The conclusion to the story! ^^ Yay! Please R&R!
CHAPTER EIGHT
FIRST OFFICER'S LOG:
THAT WAS ONE HECK OF A DAY WE HAD. WE FOUND OUT THE TRUE INTENTIONS OF
THE HAK'VIR.THEY PLANNED TO SELL THAT NECKLACE EILERSON HAD UNEARTHED
TO SELL BACK TO HIS PEOPLE
AND TAKE ALL TEH CREDIT. THEY HIRED THE AMSTERDAM GANG TO MAKE SURE THEY
GOT WHAT THEY WANTED AND THE HAK'VIR EVEN HAD ONE HUGE WEAPON WAITING
OUTSIDE AS A BACKUP. ALL THIS TROUBLE OVER TWO HEAVY GOLD NECKLACES
---BRACELETS, WHATEVER.IN THE END, IT ALL TURNED OUT ALRIGHT. DELENN
TELLS ME THAT CAPTAIN SHERIDAN WILL BE BACK ON HIS FEET, BUT I THINK HE'S
DO ANYTHING TO GET OUT OF POLITICS. HE NEARLY KILLED FRANKLIN OVER IT. HMM...EILERSON'S SHIP LEAVES TOMORROW AND GARIBALDI'S HAVING ONE OF
THOSE DAYS AGAIN. CORWIN AND ALLEN BOTH HAVE BEEN GIVEN A DAY OFF TO
REST; TRIPLE SHIFTS WERE JUST TOO MUCH FOR THEM. AND AS FOR MARCUS AND
I? I WON THAT BET AND NOW HE OWES ME DINNER. FOR ONCE.
"Thanks for dinner, Marcus."
Marcus laughed as he accompanied him to her door. They had came back from the Eclipse, an Earth shop that had everything fresh and were from Earth. Ivanova couldn't remember from the last time she actually ate something from Earth and gotten really full.
"You're welcome," he replied. "Umm...does that mean that the debt is paid?" he wanted to know, as Ivanova managed a crooked smile.
"If you don't watch it, you'll wind up owing me again," she warned, biting back a smile when he squirmed on his boots. "Well, that's my first real meal without all that stuff for once, so you could consider the debt paid." She nodded. "Thanks again, Marcus."
He smiled gallantly. "Always happy to serve my favourite commander."
She didn't know what to say, or what it meant. But she nodded as she opened the door to her quarters. "Well, thanks again, Marcus," she said again, eentering through the door. He nodded again. Gosh, why was she so speechless. "Well, good night Marcus."
"I'll see you when Eilerson leaves tomorrow," Marcus replied back to her. "Good night Susan."
The door slid shut and that was the end. Ivanova waved her loose hair aside as she swerved over to her control panel. "Computer," she ordered. "Any new messages for me?" She wrestled off her bulky and stiff navy uniform and tossed it over to her couch,
"None."
"Good. Hold my calls. I'm hitting the sacks."
Corwin stirred his synthetic coffee. There was no real coffee in space; it was very hard to find it. Apparently, when he signed on to Earthforce, they never said there would be no coffee and that they would manage in space with chemical-flavoured water. One day, he said to himself, we can be able to drink real coffee. But not in my time. Not with all this stuff going on.
"Hey, may I join you?"
He looked up to see Zack Allen towering before him with a loaded tray. Corwin silently gestured for Allen to take a seat, and he eagarly took it. He nodded at him. "What's up?" he asked, eating some biscuits from his nicely loaded tray. Not as much as what Garibaldi eats, at least.
Corwin shrugged. "I was just thinking," he said out loud now, "that one day, Earthforce will be able to export coffee to here in space. That would be nice. No more synthetic poison or anything." Allen laughed. "But not in this timeline. Not after all that's going on."
"I respect your position, Dave," Allen said sympathetically.
"Thank you." He stopped and leaned over. "You know, about the day before, I think we done the right thing, despite the...so we say, results of the transactions."
Allen laughed again. "Of course."
"I finally know how it feels to be a hero, for once," he said. "It we didn't destabilize the ship from up here, we would be in oblivion right now. And I now know how it feels to be in command. I'll know how it's like when I become captain of my own starship, or maybe commander of this station when Ivanova and Sheridan decides to transfer."
"You like to look forward to this stuff?" Zack asked curiously.
"Yeah," he admitted. "I just hope we didn't give Sheridan a seizure."
