(disclaimers and associated descriptions in overture)
* * *
<<ACT FOUR>>
Eloi'a Dreadnought TIELDA'S PRIDE -- command sphere.
Victory. Speaker Aeilyn-Trakande-Xexus of the Cradle of Stars watched the situation unfold before him, and knew that he had won... that all would now proceed as he had seen. As they often had with the Dark Enemy from time to time, his Wingleader had chosen to take advantage of a natural 'fold' in hyperspace to hide his massive vessel from clear view -- and slowly, *very* slowly, they had moved towards the rendezvous agreed upon in the times-before. Now, there upon the holographic depict at his private station, he could see the tiny icon of Saakli's vessel fleeing onward at the greatest speed it could manage... while close behind, the much *larger* icon-form of the Alliance vessel commanded by the militarist human Observer named Tikopai swiftly closed the distance to firing range.
"Speaker!" the Wingleader entreated, casting a somewhat desperate gaze in his direction as Aeilyn watched the icon-status of Saakli's ship suddenly change as his pursuer ordered two shots-of-warning sent across her quarry's bow -- so be it, Saakli had finally turned his ship end over end to bring his largest weapons to bear upon his opponent -- but they were close now, *so* close. "Speaker -- if now we do not act, your prize, it may be lost!"
"No, my Wingleader, it will not... and right you are, as always. Bring us out of our hiding place... slowly. The status of our forward batteries, if you please?"
"All missile batteries are fully loaded, ready to fire." the Wingleader reported, as the bow of the TIELDA'S PRIDE emerged out of the hyperspace fog and into clear view. "You intend to engage the Alliance vessel, then?"
"Only so far as *is* necessary." Aeilyn gravely replied. "Even though she has now proven herself as Fallen as the other human, I will not kill an Observer, not even for the prize I seek... the prize which, due to the communion I have been conducting with the human child as of late, will soon be mine. Instruct the firing crews that they are to *disable* the Alliance vessel, not destroy it. Do you understand my orders, Wingleader?"
"I do." the Wingleader reported, and a moment later, after a brief intership discussion, he nodded again. "As do the firing crews. All is ready."
"Then you may open fire, of course." Aeilyn finalized. "Let us end this charade."
* * *
"Missile launch!" Sheynell cried out. "Eight... no, twelve inbound!"
"Launch countermeasures." Julia ordered, as the tension on the bridge of the SHARD rose another notch. "Dasouri, the evasive patterns you learned in flight school -- now would be a *very* good time to use them."
The Drazi nodded grimly -- and a moment later, the SHARD flung itself into a complicated series of maneuvers while simultaneously launching a dozen plasma countermeasures charges from its fore and rear launchers -- charges that almost immediately caused the dispersal and destruction of the first missile salvo the Eloi'a had cast at them, while their parent ship continued to spin across the ruddy skies of hyperspace in a fashion only made possible by White Star technology. There was, however, no time for Julia to rejoice at this reprieve, as a moment later her opponent launched *twice* as many missiles as he had the first time.
"This... is not good." a now tense Sheynell muttered, as the new and larger salvo swiftly crossed the gap between the two warships to meet another wall of plasma fire. "We haven't hit our limit in full defensive mode yet, Val'na -- but we will, if this keeps up for much longer."
"Anla'shok Fenric!" Julia suddenly snapped out, "Is your squadron ready for launch?"
"Ready and prepped to engage the enemy, Captain..." the dry voice of her squadron commander came back. "Just give the word."
"You may consider the word given, then, Mr. Fenric." she replied, as behind her, Klairika immediately opened the launch ports in the battlecruiser's skin, while the second set of Eloi'a missiles met Minbari plasma charges and died the same death as their earlier brethren. "Let's see if this doesn't even the odds a little."
* * *
"At last!" Saakli exclaimed, as he and his fellow operatives moved through the metal-laced interior of the Eloi'a flagship away from the smallship docking portal with no small amount of relief, now that the long flight was over with. "Let us pray this has been worth it..." he added a moment later, casting a quick glance back at the struggling human child held firmly in the claws of those-who-followed.
"Safely aboard, are you?" a voice from above called out. "How... commendable."
"Commendable, you say... remarkable would perhaps be more accurate. But in any case, what is, is. I trust that you wish the human child brought to the command-sphere, Speaker?"
"Yes -- that will suffice for the time being..." At which point, Saakli and all those around him suddenly stumbled, as the mighty dreadnought shuddered around him, its gravity field momentarily thrown out of whack. "You will have to excuse me for the time being, however, most favored servant... it appears as if the enemy has cast out a few *pests* that we must deal with before this movement can be brought to an end."
