Chapter 4
'It has been a while.'
Welles' tone was as casual as he could make it. He could have been talking to an old friend he had not seen for years. He was not.
Slowly he approached the table at the centre of the room and sat down, not taking his eyes away from the woman before him. She was seated in a chair very similar to his, but there were strong clasps fixing her wrists and ankles to it. Neither seat was very comfortable.
'Still,' he said, continuing. 'It is good to have you back. I hope your accommodation is.... satisfactory.'
Delenn nodded slowly. 'There is no need for the.... small talk, Mr. Welles,' she said in her beautifully accented voice. 'We can proceed to business whenever you wish. I am.... ready.'
He did not reply immediately, choosing instead to look at her. She was very different from before. When he had first seen her three years ago she had been fully Minbari, an alien to him, filled with her own mannerisms and habits. The little signs that he could read in humans had not been there in her, and it had bothered him, but not unduly. He had adapted.
And then she had changed. He remembered the last time he had seen her, a twisted hybrid of human and Minbari, her wide headbone split open to reveal a tail of hair, her features distorted. He had never been entirely sure of the details of what she had gone through, but he knew that it had been.... interrupted somehow.
Looking at her now, he realised that the transformation had been completed. She was now the best of both human and Minbari. Her eyes shone with wisdom and compassion and pity.
He sat forward, resting his elbows on the table and steepling his fingers as was his habit. He seemed to be drowning in those green eyes, but they were not critical or accusatory as he had expected. They were.... patient, resigned. She expected her fate.
'Do you know what is to happen to you?' he asked at last. She blinked, once.
'I was led to believe I would not be told. Ignorance is.... a potent weapon, I believe.'
'True, in some cases. On the other hand, that is not an issue here. You are an intelligent person. I am sure you have been able to work out what will happen to you.'
'I will be.... killed, or maybe put on trial. Probably tortured.'
'The second. A trial for war crimes. The exact charges haven't been worked out yet, but they will be. The President was throwing around various ideas. Mass murder of noncombatants, torture of prisoners, use of illegal technology.'
'The Minbari never signed any treaties regarding the use of technology,' she said flatly. Welles sighed.
'True, in a legal sense, but it sounds more impressive when you list these things in threes, and the President could only think of two. It doesn't matter anyway. By the time you take the stand you'll confess to anything we want you to. You'll admit to mass murder, torture, sedition, treason, anything we care to name.'
'Mr. Welles, I will tell the truth. I will admit the things I have done, but I will not lie. I did not come here to lie.'
Come here? Implying a degree of free choice? Welles shook his head. 'You have no idea what I have been told to do to you. I.... am more than capable of torturing people, both physically and psychologically. It is not something I am proud of, but it is a necessity in the service of my people, and like all things I do I endeavour to do it well.'
'I.... am not.... afraid.'
'Oh? I am.' He rose to his feet. 'Please do not lie to me. I really do not like it, and I am in a situation where I really need to hear the truth. I have been ordered to torture you, to break you, to.... No, you do not want to know.
'For the past two years I have been trying to stop the madness that is claiming us all. I have tried, and I have failed. I don't know what Clark is planning, but between him and those.... Shadows, I am afraid there won't be another human being left alive in this galaxy by the end of the century. We made the alliance with the Shadows initially to safeguard our holdings, and to protect our people.'
Softly: 'I know.'
'But then it became a matter of taking back what was ours, taking the war to the enemy, preventing ourselves from being threatened again.' He began to walk around the room, his hands behind his back. 'And now it's.... what? I don't know. We're being pushed into war again, against someone we have no reason to fight, for an aim that's not even ours. Humanity is finally safe again, for the first time since we met you, and that madman up there is planning to plunge us into another bloody war!
'I.... cannot act alone in this. I do not know whether Clark is mad, a megalomaniac, a puppet or what, but he must be stopped, and I cannot do that alone.' He stopped next to Delenn and knelt down beside her. 'How do I contact G'Kar?'
'What?'
'Please. He knows more about the Shadows than almost anyone else. He has the power structure to help me. He can help me, I am sure of it. Where is he?'
'Kazomi Seven,' she replied. 'He and the Rangers are working with the Alliance.'
Welles bowed his head. 'Damn.... Well, that makes him the enemy.... Hah! And I really thought....'
'He is not your enemy.'
'He's with the Alliance, and Clark's pushing us to war with them. That makes him my enemy. No offence, but we've spent too long at war with aliens to believe in any chance of.... peaceful negotiations during wartime. Damn.' He shook his head.
'Mr. Welles,' she said, softly. He looked up. 'I came here willingly. I could have gone elsewhere. I could have returned to Kazomi Seven, to my friends, to.... I chose to come here. Fifteen years ago I made a mistake, and I helped create the evil in your society that you hope to fight. I came here to try to undo that.'
'How? By becoming a martyr?' The blood drained from his face. 'That's it? You were going to become a martyr.... You were willing to give your life.... why?'
'I will be given a trial, yes? It will be in public, to display your.... 'victory' over me. I will have the chance there to say.... to say sorry.'
He rose to his feet again, and continued walking. 'Yes, you will be.... but not for a while. Clark wants me to take my time. Medical tests first, and so on. He's given me complete authority to look after you. Maybe.... maybe there is still hope.
'Help me! Help me depose Clark, help me get rid of the Shadows and talk to the Alliance. Someone there must be willing to see sense and talk to me.'
'What do you plan to do?'
'I don't know. If.... no, when.... there is war with the Alliance, I'll need someone to speak up for us to them. I don't know your military might, but we have the Shadows. With them.... maybe we can win. Without them, we don't have a chance. If I get rid of the Shadows somehow.... then I'll need someone to speak to the Alliance and convince them that humanity isn't the enemy, Clark is.
'I'll need you.'
'I came to try to.... do something to purge the darkness within humanity, the darkness I put there.'
'It was always there, Delenn. Do not blame yourself for merely bringing to the fore what was already present.'
'If I can do anything to purge that, anything to help.... then I shall.'
'Good.' He sat down, almost giddy. 'I need to talk to some people, find out certain things, have a look at some reports. You've got to go for medical tests first anyway. I'll make sure they.... take a while. There isn't war yet. We have time.'
'Anything I can do to help.... I will. I believe in you, Mr. Welles. You are not an evil man.'
'You have no idea.... Anyway, there's no such thing as good or evil, there's just us. We're all evil. I must go. I'll come back later. Are you comfortable? Do you need anything?'
'I have not eaten or drunk anything for days, but I will endure.'
'Right. Try to sleep, if you can. I would undo those straps, but.... Be strong, Delenn. I think you will have an unpleasant few weeks.'
