A Place to Call Home
By Terri Osborne
terri@terriosborne.com
Part 9
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 27, 2264
Alina walked slowly into
the secluded alcove that served as her sleeping quarters. The space was small, with barely
enough room for a bed and some storage space for her clothes, but it was enough for her
few possessions.
Two of them had to be hidden
away, safe from prying eyes. One was pinned to the inside of her vest where it could not
be seen, yet she could still sense its familiar weight. The small cylinder of the other
rested in a pocket inside the vest that had once belonged to her father. No matter what
happened, she would rather die than lose that vest.
She felt a small pang of
guilt at having lied to Garibaldi. Delenn had never really agreed to her resignation.
Leave of absence, yes.
Resignation, no.
Two years was one hell of a
sabbatical. Maybe, when this was all over, she would go back to Tuzanor and the rest of
her surrogate family, but not without Marcus.
The thought brought her to
the other two items, openly adorning the wall beside her bed.
"Now, that's a
combination," Andrew announced. "A sword and ballet shoes?" He reached
toward the shoes, but stopped at the sound of her voice.
"The shoes were my
mother's. The sword-"
"Belonged to this
Marcus?" Andrew asked, turning until their eyes met. When she nodded, he said,
"It sounds like he was pretty important to you."
Alina swallowed hard, trying
to find the right words. "Like a brother. No. Closer than that."
"And then the Corps
found you?" he gently asked.
"Yes," she
whispered. "I was just sixteen. The only family I'd ever known was my father and the
Coles. Then the Corps arrived. Marcus saved my life, Andrew. I owe him."
"And you're going to pay
him back. Tell me, how did he do it?"
The blue eyes she looked into
were compassionate, understanding. The touch at her cheek brought with it the idea that he
wanted to hear her story, no matter how painful. Alina tried to reign in her thoughts,
block him out, but she could not manage even her normal blocks. She was just too weak from
everything that had happened. She knew that without them he would pick up every idea that
ran through her mind. The pain of the memories felt as if she had been impaled upon that
sword.
"Alina?" Andrew
prompted.
"He got drafted,"
she whispered. "It was toward the end of the Minbari War. I threw a fit, told the Psi
Cops that there was no way I was leaving before he shipped out for Earth. I even told them
I'd kill myself if they didn't let me stay that long."
"So, they let you stay
to say goodbye to him," Andrew said, allowing his hand to slip into hers. "How'd
that make a difference?"
"It changed what ship I
left on. The Corps didn't take the outer colony worlds seriously back then, so one of the
Cops took their ship on to their next assignment. I don't remember much about him, just
the feeling of something dark buried under the surface. I did everything I could to get
him to leave. The other one, she stayed to make sure I got on this shuttle that was going
to a passenger liner headed for Mars. I seem to remember her having this idea that she
would mentor me once I was officially in the Corps."
"What happened to the
liner?"
Her mind burned with the
memory of the fireball. "The last stop before Earth was near the Proxima jumpgate.
Twenty-four hours before we used the gate it was in Earth-controlled space. The Minbari
front moved."
"You were
attacked?"
She shrugged, barely able to
shake her head. "I don't know. All I know is that I felt something happening and ran
for the lifepods. The Psi Cop couldn't keep up. I ended up being the only one who
survived."
"You're sure?"
She nodded, the memory of the
worst five days of her life replaying in her mind. Five days of breathing increasingly
stale air, eating emergency rations that barely passed for food, bumping into the inner
hull of the lifepod as she tried to sleep in the zero gravity. Five excruciating days of
not knowing if she would live or die. Tears welled within her eyes.
Andrew stepped forward,
gathering her into a comforting embrace. She pressed her cheek against his shoulder, felt
his hand begin to smooth her hair. "It's okay. What happened next? Who found
you?"
"A Minbari freighter.
Worker caste. They picked up a life sign in the debris field. I got lucky. Another three
hours and I would have suffocated."
"They gave you
sanctuary?"
She nodded against his
shoulder. "I was just sixteen, and terrified. They had a telepath on board."
"And since you couldn't
tell him what happened, you showed him?"
"Yes. They told their
superiors that I was a refugee, which was true in a way. Going back to Arisia was just too
dangerous. Kalenn, the telepath, he said he'd train me." She took a deep breath,
willing her emotions into check. "He didn't know what to do when he found out I was
telekinetic, too. Apparently they don't have a lot of telekinetics on Minbar, let alone
people who are both. So, he did the best he could."
