Chapter Twenty-Three

Sometime Later

Freshly appointed Ambassador Kevin Englewood resisted the impulse to fidget uncomfortably as he gazed out at the hyperspace tunnel streaking past the windows of the medium range personnel transport shuttle. He still had trouble wrapping his head around the fact that he had been chosen to act as ambassador between the Tau'ri Federation in this universe – as few of them as there were here – and the galaxy at large as represented on Babylon Five. It was an enormous responsibility and one he had never anticipated this early in his career – though as Governor Shepherd had pointed out he was the closest thing they had to a fully qualified professional diplomat next to herself, and she obviously couldn't go given her responsibilities to everyone in Rivendell and the task ahead of their people. A task that when you thought about it seemed nigh on impossible, though the curveball fate or some random ascended being had thrown them by exiling them here to this universe meant that they had no choice but to try and make a new life for themselves. His appointment as ambassador to Babylon Five was part of that new life.

Doesn't stop me wishing someone else could be in my shoes, he thought glancing out the window at the shimmering blue tunnel outside. Though he was no engineer – instead, his skills lay in the areas of linguistics and diplomacy – he knew that the transport would soon reach Babylon Five. Even with the limited hyperspace speeds this small ship could travel at the journey from the planet where Rivendell was located – they'd still to name the planet though rumour had it that they were going to call it Novorsa from the Latin words for new and beginning – to Epsilon Eridani was not a long one. Barely twelve hundred light years all told, even with only a basic interstellar hyperdrive it wouldn't take more than fifteen minutes for the transport to reach Babylon Five – and they'd already been in hyperspace for at least ten minutes. However, to Kevin it had felt like an eternity.

"Relax ambassador," a male voice said from beside him. "You're going to be a nervous wreck by the time we reach Babylon Five at this rate."

Kevin sighed and looked across at Lieutenant Nathan Blackwell, the young marine officer from the Concordia who'd been assigned as his diplomatic attaché/bodyguard. He admired the other mans laid-back attitude as he sat there; he showed no sign of being nervous about the task ahead of them. Also knowing that the marine would be right beside him the whole time he was on Babylon Five was comforting, especially as he'd been permitted to look at Blackwell's service record by Admiral Robyns prior to leaving Rivendell. A service record that revealed Blackwell was Special Forces trained though he'd been rotated back into the regular marines for a while after much of his Special Forces team were killed in one of the seemingly endless border skirmishes with the Aschen Confederation. However the file made it clear that despite the rotation Blackwell still possessed all his SF nanoware implants, they'd never been deactivated and removed/replaced with standard marine nanoware when he'd been rotated back into the regular marines. Which meant that the six foot four marine was even stronger and quicker than his two hundred and forty-five pound frame indicated – all in all the perfect bodyguard for a place that had already proven itself to be dangerous.

"I know," he admitted. "I just can't help it; I'm only a junior diplomat I should have had a few more years of field training before being assigned a duty like this."

"None of us expected to be put in the position we are in now," Nathan reminded him. "When we set out for that dark matter galaxy we never expected to be hurled into another universe, nor did we expect to loose a few of our people to neural feedback shock during the transit."

"True," Kevin conceded wincing at the memory. He'd been hit by some of that feedback himself and been lucky to have only gotten a bad headache for a few days, his friend and mentor Ambassador Jonas Varell had not been so lucky. Like dozens of others, the shock he'd received had resulted in him suffering a fatal stroke. "Though I do wish Jonas was still here to do this not me."

"Yeah well if wishes were credits we'd all be billionaires by now."

Kevin laughed softly. "I like you lieutenant," he replied smiling.

"Your not so bad yourself, ambassador," Nathan answered. "Though since we're going to be working together for awhile we might as well drop some of the formalities at least amongst ourselves, call me Nathan."

The faint hint of a smile appeared on Kevin's face. "Alright," he said. "Nathan it is, as long as long as you call me Kevin."

"Deal," Nathan replied.

Kevin started to open his mouth to speak again when there came a distant rumble, like thunder in the distance and the Kestrel-class transport shuddered like a ground car that had just gone to fast over a speed bump.

