She needs you.
Lyta needed no clarification as to who the ‘she’ was. For months now she had been feeling a connection to Satai Delenn – ever since she had first mind-scanned her. Something profound had passed between the two of them – two somethings in fact. The first was a sense of understanding and connection. The second was Kosh.
Lyta had been sensing a general fear of doom all day. She had not seen Marcus in five days, although her thoughts had rarely been away from him. She had dreamed dark dreams of Proxima being engulfed by a black cloud, and of Susan Ivanova standing watching as it happened. She had been irritated and afraid and cranky all day.
And now this.
Immediately, she had tried to link someone on board the Babylon – she had recoiled slightly at the thought of contacting Captain Sheridan, and so had tried Commander Corwin. He had listened politely, but had replied that Delenn was being guarded by two of the Babylon’s best Security personnel with orders to let absolutely no one in until the Captain returned. It wasn’t that he didn’t take her seriously, just that he was very busy. Where Captain Sheridan was, she had no idea, and she didn’t exactly care.
That left Chief Security Officer Allan, who had also listened politely and had told her he would look into the matter.
That should have satisfied her. The Babylon was, after all, their domain, not hers. She had only even been there once before, after all. But still… Kosh’s presence was still lingering at the forefront of her mind, and so she made for the shuttle bays.
As it had been for Susan, getting a shuttle up to the Babylon was simple. Lyta’s rank might not have been as high as Susan’s, but she was able to feign a request from Commander Corwin to arrive at the spaceship. She had been met by Mr. Allan at the docking bays. He had tried to tell her that everything was fine, and that he had checked out the area, and that no one had gone in or out of the room in a while.
She might have believed him, but then Kosh’s voice screamed at her.
Touched!
Theoretically it was possible for a telepath literally to change someone’s mind. Lyta had seen this done on a few occasions – during her internship with the Psi Cops. Altering a person’s opinions, beliefs and even memories was a favourite trick of the Psi Cops, but it had never been something she had dared to do for herself. She had made small attempts in this field, but only rarely and usually to get something she wanted – such as past the security guards to go and see Marcus – but she knew this was important, and, acting on fear and concern, she had changed Zack’s mind.
“Yes, of course,” he said. “I’d be happy to.”
And he had taken her towards Delenn’s quarters. Lyta should not have been able to do this – Zack’s normal psyche should have returned after a few minutes at most – but he had kept up with her, as her heart beat faster and faster with each moment. She could feel Delenn’s fear, but there was something else in Delenn’s mind. She was not exactly sure what was happening to Delenn, but she could feel her pain.
Her first sight upon arriving at Delenn’s quarters was the two dead guards outside the door. Both were covered in blood – one had had his chest smashed open, and the other had been ripped apart. Zack had merely stared, but Lyta had started, losing her telepathic control over him. She didn’t care. She saw the blood, and she saw the bodies and she could see the taint of Shadows.
She darted into the room, and saw the whole grim tableau in one scene. Delenn cowering, Susan standing, and… two creatures from her worst nightmare. Susan started and staggered back, panic verging on terror in her expression. The… things (the things that were causing Kosh’s voice to scream in her mind) also turned and backed away. Delenn looked up slowly.
Susan sprang forward with her pike, lunging at Lyta, who ducked out of the way. Lyta, acting on instinct – or perhaps the Vorlon was doing all the acting for her – lashed out with a burst of telepathic pain. Susan screamed, far greater and far louder than would have been expected from such a short burst, and staggered out of the way, pushing past Lyta and scrambling from the room. Lyta looked round for the two creatures, but they had just vanished, as if they had never been. Reaching out tentatively with her mind, she recoiled as she felt the touch of something so… ancient and alien and awesomely powerful that she felt sick and weak and she had to fall to her knees.
The feeling passed, and she crawled forward to Delenn, who was still lying on the floor, cowering. She tried to turn Delenn’s head, and was met by the full force of her brilliant green eyes.
