This story is based on the Babylon 5 universe, created by J. Michael Straczynski.
Chapter 25—Recreation and Revelation
The reply from Sinclair was not encouraging. That Neroon had pressed him was obvious, threatening to force her removal from the Anla Shok unless Sinclair complied, although the diplomatic human never admitted it. He had known it would drive the gulf wider between her and her father. But Havah didn't need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. The reasoning Sinclair gave her for his orders was that her service to the warrior caste would provide her with vital experience they would need, since the loss of so many warrior caste among the Anla Shok. And she had been able, thus far, to collaborate with him sufficiently, while aboard the war cruiser, despite the distance. His face was unhappy and his tone morose, as he counseled her to remain patient, and promised to recall her to fight with the Anla Shok, when the time came to move, regardless of what her father had to say. She closed the message disconsolately, envisioning with zest the verbal brawl she was going to engage in with Neroon when she saw him next. In the meantime, there was nothing she could do. Any message bearing contents concerning the Rangers had to be either sent in a coded message, or delivered by Anla Shok. Neroon would not think to uncode a message from her in that way, and she couldn't really justify using an Anla Shok to get into a tiff with a family member. She dismissed the messenger with gratitude, and satisfied herself with going to the practice hall and picturing Neroon's face and assorted body parts thumping, as her pike hit the practice targets.
The dreams were back. Havah twisted in her covers.
The stench issuing from the fitting she was replacing in the settlement tank was powerful, and leaked through the edges of the mask. She wrinkled her nose and repressed a gag reflex.
"You didn't have to do that, speak up as you did. It may have ruined your career." The young man looked at her softly before wrenching loose the joint he was working on. It came loose, and raw waste trapped in the joint spattered onto his uniform. "Ugh." He grimaced.
"What career? I am nineteen years and only a hanad, like you. I do not have a career yet."
"And you may stay one because of this. Why did you risk so much?"
"Why did you?"
"Because I have a big mouth and do not know when to shut it."
Turanni giggled. She was stuck refitting the pipes in the waste recycling settlement tank, with a nose full of excrement, probably until Minbar froze again. But at least she was stuck with someone who could make her laugh about it. "Well, so do I…And I think that you are right." She twitched and bit her bruised lip through the mask.
He nodded.
Something had been preying on the Minbari, in space. Just as it had ten years ago. Ships were disappearing again, not reporting back. And instead of pouring resources into real investigation, the clans were suspecting one another, just like they had ten years ago, because of circumstantial indications that it had been one or another clan. But the idea, when dissected, was illogical. And she seethed with indignation at her treatment and at their refusal to even consider other possibilities. She peeped a look at the young man, under her eyelashes, as she worked. He was tall, handsome, with a regal headbone that rose in even, intricate spikes. The bruises on his face just made his jaw look stronger. He was brave too. He had been there when the news came in that one of the other Star Rider ships had failed to report in. Debris was found, indicating that they'd been destroyed. They were supposed to rendezvous with a Wind Sword ship, and transfer the patrol to them, but when that ship arrived, late, there was nothing but glittering space dust.
The superior officers were implicating the Wind Sword ship, and this young man, Trelann, was his name, had stood up for them. "But you don't know that!…Na? What other evidence is there to suggest that it was them? What about other races? There is something else out there. The Wind Swords would attack openly!"
He was backhanded for his impudence at challenging a superior officer.
Remembering the clan battle, ten years previously, Turanni stepped in between him and the officer penalizing him. "He's right, Na, please! It doesn't make sense."
She was thrown to the ground, hauled up, hands bound, and made to march to the stockade, where they were given corporal punishment and relegated to shifts in the waste-recycling unit until further notice. If they would not stand up for their own clan, then there were other uses for them!
"Do you think I am a coward?" He asked tentatively looking at her.
"What? No! Or if you are, then so am I. It's stupid to assume that it's other Minbari doing this. We've had other enemies before, why not now? I can't believe that after what happened ten years ago, they're still jumping at the opportunity to call each other out! It's STUPID! And I don't care if they leave me in here forever…well, I do, but I'm not going to murmur reverently that they are right all the time, when they aren't!" She threw down the pipe she was cleaning in a fit of pique, and the slop splashed happily all over the floor at his feet. "Ooh! Sorry, but they make me so angry!"
