Темное, кривое зеркало. Том 5 : Средь звезд, подобно гигантам - Гэрет Уильямс

Lennier touched the sunburst badge which he had taken to wearing openly again. "I…. was," he said, carefully. "My name is Lennier."

"G'Sten. I knew I'd seen you before somewhere. You were with the Centauri, weren't you? The one who's now Emperor, and Marrago. You helped break him out." Lennier nodded, remembering now. So many years ago…. "I knew it. Have you seen Marrago recently? Last I heard he'd been fired and gone into private work as a mercenary."

"I heard the same thing."

"Pity. He was a damned good man. For a Centauri. There's something about an enemy like that, someone you respect, even like. It makes it less of a war, less about hatred, and more about proving yourself better than he is. More about the Game." He took another swig. "Not that that's always a good thing, of course.

"But it's done now. Both of us are old men, discarded by our Governments, put out to grass. Happens to us all eventually."

"You did not try to leave?"

"Leave? Me?" He laughed. "I'm too old, boy. No, leave this life to the younger ones, the ones who've got enough time left to enjoy it. I'm a relic of the old days, me. By any rights I should be dead a hundred times over." He pointed a little way up the mountain. There was a cave mouth there. "Do you see that cave?"

"Yes."

"We had a Resistance base there, during the Occupation. Anyway, when I was young, in the early days, I was captured by a Centauri lord. I'd been sabotaging his estates, burning stables and farmland, that sort of thing. Turned out he had one of those witches on his staff. The ones who can see the future. You heard of them?"

Lennier nodded.

"Well, she went into a trance, and said she saw me dying in the mountains. She described this place perfectly. I don't mind admitting I was a bit scared. The Centauri had a thing about unpleasant deaths. One thing they liked to do was stick dozens of sharp stakes into the ground and then throw their prisoners off the top of a mountain on to them. The fall wasn't so far that it'd kill you, but the stakes would. Eventually. I thought that was what they'd do to me.

"But some of my friends broke me out that night, and I almost forgot about the prophecy. Some years later, twelve at least, the Centauri soldiers tracked down one of our bases, to that cave over there. We were outnumbered and overrun and pretty soon I was on my own, my gun running low on energy, staring at what looked like hundreds of the bastards. I remembered the old witch's prophecy again, and I was sure she was right. For a moment I felt like giving up and letting them kill me."

He fell silent for a moment.

"And what happened?" Lennier asked.

"I picked up the gun and carried on firing. Managed to fight my way out. Went to ground in the mountains. Hid for weeks, starving and hurt. But I was still alive. I'd won, see. I'd beaten the old witch. She died the night before we burned her lord's estates to the ground. Pity. I'd have liked to talk to her one last time."

He looked around at the mountains and sighed.

"And you have come back to die here?" Lennier asked.

G'Sten looked at him and laughed. "Are you joking, boy? No, I came here to spit in the bitch's face one last time." He threw his arms wide and shouted into the sky. "Do you hear me, witch? I'm still alive! And I'm not going to die here!"

He laughed, long and loud, and then jumped down from the rock he was sitting on. "I'm going to walk back into town. Do you want to come with me?"

"I…." Lennier looked around. "No, I think I will stay here. I…. like this place."

"Suit yourself." He shook the bottle. There was the sloshing of liquid. "Do you want some?"

"Is it alcoholic?" G'Sten nodded. "Then, no. My people do not drink alcohol."

"I don't think you'll have time to worry about a hangover."

"No, but thank you."

"Word of advice, boy. Take every opportunity you have to experience new things, because you never know when you'll never get a chance again." G'Sten thought over those words. "Or something like that. Are you sure you don't want any?"

"No."

"Your loss. Nice to have met you, boy."

"My name is Lennier."

"Nice to have met you, Lennier." He took another long draught and headed back along the road to the city.

Lennier looked up into the sky, and sat down to pray.

It was beginning to get dark.