Eyes which seemed dulled and empty.
“Who… are you?” Delenn whispered. “Who… am… I?”
Lyta said nothing, unable to think of anything to say. She cradled Delenn’s head in her lap and called for Zack. The Security Chief hobbled into the room, looking pale-faced and queasy.
“What…?” he tried to say. “What?”
“Find her,” Lyta snapped, giving orders as naturally as if she’d been born to it. “Don’t let her get away.”
Zack snapped, almost unconsciously, to attention. “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Er… should I call for Dr. Kyle as well?”
A doctor? Lyta looked at Delenn. Yes, of course she would need a doctor. “Yes, and you’d better get Commander Corwin or… Captain Sheridan down here as well.”
“That won’t be necessary,” said a voice she recognised. Looking up, she saw Corwin enter, flanked by two security guards. “They were told to report in every half an hour. When they didn’t, I came to investigate. What happened here?”
“She’s dying,” Lyta snapped. “Get a doctor.”
Corwin looked at her and then down at Delenn. He activated his link. “Dr. Kyle, get a med-team to room ninety-nine, block beta, level thirty-five, ASAP. Mr. Allan, I believe you have some work to do.”
Zack snapped to attention again. “Yes, sir.” He glanced at Lyta and left, taking the other two security guards with him.
“Do you want to tell me what happened here?” Corwin asked Lyta. “Or should I just piece everything together myself?”
She looked up. “I… I don’t know exactly what happened.”
“It appears your suspicions were right. Tell me, what exactly made you suspicious?”
“A… feeling. It’s hard to explain. I just knew.”
“Trust me to expect simple answers from a telepath,” he muttered. “What about… her?” He looked at Delenn, and his eyes widened. Lyta discreetly moved to the bed – slanted as per Minbari style – and grabbed a blanket – as per human style – which she draped over Delenn. Delenn stirred a little, but still said nothing. “God’s name, what happened to her?”
“I don’t… I can’t explain it, because I don’t really know myself.”
“Funny. That’s usually my job. I don’t suppose your feelings tell you where the Captain is?”
“No, and I don’t particularly care.”
“Well, I do. I haven’t seen him since yesterday. I don’t like this. I really do not like this.”
* * * * * * *
The Captain was currently sleeping. A quiet, peaceful, dreamless sleep for the first time in years.
No staying up late drinking ersatz coffee staring into the darkness around him. No reliving the sight of Earth as he had last seen it. No endless nightmares about the Minbari coming for him and him being unable to stop them. No billions of voices screaming his name.
Nothing but the quiet, peaceful dreamless sleep of those who have finally found happiness.
Anna looked at the sleeping form of her husband and smiled slowly. She reached down to touch his hair. He muttered something in his sleep and rolled over. She rose from the bed and looked at him, still smiling.
She had been watching him for several hours now. She hadn’t been able to sleep very well – years of drinking herself into a stupor every night had made it difficult for her to sleep without drinking and she was determined not to go back to that. Sometimes she found herself yearning for another drink, but now she didn’
t need one.
For over two years – since their daughter Elizabeth had been killed in the Minbari attack on Orion 7 – Anna and John Sheridan had both been living in a twilight, shadow world. She had crawled into a bottle, and he had crawled on to the bridge of the Babylon. Neither had left their chosen refuge in all that time, certainly not mentally, even on the rare occasions they had done so physically.
And last night, they had finally come together again.
Anna had been watching her husband sleep for some time. She had done this sometimes during their marriage when she couldn’t sleep. They were frequently apart, but they always made up for it when they were together. She had always seen John’s constant anger and worry and fears fade as he slept. When he did sleep, he was the same fresh-faced, enthusiastic man he had been when Liz had introduced the two of them over ten years ago.