* * *
Minbar. Teirann Holding.
"He is coming, isn't he?"
"That is so, yes. After the action the youngling is taken, what do you believe he will do? Perhaps he may be full of righteous anger at what has been done to the one he cares for -- if this is so, the choices we must make will not be easy ones."
"Remember that the choices we make must be for the good of the clan. Without balance we will falter... without a center to anchor ourselves upon, we will surely fall."
"You veil your intent to us, Sina'h -- kindly make your meaning plain."
A smile. "It shall be as you wish."
* * *
He remembered the last time he had been here, to declare his choice to become Anla'shok -- he remembered the stern, black-faced glares his father and eldest brother had worn... the shadows of grief upon the faces of others amongst his clan... and central to it all, solemn and unreadable, his beloved Belaii. Belaii who had watched him turn away from the Clan to wage the war against the Great Enemy -- that same Minbari who now lay in the halls of healing deep in a drug-induced slumber. She had been safely operated upon, and the needle-like stone shrapnel removed from her skull and shoulder. That she would recover was certain -- that the one who had done this to her, if not by intent, would pay for his actions was *also* certain.
Teirann's council hall was one of the original three -- the three that later became nine and three, as the Clan population grew and spread out to new land in the shadow of the Wall -- and it was unique among them all, for it was not a built place, but a natural one. Aeons ago, the great black mountain named X'zharai had been an active volcano, a volcano that had in time collapsed in its death throes to form a massive crater at its heart... at around the same time as the Wall had formed. As a result of this collapse, great cracks had formed within the mountain's bulk, and caves had later resulted -- including this one, a mighty bubble in the rock a hundred spans high and across -- the floor of which was still warm to the touch -- Larieken smiled at a thought then, of the story his mother had told him, long ago... that the rocks still remembered what they had been, before Minbari had walked in this place.
Now, as day passed into night outside, the cavernous chamber was full of shadows -- the glowing crystals that gave it light stoked dimly ...and the cave was also full of his people, come to witness this debate. Larieken nodded stoically at that -- so be it, if that was the way it had to be. Above the multitude stood the great black table where so many decisions had been made -- and at that table, the greatest elders of his clan now sat. This passage, it would be a difficult one, but it was necessary, if his family was to survive. All too necessary. And with that, Larieken strode forward, the warriors of the Wind Swords parting before him like the sea in the ancient human religious saga Julia had once told him about... until he stood before the table of Council, surrounded by silence.
But not for long -- another ripple in the clanspeople soon made itself known, and rather abruptly, Ariekaas emerged from that ripple, his expression expectant... an expression that soon passed, however, as Larieken laid a steady, almost *challenging* stare upon him. Now would the combat of the word be joined -- now would decisions be made.
"Who comes before us?" a sonorous voice announced, and both brothers turned to face the table, as D'hal Sina'h Araell, she who was eldest among the Wind Swords, rose to her feet and glared down her nose at them. Araell's history was a varied and colorful one -- not only had she been the one to make the first stand against the Streibs when they had run their raids into Minbari space cycles before, she had also commanded three triads of war cruisers in the war with the humans. She had been there at the end, when the call for surrender had come -- and she also come, in the end, to stand beneath the glare of Euphrates when Sheridan had called for the final fleet to gather, just before the great war of the Shadow had come to its close. And now, Larieken locked gazes with the warrior who was greatest amongst his clan, smiled grimly, and began to speak.
"I come -- I, who have returned from the deep, returned from my service as called by my father in his time of need."
"His time of need, you say?" Ariekaas suddenly countered. "You, who have been gone from this place for cycles, how would you know the nature of our father's needs? Do you refer to the very same father, brother mine, who cast you out for the crime of turning against our family and clan?"
"The youngster's point is a valid one, Anla'shok Larieken..." Araell dispassionately noted. "How do you respond to his attack?"
"Ariekaas claims that what I did was not in the best interests of the clan -- perhaps he infers that I would now have been one of your most promising young warriors, Sina'h, if I had stayed -- perhaps he is right on both counts. If I had not become Anla'shok, if the Call had not come... these things would be true."
"You see?" Ariekaas declared, his expression triumphant. "He admits his flaws, admits that the path he chose was not in the best interests of family and clan! How, then, can one such as this be chosen to lead one of our greatest families in the times to come?" Larieken winced -- the path his brother was taking in this matter was a direct one, and the attack already fierce.
Araell gestured sharply as Ariekaas opened his mouth to speak again, and the sudden crash of pike upon crystal filled the chamber -- Larieken nodded at this: even the Elder would only allow *so* much impertinence. "Hasty you are, youngster, to make your closing arguments before we have heard all the evidence."
