Lyta and Ivanova Part 6 of ---(WIP)
Rated PG-10 (Vocabulary)
********************************************************************** (Pat’s flashback, cont:)The ship had been commissioned six months before and been on its maiden deployment for five of them. They had visited several EA worlds and outposts, but the major portion of their deployment had been relentless drills. "Don't you think you’re overdoing it a bit, captain," asked Owens referring to the numerous drills they had been conducting, almost without break. "What’s the problem with them, XO?" asked Ivanova. "The crew is tired." "That’s why, they’ll continue. I want a crew that can fight in their sleep, when they’re so tired, and worn out, they have to lean against one another to stand at their stations, under any conditions you can throw at them. Then we will rest, commander. When we get back, I want to have all of my crew with me, not dead because someone was too tired to man his station. I don't like to lose my people." "Yes sir." "I’m not here to win a popularity contest, commander. When we return, I intend to hand someone the best combat vessel in the fleet, with a crew second to none." "Approaching Glenthorian beacon, Captain Ivanova," said the navigator. "Jump to normal space when we reach it and hold our position. I haven't received traffic saying our visit is authorized. The last thing I need, is a scared IA member trying to shoot us out of space." The jump point opened and the Ares entered normal space. The helmsman immediately brought them to a halt. Susan waited for communications to establish contact with the planet. Three whitestars approached the Ares and hailed her. "Unidentified ship, identify yourself and state your purpose for being here?" requested the Minbari on Susan's display screen. "This is the EAS Ares. We are here for a visit. We are waiting for confirmation traffic from EA headquarters on Earth. If it suits you, we will return to hyperspace and wait there. We don't want any trouble." "You look familiar, captain," stated the Minbari. "Well, I am a human female, and I’m told we all look alike to the Minbari." "Not true captain. I am Captain Sheraun of this vessel, Whitestar 71. Your ship configuration is not familiar to us." "Our commissioning was all over ISN. Maybe you need to update your intelligence service. John never was good at the housekeeping details." "Hold station, captain. I have a reply to my query of ranger headquarters." Susan sat and waited, watching the Minbari male, and he was a very large one, talk to someone off to one side of his command chair. "Captain Sheraun," said Susan. The Minbari turned to face her. "I didn't introduce myself. I’m Captain Susan Ivanova of the EA." The Minbari's expression changed to one of instant recognition. "My apologies, Captain Ivanova, for not recognizing you. I am confirming your request for visit approval. It seems someone forgot to send it to the Glenthorian Ambassador on Earth." Ten minutes passed before the Minbari spoke again. "I passed your request straight to the local Earth ambassador and he has received approval for your visit from the local government. If you will follow us, we will lead you to an orbit slot above the planet." "Helm, follow them in," ordered Susan. ************************************************************ "Low orbit has been achieved, captain," announced the navigator. "Noted," responded Susan. The Ares was in a low orbit three-hundred kilometers above the planet's surface. It could easily be seen from the surface. "Captain. The shuttle from Whitestar 71 is about to dock," commented the helmsman. "Tell the hanger bay, I’m on my way down," responded Susan. *********************************************************** Susan watched the captains of the three whitestars that had intercepted her coming across the hanger bay work area. The area was almost large enough to hold a whitestar, if you could get it through the bay doors. However, they weren't large enough by far. They were designed to permit entry of large shuttles and troop insertion craft. "Welcome aboard EAS Ares, gentlemen," greeted Susan. The three were a different lot. The Minbari was the size of a medium building, with a "Greek God" physique. The other two were humans, but were much shorter than the Minbari. One looked to be of African descent and the other a mixture of at least three ethnic groups. All three walked with the gait Susan had learned to associate with highly trained and experienced rangers. "Captain Ivanova," replied Sheraun, "I would like to introduce my fellow ship commanders. Captains Arnold and Misket of the Whitestars 34 and 87 respectively." Susan shook hands with all three. "It’s just past lunch, but if you haven't eaten, I'll get the wardroom chef to make some sandwiches and soup. Unless you would like to tour this bucket