From: "Gary Boshears" Subject: Darkness Wakes Part V: A Galaxy In Chaos Chapter 13 Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 22:15:40 -0500 Sorry for the delay, the next few chapters should come a litte more regularly. Warnings and disclaimers in previous chapters. Part V: A Galaxy In Chaos Chapter Thirteen "What!" Captain Taylor was not sure whether this emotion he was feeling at the time was anger or surprise. From Captain Elizabeth Lochley's perspective, it was the former. While she admittedly had not known him for a very long time or very well, but she could testify to having never seen him this infuriated. Not to say that he could be blamed. "Keilmar shocks troops boarded the Javert and took him. When they entered hyperspace, six Keilmar Battlecruisers were waiting." Lochley was more upset by this than anything. Everything that seemed to be going right would always turn out bad, for her at least. "I heard you the first time damn it!" Captain Taylor barked. He walked slightly away from the communication's terminal. In the few seconds of silence between Captain Lochley and himself, he considered their options. Rescuing the Admiral was nearly out of the question, he would already be too far into Keilmar territory. "What's your status there Captain?" Lochley was to say the least curious about his choice of a question, a better term for how she felt about his question was a amazed. It took her a minute to compose the answer all though she knew the information. "We're deploying space based defenses now, ground forces have nearly secured the planet." Taylor sighed. At least something was going their way. It was more than something. It was a victory, a victory that was needed. But at what cost was this victory gained? "I'm going to contact the President. Hold position for now and I'll contact you with further orders." Lochley sat down in the Captain's chair. More waiting. Yet more waiting. Sometimes it seemed like it was all she did. Sometimes it was all she wished she had to do. Keilmar Prison Ship Unknown Location March 5, 2272 2346 EST Barns' perception of time was collapsing. He had been able to keep a relatively good estimate on how long it was since he was captured for the first couple of hours. Now it was all collapsing. Images and thoughts were bleeding into his mind, turning it into a jumble. No one had said anything to him since he was taken. When he was moved off the breaching pod to this ship, they said nothing. Merely hit him on the forehead with the end of their rifle and carried him over. He admitted to himself that experience was less pleasant than the device they used to render him unconscious on the Javert. Thinking about that now, thinking about the crew of the ship. He didn't know what happened to them. He may never know. Didn't know if they were dead or alive. Thinking about them, gave him more energy. He tried to struggle loose from the restraints he was being held in. He was positioned on his hands and knees. Shackles made of some type of metal were fastened to his hands and ankles. These were being held to the floor with some type of energy field. While he essentially knew it was futile, he continued to try and get loose. When he finally gave up, he thought again, about everything. The battle he had so recently left, the rest of the war, Sarah. He found the last particularly interesting. He hadn't given her one thought since he had last seen her. Now, she came back into his mind. While the thought of Sarah filled Barns with uncertainty, he was sure about one thing, that no matter what he had to do, no matter how he had to do it, he would make it out of here alive. He would make it back alive. These Humans, of all the Interstellar Alliance member races they were the most interesting to him. They had such a wide range of emotions, personalities, likes, dislikes, fears, how could one not find them interesting. This particular Human was of no exception. Of all the Humans they had taken prisoner, this one had the spirit of a warrior present in him more strongly than all the others. What fun it would be to interrogate this one. "I hear your thoughts." A seductive voice came from the darkness. A voice, he knew all too well. "This one," there was a brief pause as the speaker was apparently observing Barns. "Belongs to me. I will break him. He will tell me what we need to know." "Yes Madame," the Keilmar officer's response was quick and concise. The one he spoke to stepped out of the darkness. Unlike most Keilmar, she did not wear the thick metal armor. She wore what could be described as an elegant, silver blue dress covered in a type of bead. The gray blue complexion of her skin was clearly visible, another exception to the Keilmar standard. When looking at her, one could tell the Keilmar had a more humanoid appearance than one would have believed. With the exception of their skin color and other fine details, they looked close to be exactly Human. "How long until we reach Homeworld?" She asked, her voice icy and authoritative. The officer wasted no time in getting the information she requested, as if in fear of retribution if he did not act quickly. "Three standard days." She smiled. Given this amount of time, Barns would be ready by the time they reached home. "Have the prisoner transferred to my state room." Space Station Babylon 5 Orbit of Epsilon 3 March 6th, 2272 0035 EST "And Tessa you'll inform me immediately if you here anything?" Captain Taylor was not enjoying this. He no longer cared about the amount of time he had been awake for. "I will," Tessa answered hesitantly. "But we have yet to recover one prisoner taken by the Keilmar. The chances of us getting the Admiral back are......" "I don't want to hear it Tessa." Taylor said, cutting her off. "We'll concentrate on getting him back until he comes back or I see his body. Until then, we try to get him back." Tessa nodded and left the room. Taylor began to leave himself when he was informed of an incoming transmission from the EAS Nighthawk. EAS Nighthawk--Warlock Class Destroyer Near War Zone Sigma "Captain Taylor, thank you for speaking with me." Captain Gene Summers stated. Unlike Taylor, he gave the appearance of a man who was close to being fully rested. He appeared energetic and full of life. His moderately short brown hair was neatly combed and his face cleanly shaven. "Of course Captain Summers, what can I do for you?" Taylor asked, the fatigue beginning to more and more invade his voice. Summers took a long breath before beginning. "I heard about Admiral Barns, my ship and the EAS Dark Thunder aren't committed to anything at the time and we'd like to volunteer to search behind enemy lines for him." Taylor was caught completely off guard by this, what little guard he had left that is. "First of all how did you know about the Admiral, we haven't released a