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

"Well.... yes, that was part of it, but surely this is right now. After what they did, can you really say it isn't right to wipe out every one of the sons of bitches?" y

"Maybe it is, but why do you want to wipe them out? Is it because it is right to defeat them, or is it because you hate them and want them dead?" u

"I.... well.... To hell with it, does it matter?" s

"Yes, I am very much afraid that it does." y

"As far as I'm concerned at the moment we should just go into Vorlon space and blow apart every single planet there." o

"And how would that make us better than them?" u

"We're on the side of the angels." w

Sinoval smiled; a sly, sardonic smile. "Ah, but Susan.... theyare the angels. It is a strange thing, but no one ever believes themselves to be evil. Everything is justified. Even the Brotherhood, even the worst of them, they could justify everything they did and have it make sense. The Vorlons are no different." i

"So what are you saying? Forget it? Well, that would be easy for you, wouldn't it? You've done this before! It's fine for you." l

Sinoval rose to his feet, eyes flashing in the darkness. "I will forgive your anger, but never say that again! The Vorlons will pay for what they have done, just as surely as we did. But it will be when the time is right, and it will be because it is right to do so. What they have done is wrong, and I will make them see it." l

"So what now, then?" Her breath was coming in harsh, ragged gasps. "What do we do now?" o

"We carry on our journey to Tuchanq. The Vorlons have destroyed a world. If we are to be better than they are, we must prove ourselves better. We will restore a world, and bring the Song back to Tuchanq. There will no doubt be many there who will say the Narns deserve what they are suffering. It is easy to hate when hate is all you have known. I will give them back their world, and then maybe they will see that the Narns deserve pity and help, not hatred." b

"And then?" e

"We go to Babylon Five. Things are starting to happen there. The peace, the slow night of terror and nightmares, is over. The war will start again. The Vorlons have seen to that. And this time it will not stop short of the final ending. For us or for them." y

"So, we will have revenge after all." Her tears were of fire, her eyes blazing in the night. u

"Vengeance is for lesser men." If her eyes were fire, his were death. "We will have justice." s

* * *

"That's it?" y

"You were expecting something else?" o

"It's a box. It's a big box. I can't wait to tell my friends. They don't have a box like that." u

Talia elbowed him in the ribs, and Dexter grunted. "It's not just a box," she said firmly. w

"It looks just like a box. Ow, that hurt. Unless it has some all–powerful weapon inside it. I mean it, that really hurt." i

"Oh, don't be such a baby. Al found it.... God knows where. I managed to salvage it from one of his safety deposit boxes. It's how we've been fighting off the Hand of the Light. It's been helpful in other ways too." l

Dexter looked at it. Nothing in its appearance hinted at it being anything other than.... well, a box. Ornately carved and made out of some alien material he couldn't quite place, but a box all the same. It looked like a jewellery case, or a musical box he had seen in a shop once. l

But he had a feeling that any music that came from this wouldn't be nice at all. The whole thing gave off an aura of.... He wasn't quite going to say 'evil', but malevolence would come close. Whatever was in there hated him, and everything else. If even he could sense that, with his very limited telepathic talent, he wondered what it was doing to Talia. o

"It's called the Apocalypse Box," she said, walking around the table, running her hands over the box's surface. "At least, that's what Al called it." b

"Nice name," Dexter observed - but he was not looking at the box, but at her. Her eyes were dull and unfocussed. He was growing to like the box less and less. e

It had taken the best part of three months to get everything Talia required through customs, involving a great deal of influence, bribery and connections. He was getting no help whatsoever from Mr. Edgars, and he had not even approached the old man after that last conversation. He had spent every day of those three months dreading the presence in his mind that indicated the Hand of the Light had found him. But after that last time, there had been nothing. y

He had managed to smuggle in almost all of Talia's telepath group, the survivors of the Vorlon witch–hunts. Captain Ben Zayn remained out–system, still looking for other satellites and stations that might have survived elsewhere. He was a little too recognisable in certain places, and he was not best suited to this operation anyway. u

Organising the underground haven had taken a lot of work. He had had to take a less active role in the Senate, but that had been no great loss. The less time he spent involved in politics, the more he realised how useless it all was. Mr. Edgars and his coalition ran almost everything, whether openly or not, and behind them, as always, were the Vorlons. s

His gradual withdrawal from public life had not gone unnoticed. H umanitymagazine had come up with several interesting rumours, including that he was planning to marry Captain Bethany Tikopai. As it happened, she was on near–permanent patrol duty at Babylon 5, so he hadn't seen her in weeks anyway. y

He had had several nightmares about the Hand of the Light, of their horrible, rasping voices and their soul–less bodies. He hated them with a passion he had seldom felt for anything. If nothing else, he would do that. He would wipe them and their Masters out of existence. o

"So, can this Box tell us who we're meant to be meeting?" he asked Talia. u

"I don't think so," she said, still staring at the box. "It's not omniscient, although sometimes it seems close. You still think this is a trap, don't you?" w

"The benefits of a paranoid upbringing." i

Most of Talia's telepath allies were hidden around Sector 301, parcelled out in various businesses and projects. Bo had acquired a new barman who was, unfortunately, completely hopeless. Dexter had managed to place a couple of them on his research staff. A couple had joined 301 Security. l

He found himself liking most of them, his 'brothers', as the Hand of the Light would call them. Some of Talia's telepaths were a little stand–offish and introverted, but most were just.... normal people. Chen, the new barman at Bo's, was nice enough, and not a bad poker player, while his girlfriend Lauren smiled a lot and had an opinion on almost everything. l

He hated the thought of any of them being turned into one of those monstrosities, or fed into a Dark Star, or worse.... o