Harry Potter and the Shadow War

Chapter 11 - The Planet Below

As it happened, Ginny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were cleared for travel the following day. A small security team guided them to a docking bay, where their pilot was to meet them. Ron and Hermione appeared perfectly content to wait. They nearly always had one point of contact between them now, and Ginny wondered exactly what had happened while they had been in Medlab together. Ginny tried to be disgusted, but it was impossible when she saw Ron so happy. She was very relieved to not be caught in the middle anymore. Harry, meanwhile, seemed restless, so he wandered while they waited. Peering into a docking bay nearby, he called to the others.

"What do you suppose those are?" he asked in an awestruck voice when Ginny, Ron, and Hermione joined him. Ginny saw a mind-bogglingly long row of large, x-shaped metal objects, hanging from above. She thought they must be ships of some kind.

"They must be fighter ships," said Hermione. "See, they're mostly wing with just a small cockpit for the pilot. You couldn't really carry passengers on them."

"Would they really use all of these?" Ron wondered aloud.

"Yes," replied an unfamiliar voice behind them. "You wouldn't want to be here if all of them were out at once, though. In such a situation, even this many fighters probably wouldn't be enough. Anyway, I am Marcus Cole. I'll be your pilot on this little expedition."

As soon as the stranger had begun speaking, the kids had all turned around quickly. Although the voice was unfamiliar, the accent wasn't. The man who'd spoken had a distinctly English manner of speaking, and Ginny felt strangely comforted by hearing it.

Marcus was quite a striking figure. He wore a brown cloak over a fitted costume of dark material, possibly leather. He had thick, dark hair down to his shoulders and a neatly trimmed beard and mustache. He seemed to Ginny the very image of a medieval nobleman. His smile was friendly, but his hazel eyes were intense and seemed to possess a deep sadness, or perhaps emptiness. Ginny found herself staring and blushed as she looked away. She caught Hermione's gaze in the process, and noted that she also seemed to be affected.

"Are you from England, too?" Ron asked curiously.

"Not directly, no. I was raised on a planet colonized by the English. We've stayed close to our roots."

"Then you might be a descendant of one of us," said Harry thoughtfully, after a brief pause.

"I doubt it," said Marcus. "But after 250 years or so, I suppose anything is possible." This idea had the effect of cold water on Ginny. Once she realized that, in this time period, she could be old enough to be his grandmother several generations removed, any attraction she might have felt for him evaporated.

"You don't work on the station, do you?" said Hermione, eyeing his clothing.

"Yes, and no," replied Marcus cryptically. "I am a Ranger."

"What's a Ranger?" Ginny inquired.

"That's a rather long story, if you want all the details. I can tell you on the way. Shall we?" With this, Marcus led them to the shuttlecraft they would take to the planet below. In contrast to the fighters, the shuttle was a blocky vehicle with wings on either side. There were two columns of seats running through the middle of it. Once they were all seated and strapped in, Marcus maneuvered the shuttle out of the docking bay and began their flight. Ginny found herself seated beside Marcus at the front of the shuttle. Ron and Hermione sat behind them, with Harry in the back.

"The Rangers are a group of specially trained individuals started by the Minbari prophet Valen nearly one thousand years ago," Marcus said when they were underway. "They were supposed to be outriders after a fashion, tasked with watching for signs that the Shadows were coming again and preparing to push them back once more. In recent years, humans such as myself have joined their ranks. We are trained either on Minbar or on remote colony worlds. Then, we're sent to serve wherever we're needed. So you see, I don't actually work on the station, although I spend a great deal of time here. You might say I'm attached to it."

"To whom do you report?" Hermione asked.

"Traditionally, we have a leader known as Ranger One. However, the post is currently vacant. On the station, we recognize the authority of both Delenn and Captain Sheridan."

"So, if you don't report directly to the captain, why are you the one taking us to the planet?" Harry asked.

"Actually, I volunteered. I've never been to Epsilon III, and it's supposed to be really something. Besides, I get restless when I haven't anything specific to do, and I usually end up annoying Susan."

"Susan?" asked Ron.

"Ivanova," came the short reply.

