Title: Another Perspective / version 1.0

Author: Albert Green Jr.

Rating: T

NOTICE: THIS STORY MAY BE DISTRIBUTED FREE OF CHARGE BUT MUST NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM.

---------------------COPYRIGHT/DISCLAIMER NOTICE-----------

"Babylon Five”, it's characters, certain technological devices and/or references to such, from the television show, past present of near future, may be or are registered trademarks of, Babylon 5, characters, names, and all related indicia are trademarks of Time Warner Entertainment Co., LP.

“Farscape,” and all of its characters certain technological devices and/or references to such, from the television show, past present or near future (and I hope that there is still hope) are registered trademarks of, Babylon 5, characters, names, and all related indicia are trademarks of Jim Henderson co. and the Scifi Channel.

"Star Trek", "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", "Star Trek: Voyager", and "Star Trek: First Contact", and all related Star Trek related material, it's characters and certain technological devices and/or references
to such, from the television shows and movies, may be or are registered trademarks of, and may be or are copyrighted by Paramount Studios and whatever Corporation it may or may not be owned by.

Now that that is over and done with, HERE”S MORE! Certain characters in this story are mine. And these are the creation of the author who is solely responsible for them as such. Neither Studio is responsible for the content of this story.

THIS STATEMENT MUST ACCOMPANY THE STORY ‘ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE’ IF DISTRIBUTED. THIS STORY IS FREE OF CHARGE AND MAY NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM. THIS DEDICATION MUST ACCOMPANY ANY DISTRUBUTION OF THIS STORY.

Dedication: Again to my wife of so many decades---thank you. There are several people who will be putting in their personal comments and suggestions in this upcoming story, like Ed Becerra and Ash’ Boomstick and Sithspawn to name a few.

Albert Green Jr. quick note: This story will be updated –and I use this word carefully- occasionally. ATV, AIB have priority but I will not ignore this either. The Ruination War is still on back burner but will be flaring up very soon as events in AIB (Allies in Blood) continue. So please be patient with me and God bless.

-+-

“Just when you thought you had had enough of the Minbari and the idiots at EarthForce during that most delicate of times, I present…

ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

Prelude:

A group of EarthForce ships, lead by the Captain Michael Jankowski, Captain of the Prometheus had been sent out to scout the Minbari boarder, with explicit orders not to make first contact with this unknown species. A man considered a loose cannon by many of his associates, the Captain foolishly decided to take the initiative in the face of his orders and lead the fleet closer to the Minbari border. He was ambitious and this particular mission would be a sure bet for him to receive the promotion and notoriety he so desperately wanted.

To his great dismay he got what he wished for and more.

Thirty years earlier:

The ever-increasing fury of the temporal storms cascading throughout hyperspace for light-years in every direction had drawn Kosh to this very spot, and his living ship had stopped at the very center of the disturbance. Caution won out over curiosity however, and the Vorlon ordered his vessel to move some distance from the epicenter before jumping into normal space. Transiting from hyperspace into normal space was never something to be taken lightly. It was possible to find one’s ship too close to a sun, or trapped in a gravity well with no hope of escape before death claimed it’s due. He wasn’t interested in that.

But what he was interested in was the temporal displacement waves emanating from this unknown source. They were so powerful that they made the Great Machine’s power pale in comparison. The Vorlons wanted to know why this causality had never been discovered before. The Vorlons had been in space, some said, for a million years. Surely his people must have discovered this anomaly earlier; however there was no record in the collective memory of any of his people. Therefore it had to be something completely new, an event never recorded before.

With the characteristic flare heralding an object tearing its way out of hyperspace, his small ship found itself being buffeted by the physical forces surrounding the entire area. The waves were immense and his living ship was excited by this new discovery, but it was nervous. Gently Kosh spoke to it and calmed it down. Ordering it to head towards the source of the anomaly, Kosh quickly discovered a small, unimpressive planet in a K-class star system. As the ship neared the planet, delicate pedal-like fins opened at the rear of the ship, slowing the ship down as it prepared to enter the atmosphere. Moments before the ship entered the planet’s atmosphere, the pedals closed and the ship plunged towards the surface. The planet was filled with wildlife, but there was no sentient life. However, there was evidence of an ancient civilization had once thrived here. But the ruins were millions of years old. That surprised the Vorlon. However upon closer inspection he saw that there were several different types of architectural styles present. Cities built over cities. But what was amazing was that after all of the eons the structure was still definable. That spoke of ancient and powerful races that lived here. They had to be ‘First’ First Ones and Kosh felt humbled as he walked among the ages-old foundations.

