A/N: Hey everyone, sorry this took so long. No more promises of short waits, I guess. I do promise I won't abandon it, though. It's become a labor of love, I guess, and I will definitely see it through. And I promise the title change is not a cop-out. It just seemed like a better title.
The Universe Blinked
Part 4
Minbar, Earth Year 8262
"To take back from the Chaos that which is ours."
After a day and a half of studying that line in his office, Dr. Vicari Marray had decided he needed a change of scenery. Now he sat in the back section of the cryogenics storage ward, among the subjects of his other major project, which he'd been neglecting for the last week.
These were the telepaths rescued from a fate of forced service to the Shadows during their last war. It had been his goal for over a decade to successfully revive these poor people, treated as tools by two major factions who saw the younger races as pawns in a sick power struggle.
As he contemplated the few known facts surrounding their plight, his mind wandered back to the line of text that was causing him so much stress. Details started falling into place, and realization hit him full force.
"I've got it!" he yelled in his native tongue. "Great Maker, I've got it!"
"Dr. Sheridan, please report to the Cryogenics Ward, exam room one. You are needed urgently."
Jathenn sighed at the intercom page and turned to face the woman on his com-panel. "I'm sorry, Robyn, but I have to go. Exam room one is where the emergency cases come in. I have to get down there."
"It's all right. If anyone understands duty, it's me. You go ahead and do your Chief-of-Staff thing. I still have to finish these evaluations so I can pick Mikey up from the sitter's. Just give me a call later if you're not making it home for dinner."
"I'll do my best. I love you."
"I love you, too. I'll see you tonight."
The screen went blank, and his wife's face was replaced with the Alliance insignia. Jathenn got up from behind his desk and headed for the office door. He stepped out into the hallway and activated the link on the back of his left hand.
"Rynenn, this is Dr. Sheridan. What's the situation down there?"
"Doctor, thank Valen you responded." The female voice on the other end sounded shaken. "If I did not know better, I would say Dr. Marray was having a fit."
"What do you mean, having a fit?" he asked, continuing down the hall. "What's he doing?"
"He is circling the ward's waiting area, mumbling in Centauri. I do not know what he is saying, but he has been this way ever since he finished studying the shipment from his home world."
"I didn't know anything about a shipment from Centauri Prime. What was in it?"
"I do not know, Doctor. I assumed it was a cryo-unit, since it was sent directly to this ward. It arrived a week ago, but I have not actually seen it. Dr. Marray has not let anyone in since it got here."
"Okay, I'm on my way now. I'll figure it out." Jathenn cut the link as he stepped into the transport tube. "Cryogenics level one," he instructed the computer as the tube's doors slid shut.
He darted back out of the tube as soon as it reached its destination, and rushed down the hall to find that the lab technician hadn't exaggerated at all. His usually laid back collegue was practically bouncing around the waiting room.
"In Valen's name, what's going on? You're scaring the lab techs."
"What's going on?" Vicari practically yelled. "What's going on, Jathenn, is that everything we've been working toward is about to become reality! The SFY Corporation found the clue we've been waiting for in the Selini dig, and they just delivered it to our doorstep! Come on, you have to see this!"
Jathenn was abruptly pulled into the first exam room, and found himself looking at a scene he didn't entirely understand. Some sort of pod occupied the examination table in the center of the room. It had the general shape of a traditional cryo-unit, but that was where the similarities ended. The green and black color scheme, shifting and swirling like living ooze, seemed vaguely familiar, but was definitely not something he'd come into contact with before. It was also covered with what he assumed was writing, but in a language he didn't recognize.
Dr. Marray walked over to the odd unit and touched a spot on the side. The top started to open, exposing a young woman with dark hair and olive skin. At first it looked like she was dead, but her chest rose and fell once after a few seconds.
"What the…who is she? Where did she come from?" Jathenn asked.
"From what I've been able to determine, she's in a sort of metabolic stasis, very similar to our cryogenic freeze. I haven't found her name in any records yet, but I'm still trying to translate them. Translating a language that's been dead for thousands of years, and not well known even before it died, isn't exactly easy."
"What language, Vic? Where is she from? She looks human."
"She is human. Her stasis unit isn't, though. You'll never believe where this thing came from. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't found the language match."
"Just tell me. I'm losing patience."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry…okay, look at this," Dr. Marray walked over to a computer screen and started hitting controls on the pad. The screen showed a large number of symbols Jathenn couldn't read, but that he recognized from the outside of the stasis unit. "This side," he said, indicating the left side of the screen, "is a list of the symbols on the outside of the stasis unit. This matching list to the right is the database match. This is the Vorlon language file, Jay! I checked it three times, and it matches perfectly!"
Jathenn was dumbfounded. This was the find of a lifetime, even if it didn't help their project. All of the home worlds of the elder races known as the First Ones had been closed off or destroyed after their exodus. Missions had been launched over the centuries to attempt to gain access to some of the remaining worlds, but with no success, and a low survival rate. If this truly was the Vorlon language, being used in a translatable context, then perhaps they could unlock it and use it to gain access to the most coveted world of the lot.
"How much have you translated? What do we know?"
"Well, for days, all I could figure out was what it was and how to open it. Then, just yesterday, I translated a piece of what looks like a mission description. It roughly translates to, 'To take back from the Chaos that which is ours.' This girl was sent to free the telepaths trapped inside the Shadow ships buried on Selini! If we wake her up, she can probably tell us how she would have done that, and we can use her method to wake the telepaths we have here!" He paused to catch his breath for a moment before continuing. "About twenty minutes before you got here, I found something claiming to be instructions on how to bring her out of stasis safely. I wanted your approval to try waking her up."
