“I’m here, Captain,” the elderly doctor said, brushing past Sheridan to enter the shuttle. Ivanova was staying very quiet. The doctor came out. “But Captain, she’s a…”
“A Minbari, I know. To be more precise, she’s Satai Delenn of the Grey Council.” Corwin whistled softly. “She may just be our means of ending this whole thing, and even if she isn’t, can you think of a better hostage?”
“Trust you to come out smelling of roses, sir.”
“Smelling of orange blossom, more like.”
“I’m sorry, sir?”
“Nothing. How is she, Doctor?” Delenn’s wound had seemed quite serious at first, but Sheridan had seen the incredible Minbari constitution first-hand. She had remained half-conscious all the time he had been carrying her from the complex to the shuttle, and in the shuttle from the planet to the Babylon she had drifted in and out of consciousness. They had encountered no resistance during their escape, something which worried him quite a bit.
“She’ll recover. It looks worse than it is.”
Sheridan nodded. “Good. I want her alive. She has a hell of a lot of questions to answer.”
“She’s not the only one,” Corwin muttered. “Captain, what exactly happened on Vega Seven? And how did you get out of there so easily? I mean, I don’t want to be disrespectful or anything, but you don’t just leave the Minbari homeworld like it was a corner shop.”
“That’s funny. I was wondering the same thing myself.” Sheridan glanced at Ivanova, who stepped out from behind him.
“I told you. We have friends everywhere, Captain.”
But Sheridan did not hear Ivanova’s response. He only heard Corwin’s reaction. “Susan!”
“You two know each other?” To Sheridan’s surprise, Ivanova sidled up to Corwin and, staring at his still-dumbfounded face, gave him a long and very passionate kiss. “You two do know each other.”
“We used to,” Corwin replied. “I thought you were dead. I mean, I’d hoped from the voice, but then I thought it couldn’t be you. You were dead.”
“I was. I got better.”
Corwin was still staring at her, but then he shook his head and blinked. “I’m sorry, Captain. I was… distracted.”
“I can see that. What word on Lieutenants Keffer, Franklin and Connally?”
“None, sir. I thought they were with you.”
“I don’t know where they are, but I know a Narn who does. Na’Far set me up, and I want to find out why. He mentioned something about the Kha’Ri. If the Narns have started working with the Minbari, then we’re all in trouble. Set course for Vega Seven.” He looked at Ivanova. “Mysteries can wait until later.”
* * * * * * *
Satai Sinoval, Shai Alyt of the holy jihad, Warleader of the Wind Swords clan, member of the Grey Council and soon to be Entil’zha, entered his personal quarters and looked sharply at the person already there.
“The Starkiller has escaped,” he snapped. “He walked out from this very building where you assured me he would be safe. He simply walked out and no one thought to try to stop him. It was as if my guards had been… ordered not to interfere, not even to notice he was there. But that could only have happened if I had ordered it, and I definitely did not do so.”
“I took a few… liberties, Sinoval. Apologies if I caused offence.”
“I suppose you had a good reason.”
“Just call it cashing in one of the many favours you owe me. Actually, I have it on very good authority that Sheridan was seen by someone. A certain… friend of yours. I doubt it is common knowledge yet, but I don’t think Satai Delenn will be bothering you in Council much any more.”
“You’re certain of this? Sheridan killed her?”
“Killed or captured. It really doesn’t matter. If you’re smart, you can blame his escape on her. I knew you’d like it. So tell me, is your gain worth his disappearance?”
“I will not rest until Sheridan and all with him are dead. Blood calls out for blood! For the Dralaphi, for the Emphili and the Dogato, for…”
“Yes, yes. I know. You’ll have your chance with him sooner or later. Be patient, as I have. Besides, now you’ll be able to take the war to the Earthers with little interference from Delenn. I’d like to be there when you do it, of course. Personally, I owe the Earthers too much to stand by while you wipe them out with all those lovely weapons I provided you with. Well, what do you say to that, Entil’zha? Or should that be, Holy One?”
