The gathered people were terrified as they met in secret.
The people they were meeting with was considered wise and holy – a great leader who truly understood the nature of his people and of life in general. There was word that he was even writing a book which would chronicle his path toward enlightenment.
"Great Teacher! What can we do? The invaders are killing us. And not only are they killing us, they kill our families. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children … even our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is as if they are trying to wipe out all of our kind."
The wise teacher felt great sorrow. These were a valued part of their people. They assisted in finding the truth and ensuring that the leaders were just.
And the invaders seemed to be trying to kill them all.
"The rest of us are doing all we can to protect you and your families. The invaders are strong – too strong. I wish we knew why they targeted you so."
Once of those of the families being targeted said, "There is one thing. When one came near to a group of us, we attacked. And the invaders reacted very strangely."
The witness described in detail the incident and the wise teacher had a moment of revelation. "Of course. Of course! THAT is why they are so murderous." And the teacher explained what he had deduced.
Those gathered considered it and agreed that it was likely. "But what do we do now?"
Suddenly a light shone within the cavern where they met. And the watching people were awed.
Out of the light grew a figure. It was shaped much as they were – but its coloring was strange. Its eyes were a color never seen on one of the people.
The teacher asked the figure, "Who are you?"
The figure bowed. "I am Harry Potter – a Traveler." The man looked around. "What am I interrupting?"
And the teacher explained. The eyes of the visitor widened. "I have heard of this. This, where I am from, is history. Let me tell you what I know." And the visitor explained what he knew.
The tragedy he described caused grief for many – and hardened the hearts of many. The teacher said, "Then if that is true, I will call all who will come to help attack."
The visitor sighed. "I don't like the idea of what was told to me taking place." After a pause the figure said, "Would you be willing to help me prevent this tragedy?"
The visitor explained his plan and the people were astounded. The teacher asked, "Can you do this?"
With a grim smile, the visitor said, "I can try. I will be right back."
The figure disappeared into light once more and the waiting people watched, hopeful that the plan would work. It would take sacrifice and it would take pain, and it would take work, but it was the best plan – if the visitor could pull it off.
Soon, however, the hope was fulfilled when the visitor returned with the tools he described.
"First, this is what we need to do …."
For days the people worked, fulfilling the instructions that they were given. The visitor had placed a sort of shield around where they worked, to hide their activities from the invaders.
The work was back-breaking and hard and many suffered, but in the end – it was done. The visitor stood before the teacher.
The people saw him wave his stick and suddenly he looked like an aged member of their community. He looked like one of them.
"Everyone! To their places!"
The people moved and soon all were away save the teacher and the visitor.
"You know what I must do and why."
The teacher nodded. "It will cause great grief, but I see how it is necessary."
"I will work my magic – and then you and I will help rid your world of the invaders. Though it will create problems in years to come, this is the way it must be."
The teacher sighed sadly. "Do your magics."
When the teacher regained consciousness, he was confronted by an aged one from those who had been killed. The old one was enraged. He exhorted the teacher to assist him in driving the invaders out.
And, knowing it was just, the teacher agreed. For days and weeks did the two move from place to place where the invaders had taken up residence. And the old one used all of his power to help drive away the invaders.
And finally, when the last of the invaders left, the old one died. The teacher left to get others to help honor the last of the community that had been destroyed, as was the old one's dying wish. He did not see the rise of the old one, nor the way the old one changed.
The visitor used his magic to create a likeness and, with a great sigh for the grief he was certain was felt by the teacher, he then traveled ….
G'Kar of Narn felt great grief for the loss of Lyta. His travel companion had died helping to destroy the last vestiges of the Psi Corps. The Telepath war, as it was being called, had been short but bloody. At least the Humans were trying to create a better system, one which integrated the telepaths back into society.
He would watch and see if they were successful.
It was unfortunate, but with her loss he felt no more desire to travel. He was leery, however, of returning to Narn. He had heard reports that the furor had died down, but he was still almost worshipped by some Narn.
Perhpaps he could once again with the Alliance. John and Delenn would welcome him.
As he was made the decision, his comm system lit up. He was curious – very few had the code to contact him directly. "Comm system, Receive."
