5
Chapter Twenty-One: Two Brothers
KyTeth felt himself growing delirious. He felt as though his spirit had separated from his body at least three times in the past two days. He had eaten nothing, drank nothing, and had not slept at all. He and the other troop members had been standing there for two days, at attention, while Ni'Kar surveyed them all like a cat would watch caged mice. Na'Toth had come in twice, and had demanded to know what this was all about. Ni'Kar had finally told her, on her second visit, that he intended to keep the troops detained here until someone told him what they knew about the murdered Mhrr'Uniks. Na'Toth had left abruptly at that point. That was a day ago, KyTeth thought. Or was it two? He must have lost track of the time again. Finally, when KyTeth felt he was about to go insane from lack of movement and stimulation, Ambassador G'Kar entered the room.
"You have detained them for two days, Ni'Kar," G'Kar told his brother fiercely, "and they have told you nothing. Does it not occur to you that perhaps they are innocent of the crime?"
Ni'Kar had said very little during the two day staring ordeal. At the approach of his brother, however, he seemed to turn into a fiery madman.
"G'Kar, G'Kar-Rai'ko, my little Pouch-Brother whom I love and hate with equal intensity!" He called out ferociously, "So none of these is guilty of the crime? Then who is? You, perhaps? Was it you who ordered the murders?"
"No!" G'Kar boomed angrily, "I did not. I swear to you, my eldest Pouch-Brother, by G'Quan I did not. Whoever killed the three delegates did so by their own authority, not by mine. I vouch as well for my Aide, Na'Toth, who has been with me day and night for the past week—trying to deal with the mess which you have served us all, with your stirring up of the lower Circles, and inciting them to civil unrest. And as for negotiating with the Mhrr'Uniks—that is a lost cause before it is begun!"
"That is what the Centauris said about us, not long ago," Ni'Kar retorted hotly, "Do you not see what is happening, G'Kar? Do you not see how we are causing our own destruction, just as Trea' said we would? Mhrr'Unik must be set free! I know it, and so do you, if you would only consult your ancient memory!"
G'Kar stared at his brother furiously, closing his eyes for a couple of seconds before letting out a low, frustrated growl.
"Will you sacrifice our world for the freedom of the Mhhr'Unik, Ni'Kar? Is that what you would have us do? Let this go! You know as well as I do that the murders will have been from some young soldier's family member. He or she will have simply been honoring a Shon-Kar, as by Narn law—and yes, even Ancient Narn law—that person would have every right to do. Most probably, the person has already left the station! Why would they stay around here, with Garibaldi sniffing under all our tails? Let the troops go now, Ni'Kar. You may detain them no longer. G'Kar of the Third Circle orders a halt to these proceedings!"
"And Ni'Kar of the Fourth refuses the order!" He returned angrily, "I will have my answer, G'Kar. By G'Quan, we will stand here until I have my answer! The rogue who has done this has ended our chances for peace with this selfish act, and he will answer for it, whoever he is!"
"What is the matter with you, Ni'Kar? Are you not Narn? Can you feel no rage, no sorrow, at the loss of your two sons Mo'Kar and G'Rha, at the hands of the Mhrr'Unik? Anyone who has ever felt the pain of losing a loved one to the enemy must surely have enough compassion to understand what it is to hate!"
"Compassion and hatred do not go side by side, G'Kar," Ni'Kar stated simply.
G'Kar stared at his brother evenly. "We could go on like this all day, Ni'Kar," he said in return, "But it will do neither of us any good. Nobody is going to come forward to you—you know that. What is happening here is not about the Mhrr'Unik at all. It is about the rift between the so-called 'Black-Eyes" and 'Red-Eyes'. This is a racial distinction which is based upon nothing but eye color and which has no bearing upon anything anymore! Our races amalgamated many years ago. Our genes are mixed, Ni'Kar! You, a Black-Eye, and I, a Red-Eye—both brothers. And now, you wish to start a civil war back home based upon nothing but that. Shame on you! You hold peace so dear, and yet you would hold a gun to your own world's head! If you would truly be a man of peace, then come out of here and enter into negotiation with me. I speak for my government, and I am determined to avoid civil war—at any and all costs. We must not step backward, into the chaos of self-annihilation!"
