PART 4 - Tools of the Light
by Sunraven, Mar 1999

Terra had never been on the command bridge of the Ingata. She had seen other war cruiser bridges, but because of Chakur's historic antipathy towards her, she was never offered a tour of his ship. This time he just turned and saw her, gave her a small nod, then turned to Neroon.

"We have come within sensor range of the Daherna ship, Satai Neroon." Then the captain bowed deeply to his old commander. "You would do me great honor, Satai Neroon, if you would agree to take command of the Ingata once more."

Terra sensed how touched Neroon was by Chakur's offer, and thawed a bit more towards the mace-headed warrior. Neroon gave off a mixture of eagerness, excitement, battle lust, and other emotions that were quickly there and gone again.

The Warrior Satai bowed back to the Captain of the Ingata. "You do me great honor, my friend. But the Ingata is yours. I will settle for being an advisor."

The tall captain smiled a bloodthirsty smile. "And what would you advise, Satai Neroon?"

"Disperse the fighters, Chakur. Let us show these barbarians the might of the Minbari very close up! In fact, perhaps I will join them. It would be nice to lead a wing to battle again!" He turned to go to the fighter bays, and saw Terra standing out of the way, watching him with worried eyes the color of Earth's oceans.

He came to her. "This is probably not a good place for you right now, Terra. You should go to your quarters, or perhaps to the hospital wing."

Terra looked at him, then looked at the viewport, where the cylindrical Daherna ship was becoming visible. "Neroon, shouldn't we talk to them first? What if you and Lenann have guessed wrong about the Daherna? You could use my help as mediator if you did that."

He looked down for a moment, thinking hard while trying to neutralize the battle lust that fired his blood. "Perhaps you are correct. Speaking to them first may ascertain their guilt or innocence." He turned to Chakur. "Chakur, open a com channel to the Daherna ship. I wish to speak with them before we declare Jihad against them."

A com channel was linked in to the Daherna bridge. The Daherna Captain was enveloped in a monkish style robe of red with a voluminous hood that covered his face almost completely.

"Why have the Minbari stopped my ship, Captain?"

Neroon spoke up. "Your ship was stopped at my order, Conchlain.

The robe turned to the Warrior Satai. "And who are you?"

"I am Satai Neroon, Conchlain. I have just come from the planet of Korun, where a tragedy of significant consequences has occurred. We think you may have some answers for us as to why the tragedy happened."

"Respect, Satai Neroon, but I know of no tragedy on Korun."

"That is understandable, since it happened so conveniently after your ship had left Korun."

"Are you accusing us, Satai?"

"What gives you the idea that an accusation is occurring, Conchlain? Did I say something as to the effect that the tragedy involved wrongdoing on someone's part? I don't remember doing so. However, I insist that you and the traders that were on Korun meet with myself and my staff here on the Ingata in an hour's time, so that you may assist us with our inquiries. If you do not, Conchlain, I will be forced to assume that your people had something to do with the illnesses on Korun, and will take appropriate action as a result of that act of war against the Minbari people." His voice at that moment scared Terra to within an inch of her life. If he had been talking that way to her, she knew would have babbled every secret she ever had to him.

Neroon gave the signal to Chakur to launch a squadron of fighters to surround the Dahernian ship. He watched on the vid screen as a Dahernian subordinate told the Conchlain of the fighters now surrounding his ship. He spoke to Neroon, "I protest this as an injustice, Satai Neroon, but I will come with the trading party from Korun aboard the Ingata in an hour, per your request, in order to foster continued good relations between your people and my clan."

The Minbari set up a conference room for the discussion with the Daherna, and Neroon and Lenann between them decided that only Minbari should show themselves at the conference. They placed Terra in the room next to the conference room, and piped in a vid recorder showing what was happening in the conference. Terra's gift could sense the emotions of the visitors almost as clearly from another room as she could face to face. They also sound linked Neroon and Terra with small transmitters, so that Terra could speak into Neroon's ear of what she sensed.

Once the Dahernian shuttle docked, the hooded aliens were taken to the conference room where Lenann, Neroon, Chakur, and Durhan waited for them. As they approached the conference room, Terra started feeling uncomfortable. It was a feeling akin to that of biting on tin foil, only over her entire nervous system. Almost as though someone ran a fingernail over a chalkboard inside her skin and head. It got worse as they came closer to the room. She strengthened her shields to keep it out, but succeeded in only damping it. Finally, as they entered the conference room, she gasped, wanting to scratch some monstrous pseudo-itch inside her skin.

