Dangerous LiaiZens


Early the next morning, Zen, back in his male form and dressed in a 
jumpsuit, was lounging on one of the sofas in the commons room.  He 
had his 'welcome packet' in a datapadd, and was flipping through 
some of the maps, trying to get a feel for the layout of the base.  It 
was a pretty impressive facility.

Yuri was sitting at the main table, making a list of things that were to 
be brought over from the ships later that morning, and things for 
Mughi to do while he was alone with the _Lovely Angel_.  She was 
also trying to find out what sorts of things they might be able to do 
to help out in the time before their unit became operational.  As 
there were work crews everywhere, she didn't expect to have much 
trouble there.

Kei wandered into the common area from the direction of the stairs.  
She was dressed in a long flannel nightshirt that came down to about 
mid-thigh, and she still looked a bit rumpled.  "Mornin' all..." she 
yawned at them.

Zen waved casually.  "Ohayou..."

Flopping down onto the sofa beside Zen, Kei stretched theatrically 
and put her feet up on the coffee table.  "Hey," she asked, "Is it just 
me, or is the FRED-Net user interface the most annoying thing that 
you've ever seen?"

Zen put down the PADD and turned his full attention to his friend.  
"Annoying?  Not that I'd noticed... why?"

Kei shrugged.  "I dunno.  It kinda reminds me of the... what was it... 
oh yeah, the GPP thingie from those books that you lent me a few 
months back."

"GPP Thingies?"  Zen thought hard, trying to remember.  "Oh, you 
mean the 'Genuine People Personality' from the Hitch-hiker books?"

"Yah, that's it.  Really chirpy, in an obnoxious sort of way, ya know?"

Yuri and Zen looked at each other and shrugged.  "Not really, no," said 
Yuri.  "The user interface seems pretty standard to me, anyway."

"Aw, c'mon, Yuri!  Don't tell me that the voice that thing's got hasn't 
been getting on your nerves!"

"Voice?"  Yuri gave her friend a concerned look.  "I know it accepts 
vocal commands, Kei, but the speech synthesis systems for FRED-Net 
aren't even on-line yet."

"That's right," Zen agreed.  "Prime said it'd be next week before they 
got 'em up and running again."

Kei blinked.  "Seems to work well enough to me - a little *too* well, 
in fact."

Again, Yuri and Zen exchanged puzzled glances.  Kei noticed the look 
and growled.  "Look, I am *not* making this up!  I swear to you, I'm 
not!"

"Of course not, Kei... We know that..." Yuri broke off as Kei's scowl 
deepened.

"Look, don't patronise me!  I know what I saw!  Just you watch!  I'll 
prove it to you!"  Kei got up again and stalked over toward the FRED-
Net terminal on one of the side tables.  She jabbed at the power 
switch and stood back.

Almost instantly the screen brightened to show the FRED welcome 
screen and then switched over to the basic services menu.  After a 
moment Yuri said timidly, "Kei... I don't see anything unusual there..."

"I don't understand it... it was there!" Kei snarled.  "Computer!"  The 
screen blanked again, and a 'ready' prompt appeared.  "Engage voice 
response subsystem."

The screen flickered, and text appeared.
	>Unable to Comply
	>Requested Service Unavailable
	>Estimate Availability in 156 hours

Kei glared malevolently at the terminal.  "But...  but...  It WAS there!  
The damned thing was talking to me all last night!"

Zen and Yuri exchanged glances and shrugged.  "If you say so... but 
it's not there now," said Yuri.  "Now c'mon and get ready.  There's a 
lot to get done, ne?"

"All right, all right... I'm goin'," muttered Kei as she headed back up 
the stairs.  "I just don't get it...  It was there.  I'd swear that it was..."

**** O_O ****

Four and a half hours later, Zen and the Angels trooped dejectedly 
into Akie's West.  Zen-chan squelched a bit, her jumpsuit still damp 
from one of the morning's 'incidents'.  A silence descended like a pall 
over the restaurant as they found a vacant booth and took their 
seats.

Zen coloured as she heard one hoarse whisper from two booths away; 
"Hey... check out the babes!"  Her colour darkened and she scowled as 
she heard the whisperer's companion telling his friend just who they 
were.  The area around the little corner booth they had taken was 
quickly vacated.

Kei too had overheard the remark and her jaw set as she heard the 
repeated whispers of the hated nickname.  She started to rise but Zen 
held her back.  "You heard what they said," Kei hissed.  "We don't 
have to put up with that!"

"But I'm hungry," Zen-chan said petulantly.  She turned and glared at 
the person who had voiced the insult.  "And I believe this gentleman 
was just about to apologise.  You *were* about to apologise, weren't 
you?" she asked him sweetly.

The offender started to retort, then paused as he noticed the glint in 
Zen-chan's eye and the icy tone of her voice.  The not-so-subtle way 
her hand was hovering over the grip of her pistol was not lost on him 
either.  He gulped audibly and nodded, his eyes wide.  "Yes, Ma'am.  
I'm sorry!  Very sorry!"  Getting hastily to his feet, he fled the 
restaurant, pausing only to throw a wad of bills at the startled 
waitress on his way out.  The rest of his companions were not far 
behind him.

As she turned back to study her menu, Zen-chan deliberately ignored 
the looks that her group was getting from some of the other patrons.  
It took her several passes through the list of items on the laminated 
card before she was calm enough again to actually read it.  After a 
moment she felt Yuri's hand on her shoulder.

"That's not really gonna make things any better, you know."

Zen-chan tensed, then slowly allowed her shoulders to sag.  "I know 
it," she whispered back.  "But it made me feel better, anyway."

"It's just so... so damned frustrating," Kei agreed.  "You'd think they 
had labour to burn the way they've been acting around us."

Yuri shrugged.  "You can't really be surprised by that."

Further discussion was interrupted by a bright, cheerful voice.  "Can 
I take your orders, please?"

Zen-chan looked up and had to smile, despite her foul mood.  Nuku 
Nuku had a cheerful demeanor that was infectious in its intensity - 
all the moreso if you happened to like cute girls.  "Yes, please," she 
said.  "I'd like a steak and kidney pie, mushy peas and Baka Pepper 
to drink."

The android nodded, and waited for Kei and Yuri to order, bounding 
off in the direction of the kitchen once they had.

"It's not fair," said Kei with a rueful smile.  "She causes rather a lot of 
collateral damage herself from time to time, and yet no one calls HER 
names like they do us."

After finishing their meals, Zen and the Angels headed to the space-
port to collect the rest of their things, and give Mughi some catalogs.  
The Lovely Angel had been authorised for a refit; and while it would 
take some time, Mughi would have a free paw to do it as he saw fit.

Kei and Mughi went over specific systems that were to be replaced 
or modified, leaving Zen and Yuri to their own devices for the bulk of 
the afternoon.  Rather than waste the time entirely, they spent the 
hours doing the upgrade that Zen had promised Kei on the Angel's 
replicators.  As the three Trouble Consultants completed their work 
and loaded up to head back to the Dorm, Mughi prepared to spend 
the evening happily testing the new food service system.

**** O_O ****

Zen-chan parked her hovertruck in the dorm's garage, and she and 
her companions hauled their things into their new home.  There was 
no sign of life aside from themselves - apparently none of their 
teammates had yet arrived.  Priss Asagiri and Nene Romanova, the 
two surviving members of the Knight Sabers, were rumoured to be a 
part of their unit, and on FRED, but neither had seen fit to put in an 
appearance, so they were alone for the evening.

It took Zen only a matter of minutes to get her things out of the car, 
then she came back to help Kei and Yuri with their loads.  Once they 
had wrestled the huge trunks out of the truck, Zen opened the 
vehicles equipment locker and got out the agravs.  Things went a lot 
more smoothly after that, and all three girls were moved into their 
rooms in short order.

*** O_O ***

Kei and Yuri found Zen in her room reading from a PADD after they'd 
finished unpacking.  "C'mon, Zen," Kei chirped.  "We still have time to 
go back to the Pathfinder to get the rest of your things, ne?"

Zen just smiled and shook her head.  "Thanks, no... that won't be 
necessary."

Yuri looked around the bare room, startled. "But Zen-chan... you 
hardly brought anything with you... surely you need more than this?"

"Not really," Zen shrugged.  Though there are a few more things that 
I'd like to have from the ship, it's true."

Kei put her hands on her hips. "So come on, already!  The sooner we 
get them, the sooner we can go to dinner ya know."

Zen tapped a series of instructions into her PADD. "Oh, I don't think 
we'll have to wait too long for dinner," she said with a smile.  There 
was a deep, pulsing hum in the middle of the room and, with the 
characteristic whine of the transporter, a pallet of gear materialised 
in a shower of blue light.  "Besides," Zen finished. "I'm lazy."

Kei looked at the pallet in the center of the room and shook her head.  
"What you are, Zen, dear, is a smartass.  Now, c'mon.  It's not getting 
any earlier, and I want dinner."

"Right right..." Zen-chan got to her feet and followed her sempai out 
of the room.

**** O_O ****

Sunlight spilled across the floor of Room Five in the SpecOps dorm, 
eliciting a groan from the shape huddled on the futon, under a soft, 
fluffy quilt.  After a moment of silence, the shape started to move 
slowly, with another groan, louder than the first, followed by a low 
muttering.  Finally, the quilt was cast aside to reveal a rumpled and 
bleary eyed Zen-chan, blinking groggily in the morning light.

Zen-chan levered herself up into a sitting position and immediately 
regretted it as the dull throbbing in her head suddenly became an 
insistent howl.  She reached up and massaged her temples, trying to 
drive the pain from her head by sheer force of will.  She wasn't 
having much luck.

Nanites were wonderful things... if she'd needed to be sober the night 
before, she would have been.  But their designers had programmed 
them so that a TC could still get spiffed if she wanted.  In an effort to 
discourage that, they'd also programmed them not to cure the results 
of excessive consumption, unless the occasion called for it.

Zen was in no immediate danger, so the occasion didn't.

What *had* happened?  They had gone to dinner... that had been 
nice.  They'd discovered a little steak house not too far from the 
dorm.  The food had been superb, and the prices very reasonable. 
But after that?

Oh yes... they'd gone 'out' after that. 'A night on the town,' Yuri had 
said.  But right now Zen felt as though the town were on her.  There 
had been a bar... and then another bar... and then.. Zen just couldn't 
remember.

Zen-chan closed her eyes and fought down a wave of nausea.  One of 
these days she promised herself she would learn.  She knew better 
than to let herself get talked into these outings.  They ended this way 
entirely too often.  So why did she keep letting it happen?

Her answer was surprisingly simple.  It was Kei and Yuri.  They were 
her friends; her best friends.  Correction; they were her only friends.  
And when the whole galaxy hated, or at least feared you, who else 
did you have, but your friends?  There was a comforting solidarity 
with the Angels - for only the second time in her life, Zen felt like 
she belonged.

And it was for that simple feeling that she would (and often did, she 
reflected as her stomach did a hard roll to the left) follow the Angels 
into hell if need be.  Just as they had come here to FRED with her.

Working her way to her feet, Zen-chan made her way unsteadily 
around her pallet of gear to the closet and rooted around for a 
moment until she found her bath things.  She stripped out of her 
uniform - she really hated sleeping in the things - and tossed it into 
the basket before wrapping herself up in the largest towel she could 
find.  Then she padded down the hallway to the bath.

After a thorough scrubbing and a rinse, Zen-chan contemplated the 
tub.  The thing was huge - with room for ten or twelve people, easily.  
Fortunately, she and the Angels were the only ones in residence just 
yet, and it would be at least another hour before Kei and Yuri woke 
up.  Zen had the tub all to herself.

She sat down on the edge of the furo and swung her legs over, letting 
herself sink gradually into the hot water.  Already she could feel the 
heat working its way into her abused muscles, loosening the knots of 
tension that the previous night's activities had left her.  Closing her 
eyes she let out a small, contented sigh.  The throbbing ache in her 
head was starting to fade, replaced by a warm lassitude as her body 
relaxed.  Yes, this was just what she had needed.

*** O_O ***

Forty minutes later, Zen-chan, once more wrapped up in her fluffy 
towel, made her way back down the hallway to her room.  She was 
feeling much better after the hot bath.  She shrugged into a clean 
jumpsuit and set about unpacking and putting away the things she'd 
brought from the ship.

The clothes didn't take long - all she had were uniforms, and one or 
two outfits that Kei or Yuri had gotten her.  She'd never really paid 
attention to clothing before, and it was still a concept that gave her 
difficulty.  She had even fewer personal effects - the most important 
of which was a holograph of herself with the Angels that had been 
taken midway thorough her training on Academy.  The memories 
that it evoked still brought a smile to her lips.

Her workspace took a little longer.  She'd designed her tool carriers 
to be modular, so it wasn't too difficult to get them arranged, but 
there were a lot of them.  Getting the workstations set up and talking 
to the Pathfinder's main computer also took time.  When she finally 
had everything arranged to her satisfaction it was late enough that 
Kei and Yuri ought to be up and about, even given the excesses of the 
previous night.

Sure enough, they were waiting for her when she got downstairs.  
And Kei was in one of her moods.  She didn't look like she'd slept at 
all well.  "What took you so damned long, Zen?" she growled.  "I'm 
hungry.  Let's go get some food!"

Zen-chan looked to Yuri, a quizzical expression on her face.  Yuri just 
shrugged and shook her head.  Turning back to Kei, Zen-chan asked, 
"Rough night?"

From the way she raised her hand, Zen thought for a moment that 
Kei was actually going to hit her, but it passed quickly and Kei let her 
shoulders sag.  "Gomen.  I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.  Didn't 
mean to take it out on you... sorry."

Shrugging it off, Zen-chan's voice carried a note of concern.  "Don't 
worry about it.  What is it that's bugging you, anyway?"

"You'll just think I'm nuts again..." Kei said, her voice sullen.

"Of course I think you're nuts... what has that got to do..." Zen-chan 
trailed off at the sound of Kei's growl.  Making a placating gesture 
she continued, "Seriously, Kei... you know better than that..."

