From: "Supreme Inquisitor" <inquisitor@281.com>
Subject: B5 Darkness Wakes
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 19:14:38 -0600

Hello everyone.  This is my first post to this list with the first chapter
of my first real attempt to write something(lot's of firsts in there).  I
have three chapters done and will post them eventually.  You can find them
all on my web site.  Positive feedback and constructive criticism is
appreciated and welcome, telling my I stink and should stop writing is not.

Well this story takes place in 2272 after the end of Crusade.  Has spoilers
for pretty much all of B5, though mostly the last 2 seasons.  Also I made an
assumption about the end of Crusade.  There may be a place in here where I
refer to Garibaldi as director of intelligence.  That is just because I
haven't gotten around to correcting it.

And of course the use of Babylon 5 characters, settings, events, etc is not
intended as copyright infrengement and is purely for entertainment purposes.
All original character, settings, events, etc are considered my property
though they are free for use to other fan-fic writers(provided you ask
first).

One last note, this novel has a short Prologue though I am not posting it
here because it is being re-written.

Any comments should be sent to toast_army@hotmail.com

Well here we go:
Chapter One


EAS Columbus:  Earth Alliance Explorer Class Ship
Unexplored Space
January 2, 2272
2200 EST(Earth Standard Time)

 The EAS Columbus settled into a high orbit over the planet.  The planet
appeared
from space to be a desert world.  The surface appeared to be brown.  Not
even a spec to
indicate civilization or vegetation.
 The bridge of the Columbus was quiet.  The various crew members attended to
their various duties.  Commander Hebalgo, the ships Executive Officer,
approached
Captain Smith.
 "Sir," the Commander said as he handed the Captain a report.  "Sensors show
nothing of interest on this world.  Helm is standing by to jump to the
 next."
 "Continue scanning for ten more minutes, if you dont detect anything you
may
jump."  As the Captain finished issuing his orders an alarm sounded on the
bridge.
 "Sir we have incoming from the planet surface.  Presumed to be hostile."
One of
the bridge crew shouted.
 "Power to interceptors, take them out."  The Captain said as he stood to
study the
sensor display.  It definitely showed two objects incoming from the surface.
Judging by
their size and energy signature they could only be weapons.
 "Sir, interceptors are unable to lock on."
 The impact of the first weapon against the aft section of the ship through
everyone
off their feet.  Showers of sparks pored from the ceiling and control panels
in every
direction.  The first weapon destroyed the entire aft section of the massive
ship.
 "Send a Priority One Ultraviolet transmission to Earth Force HQ.  Advise
them of
our situation."  The Captain screamed hoping that someone who could carry
out his
orders would hear him through the carnage.  He knew when the next weapon
impacted he
would die, but, if he could save the lives of others, his death would have
some
justification.
 As he watched the second weapon on the sensor screen, drawing closer to his
ship,
he has no way of knowing if the message was sent.  He could merely watch,
watch his
ships death approaching.


Earth Force HQ, Earth Dome
Geneva, Earth
January 2, 2272
0030 EST

 General Ryan walked through the doors into Earth Force HQ still trying to
fasten
the collar on his uniform.  He hated being woken up early.  Ever since he
became a
General shortly after the civil war, he had lost count of the times when he
had been woken
up early in the morning, usually for something trivial.  In fact, he could
only think of one
time when hed been woken up early for something that could be considered
urgent, the
attack on Earth.
 General Ryan entered the briefing room and took his seat at the table among
the
Chiefs of Staff, other Generals and Admirals.  He was apparently the last
to show up for
this briefing.
 Admiral Pack, one of the Chiefs of Staff checked to be sure everyone was
assembled before he began his briefing.  "Last night, one of our deep space
listening
outposts picked up an emergency message from the EAS Columbus one of our
ships
exploring unknown territory.  We have not been able to contact her since and
believe she
has been destroyed.  The area it was exploring is on the other side of what
used to be
Vorlon territory.  The Seventh Fleet is standing by to move in."
 "Already," Ryan thought.  "Admiral, if something did take out the Columbus
its
not likely to be friendly to over fifty warships jumping in at it."
 "General Ryan, Explorer ships are lightly armed, it may not have been
viewed as a
threat.  Whatever it is would think twice about attacking fifty warships."
 "If it wasnt viewed as a threat then why was it destroyed Admiral?  We
should
send in a small scouting party first to ascertain what has happened to the
Columbus, if
those ships require assistance they can call in the fleet."
 "I agree with General Ryans recommendation."  General Hammond interjected.
 "As do I."  Added Admiral English.
 Admiral Pack let out a long sigh.  "Ill order a destroyer, some additional
fighters
and a couple of S&R ships to be detached from the 7th and search for the
Columbus, if
they need help the rest of the fleet will be standing by in hyperspace."
The assembled
officers nodded in approval with this plan.  "Very well, dismissed."  The
officers all filed
out of the room some quietly, some discussing the situation with one or two
others.
 General Ryan made his way quietly to his office to see a pile of folders
sitting on
his desk.  He considered going back to his house for some sleep.  Barbara
would probably
be worried if he did not come home after being called in this early.  He
picked up one of
the folders and began to read its contents, not really paying attention to
what it said.  This
incident with the Columbus had him worried.  Even though Explorers werent
well armed,
it would require significant fire power to take one out, due to their size.
 Ryan checked the clock in his office.  The meeting had barely lasted ten
minutes.
He then read over his itinerary.  He was scheduled to leave on the Midway
for Babylon 5
later today.  He saw that he had nothing pressing the rest of the day.
 After calling up a schedule for civilian transport ships he booked passage
on one
which was leaving in less than two hours for Babylon 5.  He had never liked
the big deal
which was made when he went aboard a warship.  Besides, he always liked the
look on the
face of Earth Force personell when a General arrived unexpected.


Last Known Location of EAS Columbus
Unexplored Space
0110 EST

 The forming of the jump point pierced through space.  The first ships
through were
the Search and Rescue shuttles followed by twelve Thunderbolt class heavy
fighter, 3 of
the new Grizzly torpedo bombers and one Blackbird class recon fighter.  The
last ship
through the jump point was the Omega class destroyer EAS Majestic.  Two
squadrons of
standard, Aurora class, starfuries pored from the hangar of the large
destroyer.
 The bridge of the Majestic was quiet, still.  All personnel silently
attended to their
duties, scanning for the Columbus, performing checks on weapon systems,
coordinating
the fighters and various other tasks.
 "Captain, Im picking up debris in the area consistent with that of an
Explorer class
ship."  A young Lieutenant announced from the sensor station breaking the
silence which
filled the bridge.
 The Captain swiveled around in his chair to study a near by sensor display.
The
wreckage was definitely from an Earth Force vessel and, the only Earth ship
out this far
was the Columbus.  "Order the Thunderbolts to check it out, try to verify
that its from
the Columbus."  The twelve fighters broke formation with the rest of the
Earth Force
ships and headed for the debris field near the planet.
 The bridge of the Majestic remained silent as the fighters drew closer the
debris.
Then, the sound of an alarm screamed through the bridge.  "Captain sensors
show
four....five.....six......seven.......eight, eight jump points forming
around us."
 Decisively alien ships pored from the open jump point, surrounding the
small Earth
fleet.  As soon as the jump points closed the alien ships began firing on
the Earth vessels.
 "Defensive weapons arent affecting them.  We cant get a clear shot with
pulse
cannons or lasers."  The officer at the weapon station yelled.
 "Call in the fleet!"  The Captain ordered as the bridge exploded around
him.
 The fleets jump points formed nearly at the same moment the Majestic broke
apart.  Fighters, gunboats and medium ships jumped in before the destroyers,
frigates,
cruisers and carriers.  All of the Earth ships exited the jump points firing
on the alien fleet
which consisted of small attack ships and fighters.
 The battle raged on.  Destroyers and other cap ships served as nothing but
targets
for the smaller alien ships which the Earth fighter desperately tried to
stop.  The weapons
fired from the Earth vessels impacted the alien ships but did no noticeable
damage.  The
defensive weapons of the capital ships managed to hurt the enemy ships but
not enough to
stop them.
 There was nothing but chaos on the bridge of the fleet flagship.  General
Roberts
slowly made his way through the piles of debris and bodies to the tactical
operations
station on the bridge.  He leaned close to the officer manning that station
so he knew he
would be heard.  "Bring all of the capital ships in closer together, have
all fighter and
gunboat squadrons concentrate fire on the ships that we hit.  If we can have
our ships
setup up to where they cant attack one cap ship without exposing themselves
from fire
from half a dozen more we might be able to beat them."
 The Generals orders were quickly carried out.  The ships in the fleet
moved in
closer together.  Earth fighters and gunboats maintained close proximity to
the alien ships
firing at every opportunity they had.  The fleet continued to move closer
together.  As the
aliens attempted to attack one ship, several more bombarded them with
particle beams and
interceptors.  The alien ships began to break apart.  They all broke off the
attack on the
Earth vessels and jumped into hyperspace.
 "How long until we can jump?"  General Roberts asked.
 "All ships can be ready to jump in three hours, but, sir why should we be
worried,
the attack was driven off?"  The executive officer of the ship asked.
 "Because those ships that hit us were small, probably just a scout group
ahead of
the main fleet.  If we could barely stand up to those things how well are we
going to stand
up to a cruiser or destroyer?"
 "Captain," the officer at the sensor station yelled.  "I think were about
to find out.
Sensors show fifteen jump point forming directly in front of us, vessels
coming through
include those types that attacked us as well as several classes of larger
ships."
 The General took his seat in the command chair.  "All ships, fire at will!"
 Heavy laser and pulse cannon fire lashed out from the EA fleet.  Corvettes
and
missile carrying fighters launched spread after spread of missiles at the
approaching ships.
 "Weapons having little effect sir."
 "Sir enemy weapons powering up."
 Before the General could respond, it was all over.  The enemy ships fired a
devastating barrage of energy beams and various torpedoes at the Earth
fleet.  The
Corvettes and other medium ships were the first to fall to the enemy attack.
Next were
the older Hyperion class cruisers, followed by the newer cruisers and
destroyers.  The
carriers and battleships continued firing.  Though they inflicted little
damage, they would
not let themselves die without a fight.  The fighters, bombers and gunboats
moved in for
close attack runs on the enemy fleet, but, to no evale.  Defensive weapons
on the aliens
capital ships tore them to pieces.
 The battle lasted no more than thirty minutes.  In the end, more than fifty
capital
ships were destroyed, more than fifty thousand Earth Force personnel were
killed, and a
war had begun.


