Criticism is welcomed. Address criticisms to [xazqrten@cox.net]
******************************
On Babylon 5:
Larry Evans and Elizabeth Lochley had settled in for a quiet evening of
watching videos after a hard day. Neither had felt like going out for dinner,
so they had Chinese ordered in. They had barely finished their meal when
Lochley got a call from security. The unhappy face of Zack Allan was adorning
her communications display.
"This had better be good, Zack."
"Some lurkers just found a mess in one of our seldom used airlocks, Captain.
I'm on my way down there, but I'm being told by the officer who answered the
call that's a real gore fest."
"Go on."
"The initial report says there are three bodies in the airlock, and it is
sealed from the inside. We'll have to use controls override to gain access. The
officer says they look like they were butchered, but he can't tell all that
much through the observation port. I'll get back to you after we get a better
look see."
"Oh crap!"
"What's wrong, Larry?"
"I'm not sure anything's wrong, yet, Liz. I had a conservation today that
leaves me a bit uneasy."
"Would you care to elucidate?"
"We or at least the ambassador had a visitor today. He claimed he was a good
friend of Lyta's, but I've never met him before. I've never even heard of him
before. He was rather curt when I tried to question him about why Lyta had
never mentioned him before."
"Why's that so strange. Hell, I've lots of friends I've never mentioned
before, but that doesn't make them any less valid friends. If one of them came
aboard and identified him or herself as a friend of mine, would you get your
tail in a bind?"
"No, but Lyta's different."
"Really. Does she know you feel this way about her friends?"
"He arrived in her shuttle. That seems suspicious to me."
Lochley shook her head. "What else threatening did this friend say?"
"He said he would deal with the DTGT group, and no one would be able to
prove anything."
"Do you think your friend did this?"
"Zack did say the airlock was sealed from the inside. It would be damned
difficult to leave three dead men in an airlock and manage to get it locked
from the inside."
"I'd say it's impossible on this station, knowing how our airlocks operate
and the safety features built into them. The only way you could do it would be
to exit through the side that opens to space. There would be a record of such
an event, and it would sound an alarm in several monitoring areas of the
station."
"You mean you monitor all the airlocks?"
"Twenty-four/seven. When an airlock is opened there is a signal sent to one
of several monitoring stations. When it is closed another signal is sent. When
it is opened to space there is another signal sent, and when it is closed,
another signal is sent. Before it can be opened to the inside of the station,
it is automatically re-pressurized and a signal is sent. This allows the safety
and damage control personnel to immediately identify a hazard and keep an eye
on the airlocks scheduled for use."
***********************
At the number Alpha -4 airlock in Brown-35:
Zack Allan arrived fifteen minutes after he finished giving Captain Lochley
an initial report. Medical staff was waiting to remove the remains just as soon
as security finished their forensic investigation. Zack moved forward and used
his security id and override keycode to open the airlock. As the door opened,
the noses of the personnel in the immediate vicinity were assaulted by a putrid
odor that rode the circulating air from the lock. At least one young security
man could be heard retching in the back of the group. To make matters worse, he
would have to cleanup his own vomit.
There were pieces of intestines and their contents all over the floor of the
airlock, and from all appearances almost all of the blood from the three men
had also run out onto the floor. Their gruesome deaths had not been either
quick or painless.
After getting the results of the download of the airlock's local records,
Zack stepped out and let his forensic personnel do their job. It would take a
while to identify the victims, but he figured he might as well let the captain
know what they had found. It looked like another attack on the local human
telepaths, but they wouldn't know for sure until after they identified them.
******************************
In Lyta's quarters on B5:
Lyta, as Duncan Diamond, had visited Cathy Balor in her quarters and
discussed details for the adoption of Balor's baby by Lyta. All that remained
was for the child to be born.
As she sat musing to herself, she reviewed what she had done to the ‘A dead
Telepath is a Good Telepath’ group she had met with earlier in the evening. She
also thought about what she had done to three of the group who had been
carrying out the attacks on telepaths on the station, of which Donna Howell was
the latest. When they were found, the crap would hit the fan. It would be
interesting to see how security handled the incident. She had been in the
middle of talking to the DTGT group when the three men rendered themselves
harmless to anyone in their presence in the future. She, as Diamond, had more
than thirty witnesses as to her whereabouts at the critical time. She had no
doubts that Larry Evans would happily relate his conversation with Duncan
Diamond to Captain Lochley.
Lyta let her thoughts move on to how well the Howell woman was coming along
with her recovery. She relaxed and let her mind wander until she could see what
was transpiring in Medlab One. She was not surprised to see one of Dr. Hobbs
staff working over what was left of the three thugs she had dealt with earlier.
