"Take bodyguards," Takier advised coldly. "Things may be dangerous there." s
"Too many soldiers may cause the Alliance concern. Tirivail may come if she wishes, but I will need no one else." y
"Tirivail?" Takier mused. "If you wish." o
Back in the cabin of the warship Miya, Kats closed her eyes and touched Kozorr's necklace. "I wish you were here," she whispered to his spirit. "I miss you." u
Tirivail was pacing up and down, too angry to meditate, too filled with fire to find true peace. Sheridan and David were talking quietly in their native language. Kats was too weary and too grief — stricken for the mental effort of translating. w
She looked up at Tirivail. "Why me?" the warrior woman asked. i
"I trust you," Kats replied. "I have faith in you." l
Tirivail snorted, but said nothing else. l
Babylon 5 grew closer with each second. Kats felt like a drowning woman reaching vainly for the sun, only to realise the light she could see was the surface of the lake on fire. o
"I wish you were here," she whispered again. b
eyus
* * *
"God Almighty!" y
She was pacing up and down, tears streaming from her eyes, running down the furrows of her scarred face. Sinoval knew enough to realise that they were tears of anger, not grief. o
"Good God, I just want to…. I feel so angry I can't…. I just want to go and kick every damned encounter — suited butt I can find." u
Different people react to shock in different ways. Sinoval had turned his rage inwards. He already hated the Vorlons as much as it was possible to hate anything. He doubted there was a single thing they could do that would make him hate them any more. w
But this…. the destruction of a planet, of billions of people…. He understood death. He could look at it with eyes that were colder and more dispassionate than others. He could see the patterns behind it, and heading out from it. i
He remembered the feeling of all those lives expiring in one instant. And not just the Narn deaths. The plants, the animals, the grass and the air and the planet itself. Narn had been just as much a living, breathing organism as anything that had lived and moved and crawled across its surface. l
The Well had shaken with the loss, with the Narn souls therein sensing the deaths of their living brethren and crying out in grief. Soul Hunters had visited Narn, although not for many centuries. The Well knew that world. l
Just as it, and Sinoval, knew that this would not be the last. o
"How can you not be angry?" Susan spat. "I…. well, there really isn't a big enough word. Furious might just about cover it." b
"I am angry," Sinoval replied. "But I am a leader. I must think as a leader, and that means not letting anger cloud my thoughts. Was it not you who was sent here to ensure that did not happen? To make sure I understood that the Vorlons have to be destroyed because it is right that they be destroyed, and not just for some personal vendetta?" e
"Well…. yes, that was part of it, but surely this is right now. After what they did, can you really say it isn't right to wipe out every one of the sons of bitches?" y
"Maybe it is, but why do you want to wipe them out? Is it because it is right to defeat them, or is it because you hate them and want them dead?" u
"I…. well…. To hell with it, does it matter?" s
"Yes, I am very much afraid that it does." y
"As far as I'm concerned at the moment we should just go into Vorlon space and blow apart every single planet there." o
"And how would that make us better than them?" u
"We're on the side of the angels." w
Sinoval smiled; a sly, sardonic smile. "Ah, but Susan…. they are the angels. It is a strange thing, but no one ever believes themselves to be evil. Everything is justified. Even the Brotherhood, even the worst of them, they could justify everything they did and have it make sense. The Vorlons are no different." i
"So what are you saying? Forget it? Well, that would be easy for you, wouldn't it? You've done this before! It's fine for you." l
Sinoval rose to his feet, eyes flashing in the darkness. "I will forgive your anger, but never say that again! The Vorlons will pay for what they have done, just as surely as we did. But it will be when the time is right, and it will be because it is right to do so. What they have done is wrong, and I will make them see it." l
"So what now, then?" Her breath was coming in harsh, ragged gasps. "What do we do now?" o
"We carry on our journey to Tuchanq. The Vorlons have destroyed a world. If we are to be better than they are, we must prove ourselves better. We will restore a world, and bring the Song back to Tuchanq. There will no doubt be many there who will say the Narns deserve what they are suffering. It is easy to hate when hate is all you have known. I will give them back their world, and then maybe they will see that the Narns deserve pity and help, not hatred." b
