Address criticisms to [xazqrten@cox.net]. Without, it there can't be any improvement.

*****************************************************

   Conrad entered Leftcourt's quarters and found the general, John Sheridan 
and Lyta Alexander waiting for him.

   "This is as different a group as I would expect to see in one place," 
he commented.

   "Have a seat Captain Conrad," said Sheridan.

   "What might this meeting be about," he asked with interest.

   "It's about you, Jason," said Lyta.

   Looking at Leftcourt, he said, "General, if this about my having dinner 
with Lyta, I can explain."

   "It has nothing to do with that, captain. It has to do with the change 
in your behavior during this inquiry."

   "Jason," said Lyta, "We have reason to believe someone has messed with 
your mind."

   "Why? Is it because I’m trying to get at Captain Ivanova?"

   "Yes and no. I said I might have an offer for you in the near future. 
The truth is, I have been monitoring your performance and it has changed 
drastically since the inquiry began. I propose to find out why, at the 
request of John and the general."

   "What’re you going to do to me?"

   "I’m going to do a deep scan on you. I would do one in any event, before 
we accepted you for employment. This will get it done for all purposes at 
one time."

   "If I don't agree?"

   "You can refuse me, Jason; however, in my case it means I can't employ 
you. I think your mind was altered by a telepath before you ever left Earth 
for Babylon 5. The only way I can prove it one way or the other is by deep 
scanning you."

   "What’re the dangers?"

   "Fair question. If it were a psi cop doing it, you could count on a 
lot of pain and discomfort and some damage, maybe even permanent. The way 
I do it, you won't feel it at all. You won't suffer any discomfort or 
damage. If you did, it would be a waste of my time in doing it for my 
purposes."

   "Okay. What do I have to do?"

   "Just lay down on the couch and get comfortable. It works better that 
way."

   Sheridan moved to sit on a chair at the table, and Conrad took off 
his jacket, loosened his tie, and reclined on the couch. Lyta gave him 
a pillow to rest his head on, pulled up a chair and sat down, taking his 
hand in hers.

   "Are you comfortable?"

   "Very," he said, smiling at her. She smiled back.

   "Go to sleep, now," she said softly and he did.

   "This is going to take a while, gentlemen. I need quiet. I don't want 
anything to distract me."

   "Let's go to my place, Tom," said John.

   They left Lyta alone with Conrad.

*****************************************************

   "What do you think, John?"

   "She straightened out Garabaldi, and Bester and company had more than 
a week to work on him. They only had a few hours at best to work on Captain 
Conrad, so it shouldn't be nearly as hard for her to find and correct 
whatever they did."

   "I wonder what that business about employment meant?"

   "No idea, Tom. Lyta’s now a business woman and apparently has access 
to the heads of some very large companies. She could be doubling as a 
headhunter for them. She would make a very good one."

   "Jason put his request for either retirement or resignation in almost 
two weeks ago. His retirement request was turned down even though he has 
twenty-five years of service. He was deemed too valuable to let go. They 
had to approve his resignation because he is actually beyond the time when 
he needs to sign another continuance letter. They can't hold him, so they 
forced him to give up all his retirement benefits and pension. I’m going 
to find out who is responsible. They are going to regret their actions."

   "I wouldn't worry about his pension and benefits, Tom. I’m betting Lyta 
has all that covered and more."

   "What makes you think that?"

   "I know Lyta. She doesn't do things half-way. She skinned us, didn't she?"

   Leftcourt chuckled, "Yes, she did."

*****************************************************

   "I find the idea of you changing from a full Minbari to your present 
state fascinating. I mean, I never heard of anything like it before."

   Delenn looked at Susan. "Someday, Susan, you will have to tell him about 
the other time, and how it came to be."

   "He won't ever believe me."

   "How do you know," asked Charles.

   Susan smiled, "Let's make a small wager, Charley?"

   "You’re on. What’re we betting?"

   "If I win, I get to name it. If you do, you get to name it."

   "Name what?"

   Delenn looked at Ivanova and realized she knew about her pregnancy.

   "Our baby." 

   "Our......what?" replied Charley, stumbling over his words.

   "Our baby. That's why I have been heaving my guts out."

   "How did you learn this?" asked Delenn.

   "You knew, Delenn."

   "I suspected because of your being sick. Lyta knew for sure, because 
Maya could detect your baby even at this early stage."

   "Lyta knew for sure, and didn't tell me?"

   "Yes."

   "I learned from Commander Owens, my XO. He said the crew already had a 
date due pool going. I would like to keep this under wraps until after the 
inquiry is over and done."