“I say that you have more than earned your sobriquet this day.”
As she smiled, Sinoval thought that Warmaster Jha’dur, last of the Dilgar, had indeed more than earned the name that had caused her to be hated and reviled throughout the galaxy.
Deathwalker.
Chapter 4
“Fellow Satai.” Sinoval bowed his head slowly, wanting to pull down his hood, to hide his face from the empty circle of light which stood across the chamber from him. For so long he had desired this, but now that it was here, that his greatest opponent in the Grey Council was gone, he felt strangely… ashamed.
“Satai Delenn is lost to us.”
“What do you mean, lost?” barked Satai Lennann. Religious caste, and just as new to the Council as Sinoval himself. But Lennann had no clan leadership, no warship of loyal warriors, no great record in the jihad against the Earthers, nothing to support him. He was simply a simpering nonentity fawning after Delenn. “What’s happened to her?”
“The Starkiller has escaped. He had… assistance from somewhere. During his… escape, he encountered Satai Delenn and took her with him. As a hostage, I presume. I shudder to imagine that she went with him willingly.”
“What are you saying?” shouted Lennann. “Are you accusing…?”
“I am accusing no one and I am saying nothing,” Sinoval replied through gritted teeth. He hated doing this, hated casting doubt – however indirect – upon a fellow member of this Council, but it had to be done. Sheridan had had help in his escape, but that help had not come from Delenn. And yet if Delenn were not blamed, then investigation might alight upon Sinoval himself, and upon the creature he protected.
Still, as he looked at Lennann, he felt a surge of anger. Delenn was at least worthy of respect. Lennann was not. Did Delenn really have no better supporters than this? Sheridan’s attack upon this very ship shortly after the destruction of Earth had killed two of her greatest supporters, but was Lennann really the only one to speak up for her?
No, he was not. “She will have to be found and rescued,” Hedronn said, as brusque and to the point as ever. Sinoval admired the man. “She is one of the Nine. She will be found.”
“Sheridan has left the planet. Our sensor probes detected a human shuttle leaving the atmosphere. For some reason, they did not alert us to this fact until many hours later. He has undoubtedly met up with his ship.”
“Then… they are lost to us?” breathed Lennann, his voice filled with an anguish Sinoval himself shared. To have Sheridan – the Starkiller – in his grasp… only to lose him again. And to have one of the Nine fall before him. Sinoval did not like Delenn, but she was of the Nine, as was he.
And all of this thanks to the machinations of a creature he should have killed the moment he laid eyes on her. Instead he had become intrigued, and listened and learned…
And fallen. Not for nothing did they call her Deathwalker.
“No,” Sinoval said. Blood calls out for blood. The blood of those slain on the Dralaphi, on the Emphili, the blood of two Satai, even the blood of Delenn. It all called out for blood – Sheridan’s blood. “Sheridan is an Earther and Earthers are a predictable people. He will return to the site of his earlier capture, to find his missing crewmen, and to discover why he was betrayed there. He will be returning to Vega Seven.”
“Then I doubt he will return from there,” Hedronn said, and Sinoval started. He had not expected such a reaction from the staid, determined worker. “Vega Seven is touched by a force far greater than our own. Our prob
es have detected something… moving there. Something ancient and dark. Something that seeks to fly again.”
Sinoval’s face went white.
* * * * * * *
“How is she?” Sheridan asked Dr. Kyle. A simple enough question, really, innocuous and casual, the sort of thing he might use when asking about the health of a friend, or a relative, his wife Anna, or even… perhaps… in a past year, his daughter Elizabeth.
Except that this was not Anna, and Elizabeth was two years dead. Nor was this a relative, and definitely not a friend.
Satai Delenn’s breathing was harsh and ragged, but the movements of her chest seemed to be returning to a steady rhythm. He still did not know what had brought the Minbari down. He had caught only the faintest glimpse of movement and a soft scream. Ivanova had tried to pass it off, but he knew better.
“She’s fine. Minbari have a remarkable constitution. She will be on her feet in a few hours, I suppose. A stomach wound is painful, but if caught early enough, it can be fixed.”
