, now. I told someone that we would stand against the darkness, no matter the cost-I hate to thing that it's gone this far." Sheridan's link beeped. "Sir," Lt. Corbin said. "Zoa is in the main hanger bay, and he refuses to either leave or move until you arrive to talk to him." "Where's Orgun?" Sheridan asked. "He's there too. It's a stand-off, they're just looking at each other and waiting for one to flinch," Lt. Corbin replied. "I'll be down there in ten minutes," Sheridan replied. Zoa looked around carefully. A Lord Detonator rarely had to leave Youmsa, but this was a special case-he had to deal with the renegade personally. Lady Mikru had say it would be so, and thus it was so. A massive Evoulder, the bulk of his armor concealed by a night-black cloak, the purplish shell of his armor rippled silently as he waited. Standing over twelve feet tall, he was a powerful presence in such a small room. Two more Detonators stood to his side, both aides that he wanted there to provide him with support. Looking around, he noted that these humans had some feral cunning to their tactics-they had Zoa and the Evoulder in interlocking fields of PPG rifle fire, supplemented with Sol Tekkaman particle beam cannons. Not that those would do much, but they evidently expected to at least try. Standing before him was the renegade, Orgun. He was angry, and was girdled for battle, with the face armor latched shut and eyes aglow. Beside him was Sheridan, "Mind if I ask what you're doing here?" "I'm here to ask you, in the name of President Clark, if you will surrender," Zoa said. "Do you think you can face his forces?" "We can," Orgun replied, muttering. "If that means standing up to you, traitor." "Traitor?" Zoa said, evidently stung. "I haven't betrayed my people, Orgun. I'm returning them to the ways that they should have kept. The way of the warrior, the way of the true Evoulder." (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sat Jun 15 14:09:34 1996 Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 06:45:39 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: BREAKING THE CONSENSUS-Episode 10, Part 4 (Continued from previous post) "The way of war that exterminated over a thousand races!" Orgun hissed back. "Evidently, you're position is intrangent. But, Captain Sheridan, I will make you a promise. I shall leave, and no Evoulder shall ever attack this station. On this, you have my word. But, for my boon, you must make sure that Orgun accepts his exile to this star, never to leave it, even in his thoughts. For if he breaks his exile, I shall bring the full might of the Evoulder down on you," Zoa said. "Accepted," Orgun replied. "Now leave." "Very well then," Zoa said, and turned to leave. As he made it to the hatch, he stopped and said, "You were the best, Orgun. No Evoulder Detonator was as balanced and as versatile as you. If you wish, no matter when, I shall accept your return as the herald of my battles." "I will not serve you, Zoa," Orgun replied. As Zoa left, Sheridan asked, "Will he keep his word?" "With all these witnesses? Of course. He has to at least maintain the appearance of the Code of the Warrior, no matter in how many other ways he breaks it. He'll honor his word," Orgun replied. "Now, we have a battle to prepare for." *--------* Everything was in place. And what I was about to was a thing I hated the most. The door beeped, and Vivian walked in. "Jon," she said, "you wanted to see me? Things are so crazy around here, UT's about to pull out for home and...." "I'm sorry," I said, and pushed the button on the control panel. Before she could even react, she was trapped in a stasis field- immune to everything, even the heart of a sun. Carefully avoiding the touch of the field's walls-they were near absolute zero temperature-I put the entire encased field in a box and hauled it down, quietly, to the ship docks, where a Pak'na'ma ship waited. To their credit, the Pak'na'ma would get you drunk to make a fool of you, rob you blind in a poker game, and trick you into buying something useless, but I had never heard of a story of a Pak'na'ma shipper who ever looked at his cargo or failed to do the job to the letter. Or talk about it afterwards. "You're the captain?" I asked. "I am," his raspy translator said. "Is that the package?" "Yes," I said. I handed him a small box and a letter. "You're to take this away from here as fast as you can. If the station is destroyed, take the box to Earth, open the large box, use the small box on the contents-just point the arrow at the contents and push the button-and give the letter to the contents. If the station remains in about five standard days, bring the large box back, give me the small box, and destroy the letter by any means you deem fit. Got that?" "Of course," he said. "We have to leave soon, excuse us." I let them go on their way. Either Vivian would forgive me, or she would never get a chance to forgive me, one way or the other. *--------* "And I want two full squadrons of fighters dropped thirty minutes ago," Sheridan said, walking to the elevator with Garibaldi, Franklin, and Ivanova trailing behind him. "The Excalibers first, then the 'Furies. If it can fly, I want it in the air in thirty minutes after Primary Launch. I want all security officers in full combat gear, and every Sol Tekkaman armor in use as of this moment." "What about the Narn?" Garibaldi asked. "G'Kar has personally vouched for their loyalty, and he hadn't let us down yet. Doctor, I want you to pull anyone you can out of Medlab, we'll need the space for