Chapter 51 (Londo Mollari)

"Vir, get in here now!" Londo's voice boomed through the bulkheads as his faithful servant shuffled into his quarters.

"Do you see that?" Londo pointed to a video image on his monitor. It showed hyperspace, nothing more.

"Umm, see what Londo?" Vir asked.

"Look, you idiot…The trail from the Narn cruiser. It's leading off the beacon away from the main hyperspace lanes. The Narns think they can escape, but they're wrong. I will have G'Kar's head on a stick!"

"But don't you think that's a little dangerous, Londo? I am sure the Narns are all dead now. Look, they even went off the beacon and are lost in hyperspace."

London shot Vir a look of scorn. "Don't mock my thoughts. If there's one thing I've learned, that is to never underestimate the Narns…they'll be one step ahead of us if they get the chance, and I will not have G'Kar get away with killing my nephew."

London walked over to his collection of alcoholic beverages and poured himself another glass. He then made the decision to order the ship deeper into hyperspace. He could see the objection in Vir's eyes.

The one question that remained in his mind was: why did the Narns leave a perfectly good planet? What happened to the fleet, and why did they advance deep into hyperspace where they could easily get lost?

But at the end of the day, he had to find those animals and make them pay. There was only one thing for it: to physically go and investigate. They had the Narn's engine signature and that would lead them to them shortly.

"Londo, I think you have drunk too much. Aren't you forgetting your prior engagement?" Vir interjected, irritating the man profoundly.

"Oh, go away, Vir, why must you bother me at all hours of the day? You're like all three of my wives put together…" Londo paused for a moment. "Ohh, my three wives, the very cause of all my suffering. If it weren't for them, I would be a happy man."

Vir moved closer, desperate to say something. "But Londo…There's a call for you. All three of your wives demand your presence. You must…"

"I must nothing, Vir!" Londo shouted, throwing his glass across the room and reveling in the satisfying sound of destruction. "I'm fed up with those leeches sucking on my very soul. Day in and day out, those hags always hound me. Even halfway across the galaxy, I can't get away from them!"

Londo coughed up some mucus from deep within his throat and spat it out on the tray beside him. Vir had a look of disgust on his face as Londo handed him the tray. "Clean that up."

Reluctantly Vir trotted off to do what he was told. Londo expected some level of resistance as his assistant had become difficult recently, but his behaviour had somewhat improved after the incident down on Ragesh 3.

Returning to the matter at hand, Londo moved up to the screen, looked down at the receive button and evaluated his options.

He could: press the button and talk to his wives, a thought that troubled him most.

His second choice would be to reject their call and hope the distance would be too much for them to follow. Londo remembered the time he had been relaxing on a far away colony on the edge of Centauri space. He had ignored his wives' calls for weeks and after a month of pleasure, he was suddenly attacked by all three of his wives when he returned to his hotel room. The memory was vivid, the attack sound in his mind. Would Londo learn from his mistakes?

He pressed the reject button and hissed through his teeth. "Those barbaric leeches can chase me to the end of the galaxy, I'll never surrender to them."

Londo looked back towards the swirling clouds of hyperspace and saw his face in the glass. Was it a look of a guilty man? Was he looking at the reflection of an emperor with hard choices to make?

Londo grinned. Being emperor of Centauri Prime did sound good. So good it gave him ideas. If he could use the technology from one of the legendary hyperspace cities, he could rule his home world and banish his wives. Then again, he had to deal with the mundane task of catching G'Kar and his band of misfits. How could he rule when a group of Narns murdered a Centauri colony and his nephew? He had to bring the Narns to justice no matter how long it took.

For two hours Londo's capital ship searched the depths of hyperspace as he grew ever more worried about their location. Following a small trail that deteriorated the longer they stayed in the hyperspace was one of the most risky manoeuvres Londo made so far.

Pacing his quarters anxiously, waiting for a result, Londo could wait no longer. He rattled on his COM unit demanding updates. "What's taking so long? You should contact me every half-hour. It's been over half an hour already!"

A hesitant voice broke spoke through the background static. "S-Sorry, Londo." Londo recognised that voice.

"Vir, is that you?"

"Y-Yes."

"Well, stop stumbling around you fool, tell me what's going on!"

"We've detected a jump point made by the Narn cruiser."

Londo interjected, barking mad. "Why didn't you tell me sooner. Jump out into normal space and hunt them down."

There was an uneasy silence on the COM before Vir spoke up again.

"Londo, we're currently in an uncharted area of space. From our probe, we're in a densely populated solar system consisting of hundreds of planets."

Londo poured himself another glass of alcohol and replied coldly. "I don't want any excuses. Jump into normal space and hunt them down."

Londo cut the communication channel and decided to leave the confines of his small room. It took him five minutes to reach the sealed chambers in the lower part of the ship, but the person he was visiting needed his words. Londo honoured him that much. Once he cracked the sealed door and walked into the cold dark room, he ordered the lights on and he stepped in front of a silver patterned drawer that was used to house objects of great importance. He grabbed hold of the metallic bar and pulled effortlessly. Once the drawer was fully extended he walked around and saw his nephew in a frozen state, with that same horrid look on his face, albeit, partly decomposed.

"Carn, I will avenge your death, mark my words. We're closing in on the Narn and I will make him beg for your forgiveness. I'm sorry I was not there sooner."

Londo placed the glass of alcohol to his mouth and drank the whole lot in one shot. After the initial buzz wore off from the drink sliding down his throat, he focused on the moment. "There are times you make silly choices. And there are times I understand what you have done. I hope she was worth it, just like the time I lost my beloved Adeira. I know just how you feel. May you rest in peace my nephew. You'll be missed."

He paused for a moment before saying some final words. "I will make sure you receive a proper burial back on Centauri Prime. Hold on there, your soul will be with the great ones soon."

Londo gently closed the drawer and left the room. He felt his nephew's presence in the room; he knew the spirit would stay with the body until a proper ritual could be preformed.

Londo stepped onto the command deck of the cruiser and took in the situation at a glance. Lights flickered in the background and sounds of people jostled past each other until everyone was silent as if they had just noticed him.

Speaking with authority he began. "At ease gentlemen." He walked to the centre of the room. "What's our current status?"

There was a brief pause until somebody was brave enough to answer the question.

"We have jumped into normal space," one crewmember said. Londo could not remember his name, despite him being one of the bridge officers. He put that lack of judgement down to the alcohol he ingested a few minutes ago. He listened to the man continue his sentence. "But we're unable to find the Narn cruiser."

"What?" Londo exploded. "There're in normal space, how hard can it be to track a simple ship?"

Londo watched the man fidget with his communicator. "The radiation from this part of space is obscuring the Narns' engine readouts. Even if they made it this far, chances are that they landed on one of those planets to conduct repairs."

"So, start scanning the planets for the Narn ship."

More excuses hit Londo like an avalanche of stone and dirt.

"We can't scan the planets from this distance. We will have to orbit each planet and take individual readings. Even then, the results would be badly distorted. The cosmic radiation is causing severe disruption to the scanners."

"Won't the Narns be affected by the radiation? Won't we?" Londo placed his hands on his genitals and prayed to the Great Maker that he would have all six appendages intact after this was all over

"The radiation is not strong enough to penetrate the armour on the hull, or the planets' atmospheres, but it's enough to disrupt our scans. There are over one hundred planets in this solar system alone. It's going to take a long time to scan them all manually."

Londo sat down on his womblike chair and placed his left hand to his chin. "I guess we'd better get started."

Londo would stay on the command deck for a few more minutes before retiring for the rest of the day. No matter how long it took, he would find the renegade Narns if it were the last thing he did.