Pain. That was all that registered in Delenn's mind. Her entire right side hurt as though she'd been dropped from a great height. But, if she was in pain then surely that meant she wasn't dead?
Her conciseness didn't want to reply, trapped in a loop of the momentary ecstasy she'd felt in the presence of that… thing. It would have been so easy to lie where ever she was and dream the rest of her life away.
Her arms and legs didn't want to move, her eyes didn't want to open. It was like being an infant flouting in space barley conscious of herself but knowing all the while that if she didn't find air she'd die.
She forced her eyes open with every bit of might she had. The image in front of her was blurred and didn't make sense. A rusted metal poll came into focus slowly. A ship. She'd been in a ship. Every thought she had came slowly and in chunks, she had to force each of them from the pit of her soul and back into her body.
Shaking… a terrible amount of shaking. Was the ship forced to crash? Was she in the middle of a pile of ruble? A comet, she was heading toward a commit thinking about… someone. Her memory ran backward faster and faster. Arguing, remembering, breathing hard, burning, Lor. "Lor," she tried to call out but not so much as a breath came out. "Lor!" and that time she heard her own voice.
She lifted herself off the ground quickly and waked her head hard on something metal. Eyes closed against the fresh pain and tearing she backed up dizzier then ever she'd been. A great wave of nausea overcame her and she breathed to steady her stomach.
When finally she opened her eyes again she found herself in a completely unfamiliar place. It was a room of some sort, very dark and cold. Almost everything in sight was concrete or rusting metal, and there were no windows. What looked like a locker stood before her roughly four inches taller then her. Where in Heaven's name was she?
She turned around and saw that the ting she'd rammed her head into was the side of a bed frame, she wasn't alone. A girl about her age slept in that bed, the thin filthy looking sheets coming up over her head and a single low burning candle on the floor beside her. Now that she saw it in its entirety the room looked quite small and depressing. The bed and the locker were the only pieces of furniture in there and the room itself was roughly the dimensions of a walk in closet. She wondered if maybe this was a prison.
Well there was only one way to find out now wasn't there? She grabbed the girl by the ankle and shook. Nothing. She shook again. Was the girl dead? No there was a pulse. Delenn moved up a bit and shook her shoulder, "Miss?" she said tentatively. Then louder, "Miss?" At last she showed signs of life.
There eyes met for all of half a second, sleep and incomprehension glazed over her face. She gasped harshly and fell straight out of bed in a crumpled heap of limbs and sheets. Delenn backed into the locker to keep from being flattened by the girl's fall.
She disentangled herself first from the blankets and then from the hair she was apparently chocking on. The wild expression on her face would have been hysterical if the situation were any different.
"Are you alright?"
In response she scrambled up and onto the bed. "How did you get in here?" she demanded. Delenn didn't answer. "If you intend on robbing me I'd have you know there are twenty people in this building not including my matron and assistants!"
"I don't intend to rob you."
"Why are you here? Who are you?" she asked again, clutching her heart as though she were expecting it to explode.
"I don't know. I don't know how I got here. My ship was caught in an anomaly that the sensors couldn't read. There was a flash, a surge of some sort and then, I don't know I just woke up here. My name is Delenn." She looked around one more time and added, "Where is here?"
The girl looked at her as if she had three heads. "Ah-huh," she was able to mumble before starting to pass up and down starring at her as if she were going to attack at any moment. "Who are you?"
"Delenn Sheridan the third," she said slowly and uncertainly.
She put her head in one shaking hand. "One more time?" she said as if afraid to ask.
"Delenn. What is this place?"
She sat down, got up, sat down again half bent, got up again and passed some more. She was looking decisively green now.
"Are you alright?" she asked again.
She was mumbling to herself now her hand still glued to her head. Delenn started to wonder if she hadn't maybe ended up with someone a little unhinged. "Not possible," she was able to discern.
"Not possible what?"
