Dear fellows,
Apologies for my absence, I chose the most inconvenient moment possible to explore new career options… like becoming a butterfly.
I'd like to thank everyone for emailing me asking for more. More was always intended (I took a leaf from JMS and laid out the story for the whole year), It just took time for me to get to writing this part… However this does mean when I reach later parts you may receive at a greater pace as they are already written.
As I said before, some of the series will tie in significantly with the plot of the episode, and some will add their own plot. This is the latter and is not a particularly long, but a very necessary story for the plot to advance… and incidentally one I had next to no notes written for…DOH!
This one goes out to Lilly Woolcock, whose nagging and use as a soundboard for ideas is still invaluable. Finest Kinds.
B5 belongs to Warner and is the brainchild of JMS. This is based on his work, and is only mine in the very loosest of the sense.
Tempus Fugit: The Very Long Night…
It was going to be yet another night of eventfulness on Babylon 5. Susan had word confirmed to her an hour ago that Londo had collapsed in customs after drinking from an impounded bottle of Brivari. Now he was in med-lab with suspected poisoning of some kind, and it had been such a quiet day. Well apart from the headache which had now been plaguing her for about two months. Maybe something was really wrong and she should get it checked out. She dismissed the idea deciding that Stephen would be busy attending to Londo at this moment, and that it would lead to questions about her current mental development.
Londo. Poor Londo. She'd used the word "poor" to describe Londo? Londo the pain in the ass, Londo the starter of wars. But then again Londo wasn't a bad person. He wasn't deserving of death. Mostly what he had been in the past was foolish, but not evil. And now he was fighting for his life in med-lab. Well, an assassination attempt on Londo was only a matter of time. After all, he was set to be the next emperor. Emperor Mollari the card-shark. She only hoped Londo lived to be given that nickname.
The tube halted somewhere in blue sector and Garibaldi boarded, looking somewhat worse for wear from the day.
"Hi," He greeted her, seeming rather distracted.
She smiled weakly at him, not feeling like a lengthy conversation. She could see he wasn't too interested in conversation anyway.
"So I guess you heard?" Michael asked eventually, out of necessity rather than want. He hated to be the bearer of bad news.
"About Londo?" Susan checked before continuing. "John linked me about an hour ago."
"You haven't heard the latest then?" Michael asked, hating the morbid topic of conversation.
"No, he isn't-" She began, hoping she wouldn't have to be shipping home a dead ambassador.
"No." Michael answered quickly, not letting her stray down that path too much. "But it wasn't poison. It was a heart attack."
"Damn." Susan sighed, feeling for Londos misfortune. It came as no great surprise though. "How did Vir take it?"
"I'm on my way to find him. Word has it he was on the Zocalo."
Susan stood in silence, unsure as to where the conversation should go after this point. Her and Michael shared the occasional glance as the tube moved along, but little else.
The tube stopped and two of Byron's' telepaths boarded, garbed in black. Garibaldi eyed them with suspicion. She'd never thought of Michael as racist, but he hated them simply for what they are, that which they could not help but be. She couldn't classify it as anything else. Worse still, she wondered how hypocritical Michael would become should he ever find out what she had become recently, or was indeed becoming. It terrified her.
There were a few she could rely on should she ever be discovered. Sheridan would support on her on principal, Delenn and Stephen would help her by nature and Marcus was so liberal he tied himself up in knots.
But Michael. Michael's distrust of telepaths had been amplified since he had discovered that Bester had been manipulating him, he would never trust her. She would loose his friendship, and she ached inside thinking of loosing such a close friend.
He stepped forward as the tube ground to a halt at the Zocalo. He glanced back and weakly smiled, about to do an unpleasant duty.
"Good Luck," She murmured, unsure what else to wish him in these circumstances.
"Thanks," He retorted briefly before disembarking onto the deck.
The doors closed behind him and the tube moved again, Susan sighed deeply. Somewhere she fondness for Londo, a feeling that she would morn his loss, should it come about.
She glanced over at the two telepaths who smiled politely at her. She wondered, why black? These were people trying to escape the corps, so why dress in a colour associated with the organisation? It seemed odd to her, but then most of the universe did.
Suddenly there came about a voice in her mind. Then another, then two more. They were multiplying. She couldn't control it as they grew louder. Susan closed her eyes and grit her teeth, trying desperately to block out the disharmonic choir in her mind. It didn't work, it just got louder. More, and more, pounding waves of thought penetrating her mind, her fears grew that they would sweep her away. Her head began to get light, she couldn't breathe.
This was it, she was going to be found out, her friends would find she'd been lying to them, or at least not been forthcoming with certain truths. She didn't think for a minute that her friends would let her be taken by the corps. They'd hide her on the Minbari home world if they had to, but she'd be out of Earth Force. There would be nothing now. No dreams of going home, no star ship captaincy when she was finally through with B5. She might as well be dying.
As it overcame her mind, she screamed and collapsed.
Sofie had explained it all in the most graphic details to Susan to emphasise the importance of what was to happen tomorrow.
The Corps had finally after thirty-five years caught up with Sofie Ivanov and had forced the sleeper drugs upon her, but they had not yet finished tormenting her and her family. Tomorrow they would test her children, and unless Sofie was able to quickly teach her four-year-old daughter how to fool the tests she would loose her to them. She waited until Andre had fallen asleep, he still subtly angry that she had not entrusted him with her great secret. Then she crept out of bed and woke her youngest child.
Sofie worked for around six hours with her drowsy child until she was satisfied she had learnt how to fool the tests. It was up to Susan now.
Sofie had known her child had limited telepathic ability since Susan had first started developing speech. It had worried her, but she had dismissed it with the thought that she wouldn't have to teach her to control it until she reached school age. But circumstance had brought it forward a year early, and Sofie had to be brutally honest with a child really far too young to understand the importance this had.
The next day rolled around far too quickly, and both Susan and Sofie were exhausted the next morning. At Twelve prompt, a man in a grey suit knocked on the door and Andre begrudgingly let him in.
He was not an unpleasant man, but still Susan was afraid of him. He might take her away from her family, her world. While her mother and father waited in the next room, She held Ganyas hand as he was tested and cleared. He had already been tested in school and was not worried for himself.
Then came her turn. She was barely able to tell the man in the grey suit her name.
Her mother prayed in the next room.
He talked to her, he asked her if she knew what people thought, to which she replied no and managed to make her answer mentally unreadable. He asked her lots more questions. Still she was able to hide herself from his mind. But she was becoming tired. She had been sitting in the chair such a long time.
He said he wanted to keep her longer, but she was tired and afraid. She couldn't stay there anymore; she got up from the chair and ran upstairs, not able to concentrate anymore.
"Did you finish?" Came her Fathers voice up the wooden staircase.
"Almost." The man replied.
Susan's father stood on the first step, barring the man from coming any further. "You finished," Her father informed him, "If you decide you aren't finished you will have to come back with a court order, in which case my daughter will not be here." He paused allowing the man to absorb this information. "Are you finished?"
The man considered for a moment, then decided he wanted no trouble, especially after a child who seemed completely devoid of any telepathic talent. He announced his departure, gathered his papers and left.
The entire house breathed relief as the door closed behind him. Sofie made her way upstairs to find Susan huddled in the hallway, crying with exhaustion.
I'll be back soon with chapter 2- and this time I mean it! (Barring the eventuality of George Bush killing us all!)
Crazy Ranger: