(disclaimers and associated descriptions in overture)
* * *
<<ACT TWO>>
Behold hyperspace -- full of distortion waves and hidden pockets of turbulence, concealer of mysteries both guessed at and unknowable. The Centauri were the ones to introduce us to this realm, and as we eventually learned, galctic history has been full of species stumbling across the secret of jump technology and subsequently moving into hyperspace. The beacon grid constructed between here and the Rim by forces both modern and ancient guides us between stars like skaters following grooves across an ice-covered pond. Of the spaces between and the water beneath, we know nothing... only that ships dissapear on occasion... and that rumours abound.
Now, behold an arrow cast from a bow of justice sought, a bolt sent in pursuit of that which has been stolen. It has been said by some that there is nothing faster then the myriad ships of the White Star Fleet.
Those authorities are wrong. There *is* something faster... several somethings, as a matter of fact.
* * *
ISAS SHARD OF NIGHT - in pursuit. May 18th, 2267, human reckoning.
"Mr. Dawson," Julia abruptly began as her all-too-obviously harried chief engineer arrived on the bridge, "Why don't I come straight to the point -- now that we've found the trail of the ship controlled by this 'Saakli' that Observer Nirisha has told us about, how long can we keep this up?"
"Well, the last time a captain of the SHARD tried something like this, I had to forcibly restrain our former chief engineer from doing something unfortunate," Dawson thoughtfully replied. "But as for an answer to your question, to be honest, Captain, I don't think that we've *yet* pushed this ship as far as it can go."
"Well *now* we're going to try." Julia paused then to cast a quick glance outwards into the reddish hell of hyperspace visible through the bridge viewports before turning her attention towards the tactical station, where Sheynell's pale features shimmered with blue and orange from the tactical projection her station was projecting at the moment. "Anla'shok Keynes. What is..."
"The status of the trail?" the telepath wryly replied.
"You peeked."
"Did not, as a matter of fact. For now at least, it looks as if we're going quite a bit faster then this ship of..."
"Saakli." Nirisha re-supplied from the far side of the bridge.
"...Saakli's is. Then again, they had several hours head start on us, so even though the emission trail from his ship has increased in magnitude since we've begun this pursuit, I simply don't know enough about these Eloi'a ships to make an accurate guess as to how far behind them we are."
"Perhaps I can help." Nirisha commented as she approached the tactical station to gaze critically upon the sensor output. "Ah, yes -- his vessel is a..." everyone winced then as the avian proceeded to rattle off a high noted sequence in her own language... "As I had suspected. The news is somewhat promising, then -- this class of operative-vessel does not possess as much drive capability as some of the other vessels in our fleet... and even though I suspect Saakli is pushing his command to the limit in order to reach the TIELDA'S PRIDE before we reach him, we are presently overtaking his vessel at our present velocity. I estimate no more then ten of your hours before the pursuit concludes."
"And would you care to additonally estimate how long it will take for him to reach your father's vessel with the captive child?" Klairika inquired, her tone pleasant yet carrying a hint of steel.
"Between ten and twelve of your hours, if the plans my father was making before my banishment have not changed."
"So in other words," Julia went on, "They could still reach the flagship before *we* reach them." Nirisha sadly nodded. "Then we need to go faster, don't we? Dasouri!"
"Val'na!" the Drazi helmsman immediately replied.
"Time for us to find out how fast this ship can *really* go."
"As you command." And a moment later, the barely heard and felt background shriek of the SHARD's engines climbed another notch, which drew a wince out of Dawson.
"While the cause is a good one, Captain, I don't recommend keeping this up for too long."
"We will keep this up, as you say, Mr. Dawson," she icily replied as she returned to her chair, "Until we catch our prey."
"In that case," the chief engineer replied with a sigh, "I've got work to do below. I'll be back in a bit for that meeting we've got planned, though. Later, folks..."
"Why do they always look so worried?" Nirisha commented a moment later, her face creased with puzzlement. "It is the same among our kind, as well."
"They who?" Warren Holm curiously asked from the secondary fire control station.
"Why... 'engineers' of course, I believe you call them."
"It's part of the job description, I guess."
* * *
<Are they gone now?> the pleasant voice asked her.
Celia nodded, as she bent down to pick up the food and water the nightbirds had left for her. "They're gone, I *think* -- but they left me the same food again... I don't like it!"
<Food you do not like is better then no food at all, child.>
"I *guess*." The child began to pace in the darkness, then, even as she slowly drank the water the nightbirds had given her... that tasted strange, too. "Are you *sure* there's no way I can escape from the nightbirds?"
<Very sure, I'm afraid.> her friend confirmed. <I have heard of this 'nightbird' who has captured you and taken you away from your mother and your father, and he is not a very pleasant fellow, I am afraid. If you were to escape and he found you, he would be *very* upset.>
"And you're telling me we're on a *ship*?"
<And beyond the walls of his ship, there is only hyperspace.>
"Wow." Celia whispered, momentarily forgetting her fear as she tried to think about the red-stuff that hyperspace was. Her brother had tried to tell her about it, but he always made it sound silly. Mom was a way better storyteller, though -- she had even told them about the time Dad and the President had attacked a Vorlon observation post, once! Celia shivered -- scarry stuff, though the Shadow stories were *always* worse. "Where do you think we're going?"
<I do not know.> the Voice admitted. <Though I suppose we'll find out where we're going when we get there.>
"'Guess so." At that point, her face brightened. "Promise you won't leave me?"
<I promise.> the Voice gravely replied. <As long as I am with you, Celia, you will never be alone.>
* * *
"About time you got here." Julia muttered, as she and Alwyn moved out of the hangar bay together, while several of the fighter pilots looked upon Alwyn's tiny black craft with interest. "I was beginning to think..."
"Now, now," the Technomage cautioned, "Don't be impatient! -- we tend to dig our heels in and be stubborn if we're pushed."
"So I've noticed."
"Hmm, yes... Galen has had a great deal of things to say about you, and not many of them are complimentary. But then again, until I've actually seen you in action, I shouldn't be judgemental I suppose."
"So you're giving me a chance, then?" Julia asked with wide-open eyes, as they entered the transport car that would whisk them down towards engineering.
Alwyn snorted. "And now, she tries to flatter me!... won't work, girl. But yes, I approach this situation with an open mind. Please do your best to ensure it stays open."
"Yes, *sir*." she mischeviously replied. "And is my wizardly companion going to tell me what all these... things he's carrying are for?"
"Well, since President Sheridan, in his *infinite* wisdom, decided to make you the captain of this ship, I suppose I should, yes. It is my understanding that your chief engineer is becoming a bit concerned with the way that things are progressing -- this chase you are undertaking is pushing this ship harder then it has ever been pushed before. As such, I am willing, for a short time, mind you!... to offer your Chief the use of a Technomage power source to augment his own reactors."
"You... honour us, sir." she slowly replied, all humour gone from her voice now. "Greatly."
"I'm *so* happy to hear you say that. Additionally, we may want to do a bit of creative tinkering with your weapons grid before you go up against the Eloi'a and their somewhat more advanced technology." Alwyn sighed. "I suppose I will need to speak to your weapons officer as well, then... the telepath who once served with a... Mr. Bester, I believe it was?"
"Riggght."
"Oh good, my intelligence data's accurate, then -- but let's deal with the power problem and Mr. Dawson's hair pulling antics first, shall we?"
She laughed at that, which defused a great deal of tension she had bottled up inside her since this pursuit had begun. "For someone who's never been on this ship before, Technomage Alwyn, you seem to have an awful lot of inside information on my crew!"
Alwyn tapped the side of his nose. "We are wizards, Observer Tikopai -- ad we are capable of many things, some mysterious, and many useful. For now, let's just say that we like to see the *big* picture when we can."
"I see. And just out of interest, what price will we have to pay for your services?"
"Ask not the price before the deed is done." Alwyn warned. "Be assured there will be a price, there always is with my kind... but let us discuss this at mission's end. For now, there are far more important things to think about." And with that, the Technomage fell silent, and Julia realized that was all she would get out of him on the subject for now, at least.
* * *
Tuzanor.
"What's taking so long?" Jennifer demanded, as William stood on the balcony overlooking Tuzanor, holding his son's hand tightly in his own. "Why hasn't she called?"
"She won't have caught them yet, love..." he replied, and a moment later she moved to be with him, leaning hard into his shoulder, a position familiar to him now from their years together. "Let's give them a little more time before we start worrying."
