**'With fire descendant, they ran from the horror; the far darkness made flesh, the terrible fire unleashed. Those who Stood were not yet ready, and yet, hope did exist, if diminishing; hope in the Lords who stood behind us, hope in the help they could provide. The time of the desperate choice was drawing ever nearer, even if not seen. In the face of the Fire, the Three above and the Three below would act, and the Gate, it did open...'**
- Quote from the version of the Book of the Observer published after the Great Burn
* * *
August 3rd, 2260. Brakiri space.
With a subsonic howl, space twisted, and was flung aside, as three Brakiri cruisers emerged into realspace. They had come in response to a desperate signal that had been detected only hours before; a signal that declared a horror unleashed. With grim expression, the commander of the squadron looked upon the devastation in front of him; a group of cruisers from his navy, torn to shreds by a force feared, but not believed in by many.
That would change, now; the League races, so long playing one side against the other in hope of their own survival, were now, it seemed, under sentence of random death. Attacks like this one had occurred everywhere in the last day...and all knew the truth; no Brakiri ships, alone, could stand against the force that had done this...what force could??
Shortly thereafter, the Brakiri Captain, along with his two junior command followers, gazed bitterly upon the images contained in a ejected camera pod; a half dozen, enormous, black as night insectoid ships against the emerald nebulae of the Brakiri domain, dealing out death.
It was true, then; they had not wanted to believe, and now...the name that had first been whispered in rumour would be shared in conversation across a hundred sectors. The Shadows were on the warpath, and who, save, perhaps, the mysterious Vorlons, would be able to stand against them?
"What are we to do?" one of the junior captains asked.
"This image log must reach Babylon 5 intact; he who commands that place has influence with the Vorlon ambassador, or so I have heard; in any case, if help is not found, we will ALL be destroyed by the Shadows.
We have no other hope!"
* * *
Chronicles Log, August 5th, 2260.
Purpose: retrospect on the week just past;
They mock us, I am sure of it.
Without any warning, and, of course, without apology, the Vorlons dropped Alkanion Verah into Tuzanor valley, devoid of anything and everything that made him useful to us. Well over a year of his memories are missing, including, naturally, the time he spent on the Shadow homeworld of Z'ha'dum. He remembers none of what happened, either on the Cha'hal'zhamon base or on the White Star during the rescue, and as a result, his mental condition has immediately begun to deteriorate. It is infuriating, and, naturally, when I dared to confront Ulkesh on the matter (against the advice of nearly every Minbari I know) the Vorlon displayed his usual brick wall; what he said was:
'You are not ready to learn the truth about Z'ha'dum; you are not the One who will; the One who will change all is not yet known'
Very useful; but there is some hope; the faction of the Vorlons that supported Ambassador Kosh engaged the Shadow fleet in Brakiri space a short time ago; that fleet, as far as we can tell, no longer exists. Some hope, I will say, but also despair, as word reached us, a short time ago, through covert channels, that the Ambassador paid for that choice with his life; SOMETHING attacked him on Babylon 5, and killed him. I, personally, think it obvious who and what that something was.
And regardless of all that has happened, the urgency of our mission continues to increase; each week, one or two White Stars are completed, and added to the Fleet, and while the job of training them continues to become ever more complicated, we are making progress; and finding the edge of the envelope the White Stars perform along is the chief of our concerns...
* * *
August 6th, 2260..
Without visible drive exhaust, the target vehicles dropped towards the surface of Minbar, accelerating at a steady ten gravities. Already, the kinetic energy fire of the upper atmosphere left a comet's trail of superheated gas behind them, but subterfuge was not the point of this exercise; precision *was*.
Fifty kilometers above the planet, six points of realspace shimmered, and then, with a crackle of displaced energy, tore. For a few bare seconds, the rarified atmosphere spiraled away to destruction, and then, the jump energies faded, and thirty-six White Stars formed up on their two command ships, the black of space above, the blue, green and white of Minbar below.
