Babylon 5 1. Chapter 1

**I own neither Doctor Who, Star Trek or Babylon 5. Some aspects are from all three along with Stargate, and a few other science fiction films along with my own ideas. i have also deleted my other Babylon 5 Time Lord stories on site because I think they're terrible, and because other people have been harassing me about them, picking them apart. Bear this in mind, I'd only just started writing on this site. What else do you expect? I don't appreciate the level of abuse I went through. If you have a problem with what I write then don't read them, in fact get off this site. Fanfiction writers come together to contribute their own ideas, and if they suffer mental abuse then they'll stop writing and think it's not worth it. I don't really care if you hate my stories, but I do like the feedback I get. I like feedback, but i don't like abuse. Which is exactly what I've got.**

**Enjoy. And think next time about what you put in reviews.**

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**War's End.**

2231.

Dr. Harry Durrant stood on a platform, overseeing the dismantling of the Dilgar warship. The heavy cruiser, 1200 meters long with a beam of 903 meters, armed to the teeth with X-ray lasers, plasma pulse cannons and missile launchers, was definitely a predator. Durrant regarded the ship with a clinical eye, reminding himself that this ship was once used to destroy and cause terror and destruction on a massive scale with the league worlds.

He turned to his assistant. " Have the historical files been downloaded from the database yet?"

" Yes, it's been analysed now. We'll have a concise copy of Dilgar history shortly."

Durrant nodded, going over the possibilities before his assistant reminded him of something. " The debris from the other league ships have been brought in. Mostly metal but there's some parts that are intact, just not whole."

" Take them to the lab for study. I want to know when we can run practical researches on them for implementation into our own ships."

The assistant nodded, thinking privately that those days will be a long time off. What they didn't know was that their researches would turn Humanity around at their darkest hour.

* * *

2248. - 3 months before the Battle of the Line.

President Levy was reading the reports in her office, her eyes shining with unshed tears. After three long years fighting the Minbari, a race more powerful than even the Dilgar, the war was coming to an end. The tactical advisers indicated that the Minbari wouldn't reach Earth for a while, and the refugee fleets kept coming, as if they were driven there. Like lambs to the slaughter, she thought painfully. The Minbari weren't sending ships off to pursue them, they were taking their time advancing their forces. The Minbari were boxing the humans in deep into the heart of their territory, making it very difficult for any hope of survivors to escape. To make matters worse, the Centauri and the Narns were systematically destroying colonies close to their territories, the Narns had decided that Humanity's chances of survival was now hopeless, so they decided that instead of helping Humans they would help the Minbari. The Centauri, always eager to expand their dwindling sphere of influence, were doing it because of their racial prejudices and because they'd envied the speed the EA had colonised rich worlds. The Narns and Centauri had taken to killing the Human inhabitants of some colony worlds as a sick kind of sacrifice for the Minbari, and the Minbari were allowing them to take their share. The survivors were fleeing closer to the home system, but they would have no future, not unless something miraculous happened.

The Earth Alliance was dying, and sooner or later the Minbari would destroy them with the other races feasting on the alliances carcass, destroying anything left of the Human race.

She was distracted by a knock on the door. " Come in." She called distractedly.

Her aide walked in, looking as haggard as she was. Levy dimly remembered her aide had a brother and sister in Earthforce, and knew their chances of survival was slim. " What is it?" She asked impatiently, wondering why her aide wasn't getting to the point of her intrusion.

" Dr. Harry Durrant is here." Her aide reported before going on. " He's asking to see you."

Harry Durrant. Levy hadn't heard that name in a long time, a very long time. She was aware of course he was a leading Earth scientist, that he had ties with IPX, she'd known him from university, and he'd tutored her in physics years ago. He'd been a charming man, easy to get along with, but he wasn't a pushover in the least.

Levy was curious about why he was here, and why he hadn't really contributed anything to the war effort except computer enhancements which had improved the targeting capability of the warships by 34%. A partial lock, yes, but good enough to slow down the Minbari.

" Send him in."

Durrant walked in, aside from a few grey hairs on his head and lines around his face he looked very much the same as he had when they'd last seen each other. He was carrying a folder under his arm.

" Hello, Elizabeth, madam President," He greeted her.

Levy turned to her aide. " That'll be all." She said in dismissal. The President said nothing until the doors were closed. She turned to her visitor with a grim smile. " What can I do for you Harry, I know your not here for a social call," she gestured to the folder under his arm.

He smiled back, his smile just as grim. " Your right." He carefully laid the folder down on her desk, too full of energy to sit down when the president gestured to the chair, he just ignored it.

" I think there's a way for the Human race to survive. It'll be tricky, but unless there's a chance for all of us to survive the war without surrendering and losing lives to rapidly." He said.

* * *

Twenty minutes after Durrant had met with the president, he'd gone over his plan with her. At first she hadn't bitten it, but he laid it down with pure logic. The Minbari were after the human race, wanting to exterminate them, and they weren't going to stop, not unless there was a decent chance of either finding a new weapon to destroy the Minbari, either biological or technological, and since Minbari DNA, whilst accessible, was just too complicated for Humans to understand even after a significant amount of time with prisoners taken during the war.

Technologically it was even bleaker. The Dilgar technology, created from stolen Centauri technology, was just plundered technologies the Dilgars had stolen from other races. The Dilgar had been stealing with Centauri based technological designs for at least 2 hundred years, and they'd spent time and resources analysing and studying technologies from different cultures, and they'd the time and patience to do it. Humanity didn't have that time. Oh, Durrant and a few other scientists had managed to successfully improve Earth ships with the technologies taken from the Dilgar and League ships to combat the Minbari stealth, even equipping them with basic gravimetric engines gleaned from the Dilgar, but a complete lock was difficult at the moment since Durrant had realised the Minbari didn't use one stealth field, but more. Durrant had studied the stealth using eyewitness accounts from survivors, few though they might be, and discovered that even with a lock on the silhouette, the scanners weren't able to lock on properly. Even when he'd improved the computers, the reports came back saying the stealth was reduced but still present.

That was when Durrant realised the Minbari were using more than one stealth barrier around their ships.

Because of this groundbreaking work Durrant's name was well known since he'd figured out the problem involved, and his work to improve his enhancements met with successes, albeit minor ones since the Minbari still held the lead on technology.

Durrant and Levy met with several senators and generals, going over the plan with them. When Durrant showed them the trials with the equipment, the data accumulated and the successes already made, they jumped for it, knowing they were going to succeed. They had nothing to lose after all.

* * *

3 months later...

Delenn stood in the tactical centre on the Valen'tha, the cruiser of the Grey council, and primary flagship of the Minbari Federation. Delenn had seen many battles in the last three years, but she'd never seen slaughter like it. The primitive Human ships were fighting bravely, firing their weapons at the advancing Minbari cruisers and war frigates, and once or twice they scored direct hits, but the Minbari had learnt not to get complacent with the Humans. They constantly adapted their approaches to the war, and they'd even made progress with breaking through the outer layers of the stealth fields, slight as it was, but Delenn knew it was useless in the end, the Humans would be extinct, their planet burnt so then all trace of it's previous inhabitants would be wiped out. Even the Narns and Centauri had seized worlds from the Humans alliance and added them on to their own empires, killing the Humans to appease the Minbari advance. Delenn was disgusted with how generous the Warrior caste was with that, sickened by the lack of respect for life from both races, but she could do nothing about it. Both races had once been allies of Earth once, now they'd shown their true interests and didn't care about Humans anymore. If they ever had.

Delenn wondered how the humans measured their casualty reports, thinking that the list must be rising to new heights never before seen in any of their conflicts. Delenn had taken to studying humans in culture and in history, and she found that human history, bloody as it was, actually showed a pattern. The Humans would fight with the most advanced technology available before the next war came, and their tactics and technologies had changed. Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it, the Humans said, but they hadn't learnt from that saying. All those wars when the issues could be solved easily with less bloody solutions. Delenn watched as human ship after human ship was crippled and then destroyed by the relentless warrior caste, knowing how much pleasure the warriors were taking in this slaughter, her blood freezing in her veins as she felt her soul being wrenched to pieces. She looked around the centre, taking in the auras of the warrior contingent of the council. Delenn lowered her head when she saw none of them really thought this was wrong, that the war had become in essence a living thing that seemed to thrive on Human terror and blood.

The Vorlons had left days before, but on her last visit the one called Kosh had said, " The truth points to itself although the truth disappears," as she watched the Battle the Vorlon's words came back to haunt her, echoing in her head again and again until she wanted to scream for silence within her own head.

" They fight bravely," she commented aloud, watching as ships on both sides were hit or damaged by passing debris from already destroyed ships, sent by the Minbari's own gravimetric drives, which propelled the debris to the Humans. Even wreckage had a part to play in this war, and some of the Humans's own wreckage worked against them. " They can barely touch our ships, and yet they continue to try."

Copelann folded his hands. Out of all the warriors she'd met the last 3 years he seemed calmer and more controlled, something the norm of the warrior caste lacked. His calmness and controlled personality often made her think one of his previous incarnations had been religious caste, and he did seem to understand the religious caste better than most. Delenn was reminded of Brammer, once a priest and now a warrior and tactician.

This time though Copelann seemed indifferent to the plight of the Humans. " Whether they fight or not, they know they will die anyway. So really, is this bravery, or simple desperation?" He sneered as he watched ship after ship being destroyed or cut up by fusion and neutron cannon beams. " Foolish."

" But brave." Delenn countered, not bothering hiding the awe in her voice. Even after all they'd been through, all the betrayals their race had suffered from their allies, some who'd decided that Humanity wasn't worth saving, the humans still fought back.

Then something occurred to her, as if the universe itself was speaking to her, giving her a reason even the warrior caste couldn't balk at. " We should bring one of them aboard for questioning. If our next step is the final assault on their world, we must know their defences."

Copelann was silent, going over Delenn's statement. For him it was unusual since Delenn had seemed to change her mind about the war when she'd called for it in the first place, but he saw the sense in what she said. The Humans were a cunning race, and they could have defences the Minbari couldn't detect. In their ground campaigns, the humans used hit and run attacks on Minbari forces, slowing them down.

In space, this battle was the humans last line of defence, but on the planet it could be a different story.

Nodding, Copelann said. " Very well, Delenn," looking around the holographic screens. " Choose. But quickly. We're fast running out of candidates."

Delenn looked around. In Valen's name there were so many, and so many were being destroyed so fast before she could pick one, then she saw a fighter break off from the others, and head towards the Minbari cruiser the Grey council were on. It was a simple one man fighter, and the cruisers guns would be able to shatter it to pieces.

She pointed towards it. " That one."

Her decision would change the face of the Minbari and the Human race, for better and for worse.

The pilot of the fighter, Jeffrey Sinclair, was trying to fight to keep his fighter working properly after a stray hit from one of the Minbari energy beams. In spite of the polarized hull armour Dr. Durrant's team had devised, the beam had badly damaged one of his fighters ion engines.

The computer gave the report, somehow making Sinclairs problems seem academic and somehow straightforward. " Aft stabilisers hit, weapon system at zero. Defensive grid at zero. Power plant nearing critical mass. Minbari weapon systems locking on."

Sinclair growled angrily, during the war he'd held out the hope that humanity would succeed in some shape or form, that the Minbari would back off for some reason, but now...the situation was hopeless, and Sinclair's hopes were now unrealistic. The added thought of being helpless in space, with an increasingly unstable power plant and Minbari weapons locking on made Sinclair realise that either way he was as good as dead.

" Not like this," He whispered, his voice growing louder as his fury mounted. " Not like this." His voice reached a hysterical shout. " If I'm going out I'm taking you bastards with me. Target main cruiser! Set for full velocity ram! Afterburners on my mark...mark!"

His fighter shot towards the cruiser, the leviathan in space hung there, imposing and threatening. Sinclair couldn't believe the sheer size of the monster in front of him, as his fighter shot towards it.

He braced himself for collision, throwing his arms up in front of his face, not wanting to see his faithful ship destroyed in the suicide run, but knowing he would soon join it...

The collision didn't happen. Instead a bright light stopped his fighter, and he slowly put his arms down, watching in incomprehension as the Minbari cruiser shot four energy beams at his fighter. When his fighter was drawn closer to the cruiser, he realised in horror what was happening. He was being captured, a prisoner of war, and he had no PPG to fight back. Sinclair knew what the Minbari did to their human prisoners, and knew he would suffer the same fate.

* * *

Delenn couldn't watch the view of slaughter anymore, even though the main image now showed the human fighter being brought in. Ship after ship was being destroyed, but she could nothing to stop it. She left the hall of the Grey council, and walked down the hallways. She'd given no explanation for her departure, but she didn't care. She wished she could show her loathing, her disgust at herself and her own race, and for the Narns and the Centauri for helping them destroy an intelligent race.

She'd leant against a wall, breathing hoarsely as she mentally heard Dukhat's angry voice. _**You fight in my name, do you? It was you after all who voted for the war in the first place. No mercy, you shouted, holding my head in your hands. Your blood soaked hands, Delenn. You have shown yourself as unworthy as some of the grey council had thought you were. Now, the blood of an entire race is on your hands. And you have the gall to say its all in MY NAME!**_

Delenn closed her eyes, still hearing her mentor's angry voice shout in her skull. Worse, her beloved father, who'd condemned the war only to discover his own daughter had been the final voter, had taken his own life in disgrace came to her mind like a spectre wishing for her to suffer even more than she already was. So much blood, and more awaited.

Copelann appeared, and out of the corner of her eye Delenn saw him start when he'd spotted her, but he carried on with new resolve. She knew dimly he'd been supervising the interrogation of the human, and she didn't want to know if he was still alive. It wouldn't make much difference.

Leaving the sanctuary of the wall, she turned her back on him as he fell alongside her. " Report me if you wish, but I no longer care." She said tightly. " I cannot watch anymore, I have seen more death than anyone should have to see. I will see no more."

" Delenn," Copelann tried to say, but Delenn didn't hear him, didn't look up. " If you wish to conduct the final destruction of Earth, I will not watch, I-"

" Delenn!" Copelann's voice had caught her attention, and his tone shocked her.

When silence fell, Copelann needed to take a breath to find the words he needed to say. " We were using the Triluminary on the human, and...you should see for yourself."

Delenn entered the Grey council chamber, and saw the bruised and battered human hanging there. He wasn't lucid, and Delenn realised he was drugged. She was stunned by now much bruising his body had taken, and she wondered why for a moment. The Triluminary was a painless device, but then she realised he must've been tortured. Her feeling of self loathing, and loathing for her people rose up again in her chest as she saw that even now, even with many calling for an end of the war there were still those who wanted revenge. How much more revenge did the Minbari need to inflict on the humans?

She looked at Copelann, wondering why this human, who looked unremarkable, would garner such deep thought. Delenn had seen only three humans in the flesh, but Copelann hadn't, so she was curious why this one warranted more attention. But Copelann wasn't looking at her, in fact none of the Minbari in the room were looking at her. Instead they were looking at the human with...awe? Delenn couldn't believe or understand it, Copelann and the others were rendered awestruck by the human, a being who'd been bruised and battered. How could this have happened? Had a Vorlon appeared above the Human's head? No...that wasn't it. The warrior's attention was fixed on the triangular shape of the Triluminary. Morann, seeing her, took the relic to the human, and Delenn's eyes widened when she saw how it glowed in the Human's presence. She couldn't believe it, she didn't want to...It was too much, it was too terrible to contemplate.

" The human has the soul of Valen," Morann whispered, his voice hoarse with anguish and horror.

Delenn's mind thought quickly. The Minbari had the belief that the soul was reincarnated each time, with the souls from the past generation moving on into the next generation, but for the last few hundred years the souls of the last few generations hadn't been equal somehow, and it had become serious enough that testing had become essential. Now testing had shown that there were less and less Minbari souls being born into Minbari bodies. For a long time the debate had been where those souls were going.

Delenn didn't want to believe it, she couldn't. It was bad enough she had human blood on her hands, but to have the death of Minbari souls on her conscience...

When Delenn spoke, the others shuddered in fear as they heard the usually melodious voice, now darkened with anger and heartache, say. " Bring more onboard for testing. We need to know..." She left the rest go unsaid.

Delenn watched the humans, 7 of them including the one they'd captured earlier, drugged and barely lucid, undergo the same testing as the male. There were 5 men and 2 women, and 3 of them had darker skin tones than the others all with tattered uniforms, and she wondered if they were a lower class than the white Humans. The results were bad, over 4 of the humans souls had reacted to the Triluminary, showing they had in part, or in full, Minbari souls. The shock had stopped any warriors from killing the ones without the souls.

" We have to stop the slaughter." She said. " Now, before more souls are destroyed, without testing we don't know who we're killing."

Before anyone could speak, however, a voice shouted down from the bridge, accompanied by a massive shift in the gravitational field before the gravimetric field compensated. Before any one could ask questions, the voice shouted at the same instant. " Satai Copelann, the Human planets and moon, and many of their ships, have just vanished!"

Whatever Copelann and the others had expected from the report it certainly wasn't that. " Show us." Copelann ordered. The screen changed, showing a recording. Once again the view showed the beautiful blue green world of the humans, with their crude and primitive ships. The three stellar bodies and their home planet glowed brightly, then they vanished. The same thing happened to many of their surviving warships.

Delenn couldn't understand it, " Where did they go? Bridge, run a scan. What happened?"

" Unknown."

One of the humans, the male they'd captured originally spoke up, he'd had time for the drugs to wear off and he'd overheard more than enough about what the Council were saying. " We knew your people would show us no mercy, so instead of letting you kill us, and torture our people the way you have," Delenn shook when all the lucid humans, there were few of them but they were coming slowly out of their drugged states, looked at her and the other council members with hatred and rage. " We decided to do the merciful thing, and end our own lives. Our way's better than letting ourselves be tortured and killed for sport by your barbaric warriors." Delenn had never heard such hatred from a sentient before, but she couldn't blame the humans for their anger. Many warriors had taken to hunting and torturing humans for sport, like they were unintelligent animals.

" But we've found a way to end the war, there was no need to take your own lives." Delenn protested feebly but desperately, feeling her eyes water with tears. She was crying for herself, her soul, and the souls of her people that were now destroyed because of her, and her own people.

The humans were helping their less conscious people up, regarding the Minbari with hatred, anger, and fear, and Delenn wondered how they would survive, the last 8 humans in existence. She would see they got a new world to establish a new colony, but since there were so few of them, there was a chance of inbreeding, but there must be humans still out there in space, hiding from the Minbari advance and from the scavengers like the Centauri who were killing them. She had to try.

Delenn walked slowly towards the one carrying Valen's soul. " Please," She begged. " Don't throw your lives away. Let us help you, mend the rift. There may be other Humans out there, where the Narns and Centauri haven't reached them. We can find you a new world, and start again, please...let us help you." She looked at them, wondering what was going through their minds. " What do you say?"

Instead of speaking, the one with Valen's soul moved his right thumb under his chin, pausing to say. " What do we have? Nothing. Our allies," he sneered the word, " abandoned us for you. We would rather die than let ourselves be helped by an enemy, and you are an enemy, Minbari bitch." With that the human glowed the same way as his worlds, and vanished, disintegrated.

Delenn jumped back from the suicide, and turned pleading eyes to the others. But they did the same thing, helping their less lucid members do the same thing, pressing something embedded beneath their mouths, and pressing them. None of them said a word as they let themselves follow the same fate as the others, and their worlds. Delenn collapsed to the ground, and she sobbed in her hands.

* * *

The Andromeda Galaxy.

Sinclair rubbed his chin as the surgeon finished removing the teleporter from his chin. " You were lucky," the surgeon commented. " I was able to fix up the damage the Minbari gave you." Sinclair nodded, pleased that the deception had worked.

The President's office.

" Do we know why the Minbari abducted those pilots?" Senator Quantrell asked.

It had been 3 days since Earth, the moon and Mars had arrived in this sector of the universe, where no known race had explored it. The teleport system had transferred Earth and the Moon and Mars, with their refugee ships and transports, to this unknown galaxy. There would be new challenges, new things to explore, but Humanity would manage it.

General Hague shook his head. " The pilots are still recovering from the torture they'd suffered on board the Minbari warship. They'll be debriefed soon."

The president nodded, not wanting to pressure their heroes until later. As far as she was concerned, anyone who'd fought the Minbari and lived was a hero.

" What about the space engine, and the atmospheric shell, how did they stand up to the jump?" She asked.

" The space engine is still operational, as far as the scientists under Dr. Durrant can tell. The atmospheric shell managed to contain our atmosphere during the transfer. The engines on the ships and the Moon, and Mars, they're also in good condition. Dr. Durrant doesn't play games." The general reported.

The President smiled. " No," she agreed. " He doesn't." Straightening up, she looked around the room. " Okay, we've survived, and we've duped our enemies into thinking we're dead, what do we do now?"

One senator said, " We should take the time to explore our new home, and we rescued the humans taken prisoner by the Minbari, and the Narns and the Centauri." Everyone either clenched their fists and shook with anger at their supposed allies treatment of innocent humans, the Centauri had opened the doors to them, allowing them to enter the galaxy, and the Narns had given them weapons to fight the Minbari. The Minbari may've been the most evil race humanity had ever met, but at least they were honest about it.

" Speaking of the Narns and the Centauri, what do we do about it?" The president asked, leading off with the theme and the last statement.

" I say we go after them, and make them pay for what they've done. The Narns complain and talk about what the Centauri did to them, but we can do it even better than the Centauri." One right wing senator replied. Many nodded, saying they liked the idea. The President shook her head, " We've just escaped from a major war, we've lost too many people, too many ships. We need to rebuild, build new ships and armies to protect ourselves. Don't forget, we've just to a new galaxy, we don't know what's here. We need to explore it first, learn new technologies and work out a way to return to our original galaxy undetected. Then we'll be in a far better condition to go after our enemies."

Lefcourt swiveled in his chair, " It could take years to explore this galaxy, find the right resources to build new ships. Speaking of new ships," the general added, looking around the room. " We need a new spaceforce. Badly. With the new teleport system, we could jump across the galaxies easily, and find what we need."

Levy nodded. The Centauri, regardless of how they'd shown their true colours, had told them that what they called hyperspace did extend to other galaxies, but the gravity eddies which acted like a wind didn't exist in the darkness that separated those galaxies, so no race had ever explored the possibilities of creating an intergalactic empire. Harry Durrant, however, had discovered that what the jump engines did was leave normal space, and submerge into a lower level of normal space, not subspace or hyperspace, but good enough for faster than light travel. That was why it was awash with gravitational eddies, because it was so close to the surface of normal space. True hyperspace, on the other hand, was where distance was always zero. That was the basis of the teleportation technology Durrant and his team had pioneered, they'd discovered a means of travelling distances not reached by normal spaceflight, and they would arrive instantaneously, even if the destination was millions of light years away. That was how Earth, Mars and the Moon had survived along with the fleet, they'd simply teleported to a new solar system, and here they would stay and rebuild. Levy sighed. What they were going to be doing wasn't a walk in the park, it had taken a month to find a suitable site for the Earth and inner worlds to be discovered. The right orbit, the right temperature, the right gravity, everything. But rebuilding the alliance here, in this unfamiliar galaxy wasn't a picnic. Their technology needed to be overhauled, new computers needed to be created and experimented with. New weapons of mass destruction had be designed and created, and new spaceships had to be designed and built in bulk. But the new ships would have to be many times superior than the originals, which had shown how worthless they had been.

Levy had another concern, the First contact protocols. The Earth - Minbari war had begun when a captain who'd never been cleared for first contacts had made a disaster that almost destroyed the EA. Humanity had survived, their culture had survived, and plenty of humans were still alive, so the gene pool was safe, but the scars of the war would stay for a long time. Levy had no intention of letting another self important human captain or officer repeat that mistake. Humanity had survived one disaster, may not be so lucky next time.

" Alright," Levy said reaching her decision. " Earth will not move from this new spot. We shall maintain the teleport engines in our worlds, just in case there's another threat." She looked down at the polished surface of the table, seeing herself reflected on the wood. When she looked up again her eyes were like steel. " We have new technologies, the teleport drive. That's to be installed on every new ship from now on. The Explorer class ships are going to go out there, and quietly explore the surrounding space, only for a few light years. We need time to fully establish ourselves in this solar system. Its going to be our home, and we need to make it last."

" If your thinking that the sun in this system's gonna go nova like Omelos, then you're wrong," a senator reported happily. " The stars stable."

Levy nodded curtly. " Good, but I don't want any of our new holdings to take unnecessary risks." her eyes flashed around the room. " I also want the alien tech we've already got, the Dilgar ship we've got and the league tech we captured, I want our science to adapt to it. We need better computer systems, we need to explore new ideas to keep ourselves alive. The teleport idea has let us survive, but I want other ideas. We need different classes of ships, with new functions and not just war and peacekeeping. We need a more powerful form of exploratory vessel capable of handling any kind of deep space assignment. We also need to make research into making our race invincible exist. The Narns, the Centauri, the Dilgar and the Minbari showed us we were anything but invincible, and that's unacceptable. I want humanity to survive for a long, long time, and I don't want little things like advanced technology, and stronger alien lifeforms bringing us down. We also need to look at ourselves, and take a good look at the prejudices we've let run loose. They've got to stop as well.

" Our people were almost destroyed because of Earth force stupidity, don't interrupt me," she snapped at the military people in the room. " That has to stop, favours in government will never happen on that magnitude again. Humanity's survival is now paramount, and I don't want our people to have to move our worlds again. I want Earth force to adopt new rules, and this time I want them to be adhered to. Not the other way round."

None of the others seemed to have any problem with that. Then someone came running in, " Madam President, Dr. Durrant needs to see you, all of you. Now."

" What is the problem, Dr. Durrant?" Levy asked the scientist the moment they entered his lab.

Durrant sighed, " We've been running scans, and we've found that the stars are not where they are supposed to be."

Quantrell folded his arms, " What do you mean, not where they are supposed to be? Have you brought us to a different galaxy?"

Durrant shook his head, " Nothing so simple. No, we're in the Andromeda galaxy, only we're in a different point in time. We've travelled over 5,000 years back into the past."

Silence.

" How did this happen?" Levy asked.

" The teleport system installed in the ships and on our worlds were used at the same time, the sheer mass must have sent us all the way back into the past. That's the only explanation I can think of." Durrant said, folding his arms.

" Can you return us to our time?"

Durrant sighed, " It's not that simple. If I trigger the teleport again we could be sent to the Big Bang, the dark ages. Or into the future. I need to run through the teleport systems, the programming and the computer logs to find out the cause of the time travel. But all I can suggest is that we're far away from the Minbari, we're safe, we're all here, and we have the time to rebuild and grow. 5,000 years is plenty of time to change."