Jathenn paced the floor in front of the computer screen for a few minutes, and then walked over to the stasis unit. As he looked down at the girl inside, he thought of all the possibilities her existence brought up. Not only might he be able to wake the frozen telepaths and gain access to the Vorlon home world, but they may also be able to get real details about the days before the Alliance. Most of that time had fallen into myth ages ago. This had the potential to be a bigger discovery than his friend realized. He ran his hand through his hair and over the slight bone crest at the back of his head.
"We'll wake her up first thing tomorrow. Keep it quiet for now, though. I don't want anyone to know about this until we have something to show for it. Right now, we should go home and get some rest."
"Oh, I won't be getting any rest tonight. I'm too wound up. I think I'll just stay here and keep working on the translations. You should definitely go see your wife and son, though. I'll see you bright and early tomorrow."
Robyn ducked into a roll as the staff came at her head. She swung her own weapon out high behind her as she came to her feet, and spun to face her opponent. He held his staff on level with hers in an effort to block the anticipated blow to his head, so she flipped the other end forward, meaning to take his legs out from under him. He jumped up and back onto a crate in the middle of the room, then launched himself into a twisted flip that brought him over Robyn's head. She took advantage of his seconds in the air and turned with her staff low, on level with his legs as he landed. She swept the weapon in a wide arc, knocking him on his back. She disarmed him, and then pivoted her weapon down to rest at his throat.
"Stop clock!" she shouted.
"Very good, Ni'Sten," she said between ragged breaths, retracting her den'bok and sliding it back into the holster at her hip. She offered her student a hand up and glanced at the timer flashing on the wall. "You held me off for fifteen minutes. I'm very impressed."
"My thanks, Sech Daniels. I am honored to have been your student. I look forward to receiving the results of my evaluation."
"As well you should. I'm not supposed to discuss student evaluations until I've filed the documentation, but let's just say I'm sure you'll have your pick of positions after initiation. You're a gifted fighter. Come back first thing tomorrow, and we'll have the official discussion."
Ni'Sten nodded and bowed to his mentor in the traditional Narn manner. Robyn returned the gesture and watched the young Narn walk away.
Turning toward her office on the other side of the sparing hall, she noticed a slight ache in her right leg. She'd conducted all five of her physical evaluations today, and she knew this ache would repeat itself in several other parts of her body before long.
After two hours of preparing the evaluation paperwork, a trip to the sitter's to retrieve her son, and a long walk home carrying the sleeping eight-year-old, she finally arrived at her front door. She let herself in, put Mikey in his bed, where she suspected he'd stay for the night, and sank onto the sofa in the living room. She took a few minutes to collect her thoughts, and then considered making something for dinner. It was a brief consideration, as she realized that her desire to sit was much stronger than her desire to eat.
"Computer, play messages, low volume."
There were several messages from her students, wondering if there was any possibility of getting their marks early. There was a message from her secretary that her husband had called several minutes after she left. The last message was from Jay.
"Hi sweetheart," said the familiar voice through the speaker, "I just called your office, and Danay said you had gone home. I was hoping I'd catch you. Anyway, I have great news. The most amazing thing has happened. I can't wait to tell you all about it. Oh, and I'm picking dinner up at that new Centauri place on the corner on the way home, so don't cook. I love you."
Glad she had decided to listen to the messages first, she was about to pick up a book when she heard the front door open. She jumped up, running to meet Jay and keep him from waking Mikey. She threw herself into his arms, kissed him, and then put her finger to her lips to warn him to talk softly.
"Hi hun. What's the big news?" she whispered. She grabbed the take-out bag from him with one hand, and grabbed his arm with the other hand to lead him into the living room.
"You're not going to believe it! A stasis unit was shipped to us from Centauri Prime!"
"Jay, you get cryo-tubes delivered all the time."
"No no no, not a cryo-tube -- a stasis unit. A stasis unit of Vorlon origin. An archaeological corporation delivered it. The unit, and the person in it, dates back to the last Shadow War!"
They pulled dinner out of the bag and lit some candles on the table. Robyn listened for over an hour as Jay told her every detail he could recall. She was thrilled for him. She understood what this meant to her husband, but she was also afraid for him.
Throughout the Alliance, there were those who felt that long-term cryogenic freezing was immoral and unethical, and many of them were a bit fanatical about it. Ten years ago, a doctor on one of the planets in the Brakiri system was killed during one of their protests. So far, the location of the Franklin Memorial Institute had been enough to keep the protesters at bay, but this little revelation could change everything.
"Jay, who knows about this? You didn't go to the media, did you?"
"No, of course not. The only people who know about this are you, me, and Vic. I haven't even told the President yet."
"Good," she said, relieved. "Do me a favor and let me know before you go public with this so I can put a good security team together for you."
"Don't worry, you'll be the first to know. I'm not in this to become a martyr."
"That's good to hear. That means you won't have a problem with my sending one bodyguard to you in the meantime. Under cover, of course."
"Well," he sighed, "if you think it's a good idea, I won't argue. I think it's overkill, but you're the expert."
"It's settled, then. Someone will meet you outside the hospital in the morning." She leaned over and kissed him softly, playfully biting his lip a bit as she pulled back. "Now, we celebrate."