Turn to Dust
"Lazy Time Tracker," said Ivanova with satisfaction, "He didn't try to bother us as much as I might have expected."
"Don't say that," Sophie pointed out, "until you're done checking the shuttle."
"Tracker not have any reason to track us now. Time line is preserved. So we go home. Not get any more trouble." Zathras seemed confident enough.
"If you think I'm gonna relax before we get there, Zathras... Wait a minute. Momma? Do you have a time stabilizer?"
"Of course I do. How do you think I got here?" Sophie took one of the round devices out of her jacket pocket and handed it forward. Zathras took it from her.
"Old kind. Early test model. Need improvements."
"I got here well enough."
"Let Zathras see what he can do. Do we have toolkit in here?"
"Toolkit is back in storage closet."
Ivanova unstrapped herself from her seat and floated over to the cabinet behind the seating area. As she pulled the toolkit out of a secured compartment, she asked her mother, "How did you know I needed help? I thought the sleepers blocked your telepathic abilities. I only talked to this time's you for a couple of minutes back there."
"It was near the end of the week, the drug was weaker. And I know your thought frequency well. So I was able to scan you. I had a feeling about you." Sophie folded her arms. "How long is the diagnostic?"
"Almost done. The computer's having some trouble figuring out why some technology was removed. How did you get through time? Did you go to Epsilon 3?"
"No. He came to Earth. They opened the time thing on Earth." She gestured towards Zathras.
"Zathras? Zathras come? Zathras not remember that. But Zathras not have the greatest memory..."
"You came," Sophie insisted.
"It was probably Zathrash or Zathrasth or something," Ivanova suggested passively.
"Not that much pronunciation difference."
"That wasn't my point," grumbled Ivanova.
"What was that?" asked Sophie.
"There are ten--well nine--Zathras brothers on Epsilon 3." Zathras tried to protest for some reason but Ivanova ignored him. "They all look alike, they all talk alike, they all have the same name and they all dress alike. It really can drive you crazy." Ivanova gave Zathras a look and then glanced back at her mother again. It was really her. She was becoming very sure now.
Zathras announced that the diagnostic was done. He made a few adjustments to Sophie's time stabilizer and announced that they were ready to head back to the time anomaly.
"Then lets go," said Sophie.
"Wait a minute. You're coming to 2298?" asked Ivanova.
"There's nothing here for me."
"I don't know if you'd like 2298 very much." But I hope you come, thought Ivanova, I really do. "I mean if you want to, I don't see why not."
"What is it that you don't think I would like about 2298?"
"Or, on the other hand you might love a world where Psi Corps doesn't exist but neither does a strong central Earth government, but what the hell?"
"What?" asked Sophie blankly. "What about the Corps?"
"It doesn't exist. After the telepath war."
"There's no Psi Corps? That would be a nice change I think."
"Yea, of course it is. So you are coming?"
"I never changed my mind, Susan."
"Then let's go."
A few minutes later, Ivanova said, "So I'll tell you about what's happened between where you left off and 2298."
In the next hour, she rattled off the entire history of the galaxy in the previous 60 years. It left her mother looking a bit overwhelmed and Zathras looking very bored. There is nothing more exclusive than two people next to you having an intense conversation in a language you don't know a word in. He made a point to learn Russian in his spare time.
At last, Sophie turned to Zathras.
"If I was met by one of your brothers on Earth, how did they know to come? I was getting worried that I wouldn't be able to do anything about what I knew."
"When Jeff went back in time at least he had what Valen had written. We don't have anything," said Ivanova. "We'll just have to improvise."
"Zathras can contact Epsilon 3. Tell brothers what to do."
"Do that then."
"Zathras set up communication. Will send it when we get to time anomaly."
"That should be in about a half hour."
The Time Tracker had failed on its mission. They had gotten back successfully. A week after Ivanova had gotten back to her life, she received a small package in the mail.
"What?" she wondered as she opened it up. A data crystal fell out. Ivanova pulled out a small note as well.
"I think you dropped this. --Susan Cranston."
Who? Ivanova searched her memory. She wasn't sure she knew a Susan Cranston. What was this thing anyway?
"Computer, scan this for viruses."
"No viruses found."
"What is it?"
"Ship and personal logs dating 2262 through 2266."
Now where did anyone get a hold of that? Wait, it must have been that Susan that she had run into on the transport...
Why did it have to be those logs, out of all things? The telepath war logs? She took the crystal out of its socket, not needing to review the war's events which she still remembered anyway.
***
"Is there something wrong, Captain?" Commander Lawrence asked as he entered Captain Ivanova's office.
"I was only supposed to be on this ship for a year. Now Earthforce wants me here for longer."
"Is that a problem?" he asked.
"Oh no, no, no, it has nothing to do with the crew. It's just that Earthforce didn't give me any explanation of why they want me to stay here. Don't you think that's a bit unusual? I think there's something going on. If they can't tell me what, then it's worse than I thought."
"They must have their reasons."
"Of course they do Commander," Ivanova answered, "It's just that we're not important enough to know what they're doing."
Sometimes Fletcher Lawrence didn't know what to say in response to the captain's statements. He had never been good at that sort of thing. He just nodded.
"Anyway, if you hear anything, I want to know," Ivanova told him.
"Yes Sir."
It wouldn't be long though, until the entire crew of every ship in Earthforce knew what was going on.
"All ships are to stay out of P12 telepathy range of all ships and ports not registered in EarthGov as exclusively Earthforce stations, except for approved, mandatory resupplying and maintenance. No Earthforce officers, EarthGov officials, or immediate family of these people will have any contact with anyone outside the chain of command and government structure except prerecorded messages approved by EarthGov. Effective immediately until further notice."
Depression settled over the ship as the crew heard the message. Ivanova silently got up and walked out of the room. She knew what it was. She knew what the P12 isolation was for. It was the beginning of a war of information. A war of telepaths against telepaths, and Earthforce would most certainly take sides with the Psi Corps simply because they were most likely to be the victors.
