It wasn't there. The back of her wrist was empty, bare.
And the strength in her legs hadn't been enough to do more than send Miyoshi stumbling into the wall. The lieutenant was still on her feet, and she quickly regained her balance, spun around to turn on Ivanova, saw her still on her back on the floor, groping for her link. The smile returned. Miyoshi slowly reached into another coverall pocket, came out with another object that she held up, out of Ivanova's reach. The link.
"Looking for this?"
The missing link, and Ivanova would have broken out into laughter if she weren't so sure Miyoshi meant to kill her. But now Miyoshi frowned and put the link back away, and with a wary eye on Ivanova she bent down to pick up the cylinder from the floor where she'd dropped it as she lost her balance. An injector, Ivanova recognized it now, and she wouldn't want to take bets that it wasn't loaded with some kind of poison.
There was going to be another murder on Babylon 5, another unsolved killing, because of course Miyoshi wasn't still on the station, Miyoshi had been shipped back to Earth with her boss, so who could have done it? Sheridan would be furious, Ivanova thought with irrelevant clarity. He was sick and tired of murders.
But Miyoshi's frown deepened while she fiddled with the tube, and finally she threw it back down on the floor with an expression of disgust. "Now, that's a nuisance! It's broken."
Still carefully watching Ivanova, she picked up a shock stick where it was propped up next to a washstand. "You know," she said in a too-casual tone, "these things are supposed to be nonlethal. But you've worked in security some, I'll bet you know better. It takes some work, but you can do the job with this if you have to. And now it looks like you've left me no choice. Too bad you weren't carrying a weapon, you know. I could have used it."
She firmly twisted the shock stick's handle until it was turned to the highest setting. Ivanova knew with the certainty of desperation that she was only going to have one more chance. She wished she weren't still lying here on her back.
Miyoshi approached with the shock stick held like a sword. Ivanova braced herself, knowing Miyoshi was watching for her reaction. They were both combat trained, and they watched each other like a pair of fencers, each looking for an opening, for a feint. One touch with the stick and Ivanova would be helpless again. She pivoted to keep Miyoshi in front of her. She was at a disadvantage in this position, but she knew at least that she was recovering quickly, that every minute she was regaining her strength and coordination.
But Miyoshi clearly knew it, too. She lunged forward, and Ivanova countered with a twist to the right, to get to her feet. But she was too slow, her muscles hadn't still quite recovered their quickness, and the stick jabbed her hip, the shock instantaneous, the nerves overloading all at once, seeming to explode . . .
Garibaldi heard the call come in over his link and the security channel simultaneously. "Security! Mr. Garibaldi! It's Commander Ivanova! She's in terrible trouble! You have to find her!"
"Call an alert!" he ordered. Then, recognizing the voice, "Talia? What's going on?"
"I don't know! I just know she's in danger! Please! Hurry! Find her before it's too late!"
"Get me a trace on her link," Garibaldi ordered again. "Contact the captain. Let him know what's going on."
The computer voice broke in, "Commander Ivanova traced to Alpha Wing ready room."
"That's" He didn't complete the statement out loud. That's where J. D. Ortega had been killed. "Tac Squad B, with me! All available security to the Alpha Wing ready room. Hurry!"
Garibaldi burst into the ready room at the head of his squad, but he wasn't the first on the scene. An officer pointed to the door to the head. "They're in there."
He hurried to the door. There was the unmistakable lingering scent of a recent plasma discharge. Three security officers knelt on the floor where there were two unconscious forms. Ivanova
He started forward in alarm, but the closest security man looked up and said, "She's alive, Mr. Garibaldi, just stunned. We've already called Medlab."
Another stood up, holding a shock stick. "She was using this on the commander. I ordered her to drop the stick and put up her hands. She turned on us."
From the floor the officer bending over the other inert figure straightened. "She's dead."
Garibaldi stepped closer to see who it was. "Miyoshi!" he exclaimed in shocked astonishment. " Lieutenant Miyoshi!"
The security agent who'd shot her seemed slightly uncertain of himself. "She was attacking Commander Ivanova, Chief. She didn't drop her weapon when I ordered her to."
"Good job," Garibaldi assured him. "You can put it all in your report."
He looked at Ivanova, who seemed to be having some kind of slight spasm. "Where's Medical, dammit!"
But just then the medical team rushed into the room, Dr. Franklin at their head. "Ivanova's hurt?"
