"This is the USS Copernicus," a woman's voice repeated mechanically. "We come in peace. This is the USS Copernicus. We come in piece."
The hundred year old ship continued to drift through the dark, empty spaces carrying its passengers, the living and the dead.
Garibaldi frowned as he stared into the monitor, watching Jack rock back and forth and muttering to himself.
"Has he said anything useful?" Sheridan asked, coming into the room.
"No, everything is just the same repetition of New World Order and having to kill Rally Vincent," Garibaldi said.
"What happened to him?" Sheridan asked. "He's been gone for two weeks after that escape of his and he comes back like this?"
"Kerosine," Garibaldi said.
"That isn't something you can find just anywhere these days," Sheridan said.
"I know," the security chief said. "I was hoping that he'd start to come down after the drug started coming out of his system. But it doesn't just come out of your system, you have to clean it out of your system according to Vincent."
"She knows a lot about this sort of thing," Sheridan noted.
"I looked into it back when I realized who she was," Garibaldi said. "There's a Chicago police file, she was kidnapped, forcefully dosed with kerasine and brainwashed herself. Someone wanted to send her to kill a cop friend of hers. She resisted, managed to only wound him. Nobody is really sure exactly how."
"Does she know how to clean it out?" Sheridan asked.
"She gave me the name of a scientist to look for," the chief said, shrugging, we're looking into it. "Until then, I'm keeping his presence here quiet. Protective custody, danger to himself and others, that kind of thing."
"That playing a bit of a bluff," Sheridan said. "But I have to admit that he's not in a condition to take care of himself. And we know he's connected to the assassination of the president."
He sighed and shook his head before turning away from the monitors.
"Just be careful, Mr Garibaldi," Sheridan said as he left the room. "I have to look into that ship drifting out of deep space."
Soon after he left, a call came in. Some lurker shouting about the end of the world.
"This is from Earth?" Susan said, regarding the ship in the view screens. "I've never seen anything like it."
"Check your history books," Sheridan said. "That's a sleeper ship, from before we had contact with the Centauri."
"What's it doing out here?" Susan asked.
"Well, maybe something misfired," the captain suggested. "Or maybe it's supposed to be out here...who knows."
"We could always asked the pilot," Ivanova said, indicating the life signs.
"What did you want to talk to me about, Ambassador?" Rally asked G'Kar, who sat across from her counter at the moment.
"It has come to my attention just what part you played in the Earth-Minbari War," he said.
"You want to hire me to kill people?" she asked dryly with narrowed eyes.
"Well, certainly not in your current condition," G'Kar said, noting the sling.
"I don't do that," the bounty hunter said. "I'm a bounty hunter, private investigator and gunsmith. I've had enough of killing."
G'Kar nodded reluctantly and stood up.
"I can respect that, I suppose," he said.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't encourage my daughter in thinking war is glorious," Rally said.
"Ms Vincent," G'Kar said. "If you want her to appreciate the truth of war. Then maybe you should tell her about it rather than sheltering her."
He hadn't left yet when Vivian came into the shop at a run.
"Rally," she gasped. "You've gotta come quick."
"What is it now?" Rally asked.
"I told you both," Garibaldi said. "If she can't keep it under control, I'll have to do something about it."
Rally's hand was over her face as she shook her head in a bit of frustration.
"I thought it might be one of the people that attacked Rally," Shanti said quietly.
"I'm going to grant you this," Garibaldi said. "The man jumped out at her and was ranting about soldiers of darkness. And she stopped herself after one punch, but she still broke the man's nose."
"He was stinky and crazy," Shanti noted.
"What are you thinking of, Garibaldi?" Rally asked quietly.
"Community service, I think," the security chief said.
"Where?" Rally asked cautiously.
"I believe you know the Doc's free clinic?" Garibaldi said.
"But it's dirty down there," Shanti said quietly.
"I can agree with that," Rally said, leaning back and calming down. "She could use a bit of refresher on first aid anyway."
"One hundred hours sound good?" Garibaldi asked.
"But that's forever!" Shanti protested. "Can't I just apologize?"
"If the man you punched out wakes up coherent," the security chief said. "You can expect to do that too."
"Huh?" Shanti said. "I didn't hit him that hard."
Amis moaned as he woke up, thinking clearly as consciousness came back in. The memories were a bit fuzzy as usual, and there were some aches and pains as usual, felt like his nose was broken.
"What hit me?" he wondered.
"Well, to answer that," a voice said. "I've set up a visual aide."
The lurker looked up toward the voice and saw a man with a receding hairline directing attention toward a monitor on the wall.
"Is that a little girl beating up a drazi?" Amis asked.
"I never get tired of that," Garibaldi said, shaking his head. "Anyway, how are you feeling?"
"Like I was laid out by a hundred pound girl," Amis said.
"Said little girl has a one hundred days of community service to pay for it," Garibaldi noted. "She'll also be coming here to apologize."
"I find life is much more enjoyable if I don't remember most of the things I do," the man said.
"You were saying judgment day was coming," the security chief said.
"Did it?" Amis asked.
"Not yet, but I might have missed a meeting," Garibaldi said.
Meanwhile, a woman was being transferred from the Copernicus to the medlab at a rush and something darker slipped onto the station ahead of her.
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(Posted Wed, 12 Jan 2011 08:24)
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