Ivanova sat down to dinner. Or, rather, what she hoped could be dinner. Combined with the fact that the long periods of isolation between brief battles was creating mishmash things on the menu (broccoli with ketchup and parmesan cheese with watered down juice tonight, for example) and the way the war had been progressing altogether, she hadn't had much of an appetite.
If anything had really happened in the war, it wasn't what people had expected. Well, maybe what Ivanova had expected but not what others did. How could you predict war anyway?
There were not two sides in the war. There were three. There was the Psi Corps. There were the rouge telepaths, blips, planet wanderers, Byron followers, anti-Corps telepaths, that sort of thing. And there was Earthforce. The part of the fleet that even the Corps didn't side with. They were all fighting each other for different reasons. The rogues wanted independence. The Corps wanted power as usual. Earthforce was caught in the middle, trying to beat back both sides.
It made her sick! Sick! Sick! Mundanes couldn't control telepaths. Anyone with any common sense knew that. And that simple fact was what had led Earthforce to a startling decision. There is only one substance known to the Human race able to balance the imbalance.
Dust. Mundanes, some willing, some not, were using it as a weapon now. Dust. It temporarily stimulates the telepath gene in mundanes. Some call it the sleeper drug for normals because it goes against the brain's natural function, but don't all mind drugs do that?"
Like most drugs, dust is addictive. Highly addictive. The user requires more and more to achieve the same effects. One has to take a whole lot of it to work to the same degree of a Psi Cop.
Lieutenant Sharif sat down at the table. She began scribbling symbols and numbers on note cards.
"What are you doing?" Ivanova asked.
"Making a deck of cards. I searched the whole ship. No one has one. What's that?" Sharif pointed to the plate in front of Ivanova.
"It's dinner. I still think it would have been better if they left off the ketchup. At least then it could have been edible."
"Yea, I think they meant to do spaghetti sauce."
"There isn't any spaghetti sauce," Ivanova pointed out.
"That's why they used ketchup. I think I'll just have an apple or something."
"No apples. We're going to have to re-supply soon. We've been going on what we've had since last October."
Both of them knew that meant an approval and an almost top-secret mission to one of the colonies. Sometimes she thought that Earthforce was being a bit too top-secret about unimportant things like food loading.
It all seemed too familiar to her. Earthforce seemed to have picked up some tactics from the Shadow-Vorlon standoff several years ago.
But this was worse. Much worse. The part of EarthGov that wasn't with the Psi Corps was taking telepaths captured in battle and forcing them to work for Earthforce in defeating the other two sides. The rogues were taking hostages. Psi Corps was too cool to do either of those practices.
The weeks slid past and into each other. The crew tried desperately to have fun, but even Lt. Sharif's playing cards didn't help.
They had gotten messages before like the one they got one day. "A rouge fleet is going to attack whatsthaplace in three days. Don't ask us how you got the information. Just be there and see what you can do."
The battle had been a losing one, but it hadn't been the worst they had had until Lt. Mikell shouted "Boarding pod in the hull at shuttle bay!"
"Get a team down there stat!" ordered Ivanova. She jumped up and ran through the ship to the shuttle bay. She pulled up against the wall just away from the weapons fire. Wei Jiang was down.
You couldn't allow yourself to worry about someone until the danger was over. Ivanova grabbed Jiang's weapon and shot one of the telepaths in the leg. He dropped his gun.
"Take the survivors as prisoners!" Ivanova shouted. Immediately this resulted in wrestling fights instead of weapon fights. The surviving rogues were caught by her team.
It took three of her people to hold one rogue woman. This woman screamed terrible insults and though her arms were held, her hands reached out as if to touch Ivanova. Her light brown hair fell over her eyes but the captain could still see them glaring at her. The telepath rubbed the tips of her fingers together quickly, snapping them as if to create fire.
Ivanova tried to ask "What the?" but it only came out as a choked yell when she felt a stab of pain like a knife between her shoulder blades, and she fell to the floor. She could have been knocked out but her eyes stayed open and she stayed conscious.
She tried to get up. This had happened before. More than two years ago. Marcus had given his own life energy for her. She had tried to rip the alien healing machine off him but she couldn't do it. She couldn't tell if it was from the pain or something else.
"Marcus! Why did you do it?" something in her mind screamed, but she couldn't form the words. She couldn't breath. Something was pulling the breath out of her before it got in. Her tongue was bleeding from where she had bitten it.
"She's awake," Ivanova heard O'Day say. Her eyes snapped open. She stared at the doctor for an explanation, but O'Day was already screaming at the three other doctors to treat the other wounded and figure out what had happened to the captain at the same time.
More than an hour passed. The other people were treated and left.
"Wha?" Ivanova asked finally, but she gagged.
"Don't try to talk," O'Day snapped tensely as she leaned over her readouts and swore under her breath. Ivanova felt too rotten to glare at the doctor. "Tell her," O'Day told the doctor next to her.
She stood over Ivanova. "It's bad," she said. "She was a telekinetic. She... she ripped your spinal cord, Captain. Here." She solemnly drew a line on her own chest from under one arm around under the other one.
Ivanova closed her eyes as if it would deny the truth. She tried to say something but even she wasn't sure what it was.
Six days later, Doctor O'Day was in a good mood. She had managed to get through to a hospital on Minbar that would take Captain Ivanova. It was out of war space.
The strange thing was that Earthforce didn't know anything about this. It wasn't important enough for them.
She didn't get much news about the war on Minbar. Communications were limited. But Ivanova had just gotten a short message from Acting Captain Lawrence. The message wasn't just more war news. Well, it was, but in the message it said that Earthforce had surrendered and they were going to let the telepaths fight it out themselves. Ivanova wasn't sure what to think of that. Actually she didn't mind that much. She hadn't thought they should get involved in the war in the first place. She was glad her ship was out.
"Hey Susan." She looked up from her message.
"John! Long time no see!"
President Sheridan sat down in a chair next to her bed. Delenn pulled another one up.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
She frowned thoughtfully. "Better. Boy or girl?" she asked, looking at Delenn's growing belly.
