Date: Mon, 19 Dec 94 19:56:44 PST From: Alexei Kosut Subject: Story: "The Firey Trial" Me again... Here's a short story I wrote, set in the Babylon 5 universe. It doesn't deal with any of the characters or settings we know and love, but instead takes place aboard an Explorer ship, like the Cortez seen in "A Distant Star". This episode has spoilers for "The Long Dark". I *very* strongly reccomend you view that episode before reading this. You'll notice that all the characters in this story's first and last initals are the same. This is done for fun. No other reason. Also, the story's title comes from Abraham Lincoln, quoted by Captain Sheridan in "Points of Departure". It seemed to fit. I'd appreciate any comments people might have on this story. Thanks. -- Babylon 5: THE FIREY TRIAL Copyright (c) 1994, Alexei Kosut . Rights will be transferred to Babylonian Productions Inc. upon request. This document may be freely distributed. Captain William Wright stepped off of the small shuttle ship onto his new command, the Earth Force Explorer ship Magellen, serial number M199. This was his thirty-fourth year in Earth Force service, and this would be his fifth command. And the most memorable. Explorer ships were the stuff of legend. The ships that people dreamed about, but very rarely saw. And now Wright was in command of one. He was greeted upon arrival by Commander Mark Michson, his new first officer. "Welcome aboard the Magellen, sir." "Thank you, Commander Michson." The commander smiled. "Call me Mark. Everyone does." "All right then, Mark. Could you show me to my quarters please?" Mark nodded. "Of course." *** Wright stepped for the first time onto the bridge of the Magellan. It looked quite similar to that of the Odyssey, a heavy cruiser that he had been in command of for six years before the Magellan. Still, the bridge of an Explorer ship was much more. The ship itself was longer than most space stations, capable of not only creating its own jump-points, but of building jumpgates themselves. The Explorer ship was the very backbone of the expansion of the Earth Alliance. As Captain Wright settled down into the command chair, he glanced about him. His predecessor had apparently run a tight ship. Everyone was concentrated on their duties, and the bridge was very quiet. Wright smiled. Just the way he liked it. Mark Michson walked up to him. "Captain, I have a message for you from Earthdome. It's General Powers." Wright stood up and walked over the the visual display console. "Receive," he instructed the computer. A Gold Channel communications screen flashed onto the monitor, then it was replaced by the face of General Pauline Powers. She smiled. "Captain Wright, I assume?" "Yes, General." "Good. I trust you are settled in to your new command. I have orders for you. You are to take the Magellan to sector 996 by fory-two by three, in the Rim." Wright furrowed his eyebrows. "I was told we would be conducting a survey mission in sector twenty-six for the next two weeks." "Plans change, Captain. As I was saying, you will go to the Rim. We received a distress signal from the scout ship Republic several hours ago. We have been unable to establish contact. Your orders are to investigate. Is that clear?" "Yes, General," replied Wright, saluting as General Powers' face flashed off the monitor. Wright turned to the bridge staff. "Set course for sector 996 by forty-two by three. I want to be there as soon as possible." The large ship turned slowly on its axis, and, engines firing, made its way into the jumpgate near the planet it was orbiting. The majestic ship soared into hyperspace, and began the long journey to the Rim of known space. *** Three days later, the Magellan arrived in sector 996. Punching out of hyperspace three hours from the reported location of the Republic, the Magellan fired up its engines and started its sublight journey. Captain Wright turned to his communications officer, Lieutenant George Garrison, and asked, "Are we picking anything up from the Republic?" Garrison touched some controls on his console, then turned back up to Wright. "There's something coming through... very faint. It might be a distress signal, I can't be sure." "On speakers." Static filled the bridge, intertwined with a faint voice. "This is the....Republic...nine-six by for....under attack....planet....no indic....we are att....have been boarded....repeat, we are under....scout ship Republic....Force L78993...." Lt. Garrison shut off the noise. "I've lost it, Captain." Wright sighed. "Damn. What's our time to