He smirked. "It's alright. At least I know that I will have company quite a few more times then." He glanced over slyly, and flicked a wet chunk of cake in her direction, with a heavily gloved finger. It hit her smock and stuck like a wad of putty.
"That's disgusting, stop it!"
He grinned and did it again.
"Stop it, we'll get in trouble!"
"We're already in trouble!"
"Infant!" She gouged a large cake out and lobbed it at him.
It hit him in the back as he turned, collapsing in laughter, eyes wrinkling at the edge of his mask.
"What is so funny, you miscreant!" She stomped over and began punching him, as he laughed even harder.
"You're as much of a miscreant as I am, and look, you were the one afraid of getting into trouble and now you're beating me up! Don't you think that will attract attention?" He grabbed her wrists and held them, pulling her over onto the ground and pinning her, when she paused.
"Cheater!" She looked up into the deepest brown eyes she had ever seen. "Get off me! You stink!"
Havah murmured and rolled over onto her stomach and slid down the incline of the bed until her feet dangled.
"They're flanking the Enfili! Yanazha, pull back and cover their left side! Antatha, hostiles at 24 degrees hard right!"
Valen confirmed the orders she relayed to them, as they were swarmed by colossal black spidery ships. The Yanazha crumpled one of the ships with continuous fire, covered, in turn, by the Antatha, but not before a beam sheared through the damaged Enfili, rupturing the anti-proton containment tanks. Trelann's ship erupted in a blaze of plasma, and Turanni sat down hard, winded, as the crew shielded their eyes against the light of the blast. She stared at it, blazing red against her retinas, feeling his soul withdraw through the hole in the universe, pulling a vital chunk of her with him into vacuum. Her husband, her twin.
Havah screamed and choked in her sleep.
Sinclair was standing in front of her trying to say something, flanked by two Guardians, with white ethereal wings. Angels, Havah thought. He was speaking in an ancient version of Light Minbari, but as she got close to hear what he was saying, he began fading into air. Just before he vanished, the lines of his face and head blurred, and she could see the outline of a bone crest, and thought she saw the face of Valen, as Turanni had seen him, and then the wings enclosed him and he was gone.
She opened her eyes, overwhelmed with a sense of urgency. It wouldn't be long now. Wouldn't be long before what? It was a long time yet before her watch, as she closed her eyes, the image of the exploding ship floating behind her eyelids, Sinclair's voice uttering fading words that she couldn't catch.
The next shift occupied her with a few live targeting drills. She held the controls reverently, peering through the reticle at a chunk of rock, imagining she could feel the power coursing through them as she adjusted the field of fire of the emitter, locked and fired. The rock vaporized as the matter and antimatter ripped each other apart.
Her superior officer piped into her earpiece. "Well done. The previous targeting problems seem to have been resolved, but we'll run more drills to be certain."
"Yes, Na." She sat, silent for a few moments.
"Is everything alright, ranat?"
"Yes, Na." The beams were vivid in her memory, ripping through Geezus' little Star Fury, next to her on the Line. So effortless.
"It is different from this end, is it not?" The earpiece replied, as though the shai ranat had read her mind.
"Yes, Na." She said sadly.
He said nothing further for a moment, respecting her memories, and then instructed her to select another target.
At the meal, Polenni asked, "What do you do after this meal? You always go off to your quarters and seclude yourself. Do you meditate?"
"No. I go to the training area sometimes to practice. I usually go before my shift though, because if I don't do it at the beginning of the day, I may lose the momentum to do it, and it's not that crowded then."
"Is that all? You practice fighting, do your shift, eat and sleep?"
"…No. I read and listen to music, in my quarters. Sometimes I go up to the observation deck. A lot of the activities in the recreation center require more than one person, and I don't really know anyone except you two. I…am not good at meeting new people sometimes."
"Well, why don't you go with us? And why do you not know anyone from the Star Riders?"
"Well, there was no opportunity to meet them really. And when I first came aboard, the one I marched after did not seem particularly inclined to talk to me."