Kei glared, but nodded and took a deep, breath to calm herself.  "It 
was that damned computer terminal again.  It's really starting to 
creep me out."

"The computer terminal?" asked Yuri.  "What's wrong with it?"

"I shut it off before I went to bed... I'm sure that I did... but I woke 
up a bit later, and it was on...  that damned interface smiley just like 
it was looking at me.  So I shut it off and tried to go to sleep.  Twenty 
minutes later I rolled over, and it there it was, looking at me again..." 
Kei's voice started to rise, a note of hysteria creeping in, "but I HAD 
TURNED IT OFF!  I *KNOW* I HAD!"

"Take it easy, Kei... calm down..."

"You don't understand!  It kept turning itself on, all night!  I'd shut it 
off, and then when I'd look away for a bit it'd turn itself right back 
ON!  I'd start to drift off, and then there it'd be, STARING at me..."

Kei was trembling, her eyes squeezed shut as she fought the urge to 
scream.  Zen and Yuri exchanged worried glances, then Zen put her 
arms around Kei, trying her best to soothe her troubled friend.

"I'm not crazy," Kei sobbed.  "I swear that I'm not... I saw it... I KNOW 
I turned the damned thing off... but it kept coming back!  It just kept 
coming and coming..."

"Shhh... it's okay, Kei-chan... I believe you."

"You're just saying that.  You think I'm losing my mind." Kei sniffled.

"Kei-chan... I trust you implicitly.  If you say you saw it, you saw it.  I 
may not understand it - I certainly can't explain it, but I do believe 
you."

"Really?  You mean that?"

Zen-chan nodded.  "I do... and I'll put in a call to maintenance on the 
damned thing while we're out."

Kei looked at Yuri who nodded her agreement.  Zen could feel Kei's 
body relaxing in her arms as the taller redhead allowed her relief to 
drain the tension from her.

"C'mon... let's go get some breakfast, eh?"

Kei nodded as Zen let her go and the three of them made for the 
door.

*** O_O ***

The dorm was still deserted that afternoon when Zen-chan and the 
Angels returned, tired, and depressed.  The emptiness of the dorm 
only made their mood darker.

"What the hell are we here for?" snarled Kei as she threw her belt 
down on the sofa in the commons room.  "I mean no one wants us 
around.  No one wants to work with us..." she paused, her tone 
turning bitter.  "And it seems that no one wants to live near us 
either.  So why are we still here?"

Zen-chan shrugged, rubbing at her temples as if that might somehow 
make all of the frustration and anger go away.  Slumping down on 
the sofa she leaned back and closed her eyes.  "I'm not sure.  I knew 
that we'd have a little trouble being accepted here, but I never really 
thought it would be this bad."

Yuri walked in from the kitchen.  She handed Zen-chan a beer, and 
took one for herself.  The balance of the six-pac she tossed to Kei.  
After a moment's silence, broken only by the snap of opening 
aluminum cans, Kei asked, "So what are we gonna do?"

Yuri shrugged. "I think it's a little too early to give up just yet.  
We've barely been here two days after all.  Besides, I imagine that 
Mughi has the Angel's engines half disassembled by now.  Maybe 
we'll have better luck tomorrow?"

"Optimist," growled Kei in her beer.  "And if that doesn't work?  What 
then?  What'll we do if no one wants to work with us?"

"Then," said Zen-chan in a heavy voice, "we'll just have to fight by 
ourselves."

"What you're talking about is almost certainly suicide..." Kei said.

Zen shrugged. "Is there really a choice?  Fight and die... or not fight... 
and die."

Kei nodded, downed the rest of her first beer and opened the next.  
"I see your point," she said.

It was Yuri that first noticed the blinking light on the comm panel 
that indicated they had a message waiting.  With a shrug she hit the 
retrieval button, nearly falling off the sofa arm as she recognised the 
figure that appeared on the screen.  She made a shushing gesture 
and turned the screen so that they all could see.  Frosty Usa, the de 
facto ruler of the pocket dimension known as FRED, stared back out 
at them.

After they'd heard the message, the room was dead silent for a full 
ten minutes.  Finally, Zen-chan found her voice.  "Frosty wants to see 
us personally?  Dear goddess, why?"

Kei poked the shorter redhead with her finger. "See?  Told you that it 
was a mistake to threaten that engineering staffer like that.  Now 
we're in for it..."

"I doubt it's anything like that, Kei," Yuri said, hands on her shapely 
hips.  "That would hardly warrant the personal attention of the ruler 
of FRED."

"What time was that appointment supposed to be again?" asked Zen-
chan, looking at her watch.

"16:00, I think..." said Yuri.

"Oh, shit..." Zen-chan bolted for the stairs.  "If I hurry I have just 
enough time to get 'changed' then..."

**** O_O ****

In a corridor of the Babylon 5 station, in the section known to the 
station's inhabitants as Downbelow, something odd was happening.  
It was a dim and dingy corridor, half the lights blown or stolen, 
where there was a glow as a rippling, transparent disc formed in mid 
air.  A distortion in space-time two meters in diameter.

The distortion bulged.  An arm came through, followed by a body.  A 
moment after the figure had stepped out into the corridor, the disc 
winked out.  The figure was not tall, and was wearing a hooded robe.  
Full cut though it was, it could not conceal a set of distinctly feminine 
curves.

The wraith-like intruder checked to see if anyone had noticed her 
arrival.  When nothing moved, she nodded with satisfaction and 
strode off into the depths of the station.  She had someone to find.

**** O_O ****

Zen and the Angels made it for their appointment with Frosty a full 
two minutes early.  Zen, freshly scalded from a hurried steam bath, 
was understandably nervous; Frosty was the closest thing to a 
supreme ruler that FRED had.  Hell, she had *created* the damned 
place.  Royalty always had made Zen a little twitchy.  Kei and Yuri, on 
the other hand, were a lot more relaxed.  Over their years of 
experience as Trouble Consultants, they had dealt with more than 
their fair share of Kings, Queens, Ministers, Sultans, Potentates and 
Poobahs.

The turbolift deposited them in a spacious atrium of the executive 
offices.  Half luxury office suite, half mission control and operations 
centre, the place was a hive of activity.  Operations staff and repair 
crews swarmed through the complex like so many ants.  Zen and the 
Angels were ushered into a well appointed briefing room, and asked 
to wait.

The room was comfortable enough... sofas and chairs lined three of 
the walls and coffee tables were set in front of them.  The fourth wall 
was dominated by a large, flat viewscreen, similar to the ones that 
Zen had seen on the bridges of starships.  There were terminals on 
each of the tables, as well as a console on a small podium next to the 
screen that Zen guessed were all tied into the same system.  There 
was little chance to examine the room further, as Frosty Usa chose 
that moment to make her entrance.

Frosty Usa was, in every respect, an imposing woman.  Strikingly 
beautiful, with an air of regal serenity that belied her apparent age, 
she was every centimeter the ruler that she was rumoured to be.  
Even Zen, familiar as he was with the magic of Jyusenkyou, was hard 
pressed to remember that Frosty had once been someone else 
entirely.

Tall and slender, Frosty had a quiet grace, and a piercing gaze.  Her 
pink hair was done in the same style she'd always adopted, twin 
buns with long tails, reminiscent of her mother's.  On anyone else, it 
would have looked ridiculous, but it only added to the aura of quiet 
dignity that surrounded her.

Zen found himself unconsciously trying to straighten the vest of his 
uniform, and even Kei took her feet off the coffee table as the Mayor 
of FRED swept regally into the room.  Zen started to stand, but Frosty 
waved him back into his seat.

"Please, Commander Zen.  As you were."

Zen started at her use of the still unfamiliar rank.  He stuttered for a 
moment, then managed a nod.  "Your Highness..."

Frosty's laugh was almost musical.  "Just 'Madame Mayor' will do."  
Her tone turned serious.  "I understand that you all have been 
recruited for a special unit that Admiral Wyrm's aide de camp is 
constructing."

Zen nodded.  "That's what we were told, yes.  We were also told that 
it was not supposed to be operational for almost six weeks.  We've 
been trying to keep busy, but we ahh... haven't had a lot of success..."

Kei glared at the Mayor and growled.  "Too right... we've been chased 
away from every job that we've tried to volunteer for.  No one seems 
to want us around."

Frosty nodded.  "I have been made aware of the ... difficulties that 
you have encountered as a result of your unfortunate reputation... 
and your nick name..."

"Don't say it!" snarled Kei defensively.

Yuri looked up sulkily.  "It's not our fault... really, it's not."

Frosty smiled disarmingly.  "Please, believe me...  I do understand, 
and I apologise for the behaviour of those in my charge.  We are all 
very glad that you are here.  We're going to need all the help that we 
can get, if we are to have any chance of survival, let alone victory."  
Her smile grew.  "After all... as I remember your records, it is ALSO 
true that you have always successfully completed your assignments."

Kei settled back into her seat with a sigh, somewhat mollified, and 
Yuri's expression softened into a sad half-smile.  "We want to help... 
that's what we came for, after all... but no one will let us."

Frosty looked to Zen and raised her eyebrow.  Zen's nod and shrug 
were eloquent.  "It's true... They've been very polite about it in a 
strained sort of way, but it's been made abundantly clear that we're 
not welcome."

Frosty nodded, an elegant gesture, and said, "I see.  So it would 
appear that the three of you are at 'loose ends' so to speak."  After 
getting an affirmative response, she smiled.  "Well, as it happens, I 
have a job in mind that the three of you are uniquely qualified to 
do... if you want it."

Zen and the Angels exchanged a glance, before Zen spoke up.  "As 
Yuri-chan says, that *is* what we're here for.  What is it you want us 
to do?"

"As you may know, there are many more authors and animates 
wishing to join our efforts, since the recent... unpleasantness.  Every 
day we hear from another person or group wanting to know how 
they can help."

Yuri was nodding.  "Yes... no one likes to be used..."

"Quite so," agreed Frosty.  "In any event, we have people all through 
the Multiverse that are wanting to get to FRED.  That is where you 
come in."

Kei blinked.  "I beg your pardon?"

"We need," Frosty said patiently, "Someone to go and get them.  FRED 
is shielded against most forms of intra-universal travel.  We cannot 
afford to drop those shields for any reason - let alone often or long 
enough to allow for any kind of large scale migration.  So we need a 
courier."

"I see," said Zen.  "And as we already have ships..."

"That played a part in your selection for the job, but it was by no 
means the primary reason."  At Zen's raised eyebrow, Frosty grinned 
and went on, "You see, you are all trained at extraction... we do not, 
after all, expect all of these pickups to be easy.  We shall need a 
recovery team that can handle crisis situations."

Zen and the Angels exchanged another glance.  Almost as one, they 
nodded.

"So you will take the job?"

Kei grinned sardonically.  "Madam Mayor, the Lovely Angels have 
also never turned down an assignment.  We're not about to start 
now."

Frosty moved toward the podium, and flipped a switch, bringing the 
large display screen to life.  "Your first pickup, then, will be an 
author by the name of Barry Cadwgan.  He said he wouldn't transmit 
his location on an insecure link, and definitely didn't want a plot 
hole.  The only other way he has is a 'lightgate' which he took away 
from the Knight Sabers.  If that's what I think it is, for him to get 
here would require us to drop our shields, and there's no way I can 
allow that."

Zen nodded.  "Yes... I'm familiar with the theory... but if he won't tell 
you where he is, how will we pick him up?  He's a very small needle 
in a very large haystack."

"We compromised.  We picked a number of possible rendezvous 
locations.  He was to choose a location from that list, and then specify 
a time for the meeting and retrieval."

Zen blinked.  "That sounds awfully cloak-and-dagger... is he really so 
paranoid?"  When Frosty just shrugged, he continued, "So what were 
the places... has he made a choice?"

Frosty nodded, and touched another switch.  "He wanted a very 
public place... so we gave him a list of options."  A series of images 
appeared on the wall screen as she spoke.  "The Mos Eisley Cantina 
on Tatooine... the White Hart Pub in London, The Draco Tavern in 
New York, Gavigan's Bar - also in London, Callahan's Saloon in Suffolk 
County, the DS9 Station at Bajor..."  A last image appeared on the 
screen, and Zen's eyes widened.  "He chose this... the name of the 
place..."

"...is Babylon Five?" Zen interrupted weakly.

Frosty nodded again.  "Yes... the Zocolo on the Earth Alliance Station 
Babylon Five.  The meeting will take place in three days time.  As a 
recognition callsign, he has said that he will be wearing a red 
carnation."

"Red weed," Zen nodded.  "Gottit.  Anything else?"

"He also said that he would be bringing along a 'friend'..."

**** O_O ****

At the same time, another meeting was taking place in a much 
smaller room, deep in the bowels of Babylon Five.  The room was 
filled with mist and ruddy shadows, and two entities locked in 
bargaining.

A sibilant voice came from the man sized insectoid Fixer "I sssellll... 
provide... fixx..."

"That's why I'm here." replied the robed figure, far more inhuman 
than the other under the skin.  A delicate chin and nose were visible, 
unprotected against the hostile atmosphere the insectoid required.

"Do you wish to buy, yesss?"

"Correct.  Two IDs, transient.  For one week; account balances with 
appropriate funds for tourists for one month's expenses, and three 
times that in cash.  Large denominations," the figure stated with 
certainty.  "To these details, in 48 hours.  Clothes to suit as well.  
Sizes as specified."  The robed figure proffered a thin folder to 
N'grath.

"Difficult...  requiress high ssecurity clearancess to manufacture 
identitiesss...  exxpenssive...  you can pay, yesss?"

The figure barked a laugh and produced a satchel from under her 
robe  "Not gold pressed latinum, but will bullion do?"  There was a 
solid thunk as the satchel hit the floor.  The impact sprung one of the 
closures and a spray of small gold bars shot out across the deck.

The two guards looked at the robed figure with renewed attention.  
From the size of the bag, there had to be 50 or 60 kilos there... yet 
their 'customer' had handled it as though it were nothing.

And it was *gold* - massy, rich and lustrous...

"I also want some books."  the robed figure added.