"The point of this exercise is simple.." William announced dryly to the listening fleet crews. "We will, by nature, have to occasionally operate within an atmospheric environment; when you approach them, the target carriers will launch their drones for you to follow. However, balance your need for success against the knowledge that you can damage your warships with excessive speed in this environment; your White Star protects you; do not abuse that privelege."
A chorus of acknowledgements returned, and then the triad units broke away, and began the chase. William turned in his seat, to observe Jennie staring off into space, a pensive look on her face. "Well?"
"This is taking too long, Will; we shuffle ahead, step by step, while the Shadows mock us from the distance. Millions have already died in this conflict, whether it be on Narn, in Brakiri space, or within our own ranks..it tears at me, to know the White Star Fleet, as it is, exists...and we can't do anything to help them!!"
"It tears at us all of us, Jennifer; Vikotal and I most of all. I have to consider, at least once or twice a day, the price we will pay if we attack the Shadows too soon, and in the wrong place. We still don't know enough about their tactics..and as long as the Younger Worlds stand divided in fear of Shadow retribution..."
"Then who will dare to unite us, William??" Jennie bitterly replied, as ahead of them, the sparks of dying drones marked the Fleet hard at practice. "Who has the will, and the authority, to not only guide the White Star Fleet in battle, if not us, and also bring together EVERY race we can find to help??"
He smiled. "For now, I'm not sure; but I do have my suspicions..."
* * *
That night, in the dreamscape, the Other visited him once again. Around them, an image of withered fall; as always, the image portrayed in the Dreamscape was entirely based on the Other's mood relative to the situation the Cha'hal'zhamon happened to find themselves in at the time.
"Have they done what was suggested?"
"Yes, Rimstalker; they did so, because there was no longer any choice left to them. Of all our places of Power, only three now remain, and these have been reconfigured to a state of War...you would not even recognize them in comparison to those you have seen. More then half of Those that Remain have now consigned themselves to warrior duties; but we are far from where we were, in coming to this place."
"I must know of your placement, so I may report to my Entil'zha."
"It shall be as you wish." The Other gestured sharply, and William had the dizzying vision of hyperspace SOMEHOW overlaid onto realspace; just as simply, three brilliant diamonds sprang into being against the reddish darkness, all within twenty light years of Minbar, and as far down the incline as it was possible to go. "If the Shadows and their allies draw near enough to the world of the Minbari to encounter us once more, it will be because all you plans will have failed. If that should occur, we will rise, and fight the final fight; we will slow them down, but do not, for a minute, believe that we will stop them. We are an old race, but experience has now proven which of us is the greater in waging war..."
"I understand."
The Other's gaze hardened. "Understand THIS, human; if such a time comes, it will be after you, yourself, have died. We make this bargain in good faith, as with all we have made, but we expect you to play your part in the war against the Foe."
"It shall be as you say."
"Good." The Other paused for a moment. "Before I go, Those that Remain have a message for your companion, the Observer. A while ago, we discussed the mystery of our origin, and since then, our Elders have searched the archives diligently. They have found something...and as such, the Elders, after translating it, as best as possible, into your primitive tongue, declared that your Observer should know what was found."
"Excellent; she will be glad to hear your words."
The Other narrowed his eyes. "Do not be so quick to judge her response."
* * *
Deep in Minbar's night, a single candle burned in a all too important room. Nearby, William once more slept a sleep of peace, unburdened by any dream messages from his Cha'hal'zhamon contact, but after he and the Other had parted ways in the Dreamscape, Will had woken her up to give her a message from them.
Since then, sleep had been impossible. With a sigh, Jennie read it again, as if reading would make it make sense. Everything about these Cha'hal'zhamon, which William had only opened up to her about just recently, was a mass of riddles.
* * *
'In fear created, we cross; cross to a place we know not;
But a place to shelter us.
The Masters wail and gnash, but are prevented, by Order,
Hated Order, from passing.
