"STAR AND CIRCLE: THE SEEKER'S FIRE"
EPISODE TEN: "AND NO ONE SHALL PASS"

(disclaimers and associated descriptions in overture)

* * *

        <<ACT THREE>>

        He did not know how it had been accomplished, only that the truth of the matter could not be argued with. Soon after they had departed from Babylon 5, Berane's new ally had suggested they leave the safety of the beacon-course behind and follow a twisting course through hyperspace supplied by him and him alone -- a course provided by a tiny green and silver hand held device the agent kept on his person at all times. The raen-shahn who piloted his vessel-of-search had cast a scathing glance in his direction upon hearing this... but after a time, Berane had come to the conclusion that he could either choose to believe this wandering agent that had aligned itself with the Brakiri raen-shahn, or put that individual to death, for the crime of knowing too much.

        It had been a more difficult choice to make then he had imagined it would be... but by the look of things, the path he had chosen had been the right one.

        This time.

        And while his vessel *was* quite a bit faster then it looked, the course they had followed had brought them farther in a shorter period of time then any believed was possible -- but such details were incidental to the task at hand. The thing to wonder about now, of course, was what would happen now that they had arrived in this remote part of hyperspace?

        "You wish to ask a question." the agent suddenly observed, his eyes glittering craftily. "The answer awaits, if you are brave enough to hear it."

        "Brave?" Berane spat, as he angrily rose from his chair and drew a blade from his wrist sheath. "Are you saying that I, na raen-shahn to one of the most noble Brakiri houses, who has concluded more hunts successfully then any other of my kind in recent memory, am a coward?"

        "I am saying nothing of the sort." the agent replied, as Berane gently laid the point of his deadly blade against its throat. "I only wished to prove your dedication to the mission ahead, na raen-shahn, nothing more."

        "Dedicated we are," Berane frostily replied. "Dedication is second nature to my kind. And now, you will explain to me what it is my hunters must do to capture the target we seek."

        "One chance they have to intercept the target you seek," the agent quietly explained, his eyes full of amusement as Berane slowly withdrew his blade. "And if quick they are not, the chance will be lost. Send your hunters to this location," at which point the agent rattled off a series of hyperspace coordinates, "And have them wait six standard time periods. If right I am, the target you seek will enter those coordinates as the sixth period comes to a close... in a state which will make her easy to capture. May be sooner, but certainly it will not be later."

        "Na raen-shahn!" another of the hunters finally exclaimed. "This creature wastes our time -- we already know from the reports of our contact on Minbar that they..."

        "You *will* be silent!" Berane commanded, and the other Brakiri subsided into a sullen silence. "Nakar, you and your group will take three 'vakar' to the coordinates indicated, and you *will* stay in those coordinates until the six periods our... ally has indicated have passed. Is this clear?"

        A moment passed, but finally Nakar nodded. "It shall be as you say, na raen-shahn."

        "As it always has it been, so shall it always be." he intoned. At which point, Berane turned a wrathful glance upon the agent standing in the corner of his bridge. "If this a lie, you understand what will happen to you, yes?"

        The agent inclined its ends, its expression now mocking. "We understand, Brakiri -- soon enough, however, you will understand how... valuable our aid can be."

        "Pray that you are right." And with that Berane chose to ignore the agent, a posture every other Brakiri under his command soon emulated.

* * *

        Two jumps out from Babylon 5, a transfer gate in the series that lead towards Llort territory crackled out its flashes of dimensional brilliance... and a moment later the bluish-white jump point itself sprang into existence, out of which emerged a single Minbari transport.

        "Why are we here?" Islane asked, her face reflecting the displeasure the Keeper was feeling at this... unusual choice of rendezvous locations. "Do you expect me to believe that your Alyt is brave enough to wait for you this close to Babylon 5?"

