Chapter 5

Once again, Katie sat in her quarters past midnight, researching the private data crystals of Marcus Cole. She was eager t find out what the so called Ivanova incidents contained. While listening to his regular log entries, which only contained rather boring mission reports and general thoughts about the status on the shadow war (as far as she had reached listening to them, some point in late 2260), Marcus had often referred to the attached information in the incidents folder.

Switching to this folder, Katie opened an audio file titled "Ivanova incidents part one, 2260". She pushed the button and the records started.

"February 13th, 2260. This is the personal archive of Marcus Cole." The soft voice of the Ranger could be heard. Katie closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. Just in case something interesting would be mentioned she grabbed her block of notes and a pencil. She immediately started to nervously chew on the end of the pencil, an annoying habit a lot of journalists used to sport.

"First of all, I feel obliged to explain the necessity for these extra entries in my log. Since having been stationed on Babylon 5 my daily routine of working, eating and occasionally sleeping has undergone some changes. As often as I go on missions for either Delenn or Captain Sheridan, I have to face the rather disturbing hostility from the captain's second, Commander Susan Ivanova. I don't know where that comes from, but she never has a friendly word for me. Perhaps that improves as time goes by. I think she only needs to know me a little better.

For now, I think she doesn't trust me the slightest, so I guess it would be better not to meet her wrath. Recently, I was assigned to go on a mission with her. So if I don't survive working with her, I guess, it's better to have an archive of information. They might need help to find the murderer. No, I don't think she would really do me any harm, only severe pain. When I look at her, she always carries so much determination; I don't really dare to get in her way when she's angry. It is rather tempting to tease her though. I do enjoy my life – at least sometimes – and I now I kind of risk my life challenging her, but it is just too much fun not to.

Am I babbling? Probably. But I find it hard sometimes to not get all wobbly in my mind when I think of her. Did she cast a spell on me? She is kind of slightly red headed, so she could be a witch after all.

Okay and I'm King Arthur? I don't know; she confuses me a lot.

End of entry"

Ivanova incidents n° 2

"This is it. This woman is totally nuts. Teasing a First One and risking all of our lives. She has nerves, at least when it comes to godlike creatures.

"Zog? Is it No Zog or Yes Zog?" I've never felt nearer to death than I did in that moment. Still, I had this urge to laugh aloud. I could have kissed her when we really made it. We got the first "First Ones" on our side. Now is that really a sentence? The first "First Ones"? I don't know. But anyways, had I dared to kiss Susan – oh, I meant Commander Ivanova – I wouldn't be able to record this. She sometimes sports a glare I think "killed by a glance" would describe it perfectly.

Katie switched off the records. She decided to look further into the topic of the "First Ones". But before she would concentrate on this issue she wanted to know more about the strange relationship between Marcus and Susan Ivanova. After hearing more people talk about the two of them, she was sure something went on between them. The young woman really hoped that her cousin had acted on his feelings. She didn't really know what it must have been like to be secretly in love with someone, but she could imagine it to be annoying.

What impressed her even more than the comic tone to Marcus' data entries was his very clear and straight English accent. As far as she knew his family had left Earth over a hundred years ago, and yet his heritage was clearly present in his speech. Katie herself had lost a lot of her original speech. She had lived almost all of her live abroad, mostly in Switzerland. Her parents had been working in the city of Geneva more precisely in the government facilities of EarthDome. Katie's father was an English representative in the government whereas her mother had worked for ISN until the offices of the station was occupied by Clark's forces. The memory of her parents made Katie very sad, still too fresh were her wounds of losing all members of her family within so short time.

She had lived a carefree childhood and early youth. Being born to privileged parents still had its advantages in the 23rd century. She had been to exclusive schools in England and later in Switzerland. She was educated in several Earth languages such as her mother tongue English, French, Italian and even German (a language she didn't like so much for its horribly difficult grammar). Furthermore had she been well protected by her older brother, whom she dearly missed. But then, by her 22nd birthday all the world she knew and loved had lain shattered and broken. Her mother killed by Clark's Special Forces, her brother killed during the attacks at Proxima 3 and her father had died while trying to join the underground forces in EarthDome. Had her father not sent Katie a message encouraging her to stay low key and not engage in any battle, Katie would probably have died while fighting the regime, too.