The panel lit up and he was delighted to see the one who had called him. "G'Kar."
"Mr. President."
The man scowled. "I thought we were past the formal names."
G'Kar chuckled. "Fine, then. John."
"Thank you. Anyway, how are you?"
"Strange that you should ask. I find exploring without my former companion is not as rewarding as it used to be."
G'Kar saw the shared grief that he felt. "I understand. And while she and I didn't get along toward the end and I considered her a danger, she was at one point a comrade, even a friend. It was a tragedy." Sheridan sighed. "At least she accomplished what she always wanted."
G'Kar nodded. "I hope, wherever her soul might be, that provides comfort."
"Me too." Sheridan paused. "I'm calling you because I have a request to make – and it's kind of important."
"Oh?"
"I really need you to come to Tuzinor. We need to speak of a matter which might be of extreme importance to you."
G'Kar smiled. "Considering I was about to set course for there, it is not an inconvenience."
Sheridan smiled in relief. "That's good. I'd really like to see you here as soon as possible. How long before you can get here?"
"I can be there in … ten days. I am somewhat on the edge of what's known."
"Would you like me to send the closest ship to get you?"
"No. I'll make my way there. Expect me when you see me."
Sheridan smiled. "That line is straight out of an old Earth story. It was said by an old wizard to those who looked up to him. Should I start considering you an aged wise Narn?"
G'Kar rolled his eyes. "Oh, shut up!"
Sheridan laughed. "I'll see you soon. Sheridan out."
The panel went dark.
"That man can be the most annoying creature in existence," G'Kar mused.
G'Kar made his way to the headquarters of the ISA. His identification was more than sufficient to see him through any obstacles.
And finally, he was being shown in to the President's office. Sheridan was standing up just as he walked in the door. "G'Kar!" the man said loudly with a smile.
"Hello, John." The two had greeted each other with the salute that G'Kar had always used to express greetings with respect: Arms in fists, held to the body, with a respectful bow of the head. Sheridan even managed to make it look almost natural. Sheridan then embraced him the way some human males embraced their comrades.
"You called for me and so I came. As you Human's say: What's up?" G'Kar had a small smile as he asked the question.
"We had a visitor arrive who pretty much demanded that we contact you. I was going to refuse, but when he explained why, Delenn and I agreed that it was a good idea." Sheridan was smiling in a way that indicated that it wasn't bad news. But he also had that grin which meant he wasn't going to fully explain.
"Who was it?" G'Kar asked.
"Oh. A friend. Not someone you know. But, I'm pretty sure you'll be happy to call him the same when you speak."
"Is it another Narn?" G'Kar asked with some trepidation.
Sheridan laughed. "You're the only person I know in the universe who is more worried about speaking to one of his own people than people from other races."
With some asperity G'Kar answered, "I should hope you understand why."
"Oh, I know. It's still funny. But anyway, no. He looks more human than anything."
"Looks … more human?"
John paused. "I don't rightly know if you could consider him human. But he looks and acts like one." Sheridan still had that smile.
"And why should I want to meet him?" G'Kar asked with a small amount of suspicion.
Sheridan grinned. "You'll have to find out when he gets here. First, let me call Delenn. She wanted to be here when he came."
G'Kar waited with some patience, but John Sheridan's mischievous look was not making him relaxed. That Delenn also looked slightly mischievous made him even more nervous.
"Okay. Let me call him." Sheridan went to a comm. panel and put in a code.
"Potter here."
"Hello, this is the President. Where are you?" G'Kar was curious.
"Oh, I've been sitting in on a few lessons at a temple. I'm a couple hundred miles away."
G'Kar was a bit annoyed. If the man wanted to see him so much, he should have been there.
"I see. Well, the visitor has arrived. How long before you can get to my office?"
"Well, I'm going to clean up. And then I'll be there in … 10 minutes?"
"I'll see you then. Sheridan out." Sheridan looked at G'Kar – who looked shocked.
"How will he be here in ten minutes if he's 200 miles away? Does he have a flyer which will travel at the speed of a starship?"
Sheridan chuckled. "You'll see."
Not wanting to get annoyed with Sheridan's amusement, he talked to Delenn to catch up on what was happening.
