("Her Mother's Daughter", Act I)

		"STAR AND CIRCLE: THE SEEKER'S FIRE"
		EPISODE TWO: "HER MOTHER'S DAUGHTER"

GUEST STARRING

DEBRAH FARENTINO as Captain Bethany Tikopai
ADAM BALDWIN as Commander Paul Telluride
COURTNEY COX as Lt. Commander Jaiena Mithrush
JEFFREY COMBS as Moreil
*and* ED WASSER as Aazhvar

        <<ACT ONE>>

        System GC 17881. EAS DE'MOLAY.

        "Captain!" the call came, as Bethany entered her ready room.

        "Lieutenant Commander Mithrush." she replied, a trifle resignedly. "Whatever it is, you'd better make it quick. My daughter's just come aboard, and is already on her way up here as we speak."

        "Very quick, Captain. May I have your permission to take a transport over to the Ranger vessel for a quick visit? I've just spoken with their Chief Engineer, a Nicholas Dawson... he's invited me over, of all things!"

        Bethany tried not to laugh, but it was *hard*. That had been quick! "And how many 'please's' was there in that conversation?"

        Jaiena Mithrush cleared her throat, a trifle nervously. "Not *too* many."

        "You may proceed then, Commander; have a nice time, and try not to pry loose too many souvenirs while you're over there, okay?"

        "Thank you, Captain...I won't!"

        "Now," Bethany muttered, as the face of her Chief Engineer vanished from the comm screen, "Have I actually taken care of all the requests, for the time being?"

* * *

        From the moment she'd stepped onto the DE'MOLAY, the looks she'd received had told her everything she needed to know... the frowns, the puzzlement, and the curiousity. How different was she from her mother, they were wondering? Their Captain, they knew; her moods, ranging from even diplomacy to cold ruthlessness and everything in between, so familiar, from the occasional visits of her childhood. Now, however, she'd arrived in their midst, a dark-eyed mystery from a ship that couldn't be seen, except when it *wanted* to be... a cypher that needed to be solved.

        Julia smiled. That would be harder then most of them thought *or* believed. But it looked like at least one of her mother's officers had already decided to try and figure her out... Lt. Will McClelland, the DE'MOLAY's helmsman, the officer who'd met her when she'd come aboard. Fair enough, she could play this game with the best of them.

        Plus another one, a game that the demands of the past seven years had forced her to set on the wayside for *far* too long.

* * *

        When the Captain had asked for 'volunteers' to escort her daughter to the Captain's ready room, Will McClelland had immediately decided there was only one person aboard the DE'MOLAY who could do the job perfectly.

        That person was him, of course. Piesch and a few others had tried to muscle their way in, but surprising even himself, he'd argued, quite reasonably, that he was closer to 'her' age then any other officer aboard, and did they really want to intimidate their Captain's only daughter and child?

        The Captain had smiled at that remark. A strange smile, it had been, but she'd agreed with his arguments, and sent him on his way. Without delay, he'd then made his way down into the zero-grav region at the destroyer's prow to meet with the Ranger who commanded the rather...unique ship they'd recently rendezvoused with.

        At which point, he began to realize *why* the Captain's smile had seemed so strange, because for someone who'd been born just after the Battle of the Line, someone who had only just passed her nineteenth birthday, the Captain's daughter seemed quite a bit older then that... in fact, if he hadn't been told the facts, he would have guessed her age to be closer to his own twenty-six years, not seven years younger!

        Will glanced over at her yet again, and grimaced; on top of that, Julia Tikopai seemed to carry a weight of authority on her slim shoulders that should have crushed her into the deck, a sad wiseness in her gaze that suggested, well, other things...and, of course, even with the severe black-and-silver uniform she had on, she possessed a beauty that had given him pause, the instant her image had first appeared on the bridge monitor a short time before.

        He jumped, then, as the young woman in Ranger blacks on the other side of the transport car laughed softly, and cast an *all*-too frank look in his direction. "Lieutenant Will McClelland...whose hand guides my mother's command on its varied duties and actions! You want to know, I can tell you want to know. All you have to do is *ask*!"

        "But..."

