As the Xanadu traveled through hyperspace, David Gina thought about the ship that was being towed behind his ship. He blinked his eyes wearily and looked around his office. "Hopefully, the Abbai have remained peaceful," David muttered. He stood up and went over to a shelf holding plastic models. Some were ships and there was a group of destroid models. David touched an empty place on the shelf and gave an amused snort. He turned and looked over to another place in his office where he was building a replica of the Xanadu and what looked like a kitbash of three ships being slammed together. "So far in so short a time." As he looked at the models, Dernia entered the quarters. She gave an amused look at David near the models. "Captain?" "Not in our quarters," David said with a smile. "What is it Dernia?" "Sorry, David. Old habits. The information that the Narn and Markab gave us had some interesting facts," Dernia said. "Oh?" David asked. "Yes. I think you had better take a look at what I found." David headed back to his desk and sat down. Dernia handed him a folder with the information that she had found in it. David flipped through it and his eyes widened. He quickly tapped on a computer console and brought up schematics for the alien ships that UN Spacy had recovered from the moon and Mars. "This is the same ship that UN Spacy is studying," David muttered. "I believe the translated name is Shadows. Take a look at the next group of ships," Dernia said. David flipped the pages and he rubbed his eyes in disbelief. "Those look like the ships on the paintings underneath the Sphinx. Vorlons? They are still around?" David muttered and flipped the pages once more. "Soul Hunters? Okay. It looks like we have three active hostiles that are still around. If the Vorlons and Shadows continue to fight each other, they should ignore us. However, I'm not going to count on it. Of course, there are the Soul Hunters that will attack us no matter what. Get this report encoded and sent to UN Spacy on a hyperpulse. Highest priority." "Highest priority? You've never used that channel," Dernia said in shock. "I never had to get information about three active enemies back to headquarters before," David stated grimly. "Get the rest of the races and star charts sent on the next lowest channel as well as the current common tongue. My brain is still stinging a bit from that." "I'll get right on it," Dernia said. "That's only a copy. The original is still in the computer." David nodded and watched as his wife left. He saw Ishtar standing outside the door and waved her in. "Come in, Ishtar," David said. "Er. Okay," Ishtar mumbled. "Still shy? Eh. No matter. What do you want?" "I keep hearing rumors that you and others of the Black Panthers are crazy," Ishtar said. "War is crazy," David said with a heavy sigh. "Although, the Black Panthers do have a reputation for being escapees from mental institutions. Don't worry about it." "I just...." Ishtar began. David picked up a doorknob that was coated in plastic off his desk and turned it around in his hands. "We worked at that reputation. As to your ship implanted compulsions, you need to get them under your control and not be under theirs." "I guess so. There is something that the ship is telling me. It came up when Lieutenant Dernia came across the Soul Hunters." "What?" "That the Soul Hunters are going against everything that all branches of Protoculture stand for." "Probably. They are being tagged as an active hostile along with two other races." Ishtar blinked and looked at David Gina in shock. "I thought that..." "The Black Panthers work at being known as crazy, not stupid," David said with a smile, as he set the doorknob back down on his desk. "There is a difference. The Black Panthers pulled through the Global Civil War with only three casualties." Ishtar nodded. "I see." "At any rate, I hope you like Italian food. It's my turn to cook tonight," David said. "Thank you. You don't have to do that though," Ishtar said. David stared hard at Ishtar. "You are a member of my crew and need to know what being human is about." Ishtar nodded and was about to leave, when she took a glance at the doorknob. "Why do you have a doorknob on your desk?" "It's a memento of one the things we did during the Global Civil War. Depleted uranium doorknobs, a vat of chocolate syrup, and bagpipes, and is one of the many things that could have landed us a Section Eight. Sit down and I'll tell you the story," David said with a grin. After telling Ishtar one of the more ludicrous stunts that the Black Panthers had pulled, David Gina let her go and headed out to the bridge. "Sir? We're coming up on Abbai," Jan stated. "Good. I want to dump these corpses off and move on to something else," David said. "How goes our little play?" "We'll be duplicating the hyperspace gateway effect to put the Abbai at ease," Jan replied. "Good." As the Xanadu left hyperspace, it was greeted by a small group of ships that were similar in design to the one that it was towing. David made a gesture towards Jan and addressed the screen on the bridge. "This is the SDF-3 Xanadu of UN Spacy. I am Captain David Gina. I am returning the bodies of your killed brethren to you. They were killed over the planet Narn by either Orieni or Centauri forces," David said in the common tongue used throughout the current sector of space. David brought his finger across his throat and Jan cut the broadcast. "Cut the tractor beams and move away from the ship. Have all weapons on standby in case we have