"And then?" e
"We go to Babylon Five. Things are starting to happen there. The peace, the slow night of terror and nightmares, is over. The war will start again. The Vorlons have seen to that. And this time it will not stop short of the final ending. For us or for them." y
"So, we will have revenge after all." Her tears were of fire, her eyes blazing in the night. u
"Vengeance is for lesser men." If her eyes were fire, his were death. "We will have justice." s
* * *
"That's it?" y
"You were expecting something else?" o
"It's a box. It's a big box. I can't wait to tell my friends. They don't have a box like that." u
Talia elbowed him in the ribs, and Dexter grunted. "It's not just a box," she said firmly. w
"It looks just like a box. Ow, that hurt. Unless it has some all — powerful weapon inside it. I mean it, that really hurt." i
"Oh, don't be such a baby. Al found it…. God knows where. I managed to salvage it from one of his safety deposit boxes. It's how we've been fighting off the Hand of the Light. It's been helpful in other ways too." l
Dexter looked at it. Nothing in its appearance hinted at it being anything other than…. well, a box. Ornately carved and made out of some alien material he couldn't quite place, but a box all the same. It looked like a jewellery case, or a musical box he had seen in a shop once. l
But he had a feeling that any music that came from this wouldn't be nice at all. The whole thing gave off an aura of…. He wasn't quite going to say 'evil', but malevolence would come close. Whatever was in there hated him, and everything else. If even he could sense that, with his very limited telepathic talent, he wondered what it was doing to Talia. o
"It's called the Apocalypse Box," she said, walking around the table, running her hands over the box's surface. "At least, that's what Al called it." b
"Nice name," Dexter observed — but he was not looking at the box, but at her. Her eyes were dull and unfocussed. He was growing to like the box less and less. e
It had taken the best part of three months to get everything Talia required through customs, involving a great deal of influence, bribery and connections. He was getting no help whatsoever from Mr. Edgars, and he had not even approached the old man after that last conversation. He had spent every day of those three months dreading the presence in his mind that indicated the Hand of the Light had found him. But after that last time, there had been nothing. y
He had managed to smuggle in almost all of Talia's telepath group, the survivors of the Vorlon witch — hunts. Captain Ben Zayn remained out — system, still looking for other satellites and stations that might have survived elsewhere. He was a little too recognisable in certain places, and he was not best suited to this operation anyway. u
Organising the underground haven had taken a lot of work. He had had to take a less active role in the Senate, but that had been no great loss. The less time he spent involved in politics, the more he realised how useless it all was. Mr. Edgars and his coalition ran almost everything, whether openly or not, and behind them, as always, were the Vorlons. s
His gradual withdrawal from public life had not gone unnoticed. Humanity magazine had come up with several interesting rumours, including that he was planning to marry Captain Bethany Tikopai. As it happened, she was on near — permanent patrol duty at Babylon 5, so he hadn't seen her in weeks anyway. y
He had had several nightmares about the Hand of the Light, of their horrible, rasping voices and their soul — less bodies. He hated them with a passion he had seldom felt for anything. If nothing else, he would do that. He would wipe them and their Masters out of existence. o
"So, can this Box tell us who we're meant to be meeting?" he asked Talia. u
"I don't think so," she said, still staring at the box. "It's not omniscient, although sometimes it seems close. You still think this is a trap, don't you?" w
"The benefits of a paranoid upbringing." i
Most of Talia's telepath allies were hidden around Sector 301, parcelled out in various businesses and projects. Bo had acquired a new barman who was, unfortunately, completely hopeless. Dexter had managed to place a couple of them on his research staff. A couple had joined 301 Security. l
He found himself liking most of them, his 'brothers', as the Hand of the Light would call them. Some of Talia's telepaths were a little stand — offish and introverted, but most were just…. normal people. Chen, the new barman at Bo's, was nice enough, and not a bad poker player, while his girlfriend Lauren smiled a lot and had an opinion on almost everything. l
He hated the thought of any of them being turned into one of those monstrosities, or fed into a Dark Star, or worse…. o
