- THE ENEMY WITHIN:
PART FOUR
(CHAPTER TWELVE) by Meg Torkse&Camilla Sandman
"It's like I've always expected - you're a latent telepath !" Levison smiled, but it wasn't a pleasant smile. He didn't smile to make her feel better, he smiled to make sure that she knew he was in charge. He was in control - and there was not a damn thing she could do about it. Susan gasped for air, her mind feeling numb. He had scanned her, and she hadn't been able to keep him out. Her telepathic abilities weren't even half as powerful as his, and she had never gotten any training.
It hadn't felt like when her mother had been inside her mind at all. That had been soothing, full of love. But with Levison. . . It felt as if she had been raped. He had raped her mind. He knew everything about her. Every feeling she had hidden deep in her mind, every secret she hadn't dared to tell anyone. The memories of the ones she had loved and lost, tears and joy.
"You bastard," she whispered again, leaning against the wall. She was exhausted, too tired to move, hardly able to think. He had done it to her, she suddenly realized. He had some ability she had never seen before, something she never knew existed. . .
"Your mother was a very gifted telepath," Levison continued.
"It was a great loss when she refused to join us. We kept watching you and your brother closely after her death, though. We knew that it was in her genetic makeup, that she might have passed her talents along to her children. And she did, didn't she?"
"Why do you ask when you already know the answer ? You've dragged everything out of me, what I am, what I didn't become, what. . ." she couldn't continue, she couldn't even look straight at him. The room kept spinning around and around, she couldn't focus on anything. One second she was on the White Star ship, the next she was on Earth, then on Babylon 5. . .
"Your telepathic abilities aren't as good as we'd hoped, Susan. We expected more. But, with proper training and some. . . adjustments. . . you will become quite useful."
"What the hell did he *do* to me," she thought, before her mind drifted off to a place beyond time and space, and she fell.
*********************
"We're out of hyperspace in twenty seconds. . . I hope." Marcus couldn't hide that he was really nervous about this whole plan, and both John and Delenn knew exactly how he felt. It was far from perfect, but it was their only hope.
"Do you think she can handle it ?" Delenn asked Sheridan, but he only shrugged his shoulders, didn't have time to answer. An increasing number of red lights kept flashing all over the controls. It didn't look good.
"It would be too bad if our plan fails before it has even started," Marcus said, visualizing the shuttle exploding in a great fireball as it came out of hyperspace. The ancient systems couldn't handle it, and they'd all be history - along with the entire White Star fleet and God knows how many people throughout the galaxy.
"Five seconds. . .Four. . . Three . . . Two. . . One. . ." Delenn's grip on Sheridan's shoulder tightened, and Marcus had closed his eyes. Then normal space transformed before their eyes, the small ship was shaking violently, but somehow she managed to stay together, she didn't fall apart, nothing major exploded. Sheridan exhaled hard, it was just then she realized how scared he had been. His eyes met hers, and for a brief second everything was seen, felt and understood. Their souls mingled, thoughts flying . . . Then the shuttle started shaking again, even worse than before, and John had to focus his attention on the controls again. He had let his mind wander off for just a few seconds, let everything slip, and he had almost killed all of them. He cursed himself, they couldn't afford to make any mistakes now.
"Are you sure they won't detect us ?" Delenn asked, and Marcus sighed.
"Well, we can always hope, can't we ?"
"But you said. . ."
"They won't be able to pick up the ship on any of the scanners, don't worry. But the second we got out of hyperspace, the distortion in the jumpgate will be detectable - if they look for it. This jumpgate is very old, though, and it's not used very often. Usually by smugglers. And besides, there's always been a lot of time distortions in this area of the galaxy, if anyone did pick up our jump out of hyperspace, maybe they won't bother to check it out. Happens all the time."
"Well, I hope you're right, Marcus, because if you're not. . . "
"I know. But *your* part of the plan isn't that much safer, if you ask me."
*************************
President Clark was leaving, with a tail of reporters following in his heels. Zack watched them enter their ship from a distance, glad to have at least one security risk off the station.
"I didn't get to finish my list," a deep voice said from behind him, and Zack wasn't the least bit surprised when he turned around and found G'Kar standing there.
"What exactly did you do ?" Zack said, and G'Kar grinned.
"Nothing major. I sang a bit, danced a bit, used some acid and weapons. Like a said, nothing major."
Zack smiled.
"Susan was involved in this plan, wasn't she ?"
"Mr Allan, Commander Ivanova is involved in *everything* that's going on on Babylon 5."
He paused.
«Good day, Zack. I have to prepare some breakfast."
