Chapter 3



Immediately after Valen's transmission, the whole world changed. This simple sentence failed spectacularly to adequately capture what had truly happened to the people of Earth. In a way, the ancient Mayans had gotten it correct: Earth as everyone had known it ended in the instant. No longer would people wonder whether or not we were alone in the universe. Differences between people that were once so critical now seemed trivial. Everyone, except for the super radicals hiding in caves, was forced to stop and think about what Earth's lost son had told them.



However, humans being humans, people didn't stay in this nirvana of understanding for very long. True, many of the hot heads didn't go back to bombing whoever it was that they were angry with, but humanity didn't suddenly become the United Federation of Planets in Star Trek. This was real life after all. People started talking to their neighbors and debating what was going to happen now with Babylon 4's arrival.



The President of America quickly contacted his counterparts in Russia, China, India, and the appropriate heads in the EU. These heads of state represented all of Earth's manned space faring countries and it would be up to them to decide what to do with Bablyon 4. None of the leaders was naive enough to think that the UN would be able to handle this situation. Besides, they were the ones who were going to go through the trouble to get Valen's treasure station. Therefore, they were the ones who got to call the shots.



Advisers from the various space agencies were called in to brief the heads of state on how to get to Bablyon 4. Every single adviser quickly pointed out that Bablyon 4 was temporarily out of Humanity's reach. The station was father away than the Moon and currently there wasn't a spacecraft available that could make the journey to the station. In the words of one of the scientists, "Getting to that station is like getting to Mars. We could do it with current technology, but we'll need a new ship and a boatload of cash."



Luckily for the scientists, there was a lot of political will to go to Bablyon 4 verses going to Mars. The president and his counterparts knew that even the anti-space people in their governments would be demanding that they go to the station. The teleconference continued for several hours as the various heads of state worked out an agreement that would place their names in the history books for all time.



The Valen Accord was the result of this meeting. Its premise was fairly simple and strait foward:



1. Babylon 4 was international territory under the joint guardianship of the USA, India, Russia, China, and the EU.



2. All technology on Babylon 4 belong to the human race as a whole and all non-military technology would be equity distributed to all peaceful nations. Technology of a military nature would be retained by the signing nations to keep it out of the hands of terrorist groups and unstable governments.



3. A spacecraft was to be constructed jointly by all signing nations to go and take possession of Babylon 4.



4. A committee was to be established by all signing nations to oversee the creation of the joint spacecraft, the management of Babylon 4, and the distribution of all technologies gained from the station.



Once the Valen Accord was written and signed, the president and his counterparts held press conferences at the same time to inform everyone about the Valen Accord. Each of these leaders styled their speech differently, but the essence of the speeches were the same. Humanity was going to the stars and humanity was doing it in a spirit of cooperation.