	2. Chapter 2

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**The Breakthroughs.**

3 years after arriving 5,000 years in the past in the Andromeda galaxy, the Human race started to rebuild and explore their new home. Accepting the fact that one time was very much like another, they went about their own affairs. The scientists started studying the Dilgar cruiser, and the teleport technology to work out what had happened to send them into the past. It was found that the teleports needed to be stabilised before they were to be used, but since the technology had been rushed into service this hadn't been possible. All teleport drives fitted to various ships were now fitted with stabilisers, but each ship commander and computer was programmed and ordered to report any and all teleport malfunctions, no matter what.

Teleport drive technology, and the temporal displacement which sent them back through time, had brought out interest in time travel research. Dimension research brought out more facts about how it can be made truly possible, but since their breakaway from the Milky way, many scientists and engineers decided to stretch their imaginations to become better than the Minbari and the other ingrates in their original galaxy.

One of the scientists started exploring the theories of warp drive and wormhole technology, and mixed them with the jump engine technology they'd brought in with them, and they created a warp technology that created a warp field around their ships, propelling them faster than light. The warp engine, a purely human invention with only a miniscule aid from aliens, became the breakthrough that told everyone that humans were finally doing it, breaking away from aliens once and for all.

The warp engine speed increased, and as starships that were built journeyed outwards, looking for new worlds to migrate to and to mine, they had another problem. Power.

They needed new energy sources, and they found them in two ways; firstly Quantium 40, already seen as a unique mineral, but when they found a way to turn it into a power source they found an energy source that would, in theory, give them a greater energy output than the Centauri, and the Minbari. The second power source came from zero-point energy, discovered from subspace where they discovered quantum foam, the foamy substrate of space/time, where space/time broke down. The zero-point energy gave them a more superior power source. With fusion, Q-40, and zero-point energy giving them power, human ships became more and more advanced with power to match, and the Dilgar technology helped them develop their early gravimetric technology and they worked on it from there. The gravimetric science, small as it was, was more than enough for humans to learn more and more about the nature of gravity, and to discover more and more secrets that could help them. Quantum foam was easy to manipulate with gravity, and the zero-point field generators were primitive before the gravimetric breakthroughs, but with gravimetrics the Quantum foam was easy enough to harness for energy and study.

Gravimetrics eventually gave rise to inertial dampener technology and artificial gravity plating that used equations that manipulated the graviton. Dilgar technology, being Galactic age, meant that their biochemistry knowledge was incredibly advanced, and the human scientists and people who were ill benefited from it all. Cancer and other deliberating illnesses were conquerored, but also research was put into the science to make humans completely immune from diseases, and genetic engineering was put into action to, not remove the best of humanity, but to make it better.

Starships were built with warp engines, and they no longer looked like ships from a scrap pile. The warp factor was a priority, and exploration was a priority, new resources and new colonies were in high demand, and the ships needed a reliable engine system to make it possible. Starships were sent out, but this time they had new orders when it came to diplomacy.

Instead of barging in head first and risk getting shot at, the ship captains were taught diplomacy, but they were also psychologically screened to prevent accidents and incidents like the Minbari first contact.

Warp drive ships, the first ones that humans were aware of, needed to be pioneered from scratch when they learnt about the various layers of subspace, and new ships were capable of travelling at speeds of warp 9.9, about four billion miles. 0.0007 light years in a single second. Dimensional technology and subspace field research had discovered how to create temporal fields, spinning off on the accident that had sent the human race 5,000 years into the past, putting humans on the track to discovering time travel.

Quantum foam research was put into top priority, and it was because of the two factors, first, the quantum foam was riddled with wormholes, and were capable of being used to travel across space, allowing virtually limitless travel, opening new routes and planets to be opened to the human race. Second, the use of zero-point energy pockets.

An experimental starship with a warp engine capable of manipulating the quantum foam into becoming fully sized without the need for miniaturisation was developed for the drive, and it created a wormhole channel that could be shaped and took the ship at a distance of 15 light years, a distance any warp ship would need 2-3 days to reach there. The experiment gave scientists the chance and unprecedented opportunity to study wormholes.

The wormhole, a subspace phenomenon in itself, possessed none of the gravimetric anomolies of hyperspace. Research into the wormholes showed something else, time travel inside wormholes was not possible, but it could happen if there was a separate mechanism.

Simulations into a quantum warp field with temporal field interfacing took place, and a test ship was prepared with a temporal field generator powered by a ZPM, a zero-point energy module. When the quantum warp drive was opened, and the time field was generated the ship travelled over three hours into the past. The test ship was sent towards an outer colony of the new empire.

Time travel was possible, and the human race had discovered it, but the work carried on.

Quantum foam also had other properties that were discovered, since it could be warped and manipulated by gravity, it could also generate an artificial reality, a pocket universe and enclose it in a tiny space, as the people working on the science discovered. These pocket universes were fitted inside factories where starships were being built, and in massive numbers that could not be supported inside a solar system construction depot.

They also provided incredibly efficient laboratories and cloning facilities for study and the production and research into new technologies, and new weapons and technologies to develop the Human race into something more than the human race they had been before. Now the humans saw how stupid they had been, they realised that now instead of trying to show force, they should've developed themselves and their technologies, then they would develop their empire. Genetic engineering was researched, and augmentation into making the human race invincible was put into study. Since the Minbari war, where the Narns had started to exterminate humans, the soldiers had reported how strong different aliens were, and that was unacceptable.

The president and the senate wanted the human race to change, and tests were made to enhance the intellect and the body. Humans soon developed intellects of incredible power, even greater than they had ever been before, and humans became stronger, faster, and more durable than they had been before, and they also discovered that telepathy had been similarly augmented into humans, and that the genes for telepathy were already there, but had merely been enhanced by someone.

Angry at this, humans started to become telepathic, and they created telekinetic powers, but the humans wanted more and more.

A set of artificial genes were created, and a human geneticist, watching Star Wars and Superman, developed genes for molecular density and for powers no one would be able to distinguish from magic.

The basics for humanity, however, had not been taken away, there was no removal of the things that made them human, but humanity became stronger. Their molecular density and manipulation powers, which manipulated subspace on a quantum foam level, allowed humans to become unbelievably strong, able to teleport themselves, and to use their powers for levitation, for telekinesis, flight, and so on.

Although they did not know it yet, humanity's new steps into perfection were close to the Vorlons and the other ascended First Ones.


	3. Chapter 3

The Time Lord Empire.

The Raids.

General Hague loved his office with its new view of the city that was in the process of being rebuilt. The President had announced that since everything in their new home galaxy was new meant they had to adapt. That meant the furturising of their cities, their technologies, everything. Even humanity was not exempt from that, yoga and pilates, new educational techniques were now being practicised to bring in new enlightenment to the new generations.

The city had been in the process of futurising for the last six years, and since the human race had 5,000 years to get ready to become a force of nature and make the Minbari, the Narn and the Centauri pay the price for what they'd done, the builders were taking their time. Already most if not all the buildings had had pocket universes installed with quantum foam manipulation to make them larger or smaller, redecorating them to their owners requirements.

The door opened and Captain John Sheridan marched in proudly. Hague turned slightly to regard the captain. Sheridan had been one of the greatest heroes of the Minbari war, and he was highly regarded, both as a warrior and as an explorer.

" Ah, John, please sit down." Hague gestured for the chair opposite his own.

" Thank you, sir." Sheridan sat down smartly.

" Did you have a nice holiday in, where was it, France?"

Sheridan smiled, " Yes, France. The new sun's doing wonders for the grapes."

Hague smiled, then the two men became more businesslike, " Have you received your orders?"

Sheridan nodded, " Yes, I'm to take a tactical vessel to capture a number of ships from our original galaxy, and to use the latest time travel generator to get there properly."

Hague nodded, " In simplest terms, yes. You'll also take with you a few trained telepaths. Since the human race has undergone augmentation, the prejudices towards telepathy have been stopped, but there are some that still have the training for it by the corps." And you will treat them with respect, won't you John? Hague added telepathically.

For his credit, Sheridan did not react. It had taken him a while to get used to his newly rebuilt body with its increased intellect and telepathic abilities. He nodded, saying telepathically, Of course, sir.

Hague nodded, and reverted to speech, " Excellent. You have selected your crew, haven't you?"

Sheridan nodded, Yes, sir.

Hague smiled, " Dismissed. "

* * *

The new starship was longer, shaped more like a sculptured arrow, and resembled no Earth built ship Sheridan had seen before. It was bigger than the ships he had been on, and it was far more sophisticated.

When Sheridan entered the bridge, the Commander jumped up when she noticed him, " Captain on the bridge."

" As you were," Sheridan ordered. " Commander...?"

The woman, tall, brunette, severe but beautiful at the same time answered, " Susan Ivanova."

Sheridan smiled, " No need to jump to attention each time I appear, commander. What's our status?"

" Tactical systems are online and prepared, all crew and supplies are onboard. The dockmaster has reported we have a free pass, and the wormhole and temporal drives and the telepaths are prepared and ready." Ivanova recited

Sheridan caught something in her tone and he rewinded the report through his memory, and stopped when she had said the word 'telepath', " Is there a problem with the telepaths, Commander Ivanova?"

" No, sir."

Eyes narrowed, Sheridan frowned, " Commander, can I speak to you alone please?"

Leading Ivanova into the ready room office on the bridge, Sheridan sat down and looked around the luxurious room. It was nothing like the old fashioned offices he was used to, this room was more like an undecorated suite. He focused his attention back on Ivanova.

" I asked you a question on the bridge, is there a problem with the telepaths? I did not like your tone. I want a proper response."

Ivanova faltered through her rigid stance, " Permission to speak freely, sir."

Sheridan's expression didn't change, " As my second in command, I need opinions and feedback. You always have my permission. I cannot run this ship without them and that trust."

It was like a dam had been collapsed, " My mother was a telepath making me a latent one, and the Psi Corps destroyed her life when they discovered her abilities, and they tore her mind and sanity apart. My mother made sure I was moved through school to school, that I avoided the tests. She told me three words about it, tell no one. Then the augmentation programme comes in, and now all of us are telepaths. I'm not comfortable with them still. Do you understand, sir?" She asked, looking like a child needing reassurance.

Sheridan sighed, losing his impatience. " Commander, I chose you for this assignment because of your service record, and I did know you're a latent telepath, and your abilities have been boosted by the augmentation. I don't want us to come into this room again if there's a problem. Prepare to get us underway."

Ivanova was bolstered by the order and the captain's understanding. " Thank you sir." She turned and left the room.

Sheridan sighed when she left, and he thought about what she had said. Ivanova was putting out waves of discomfort about being a latent telepath already, and he knew how she felt, genuinely he did, but he felt the augmentation had been for the Greater good of the human race. Sheridan himself was not comfortable about walking down streets and reading peoples thoughts and feelings. They were private, and the remains of the Psi Corps had been brought in to teach them telepathy, with courses that were compulsory to learn the arts of reading minds and to guard against those who took advantage of that gift.

Ivanova was one of those people who was still used to the fear that the Psi Corps generated, fear of discovery, fear of their privacy being invaded by other minds.

On the bridge, Ivanova was in front of the occupied Captain's chair, going through the departure sequence whilst Sheridan watched and evaluated her performance. Sheridan was one of those commanders where he prefered meeting and watching people in action without needing to listen to what others said. Everyone had their own pace and standards, and Sheridan did not like listening to vague truths and suppositions.

So far Ivanova was incredibly professional as she went through the drill.

" Fire all thrusters, take us out past the markers. Prepare the wormhole drive." She ordered.

One of the crewmen checked over the temporal drive, " Time co-ordinates programmed in. Drive ready."

Sheridan looked around the new and gleaming bridge. The wormhole class starship was the newest and the most sparkling ships, where designers had spent decades building and designing blocky and modular ships, they had finally flexed their muscles and had grown creative. Sheridan had rushed through his study of the class, but he was impressed by now...inhuman the bridge was, and judging from the look from veteran officers, so were they. Old human ships had been efficient with no time for decorations, but this one was both efficient and yet it was more nicer to look at. Sheridan was hoping the designers had designed the new ships so to work properly.

Sheridan added his own presence to the bridge, " Open the wormhole, take us to the border of Centauri space. Time co-ordinates, put us in the year 2008." He ordered the officer in charge of the time drive, who replied, " Aye, sir."

The starship slid out of the dockyard facility, and moved slowly away from the planet and the shipyard and space station orbiting Earth.

Sheridan relaxed in his seat, delighted he no longer needed to wear the old straps to stop him floating. Artificial gravity technology had been one of the most revolutionary technologies pioneered, the technology had been on the drawing boards for a while, and it was only the study of the Dilgar warship and the observations of the Minbari.

" Open the wormhole," he ordered again.

McKenna, the helm officer, had a gift with the helm, and he used that gift to push the ship further away from Earth, and the already programmed spatial co-ordinates of their old galaxy was uploaded already. All he had to simply activate the drive. McKenna initiated the drive, and the whole of space seemed to blossom in front of them as the wormhole was generated. It was like something growing in front of them, and the ship flew right into it.

The wormhole was a mixture of hues, blue, purple, red and green, all connected by bands that supported it. Sheridan gasped with awe as, for the first time in his life, he travelled through the wormhole. The feeling gave him a sense of how far humans had come, genetically engineered or not, and he couldn't help but feel amazed by their new achievement, and all without the help of aliens, just good old human initiative.

The trip through the wormhole was brief, only a few minutes, but those few minutes did what sublight and jump engine tech could not do; take them out of their new home galaxy, and travel through space. There was a blue hue on the screen, and when Sheridan turned to face the officer in charge of the temporal drive, he replied, " We're travelling in time, right?"

The officer looked at him, " Yes, sir. We should be in the 23rd century when we exit the wormhole conduit. I've sent the timeline to take us forward 4 years since the war ended."

Sheridan nodded, " Excellent. Now, I think I should tell you our mission. We've been ordered to travel forwards in time and journey back to our original galaxy, and capture a Centauri and Minbari ship, and send them home to Earth."

Harper, the communications officer, frowned in his seat, " Why do we need them?"

Sheridan sighed, " I don't know, but I think it may be to study Centauri and Minbari technology. We've already got our hands on Vree and Dilgar technology, but it could be to help our researches. All I know is we've been given a mission, and we're going to see it through."

McKenna looked up from his console, " Captain, we're approaching the end of the conduit."

Sheridan had to take breaths when they appeared in their home galaxy. Sheridan had forgotten how it had looked before, in Andromeda the Humans had materialised their worlds and ships in a virtually uninhabited sector to remain alone.

Earth's policy nowadays was to stay away from other races, not offering trade neogtiations, and to set up colonies for self sustainment in the future. Since the faster than light breakthroughs, Earth had gained new grounds and territories, but their old galaxy still evoked bitter memories, memories of persecution, of misunderstandings, and betrayal on all sides. No one wanted that again.

" Verfiy our location," Sheridan ordered. McKenna confirmed it, followed by the science officer. Sheridan leant back in his chair. " Lay in a course for Centauri space. Engage at Warp five. Activate the cloaking device." He ordered.

The lighting on the bridge dimmed as the ship diverted energy into the cloaking device. One of the latest developments in technology, the cloaking device bent light around itself rendering the ship invisible.

* * *

" Captain, Centauri warship detected. Vorchan class." Ivanova at the tactical station reported.

Sheridan nodded, " How far?"

" A light year away," Ivanova answered. " We should be there in a minute."

" Mr. McKenna, drop out of warp when we are close enough, and drop the cloak." Sheridan tapped the comm switch. " Sheridan to telepaths, are you ready?"

Ivanova twitched when one of the telepaths, a female, answered, " Yes Captain, we're ready when you are."

The starship dropped out of warp, and the telepaths in their location on the observation deck got to work. Line of sight was vital at this point, and the telepaths were of a powerful calibre. Each one of them were delighted with the chance to work for Earth force at long last after being segregated for so long. As they focused on the Centauri crew, the telepaths forced their way into their minds and immobilised them, and each of them gathered knowledge about the ship, how to operate it and so on. They circulated that knowledge throughout their own ship as the starship decloaked, shadowing the Centauri vorchan.

There was no need for Sheridan or the others to know when they'd finished, they could sense it.

On the bridge, Sheridan turned to Ivanova, " Get a transmat lock on all the crew, and transport them into space."

" Aye, sir." Ivanova replied, her hands moving over her console. She had no problem following the order, the Centuari like the Narns and the other weakling cowards of the LONAW had betrayed them, abandoned them to the Minbari.

Sheridan and most of the bridge crew watched the flashes of light as the tiny bodies of the Centauri appeared in space, floating pathetically. It was remarkably satisfying, seeing this pompous, arrogant, self important, posturing wastes of life floating in space.

Sheridan turned to Ivanova, " Order a tag to be transported over. Activate it as soon as its deployed."

Ivanova's hands just flashed over her console.

A few minutes after the space/time tag had been beamed over to the Centauri ship, the Vorchan disappeared in a flash of blue light. Sheridan said, " Communications, verify with Earth force command that we sent the Centauri ship."

" Aye, sir."

A few minutes after the message had been sent via the space/time radio, the reply came back. The communications officer proudly announced the ship had been received.

Sheridan let the crew cheer in triumph before he ordered McKenna to set course for Minbari space. " Open a wormhole into Minbari space. I want to get this one done very quickly."

McKenna opened the wormhole, and the ship entered the conduit.

* * *

The last time Sheridan had seen a Minbari Sharlin class cruiser, it had been at the Battle of the line. He remembered the hideous battle, the way the Minbari had sliced and destroyed their way through the fleet, carving a path of battle into the harmless civilian transports. Luckily they had been empty and not the real thing, otherwise they would've been wiped out. Sheridan had to bite his tongue and genetically control his breathing to maintain his composure, and by glancing at the other crewmembers, they too were having to restrain themselves from leaping out of their seats.

Some of the crew had been too young to serve in Earthforce at the time of the war, but the newsreels, the pictures of Minbari slaughters had carved a very nasty instinct into the human psyche.

Sheridan held up his hands, " It's alright, they don't know we're here. Same as before."

The captain's calm had the desired effect on the crew, and they calmed down. Sheridan waited for their composure to return before he opened a telepathic channel with the telepaths.

Unlike the crew, the telepaths didn't have the benefit of the discipline of the crew, and Sheridan had to repeat himself in their minds.

It's alright, they don't know we're here. We've got the upper hand. Lets do our jobs and then we can leave. Okay?

The telepaths control returned, and they focused their minds on the crew of the Minbari ship. They found the ship was under the control of the Religious caste, and they gave into their curiosity and looked deeper into their minds. It was trickier than the Centauri, who had no telepaths on their ship, but the Minbari had some collective knowledge of telepathy, but they were overpowered before they could turn their ship to face the Earth ship.

The Minbari were caught in the grip of the anger the telepaths seized them in, and the telepaths and the rest of the crew joined, shoving their rage of the death of millions of humans at the hands of the Minbari warrior caste. The pain they'd inflicted on the humans burnt the minds of the Minbari, and they collapsed before they were transported into space.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**The Paradox of humanity.**

The theft of the Minbari Sharlin and the Centauri Vorchan, along with the Dilgar Sekhmet cruiser and the Vree saucer, improved human technology and science and awareness of antimatter, gravimetrics and the weapons the four races used. The introduction of the technologies the ships represented would have benefits and repercussions for years to come.

The black hole reactor technology of the Minbari and the Vree themselves would be taken as the next step in the evolution and the birth of the Time Lord race.

**An Extract from The Early Years.**

* * *

Captain John Sheridan was sitting in the office of the President of the Earth alliance, waiting for the President and the others to arrive. Sheridan felt very uncomfortable in the room, where the plan to take the human race away from their home galaxy, and the meeting that followed took place before the news of the temporal displacement had been made.

It had been a year since the raids made on Centauri and Minbari ships had been made, and Sheridan was delighted he had been able to help with that. He hadn't expected to be summoned here, but since it was in the presidents office then it must be important.

The President entered, followed by General Lefcourt and two others, one Sheridan recognised as Dr. Durrant, the scientist behind the temporal displacement that brought them here, and the other as a geneticist Sheridan couldn't place. He was a tall Indian scientist, and his dark skin was healthy even without genetic engineering. He was carrying a case.

The president introduced them, and Sheridan remembered the other scientists name as Professor Singh, the scientist behind the genetic augmentation of humanity. Not one to beat about the bush, Lefcourt asked, " John, what do you know about the origin of the human race?"

Sheridan blew out a breath, " I know we're descended from apes, that we inherited the Earth from the Dinosaurs, not much else. What's this all about?"

Singh smiled, " This is what its about, Captain." He placed the case on the table, and opened it and took out a sphere that fitted easily into the palm of his hand. It was a polished sphere of a silver metal. Singh opened it, revealing a golden egg. Very gently he took it out and held it up.

" We found this on an archaeological dig when a temporal scan a year ago of Earth revealed it. It was inside a temporal pocket, and our scans showed this little beauty contained DNA. Human DNA, that is."

Sheridan gaped, " Where did it come from?"

The president inserted a data crystal into a reader, and a recording appeared on the screen. It was the president herself. Sheridan's genetically enhanced eyes saw the time stamp. This message was due to be recorded in another week.

The recording said, _" If you're seeing this recording then the paradox is closed. We have long since wondered about the origins of our species, and now we're sure. We created ourselves with time travel technology we've been pioneering." An image of the egg shaped device appeared. " This is a progenitor. Our past, and our future. I know I'm speaking to myself, and to the scientists and Captain Sheridan, who will carry out this mission, because I myself have seen it already happen. The progenitor is a storage medium, it contains pure human DNA, and it was - will be gathered in the year 2012, one of the years where our race will be at its highest population. The progenitor recovered in Africa is the Prime Progenitor. The mission must be to create 8 million of them, and to be dispersed through time and space when the time is right although through different settings, a progenitor can create millions of humans. Think of it. After the Earth-Minbari war, our race has been shattered, and our birth rate is slow at the moment. The progenitor can create millions of adult human beings, their minds full of our history and of our technology. We can rebuild our race faster this way. Contained on this crystal are the design plans for the progenitor, the Prime Progenitor which must be set above the earth, and purely Earth because the human race's future MUST be upheld. Also on the crystal is the plan for a genetic regenerator, which can create humans from the secondary progenitors, where you think its necessary for population growth. Another is the Progenation machine, a machine that remove genetic material from two humans, and creates a child with preprogrammed knowledge. This device can be programmed for scientists, engineers and temporal scientists._

_The plan behind the progenitor will be to extract genetic material from the humans of the Earth in the year 2012, and placed inside a gene bath for insertion into progenitors. 8 million progenitors, including the Prime Progenitor, will be created, and the Prime progenitor will be sent back through time, and it will create a matter-energy net over the Earth. This will lace human DNA into the environment, and make it suit us._

_This is a primary property of the progenitor. The Prime Progenitor must be sent first. Captain Sheridan will control the starship despatched into the future of 2012, and Professor Singh and Dr. Durrant will take care of the temporal and genetic sides of the mission. If this is not done, then past, present and future of humanity will cease to exist."_

The president turned to face Sheridan. " That message and the plans have been authenticated, and the plans for the progenation machine have been removed, and tests indicate that the device works without any problem."

Sheridan was still blown away by the implications of what he had just seen. " I take it that you, Dr. Durrant, have confirmed this?"He asked Durrant.

Durrant nodded, " A temporal observatory detected the temporal field of the Prime Progenitor appear above Earth, lacing the matter-energy field into the Earth itself. Just like it did with dozens of other worlds scattered through the cosmos. Some of the progenitors will be kept by us, some will be stored in temporal pockets throughout time and space, and others will be activated on our worlds we're still colonising. This combined with the progenation machines and the birth rate will send our population soaring through the roof. The news of the paradox has also been checked, and its as confirmed as the projection of possibly averting the Earth-Minbari war by killing Michael Janowski. If we did then there's a chance the war will begin anyway, though the rationale would be because of a perceived attack and not a panicky captain. The paradox in this case is also true. We would never exist and the paradox would break down."

Sheridan did not like hearing about the Janowski problem. There had been talk amongst the population about killing the man before he actually made that disastrous contact with the Minbari, but the scientists had always made some reason for it. This time was different, it had never occurred to Sheridan that killing Janowski may make things worse. The thought of a different reason behind the war made Sheridan wonder what other reasons could there be.

The President sighed, " Captain, you will take a specially prepared ship through time to the 21st century, and there you will collect the genetic material. You're not to leave anything behind whatsoever. You understand?"

Sheridan nodded, " Perfectly."

* * *

Sheridan found he was the only member of the crew responsible for controlling the time ship. Durrant and Singh controlled the temporal and genetic side of the mission. Below the ship, protected by the cloaking device that rendered radar useless was Earth, but not Sheridan's Earth. It would be centuries before Earth reached the point in time Sheridan and the others were in.

This was the 21st century, the age of innocence where aliens had still not been discovered, but constantly debated about. Durrant's voice came over the intercom, " Captain, we're preparing to start collecting the genetic material."

Sheridan nodded, " The phase cloak is still online. Just be mindful of the power level."

Once again Sheridan was delighted by the ingenuity behind the cloaking device. Unlike previous models, this cloak pushed the ship out of phase of space/time and partially into hyperspace, but it wasn't as power intensive. It made his job easier since the transmats took a lot of energy.

* * *

In the laboratory where the progenitor construction was being carried out, Singh watched as the gene bath became full with the genetic material from the humans on the planet. Durrant was standing by with the space/time disperser. A small quantity of the progenitor devices would be dispersed through space/time, but the majority would be kept for further use. The progenitors were too valuable, and they didn't want to make another trip to this point in time to pick up more material. Besides, some of the material would be put through the progenation machines when they got back.

The Prime Progenitor was finished very quickly. That would be sent first.

Sheridan came down to the lab to see how they were going. Durrant turned to face him, " Can we help you, captain?"

" I just wanted to see how you're doing." Sheridan asked before seeing the new version of the Prime Progenitor with the genetic material being inserted into it. Next to it were two metal tubes. One of them had a golden band on it and the other had a silver band on it.

Sheridan pointed at them, " What're they?"

Singh looked over to what the captain was pointing at, " There're retroviruses, containing genetic programming. The virus with the gold band contains all our knowledge on time travel and all our present knowledge of the higher dimensions, but the silver band contains a want to become something more. The silver virus will be inserted into all of them, including the Prime Progenitor. The gold one will also be placed into all the progenitors, and a limited version will be placed into the Prime as well, but not as much as the others. The idea behind this plan is to create a number of human races with the desire to be more than anyother race in creation."

Sheridan understood, " When are they ready?"

" They all are. The Prime Progenitor will be the first one launched, the others will either be kept by us in safe places, or they will be dispersed through the universe. They contain the same matter-energy system as the Prime Progenitor, but they will be sent back further into time or in some ways forwards than the Prime Progenitor. No matter what, our species will never become extinct. Even with the others gone, ours will still live on. Our inbuilt survival instincts will still exist."