        "Under ordinary circumstances you would be right," Tirivail smugly replied, "But these are unusual times -- and all is not as it seems." The Minbari coldly noted in Illithan's direction, and after a moment, the Worker guardedly nodded in reply, and opened a communcations channel. "K'ha shaien rahl, ra vek!"

        "Na'ligen shala'va." an voice replied, a voice full of authority, and as a disbelieving Islane watched, a patch of the void above and in front of them shimmered, and then gradually resolved into the form of a long, tapered tri-hull warship -- a vessel that she thought was Minbari, although this vessel was unlike any she had ever seen before.

        "What is..."

        "You behold the Minbari battlecruiser *Stormwind*." Tirivail replied. "Alyt Rahkeel, fellow warrior of my clan, commands this vessel in the name of our Shai Alyt. And now, as you have suggested, it is time for you to meet him, Islane of House Refa. And time, also, for this game we are playing to be wound down to its... inevitable conclusion."

        A stab of fear passed through her at that point -- and in response she felt the Keeper on her collarbone shift irritably in response. The Master would not have sent her into a trap -- she was worrying herself unnecessarily. The Master had told her, after all, that if she obeyed him in all things, there would be no more pain. And everything Palakz had said thus far had been the truth. These thoughts kept her content as Tirivail's vessel smoothly maneuvered to enter the *Stormwind*'s hanger bay. And all seemed to be well even as she followed the two Minbari out of that craft and into the larger vessel proper.

        But then...

        The chime which sounded as Islane set her feet onto the deckplates of the battlecruiser seemed loud enough to shake the world... and then it was that her dismay became outright terror, as two beams of gravimetric force sprang out from the walls of the hanger bay to hold her pinned to the side of the transport.

        Tirivail's smile became a vision of ice, as she turned to face the desperately struggling Islane. "Lehkvar, tell us, you will, what the scanners have revealed."

        "There is a... creature upon this Centauri, Sha'liat." one of the Minbari at the perimeter of the hanger bay reported, his eyes intent upon the holographic readings being displayed before him. "No, let me be more specific -- this creature is not only upon her, it is *within* her, as well."

        "Do our... histories contain any mention of other encounters with creatures such as this one?"

        Lekhvar nodded, his eyes now full of distaste. "Yes -- during the war of Darkness, when Valen walked among us. The legend describes tiny watching 'possessors' who were, at that time, thought to be servants of the Shadows. The warriors of that period thought the creatures exterminated -- it appears, however, that they were wrong."

        "So!" Illithan snarled, as she drew her blade and sprang towards Islane. "It is as I had suspected, then... the Shadows are gone, which, in my mind, leaves only one other candidate. They captured you, didn't they, weakling Centauri? Captured you, and made you *theirs*.

        And now that the truth has been revealed," the Worker concluded, "It is time for you...

        To die."

        "Enough!" another voice suddenly cried, and all movement in the hanger bay momentarily ceased as Alyt Rahkeel stepped into the chamber, his voice full of command, his face expressionless. "You have assisted us well thus far, Illithan -- but if the Centauri dies at your hands, understand that your death will soon follow."

        "You cannot *mean* to say..."

        "Were my words not sufficiently clear? You will stand aside, Illithan... or you will die." As a disbelieving Illithan watched, Rahkeel's denn'bok sprang open, and the Warrior moved foward, his face decisive. "Which will it be?"

        "This is *madness*." Illithan spat, as she slowly began to move away from her position in front of her target.

        "Madness it may be," Rahkeel acknowledged, "But as long as I command aboard this vessel, my word is as law. The Centauri is valuable to us -- she will help to bring us into contact with the force that controls her... the force that infected her with this possessor out-of-legend that the sensors of this vessel have revealed to us." And with that, Rahkeel came to stand in front of the still-pinned Islane, his expression speculative. "And now we know that you work for the Drakh, Islane Refa, I wonder, will the creature allow you to acknowledge this truth?"

