Chapter Eight

Celebrations, Reunions, and Revelations

Valendor, Minbar

January 25, 2271

8am

Michael Garibaldi had thought he'd seen it all in his five decades. He'd seen ships so powerful that he honestly thought that the apocalypse was nigh and all life would be wiped out, only to see the races responsible for those ships driven off by a coalition of races led by his friend and former commanding officer, John Sheridan. Garibaldi was now in charge of a major medical company, but still found time to help Sheridan when he needed him, and, since the Drakh plague had hit Earth, he found himself spending plenty of time on the homeworld of the former deadly enemies, now valued allies, of the Human race.

Now, he was watching as an ancient Earth battleship was descending down onto Minbar. It was barely a speck in the sky at the moment, but he saw on a nearby monitor a familiar profile of old sea-faring battleships with their big turrets and huge displacement. He spoke to a nearby assistant to Sheridan, "You know, you think you've seen everything, but then something like this happens. What's next, Valen showing up?"

The young Minbari Ranger shuffled in his feet and nervously said, "With the way this day has gone, you never know."

Garibaldi only nodded and replied, "That's for damn sure."

Sheridan and Delenn walked up to him , just recently arrived from the spaceport. They stood beside Garibaldi and watched in amazement as the ship was descending down towards the sea.

"It's an amazing site, isn't it Garibaldi," asked Sheridan.

Garibaldi sighed and said, "Yeah, but what I want to know is why are they here and how did they just come through the rift in Sector 14 without as much as a scratch? Something weird is going on."

Delenn spoke up and said, "It's a miracle, all right. Sometimes the universe does offer them up from time to time. But you are right,
Michael, because something is going on. Susan and Elizabeth wouldn't just go off with them like that unless they had some very important reason."

Sheridan nodded, "Yeah, that's for sure. Earth Central has been demanding an explanation as to why the Titans suddenly jumped here. I explained as much as I could, but you know how they feel about me."

Garibaldi sighed and said, "That's true, but they've got bigger fish to fry right now, like if we don't find a cure for the plague in two years time, they'll all be dead. Maybe this...what was the name of that ship again?"

Sheridan smiled and replied, "Yamato. It's Japanese."

Garibaldi answered back, "Yeah, thanks. Maybe this Yamato can help us with finding the cure. Who the hell know anymore?"

Earth Alliance Vice President Garrison Hollifield, along with Shaniel, head of the Minbari warrior caste, and Captain Twanissa Hudson of the Freedom, walked up to them. Hollifield introduced Hudson to the rest, and then he got down to business.

"Well, I talked with President Luchenko, and she's just as astonished about all of this as we are. She didn't believe me until we showed her the vid of the battle. She was in a meeting with the Joint Chiefs at the time, and I saw them all with their collective jaws on the floor.
They've agreed to accept the redeployment of the Titans as well as Captain Lochley, so they need not worry about violating orders or anything like that."

Sheridan nodded, "That's good, because if they did, I would have given them a piece of my mind. We need to know if they Drakh have anymore of these planet killers."

Hudson then spoke up, presenting to the group a date crystal. "There's more to this story, sir. We had just arrived and jumped in behind the planet killer. Luckily, our vector was off the main blast from the Yamato, so we were lucky to not get vaporized. However, they had a similar plan B, and it looks like they were going to give Minbar the same treatment as Earth."

Delenn visibly blanched, then asked, "But why did they not follow through? Were they vaporized?"

Hudson shook her head, "No, and when we saw them, we went to engage them. However, we had some unexpected help." She then walked to a local viewer and inserted the data crystal.

The image came up of the Freedom's battle with the last of the Drakh fleet. Clearly, they were outnumbered.

Hudson explained what happened next, "It looked like we were outmatched, until another ship came to help out. Computer, advance to time mark 2300 and enhance selected image."

The computer advanced the video to a specific point and then zoomed in on a ship that was unknown to them, except for the lettering on it."

Sheridan walked up to the screen and examined the image from almost point blank range, and the rest followed him to it. He read the lettering on the ship aloud, "U.S.S. Wildstar? NCC-1971? What the hell?"

Hudson's lip tightened, and Sheridan was briefly reminded of his ex-wife Lochley, but the woman's Australian accent killed that image, Hudson brushed back her jet-black hair from her eyes and explained further, "It gets even stranger. As you can see here, they launched fighters and what looked like five smaller ships and attacked them with advanced beam weapons. They also looked like they had very strong shields, as the Drakh weaponry had little or no effect on them when their beams struck those ships."

Garibaldi asked, "Are they still around?"

Hudson shrugged her shoulders, "Unknown, because they vanished as soon as the battle was over. I think they have a cloaking system of some kind, and I think they didn't want to be seen by us."

