"STAR AND CIRCLE: THE SEEKER'S FIRE"
EPISODE NINETEEN: "AT THE HEART OF THE STORM"

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        (disclaimers and associated descriptions in overture)

* * *

        <<Act Three>>

        System GC 2377/V - 23:11 hrs, EST - Dec 10th, 2267.

        From a distance, the sheer scale of even this relatively small system of planets shrinks the engagement down to invisibility. A conflict that began when a triad of the graceful yet deadly Interstellar Alliance warships named White Stars, encounter the enemy they have been searching for.

        Closer still, one is able to see the flashes of light that speak of weapons discharges, pale yellowish green and white from the Alliance vessels, and darker, shadowy violet from the vessels loyal to General Ari Ben Zayn. The Rangers who crew those White Stars do not as yet know this fact, of course... the only things they know is that for almost a decade they have been fighting against the darkness represented in those glistening liquid black hulls - and that every time their leaders are close to declaring this darkness banished, it reappears elsewhere and grows in power anew.

        All of this, of course, is sufficient to make some sentients in the Alliance want to crawl into a hole and hide - but this does not apply to the Rangers taking part in the engagement. Like all of their kind, they have sworn their vows, and believe that what they are doing is right - are even willing to die in order to protect the Alliance their Entil'zha helped to build.

        As some of them will, this day. The Ranger commanding the triad clenches his hand as one of the ships loyal to him dies, destroyed in a tangle of crossfire. And just as quickly the gunnery officers on the two remaining White Stars choose a target, and a medium cruiser on the opposing side lists out of formation, its hull speared by lances of neutron and pulse cannon fire. The Rangers may be outnumbered, but their ships are more nimble than those the enemy has fielded - and both sides know it... at the same time as knowing they cannot easily disengage, even as more jump points open around them, disgorging both friend and foe...

* * *

        ISAS 'Shard of Night' - enroute to GC 2377/V - 23:16 hrs, EST.

        Her expression contemplative, Julia reclined on her bed, pen in hand and paper on her lap, as she considered the situation at hand. There was a pattern here, another movement to be recorded for posterity's sake... but what was she to write about? What moment of revelation should she choose? The words her Rangers had spoken earlier returned to her then... important words, but were they important enough?

        <You do know, don't you, that by the time we get there, the battle will be over?>

        <She knows - but damn the torpedoes, boys and girls, we're going in anyways, aren't we?>

        <We are going - the order has been given, Mr. Dawson... and rightly so. Together with our sensor network, we are perhaps one of the only ships in the field capable of sensing the enemy's movements. And if we reach the theatre of battle quickly enough, we may be able to detect their vessels returning to some sort of staging area...>

        Julia set her pen down and the pad aside, and finally allowed her eyes to close, her mind free-ranging between possibilities and along tangents - and finally into thankfully dreamless slumber. Until, that was, a change in the Shard’s engine tone drew her away from sleep and back into to the waking world...

        "Val'na... oh, to Hell with this - Captain, wake up!"

        Julia's eyes snapped open, and she turned to face the agitated hologram hovering in the corner. "Nicholas... what's wrong?"

        "In the words of a famous voyager from an earlier age... we've got a problem." the engineer replied, his tone curt. "And I'm afraid it could be a big one. About three minutes ago, we changed our heading, vector and speed - to cut to the chase, we're not exactly headed in the direction of the battle any more."

        Julia blinked, trying to make sense of what he was telling her. "You're not trying to tell me that this course change wasn’t requested by the bridge, are you?"

        Dawson nodded, his expression grim - a response more than sufficient to send her leaping off her bed and towards the uniform jacket she'd slung over a nearby chair a short time before. "It looks to me like someone's overridden the Shard's primary helm controls - and since there's only three places on the ship other then the bridge where one can pull something like this off, and I'm in one of them..."

        "Tell me my first and second officers are on their way to the other two." she asked, already on her way out the door.

        The engineer nodded again. "They are indeed."

* * *

        Shadow technology flagship Cain - 23:56 hrs, EST.

        "I don't suppose you're interested in telling me what you've been up to and where you've been?"

