Destroyers
Chapter 1

--- Preparations ---
Part 3 of 5

Written by Shaule Sachs
(c) 1996, Shaule Sachs
#include #include ===== [Babylon 5; Gardens Afternoon, July 4, 2256 TCE] The Minbari arrived in the Gardens with only a few moment to spare before the cememonies began. Silence seemed to enter with them. Delenn decided to join Sinclair's group. The group was standing by the stage that had Zaxxon and someothers on it. Sinclair, Takashima, Garibaldi, and Kyle were in full Earth Force dress uniforms while Hawkeye and Little Deer were wearing formal Knight Enterprise uniforms. Only Zaxxon had not changed and yet he seemed to fit in perfectly with the crowd. "In just a few moments now, the main reactor core will be up to speed and ready to power up," Zaxxon began. "So, Engineer Thunderbird, please, disengage solar power cells," Zaxxon said, and the main lights went out as Little Deer acknowledged the order. The silence seemed to grow with the darkness. Only the emergency lighting remained and that was limited to the hallways. The sound of a commlink activating sounded strangely loud in the darkened gardens. "Ten," Zaxxon began. "Nine," said the crowd as one, confusing the Minbari. "Eight," came voices from the back of the gardens. "Seven," Sinclair and company said. "Six," a bunch of Senators screamed. "They appear to be counting downwards, why?" asked Delenn. "Five," a group of Generals and Admirals replied. "Should we join in?" Linan asked of Delenn. "Maybe. . ." Delenn replied. "Four," came from the far side of the Gardens. "Quickly, what comes before four?" Delenn asked. "Five," replied Linan hopefully. "They have already said that," Daran said, "It's . . . ." "Three," came from a group of reporters covering the story. Sinclair, seeing the confusion among the Minbari, had made his way towards them. Upon reaching them Sinclair said, "The next number is two, Ambassador. Together. . . ." "Two," cried the Minbari and Sinclair together. Various groups around the Minbari began smiling seeing the proud Minbari joining in. "Its a custom to count downwards to start an event," Sinclair began to explain. "One," shouted everyone. "Show time," Zaxxon said softly. "Zero," he continued in a louder voice. An pause filled the air. In the darkness Zaxxon's voice could be heard intoning, "In the beginning, there was Darkness.... And the Creator said, 'Let there be Light,' and there was light." So saying the main lightning system returned to life, giving the impression that it was a sunny afternoon day. From the speakers that were strategically placed throughout the lights came a female voice that said, "Computer system . . . online. Systems check . . . optimal settings. Sensors . . . online. Fusion reactors . . . online. Welcome to Babylon Five. All systems . . . online. This is Babylon Five computer system, online and functional." With Babylon 5 officially online, the party became more of a celebration than before. Where as before, the people had gathered around the stage together, now they were clustered into various groups. Senator Hidoshi left a group of his fellow senators to join with Zaxxon and Sinclair. The two fell silent out of respect for the elder senator. << "Zaxxon-san, you are a marvel," >> Senator Hihoshi began in Japanese. << "We gave but a year to construct this station and you did it," >> he continued excitely. << "Thank you, Honorable Senator," >> replied Zaxxon in Japanese, << "The honor must go to my employees who worked so hard." >> << "They work so hard because they love their shachoo," >> the Senator stated, << "You are a true samuri, Zaxxon-san." >> Zaxxon could only bow to the Senator at the compliment. Turning to Sinclair Zaxxon said, "Commander Sinclair, this is Senator Hidoshi." Sinclair bowed to the Senator and said, "A pleasue to meet you sir." Hidoshi returned the bow and said, "Ah, Sinclair, an honorable family. I believe that you will do well here. If you gentlemen would excuse me I see that my wife needs by assistance." So saying the Senator bowed and departured. Sinclair followed the Senator with his eyes. He turned to Zaxxon and said, "Interesting fellow." Zaxxon nodded and replied, "Yes. Don't worry Jeff, if you need any assistance with the Oversight committtee, Senator Hidoshi is on our side. He'll provide as much help as he can from EarthDome. Come, there are more Senators to meet." The three Minbari had worked their way towards a corner of the gardens where some Minbari plants where growing. The plants were a gift from the Minbari to the station as a sign of their support of it. Now the plants were a haven to the Minbari lost in a sea of humanity. The others were politely ignoring the Minbari. << "So this is a 'party'," >> Linan said in Minbari. << "There sure is a lot of food here," >> Daran said before placing a piece of spoo into her mouth. << "Yes, foods and beverages are a part of a 'party'," >> Delenn said wisely. << "What is that brown stuff you have in your hand? " >> Linan asked of Daran. << "It's called 'chocolate,' everyone is eatting it. It is be consumed faster than the spoo is. Both are very tasty," >> replied Daran a bit defensively. << "Give me a piece of this 'chocolate,'" >> Delenn demanded. The request was more of a command so that Daran immediated handed over the chocolate bar she was about to eat to Delenn and replied, << "Yes, Sa... Ambassador." >> << "Yes, this 'chocolate' is good," >> Delenn stated after eatting the chocolate bar, << "We do not have anything like this on Minbar." >> << "It could be arranged," >> Zaxxon said to Delenn. << "Where ..." >> Daran gasped. << "What ..." >> both Delenn and Lian exclaimed. << "I mean, its possible we could set up a deal to deliver 'chocolate' to Minbar," >> Zaxxon replied calmly. << "How ..." >> Delenn started to say. << "I have always believed in conducting business