This is my first Babylon 5 fanfic. I haven't finished watching all of them so there may be some mistakes. Hope you enjoy.
A sixteen year old girl slipped through the corridors with almost no sound. She was tall and with long blonde hair, pale skin and blue eyes. Three years before her father had died on Babylon 5, leaving her with no-one to look after her. Since then she had lived by doing odd jobs and providing information to anyone who wanted it. She found it easy to collect information on people because she always seemed quiet and could listen to what was said because of it. No-one suspected that she was spying.
She watched as Alfred Bester, a member of Psi Corps, walked past. He didn't spare a glance for the girl as she stood by the wall. Nor did he notice as she followed him, discreetly. By the end of the day she knew where he was staying, his schedule for the next few days and why he was there. She passed the information on without feeling in the least guilty. If Psi Corps hadn't existed her mother might still have been with her.
Once she had made her report she went to her rooms. It was very small, just enough room for a bed and a bathroom really. She locked the door and curled up on her bed. There was a noise from outside and she jumped up, pulling out a knife. The noises faded and she. There had been a lot of attacks recently and she had no intention of being a victim. Then there was the sound of running footsteps which stopped outside her door. Without a thought, she hoisted herself up, into the ceiling which was riddled with thick pipes and iron bars. Even if someone looked up they would be unlikely to see her. After several seconds the door opened and half a dozen security men entered the room, followed by Bester. She cursed her luck. Obviously spying on a telepath wasn't such a good idea. "She's not here." The girl recognised Garibaldi.
"Then where did she go?" Bester asked. "Your people would have reported if the door had opened."
"I know that. Maybe she didn't come in here in the first place and someone else is using these rooms." He looked around. "Where do you think she has gone?"
Bester looked around slowly and the girl held her breath as he looked up but his eyes passed right over her hiding place. "I think," he said slowly, "that she is hiding."
"Where?" Garibaldi sounded impatient. Bester looked up, straight at the girl, and pain filled her. She cried out and slipped, hitting her head and landing on her back. All the security guards looked surprised but she was in no state to notice. She was half unconscious and there was a large cut across her forehead.
"Found her." Bester looked up a Garibaldi.
"You could have killed her." He growled. "Someone call med-lab." She moaned softly and seemed to relax.
Doctor Franklin looked at unconscious girl in front of him. She looked very peaceful in sleep. Carefully he looked through the files he had on her. At least they were probably on her. She had arrived on the station ten years before so he only had a picture of her as a six year old. Her name was Emily Thompson. Her mother had run from psi corps and somehow, although no-one ever explained how, killed and her father died on the station, leaving her with almost nothing. He wondered how many children like her were on the station. Then she groaned softly and shifted. After a few moments she opened her eyes and gasped. "Easy, now. Don't try to sit up just yet. You've got rather low blood pressure and we don't want you fainting."
"Wouldn't be the first time, Doctor…"
"Franklin, Stephen Franklin."
"Well, thank you Doctor Franklin but I think that I had better go now." She sat up and swayed.
"Why does no-one listen to me?" He said as he helped her lie down. "Don't sit up yet. Do you remember what happened to you?"
She nodded. "Psi cop idiot." She muttered.
"I know what you mean." He sighed. "Unfortunately that idiot claims that you have information which you gained illegally and then passed on."
"Is there any proof?" She didn't look at all concerned.
"Not that I know of but you can't tell with them." He flicked through the file. "Until someone comes to say something to the contrary you are staying here." She nodded, looking innocent. "Don't try to wander off." He warned.
"I won't." She promised as he turned away. "Try to, that is." She muttered.
A few minutes later she slipped back into the brown sector. It wasn't hard to get away from them and she knew what she was doing. Emily slipped into one of the less used corridors and pulled a panel from the wall. Behind it was a small stash of things she had stored. Quickly she slipped a short knife into her belt and a small amount of money into one of her boots. Then she closed the panel and slipped into the pipe work in the ceiling. She clambered through the little used secret passages. Only a few people used the pipes and most of those were kids because they wouldn't support and adult's weight. After a few minutes she slipped down into a corridor and into one of the corners of down below where the lurkers hide. As fast as possible she found a secluded corner to sleep in.
The next morning, if it could be called morning in space, she got up and went in search of food. She spent the rest of the day searching for anything of value and selling what she could. As far as possible she avoided anywhere security was likely to be. There were informants everywhere of course but they couldn't be avoided. She had put her hair into a tight bun and wore a scarf over her head. That night she found another hidden corner to sleep in and curled up.