*****************************************************

   Conrad was looking at the building in front of him. It looked like a 
really good product. The angles were soothing to his eyes, while at the 
same time mesmerizing the thoughts. He was proud of what he was building. 
He only had complete the facade.

   "It's beautiful, son. But it won't last very long."

   Turning to look at the much older distinguished appearing gentleman, 
he exclaimed, "Dad!"

   "I'm hurt son. I thought I was doing a fair impression of the tooth fairy." 

   "What are you doing here? You're dead."

   "Okay. So I'm dead. Now that we have that established, can we talk?"

   "Sure. What do you want to discuss?"

   "This building you’re so proud of. I have looked it over inside and out. 
You have cut corners and used substandard materials. I thought I taught 
you better?"

   Looking sheepishly at his father, Jason Conrad admitted, "I couldn't get 
the materials called for in the building plans, dad. I scoured every source 
I could, and came up short. I didn't have a choice."

   "Son, you always have a choice. If you couldn't get what was called for 
in the quantity you needed, why didn't you scale back the plans, or if that
wasn't acceptable, cancel the project. Nothing is worth having your good 
name turned into synonym for cheap, worthless or worse."

   "Like I said, I didn't have a choice."

   "Show me why you didn't have a choice, son?"

   Jason led his father back to his office and made a vid-phone call.

   The face that appeared on the vid-phone was familiar to his father. He 
had dealt with him before a long time ago.

   "Jason. I see you haven't finished the building."

   Stepping into pickup range, the older Conrad said, "He won't be finishing 
the project. In fact, I’m going to see that it is torn down immediately."

   "Maybe you and I should talk, before you do anything hasty."

   "I see nothing to talk about. The building is coming down, as soon as I 
can get back there."

   "I’m sorry," said Jason, "Dad has never been one to listen."

   The screen went blank, and Jason hurried after his father. When he finally 
caught up to him, he was in a crane getting ready to strike the building with 
a wrecking ball.

   As Jason yelled at his father to stop a limousine roared up to the site 
and stopped. The man on the vid-phone and several associates jumped out of 
the car. The other men pulled weapons and began firing at the crane cab. 

   The wrecking ball struck the facade and pieces of it began to fall around 
the men from the limousine. The vid-phone caller jumped back into the car 
just as several large pieces of facade fell on his associates. The engine 
of the car roared to life, but before the car could move away, another very
large piece of the facade, weighing several thousands of kilograms, fell on 
its roof crushing it and killing the driver and passengers.

   Jason ran to the crane cab. It had been shot full of holes and his father 
was bleeding profusely from numerous wounds.

   Crying, Jason, through tears, asked, "Why, dad? It didn't have to be 
this way."

   Wheezing and choking on his own blood, his father coughed out a response, 
"No choice. They would never have quit. Better this way, son...you win...," 
he gargled as life left him. Conrad cried and blubbered like a small child 
as the entire scene faded out.

   Jason found himself standing in a beautiful meadow filled with myriad 
brightly colored flowers spanning the entire visible spectrum. In the 
close distance he saw mountains covered with trees at the bottom with 
majestic bare tops reaching for the sky. He couldn't imagine where he 
was, but he could love living here.

   He became aware that he wasn't alone. He turned to face his companion, 
a beautiful slender redhead.

   "Lyta? What are you doing here?"

   "Looking after your best interests. What else?"

   "Where are we?"

   "Funny you should ask that question, seeing as how this’s your dream?"

   "My dream! I've never been here before. I have no idea where or what 
this place is."

   "It’s probably your dream of the perfect place to live."

   "I'll buy that just for argument's sake, but what’re you doing here?"

   "I’m here, so you can show me all the reasons why I should hire you. 
Demonstrate your honesty, integrity, intelligence, the whole shooting match 
to me."

   "Okay, but you may be disappointed."

   "Let me be the judge of that."

   In analogy form in the dream, Jason showed her his life, what he valued 
most and why, and everything he could think of to give her an accurate 
picture of himself. It took him a month in his dream world to accomplish 
the task.

   "Well?" he asked.

   "Quite impressive, Jason. I would have bet you didn't know yourself as 
well as you do."

   "All this is fine, but how do I measure up to your expectations?"

   "Actually you don't measure up at all. You exceed them by a large margin. 
I am impressed."

*****************************************************

   "John. She has been at it for almost five hours. Delenn is going to be 
getting back pretty soon."

