"Attention White Star 13, you have final clearance to dock." Babylon-5's traffic control announced.

"Thank you, Traffic Control. Beginning final approach," announced the Captain. "Take her in. I'm just going to check on our VIP."

After a quick stroll through the ship, he arrived and knocked on the door.

"Entilza, we're all most there."

Delenn smiled at the Captain. "Thank you, Captain"

She looked out over at the huge space station. It was strange really, this feeling of nostalgia. It had been her home for more than seven years and even now she could see that it wasn't in the same state of repair when she lived there. She sighed to herself; it was inevitable that the Alliance was taking more of the diplomatic burden away from the station. The irony was the birthplace of the Alliance was getting more redundant as the Alliance did better.

She watched the station carefully, as the White Star on final approach, headed for the docking bay. She had to put these feelings aside; there was work to do.

"Delenn, am I glad to see you." Captain Lockley greeted at the arrival's lounge.

"Likewise Captain." Delenn smiled, "But I don't think you're going to like what I'm going to say."

The two women walked together to the green sector swapping small talk until they arrived one of the Green Sector's conference rooms. As they sat at the table, a couple of rangers scanned the room for bugs and Zack Allen came running into the conference room.

"Delenn!" Allen greeted her and then joined them at the conference table. Delenn waited a moment so Zac could settle and then began to speak.

"I'm afraid that this whole business with the Commonwealth has been a created by an unknown party..."

It took her about an hour to bring the two Command Officers up to speed with the situation. The look of relief on the faces of both officers spoke volumes.

"So that means Ivanova should have the extreme sanction order lifted." said Zac.

Lockley looked at table and then up at Delenn. "Hopefully, but if we can't someone will have to hide her."

Delenn nodded, "That's not going to be a problem."

"However, John has decided to go looking for the Jammer. He believes that the Commonwealth are using one."

It was Lockley's turn to bring Delenn up to date with the developments which have been happening at Babylon 5. It was Delenn's turn to look worried.

"According to the Ark Royal Crew, they're squawker, as they call it, doesn't work in the same way. They don't have something, which can jam the whole Galaxy. Add to the fact that the White Stars have been corrupted by Shadow Based technology this points to one of the races that the shadows used as allies. They certainly would want to hurt the Alliance. Any Idea where John has gone?"

"He's planned to go to the last contact system but that was days ago. We have no idea if he decided to stay there."

"I've got two favours to ask."

"Yes?"

"Firstly, I'm countermanding the orders for any available White Star and Minbari vessels to join John's Fleet. Could you do the same for the other races?"

"I don't think that wil be too hard," said Lockley. "Some of the Ambassadors fell that they were strong armed into this task force by the Centari."

"The second might be a little more difficult. Can you get me an Earth ship to take me into the contact area?"

"Not a White Star?"

"I think it might more be more appropriate, considering who the commonwealth are."

Lockley called up some details on the terminal in front of her and smiled.

"This should get John's attention. The Aggamonon is due in later today. I'm quite sure her Captain would be willing to take a quick side trip."

Delenn smiled, "That will do Captain."

Ark Royal flew through hyperspace at full speed. The bridge shook as the ship ran through the eddies and vortexes in hyperspace.

"Smooth ride!" commented Ivanova.

"The suspension is lacking, "Douglas shot back. "We're working on it."

Ivanova had no trouble acclimatising to the Ark Royal's gunnery station.

Although similar to the old Earth Force layout, it did have a more logical feel to it. She'd been through the practice drills and after a couple of runs were already beating Clanwellin's best scores. She Looked over at Lennier. He was having a little trouble dealing with the Engineering Station but then again Kelly was a hard act to follow.

"Captain," Ivanova turned to Douglas. "One thing I don't get, how come you managed to get technology far in than Earth's?"

"Remember about the time anomaly?"

"You've put your research facilities there as well?"

Douglas smiled. "Thousands of people living and working in the one big station, isolated in time and space."

"Sounds familiar," replied Lennier.

"Oh yes." agreed Ivanova, "There were times I had shore leave and returned to earth. It felt that years had gone by and not months."

"Well, if this business is resolved, then I can't see a use for it in the future." commented Smith

"How did you find this Quad System of yours?" asked Ivanova, "The chances of finding such a place were astronomical."

"Oh, I agree," confirmed Douglas. "That was all down to one man. Chief Petty Officer Grieves on the Ulysses."

Smith laughed, "Old Moses!"

Ivanova looked curiously at Smith.

"Well, Grieves was the aide to the Admiral in charge of the fleet. We had no idea where to go or where was safe when we'd left earth," explained Smith. "Grieves managed to convince the admiral that there was somewhere to go, somewhere we'd be safe."

