Author's notes: This is my first chapter preread by my betareader. I just want to thank him for doing such fine work. I can't imagine how I did those last eight chapters without you.

Your cell awaits you

Babylon 5
The Thunderchild was still towing the asteroid, although it was almost in place and the Salvador would leave on its mission the next day. But today its crew enjoyed some well-deserved shore leave after the new jump engines had been installed. Most just took in the atmosphere and had a few drinks with friends. Others used this time to be alone with themselves or someone special. The Captain did some rock climbing on Holodeck 2 on the Odyssey.

In a cafe on Babylon 5 itself, Captain Hiroshi and Captain Walker were having lunch. Walker had been surprised when she called to invite him, but had accepted and now he was enjoying himself. They had both seen the first ISN broadcast since the studio was attacked and they had both seen how they now resorted to lies to cover up what had happened. ISN had become a propaganda channel for the Clark regime and the things they said about the Federation were just plain ridiculous.

Ambassador Mollari on the other hand was not so happy at the moment. In part this was caused by that fool Reva with whom he was forced to talk to at the moment. Tied to that was the adamant refusal by those Federationists to tell where they came from or trade their technology with the Centauri Republic. "I have taken the tour on board one of their ships and it looked quite impressive, Lord Reva."

"Yes, yes, I read your report. But I want to know why they do not share their technology with us while they share it with the others?"

"It is in my report. They don't sell their technology to any race that is fighting an offensive war. That is why the Abbai were the first to get an agreement, but they have also made it clear that they will not sell military technology. They are teaching races how to create artificial gravity and they sell the specs of medical devices and universal translators."

"Thanks to you Mollari, we can no longer depend on mister Morden's associates to help us. I have seen what those ships did too the Earth Alliance ships, that kind of technology could make our ships twice as strong. We need it, put some pressure on them and they will give in."

"How can I put pressure on them? I can only annoy them, yes. You haven't heard it yet but they gave G'Kar a tour of the ship as well."

"Are you saying that they are going to help the Narn?"

"No, I don't think they will. They didn't give him a tour a long with the ambassadors but I do know that they have sympathy for the Narn people because of what we did to their homeworld."

"Too bad, just put pressure on them Mollari. We will teach them not to ignore the Centauri!" With that Refa ended the transmission leaving Mollari pondering and worrying about what kind of foolish scheme Refa had thought up this time.

At the same time as the conversation ended, the Federation ships' sensors detected a jump point opening an hour's travel away from the station. Too far away for the sensors of Babylon 5 to detect but obviously they hadn't counted on the Federation ships. Commander Thalev was on the bridge of the Odyssey at the time. "Report, Ensign."

"A jump point opened up 3 light minutes away from the station and one starfury exited it. It is making its way to the station now."

"Inform Babylon 5 and the Captain of what has happened and set a course for the fighter, warp 8."

In seconds they had reached the black fighter, with a white omega symbol on top of it. "This is the Federation starship USS Odyssey to unknown starfury, state your identity."

He was a long way from the station and was about to send his distress signal when suddenly a white ship came out of nowhere. He had heard of these Federation ships and how they had taken out two destroyers in a matter of minutes without getting even a scratch themselves. But he had never suspected that their sensors had this kind of a range. Another bit of information that he would store away for later use. "This is Alfred Bester, Psicorps. It is important that I speak with Captain Sheridan."

There was a pause and then came the reply. "Cut your engines, we will tow you back to the station."

He saw no point in arguing so he complied. The ship sailed gracefully towards him and then lashed out with some kind of light, which pulled his fighter towards the ship. Then it turned and suddenly he saw how stars just streaked by. They had already reached the station before he could recover from the shock.

Instead of being cleared for docking as he suspected, he was told to wait near the station for at least half an hour before somebody talked to him. He hadn't gotten much from that Federation ship but he was certain there were telepaths onboard. Now he finally got contacted and he immediately recognized the sound of the voice, Captain Sheridan.

"Mister Bester, we no longer have any ties to Earth or to the Psicorps, so what are you doing here?"

"I have some important business to discuss with you, Captain. I was going to announce my arrival but apparently your bellboys were faster then I thought."

"Mister Bester, we no longer have to put up with you or your games. Right now, I am standing next to the controls of a 200 megawatt pulse cannon, give me one good reason why I shouldn't blow you out of the sky."

