Chapter Three –

Chapter Three –

A Safe port in a storm

Babylon Five

Commander Ivanovahad taken over command, leaving a shattered Captain Sheridan to get some ‘rack time’. Over the last few days things had gone to hell in a handcart. Babylon Five had become independent state; after the bombing of Mars. Clark had sent his elite forces to take the station attempting to make sure it bent to his whim.

But-

-It was not to be.

With the help of the Churchill and the Alexandra, they’d managed to turn back the first wave of the attack. However the Churchill was destroyed, and the station herself had been badly damaged.

Then a second wave of vessels had jumped in, ordering the complete surrender of the station. It still made Suzan shudder thinking how close they came to failure. But with the timely intervention of Delenn who had jumped in almost on top of the station with a number of Minbar war cruisers, the tide had been turned.

The Earth task force had turned heels and returned back to Earth. Babylon Five was safe, until the next crisis that was, which they didn’t have to wait long for.

Delenn had been captured by Night Watch rebels, who held up in a safe area in down below. She had been rescued, but during this time, she had a blade thrown into her back…

A thousand other things happened, signalling change and the same old thing…

It was in this time of ‘renewal’ that they all were given there new uniforms, which were black. She had to admit it, looked a lot better then the Earth Force uniform, save for them being as Susan had admitted to herself a little itchy!

Now finally three days after the ‘break away’, from all the chaos that had enveloped the station. Repairs were on schedule to the station both internal and external systems were now being restored to normality.

Commander Ivanova was relaxing slightly. She was looking out into space from the view port in CIC.

“It’s quiet, nothing to do but check the systems,” Lt. Corwin said out loud to no one in particular.

Susan Ivanova moaned. “Why did you have to do that?”

“Do what?” a confused Lt. Corwin asked.

“Jinx it…”

He laughed, nevously. “Oh come on you don’t really believe that do you?”

Susan closed her eyes and let out a sigh, before muttering under her breath. “God don’t hold it against him. He’s young. H doesn’t mean anything, so please let it pass without incident!”

A small chuckle could be heard from the officer in question, which was met with stern looks from the rest of the bridge crew. Instantly, Susan span round to give him a peace of her mind.

An alarm echoed out across the CIC as the Pegasus flashed into system. She was decelerating, and heading in the general direction of the station.

“Oh hell!” Ivanova spat.

Ivanova cast an eye upon her console, she could see this warship, and it looked though she’d seen action. Though Ivanova didn’t recognise the design of her, it looked totally alien, and if that was the case, at least they come to the right place.

Was this a possible first contact situation?

“Scan them, lets see what we have to deal with. We’ll treat this as a first contact situation. Having said that alert the furies, ready them to launch upon my command.”

CIC Battlestar Pegasus

Commander Lee Adama, watched his DRADIS light up like a Christmas tree, unknown contacts littered the screen.

“By the Gods…” Lee whispered.

“Welcome to Babylon Five space…” Samantha Drake replied. “This is an independent state, as of a few days ago at least.”

Lee didn’t like where this was going.

“Why what happened a few days ago?” Kendra asked as she took a step closer to Samantha.

Samantha started to unravel the events that lead Earth Force to the crisis which had now formed within it ranks. The deathof the former President, and the rise to power of his then vice President Clark. The now President whom started to move his people into positions of power within the fleet. She talked about those who spoke out against him vanishing. She spoke of the rise of the xenophobic attitudes back home which had lead to the forming of Night Watch and Homeland security.

“Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” Lee said quietly to himself.

“Sir we’re being hailed by this Babylon Five.”

“This is Commander Susan Ivanova of Babylon Five, please identify yourself.”

Lee listened for a second and turned to the Earth Force captain that stood before him, he let slip a slight smile.

“Time to earn your keep Captain, there from your Earth Force…”

Samantha Drake looked at Lee, who handed her an oversized and somewhat primitive microphone something that was strange to her considering their other advances. She took hold of it, and squeezed the talk button.

“This is Captain Samantha Drake former Captain of the EA vessel Nelson, onboard the Battlestar Pegasus. I have requested, and been given Asylum onboard this vessel after my command had been usurped. Commander Adama granted our request. Furthermore the Commander has requested that I Speak on his behalf to request permission to remain in Babylon space for the time being while repairs are made on this vessel.”

As she stopped talking she looked at Lee. “It’s all in the hands of one Commander Ivanova.” She sighed.

“You two know each other?” Lee enquired, as this could help swing the request one way or another.

