—Extract from Security Chief Michael Garibaldi's interview with Talia Winters—
There isn't much I can tell you. I was involved as a third party, and that only because Commander Sinclair requested my services. If I'd known what I was in for, I probably would have charged more.
When I got to the commander's office, I was surprised to see that he had sensitive information displayed on the wall monitors. Not only that, but he was thinking very loudly about it. I couldn't have avoided hearing him if I tried.
"Commander," I said, "if you don't want me to scan you, you might not want to think so obviously."
"You know I don't like it when people scan me," he said, but he was thinking the opposite.
I let myself fall into his mind just a little. I saw a ship hanging in space, and the ambassadors being abducted by a group of men wearing black-light camouflage. I saw the crystal on the edge of the desk waiting for me. I reached out and took it. The commander smiled. "As I said before, I need to hire you, Miss Winters. The aides to Ambassadors Delenn, G'Kar, and Mollari were very upset after a recent talk I had with them, and I think it would be better for everyone if you were to smooth things over. Convey to them that as an EarthForce officer I have to follow my orders to the letter." He thought of the crystal in my hand. He thought of delivering it to them. "You'll be compensated at the standard rate. Do you understand, Miss Winters?"
How could I not? He was mentally shouting at me. "Of course, Commander," I said.
"Excellent. Please meet them in the casino right away."
I didn't hurry. Even though the information I possessed was important, I knew better than to draw attention by running. So I walked. I got on a lift and I took it to the casino. It was early enough in the day it wasn't that busy. I scanned the crowd and spotted Na'Toth sitting alone in a corner booth. A man walked by and asked her something and she sent him a glance so withering I didn't need to scan her to know what she was thinking. He slunk away and I took his place.
"Maybe I'll have better luck," I said. "May I sit?"
"I am waiting for someone," she said.
"I believe you're waiting for someone hired to smooth things over between you and the station," I said. "Unless the commander misinformed me."
I always expect her teeth to be sharp when she smiles, and I'm always surprised when they aren't. "The commander is most generous," she said. "Please, sit. I would offer you a drink of kriul, but I believe it is lethal to your species. Poisoning is a bit too Centauri for my tastes."
"Well, I did think Mister Cotto would be here as well," I said.
"Mister Cotto is otherwise engaged," Na'Toth said. "You'll be dealing with me, unless you have some objection."
I could feel the desire in her; the vague hope she could win me over. Na'Toth's thoughts are cool, slower and more calculated than human thoughts. Each was examined and discarded or saved for later, one at a time. At that moment she was thinking about my abilities, about the lack of Narn telepaths, about how even a little DNA would improve their chances of genetically engineering the ability into their gene pool.
I smiled at her, outwardly as unaffected as she was. I ordered a Jovian Sunspot and we sipped our drinks in silence.
Na'Toth finished her glass and said, "Do you know, I was surprised when I found out that they carried Narn drinks here. And that they are well made."
"Why were you surprised?" I asked.
"From the outside this station looks so human. And inside, everyone who is to protect or interact with us is EarthForce. No joint military operations; no shared control. I found the entire arrangement dangerously lopsided. Isn't it interesting how I tend to be right at the worst moments? My particular talent, one could say." She lifted the glass and looked into it, her red eyes reflecting in its surface. "Narn drinks. Very nice. Not as nice as those same EarthForce personnel telling us when we've been targeted for assassination, of course, but nice."
"I'm sure the commander had his reasons."
"Everyone has reasons, Miss Winters. I have reasons. You have reasons. But they are not always good reasons, are they?" she asked.
Na'Toth looked at me like she could see through me, like I was an open book to her. All these years in the Psi Corps, and no one has ever looked at me quite like that. Other telepaths look at you like you're a book they've been eyeing on the shelf. They want to read you, and maybe they will, but they aren't in a hurry about it. Na'Toth looked at me as though she saw my cover, and knew the entire plot and every character inside. It was disquieting.
I focused on my drink. It was orange, the same color as her skin. I set the data crystal on the table. "A peace offering," I said.
"And we thank you for it. Is this everything we need?"
I told her in quick, quiet terms everything the commander had projected for me. I'd been hired to relay the message and I made certain she heard every word. When I was done she leaned back and studied me again.
"I think that concludes our business," I said, "don't you?"
"Not quite," she said.
I waited. I wanted to pry into her thoughts, but she wasn't projecting and the rules are there for a reason. "What else can I do for you?" I asked, still polite, still placid. It pays to seem above it all when you're in my position.
"You are considered attractive by human standards," she said.