It was hour before he discovered it, a huge rock-shaped structure with a hole carved into the middle of it

To a member of the younger races, it would look like nothing more than a primitive work of art carved out of stone. To Kosh’s eyes it confirmed all that he began to suspect. He saw the complex energy lattices surrounding the structure. Colors, invisible to the naked eye but visible to Vorlon senses, embraced the machine as if it were a long lost love. He could see the waves of distortion being emitted to into space and beyond. This device was a temporal device of unimagined power. Vorlon scientists would take generations to understand this technology. It was awe-inspiring and the only thing that Kosh could do was to stare at the alien beauty of the thing.

Then without warning, the object activated causing the alarmed Vorlon to step back. In the center of the object, moving images appeared. Moving closer, he witnessed several younger creatures identified as Humans and one alien, species unknown staring at the same object. All of them were looking at the same structure as that which the Vorlon looked at. That was strange, as all of the younger races had been thought to have been catalogued and processed by the Vorlon Empire. And Humans shouldn’t have been able to travel this far into the galaxy yet.

That was disturbing.

The Humans were speaking in the language identified as English. One of the asked the others, “what is it?”

“A QUESTION,” the structure boomed.

Then the images cut off.

The Vorlon was perplexed for a moment, then he understood. This creation wanted something – a question.

“Who are you?” Kosh asked. ‘What’ didn’t seem the appropriate word to use with this entity.

“A QUESTION,” the structure boomed. “FINALLY, A QUESTION FROM A VORLON. FOR A MILLION YEARS, I HAVE AWAITED A QUESTION FROM A VORLON. I AM THE GUARDIAN OF FOREVER.”

“You are a temporal structure, a machine?”

“IN TERMS THAT YOU UNDERSTAND, YES.”

The Guardian began to show him images of the Vorlon’s humblest beginning to the present. It happened in an instant and the Vorlon saw it all. Stunned at the history he’d witnessed, he stood there, mute.

“DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION?” prompted the Guardian.

The Vorlon smiled. He did indeed have a question, the question of the ages. “Are we right?”

For a moment, Kosh felt a gathering of energy emanating from the device. There was a burst of light. Images began to flood into its center.

And Kosh saw.

He saw his people completing the circle and then, tired of all of the stress and worry dealing with the younger races, planning to kill them all. The Humans were the glue who stopped his people from that foolishness. And Kosh was ashamed.

He was shown the Humans once more in ships of unknown configuration, at war with the Minbari and the Minbari were losing badly. He saw himself enraged that other First Ones, never before encountered by his people, had dared to impose their will upon him and his people and his people stood there afraid to do anything least these Elders poured their wrath upon them. He saw the results of his question. And he was as enraged as his counterpart. The Shadows were proven more correct than his people. That was when he understood that this machine entity had the power to see into other universes.

He saw the strange Human ships once more but more advanced, dangerously so. They called themselves the Federation and they were in league with the Humans of Earth Alliance and working with the Minbari engaged in a desperate war with the ‘Great Enemy’ from that other, third space. He knew their names, and was afraid.

Sinhindrea – loose in his universe.

But the actions of his people shamed him once more. And again the hated Shadows were proven just as correct in their beliefs as his people. He saw Humans, children of the Ancients of their universe, once more in unfamiliar ships from a yet another universe doing battle with the Vorlon’s favorite children and he despaired. The pattern was becoming obvious. He was shown twelve universes, always with Humans in the forefront, somehow either ruining the circle or more importantly, proving the Vorlon’s absolute rule of order, and the Shadow’s absolute rule of chaos to be in error.

“THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BLACK AND WHITE,” the Guardian announced. “THERE ARE ONLY SHADES OF GRAY.”

“Why have you shown me this?” asked Kosh.

