The backgoround is that I was on a french trip with a school and one night some of the girls asked for a story. I asked them for ideas and made up the story based on what they suggested. That is the story told here, as best as I can remember it. Enjoy.
This is set sometime in either the later part of season three or the early part of season four.
Standard disclaimers. I don't own B5 or any of the characters (apart from Marie).
Spoilers
for the book 'To Dream in the City of Sorrows'.
All Hail to the Great Maker.
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The freighter was older than he was and only ever intended to be used for carrying ore. Its cargo holds were dirty, smelly, cold and dark; the only warmth and diffused light coming from the few heaters that had been provided. It was inhuman to carry people in such conditions, but there had been no other ships available.
The Rangers had only heard about the Shadow attack after it had begun so there had been no time to organise a proper evacuation. They had commandeered a couple of freighters in the area and rescued the few surviving colonists from among the remnants of their homes.
It sickened Marcus whenever he encountered humans degraded to the point that they were just numbers; people to process, feed, move from one featureless holding room to another. They had been families with lives, jobs, communities, futures. They had lost all of that in an instant when the Shadows had cut through their colony.
As had he.
The images of that day still haunted his sleep. Watching helplessly as ships, he did not at that time recognise, destroyed the inhabitants' platform; then the blinding flash as the orbital refinery exploded. It was at that point that he always woke, his brother's plea whispering to him still in the darkness. 'Help me finish this. Finish the job I started Marcus. Please promise me.'
He had gone to Minbar only because he had made that promise. What he had found was much more than revenge. He found a home, and what he had not known was missing from his life; a purpose. The pain of those who suffered needlessly, replaced his anger over the death of William, and defeating the Shadows was no longer his sole aim.
He manoeuvred his way through the huddled groups of people towards one corner of the hold. There he had earlier found a ragged group of children. Either separated from their parents or orphaned, they were alone and terrified. Marcus was returning to them now with blankets and food 'acquired' from the crew quarters.
"Hi guys!"
The few eyes that turned to him were either distrustful or red from tears. He squatted down to their level and showed them his ill-gotten gains.
"Don't tell anyone else," he whispered, "but I've found where they keep the chocolate. Do you want a piece?"
Hands shot out, and Marcus was kept busy for a couple of minutes sharing out the bars. He looked around to make sure that everyone had a piece and noticed a small girl huddled at the edge of the group. He went and sat beside her.
"Don't you want any chocolate?" he asked.
The girl looked at him and quickly shook her head. Her resemblance to Marie tore at Marcus' heart. Remembering his little girl on Minbar, he knew there was one thing the Shadows had not yet taken from him. He fought the war for her now, more than for his brother.
"Are you cold?" he asked the small child before him, desperate to help her if only she would let him.
The girl nodded.
Marcus wrapped one of the blankets around her and then asked another question. Even a shake of a head was better than nothing.
"Are you lost?"
Nod.
"Don't worry about that too much. I have a good friend on Babylon 5 who can find anyone. If your parents are anywhere within a light year, she'll get you to them."
The girl looked a little more hopeful.
"Are you sure you don't want any chocolate?"
The girl looked at the bar that Marcus held, but did not take it.
"Well if you change your mind, it'll be right here." He placed it on the floor between them. He looked around at the other children and thought of a way that could make the journey more tolerable.
"You know," He said loudly enough for all of the group to hear, "this is almost like when I went camping with my brother. Have any of you been camping?"
It appeared that none of them had. That was lucky for Marcus, as neither had he, except within the pages of Arthur Ransome. He began to spin a yarn.
"Well, in the evenings, we would sit outside our tents, the only light coming from the campfire, and tell each other ghost stories."
"Like what?" asked one of the boys.
"Stuff that would give me nightmares." Marcus said. "We always tried to out scare each other."
"Tell us one?" The boy urged.
Marcus shook his head, "No. I want you lot to go to sleep. But we could make up our own campfire story. How does that sound?"
A couple of the children looked a little disappointed at not getting a ghost story, but no one complained.
"OK," Marcus continued and played for time so that he could think of something. "The heater can be our campfire, so gather round and get comfortable. We need a hero for our story. Can anyone think of a good name?"
There was a moment's silence, then from somewhere in the dark group came a voice.
"Captain Starlighter?"
"Perfect. Now he has to be captain of something."
"A flying car." They were warming to the idea.
"What does he do?"
"He delivers things."
"To who?"
"Santa Clause." Quietly came from beside Marcus. The girl had wriggled up beside him and had at last found her voice.
"What would he deliver to Santa?" Marcus asked the girl directly.
"Teddies from the island of toys."
"OK, Captain Starlighter and the Island of Toys.
" 'One day, Captain Starlighter was flying along in his car when he got an urgent call from Santa. Apparently, there was a sudden request for teddy bears from all around the world and they didn't have enough at the North Pole. Santa asked Captain Starlighter to go to the island of toys and collect a load that he had just ordered to be made.