The insectoid dragged his compound gaze away from the gold bars 
and whispered "Booksssss?"

"Text books.  Electronics, physics, chemistry, computing... basic and 
advanced, and as much information as you have on Babylon 5; maps, 
security procedures and equipment.  Same deadline."

"Yesssss.  That can be arranged."

**** O_O ****

Zen and the Angels spent the next day and a half getting ready for 
their first retrieval mission.  New sensor subsystems were added to 
the _Pathfinder_, and she was fitted with a transponder keyed to the 
FRED Access Corridor.  Zen would have preferred a faster means of 
intra-universal travel, and had said so.  Frosty assured him that the 
matter was being addressed, but that for the present, the gates 
would have to do.

Mughi elected to remain behind, and work on refitting the _Lovely 
Angel_ while things were quiet.  The Angel was an older ship, and 
Mughi had decided to overhaul or replace just about every system 
aboard her.  Kei had commented with a laugh that with all the new 
toys to choose from for the refit, she'd never seen their pet happier.

Two days after their meeting with Frosty, the _Pathfinder_ lifted 
from her cradle at the FRED Space-plex and shot skyward.  On 
attaining orbit, flight plans were filed and the little ship angled 
toward the outer system and the gateway that would be waiting.  
Their route took them through the Asteroid belt this time, and Zen 
used the opportunity to do a little remote prospecting.

The FRED System's asteroid fields were going to be a goldmine.  For 
some of the rocks that was the literal truth.  Many of the rocks were 
heavy in metals, and in the short pass made with the ship's sensors, 
Zen found rich deposits of copper, magnesium, aluminum, beryllium, 
titanium and iron, just to name a few.

As the ship passed into the outer system, the gateway was opened, 
and the _Pathfinder_ slipped quietly into non-existence.

Once in the non-space corridor between realities, there was little for 
Zen and the Angels to do but wait.  It was, as Zen recalled, Kei-chan's 
suggestion that they play cards to pass the time.  Looking across the 
games table in the forward lounge at the grinning red-head, Zen was 
beginning to feel that might have been a mistake.

"I'll take three," Yuri said brightly, dropping another three cards face 
down on the table.  Kei slid three more across the table and turned to 
face Zen.

"Well?" she asked.  "What about you, Zen?"

Zen turned his attention back to the cards he held.  Three twos, the 
ace of wands, and the Priestess.  Not a very good hand, he was afraid.  
After a moment's pause he discarded the twos.  "Three," he said.

After fidgeting with her own hand for a minute, Kei took two.

"So what do you know about this guy we're supposed to be picking 
up?" asked Yuri as she tossed five bars of chocolate into the pot.

Zen raised an eyebrow at the size of her opening bet.  "What, you 
mean Barry?"  With a brief look at his own hand he tossed in five 
bars to match, and one to raise.  "Not a lot, really... wargamer, well 
read, and an Australian.  He's an engineer, and has done some stage 
work in musicals.  Writes mostly Bubblegum Crisis... that's about it."

Kei was looking from her cards to the pot and back again. "And his 
'friend'?  Who do you suppose that is?"  After another look at her 
cards, she sighed and reluctantly tossed six bars into the centre.

"I don't know.  Does it really matter?  I mean most of us came in 
with friends.  At least the lucky ones did."

Kei smiled at Zen's tone.  "Oh, it doesn't I guess... I was just curious.  
There was a certain lilt in the Mayor's voice as she said it."

"Mrr?  What sort of 'lilt', ne, Kei-chan?"  Yuri casually dropped a sixth 
bar, and then two more into the pile.  Zen blinked and tossed in his 
bars to match.

Kei grinned.  "The way she said 'friend'... it sounded to me like she 
meant that it was a lot more than that, you know?"  She tossed in her 
two chocolate bars and dropped her cards on the table.  "Beat *that*!" 
she crowed.

Zen's eyebrows climbed and his stomach sank.  Kei had the knave, 
the princess, the queen, the king, and the ace of cups.  A straight 
flush of the royal variety.  He sighed and placed his cards face down 
on the table.  "Maybe you're right, Kei-chan.  After all, in times like 
these, people tend to gather with those that are most important to 
them, ne?"

Yuri smiled behind her cards, then did a double take at Kei's hand.  
"Hey, what day is it anyway?"

"Thursday, why?" said Zen.

"Wai!"  Yuri tossed her cards down and shot Kei an evil grin.  Kei's 
smile froze on her face as she saw them.  "Fizzbin!" Yuri exclaimed 
triumphantly, as she raked in the pile of chocolate from the centre of 
the table.  "And each of you lose one item of clothing!"

"Thursday...  I never could get the hang of Thursdays," said Kei with 
a groan.

Zen twitched.  Yup.  It had been a definite mistake.

**** O_O ****

Forty eight hours to the tick after the initial meeting with N'grath, 
another lightgate opened up in Downbelow, and the robed figure 
stepped through.  A pair of Lurkers scuttled away, muttering about 
the quality of their white lightning.

The figure made her way swiftly and silently through the dingy 
corridors, into the alien sector where once more she met with her 
fixer.

N'grath studied his visitor closely.  She looked human enough, but 
that was impossible - humans could not breathe in what he required 
for an atmosphere.  Not normal humans at any rate.  Still, she was a 
client, and she had gold.  Lots of it.  For that reason she had N'grath's 
respect and attention, if not his trust.

The robed figure wasted no time. "You have the material?" she asked.

"You have the Gold?" N'grath countered.

The woman's smile was cold - mechanical. "I do."  She produced 
another satchel, fully as large as the first, and dropped it on the deck.  
She opened it, exposing a large mass of gold bars - the balance of 
payment due.  Then she kicked it toward N'grath's thugs with a 
dainty gesture - a dainty gesture that sent what must have been 
sixty kilos sliding ten meters across the deck.

N'grath inclined his head slightly, his species equivalent of a blink.  
He waited for a moment while his employees verified the payment.  
When one looked up and nodded, he turned back to his client.  "It iss 
asss agreed..." he hissed.  He gestured, and three satchels were 
brought out and placed in front of the robed figure.  He and  his men 
waited while their client confirmed the contents.

Two contained clothing as specified, while the other, smaller bag 
contained a number of memory crystals with a reader - the 
requested literature - a large sum of cash - and two document 
pouches.  After completing her examination, the figure nodded.  "It is 
as agreed."

With naught so much as another word she straightened and turned 
to leave.  Behind her the satchels rose into the air, hovering about a 
meter off the deck, seemingly of their own accord.  They floated out 
of the room behind their mysterious client on invisible cradles of 
force, past the bug-eyed guards.  N'grath seemed impressed as well.

**** O_O ****

Moments later in CNC, the duty officer stared at his readouts.  "What 
the...?  There it is again!"

Lieutenant Corwin came up behind him.  "What have you got?"

"I don't know, sir.  There's some sort of flux distortion in Downbelow.  
Damn!  It's gone now..."  The officer scrolled back his sensor logs and 
showed Corwin a spike on the graph.  "Here it is..."  He scrolled back a 
bit further.  "And here it was the first time."

"Did you get a locational fix?"

"Not a precise one, sir...  but it was in Brown Sector - near one of the 
alien habitats."

Corwin nodded, studying the display.  "Lock in the profile... I'll put a 
team on standby.  If it happens again, we can investigate."

**** O_O ****

Almost twenty hours later, an alarm sounded from the monitoring 
station in CNC.  "Lieutenant!  I've got it again!"

Corwin was at his console in a flash.  "That flux distortion is back?"

"Yes sir... an energy surge, and that odd phase variance.  It's holding 
a little longer this time... Damn.  Lost it again."

"Did you have it long enough to get a good position?"

"Downbelow... Brown 12."

Corwin nodded and tapped his link.  "Zack?  We got it.  Brown twelve.  
Take your teams and move in." Tapping his link yet again, he said, 
"Commander Ivanova? We have another of those gremlin reports in 
Downbelow..."

**** O_O ****

In a dark and dingy corridor in the bowels of Brown sector, the 
lightgate opened again and two figures stepped briskly through 
before it closed.  The first was a slightly pudgy, large economy sized 
redheaded man.  He was followed by a slender woman with delicate 
features, a steely gaze and lavender hair.  Both wore modestly 
expensive outfits and each carried a small suitcase.  The man put his 
bag down and placed a small device, about the size of a vid unit 
remote, securely in an inside pocket.

The woman glanced around, an expression of mild disdain on her 
face.  "So this is Babylon Five.  I can't say I'm terribly impressed..."

The man shrugged.  "This is the low rent district."  He bent down to 
retrieve his bag and gestured along the corridor.  "Now then, let's get 
moving...  miles to go and promises to keep, you know."

**** O_O ****

In his suite, the Vorlon ambassador straightened and turned.

**They do not belong.**

**** O_O ****

Barry Cadwgan turned into a corridor leading, the map he'd 
memorised indicated, to a more salubrious area of the station. 

They were ten meters down the way when shapes un-merged from 
the gloom ahead.  Barry stopped suddenly, and Katherine Madigan, 
Kate to those bold enough to call her friend, ran into him.

Barry cast a quick glance the way they had come.  Two in front, three 
behind.  Trap.

The lead thug's voice was startlingly loud in the silence of the 
corridor.  "Hand it over."

"Hand what over?" asked Barry calmly as Kate edged closer to him.

"Tha gold!"

**** O_O ****

Most people don't react well to violence.  They freeze.  There are a 
handful of seconds where the body hesitates when the mind doesn't 
understand.  Those few seconds are what get people killed.

But Barry didn't hesitate when his opponent produced a knife and 
lunged forward.  He grabbed the knife with his left hand, stepping 
inside the strike and twisting it away.  He then grasped a handful of 
shirt with his right, and with a hiss of effort, threw the man back to 
sprawl on top of his fellows.

At the same time, one of the bruisers was advancing on Kate, a 
lecherous grin on his face as he looked her up and down.  She waited 
until he was just out of reach before, with the smooth, metallic snick 
of the safety releasing, she brought her pistol to aim.  At a point 
about three inches below his belt buckle.

Her would be attacker stopped, paralysed by the unexpected and 
horrible threat, then backed away, holding his hands up to placate 
her. 

She twitched the muzzle of the gun to cover the other thug.  "Now 
then boys, turn around and lie flat - and maybe I won't blow your 
balls off.  Barry, are you all right?"

Barry glanced down at his left hand and the blood-smeared knife 
blade poking through the back of it.  The trio in front of him watched 
with a sick fascination as he calmly worked the knife free and tried 
to bend the fingers of his wounded hand.  The ring and pinkie fingers 
didn't move.  Blood dripped on to the deck plates.

Kate repeated her question, an edge in her voice "Barry.  Are you all 
right?!"

"32% impairment.  Left hand," Barry replied in a cold monotone, not 
taking his eyes off the three thugs.  "Non critical.  Not life 
threatening."

"What tha frag are you?!" blurted out the lead thug as Kate turned, 
motioning them down to join their companions on the deck.  She was 
quivering slightly with suppressed tension.

Barry met the other's eyes as he started to wrap a handkerchief 
around his hand, consciously suppressing the pain and shock 
radiating up from the wound and the burning ache of muscles 
overstrained by the burst of hysterical strength.  "I could tell you, 
but then I'd have to kill you.  Let's get out of here, Kate."

They picked up their luggage and started to back away from the 
muggers, only to freeze as another voice rang out from the corridor 
behind them.

"Hold It!" Zack Allan shouted.  His yell was followed by the sounds of 
PPGs arming at both ends of the corridor.  "Put the gun down, lady."

Kate glanced at Barry with a shrug and a sigh before carefully 
bending down to put her gun on the floor and stepping slowly away 
from it.  As she did, they and their attackers were surrounded by 
Babylon Five security.

**** O_O ****

Meanwhile, in the shadow of Epsilon Three, _Pathfinder_ dropped 
out of warp, mere light seconds out.  Once more in normal space, the 
little vessel altered its heading to a direct course for the Babylon 
Station.

In CnC, there was a sudden flurry of activity as a number of scanners 
chirped for attention.  "Commander!" a deck bunny called, "I'm 
tracking an incoming vessel... roughly fifteen hundred thousand 
kilometers out from Epsilon Three... bearing directly."

Lieutenant Commander Susan Ivanova moved toward the sensor 
station, her voice carrying a note of concern.  "A ship?  Where did it 
come from?"

"I don't know, Commander... One second there was nothing, and the 
next, there it was.  I never even saw any trace of the jumpgate."

"No jumpgate?  Didn't any of the remote sensing platforms detect it?"

The deck bunny shrugged.  "I'm afraid not, Commander.  And I've 
never seen a design like this before," she said, tapping the image on 
her screen.  "It matches nothing used by any of the known races."

"Damn...  Put Zeta squad on alert, and find Commander Sinclair.  Tell 
him we have a potential First Contact scenario.  Who have we got in 
the sky right now?"

"Alphas Six and Eight are on local patrol," piped up the officer at the 
tactical station.  "Sending to intercept."

Ivanova nodded.  "Recon passes only... but tell 'em to be ready for 
anything.  First Contact protocols."

"You think that it's a hostile, Commander?"

"I don't know," Ivanova shrugged.  "But I get nervous when people 
show up un-announced.  And all the moreso when they use the back 
door.  It is best to be cautious.  And I prefer my surprises to be nice 
ones."

**** O_O ****

Zen and Kei were on the flight deck of the _Pathfinder_ as the little 
ship angled toward the massive station.  Kei was looking back and 
forth from a scanner display to the station itself, visible in the 
distance.  "Damn, but it's big... I have visual on it from here..."

Zen nodded, and adjusted a control.  "Yah... it's one of the largest 
O'Neil class stations ever built.  Only its direct predecessor was 
larger."  There was a beep from his console.  "And it looks like they 
know we're here too...  Sensors just picked up a skin-paint..."

Kei giggled.  "Well, so much for subtlety."  She tapped a switch on the 
comm panel.  "Yuri... we've been made.  Be ready in case things turn 
nasty..."

"Ryoukai!  Secure here," Yuri's voice answered.

