Artemis and Holly wandered through the metallic halls, unsure where they were. Holly couldn't use her shield because every time she tried she collapsed. So the pair of them were tentatively peeking around the corridors, looking for anyone so that Holly would have time to hide or get out her gun and knock them out.
J'kar was having a restless night. Everyone else except for the guards on night duty were awake, but he had, as the humans would say, itchy feet, so he got up and walked out of his quarters.
He saw two small figures going away from him, normally he wouldn't pay attention to that but then he heard an accented voice say, " I wonder if there is anyone in this place Holly, it is so quiet and rather dark as well." The voice was young and masculine. A human voice too.
A second voice answered, this time a females, and had an accent too, but hers sounded like a bit of everything, "Your right Artemis, it's too quiet, with our luck something nasty is just waiting to pounce on us."
"Excuse me, but would you mind telling who exactly you two are and how you got onto Babylon 5?" asked J'kar politely. Both figures jumped and whipped around and went into defensive postures, one in front of the other.
"I am Artemis Fowl the second, and this is my friend Holly. Now would you please tell us who you are sir?" Artemis asked equally politely.
"I am J'kar, a Narn, what race or races are you two?" J'kar informed the odd pair.
"What is-" Began Holly quietly.
"Holly, for some reason I know that the Narn were enslaved by the Centauri for centuries. They had claimed freedom and broken free, partly from the Centauri when their home world was destroyed. J'kar is the leader of the Narn. Both the Narn and Centauri are from different planets. Is that correct J'kar?" Artemis informed and asked helpfully, then shook his head as if to clear it. "How on Earth did I know that?"
"Artemis, you are starting to scare me, how in the name of sanity did you know all that!" Holly demanded, "Our people had met the Narn once many years ago and we were helping them to get out form under the oppression of the Centauri! Which means we are in the future." Holly informed Artemis, very startled.
"Are you one of the Earth creatures? A fairy?" J'kar asked curiously.
"Yes I am, I'm an Elf to be specific." Holly informed J'kar who was delighted.
"It is so wonderful to meet one of your kind, I'm so delighted!" J'kar beamed brightly, "Who is your friend? A friend of a fairy is a friend of mine. Come on, I must introduce you two to the captain, ambassador Delenn as well."
Sheridan had been originally quite startled at the new arrivals, but was reassured by the fact that they had no idea how they had gotten there. The teen's name had checked out in the history files and Artemis had provided information that was buried so deep that no amount of hacking could have uncovered. Artemis had also proved his genius. Holly looked nonhuman and the magic she had done (healing a minor injury with no devices) had proved that she was who she said she was.
" Hey Steven, I know it's late, but I want you to meet a couple of people, wake Garibaldi and Ivonova too. I don't want them jumpy if either of them meets the two in my room.
"Alright John, I'm coming." Franklin confirmed sleepily. In about ten minutes the three came into the room to see a pale youth and an unusual looking nonhuman. Both were standing rather close together, were looking around the room as if they had never seen some of the things in it in their lives. They found out in the explanation why.
"Is Delenn going to meet these two?" Ivonova asked curiously.
"I'm not sure. I'll tell her if the need arises." Sheridan decided. "Are you two tired?" he called out to the new arrivals.
When Sheridan had mentioned sleep, Artemis and holly looked at each other nodded and replied, "Yes we are Captain. Why do you ask?" and then passed out cold onto the floor.
Sheridan and the others who were awake had decided to put them in the med lab to make sure that there wasn't anything wrong with Artemis and Holly. Franklin checked both their pulses, Holly's seemed to be stable, for a human at least, but paused when he felt Artemis's. Shaking his head slightly he asked J'kar, "Could you please help me take these two too the med lab? I'll deal with them tomorrow, I'm-I must be tired."
"No need." J'kar said brightly and gently picked up both of them and slung them over his shoulders, following Franklin down to the med lab.
Holly and Artemis woke up alone in strange looking rooms. They both looked around and didn't see much, so they tried to get up, when they couldn't Holly sighed and tried to move her hand, when she found out she could she grabbed her weapon and burned through her bounds. Artemis flailed around a bit, and then remembered trick Holly had mentioned to him once. He was delighted when it worked. They moved around the room searching for the door, and found it, when they tried to open the doors they were unlocked.
Both were thoroughly confused by now, but Artemis looked around the room closely and commented, "I would hazard that we are in some sort of medical room. I think the reason we were taken here is because we had collapsed."
