Songs of Travellers in the Night
Chapter 2

Jeff politely excused himself before telling the Michael and Stephen to escort the Doctor and Martha Jones around the station. What a week, two new species in as many days. One supposedly a highly religious bunch of aliens and the other, the Doctor. Very human on the outside but something completely unheard of on the inside.

It was the newest arrival that worried the Commander the most. What did "oldest of oldest" mean? Outside his office was the very person to answer the question. Ignoring the way his shoulders stiffened Jeff nodded to the grey robed Minbari. 'Ambassador; just the person I needed to talk to.'

She opened her mouth and from behind him a different voice called:- 'Commander! Commander Sinclair wait!'

'That's not your usual voice Ambassador.' Jeff said with dry humour as she closed her mouth.

'Indeed not.' Delenn finally said as she peered around him and Jeff turned around. G'Kar was thundering down the corridor to the two of them. A thick, strong looking book cradled in his arms.

'Ahh Commander, Delenn. I have to talk to you, both of you.' G'Kar glanced around before darting his head around to look in Jeff's empty office. 'Privately.'

Jeff gestured for the Ambassador to lead into the office. 'Of course Ambassador. So what is this about?' G'Kar could be a royal pain but Jeff had come to realise that there could be a lot more to him than the bitter angry man that he presented to the world.

The Narn half ran to Jeff's desk and put the book down. Then quickly, like it was an observance he didn't have time for, G'Kar touched his forehead and then book with his right hand. 'What do you know of Narn religion, Commander?'

'Not much. Your people don't have one single pantheon or even a deity. Instead you honour wise men of your worlds past.' the Commander didn't go behind his desk, trying to keep this informal. Looking to Delenn he saw her nodding in agreement.

'Exactly Commander.' G'kar continued. 'I, like many of my people, am a follower of G'Quan. He wrote this book a thousand years ago. Since then it has been copied by hand. Every book is a perfect recreation of the original, right down to the imperfections on the paper.'

'Yes Ambassador but what does this have to do with anything.' Jeff asked politely losing patience with the Narn.

'It is taught that in every life there are great moments. Crossroads where destiny is chosen. G'Quan had such a moment a thousand years ago. He met a man. A man not of Narn that imparted a small fraction of his infinite wisdom unto our people.' G'Kar opened the book. He didn't have too Jeff had already guessed but he heard Delenn gasp. 'This book was dedicated to that one "man-not-of-Narn" as he is called in the book. He was also called the "Oncoming Storm" by the Great Enemy but he called himself simply "Doctor".' On the second page there was a drawing, nothing more than a couple of silhouettes but it was unmistakable.

The tall thin man with a long, flowing, coat. His hair spiking up with a life of its own. The other a box shown in the middle distance looking exactly like Ivanova described. Even the picture, a crude simple black outline, radiated the same power Jeff had seen their latest guest wield at the drop of a hat.

The Commander studied it for a moment. 'He said his people were Time Lords. Delenn, you said his people see travel though time itself. I didn't think that was possible until now.' Jeff didn't dare touch the book. 'I need to know everything about him'

There was a short musical burst 'Then attend.' Ambassador Kosh had appeared behind the three of them. He must have sneaked up, gliding in that silent, almost bird like way of his.

After his heart had crawled back down out of his mouth Jeff asked 'Attend what?' and the Vorlon seemed to grow, like he was standing straighter inside his suit.

'The homeworld of the Time Lords' The suit's single eye opened wider than the Commander had ever seen it. Lime green cracks like the heart of a summer storm suddenly glowed and the universe folded in on itself.

Michael Garibaldi lead their visitor through the Zocalo. 'So you're just here for something to eat?' he asked.

'Well not just that, I mean what's the point in travelling if you don't meet interesting people.' The strange alien smiled. All around them Michael heard urgent whispering from the other aliens. Not one of them were willing to even look at the Doctor.

Stephen had excused himself from med-lab to come with them. For the last fifteen minutes he was happily chatting up the human woman who travelled with the Doctor. He stopped and asked; 'So where were you thinking of having this meal? I mean if it depends on credits we can make some suggestions.'

'Credits?' Martha Jones asked 'Do we have any Doctor?' This was something Michael didn't expect. Londo's suggestion that the man was a con artist flashed back into his mind.

The Doctor simply waved it off 'Meh! Credits. I've got enough to buy the Earth Alliance with my pocket change. Not a problem.'