Interstellar Alliance Presidential Palace
Tuzanor, Minbari Homeworld
0300 MST (Minbari Standard Time)

 This was President John Sheridans favorite time of the day.  The city was
quiet
and the lights made the ancient buildings more stunning than they were
during the day.
Minbari shuttles would occasionally pass above going to and from Yedor, the
Minbari
capital city.
 Sheridan looked up in the sky to see the massive form of the Minbaris
largest
orbital shipyard.  It had been where the first wave of White Stars were
constructed.  Now
the construction of the White Star ships was handled by Earth and by the
Alliances own
shipyards.
 "John."
 The voice he had heard millions of times still caught him off guard.  He
turned
around to see Delen walking toward him.  She held his hands in hers.
 "Its late, you should get some rest, were scheduled to leave early so
that we can
make it to Babylon 5 in time for the ceremony."
 "I dont think theyll start without us Delen."  He said with a light
chuckle.  The
ceremony which she spoke of was indeed an important one.  The Alliance had
been
involved in several conflicts over the years but, it had never acted as an
Alliance in them.
The ceremony was for the ratifying of a new amendment to the Constitution,
stating that
in military actions sanctioned by the Alliance and the member worlds, the
member worlds
would yield authority to Alliance Military Command.  It had taken a lot of
time but
everyone had finally agreed to it.
 "John," Delen said.  "I am concerned about this amendment.  When we founded
the Alliance we made it clear that it was not a military one.  Now, we are
doing this."
 "Were still not going to be a military alliance Delen.  Were not going to
go in
shooting at someone who wont give us what we want.  We will still work
towards peace
but, having this amendment in affect will help us to avoid what happened
during the
Centauri war."
 Delen nodded and allowed John to hold her in his arms for a few moments.
"We
both need some more rest before we leave for Babylon 5."  She took his hand
and lead
them back in from the balcony.
 "Mr.  President."  A voice from the darkness said.  Soon the speaker
emerged to
show that he was a Ranger, one of those who worked in the palace.  He
saluted Delen and
turned to speak to Sheridan.  "Forgive me for intruding at this hour sir,
but, Ms.  Hallonan
wished to speak to you, she says its urgent."
 The President let out a long sigh.  He was tired, but, when Michael said it
was
urgent it usually was.  "Ill take it in here.  Thank you."
 The Ranger once again saluted to Delen before walked off.
 Sheridan took a seat at the desk in the room and activated the
communication
system.  Tessa Hallonans face appeared on the screen.  "Mr.  President,
sorry to contact
you at this hour, the time difference puts it around 0300 on Minbar
 correct?"  Just as the
President opened his mouth to  respond, Tessa continued.  "Anyway, I just
finished talking
to some of the Earth Force brass who are on B5 for the ceremony.  About
seven or eight
hours ago, one of Earths deep space monitoring stations picked up an
emergency signal
from an Explorer ship scouting out the unknown regions, the other side of
what used to be
Vorlon space.  They sent the Seventh Fleet in to investigate.  About three
hours ago, they
lost contact with it.  The only signal they got from the Seventh was a
garbled transmission
saying they were under attack."
 The President rested his head on one of his hands.  "Tessa, tell the Earth
Force
personnel on the station Id like to meet with them when I arrive.  For now
tell them not
to send in any more ships.  Oh and Tessa, meet with Admiral Barns, tell him
to stick a few
White Stars in hyperspace where those ships were lost.  If they pick up
anything they are
to immediately turn around and report back to you or the Admiral."
 Her only only reply was a nod.  Admiral Barns was formerly an Earth Force
commander.  Sheridan had convinced him to take the job of Alliance military
commander.
The ceremony on Babylon 5 was partially for the amendment ratification and
partially for
his installation for that post.  While officially he had been commanding the
White Star fleet
for a year now, he did not have authority over the militaries of all member
worlds.  And
with authority, comes ceremonies Sheridan had told him.
 The President stood up and walked back to the bed.  Delen was already
asleep.
He now wished he could discuss the situation with her but he did not wish to
disturb her
either.  It did not take him long to fall asleep.


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
0715 EST

 "I knew the commander of the Seventh Fleet, he was a good man."  Admiral
Barns
stated as he handed the report back to Tessa.
 Tessa stuffed the report back into a folder.  "Hopefully he still is a good
man.  It
hasnt been confirmed that any of those ships have been destroyed.  The
President wants
to station a few White Stars in hyperspace near where those ships
disappeared."
 Barns nodded.  "White Stars 212 and 301 are in that area.  Ill send them
in, itll
take them about four hours to get their at maximum speed.  Theres a
destroyer and four
other White Stars about a day and half away, should those be sent in as
well?"
 Tessa scratched her chin and took another sip of coffee.  "If we assume the
worst,
then those ships were destroyed and we could be facing a hostile and
powerful enemy
force.  I would recommend sending them."
 "Ill issue the orders immediately."
 Tessa stood and picked up her folders.  "All right.  One of the Drazi
military
commanders here for the ceremony wanted to speak with me.  Says theyre
having some
minor problems on their borders."
 "Probably Raiders, Ill check on the reports from the Rangers in that area,
step up
patrols that sort of thing."
 "Ill let the Drazi know the Rangers will take care of them."  Tessa said
as whe
walked off.
 As Barns began to finish off his breakfast, Captain Lochley sat down at the
table.
"Mind if I join you for a minute Admiral?"
 Barns sat his fork on the plate.  "Typically, people at would ask that
before they
sat down."  They both let out a slight laugh.  "Youre never going to take
that promotion
Ryan keeps offering you are you?"
 She smiled.  "Well, this job keeps my life interesting."
 Barns took another sip of his coffee.  "What can I do for you Captain?"
 "My daily intel briefings from Earth keep noting some unusual activities
being
monitored in hyperspace, near the unexplored regions, they keep picking up
some strange
emissions.  Earth has dismissed it as random fluctuations in hyperspace,
but, I thought Id
let you know about it now that the Seventh Fleet is apparently missing out
there."  She
handed a file to Admiral Barns.
 He reviewed it for a quick moment.  "I take it that everything is in the
report?"
Lochley nodded in response.
 "All right," Barns said.  "Ill forward this to the Rangers, see if they
can put two
and two together."  He stood up and took a last sip of his coffee.  "If you
ll excuse me
Captain Ive got a meeting with the Brakiri defense minister to get to."
 "Of course," she said as he walked off.
 Captain Lochley sat at the table for a few minutes.  It was these relative
quiet times
that she enjoyed.  She sipped a cup of coffee which a waiter had brought
her.
 She had just begun to relax when she heard the voice of Lieutenant Jeffries
through her link.  "Captain, could you come to C&C for a moment, the long
range
hyperspace probes are picking up something strange."
 She sighed for a moment before replying.  "Im on my way."

 Command and Control was strangely silent.  Probably due to so many people
being
absent to help prepare for the ceremony.  There were only two people besides
Captain
Lochley.
 The Captain walked to the main station where Lieutenant Jeffries was
studying a
sensor display.  "What is it Lieutenant?"  She asked.
 The Lieutenant moved to allow her to see the display.  "Our long range
probes
started picking up some strange emissions in hyperspace that seem to have
drifted our
way.  Theyre very weak so whatever caused or is causing them is far away."
 The Captain stared at the display for a moment.  "Earth has been monitoring
similar emissions to these in the unexplored regions of space.  I dont want
to take any
chances, keep one fighter flight on continuous patrol outside the station
and position
another in hyperspace."
 "Yes, Maam."
 As Lochley was leaving C&C, she realized that there was no such thing as a
quiet
day in this place.




gb
"May God stand between you and harm, in all the empty places you must walk."
(Old Egyptian Blessing)
ICQ # 8694414
Visit all of these.
My Home Page--Go To The Links Page For More
http://www.angelfire.com/sk/boshears/

From: "Supreme Inquisitor" <inquisitor@281.com>
Subject: Darkness Wakes Again
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 21:46:06 -0600

Had some complaints about how I posted my story last night.  I converted it
to plain text.  This should look better than the one that I posted last
night.