But only once she had obeyed her parents' advice. It had left her wounded (she often had blamed herself for not taking any action against the regime), but in the end she had grown on her experience. The nightmares had faded away about one year ago and Katie managed to keep herself as busy as possible to not let them surface again. It was a rather lonely life she lived, but she didn't want anyone pitying her for her past. So she didn't normally talk about her own life but instead listened to the stories of others.

Still deeply buried in her memories Katie played with the pendant of her necklace. The little cross had been a gift from her parents and she never took it off. Sometimes the young journalist thought it would help her thinking. But the simple truth was it occupied her nervous hands. Either way, Katie often got the most brilliant ideas sitting at her desk and fiddling about her pendant. At this particular moment she instinctively decided on a new file to listen to.

Ivanova incident n° "I gave up counting"

Tonight the most peculiar thing in the universe happened. I wished she had been sober. But would she have done this without alcohol loosening her up? I have my doubts. Well, anyways, what I want to say, Susan kissed me. It was not the passionate, breathtaking and forget-about-the-rest-of-the-universe kind of kiss, but it was clearly a kiss – directly on my lips.

To clarify the situation I have to admit that we all had a certain intake of alcohol. Yesterday we defeated both the Vorlons and the Shadows and kicked them out of our part of the universe. Heaven knows, where they went to. Or, more precisely Lorien is supposed to know about it. But they went away. And that's everything that matters for now. Okay, and to me, it also matters that Susan kissed me.

We were all at Earhart's having a fantastic and intoxicating party. It was well past midnight when I wanted to leave the scenery. Before I could reach the lift, Susan grabbed my arm and said something to me that I understood as "You're a great warrior and a handsome man." But perhaps that's only what I wanted to hear from her, so I understood it that way. She couldn't speak very clearly or even look straight ahead. So she maybe said something else. But she certainly wasn't her usual grouchy self. I simply stood there in the hallway still trying to figure out what she was telling me when she suddenly firmly grabbed my face with both of her hands and placed a kiss on my lips. The next thing I remember clearly is that I stood in the lift and the doors closed. Sometimes I hate the lifts on B5. These doors close exactly at the wrong moments. But isn't there a saying "For every door that closes, a window is opened"? Well, I so much wished for the window to appear but it didn't. And the worst of it all, Susan won't remember the kiss. And if she remembers it, she will deny that it happened. What a pity. Sometimes I think the universe is unfair!

Katie was surprised to hear this. So, they really had a romantic interlude at some point. But judging from Dr. Franklin's statement, this kiss didn't lead into a relationship. At least he had not known about it. Now, the young woman had become even more curious about the story. Had her cousin been lucky with the commander? She had checked Susan Ivanova's profile. She had a very formidable career in the EarthForce. Except of the years 2260-2261 her career had experienced a rocket like ascent from her very first day in the force till the present. It looked like she was determined in her job. Perhaps this stretched even farther and covered all the aspects of her life. Susan's photo in the profile was taken some years ago, probably shortly after being promoted to Captain. She had a sad look in her eyes and the features seemed somewhat austere and hard to read.

Katie wondered whether the Captain would answer her questions if she ever got the opportunity to interview her. Her instincts told her it would be a really difficult task to get solid information. The journalist checked her notebook for any other possible interview partners. Many of Susan Ivanova's and Marcus Cole's friends had left Babylon 5 shortly after the war. Without having the budget to travel back and forth between Earth and B5, Katie was more or less limited to the information she had already gathered or what she could find out on the station. Any time now she would be contacted by her editor in London. Hopefully this guy wouldn't cut down hr budget again. Katie assembled her data files and added some comments where she found them necessary.

Suddenly the Babcom system was activated and an incoming transmission was announced. Katie accepted it and the screen changed from the blue screensaver to the face of a middle aged man with glasses.

"Hello Miss Anderson. How are you these days?"

"Thank you very much, Mr. Bennet. I'm quite busy with interviews and researches these days." Katie answered with a smile.

"I hope so. You already got an advance payment. We have our hopes raised to get your work published by the end of the year."