        Mordechai Ben Zayn shrugged expressively as he turned to face his father's baleful glare. "I've been... here and there. I've spent some time talking to the Keymaster, and also out with one of our perimeter fighter patrols. After all, now that our plans are underway, every hour I get in the cockpit is precious."

        The General shook his head in disbelief. "I give the boy a battlecruiser to command, and he would rather have a fighter."

        "In case you haven't already figured this out, sir - while I agree with you on why we're doing this, I'm still my own man in some respects - and I'll do what I want when I want to do it."

        A wintry smile appeared on Ben Zayn's face - and finally the General inclined his head, taking the point as moot. "Of course. In any case, your timing, for once, is impeccable - we are just about to begin the second phase of the operation."

        Mordechai nodded thoughtfully. "Ah, yes... I would give anything to see the expression on Sheridan's face when he realizes he can't send any commands to 'his' Rangers. So, just how many of the Alliance worlds are we jamming, anyways?"

        "All of the member world capitals and most of their major colonies, as well as a few other locations of... critical importance." Ben Zayn paused then, his expression becoming contemplative. "It was my wish to disrupt interstellar communications between every inhabited world in Alliance space, but alas, our resources, while substantial... are not infinite."

        "And what of ship-to-ship communications?"

        "Communication will still be possible between worlds and out among the hyperspace beacon system - that is something even we could not hope to disrupt. Soon enough, though, we will be the only ones capable of communicating within the planetary systems affected, the only ones who know the frequencies that control the drones responsible." The General laughed. "And what's more, because of their stealthed nature, the Alliance could spend months searching for the drones before finding them.

        "Of course." Mordechai checked his chronometer. "Speaking of which..."

        Ben Zayn nodded, and depressed the comm toggle on his desk. "Commander! - send the signal."

* * *

         Babylon 5 - the executive quarters of Commander David Corwin. 00:10 hrs, EST - Dec 11th, 2267.

        <beep, beep, beep>

        "What the Hell..."

        "Oh frag." another voice muttered from Corwin's side, "Not again!"

        <beep, beep, beep>

        "All right, all right - accept incoming message!" Corwin hauled himself out of bed, doing his best to ignore the protests coming from the other side of the mattress. "Amanda, is that you?"

        "Yes, sir." Corwin frowned - that Kreies was being formal at this time of night meant that something unpleasant was definitely going on. "We've got a problem, Commander - and this one's a doozie."

        "Big enough to get the Captain out of bed for?"

        Kreies nodded. "Yes, sir - she's the next and the last person on my list to contact about this. But since you're technically my commanding officer..."

        Corwin nodded - and then he listened to Kreies explaining what was going on - his eyes slowly going wider and wider as he tried to take in what it was she was telling him. "You're sure about this? Absolutely sure?"

        "Without a doubt. I've tried sending messages to the Alliance embassies on more than a dozen worlds in the last five minutes... no joy on any of them." Kreies shook her head in disbelief as Corwin finished dressing. "Do you think the enemy..."

        "Are responsible for this? Well let's see, the Drakh have been keeping a pretty low profile just lately - there isn't anyone else out there organized enough to pull this off... "

        "So It's them."

        "Almost certainly."

        Kreies winced. "Gee, thanks for not reassuring me, David - I guess I'll go and wake the Captain up now. C&C out."

        "Well, Hell," Corwin muttered, as he wandered into the kitchen to brew a quick pot of coffee, "So much for a good night's sleep."

        "So," Trish asked from behind him, "Are you gonna tell me what's up or not?"

        "Okay, here's the scoop..." Corwin told her, his tone quiet and, Trish quickly noted, grim as all Hell. "Looks like someone or something has raised a jamming field around Epsilon 3. As of now, we're cut from the rest of the galaxy - and I have a sneaking suspicion that we're not the only ones."

* * *

        ISAS *Shard of Night* - secondary computer core. 00:18 hrs, EST.

