The Great Machine on Epsilon 3, Chapter 2
Title: The Great Machine on Epsilon 3
Challenge AU Big Bang Challenge (au_bigbang)
Author: lil_utterance
Artist: beccastareyes
Fandom: Babylon 5/The Matrix
Pairing: Susan Ivanova/Talia Winters
Rating: PG-13.
Warning: non-graphic violence, a few naughty words
Chapters: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3
Artwork for Chapter 2 by beccastareyes
Chapter 2: Set Me Free
Security personnel milled around outside the entrance to the largest of the loading docks. Some of them checked weapons, some monitored the communications channels, but almost all of them were involved in ignoring the heated argument occurring right in front of them.
“I told you to wait for me and my telepaths,” Bester said. “We had an agreement.”
“An agreement? That’s what you call it when you order people to do something they never agreed to do?” Garibaldi asked. “Remind me to never sign on any of your dotted lines.”
“Mr. Garibaldi, I must ask that you give me control of this site immediately.”
“Nuts to that. Look, I know you like to throw your weight around here, and I know this situation involves one of your own. Now, maybe you’re worried that I don’t share your agenda. Maybe you’re worried that I won’t turn her over to you.” Garibaldi’s voice quickened in anger. “I might like her, might even have flirted with her with once or twice, but I will not let her threaten the security of this station. Don’t think for one minute that I’m any less dedicated than yourself when it comes to the safety of my people.”
Bester shook his head, his gaze never leaving the sealed doors in front of them. “I never doubted your intentions, Garibaldi. But your choice was the incorrect one.” He walked up and laid his hand against the side of the wall. “By now your mundanes are already dead,” he said, closing his eyes to block out the chaos that ensued behind him at his declaration.
***
So far only a few of them had actually come in here after her.
Winter knew there were more of them outside. Probably at least a dozen more, though she hoped Corps members would only make a belated appearance. Usually she and Warlock would have used the more accessible entrance, but they planned on having living cargo tonight. At least if said cargo was willing.
She concentrated again and found her number. Five. Five inside with them. A total she could certainly handle.
“Go,” she told Warlock. “Secure a vehicle. I’ve got this.”
“But-”
“I don’t think your presence will help our chances of convincing her, but we’re going to need a way out. Find one.”
“As you wish.” He conjured an orb and studied it for a few moments. “You realize you’ve got real company outside, yes?”
“Goddamn it.” She hadn’t figured them into her calculations. “So much for my coming back here in one piece.” The knowledge changed no part of their divide-and-conquer scheme. Coming back here with no way out condemned not only her, but Nova as well.
“What are you going to do?”
Winter checked her weapon before putting it back into the holster she had strapped to her leg. Her slicked-back hair still gleamed in the dim light. “Run,” she said, taking off across the great expanse of empty, metal flooring.
She heard a yell as the first of the men spotted her and she immediately dove for the floor, pulse blasts missing her as she rolled back to her feet. As she stood, she pulled her gun, hitting two of the men as she ran up the wall, heading for the protection of the cargo shelving. They wouldn’t be as willing to shoot indiscriminately when it might involve hitting expense cargo.
“Hold,” one of the men called. “We’ve treed her. No need to ruin the goods.”
“We didn’t do anything to her,” another one commented. “She ran up the fragging wall.”
“I don’t care if she sprouted wings,” the first man returned. “Surround her, grab her, and let’s be done with it.” He turned back in Winter’s direction. “Do you hear that, you mind-reading bitch? Why don’t you put the gun down and come out now, before you get yourself hurt?”
((I think you missed the point of my little demonstration.))
As Winter sent the thought into the minds of the three who had started to surround her, she looked at the bolts securing the shelf she stood on. They shot out from the wall, leaving gaping holes in their wake, and the shelf started to fall. She rode the arc for a second or two, waiting to jump until the men started firing blindly as the contents of the shelf came down upon them. About halfway to the ground, she purposefully slowed her fall, twisting her body in one delicate motion to turn and fire upon the one, last security guard who had managed to remove himself from the trajectory of her previous act of violence. He wasn’t so lucky when it came to this one-a single shot and he crumpled to the ground.
She looked around at the carnage and nodded in satisfaction. Now if only she could find a duct or something.
She had no desire to try and face what waited outside.
***
Bester moved away from the wall as Garibaldi and his security team rushed the docking bay. He did not follow them; there was no point.
She had already found a way out.
He motioned to Byron and Lauren and they followed him without hesitation; they already knew his destination. From the central corridor they could take anyone-could go anywhere. Their prey had yet to put them at a disadvantage, which was hardly surprising.
Even with the mutation in her code, she was only human after all.
***
Winter waited impatiently for the core shuttle. Crawling through the ventilation system might have kept her from getting jammed back there, but it was hardly an effective method for traveling across the entire sector. Even knowing that, she hated being out in the open like this. Too many people, too much environment to have to try and control if something went wrong.
The five minutes she had to wait before the next tram arrived seemed to take forever; she had never been so relieved to hear the reduced-gravity warnings that heralded its arrival. When the doors opened she didn’t hesitate to step inside, though she did use the cover of motion and announcements and general chaos to briefly open her mind and sample the thoughts around her, hopping outward from mind to mind until she reached…
She felt her connection freeze for a second, her brain unwilling to process the image.
They were coming. They would be here in a matter of seconds. The fact that they progressed in a linear fashion indicated that they weren’t entirely sure of her location or, at the very least, of the car number in which she now hid. She held herself very still and slowly, carefully, started fortifying her mental blocks.
She knew the second that Bester appeared that her efforts had been a waste of time. One glance at the shuttle and his head immediately swiveled in the direction of her car. Her stomach seemed to drop below her body as the shuttle started to move out of the station, movement and hope - fleeting, bright hope - making her momentarily dizzy.
Then he smiled at her.
His two associates seemed to get his message without ever seeing his face. Looking pleased, they dropped back and covered the exits while Bester started moving towards the platform at a light jog.
When he reached the edge, he leapt at Winter’s car, and she knew he would make it, could see the calculations he made, the adjustments, could almost feel the differences in the gravity around her. He had her-
-until the car sped up. Then he had nothing, emptiness, he had missed by millimeters, and he was falling, falling outwards, here on this side, there on that side, then gone, disappearing into the distance.
Winter finally managed to jerk her gaze away from him, still reeling from the astonishment and looking for the source of her unbelievable good fortune.
He wasn’t hard to find, her guardian angel. Sedate and immobile, making the most of his encounter-suited shielding, he stood in the middle of the receding platform. She felt no surprise to observe that his silent presence seemed to make most of the people surrounding him distinctly nervous. For her, he was the only being of interest there; the other telepaths were nowhere to be seen. She gathered the tattered remnants of her strength and sent to him.
((You helped me.))
((Yes. For the future.))
((Thank you. I don’t know why you decided to interfere-))
((She is a path. You are the door. Now go. Leave this place.))
Winter lost sight of him then, even in mind’s-eye. Her gratitude had been, and still remained, unfeigned, but she couldn’t help a rueful smile.
Cryptic as ever, and bossy to boot. One day he’d cause her to blow a few circuits.
For now, she’d take the most transparent of his orders and get the hell out of here.
***
The door chime sounded twice before Susan even processed the sound properly. She’d felt sluggish since waking up in her quarters, alone and apparently unmolested. She wondered if whoever wanted inside was real or merely a figment of her apparently overactive imagination. Against her better judgment, she got out of bed and moved in the direction of the summons. As she activated the door, she suddenly felt terrified of what she might find outside…
…as well she should be. Couldn’t this woman take ‘no’ for an answer?
“Ms. Winters,” Susan said. “It’s late, and I’ve had a particularly trying day. If we could discuss whatever it is that leads you to my quarters in the middle of the night at a later time, I would be-”
“Dead. They’re coming for you. Bester is coming for you.”
The look, the tone-Susan realized that everything she thought she had been dreaming, everything she might still be dreaming, felt real enough in this moment to convince her of the existence of a threat. She didn’t like the woman in front of her, but she liked Bester even less, and she could deal with lesser threats later.
“I don’t suppose you have a feasible escape plan?” Susan asked.