"We've decided to wait until the baby is born to know," Delenn told her.
"I'm telling you, Delenn, it's going to be a boy named David."
"Or a girl named Legann," Delenn added.
"Nope. It'll be a boy. I'm sure of it."
"You don't know that for sure," Delenn told him.
"I do."
"Yea okay, I get the point," Ivanova broke in.
"We heard that the doctors were able to reroute some of the nerves for your vital functions," Sheridan said.
"That's a neat trick," she said. "Still can't feel anything below here."
"Nerve rerouting is a very limited process," Delenn explained. "I'is still in the developmental stages."
Ivanova nodded. "I'm going back to my ship pretty soon. Now that Earthforce isn't in the war anymore, it's even better timing."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"There's no reason I should stay here."
"Well for starters, it's a lot safer here," Delenn pointed out.
"If I was going to try to be safe my whole life I never would have joined Earthforce."
"No, I guess not."
The Psi Corps had fallen apart. They had no records after the "Slate Erasing" incident during the war. The rogues had gotten what they wanted-- an independent home planet. It was a small world (about the size of Earth's moon), barely hospitable, but inhabitable with the use of pressure domes. They called it Zion, after Jewish home land.
But Earth itself was in chaos. The Psi Corps had been a large part of what had held Earth under one government. The North American Consortium split off from the rest of the world. In the following ten years, so did Russian, British and Iberian Consortiums. Everything broke apart soon after that.
But for the present, Captain Susan Ivanova returned to her ship.
It was three months after the war ended when Ivanova's ship picked up a distress call.
"Origin?"
"Two light years away, sector 10."
"Let's hear it."
It was an automated message beacon. There was a little boy talking. It was a scratchy transmission, but the ship was clearly shaking in sudden, violent bursts.
"If anyone gets this on time, please help. Our ship is being attacked by--I don't know what. I repeat, please help, but be careful."
Ivanova looked up from the monitor. "Jump to sector 10. Lets hope it's not a trap."
Lt. Sharif nodded.
Doctor O'Day walked up to where the boy lay on the medical bed, the sole survivor.
"He's unconscious, but in no immediate danger"
"Good," said Captain Ivanova, "Have you been able to identify him?"
"No, but he's Narn/human hybrid. Possible the first of his kind. He's also a telepath."
Ivanova shook her head in amazement. "They seem to be everywhere these days."
"Tell me about it."
"Let me know if his condition changes."
"Get out of bed right now!" She had programmed an audio message to be played as her alarm clock instead of the default alarm.
She grunted and opened her eyes a crack. It was still dark outside. Well, duh it was still dark outside. Why does your bed always seem so inhospitable when you're trying to fall asleep, but when you wake up in the morning, you just want to sink into it?
With great effort, she pushed herself onto her stomach and glanced at the clock. Suppose the alarm had malfunctioned and gone off early? No such luck this time.
Over the course of her lifetime, Susan Ivanova had craftily thought up ways to make getting up faster. Throw ice down your back? Build a machine to punch you in the stomach every morning? Program the most obnoxious alarm ever and only be able to turn it off by pushing a button on the other side of the room and wake yourself up getting there?
None of these things ever really appealed to her. They seemed like they would be effective, but not pleasant. She supposed she would just have breakfast then. She reached out and grabbing the seat of her wheelchair, and pulled it closer to her bed, which was very comfortable. Maybe she could sleep a couple of more minutes...
Nope. Her comm link beeped. She picked it up off her table.
"Ivanova. This better be good."
"The boy's woken up. Urgent. Mind quakes."
"I'll be right there. Ivanova out."
She grumbled. They get someone on their ship and he has to be a telepath. At that moment, the ship shook.
When the boy woke up, it became evident that they had rescued him from himself
Doctor O'Day did everything she could to stop his mind quakes, but it was Captain Ivanova who came to the rescue.
She tried to remember what Talia had said to Alisa Beldon, the young telepath they had found back on Babylon 5, when she first learned how to keep out others' thoughts.
"Listen. Make a strong, stone wall between your mind and other peoples'. It keeps out their thoughts, it keeps your thoughts to yourself. It's very strong, remember. Nothing can get past it."
The boy quieted and the mind quakes reduced to a vibration. Then they stopped. He breathed in sharply.
"I suspected I was a telepath," he shuddered, "I thought I was prepared for when my talent surfaced." Then his eyes focused on Ivanova. "You were on Babylon 5."
Ivanova muttered a curse about naive telepaths reading her mind.
"Yes, I was. Do you know me?"
"No."
"Who are you?"
"My name is G'Kem, if that's what you mean, and it probably is. I was raised by the Vorlons." He paused with a tone of pride in his voice. "Now they're gone, and I left their space to find my parents."
"You're just a boy. Why is no one looking after you?" asked O'Day worriedly. She brushed a strip of black hair behind her ear, but it fell back over her face.
"I'm eight years old."
"That's too young, sonny," countered O'Day.
She was as cool as a Minbari, yet every time Susan saw her she looked more and more human.
"We heard that you have a Narn/Human child, but you can't locate his parents. I've been talking it over with John, and we have agreed that we will take in G'Kem as our own son, and a brother to David (John was right, it was a boy.)."
Ivanova talked this over with G'Kem. Yes, he was beginning to see that finding his parents would not be possible, he was a bright child. But he still wanted to know who they were.
She worked with him in further perfecting his mind blocks. "From now on, you are going to be living as a telepath where it isn't always safe for telepaths. You're smart, and I know you can keep your talent hidden as long as you don't give the Psi Corps any reason to suspect you." With a look of determination in her eyes, she said to G'Kem, "And pray to God they never do."
The trip to Babylon 5 took three days. When the ship jumped at the gate, Ivanova could see the station. It looked as it always had, as she had only been gone a day.
Ivanova took G'Kem in a shuttle into the docking bay.
"Remember, no one is to know except those who already do." The boy nodded. He'd been told this a hundred times already, but Ivanova felt it still would never be enough.
In the few weeks that G'Kem had been on the ship, he had taken Susan Ivanova as his guardian.