Gareth D. Williams

Part 5. The Three-Edged Sword

It begins as shock. It turns to anger, then fear. A dead world. A homeless people. And a lust for revenge. All forces begin to converge on Babylon 5, demanding answers, demanding retribution, demanding justice. Kats and Sinoval and Corwin and Delenn and Sheridan and the remnants of the Narn people. And Sebastian. And the Vorlons. Truth is a three-edged sword — but then understanding is not required. Only obedience.

Chapter 1

At first word came slowly from Narn. The ships, overburdened and slow and drifting, arrived on other worlds. Angry and traumatised and incoherent refugees tumbled out. Initially they were not believed.

Dark Stars and scientific patrol vessels arrived in neighbouring systems, sent from Babylon 5 by Commander Kulomani. They picked up more refugee ships and helped to escort them to safe havens. Some worlds were at first reluctant to admit so many fugitives, but the military might of the Dark Stars convinced them.

The Dark Stars kept trying to force jump points into the Narn system. They experienced escalating problems — system failures and jump engine damage. Eventually a more conventional military vessel, a Brakiri troop carrier, managed to jump into the system.

It was destroyed in a collision with a huge asteroid cloud that had not been there before.

After that, the truth of what had happened to Narn was obvious. The shock was palpable, the fear more so. Narn space was shut down completely, the governors on Narn colony worlds closing down jump gates and fortifying their systems. Governments across the galaxy waited nervously for word from Babylon 5.

The Vorlons said, and did, nothing. As far as they were concerned, there was no need for explanation or apology.

Elsewhere, Sinoval had his own response to the tragedy.

MATEER, K. (2295) The Second Sign of the Apocalypse. Chapter 9 of The Rise

and Fall of the United Alliance, the End of the Second Age and the

Beginning of the Third, vol. 4, The Dreaming Years. Ed: S. Barringer,

G. Boshears, A. E. Clements, D. G. Goldingay & M. G. Kerr.

* * *

G'Kar didn't talk at all on that long journey from home, other than those first few words to me. I was a little scared of this tall, imposing, badly — wounded figure. He had clearly been attacked. My young eyes saw him as a great soldier, although what he was doing in that cargo ship I had absolutely no idea.

I remember very little of my life before that moment. It was not just my name that changed that day, it was my life and whatever destiny had been laid out for me. I realised later the enormity of what Lennier had done for me, sacrificing his life and his entire future for mine, for someone he did not know. That realisation has permeated my life all these years. I have forgotten what he looked like, how he spoke, what he was wearing that day, but I have always remembered that I owe my life and everything I am to him.

It is a chilling thing to know, that, but sobering and welcoming as well. I have always been able to feel him watching me, watching the young Narn girl who took his name and his life and his destiny. I hope he is not disappointed in me.

I stayed close to G'Kar throughout the journey, talking to him when I could, and thinking in scared silence the rest of the time. I was not entirely sure what had happened, but from the faces of the adults around me I could tell it was something serious, something very bad indeed.

I had never been away from Narn before. I had little comprehension that there were such things as other worlds. Thus, the first sight of a Dark Star, visible through the windows of the cargo hold, filled me with both awe and terror. I had to strain to see it, but the few glimpses I could catch were both wondrous and horrible at the same time. I seemed to behold a face screaming beneath its surface.

The Dark Star escorted us to the nearest world. I forget which one, and in truth I do not want to remember. Seeing all those sad — faced, black — eyed adults moving out into the blinking sun that seemed too…. bright, was a chilling image. I looked around frantically for my parents, but everyone seemed the same, alike in misery and disbelief.

I finally found my way back to G'Kar, who was talking with a very strange alien I later learned to be a human. He kept addressing this human as 'Captain', and I thought she was some soldier whom G'Kar had fought beside. He kept mentioning a place called Babylon 5, and a Council, and I remember the captain promising to take him there

That was when I said I had to go as well. G'Kar and the human captain, whose name seemed to be B'thany T'kopai, tried to persuade me to look for my parents, but of course they were nowhere to be found. In any event, I wasn't sure I wanted to be with them. My eyes had been opened, and I could see far more clearly than before. Besides, I knew even then that they would not understand the value of my holy quest. I had a message to deliver to Londo Mollari, and I would hold to that mission.