It had been so simple to insert a series of instructions into their minds. They
believed themselves to be telepaths that needed to be dealt with in an
extremely prejudicial manner. She could hear the duty doctor explaining to Zack
Allan that the three men appeared to have sealed themselves into the airlock
and then proceeded to thoroughly disembowel themselves. It had left a stinking
putrid mess in the airlock and Zack's people had refused to clean the mess up.
It was assigned to the station maintenance department after security had
finished their collection of evidence, what there was of it. The analysis of
all the available data pointed to the fact that the men had secured the airlock
from the inside. According to the airlock records, they had done this at
approximately 2000 hours and had died by their own hands at approximately 2030
hours.
Lyta turned her attention to the unmoving form of Donna Howell. It appeared
that no one had even been in the room to check on her since she had started the
woman on the road to recovery. She checked the few life signs displayed on the
monitor screen. According to her vitals, Donna Howell was making a remarkable
recovery. All of her life signs were approaching normal for a healthy human
female. Lyta was satisfied with her efforts and returned her consciousness to
her quarters.
She wasn't sleepy, and she was bored out of her skull, so she started to
experiment with her telekinetic abilities. Forming heavier elements by
combining several atoms of the atmosphere in her quarters into one atom didn't
present any real challenge, but it gave her something to do to kill time. She
had been at it for less than half an hour when she stopped to admire her
handiwork as she held it suspended in the air in front of herself. It appeared
to be a simple square piece of material no more than ten centimeters square and
two millimeters thick. What wasn't immediately evident was the fact that it
massed more than twenty kilograms. If it were used to armor plate a starship,
that ship could easily withstand an attack from the slicer beams used by Shadow
battlecrabs.
As she began mentally twisting the small piece of material into a variety of
shapes, she became aware that she was being observed. "Hello, Draal. What
brings you here? Surely it isn't my pleasant personality."
The hologram became visible. "Your senses are getting better, Lyta. No piece
of scanning equipment presently being made could have detected my presence.
What is it you're making?"
"Nothing in particular. I was just curious about how far I can go using
telekinesis, local atmosphere atoms and energy from hyperspace in making stable
heavy elements. No I don't know what it's good for. Well, that's not entirely
true. I did use the technique to make a two megaton weapon perform like a
twenty megaton weapon, but I'm not at all convinced that such a use of the
ability is positive."
"You are referencing the incident at the Earth Alliance military base. I'd
be interested in learning your rationale concerning that."
Lyta explained in detail what she had done, why and how. "I like to think of
it as a surgical strike against known cancer cells, a silver bullet approach if
you like. Even if they aren't presently malignant, destroying them is in the
best interest of the body."
The image of Draal was silent for almost three full minutes, before it
answered, "Harumph! If you were anyone else, I'd ask how you could be so sure,
but you covered that very thoroughly."
"So, what's your problem? And again, what can I do for you?"
"You and G'Kar visited a planet, Slor, in the recent past. It is populated
by a reptilian species. It is one of two inhabited planets in that solar
system."
"That's not exactly breaking news, Draal."
"I was coming to that!"
Lyta cocked her head, "Don't get testy. Just tell me why you're here."
Realizing his bluster wouldn't work on Lyta, he continued, "I have been
monitoring them recently. They have located a vast military research and
testing complex beneath the surface of their planet."
This piece of information caused Lyta to sit up and pay attention to the
blustery and verbose Minbari. "Go on."
"They are carrying out research, development, and testing of sophisticated
weapons where the IA rangers can not monitor them. Since you were last there,
they have made impressive gains in their weapons technology."
"I see reason to upgrade the surveillance of the situation, but why the
sense of alarm?"
"I have monitored their tests, Lyta. They will shortly be at a point that
will render them capable of destroying the IA blockade mines. They may even be
able to cause severe damage to a whitestar."
"Tell Delenn and Sheridan, it's their responsibility. Besides the Slorians
didn't have much in the way of weapons and space craft."
"That has also changed. They shouldn't have been able to progress this far
this fast. I'm led to believe by what I've observed that someone accelerated
their evolution."
Lyta scowled at this. "Say that again...slowly, and expand on it, because
when I was there, they only had a rudimentary interplanetary vehicle that they
were using to terrorize the Gohrians. They couldn't even muster any weaponry to
attack G'Kar and me when we were in their upper atmosphere. For that matter,
neither could the Gohrians."
"That's my point, Lyta. They shouldn't have been able to make the
advancements I observed. That's why I want you to use the Great Machine and
observe them. I believe you are going to have to handle the situation. The only
way the IA can handle it will cause wholesale destruction of the planet's
surface and kill a very large number of people."
"I suppose you want me to come down to Epsilon III. I'm afraid my shuttle
isn't ready to go anywhere just yet, and since Lochley and company don't know
I'm aboard the station, I can't just walk up to C&C and ask to borrow one. I
don't suppose you have one I might borrow?"