She remembered all the times in his father’s garden, when they had sat and looked around and just… been together. The smell of orange blossom had been so beautiful then. She had taken to sprinkling it around this room – partly to hide the smell of her Narn liquor, but also in memory of that time. One of her greatest sorrows was that she would never be able to take Elizabeth to that garden. Both Elizabeth and the garden were gone now. Gone forever, except in memories… and dreams.
Anna looked at John’s link, lying on the side where he had placed it. All too often they had been interrupted by business before, but they would not be now.
She had deactivated it as he slept.
Whatever turmoils gripped the outside world would not touch their brief moment of happiness. For now at least, John and Anna Sheridan were together again, and that was what mattered.
The outside world would just have to get by without them both for a while.
* * * * * * *
“This had better be important,” Lord Refa was muttering to himself as he waited in the Conference Hall. The other members of the Resistance Government – except President Crane, who was still ill – were gathered there. Refa looked around at his companions in this unexpected late night soirée.
Vice President Clark was bleary-eyed, and looked as though he had just got out of bed. He yawned frequently and blinked a lot. He was also talking to anyone who would listen, which was no one.
General Takashima was engaging Clark’s interest a little with an occasional remark. The two seemed to be discussing Lieutenant – or perhaps Ambassador – Ivanova, about whom Refa had heard a lot, but whom he had not yet met. She sounded interesting, and he wondered just how much Sinoval would want whatever information he picked up about her. Their conversation was quiet however, and he could not hear much, and so he switched his attentions elsewhere.
Mr. Welles did not look tired. He did not look, in fact, as if he had ever been asleep. He was watching, interested and perhaps even intrigued. Refa recognised the type of man he was from a number of his contemporaries, who all possessed the same outward calm and silence. Others underestimated such people. Refa did not. Welles would need watching.
General Hague was, however, easy to dismiss. He looked haunted, his face gaunt. He clearly had not been asleep either, but unlike Mr. Welles, his fatigue showed clearly. Hague was on the verge of falling, and whether he fell to his death or started flying was of no concern to Refa.
Being rousted out of bed at this hour of the night was, however. Refa had been on this wasteland for five days now, and he had picked up the barest word about Satai Delenn – the real reason he was here. Sinoval and the rest of the Grey Council wanted confirmation of her status here. Such information could be doctored fairly easily for Sinoval’s – and Refa’s own – benefit, but first of all he needed information to doctor, and all he had found so far was that there was a Minbari aboard Captain Sheridan’s ship – the Babylon. That was not nearly enough.
And to top it all off, Vir had gone missing. Confounded moron! He was never around when he was needed. When Refa returned in glory to Centauri Prime and sat upon the Imperial Throne he would have much better servants than Vir Cotto – and that was a fact.
The door to the hall opened and he looked up as a human woman entered. She was dishevelled and limping slightly, but he could easily see the power and authority in her bearing. He supposed she would be considered quite beautiful, but his unfortunate experience with his own wife – who had many unpleasant characteristics, but her looks were not one of them – had biassed him against beautiful women. They couldn’t be trusted. That applied to ugly women as well, for that matter.
“Ambassador Ivanova,” said Clark. “What has happened? It was you who asked us all to gather here?”
“Yes, Vice President,” she panted. “I’m sorry if this inconvenienced anyone, but this is important.” She paused, breathing in harshly. “Satai Delenn has… she has…” She was still breathing deeply, but she now had Refa’s full attention. Satai Delenn? He caught more than one glance in his direction and he knew this was information the others did not want him to have.
“She’s… I don’t know how to say it. Here. I took these pictures. Maybe these will prove it.” She laid a small object down on the table and activated it. Refa recognised a primitive form of recording and playing holographic equipment. An essential part, of course, of any politician’s arsenal.
Even he started at the image that appeared before them. Two humans lying dead. There was blood everywhere. Neither killing looked particularly clean. Refa, a master in the art of political assassination, was surprised at the unsubtlety of these deaths. Unless, perhaps, that was the point.