Ariekaas bowed in acquiescence at this reminder, his embarassment plain -- but when he straightened, this had been swept from his face... although if one looked closely, flashes of anger and vindictiveness could still be seen deep in his eyes. "Indeed that is so, Sina'h -- as you suggest, a far more telling piece of evidence awaits our attention.
Attend to this, you must!" Kendraii's youngest son suddenly cried out, turning to face the massed members of the clan. "How Larieken of the Wind Swords chose to walk upon the path of the One -- and first encountered the changeling human named Tikopai -- a trifling human female he would soon place above all others. Understand how Larieken, fully Anla'shok even then, was ordered by *Delenn* to take this untried stripling under his wing, train and protect her, and propell her towards her... destiny.
And now," Ariekaas continued, "If this can be believed, the roles have been reversed. Rumour speaks in many tongues, but loudest among them is the voice that tells us Sheridan has given one of our greatest creations into the hands of the changeling -- and that Larieken, he who could have been one of the greatest among us... Larieken has decided to place himself into servitude, to answer the impertinent calls of this child who dares to call herself... Anla'shok.
From this, deduce that Larieken is flawed to the core by his choices -- tainted by his near-continual involvement with the humans... and not fit to stand as future head of *my* family."
Larieken sighed. Again and again, the warriors of his people chose to fling this insult in the face of the one he called friend, and leader -- the one he had, as Ariekaas had already implied, helped guide towards her destiny. The day would come when Julia would have to stand before Shai Alyt Kozorr's council, and answer this challenge. To stand up to the daggered attacks his people were flinging at her from behind. That day was not this day, however -- she could not be here, therefore it was up to him to defend her honor. Up to him to challenge and dispute Ariekaas's 'claims'.
And finally, it would have to be him who would reveal what Ariekaas had tried to do to one who was family. And to another who had all but sacrificed herself to protect the one she loved.
"He has declared his position, Anla'shok Larieken." Araell finally said, breaking the expectant silence that had filled the council chambers after Ariekaa's emphatic final statement. "Now, as the rules demand, we must honour both sides -- we must hear and understand your side of what is, and what may yet be. Speak to us of these matters, then, Anla'shok Larieken -- speak to us of the reason you left us behind, so many cycles ago, and of the claims your brother makes. Tell us the truth -- that is all that we ask."
"The truth, you say." he slowly began, the framework of a plan beginnning to come together in his mind. "If it is the truth you want, D'hal Sina'h, then the truth you shall have. Only understand one thing before I tell this tale --
The truth hurts."
* * *
Sheynell knew this moment would come -- knew in her heart that despite Dasouri's skills, despite Julia's reluctance to open fire with all the weapons at her command... that this moment would come just the same. And so it had, as the Eloi'a missile crews finally overcame her ability to defend against their attacks...
As two sniper-like missiles passed through the wall of countermeasures as if they were nothing but tissue... and cleanly struck against the SHARD's belly and portside engine -- casting shards of organic hull and precious air out into the red hell of hyperspace.
* * *
Victory -- it was now all but inevitable. Aeilyn clenched his claws in triumph as he observed the Alliance ship suddenly spin out of its complex defensive dance, haloed by the expanding plasma bubbles of the missile strikes upon its hull, and knew that they were done with this dance at last. "The crews may now cease fire." he smugly informed his Wingleader. "And since we have also disabled two of the six smallcraft the enemy sent out to harry our flanks..."
"The rest will no doubt swing back to protect their injured mothercraft." the Wingleader agreed. "And since the child is now aboard, perhaps we shall now endeavour to set course for our rendezvous with the..."
* * *
A scream -- she had heard a scream as blazing sparks erupted from half of the bridge stations -- and most of their so-far reliable systems suddenly fell offline. Sheynell blinked then, and not because of the smoke produced by the suddenly redlined crystal fibre systemics, either -- the scream had not been an audible one, but a *mental* one, instead. And since that was true, who had been doing the screaming -- one of the crew? Or the *ship* itself?
"Dasouri, get us back under control!" Julia suddenly commanded, her tone the angriest Sheynell had ever heard, even as the Drazi struggled to bring the suddenly sluggish SHARD out of its strike-induced spin. "Klairika, do be so kind as to inform me what *he* has done to my ship."
"Val'na," Klairika haltingly began, "As we feared would occur, two Eloi'a missiles have penetrated our defensive screen -- a combined fifteenth of Decks Seven and Nine lies open to vacuum. Casualties are reported from both areas -- it is confirmed," the Brakiri bleakly added a moment later. "It appears that we have suffered two deaths and three times as many injuries, both minor and serious, in those regions. Veyshahk and his people are responding as quickly as they can."
