Author's Note #2 - In this story, I introduce another (initially, guest part) character to the S&C 'mythos'. And if you think she's not important yet... well, neither was Julia when she first appeared in the *Rimstalker*, two years ago. That's all the hint I'm giving for now!

* * *

"STAR AND CIRCLE: THE SEEKER'S FIRE"
EPISODE SEVENTEEN: "A PLACE TO CALL HOME"

MIKE FARRELL as Robert Dawson
KATE HUDSON as Meighan Francis-Dawson
JENNIFER JASON LEIGH as Marie Dawson
MEREDITH HENDERSON as Kaitlyn Hughes
and JONATHAN PRYCE as The Authority
* * *

        (disclaimers and associated descriptions in overture)

* * *

        "You never know what you'll find, when you look beyond the edge of what's known, and into what's not..."

        -a quote attributed to Captain Jack Maynard, as recounted by President John Sheridan in his autobiographical work, 'No Retreat, No Surrender'

* * *

        Sector 979, 211x41x117. October 28th, 2267 - 04:20 hrs, EST.

        "I never thought this day would come..." Larieken managed, the first of the 'Shard of Night's crew to break the silence that had fallen after the discovery just past. "Never really *believed* that any of the races in this galaxy, young or Ancient, had built a construct such as - this..."

        "How old is it?" Sheynell added, her eyes wide as the probes continued to download information to her station through the link they'd established using the ancient jumpgate. "How old *could* it be?"

        "Certainly old enough to have been built by one of the races we term 'First Ones'..." Klairika replied. "And not one of the races that aided the President and our Entil'zha during the Shadow War, either -- but perhaps, instead..."

        "One of the races that sided with Valen and the Vorlons during the previous war." Larieken finished for her. "As you say - perhaps."

        "Artifact seems in good shape, if this is true." Dasouri added. "Perhaps - suspiciously good? As if..."

        "As if something maintains it, even to this day."

        "Or something artificial." Julia concluded for them all. "Maybe even something... nanonic?"

        "Be careful what you wish for, Julia." Sheynell warned her captain. "The last time we had an encounter with something 'nanonic', we were flung beyond the Rim and ended up having to rely on Lorien and the Shadows to help get us home."

        "So noted." Julia replied, her tone now full of brittle warning. Klairika winced -- she, almost more than anyone else, had been subject to that side of Julia's personality since the start of the mission... and as she knew from first hand experience, whenever it emerged trouble was almost always one step behind. "But there's a mystery here - a mystery that deserves to be explained, in my opinion. After all - our secondary mission *is* to explore sites of interest, looking for a cure to the plague - and I'm pretty sure this counts as one of those."

        "Maybe so... but *this* time, lets take things slowly, all right?" Sheynell entreated. "This system might be empty -- but the powers behind that Artifact out there might also be waiting for sentient lifeforms to jump in before attacking them... might be ignoring our probes to see if the fish will be curious enough to bite."

        A long moment passed... but finally Julia nodded, and Klairika allowed herself to relax... for the time being, at least. "You're right, of course -- it's the middle of the night, our time... and while it would be easy to immediately move on this -- after everything we've learned about First Ones technology this year, it sure wouldn't be the smart thing to do, that's for sure. For now -- we stay here, and let our probes explore a bit -- try to get another hour or two of rest, perhaps..."

        "Speaking of 'rest'..." Klairika inquired, "Has anyone heard from Mr. Dawson, yet?"

        "No..." Sheynell replied with a frown, "I sent a message to his comm station a few minutes ago when we weren't sure whether or not we could bounce a signal off that gate... but he didn't respond. That's not like him... he's usually eager to take on a new engineering problem."

        "You don't think anything's wrong, do you?"

        "Well, maybe someone should go down to his quarters to make sure. And since we hit it off so well when I first came aboard, maybe that 'someone' should be me?"

* * *

        Engineering Deck - 04:27 hrs, EST.

        "Okay, Lesaki... are we ready to go?"

