Disclaimers: Babylon 5 and its characters are owned by JMS, Warner Brothers and TNT.
The Primeval War
by
A.J.Marks
Part 3
Garibaldi and the robed figure made their way back toward the med-lab. Garibaldi still was not sure about the new people. He had doubts about their involvement in this situation and he was curious about why no one had ever heard of this race before now.
"You are curious about our involvement Mr. Garibaldi?" the black robed figure asked.
"I'm curious as to how an old race such as yours, supposedly older than even the Shadows can exist and there's never been any word, or mentioning about you. It just seems to strange for me." Garibaldi answered.
"True, we did not call attention to ourselves after the war for reasons that the younger races wouldn't understand." He replied. "It is hard to be a race of clones bread for war and easily mix in with other races."
"Yeah, I guess your right." Garibaldi said, mentally agreeing with the robed figure. "However I do believe that you might fit in. After all, all of the races you've seen here still practice the art of war."
"There's one difference between the races you've known and my race." The robed figure said solemnly. "We were designed for war against the Zeb."
The two of them arrived at the med lab and the robed figure turned towards Garibaldi.
"I would like to continue our conversation at a later date if you would."
"Sounds good to me." Garibaldi told him and Garibaldi continued on his way to talk to Sheridan.
Inside the med lab Bzed and Zambi were still cuddling on the bed. Even from across the room he could tell that she had fallen asleep. Bzed looked at his aide and untangled himself.
"What is the situation?" Bzed asked.
"My lord, they're back." The aide answered him.
"I thought so! Are there any ideas about the next target?"
"Actually sir, here."
"Then we must move fast." Bzed said. "Tell Admiral Nilsson to go to condition 'blue alpha one'. Its time for our race to come out of hiding."
"Yes sir!" He said bowing and then left the room.
Delenn walked into her husband's office. She stopped to watch him as he read the reports.
"Any good news John." She asked him.
"No, it doesn't look like it." Sheridan responded shaking his head. "All available ships are headed here to help defend the station."
"What happens if we don't stop them here?"
He took a deep breath and got up from his chair. He walked over to where Delenn was standing and put his arms around her waist.
"If we don't stop them here, then there's nothing that can stop them." He said sadly. "We're pooling all of our resources, along with what’s left from the 'first ones’ to hold a line of defense."
"What about the Gmih?" She asked. "They seemed to know quite a bit, maybe they can help."
"I don't know, they're an 'x' factor Delenn. We'll just have to wait to see where they align themselves."
Ships of all types orbited around Babylon 5. Vorlon and Shadow ships stood side by side with Membari and Earth ships. The entire white star fleet was also present, and other ships were still arriving.
The jump gate activated and three Narn battlecrusiers came through to add their firepower to the stations defense.
Captain Lochley stood on the bridge watching all the activity going on.
"I hope we have enough." She said to herself. The others on the bridge gave her a funny look. There were more warships out there than anyone had ever seen and she was worried it would not be enough? What type of enemy are they fighting?
Another hour went quietly by without any false alarms. Lochley stared out the window when Garibaldi walked onto the bridge.
"Captain, jump point activity all around us!"
She turned back toward the window and watched as crescent shaped craft started to pour through the jump gates. The Zeb had arrived at last.
"Close the blast screens and launch all fighters at once!" Lochley told her crew.
Fighters shot out of the launch bays to engage the incoming ships. Almost immediately ships exploded as the two sides engaged each other.
A white star ship made a hard one hundred eighty degree turn and added its firepower against a larger invader that two Vorlon ships were firing upon. A second enemy ship engaged the white star ship hitting it with massive firepower. The white star took several direct impacts before exploding in an orange and yellow flame. Two Shadow vessels opened fire on the ship the Vorlon ships were firing upon. A couple of seconds later the enemy ship exploded. Half a minute later one of the Shadow vessels exploded under an attack from another enemy ship.
A Centari battlecrusier joined an Earth destroyer helping destroy another alien craft. Two more enemy warships teamed up on a Membari cruiser and quickly destroyed the cruiser. A squadron of Earth fighters flew through the battlefield narrowly avoiding friendly and enemy beam weapons only to encounter enemy fighters. After a brief exchange of fire most of the starfuries were destroyed.