"I know you don't need a shuttle to come down here, Lyta. Remember, I've
read your files."
Lyta set the piece of material she had made down on the desk, walked around
it and faced the hologram of Draal. A cold low intensity white light manifested
itself around her and she was gone. Draal's hologram vanished and when he
opened his eyes and looked down from his position in the Great Machine, Lyta
was standing there waiting for him.
Her first question as he began to exit the machine was, "What took you so
long?"
Draal didn't answer her question. Instead, he said, "You have been inside the
machine before. It will take you to Slor after it shows you what I've had it
record. I think the magnitude of the problem and the difficulty in dealing it
will become painfully obvious."
Without further delay Lyta stepped into the machine, closed her eyes and
relaxed. With her memories as a reference, she began watching the video files
Draal had recorded and evaluating the situation. She wasn't aware of how long
she was in the machine.
******************************
On Epsilon III:
Draal had sat down on one of the steps just below Lyta, prepared to be
sitting for some time. He closed his eyes and was immediately assaulted by the
images from the files he had recorded for Lyta's viewing.
{You're going to be viewing this with me, Draal.}
The images played themselves out. Suddenly, he was in hyperspace. The shift
in images caught him completely unprepared. It took him a few seconds to get
over the shock of the change of images.
{You're going to see this with me, Draal. Before I let myself be drafted
into exterminating a sentient race, I want a hell of a lot more information
than you and this monstrosity have provided me.}
{I would be disappointed if it was any other way.}
Lyta concentrated on the task at hand. Below in the machinery monitoring
stations the Zathras brothers were watching what was happening to the power
levels of the machine with some concern. Draal hadn't briefed them on any major
change in power requirements for the machine.
It took more than half an hour for Lyta to 'exit' hyperspace into the
Gohrians/Slorian system. Her attention was directed to the whitestar that was
in high orbit above Slor. The Vorlon scanning technology was capable of doing a
great deal more than the rangers were aware of. The technology simply had to
have the proper instructions. Lyta using the power of the Great Machine
inserted 'suggestions' into the mind of the ranger monitoring the main scanner
system. He was bored almost to tears of doing nothing but continuously scanning
the planets surface for meaningful activity. Without fanfare he pressed buttons
on the console in combinations never before attempted. The image on the monitor
screen changed very abruptly.
Inside Draal's head, Lyta asked, "Is this being recorded?"
"Just think about wanting everything recorded and it will be done." Draal
was shaken by how quickly the monitor screen presentation had changed. The
image was showing the inside of a mountain range, and what it was showing was
disquieting.
The ranger raised his voice and said, "We need the captain on the bridge
immediately!"
*******************************
In the main conference room of Edgar Industries:
Michael Garibaldi was about half-way through his monthly meeting with his
department, division and branch heads. He had introduced two new branch heads.
He then introduced his new Assistant Head of Security, Ms. Beverly Wiseman, and
turned the floor over to her. She outlined her intentions to bring Edgars
Industries security up to what she regarded as the minimum for a large diverse
corporation. She handed out packets that outlined and explained those minimum
requirements.
She gave the people present a few minutes to browse through the information
she had provided. There were a few whistles. Then there were the questions.
Wiseman fielded questions for almost half an hour. Garibaldi seeing his new
Assistant Head of Security under attack, rapped on the table. Having gotten
everyone's attention, he stated, "What Beverly has outlined in the information
packets will be adhered to. Security in the past has been a sham at best.
That's going to change starting now. I share her security philosophy. Don't let
me hear that any of you have given her any grief. It will take some time to get
all of this in place. I understand that as well as she does. Get with the
program, gentlemen; otherwise, update and start distributing your resumes."
People were muttering amongst themselves as they left. Some of them threw
glares at Beverly. Michael watched this and made mental notes to himself.
Wiseman had pointed out to him that the security for Lyta's and Bryson's travel
plans had been compromised by someone in Bryson's office. She had already begun
an investigation into the situation. Michael was pleased. He finally had
someone in security that actually understood its importance, and had the
tenacity to see to its implementation and enforcement. In a way, he felt sorry
for her immediate supervisor, Kelly Benton. Kelly was very good at his job and
he was 'laid back' in his approach to things. Wiseman was the exact opposite.
She was always 'firing on all cylinders'. It would be interesting to observe
their acclimation to one another.
Most of the people present were stopping on their way out of the room to
congratulate Beverly Wiseman on her new assignment. Bob Bryson was amongst
those who offered her his hand and congratulations. Wiseman had refused to
shake his hand, or even acknowledge his presence in front of her. This wasn't
lost on Michael. He could foresee problems between the two of them. It was
obvious to him that she must have felt very badly insulted by the way Bryson
had sent her back to personnel, and she wasn't about to be forgiving.
