Chen only nodded.
The being who had once looked human was tied to a chair, its head held steady by a young woman. A telepath. She looked at Chen and flashed him a quick, welcoming smile. He smiled back, a little nervously.
Talia was there, staring at the thing, her arms folded. She looked up as Chen and Ben Zayn arrived.
'All yours,' he said. 'Are you sure you want to do this?'
'We have to keep trying.'
'You mean keep running the risk of burning out? How many times have you done this, and what have you found?'
'Which is why we have to keep trying. I've seen what they do to us, Ari, what they did to Al and Harriman and Byron and all the others. We have to know as much as we can about them to stop them, and that means this.'
'Fine. You're still the boss, but I'll be ready.'
Talia nodded, and turned to Chen. 'You wanted answers? This is a way you can get them. It won't be easy. It will hurt, and it could even kill you. I don't believe in lying to you.
'But it is necessary, and then you'll understand. You have to understand before you can really be a part of us, before you can see the artefact.
'Do you want to do this?'
'What are we going to do?'
'Go inside that thing's mind. Try to invade the network.'
Chen looked at it again, and then back to Ben Zayn. The man's face was twisted into a sneer, exaggerated by his scar. He would not be thought weak by a mundane, not in front of his own kind.
He nodded.
Moreil walked through the ashes of chaos, savouring the feel of the choked air in his mouth and the touch of the blood-soaked earth through his fingers.
He had not come to invade, or to conquer, or to subjugate. Some of his companions had sought riches, or captives, or even the love of killing, but not him.
For him there was only the joy of bringing chaos, only the joy of serving his Dark Masters.
The fight had been easy, so incredibly easy. The planet had hardly been protected at all, a half-repaired defence grid and a handful of antiquated ships. None of it was any match for the renegades, the Order of the Wolf, or the Brotherhood Without Banners, or the Imperial Order, or whatever they were called.
Then they had gone to the surface, to the capital, and the true destruction had begun.
They had killed some, they had taken some, but most they had left alive to spread the tales, so that everyone would know who had done this. And that, Moreil knew, was what most of them wanted. They spoke of riches and revenge and power, but all they really wanted was to be known and feared, to be people of influence, to have their names sung and whispered.
An elderly Centauri woman was crying, screaming at him, interrupting his walk and his meditations. Moreil remembered her. Rem Lanas had taken her daughter, and the Wykhheran had torn apart her bond-partner and feasted on him.
'Devil!' she cried. 'The Gods will destroy you! They will come down from the heavens and destroy you with holy fire. You will all burn when the Light comes. All of you!' She was crying. 'You will all burn.'
Moreil stopped and looked at her. She was old, and looked weak. He could have snapped her in half without trying, and his Wykhheran would barely have made a mouthful of her.
He bent down and touched her face, moving his claws gently across her cheek, being careful not to draw blood. He was taking extra care. Some races were just so fragile.
'I am Moreil,' he said, speaking in her barbaric and uncivilised tongue. 'Your Gods are dead.'
Then he set her aside and continued walking. He would not be here long. They had done what they came here for. Gorash was not completely ravaged, but it was enough for now. They had sent a warning to the galaxy that they existed, and that was a start.
Next time, they would turn their attention somewhere bigger.
Delenn awoke from yet another dream, the latest of many. It seemed that ever since she had moved to this station she had not slept well. John was not there. It seemed he was rarely there when she awoke. She was not a late sleeper, but he was always up before her.
But this was the middle of the night.
She rose and walked into the next room. Space on Babylon 5 had been at a premium, and although the rooms she and John possessed were the largest, they were still far smaller than the ones she had had on Kazomi 7.
John was there, standing still, as if he were a statue. A candle was burning just in front him, and he was staring into it as if nothing else existed.
Delenn shivered, and looked at the wall. Space was beyond there, an infinity of it. An infinity of nothing.
'Remember,' she whispered.
But remember what? It appeared that all of them had forgotten so much, so very much.
'Welcome to Babylon Five,' she said. There was a meeting tomorrow morning, a meeting of the Alliance Council. It was likely to be a difficult affair. There were so many new faces, and so many of the old ones were gone.
She did not know how long she stood there, simply staring into space. When she finally returned to bed, she looked at John.
He had not moved. Not a muscle.
She sighed, and returned to an uneasy sleep.
Chapter 2
She was transported to a world consisting entirely of pain. It was not in one place, it was everywhere. She saw nightmares come to life. She heard the voice of the man talking to her, telling her to call him 'my lord', telling her to do things.
She said nothing. She did nothing. She merely resisted as best as she could, and screamed when she could not. But he had not yet forced her to surrender, not yet forced her to beg. That was the only power she had now, the only power she could ever have now.
She knew all about power. She had grown up at its nexus, a daughter of the Centauri Royal Court. Her father had wielded power, so had her mother, but it had done neither of them any good. Her father had been murdered, regardless of the power he had commanded, and her mother had died somewhere, alone, anonymous. She must have hated that.
No, she had thought she understood power, but it was only now that she truly did. Power was to seize upon something and declare that that was something she would or would not do, for no other reason than because it suited her. She would not scream, she would not beg, and she would not call him 'lord'. He would have to kill her before she did any of these things.
That was the only power she wielded now.
There were others she saw, although whether they were real or nightmare she did not know. A Narn woman came and watched her often. There was a human as well, who carried a large knife, constantly sharpening it. These she was fairly sure were real and not hallucinations.
But there was something else, an alien. It had a sharply angular head, and large eyes. It never stayed long, and it always looked at her closely, as if peering through her. Behind it something moved and shimmered, but she could never be sure if that was real or merely lights dancing in front of her eyes.
She was forgetting too much. She was beginning to forget what Gorash had been like before they had come. She had even forgotten why she was there. She only remembered one thing.
She would not give him what he wanted.
Senna of House Refa, daughter of Emperor Refa, had that much power at least.