"Hmm. They needed time to get used to you. Now that you have participated in the tournament, and word has spread about your standing up to your orders concerning the rebellious hanad, people will know a little more of you than your Humanity. But you have to make yourself more visible, and not hide in your quarters."
"I'm not hiding! Yes, I'd like to go with you next time you go to the rec center. Thank you."
Polenni hid a smirk. "As you say."
The recreation center was bustling with activity. There were Minbari playing a number of different types of strategy games, some of the games Havah had seen in the community hall in Tuvuri at their thanksgiving festival. Others were new to her. One of them used little colored stones, and could be won by the accumulation of differing patterns of nine stones in specified clusters or groupings. Other games utilized more technology. Virtual holographic suites provided scenarios for crew-members to test their hand-eye coordination against one another. There were crystal ports for music and Minbari performing-arts recordings, and links to home-world providing daily programming, and communications, so that they had a connection to current Minbari events, and to their families. There were meditation rooms, throughout the ship, for those so inclined. There was a refreshment area, for communal eating of victuals not supplied by the mess, things sent from home. And there was a stocked stand of other refreshments, for snacking and drinking. Two Minbari were sitting at the tables sharing bowls of beans, cups of hal'chi, and talking. It was to them that Polenni and Kol went, with Havah tagging along. The tall ranat from the boarding ceremony was there. Polenni formally introduced her. "Ranat Kilshinn of the family of Hadir, this is Ranat Lassee of the family of Callier. Havah, this is Ranat Kilshinn, and Ranat Ashar of the family of Hadir. They are also Star Riders, as you know."
Havah wondered idly if the two were brothers, although there was not much resemblance. She smiled awkwardly and waved. "Howdy."
"Ranat Lassee. Yes, we have been aware of you." Ranat Kilshinn spoke wryly, confirming her suspicion that she had been watched since she came aboard. "We are…cousins, you and I, and he. He and I are brothers. I am the elder." He indicated Ashar. Kilshinn filled a few empty cups with hal'chi and pushed them to the newcomers. He nodded to Havah. "You did well in handling the incident with Hanad Vaal and Shai Ranat Lidann. Drink."
"Thank you." Havah picked up the cup and brought it to her nose and looked at the rose colored liquid. It smelled like blackberries, very pleasant.
"Have you ever had hal'chi?" Polenni asked her.
"No."
"It has a bit more of a bite than the juices you may have had among the religious caste. And it is not allowed during military training, including Anla Shok." She grinned and took a long swig.
Havah tasted it. It had a sweet pungent taste unlike any of the fruits she had ever tasted, and it melted and dissolved on her tongue like cotton candy. A warm feeling suffused her stomach and all of her limbs. She quickly guzzled the contents of her cup.
Kilshinn held up his hand. "Slowly. The effects are cumulative. It is an intoxicant, with effects not unlike alcohol has on Humans, but longer lasting. We have all been drinking it since…since our fifteenth summer. If you have never had it before... You must be sober for your shift. Here. These help to mitigate the effect in your blood, making the intoxication more level." He pushed the bowl of beans towards her.
"What are they?" She took a handful of the dark red beans and popped them in her mouth. The ranat's eyes widened, and he laughed, shaking his head, as a fire enflaming her entire head and gullet began.
"They are terkala beans. I meant for you to take only a couple." He said as they all laughed at her choking, with tears streaming down her face. "Again, we have all been eating these since childhood. If you are not used to the heat of such food…" He laughed. "You are like a child, sticking everything in your mouth that is given to you."
"I'm…ok…I'm used to Mexican food." She sputtered, breathing through the burn, of the beans, and embarrassment. "You've never had habanero peppers, so I guess we're even."
"You will have to have some sent."
"What does 'howdy' mean? Hello?" Polenni asked curiously.
"Yeah. It's short for 'How do you do?'"
"Howdy." She tried it. "That is a very silly sounding word."
"Don't tell that to a Texan."
"What is a Texan?"
"It's a region on Earth."
"Oh, one of the states that we read about in your history."
"Yeah."
Ashar spread out a nine-sided cloth playing board and took out an ornate case with the polished colored stones that she had seen coming in. He distributed handfuls of different colored stones to the other four. He addressed Havah. "This is jo'shetha. Have you ever played?"
