Chapter 10 – The Telepath's Dream

Bester knew the second David Sheridan fell asleep. He had avoided eye contact with the child for two hours, but he knew because he suddenly had easy control over his own thoughts again. The mental images pushing at the corners of his consciousness faded, then disappeared, and when he dared a look down at the baby, his eyes were closed in a peaceful surrender to sleep.

"Well. That's the thing about babies," he mused aloud. The other telepaths on board were showing signs that they recognized the easement as well. Everyone was visibly more relaxed. "They eat, they poop, and they sleep. Even telepathic ones." He stifled his own yawn. "I'll be in the back, catching some Z's."

"You sure you want to turn your back on that kid?" His superior asked.

"You don't have children, do you?" Bester replied. "Oh, they kick, they scream, they fight sleep… but in the end, once they're out, they're out. He let us go. We should take advantage of it while it lasts." He carried the child off the command deck and into darkened sleeping quarters.

There was no crib, no good place to safely put the child, so Bester resigned himself to cradling David in the crook of his arm in bed. He ventured a look down at the angelic face and felt the tiniest pang of guilt. "You understand it's nothing personal," he reasoned. "I don't wish you any harm. You're… one of us. You're special. But your father… he just… wouldn't cooperate." He sighed. The child had taken a toll on his mind, and he was exhausted.

Al.

He looked around. That voice…

Al, it's me.

"Carolyn?" He shook his head to clear the image, but there she was, plain as day, standing at the foot of the bed. "What are you doing here? You – can't be here."

"You can't do this, Al. Think… think of our child. Think of me. Could you do this… to me? To us?"

"That's different. You're… I love you. John Sheridan is a mundane, and more than that, he's a menace. He's –"

"A father," she interrupted. "Just like you." In her arms, she held a tiny bundle. Their child - his child. "He spared my life when he could have just as easily snuffed it out to hurt you. Faced with the fate of your lover and child… he chose life. Don't make this mistake. Don't do it."

He blinked and she was gone as quickly as she had come. He looked down. David Sheridan still slumbered in his arms.

Garibaldi worked out a crick in his neck as he walked the command deck of White Star 53. He rolled his head around, pushed back, to the side… finally a sickening pop and he felt slightly less tense.

"Anything?" He asked. The Ranger piloting this White Star was human, and he was glad for that. The Minbari were a wonderful people, but how they ever managed to communicate anything to anyone inside their own race, much less outside of it, with 97 different dialects of the same fraggin' language was beyond him.

"Nothing." The ranger sighed. "We've been scanning the ground for four hours, Mr. Garibaldi. The fleet has been everywhere but the polar region. I'm sorry, but I think… he's gone."

Bester woke as the ship docked inside the orbit of the Vega colony. Instinctively he lifted his arm, only to realize it was weighted down. He looked, and remembered. Those eyes were staring back at him.

The mental flash was more powerful this time, no doubt magnified by the effects of Hyperspace. He could hear the crowd chanting David's name. He could see, in particular, one woman – older, her eyes burdened with unmistakable loss but at the same time beaming in pride. She stood behind her son in reverence. But, Bester noted as the flash ended and he was jolted back to reality, she was… alone.

"Apparently your father is going to get what's coming to him after all," Bester told the child. He walked to the bridge, where the other four telepaths on board had assembled. To the ship's captain he said, "I'll take him down."

"Alone? Al –"

"Sheridan, and all of Babylon 5 that goes with him, have been my special project for years. I want to be sure this is done properly."

There was a long silence, and Bester could tell the other man was trying to get inside his head. He blocked him at every turn. "Fine," the reply came finally. "But I want proof that it's done."

"You'll have it." Bester again fought off attempts to read his thoughts, pausing only a moment before he turned and strode toward the shuttle that would take him and the child to the planet's surface.

"They know that we are here."

The creature looked at him. It didn't have facial expressions, but if it did, Londo Mollari was sure the look that accompanied its next words would have been one of utmost stupidity. "They know that I am here," it corrected him. "They have no knowledge of you, and they have no interest in engaging us. They are… distracted. Just as well. They could destroy me, but what would there be to gain from that, for either side?"

Londo wished, just for a second, that the White Star that had come so close had engaged the vessel that carried him. Perhaps, in the ensuing firefight, he would have been killed. Perhaps that would have freed him from the creature.

But no. He had made so many errors where this particular family was concerned, and the creature was right. Strange as it seemed, the creature's survival, at this very moment, was the only hope Sheridan had of ever seeing his child again.

"We have reached our destination. Behold."

Londo looked out into the blackness of space. He could see the green of the Vega colony on the planet below them. And just on the other side of the planet, he could see a very large and ominous looking ship. He squinted for a closer look and could make out the PsiCorps insignia on the forward cargo hold.