******************************
In the office of Beverly Wiseman:
Bob Bryson walked into Beverly Wiseman's office without bothering to knock.
Wiseman looked up at him with a look of contempt on her face. "I didn't hear
you knock, and you don't have an appointment. Unless you're here on official
emergency company business, get out!"
"That's not a very friendly greeting."
"I'm not paid to give you friendly greetings. I have work to do. So, unless
this is emergency company business, get out. I won't ask you a third time. I'll
file a harassment charge. Do you understand me?"
Bryson had expected many replies, but this one wasn't one of them. The woman
was obviously very angry with him. "I only wanted to make something right."
"You know the company's rules very well, Mr. Bryson. You didn't hesitate to
use them against me. Now, get out of my office." She was already dialing a
number on the phone on her desk.
Bryson was still looking at Wiseman when the party she had called
answered, "Human Relation Office."
"This is Beverly Wiseman in security. I want to file a harassment
complaint."
Bryson was stunned. She was going to carry through on her threat. He wasn't
too worried about the Human Relations Office people, but Michael would get
involved because of his, Bryson's, position in the company. Mike had been
right. He had definitely made an enemy of the Wiseman woman. Whatever he
thought he might have been able to have. Beverly Wiseman would not be part of
those plans, and he had no one but himself to blame.
Bryson beat a hasty retreat from Wiseman's office, but he could hear her
asking for the information needed to make the complaint as he walked away. Less
than two hours later in his office, he got the call from Garibaldi he had been
expecting.
Kelly Benton had overheard the exchange between Wiseman and Bryson.
Considering her reaction to him earlier at the monthly meeting, he wasn't
particularly surprised. He was well aware of Bryson's reputation of being a
cold-hearted automaton. He knocked on the door of Wiseman's office.
"Come in, called a neutral feminine voice."
Benton entered the office and closed the door. "What was that all about?"
Wiseman explained in detail.
"You're going to file a formal complaint against him. You already know he's
Mr. Garibaldi's right hand man. Hell, you worked for him for almost a year. Is
this a prudent course of action?"
"I suppose I'll find out soon enough. I'm sorry if this causes you any
trouble. I'll make sure Mr. Garibaldi knows you vehemently objected to my
actions."
Benton looked into Wiseman's eyes. She had worked for him as a secretary
more than once since he had been with the company. She was as good as they got.
He didn't know what had caused Beverly to hate Bryson so much, but he figured
it had to be something inexcusable. The Beverly Wiseman he knew was a very hard
working, trustworthy person who got along well with her co-workers. If
anything, her dedication to her work was to the point of almost being a fault.
"Keep me posted, Beverly. Maybe it's time Bryson got his nose tweaked."
[Might as well give Michael a heads up.] Thought Benton to himself as he
returned to his office and made a call to Michael Garibaldi.
******************************
In Bryson's office:
"I've been informed that you had a run-in with Beverly Wiseman. Care to tell
me about it?"
Bryson told Michael what had happened. "That's all I did, Mike."
"She told you to leave twice, after telling you to leave if it wasn't
emergency company business. Is that part correct?"
"Yes, but..."
"But nothing, Bob. What part of leave and get out didn't you understand. She
doesn't work for you anymore. Hell, you weren't even there on company business."
Bryson was getting angry at the implications. "When's it illegal to drop in
on a department, division or branch manager?"
"If it's company business, it's proper, but usually you let them know you're
coming. You don't want to walk in on a meeting or anything like that, and you
certainly don't barge in on someone who works in another department. You just
barged into her office without even the courtesy of knocking on the door. Need
I remind you that you were Johnny-on-the-spot in using company rules to get rid
of her out of your office. The shoe doesn't quite fit right when it's on the
other foot, does it? You will be attending training about company policies and
employee sensitivity."
"It's a waste of my time, Mike."
"It's not a request, Bob. There's a lot you have to learn about employee
relationships. Fortunately, you won't have to learn them the way I did."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Come over for dinner Friday night, and I'll enlighten you. I'll expect you
about seven, if you come."
"I'll come just to hear your story, Mike."
Michael broke the connection. Bryson replayed his encounter with Beverly
Wiseman over and over in his head. He couldn't see any way he could have done
anything differently. He would learn otherwise at Michael's dinner Friday, even
though he didn't know it.
******************************
In Garibaldi's office:
Michael sat back and thought about his conversation with Bob Bryson. Bob was
a very good man, but he had to learn how to handle people. Michael knew that
Bob had come out of the civil war with some real demons to fight. He wasn't
privy as to what may have caused them, but he was sure they were what caused
Bob to have trouble relating to the people who worked for him. Bob had lost his
immediate family in the war, and he never talked about any of it. Beverly
Wiseman had also lost her husband in the war. She never let anyone get close to
her or her children. Seen from an unbiased observer's point of view, they would
seem to have much in common. Michael had a plan.