"Because you are curious? Kill me and you will never know why I took the trouble of coming here. I think that if you weigh that against the brief satisfaction of blowing me out of the sky, you will do the right thing."

Sheridan didn't answer him. "Captain?"

"I'm thinking it over."

"Ah." Now Bester got a bit worried. "Good." Although he didn't sound like he meant that.

"Ok, I will hear you out."

The welcome was as warm as always, mused Bester to himself staring at six security guards emitting very hostile thoughts. "You know, if this keeps up. I am going to start thinking that people around here just don't like me. I presume you are here to take me to my usual cell?"

While Bester was being brought to his cell, he was observed by Sheridan, Ivanova, Garibaldi, Franklin and Walker, who had decided to ask them what all the commotion was about. He had overheard the conversation between Sheridan and Bester, and Sheridan had told him about their past dealings with the Psicorps. That combined with what they themselves had gathered about that particular organization made him worry about why this Bester was here.

"I don't like it." There was a lot Garibaldi didn't like. "I didn't even know the little creep could fly a starfury."

"Every once in a while," said Sheridan as he turned away from the monitor, "a Psicop has to go out on his own, for security reasons. He is checked out on all the latest fighters."

"Did he tell you why he is here?" asked Franklin.

"He said that he wanted to fill us in, in a personal meeting."

"He just wants to get close enough to scan us." Ivanova distrusted the Psicorps intensely and so far was proven right to do so.

"But why? Everything that we were planning to do, we've done. We have broken away from Earth, taken a stand against the Psicorps and the President. Not much left to scan us for."

"He doesn't know that, Franklin."

"Well, I could drug him up again. Limit his ability to scan us."

"He says that if we do that, he won't be able to help us."

"Come on." Garibaldi was as skeptical as always. "Who in this room thinks he wants to help anybody but himself. He's just trying to pull a fast one."

"So what do we do then? Just keep him locked up forever?"

Ivanova was for that idea, but Sheridan was still curious about why he had come to Babylon 5.

"We have to find out if he is telling us the truth. If he is, we need to hear him out. If not, I am all for throwing him into, no under the brig."

Now was the time to offer his help, thought Walker to himself. "If I may, I think that I can help you with your trust issue."

Sheridan turned to face the Federation captain. "How?"

Captain Walker just smiled, tapped his combadge and asked for Counselor Taber. It took a few minutes, but then in stepped Taber.

"How can a counselor help us/"

"Because he is a Betazoid, he can tell us whether mister Bester tries to scan us and block him if he tries."

"You mean he is a telepath." Susan's look became instantly suspicious. "Why do you call a telepath, a Betazoid?"

Taber answered that question. "Because that is my species, I am not a human but a Betazoid. And I would be happy to help, Captain."

Susan now noticed the black eyes that lacked an iris. "What does it matter what species you are? You are still a telepath." It sounded like an accusation.

But Sheridan had a question of his own, this time for captain Walker. "Why didn't you tell us you had telepaths on your ship?"

"My apologies, after I had seen the broadcasts I should have realized that you would react negatively to the knowledge that there were telepaths among my crew but where we come from, that isn't a problem or even something you think about. Some can hear better, others see better and others can sense thoughts or emotions. It's just the way of the universe, we don't have an organization to control them. There is no need and your Psicorps only proves how bad the idea is."

Taber took over from Captain Walker now. "As to why it's important what species I am. Humans don't have any telepaths were we come from. But there are a few members of the Federation that are telepathic, like Betazoids."

"You mean that there are entire races composed completely of telepaths!" Ivanova didn't even wait for the nod, the very possibility made her shudder. The others seemed to be uncomfortable too, but Sheridan pushed his discomfort aside. He didn't trust Bester but he didn't completely trust these Federationists either. Not yet anyway. "Well, if you can muzzle Bester then we can hear him out right now. The sooner he is of my station, the better."

It wasn't long before the guards came to escort him without a word to Sheridan's office. Of course he didn't need words but it would be best not to offend them too much. He still needed them.

Sheridan's office was crowded by the usual mundanes. Franklin, Ivanova, Garibaldi and of course Sheridan. However there were also two that he hadn't met before, but their uniforms clearly showed that these were from the Federation ships. One of them he recognized from the recordings as captain Walker but who was the other one? "I take it these are your other guests, Captain? Apparently they hadn't heard about how hospitable the station is."

