Note to readers -- if any of you are wondering why the stuff in this episode doesn't match up to the recently published jms CRUSADE scripts on bookface.com... there's a real good reason for that -- we're not allowed to use them as info. As such, it was up to me to come up with an *alternate* explanation for those nasty black ships with long arms that Gideon's wants to track down so badly. Read on...
* * *
Captain's Log, Earth Alliance Starship *Excalibur* -- Sept 4th, 2267.
Everyone has secrets -- I have, Galen has... Hell, even John has. Secrets can save your life, if you're lucky... and they can also do a great job of putting you in a hole in a ground, if you're not. While today, I learned that there was one more secret in the universe... and also, that we're definitely not alone out here.
The thing is... I'm beginning to realize that someone may be keeping a tab on our progress as we continue on our hunt for the cure to the Drakh plague... and once in a while, it appears as if that 'someone' has been stepping in on our behalf. The only questions that need answering now are these:
Who are they... what do they want...
And who do they serve?
* * *
<ding>
Captain Matthew Gideon of the Starship *Excalibur* looked up from the old novel he was reading to see the now-familiar icon that warned of a message incoming to his station -- a message coded to him and him alone. Gideon had long since learned that this was necessary, once in a while... and now more so than ever. After a moment he gave the computer his personal password -- and nodded grimly as a face familiar to him appeared on the screen. "Mendez -- so, were you able to travel through the sectors I was interested in? Did you take a look?"
"Yeah, I did." the other man replied after a moment. "Damn it, Gideon, I haven't seen anything like it since the Civil War, six years ago -- and all things considered, we were lucky that we found anything at all. A lot of the debris had drifted down the incline away from the beacon track and vanished -- but there was still a cloud of little stuff there, even weeks after the battle had happened. Something tore apart a squadron of Drakh warships in that sector -- did it so easily the Drakh didn't have a chance."
"Any idea what the timing of that destruction was?" Gideon asked, keeping his tone casual. "And where they were going?"
"Yeah, just like you figured -- near as we can tell, they were destroyed right around the time as that other group of Drakh were attacking you -- and as to where they were going, naah, I don't have a clue... sorry."
"Don't suppose it matters, really..." Gideon mused. "You've told me what I needed to know. Thanks."
"Hey, no problem -- if there's anything else you want..."
"I'll call." And then it was, even as the perplexed face of the information merchant faded from the screen that Gideon turned towards the place in his quarters that he kept... it. "I don't suppose you
have anything to add?"
The apocalypse box was silent - but it, too, would have something to say, soon enough.
And then? Then everything would change.
* * *
Elsewhere on the *Excalibur*, a man in black opened his eyes, and nodded.
"You're getting closer, Matthew..." Galen observed. "The question is, are you ready for the truth?" The Technomage sighed -- so soon after putting Tikopai through her test with the various Drakh factions, was he now to be witness to another test?... one that might determine, once and for all, where this mission would lead him -- as well as that of the Rangers that were guarding the *Excalibur* and her crew? "Oh, well - I suppose we will learn the answer to that question soon enough."
* * *
Interstellar Alliance Starship 'Shard of Night' -- on patrol in Sector 23, 147x14x117. 11:41 hrs, Earth Standard Time.
"Another day, another credit." Courtney Ellis muttered, as she knelt and looked up into the bowels of one of Deck Seven's secondary computer consoles, and the maze of crystalline cables that was waiting there . "And yah, another systems check."
"Tell me, Ellis, do you ever stop complaining?" Ellis's eyes narrowed as a tall, swarthy figure in black came to view by her right elbow -- Azhahk Fenric, a Ranger of Arabian origins who'd been placed in charge of the *Shard*'s fighter arsenal by the High Council, almost nine months before.
"Oh c'mon, Fenric, gimme a break! -- it wouldn't be so bad if I could even find a place to spend my hard earned Alliance credits from time to time... but no, every time it even *looks* like we're going to get some shore leave, a crisis happens and off we go again to the ends of the universe with Little Miss..."
Fenric wagged one finger in warning, his expression stern, and an only slightly mollified Ellis fell silent. "Now, now, Miss Ellis -- you should know better than that. How many battles has she won since we've begun this mission? How many enemies have we defeated, while under her command?"
"All I've got to say is that she must have swallowed a lucky horseshoe, or something. I mean, the *Shard*'s a great ship and all, but come on -- what about that time we were thrown outside the Galaxy and a SHADOW appeared on the bridge? Did we die then? Hell, no! Instead, the Shadow and his buddies actually helps us, right?"
"As highly unlikely as it sounds to you and I," Fenric guardedly agreed, "That is the truth of the matter, and that *is* the way it happened."
"Which just proves my point!" Ellis retorted. "The law of statistics says we should lose a battle once in a while..." Which was, of course, when the strident chime summoning the ship's Rangers to combat stations sounded -- and Fenric laughed as the other Ranger's face fell. "Oh no... not again!"
"Yes, again." Fenric replied, as they hurried to action stations. "Now I wonder who's she's managed to annoy this time."
* * *
"Do you want to run that by me *again*?" Julia exclaimed, as she and Klairika approached the bridge of the *Shard of Night* at speed. "You didn't say 'swarm', did you?"