Kei raised an eyebrow as she watched Zen key a few instructions into 
the flight console.  "What are you doing?"

"I'm setting the controls to keep our speed at one eighth impulse or 
less.  We'll look a lot less like potential hostiles if we keep to their 
idea of space normal speeds."

"Roger that."  Kei turned her attention back to her instruments as an 
alarm sounded.  Two dots on the scanner display had changed course 
and begun to move toward the _Pathfinder's_ position.  Her voice 
tight, she said, "Incoming... two contacts, direct bearing... looks like a 
welcoming committee."

"Starfuries... Mark Ones... nice piece of design, those ships..."  Zen 
worked a few controls, using the _Pathfinder's_ sensor suite to do 
detailed scans of the compact fighters.  "Weapons are hot... but the 
targeting scanners are off... looks like they'll ask questions before 
they blast us."

Kei nodded.  "I'm monitoring their comm traffic with the station.  I 
have a lock on the frequencies they're using now."

"Good.  Open a channel, would you?  Let's see if we can be friends..."

**** O_O ****

Ivanova turned at the surprised tone from her communications 
officer.  "Yes?  What is it?"

"The incoming vessel is hailing us, Commander..."

"Have the translation systems got enough to work with?"

"That's just it sir... they're hailing us in standard."

Susan gawped. "They're *what?!*"

Commander Jeffrey Sinclair came up behind her, still straightening 
the jacket of his uniform.  "What have you got, Commander?"

The Russian scowled.  "I don't know sir... They came out of nowhere, 
in a ship the likes of which we've never seen... and now it appears 
that they may speak standard..."  Her expression darkened.  "I don't 
like these mysteries..."

Sinclair's eyebrows rose. "That *is* interesting.  Have they made any 
moves that might be regarded as hostile?"

"No," Susan admitted. "Not yet, anyway.  But they set a direct course 
for the station as soon as they appeared.  It's like they knew it was 
here, and this is a *planned* visit."

Sinclair adopted a bemused expression.  "Well, don't let's keep our 
visitors waiting; put the call through."

Susan nodded, and turned to the Comm-tech who busied himself 
with his console.  After a moment, the screen above Susan's station 
lit and a picture formed.  A man and a woman stared back at them 
from the image.

The man was stocky, with thick brown hair and a beard.  He was 
wearing some sort of jumpsuit, and he reminded Sinclair of nothing 
so much as a bear.  The woman was something else again.  She was a 
redhead, and had a stunning figure.  Her outfit was far less modest 
than her companion's, consisting largely of a two piece, almost bikini 
like garment that despite its appearance still suggested 'uniform'.  
They were obviously in some kind of control room - one that looked 
clean and very sophisticated.

Sinclair blinked, startled.  Whoever these people were, they *looked* 
human enough.  The woman certainly did.  Hiding his surprise, he 
smiled at the screen, and spoke.  "Welcome to Epsilon Three, and the 
Earth Alliance Station Babylon Five.  I'm Jeffrey Sinclair, commander 
of this station."

The man on the screen returned his smile.  <<Thank you, Commander.  
My name is Zen, and my companion here is named Kei.  We've had 
rather a long journey.>>

"Indeed?" asked Sinclair, curious.  "And where is it that you come 
from?"

The woman spoke up this time, her voice low and throaty.  It suited 
her, Sinclair thought. <<Our home base is on Pacifica,>> she said.

Sinclair and Ivanova exchanged glances. "Pacifica?" he asked.  "I'm 
not sure I've ever heard of it.  Can you tell me where it is?"  There 
was a brief pause while the man and woman conferred, and then the 
man spoke up with a set of coordinates.  The officer at the tactical 
station plotted them on a star map, and Sinclair's eyebrows climbed 
once more.  "You really *are* a long way from home."

The redhead spoke up again.  <<We're a long way from home base, 
that's true... but 'home' is out here... in space.>>

Sinclair kept his tone deliberately neutral.  "And what is the purpose 
of your visit to Babylon Five?" he asked.

The man's voice carried a note of amusement.  <<Actually, we're 
hoping to meet friends.>>

**** O_O ****

After several more exchanges of data, Sinclair agreed to let the 
_Pathfinder_ aboard station.  At a length of 75 meters, she was quite 
small enough to fit comfortably in the station's massive docking 
array.  Besides, it would give his people a better opportunity to take 
a surreptitious look at the strange little vessel.

As the incoming vessel was brought into the station, Sinclair and 
Ivanova headed for the docking bays to be on hand when their 
visitors debarked.  At Sinclair's request, Talia Winters was there as 
well.  Susan wasn't happy about that - she still distrusted members 
of Psi-Corps - but even she had to admit the wisdom of having a 
trained telepath around for this meeting.

The three of them arrived just as the last of the docking clamps were 
being secured, and stood, staring up at the gleaming blue/white hull.  
Sinclair let out a low whistle as he looked over the ship.  "She's a nice 
piece of design," he whispered to Susan.  "I wonder how fast she can 
really go?"

Susan raised an eyebrow and shrugged.  "Or just how well she's 
armed..." she whispered back archly.

Sinclair grinned.  "Always suspicious, eh, Commander?"

"YOU'RE the one that brought the telepath..."

It was Sinclair's turn to shrug.  "Touché..."

***** O_O *****

Aboard the _Pathfinder_ a similar conversation was taking place.  
Yuri's voice drifted across the staging area of the main lock from the 
comm-panel.  "Are you two sure about this?  If something goes 
wrong, we're awfully deep inside the station..."

Zen looked up from the small case he was packing and shrugged.  
"It's too late to worry about that now.  We'll just have to hope that 
nothing happens.  As long as we're careful, it should be okay."

"You worry too much, Yuri," said Kei as she brought over the last few 
items she'd pulled out of the supply lockers.  "We can handle it just 
fine.  You just worry about getting into their computers."  Turning to 
Zen she asked, "Has that got all of it, then?"

Zen looked over the contents of the case and nodded.  "Morph suits, 
remote computer, two stealth paks, and a level two extraction kit... 
looks like we're set."  Zen closed the case, and looked at Kei. "Well, 
almost set."  He pointed at the large holster that hung from Kei's 
shapely hip.  "That stays here, ne?"

Kei scowled, but started to remove the holster from her belt.  "I 
guess it has to... but I still don't like it," she grumbled.  "Going into a 
situation like this unarmed just galls me..."  She sighed and placed 
the holster in one of the lockers, and sealed it up.

Zen blinked. "Unarmed?  Whaddya mean, unarmed?  We've got the 
cards, and the sabers... what more do you want?"

"I want my gun," said Kei sullenly.

Zen grinned, and tossed her a small belt pouch with a device a little 
smaller than an electric shaver.  "Here then..."

Kei pulled out the device and examined it closely.  She looked up in 
surprise.  "This thing has an awfully big emitter bell for a phaser, 
Zen..."

Zen nodded.  "For anyone but you, Yuri or me, that thing is a 
flashlight... hence the large emitter.  Otherwise, it's a standard 
phaser.  They never told us we couldn't carry flashlights on the 
station..."

Kei grinned and fixed the pouch to her belt where her holster had 
been.  "Well, it's not my Electromag, but it'll have to do, I guess."  She 
squared her shoulders and looked over to Zen as he closed the 
catches on their 'suitcase'.  "Ready?" she asked.

Zen nodded.  "Soon as you're dressed, we'll go."

"Dressed?!" Kei squawked.  "I'm in uniform!"

"Well, yes... but this is supposed to be a quiet mission, and you are 
hardly what I'd call inconspicuous in that thing."

Kei smirked.  "Whatsa matter... doncha trust yourself?"

Zen sniffed. "You're still sore 'cause I won the fizzbin game last night, 
aren't you?

"You cheated!  You had to have done!" Kei huffed.

"Oh, get real... How can you cheat in a game that's the playing card 
equivalent of Calvinball?"

Kei's smirk became a leer.  "Well, next time, Zen-chan, if you wanna 
see us naked, just ask, ne?  I'm sure that we can work out to our... 
satisfaction..."  She licked her lips for emphasis.  Before Zen could 
take the bait, she continued in a more normal voice, "Besides... we'll 
see which one of us they spend the most time searching, won't we?"

Zen shrugged and sighed in defeat. "Okay, then... let's go..."

"Good luck," chirped Yuri from the comm.

"Take good care of the ship, ne, Yuri?"  Kei and Zen stepped into the 
main airlock, and the inner door cycled shut.

**** O_O ****

Sinclair straightened as the docking crane started to move, bringing 
down the small cabin that had been mated to the _Pathfinder's_ 
hatchway.  There was a long moment as the crane moved the box 
into position in front of them, and finally, the doors opened.

When Zen and Kei stepped out of the lift, it was almost an anti-
climax.  Sinclair didn't know what he'd been expecting, but their 
visitors looked so... human.  <Still,> he thought as he looked more 
closely at Kei, <there's a lot to be said for human... even if they are 
from the other side of the galaxy.>  He grunted as Talia gave him a 
surreptitious kick from behind.

"I heard that," she whispered.

Stepping forward, Sinclair put on his friendliest smile.  "I'm Jeff 
Sinclair.  Welcome again to Babylon Five," he said warmly.  "This is 
my second, Commander Susan Ivanova, and our 'relations specialist' 
Talia Winters."

Sinclair was struck again with a mental image of a bear as the man 
put down the case he was carrying and took Sinclair's offered hand 
in a firm grip.  "Pleased to meet you," he rumbled.  "I'm Zen, Captain 
of the _Pathfinder_, and this," their visitor continued, indicating the 
statuesque redhead beside him, "is Kei."  Kei smiled and inclined her 
head in a friendly greeting.

"There's just the two of you?" asked Susan, somewhat startled.

"Eh?  Oh, no... we have one more, but she'll be staying aboard the 
_Pathfinder_ for now," said Kei.  "We really don't need a large crew."

"If you'll come this way, then?  I'll escort you through our customs 
procedures personally."  As they moved toward the receiving areas, 
Sinclair made a mental note for his crews to be discreet in their 
study of the alien craft.  With a crew member still aboard, it would 
be harder to gain detailed information without tipping his hand.

The customs scan went smoothly - there were no weapons that his 
people or their equipment could detect.  Each of their visitors carried 
a metallic card in a belt pouch that Zen said were key-cards of a sort, 
and each carried a rather odd flashlight, but nothing that resembled 
anything really dangerous.

What portable equipment the two DID carry was all extremely 
sophisticated, but there was nothing exotic.  Sinclair thought he 
recognised a portable computer of sorts, and a small comm unit.  All 
of it was the sort of thing he'd have expected any business traveler 
visiting the station to have carried.  It was almost a disappointment.

Once customs had been cleared, and Zen and Kei's luggage sealed and 
stowed, pending their finding accommodations, Sinclair and Talia left 
while Susan led their visitors to the currency exchange.

"I'm sorry for all the trouble," Zen was saying, "But we'd no idea what 
you'd use for money around here."

Susan laughed. "Oh, it's no trouble, really.  We just don't get many 
visitors carrying raw gold or gemstones."  Something about that stuck 
in the back of her mind.  It *was* unusual for travelers to be so 
casually toting large sums in that fashion.  But Zen and his companion 
had nowhere NEAR the quantities of gold carried by those two 
stowaways Garibaldi's people had nabbed earlier that day.

They reached a shallow storefront on the promenade, and Susan led 
them up to the heavily protected window.  The old man behind the 
glass impressed Zen as being friendly, but with a no nonsense air 
about him that left one with the impression that he was honest, but 
fair.  Quite an asset in his line of work, Zen thought dryly.

Ten minutes later, Zen and Kei left the little shop without their gold, 
but with almost two hundred thousand credits in the local currency 
in their new account.  Susan was showing them the ins and outs of 
using the Babcom terminals when one of the stations resident aliens 
approached the little group.

"Good day, Commander Ivanova," she said in an even, but oddly 
accented voice.  "It is not often that one sees you playing the part of 
tour guide.  Would you care to introduce me to your charges?"

Startled, Susan stammered. "Why, of course, Ambassador.  Err.  Zen?  
Kei?  I'd like you to meet Ambassador Delenn, of the Minbari 
Federation, and senior member of the Babylon Five Council..."

Zen turned to see a female humanoid of moderate height, dressed in 
a simple yet elegant robe, smiling disarmingly at him.  She had no 
hair, but a peculiar bony structure, finely detailed, that wrapped 
around the back and sides of her head like some kind of delicate 
organic crown.  Her ears were smaller, and slightly lower than a 
human's, and her gaze was piercing and sharp - not a person who 
missed much, Zen thought.

"And these are our new visitors from... Pacifica, wasn't it?" Susan 
continued.  "Zen, and Kei."

Zen returned Delenn's smile, and made a slight bow. "An honour, 
Ambassador..."

"And where is this... Pacifica?" Delenn asked.  "I do not believe that I 
am familiar with any worlds by that name."  Zen gave Delenn the 
same set of coordinates he'd given Sinclair during their first 
communication.  Delenn's eyes widened ever so slightly.  Zen was left 
with the impression that if Delenn had been equipped with either a 
hairline or eyebrows, the latter would have been crawling into the 
former.

Delenn turned her piercing gaze to Kei, and studied her, much to the 
red-head's discomfiture.  After a moment's thought, she turned to 
examine Zen more closely as well.  "You two... belong together.  Yet 
you are not complete..." she said.  Zen *was* equipped with both eye-
brows, and a hairline, and the two were well on their way to a 
beautiful friendship.

"We... er... have a partner," stammered a slightly shaken Kei.  "She's 
still on the ship."

"Yes, that is as it should be."  Delenn smiled, her gaze never leaving 
Zen, who was starting to sweat.  "But there is more to you, I think, 
than meets the eye."  After a moment's pause, she added, "There will 
be a celebration tomorrow, of one of the Minbari rebirth ceremonies.  
You will, I hope, be in attendance?  Perhaps you can even bring your 
third."

Zen and Kei exchanged nervous glances. "Err..." Zen stammered.  
"That's very kind..."