deals in my clients native tongue. Less of a chance of misunderstand that way," >> Zaxxon continued. << "You are enjoying the 'chocolate,' correct?" >> << "Yes," >> replied Delenn and Daran. << "Then maybe other Minbari will enjoy some 'chocolate' too," >> Zaxxon said as-matter-of-fact. << "Maybe," >> Delenn replied uncertain. << "We'll discuss it after the festival," >> Zaxxon said. "Now Ambassador, I think would be a good time to meet some of our other partners," Zaxxon continued in Alliance standard. "/Other/ partners?" Delenn asked. "Other as in besides me, of course," Zaxxon replied. "In this case, I mean some of the Senators on the Earth Alliance Oversight Committe for Babylon Five," Zaxxon continued, "Earth Alliance owns approximately sixty percent of Babylon Five, Knight Enterprise owns about ten percent, and the Minbari Federation owns the remaining thirty percent Ambassador. That's why the Federation had a say in who commanded Babylon Five." "Shall we go then," Delenn replied. Zaxxon lead the three Minbari to a group of Senators. The group of senators was made up of four senators. Zaxxon introduced them saying, "From my right to left are Senators Hidoshi, Richard Cradford, and Dianna Johnsoni of the Oversight committee for Babylon Five and Senator Mary Lacasa is part of the Extraterrestrial Affairs committee. Representatives Nanct Hardcastle and William Smith are members of the Colonial Operations Oversight committe and next to Representative Smith is Representive Tomas Stormbringer of the Exploration Committee." As the Minbari approached the group they overheard the one identitied as Representative Stormbinger say that another exploration mission into Vorlon space was under way. "Ah," said Representative Stormbringer, "Ambassador Delenn, I was going to go looking for you." "Oh?" Delenn replied. "Yes," Stormbringer continued, "We know that you, Minbari, are one of the oldest race of those we, Terrans, have encountered and I was wondering what information on the Vorlons you could give us?" "There is not much to say about the Vorlons, Representative," Delenn began, "they keep to themselves." "Oh," Stormbringer replied. "We've sent two previous ships to make contact with the Vorlons...." "If you'll excuse me, I promised Lieutenant Commander Takashima that I'd cover C&C so she could attend the last hours of this party," Zaxxon told the group at large. "Of course, Honor demands that you keep your promises," replied Hidoshi bowing to Zaxxon. "And a chance to use the Babylon Five mainframe to play 'Space Defenders' one last time before the system loads get too high, has nothing to do with it, I bet," Stormbringer stated sharply, being slightly mad at the interuption. Zaxxon simply smiled, returned Hidoshi's bow, and left. "If you don't mind my asking, what happened to your previous attempts?" Delenn asked, continuing where they left off. "Not at all," Stormbringer said. "The first mission we sent to contact the Vorlons discovered an ionized asteroid field that was full of various minerals and other materials we could use. Since there seemed no other way around the field the Captain had to go through it. Well, the asteroid field proved more dense than the Centauri's map had lead us to believe. Before the ship was destroyed, they were able to analyze the field to determ that the field was minable. So when the Vorlons radioed about our loss, we asked if anyone had claim to the field. The Vorlons said that no one did, so we began mining it. The second mission discovered a trinary planetary system that we have not had the chance before to examine. The ship was destroyed in an unexpeted solar flare. So far we're oh for two. We, the committe I'm on, hope that Captain Harison won't get sidetrack like the others did." "Why do you continue to try to contact the Vorlons if the last two were destroyed?" asked Daran. "Why not?" replied Stormbringer shrugging. Representative Smith, noticing that Stormbringer's attention to Delenn had shifted to Daran, he said to Delenn, "I understand that the Minbari have three castes to your society. I was wondering if you would be kind enough to try to explain it to us?" "Yes, please," replied various Sentaors and Representatives. "Well, there really is not much to explain," Delenn began. "The three castes are the Religious, Warrior, and Worker caste...." Sinclair noticed Zaxxon introducing Delenn to the various Earth Dome officials. At first he was worried but his fears were laid to rest when he saw that the officials had included the Minbari in their talks. Seeing as how there were no problems developing, Sinclair decided to remain where he was with the others. He was surprised when Lieutentant Commander Takashima joined them. He asked to her, "Aren't you suppose to be in Command-and-Control?" "Dr. Hunter relieved me. He thought I shouldn't miss the party," Takashima replied. "Oh? I didn't know that civilians could relieve command staff personel," Garibaldi put in. "Well, Zaxxon's not a civilian, per say," Sinclair began. "He has special agent status with Earth Force." "During the Earth-Minbari War, Dr. Hunter was the Chief Engineer for Earth Force Research and Development division," Little Deer continued. "Oh," Garibaldi said thinking about how some of the improvements that his unit got saved their lives a number of times. [Babylon 5; Gardens Station Night Cycle] "A toast, to everyone before I go," Zaxxon started, "To Babylon Five. Babylon Five is a dream. A Dream we have given form to. It is our hope that it will be a place of understanding and peace. A place where human and alien can coexist and learn from each other. A place that will be a beacon of Light in the Darkness of space. A place where people will know that we are not alone in Night but among friends. To Babylon Five." === End of Part 3 === [ More of Chapter 1 to come ]