“Ambassador Ivanova,” said Clark. “What has happened? It was you who asked us all to gather here?”

“Yes, Vice President,” she panted. “I’m sorry if this inconvenienced anyone, but this is important.” She paused, breathing in harshly. “Satai Delenn has… she has…” She was still breathing deeply, but she now had Refa’s full attention. Satai Delenn? He caught more than one glance in his direction and he knew this was information the others did not want him to have.

“She’s… I don’t know how to say it. Here. I took these pictures. Maybe these will prove it.” She laid a small object down on the table and activated it. Refa recognised a primitive form of recording and playing holographic equipment. An essential part, of course, of any politician’s arsenal.

Even he started at the image that appeared before them. Two humans lying dead. There was blood everywhere. Neither killing looked particularly clean. Refa, a master in the art of political assassination, was surprised at the unsubtlety of these deaths. Unless, perhaps, that was the point.

“Satai Delenn did this,” Ivanova said. “These were the people who had to guard her.”

“Where is Delenn now?” Clark asked.

“And how did you get hold of this?” Takashima added.

“I assume that Delenn is on board the Babylon. I don’t think she did this to escape.”

“Then why?” asked Clark.

“For this.” Ivanova fiddled with the device again and changed the image. It was of a woman who appeared to be half Minbari and half human. Refa was fascinated. He didn’t think the mix was possible, but then he realised something else.

What would Sinoval say about this?

“She took their DNA,” Ivanova said. “She’s been trying to turn herself into a human. Why, I don’t know, but I think it’s been harder than she thought. She killed the two guards, took their DNA and managed to adapt it to her own, or something.”

“If Minbari could turn themselves into humans,” Hague said. “think of what they could do. Do they have this level of technology?” He was appalled, and more than a little terrified.

“Obviously they do,” Clark said. “And she is still on the Babylon?”

“I think so.”

“May I ask how you uncovered this?” Welles said, speaking up suddenly.

“I… went up to the Babylon to consult on a few matters with Captain Sheridan,” she said. “He was not on the bridge, and so I thought he might be with Satai Delenn. He has been spending a lot of time with her recently. I went to her cell and found what I have just shown you.”

“And did you find Captain Sheridan?”

“No.”

“What about Commander Corwin?”

“Him neither.”

“This raises some very disturbing questions,” Clark muttered. “How much do Captain Sheridan and his second know about this, and where are they? Mr. Welles, bring them both here so that we can discuss this with them. And send some men up to the Babylon. Liaise with their Head of Security and find out as much as you can about this. A breach of security of this magnitude at such a critical time is very bad. If this were due to simple incompetence it would be bad enough. I dare not contemplate the other possible reason. Are you clear on this, Welles?”

“Absolutely, Vice President.”

“Sir?” spoke up Takashima. “Shall we tell the President?”

“That will not be necessary, General. She is too ill to be bothered with matters such as this.”

Refa looked at those gathered around him. He supposed it must be Lieutenant Ivanova who had sent him the message asking him to attend this meeting, but why? As he looked at her, she noticed his gaze and looked back. He smiled slightly.

There was no doubt about it. She was good. Very good. Not as good as a Centauri, but then she was only human, after all.

“So, doctor, what can you tell me?”

Dr. Kyle looked back at the slumbering form on the bed in Medlab. “I don’t know what I can tell you, Commander,” he said slowly. “Her DNA is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. A mixture of human and Minbari. It isn’t co-existing very well.”

“She wasn’t finished,” Lyta whispered from her place at Delenn’s side.

“What?” Corwin asked. “What do you know about it?”

“I don’t know. I just keep picking up stray thoughts from her. The word chrysalis, and a sense of… incompletion. Whatever she was doing, she wasn’t finished doing it.”

“Yes, what did you get from that piece of the… chrysalis thing we brought you?”

“Nothing, I am afraid, Commander.”

“Nothing?”

“It disintegrated before I had a chance to study it. It just melted away.”

“Oh great! Why did I get up this morning? For that matter why didn’t I become a dustman like my mother wanted?”

“Commander,” Kyle said, and Corwin fell silent. There was something about Dr. Kyle that made him resemble a primary school teacher. Corwin felt the urge to mutter ’Sorry, sir,’ and do a hundred lines. “Back to Delenn, I can offer no explanation as to what is happening to her. Her DNA seems stable at the moment, but her body chemistry is still very out of synch. She could collapse into a coma, or respiratory failure, or heart failure at any moment.”

“Oh, wonderful. And her… mental state?”

“A child,” Kyle said. “At the moment, anyway. She’s said nothing since she was brought here. Her brain readings are… well, strange, to say the least. I don’t know if this is permanent, temporary, natural or what. She defies analysis, Commander.”

“Can you scan her?” Corwin asked Lyta. “Try and find out… something.”

“No,” she said. “Scanning without permission is against the law.”

“That’s never stopped you before.” Lyta had several cautions for inappropriate use of her telepathic powers. “We have to know what happened to her.”

“Chrysalis. That’s all I can tell you. I won’t scan her, Commander, and you can’t make me.”

Corwin rubbed at his eyes. He was tired, he was stressed and he wasn’t cut out to be running a starship. Where the hell was Captain Sheridan?

His link beeped. “Corwin here. Is that you, Captain?”

“’Fraid not, sir,” said Zack. “There’s still no sign of him. There is another matter, though.”

“You’ve found Susan?”

“Not that either. Mr. Welles is here with a group of his own Security people, sir. The Resistance Government has heard about what happened. They want to take Satai Delenn into custody on the planet and they want you and the Captain to meet them to discuss the, ah, situation.”

Corwin closed his eyes. And he’d thought things couldn’t get worse.

Ironically, Londo’s thoughts were on Refa as he was waiting for the Emperor – may the Great Maker enable us all to actually remember his name – to rise and deign to meet him.

The assassination attempt of the night before had been greeted with another this morning – poisoned brivare. Fortunately Londo had spent considerable time memorising the taste and smell of every type of popular poison used amongst the Centauri, and he had faintly recognised the tang of lemons. Having the drink tested confirmed that it had been poisoned. Now he was definitely not happy. A second assassination attempt in two days was one thing, but having to tip out a whole vat of warm, steaming, fine brivare really annoyed him. Someone was going to pay for this.

And Londo wasn’t the only one, either. His fine network of overpaid and underworked sources had reported that Lady Drusella had eaten some very bad marnago the night before and had been afflicted with a terminal stomach ache. Since her husband had died during the War, her daughter Lyndisty now inherited the vast family fortune, at least until someone found her a husband. (Londo silently wished any husband of hers good fortune. He had known fish less wet than she was.)

This whole affair was getting serious. Centauri Prime was returning to the old ways, and this was not good. With the Narns biting at Centauri heels, and G’Kar’s Ancient Enemy growing stronger all the time – not to mention the humans and the Minbari shortly to be ripping each other apart – Centauri Prime had to be stable and orderly, and that meant having a stable and orderly ruler. Londo had tried contacting Urza, but he was on a state mission to Gorash 7 – they still called him ‘The Hero of Gorash’ and he knew how to use that hero worship. So, it was a matter to bring to the attention of the Emperor himself.