Destroyers
Chapter 2
--- Awakening ---
Part 1 of ?
Written by Shaule Sachs
std_disclaimer.h:
Zaxxon Hunter and other original characters are copyrighted.
Destroyers (c) 1997, Shaule Sachs
Babylon5 and B5 characters are JMS's but we're just playing through.
===
[Babylon 5;
March 5, 2258]
"Welcome back..." the customs officer said. She looked at the
id-card and continued, "Mister Hunter."
"Thank you, Officer Smith," Zaxxon Hunter replied as he took back
his id-card.
The customss officer could not help watching as Mister Hunter looked
away from her. He was the last person to get off the docking shuttle and
she had to make sure the area was empty before she could leave. The fact
that she thought he was cute was not a factor in the amount of time she
watched him.
Jeffery Sinclair sat in his chair reviewing the air consumption
reports when he heard the whistling from the hall. The tone and hinted
lyrics were unknown to him. Jeff thought he knew all the habits of his
people, so he knew it could not be one of them; nor did any of the alien
ambassadors whistle, so through process of elimination that left one
person it could be. A few moments later, Jeff was proven right when
Zaxxon Hunter entered the office.
Jeff got up, shook Zaxxon's hand, and said, "What was the song
you were whistling?"
Zaxxon shrugged and said, "Something I heard once. So how are you
doing?"
"Not bad," Jeff answered. "Raiders are quiet for the moment. Psi
Corp has finally sent a replacement for Miss Alexander, a Miss Talia
Winters. A P5-rating. She's already doing the meetings that Miss
Alexander wasn't able to attend."
"That's good," Zaxxon answered. "And Lieutenant Commander Ivanova?"
"Doing fine," Jeff said. "So long as she and Miss Winters are not
in the same room."
Zaxxon smiled and said, "How about lunch? On me."
"Sure," Jeff said.
Talia Winters was tired. Since she was the only telepath on the
station. She had to deal with all the negotiations without the benefit
of another telepath to help her. Before coming to the station, Talia was
thrilled about having her first solo-mission but now she wished for a
partner or a transplant.
Talia could barely stay on her feet. For the last five days, she
had been dealing with the backlog that happened because the original
telepath assigned to Babylon 5 was recalled to Earth. Talia did not know
why, only that it was important to the Corp which was good enough for
her.
She almost fell down when a voice asked, "Can I help you?"
Talia could not tell if she heard the voice with her gift or with
her ears. Either way, it startled her. She let out a brief scream of
surprise. It was not until she saw the others in the corridor around her
move away from her that she realized her little scream was not only
spoken outloud but also broadcasted telepathically. Talia saw the fear
and confusion on the normals' faces, she sighed inwardly.
"Come on. You obviously need help to your room," the voice said
again.
It was now Talia's turn to be confused. Most normals got as far as
away as possible when they saw a tired telepath. A tired telepath's shields,
that normally kept unwanted thoughts out, were weak and subject to leaks
that bothered normals. Yet, the stranger did not seem to mind, which
was good for Talia since he was all that was keeping her up. As Talia
thought about it, she could not sense the stranger in her mind at all.
// So either, I'm more tired than I thought or the stranger has a
very strong shielded mind, // Talia thought to herself. The simple thought
seemed to echo like a drum through her mind. Yet each time she tried to
reach out with her mind to the stranger, she could not find anything but
silence. She sought the silence with all her strength until her own mind
quieted down.
"Here we are," the strange's voice brought Talia back into herself.
Confused Talia asked, "Where?"
"Your quarters," the stranger said.
Talia tried to open the door but she was too tired to do so. Seeing
the amount of effort Talia was using in trying to open the door, the
stranger took the card from her and opened the door pushing Talia in.
Once in, the stranger directed Talia to her couch. There Talia had
her first real look at the stranger. The first thing that Talia noticed
after the fact that the stranger was male around thirty years old was
that he had white hair. It was not the white/grey of old age but an
natural white hair. The next thing she noticed was that the stranger was
removing the coat she was wearing. Next he removed her shoes and socks.
It was not until he attempted to remove her gloves that she protested.
To her protests the stranger simply said, "It does not matter. I'm
a psi-null."
// A psi-null? // she thought to herself. She knew what a psi-null
was but her brain was not cooperating at the moment. Still the
gentleness and understanding in the voice removed her worries, so the
stranger's hands could remove the gloves. Once removed, the stranger
positioned Talia into a reclied sitting position and then moved to the
kitchenette area.
