Episode II: The Monoliths

The red and black of hyperspace flowed in chaotic directions. Only the human eye could discern the pattern that lay within the chaos.

Without warning, an opening began to form tearing apart that pattern. The opening widened like the mouth of a mythical beast ready to swallow anything within reach. Only it was not going to swallow, in fact, quite the opposite. A flash...

A flash... and Davidson could still see the shadows dancing along the darkened interior of the Grey Star. The anomalous jump point had fully expelled the ship before abruptly dissipating. As the lights began to flicker on, everyone slowly got up from where they had been thrown during the tumultuous journey.

"Lin, where the hell are we?" Davidson shouted across the bridge as he pulled himself back into his seat.

Lin grunted as she got up. She lifted one hand to a large bruise forming across her cheek while the other hand worked across the controls of her console. "I'm not picking up any human hyperspace beacons."

"Are you picking up anything?"

"Wait a minute. I'm picking up a very weak signal. It's a hyperspace beacon."

"Scott, plot a course," Davidson ordered. Just where the hell are we, he thought?

"Captain, I think you should look at this," Lin spoke.

Davidson got up and went to Lin's console. "What is it?"

"Captain, have you ever heard of a hyperspace fold?"

"Yes. It's a strange phenomenon, a rare phenomenon. A few kilometers of hyperspace folds back onto itself. Most scientists believe that it is caused by gigantic graviton fluxes, sort of like a hyperspace black hole."

"Well, we're picking one up. Behind us..." Lin trailed off

"And?" Davidson asked.

"It has to be the biggest that has ever been discovered," Lin finished.

"How big?"

"Let me show you on the holographic projector."

Waves poured down in front of them like a miniature aurora borealis. It showed a red and black cloud background, representing hyperspace.

Lin gestured toward the projection. "This represents about 60 light-years in all directions. This," she activated her controls and a blue dot appeared at the bottom, "represents the Grey Star."

Lin stopped to take in a deep breath. This was the part she was stalling for. No one wants to be the bearer of bad news and this was just about the most bad news a captain could take in a lifetime.

"Now I'm going to project the hyperspace fold," moving the controls again. A border began to form going up, growing, expanding...

"Oh my God!" Davidson groaned. The size of the fold was about 40 light years across in all directions! But the most disturbing part was that the Grey Star, itself, was located within the fold!

"Lin, please tell me your scanners are wrong," Scott injected.

"What, do you think I made this up or something?" Lin snapped back.

"Okay, everyone just calm down," ordered Davidson.

"Right now, we're going to proceed on the beacon and see where it takes us. We can always come back this way again. Just keep on with your duties." He expected no less from crew.

Davidson looked over to Brenn. The Minbari seemed less then pleased to be second in command. Or perhaps, more to the point second in command to a human. Davidson gestured toward Brenn to follow him into the meeting office. They both took a seat and faced each other the table forming a barrier between them.

Davidson broke the silence. "Sen'Zha Brenn, any ideas on our next move?"

"No."

"None at all?"

"You have my answer. If that is all?"

"No. Off the record, I don't like your lack of enthusiasm. We're trapped in an unknown region. We have to appear to have everything under control and that means we have to get along."

"Off your record, you don't belong here. Neither does anyone else. I am alone on this ship. You all will know that."

Davidson held his face expressionless as he stared across the table. Brenn was as responsive as a brick wall.

Once again, he was the one to break the silence.

"Dismissed."

The Minbari nodded, stood up and left the room. All of you don't belong on my ship, Brenn thought.

When the doors closed, Davidson got up and began to walk around the room. Suddenly, as if an enormous weight had been put upon him, he collapsed in a chair.

Davidson looked around. He was not in the meeting office anymore. Darkness surrounded him.

"Hello, Captain." A man stood in front of Davidson. He appeared to be humanoid. His eyes had a yellow tinge almost golden and he wore a robe, strangely crafted of leather.

"Where am I?" Davidson asked.

"You have never left."

"I don't understand?"

"Where did you come from?" the man asked.

"Who are you?"

"Where will you end?"

"What do you want?" Davidson demanded insistently.

"Why have you come here?"

"I don't know!" Davidson yelled. With a sudden jerk, he found himself back in the meeting office. "I don't know," he whispered to himself.

"Scott to Captain Davidson, we're reaching the jump coordinates." Scott voice boomed over the comm unit.

"Uh, yes. I'm on my way," Davidson said as he made his way back to the bridge.

He took is seat and gave the command to jump. A shimmering tunnel formed in hyperspace and the Grey Star moved inside it.

On the other side they found what appeared to be a dead world. The surface was barren and cracked with fault lines clearly visible.

"Why would anyone want to build a jump gate leading here?" Scott asked.

Davidson had long ago stopped judging a book by its cover. From the looks of it, this dead world held nothing and yet, for some reason, a jump gate had been built.

"Lin," he said, "what's down there?"

"There is a thin carbon dioxide atmosphere. I'm detecting nothing of value. No minerals, fuel installations. Only a weak EM signal."

"What's causing that signal?"

"Unknown. There doesn't seem to be anything down there causing it."

"Prep a shuttle for launch. We're going down. Get the respiratory gear too. Lin, you're with me."

"Captain," Brenn spoke out, "are you sure that is wise?"

"Yes I think it is. The only other thing that we can do is orbit this planet. While we're in the neighborhood, might as well see what's happening." Davidson gestured towards Brenn. "You have the comm,"

The Minbari flyer exited the Grey Star and began its approach to the planet. Inside sat 10 crewmembers. Two manned the controls while the others silently waited in an aft compartment.

