Coming as it did during the middle of the business day, the Red Sector civilian alert shelter was more than a little cramped. The Vincent women worked their way through the crowd, Rally's eyes scanning carefully through the crowds.
The largest single group was human, but that was a plurality, with various alien races filling out the mass. Rally noted, with an obvious amount of distaste, a large number of drazi loitering in one color. She avoided that part of the room quite clearly.
Eventually, she guided the girls to a small area in a corner with a good view of the door and most of the shelter area. A smattering of security guards wandered through the area, with most stationed at the now sealed door.
"Can I get a soda?" Shanti asked, eyeing the vending machine in a nearby corner of the room.
The drinks they had bought before the alert weren't really suited for drinking while sitting around.
"Get the both of us one as well?" Rally said, setting down what she was carrying and pointing toward Vivian and herself.
Shanti nodded and walked nimbly across the room, in between the other people, taking smooth gliding steps on her heels that had Rally arching an eyebrow.
"So, when did she learn to walk on heels like that?" Rally asked.
"Aunt May, last year," Vivi said.
"I thought so," Rally muttered. "What else did she teach the two of you?"
"She asked a lot about boyfriends," Vivian said. "Then she asked about girlfriends, something about 'making sure she had the right target in mind this time'. What'd she mean by that?"
Rally rolled her eyes, May couldn't seriously be trying to play her matchmaking games with Vivi and Shanti as well now.
"That woman is handful," Rally said.
"Barely," Vivian replied with a snort.
"And who taught you to..." Rally started to ask.
She was interrupted by the sound of a crash across the room that brought both to a standing position.
"Watch where you're going," a loud voice declared lifting out of the throat of a young and rather drunk looking Centauri.
Not far away a Narn stood, simmering in fury as he shook off the drink that had been spilled over him. People pushed away from the two, making it hard for the nearby security staff to get to the center of the trouble.
"How typical of the Centauri to flail about drunkenly and think it a show of authority," the Narn snapped. "If this is an example of your glory, we'll be pushing you out of your own homeworld before you realize it."
"Yes, we saw what you could do in quadrant 37," the Centauri said tauntingly. "So fearsome it takes invisible faeries to eliminate one of your outposts."
At about that time, the crowd moved and a girl in a green skirt was pushed unceremoniously out of the tightening crowd and stumbled back into the open circle as the Narn lunged outward.
Shanti was carrying three sodas and still recovering from being unwillingly shoved into the center of the problem. The Narn tried to stop himself as the girl came into the picture, but was already badly overcommitted. Shanti's own training helped minimize the impact and almost kept them both standing, until a heel snapped under and both toppled to the floor.
Vivian started to move forward as Rally pushed her back down and started shoving her way through the crowd.
"Stay here," she said, just short of a command for the teen.
She was closer than most of security, but she still had to get through the packed crowd. Still, she was in a position to notice the glint of a PPG casing in the Centauri drunkard's hand before he turned in a way that hid it from view.
Rally wasn't the only Vincent to see the weapon.
Shanti's eyes fixed on the weapon and a thrill of danger worked through her as she took in the gloating look on the Centauri's eyes. She was in the path of fire and Rally'd have her tanned if she ever fired on any target with anyone in the way like she was now, but the girl seriously doubted the Centauri had thought that through or cared to.
As the gun came shakily into line, it glowed brightly for a moment before erupting in the Centauri's hand in an apparent misfire. Then the gloating Centauri's posturing turned to agonized screams as the weapon seared his hand and set fire to the arm of his clothing terribly fast.
Flailing about, and the crowd falling away before him, the man moved to a wall to smash his enflamed arm against the wall in an attempt to put it out. Shanti staring fixedly at him as he moved, seemingly in shock.
A hand on the young girl's shoulder brought her attention away from the unfortunate man as security reached him.
The fire was out soon after.
"Are you all right, Kitten?" Rally asked, helping her up.
"I broke a heel," she said with a pout that earned a small, amused smile from Rally.
"I'm sorry, Miss..." the Narn said, struggling to his feet.
"Vincent," Rally said without looking around. "Next time don't be so quick to get in a fight. There's already enough of that going around."
The woman was busy dusting Shanti off and checking her over, though she spared a moment to nod at the monitors showing the Babylon 5 starfuries facing down against the Trigati's fighters.
A security officer made his way over to her and looked to the Narn a bit irritably before glancing to her.
"Is everything all right, Ma'am?" he asked as he reached down to pick up the sodas and hand them over to Shanti and Rally.
"Some wardrobe damage is all I think," Rally said. "Anything bruised, Shanti?"
"No, I rolled into the fall like you taught me," the girl said. "But....my shoe?"
"I think we'll be good," Rally said, ignoring her daughter for a moment.
"All right," the officer said, turning toward the Narn. "And you, get over here, right now! You moron, we're in a state of emergency here."
As Rally escorted Shanti back to where Vivi sat, the girl whispered up to her.
"Am I in trouble?" she asked.
"Talk about it later," Rally said.
*****
It was barely fifteen minutes later when the Trigati self-destructed and the alert came to an end.
Rally watched up at the monitor as the shelter started to thin out and shook her head. There was a far away look in her eyes as she considered old memories.
"We haven't heard the end of that," she said quietly.
The twins around her looked confused for a moment.
"I suppose you took that to be a sort of victory, human?" an incensed voice said to the side, drawing the attention of the two girls to the Minbari speaker.
"Nobody won anything here," Rally said grimmly.
She looked over to the Minbari, noted he was too young to have been in the war and cocked her head to the side wordlessly to her kids.
*****
It was later that night, with the girls getting in some exercise before bed, as Rally tested the reception of the mini-cams they'd hidden in the hallways during a clear moment, that a call came on the Stellar-Com monitor.
Putting up the camera, Rally reached up and accepted the incoming call. She wasn't all that surprised to see a woman with Lieutenant Commander's bars on the screen.
"Rally Vincent?" the woman asked professionally. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Ivanova."
"That's me," the woman said with a smile. "What can I do for you?"
"The Captain wanted me to make sure to tell you," the woman said with a friendly tone. "There isn't a civilian targetting range, but as a veteran we can give you access to security's."
"And family?" Rally asked, a bit cautious as the fact that she was a veteran came up.
"That shouldn't be a problem," Ivanova noted. "We'll just need to see about some paperwork. Oh, and welcome to Babylon 5. Hope you had a more or less decent first day."
"It was a bit full, I'll tell you that," the gunsmith said, shaking her head. "Hope it gets a bit quieter from here on."
Ivanova seemed like she wanted to say something, but forced it down.
"We all hope that," the Lieutenant Commander said.
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(Posted Fri, 23 Apr 2010 04:07)
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