"We'll be there," Kei said with a nod.  "Thank you for your courteous 
invitation."

Delenn inclined her head and smiled. "Excellent.  Tomorrow, then.  
Good day to you."

Zen watched the Minbari Ambassador leave, doing almost as good an 
impression of a goldfish as Ivanova.  "That was... interesting," he 
managed lamely.

"There are times," Susan said quietly, "That she is almost as weird as 
Kosh..."  She shook her head and turned back to her charges.  "I have 
to get back to CnC, but if you need anything, feel free to ask any of 
the station personnel."

"Thank you for your time, Commander."  As Susan left, Zen turned 
back to Kei. "Why in the name of the Goddess did you agree to go to 
that ceremony?"

"I dunno," Kei shrugged.  "But there was just something really odd 
about the way she was staring at us... it seemed like it might be a 
good idea to agree.  Besides," she smirked. "You never know.  It just 
*might* be a lot of fun."

"These are the *Minbari*, not the Centauri," muttered Zen.  "Oh, well.  
Can't be helped now."  He looked at his chronometer.  "We have a 
little time before the first specified rendezvous is set... why don't we 
grab a bite to eat, ne?"

"NOW you're talking.  I wonder if they have cheesecake?"

**** O_O ****

Those few who have seen one will attest, there is something about 
the sight of a Vorlon that is unsettling.  And the sight of a Vorlon 
who is in a hurry is downright terrifying.  On his way to Docking Bay 
thirteen, the Vorlon ambassador started to sweat.  Yes, it was well 
past time that he took a trip back to homeworld.

Well, there was no time like the present.

**** O_O ****

Jeffrey Sinclair waited until the door to his office had closed fully 
before turning to face Talia Winters.  "Thank you for being available 
on such short notice."

Talia smiled, and took the offered seat as Sinclair moved behind his 
desk.  "It was no trouble, Commander.  These are some of the more 
interesting jobs that we get."

"So what can you tell me about our two visitors?"

"Not a great deal, I'm afraid - I was only doing a surface scan, after 
all."

"Yes,"  Sinclair nodded.  "I understand that Psi-Corps regulations 
forbid a deep scan without the subject's consent, or a court order."

"Yes, that's true.  But there was more to it than that.  If I'd tried to go 
deeper, they'd have caught me at it.  In fact, I'm not sure that they 
don't suspect a scan as it is."

The Commander's eyes widened slightly.  "What you're implying is 
that they're telepaths too..."

"Well, probably not full telepaths, no.  But they *do* have some 
latent psi ability.  I'm sure of that.  The man probably has a higher 
psi rating, or at least the potential for it.  But the woman had an 
'echo' of sorts."

"I'm not sure that I understand you.  What kind of an echo?"

Talia paused to consider.  "Think of it as a resonance... a reflection 
from a low order telepathic bond or link."

"Are you saying that she's in telepathic contact with someone else?  
With whom?"

"Essentially, yes, though I doubt it's anything so sophisticated as 
you're imagining.  She's probably not even aware of it on a conscious 
level.  And if I had to guess, I'd say it was likely with their third 
crew-member, whoever she might be.  Whoever it is would have to 
be close."

"I see.  Is there anything else that you can tell me?"

"They're here for a reason... but neither of them seem to have any 
hostile intent.  Their focus wasn't on the station.  It feels like they're 
looking for something.  Whatever it is, that it may be on Babylon Five 
is no more than a coincidence."

**** O_O ****

"This is a hell of a big place," said Kei as she and Zen made their way 
towards one of the small restaurants that lined this portion of the 
promenade.  It was a small place, with lots of plants and a vaguely 
Greek-ish feel to it.  It also had the virtue of being fairly deserted.

"It is," agreed Zen as they were seated.  He looked across the way at 
another of the small restaurants, and blinked at the familiar golden 
crescent logo.  The damned things really were everywhere.

Kei was studying the menu with interest.  "I'm not sure that I can 
make up my mind... It all looks pretty good to me..."

Zen shrugged. "See if they'll bring you smaller orders of several 
different things then.  That's what I'm going to do."

"That's not a bad idea... wanna go shares?  We can each try twice as 
many that way."

"Sounds good to me!" said Zen with a grin.

The waiter proved to be most accommodating, and by the time the 
order was placed, Zen was sure that they would be trying over half 
the items on the menu.  Still, both of them were hungry, and the 
menu made all of it look good.  And if the smells from the kitchen 
were any indicator...

When they arrived, the portions were all a lot bigger than Zen had 
expected.  Noting the way the waiter was glancing at Kei from time to 
time, he suspected that her uniform had something to do with it.  
He'd have to concede that point to Kei as well.  The onna-Ranma 
technique for scamming food seemed to be universal.

Before they started eating, Zen pulled a compact device from a pouch 
on his belt and waved it over each of the plates that had been set in 
front of him.  He made a show of smiling and nodding after each one 
was scanned.

Zen passed the scanner over to Kei.  "And why should I bother with 
that?" she asked.  "Even if it IS toxic to us, the nanites'll take care of 
that."

"Oh, I don't know," said Zen with a smirk, "You might *like* it and 
decide that you want to have it again later."

Kei blinked, and thought for a moment, and her eyes widened as she 
got what Zen was driving at.  "Pattern recorder?"  She grinned at 
Zen's nod and waved the compact scanner over her plates as well.  "I 
do like the way you think sometimes, Zen-chan..."

After they finished their meal, Zen paid the tab and left what he 
hoped was a generous tip.  The food and the service had both been 
excellent.  He joined Kei outside the restaurant as they resumed their 
walk along the promenade.

"Damnation," Kei was grumbling under her breath.  "I feel like I'm 
walking around naked without my '225..."  She stopped and scowled 
as Zen made a strangled sound.  "And just what are you laughing at, 
ne, Zen-*chan*...?"

Zen struggled to maintain a straight face.  "Oh, not a thing, Kei-chan... 
not a thing.  Look, you *know* that we couldn't carry such obvious 
weapons..."  Kei's glare was not abating, so he hastily changed the 
subject.  "Err... so did you find out where this 'Dark Star' place is?"

After a moment, Kei nodded and relaxed.  "Yah.  It's here in Red 
Sector... Level Five, near the Zocolo..."  Her expression faded to one of 
puzzlement.  "The guy I asked looked at me kinda funny, but said I 
should ask for 'Ock' and tell him that 'Squid sent me'."  At Zen's 
raised eyebrow she snapped, "What *now*?"

This time Zen did not try to hide his grin.  "Let's just say that I don't 
think that you'll be wanting to take Ock up on any of his offers."

***** O_O *****

Zen and Kei arrived at the Dark Star almost thirty minutes before 
their rendezvous was scheduled to take place.  It didn't take Kei long 
to figure out what Zen had meant about offers from Ock, either.  Still, 
she had to admit that, as fleshpots went, it was a tasteful enough 
place.

The main lounge was done up in rich greens and blues.  Soft curtains 
were draped over the walls and partitions, lending the area a softer, 
more exotic appearance.  Three table-level stages were arranged 
around the room, lit with muted spotlights in pastel colours and 
there were plants everywhere.  Soft, erotic music was playing in the 
background.

Zen and Kei found a table near the center stage that had a good view 
of the entrance.  A waitress, scantily clad but wearing it well, 
appeared almost instantly to take their drink orders.  Zen watched 
her go appreciatively, ignoring Kei's look of vague disgust.

"Pervert!" she sniped.

"Jealous?" asked Zen.

"Of that?  Hardly!"  Kei took a deep breath and thrust out her chest to 
make her point.  Her triumphant grin was replaced with an angry 
scowl as a number of credit chits were thrust into her cleavage.

Startled, Zen looked up to see an older Centauri man, portly and 
gaudily dressed, staggering off toward the exit and muttering to 
himself in heavily accented standard.  "Magnificent... a magnificent 
specimen... Vir... Vir!  Where *has* he gotten to now?"

"I'll *kill* that clown," growled Kei as she started to rise.

"Easy, Kei-chan..." said Zen gently, putting a hand on her shoulder.  
"We don't want any trouble... besides... he's right."

Still grumbling but somewhat mollified, Kei sat back down, forcing 
herself to relax as best she could.  After a moment she spoke again, 
an expression of astonishment on her face.  "Ne, Zen?  Take a look at 
this, will you?"

In Kei's outstretched hand was a small pile of the local coinage.  Zen's 
eyebrows climbed.  "Ara... Kei-chan, that's over five hundred credits!  
Where...?!"

"That's what I thought," Kei nodded, still in a mild state of shock.  
"This is what that guy..."

Zen grinned. "Okay... so I was wrong.  You might want to listen to 
what Ock has to say after all."  Ducking as Kei took a playful swipe he 
looked at his timepiece and sobered.  "Twenty minutes..."

The waitress served their drinks, leaving them alone again 
afterwards.  A couple of Centauri girls were on center stage, 
undulating sinuously in time with the softly throbbing music.  
Between the jewelry and the transparent veils they were almost 
wearing swirling around their supple figures as they moved, they 
made for an exotic sight indeed.

Zen alternated between watching the dancers, mesmerised by their 
sensuous performance, and watching the front door, and looking 
nervously at his chronometer while Kei fidgeted with the credit chits 
she'd been given.  The time for their rendezvous came, and went.  Of 
Barry and his 'friend' there had been no sign.

Finally, Kei pushed the glass from her third drink across the table 
and shook her head. "He's not gonna show..."

Zen looked at his watch again.  "He's only twenty minutes late, and 
this *is* a big station... Let's give him to the end of an hour, and then 
we'll see about finding a place to stay tonight."

Kei sniffed. "Well... okay, but *I* think you just don't wanna miss the 
next act!"

**** O_O ****

In Medlab, Doctor Franklin was examining Barry's hand.  Security 
personnel watched from a short distance, ready for any trouble that 
their injured 'guest' might cause.  Doctor Franklin made a point of 
ignoring them as he cleaned and treated the wound.

"So, how'd you manage to do this to yourself?" he asked casually.

Barry grinned sourly.  "Oh, just lucky, I guess."

"Brown sector... you know, that's a petty rough section of the station 
you were in...  You and your companion are pretty lucky..."

"Yes indeed," replied Barry, ignoring the unspoken question.

Dr. Franklin finished closing and put a light dressing over the wound, 
then wrapped a bandage around Barry's hand.  "Now, don't use it for 
at least 48 hours.  Are you left handed?"

Barry smiled at the sincere concern in his voice.  "Normally yes, but I 
don't imagine these gentlemen," he nodded towards the security 
guards. "...will let me do too much.  Anyway, I'm pretty well 
ambidextrous, so it'll be good practice.  Thanks Doctor."

"Just doing my job... Barry isn't it?"

Barry nodded as he shrugged back into his jacket.  "Well, I'll be 
seeing you I guess.  Thanks again."

A few minutes after the redhead was escorted away, Garibaldi came 
in, fresh from interrogating the thugs, and perched himself on the 
edge of Miles' desk.

"So, what'd you think of them?"

"You're a man of few words, Michael."

"I certainly am when it involves mysteries like this."

Dr. Franklin frowned thoughtfully.  "Well, it's strange.  The man has 
fillings in his teeth, of a sort that hasn't been used for generations.  
And the woman's hair appears to be naturally blue.  They read as 
human enough, but there are the oddest little biochemical anomalies.  
These are peculiar people, Michael."

Garibaldi nodded. "You're telling me.  I think they deserve a closer 
look."  He stood and stretched.  "You know, Spike, the one with the 
knife, said he took the hit deliberately - just to get the knife away 
from him.  Scared the hell out of him, too.  He kept going on about his 
eyes.  Their papers are very good work too.  They would have passed 
a normal scan.  There are only a few people that could have done 
them.  Perhaps it's time to go and shake a few trees to see what falls 
out."

**** O_O ****

The apartment was a spacious one - a studio designed for efficiency 
and luxury.  Excepting the bathroom and the kitchenette, it was one 
large room, the arrangement of the furniture dividing it into sections.  
One end of the room held a table and chairs and a small desk, while 
the sleeping area was occupied by a single, queen-sized bed.

"It's very nice," Zen was telling their escort, "but I think we'll need 
one with two  <<oof>>..."

Kei beamed at their guide as she pulled her elbow back from Zen's 
ribs.  "It's just perfect.  We'll take it."

"That'll be eighty credits per night, or two hundred fifty for five 
nights."

Kei smiled, and passed over a number of the chits she'd gotten at the 
Dark Star.  "We'll take it for the week, thanks..."

The woman smiled brightly, and passed Kei a receipt and a pair of 
keycards.  "I do hope that you'll enjoy your stay," she said.  "And if 
there's ever anything else that I can do for you, please, don't hesitate 
to call."

Kei waved to the woman as she left, while Zen stared forlornly at the 
bed.  When they were alone in their new quarters, he turned to Kei 
and said, "Kei-chan... I know that apartment hunting isn't exactly the 
most interesting thing to do... but I'm sure that we could have gotten 
one with ... more space," he finished lamely.

Kei's lower lip trembled and she adopted a hurt tone. "What's the 
matter, Zen-chan?  Don't you like me?"  She wiped a 'tear' from her 
chocolate brown eyes and sniffled. "And after all we've been through 
together..."

"Hey!" Zen exclaimed.  "That's not what I meant and you know it..."

"Then what *did* you mean?" Kei snuffled.

"I meant that... well... that is... Oh, stop it.  Why didn't you let her 
show us one with two beds?"

Kei's pout dissolved into a snicker before her expression turned 
serious again.  "That woman thought that we were a couple. There's 
no reason to correct that.  In fact, it works *for* us.  People will be 
more likely to leave us in peace if they think we're here on some 
kind of family 'vacation'... at least, they shouldn't ask as many of the 
types of question that we don't really want to answer."

Zen looked uncertain, but could not find any real flaws in Kei's logic.  
"I suppose that you've got a point..."

"Of course I do," Kei grinned. "Now... let's go get some dinner before 
we have to be at the next rendezvous point.  I wanna see a bit more 
of this place."