On Babylon 5's bridge Lochley, now joined by Sheridan, watched the on going battle.
"Reports are that the enemy craft have some sort of strong shielding system." An operator told them.
"Captain, another jump point activating." Another operator said.
"What's coming through?" Lochley asked, but she almost wished she hadn't with what she saw. "Death Walkers!"
About sixty ships poured through the jump gate.
"Captain, the Death Walker ships are engaging the enemy."
Garibaldi, Sheridan, and Lochley exchanged looks of disbelief. The Death Walkers never got involved with outside affairs unless they were invited. Something big was happening here.
Outside the station losses were mounting for both sides. With the appearance of the Death Walker ships the defenders seemed to gain the upper hand.
No one had ever seen Death Walker ships in combat. Surprisingly they were tough and quick.
Zack maneuvered his fighter for a clear shot at an enemy fighter. He punched the fire button and watched as the enemy fighter took several hits and continued on.
"How much does it take to kill one of these things?" He asked himself as he took evasive action narrowly escaping. He returned fire and with some help destroyed the enemy fighter.
The defenders slowly started to win the battle. They were now outnumbering the attackers allowing more ships to gang up on the enemy warships.
On the bridge a feeling of victory was starting to emerge as the balance of the battle started to tilt for the defenders. All of that changed in a few seconds.
"Captain, new jump points opening up!"
Lochley, Garibaldi and Sheridan watched as hundreds of ships poured through. Several ships were easily over five miles long. Sheridan got a sick feeling in his stomach, as he knew that the hope of victory now was beyond their grasp. The force they were fighting was the first wave. The rest of the crew also felt it. The station rocked as it took several hits.
"Damage report." Lochley asked.
"Damage to areas Brown eight and nine."
"They're penetrating our weapons grid." Another operator said as the ship rocked again from hits.
"Minor damage to the reactor, life support still normal."
The coalition fleet was not faring any better. Their ships were being quickly overwhelmed.
"Captain, I'm picking up massive power surges all over."
"Now what?" She asked.
Zack noticed something wrong right away. His instruments started going crazy, power surges were going right off the scale. A quick glance around the battlefield he saw both enemy and friendly ship sitting in confusion. Then he saw it, what looked like a ripple in space, as when a person throws a rock in a calm lake.
Then all over the region of space flashes of light danced about. Whirling and swirling around and between the ships followed by an explosion of light from an unknown power. The light seemed to condense into massive shapes.
When the light had died down enough for Zack to finally see, he could not believe his eyes. Right in front of him a massive gray, cylinder shaped warship easily twice as long as Babylon 5. A quick glance around revealed hundreds of similarly shaped vessels like it.
Lochley looked at Sheridan in amazement when the fighting started again. The enormous numbers of ships involved now were in the thousands.
"I haven't seen anything like this since the 'Shadow War', but these ships make the first one's ships look like mere toys." Sheridan said in disbelief.
Zack just tried his best to stay alive when the newcomers engaged the enemy. The firepower coming from both sides was enormous.
"That must be the Gmih." Garibaldi said in stunned silence. "He said they were bred for war."
"And with that fleet, the would be unstoppable." Lochley said in awe.
The massive ships hammered away at each other, the amount of damage inflicted would have destroyed several other ships. Sheridan noticed the while the giant ships did not move very fast their shielding and firepower more than made up for it.
With the arrival of the Gmih the battle quickly turned against the Zeb. After another hour of fighting the Zeb withdrew what remained of their fleet. Repair and medical crews on board the station worked hard to save lives and repair the station.
On the bridge Captain Lochley received the damage reports and the estimates of repair time.
"Have the clean up crews launched ASAP, there's a lot of wreckage that needs to be cleaned up."
"That will not be necessary captain, my crews can handle the wreckage from this small battle." Bzed said from the bridge doorway.
"Can't you use the help?" Sheridan asked.
"President Sheridan, there are some technologies among the wreckage that even the Shadows are not ready for. I would strongly suggest no one interferes and we will be scanning their ships for any wreckage taken. It we find any we will take it, by force if we have to." Bzed told them then walked off the bridge.