“IS THIS NOT THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION? THE REVOLVING CIRCLE HAS INTERFERED WITH TIME. IT BEGINS TO COLLAPSE UPON ITSELF. THE TEMPORAL WAR TEARS, THE TIMESCAPES ALTER. THERE MUST AN ENDING. UNIVERSES ARE BLEEDING INTO ONE ANOTHER AT THIS POINT.” The Guardian showed the Vorlon an area of space/time. There was a fracture unknown to Vorlon science there; a bleeding wound that squeezed things from other universe into each other. “YOUR QUESTION IS ANSWERED. BE AT PEACE. THERE IS MORE TO DO THAN BEING RIGHT.”

The Guardian glowed and turned itself off, leaving a very depressed, but satisfied Kosh all alone on the planet. This ancient device had activated itself to present a warning to his people and the Shadows. The question had been answered. Now the new question was what to do about it.

Kosh opened his mind and joined with the collective conscious of his people. There would be much to discuss in the coming year. And the ramifications would change this particular universe.

Chapter One

From the swirling vortex that was hyperspace, three EarthForce ships, two Hyperions, and the DSEV Amundsen, exited jump into unfamiliar territory. They were searching for someone, an elusive race called the Minbari. The Captain in charge had been ordered there to determine the threat potential of this race that seemed to almost terrify the Centauri. Taking no chances, Captain Michael Jankowski of the EA Prometheus ordered Alert One Squadron to proceed in front of them as a screen.

Eighty thousand klicks in front of them, was a small squadron of vessels flanked by a fighter squadron of their own. What was obviously a command vessel was huge, with weapons ports bristling everywhere. Earth Alliance hadn’t seen anything like it.

“Do we have any identification at all on those ships?” Jankowski demanded. The man was feeling intimidated and when he felt that way usually something was shot at. EarthForce Command was aware of his weakness concerning First Contact situations but as a whole, Earth Alliance chronically suffered from the second of all sins –

- Arrogance.

“No, Sir. We don’t have any identification on these vessels at all,” replied the young Ensign in charge of sensors. “They have some type of electromagnetic grid that is interfering with our scanners.”

“I don’t like this,” the Captain said. The man was nervous. Whatever technology those vessel had were beyond anything he’d seen before. “Let’s get a bit closer, try to get some better scans.”

“Sir, our orders were to…”

“I know what our orders were,” he snapped effectively silencing his First Officer. He didn’t like the man, someone he felt was gunning for his position. “I’m not going to turn tail just when we find these people. Do as ordered, Lieutenant,” he growled.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Go to Ready Alert. If they do anything rash, we’ll blow them out of space. Always assume the worst, Lieutenant.”

“Aye, Sir.”

Valen'tha:

To a young Delenn, Dukhat the head of the Grey Council, and once considered the greatest of all Minbari, appeared somewhat miffed by the actions of the warrior in charge. He was practically yelling at the commander of the vessel.

“These people have no idea about the rituals concerning our culture. What are you doing?”

“Sir,” the warrior protested. “With our gun ports opened, we are showing respect to fellow warriors. It is not a sign of aggression.”

“For us, yes,” the Minbari leader quickly explained. “But these people have no idea what that means. Close the ports, immediately!”

“Yes, Dukhat.”

“Are they trying to communicate with us?”

“I think so, but their communications protocols are radically different. We do not understand their language and they do not understand ours.”

“All the more reason to close the ports.”

Another warrior blanched. “Power spike! They are targeting our vessels. Their fighters are swarming towards us on attack vectors.”

“Activate stealth mode immediately!”

“It’s too late,” the warrior cried even as he and the others struggled to activate defense systems.

The Minbari command ship was rocked by a series of massive detonations on its hull. Dukhat and her mentor Delenn, were thrown into the bulkheads. He landed on his leg, breaking it. Large chunks of ceiling and conduit fell on top of Dukhat, and Delenn began screaming.

Prometheus:

Sensors had nearly been blinded and as they cleared, the bridge crew was shocked. Moving closer had served only to place the small squadron in mortal danger.

“Sir, the fighters are heading right for us on attack vector. They just blew right through the Starfuries like they weren’t there! We have two of the big ships heading in our direction.”

“They’re targeting us! They’re firing!”

“Weapons loose!” Jankowski screamed. “Fire with opportunity! Power up the jump drives. We’re jumping as soon as we can!”