Zack laughed. "Perhaps a promotion on the spot," he said. "One day, when it's our time, I'll be in charge of security. Enforcing the station rules. But we all did a part yesterday. Ivanova and Marcus stopped the Amsterdam gang on the station, Garibaldi caught those menacing Hak'Vir and Sheridan helped by keeping those ambaassadors glued together."
"I just hope the glue lasts," Corwin hoped wistfully. He caught Ivanova and Marcus with the IPX man walking towards the docking rings. "Gee, I guess our little guest is leaving the station now."
"I suppose so." Zack raised his drinks. "For our future...and for our necks." Corwin raised his synthetic whatever up and matched up the toast. It'll be their time...someday soon.
"Hello, Captain. You called for me?"
Delenn stood over Sheridan's cot where he lay. Never did she see him in such a state. He was fumed when he heard he could go back to work and deal with the other ambassadors and that incident added up to another few days in MedLab over observation. He nodded. "Ambassador, as you heard, I'm ggoing to be staying here for another two days. And I need you to do something..."
"Feel free to come back anytime, Mr. Eilerson," Ivanova was saying.
"Gee, I wonder when," he shot back sarcastically.
Ivanova frowned as Marcus watched the transaction with amusement. He smiled at Max. "You should count yourself lucky, Max," he stated. "For if you went totally over our dear commander's head, you'd be outside the airlock right now, your face blue and floating dead. Count yourself lucky."
"I suppose so." They stopped infront of the docking ring to his ship. "Thank you again, Commander, Marcus. Despite the situation we had here, I had a pretty good time on my stay. Good luck to you, commander, you've got a loyal crew under your wings." The two exchanged a handshake.
Ivanova stepped back to allow the Marcus and him tot alk privately. Max nodded. "Well," he said, "thanks, Ranger. You were a really good pal while I was here. I guess we got off at the wrong foot or something---" Marcus laughed. "---but otherwise if it weren't ffor you, I'd be dead right now."
Marcus nodded slightly "It's what we do."
"I'll try to stay in touch," he continued on. "But I think because of our differences, it might be tough. I don't know when I'll be back, but I'll try anyhow. Good luck, Ranger and," he leaned over in a whisper, "keep up with Commander Ivanova."
He frowned but clasped hands anyhow. "Good luck, Max."
Ivanova rejoined Marcus as Eilerson walked into the dockinng which he entered a few days ago. Then, he disappeared. Marcus seemed a little distant, as she clasped his shoulder. They began to walk away. "Do you think we'd ever see him again?" she asked him finally.
"Oh, I doubt it," Marcus replied. "We're on an interstellar despot. He's an IPX man leaping from planet to planet. We'll be lucky if he ever leaps back here again, but by the move of things, things will sharpen up again."
She stopped and glared at her. "Your prediction?" she asked.
"I don't predict."
"Admit it, Marcus," she said. "You really think something's going to happen. Yes, I know of the shadows," She dropped her voice reasonably, "and I know they're going to try to screw our entire lives up but you seriously believe that something else will stir up?"
"In this galaxy, anything can happen."
"I hope Ambassador Delenn is right about that," Ivanova wondered out loud, recodnizing the choice of words, making him colour reluctantly against will. She smiled small before frowning at the realization of her question. "Makes me wonder, where is Ambassador Delenn?"
"Ambassadors, please!"
The ambassadors in the chambers of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds was very restless and they were very loud. Human ears could be ever-so sensitive. No one would listen to her shouts of silence and peace and that was even worse that ever. The ambassadors were at each others throats! If the Centauri and Narn war wasn't bad enough...
She slumped back to her chair and rubbed her forehead. Pain; was this what the humans call a headache? Their shouts echoed in hER newly mixed chemistry; human-minbari. Her head ached; she wished she could have taken up what Lennier offered. What was she thinking? She realized that the term "pain in the butt" was coming in.
It was going to be a long day.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
ABOARD THE EXCALIBUR
YEAR: 2267, PRESENT
"Crew, I'd like you to meet Captain Susan Ivanova," Captain Matthew Gideon introduced to a young woman over thirty now with a neat uniform. Max blinked; wasn't it only yesterday she was in a commander's uniform? Funny, it was six years ago that she was only a commander of Babylon 5, the last of the Babylon stations.
Gideon was different; darker, always brooding. Or maybe because he and Gideon were always at each other's throats. Marcus. Once Ivanova reached to Eilerson, he would ask whatever happened to the ranger that had a puppy love for the headstrong commander...major...whatever.