a fight," David ordered. "Understood sir," Cindy from tactical said. "Helen have Valkyrie squadrons ready for deployment in case the Abbai fire on us," David said. "Marsha get the pin-point barrier system up, but not active. "Roger," came the unisoned response. "All we can do now is wait," David said. "Sir? I'm picking up communications pulses from the lead ship," Jan reported. "Put it on." We are the Abbai and we are curious as to why you have brought our brethren to us." "So you wouldn't wonder what happened to them. It is a gesture of good will. We are not allies of Centauri or Orieni. We are trying to remain neutral in the fight," David replied. "The Minbari, probably at the urging of the Vorlons, have joined the Orieni," the Abbai captain reported. "And probably a force at the urging of the Shadows joined the Centauri. We're going to do our best to stay out of the fight even more. Let the idiot Vorlons and Shadows kill each other," David said with a grimace. "I do not understand." "We have found evidence of tampering by the Shadows or the Vorlons or both of them on the races we have encountered so far. The Narn were once occupied by Shadows and it appeared that they, like us, had their technological strides taken from them. The Markab had a biological virus that could have been triggered at any time implanted in their race and the Dilgar had their sensors sabotaged, so they couldn't detect that their sun was going to explode in two hundred years." "I... see... I wonder if we have been tampered with," the Abbai captain mused. "Probably. We're making sure that we have all the tampering cleared away from us," David said. "You've been tampered with?" "Not the entirety of the Protoculture, no. However the branch that I am from has been tampered with, by having our technology stripped from us and I beginning to suspect a bit of genetic tampering," David said. "At any rate, here's your ship with bodies and we're trying to get a non-aggression treaty signed with some of the powers near us in the galaxy." "We do not attack other races. We strive to be peaceful," the Abbai captain said in a bit of a huff. "The other reason is that the Protoculture shattered into many branches and we're trying to keep other races from making fatal mistakes, since a lot of ship designs are the same among the branches," David said. "This ship is unique design to UN Spacy." "We will keep that in mind." "Thank you for your time. I'll send a message to UN Spacy that we have established peaceful contact with you and that we might be able to open peaceful negotiations with your race. It's time for us to leave." "Before you leave, we can get maybe one of the Vree merchant clans here for further negotiations." "One? Well, it's better than nothing. I'll let UN Spacy know of that as well." After Jan cut communications, the Xanadu went back into hyperspace. The Abbai took the damaged ship and corpses with them back to their homeworld. They also took the huge doubt that David Gina and started examining their race's genetic structure, as well as the technological innovations that were stopped for one reason or the other and would share this information with the Vree. Unaware of the major changes he was enacting, David Gina flipped through the updated star charts and races. He stopped at one of the charts and looked at the older star chart that the Xanadu carried. "Set course for Sigma 957," David ordered. "Sir? Why there?" Helen from navigation asked. "Our star charts showed that there is a race there. The star charts we picked up from the Tri-Union have a warning not to go anywhere near the planet. My best guess is that the race mentioned in our star charts is still alive and hovering around that planet." "What if they don't want to talk to us?" Jan asked. "It doesn't take much to say 'go away' and if they do, we will. I hope to get some answers about the Shadows and Vorlons from them, and the only way to do that is to go talk to a race that has been around for a while. If they don't want to talk to us, I hope they point us in a direction that we can get information about those two races from," David replied. "Understood sir," came from around David. David took off his hat and wiped his brow. He glanced at his hat and shook his head. "How does Gloval stand wearing it all the time?" David muttered to himself, and put the hat back on. Elsewhere, an Orieni battle group approached the planet Narn under orders to establish a forward base in the system and to convince the primitive savages of Narn that the Orieni were a benevolent race and should be under the Orieni Empire or Minbari Federation. The shock upon seeing active ships around Narn caught the leader of the Orieni group off guard. A message was broadcast to the Orieni fleet. "This is the Tri-Union. We have no wish to join either side of the war. Leave this system at once." The Orieni known as Dekarki Hevok stared in shock, as he saw ships that looked like they were made from both Orieni and Centauri ships station themselves between Narn and his fleet. A few ships caught his attention as they showed up as Markab and Dilgar make. "How in the name of the Vorlons did the Dilgar and Markab start working together? How did the Narn get involved with them?" Dekarki muttered. "We are outnumbered! Fall back! We need to get this information back to the Vorlons!" As the Orieni ships left the Narn system, Dekarki shook in anger as he glared at the Narn homeworld. "The most holy will hear of this atrocity and we will wipe it from the skies."