"Shock stick," Garibaldi said tersely, standing back out of the medics' way with the rest of security, their job finished for the moment.
"This one's dead," the other medic reported from Miyoshi's side. "Plasma burst. Hit point-blank."
Franklin was applying an injector to Ivanova. "She's coming around," he announced. "Commander? Commander Ivanova? Can you hear me? Can you say something?"
Now Garibaldi edged closer again. Ivanova was stirring. Her lips moved. He made out, "Mi ... yo ... shi . . ."
"It's all right," he assured her. "Miyoshi's taken care of. You're all right now. You're safe."
"Ga ... ri ..."
"That's right, it's me. She got you with a shock stick, but you're going to be just fine, isn't she, Doc?"
But Franklin wasn't about to let the security department make the diagnosis for him. He pulled back Ivanova's eyelid and aimed an instrument into one eye, then the other. "Mmh," he said finally, "looks all right. But we'll just go up to Medlab for a neurological scan, just to make sure."
But Ivanova blinked, tried to lift her head. "No! Wait! Miyoshi. Data. Crystal."
"Miyoshi has a data crystal?" Garibaldi asked.
"Ortega. I. Found. It."
Now Garibaldi understood. "Don't worry. I'll find it. Here, wait a minute, don't move that body."
He knelt down, started to go through the pockets of her coveralls. They were maintenance department issue, he noticed. And the makeup on her face made her look almost twice her real age. He hoped he wouldn't have to make a body check. He hated that, when people swallowed data crystals and you had to get them back the hard way. But then maybe he could just leave that up to Franklin.
Nope, no need. The crystal was there in an inside pocket, and he slipped it into a pocket of his own, then hurried after the team of medics who had taken Ivanova to Medlab, to give her the news that he'd found it.
She was sitting up by the time he arrived, recovering quickly with Franklin's treatment. Captain Sheridan was there questioning her, but when she saw Garibaldi come in she almost tried to jump to her feet before the medic could restrain her. "Did you find it? Do you have it?"
"I've got it right here," he assured her. "Do you know what it is?"
"No. It's not like anything I've ever seen. I have to think it might be alien, even."
"Hmm." Garibaldi looked speculative, taking the crystal out of his pocket and turning it around in his fingers, as if he could see into the data matrix.
"Can I see it?" Sheridan asked, and Garibaldi gave it to him.
Suddenly Talia came hurrying into the treatment room, slightly out of breath. "They said you found her! They said Susan, are you all right?"
Ivanova's head jerked back as if she'd been slapped. "I ... I'm fine, quite fine," she said rapidly, but Garibaldi could see her face color with confusion. And at the same time Talia's face went pale.
Garibaldi took her aside, asked in a low voice, "I wanted to ask you, when you called in, just how did you know that Ivanova was in trouble?"
Talia stammered, "I don't know, I ... She had just finished consulting me on a ... confidential m
atter. I suppose the connection . . . there must have still been a connection. After we were . . . that close. I don't know, but I knew she needed help."
Garibaldi stared in disbelief at Ivanova. "She went to you? As a telepath?"
"I believe she was desperate," Talia said, flipping her hair back. Her tone was more detached now.
Ivanova had heard. "Yes, I did consult Ms. Winters in her professional capacity. I felt it was necessary ... to recall the significance of Ortega's note." She hesitated visibly. "I'm grateful for Ms. Winters calling in for help when she did."
"I'm glad you weren't seriously hurt," Talia replied, her voice even more clipped and cool than Ivanova's. "But I can see there are already too many people in here."
She spun sharply around and left the room, while Sheridan questioned Garibaldi with an unspoken Do you have any idea what this is all about? and Garibaldi shaking his head that he didn't. Neither of them had dared interfere between the two women, and Ivanova's expression didn't encourage any questions now.
"The crystal," she insisted, "we have to see what's on it."
Sheridan looked down at it, still in his hand. "So this is what everyone was dying for," he said quietly. "I wonder what could possibly be worth it."
He popped the crystal into the nearest computer console, saw the pattern come up onto the screen, and shook his head. "Now, what's that?"
To the computer, "Analysis."
"Analysis underway," it replied.
"Hey!" said Ivanova, "that's my crystal! I get to see it!" Garibaldi helped her onto her feet.
