Babylon 5 07 - The Shadow Within (Cavelos, Jeanne)

by The Shadow Within (Cavelos, Jeanne)

  "Could they have moved it?" Standish asked.

  Favorito snorted with contempt.

  "They'd know a lot better than to move something that valuable before it could be studied and mapped and its soundness checked."

  "Maybe they thought the storm would damage it and moved it into the crawler," Standish persisted.

  Favorito turned to face Standish and cross his arms.

  "It's been there for a thousand years. Maybe that's how you do things on your team. We do things a little differently. We use our intelligence."

  "It's too big to put into the crawler," Morden said quietly.

  "And they didn't have any other equipment with them that would have been able to move something so large and heavy. Not all in one piece."

  "Have you tried to reach Chang?"

  Anna asked Razor.

  "I've been trying."

  Razor's voice was subdued, not like his normal, teasing tone at all.

  "No response from the links, no response from the crawlers."

  The possibility that something had happened to Chang and his party suddenly seemed very real. Anna kept her own voice calm as well.

  "Have you scanned for life signs?"

  "I'm not picking up any life signs. But it could be the scanners."

  "Have you scanned for their links?"

  Anna asked. Each link had a built-in locator beacon. Razor looked like a lost dog.

  "I got a reading on one, near the pillar."

  Anna's heart was pounding.

  "We'll split into two groups. Razor and Standish, take group one and check out the crawlers. I'll take group two with Morden and Favorito to the area around the pillar."

  Razor looked back down at the scanners, as if their readouts might have changed.

  "Go," Anna said.

  Outside, the dust and sand seemed to have intensified. Visibility averaged around thirty-five feet. Occasionally Anna could see farther than that, though occasionally the dust came so fast and furious that she couldn't see the ground. Since it was uneven, that could be treacherous.

  "Stay together," she said to Razor and Standish as they headed off with their group of twenty techs.

  Anna had her group stand in a line an arm's width apart and then sweep down toward the area of the pillar. If anything was here, she wanted to find it. She prayed that, whatever had happened to the egg, Chang and his party were in the crawlers safe and sound, waiting out the storm. But what could have happened to the egg? She thought of those eyes on her, watching her as if they had been watching her. If there was still a living race on this planet-underground perhaps, or somehow shielded-had they detected the probe and expected the Icarus? Were they watching, now?

  She told herself she was jumping to conclusions, focused on keeping her footing on the uneven s tony ground.

  "I see someone!"

  Favorito yelled. He was pointing ahead. There, about ten feet to the right of the pillar, was the white of an EVA suit. It lay against the ground, partially covered by sand and dust. Favorito broke ranks and ran ahead, and Anna followed. The white swam in and out of vision like a ghost, and then she was there.

  "Oh, God!"

  Favorito cried. She knelt down beside him and peered down at the white shape. Anna felt her mind functioning very clearly. Chang's helmet had been removed and tossed aside. His body, lying on its side, had created a small drift of sand, and his cheek appeared to be pillowed on it. Chang looked as if he were asleep, mouth hanging askew, eyes closed, weather-beaten face slack. Sand clung to his eyelashes and collected in the pocket of his lips. His fine grayish-white hair blew raggedly around his face. His life-signs detector was flashing red. Favorito had cleared the sand away from his chest. A hole had been burned through his suit and through the top several inches of his chest cavity. She was no expert, but from what she'd seen on the news feeds, it looked like a PPG blast.

  Suddenly her fear of aliens jumping out of dark caves seemed ridiculous, and she thought of Donne, who had been in Chang's party. Favorito began to sob, the sound coming through the link.

  "Chang has been shot," she told the others, who were beginning to gather around.

  "Look for a PPG."

  The ship had been equipped with arms, though they were only in case of emergency. Chang had access, and perhaps Captain Hidalgo did-she didn't know. She remembered Chang, in his quarters, handing her the PPG. He'd been worried, and he'd warned her.