Durrant interrupted, " The Prime Progenitor is ready."

" Excuse me, Captain," Singh asked, lifting the Prime Progenitor and taking it to the temporal disperser. " Co-ordinates are laid in." Durrant said.

" Good," Singh replied, carefully placing the Prime Progenitor into the disperser. With a flash of light, the Progenitor disappeared.

* * *

High above the Earth of the past, where the life hadn't yet evolved, the Prime Progenitor materialised above the world. It hovered there for an hour before it started to glow brightly and then it exploded, covering the planet with light until the light moulded itself into a next above the planet. The matter-energy net started siphoning the genetic material from the gene material storage unit. The planet started accepting a new genetic material that was becoming rapidly assimilated into the gene pool of the planet. This was a major development in the technology behind the progenitor, allowing the evolving creatures to survive the atmosphere of the planets. The creatures evolved slowly over millenia, aeons, and they had the benefit of surviving each step of the way.

Unlike other lifeforms in the galaxy, the humans born on new worlds were more or less able to learn new sciences easily and develop. The Prime Progenitors work took over six hours, and when it finished it just dropped like a stone, sending out a blast of radiation large enough to kick start the process of life on the planet's surface, but not before activating the temporal anchor to the planet in preparation for the temporal displacement into the Andromeda galaxy before it activated the temporal pocket built into its technology to protect it for millions of years.

The paradox was completed, and the future would unfold accordingly.


	5. Chapter 5

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**Developments.**

**1.**

* * *

80 years after the Progenitor project. 85 since The Displacement.

* * *

80 years after the progenitor project, Humanity was rebuilding at a faster pace that it had before the project. After the Minbari war, the birth rate rocketed, encouraged by the government, and everyone had jumped to it, aided by genetic manipulation to make the children smarter and better. With progenitor and progenation machines, humanity took the stress off the children and made everything more manageable, and since the capture of the Minbari and Centauri ships came other raids on their original galaxy for other technological examples. In the case of the Abbai, it was the third example of gravimetric science, but the other leanings the Abbai went towards, including gravimetric shielding. Shield research moved away from gravimetrics and into subspace harmonic shielding. It was analogious to a submarine; a ship is partially submerged in subspace, and the weapons impact on subspace itself. The R&D department had studied the gravimetric shields, and they saw that gravimetrics, whilst sophisticated, wasn't the ideal shield technology because the protection granted wasn't adequate. Subspace technology, communication and faster than light travel, was becoming more and more sophisticated. Scientists learnt something else; there was more to the universe than mere hyperspace. What people in the old galaxy saw hyperspace was merely a surface domain. Subspace was an infinite honeycomb full of domains, and hyperspace was merely one of them. Other domains were found to have many of the properties of hyperspace, but they were not slaved to the gravimetric anomolies of normal space; asteroids, planets, moons, star, black holes, all masses that possessed gravity left a shadow in this particular subspace domain. Modern human starships took advantage of other domains in subspace for faster than light travel.

From the Centauri records, the humans learnt of the existence of the Drakh, and from the records of the Minbari their knowledge of the Drakh pushed them into the knowledge of the Shadows, and through them the First Ones. A Drakh ship was captured and the crew were transported into space, their computer and technology raided. Some may argue that the raids on technology made humanity weak and feeble, but there was a method behind it. The humans were looking into developing their scientific knowledge, and the knowledge of other races gave them the power to further their knowledge of the universe itself, their technologies to help them in their research, but all in all humanity was developing itself. One of the most intriguing, and annoying aspects, of their old galaxy was no one in the other races bothered, and this included the First Ones, to investigate other methods of space travel. It was like the old ones had decided that that singular domain of subspace was adequate, and that was that. Not even the Shadows, the second eldest First Ones, bothered to explore the possibilities of more domains. If they had then they would've been able to create channels through subspace without worrying about gravity.

New starships were being built, enhanced with the various technologies, and shield technology was developed, built on with the existing gravimetric shields, but with human ingenuity it was developed and enhanced beyond gravimetrics. Time drives were installed on board the ships, and were despatched to study the First ones when their homeworlds were discovered. The idea was that the time ships would land on the planets, accelerate through time, soaking up the knowledge both technical and cultural and move onto another world to do it all again before returning home for the data to be analysed. The scientific and cultural crews on the starships were to go over the datas first before handing over their findings to the R&D departments on Earth.

Through the R&D department, shield and cyberorganic technology was developed, cures for diseases were developed, and new engine technology was placed onboard starships. Time travel technology being what it was, and what it had done, was the most studied technology. The method of using the time ships was slow to present progress, but big things happened slowly.

" Madam President, this design shows the temporal observatory. An observational platform that has its instruments outside normal space/time, and study the various worlds." Durrant said.

President Foreman, in her third term of office, stared at the screen showing the plans of the observatory. It was a sphere with a second sphere inside, reminding her of the structure of a planet. All around was a ring, that reminded the President of old school holos of Saturn, only this ring wasn't a ring with dust. This was a functional ring with a purpose " Explain this," she ordered, her mind examining the schematic. It was a hollow sphere, with a power core, or a number of power cores, it was hard to tell. Aside from the core there was no large space inside. Since time travel technology was the primary research, the newest advances theoretical and practical were brought to the president, and even though it was sometimes tedious it was a good way for Foreman to work out what the newest technologies were.

Durrant nodded, and he tapped in a sequence, and a part of the ring magnified and showed a tiny object, a hexagonal sphere. Foreman studied it, and was reminded of a diamond with faceted faces.

" This is pocket universe scanner, and on the outside it's the same size as a basketball, but its interior size is the same size as a solar system. The scanner's faceted faces are in fact tiny wormhole generators built on a subatomic level with a gravimetric manipulator in each cell. The wormholes generated pinpoint worlds with highly advanced technologies, but also those that don't develop space travel of anykind to show variety and to expand their knowledge. The wormholes, tiny as they are, generate a space/time field and store information inside a library of memory acids. This knowledge will be available at anytime."

Foreman nodded, " Why build it?"

" I'm sorry?"

" What's the point of building it?"

Durrant now understood the question, knowing Foreman was now giving him the chance to explain to present his case. " Our present method of landing on planets is too slow, but the Time observatory will be linked to observatories on Earth, giving us the chance to properly study worlds without wasting the time needed to study them with starships. Our starships can still be used for exploration, that can't be taken away, but this observatory can take the strain off that mission."

Foreman nodded. The mission of exploration was the most important one because it allowed humans to do things that no one could've imagined. Space exploration had been the dream for centuries, but the time exploration was a costly one since it cut down the amount of time ships could journey to new worlds, and carry on with their mission. Many in Earthforce wanted to stop the time exploration missions because they believed space was more important, and Foreman could understand that. The idea of creating the Time Observatory was more and more promising and desired.

" Can we create time observatories without the need for that structure?" Foreman asked.

" We could, but the Time World would be a vital component for us because it would cover many times more ground for study, and the Observatories on Earth will be small laboratories." Durrant replied.

The decision was made, and the Time Observatories were commissioned.

* * *

2.

* * *

100 years after arriving in the Andromeda galaxy and the establishment of the Time Observatory, research turned to the development of space travel technology, but the best way was seen when one of the scientists walked through a doorway.

Wormhole technology had given rise to revolutionary means of travelling; the wormhole drives allowed starships to cross distances that would've kept people in suspended animation for aeons without faster than light technology, or jump engines. Wormholes were also used with temporal fields to allow time travelling, but the development of the Stargate network was seen as the step forward. Another propulsion technology was being prepared and researched in the labs on Earth and the colonies, a propulsion drive that was more sophisticated than any other, but warp drives and wormholes were still the preferred norm.

The first stargates connected the Earth, the Moon, and Mars to the first colony worlds, or Phase one space. Planets deemed fit for colonisation were seeded with three stargates each, and each one of them were powered and controlled separately. It took Humanity over three years to establish the network into Phase four space. The Humans deemed the Stargate network to help explore the universe.

It was during this period they encountered the Hegemony.

Seeding ship Alpha 13 was a long ship, a more advanced varient of the old Explorer class. That class of ship was sent out to establish jump gates in the old galaxy and time, and this model had a similar design and construction. There were differences between them but the missions were similar. Instead of jump gates, the Seed ships were sent out via wormhole drive to planets for survey via the exploration division which contacted the ship's computer, uploaded the new co-ordinates and the ship travelled there automatically.

The ship contained a permanent wormhole teleport gate for resupplying and crew transfers, but the Seed ships were supposed to spend time in space permanently, but that didn't mean the crew weren't left there to rot. The crews of the ships spent three year tour duties each before they were replaced. The Seed ships mission was peaceful, but they were heavily armed, shielded and powered.

Captain Rochelle of Alpha 13 was sitting in her command chair, reviewing the latest developments on the screen. 3D holographics showed a sphere of human influence. Like an onion, it was separated by layers with the stargate network resembling lines joining dots. Phase five space was still being charted and explored, but Rochelle did not particularly care about that. Points on the starmap showed the locations of seventeen various subspace telescopes, charting new solar systems and portions of other galaxies for colonisation. Rochelle was aware that new colonies and homeworlds established in distant galaxies were establishing their own stargate networks, each one of the homeworlds and centres of those portions of the Empire were joined to Earth's stargates.

One of the bridge crew reported that the seeding of the newest solar system was finished, but just as Rochelle was about to order the ship to prepare to leave orbit of seventh planet, the tactical officer Randles reported, " A ship has just appeared captain, the spatial and subspace sensors detected a spike just as it appeared."

Rochelle got out of her chair, putting down the reports and went to the tactical station. " What kind of ship?"

The officer shook his head, " I'm sorry, captain. It's not on our records-wait, I just examined the uploaded temporal database, and I've found a match. It's a hegemony war cruiser."

Rochelle frowned harder. The hegemony existed on the other side of the galaxy, and the humans hadn't ventured that far yet, but they had taken observations of the Hegemony.

The Hegemony were a brutal empire of aliens, using their advanced technology into slavery, destroying and absorbing the technologies of the conquered races, and either destroy or enslave the unfortunates in turn. Humanity had heard about the Hegemony from the advanced races as they sent expeditions deeper and deeper into the galaxy, and a century of keeping out of their way had done wonders. The Hegemony ruled with an iron fist, using advanced faster than light drives to conquer and carve out a massive empire.

The present Human policy of staying away from the more advanced aliens had worked wonders, the memory of the brutality behind the Earth-Minbari conflict was still there in the memories of the people, stories and records both visual and written were recorded. The Hegemony however were unlike the Minbari, they possessed technologies the Minbari had never imagined, faster than light technology, shields, teleporters, weapons of mass destruction more powerful than the puny fusion and neutron guns. The Minbari would've been wiped out, their precious warfleets decimated, and their planets turned to cinders.

There had never been a First contact mission with the Hegemony, and considering what Earth had heard about them they didn't want one, but the tactical analysers were delighted that there had been no contact with the Hegemony after the blighted Humans had arrived in the Andromeda galaxy, humanity had lost too many people in one war, they didn't want another so quickly.

Humanity had not fought another war since for a century, and many had been preparing for this moment. The Hegemony were not a pleasant bunch, they would've made short work of the human survivors from the Minbari war, and even the Minbari, who preached they were the most advanced race in their old galaxy, would never have been able to win. Stories of the horrors the Hegemony were common, but even stories, though exaggerated, had a basis in truth. The problem was, what was the truth. The Hegemony was top of the list for alien races to watch in this galaxy, and humanity weren't going to start another war.

Some may have called humans cowardly for not confronting them head on, but humans had learnt many painful lessons.

Rochelle swallowed the lump in her throat, " Send a priority message to all starships closest to us, their to come here fast at maximum speed, we have a Hegemony warship in our sector. Send our position. Open a channel to the Hegemony ship."

The screen changed from the vista of stars to show the silhouette of a humanoid, or something like that. The background was superimposed in black, with a white outline showing the alien. The alien was silent, but Rochelle took the initaitive. " My name is Captain Hannah Rochelle, of the starship Alpha 13 on an exploratory expedition. Can we help you?"

The alien spoke, its voice a growl. " You are in restricted space. You will surrender your ship and you will be enslaved."

Typical, how typical. The Hegemony believed in a shoot first, ask questions later policy, but in the present instance, it was not a good thing. Human technology was becoming more and more advanced, and whilst they shared faster than light technology, theirs was superior to that used by the Hegemony, not to mention of their Stargate technology. For security reasons they didn't keep their knowledge of time travel in their databanks.

Rochelle knew what would happen if the Hegemony got their hands on human technology; they would learn of their achievements, their ships engineering would rewrite their own technology.

" Why would you do that? We're just explorers, we don't mean any race or people any harm. We're just trying to expand our understanding of the cosmos," Rochelle tried.

There was sheer arrogance in the alien's voice, " Your race is inferior to ours. You will be destroyed. Under Hegemony law, you are to be enslaved." The Hegemony shut down the screen.

" So much for diplomacy." Rochelle ground out, turning to her crew. " Power all weapons, raise shields. Harlan," she turned to the communications officer. " Any response from home?"

Harlan nodded, " A battle group's on its way, they'll be here shortly."

" They better not be too long," Randles said, stabbing his console pessimistically. " That ship's deploying the sections." He pointed at the screen.

The Hegemony ship was looming on the screen, massive, and brutal. It was like a bird of prey, in the hideous sense. Its hull was sharp, rough like rock, and it was splitting into sections. The Hegemony believed in superior force, the more the better. If you had 3 ships, you had 3, but if you split them into 2 sections, then you had 6 ships. It was a tactic of intimidation for the Hegemony, and one that had served them well and advancing their empire for countless centuries.

Rochelle swallowed, considering her options. " Can we activate the hyperdrive?"

The helm officer checked the computer, " We can."

" Set a course, take us 80 light years away from here, unless of course anyone has any protests?" Rochelle ordered, looking wryly around the bridge. None of the bridge crew had any protests. " Helm, set course. Prepare to engage-"

" Captain," the tactical officer interrupted her. " The battle group is here."

Rochelle turned to the screen. The battle group, eight starships swarming out of the wormhole. " They're sending a transmission." Harlan reported.

" Put it up,"

The screen changed once more, showing the visage of a human wearing the newest tunic of a Starfleet officer. Starfleet was the newest evolution of Earthforce, and was more than a perfect organisation than that bunch.

" This is Captain Maxwell, we've monitored the situation, and we're preparing to attack. Get away." The man on the other ship ordered.

Rochelle smiled, " Gladly. You heard him, get us out of here."

Maxwell watched as the seed ship engaged the wormhole drive and left, then he turned his attention to the tactical screen. " Okay, they've gone. Arm all weapons. Lock on to the engine section of that ship, and fire."

" Aye, sir."

The ships quantum beams targeted onto the engine section's thruster rockets, and they penetrated the weak shielding on that section, blowing the engines to pieces. Maxwell had always been surprised the Hegemony would be so conceited to believe their shields and armour would be able to hold on the engineering section without upgrading them.

He pushed the thought out of his head, and gave new orders, " Rotate shield harmonics when they fire their next salvo," his ordered empathised by the return and heavy fire his ships sustained. The Hegemony were trying to get revenge for the destruction of part of their cruiser.

" Match their shield modulation and fire the energy dissipators," he came to a decion.

The tactical officer did as he was told and the ship fired a blue glowing ball of energy, and it impacted on the section of the split ship that contained and centred their pulse cannons and missile gantries. The ball impacted on their shields, and bolts of energy flashed over it, reminding Maxwell of that St. Elmo's fire phenomenon on Earth, but this was a technological rather than natural phenomenon, and it was a weapon.

The Hegemony cruiser hit by the dissipator became sluggish until it started drifting in space. Two of the other battle group starships fired their own dissipators at the remaining, and still functioning section of the ship still fighting.

" Fire all weapons," Maxwell ordered, then he added. " Transport an antimatter bomb on both of those sections. Set for a 3 second detonation after materialisation."

" Aye, sir."

The order was carried out a few seconds later, and both pieces of the Hegemony warship were turned into burnt cinders, their massive antimatter reactors exploding when the anti particles were exposed to normal matter. Their missiles and fuel bays also added to the power of the explosion. None of the crews of the starships in the Battle group celebrated because they knew what they had done. For the last century, humanity had remained hidden and unobserved with no alliances, no trades, nothing. The best place to hide was in plain sight, and aside from agents offworld, the humans didn't allow much contact with other races, preferring to remain hidden behind the Dark matter nebula that had been a big feature in the remote sector of their new galaxy.

Now they had destroyed a Hegemony warship, and the covers were off. Humanity was exposed to the galaxy.

* * *

" UNACCEPTABLE!" Foreman screamed at the top of her voice when she heard what had happened, losing her control in front of her senators, but they did not blame her for losing her temper. Each of them were angry as well, but none of them were angry with the battle group or the seed ship for this incident. It had been only 2 hours since the attack, and the first thing Seeding ship Alpha 13 had done when they had left was send a message to Starfleet and all the patrol ships on the borderlines of the empire. All Phases of the empire which determined the size and scope of the empire and the colony worlds were protected by mines kept inside subspace pockets. Any enemy ship passing through the region would travel over the mines, and the humans on the colonies would simply turn them on and they would merely obey their programming and explode, taking the ship with it, but the mines were more powerful. They had the powerful Omega bombs, whose secrets were still kept away from the president, but she was more than aware of the dangers they posed.

Omega was in fact a molecule, some believed it was the substance which helped create the cosmos in the first place, and it was incredibly dangerous to subspace, destroying subspace whenever it was exposed. There were ways of stabilising it with pocket dimensions and using the harmonic frequency against the molecule to stabilise it. Omega was so powerful that it could be used to power a civilisation, but humanity didn't use it. They used and preferred black holes. They were safer some how.

Foreman's anger was understandable. 100 years of isolation had given humanity time and patience to rebuild and develop themselves into not just a technologically advanced species, but also to become what humans had been before they had met the Centauri, explorers who used their own instincts. With the skirmish, it was considered too minor to be a battle, with the Hegemony humanity was in danger.

Foreman managed to calm down, " What can we do about this?"

One of senators sighed, " We either launch a war, or we prepare for a war. We knew this would happen, sooner or later. The Hegemony have feelers all over the galaxy, I'm surprised it took them this long to find us."

" But how did they? Our exploration and science missions are kept away from Hegemony space." Another senator protested.

The first senator had once been a soldier in the Earth-Minbari war, and was still alive thanks to the new and revolutionary rejuventation process. Foreman was still amazed by the new genetic process which now enhanced human lifespans, which had been made longer by sustained genetic treatments. Humans could now live as long as they wanted thanks to both processes, and it made more sense to enhance the body through genetics than through drugs.

Foreman had heard about immortality serums, but she didn't believe they were viable. Genetic and temporal engineering were more realisatic and more appropriate for humans. Serums were too messy, they had all kinds of side effects, some of them undesirable. They could wear off. Genetics did not.

Rejuvenation worked by manipulating the stem cells of the body, and returning the body to a younger appearance. Humans could rejuvenate as many times as they wanted. Foreman herself had rejuvenated 4 times already, and she had learnt how precious life was, and so she took chances she had never done before. Rejuvenation lasted for years, with the body aging slowly. Some of the senators in the room were a century old, but they had the potential to become even older as time passed by.

Rejuvenation had many advantages, family and progenation amongst them, with new marriages formed and new bloodlines to promote growth and evolution. Progenation machines allowed this, with families between progens to be produced and new families promoting the gene pool of humanity. Foreman and the others were aware of the other progenitor devices that had been ignited over countless worlds, and it was the hope that one day they would all unite under one banner, but not just yet.

The president dragged her wandering mind back to the discussion. The first senator that had spoken was saying clearly, " The Hegemony may've been attracted by the wormholes and warp fields generated by our ships. We already know the Hegemony use fold warp travel, warp fields that fold more space. We use more or less the same technology in our ships. It wouldn't take them long to detect our own ships."

Foreman interrupted, " Okay, say you're right, which I don't doubt you are because it makes sense, what do we do now?"

The first senator had the answer, " We stop expanding, right now. Colonise the remaining planets in the new phase, and fortify them outside the solar systems. We use our exploratory division to watch out for Hegemony battle fleets, and wait."

One senator was more hopeful, " For how long, another hundred years? Suppose this ship that attacked Alpha 13 was simply a scout ship sent out to locate new worlds to conquer and not necessarily looking for us?"

Foreman nodded, " Those are good questions," she conceded, " but Senator Picard's advice is also excellent. We have spent the past century safe in our isolation. I want our explorations and the newest phase of space to be fully colonised. I also want Starfleet to send out long range patrols, not probes to monitor our space and the development of all our colony world as they're being built. Can we hope our Stargate network will also be safe?"

Picard nodded, " As long as the Hegemony don't travel to another galaxy, our networks safe."

" I want more than that, I want safeguards placed on all the gateways on all our worlds. If the Hegemony come, I want our people to have the chance to prepare to evacuate. All colonies must built up their own fleets to support the main fleet. Starfleet academies must be established on all our worlds instead of just Earth and Mars." Foreman stated.

" That won't be difficult, Starfleet was thinking of expanding the academies anyway and new ship yard were to be commissioned."

Foreman nodded, then she dropped her voice to a whisper, " We may have to put the new Time project into action sooner than we thought."

There were instant protests.

" We've still got years to do that."

" The device is not ready."

Foreman's voice was cold, " Make it ready. We may need the Project to protect us."


	6. Chapter 6

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**Time's Eye.**

* * *

Sol, Earth's old star, was an ancient sun, and it was now long past its prime. Millions of years before, the sun had exploded and became a supernova and eventually gravity crushed the old star in and in and in until it became a black hole. The location of the black hole was the reason why humans chose it in the first place for the newest power source.

For years, Earth's energy surplus had used Quantium 40, black hole and antimatter reaction technology, but it was black holes that allowed humans to learn more of gravimetric energies, but it was the natural black hole formed in Earth's old system which attracted their attention. Using gravimetric fields and a temporal field sent from the past, humans sealed the black hole into a temporal pocket, which was then placed inside a pocket universe. The pocket universe contained superspace, a kind of space that broke down at a mass energy level. The black hole power source was called Time's Eye.

This project was one of two for the ultimate prize, the mastery of time.

Africa had undergone many changes since Earth had moved to the Andromeda galaxy, it was no longer an arid land in some areas. Manipulation of the tectonic plates and the structure of the Earth itself had allowed terraformation to take place. Instead of desert, Africa had become a vast rainforest, a tropical utopia. Cities had sprung up powered by geothermal power. It was also, because of its size, the location of industrial complexes and institutes like Australia, America, and Europe, but the most important was the Tempus Fugit institute.

Tempus Fugit, time flies in Latin, was the largest institute in the Empire, and the most important of them all because it was responsible for the discoveries of wormhole technology. Wormholes in the past had been considered viable for time travel, but when humans made contact with the Centauri the discoveries were forgotten until they had moved to Andromeda. Wormhole technology, developed from subspace and quantum foam allowed for space travel with a temporal displacement field to allow time travel, and that was the focus of the institutes research. The humans had learnt and known for a long time that quantum foam could be manipulated, moulded like clay, which was unusual for the structure of the cosmos to be so malleable. For years since the development of the first wormholes and time fields, sensors had discovered echoes of temporal energy inside subspace and quantum foam, and the energy also had gravitational energies as a property. It was almost like it time energy was a natural effect, but tests made showed the energy was being sent through time itself, and tests indicated it was being transmitted back through time from the end of the universe itself. Was it a message? Was the energy being sent deliberately, or naturally from the future? Were humans from the future trying to send a message back through time to the present time? These questions had been boggling scientists back and forth for a century, and it wasn't until the creation of Time's Eye that the messages made sense.

Time's Eye had been in the plans for years, it was only the search for a suitable nova that was about to collapse into a black hole that was essential, a temporal energy source allowing time travel freely and offering both a power source and a means of navigating through time and space without needing to be concerned about loss of energy or getting lost. The activation of Time's Eye answered the scientists questions; like the progenitor paradox, Time's Eye was a paradox created by themselves in the future.

The creation of Time's Eye led to the most essential discovery in temporal physics; it wasn't a physical object like a Tipler cylinder, a massive cylinder postulated by Frank Tipler in the 20th century that created closed timelike curves, or wormholes that people hoped led to either the past or the future. Time's Eye led to the realisation that it wasn't the method of time travel that was important, it was temporal energy. Manipulation of temporal energy may seem like a fairly stunted form for time travel, but it was more feasible than creating a massive cylinder or wormhole.

Time's Eye possessed dozens of properties; it was powerful, it existed inside its own space/time continuum and pocket universe, which in turn allowed it to exist outside space/time, and it generated temporal energy on a massive level. Since Time's Eye existed at the end of the universe, it had millions of years to send time energy through the universe. All a ship in a wormhole would need to do would be to be powered by the Eye through a tap that gathered the temporal energy. The temporal energy would then be manipulated by the temporal drive, and deposit the ship at the target date. Quantum foam helped accelerate the process, being as it was the foamy substrate of the cosmos, and contained the right elements for space/time travel.


	7. Chapter 7

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**The First TARDISes.**

John Sheridan never failed to hide his amazement whenever he saw or heard about the new technologies of Earth. For him, it was like going to bed one day, in the day of medievalism where everyone wore their hair loose and ragged, their technology not as advanced as a candle, only to wake up the next day in a world where there were air cars, trains that shot across lands and starships that did not need jump engines. The new buildings of Earth towered over him, never losing their brilliance, and were as beatiful as the Great Pyramids, and as ageless.

Like everyone else, Sheridan had been in denial when they had moved to the Andromeda galaxy but he had adapted to it quickly, more than most, and whilst some of the more die hard members of the old Earth force had wanted to deny it, the protests were ignored. But Earthforce was now gone, the Alliance had been reorganised into an Empire, although it was not based on conquest, it was a name for strength. It was actually a commonwealth of worlds, each one connected by the stargate network.

It had taken Sheridan a long time to become used to the changes, especially the rearrangement of Earthforce into another organisation, and Starfleet was much more better than Earthforce had ever been. Instead of a miltant group, Starfleet was more in the range of science and exploration, and diplomacy. Starfleet was dedicated to the new era of peace, whereas Earthforce was a throwback to the old world military services, and it was Earthforce that had begun the Earth-Minbari war thanks to that bungled First contact because the fools higher up put an unstable man back in command, only to find themselves in a war Earth would've lost.

Earth did lose. Sheridan grimaced.