"No. How do you play?"
"Pick a corner of the board and order your stones along the edges however you like. You may only move one stone at a time at first. And the goal is to move your stones first, into a design agreed upon." He drew a configuration on a sheet of paper. "This is what it will be, this time. It can change each game. If you achieve three stones in the configuration, then you may move two stones at once, four stones in the configuration, then you may move three. Do you understand?"
"Yes. It sounds very complex."
"It is. It is good for positioning troops. And it is very nice to look at, the longer one has been drinking this." He held up his cup and smiled. "And much more difficult."
Havah sat down at the board. "So how come I never saw this drink much before on Minbar?"
"It was around, but enjoyed more among the warrior and worker castes. The religious caste disdains the consumption of anything that alters the chemical functioning of the brain, except during specific ceremonies, such as the Dreaming. They believe that one should achieve altered states only by meditation! Hmph!…Meditation has its place, but so does this!" Ashar held up his cup, and took a healthy gulp. "We do not have the leisure time of the religious caste!" He moved a piece into place. They played and talked about the day, about various people they knew in common, about politics, as the shapes grew on the board.
"What do you suppose will happen now, with the Council disbanded? Do you suppose Delenn will try to move the religious caste into a ruling position?" Ashar asked, concern apparent in his voice.
"Shai Alyt Shakiri will never allow that. Nor will Alyt Neroon." Polenni said, nodding briefly towards Havah.
"Will he re-form the Council?"
"I don't think he can." Kilshinn interjected. "He holds a lot of power, but the fracture is too large now, the dissent. There would have to be a demonstration of leadership to the other two castes before he could pull them together under him."
"Will Delenn then?"
"Same problem. The warrior caste will never listen to her. So what will they do, form the Council without a military to back it up?"
"What about someone from the worker caste? They're kind of neutral in this, aren't they? And you can't have anything without architects and engineers. No ships, no buildings, nothing." Havah ventured.
They all looked at her, and she shrunk into her seat. "Sorry. It was just a thought."
Polenni shook her head. "No…It is an interesting thought…and true. But no one among the worker caste is really in such a position of leadership now. They are generally more focused on operations…task-oriented. Except for their own projects and professions, many are not interested in more global management functions, where it applies to the other castes."
"Have they ever done so in the past?"
"…No…I do not think so." Polenni and the others looked at each other, searching memory. "It has always been this way. Leadership has always been taken by the warrior or religious castes, and the worker caste members of the council informed on what resources they had and what resources were needed to perform their tasks. They advised on logistics during war-time, what resources we would need from them, and during peace-time they focused on municipal and civic matters."
"So what now, now that there is no Council?" Havah asked.
They exchanged worried looks. "No one knows." Ashar said, staring hard at his remaining colored stones.
"We existed for centuries without a Grey Council, we can do so again. There is still the Council of Caste Elders. They have been around for far longer." Kol said reassuringly. "Besides, this Council, even with the predominance of warriors, was not functioning correctly." He shook his head regretfully. "I have not wanted to say it, but it is true. It took far too long for the warrior caste to be heeded in the Council, and the religious caste has simply been doing as they please anyway. In an odd way, Delenn may have done us a favor to dissolve it. A government should be effective and represent the best interests of the people. When it fails to do this, it should be altered until it does. The Grey Council was supposed to represent the Minbari people! It has been a long time, I think, since this was the case. How can they represent us when they are so far removed from our society and our lives and our realities, when they do not even know us anymore?"
Polenni glanced at him with shock at his brazen words, and glanced nervously at Havah, whose father had been a member of the Council.
But Kol continued. "No…I will not feign respect anymore, especially not to a Council that doesn't exist. That does not mean that I do not respect individuals who were on it." He looked at Havah. "Alyt Neroon worked very hard to improve the Council. But he was blocked too often by Delenn, even after she was gone. That woman had a way of working herself into everything! The Council itself was no longer effective. They were immobilized by dissent."