  She felt the pockets of his suit, searching for the PPG he'd said he was going to get for himself. It was in the thigh pocket, just as hers was. She worked it clumsily out. The gun told her nothing. It seemed unlikely that anyone would have shot Chang with it and then returned it to his pocket. Morden knelt on one knee on the far side of Chang and linked to the subgroup.

  "If he'd known what was coming, he would have taken that out."

  "He could never have shot anyone."

  Morden's face had the careful smile on it, and Anna realized how uncomfortable he was with the reminder of death. Anna sandwiched the PPG in her gloves, extended it toward Morden.

  "Here. You take this. No one else knew he had it."

  "You should keep it. You might need it."

  "I already have one. Here."

  Morden took the gun, slipped it into his pocket.

  "He looks very peaceful, doesn't he? There's something reassuring about seeing him like this."

  Favorito stumbled to his feet beside Anna.

  "You're sick!" he yelled at Morden, and then he walked away into the dust.

  Anna couldn't understand why Chang's helmet had been removed. If someone wanted to kill him, suffocation from the carbon monoxide would take way too long. She remembered catching him asleep once, in his office at the University of Chicago, slumped back in his chair, head tilted to the side. He looked like that now, as if he could open his eyes at any moment. She linked out to Razor's group.

  "Razor. This is Sheridan. We found Dr. Chang. He's dead. He's been shot by a PPG."

  There was no response. Anna's calmness was wearing away. She could feel the wind scraping it away, the panic beneath it beginning to rise.

  "Razor."

  "I heard. I can't believe it."

  There was some static on the transmission, but she had no trouble reading him.

  "What happened?"

  "That's all we know so far. What have you found?"

  "We've done a thorough search of both crawlers," Razor said.

  "No one is here."

  Anna felt a strange tightness around her throat.

  "Split your group between Chang's two crawlers and take them back to the Icarus immediately. We'll follow. Keep scanning for locator beacons from the missing EVA suits."

  As if only suits were missing, not people.

  "I want you to check back in with me every five minutes until you get back to the Icarus."

  "Okay. Anna stood, directed two nearby techs to take Chang's body back to the crawler. As they picked him up, and his arms flopped loosely back and forth, she brought her fist up to her mouth, the action kept from completion by her helmet. She'd barely spoken to Chang since she'd listened to his message, furious at him for withholding information that could have helped her research. Over the years he'd helped her again and again. He'd listened to her, guided her. So what if he played the corporate game, kept their secrets, told their lies?

  He'd been good to her, and she'd failed him. As second in command of the mission, she should have been looking out for his safety. He'd warned her about the danger, and she hadn't taken him seriously. What if he'd known that Donne posed a serious threat? Perhaps he'd taken her in his party to keep Anna out of danger. And Anna had gladly let him. Even watching his EVA suit disappear into the dust, she couldn't believe he was gone. Her body was trembling all over. She forced calm into her voice.

  "Morden, can you show me exactly where the egg was?"

  He walked up to the pillar, stepped back a few paces, then took a few steps left.

&nb
sp; "The center of it was just about here. Then it extended about twenty feet to each side, and fifteen feet to the front and back."

  Anna stood beside him and did a slow circle, staring into the dust.

  "They couldn't have moved it," Morden repeated.

  "Then either someone else moved it," Anna said, "or it moved itself."

  "Watch your step," Morden said.

  To her right, a crevasse in the stone widened from a few inches to about two feet across, remaining at that width for about ten feet before narrowing back down again.

  "I don't remember seeing that in the probe's transmissions. Was the egg on top of it?"

  Morden approached the crevasse.

  "It must have been."

  The dust tended to brown out everything behind it. Yet the crevasse stood out like a stream of blackness, as if the blackness saturated the very air, persistent, leaving a negative afterimage as a bright light left a positive one. Anna knelt. The reddish-brown rock of the surface continued to a depth of less than a foot here. Below was the black, light-absorbing rock of the caves. The sides of the crevasse were jagged, vertical.