"Come on, G'Kem," she laughed. He always wanted to push her wheelchair. "I can do it myself."
He put his arms around her neck from behind. "What if I don't like Delenn and John? Can you take me?"
"Maybe." She really meant no. "But you can definitely visit the ship."
"Uh-hu."
"You'll like them, I'm sure. Come on, we have to go." The boy nodded. "Ahh! Not so fast, G'Kem."
As usual, the customs area of Babylon 5 was a zoo. G'Kem seemed to be terrified.
"The wall. Nothing can get through it," Ivanova whispered over her shoulder, trying to reassure him. She squeezed his arm.
Delenn and President John Sheridan watched the crowd intently for Captain Susan Ivanova with a little boy. They already had a baby son. Delenn held David in a front pack.
"Hey guys!" It was Ivanova. Delenn and John ran up to her. G'Kem decided to play shy. He strangled Ivanova again from behind and looked up at the couple standing there.
"Hello, I'm Delenn." She smiled.
G'Kem walked around from behind Ivanova.
"Nice to meet you," he said quietly.
"Of course," answered Delenn.
G'Kem whispered in Ivanova's ear.
"He wants to get out of the crowds," she explained.
"Then lets go," agreed Delenn.
Sheridan and Delenn walked beside G'Kem who was still hiding shyly with Captain Ivanova and pushing her wheelchair. The way he did it was very cute. He was just the right height so that he could lean on the back and put his arms over.
Lochley was sitting at the table with the rest of the gang, but looking quite left out. Whoever had thought to invite her to dinner had forgotten she had arrived after Ivanova left. That gave her something in common with G'Kem. Though the adults tried to include the boy, he looked bored also. Lochley smiled at him.
The whole senior staff of both the station and she ship and had been invited. They had gone out to dinner as a reunion party and to celebrate G'Kem's arrival.
G'Kem had finally warmed up to everyone. He wasn't constantly hanging on Ivanova.
Their food came.
"Ew, what's this?" asked G'Kem with a disgusted look.
"What you ordered. Spaghetti with tomato sauce," answered O'Day.
"Looks like guts and scabby blood."
Everyone at the table laughed.
"Believe me, there're a lot worse things as far as exotic food goes," said Sheridan between amused smiles.
"I've never had it before. The Vorlons didn't feed me such things. Oh man--uh-oh--"
"What?" asked Delenn.
"Ech." He pressed his hand on his eyelid. Delenn got up and pulled him into a corner of the room.
"Too many people in the room," he whined. "Inside my head."
"I think we should go, G'Kem," she said.
Delenn took him by the had and telling the group he wasn't feeling well, left the restaurant with him.
"You need proper telepathy training," she told him back in their quarters, "You must learn to use your talent well."
"Who's going to teach me?"
"A Minbari telepath."
But Delenn could see G'Kem was confused.
"Susan told me to keep my talent hidden. Why is it so bad to use it?"
"G'Kem, you are only a little boy. But one day, you will understand that not everyone wants the same thing in this world." Delenn stood up and walked into the bedroom. She unstrapped baby David from his front pack and put him in his crib. "You never got to officially meet your brother." She smiled.
Delenn and John Sheridan traveled back to Minbar, their permanent home. G'Kem was taught the art of telepathy by Nemall, who also became the childrens' nanny. He learned quickly. A child raised by Vorlons is not lazy at anything, and that includes study.
He was a quiet child, kept to himself. Didn't play with the Minbari children much. He played with his brother David.
David Cardell Sheridan was very cute. He was two years old now, and he was teething. Sort of like that. Not exactly. A figure of speech. He'd gotten all his teeth long ago. G'Kem had been the first to notice him scratching and rubbing the back of his head. He gave David the nickname Bonehead, even though he was only a quarter Minbari and only had a ridge under his hair. Of course G'Kem didn't use the name around Delenn.
John Sheridan was always away on presidential business. Sometimes Delenn went with him and Nemall watched the children. On one such occasion, David was toddling around the room and G'Kem was doing homework. When he was going over a math problem, David ran over to Nemall.
"Nawa!" That was what David called her. He climbed into her lap. "T pwus 56 equash 101. Whas t?"
"What was that?" she asked, surprised.
"Erkie twy ta find..." his voice trailed off and he sucked in his drool. For some unknown reason, G'Kem had become Erkie in David's mind.
Nemall picked David up and put him on the floor.
"Try not to listen to his thoughts too hard, David."
It was hard to tell if she was joking or not.
Delenn put her hands on the table in front of her and looked at 15 year old G'Kem.
"You have got to start 'hanging out' with other people besides David. It's not good for you to be by yourself so much."
"I don't like people here. They think I'm weird. And even if they don't mind me, to their parents, I'm still the son of Starkiller. Even if he is the first president of the Earth Alliance."
"How do you think I feel?" exclaimed Delenn. "I'm his wife, not to mention half human."
G'Kem stalked back into his room. "I'm not a child!" he shouted, "Don't tell me who to keep company with!"
G'Kem closed the door to his room and plunked himself down on his bed. Nemall had warned that it was bad luck to sleep on a horizontal bed, but his parents and brother did it and they didn't seem to have exceptionally bad luck. It was better for sitting on too.
He looked around his room distastefully. It was too impersonal, just another Minbari designed room in the large building, disguised with his posters and furniture. He gritted his teeth and decided his favorite shape was a square.
A new generation was being born. It was a generation of children of mundane and telepath parents. Without the Psi Corps matching up telepaths, people chose who they wanted.
There were many more people using their telepathy now. More than there should have been. It was a legacy that the telepath war had left behind: If dust is used too much, the effects become permanent. They passed the active telepath gene on to their children as well, creating an artificially high number of telepaths. But who was real? The Vorlons had created telepaths in the first place.
It was funny, Ivanova thought as she pinned the badge of the Rangers to her chest. She had always thought of the Shadow war as being over. But John had still carried his half death at Z'Ha'Dum with him afterwards, and with that death came his final death, and Ivanova wondered if the Shadow war was really over yet.