"You're on a first-name basis with the commander?" Ginny inquired curiously. Marcus shot her a sharp look before he answered.

"It doesn't mean what it used to," he said vaguely. "Say, do you like Gilbert & Sullivan? 'I am the very model of a modern Major-General--'"

"No, please; not that one!" exclaimed Hermione.

"You don't like the Major-General's song?" Marcus asked her, seeming almost hurt.

"Oh, it's fine. I've just heard it too much, that's all." Hermione paused. "Do you know any other songs from that operetta?"

"The Pirate King's, naturally, but it's not really in my range."

"Why don't you have a Ranger One?" Harry asked, breaking into the musical discussion.

"Has anyone mentioned Ambassador Sinclair to you?" Marcus responded, answering a question with a question.

"Yes," Ginny said. "He was the first commander of the station, right?"

"And the one who didn't come back from Babylon 4!" Ron exclaimed, understanding. "You were there, weren't you?"

"Yes, I was," replied Marcus. "So, now you know why we have no leader. I suspect that Delenn will be the next Ranger One, but it hasn't been decided yet."

Not long after this, the shuttle lowered into what looked like a trench in the surface of the orange and white planet and entered an opening in the rock wall. After Marcus landed the shuttle, they all got out. Ginny and the others looked around in astonishment. It looked as though they were in some kind of subterranean city. Twinkling lights stretched up and down as far as the eye could see.

"What is all this?" asked Hermione.

"It's the machine," Marcus said, seeming hardly less awestruck than the teens. "I don't even know exactly what its original function was. I imagine that it would take days for Draal to explain everything it can do, and I'm not sure even he knows everything yet."

"Ah," said a new voice. "Draal told Zathras you would be here. Draal sent Zathras to take you to the Heart."

They all turned to see a very strange-looking personage. The creature had hair that looked almost like dull, yellowish-brown fur. Most of it was brushed back, but he had long sideburns partly masking his large ears. He had a large, bumpy nose and weathered face. He walked rather hunched over and was covered with a wide variety of furs and skins. When he spoke, he revealed large, crooked teeth.

"Hello, Zathras," Marcus said, seeming a little confused. "I'm sorry, but didn't we leave you in the past?"

"We have never met," Zathras replied in his gravelly voice.

"But that's impossible!" Marcus exclaimed. "You came to Babylon 4 with us and helped us to move it through time."

"Oh, yes," Zathras said. "Zathras understand now. That was not Zathras; that was Zathras. There are ten of us, all named Zathras."

"Ten?" Marcus asked incredulously. "Well, I suppose that explains it, then."

"You are not the One, but Zathras greet. Zathras do what Zathras told. Draal say, 'Bring five to the Heart.' So, you are five, and Zathras bring. Come."

"What was all this about going into the past?" asked Harry to Marcus in a quiet voice. "We were just told that Babylon 4 disappeared."

"It's a very long story," Marcus answered evasively.

"Why is everything around here a long story?" Ginny said a bit grumpily, mostly to herself. Marcus just grinned at her.

Ron and Hermione stayed close to one another, holding hands, and Ginny also moved closer to Harry, taking comfort in the familiar. She had tried long ago to put her crush on him behind her, but the enforced closeness of the past few days had made the old feelings resurface. She had managed to keep her composure, however, and maintain a friendly atmosphere. Strangely, though, Ginny had caught Harry looking at her several times. Surely it didn't mean anything. Did it? She shook her head slightly to clear such thoughts from her mind and tried to focus on the present.

"This Zathras reminds me of Dobby," Harry whispered to Ginny. Ginny smiled at him and nodded but couldn't think of anything to say.

After following their unusual guide through many winding corridors, they arrived at last at what everyone seemed to call "the heart" of the machine. In the center was a large structure containing a sort of cutout of a humanoid. It had apparently been designed for a variety of humanoids because there was room for six arms. The current occupant was a middle-aged Minbari who appeared to be asleep. Almost as soon as their group approached, however, a transparent version of him appeared in front of his body.

"Welcome, welcome, my young friends," he said. "So glad you could come. You too, Marcus. I am Draal." Draal was a little on the heavy side and had a booming, jocular voice.

