By Christina Kamnikar

Part 3 -- Lunar-Mars Transport

April 15, 2260 [2 days after "Severed Dreams"]
17:00 PM, local time
Mars Cargo Shuttle Princessa

"Harry? Harry?"

Harry's brain did the little trick it always did when he didn't absolutely have to wake up: it incorporated ambient sound into his dreams. He'd slept through laserfire, earthquakes, political conventions and two of his wives throwing him out that way. Squeaky's complaints, the shuttle's small groans, the burn of the accelerators; all had become part of the soundscape of his current dreams. He could easily sleep through Xia trying to get his attention.

"See? He's asleep." His intern's worried whisper faded into a bird chirping somewhere near the Australian shore. "We don't have to wake him up---"

//BAM!//

He was half-vertical in the makeshift sleep harness before his eyes opened to glare at Sophie, who smiled at him sadistically, then leaned down to pick up the crystal case she'd slammed next to his head. "Oops."

"Oops? Not even a fake apology? Am I wrong, or are you still working for me, Tenatta?"

"Who knows? You're sure not going to be signing any paychecks soon," Sophie pointed out. "And if I am still working for you, that'd be enough reason to wake you up. You don't want to miss this." She pulled him to a standing position with Xia's careful help, and Harry blearily glared at the both of them, then resignedly followed Sophie to the front of the hold. //First two hours of uninterrupted sleep I've had in two days, and something has to happen. Never fails...//

The cargo hold was dark, with only utility lights and floor runners glowing, large packing cases lining the walls, and extra packing spread out for the journalists to crash on. They'd been in transit for almost four hours by Harry's chrono, the first hour spent just clearing customs. That they'd gotten through had nothing to do with hiding and everything to do with a judicious bribe and a favor that Harry'd been waiting to cash in on a rainy day. //And it's raining. It's raining bullets....//

"What's up?" he grumbled, staggering forward after Sophie, appreciating her authoritatively sexy stalk for the fiftieth time. Even in magnetized boots and in zero-gee, she was something to watch.

"This." She stopped just behind Kit and Wally, who were perched on packing cases in front of a vidscreen, Todd sitting at their feet. "Babylon 5 was in a major battle less than two days ago. The news is just starting to trickle in now. We're scanning all the frequencies for anything we can get."

Margo was doing her characteristic pacing next to Drew, Deane and Marisoto, who were also watching the screen with intense concentration. Allen leaned against the wall, arms crossed; he cocked an eyebrow at Harry's arrival, then flicked his eyes back to the screen.

"....seriously, Bab5's gone Minbari on us..." came over the sound feed from the screen, worry and fear audible even through the bad connection. Harry blinked, yawned hugely, then blinked again. Say what? Just as his eyes adjusted to the sight of Earth Alliance forces in battle, Todd switched the signal, and kept doing it every five seconds, swearing very softly all along as the background chatter changed with each image. Other ships were broadcasting clips they'd picked up different places, Harry surmised, and his attention sharpened on the image onscreen as he tried to make sense of the rapidly-changing clips.

"---EarthForce destroyed Bab5 and Epsilon Eridani in an all-out battle---"

"---took out five Earth Alliance destroyers, and they're headed toward Io---"

"---heard that General Hague's dead, that Clark had him assassinated---"

"---Some of these clips got copied from the guys who were at Bab5---"

"Get the channel that had the longer screen clips earlier. It was up at the other end of the band." Margo's pacing sped up as Todd flipped comchannels back and forth. "Wally, help him out---"

"Wait, I almost have the feed set up. There. Got it."

Harry leaned over the cameraman's shoulder to see what he was doing, then grinned widely. "Whose idea was this?"

"Mine," Wally admitted, manipulating the feeds on the camcorder, taping the images and cleaning them up as they came across the screen. His small hand-held editing unit was hooked up in tandem to the recorder, sorting the images for matches, trying to put together a complete sequence of events. "It was either this, or watch Margo go nuts and Kit implode."

Margo swatted him lightly on top of his head on her next pass in her pacing, and Kit swung around to object loudly. "Like you didn't want to know what was going on? Yeah, right, suuuure, Sluggo---"

"Shut up, Squeaky," Margo and Wally chorused simultaneously.

"I've got it," Todd interrupted suddenly, pushing up his glasses before hitting one last button. "Here's the channel with what looks like EA bootleg footage. Let me tweak the feed, okay, Dave?"

"Got no problem with that," their pilot responded over the ship's internal com. "I'd like to know what's happened out Bab5 way too."

"Recording," Wally said absently, watching the screen of his camcorder instead of the vidscreen like everyone else. "Once we've got positive confirmation and triple-authentication from different sources, I think we'll have a pretty good idea...."

