Chapter 8 Complications

Next chapter. Enjoy folks :) As ever, nothing belongs to me.

Captain John Sheridan's office

Captain John Sheridan was looking over the weekly report his Chief of Security had brought to him. Garibaldi was standing at the door, waiting for any comments his CO might have regarding tha happenings on the station.

"And this strange death of the lurker," Sheridan began, "Any more news about it?"

"Not about how he died, that's still a mystery," Garibaldi said ruefully. "Even the doc's in the dark about that – as he is about the whole sulphur thing. He can find no explanation to that. Well, he can, but it's not the one reasonable people like you and I like to hear."

Sheridan raised his eyebrows.

"What, demonic possession?" he asked sarcastically.

Garibaldi looked puzzled.

"You talked to the Doc about this?" he inquired.

Sheridan shook his head.

"No, it's just earth folklore, Anna told me about it a few times," he admitted. "When you're married to an Archaeologist, you find out all sorts of interesting things."

"Yeah, interesting but useless," Garibaldi muttered. "At least they're useless in this case. Although…"

Garibaldi hesitated. Sheridan nodded for him to continue.

"Look, I don't want to sound like a fruit-cake," Garibaldi began cautiously. "But this whole case is teeming with superstition. This guy broke into diplomats' quarters and these diplomats were apparently looking for some mystic stuff. They went to see the Vendor."

"Who's he?" Sheridan wanted to know.

"Real name's Ralph," Garibaldi reported. "At least that's what he goes by. He comes on the station now and then. He lives on a veteran's pension, but I always suspected he supplemented his income by selling stuff, even though he hasn't got a licence. I had his quarters searched today, but could not find anything illegal. He might be taking his stuff with him, of course. But I haven't really got grounds to bring him in, if you get my drift."

Sheridan nodded heavily. He knew what Garibaldi was implying. If Ralph the Vendor really was a war veteran and word got out to Earth Dome he had been arrested without much of a cause, Babylon 5's already questionable popularity would drop. They had to act carefully about this.

"You think he might actually have something dangerous?" he asked cautiously.

Garibaldi shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know. One thing I do know, though. Yesterday he was seen talking to Na'Toth."

Sheridan's face grew grave and Garibaldi nodded at his expression.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too," he admitted. "I mean if you have something dangerous, who'd have more need of it? Clearly the race who's in so deep they're willing to get their hands on any advantage they can get."

Sheridan shook his head.

"This could get ugly, Michael," he said. "And we don't even know what we're dealing with."

"I know," Garibaldi agreed. "I'll track the Vendor's movements, though. See who else approaches him. Maybe I can bring him in for something."

"You do that," Sheridan nodded. "This may seem like an isolated incident, but I want it solved, Michael, you understand? I won't have my station disrupted, not by rumours and superstitions."

At that moment Zach entered the office.

"Excuse me Captain, Chief," he greeted the two, then turned to Sheridan, "Captain, there's a Markab who wants to see you. He doesn't have an appointment, but says it's pretty urgent."

Sheridan sighed. There were a lot of supposedly urgent requests every day from alien delegates disgruntled about one thing or other. Still, he was in charge of the station. He had to deal with every complaint that came to him.

"Send him in, Zach," he said heavily, then turned to look at Garibaldi again. "I have to deal with whatever this is. You keep an eye on our friend."

Brown sector

Sam and Dean were face to face with the Vendor. They had approached him with the clear intention of wanting to talk to him. The latter, though, had barely cast them a glance. They did not look like his usual costumers. Therefore, they did not exist for him.

"Whatever you're selling boys, I don't want it," he told them sharply.

"We're not selling anything," Sam protested.

"Then whatever I'm selling, you don't want it," the Vendor corrected himself. "And you also can't afford it."

"Who said we want it for ourselves?" Dean inquired shrewdly.

The Vendor eyed him with suspicion.

"Who do you want it for?" he asked.

"Someone who can afford it," Dean deadpanned.

"Someone very influential," Sam completed. "Think Advisory Council influential."