        "The ways we do things are very different, you and I. You're an Earthforce officer, the primary helmsman of one of the most powerful warships in the Fleet, while I'm a Ranger: a soldier sworn, in Valen's name, to hold the line against the Darkness. But what we seek is the same thing... the cure to the plague afflicting our people! For that reason alone, we should be allies, shouldn't we? And allies should talk to one another, so they can get to know each other.

        So let's talk." she suggested, as they stepped out of the transport tube.

        "Uh... sure!" he replied, making an admirable recovery, but still not quite sure where to begin, "There's been something I've been wondering about, ever since we detected you ship at the Battle of Sinzar..."

        "And what would that be?" The last said just a *little* too innocently for his peace of mind.

        He cleared his throat. "From what little we observed of your actions at the Battle of Sinzar, it seemed absolutely clear that you didn't want to be seen *or* found, until we figured out our sensors could follow your trail..."

        The look she gave him then, clearly said, 'that's the best you can come up with'? "The decision I made to reveal ourselves to your Captain and fellow crew was not an easy one, but at the time, it seemed like the right thing to do. And since she's my mother..."

        "Whatever secrets you want her to keep are passed down to the rest of us to keep, as well." he finished for her, at which point he received a brilliant smile for his trouble, a smile that sent a *long* shiver down his spine.

        "Exactly. From what little she's told me of your adventures together over the past five years, it looks like you've all got your fair share of secrets to keep, in any case, after all you've been through. What's one more?"

        "That," he replied, as they left the transport tube and made their way along one of the destroyer's shadow-and-light corridors, "Is over-simplyfying things a bit, as you know! Like, for instance, what happened when we first ran into Captain Ivanova and her crew..."

        A brief shake of head and flash of eyes was all that was required, and McClelland abruptly snapped his mouth shut. Oops... yep, she was a Tikopai, all right. "There are some matters, Mr. McClelland, that should never be discussed openly. That, I suspect, is one such... as you and I both know." His companion abruptly came to a halt, and he realized, somewhat bemusedly, that they'd reached their destination. "Well, well; that didn't take as long as I thought it would, given how large this ship looked from the outside."

        "Journeys never do," he replied. "Especially when you're... talking. It tends to, well, *pass the time*, or so I've noticed."

        "Quite true." At that point, Captain Tikopai-the-younger turned towards him, still wearing that damnable smile, and stuck out a hand, which he eventually decided to shake. "But for right now, I want to thank you, Mr. McClelland, for escorting me all the way up here from the fighter bays. I do appreciate it, and I won't forget it, either."

        "No... problem." he managed, a trifle lamely. "The Captain's waiting for you in there, you know."

        "Of *course* she is." came the reply, as his companion favored him with another one of *those* smiles. "Until our next meeting then... Will." .

        He heaved a sigh of relief when she'd gone through the door, and out of plain view, and began to turn away, when he suddenly realized that she'd addressed him by his *first* name at the end, there. At which point, he began to wonder exactly *who* was the player, and who was the pawn, in this little game of chance he'd started with the woman who was mistress of the warship named SHARD OF NIGHT.

* * *

        The SHARD OF NIGHT. Engineering department.

        Nicholas had his head all the way inside the offending console examining the organic threads contaminating the crystal matrix in front of him when Lesaki rather abruptly cleared his throat. "Sir. I believe it prudent that you, how shall I say it?... extract yourself from your present surroundings. We have a visitor."

        "A visitor?" he shot back, deep in analyzing his findings. "Like who?"

        "Like the lady who got herself invited over here half an hour ago by... you?" a throaty, pleasant voice intruded, at which point Nicholas slammed his head into the matrix, and swore, before hastily extracting himself from the console and shooting to his feet. Beside Lesaki, a dark-haired, pointy-chinned woman in Earthforce blues was leaning against the wall, a jaunty grin on her face as she looked around the interior of his department, while the Rangers that had, he supposed, been assigned to escort her here waited in the background, their faces impassive. "This is quite a ship you've got here, Nicholas Dawson. It's almost as impressive as mine!"

        "Almost?" he burst out, rising to her bait. "I'll have you know, Lieutenant Commander Mithrush, that there isn't another one like her anywhere in known space!"

        "That's quite a claim..." Mithrush replied, her eyebrows raised. "Would you care to prove it?"

        "I helped to design her, I should know!"