   As if on cue, the door opened and Delenn entered, dismissing the bodyguards 
for the night as she did so.

   "John, Tom, what are you two doing here?"

   "Waiting for Lyta to finish with Conrad," replied John.

   Delenn went in to the kitchenette and put on a pot of water to make tea. 
"Tom, John, do either of you care for tea?" Leftcourt looked at his drink, 
now with only a sip in the bottom of his glass and responded, yes. John 
nodded, no.

   Delenn was pouring tea for herself and Leftcourt when the doorbell chimed.

   "Come in," said John.

   The door opened and Lyta entered.

   The three of them looked at her expectantly.

   "It’s going to be all right. I found where his mind had been influenced 
and it's gone. When he wakes up in the morning he will be his old self, 
maybe even better. I know who did this to him, and I am going to correct 
the error of their ways."

   "It took you long enough," commented Leftcourt.

   "Yes it did. My primary guideline was not to harm him. He's not just 
a piece of meat to be trimmed up. He's going to be even better than he 
was, because I let him see all that made him what he is. You have no idea 
the quality of man you have lost, general. I know what I’m getting and am 
damned happy."

   "You know about his resignation being accepted?"

   "Of course. I went through his mind with a fine toothed comb with him 
showing me the way. There isn't anything I don't know about him. He is 
going to work for me, and I bet he marries one of my female teeps, before 
it’s all said and done."

   "Can I ask what you will be paying him?" asked Leftcourt.

   "He’s going to be managing a security company, I and my associates 
are setting up to monitor our on world and off world operations. He will 
be operating independently with only occasional oversight. He will have 
complete medical coverage, including dental, company car, aircraft, shuttle 
and spacecraft as needed. There are stock options, stock sharing and 
bonuses based on performance."

   "Yes, yes, yes, but what’s his starting salary?"

   "That will be subject to review after the first six months, but I expect 
it to go up at that time."

   "Lyta! What will his basic starting pay be?" asked John.

   "Two million credits a year, to start."

   There was absolute silence from the other three, and shock. 

   Lyta looked at John and said, "I'm not allowed to hire you."

   "That's incredible," remarked Leftcourt.

   "You think so? Wait until you see what I'm going to offer Susan. I only 
hire the best, and I, actually my associates, pay them accordingly."

   "That's more than four times as much as I have been paid in my whole 
fifty year career," stated Leftcourt.

   "Quite likely general. As you see, pushing Jason out is the biggest 
favor anyone in the military has ever done for him. I would appreciate it 
if you let him sleep till morning, before sending him back to his quarters."

   Leftcourt agreed to her request.

   "I need to use your communications unit, John. I need to contact Michael."

   Sheridan pointed to the unit and said, "Help yourself."

   It took a couple of minutes for the call to go through. 

   "It’s early, Lyta. This had better be good."

   Lyta motioned for the other three to come within the video pick-up range. 
Garibaldi could see Delenn, John and Leftcourt.
   
   [Jesus, she has a lot of horsepower, there], thought Michael.

   "I take it you have been following the ISN and other reports of what has 
been transpiring here on the station?'

   "It's been wall to wall, Lyta. I have heard a lot of speculation, but not 
much in the way of facts. What’re they trying to do to Susan?"

   "That's what I’m calling about," she replied, then held up a data crystal. 
"Remember the one I gave you?"

   "Yes," he replied, "I need a minute to get it out of my safe."

   "When you do put it in into the crystal port of your system and push 
the secure button."

   Michael did as she instructed and on her screen his image disappeared 
to be replaced by random noise. Lyta put her crystal into the port on the 
panel and pushed the secure button. In just over a minute she had a clear 
picture of Garibaldi. On his screen the display changed from noise to one 
of Lyta and the people with her.

   "Now we can talk. Michael, someone on Earth arranged for some former psi 
cops to screw with Captain Conrad's mind. He's the guy gunning for Susan. I 
straightened his mind out. I also got the identity of the telepaths and 
several of the other people involved. Short and sweet, I want you to find 
them and detain them. I will come to Mars and talk with them. I plan to find 
out who instigated this and show them the error of their ways. I’ll pay the 
expenses involved. This one is for Susan. I know you still have the connections.
The others here will corroborate the story. Can I count on you?"

   "You are never going to let me off the hook are you," he replied smiling.

   "It's your punishment for welcoming me aboard Babylon 5, so long ago. 
The hardcopy I just sent has the particulars." 

   "I'll get back to you ASAP. What a quartet you guys make."

   Lyta broke the circuit and pocketed her crystal.