He eased back slowly, looking
directly into her eyes. "I thought you said-"
"The Vorlons? There were
very few Vorlons on Minbar back then. I didn't even meet one until a few years before I
joined the Rangers. Like I said, Kalenn tried teaching me as much as he could. When he
couldn't do any more for me I ended up studying with other telepaths in the temples,
taking the same classes they taught the other students."
"Ouch," Andrew
winced. "This was right after the War?"
She nodded. "If Kalenn
had been Warrior Caste, I'd be dead right now."
"So, how did you get
into the Rangers?"
"A friend, actually.
Entil'zha Sinclair. He thought the Rangers needed a doctor that didn't require modern
medicine to do the job. You see, once I started training to be a healer, word of what I
was doing got around. Eventually, the Grey Council took an interest."
"How long ago was
this?" he asked.
"About seven years ago.
They sent one of their own to study what I was doing." The memory brought a smile to
her face, the first in what felt like days. "Rathenn. Of course, I didn't know he was
Satai at the time. He was the one who pushed me toward working with the Vorlons. I was too
much in awe to realize how much they were using me."
"Using you?"
She turned away quickly,
fighting to hide her anger. "There are times, not many, mind you, but there are times
I look at Lyta and want to scream at her. How? How could she have been so stupid as to let
them use her like that?"
"I'm not following
you."
"What they did to her, I
watched them do to dozens of Minbari telepaths, Andrew," she said, fists clenching at
her sides. "They were perfecting the process, developing their ultimate weapon
against the Shadows."
His jaw dropped. "They
let you watch?"
"How do you think I
learned to heal Minbari?"
"And they didn't try to
do it to you?"
She shook her head. "All
they said about me was, `Beauty in the dark.' My guess is they didn't think they could
program me."
"Program you?" he
asked, confusion in his eyes.
"What they did,"
she began, running a hand through her dark hair, "it was nauseating in a way. I ran
deep scans on all of their test subjects when the process was completed. Not only were
their abilities enhanced at least twice over, they were programmed. The programming was
put in so deeply that not even I could get exactly what it was, but it had the Vorlons
written all over it."
"How do you know it was
the Vorlons?"
Her entire body ached at the
memory. "I actually managed to start a scan on one once," she said, wincing at
her own stupidity. "It was the Ambassador to Minbar, Ulkesh. Spent three days in the
hospital for my efforts after he threw me against a wall."
"Three days? For being
thrown against a wall?"
There was a trace of laughter
in her voice as she said, "Minbari doctors. They hadn't quite learned how to treat
human patients yet."
"But, did you make
contact with Ulkesh?"
"Enough to know a Vorlon
telepathic signature when I run across one."
Andrew began pacing the small
room. She could feel his thoughts racing. "So, what happened to their test subjects?
I mean, were they in either one of the wars?"
She shook her head.
"None of them lived that long. It's as if, once the Vorlons were done with them, they
became time bombs waiting to go off. And the bastards made sure I was there to clean up
their messes."
"Why you? Why not one of
the people they worked on?"
She smiled at the irony.
"None of their precious creations ended up being mentally stable. Some of them got
control of their new abilities after a time, others never did. They all eventually had
breakdowns. None of the Minbari telepaths was strong enough, and there wasn't a single
altered telepath stable enough to handle the others when the breakdowns happened.
So it fell to me. The only way I was able to get out of the deal was thanks to
Sinclair."
His expression grew serious.
"We've got a problem. What do we do about Lyta?"
"Well, I talked to an
old friend of hers when we stopped at Babylon Five. From what he said, she was close to
their first Vorlon Ambassador, Kosh. She even worked as his aide. That was unheard of
among the Vorlons. It's entirely possible that it was Kosh that kept her higher abilities
from developing too rapidly. From what I can tell right now, she's stable, probably more
stable than any of the other test subjects. Kosh may have saved her life."
"From what you can tell
right now?"
"I'd have to do a deep
scan to find out more, but she'd sense that. She's strong enough to stop me."
He stepped closer, wrapping
his hand around hers. "Will you do me a favor?"
"Of course."
"Keep an eye on her.
This hit on Syria Planum could be the biggest fight of this war. If she really is like the
others, I don't want to be in the same sector when she goes off."
[End part 9 of ?]