Zen nodded, and smiled. "Now that sounds like a plan... but let's get 
you into a slightly less revealing outfit, okay?  I don't think we want 
any repeats of what happened at the Dark Star..."

"Hey!  That wasn't my fault!  Besides!  What do you think just paid 
for our room?"

"I certainly can't argue that... still... I think that something a little less 
conspicuous might be in order, ne?"

"Oh, all right," Kei said sullenly.  "If you wanna be that way about it.  
But our luggage isn't even here yet."

Zen raised an eyebrow.  "We'll wait.  It shouldn't take them more 
than half an hour to deliver it."

"Half an hour?" Kei brightened, and moved up behind Zen.  "That's 
just enough time," she whispered huskily.

"Arrrggghhh!"

**** O_O ****

"What is this stuff?" asked Garibaldi, sitting in his office.  "The gold I 
can understand, that's normal for smugglers.  The gun's an antique, 
though I'd not have expected AP rounds in a handgun... but what are 
these?"  He indicated a small locked box with 'Genom' stamped on the 
side and a hand size device with buttons, like a vid unit remote.

"I dunno, Chief.  They're both resistant to low level probes.  None of 
us have ever seen anything like 'em before."  Zack Allen picked up 
the box, turning it idly in his hands.  "I got no idea what 'Genom' is... 
I thought it might be a company - but there's no record of anything 
even close to that.  It's got some sort of non standard fingerprint lock 
we can't access, and I'm not sure I want to force it."

Garibaldi nodded, a shudder passing through him.  Mystery packages 
like that were the bane of Security people the galaxy over.  "Right.  
Right.  Good."

Zack set the box down, and picked up the device.  "Same with the 
dingus, here.  It seems to want some sort of activation code.  But for 
all I know, it just tells the box when to detonate."

Garibaldi snatched the unit away from his assistant. "Don't *say* 
things like that."  He took a moment to stare balefully at the items in 
question.  "Besides... it doesn't *feel* right... whatever these things 
are, I don't think they're any kind of bomb..."

Zack shrugged, and went on with his report.  "The gold they were 
carrying is raw bullion.  It's all in rectangular ingots that appear to 
have been laser-cut rather than cast.  The report on the micro 
structure and trace elements indicates that it was vacuum and micro 
gravity smelted, and it hasn't been tagged by any registered 
foundries.

"Also, we're still trying to figure out how they got on the station.  
They didn't come in on any liner or freighter;  we've checked.  Their 
tickets are faked up just like everything else and none of the entry 
control files for any other IDs match them.  So far as we can tell, they 
never arrived."

Garibaldi glowered.  "Zack, get onto Earthdome, now.  I want these 
people's records checked.  This *stinks*."

After Zack had left, Garibaldi sat staring at the mysterious device 
meditatively.  Finally he shrugged and reached into his desk for a 
screwdriver.

**** O_O ****

The room was close, quiet and free from distractions.  Michael 
Garibaldi sat across a table from Katherine Madigan, a file opened in 
front of him.  Talia Winters and one of Garibaldi's troopers stood a 
little back from the confrontation.

Zack Allen sat at one end of the table so that Kate couldn't watch him 
and Garibaldi at the same time.

"Where did you two materialise from?  Just pop out of thin air did 
you?"

"We're from Earth." answered Kate, her arms folded.

"And just _why_ can't we find any records of you?  You two do not 
exist."

Kate shot the security chief a look of thinly veiled contempt. "Well, 
that is demonstrably false."

"Your papers are falsified, and I have a pretty good idea where you 
got them.  I can't prove it right now.  But I will."

"What crime have we committed?  We were the victims of an assault, 
not the criminals."

"Possession of an unlicensed firearm on a space station for a start."

"Well, given the sort of lowlife you have, what do you expect?  A 
woman has to be able to protect herself."

"Not with a weapon that can cause a blowout."

Kate sighed.  "Very well officer, what's the fine?"

Garibaldi leaned back, his arms folded.  "Lady, I don't like your 
attitude."

"I want a lawyer."  She retorted.

Garibaldi smiled mirthlessly.  "I'll see what I can do."  He nodded to 
the trooper.  "Take Miz Madigan back to her cell."

**** O_O ****

"So, who are you really?"  Asked Garibaldi.

"I've told you before.  Repeatedly.  My name is Barry.  Barry 
Cadwgan.  You must have a problem with your records."

Garibaldi shook his head.  "Who are you and what do you want 
here?"

Barry chuckled.  "'Who are you?',  'what do you want?'  Those are 
interesting questions.  You should be more careful with them."  He 
sighed.  "Really, Mr. Garibaldi, all I want is to get off your station 
without any more bother.  I haven't hurt anyone... well, not much, 
and that was self defence.  I haven't defrauded or stolen from 
anyone.  I really don't see why you're making all this fuss."

Garibaldi leaned forward, his forefinger stabbing.  "I'll tell you what I 
think, Mr. 'Cadwgan'.  I think you're smugglers.  I don't know what or 
where or how, but I'll find out.  You can bet on that."

"Like I said, Mr. Garibaldi"  Barry replied coldly  "I brought nothing 
onto this station that wasn't bought and paid for, or that I didn't 
make myself.  Ask your telepath there if you don't believe me."

He flicked a nervous glance at Talia, not meeting her eyes.

She frowned, perplexed.  It was as if his thoughts were suddenly 
surrounded by a blanket of static.  There was something there, had 
been something there...  On impulse, she probed harder, pushing her 
gift to its limit.

Nothing.

Oblivious, Barry continued. "I want a bail hearing, by the way.  I 
really am getting bored in that little lock-box."

Garibaldi smirked.  "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that.  As your 
identity is in question, your accounts are frozen and the cash and 
specie you were smuggling..."

"Bastard!"  Barry hissed, thin lipped with anger.

**** O_O ****

After Barry had been returned to his cell, Garibaldi turned to Talia.  
"Well?  Did you get anything from them?"

The telepath shrugged.  "The woman's telling the truth," she said.

"...or what she _thinks_ is the truth."

"Well, yes."

"And what about 'Mr. Cadwgan'?"  The quotes dropped around the 
name.

"I... I can't read him.  I'm sorry."

"You can't read him?  Does he have some kind of shield?"

"No... no shield that I can detect... It's more like he's just... not there 
most of the time.  I don't understand it."

Garibaldi gave her a penetrating look.  She shook her head, turning 
away.  He sighed.  "Okay, Talia.  Thanks for your help.  If you come 
up with anything, please, let me know, okay?"

The telepath nodded silently and gratefully fled the room.  Garibaldi 
watched her go, his expression unreadable.  She was really scared, 
and for some reason that bothered him.  His voice hardened again as 
he turned to Zack.  "And what did you think?"

Zack shrugged.  "She's a corpie, through and through.  Him?  I dunno.  
But they're not ordinary smugglers, I'd bet a weeks pay."

"No bet," said Garibaldi.  "So.  We keep 'em on ice until we find out."

**** O_O ****

That night the two of them returned to their apartment, exhausted.  
Zen plopped down at the desk to make a few notes about the day's 
lack of progress while Kei stripped out of her jumpsuit and padded 
toward the bathroom.  Zen blushed a bit as he watched her go.  All 
joking between them aside, Zen often envied his friend her freedom 
of spirit, and her self confidence.

Zen continued to work until Kei came back out of the bathroom, 
freshly showered and wearing one of her soft flannel nightshirts.  
She tossed aside her towel and indulged herself in a good, long 
stretch.  <Rather like a cat,> Zen thought to himself with a smile.

"C'mon, Zen... shut that thing down, and let's call it a night, eh?"

Zen nodded, and hauled himself out of the chair, taking a stretch of 
his own before heading over towards the sofa.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" asked Kei, her hands on 
her hips.

"Getting ready to go to sleep?" asked Zen, a sofa cushion held in one 
paw.

Kei pointed to the bed.  "That's what THIS thing is for, remember?"

"Yes, but..."

"Dammit, Zen, I don't bite.  Not that hard, anyway.  Now get your butt 
over here where it belongs."  Kei glowered.

Meekly, Zen nodded, and moved to obey, making a stop in the 
bathroom along the way.  When Zen emerged, Zen was also freshly 
scrubbed, and in female form.  What really annoyed her companion, 
though, was the jumpsuit she was wearing.

"Surely you're not gonna sleep in that?"

"Err... why not?"

"Because it's not very comfortable."  Kei tossed a wad of fabric at 
Zen-chan.  "Here.  Put this on instead, ne?"

Zen-chan looked down at bundle Kei had tossed her and sighed.  Once 
more into the bathroom, this time, she emerged wearing a flannel 
nightshirt like Kei's.  She had to admit that Kei was right... it was a 
LOT more comfortable than the jumpsuit.

"Much better," said Kei with a smile.  As Zen-chan slipped under the 
covers on the other side of the bed, Kei ordered the lights off, and 
rolled onto her side.  There was a long period of silence.

"Zen?"

"Yes?"

"You awake?"

"...."

"Are you really that nervous?"

"...."

"Don't you trust me, Zen?"

Zen-chan started to issue a stock retort, but bit it back.  There was no 
teasing note in Kei's voice this time; her tone was completely serious.  
Zen rolled over to face her friend in the darkness.  "Of course I trust 
you, Kei-chan.  You and Yuri are my best friends... I trust you with 
my life."

Kei reached across the bed and put her hand on Zen-chan's shoulder. 
"Then why won't you relax?"

It took all of Zen-chan's willpower to avoid flinching at Kei's touch.  
She took a deep breath and, forcing herself to be calm, blurted out, 
"Because you're carbonating my hormones!"

Kei almost laughed.  "Well, thank the Goddess for that, at least.  I was 
beginning to think that you weren't interested."

"Not interested?  Hell, I'd have to be dead for that," Zen-chan snorted.

"Then why don't you flirt with me or Yuri?" Kei asked softly. "I see 
you do it with every other girl you meet!"

Zen-chan swallowed. "I... it's not the same. Don't you see, it's... it's 
*different* with you."

"I'm not sure that I do." Kei continued in a low voice, her questioning 
gaze unwaveringly on Zen-chan.

Zen-chan shivered a little.  This whole situation was getting to her.  
"With them, it doesn't matter.  I won't see them tomorrow or next 
week... they're strangers.  They have no reason to particularly care 
about me, or me them.  They aren't a part of my life.  It's a game." 
She swallowed, trying to find the words to continue.  "You... you are... 
I can't play the game with you because you ARE a part of my life."

"And is that really so bad?"  Kei clucked affectionately. "Zen, dear, we 
have *got* to get you past these hang-ups of yours." She moved 
closer, and saw the smaller redhead flinch. "I won't do anything you 
don't want me to; you know that." At Zen's eventual nod, she went 
on, "Besides... what happens if you're on an assignment, and someone 
makes a serious pass at you?"

Zen twitched as Kei straddled her.

"Look, trust me, Zen-chan... this *always* works for me."

There were a few moments of rustling, quickly joined by sighs, and 
short, soft exclamations of pleasure.

"Mmmm... Goddess, that does feel good, Kei-chan..."

Kei grinned and sped up her ministrations, eliciting a whimper of 
approval from Zen-chan.  "See? I told you.  Now just relax..."

Zen-chan buried her nose in her pillow, feeling the aches and pains 
draining out of her body as Kei kneaded her muscles, working the 
knots out of her shoulders and back.  Zen-chan found that she could 
barely move; her limbs had become heavy and unresponsive.  Where 
Kei had worked her magic, the tension flowed out of her like water, 
leaving behind only a warm lassitude and a sense of deep peace.

By the time Kei had reached Zen's lower back, the shorter redhead 
was fast asleep.  Kei whispered softly as she finished her work, "See?  
It works every time..."  She slipped off of her perch atop the sleeping 
girl and  drifted off to sleep as well.

**** O_O ****

Zen-chan awoke with a start, feeling better than she had in months.  
She lay there, nestled snugly under the covers, drinking in the quiet 
stillness before reluctantly reaching the conclusion that she would 
have to get up.  She started to stretch, and froze.

There was an arm draped loosely over her waist, and she was 
reasonably sure that it was not hers.  Indeed, she could feel the heat 
of a body pressed gently up against her own.  A very warm and 
shapely body, from the feel of things.

For an instant, a surge of panic swept through her, but she forced it 
back.  It was Kei-chan, she told herself.  It was okay.  Memories from 
the previous night flooded through her mind - Kei-chan's weight atop 
her, the warm strength of her hands as she'd...  Zen-chan coloured at 
the direction that train of thought was taking her.

Anyway, it certainly hadn't been anything like *that*.  It had just 
been a backrub.  Probably the best backrub that Zen had ever had in 
her life.  She'd had no idea that her friend had such talents.  It was 
all perfectly innocent.

Except that she'd had the most peculiar dreams.  She couldn't 
remember any of the details; her mind wouldn't go near them; but 
for some reason there was the oddest warmth in the pit of her 
stomach.

Zen-chan shrugged and put it out of her mind.  She had plenty of 
things to fret about without trying to find new ones - let alone those 
that left her feeling so good.  She finished her stretch and slipped out 
of the bed, gently disentangling herself from her companion, so as 
not to awaken her.

She looked down at Kei and smiled.  The compassion, the gentleness, 
the caring; these were a side of her sempai that few people knew 
existed, and most would never have believed.  But it was what had 
made her think of the revenge as a precious gift rather than a curse.  
With Kei and Yuri, she had a place to belong again and she'd sooner 
die than let anyone hurt either of them.

Zen-chan pulled the blanket back over the sleeping redhead and 
padded into the bathroom.  Twenty minutes later, Zen came out of 
the bathroom clad in a fresh jumpsuit, rubbing a towel through his 
hair, and looking slightly scalded.  He looked over to see Kei, propped 
up on one elbow, regarding him intently.

"Sleep well?" she asked, her voice a throaty purr.

Zen blushed again, and nodded.  "Very well, thank you."

Kei grinned and winked.  "I told you it'd work," she said.  Zen only 
nodded as he watched her slide out of the bed and stretch, running 
through her usual morning exercise regimen.  Zen's appreciation of 
the scene was interrupted by a tone from the room's communications 
console.