"Neroon! I'm picking something up, like a type of screaming feeling across my nerve endings, from the area of the Daherna. It isn't them giving it off, but it's so intense that I can't tell just where it's coming from." She took a deep breath to steady herself. "The Daherna are giving off feelings of fear, and something else, something dark and malicious. I'm not sure…I … I can't stand this feeling much longer. I need to get away from it. Soon. Uhhhh!, I'm going to leave and go to my quarters." And she ran, not walked, out the door and hurried to her quarters. She still felt it there, but much more faintly, so that her shields were able to keep it out.

At the conference room, Neroon, worried about Terra, leaned over and asked in a whisper for Lenann to go and check on her. He nodded, then got up and left, concerned also. Then the Satai turned towards the being wearing the all-enveloping red robe of the Conchlain.

"The Minbari do not speak to guests that cover their faces from us, Conchlain."

"It is the Daherna way, Satai, to cover ourselves when dealing with outsiders. To show our faces to you would be to break a long-standing religious taboo."

"For now, that explanation is acceptable. Tell me, what were you on Korun for?" He addressed the others with the Conchlain, assuming they were the traders.

One, wearing a turquoise robe, answered his question in a raspy voice. "Satai, we were there on Korun to sell Selesium magnate to your ship builders there. We have had a contract with the Korun Government for a standard year to do so. We stayed only long enough to sell our cargo, then we left."

"Did any of your party leave the vicinity of the docking station during your visit?"

The robes looked at each other. Then turquoise said, "A few of us went out to see some of the sites on Korun, Satai. It is a beautiful planet."

"Yes it is, even with all the burial sites that fill it now!" He answered, his teeth clenched on his anger. "Where did you go?"

Turquoise conversed with a Saffron robe, then answered. "We went to the Hall of Echoes, and to the lakes at the edge of the city, and to the Temple of Valen, Satai Neroon."

"Neroon!" Terra yelled through the transmitter, her terror obvious in her voice. "Don't threaten them. There is something there with them and you, and it is very dangerous! I've never felt anything like it before. Let them go!"

Trusting Terra's gift, Neroon pushed back his chair, schooling his face to show nothing. "Thank you for your help, Conchlain. I am satisfied. You may go back to your ship now. The Minbari appreciate you helping us with our inquiries."

They were taken out to return to their shuttle, and, after sending Chakur back to the bridge to gather the fighters around the Ingata to await further orders, Neroon headed straight for Terra's quarters. She and Lenann were huddled on the couch, and Lenann had his arms around Terra, who's normally pale face was as white as a sheet. Seeing him come in, she pulled away and ran to him, where he engulfed her in his strong arms.

"What is it, my heart? What did you sense that has you so upset?" He said gently.

"Something evil, and dark, but so horribly powerful, Neroon, that it could have killed all of you in that room without more than a thought. It must be one of the dark race that Delenn has told me about, the Shadows. No one could see it, but it was there. I felt it!" She buried her face in his chest, still shaking from what she had picked up.

"You were very brave to stay as long as you did, Terra. The Daherna admit that they went to the lakes, probably in their arrogance they assumed we would never find out the source of the virus. With what you were sensing, I am certain that they are allies to the darkness that is the enemy of our people." He eased her clench of him a bit. "I must go to the bridge. Chakur is waiting for my commands. Will you be well here by yourself? I would like Lenann to command a fighter squadron, but if you would prefer to have him here…"

"You are going to attack them?" Her eyes were blue with her intense fear as she looked into his deadly brown ones.

"Yes. They will be punished for what they have done to the people of Korun. We will warn this darkness to stay far away from Minbari colonies in the future, with a very pointed message!" The blood thirst of battle rage came off of both him and, to a slightly lesser extent, Lenann.

"Take Lenann with you, then. I'll be fine in here, if you would have someone pipe in the sensor feed so I could watch the battle, I would appreciate it. I don't think I could stand being in here blind." Her voice was very small.

"Of course. Be well, Terra. We will see you later."

Before he could turn to go, in a violent move she grabbed his armor and pulled him down to her, kissing him strongly. Afterwards, she said, "You had better see me later, Neroon, and both of you had better not do anything stupid, or I will go to the Sea after you and take it out of your hides!"

She then turned to Lenann and did the same to him, surprising him (and pleasing him as well, though not pleasing Neroon at all), then pushed him away, saying, "Go. Before I regret this. Kill those dark ones for me, my warriors, for all the people on Korun who died by their treachery!" At that moment, her now green eyes were just as deadly as Neroon's, as his battle lust temporarily filled her spirit.

The channel piped into the room within minutes, and Terra could see the sleek Minbari fighters group into battle formation.

Neroon slid behind the familiar controls of the one man fighter. By Valen's eyes, it was good to be back! The signal came for his squadron to dump, and he touched the launch control. Moving in a v-shaped wedge, the squadron fanned out to point at the Dahernian ship.

"Chakur, this is Neroon. Patch me in to the Dahernian Conchlain."