“Plan, yes. Feasible?” Winter started down the hall, pleased when Susan followed her without need of further convincing or coercion. She didn’t have much more energy to expend. “Unlikely. Even if you can use some of your access codes, this is going to fall into the realm of near-impossible. The transport tubes have been shut down for security reasons.”
“Let me guess,” Susan said. “You’re a reason.”
Winter glanced back at her. “I’m not the only one.”
“No, I suppose not. Though if the tubes are your only problem, then it’s not much of a problem at all.”
“Oh?”
“Hacking the tubes has become something of a contest between Garibaldi and myself.”
“Do you ever win?”
Susan smiled as they reached the tube. “Well, I certainly don’t like to lose.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Quiet. I’m working here.” The door slid open a moment later, and Susan felt the triumph of her accomplishment fade as soon as she stepped inside. “That was the easy part,” she informed Winter. “After we change levels, we’ll need to move quickly and-”
“I believe I can provide assistance for that task,” a familiar voice said behind her.
She turned, not trusting her ears until her eyes confirmed his identity. “Lennier? What are you doing here?”
“That is a long story for a later time. All I can say now is that I am here to help.”
Winter laughed as she took in the form of his aid. “Where in Valen’s name did you get those, Monk?”
“I liberated them from Mr. Garibaldi’s quarters. I’ve been working on them for him.”
Susan thought that the machines on either side of him stretched the bounds of her credulity. Sure, Garibaldi liked motorcycles, and she might even be willing to believe them to be an interest of Lennier’s as well, but how the hell had he managed to walk two bikes here with such apparent ease?
“I’ll take one of those,” Winter told him. She took the bike on his right and walked it into transport tube. “I’d hate to think that our exit from here might be any less conspicuous than our entrance.”
Lennier carefully maneuvered the other bike into the tube beside her. “I heard about your adventure on the core shuttle and thought you might want to avoid repeating the experience. Perhaps you have a better idea?”
“Not really.” She made room for Susan. “But we’d better be ready to really move when this tube opens on the next level.”
“We’re not really going to ride these through the station?” Susan asked, as the door slid closed in front of her.
“Why not?” Winter asked.
“Well, for starters, we’ll just be the largest, most obvious, moving targets in the history of Babylon 5 security chases.”
“We will also be the fastest,” Lennier said. “And if we are going to make it through the central corridor, speed is a necessity. Blue Sector is a very crowded place right now-security personnel are everywhere.”
“Fine,” Susan sighed. At least if they moved quickly, there might be fewer casualties. She needed to get out of here, needed to get away from the Corps, but she’d rather not destroy the station doing it. “Which one is mine?”
“You’re with me,” Winter said. At Susan’s doubtful look, she hastened to continue, “I’ve been trained to operate this vehicle, and I assure you it’s large enough for the both of us.” Angling the front of the bike towards the door, she swung a leg up to straddle the seat.
Susan made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort as she moved to sit behind her. “You’ll have to tell me sometime what part of Corps training covers motorcycle operation.”
“Soon, you’ll hear all about everything,” Winter said. “For now, just slide up and hold on to me.”
The number of times she had acted against her own better judgment today was really beginning to worry her, but in this, Susan didn’t have much choice. She tried not to think about what she was doing as she slid her front up against Winter’s back and wrapped her arms tightly around the other woman’s midsection. As she adjusted herself and pressed in closer, her legs molded themselves to the back of Winter’s black-clad thighs and the smell of leather permeated her senses. She looked down, then back up, taking in Winter’s outfit in its entirety for the first time.
“Comfortable?” Winter asked.
“Close enough,” Susan replied. “But I do have one question that needs asking.”
“What is it?” Winter and Lennier started up their bikes at the same time as the tube slowed, stopped, and the doors began to open.
Susan tightened her grip even more, her hands digging into Winter’s stomach. “What the hell are you wearing?” She thought she heard Lennier laugh as they shot out into the corridor, people scattering and shouting all around them as they attempted to get out of the way.
***
Winter leaned into the turn, hard, and Susan did her best to move with her and not upset them. They’d taken the corridor at a dangerously fast pace; she still couldn’t believe they had yet to hit someone.
She watched Lennier accelerate out of the turn, half a bike-length ahead of them. He made it look so easy, weaving around people, ducking pulse blasts, all the while speaking into a communications device he had revealed about half-way through their pell-mell rush through Blue Sector. He seemed comfortable, confident-almost enjoying himself. She had to wonder if the world had gone crazy while she slept last night. Except that if it had, she had gone right along with it, because here she was, hair streaming out behind her, the means of her escape still in front of her, hoping to avoid both the Corps and Garibaldi’s security team.
They were approaching the cargo bays when she heard Winter swear under her breath.
“Shit,” she said, increasing their speed until they drew up alongside Lennier. “Company,” she yelled over to him.
He nodded, said something else into his comm. and put on even more speed.
“What’s wrong?” Susan asked, her lips right at Winter’s ear.
“Ahead of us,” was all Winter would say before she lowered her head and matched Lennier’s acceleration.
Susan allowed her gaze to scan the area in front of them. Nothing seemed particularly threatening. There were personnel to avoid, a few who had weapons drawn, but nothing they hadn’t already…
She tilted her head to get a better look at a person off the left side of the bike. He stood in one place, not looking in their direction, the only person in the corridor who didn’t seem to notice them. He was shaking. As they passed him by, he started to shake even harder.
Careful of her balance, Susan turned slightly on the bike to look behind them. As she watched, his shaking turned to outright vibration, and then Bester stood behind them. Before Susan could even vocalize her surprise, he was following them, and following them fast.
“How the…?” she finally choked out.
“How is not important at the moment,” Winter yelled over her shoulder. “What matters right now is keeping your mind together. Run something through your head. Start the chant I taught you.” She shuddered and the bike swerved. “Now.”
For a moment Susan wondered what she could possibly be talking about, but then Winter started the chant aloud, and she joined in as if she had always known her cue.
“Alex had a little Vorlon-” Winter began.
“-her skin was pale as snow-” Susan continued, joining her.
They finished together, and it took Susan another minute to realize that when they did, they did not do so aloud.
((-and everywhere that Alex went, the Vorlon was sure to go!))
Lennier interrupted their concentration a few repetitions later. “The threat is gone,” he said, edging his bike nearer to them. “He was unable to keep up with us, though he will most likely be back soon.”
“And we’ll be subjected to another shredding.” Winter pressed her lips together, her expression grim. “I can’t interrupt him again.”
“Then I suggest we leave before he returns,” Lennier said.
“Does Warlock have the door open yet?”
Lennier nodded, his focus once again directed in front of them. “He’s waiting for us in Bay 9.”
Susan waited until after they took the next turn before she asked the question that had been worrying her. “How will we get the outer doors open? I don’t have the power to override a security lockdown.”
Lennier turned and offered her a gentle smile. “Don’t worry. We just happen to know someone else who does.”
***
Susan would never forget the look on Garibaldi’s face when she blew past him.
He said her name, just her name, once. “Ivanova?” Four syllables of confusion, hurt, and betrayal, before his attention moved from her to the man who stood by his side.
A moment ago that man had been Zack, his PPG half raised and a look of disbelief on his face. But now his whole body shook and his face had started to twist beyond recognition. For a split-second it was clear what was happening, Mr. Bester’s features transparently superimposed on Mr. Allan’s face, and then Lennier shot him.
“No! Zack!” Susan yelled, twisting in her seat. She came damn close to overturning the motorcycle and she heard Winter’s displeased growl, but dimly, as though from very far away. She watched as Zack looked down at his chest, his own PPG falling to the ground as he crumpled, saved from the same impact as his weapon only because Garibaldi caught him and lowered him the rest of the way to the floor.
“Zack!” Garibaldi said tightly, visibly trying to hold himself together. “Hold on, Zack.” He activated his link. “Garibaldi here. We need Dr. Benjamin down here in Bay 9-”
And then Susan could hear no more, because they were heading up the ramp into a waiting transport ship, Winter and Lennier skidding sideways as they tried to come to a stop once they were inside.