        "We are." the 'Shard of Night's assistant engineer replied, his expression solemn. "Although -- I feel I must point out, sir, that this far out from the dedicated series of tachyon transfer relays installed in most of the gates we know of... the strength of your avatar in Earthspace will be tenuous, at best. And that we cannot even guarantee your presence there for any significant length of time."

        "Yeah, well - I've made my promises, now you get to keep yours." Nicholas stated, his expression, he hoped, showing exactly what was on his mind. "Did you manage to divert elements of our sensor network to Earth without the Rangers finding out?"

        "I did." the Minbari allowed. "You do realize, of course, that *she* will not be pleased when she finds out about this... and that even given the explanation I am to give to them, the captain may consider this dereliction of your duty to the rest of the crew and to the mission."

        "Well you know what, LesakI? - the one thing little miss high and mighty seems to forget once in a while is that I'm not a Ranger -- and that even though I agreed to help her when she decided to go on this little crusade of hers, I haven't sworn those vows that she's sworn. So I'm doing this, whether she likes it or not."

        "And if she tries to cut off your access to the network, what then?"

        "Uh, uh, Lesaki - it's not that simple. Y'see, there's things about this ship that none of them know - things that only *I* and the other senior members of Varsak's team know - the people that actually built this ship, from the keel on up. And while we were only supposed to use these secrets in time of crisis..."

        "For you, this *is* a time of crisis." Lesaki noted. "Your sibling is about to pass beyond the Veil, and you believe that you must go to see her before deciding what it is you must do next... regardless of the consequences."

        "Exactly." Nicholas agreed with a grin, as he and Lesaki arrived at his office on the engineering deck. "And now..."

* * *

        "I'll see you on the flip side?" Sheynell exclaimed, as she came round the corner and directly into Dawson's line-of-sight. "Oh, no... damnit, not now -- he can't do this now, she'll have a fit! Nicholas!"

        <Ah Hell - here comes the inquisition. See you later, Lesaki...> And then, before she could say another word, Dawson stepped through the door of his office, and the door slid shut. An instant later, she was at that door, and reaching down to...

        Sheynell stopped, and turned to face Lesaki. "You've got to be kidding." she muttered, as the thoughts on the surface of the engineer's mind came clear to her. "You're not telling me that he..."

        "Yes - I'm afraid that he did." Lesaki replied, his expression maddeningly calm. "The Chief Engineer wished to ensure that neither you nor the other senior members of Val'na Tikopai's crew interrupted him in this... pilgrimage he has to undertake. The door will not open for you, I am afraid -- will not open for any member of this crew save for himself. While as far as the ship's computer is concerned, that room and the man inside it do not exist."

        "His sister?"

        Lesaki nodded. "Her time is coming - and Mr. Dawson has chosen to be with his family in their moment of need."

        "And do they know he's coming?" Sheynell asked. "Did... his sister ever tell the rest of their family about these little visits of his?"

        "I do not believe so." Lesaki finally admitted. "I believe you would term this sort of situation, 'their little secret'."

        "Oh *boy*." Sheynell muttered, as she turned away from the door, shaking her head as she went. "Looks like they're about to get the shock of their lives. While it looks as if I'm going to have to be the bearer of bad news..."

* * *

        Captain's Quarters - 04:39 hrs, EST.

        "He did WHAT?" Julia exclaimed - all thoughts of rest now forgotten. "Oh, of all the times he could have picked, of all the stupid things he could have done..."

        "It's not stupid to him, Julia." Sheynell countered. "Remember that he's not like you *or* me -- my parents and family are all on Mars, while your mother's somewhere out there with her crew and her ship. *His* family are all on Earth, and one of them's about to die. He just wanted to make sure that no one would interfere..."

        "And you're sure we can't order the ship's computer to open that door... that there's no other way into that room?"

         "Lesaki says not - and given that he knows almost as much about this ship's inner workings as Nicholas does... I'm inclined to believe him."