first?" "I think a sandwich and soup would be great, Captain Ivanova," replied Misket. Susan made a call on her wrist comm. unit, then said, "Please call me Susan. I get enough of the ‘captain’ routine from my officers and crew." "Just how many are in your crew?" "Not quite two thousand, Sheraun. A few more than on your whitestar." "Just a few," he laughed. "We ran scans on your ship, captain. I have never seen anything with so many weapons in my life," commented Arnold. "It isn't an EA standard issue destroyer. I’m responsible for all the firepower being on it. I got a destroyer shot out from under me, when I encountered four Drakh cruisers, in an ambush, a couple of years ago. I don't intend for that to happen again." "You led a group of whitestars against an ambush by advanced destroyers carrying Shadow technology during the EA civil war, didn't you?" asked Sheraun. "Yep! Got those shot out from under me, too, but not before we sent them straight to hell. I just thank heavens, they didn't have something like the Ares." "From what our scans revealed, this thing would be very hard to kill. I’m not sure a whitestar group could do it," commented Misket. "Take my word for it; they couldn't and I should know," responded Susan. The conversation had been going on all the while they were walking through the ship. Without warning, Susan stopped and opened a door. "This is the wardroom, gentlemen. Let's get a snack and something to drink," said Susan. "I sent a shuttle to the planet's surface to bring up the Earth ambassador and several representatives of the local government. The Earth ambassador requested it. I think they want to set up some ground rules before you send down liberty parties," noted Sheraun. "It only makes sense," replied Susan. "You can't play the game if you don't know the rules." Thirty minutes later they were notified that the Earth ambassador and the local officials were about to land in the hanger bay. ********************************************************************* "Welcome aboard the Ares Ambassador." Turning to the Glenthorian officials, "Gentlemen. Welcome aboard the EAS Ares. I hope our visit becomes a pleasant memory for all of us." "Well spoken, Captain Ivanova. I should introduce myself. I’m David Sheridan." "You’re John's father." He nodded assent. "I’m very pleased to meet you, sir. I thought you were retired?" "I was, but this world and the assignment was too good to pass up. Besides, I wanted some distance between me and Earthdome for a while." Smiling at him, Susan replied, "You surely, have that in abundance, sir." "John is proud of your accomplishments, Susan. You don't mind if I call you, Susan, do you?" "Not at all, sir." "I must introduce you to these gentlemen. They have never seen anything like this ship before." "Neither have most other people, ambassador." "Susan. This is Karrl Nidel and his assistant, Gunh Jord. They are charged with familiarizing you, your officers and enlisted men with what they can expect on the surface. They will cover local customs and laws. Most of them are similar to what you expect in any civilized society; however, they will concentrate on the ones most likely to be trouble spots or sore points. I am requesting they remain aboard and give presentations to each liberty section before it departs for the planet," said David. "No problem at all, Mr. Sheridan," replied Susan as she keyed her comm. unit and spoke quietly into it. "The head steward is arranging quarters for them now. We will use one of our briefing rooms for their presentations." "We won't need interpreters, captain," commented Mr. Nidel. "We got the assignment because we are fluent in both English and Interlac. We have some equipment to help with our presentations." "It is being taken to the largest briefing room we have, even as we speak. After we finish with what we’re doing here, I’ll have you shown to the briefing room and also to your quarters. You do understand you will be escorted at all times, as will be Mr. Sheridan. It has to do with safety and security." "I actually prefer being escorted, Susan," noted Sheridan. "This is a very large ship. It’s easy to get lost, and touching the wrong thing can have unpleasant results." "You would be amazed at how many visitors have to learn those lessons the hard way, Mr. Sheridan," replied Susan. "No I wouldn't, young lady," he responded laughing. His comment got laughs from everyone in the party. "I’m hosting a small party tomorrow evening, Captain Ivanova. I would appreciate it if you could attend," offered Ambassador Sheridan. "I will make my best effort to attend, ambassador," responded Susan. ************************************************************* The party had been going on for almost two hours and Susan and her XO had met more officials than they would have believed. Most of the IA worlds were represented. "What do you think, Pat?" asked Ivanova. "I think I don't want to be a diplomat or politician," he responded. Smiling, she replied, "That makes two of us." If she could have only known the future. The week long visit was marred by only one mishap. The crewman that got drunk and started a bar fight had been made to pay for the damages, and at Captain's Mast was awarded a reduction in rate and enough extra duty to keep him out of trouble until they returned to Earth. The engineering personnel appreciated his being assigned to cleaning filters on the sewage recycling systems.