"He can't do that!" Lochley exclaimed.
"I seriously think we ought to tell our guys just to stay the hell out of their way." Garibaldi responded. "They have the power to back the threat up."
Twenty-four hours later the space around Babylon 5 did not look like there had been a massive battle as the rubble and debris had already been cleared. The bodies recovered had been transferred to the respective races. President Sheridan could only breath a sigh of relief. No race had been foolish enough to interfere. Now, perhaps, he and Delenn could go on that vacation he had been thinking about. He shook himself out of his thoughts as Garibaldi walked in.
"I thought you would like to know that our visitors are leaving?" Garibaldi asked him.
"Yes I did." Sheridan said standing up. "I think it would be in our interest to maintain a good relationship with them."
"After their display of power that would be a good idea." Garibaldi id stating an obvious truth. Together they left for the loading bay.
Bzed and Zabmi, standing close together along with a few guards, were waiting to say goodbye to them. Sheridan, Garibaldi and Delenn, who had met them at the elevator.
"We are glad that we could meet, we just wish that the circumstances were better Mr. President." Bzed told them holding up both his and Zabmi's hand to indicate he was speaking for both of them.
"Perhaps we will meet again in better times that will allow us to get to know each other better." Delenn said.
"Perhaps." Bzed said glancing at Zabmi. "However, the battle may be won, but the war isn't over." Sheridan, Delenn and Garibaldi were all shocked at his statement but decided not to say anything.
Dr. Franklin came walking up with a determined face. "Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Franklin said to Bzed.
"Ask away."
"Well, I'm curious, I did some DNA checking on you and its almost identical to ours, how is that?" Franklin asked Bzed, his question raising the curiosity of the others.
"How do you explain it, doctor?" Bzed replied with his own question.
"It could be a random pattern that duplicated itself or...” Franklin stopped mid sentence at his thought.
"Perhaps?" Bzed said, then to the rest of them. "We must be off."
"Will you return?" Delenn asked.
Bzed glanced down at Zabmi before replying, "There is much we must, and questions I must decide if I'm ready to answer, but perhaps."
They said their goodbyes and watched as the shuttle lifted off.
"You don't think it was a random chance about the dna, do you Dr. Franklin?" Delenn asked as they started back to their respective offices.
"No, I don't." Franklin said shaking his head. "Think about it, they know how to manipulate DNA, the have cloning technology, and our they have the same structure, and genes that our DNA has."
"So what are you saying?" Garibaldi asked.
"I guess what I'm saying is, perhaps the human race is now, what the Gmih could have become." Franklin said, not really believing it himself.
"So, what your saying is that we are the Gmih's second chance?" Garibaldi asked.
"I guess the only one who knows is Bzed." Delenn said. "We'll just have to wait."
"I guess that's just a mystery that we won't be able to answer,” Garibaldi stated as they exited the elevator. "Besides, I need to pack. I got some information I need to get from an informer on Centari Prime."
"Well that's the best news I've heard in a while." A voice said from behind them. All four of them turned around to see Captain Lochley standing behind them along with Zack. "Just thought you would like to know that all of the 'first ones' have left."
"What about our other visitors?" Sheridan asked.
"The last of their ships left after the shuttle boarded it, the strangest part was they used the jump gates." Lochley replied.
"I'm not surprised." Zack said. "When they arrived, their ships put out a tremendous amount of energy. I don't know of any power supply that could put out that kind of energy."
"Well, do you suppose we'll see them again?" Lochley asked.
"We'll probably see their ships again." Sheridan replied. "Because they stated that the wasn't over, so Garibaldi, we might want to warn the other races."
"That's the truth!" Garibaldi said agreeing with Sheridan. "All we would need is a war with them."
"It wouldn't be much of a fight, some of their ships were massive, probably ten miles long." Zack said. "It was all I could do to remain alive!"
"But I think that the chances are good that we'll see them again." Sheridan said as the group approached his office. "I think it’s only a matter of time."
The End?
Comments are welcome at: AJMarks01@aol.com