Garibaldi then remembered something, "Wait a minute. I remember the briefing that I got from Babylon 5. When the ship initially came through, it had the Titans scramble to that sector along with Alpha Squadron, but briefly disappeared. Then it came back again and Ivanova and Lochley boarded the vessel."

Sheridan nodded and added, "So you think this might be the first ship that came through?"

"Yeah, and I think they're on our side, but they don't want to reveal themselves yet. But I am not sure of it, so we have to proceed carefully."

Shaniel's assistant, Rothdrien, came into the room and bowed in the Minbari fashion, with fingers templed in front of her as she bowed.
"Shai Alyt Shaniel, Yamato is on an approach vector to the port and will be splashing down briefly and cruising into port in approximately an hour."

Shaniel nodded to her and told her to wait by the port. "Amazing. Did you know that our earliest spaceships also splashed down in the sea and sailed into port? It was long ago, perhaps 1500 years, but it was easier to land on water than on land, I guess. I once watched an ancient video of it, and it was amazing to watch."

Sheridan smiled and said, "Well, then, let's make our way to the port and watch the ship come in!"

On board Yamato

Cruising towards Valendor

9:10am

Derek Wildstar was amazed at the view of the massive city before him as Yamato sailed its way towards the port. The gigantic crystalline structures of the city reminded him so much of Queentown from Iscandar.

Susan Ivanova and Elizabeth Lochley stood beside him, as well as Nova.
"I have to admit that I was nervous as hell when you said you were going to sail this ship down onto Minbar, but that was the smoothest ride I've ever had through an atmosphere. Good job, Venture."

"Thanks, Ivanova. I've had some practice at it, and not just only on Earth."

Derek made an observation, "This brings back memories, doesn't it Venture?"

Mark Venture nodded and replied, "Sure does, Wildstar. It seems like ages ago when we went to Iscandar, and it was just a few short years ago."

Nova Forrester sighed mournfully, "But its no longer there, sad to say. The image of it blowing up still gives me nightmares."

Lochley spoke up, "Maybe yours did, but who's to say that there isn't another one, and Starsha and the rest aren't on it. So far, the visions I had in my dreams have come true, and it seemed to me that this Iscandar that you spoke of was still in existence, in some way."

Nova nodded and mused, "Maybe. I guess we'll have to be patient and see how this plays out. I have this feeling that much larger powers are coming into play here."

Mark nodded and then got on the ship's intercom system, "Attention all hands. We will be docking in ten minutes. Prepare to lower the gangplank."

"Yeah, this brings back memories, sure enough,” noted Nova.

On board USS Wildstar

Orbiting the Minbari moon Valeria

9:10am

Captain Stephen Ashcroft and Bajoran General Kira Nurys were watching the Yamato cruise into the dock at a rather large city on the homeworld of a race they had learned were called the Minbari. They were still cloaked, because they were deciding just what to do next.

"I wonder if that other ship saw us.," remarked Kira.

"If I had to guess, I'd say they did. But we aren't sure of that, so we have some time to think about it. Defiant III caught sight of them just in time, or we might have attacked the wrong ship. Lord knows if we hadn't seen them attack the Drakh first what we would have done."

"So, what do we do now? Do we beam down and introduce ourselves..."

Ashcroft shook his head, "Nope, we definitely don't do that. At least not yet. We can take the Defiant III down since it can land on a planet's surface. But we'll wait until we're ready."

Montgomery chimed in on his comm badge, "Montgomery here, sir. I think you and General Kira should come to the bridge."

"What's up, Lieutenant Commander," replied Ashcroft.

"Sir, it looks like we've picked up a visual on another alien craft entering the Minbari system. Unknown identity. When we hailed it, a Federation officer answered the hail."

Kira got a lump in her throat and her face went white. She spoke into Ashcroft's comm badge and asked, "Which officer did you speak to,
Montgomery?"

Montgomery sighed and replied, "It was Captain Benjamin Sisko, sir. He told us that he was landing on the planet and that you should accompany them in the Defiant III."

Kira looked to Ashcroft for an answer, but he didn't have one. All he said to Montgomery was, "Prepare an away team, Montgomery. You, Litinova, and whomever else you think we need. Kira and I will join you in transporter room five to head over to the Defiant III. Ashcroft out."

"Aye sir. Shall I send you the image?"

Ashcroft replied, "Go ahead.," and the image appeared on screen. It was a golden ship, almost like an ancient space shuttle from the twentieth century on Earth.

"Now the fun begins.," Ashcroft said to Kira, in a very unamused voice.

On board Yamato

Docked in Valendor

9:45am

Derek Wildstar was nervous for one of the rare times of his life. As they were docking in the port, he and the rest of the crew saw a massive crowd jamming in and around the seaport. Almost all of them looked like the bone-headed man in his dreams, with baldheads and flowing robes in a variety of colors.