It was not until a cup of tea and a piece of cake were pressed into
her hands that Talia realized she had dozed off for a moment. Knowing
it was a bad idea to sleep on a empty stomach when she was so tired,
Talia drained the cup of tea and ate the cake as if she had not eaten
in ages. Feeling better Talia looked up at the stranger and said,
"Thanks. I needed that."
"I know," the stranger said with a smile.
The smile eased her headache until she made the mistake of looking
at one of the light fixtures. Her head exploded at the moment. Talia
felt like she was going to die. As the feeling grew, she remembered that
the person in front of her was a 'psi-null,' and that he understood what
she was going through. That plus the way he stood made Talia nervous as
she realized he must have had White Alpha training. It was the only
explanation. Hope rose in her chest as pain flashed through her mind,
Talia said, "Please, please, please, kill me!"
"It's not that bad," the stranger responsed. "You'll live through it."
"But I don't wanna..." Talia replied. "End my misery!"
"Here," the strange said as he handed her some pills.
// Maybe it's poison, // Talia thought with hope as she down them.
"Ohhh.... My head," Talia said as she sat up.
She looked around noted that she was in her bed. As a slight breeze
caressed her body, Talia realized she was nude. Normally, Talia slept
in the nude but she had not gotten that comfortable with Babylon Five
yet. // So what happen last night? // Talia mentally asked herself.
It came back slowly to her. She could not believe her behavior
last night. The fact that she was still alive, testified that she had
not pissed the stranger off. As the name implied, White Alpha training
was the opposite of Black Omega training. Black Omega used
high-powered telepaths to bring down other telepaths. Sometimes an
area is too populated or where discretion is needed against a rogue, so
the Corp send a specially trained psi-null after a rogue telepath. The
training for psi-null is called White Alpha.
Talia remembered the class that had discussed 'psi-null'. The
instructor had used an old metaphor to explain. The metaphor was each
person was like a radio broadcasting unit and only telepaths had
receivers. So telepaths could send and receive while normals could
only send. A psi-null was a person who lacked both a receiver and a
sender unit. Because of that fact, most psi-null tend to be ignored by
the telepathically inclined people. Even normals tend to ignore
psi-null, too. Psi Corp could use this fact and developed the White Alpha
project. The perfect shadow assassin that not even a telepath could
detect. Also, psi-null doctors are the best to treat high-leveled
telepaths since they can ignore their patients' psi-bursts.
// Now the question is, why is there a Ghostwalker on the
Station? // Talia asked herself.
Morden was pleased with himself. He had seen the Minbari, Narn, and
the Centuri Ambassadors, avoided the Vorlon Ambassador, and found a
likely candidate for the upcoming events. All there was to do now was to
finalize everything.
"Having fun?" came a voice from behind him. Morden turned around to
find the voice. In doing so he noted that his 'associates' had left him.
// Only for the moment, // Morden thought. When Morden returned to look
ahead he noticed a man leaning against the bulk head. The man was six
feet tall, well built, and Morden could not place an age on him. The
man's white hair gave the first first impression of old age but it was
white of snow, not the white of age that showed. The brown eyes were like
looking at fertile land. Old age and young seemed to go together in this
stranger.
Feeling nervous without his companions, Morden simply replied,
"Huh?"
The stranger asked again, "Are you having fun on your vacation?"
Curious Morden asks, "What makes you think I'm on vacation?"
"Because you concluded your business here and you are wasting
time," the stranger replied in a matter-of-fact voice.
"What do you know of *my* business," Morden asked while wondering
what was going on.
"More than you do," the stranger answered.
Morden's face simply said, "Yeah, right."
"Your *associates* simply stopped for a snack, they'll be back in a
moment," the stranger said when Morden started to look around. "Assuming
that they have not eaten it all, you might like to try some."
Morden turned his head when he heard his associated make their
presence known. In one of their claws was a chocolate bar. The associate
with the chocolate bar said in it's own language that Morden should try
it and that the chocolate bar was almost as good as a Sophian chocolate
bar. Another associate started to talk about how the Sophian were the
originators of chocolate in the Galaxy, how they planted various
cocoa plants throughout the Galaxy, and how before they died out they
showed the younger races how to make chocolate.
"Not now," Morden said. He did not want to the history lesson now.
He wanted to ask the stranger more questions but when he turned around
the stranger was gone and thought, // Wonder what *he* wanted? //
[=== End of Part 1 ===]