Note: chapters seven, eight, and nine are directly related to chapters sixty-six, sixty-seven and chapter sixty-eight of ATV. And to the ATV team -bless you. And to Sammy, stop hiding in the basement. Your mother can still find you...

Chapter Eight:

"Differences and opinions"

Tuileries Palace Museum, Paris, Earth

Guinan was aware of the artworks on display in the palace museum, but she wasn't really seeing them. She was sorely aware of how much Earth had preserved and how much was lost to the Borg. Martus was being a good son, trying to distract her from her depression. Meanwhile, he was speaking while he guided her through the crowds.

"Look at that. Amazing what these Humans could do in the past. Look at this palace. From the brochures, it seems that the Tuileries was burned and destroyed in the 19th century and the Humans rebuilt it to accommodate the expansion that the Louvre needed in the 21st century. You were on Earth several times before, right, Mother? What names did you use?"

She mumbled, "Guinan, Gloria, Claranna." Thinking of those names made her remember 19th century San Francisco. Samuel Clemens, the jaundice-looking android Data, Jean-Luc Picard.

Picard. Guinan frowned at the name. The bald man had claimed to be a starship captain from the 24th century. And he knew her. She had told no one of the experience and it was only now that she remembered it. If Captain Picard met and knew her, then she was alive and well in the 24th century.

Could that mean she won't go into the Nexus?

A shadow came over her mind and Guinan raised a hand over her eyes. The memory felt discordant, as if it no longer fit. She didn't know why, exactly, but she knew that the future is not fixed, written in stone. The Nexus may have all the answers she could ever have. She sighed, not really seeing a statue that Martus was pointing out. The statue was of a nude winged female with no arms or head. Dimly in her mind, she remembered it as the famous Winged Victory of Samothrace. Ruined victory.

Guinan noticed another entourage moving through the museum crowds. It was unusual to see FNN reporters in the mix. But she did recognized a suited man in the entourage; a professor and a scientist from the Earth Alliance. Guinan roused herself from her despondence to listen to the man talking. She rarely suffered idiots. Not when idiots were like Dr. Amir Rajiv Khali. He reminded her of Samuel Clemens but without the realism.

"Thanks to the Federation's help," Dr. Khali was saying loudly as he passed the El-Aurians, "the Earth Alliance will usher in a new order among the worlds. Peace in our time. Salvation from chaos."

"You're too late," Guinan said dismissively. "The worlds of the Federation are at peace. There is no chaos in Federation affairs."

Khali turned at the voice and scowled at its source. The entourage halted its progress through the museum, becoming an audience to the latest Khalian spat. "Madame, you forget yourself. I have objectively studied the workings of the regions you call the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. I know the true condition of the Federation. Treaty disputes, planets on the brink of war, inefficient resource allocation—the Federation is just a duplicate of a combination of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds and the Centauri Republic without slavery. The Federation is crying out for order. Nothing is different except the auspicious presence of the Earth Alliance."

Guinan looked at the Earther with barely hidden exasperation. "Professor Khali, no planet in the Federation has been on the brink of war for decades. You're thinking of the non-aligned worlds in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Granted, there was anxiety during the Praxis Crisis but the Gorkon Initiative and the Regulus attack created peace and alliance between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. As for treaty disputes, they are a given in any collection of thriving civilizations. The wants and needs of cultures change from generation to generation. The Federation exists to accommodate those changes in the most peaceful and equitable manner, and its citizens do. And however inefficient its allocation of resources is, they do a better job of it today than they did ten years ago, and they will be doing a better job again ten years in the future. The Federation is not static, which is what gives its peoples their strength. The Earth Alliance is very much like the old United States during its period of empire in the 20th and 21st centuries and we know how that ended," she added for emphasis.

Khali frowned. It had taken him a few moments but he remembered her face, something to do with a refugee ship and energy disturbance? Yes, that was it. Another Human-like species aping the real Humanity. "You're just a refugee from a destroyed world who came here only weeks ago. How can you know of the Federation and the Earth Alliance so much?"

That caused Martus to scowl at the Earther's lack of tact. He could see two younger Humans, clearly Khali's students, looking alarmed. But Guinan only smiled. The smile reminded the Earther professor so much of the Mona Lisa painting he had recently seen in the Louvre Museum. "I know many things."

"I don't know what you really are or how you came to your knowledge but no matter how the Federation overshadows the Earth Alliance, it is reaching its Khaldunian structural cohesion limit and its Malthusian limit. The Federation will have its reckoning." Smirking, he fully expected the woman to be silenced. Few people knew of those theories and being an outside, the chances that she knew of those theories was small to non-existent.