The Gate Denied them, the Gate denied them.
The Hidden Gate, our saviour, denied them.
Above, and below, and beyond, the Three; fear the Three..
That gave us Life.'
She shook her head, and rose, wrapping a cloak around her. "Damn First Ones.." she whispered to herself, as she went to get some fresh air. "You'd think they were trying to give us a headache on purpose, with all these prophecies and hidden meanings..."
* * *
August 8th, 2260.
This had been a bad idea from the start; but silly her, the silly acolyte Observer, she had said 'why sure!' And so, Jennifer had asked a Minbari, apparently one of her closest friends in the Rangers, to set up a series of 'defensive practices' with some Minbari her own age; after all, there was more to her tasks then Observing...eventually she would be a Ranger, wouldn't she?? And that, of course, involved training!
And so, this Minbari, Dreann, had introduced her to a youth of her race, a younger cousin named Vahdal, who had, by means TERRIBLY honorable, then proceeded to beat the pants off her with the staff. She winced, and touched her side, where her ribs had been bruised by an errant strike, a strike that Vahdal had apologized about, but it had happened, regardless.
At this rate, she would be old and gray before she equalled her Mistress's standing in hand to hand fighting!
"Not an enjoyable morning for you..." a familiar voice said, and a startled Julia looked up, to see a figure standing before her, wrapped in cloak, despite the day's heat. "But at least you have started; start something, and it becomes very easy to follow that something to the finish."
"Brianna??"
The figure put off its hood, revealing Brianna's familiar rush of long red hair...but the telepath, herself, seemed...bruised, somehow, and there were deep shadows under her eyes. "In the flesh."
"You look..."
"Abused?"
"Ulkesh did this to you?"
"Ulkesh is...not an even tempered master, and as of late, I have...suffered from his darker moods. He has not been very happy since the Shadows attacked the League worlds, and he was even LESS happy, if that is possible, when they retaliated by killing Kosh."
"You KNOW about that?"
"The event reverbarated amongst the Many like an earthquake, Julia; I could hardly hope to miss it. They are unsettled...unhappy...and ultimately, I believe, they will be angry enough to turn the present fire of war into an inferno. It's been a very long time since one of them died, and they don't like it; they don't like to remember that they're not immortal."
"An inferno, you say??" Julia shivered, even in the heat. "If we knew even a little bit about what they're capable of..."
"I'm not sure you should wonder." Brianna paused, and then smiled. "But I didn't come here to frighten you, Julia; there are enough fears to deal with through the actions of the Shadows as it is. I came, so you would know I'm okay...I may not LOOK okay, and sometimes, I think working for Ulkesh is its own private hell, but it’s what I am, just as you're what you are."
"You didn't...visit William, did you?"
"That wouldn't be a good idea right now, Julia..he has enough to worry about as it is with training the White Star Fleet crews; additionally, our parting was less then happy. In fact, I'd prefer it if you wouldn't tell them I visited you today...at least for now. They need no more worries; we however, we share at least a little bond of trust, don't we?"
"For now, yes."
Brianna sighed, and nodded. "I understand; fare you well, Julia, until next we meet."
After Brianna had cloaked herself and departed, Julia sat on the bench for a long time, thinking. And, finally, she drew a memory pad out of her tunic pocket, and began to write.
For some time now, she had been doing this; just about since William had rescued her, in fact, and the pad given her by Jennifer recently had only made that easier. What this all meant, in the final analysis, would come out in the writing...
* * *
That was where it all started to change for me, to less become an adventure I was on, and more, what my life would become, in due course. In the years that followed, I would first be Anla'shok, then Val'na, then Sha'vei, and, finally, what I am now. I have come a long road to reach this point, and the fiery years of the Great War played an enormous part in making of me what I became.
But come, listeners...the story isn't over yet.
Not by a long shot.
* * *
To be continued...
Next: Between the future and the past, it is all in the details, as "Desperate Measures" concludes...