The Hyperions unleashed everything they had at the offending fighters while the Amundsen fired on the two incoming cruisers. The enemy ships shot back, instantly shredding the explorer ship into small, blowing fragments.

Some of the EarthForce firepower hit the enemy cruisers, but to their dismay there was no noticeable damage.

“Get us out of here!” Jankowski screamed.

Valen'tha:

“Animals,” Delenn screamed. “There was no reason for them to do this!”

“Delenn, our ships are returning fire,” the Commander of the vessel said. He was in shock as was Delenn. “But what shall we do? Shall we cease fire and open communications?

“Destroy them,” she hissed. “Destroy them all! Show no mercy!”

“Yes, Delenn,” responded the warrior hastening to obey.

“Delenn,” Dukhat whispered. “Find out who they are.”

Delenn nearly burst into tears. Dukhat was still alive! But was he just barely hanging on. She ordered several of the attendants to take him to the most secured area of the ship. The ship rocked one more, but it was firing its own powerful neutron beams in retaliation.

“They had no right!” hissed the female. “Kill them all”

Prometheus:

His vessel was being dissected slowly by the advancing cruiser. His engines were useless, having been almost blown off by the enemy weapons fire. The other Hyperion had escaped with two very lucky Starfuries into hyperspace. But his ship was doomed. It was clear that the ship want his crew alive.

Half the bridge crew was dead and he was in bad shape himself. Most of the bridge equipment was rubble and life support was almost non-existent. The only good thing was that communications was still operational. And it was beeping now.

A pain-racked Jankowski ordered communications opened.

“Submit,” a cold vicious voice said. “You will unconditionally surrender your vessel and escort us to your home world. Your planet will be allowed to continue to exist when you give us what we want.”

“What do you want?” he managed to ask. “Who are you?”

“We…”

Before he could hear the answer, the Captain was distracted by a massive blast hitting the enemy command vessel. Three alien fish-like vessels were slicing into the huge warship with weapons his crew were having trouble identifying. The Captain had never seen such a display of raw power and it scared him. The enemy vessel had literally rocked when the beams hit it. Whoever they were they had saved his butt in the preverbal nick of time.

To their credit the enemy warship was giving as good as it received. What was left of his scanners hadn’t even noticed the fish ships and weren’t noticing them now either. But he could see what was happening clearly enough. His protectors were fighting for all they were worth but it wasn’t quite enough as one of the ships had a fin sheared off.

“Do we have any weapons left?” he demanded.”

“Only a couple of nuclear missiles,” came the rely from a bloodied weapons crewmen. “We’ve lost everything else.”

And lost was the operating word here. The good thing was that the enemy cruiser had completely forgotten about them in its own fight for survival. The enemy cruisers had entered the fray but they were keeping their distance as one of them was gutted by those fish-ships. The other ship was vectoring back towards his crippled battleship. And again communications opened.

“Humans, not Sebacceans,” the voice said once more. That voice portrayed surprise and delight at the discovery. “John Crichton’s species. You will give us the secret of your wormhole technology, or we will destroy you and your world.”

“Just who the hell is John Crichton?” snapped the frightened Captain. “I’ve never heard of him!” This enemy began to reply but he never heard the completed answer as one of the other vessels speared the cruiser, neatly cutting it in half.

-+-

The Commander of the Valen'tha smiled grimly as his ship’s weapons opened a huge hole into the middle of the battleship. Debris spewed everywhere but its weapons hadn’t stopped firing. The Minbari stealth systems were hard-pressed to keep from presenting the Valen'thaas target practice. Three missiles immolated one of the Minbari heavy ships. That vessel died in a mouthwatering explosion.

Suddenly two small, primitive missile from the other alien vessel entered the same hole that that had just been created by his weapons. The nuclear missiles blew up deep inside the wounded ship and cracked it wide open. The remaining cruiser turned and retreated using a form of faster-than-light drive never seen before.

-+-

Once more Jankowski was more than nervous as the huge blue ship vectored in on his wounded vessel.

Communications was telling him that they were repeating one word over and over one word over and over:

“Minbari…Minbari.”

So it was the Minbari who save his ship, he discovered. But that left the other two unanswered questions that needed to be answered and quickly. ‘Who was this John person and more importantly who and what was the Scarren Empire?

He had a bad feeling about this.

So did the Minbari.