"If I recall Thomas Malthus' theory correctly," she responded smiling, causing his smirk to falter slightly, "the Federation is breaking out of the Malthusian trap now. Have you seen the breakthroughs in replicator technology? The people will no longer be limited by the food subsistence of their worlds and therefore the population will increase exponentially." Guinan's smile stretched wider. "If the Federation's political organization is like your Earth Alliance, I would agree that it is overextending its territory, and secessions, rebellions and even civil wars will occur shortly, as you theorize. Kind of like what happened at New Jerusalem, Cyrus 3 and Mars in the Earth Alliance."

Khali scowled, not liking Guinan's insinuation about his home. He recovered by dismissively saying, "pains of progress."

She smirked again like a boxer who knew something his opponent didn't. "The Federation is not so centrally organized. Ibn Khaldun's sociological theory is limited to nations that have a central core culture or a central dominant race. The Federation's very nature precludes it from having either. Like I mentioned previously, the Federation is not static. It changes to accommodate the needs of its worlds and of itself. In this part of the galaxy, Humanity has been and is still maturing. It has outgrown anything that the Earth Alliance might have and corporate-driven politics have no place among them anymore."

Doctor Khali looked around at the people in sarcastic amazement as they regarded the El-Aurian with new-found respect. "A philosophical debate about the Federation's maturity? When it has starships with weapons enough to destroy entire planets? I've seen the broadcasts. If they weren't propaganda, the Federation arsenal even includes planetkillers!" The Earther turned back to Guinan. "Madame, this is an argument I am destined to win for one very simple, very self-evident reason."

"Which is?" The damnable El-Aurian woman was all sweet innocence and curiosity.

"General Order twenty-four."

Minbar

Kodell thought about his life as they passed the shrine. He was of the Clan Mir and of the Religious Caste, though his father was of the Warrior Caste. Kodell ra'Mir was also the father of Delenn ra'Mir. Shortly before the war, he was proud when his daughter was chosen to be an acolyte to the Grey Council. When Dukhat died and the war began, he devoted himself to the pursuit of victory by helping to focus the Minbari economy upon its war footing. Doubts began when it was discovered that the Torrbari, as the Minbari called the Earthers, had no hope of resisting the Minbari onslaught. Kodell wondered if the path he walked upon proved to be a false one.

Then the UFOpers came.

Kodell's people fell back.

Then the Vorlons came. As Dukhat once said, 'if anyone had doubts about the course of life, all one need to do was to look into the face of a Vorlon and all doubt is erased forever'. But the war still raged on.

Then the Ashen came.

The Minbari blood-soul was unleashed.

The enemy unimpressed but angered responded, and the Minbari fell back.

The war escalated until it became a slaughter of ships and worlds.

The doubts grew.

Once, the Minbari people did not question the sacrifices. They had been loyal to the Grey Council for a thousand years. It was the way of things. Once, the Council was wise and just. But now it was possessed by the madness and desperation of the war. It has placed a death sentence upon the Torrbari, the UFOpers and their allies because they defied it. Entire colonies were burned to ash. No one was sure if it was because of hatred, fear or desperation that caused the council to respond in such a manner. It was unlike the Grey Council to do so. Therefore, some people began to wonder if the war was right, to even wonder if the Ashen held the Council in thrall.

The Minbari were a people of loyalty and duty. They were taught from birth that they were to follow the Grey Council and obey its edicts without question. It had always been so. Yet what is the true nature of loyalty? Was Kodell most loyal if he blindly obeyed the Council, even though it may well lead Minbar to ruin? Or was there a greater loyalty in defying the Council and in doing so, spare Minbar from the destruction promised by the Warlord Kirk? Minbari lives were ruled by tradition. Without it, they were as a rudderless craft tossed upon heaving seas. Tradition bonded them to those who had come before, and to those who would come after. Tradition preserved who they were, and so must be preserved.

Tradition demanded obedience. But if that obedience leads to destruction, is not tradition destroyed as well? The logic was inescapable. If Kodell would help save Minbar, he must be a heretic.

That was the weight upon Kodell. Could he stand idle while Minbar plunges toward oblivion? Kodell learned the code of the Warrior Caste when he was barely old enough to hold a denn'bok. It demanded death before dishonor. Can the same be true of a whole world? An entire people? Minbar was the most beautiful of all the worlds in the known galaxy, bright blue-white gem set in black. Minbar was a mountain capped in white, even in summer. Raked pebbles in a dry garden, the reflection of a crystal tower as it rose out of the water, the light refracting upon the crystalline hull of a war cruiser.