“Having a pilot up here with me right now would be most appreciated,” a voice called back from the front of the ship. “I cannot both fly and manage the level of tech our escape will require.”
“I understand,” Lennier called back. “I will be there as soon as-”
“Like hell, you will,” Susan said. “This is an Earthforce vessel, and I’m tired of taking a backseat. It’s my turn to drive.”
“With all respect, Commander,” Lennier said, “do you even know where we are going?” When the only response he received was a withering glare, he hopped off his bike and headed towards the front of the ship.
Susan remained standing astride her motorcycle for moment, undecided.
“You could always follow them,” Winter said, the amusement in her voice both obvious and surprising. She turned and shot Susan a glance over her shoulder. “They’ll probably need all the help they can get.”
“Don’t read my emotions,” Susan said as she swung herself off the bike and stalked away from the woman who had turned her life upside down.
Upon reaching the others, she realized that things were likely to turn right-side up anytime soon.
“If I take off now,” Lennier said, “will you have enough time to prepare?”
The man sitting next to him appeared to be meditating. He didn’t open his eyes when he finally addressed the question. “Doesn’t matter either way. We’d better go.”
“Warlock! The more information you provide, the more I am able to plan for possible outcomes.”
Warlock sighed in frustration and turned towards Lennier. Susan caught a glimpse of bright blue amidst all the motion, and realized he had opened his eyes. She found herself arrested by his face, by the fact that he appeared human but was hairless everywhere: nothing on the top of his head, no eyebrows, no beard. Perhaps it was this lack, the absence of a contrasting color or texture, that made his eyes seem to stand out so much-though she felt fairly certain the explanation could run deeper. Her suspicions were confirmed by his next comment.
“I’m trying to connect with my tech,” Warlock said, “at the same time as our friends out there are attempting to deactivate it. The multitasking involved in this endeavor requires a certain amount of my attention. So, if you don’t mind…?”
“As you wish.” Lennier returned his concentration the panel in front of him, his fingers skimming across controls in a pattern Susan could appreciate.
A moment later, they started to move.
“A bit cramped up here,” Winter commented as she joined them. She looked more tired than she had when Susan last saw her. “Feel any better, Lock?”
“Yes,” Warlock said, his eyes closed once again. “They’re no longer interfering with my connection. Your work, I expect.”
“I can be useful from time to time.”
“I hate to interrupt our first streak of good news,” Susan said, “but we’re almost at the outer doors, and they’re still closed.”
“Not a problem,” Warlock said.
“Even when we do get outside, they’ll launch fighters. Activate the defense grid. And we’re not exactly rolling in weapons here.”
“Also, not a problem.” Warlock kept his eyes closed, but raised a single finger and waved it in her direction. “However it would help if you could indicate the most likely locations for a launch.”
Susan didn’t even have to think about it. “Well, Zeta Squadron is a sure pick, and they always launch from-”
“Stop,” Warlock said. He tapped the panel in front of him without looking. “Indicate the locations on the monitoring screen in front of me. I’m a bit busy at the moment.” As their ship raced towards the unopened bay in front of him, his brow creased in concentration.
“What’s he doing?” Susan asked as she followed his instructions. She felt glad to have something besides their upcoming impact on which to focus.
“Wait,” Winter said. “Watch.”
The exact moment when it happened couldn’t be properly captured-the doors were there, then gone, no visible in-between. Only the aftermath of an explosion proved that Warlock had taken the trouble to make any effort at all.
“Do you need me to-” Winter began.
“No,” Lennier interrupted. “I can easily maneuver us through the allocated space.”
Susan studied their disaster as they passed through it. Knowing that no one had been hurt in this latest round of damage, she could only wish for one thing: that she had been allowed to rise to the challenge that Lennier was now navigating.
She tried to ignore the feeling. “I’m glad to see that we’ll at least complete step one in whatever program this group is running.”
“We told you we had someone who could override the lockdown,” Winter said.
“He didn’t override it,” Susan said, “he destroyed it.”
Warlock finally opened his eyes again. “Close enough,” he said, looking at the screen in front of him where Susan had made her notes. “Now, about your station’s defense systems…”
***
They were past the worst of it when Susan started screaming.
“Quiet her,” Warlock said to Winter. He turned to Lennier. “Do you need-”
“Those still following us are few. Take care of her.”
Warlock nodded and moved to help Winter support Susan as they moved her back to the main portion of the transport. Susan’s whole body shook, and Winter grunted as teeth bit into the hand she had used to cover her charge’s mouth.
“That’s not exactly what I had in mind when I told you to quiet her,” Warlock said disapprovingly.
“I won’t enter her mind again without permission.”
Susan finally managed to catch her breath. “You won’t enter my mind again at all if I still have a choice in the matter.”
“How’s the pain?” Winter asked her.
“Not quite as bad as a minute ago,” Susan said. She wondered if she could manage to keep from vomiting for very much longer. She lifted a trembling hand to rub her forehead. “What’s wrong with me?”
Winter looked to Warlock, and Susan realized that they had both expected this to happen to her.
“You’ve been kept,” he said. “I had hoped it wouldn’t activate this soon, but I should have been prepared for the most inconvenient timing imaginable.”
“Kept?” Susan scowled up at him as they lowered her to the floor. “I hope this is not some reference to my personal life. I would resent the implication-”
“Relax,” Winter said. “He could care less where you’ve made your bed. The only one-eyed creature he’s worried about is the one that’s wrapped around your neck. Its tentacles are burrowing deeper into your neural pathways as we speak.”
“Seen anything dark, creepy, and skittering lately?” Warlock asked her.
Susan stared at him. “Shit.”
He took that as confirmation. “Keeper,” he said to Winter. “I can get it, but you have to hold her mind.”
Winter immediately crouched next to Susan and put a hand to either side of her head. However, when their eyes met, she hesitated in going any further.
“You understand what I have to do?” she asked Susan.
“I will block you.”
“If you block her,” Warlock said, “I will kill you.”
“Then you will have gone to a lot of work for nothing,” Susan informed him.
He conjured an orb and held it out towards her, the bluish-grey of its edges hovering a few millimeters above his hand. “Do you see that?” he asked her, nodding toward the purple-black creature reflected in the interior of the orb. The creature clung to Susan’s neck, the black eye in its center staring out at them, emotionless and unblinking. “I need to remove it from you. In order to do that, I must perform a partial flaying. I can do this without killing you, but only if you do not fight me.”
“It’s my job to make sure you don’t do that,” Winter said, brushing some of Susan’s hair behind her ear. Her voice had gentled to match the delicate quality of her touch. “I need to calm your mind, hold you still.”
“You’re being inside my head is hardly likely to have a calming effect.”
Using two fingers, Winter tilted Susan’s chin up, ensuring they were eye-to-eye. “I’ve already been inside your mind once. I already know you’re a telepath. We don’t have much time, so I need an answer: is keeping me out worth your life?”
Susan held the other woman’s gaze, hoping she would back down. She didn’t.
“I should warn you,” Warlock said, “the pain you are already feeling will worsen as the creature continues to extend itself into your brain. I really should remove it sooner rather than later.”
“Alright,” Susan said quietly. She closed her eyes, unable to look at Winter as she gave her permission. “Do it as quickly as possible.”
She felt it when Winter’s mind surged against her own, her invasion barely slowed by the mental blocks Susan still had in place.
“I’m inside,” Winter murmured. “Give me another second or two, Lock, and then you should be able to proceed.”
Susan’s hands clenched and tried to find some sort of purchase on the floor. She could feel a blanket descending on her mind, dampening not only her thoughts, but also the few of Winter’s she had just seen, the ones which had scattered through Susan’s mind as Winter collided with Susan’s blocks during her entrance.
Susan hadn’t realized that her new colleague blamed herself for this necessity, but even as the thought faded from her mind, she knew it didn’t lie.
She tried to grab onto her next thought, hold it, but all her efforts netted her was an empty expanse of black silence.
((She stood up, alone, in her mind. Darkness still surrounded her, but now it was broken by a number of tiny, bright pin-pricks.
