“What do you want?”
John Sheridan looked at Susan Ivanova and finally decided to reply. If this was an illusion of Minbari trickery, he could pretend to succumb to it in order to trick them. And if this was some Hell-sent denizen about to torture him, then he would accept his fate. He had never fled from anything in his life, and he was not about to start now.
The trouble was, having decided to answer the question, he didn’t know what answer to give. “What do you mean?” he said at last. “It’s a pretty stupid question, don’t you think? Coming in a place like this.”
“Do you know anywhere better to ask?” she replied, smiling. “Perhaps we should go to Las Vegas and I can ask you there.”
“There is no Las Vegas any more.”
“I know. It’s a pity really. I’d have liked to have seen it. Just once.”
“You haven’t missed much, believe me.”
“If you say so. Well, Captain. What do you want?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
“It’s important. Very important. What do you want?”
Sheridan laughed. This was absurd. “I want to be out of this cell. How’s that for a start?”
“That’s all you want? I can’t believe your ambitions are so limited, Captain.”
“They aren’t. I’m just… not sure how to answer the question.”
“Just do your best.”
He laughed again. If this woman was a demon, she was certainly an entertaining one. “I want to return to the Babylon. I want to return to my crew. I want to be a million miles away from this world, and from that high and mighty, perfect Grey Council. I want each and every Minbari wiped from the face of the planet. I want them to suffer as we have suffered. And I want the Narns to experience something from our point of view as well. After all I’ve done for them, they betrayed me. So let them suffer, let their planet be bombed from space and their people enslaved. And the Centauri too, while we’re at it. They stood back and watched as we fought and died, so let them suffer. I want Earth back, whole again. I want my wife to be the woman she was when I married her, not the… the shadow she is today. I want my daughter back in my arms again. And… and I want a large vanilla ice cream, with a flake and wafer. Does that answer your question?”
Ivanova laughed. Quite an attractive laugh, really. “I’m not sure what I can do about your daughter, or the ice cream, but I’ll see what I can do about the others.”
Sheridan couldn’t help himself. He was laughing too. “Just like that? You are an illusion.”
“Could an illusion do this?” Ivanova stepped up to the door and pushed gently. It slid open. Sheridan blinked as light suddenly filled his cell, and then he stared up at Ivanova. She extended her arm. “Shall we go then? Or were you planning on staying here?”
Delenn knew that it was Draal behind her before he began to speak. Over the years she had come to recognise the sound of his footsteps. It was a comforting sound. It reminded her of her father.
“You are working again. I suppose I should not be surprised, Delenn. After all, you never listened to me when you were a child, so why should you start now, hmm?”
She turned, and smiled. “I must have been a terrible burden to you, old friend. To be saddled with so disobedient a child.”
“A burden? No. A challenge, certainly. I never met anyone with such a desire for knowledge as you, for all that it frequently led you into… strange directions.” He paused and looked at her in the studied, deep way he often used. “What is it, Delenn? Something is troubling you.”
She knew better than to lie to her old teacher, her father’s best friend. “I… I think I have uncovered something, old friend. Something that shakes me to my very core. I hope… I pray that I am wrong, but I doubt that I am.”
“This something, would it involve the human Sheridan? Oh, don’t look so surprised, Delenn. There are still some on the Grey Council who listen to a doddering old man and feed him crumbs of information from time to time. Just enough to keep his mind working. The Starkiller is being held in this very building, Delenn, and I find you here, still studying and working when you do not have to. What is it about this human?”
“He is… I do not know how to describe it, old friend. There is such hatred in his eyes, such… capability for destruction. It is both terrifying and… strangely reassuring. I cannot explain it, Draal, only say how I feel. I think I have known him for a very long time. Perhaps he is the One the prophecies speak of, the One who is destined to lead us against the Enemy that is returning.”
“Or perhaps he is simply a mass murderer. I would have thought that one such as him would be a better candidate to serve the Enemy rather than lead against them.”
“That is what I must know. Where will he side? Is he the One spoken of? There is great… possibility within him and it must be turned to our side. If he can serve our cause, then he will be a valuable ally.” She made to say more, but hesitated. She knew Draal suspected her of holding something back, but not even he could suspect this. That she thought Starkiller Sheridan, a man hated and feared throughout the Minbari Federation, housed a Minbari soul.
“Persuading him to ally with us will be difficult, Delenn, if not impossible.”
“But I must try. It may be that we have our new Entil’zha locked in a cell in this very building.”
Draal’s eyes turned hard. “I did not hear that, Delenn. It is one thing to speak of Sheridan as a potential ally. For better or for worse, the man is a force in this galaxy. But as Entil’zha? A human, even this one, to lead the Rangers? No, Delenn, that is beyond stupidity and into blasphemy.”
“I am sorry, old friend. I think… my mind runs away with me. But would Sinoval be a better choice? For unless there is an alternative, it will be Sinoval who is our new Entil’zha. I saw Sinoval and Sheridan in the Hall of the Council today. It was as though they were two sides of the same mirror. I fear that Sinoval’s ambitions are running away with him.”
“But you cannot stop him when you are down here, Delenn. You are the chosen of Dukhat, never forget that. You must be the voice of reason in the Council, opposing Sinoval. You cannot be that if you hide down here all the time.”
“Oh, but I can, Draal. I can.” She paused and looked up at the man who had shaped her life for so long. Then she rose to her feet and made the ritual gesture of departure. He repeated it and watched as she left, never suspecting that beneath her robes she bore a Triluminary.
With which to test Sheridan’s soul.
“The transmissions indicate that Captain Sheridan was taken to Minbar, Commander,” the lieutenant said. David Corwin listened and nodded, but said nothing.
Minbar. If the Resistance Government on Proxima 3 knew what he was doing he would be spaced so fast he would think he’d been born in a vacuum, but this had to be done. Captain Sheridan had saved his life more times than he could count, and now that Sheridan was in danger, Corwin had to go to the rescue.
“Any word on the others?”
“The message we intercepted just said the captain, Sir, but I presume…”
“Never presume anything,” Corwin snapped. “Very well, if we’re going to assault the Minbari homeworld, now is as good a time as ever, I suppose. Set course for…”
“Wait, Commander. We’re picking up a coded message. It’s Earthforce, sir.”
“If it’s the Resistance Government then…”
“No, sir. It’s… an old code, sir, three or four years old. But it seems to be coming from Minbar.”
“How could the Minbari know four-year-old… The captain! Put it on!”
Corwin swivelled in the chair – the captain’s chair – and turned to the reception screen. It was fuzzy and blank, but the message that came through was clear.
Captain Sheridan will be fine. I can get him off Minbar, but we’ll need transportation when that happens. Care to give us a lift, David? Wait at these co-ordinates.