Michael spun. 'You're kidding?'

'Nope. Pretty much the galaxy's richest man here. Don't forget I'm still the Lord-President of the Time Lords. We're sort of the Lords of the Dominion of Time if you want a full title. So anywhere you'd like to suggest?'

'Right this way' Michael waved them up the stairs, completely disarmed by the Doctor's revelation

Just up the stairs he led the group into a lift. It scared Michael that a man with as much power as the Doctor seamed to have could keep a lunatics smile plastered to his face. Inside the first lift to arrive was Talia.

'Ahh Mr Garibaldi. Are these our other new visitors?'

'Word gets around fast Ms Winters. Yes they are. Doctor, Martha Jones, this is Talia Winters. out resident Telepath.'

The Doctor's hands began to fidget. It was a strange thing, the rest of the man was the same lunatic smile and boundless enthusiasm. He was obviously nervous, but that was before. Now it was times ten. Talia smiled and offered her hand, Martha went to take it but the Alien batted his companion's hand away.

'What the hell?' she complained.

'Sorry.' The Doctor held his hands up and away from the telepath. 'I don't like other people in my mind.'

'No it's okay.' Talia tried to put a brave face on it but Michael could tell she was hurt.

Miss Jones on the other hand didn't bother with the brave face. She was horrified. 'Doctor how can you insult someone like that?'

'Easily.' He snapped back. 'Earth psychics are notoriously social. Nice word "notoriously". Anyway she could read you mind quite by accident, not much of a problem for a normal human but you have travelled with me. If Ms Winters read your mind the result could be disastrous. You have travelled in the TARDIS, there is still a direct link between your mind and itself. Her mind wouldn't be able to withstand the pure onslaught of that power. At best she would die, worst it could drive her completely insane. Dangerously insane.' He turned to Talia. 'You could destroy the whole station. Admittedly its far more likely you would simply fall into a painful coma and never recover. Trapped forever in the labyrinth maze of your own subconscious.' The Doctor offered his own hand. 'If you scan my mind it could be worse. I have seen nightmares you couldn't imagine. Worlds boiling into hydrogen, the fall of Arcadia, the last great Time War and the destruction yet to come. So still want to shake my hand? Go ahead.'

'N... no.' the telepath stammered. Talia clutched her own hands tightly and fled from the transport tube. Michael didn't have to be a time traveller or a mind reader to see the Doctor was telling the truth. He'd see the same look in people who had survived too much. Done acts they could never excuse themselves of. The man was like an onion, layer after layer and the deeper you pushed the more powerful, the more terrifying, he became.

'Which way's the food?' The Doctor asked and for a moment Michael thought the Alien really was crazy. Then it dawned on him, the Doctor wasn't insane and he had seen too much and done acts that he couldn't forgive. But worst of all he could live with them. What he had seen and done, the Doctor could live with it all.

Delenn gasped; she was floating somewhere. Before her a great sailboat broke the waves. Propelled simply by the wind caught in the billowing cloth that hung from its great masts. The ship crashed noisily through the surf, leaving a wide wake behind. Humans of all shapes and sizes, dirty and sea-worn, swung across ropes and pulleys shouting to each other. Battling with the weather and against the elements to keep afloat. Sailing on the sea-ship bounced as wave after wave smashed into it, the water a chaotic churn that only got worse.

Delenn's perspective moved on its own, she could feel G'Kar and the Commander next to her. Their presence hovered somewhere over her shoulders but she could not see them. Her vision broke through the high storm clouds that gathered from the horizon, heading for the lone sea-ship. Floating effortlessly beyond the planet and into space she became aware of Kosh. He was like a great hand the three of them floated in, carried higher and higher Delenn could see a Vorlon fleet gathering. The large, pointed, ships slowly turning away from the planet, like great fish majestically swimming in the endless black sea. Their green hulls dancing with patches of light and dark. The ships jumped into hyperspace and everything changed.

Spinning Delenn saw another Vorlon fleet slide out of hyperspace, this time over a pale red world. They looked different, as if they weren't as advanced as those that were above Earth. The skin didn't dance and the fins from the back were shorter. As the ships fell into orbit she too fell. Far below on the planet Narns were building houses, crude buildings of mud and gnarled timber. Domestic animals and riding beasts gathered in fields of lavender grass. Great hunting lizards stalked the herds and young Narns rode bareback creatures guarding their livestock.

