survived. They had done what they had come for, and so they left.
Most of the other ships had managed to escape also, although a terrible toll had been exacted on those who had failed. A huge mass of metal, rock, the cries of the dead…. They all hung together, a testament to the futility of their deaths.
Alone in the middle of the desolation, the temporal rift was still shining. It was shaking and trembling, but it was still open. A lifeline to the past, a prayer for the future.
Somewhere within that rift lay the reason for all the bloodshed. No one knew how long it would remain open, or whether there would be enough time for those inside it to reach their destination.
And somewhere, out amidst the devastation of the battlefield, there lay the body of one Captain John Sheridan.
It was two years in the past, and he was younger then. He was still alive as well, uninfected by the terminal virus implanted by Deathwalker, his wife still alive, still a champion of his people, a hero.
John Sheridan knew nothing of his destiny as he walked slowly across the docking bays of the station he knew had never been built. He was troubled and concerned, and still only gradually warming to the presence of the woman at his side: Delenn, still Satai of the Minbari, still fully Minbari, she had not yet gone through her ordeal caught between races, or the horrors of the Drakh occupation of Kazomi 7, or the sight of her beloved Minbar in ruins.
They were expected, and both parties were secretly waiting and watching. Susan Ivanova, accompanied by invisible mentors who whispered to her in her mind. She knew what she had to do, but she also knew who was to blame. Sheridan had…. betrayed her. He had killed Anna, and she had liked Anna, really truly liked her. And yet her masters were telling her that Sheridan was to be kept alive. Another was the true threat.
It was all very confusing.
And the others, Valen and Zathras and the remainder of their Narn bodyguard — they were making for the docking bays, waiting for the help they knew would arrive. Valen wanted something more than help, however. He wanted to see one person who had shown him a great deal, and helped him, ever so slightly, to accept his destiny.
John Sheridan suddenly cried out and reeled back against the wall. Delenn caught him, but he seemed to be muttering something to himself. Valen sighed, and stepped back. He knew what it was. A time flash, a temporal jump, to relive events from the past or to experience brief glimpses of the future. They had all been witnessing such phenomena when the station had been orbiting Epsilon 3. Now they had their temporal stability discs, which should protect them from such things.
Sheridan blinked and started, resting against the wall. 'What happened?' Delenn asked him.
'I…. I don't know. I was reliving my wedding. It's like I was there, but it was nine years ago. I don't understand.'
Valen breathed out slowly, and went forward to his destiny. Zathras walked beside him, but Ta'Lon and the other Narns remained in the shadows. There was no telling what might be waiting. 'It's been happening to all of us,' Valen said, walking towards them. 'Flashes, forwards or back.' Sheridan's eyes were narrowing, but he did not reach for a weapon. He looked…. so very different. But then, Valen had seen him only seldom two years in the future.
'Greetings, both of you. I welcome you to this place.' Delenn gasped softly. Ah, she knew now. 'I am called Valen.'
Sheridan shook his head, and as he did so he caught a glimpse of the figure by Valen's side. 'Zathras! But…. what are you doing here? You stayed on the planet with G'Kar!'
'Ah, no, Captain. Zathras is being very sorry, but Zathras last seen you many years ago, yes. Time has passed, yes. Much time. In your years….'
'Zathras!' snapped Valen. Sheridan and Delenn were not to know. They deserved some hope for the future at least.
'Ah yes, Zathras know, Zathras not supposed to talk about time. Zathras not supposed to talk about anything. Zathras supposed to shut up. Zathras is being shutting up. There. Zathras is shut up.'
'I thank you both for coming,' Valen repeated, ignoring his companion's tantrum. 'We need your help, but first you have to understand. You have to….'
Sheridan blinked, and cried out.
There was a blur of movement, and a hissing, screaming noise. Valen started and turned. Ta'Lon burst from the shadows, his sword flashing. There was a burst of PPG fire. Valen staggered back. 'They're here,' he whispered. He could see Delenn directly in front of him. She was trying to grab Sheridan, who was shaking in the grip of another time flash.
'Shadows here,' Zathras snapped. 'We be going now. Very quickly.'
Something shimmered into view just in front of them. Reaching out, Valen seized hold of Delenn's sleeve and began to run in the direction of the corridor. Zathras followed, sniping around their heels. Ta'Lon moved to help Sheridan, but the shimmering form of the emerging Shadows cut him off. There was a hint of a human moving as well.
The four of them managed to reach the corridor, Ta'Lon and his Narns trying to hold off the Shadow attack as the others gained ground. 'We cannot just leave him,' Delenn was saying.
'They won't kill him,' he reassured her. 'It's me they want — me and you. You have to understand, Delenn. There's a lot I have to show you, and not much time. You told me about this, and now I have to do what you said I did. I have to….'
She blinked, and was lost to him. She stiffened, and would have fallen if he had not caught her. Holding her as best he could, he continued to run. 'Time flash,' Zathras said. 'This is…. not good. Very strange also. Should not be happening this often. Perhaps…. temporal rift is not working as well as it should. Zathras is not being liking the sound of that, no.'
'You are not alone,' Valen replied. 'But we can do nothing about that now.'
They stopped running at last, and waited to catch their breath. Delenn remained under the spell of the time flash, and he began to worry. This was too long. 'What is happening to her?' he asked Zathras.
'Is…. difficult to tell, with truth. Rift is not acting as it should. Not that Zathras can tell for sure, though, since Zathras has never been back in time before, but…. this should not be happening.'
'Maybe the battle is going badly.'
'Is one possibility, yes. Is not very pleasant possibility. Is….'
Delenn stirred. 'Valen's Name,' she whispered. Her eyes opened and she looked around, confused.
'It was bad, wasn't it?' he asked. 'I've never seen anyone down for that long.'
She raised her hands to her forehead, and felt carefully around the edges of her bone crest. 'Was…. was that an image of what will happen, or of what might happen?'
'We don't know,' he replied. 'We've all had images of the past, images that were surprisingly accurate.' He remembered uncomfortably the sound of Marrain's last words to him, witnessed in a time flash just before the station entered the rift. Another failure brought home to him. 'Of the future…. none of us can be certain.'
'I saw…. I saw….'
'Don't tell me, Delenn,' he said swiftly. 'I must not know. It is not for me to know.' One more hint of a future he would never see. One more unanswered question.
'You know my name,' she suddenly breathed in wonder. 'You…. know my name.'
'Of course,' he replied smiling. 'And you know mine. Or you will. We brought this station from your future, to take it a thousand years into the past. I wrote myself a letter then, telling myself of what will happen.' He had, a letter brought to him by Kosh when he arrived at the station. How Kosh had obtained it, he had no idea. He had read it, and was disheartened. It told him things he already knew, but it did something to assuage his doubts, even if only a little.
'I wrote you a letter as well, although I don't know whether you ever received it. I came here for your help, Delenn — yours and Sheridan's. Now I think I may have come here to help you. Do you know what you have to do?'
'Yes,' she breathed. 'Yes. I saw it…. but…. will my actions bring about what I have seen?'
'I don't know, Delenn. As I told you once, my place lies with the future no longer, but with the past. That is,