Suddenly, they were interrupted by a loud pop. G'kar looked over and saw that there was a Human in the room. He stood up in surprise. The man spoke. "Hello, G'Kar of Narn. I'm glad you could make it."
"Hello. And who might you be?"
"Harry Potter, Traveler."
"And how did you appear in the room?" he asked suspiciously.
The man grinned. "Magic."
G'Kar narrowed his eyes. "That's not funny."
The man laughed. "But it's true! Watch!"
The man took out a stick and pointed it at a chair. Suddenly the chair turned into a creature. G'Kar gasped. "What is that?"
The man gave the name.
"How can that be? I have heard of these. It is a creature from my world which went extinct a hundred years ago … the Centauri invaders hunted them until they were no more!"
The man changed the animal back to a chair. "And that's why I am here. Please sit down and I will explain."
G'Kar sat down.
"You are a follower of G'Quan. Correct?"
G'Kar nodded. "Yes. Ever since I was almost a pouchling."
The man nodded. "And you've read the book of G'Quan."
"Extensively."
"And you read what happened a thousand years ago? About the invaders and the genocide against the mindwalkers?"
G'Kar nodded in sorrow.
"And do you know the name of G'Duth?"
G'Kar nodded again. "Yes," he said quietly.
Delenn asked gently, "Who was G'Duth?"
G'Kar turned to Delenn. "When the Shadows had killed almost all the Mindwalkers, G'Duth was the last of them. He was so enraged that he went with G'Quan and the both of them worked together to drive the Shadows off of Narn. G'Duth then died and was buried. His grave was a place of reverence for centuries though it was lost during the Centauri occupation."
Harry sighed. "Well, all of that is correct – except it isn't."
G'Kar looked at the man sharply. "What do you mean?"
"I'm a dimensional traveler. I've visited many universes during the time of the Shadow War where Sheridan and Delenn led the races to band together to drive the Shadows and Vorlons away. I heard the story of the Narn and saw Garibaldi's revelation from the book of G'Quan which led to the discovery of the ability of telepaths to disrupt the Shadow vessels. It always seemed like a waste to me."
G'Kar nodded. "It is still a matter of grief for our people."
"Well, recently I arrived during the time when the Shadows took residence on Narn and were hunting the Mindwalkers. I took steps."
Sheridan asked, "What steps did you take?"
Harry waved his hand and suddenly he looked like an old Narn. "I was G'Duth."
G'Kar looked at the man in shock. "How?"
The man waved his hand and returned to his normal self. "Magic. I arrived during the genocide and, knowing the history, I knew that I had to do something, but that it had to be something that would not disrupt history. And so I gathered some tools and applied my arts."
G'Kar asked, "What did you do?" Harry stood up and pulled out a few items from his pocket and placed them on the desk. G'kar looked at these. "What are they? They look like … luggage. But small."
Harry smirked. "These are four trunks that have been reduced in size. Using magic, these trunks contain much more on the inside than science would consider possible. Within these trunks are four things.
He pointed to the first. It was a dark blue. "This one is in stasis – within the trunk it is as if time stand still. It contains one cubic mile of sea water with all of the life – plant, animal, bacteria, and all – which one square mile of water can contain. It also includes much plankton and algae native to Narn."
He pointed to the next, a light blue. "This is the same. It contains once square mile of fresh water from a lake. It contains all of the plants and animals and bacteria and crustaceans that a cubic mile of fresh water can contain."
He pointed to a third. It was green. "This one is also in stasis. It contains four square miles, four feet deep, of trees and plants and animals and insects and other critters, ground and air based, that lived upon Narn within a forest a thousand years ago. It contains enough of each that, as long as they are not hunted until their populations rebuild, they should be able to survive. Although careful conservation might be required."
He pointed to the last. It was brown – the same tone as a Narn's skin. "This one, however, is not in stasis. Sentients can't stay in stasis so easily. This contains the same square mileage as the other trunk – but it contains four square miles of farmland with crops and domesticated animals and things that were grown on Narn. It also has a store of seeds and nuts which can grow more crops. Also contained within that trunk are 800 Narn – Male, Female, Pouchlings. All are Mindwalkers or their families. For them it has been about two weeks. They will expect to be coming out within another two weeks."