"And this," Gideon finally said, "is the head of our linguist and archaeological department...Maximillian Eilerson." Ivanova nodded slightly to him as he did the same. "Eilerson," she greeted kindly. "It's been a long time since I last saw you. Last time you were on Babylon 5, you were...arranging that meeting with the Hak'Vir."
Now Gideon and Captain Elizabeth Lochley were listening as well as Dr. Sarah Chambers with the same thought in mind: They met? He didn't mind, he didn't care. This was his business and his business alone. He learned many things during his stay on the Excalibur; leave one alone and you shall not be bothered. But it never worked either way.
"It's good to see you again," he replied back curtly. "Um, mind if I may ask, whatever happened to my good ranger friend, Marcus? I heard they were involved in the Shadow war and the Civil war on Earth Alliance?" He smiled. "Funny, six years..."
Ivanova seemed drawn back a bit. As if recovering. "He's gone, Max," she finally said softly. "He died during the Civil War. He---He saved my life Max. He let me live and took death instead." She shook the memory away.
Max couldn't believe it. Marcus, dead? He was a ranger for crying out loud! If only he was there to see him before the war, or during the war. He was far off when the war started, expedition on another planet and they were quarintined to remain till the war ended. So much had happened; it was over six years and now he found out the awful truth.
"If I were there," he finally said softly, "I would have gave my life to him. I owed him that much." He looked at the floor, fallen by grief. "He loved you, you know. He---he told me that, that day. He was 'up to the challange' I suppose." He gave a short, bitter laugh.
"I know," she whispered. "He told me before he...left."
Max gulped; he was in front of the entire crew! Oh, what the hell? They never cared. They thought he was always out for the profit; what did they know of that? "I---I guess that ends my question. Now, I guess I'll be eternally grateful till the day I die. Who said the dead can't hear our prayers."
"Max---!" Chambers broke in, unable to hold the tension.
But Max had walked out to a window and watch the stars. Not even a couple of miles couldn't keep them from speaking. Somewhere out there, Marcus Cole was there, with that damned Minbari pike that nearly lost his nose, and looking down at every move Ivanova and he made. All those stars...
Goodbye, my friend. You will be missed.
END
Okay, well, there's a sequal to this. It'll be in the Crusade section sometime soon. ^_~ Well, I hope you enjoyed this little adventure. ^^
CHAPTER EIGHT
FIRST OFFICER'S LOG:
THAT WAS ONE HECK OF A DAY WE HAD. WE FOUND OUT THE TRUE INTENTIONS OF
THE HAK'VIR.THEY PLANNED TO SELL THAT NECKLACE EILERSON HAD UNEARTHED
TO SELL BACK TO HIS PEOPLE
AND TAKE ALL TEH CREDIT. THEY HIRED THE AMSTERDAM GANG TO MAKE SURE THEY
GOT WHAT THEY WANTED AND THE HAK'VIR EVEN HAD ONE HUGE WEAPON WAITING
OUTSIDE AS A BACKUP. ALL THIS TROUBLE OVER TWO HEAVY GOLD NECKLACES
---BRACELETS, WHATEVER.IN THE END, IT ALL TURNED OUT ALRIGHT. DELENN
TELLS ME THAT CAPTAIN SHERIDAN WILL BE BACK ON HIS FEET, BUT I THINK HE'S
DO ANYTHING TO GET OUT OF POLITICS. HE NEARLY KILLED FRANKLIN OVER IT. HMM...EILERSON'S SHIP LEAVES TOMORROW AND GARIBALDI'S HAVING ONE OF
THOSE DAYS AGAIN. CORWIN AND ALLEN BOTH HAVE BEEN GIVEN A DAY OFF TO
REST; TRIPLE SHIFTS WERE JUST TOO MUCH FOR THEM. AND AS FOR MARCUS AND
I? I WON THAT BET AND NOW HE OWES ME DINNER. FOR ONCE.
"Thanks for dinner, Marcus."
Marcus laughed as he accompanied him to her door. They had came back from the Eclipse, an Earth shop that had everything fresh and were from Earth. Ivanova couldn't remember from the last time she actually ate something from Earth and gotten really full.
"You're welcome," he replied. "Umm...does that mean that the debt is paid?" he wanted to know, as Ivanova managed a crooked smile.
"If you don't watch it, you'll wind up owing me again," she warned, biting back a smile when he squirmed on his boots. "Well, that's my first real meal without all that stuff for once, so you could consider the debt paid." She nodded. "Thanks again, Marcus."