statement yet." And they weren't planning to anytime in the near future. Summers had to consider how to proper reply to this question. He hoped to make the answer sound a bit less insane that it did. "Captain Griffon of the Dark Thunder commented to me that she thought the Admiral was in trouble. I've learned to trust her instincts over the past couple of years so I made a couple discreet inquiries." He had based all of this off the instincts of one woman. Though, if he had to trust the instincts of one person, it would probably be hers. Still though, Taylor shook his head. "I'm sorry Captain. I want to get him back but I can't authorize something like that. It'd be putting you in too much danger and I don't think it can help enough to risk it." Judging by the expression on Taylor's face, Summers knew this wasn't an argument he was going to win, fairly at least. "All right. We'll keep our eyes and ears open though." Taylor allowed himself a small smile. "That's about all any of us can do right now. That and hope." Taylor's image vanished from the display. Summers turned partially away from the display where his conversation had just taken place. He tried to convince himself that this is what Admiral Barns would want him to do. "Open a channel to the Dark Thunder." The transmission was established within seconds. Captain Leslie Griffon's face soon appeared on the display screen. Her beauty was not blocked out by her seriousness. She was quick to ask what the word from Captain Taylor was. Summers was not so quick to reply. "He said no." His voice wreaked with disappointment. "So what are we going to do?" Griffon knew how she would respond, likely the ways they would respond would be the same. Summers' faint smile disappeared. "I think you know what my answer is. We go in anyway." It wasn't as hard or as easy of choice for him as it seemed to be. Violating orders for any officer never should be an easy choice. Griffon smiled. "Agreed, we have to try and help him." A single tear rolled out of her eye. She and the Admiral had at one time been close. "We have to." Summers' voice underwent a drastic change. It was now, deep, dark. "It's settled then." The transmission ended with those words. Summers turned his chair back to the front of the bridge. "Helm, lock in a jump course for Keilmar territory. Take us off the primary beacon and activate jump engines." With those orders, the Warlock and Omega-X Class Destroyers shot into hyperspace. ISAS Victory "Any luck?" Commander MacKenzie asked as Captain MacDonald walked onto the bridge. MacDonald shook his head and sat down. "No, not one ship or deep range patrol we have has sited the ship that took him." MacKenzie began to speak when a priority transmission alert sounded. "Incoming transmission from Earth Force HQ. It's a general alert saying they've lost contact with the Nighthawk and the Dark Thunder." MacKenzie's voice shook when he mentioned his old ship. MacDonald quickly devised a plan. "Contact the Valen's Hand. Tell them we have other business to attend to and we'll get back here as soon as we can. Then, plot a course for Keilmar territory. Access our data banks and begin scanning for any bio signature that resembles that of a Shadow ship. If you find it start following." The crew had learned not to question the Captain's orders, whether they seemed odd or not. Space Station Babylon 5 Orbit of Epsilon 3 March 6, 2272 1330 EST "....and the defenses are nearly sixty percent deployed." Tessa noticed that Captain Taylor was not paying much attention to what she was saying. "Finally, we've lost contact with three ships." This seemed to stir Taylor's interest enough to cause a response. "Which one's? They were probably just destroyed." He asked in a monotone voice. Tessa flipped through the handful of reports she was holding. "The ISAS Victory, EAS Nighthawk and the EAS Dark Thunder." Tessa didn't seem to recognize the significance of this that Captain Taylor did. His eyebrows raised. "You're sure?" His voice now had slightly more emotion in it. Tessa remained confused, the tone of her answer showed this. "Yes, quite sure." Taylor stood and began walking out of his office. "Blast!" He toggled his link on. "Get me a channel to either of those ships. Don't care which." EAS Nighthawk Somewhere In Hyperspace 1341 EST Commander Jennifer Burnstein looked up from her station on the bridge. She was to say, not expecting what she had just seen on it. "Captain," she waited until she was sure she had Summers' attention. "Incoming signal from Captain Taylor on Babylon 5." "Really?" Captain Summers said, his voice displaying that he apparently did not want that news. "Put it through." Captain Taylor's face soon appeared on the communication's monitor. "Captain, what you're doing isn't going to work. You're not going to be able to find Barns. There's no sense in you risking your lives like this." Summers glanced at Taylor. "There's no sense in trying to save a friend who's saved all of us more than once? No sense in trying to save the person who's given us a small chance to win this war?" "Damn it! I want to find him too but we can't have ships going out on little quests like this. I want to keep that chance to win this war!" "Three ships aren't going to make a big difference in the long run!" Summers calmed down. "Mike, he's your friend too. Let us do this. We can get him back. If not, then we'll at least be behind enemy lines, we'll inflict as much damage as we can whenever we can." Captain Taylor conceded. Summers was right. They needed to get the Admiral back. "All right. Good luck to you Captain Summers." Summers nodded. "To all of us Captain. To all of us." The transmission ended. "Sir, the Victory is asking what we're going to do now." Summers turned to the front of the bridge. "We go in." With those words, the Nighthawk, Victory and Dark Thunder continued on their journey. 2579 The viewers of the recording continued to watch. They all knew about this, or the general events at least. They still found this, interesting. Lochley paused now. At this time, the war had only been going for a brief time. A couple of months. Still, many soldiers had already seen more death than they already had. Many had already lost family, many had already lost friends. Now that Admiral Barns was gone, we really didn't know what to do. The Alliance Military Command Staff was torn between launching an all out search or continuing to strengthen the war effort. In the end, the Admiral's fate would be determined by the brave souls aboard those three ships, the Admiral himself and one old friend. gb "There is always hope - only because it's the one thing no one's figured out how to kill yet." Techno-Mage Galen "Babylon Project Crusade" ICQ # 8694414 Visit all of these. My Home Page--Go To The Links Page For More http://www.angelfire.com/sk/boshears/