Boggs knew about Marcus Cole. Another traitor. Just another traitor on top of so many others, selling out humanity.

“I’ll tell you this,” he rasped. “He’s probably wishing he was where you are right now, that he is.”

Lyta’s eyes widened. He was lying – he did not know where Marcus was – but without her powers, she could not sense much. Just a normal person. Without her power, she was just a normal person.

His next kick broke two ribs.

Marcus bowed his head. “Where is she?” he asked again. “Where is she?!”

Susan Ivanova, Shadow agent, Ambassador, humanity’s last, best hope, and Marcus’ captor, simply smiled.

And kissed him again.

Corwin walked back to the docking bays of the Babylon in a pensive mood. Very pensive.

After his meeting with Garibaldi, he had wandered around the complex for a while. He had found himself surprised by the number of people there. Most were human, but many were Narns. Since somewhere like this could not remain secret for long with regular visitors coming in and out, they had to live here, which meant they worked for Bester. Scientists, perhaps, working to create Narn telepaths?

He had been hoping for a meeting with Captain Ben Zayn, but he learned from Garibaldi that Ben Zayn and Harriman Gray had gone out on the Ozymandias. Garibaldi would not say why, and he had decided not to ask why a valuable P10 telepath was being sent out on a heavy destroyer class cruiser.

And then he had been linked by Garibaldi. Bester wanted to see him and the Captain in three hours. He had cursed silently and then said they would be there. He just wished he could have more time to talk to the Captain. He hadn’t seen him in almost a day, but he doubted Sheridan would be in any mood for company. When the euphoria of battle ended, he was usually withdrawn and sullen. Combine that with the fact that he had recently killed his wife, and the Captain would not be in the mood for conversation.

Anna had been given a simple funeral. Sheridan hadn’t attended, and hadn’t even mentioned her to Corwin, save for a curt, “Do what you think is best,” when Corwin had brought up the subject.

Lieutenant Stephen Franklin was waiting for him in the docking bays, as he had requested. He greeted the lieutenant with a nod, and then went straight to business. “Did you see him?”

“I tried, sir.”

“And?”

“He asked who I was, and when I told him he said nothing.”

“He is still in his room, then?”

“Yes, sir.”

Corwin had anticipated this happening. He wasn’t sure if the Captain was drunk or not – after seeing Anna’s alcoholism first hand for so long, he would have thought the Captain would have stayed away from drink, but this was hardly an everyday occasion.

“Commander, I’d like a word with you… in private, if possible.”

Corwin looked around at the largely empty docking bays. The only person in sight was Neeoma Connally, the Starfury pilot who had been docking her ’Fury after a routine patrol when Sheridan and Corwin had taken the Babylon away from Proxima.

“This looks pretty private to me,” he said, walking hurriedly to the exit of the docking bays. “What is it?”

“A few of the people came up to me. They want to know what’s going on.”

Corwin came to a halt, and turned. “Go on,” he said carefully.

“We’ve abandoned Proxima, none of us knows why, or what’s been happening. We hear you and the Captain are up for treason, and then there’s… well…”

Corwin knew what he was getting at. “Go on,” he said darkly.

“There’s her… Why is she still with us? This is about her, isn’t it? She’s one of them, Commander, one of the enemy.”

Corwin raised an eyebrow. This was strange talk coming from someone who had trained as a doctor, someone who had, technically, committed treason by refusing to turn over his medical notes on Minbari biology. But then the Minbari had killed his father, and things changed. War changed many things.

“We’ve all left behind our friends, and what family we have on Proxima, sir. We’ve left them defenceless there. We can’t do that, whatever’s going on between you, the Captain and the Resistance Government.”

“Proxima is hardly alone,” Corwin reminded Franklin. Indeed not. They had the Shadows, didn’t they? They had the… things that had corrupted the Resistance Government.

“It doesn’t feel right, sir. We can’t talk to the Captain about it, so I’m asking you. Please. Talk to the Captain. You can work this out with the Resistance Government, but we can’t abandon Proxima like this. We’ll all be outlaws now unless we go back.”

“I see, lieutenant. Since when did it become your place to say what the Captain should or should not do? Since when did you become an expert on what the Resistance Government will or will not do? And if I could talk to the Captain, then do you think I would have asked you to try and do so? I don’t know much more than you do, but I trust the Captain, and you should

Delenn hovered outside Captain Sheridan’s door, hesitating to enter. She remembered the rage in his eyes the last time they had been together. She remembered his angry words.

‘Throw her in the brig! Throw her out of an airlock! Just get her out of my sight!’

She paused, and winced at a sharp pain in her head. She had been experiencing such twinges ever since her premature exit from the chrysalis, but they were getting worse.

She saw Corwin move forward slightly, but then she raised a hand, and he stopped. He had come to her, he had trusted her, Captain Sheridan needed her.

In times of great grief, Minbari often fasted for weeks at a time. Their bodies could handle such starvation. Human bodies could not. But there was another, greater problem, a cancer of the soul. She had to excise it, or it would consume and destroy him.

She nodded briefly. Corwin placed his card in the door and activated the override code. The door opened.

Delenn breathed in harshly and stepped inside.

The door closed after her.

She had been in John’s quarters aboard the Babylon a few times before, although they had never looked so small. Or so dark. Sheridan was sitting on his bed, staring at a glass that was resting on his bedside table. The glass was half full of a dark brown drink. She recognised the smell of alcohol.

“I knew you would come,” he said suddenly. His voice was not angry, or bitter, or hollow, but… resigned. He looked haunted, as if he were reliving that moment over and over again.

“I know the way David thinks, you see. I can’t stay in here forever, and I certainly can’t come out by myself. He can’t talk to me. He can’t shout at me, and swear at me and tell me all the things I need to be told to shake myself out of this. Why? Because I’m the Captain. I outrank him, I’m his superior officer, his… he’s been with me for over ten years, ever since the Battle of Mars. Normal Earthforce promotions and transfers pretty much stopped with the fall of Earth, you see.

“No, David couldn’t come himself, and nor could anyone else. Except for you.

“So, go on. Tell me what you came to say. Try and convince me that it wasn’t my fault. Try and convince me it was an accident. Try and convince me whatever you like.”

Delenn swallowed slowly. Her head was aching again. She slowly knelt down opposite him, but not too far away. She stared at his face. Her vision swam for a moment, but she blinked, and it righted itself.

She absurdly wished she was wearing something else. Her only clothing was the torn medical gown she had been given after emerging from the chrysalis. It did not feel right to her, to wear so little.

“I cannot do that,” she whispered. “Only you can.”

“Of course, that’s right. I’m the one who got myself into this mess. I’m the one who has to get myself out of it. Well, what if I don’t want to? What if I’m just tired of always being the hero, always being the Captain? What if…? Aw hell, what’s the point? What would you know?”