"How did you do that?" Ron asked, looking back and forth between the body of Draal and his projection.

"What?" asked Draal, seeming confused. Then he appeared to understand. "Oh, yes. The Machine requires the presence of my body to run properly; I can only leave for short periods. However, I am able to produce an avatar, such as this, so that I can speak to you and continue to control the Machine."

"Zathras, the devices," Draal said then, turning to the hunched creature. Zathras handed each of them, except for Marcus, a dome-shaped object made out of metal. "You are doubtless wondering what these are, but all will be explained in due course. Well, let me look at you! I feel as though I know you already. The Weasleys, of course, Ron and Ginny. And Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Albus has told me so much about you!"

The four wizards stared at him in shock.

"You know Professor Dumbledore?" Harry was the first to find his voice and ask the question.

"Indeed, I do. You will, naturally, have many questions for me. Allow me to explain in my own manner. After that, if you still have questions, you may ask them. However, this could take some time. Please, have a seat."

Ginny looked around to see stone seats against the wall of the chamber. Obediently, the five of them sat down. Zathras, however, left to pursue errands of his own.

"Let me begin by explaining a little about this machine," Draal said, his avatar pacing about in front of them. "It has been here for about 500 years. With the direction of the brain of a sentient creature, it can see through space at the speed of thought. Now, there are places in space where the fabric of time has been ruptured. Through these rifts, I am able to use the machine to see into the past or into the future. It was through one of these time fields that I first saw you four. Based on the things I saw, it seemed to me that you were necessary elements if the future were to unfold as it should. However, I did not know where - or when - to find you. This changed one day when I happened to reach into the past and contact one wizard named Albus Dumbledore. He was using one of his magical devices while I was using the machine to view the past, and we discovered that we could communicate that way.

"Through our conversations, I found that the four young people I needed were in his time and place. We still had several problems to work out, the most difficult of which was how to get you here. The machine and some of its devices can move objects and living things through time and space, but not without prior contact. Albus was able to help me by casting powerful spells on some objects he believed you would use. They would only be activated, however, if two of you touched an object simultaneously. We did not want any of you to be alone here.

"I am sorry that I could not tell you about this sooner, but I believed - and Albus agreed - that you would not be able to do what was necessary if you or others were aware of what was happening. We thought it best not to interfere in events this first time. I know what you are thinking, and the answer is yes. I have seen you at other times in the future of Babylon 5. I will get to that later.

"In any case, you have completed the task for which you were brought here, so I will soon be sending you home. I am sure you are wondering exactly what you did, so I will explain. Please be patient, however, for it is a long story." Ginny exchanged an amused glance with Harry at hearing this phrase yet again but did not interrupt.

"You probably don't know that Kosh, the Vorlon ambassador to Babylon 5, was murdered a few months ago by the Shadows," Draal continued, resuming his narrative. "It is a secret that has been well kept by the command staff. What is also not widely known is that Vorlons are able to transfer pieces of themselves into other beings and travel the universe in secret. They do not have a corporeal body as you and I do. Now, Kosh knew that his end was coming, and he intended to transfer a part of himself into Captain Sheridan. However, it turned out that he did not have time to do this, so he had to transfer into one of the Shadows attacking him. This caused that Shadow to be very confused and at war with itself, so it wandered off and hid in a vacant set of rooms in the alien sector of the station.

"This is where you come in. As you have probably guessed, the quarters occupied by this confused Shadow were the very ones to which you four were assigned. As soon as you entered, Kosh took the opportunity to transfer himself into you, Ron."

There was a long pause as everyone took in the information.

"Is that what that flash of light was?" asked Hermione, looking a bit abashed. "I thought he was being attacked."

"Yes, I can see how you might think that," Draal answered. "Well, once Kosh had left the Shadow, it was no longer confused. Therefore, it immediately saw you as a threat and began fighting. Shadows are not accustomed to fighting on their own; they usually act through intermediaries. However, they can be formidable opponents when they choose."

"No kidding," muttered Ron.

"So what was that shock that passed between Ron and the captain a little later?" Ginny asked, after a pause while they all digested what they had just been told.