Stars. Sky. Night. The realizations came, almost without thought, and she knew it must be the case that her mind still belonged to another. Speaking of which…
She turned, looking for her captor. There. In front of the shining twist of blue that extended out from the platform on which Susan stood.
Winter’s dress matched the color of that blue ribbon, and Susan knew she would be indistinguishable from that upwards, winding stretch of energy, the entrance of which she guarded, had it not been for her fall of white-blonde hair, a shining contrast to that which surrounded her, a halo in this dark place.
“I’m going to show you a path,” Winter said. “Follow me.”
Dimly, distantly, Susan thought she felt a pressing sort of pain, but it was not so severe as to interfere with her ability to join Winter on the edge of the platform.))
Warlock worked methodically, despite knowing he had very little time in which to accomplish this removal. He had already enveloped the left side of Nova’s body in the energy from his tech, shrinking the sphere of its influence to include only the portion of her that had been kept. Slowly, slowly, he manipulated small tendrils of power, wrapping them around the limbs of the creature and beginning to pry the cords out from underneath her skin. Her body twitched as blood began to flow, but Winter’s grip held and the precision of the removal remained uncompromised.
((The minute that Winter stepped out onto the path, she vanished, and Susan cried out. Her worry lasted only until she looked downward and saw a pulsing in the blue energy at the edge of her feet. Somehow, the pattern seemed to be beckoning her, and she accepted the invitation.
One step, two, and then she slipped downwards. Energy and blue light swirled up around her - through her - and she didn’t think she had ever felt this alive. She heard laughter all around her, the sound magnified by a current that appeared to run in every direction at the same time. Up ahead of her, she could see Winter again, the edges of her form blurry from the eddies of power that slipped around her.
“Good,” she said, smiling at Susan. “You made the connection.” She turned and slid herself into a darker pool of blue. “Now, come on!”
Susan barely had time to register what Winter wanted her to do before the other woman had zipped up the light-path; one twist and a corkscrew and she was out of sight again. Susan hurried to catch up, focusing her mind and easing into the nearest dark-blue pool. The gentle glow of energy flared into a warmth, and then she felt the pull and the vibration of being on the move. Up she went, the path cradling her, a flood that turned into climb. The view, it was incredible, stars and she couldn’t even say what else passing by to either side of the glowing walls of blue.
She wanted to catch up with Winter and decided it would be a good time to test the limits of her control. Faster, she thought, and indeed, the energy around her responded in the manner she had hoped it would. She shot ahead, her speed only decreasing when she came upon her target. Winter sensed her approach and turned to smile at her.
“I knew you’d like it,” Winter said. “We always do.”
Susan opened her mouth to ask a question, but closed it quickly as she saw motion outside the path. Black-on-black, darker-than-dark-and she couldn’t believe her own fear. When had this managed to enter her mind?
“Just focus on the path,” Winter said, and Susan didn’t like the sound of the concern in her voice. “Whatever you do, stay on the path.”
Dark tendrils of energy wrapped around the bluish glow surrounding them. Susan tried not to watch, tried to focus straight ahead, hoped for a destination, but she couldn’t help but notice that the darkness was making inroads. The different energies crackled as they came into contact with each other, the bright and dark out of phase with one another, fading as they entwined. Gaps started to appear in the wall around them.))
He was almost done. Blood ran freely down the side of Nova’s head and neck, and Warlock knew he would have to find something to staunch it very soon. Thankfully for all of them, the creature had started to let go, something they almost always did when their lives were threatened and they were still young. Even at this tender age, the grip it had on Nova’s mind was too great to forcibly sever the connections it had made in her brain.
What he could do - and had done - was to peel away every other limb it had extended within her. This process had hurt Nova’s body, yes, but it had done even more damage to the Keeper. Young, scared, injured, it was starting to withdraw from her mind of its own violation, hoping that if it got out quickly it could run-could live.
Warlock had no intention of allowing this, but he still had to respect the creature’s will to live, even if its first action if it succeeded would be to report their position back to its master. He hid the ball of energy he was holding for the killing blow and waited, hoping that this would be over in a matter of seconds. There was nothing else he could do now other than wait, which he hated. He knew that this was the most dangerous moment for Nova, as the creature unwound itself from her mind, trailing spite and snapped connections as it fled. Relying on others had never been his strong suit, but he had faith in Winter, faith that she could provide some small amount of comfort and support as Nova rode out the pain.
And the minute he had the chance, he’d loose the killing blow.
((The flickering of the path continued to worsen, and the strobe-light effect of the battle raging around them had started to cause Susan great pain.
“Almost there,” Winter called back. “Stay with me.”
Susan narrowed her focus to include only the woman in front of her and the most solid section of the path still carrying them. As her concentration deepened, it seemed to have an effect on their environment, the light-path brightening to an incredible, burnished blue. She heard a scream of pain, and it did not come from inside the path. Their speed increased, and a moment later they had reached their destination.
She sighed when she slipped from the path to the ground. She missed the comforting glow of the path already, but boy, did solid ground feel amazing to her right now. She glanced around at the crevassed terrain of the planet, surprised to realize that she knew where they stood.
“Why are we here?” she asked Winter.
Winter might have answered her question, but if she did her response was lost in the boom that shook not only the planet, but the entire universe around them.))
“Got it,” Warlock said. “You alright?”
Susan heard Winter groan, but she couldn’t seem to open her eyes. She hurt everywhere and it seemed like the left side of her body had been dipped in a warm, burning liquid.
“I’ll be fine,” Winter said, “but that was a lot closer than I would have preferred. I hadn’t realized-” her breath caught. “Oh, shit, she’s really bleeding.”
“I know. Would you do the honors? I need to finish dissecting this, before any information it carries is beyond retrieval.”
Winter shivered then, and Susan forced her eyes open, wondering if she could provide some type of aid. The sight that met her gaze wasn’t pretty; Warlock sat on the floor, carefully directing streams of energy into what remained of the creature’s lifeless body. He had conjured an orb around it and as he rotated it in different directions, Susan could see why: the precaution would save a lot of clean-up later.
“What is that thing?” she asked.
Winter stripped off her jacket and pressed it against Susan’s wounds. “Shadow tech. We’ll talk about it later.”
Susan hissed in a breath as the pressure against her neck increased. She would have one very interesting exit wound when this was all over. Her eyes widened as the contents of Warlock’s orb went up in flame.
“What little it carried is now mine,” he said, wiping his hands down the front of his robe. “Not much in the way of information, but in this system all knowledge is worth having. I’d never interfaced with one of them before.”
“I suppose I’ll hear about that later as well.” Susan struggled to sit up.
“Sounds about right,” Warlock agreed.
“As thankful as I am that you just saved my life,” Susan said, “I must admit that I’m beginning to tire of unfulfilled explanations.”
“I…” Winter paused, listening, then helped Susan to her feet. “We’re almost at the planet, so this really will have to wait.”
Susan didn’t know how they could already be at a planet; the only planet in the area close enough to be reached this quickly was…
“We’re going to try and land on Epsilon 3?” she asked. “And here I thought you wanted to live. Anyone approaching Epsilon 3 will be-”
Explosions to either side of them rocked the transport.
“-shot down,” she finished. She braced herself, but apparently no shots were going to follow the ones that had just taken down their pursuers.
“You’re mostly correct,” Winter said. “We’re just the only exception to that rule.”
Susan thought she would be surprised, if only she had the energy.
***
When they landed, she managed to exit the ship without accepting any of the helping hands offered, though she wondered if her pride was worth the extra effort. She might need to move quickly again soon and falling on her face would help no one.
Her pain notwithstanding, she couldn’t help but be excited to finally get to walk around on Epsilon 3. She had been curious about the place ever since-
She felt her jaw drop.
-ever since Commander Sinclair had visited it last year. The same Commander Sinclair who stood in front of her now, smiling that gentle smile of his.
“Jeff?” she asked, wondering if this had been a dream all this time, after all.
“It’s really me, Susan,” he said. “Though I go by a different name these days.”
“Valen,” she said, a guess that was not a guess, another connection that drew this whole bizarre drama together. “I think I need to sit down.”
“I think that sounds like a very good idea,” Winter said, helping her to the ground and motioning for everyone else to join them.