        At that point, Veyshahk, who was looking at his scanner results and shaking his head perplexedly, also cleared his throat. "Mr. Dawson... Lieutenant Commander. Can the, as you humans have been known to say, 'chest-beating' wait for later?"

        "They're both Chief Engineers, Doctor." Lesaki wryly noted. "And *human* Chief engineers, at that. From personal observation, it appears as if this behaviour is common to their kind... they simply cannot help it."

        "Now, just you wait a minute!..." Jaiena Mithrush heatedly began.

        "Peace!" Nicholas cried out. "They're right, though; we're facing a problem right now that's a little more critical then figuring out whose ship is the better one."

        "Oh, okay!" their visitor replied, abruptly switching tracks. "What's up?"

        "Do we tell her, sir?" Lesaki asked him.

        Nicholas shrugged. "Since our Captains are apparently in the process of forging some sort of temporary alliance, I don't see any reason why not."

        "Very well, then. A short time before we encountered one another, Lieutenant Commander, I discovered that this secondary operations console had somehow...reconfigured itself while we weren't using it, and drew Mr. Dawson's attention to the matter. That this happened very quickly is also a given..."

        "Reconfigured itself is right!" Mithrush whispered, as she leant down to take a close look. "Is that the imprint of a *hand* I see on that crystal surface?"

        "Indeed it is. And what is equally interesting is that a rather *considerable* number of organic computer fibres have connected themselves into the console's crystalline matrix... infiltrated it, if you will. This on top of the semi-organic translator line already in place."

        "Mr. Dawson." Mithrush inquired, fixing him with a stare, "Just out of curiousity, if you don't me asking, that is... just exactly how much Vorlontech *is* there in this ship?"

        "A lot." he admitted. "A great deal of the hull, parts of the computer system, the main gun, those are the biggies. Beyond that, I'm not sure... the chief designer, Varsak, never did tell me all of her secrets before he left."

        "Well, let me make an educated guess, then." Mithrush said. "Perhaps Vorlontech, like the Shadowtech that was built into the ships of the Warlock Class, sometimes has a mind of its own?"

        "If that is true," Veyshahk noted, "I would very much like to know what it is *thinking*, Lieutenant Commander, because I have just identified the hand print on that console. The template may effectively be a connection between the computer and the intended... well, perhaps 'victim' is too harsh, and yet, ther term is..."

        "Maybe accurate?" Dawson inquired. "Okay, spill the beans, doc. Whose is it?"

        "Val'na Tikopai's."

        "WHAT?" he exclaimed, as the eyes of the others in the vicinity also widened at Veyshahk's revelation. "What could the ship possibly have to say to *her*?"

        "She *is* the captain, sir." Lesaki noted. "'Possibly' a great deal. The question we must ask, however, is why has this happened?"

        "And also," the Minbari concluded, "Whose idea was it?"

* * *

        The DE'MOLAY. Captain's ready room.

        "Julia." Bethany began, as her daughter came in the door, a study in pale skin and blackness, but then she paused, and without further words, the two came together in a tight embrace. "What *has* your Entil'zha, Delenn, done to you this time? After all the months of silence, the times I thought that I might never hear from you again, all of a sudden here you are, blowing Drakh out of the water with the best of them! Why? And perhaps more importantly, how?"

        "It's a long story," her daughter began, as they sat down together, hands still clasped, "But to cut a long story short, when the Drakh attacked Earth, my former commander, Sha'vei Tashann, was trapped on Minbar, and William sent me with the crew of White Star 4 to aid in the defence of Earth..."

        "One of these days," she replied, "Your grand and mighty High Councillor and I are going to have to sit down together, and when that happens, I'm going to start shouting at him, and that might go on for some time!"

        "That better have been a joke, Mother." Julia replied, as a dangerous, but also slightly amused glitter appeared in her eyes, if only for a moment. "William and Jennifer began guiding me in a very specific direction almost from the word go... I told you, the last time we met, that I would probably end up commanding an Alliance ship-of-the-line eventually. It just happened a little... more quickly then I was anticipating."

        "Quickly?" she burst out, and then, her frown deepened. "Oh... I get it. This was *John's* idea, wasn't it?"

