This is will be a very short story; I'd originally planned it as a one-off, but decided to post a teaser. There will be 1-2 chapters to follow.

Notes: #1. I'm having to play around with the timelines just a little for this one; for the purposes of my story, Babylon 5 was out of use (though not technically decommissioned) in 2271. Basically, the idea is that the physical station still remains in existence until Sleeping in Light, but it's effectively shut down 10 years before. I'm also playing around with what happened with Psi Corps post-season 4, both to fit the story and because I don't know season 5 that well.

#2. I'm not entirely sure how I do writing Sofie; I'm used to younger children and I fear some moments I wrote her too young and others too old. Also I hope her quirky little phrases won't be too confusing; in my head she and her mother have sort of their own language.

Hellos and Goodbyes

The year is 2271. The name of the place is Babylon 5.

Entering the station for the first time, the little girl was awed by the sheer size of it. A ship with room to run and play! The idea was grand. Looking around, she quickly realized how empty it was and her excitement began to fade. A group of people, nearly the last aboard the once-crowded Babylon 5, were heading onto the ship that had brought her and her mother. They were leaving for the last time, seeking new lands and new homes. Many had been there for years; she saw a girl about her age entering the transport ship with her father, and wondered if the girl had been born there. She herself had lived much of her life on ships, but they had never been more than a few weeks without visiting a planet, and the idea of people living on the station for years and years without seeing a sun or stepping on dirt was more than the child could wrap her head around.

Long though some of those departing the station had lived there, none had arrived on Babylon 5 earlier than the girl's mother. Though Colonel Susan Ivanova had not been there in nearly a decade, she had come to live there almost 14 years ago, when the station was less than 2 years old. Many of her best and worst memories, as well as some of her most painful losses, had occurred on this ship. When she left to captain the Titans, she always assumed she'd return someday, but she never thought it would be like this. Within in a year, all the people who had meant most to her on Babylon 5 had gone their separate ways, and she had known the ship would no longer feel like the home it had been without them. Life, parenthood, and of course her career had made it difficult to visit anywhere, but when she'd heard Babylon 5 was deemed to have "served its purpose" and would be shutting down to a skeleton crew of maintenance personnel, she couldn't resist the temptation to visit one last time, to share the place with her daughter and say goodbye.

Though once vibrant, the deserted halls seemed gloomy. Susan tried to remind herself that most of the people who had lived here had merely left for new adventures, but in the emptiness she couldn't help thinking of those who had lost their lives, or lost their selves. Needing a distraction from the painful memories, she turned to her daughter. "Let's see if we can find the Zocalo! I've never seen it without people, we can go discover what it's like."

"Which way Mommy?" the little girl asked excitedly, already bored with where they were.

Susan hesitated, struggling to orient herself without the usual landmarks; after a moment she pointed, and couldn't help laughing as she watched her daughter run ahead.

After winding their way through a few corridors, they finally reached their destination, and Susan was surprised to see a tall blonde woman standing at the bar. Her back was to them and she could only just see the side of her face, but she seemed to be staring through the emptiness at the past. Ivanova watched as her ever-fearless daughter approached.

"Hello," she heard her daughter greet the stranger pleasantly.

As the woman turned to face the girl and easily returned the greeting with a smile in her voice, Susan was hit by a ton of bricks. The woman continued to turn, searching for the girl's parents. "Hello," she began on noticing the other woman, but the word died in her throat when she saw the woman before her; the dead word fell from her lips flat and hollow.