Темное, кривое зеркало. Том 3 : След на песке - Гэрет Уильямс

He made a gesture, and another column of light became visible. There was someone within it. Someone she knew. Someone she had hoped to see here, but not like this, not forced on his knees, arms and legs bound, head bowed.

"Kozorr!" she cried, and he looked up. His face was heavily marked with wounds and scars. He closed his eyes when he saw her, and whispered her name softly.

"He was captured by the Tak'cha recently. Apparently he had learned that you were in my custody and was seeking a way to free you. He sent many of them to their ancestors before he was subdued." In a puzzled tone, he continued. "They regard him with great respect actually, for his prowess in battle and evident strength."

"Free her, Sonovar!" Kozorr cried. "Let her go, now."

"That is not my decision to make. Both of you have committed crimes against our people and against our religion, and both of you must be punished. This is the judgment of your fate."

He paused, and looked intently at them both. His expression when he looked at Kozorr was one of almost anguished despair. There was only pity in his eyes as he looked at Kats.

"One of you will be permitted to return to Sinoval, to tell him what has happened here, and to deliver my message. The other will die here, now. The choice is yours."

Kats tried to speak, but the words would not come. She knew with a terrible sense of horror that Kozorr would speak first, and she knew what he would say. She would forever after curse herself for not speaking sooner, although she never knew what she should have said.

"Kill me!" Kozorr cried. "Let her go."

"Very well," Sonovar proclaimed. "So shall it be." He shook his head. "I am not surprised, although I wish I were."

"No!" Kats cried. "You can't do this! You…."

"Please," Kozorr said, addressing Sonovar. "Let her come over here. I want…. I want to speak to her." Sonovar nodded once, and, not ungently, pushed her down before Kozorr.

She touched his heart lightly, feeling his breath on her face. "You can't do this," she whispered to him. "There's another way. There must be another way. Please…." She was beginning to cry.

"No, there isn't. Go, my lady. Never look back, and take your future. Tell the Primarch that…. tell him my soul waits to serve him in the next life." Then he reached forward ever so slightly, and gently touched his lips to her own.

"I love you." He bowed his head. "Take her away, Sonovar. I don't want her to see this."

"Neither do I," he replied, as one of his guards pulled her away. "You have my word, by the way. I will do as I said."

"I never doubted it. Farewell, my lady."

"No! Kozorr, you…." She was dragged away by the guard. As soon as Kozorr was out of sight she went limp. She was still crying.

Sonovar then gestured to his other guard, who freed Kozorr from his bonds. Puzzled, the warrior rose to his feet, rubbing at his wrists. Sonovar pulled an object from his belt and showed it to Kozorr, whose eyes widened. It was his fighting pike.

Sonovar extended it, and then threw it to the floor at Kozorr's feet. He smiled.

Time passed in a flurry of activity. Ships came from Kazomi 7 within hours of Delenn sending the message. Warships from the Drazi, the Llort, the Vree, others…. They had been convinced of the importance of this, of protecting the place that was so vital to all their futures. Few of them understood the details, but with a Vorlon and their Blessed Delenn on their side, victory could only be certain.

Messages were also sent surreptitiously to Councillor Na'Toth on the Narn homeworld. Despite a waning of her power in recent months she was able to contact a few captains loyal to G'Kar, and two Narn heavy cruisers arrived at Epsilon 3 eight hours after the Alliance fleet.

Messages were sent to Sinoval, but there was no reply. Reports were coming in of fighting on one of the colonies, but there was nothing definite.

Many non-essential personnel were evacuated back to Kazomi 7. Lethke was one of these, as he knew he would be able to do more there. The dream of unity at Babylon 4 might have been lost, but it could still be recreated at Kazomi 7. G'Kar went there as well, to recover from his wounds. Before he left he spent more than an hour in discussion with both Ta'Lon and Garibaldi — considerably against doctors' advice.

Between them Captain Sheridan, Delenn, Ta'Lon and Taan Churok managed to co-ordinate the defence of the station and the Machine. Wherever possible telepaths were placed on the capital ships. Lyta Alexander instructed them thoroughly on how to spot and paralyse the Shadow ships. Few of the others had any experience in such matters.

A great deal happened in those two days. Some of which is known to history….

<Are you ready?>

Lyta looked up at the Vorlon before her, and nodded. She knew his name, Kosh, even without being told. He was a part of her, after all.

