A/N - This is my first B5 fic. You have been warned and welcomed. Sorry about the way the paragraphs turned out.
Disclaimer-B5 and all it's wonderful stuff belongs to JMS and the people he works with. If I was making any money at all I wouldn't be writing stuff like this. I just wanted to take a peek what could be happening elsewhere in that place, and I'm leaving right away.
Marie
by Cptn. Suz
A young woman stepped from the transport. She carried a single duffel and wore a plain white shirt and long black skirt. The breeze fluttered her long dark brown hair as she headed off to find a place to stay
Inside her carefully guarded mind, her thoughts were simple. 'Earth at last. Let's see what happens.'
Five Earth hours later, they came. There was a knock at the door. Obviously a prelude to their entry into the room whether it's occupant cared for them to or not.
Marie opened the door right after they knocked though. That should have struck the people standing at the door as unusual. Apparently, it didn't.
"You will come with us," the leader said. The leader wore a shiny hexagonal-pin bearing a Greek letter. Who they were and what they wanted was obvious. Their propaganda could be found in nearly every human settlement and her blatantly open used of her telepathy since her arrival had surely piqued someone's interest.
"Alright," Marie agreed. She stepped out of her room and into their midst. And still they didn't wonder why she didn't fight back.
They placed her in an isolation tube and left her there for days. Nearby, Marie sensed other telepaths, rogues that had been chased down and caught. But Marie remained placid and calm, and reached out to no one.
Eventually they pulled her out because it was deemed unnecessary. And then she didn't eat. She didn't need to. They didn't know what to make of her.
She sat in a chair in a room in front of a frustrated, pacing Psi Cop. "I don't know who you are, but you're very perplexing," he said, "We put you in an isolation tube for forty days. In that time you contact no one telepathically, and any scans of you came up blank. We pull you out, expecting to find a living corpse, and instead you look fine. And you're not even thirsty. Answer this question. Are you a telepath?"
"Yes, I am," she answered.
"Why didn't you use your telepathy?"
"I didn't need to."
"Are the scans incorrect?"
"No."
"Are you blocking me right now?"
"Yes."
The PsiCop hit the table between them with a fist. "You're right," he growled, "Tell me this. Why don't you want something to drink?"
"I don't need anything to drink," Marie replied.
"But you're human. It's impossible for you to not want something to drink now. You shouldn't even be able to speak!"
"Mr. Austerling," Marie said, and he looked surprised that she knew his name, "Have you ever considered that just because someone looks human doesn't mean they are?"
He looked queerly at Marie. "So you're saying you're not human?"
"Most certainly so," she replied.
"I don't believe you. Prove it," he said.
"I believe you have sufficient proof, but if you require more..." Marie trailed off. She placed her left hand, palm down, out in the air. Quickly, she flipped her hand over, so it was palm up.
Austerling gasped. The chairs, table, and everything were now on what had been the ceiling. "It's a mind trick," Austerling said.
"It is not," Marie replied, "Take your pen and write on the 'floor'. Try it." Austerling did this reluctantly, and just as he was done, someone, who appeared to be walking upside down, came through the door, and fell clumsily to the 'floor'.
Just as quickly, Marie's hand flipped back over. And everything went back to being on the floor. The person on the 'floor' landed on the floor with a distinctive thud.
"Owww," the young man moaned. Picking himself up off the floor, he frowned at Austerling, "I didn't know this room had artificial gravity controls.
"It doesn't," Austerling replied harshly.
The young man looked confused, "Then how?" he asked.
Austerling dismissed the question. "Have her placed in a guarded cell," he said, before brushing past the young man and leaving the room.
"Gee, you make friends real well," the young man said after summoning an escort.
"Do you think anyone comes here to form friendly relationships?" Marie inquired.
"Well, no," he replied. Marie nodded.
It was late at night, but PsiCop Austerling knew no hours. He strode into the room the frustrating woman had been in earlier. And looked up at the ceiling.