Chapter One


EAS Columbus:  Earth Alliance Explorer Class Ship
Unexplored Space
January 2, 2272
2200 EST(Earth Standard Time)

 The EAS Columbus settled into a high orbit over the planet.  The planet
appeared from space to be a desert world.  The surface appeared to be brown.
Not even a spec to indicate civilization or vegetation.
 The bridge of the Columbus was quiet.  The various crew members attended to
their various duties.  Commander Hebalgo, the ship's Executive Officer,
approached Captain Smith.
 "Sir," the Commander said as he handed the Captain a report.  "Sensors show
nothing of interest on this world.  Helm is standing by to jump to the
next."' "Continue scanning for ten more minutes, if you don't detect
anything you may jump."  As the Captain finished issuing his orders an alarm
sounded on the bridge.
 "Sir we have incoming from the planet surface.  Presumed to be hostile."
One of the bridge crew shouted.
 "Power to interceptors, take them out."  The Captain said as he stood to
study the sensor display.  It definitely showed two objects incoming from
the surface.  Judging by their size and energy signature they could only be
weapons.
 "Sir, interceptors are unable to lock on."
 The impact of the first weapon against the aft section of the ship through
everyone off their feet.  Showers of sparks pored from the ceiling and
control panels in every direction.  The first weapon destroyed the entire
aft section of the massive ship.
 "Send a Priority One Ultraviolet transmission to Earth Force HQ.  Advise
them of our situation."  The Captain screamed hoping that someone who could
carry out his orders would hear him through the carnage.  He knew when the
next weapon impacted he would die, but, if he could save the lives of
others, his death would have some justification.
 As he watched the second weapon on the sensor screen, drawing closer to his
ship, he has no way of knowing if the message was sent.  He could merely
watch, watch his ship's death approaching.


Earth Force HQ, Earth Dome
Geneva, Earth
January 2, 2272
0030 EST

 General Ryan walked through the doors into Earth Force HQ still trying to
fasten the collar on his uniform.  He hated being woken up early.  Ever
since he became a General shortly after the civil war, he had lost count of
the times when he had been woken up early in the morning, usually for
something trivial.  In fact, he could only think of one time when he'd been
woken up early for something that could be considered urgent, the attack on
Earth.
 General Ryan entered the briefing room and took his seat at the table among
the Chief's of Staff, other Generals and Admirals.  He was apparently the
last to show up for this briefing.
 Admiral Pack, one of the Chief's of Staff checked to be sure everyone was
assembled before he began his briefing.  "Last night, one of our deep space
listening outposts picked up an emergency message from the EAS Columbus one
of our ships exploring unknown territory.  We have not been able to contact
her since and believe she has been destroyed.  The area it was exploring is
on the other side of what used to be Vorlon territory.  The Seventh Fleet is
standing by to move in."
 "Already," Ryan thought.  "Admiral, if something did take out the Columbus
it's not likely to be friendly to over fifty warships jumping in at it."
 "General Ryan, Explorer ships are lightly armed, it may not have been
viewed as a threat.  Whatever it is would think twice about attacking fifty
warships."
 "If it wasn't viewed as a threat then why was it destroyed Admiral?  We
should send in a small scouting party first to ascertain what has happened
to the Columbus, if those ships require assistance they can call in the
fleet."
 "I agree with General Ryan's recommendation."  General Hammond interjected.
 "As do I."  Added Admiral English.
 Admiral Pack let out a long sigh.  "I'll order a destroyer, some additional
fighters and a couple of S&R ships to be detached from the 7th and search
for the Columbus, if they need help the rest of the fleet will be standing
by in hyperspace."  The assembled officers nodded in approval with this
plan.  "Very well, dismissed."  The officers all filed out of the room some
quietly, some discussing the situation with one or two others.
 General Ryan made his way quietly to his office to see a pile of folders
sitting on his desk.  He considered going back to his house for some sleep.
Barbara would probably be worried if he did not come home after being called
in this early.  He picked up one of the folders and began to read it's
contents, not really paying attention to what it said.  This incident with
the Columbus had him worried.  Even though Explorers weren't well armed, it
would require significant fire power to take one out, due to their size.
 Ryan checked the clock in his office.  The meeting had barely lasted ten
minutes.  He then read over his itinerary.  He was scheduled to leave on the
Midway for Babylon 5 later today.  He saw that he had nothing pressing the
rest of the day.
 After calling up a schedule for civilian transport ships he booked passage
on one which was leaving in less than two hours for Babylon 5.  He had never
liked the big deal which was made when he went aboard a warship.  Besides,
he always liked the look on the face of Earth Force personell when a General
arrived unexpected.


Last Known Location of EAS Columbus
Unexplored Space
0110 EST

 The forming of the jump point pierced through space.  The first ships
through were the Search and Rescue shuttles followed by twelve Thunderbolt
class heavy fighter, 3 of the new Grizzly torpedo bombers and one Blackbird
class recon fighter.  The last ship through the jump point was the Omega
class destroyer EAS Majestic.  Two squadrons of standard, Aurora class,
starfuries pored from the hangar of the large destroyer.
 The bridge of the Majestic was quiet, still.  All personnel silently
attended to their duties, scanning for the Columbus, performing checks on
weapon systems, coordinating the fighters and various other tasks.
 "Captain, I'm picking up debris in the area consistent with that of an
Explorer class ship."  A young Lieutenant announced from the sensor station
breaking the silence which filled the bridge.
 The Captain swiveled around in his chair to study a near by sensor display.
The wreckage was definitely from an Earth Force vessel and, the only Earth
ship out this far was the Columbus.  "Order the Thunderbolts to check it
out, try to verify that it's from the Columbus."  The twelve fighters broke
formation with the rest of the Earth Force ships and headed for the debris
field near the planet.
 The bridge of the Majestic remained silent as the fighters drew closer the
debris.  Then, the sound of an alarm screamed through the bridge.  "Captain
sensors show four....five.....six......seven.......eight, eight jump points
forming around us."
 Decisively alien ships pored from the open jump point, surrounding the
small Earth fleet.  As soon as the jump points closed the alien ships began
firing on the Earth vessels.
 "Defensive weapons aren't affecting them.  We can't get a clear shot with
pulse cannons or lasers."  The officer at the weapon station yelled.
 "Call in the fleet!"  The Captain ordered as the bridge exploded around
him.
 The fleet's jump points formed nearly at the same moment the Majestic broke
apart.  Fighters, gunboats and medium ships jumped in before the destroyers,
frigates, cruisers and carriers.  All of the Earth ships exited the jump
points firing on the alien fleet which consisted of small attack ships and
fighters.
 The battle raged on.  Destroyers and other cap ships served as nothing but
targets for the smaller alien ships which the Earth fighter desperately
tried to stop.  The weapons fired from the Earth vessels impacted the alien
ships but did no noticeable damage.  The defensive weapons of the capital
ships managed to hurt the enemy ships but not enough to stop them.
 There was nothing but chaos on the bridge of the fleet flagship.  General
Roberts slowly made his way through the piles of debris and bodies to the
tactical operations station on the bridge.  He leaned close to the officer
manning that station so he knew he would be heard.  "Bring all of the
capital ships in closer together, have all fighter and gunboat squadrons
concentrate fire on the ships that we hit.  If we can have our ships setup
up to where they can't attack one cap ship without exposing themselves from
fire from half a dozen more we might be able to beat them."
 The General's orders were quickly carried out.  The ships in the fleet
moved in closer together.  Earth fighters and gunboats maintained close
proximity to the alien ships firing at every opportunity they had.  The
fleet continued to move closer together.  As the aliens attempted to attack
one ship, several more bombarded them with particle beams and interceptors.
The alien ships began to break apart.  They all broke off the attack on the
Earth vessels and jumped into hyperspace.
 "How long until we can jump?"  General Roberts asked.
 "All ships can be ready to jump in three hours, but, sir why should we be
worried, the attack was driven off?"  The executive officer of the ship
asked.
 "Because those ships that hit us were small, probably just a scout group
ahead of the main fleet.  If we could barely stand up to those things how
well are we going to stand up to a cruiser or destroyer?"
 "Captain," the officer at the sensor station yelled.  "I think we're about
to find out.  Sensors show fifteen jump point forming directly in front of
us, vessels coming through include those types that attacked us as well as
several classes of larger ships."
 The General took his seat in the command chair.  "All ships, fire at will!"
 Heavy laser and pulse cannon fire lashed out from the EA fleet.  Corvettes
and missile carrying fighters launched spread after spread of missiles at
the approaching ships.   "Weapons having little effect sir."
 "Sir enemy weapons powering up."
 Before the General could respond, it was all over.  The enemy ships fired a
devastating barrage of energy beams and various torpedoes at the Earth
fleet.  The Corvettes and other medium ships were the first to fall to the
enemy attack.  Next were the older Hyperion class cruisers, followed by the
newer cruisers and destroyers.  The carriers and battleships continued
firing.  Though they inflicted little damage, they would not let themselves
die without a fight.  The fighters, bombers and gunboats moved in for close
attack runs on the enemy fleet, but, to no evale.  Defensive weapons on the
alien's capital ships tore them to pieces.
 The battle lasted no more than thirty minutes.  In the end, more than fifty
capital ships were destroyed, more than fifty thousand Earth Force personnel
were killed, and a war had begun.


