name = Alexandra Mackenzie email = andthen001@yahoo.com title = Fighting the Darknesses warnings = Mild Violence, very mild language. story = Summery: A story about a couple Rangers who's characters I've been playing around with in my mind for a long time now. This should prove interesting by the end. Disclaimer: I'm not making any money off of this story so don't sue me. Alana, Rick, and Teron (oh, and Lt. Marcellus) belong to me, everyone else JMS. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ February 23rd, 2258 "More shots fired." Alana said choking back tears of the painful memories. "Bulkheads were exploding. It was total and utter chaos. Screams filled the halls. In just a few minutes we were racing for our lives, in hopes that we could get through a jumpgate and into hyperspace before we were all destroyed. No one knew why they picked that moment to return, to start up another great war. We only knew they had come back." "Who had come back?" Commander Sinclair said. "I'll get to that." Alana responded. "Our ship, the only of a fleet of 21, made it to Babylon 5 safely. The remaining crew members of our ship were struggling to get the controls to work, but the artificial intelligence matrix was out and navigation was difficult. Most of our other systems were shot too, and life support would have given out in only days if we hadn't made it back safely. Well, actually, no one in our crew had ever been to Babylon 5, it only gone online shortly a year ago. So it really wasn't going 'back'. Well, we docked at B5, our ship trashed and no one really knowing who we were. If we publicly talked about ourselves though we would blow our cover." "And who are you anyway?" "I said I'll get to that." Barked Alana. "And as I was saying, we docked. All of us had suffered injuries in the attack so my crew and I were taken to MedLab, were as you know only 3 of us made it out of. We knew the risks, though. Fighting the darkness would not be easy." "What darkness?" Sinclair's patience was growing thin. "The only word we have for them is the Shadows, commander. They come every 1,000 years and start a fight. That's all I can say. That's all I know, really. No one knows what they look like, no one's survived an attack on them that's retained a visual on them. Our sensors were blown out before we got one." Alana grudgingly admitted. 'Not a good idea to tell them to much, they are not quite prepared for the truth.' "Okay, you've explained one thing. But not who you people are, which was our question." "We are called An'la'shok, or 'Rangers' in English. We were trained by the Mimbari to gather intelligence and to fight the coming darkness." "These Shadows." "Yes." "You work for the Mimbari?" Sinclair said not really surprised. They're ship's design was Mimbari, one of them was a Mimbari. "We like to think we work to serve Entil'Zha and Valen, but yes, yes we do work for the Mimbari." "Lt. Marcellus, will you get a hold of Ambassador Delenn for me?" If Delenn had anything to do with them, he sure as hell wanted her here. "Yes, sir." Lt. Marcellus promptly said, then left the room to retrieve Ambassador Delenn. "You never said what your names were." Garibaldi finally said. He was growing impatient for more information. "Alana Reston. And this is Rick Hathaway, and Teron. And I can give you the names of the deceased later." "Garibaldi, have their names referenced through the computer." "You won't find much. We're all from outer colonies that were destroyed within the past 3 years. None of us ever joined Earth Force. None of us have ever been arrested." Alana was quick to say. 'Is she hiding something?' Garibaldi thought. "If you think I'm hiding something I'm not. I just don't want you to waste your time on us." Alana said. 'Was that to obvious?' she thought. 'Valen, I better not screw up again.' "So," Sinclair said genuinely curious, "how did you join these Rangers?" "They rescued us after our colonies were destroyed by the Shadows." "The Shadows eliminated our outer colonies?" Sinclair said surprised. "Yours, the Mimbari's, Centauri's, Drazi's, and countless other colonies belonging to countless other races. And sometimes not colonies, but whole civilizations. " Alana said gravely. "That will be all for now. You all need like you need some sleep." Said Sinclair, realizing how hard this was on Alana and the others. Teron, Rick, and Alana walked out of the board room. As soon as they were out of earshot from anyone else Alana piped up, "Hey, thanks for leaving me to deal with that myself." "Hey, you ARE the captain now." Rick teased. "There was something odd about Commander Sinclair." Teron said out of no where. "Yeh, I noticed it to." Rick responded. "That guy needs to get out more." "No, not that. Something, strangely familiar." "We've never met him before in our lives." "No, it's that, remember when Entil'Zha said Humans were being born with Mimbari souls?" "Are you saying you think Com. Sinclair has a Mimbari soul?" Alana said, intrigued. "Hey, wait a minute. Alana and I are Human, so if that guy had a Human soul that would be familiar to, you know." Rick said annoyed. "Well," Teron replied, "I have spent most of my life around Mimbaries, rather than Humans. I only recently came in contact with your race. Mimbari souls would be more familiar to me." "Ah." Rick said, still not satisfied with the answer. "Let's go to our quarters and get some sleep guys, and we'll deal with Com. Sinclair later." Alana said, voice of authority. Back in the board room..... "There's something suspicious about those three." Garibaldi said. "Michael, you think there's something suspicious about every person that comes aboard this station." "There is." "Did you get they're names cross-referenced?" "Yeh, it's exactly how she said. Born and raised on 3 different outer colonies, never were arrested, never joined Earth Force. But there was one thing Miss Reston forgot to mention." "Which is?" "She's a teep. Psi Corps' been looking for her for years. Apparently she's a powerful one, too." "Great. Anything on the other two?" "No, far as I can tell they're both clean. " "Good." "So, are we going to turn her over to Psi-Corp?" "Technically if she works for the Mimbari we have to talk to them first before we can do anything. " "Lovely. Another teep running around this station." Garibaldi said with sarcasm. "We'll talk to Delenn in a couple hours and then figure out what to do." "Can I at least post some guards around her quarters?" "If it will make you feel better but I think we can trust her for now." "Commander Sinclair," said Lt. Marcellus through Sinclair's link, "Ambassador Delenn wishes to speak with you. " "How about, her quarters in 10 minutes?" "I'll tell her that sir. Marcellus out." "Well, looks like we'll get some more answers soon, Michael." "I don't buy this whole, 'Fighting the darkness' thing. Are we really supposed to believe these 'shadows' that come out every 1,000 years who have been destroying colonies from different governments." "I'm sure Delenn will know." "I hope so." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~Alexandra Please send any and all comments to andthen001@yahoo.com -----------------------------------------------