"Yes," she said. "I'm…. I'm ready…."

<I will not be returning.> There was a great and terrible sadness in his voice.

"Why?" she asked, walking up close to him, touching his armour. It seemed so warm, almost alive.

<A bargain was made. It is time for me to pay. Another will come for you soon.>

"I don't understand. What do you mean?"

<You will.>

Light blazed up around her and she screamed, her mouth wide open. Her eyes glowed pure golden, slowly returning to normal as the light passed through her and into him. When it was over she slumped to her knees, looking up at him. "I…. I can't feel you any more," she whispered, horrified.

<I need to be whole. You will not be alone for long.>

"You're…. Oh my God. You're going to die."

He turned to leave, and as he reached the door he stopped and looked back. <Remember me.> She could not be sure from the tone, but it sounded more like a plaintive request than an order. He then left.

She never saw him again.

Elsewhere, work on the Babylon proceeded apace. The damage to the ship was repaired. Losses were replaced as far as possible.

Captain Smith sat in his ready room, Captain Sheridan and Commander Corwin with him. "It's a fine ship," Smith said.

"It should be," acknowledged Sheridan. "But it was a fine ship before. What have you people done to it?"

"I didn't do anything. It was…. repairs, upgrading. I only supervised the final stages. The rest of it was all done before I was appointed."

"Why are you doing this?" Corwin asked suspiciously.

Smith studied him. "Why do you trust me enough to make the offer?"

"I don't," said Sheridan. "Delenn does, and I trust her. Still…. you made a brave offer…. yourself for your crew. I don't think many people would have done that."

"It was the right thing to do. You'd have done the same."

Sheridan nodded. "Maybe I would."

"Even so, there aren't many people who would trust me to fight alongside you."

"Delenn explained the significance of this?"

"Oh yes, she did. But I can't help but feel she left something out. That's if I even believe her. Time travel? Am I really expected to understand that this…. Babylon Four must go back in time or the whole fabric of whatever will be torn apart?"

"That's as much as I know," Sheridan lied. "It's not our place to question such things. We're soldiers. We obey orders, and that's it."

"True enough. But I'm helping you here for the good of my crew. Don't forget that."

"I won't."

And on the station maintenance workers and Rangers hurried around under the seemingly omnipresent direction of a strange little alien everyone deferred to, making repairs and alterations to technology they did not really understand.

"Yes yes. Do that. That is good. No no, not that tool, never use that tool, use this tool…. ah, no this not right tool. Ah yes, this right tool."

"That's the one I was using before!"

"Yes. Zathras know that. Do as Zathras says. Ah, everyone listen to Zathras. Zathras knows what Zathras is saying. Trust Zathras."

Sometime during this frantic charging around Zathras managed to meet with Valen, who had been mainly talking either to Catherine or Kosh, or both together.

"Zathras be going back with you. Yes. You need Zathras to help you, you see. Zathras has…. great destiny in past, yes. Not as great as Valen's destiny, but almost. Zathras must make sure Valen does not trip over own feet, yes."

Valen smiled. "I would be honoured to have you with me, Zathras."

"I'll be going too," announced Catherine.

Of all those gathered there, only Valen seemed surprised. "What? Catherine, you…."

"Don't you dare try to say I can't. I will not be separated from you again. I'm going, and that's the end of it."

"But…."

"Don't, Jeffrey. There's nothing left for me here. I'm going with you."

Zathras looked at Kosh, with a knowing sense of sadness in his eyes.

There was an equal fluster of activity on the planet, in the heart of the Great Machine, where Michael Garibaldi's physical body was enshrined surrounded by technology immeasurably old and powerful.

"Isn't that…. weird?" asked Commander Corwin, looking at both his friend's real body and the holographic form Garibaldi had created.

"No. Well, yeah, but…. It's hard to explain. I'll be glad to see the back of it, though."

"This is only temporary?"

"You bet. G'Kar said he can take this thing back once he's recovered. I'd prefer it if I didn't have to do this temporal rift thingy, but its mostly done anyway. I'm just following the instruction manual."

"Er…. yeah. Michael, what about…. Bester?"

"What about him?"

"He betrayed us all. You as well as the rest of us. And…. well, with Lianna on Sanctuary and everything. You've known Bester a lot longer than the rest of us, but…."