He smiled gallantly. "Always happy to serve my favourite commander."
She didn't know what to say, or what it meant. But she nodded as she opened the door to her quarters. "Well, thanks again, Marcus," she said again, eentering through the door. He nodded again. Gosh, why was she so speechless. "Well, good night Marcus."
"I'll see you when Eilerson leaves tomorrow," Marcus replied back to her. "Good night Susan."
The door slid shut and that was the end. Ivanova waved her loose hair aside as she swerved over to her control panel. "Computer," she ordered. "Any new messages for me?" She wrestled off her bulky and stiff navy uniform and tossed it over to her couch,
"None."
"Good. Hold my calls. I'm hitting the sacks."
Corwin stirred his synthetic coffee. There was no real coffee in space; it was very hard to find it. Apparently, when he signed on to Earthforce, they never said there would be no coffee and that they would manage in space with chemical-flavoured water. One day, he said to himself, we can be able to drink real coffee. But not in my time. Not with all this stuff going on.
"Hey, may I join you?"
He looked up to see Zack Allen towering before him with a loaded tray. Corwin silently gestured for Allen to take a seat, and he eagarly took it. He nodded at him. "What's up?" he asked, eating some biscuits from his nicely loaded tray. Not as much as what Garibaldi eats, at least.
Corwin shrugged. "I was just thinking," he said out loud now, "that one day, Earthforce will be able to export coffee to here in space. That would be nice. No more synthetic poison or anything." Allen laughed. "But not in this timeline. Not after all that's going on."
"I respect your position, Dave," Allen said sympathetically.
"Thank you." He stopped and leaned over. "You know, about the day before, I think we done the right thing, despite the...so we say, results of the transactions."
Allen laughed again. "Of course."
"I finally know how it feels to be a hero, for once," he said. "It we didn't destabilize the ship from up here, we would be in oblivion right now. And I now know how it feels to be in command. I'll know how it's like when I become captain of my own starship, or maybe commander of this station when Ivanova and Sheridan decides to transfer."
"You like to look forward to this stuff?" Zack asked curiously.
"Yeah," he admitted. "I just hope we didn't give Sheridan a seizure."
Zack laughed. "Perhaps a promotion on the spot," he said. "One day, when it's our time, I'll be in charge of security. Enforcing the station rules. But we all did a part yesterday. Ivanova and Marcus stopped the Amsterdam gang on the station, Garibaldi caught those menacing Hak'Vir and Sheridan helped by keeping those ambaassadors glued together."
"I just hope the glue lasts," Corwin hoped wistfully. He caught Ivanova and Marcus with the IPX man walking towards the docking rings. "Gee, I guess our little guest is leaving the station now."
"I suppose so." Zack raised his drinks. "For our future...and for our necks." Corwin raised his synthetic whatever up and matched up the toast. It'll be their time...someday soon.
"Hello, Captain. You called for me?"
Delenn stood over Sheridan's cot where he lay. Never did she see him in such a state. He was fumed when he heard he could go back to work and deal with the other ambassadors and that incident added up to another few days in MedLab over observation. He nodded. "Ambassador, as you heard, I'm ggoing to be staying here for another two days. And I need you to do something..."
"Feel free to come back anytime, Mr. Eilerson," Ivanova was saying.
"Gee, I wonder when," he shot back sarcastically.
Ivanova frowned as Marcus watched the transaction with amusement. He smiled at Max. "You should count yourself lucky, Max," he stated. "For if you went totally over our dear commander's head, you'd be outside the airlock right now, your face blue and floating dead. Count yourself lucky."
"I suppose so." They stopped infront of the docking ring to his ship. "Thank you again, Commander, Marcus. Despite the situation we had here, I had a pretty good time on my stay. Good luck to you, commander, you've got a loyal crew under your wings." The two exchanged a handshake.
Ivanova stepped back to allow the Marcus and him tot alk privately. Max nodded. "Well," he said, "thanks, Ranger. You were a really good pal while I was here. I guess we got off at the wrong foot or something---" Marcus laughed. "---but otherwise if it weren't ffor you, I'd be dead right now."
Marcus nodded slightly "It's what we do."
"I'll try to stay in touch," he continued on. "But I think because of our differences, it might be tough. I don't know when I'll be back, but I'll try anyhow. Good luck, Ranger and," he leaned over in a whisper, "keep up with Commander Ivanova."
He frowned but clasped hands anyhow. "Good luck, Max."