"He originally said that he'd noticed an anomaly in one of the records from an Earth Force deep space probe," continued Douglas, "And as he was a bit of an export at astronomy, he recorded that there was at lease one habitual planet at the system he'd pointed out."

"The admiral consulted with the rest of the navigation staff and although there was a little difference of opinion, they agreed with Grieves' recommendation. Six months later and we found our new home with not one habitual planet but four. We couldn't believe our luck."

"But here's where it gets strange, every time there was a problem with the fleet during the journey or with the Quad system when we'd arrived, it had been Grieves who had put forward the correct solution. The one time we didn't listen to him and we lost New Ireland."

"He died about the time when the Shadows you told us about, paid us a visit and it was that time he confessed that he'd been getting the answers from a 'Higher' source."

"Higher source?" Ivanova looked over at Lennier, he looked as worried as she felt. There was a nasty feeling in her gut about what was about to be said.

"Yeah," laughed Smith. "He claimed that an Angel had guided him. Every time we got in trouble, this Angel would appear to Grieves and give him the answer. He hadn't mentioned it before because he was scared of being removed from duty."

"Shortly after that he claimed that the angel had said that he was leaving him and wished us luck for the future. Grieves died not long after. There was this whole religious cult built up behind this angel of his and to be honest you can't really argue against the evidence of his achievements."

Douglas finished and then looked puzzled at Lennier and Ivanova's expressions.

"What?" he asked.

"Erm, that sounds as if you had a Vorlon helping you." said Ivanova.

"What?" exclaimed Smith!

"If you ever saw a Vorlon," explained Ivanova, "they would look like an angel..."

"Or a being of light, " interrupted Lennier.

"Their interference with both Human and Minbari created telepaths in the first place and they disappeared at the same time when the shadows did."

"If it wasn't for them, then the earth and the whole human race would have been annihilated during the earth-minbari war." confirmed Lennier. "They convinced one of the Grey council to find a reason to spare the humans. "

Douglas and Smith looked at each other, the silence stretched into minutes. Ivanova thought they might be communicating telepathically to keep their conversation from them. It was Smith who broke the silence first.

"Why save us? Why take the interest?"

"Only the Vorlons could answer that, " replied Ivanova. "But my guess is that you were a backup."

"Backup?" asked Douglas.

"A hidden weapon, to be used against the shadows when you were ready. The Vorlon's needed a Nexus, a uniting point, where all the races would band together and fight the shadows. The human race is unique in the galaxy; apparently we were the only ones that could unite the races to fight back against the shadows."

"But Babylon-5 and Sheridan for filled that role and resolved the whole issue between the Shadows and Vorlons," observed Douglas

"So effectively, we're unused game pieces, left over from a galaxy wide game of cosmic chess?" Smith was astonished.

"If it makes you feel any better, there isn't any race we've discovered that hasn't been affected in some way or other." explained Ivanova.

"That's going to stir up a wasp nests when we get home," Douglas explained. "How do you explain to people who believe that they've been delivered by God to a promise land; that it's was a lie."

"Well, that debate is going to have to wait," announced Smith. "We've got about two minutes from the jump point."

Sheridan was worried, not a single contact for days. He paced around the command chamber of the Minbari Cruiser trying to organise his thoughts. For the first time in days, he allowed himself to think of Delenn. How he needed her guidance or just even her hand on his shoulder to calm him down.The situation was getting completely out of control. When he said at the council meeting that he was returning initial contact point, he'd intended with a much smaller force. Now he was here with the largest fleet since the shadow war and he was very much regretting going along with the Centari's suggestion.

It was just that the Centari had been so isolated for so long it would be helpful to have them on-side for once. Now after that first contact fiasco with the Centari Cruiser, he knew he couldn't rely on them.

The other issue was where the commonwealth got that level of technology. Integrated shadow tech, vessels that could stealth and then pop up almost at will. He remembered looking over the designs of the corvette he'd encountered but the more he thought about it, he couldn't recall where he'd seen them. It had been an annoying detail at the back of his mind since this incident had started.

That corvette had requirements which were just at the experimental stage in the Alliance Research facilities. What a different story it would have been if earth could have used them during the earth minbari war. He racked his mind trying to recall the meeting, there had been several chiefs of staff, maybe even the president herself present at that meeting, but what else was it about those damn ships.

He replayed the vague images over again in his mind; it was not long before the Battle of the Line. The situation was desperate. The Nova class cruiser prototype wasn't even ready and they'd just, regretfully, vetoed any further development on the corvette ship design. That was it, surely if he'd met the president, he'd remember. He also got the feeling that he was missing the real agenda of that meeting.

"Mr President!" an urgent call came from the bridge, interrupting his train of thought. "We have multiple contacts, the sensor's are going off the scale."

"I think we're going to see what the commonwealth can really throw at us." commented Sheridan. "Order the fleet to got to a level one alert."