***
Chapter 3
Challenge AU Big Bang Challenge (au_bigbang)
Author: lil_utterance
Artist: beccastareyes
Fandom: Babylon 5/The Matrix
Pairing: Susan Ivanova/Talia Winters
Rating: PG-13.
Warning: non-graphic violence, a few naughty words
Chapters: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3
Artwork for Chapter 2 by beccastareyes
Chapter 2: Set Me Free
Security personnel milled around outside the entrance to the largest of the loading docks. Some of them checked weapons, some monitored the communications channels, but almost all of them were involved in ignoring the heated argument occurring right in front of them.
“I told you to wait for me and my telepaths,” Bester said. “We had an agreement.”
“An agreement? That’s what you call it when you order people to do something they never agreed to do?” Garibaldi asked. “Remind me to never sign on any of your dotted lines.”
“Mr. Garibaldi, I must ask that you give me control of this site immediately.”
“Nuts to that. Look, I know you like to throw your weight around here, and I know this situation involves one of your own. Now, maybe you’re worried that I don’t share your agenda. Maybe you’re worried that I won’t turn her over to you.” Garibaldi’s voice quickened in anger. “I might like her, might even have flirted with her with once or twice, but I will not let her threaten the security of this station. Don’t think for one minute that I’m any less dedicated than yourself when it comes to the safety of my people.”
Bester shook his head, his gaze never leaving the sealed doors in front of them. “I never doubted your intentions, Garibaldi. But your choice was the incorrect one.” He walked up and laid his hand against the side of the wall. “By now your mundanes are already dead,” he said, closing his eyes to block out the chaos that ensued behind him at his declaration.
***
So far only a few of them had actually come in here after her.
Winter knew there were more of them outside. Probably at least a dozen more, though she hoped Corps members would only make a belated appearance. Usually she and Warlock would have used the more accessible entrance, but they planned on having living cargo tonight. At least if said cargo was willing.
She concentrated again and found her number. Five. Five inside with them. A total she could certainly handle.
“Go,” she told Warlock. “Secure a vehicle. I’ve got this.”
“But-”
“I don’t think your presence will help our chances of convincing her, but we’re going to need a way out. Find one.”
“As you wish.” He conjured an orb and studied it for a few moments. “You realize you’ve got real company outside, yes?”
“Goddamn it.” She hadn’t figured them into her calculations. “So much for my coming back here in one piece.” The knowledge changed no part of their divide-and-conquer scheme. Coming back here with no way out condemned not only her, but Nova as well.
“What are you going to do?”
Winter checked her weapon before putting it back into the holster she had strapped to her leg. Her slicked-back hair still gleamed in the dim light. “Run,” she said, taking off across the great expanse of empty, metal flooring.
She heard a yell as the first of the men spotted her and she immediately dove for the floor, pulse blasts missing her as she rolled back to her feet. As she stood, she pulled her gun, hitting two of the men as she ran up the wall, heading for the protection of the cargo shelving. They wouldn’t be as willing to shoot indiscriminately when it might involve hitting expense cargo.
“Hold,” one of the men called. “We’ve treed her. No need to ruin the goods.”
“We didn’t do anything to her,” another one commented. “She ran up the fragging wall.”
“I don’t care if she sprouted wings,” the first man returned. “Surround her, grab her, and let’s be done with it.” He turned back in Winter’s direction. “Do you hear that, you mind-reading bitch? Why don’t you put the gun down and come out now, before you get yourself hurt?”
((I think you missed the point of my little demonstration.))
As Winter sent the thought into the minds of the three who had started to surround her, she looked at the bolts securing the shelf she stood on. They shot out from the wall, leaving gaping holes in their wake, and the shelf started to fall. She rode the arc for a second or two, waiting to jump until the men started firing blindly as the contents of the shelf came down upon them. About halfway to the ground, she purposefully slowed her fall, twisting her body in one delicate motion to turn and fire upon the one, last security guard who had managed to remove himself from the trajectory of her previous act of violence. He wasn’t so lucky when it came to this one-a single shot and he crumpled to the ground.
She looked around at the carnage and nodded in satisfaction. Now if only she could find a duct or something.
She had no desire to try and face what waited outside.
***
Bester moved away from the wall as Garibaldi and his security team rushed the docking bay. He did not follow them; there was no point.
She had already found a way out.
He motioned to Byron and Lauren and they followed him without hesitation; they already knew his destination. From the central corridor they could take anyone-could go anywhere. Their prey had yet to put them at a disadvantage, which was hardly surprising.
Even with the mutation in her code, she was only human after all.
***
Winter waited impatiently for the core shuttle. Crawling through the ventilation system might have kept her from getting jammed back there, but it was hardly an effective method for traveling across the entire sector. Even knowing that, she hated being out in the open like this. Too many people, too much environment to have to try and control if something went wrong.
The five minutes she had to wait before the next tram arrived seemed to take forever; she had never been so relieved to hear the reduced-gravity warnings that heralded its arrival. When the doors opened she didn’t hesitate to step inside, though she did use the cover of motion and announcements and general chaos to briefly open her mind and sample the thoughts around her, hopping outward from mind to mind until she reached…
She felt her connection freeze for a second, her brain unwilling to process the image.
They were coming. They would be here in a matter of seconds. The fact that they progressed in a linear fashion indicated that they weren’t entirely sure of her location or, at the very least, of the car number in which she now hid. She held herself very still and slowly, carefully, started fortifying her mental blocks.
She knew the second that Bester appeared that her efforts had been a waste of time. One glance at the shuttle and his head immediately swiveled in the direction of her car. Her stomach seemed to drop below her body as the shuttle started to move out of the station, movement and hope - fleeting, bright hope - making her momentarily dizzy.
Then he smiled at her.
His two associates seemed to get his message without ever seeing his face. Looking pleased, they dropped back and covered the exits while Bester started moving towards the platform at a light jog.
When he reached the edge, he leapt at Winter’s car, and she knew he would make it, could see the calculations he made, the adjustments, could almost feel the differences in the gravity around her. He had her-
-until the car sped up. Then he had nothing, emptiness, he had missed by millimeters, and he was falling, falling outwards, here on this side, there on that side, then gone, disappearing into the distance.
Winter finally managed to jerk her gaze away from him, still reeling from the astonishment and looking for the source of her unbelievable good fortune.
He wasn’t hard to find, her guardian angel. Sedate and immobile, making the most of his encounter-suited shielding, he stood in the middle of the receding platform. She felt no surprise to observe that his silent presence seemed to make most of the people surrounding him distinctly nervous. For her, he was the only being of interest there; the other telepaths were nowhere to be seen. She gathered the tattered remnants of her strength and sent to him.
((You helped me.))
((Yes. For the future.))
((Thank you. I don’t know why you decided to interfere-))
((She is a path. You are the door. Now go. Leave this place.))
Winter lost sight of him then, even in mind’s-eye. Her gratitude had been, and still remained, unfeigned, but she couldn’t help a rueful smile.
Cryptic as ever, and bossy to boot. One day he’d cause her to blow a few circuits.
For now, she’d take the most transparent of his orders and get the hell out of here.
***
The door chime sounded twice before Susan even processed the sound properly. She’d felt sluggish since waking up in her quarters, alone and apparently unmolested. She wondered if whoever wanted inside was real or merely a figment of her apparently overactive imagination. Against her better judgment, she got out of bed and moved in the direction of the summons. As she activated the door, she suddenly felt terrified of what she might find outside…
…as well she should be. Couldn’t this woman take ‘no’ for an answer?
“Ms. Winters,” Susan said. “It’s late, and I’ve had a particularly trying day. If we could discuss whatever it is that leads you to my quarters in the middle of the night at a later time, I would be-”
“Dead. They’re coming for you. Bester is coming for you.”
The look, the tone-Susan realized that everything she thought she had been dreaming, everything she might still be dreaming, felt real enough in this moment to convince her of the existence of a threat. She didn’t like the woman in front of her, but she liked Bester even less, and she could deal with lesser threats later.
“I don’t suppose you have a feasible escape plan?” Susan asked.