"As good as it'll get on this side of Io," Harry commented cynically, checking Wally's camcorder against the screen. "Nice work." He straightened, stretching his aching back muscles and thought again that maybe, just maybe, he was getting too old for this. Sleeping in cargo holds, lying to Customs officers, not knowing where he'd be sleeping in the next 48 hours--- this had been fun forty years ago. It had even been fun twenty years ago. Now, though... oh, who was he kidding? He'd still rather be doing this than sleeping in a hammock in Hawaii. He just wished that the cargo hold came with air mattresses.

The people surrounding him were all young enough not to worry about their comfort as much as he did. Except for Sophie, who'd worry about the quality of the sheets at the EarthDome PressCorps quarters. Safety, though, that would be a bigger concern; fear that they weren't going to live through the next day. He had no way to reassure them, either. But if they kept moving fast enough, they wouldn't have time to really think about it until they were in safe territory. Todd and Xia were his direct responsibility, and while the rest of them weren't, most of the group had worked for him at one point or another. He was the most senior ISN rep in sight, even if no one at Geneva would dream of calling him a responsible party. //ISN doesn't exist, though. Not any more.//

He stared at the images flowing across the screen -- battleships blowing each other up in space, fire showering down on Babylon 5 --- and thought again of the final images before the screen had gone black in Hawaii: Geneva HQ under attack, Jane and Rick diving for the floor, chaos and defeat complete in less than thirteen seconds. It could all be hopeless. Clark could win. They could run all the way to the Rim before they'd be safe. If Clark stayed in power, that's what they'd have to do...

Harry shook himself out of those thoughts with an effort, concentrating on the here-and-now. It was impossible to tell what was up; you could see the Roanoke, going down in flames, with the Churchill amidships.... There were other shots of MInbari cruisers over Babylon 5, and some shots that looked to be of the jump gate pouring forth more cruisers. For a while it was all garbled. But he could see that Wally was slowly getting a complete match and configuration on recorded events via their time-stamps, as Todd continued to scan channels; triple-checked band authentication coming in on different parts of the whole.

"Can't you do it any faster?" Sophie asked, her voice brittle. Margo paused in her pacing to squeeze Sophie's shoulder and Harry raised his eyebrows at Snarl. She mouthed "family" behind Sophie's back, and he remembered that Tenatta's large extended family was spread out across Io, Proxima, and Orion. If Babylon 5 fell, Proxima and Orion didn't stand a chance. No wonder Sophie was wound so tight. He thought, briefly, of his daughters back on Earth, knowing that none of them were dumb, and all three would keep their heads down and stay out of trouble. It still didn't stop him from wanting to go back every few minutes, even though it would only make things worse.

Margo didn't look much better than Sophie, and neither did Deane or Marisoto. "C'mon, c'mon," Marisoto muttered under his breath. "Get 'em, guys. Kick their asses." Robin leaned her head against his shoulder and kneaded a muscle in his arm.

"Christ. It's all over. We're just waiting to get the score here, and I'm as worked up as if it was live." Margo rubbed a kink in her neck.

"That's entertainment," Flynn said dryly.

"If you like gladiator fights," Margo snapped back.

Harry frowned suddenly. "Margo? You've got friends on B5, don't you?"

She nodded, her face tight. "Yeah. Wally and I both do." She swallowed, tried to smile, but it didn't reach beyond her lips. "Good friends."

"Us too," Robin muttered. "All of the bureau guys, and some of the station personnel... Well, we always knew which way they'd jump, if Clark finally went over the line."

"....repeat, Earth Alliance Forces have made a surgical strike against Babylon 5, and have made progress in re-taking the station---"

"Where are we going to go if Babylon 5 falls?" Kit asked, his voice strained. "I mean, let's get serious here, people! There's nowhere else we can go, we'll get caught eventually, and then we're in soooooo much trouble! We might as well just crash into one of Mars' moons right now, for all the chance we've got..."

"Someone please stuff some packing in his mouth," Margo growled. "Before I kill him? Please?"

"Fine, forget I said anything," Kit muttered. "I'm a jerk, I'm sorry... but I'm still right."