"That makes sense, I think we should go back to the rooms we were in so we don't panic them." Holly replied. So that's what the two did, though Artemis has told Holly that he needed to tell her something. They settled back into the rooms and fell gently asleep.
Artemis woke first, sensing motion around him, he cracked open an eye and saw that someone was passing some sort of handheld device. Artemis was now worried, what if they found out his secret? He had no Idea what these people were capable of. So he sat up and said, "Hello, Who are you and what is that thing in your hand?"
The nurse jumped about a foot into the air, he hadn't noticed the teen wake up. "I am Nurse Humphrey, this is a medical scanner. It tells me if there is something wrong with you, a disease or if anything is broken."
"Well I'm fine, apart from a slight dust mite allergy, but I am hungry. May I please have something to eat?" Artemis asked politely.
Just then Marcus bounced into the room, cheerful as ever. "Hello who are you? My name is Marcus."
Artemis looked up at the ranger and replied, "I am Artemis Fowl the second, a pleasure to meet you Marcus. Are you from England by any chance? What does that pin on your chest mean?"
"Nice to meet you too Artemis, yes I am, but I wasn't born there. I'll tell you about the pin later. Let me see if I can rescue you and your friend from the doctors." Marcus murmured to Artemis. "Hey Steven!" He called to the chief doctor, "Can these two go now, or will you trap them here for a while longer?"
"No they can go." Franklin replied wearily. He had to study the information that he had been provided already, which was puzzling to say the least.
So Marcus took Holly and Artemis to a place to eat. "What do you like to eat? This place can serve some strange, but delicious stuff." Marcus asked curiously.
"Fruits and vegetables." Holly replied, "I'm a vegetarian."
"I'll have anything so long as it doesn't move." Artemis replied cheerfully (for him).
Marcus wasn't quite sure that the two he was talking to were all they seemed, so he decided a question was in order. "What planet are you two from? Where specifically are you from?"
"Fowl Manor, Ireland, Earth." Artemis replied quickly, then gave his birth date and explained that they had no idea how they had gotten onto Babylon five.
"I am from Haven City, Earth." Holly added.
"Fascinating, you are over one hundred and fifty years from your home time." Marcus mused out loud. "Do you have any theories as to how you got here?"
Just then Delenn showed up and wandered over towards Marcus. She was curious about the new arrivals that she had heard about from Ivonova, and was fairly sure that Marcus had met them because of the unusual way they had showed up. "Greetings Marcus, who are your companions?"
"This is Artemis, and Holly ambassador." Marcus said pleasantly, watching Holly's face and Artemis's change from curiosity to masks of politeness and a shield to their inner thoughts and emotions.
Artemis got up, bowed politely and offered the ambassador a seat, which she gladly took. Holly had nodded respectfully in Delenn's direction. Marcus was startled over the change that Delenn's presence had made. Delenn was curious about the two so she asked the standard, name, who are you, where are you from questions. But whereas they seemed relaxed when the three of them, with Delenn they gave strictly what she asked for and not one iota more or less. How they phrased their sentences was different as well.
Marcus had decided to break the ice that was by now about a foot thick, despite the polite conversation that was the cause of it. "So, why are you two suddenly being so careful about what you say? And why are you two so tense, you weren't nearly this tense before Delenn joined our table. Or is the fact that she is an ambassador is the reason your shields are up?"
Delenn smiled at Marcus's words and stated wryly, "I'm not going to bite you know. Say what you want to say the way you want to. I'm no beaurocrat."
"How did you know?" Holly asked
"It's obvious to me how he figured it out Holly. He is trained in, among other things, to observe body language. You are a fighter as well, but can do many other things as well Marcus. Am I correct?" Artemis informed and asked quietly so as not to alarm him.
"How did-"Marcus began in a shocked daze.
Holly interrupted, "Artemis is a certified genius. Plus he is really, really observant."
"Ah, well I see. Now you asked about my jeweled pin. Delenn?" Marcus murmured to the Minbari ambassador.
When the two had relaxed, (namely during Artemis's explanation of why Marcus could read both of them.) they seemed to be a good sort, just uncomfortable around people in her position, or they had had bad experiences with politicians and were wary of anyone who could potentially be one. "You can tell them Marcus. These two are good, when they show their true personalities. Don't be upset you two, bad experiences with politicians?" Delenn asked.
Both grimaced, "you have no idea." They replied. Holly was about to add something when Mollari showed up. They finished their shared meal in silence and got up to leave.