"Conchlain, in the name of Minbar, I accuse your ship and clan of perpetrating an act of terrorism against the people of Korun. We have proof of your evil deed, and now I tell you to prepare to meet your Gods, and be thankful that we give you a cleaner death than you gave the people of Korun. Because the Minbari are a people of honor, you may prepare for battle in the next ten minutes. Satai Neroon out."

The ten minutes went slowly. Terra had heard the broadcast, and sat watching the Dahernian ship. Her door chime rang, and Durhan walked in.

"Terra, may I share this time with you?"

"I would have thought that you would be out there with your Rangers, Durhan."

"No. I am not a skilled pilot. My talents lie more towards the hand to hand skills, and those of espionage and infiltration. Thank you for not assuming I would be too old to go out with my Anla'Shok."

She smiled. "You will die at about 250 cycles, didn't you tell me that? And the last time I tried to stop you from doing something you wanted, you almost declared Denn-sha on me."

"I wouldn't have hurt you, Terra." He smirked. "Much."

The two of them sat on the couch and watched when the Daherna finally sent its fighters out. They were almost as cylindrical as the ship, but with stubby wings. Yet they could really move, as they fanned out into defensive positions around the mother ship.

Neroon called out to Lenann, who had his temporarily assigned squadron over to the port side of the Dahernian ship, to Rajek, the Anla'shok squadron leader, and to the other warrior caste squadron leaders, Lacht and Sorat. "Pincher move! Now. Draw those fighters from the mother ship, Lenann and Sorat. Rajek and Lacht, go for their communication arrays. I don't want them calling for reinforcements. Chakur, stand by with main guns ready."

"For what, Satai Neroon?"

A fierce grin crossed his face, and Neroon's eyes were lit up like miniature suns. "You will know when it happens, Chakur. Just be ready."

He ordered his squadron in towards the control bay of the ship. They moved in, still in rough formation, and, avoiding the fire from the enemy's main guns like sleek birds of prey avoiding gunshots, they started firing on the Dahernian ship at close range. It was the most absolutely stunning display of skin dancing that the warriors on the Ingata had ever seen. Neroon skimmed so close to the enemy ship that he bounced off it once, firing at crucial targets almost with impunity as he stayed under the Dahernian's sensors.

After taking out several targets, he pulled his fighter out to better observe the entire battle. A Dahernian fighter was on Lenann's tail, and Neroon moved his fighter to take it out. But before he could, Lenann executed a brilliant maneuver by dropping his fighter below his enemy, then moving backwards in a complete reverse, firing at his trailer and pulling his ship up and out of the ball of fire that had been his enemy.

"Not bad, for a Religious Caste. Didn't I teach you that move?" Neroon asked sarcastically.

"No, Neroon. Sech Bela taught us both that move by almost smearing us over the skies of Minbar. Your memory fails you in your old age, Satai." Lenann then moved his ship over to where his squadron was regrouping.

Neroon moved back to the Dahernian mother ship. This time he had only one goal. He skin danced into the position he wanted, and fired, pulling out of it at a sharp angle to avoid the resulting fireball. He had taken out the enemy's command and control station.

"All fighters, to the Ingata. Now!"

Obediently, they all moved over and hovered near the Ingata. Once they were out of range, Neroon ordered, "Chakur, Now!"

The Ingata sent out lethal fire and severed the Dahernian engine ports in half. The ship exploded in a fiery ball of gases and plasma, and the jubilant warriors went home.

Later Lenann, as both priest and warrior, presided at the ceremony to honor the dead. Sixteen fighters had been destroyed and ten were damaged. Of those ten, only nine pilots made it back alive. The Rangers lost seven of the seventeen, three humans and four Minbari. The crew of the Ingata lost the other ten. After honoring the Minbari who died, Lenann turned to Terra and asked, "Terra, could you please say some words for your people who died? I do not wish to have their souls neglected on their way to the Earther Sea of Stars."

She nodded, and turned to the viewport, where a squadron of fighters, lead by Sorat, waited to perform the honor flight that signaled the end of the ceremonies. "Rodriguez, Smith, Terang, you are our brave ones who died in honor against our common enemy, the darkness. From the stars we came and to the stars we go, from now until the end of time. We commend your bodies to the deep. May your spirits rise to the shining stars, to lie in wait until your time to fight the darkness comes again. Go with God, blessed ones." Tears were falling down her face as the general sadness infiltrated her shields. They had all been so young.

Durhan, in his beautiful voice, added and was soon joined by the surviving Anla'Shok, "We live for the One, we die for the One, Entil'Zha Veni."

In the sky, Sorat lead the squadron in a prescribed funeral formation, and at her order, they all simultaneously shot their fire at the stars, making a bright and defiant light to guide warrior souls, both Human and Minbari, to the Sea of Stars.

The End

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