'Captain Starlighter went off at top speed over the sea because you can't let Santa Clause down. He was almost at the island when he flew into the fiercest storm you have ever seen. Thunder crashed. Lighting flashed. Waves pounded together. The wind threw Captain Starlighter's car from one side to the other and round and round.'"
Marcus waved his arms around for effect. Some of the smaller children went 'Ohhh'.
" 'Suddenly, there was a terrific flash and Captain Starlighter lost control of his car. He had been hit by lightning and began to tumble down into the sea. He hit the waves with a splash!
'Luckily the car floated, but it wouldn't work. Captain Starlighter could only sit there, tossing on the waves, getting very seasick and wondering what to do.'"
Marcus wondered what he would do. He had drawn a blank, but tried not to show it as he looked at his audience. Then he knew that the children had become caught up in his story as suggestions began flying from all directions.
"He could call for help."
"To the mermaids under the sea."
"He knew one called… Elara."
"Of course," Marcus continued, "He had once helped Elara when she had become caught in seaweed. When the storm had passed, Captain Starlighter knelt on the front of his car and called into the sea for Elara. He actually put his head into the water because she had given him a special shell to blow when he needed to contact her.
'Well, he blew hard two or three times, then sat back to wait. It was quite a long time later that a mermaid popped her head out of the water next to the flying car.
' 'What's up?' she asked.
' 'I need to get to the island of toys to collect teddies for Santa,' said Captain Starlighter, 'but my car was damaged by the storm. Could you give me a tow?'
' 'Certainly.'
'Then she dived back into the sea. Soon she was back with some of her friends, and a couple of whales. They tied the whales to the car and started pulling it along. Almost faster than flying they went, and in no time at all, they were at the island of toys.
'The elves on the island had been worried when Captain Starlighter hadn't turned up when they expected him and had been about to call Santa. They had all the teddies ready to go, and with it being almost Christmas Eve, there was no time to spare.
'Captain Starlighter thanked the mermaids, then set about fixing his car. Luckily one of the elves was a very good mechanic as he built the moving toys, and they soon worked out what was wrong. In the time it took to load the teddies into the car, the engine was mended and Captain Starlighter was ready to take off. He jumped into his seat and after asking the elves to let Santa know he was on his way, blasted off.
'The sun was going down as the car sped over the ocean. Captain Starlighter pushed the engine as hard as he could because he knew Santa had to deliver the presents that night.
'Despite his fast flying, it was dark when Captain Starlighter arrived at the North Pole and he discovered that Santa had already gone. Mrs Clause met him.
' 'Captain, thank you for coming,' she said. 'I'm sorry Santa couldn't wait for you, but he asked if you could deliver the teddies instead.'
'She then gave him a list of the children who had asked for teddies, a large thermos of soup for when he got hungry and a long scarf if he got cold.
'Round the world he went, stopping only long enough to drop down a chimney and leave a teddy bear.'"
"How did he get down the chimneys?" one of the girls asked.
Marcus grinned, "I don't know, it's a secret. Santa had shown Captain Starlighter the secret on a previous Christmas when he had helped out."
" 'Captain Starlighter managed all the deliveries before the sun came up and just as he was about to turn for home saw a red flashing light in the distance. It was Rudolf of course. Santa had also finished his deliveries and had come to find him. Captain Starlighter told Santa that he was about to go home.
' 'Nonsense my boy.' Santa said, 'You are going to come and spend Christmas with us. It is the least I can do, as you saved my teddy delivery.'
'So Captain Starlighter found himself at the North Pole eating Christmas lunch surrounded by elves, and opening presents given him by Santa in person.'
"What did he get?"
This question caught Marcus out as he had, in his mind, finished the story. He did some quick thinking and hoped his answers were satisfactory.
"Well, Mrs Clause gave him a knitted hat and gloves to match the scarf he already had; and Santa gave him a toolkit to repair his flying car the next time it broke down."
At that point, Marcus did stop the story and told everyone to go to sleep. As the children settled under their blankets, he looked down at the little girl beside him, and got a shock. Not only had she quietly eaten the chocolate during the story, but she was already asleep; curled up inside his arm, head resting on his lap. At what point she had wriggled inside his embrace, he did not know.
Marcus dared not get up, lest he disturb her. With an apologetic shrug to a passing Ranger, he leant back against the metal wall and fell asleep to the vibration of the engines.
He knew what dreams would come, but for once he did not fear them.
End
"True Magic is done with the mind and the spirit. Chants and potions are just a way to focus the magic, but they will not work without the magic of your spirit. Every wizard that you may encounter has a vast imagination, and a mind that can fly free. You still have that great gift. When you go home, you can use your imagination to see this world and us. Your mind is free from all bounds. You can travel anywhere, meet anyone and do anything, all within your mind. That is the first gateway to magic." - Nala, Wizard of T'Tenneb.
Any comments to hilaryweston@hotmail.com
Ranger Hilary.