* * *
"And now," Nirisha began, as the senior crew reclined at their ease in the conference room on bridge-deck, "I will fulfill another part of the bargain that ties us together. Your captain, as many of you are aware, shares special abilities with me -- we see patterns in history, and we are drawn to important events like the insects of your worlds are drawn to the flame. To record these events for the benefit of those who follow, to warn... and to instruct, these should be our goals. To reveal to those who follow the pain of the past, so that these things should never happen again.
This was not always the way it was, though." the Eloi'a continued as she slowly strode back and forth, the fine-tipped claws of her feet clicking against the deck as she walked. "Over seven thousand human years ago, we lived in innocence, without the benefit of the Order to guide us... without any warning of what was to come.
We came into being in a much *larger* Cradle then the one we now inhabit." she continued, her voice a whisper against the silence. "The first of my kind came to sentience with a billion-fold lights filling our night skies... the fires of this disk of stars you name 'home' above us."
"You originally come from one of the *Companions*?" Klairika incredulously inquired.
"The larger of the systems *her* kind name Magellanic Clouds, yes." Nirisha acknowledged, gesturing in Julia's direction. "We rose to sentience, and then to the stars themselves. In time we discovered evidence that other races had gone before us, for even as it is in this galaxy of yours, the ancients built jump portals for us to use and understand... and we spread to six hands of stars at our height... before the Fall came. The universe was a bright place for us in that age, and there were no shadows to fear."
"But all that changed." Sheynell quietly noted.
Nirisha nodded again, her eyes now full of pain. "The date of that terrible encounter is well recorded in our legends. In the six hundred and seventh year of our expansion we came across a species that asked no questions, took no prisoners, but only drove all before them, destroying what they could not catch. Their ships we could not touch, and our fleets, they tore to shreds... and soon enough, our colonies began to fall. They were not the Dark Ones, but since this was the time of our youth among the stars, they were more then bad enough.
In that time, the First Observer, an Eloi'a named Eteiras-Elan-Tireen, came among us and cried out to be heard -- he told us that an Exodus would be necessary if any of us were to survive. At first he was not believed, but in time, as the predictions of Eteiras began to come true, and we faced our Doom at last, our leaders chose to hear the words of their Observer, and built a mighty fleet of ships. Into this fleet we went, and as one we left our world-of-birth behind, and went forth into the void, with the forces of our enemy close behind. Our world they destroyed, this we are sure of."
"You say," Dasouri inquired, "That you come from galactic companion to this place. If this is so, how then did Eloi'a pass from companion cluster named Cradle, to encounter Shadows, to begin search for our peoples? Distance between companion and galaxy is considered... uncrossable by my people."
"Not uncrossable, Drazi..." Nirisha sharply corrected, "But not easy to attain. There is, how do I say it? -- a *trail* of stars connecting our former home to this galaxy we now share with you."
"The Magellanic Stream." Nicholas confirmed from his position near the doorway.
"So you name it? In any case, along this trail the Exodus proceeded, guided by their Observer. Into and out of hyperspace they passed, following the trail of ancient gates laid down before them. Many ships were lost, and some were *taken*..."
"Taken?"
"Taken, yes, by things in hyperspace. Out of the ships that left our home, only three out of every ten reached their destination. But in the end, before Eteiras passed beyond our call, the surviors opened their gate between worlds, and emerged into the Cradle of Stars, hanging within reach of the civilizations of the galaxy below. And before his death, he taught our kind the signs to look for, the signs he had learned the hard way. Two of his final brood were also Observers... the rest, as they say, is history.
In time, we were to encounter a number of other species in our home cluster, and after generations of growing together, we were astonished to discover that these lesser lights now also had Observers among them. After a period of consolidation, the Order was established as it is today, junior members serving the Elders in their flame-crystal towers. And soon enough, those Elders began to choose from among their number an Observer to lead us above all others... Speaker for their policies, voice of their body.
We have had many wise Speakers, I will admit... but ever also are there those who disagree with the policies of the Elders. In time, more rules were passed, and the Elders decided to cast out those who stood against them... that they should be banished from the worlds of the Cradle, and shunned by all."
"The Fallen." Julia stated.