(CHAPTER THIRTEEN)
The shuttle was shaking worse than ever, but was still holding together. A pure miracle. Marcus and John were having a debate, but Delenn shut their words out from her mind. She didn`t want to hear that they were all probably going to die right now. Instead she kept her eyes on the stars, admiring their beauty. Suddenly she saw something that made her gasp.
«John, look!»
She had to repeat it before they looked up from their argument -
- and faced a beautiful sight. The White Star fleet was hovering in space not too far from them. Most of the ships were still, but a few seemed to patrol the area. Dozens of ships, a fleet. Their fleet.
«The moment of truth,» John muttered to himself before setting the course for White Star 14. The command ship. Now they would find out just how good this shuttle was. It sure had cost them a lot.
******************
In hyperspace, a fleet was gathering. Not just any fleet. A big fleet. The signs on the side of the ships clearly identified them as Earth Alliance ships. Three heavy cruisers and hundres of starfuries sent by Clark orders to destroy the White Star fleet.
They almost seemed to scream through space....
**************
Aboard White Star 14, there was panic. A calm form of panic, but still panic. Only Lennier, newly arrived, seemed to be calm, meditating as he was. Levison was also calm, but for another reason. He was watching the panic with satisfaction, enjoying the feelings of sorrow, grief and confusion from the Minbari on the ship. This would teach them to respect the Earth Alliance!
«Lennier, you must command us!» One of the other minbaris was talking, Levison leaned closer to pick up the words.
«You were close to Entil`Zha. You will know what to do.»
«No.»
«But why?»
Consentrating, Levison tried to enter Lennier`s mind. There was a feeling of loyalty, of love, of ... This minbari knew something, something about the Captain and Delenn. If he just dug a bit deeper....
Suddenly he noticed that the whispers among the minbari stopped, and they all looked up in utter surprise. Entering the bridge was Entil`Zha, followed by Captain Sheridan. Holding on to each other, both a bit bloody, they seemed to - know who he was.
«NO!» Surprised by his own scream, and looked around. No ways of escape. No glory. No victory.
«Take him. And find out where he`s keeping Ivonava. As soon as you find her, send her up here. I need to talk to her.»
As Levison was brought out, screaming, Lennier turned to the minbari who had been talking to him.
«That is why.»
*************
A few minutes later, when most of the exitement had disappeared, Sheridan cleared his throat and with a loving look at Delenn, began talking.
«All of this is probably very confusing for all of you. It will be explained later, but right now we have other problems. A fleet of EA ships are heading this way with orders to destroy this fleet. I will not allow that to happen. So we will fight, right here. Let us show them just how serious we are. Lennier?»
«Yes, captain.»
«Alert the fleet. Prepare for fight. And... thanks. For your help.»
The minbari gave him a short smile before returning to his post.
«John?»
Delenn`s soft voice and her comforting hand told him all he needed to know. It was worth fighting for.
(CHAPTER FOURTEEN)
"Captain, we have found the jamming device." Marcus held it up for Sheridan to see it, a content smile on his face. It had taken him and Lennier less than 15 minutes to locate it, once they knew what they were looking for. The device was similar to the Blocker they had found in the shuttle which the three of them had escaped in just hours earlier, they clearly came from the same source - whoever that might be.
"Clark might be the president, and he might have had a pretty good plan - but they haven't done very much research on jamming radio signals back on Earth lately. This isn't even a new model. Finding it is easy - if you know what you're after, and turning it off is a piece of cake. "
"Once you got past the security system," Lennier mumbled.
"Yeah, well, the bomb wasn't very big, and . . ."
"Please, Marcus, stop it, " Sheridan sighed.
"I don't want to hear about it just now. We'll have a long talk about disarming bombs later, and how the hell you are to *tell* me before you do anything which might kill all of us, but right now we have more important things to do. Is the com system ready ?" Marcus looked at Lennier, who nodded. Sheridan turned to Delenn, who was holding the data crystal.
"Would you like to give the news to the other ships ?" he wondered, even though he already knew the answer.
"Of course. It's my responsibility as Entil'Zha." She looked somehow like a queen, so small and fragile, yet so strong, both physically and mentally. //As if I ever had any doubt,// he thought, unable to hide a smile.
**************
Ten minutes later they had once again restored peace and order in the White Star fleet. Thanks to the data crystal, they had known who had been working with President Clark, and they were able to alarm the others in command on the various ships and make sure that the traitors were taken in custody, before they had the chance to try to take control of the ships. They had only one enemy left - the EA fleet, which was due to arrive any minute.
"Antla sho'k --- *fuck* ---hedd ha'al ---*pain in the ass* --- gorghh ---------- I'll NEVER remember all those suffixes !" The angry voice came from the corridor, and there was no doubt about who it was.