Kei stuck her tongue out at the machine on her way into the 
bathroom, while Zen toggled to accept the call, audio only.  "Yes?"

"Sir, this is Maintenance... our monitoring circuits registered a 
thermal spike in your quarters, and we wanted to make sure 
everything was all right."

Zen blinked. "Thermal spike?"

"Yes, sir... environmental monitors show a momentary surge - 
peaking at about 115 degrees centigrade... well outside of the safety 
range."

"Everything seems to be working properly, thanks.  I didn't notice 
anything like that here.  Perhaps there was a glitch in the network?"

The voice on the other end of the line was doubtful.  "I suppose, but 
it's not very likely..."

Zen grinned.  "I appreciate your concern, but I assure you that 
everything here is fine, thanks.  Besides," he continued dryly, "I *do* 
think that I would have noticed if things had gotten that hot in here."

"Very well, sir.  Have a nice day."

"Thank you," said Zen as he closed the channel.

"What was that all about?" asked Kei, coming up behind him.

"I guess my saunic grenade tripped their alarms," Zen said as he 
turned around.  "They were complaining that it was... too... hot... in... 
here..."

Kei grinned, and started to get dressed, while a badly flustered Zen 
called the ship to make arrangements with Yuri for the Minbari 
ceremony they were to attend that morning.  After that, it was back 
to their game of spy versus spy.

**** O_O ****

Several hours later, Zen walked into their quarters and dropped his 
utility belt onto the table as he flopped into the chair by the desk.  
Kei looked up from where she was sprawled on the bed and sighed.

"Let me guess," she asked.  "He didn't show again."

Zen nodded.  "I don't get it.  He selected the times... the places... so 
where the hell is he?  He's missed every damned one of them."

Kei grumbled.  "All this cloak and dagger stuff was his idea.  If we 
don't find him soon, people are gonna start to ask questions... and I 
don't think we want to try to answer them."

"You've got a point there... and if we're here too much longer, they 
just might get curious about the _Pathfinder_...  Well, more curious 
than they already are."

"Too right...  Particularly that Minbari person... what was her name 
again?  That whole bit during their 'Rebirth' ceremony was starting 
to weird me out.  All of those little red fruits... and the way she kept 
smiling at us, and the way she had the three of us set apart like 
that."

"Oh, you mean Delenn.  Yah, and the way that there were four spaces, 
even after she made such a big deal of there being three of us.  That 
was odd.  Then again, we *are* outsiders here."

"I know.  I know...  I just got the weirdest feeling that there was 
more to it than that."  Kei snickered.  "I bet she and Xellos would 
drive each other nuts."

Before Zen could come up with a suitable reply for that, the comm 
unit chirped.  Zen leaned over and tapped to accept the transmission.  
The screen lit, and Yuri's face peered at them from the display.  She 
harumphed.  "Well, this is cute.  Here I am, working my tail off, and 
you two are lounging around and making googley eyes at each other."

Kei looked up from her place on the bed and grinned.  "Why, Yuri-
chan, I do believe that you're jealous...."  Ignoring the brunette's 
huffs of protest, she continued, "Anyway, we've got plenty of time.  
Our next rendezvous isn't for over an hour yet."

Yuri's tone turned serious.  "Yah, well, don't waste your time.  He 
won't be at that one either."

"Tell me about it," grumbled Kei, flopping back down on the bed.  
"I'm beginning to think that this clown is vapourware."

"Oh, he's real enough," said Yuri.  "Here's a picture of him."  the 
screen blanked and Yuri's image was replaced with a photograph of a 
sturdy redheaded male, about six feet in height.

"Looks like a mug-shot," Kei tittered.

"And this is his 'companion'," Yuri continued as a another photo, this 
one showing a striking woman with long, lavender hair and a severe 
expression appeared next to the first.  "Computer identifies her as..."

Zen interrupted. "...as Katherine Madigan, one of the top company 
executives for the GENOM Corporation."

"Yes... that's right," said Yuri.  "How did you..."

"You *know* that woman?" Kei asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Great goddess no," Zen replied.  "At least not by more than her 
reputation.  Which is not as good as it might be..."  Zen studied the 
photos more closely.  "Yuri... where did you get these pictures?"

Yuri's grinning visage replaced the photos on the display once more.  
"Well, when we docked, I raided the station computer system.  I 
grabbed an image of the entire network, and set it up as a mirror in 
the ship's computer here.  I've finally managed to decode the station 
database."

Zen slumped back into his seat.  "Oh, bugger.  They really ARE mug 
shots, aren't they?"

"'Fraid so..." Yuri nodded. "That's why they won't be at the next 
rendezvous.  They're currently cooling their jets in the station brig."

"Crap," said Zen eloquently.

"What're they doing in the lockup?  Are there any charges pending?" 
asked Kei.

"Looks like it.  Traveling under falsified documents, illegal entry, 
smuggling, and it looks like there's a weapons charge against this 
Madigan person."

"Damn.  That'll complicate things.  Yuri, keep grabbing updates, and 
see if you can learn anything more, ne?  Looks like we get to pay a 
visit to Station Security.

**** O_O ****

"This seems fairly irregular, if you ask me," said Zack Allan, as he 
scratched the back of his head.  "It's not like we can just hand out 
prisoners to just anyone that walks through the door, you know."

Zen and Kei exchanged a glance and sighed.  They had known that 
this was not going to be easy, but they'd hoped that they might get 
lucky.  Alas, it seemed not to be.  With another sigh, Kei produced 
her ID card and handed it to Zack.  "Then I'll make this a formal 
request.  As agents of the 3WA, and representatives of the United 
Galactica, I respectfully ask that if you have these people in custody, 
that you turn them over to us."

"So just what *is* the 'Worlds Welfare Works Association'?  I don't 
think that I've ever heard of it."  Zack studied the card that Kei had 
handed him curiously.  "And what is a 'Trouble Consultant'?"

"Well, in this context, Mr. Allan, I suppose that you'd call us 'bounty 
hunters' - though the analogy really isn't accurate.  We were sent 
just to find, and retrieve these people.  We're not aware of any 
criminal charges pending against Mr. Cadwgan or Ms. Madigan.  The 
mission briefing that we were given listed them as 'defectors'."

"I'm afraid that I'll have to hand this one over to the boss... he's the 
only one that'll have, or be able to get the authority to give you what 
you want...  If you'll follow me, please?"  Zack led the two trouble 
consultants down a short corridor to an unmarked door.  After 
getting an acknowledgment to his signal, he palmed the lock and 
waited as the door slid aside.

*** O_O ***

Michael Garibaldi looked up from the mess on his desk, a harried 
expression on his face, and sighed.  "I hope this is important, Zack.  
I've still got a million things to get done..."  He trailed off as Zack 
came into the office with Zen and Kei trailing behind.

"Oh, I think you'll want to talk to these people, Chief."

Garibaldi surveyed the two trouble consultants with tired eyes.  
"Look, no offence, but I don't know who you are, or what you want, 
and frankly, I don't really care.  I've got too many things to deal with 
as it is, and I just don't have the time to..."

Zack interrupted.  "Chief, this is Agent Kei, and this is Agent Zen.  
They're with the 3WA, they say, and are here to collect our two 
mystery guests."  Zack passed the ID card that Kei had given him to 
Garibaldi.

Garibaldi looked his visitors over again, more carefully this time.  
After a moment, he looked down at the card Zack had handed him.  
"I see.  And just what was it that told you that your friends were 
here?  I don't recall placing any ads..."

The man spoke. "It's a rational guess.  They missed all the scheduled 
meeting points.  That reduced to three possibilities.  The first is that 
they never made it here, and are lost, or dead.  The second is that 
they DID make it here, but were killed or taken by some criminal 
element.  The third is that they got here, did something stupid, and 
got picked up by you."

Garibaldi blinked at that while the woman continued in a smooth 
voice that sounded like a purr.  "If either the first or second have 
occurred, then there is nothing we can do for them.  On the other 
hand, if you've got them, then there is still a chance that we can get 
them to where they need to be."

"And just where would that be?"

The two exchanged a glance before the man answered. "I'm going to 
hate myself for having to say this, but I'm afraid that we really can't 
tell you that."

Garibaldi sighed.  It was going to be one of *those* days.  "Of course 
you can't.  Security reasons and all of that, I suppose."

The man smiled weakly and shrugged.  "That'd be the least of it, to 
be honest.  But there's not much I can do about it."

"I see," said Garibaldi, making a production out of stretching.  "And if, 
mind you, I'm saying *if* we had the people that you're looking for, 
I'm assuming that you would be able to identify them?"

"Oh, yes," chimed in the red-head.  "Two individuals - one adult male, 
caucasian, red hair, large, and a bit grumpy.  The other is a woman, 
bluish hair, tall, and perhaps a touch on the snobbish side."

When Garibaldi raised an eyebrow, Kei continued, "The man's name 
is Barry Cadwgan, and the woman is Katherine Madigan."

"And you think that maybe I have these people that you're looking 
for in my brig."

"Don't you?" asked Zen.  "Your assistant, Mister Allen, all but said that 
you have two unknowns in custody.  Your own reaction to Kei-chan's 
description indicates that said unknowns are very probably the ones 
that we're here to collect."

Garibaldi made a mental note to have a 'chat' with Zack about 'need 
to know' and smiled up at Zen.  "Well, I'll see what I can do.  This is 
all highly irregular, you understand."

Zen raised an eyebrow. "You don't seem to me to be the type to hide 
behind procedure, Mr. Garibaldi..."

"This time, Mr... Zen was it?  This time, I think that I will.  I've never 
heard of the United Galactica, let alone the 3WA."  Something in the 
back of Garibaldi's mind was screaming at him that both those names 
were familiar, but he ignored it and went on.  "For all I know you 
two are smugglers trying to bail out your cohorts with some cock and 
bull story."

Kei tensed, her hands balling into fists.  "And just what," she ground 
out through clenched teeth, "are you implying by THAT?"

Garibaldi looked calmly at the fuming red-head and said in a level 
tone, "I'm not implying anything, Miss.  I'm *stating* that I do not, at 
this time, have enough information to process your request.  Even if 
you are who you say you are, and the people in the brig ARE the 
ones you're after, I'm not sure that I'd have the authority to give 
them to you."

The red-head looked as if she were going to say something, but her 
companion put a restraining hand on her arm.  "Easy, Kei-chan.  
They're just doing their jobs."

Kei glared at Garibaldi, her chocolate eyes flashing with ill 
suppressed annoyance, but she relented.  Forcing the irritation out of 
her voice, she said, "Okay.  We'll be back in the morning.  Will that 
give you enough time to 'process' our request?"

Garibaldi shrugged.  "I'll do what I can," was all that he would say.

**** O_O ****

After Zen and Kei had left his office, Garibaldi sat lost in thought.  
There was something going on here... something that he didn't 
understand;  and if there was one thing that Michael Garibaldi hated, 
it was an unsolved mystery.  He ran back the recording of the 
meeting from the office security cameras.  Freezing it, he zoomed in 
on an image of the two 'trouble consultants' as they stood before his 
desk.  The man was a complete blank, but the woman... he was sure 
that he had seen her before.  He was equally sure that he had never 
met her before in his life.

And what was their connection to the two anomalies in detention?  It 
was obvious that Zen and Kei knew who the prisoners were... but 
who were Zen and Kei, really?  Where did they come from?  What 
was this 'United Galactica', and how come no one had ever heard of it 
before?  There were just too many questions for which he had no 
answers.  It didn't add up, and he meant to get to the bottom of it.

Garibaldi hauled himself to his feet and stretched.  It was time, he 
thought, that he paid a little visit to the ambassadorial wing of the 
station.

**** O_O ****

"It's odd they put us in here together." Barry mused, sitting on the 
bed.

Kate looked up and blinked at Barry. "Well, if they haven't got the 
place wired I'll be very surprised."

"Heh.  Bleeding obvious when you think about it."  He glanced 
around.  "I wonder where they put the camera?  Probably one of the 
ventilation ducts.  So, any thoughts you want to _share_ on why 
we're still both locked up?"

"A good question.  I mean, they haven't even offered us that call to a 
lawyer yet.  I don't know the legal code here well enough to know 
what rights we're supposed to have.  How long can they hold us 
without representation?"

He fumbled around in a pocket for a pen and small pad and began to 
write.  Curious, Kate walked over and sat beside him.  He was 
suddenly very aware of her sitting next to him, feeling her warmth.

Disturbingly aware...

*They are far too interested in us.*  Kate read over his shoulder as he 
shielded the pad from the presumed cameras. 

Kate grabbed the pen and paper and began to write herself.  Barry 
froze a moment as though paralysed.

*Yes.  Options?* she wrote and passed it back.

*If necessary, we can get out of here.  Fall back and try again.*  He 
answered.

*I wonder where the contact team is.*

*Good question.  Give it 24 hours and we bug out.*

Barry screwed up the paper and, with a grimace, swallowed it.

**** O_O ****

Most of the people that knew him would agree that 'taciturn' was a 
good word to describe Michael Garibaldi.  The face he presented to 
the universe at large was gruff and irascible, and tended to get on 
peoples nerves.  Years of experience had taught him that being an 
irritant made his job easier.

His close friends, however, knew a different Michael Garibaldi.  They 
knew the man that was kind, and dedicated - that loved Italian food 
and a good book - the thoughtful side that he hid so well from every 
one else.  Today, even those close friends would have said 'taciturn' 
fit him to a tee.

In short, The Chief of Babylon Five security was not in a good mood.  
His visits to the various ambassadors had generated more questions 
than they'd answered, and that *always* annoyed him.  What made 
it worse, though, was that for once, he honestly couldn't say that he 
thought they were hiding anything from him.

Delenn had been his first call.  Having heard from Susan about the 
invitation that the Minbari ambassador had extended to their 
visitors, he hoped that she might have some insight that she would 
be willing to share.  And share she had, in her own unique and 
mysterious way.

