by Moyra J. Bligh
(moyra@interlog.com)
Problem was he really hadn't know exactly where, when and how his cell had gotten their hands on the device. He had eventually given up the location in Down Below where they had stashed the shifter, and contributed a couple of reasonably sound, if obscene ideas as to how she could find his buddy Tyler. The first priority, Alex decided, was to get her hands on the machine. Once she had it, she could go looking for Tyler secure in the knowledge that she had him trapped at this point in time, with no way off the station.
Lennox's instructions were not hard to follow. It took Alex only a few minutes to get to where the device was and extricate it from its hiding place. She hugged it gratefully, and stashed it deep in one of the inner pockets of her robe. Time enough to deal with its disposal once she found Tyler and got the information she needed from him.
By the time she arrived back in the market it was buzzing with rumors of a big arrest. Scraps of conversation drifted out of the general hubbub and she strained to listen.
".... think it's the guy who got her....."
".... heard it was in Grey Sector...."
".... not only that, he had no Identicard...."
".... got him half an hour ago in the Zocalo..."
".... looked guilty to me...."
".... fit Sheridan's description...."
".... been an hour they been keeping him on ice...."
".... dressed the same way...."
"There he is, on the screen, there's the guy they got."
Alex turned in the direction of the outstretched finger and caught the image of him on the Comm-Screen just long enough to be really sure it was Tyler they were holding. "Shit," she said, "oh, shit." And then added a couple of really choice words under her breath in Feek for good measure. There was only one man in the Universe who could help her now, and only one way she could think of to get to him.
John took a very good look at the man in the cell, he was not Delenn's attacker, John was positive of that. The clothes were similar, but this one was stockier, heavier. `No coincidences' he thought.
"It's not him, Zack," he said. "but I don't want him going anywhere for a while."
"I agree Captain. He has no Identicard, his fingerprints are not in any Database, and he won't tell us who he is, where he's from or how he got here."
Ivan Cole did not look up from the book he was reading when Alex flashed back onto the flightdeck. He was getting used to this.
"So, fill me in." he said.
"The good news is that I found Lennox, removed him and recovered the device from 2261." She tossed it onto the floor in front of him.
"And the bad news?"
"Lennox didn't know how, where or when they'd acquired the damn thing in the first place. And Tyler, who from what I got from Lennox, does know, is in the Brig."
Ivan's head came up fast. "You can't jump back in and grab him before Security gets him I suppose?"
"Have no idea when or where they got him, the market's buzzing with a dozen different rumors, and I can't exactly walk up to Zack Allan and say `Hi, remember me?'"
"Crap," he said "oh, crap." She leaned across the control panel and got right in his face.
"Now remind me why the hell I can't simply jump in there, grab him, and jump back out, and spare me the techno-jargon."
"The energy involved with even a single jump is phenomenal, to jump in and out generates not twice but four times the energy of just jumping. That coupled with the alloy used in the walls of the cells and their confined space is, well, explosive. One of two things could happen, either you'll blow a hole through the station the size of a small house, or both you and Tyler will fry in the backflash."
"Then the way I see it we've only got two choices. One - we wait until they let him out, which won't be soon. He has no Identicard and he's dressed the same way Baker was, so they probably think he's got something to do with the Ambassador's disappearance. I don't think we have the luxury of that much time, and we don't know what he's going to say to them. Two - we go to the man in charge, the only guy who can overrule Security, and ask for his help."
"What are you, nuts?!" exclaimed Ivan. "What the Hell are you going to do, walk into his office and say, `Hello, I'm your granddaughter, I live sixty years in the future and I need to get someone out of your Brig.' There's no way in a thousand years he'd listen to you."
"No, but he'll listen to her. And I believe I just might be able to get her to listen to me. Faith manages."
"I do not want to hear this." John said. "I will not hear this. I will not accept that she is gone forever."
Alex breezed into the medical facilities on her ship and stopped beside her grandmother's bed.
"I need your help." she said breathlessly. It took Delenn a moment to realize that the female garbed as an Acolyte was her granddaughter.
"Mine? How and for what?"
"Because you may be the one person who can convince John Sheridan that I am who I say I am, and to give me what I need. And you're already inside the loop, so to speak, so we won't have to drag anyone else into this little mess." She sank into the chair next to the bed. "It doesn't matter what I tell you now, if I succeed in doing what must be done, you won't remember any of it because this conversation will have never taken place. If I fail, none of what I tell you will matter a rat's ass, because it will never happen."