Havah held up her hands. "Hey, I don't know enough about your politics recently to argue with you. All I can say is that we're having problems with our own government. In fact, it was written into our Constitution that if a government fails to represent the people, it should be changed. That is what a government 'of the people, by the people, and for the people' means. It's not an original idea. But our current President has thrown the Constitution right out the window. He even dissolved our Senate, sort of like the Grey Council, but with a whole lot more people, and represented by region rather than caste. So I understand your dilemma better than you might think."
"So what now? How have Humans reacted to the dissolution of their Council?" Kilshinn asked, interested.
"They're outraged. But there isn't anything they can do. He declared martial law and instituted acts stating that anyone who speaks out against him or his current policy is a traitor or subversive. They are arrested and taken away. And who knows what happens to them after that."
"But how is he being supported in this, does the military support him? He must gain his power from somewhere."
"He is backed by an agency called the Ministry of Peace. Their arms and legs are the Nightwatch, a sub-organization."
"But how has he garnered their support? He must have convinced them somehow that he was right."
"Well, he's scared people into compliance. There was a man a long time ago, a few hundred years, named Hermann Goering. He was the Reich-Marshall of the Nationalist Party in Germany in the mid-twentieth century. His regime committed terrible war crimes, and most of the country went along with it, not because they were bad or dishonorable people, but because his regime used a powerful tactic. He said that 'voice or no voice, people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.' Clark is using exactly this tactic, spurring up people's fear of chaos and mixing it in with racial pride. He plays jingles and gives people pride in all things Human, and then makes them think that our way of life is being threatened by infiltrators, aliens, and alien-sympathizers…Unfortunately…he's right…just not in the way he's telling people."
"I do not understand."
"The threats to government aren't the people who are speaking out against him. It is the ones he's listening to that are the danger."
"His advisors?"
"…Yes. There are beings that are influencing everything he does. He is not in complete control."
"Beings? They are not Human?"
"No."
Darkness crept across Kilshinn's face, along with anger. "The Vorlons have been whispering in the religious caste's ears for the past two years! At first, I was intrigued to have a Vorlon representative on our world. But no longer. They do nothing but incite the religious caste into zealous frenzies concerning prophecy, but never have they demonstrated evidence for any manifestations of the prophesied events. They refuse to even show their faces!"
Havah shifted uncomfortably in her seat, envisioning the many-legged manifestations currently warbling in the corners of the Presidential Offices. It was a mistake to say anything, but she had never been good at knowing when to keep her mouth shut. "They are right about one of the prophecies."
The others just stared at her.
"The Shadows are real. I know because I've seen them. They're the ones working in my government. In fact, they've begun attacking other worlds now, right now." Now they'd think she was insane and stop talking to her again.
But her remark didn't garner the dismissing looks she expected. Only disbelieving questions. "What do you mean, you've seen them? You mean the attacks going on in the non-aligned worlds?" Kilshinn asked incredulously.
"Yes! Don't you read current events at all?"
"How do you know these ships are the same as those we fought a thousand years ago?"
"Because they're the same configuration."
"What evidence do you have of this?"
"Ambassador G'Kar has pictures of them from a thousand years ago, when they were attacking the Narns."
"Pictures?"
"In the Book of G'Quonn."
"A religious text." Kol said drily. "You're basing that entire assumption on a doodle in a religious text…A NARN religious text."
"What is it with you and religion? And it's not a doodle! It is a careful description, and the account matches the patterns we've seen."
"You mentioned that you'd seen them. Where?" Kilshinn piped in again, curious.
"I've seen them on a vid recording, standing near someone. It was captured on camera for a brief second. And I've seen data on their ships."
"How do you know this data was reliable?"
She paused. "I guess I don't, but it came from a reliable source, a few scientists. I have some experience in their field, so it looked authentic to me."
"How do you know that these ships, and bogeys that you saw for a split second on a vid, are from the same race?"
"Because the man who gave permission for the ships to be investigated was the same one surrounded by these beings on the vid."
"If he gave permission so easily, how do you know that the data wasn't planted? And how do you know that these beings are involved in your government?"
"I guess I don't!" She was getting annoyed. "But that same man has been involved in moving funds and giving plans for implementation to the President. How do you know that the religious caste is planning to usurp your place among the Minbari people?"
