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

by The Shadow Within (Cavelos, Jeanne)

  "You shot Dr. Chang out of curiosity."

  Donne glanced toward her.

  "Would you rather I said I shot him out of love?"

  Her eyes narrowed.

  "The egg was quiet for a few minutes, still radiating attraction, and I didn't move. I think in blocking the attraction I had blocked its perception of me. Anyway, it didn't come after me. It started to ripple again, and after a few minutes it seemed to be getting smaller. I didn't realize what was happening until it was almost gone. It had changed shape again and it was oozing down into a crack in the ground.

  "I didn't move for a few minutes after that. I could still sense the attraction of that thing as it moved underground."

  Donne stopped, looking from Anna to Morden, and her voice lowered.

  "There's something else I haven't told you. Since we landed, I've sensed something. Some things. Below the surface. Moving. Watching. I didn't know what they were, except that telepathically, they registered almost as negative presences, almost like holes opening up in my mind. And cold. The sensation has caused me considerable discomfort, though I've been able to partially block it. Down here, though, it's much stronger."

  "You've known this the entire time and didn't tell us?" Anna said.

  "Would it have killed you to share information? You were planning to kill us all anyway. What difference would it have made?"

  Donne's face clenched.

  "I needed to see what they were going to do. I needed to see what their plans were. This technology, and this race, pose the single largest threat that telepaths have ever had to face."

  "And if we all get killed in the meantime, that just makes your job easier."

  "I'd prefer that you destroy them, frankly."

  Anna ran her hands up under her hair, dug her fingers into her scalp.

  "We're archaeologists, for God's sake!"

  She paced off, caught Morden's exhausted gaze, paced back.

  "You sensed the egg underground. Then what?"

  "I wasn't thinking too clearly, but I realized it might be necessary to leave the planet sooner than planned. I wanted those mice, at least, for Psi Corps to study. I knew Morden had hidden them and figured he'd sent the probe off a cliff. From studying the terrain earlier, I had a good idea of where he'd done it. I was right. By then, the storm was so bad I didn't think I could make it around the outcropping to find you. I decided to go through the caves. That's how I found the others. And the rest you know."

  Anna began to walk again.

  "When you say you found the others," Anna said, "you mean you found the egg?"

  "No. They're not in the egg anymore. Quiet. Turn out your light."

  Anna turned off her flashlight and noticed that there was a low level of light in the cave now. Morden was cradling his arm, his boots occasionally scuffing against the polished floor. As they continued around a curve the light increased. Donne motioned them over to the side of the passage and had them crouch. As Anna did, she realized she'd lost her tool belt. It must have come off in the cave-in, and she'd been so shaken up she hadn't noticed. She felt naked without it. Donne led them a few feet forward. A large, lighted opening was ahead. It was not the outdoors; the light was too diffused, the air too still for that. Besides, she could hear a sound echoing in the large space. It took her a moment to identify, because the sound seemed so out of place here, on a planet on the rim, in the depths of the caves of an alien race with a technology thousands of years ahead of theirs. It was the whirring of a drill.

  CHAPTER 16

  "How long cruiser reaches jump gate," John requested from his command chair.

  "Twenty minutes," Lieutenant Commander Ving replied.

  Twenty minutes. The weapons were still off-line, and Corchoran continued to elude security. He did know the ship well. John had considered bluffing the cruiser, saying he would destroy them if they didn't stop, but he didn't think that would deter them. They were ready to make a suicide run on Babylon 5. If they knew the Agamemnon was there, they would probably just make a run for the jump gate. The only other plan John had been able to come up with was to place the Agamemnon directly in front of the jump gate. Again, it most likely wouldn't stop the cruiser. They were already suicidal. They might even think they could win the game of chicken.

  This strategy would stop the cruiser and save Babylon 5, but at the price of his ship and crew. The only thing that seemed to be going right was the weapons crew. Ross had reported that Spano was working harder than Ross had ever seen him, and that even Watley had been inspired to put in some effort. It seemed he'd finally solved his problems with them, though probably too late. Ross had been on standby on his link, and now his voice came through.

  "Laser cannons back on line, Captain."

  John licked his lips.

  "Good work, Ross. Now get someone into that manual targeting system and we'll finish this."

  "Manual targeting, sir?"

  The uncertainty had returned beneath Ross's booming voice.

  "Yes. You know the Homeguard ship has an Earthforce signature. Our targeting computer won't let us fire on it."

  "With everything going on, Captain, I forgot."

  John was acutely aware of time passing.

  "Why don't you let Spano make the shot? You told me his work on the tube has been incredible."

  "I'm the only officer here, sir. The others aren't back from the tube yet."

  John's jaw clenched.

  "Then get in there, Lieutenant. We don't have a minute to waste."

  "Yes, sir," Ross said.

  "Stand by."

  John narrowed his eyes.

  "Helm, I want you to bring us down right in front of that jump gate ahead of the cruiser. Best possible speed. Position the ship broadside, with its starboard side facing the cruiser, so that it will form the most effective blockade to the jump gate."