Emily woke to the sound of talking. Security was making a round. Quickly she pulled herself into the ceiling and moved back towards security and over the top of them. No-one looked up. As fast as possible she escaped into the other levels. It was amusing to watch them searching when the person they were most likely to be looking for was going in the other direction. Over the next couple of hours she watched dozens of patrols searching, and tried not to laugh at them. She hadn't seen the Bester but she knew that he was still on the station. They seemed to stop searching and she slipped out of the ceiling.
Looking around she went into one of the least used corridors and froze. Half a dozen people were standing in between her and the end of the corridor. "Hello, Emily." Bester said. "Don't run. You remember last time you were hiding, don't you?" She glared at him.
Garibaldi had his hand on his gun. "Emily, come here. You don't need to get hurt again." She didn't move. "Please, don't run."
"What's going to happen to me?" She asked, still not going any closer.
"You…"
"You will come with me." Bester interrupted Garibaldi.
"What?" Garibaldi said loudly. "What do you mean she's going with you?"
"I mean that she is more than a normal human and psi corps needs people like her." Emily took a step away. "Stop." Bester commanded. She cried out in pain and collapsed.
"Stop it!" Garibaldi shouted, running over to her as she curled up on the floor. He touched her shoulder and she flinched away. "It's alright. You're alright." He lifted her up gently, intending to take her to med-lab. "Don't do that ever again, Bester. Or I'll make sure you regret it."
"I doubt that very much. She will be fine. Had she been trained she would have been able to resist that." Emily shifted in pain.
"You can put me down." She said quietly. Garibaldi put her down carefully but didn't stop supporting her. Although it wasn't obvious, he could feel she was still shaking.
"Do you feel alright?" He asked and she nodded. "Bester, why do you want her?"
"She is a p 11 or 12." Emily snorted derisively. Everyone looked at her.
"I've never done anything that would make anyone believe I had any p rating. My moth…" She stopped.
"You mother had a high p rating, didn't she? P11." He smiled sinisterly.
Emily looked furious. "You killed her." She almost screamed. Garibaldi held her arm tightly so she couldn't throw herself at Bester.
Emily sat on the edge of the med-lab bed, glaring at Bester as Doctor Franklin scanned her. "Well, you're fine as far as I can tell. If you start hearing voices I think that you'll have to talk to Mr. Bester about controlling them." She nodded, not looking at him because she was too busy glaring.
"Do try to stop thinking so loudly." Bester told her. "It is most irritating." Her face broke into a smile.
"Excellent." It was Bester's turn to glare. "I don't like you."
"Well, that is nice to know. I know why your telepathy hasn't developed yet." He moved closer and she moved back slightly. "Your mother put a block into your mind so you would be safe from psi corps. It has worked rather well."
"You mean I don't have to go back with you to psi corps? If I can't use my telepathy I don't need to have anything to do with you." She smiled.
"Unfortunately that is not quite true. The fact is your telepathy will probably get past it at some point. The blocks are breaking down and at some point they will break completely, releasing your telepathy. The blocks are easy to remove now."
"You mean you can release my telepathy or I can wait for the blocks to fail. But either way I am going with you now?" She sighed heavily. "Not much of a choice really."
"Yes, that about sums it up." He looked pleased with her summery. She bit her lip. "Obviously you don't have to make your decision now but the sooner you do the better. In two days you will be coming back to Earth with me." Bester turned to go.
She glared at him as he left. "You know, if you wanted to you could talk to some of the ambassadors and see if they will take you to their world."
"No, I don't want to spend the rest of my life on another world. I want to be able to go home, to Earth." She sighed. "I don't really have much choice if I want to go home."
"I suppose that you don't have much choice." Doctor Franklin smiled. "Until you have to go, where are you staying?"
"I have some quarters in Brown sector. Most of my stuff is there."
"You'll probably have to go somewhere else for safety. A lot of people don't like telepaths."
"Including me. Actually, I have no problem with telepaths, just psi corps."
"I believe that that is the same for most people."
Emily sat on the bed in her new quarters with her legs crossed. She closed her eyes and turned her mind inwards. After a few minutes, she had the strangest sensation that she was actually pushing out against a blockage in her mind rather than being outside and looking inwards. Gently she pushed against the walls and felt them wobble, as though about to give way. Instantly she stopped and withdrew but was conscious of the block holding telepathy in her mind.
Half way across Babylon 5 Lyta Alexander felt the odd surge of telepathy. Closer by Bester also felt it. Both of them froze for a moment, then set off in the direction of Emily.
Emily looked up when there was a chime from the door. "Come in." She said. Bester entered the room and she stood up. "Is something wrong?" She asked, looking down at him, he really was rather short. "You seem surprised."
"What were you just doing?" He asked.