Ivanova rejoined Marcus as Eilerson walked into the dockinng which he entered a few days ago. Then, he disappeared. Marcus seemed a little distant, as she clasped his shoulder. They began to walk away. "Do you think we'd ever see him again?" she asked him finally.
"Oh, I doubt it," Marcus replied. "We're on an interstellar despot. He's an IPX man leaping from planet to planet. We'll be lucky if he ever leaps back here again, but by the move of things, things will sharpen up again."
She stopped and glared at her. "Your prediction?" she asked.
"I don't predict."
"Admit it, Marcus," she said. "You really think something's going to happen. Yes, I know of the shadows," She dropped her voice reasonably, "and I know they're going to try to screw our entire lives up but you seriously believe that something else will stir up?"
"In this galaxy, anything can happen."
"I hope Ambassador Delenn is right about that," Ivanova wondered out loud, recodnizing the choice of words, making him colour reluctantly against will. She smiled small before frowning at the realization of her question. "Makes me wonder, where is Ambassador Delenn?"
"Ambassadors, please!"
The ambassadors in the chambers of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds was very restless and they were very loud. Human ears could be ever-so sensitive. No one would listen to her shouts of silence and peace and that was even worse that ever. The ambassadors were at each others throats! If the Centauri and Narn war wasn't bad enough...
She slumped back to her chair and rubbed her forehead. Pain; was this what the humans call a headache? Their shouts echoed in hER newly mixed chemistry; human-minbari. Her head ached; she wished she could have taken up what Lennier offered. What was she thinking? She realized that the term "pain in the butt" was coming in.
It was going to be a long day.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
ABOARD THE EXCALIBUR
YEAR: 2267, PRESENT
"Crew, I'd like you to meet Captain Susan Ivanova," Captain Matthew Gideon introduced to a young woman over thirty now with a neat uniform. Max blinked; wasn't it only yesterday she was in a commander's uniform? Funny, it was six years ago that she was only a commander of Babylon 5, the last of the Babylon stations.
Gideon was different; darker, always brooding. Or maybe because he and Gideon were always at each other's throats. Marcus. Once Ivanova reached to Eilerson, he would ask whatever happened to the ranger that had a puppy love for the headstrong commander...major...whatever.
"And this," Gideon finally said, "is the head of our linguist and archaeological department...Maximillian Eilerson." Ivanova nodded slightly to him as he did the same. "Eilerson," she greeted kindly. "It's been a long time since I last saw you. Last time you were on Babylon 5, you were...arranging that meeting with the Hak'Vir."
Now Gideon and Captain Elizabeth Lochley were listening as well as Dr. Sarah Chambers with the same thought in mind: They met? He didn't mind, he didn't care. This was his business and his business alone. He learned many things during his stay on the Excalibur; leave one alone and you shall not be bothered. But it never worked either way.
"It's good to see you again," he replied back curtly. "Um, mind if I may ask, whatever happened to my good ranger friend, Marcus? I heard they were involved in the Shadow war and the Civil war on Earth Alliance?" He smiled. "Funny, six years..."
Ivanova seemed drawn back a bit. As if recovering. "He's gone, Max," she finally said softly. "He died during the Civil War. He---He saved my life Max. He let me live and took death instead." She shook the memory away.
Max couldn't believe it. Marcus, dead? He was a ranger for crying out loud! If only he was there to see him before the war, or during the war. He was far off when the war started, expedition on another planet and they were quarintined to remain till the war ended. So much had happened; it was over six years and now he found out the awful truth.
"If I were there," he finally said softly, "I would have gave my life to him. I owed him that much." He looked at the floor, fallen by grief. "He loved you, you know. He---he told me that, that day. He was 'up to the challange' I suppose." He gave a short, bitter laugh.
"I know," she whispered. "He told me before he...left."
Max gulped; he was in front of the entire crew! Oh, what the hell? They never cared. They thought he was always out for the profit; what did they know of that? "I---I guess that ends my question. Now, I guess I'll be eternally grateful till the day I die. Who said the dead can't hear our prayers."
"Max---!" Chambers broke in, unable to hold the tension.
But Max had walked out to a window and watch the stars. Not even a couple of miles couldn't keep them from speaking. Somewhere out there, Marcus Cole was there, with that damned Minbari pike that nearly lost his nose, and looking down at every move Ivanova and he made. All those stars...
Goodbye, my friend. You will be missed.
END
Okay, well, there's a sequal to this. It'll be in the Crusade section sometime soon. ^_~ Well, I hope you enjoyed this little adventure. ^^