He, along with Nova, Venture, Stephen Sandor, Homer Glitchman, Susan Ivanova, and Elizabeth Lochley, stood by the door to the gangplank, waiting to have the stairs fully deploy and the door to open. Dash Jordan and Christopher Eager, along with chief fighter pilot Josh Conroy and engineers Hiro Yamazaki and Chris Orion, joined them at the door.

Eager eagerly spoke up to the rest, "You should see the crowd outside! It's a veritable sea of people!"

A voice came over the intercom that Derek recognized as Merrill Ryder, backup on radar to Eager, "Gangplank deployment complete. Opening gangplank door."

The door opened, and they were temporarily blinded by the sunlight. When their vision came back, they were greeted by a massive roar the likes that they hadn't seen since they returned to Earth with the cure for the radiation poisoning three years earlier. They still had the device, called the Cosmo DNA for some reason that Derek didn't know, on board in storage, disassembled. They never knew when they might need it again.

Derek looked out, and it was as Eager told him: a sea of people, cheering and chanting in a language different from his own. There was a wide pathway cleared in front of them, and a delegation of some of the bone-headed Minbari and some Humans were there to greet them. One of the Minbari females, clearly the leader of the delegation, had hair, which came as a surprise to him.

They descended down the stairs and made their way onto the dock. Derek walked up to the Minbari female, gave the traditional salute, and said, "I'm Captain Derek Wildstar of the EDS Yamato. "

The Minbari female steepled her fingers in front of her and bowed, saying in reply, "My name is Delenn of the Minbari. Welcome to the holy city of Valendor, home of the Sisters of Valeria. Please, come this way.I'll make the introductions as we go along."

They made brief introductions and began to make their way into the city. Garibaldi walked up beside Ivanova and spoke to her, "Figures you'd be a part of this craziness, Susan. You always had a nose for trouble."

Ivanova snorted, then smiled. "And it figures you'd be around when all hell breaks loose. Get us in the same solar system together and things just have a way of getting chaotic."

Garibaldi laughed and said, "So, do you know what all of this is about?"

"Lochley can tell you more than I can, but I get the feeling we're about to find out more soon."

Garibaldi turned to Lochley and said, "So, what brings you out all this way from the station"Lochley replied, "It's a long story and I'll tell you soon enough. So, Garibaldi, how's Lise and Mary?"

"Fine, back on Mars, although I'm sure my wife is going apoplectic about this attack. Mary's too young to know any better."

Lochley smiled and asked the question she always asked whenever she ran across Garibaldi, which was always difficult, but she had to ask: "Still sober?"

Garibaldi stood there calmly and replied with the answer he always gave, "Like a judge.," and smiled. Both of them battled alcoholism, and that had surprisingly brought them closer together, where once they had been nearly at each other's throats.

Garibaldi changed the topic to make the conversation more enjoyable, "You know, this makes that whole deal with the Soul Hunters seem like a normal day at work! I mean, here I am, visiting President Sheridan and Delenn, catching them up on some intelligence I had come across, when all hell breaks out. I'm thinking, 'Figures that whatever God there is would punch my ticket just as things were going my way.,' when, lo and behold, some battleship from Earth's distant past somehow becomes space worthy and decimates an entire Drakh fleet."

Ivanova laughed, "Well, after the time we spent on Babylon 5, Garibaldi, you should be used to this kind of thing."

Palace of the Sisters of Valeria

Valendor, Minbar

10:30am

Sister Drenan came to the Holy Mother and asked her, "Is it true?"

The Holy Mother, Roshann, looked up from the ancient text she was studying and translating into her computer and simply nodded. "It's true. The last prophecy of Valen has come to pass. He entrusted us, long ago, to be ready for this day."

Drenan looked aghast and said, "But, if I go see my daughter, it would violate the rules of the Sisterhood!"

Roshann smiled and said, "My dear, when a prophecy of Valen comes into conflict with the rules of the Sisterhood, you should know which takes precedence." Roshann opened a drawer in her ornately decorated desk and handed Drenan a key and what looked like a map. "Take this down into the catacombs below the palace and make your way to the vault indicated on the map. There, look for a box with the words on the map engraved on it and open it. Study it carefully, and, when you are done, take the box to your daughter and show her what is inside. She will understand."

Suddenly, Theneen came running into the room. The youngest of the Sisterhood, she still retained the charming youthfulness that won over her teachers when she was a mere acolyte. "Holy Mother, a golden ship has appeared in the system! It is the same one you taught me about several days ago."

Roshann's eyes went wide, and sprung from her desk with an agility that was unknown for someone of her advanced age, taking them by the hand and leading them out. "Hurry! We must go to the catacombs and find that box!
Then we make our way into the city!"

