A Place to Call Home

by Terri Osborne

Susan Ivanova and Lyta Alexander take on the Psi Corps. My take on the Telepath Crisis. (Story is incomplete. Publishers are beginning to be interested in my non-B5 work, so I am not sure when I'm going to get back to this.))

5.

A Place to Call Home
By Terri Osborne
terri@terriosborne.com
Part 5

All Babylon 5 characters and settings belong to JMS, Warner Brothers, TNT and anyone else with legitimate legal claim. No infringement of copyright is intended by this work. Only a few select characters are mine, and should the Great Maker need them, or anyone similar to them, I can probably be bought off with a story credit. ;-)

Even though this covers the same time period and the same major event, no infringement upon J. Gregory Keyes' novels is intended. Though, I will draw upon them for some background information.

Content Warning: [AC] [AL]

Anything encased in * these * is telepathic speech.

A note from the author: This story centers around three characters, Susan Ivanova, Alina Minette (yes, she's baaaack) and, to a certain extent, Lyta Alexander. To the I&M'ers out there, stay tuned, my friends. For the spoiler-allergic, provided you haven't read it already, I would recommend waiting to read Only Those Whose Lives Are Brief. In an intentional Babylon Squared/WWE homage, the flipside of at least one scene in Brief will show up here.

Since I'm not sure of everyone's schedules, I'll include this potential spoiler warning: I'm a continuity junkie, so this includes events through Season 5, as well as things that were revealed in the closing credits of Sleeping in Light. (If you've seen it, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. If not, that's okay, it's not quite that obvious.) Background information on the Psi Corps comes from the Keyes novels. Set in the same potential future as Only Those Whose Lives Are Brief. Considering that this covers the time frame of late 2263 - early 2265, I suppose everything is a potential spoiler (though, it would be one INCREDIBLY lucky guess).

And thanks to Sarah, Sharon and Keith, my eagle-eyed beta readers! Virtual boxes of Godivas to all of you!

Now that I've probably confused the daylights out of you, how about we fix that?