"What the hell," Nathan said looking around a moment before the transport jerked violently to starboard, then to port before stabilising. But only for half a second before shaking again. Alarms went off in the cockpit compartment and through the rear view ports both diplomat and marine could see the tunnel of hyperspace crackling and twisting, strange ripples of purple-white light passing down the tunnel each accompanied by another violent shudder in the deck.

Nathan sprang to his feet and ran forwards, keeping his footing on the shaking deck with a combination of practiced ease and nanoware implant enhanced balance. "What's going on," he asked as soon as he crossed through the heavy bulkhead doors separating the two parts of the transport.

"I don't know," Ensign Sorrick – their Serakin pilot – answered as the transport, continued shaking. "Somekind of extremely powerful tachyon distortion field in subspace, its disrupting our hyperspace channel. Hyperdrive temperature redlining – initiating emergency deceleration to sublight."

Nathan nodded and braced himself while quickly yelling back for Kevin to do the same. A moment later the distorting, flexing hyperspace tunnel outside flashed and vanished as the hyperdrive shut down with none of the normal power down sequence taking place, violently reverting the craft back into normal space-time. For all three onboard the sudden deceleration manifested as a visible ripple in the air and artificial gravity field. The naquada-trinium-carbon alloy hull groaned and control crystals audibly rattled in their slots as the ship protested the sudden strain being placed on its systems by the extreme deceleration.

Finally, the transport stabilised as the forward thrusters overcame the effects of the greater than normal hyperspace inertia and brought the ship to a complete halt. Silence gripped the interior of the transport, then almost as one all three people on board let out breaths of pure relief that they had come through the violent reversion unharmed – aside from a little bit of damage to their nerves.

"Status," Nathan asked moving aside slightly as he heard Kevin come into the cockpit himself.

"Hyperdrives out," Sorrick replied hands dancing over the crystalline controls instructing the computer to begin diagnostics. "Gravitic ion sublight engines are responding but we'll only be capable of twenty five percent of our normal thrust, the control relays must be damaged. Main power's holding. Automatic repair systems have engaged."

"Where are we?" Kevin asked.

"We're in the outer reaches of the Epsilon Eridani system, Babylon Five is twenty AU closer to the star," Sorrick answered. "At our current maximum speed it will take several hours to reach the station." The sensors chirped. "I'm picking up a sensor contact coming this way, small craft it's moving at a low to moderate sublight speed. From the size and limited armaments I'd say that it's a fighter."

"Put it up on the HUD," Nathan instructed. Sorrick nodded and obeyed, pressing a certain crystal making the holographic heads up display blink into existence. A single small spacecraft of a strange but distinctive X design hung in the centre window of the display, readouts from the scanners being displayed on smaller windows; readouts that revealed the ship was being powered by a pair of fusion batteries. The craft was being propelled forward by four small ion-based engine pods mounted on the ends of its four arms. Its armaments were basic, a pair of low yield plasma pulse cannons and eight missiles, even though they were damaged the fighter was no threat to the transport its weapons to low powered to penetrate their shields while there own limited weapons would have no difficulty destroying it.

The pilots console abruptly bleeped a warning. "The fighter is scanning us," Sorrick said after a moment as the information was transmitted into his brain through a neural implant that he like all non-Tau'ri officers in or in his case on exchange with the Tau'ri Defence Forces had. An implant that let them operate most aspects of Tau'ri technology in the same way the Tau'ri themselves could, though it was slower and more cumbersome than the natural neural link Tau'ri had with their technology and some technologies like control chairs were impossible to use even with the implant. Though it was a very sophisticated piece of technology the implant couldn't handle the full emersion in a datastream that came from sitting in devices like active control chairs.

Another bleep came from the console. "We're being hailed by the fighter, audio only," Sorrick said.

"Let's hear it," Kevin replied stepping up, Nathan moving aside to let him slide into the co-pilots seat and putting a hand on the console, making the crystals light up as power abruptly flowed into the console circuitry. The cockpits hidden speakers crackled softly then a youngish sounding male voice came through.