casualties," Sheridan replied. "Will do," Franklin replied, and was out and down the hallway after that. "There's three more things. First, Tsunami called, and said that she'll help in the defense of the station," Ivanova said. "No," Sheridan replied. "This is our fight, and we can't accept her help." "I got the feeling that she won't take no for an answer, and she'll stay out of spite. Besides, the Jyrui Ambassador has said that if Babylon 5 secedes, the invoking of the Babylon 5 Special Sanctuary Zone would be brought into play, as per the treaty that gave us all those weapons," Ivanova replied. Sheridan sighed, then said, "All right. What else?" "Jon's got the satellites for Operation Super Nova into position. Have you got you're part?" Ivanova asked. "Already read it. I don't believe that *music* will help us in this battle...." Sheridan said. "He believes in this 'Soundforce' weapons concept, sir. Hell, even a few minutes delay will be helpful," Ivanova replied. "Point taken," Sheridan said. "What's the last thing?" "Drall's holographic projector is ready, at any time you want it for your announcement," Ivanova replied. "Good," Sheridan said. "I've got to go and make a call. I'll be back up on the command deck in an hour. We move then." *--------* "Jon," Felicia said, "I need to talk to you." We were right on the launch deck, as the Virtua Gundam was having the Soundforce weapon loaded on-two stubby cigar-shaped pods that fit over the shoulders like rockets carrying the ECCM and broadcast gear needed. "What is it?" I said. "There's a slight problem. Two Teknomen are on the station-they call themselves Teknoman Saber and Teknoman Slade, but you'd know them better as Evil and Blade," Felicia said. "Shit," I said. "Can you handle them?" "If necessary," Felicia hedged, "but I want to save Slade, if possible. He might be recoverable, but Saber's gone-death is too good for him." "I understand," I replied. "I'll have Orgun talk to you, maybe he can help." "Thanks," and she walked off. "We're ready, sir," the Virtua Gundam replied. "Sharon is plugged in and all the hardware is attached. You just have to give the message to launch, and we're off." "I'll be with you in a minute," I said, and clamored into the cockpit of the Viruta Gundam, allowing the BDI/BDS system to lock on and align for operations. But something was different. Rather than the sensors aligning themselves and linking into my perceptions, I was instead sitting at table in a Paris cafe, wearing a full suit and tie, with coffee slowly cooling in front of me. (Continued in next post) From jon.souza@creature.com Sat Jun 15 14:09:36 1996 Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 06:46:28 GMT From: Jon Souza Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com Subject: BREAKING THE CONSENSUS-Episode 10, Part 5 (Continued from previous post) And Sharon, looking at me with a mischievous smile, was right across the table. "I hope you like it here," she said, "It took me eight months to get all the programming, biochemistry, and physics right." "What did you do?" I asked. "I just looped the BDI/BDS software into my own system and I'm running the entire show as if this was a holographic simulation. Think of it," she said, and her hand, warm and delicate as real flesh, was resting on mine, "we can actually touch each other now, feel each other. I have some special software ready, just for when you decide to succumb to a over-sexed AI." "Eh?" I said. "You don't have a ViRsex program set up, right?" "Better than that, it's a double-reflex system-what you feel, I feel and vice versa. Like I said, I'm an oversexed AI with more time on my hands than you realize," Sharon said, smiling. "But this can wait until after the concert, eh?" "True," I said. "Make it a good one, and I'll even bring the simulated wine." "I'll give you my best," Sharon said, and then she leaned over to kiss me, a long kiss that would have been illegal in half the universe, immoral in the rest, just before I was returned to full system control of the Virtua Gundam. *Us/we/are have been waiting, sir,* the Virtua Gundam's control system said. *The time for launch is soon.* *I know,* I thought. *Let us hope that reason comes to somebody's mind, and soon.* *And if not,* the Viruta Gundam asked. *Then a lot of good people are going to die,* I replied grimly. *--------* "Are we ready?" Sheridan asked. "Drall's holographic system is on-line. Tsunami has tapped the system as well and is boosting it to interstellar range. The Super Nova systems will broadcast it outside, just to be sure. Stand by for scan," Ivanova said, keying a command into her console. The scan lines appeared, two pale yellow lines rippling across his body. Then, in a soft yellow glow all over the station, on Earth, and on every Earth Alliance colony, Captain Sheridan, from the torso up, appeared. "May I have your attention, please," Sheridan said. "In the last few hours, we have learned that warships are on their way from Earth. Their orders are to seize command of Babylon 5 by force. As Commanding Officer and Military Governor of Babylon 5, I cannot allow this to happen. President Clark has violated the Earth Alliance Constitution by dissolving the Senate, declaring marital law, and personally ordering the bombing of civilian targets on the Mars Colony. He is personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent people." As he spoke, hundreds watched. Each and every one listened, and heard how much this hurt Sheridan, how much he was forced to violate his oath and word of lo