Margo was too late in shutting Kit up. Wally's face had sobered as he spoke, and Todd squinted at connections that didn't need any adjustment and twiddled with the controls. Everyone was becoming more silent when Xia made a choking noise, and Harry turned to see her face crumpling up. "Hey, hey, no crying. No, no. No." He put an arm around her, and she shook her head, trying to suppress her tears as she collapsed against his chest, her hair floating up into his face. "Here. That's it. Crying on the jacket is acceptable." He patted her on the head and glared at Kit, who glared sullenly back, then looked away, obviously ashamed of his outburst. No one said anything, all of them avoiding each others' eyes. //Trust Squeaky to say what no one wants to admit to thinking...//

After a few minutes, the quiet was broken by the sound of soft humming. Flynn's eyes never left the screen, but there was a definite thread of sound coming from his corner. It became steadily more melodic, as well as louder. Dan turned to stare at him like he'd gone nuts, as did Drew, who shot Harry a "what's up with that?" glance. Margo finally stopped pacing to stare too when Flynn began to sing. "Across the red sands, at the beginning of morning's dawn/ from the heights of Plain Plenarum/ to the steeps of Ramadan---"

"From the lights of New Las Vegas," Drew joined in, grinning.

"To the deeps of Canyon Crow," Wally added, his bass going very low on 'deeps', while he continued to cut the recording together. "This song will boldly take us, wherever we may go/ in the heat of summer and arctic cold ---"

"Freed from old laws made on older worlds---" Todd turned out to have a very soft tenor. Harry snickered, then joined them on the chorus.

"Mars united will never yield,
Defiant ever, defeated never,
Mars will one day its own power wield
Defiant ever, defeated never,
Liberty our sword and shield!"

"You know, there are places where you can get shot for singing that song," Margo said conversationally. "The Illegal Anthem's been banned in most public areas, Earthside."

"Is this cargo hold one of them?" Flynn asked dryly.

"No," she responded in a mild voice. "Just thinking that you sing it awfully well... and wondering where you got the practice."

"Here and there. Babylon 5 doesn't have an anthem of their own, so I had to make do." Margo rolled her eyes and looked like she wanted to say something else, but Wally interrupted her.

"I've got a complete sequence--- it's about thirteen minutes long. Do we want to---"

"Run it," Harry said. "Let's see if we can make sense of the panic these ships have been shooting back and forth at each other."

Tensely, everyone waited while the screen cleared, then came up with what appeared to be the view from a StarFury, hanging in space outside Babylon 5. Two renegade destroyers, the Churchill and the Alexander, flanked her; the Fury in question was hanging overhead. The view changed to another Fury's cockpit, facing the jumpgate; and then it opened.

"This is Captain Dexter Smith of the Earth Alliance destroyer Agrippa, to Babylon 5 and renegade ships. You are ordered to surrender your commands and prepare to be boarded." While the EA commander was speaking, the Churchill and Alexander were launching fighters, Harry noticed with a grim sense of the inevitable. "This is your only warning. If you do not surrender, we will be forced to initiate deadly force."

"There are a quarter of a million people on that station," Margo said through clenched teeth. "Are they out of their minds?"

"This is Captain John Sheridan, Babylon 5," responded the Bab5's military governor. Margo placed her hands on Wally's shoulders, holding on tight. Sophie's arms were wrapped around herself. No one breathed. "You are executing an illegal order, in violation of the Earth Alliance constitution. These orders have forced us to declare independence in order to insure the safety of this station."

"Well, that's done it," Flynn muttered. "Nothing for it now---"

"We don't want a fight. But if you attempt to carry out these orders, we will defend ourselves." Sheridan's voice over the audio dropped a bit, almost pleading. "Come on, Captain. You must know these orders are wrong. Leave while you still can!"

The view changed again, to an outside secure-cam on what had to be the Churchill, and a woman's voice over the footage. "StarFuries, ready. Do not initiate combat, repeat, do *not* initiate combat. Wait until they move---"

Another viewpoint shift, to one of the incoming destroyers, probably the Agrippa. "Hit 'em where it hurts. Take out front guns first, then I want that breaching pod---" The EarthAlliance fighters moved in to attack.

"Now!" Impossible to tell who'd given that order, but very easy to see who'd gotten it: the EA forces spread out and dived toward the station. Robin sucked in a breath as the fighters clashed, laserfire everywhere, a chaos of Furies and cannons shooting at each other.

"Jesu..." Drew whispered, sounding shaken.

Harry clenched his teeth, wanting to tell Wally to speed through the recording, but knowing they might miss something vital if they skipped to the end, and possibly loose all sense of what had happened in the process. He forced himself to watch something he'd never thought he'd see: Earth Alliance forces attacking each other. He'd covered the Minbari War, when everyone stood together, shoulder to shoulder at the Line, for the love of heaven ... why was this happening? What the hell was going through Clark's mind? Or his commanders'? There were civilians on that station, the same as there had been on Mars....Just like the reporters in Geneva.

"Sir, the Churchill's hit amidships...." The viewpoint had skipped to the Alexander, one of their outer hull cameras, focused on the other rogue destroyer. It was in flames, explosions rocketing along the surface of the ship in an ever-building crescendo, dying as they watched.