She straightened herself up and said clearly, "I demand you tell me who you really are."
"Excuse me?"
"If you are looking for charity I shall give it. It is my duty and my privilege. But I will have you know you will receive nothing from me until I get the truth. Now tell me your name and your profession."
"My profession?"
"Yes. Are you a whore?"
"A whore?" she shouted wondering if she were propositioning her. "Look I don't know what you're talking about. All I want is to get back to my ship."
Nothing. In fact she might not even be breathing now. 'Oh great I killed her.'
"Hello," she clicked her fingers a couple of times, "stone woman. Are you still there?"
She let out a squeal that could have been a laugh had it not had a definite note of panic. She pointed her finger at her which quickly back to her forehead. Cardiac arrest in 5 4 3 2… "You are expecting me to believe that you are the third coming?"
"Excuse me?"
"Is that the only words you can say properly or something? No matter. So what dose that leave us? You are crazy, violent? Perhaps."
"Excuse me but-"
"Stay out of this." She stopped, realizing just how absurd that sounded.
There was a knock at the door, she shoved Delenn into the locker and shut the door, opened it and said, "Stay there," closed it, opened it again to grab a coat of some sort and shut it again. 'And I'm the one that's supposed to be crazy?'
She could hardly breath in there for the smell of the cloths. It was like nothing had been washed in at least three weeks. In fact she was sure it hadn't. She hushed her own thoughts. Someone was talking.
"How could-how could-I mean why?"
"Hello Brother Michael."
"Hi."
"So tell me are you going to spend the next half hour or so passing my room or are you going to tell me what you're talking about?"
"Rome has canceled the expedition. This could potentially be the biggest discovery of modern history and… and… and… they're canceling it! What are we going to do?"
"We will do nothing."
"Nothing? How can you say that? Sister Alanis, this is potentially the biggest discovery of modern history-"
"You've mentioned that."
"-and you're just going to sit down and… and let them?"
"I have no other choose. If the government doesn't want the site excavated then it won't be excavated."
"What are they hiding? What don't they want us to know? There are roomers that there's a site on the outskirts of Rome's jurisdiction that is kept completely sealed. You can't tell me you don't think they're hiding something. You were there at the site. You found it."
"Yes I did."
"And? What did you see? What was it like?"
"It was… big."
"And you're not in the least bit interested to find out what it was?"
"Of course I am but it isn't up to me to question or go up against the government."
"It is our responsibility to find the truth."
"To what end? Brother Michael don't do anything stupid."
"I was talking to Brother Alwyn a while ago and… I don't know there was something in his voice."
"I don't know where you're trying to get with this. And I don't want to know. You can't play revolutionary and be a servant of the state at the same time."
"You're just going to give up then?"
"It isn't my place. They decide I fallow, that's the way it is. I don't know how you've gotten by so far and not understand that basic principal. It's a disappointment yes, but a disappointment we have to live with. Now if you'll excuse me I have to prepare to leave."
There was a pause that said very clearly he didn't want to leave it at that. "I can't believe you," there was a snap that indicated a door closing.
Delenn was hit with the sudden impact of cool air though it was only moderately brighter then the inside of the locker. "Why did you put me in there?"
"Oh well let's see shall we? You're half dressed." She looked down at her mid-calf dress and knee-high stiletto boots and wounded what the hell she was talking about. "You're crazy-"
"I am not crazy!" she said slightly more threatening then she'd meant.
Alanis backed up looking a little frightened of her.
"Look, I'm sorry." She cast around for a subject to help calm her, "Who just came to see you? What was he talking about?" she asked trying to keep her voice level and kind. It appeared to work a little.
"There was an artifact that we found," she started, taking off her musty robs to reveal the comfortable looking set of light pants and a tank top that Delenn first saw her in. "It was pretty big, the find of a life time. But as you heard Brother Michael say the expedition's been called off. Odd though," she let slip, thinking about the conversation she'd overheard, "What?"