"Just tell me where the fucking telepath is !" Ivanova had obviously given up her attempt to try to speak Minbari, but she got quite a shock when the Minbari who was escorting her answered - in perfect English:
"Why didn't you just say that right away ? He - has been taken care of. But we have some visitors which I think you would very much like to meet."
In that instant they turned around the corner, and Susan's face brightened up when she saw Sheridan and Delenn. Then she caught sight of Marcus.
"Where did *you* go ?" she snapped, and Marcus sent Sheridan a look which practically begged him not to tell Ivanva anything about his failed rescue operation.
"He - helped save us," Delenn hastily said, and quickly changed the subject, before she started either laughing her head off, or blushing, or telling the truth. Minbari didn't lie, but they were pretty good at avoiding to tell the whole truth, too. They were also quite good at attempting not to hurt anyone's feelings, and she knew that Marcus would *never* get any chance to forget about the embarrassing incidence earlier, involving lots of ropes and absolutely no clothes, if she told Ivanova. He might be "a pain in the butt" (she had finally figured out what that expression meant), but she still liked him, and she didn't want him to be bullied by Ivanova for the rest of his life.
"We have an Earth Alliance fleet coming in here in a few minutes. We have to finish preparing the fight." She had barely had time to finish her sentence when a jump point opened practically on top of them. The spies had obviously done their job well, because the Earth ships had known their exact location. They didn't know, however, about the recent changes in command on the White Stars. A fleet of ships which were partially under the command of humans, partially without contact with the rest of the fleet, was no match for the Earth fighters. But a united White Star fleet, with a technology centuries ahead of theirs, ready for fight, was a completely different issue. In fact, the fight was over almost before it had started. Sheridan sent a message to the incoming EA ships, before they had the chance to start firing:
"This is Captain John Sheridan, speaking on behalf of the White Star fleet - I'm sorry, but there has been a change of plans. The rangers are once again in charge of the fleet, and your undercover spies have been taken into custody. We will not attack you first, but we will strike back if fired upon. So, you have two choices - you either go back to President Clark and tell him that his terrific plan didn't work out - or you take the conseqences of staying here. It's your call." He ended the transmission, and for a while the control room in the ship was dead quiet. //Come on, you have to realize that firing on us is suicide !// It seemed as if everyone was thinking the same thing.
Then one of the ships, the one in the middle, started to change course. It was moving back towards the jumppoint, which opened again. Then, just as all of them expected the two other ships to turn around and follow the first ship into hyperspace as well, the two remaining ships started firing, and a bunch of starfuries started approaching them like a swarm of mosquitos. The White Star 14 was hit by a lucky shot, and the entire ship shook violently for a few seconds. It took the crews on the White Star ships a few moments to react, but once they had realized what was going on, the EA ships didn't stand a chance. They had gotten their warning, and ignored it. The only thing left now was to finish it.
The EA starfuries were taken down, one by one. Consentrating their fire on the biggest cruiser, it didn't take long until it exploded, a giant ball of fire.
"I can't believe they can be so *stupid* !" Sheridan shouted, for once he was more angry than Ivanova. This whole bloodbath was so unnecessary, it could've been settled without any bloodshed. As the last cruiser fell apart as well, they ceased their fire. At least they could give the remaing Starfuries a chance to surrender.
"This is Captain Sheridan to all remaining Starfuries. Your cruisers have been destroyed. There is no need for you to be killed as well. We offer sanctuary on Babylon 5, and you will be allowed to return to Earth as soon as this crisis is over. I repeat; surrender, or be destroyed !"
All the starfuries seemed to surrender. They ceased their fire and formed a formation, signaling that they would surrender. Then one of them broke the formation, and took a kamikaze stunt towards the nearest White Star ship - the White Star 35. If all their defences had been up, it wouldn't have been very damaging. A few days of repear, and that would've been it. But the captain on the ship had been careless, and taken down some of the defense shields a bit too early, thinking the fight was over. It all happened too quickly, there was no time to do anything. All the B5 command staff aboard the White Star 14 could do, was watching the Minbari ship turn into yet another huge fireball, the third big one they had seen in less than ten minutes. The nightmare was over, finally. But it had cost all of them a lot.
Delenn leaned closer to Sheridan, unable to look away from the horrible sight, even though she desperatly wanted to.
" 'We see ourselves in a mirror, in a mystery'," she whispered.
"What ?"
"Nothing." She paused for a second, then she continued;
"It's not fair, is it ? That some live, and others die. Maybe life is just a big coincidence."
"Well, there are good coincidences, and there are bad coincidences. You can't predict them. And I know a couple of coincidences which are *definitely* good. . ." Delenn met his eyes, and smiled:
"So do I."
Hand in hand, together, they watched the universe live, breathe and change in front of them.
Please take some time to fill out this feedback form on my writing!