********************************************************** In the year following the conversation she had with her XO, just before their visit to the planet Glenthor, Susan drove her crew to the breaking point. They visited a number of planets in the IA and many that were out on the edge of Interstellar Alliance space. At every stop Susan let liberty go as much as operations permitted. After the results of the one mishap on Glenthor, there weren't anymore such incidents. After leaving the Glenthorian system, the Ares made a circuit of the most distant outlying areas of IA space. She encountered raiders half a dozen times and destroyed three raider mother ships. The captured raiders were dropped off at the nearest IA member planet. The last incident had been a month before Ares jumped for Babylon 5. It was the last stop before home. Finally they arrived at Babylon 5, two weeks early, and she had granted maximum liberty. It was obvious to those on Babylon 5 that the Ares crew were very proud of who they were. They had the toughest captain in Earthforce and the meanest ship. Pride in who they were kept them from behaving as most crews did after a long deployment, as did the knowledge that Captain Ivanova would personally flay the skin off anyone who didn't behave properly. Owens smiled to himself. She was one hell of a skipper, regardless of sex. *********************************************************************** 2147 Babylon 5 "Captain Lochley, look at the display!" exclaimed Corwin. Stunned, the captain watched several monitoring receivers lose output as their front ends burned out. "Lt. Corwin. What did that?" "It looked like the same power surge we saw before, only this one is off the scale." "The Ares?" "It has destroyed or badly damaged eight cruisers. Captain. Look." She did. The displays showed more than a dozen cruisers starting to wander off course. "Lt.?" "Sensors show no life signs on them, Captain." "Could the sensors be damaged?" Corwin shrugged his shoulders. *********************************************************************** 2148 Epsilon III Draal watched the melee from the safety of the Great Machine. He noted that Lyta was a very efficient killer. More than half the Drakh crews were dead, and at this rate, she would run out of Drakh to kill in a few minutes. In a spectrum that the humans sensors could not detect, Draal watched the light display as Lyta went about her gruesome task. It was impressive and outright frightening to see so much power wielded so efficiently, ruthlessly and without compunction. He determined he would visit her when she had finished her business with the Drakh. *********************************************************************** On ship after ship, the Drakh first felt a light touch on their mind, then excruciating pain as every blood vessel in their heads exploded. There wasn't time to even cry out. In less that five minutes Lyta had personally killed more than seven thousand Drakh. Every single member of every single crew was dead. The accompanying support ships crews and troops fared no better. *********************************************************************** The Ares had been hit by fire from several Drakh cruisers that apparently were on full automatic. The hits had inflicted heavy damage to several outer hull areas, but no fires were started, and the damage was limited to the immediate impact area; however, the fighters trying to fly through Ares to get to the station were a matter of another sort. Maya was young and untrained, but she was managing to break up some of the fighters before they impacted the Ares' hull. It was helping, but it might not be enough. The reactors on the Ares were all maxed out far past the redline. One had been shut down just before it would have exploded. The weapons on the ship were all running hot beyond safe levels, but taking them off line was not an option. "Keep firing until they melt!" ordered Ivanova. "If we don't survive, it won't make any difference. If we do, I take the responsibility. Helm! Bring us around and give the starboard side a firing line. Port weapons throttle back. Be careful. Try not to kill any of our own or shoot up the station. Starboard weapons, give them everything you