"Lazy Time Tracker," said Ivanova with satisfaction, "He didn't try to bother us as much as I might have expected."
"Don't say that," Sophie pointed out, "until you're done checking the shuttle."
"Tracker not have any reason to track us now. Time line is preserved. So we go home. Not get any more trouble." Zathras seemed confident enough.
"If you think I'm gonna relax before we get there, Zathras... Wait a minute. Momma? Do you have a time stabilizer?"
"Of course I do. How do you think I got here?" Sophie took one of the round devices out of her jacket pocket and handed it forward. Zathras took it from her.
"Old kind. Early test model. Need improvements."
"I got here well enough."
"Let Zathras see what he can do. Do we have toolkit in here?"
"Toolkit is back in storage closet."
Ivanova unstrapped herself from her seat and floated over to the cabinet behind the seating area. As she pulled the toolkit out of a secured compartment, she asked her mother, "How did you know I needed help? I thought the sleepers blocked your telepathic abilities. I only talked to this time's you for a couple of minutes back there."
"It was near the end of the week, the drug was weaker. And I know your thought frequency well. So I was able to scan you. I had a feeling about you." Sophie folded her arms. "How long is the diagnostic?"
"Almost done. The computer's having some trouble figuring out why some technology was removed. How did you get through time? Did you go to Epsilon 3?"
"No. He came to Earth. They opened the time thing on Earth." She gestured towards Zathras.
"Zathras? Zathras come? Zathras not remember that. But Zathras not have the greatest memory..."
"You came," Sophie insisted.
"It was probably Zathrash or Zathrasth or something," Ivanova suggested passively.
"Not that much pronunciation difference."
"That wasn't my point," grumbled Ivanova.
"What was that?" asked Sophie.
"There are ten--well nine--Zathras brothers on Epsilon 3." Zathras tried to protest for some reason but Ivanova ignored him. "They all look alike, they all talk alike, they all have the same name and they all dress alike. It really can drive you crazy." Ivanova gave Zathras a look and then glanced back at her mother again. It was really her. She was becoming very sure now.
Zathras announced that the diagnostic was done. He made a few adjustments to Sophie's time stabilizer and announced that they were ready to head back to the time anomaly.
"Then lets go," said Sophie.
"Wait a minute. You're coming to 2298?" asked Ivanova.
"There's nothing here for me."
"I don't know if you'd like 2298 very much." But I hope you come, thought Ivanova, I really do. "I mean if you want to, I don't see why not."
"What is it that you don't think I would like about 2298?"
"Or, on the other hand you might love a world where Psi Corps doesn't exist but neither does a strong central Earth government, but what the hell?"
"What?" asked Sophie blankly. "What about the Corps?"
"It doesn't exist. After the telepath war."
"There's no Psi Corps? That would be a nice change I think."
"Yea, of course it is. So you are coming?"
"I never changed my mind, Susan."
"Then let's go."
A few minutes later, Ivanova said, "So I'll tell you about what's happened between where you left off and 2298."
In the next hour, she rattled off the entire history of the galaxy in the previous 60 years. It left her mother looking a bit overwhelmed and Zathras looking very bored. There is nothing more exclusive than two people next to you having an intense conversation in a language you don't know a word in. He made a point to learn Russian in his spare time.
At last, Sophie turned to Zathras.
"If I was met by one of your brothers on Earth, how did they know to come? I was getting worried that I wouldn't be able to do anything about what I knew."
"When Jeff went back in time at least he had what Valen had written. We don't have anything," said Ivanova. "We'll just have to improvise."
"Zathras can contact Epsilon 3. Tell brothers what to do."
"Do that then."
"Zathras set up communication. Will send it when we get to time anomaly."
"That should be in about a half hour."
The Time Tracker had failed on its mission. They had gotten back successfully. A week after Ivanova had gotten back to her life, she received a small package in the mail.
"What?" she wondered as she opened it up. A data crystal fell out. Ivanova pulled out a small note as well.
"I think you dropped this. --Susan Cranston."
Who? Ivanova searched her memory. She wasn't sure she knew a Susan Cranston. What was this thing anyway?
"Computer, scan this for viruses."
"No viruses found."
"What is it?"
"Ship and personal logs dating 2262 through 2266."
Now where did anyone get a hold of that? Wait, it must have been that Susan that she had run into on the transport...
Why did it have to be those logs, out of all things? The telepath war logs? She took the crystal out of its socket, not needing to review the war's events which she still remembered anyway.
***
"Is there something wrong, Captain?" Commander Lawrence asked as he entered Captain Ivanova's office.
"I was only supposed to be on this ship for a year. Now Earthforce wants me here for longer."
"Is that a problem?" he asked.
"Oh no, no, no, it has nothing to do with the crew. It's just that Earthforce didn't give me any explanation of why they want me to stay here. Don't you think that's a bit unusual? I think there's something going on. If they can't tell me what, then it's worse than I thought."
"They must have their reasons."
"Of course they do Commander," Ivanova answered, "It's just that we're not important enough to know what they're doing."
Sometimes Fletcher Lawrence didn't know what to say in response to the captain's statements. He had never been good at that sort of thing. He just nodded.
"Anyway, if you hear anything, I want to know," Ivanova told him.
"Yes Sir."
It wouldn't be long though, until the entire crew of every ship in Earthforce knew what was going on.
"All ships are to stay out of P12 telepathy range of all ships and ports not registered in EarthGov as exclusively Earthforce stations, except for approved, mandatory resupplying and maintenance. No Earthforce officers, EarthGov officials, or immediate family of these people will have any contact with anyone outside the chain of command and government structure except prerecorded messages approved by EarthGov. Effective immediately until further notice."
Depression settled over the ship as the crew heard the message. Ivanova silently got up and walked out of the room. She knew what it was. She knew what the P12 isolation was for. It was the beginning of a war of information. A war of telepaths against telepaths, and Earthforce would most certainly take sides with the Psi Corps simply because they were most likely to be the victors.