"You are asking me to negotiate with you, G'Kar?" Ni'Kar asked, striding up to his brother and looking into his eyes intently, "You said that to me before, when our base was destroyed. You went back on your word, because your Third Circle friends did not want to let go of their foolish pride for a moment. There is no more room for negotiation with you, my brother! Any more negotiations will be with the Mhrr'Unik, and they are insisting upon a complete pull-out of all Narn forces stationed there—I have pledged this to the Mhrr'Uniks, and I do it for my two dead sons, as well as for their butchered comrades and the many more Pouchlings who are still alive and may yet be in the future if we are willing to give up a bit of our unjust power now. We should never have gone there in the first place, and I will shout this truth out to the entire Narn Regime! After what we have done to them, no Shon-Kar from us upon any of their people can ever be considered just! The only justice now is honorable action towards them. Shame on you, G'Kar, for being too cowardly to take this action."
"I will accept my shame, if you will accept yours, and enter into negotiation with me," G'Kar stated, "We can work our way out of this, together. I know from my investigations of the destruction of our base in Quadrant 37 that we have a far more powerful enemy to contend with than the Mhrr'Unik. There is a very dark Shadow-force that is coming upon us, brother, and we need all our people working together to resist it. I believe these shadowy forces have become allies with the Centauris, but I need to prove it to Captain Sheridan and the rest. I cannot do that properly if I am dealing with unnecessary civil war tensions! Do you think that these troops here are being trained to deal with the Mhrr'Unik, or the power-battles at home? Think again, brother, for I am dealing with a larger portion of the Universe than you are."
"Yes, you always have been, G'Kar!" Ni'Kar thundered back, "Or so you have always told me, when I was protecting our family and you were out with your power-hungry friends causing mayhem towards the Centauris. But I now hold within my grasp the loyalty of the lower class. It is I to whom they look towards for compassion, not you. One word from me and my soldiers, and they will all riot. The riots will spread like wild-fire, and rage out of control as they did when the Centauris ruled. We will destroy ourselves before these Shadow-people that you speak of ever have their chance with us, although I do not doubt that there are many lined up waiting to destroy us."
"All this we will discuss, my Pouch-Brother," G'Kar told his brother in a soothing tone, "But remember that I hold the loyalty of the Upper Classes. We who are the ruling class hold the ultimate authority and power. Are you sure your people will be able to arise from their own apathy in order to help murderous strangers re-gain their freedom?"
KyTeth heard the two leaders' arguments as if he was completely detached from it. It seemed to go on and on in the same vein, argument after argument, while he and his troops stood there like mute hostages. How long had they been standing there? Time seemed literally to have stopped. He and his troop members were trapped between the seconds, caught in some sort of torture trap, while the two idiots raged on. KyTeth could barely feel his body. Somehow, though, he felt the spirit of his mother, LaTeth, close to him once again. She was accompanied by the young Mi'Roc. The two Narn spirits said nothing, but merely comforted him. There was no advice in such an absurd situation.
Finally, at some point in frozen time, KyTeth decided that he had endured enough. After coaxing his spirit back into his body, he managed to twitch each of his muscles enough to put some feeling back into himself. He slowly worked himself out of his torpid state by exercising each of his body parts; first his arms, then his legs, then his tail and buttocks...he tuned into his ears, and was surprised to hear that the lunatics were still arguing, and going nowhere. He focused his vision on various objects in order to more fully extricate himself from his trance, until finally he felt he had enough bodily control to begin working on his troops. Each one of them was transfixed in the same frozen, immobile state. They reminded him of dormant snakes, all lying on the hot road, ready to be run over by a ground-car.
"Not on my watch," KyTeth thought. He began to call softly to the soldiers, whispering almost, and he very slowly led them through the same exercises that he had somehow been led to perform. He could feel the spirit of his mother, and that of Mi'Roc, encouraging him. Finally, as each of the troop members "awakened", KyTeth sent them on their way. He departed last of all, shutting the door of the "gym", and leaving the still-arguing G'Kar and Ni'Kar so that he could finally go home to his family for a meal and a long-awaited rest.