"Breathing." He glared. "I would have thought that you could just pick it up." She smiled as his frown deepened. "I was just looking for these blocks you were talking about. They…" There was another chime and she looked at the door. "Come in." Lyta came in.
"Bester," she growled. "Why are you here?"
"Same reason as you are I suspect."
"And I suppose that has something to do with this girl?"
"Yes, it does." Emily said, slightly annoyed at being ignored. "And I do happen to exist. What the pair of you felt was me testing the blocks in my mind. They are very weak."
Bester frowned. "They seemed fairly strong to me and I am a p12, which begs the question: what are you?"
"Human." She said with a slight smile. "I assume," she turned her attention to Lyta, "that you are Ms Alexander?"
"Lyta. And yes, I am. May I have a look at these blocks in your mind?" Emily nodded and felt Lyta's mind slip into hers. After a moment it withdrew. "They are strong but…" She paused and looked at Bester. "I think that we should talk alone. I don't like Mr. Bester." Emily nodded and looked at Bester who found himself of the uncomfortable position of having two very strong-minded women looking at him in an unpleasant way.
After a few moments he left. "As I was saying," Lyta continued as if there had been no interruption, "I think that they are strong but for me they would be easy to break. I'm not exactly a normal telepath though. Do you think you could break the blocks without any trouble?"
"Yes." Emily answered confidently.
"Okay, that it unusual. You might be higher than a p12."
"I didn't think humans could be more than p12s. Except those who have been to Vorlon space of course." She said with a sly smile.
Lyta raised an eyebrow. "How did you know that?"
"You were in a corridor, talking to Ambassador Kosh and I was in the ceiling. I think he knew I was there but he didn't mind. I'm not stupid enough to pass on information about people that important."
"Do I want to know what your job was?" She asked.
"In the words of Terry Pratchett; what I did was sell invisible things. And after I sold what I had, I still had it. I sold what everyone needed but didn't often want. I sold the key to the universe to people who didn't know it was locked."
"Knowledge." Emily smiled and nodded. "We probably ought to let Bester back in."
"Why don't you like Bester? You're both in psi corps."
"Well, not really. I'm only in psi corps unofficially. It's complicated." Emily stood up and opened the door for Bester who was waiting outside.
He looked innocent. "You can come in." She didn't believe for a moment that he hadn't been listening to their conversation. She moved back and he entered the room.
"Well, I assume that you have made your decision." Emily nodded. "And…?"
"I don't need your help to break the blocks. I might as well break them now." She took a deep breath.
"How strong are you?" She shrugged. "Well, if you're going to break the blocks you should lie down. There will be a sudden surge of voices."
"I know. I read about it." Emily said with a slight smile. "I need to build and wall in my mind to keep them out."
"How did you get that information?" Bester asked sharply. "No-one like you should have been able to get hold of it."
"I keep my eye out for interesting information." She hopped up onto the bed and lay back. "Here goes nothing." She muttered and closed her eyes. Carefully she went into her mind and felt the blocks. Gently she pushed against walls, then harder until they broke down. She cried out in shock as dozens of voices attacked her mind.
"Emily, build a wall. Build a wall around your mind and shut out the voices." Lyta held her still and she struggled against the voices in her mind. Slowly the babble quietened, then became a slight noise on the outside of her block. "How does that feel?" Lyta asked.
"Odd. Like…like a dam." She pushed some hair out of her face. "It's strange. I feel like I can do things at a distance. And there are little pockets of resistance where other minds are."
Bester watched her carefully. "How far can you see?"
"To the wall." She smiled. "I can feel a lot further though."
"Are you always this unhelpful?"
"Are you always this frank?" Emily glared at him.
Two years later
"You don't have the necessary documents to travel here." Zack Allen told the girl.
"But this is the place telepaths are gathering, isn't it? I'm trying to find Byron."
"You're another telepath? Oh, great. Just let me call him up here and we will see what we can do."
"No, need." Byron said, moving through the crowd. "I could sense a strong telepath. Abnormally strong." He looked at the girl.
"Well, psi corps got to me when I was too young to remember. They thought they'd mucked up their experiments but my mother actually put a block in my mind."
"What is your name?"
"Emily Thompson. Psi corps will be looking for me. Apparently punching Bester isn't a good idea." She said with a small smile.
"You hit him."
"Well, not exactly. They couldn't prove that it was me really but there wasn't anyone else who could have."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm a telekinetic. Bester asked for a demonstration. I gave him one."
"You are welcome here. But we do not condone violence." Byron warned her.
"I don't normally hit people. Most of the time I try not to use my tele-anything."
Byron led her to their section of brown sector. She smiled all the way there. Finally safe from psi corps.