"I am Captain Walker and this is ship's Counselor Taber." Taber just nodded in acknowledgement.

A psychiatrist? Why was he present here? Never mind, there were more important things than that.

"Lately it has come to my attention that we have a common enemy. There is an old saying: 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'. President Clark isn't calling the shots back home. There are others whispering in his ears. I don't know who they are or where they are from, but I do know they are not human. I have only heard one name for them. Shadows. My guess is that you know more about them then I do, but you are probably not interested in sharing that information, are you?"

If this is about Shadows then maybe it wasn't such a good idea to accept the help of captain Walker, thought Sheridan. No telling what they thought of them. But Bester wasn't finished.

"The future belongs to telepaths, captain. And I intend to make certain that future happens, one way or the other. But we can't be on top if the aliens get there first and some of them have. Through Clark they have infiltrated the Psicorps, apparently they have their own plans for my telepaths. Whatever these aliens are, they are interfering with my plans for the future. I won't have it."

"Why did you come now? What happened that forced you to act?"

"In a few hours a convoy of ships will be riding the hyperspace beacon through sector 500. At the center of the convoy is a ship containing supplies for our mutual enemy. The transport is being escorted by approximately half a dozen enemy fighters. Seize the ship and we deprive them of some of their weapons capability, but it is important to capture the ship not destroy it."

"So how did you find out about all of this?" Captain Sheridan had an idea but he wanted to make certain.

"I'm a telepath, work it out."

"Mister Taber has he tried anything?"

Now Bester was surprised and he looked at the counselor. So the Federation had telepaths and they had used one to make certain that he wouldn't try anything funny. It was a good thing, then that he hadn't.

"No captain, he hasn't, however there is something you should know." Bester didn't like that. "When he mentioned the supplies, I could hear what the cargo was. Apparently these Shadows consider telepaths as weapons."

How had he done that, he was certain that he wasn't scanned in any way? Bester had hoped to keep that a secret until after they had been freed but now he would have to play on their sympathy as well as their self-interest or they might not risk a fight for mere telepaths. "Yes, your telepath is correct. I thought that the ship was carrying weapons components but only later did I learn that it was in fact abducted telepaths that were being transported."

It wasn't enough, he could see it in their eyes. Except for captain Walker who seemed to be thinking about something. Then he spoke before anybody else could. "Does it really matter what the ship carries? Photon torpedoes or telepaths, your enemy uses them as weapons and that means that you should prevent them getting to their destination. And since these telepaths didn't go willingly, I can send help along. The Salvador is ready and I am certain that captain Santowitz would want to help you."

Sheridan thought it over. On the one hand it was telepaths that they were going to help, but on the other hand the shadows obviously wanted them and he was curious what they were planning to do with them. There was only one way to find out.

"Alright, it seems that we are going to help you, Bester. But now that you have delivered your message, what do we need you for?"

"Locating a ship this small in hyperspace is extremely difficult. The gravitational incline, competing beacons, energy surges. You could search for days and not find it. Unless you just happen have a lone telepath rated at P-12." He even raised a hand for emphasis. "Someone like myself. Trained P-12's can pinpoint a ships location by focusing on the thought waves of those onboard. For some reason hyperspace seems to amplify the signal considerably."

"So how come I have never heard about that little ability before?"

"Captain, please. We kept it to ourselves, otherwise the military might start placing telepaths on the frontlines. We are not expendable, unlike mundanes."

"That would be us."

"Got it in one, Mister Garibaldi. It takes generations to breed a telepath, mundanes breed like rabbits. Supply and demand. Nothing more, nothing less. Captain, we don't have a lot of time and without me you will never find them."

"Maybe, maybe not. Counselor Taber, can you do what mister Bester here is so sure he can do?"

"No, I don't think I can. I have no idea if hyperspace works for me too and I wouldn't know which thought pattern to look for."

Captain Walker took over from here. "Unfortunately, tests have shown that our sensors are severely limited in hyperspace. We can still see further then any of your ships but not far enough to find one lone, small transport escorted by a couple of fighters. I am afraid that we will need his services."

"Prepare the Whitestar, we leave in half an hour." ordered Sheridan.

"I will tell Santowitz about his new mission, he will be ready then."

As the rest left, Ivanova stayed behind. She seemed reluctant to bring up the topic so Sheridan started.

"You wanted to talk to me in private?"

"Yes, we have a problem. It's G'Kar."

TBC