"Mr. Dawson," Julia imperiously called out, as she began to stalk back and forth across the bridge, fist clenching and unclenching as she went. "How soon can you give me maneuvering power and weapons?"
"Weapons?" the incredulous chief engineer replied over inter-ship comm a moment later. "We just got our belly torn wide open, and you want to start firing at the..." A moment of silence on the part of the engineer followed, accompanied by some barely heard lecturing in the background, and then, the reply came. "Sorry about that, Cap -- Alwyn's 'explaining' some things to me -- gimme a moment, Captain, we should be back up to two-third's maneuvering and more-or-less, uh, full weapons ability shortly. Engineering out."
"For the sake of a child, he had done this thing." came a deadly whisper from below, and Sheynell drew in a deep breath as Julia rose to her feet and turned towards her... and she shuddered to see the *fury* in that gaze. "Anla'shok Dasouri -- as soon as your systems come back online, bring us into close proximity with their drive section..."
"The wizard's worked his wonders!" came Dawson's sudden cry from below, even as most of the control surfaces in the bridge shuddered back to life. "Whatever you're going to do, Captain, do it now, before this all falls apart on us!"
Anla'shok Keynes..." Julia finalized all too decisively a moment later.
"Ready the main gun."
* * *
"Fleet?"
Even as he watched it, Aeilyn could not believe it -- how an vessel he believed disabled and knocked out of contention suddenly spun to rest in space and darted towards his flagship, its movement a blur against the red and black background. How no one on the bridge was given time to respond to the suddenly renewed threat, even as the nose of the Alliance warship named SHARD OF NIGHT suddenly began to glow, four streamers of light focusing in the space just beyond as, inevitably, the childling militarist who was his opponent gave the command to...
* * *
"Fire!" Julia snapped out, and without pause, Sheynell's hand passed across the crystals in question. Seconds passed, then, seconds in which desparate Eloi'a scrambled to do something, *anything* to prevent what they knew in their hearts could not be prevented. Seconds in which Rangers hoped for the best, and expected the worst.
And then, a sun briefly kindled, as a fiery knife sprang out and carved its way into the drive section of the TIELDA's PRIDE, in one side and out the other and then abruptly UP, casting molten bubbles of steel into the hyperspace vacuum. The mighty Eloi'a vessel shuddered like a wounded beast, and slowly began to spin even as three of the great drive nacelles at its stern gradually ripped away from the dreadnought's superstructure and began to drift away from the battlefield.
But this was a victory that could not be savored, as a cry of alarm suddenly came from engineering. "Ah, Hell! -- Lesaki, catch that power sp..."
A sentence that was shortly followed by a virulent curse from the captain of the SHARD OF NIGHT, as the bridge suddenly plunged into darkness, and all control over the ship's systems was once again lost.
"What means 'pox'?" Dasouri hesitatingly inquired.
* * *
Another moment swept by, a moment in which three quarters of the fusion reactors remaining to the suddenly desparate Eloi'a engineers cycled up to overload, cutting in the automatic safety protocols that were built into every ship of the Cradle.
As a result, within ten more seconds, a wave of darkness swept down the hull of the great vessel, while pandemonium ruled within. Through this darkness and mayhem stalked Saakli and his minions, human child in tow -- their destination finally reached.
"Master!" Saakli cried out through the darkness of the command sphere, a darkness only intermittedly banished by emergency lighting, "The child."
"For this prize, we have suffered greatly." Aeilyn darkly mused, as he whirled on one foot to bring a fierce eye upon the terrified human girl before him. "Pray to Those that Are that it has been worth it." And with that, the Speaker bent down on one knee before Celia Westcastle, and reached out his hand. "Welcome, my child..." he intoned. "Welcome *home*."
"You?" the child disbelievingly replied, her voice full of fear. "You're the voice?"
"I am." Aeilyn agreed, as his ship continued to shudder around him. "Embrace the future that is, child -- there is no going back, for either of us."
"Speaker!" the Wingleader suddenly exclaimed, "Observe!"
And observe Aeilyn did, as the mists of hyperspace suddenly parted to reveal the familiar, welcome shapes of three Eloi'a heavy cruisers.
* * *
"Val'na..."
"I see them." Julia grudgingly admitted, as the three new arrivals bore down upon her temporarily crippled command, as it slowly pinwheeled through space next to its larger, equally crippled opponent. "Answer me this, my unwelcome guests..." she mused, "Are you friend...