Ivanova sat down to dinner. Or, rather, what she hoped could be dinner. Combined with the fact that the long periods of isolation between brief battles was creating mishmash things on the menu (broccoli with ketchup and parmesan cheese with watered down juice tonight, for example) and the way the war had been progressing altogether, she hadn't had much of an appetite.
If anything had really happened in the war, it wasn't what people had expected. Well, maybe what Ivanova had expected but not what others did. How could you predict war anyway?
There were not two sides in the war. There were three. There was the Psi Corps. There were the rouge telepaths, blips, planet wanderers, Byron followers, anti-Corps telepaths, that sort of thing. And there was Earthforce. The part of the fleet that even the Corps didn't side with. They were all fighting each other for different reasons. The rogues wanted independence. The Corps wanted power as usual. Earthforce was caught in the middle, trying to beat back both sides.
It made her sick! Sick! Sick! Mundanes couldn't control telepaths. Anyone with any common sense knew that. And that simple fact was what had led Earthforce to a startling decision. There is only one substance known to the Human race able to balance the imbalance.
Dust. Mundanes, some willing, some not, were using it as a weapon now. Dust. It temporarily stimulates the telepath gene in mundanes. Some call it the sleeper drug for normals because it goes against the brain's natural function, but don't all mind drugs do that?"
Like most drugs, dust is addictive. Highly addictive. The user requires more and more to achieve the same effects. One has to take a whole lot of it to work to the same degree of a Psi Cop.
Lieutenant Sharif sat down at the table. She began scribbling symbols and numbers on note cards.
"What are you doing?" Ivanova asked.
"Making a deck of cards. I searched the whole ship. No one has one. What's that?" Sharif pointed to the plate in front of Ivanova.
"It's dinner. I still think it would have been better if they left off the ketchup. At least then it could have been edible."
"Yea, I think they meant to do spaghetti sauce."
"There isn't any spaghetti sauce," Ivanova pointed out.
"That's why they used ketchup. I think I'll just have an apple or something."
"No apples. We're going to have to re-supply soon. We've been going on what we've had since last October."
Both of them knew that meant an approval and an almost top-secret mission to one of the colonies. Sometimes she thought that Earthforce was being a bit too top-secret about unimportant things like food loading.
It all seemed too familiar to her. Earthforce seemed to have picked up some tactics from the Shadow-Vorlon standoff several years ago.
But this was worse. Much worse. The part of EarthGov that wasn't with the Psi Corps was taking telepaths captured in battle and forcing them to work for Earthforce in defeating the other two sides. The rogues were taking hostages. Psi Corps was too cool to do either of those practices.
The weeks slid past and into each other. The crew tried desperately to have fun, but even Lt. Sharif's playing cards didn't help.
They had gotten messages before like the one they got one day. "A rouge fleet is going to attack whatsthaplace in three days. Don't ask us how you got the information. Just be there and see what you can do."
The battle had been a losing one, but it hadn't been the worst they had had until Lt. Mikell shouted "Boarding pod in the hull at shuttle bay!"
"Get a team down there stat!" ordered Ivanova. She jumped up and ran through the ship to the shuttle bay. She pulled up against the wall just away from the weapons fire. Wei Jiang was down.
You couldn't allow yourself to worry about someone until the danger was over. Ivanova grabbed Jiang's weapon and shot one of the telepaths in the leg. He dropped his gun.
"Take the survivors as prisoners!" Ivanova shouted. Immediately this resulted in wrestling fights instead of weapon fights. The surviving rogues were caught by her team.
It took three of her people to hold one rogue woman. This woman screamed terrible insults and though her arms were held, her hands reached out as if to touch Ivanova. Her light brown hair fell over her eyes but the captain could still see them glaring at her. The telepath rubbed the tips of her fingers together quickly, snapping them as if to create fire.
Ivanova tried to ask "What the?" but it only came out as a choked yell when she felt a stab of pain like a knife between her shoulder blades, and she fell to the floor. She could have been knocked out but her eyes stayed open and she stayed conscious.
She tried to get up. This had happened before. More than two years ago. Marcus had given his own life energy for her. She had tried to rip the alien healing machine off him but she couldn't do it. She couldn't tell if it was from the pain or something else.
"Marcus! Why did you do it?" something in her mind screamed, but she couldn't form the words. She couldn't breath. Something was pulling the breath out of her before it got in. Her tongue was bleeding from where she had bitten it.
"She's awake," Ivanova heard O'Day say. Her eyes snapped open. She stared at the doctor for an explanation, but O'Day was already screaming at the three other doctors to treat the other wounded and figure out what had happened to the captain at the same time.
More than an hour passed. The other people were treated and left.
"Wha?" Ivanova asked finally, but she gagged.
"Don't try to talk," O'Day snapped tensely as she leaned over her readouts and swore under her breath. Ivanova felt too rotten to glare at the doctor. "Tell her," O'Day told the doctor next to her.
She stood over Ivanova. "It's bad," she said. "She was a telekinetic. She... she ripped your spinal cord, Captain. Here." She solemnly drew a line on her own chest from under one arm around under the other one.
Ivanova closed her eyes as if it would deny the truth. She tried to say something but even she wasn't sure what it was.
Six days later, Doctor O'Day was in a good mood. She had managed to get through to a hospital on Minbar that would take Captain Ivanova. It was out of war space.
The strange thing was that Earthforce didn't know anything about this. It wasn't important enough for them.
She didn't get much news about the war on Minbar. Communications were limited. But Ivanova had just gotten a short message from Acting Captain Lawrence. The message wasn't just more war news. Well, it was, but in the message it said that Earthforce had surrendered and they were going to let the telepaths fight it out themselves. Ivanova wasn't sure what to think of that. Actually she didn't mind that much. She hadn't thought they should get involved in the war in the first place. She was glad her ship was out.
"Hey Susan." She looked up from her message.
"John! Long time no see!"
President Sheridan sat down in a chair next to her bed. Delenn pulled another one up.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
She frowned thoughtfully. "Better. Boy or girl?" she asked, looking at Delenn's growing belly.