They had been forced to leave their old home behind, hunted and hurting from the attacks by their former allies and their enemies, but then they'd moved here, and safe in their isolation they rebuilt. At first the military jarheads had wanted to launch a genocidal war of revenge against the Minbari, the Narns and the Centauri, and for a time Sheridan had been behind them, until he realised that humanity was growing into something different, something better. Sheridan himself had witnessed humanity's origins, thanks to the progenitor. Sheridan walked through the Starfleet headquarters, nodding in acknowledgment to the officers and officials he encountered, but none of them saluted. Again, Earthforce was a throwback. Salutes belonged to a different era, one Sheridan was more than happy to prosper in. That was the price to pay for progress.

" Captain Sheridan?" A female voice asked from behind him in headquarters. Sheridan turned and smiled when he saw who it was. " Susan Ivanova, what're you doing here?"

Ivanova smiled, and Sheridan had to admire her appearance. Dark blue was still the traditional colour for an Earth uniform, but now it was a tunic with black trousers with a badge showing a star delta. The new Starfleet uniform possessed a utility belt containing a communicator, not a link on the hand like in Earthforce, a pocket scanner, and a disruptor with power cells next to it.

" I'm a Starfleet captain," she replied, showing her command pips.

Sheridan smiled, " Congratulations, what've you been doing?"

She shrugged, " I've been on a three year mission exploring a galaxy a million light years away. The new subspace slipstream drives are amazing. What about you, what're you doing here?"

" I've been called in for a briefing," Sheridan replied with an easy going smile.

Ivanova cocked her head, " A briefing at..." she checked her wrist watch. " 14.23?" It was 14.19.

Sheridan nodded, " That's the one. Why do you ask?"

" Because I've got a briefing as well. 14.23." Ivanova replied.

A young officer approached them, holding a padd. He consulted it before looking up with a smile, " Captains Susan Ivanova and Sheridan?" He asked.

Both officers acknowledged, and the officer nodded back, " Please follow me. The briefing is going to start."

The two Starfleet officers followed the officer, and they entered the briefing room. It was already occupied with at least a few others, among them were noted temporal scientists and engineers, and wormhole specialists. There was a viewing screen at the head of the table.

Admiral Hague started the meeting without preamble. " Thank you for coming Captains Sheridan and Ivanova. I think you know everyone?" Hague didn't wait for a response. He sat at the end of the table, and started the debriefing.

The screen turned on at the touch of a button, and an object, no bigger than a telephone box appeared on the screen. " This is the newest advancement of time travel technology. For a century we've been developing our knowledge of time travel, and through countless experiments we've finally found the answer. Dr. Weir, if you would."

One of the scientists stood up, a woman in her early 20s, or looked like she was in her early 20s. It was hard to tell because of the new genetic techniques, an individual could appear 12 years old and be over 80 in reality. " Thank you, Admiral Hague. I should start by explaining how we've reached this technology," Weir looked at the screen. " We first laid down the plans when we first arrived in this galaxy a hundred years ago, temporal fields became easier and easier to create, time portal technology. The temporal observatory, all of the temporal engineering projects, their results yielded this." She pointed. " But other experiments, the wormhole engineering and drive projects, and the pocket universe developments and Time's Eye, helped develop the TARDIS project."

Ivanova held up her hand, " TARDIS project?"

" T-A-R-D-I-S, Time And Relative Dimension In Space," Weir answered, " Basically, what a machine like this can do is travel in space/time, using wormholes for space travel and a temporal field for time travel, with the crew and the equipment existing inside a pocket universe. The TARDIS warps space with a warp field and takes the capsule away from the atmosphere, before the machine creates a wormhole for space travel."

" With the temporal field providing time displacement," Ivanova finished.

" More or less. Instead of the TARDIS providing the temporal field, it instead manipulates the temporal energy absorbed from Time's Eye and allows it to pinpoint the exact temporal destination for the time ship. We tested the method already with models, and they work well, the only problem is that we needed more than one Time Eye."

Sheridan sat up. Like everyone else in the Empire, he knew exactly how long and how difficult it had been to create the out of time and space black hole power source, and he knew it could not have been easy to accept. " What do you mean?" he asked.

Weir sighed, " Time's eye could send energy back through time, pulling the time ships through time, and sending them back, but only through a certain distance. Time ships powered this way needed to be pushed and pulled through time, using the energy sent from the Eye. When we verified our findings, we started work on not one, but two extra eyes. One in the past, as far back as possible, and one in our current era, say 34, 000 years in the past or the future."

" And we have this now?" Sheridan asked.

" Yes, the problem with the universal timeline is that its centuries long, and temporal energy needs a boost. The problem with time travel is that it needs vast amounts of energy, and whilst the Eye worked perfectly, it could only send time energy back only a finite distance. Its like an underground railway, you need more than one power station to keep it running, stations, trains, signals, the lot. We now have three separate Time Eyes beaming energy into the past and the future, or both." Weir said, folding her arms.

Hague took over at that point, " Captain Sheridan, Captain Ivanova, you will both be given command of the prototype TARDISes, and you will journey into the past and into the future. You'll be in overral command of the exploration missions."

" Where do you want us to go?" Ivanova asked.

" You're missions will be chosen for you, but you'll be sent on exploration missions. The new TARDISes use a wormhole drive that's more sophisticated than the drives we've been using. Captains, this project is vital. Our diplomatic services are trying to speak to the Hegomony, but they are losing ground with them." Hague said, his voice emphatising the desperation of the situation.

" War is inevitable?" Sheridan whispered. Hague nodded grimly, " It is. For the last century, our people have tried to stay as far away from alien contact, and the incident involving our seeding ship means they're aware of our existence. They refuse to speak to us, and our scanners indicate movement in their territories, moving towards ours. The TARDIS project may be brought in for war, sooner or later."

The pocket universe technology had allowed for larger on the inside spaces than on the outside, and the humans had seen them being used in factories and living space, massive city sized spaces in over developed cities. The TARDIS was the first time he had seen them be used for space/time travel; a massive pocket universe, temporal field generator, time observatories, holographic complexes, laboratories, wormhole and warp engine drives, shield generators and power station, all rolled into one. Sheridan and Ivanova had been sent into the past and into the future, respectively, and both of them were to test the engines of the TARDISes and the power systems.

* * *

**Sheridan's TARDIS.**

* * *

Not for the first time, John Sheridan looked around his TARDIS, his TARDIS, and couldn't help but feel...awed and shaken by how much technology had changed and improved over the century. Sheridan had never believed in immortality when he had been younger, he had believed that it wasn't how long you lived that defined someone, it was what you did in that lifetime.

Sheridan had lived for a hundred years already, and he had lived through pain in misery in the Minbari war. He knew how pathetic the Minbari were, calling him Starkiller, just because he managed to destroy a few of their ships. A few! He wasn't going to apologise to that pathetic species, in fact he wished they apologised to the humans they murdered, just because of a mistake. The time observatory had shown them everything, one of the biggest mysteries that had faced humanity was what had started the war that started them on the path of mastering space/time travel in the first place, and they found it.

They had killed the leader of the Minbari.

And the Minbari, did they try to find out what had happened? Did they accept apologises?

No.

They simply launched a war that cost thousands of lives, turned Earth's fair weather allies against them, got the Narns and the Centauri to launch their own massacres. Then the souls. Oh, yes, the humans knew about the Minbari souls, but they could not do anything about them, send them back or destroy them to spite the Minbari, not until Jeffrey Sinclair was sent to the Shadow war he was destined to fight in.

Sheridan clasped his hands behind his back as he walked around the TARDIS. The corridors were vast, and the TARDIS was sending telepathic signals to his mind where everything was. A ship? This was a city that travelled through time! Sheridan walked through the arboretum that took him an hour to walk through, where he admired the hummingbirds, the fishes swimming in the ponds...

...The engine section was massive, more expansive and more cathedrallike than the engine rooms of the ships Sheridan had been on, but where those had been the space equivalent of steam ships, these were the space equivalent of...well, god. In the centre, and dominating the room was the spherical form of the temporal core, the device which allowed for temporal displacement, powering the temporal field. Connected to the sphere were the power conduits that opened the wormhole and the warp drives that propelled the ship through the vortex...

" How soon to the destination?" Sheridan asked.

The TARDIS control room was not structured like a normal ship, with consoles and wall panels with viewing screens at sharp angles. Shaped in a circle, the console room had in the centre the central console with the time rotor, a device that rose and fell showing the extent of the power systems and the wormhole, was the nerve centre for the whole ship.

The console was manned at the moment by six people, engineering, navigation/helm, communication, technical, life support, science. Sheridan didn't know them all yet, but he was told they were the first people - aside from Ivanova's crew, of course,- that possessed the new Time Imprimature, an artifical genetic structure that gave people an instinctive knowledge of time travel, sensing temporal shifts and allowing them to build and understand the timeships. The imprimature gave them the ability to control the TARDIS, and understand how the living ship worked.

" We'll be there...in a minute, Captain," the navigation technician replied.

Sheridan nodded. The time rotor slowed down and with a sigh, it stopped, and the interior of the glass cylindrical column started spinning in its scanning mode. " Location?" Sheridan asked.

" Temporal and spatial probe shows we have travelled to another galaxy, about 23 billion light years away from Andromeda, and our temporal location is...June the 12, 1200."

* * *

Ivanova's TARDIS.

* * *

Ivanova's TARDIS travelled through the blue-purple-green hued tunnel of the wormhole, propelled by the warp field, and the temporal field allowed for time travel was laced inside the warp field. Ivanova had toured the TARDIS she was commanding like her contempory, and she had taken the time to tour the console room and looked over the console and the people that worked on the controls, how they operated the systems of the TARDIS and how they acted like the hands and ears of the living ship. Ivanova closed her eyes, leaning against a wall and listened, opening her telepathic senses so then she could properly hear the TARDIS thrumming in her mind.

The scope of how intelligent the TARDIS was compared to what Humans knew of ships operated by the Vorlons and the Shadows, and the rest of the First ones, amazed Ivanova. Unlike those the TARDIS was a being of its own, Ivanova could see that with the way the TARDIS extended itself to her.

Telepathic technology had allowed humans to interface with their technology, Ivanova had seen first hand how organic starships had communicated with their pilots, and she herself had found herself in conversation with the crafts.

TARDISes were much more than that; they seemed to exist in a non linear arrangement, and the implications startled her.

" We've arrived," the temporal navigation officer reported.

Ivanova licked her lips. " Status of ship, and location time?"

" Dimensional stabilisation systems, navigational deflectors working properly, main space time element's sub atomic and pulsar clocks are functioning within normal parameters. External and internal shells are properly aligned. Location time, the end of the universe. Scanning and temporal observatory crews are already at their stations."

Ivanova nodded, not at all sure what else she could do, these people knew more about this ship than she did. The TARDIS project was relatively new to her, and she had heard rumours about the technology over the years, but only rumours. The promise was that these machines would give humanity the master of time, the mastery they had sought for a hundred years.

* * *

**The creation of the TARDIS heralded the arrival of the Time Lords, and the final shedding of the vulnerabilities of humanity, but for the time being much was be accomplished. The TARDIS was only the dawn of the Time Lords, there still remained the threat of the Hegemony, though they were seen as lessers and not important enough for concern. The TARDIS would remain in testing for another 3 years before they were mass produced, the symbiotic nuclei would be mixed into the genetic structures of every human being, making them a Time Lord.**

**An Extract from Time Lord history - From The Earth - Minbari war to the Present day.**

* * *

" Now we know the TARDIS works properly, what do we do now?" The President asked her aides and senators.

For a moment no one spoke, thinking about the matter before one of the senators voiced an opinion. " We should continue our experiments, basing them on the machines commanded by Ivanova and Sheridan, and then send them out into the cosmos for exploration missions. Our knowledge on astrophysics, biology and culture has already received boons thanks to the faster than light breakthroughs, not to mention the temporal drives installed on them, our TARDISes are sure to be even better."

Another senator voiced her own opinion, " I think relying on TARDISes for time travel missions is a mistake. I think we should continue looking for other means of time travel to ensure our supremacy. Our temporal observatories have already shown a total of a thousand races with time travel knowledge, and some of that same knowledge led to the development of the TARDIS in the first place. If we would need other races to help us with it, without their knowledge, then what else can we accomplish?"

Quantrell had been a senator for years, and his influence carried a lot of weight in the senate. " I think we should create two forms of TARDIS; one for exploration and scientific assignments, and the other for military purposes. Our exploration grade TARDISes should be sent out into the universe for periods of years, say 4 or 19, and have them soak up as much as possible before returning to Earth or one of our colonies. The exploration TARDIS would carry a full crew complement and carry out cultural and scientific surveys, using the principles laid down by our earliest time travelling missions. But I agree that we shouldn't just rely on TARDISes for time travel, we should not be complacent. We must expand our knowledge of everything."

Quantrell's statement was met with applause, and everyone agreed with it.

The President called for silence, " Senator Quantrell has raised a number of good points, as have everyone else. Our temporal observatories have discovered we're not the only species to study time travel, and its thanks to those same races our understanding of temporal mechanics has increased. The potential of the TARDIS is also in question. Our ships are designed for exploration missions, thanks to the turnabout of Earthforce into Starfleet. Our TARDIS project was to help us to develop our understanding of the universe itself, not to wage war, but the idea of a military branch of the TARDIS project is already in hand. The military potential of time travel technology was never in doubt. We have already experimented with using time as weapons, as we have already in our past with nuclear power. This is my decision, Senator Quantrell's plan does have merit. The TARDIS project will be improved, but we shall improve it better with sending out the machines commanded by Ivanova and Sheridan, though both of them will have full and proper crews on board with different captains. Both ships will be sent out into areas brought into question by the Temporal observatories, and they will stay out there, sending reports back here for analysis. In return our observatories will be monitoring the information received from the time aware races in the cosmos to aid us in our understanding of time. With 2 TARDISes out there, I guarantee our knowledge will improve and our quest for knowing will continue."


	8. Chapter 8

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**The Time Vortex.**

" As you can see with this status report, our TARDISes require a new medium to travel in time, and I think we've found the answer," Dr. Carter was saying to the Scientific council of the Time lords whom she was speaking too. The light from the ceiling lamps was reflecting on Carter's blond hair as the temporal physicist touched another control on the monitor and a 3-D hologram appeared, showing a spherical mass with what the scientists recognised as a subspace pocket, a warped domain of subspace similar to the pocket universes created for TARDIS technology. Only this one had some adjustments; this sphere had something inside it, and it warped the upper levels of the subspace stratas, and there was a definite link with the Time's Eyes.

In the centre of the bubble was a cylinder, and the scientists watched as one piece of the cylinder broke away and moved further away from the other segment of the cylinder. A line of blue joined the two pieces together, and the sensory information showed temporal information on the screen.

" What is it?" One of the council asked.

Carter smiled, " A version of the Tipler cylinder, a variant that does not mean warping space in the hope time travel will be made possible. This version is far superior, and our tests and models indicate it's more than possible. Tipler's theory was basically that if you warp space then you can travel through time, and theoretically he was right, but our practical experiments hint otherwise. This is a warp tunnel generator, a much more powerful form of warp engine, and the key of the new TARDIS technology we intend to create. Our modern theory is to develop a subspace pocket where subspace's lower levels are warped, and send one half of the cylinder through time using a warp engine with a time dilation device." Carter nodded as the image enlarged, and everyone saw the vortex generator segments. They saw the time corridor generated between the two pieces. " The time vortex was originally planned a long time ago, and since our TARDISes are not capable of traversing time properly without help, the development of some kind of medium is essential."

" What about the temporal drives of the TARDISes already built?" One scientist asked.

" They can easily be modified to use the Vortex, but when the first TARDISes were constructed they used the Time's Eyes for temporal displacement. That was not a happy day for us because it meant we needed more than one power source to make time travel possible, but with the Time Vortex generator we can actually use the Eye's more viably and practically. We can have the three eyes inside the TARDIS temporal drives and the two halves of the generator at the same time."

" How does the generator work?" Another voice asked.

Ever since the first TARDISes were produced, the Time lords had learnt the painful way their desired time travel machines were not perfect, they lost power, or they suffered from dimensional collapse due to the levels of energy they needed for time travel and space travel. Theories like the generator were not new, but there were drawbacks to using such a device. You couldn't create air for aircraft to fly in, nor could you create an artificial sea for oeanic travel, and the Time Lords had not wanted to develop a medium for time travel unless they needed to.

One of the ideas was to create a wormhole and place it outside normal time and space, and whilst the idea had some attraction, it was met with problems. The first one being the universal shift of planets, solar systems, making stabilising the wormhole difficult. The other issue was the need to use the three Time's Eyes for powering the wormhole, and whilst they were prepared for it, it also meant depowering the TARDISes, and there were still temporal exploratory teams out there in the universe, albeit disappointed ones that their technology was causing so many problems even though the first tests had been more than adequate.

This idea was more attractive, not only could the development of time travel be made more accessible, it would also make things easier for the humans to develop time machines that could travel more freely.

" The generator will be sent back through time, at least as close to the beginning of the universe as possible. Then we submerge the generator inside the subspace layers and domains, and then establish the subspace fields for the generator to activate. The generator will send the other half through time, using a time dilation field and a warp engine to take it as far away as possible. Then the generator will activate, creating the time corridor. It'll run from the point in time it was created to the end of the universe itself, and it will be powered by the Time Eyes. All three of them, and they will power the TARDISes."

For ten minutes, the council deliberated, and they authorised the building of the generator.

* * *

It took the Time Lords three years to build the generator, and it was given a send off as the three massive Galaxy class starships opened the temporal conduits to tow the generator through time. When the generator was taken into the very far past, they activated the command that would submerge the ship into subspace, and the generator sank, for lack of a better term, and when it was submerged to the level it was stated to, it started to generate a warp field around itself, powered by the connection to one of the Time's Eyes.

Then the process began, it sent off the future section, and it sped off powered by a warp engine with a time dilation field. Since the device had been carefully programmed to stop at the very end of the cosmos, it did and the warp tunnel was activated, creating the corridor which would grant humanity the mastery of time.

Meanwhile, back in their original galaxy, the Human legacy lived on and not in a good way...


	9. Chapter 9

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**The Khanate of New Earth**.

_6 years after the End of the Earth - Minbari war._

* * *

Booted feet kicked the dead Minbari away from the controls, and through the corridors the decapitated bodies of the Minbari slain in the assault, blood splattered walls and floors, the ship was a slaughterhouse. The people that committed this act were armoured in armour in red, the colour of blood, lead by armoured troopers in blue.

The blue one gestured to the bodies, " Remove these carcasses, but don't space them." He added. " We shall keep them for genetic analysis. Order the Scientist crew to board the ship."

The red clad troopers bowed their heads to follow the order, and the blue clad leader removed his helmet. If any of the Minbari crew had survived they would never have believed it. The figure was tall, massive and muscular. His head was square, with a finely sculptured head, almost as if a sculptor had spent years doing the head and body justice. His hair was black, with shaggy bangs, but his eyes, cold and green were like chips of emerald. His mouth was firm and his jaw was hard. His hands were big, gloved and strong. His armour was shining blue, with a utility belt containing disruptor, power cells, com link, medical kit, scanner, and explosives.

He was a Strategist of the Khanate, the last of humanity. Orange garbed humans appeared, and the Strategist gestured towards the scientists. " You have your orders. You have two hours to prepare this ship for the journey home."

The Scientists didn't protest, they knew their place in the Order. They did their work, and the Strategist commended them for that.

* * *

The Strategist did an inspection of the Sharlin as they moved the ship away from the Minbari Federation before he teleported back to the Warbird. The Strategist nodded approvingly towards the augment at the controls. Teleport technology was brand new and it was on the pinacle pieces of technology the Khanate had developed from alien technology. If only the minds in the galaxy bothered to actually put their minds together, they could do so much to achieve greatness. Instead they just simply pranced around saying they had the best and they didn't need to go any further.

Not the Humans, and certainly not the Khanate.

* * *

Watching from the transparent viewport of his private quarters, the Strategist gazed at the view of the Sharlin class cruiser, thinking of how this day had come around. Throughout human history, there had been those who had done things privately, rogue organisations were set up to keep humanity in the shadows, but the Project, the oh so glorious project that spawned the augments, was the opposite. Project Chrysalis had been started seven years before the Dilgar war, and just after the First Contact with the Centauri. As more and more alien races were discovered, so too was the knowledge humans were not perfect compared to races that were incredibly strong like the Narns. Project Chrysalis was to change that. A genetic project, designed to augment human DNA and change people into superhumans, people of incredible strength, cunning, ambition, intelligence many times greater than that of any other scientist, with ingenuity improved, enhanced speed, strength, stamina, reflexes, enchanced healing power, denser bone and muscle structures.

For many years, the development of the augments was furthered, with the most advanced technologies going into it, and they created many embryos, thousands in fact. During the Earth-Minbari war, many of the embryos had been turned into children and there were scientists teaching them everything from the alphabet to quantum and hyperspace mechanics, the planet the scientists were using was attacked and the scientists were killed, but the compound for Chrysalis was deep underground, and whilst the normal humans above were being slaughtered, the augments survived, and they watched with cold hearts and minds as the Minbari slaughtered their weaker brethren. When the Minbari left, they left a lot of bodies of their warriors, and the augments daringly managed to steal them, PPGs and fighting pikes. For a long time, the augments fought amongst themselves, until one day, one of their members managed to rally the augments around. The augments followed him, but their ambitious nature was still there, and even a rallying leader could not be complacent.

His name was Khan.

The Khanate was an order, and their hierarchy was rigid. At the top and in total command was the High Supreme, Khan himself, followed by the Supremes, the leaders of the Order, and directly below them were the Strategists, they lead the battles and composed tactical scenarios and evaluated potential targets for the Empire.

Beneath the Strategists lay the Scientists. Responsible for the building of ships and maintaining them, they also formed the backbone of the intellectual forces of Khans' army. They came up with new weapons, new means of technology that the Khanate could come up with. They had already taken apart the technologies of numerous species already save the Vorlons, and now they were going to determine the potential uses of Minbari technology. They had already discovered shields and teleportation, and transwarp drive. Then there were the Geneticists, who were responsible for the purity of the new Human race, who represented the last of humanity, but they were also responsible for the Army.

The Army were the heart of the Khanate, the strongest of them all, and lead by the Strategists and supplied by the Scientists, they were the most powerful army in the galaxy. They were clones mostly, and that was the Khan's greatest attribute; an army that can be grown at the rate of many millions in a small amount of time. But the Khanate was not strong enough yet to wage full scale war.

The Strategist marched onto the bridge of the ship. It was a Narn heavy cruiser, captured by the Khanate, modified with gravity plating and transwarp drive and commandered for the use of the Khanate. " Report!" He demanded.

One of the Scientists turned in his direction and saluted, " The Minbari warship has had the transwarp coil installed, and we've fitted the controll unit to the device. It's ready for the return to new Earth."

The Strategist nodded, " Excellent. Advise the Supreme Council we have succeeded in the mission and we are preparing to return home."

" As you command."

" Send a message to the controller on the Sharlin," the Strategist continued to give orders. " Open a transwarp conduit to New Earth."

" At once."

The journey through the conduit was like stepping into a faster moving river and being swept away by the current. It was a multihued tunnel, with the Sharlin and the Heavy cruiser were being carried through space. The Strategist studied the conduit's tunnel with satisfaction. Unlike jump engine technology, transwarp allowed for more rapid transit, and there were no gravitational distortions to slow the ship down.

The helm operative announced, " We will be at the end of the conduit in...5...3...2...1." The tunnel ended in a flash of light, and the Strategist leant forward in his chair as the Heavy cruiser he commanded, and surveyed the space surrounding the world known as New Earth.

The planet was similar to Earth, but the solar system it was in was surrounded by a dark matter nebula, providing perfect cover. The Augments lead by Khan had discovered the planet long ago, and they settled here. The planet was one of many in this section of the galaxy, and it provided the perfect cover for the Khanate to rise from the ashes of the Earth alliance.

Above the planet, numerous ship yards and dock facilities were being finished, and the ships of dozens of cultures were already present; Vree, Narn, Drazi, Drakh, and now Minbari. All the technologies present in the ships would go on and create new ones for the Khanate and their own gain.

" Prepare my shuttle for launch. I need to make my report to the council." The Strategist ordered.

" At once, lord."

* * *

Teleportation was not allowed on the planet, and that made things substantially difficult, but since teleport tech was still new it had yet to be installed on all the new facilities, but the fleets had yet to be built for the conquest of the galaxy. The Strategist landed on the landing area of the Grand Palace, the home of Khan. As soon as the left the shuttle, the Strategist walked through the palace, his armour replaced with an ornately cut blue tunic with a silver belt of sparkley metallic material with his disruptor and battle sword, his polished knee high boots echoing slickly on the marble floors. It had taken a good few years for the palace to be built along with the city with the help of robots, but they had done their work as the High Supreme dictated.

A trooper escorted him through to the gardens where Khan was waiting.

Augments were posted as guards around the garden, and Khan himself marched over to the Strategist. When the High Supreme approached, the Strategist dropped to one knee and bowed his head.

Khan replendent in his gold/black tunic and uniform smiled, " Rise, my friend. You have done well, Strategist Lord Marcus. With your contributions, our noble species will once again rule."

To a normal human, the arrogant confidence of the Augments and their belief of Human superiority which made them believe humans were godlike, would be disgusting.

Marcus'd head bowed lower, " I live to serve thee, My lord."

Khan smiled. " I know."

" Your mission has been met with resounding success. With Minbari technology, the first ships should be ready for building." Khan was saying as they both walked through the gardens.

" When will the ships be ready without the introduction of Minbari technology?" Marcus asked, his hands folded respectfully.

Khan sighed, " The technologies we've developed already have already given us the means to build radical starships. The army have already started creating clones for widespread deployment. Super weapons devised by the Scientist corps are being planned, and the Strategists, " Khan nodded in Marcus's direction with a smile. " Are working on devising the best means of eradicating our enemies, and reducing them to the lower forms of life they represent."

Marcus bowed his head, his ambitious mind working on a means to take advantage of this. " What of the Minbari?" He asked.

Khan waved a hand dismissively, " I intend to turn them into helots."

" Slaves? You do not intend to destroy them?" Marcus asked before he remembered himself and where he was.

Khan was neither angry nor pleased with being questioned, but he answered the question honestly. " Our basic," he sneered the word like he had a disgusting taste in his mouth, " ancestors made an error in judgement, and it cost them ships, planets, lives. I will not see our future go the same way. The New Humans, the masters of the Master race perish the same way. That is why I have ordered all technologies researched, even theoreticians are being drafted to assist in the war plans. Nothing must stand in our way, Marcus. Not the Minbari, the Centauri, the Narns, or even a Basic human, if they still exist or not."

The Strategist licked his lips. There had been rumours of humans who had managed to escape the destruction of Earth, but in 6 years there was no sign of them, but there were reports the Khanate had detected and intercepted that spoke of Hyperion class warships, and new warships being designed for a retaliatory war of revenge on the Minbari, but nothing had come from them. Marcus knew that Khan was making a good point, the basics may have created them and their new perfection, but the augments owed them nothing. The augments were a whole new species, and they were prepared for war.