intercept?" Commander Michson replied, "Two hours, thirty seven minutes." *** Arriving in the system that the Republic was in, the Gamma Sigma system, the Magellan sidled up against the battered ship. The Republic was indeed battered. It's bulkhead was blackened and torn, it's lights were out, it's engines were bashed in. It was a sorry sight. Captain Wright turned to his sensor officer. "Any life signs?" Lt. Robert Richland consulted his console. "Negative, sir." Wright sighed. "Mark, Lieutanant Garrison, come with me. We're going to take a travel pod over and take a look." The three officers strode off the bridge of the Magellan, and climbed down the latter into the inner core of the ship, the zero-gravity center, around which the habitable area spun to create gravity. Entering one of the small lifts that ran the length of the ship, they travelled to the docking bay, boarded a travel pod, and launched it towards the Republic. Docking with the Republic's bridge airlock, the three officers put on their encounter suits and opened the lock to the Republic, and walked through. Michson gasped. "Where is everyone?" Indeed he was right. There was no one to be seen. No dead bodies, no blood, no nothing. The three officers spread out about the bridge, examaning the various consoles until George Garrison, the Magellan's communications officer, found something. "Captain!" he exclaimed. "Come here." Wright scrambled over to Garrison's location. "What is it?" Garrison pointed at the Republic's communications console. "There's a ship's log entry that's still being recorded. No one turned it off." Michson frowned. "Can we hear it?" The communications officer pushed a key on the console and the three officers heard a voice come through the speakers in their suits. "Ships's log, Earth Force Scout ship Republic, Februrary 14, 2259. Commander Jack Johnson recording. "As first officer of the Republic, it has become my duty, in the wake of recent events, to record this log entry. When it is complete, we will place it into a buoy, and launch it, in the hopes that Earth Force will know of the troubles that have beset us. "We were on a standard survey mission, in the Rim. When we approached the Gamma Sigma system, nothing seemed unusual. Seven planets, fifth one was inhabitable, as stated in the probe's report. We started towards that planet to take a closer look. "It came at us out of nowhere. Our sensors reported no life on the planet, but a ship rose up from it nonetheless. Scanners recorded no life forms or weaponry aboard, and when we attempted communication, there was no response. So we figured it for a derelict, and continuted on towards the planet. "Then it hit us. We were unprepared. It took out our fusion reactors with the first shot. We fired back, but our lasers didn't hurt it one bit. Then they came aboard. Most on the lower decks, working their way up, but some came above. One got to the bridge, We managed to take it out, using all the PPG power we had, but it took out four men: Flagg, Relkins, Teal, and... the captain. It shot them with some sort of weapon we'd never seen before. Vaporized them." "In the crossfire, our new navigator got knocked out. Don't know when he'll wake up. Or if. Medlab got hit, no medical staff. I can't help but feel we're doomed. We've tried calling for help, but haven't gotten any response. This message is our only hope. "Right now the three of us left on the bridge are watching, via the internal sensors, the aliens take out our entire crew, one by one. I would reccomend our security cheif, Douglas Devinshire, for promotion, but he's dead. "I know there's no hope for us now, but I keep wondering about the message I record now. Will it reach Earth Force? Will they ever find out what happened here today? I don't know. I simply don't know. And the aliens are almost here. We should prepare, but I don't know with what. "And so, on this sad, note, I end this-" The speakers suddenly erupted with weapons firing and screaming. This continued for about fifteen seconds, then there was silence. It continued for several minutes before Garrison reached down and turned it off. Michson turned to Captain Wright. "We should take this back to the Magellan and contact Earth Force. They should know." Wright nodded and began walking back towards the airlock. *** "And that is all we know," concluded Captain Wright. On the screen, General Powers nodded. "Have you scanned the planet in question?" "Gamma Sigma V? Yes, General. We pick up nothing. No life signs, no metal, no nothing." On the screen, Powers