A couple weeks had passed and Holly and Artemis had proved themselves to be valuable and helpful. Artemis was extremely clever and had increased the efficiency and effectiveness of the defense grid. He had studied the schematics of the White Star and was doing something, but if anyone asked what he was doing he would chatter on about complicated stuff about engines and other things that made their heads spin. Sheridan had just come back from an attempted talk with Artemis and explained his encounter with the teen and she smiled and shook her head saying, "He's doing something to or has a theory on the part of the ship he talked to you about. He won't speak normally until he figures out something that will make it better or run more efficiently. It happened when he was dealing with the defense grid, only Marcus was the one who tried to speak with him. What did you want to talk to him about? He'll wake up out of it for me, I know him best." Holly offered.
Holly was useful for interpreting what Artemis said about half the time, intelligent, a good fighter, and had some experience as a medic. When she helped, it was if she had magic, the way she fixed up people.
Artemis wandered towards the bridge, determined to speak with Ambassador Delenn. He wasn't sure where she was so she had decided to ask Captain Sheridan for her whereabouts. "Captain Sheridan," He called, after making sure that said captain wasn't busy. "I need to speak with a Minbari space engineer."
Sheridan considered asking why, but decided against it when he noticed two sets of schematics in Artemis's hands and replied, "I'll ask Delenn."
So an hour later a Minbari engineer from the White Star came into the room that Artemis was in. Delenn had told him that the human he was about to meet was devastatingly intelligent, but very young. But he wasn't expecting a child to greet him.
While Artemis spoke with the Minbari, Holly was helping security by scanning ident cards. She happily helped them for a while but gradually felt a sense of foreboding and darkness increase. /I need to get Artemis down here. He'd be able to tell if what I'm sensing is true and who or what it is I sense, unless I'm getting paranoid. / "Mr. Garibaldi could you get Artemis down her? I feel a darkness coming."
Garibaldi was surprised by her request, but long experience had taught him not to disregard such warning/requests so he called Sheridan, "Is the kid available? Holly says she needs to talk to him."
"I'll check if he is. He wanted to speak with a Minbari engineer." Sheridan replied.
Artemis had just finished explaining, and showing the Minbari what he had been doing for the past week. The Minbari fully agreed with Artemis's upgrades once shown. He was surprised at the young human's knowledge of the weak points and how to protect them, among other things.
The two were about to part when Sheridan called from (the television communicator things) the communicator thingy. "Artemis, are you free?"
"Yes, I just finished speaking with Arloorn. What do you require of me?" Artemis asked curiously.
"Holly needs to speak with you down at customs. From what Garibaldi told me she senses something, and needs you to confirm it. Will you?" Sheridan informed quickly.
Artemis moved towards the door and replied, "Of course Captain, I will do everything I can to help."
Bester came into the command room, and looked questioningly at Sheridan, "What is it you wished to speak with me about?"
"Well, your… um friend Kaitlin? Well a… Rather strange kid who just appeared on board with a female fairy, and he managed to free her from the machine's control. She is resting now, but Dr. Franklin says that she will wake in an hour or two. I thought that you would like to know." Sheridan replied softly. (A/n I know that Bester is a slimy jerk, but I felt bad for that poor lady)
Artemis too sensed the darkness, and it was coming closer, two or three shadows, along with a servant. Both Artemis and Holly were working on customs duty, but inspected every face, makings sure that they matched their ident cards. The shadows were getting closer, both of them could feel it.
Mr. Morden was confident that he wouldn't get stopped. His fake ident card was of the highest quality, and he could provide some monetary 'persuasion' if necessary. He was surprised to see a strange alien and a kid to be helping out the customs officials, but he decided to go into the kid's line. /I think I can persuade this kid to let me in./ He thought confidently. So he gave the kid his ident card and casually asked "How long have you been on Babylon five?"
"A couple of weeks sir." Artemis replied, very alert. The three shadows were surrounding him. He searched the man's face and discovered that he was the shadow's servant.
"English?" Mr. Morden asked curiously.
"No, Irish." Artemis replied, sending a silent plea for help Holly's way. She understood and went to fetch Garibaldi.
Mr. Morden saw the chief of security coming his way. His 'associates' grabbed the kid. ( the shadows grabbed the kid, extending their invisible shield around him) and they rushed into the main part of Babylon five.
Artemis was both furious, and scared. Furious because he was getting kidnapped, scared because the shadows, the ancient enemy had captured him. He didn't know what all he could do, but he had a feeling that what ever they were, few would work on them and any would give him away as a young Time lord.
If any one is reading this, please review!