have when you're unmasked. SWO, how’re we holding up?" "At this rate, captain, we won't have a system undamaged, when we get finished, if we survive." Susan knew her people were giving her everything they had. She was doing great harm to her ship's systems, but in her mind there was no choice. They must have destroyed at least fifteen cruisers and, with the help of Babylon 5 resources, more than a thousand fighters and still there were more than a thousand or so to kill. The behavior of the Drakh cruisers made her believe that Lyta had come through. But, she had been correct. The fighters were the real danger due to sheer numbers. She had to destroy the remainder of the cruisers, because many had been setup for automatic engagement. They might have a dead crew, but the computers still operated the weapons systems, and they weren't dead. She looked at the displays and noted that some of the cruisers were exploding or otherwise breaking up. "Good old Lyta. Dependable as usual." "Captain?" asked the nearby console operator. "Nothing. I was just mumbling to myself." She had lost count of the collisions her ship had sustained, and she wasn't looking forward to the damage assessment pictures or repair costs. The ship was continuously shaking under the impacts. They had even been grazed by a cruiser that opened a jump point almost on top of them. Maya had deflected it just enough to keep it from being a direct square hit. Somewhere along the line, Susan realized, they were going to get out of this alive, and she had to fight back tears. *********************************************************************** 2150 Babylon 5 Lyta was finished slaughtering the Drakh and turned her attention to the cruisers that still were a threat to ships within gun range. She began overloading their power plants and destroying them. It didn't take long. Then, she turned her attention to the remaining fighters. The station's and Susan's fighters were making good with their efforts, but they were badly outnumbered. There were many more fighters than there had been cruisers, but the idea was the same. Overload the power plants and they would self destruct. Finally she was finished. It had taken about an hour to completely destroy the Drakh threat. It would have been so much easier if there hadn't been any non-combatants in the area. It took a great deal of focus to keep from accidentally killing any of them. No one would ever know how hard that had been, and no one would ever know exactly what she had done. Well, maybe, Draal, but he didn't count. "Hello, Lyta," said a godlike voice, as Draal became visible in the room. She just looked at him, tiredly. "I was right. You are dangerous. Today proves it." She didn't answer. "You aren't happy to see me, are you?" She still just looked at him. "What's wrong?" "I have ignored you and you didn't go away, so, I suppose you must be real, or as real as a hologram gets." "I thought we were friends," he said in a lighter tone. "I don't have any friends, Draal. I have people who notice me, when they need me." "That's not true. Captain Ivanova likes you very much." "Okay. I have one friend." "Then there is Delenn and G’Kar and Mister Garibaldi. There are many more if you will allow them to be." "Friends complicate things, Draal." "Can I ask a favor of you, Lyta?" Her eyebrows arched as she looked at his image. "You are joking?" "Not at all. It would be a valuable experience for you." "Draal. You are beginning to sound like a used shuttle broker." "The last time a telepath got close to the machine was Captain Ivanova some years ago. It did things for her, it won't do for me, yet." "She got in that thing, didn't she?" "Yes." "You want me to get in that thing? Are you nuts?" "Yes and no." "Which answer goes with which question?" she asked, sarcasm dripping from her words. Draal honestly looked hurt by her sarcasm. "If I do this, Draal, you take all the credit for saving the station. You help me plausibly deny any involvement in the whole situation." "I can't do that, Lyta." "It's that or no deal." Draal's, image showed consternation on its face. "I don't like it, but it's a deal." "Don't cross me, Draal." "How could you even think such a thing. Besides, I've seen what you can do. I'll be waiting." *********************************************************************** 2245 Babylon 5 C&C "How badly damaged are we Mr. Corwin?" "We took half a dozen hits from undamaged fighters, but we have repair parties on the scenes. Unfortunately two of them penetrated the outer hull before exploding. There are many smaller hits from fragments of the ones that have been destroyed. Those are very minor and pose no danger, Captain. We also took some hits from stray fire from the Drakh cruisers and the tertiary batteries of the Ares. However the damage from the Ares fire didn't do major