Minbar was all these things. Before Valen, the planet had often been scarred by the ugliness of war, fields of flowers drowned in blood and trampled by the hooves of war steeds. Now that specter raised its ugly head in the form of the 'War of Sorrows' and the Warlord Kirk's threat of planetary destruction. Was the Council willing to inflict such terrible wounds upon Minbar, however remote that possibility? Death before dishonor? Unconditional surrender or genocide of the Minbari people?

These were the questions that haunted him and undoubtedly many others.

It was the people who would suffer, especially the Workers. It was they who bear the brunt of everything. Rulers all too often forget that the people are the basis of their power and society. Had Minbar's rulers forgotten the people? All will be touched by what is to come. The future was crouched just over the horizon, nearly upon the Minbari people and yet hidden from Kodell. His world faced either a final twilight or a new dawn. He knew not which.

Wishing for clarification, Kodell had sought out his daughter only to be rebuffed by the ministries surrounding the Council. He then sought out Delenn's teacher, the philosopher Draal, hoping that he would connect Kodell with his friend and former student Rathenn who was rumored to be working directly for the Grey Council. That was also in vain. It also further convinced him of the Ashen's influence upon the Council and their role in Minbar's impending doom.

Hence the path that Kodell ra'Mir, Draal and Shaal Mayan were treading. The car crested a pass through steep hills.

"We've arrived," announced Kodell.

Draal squinted at what Kodell was looking at. "That?" He laughed. "Oh, I think that will do nicely."

A rocky island stood just off the shore. Except from the pass through which they passed, cliffs dominated the shore and a rough sea crashed upon them. Stone buildings stood upon the island, contained within a high stone wall. A slender bridge went from the island to the shore. The wind-swept island looked very alone.

Kodell said, "Nath'Kan Cloister. It will protect us for a time."

At the enclosure gate, white-clad and veiled nuns greeted Kodell and his friends with bows.

While the nuns did their ceremonial greetings, Draal whispered, "Mayan? Have you been to this place before?"

"On occasion, Draal. When Delenn was five years old, her mother joined the Sisters of Valeria. The Clan Mir was honored by the joining and used part of its fortune to build Nath'Kan Cloister. The Clan Mir is well loved by the Sisters."

"I wonder if they will be so welcoming once they learn what Kodell brings down upon them."

The chief of the Sisters was speaking. "Your presence showers peace upon these walls, Kodell ra'Mir."

"Perhaps not, Reverend Mother. I thank you for your reception, Sisters. But I fear I bring ill fortune." With that, Kodell explained his doubts, his need for his daughter, his search for answers which had culminated in the events at the Ranger Temple in Yedor. He finished with "I feel certain that warriors, either sent by the Council or the Ashen, will seek me. I knew of nowhere else I could find sanctuary on Minbar."

The Sisters gazed upon Kodell until the Reverend Mother said, "your wife is one of us. The Clan Mir has provided us this cloister. You and your friends are welcome here whether you bring good fortune or ill."

Kodell bowed in gratitude. "Thank you."

The Reverend Mother smiled. "Kodell, there is someone you should meet, particularly if you have issues to struggle with." With that, the woman stood aside to reveal another white-robed Sister. "This is Sister Callenn ra'Valir. She is newly returned from Khonvah Province in the south."

The Sister bowed and raised her veil, revealing her face. "I am pleased to meet you, Kodell ra'Mir."

Kodell was surprised. "Callenn?" he whispered loudly as he returned the Sister's bow.

"I came here hoping I would have a chance to do so."

"Truly? Why so, Callenn?"

"There is much we should discuss, Kodell. Your companions must be road weary. We should let them rest. Come walk with me."

Draal watched the Sister walking away with Kodell. "Shaal Mayan, he seems to know her. Who is she?"

Mayan was as surprised at Callenn's presence as Kodell. "She was once Kodell's wife. And she is Delenn's mother."

Draal stared at Callenn's receding back in wonder.

"How is our daughter, Kodell?"

Kodell stared down at the fishes swimming in a pond. "I do not know."

When the woman beside him nodded for him to continue, he said, "when I began to doubt the Grey Council and the war, I tried to reach Delenn. At first, the Ministry of Information was willing to relay my message to Delenn. Then they refused to get in touch with her and told me to stop trying."

Callenn smiled up at Kodell fondly. "You didn't stop."

"No. I enlisted the aid of Delenn's old teacher, Draal, and her childhood friend, Shaal Mayan. I contacted other ministries. They seem to be under orders to not allow me or any of the others to contact the higher levels of government, including the Grey Council. That seems to be true ever since the Ashen came."

"So your search for our daughter led you to more questions about our government and about the war."

"Yes. The Vorlons and the Grey Council seem to be…" Kodell took a deep breath before continuing. "…lying."

Callenn turned to gaze upon the fish-filled pond in the monastery garden. "Oh?" was all that she said.

Kodell thought he understood her laconic response. The accusation was a most serious one. Lying was a serious taboo in Minbari society and would blacken one's entire clan. If a government lies, then it would blacken its entire nation, stain its honor and purity. He still could not believe that the Grey Council or, worse, the Vorlons would do it. "You are aware of the Torrbari notion of "the press," are you not?"

She nodded. "A fascinating, but troubling concept."

He agreed wholeheartedly. "In our society, if there is something we need to know, we are told just what we require and no more. It is tradition. The Torrbari news media's incessant curiosity seems to be necessary to them, but we respect the privacy of others by not prying into their affairs. To express undue curiosity…."

"Yet you are expressing undue curiosity," Callenn chided softly.

Kodell looked down, ashamed. "Yes, Callenn. Using clandestine receivers, I often learn things about us before I am told what I need to know and no more. And what I have learned is…troubling. That is why I am forced to come to the conclusion that the Council and the Vorlons are lying." He pointed at the pond. "Once I would have seen this as a reflection of divine harmony. Now it is merely a pond. The Vorlons revealed their true nature and they are not as I once saw them. Despite wisdom to the contrary, they appear to have decided that the war was to be denn'shah, a fight to the death." He looked up at a statue of a Minbari saint. "They are false."

Callenn gazed up at her former husband with understanding. "You feel betrayed. Have you not considered that perhaps it is not the Vorlons that are false but your beliefs? That perhaps those you thought of as like unto the gods of old are not like the gods at all but beings just as fallible as us?"

Kodell looked up to his former wife. "Curious. Is not such a statement blasphemous coming from a Sister of Valeria?"

She looked back down at the pond. "We are infinitely more powerful than these fish that swim in the pond. Their existence is at our whim. But that does not make us gods." She looked over her shoulder at Kodell. "Tell me of our daughter, Delenn."

"I…you know my attempts to reach her. Until recently, the ministries' actions indicate that she is still with the Grey Council. But that has changed."

"She has disappeared."

Kodell was startled. He now looked at the Sister with wide eyes. "I have not told anyone of my suspicions. How can you know of that?"

"I know many things," she countered gently.

"When the Rangers began to disappear from our world, the ministries seemed to be in a panic. Once the disappearance was complete, the ministries have shut down upon any inquiries into Delenn's whereabouts. I then came to the conclusion that it is related to the Rangers."

"Is that also related to…the action at the Ranger Temple in Yedor?"

Again, Kodell looked at her in wonder. She smiled wryly. "You are not the only one with…undue curiosity."

"That action was…unexpected. In order to help in my quest for information about Delenn, Draal quietly organized a demonstration in the hopes that it would force the Grey Council to be forthcoming about the events and reasons surrounding the Rangers' disappearance, Delenn's apparent disappearance, and the Ashen's increasing influence upon the Minbari government and military. Mayan, out of her friendship with Delenn, helped as well. She reminded me of a family wisdom that we hold."

Callenn smiled fondly at a memory. "We have never known the truth or Delenn to speak only when it is appropriate."

"Exactly. But as you know, the demonstration has backfired."

"Yes." Now Callenn looked troubled. "The news of the priest's self-immolation has spread far and fast before the Information Ministry halted it." She looked up into her former husband's eyes. "It is not your motivation I question, Kodell. I question what you will do about the situation. You cannot hide here forever."

"No," Kodell conceded.

"So then, what will you do?" Callenn walked over to an incense brazier. "What has been put into motion will not easily be put to rest." She picked up the lid over the brazier, releasing incense smoke. "Easier to catch smoke set adrift on the air." Turning, she looked straight at Kodell. "You speak of disillusionment concerning the Vorlons and the Grey Council. Your need for Delenn led you to the disillusionment. But what will you do about that? Delenn, much as I hate to admit and accept it, is gone. You believe the Council has gone mad, do you not? That it is not the same Council as before the Vorlons and the Ashen came? You must decide whether you will stand idle while they continue to place Minbar at risk…or if you have the courage to affect a change in our society…even to break the Grey Council, as prophesied by Valen."