        To her surprise, the Keeper did. "Great Maker preserve me, I wish this was not the truth... but it is! You have discovered my great shame, Minbari... what now would you do with me?"

        "One wonders... does your 'master' hunt for a vessel he cannot see? A warship that has proven itself capable of killing Drakh warships with a single shot?"

        "He does." the now-astonished Islane acknowleged, as the Keeper *continued* to do exactly... nothing. "What does this mean?"

        Rahkeel laughed, and nodded in Lekhvar's direction -- and a moment later, the beams of force holding Islane vanished, at which point the terrified, confused Centauri girl collapsed to the deck. Another curt nod, and she was surrounded by harsh-faced Minbari warriors. "Tirivail, you will take the Centauri to the place where the 'creator' was once kept... before he left us, that was."

        "In your name, we serve." Tirivail replied. And at that, the warriors lifted Islane bodily from the floor, and moved off into the corridors of the warship. Islane chose not to resist... for if she did, the Keeper promised, the pain would return. In time, they came to a chamber full of darkness, save for a pool of light surrounding a shoulder-high bar of crystal in the centre. It was to this bar that Islane soon found herself shackled.

        "Why are you doing this?" she cried out, as the warriors left the cell... all but Tirivail, that was.

        "If the Drakh come for you, you may yet live." the Minbari informed her. "If all goes as planned."

        "And if it does not?"

        Tirivail only gave Islane another of her icy smiles in response to that inquiry, and then left her alone with her symbiotic cellmate.

        <Why are you doing this?> she shrieked, as the door slammed resoundingly shut. <These are Minbari, they are enemies to my...>

        <Understanding is not required, only *obedience*!> the Keeper spitefully replied. <Know your place.>

        Her place? Islane began to laugh, and then to cry -- the Gods of the final darkness surely held her tightly within their grasp -- while the Great Maker himself, as she had previously suspected, has surely abandoned her for all time. There was only one escape she knew of that might free her from this hell, an escape she had refused to consider until now.

        Death. Surely death was better then this?

        Not, of course, that she would ever find out, the Keeper told her.

        For even in death, she would belong to the Drakh.

* * *

        "At last!" Palakz exclaimed, as he burst through the door into Raeznon's sanctum, to discover his Vaarliht writing in her book-of-life. "It has happened, just as I had expected it would."

        "You refer to the Centauri, of course." Raeznon replied, her tone derogatory -- he decided however, that he would not give her the satisfaction of responding to that, so pleased was he by this most recent turn of events.

        "That is correct. Our servant Islane Refa was assigned to make contact with the Minbari banished from their world by their Shai Alyt, the one named Kozorr. Ever since we learned of this, it is has been my belief that these Minbari are also hunting for the Adversary... that they may," Palakz allowed, "Even know more about it then we do."

        "The Minbari are the enemy." he was reminded. "They serve the skak'vez Sheridan, and helped to build the daggership we have been assigned to destroy."

        "Remember, you will, that those who follow us were brought together to hunt the Adversary." he bluntly replied. "It is evident that these Minbari walk deeper in the darkness then any of their kind have in recent memory -- and they have captured and interrogated our servant -- the time has come, Raeznon, to do what must be done. We must move to meet with the one who-leads among the dark Minbari... if all goes as planned, this operation may *even* reveal the true nature of the enemy we face."

        "Do you seek, therefore, to ignore the will of the Entire?"

        Palakz's face darkened. "The Council of Return has already committed my brothers-in-battle to death at the hands of our Adversary, Raeznon... I will not blindly lead our warriors into that trap! While the warning of our new... ally appears to have been accurate."

        "And if the Council of Return declares us traitors, what then?"

        "Declarations can be revoked." the Vekh'shivalht replied, his voice tight. "Again I ask you, which is more important, obeying an order issued by the walking-dead, or protecting the race? I will have your final answer on this matter, Raeznon.

        *Now*."