----------

March 2, 2264

Alina's eyes opened to a dark red ceiling that looked suspiciously like the insides of her eyelids. She tried again, with the same result. When she was certain that her eyes were not lying, that they were truly open, she attempted to turn her head. Every motion resulted in a bone-deep ache that made her wonder precisely what stunt had landed her in this condition.
A small child's cough brought her back to reality with a resounding crash.
"Kelly. How-?" she rasped. Her arms wanted to push herself up from whatever she was laying on, but the energy to do it just was not there. "What happened?" she whispered.
"You passed out," a voice softly reminded her. "You're in the Infirmary."
"How did I-?"
"I brought you in right behind Kelly."
Ignoring the pain, she turned her head toward the voice and found Andrew Keene sitting beside the bed. He had washed up somewhat since the cave in, but was still wearing the same dark work clothes. From their rather rumpled look, he appeared to have slept in them. "How long?" she asked.
"Eighteen hours."
"How's Kelly?"
Keene stood, leaning against the bedside. "Doctor Carpenter says her ribs are going to take a bit to heal, but she's going to be okay. Thanks to you. Her mother's ready to nominate you for sainthood."
"Where is her mother?" she asked, choosing to ignore the flattery in his voice.
"Over with Kelly. They've both been sleeping for hours."
"How long before Carpenter's going to let me out of here?"
"Tomorrow, maybe."
Her eyes narrowed. "Maybe?"
"You're a doctor. Would you release a patient in your condition?"
She raised one eyebrow. "Point made. Where's Lyta?"
"Sleeping, I think. It is three in the morning."
"Did she get a chance to talk to the government reps yet?"
Keene nodded. "This afternoon."
"What's the word?"
"They'll work with us as much as they can, but if we get caught by the Corps or Earthgov, we're on our own."
Alina smiled. "Wonder how long it took her to convince them to come that far?"
"Well, she said that once she reminded them that Mars wouldn't have become independent without her, it didn't take long at all."
"At least we don't have to worry about hiding from the government."
Keene pursed his lips. "Everybody except you."
"What? Have you been awake too long?"
He yawned. "Now that you mention it."
"I'm too tired for this, Mister Keene. If you won't explain yourself, please let me go back to sleep."
"Go back to sleep," he soothed. "You've got enough to worry about right now just getting well."
She slowly curled onto her side, her back toward him, in an attempt at slumber. It took mere seconds before thoughts began to nag at the back of her mind. "Mister Keene?" she asked.
"Andrew," he corrected.
"All right. Andrew. Why are you sitting at my bedside at three in the morning?"
"It was my turn," he stated.
Alina sighed. "Of course."
"Can I ask you a question?"
"As long as I don't have to move, yes."
She heard movement, and was not surprised when he walked around the bed to face her. What she did find amusing was the sight of him carrying his chair over to the new side of the bed, sitting so they were still at eye level.
"How did you do that?" he asked.
"Do what?"
His blue eyes darkened. "You know what I mean. Pulling Kelly out of that rubble, that's something I've seen a few high-level telekinetics do before. But healing her? Who taught you that?"
"Certainly wasn't the Psi Corps, was it?"
"Shadows wanted telekinetic assassins, not doctors."
"You just answered your own question," she whispered.
His brow furrowed. "How? Seems to me like assassins are the polar opposite of doctors."
"They are. Just like the Shadows had their opposites."
His eyes shot open. "The Vorlons? You were trained to heal people by the Vorlons?"
"Indirectly. The Minbari actually trained me, but they used Vorlon techniques. At least, they said they were Vorlon techniques," she replied, fighting to keep her emotions out of her voice.
"I didn't realize the Rangers trained doctors," he mused.
"They don't," she stated, backing it with a glare that suggested he press no further.
He took the hint. "So what are you doing here?"
"Recovering."
The corners of his lips perked up. "Very funny. Seriously, why did someone with your talent join up with Lyta?"
Alina rolled onto her back, surprised by the lack of pain involved. Something was causing her to regain her strength faster than ever before. It was enough to trigger her paranoia. "It's been a long time since I've been able to trust anybody," she softly said. "Why should I trust you?"
"All right," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "How about I answer the same question?"
"Love to hear it."
"I'm surprised you didn't pick up on it when she scanned me."
She quirked an eyebrow. "I try not to listen in on other people's scans when I can help it. So, tell me, what did Bester do to you?"
Keene's gaze fell to the ground. "Took it all away."
"You weren't alone. The Corps took a lot of children away from their parents."
"No," he said, "that's not it. Bester -- he wanted something I just couldn't give him."
"So, he took it all away?"
"All of it."
His pain was evident in far more than his closed expression. It seeped through her weakened telepathic defenses like water through a threadbare cloth. "What did he want?" she asked.
"He wanted me to give it up. Be his little genetic puppet."
Alina's brow furrowed. "What?"
"You know about the Corps' arranged marriages?"
She shook her head.
"You don't?"
She could feel shock begin to overcome the pain. Maybe explaining it all to her would do him some good. "No, and why is a long story for another time. I take it the Corps arranges the marriages so that stronger telepaths produce stronger children?"
He gave her a brief nod. "You get the idea. Well, amazingly enough, I actually fell in love with the woman they wanted me to marry. She was a P9, I'm a P12. Alexandra, that's our daughter, she was a P11."
"So, the theory works?"
"Most of the time. But, about a year ago, Bester found this Psi Cop recruit. She was a high P12."
"Let me guess, he wanted you to divorce your wife and join with her?"
His lips perked at the corners. "You sure you're too weak to scan me?"