Interstellar Alliance Presidential Palace
Tuzanor, Minbari Homeworld
0300 MST (Minbari Standard Time)

 This was President John Sheridan's favorite time of the day.  The city was
quiet and the lights made the ancient buildings more stunning than they were
during the day.  Minbari shuttles would occasionally pass above going to and
from Yedor, the Minbari capital city.
 Sheridan looked up in the sky to see the massive form of the Minbari's
largest orbital shipyard.  It had been where the first wave of White Stars
were constructed.  Now the construction of the White Star ships was handled
by Earth and by the Alliance's own shipyards.
 "John."
 The voice he had heard millions of times still caught him off guard.  He
turned around to see Delen walking toward him.  She held his hands in hers.
 "It's late, you should get some rest, we're scheduled to leave early so
that we can make it to Babylon 5 in time for the ceremony."
 "I don't think they'll start without us Delen."  He said with a light
chuckle.  The ceremony which she spoke of was indeed an important one.  The
Alliance had been involved in several conflicts over the years but, it had
never acted as an Alliance in them.  The ceremony was for the ratifying of a
new amendment to the Constitution, stating that in military actions
sanctioned by the Alliance and the member worlds, the member worlds would
yield authority to Alliance Military Command.  It had taken a lot of time
but everyone had finally agreed to it.
 "John," Delen said.  "I am concerned about this amendment.  When we founded
the Alliance we made it clear that it was not a military one.  Now, we are
doing this."
 "We're still not going to be a military alliance Delen.  We're not going to
go in shooting at someone who won't give us what we want.  We will still
work towards peace but, having this amendment in affect will help us to
avoid what happened during the Centauri war."
 Delen nodded and allowed John to hold her in his arms for a few moments.
"We both need some more rest before we leave for Babylon 5."  She took his
hand and lead them back in from the balcony.
 "Mr.  President."  A voice from the darkness said.  Soon the speaker
emerged to show that he was a Ranger, one of those who worked in the palace.
He saluted Delen and turned to speak to Sheridan.  "Forgive me for intruding
at this hour sir, but, Ms.  Hallonan wished to speak to you, she says it's
urgent."
 The President let out a long sigh.  He was tired, but, when Michael said it
was urgent it usually was.  "I'll take it in here.  Thank you."
 The Ranger once again saluted to Delen before walked off.
 Sheridan took a seat at the desk in the room and activated the
communication system.  Tessa Hallonan's face appeared on the screen.  "Mr.
President, sorry to contact you at this hour, the time difference puts it
around 0300 on Minbar correct?"  Just as the President opened his mouth to
respond, Tessa continued.  "Anyway, I just finished talking to some of the
Earth Force brass who are on B5 for the ceremony.  About seven or eight
hours ago, one of Earth's deep space monitoring stations picked up an
emergency signal from an Explorer ship scouting out the unknown regions, the
other side of what used to be Vorlon space.  They sent the Seventh Fleet in
to investigate.  About three hours ago, they lost contact with it.  The only
signal they got from the Seventh was a garbled transmission saying they were
under attack."
 The President rested his head on one of his hands.  "Tessa, tell the Earth
Force personnel on the station I'd like to meet with them when I arrive.
For now tell them not to send in any more ships.  Oh and Tessa, meet with
Admiral Barns, tell him to stick a few White Stars in hyperspace where those
ships were lost.  If they pick up anything they are to immediately turn
around and report back to you or the Admiral."
 Her only only reply was a nod.  Admiral Barns was formerly an Earth Force
commander.  Sheridan had convinced him to take the job of Alliance military
commander.  The ceremony on Babylon 5 was partially for the amendment
ratification and partially for his installation for that post.  While
officially he had been commanding the White Star fleet for a year now, he
did not have authority over the militaries of all member worlds.  And with
authority, comes ceremonies Sheridan had told him.
 The President stood up and walked back to the bed.  Delen was already
asleep.  He now wished he could discuss the situation with her but he did
not wish to disturb her either.  It did not take him long to fall asleep.


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
0715 EST

 "I knew the commander of the Seventh Fleet, he was a good man."  Admiral
Barns stated as he handed the report back to Tessa.
 Tessa stuffed the report back into a folder.  "Hopefully he still is a good
man.  It hasn't been confirmed that any of those ships have been destroyed.
The President wants to station a few White Stars in hyperspace near where
those ships disappeared."
 Barns nodded.  "White Stars 212 and 301 are in that area.  I'll send them
in, it'll take them about four hours to get their at maximum speed.  There's
a destroyer and four other White Stars about a day and half away, should
those be sent in as well?"
 Tessa scratched her chin and took another sip of coffee.  "If we assume the
worst, then those ships were destroyed and we could be facing a hostile and
powerful enemy force.  I would recommend sending them."
 "I'll issue the orders immediately."
 Tessa stood and picked up her folders.  "All right.  One of the Drazi
military commanders here for the ceremony wanted to speak with me.  Says
they're having some minor problems on their borders."
 "Probably Raiders, I'll check on the reports from the Rangers in that area,
step up patrols that sort of thing."
 "I'll let the Drazi know the Rangers will take care of them."  Tessa said
as whe walked off.
 As Barns began to finish off his breakfast, Captain Lochley sat down at the
table.  "Mind if I join you for a minute Admiral?"
 Barns sat his fork on the plate.  "Typically, people at would ask that
before they sat down."  They both let out a slight laugh.  "You're never
going to take that promotion Ryan keeps offering you are you?"
 She smiled.  "Well, this job keeps my life interesting."
 Barns took another sip of his coffee.  "What can I do for you Captain?"
 "My daily intel briefings from Earth keep noting some unusual activities
being monitored in hyperspace, near the unexplored regions, they keep
picking up some strange emissions.  Earth has dismissed it as random
fluctuations in hyperspace, but, I thought I'd let you know about it now
that the Seventh Fleet is apparently missing out there."  She handed a file
to Admiral Barns.
 He reviewed it for a quick moment.  "I take it that everything is in the
report?"  Lochley nodded in response.
 "All right," Barns said.  "I'll forward this to the Rangers, see if they
can put two and two together."  He stood up and took a last sip of his
coffee.  "If you'll excuse me Captain I've got a meeting with the Brakiri
defense minister to get to."
 "Of course," she said as he walked off.
 Captain Lochley sat at the table for a few minutes.  It was these relative
quiet times that she enjoyed.  She sipped a cup of coffee which a waiter had
brought her.
 She had just begun to relax when she heard the voice of Lieutenant Jeffries
through her link.  "Captain, could you come to C&C for a moment, the long
range hyperspace probes are picking up something strange."
 She sighed for a moment before replying.  "I'm on my way."

 Command and Control was strangely silent.  Probably due to so many people
being absent to help prepare for the ceremony.  There were only two people
besides Captain Lochley.
 The Captain walked to the main station where Lieutenant Jeffries was
studying a sensor display.  "What is it Lieutenant?"  She asked.
 The Lieutenant moved to allow her to see the display.  "Our long range
probes started picking up some strange emissions in hyperspace that seem to
have drifted our way.  They're very weak so whatever caused or is causing
them is far away."
 The Captain stared at the display for a moment.  "Earth has been monitoring
similar emissions to these in the unexplored regions of space.  I don't want
to take any chances, keep one fighter flight on continuous patrol outside
the station and position another in hyperspace."
 "Yes, Ma'am."
 As Lochley was leaving C&C, she realized that there was no such thing as a
quiet day in this place.

gb
"May God stand between you and harm, in all the empty places you must walk."
(Old Egyptian Blessing)
ICQ # 8694414
Visit all of these.
My Home Page--Go To The Links Page For More
http://www.angelfire.com/sk/boshears/




---------------From: "Supreme Inquisitor" <inquisitor@281.com>
Subject: Darkness Wakes Chapter 2
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 15:53:25 -0600

Here is the second Chapter to Darkness Wakes.  I don't know how readable it
will be but it should be pretty good.  Once again please ignore any editing
mistakes, I'm working on them as fast as I can.

Well a little spoiler space then, Chapter 2.








Chapter Two


White Star Prime
Hyperspace, On Route To Babylon 5
January 3, 2272
1700 EST

 President Sheridan lay down on the bed in the Presidential Suite aboard
White Star Prime.  The ship was redesigned to act as a transport for the
President of the Alliance and hence had a suite adjustable to the
preferences of any race.
 The President found himself unable to sleep, but, merely being able to
relax felt good enough.  He was used to having to deal with various matters
of the Alliance all day.  He enjoyed the few moments which he had to himself
to think.
 It would be another thirty six hours before they reached Babylon 5.  He was
looking forward to seeing the station again.  As much as he enjoyed Tuzanor,
there was something he found appealing about the station.
 "Sheridan!"
 He knew that voice.  It was a distinct one, one he could never forget.
 The room had become unusually warm.  He stood up and looked around the
room.  He saw, in a corner of the room, a blurred image of Ambassador Kosh.
He could not mistake him.  The encounter suit, the voice everything was
Kosh.
 "Kosh!?"  Sheridan said.
 The ghostly figure of the Vorlon nodded.
 "Hhhhhhhow?"  Sheridan asked in amazement.
 "There is no time."  Kosh answered.  "The darkness is waking, you must stop
it before it eclipses the universe."
 The image faded.
 Kosh's words echoed in Sheridan's head, he did not know what they meant, he
had a feeling he did not want to.  He looked around the room for a few
minutes.  His eyes became fixed on the large star map in the room.  There
was something different about it then when he had looked at it only minutes
before.  One of the systems on the map, appeared different.  It was a system
deep in the unexplored regions of space.
 "Computer," Sheridan said.  "What is the nearest explored system to that
which is selected on the map now?"
 The computer highlighted a second system on the map.  Sheridan knew it
almost immediately.  It was the system where the Seventh Fleet was reported
missing.
 "Computer, open a secure channel to Admiral Barns."