They all glowered at her. But after a moment of tense silence, Kol spoke up. "You have not shared our experience with them. That is why you do not understand."
"Well, you haven't shared mine. I wasn't imagining things. Two of the Anla Shok died trying to get me that information. Someone or something was after them. Who do you suppose it was, if it wasn't someone who doesn't want to be discovered? And how do you suppose people are dying now in the non-aligned worlds, spontaneous combustion?"
He shrugged. "Difficult to say…We have heard of the Shadows all our lives. So…what do they look like?"
"Like big spiders…" She remembered that none of the people to whom she was speaking had ever seen a spider. "They have six or eight legs with a few joints each. They look like insects."
"Are you certain that what you saw was not an insect crawling across the screen?" He smiled, teasing.
They all laughed. Havah just glared impatiently at him, crooking her jaw.
"And their ships? What do their ships look like?"
She had not seen them except in her dreams, but she wasn't about to tell them that now. "They're huge, black and spiky. The ships shimmer like they have skin. Smaller ships can bud out of the bigger ones. The big ones scream."
"They scream?" Polenni looked skeptical.
"So, the ships are like insects as well." Kol smirked.
"I guess."
"I think that you have a fear of insects."
"I think that you should bite me, and pay attention to your pieces!" Havah smartly moved in and surrounded him, cutting off his strategy.
He scowled. "Why would I bite you? That is not how we fight."
"It's an expression, Kol." She said, as the others snickered.
"You are the one who should pay attention." Ashar moved in and blocked every blooming pattern Havah had started.
Havah drove her hand into her forehead in frustration, and downed the rest of her cup. The room was nice and fuzzy. Kilshinn was right, the board patterns were even more fascinating now.
On the way back to their quarters, Havah called to Kol before he disappeared down his hallway. "Kol, wait! I want to ask you something, while I'm still affected by this Liquid Courage I've been drinking."
Polenni quickly disappeared.
He paused, looking quizzical, while Havah gathered herself. She blurted, "I heard that you liked me. Is that impression true, or am I way off? No big deal, just curious."
He looked truly puzzled. Oops, I guess I'm way off. How embarrassing. She thought. But then a light dawned on his face and he smiled slowly. "Ah…you mean sexual attraction?"
She fidgeted and turned several shades of red, through the blush that the drink had given her.
His look was gentle and amused. "I will admit that you are not…unattractive for someone of your…heritage. But I do not take lovers who are not fully of my caste…and race. I am sorry. I did not intend to give you the impression that such a thing was possible between us."
"No! No problem! Like I said, I was just curious. I wanted to get that out of the way is all. Sorry if I offended you in asking about it."
"You have not offended me. It is your face that is red." He grinned.
She scowled at him. He's pickier than you think, Polenni. She waved goodnight awkwardly, and went off down her hallway. He shook his head and disappeared down his.
She stared at the ceiling and let the embarrassment ebb. All that was left was a vague lonely dissatisfaction. Man, I didn't realize how much I'd like to shag someone right now. But Kol's face wasn't the one that popped to mind. As she dropped off to sleep, the thought of Felshenn, carefully cleaning his gun, pensive caramel eyes intent, drifted across her mind. A wave of intense loneliness swept across her as she floated half-awake. Just as she was drifting off to sleep, a wild roar echoed faintly through her mind and she had the brief image of one of those giant dragons of energy that she had witnessed in the Shelter, in her dreams. It was the Vorlon, the Guardian. And the sound was a scream of pure rage. She sat up. The only Vorlon remotely close to their location was Ambassador Ulkesh, on Minbar.
Two days later, news came from Babylon 5, the Vorlon fleet had engaged the Shadows in a skirmish…and won. But Ambassador Kosh was dead. Another Vorlon was being sent to replace him. The Ranger stood, awaiting her response. She nodded a thank you to him, and he left.
Havah sat at the edge of the bunk, overwhelmed by a memory of the sadness she had felt from the Kosh in her dream. He must have known. What is it like to know everything, including your own death, and not be able to tell anyone?
The following couple weeks were somewhat more pleasant. There was a bit of awkwardness between Kol and her for a day, but they quickly fell back into the pattern of constant ribbing that they'd begun after the jo'shetha game. The day following their encounter, the first thing out of his mouth was, "Crushed any million year-old insects last night?"