"Starfury Alpha Seven to unidentified vessel," the currently nameless pilot of the fighter said. "You've entered Babylon Five controlled space, identify yourselves and state your intentions."

"Let me talk to him," Kevin said nodding to Sorrick. Sorrick nodded back in answer to the silent command and pressed one of the crystalline controls on his console changing the comm. link to two way. "Starfury pilot this is the Tau'ri diplomatic shuttle Crystal Star. We are bound for Babylon Five."

For a moment the Starfury pilot was quiet, presumably surprised that they hadn't come into the system far closer to Babylon Five. Kevin guessed that was understandable given what little information the people of this universe had on their hyperdrives, basically what they'd observed the Jutland being capable of, would have told them that they could emerge from hyperspace with amazing accuracy. Though jumping in literally on top of Babylon Five was a bit over the top, Kevin thought with a mental eye-roll, Captain McKenzie could have had his ship drop out of hyperspace further away from Babylon Five and still beamed Lieutenant Tayman and the probe off. As it was, he probably scared a few people on the station half to death.

"I see," the pilot answered after a moment. "Why did you not appear closer to the station," the pilot continued sounding suspicious. "Why did you drop back into normal space all the way out here in Sector 14?"

"It's a complicated answer but suffice to say we encountered a difficulty with our hyperdrive that forced us to revert to normal space-time earlier than we had originally intended," Kevin replied. "Tell me pilot do you know of any phenomenon in this area that could cause a strong tachyon distortion field?"

The frown that had to be on the Starfury pilots face was audible in his voice as he answered. "Not to me knowledge," the pilot answered. "Though there have been weird reports about this sector of the system for years now, ever since Babylon Four disappeared here just after going online."

Kevin frowned and was about to ask a question when the pilots console gave a warning trill as the sensors detected something that the computer believed to be potentially dangerous. "Excuse me, pilot," he said before looking over at Ensign Sorrick. "What is it?"

"The tachyon distortion field in subspace is back," Sorrick replied. "Field is focused a thousand kilometres aft of us; I'm detecting a massive spatial distortion forming."

"What kind of spatial distortion?" Nathan asked from behind them.

"Unknown I've never seen anything like it," Sorrick answered as he brought the sensor information up on the HUD. Information that revealed that space a thousand kilometres behind was warping and distorting, the quantum folds of subspace time being unzipped by some tremendously powerful force. A perfectly straight section of space just over seven and a half kilometres long abruptly seem to tear open spilling massive quantities of subspace energy and highly charged tachyon particles into normal space time.

Before the disbelieving eyes of the two Tau'ri and one Serakin the distortion expanded into a shape vaguely reminiscent of Babylon Five but much larger and with some visible differences in configuration. Space around the glowing tear rippled and distorted as with a brilliant flash of light the tear transformed itself into a gigantic seven and a half kilometre long O'Neil-type space station. A rippling wave of energy and distortion blasted out from around the station at high speed – expanding outwards in a sphere of radiant power and spatial distortion.

Reacting on training more than conscious thought Ensign Sorrick raised Crystal Star's shields and fearing for the safety of the Starfury pilot moved the transport closer and extended the force field around the fragile fighter. A moment later the energy wave smashed into the concave wall of the force field making the shield flare a brilliant silver-white with strain as the distortion clawed at the barrier attempting to break through to damage the fragile ships underneath. In a fortunate twist of fate, it was the enormous kinetic force of the impacting energy wave proved the salvation of both craft as it accelerated both craft forward like a board on the crest of an ocean breaker. The glow of the Crystal Star's straining shields flickered and died as the imparted force carried them clear of the potentially very damaging threshold of the spatial and temporal distortion field around the space station.

Kevin coughed softly and waved a hand at the haze of smoke that hung in the Crystal Star's cockpit. Alarm klaxons continued to wail softly, reporting on additional damage to the Kestrel-class transports systems, damage that was perfectly obvious from the haze of smoke along with the acrid scent of overloaded control crystals that filled the interior of the ship.

"How bad is it," he asked as Sorrick shut the alarms down.