        There was a pause, and then the younger Drakh rose to her feet, and extended her claws to meet those of her elder-partner. "The answer has not changed -- know that I am yours, until death parts us."

        "Then we do what we must." Palakz said.

        "We do what we must." she confirmed.

* * *

        The patten is shifting around us, Julia wrote, as she sat alone in her ready room, the various candle-stands on the walls of that room providing the only illumination. What I see is not what was, and not what will be -- but in the here and now, our goal is clear -- straight-forward, and we must be decisive, this day of all days.

* * *

        Space twisted, and with little preamble, the force of carriers that answered to Ka'rath smoothly passed through jump transition into normal space. The Drakh bared his teeth in pleasure as he observed the form of the human daggership hanging stationary in the near distance. That the humans had noted their arrival could not be disputed -- they were fierce warriors, Ka'rath admitted, but their weaker technology betrayed them on most occasions. This, however, was not one such -- this vessel their spies had named 'Excalibur' was stronger then most vessels he had encountered... but all the same, it was only one ship.

        With a harsh command, he ordered the smaller warships housed on the belly of his carrier to be launched, and even as they swarmed off towards the daggership, gave another order. "Bring us within range -- and prepare to open fire."

        While a moment later, La'skaa himself beheld the very same thing, as his command ship came out of hyperspace behind Matthew Gideon's command. All was going as planned... for was it not only a matter of time until A'aveilz and his warships closed this trap?

* * *

        

        "The second formation of Drakh warships is coming into firing range." Larieken reported, as Julia emerged from her ready room to assume the SHARD's captain's chair -- already, she was finding it difficult to remember what her life had been like before she had come aboard this warship... a different age that had been, before the Drakh had released their dark plague into the skies of Earth. "There are five warships in this wave, four carriers and a larger command vessel."

        "Klairika -- do you receive?"

        "We hear your voice." the voice of her first officer came back to her a moment later, from her position several thousand kilometres distant on the far side of the swarm of Drakh vessels. "Command us, Val'na."

        "I want you and Azhahk to lead the fighters in strafing missions along the bellies of those carriers -- take out as many of their fighter-class vessels as you can before they realize what's going on. Because as soon as they launch..."

        As soon as they launched, the job was going to get quite a bit more difficult. "Your orders are understood." the Brakiri replied a moment later. "When do you wish us to commence the attack?"

        "Stand by -- the signal you're waiting for is going to be... unmistakable." And with that, Julia sliced her hand through the air, and Larieken nodded, terminating the communications link. "Dasouri, maneuver us so we can get a clear shot on their command ship and at least one of those carriers."

        Even as the Drazi nodded in understanding and began to arc the Minbari battlecruiser high above the passing Drakh squadron, she moved on to the next item on her list. "Nicholas, are the modifications we discussed a short time ago all in place?"

        "Confirmed, bridge, five-by-five." the engineer replied a moment later. "Weapons modifications complete."

        "Well in *that* case," Julia concluded, even as Dasouri rotated the SHARD to bring their weapons array to bear on the Drakh command ship and its fellow carriers, "Here we go again, people. Sheynell?"

        "Target acquired." her tactical officer replied, her expression cool, calm and collected, as always. "Main gun fully charged, and ready to fire."

        "All personnel," she whispered, barely loud enough to hear,

        "Engage the enemy closely."

* * *

        In another sector of space, a pair of eyes looked out upon what was being wrought, and the owner of those eyes sighed regretfully, as he stood upon the platform, alone as always he had been. "So... she continues along the path, as you had suspected would be the case."

        "*The destiny the human female has sought out cannot be avoided*." the voice of ages replied from out of the darkness around him. "*The deaths of the dark ones are but a step towards what will be.*"

        A laugh. "And do you suppose, when the time comes, that she will accept the role that awaits her?"

        The voice of ages sent a shaft of keen amusement in his direction -- and that, for him, was answer enough.

* * *

        To be continued...

* * *

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