To My Valen/Tines

[bnewman]

This one was done just for the pun at first, but it ended up as a touching (I think) crossover fanfic mashup.

It will make more sense if you've seen Babylon 5 and read A Fire Upon the Deep: In each story arc, at a climactic moment (the turning point in the middle of the story in one case, the denoument in the other), one of the many protagonists in the ensemble cast chooses to fulfill their destined role in the battle against an ancient trans-human evil, bidding their companions a fond farewell and stepping into a Transcendent machine, never to return in the same form.

In B5 the character is (or will become) the legendary hero Valen, while in aFutD some of the companions are members of the species known to the reader as Tines, a race of wolf-like creatures with hive-minds where several individual bodies come together to be one individual person.  Valen...  Tines...  you get where this is going.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "To My Valentine" by S.J. Tucker

 

listen to this song

 

/: G C G D / C G D~ - :/

 

From right away I was puzzled by your hive-minded kin

But I fear more the galaxy's fall

Worlds away this war threatens everything

You know that I'll give it my all

 

/: C D Em G / " :/

 

I long to stay but the past has my number

Still I don't have to miss you, I know

Little did I think with this thick head of bone

We'll meet again aeons ago

 

/ G C G D / " / G C Em F - / C D G - /

 

Never had such Valen/Tines as these on my mind

All the faces I've seen, the places I've been

They don't stack up, even at the same time

To you and your hive-minded kin

 

How can one watch planets crumble to dust

And not do the best that he knows?

Schemes are all well and good, you'd have me believe

With a trick at the tip of each nose

 

If the snuffers of starlight spring back into action

We can move to the Pleiades to make our last stand

Maybe between worlds and blackness I'll get up the nerve

To ask how you embrace without hands

 

There'll be space for you always in my harmony

Though I never knew this before

Every note says "I'm with you," no matter the chord

That's all any fight song is for

That's all any fight song is for

 

/ Em D F - / " / C D F - / " /

 

This Transcendent machine, can it really be stable?

How many contraptions can you hope to bring?

Imagine my luck, to be part of your fable

Recalling the legends I now understand

 

This journey through time is entirely fateful

To hold back the Shadow from beyond the Beyond

I'll fight by your side 'til I'm no longer able

Together, apart, I admit, I've grown fond

 

/ G C G D / " / C D Em G / C G - C / D ... /

 

Just to change the timeline in well-hidden ways

That's all I can do, charging into the fray

Maybe I've been too honest, but you're smiling, I pray

The portal's wide open, and I'm only a little afraid

 

From far away I'm nuzzled by your hive-minded kin

And I don't fear the quest after all

With just a laugh you rearranged the worlds as they spin

Spoke your hearts and let me hear the call

 

I long to stay but the past has my number

Still I don't have to miss you, I know

Little did I think with this thick head of bone

We'll meet again aeons ago

 

Never had such Valen/Tines as these on my mind

All the faces I've seen, the places I've been

They don't stack up, even at the same time

To you and your hive-minded kin

To you and your hive-minded kin