"Ms. Wiseman, I'm sorry to bother you. Could I invite you over for dinner
with my family Friday night? You can even bring your kids. My daughter will be
there, and I'm inviting a few other friends and their families. It is just a
small get together."
On the communications display screen, Wiseman appeared to be thinking. "Who
else will be there?"
Well, there it was. If he told her Bob would be there, she would surely come
up with a reason not to attend. "I'm not sure. Not everyone I invite manages to
attend."
It took Beverly almost a full minute to make her decision. "If Bob Bryson is
going to be there, I'd rather pass on the invitation."
"I'd like to think that two of the most important people in my organization
can be civil with one another long enough to have dinner with their boss."
"If you make it a requirement, Mr. Garibaldi, I'll attend. Otherwise, no way
in hell."
"It's not a requirement, Ms. Wiseman, but I am disappointed."
"Maybe you should know why I have no use for Bob Bryson."
"Explain it to me, Ms. Wiseman."
"I was called into Mr. Bryson's office. I entered and stopped in front of
Bryson's desk, and said, 'Yes, sir'. He replied, 'I have notified personnel to
send your replacement. She will be here by 0900. I want your desk cleaned out
before then. You will then report to personnel for reassignment'. That's the
long and short of it, Mr. Garibaldi. After nine months of faithful service, in
which I gave my best efforts, I felt very rudely insulted. Especially, since
the exchange was overheard by others, and quickly made the rounds of the
office."
"I see. I really would appreciate your presence at dinner Friday."
"I have to think about it, Mr. Garibaldi."
*****************************
On Babylon 5:
Lochley had gotten dressed and went to see the mess that Zack Allan had
reported. She didn't have to go, but her curiosity got the better of her. Larry
Evans headed toward the quarters that had been assigned to Duncan Diamond,
Lyta's quarters. At least they were hers when she was on Babylon 5. He had
stayed there before and the keycode was known by all of the ambassador's senior
staff.
Evens entered the quarters and gave them the once over. The only sign that
anyone had been here in some time was a cup with some tea in it sitting on the
desk. It was fresh, so Diamond, or whoever had made it, hadn't been gone very
long. The only other thing that seemed out of place was what looked like a thin
piece of twisted metal on the front of the desk. He attempted to pick the piece
of metal up, and was shocked at how heavy it was. It was also very cold.
Hefting the piece of metal, he tried to think of what could make it so heavy.
Even pure lead would only be a fraction of the weight of this metal piece.
Taking the piece with him, he left the quarters and returned to the captain's
quarters. She hadn't returned by the time he arrived.
******************************
At the number Alpha-4 airlock in Brown-35:
"You didn't have to come down here, Captain. Everything would have been in
my report, even photographs," said Zack Allan.
"It wouldn't have been the same without the smells, Zack."
"We've used their fingerprints to try and identify them. We hit pay dirt on
two of them, and they ain't telepaths. Odds are that the other one isn't one
either."
"If they aren't telepaths, then what do you suppose this means?"
"Right now, captain, I don't have a clue. Maybe, after we do DNA typing and
run that against our unsolved cases, I might have something for you. Until
then, your guess is as good as mine."
As the last pieces of the bodies were removed, Captain Lochley had her
attention pulled to the squeaking sounds of a wet squeegee on metal as the
pools of blood were being removed from the floor.
Lochley departed the area after reminding Zack to keep her informed. As she
walked down the passageway, she realized she would never forget the sounds she
had just heard.
******************************
On Whitestar 89 in high orbit above planet Slor:
The Minbari alyt entered the bridge area of his ship. "What requires my
presence?"
"Sir, we are managing to scan areas of the planet in a manner we couldn't do
before," said Ranger Jenkins. "What we are seeing is unsettling to say the
least."
Alyt Nelan stepped over to the monitor console and studied the display. "Put
the display up on the big display."
What appeared to be translucent curtain descended at the front of the bridge
and, the scanner display appeared projected on it as a 3-D image. The image
showed a portion of a mountain range that reminded the alyt of a niek colony he
had owned when he was a child. The excavated areas were immense and there were
what looked like floors of buildings erected in many of them. He didn't doubt
for a moment that this would get a response out of IA headquarters.
"Record all of this, and open an encrypted channel to our headquarters. We
will transmit what we have as soon as the channel is established. Ranger
Jenkins! How did you manage to get the scanners to do this?"
Jenkins looked apprehensively at his alyt and responded, "I don't really
know, sir. I just pushed the keyboard buttons in a pattern and this was what
the display changed to. I have no idea why I even pushed them at all."