"We've decided to wait until the baby is born to know," Delenn told her.
"I'm telling you, Delenn, it's going to be a boy named David."
"Or a girl named Legann," Delenn added.
"Nope. It'll be a boy. I'm sure of it."
"You don't know that for sure," Delenn told him.
"I do."
"Yea okay, I get the point," Ivanova broke in.
"We heard that the doctors were able to reroute some of the nerves for your vital functions," Sheridan said.
"That's a neat trick," she said. "Still can't feel anything below here."
"Nerve rerouting is a very limited process," Delenn explained. "I'is still in the developmental stages."
Ivanova nodded. "I'm going back to my ship pretty soon. Now that Earthforce isn't in the war anymore, it's even better timing."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"There's no reason I should stay here."
"Well for starters, it's a lot safer here," Delenn pointed out.
"If I was going to try to be safe my whole life I never would have joined Earthforce."
"No, I guess not."
The Psi Corps had fallen apart. They had no records after the "Slate Erasing" incident during the war. The rogues had gotten what they wanted-- an independent home planet. It was a small world (about the size of Earth's moon), barely hospitable, but inhabitable with the use of pressure domes. They called it Zion, after Jewish home land.
But Earth itself was in chaos. The Psi Corps had been a large part of what had held Earth under one government. The North American Consortium split off from the rest of the world. In the following ten years, so did Russian, British and Iberian Consortiums. Everything broke apart soon after that.
But for the present, Captain Susan Ivanova returned to her ship.
It was three months after the war ended when Ivanova's ship picked up a distress call.
"Origin?"
"Two light years away, sector 10."
"Let's hear it."
It was an automated message beacon. There was a little boy talking. It was a scratchy transmission, but the ship was clearly shaking in sudden, violent bursts.
"If anyone gets this on time, please help. Our ship is being attacked by--I don't know what. I repeat, please help, but be careful."
Ivanova looked up from the monitor. "Jump to sector 10. Lets hope it's not a trap."
Lt. Sharif nodded.
Doctor O'Day walked up to where the boy lay on the medical bed, the sole survivor.
"He's unconscious, but in no immediate danger"
"Good," said Captain Ivanova, "Have you been able to identify him?"
"No, but he's Narn/human hybrid. Possible the first of his kind. He's also a telepath."
Ivanova shook her head in amazement. "They seem to be everywhere these days."
"Tell me about it."
"Let me know if his condition changes."
"Get out of bed right now!" She had programmed an audio message to be played as her alarm clock instead of the default alarm.
She grunted and opened her eyes a crack. It was still dark outside. Well, duh it was still dark outside. Why does your bed always seem so inhospitable when you're trying to fall asleep, but when you wake up in the morning, you just want to sink into it?
With great effort, she pushed herself onto her stomach and glanced at the clock. Suppose the alarm had malfunctioned and gone off early? No such luck this time.
Over the course of her lifetime, Susan Ivanova had craftily thought up ways to make getting up faster. Throw ice down your back? Build a machine to punch you in the stomach every morning? Program the most obnoxious alarm ever and only be able to turn it off by pushing a button on the other side of the room and wake yourself up getting there?
None of these things ever really appealed to her. They seemed like they would be effective, but not pleasant. She supposed she would just have breakfast then. She reached out and grabbing the seat of her wheelchair, and pulled it closer to her bed, which was very comfortable. Maybe she could sleep a couple of more minutes...
Nope. Her comm link beeped. She picked it up off her table.
"Ivanova. This better be good."
"The boy's woken up. Urgent. Mind quakes."
"I'll be right there. Ivanova out."
She grumbled. They get someone on their ship and he has to be a telepath. At that moment, the ship shook.
When the boy woke up, it became evident that they had rescued him from himself
Doctor O'Day did everything she could to stop his mind quakes, but it was Captain Ivanova who came to the rescue.
She tried to remember what Talia had said to Alisa Beldon, the young telepath they had found back on Babylon 5, when she first learned how to keep out others' thoughts.
"Listen. Make a strong, stone wall between your mind and other peoples'. It keeps out their thoughts, it keeps your thoughts to yourself. It's very strong, remember. Nothing can get past it."
The boy quieted and the mind quakes reduced to a vibration. Then they stopped. He breathed in sharply.
"I suspected I was a telepath," he shuddered, "I thought I was prepared for when my talent surfaced." Then his eyes focused on Ivanova. "You were on Babylon 5."
Ivanova muttered a curse about naive telepaths reading her mind.
"Yes, I was. Do you know me?"
"No."
"Who are you?"
"My name is G'Kem, if that's what you mean, and it probably is. I was raised by the Vorlons." He paused with a tone of pride in his voice. "Now they're gone, and I left their space to find my parents."
"You're just a boy. Why is no one looking after you?" asked O'Day worriedly. She brushed a strip of black hair behind her ear, but it fell back over her face.
"I'm eight years old."
"That's too young, sonny," countered O'Day.
She was as cool as a Minbari, yet every time Susan saw her she looked more and more human.
"We heard that you have a Narn/Human child, but you can't locate his parents. I've been talking it over with John, and we have agreed that we will take in G'Kem as our own son, and a brother to David (John was right, it was a boy.)."
Ivanova talked this over with G'Kem. Yes, he was beginning to see that finding his parents would not be possible, he was a bright child. But he still wanted to know who they were.
She worked with him in further perfecting his mind blocks. "From now on, you are going to be living as a telepath where it isn't always safe for telepaths. You're smart, and I know you can keep your talent hidden as long as you don't give the Psi Corps any reason to suspect you." With a look of determination in her eyes, she said to G'Kem, "And pray to God they never do."
The trip to Babylon 5 took three days. When the ship jumped at the gate, Ivanova could see the station. It looked as it always had, as she had only been gone a day.
Ivanova took G'Kem in a shuttle into the docking bay.
"Remember, no one is to know except those who already do." The boy nodded. He'd been told this a hundred times already, but Ivanova felt it still would never be enough.
In the few weeks that G'Kem had been on the ship, he had taken Susan Ivanova as his guardian.