        The door to the core control facility shuddered - and then again. The third time the door moved, however, it did not shudder, but instead sprang roughly open. And scant seconds thereafter a flood of dark-clothed Minbari and humans rushed into the room, the Shard of Night's fierce-eyed tactical officer at their head. It took Sheynell only a moment to take in the scene before her - the three Rangers sprawled out on the floor in front of the core control panels... and only a moment after that to figure out which of those three wasn't supposed to be there. "Nicholas - as much as I was hoping you were going to be wrong about this..."

        A muffled curse erupted in mid-air, followed soon thereafter by the appearance of the chief engineer's hologram. "Damnit - okay, does it look like..."

        Sheynell nodded as she arrived at the control panels - and her fingers briefly brushed the top of the long black and violet crystal inserted into the panel interface - a crystal that most definitely didn't belong. "There's a memory crystal - as far as I can tell, of Minbari manufacture - plugged into the core. I'll give you one guess what it downloaded."

        Dawson nodded furiously, before turning to someone out of the field of view and issuing a set of short and sharp orders. "Everything I know about this ship tells me that this shouldn't even have been possible. Hell, the only people in the Galaxy who are capable of something like this are me, Varsak..."

        "Who has disappeared, and is now presumed to be dead..."

        "...And -" At that point Dawson paused, and his mouth fell open. "Oh Hell! - no, it couldn't be."

        "What?"

        "I have to check on a few things - and I won't discuss this on a open channel, just in case..." Dawson stopped, and took a deep breath. "Do you have a suspect?"

        Sheynell quickly glanced in the direction of Courtney Ellis, who was being carried out of the room by two of the other Rangers. "I do - and while I have a bit of checking of my own to do, afterwards I'll drop by engineering and we can discuss our respective suspicions..."

* * *

        The brig. 00:34 hrs, EST.

        She'd been right, of course - as much as she hadn't wanted it to be true, there it was just the same. "They tampered with her mind," Julia asked her, "Didn't they?"

        Sheynell nodded, her expression bitter. "We should have realized something like this might happen - damnit, I should have checked their minds after they came back from the enemy ship..." Should have - might have. Mental programming like this wasn't always the easiest to break, and there were probably only a few people in the galaxy who could pull something like this off - but Alfred Bester had never been one to forget a lesson, and as such...

        After a moment's thought, Sheynell whirled around to face Ellis, her eyes ablaze with purpose, and shortly thereafter the younger Ranger came out of her trance with an allmighty scream. "Oh my... oh my God..."

        "Who did this to you?" Sheynell demanded. "Tell us, Miss Ellis - tell us now."

        Courtney nodded, her face white - and Sheynell clenched a fist as an image of a Minbari in Ranger blacks came into her mind, the face of that Minbari twisted into a sneer. "So - the one who did this to you, she's on this ship, isn't she?"

        "Yes."

        "And am I right in guessing she's not really a Ranger at all?"

        "I don't... think so, no."

        Sheynell nodded. "Thank you for confirming my suspicions, Miss Ellis - you'll be safe here for the time being."

        "Where are you going?" Julia asked.

        The telepath paused as she passed through the doorway, and turned to face her friend. "I have an appointment to keep."

* * *

        Engineering. 00:41 hrs, EST.

        "Her name's Illithan." Nicholas told Sheynell, as the two sat together in the engineer's inner sanctum, "And Varsak cast her out before the Shard and the Excalibur were even finished, for the crime of speaking out against him. Y'see, my mentor didn't mind constructive criticism, but as for *destructive*..."

        "And so was she cast out of Heaven, and down into Hell," Sheynell mused, "And now I suppose she's come looking for revenge."

        "Sure looks like it, doesn't it? The thing I want to know is - if Illithan's the one who's taken control of the Shard, where is she taking us, and why? And who does she serve?"

        "There are several disturbing answers to that question, Nicholas, none of which I particularly like. In any case, now that we know who to look for, hopefully it won't take us too long to find her..."

* * *

        Enemy Rendezvous Point - 00:47 hrs, EST.

        "So," Rahkeel asked Palakz, as the two sat on their respective bridges awaiting the arrival of Illithan's 'prize', "We have, both of us, been waiting a very long time for this moment to arrive. And now, with Tikopai and her ship so close at hand, I would be interested to know what it is you intend."