  "I can't see how deep it runs. But they couldn't have climbed down here. They'd have needed to set up a platform."

  "They could have fallen in," Morden said.

  Above her, obscured by sand, his expression was unclear.

  "The stone is jagged."

  Anna leaned down into the crevasse.

  "I don't see any pieces of clothing or equipment."

  She didn't want to admit that she couldn't see much in the darkness, and that the wind might have blown away any scraps.

  "That still wouldn't explain what happened to the egg. The dimensions of the crevasse are too narrow for it."

  Anna stood. She was exhausted, and she had run out of ideas. Could they all be dead-Chang, Churl- stein, Scott, Petrovich, Donne, and forty technicians?

  "Do you really think the egg might have moved under its own power?" Morden asked.

  "Why not? It's basically a tool or machine of some kind. Its purpose might involve locomotion. I admit the shape doesn't suggest it, but this technology is so different from ours, we really don't know what its purpose is."

  "All that is desired."

  His tone was wistful.

  "If that's what it's promising, then it's failing miserably."

  Anna linked up to the rest of her group and ordered them to return to the crawlers. Her leg muscles ached as she trudged back through the wind. Morden fell in beside her.

  "You're going to have to watch your back," he said. "You're in charge now."

  CHAPTER 13

  Jaffrey Sinclair rested his head in his hands.

  "Tell e it's all resolved, Michael."

  "It's almost resolved?" Garibaldi replied.

  "Try again. Harder."

  He was dealing with a thousand crises, and he'd like to have a simple resolution to one of them.

  "It will be resolved, as soon as I track down Marco."

  Jeff's head came up.

  "You haven't found Marco yet?" Garibaldi raised his hands.

  "We've tracked him to Brown 3. We're almost there. Just give us another hour."

  "Fine. Just don't show your face around here until you've got him. Less than forty-eight hours to our dedication ceremony and the whole place falls apart."

  Garibaldi slid his hands into his pockets.

  "Ready to start looking for another job?"

  "I'm ready to ask for a raise. Now get out of here."

  Garibaldi left the office, and Jeff leaned back in his chair, contemplating all the other crises demanding his attention. His top priority was still to follow up on Ambassador Delenn's request. He'd talked to Senator Hidoshi, who had referred him to President Santiago's science advisor, Dr. LeBlanc. Then chaos had taken over. He put through a call to the doctor, and after a minute it went through, and she appeared on the Stellarcom monitor.

  "Doctor, I'm Jeffrey Sinclair, commander of Babylon 5."

  "I've been hoping to have the opportunity to meet you. Congratulations on your appointment."

  She was an elegant woman in her fifties, her platinum-blond hair swept back, a sc arf fastened with a gold pin at her shoulder.

  "Thank you. I'm afraid I have a rather serious situation on my hands, and I need to ask your help."

  "I'm intrigued. Ask away."

  "The Minbari ambassador contacted me earlier today. She said that we have a vessel en route to a planet near the rim, Alpha Omega 3, and that it must be recalled. Senator Hidoshi referred me to you in the belief that this must be a science vessel of some kind. Ambassador Delenn called this a matter of gravest importance, and said the ship poses a potential danger to all of us."

  LeBlanc straightened.

  "A ship near the rim? I'm not aware of any such mission. It must be from the private sector. Did she give the name of the ship or any other information?"

  "Unfortunately, no."

  "Do you know the source of her information?"

  "No. She..."

  "Did she explain why the Minbari had taken an interest in this expedition?"

  "She said that many lives were at stake. She wouldn't say any more than that."

  LeBlanc tapped a polished, pointed fingernail against her desktop.

  "What's your take on this ambassador, Commander Sinclair?"

  "I've only known Ambassador Delenn a short time, but I've found her honest, and she is not prone to exaggeration. If she says there is a serious danger, I believe her."