"Rat's ass?"
"Three weeks ago my father, your eldest son, received a report from one of his sources that a small cell within the Neo-Nightwatch organization had managed to secure a time shifting device, with the intention of coming back to 2261, and making sure that you and John Sheridan would never marry. A source within the Ranger Organization reported the same thing two days later. He also filled in the details of exactly where and how they planned to kill you."
"Oh."
"Needless to say, this bothered Dad and the rest of the family a lot, because if the plan succeeded none of us would have ever existed, but more importantly because all the timelines in the Universe would have been corrupted in ways that they should not have been."
"The rest of the family?"
"I'll get to that later, I promise. Okay?"
"Okay."
"The original plan was that we were supposed to come in and scoop you out of the Zocalo, before Baker, the guy with the knife, got to you. As you know now I was a little late, that was the first problem. The devices are tricky to calibrate especially when you're jumping in and out and I didn't feel I could try another run at it, because I didn't want to take the chance of coming in even later and not being able to save you. We would have kept you with us for a few hours our time, and once we'd dealt with the other two men, popped you back into the Zocalo about thirty seconds after you left."
"And the second problem?"
"I got word from Dad that these people had, before they'd jumped into 2261 gone somewhere in the future and for lack of a better idiom a `planted a timebomb'. He wasn't real specific, I'm not sure he's got a lot of details himself, but he and the En'til'zha have decided I have to find out where and when the crazies got the device and go there and stop that from happening."
"No doubt, a difficult task."
"Yeah, well, I found the second guy in the group, Lennox, and he doesn't know, where or when. Tyler the jerk who apparently does know is now in the brig, which brings us to the big problem. We can't jump into the brig, grab him and jump back out, I don't understand all the rules of the game myself, but it has to do with the amount of energy generated with a double jump, the confined space and the stuff the walls are made of. And I can't grab him before security gets him because I don't know where or when they got him."
"So you need John to get you past Security in order that you can remove Tyler from his cell and find out what he knows."
"Got it in one."
"And the rest of the family?" Alex knew the minute Delenn asked that question that her grandmother had made up her mind and that there was no doubt she would have the help with John Sheridan that she needed.
"You have three sons and two daughters. Your eldest, David, my father is the elected President of the Earth Alliance, your middle son, your third child is one of the nine of the Grey Council on Minbar. You also have fifteen grandchildren, scattered across the galaxy, all told we're a pretty impressive lot. Which, people keep telling me, is not surprising considering the genetic legacy we carry."
"So, how did this task come to fall on your shoulders?"
"I fight with a pike better than anyone else in the family," she paused and looked at the woman who would become her grandmother, "and it is generally accepted that I will be En'til'zha after you." Delenn's eyes widened. "I guess I'm following in your footsteps and not Dad's."
"I need to know one thing. Did I make that choice for you? Did I push you into becoming a Ranger?"
"You never pushed me into anything. You just loved me, and set a good example by always trying to do the right thing, even when those choices were hard. You..., she..., oh hell. She's been the single biggest influence on my life. I've always lived with her, well at least as long as I can remember. Mother was killed when I was barely two, and Dad and I went home to live with her. He remarried when I was nine and I chose to stay with my her. Not that I don't love Janet, I do, it's just that, as Dad says, you and I are linked in some strange way that no one quite understands."
"Okay," said Ivan "lets run this through one more time to make sure we've all got everything straight. Can't afford any screwups."
"No sir," said one of the young crewmen.
"Franklin and his assistant will take the Ambassador directly from the facilities on the ship to her quarters on the station. They'll make sure she's okay and comfortable and then jump back here to the flightdeck." He looked at Franklin who nodded. "We'll pass the device to Alex who will then jump back to the Minbari Ambassadorial quarters on the station."
"That's the easy part." said the doctor.
"What's critical," said Ivan, "is making sure we grab Tyler when our illustrious leader gets him back here. The device will be set to return them here, to the flightdeck, in exactly two hours. I want every last one of you back here at least twenty minutes before that happens. Got it?"
John felt the hand on his arm and turned to see the same young Acolyte he had encountered in Down Below earlier. Her hands together in the Minbari gesture of respect she bowed to him gracefully, then reached into her sleeve and extracted a folded piece of paper which she held out for him. He took it from her, she bowed again and was gone.