        She shuddered then to see the anger on the surface of Julia's mind - the one emotion that Sheynell had noticed her having more and more trouble with as the mission went on - but then that anger vanished almost like a fire being quenched by water, and a certain degree of composure returned to her captain's face. "I see. And you think we can get by without his help for now?"

        "I think we have to. Because even *if* we found a way to break through his containment barrier and cut off his access to Earth... you'd almost certainly have his resignation papers on your desk within the hour, if not sooner. This is important to him, Julia, in the here and now... the recriminations can come later. And in any case -- don't we have more important things to focus on then the rebellious nature of our chief engineer?"

        "I guess we do at that." Julia admitted, as she turned her attention to the nearby holographic image, all thoughts of rest long since set aside. "Enhance and enlarge present image." The ship's main computer dutifully replied to that command - and a moment later the planet and its surrounding Artifact grew to fill the air over the table between them.

        Though in her opinion, the title didn't do it justice. The scale was suitably humbling - from the eight 'space elevators' reaching out to geosynchronous orbit, to the city that encircled the planet's equator... to the thousands of crystalline tendrils that reached up from that ring city to form a nested sphere around the planet... to the thousands more that reached almost half a million kilometres out into space like needles protruding from a cactus -- so far out that some of them extended beyond the orbit of the planet's outermost moon.

        Larieken had already, on the side, observed that there the asteroid density in the system was very nearly zero, and that the next planet out seemed to be missing most of its crust. It was obvious where the beings who'd built the Artifact had got their raw materials from - but not *quite* so obvious how they'd built it... or why. "We could spend years exploring it -- and still not see it all." Sheynell said. "Where do we begin?"

        "That's a very good question." Julia replied, as she leant forward to gaze at the image. "Larieken and Klarika are trying to see if they can find a command node of some sort, actually..."

* * *

        What none of the Rangers on the 'Shard of Night' knew was this would not be an easy task... would, in fact, be close to impossible due to the fact that the Artifact posessed no 'command node', as such -- instead, that the intelligence that watched over the ancient construct spread itself out throughout the millions of square miles of real estate that the Artifact contained. In human terms, the intelligence thought of itself as The Authority... and it had ruled over its not-so little kingdom for a very long time... longer, in fact, then it could accurately remember.

        A ghost in the machine... in more ways than one.

        One thing the Authority was well aware of, however, were the handful of probes that had entered the system through a nexuspoint - the first nexuspoint it had seen for many, many Turns. "And so it begins again..." it whispered, that whisper echoing through the enormous, deserted habitats hanging above the planet where it had been born, so long ago. "Those who would ruin Their masterpiece... they have returned." It had been given instructions on how to deal with interlopers by Those who had Passed Beyond... and as with all their instructions, it would follow this one to the letter.

        But still... the actions of the interlopers were curious ones, this time. In his memory resided the images of nexuspoints opening, of mighty fleets coming to ravage Their masterwork. All had been rebuffed... all had been driven away in their turn. But this time - only probes had so far appeared, and for the first time in many Turns the Authority had found itself almost... curious to discover why it was they were being so cautious this time around.

        For while the Authority would not admit it, even caretakers were known to grow lonely in their vigil over the place they called home. The home that their creators had abandoned... until their return.

* * *

        Colorado Springs, Earth - 11:45 pm, local time.

        There was no easy way of doing what he wanted to do - but then again, nothing in his life had really been easy from the start, Nicholas decided, as he 'stood' at the bedside of his dark-haired, now comatose eldest sister Marie. Not a damn thing.

<flash>

        "You know what, Nick... you're got to be out of your mind to want to do this. You've never been to their planet, you don't know their ways... Hell, it wasn't so long ago that their warriors blew our fleets into little tiny bits and almost did the same to *us*..."