"Get bent!" Havah held her pounding head, snarled and shoved him in the midriff with a mule-kick, which barely moved him.
"That's not the proper address for a senior officer."
"Get bent, Na!"
"Ah, yes. That is proper."
Havah, Polenni, and Kol met in the mess, and then spent the evenings with Kilshinn and Ashar in the recreation center, playing jo'shetha, or one of the holo-hunting and shooting games, or watching vids. One night, Havah brought in a deck of cards and tried to teach them to play 'spoons' and 'bullshit'. 'Bullshit' went right over their heads, since it required lying, but 'spoons' seemed to become very popular. When one of them got rummy and everyone grabbed an implement from the table, the person left without one always ended by tackling the closest or least vigilant person with a fork, and wresting it from them, in order to avoid being 'out.' The game culminated for the evening, when Kol overturned the entire table, while landing on Kilshinn and wrestling him to the ground, meaty hands in a death grip around the fork handle. They lay in a guffawing pile, while senior officers cast disapproving glares their way, as Polenni, Havah and Ashar quietly tried to upright the table, spilled food, drink, and chairs.
Polenni was late. Very late. She had been out on maneuvers in one of the fighters. She should have been back two hours previously. Kol sat in the recreation center and fidgeted, compulsively eating beans and flipping stones, until Ashar grabbed one of the airborne stones in an annoyed fist and glared at him to stop. "She will be alright. She's one of the best pilots aboard."
He didn't answer, only grabbed the bottle of hal'chi and drained it in a long protracted guzzle, and started flipping stones again. A half an hour later, when the three of them were ready to tie his hands and feet to a chair, she walked in. Just walked. Usually Polenni strode everywhere with the slight characteristic swagger of someone who was confident in her abilities. She was typically very fair, but her face was paler than Havah had ever seen it and held none of that confidence now. She looked very, very scared. She sat down quietly, as the four waited for her to speak and explain what had happened. Now that she was surrounded by familiar faces, relief began to suffuse her features, and she spoke after a few moments. Her voice was even, but exhausted.
"Havah was right…" The hollows under her eyes deepened.
"About what?" Kilshinn asked cautiously.
"About the Shadows."
Kol began to roll his eyes, but stopped. His smirk melted away as he looked at her worn face. "What happened?"
"I was on maneuvers, as you know. We practiced hyperspace tactics, and after we were through, I took the right flank and we began to leave the jump-point, when I saw something on my sensors, something big. I sent the others back to the ship and stayed to see what it was. So, I shut the ship down to minimal energy output and tried to hide within the edge of a gravity well. And then I saw them. There were dozens of them, large ships, small ships. They appeared as if from nowhere at all. They looked exactly as you described, Havah. Black, shimmering, alive." She shuddered. "They either did not see me, or did not care. I do not know where they were going, but then, I was not tempted to hail them and ask. It looked as though they were heading for Centauri space. I am not fond of the Centauri, but if this is so, then for once I pity them…I used to imagine these ships in my nightmares when I was a child. My mother used to claim that if I did not obey her and stop teasing my brother, then the Shadows would come for me in giant black ships. I never believed…"
"They were tales to frighten you into obedience, Polenni! Come, you have never—"
"I saw them, Kol! With my own eyes! And my ship recorded them!"
"Where is the recording?" Ashar asked. Kol just swallowed hard and waited.
"Narsa Diri has it, but I made a copy before I was debriefed." She pulled a crystal from her coat. "No one knows I made this."
They all nodded silently, and surrounded a nearby port and pulled the screen close, as she slipped the crystal into the port.
There they were, a fleet of dark coruscating splatters against the flowing orange backdrop of hyperspace, shifting as though they were trying to melt off the screen. Kol let out the breath he'd been holding, and they all stared at each other.
"In Valen's name!" Kilshinn exclaimed.
"What now?" Kol asked quietly. There was no longer any trace of a smirk.
"Now, we wait. Alyt Rennir will have to make that decision, and we will obey it." Ashar said softly. The remaining time, until they each retired for the shift, was subdued.
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