   "They can break the codes," commented Leftcourt.

   "It is a non-repeating code, general, constructed in the Vorlon language. 
No race has yet been able to decipher the language, much less a code based 
on it."

   "You can read and write Vorlon?"

   "...and speak it for all the good it does now. However, it’s fantastic 
for generating encryption codes." Looking at Leftcourt she added, "If you 
used every supercomputer on Earth on that transmission to Mars, it would 
take several hundred years to come close to breaking it."

   "I don't suppose you would consider a business arrangement?" asked Leftcourt.

   "If you want to buy codes, I can arrange that. The code generating 
technology isn't for sale. You don't have what it takes to generate them 
anyway. Let me know if you are interested."

   "You would be able to break them though, wouldn't you?"

   "No. We have a company dedicated to continuously testing them and so 
far, unless you have the code, and start it at the same time as both ends 
of the circuit, it is unbreakable on any useable time frame. I define useable 
time frame as twelve standard months for military purposes. We even sell 
equipment that can switch between several crystals during a transmission 
on a second by second basis. We tried to figure out how long it would take 
to break a transmission encrypted using it. When the estimate reached thirty 
million years we stopped the calculation." 

   "Can I get back to you?"

   "Of course."

   "Who do you sell this stuff to, Lyta?" asked John.

   "Anyone who wants or needs secure communications. So far, we’ve restricted 
it to businesses on Glenthor, but we are considering selling to anyone who 
can afford it. I know about the military uses, but we see it as a privacy 
issue."

   "What's to stop someone from buying one crystal and duplicating it, 
without paying for the second crystal and so on?"

   "Each crystal is a single pass crystal. It is encoded to prevent 
duplication. Each crystal can support a thousand hours of use for high 
speed text. If you use it like I just did, it’s only good for ten hours."

   "There isn't an anti-piracy scheme yet that couldn't be defeated," 
commented Leftcourt.

   "Let me worry about that, gentlemen," Lyta responded with a wicked smile. 
"I think it’s time to call it a night."

   After Lyta left, Tom looked at John and asked, "What do you think?"

   "I think, if she has a whole company dedicated to code breaking, she 
probably has broken most of the codes we use. She is capable of understanding 
and building equipment that uses Vorlon technology, and they were several 
million years ahead of any of us younger races." 

   "Sometimes, John, you give me a headache."

   "I could say the same, Tom."

   "Both of you give me a pain, but it is much lower on the anatomy," 
shot Delenn.

   "Goodnight, John, Delenn. I will see you in the morning."

   After Tom had left. "It looks like Lyta delivered the goods again, John."

   "You knew she would."

*****************************************************  

   Susan had returned to the Ares, showered, made herself presentable and 
put on her best fitting tailored uniform. It was guaranteed to elicit wolf 
whistles. Looking at her reflection, she was pleased with the effect.

   "Good morning, captain. Is there anything you want to pass on to me 
before you go into the lions' den?" asked her XO.

   Susan handed him a brown envelope, saying, "I’ll call you when they have 
finished with me. At that time, you are to open this, and immediately send 
it to Department of Earthforce Personnel. I have a copy that I will hand 
deliver to General Leftcourt. Is that understood, Commander Owens?"

   "Yes sir, captain. May I ask what it is?"

   "It’s my resignation. It’ll bypass Leftcourt, so he won't be able to 
intervene, this time."

   "I’ll be waiting for your call, Captain."

   "Thank you, Pat. I guess I had better be going. Mustn't keep the gentlemen 
waiting."

   As Susan walked down the passageway from her office, Commander Owens felt 
a sharp aching pain in his heart and a lump in his throat. He had served with 
many fine officers in his career, but never one like her.

   As Susan approached the shuttle loading area, she encountered Chief Comer. 

   "Good morning, chief. What brings you down here this early in the morning? 
I thought you didn't stand watches anymore?"
 
   "I don't, captain. I was waiting for you."

   "Waiting for me?"

   "You don't think I dress up like this for fun, do you?"

   "Not really. So, what do you have in mind?"

   "Cheerleading, captain, cheerleading; better known as moral support."

   Susan just looked at him for a few moments and saw the expression 
reflected in his eyes. "Come on, chief. We have a date with the inquisitors."

   Chief Comer smiled to himself. She reminded him so much of his oldest 
daughter.

   "With any luck, chief, I’ll introduce you to my very best friend in the 
whole universe. She has saved my ass twice in three years."

   [That, I am looking forward to, captain,] he thought to himself.  