        Nicholas winced at those words. Marie had always been the kindest of his siblings, nothing like his younger and more opinionated sister Meighan... who had, all things considered, inherited far more of his mother's sharp tongue (and fair looks) than either he or Marie had. And for her to be saying this to him meant a great deal indeed - meant that what he was about to do was both dangerous... and possibly the most rewarding undertaking he'd ever undertaken. "Yeah, Mars, I know all about that - but after the work I did as associate engineer on the Warlock-C's... you know I've been looking for something bigger and better. And it doesn't *get* any bigger than this."

        "So do you really think this is all connected to those rumours you told us about -- that the Interstellar Alliance is building some sort of new-fangled battleships?"

        Nicholas shrugged. "Could be -- this Varsak guy seemed pretty sincere about his offer, though... told me that it would change my life, and that I wouldn't regret it if I joined him on his project. I think I'm gonna go for it, Mars... I think that it's the right thing to do."

        "And have you told Dad about this, yet?"

        "Well..."

<back>

        "Yeah, I told him all right..." Nicholas muttered, as he laid his virtual hand on Marie's bedside rail - doing his darndest not to let it pass through the rail and the arm below. "And look what it got me - the only member of our family to escape the Drakh plague... trapped on the edge of the galaxy on the ship I helped build. A ship captained by a woman who thinks she knows it all. And now, Mars... now it's time for me to pay the rest of the family a little visit - to let them know I'm here... to let them in on our little secret. Because, you know what? -- I keep my promises. I *always* keep my promises."

        And with that, he turned away from the bedside, letting his avatar fade as he tapped in new global positioning coordinates on the crystal pad back on the 'Shard of Night' -- all the while not noticing the pair of eyes that were peeking, wide eyed, around the door behind him.

* * *

        Kaitlyn looked around furtively... and then winced as she put weight on her left leg. It still hurt, even though the docs had fused the break below her knee a few hours earlier... and of *course* they'd wanted to keep her in overnight for observation, to make sure she didn't have a bad concussion, or something. It was boring, boring, bor-ing!... and one thing was for sure, she knew she'd rather be anywhere but here - if not playing sports, then doing her homework, planning for college... that sort of stuff. After all, her parents had told her that she had to keep herself occupied, that she wasn't supposed to think about the plague...

        She grimaced. Well *that* was pretty difficult, given that every hospital on the planet was supposed to have patients in it suffering from the early side effects of the black stuff those Drakh things had dumped in the atmosphere back at the start of the year. A dump that had happened during a gigantic space battle in Earth orbit... a time when her brothers had been yelling that they were all going to die. And this woman sure looked like one of those victims - it was weird that she wasn't in intensive care and all, but maybe her family was trying to keep this quiet, or something.

        The thing that had *really* stopped her in her tracks, though, had been the (what could you call it?) the APPARITION that had been standing at the bedside when she'd gone by - and right away she'd stopped to take a closer look. Which was when Kaitlyn realized that the ghost was speaking English - and that it seemed to be speaking to the woman on the bed!

        And by the time it had gotten to the 'trapped on the edge of the galaxy' part, she'd come to the realization that maybe the 'ghost' wasn't a ghost at all... but something far more interesting, instead.

        And one thing was for certain, she *loved* mysteries - and this was almost certainly the biggest one so far. After a quick check to make sure that no one was around, Kaitlyn quickly checked the name of the woman in the bed, and then made her way back to her own room to grab the netpad her parents had given her for Christmas - logged onto the city's local network and made a call.

        "Wha?" a voice mumbled on the other end of the connection.

        "Hey Tracie..." she hissed, "What, you're in bed already? Get up!"

        "Kait... that you?"

        "Yeah, yeah... it's me. Hey, can you do me a favour?"

        "Yeah, sure... anything -- just as long as you let me go back to *bed* afterwards."

        "Okay - can you find out if there's a Marie Dawson living anywhere in town?"

        "And this is important, why?"

        "Soon as I get out of this place tomorrow, I'll tell you, okay - and trust me, Tracie... you're gonna *love* this one!"

* * *

        Return to "The Seeker's Fire" Episode Index