Emperor Turhan of the Centauri Republic was worried. One of his wives had suddenly collapsed for no apparent reason. This worried him because he truly cared for his wives. This was atypical of most of the Centauri Nobility, where most marriages at the Nobility level were business deals and spouses were partners in the business, his was a marriage of love. In fact the Emperor’s feelings for his wives were just one of the many things that separated him from other Centauri Nobility, like the fact that he felt the occupation and the subjugation of the Narn was wrong.
The Narn were not Emperor Turhan’s worry at the moment, however, it was his wife’s, the Lady Morella sudden fainting spell. Those close to the Emperor and his family knew that Lady Morella was a prophetess of great accuracy. And for years after the Dilgar War she had said that another war would come that would make all of known space stop, watch and be awed. It came in the Earth-Minbari War. When the war broke out everyone thought the Minbari would quickly overwhelm the Humans, while this proved mostly true no one thought the Humans would fight so fiercely and bravely against such overwhelming odds. Anyone who watched them could not help but be moved to tears at the courage of the Humans. It would be a tragedy to the galaxy that such a brave people would be destroyed (not that anyone was willing to try and save them). And that end seemed only a short time away. The Minbari had destroyed the last of the Human’s Military Bases outside their Home System and soon even that would fall.
At least that was what everyone expected until suddenly, as fast as the War started it stopped. The Minbari for some reason stopped advancing and no one knew why. This pause in the War coincided with the collapse of Lady Morella and Emperor Turhan could not help but feel that the events were some how related.
“Majesty,” one of the Royal Court Healers said interrupting the Emperor’s musings. “Lady Morella has awakened and requested your presence.”
Turhan nodded and entered his wife’s room. Once inside he took off his wig, idly scratching his head where the infernal hairpiece used to be. As this was away from the rest of the Royal Court the Emperor did not feel he had to keep up the pretenses of his station; besides his wife could use a visit from her husband not her Emperor. When he approached the bed, Lady Morella tried to sit up only for him to gently push her back down, “My Dear you should rest, don’t try to strain yourself.”
“Rest can wait Husband,” Morella said. Her voice was surprisingly strong and determined for someone that just recovered from fainting.
“What is it my Wife?” Turhan asked worry clearly in his voice.
“I had a vision,” Morella answered. “It was the most horrible vision I have ever had.” Turhan leaned in not wanting to miss anything she said. “Since the beginning of the Human and Minbari War I have had visions that told that after a great surprise ending to the war, it would lead to either the salvation of Centauri Prime or its damnation. I have kept this from you as I did not see a way that would lead to either, I just knew that it would happen.”
“And now you have seen the path that would lead to our destruction,” Turhan surmised. “Tell me, what must I do to save our people.”
Lady Morella shook her head no indicating that the Emperor was wrong in his assumption. “No Husband I did not see that. What I saw was far, far worse.” She shook a little in fear as she remembered her vision before she calmed enough to continue. “In my vision the whole galaxy was consumed by a plague of strange beasts and powerful beings in strange armor that are like an army unto themselves laying waste to entire fleets of ships with little show of effort.” Morella reached out to her husband’s hands grasping them for comfort, “Husband, no one is safe from this plague; not us, not the Narn, the League of Non Aligned Worlds, not the Humans or even the Minbari.”
“There must be something that can be done,” Turhan said, feeling his wife’s dread through the trembling of her hands.
“My vision has shown one chance at salvation,” she replied. “But is it as confusing as the rest is freighting. Our salvation and the salvation of the rest of the Galaxy, seems to lie with the Human Home World yet not the Home World we know of. It was like there were two ‘Earths’ and the second is the key for the future.”
“How do we find this ‘Other Earth?’” Emperor Turhan asked.
“My Vision showed me that a Great Bird would light the way,” Lady Morella said. “That is all I know.”
In another sector of Known Space a small colony world of the Centauri was now empty of the people that inhabited it just days ago. The only sentient being on the planet was an armored being carrying a lance like weapon and had three red jewels on its shoulder armor. It was a Radam Tekkaman from one of the many slave worlds under their dominion. This Tekkaman had overseen the conquest of this small world and the subsequent taking of the new alien slaves.
The Tekkaman was following the orders of its Masters to scout the space outside of Radam Control, to determine the strength of the races that were now dominate in the Galaxy. The reason was because of the recent events from the Human World where six Tekkamen not under Radam Control were able defeat and drive off several attempted invasions.
The war for the Human World proved some things to the Radam. First, the Humans proved to be excellent Tekkamen, perhaps the best the Radam had ever produced; the problem was they were free of Radam Mind Control, making them extremely dangerous enemies. Second it proved that the Radam were not ready to conquer the Galaxy; if one people with just six Tekkamen could defeat them then what would the ancient enemies, the Vorlons, Shadows and whatever races they controlled, do to them? And third they would need to build up their forces once again.
These revelations led to this Tekkaman’s small conquest and the current Radam Plan. They would build up their forces and get intelligence on the capabilities of their potential enemies all at once, but they would do it slowly cautiously so as not to draw attention to themselves. This meant collecting samples of technology, slaves to turn into Tekkamen, and find any information they could on their old enemies. Then once they were ready, the Radam would dominate the Galaxy.
(Posted Wed, 24 Jan 2007 05:43)
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