"Come on, G'Kem," she laughed. He always wanted to push her wheelchair. "I can do it myself."
He put his arms around her neck from behind. "What if I don't like Delenn and John? Can you take me?"
"Maybe." She really meant no. "But you can definitely visit the ship."
"Uh-hu."
"You'll like them, I'm sure. Come on, we have to go." The boy nodded. "Ahh! Not so fast, G'Kem."
As usual, the customs area of Babylon 5 was a zoo. G'Kem seemed to be terrified.
"The wall. Nothing can get through it," Ivanova whispered over her shoulder, trying to reassure him. She squeezed his arm.
Delenn and President John Sheridan watched the crowd intently for Captain Susan Ivanova with a little boy. They already had a baby son. Delenn held David in a front pack.
"Hey guys!" It was Ivanova. Delenn and John ran up to her. G'Kem decided to play shy. He strangled Ivanova again from behind and looked up at the couple standing there.
"Hello, I'm Delenn." She smiled.
G'Kem walked around from behind Ivanova.
"Nice to meet you," he said quietly.
"Of course," answered Delenn.
G'Kem whispered in Ivanova's ear.
"He wants to get out of the crowds," she explained.
"Then lets go," agreed Delenn.
Sheridan and Delenn walked beside G'Kem who was still hiding shyly with Captain Ivanova and pushing her wheelchair. The way he did it was very cute. He was just the right height so that he could lean on the back and put his arms over.
Lochley was sitting at the table with the rest of the gang, but looking quite left out. Whoever had thought to invite her to dinner had forgotten she had arrived after Ivanova left. That gave her something in common with G'Kem. Though the adults tried to include the boy, he looked bored also. Lochley smiled at him.
The whole senior staff of both the station and she ship and had been invited. They had gone out to dinner as a reunion party and to celebrate G'Kem's arrival.
G'Kem had finally warmed up to everyone. He wasn't constantly hanging on Ivanova.
Their food came.
"Ew, what's this?" asked G'Kem with a disgusted look.
"What you ordered. Spaghetti with tomato sauce," answered O'Day.
"Looks like guts and scabby blood."
Everyone at the table laughed.
"Believe me, there're a lot worse things as far as exotic food goes," said Sheridan between amused smiles.
"I've never had it before. The Vorlons didn't feed me such things. Oh man--uh-oh--"
"What?" asked Delenn.
"Ech." He pressed his hand on his eyelid. Delenn got up and pulled him into a corner of the room.
"Too many people in the room," he whined. "Inside my head."
"I think we should go, G'Kem," she said.
Delenn took him by the had and telling the group he wasn't feeling well, left the restaurant with him.
"You need proper telepathy training," she told him back in their quarters, "You must learn to use your talent well."
"Who's going to teach me?"
"A Minbari telepath."
But Delenn could see G'Kem was confused.
"Susan told me to keep my talent hidden. Why is it so bad to use it?"
"G'Kem, you are only a little boy. But one day, you will understand that not everyone wants the same thing in this world." Delenn stood up and walked into the bedroom. She unstrapped baby David from his front pack and put him in his crib. "You never got to officially meet your brother." She smiled.
Delenn and John Sheridan traveled back to Minbar, their permanent home. G'Kem was taught the art of telepathy by Nemall, who also became the childrens' nanny. He learned quickly. A child raised by Vorlons is not lazy at anything, and that includes study.
He was a quiet child, kept to himself. Didn't play with the Minbari children much. He played with his brother David.
David Cardell Sheridan was very cute. He was two years old now, and he was teething. Sort of like that. Not exactly. A figure of speech. He'd gotten all his teeth long ago. G'Kem had been the first to notice him scratching and rubbing the back of his head. He gave David the nickname Bonehead, even though he was only a quarter Minbari and only had a ridge under his hair. Of course G'Kem didn't use the name around Delenn.
John Sheridan was always away on presidential business. Sometimes Delenn went with him and Nemall watched the children. On one such occasion, David was toddling around the room and G'Kem was doing homework. When he was going over a math problem, David ran over to Nemall.
"Nawa!" That was what David called her. He climbed into her lap. "T pwus 56 equash 101. Whas t?"
"What was that?" she asked, surprised.
"Erkie twy ta find..." his voice trailed off and he sucked in his drool. For some unknown reason, G'Kem had become Erkie in David's mind.
Nemall picked David up and put him on the floor.
"Try not to listen to his thoughts too hard, David."
It was hard to tell if she was joking or not.
Delenn put her hands on the table in front of her and looked at 15 year old G'Kem.
"You have got to start 'hanging out' with other people besides David. It's not good for you to be by yourself so much."
"I don't like people here. They think I'm weird. And even if they don't mind me, to their parents, I'm still the son of Starkiller. Even if he is the first president of the Earth Alliance."
"How do you think I feel?" exclaimed Delenn. "I'm his wife, not to mention half human."
G'Kem stalked back into his room. "I'm not a child!" he shouted, "Don't tell me who to keep company with!"
G'Kem closed the door to his room and plunked himself down on his bed. Nemall had warned that it was bad luck to sleep on a horizontal bed, but his parents and brother did it and they didn't seem to have exceptionally bad luck. It was better for sitting on too.
He looked around his room distastefully. It was too impersonal, just another Minbari designed room in the large building, disguised with his posters and furniture. He gritted his teeth and decided his favorite shape was a square.
A new generation was being born. It was a generation of children of mundane and telepath parents. Without the Psi Corps matching up telepaths, people chose who they wanted.
There were many more people using their telepathy now. More than there should have been. It was a legacy that the telepath war had left behind: If dust is used too much, the effects become permanent. They passed the active telepath gene on to their children as well, creating an artificially high number of telepaths. But who was real? The Vorlons had created telepaths in the first place.
It was funny, Ivanova thought as she pinned the badge of the Rangers to her chest. She had always thought of the Shadow war as being over. But John had still carried his half death at Z'Ha'Dum with him afterwards, and with that death came his final death, and Ivanova wondered if the Shadow war was really over yet.