        "What I intend." The Drakh's eyes glittered with barely repressed malice as he turned his head to glare at the image of the traitor Minbari and his crew. "I intend to meet my Adversary in battle, Rahkeel - to be the first of us to engage her vessel when it arrives. I would ask, therefore, that you and your crew not take part in the opening moves."

        "A part of me cries out that this should not be allowed - but we have, in our own way, walked this strange road together, you and I. So be it, Drakh - you shall have your day of honor and battle... we shall not interfere."

        Palakz bared his teeth and nodded - in this, at least, the Minbari could be trusted to be honorable. "The only thing I ask, Rahkeel, is that you make doubly certain there is no easy route of escape for the changeling and those who serve her. The only way they should be able to depart is if they defeat both your warriors and mine..."

        "Which is, I must admit, a highly unlikely outcome." Rahkeel mused. "However, it shall be as you say. If you fail, we will avenge you of course - we have, after all, sworn our own vows...

        One way or the other - before this day is out... Vi'dalae An'shaka WILL be destroyed."

* * *

        System GC 2377/V - 01:15 hrs, EST.

        "So," Tashann muttered, as his cruiser came to rest within striking distance of White Star 4, "Even with the victory we have won in this place, it would appear that things have just taken a turn for the worse."

        "This was no victory, Tashann - I sense that every move our enemy has made to date has been according to his timetable." Lanniel paused in her pacing across the bridge of her command, and turned to face the older Ranger. "Thus far, we have done no more than react to those moves. And until we understand what it is he intends, we will never reach his targets before he does."

        Tashann nodded grimly. "Perhaps you are right - here and there, a colony is attacked - they destroy a handful of our ships, we destroy a handful of theirs, even as the galaxy falls into chaos around us."

        "A standard Shadow tactic." Lanniel agreed. "While now that contact with Minbar and the rest of the Alliance worlds has been lost - and unless we find a way to defeat the enemy's jamming... I fear that we are on our own out here. There are many difficult decisions to be made, Tashann - and the first, I think, is to recall the majority of our ships to a central staging area."

        "Agreed. Now that this campaign has become much more difficult, I believe it is time for us to hold another council of war - and to decide what we must do next..." Tashann paused then, however, as one of his bridge crew came to his side, and passed a report into his hands. "In Valen's Name!" he exclaimed, after taking in the meaning behind the message, "Are you sure?"

        The other Ranger nodded, clearly unhappy to be the bearer of such bad news. "So. First the attacks, then the jamming... and now this."

        "What has happened?"

        "It is standard procedure during operations of this nature to maintain communications between Ranger vessels at all times - and even with the enemy jamming the various worlds of the Alliance, it would seem that we are still capable of talking amongst ourselves. My comm officer has just informed me, however, that one of our vessels has fallen silent."

        Lanniel's eyes widened. "Surely you do not mean to say..."

        "I say what I must - they have tried contacting them multiple times in the last standard hour - but it is now becoming increasingly clear that An'shaka 'dal and her crew are not responding to the hails sent in their direction."

        "This, so close to the commencement of the jamming, cannot be a coincidence!"

        "Some would say that there are no coincidences in war, Lanniel..." Tashann replied, his voice quiet. "Only unwelcome... revelations."

* * *

        The last thing that Jaida could remember was settling down into her bunk on the Providence - and then how a wave of puzzling darkness had fallen over her mind, a darkness that had carried her away with it like a wave upon the ocean... and now she was here - wherever here was!

        She yawned, set aside the thin blanket that someone had covered her with, and rose to her feet, her hand going instinctively to the tiny globe she kept with her at all times now. A moment, and then she whispered the word that Vejar had taught her, and made her way out into the darkness, the circle of light cast by her gift seemingly her only protection. "Vejar..." she called out, "Are you near? - can you hear me?"

        "He hears you, child," a familiar voice replied, "But for the time being my fellow mage is rather busy, and there are matters that he must attend to before your voyage together continues. He has given you into my care - and I assure you that in this place, you are quite safe."

        "Thanks!" Jaida managed, as Galen's face appeared out of the darkness, the rest of his body seemingly shimmering into view below it like the body of a Sin'rau-taash from one of her grandmother's old legends. "Uh... so where are we, exactly?"