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
1725 EST

 "Mr. President, with all due respect, you want me to dispatch some of the
White Stars to a planet no one has ever heard about, in a part of space no
one has ever cared about based on a vision you had of a dead Vorlon?"  Barns
said staring at the monitor which displayed President Sheridan's face.
 "There was something about this Gary, I don't know what it is, but,
something is bothering me.  We can spare the ships can't we?"  The President
said in response.
 "Yes sir.  It's going to be a long trip for them, I can issue the orders
right away."
 "Thank you Admiral."  The screen faded black.
 Barns leaned back in his chair for a moment.  "Barns to Tessa."  He said
into his link.  "Can I see you in my quarters for a moment?"
 Nearly as soon as he finished speaking the door to his quarters slid open.
 "I was in the neighborhood."  Tessa said as she stepped in.
 "Thanks for stopping by.  I'd like you to correlate reports from the
Rangers and all Alliance worlds regarding this area of space,"  Barns handed
him a map with the area of space outlined.
 Tessa studied the map for a moment.  "I'll get you whatever I can, but, due
to the location, not many of the races are going to be eager to share what
little they know.  Many have believed that this area was once Vorlon space
and that there are lots of advanced technologies scattered through out
them."  Garibaldi continued.  "We've confirmed that it wasn't Vorlon
territory, in fact, the Excaliber didn't even bother with those areas when
it was looking for a cure to that plague."
 Barns paced for a moment and let out a long sigh.  "Well, the Presidents
want me to send some White Stars into the center of this area and I'd like
to know as much as I can about where we're going to be sending them."
 "All right, I'll get to work."  Tessa left the room shortly after that.
 Barns left his quarters and began walking down the hall to a lift tube.  He
was no more than ten feet away from his quarters when his link chimed.
"Barns, go."  He said into it.
 "Sir, this is C&C," the person contacting him said.  "We have Admiral
McDouglass on a secure channel wishing to speak with you, she says it's
urgent."
 Barns shook his head.  "Around here, what isn't?  Route the transmission
through to my office I'll be there in a minute."


 "What can I do for you Lillie?"  Barns said as the image of Admiral Lillian
McDouglass appeared on the communications screen.
 "I just got word that the Alliance has officially quarantined the area
where the Seventh Fleet has disappeared.  This is preventing us from
conducting our own investigation."  She said in response.
 "The President and I felt that it was necessary to ensure the safety of all
member worlds.  We'll be conducting our own investigation into what happened
and will of course share the results with Earth."
 The few wrinkles in the woman's face showed as she developed an annoyed
look.  "So that's it?  Over fifty of our ships disappear and you quarantine
the area where it happened."
 "Yes, Lillie that would be it."
 "Come on Gary, we have the right to find out what happened to our ships!"
 Admiral Barns signaled for her to calm down.  "You will but at the risk
that they were destroyed I'd prefer to have the White Stars handle instead
of your ships."
 Admiral McDouglass allowed herself a slight smile.  "Let us at least send
some of our ships for backup."
 Barns nodded.  "All right, I'll send you the stand bye coordinates."
 "Thanks, it was good seeing you again Gary.  What's it been, two years
now?"
 "Since we last saw each other or since we last saw each other and didn't
talk about work?"
 "How about since we last didn't talk about work?"
 "The Academy."  Barns solemnly replied.
 She smiled.  "That was a long time ago."  After those words the
transmission terminated.
 Barns swiveled his chair to face his desk.  "Yes it was."


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
January 4, 2272
0600 EST
Z Minus 14 Hours

 "Another pair of Drazi warbirds just came through the jump gate, they're
requesting approach instructions."  Lieutenant Jeffries reported.
 Captain Lochley shook her head.  There were already twice as many warships
from the Alliance member worlds as were originally planned.  "Tell them to
enter a standard holding pattern around the station.  They can begin
shuttling people over as soon as we can get some time in our docking
schedule."
 A warning alarm went off on the main console.  "Captain we're receiving an
emergency transmission from a luxury liner not far from here, they're being
hit hard by................ something."
 Lochley studied the transmission.  "Any other ships or outposts which can
respond before us?"
 "No."  Jeffries answered.
 Lochley nodded.  "All right," she said with a sigh.  "Scramble a fighter
wing."
 "I have a better idea."  The voice of Admiral Barns came from the entrance
to C&C.  "That's a lightly armored civilian ship, it won't stand up for a
long time against what's hitting it.  I'll take one of the White Stars and
escort them safely out of there."
 "Admiral," Lochley began her rebuttal.  "I don't think this is a good idea.
Those may be just Raiders out there but still........."
 Barns cut her off.  "I'll be fine, a White Star can handle it."
 "All right," Lochley reluctantly agreed.  "However, I insist you take a
full fighter escort wing."  Barns nodded in agreement and walked out of the
room.

 The Earth Alliance shuttle left the forward hangar of Babylon 5 at nearly
the same time the squadron of six Thunderbolt and six Vampire heavy fighters
left one of the Cobra bays.
 The shuttle docked with a White Star which the fighters quickly assumed an
escort formation around.  No sooner had the fighters entered formation than
did the ship jump to hyperspace.


 The White Star and twelve fighters emerged into hyperspace safely.  Admiral
Barns arrived on the bridge of White Star 18 and quickly took a seat in the
command chair.  "Do we have an id on the transport or the ships attacking
it?"  He asked the Ranger sitting at the console to his right.
 "The ship is registered as the liner Mauritania, the ships attacking it
appear to be of unknown configuration."  The Ranger reported.
 Admiral Barns took a long breath in and exhaled it quickly.  "Let's hope
they can hold out until we get there.  What's our E.T.A.?"
 "Eighteen minutes."


Earth Luxury Liner Mauritania
Somewhere Near Babylon 5
0620 EST

 Admiral Ryan struggled with every step he took.  The ship continued to
shake from the attackers' weapons hitting the hull.  His path had been
blocked by debris nearly the entire way from his state room.
 He gained entry to the bridge almost too easily he thought.  It was a
relatively small room.  Two piloting stations, a communication station,
docking control and defense system station and finally the captain's
station.
 As he walked in the bridge lurched violently throwing him from his feet.
He could hear the Captain shouting out orders to return fire.
 "What's going on?"  Ryan yelled.
 It took the Captain a moment to respond.  "We're under attack by twelve
fighters of unknown origin, they're firing in a way so that we take the most
damage possible and still live through it.  I'm trying to return fire with
out defensive guns but not having much luck.  When we can actually get the
weapons to lock on they maneuver out of the way."
 "Captain!"  The man operating the sensor console yelled.  "You'd better
take a look at this!"
 "What now?"  The Captain complained as he took a look at the console.
After studying the reading he developed a slight grin.


 White Star 18 and the twelve Earth fighters closed in on the Mauritania.
The attacking fighters had either not yet noticed the ships or were choosing
to ignore them.
 "They're continuing to hit the Mauritania sir."  A Ranger reported to
Barns.
 Barns scratched his chin.  "Let's give them reason to due do otherwise
shall we?  Gamma Squadron take point, fire a few shots of at the hostiles,
break off and run like hell.  We'll follow you in, once we break away from
the transport enter tactical formation Lambda."
 There was a momentary silence followed by a soft beeping noise on a
console.  "Gamma Squadron confirms Admiral, they're initiating maneuver."


 The fighters roared past the White Star their engines blazing.  Shots from
their cannons zoomed towards the hostile fighters striking several but
severely damaging none.  The Earth fighters broke away not drawing the
attention of the hostile fighters away from the Mauritania.
 The White Star's four twin pulse fusion cannons opened fire slicing two of
the hostile fighters to pieces.  The small ship then maneuvered under the
liner.  The Earth fighters reentered formation with the White Star.


 "Hostile fighters still concentrating on the liner sir."  The Ranger
reported.
 Barns tapped the comm control on the command chair.  "Gamma Squadron switch
to missiles, make sure you have a good lock before you shoot or hit might
hit the liner, follow us in."


 The White Star demonstrated it's superior maneuvering capability.  It came
up from the bottom of the liner, hugging the hull all the way back to the
top.  It let loose several volleys from it's guns destroying two more
fighters.
 This drew the attention of the remaining hostiles to the White Star.  They
pursued opening fire.  Most of their shots missed, a few grazed the hull
causing minor damage.  The White Star was able to maneuver well enough to
avoid their weapon fire but not well enough shake the fighters.
 The Earth fighters positioned themselves behind the hostiles.  The order
from Admiral Barns came to fire.  The fighters launched a barrage of
missiles at the hostiles while the White Star maneuvered hard to port.
 Four of the remaining eight hostiles were destroyed.  The rest began
engaging the Earth fighters.


 "Hostile fighters are engaging Gamma Squadron."  A Ranger reported.
 Admiral Barns leaned forward.  "Hard to starboard, full one eighty, open
fire carefully."  He ordered, emphasizing his last word so there wouldn't be
friendly fire casualties.


 Two hostile fighters were tailing the lead Gamma Squadron fighter, a
Vampire.  A Thunderbolt pulled in behind the enemies and destroyed one with
a burst from it's gattling pulse cannon.  The Thunderbolt was quickly
destroyed by another enemy fighter.
 The White Star dropped behind two enemy fighters and destroyed one with
it's pulse guns.  The remaining two hostiles began concentrating on the
White Star.