damage." "Put me through to the Ares." "Yes, sir." "Elizabeth. How are you faring?" "Six hits, with damage control on the scenes, some fire from the Drakhs and some stray fire from you. Yourself?" "I'm sorry about the stray fire. We are beat and shot all to hell, but no casualties in the crew except for some of my pilots. I lost ten birds and six pilots. We had some crew members injured from being thrown around, but nothing more serious than a broken arm." "I am almost tempted to say, ‘God smiled on us today’." "Elizabeth. She did, and her name is Lyta Alexander." Lochley hesitated for almost a minute, and then answered, thoughtfully, "I know. I think she burned out half my monitor receivers when she did it." *********************************************************************** On Centauri Prime, the Drakh leaders were trying to assess what happened to the fleet they had sent to destroy Babylon 5. There had been communications as they prepared to jump into Epsilon III space, then without warning, the communications had suddenly and without explanation, terminated. It wouldn't be long before they heard the news from their human conspirators on Earth. The lack of adequate explanations would cause them to remove Babylon 5 from their list of primary and secondary targets. *********************************************************************** 0100 EAS Ares Susan moved the Ares closer to the station and a position that would allow use of a shuttle without subjecting it to exposure to the litter from the destroyed fighters and cruisers. Exiting her shuttle with Maya, Susan was walking through the customs area when she met Lyta going in the opposite direction. "Lyta. Where are you off to?" "I’ve been invited out." "By whom?" "Draal." "Do you want me to keep Maya here?" "Yes. I shouldn't be gone too long." With that she continued on her way after giving Maya a big hug and kiss. Susan and Maya continued down the passageway. Susan turned and looked at Lyta's receding back and wondered what the hell she and Draal were cooking up. Whatever it was, it would be good. She would bet on it. "You don't understand mom, do you, Aunt Susan?" Susan looked at the youngster and replied, "I don't think anyone except Lorien has a clue where your mother is concerned. She makes Kosh look like a simple, easily understood motormouth." Maya gave her a puzzled look. "Ask your mother," Susan said with a wicked smile. It was then and there, Maya formed the opinion that adults were nuts by genetic flaw. From her point of view, nothing else made a bit of sense. ****************************************************************** 2200 Babylon 5 time In the intensive care of the Earthdome hospital, General Leftcourt was lying in the bed watching one blank display waiting from any word from the Epsilon III area. There had been no word out of the area since the Drakh jamming had begun just about an hour ago. He was speaking to President Luchenko on a second circuit. "If they’re still there, they aren't answering our hails, Madam President." "If the station has been destroyed, there will be major hell to pay, general. Just who left her undefended?" "I am conducting an investigation now, but it looks like General Lang and his staff are the culprits. I won't know for a while. I will keep you informed. I have another matter to discuss if you don't mind." "Does it have to do with Babylon 5?" "Yes and no." "Why didn't you just say maybe, general?" "There is one EA ship in the area of the station, or rather there was." "Explain that, please?" "The Ares was at Babylon 5. Her CO requested a short R&R for her crew before they had to face the media blitz planned for them. I gave her permission to adhere to her original arrival schedule." "So what is the problem?" "General Lang through General Nelms issued her orders to return at once. She referred Nelms to me and I told him she had permission to extend her stay there. Then Lang had one of your staff issue written orders countermanding my verbal orders to her, right after my accident." "So the short story is, Captain Ivanova disobeyed a direct order and remained at Babylon 5. Is that about it?" "Almost. Her request also included the request that she remain at the station until we could get another ship or ships to assume duties as area guard. We have had one there ever since her last ship was shot up by the Drakh. I agreed with her assessment of the situation." "She seems to do whatever she thinks is necessary, whatever be damned. It’s getting to be a problem with certain people in this outfit." "There is a bright side, Madam President." "Enlighten me, general." "We got a chance to do a quick analysis of the data transmitted by Babylon 5's hyperspace monitor buoys. From the size of the Drakh fleet, it’s almost certain the Ares is destroyed, and the station with it. She was