        "To be precise, onboard my personal flyer, in hyperspace. Do you know that some of these ships have been passed from mage to mage for longer than any of us can remember... or want to remember? Perhaps the day may even come when Vejar gives a gift of equal price into your care... but that day is not yet. For now, there is much to do and much for you to learn - and the greatest challenge of your life approaches."

        Jaida nodded. "You're talking about the testing, right? Now that we're away from the station... is there, uh, any chance you can tell me more about that?"

        A fleeting smile appeared on Galen's face at those words. "A chance... yes, there is always that. I question, however, your dedication with respect to this matter - this is not Babylon 5, where over the years others have repeatedly stepped forward to protect you. This is the unknown, where anything can and will go wrong on a moment's notice. As Technomages we may be powerful, but do not make the mistake of believing us infallible nor invulnerable - we have made many mistakes in our time, and if I am wrong, this may be the greatest one of all."

        Jaida gulped, and nodded. "I figured as much - but if we work together, there's a chance everything will work out... right?"

        "Yes... a chance. So," Galen mused, "What we are supposed to do? - very well, then. There is a darkness upon the deep, a darkness that must be stopped if the galaxy and Sheridan's Alliance is to have any hope of survival. We cannot attack that darkness directly... not yet, in any case, but that does not mean the darkness is invulnerable. Does not mean we cannot walk into its very heart and steal away a pearl of great price..."

        The Technomage went on at great length thereafter, describing exactly how it was they would undertake this mission, and what would be expected of her. And soon enough the time came when Jaida found herself wishing, yet again, that she'd just learn to keep her mouth shut!

* * *

        Galen allowed himself another small smile after Vejar's young apprentice had returned to her bed. What he had told her was sufficient to give many her age nightmares from which they would never recover - but like certain other individuals that wandered around the galaxy, Galen could see the bright burning spark of promise hiding within Jaida Tefano, and as long as all went according to plan, he would help Vejar in her instruction in the years to come... but that time was not yet. Until this crisis was over, there could be no thinking of the future, only of the here and now.

        His gaze intent, Galen raised his scrying globe on the palm of his hand to watch equilibrium unravel, catching brief and fleeting glimpses of a General and his son hard at work planning their next move, of one dark-haired pawn of destiny looking out at the stars from the prison she'd built for herself... and then another, leading her Rangers towards their fate - with everything, as he had already told Matthew, in the balance.

        A balance built by plans and aspirations, by dreams and treacheries - a balance soon to be upset, as balances so often were. But from that balance, there was a chance, a very small chance that a new alliance could be formed, an alliance that might in the long run make all the difference...

        Galen closed his eyes with a sigh, and once more reined in his thoughts - more firmly this time. "Dreams do not affect the present," he muttered, "Only actions. We have a rendezvous to keep, and this is not one, I think..." the mage stated, as his flyer keeled over onto a new heading, "That we want to miss."

* * *

        Other places, other conversations...

        And some of those conversations were not with other people.

        "As expected, our agent has been eliminated - and now I suppose Tikopai and her crew are going to try and regain control of their ship." Illithan laughed as she carried on with what might of course be her final recording. "I look forward to seeing the expressions on their faces when they try."

* * *

        "Are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Klairika asked her captain, as together the two Rangers walked down the corridor at speed towards their destination. "By now, she has to know we're coming for her."

        Julia nodded, her eyes dancing with barely repressed anger. "Yes, it is. This is my ship, Klairika, not hers - and when Sheynell and her Rangers take Illithan into custody, I intend to remind her of that fact."

        The Brakiri nodded, her expression neutral - when Julia was in this mood, as she'd already learned from experience, it was best just to let the storm front blow through and over the proverbial horizon. "Of course."

        A smile suddenly appeared on Julia's face. "Don't worry! - we've got her surrounded, Mr. Dawson's hard at work removing the last of her command codes from the computer... what could possibly go wrong?"

* * *

        In a dark and lonely place, Kaitlyn came awake out of a dream, and said one word.

        "Everything."

* * *

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