 "Gamma Nine and Twelve pull in on our starboard side.  Gamma Six come
around from port."  Barns ordered.


 The two fighters swept in on the White Stars starboard side destroying one
fighter.  The other quickly maneuvered out of the way causing two Earth
fighters to ram into each other.  The remaining hostile quickly headed
towards the Mauritania.


 "Gamma Leader to Admiral Barns, looks like that fighter is on a collision
coarse for the Mauritania."


 "All fighters knock that hostile out before it gets to the liner."  Barns
ordered.


 The fighters sped towards the remaining hostile ship.  They were all too
far to attempt to fire with cannons and it would take to long to get a
missile lock.


 "Gamma Leader to command, I don't have enough time to try for a missile
lock, switching missiles to passive scanning
and.......................................fox two!"
 The pilot depressed the missile launch trigger on his flightstick sending a
missile flying towards the hostile.
 "Missile is on target."  He reported continually watching his missile track
screen.  The missile had not yet acquired a target but it was heading for
the hostile.  "Estimated impact in eight seconds."  Almost as soon as he
finished giving his report, the hostile broke away causing the missile to
establish a lock on the Mauritania.
 "Command missile has locked on the liner, it's gonna hit!"


 The explosion lit up the blackness of space when the missile hit the liner.
The last hostile turned around and charged toward the ships firing it's
weapons.  Several pulses managed to destroy another fighter.  A Thunderbolt
returned fire and knocked the hostile away from the other ships.  The
hostile did not move, it merely settled into a stationary position.  The
White Star was the first to enter weapon range of it.


 "Transfer firing control to my station."  Barns ordered.  He stared at the
hostile through the windows, almost showing it some kind of respect, for
what seemed like and eternity to all on the bridge except him.
 He leaned back in his chair and put his finger over the firing button.
"See you in hell."  He pressed the button releasing several volleys from the
ship's pulse batteries destroying the remaining fighter.
 Barns stood and walked toward the front of the bridge.  "Tell the fighter
to form up on us, we'll tow the Mauritania to Babylon 5."
 His orders were quickly carried out.  The ships jumped to hyperspace via
the jump gate in the system.


Space Station Babylon
Orbit of Epsilon 3
0725 EST
Z Minus 12 Hours

 Lochley paced throughout the docking area.  The Mauritania had just began
to shuttle over wounded and she felt the need to be here.  Two full medical
two full medical teams waited with her.
 While facing away from them she heard the medical officers take off
running.  The first shuttle had docked.  She walked down to the docking bay
to see the medical officer attending to the wounded.  The wounds were a mix
of broken bones, energy burns and various other wounds most likely caused
from falling debris.
 "Captain Lochley!"
 She heard Admiral Barns' voice pierce through the carnage.  She turned to
find him in the crowd walking with General Ryan.
 "General, welcome to Babylon 5."  Lochley said saluting Ryan.  He returned
the salute.
 "Thank you Captain."  Ryan said.  He surveyed the area for a minute.  "I
wish I could have arrived under better circumstances."
 "Captain, send an alert to all ships in the area, tell them we've had a
heavy attack by unknown forces and to be on the lookout for anything
suspicious.  If they see anything out of the ordinary contact the nearest
Alliance military vessel and send a report here."  When Barns finished with
his orders he and Ryan walked off.
 Lochley expressed a brief look of annoyance and walked away.


 "It couldn't have been the Raiders, they're still trying to get reorganized
from when the Hades trashed their bases and command ships last year."  Barns
said as he studied a preliminary report on the attack which was quickly
compiled.
 "Plus those fighters were a bit more than Raider standard.  I've never seen
that design before.  Also, I've never seen Raider pilots fly in that manner
before.  It's as if they were using their weapons as knives, slicing at the
liner like surgery."  General Ryan commented.  He had joined Admiral Barns
in the war room to evaluate the attack.
 "We haven't heard much from what's left of the Drahk or any other allies of
the Shadows lately and those ships didn't match configuration or energy
signatures for the Anti'Zha."
 "Anti'Zha?"  Ryan asked curiously.
 Barns was caught off guard.  "Um, nothing, slip of the tongue."
 Ryan knew he wasn't telling the truth but it didn't matter right now.
"Have you found out anything about our Seventh Fleet?"  Ryan asked.
 Barns shook his head and shuffled through some more reports.  "We have a
White Star Destroyer and a half dozen gunboats out there.  They've been
checking in periodically, they have yet to find anything.  They should be
checking in again in about two hours."
 "Admiral Barns," a voice from across the room.
 Barns turned to see a station officer entering the room.  He looked
exhausted as if he had ran all the way here from Command and Control.
 "Sir Captain Lochley asked me to inform you that White Star Prime is coming
through the jump gate."  The officer said.
 "Ah hell!!!"  Barns yelled as he ran out of the room.


 Captain Lochley waited with the hastily assembled honor guard at the
customs area.  She soon heard the sound of someone running down the hall
towards them.  It was Admiral Barns.
 He was finishing putting on the cover vest to his Army of Light uniform,
the one which he typically would wear when for anything involving Alliance
matters.
 "Captain," he nodded towards her as he walked by and stood beside her.
 "Attention on deck!"  A security officer at the end of the line yelled.
 All of those assembled snapped to attention.
 President Sheridan emerged from the docking area followed by Delen who was
holding their seven year old son David's hand.  The President briefly
glanced at the assembled security personnel.  When he reached the end of the
line both Barns and Lochley saluted him.
 "Mr. President, welcome to Babylon Five."  Lochley said.
 Sheridan casually returned the salute.  "Thank you Captain."  He said.  His
voice was beginning to sound some what aged.  "Now Captain, would you care
to explain to me why you have a shot up civilian transport parked outside
your station."
 Barns stepped in before Lochley could answer.  "It might be better if I
field that one sir, I can brief you on what we know so far in the war room."
 Sheridan nodded in approval.  "As soon as we're settled."
 "Of course, then if you'll excuse me sir I'll prepare the briefing."
 "Very well."  Sheridan said with a nod.
 Barns walked away.
 Lochley gave him a brief look of annoyance that he managed to get out of
all this formality so fast.
 "Mr.  President, we have quarters prepared for you, a security detail will
escort you there."  Lochley said.  She felt a slight pulling on her
trousers.  She bent down and smiled at David.  "What can I do for you?"  She
said once again with a smile.
 David looked as if he was trying to but couldn't talk.  Delen bent down and
smiled at him.  "David is still a little shy.  He was wondering if he could
go on a tour of the station, he especially wanted to see the fighter launch
bays, he has taken a great interest in flying."
 Lochley looked at Delen.  "Reminds me of his dad."  She looked back at
David.  "I'll take you on a tour myself."  David's face lit up.
 Sheridan finished his conversation with a Narn General who had also met
them the and stood by his wife.  "Why don't you to go with the Captain after
we get to our quarters, Admiral Barns is calling a full meeting of all
senior military officers on the station to discuss some things and it might
take a while."
 "If you'll follow me."  Lochley said leading the way to their quarters.


 President Sheridan walked into the war room which was the most crowded he
had ever seen it.  He quickly found Admiral Barns and his adjacent Captain
Taylor.
 Barns walked to his seat at the large briefing table.  If everyone will be
seated we can begin.  The noise in the room silenced and everyone took their
seats.  The President and Captain Taylor took seats on the Admiral's sides.
 "All right here's what we know so far," Barns began.  He pointed to an area
on the map which was highlighted and enlarged.  "An Earth Alliance Explorer
ship disappeared in this area nearly three days ago.  The Earth Force
Seventh Fleet was sent in to investigate and now contact has been lost with
them.  The Alliance has the Valen's Hand and an escort group of White Star
gunboats positioned in hyperspace near this area, they have yet to locate
anything."
 A new area on the map along the Drazi border was highlighted.  "Now this
area has been the subject of what we believed to be Raider attacks up until
only a few minutes ago when the Victory got a picture of one of the
attacking ships."  The picture was displayed in the upper left hand corner
of the map.
 General Ryan recognized it almost immediately.  Barns turned to face the
people at the table.  "This ship matches the configuration of some ships the
attacked an Earth transport ship earlier today."
 Many of those assembled began speaking amongst themselves.  "Admiral," the
President spoke up.  "What do we think is going on here?"
 "That area along the border of Drazi spaces borders the unknown regions
which is the same region of space where Earth last contact with the Seventh
Fleet."  Barns continued.  "We don't know what exactly is going on but, to
be frank, Captain Taylor and I don't like it.  I'm going to recommend that
all Alliance military forces are mobilized and placed on a level two alert."
 The conversation in the room picked up to nearly everyone yelling.
President Sheridan and Admiral Barns exchanged a glance at each other.  The
President stood.  "Let's discuss this, we realize that this would be a
difficult request since almost all of your forces are in peace time activity
but we have got to do something.  We could be facing a new enemy and the
least we could do is be prepared for it!"
 The room became quiet.