“Yes, we were at the Academy together, and shared some of the same classes. Mind you we’ve not seen each other in over fifteen years, so I don’t know if she’ll remember me.”

There was a longer then needed pause, before Commander Ivanova replied.

“Samantha, Samantha Drake? Is that really you?”

“I’d have to say yes….In been a while…”

“You could say that, so what are you doing on that vessel, a Battlestar you say? Is it a new Earth Force design?”

“No, it’s not from Earth. I wouldn’t want to discuses the matter over an open channel, however I can assure you we have a lot to discuss.”

“Now don’t take this personal Samantha, how the hell do I know you are speaking freely, and not under duress?”

Samantha thought to herself for a moment. She had a point, after all which had occurred recently. She smiled to herself and her completion took on a reddish Hue. “Ganya always did have deep blue eyes that you could simply drive into…”

There was a long silence, before Susan Ivanova spoke again. “Samantha….” She said in a soft voice, “…he did…” Her voice trailed off, as the memory of her brother slowly surfaced and washed over her.

“Commander Adama you are hereby authorised to take the Battlestar Pegasus to the far side of Epsilon 3. There are a lot of races which would love to get a closer look of that vessel. If you don’t want to talk on an open channel, you are welcome to bring a shuttle.”

“I thank you Commander…” Lee began “…I thought that if I asked Captain Drake to introduce us, then it give us a common ground on which talk.”

“It does indeed…” Commander Ivanova said listening to the infections play within his voice.

“I look forward to meeting you; shall we say within the hour?”

“Agreed Commander. Babylon Five out.”

CIC Babylon Five

“So do you trust them?” Lt. Corwin asked.

“In a word no, although I’d like to know why they have Samantha Drake with them.”

“So you do know her then?”

“Yes, a long time ago. She knew my brother, sorta had a crush on him when she was younger. When he died, we both joined up…” Ivanova’s voice trailer off.

Checking his console, he could see the Battlestar had powered up, and was moving at slow speed towards its destination.

“Wake the Captain and apprise him of the situation.”

“Yes Commander,” Lt. Corwin replied.

Babylon Five – Observation deck

Mr Morden was standing looking at the new unknown warship as it had appeared in system.

“Yes, it is a surprise, and you say you don’t recognise it?” Morden asked as he was replied to by the sound of chirps and other hi pitched sounds. “I agree. It does need to be investigated.”

With that he turned and walked out of the room, at the door he turned to face the darkness of space once again, smiled then left the Observation deck.

CIC Battlestar Pegasus

Lee looked towards Captain Drake, “Captain, what can you tell me about Babylon Five except for the fact that she’s big.”

“Commander, call me Samantha, Babylon Five is five miles long with a quarter million life forms living onboard her.”

Kendra let a look of astonishment play across her face, and Starbuck let slip a whistle as Samantha explained the dimensions of Babylon Five. Kendra shot a look towards Starbuck, who ignored it, much to the annoyance of the XO.

“She is the last of the Babylon stations, Babylon’s One through Three were destroyed while either in constructions or just after construction had fashioned.”

“So what happened to Babylon Four?” Kendra asked.

“Well that’s what Earth Force wants to know as well. Shortly after she’d been brought into service, she simply vanished, no explosion, nothing. Until that was four years ago, when Babylon Five, caught a distress signal from Babylon Four. She had simply appeared in sector fourteen. A rescue mission was launched and personnel were rescued, and then like the flying Dutchmen, she vanished again…”

“Sounds like a fishy tale to me, and what the frak’s a flying Dutchmen?” Starbuck asked no one in particular.

“And so Babylon Five was commissioned, she was finished with out incident, brought on line, and the rest is history,” Samantha said in a sigh.

“Captain, sorry Samantha…” Lee corrected himself. “I would like to ask for your assistance, since you know this regain of space better then we could possibly know. I need someone to act as our representative. We know little of your customs.” Lee continued looking at Starbuck, “We could put our collective foot into it without even realising what we’ve done.”

“Very well commander, on one condition. I want to know all about you, you’re fleet you are looking for, and this Battlestar.”

Lee thought for a moment. Normally he would have restricted her to certain areas of the vessel. However, if he could keep an eye on her, make sure she didn’t pose too much of a risk then the risk it self could be minimised.

“Kara, step forward please.”

“Yes sir,” she replied with a hint of frustration playing in her voice.

“This is Captain, Kara Thrace, call sign Starbuck. She will be your guide round the Pegasus. Ask her anything you need to know, she’ll do her best to help you. Kara could you billet the good Captain in with you please, and make sure her crew are in good shape.”