It was a peaceful world, long before the Centauri occupation. For the first time Delenn truly understood how far the Narn had fallen in those terrible hundred years. To her left she heard G'Kar gasp and she wondered if the true tragedy was that the Narns had changed so much after the occupation. Becoming a war like empire bent on never letting the occupation happen again, no matter who they hurt.

The world spun beneath them the gentle red changed into a far more familiar harsh blue. Her own world almost two thousand years ago. The first great cities were only just being grown. Primitive vehicles bounced along crude roads and Delenn realised they were all sliding back in time, older and older. Her world looked like the Earth did barely a few hundred years ago. Peaceful on the surface but every wall dripped concern, in this time war between warrior and religious casts could start at any instant. A lone disagreement between two houses could spark the final cast war. Fear and regret lined the faces of every Minbari. Children clinging to the robes of mothers as the families hurried across the road, their eyes darting around in fear, much like the Narn Farm animals.

The irony that it was her people had both the most advanced technology and the least advanced culture was not lost on the Satai. Though she felt vindicated that her people had survived long enough to evolve out of their childishness. With a bizarre twist of thought she realised that was the message here; her people progressed past this point. So would the Narns and the Humans.

With this revelation again Delenn travelled up and again, high in space, a Vorlon fleet floated in the endless night. Only this time the ships weren't the seamless green of before, or the shifting patterns before that. They were a single shade of dark green, now there were a second rank of fins spread out. Slowly spinning the Vorlons were using thrusters pushing themselves along. The green rocket ships pulled away without the grace of the first Vorlon fleet she had seen. Fighting for momentum this fleet turned and headed out, lancing one after another to the jump gate the awkward looking ships pulsed faster and faster They followed it into hyperspace.

The moment it jumped they were following it out. Ahead a dark brown planet spun lazily around a bright star. All around them the primitive Vorlon craft flew around on unimportant missions. Then, before her eyes ,they devolved. Less and less rockets becoming cruder and simpler. Lights that traced the great cities on the Vorlon homeworld slowly winked out. The planet was slowly becoming silent, cold and dead. Before life had even touched its' surface.

How far back they were now no one could say it was a time before the First Ones first explored. Even before the fabled Dark Times and it happened again. Delenn was pulled back, away from the silent brown homeworld. It was like the universe was sliding backwards around her. Then everything was different, it looked to be in even greater detail than before and almost hyper-real if such a thing could exist.

She was looking through a view screen, bigger than anything had any right to be. As she pulled further back she saw men transcribing what they saw. They looked human but there was something in the way they carried themselves. High collars that rose like a Centauri's crescent on long flowing robes. More men flew around the screen on small triangles, waving small rods over sections of screen that spooled data. Pulling further back she could see them, unmistakably Time Lords, striding from room to room. Each room with an impossibly big screen and more Time Lords recording information.

Still flying backwards they came down corridor after corridor. Strange technologies and ideas seamed to flow around them. Vast plazas filled with silence and plants from across the universe. The silence was the most strange. Time Lords and Ladies would pass with only a glance. Families would only smile encouragement to each other not even touching one another. The only sound Delenn could hear was the low hum of passing aircraft and the trickle of indoor waterfalls as they fed the hanging plants below them.

Again pulling up the great city they were travelling through still slid around them. Endless and eternal A great glass globe encased the silent city, then she saw it. There was no city. It was a single, vast, Citadel. So big you could fit the Babylon station inside several times without any difficulty. It's transparent globe was un-scratched and she could tell that it had already lasted millennia, if not longer.

As the movement slowed and finally stopped Delenn became aware that she was standing on a mountain side. At the top of the mountain they were about level with the base of the Citadel. Built on a grand mesa, the flat mountain top stretched for miles under an orange sky. Twin suns beat down on the forests of silver fire that rung the base of the mountains. The massive tree trunks half buried under the permafrost from the height. It was the most staggeringly beautiful planet Delenn had ever seen. 'Good Lord,' the Commander said under his breath. 'This is his home?' Delenn wanted to see him bus she still couldn't look away from the awesome sight.

Somewhere all around them the voice of Kosh echoed. 'The shining planet of the seven systems. The homeworld of the Time-Lords. Gallifray.' The vision cracked and Delenn blinked.