 David's gaze remained fixed on the fighters in the launch bays.  Delen and
Lochley would occasionally glance at him or at the ships.  Lochley seemed to
remind herself of how long it had been since she had done any joy riding
when she glanced at the new Vampires.
 They finished walking through the launch bay and went into a launch control
room adjacent to it.  The door sealed and the red lights flashed in the bay,
indicating a fighter launch.  The doors at the bottom of the bay slid open
and the fighters dropped down.  David's lit up when he saw the fighters
launch.
 "We need to go now," Delen said to her son.  "We promised your father we
meet him in our quarters in a few minutes."
 David did not say anything.
 "Thank you Captain."  Delen said.
 "Not a problem Ambassador, I'll see you at the ceremony in a little while.
Good bye David."  The Captain said.
 Delen and her son turned away and walked towards one of the main hallways.
 Lochley's link chimed.  "Lochley go."  She said into it.
 "Captain those polaron emissions that we've been detecting have increased
substantially."
 "Can we tell if there is any reason why?"  The Captain asked.
 "Hyperspace probes haven't picked up anything neither have the White Star
patrol flights."
 "Well, I don't see that there's much we can do about it, keep us at our
current alert status."


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
1850 EST
Z Minus 2 Hours

 Ten minutes left Barns thought to himself as he gazed at the crowd
assembled in the council room.  He had always hated ceremonies no matter how
large or small they had been.  Only ten more minutes until he was
"officially" made the commander of Alliance military forces.
 "Nervous Admiral?"
 Barns turned around to see the person who said those words, though he
already knew who it was.  "Not at all Ambassador," he said to Delen.
 She expressed a look that border lined on annoyance but appeared to be more
amusement.  "Why do the people of your species always deny what they do not
want to be true?"
 "Human nature, that's about all I could tell you."  Barns said with a
smile.
 At that time President Sheridan called the assembly to order by banging a
gavel.  Delen and Barns took their seats at the main table.
 "Thank you all for coming," the President began.  "After what happened with
the Centauri nine years ago, we have realized that us much as we would like
the Alliance to be focused on peace, that will sometimes not happen.  We
have since then felt the need to have the military forces of Alliance worlds
organized under a single command structure.  To this end, we ratified an
amendment to the constitution that stated, all military forces of Alliance
worlds acting in towards a common goal or in the same campaign which is
sanctioned by the Alliance shall be controlled by a single commander
appointed by the President.  Also that no military actions not sanctioned by
the Alliance can take place."
 "Hopefully the Alliance will not have to face a military campaign again for
a long time, but, if it does we will be ready for it.  I have chosen a man
to the lead our forces who I believe will do the Alliance proud.  His record
with Earth Force is exemplary and for the last few months commanding the
White Star fleet has been text book perfect and I am proud to introduce him
as the commander of the Interstellar Alliance military forces, Admiral Gary
Barns."
 The large crowd clapped as Sheridan moved away from the podium and Barns
stepped up to it.  "I'm afraid I'm not good at speeches."  The crowd
silenced as Barns began to speak.  "When the President first asked me to
take this position I was unsure about it, unsure if I could live up to the
challenge of it.  That night I found a message my dad recorded for me before
he died in the Dilgar War, in it he told me that we must live up to every
challenge and we must persevere through every hardship.  I promise you today
that I will do those things.  I thank all of you and," he looked at the
President.  "I thank you Mr. President for giving me this honor."  Barns
left the podium and the crowd once again applauded.
 "There will now be a formal reception in reception in the Reception Hall."
The President announced, this time keeping his seat.
 The mass of people filed out of the room in a semi-orderly fashion.
 Barns stood and waited for the rest of the people to leave before he did.
He heard the President come up behind him.  "Let me be the first to
congratulate you Admiral."  He said.
 Barns nodded his head.  "I guess I'll be hearing that a lot for a while
huh?"
 Sheridan chuckled.  "Let's go Admiral."
 The two of them and Delen left the room together.


 The reception room was even more crowded than the council chamber had been.
The room was decorated with Alliance, Army of Light and Alliance world
flags.  There were several long tables containing hundreds of various foods.
 Barns paced through the room, casually talking with and accepting
congratulations from anyone he talked to.  He eventually made his way to one
side of the room and took a glass of Champaign from one of the servers
circulating through the room.
 "Admiral," Barns turned around to see Captain Taylor coming from behind
him.  The Captain presented him with a report.  "We just got some info in
from the Valen's Hand," Taylor began his report.  "It seems
that...................."
 Barns lost track of what the Captain was saying.  Across the room he
spotted her, a person who had once, and still did, mean more to him than
anything.  Sarah was in her Earth Force dress uniform, her long brownish
blonde hair was let down.  As he stared at her, for one brief moment it
seemed as though nothing else in the universe mattered, that for one moment,
everything in the universe was in perfect harmony..............then, an
alarm sounded.


 Captain Lochley was the first senior officer to make it to Command and
Control from the reception.  "Report!"  She yelled running towards the main
console.
 Lieutenant Jeffries was quick to respond.  "A BIG ship of unknown
configuration just came through the jump gate.  We can't be for sure but it
appears that their weapons are powered.  Fighters are moving to intercept,
the Alliance ships are assuming defensive formations."
 Lochley began to respond when she was interrupted by a large hologram
forming in the middle of the room.  The hologram was of a large figure
dressed entirely in fierce looking body armor.
 "To the leaders of the Interstellar Alliance," the hologram began to speak.
"I am a representative of the Keilmar Empire, your incursions into our space
have not been tolerated, any further incursions will be considered an act of
war.  We wish to coexist peacefully with you and hope that you wish the
same."  The hologram vanished.
 Lochley did not know what to do or think.
 "Open a channel to their ship."  The President's voice came from the back
of the room.
 Lieutenant Jeffries gave the President a hand signal indicating the channel
was open.  "This is John Sheridan, President of the Interstellar Alliance.
We were not aware of the existence of your species and did not know we were
violating your territory.  We would like to meet with you to discuss the
situation."
 Jeffries listened to a signal coming back from the Keilmar vessel through
his head piece.  "Sir, they say that they'll shuttle their Ambassador over
in one hour."
 The President nodded and turned to Barns.  "One hour."  He said walking out
of the room.






gb
"May God stand between you and harm, in all the empty places you must walk."
(Old Egyptian Blessing)
ICQ # 8694414
Visit all of these.
My Home Page--Go To The Links Page For More
http://www.angelfire.com/sk/boshears/


From: "Supreme Inquisitor" <inquisitor@281.com>
Subject: Darkness Wakes Chapter 3
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 20:33:41 -0600

Here is the third chapter in "Darkness Wakes" enjoy and be sure to mail me
at toast_army@hotmail.com with any comment, constructive criticism,
questions.  Once again, I apologize for any formatting problems.

And of course, the use of all Babylon 5 characters and events is done
strictly for entertainment and is not intended as copyright infrengement.
All original characters and events are property of the author but other
fan-fic authors are welcome to use them provided they ask first.