"Nothing," she said quickly a long dress going over her pants. "I don't grant that my matron will give you charity. Lady Anne has never shown much patience with-" her voice trailed off remembering that it was not a very good idea to call her crazy. "If you'll give me your real name Brother Alwyn, the head of this monastery, may be kind enough to grant you sanctuary for the time being."
"I've told you my real name you twit."
"That will be enough," she said throwing her robs onto the bed. "You can't possibly hope to make anyone believe you're an ancient Prophet. I won't have you spreading lies! Until you reveal your true self to me you will not see another member of this monastery, visiting or other ways. I will help you as far as I can but as far as I'm concerned you are dangerous to other people."
"What are you talking about? I want to know what's going on here and then I want to take a bath because this whole place smells like a wet dog. Can you please stop talking like a Renaissance Reject long enough to-"
A slightly absurd thought crossed her mind and she asked before she could stop herself, "What year is it?"
"3262."
"Oh shit." She slid to the ground as her knees gave way beneath her. "The Alliance. I need to contact someone from the Alliance."
"The Alliance doesn't exist anymore," she said patronizingly.
"What about the Rangers, the Minbari? I need to talk to someone in the Grey Counsel!"
"Oh sure. Then we can contact Santa Clause and have the elves fly you home. What do you take me for? You're making all of this up as a meal ticket-" she ended on a gasped. Someone was at the door again.
Sister Alanis grabbed her robs quickly and shoved her into the locker again. "Come in."
"Oh no you don't." Delenn backed up as far as she could and kicked the door clean threw. She got out to see a very confused monk and a heap of musty cloths and hair on the other side of the room.
"You have to-" she felt a hand clamp onto her mouth, the heap had gotten up remarkably fast. She bit into one of Alanis' fingers and she yelped. There was a hard whack on the back of her head, "Hey."
"What is going on here?"
"Nothing."
"The Polar Express is about to take off, dear boy. Hop on we're going to see Santa!"
Delenn received another sharp whack in the back of the head. She grabbed Alanis' wrist hard and was about to tell her off before remembering that she was being watched and threw her hands behind her back. She put her most innocent and unconvincing smile.
The monk had gone pale and his mouth was open. It stroke Delenn then that a monkey could have been dancing a jig on top of his head and he would never notice he was so wrapped up in his confusion.
"What was it Brother?"
"Forest Ma'am. May I ask-"
"No you may not."
He looked back and forth from Delenn to Alanis. Alanis had her fingers crossed behind her back that he wouldn't ask anymore questions. Delenn was remarking how much they must look like the Three Stooges at the moment, except that they weren't all men.
"Um Brother Alwyn sent me to tell you that a storm is coming and you will not be able to leave for several days. You can come in for breakfast as soon as you're ready."
"Thank you Brother Forest."
He turned uncertainly to leave and Delenn added, "Yes thank you Monkey Boy." She loved the way that unsettled the dweeb.
The door closed and, "What did you say that for?"
"Couldn't help it. Well," she rubbed her hands together, "let's eat, I'm famished."
"You are not going anywhere. I meant what I said. I'll bring you back something."
She went to leave and Delenn stopped her with a, "If I tell you my name is Snuffalapagis would you let me go?"
The door closed in response. It opened a moment later and Sister Alanis asked, "Why didn't you tell him your story?"
"I figured if you were any indication…"
Almost as soon as she left the galley, with her extra bowl of food, she knew something was wrong. The looks on the faces of the people she passed was pained, nervous. She itched to know what was going on but knew better then to draw attention to herself. That would be a very bad idea.
It was therefore a great relief when Brother Alwyn called her over. "Tell me you've seen Brother Michael."
"He came into my room this morning," she said with surprise. It was only then that she remembered the food in her hands and she slowly pulled them behind her back.
"Anything more resent?"
"No I assumed he would be working by now. Brother Alwyn what's going on?"
"Michael is missing."