* * *

_Out in the Outer rim. _

General Rickman and Senator Morgan Clarke looked over the Centauri warship they had had captured, swarms of dedicated scientists and engineers going over the ships hull before they turned to face the Predator class destroyers, the most advanced warships the humans had ever produced. Six years of pain and persecution had made the last of humanity stronger, and now they would avenge their fallen comrades, and their home planet. Earth.

The New Earth Alliance was in the process of being restored to the Galaxy at large.


	10. Chapter 10

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**The New Earth Alliance.**

* * *

Rickman opened up a drawer in his desk and produced a bottle of Malt whiskey, he opened it and poured some for himself and Clarke. Clarke sipped some, smacking his lips at the exquisite taste. " How goes the progress?"

" The Minbari and our...former allies did an excellent job of killing us, Senator. We managed to divert as many colonists here, to the outer rim territories, and establish new ones here. The scientists are trying to create biological weapons in the form of soldiers, using human genetic material to form an invincible new army. The new soldiers grow very quickly, they mature in less than a week, and they have a neural mesh in their brains to grant them knowledge, everything that we know of war, strategy and weapons is implanted in their heads, and a drug will keep them in our hands."

Clarke nodded approvingly, glancing around the office. It was fairly crude, it was more of a shack over decorated to take away the fact it was a prefabricated building and not one built by humans or robots. " And what of the warfleets, how about them? And the telepaths we saved?"

Rickman took another gulp of his drink before he stated what he knew. " The introduction of Centauri technology has given us more precise jump engines and weapons systems. I've sent a team to capture a Vree saucer and an Abbai ship for their shield and weapon systems. We've also learnt how to use antimatter as a power source and weapon system, and we're in the middle of building the first of the Predator class destroyers, the Starkiller class dreadnoughts, named after John Sheridan who died with Earth, and the Raptor class attack ships. We've finished construction of the Warlock class destroyers, and we're disposing of the Hyperion and Aurora class vessels, melting down their metals for the new ships. The new minerals we've discovered here, in this part of the galaxy, have enabled us to be creative with the minerals. As for the teeps," Rickmans' eyes narrowed grimly. " Their training is going well, but many won't serve with them."

" It can't be helped," Clarke snapped. " We must put aside our differences and then rebuild our race."

" I know that," Rickman argued with the politician, albeit the politician who had saved them. " What about...them?" He asked, changing the subject, and looking up meaningfully and to the Shadows.

Clarke stiffened. It was well known that an ancient race had approached Clarke, offering technology, the means to wipe out the Minbari and the others, moving the humans to the dominant race in the galaxy, avenging the fallen. The alliance had already yielded a tremendous deal for the human refugees, and they had been given valuable information already, answers to questions. Now humans had slicer beam weapons, advanced bio armour and so on. In exchange, the Shadows asked for telepaths to be handed over for a purpose Clarke was unaware of.

" What about them?" He asked.

" What're they gonna do for us next?"

Clarke sighed wearily, " I don't know. I've tried speaking to them, but they've told me they're being busy with a project."

" What kind of project?" Rickman asked.

Clarke blew out a breath. He didn't know, and he wasn't quick to find out. The Shadows were not a pleasant race to deal with, even though they were understanding.

* * *

In hyperspace, on route for the ancient world of Z'ha dum, a fleet of Shadow vessels was travelling. The fleet composed of fighters, battlecrabs, and even a Death cloud. In the centre of this fleet, was a massive Shadow vessel. It had characteristics similar to the battle crabs, but it had the spread out starfish appearance of the fighter, and the longer view of a scout ship, but it more larger than a battlecrab.

It was the flagship of the Shadow fleet, and the heart of the race on the whole. It was the Shadow Queen's ship. The Shadows were an insect like species, and they had many characteristics in common with spiders and ants. They lived in a hive like mentality, but their queen allowed freedom in many ways. All the Shadows, like all the First Ones, were telepathic, and ascended to a new level of consciousness, like the Vorlons, but the Shadows were not slaves to their new level like the Vorlons, and just the thought of that arrogant narrow minded species made the Queen and the race, angry beyond measure.

The Queen relaxed, soon they would be at Z'ha dum once more, and then the return of the Shadows would be complete. Eight years had passed since the Earth-Minbari war, and the apparent and perceived destruction of the humans, but in that time the servant races - the Stribes and the Drakh, had been returning to Z'ha dum, and preparing as they had done many times in the past the planet for the central base for the next Great War in the First Ones contract.

The contract between the Shadows and the Vorlons was binding, and it would only end when a species exhibited signs of being both of order and obedience and chaos and evolution, and war. And it had been a long cycle, and the Queen, although immortal, was incredibly bored with it, but there was nothing she could do about it. The contact had been in existence for millions of years, and it took millions of centuries for both sides to see that the younger races, innocent and naive to the point of stupidity, that both races, the embodiments of order and chaos, saw them as the means to prove which ancient race was right.

Order vs chaos. Which one?

Chaos lead to pain and struggle, conflict, and the breaking of potential. It was a simple theory; two sides are brought together, and they fight. Many die, on both sides, but there are survivors. Those that do survive are stronger, smarter, better. It was like a city being washed away by an angry sea; each new generation got stronger, and the city becomes more and more easy to defend itself against the sea, higher walls, sluices to let in water to underground locations to relieve flooding. Strength and brains. Evolution.

The Vorlons, however, wanted to bottle that potential up with order and obedience. They were so blind that races sought to unlock their potential, and they never took an active role in the other races affairs, always standing to the side, waiting to see which would win; order or chaos.

The last war saw the Minbari race appear, a younger race, but one the Vorlons took a hand in preparing for the conflict at hand. That was the fifth time the Vorlons had done so; take a species on the verge of oblivion, and show themselves as Valeria, and then coerce them into entering space where they would be given gifts. The Vorlons had done it five times already, but only the Minbari had managed to survive, and they had fought like demons, but they were by then so entrenched by the Vorlons that they could not and would not get out. The Shadows had seen them as the nexus point they had sought after for so long, but they quickly retracted that assumption when they could not be swayed, and the cycle was not broken.

For the next thousand years, the Shadows retreated, waiting.

Then they found another race, one more belligerent and less accepting like the Minbari for order, but somehow melding both order, obedience with chaos. The Shadows had been shocked; at last a race that could break the gulf between the two philosophies and finally stop the wars from occurring once again. At last the Shadows could be free.

This race were known as Humans.

They were an unremarkable race, seen as primitive and hostile, dangerous, even savage, but they were also seen as courageous, honourable and ordered. Again, the perfect go between for order and chaos.

Then they had made their biggest mistake.

They started a war with the Minbari, who had become so deluded into thinking they alone were superior, and powerful enough to wage another war with the Shadows without discovering the truth, with two other races who'd once been humanities allies turned on the humans, destroying them and their ships and worlds, and the humans had supposedly destroyed their own world. The worst part was that one of the races that did that was also one of the races the Shadows wanted to wage wars on other races.

There were consolations; humanity had not been totally destroyed and it was possible that the circle could finally be broken enough to warrant the First Ones to leave their galaxy for the final time, and the worlds that had...disintegrated were still out there, but the Shadows could not be entirely sure where and when they were, but they could feel the humans new power, reaching through time and space, and scaring the Queen into submission. The humans were starting to come into their potential, but not in the way the First Ones would've thought possible.

All the First Ones could feel the power too, but since the Shadows had never communicated with them since the Great Schism, the historical event where the First Ones started going their own separate ways.

There were two other groups of humans; one a genetically enhanced subspecies, although they would doubtless be angry with that assessment, clamouring for war on the galaxy on the whole, and already garnering attention to themselves from the Shadows. The Queen herself was tempted to contact them, subtly start to manipulate them and give them technology, the very same technologies they were giving the other group of humans, this time the last band of normal humans to have escaped and gotten away when Earth went elsewhere.

The final group of humans, the ones whom had managed to slip past the Narns and Centauri, had gone to ground, and they were trying to rebuild and were preparing to avenge their fallen. The Queen couldn't help but wonder and imagine what would happen if both these groups met, would there be war? If so, excellent. And using technology and knowledge supplied by the Shadows would likely be a bonus.

* * *

Khan was sleeping, or at least part of him was since Augments were superior enough to control their bodies, even when asleep. His senses were so sharp that if a droplet of water splattered over the floor, Khan would hear it as if it had been a glass shattering. Even as the High Supreme he needed to be careful, there had been many attempts on his life as the young warlord had needed to defend himself against an assassin's plasma bullet or blade slashing across his throat, and he had defended himself each and every time. Thinking about the inevitable victories made Khan more than aware of the inevitable need to sacrifice much of the Khanates already scarce resources.

Just as he was pondering, a presence appeared in his room, and Khan woke up, dragging his PPG and bearing it on the creature in front of him. It was like an insect, black and shimmering, almost like a glittery fly, but this creature more on spider like legs.

_Do not be afraid_, a soothing voice spoke in his mind, sending Khan into a small and slight panic. _I mean no harm. I sensed your dreams of war, conflict. I can help you._

Khan did not lower his weapon, " Who are you?" The response was more violent than he expected.

_Never ask that question, it is the question of the Vorlons, and they would ask it many times before you could begin to grasp it. My species has a name ten thousand letters long, and even your enhanced intellect and throat would not be able to speak it. We have another name. Shadows. But in fact, we are an ancient race, and we have seen and lived through wars many times greater and more glorious than the ones your basic ancestors have ever dreamt of._

Khan relaxed slightly, but it was the thought of finally besting his ancestors that persuaded him that this creature was being sincere. When it had been speaking to him in his mind, it sent images that Khan knew were true, of war, conflict, on scales even Khan could not begin to imagine or measure.

" What do you want?"

_Ah, the correct question_, the Shadow seemed pleased, at least to Khan. _We have been watching your people in the past, how you are very much the race we want to start a time of great conflict for the galaxy on the whole, and you will command a mighty empire with a strength and power beyond your imagination._

That appealed to Khan. The Shadow carried on, _My people and I are willing to help you, and we know you have stolen other races technologies in order to make yoursevles invincible. We shall not appear to your people, but with your indulgence we can provide you with the means to develop faster and more powerful ships to wage wars._

This seemed too good to be true, and Khan could see that there needed to be a catch. " What do you get out of this?"

_We believe that true evolution comes from conflict. We only want you to reach your full potential. You are aware of the Vorlons, are you not? _

Khan nodded at the unexpected question, noticing as he did that the alien creature had mentioned the Vorlons twice already and he wondered why they seemed to hate that particular race out of all in the Galaxy, and the Shadow carried on. _My race and the Vorlons are two of many advanced and ancient cultures, collectively we're known as the First Ones, and our technologies were the most advanced in the galaxy, the whole universe. Our race waged wars on the others for centuries, making them grow into their own potentials, and also giving us unprecedented powers. The Vorlons and my race have been fighting between our selves the most for centuries, and thhen we turned to the younger races, You, the Minbari, the Vree and so on to do the fighting for us and to see which philosophy is right. Chaos, or order and obedience. Do you wish for your race to be slaves of the Vorlons? They will bottle up your desires for power, for greatness, just like they would have if they had your Basic ancestors in their power. I can see into your mind, Khan, I can see your ambition. I like it. You asked me what we would get out of all this, well it is this. We would get to witness and stand by your side, as the galaxy is plunged into full scale war. Do you agree?_

Khan considered. On the one hand he wanted his race and the Khanate to remain outside of alien intervention and the idea of slavery on a philosophical level to the Vorlons was repugnant to him, but he was also a realist and he was aware, more than aware it would take years for the new technologies to be fully understood before the battlefleets of the Augment civilisation could be built. He needed to hold onto his position as the High Supreme, and to do that he needed to be strong, but he wanted to begin as soon as possible.

On the other hand the Shadow had appealed to his lust for conquest. The only flaw he could see was that the Khanate would and could become the pawns of the Shadows, but if he wanted to hold on to his power, he would need to make sacrifices.

Holding his head high, he said proudly, " I accept."


	11. Chapter 11

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**The Hegemony War. Part one.**

* * *

Ever since the Seed ship incident, the Hegemony had tried on many occasions to attack the humans, now the Time Lords, but even the advanced technology of the Hegemony could not keep up with the technology and the sheer cunning of the human race. Ever since the enounter, all human colonies had fortified their locations, mined the entire sectors they were in with cloaked mines, and armed their planetary surfaces with pulsar cannons.

When the humans ascended to become the Time Lords, the Hegemony did not realise that their enemy were more powerful than they were, and since the Hegemony had a very...limited view of other species, the Hegemony ignored the signs that the humans were a probable threat.

The Time Lords had been created out of the ashes of the destruction of the Earth alliance, and they were not about to have their new supremacy and dominion attacked by a lower life form than the Hegemony, especially when all the Hegemony was had been absorbed already by temporal expeditions and monitoring on the behalf of the Empire.

The Hegemony were one dimensional beings, incredibly arrogant, small minded and tiny minded. The Time lords knew they resembled spiders with a human torso and head. They had bluish skin with a reddish purple tinge, and faceted eyes and venomous fangs.

The council met to discuss how to destroy the Time Lords. The Empress moved forward, her eight legs clicking on the floors of the mothership. " For many years our people have been dealing with a race, known as the Time Lords. In that time, they have grown more and more powerful. In time they will destroy us, and threaten our hold on this galaxy. The Empire must not fall."

War was declared.

The Hegemony battleships resembled webs, moving along in gravimetric fields towards an outermost colony on the edge of Time Lord space. The Time lords had already compared their technology with that of the Minbari, and the results were not encouraging. A Minbari warship was powerful, but their power diminished when compared to a webstar, a webstar could level a whole solar system in seconds. If the Minbari encountered a webstar, it would be destroyed before the Minbari could even act.

Two war TARDISes materialised close by. The captains of both ships knew that the war had been declared, and they were waiting for the action to begin. The Time Lords may not like the threat of war, but they were not about to hide in fear of it, they were willing to fight to protect themselves and their superior technology. The webstars were caught by the energy cannons and the chronic weapons of the TARDISes. The webstars battle computers tried valliantly to match the ships weapons with that of the unknown weapons used by the Time Lords. The webstars had only encountered resistance from the Asgar, the Tollana, the Goa'uld, and now the Time lords, but even those contempories could not match the power of the Time Lords, who destroyed the entire squadron.

The first battle had been won.

The second battle took place inside the home system of the Hegemony itself. An entire fleet of war TARDISes surrounded the planet, and as they decimated the fleet of surprised Hegemony warships, a group of them destroyed the planets. All planets were bound by a tremendous amount of gravity, but the Time Lords had the power to reverse that energy, tearing planets apart. Orders from the High council were plain, exterminate the Hegemony. All traces. When the homeworld of the Hegemony, and the centre of the empire, the home of all their history and culture was destroyed, the Time lords turned their attentions to the rest of the fleet.


	12. Chapter 12

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**The Hegemony War. Part Two.**

* * *

John Sheridan sat in the command chair of the War TARDIS, his telepathic mind awash with reports from every member of the crew about the status of the ship. War TARDISes were smaller and more compact than their exploratory contempories, all the better for weathering in combat, and their defence systems were more complex than the Exploration grade time ships. He was presently examining orders to blockade Hegemony space since he didn't hide his disgust that humanity were doing what the Minbari had done to them, but he knew they had a point. The Hegemony were evil, and their xenophobia was more intense than the various races in the Milky way. The war had merely been going on for nearly a week, and it was hoped it would be over in another.

Since the declaration, oppressed races and planets held in the power of the Hegemony for so many years, were taking the time to ferment rebellion, and the Time Lords were sending soldiers to help their insurrections. Sheridan supported that plan, it would mean allies, and in war you needed allies, but that was under convertional circumstances. The Time lords were powerful, but their war was a rallying cry, a final assault on the Hegemony, and the liberation of the slave races whose only crime was they were not Hegemony.

The Asgar, the Goa'uld, the Tollana, amongst others, had joined in, and sharing their resources and intelligence with the Time lords, they had formed the core of the war against the spider like aliens.

* * *

The President was in meeting with the Tollana, Goa'uld and Asgar representatives, and was eyeing them along with the rest of the Council. She knew that in front of her were incredibly powerful representatives from ancient cultures that had long since had the power to resist the Hegemony, but they had never been able to stop them even by banding together, which they had done a few times in the past. The Hegemony had been too strong for any of them, and since none of them, aside from the Asgar and the Goa'uld were old enough to be significantly a threat to the Hegemony, none of the races in front of her would have been able to fight the Hegemony without help.

The Time Lords were about to sign a treaty that would stipulate that the three races should join the Time Lords in the war, aiding them in the war. The President took the time to study each of the aliens.

The Asgar were physically tiny, with silver-grey skin tones with a tinge of purple, and their skin was as smooth as a crystal. They reminded the President of the holographs she had seen of the Vree, a race that had visited Earth countless times in the 20th century, but the Asgar were older and much more shorter than the Vree, though they shared evolutions. The Asgar were spindly thin beings, with massive black eyes, and a small mouth.

The Asgar were advanced, and when the first TARDIS had landed on their homeworld to absorb the knowledge of the Asgar, Time Lord tech advanced with it when they returned home. The Asgar and the Hegemony had been waging war against each other for millions of years, and still the Hegemony were able to put up a bigger fight than the Asgar, mostly because the Hegemony possessed a genetic memory, and they learnt from their experiences, changed and evolved. They would be valuable allies in the war, as their ships possessed superior faster than light technology compared to that used by the Hegemony.

The Goa'uld were different. Physically they appeared to resemble humans, but that was a misnomer; in fact the Goa'uld were a symbiotic race of beings, with one part being a snake like creature which dwelt within a pouch inside the body. The humanoid host resembled a human, but they were taller and thinner than a human, and their hair was dark ranging in tones of red, blond, brown and black. None of them had lighter hair, and their skin tone was pale, but when the skin reached the temple, a pinkish ( sometimes purple ) tinge appeared, and their eyes were a sparkling blue. None of them had any other colour tone to their eyes.

The Goa'uld, like the Minbari, operated a caste system, but it was based on how senior a Goa'uld symbiot was compared to the host; the older the symbiot, the more senior and powerful it was. The symbiot jumped from body to body, and they could even change caste from scientist to engineering, piloting, etc, but none of the high borne symbiots were to join with the inferior type of symbiot. They were for the warrior class of the Goa'uld empire. That was the strangest thing about them, the President mused, that there were two forms of Goa'uld, similar to how different Dolphins were to Whales, or Dogs to foxes and wolves.

The Goa'uld, like the Hegemony, possessed a genetic memory, and all the symbiots spawn possessed the knowledge of its seven parents, and it was probably why they had survived for so long. Unlike the other two races, the Goa'uld's technology was based on an ancient Hegemony war web that had crashed on their homeworld, and they were able and successful enough to reverse engineer a good percentage of the ship, but the rest couldn't be salvaged. Ignoring the possibilities of danger, the Goa'uld had launched themselves into space, and as each generation passed so too did their knowledge, and that was passed down symbiot by symbiot, but they wouldn't meet their energy for another thousand or so years, building a massive empire like the Hegemony, and when they did meet, the Goa'uld met an enemy of tremendous power and sophistication. The Goa'uld had ceased empire building, and they changed their priorities to fighting the Hegemony, and they had won dozens of battles, forming the core of the resistence, but it had floundered over the years, and needed a boost of resources to keep it going.

The President knew that the Goa'uld were on the point of oblivion, and couldn't help but be impressed with how they had managed to hold their own for so long. The same could not be the same for the Tollana.

The Tollana resembled humans more closely, but like the Centauri before them, any chance of genetic similarities were thrown out away and practically forgotten, but apart from that there was no genetic similarity, and unlike the Goa'uld and the Asgar, they weren't fighters. Instead they were scientists and engineers, relying on their advanced technology to achieve some measure of a victory, but they did exchange technologies with their allies, but that was like giving a small coin to a starving man on the point of death.

The President wasn't even sure she wanted the Tollana in these negotiations, but she was aware that if it weren't for them, and the technology the alliance would've been destroyed years ago, and the Hegemony would've overrun the galaxy. If we hadn't intervened, the president thought to herself. It had been one of the long term plans of the Time Lords to destroy the Hegemony, and this was one of the first steps.

The Asgar spoke, drawing the President out of her musings, " How were you able to destroy the Hegemony war webs? Even an Asgar - Goa'uld fleet with Tollana upgrades could not do that to an entire squadron." The aliens voice was deep and smooth.

The president looked down, and decided to tell the truth. She explained how the Time Lords could look through time and space, peer into other worlds and learn everything about other races. When the three representatives realised the Time Lords had used the technique with their own technology and cultures, they reacted with anger before the president made them see that they had only done it to learn about a new culture, but the Tollana, who didn't like their technology being shared, even with the alliance and only did it reluctantly, were furious.

The President ignored their put out expressions, or whatever the expression on the Asgar's face was, and carried on regardless. " Does it really matter where we got our technology? We made most of it ourselves, and only added yours on afterwards. We were stranded in this galaxy a century ago, and we had to rebuild our race after a war that had destroyed a quarter of the species. When we arrived here, we spent years rebuilding ourselves, not for conquest. That was left behind in favour of knowledge gathering. Even without our time travel technology, we still managed to destroy a warship belonging to the Hegemony."

The Goa'uld representative commented, " Our intelligence reports detailed that incident, but we were unable to confirm it."

" Well, it happened. Now you three have a choice. We can help you with the Hegemony, and we can destroy them. For that I suggest an alliance, a Federation between us as the founders of the federation, and we can bring in the survivors of the slaves that the Hegemony have destroyed, working together to bring an era of peace about."

" What do you intend to do with the Hegemony when we have formed this Federation?" The Tollana representative asked.

The President looked down and looked up again. " We intend to put them on a galaxy wide trial, and then we intend to destroy them."

That brought them onboard, though they were not enthusiastic about the trial, so the President explained what the trial was going to be. With astonishment and growing excitement, the alien delegates eagerly agreed to it.

To my readers, I've written another Babylon 5 story similar to this one, its called the Masters of Time and Space.


	13. Chapter 13

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**The Trial and the Seed of the Federation.**

The Time Lord High Council and the representatives of their allies, the Asgar, the Tollana, and the Goa'uld, amongst others, but there were dozens of other alien representatives, some of whom had been fighting the Hegemony for centuries, others had been enslaved for so long that freedom was an obscure concept for their minds. One thing for sure, the president could tell that each one wasn't expecting the trial.

The trial had been on the agenda of the Time Lords for a very long time. It had been established for years, the trial was to show the galaxy at large the Time lords were not conquerors whom would just return to their home system at the end of a war. The trial was to begin a new era, without the fear of the Hegemony looming over their forms, but one of peace and prosperity. The President had already arranged for the new era to begin, for warp technology to become circulated amongst the aliens that had been outside the notice of the Hegemony warlords.

The president had to admit, for empire builders the Hegemony had been too complacent, and the Hegemony survivors were presently in this room, just 10 of them, their Inner circle and one of their military commanders. The rest were residing in the universe cube in front of her. She eyed them, all of them were clicking their pincers, but they were apprehensive and after seeing first hand how powerful and strong the Time Lords were, it was highly unlikely they were confident of them getting off.

Inside of the cube was the mass of their home worlds, melded together to form one mass. That was to become their home for the rest of time, and the cube would be placed inside a special vault, never to be opened again by any decree.

The President sent a telepathic message to the man sitting next to her, the adjutant, who rang the bell three times to get the attention of everyone in the court.

" The trial is assembled, to prove the guilt of the Hegemony. The charges read as follows," the president read the list on a padd, delighted privately that the digital computer was able to house more information than one long mere piece of paper. " Genocide - 9000 counts, inciting galactic war on no less than 5 dozen occasions, slavery and enslaving of various races without provocation or mercy. Strip mining worlds already inhabited. Willful assault on various aliens, desecration of alien worlds, and use of biogenic weapons on species. Attacks on Time lord planets, observatories, and starships and stargate locations." And so the list went on and on, and for ten minutes the president recited the charges, and when she had finished she looked up, her eyes shining with contempt.

" You have heard the charges. Do you have anything to say in your defence?" When none of the Hegemony spoke up, and their pincer clicked, the president lost some of her patience. " You must speak." When none of them spoke, the president merely said, " Very well." She mentally activated the agoniser field built into the dias they were standing on, and the Hegemony shrieked in sudden angry as they felt little red hot needles suddenly burn their way through their bodies. The president and the other Time lords watched on, unimpressed but aware of what was happening. The other aliens wondered what trickery the Time lords were using. In spite of their help, many of the aliens were understandably wary of the Time lords and the power they wielded, and understandably they were afraid the Time lords were going to take up where the Hegemony left off.

The Hegemony had been the oldest race in the galaxy, and the most powerful and the most dangerous, but they were nothing compared to how dangerous the Time Lords were. The Time lords possessed the power to manipulate space/time and travel through and monitor time, if they could do that then they were capable of anything.

Finally, the Queen of the Hegemony shrieked in her high pitched voice, " Yes, we'll speak! Stop the pain!" Her voice cried, starting to draw itself out. The agony field stopped, but the Time lords didn't force the aliens to speak straightaway; the agony field could badly damage the nerves in a body, and the field had been set quite high for the Hegemony. After the warlike past of their ancestors, the Time lords had decided to keep their ways of enforcing the truth through force, but they decided to ensure it was painless. The agony field was the answer; a field that manipulated the nerve clusters of the body, keeping the subject in a constant state of agony. The Time lords only reserved the field for prisoners. The more agony the inmates were in, the less chance they would have of escape, if they tried to escape with the implant still inside their bodies.

The Queen recovered fast, using her superior control of her mind and body to bring herself under control. Holding her head haughtily, like she was a barbarian queen, she announced. " I shall speak." After her declaration, all her arrogance came out. " We do not see the authority of the court. We, the eldest and most powerful race in this galaxy, have the right to decide what will happen with each race, whether they should even live or die, or live as a slave. Who will not delight in being enslaved by a god!" The Queen and her cohorts screamed in their grating tongue, throwing back themselves until they stood on their hind legs.

The President's voice, cold and hard rang out, and she laced her words with her empathic power. " You are not gods, nor are you special."

The retort from the Time lady, amplified by her telepathic power, shut the spiderlike beings up and made them cringe. They were not the only ones, the Goa'uld, Tollana and Asgar representatives also cowered at the sound of her voice.

" You have heard the charges, and you have been found guilty by the people of the Time Lord empire." The President carried on, the cube lighting up with light. " You and your people will be locked away for the rest of eternity."

The Hegemony disappeared in a flash of light, the Queen shrieking obsenities at the Time Lords. The sound of the queen faded when the box stopped glowing. The President picked up the cube and passed it to one of her aides. " You know what to do with that." The aide nodded and took the cube out of the room. The Goa'uld ambassador asked, " What will happen to them?"

" The Hegemony species, or what remains of them, are now inside a pocket universe bound by a time loop, forcing time to move much faster and through the same point in time. Nothing can get inside and nothing can leave. The cube will be placed in a temporal pocket, undetectable by any race's sensors. Now, gentlemen, shall we not talk about the future?"

One of the Tollana delegation stood up shakily, fear written across her face. " How do we know we won't be next?"

The president gave a small smile, showing she wasn't a threat. When she started speaking, the other representatives couldn't believe their ears. For three hours, the president and other members of the Time Lord council worked to persuade them on the benefits of the proposition. One by one, each of them became excited at the possibilities, even the races that had been destroyed systematically by the Hegemony.

It was the start of the future.


	14. Chapter 14

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**The War with the Khanate.**

* * *

Delenn sighed as she read and reread the reports that had been mounting for the last month before she turned to look out of the viewing port, which was showing the escort fleet for the Valen'tha, the Shargoti class Minbari war cruiser assigned to carry the Grey council above the Minbari people, not that they would do much good in protecting the council if the new human threat attacked them. Delenn walked over to the port, and leant against it and closed her eyes, wondering if the spirit of humanity was trying to demand revenge on her and her decision to go to war with them. It certainly seemed like it to her, but she couldn't say she blamed them for that. The Minbari had, afterall, hunted humanity to the brink of extinction, and the other races that were being attacked had certainly contributed to the new war with the humans, humans that were unusual.

In the 15 years since the destruction of the human homeworld, there had been scattered reports of surviving humans, and Delenn had been the driving force to find out if they could be reached, if a settlement between then could be made, desperate to make amends and to make a sort of peace. But the reports had been unconfirmed since they were too few for the Council to be interested, and many on the Council, complacent and foolish as they were, declared they could not waste valuable resources on human lives even if they had a Minbari soul. The anger she had felt, the painful knowledge they had been destroyed their own souls through the destruction of the humans who had taken their own lives rather than be destroyed. And now, there was indeed confirmation humans had survived, but these humans were different, they were stronger, faster and smarter physically than they had been before, and their technology was more advanced than it had been before.

Delenn remembered that moment, she still suffered from nightmares of the moment when Valen's human form had looked at her with such hatred, such unrelenting grief and rage, and how she had tried to plead with him to stay alive, only to see him and the others help each other shake off the drugs the Minbari warriors had carelessly given them, forced them to undergo the Triluminary ritual to determine their soul status, but treated them little better than animals. Delenn grimaced; she knew that the Minbari people on the whole considered humans to be primitives with nothing to show for their culture. The Minbari preached to the galaxy, no better than the other races come to that, that they were the most advanced race in existence, in culture and in technology. Then again so did other races, but some more than others. The Centauri postured and procastrinated about their republic, dressed in fine clothes, dined on fine foods and drank expensive wines and other beverages, but their republic had decayed, become stagnant, and they had given up much of their territories. It was a sad fact, but Delenn couldn't say she didn't think the Centauri deserved it.

Thinking of the Centauri made her think of the Shadows, who had obviously appeared to the republic, and now the Centauri seemed to gain more and more military advances and victories over the Narns, and the Minbari had called the humans barbarians. Only barbarians would let something as petty as breaking away and gaining freedom from a hundred years of pain and slavery get in the way of the future, and some Centauri were like that. Delenn, and the Anla'shok were convinced that the Centauri were the thraws of the Shadows, the only proof they had was the sudden number of victories and the daring the Centauri were now getting. Where had it come from when all the daring had left them as soon as they started giving up more of their worlds and protectorates? The Centauri's sudden return to the galactic stage had also brought in two groups of humans, one of them were certainly more like the humans Delenn had known from her observations of the numerous battles they lost during the old war but there seemed to be few of them. Their technology had become more advanced, but slightly to make a fairer fight with a Minbari starship. The others...she shuddered as she recalled the damage inflicted on the Minbari people by them.

Delenn thought about the human carrying Valen's soul, something she found herself doing on many an occasion these past 15 years of pain and grief, she wondered what the soul of Valen had seen as a human. Did he have a family before Earth was destroyed, a wife and children? Was he happy in the human afterlife? Delenn knew humans had different beliefs than the Minbari, and that wasn't their fault, but the rest of her people did.

The Minbari had been fighting against the strange humans for the last 2 months, and so far the Minbari were taking heavy losses with ships boarded and the kills crewed, their throats slit or torn to pieces, blood painting the walls. Delenn shuddered as she remembered the number of times she and the rest of the council watched the recordings of the humans in their primary coloured battle armour slaughter the Minbari. They took trophies, too; heads, head bone, Den boks, guns, knives, even pieces of the ships themselves.

The Grey Council had ordered there to be massive retaliation, the warriors, more than aware that the souls of Minbari circulating into human bodies, understood that humans should not be killed, but the attacks on Minbari colonies and vessels were becoming too serious, and the warrior caste was desperate for retaliation, forcing the Council to declare war.

* * *

Torture came naturally to the augments, and Khan was no different. Suspended from the ceiling, were two Minbari warriors, one a female and the other a male, and in the candlelit room, both of their shadows seemed distorted in their present posture. It amused Khan no end to compare the Minbari, his prisoners, to Satan's image of being bound. Both of them had their tunics off, and only the male had been bruised and battered. The female was untouched, something that obviously surprised them and both must knew, or guessed that they were saving the female for some reason, but Khan intended to see to it they got what they expected.

Khan glanced in the background behind him to glance at the augments behind him. There were two Supremes as well as three Warriors, and it was the faces of the Supremes that caught his attention.

The Supremes Khan had brought with him were both tall men, with one of them shorter than the other, but one had a fairly roguish appearance, with a long scar down his face, and had reddish hair. The other kept his long brown hair in a tight queue, and his eyes hooded were blue, but Khan wasn't blind enough to see he wasn't ambitious. Superior ability did breed superior ambition.

The red head Supreme was known as Caesar, and the brown haired one was known as Malick. Both Supremes had served on the frontlines; Malick had a Minbari PPG, and a fighting pike holstered in his utility belt, along with his regulation battle gear and short sword. In contract to the others, Caesar wore a bandoleer with a Narn skin sash, and Narn skin gloves with a Narn sword, not unlike a Japanese katana which he wore on his back. Khan had heard rumours that Caesar had personally skinned the Narns he found himself, and collected their skeletons, keeping them in a trophy room onboard his warship.

Khan had nothing against the trophies themselves, but he believed that the skinning of intelligent beings was simply too far, but he didn't say a word; Caesar was a noted leader and Supreme of the Augments, he was entitled to his kills and trophies the same way Khan himself was. For the last 2 months, Khan had alternated between maintaining his power base on the homeworld, and leading his people to victory. The alliance with the Shadows had become known only to the Supreme Council, only when Khan had spent a month informing them of the changes. Now their technology was advanced enough to wage war, they had organic computers, and and weapons that were more powerful than those of the Minbari and the Centauri.

They had already used the new mind analysis machine on both of the Minbari prisoners, and after waiting several days for them to recover, Khan had decided to have some fun with them.

And to watch out for Malik and Caesar.

Khan wasn't stupid; he knew that many in the Supreme Council were plotting against him. He remembered only too well how competive he and his brethren, some of them were now either Strategists or Supremes, had been when they were growing up under the the yoke of the Earth alliance, something the Basics had encouraged, at first, before they realised that the supermen were becoming more and more out of control. Khan wasn't sure what the outcome would've been if the Minbari had not have destroyed the colony.

Malik and Caesar were the most powerful of his competitors, and the most dangerous. The Supreme Council granted all members battlefleets with resources, and some members of the council possessed the most powerful fleets in the Armada, and every time a Supreme won a major battle, or a string of victories, they were granted more power in the Council, something Khan wished didn't happen.

Malik, Caesar, Austin, Isis, Persis, Roman, Joaquin, and Ethan, were the most powerful of all the Supremes, and each one of them could be a threat to Khan's own power base. Augments recognised and admired superior strength.

Khan snapped out of his thoughts when the Minbari spat blood at him. " I will tell you nothing, human." He sneered, the word human sounded like a curse.

Angry that he'd been spat on, Khan's right gloved fist with reinforced metal knuckle dusters impacted on the Minbari's rib cage, making the foul inferior subhuman creature fold and sag against his bonds, the Minbari warrior coughing up more blood and spluttering.

" What makes you think we want information?" Khan asked, genuinely curious as to why the Minbari thought that was the only reason for he and his fellow being here, surely the creature knew that as prisoners they had the right to torture and to maim their victims? The Minbari had certainly done this to humans they'd caught because of their Basic cousins weaknesses.

Confusion entered the Minbari's gaze, Khan put it down to pain, yes that was probably why the stupid creature believed they were safe. " That's what you want, isn't it?" The prisoner asked.

Khan glanced in the direction of his fellow Supremes, and with a slow smile drew his dagger, and the three superhumans walked over to the female Minbari, who struggled to get loose.

" Stop!" The male warrior shouted; he'd seen the horrors these barbarians had wrought on female Minbari, Centauri, and Narn females they'd caught. Even though they were granted death there was nothing honorable in them. " I'll tell you whatever you wish to know! I swear it!"

Khan didn't even glance back. " The mind analysis machine has already downloaded your knowledge into our databanks, you are useless to us. Your...lovely friend here is fair game."

On the other side of the door, the two Warriors standing guard smiled as they heard the near musical scream of the Minbari female, hearing it rise and then shriek, the male begging for mercy, only to choke with his own blood...music to their ears.

Covered in blood, Malik and Caesar followed their equally blood soaked leader through the palace to their respective suites. Khan had desired all the Supremes to live under one roof, as Sun Tzu said, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Khan admired Sun Tzu as the ancient Basic's military mind formed the plans of many of Khans' philosophies. Another quote sprang to mind, one that Khan belived applied to the Supremes he knew plotted against him, be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of an opponent's fate.

Khan watched all of the Supremes, knowing they had their own ambitions, but he did so with great subtlety. He was watchful with them and his followers, just like he was watchful with the inferior species outside.

* * *

Malik entered his room, and when he entered the ornately designed bathroom, and methodically stripped off his ornately cut Supreme uniform, taking off his trophies and utility belt, and placing the majority of his weapons on his bedside table as he carefully removed his uniform, placing the White uniform into the laundry box for it to be taken away by the slave droids in the morning.

Khan suspected something being planned, Malik could see it, hear it in his carefully worded sentences, see it in his eyes. Oh, Khan was being subtle, there was no doubt about that, but he needn't worry. Malik had no intention of taking control of the Empire, he merely wished to take a group and establish his own empire, far away from Khan.

Many in the Supremes felt Khans' alliance with the Shadows was a mistake, that they should wait and grow before they spread out and conquered. The Basic ancestors had made the mistake of moving much to quickly before, and look where it had gotten them. As he stood in the shower stall, Malik calmly and carefully cleaned himself of the blood from the now dead Minbari female.

* * *

Carefully placing his Narn skin trophies on their stand, waiting for their owner to drape them on the next uniform, Caesar methodically cleaned his hair, cleaning and washing out the blood from his victim.

When he got out, he placed the uniform into the box, and pressed the control that would tell the slave droids to pick it up in the morning. Instead of going to bed, Caesar walked over to the window of his suite, and sat down on the leather armchair and gazed at the stars, pouring himself a drink in the process, but since he was shipping out in the morning, it was non alcholic. Caesar had always loved astronomy, and he kept his old telescope in a box, only taking it out when he needed too. The instrument was from his childhood, but he took it with him everywhere.

Khan suspected something, he knew it, and so did Malik. Caesar had known both augments since boyhood and were almost friendly with each other, but as the years passed and their ambitions grew, so did the divides between them.

Caesar could see from the look in Maliks own eyes that the other augment had his own ambitions, but Maliks ambitions were radically different from Caesars', it was more than likely Malik intended to found his own empire, away from Khan. Caesar didn't, he wanted the empire already present to be his. He had to admit that Khan had already provided them with a great and growing empire, but he had done it too quickly. A true empire needed time and strength, not the help of an alien power. The augment scientists would have eventually been able to develop warships and weapons from the scavenged vessels already taken.

Khan took shortcuts, Caesar didn't, and the warlord suspected him already. He would need to move carefully if he was to survive in an already suspicious world.

* * *

The attack came suddenly, and Delenn jerked out of her meditation in her quarters. What in Valen's name was that? She thought, though she guessed she already knew the answer. Striding over to the viewport, she looked out into space, and staggered back at the flash that signaled the destruction of one of the escort ships gravimetric fins. One of the enemy ships appeared, and she winced as she saw the sleek predatory monster of the second human group, the ones who boarded and stormed Minbari ships leaving only bloody messes for others to find.

Not bothering to put her hood up, Delenn ran out of the room, ignoring the milling of Minbari workers and warriors, all of them getting out of her way when they saw her grey robes, as she rushed in the direction of the tactical centre.

When she got there she found the other members of the Council watching grim faced the skirmish that was taking place outside. The Valen'tha had been escorted by a squadron of 12 Whitestars, 7 Sharlins, 3 Tinashis, but now since the attack two Whitestars had been clearly destroyed, and a Sharlin was being torn to pieces by the warships of the humans.

Delenn stepped closer to Coplann. The warrior turned to face her with some surprise. " I thought you wouldn't come," he said.

" I wanted to see for myself," she sighed, watching as the humans threw themselves against their Minbari counterparts. " How many human ships are there?" She asked him.

Coplann shrugged, " There hasn't been an exact count. They appeared out of nowhere, and their ships are shielded with stealth fields."

Delenn smirked mentally, remembering that tactic, but stopped it from appearing on her face, she could hear the anger radiating from Coplann and the Council's other warrior members. The Minbari warrior caste had always enjoyed destroying ships as they tried valiantly to defend themselves from her peoples neutron and fusion beam cannons, but the Warriors preferred minimal damage, so they generated fields that reflected sensor beams away. The tactic had been popular for generations, and they had been used successfully and efficiently on the humans.

There was a definite irony, Delenn saw, in what the humans were doing.

Then the cruiser shook as the humans launched another assault on a nearby Whitestar, and Delenn flinched as the ship exploded, three bursts of light hiting the ship directly in the gravimetric fins and 3 on the cockpit section before it exploded.

Before the ships could fire anymore, there was a flash of light, and space seemed to splinter and crack as bright light flooded the room, forcing the council to cover their eyes.

What in Valen's name?

Delenn focused on the light, and watched as it seemed to attract the other Minbari ships and the Valen'tha, pulling the ships down into...a vortex, a tunnel through space.

She was dimly aware of Coplann ( or was it Morann? ) shout to the bridge, ordering the ship to breakaway from the anomaly, but the pull was too strong...

The trip through the vortex was like falling down a waterfall.

The Valen'tha buffeted from side to side, and the Council fell about all over themselves as they tried to maintain their stability on the bucking Shagoti. Delenn stayed on the floor, sliding in one direction to another, until one of the other members grabbed her and heaved her up on her feet.

Delenn turned and found herself looking at Morann, and she nodded, " Thank you."

Morann kept his hold on her, wrapping his arms around her as he fought to maintain their stability together. Delenn watched as with a flash of light the tunnel ended and they were back in normal space.

Delenn and Morann, and Coplann looked around, and went to help the ones of the council who'd fallen around the room. Delenn's ears were filling with questions from the others. What was that? Where are we? Where are the humans? She noticed with some relief the humans had gone, though whether they had died inside the vortex or they had simply not fallen into it was another matter, and Delenn could not bring herself to care about it.

Kozorr, the captain of the Valen'tha, had been honoured when he had been commissioned to be the commander of the cruiser of the Grey council, now he was facing the dubious honour of trying to find out what had happened.

He helped a member of the crew get up to her controls, giving her an order as he did. " Go into the astrometic database, find our position."

The girl nodded, and went to work.

Kozorr barked out orders to other members of the crew, " Contact engineering, what's the status of the reactors and the jump engines. Contact the other ships, find out who's here and who isn't."

The Grey Council walked onto the bridge, making all the crew turn and bow reverently, but Satai Delenn held up her hand, forestalling any more bows. " Where are we?"

Kozorr glanced at the girl of the warrior caste whom he'd given the order to find out that very information, and he went towards her. " Well?" He asked, leaning over her shoulder. The girl, a mere child, worked ferverishly setting and programming the computer to match the nearest star and constellation. It was slow work, then the computer found a match, and when the girl and the captain saw it with wide eyes they gasped.

One member of the council Kozorr did not know grew impatient, " What is it?"

The girl and Kozorr looked at one another, and Kozorr grew himself up stiffly. " Satai's," he began respectfully. " We have travelled 2.5 million light years from where we were. We're in the next galaxy."


	15. Chapter 15

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**The Exiles.**

* * *

Before anyone could react to Kozorr's statement, the girl piped up, remembering to keep her voice respectful. " I have just confirmed the readings with the other ships. It's confirmed. We have travelled 2.5 million light years from where we were."

Satai Coplann asked the most important question, " Can we get home?"

The worker caste girl shook her head, " Navigational sensors aren't detecting any jump gate beacons within a range of 2 light years, Satai, and without jump gate beacons we cannot even move to the next system, unless we wish to travel for a few hundred years, and we don't know anything about this galaxy or who lives here. Even the Vorlons have never come here."

Delenn couldn't refute that; jump engines and hyperspace navigation relied heavily on the gravimetric eddies that planets and star systems dented on hyperspace. It was thought by Minbari scientists that eventually they would be able to navigate the gravimetric ' winds ' of hyperspace, and they believed only the First Ones had mastered that particular method, seeing as they had mastered everything, aside from faster than light travel, of course.

" We should open contact with other races in this galaxy?" Delenn whispered to the huddled mass of the Council as the rest of the bridge crew Minbari studiously ignored them and their whispering. The Grey Council were seen with an almost mystical apparel, and it was considered rude to listen in on them.

Morann shook his head, " I forbid it. We are vulnerable, and we all know that in the wild vulnerability is seen as the next meal. If we send out messages then we will be attacked, and our weapons and tactics may not be able to withstand an assault after the human attack."

Rathenn was on Delenn's side, as was a good majority of the council already. " Morann, without jump gate beacons, we are trapped, and we cannot survive indefinintely onboard our ships, not without supplies, and as you say our ships are heaviliy damaged. We have to make contact with other races, and hopefully they will be friendly."

Morann sighed, " Then again, they may not."

In the end, the Council voted to send a distress signal, but they also voted to be prepared. In the six hours they spent on their first day in the Andromeda galaxy, religious caste healers and worker caste workers struggled hard to repair the damage the humans had metted on the Sharlins.

The warrior caste contingent, however, were more vigilant, sending out Nials to patrol the area in the vicinity of their ships. For six agonising hours, the workers struggled and worked hard to repair, and the monotomy became stiffling.

* * *

On the bridge of one of the Whitestars, one of the Anla'shok crewmen reported, " Entilza, a energy spike has appeared, on the Valen'tha!" He looked up in shock.

Lennier jerked his head around, " Inform the Valen'tha. What kind of energy spike?"

The crewman shook his head, confusion marring his features. " I don't know."

* * *

Delenn was standing on the bridge when she felt a vibration on her skin, and a strange wind picked up, growing in intensity. A flash of light drew the attention of the crew, and the Council members still there. In a corner of the room, a metallic cube started to appear and became solid. Before anyone could react, the doorway built into the wall opened, and an armoured figure appeared.

Delenn watched the figure. Clad in head to toe in a dark blue armour, the figure was imposing and massive, both in height and build, and Delenn thought that was the point. The armour itself appeared strong, and yet flexible at the same time.

The figure spoke, " You wanted help, you've got it."

Before Delenn or anyone else could say a word, there was a flash of light, and a massive starship exited what Delenn thought of a some sort of jump point, but then how did the box appear like that? The viewports showing the other ships showed beams of light hitting them and then they vanished, and the beam of light that struck the Valen'tha lasted for only a moment, but when Delenn saw where they had appeared, she gasped. Instead of space, the Valen'tha and the other Minbari cruisers and ships were inside what looked like a massive green space...like above a city. There were lights, and towers of immense size all around. Following their arrival, some of the control panels deactivated. A warrior rushed in, saw the armoured figure, and rushed him, taking out his fighting pike and extending it. The armoured figure held up his hand, and there was another flash of light, but this one made the warrior collapse to the ground in a heap.

Delenn ran towards him, and checked him.

He was still alive.

" He is still alive," The armoured figure said, and your ships are being depowered as your crews are being transmatted to the holding areas." The bridge crew disappeared as he finished his sentence, and Delenn was amazed by the figure's timing.

Morann's voice was low and hostile, " Why are you doing this?"

The armoured figure didn't reply, instead he tapped a control on his wrist, and the Grey council disappeared.

The council found themselves inside a holding area relegated strictly for them. The room had couches and seats, but no beds, or anything designed to act as beds. Morann paced the room angrily, " I told you this would happen," he kept saying to Delenn, reminding everyone of his protestations about sending a distress beacon.

Delenn ignored him, and she and Rathenn had a whispered conversation. Unremarkably the conversation was about the aliens who had captured them. " Who do you think they are?" Delenn asked.

Rathenn shrugged, wondering why Delenn thought he had come this far in space. " I'm more interested in what's underneath their armoured suits, and I'm also curious about this ship." He added, looking up the ceiling.

Delenn knew what he meant. The ship was gigantic, but surely it couldn't be that big, big enough to house a small fleet of Minbari warships, and then there was that box that materialised on the bridge of the Valen'tha.

" They're clearly an advanced race, to have teleportation technology that can transport starships inside themselves, and those armoured exo skeletons, they could probably stop a PPG burst." Delenn commented.

Rathenn nodded.

An armoured figure entered the room, and looked around the room, and when the figure saw Delenn, he-it could've been she, but Delenn wasn't sure- raised his finger to point at her. " You, you will come with me?"

The warriors moved over, and the figure waved his arm and the warriors flew across the room into the far wall.

" STOP!" Delenn shouted, trying to put an end to the violence. She stood up and crossed the room, glaring angrily at the armoured figure, " I'll come with you, but please let my friends down."

The figure didn't move for a monent, then dropped his arm and the warriors fell to the ground. " Come." He said, and Delenn winced at being so close to the voice synthesiser of the figure's mask.

The figure led Delenn down corridors, passing only a few of the crew, who were also clad in armoured exoskeletons, passing into a circular room with a metal floor. The armoured figure gripped her arm, and with a flash of light, they found themselves transported to another part of the ship, this one clearly a sort of meeting place on the ship, but showing a viewport. Delenn thought about the mode of transportation, clearly the ship was too vast for someone to walk too far only to get lost or exhausted. The teleport system seemed the perfect answer to her, but she put that out of her mind when she saw her figure and herself were not alone.

Another figure waited.

Delenn started speaking. " Who are you? Why did you say you were there to help us when we were stranded in this galaxy, only to place us in holding cells?"

The figure answered, " The ships you are on are being repaired, but with our techniques. You're crewmembers would merely have gotten in our way and obstructed our work. The repairs will be finished shortly. You are very lucky," the figure carried on. " We monitor the wormhole that brought you here, and you should consider yourselves fortunate."

" Why should we feel fortunate? We're prisoners."

The figure didn't answer Delenn's accusation, since it was true. " The wormhole is one way only," the figure answered. " If you attempted to enter it again then your ships would've been atomised. Besides the wormhole's subspace axis is unstable, for every mass it brings it swings into a different direction, with this galaxy as the permanent terminus. Usually the mass is a passing asteroid, or nothing at all, then its gone for another hundred years or so. You're ships use the jump beacons native to your galaxy, and there is no gate network in this one. We made sure of that."

" You?" Delenn asked, wondering how any race could do something like that on such a scale.

" Yes, we pioneered the developments of numerous propulsion technologies, including faster than light drives. Your galaxy shouldn't discount something until you've actually done it."

Delenn's head was reeling, then she asked a more immediate question. " How did you get on board our ship?"

" Mass teleportation."

Delenn didn't ask what mass teleportation was, and she didn't ask. Instead she focused on her curiosity. " What are you? You're still wearing battle armour, but I can't hurt you. We have never met any of the races in this galaxy, so how can we be a threat? Who or what are you?"

The figure was still for a moment, then it walked to another side of the room, turning its back on her as it did. Delenn was still, fearful she had angered the figure, but the figure behind her didn't move either. She focused her attentions directly on the alien.

A whirring sound had sounded, and segmented sections in the back opened up with a hiss, showing inside a more thinner and smaller form. The alien came out, and Delenn saw it was wearing a black uniform with shoes. Using specially designed handles to ease itself out, the alien slid itself out of the suit, and when it was out, it straightened. Delenn studied the figure, noticing the hair at the back. It wasn't like the Minbari, who had bald heads with a headbone, it was similar to a Brakiri, or a Centauri.

The alien turned around, and Delenn couldn't help the gasp that came out.

The alien was human but not just any human. It was the last human Delenn had expected to see. This human was the same one that had been carrying Valen's soul when they had captured him during the last battle in the Earth-Minbari war.

" It's not possible." She whispered.

" We survived, and we are still very much alive." The human replied, his features neutral.

Delenn couldn't help but shake herself mentally. " How-how did you survive?"

The human took a deep breath. " Before the final battle, we realised our race faced extinction. As with any species, we couldn't let that happen, our innate sense of survival kicked in. We tried everything we could think possible, ranging from surrendering, but we realised that was unlikely to work as your people were methodically and systematically seeking out our people, and killing us. We couldn't find a military solution as your technology was far above our own at the time, and your ships would've destroyed any attempt we had. One of our scientists came up with a means of teleporting our planets and ships away, to another place in space where we could rebuild our civilisation somewhere else. But there were unforeseen consequences."

" Yes," Delenn agreed. " We brought you on our ship."

" And you discovered I, and a few others, were carrying your people's souls. As we followed our people when Earth, our Moon, and the planet Mars, the sheer mass affected the teleport system, and we found ourselves 5,000 years in the past. When we arrived, we found ourselves in a hostile and unknown galaxy, far outside the charted regions we'd known. We had lost everything in our original galaxy, and we clung to what we had left. We found that our jump engines were useless as the navigational systems had nothing to lock onto, as your ships discovered when you first arrived."


	16. Chapter 16

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**Revelation of the Time lords.**

* * *

" We survived in this galaxy, focusing our attention on rebuilding our race and developing our technologies and sciences." The human with Valen's soul told Delenn, carrying on with his explanation for his races survival. Delenn listened, still unable to believe that the human race, and from the sounds of it their worlds, had survived the end of the Earth - Minbari war. No one, not even the First ones had the power to move planets, and flip them millions of light years away into another galaxy.