He looked at G'Kar who stared at the four small items in complete shock. "How?"
"When I arrived, I explained what History spoke of. I also explained about the two times that Narn had been occupied and the damage to the environment. And I proposed this. I took the memory from G'Quan so it could not be ripped from his mind by Shadows and then acted as if I was the last of the Mindwalkers and grief stricken. It was very effective."
G'Kar looked at the visitor. "What now?"
The man shrugged. "Now we take a ship – a White Star I hope as no one would impede one, and we go to Narn and replace these onto Narn. Your people will have to husband what we place to ensure the plants, trees, and animals reproduce and spread out. It may take years, but Narn can be reseeded."
Sheridan said, "I am willing to provide a White Star." He paused. "What do we say publicly?"
Harry chuckled. "Not my Department. I say we do it secretly and then come out with a story that Narn has figured out how to bring back telepaths. You'll have to teach them modern life and modern information but after a few years they will be a part of the larger Narn society." He turned to G'Kar. "But their rules on telepaths and how they work within the larger society will have to be respected."
G'Kar nodded, still shocked. "I am willing to help get it started."
Harry chuckled again. "And then you will skedaddle back here because I am certain you don't want your fame to get worse."
G'Kar nodded enthusiastically.
It took almost twice as long to removed everything from the trunks than it had taken to place it.
Harry cancelled the shrinking charm on the sea water trunk. It had taken quite a bit of work to hollow out an area large enough to hold it close enough to the sea where a channel could easily be opened to merge the newly returned seawater with the existing ocean so that the life within it could move out of the unnatural concentration that Harry had created but it was done.
A short time after, the large basin near a flowing river was also ready to receive the fresh water. Once it was done, the river was diverted so that it would refill the lake and the water would then move on back to the path it had always taken.
The Narn were quite upset that Harry insisted on then destroying the trunks and so Harry removed all magic from them – they could be kept as keepsakes but nothing more.
The large trunk containing forest was moved out by an army of Narn with modern equipment. It was spread over a hundred square mile of a reserve that was newly designated for it. The area had lost much because of the Centauri and it was easy to move the very few Narn that already lived there. The trees were no longer so close together and the animals were not so constricted as they would have been if they had tried to stay within the four square miles that the trunk had.
Much magic was used by Harry in addition to the trucks that drove in and out of the trunk that had been expanded to a very large size.
The trunk with the telepaths and farmland were much easier – four square miles of farm fit into four square miles of land near the place where the new lake would be placed. The Narn also gathered quite a few prefabricated domiciles to allow the mindwalkers who had been cramped together to expand out.
It took tens of millions of credits – but the Narn were quite willing to spend the money. The project promised a much brighter future than Narn had been looking at previously. Narn had become militant about conservation and proper management of resources because they had so few remaining after the occupations that they had in the past.
It was a long time before hunting of the re-introduced creatures would be allowed. The water creatures' eggs were scientifically managed to allow many more to survive than a purely natural process would have resulted in. Anyone who worked with fish knew that they laid far more eggs than normally survived to full maturity. The ones that had been re-introduced were protected enough so that the first generations survived until the population was stable enough for nature to manage it.
When word got out that species that were thought to be extinct were sighted, the government opened the zoo (a Human concept) which contained examples of these in habitats that mimicked nature.
The facility was extremely popular for Narns from all over the world.
It took over fifty years but 60 percent of the re-introduced species thrived and became common over the world once more. 25 percent more survived in limited numbers. And the remaining percentage could not be saved, though every effort was made. Viable genetic material from the remaining 15 percent, however, was preserved so that they could be reproduced if technology advanced sufficiently.
When the last trunk had been emptied and the magic removed, Harry looked at G'Kar who had traveled with him everywhere he had been while he was there.
"I've done the best I can to help your world. The rest is up to your people."
G'Kar gave him a salute with clenched fists. "We shall do our best. Our thanks, Harry Potter. From the entire Narn people, our thanks."
Harry waved it off. "It was a pleasure." He then turned and G'Kar, as well as a few others who had been watching from a distance, watched the light move off and disappear and heard the song that wafted about. It was a song of renewal and hope.