"Just so. In the recent past, however, these choices have begun the work of creating a division amongst my people. Those still loyal to the Order and the old ways are still more numerous, but the number of what you would call 'rebels' grows by the cycle, as those younglings unhappy with the rules of their elders have decided to stand behind the Observers declared Fallen. Their voices grow louder day by day..."
"And what your father has done," Klairika inquired, "Has this galvanized the two sides still further?"
"It has. My father was commanded by the Elders to uphold the old ways if he was to encounter Observers among your people, as was expected by my... prophecies -- that the Tithing should occur as it always between the Order and those welcomed into the fold, as is *traditional*. Those you would name rebels tried to prevent this from happening, and failed. Those who serve as our voices among the expeditionary fleet may already have relayed word about what has occured -- if so, my brethren will no doubt be infuriated by what my father has done... and warships loyal to the Fallen are probably already on their way into this region."
"Hoping to find your father's command?"
"I suspect so."
"Good God," Nicholas ground out, "A three-way firefight -- that's *all* we need." The engineer rose from his chair, then. "If you'll excuse me, ladies, Alwyn is still waiting for me down in engineering... we haven't finished installing his gizmos yet, so yet again, I bid you adieu." Julia nodded at that, and without a word, Dawson swept out of the room.
"Just out of curiousity," Julia guardedly asked, "How easy will it be for us to tell the difference between warships loyal to your father... and those loyal to the Fallen?"
"Not easy." the avian replied. "Not easy at all. We will, I fear, only know the difference when the vessels we may encounter open fire. If they open fire on my father's ship, we will know that they are friends. And if they open fire on us..."
"We'll know that we're in trouble." Sheynell bluntly finished for her. "Any questions?"
* * *
Minbar. Teirann holding.
"Your expression tells me that you have news you wish to share with me," Belaii allowed, as Larieken sat down at table with her to eat the midday meal. "The elders, they have decided to hear the claims set forth by you and your brother?"
"As expected, and it is equally apparent that they wish no delay in this matter." Larieken replied. "The council is called for the Time of Shadows Passing."
At that, Belaii sat up straight as a rod, her expression more then slightly shocked. "But that is not even half..."
"No, it is not. But they have spoken, and Ariekaas and I must accept that decision. In any case, the decision is perhaps a just one... perhaps they wish to see us as we really are, and not hidden behind a wall of practiced lies?"
"You do not refer to yourself in that statement, of course."
"No, I do not." Larieken smiled then, as Belaii reached out her hand, and they laced their fingers together. "Ariekaas will no doubt be displeased by this turn of events -- but come, even for us little time now remains more council. Let us discuss what I plan to bring before the elders."
* * *
"It is not enough time!" Ariekaas exclaimed.
"It will have to *be* enough time, Ariekaas!" his erstwhile ally replied, his tone sour. "The elders wait for no Minbari, least of all you!... and if you are late in coming to their council, Larieken will be quick to take advantage of your lapse of common sense!"
"Yes, yes!" Ariekaas all but snarled, "I have listened to your words, and listened, and *listened*... I will listen no more. While the advice you have given me is sound -- understand at the same time that I must make my own decisions and speak my own opinions, as well."
"Of course you must, Ariekaas." the other allowed, the faintest touch of a mocking smile now on his face. "The choice is yours -- I now leave you to your thoughts. Pray that they are sufficient to protect you against what is to come."
But would it be enough, Ariekaas furiously considered as his 'ally' departed. Was there any way of affecting the outcome of this council meeting, of swinging things in his favour? And then a cunning smile came onto his face... of course. The comment his friend had made in passing about 'being late'... it had not just been in passing. The inference was a clear one, now the question was, could he act on that suggestion? COULD his brother be delayed in his appearance enough to anger the elders, to swing their favour in *his* direction?
Now where would Larieken be, was the question -- most likely with *Belaii*... if so, there was opportunity to reach Larieken's *place* of meditation before he did.
Perhaps there would be opportunity to arrange an 'accident' of sorts.
* * *
"He is a fool!"
"Indeed he is," the leader of the group manipulating Kendraii's youngest son replied. "He is a fool, and this means that he will no doubt discredit himself, doing our work for us. We need only focus our arguments on the Anla'shok outsider. We thank you for your work in this, but Larieken must be considered our prime target."
"I pray that you are right in this."
"I am. Now, as I was saying before we were so *rudely* interrupted..."