Alyt Nelan was confused. His men would never lie to him, yet he was seeing
their monitoring equipment perform in a manner in which it had never performed
before. He was pondering this when his engineering watch informed him that the
power consumption of the scanners had increased by almost fifty percent. In his
mind that made sense. If you were using more output power, you normally
required a higher power input.
Alyt Nelan would learn later that same day from his communications monitor
that his communications section had the ability to monitor traffic much more
efficiently. What they would learn from that would leave his blood running
cold.
***********************************
On Epsilon III:
Lyta stepped down from the machine. She looked at Draal. "What the
whitestar crew is observing will shortly be sent to IA headquarters. For the
time being I'm going to leave this to them."
"You know, Lyta, that they can't legally do anything about what is
happening on that planet," replied Draal, climbing back into the machine.
Immediately, his holographic projection appeared in front of Lyta. "Sooner or
later, you will have to become involved. If you handle it now, a lot of
Slorians will be killed, but you can set them back to, as the humans
say, 'square one'. If you let the IA handle it, they will have to do everything
short of using mass drivers to stop the Slorians. If all that fails, they will
almost surely have to destroy the planet. You might be able to keep it from
getting to that stage."
"If the IA can't handle it, I suppose I can exterminate the species, but
I'd rather not do that. What would you have me do, Draal. Reduce the mountain
range to rubble and bury the whole mess?"
"That might be a good way to approach the situation. If you can get all the
scientists, designers and engineers associated with the projects and all their
files moved into the facilities, it just might work."
"You want me to drop a whole mountain range just like that," she said,
snapping her fingers. "Have you thought about what kind of earthquake that
would generate?"
"According to the Great Machine, it would be about an eleven or twelve on
your Richter scale at the epicenter."
"Draal, and eleven will shake the whole continent very vigorously. You are
talking about major damage in practically all the cities on that continent. A
twelve will destroy everything within a fifteen hundred kilometer radius of the
epicenter. I'll go have a up close and personal look see for myself. Give me a
couple of months and I'll give you an answer."
"Give me the codes and I'll keep in contact with you when you are aboard
your shuttle."
Draal's image lurched as his mind and the Great Machine received the
requested information. Lyta vanished as easily as she had arrived. Draal felt
sorry for her. She had been given many abilities, but when he thought of what
she was being asked to do, he didn't envy her for a split second.
******************************
In Lyta's quarters:
Lyta noticed that her cup of tea was no longer on the desk and neither was
her bent metal project. She began to feel the space within her quarters. It
only took a few seconds to determine that Larry Evans had been in her quarters
since she had gone down to Epsilon III. All it took was recognizing the smell
of his cologne. [He has some gall coming in her while I was gone, and he took
my project.]
Lyta made some more tea and sat down on her sofa. She wondered what someone
was going to think when they tried to analyze the material from which her
project was constructed.
******************************
In Lochley's Quarters:
Larry Evan's looked up as Lochley came through the door. "Was it
interesting?"
"It was the messiest corpses that I've personally ever seen. The stench
had to be smelled to be believed. Zack has identified two of them. They weren't
telepaths, so we don't really expect the third one to be one either."
"If they weren't telepaths, then who were they?"
"I don't have a clue, and other than two of their names, neither does Zack
or his people, at least not yet. I think I've had all the entertainment I can
stand tonight." As she turned, she looked at her breakfast table and saw what
appeared to be a piece of bent metal. "What's that?"
"I don't have any idea. Pick it up and tell me what you think?"
Lochley tried to pick up the small bent piece of metal between her thumb
and forefinger. Her hand slipped off it. "It's very heavy. What's it made of
anyway, lead?"
"It's much too heavy for lead. You will notice it seems to be cold to the
touch. Like it was leeching the heat out of your hand."
"I'll give it to the lab boys in the morning. Maybe they can tell us what
it is."
"I found it on the desk in the quarters assigned to Duncan Diamond."
"Maybe he can tell you what it is."
"I'll ask him in the morning."
******************************
0500 in Medlab One:
Donna Howell awoke to find herself in a bed in Medlab One with a heart and
respiration monitor hooked up to her. The last thing she remembered was a man
stabbing at her with a large knife. There was intense pain then nothing until
she awoke in this bed.
A quick examination of her surroundings revealed that she was alone, and
she had no clothing to wear. She turned the monitor off then removed the
sensors from her chest and arm. Donna proceeded out of the room looking for
someone who worked in Medlab One. She saw a young man working at a computer
terminal and walked up behind him. "Can you tell me what I'm doing here?" she
asked.
The young man turned to see who had addressed him. His eyes got very wide,
and he muttered, "Oh, my God!"
"I can't seem to find my clothes," said Howell.
"Duty doctor to Medlab One, stat!" shouted the young man into a
communications device he was wearing on the left breast pocket of his smock.
