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{brackets show telepathy}
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(This ending, though not completely original is my take)
Chapter 11C - Chosen Ending!
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Michael stepped over to his comm. panel and initiated a call. The Minbari who answered asked, "How may I help you, Mr. Garibaldi?"
"Lyta is on her way to the spaceport with Maya. I tried to send Max with her, but she wouldn't have it," responded Michael.
"Thank you, Mr. Garibaldi. I appreciate your calling me. We will take care of it," responded the Minbari, closing the channel.
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It seemed all to soon when they reached the spaceport. This time there was no psi cop watching the place.
It wouldn't have mattered anyway. {Maya, are you ready to do it?}
{Yes, mommy! It will be fun,} replied Maya.
{You will have to keep doing it for a long time. Until we are clear of EA space.}
{I can do it,} answered her daughter.
Lyta went to the information counter and inquired about G'Kar and his ship. She learned where he was waiting with the ship. Taking Maya by the hand with one hand, and carrying her suitcase in the other, Lyta started to walk down the concourse. Walking down the concourse toward her departure gate was a young Minbari, Anla’shok, wearing a uniform made from the fabric she had helped develop. Seeing it on someone in public for the first time made her realize just how much potential the fabric had. It made fine silk look like gunnysack material.
She could tell he was looking for her and Maya from the thoughts he was broadcasting. He had a picture of her in his mind. She smiled to herself as he went past unaware that he had missed his quarry.
Less than fifteen minutes later, Lyta and Maya were aboard G'Kar's ship and the surface of the planet was falling away beneath them.
{Mommy. Does everyone hate you?} Asked Maya. She had seen the newscast on ISN and seen another blast of indignation and hatred leveled at her mother.
{Not everyone, sweetheart. Well, not quite everyone,} She replied, thinking of Delenn, Ivanova, G'Kar and Garibaldi. There were at least four people in the known universe that didn't outright hate her or want her dead. There might be a few others, excepting the former rogues, but she wasn't taking bets. She didn’t count any of the people who had helped in the rebellion because all of them had been well paid by Michael. She wouldn’t trust any of them in the future.
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Lyta was aware of the orbiting whitestar and could feel the mind of Shai Alyt, Sheraun. She shifted G'kar's ship to hyperspace, catching G'Kar by surprise.
In the spaceport the young Anla’shok was searching everywhere for Lyta and Maya and asking questions about them at the tube debarkation points. Finally he reported to his Shai Alyt that apparently they had never arrived at the spaceport.
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"Why didn't you wait and let me use the jumpgate?"
"It’s Sheraun's whitestar. They’re looking for me G'Kar. The farther we get from EA and ISA space the better I’ll feel," she replied.
"How can you be sure he was here after you?"
"We passed one of his crew in the spaceport, and I could read his intentions, even without scanning him."
"Who is looking for you?"
"The ISA apparently. After all, this is an ISA ship and who knows what Sheridan will try next. Let's face it G'Kar, he won't be satisfied until he sees my body lying dead on the floor in front of him."
"Don't you think you are exaggerating the situation? He wouldn't have sent Sheraun after you if that were his intent."
"Yes he would. It would seem to be a good way to catch me off guard. I’m not biting."
"Mommy, why does he want to kill you?" Asked Maya.
"It’s a long story, dear. One day I’ll explain it to you. Don't worry, I won't give him the chance."
G'Kar knew why the Whitestar 71 had been sent to get Lyta, and John Sheridan had nothing to do with it. It had been Delenn's idea as a means of getting her and Sheraun together again, but Lyta had managed to avoid it. Knowing what his friend was capable of doing, he decided to not argue. She was extremely paranoid before the telepath war, and he didn't need her thinking he was part of a plot against her.
"You haven't done anything to rate being hunted by the ISA, Lyta."
"You don't seem to understand, G'Kar, this is Sheridan we’re talking about here. When it comes to me, he doesn't need a reason, only a chance. Out here, it’s hard for Delenn to keep track of what he’s doing. Maybe she sent Sheraun – hoping to get us together. It doesn’t matter. That’s not going anywhere. He thinks he loves me, but he doesn’t even understand what I am. I don’t know where all my abilities are going to lead, but I do know I don’t want to be within a thousand light years of Minbar and John Sheridan when they finally manifest themselves."
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In Garibaldi's office, his communications panel chirped.
"Garibaldi here," said Michael into the panel pickup.
"We missed her and she got away. Can you recheck her route?" asked the Minbari on the screen.
"Will do," answered Michael.
"Missed who? Who got away, Michael?" asked Lise coming through the back door of his office.
"Lyta," responded Michael.