        "The... President," her daughter carefully replied, "Knew what he was doing when he picked me for this job. He gave me license to choose my own command crew, and added to them the very best of my generation in the Anla'shok. The job we have to do is a very important one, Mother, and it was their assessment that there wasn't anyone else who could do that task better then I could."

        "But you're..."

        "Mature enough to do what I have to." Julia interrupted. "Don't say it, Mother! We've already proven our worth during the battle to protect Sinzar; we drove back the Drakh, and in going to battle for the first time, proved the SHARD's designer right.

        We really *can* take on destroyer-class vessels safely."

        "So what else can this marvel of a ship you've inherited do?" Bethany inquired, as she switched to a less-troublesome topic. "I don't remember hearing about the Alliance authorizing the construction of the SHARD OF NIGHT!"

        "No, you didn't, which is why I ordered my First to bring the SHARD out of darklight mode once I learned you were following us. As I know from experience, a Tikopai left in the dark is more dangerous then one who has all the facts close at hand."

        At that point, Julia leant down close to her, her gaze intent. "I can't have you following me to the ends of the universe, though. And I was afraid that you were going to do just that when you jumped in, and so, here I am!"

        "You know me too well." she wryly admitted. "Sometimes I'm not sure whether that's a liability or not, but anyways... so, your esteemed President, and my friend, gave you command of a warship that can cloak itself to most any sensor, possesses enough weaponry to even give me pause, and looks like it's got a White Star as an ancestor. Which makes it... what, exactly?"

        "One of a kind, *and* battlecruiser-class, believe it or not. And while, like the rest of the Rangers, we're trying to find a cure for the plague, the very nature of the SHARD's technology makes our primary mission possible."

        "Which is?" Here it came...

        Julia's gaze hardened, then. "To ensure that the starship EXCALIBUR is not torn to shreds by the enemies it faces, or will be facing, in the times to come."

        "And, does Captain Gideon and his crew know you're out here, protecting them?"

        "*No*." With that word, her daughter lanced her with a very specific, and penetrating look. "Which is the way it must stay, until their mission is completed."

        "But that could take... years!"

        "Yes. It could. Now do you understand the other reason why I wanted this meeting to be face-to-face? And why, after we part ways, you and your crew *cannot* say a word about this encounter, to anyone?"

        "That's a tall order, Julia."

        "I took a *big* gamble in trusting you and your people with this secret; can you and your crew keep it?"

        Bethany thought about that one for a moment, and finally, she nodded. "They're a tempremental bunch at times, but there's few other crews in the Fleet that have been through as much as we have, or have as many secrets to keep. And yet...while I've managed to keep most of the crew out of the loop about the importance of this encounter, they all know something, and some more then others. What if any of them are ever captured by the enemy, and interrogated? Your secret might come out!"

        "I'm way ahead of you on that one." Julia told her, a rather sneaky smile coming onto her face. "Since I just *happen* to have a high-end P12 telepath as my Tactical Officer..."

        A short discussion followed, and finally, she admitted that yes, that should do the trick, even though, Julia admitted, Sheynell would be probably be quite annoyed at her by the end of it all. "But that should work. For now, though, since we've solved the end of the problem, it's probably safe for us to travel together for a time, and catch up on old news. The Drakh have retreated back to their own sphere of inflence for the time being, after all!"

        "Exactly. You could even call it a bit of a holiday from the 'routine', if you wanted to. Plus, from what little I could tell prior to your arrival, my chief engineer, Lt. Commander Mithrush, seemed hell-bent on getting together with *your* engineer, and talking 'tech'. She's probably already over there, as a matter of fact."

        "Uh-oh." Julia mused. "You've told me about her! Mr. Dawson and her are liable to be talking right through the night, if I know him..."

        <Beep> "Captain Tikopai?"

        "Yes, Commander?"

        "I don't mean to intrude on the conversation you're having with your daughter, but we've just intercepted a transmission I think you're going to find interesting.

        Ah... make that *very* interesting."

* * *

        The SHARD OF NIGHT.

        "What have we got?" Klairika inquired, as she came onto the bridge at a full run. "Drakh?"

        "Not quite." Sheynell informed her, as she vacated the conn. "The transmission is broad-band, but very limited in range, and what we received off of the ancient-tech gate in this system is also a bit degraded, shall we say..."