"Bad but it could be worse, ambassador," Sorrick answered as a damage schematic appeared on the HUD. "Shields are down to forty percent; weapons systems are fused and are currently inoperable. Sublight… sublight engines are off line, main power down to sixty percent."

"Damn," Kevin breathed softly, before speaking more loudly. "What about the Starfury? What's its status?"

Sorrick was silent for a moment as he used the transports sensors to probe the Starfury. "The craft is disabled," he reported. "Minimal power readings, engines appear to be completely dead. Still picking up a life sign on board but its very weak. My guess is the pilot is unconscious."

"Is the transporter system on line?" Nathan asked.

"Yes," Sorrick answered.

"Then transport the pilot onboard," Kevin instructed. "Once that's done hail the Jutland."

"Yes ambassador," Sorrick replied a moment before the familiar silver-white flash and soft musical sound of a transporter beam came from the passenger compartment.

"I'll check on our guest," Nathan said from behind the control stations at the front of the small cockpit. Kevin nodded in agreement and heard the SF marine begin walking away a moment before a holographic communications screen appeared in place of the HUD, showing the face of the Jutland's first officer Commander Jordan Blake.

"Crystal Star this is the Jutland, what's your status?" Blake asked immediately.

"Commander our propulsion systems both hyperspace and sublight have been disabled," Kevin answered and almost smiled when the older man sat up straighter as he suddenly recognised him for who he was. "We're dead in the water; we've also beamed over a pilot from a disabled Earth Alliance Starfury."

"Understood, ambassador," Blake replied. "I'll inform Captain McKenzie of your situation. Do you require our assistance?"

"It would be appreciated commander," Kevin said. "Given the spatial distortion behind us I'd rather not sit here for a couple of hours waiting for the automatic systems to repair our sublight drives."

"No I suppose you wouldn't," Blake deadpanned before looking away his mouth moving as he gave some orders on the Jutland's bridge. Then he turned back to look at Kevin and back into the narrow cone of the audio pickups. "We're breaking orbit of Epsilon Three now, ambassador," he said. "Navigation is currently plotting a precision hyperspace jump to your location we'll be with you shortly."

"Thank you commander though I wouldn't advise you use your hyperdrive," Kevin answered. At the confused look the distant commander threw him he explained about the tachyon distortion field in subspace that had destabilised there hyperspace channel forcing them to emergency revert to normal space or risk being ripped apart by the turbulence.

"If you use your hyperdrive you run the risk of experiencing what we did as soon as you enter this part of the system," Kevin concluded. "At the very least you'd risk burning out your hyperdrives, at worst you could end up scattering your atoms from one side of the universe to the other."

Blake grimaced. "Neither of those are pleasant prospects," he said with a visible shiver. It was understandable, as most people who served on starships knew exactly what could go wrong with a hyperdrive and what the consequences could be. "We'll just have to make the journey to your location at maximum sublight. We'll be with you within half an hour."

"Understood," Kevin, acknowledged. "We'll be waiting." Blake nodded and broke the connection from his end making the holographic screen vanish as if it had never been present at all.

Kevin sighed and started to get up to go back to the rear compartment and check on their guest when Sorrick's console emitted a soft series of bleeps. "What is it," he asked pausing and looking over at the young Serakin officer.

"Sensors have detected a coherent tachyon stream penetrating the distortion field and heading towards Babylon Five," Sorrick replied. "There appears to be a multi-frequency digital radio signal embedded in the tachyon stream."

"Can you tell what the signal is," Kevin asked and watched as Sorrick's hands danced across the crystalline controls for a moment.

"Negative," he answered, "all the computer can tell is its somekind of communications link; it should reach Babylon Five sometime in the next five minutes. We haven't the technology onboard to decrypt the signals ourselves."

"I see. Send the information on the transmission to the Jutland, they have a more extensive communications suite than we do, they might be able to translate it. Let me know if they reply."

"Yes ambassador."

Leaving Sorrick to his task Kevin got to his feet and went back into the passenger compartment where he found the Starfury pilot stretched out on the floor, with Nathan squatting down next to him running a portable medical diagnostic scanner over the unconscious young man.