Get your mind out of the gutter, Mister Garibaldi, or stop projecting.
"I suppose," I said.
"How do you achieve this?"
I've had stranger questions than that asked of me while employed. "Are you interested in attracting someone?" I asked.
She gave me the same withering look she had given her earlier admirer. "You humans," she sneered, "so fixated on a single topic. This is strictly business, Miss Winters. Please answer the question."
"I take care of my appearance," I said.
"Details."
"Makeup, hair, the appropriate clothing. It would help me narrow down topics if I knew where this was going."
"Could you achieve a similar effect with another? If you could use these implements of yours?"
"Yes, probably."
"Good," she said. She stood up, paid our tab and said, "Then fetch them and come with me. I believe it is nearly time, and I will require your skills."
It was becoming harder and harder not to read her, but sometimes not knowing is more interesting. I detected no hostile intent, and she seemed entirely honest about what she needed, if constitutionally incapable of asking politely. She followed me to my quarters, where I collected my makeup and, at her urging, a few hair products.
"Your hair is very flat. Very smooth. I take it this is desirable amongst humans," she said as she inspected a bottle of mousse.
"It can be."
"Good. And your skin is quite an even color. Is this also achieved by subterfuge?"
"I tend to call it foundation." I showed her the bottle.
"A desirable color for a human?"
"It's to even my tone, not paint my face, Na'Toth."
"And the rest of these colors?"
I closed my eyes to show her my eyeshadow, then indicated the rouge on my cheeks and the lipstick. She leaned in close. "Interesting," she said. "I did not know humans were so careful to erect a façade to shield their true selves. I approve. Do you have everything you will need?"
"I think so. You are aware I tend to be contracted as a telepath, not a stylist, right?"
"I am a diplomatic attaché. That does not mean I could not be a soldier or an assassin, if asked." She strode out of my quarters as though she, not I, owned them. "Come, Miss Winters. Time is not on our side."
When she couldn't see me, I rolled my eyes. "You could have just said yes," I said to myself, and then followed her out.
She led me to the ambassadorial wing, and I grew even more intrigued. I had a general idea that she and the other aides intended to rescue their ambassadors, and that they would be travelling to the ship I had been instructed to tell them about. I also knew they would have an easier time getting aboard a ship full of humans with a human. I wondered who they had managed to convince to come with them. I thought of Ivanova, and imagined the look on her face when Na'Toth brought me in to do her makeup and her hair. I hoped it was Ivanova. It would make the entire strange incident worth the headache.
Na'Toth led me to a door which opened when she signaled. Instead of the deep red of the Narn quarters, it was colorful and smelled like no one so much as … "Are these Ambassador Mollari's quarters?" I asked.
"Your perception does you credit," Na'Toth said. I followed her inside and stopped when I saw Vir Cotto and Lennier seated together on a couch, talking quietly, their heads leaned toward one another.
Vir saw Na'Toth and jumped to his feet. "We have a ship!" Then he saw me and stammered, "Or we would. If we needed a ship. Which we don't."
"Relax, Centauri," Na'Toth said. "She has been hired to assist us in our mission."
"Hired?" Lennier asked. He didn't sound like he approved.
"By Commander Sinclair," Na'Toth said. "As I said, he is not one to sit idly by."
"Who am I supposed to make over?" I asked.
"Make over?" Na'Toth asked.
I held up my bag of makeup and hair products. "I thought there would be another human here."
"You are mistaken," she said. "You transform yourself, creating a pleasing façade to other humans. You will do the same to Mister Cotto."
"What?" Vir asked before I could.
Lennier positioned himself slightly between Na'Toth and Vir, and the surge of protectiveness from him was powerful enough it worked past my defenses. "Is that necessary?" he asked.
"We have a location; we have a vessel; all that is required now is a human to grant us access to this ship and identification enough to get us aboard." She looked at me. "Miss Winters can gain the identification and passcodes we require, but as for the human, it can only be you, Vir."
Lennier slumped. "She's right," he said. "I cannot pass for human, nor could Na'Toth. You are the only species that is close enough to fool even a gross examination."
Na'Toth smiled and turned to me. "Miss Winters, begin whenever you are prepared."
I stared at Vir Cotto, with his rumpled crest of hair, snowy skin, expansive eyebrows, and the sharp teeth he revealed when he smiled at me nervously. I sighed. Definitely not Ivanova.
"I'm going to need wax," I said.
Vir's smile faltered. Na'Toth's grew. "Miss Winters," she said, "I believe I am beginning to like you."