It was hazy as she tried to remember, was it only two weeks ago?
There was a bell call from the apartment door. Major Ivanova woke and looked at her bedside clock. It blinked 4:30am back at her. She could have sworn that it was blinking in a monovalent manner, or it could have been the lack of sleep. The bell sounded again. It was a brisk and no nonsense ring which meant only one thing. It was work.
Sighing, she dragged herself out of the bed, and walked over to the caller. As there was no wolf of the night to talk to, she activated the caller to whoever was the hateful person who was at her door.
"You are aware of the time?" She said trying not to growl.
"I am Major, "came the reply, a familiar feminine voice, which Ivanova could not place.
"And who may inquire is making the call?" Ivanova forced, trying to supress the irritation at the curt reply.
"Well, the president refer's to me as number one but I am good friends with Stephen."
Ivanova was taken aback by the reply. From that little comment she knew she wasn't dealing with Earth Force Intelligence but Alliance Intelligence. 'Number One' as she referred to herself was the former leader of the Mars resistance. She'd taken over the position of Head of the Intersteller Alliance's Inteligence when Michael Garibaldi had moved on. For ten years, her quiet ghosts kept President Sheridan informed on member's internal affairs and external threats, with a remarkable level of efficiency. Very few people knew that 'Number One' and Dr. Stephen Franklin had an on/off thing.
Ivanova had only met her twice, once when visiting John and Delenn on Minbar and the other after the 'Ark Royal' incident had been resolved five years ago. She double checked that she was alone with the apartment's security features and then buzzed the open button to her apartment. The woman walked in and while she came up the stairs to the apartment, Ivanova just had enough time to change. By the time there was a knock on the door Ivanova had managed to make herself reasonably presentable.
She opened the door to reveal a slight woman with a short bob of blond hair and sharp intelligent eyes.
"May I?" she asked.
"I though only vampires had to ask for permission?" replied Ivanova.
"Oh, it's the same for all people who work in the dark." She shot back smiling.
Number One walked into the sparse apartment and sat at the breakfast bar when Ivanova when indicated.
"Coffee?" Ivanova offered.
"Yes please." replied Number One. "I've got too much blood in my caffeine stream."
As the coffee peculated on the kitchen worktable, Number One produced a small file and passed it over to Ivanova. After she'd done that, she got out a scanner, ran it round the room and then got a small red ball out her bag and placed it on the table.
"Well, that's as secure as I can make it." She said to Ivanova's puzzled expression. "In my line of work being paranoid is standard issue."
Ivanova smiled, "So this must be important to the Alliance then?"
"Actually, it's not really." She replied. "Stephen mentioned something last week that set off a little warning flag in the back of my head. However, I won't lie. Whenever this comes up, I'm always interested."
"Ok, you've lost me already. Not really a good start."
"Yes, I know, I'm starting in the middle. Three weeks ago, just outside Vorlon space, a lifeboat was found. Low on power and with obvious battle damage. Out of the forty occupants, there was only one survivor. For all appearances, an eighteen year old girl. She's been taken care of at the Earth Force Military Hospital in Geneva."
"Ok, tragic and there's a twist coming isn't there."
"You mean apart from being just outside Vorlon space?"
"There are always new wreaks near Vorlon space." Replied Ivanova. "A sad fact that a lot of treasure hunters, scavengers and Archaeologists, ignore the ISA warnings that Vorlon Space is off limits. Then they wonder why their ships are vaped by the defenses the Vorlon's left behind."
"I suppose so." admitted Number One. "However, the lifeboat was drifting into Vorlon space and it was of Commonwealth design."
Ivanova dropped her coffee.
"Sorry about that, " Ivanova mumbled, trying to find a cloth to clean up the spill. She was flustered and lost her usual cool composure.
The Commonwealth. She hadn't heard from them since Lennier had died during the telepath war. After that, her communicator which had a direct line to Captain Phillip Douglas had remained silent. She'd even taken the communicator to Garabaldi to see if it was still working ok. Hers was but it wasn't picking up any signal from the other, which meant it had been destroyed. Ivanova had taken it as a sign that Douglas had died or even worse, lost his communicator.
"So as far as the Commonwealth was concerned, you thought about coming to me?" Ivanova asked.
"Actually, I wasn't going to, until I was discussing something with Stephen about that time."
"It was about a year before the telepath war. A relevantly quiet time if I remember, apart from the Commonwealth."
"Well, he mentioned that you came to him about that time, feeling a bit ill." She continued, looking a little sheepishly. "In fact, he said it was one of the times where he thought he dead right about something only for it to turn out wrong."
"Really?"
"He thought you were pregnant."
Ivanova dropped the cloth she was mopping up with. Number One recognised the look of shock and quickly carried on with her explanation.
"So I obtained a readout of the survivor's DNA and …" She opened the folder at a results page. "She appears to be the daughter of Captain Douglas." Number one looked at her meaningfully, a penny in the air.
The penny dropped.
"Oh no!" exclaimed Ivanova. "Eighteen years old… Impossible."
"Well, not really." Said Number One. "In your debrief documents from the time, you say there's a station in the commonwealth where there's a time violation effect?"
Ivanova wasn't listening to Number One. "I'm going to kill him." She whispered out loud.
"I'm sorry?"
"I'm going to find him, kick his ass and then wring his frigging neck." Ivanova shouted.
Number One looked shocked in reaction to this outburst and an awkward silence followed for thirty seconds or so.
"Sorry ." She mumbled an apology to Number One.
"That's ok." smoothed Number One, afraid of another outburst. "It must be a bit of a shock."
"Is this girl recovering or being held prisoner?" She asked, her composure regained.
"Erm.. Recovering."
"Right. " Said Ivanova. She walked over to the side of the room, opened a drawer and pulled out a communicator and a PPG. She called on the communicator.
"Yes. Major Ivanova here. When's the next military flight to Geneva?"
There was a pause.
"Book me on it." She ordered, "And after that, call General Mckenzies' office and tell them I'm taking his offer of backdated shore leave, starting tomorrow."
She got an acknowledgment and signed off.
"Thank you for bringing this to my attention." She said to Number One, "I've got it covered."
"If you're going to do what I think you are, I'll have to inform …"
"That's OK." Said Ivanova, cutting her off. "Inform who you need to. I'm going to take that girl home before she gets appropriated, rendered or whatever the term is for official kidnapping."
She was expecting protest from the other woman but there was none forthcoming. Number One just smiled, packed her things. She walked to the door in silence before turning round and saying.
"Mind you if you pass on the message that the ISA still are looking for a means of communication, I'd appreciate it."
And with a that same smile, she nodded a farewell to Ivanova and left. Ivanova counted to ten, suppressing her anger at the fact that this probably important to the Alliance after all, and then rushed up stairs to pack.