"How is he, Nathan?" Kevin asked.

"Not the best, Kevin," Nathan answered. "He's got a moderate strength concussion, presumably from hitting his head hard on the side of his helmet the Starfury did get thrown around quite violently when the distortion wave struck our shields. I've administered a medical nanopack to deal with that. What's concerning me though are these odd cellular readings."

"What kind of readings," Kevin asked with a frown.

"I'm not sure; he's been dosed with a form of subspace radiation that I've never seen before. Its affecting his cells in away I've never seen before, many of the cells appears to be aging and dying rapidly while others are perfectly fine."

Kevin's frown deepened. "That can't be good," he said.

"It isn't," Nathan replied. "The dying cells are flooding his system with toxins, I've administered a second nanopack to deal with the blood poisoning but it's only a stop gap unless we can stop the cellular degradation. The medical packs we have on board weren't really meant to deal with radiation-based injuries. We need to get him to the more advanced medical facilities on the Jutland soon or he's going to die."

"The Jutland is on her way but since they can't risk using their hyperdrives in such close proximity to the distortion field it will take them at least thirty minutes to get here at maximum sublight," Kevin answered. "Will he survive that long?"

"He should do yes," Nathan replied, "especially if I administer another nanopack to support his vital organs and nervous system."

"Do it."

Nathan nodded and put the scanner down before delving into the open first aid kit beside him and taking out another medical nanites package or nanopack and starting to program it for what he needed the nanites to do. Kevin watched him for a moment before turning his full attention to the unconscious Starfury pilot. He was immediately struck by how young he was, the pilot looked to be at the most twenty-five – assuming of course that apparent age wasn't as deceptive with Earth Alliance Humans as it was with modern Tau'ri. Given the less advanced technology Earth in this universe had he wouldn't be surprised to find that the pilot was or close to the age he appeared to be, unlike Kevin himself who looked to be in his mid-twenties but was actually closer to forty than twenty. Hold on, he thought to the young man, we'll look after you just hold on.

Command and Control

Babylon Five, A Few Moments Earlier

Commander Jeffery Sinclair had a puzzled frown on his face as he stepped into the command and control centre of the diplomatic station/intergalactic Freeport that was his command. He'd been in his office working his way through his virtual forest of paperwork, which he'd been delayed getting to by the arrival of former president turned special ambassador Elizabeth Levy, when he'd gotten a call from his XO to come to C&C immediately.

"What is it lieutenant commander," he asked the beautiful but hard Russian woman who'd become one of his most trusted friends next to Michael and Delenn.

"Our sensors picked up a massive tachyon energy surge in sector fourteen near the secondary jump gate," Susan Ivanova answered. "A Starfury patrol Alpha Seven was in the area and reported shortly before the energy surge that a small craft of apparent Tau'ri design emerged from whatever FTL system they used. He was going to contact them but he hadn't reported back by the time the energy surge occurred. Now he's not responding."

Sinclair frowned. "Do you think that the two are connected," he asked worriedly.

"I would not be at all surprised, from what little we've seen of there abilities the Tau'ri probably do have the technology to create and maintain such a large and highly charged tachyon field," Susan answered and though her features were calm as she spoke she was inwardly frowning in very real concern. Generating and maintaining a tachyon field as big as the one that was only just registering on long-range scans would require both a massive understanding of tachyon physics and a truly staggering amount of power. Far more power than they'd observed Tau'ri ships put out – assuming of course that the Cortez had been able to get accurate information on the Jutland's power output when she'd scanned the Tau'ri cruiser during that first encounter in system NL24.

"The question is why the Tau'ri would do such a thing, if they are behind the energy surge. What could they have to gain?" Sinclair asked.

Susan frowned and was about to give one of her typically pessimistic Russian answers when Lieutenant Junior Grade David Corwin spoke up from the console pit.

"Commander," the younger man said. "Sensors have picked up a change in the Jutland's energy profile – what little of it we can observe. I cannot be sure but I believe they are powering up their engines."