"Yes," she dryly replied. "From what I've heard about that man, and I use that word loosely, the idea fits. So, being a person with morals, you refused?"
"Of course."
Alina grimaced, finally beginning to understand where the story was leading. "And since you wouldn't leave your wife and daughter, Bester chose to eliminate the problem?"
"He threatened to. Said he'd put them on the sleepers if I didn't cooperate."
"Sleepers?"
He gave her an incredulous look. "You don't know about the sleepers, either?"
"I think I might have, but it was a very long time ago."
"I want to hear this long story sometime, agreed?" he asked, leaning an elbow onto the bed.
She nodded. After this, she actually might owe it to him. "Just let me get back on my feet first, figure out what's going on in the present before I try to sort out the past."
"Deal," he said. "Let's just say that the sleepers are this wonderful little drug that basically turns telepaths into walking zombies. They've been using it for years to control teeps that won't join the Corps. Some of the reports that crossed my desk talked about people who'd committed suicide after about a year. Not too many people adjust to them well."
She could not hide her disgust. "And he threatened to do this to your family if you didn't leave them?"
He nodded.
"What about genetic engineering?"
Keene shuddered. "He wouldn't go for that. I think it's a power trip for him."
"Shame you didn't kill the little bastard," she said.
"Trust me, right now I wish I had."
"So, what did you do?"
His eyes dropped from hers again. "We escaped."
"You escaped? I didn't see any transport tubes as we flew in. How did you get here?"
"Walked."
"You walked across that surface?"
He took a deep breath. "I found three old environment suits that I didn't think anyone would miss. One was even small enough for Alex. One night, the three of us took a walk. I knocked out the airlock guards, and we got in the suits and went outside. We managed to get a kilometer out from the Dome before the troops were called in."
She smiled. "You must have hit them pretty hard."
"Being a P12 helps," he said. "Anyway, I never realized how hard it is to run in an environment suit. They had a transport after us in no time. I'm still not sure how I managed to hide, but I know they killed Renee and Alex."
"How?"
He lifted his eyes back to hers, and the pain in them stabbed at her like a dagger. "I felt it," he whispered.
Alina swallowed, not sure of what she could say next. A part of her cursed the Vorlons for creating telepaths in the first place, but a part of her also grudgingly thanked them. She could only imagine what kind of doubts would have been going through Keene's mind if he hadn't known that his family was dead.
Then again, if the Vorlons had never created human telepaths, none of them would have been in this mess. The universe would have no Psi Corps to terrorize it. Okay, maybe that would have been a blessing.
Of course, if the Vorlons hadn't created telepaths, the Shadows might have won the War.
It was definitely a tradeoff.
She slid her arm down from its resting place on her hip, her fingers coming to rest on the curve of his elbow. She knew the risks that came with physical contact, but didn't care. A long time ago, when her family had still been alive, physical contact was actually comforting. She hoped the trend still existed. "I'm going to make you the same promise Lyta did," she said, fighting the emotions that were barraging her telepathically. "If I can help it, you will be there when we get Bester. If anyone has a right to help us bring him down, it's you."
He managed to push the pain into a corner. "Thank you. Now, what about you? Why are you here?"
"I go where I'm needed," she shrugged.
"And believe me, from what I saw earlier, she's needed here," Michael Garibaldi's voice sounded from the door. "We can use all of the help we can get."
Alina pulled her hand away from Keene, more embarrassed at the fact that she hadn't sensed Garibaldi's presence than anything else. "Mister Garibaldi. Is this just exquisite timing, or did you know I was awake?"
"I told him," Lyta said, following Garibaldi into the room.
"And how did you know? Never mind. Why do I have the distinct feeling there's a conspiracy against me around here," Alina dryly remarked. "And what, pray tell, has brought the two of you to my bedside at three in the morning?"
Garibaldi gestured toward Lyta. "After you."
The redhead smiled at Keene. "You told her about the meeting?"
"Yes, he did," Alina interjected. "And something about me being the only one who had to worry about hiding from the government. Are you going to explain that, or am I going to have to waste what little energy I actually have scanning someone?"
"Well," Lyta said, hesitating. "You're probably not going to like this."
"Probably?" Garibaldi cracked.
Lyta shot him a look, then turned back to Alina. "We got clearance from the Mars government, but it was conditional."
Alina attempted to nod. "We don't get caught. What's that have to do with me?"
"That wasn't the only condition," Lyta said. "They wouldn't go along with it unless I got out of the picture."
"You can't leave here, Lyta. We can't win this without you."
The redhead nodded. "I know, and I'm not going anywhere. I fully intend to head up this outfit for as long as possible. We just need to make the government think I've stepped down."
Alina swallowed hard, getting the general idea of what was happening. "And you need someone the Corps doesn't know about, right?"
Lyta nodded. "It's just for the public. Down here, nothing will change."
Alina lay back against the bed, staring intently at the red dirt in the ceiling. "Well, I suppose fifteen years is long enough to hide."
"Fifteen years?" Garibaldi asked. "You've hid from the Corps for fifteen years?"
"Yes, Mister Garibaldi."
"How?"
Alina turned her eyes to him. "Ask me again some other time."
Garibaldi turned to Lyta, who simply shrugged. "I don't know, either, Michael. I've never heard of anyone hiding for that long."
Alina felt Keene's hand touch hers.
*The Minbari, right?*
*Yes.*
His brow furrowed. *But, fifteen years ago-*
*Was the end of the Earth-Minbari War. I know.*
"All right, I'll do it," Alina stated. "I just want to go on record that I don't like the idea of being a walking target, however."