" We had plenty of time and effort to expend on our efforts, and there were no Centauri and Narns to help you cull our people."

Delenn looked down at her hands, once again seeing the blood, the harm she had caused with her vote.

No mercy!

The human watched her actions with unhidden interest. Clearly this Minbari, whom he remembered, begging and pleading with him and his fellow survivors to let them help the remains of humanity to rebuild, but he'd had no intention of letting her. Besides, the way she had looked at her hands just now reinforced the fact this Minbari in particular felt guilty about the war which was now a distant memory for the Time lord people, only to find in recent years the old wounds to be reopened, along with a good healthy dose of contempt and loathing. Sinclair couldn't blame them; he remembered how arrogant the Minbari had been, how brutal, and he remembered this Minbari female, just as she remembered him, had begged him to let her people help him, but there had been something more than desperate in her pleas. Sinclair knew enough to know this female had been the deciding vote to begin the war against humanity, and he had to resist the urge to take out his knife and dissect her where she stood. The Minbari had shown how barbaric and evil they were, and how the other races truly acted, how they picked at one another and tore them to shreds.

" We worked on our science, and without jumpengines we couldn't move beyond our solar system, so we worked on our faster than light technology."

Delenn shook her head, " That's impossible. No one can travel faster than light." She stopped when the human spat at her with contempt. Hearing Valen speak to her in that tone

" What about tachyons? They can travel faster than light, and without needing hyperspace to do it. Just because your precious Vorlons couldn't find a solution, doesn't mean that there isn't one." Sinclair ground out.

Delenn, sensing the human's rising anger, backtracked and asked what had been on her mind for a long time. " So you survived, but how did you personally live so long if you were sent back 5,000 years?" She asked.

The human pointed at himself. " You mean myself, personally? Yes, I remember how your people tractored my fighter onboard, how your warriors tortured me, how you discovered I was carrying a Minbari soul. Oh, yes," Sinclair smirked, enjoying the Minbari woman's horror, and Delenn jumped with a shock when she realised that the human had mentioned the presence of souls before, she had been too stunned by the surprise of the human to take any notice. " I remember that, we all do. When we developed the means, we learnt how to block your souls and send them back. Did you never scan your own people, find out how many of them are carrying human souls? Considering your races prediliction for racial and spiritual purity, it must've been a shock, or have you decided to not to tell yur warriors?" The human folded his arms, his eyes and soul reflecting his contempt, that the soul belonged to Valen was more painful.

The human was right, the Minbari people did not know about the truth with the souls.

Minbari culture believed that for each generation of Minbari, the souls of the next generation would be the souls before becoming part of a whole, but for a long time there were Minbari who were not part of the soul, and those same Minbari carried human souls, and Minbari souls were not apparently inhabiting human bodies, if the human was telling the truth.

" You are probably not aware of the groups of humans still alive in our galaxy-" Delenn started, but the human once again surprised her. " You mean the New Earth alliance, and the Khanate, two pairs of throwbacks to an age that no longer applies?" The human asked, sneering at her, but Delenn got the impression he wasn't sneering at her, but at the thought of the two groups.

" We are aware of them, but they are not aware of us. The Khanate are the result of a botched genetically engineered project, and the New Earth alliance hold things to value that no longer apply. They think that joining forces with the Shadows will bring back those they consider dead, but it won't."

Delenn was growing angry at the callousness. " Don't you care?"

" Care? We only care about one thing, victory." The human replied.

Delenn was stymied, " What do you mean, victory? Victory over the Shadows?"

The human shook his head, " No, there is another enemy, one more powerful than the Shadows, one that is around our level of power, of ability. The High Council on Earth will speak to you shortly." Then the human made a decision, and signalled the guard. " Take her back to the holding cell with the rest of the council."

As the armoured human dragged Delenn out of the room, Sinclair managed to say to her. " Don't worry, you'll learn more when we arrive home."

When Delenn had left and the doors closed, Sinclair stood still for a moment, a small smile on his face as he contemplated what he had just told the Minbari woman. The Minbari were so full of themselves, thinking that of all the lifeforms in the universe the Shadows were the only ones that were even considered a threat, the conceit was enough to infuriate the members of the High Council.

Sinclair wondered what the vaunted Minbari Grey Council, the supposedly wise rulers of the Minbari Federation, would meet the High Council of the Time Lords, and learn that the enemy the Time lords knew were rising from the darkness were even more vicious and powerful than the Shadows.

It was too bad he wasn't going to see it.

* * *

Delenn struggled against the cybernetically enhanced grip of the human soldier gripping her wrist. The human dragged her through the corridors of the ship, ignoring the Minbari's gasps of pain.

" I can walk myself, thank you," she had said to the guard primly.

The human looked at her, shook its head, and carried on walking, dragging her with him. Finally the human, fed up with the struggles, electrocuted her with the micro circuits in his gloves.

Delenn screamed in pain and shock, and the human started twisting her hand in his armoured grip. " You listen to me, Minbari filth, I lost two of my ancestors in your war, and your screams are like music to my ears. You will get up, or I will break you in two. Got that?" The human dragged the stunned Delenn up, and this time Delenn was far more co-operative.

The human slapped a hand on the door control, and pushed Delenn inside when the door was half open, propelling Delenn inside, who fell to the ground. Morann cursed angrily when the door started closing, but he helped Neroon pick up the stunned and startled Delenn off the floor.

Rathenn leant forward, " Delenn, are you alright?"

Delenn nodded shakily, " I am. The guard escorting me electrocuted me when I kept struggling." She took a gasping breath. " I know who they are, underneath those suits."

Morann leant forward himself, " Who are they?"

Delenn sighed. " At the Battle of the Line, those planets, those ships...they teleported here. Humans. All of them, they've survived. The original humans, they've been alive all this time, and longer than we have even been space faring. They transported back through time as well, travelling 5,000 years into the past."

Neroon snorted, " You can't surely believe that, can you?"

Delenn glared angrily," I had other things on my mind. They're going to speak to us, their High Council, but that isn't the only piece of news that worries me."

When the Council turned their attention to her, she told them exactly what the human had told her, how they had survived, how they had found a new enemy more powerful than the Shadows, but the most surprising things were how the Humans knew about their kin in the home galaxy.

* * *

The City Ship bridge surprised the Grey Council, and it was nothing to do with the complexity, more of its size. The bridge was at least six levels with stairways leading to various levels. Dominating the room was the massive viewports that showed the shining blue-white world Delenn recognised as the homeworld of the humans.

Earth.

Delenn studied the humans at work, noting how efficient they were at controlling the ship, and saw they were observing the Minbari, some of them with downright hostility, but others were watching them with curiosity, but there were some with more neutral faces. The humans who were hostile frightened Delenn; her hopes humanity would accept her apologies were dwindling fast, and if these people were serious they had travelled back through time, then they should have accepted what had happened, but it was clear that the hatred the humans held against their people was frightening, and if the human Delenn had spoken to had been right about the Minbari souls, then it was more likely the hatred humanity had for the Minbari had and would never dissipate. In the time of the war, Delenn had taken to studying human culture, art, philosophy and history, and although their history was bloody, there were patterns of civilisation, similar to what the Minbari had gone through, but the humans asked more questions about existence than the Minbari ever did. The Minbari just accepted things and left it at that.

The human that the Council knew as Valen appeared, unknowingly interrupting Delenn's thoughts. " You will accompany me to the planet." The council had no problems following the human, partially because he was Valen, and secondly because they wanted answers to some very important questions, but most importantly, they wanted more information about the supposed enemy he had informed Delenn about. The last reason was because of the presence of the guards, and their weapons were pointed directly at them.

The human walked into the centre of the room, and the guards prodded the Minbari forwards. The centre of the bridge was a raised platform, and when all the Minbari were standing on it, a noise from above had the Minbari council members look up, and saw a hatch open from above, and four rings descended to the ground...

...and they reappeared, only in a new place, and Delenn walked over to what looked like a window and looked out, realising she and her fellows had been transported without going down via shuttle or flyer to the planet below.

Outside the window was a city, a huge city, and Delenn could see the city was a mixture between the old and the beautiful, some of the new buildings reached high, thin, tall, and proud. There birds flying alongside sleek looking ships, and what Delenn took to be the human version of Minbari flyers. Green areas with trees, showing parks and what looked like pools were in more open spaces of the city. She felt a presence next to her, and the human carrying Valen's soul stood beside her.

" We're in Geneva," he whispered, looking outside the window, his eyes fixed on the vista before him. " But there is no time for sightseeing," he added bluntly. " The Council is waiting."

The human walked through the corridors, and Delenn noticed that the corridors seemed devoid of life, and when she pointed this out to the human, he replied simply.

" The corridors are empty because the High Council know that, aside from the escort, you are coming. The Council are aware of how many of our race despise the Minbari, the plan was to limit all contact with your people."

Delenn nodded, hurt that she wasn't going to be apologising for her people's crimes for a long time. She pushed that aside, and focused on the human. " I'm sorry, but in all the confusion I didn't find out your name."

The human stopped, and turned to face her properly. For a long time he was silent, staring at her, then he nodded. " My name is Jeffrey Sinclair."

The Council room wasn't as big as Delenn had expected, it was actually quite small compared to the size of the bridge of the Ship that had brought them to Earth. The room was circular shaped, but there was a higher tier where the council members were sitting. The Grey Council walked forward, only to jump backwards. They had been moving towards a metal plate, only for a set of nine stuffed chairs to appear from the floor.

The President's voice echoed through the room, " Do not be alarmed," he said neutrally, giving Delenn the impression the president himself didn't want the Minbari here anymore than they wanted to be here. " The chairs are nano constructions, built from tiny subatomic machines."

For a while, none of the Minbari moved, fearful of the strange technology in front of them. In their galaxy, and the humans's original galaxy, nanotechnology was considered to be a holy grail, but the technology in front of them was more radical, and showed a different means it could be used. Delenn swallowed her discomfort, and she went and picked a chair for herself, and the others followed in her wake.

Delenn looked at her fellow Minbari, and noticed that the chairs seemed to mold themselves to the bodies of the people sitting in them, and then she caught the eyes of the President and the rest of the council. They were regarding her with something akin to delight, and Delenn got the impression that they were pleased she had shown bravery in sitting down first.

Delenn leant forward, and decided to begin first. " We would like to know how you managed to survive so long, and if you are telling the truth."

The President leant forward, " Are you accusing us of lying?" His tone was soft, but there was a steel note hiding a growing anger

Delenn swallowed, and ploughed on so then she would get these questions over with and not anger the humans. " No, but we're curious of how you were able to survive."

The president jerked his head up slightly, and the Minbari found themselves in a limbo...

* * *

Stars exploded, nebulae flashing, and Delenn found herself shooting around planets, solar systems, space and time seemed...meaningless as the nine Minbari found themselves trapped in limbo, and then they heard them. Voices, and Delenn knew they were not hearing Minbari voices. If they were Minbari then the voices would be harmonious and spiritual. The voices she was hearing at the moment were just as harmonious, but there were ideas, ideas that no Minbari would ever think about. Old, ancient, she could feel the minds of children of various ages as they played with her watching.

Delenn watched as children played in boxes or crates filled with sand, or in bodies of water, laughing and splashing as their parents watched them, or participated in their children's laughter. She saw pain, misery, and suffering next, as they turned to the Earth-Minbari war, but here there was a sense of murkiness, like the humans knew what had happened, but they couldn't define it properly. With the previous images and sensation, the image of joy was clear, but now it wasn't. She saw the human perspective, from fighter pilots who had survived, to colonists who had managed to escape before the Warrior caste landed its troops from various clans to systematically exterminate the colonists unlucky enough to be left there. Delenn watched helplessly as she sat onboard a human fighter, unknown feelings of rage, fury, desperation, and fear pierced her soul...

All that changed, when the humans moved to the other galaxy, and Delenn saw the various experiments the humans had performed, the advances they made when they were far away enough, the lack of jumpgates making the humans desperate and eager, but also apprehensive of exploring their new home, a memory not helped by the last experience of poking their nose into other races businesses. Delenn watched in awe as the humans sought to build time machines and sought the mastery of time, space, and matter of the universe itself, something not even the Vorlons possessed. She saw the destruction of the Hegemony empire, how the Time lords had galvanised the other races of the Andromeda galaxy, and transformed a war torn galaxy into a utopia. A United Federation of Planets, and the humans did something no one in her own galaxy with the numerous species, had ever done. Ever.

Delenn experienced everything the humans had done with themselves, the development and discovery of wormhole technology, time travel, the creation and introduction of genetically engineered humans, on a level more advanced than the genetically engineered barbarians who were cutting paths of murder in the Milky way galaxy, and of the creation of the Great Link, a telepathic merge of thought, sensation, and idea.

The Great Link was what Delenn and her Minbari brethren were experiencing right then, and she was taken aback by how many minds there were in the universe with her. It was like she could never become alone, like company, love, and joy, and sensation were tangible, and you could wrap yourself up in it like a blanket. Never in Delenn's life had she felt so content, not even when she was in the company of her now deceased father, or estranged mother.

And the humans were aware of her as well, and Delenn was shocked by how many of the humans were opening their minds to her in curiosity, showing her the full extent of her folly to destroy the human culture and civilisation before the Minbari could see the actions of one man, and the death of one man, was a pitiful excuse for a war.

The humans were also grateful.

The gratitude stunned the Minbari. Should not the humans hate her for what she and she alone had done? No. There was resentment and quite a lot of it, sorrow for the amount of death the Minbari had left behind when they moved away from the previously human planets certainly, anger, but then Delenn saw that the humans were grateful for the past 5,000 years, grateful to finally spread their wings and embrace their future, and their potential.

There was also contempt for her when they read her mind...

Delenn was back on the Valen'tha, clutching the broken body of Dukhat, her master and mentor, the one who had taught her so much, and the one who had inducted her into the Grey Council.

" Help me!" Younger Delenn shouted, pleading with others in the confusion of the human attack.

Dukhat's whispers, coughing with pain, and knowing he was dying, managing to whisper a few last words before he expired. Delenn watched in horror as Dukhat died yet again, only from a different perspective. She saw her younger self clap her hands to her mouth, knowing that her younger self was sobbing with anguish as she felt a part of her soul tear away from her.

Delenn watched as the battered and shaken Morann approached, pausing as he saw who Delenn had in her lap, and she watched as a flare of anger appeared in his eyes before it was quashed as he got his thoughts together. Her younger self hadn't noticed, too busy mulling over Dukhat's death, and Delenn knew how numb her younger self was, how angry she was going to be...

" Delenn, we need to strike back, but the council is divided." Morann said, and Delenn recalled how she had thought how could the Council be divided, the humans had launched an unprovoked attack, but at that point none of them, bar herself and Morann, and a few religious, worker, or warrior caste members in the corridor were even aware of Dukhat's demise.

Morann carried on, diligently speaking and trying to ignore the rage he himself felt at seeing the greatest leader of Minbari dead in the younger female's arms. " Do we follow them back to their base and take revenge or do we wait, try to find out what happened?" When Delenn did not reply, Morann added more fierecly, demanding a response. " Yours is the deciding vote, Delenn."

When younger Delenn didn't reply, when she was only just coherantly becoming more aware of what her fellow Minbari was saying, older Delenn closed her eyes, knowing she could do nothing to stop what was to come. The sentence yours is the deciding vote triggered the rage, unleashed the flood she herself had kept inside as she tried to control herself, but the words deciding vote unleashed that same rage...and older Delenn wished she could make the humans send her back through time to stop this from happening...stop Dukhat from giving her the power to vote on matters that could destroy an entire species...

It came, bitter, angry, there was something almost primal in what her younger self said next, something her older self was only just picking up.

" He was the best of us." Her younger self said, her voice dripping with rage that it would need a plasma thermal torch to melt. " They struck without provocation. There was no reason." Younger Delenn sobbed as she fought to understand why any race would do such a thing, and older Delenn remembered how she had thought humanity were violent animals. Savages.

" Animals! Brutal!" Younger Delenn had a hand to her mouth, trying to keep herself from choking on the words. Then she got up, her eyes light with malice, with righteous rage. " They deserve no mercy! Strike them down!" She said, her voice rising with each syllable as she got closer to Morann, Dukhat's lifeless body on the ground. Forgotton as his people, his councilors talked of war to avenge his death.

Younger Delenn reached Morann whilst older Delenn watched. " Strike them down! Follow them to their base and kill them!" In her hysterical rage, Younger Delenn started hitting Morann in the chest, but the warrior let her do it, giving her the opportunity to lash out before he rushed off with the deciding vote.

Younger Delenn barely noticed his departure as she screamed, her voice sounding hollow. " All of them! All of them! No mercy!"

Older Delenn also screamed, but then she found herself on the ground of the Human High council chamber, the humans sitting calmly, in control whilst her fellow Minbari, aware of what she was seeing but unable to move properly, found themselves out of the link.

The President of the council leant back in his chair, eying the Minbari council. " Are you convinced we are now telling the truth? When you launched your war, you set into motion the dawn of a new race out of the ashes of the Human race, the Time lords, and for that, I, on behalf of my people, thank you."

Delenn was only getting her breath back, but she still had questions. " I felt the gratitude in my mind, and the curiosity. Do your people still hate us for what we did?"

The President leant back further in his chair, considering the question. " The Minbari destroyed our worlds, killed and butchered our people, but the war also taught us lessons we would never have done. In the past 5,000 years, there are so few of our people from that time still alive, and the newer generations belong to a different class of human than the kind we used to be when we first found ourselves here. In the centuries we have been here, the thought for revenge galvanised us, it was the focus for a few generations as we sought mastery of time and space, but also genetics. As time passed, we realised revenge was wasteful, and then we started to become more enlightened as the generations passed, and new children questioned the old ways. Do we hate you? We hate that you sought to destroy an entire race when you yourselves consider yourselves to be...enlightened," The Time lord stressed the word before her continued speaking. " Your battle tactics were also, as you say, dishonorable. You consider yourselves to be fair minded, but in war the best way to be fair minded, is to lose a battle occasionally. You didn't, except once or twice. John Sheridan destroyed a few of your ships, and you have the audacity to call him Starkiller, just for saving the lives of his crew, a crew your ship would've destroyed and wouldn't have been able to fight back. Where is the honour in that? There is no honour in attacking the weak or the helpless, and it is a lesson you will need to learn."

The President leant forward, " I am certain that already Jeffrey Sinclair, the one you know as Valen, has already explained our views on the matter of the New Earth Alliance, and the Khanate, and I am certain you are aware of our contempt of the two parties? We have been aware of them the whole time, the only reason we do nothing is because of two reasons; firstly the two parties are irrelevant, and secondly there is a greater threat looming over the galaxy, in fact nearly every galaxy in existence, but your galaxy is in far serious danger, and the First ones still inhabiting the Milky way are barely aware of the threat."

Neroon had had enough of the riddles from the human. Yes, he had experienced the Great Link, seen for himself how the humans had rebuilt their civilisation, but he had not seen or heard anything about an all powerful enemy.

" What is this enemy?" Neroon asked impatiently.

One of the councilors smiled at him. " That is what I call a warrior, always getting to the crux of the matter. The threat is far reaching." This councilor, a woman stood up and walked over to a monitor Delenn swore had not been there before, and the Time lady operated it.

The image coalesced, and showed an image of Vorlon ships clustered around a massive object floating in space. The Time Lady explained, " A million years ago, the Vorlons visited thousands of worlds, seeding the races with thoughts of order and obedience, whilst at the same time preparing them for the next war with the Shadows, but there was a side effect with the encounters, something the Vorlons never expected. The Vorlons were worshipped as gods, and the Vorlons, ever prideful, started to believe it, and they saw themselves as superior beings, superior in the universe. They decided to leave our plane of existence, and journey into another realm, a realm they believed held the key to existence. They built a gateway that would lead into this realm, but it wasn't something that did this. The Vorlons ripped a hole in the universe, tunneling into another reality, and they encountered a hostile species on the other side in another universe. This race was older than the Vorlons, a power beyond description, and they modified the Vorlon gateway to generate a telepathic field to create an army of Vorlons, willing to serve and to die for the aliens. They believe all forms of life, right down to the subatomic scale, is inferior and must be exterminated."

Delenn had trouble believing that, but after experiencing the Great Link she was convinced the humans were trustworthy, but the idea of the Vorlons building something this dangerous...

The Minbari knew how prideful the Vorlons were, and she didn't have a hard time believing that the Vorlons would want to keep this to themselves.

The Time Lady carried on, and the picture changed to a nightmarish creature, and even though it was simulated, the sight was enough to terrify everyone in the room.

" Older than the Vorlons, hungrier for destruction, the creatures we call the Killers were a threat to the universe. When the Vorlons were able to beat the aliens back, rebuild and repair the damage they caused, there were residual side effects."

Morann cocked his head. " What kind of side effects?"

The Time Lady sighed, " The ripping of the universe. The Vorlons believed the damage would repair itself, and it did, but we had to work on the damage ourselves, using our technologies. We sealed the breach as best as we could, but there are numerous cracks in reality close to where the breach was, and there is the possibility of tearing the hole open again, and if we can do it, so can the Enemy. We have the power to enter different realities, and we altered the reality quotient of this universe, it's like a magnetic pole being altered so then travel would be repelled. Since that time, no Time Lord has travelled to that reality, but that doesn't mean the same applies for other realities. The mess the Vorlons have made is making it harder for us to concentrate on one matter, and other realities have taken an interest, and this race are preparing an invasion of this reality."

" What is this race?" Delenn asked, terrified.

The Time Lady's face became pinched in disgust as she described the aliens. " They are us, a version of the Time Lord race. Only a version that didn't become enlightened. You see, after we found ourselves in this galaxy, we found ourselves at a crossroads, a choice between moving on and moving ahead, putting ourselves above such a petty conflict with the Minbari once more, or we simply choose to destroy everything with our great power. We chose the former, we became enlightened, and we have started to explore the universe itself, adding to our knowledge. Not the alternate Time lords," she sighed. "Its like looking in a mirror and seeing a different version of yourself looking back. In this reality, the Time lords are everything we are not proud of. They are like us, they have our power over time and space, but where we explore the universe, they destroy it. In their reality, they have built an empire built on the blood of millions." The Time Lady with the others pitching in telling the Minbari counterparts of their alternate reality selves. It seemed that the alternate Time Lords history followed the Earth - Minbari war to the point where they developed time travel and faster than light drives, but there the differences changed. The humans of that reality had changed, and they realised their gifts and what had happened, how they had come so close to oblivion...they had almost been exterminated, their species wiped out without a qualm. It had been a close call, and they had brought it on themselves. The Humans of that reality geared their technology for war, and they started conquering each species they discovered, and when they became masters of time and space, they started entering other galaxies, destroying each race they discovered after charting them temporally, then moving on and carrying on with the same pattern, and any powerful race found themselves placed inside a time loop, or their solar systems were destroyed when their sun or planet exploded, or was converted into a black hole.

Delenn listened with horror as the Time lords described how their alternate selves waited, watched, and then struck out when the war between the Shadows and the Vorlons had exploded out of all proportion, and both races found themselves exterminated by the Time lords, their ships turned to ruins, their ascended forms extinguished by the Time lords power, and then the inhabitants of the Milky way galaxy found their jump engines destroyed, their planets ravaged, and they were exterminated. For the Narns, the Centauri, and the Minbari, the fates were worse. They were still alive, living as slaves to the Time lords, forced to atone for their crimes. The planets were gutted, and the three species found themselves living on radioactive ruins of worlds, and forced to toil in slave mines on other worlds. Vorlon and Z'ha dum were ravaged for information, and became the centres of power along with Minbari, Narn, and Centauri Prime.

The Time lords description of the conditions of the alternate universe were augmented by pictures showing Vorlon and Shadow vessels, burnt or melted by the firepower of the TARDIS machines operated by the alternate Time lords, then the image showed Centauri Prime, usually a bright world of blue, showing almost golden landmasses, becoming darker as the seas became increasingly polluted, and the clouds above the planet became darker with pollution.

Narn was no better, and the once beautiful and lush world, now a red arid wasteland, was now worse, as nuclear and antimatter explosions lit across the surface of the planet.

Minbar...Delenn felt her heart clench and her soul scream out as the Valleria station, the mightiest space station in the Minbari federation was destroyed, battered by the firepower. It should've been impossible to destroy the station...it was protected by the strongest gravimetric shields in the Minbari federation, and nothing short of a Vorlon or Shadow attack should be able to destroy it, but it would take time to pierce the shields.

The image changed, and this time all the Minbari felt tears prick in their eyes as they watched Minbari, hollow faced and red eyed, clothes tattered as they were forced to work, whipped and beaten by human guards.

" Enough! Turn it off!" Delenn shouted hysterically, unable and unwilling to watch anymore.

The Time Lords obliged, and the screen turned off.

The president allowed the Minbari to regain their composure before he spoke once more. " Now you see what kind of threat is looming over us. Our alternate selves were just mastering time and space when they discovered the damage the Vorlons caused, and they have prepared themselves."

Delenn, stil shaken by what she had just seen, couldn't focus her thoughts. She had just seen her people enslaved by an alternate version of the human race, and they were saying they were preparing themselves.

" You said you had sealed the hole, how can they travel here?" She asked.

The Time Lady pinched her nose. " As I explained, the breach left cracks, fractures in the universe...all our alternate selves will need to do, is use their Time vortex and apply pressure to the universe. They can teleport matter, the same as we can, and send warfleets into different parts of our universe so then they can establish their empire here. They see this universe as the perfect place to begin new work, to find untapped territories. The fact there is a time vortex here in this reality, and TARDISes means there is no shortage of opportunity for them. When we discovered their work, and what they were planning to do, we sealed off the walls of reality to that universe, we closed them permanently, but that doesn't mean WE, us in this universe, can not traverse in different universes. If they have access to different realities, then the evil Time lords will not be stopped, and they will subjugate the whole of creation. They must be stopped."

* * *

In the monitoring station outside the solar system, the Time lords monitoring the cracks the Vorlons had left behind after their temporal fusion, and one of the technicians, becoming exhausted suddenly jolted, knocking over a cup of coffee aside when the alarms sounded.

One of the specialists leant forward, " What is it?"

" The cracks are getting bigger, the alternates are accelerating the collapse. But then that can also mean they're mass transfering TARDISes into our reality, but I'm still reading the transduction barriers as holding." The technician replied.

" Inform the High Council."

* * *

The order was sent with the reports sent to the homeworld.

" Are these readings correct?" The President asked desperately.

The Science councilor nodded gravely, " They've been checked and double checked 23 times already, sir. If these readings are confirmed, then the alternates are increasing their pressure on the transduction fields. What concerns me is why they're even bothering to knock holes when they could just as easily travel back through time when the hole was open properly, but if they did that then their fleets would be caught by the Killers and the Vorlons, but they could still lay down seeds and funnels to pour their forces into this reality."

