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 ]