“Plan, yes. Feasible?” Winter started down the hall, pleased when Susan followed her without need of further convincing or coercion. She didn’t have much more energy to expend. “Unlikely. Even if you can use some of your access codes, this is going to fall into the realm of near-impossible. The transport tubes have been shut down for security reasons.”
“Let me guess,” Susan said. “You’re a reason.”
Winter glanced back at her. “I’m not the only one.”
“No, I suppose not. Though if the tubes are your only problem, then it’s not much of a problem at all.”
“Oh?”
“Hacking the tubes has become something of a contest between Garibaldi and myself.”
“Do you ever win?”
Susan smiled as they reached the tube. “Well, I certainly don’t like to lose.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Quiet. I’m working here.” The door slid open a moment later, and Susan felt the triumph of her accomplishment fade as soon as she stepped inside. “That was the easy part,” she informed Winter. “After we change levels, we’ll need to move quickly and-”
“I believe I can provide assistance for that task,” a familiar voice said behind her.
She turned, not trusting her ears until her eyes confirmed his identity. “Lennier? What are you doing here?”
“That is a long story for a later time. All I can say now is that I am here to help.”
Winter laughed as she took in the form of his aid. “Where in Valen’s name did you get those, Monk?”
“I liberated them from Mr. Garibaldi’s quarters. I’ve been working on them for him.”
Susan thought that the machines on either side of him stretched the bounds of her credulity. Sure, Garibaldi liked motorcycles, and she might even be willing to believe them to be an interest of Lennier’s as well, but how the hell had he managed to walk two bikes here with such apparent ease?
“I’ll take one of those,” Winter told him. She took the bike on his right and walked it into transport tube. “I’d hate to think that our exit from here might be any less conspicuous than our entrance.”
Lennier carefully maneuvered the other bike into the tube beside her. “I heard about your adventure on the core shuttle and thought you might want to avoid repeating the experience. Perhaps you have a better idea?”
“Not really.” She made room for Susan. “But we’d better be ready to really move when this tube opens on the next level.”
“We’re not really going to ride these through the station?” Susan asked, as the door slid closed in front of her.
“Why not?” Winter asked.
“Well, for starters, we’ll just be the largest, most obvious, moving targets in the history of Babylon 5 security chases.”
“We will also be the fastest,” Lennier said. “And if we are going to make it through the central corridor, speed is a necessity. Blue Sector is a very crowded place right now-security personnel are everywhere.”
“Fine,” Susan sighed. At least if they moved quickly, there might be fewer casualties. She needed to get out of here, needed to get away from the Corps, but she’d rather not destroy the station doing it. “Which one is mine?”
“You’re with me,” Winter said. At Susan’s doubtful look, she hastened to continue, “I’ve been trained to operate this vehicle, and I assure you it’s large enough for the both of us.” Angling the front of the bike towards the door, she swung a leg up to straddle the seat.
Susan made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort as she moved to sit behind her. “You’ll have to tell me sometime what part of Corps training covers motorcycle operation.”
“Soon, you’ll hear all about everything,” Winter said. “For now, just slide up and hold on to me.”
The number of times she had acted against her own better judgment today was really beginning to worry her, but in this, Susan didn’t have much choice. She tried not to think about what she was doing as she slid her front up against Winter’s back and wrapped her arms tightly around the other woman’s midsection. As she adjusted herself and pressed in closer, her legs molded themselves to the back of Winter’s black-clad thighs and the smell of leather permeated her senses. She looked down, then back up, taking in Winter’s outfit in its entirety for the first time.
“Comfortable?” Winter asked.
“Close enough,” Susan replied. “But I do have one question that needs asking.”
“What is it?” Winter and Lennier started up their bikes at the same time as the tube slowed, stopped, and the doors began to open.
Susan tightened her grip even more, her hands digging into Winter’s stomach. “What the hell are you wearing?” She thought she heard Lennier laugh as they shot out into the corridor, people scattering and shouting all around them as they attempted to get out of the way.
***
Winter leaned into the turn, hard, and Susan did her best to move with her and not upset them. They’d taken the corridor at a dangerously fast pace; she still couldn’t believe they had yet to hit someone.
She watched Lennier accelerate out of the turn, half a bike-length ahead of them. He made it look so easy, weaving around people, ducking pulse blasts, all the while speaking into a communications device he had revealed about half-way through their pell-mell rush through Blue Sector. He seemed comfortable, confident-almost enjoying himself. She had to wonder if the world had gone crazy while she slept last night. Except that if it had, she had gone right along with it, because here she was, hair streaming out behind her, the means of her escape still in front of her, hoping to avoid both the Corps and Garibaldi’s security team.
They were approaching the cargo bays when she heard Winter swear under her breath.
“Shit,” she said, increasing their speed until they drew up alongside Lennier. “Company,” she yelled over to him.
He nodded, said something else into his comm. and put on even more speed.
“What’s wrong?” Susan asked, her lips right at Winter’s ear.
“Ahead of us,” was all Winter would say before she lowered her head and matched Lennier’s acceleration.
Susan allowed her gaze to scan the area in front of them. Nothing seemed particularly threatening. There were personnel to avoid, a few who had weapons drawn, but nothing they hadn’t already…
She tilted her head to get a better look at a person off the left side of the bike. He stood in one place, not looking in their direction, the only person in the corridor who didn’t seem to notice them. He was shaking. As they passed him by, he started to shake even harder.
Careful of her balance, Susan turned slightly on the bike to look behind them. As she watched, his shaking turned to outright vibration, and then Bester stood behind them. Before Susan could even vocalize her surprise, he was following them, and following them fast.
“How the…?” she finally choked out.
“How is not important at the moment,” Winter yelled over her shoulder. “What matters right now is keeping your mind together. Run something through your head. Start the chant I taught you.” She shuddered and the bike swerved. “Now.”
For a moment Susan wondered what she could possibly be talking about, but then Winter started the chant aloud, and she joined in as if she had always known her cue.
“Alex had a little Vorlon-” Winter began.
“-her skin was pale as snow-” Susan continued, joining her.
They finished together, and it took Susan another minute to realize that when they did, they did not do so aloud.
((-and everywhere that Alex went, the Vorlon was sure to go!))
Lennier interrupted their concentration a few repetitions later. “The threat is gone,” he said, edging his bike nearer to them. “He was unable to keep up with us, though he will most likely be back soon.”
“And we’ll be subjected to another shredding.” Winter pressed her lips together, her expression grim. “I can’t interrupt him again.”
“Then I suggest we leave before he returns,” Lennier said.
“Does Warlock have the door open yet?”
Lennier nodded, his focus once again directed in front of them. “He’s waiting for us in Bay 9.”
Susan waited until after they took the next turn before she asked the question that had been worrying her. “How will we get the outer doors open? I don’t have the power to override a security lockdown.”
Lennier turned and offered her a gentle smile. “Don’t worry. We just happen to know someone else who does.”
***
Susan would never forget the look on Garibaldi’s face when she blew past him.
He said her name, just her name, once. “Ivanova?” Four syllables of confusion, hurt, and betrayal, before his attention moved from her to the man who stood by his side.
A moment ago that man had been Zack, his PPG half raised and a look of disbelief on his face. But now his whole body shook and his face had started to twist beyond recognition. For a split-second it was clear what was happening, Mr. Bester’s features transparently superimposed on Mr. Allan’s face, and then Lennier shot him.
“No! Zack!” Susan yelled, twisting in her seat. She came damn close to overturning the motorcycle and she heard Winter’s displeased growl, but dimly, as though from very far away. She watched as Zack looked down at his chest, his own PPG falling to the ground as he crumpled, saved from the same impact as his weapon only because Garibaldi caught him and lowered him the rest of the way to the floor.
“Zack!” Garibaldi said tightly, visibly trying to hold himself together. “Hold on, Zack.” He activated his link. “Garibaldi here. We need Dr. Benjamin down here in Bay 9-”
And then Susan could hear no more, because they were heading up the ramp into a waiting transport ship, Winter and Lennier skidding sideways as they tried to come to a stop once they were inside.