"Oh, god...." Xia stared, rapt and horrified. "What --- what happened to all the people...." Harry tightened his arm around her, and she looked up at him, her eyes huge. "Oh, no...."

Sophie was crying very quietly, and Drew handed her a handkerchief which she took without looking at him, her gaze glued to the screen. Margo had one hand over her mouth, her eyes shiny. Todd took off his glasses and fiddled with them, and Harry could see his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed.

"Hiroshi, get to the pods! Get the hell out of there!"

"Too late to get out... Our primary systems are hit. We've got fire on all decks now. There's nothing we can do except..." Captain Hiroshi's voice dissolved in a buzz of static, and the Securecam shot tripped again, to one of Babylon 5's. The fiery view of the Churchill sent a shudder through everyone watching. Robin gasped, and Flynn straightened from his slouch as onscreen, the Churchill turned toward the Roanoke. Kit shook his head in amazement, muttering "They wouldn't...."

"They did," Harry said softly, watching the Churchill ram into the Roanoke, nearly cutting it in half before both ships collapsed into flaming debris, a last, final explosion sending fire in all directions.

The battle stopped for a second, the Agrippa falling back, the viewpoint switching to the EA ships as the Alexander regrouped, while Babylon 5 brought up their secondary defense grid. Both sides were hit, and hit badly; and neither had the advantage. Harry judged that further action would send the fight into a death-match, both sides dying in the outcome. "Stop here," he muttered aloud. "Just... they had to quit, neither side was going to win. They had to---"

The vantage point switched back to Bab5 again -- as the jumpgate opened and two more EA destroyers came through. "No," Wally said in hopeless denial.

"Bastards," Dan said bitterly as the incoming ship's frequency cut into the audio.

"This is Captain Drake to Babylon 5. You are ordered to surrender and prepare to be boarded by order of President Clark---"

Margo was crying openly, shaking her head. "That's it, they've lost... Holy--!"

Four Minbari cruisers formed jumppoints directly over Babylon 5, and the view changed again, this time to a message going out from the lead ship, a tiny silver falcon hovering protectively in front of Babylon 5. A dark-haired woman with the unmistakably distinctive bone-crest of a Minbari glared out of the viewscreen at them, green eyes furious.

"This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw... or be destroyed."

"Negative. We have jurisdiction here." The EA captain's voice sounded pretty damn upset, Harry noted with delight. "Do not force us to engage your ship---"

"Why not? Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet." Delenn's face became much grimmer, thoroughly pissed-off, if Harry was any judge. "He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives--- be somewhere else."

Margo whooped with joy, then continued to shriek as the EA fleet turned and fled through the jumpgate, looking like whipped dogs. "Yes! Yes! They won! They did it!"

Wally's head fell back as he heaved a sigh of relief, and Sophie put her hands over her face as her shoulders shook. Robin was giggling, almost, Dan muttering, "Thank you, God," as he hugged her, and Drew was chortling happily. Flynn grinned ferally and leaned back against the wall, uncoiling like a spring. Todd was applauding the viewscreen as the last of the fighters returned to the Babylon 5 station, and the Alexander and Minbari ships took up patrol positions. Xia's legs gave out and she sat down on one of the packing boxes with a thud, her eyes closed in an expression of gratitude to something divine, while Kit kept muttering, "Too damn close, just... way too close. Way. Really."

Harry couldn't stop grinning. "All right...." If Bab5 was safe, they had somewhere to go. Better: there was a chance that the outer colonies would stay independent, that Mars could break free... that this whole nightmare wasn't going to be permanent. "Damn, I feel like a drink. Who's got booze?"

"Me," Drew volunteered, pulling a squeeze-flask out of his carrysack. "It's not champagne but it'll have to do."

"What is it?" Margo asked, her arms around Wally's neck as she leaned against his back, her smile diamond-bright.

"Stoli. Got it from a guy on Luna, there's probably only one drink for each of us there..."

"It's enough," Harry decided, taking a swig, and passing the flask on to Xia, who took a tiny sip and nearly choked. "To Babylon 5!"

"Babylon 5," Dan repeated, taking a drink and then giving the flask to Flynn.

"To Babylon 5. Our last, best hope... anywhere." Flynn took a sip, then added in a thoughtful tone, "I suppose they'll have to get an anthem now."

Margo grimaced, and then started laughing as she took the flask from him. "You're right. God, you're right...."

Someone started singing the Mars Illegal Anthem again, and then the rest joined in as they finished off the Stoli. Harry sobered, thinking as the singing finished, and into the pause after the song he lifted the flask and said, "To the ones who didn't make it."

Everyone fell silent as they toasted the ones who'd died at Babylon 5, on both sides; and the ones who'd been in Geneva two days before.