  If Ross couldn't make the shot, they'd stop the cruiser. One way or another. Of course positioning the ship side-on not only created the most effective barrier, it also put the occupied section of the ship in the most vulnerable position, right in the path of the cruiser. But if that was the only way they could stop the cruiser, so be it. He thought briefly of Anna, longing for the warmth

  and vitality of her presence, the sandpaper caress of her hands. He wondered if she'd gotten his New Year's message yet.

  "I'm in, Captain," Ross said.

  "Fore starboard cannon. I'm okay."

  "Stand by for my order," John said.

  "Communications, open a channel."

  The cruiser was within visual range now, its image filling only a small space at the center of the observation screen as they decelerated into position in front of the jump gate. The familiar dark gray gun-barrel shape of the Earthforce heavy cruiser was silhouetted in the starlight of nearby Carutic. It was a smaller ship than the Agamemnon, without a rotating gravity section, but it still carried significant firepower, as well as a fighter squadron of its own.

  "Unknown Earthforce cruiser, this is the Agamemnon, Captain John Sheridan commanding. You're carrying illegal explosives. Surrender immediately and prepare to be boarded, or we will open fire."

  The communications officer, who looked like she should still be in school to John, turned to him, her eyes huge.

  "No response, Captain."

  "The cruiser is increasing speed," Lieutenant Commander Ving said.

  The ship's image covered about five percent of the screen's surface now. John spoke into his link.

  "Ross, target engines and fire."

  There was no response.

  "Ross."

  John activated his link.

  "Lieutenant Ross."

  No response. Then he heard a voice, distant and hollow, through the link.

  "That's it. You just sit there. Just like you did during the battle simulation."

  It was Corchoran.

  "When the terrorists blow up Babylon 5, John-Sheri-dan-war-hero's record won't get him a commission on a paper
airplane. Then I'll finally get the command I deserve."

  John pointed to the security officer, then to his link. The security officer nodded, rushed off the command deck.

  "They're coming straight at us," Ross said.

  "The captain isn't going to let them pass."

  The cruiser's image was growing faster now, as it accelerated. It filled about ten percent of the screen. The fore fighter bay and guns were etched clearly in the starlight, though he could see no identifying markings on the hull.

  "Sheridan's not going to commit suicide. When he can't reach you, he'll pull out of the way."

  John was communicating with Lieutenant Commander Ving through hand signals. He tapped his wrist, then made his two hands into fists and brought them together. Ving checked the scanners, then raised two fingers.

  * * *

  The passage led onto a stone parapet overlooking a huge chamber beyond. Holding the carrying case with the mice up off the floor, Donne crawled out to the three-foot-high parapet, and behind her Anna followed. Her heart was pounding, her hard breath creating a recurring circle of fog on her breather. Behind her Morden followed in a crouch, his arm tucked against his body. The whirring noise echoed into silence. The chamber stretched far above them, with rows and rows of parapets above and ramps linking the various levels. The ones she could see appeared unoccupied. The stone of the walls was carved into ornate, spiky patterns and covered with runes.

  The great vaulted space and dark, carved surfaces reminded Anna of a cathedral, but this was a cathedral devoted to darkness, not light. Far, far above, she found the sole source of the light: a long, narrow crack in the rock, similar to the one they had seen by the egg. Anna considered the distance they had walked, and the direction, as well as she'd been able to estimate it. The crack could be the one that had been below the egg. Donne was pressed up against the side of the parapet.

  "Look over," she whispered, "and tell me what you see."

  Here, Anna sensed, was the source of Donne's fear. Anna raised her head slowly, Morden beside her doing the same. The light in the chamber had a muddy coloration, and the threadlike, filtered quality she had noticed earlier seemed more pronounced here, as if the lines of reality were fraying apart. The far side of the chamber was shrouded in shadow. Anna estimated it was one hundred feet across. She could make out only one specific feature on the far wall, and it was a column, embedded in the cave wall, yet distinct from it. It was made from the reddish-brown rock of the planet's surface, which meant either that the rock had been brought underground for this purpose, or that a vein of the rock had existed here. The column had the same type of inscription as the pillars above ground, and in fact was similar to those in diameter, yet in better condition in the shelter of the chamber. Anna estimated the distance from the crack to the column. The column actually could be positioned directly below the major pillar. They could be part of a single, massive structure.

  Anna followed the column down to its base in the floor of the chamber, perhaps forty feet below. It was embedded in the black rock of the chamber. The column could continue even farther underground.

  Arranged in orderly rows on the chamber floor were clear tubes, approximately seven feet long, three feet across. Some of the tubes were empty; some had people in them. With a start she recognized Petrovich. The tubes reminded Anna of the cryogenic chambers that used to be necessary for extended space voyages. She looked farther, thinking to identify others from Chang's party, but instead she found Captain Hidalgo. From her mouth escaped a small sob of air. She'd sent him with Razor's group to explore the crack. Farther on, in the row closest to her, was Scott. Tightness closing around her throat, she counted the rows of tubes.