Kodell was stunned into silence. In his heart of hearts, he had entertained similar thoughts but he dared not admit them to himself. He was getting old and cared only about getting Delenn back. To hear such thoughts spoken by his former wife….

Eyes misting, he reached a hand toward Callenn. "A'fel E', sala."

'I love you, wife'.

"A'fel E'," returned Callenn. She drew back before Kodell's fingers could touch her. She looked down to avoid his eyes. "But this cannot be anymore. I am a Sister."

Kodell sighed as he dropped his hand. She was right, as always. Though she had raised her veil to talk with him, the Sisterhood created a barrier much more solid than that of the veil and he could feel it. Not for the first time, he wondered why she joined the Sisters of Valeria when their daughter was five years old. He wondered when it would be prudent to press for answers about that.

Draal came into the garden. "Forgive me for interrupting, Kodell…"

Kodell and Callenn exchanged a long look of understanding before turning to Draal.

The bearded man continued. "…but the troops have arrived."

Tuileries Palace Museum, Paris, Earth

"I am sure that the learned Doctor Khali will enlighten us as to the definition of General Order twenty-four."

Khali's face darkened as he recognized the mockery. It didn't help that Martus barked a laugh at his mother's rejoinder. "Your precious Federation's admiralty has ordered the total destruction of the Minbari homeworld. That was in reaction to the Minbari audacity to resist the might of Starfleet and to defy the dreams of galactic order and progress. That is certainly a lesson that the member worlds and the independent nations will remember in their dealings with the Federation government."

Guinan sighed. "You're thinking of control. Control is an illusion, a very effective illusion, but an illusion nonetheless. The Federation is a result of the realization that its peoples could cooperate peacefully and equally while they spread among the stars like…like dandelion seeds blown on the winds, taking roots on distant planets." She shook her head. "It is tragically wrong to believe that the advancement of any species must proceed at the pace of its slowest members. If we were to believe that in order to make sure that societies do not fly apart, the dynamism so vital to civilization would be lost." A haunted look came into her eyes. "Or destroyed as my world was."

In spite of himself, Khali was curious. He had heard rumors. "What happened to your home world?"

The El-Aurian turned her head away as sorrow and anger twisted her face. "A soulless force that believes in order via total control swarmed my home system and destroyed my people. Most of my husbands and children were killed. My family was just one of many pushed to the brink of extinction." Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. "Still, I have to be thankful for those who survived. My parents, my son Martus, my sister Delcara, and a few others scattered across the galaxy."

A chill traveled down Khali's spine. It was as if he was listening to the story of his own Earth had the Federation not rescued it from the Minbari. "You could have gotten help, like we did."

She shook her head. "No. Never. If we did, anyone who helped, including the Federation, would have been destroyed as well. My planet has been carved up and is nothing more than an uninhabited world with craters where cities and towns once stood, with only the global transportation routes to show that a civilization once thrived on El-Auria. My people are a race of listeners and, by listening to the nature of our destroyers, we know we can never bring other civilizations to experience the same destruction."

"But…but that makes my theories all the more important! If we are to survive against such a terrible enemy, we must save the civilizations in this region and my region! Help them control themselves. Help convince the Federation to divert itself away from the path where it will shatter into smaller federations. If that happens, it won't be able to marshal all of its resources and might for the fight to come!"

Guinan scowled. "I refuse to be party to that. If survival is all that matters, then what's the point of living? Any organization interested in control will not be interested in the universe. How can an organization have control if progress and innovation can take their subjects beyond its influence? The dynamism that you are so blind to is vital to our prosperity, our advancement and ultimately…our survival." She looked straight into Khali's eyes. "Still, I fear that the Minbari War will end up bringing the Federation into contact with my world's destroyers before its time. I sincerely hope that the Federation will face the challenge with success. That's why I and my surviving colleagues chose to come here and appeal for asylum." Guinan laid a hand on her son's arm. "That's why we didn't choose to go to the Earth Alliance for refuge." With that, she turned away from Khali, taking Martus with her into the museum crowds.

Khali could only fume at the receding robed woman with dreadlocks cascading from under her turban.

"Mother," said Martus in wonder. "You're getting better."

Guinan's smile still held her sadness. "If we are to wait thirty-nine years, we must make the most of that time." Inside, she still desired the Nexus and she felt she could never forgive the Borg for their sins. Still, if Captain Picard was any indication in her memory, there's hope for her future. And there's much to do if she were to help Dr. Khali.

Now she had a mission as a Listener.

TBC