        "What language?"

        "In Interlac, only."

        "Show me."

        The image rippled down, then, and revealed the static-filled image of an alien, his wedge-shaped head dark, and red eyes vivid against that shade. "To... any vessel within range of this transmission. Moreil, am I; pursued by hunters unjustly, I am. Will be captured if not killed soon. Need help..." At which point, the image broke down into snow.

        "Na'lai." Larieken reported, "We have a signal coming through from the DE'MOLAY. It is Val'na Tikopai, she wishes to speak to you."

        "Put it through." She straightened, then, as the image rippled down, showing her captain standing next to the DE'MOLAY's own commander in the DE'MOLAY's ready room. Klairika found the iamge of the two Tikopais' standing together somewhat amusing, but she quickly got down to business. "Captain's Tikopai; how may I serve?"

        "We've decided to send out a rescue party to help this 'Moreil', Klairika. The captain of the DE'MOLAY has graciously suggested that we send a group of Rangers combined with some of her own pilots to scare his pursuers off."

        "I have no problem with this. The suggestion even makes sense, given our new spirit of cooperation."

        "Exactly what I was thinking; make it so."

        And even as Julia's image faded from sight, she made the call. "Anla'shok Fenric!"

        "Captain." her squadron leader's steady reply came, as his image sprang into being. "May I assume we're finally being allowed to launch, now?"

        "Yes, though not quite for the reason we originally discussed. Here are your new instructions..."

* * *

        There were some days, Arietta Gage thought, as she piloted her Thunderbolt out of the DE'MOLAY's fighter bays, the other fighters of Alpha Squadron behind her, when it seemed like she'd got the universe all figured out. And then, things like this happened... things like the top-secret Interstellar Alliance battlecruiser hanging off their port quarter, deceptively doing nothing for the time being, and the tiny group of fightercraft that had emerged from it.

        "This is Alpha One to Ranger commander." she began. "Do you copy?"

        "Affirmative." a dry, laconic voice began, and Arietta looked up and to the side, and watched the handful of sharp-edged, graceful Ranger fighters fall into the formation around her. "Good day, Lieutenant Commander... this is Anla'shok Fenric, at your service."

        "Well met, Mr. Fenric!" she replied, as the combined fighter group moved out into the darkness away from their respective motherships. "I'm sure you know why we're all here, today..."

        A spattering of laughter passed through the darkness, and some of those doing the laughing were Rangers, before all grew serious again. "Indeed," Fenric replied. "A cry for help has been heard, and it is our duty, as Anla'shok and as loyal warriors of Earth, to aid this individual.

        Let us begin to do so."

        There were times, Moreil observed, as he slowly piloted his craft towards the two capital ships waiting ahead, when the universe actually *did* listen for a change, remarkably enough. And since one could not ask the Dark Ones for help any longer, one had to trust in other, larger voices to listen.

        And sometimes, the answers were very interesting ones.

        Those who had come to help him, for instance. The combination had been an intriguing one, and also, a force that had been more then sufficient to destroy two of his pursuers, and drive off the rest: a squadron of Earth heavy fighters, combined with a smaller unit of fighters he did not recognize.

        It was then that he decided to focus his gaze on the motherships of these two fighter squadrons more closely...and Moreil began to realize that something remarkable and perhaps unusual was going on. One of the ships, the larger, was a human Warlock Class destroyer... one of the few classes in their arsenal that gave the Drakh pause, and rightly they should, in his opinion, for to his senses, it softly sang the song of the Dark One's Machine. A dangerous game that had been for the humans to play, and perhaps the movement wasn't over quite yet. While the other...

        The other, likely the origin for the fighters alongside the human ones, also seemed to possess organic technology... but *Vorlon*, instead. Moreil's eyes narrowed in thought, as he moved his craft in to dock with the human destroyer. Interesting... had this been the ship responsible for interrupting the Drakh plans for the human world named Sinzar? Oh yes, he *had* detected the furious transmissions of the Drakh Vekh'shivalht, and had deceiphered their meaning. Perhaps he was now about to meet the individuals responsible for their defeat at that place!

        Ah, yes... he would enjoy that, a *great* deal.

* * *

        A short time later.