“Yes sir, Captain if you’d like to follow me this way.”

And with that the two women left the CIC.

“Would you mind telling me why the hell you’re letting ‘that’ woman have access to this Battlestar? How the hell do we know if we can trust her, that she isn’t some kind of spy?”

“We don’t know if we can trust her, that’s why Kara’s with her. She’ll keep an aye on her, and be deliberately vague in key areas of the vessel.

Kendra was about to say something, but changed her mind when she saw a look of determination in Lee’s eyes.

Hanger Deck – Battlestar Pegasus.

A group of pilots were standing in between their Vipers. They’d been carrying out pre-flight checks on their ‘birds’.

“So you see that Earth Alliance Shuttle?” Showboat asked the other pilots.

“Yeah Jessica,” Lunda replied teasing Showboat who hated the name Jessica. She much preferred Jess instead.

“Hey, how many Fraking times do I have to tell you nugget, it’s Jess!” snapped Showboat.

“At least once more,” mocked Lunda.

“Well, I’m with Jess here. It looks sorta boxy, no style to it what so ever. It’s just sorta well, ugly.” Lt. Fre’al said as he cleaned his hands on a rag, trying to get the oil off them.

“You want ugly, “Showboat began. “Then you should have seen the Nelson up close and personal, now that is ugly mother frakker!”

“Having said that, those fighters, what were they called again?” Lunda asked.

“Erm, oh yeah Star Furies, I think.” Showboat replied.

Starbuck walked towards the assumed group, as she did so, Lunda was the first to notice her.

“Hay guys, snap to it. Starbuck’s about.”

The conversation instantly changed to that of flight plans and dog fighting.

“What you think I was born yesterday you nuggets?” snapped Starbuck as she looked at the assembled crew in a way that if looks could kill, there would have been an assembled group of corpses instead of pilots!

“Lunda, you’re flying with Showboat on this one, to this Babylon Five. I’ll be piloting a Raptor carrying the Commander and Captain Drake,” she said as she gusted towards the hatchway, where the Captain was waiting.

“Yes Sir!” answered Lunda and Showboat.

“Get your birds ready to launch within the hour.”

With that she tuned and left the bay.

Lunda was of slight build, with shoulder-length ginger hair, which matched her temper. Standing five foot four tall, she seemed as if she’d be a push over.

However most pilots who’d tried in the past found that the only person who was pushed over was themselves, much to the amusement to anyone else who saw it.

Showboat had been one of them which had tried to boss Lunda about when they first met. Looking at them, most of the pilots commented on the fact that they were both the same height and build.

And now they were the greatest of friends, often referred to as the evil twins! This image was enhanced by the almost matching hair colour; the only difference being Showboat had a darker shade of ginger.

CIC Babylon Five

Sheridan was studying the readings which had been gleamed from the scans of the new vessel, this Battlestar. She was a predator that was for sure, though it was rather perplexing that she seemed to have no plasma based weaponry. So this posed the question was the armour capable of stopping main weapons fire from say an Omega?

“Captain, Pegasus has launched a shuttle and two Vipers? I assume that’s there configuration of a fighter craft.”

“Put it onscreen Lt. Corwin,” Sheridan instructed as he turned to look at the console before him. Letting slip a whistle of appreciation, Sheridan gestured towards the screen. “They remind me of the old style jet fighters from Earths ancient past.”

Ivanova looked towards the screen, they were sleek, mean, and look rather out of place in space. Between them a rather different style craft flew, unlike the Vipers, this was a shuttle of some sort. She’d love to look at it closely, maybe learn how it worked.

“Is Mr Garibaldi in bay fourteen yet?” Sheridan asked.

“He should be there within the next five minutes.”

“Good Commander, I think its time to meet the newcomers.”

“Yes sir, and you want me too...” Ivanova asked hopefully.

“Wait here and look after CIC.”

Ivanova let slip a sigh. “You know you have all the fun!”

“It comes with the rank, carry on Commander!”

Raptor # 1 and her Escorts

Lee looked at the opening which was rotating while Kara adjusted the vector of the Raptors approach and matched the rotation of the station.

“This is new,” she said quietly to her self.

“You know this could quite possibly mean they have no artificial gravity,” Lee found himself saying softly.

“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” Samantha Drake said in a slightly defensive manner. “It’s all we’ve got, and it seems to work very well for us thus far, to a degree.” she continued.