“Having a pilot up here with me right now would be most appreciated,” a voice called back from the front of the ship. “I cannot both fly and manage the level of tech our escape will require.”
“I understand,” Lennier called back. “I will be there as soon as-”
“Like hell, you will,” Susan said. “This is an Earthforce vessel, and I’m tired of taking a backseat. It’s my turn to drive.”
“With all respect, Commander,” Lennier said, “do you even know where we are going?” When the only response he received was a withering glare, he hopped off his bike and headed towards the front of the ship.
Susan remained standing astride her motorcycle for moment, undecided.
“You could always follow them,” Winter said, the amusement in her voice both obvious and surprising. She turned and shot Susan a glance over her shoulder. “They’ll probably need all the help they can get.”
“Don’t read my emotions,” Susan said as she swung herself off the bike and stalked away from the woman who had turned her life upside down.
Upon reaching the others, she realized that things were likely to turn right-side up anytime soon.
“If I take off now,” Lennier said, “will you have enough time to prepare?”
The man sitting next to him appeared to be meditating. He didn’t open his eyes when he finally addressed the question. “Doesn’t matter either way. We’d better go.”
“Warlock! The more information you provide, the more I am able to plan for possible outcomes.”
Warlock sighed in frustration and turned towards Lennier. Susan caught a glimpse of bright blue amidst all the motion, and realized he had opened his eyes. She found herself arrested by his face, by the fact that he appeared human but was hairless everywhere: nothing on the top of his head, no eyebrows, no beard. Perhaps it was this lack, the absence of a contrasting color or texture, that made his eyes seem to stand out so much-though she felt fairly certain the explanation could run deeper. Her suspicions were confirmed by his next comment.
“I’m trying to connect with my tech,” Warlock said, “at the same time as our friends out there are attempting to deactivate it. The multitasking involved in this endeavor requires a certain amount of my attention. So, if you don’t mind…?”
“As you wish.” Lennier returned his concentration the panel in front of him, his fingers skimming across controls in a pattern Susan could appreciate.
A moment later, they started to move.
“A bit cramped up here,” Winter commented as she joined them. She looked more tired than she had when Susan last saw her. “Feel any better, Lock?”
“Yes,” Warlock said, his eyes closed once again. “They’re no longer interfering with my connection. Your work, I expect.”
“I can be useful from time to time.”
“I hate to interrupt our first streak of good news,” Susan said, “but we’re almost at the outer doors, and they’re still closed.”
“Not a problem,” Warlock said.
“Even when we do get outside, they’ll launch fighters. Activate the defense grid. And we’re not exactly rolling in weapons here.”
“Also, not a problem.” Warlock kept his eyes closed, but raised a single finger and waved it in her direction. “However it would help if you could indicate the most likely locations for a launch.”
Susan didn’t even have to think about it. “Well, Zeta Squadron is a sure pick, and they always launch from-”
“Stop,” Warlock said. He tapped the panel in front of him without looking. “Indicate the locations on the monitoring screen in front of me. I’m a bit busy at the moment.” As their ship raced towards the unopened bay in front of him, his brow creased in concentration.
“What’s he doing?” Susan asked as she followed his instructions. She felt glad to have something besides their upcoming impact on which to focus.
“Wait,” Winter said. “Watch.”
The exact moment when it happened couldn’t be properly captured-the doors were there, then gone, no visible in-between. Only the aftermath of an explosion proved that Warlock had taken the trouble to make any effort at all.
“Do you need me to-” Winter began.
“No,” Lennier interrupted. “I can easily maneuver us through the allocated space.”
Susan studied their disaster as they passed through it. Knowing that no one had been hurt in this latest round of damage, she could only wish for one thing: that she had been allowed to rise to the challenge that Lennier was now navigating.
She tried to ignore the feeling. “I’m glad to see that we’ll at least complete step one in whatever program this group is running.”
“We told you we had someone who could override the lockdown,” Winter said.
“He didn’t override it,” Susan said, “he destroyed it.”
Warlock finally opened his eyes again. “Close enough,” he said, looking at the screen in front of him where Susan had made her notes. “Now, about your station’s defense systems…”
***
They were past the worst of it when Susan started screaming.
“Quiet her,” Warlock said to Winter. He turned to Lennier. “Do you need-”
“Those still following us are few. Take care of her.”
Warlock nodded and moved to help Winter support Susan as they moved her back to the main portion of the transport. Susan’s whole body shook, and Winter grunted as teeth bit into the hand she had used to cover her charge’s mouth.
“That’s not exactly what I had in mind when I told you to quiet her,” Warlock said disapprovingly.
“I won’t enter her mind again without permission.”
Susan finally managed to catch her breath. “You won’t enter my mind again at all if I still have a choice in the matter.”
“How’s the pain?” Winter asked her.
“Not quite as bad as a minute ago,” Susan said. She wondered if she could manage to keep from vomiting for very much longer. She lifted a trembling hand to rub her forehead. “What’s wrong with me?”
Winter looked to Warlock, and Susan realized that they had both expected this to happen to her.
“You’ve been kept,” he said. “I had hoped it wouldn’t activate this soon, but I should have been prepared for the most inconvenient timing imaginable.”
“Kept?” Susan scowled up at him as they lowered her to the floor. “I hope this is not some reference to my personal life. I would resent the implication-”
“Relax,” Winter said. “He could care less where you’ve made your bed. The only one-eyed creature he’s worried about is the one that’s wrapped around your neck. Its tentacles are burrowing deeper into your neural pathways as we speak.”
“Seen anything dark, creepy, and skittering lately?” Warlock asked her.
Susan stared at him. “Shit.”
He took that as confirmation. “Keeper,” he said to Winter. “I can get it, but you have to hold her mind.”
Winter immediately crouched next to Susan and put a hand to either side of her head. However, when their eyes met, she hesitated in going any further.
“You understand what I have to do?” she asked Susan.
“I will block you.”
“If you block her,” Warlock said, “I will kill you.”
“Then you will have gone to a lot of work for nothing,” Susan informed him.
He conjured an orb and held it out towards her, the bluish-grey of its edges hovering a few millimeters above his hand. “Do you see that?” he asked her, nodding toward the purple-black creature reflected in the interior of the orb. The creature clung to Susan’s neck, the black eye in its center staring out at them, emotionless and unblinking. “I need to remove it from you. In order to do that, I must perform a partial flaying. I can do this without killing you, but only if you do not fight me.”
“It’s my job to make sure you don’t do that,” Winter said, brushing some of Susan’s hair behind her ear. Her voice had gentled to match the delicate quality of her touch. “I need to calm your mind, hold you still.”
“You’re being inside my head is hardly likely to have a calming effect.”
Using two fingers, Winter tilted Susan’s chin up, ensuring they were eye-to-eye. “I’ve already been inside your mind once. I already know you’re a telepath. We don’t have much time, so I need an answer: is keeping me out worth your life?”
Susan held the other woman’s gaze, hoping she would back down. She didn’t.
“I should warn you,” Warlock said, “the pain you are already feeling will worsen as the creature continues to extend itself into your brain. I really should remove it sooner rather than later.”
“Alright,” Susan said quietly. She closed her eyes, unable to look at Winter as she gave her permission. “Do it as quickly as possible.”
She felt it when Winter’s mind surged against her own, her invasion barely slowed by the mental blocks Susan still had in place.
“I’m inside,” Winter murmured. “Give me another second or two, Lock, and then you should be able to proceed.”
Susan’s hands clenched and tried to find some sort of purchase on the floor. She could feel a blanket descending on her mind, dampening not only her thoughts, but also the few of Winter’s she had just seen, the ones which had scattered through Susan’s mind as Winter collided with Susan’s blocks during her entrance.
Susan hadn’t realized that her new colleague blamed herself for this necessity, but even as the thought faded from her mind, she knew it didn’t lie.
She tried to grab onto her next thought, hold it, but all her efforts netted her was an empty expanse of black silence.
((She stood up, alone, in her mind. Darkness still surrounded her, but now it was broken by a number of tiny, bright pin-pricks.
Stars. Sky. Night. The realizations came, almost without thought, and she knew it must be the case that her mind still belonged to another. Speaking of which…
She turned, looking for her captor. There. In front of the shining twist of blue that extended out from the platform on which Susan stood.