As he spoke Susan turned her attention to the main console and pulled up the sensor readings herself, just as the Tau'ri warship began moving, its narrow prow coming around as it started to break from its orbit of Epsilon Three. For a moment, she thought that the powerful Tau'ri war cruiser was going to turn its bow – and the two big cannons there that were presumably its primary weapons – towards Babylon Five so it was with no small amount of relief that she noticed that the cruiser was starting to head out into open space. Moving slowly as it carefully threaded its way through the lanes of traffic around Babylon Five, mercifully none of the freighter or passenger liner captains panicked as the Tau'ri vessel moved past them, gliding across space with all the ease and grace of a professional dancer. Quickly she pressed a few buttons on the console instructing the computer to work out the Jutland's course.

"He's right," she said at last. "Tau'ri vessel has broken orbit of Epsilon Three and is heading out into open space. She'll be clear of the shipping lanes around the station within two minutes. Computer extrapolation indicates that she's heading straight towards Sector Fourteen."

"Contact them," Sinclair instructed a moment before Corwin spoke up again.

"Commander we're picking up a distress call from Sector Fourteen," Corwin reported then paused. "Commander it's from Babylon Four."

"Impossible, Babylon Four disappeared years ago," Susan exclaimed.

"Not necessarily," Sinclair replied. "One of the many rumours and theories concerning the disappearance of Babylon Four is that it was somehow transported to another point either in space or in time. This could be when it was transported to, check the sub-channel id confirm if it's Babylon Four. Lieutenant Corwin send a message to the Jutland asking them to hold position and stand by, if that is Babylon Four out there then we may need their assistance. Also send a transmission to the Agamemnon advising Captain Sheridan of the situation."

"Aye sir," the still somewhat green junior lieutenant answered and started on his assigned tasks.

As Corwin set about his tasks, Susan finished her own, checking the sub-channel identification code on record for Babylon Four with the one that seemed to be coming in with the distress call. Somehow, she wasn't surprised to find that they were a perfect match.

"Sub-channel ID code confirmed," she reported. "As impossible as it seams the distress signal is coming from Babylon Four."

"Understood," Sinclair, replied somehow not surprised by the answer. After all one of the first things you learned when you lived and worked here on Babylon Five was to expect the unexpected and deal with whatever curveballs the universe threw at you. "Put the call through."

Ivanova nodded and pressed a control, immediately the stellar comm. logo appeared on her consoles centre screen before being replaced by a middle-aged male in the brown officer's uniform of an Earth Force Marine or GROPO.

"To any ship within grid Epsilon," the man said in a stressed, urgent voice. "This is the Earth Alliance station Babylon Four, Major Lewis Krantz commanding, declaring an emergency. We've been enveloped by somekind of tachyon distortion field and our reactor systems have been compromised, we request immediate assistance. Repeating to any…"

"Open a channel to them," Sinclair ordered already mentally going through how many shuttles they would need to take to get everyone off Babylon Four before its reactors detonated – if they were going to detonate as compromised could simply mean there was a radiation leak. Either way combined with the space-time distortions that such a large tachyon field would be generating the leak insured that Babylon Four would need to be abandoned.

"Opening channel," Ivanova replied a second before another transmission burst across the stellar comm. system, this time showing the face and upper torso of one Captain John Sheridan.

"Babylon Four this is Captain John Sheridan of the Earth Alliance destroyer Agamemnon," Sheridan said. "We've received your distress signal and are moving to assist you. Major Krantz can you tell me exactly what the situation is onboard?"

Krantz looked relieved for a moment that help was indeed coming for his beleaguered space station then answered. "Captain Sheridan I'm afraid I can't," he replied. "Everything is so confused over here; we believe we might have hostiles onboard the station however our fusion reactor core is giving off worrying readings. It appears to be slowly building to an overload – we're unable to shut it down. Then there," Krantz went quiet and his face went white, "oh god it's happening again."

Static washed across the screen as Krantz spoke then the image broke up completely as the transmission from Babylon Four cut off. Almost simultaneously several consoles around C&C bleeped warnings.

"Another tachyon burst," Ivanova, said reading the data feed on her console. "Whatever is going on out there it's getting worse."