Unfolding the piece of paper his heart leapt with hope. The flowing scroll was most certainly Delenn's, he'd have known it anywhere.
John
You must trust me now as you have never trusted me before. Please be assured that I am safe and in no danger. The light you saw in the Zocalo was a timeflash.
Wait a few minutes and then join me in my quarters. Tell no one that you have heard from me. I will explain all when you get here. It is imperative that you come alone, much depends on this.
Delenn
The possibility certainly existed that this was a trap, but his gut feelings were telling him that it wasn't. Timeflash...., suddenly some of the things that had happened this evening were starting to make sense. There would be no need to set a trap for him, if someone who wanted to harm him possessed those capabilities. He read the note again slowly, trying to see if she had tried in any way to tip him off to waiting danger. No alarm bells rang in his head.
He spoke into his link. "This is Captain John Sheridan. I want to record a time delayed message for Security Chief Allan.....
Lennier did not recognize the Acolyte who passed him in the hallway of the Green Sector. `Strange,' he thought to himself `I wonder where she could be going.' He thought to follow her, but he himself was late.
The door chimed as it opened and John stepped warily into the dimly lit room. As his eyes began to grow accustomed to the twilight he heard her voice and his heart soared with the relief that she was truly alright.
"Are you alone?" she asked.
"I am."
"And no one knows that you and I are here."
"Not yet, but I've left a delayed message for Zack...."
"Cancel it." She said in that voice he knew would accept no argument. He hit the button on his link and did as she asked, then crossed to where she lay and knelt beside the couch.
"You're hurt. Oh my darling." He said, his heart breaking. She reached out and took his hand to reassure him.
"I am all right, John. Just believe me when I say that there are bigger things at stake than my health at this moment...."
"What could possibly be more important..."
"Listen to me John, simply listen, there are things we must tell you before we enlist your help in this."
"We?" He turned as Alex opened the sliding doors from the sleeping area and entered the room. The young woman in the baseball cap did not, at that moment, seen menacing.
"John Sheridan, I would like to introduce you to our granddaughter Alexandra." His evening had just progressed from illogical to insane. Well aware that Minbari did not lie, except to save another, he had no reason to doubt Delenn's words, but his own mind simply could not grasp how this could be possible. John looked at Delenn astonished.
"I need to know how you are sure that she is who she says she is."
"Many things John, the baseball cap neatly hides a bone crest, slighter than mine, but there none the less. More importantly she has your eyes, I saw that before I knew who she was. And she knows things that she could not possibly know unless she was who she is." Alex crossed her hands in the Minbari gesture of respect and bowed to him.
"And walks like her grandmother," he said recognizing her as the Acolyte he'd seen earlier. She nodded.
"Well that explains why you stopped me."
"So tell me, why do you need my help?"
"There's a gentleman in your brig I need to have a conversation with. He's one of three men, assigned to travel from my time to 2261 to, among other things, kill your wife before she can become your wife." Something about the look on his face prompted Delenn to speak.
"She saved my life, John. She jumped in and grabbed me and jumped back out again before Baker could finish what he was sent to do."
"And Baker is now where?"
"Uh, well," Alex paused, thinking about the best way to phrase it, "he isn't. He didn't belong in this time, so I removed him, and also Lennox who was the second member of the group."
"Assuming you can jump in, grab someone, and jump back out again, why don't you do this with the man we're holding? Why come to me?"
"Security on Babylon 5 is apparently one of the few places we can't do that, something to do with the size of the cells, the material in the walls and the energy generated in a double jump. I can get in, or I can get out, but I can't do both without blowing a hole through the station."
"We couldn't have held him forever, why not wait?"
"Because, I need to know as soon as possible, exactly when and where they got their time-shifter so I can prevent that from happening. Between that moment and now they've done something else so that if this plan failed they'd have a jump-in point from the future, but we don't know how far in the future, or how much time we're playing with. All I know for sure is that I'm fighting for the existence of myself and everyone in my family."
"Are you sure of this?" he asked.
"The information's good, Captain. So far everything has happened exactly as the informant said. Dad's sources.... "
"David." John murmured. Delenn looked up at him stunned.
"In Valen's name, how....?!"
"Did I know." he finished for her. "When I was unstuck in time on Babylon 4...."
"John Sheridan, you have never mentioned to me that we will have children".