Franklin, always curious about new technology, came to watch the screen with them as the analysis progressed. "What that looks like to me," he said slowly, "is an atomic diagram. Of one hell of a big atom!"
A few moments later, the computer agreed with him. "Most probable analysis: the information represents a schematic of an isotope of an unknown metallic element. Analysis suggests an element of Group VI b, atomic number of 156, with anomalous electron shielding and the presence of an unknown subatomic particle"
"That can't be right!" Franklin exclaimed. "There is no element 156! And, if there were, it'd be so radioactive it'd have a half-life measured in nanoseconds. It'd be too unstable to exist! And, see therethe atomic weight is twice what it should be for an isotope of an element in that range."
"Most probable analysis," the computer replied, "the element is artificial, not capable of existing in nature. This appears to be the result of the presence of an anomalous subatomic particle, an unknown nucleon, stabilizing the nucleus."
"An unknown subatomic particle? A new, artificial element?" Sheridan said in wonder. "This can't be anything produced by human technology."
The computer agreed. What they had was the schematic for an utterly unknown metal, produced artificially by a technology that had to be alien.
"But what's it good for?" Garibaldi asked, almost suspiciously. "Why is everyone murdering people left and right to get their hands on this?"
"Estimated analysis yields a probable melting point: 6,180 degrees; boiling point: 11,500 degrees; conductivity index: 0.42"
"It's a supermorbidium!" Ivanova exclaimed. "No natural metal can withstand that kind of heat! I'll just bet I know what it's good forthe phase coils of plasma weapons!"
Everyone in the room stared at the display in silence. "This would revolutionize weapons technology," Sheridan finally said in a low voice. "The strategic advantage could be enormous." He was recalling the admiral's words: Vital importance to Earth's defenses.
"The sort of information governments would kill for," Garibaldi added.
"And it would make morbidium obsolete for strategic purposes," Ivanova said slowly. "And if morbidium were your primary source of revenue ..."
"You'd kill to keep the information from getting out," Garibaldi completed the thought.
But Ivanova wasn't so sure. "Maybe. Or maybe you'd try to get in on the ground floor with the new technology. But for that, you'd need capital. And the minute word got out about this new metal, the price of your stock would fall . . . you'd want to sell out before that happened . . . snatch whatever profits you could ..." She shook her head. Economics wasn't a clear-cut science, like astrogation or hyperspace field theory.
A lot of things weren't clear-cut. She realized she might never know what J. D. had intended to do with the crystal. Had the temptation of fabulous wealth been too much for him? Or had he been trying to turn the information over to Earthforce and gotten caught up in the corruption surrounding AreTech's conspiracy? Or had he been a member of Free Mars all along and intended to use the discovery to support his political goals?
Captain Sheridan, however, was quite certain of one thing. "Commander Ivanova," he said firmly, "I want you to come with me to the Command Office. We're going to be making a call to Admiral Wilson of the Joint Chiefs. I think we have something they've been looking for."
CHAPTER 30
It was quiet in the Observation Dome on Babylon 5, a rare hour when there were no ships scheduled to depart or arrive at the station. Only the skeleton crew of duty technicians sat at their consoles, intent on their work.
On the dome's upper level, Commander Ivanova stood in front of the control console, hands clasped behind her back. The glowing colored lights of the displays reflected off the curved window above them, but Ivanova was looking past them, out at the black immensity of space and the silent stars.
All her eyes could see were peace and stillness. But the instruments controlled by her console could see further, deeper, into ranges of energy inaccessible to merely human senses. There were wars out there among those stars, contesting that space. There were ships and weaponsand the weapons were always more powerful, capable of more destruction.
Now Earth was reaching out for alien power, to put alien weapons in human hands. Ivanova had the fleeting thought that she didn't know which frightened her more: the destructive potential of technology, or what humanity might do if they obtained it.
But there was no more time to wonder, because at that moment the scan technician called out, "Commander Ivanova! Getting a sharp rise in tachyon emissions! Something big is coming through the jump point!"
"I've got it!" she said quickly, turning her attention back to the main display. In command.
Lois Tilton is a former philosophy instructor who lives in the Chicago suburbs. She has written several dozen short stories ranging from fairy tales to alternate history. Among her novels are Vampire Winter; Darkness on the Ice and the Star Trek: DS9 novel Betrayal.
Babylon 5 02 - Accusations (Tilton, Lois) Page 24