"I know my deadline, Mr. Bennet. I'm eager to meet it. But I still have some doubts whether or not I'll be able to gather all the information in question only here. I find it necessary to probably travel to Mars and Earth. Two of the main protagonists are residing there."

"Miss Anderson, you already know our limited possibilities to finance these journeys for you. If you can't cover the travel expenses with the payment you already received we have to cope with the lack of the information. We're a small publishing house. We cannot have you wandering off in the galaxy. We have a tight bookkeeping and you're already privileged for a newcomer. You're the first new author at our house who got her money before even sending us some chapters. If it wasn't for your late mother whom I still hold in the highest esteem, you wouldn't even be sitting at that desk right now."

"I know how much I owe to you, Mr. Bennet. But the only thing I want is not to let you and the publishing house down. I want to do my very best and I don't feel very at ease with the situation and the book if I can't gather all facts." Katie explained with pleading eyes. She knew that her editor wasn't an easy negotiation partner. But she very well knew how much he appreciated hard work.

"Katie, don't look like a puppy. I already know you're a good writer and that you are ambitious. But there is very little I can do for you at this moment. Send me the work you have already finished and I will talk to the bosses. Perhaps they will be generous with Bernadette Anderson's daughter." The older man smiled kindly at Katie, whose eyes filled with tears at the mentioning of her mother's name.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Bennet. I will appreciate any help you could give me." She answered.

Only seconds later, the connection was shut down and Katie went back to her files. She chose the next entry on Marcus' Ivanova incidents.

"So much about dreams coming true. Today is the first day after Susan kissed me, but she seems to not remember it. Or would she have yelled at me already at breakfast if she did remember? I don't know. But what man in this universe can truly claim he really understands a woman and her moods. I would never dare to say such things.

The captain assigned me and Susan on a mission to Coriana 6 in order to oversee the tidying up of the battlefield. A lot of league ships are assigned to clear the area of any wreckage that could endanger the passage through the local jumpgate. I don't know why we should overlook such a boring task but I guess Captain Sheridan has his reasons. I myself enjoy working with Susan, but she didn't appear to be so happy about our newest assignment. We're leaving in two hours and I should better get some sleep before we leave. I hardly ever get a good night's sleep these days. Either we're fighting battles that decide the fate of the universe, or a certain Commander keeps intruding into my thoughts which cause insomnia. I'm afraid I'm doomed.

And I don't know why she yelled at me this morning. Perhaps it was simply for the fact that I'm a morning person whereas she isn't and can't bear to see any smiling faces before she gets her daily dose of caffeine."

Katie smiled at the humorous way Marcus delivered his every day experience with Susan Ivanova. She had expected something else, when she had heard about his crush on the Commander. She had expected the log entries to be more melancholic or even filled up with frustrated comments about Susan Ivanova. But it seemed like her cousin had carried a good sense of humour. The young journalist wished she had known him. A mournful expression on her face, Katie took a framed photo from her desk. Again she looked into her brother's face. Whenever she listened to Marcus' audio files, she was painfully reminded of her own family's fate. Victor and Marcus sounded so much alike. They both spoke in smooth and deep voices carrying words in the style of their home country on Earth.

A couple of hours and a good sleep later, Katie wandered the corridors of Babylon 5 to her appointed meeting with President Sheridan. Ever since her work on the station had begun, she both anticipated and dreaded the day when she would be finally able to interview the President of the Interstellar Alliance. A lot of journalists on Earth wanted nothing more than a single meeting with the man who was responsible for both the most recent war on Earth and the creation of a peaceful alliance of more than a dozen species. But Katie clearly didn't belong to those journalists. She was more reflective and observant than a sensationalist. Either way, she was too shy to belong to the high profile ISN reporters who wanted nothing more than to poke around in the President's life.

Taking a deep breath, she entered the office.

"Hello Mr. President. I hope you have some time for our little interview."

"Of course, Miss Anderson." He answered and motioned to a chair next to his desk. "Take a seat, please. I heard of the interviews you had with some crew members. I'm really looking forward to your questions."

tbc-

Author's note: Sorry to be so cruel to include this cliffie. But I want to read another chapter or two of "The Lord of the Rings" tonight. So I wasn't able to write more right now.

Thanks fort he reviews and to my two wonderful beta readers.