“Good, she has one hell of a lot of questions to answer.” And she isn’t the only one. “Keep me informed.”
Sheridan left the small Medlab facilities aboard the Babylon in a conflict of emotions. What was going on? He could have attacked Delenn, maybe killed her, so why hadn’t he? He’d told her it was because he didn’t like doing the expected, but was that the whole truth? Why did she smell so tantalisingly of orange blossom, and who was the woman who’d rescued him?
Start at the end and work your way backwards. Not exactly Sherlock Holmes, but at least he had a place to start.
He found Commander David Corwin precisely where he’d expected to find him, in his ready room, just off the bridge, poring over star maps and technical data.
“What news on repairs?” Sheridan asked. “Did you get them all done before…?”
“Mostly, sir. Hull integrity is back up to over eighty per cent. Communications, navigation and rotation are all back on line, as are our jump engines, although they’re still a bit unstable. They’ll need a thorough overhaul when we get into Proxima. We can’t repair the hull around the observation dome, and external cameras, aft batteries and Starfury drop port C are all still inoperable, sir.”
“Not good, but it could be worse.”
“Um, sir… it probably is. General Hague told me in no uncertain terms to… um… leave you and the others behind, sir.”
“So you said, screw him.”
“Basically, yes.”
“That was an incredibly stupid and irresponsible thing to do, Mr. Corwin. However, I can’t thank you enough. Just don’t do it again.”
Corwin smiled. “No, sir.”
Not for the first time, Sheridan was struck by how young his commander and executive officer was. Too young to fight back on Earth, he’d been one of hundreds of thousands of refugees who’d escaped from the Battle of Mars just after the Line, where Sheridan had launched his berserk attack on the Grey Council. The difference was that none of the other refugees had made their way up to the bridge and taken over the helm when the lieutenant manning it had been killed. Sheridan had appointed Corwin second lieutenant on the spot, and ever since Corwin had risen almost as fast as Sheridan himself. One of many attached to his coat tails. One of many who would probably die a lonely, pointless death on an alien world.
“I do have another question, David. A more… personal one. How do you know Miss Ivanova?”
“Susan? She was in Earthforce, sir. She joined back on Earth and was away on a training run at Ganymede when the Minbari took Earth. Somehow she made her way to Proxima Three and managed to get attached to General Franklin’s personal staff. I met her there when the Babylon was being refitted and redesigned a few years ago. The Resistance Government insisted I be posted somewhere they could keep an eye on me. I don’t think they trusted me then, and they certainly won’t after this.”
“I’ll deal with that.”
“Thank you, sir. Anyway, I met Susan and… well… things got… um…”
“I’m a married man, David. I understand.”
“Thank you, sir.” Corwin was blushing. “Then I was posted back here, and Susan was sent out on secret missions for General Hague. They called it the Babylon Project – after this ship. I don’t know what she was doing exactly, but we kept in touch and met up whenever we could, but… well… she was on some sort of secret mission out on the Rim. We heard a report that her shuttle had crashed and that everyone on board had died. I was… quite… upset about it, sir.”
“Yes, I remember. God, why didn’t I see anything back then? Why did I never notice her… or you?”
“I think we were all a little mad back then, sir. Madness takes a while to heal.”
“Sometimes it never heals, Mr. Corwin.” Sheridan rose and left the room. He was tired and he still had more questions than answers. He wanted some sleep before he arrived at Vega 7. Sleep and some answers. And his daughter…
It wasn’t his daughter waiting for him when he opened the door. “How? How did you get in here?”
Susan smiled. “Just a knack.” She was lying on his bed. Absolutely naked. “Are you coming in or not?” Sheridan could only stand in his doorway and stare, Anna almost superimposing herself on the sight before him. He caught the faintest hint of orange blossom.
He closed his eyes, and silently wept.
Then he took a step forward and the door closed behind him.
* * * * * * *
“Come on, Warren, hang in there.”
“Hurts… Doc…”
“Damn! I wish I… I wish I could remember what to do. I only stopped being a doctor a few years ago. Warren!”