"I did indeed." the Brakiri replied, her expression showing exactly how amused she was by this latest report -- which was not at all. "At exactly 07:14 hrs this day, Earth Standard Time, White Star 117 received a distress signal from a Narn explorer division in Sector 975, a signal that seemed to indicate they had come under attack by a vessel of unknown configuration -- but apparently *known* characteristics. They claimed they were being attacked by a Shadow vessel, Julia -- and that was when the message ended."
"Damnit!" Both she and Klairika were, of course, familiar with the backstory behind the first appearance of the mysterious dark 'swarm' of Shadow-creatures that had assaulted Lumati space over four years before -- and every Ranger commander in the field had in his or her possession a crystal containing orders from Entil'zha Delenn and the rest of the High Council, stating in exacting terms how they were to deal with the return of those creatures... and most especially what would have to be done if the swarm warriors proved to be as beligerent as they had the first time around. "This is happening a *lot* more quickly then we've been expecting. Because if this is the first in a new series of attacks by the Swarm..."
"Then they're breeding much more quickly then the Sha'vei'e guessed they might." Klairika observed. "In any case, the High Council and President Sheridan have asked us to divert from our patrol pattern near the *Excalibur* to check this out..."
"For the same reason as always." Julia replied, her eyes narrow with intent as she and Klairika arrived on the bridge to take their stations... what was it that William had said a few days before in his lecture following the incident with the Drakh? 'Try and stay out of trouble?' She'd been right, of course, in saying what she'd said -- as usual, trouble had come looking for them.
Typical... absolutely typical. "The one and only time the White Star Fleet's engaged those things, they defeated them with relative ease -- but if there's more of them in the attacking swarm then there was before, a ship with greater offensive firepower may be needed to take care of the problem."
"And within the Ranger fleet, we are the only *fully* operational ship of the line with such characteristics." Klairika said, as Julia settled into her chair on the bridge, her cloak of station draped over each knee. "As such..."
"As such, we have our orders, and I guess it's time we followed them. Dasouri..."
"Val'na!" the Drazi barked, his fingers hanging ready over the controls.
"Set course for Sector 975." she ordered. "If we're right about this, it looks like the shadow-swarm's forgotten why you don't attack an Interstellar Alliance explorer division. I think it's time we reminded them."
"Setting course." Dasouri replied, as under his capable hands, the *Shard of Night* whirled around in space, its jump engines already bringing the entry point into hyperspace into being. And a moment later, the battlecruiser leapt through that portal at speed, its course set to bring it to its destination...
* * *
A destination filled with scraps of metal and other less identifiable debris -- all that remained of the group of Narn ships that had been unlucky enough to encounter the other ship that happened to be in the sector. A ship which, even now, continued to hover in the destruction it had wrought.
A ship of darkness, with many long straight arms. And in that darkness, a voice spoke and another answered -- even as the ship turned away from the wreckage, and readied itself for the struggle ahead. "They're coming, aren't they?"
"Yessss."
"Both of them?" Silence. "I see -- you have your orders, then... as I have mine -- let them come. Let this latest test of our resources... progress. And when that happens..."
"Yessss?"
A complacent smile. "If all goes as planned, there is every chance that you will get the chance to deal with Tikopai and her upstart Rangers...
Personally."
* * *
[Cue Dramatic Music]
KLAIRIKA ALIDIAE
We are the Watchers...
[Klairika standing on the bridge of the SHARD OF NIGHT, an image of the EXCALIBUR hanging in the air in front of her.]
SHEYNELL KEYNES
We are the Warriors.
[Images: Sheynell at the tactical station, the battlecruiser firing its main gun and destroying a Drakh capital ship]
LARIEKEN
We are the Guardians...
[Image: Larieken defending his Captain against Z'shailyl attackers, warrior pike in hand]
VEYSHAHK
We are the Healers.
[Image: Veyshahk at his desk in MedSection, an image of the Drakh virus on his computer screen.]
DASOURI and NICHOLAS DAWSON
We are the exiles...
[Image: Nicholas in Engineering, Dasouri at the helm of the SHARD]
JULIA TIKOPAI
And I am the Seeker.
[Image: Julia's face, lit by candles, the stars of the Galaxy beyond]
KLAIRIKA ALIDIAE
We are the Rangers of the SHARD OF NIGHT, in this, the Earth Year 2267.
[Image: The SHARD OF NIGHT enters, from the left...]
JULIA TIKOPAI
This is our story.
[... before engaging darklight mode, and going into hyperspace.]
STAR AND CIRCLE:
"THE SEEKER'S FIRE"
"STAR AND CIRCLE" created by David Goldingay <dgolding@connect.ab.ca>
* * *
Legal Disclaimer:
BABYLON 5, CRUSADE and all characters and situations thereof are the creations and copyrighted property of J. Michael Straczynski and Babylonian Productions. This series is a non-profit creation for the purposes of private entertainment only. Original characters and situations are copyright of the author, 1997-2000.
* * *
Coming soon: Act I of Episode 16: "The Few and Far Between"
* * *
Return to "The Seeker's Fire" Episode Index