up against at least thirty to one odds ship for ship and at least fifteen to one concerns fighters, when the stations fighters are factored in. No, Madam President, I don't think we have to worry about Captain Ivanova, her ship or crew at all." "That's a morbid way of putting it, general." "Short story is, Captain Ivanova has been an embarrassment to certain people in this government who would love to dance on her grave. Is that about it, Madam President?" Even through the monitor she gave Leftcourt a blistering look. He had struck a sore point. He knew that Susan would be court martialed and dismissed from the service, if Luchenko had her way, if she survived the attack. Luchenko still stewed from the fact John Sheridan was no sooner canned from Earthforce, than he became president of the Interstellar Alliance, her equal or better. ******************************************************************* 0130 Day 4 Babylon 5 On Babylon 5, Susan was meeting with Lochley in her office. "When do you want to reestablish communications with Earth, Elizabeth?" "I’m in no hurry. Those bastards left me defenseless on purpose. I think we have some traitors very high up in Luchenko's cabinet and/or staff. The Drakh had too up to date information. Someone knew about this attack, and wanted the Ares out of the danger zone." "I agree, but how do we prove it?" "It's too bad we can't get Lyta to help us. She could find the bastards or bitches without any trouble at all." "Funny. You don't like her and think she is too dangerous to have around, but you wouldn't hesitate to use her to find the guilty parties. You sound a lot like John Sheridan in that respect. It's why Lyta doesn't trust any of us. We only want to use her." Lochley looked shocked at what Susan said. It hadn't occurred to her to look at it that way. She was a perfect example of what Lyta detested most. "I’m open for ideas." "I have decided to resign my commission as soon as we reestablish a link with Earthdome. As a civilian, I won't be held in check by the chain of command. I can go after Luchenko and her lackeys in the media like Lyta did with Psi Corps. Maybe I can kill her chances of reelection and we can get some decent leadership in that office. It is, at the very least, a legal avenue of action." ******************************************************************* "General, we need to talk." "I’m all ears, Madam President." "I mean in person." "I’m not going anywhere for a while." Luchenko arrived in his room in less than an hour. "Madam President. Pardon me for not standing up. I’m getting very weary. The doctor would tape my mouth and blindfold me if he thought it would help." The President sat down in a chair by the general's bed. The aides stepped outside and closed the door leaving Leftcourt and Luchenko alone. "Do I have a traitor or traitors on my staff or in my cabinet, or do I just have some incredibly naive and stupid people working for me?" "I can't answer that right now, but I will before long, Madam President. I’m going to use some unorthodox methods to get to the bottom of this. You don't want or need to know the details." "The John Sheridan approach, I presume." "Something like that." "If Babylon 5 is gone, so is my government. There will be a cry for my impeachment and removal from office." "Does that mean, if Babylon 5 somehow survives, you are going to owe whoever is responsible for its survival?" Twisting in her seat, Luchenko nodded agreement. "You know Captain Ivanova is a survivor.' "If she found a way to get out of that situation alive, she could probably be elected herself. After all, she is very popular with electorate and has been since she helped Sheridan depose Clark." "She will tell you, herself, she’s not a politician. She’s a combat commander, and at that, she is second to no one. If you want my opinion, she’ll make a damned good general and one day an outstanding Chairman of the JCS. "Believe it or not general, in spite of our differences, I do value your opinion, especially when it concerns the military." "Don't worry, she is a doer, and as a politician, she would drive her handlers absolutely crazy. I still think she and the Ares are gone, but I’m praying otherwise." "I didn't take you for a religious man, general." "I'm not, but it can't hurt to hedge our bets. Are you going to court martial her?" "I think so. If for no other reason, when she is acquitted, it will leave her record clean. If we don't, there’ll those who’ll always use the doubt to nip at her heels. As you point out, she’s too valuable to lose." "You do know that she was never notified of her impending promotion. We thought it would make for a great surprise to spring it on her at the celebration. It would have been a hell of a ‘welcome home’ present." ************************************************************* END PART 6