There was his hastily scribbled 'psi' symbol. It wasn't a mind trick. She really must not be human to do that.
Then what was she? Austerling decided that he was going to find out, right now.
Austerling brushed past the stoic guard and strode into the cell; he was only slightly irked to see the woman awake.
"You don't sleep either?" he asked.
"I don't need to," was her frustrating reply.
"Who are you?" Austerling demanded.
"Now you sound like a Vorlon. Do you know who Vorlons are?"
"Yes," he seethed.
"As to who I am, you may call me Marie," she replied.
"What are you?" Austerling demanded.
"What are we all? You or I?" she questioned.
Austerling paused. He wasn't sure quite how to answer that. "Both," he finally answered.
"Hope you've studied physics," Marie said, before she started, "First, I shall explain what I am, because then it is easier to explain what Marie is. I am a non-corporeal entity. Where I am from, all life is non-corporeal. And all sentient lifeforms are telepathic. Marie is a physical form I have taken on while I'm studying your species. Is your curiosity whetted yet, Mr. Austerling?"
Austerling stood there for a moment, absorbing it all. "Why?" he asked, utterly confused.
"My species is interested in the treatment of telepathy among other species of the galaxy," Marie answered.
"And when your study is complete?"
"I will leave."
"What about your body?"
"Marie's body will cease to exist."
"Will you tell us how we've done?"
"Certainly. The Vorlons opened a gift to you that you were not worthy or ready to receive. The way you treat telepaths is, in your culture, 'a blatant disregard for human rights'."
"Your study seems pretty complete. Will you be leaving soon?"
"I'll stay perhaps a day or two more. I've a few more notes to take, and when finished I will leave," Marie said.
"I can't allow you to do that," Austerling said, pulling out a PPG and pointing it at her.
Marie looked at the PPG and then Austerling, then back to the PPG, and a quirky smile came over her face. "If you shoot that it will do nothing but leave a burn mark on the wall," Marie said, "There is not a thing you can do to keep me here when I decide to leave."
"What's stopping me from trying?" Austerling asked.
"Nothing," Marie said. She disappeared and returned in another corner of the room. "But I am, how would you put it, a Cheshire cat," she said.
Austerling was decidedly teed. He holstered his PPG and stormed out of the room.
Marie watched him leave, then went over her mental notes on the conversation. Austerling became frustrated easily and was often in denial of the stated facts. He was a good candidate.
It was three in the morning when Austerling came again. Marie was, not surprisingly, awake. This was slightly unnerving for Austerling. People, telepath or otherwise, just weren't inclined to stay awake all hours of the night.
"I feel it's obligatory to leave you a copy of the report I will turn in. Though how much of it you will dismiss heresy I can not say. I would hope that you will use it to improve your 'system', but that would be overly hopeful, wouldn't it? Did you bring a blank data crystal?" Marie said.
Austerling pulled the small object from his pocket and gave it to her. Marie held it in her hand for a moment, then gave it back.
"It's all on there?" Austerling asked suspiciously.
"Yes," Marie answered simply.
"I wondered how you would put the data on it," he said, placing the crystal back into his pocket.
"The transfer of energy to digitized data. It is a relatively simple process. Something your species will learn in about..." she paused as if searching for the appropriate number. "200 years," she finished.
And with one more quirky smile, she disappeared. Austerling frowned. This was not going to look good on his report, if they even believed that, and the resources he could pull where already few. Thought it would look even worse beside the psych evaluation after that whole bit with the rogue two years ago and...God, his career was just going down the pipes.
A/N-Feedback? Feedback? I've got more in this series (actually a trilogy), and all I need is one review asking for them to be posted. (From anyone other than the beta reader, Ilyzibyth, who has no doubt read it on my site and numerous other times;) I can also e-mail anyone who wants one a background bio on Austerling. Ilyzibyth can vouch on the fact that the Austerling character definitely needs explaining.