“Satai Delenn did this,” Ivanova said. “These were the people who had to guard her.”
“Where is Delenn now?” Clark asked.
“And how did you get hold of this?” Takashima added.
“I assume that Delenn is on board the Babylon. I don’t think she did this to escape.”
“Then why?” asked Clark.
“For this.” Ivanova fiddled with the device again and changed the image. It was of a woman who appeared to be half Minbari and half human. Refa was fascinated. He didn’t think the mix was possible, but then he realised something else.
What would Sinoval say about this?
“She took their DNA,” Ivanova said. “She’s been trying to turn herself into a human. Why, I don’t know, but I think it’s been harder than she thought. She killed the two guards, took their DNA and managed to adapt it to her own, or something.”
“If Minbari could turn themselves into humans,” Hague said. “think of what they could do. Do they have this level of technology?” He was appalled, and more than a little terrified.
“Obviously they do,” Clark said. “And she is still on the Babylon?”
“I think so.”
“May I ask how you uncovered this?” Welles said, speaking up suddenly.
“I… went up to the Babylon to consult on a few matters with Captain Sheridan,” she said. “He was not on the bridge, and so I thought he might be with Satai Delenn. He has been spending a lot of time with her recently. I went to her cell and found what I have just shown you.”
“And did you find Captain Sheridan?”
“No.”
“What about Commander Corwin?”
“Him neither.”
“This raises some very disturbing questions,” Clark muttered. “How much do Captain Sheridan and his second know about this, and where are they? Mr. Welles, bring them both here so that we can discuss this with them. And send some men up to the Babylon. Liaise with their Head of Security and find out as much as you can about this. A breach of security of this magnitude at such a critical time is very bad. If this were due to simple incompetence it would be bad enough. I dare not contemplate the other possible reason. Are you clear on this, Welles?”
“Absolutely, Vice President.”
“Sir?” spoke up Takashima. “Shall we tell the President?”
“That will not be necessary, General. She is too ill to be bothered with matters such as this.�
�
Refa looked at those gathered around him. He supposed it must be Lieutenant Ivanova who had sent him the message asking him to attend this meeting, but why? As he looked at her, she noticed his gaze and looked back. He smiled slightly.
There was no doubt about it. She was good. Very good. Not as good as a Centauri, but then she was only human, after all.
* * * * * * *
“So, doctor, what can you tell me?”
Dr. Kyle looked back at the slumbering form on the bed in Medlab. “I don’t know what I can tell you, Commander,” he said slowly. “Her DNA is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. A mixture of human and Minbari. It isn’t co-existing very well.”
“She wasn’t finished,” Lyta whispered from her place at Delenn’s side.
“What?” Corwin asked. “What do you know about it?”
“I don’t know. I just keep picking up stray thoughts from her. The word chrysalis, and a sense of… incompletion. Whatever she was doing, she wasn’t finished doing it.”
“Yes, what did you get from that piece of the… chrysalis thing we brought you?”
“Nothing, I am afraid, Commander.”
“Nothing?”
“It disintegrated before I had a chance to study it. It just melted away.”
“Oh great! Why did I get up this morning? For that matter why didn’t I become a dustman like my mother wanted?”
“Commander,” Kyle said, and Corwin fell silent. There was something about Dr. Kyle that made him resemble a primary school teacher. Corwin felt the urge to mutter ’Sorry, sir,’ and do a hundred lines. “Back to Delenn, I can offer no explanation as to what is happening to her. Her DNA seems stable at the moment, but her body chemistry is still very out of synch. She could collapse into a coma, or respiratory failure, or heart failure at any moment.”
“Oh, wonderful. And her… mental state?”
“A child,” Kyle said. “At the moment, anyway. She’s said nothing since she was brought here. Her brain readings are… well, strange, to say the least. I don’t know if this is permanent, temporary, natural or what. She defies analysis, Commander.”
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