"That was Kosh transferring himself into Sheridan, where he was supposed to be. He had to do it very quickly, at the moment of contact, so that none of the onlookers would guess what had happened." Draal then turned to address Ron directly. "Kosh had been keeping you alive during your battle with the Shadow. It is unlikely you would have survived without him. On his way out, he was also able to cauterize your internal wounds. I suppose it was his way of thanking you. Unfortunately, the force of all that energy leaving your body knocked you unconscious.

"So you see, someone needed to have a reason to go into those quarters and provide a temporary home for Kosh. That same someone needed to later be touched by Sheridan to complete the transfer. It was not yet time for Sheridan to come face to face with a Shadow. That will happen soon enough..."

Draal trailed off at this point, his gaze far away. Ginny felt a strange chill and a sense of foreboding.

"So, now we come to those devices," Draal resumed. "These will enable me to send you to your own time and place. They also provide a point of contact so that I can bring you here again when the need arises because, as I mentioned before, I have seen you here at other times than this. There is an indicator on each one that will light up when the time is right, but they will only activate to bring you back here when all four of you are touching your devices at the same time."

"Why do you need all four of us?" Hermione asked, looking up from her scrutiny of the object in her hand. "Come to think of it, why did you need us all this time, if Ron was the one who was supposed to be an intermediary vessel?"

"For this particular venture, I think that you will realize, if you consider it carefully, that all of you had a part to play in what happened here," replied Draal. "For one thing, Ron alone would not likely have been assigned to his own quarters and so would not have met the Shadow. As for the rest, I can only tell you that your lives all seem to be intertwined. In all of the places and times I have seen you, you have never been far apart. Although you are each powerful individually, you seem to create an even greater entity when you are together. I understand that there is an ancient tradition from Earth in which the number four represents Earth, and three represents heaven. Therefore, seven is the number of perfection, when heaven and Earth are unified."

"That's true!" exclaimed Hermione. "That was a belief of the Hebrews."

"Well, here in this time, we have our Three, who are also known collectively as The One," Draal continued. "Commander, or Ambassador, Sinclair is the One who was. He has gone back one thousand years to become the Minbari prophet, Valen. Delenn is the One who is. She has formed a bridge between humans and Minbari, restoring the balance that was shifted when Sinclair became Minbari so long ago. John Sheridan is the One who will be, the man whose potential has not yet been realized. From your perspective, distant space might be considered heaven. Therefore, you might be the Four representing Earth, who must work together with the Three from heaven to bring about perfection."

They all (except Marcus, who did not seem surprised) gaped a little at the revelation that Sinclair, when he had disappeared on Babylon 4, had actually gone into the past and become Minbari. However, they had recovered by the time Draal finished his speech.

"It sounds awfully far-fetched," said Ron doubtfully.

"Yes, well, so does waking up on your 11^th birthday to find a half-giant telling you that you're a wizard," quipped Harry. He had a point.

"Well then," Draal said. "Are you ready to return to your own time?"

"Wait," said Hermione. "When are we getting back? I mean, have we missed classes or anything?"

Ginny rolled her eyes and caught Ron and Harry exchanging exasperated glances. Leave it to Hermione to worry about schoolwork when the future of the universe was at stake.

"Theoretically, I could return you all to the exact moment you departed," Draal replied. "However, getting it exactly right is a tricky business and you'd be very disoriented. Besides, I need time to talk to Albus and explain everything that has happened, as well as set up a time for your return. I have already done this, of course, but it happened about an hour after you left, in relative time. You will be returning to his office, and you will find that only a few hours have passed. Are there any further questions?"

Hermione looked as though she had a thousand, but she seemed to decide against voicing them when she saw everyone else shaking their heads. Draal had them all hold their metal devices, and the chamber faded.

***

After the four young humans had disappeared, Draal turned to Marcus and spoke to him in Minbari.

"I trust you will be discreet about the things you have learned here?" he asked.

"Why, Draal," Marcus replied, also in Minbari. "You should know that one of the things a Ranger does best is keep secrets. I will reveal only enough to explain why the children are no longer here. Will that do?"

"Admirably."