As the Raptor passed into the stations docking bays, the two vipers took defensive positions around the stations.

“So this is what we got to do, fly round the station all day?” Lunda sighed.

“Yep, until we escort the Raptor back to Pegasus.” Showboat sighed.

Lunda activated her gun cameras, as she passed over the station. Flying in a tight formation with Showboat; she began to record images which could if needed give the Pegasus vita information about the station.

A series of flashing lights caught the attention of Lunda as she banked to port; her gun camera captured the activation of the jump gate.

As it activated the same vortex which the Nelson had emerged from, opened within the gates, and from it, a very strange saucer type of vessel emerged. It was followed by two strange looking blue fish shaped vessels, each of which were making there way towards the station.

For a long time, neither Lunda nor Showboat said anything, but looked agog at the very alien vessels which were fast approaching.

The first vessel’s hull was slowly spinning, the blue colour of it, was bright and garish.

“Well at least there’s one thing Lunda.” Showboat commented upon softly. “They’re not grey!”

Hanger bay fourteen

As the Raptor touched down upon the deck, the engines powered down, and the hatchway hissed open. Captain Sheridan looked towards his chief of security Mr Garibaldi, who was looking carefully at this ‘Raptor’. Behind them four armed guards stood to attention ready to spring into action if the need arose.

Stepping out of the Raptor Kara Thrace looked towards the assembled guards and stood to the right. Next came Captain Drake and finally by Lee Adama.

Looking towards the assembled crew before him the colonials human, he stood forward and spoke. “I am Commander Lee Adama of the Battlestar Pegasus, this is Captain Thrace…”

He continued as he gestured towards Kara who nodded.

“And I believe you know Captain Samantha Drake.” Who upon hearing her name mentioned nodded. “Captain Drake has graciously agreed to represent us here with your station.”

Captain Sheridan studied his fellow Earth Alliance Captain with a curious look, the language which this Commander was using was almost English in nature. However certain words were totally foreign and seemed out of place within the structure of the sentences they used. This was going to make any conversation interesting to say the least.

“Commander, Captain, would you mind telling me where you’re from, a lost colony?” Sheridan asked.

“It’s a long story, and one that I think we need to discus in private rather then standing in a docking bay.” Captain Drake replied on Lee’s Behalf.

Watching the conversation from a high platform, Mr Morden listened carefully. They were human but spoke with a very strange ascent. It was one that he didn’t recognize nor to that fact did his associates. What almost seemed to be more troubling is that the Shadows had no idea of the origins of these humans. Their vessels were completely alien and unknown to them.

It was fortunate that Mr. Morden had bought off a member of the docking crew, someone that had a rather shady past. He knew how to keep his mouth shut, for a price and how to give the correct information. If it were not for him, then he would have never of known of this meeting. He was useful for the moment and so he would let him live.

Sheridan led the assembled personnel to an unknown destination, for now at least. Waiting until the area was safe; Mr. Morden slipped off the ledge and made his way towards his quarters.

Showboat’s Viper

Showboat was viewing the footage of the station. It was a huge, bigger than anything she’d seen before. However, looking at the strange fish type vessel that seemed to glide effortlessly in space, it gave her an uneasy feeling.

“Hey Lunda, you alright over there?”

“Yeah Showboat, just watching the vessels. You know, five years ago if anyone would have told us we’d be finding alien vessels, and space stations, I’d have laughed. But now, well anything seems possible!”

With a sudden flash of light a new vortex formed, a large bulky grey vessel stumbled rather then flew through the vortex. The two fish-type vessel instantly turned to face this new arrival. A wing of Star Furies were launched from the station, even as the massive weapon systems of Babylon Five came to life.

“Showboat, Lunda report…” Kendra voice echoed out of the com system.

“Unknown contact has jumped into system. The station has launched a wing of fighters, and the stations main weapons systems have come on line.”

“You are ordered to stand down not to engage unless fire upon, this is not our fight…”

“Roger that Pegasus.”

As the Earth Alliance destroyer limped towards the station. Showboat could see its name proudly emblazoned upon it, she bore a name EA Intrepid. With a final burst from their engines the vessel, slowed its approach before the engines flamed out.

Listing to port, she came to a gradual halt, allowing all to see the damage that this vessel had taken. The weapons fire marks that she bore were more explosive then anything else, armour had melted away in places, leaving bulkhead open to space.

And embedded into the side of the Intrepid was what remained of a cylon raider.

“Oh Frak!” Snapped Showboat.