"Who wants her? What has she done wrong?" Asked Lise.
"It's a little hard to explain, Lise. Lyta isn't exactly your regular kind of person."
Lise had met Lyta and her daughter, Maya, on a number of occasions and could not remember anything out of the ordinary about them except that they were telepaths. "Try!" She demanded.
"She is wanted on Minbar. A whitestar was sent to pick her up before she could disappear again. That was the call you overheard. Apparently, she and Maya vanished between here and the spaceport," replied her husband.
"She seemed okay to me. I have watched ISN and know why she isn't allowed in EA space, but the Minbari? What did she do to them?" Asked Lise.
"I am not sure, but Delenn wants her brought back there. I suppose it could be something personal. She and Delenn are old friends, or they were. I suppose anything is possible, now. She has a way of alienating people."
"Has she alienated you, Michael?"
"I owe her a lot, Lise. I owe her my life, several times, your life at least once, and everything we have."
"We both owe her everything we have and hope to have in the future. Does that about cover it?"
Michael nodded. He felt sorry for Lyta. All she had was Maya, and what she carried in that suitcase, but then again she had all the account numbers and access codes for the pile of money she had stashed in the secret telepath accounts, and now that the war was over, it was available for other uses. He wondered if she would use any of it.
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"We missed her, Entil'za Delenn," said Sheraun from the communications display screen. "Somehow she avoided the Anla’shok we had waiting in the spaceport. She had to pass him."
"We are dealing with Lyta, here, Shai Alyt. She can do things to prevent herself and Maya from being recognized. You can return to your regular patrol, Shai Alyt," said Delenn.
Shai Alyt Sheraun executed a bow of acceptance and respect.
Delenn broke the connection and sat back in her chair. Her friend was a real pain. You couldn't do anything for her. She wondered for a long time how Lyta had known about the whitestar, and why she went to lengths to avoid it. It came back to only one explanation. She must have thought John sent it. He hated her with an unreasonable hatred. Unreasonable because it had no basis in fact or action. She thought back to what Lyta had explained about her visit by Lorien. She supposed it was Lorien's way of making sure Lyta didn't interfere with John's lifeline.
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"Lyta, I have been thinking that maybe dragging Maya around to all these worlds isn't the greatest idea in the galaxy," said G'Kar.
"Are you trying to get rid of me, G'Kar?"
"No. The little one needs others her age."
"I hate to point out the obvious, G'Kar, but like me, she’s pretty much one of a kind. There are no others her age."
"Point taken. This is no way for her to grow up."
"I agree; however, I’m not welcome on any planet with a Human population, and very few of any other kind," she replied, then after hesitating momentarily, "I’ll make you a deal. Just drop us off on the next available planet with a spaceport. The more backwater the better."
Three weeks later, she said her goodbyes to G'Kar, both realizing this was the last time they would ever see one another. It was a very hard moment. With Maya holding one hand and her suitcase in the other Lyta walked toward the terminal entrance.
Skimming some of the secret funds to which she had access, Lyta bought a broken down, but operational two-person shuttle and took off into space. Two hundred thousand kilometers above the planet and well out of range of the local traffic control sensors, Lyta shifted the shuttle into hyperspace. Since she hadn’t used the local jumpgate, there would be no record of the shuttle ever leaving local space. If anyone ever inquired, there would be no trail to follow.
Using navigational abilities she had not known she possessed, Lyta took the little shuttle into gravity wells that sane pilots avoided. In short order, she exited hyperspace just above the planet Glenthor. The shuttle dropped through the dark Glenthorian sky, undetected by any of the myriad defense systems monitoring the airspace over the various countries. As the sun was coming up the shuttle lightly landed in the field behind an enormous ranch house. Lyta and Maya exited into the arriving morning. The crisp pungent odors of a working ranch grabbed their sense of smell and jolted their senses into full operation.
"It is beautiful, mommy!' exclaimed Maya. "Are we going to stay here?"
"Yes, sweetheart. We’re going to be here a very long time," answered her mother.
People were coming out of the main house to meet them. It was going to be the first time most of them had ever met their employer. Lyta and Maya walked to meet them.
"We have been here before, haven't we," asked Maya, as the leader of the group approached Lyta, hand outstretched.
"Good morning, Ms. Alexander," said her foreman. "It is good to see you again."
"Hello, Kartf," she replied shaking the offered hand vigorously. "I need to make a call."
Twenty minutes later, Lyta finished her call to Ambassador Hental. He was a good friend and her presence on the planet would be forgotten or disavowed in the future. They owed her a lot and she didn't ask for much in return.
END PART 6
“Lyta After G’kar” is coming.
(link to L after G, part 1)
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