A Technomage and a Telepath
By JeanDream
Explanation:
Though the Crusade TV series was short-lived, I was able to become an avid fan. Ever since the Babylon 5 "A Call To Arms" movie, I have been in love with the character of Galen. The handsome and charming actor, Peter Woodward, played this character with such grace and distinction that I have not been able to forget him. I'm sure that my "crush" on Galen will come out in this story. Please forgive me!
Of course, Crusade, Galen, technomages, etc., were created by JMS. All others are my creation, including the plot of this story. If anything is not technically correct, please bear with me. I don't know everything about technomages, telepaths, their ships, space, etc. I had to speculate on some things, and if I speculated wrong (if there is official documentation about a concept somewhere that I didn't know about), I'm sorry.
This is the third chapter. It is the farthest I have gotten. Now, I will buckle down, and crank out another chapter hopefully before the Thanksgiving holiday is through. Keep posted!
Interlude – The Waiting (Chapter 3a)
The next two weeks went by on the edges of known space without even a glimpse of the Living Ship. In that time, Cara and Galen's encounters alternated between increasing familiarity and a lingering foreignness.
There were times when Cara thought that she knew Galen, despite not hearing his thoughts or feeling his emotions. Just when she believed that she understood him, he would withdraw into a cloak of mystery. Then Cara would become frustrated and return to her quarters to be alone for large quantities of time. She passed those seemingly endless hours by reading the Bible she had brought along, and praying. Cara had never been a religious person, but the childhood faith that her Christian parents had instilled in her had stuck. She was glad for the reassurance that she was never truly alone - that always there was One watching over her. This gave Cara hope.
Galen too, was mystified. At times, when they were speaking, he felt the darkness in his soul slip away. He forgot the past, momentarily anyway, as he often gazed into her forest green eyes. Galen saw her open up to him, and he found himself sharing things with her that he never imagined he would.
But he did not tell her about Isabel. That was always the thing that came between them. Galen would feel himself on the verge of feeling something . . . extraordinary for Cara. Then Isabel's lovely image would float into his mind. He would then immediately retreat, confused and saddened, into his private domain of regret and despair. Galen sensed the growing apprehension that Cara felt for him. It pained him, but he seemed powerless to stop it.
Then one day Cara heard the ship's call, and nothing was the same again.
Chapter 3 "The Meeting"
They both sat on the bridge, Cara sipping a cup of tea and Galen not drinking anything. (She never saw him eat or drink, but she assumed he did sometime.)
Galen had just gotten done telling a story about an adventure that he experienced with his father, when Cara first felt the faintest tendrils of a whisper upon her mind.
At first, she was tempted to dismiss it. The feeling was like a telepathic echo, which Cara had encountered before. She continued to converse with Galen for an hour, but the whisper continued to grow louder in her mind. Soon she was unable to focus her attention on the technomage's words.
Galen noticed her lack of attentiveness quickly and grew concerned. Cara wasn't one to grow distracted during their conversations. "Cara, what is it?" he asked, a note of alarm in his voice.
For a few moments, Cara didn't answer. Then, as if far away, she uttered, "I . . . think it's . . . coming." Galen could not have known the effort that it took Cara to speak even those few words. Her mind was increasingly being filled with an unfamiliar, thrilling, nauseating, and even painful presence. Thousands, maybe millions, of sensations flooded into her mind, and Cara peripherally felt her knees buckle (for she had been standing, leaning against a bulkhead) and the telepath fell into a kneeling position. Her hands cradled each side of her head, though she did not recall placing them there.
Galen was immediately at her side. "Focus, Cara," he urged her, cupping her face in his hands, he forced her to look into his eyes. "Your only hope is to separate, simplify. You do not yet have the ability to process the message the ship is sending. Focus on the heart of the being…….Focus!"
Waves tore at Cara from every direction, and she felt she was sinking fast. Air! She thought, "I need to breathe, please!" Somewhere in that sea of telepathic sensation, she could feel a presence, something capable of being comprehended. Cara tentatively grasped at it, a lifeline like a string in the stormy ocean. Suddenly, she was able to think a small prayer. Slowly, but steadily, her grip tightened upon the string, which grew thicker in her hands. A benevolent, yet hurting and grief-stricken aura gradually took the place of myriad unfathomable sensations, and the ship's presence in her mind increasingly grew controlled and companionably quiet. Then, all Cara was aware of was the clear blue of Galen's eyes. Her breath came out in little gasps, and she allowed herself to collapse against the technomage's strong chest.
"So, so big," she whispered. "I thought I was going to drown."
Galen stroked her back gently. "But you didn't. I knew you could do it," he said softly. "The Living Ship is resting leisurely starboard and aft." He paused. " I think that it likes you."
Cara choked out a laugh that turned into a sob. "You can't imagine what it was like. Exhilarating at one moment, yet terrifying in the next, a plethora of paradox."
"I wish that I could imagine it," Galen said wistfully.
Cara pulled back to look at him. She shook her head. "No you don't," she said darkly, lowly. "It is something I do not think we are meant to feel. That is why it is so hard to process. Yet another side effect of a fallen universe."
Galen studied her intently. "Is it evil then?"
"No," Cara said immediately. "Just complex. The human brain isn't mean to process its signals." The fact of their nearness finally asserted itself, and Cara's face flushed. She lowered her eyes for a moment, then boldly looked up and grasped the technomage's hand in hers.
"Thank you, Galen," the telepath said seriously, her eyes shining. "When I was going under the waves, I heard a call, just a whisper, urging me to focus, to concentrate. I had forgotten all that I had learned and I would have gone under, like Thomas. If it wasn't for you, your words, and your . . . endless blue . . . well, I would not have remembered even to think . . .but I was able to pray, then focus . . . it's mostly inexplicable. All I can say is thank you."
Galen looked at Cara, who had tears in her green eyes, and her was face turned so attentively and gratefully toward his . . . her lips beckoned. He lowered his face to hers and saw the telepath's beautiful eyes close expectantly. Then at the last moment, something inside Galen made him withdraw. He silently cursed himself at the look of hurt and confusion that now appeared on Cara's angelic face.
Cara looked at him for a moment, then nodded patiently. "Thank you. I should . . . rest now. The presence is still there. It is willfully quiet for now, but it will speak again. I must be strong."
"Of course," Galen agreed. He rose and helped the female telepath to her feet. She stood beside him a little shakily for a moment before taking a few slow steps toward the corridor.
"I'll see you in a few hours," she called to him over her shoulder.
"Yes," he replied softly. When Cara was gone, Galen collapsed into his chair and held his head in his hands. The telepath had frightened him immensely when she had sunken to the floor in a trancelike state. It had been an eerily similar experience to his friend, Thomas', incapacitation. Thankfully, however, Cara had possessed the mental strength to sift through the massive sand of sensation the Living Ship had presented. Though the ordeal was now over, the reminder of his feelings remained. Galen was, despite his misgivings, falling in love.