*****************************************************

   "Mom are you going to Aunt Susan's appearance today?" asked Maya.

   "No, dear. I can see and hear all I need to from here. I think she’ll 
do all right."

   "That Conrad man seems to really want to get her."

   "Don't worry about him. Everything is back where it should be."

   "You interfered."

   "Yes and no. I simply put things back the way they should be."

   "You interfered."

   "Whatever," her mother said, ending the exchange.

*****************************************************

   Susan removed her jacket and sat down at the place indicated at the 
table facing the board officers. Chief Comer sat with the few observers 
allowed in the room.

   "I would like to call Mister Jack Garvey, if it pleases the board," 
said Conrad.

   Garvey swore oath to testify to the truth, and took the seat that had 
been designated for "witnesses".

   "Mr. Garvey, you are the assistant chief of staff to President Luchenko?"

   "Yes sir."

   "It has been established with the data crystal recording that you did 
issue verbal orders to Captain Ivanova to return to Earth immediately, so 
I won't ask about that. However, Mr. Garvey will you explain the circumstances 
that led you to make that call?"

   "Yes sir. On the day of the call, I received a request from the late 
General Lang to make the call. He explained that General Nelms, who had 
been given responsibility for coordinating the various events for the 
‘Welcome Home’ celebration planned for the Ares, was having trouble with 
her commanding officer, Captain Susan Ivanova. She was ignoring his 
direction to return early, since the celebration had been moved up. Lang 
explained that General Leftcourt would normally intervene, but he was in 
the hospital, in intensive care, as the result of an automobile accident. 
Since I had dealings with General Lang in the past, I didn't question his 
request, although in hindsight, I should have, since the president's 
schedule for the weeks prior to the celebration were chock full of meetings 
with various heads of state. Those meetings couldn't just be rescheduled 
on a whim. If I had thought it through, I would have realized that General 
Lang's request was out of place. However, that is all hindsight."

   "So, there was no legitimate reason to have the Ares return before her 
regular scheduled arrival?"

   "No sir. None whatsoever."

   "What do you know about the follow-up message validating the orders 
you issued?"

   "Nothing. Lang said he would have them transmitted as soon as I finished 
the call. I do not know if they were ever sent."

   "The record shows the message was sent. However, the ship experienced 
a glitch in its message processing equipment and lost about a hundred 
numbers. From what we can determine only about ninety percent were ever 
serviced, in spite of requests from EAS Ares for retransmittals. The 
message with orders validation never got retransmitted."

   John whispered to Delenn, "She's off the hook. Officially, she did 
not disobey orders."

   This fact wasn't lost on Chief Comer. Anyone who might have looked, 
would have seen tears forming in his eyes.

   Susan was stunned. Conrad was throwing his own case out the window. There 
had to be some mistake. It could only mean that he had what he needed in the 
questions with which he would grill her. Her mind was trying to imagine what 
he had up his sleeve, but she could not imagine what it would be. 

   "Mr. Garvey, what do you know about Captain Ivanova?"

  "Only what I have read in the papers and saw on the video news programs. 
I have to say, what I have seen lately paints a completely different picture,
than the one presented a few years ago, just after she and Captain Sheridan 
led the rebel force that deposed Clark to Earth."

   "What is your opinion now?"

   "I watched the recordings of the recent attack on Babylon 5, and I’m 
damned impressed by her actions. It's too bad that the public won't be 
given the opportunity to see what she and her ship did. If they ever saw 
that, they wouldn't carp about how much it cost to build and operate."

   At this point, Susan's mind was beginning to go numb trying to figure 
out Conrad's strategy. Everything he was doing was butchering and gutting 
any charges, he or the board of inquiry might bring against her. There was 
no logic to what he was doing. The only thing she could think of was, maybe 
Lyta had screwed with his mind, but she wouldn't do that. Lyta would just 
wait until she was out of the service, and give her a job.

   "Your testimony hasn't exactly painted a very pretty picture of you, 
Mr. Garvey. You seem to be unusually honest in this testimony. It's not 
what I have come to expect out of  politicians or their staff. Why today?"

   "The President told me to tell the truth, no matter who got hurt, or 
looked bad as a result. I’m just following orders, captain."

   "As do we all, Mr. Garvey." Looking at the panel, he asked, "Anymore 
questions, gentlemen?"

   Silence was his answer. 

   "Thank you, Mr. Garvey. That is all."

   Looking at the panel, Conrad gave Mr. Garvey time to find a seat.

****************************************************************

END PART 16

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