"We want you to remove this woman from the station," the Markab ambassador said as he walked in front of the general seating of the ambassadors to address the five-party table of the security council.
"On what grounds?" Sheridan asked.
"She has brought something with her from that ship from the past," the Markab ambassador said.
"Oh, that's a good one," Londo said. "Always appreciate a good ghost story eh?"
"Let him speak, I'm interested in what he has to say," G'Kar commented in an aside.
"Of course you would be," Londo said with irritation.
"The forces of darkness do not move openly," the Markab ambassador said. "They work through others. A thousand years ago, when they were driven away, these forces went to ground in secret places and their servants did likewise. But now, they are coming again, moving again and the darkness is calling to its soldiers to gather."
"And you think this woman is one of these soldiers?" Sheridan asked.
"Sometimes evil can wear a pretty face, Captain," the Markab said.
"Are you sure about this?" Vivian asked, checking the weapon in her hand.
"Rally's only got one arm," Shanti said, checking her own weapons.
"And you're supposed to be resting," Vivian noted. "We've got PPGs, the shotgun some pistols. And I saw what people were using against thing and it was ignoring."
"So are we just going to sit around while this monster kills people?" Shanti asked.
"That's exactly what you're going to do," Rally said, coming into the room with almost no extra noise.
"Rally, it's..." Shanti started to say.
"When you're old enough," Rally said. "I won't be surprised if you get into this line of work. After all, that's what the skills are for, but right now you are children, under my care."
Rally leaned down and picked up the shotgun.
"Let's wait this out in security," she said. "If they need something from you, you'll be on hand."
"And it's the safest place in the station," Vivian noted.
"At least we'll be able to practice at the firing range," Shanti muttered.
Jack shook his head as another hallucination started to form.
He was starting to be able fight clear of those, clear enough to form more coherent thoughts and sometimes speak them. Of course those moments of coherence were still only occasional.
"Did he actually say something that made some sense?" Zack Allen asked casually.
"What was that?" Rally asked.
"Oh, Jack," the officer said with a tone of disgust. "Garibaldi's been recording his cell in case he says anything useful about why he shot Garibaldi in the back. Anyway, let me log you and your girls in for the shooting range."
"Any word on using slugthrowers?" Rally asked.
"Not yet," Zack said. "And I know it's been a while since you asked, but with everything..."
Vivian leaned over against the wall as she bent over to check her socks and froze as a tingle of something vicious worked its way through the wall into her.
"Vivi?" Shanti asked, drawing Rally's attention.
"Something wrong?" Rally asked cautiously.
"It went through this wall," Vivian said quietly.
"It was down here," Amis told Garibaldi. "Trust me, I felt it down here, hiding. But now it's gone somewhere else. I'm not crazy."
Garibaldi nodded and sat down quietly, holstering his weapon as he did.
"There was this guy in my first unit during the war," he said. "Kept telling us that our perimeter was weak. And we all laughed because we hadn't seen any action and every time we checked it, the perimeter was just fine. We checked it again and again and again. The perimeter was strong. And then the Minbari came, tore through that perimeter like it was paper, and he was one of the first to die. He was nuts, but he was right. So yeah, I do believe you."
"At least you're one person who believes me," Amis said. "I don't understand it, it doesn't feel like the thing is anywhere around here. I can feel it on the station, but it feels several sectors away."
"So it moved," Garibaldi said. "Maybe we should head toward that feeling."
Garibaldi's link beeped not three steps later.
"Garibaldi," he said.
"Chief!" Zack yelled into the link. "That thing is here!"
"What?" Garibaldi shouted just before Amis ran off ahead of him. "Damn it! I'm on the way!"
Ivanova caught Sheridan outside the council chambers.
"The creature's attacked security," she said.
"Damn it!" Sheridan said. "Get as many people there as you can. I want that thing put down before it can get out."
He glanced over his shoulder toward the various diplomats and then moved into the hallways at a rush.
Several people noted the action, but most dismissed it as Sheridan's typical impatience. But at least one of the ambassadors seemed fairly interested.
"There it is again!" Zack shouted.
The present security personnel in the lobby rose out of cover and started firing. Rally herself aimed and fired several times, trying to get a sense for her enemy's anatomy so that she could try place better shots.
Vivian and Shanti were both similar in trying to place shots, save a few differences. Shanti quickly lost her patience and just fired, thinking about trying to use her powers again, despite the fact that she hadn't really recovered from the last time yet. Vivian on the other hand, ended up waiting too long to find a good shot that she didn't take any.