Government Palace of Valendor

11am

Derek and the rest of his delegation was seated around a large conference table, across from the delegation that had met them. Ivanova and Lochley sat with them, just to the right of him in fact. Nova sat to his left, and, to her left, sat Venture, Sandor and Eager.

He had just gotten through explaining how they had arrived in this universe when the console in front of Delenn chimed. She took a earpiece and took the message.

"Delenn, forgive the interruption, but there is someone here to see you."

"Tell them to wait, Kitheel. I'll see them after the meeting.," whispered Delenn.

Kitheel replied, "She told me to tell you her name: Drenan."

Delenn's mouth opened slightly, shocked at the sound of the name. Her mind spun quickly, and she looked to her right at her husband, John Sheridan. She managed to compose herself and said, "If you will excuse me, something has come up that requires my attention at the moment. President Sheridan will take over the meeting until I get back. John, if you please."

Sheridan was clearly caught off guard by whatever Delenn had heard, but snapped himself back into composure and began again with the debriefing as Delenn made her way out of the room.

An acolyte took Delenn to a private room, where she was reunited with the woman who had given birth to her so many years ago.

Delenn managed to speak, "Hello, Mother! Why are you here," still not believing that her mother was before her. Shortly after giving birth,her mother had been accepted into the Sisters of Valeria, and she had only seen her mother twice since her birth. Once before the Holy War Against the Humans, with her mentor Dukhat, and once before taking her ambassadorial post on Babylon 5, and both those times were at the Palace. For her to come to see Delenn was a massive breach in protocol, so whatever the reason was, it was very important.

Drenan smiled and Delenn rushed up to her. They embraced each other and Drenan said to her daughter, "It is good to see you again my child, but I have much to tell you about. I have come here because I bring you something you need to read." She handed Delenn an old box and opened it for her, revealing an envelope with familiar handwriting."

Delenn's eyes went wide. "How did you know it was for me?"

Drenan smiled, "Do you think I don't know about how Valen came to be, my child? You are a child of his as am I! I know his Human writing as well as you do, having studied his personal texts that are not well known. That is why he created us so long ago, to preserve and protect his most personal thoughts and feelings."

Delenn opened the envelope and began to read. It was a short letter, just a couple of pages long, but when she was done, the face of Delenn looked as if she had been in the presence of Jesus Christ herself.

"So there is a reason for all of this?"

Drenan nodded and said, "Valen said that he would return in our hour of greatest need. It looks as if that ship is the same one he described in the letter I found addressed to me ages ago. You must be ready for them, my child."

Delenn knew what she had to do, but she didn't want to leave her mother again, fearing she may never see her again. "How is your health, Mother?"

Drenan smiled again and replied, "My health is good enough. I am not going to the sea anytime soon, but, if we should not meet again in this life, then I am sure to find you in the place where no Shadows fall!"

Delenn's eyes were watered over, and she stood and walked to the door, turning around and extending her hand, palm upwards. Drenan's eyes were misted over as well, and she replicated the gesture, a traditional one of parting with a loved one. Drenan made her way out a back door in the room, and Delenn stood there a moment, crying. Then she looked down at the box in her hands and the tears dried up. She made her way out of the room and back to where the others were.

The room was in chaos as there, on the screen, was the gold ship that she had just read about.

Sheridan looked as the door opened and went over to his wife. "Delenn, this ship just appeared out of nowhere and the warrior caste is trying to communicate with it, but they can't believe who they are communicating with."

Delenn looked at the box, then at her husband. "It is he, John. He's come back."

Sheridan looked shocked, but nodded and went over to the communication console. "This is Sheridan. Allow the ship to land at the spaceport. We'll be there briefly."

Garibaldi looked up at the screen again and shook his head. "I knew all about this...I knew what he did and why...but to see him back here again...it's almost too much!"

Ivanova was beside him, with her hand on his shoulder, "It's really him! C'mon Michael, we need to get to the spaceport."

Derek and the rest came with them, boarding three shuttles as they watched the golden ship ease it's way down onto the landing pad. A crowd was gathering already, but they did not know who was on board. Derek had heard that this was a man named Valen, who was a very important figure in Minbari history. He was surprised at how the Humans in the room took to the news of his return, which made him even more perplexed.

They arrived at the spaceport just as the ship touched down, and the group was whisked to the pad on which the ship landed. Delenn and the rest made their way onto it, and stood outside the ship as the doors opened and a ramp began to extend from it. A man wearing a brown robe with his head covered came down the ramp and stood before Delenn. He then removed the covering from his head.

It was Valen. He spoke, in English, to Delenn, "Hello old friend. It's been a while."

TO BE CONTINUED....

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