Chapter Three


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
January 4, 2272
2150 EST


 A full security team was assembled and watched with their weapons ready as
the Keilmar shuttle landed.  Soon after it finished its landing sequence,
five large figures emerged fully covered in armor and carrying massive
weapons.  The figure who they appeared to be protecting, most likely the
Ambassador.
 The team of leader of the Babylon Five troops stepped forward.  "Welcome to
Babylon Five.  Weve been ordered to take you to the President.  Please give
us your weapons."
 One of the Keilmar looked down at him.  "Take us to the President!"  He
demanded.
 "Give us your weapons!"  The security officer demanded back.
 The Keilmar soldier focused his eyes on the security officer.  A red
shimmering light appeared around his neck and seemed to lift him off the
ground.  "You will take us to your President now."
 The officer was two feet off the ground and he was unable to breath.  The
other security personnel readied their weapons.  They were surprised by the
sound of a PPG being readied from behind the Ambassador.
 Barns held the weapon to the head of the Ambassador.  "Let him go or I put
whole in his head."  Another full security team appeared behind Barns and
took aim with their weapons.
 The Keilmar warrior snarled but released the guard.  Barns lowered his
weapon.  "Now," Barns said.  "Two of your men may carry their small arms.
You may not have any guards with you when you meet with the President, nor
will there be any of our guards present."
 The Keilmar ambassador reluctantly agreed.
 "If youll follow me."  The Admiral said as he walked away from the bay.
 There was an atmosphere of nervousness as they walked through the corridor.
Security had cleared their path and there were guards along it.
 The Ambassadors guards stood aside and he followed Admiral Barns into the
conference room.  President Sheridan, Delen and TaLon, the Narn Ambassador
to the station, were all waiting inside.
 The Ambassador approached them.  "Mr.  President, I will come straight to
the point.  As I said earlier,  your incursions upon our territory have not
been tolerated.  Any further incursions will be considered an act of war, a
war in which you will be quickly vanquished."
 "Now just a damn minute!"  Sheridan said rising from his seat.  "We were
unaware of your existence until an hour ago when your ship came out of
hyperspace, therefore there is no justification for any type of retaliation
on your part since we did not know we were violating your territory."
 "You mean to tell me Mr.  President that a large fleet of warships from one
of your Alliance members went on a mission without your knowledge?"  The
Ambassador said in response.
 The Alliance leaders which were assembled knew exactly what this meant.
The Keilmar had destroyed the Earth Alliance Seventh Fleet.
 "Members of the Alliance have the right to govern themselves freely."
Admiral Barns said.  "It was within their authority to send that fleet in to
investigate the disappearance of their first ship."
 "Mr.  Ambassador," the President began again.  "We would like to seek a
peaceful solution to this, does your government want the same?"
 The Ambassador nodded.  "Yes, we wish to coexist peacefully with your
Alliance.  We have drafted a treaty, stating that in exchange for peace, as
well as a technology sharing between us, all we ask is that our borders not
be violated and you surrender several sectors along the border to us."
 The Ambassador activated a hologram which displayed the sectors they
wanted.  All of them were refugee and cheap settlement sectors, all under
the control of Earth Alliance.
 "From my perspective," the President said.  "This seems to be a reasonable
deal.  I will have to discuss it with the Earth Alliance President first and
have a full council vote on it."
 "Of course," the Ambassador said almost sounding amused.  "I will return to
my ship until then.  I trust your weapon systems will cease targeting us?"
 Admiral Barns nodded.  "Ill issue the stand down orders immediately."
 "Good."  The Ambassador said as he left the room.
 As soon as he was gone, Sheridan addressed the others.  "Thoughts anyone?"
 "I dont trust them."  Barns was the first to speak up.  "Weve known them
officially for an hour now and they expect us to surrender space to them in
exchange for technology that, for all we know, is a Trojan Horse."
 "We need to have peaceful relations with our neighbors,"  Delen followed.
"Those systems are not of much value, Earth could easily relocate the
inhabitants to other worlds."
 "Plus they were able to sneak up on the station completely undetected, Id
sure like to know how they did that."  The President said again.
 "I must agree with the Admiral," TaLon said.  "They have done nothing to
earn trust and everything to earn distrust.  We know very little about them
and should not rush into any kind of deal that could affect us in any way."
 "The problem is, we have no way of finding out much about them," Delen
commented.  "The Minbari have no files on them, neither do any of the other
member worlds.  Any information the Vorlons had would be
inaccessible.........."
 Barns cut her off.  "What about the CLes?  Weve had good relations with
them in the past, they might be able to provide some information."
 "Ill have our Ambassador inquire if they have any information about the
Keilmar.  In the meantime I think we should proceed with and move this
treaty along."  The President continued.  "Ill place a priority call
through to President Solomon and discuss it with him.  Meanwhile, I want the
White Star Fleet fully mobilized at combat ready status in forty eight
hours."
 Barns shook his head.  "Its going to be tough, were at peace time
deployment right now which means only twenty five percent of our total
forces are mobilized,"  there was a long pause.  "But, Ill do what I can."
He concluded.
 "Good," the President said.  "Now, lets all get some sleep, its been a
long day."
 All of them left the room with the exception of Barns.  He stood there for
a moment, thinking.  As he thought about the Keilmar, about getting the
White Stars ready for a potential conflict with them, his find kept flashing
back to the reception, to Sarah.  He hadnt seen her for nearly two years,
on the day he resigned from Earth Force.  He remembered hearing about her a
few times over the past year.  She was in command of the EAS Hades, an Earth
Alliance quick strike cruiser.  They launched a largely successful campaign
against a well organized and well armed raider group last year.
 He started to think of when they were at the academy when he managed to
shake her from his mind.  That was a long time ago and, he had things to do.


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
January 5, 2272
0600 EST


 Admiral Barns tried to drink his tea while sifting through the jumble of
papers at his table.  He woke up two hours ago to try and get all of them
organized.  Most of them were intelligence information and reports from the
Rangers on the area of space the Keilmar controlled.  He also had a copy of
the proposed treaty with the Keilmar and various other reports that he had
to go through before he met with Captain Lochley, a Minbari War Leader, a
Narn General and General Ryan to discuss the Keilmar situation.
 "Life treating you well Admiral?"
 Admiral Barns had met a lot of people in his life.  Many of them he couldn
t identify without a face, but, not her.  The sound of Sarah McDouglass
voice would be always etched into his memory.
 Barns motioned for her to sit down.  "As good as it usually does when I
think I have things fairly under control."  He looked up from the papers to
see her face.  "Its good to see you again Sarah."
 She tilted her head slightly.  "You too, Gary.  How long has it been now,
two years?"  She asked.
 "Yeah," the Admiral replied.  "Almost exactly."
 She smiled and slightly nodded her head.  "I remember.  The day you
resigned from Earth Force."
 "Coincidentally the day you got promoted to Flag Captain," Barns said with
a slight chuckle.
 "Yeah, I still remember, it was covered on ISN for hours as it was your
last official act as an Earth Force officer before assuming command of the
White Star Fleet.  Man I hated you for exposing me to all those reporters."
 Barns laughed.  "Well I know how that is, this whole assuming command of
the Alliance military hasnt been without publicity."
 "I would imagine not."
 Barns looked down to sign one of the pieces of paper in front of him.  "I
talked to your sister the other day."  He commented shortly before looking
back up.
 "Really?"  Her face seem to light up for a moment.  "I havent talked to
her in a while.  Hows she doing?"
 "Well she was a little to busy yelling at me for us to have a conversation
but," he paused.  "She did seem quite full of energy."
 Captain McDouglass watched Barns return to browsing through the reports in
front of him.  "You know Gary, Ive missed talking to you.  I remember at
the Academy, you were always there for me.  Wether I needed a shoulder to
cry on or just a good laugh I could always count on you."  She wiped her
eye.  "How come we dont talk like we did there anymore Gary?"
 Barns put the papers down.  "War changes people Sarah.  I was a different
person when I got back from the Minbari war then before I left for it.  We
were both different people after the Civil War than we were before it.  I
nearly had to start another civil war and a war with the Alliance.  We both
saw Earth attacked by the Drahk.  Were not the same people we were at the
Academy."
 "Maybe youre right Gary."  She stood up and prepared to leave.  "The Hades
will be here for the next few days, you want to have dinner some time?"
 Barns allowed the smile to creep back onto his face.  "Id love to."
 She didnt say anything else, simply walked off.


1 Hour Later


 Barns walked into the conference room.  Seated at the table was General Nal
Mock of the Narn, Warleader Lathen of the Minbari and finally General Ryan
and Captain Lochley.  There was a feeling of anxiety in the room as Barns
put his papers and files down on the table and searched through them for a
moment before taking a seat himself.
 "Thank you all for coming," he said surveying the table.  "The President
informed me a few minutes ago that Earth has agreed to the treaty that the
Keilmar proposed."  Barns pressed a switch on a small control causing the
viewscreen in the room to flash to life, displaying a star map which had
several systems highlighted.  "This means that weve got to get these
systems cleared out in three weeks."
 "Thats not possible."  General Ryan reacted almost immediately.  "Most of
those systems are inhabited by refugees.  Theyve been that way for years.
People with no money, very little food.  The situation has gotten better
since we joined the Alliance, but, the people in those systems dont have
the resources to leave and Earth doesnt have the resources to pull together
an evacuation of that scale in a few weeks."
 Lochley glanced at Barns.  "Admiral judging by the look on your face I
would guess you have a solution."
 Barns let out a long breath.  "I do.  There are a lot of free lance
transport vessels that could be used for this kind of work.  Since the
Alliance proposed this treaty to Earth we are willing to do whatever is
necessary to see that it gets done.  Therefore, the Alliance and Earth can
split the cost of hiring those transports for these missions."
 "Agreed that would take care of a lot of the problem.  However, we still
need to defend those ships.  Most of our military forces are concentrated
elsewhere."  Ryan countered.
 Barns knew he was not happy about this.  The look on his face, the sound of
his voice, it was obvious.  They all knew now that the Keilmar destroyed the
Seventh Fleet and was responsible for the numerous attacks blamed on
Raiders.  The Keilmar had already explained it to them.
 "Well devote White Stars to continuously patrol the area.  Plus, the
Minbari and the Narns have ships near there that could be used to escort the
convoy."  Barns glanced at the Minbari and Narns military leaders sitting to
one side of him.
 "The Narns can spare several squadrons of warships from our bases in that
area."  The Narn General spoke up first.
 "Minbari forces in that area are comprised of mostly older vessels, but,
they still have combat value and will be sent to help our allies."  Lathen
was next to speak.
 Barns looked back to Ryan.  "Satisfied General?"
 Ryan, stood, almost infuriated.  "No Admiral Im not, but, Im soldier and
my duty is not to question orders but to follow them and not care about
doing the right thing."  Ryan stormed out of the room.
 Barns knew what he was referring to.  Even though it appeared to be the
current situation, it was not.  It was what was happening over ten years
ago, the Earth Civil War.  Ryan was a Major at the time, commanding an Omega
Class Destroyer.  Barns was a Captain, also in command of a Omega class
ship.  Ryan was fighting against Earth from the very beginnings on the war.
Barns fought on the side of Clark.  Barns sat their resting his head in his
hand for a moment.  Even though the war was over, the embers of the fire
still glowed.
 "We have to begin this evacuation immediately.  Lets get moving."  Barns
said.
 The Narn and Minbari leaders left the room.  Captain Lochley stayed seated
as did Barns.
 "You know hes not mad at you personally."  Lochley said leaning towards
the Admiral.  "Hes mad at the situation and your a convenient vent for his
anger.
 "I know.  He also reminded me of all the people who refuse to put the Civil
War behind them.  People like General Wallace, who will always fight against
what the results of the Civil War on Earth were.  Even though those results
are helping it."  Barns commented.
 "I know, the war divided Earth, and that division is just now starting to
heal.  Even though the wound may heal, there will always be a scar."
Without anymore words Lochley stood and left the room.


gb
"May God stand between you and harm, in all the empty places you must walk."
(Old Egyptian Blessing)
ICQ # 8694414
Visit all of these.
My Home Page--Go To The Links Page For More
http://www.angelfire.com/sk/boshears/