The Vendor's eyes flashed briefly from beyond his dark hood.

"I have already talked to Ambassador G'kar's attaché," he said, becoming disinterested once more.

"Ambassador G'kar's not our employer," Sam informed him. "And anyway, Ambassador G'kar's people are losing the war. If that happens, he won't be a major player for much long and where would you be?"

"You don't want to sell your trinket to a future nobody, do you?" Dean asked shrewdly.

"Not when our employer is so much higher up the food chain than G'kar," Sam finished.

The Vendor eyed them suspiciously.

"You can't be talking about Sheridan as he's too much of a goody-two-shoes," he began musingly, "And Mollari doesn't use humans as envoys he has that simpering attaché of his at his beck and call. I doubt the Vorlons would be interested in anything I have…"

Dean grinned at Sam hearing the Vendor's thought process.

"Look at this Sammy," he said sarcastically, "Deductive work at his finest. You've realised who we're talking about, haven't you, Sherlock?"

The Vendor was eyeing Sam and Dean with a mixture of disbelief and excitement. It was clear that he did not trust the two and was not sure they were speaking the truth. It was also clear that the prospect of selling something to the Minbari Ambassador herself was more than tempting.

"Why would she send you?" he asked suspiciously. "What are you to her?"

"That's none of your business," Sam said quickly. "But if you don't take our word for it, hey that's fine. Ask her. She'll tell you we sent you."

"Of course, if you do so, word might get out," Dean warned him. "And your reputation of being a war hero and not dealing with Minbari on principle might suffer a bit."

"Hell, it might even get to the folks back home," Sam completed. "Maybe they'll even start looking more closely into you."

The Vendor looked from one brother to the other. The two seemed serious enough and he could read their underlying threats quite well. If he stalled things and refused to deal quickly, they were going to make trouble for him. It might have been risky dealing with them, but ignoring them seemed even worse.

"This isn't a good place to conduct business," he said, casting a meaningful look at the crown around them. "Let's go somewhere more private. I'll name my price there."

Captain Sheridan's office

Yet again, Sheridan was in his office talking to Garibaldi. The Captain had summoned the Chief of Security to him soon after his talk with the Markab. Garibaldi found Sheridan looking rather baffled, but also faintly annoyed.

"Captain," he began, "I've had my people trailing Ralph the Vendor. It appears he saw two people this morning – from Earth, which is rather strange, as he does not deal with humans and most definitely not with the social status of these two. He must have lowered his standards a bit."

Sheridan waved Garibaldi's rantings aside.

"Leave that for a while, Michael," he said. "I have something else I want to ask you about. I need some information about two people who came here a few days ago – brothers, they said they were interesting in making a documentary on Babylon 5?"

Garibaldi looked at Sheridan surprised.

"Well, that's what I was trying to tell you about, actually," he replied. "Apparently, they saw the Vendor today. Why do you ask about them?"

Sheridan shook his head. The look of irritation intensified.

"I had the wildest talk with the Markab dignitary just now," he informed Garibaldi. "He told me some folk tale of curses and death and doomsday stuff, all apparently connected to these two. I did not know whether to believe him at first…"

"Quite understandable, if he put it that way to you," Garibaldi commented.

"But now I don't know what to believe," Sheridan went on. "I mean, if they're tied to this business…"

Garibaldi nodded.

"I know what you mean," he agreed. "It makes them suspicious."

"At the very least they're here under false pretences, getting dangerously close to ambassadors and other people of importance," Sheridan said frowning. "I want them brought in for questioning. I want to know exactly what they're doing here."

"On it," Garibaldi said before leaving.

Sheridan shook his head. What had first seemed like an isolated incident – more bizarre than anything –was now turning into something completely different. He wondered what tangled threads were woven around this business. He also wondered why something was telling him that he was making a very grave mistake by having the two brought in for questioning. But what was he to do? He was in charge of Babylon 5 after all. If there was something remotely threatening to the security of the station, he was supposed to take care of it.