"I don't know why he did what he did, but he had his reasons. He's still a good man, and he must have had his reasons, whatever they were. I'll…. take it up with him later."

"Later, yes. What about Lianna? What should we tell her?"

"Tell her? Nothing. I told you, I'll only be in this thing a couple of weeks at most. Nothing can go wrong, so…. what's to worry?"

"What happened to the person who was in here before you…. that's a pretty major thing to worry about."

"Won't happen to me. Trust me, David. Nothing's going to go wrong."

Alone and almost forgotten in her cell, Susan Ivanova was sitting bolt upright, long-forgotten memories returning to her, a part of her soul that had been taken away coming back. She remembered Marcus, she remembered Laurel, she remembered her mother.

And she heard the voice of the Shadows in her mind, telling her that they would be coming soon, and telling her what she would have to do when they arrived….

Two days later, all was done. The temporal rift was open, the machinery on Babylon 4 was complete. Valen stood alone in the command centre and breathed out slowly. Footsteps in the sand.

And then he could hear the gentle music of the Vorlons in his mind, and he went to join Catherine, Zathras, Kosh and the Rangers who would be protecting him until he was at his destiny. They all seemed to accept that they might not be able to return to this time…. their own time…. and yet they seemed not to mind.

A few hours before everything was finished the hyperspace probes picked up some activity moving in the direction of Epsilon 3. All the probes were destroyed quickly and efficiently, but that only served to confirm what they all already knew.

The Shadows were coming.

The temporal rift burst into life.

Space shimmered.

And then the Shadows were there.

Chapter 7

Countless souls lay suspended in the balance. The destiny of the galaxy hung by the slenderest of threads. The fate of the future, and the past, rested on a few painfully mortal beings.

Consider: Jeffrey Sinclair, transformed into the Minbari prophet Valen. Facing the path of his own footsteps leading backwards in time to his destiny, and to his death. He stands on the control deck of the space station Babylon 4, readying himself for a time a thousand years gone, and committing those he knows now to memory, certain that he will never see most of them again.

Consider: John Sheridan, the legendary Starkiller himself. Seated at the bridge of the EAS Parmenion, he looks out at the fleet of Shadow vessels advancing on him, a fleet so huge and powerful that it will black out the sky in every direction. He thinks about mortality, and about the terminal virus even now developing within his body. He thinks about his love, about the last words he said to her, and the first lie he has ever told her.

Consider: Delenn, former Satai, leader of hope in the galaxy. Head of the United Alliance of Kazomi 7, she stands at the bridge of the Drazi ship from which she will observe the battle. She is no warrior, but she knows war, all too well and all too bitterly. She thinks about the man she loves, and she knows that he has lied to her. She thinks about the ruination of Minbar, about the countless dead, about the carnage at Kazomi 7. She thinks about the race that has done this, and her heart fills with anger, and a black, remorseless fury.

Consider: Michael Garibaldi, a human, one who never wished for anything but a home, a family, happiness and to do the right thing. That last wish has torn him away from the other three. His heart is beating fast, his head is pounding, and he looks out at a million things at once. His is the will that holds open the rift that will carry Babylon 4 to its destiny. But his will is weak, sapped by years of failure and alcohol and loss and self-doubt, and he wonders if he has the strength to carry this through.

And many others: Catherine Sakai, Zathras and Kosh, standing beside Valen; Ta'Lon, leading the Narn Rangers on Babylon 4; Dexter Smith, facing an enemy he was told was his friend, alongside allies he knows to be his enemies….

The Shadows swoop forward, and, seemingly acting as one, they open fire.

The Shadows were coming.

He listened as they died, and as they killed. His friends were dying in his name, were fighting a last stand so that he could complete his destiny. He wanted to be there with them, this one last time, but he knew that they were dying for his sake. He could not render their sacrifice worthless.

Are you ready? said the voice in his mind.

He turned to look at Kosh. The Vorlon was still, almost a statue. He wanted to hate Kosh. They were the ones who had done this to him, who had placed him here. He could not.

He did not know what to say, but the voice knew. Good. You are the closed circle returning to the beginning. I cannot be with you then.

He gasped as he felt its pain. It was light and beauty and agony all in one. The Vorlon was going to die, and both of them knew it. The sacrifice would be made willingly. Could he do any less?