"Child," he said, "mentioned it to you, yet."
"Children." said Delenn.
"Uh, actually, you didn't ever mention it to her, she found out that you knew when she told you, meaning `the you' who was unstuck in time, in your cell on Centauri Prime." She paused as they both looked at her. "Getting a little difficult to tell all the players without a program, isn't it?"
"Children?" said John.
"Children." said Delenn. "Five."
Tyler cursed his luck. It had to have been at least an hour since he had missed the rendezvous with Lennox. Surely by now the little asshole would have had the time to find out where he was, his arrest hadn't exactly been a big secret, and to have used the device to get him out of this hole. All the little shit had to do was jump in, grab him and jump back out. He'd spent enough time in his life cooling his heels in places like this.
"Well," John said, "despite the fact that this has to be the most utterly unbelievable story I have even heard, I'll go clear it with Zack. How we're ever going to explain all this...."
"You won't have to." He looked at Alex quizzically. "If I prevent them from getting the device, then none of this will ever happen. You will have no memories that I have ever been here, because I won't have been."
"She's right, John." He thought about it for a moment and nodded.
"Tricky stuff, this. How you ever keep it all straight..." Bending down, he kissed Delenn gently on the forehead." I'll be back before you know it, my love." He looked at Alex. "Fifteen minutes give you enough time to get back into you disguise?" Alex nodded. "Good, then meet me in my office as soon as you're ready."
"Thank you." Alex said to his departing form. "I guess I'd better go change." By now, the skullcap was almost second nature and it only took a moment for her to resume her alter-ego. She went and sat on the floor beside where her grandmother lay. "You'll be okay until your Captain gets back?" she asked softly.
"I think you both worry too much, I'll be fine. I am concerned about you and what you must do next."
"You'll have time enough to worry about that in sixty years, or not, if I succeed. No need to borrow trouble."
"I have faith that you will. I'm truly beginning to understand why you were chosen for this mission." Alex leaned against the couch, shut her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Smells like home." she said and suddenly home seemed very far away, there was so much to do if she had any hope of ever getting back there. "I think the time has come for me to go. Hopefully, the next time you see me I'll be less than twelve hours old," she said as she stood up and headed for the door.
Delenn smiled. "I'm looking forward to that."
"Well you might not be, if you had any idea what kinds of hell I'll put you through, between then and now." She turned at the door and paused. "May God stand between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk."
"That's John's blessing."
"It's the family's." And she was gone.
Zack looked at Marcus and shook his head.
"The captain's up to something. He's bringing someone down who he says knows who this jerk is and exactly what to do with him. And he wants a minimum of my staff here at the time. I don't get it, I don't get it at all.... unless he's gone mad like the rest of the universe."
Alex met her grandfather in his office and they walked together down to Security.
"If you succeed in what you need to do, will you remember what has happened here?" he asked.
"I will, I'll be the only one."
"Would you give her a message for me?" he asked, showing her the datacrystal in his hand.
"Of course, it will mean a lot to her. Oh, she'll give me what for I'm sure, I'm probably breaking some rule about transporting things across time barriers."
"If it's a problem...."
"Captain," she said smiling, her hand outstretched, "I have never lived my life by other people's rules." He dropped the datacrystal into her palm.
"I'm sorry I won't live long enough to know you."
"Me too, Captain, me too. Thanks to her you've been a part of my life, all of my life, and I am so glad I got this chance to meet you, even if my memories will be of something that never happened."
"Strange position to be in."
"Goes with the territory, I suppose."
They continued in silence into Security.
"Mr. Allan," he said "this is the young female I was telling you about, if you could let her in to our John Doe's cell."
"Certainly, Captain." he opened the door and she stepped through. Tyler looked up as the door closed and saw the young Minbari.
"Alien freak." he spat at her. She put her hand on his shoulder and activated the device. The blinding flash of white light drew both of the men's eyes up to the screen of the View-Cam. The cell was now empty.
"What the hell???" Zack wrenched the door back open.
"Don't ask," John said to his Chief of Security "you don't want to know."
"Yes Captain. I'm quite sure I don't."
"Incoming." yelled Ivan as the flash began on the flightdeck. Alex's crew grabbed Tyler and slammed him onto the metal decking.
"Hello," she said as she stood over him and removed her hood and skullcap. "I'm you're worst nightmare."