"It's a subspace time distortion field Lieutenant Commander Ivanova," the voice of Captain Aaron McKenzie abruptly said, making both Sinclair and Ivanova jump and spin around…

To find themselves face to face with a life size image of the Jutland's master. From the way he was floating, feet only inches over the heads of the console pit crew, both guessed that they were looking at some kind of holographic projection. Both noticed that the Tau'ri officer wasn't wearing the dress uniform he'd worn earlier, instead he was wearing a brown and off-white almost cream coloured two-piece uniform that they guessed was the Tau'ri's equivalent of their blue day-to-day uniforms.

"I'm sorry for startling you but I believed it was important that you know what's going on out there," Aaron McKenzie continued. "I'm sending this transmission to the Agamemnon as well."

"What is happening out there, captain," Sinclair asked. "You said that the tachyon distortion is a subspace time distortion field whatever that is."

"That is correct, there isn't really time for me to explain the intricacies of advanced subspace physics, commander," Aaron answered. "Suffice to say the tachyon field your sensors have picked up around Babylon Four has destabilised the very fabric of space-time itself at a level the your science hasn't even begun to explore let alone understand yet. The field is extremely unstable and crossing it to board and rescue the personnel on board Babylon Four will be very dangerous."

"We have to try though we cannot ignore a distress call," Sheridan said as his face appeared on various screens around C&C as he joined the discussion.

"I am not suggesting that you do, captain," Aaron replied soothingly. "I'm just telling you that the subspace distortion field is extremely dangerous, especially to vessels as fragile as yours, no offence intended. If you try to cross the boundary of the distortion field then it is very possible that your ships would sustain heavy damage or be destroyed outright by the forces involved."

"I assume you have a solution," Sheridan said after a moment a faint scowl on his face at having his ship – a powerful Omega-class starship and one of the most respected in the entire Earth Force armada – being described as fragile. Thank goodness, that asshole Ellis Pierce isn't here this time, Sinclair thought knowing that the arrogant African American commander of the EAS Hyperion would not have responded well to such a statement from the Tau'ri – even though it was probably true compared to the far more advanced and powerful Tau'ri vessels. Vessels that if they were anything like the probe they'd briefly had onboard were constructed of unknown alloys that were far stronger than anything they themselves knew how to make.

"I do," Aaron, answered. "My superiors won't particularly like it but they'll agree with me that there is not really much choice. Not if you want to save your people."

"What is your plan then," Sinclair asked.

"Its really quite simple commander, we give you a lift," Aaron replied with a faint grin. "What I'm suggesting is you launch your shuttle craft, as many as you believe you will need. If they come within a hundred metres of my ship, we will be able to extend both our shields and our drive field around them. Both will protect the shuttles and anyone within them from both inertial forces and the effects of the time-space distortion field."

"Shields," Sheridan questioned, "your ships have energy shielding?"

"Of course," Aaron answered. "We've used force shield technology for along time, Captain Sheridan. Like artificial gravity, we've never been without a form of force shield technology for defensive purposes. But now is not a time for a technological discussion."

"No its not," Sinclair agreed. "Now we need to sort out a rescue mission for Babylon Four."

"It has to be done quite quickly commander," Aaron replied. "My ships have detected that the subspace time distortion field around Babylon Four is unstable. It could begin cascading at any time."

"What exactly does that mean," Sheridan asked.

"It means captain that Babylon Four would once again be folded deep into the quantum strata of subspace and it may never emerge again," Aaron explained. "Even with our knowledge of subspace and the technology we have to manipulate it, it would be impossible to find it, let alone access it."

"You're saying it would be like looking for the proverbial needle in the equally proverbial haystack," Sinclair asked.

"A proverbial haystack of infinite size," Aaron told him. "If the people on Babylon Four are to be saved then we have to do it now or not at all. And there is another matter to consider."

"And that is," Sheridan asked.

"A diplomatic transport ship the Crystal Star carrying our ambassador to Babylon Five was disabled by the appearance of the distortion field along with a patrolling fighter."

"Alpha Seven is he alive," Ivanova asked.