It had been Chen and Lauren who had brought them the invitation. A strange man had approached Chen, and spoken telepathically while placing an order for drinks. He had asked for their leaders to come to a specified place at a specified time, and he had known altogether too much for comfort. He was not one of the Hand of the Light, that was sure. b
Dexter thought it was a trap. Talia pointed out that the Hand of the Light knew where he was, and could just scoop both of them up if they wanted to. Dexter had, in the end, reluctantly given way and come with Talia to this meeting place, but they had brought the box. e
"Insurance," she had called it. y
And so they waited. They had grown comfortable with silence over the past three months. Their relationship had never regained the passion of that first night, but they had definitely moved beyond simple friendship. Dexter was still not sure of his feelings for her, but while her Al was still alive, or until there was solid news of his death, he was content to wait. They flirted, and occasionally kissed, and they worked together for a greater goal. u
"Greetings," said a voice, and Dexter started. A man was standing before them, tall and…. somewhat innocuous — looking. He matched the admittedly vague description Chen and Lauren had provided, but…. "Senator Dexter Smith, and Miss Talia Winters, she of many names." s
"Usually 'She Who Must be Obeyed'," Dexter observed. "I think you have the advantage of us. For one thing, you got past our sentries without any of them giving a word of warning, and secondly, you know far too much. So who are you?" y
The man smiled. "Me? Nothing but an emissary, or rather a voice." He pulled off his coat and laid it on a chair. o
Talia started. "I thought you were a myth," she breathed. "Or long dead." u
"We prefer to have it thought that we are," the man replied. "But we are very real. We are observers, recorders of history — rarely actors within it, but occasionally it is time to act. We have been asked to lend you our assistance." w
"And who is 'we'?" Dexter asked. i
"We…. are the Vindrizi." l
Dexter looked at him, and then at Talia. Her eyes were still wide with disbelief. l
"The who?" he said. o
beyus
* * *
On their way home…. y
"I thought…. I really didn't think this would ever happen again, not to anyone…." o
"Least of all like this. Do you know what I mean, now?" u
"Yes…. no…. I don't know. It was supposed to be something beautiful, something safe. The Alliance was meant to protect people. Whatever the Narn Government was doing, whatever they have done…. the people didn't deserve this…. the innocent…. the…." w
"Do we know anyone who survived? G'Kar?" i
"Oh, God. Delenn said something…. He was on Narn, I think. Oh God, I hope he got away." l
"Would he really have left if it meant taking up a place someone else could have used?" l
"No, of course he wouldn't." o
"You see, John, there's a darkness at the heart of the Alliance, a cancer even. I was too afraid to confront it before. Now…. I'm still afraid, to be honest. Who wouldn't be?" b
"But what can we do? Do you want another war? I don't. I'm sick of fighting. That's all I've ever known, and that war cost me my wife, my friends, my daughter, my son, my father, my home…. Do you want to go through all that again? Because I don't." e
"'We…. in this generation are by destiny rather than choice, the watchmen on the walls of the world's freedom.'" y
"David, I can't think, and I'm too tired for word games." u
"You told me that. You gave a speech the night after Mars, the night we fled our solar system for the last time." s
"I remember now. I was quoting President Kennedy." y
"We do what we must. We do what we have to do. That's me quoting you. I don't want a war either, but my eyes have opened a little. What good is peace if it's the peace of quiet and darkness and terror? What's to stop the Vorlons doing it again to somewhere else?" o
"If there's another way…." u
"And if there isn't?" w
The tall, dark — eyed Minbari woman turned to look at them. "You are dreamers," she spat, in harshly — accented English. "You are fools. There will be war." i
"You sound just like Sinoval." l
"Never mention that name to me again!" l
She turned back, resuming her grim pacing up and down. o
"I wonder if there's even any point to this now. I was going to speak to Delenn, but…. what good is it even to try? Why bother trying to build when something big and all — powerful can just reach out and bring it all crashing down?" b
"That's the only reason to build anything. If we hold back because we're afraid it might go wrong, we'll never do anything." e
"Well, you would know." y
"Hey! I've been scared ever since the last war ended, and I'm more tired of fear than I am of war. I don't want to fight, but I will if I have to. It's better to light a candle than to sit and curse the darkness." u
"Enough with the quotations. I don't know. I just…. s