  He surprised himself with his words. He had only known Delenn a short time, and here he was going out on a limb for her. But he did believe the danger was real, and if it was, he had to do everything he could to help. LeBlanc ran her index finger along her jaw.

  "Surely you can't believe the Minbari ambassador is being totally forthright?"

  "I didn't say she wasn't keeping secrets. But that doesn't mean that what she has told us isn't true."

  "You have an interesting outlook, Commander. In any case, I don't know of any mission to the rim. I'll have to check on this and get back to you."

  "Please hurry, Doctor. I believe this danger is very real. And even if you don't, as a matter of interplanetary relations it may be in our best interests to cooperate with the Minbari. The peaceful resolution of diplomatic issues such as this is the main reason President Santiago began the Babylon Project."

  LeBlanc gave him a tight smile.

  "I'm well aware of the diplomatic implications, Commander. I'll be in touch."

  The Stellarcom logo returned to the monitor. Jeff heaved a sigh and leaned back in his chair, rubbing the knot in his neck. He could do nothing more until he heard back from her. Nothing more, except deal with the nine hundred ninety-nine other crises that had to be resolved within the next forty-eight hours.

  * * *

  "Go to battle-alert status," John ordered.

  In this empty place between stars, the two ships ahead of them were not even visible on the large observation screen. John kept his distance. That was how he wanted it. If he couldn't see them, they couldn't see him. John had directed the Agamemnon to stand by during the transfer of explosives at the limit of their scanner range. The Agamemnon's scanners could monitor the enemy ships, but with this new stealth technology, Lochschmanan had assured him neither Nam nor human vessels could scan the Agamemnon.

  "The shuttle is returning to the Nam ship, Captain," Corchoran said.

  "I believe the transfer has been made."

  John had thought that perhaps Corchoran would liven up when they saw some action, but his mood still seemed gloomy, somber. Maybe it was just a misleading impression his features gave. Corchoran checked the scanner readout.

  "Nam ship is pulling away and opening a jump point."

  "Good. What's the cruiser doing?"

  "The cruiser has set course for the Carutic jump gate, a Nam jump gate approximately ten hours away. From there they can jump to Babylon 5."

&nb
sp; So far everything was developing by the numbers. The thing that bothered John the most was that on the scanners, the Homeguard cruiser had the signature of an Earthforce vessel. The friend-or-foe signal definitely marked this ship as friend, which meant either that the signature had been faked, which was supposed to be impossible and would carry very troubling implications if it were possible, or that the cruiser had been stolen from Earthforce, or that an entire faction of Earthforce was in collusion with the Homeguard.

  "Is the Nam ship away?" John asked.

  "Narras away," Corchoran said.

  John turned to the other officers on the command deck. They had all shaped up nicely. They were a good crew. And they all looked a bit nervous knowing that this battle alert was not just another drill.

  "All right, this is what they pay us for. Helm, bring us within weapons range. Weapons, stand by. Communications, it's time to let them know we're here. Open a..."

  John's link chimed. He brought it to his mouth.

  "Sheridan. Go."

  "This is Ross, sir. The laser cannons are no operational. Repeat, no operational."

  "How serious is it, Ross?" John asked.

  Corchoran approached, his worry for once seeming totally justified.

  "I think you should come down here, sir."

  "Stand by."

  John clenched his jaw, thinking.

  "Helm, are we within visual range yet?"

  "Almost, sir."

  "Come around. Bring us back out to the limit of scanner range. Set a parallel course to the cruiser. Communications, maintain radio silence."

  At this distance, radio silence was critical, since any external communications would be detected by the cruiser. John got up from the command chair.

  "Commander, let me know if there's any change."

  "Yes, sir."

  John hurried down to the weapons bay. He'd thought Ross had made a real change. His performance had been outstanding since their talk in Ross's quarters. What could have gone wrong? And now, of all times. John entered the weapons bay, expecting it to be filled with gunners and officers responding to the battle alert he'd called five minutes before. Ross sat alone before the weapons diagnostic system.