        "Who are you?" Bethany demanded of the alien that had just stepped onto her ship. The alien had a narrow, triangular head and large, elongated red eyes, and wore loose, if form-fitting, dark robes. "Why were the others hunting you?"

        The alien bowed slightly towards her. "I... am, in your tongue, named... Moreil. My people are named Z'sssshailyl. The others were huntersss sent to capture me, and if I wass to prove troublessome, to destroy me... for I am renegade to them now."

        "We have heard rumours of your kind, Z'shailyl!" Julia ground out, her expression close to anger. "Is it not true you once served those we know as *Shadows*, and that your people are now servants of the Drakh?"

        "Yesss," Moreil replied, his eyes seemingly radiating... anger? "The rumourss are true, Ranger, cannot deny them; thiss is part of reason I am here. The People have been wrongly forc-ss-ed to serve those who sserved the Dark Ones in their time. Thossse you know as Drakh, both master, warrior...

        And thossse you have yet to meet."

        "What are you talking about?"

        "Cannot tell, can only ssshow and aid you when the time comesss." the Z'shailyl replied. "Here is sspecial gathering of human warriorsss and Rangers, also. Very ssspecial.

        I will help you, as you helped me."

        "What did you make of that?" Bethany asked her daughter, as Commander Telluride gestured sharply, and a pair of security showed the Z'shailyl to its quarters. "Should we believe him?"

        "If he's telling the truth," Julia replied, a faint smouldering anger still in her eyes. "Moreil, if that really is his name, should not be trusted. His kind have moved as rumour in the night for some time now... the Rangers have, from time to time, heard of them... but until now, we've never actually met one face to face."

        "But what of his claim that the others have cast him out, that the Drakh have set 'hunters' to find him, that he has been named renegade?"

        "His kind served the Shadows for thousands of years! Before I believe his claims, I want proof!"

        At that point, a tall, grim-faced Ranger appeared around the corner, and Julia moved away for a time to converse with him. "What's going on?" she inquired, when her Ranger daughter returned to her side, a moment later.

        "I must leave your side for a time. Something's going on over on the SHARD that requires my attention."

        "Can I... help in any way?" Julia raised both eyebrows at that remark, and Bethany sighed, as her daughter turned away. "Never mind."

* * *

        A short time later.

        "I'm trying *very* hard to believe everything you're telling me," Julia began again. "And just about failing. The *ship* wants to talk to me?"

        "That's what it looks like, yes. Lt. Commander Mithrush, before she went back to the DE'MOLAY, compared it to some of the 'situations' your mother's crew has had to deal with because of the Shadowtech aboard her ship. Sometimes, in her words, 'it get's a mind of its own.'

        <Listen to the song>

        "Did you say something?" she exclaimed, looking around.

        "No." Nicholas replied, a frown coming onto his face. "I didn't."

        <Remember>

        Julia stood, then, her expression frozen. It couldn't be... could it? "I know that voice." she murmured. "But how is it possible?"

        "Uh, Captain..." Nicholas nervously interrupted, "Are you okay?"

        "Fine!" she continued, as she left the engineer's office and approached the offending console in question. "Just fine."

        <The chosen, we walk with. Your truth is not hers, or theirs.>

        "Kosh... where are you?" she muttered.

        "She didn't just say 'Kosh', did she?" Nicholas asked Lesaki, who had been hovering in the background the whole time.

        "Yes. I'm afraid that she did." the Minbari observed.

        "Captain..." Nicholas insisted. "This just isn't a good idea!"

        "I agree." Klairika's voice intruded, and everyone turned to look, as the Brakiri arrived, her face *anything* but peaceful. "I have been bought up to speed on what has happened, here. I do not recommend that you touch that template, Val'na."

        "This is *his* doing..." she replied. "It has to be. But how?"

        <Who are you?>

        Julia sighed. The Vorlon's question... but even now, after all she'd done, all she'd become, could she actually answer it? "I don't know." she answered honestly, as she leant over the console. "Will this tell me?"

        Silence.

        "Only one way of finding out, I guess..." she muttered, extending her left hand.

        "Captain!"

        "Val'na!"

        And very quickly, before they could stop her, Julia set her hand down on the template.

* * *

* * *

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