"It doesn't do anything if you don't fire it, Little Girl," Rally said calmly. "Or if you shoot away all its power, Kitten."
Both girls winced slightly.
Quickly the thing retreated again.
"What the hell is going on?" Zack wondered. "This thing can walk through wall and it just keeps coming at us?"
As he spoke a dirty little man jumped in past the security officers under cover and started shouting out.
"Are you still here?" Amis demanded. "Well, I'm here too, and I'm ready to finish this."
"What the hell?" Rally wondered.
"That's the guy that I punched in the nose," Shanti offered.
"I recognized him," Rally said. "But what's he doing."
Sheridan, Ivanova and Garibaldi came in not long after with a small army of security officers drawn from patrols all over the station.
"What's the situation?" Garibaldi asked before reaching out and pulling Amis back into cover. "Get over here."
"It keeps coming and going," Zack said. "Killed a prisoner, and started attacking us."
"It goes invisible," Rally called out. "I don't think it's ever been complete visible actually. Can't tell if there are any real vulnerable points."
Rally glimpsed back at Shanti briefly, but didn't add anything.
"I don't think we're really hurting it at all," another officer said. "Just annoying it. Like a bee sting."
"Well, one bee-sting is an annoyance," Sheridan said. "A thousand can kill you. Next time it shows up, everybody fire away."
Rally nodded and glanced toward her kids to see if they were ready.
The various officers waited for the thing to show itself, but it stayed quiet.
"What's taking it so long?" Sheridan muttered.
"It can smell an ambush," Amis said. "You need to give it what it wants so it will come out."
"Stay down, Shanti," Rally whispered, pointing with her good arm out toward the general area where the creature had been appearing.
The lurker ran out of cover again and into the open shouting for the monster to come at him.
And it did, a huge crackling blue form of a thing reaching out to lift him up.
"Take it down!" Sheridan shouted as almost twenty men and women unleashed a hail of PPG fire on the creature which dropped the lurker.
The creature seemed to stagger backwards as if it was running away.
Up until the PPG bolts seemed to come together into a sheer white cage of burning fire which closed in on the monster before it vanished with a hideous cry.
Shanti leaned forward then panting as Garibaldi ran over toward where Amis had been dropped.
Rally glanced back at her daughter and frowned slightly before exchanging a pair of looks with Ivanova and Sheridan.
"Call medlab," Sheridan said with determination but calm.
"You wanted to talk to me?" Sheridan said.
"Yeah," Garibaldi said. "The prisoner that creature killed?"
"What about it?" Sheridan asked.
"It was Jack," the Chief said. "Now I know this is going to sound paranoid, but I don't believe in convenient coincidences."
"Susan says the Copernicus was reprogrammed to head on a specific path," Sheridan noted darkly. "This thing was more intelligent than just a beast."
"Rally has cheery news herself," Garibaldi said. "She's got word from her friends on Earth about something called 'Night Watch'. Now, there's nothing in that that I think is connected to this monster here, but still lots of weird stuff is going on."
Sheridan nodded and shook his head.
"Speaking of weird stuff," Garibaldi said. "Anything on the little firestarter?"
"Was back in the medlab after that fight," Sheridan said. "But we think we found a solution for getting her help controlling herself."
"Eh?" Garibaldi said. "The closest thing to what she is would be a telepath and last I heard, they're still avoiding dealing with telepaths."
"Human telepaths, yes," Sheridan said.
"I am here because Ambassador Delenn requested it," the Minbari in front of Rally said, staring down at the bounty hunter past her nose.
"You don't sound like you like her," Rally said.
"I find her judgment...questionable," the Minbari said. "More questionable by the moment. Not that yours is much better."
"Let me ask you a question," Rally said.
"What might that be?" the Minbari asked.
"Are you going to sabotage my girls?" the bounty hunter said. "Manipulate them, influence them, play in their minds?"
The Minbari man's expression was then filled with disgust.
"That would be a betrayal of a sacred gift," he said instantly. "Of course I would do no such thing."
Rally nodded and shrugged.
"And it doesn't matter what you think of me," Rally said as if that was explanation enough.
"You don't trust your own people?" the Minbari asked.
"In your history, ever have a situation where a bad leader brings everyone else to tragedy because they don't think to disobey?" Rally asked.
"On occasion," the Minbari said.
"That's Earth right now," the bounty hunter noted. "Curious, why not just check my head?"
"Because I do not know human minds well enough to risk entering the mind of one who is so controlled as to be silent," the Minbari said.
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(Posted Sat, 15 Jan 2011 13:47)
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