“How much can we do for him, Stephen? You can see that wound.”
“I won’t let him die, Neeoma.”
“You might have to.”
“Any word from the Babylon yet?”
“No.”
“Come on, Warren. Don’t you die on me. Don’t you dare!”
* * * * * * *
“Who are you?”
Susan smiled. “That’s a very philosophical question. Since when did you become a Vorlon?”
Sheridan was pacing slowly up and down his room while Susan was lying casually on the bed, smiling, looking more at home here than he did. And why not? He was hardly ever here. When he was on the Babylon, he was always either on the bridge, or in the ready room, or flying a Starfury. Susan looked so at home in his bed. That’s Anna’s place. She belongs there.
“You know what I mean. Why? I mean… I don’t understand any of this.”
“You didn’t need to understand anything half an hour ago.”
“I do now.”
“Ah. You’ve been talking to David, I gather. A nice boy, and what we had together was fun, but that’s all it was – fun. I always knew he’d go far. A commander, eh? Well, well, well. Still… I’m changed now. I’ve been different ever since I arrived on Z’ha’dum.”
“Z’ha’dum? The base of operations of your… friends. What are they? Aliens? Humans? I saw a bit of what hit Delenn, and that was nothing I’d ever seen before.”
“They’re aliens. And I wouldn’t advise trying to pronounce their name, unless you can speak Welsh of course. It’s ten thousand letters long.” She paused, and drew in a deep breath. “I’m not sure how to explain this to you. They’re old, very old, and they’re powerful, but… all they want to do is live in peace. The planet my shuttle crashed on to – Z’ha’dum – it’s their homeworld, and a very holy place for them. They worship something there – I don’t know what.
“Anyway, my friends… they have a long-standing grudge with the Minbari. All my friends want to do is live in peace, but the Minbari won’t let them. I don’t know why, but I guess the Vorlons have something to do with it. A thousand years ago, my friends tried to return to Z’ha’dum after having been driven away. The Minbari objected, and went so far as to attack Z’ha’dum, with the help of the Vorlons and a few other long-dead races. My
friends were forced to flee, but they left a few behind, hidden from the Minbari. I sort of… attracted their attention when I crashed on their heads. They’re very friendly actually. Or, well, they were once I’d explained the situation. They want to return to Z’ha’dum and live there, but there’s the Minbari and the Vorlons to consider. So, they’re offering help to us because they know what we’re going through. They don’t want to have to destroy the Minbari, but they’ll do it because all they want to do is live alone, in peace, on their world. Is that so much to ask?”
“The Minbari are one thing,” Sheridan said. “What about the Vorlons? If your… friends get involved, then we might get the Vorlons annoyed with us. I do not want that to happen. It would make the Line look like a church social.”
“Exactly. Which is why my friends can’t lend their support openly. They’re having to move slowly, but they’ll do what they can to help.”
“Thank you.”
“I thought you’d be pleased. These are the first decent allies we’ve had since this whole thing started. So what if they can’t come out in the open? They’re willing to help us, Captain. Maybe even help us get revenge. We can’t get Earth back, and you can’t get your daughter back, but we can still make those monsters that did it to us pay!”
Something suddenly clicked in Sheridan’s mind and he turned to Ivanova. “What did you want? If they asked you the same question that you asked me, then what did you want?”
Ivanova smiled.
His link beeped. Cursing silently, he went to his desk and picked it up. “Yes?”
“We’ve reached Vega Seven, sir. We’re out of hyperspace. The jump engines are down, though, I’m afraid. Again. Our repairs weren’t complete, and it’ll take a while to get them back on line again, so we can get to Proxima. But ah… that isn’t the worst of it.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve scanned the planet, sir. Out of a total population of over four hundred thousand Narns and humans, we have a grand total of five life-signs.”
“Five?”
“I think you’ll find it’s more than four and less then six,” Ivanova interjected, and then shrugged when Sheridan glared at her.
The Other Half of my Soul addm-1 Page 4