Donna Howell stepped back and gave the man room enough to get out of his
chair. "How did you get out here?" he demanded. "You're supposed to be dead
already!"
"I'm very sorry to disappoint you," replied Howell.
The duty doctor and his assistant came rushing into the room. Both of them
stopped in their tracks when they saw Howell standing there. A moment later,
the doctor ran to the door of the room in which Howell had been put into last
night. The bed was empty.
"You shouldn't be out of bed," stammered the doctor. "We've been waiting
for you to die."
"So says your hired help here," replied Howell. "It hurts me to disappoint
you," she spat sarcastically. "If you will be so kind as to give me my clothes,
I'll get out of your hair."
"You can't leave," said the doctor.
"Want to bet on it? You can't keep me here against my will, and there is
nothing wrong with me."
"Ms. Howell, you don't understand. When you were brought in last night, you
were cut all to pieces," said the doctor.
"Well, thanks for the sew job, doc." She started walking toward the door.
"You can't leave without clothes, Ms. Howell," added the doctor.
"Bye, doc," said Howell over her shoulder as she pulled the medical gown
around her and left Medlab One.
"You should have forced her to stay, doctor," said his assistant. "You
can't just let her leave like that."
"Since she seems to be in good health this morning, there isn't anything I
can do to stop her."
"There must be something we can do," insisted his assistant.
"We could have been doing regular monitoring and periodic checks on her,
but instead, we just let her lay in that bed while we waited for her to die. I
would like to run a scanner over her. I'd give a year's pay to see how she was
healed," said the doctor. "I don't relish giving a report about this to Dr.
Hobbs."
******************************
In the Glenthorian Ambassador's quarters:
"Thanks for the breakfast, Harly. I finished what I needed to do. I'll be
leaving for home in an hour or so. If you have anyone who needs a ride home, I
need to know really soon."
Larry Evans chose that time to arrive in the Ambassador's quarters.
"I got a call about an hour ago from Dr. Hobbs. It seems that our telepath
Donna Howell got up and walked out of Medlab One just after 0500 this morning,"
said Harley.
"The good doctor just finished calling Elizabeth and raising all holy hell
about your failure to cooperate with her concerning Donna Howell. She is
demanding that Howell be forced to return to Medlab One," said Evans.
"I don't answer to the captain, Mr. Evans," reminded Harly, "and neither
does Donna Howell. She is an adult, and can't be forced to submit to Medlab
experiments. No one signed her into Medlab One last night. I'm truly sorry if
she had the audacity to not die as was expected, but that sounds like a
personal problem for the doctor."
"I was there when she was brought in. She was butchered up something awful.
Most of her major organs were essentially destroyed and the remainder of her
body cavity contents were cut into many pieces. It was impossible for her to
survive. That was why she was left in that room to die."
"I'm sure she is sorry to disappoint all of you, Mr. Evans, but she was
under no obligation to die simply because that's what all of you expected,"
commented Diamond. "Maybe her injuries weren't as bad as you were led to
believe."
"Dr. Hobbs is going to cause trouble over this. I just thought it would be
better if Howell cooperated."
"Better for whom, Mr. Evans?" pressed Diamond.
"Elizabeth was hoping that you would be more helpful, ambassador,"
complained Evans.
"Exactly whom do you work for, Mr. Evans?" queried Diamond. "I thought you
were on the ambassador's staff."
"I am!" said an exasperated Evans.
"You could have fooled me, Mr. Evans," continued Diamond. "Also, what were
you doing in my quarters last night? I noticed that there was a piece of art on
the desk. It seems to have gone missing. Did you take it?"
"What makes you think it was me?"
"The odor of your cologne was still in the air when I came in."
Evans glared at Diamond. "Just what is your function here, Mr. Diamond?"
"I already told you. I'm a good friend of Lyta Alexander's, and I'm looking
after some personal business for her. My relationship with her is absolutely
none of your business," Diamond replied rudely. "And, you still haven't
explained your presence in my quarters last night."
Evans got a frustrated look on his face. Seeing that he was going to make no
progress with the ambassador, and not wanting to admit he had been Duncan's
quarters, or why he had been there, he stalked out the ambassador's quarters.
"You were kind of short with him," said Harly after Evans had departed.
"I'm beginning to wonder if allowing him and Lochley to form a relationship
was such a good idea. He seems to have forgotten whom he works for."
"How much of what has transpired in the last thirteen hours or so have you
been involved in?"
"I met with the DTGT group. I fixed it so that they will return to their
real homes and infiltrate the DTGT groups there. They will spy on them and make
anonymous reports to the local police. They won't even be aware they're doing
it. With any luck, the DTGT groups will simply fade away as a result. That's
what I meant when I told you I'd handle the problem. Security will find that
the three men in that airlock were the telepath killers when all the available
evidence is fully examined. I made those three believe that they were
telepaths. It was their hatred that doomed them. Does that thought bother you?"
