A young man once stood by the most powerful woman in the galaxy and helped her change worlds.
Now he stands alone, unable to live in it.
Chapter 1
The web harnesses which lined both the walls shook slightly in time to the quietly rumbling engines. Lennier stood in the hold of his small stolen Centauri troop carrier and went over his gear. He was neither happy nor sad, feeling only resentful anticipation.
His scarred hands tugged at the webbing and ammo-filled bandoleers strapped to his chest.
That's mostly because he'd been out like a shot when he heard. And a little because he remembered the curious events Delenn had, many years ago, told him about.
'John said I told him that our son was safe.' Delenn was to have a son with that Human? Disgusted he'd lowered his eyes to hide his true feelings, though he'd doubted she had noticed. Finding out about her future son - that she even had a son - in such a way had clearly overwhelmed her.
Even now, some sixteen years later, he looked down for a second as the shame and guilt warmed him while slow fingers resumed roughly pulling and tightening the straps of the matte-black combat armor he wore.
She had gone on to say that both John and she had exchanged their lives for their boy. And that was all Sheridan could tell, he'd returned to his own time line. Either way, Lennier reflected as he habitually checked and re-checked his equipment; the time skip was fascinating, but was an unnecessary use of his thought processes.
His mind returned to more practical things. He unpacked and repacked his rucksack filled with satchel charges then methodically checked his Plasma Assault Rifle. He had embarked on raids before and knew that without proper maintenance and familiarity of equipment could be the difference between life and death.
Finished he picked up and pocketed his charged PDA and examined his new bio-dampener's little LCD control panel that was strapped to his forearm. He drew up the statics tab. While he went through the readouts his attention was caught by the cockpit's computer. It was chiming.
Lennier looked up from the stealth's little screen and moved into the flight-deck, not before glancing up at the shut blast windows as he slid into the high-backed pilot's seat. They added to the illusion that he was totally alone in the universe though a quick look at the computer readouts and sensors told a very different story. The humming console had beeped as it received a signal from Centauri's Military C & C as he approached their home world.
Lennier deftly returned it, watching the displays as they ran, and then accepted his ships signature and registration code. Now he requested permission to land at the Lonturian Military Base, which was in a province close to the Royal Palace.
Unworried he waited, and then smiled. They were confirming his details and allowing him to land.
The autopilot chimed again, this time wanting to be disengaged or reprogrammed. Lennier quickly locked in on his landing beacon before the autopilot's computer defaulted to a planetary orbit.
Satisfied he returned to the hold and resumed going over his gear, again and again. At the back of his mind he wondered if rescuing the boy was the right thing to do.