Gareth Williams: A Dark, Distorted Mirror. Volume 5 : Among the Stars, like Giants. Prologue : The Missing Year

There were numerous political issues involved, which he did not even pretend to understand, it usually being safer that way. Despite having met and — sort of — befriended individuals as powerful as the Blessed Delenn, Emperor Londo Mollari II, Minister Lethke zum Bartrado and General John Sheridan the Shadowkiller, Captain Jack had a profound lack of interest in politics except where it related to his personal solvency.

However, he did understand that some Narns were very unhappy about the Kazomi Treaty that had sealed the peace between them and the Centauri, and wanted to make clear to everyone just how displeased they were. Certain…. artefacts needed shipping to certain Centauri worlds where certain things might be done to make that clear. And for obvious reasons, a non — Narn courier was needed.

Jack preferred not to think of these things as politics because if he didn't, he tended not to think of them as involving real people either. It was a lot easier that way.

And so all this was why he was at Sigma 957, waiting alone in his ship for a Narn ship that was very very late.

That was when he began to pick up the signal.

His communications equipment was specially modified to receive signals across a much wider band than that carried by most ships of his size, but this was nothing he had ever come across before. Muttering to himself, he started trying to tune into it, wondering if the Narns had had to resort to extraordinary measures to get in touch with him.

There were words in there, he was sure of it, even a conversation, but the language, the voices…. all these were beyond him. He felt like an ant trying to understand the words of angels. Falling silent, something touching what remained of his soul, he tried to tune in more clearly, working at the limits of his equipment. All thoughts of his mission left his mind. All he could think of was discovering the nature of this conversation.

He could pick up a little of one of the parties now. It seemed like countless voices speaking through one mouth. Or was it countless mouths speaking with one voice?

Everything stopped, and in one instant all the lights in his ship went out. He started, and began frantically trying to restore power.

Then he looked out at the scene before him.

There was a ship moving across the ecliptic, something so big and so vast it blocked out everything, space and light and stars and all. It glided through the planet's atmosphere, ignoring him utterly, an insect beneath the feet of giants.

Jack hardly dared to breathe, a wise move. As the alien ship moved forward a rent opened in the fabric of space, a vast jump point, bigger than anything he had ever imagined. The image of hyperspace beyond flickered with countless colours, very different from the usual red. Clouds of mist shimmered through the gap in space, and there were flickers of lightning.

Something was waiting in there, in hyperspace. Smaller than the vast alien ship, it was still huge, much bigger than Jack's diminutive shuttle. It looked slightly familiar, almost like a….

A castle?

The vast ship moved slowly into hyperspace, its every manoeuvre beautifully graceful. The gateway closed, and Jack was alone once more.

Alone in a dying ship above a dead world whose name he could not remember.

Fortunately, after a few hours of creative engineering with life support, a squadron of ships from the Narn fleet arrived and picked him up. Jack was so grateful to be rescued that he only had a few seconds to think up some suitably inventive lies.

After we joined the Alliance, affairs on Centauri Prime grew, not better, but slowly and steadily worse. With the death of Lord Kiro the riots had ended and the Shadow Criers fallen apart, but their legacies remained. There was widespread famine and hunger, the cost of the war and the reparations had almost bankrupted the Republic, and the costs of the repairs to the homeworld and to the regained colonies were almost impossible to meet. The Centarum eventually swallowed its pride and borrowed vast sums of money from the Alliance.

There was already resentment towards the Alliance, well before the burnings and the Inquisitors. The only Alliance representatives the Centauri had really seen were the strange Ambassador Morden and the equally strange Lennier, the Emperor's bodyguard. The fact that Lennier had not been seen for several months gave rise to many rumours, but his return to Alliance space was not noticed for some time.

Emperor Mollari found himself very unpopular, partly for all the reasons outlined above, but also because of his exile of the former Lord — General Marrago. The Emperor was spending more and more time in the palace and was seldom seen in public. Even his goodwill tour of the newly regained colonies ended prematurely after a fourth assassination attempt was foiled. His Lady Consort, Timov, was however often seen in public, and she was commonly believed to be one of the best things about the Court.

As for the former Lord — General, he had disappeared following his exile, and was widely believed to have been murdered by agents of the Court. However, while there was a large bounty on his head and assassination attempts had been made, he was very far from dead, and was engaged in very private dealings elsewhere.

LADY KEELA SHARNI (2293) Republic in Flames. Chapter 9 of The Rise and Fall

of the United Alliance, the End of the Second Age and the Beginning of the

Third , vol. 3, 2262: The Missing Year. E d: S. Barringer, G. Boshears, A. E.

Clements, D. G. Goldingay & M. G. Kerr.

He still saw her eyes all the time. They were shining in his mind, brilliant stars in the heavens of his soul. And sometimes he saw them dull and red, cold and lifeless.

I could not protect you, Lyndisty.

Marrago was old, and he was alone, but he was no longer tired. Indeed, he felt stronger than he ever had. At long last he had a purpose, a goal, a mission. And a simple, unequivocal one at that.

Free Centauri Prime.

It was the beginning of an alliance, a new alliance. A small one admittedly, only three at present, but then a night of a thousand drinks begins with a single sip. Marrago had heard a similar human phrase about miles and steps, which he preferred.

A Minbari, a human, a Centauri, and a flying castle full of Soul Hunters. Perhaps not such a small start after all.

And it would only grow.

Marrago was a tactician and he understood that not everything can be achieved at once. Sinoval understood that as well. It would take time, and in any case this was not a war of force of arms, but a war of ideas and beliefs and understanding.

But there were some similarities in both types of war. They both needed people.

Sinoval had said he would be busy elsewhere, but Marrago knew exactly what to do. He approved.

Mercenaries were easy to find these days. The entire galaxy had been at war for years, and a sudden outbreak of peace was very bad for professional soldiers. All manner of different people, of all different races and armies, were looking for work. Narns would not work for Marrago of course, and nor would many Drazi, but there were some.

It had taken a couple of months, but he had assembled a ten — strong unit, useful for hire as security, bodyguards and the like. Six of them were Centauri, with one Drazi, two Brakiri and a human. A small group, but a good beginning.

"You can…. find things, yes?" the alien was saying, twitching its forelimbs slowly. "Things that…. need finding?"

"We can do that," Marrago replied. "We need to know what it is, and a rough estimate of the risk involved, before we can set a price, of course."