Harly thought it over for about a minute. "No it doesn't. From a certain
point of view, they got their just rewards. How should we handle the Howell
situation?"
"I can take her with me when I leave. We have a number of posts on other
worlds that can make use of her talents."
"I have a feeling that Captain Lochley is going to want to talk with you."
"She's not going to learn anything she doesn't already know, but if you
think it'll take any of the heat off of you, I'll do it."
Harly contacted Donna Howell and had her come to his quarters. It took only
a few minutes to verify that she had no memory of the attack after she had been
stabbed the first time, and her next memory after that one was waking up in a
Medlab One bed hooked up to a life signs monitor. She had nothing to keep her
on the station and didn't hesitate to accept the offer of an immediate transfer.
While Harly and Duncan were talking with Howell, Harly received the expected
call from Lochley.
"What can I do for you, Captain Lochley?" asked Harly.
"For starters you can have Miss Howell return to sickbay."
"Why? She seems to be in good health."
"That's the problem, ambassador. Dr. Hobbs wants to know how she managed to
regain her health."
"Surely Dr. Hobbs has only to review the records of her stay to get that
information. After all, the Medlab monitor systems seem to be very thorough. I
assume they were monitored on a regular basis."
"That's the problem, ambassador. She had only Ms. Howell's basic vital
functions being monitored. Dr. Hobbs didn't think any thing else would be
necessary, due to her injuries. No one checked on her during the night."
"What you are telling me is that because of Dr. Hobbs actions, she missed
gathering a great deal of pertinent data."
Captain Lochley looked very uncomfortable at Harly's statement.
"Unfortunately, ambassador, you are correct."
"To be honest with you, captain, I see no reason for Miss Howell to put
herself out for someone who didn't even bother to have anyone look in on her. I
realize she was expected to die, but that notwithstanding, it's not her fault
if she disappointed the good doctor and her staff."
"I can't order her to go see Dr. Hobbs, but the doctor did put a great deal
of effort into trying to save her. Would it hurt that much to give Dr. Hobbs a
blood sample and let her run a medical scanner over her?"
Harly looked at Howell with a questioning expression on his face. "I'll do
that," said Howell.
"I'll send Miss Howell down to Medlab One in a few minutes, captain. Is
there anything else I can do for you?"
"I'd like to see Mr. Diamond, if that's acceptable."
Diamond nodded yes.
"Have him come by my office in C&C, please."
**********************************
An hour later in Lochley's office:
"Mr. Diamond, you addressed the DTGT group last night. Why?
"I wasn't aware that it was illegal."
"It isn't, but I want to know what you spoke to them about."
"For what it's worth, I simply tried to convince them that what they were
doing here was not acceptable behavior. I went to great lengths to explain how
they might gain more from other less controversial endeavors. I think they may
even give my advice some serious thought."
"What do you know about the three dead men we found in airlock Alpha-4 last
night?"
"I heard about them, but that's all. Is it true that the airlock was locked
from the inside?"
"Yes, it is. I don't suppose you know anything about Donna Howell's
miraculous recovery in Medlab One last night, do you?"
"Only what Larry Evans said in the ambassador's quarters this morning."
"You accompanied her to Medlab One. Why?"
"To make sure Dr. Hobbs didn't try to bully her into anymore than what you
and the ambassador agreed upon. She will be leaving with me later today."
"I want you off my station, Mr. Diamond. I'd prefer you don't return."
"People in hell would prefer to drink ice water, captain. However, not
everyone always gets exactly what he or she wants. I'm here in a diplomatic
status, and I haven't broken or even bent any station rules or regulations. So,
don't try to threaten me, captain."
Lochley had been carefully watching Diamond's body language. The man wasn't
the least bit intimidated by her or her position. Most people would have at
least shown some discomfort at being accused of something, but not this guy.
There was something familiar in the way he responded to her, but she couldn't
pin down what it was. With her luck, it would occur to her the moment his
shuttle, or rather Lyta's shuttle, went through the local jumpgate.
"Larry showed me a piece of bent metal he found in your quarters. What is it
made of?"
"I have no idea, captain. It was on the desk when I arrived. I thought it
was a cheap art trinket that was left behind by whomever last occupied the
quarters. Is there something special about it?"
"No, not really. It just felt a bit heavy for its size."
******************************
Two hours later, Diamond, Howell, and the shuttle disappeared through the
jumpgate. As soon as the Shuttle disappeared, Lochley, watching the gate cycle
through its function, smashed her fist into the bullnose of a console. She had
remembered the last person who had behaved toward her the way Diamond
had...Lyta!
***********************
END PART 11