frowned. "Hmm. Captain, I want you to in and take a closer look, then contact me again. Powers out." Michson turned to Wright. "Shall I set a course to the planet, Captain?" Wright frowned. "Not yet, Mark. I've a question: in a hurry, how long would it take this crew to construct a jumpgate?" The first officer thought for a second, then replied, "I suppose we could do it in five hours, if we really had to. Why?" "Do it." Michson frowned. "But we can't construct a jumpgate without authorization from Earthdome. And General Powers' orders were quite clear..." "Nonetheless," replied Wright, "I want a jumpgate built. I have this gut feeling... Get on it right away." Commander Michson shrugged. "Yes sir." *** Five hours and twenty two minutes later, the Magellan's crew had assembled a jumpgate in the vicinity of the Gamma Sigma system. Fifteen of it's crew, including Captain Wright and Commander Michson, boarded one of the Magellan's larger auxillary craft, and launched it towards the surface of Gamma Sigma V. Arriving on the planet, the shuttle landed in the center of Gamma Sigma V's largest continent, in the midst of a forest. Leaving two of the crew members behind, Wright took the other thirteen towards a clearing where the ship's sensors had detected some stone ruins. "Come on," called Comamnder Michson. "I think it's up ahead." Wright ran towards Michson, and came into the clearing, which opened up to a large plain. There were large stone structures rising up from the fields, forming a rudimentary village of sorts. "Let's spread out and take some readings," ordered Wright as he made his way towards.the largest ruin. His crew members likewise wandered into the midst of the structures. Not five minutes later, Wright was interrupted by the sound of someone screaming in tremendous agony. He turned and saw Michson being attacked by some sort of creature. Standing in a ball of light, he could make out it's shadowy structure, and it froze him with fright. He watched in horror as another crewman drew his PPG and fired upon the creature, only to be engulfed by it. Wright called out to the party. "Let's get back to the ship. Run!" Wright's feet somehow were able to move, and as he ran towards the shuttle, he heard the screams of the doomed crewmen he left behind. Scrambling aboard the small ship, he found that only three of the thirteen members of the landing party had made it back alive. *** Arriving on the bridge of the Magellan, Captain William Wright was greeted by the shout of his sensor officer. "Captain! I'm detecting a ship, two thousand meters ahead of us. It's huge!" Wright glanced at a visual display. Silhouetted against the stars, he saw it. The spider-like craft was lurking in front of the Magellan, menacing in its very appearance. To his horror, he saw the ship fire at the Magellan. He was being yelled at from all over the bridge. "Captain, fusion reactors down to ten percent... damage reported in sections twelve and fourteen... hull breach in section five... weapons inoperative... main engines have failed..." Taking a deep breath, he stood and addressed the ship. "All hands abandon ship. Repeat, all hands abandon ship." Wright and the other bridge crew scrambled to the nearest lifeboat, as did the entire crew of the Magellan. As the five emergency craft prepeared to enter the jumpgate that Wright had had the foresight to create, the Magellan exploded, generating a shock wave so great that it jolted Wright's lifeboat a full five hundred meters. As he entered hyperspace, Captain William Wright thought. This one shadowy ship had taken out an Earth Force Explorer ship in under five minutes. One of these ships could destroy Earth's largest vessel. He shuddred to think of what a fleet of them could do. *** Aboard the Earth Alliance space station Babylon 5, Commander Susan Ivanova turned to Captain John Sheridan. "Towards the exact place where Ambassador G'kar told us an ancient enemy was gathering its forces." Sheridan nodded. "Z'ha'dum." Ivanova walked over to Sheridan and glanced out at the stars. "Coincidence?" "A week ago, I probably would have said yes. Now... no." *** "It was the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind, the year the Great War came upon us all... The year is 2259. The name of the place is Babylon 5." -- Alexei Kosut Live, Londo and Prosper: /\/\/\\____-_____-- __.___. akosut@nueva.pvt.k12.ca.us |--|------|:|:|:: ..| |...| ||=/ \ http://www.nueva.pvt.k12.ca.us/~akosut/ |--|------======____| |---| |-=\__/ Lefler on IRC _________________________________ \/\/\/ - --