Темное, кривое зеркало. Том 5 : Средь звезд, подобно гигантам.

Yes, Cardinal.

We have always trusted you. Since you were enjoined to our service, you have proven your worth. You are our most trusted, our most favoured. Perform this task for us and prove us true in our trust.

Yes, Cardinal.

We have faith in you, Sebastian.

Yes, Cardinal.

* * *

There were four of them, friends and strangers. Four of them walking slowly towards an uncertain and increasingly bleak future. y

Sheridan to Corwin to Kats to Tirivail. A leader to a warrior–turned–builder to a creator to a warrior. o

To Kats, Babylon 5 had once seemed such a hopeful place. It was a place built to symbolise peace and unity, somewhere new, apart from all the old grudges and the old hatreds. She had watched her world and her people torn apart by war and she wanted no part of that. She wished she could have visited the station under better circumstances. u

Word had reached her the day after General Sheridan arrived to see David. She had been planning a visit to Babylon 5 anyway, to study the work that had been done there and to make arrangements for the appointment of a permanent Ambassador. w

The Grey Council had gathered aboard their ship, in dark and shadowed silence. Takier had walked into the centre of the circle. i

"Something has happened," he said, in his sonorous voice. "We learned recently that the Narn Government had given shelter to some of the former vassal races of the Shadows. Very recently, the Vorlons also learned of this. Their response was to blockade the Narn system and deliver an ultimatum to the planet. They had one day to evacuate their homeworld. When that day was past, they destroyed Narn." l

There had been shock, followed by anger, followed, inevitably, by disbelief. l

"I have dispatched patrol vessels and probes to the area to confirm this," Takier said. "But the Alliance has contacted us. They seem convinced. I doubt that they are lying. Refugees from Narn are arriving on nearby planets. Given some of their recent activities, it is doubtful if many will be prepared to accept them, and their own colonies cannot support so many people. We will inevitably be asked to take on as many as we can support. I propose we refuse." o

Debate followed, compassion against planetary security. Takier, a warrior to his fingertips, had not surprisingly suggested a war footing. b

"We should close all our jump gates and double all system patrols. We should recall all ships and troops currently in service to the Alliance and declare a Federation–wide war footing. All aliens, especially Vorlons, should be expelled from our space." e

It had fallen to Kats to speak up against him, as it often did. "The Alliance has yet to issue a formal response to the incident. I have made arrangements to visit Babylon Five in any event. I think my plans should be hastened. The Alliance will have a meeting on this matter, and we should be there. I agree with the increase in security, but I think any other measures would be premature. Let us first wait to hear the response. y

"And compassion and mercy dictate we should shelter as many of the Narns as we can. It is not so long since we both dealt and received such a blow. If we are to prove ourselves better than the Vorlons, we must show how much we have atoned for our own guilt." u

"Take bodyguards," Takier advised coldly. "Things may be dangerous there." s

"Too many soldiers may cause the Alliance concern. Tirivail may come if she wishes, but I will need no one else." y

"Tirivail?" Takier mused. "If you wish." o

Back in the cabin of the warship Miya, Kats closed her eyes and touched Kozorr's necklace. "I wish you were here," she whispered to his spirit. "I miss you." u

Tirivail was pacing up and down, too angry to meditate, too filled with fire to find true peace. Sheridan and David were talking quietly in their native language. Kats was too weary and too grief–stricken for the mental effort of translating. w

She looked up at Tirivail. "Why me?" the warrior woman asked. i

"I trust you," Kats replied. "I have faith in you." l

Tirivail snorted, but said nothing else. l

Babylon 5 grew closer with each second. Kats felt like a drowning woman reaching vainly for the sun, only to realise the light she could see was the surface of the lake on fire. o

"I wish you were here," she whispered again. b

eyus

* * *

"God Almighty!" y

She was pacing up and down, tears streaming from her eyes, running down the furrows of her scarred face. Sinoval knew enough to realise that they were tears of anger, not grief. o

"Good God, I just want to.... I feel so angry I can't.... I just want to go and kick every damned encounter–suited butt I can find." u

Different people react to shock in different ways. Sinoval had turned his rage inwards. He already hated the Vorlons as much as it was possible to hate anything. He doubted there was a single thing they could do that would make him hate them any more. w

But this.... the destruction of a planet, of billions of people.... He understood death. He could look at it with eyes that were colder and more dispassionate than others. He could see the patterns behind it, and heading out from it. i

He remembered the feeling of all those lives expiring in one instant. And not just the Narn deaths. The plants, the animals, the grass and the air and the planet itself. Narn had been just as much a living, breathing organism as anything that had lived and moved and crawled across its surface. l

The Well had shaken with the loss, with the Narn souls therein sensing the deaths of their living brethren and crying out in grief. Soul Hunters had visited Narn, although not for many centuries. The Well knew that world. l

Just as it, and Sinoval, knew that this would not be the last. o

"How can you not be angry?" Susan spat. "I.... well, there really isn't a big enough word. Furious might just about cover it." b

"I am angry," Sinoval replied. "But I am a leader. I must think as a leader, and that means not letting anger cloud my thoughts. Was it not you who was sent here to ensure that did not happen? To make sure I understood that the Vorlons have to be destroyed because it is right that they be destroyed, and not just for some personal vendetta?" e