The President closed his eyes. " What about other parts of the universe, anything there?"

The councilors' grimace said it all, " The temporal and spatial anomalies in other galaxies are becoming more unstable, and observatories are saying the graviton and chroniton levels are shooting through the roof."

" So they could use the rifts and tears in our universe, if their existence is constant in ours, then they could use those same rifts to enter this reality through them?" The President said clearly.

" Yes, its a possibility," The councilor replied but he hastened to make certain another possibility, " but it could also be a ploy. They know our response time to invasions from other realities is rapid, and they could be doing that as a ploy, but it could also be a side effect of what they're doing now. How are the Minbari taking the news their deadly enemy is nothing but a flea on a newspaper?" The councilor asked, deciding to change the subject.

The president snorted at the analogy. " The Minbari are stunned. Their people have been taught over the last 1,000 species they are superior to everyone, they believe they are special because of being a space faring power for so long, but their not special. The Minbari are not the only race in the cosmos, and its conceited and arrogant for them to believe anything of the sort." The president frowned thoughtfully, " I think when they saw the images of the Vorlon and Shadow vessels being destroyed, their great protectors and adversaries destroyed, their planet turned into a slave mine made them see just how we ourselves could have fallen if we hadn't changed our tack."

* * *

The alternate Earth was the same as the one of the target reality, but there were differences between them. Their Earth was no longer polluted, but then again since there were worthless alien worlds out there, shouldn't their worlds be polluted to maintain the Time lord war efforts, which were becoming more and more constant.

The buildings were harshly built, tall, almost like daggers stabbing into the skies of Earth, and there were numerous defence platforms, and in orbiting battlefleets bristling with weapons. The people themselves appeared just as arrogant as the Centauri, only the Alternate reality Time Lords were more deserving of their arrogance. The Centauri had raided an alien ship for its technology in their atomic age, using it to create an empire and become a dominant force in the Milky Way. Indeed, in this reality, you couldn't walk down a street on Earth, not unless you wanted to see alien slaves chained up and leashed by Time lord masters, and children would often poke them and throw sticks and stones at them, playing the game and continuing the cycle of xenophobia.

The alternate Time lords shared the same history as their prime counterparts, they had been sent back through time at the eve of the Battle of the Line, and they'd developed a similar civilisation to their real world antagonists, but that was where the similarities ended. Their time travel facilities were not as refined as the ones of the prime reality, something the prime reality Time lords were more than aware of, but the Alternate Time lords had time scoop technology, and they used this to draw out the most violent entities of their reality, capture them and send them off as cannon fodder for their never ceasing war effort. Unity is strength, one of their gospels, as was their motto. We survive. The alternate Time lords had an army of augments, more superior than the primates that were currently ravaging the Milky Way in the prime reality, and these augments were armed with temporal and antimatter weapons, and they were already feared and hated by many species.

The alternate Time lords had already forced dozens of potential realities into their universe's timeline, using their time vortex to alter and manipulate history to their advantage. They constantly altered the histories of various races, making them weaker because they didn't make a fundamental choice and seized an opportunity that would have repercussions for aeons to come.

The President of the alternate Time lords, a woman with a harsh and hardened face, her eyes greedy and malicious, leant forward in the council room. " What is the progress of the reality crossings?" Her voice was metallic, grating.

One of the councilors swallowed, trying to hide his fear. The alternate Time lords did not have a Great Link, but their telepathic abilities were focused on the dark side of telepathy; inducing nightmare, using psychic powers to constrict the muscles of the body, and breaking bones, that sort of thing. The Councilor had heard rumours that the president herself, after assassinating the previous president because he was a weak minded fool, was an augment herself, and he didn't want to try her enhanced temper.

" We're applying more and more pressure on the vortex, Madam President," the councilor reported carefully, hiding his discomfort of having those cold green eyes focused on him. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see the smirks and sneers, the anticipation he would be spit roasted for failure on the faces of the other councilors. " The alternate Time lords are changing their reality quotient to fight back, using temporal fusion supplied by their universes TARDISes, and they've locked us out of other realities."

The President did not reply for a minute, but it was enough for the room to start to shake, literally, with the force of her rage. When she spoke, it wasn't just the unfortunate councilor who was trembling with fear.

" Why didn't you despatch infiltrator TARDISes into the various realities so then we could go round the alternates defences?" She asked, her voice quiet. Deadly.

The councilor shivered in fear, guessing he had already been condemned, if the telltale signs of the glow of the presidents gauntlet were any indication...

" We tried to send an infiltrator squadron of 23 TARDISes with full troop deployment to reality 7745, but the alternate Time lords have already sealed the realities off. The alternate Time lords-"

The President jumped up with a shriek, not unlike a large raven. Her eyes, burning with malice and rage, burnt the other members of the council, branding them with her white hot temper into their seats.

" STOP CALLING THEM TIME LORDS!" She roared. " THEY ARE NOTHING LIKE US, WE ARE THE SUPERIORS. WE CONTROL AN EMPIRE OF GALAXIES, AND THEIR EMPIRE IS SMALL IN COMPARISON, LINKED BY ONLY A FEW STARGATES! OUR PROGENITOR PROJECT WAS TO FORM HUMAN EMPIRES IN NEARLY EVERY GALAXY IN THE UNIVERSE! THEY'RE NOTHING LIKE US, UNDERSTOOD?"

The president sat down, and they proceeded with the rest of the meeting, but aside from threatening each other, very little was accomplished.

* * *

In the prime reality, John Sheridan, Supreme Commander of the Time lord fleets, was walking through the corridors of the building in the Council segment of the Capital city that had been given to the Minbari Grey Council, and following him were two bodyguards. Starfleet had changed greatly in the last 5,000 years, and considering most of his fellows had retired, either to travel the universe for themselves, or simply because they were tired of constantly following the chain of command in the military and exploration services, John Sheridan had become the Supreme Commander of the fleets, and although the job had its moments of rewarding service, Sheridan often wondered why he bothered staying in the same job century after century, regeneration after regeneration, when he could retire and return to a simple life.

His parents had passed on many years ago, and although Sheridan himself was a father, grandfather, great grandfather, great-great-great grandfather, he still found cause to remain in the space service.

He had plans, if he survived, to retire from the role of Supreme Commander, and pass it on to whomever wanted the job. It was unlikely it would be Susan Ivanova, or Marcus Cole, since the two of them had left Earth in a TARDIS, and were now traversing time and space.

Sheridan was nervous about the task at hand, and the first thing he would have to see to was the Minbari. Sheridan remembered the Earth-Minbari war, remembered how brutal the Minbari had been, how uncompromising their forces had been in seeking to wipe out humanity over a mistake. The merging of the Minbari minds had given the Time lords some perspective into the crime and stupidity of Captain Michael Janowski, but there was nothing they could do about it, not unless they wanted to erase the last 50 centuries, and Sheridan wasn't sure if that would be a good idea. They would still have to deal with the Shadows and the duplicity and manipulative Vorlons, the apathetic First Ones, and they would have to remain anchored to one time and one galaxy, something the Mind of the Great link refused to even contemplate.

He approached the door of the Grey council, mentally composing himself as he prepared to walk in. He knew the Minbari called him Starkiller for destroying their flagship, but the Supreme Commander did not regret that action in the slightest. If he hadn't then the Black star would have destroyed more human ships and killed thousands.

He would never regret that decision for the rest of his shortened life, and the Minbari had better adapt to that quickly, if they wanted to live through this. Sheridan knew from talks with the Council that the Minbari knew about the danger of the invasion from their mirror opposites, that Minbar in that reality had been invaded, the people slaughtered and enslaved without mercy, but they were woefully unprepared.

Sheridan had the job of being the one who whipped them into shape, but that didn't mean he had to like the job. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Sheridan walked into the room.

**What do you think of the enemy? **


	17. Chapter 17

**The Time Lord Empire.**

**Starkiller Returns.**

* * *

Delenn and the rest of the Grey Council were waiting inside the suite the Time lords had put them in. It was a simple enough room, barely furnished with a nine seats arranged in a circle in a parody of the council chamber on the Valen'tha. There were nine separate rooms, clearly set aside for the members of the Minbari for sleep, and their beds were arranged in a traditional manner. Delenn was surprised the humans would go so far as to make them comfortable, and she and the rest of the Council couldn't help but feel there was a hidden motive, but Delenn was hopeful that this meant the humans were going to allow them to come into their culture. The importance of the souls was too important for the council to ignore. Some of the council were starting to become impatient with the Time lords, but the Time Lords had told them that there was a meeting with the Supreme Commander of their forces.

Delenn sat in a seat, watching as the rest of the council paced up and down the room, but she didn't interact with any of them, she was trying to appear as serene as possible. She had no idea whether this Supreme Commander was of the ilk that hated the Minbari or not, and she definitely wanted to appear as open as she could.

The door opened, and a tall human walked in. Delenn's eyes widened, she'd seen this man before, on the Valen'tha after Lenonn had been killed following that disastrous peace making mission, but where that man had been battered and bruised, this man was clean, self assured. He was also familiar to the Warrior caste, but they couldn't place him.

The Time lord bowed his head in greeting. " I'm John Sheridan, Supreme Commander of the Time lord fleets. I've been told -"

" Starkiller!" Neroon roared in fury, drawing his fighting pike and advancing on the Supreme Commander. " They insult us! You're the Starkiller!"

Sheridan did not move.

Neroon bellowed like an angry bull, and charged - only to find himself kicked against the far wall by a force of strength he couldn't combat. He hit the wall, and stars exploded in his mind. When Neroon had shaken his mind free, he looked up and saw the human give him a contemptuous look, if that was what it was, and he was holding his fighting pike in his hands!

The human held up both ends of the pike, and gritting his teeth, he pitted his more than human muscles against the metal-crystalline alloy composite of the pike, and he started to bend it. The human twisted the once formidable and once 200 year old Minbari fighting pike into a ring, then a knot, and then he threw it against the wall. It impacted with a clang.

The human stood there, gazing at the Minbari, who were looking at him with strangely expressionless but emotional faces. Sheridan scanned their surface thoughts, and sensed fear, apprehension, and a good dose of anger. " You don't seem to realise, we're not like the humans you slaughtered on a daily basis. We're genetically enhanced, we're stronger, faster, superior in every way to what we used to be, even superior than the Khanate. I can snap your necks before you all realised what I was doing." Sheridan bent down to look Neroon in the eyes. The Minbari was still shaken, but he was alive and conscious enough to hear and understand, " All of you, worthless, stupid, primitives experienced the Great Link. It's perpetually generated, we humans are feeling each other even now, and they know what you've just tried to do, seeing the event through my eyes. You're an embarrassment to evolution, you don't think, at all. Say you overpower me, what then? This room is made from non atomic matter and you would never be able to break free of the rooms defences, and the lock can be utilised by anyone, sealing you in without letting you out. What would you have done? Say you kill me, you seem to forget one important detail; you're on our home planet, and there are millions of Time lords out there between you and your ships. One order from the Council, and your crews will be executed, and you would be plugged into see their deaths, but you, you could be locked in here for eternity." Sheridan got up, and looked around the room. None of the Minbari moved. " This room is under constant surveilance, but you could never hope to stop it. Yes, I am the Starkiller, and I'm proud of it. I'm proud that I destroyed a murdering crew who would kill the crew of a disabled ship that used a cowardly tactic of opening a jump point right in the middle of a fleet of ships. Silence!" He said harshly when a few of the warriors protested, saying that the Black star was honourable. Sheridan didn't want to hear it.

" You're not honourable, nor are you special. You're just a jumped up minor species that the Vorlons picked out the gutter, gave you technology after a war, for a reward," Sheridan sneered. By now the Minbari were silent, and they didn't try to deny what Sheridan was saying, as it was the truth. The Vorlons had appeared, literally, before the Minbari, and helped them develop space travel. What the Minbari did not know was that the Vorlons had not, as the Minbari believed them to have done, given them the technology and science out of faith or of goodwill, like gods giving their children gifts for being good. The Time lords had found during their studies of Minbari-Vorlon history, that the Vorlons had telepathically mesmirised the Minbari so then they wouldn't destroy themselves. The Minbari were a younger version of the Vorlons, something the Vorlons had taken great pride in, but aside from a few exceptions, the Minbari were lazy. They didn't develop new technologies, prefering to stagnate their culture behind an air of superiority.

Sheridan left the room.

* * *

Delenn was walking through the gardens ajoining the compound, smelling each flower and admiring their fragrant perfumes and their appearance. A large ornamental pond and a white gravel stone slated pathway with a wooden swing seat lent the air of a serene garden with a calming atmosphere.

" Beautiful night isn't it?" A voice whispered behind Delenn, who jumped. She turned and saw the Time lady that had been sitting in on the council and shown those horendous images of the alternate Time lords. "Yes," Delenn agreed, recovering from the surprise of the Time lady's arrival. " It is." She agreed before looking closely at the Time lady's face. She didn't look happy, but since Delenn had spent so little time amongst humans it was hard for her to deduce what a human was feeling, or even thinking.

The Time lady's face was grim. " You really should keep your control, you Minbari. Losing your temper, especially with a war hero is a bad idea."

Delenn agreed with her, but she also agreed with the warrior caste. " You do not know, nor do you understand how Starkiller is reviled in our culture-"

The Time Lady interrupted her forcefully, " And you can't understand how much contempt we actually have for your people. You went to war over one man, one incident. Your people have been space faring for a thousand years, believe me, we know. We've seen your history play out. We watched as the Vorlons patted you on the collective bones and gave you the technology you use to this day. We find that to be lazy. When we fought your kind, no one helped us, we had to work on our own, and we became used to it, and when we found ourselves here in this galaxy, abandoned by all, we excelled. We had no one to teach us anything, and using our new found knowledge we built a powerful empire spanning time and space. Not bad, for brutal savages. That is what you call us, isn't it? You had better that attitude, if you wish to survive, because you've got quite a few enemies lined up to kill you. You have the New Earth Alliance, the Khanate, and the Shadows in your galaxy. But they pale in comparison with the alternate Time Lords.

" Don't expect much sympathy from the rest of us, Sheridan was well within his rights. Your member attacked him, are you going to say your worthless people expect the universe to revolve around you? Sheridan will meet you tomorrow in the council chamber with three others, and there will be armed guards there. Attack him, or say anything else, and we will kill the crews of your ships. Remember, this is our planet, your in our territory, and our technology is infinitely more superior than yours. Now."

The Time Lady turned around and left, leaving Delenn with her thoughts.

* * *

It had taken Delenn hours to make Neroon see that attacking the Time Lords would not get him anywhere, and when they heard what would happen to their fellow Minbari, held captive, their mood did not improve. Uncaring about how they were perceived, the Time lords transmatted the Grey Council in the High Council Chamber of the Time Lords.

Delenn looked around the room, and saw at once the Time Lady had been right; there were armoured soldiers here, and each of them armed with massive rifles, though whether they were plasma based Delenn couldn't say. The Minbari had been teleported into their seats, and the President said. " Now we're here, maybe we can work together as civilised races for a change."


	18. Chapter 18

**Breakthrough and the invasion.**

The force leader of the alternate Time Lords smirked cruelly as the Battle TARDIS started fixing onto their alternate cousins universe on the datapad he was looking at as he ate his breakfast, taking up relative position in the universe to their counterparts. What they were about to do was the only way they could make their plan feasible. Like everyone else, the leader had been brutally stunned and then contemptuous of how weak and foolish their cousins were. Cousins? The leader snorted as he thought of the weakling humans of the other reality. They'd been hunted down by lesser beings like the Minbari and the Narns, and they too had fled their galaxy to start anew in the Andromeda galaxy. Now, they were the masters of time and space, and the Minbari and their old allies whom they had risked life and limb for during the Dilgar war were now either extinct or enslaved, where they belonged. A Centauri slave came in, a girl in her teens, looking anything but a Centauri, but her master ignored her as he calmly ate his meal. The Time Lord knew she'd been raped dozens of times in front of Centauri men to show them their place, their real place as slaves serving their Time Lord masters, and it wasn't unusual for girls in that position to have their throats sliced open brutally. The force leader on the other hand preferred the slaves who worked for him to be humiliated, then he would kill them.

As he walked into the lab, the force leader smirked as he looked around the room. On a screen was a holographic representation of the Time lord domain, it covered virtually the entire universe, whole sectors of space, aeons of time. The force leader smiled, and the scar on his face, which he received during the Earth - Minbari war, became more horrifying. He remembered only too well as he'd fought against the filthy subhuman species, look at them now. The Minbari and nearly every race in the Milky War were pale imitations of what they'd been before, the First One races, all of them, were now exterminated. Minbar was now a slave world, and the once almighty castes were now shattered, and members of the species were sold at auction to Time Lords for work in mines, homes, even ships though they had no real power. How the tables had turned. Once the Centauri and the Minbari had been powerful races, holding large slices of the Milky way in their grasps, and the Vorlons and the Shadows had once fought each other, getting races to fight their battles for them. Look at their legacy, both races were now extinct with their technology destroyed, the jump gate network destroyed, and the once posturing races were now either dead or slavess. The force leader remembered thoughtfully how their people had become what they had, how they'd come to this state. Their history mirrored that of their counterparts exactly, but unlike their counterparts the alternate Time Lords ( they called themselves the Prime Time Lords since their history was purer) didn't play hide and seek with the Hegemony. They'd stolen Hegemony technology at their earliest opportunity, and as they'd developed their time technology, their weapons, their aggressive power seizing tactics, and when they were ready they'd launched a violent assault on the Hegemony, destroying the filthy races homeworld, before using time travel to force alternate realities into existence. They did the same with the other races in the galaxy. The Time Lord empire in this galaxy was vast, and all the races were not treated like the slaves in the Milky way galaxy, they had not ignored humanity's plight during the Minbari war, they were more innocent. As a result they were treated far fairly than those in the Milky way galaxy. In their old galaxy, it wasn't unusual to discover concentration camps on various worlds, whilst worlds like Narn and Minbar were bombed out ruins floating depleted stars, their peoples struggling to survive in the hell their people had pushed them through.

Content in their power and dominion, all other races developing time travel were destroyed in black hole explosions, paradoxes stopping them from even existing in the first place, the Time Lords had been happy they were the masters of time and space.

Until they discovered the tear the Vorlons of another reality had made on the universe, and that wasn't all. Every universe the Vorlons had existed had the same crack, it was like the foolish benighted species with delusions of godhood collectively had shattered reality, just to become something they weren't. In some realities, the aliens from the alternate reality they'd opened up and waved the red flag had succeeded in defeating the combined power of the First Ones who'd banded together to clean up the Vorlon's mistake, with the Time Lord's help of course, but in those realities humans had not ascended to becoming the lords of time the universe became a dark place with the aliens exterminating all life. The alternate Time Lords of course had found it simple to erradicate the aliens, forcing their way into the parallel reality and forcing the universe to be ripped to shreds with the aliens in it.

It never ended, the carelessness of the First Ones, but in this case the matter was solved. The alternate Time Lords had found a grand total of a thousand realities where the human race became the Time Lords, and over ten thousand where they did, but even then there were differences. Some of them, a small number became similar to the Time lords of the force leader's own reality, others were less advanced but powerful enough to cause damage on a significant level to that of the Vorlons.

In terms of power, the counterparts they were trying to destroy were the strongest, even stronger than their alternates, and that level was why the President was obsessed with destroying them.

It was only a matter of time before their plan gained momentum.

* * *

In the real reality, Delenn walked through the gardens. She could hear the chirps of birds in the sky, and she was soothed by the trickle of water into ornamental ponds and fountains. It had been a month since they'd arrived on Earth, and Delenn wondered how Dukhat would feel if he had been here, observing first hand the Time lords power as they made plans and counterplans to deal with the threat of their counterparts in other universes. If the humans had tried informing the Minbari Grey Council of this without telepathy they wouldn't be believed, but as Dukhat and Lenonn had said on many occasions the Minbari were overconfident of their abilities, but Delenn had long lost that trait her mentor had gone to great lengths to curb.

She'd lost them when she'd believed her vote had slaughtered an entire race, that she knew now the whole thing was a misunderstanding on both sides was painful in itself, the humans had misread the greeting of respect, a tradition of the warrior caste, and they'd opened fire believing they were about to be attacked. The Minbari had ignored the humans, they'd known for years about the humans presence in the galaxy, and they'd ignored them even as races amongst the League of Non Aligned worlds allied themselves to the humans in gratitude when the humans helped to defeat the Dilgar, but the Minbari had not made strides to learn about the humans, learn how their technology at that time had been inferior that when Minbari scanning beams were locked on they lost all power. Was it any wonder the humans had panicked?

When the human who was called Sinclair, the human with Valen's soul in its entirety had disappeared from the council during the last battle of the Earth - Minbari war, Delenn had seen her future, the future of the Minbari die with him, or so she'd thought. Delenn understood only too well why the humans had fled the galaxy. What did they have left? At the time she'd thought the whole human race was extinct, why would a mere seven wish to survive in this when their people, their whole civilisation's history and future was on shaky ground? When Delenn had learnt of the presence of the Khanate and the New Earth Alliance, she'd wanted nothing more than to open a dialogue with both of them, but so far they'd been hostile. She couldn't blame them.

When the Valen'tha had ended up here in a strange galaxy, only to be rescued by the original human race, Delenn had been stunned to learn the truth. The human race had not been wiped out, they were alive and stronger than ever, but they had problems, and those problems extended beyond her perception of the universe, something she would never have imagined possible.

The humans had mastered time travel, something she was sure no other race in the universe had even managed, not even the First Ones. She didn't notice Neroon sidle up next to her until the Warrior began speaking.

" The next meeting is in a few minutes, Delenn." He said.

Delenn stopped and stared at him. Since their arrival and his defeat at the hands of Starkiller, Neroon had been remarkably quiet. Then again all warriors had since they'd been punished via telepathy for their attack. The Time Lords had made it very clear that to them if they so much as thought a deadly thought, they would be vapourised. The Minbari hadn't believed them, until six of their number were disintegrated before their eyes.

If the Time Lords were trying to prevent their races from fighting one another they weren't doing a good job, but Delenn had demanded an explanation from the Supreme Commander himself.

Sheridan had stared at her for a long moment before he spoke. " Your people have always attacked us. We have to defend ourselves, and there are plenty of non combatants on our world. Do you blame us for protecting them?"

They didn't trust the Minbari.

Delenn was sad to admit it, but it was true.

Before she could say a word to Neroon, she was surprised to see a dozen Time Lords run through the garden, and alarms blarring. Neroon stopped one of them, " What is happening?"

The Time Lady, a short woman with dark fur on her head, glared at them, her genetic enhanced body not even breaking sweat. " The alternates have broken through our defences."

* * *

Temporal control was a mess, and Delenn and the other members of the Grey Council were crowded around the operations table, all around the room screens showing maps and sites in the universe the alternate Time Lords had broken into, and on the screens were Time Lords, some of them inside control rooms of their Time ships. The image quality was poor.

Sheridan was standing next to the President, and he was presently speaking to a Time Lord on the main screen. The Time Lord was both harried, shocked and frightened. He was only a scientist on a survey team, and the rest of the crew was trying to control the bucking ship. " It's no good, sir. The TARDIS is badly damaged, and the vortex has locked us here. It's tearing the TARDIS apart."

Sheridan nodded in understanding. " How much damage is TARDIS taking?"

The Time Lord shook his head, irritated, " I don't know. The ship's rocking so much its hard to get an accurate reading, but the damage is spreading from the temporal core to the console room through the time rotor. When that goes..."

Sheridan sighed, " Try and stabilise the core. We can't let them into our reality."

" Supreme commander, I don't think you realise how much damage our TARDIS is taking. We've tried every trick we know to control and contain the core. It's now exceeding tolerance...Coolant leaks are popping along the rotor!" The Time Lord suddenly shouted as the glass columm in the console room suddenly exploded, and a gas came spurting out. " Earth, we have eleven minutes till a full temporal explosion...we're escaping via a wormhole portal...we'll call as soon as possible..."The image cut out.

The President had been silent until that point. " How many TARDISes are there in the universe - independents, warriors and scientists...how many?"

A Time Lord at the table counter looked up, his expression grim if Delenn was reading his expression correctly. " Too many, and far too many of them have given reports in the last half hour about their cores rupturing. They have to shut down their power connection before they could stabilise, if not..." he trailed off, and the Minbari saw all of them shudder.

" What happens if the power connection isn't shut down?" Coplann asked curiously.

The President sighed. He'd forgotten about the Minbari present, but it was too late for them not to know about the intricacies of Time Lord technology. " Our power systems are derived from black holes held in certain times, the temporal energy beamed back and forth in time is rich with gravitational energies, time energies...The temporal core maintains stability for our ships in the universe. If a TARDIS explodes, its explosion is not limited to one time and place, but all of them combined. Imagine it, total explosion through the whole universe exploding in every moment, every year, every day, everywhere. The alternates know it, but they're using their more primitive vessels to create interdimensional ruptures at various points in time through their own vortex."

This was beyond the Minbari, as their brains were not genetically enhanced to the level of the humans, so they had no real inkling of how bad it was, but they understood the dangers posed even though their minds, used to thinking along terms established by the Vorlons, could not comprehend it.

* * *

On a planet out in remote territory, a crew of Time Lords were rushing around busily trying to establish an emergency stargate home. Their TARDIS explosion had occurred only a few minutes ago, and the explosion could be seen and heard as though it were right next to the planet, but in truth it was three light years away. One of the Time Lords glared up at it furiously, the explosion had subsided, and now it was starting to take on the appearance of a wormhole or a black hole in space, an interdimensional tear similar to the one the Vorlons had opened aeons ago. How like their alternate selves to use a crude way of travel between realities, using their TARDISes as doors. It was an offence to destroy a TARDIS, a living being that used the time vortex...but their alternate selves simply did not care.

Another Time Lord came over. " We've gotta go, now! The converter is ready to crack this planet in half."

The first Time Lord, like his fellows disliked the necessity of destroying an uninhabited world, just to prevent their technology, which was in some ways more advanced than their counterparts, falling into their enemies hands but their counterparts had never designed or created stargates, and it wouldn't take much for them to learn the principles of the technology and use it against their alternate enemies. The converter would convert half of the planet into antimatter, and then into energy, creating a devastating exlosion in space, destroying the stargate before their enemy would stop it. A release of temporal energy would prevent time travel for billions of years.

The Time Lords rushed towards the stargate, through the wormhole before, seen from space, the planet started glowing, faintly at first then superirradiantly before it epxloded just as the alternate Time Lord warships emerged from the interdimensional wormhole emerged.

The invasion had begun.

**Authors Note. I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I'm back. Please review my story as feedback, hopefully creative feedback is what I want.**


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