Dalshon
Chapter 16
Sheridan sat behind his desk in his office, turning the black twist of wreckage which he called the stone of hope over and over in his hands. He had not felt so much need for the reassurance of this object since the Shadow War.
One of the Minbari assistants came into the office. He eyed the wreckage uncomfortably, but said nothing about it. "President Luchenko is on the stellarcom for you."
"Ah. Put it through."
The features of the former Senator from the Russian Consortium filled the screen. She had on a man-tailored suit with shiny lapel corners. "Our assistants are setting up the meeting you requested," Luchenko said. Her accent was not at all like the Russian friends of Ivanova's that Sheridan had met. "I will be happy to meet with you. After the election."
Sheridan blinked. "Oh. Right, that's, um, next month?" He realized he might not end up killing her after all. Maybe it would be Sands.
Luchenko snorted. "You have the luxury of ignoring such things. You were elected by the ambassadors to the Alliance, and if you are ever planning to come up for re-election, nobody knows about it. I, on the other hand, must have the confidence of the people."
"Of course." Sheridan had not thought of himself in the category of 'President-for-Life', but he was, essentially. Nobody else from the former League of Non-Aligned Worlds was fool enough to accept the position.
"You are a controversial figure at the best of times. With this latest scandal—may I assume that putting that to rest is the reason you are going on a publicity tour?"
"Yes," Sheridan affirmed.
"As a member of the Interstellar Alliance, Earth has to work with you."
"Which might prove a bit awkward if your opponent gets elected," Sheridan commented.
"President Sheridan. You and I both know there is more to that story than was on ISN."
Sheridan cleared his throat. He was just working out how to ask how much she knew without tipping her off that there was anything to know, when she changed the subject.
"In any case, right now I have to focus on my re-election campaign. See you in a few months." Her image disappeared as she ended the transmission.
Sheridan reached to cut the outgoing comm and realized he was still had the black shrapnel in his hand. He had been fidgeting with it the whole time.
He set it down on his desk and turned off the comm. Well, he had some time for his campaign of weirdness. Or to figure out some other way to get help. Or for the Anla'shok to hunt down Lennier and bring him in. How he would get him to counterphrase him was another matter.
Maybe if Delenn simply ordered Lennier to do so, surely Lennier would obey her. That was the reason Sheridan had chosen Lennier in the first place. Because Lennier was loyal to Delenn.
Well, that and because he did not really care about Sheridan. That was the irony that Sheridan had never really considered until that moment. When he had thought about possible people who could usurp the loribond before it was too late, he had had to choose from those who were with the fleet at that moment. Delenn was not there, but even if she had been there, she would never have been willing to take Sheridan through the loribonding process.
Garibaldi and Dr. Franklin had avoided him like the plague while they were on Mars waiting for an opportunity to get Sheridan back to the fleet, to avoid an accidental bond. Back at the Fleet, Sheridan had not known yet that Ivanova had been severely injured in battle, but even if she had been well, he doubted she would have been willing to do those things either.
Who did that leave? Captain James? He had been Sheridan's first officer when Sheridan commanded the Agamemnon. He was a friend, and a subordinate, and he would not have done it. And it would not have worked if he had tried.
Marcus? Well, Marcus only cared about saving Ivanova, right then. But if that had not been an issue? Well, maybe Marcus could have taken him to level one or two, if he had seen the need. And if he had thought he was doing it for Entilza Delenn. No farther. Marcus had been saving himself for Ivanova. He would never have been able to handle level three. Not even in timab, probably, if it had even occurred to him to try it outside physical reality.
No, Lennier had really been the only possible choice. And what was done was done, anyway. Lennier would certainly follow Delenn's orders.
But how would Sheridan get Delenn to give the order, without being able to tell her about his 'mission'?
He was back to the campaign of weirdness. Sheridan looked up and saw the Minbari assistant was still there. Sheridan had been staring at the piece of wreckage on his desk. He picked it up, leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk, and addressed his assistant. "Do you know what this is?"
"I have heard," the Minbari replied. Normally the assistants kept their eyes downcast, but this one was looking at him in what seemed like disapproval.
"Those were the days," Sheridan said. "Now it's all papers to sign and hands to shake. There's nothing quite as satisfying as blowing my enemies to Hell."
The assistant flinched slightly, and slunk out of the office.
That might not have been wise, Sheridan told himself. Not least because that was not actually crazy. He really did feel that way.
Thinking of people acting strange, he made a note to himself to have a talk with Vir about Londo when this situation was resolved.
Now, what else could he do? What could he do that was so out of character that Delenn would know immediately that something was wrong? There was always the Emperor's New Clothes strategy. He could walk around the Presidential Palace naked.
He set the stone of hope back on his desk. No, there were some things he was not willing to do. At least not yet. He could keep that idea in reserve in case nothing else worked. He had a few months.
Who else could he enlist to help him? Maybe he should seek out whoever had figured out what had happened to Carla and Ike and the other loribond victims. Somewhere in Earth Force, probably in military intelligence, there had to have been someone who put it all together and realized that all the former POWs who all turned on their units on the same day had to have been being controlled in some way.
Whoever it was had then sought out the surviving loribond victims, who were all in military prison by then, interviewed them all, got them all together for a mass retrial and gotten them freed from prison and sent to a mental institution instead. Then this person had worked to set up the Loribond War Crimes Commission, which eventually got the whole thing out in public and the blame set squarely on the Minbari where it belonged.
And whoever that was, might be clever enough and knowledgeable enough to figure out Sheridan's problem. Sheridan had the computer find out who had interviewed the loribond victims, and so forth. It was not an intelligence officer. It was a lawyer.
Sheridan got on the comm. The assistant who answered was the same one he had just been talking with. "I need to go to Earth. This is going to be a discrete trip, with no political meetings, and no reporters. Set me up a meeting with Jason Hernandez. His office is in San Francisco, North America. And don't use my name."
Now, who else could help him? He wished again that he could contact Lyta. But Lyta was a polite and rule-following telepath, and might not hear him. He really needed a telepath who had no respect for the privacy of the mind.
Oh. Of course.
End of Chapter 16