Davidson looked at Lin and spoke, "So how did you end up as a Ranger?"

"It's a long story. Suffice it to say, I am disowned by my family. A Centauri woman in some sort of position of power is not looked upon highly by my people. As far as I've heard, I'm the only Centauri female with the Rangers."

"And you've been with them since..."

"The beginning of the Shadow War, same as Scott."

"You two don't get along well, do you?"

Lin cut him off, "Which is, with all due respect Captain, none of your business. We've just had some problems in the past. It won't affect our work I promise."

Davidson nodded. Her insubordinate response did not concern him. In fact, it was indicative of something he liked about this crew. They were all very strong-willed.

Although they seemed like many pieces of different puzzles that could not fit together, somehow, on some strange level, they made a cohesive picture. Now, just what the picture was… Well, he hadn't quite figured that out - yet.

As the flyer descended, Davidson overheard a conversation in the background. It was just a fragment, apparently an answer that consisting of the phrase 'button, then zip'. Davidson did not want know what the question was.

As soon as the flyer settled on the surface of the planet, the crewmembers exited and proceeded towards the energy signature. It was a short walk away. The ground was relatively smooth, with a few boulders.

"I'm picking up the signature," Lin said looking at her portable scanner. "This way."

Davidson looked in the direction Lin had pointed and saw a crater. It was unlike any other he had ever seen. Most craters where surrounded by debris thrown up by the impact of whatever had created the depression. This one and no debris field. It looked as if it had been intentionally dug.

As they approached, Davidson sketched out the diameter to about 25 meters across. The group finally reached a vantagepoint where they could peer down into the bowl of the crater.

In the center were four stone pillars. Approximately 8 feet tall, they were arranged in a square. Three sides of each pillar were at angled outwards that made the base a bit larger than the top. The fourth side, however, was at a ninety-degree angle referenced to the floor and had inscriptions.

The party made it's way down the crater wall, it was an easy descent since they were smooth. It took them a minute or so to reach the pillars. Davidson went up to one of the pillars and examined the symbols. There were only 5 symbols on each pillar, each fairly large, moving from top to bottom (or bottom to top which could be the way these beings read). They had been engraved into the smooth gray-blue stone and looked somewhat like roman numerals, all shaped with very straight lines. Whatever the text was, it was in no language he had ever seen. "Lin," he said, "have you ever seen anything like these?"

"No. I can detect some sort of energy field emanating from them. I can confirm that these four pillars are made from some sort of stone. Beyond that, no indication of machinery or electronics."

The captain's link chirped. "Davidson here," he responded.

"This is Scott. We've finished a detailed scan of the planet and are detecting fault lines everywhere. All of them are unstable and could cause an earthquake at any time. There are some strange readings coming in too, but I suggest you come aboard as soon as possible to discuss it further."

"Agreed," Davidson confirmed.

"One other thing captain." Scott's voice lowered to a more subdued tone. "If you wouldn't mind speeding it up sir, that would be much appreciated. Brenn hasn't said more than three words to the crew since you left and I think his eyes are drilling holes into the back of my head."

Davidson allowed himself a little grin. "Will do," he responded. "Out." He turned to the landing party, "We're going to be moving out, and we're taking these pillars with us."

"Captain, is that wise?" asked Lin. "I mean these things belong to someone or something, should we just take them like that?"

"Lin, have you ever heard of the Pangie Holy Object?" Davidson asked.

"No," she responded.

"Look it up sometime, you'll understand."

The Holy Pangie Object was found on a dead world by an Earth Explorer ship. It was a rock in the shape of a cube with inscriptions marked all over it. The crew mistook it for a holy object as many cultures had rocks that were considered sacred. They decided to move it would be a desacration to the people who used to own it. It took months and a large sum of money to get specialists there to decipher it. When they finally arrived and deciphered the language they discovered what was on it. It was grafitti! There were many instances similar to this occurence.

Davidson turned his attention toward making preparations to get the pillars back to the Grey Star. As soon as he laid eyes on the pillars, he knew one thing that no one else knew. The columns were here for him to take. He didn't know how he came to this conclusion, but he knew they were for him.

It took another hour and a half to load the pillars and return to the Grey Star. Once on board, Davidson had them placed in cargo room 3.

He went up to the bridge with Lin to relieve Brenn (to Scott's relief). Lin looked over her console to get up to speed on the details of the planet. "Captain, this can't be."

"What can't be?" Davidson asked.

"The fault lines in the planet all merge at one spot. A crater in the north-eastern hemisphere."

"Your telling me that just one object hit the planet causing its entire crust to crack?"

"Not only that, but it happened approximately 30 years ago."

"Then how did the pillars we found survive?"

"Obviously they were put there afterwards," Brenn spoke.

"I'm not so sure," Lin responded. "If they had been placed there later, the soil layers around would have been mixed together. They weren't."

"There are only questions here," Davidson said.

He sat down in the command chair and opened the intercom for the entire ship.

"This is the captain speaking. By now, everyone knows we are trapped in a hyperspace fold. How we got here and how we get out, I don't know. Somewhere out there is the answer, and we have to find it. I have faith in this ship and its crew. We'll find a way."

Davidson turned the intercom off and began to give out orders. One last thing occurred to him. There are only questions here he had said to his crew. Only questions.

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