They were back in the Commanders office, looking out over the gardens in the central shaft of Babylon 5. She had always thought it was a wondrous sight but now it was common place, almost anti-climatic. Kosh bowed slightly to them all and left.

'Wait!' She gasped. 'How did you know, how do you know what it looks like?'

He turned to her. 'Have been there.' Then, as silently as he entered, Kosh left. The three of them still in the small room looked to each other, awe still written on their faces.

The Doctor ducked under the hanging drapes. They reminded him a little too much of home but he ignored the dagger cut of pain for the other things to experience. The restaurant was in an open air garden that made up the tube like hollow of the space station.

'Wow' Martha gasped. 'Let me guess the plants are here for the oxygen?'

'Not only that,' Dr Franklin explained. 'We also grow many of our own crops and food stuffs. We need to grow most of our own produce otherwise we'd have to bring it all here and transport is expensive.'

'No, don't' apologise. It's a great idea, bringing a little bit of Earth with you.' The Doctor agreed with her, to him the TARDIS was the same thing. A little bit of home out here in the wide universe. Pulling out a leather wallet he waved his psychic paper over the credit scanner. First time nothing happened, second time he had modified it to do it's job.

The scanner bleeped happily and a waiter, who had been eyeing them from the corner, stepped up. 'Welcome gentlemen, lady. Let me show you to your seats.'

The four of them sat down and accepted the menus. The Doctor insisted that his two escorts ate too, he was "paying" after all. In the end he didn't really look at the choices. The Doctor read the menu in a glance but already knew he wanted before he had even sat down. A simple salad and a glass of water. Putting down the paper he looked around. Deep in the central tunnel of the space station you could watch the few people there relax. unlike the scurrying chaos that was the Zocalo.

The waiter came back took their orders and left silently. The news of who he was hadn't reached the mostly human diners having an expensive late lunch. That gave him a chance to do what he liked best, observing quietly the simple adventures he could never have.

A young couple, maybe only in there twenties, sat in a table to the left. The Doctor felt a smile tug at the side of his mouth. He wasn't as "social" as Earth telepaths but it was hard not to feel the waves of emotion rolling off the honeymooners. They gazed into each others eyes. The two of them were as different to each other as chalk and cheese but still found happiness together. A wonderful phrase that, "chalk and cheese". He should really use more often. The couple didn't need phrases or words, all they needed was to be in each others company. Wryly the Doctor reminded himself that even that was fleeting. Speaking of;

Another couple, older and with a restless child were sitting on another table. They were trying not to argue about the last few days of their holiday, they were also failing badly. The girl, obviously bored and used to the situation, looked around and caught his eye. Cheekily he grinned at her and winked before pulling a funny face. Her giggling fit distracted the two adults and he tried to look perfectly innocent. Of course it only helped him look more guilty and send the girl into another fit of giggles.

'If you don't mind!' The woman cried indignantly before ordering her daughter; 'Don't pay any attention to that strange man.'

The little girl pouted and the Doctor muttered; 'Spoilsport.' just loud enough to be heard. The girl flat out laughed as did Mr Garibaldi. Martha and Dr Franklin both combined a smile and a wince at their respective friends antics. The woman was not happy, or laughing.

That's when he saw them. Down in the gardens proper there were three beings dressed in ceremonial leathers. they carried long swords, strapped across their broad bodies, that hung off their thighs. One looked around, his single true eye analysing the whole station in a glance. The other two inspecting plants and furniture in minute detail.

'Wyoldin?' the Doctor gasped.

'Oh yes' Mr Garibaldi still had a slight laugh in his voice. 'They made contact yesterday. Their main ship is supposed to be here tomorrow. Those three came ahead to make sure everything goes smoothly.' The security chief nodded over to some grey uniformed men scattered around. 'They've also got a security escort while they explore the station.' He paused and the Doctor felt ht security chiefs full attention on him. 'Is something wrong?' the humour in his voice was gone, the Doctor realised his expression must have been easy to read.

'No not really, only their homeworld was destroyed almost a hundred years ago by a religious cult. The only survivors escaped...' That's when it hit him and the Doctor knew what was wrong. 'They escaped in a warship loaded to the seems with transphase explosives and a holy mission to send all life unto the next dimension.'

'You mean kill everyone?'

'Yep.' the Doctor looked around again, 'Where's that salad got to?'

End Chapter 2