"I believe so, lieutenant commander," Aaron answered truthfully. "I know he was transported aboard the Crystal Star from the disabled fighter but I do not know his condition beyond that I am afraid." For a moment, the holographic image flickered, washing with whitish light before stabilising.

"We don't have much time," Aaron informed them a grim look on his holographic face. "Our sensors have detected increasing instabilities in the distortion field; if the instabilities continue to build at this rate then the station could soon start folding back into subspace."

"Any idea how long we have," Sheridan asked.

"It's hard to say especially with a time-space distortion field as unstable as the one surrounding Babylon Four," Aaron answered truthfully. "However at the most we probably only have about two or three hours no more."

"That's not a lot of time," Sinclair commented knowing they would be really pushing it to get everyone off Babylon Four in such a narrow period. Granted Babylon Four had been operating on a skeleton crew at the time of its disappearance, having only just been brought online, but that was still a few hundred to a thousand people. Ensuring that they all got off before the station vanished again – possibly for good this time – would not be easy.

"No it isn't," Sheridan agreed. "And sitting or standing here talking about it is not getting anything done."

"Point we need to move if we are going to get this done in time," Sinclair agreed. "Captain McKenzie how many shuttles could you carry through the distortion field?"

"Without adversely affecting our speed or shield strength at the most eight," Aaron answered.

"That's not going to be enough," Sheridan commented. "Though if we jump out to Sector Fourteen then we can always rotate shuttles in and out of my ships hanger bay."

"Sounds like a plan then," Sinclair said decisively.

"Indeed how long will it take you to ready your shuttles and pilots, commander?" Aaron asked.

"Ten minutes," Sinclair answered "fifteen at the most."

Aaron nodded. "We'll be waiting for them," he said before his hologram shimmered once again with whitish light before vanishing as if it had never been present at all.

"That was creepy," Ivanova commented. "Having him just standing there like that, I had no idea the Tau'ri could project holographic transmissions like that and with such high resolution."

"None of us did, lieutenant commander," Sheridan answered from the bridge of the Agamemnon. "And I agree it was creepy that they can do that. But if there is one thing we should have all learned about the Tau'ri by now it's expect the unexpected."

"Standard rule of thumb when you live and work here," Sinclair replied with a faint hint of wry humour. "But we don't really have time now to talk about the latest facet of Tau'ri technological abilities that has been revealed to us."

"True," Sheridan agreed. "I'll begin heading out to Sector Fourteen."

"See you out there, captain," Sinclair replied. "Good luck."

"To all of us," Sheridan answered before breaking the communications link with the Agamemnon making the stellar comm. insignia once again appear on a multitude of screens around command and control before the normal data feeds returned.

"Have eight personnel shuttles be prepared for immediate launch," Sinclair instructed looking over at Susan. "Have Garibaldi meet me at the docking bay."

"You intend to lead the rescue mission yourself," Ivanova asked knowingly. In the few months she'd been on Babylon Five she'd noticed her commanding officer had the sometimes downright reckless habit of leading from the front at all times, even if it meant doing things that were borderline suicidal.

"Correct," Sinclair answered.

Ivanova sighed. "I don't suppose I could convince you otherwise," she asked knowing it was pointless but that Earth Force regulations demanded that she try to dissuade her commanding officer from embarking on actions that could get him killed or seriously injured.

"No you can't," Sinclair replied before walking around the perimeter of C&C and leaving the room.

Ivanova watched him leave and inwardly sighed. Why do I try, she wondered, he's going to be the death or me and the doom of all of us one of these days. Eventually this place is certain to go boom and knowing the commander he'll be right in the middle of it.

Pushing aside her thoughts, she focused on the task at hand, getting the shuttles and pilots ready for the rescue mission to Babylon 4. Privately she suspected that the mission to rescue the temporally displaced stations was doomed to failure, especially if the distortion field around Babylon Four was as dangerous as Captain McKenzie indicated it to be. However they had to try rescuing there fellow Earth Force officers and the civilian contractors that had been living and working on board Babylon Four as they brought the station online. To leave them there to die alone or to be lost forever was unacceptable.

Completely and totally unacceptable.