G'Kar relented, and convinced the human captain. Then we set off on the second stage of the journey that has consumed my entire life and is still not done.

Only now, I walk it alone.

My tears still soak these pages as I remember that sight.

L'Neer of Narn, Learning at the Prophet's Feet.

* * *

He will come.

Yes, Cardinal.

The treacherous and the wicked will come to this place. They will look to their leaders for answers. They will look to their leaders for succour and shelter. They will look to their leaders for revenge.

Yes, Cardinal.

We will permit them. We will know which of their leaders have betrayed us. The virtuous and the loyal will accept what has happened and understand why it was necessary. They will know with no need to ask. Those who question, those who disagree, those are the traitors and the Shadow — tainted.

Yes, Cardinal.

But they are ours. They are beneath your attention, Most Favoured Servant. He will come. He will have to. He will bring his fleet and his servants. You will be ready for him.

Yes, Cardinal.

Come to this place we have built for the good of these races. Look for the threads of his webs and cut them where you find them. Draw him out here and run him to ground. When he arrives, as he will, destroy him.

Yes, Cardinal.

We have always trusted you. Since you were enjoined to our service, you have proven your worth. You are our most trusted, our most favoured. Perform this task for us and prove us true in our trust.

Yes, Cardinal.

We have faith in you, Sebastian.

Yes, Cardinal.

* * *

There were four of them, friends and strangers. Four of them walking slowly towards an uncertain and increasingly bleak future. y

Sheridan to Corwin to Kats to Tirivail. A leader to a warrior — turned — builder to a creator to a warrior. o

To Kats, Babylon 5 had once seemed such a hopeful place. It was a place built to symbolise peace and unity, somewhere new, apart from all the old grudges and the old hatreds. She had watched her world and her people torn apart by war and she wanted no part of that. She wished she could have visited the station under better circumstances. u

Word had reached her the day after General Sheridan arrived to see David. She had been planning a visit to Babylon 5 anyway, to study the work that had been done there and to make arrangements for the appointment of a permanent Ambassador. w

The Grey Council had gathered aboard their ship, in dark and shadowed silence. Takier had walked into the centre of the circle. i

"Something has happened," he said, in his sonorous voice. "We learned recently that the Narn Government had given shelter to some of the former vassal races of the Shadows. Very recently, the Vorlons also learned of this. Their response was to blockade the Narn system and deliver an ultimatum to the planet. They had one day to evacuate their homeworld. When that day was past, they destroyed Narn." l

There had been shock, followed by anger, followed, inevitably, by disbelief. l

"I have dispatched patrol vessels and probes to the area to confirm this," Takier said. "But the Alliance has contacted us. They seem convinced. I doubt that they are lying. Refugees from Narn are arriving on nearby planets. Given some of their recent activities, it is doubtful if many will be prepared to accept them, and their own colonies cannot support so many people. We will inevitably be asked to take on as many as we can support. I propose we refuse." o

Debate followed, compassion against planetary security. Takier, a warrior to his fingertips, had not surprisingly suggested a war footing. b

"We should close all our jump gates and double all system patrols. We should recall all ships and troops currently in service to the Alliance and declare a Federation — wide war footing. All aliens, especially Vorlons, should be expelled from our space." e

It had fallen to Kats to speak up against him, as it often did. "The Alliance has yet to issue a formal response to the incident. I have made arrangements to visit Babylon Five in any event. I think my plans should be hastened. The Alliance will have a meeting on this matter, and we should be there. I agree with the increase in security, but I think any other measures would be premature. Let us first wait to hear the response. y

"And compassion and mercy dictate we should shelter as many of the Narns as we can. It is not so long since we both dealt and received such a blow. If we are to prove ourselves better than the Vorlons, we must show how much we have atoned for our own guilt." u

"Take bodyguards," Takier advised coldly. "Things may be dangerous there." s