Gray shook his head and decided not to mention Susan again. Bester didn’t have to know about his personal life, although he might have already found out about his crush on Susan during that unexpected mind-scan. Well, thought Gray, he was on a new assignment and headed back to B5, and that was all that was important.

The young man chanced another look out the window. Half of the hotel on the great ridge was illuminated again, which was encouraging. The emergency systems and airlocks must have kicked in. Best of all, thought Gray, the voices had died to a whimper.

“Do you think the Mars separatists did that?” he asked softly.

“Who else?”

“I wonder how many people died in that explosion?” Gray mused.

Bester closed his eyes. “I counted twenty-six.”