  Fourteen rows, with ten in each row. One hundred forty people on the Icarus. About two-thirds of the tubes were already filled. On the near side of the chamber, below Anna's parapet , the egg sat in muddy light, a smooth, innocuous shape, bloated, waiting. The top of it was only about ten feet below the parapet. Movement below made Anna duck her head back, and Anna's faceplate knocked up against Morden's. His calm was gone now, eyes wide, lips tight with fear, a mirror into her soul. She found his hand, cold and clammy with shock, took it, and they both looked over again. Three aliens of humanoid shape stood beside the egg. Their skin was a bluish gray, and they had ungainly large heads. She couldn't make out their features from above, but as one extended an arm, she saw long, thick grasping fingers. These were not like the creature she had seen in the nodule. A ripple ran through the egg, and with a shift of the thready light, the egg seemed to have been in a slightly different position than she'd previously thought. Occupying the space where the egg had been and now wasn't, lay a human body in a breather and jumpsuit.

  Anna recognized the coarse black ponytail, the comp-pad hanging from his belt: Razor. The aliens seized him immediately.

  "No, I won't!" Razor yelled.

  "No, I won't! No, I won't!" he repeated and repeated, struggling as they pulled him into a room below the parapet, one she couldn't see.

  After a minute or so the scream of the drill echoed out into the chamber, drowned out almost instantly by Razor's scream. Anna's gaze locked onto Scott lying peacefully in the tube, her head tilted slightly to one side as if she were sleeping. Something black shone at her temple against the short white of her hair, something metal-shiny extending from temple to forehead, and from temple to cheek, a metal band down the back of the head fastened to something black nestled in her hair just above the nape of her neck. It was an interface of some kind; something to link the brain-to something else. Razor's scream died. Anna sank down against the parapet. Donne shook her.

  "What are they doing?" she whispered.

  "Explain it."

  At last she fully understood the mystery of the mouse, understood the behavior of this race toward them since they had landed, and the motivation behind it.

  "They use living creatures as part of their biomechanical technology, at the heart of their machines. They're preparing the crew to be wired in," Anna said.

  "They're using us as biological components in their machines."

  As that answer registered on Donne's face, Anna realized that was why Donne had kept her alive: to explain how this race lived, how their technology worked, to clarify the threat.

  "And now that you have your mice and your answers, you'll kill us, right?"

  Donne had already drawn her gun.

  "I'd be happy to kill the largest mass destroyer of telepaths in our history. They'll probably give me a medal."

  Her eyes shifted to Morden.

  "And I've been dying to kill you, you sleazebag. If you'll just go back down the passage."

  "There's no way off this planet."

  Morden's normally smooth voice now carried a slight vibration, probably from shock.

  "The captain is down there, and most of the crew. I've spotted techs from all three of our search parties. They've got almost everyone."

  Anna's link chimed as someone linked in.

  "What is this place?"

  As her head jerked up at the voice, a shape came out of the shadows, a white, waddling snowman shape, thighs brushing together.

  "Churlstein, get down!"

  Anna waved him down with her hand.

  "Stay out of sight. Be quiet."

  Donne had turned her gun on Churlstein.

  "How did you get away?"

  Churlstein crawled onto the parapet, his bulk filling the space. He tried to sit back on his feet, his legs in the suit too restricted to bend.

  "I don't know. I remember climbing onto the egg and yelling to Chang. Then I was sleeping, and I woke up beside the egg. It had been . . . singing to me. I was trying to find my way back to the surface."

  Anna heard movement below and peeked over, Donne and Morden joining her. A bluish-gray alien now stood beside one of the tubes, which held a tech who had been in Anna's group. The alien had opened the tube. It held a round device of some kind in its thick fingers, and i
t was wiring the device to the interface at the base of the tech's skull. Some sort of preparation, Anna thought, or programming.

  "What the hell are you doing?" Donne said.

  Churlstein had his hand on Donne's PPG. She kicked him back, hard, and his helmet banged against the cave wall. Even though Donne had kept her gun, Churlstein had a gun in his other hand, which he now aimed back at them. Anna checked her jumpsuit pocket, found Churlstein had taken the PPG away from her. She wanted to scream. Didn't they understand what was going on right below them?

  "There's no point in shooting me," Churlstein said.

  "I'm just the messenger."

  He took the PPG and, getting up on his knees, stuffed it into his pocket.

  "I just don't want you to hurt yourselves."

  "That's not my plan," Donne said. And then her body convulsed inward as her hands clutched the sides of her helmet. She let out a tight, deep groan. Churlstein climbed to his feet.

  "There's no reason to hide, either. Everyone knows you're here."

  CHAPTER 17

  Ix less than a minute, the image of the cruiser had grown to fill over seventy-five percent of the screen. Only the nose of the ship, with its huge fighter bay, and the belly were visible as it rushed toward the Agamemnon. It looked like a giant gun barrel pointed right down their throats. John had launched fighters, evacuated the outer levels of the ship, ordered pressure doors and blast doors sealed. Things had grown quiet over the link. John seldom thought about dying, but as there was nothing much else he could do in the intervening moments, he thought of Anna, and the pain this would put her through. He wanted, more than anything, to see her one more time and tell her he loved her. The cruiser filled the entire screen now. He could see every gun, transmitter, scanner, and sensor attached to the hull.

  "Spano," Ross yelled over the link, "watch out!"