Winter’s dress matched the color of that blue ribbon, and Susan knew she would be indistinguishable from that upwards, winding stretch of energy, the entrance of which she guarded, had it not been for her fall of white-blonde hair, a shining contrast to that which surrounded her, a halo in this dark place.
“I’m going to show you a path,” Winter said. “Follow me.”
Dimly, distantly, Susan thought she felt a pressing sort of pain, but it was not so severe as to interfere with her ability to join Winter on the edge of the platform.))
Warlock worked methodically, despite knowing he had very little time in which to accomplish this removal. He had already enveloped the left side of Nova’s body in the energy from his tech, shrinking the sphere of its influence to include only the portion of her that had been kept. Slowly, slowly, he manipulated small tendrils of power, wrapping them around the limbs of the creature and beginning to pry the cords out from underneath her skin. Her body twitched as blood began to flow, but Winter’s grip held and the precision of the removal remained uncompromised.
((The minute that Winter stepped out onto the path, she vanished, and Susan cried out. Her worry lasted only until she looked downward and saw a pulsing in the blue energy at the edge of her feet. Somehow, the pattern seemed to be beckoning her, and she accepted the invitation.
One step, two, and then she slipped downwards. Energy and blue light swirled up around her - through her - and she didn’t think she had ever felt this alive. She heard laughter all around her, the sound magnified by a current that appeared to run in every direction at the same time. Up ahead of her, she could see Winter again, the edges of her form blurry from the eddies of power that slipped around her.
“Good,” she said, smiling at Susan. “You made the connection.” She turned and slid herself into a darker pool of blue. “Now, come on!”
Susan barely had time to register what Winter wanted her to do before the other woman had zipped up the light-path; one twist and a corkscrew and she was out of sight again. Susan hurried to catch up, focusing her mind and easing into the nearest dark-blue pool. The gentle glow of energy flared into a warmth, and then she felt the pull and the vibration of being on the move. Up she went, the path cradling her, a flood that turned into climb. The view, it was incredible, stars and she couldn’t even say what else passing by to either side of the glowing walls of blue.
She wanted to catch up with Winter and decided it would be a good time to test the limits of her control. Faster, she thought, and indeed, the energy around her responded in the manner she had hoped it would. She shot ahead, her speed only decreasing when she came upon her target. Winter sensed her approach and turned to smile at her.
“I knew you’d like it,” Winter said. “We always do.”
Susan opened her mouth to ask a question, but closed it quickly as she saw motion outside the path. Black-on-black, darker-than-dark-and she couldn’t believe her own fear. When had this managed to enter her mind?
“Just focus on the path,” Winter said, and Susan didn’t like the sound of the concern in her voice. “Whatever you do, stay on the path.”
Dark tendrils of energy wrapped around the bluish glow surrounding them. Susan tried not to watch, tried to focus straight ahead, hoped for a destination, but she couldn’t help but notice that the darkness was making inroads. The different energies crackled as they came into contact with each other, the bright and dark out of phase with one another, fading as they entwined. Gaps started to appear in the wall around them.))
He was almost done. Blood ran freely down the side of Nova’s head and neck, and Warlock knew he would have to find something to staunch it very soon. Thankfully for all of them, the creature had started to let go, something they almost always did when their lives were threatened and they were still young. Even at this tender age, the grip it had on Nova’s mind was too great to forcibly sever the connections it had made in her brain.
What he could do - and had done - was to peel away every other limb it had extended within her. This process had hurt Nova’s body, yes, but it had done even more damage to the Keeper. Young, scared, injured, it was starting to withdraw from her mind of its own violation, hoping that if it got out quickly it could run-could live.
Warlock had no intention of allowing this, but he still had to respect the creature’s will to live, even if its first action if it succeeded would be to report their position back to its master. He hid the ball of energy he was holding for the killing blow and waited, hoping that this would be over in a matter of seconds. There was nothing else he could do now other than wait, which he hated. He knew that this was the most dangerous moment for Nova, as the creature unwound itself from her mind, trailing spite and snapped connections as it fled. Relying on others had never been his strong suit, but he had faith in Winter, faith that she could provide some small amount of comfort and support as Nova rode out the pain.
And the minute he had the chance, he’d loose the killing blow.
((The flickering of the path continued to worsen, and the strobe-light effect of the battle raging around them had started to cause Susan great pain.
“Almost there,” Winter called back. “Stay with me.”
Susan narrowed her focus to include only the woman in front of her and the most solid section of the path still carrying them. As her concentration deepened, it seemed to have an effect on their environment, the light-path brightening to an incredible, burnished blue. She heard a scream of pain, and it did not come from inside the path. Their speed increased, and a moment later they had reached their destination.
She sighed when she slipped from the path to the ground. She missed the comforting glow of the path already, but boy, did solid ground feel amazing to her right now. She glanced around at the crevassed terrain of the planet, surprised to realize that she knew where they stood.
“Why are we here?” she asked Winter.
Winter might have answered her question, but if she did her response was lost in the boom that shook not only the planet, but the entire universe around them.))
“Got it,” Warlock said. “You alright?”
Susan heard Winter groan, but she couldn’t seem to open her eyes. She hurt everywhere and it seemed like the left side of her body had been dipped in a warm, burning liquid.
“I’ll be fine,” Winter said, “but that was a lot closer than I would have preferred. I hadn’t realized-” her breath caught. “Oh, shit, she’s really bleeding.”
“I know. Would you do the honors? I need to finish dissecting this, before any information it carries is beyond retrieval.”
Winter shivered then, and Susan forced her eyes open, wondering if she could provide some type of aid. The sight that met her gaze wasn’t pretty; Warlock sat on the floor, carefully directing streams of energy into what remained of the creature’s lifeless body. He had conjured an orb around it and as he rotated it in different directions, Susan could see why: the precaution would save a lot of clean-up later.
“What is that thing?” she asked.
Winter stripped off her jacket and pressed it against Susan’s wounds. “Shadow tech. We’ll talk about it later.”
Susan hissed in a breath as the pressure against her neck increased. She would have one very interesting exit wound when this was all over. Her eyes widened as the contents of Warlock’s orb went up in flame.
“What little it carried is now mine,” he said, wiping his hands down the front of his robe. “Not much in the way of information, but in this system all knowledge is worth having. I’d never interfaced with one of them before.”
“I suppose I’ll hear about that later as well.” Susan struggled to sit up.
“Sounds about right,” Warlock agreed.
“As thankful as I am that you just saved my life,” Susan said, “I must admit that I’m beginning to tire of unfulfilled explanations.”
“I…” Winter paused, listening, then helped Susan to her feet. “We’re almost at the planet, so this really will have to wait.”
Susan didn’t know how they could already be at a planet; the only planet in the area close enough to be reached this quickly was…
“We’re going to try and land on Epsilon 3?” she asked. “And here I thought you wanted to live. Anyone approaching Epsilon 3 will be-”
Explosions to either side of them rocked the transport.
“-shot down,” she finished. She braced herself, but apparently no shots were going to follow the ones that had just taken down their pursuers.
“You’re mostly correct,” Winter said. “We’re just the only exception to that rule.”
Susan thought she would be surprised, if only she had the energy.
***
When they landed, she managed to exit the ship without accepting any of the helping hands offered, though she wondered if her pride was worth the extra effort. She might need to move quickly again soon and falling on her face would help no one.
Her pain notwithstanding, she couldn’t help but be excited to finally get to walk around on Epsilon 3. She had been curious about the place ever since-
She felt her jaw drop.
-ever since Commander Sinclair had visited it last year. The same Commander Sinclair who stood in front of her now, smiling that gentle smile of his.
“Jeff?” she asked, wondering if this had been a dream all this time, after all.
“It’s really me, Susan,” he said. “Though I go by a different name these days.”
“Valen,” she said, a guess that was not a guess, another connection that drew this whole bizarre drama together. “I think I need to sit down.”
“I think that sounds like a very good idea,” Winter said, helping her to the ground and motioning for everyone else to join them.
***
Chapter 3