Garibaldi chuckled. "From what I've seen and heard today, lady, that would be impossible."
"Nothing is impossible, Mister Garibaldi," Alina countered. "That much I know for certain."
"She's right," Keene added, turning toward Lyta. "Yesterday, I would have said the two of you were impossible. The Corps tried for years to induce telekinesis in high-level teeps. They failed every time. What happened to the two of you?"
Lyta shrugged. "The Vorlons. By the time I really had an idea of what had happened to me, they were gone. The fact that they created human telepaths isn't exactly a secret anymore. A few years ago they took me in. They were the ones who made me stronger."
"What about you, Alina?"
"Sorry," she cracked. "No grand adventures here. I've been a telepath for as long as I can remember."
Lyta's jaw dropped. "You mean you've been at this strength since birth?"
"Since I was five, actually."
"And you've never been to the Vorlon homeworld?"
Alina shook her head. "Not unless my parents took a side trip they never told me about."
"If it's any help," Keene offered, "the Corps was seeing a slow increase in the natal levels of telepaths right before the Shadow War. But, the telepath with the highest naturally-occurring rating we had on record was only a P14, and she wasn't telekinetic at all."
Lyta leaned against the bed. "I think it's probably a safe bet that the Vorlons had a hand in it."
"Hell, I wouldn't bet against you," Garibaldi said. "Stephen, maybe, but not me."
Lyta laughed. "Franklin? Never."
Before she realized that she was doing it, Alina's hand latched onto Garibaldi's arm in a death grip. "You know Stephen Franklin?"
"Well, yes," Garibaldi said, staring at her hand.
"Doctor Stephen Franklin, used to be stationed on Babylon Five?" Alina implored, daring to get her hopes up for the first time since they had left the station. "Do you have a way that I can contact him?"
"Yes. He's an old buddy of mine," he said, warily eyeing her fingers. "What do you need to get in touch with him for?"
Alina slowly released her grip. "It's about an old buddy of mine."
"The one from the station?" Lyta asked.
"Yes. From what I could tell, Stephen Franklin is one of only two people that can tell me what happened to him."
Garibaldi's eyes darkened. "Who told you only two people knew what happened?"
"Station security," Alina said. "A man named-"
"Zack Allan," Garibaldi and Lyta simultaneously stated.
Garibaldi visibly tensed. "Please tell me he didn't say the other person was Ivanova."
"He did."
"Marcus," he stated, turning toward Lyta. "Has to be him."
The redhead nodded. "I know Susan knows what happened, but do you think Stephen-?"
Garibaldi shrugged. "Considering how moody he got after Marcus died, I'll bet he knew."
"Everyone is throwing around that word as if it were the truth," Alina cracked. "What I saw was very close, but not quite there yet."
Lyta's eyes bulged. "You saw him? Nobody's seen him for two years!"
"That's because it appears that Mister Garibaldi's 'old buddy' slipped him into a cryo tube before anyone knew what happened."
"You could contact him in a cryo tube?" Lyta asked.
"He's not a telepath, so I couldn't make full contact, but it was enough to know that there's still somebody home in there."
Garibaldi shook his head. "Stephen knew what happened, all right. I'll bet he also knew that Marcus was still alive. No matter what Ivanova said, he wouldn't have wasted the resources to put him in there if there weren't some hope of bringing him back."
"Susan," Lyta whispered. "My God, how do we tell her?"
"We don't," Alina flatly stated. "Lyta, I know he's still alive in there. The problem is what would happen if he were taken out. You have no idea how difficult it is to keep the -- well, for lack of a better word, life-force -- within the body when they're that close to death. I've only seen something like that attempted once, and it didn't work."
Keene touched her hand. "What would it take to get it to work?"
Alina shook her head. "I don't know. When I saw it tried, there were nine very strong telekinetics, as well as nine strong telepaths. All specially trained. Like I said, that didn't work."
Lyta turned to Keene. "How many teeks do we have?"
"Not many," he said. "Twenty, maybe thirty tops."
"Got to be better than nine. Alina, can you train them for something like this?"
Alina could not believe what she was hearing. "We're in the middle of waging a war here and you're talking about training someone to possibly damage another person's life-force? Knowledge is power, Lyta. Do we really want that kind of power floating around where the Corps could get their hands on it?"
Lyta raised an eyebrow. "You're right. Hell. Michael, if you see her, you can't tell Susan anything that was just said, okay? She might know you're keeping something from her, but you can't say a word. It's for her own good."
Garibaldi nodded. "Like the last thing any one of us needs is Ivanova mad at us."
"We still should look into it," Keene said, pulling Alina's attentions to him. "I don't know who this Ivanova is, but from the sound of it they were close."
Lyta smiled wistfully. "You have no idea. Hell, she had no idea."
Alina managed a small laugh. "That sounds like Marcus, all right. I've met Minbari acolytes who weren't as shy as that one."
"We need a plan here," Lyta said. "If it's possible to pull this off, how do we do it?"
"You guys worry about the war. Let me work on Marcus," Alina said. "But it's going to take a lot of time. Mister Garibaldi, if you could manage to get me a secure connection to Minbar, that would help."
Garibaldi nodded. "Don't think that will be a problem. I'll see what I can do."
Lyta placed a hand on Alina's shoulder. "If there's anything I can do for this, all you have to do is say the word. I didn't know him very well, but I do know what losing him did to Susan and Delenn. They treated me like a human being when nobody else would. I owe them for that."
"If we can pull this off," Keene said with a soft laugh, "I'm nominating all of us for godhood."
"It's a Vorlon technique," Alina countered. "If we can pull this off, we'll have earned it."

[End part 5 of ?]