She had liked the 3WA team very much.  No, she hadn't been at all 
surprised to find that they were looking for the people Garibaldi was 
holding, why, was there any harm in it?  Yes, they had taken part in 
the rebirth ceremony, and had done very well.  She was certain that 
they would be very happy together.  No, she hadn't sensed anything 
odd about them... at least nothing any odder than most humans.  Yes, 
they fit together very well, and she was sure they made an excellent 
team.

She'd had more to say, but nothing that answered any of Garibaldi's 
questions.  He thanked her and left, opting to visit his old pal Londo 
next.  That hadn't helped either.  Londo had been plenty willing to 
talk, of course, but not about anything that Garibaldi was interested 
in.  No, he'd never heard of the United Galactica, and what was it, 
some kind of banking cartel?  He hadn't even known that there WERE 
visitors from the other side of the galaxy, how many heads did they 
have?

Once he'd gotten away from Londo, he'd dropped in on G'kar.  The 
Narn representative usually had at least some knowledge of the 
darker goings on in the station's underworld; even those he didn't 
have a hand in personally.  But again, he'd drawn a blank.  Like 
Londo, G'kar had been totally unaware that such people were even 
on board the station.  And he was plenty mad about not having been 
told.  Why, after all, should the Earthers and the Minbari keep such 
new technologies all for themselves?

It had taken the better part of an hour to calm the Narn Ambassador 
and to convince him that no one had, as yet, been given advanced 
technological secrets.  In the end, Garibaldi wasn't sure that G'kar 
really was convinced, but at least he had quit ranting.  He HAD, 
however, wanted to talk to the visitors as soon as possible.  Garibaldi 
had said that was fine with him; all he had to do was ask the station 
computer where they were.

Lastly, he'd gone the see Kosh.  He'd entertained little hope of getting 
anything helpful from the Vorlon... even if they deigned to answer 
your questions, the answers were often so cryptic as to be useless.  It 
had come as quite a shock to find that Kosh had left the station - had 
done so within an hour of Zen and Kei's arrival.  Ivanova was still a 
bit steamed about it - as the Vorlon ambassador had been in such a 
hurry that he'd disrupted her docking queues for hours.

And just what, Garibaldi wanted to know, could so spook a Vorlon?  
He shuddered.  On second thought, maybe he *didn't* want to know 
after all.

**** O_O ****

Back in their apartment on the station, Kei was pacing back and 
forth, like a tiger in a cage.  "Dammit, what are they playing at?  
You'd think they'd be glad to be rid of the lot of us by now.  What's 
with all the delays?  Hell, why don't we just beam 'em up and warp 
out already?"

Sprawled on the bed, Zen watched his friend move, admiring her 
lithe grace.  He sighed, and shook his head.  "Yuri thought of that.  
She says she can't get a stable pattern lock through so much of the 
station's mass...  That, and there's some kind of damping field 
originating from the surface of the planet.  We'd have to clear that 
before the transporters would be reliable."

Kei blinked. "You mean we have to get 'em off the station before we 
can get 'em off the station?"

"No," Zen smiled.  "But we'd at least have to get the _Pathfinder_ 
clear of the field, and then get our passengers near the outer hull of 
the station.  Apparently what ever it is sets up a resonant quantum 
interference in the pattern buffers."

Their portable comm unit chirped, and the display flared to life.  
<<We have a problem,>> said Yuri from the screen.

"No kidding," snapped Kei.

Zen had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "What sort of 
'problem', Yuri-chan?"

<<I finally managed to break the encryption on what they call 'Gold 
Channel' transmissions - that's the high security link between the 
Station here, and Earthdome.>>

"Go on," said Zen.

<<I ran all the recent traffic through the computer for processing.  
The latest message that came in was coded for Commander Sinclair, 
and Security Chief Garibaldi.  You'd better hear it for yourselves.>>  
Yuri tapped a control off screen and her image was replaced with the 
Babcom splashscreen, and a 'secure' header.

The screen cleared and displayed the face of an older man, with 
vaguely oriental features.  He was dressed in civilian clothing that 
was well tailored, and looked expensive.  His voice was warm and 
kindly, but the words that it carried sent chills along Zen and Kei's 
spines.

<<Jeff... Mister Garibaldi... it seems that you've picked up quite an 
anomaly out there.  Earth Force Medical has reviewed the reports 
sent back by Dr. Franklin, and they concur with his findings.  Further, 
records checks here on Earth cannot corroborate the story told by 
your prisoners.  In fact, we can find no traces that suggest they even 
exist.>>

The man cleared his throat and continued, <<Earthdome has taken 
something of an interest in the matter.  You are free to try and gain 
as much information as you can, but you are NOT to surrender the 
prisoners that you have to anyone.  The Earthforce Destroyer 
_Proton_ has been diverted to retrieve them, and should be there in 
a little over eight hours.>>

<<Lastly, Earthdome has no records of any previous contact with 
United Galactica or the 3WA.  They and the Psi Corps are both very 
interested in 'talking' with these people, and getting a much closer 
look at that ship of theirs.  Do not put the station at risk, but you 
must do everything in your power to hold them there until our ship 
arrives.  If need be, you are authorised to use force.>>

The old man on the screen took a deep breath, and leaned forward, 
lowering his voice. <<Be careful, Jeff.  I have a bad feeling about all of 
this.  I wish I could be giving you better news.  Higachi out.>>

The screen faded to black and the words 'end transmission' flashed 
in its center.  A long silence reigned in the small apartment.

Kei's eyes flashed. "So that's their game, is it?  They've never had any 
intention of giving us what we've asked for."  Her voice took on a 
low, dangerous tone.  "They've just been playing us for fools."

<<That transmission,>> Yuri continued, <<was received by Jeffrey 
Sinclair at 15:50 hours station time - a little over three hours ago.>>

"Frak!  That doesn't leave us a lot of time.  That ship'll be here in five 
hours.  Maybe less."

"And if there's a Psi-Cop on board, we sure as hell don't want to be 
here when it arrives," agreed Kei.  "Let's get kitted up, ne Zen?"

**** O_O ****

Zack looked up as Kei and Zen walked into the central lobby of the 
security section.  He smiled, and waved in an apologetic manner.  
"I'm sorry," he said.  "I still haven't heard anything from the Chief, 
and until I do, I just can't turn anyone over to you."  The small back 
packs that Kei and Zen wore, as well as the rather elaborate utility 
belts, lent their jumpsuits an almost paramilitary feel that was 
beginning to make him nervous.

"Oh, that's okay, Mr. Allan.  We didn't really expect that you could."  
Zen's smile was warm and friendly, but it stopped short of his eyes.

Tugging at his collar nervously, Zack asked, "So what can I do for you 
then?"

"I suppose letting us talk to the prisoners is out of the question?"

"I'm afraid so, yes..."

"Thought so."  Zen sighed.  "Kei-chan was right.  My way doesn't 
really seem to be getting us anywhere."

"Your way?"

"Yes.  You know.  Tact.  Diplomacy.  Trying to be reasonable, and 
expecting others to return the favour.  Kei-chan says that I'm far too 
naive and idealistic."

"Ah..." stammered Zack intelligently.

"So Kei-chan here has decided that we'll try *her* way."

"Her way?"  Zack gulped.  "And what is her way?"

Kei's smile was feral as she pressed the emitter of her phaser against 
Zack's throat.  "*My* way," she purred, "involves a lot less talk, and a 
lot more action."

Zen drew his own flashlight and pointed it at the hapless security 
man.  Zack laughed nervously, sweat beading on his forehead.  "Aha.  
Let me guess... those aren't really flashlights, are they?"

"Sure they are.  They're just a lot... *brighter* than most."  Kei flicked 
her wrist and fired.  A bright blue beam lanced upward, severing a 
number of the conduits that ran along the ceiling.

Zen swore as gouts of water burst from the ruptured pipe, soaking 
everyone and everything in the small lobby.  Hidden from the 
security cameras by the spray, Zen's form rippled and shrank.  The 
bearlike bearded man dissolved under the stream to become a trim, 
compact and curvy red-headed girl.  A rather wet and irritated girl.  
"Gee, thanks, Kei-chan..."

Kei giggled and grinned. "Sooorreee!"  She didn't look the least bit 
apologetic to Zen.  An alarm began to shrill, and Zack took advantage 
of the distraction to reach for his PPG.  He never made it.  Kei's 
phaser took him out before he could even draw the compact weapon.

Zen-chan dodged a pulse from a PPG and returned fire, taking cover 
behind one of the security consoles.  She dropped her attacker and 
the two behind him in rapid succession, all the while grumbling 
under her breath.  "A hundred an' one conduits to choose from, and 
which one does she tag?  The water line, natch."

While Zen-chan picked off the incoming guards, Kei reset her phaser 
and blew out the security cameras throughout the area, effectively 
blinding any monitoring of the detention block.  Once she was sure 
all of the surveillance had been taken care of, she set for stun, and 
scanned the area for more hostiles.

Zen-chan adjusted a toggle at her belt and the jumpsuit she was 
wearing shifted, altering its colour and texture until it looked all but 
exactly like one of the Earth Alliance uniforms.  She whispered a 
quiet 'thankyou' to whatever bright soul had been the one to develop 
the morph-suit.  It wasn't really much of a disguise, but most people 
tended to notice a uniform almost to the exclusion of the person 
wearing it.  Kei noted Zen's action, and did the same.

Reaching slowly around the console behind which she'd been hiding, 
Zen snaffled the keycard off of the unconscious guard.  She waved to 
Kei.  "Cover me, will you?  I'm gonna see if I can find our package."

Kei waved her understanding and started falling back towards Zen's 
position, pausing only to check and make sure that the bodies strewn 
about were all still alive.  Things were quiet at the moment, but with 
all those alarms blaring, they wouldn't stay that way for long.  Still, 
she tossed a couple of sleep-gas grenades down the corridors just to 
be on the safe side.

Zen-chan ducked down the short corridor to the detention area, 
stunning the lone guard as he reached for his PPG.  If she recalled 
correctly, Barry's cell would be the second door on the right, just 
about here...

**** O_O ****

Barry sat in his shirt sleeves, reading a trashy novel they let him 
have for the third time as an alternative to staring at the wall.

He heard what sounded like a strange muffled explosion, and door to 
his cell slid open a few moments later.  A grinning and slightly damp 
redhead poked her nose around the jamb.

"Hi.  My name's Zen.  We're here to rescue you."

Barry gave his visitor a serious look. "Aren't you a little short to be a 
storm trooper?"

"Huh?  Oh, the uniform... long story.  C'mon, funny man..."

Barry stood, shrugging into his coat. "Let's get moving.  You're in a 
docking bay I assume?  Given that siren, there's an alert on... Hmm.. 
we'll need disguises.  Well, what are you waiting for?  Let's get this 
show on the road!"

Zen-chan rolled her eyes as Barry pushed past her on his way out of 
the cell.  "Yes, your worship."

Once he cleared the door, Barry saw the other half of the team sent 
to rescue him.  "Oh dear!   They would have to send *them*!"

"And just *what* do you mean by *that*?" Kei ground out through 
her teeth.  She turned to Zen as Barry ignored her question, barging 
past on his way down the corridor and snarled, "You mean we spent 
two days here looking for *this* clown?"  Zen-chan just shrugged.

Barry had stopped a few meters further down the hall, and was 
studying the door controls.  After letting him fiddle with it for a 
moment, Kei poked him on the shoulder and passed him the keycard 
she'd taken off one of the guards she'd stunned.  Then she turned to 
cover the end of the corridor while he opened the door.

As the door slid aside, the woman in the cell looked up. "About time," 
she said before noticing that Barry was not alone.  "So who are these 
two maniacs?  And *why* is it always red-heads?"

Kei scowled  "Oh, joy.  Another joker.  And just what is it that you 
have against red-heads?"

Madigan sighed.  "Oh, nothing... nothing... they're just more trouble 
than they're worth sometimes."

Zen and Kei exchanged a meaningful glance and looked at Barry, who 
was already on his way down the corridor again.  Eyebrows were 
raised.

Almost as an afterthought, Barry glanced back along the hallway.  
"Kate, meet Zen, an author, and Kei, of the 'Lovely Angels'.  Not, and I 
must emphasise this, any *other* Trouble Consultant team.  They're 
busting us out.  Now, can we get on with this?  Kate, we'll have to 
cover your hair.  Anyone got a hat?  Which docking bay are you in?  
What's the plan?  You _do_ have a plan, don't you?"

Kei stalked off after him, muttering under her breath. "Hat?  I'll give 
you a hat.  Just c'mere, and I'll crown you..."  With a shrug, Zen-chan 
and Madigan followed.

On their way out of the detention area, Zen stooped by a couple of 
the fallen guards, and retrieved their weapons and links.  Stuffing 
them into an inside pocket of her morphsuit, she found the others 
gathered around Barry, who had stopped again, this time, outside of 
Garibaldi's office.

"What are you stopping here for, Princess?" asked Zen.  "You said you 
were in a hurry."

Barry started fiddling with the lock again, but this time the keycard 
that Kei had given him didn't open it.  "There are two items," he said, 
"That we need to recover, or destroy."

Kei fired down the corridor, dropping another security man in a 
boneless heap.  "So what makes these things so special, then?"

"Well," Barry said, "Aside from cultural contamination issues, they 
can be bloody useful."

"Oh, just answer the question," said Zen as she trained her phaser on 
the other end of the corridor.

"One is my lightgate generator..."

"And the other," interrupted Kate, "is complete set of technical 
readouts, manufacturing details, Tooling, and source code for the 
Genom Corporation's boomers."

Zen-chan nodded.  "Fascinating.  Though I'm a bit surprised that you 
didn't just give 'em to an Artoo unit for safe keeping."

"I didn't have one handy at the time," Barry deadpanned.  "Look, you 
two keep an eye out.  I'll try and get this open."

Zen-chan took a step back and eased Barry out of the way.  "Here.  
Allow me."  Reaching into a pouch on her belt she pulled out a small 
cylindrical device which she swiped over the lock.  After a second, 
the lock chirped, and obligingly flashed green as the door slid open.  
"Kei-chan, help Princess here find his toys, and let's get outta here.  
That Garibaldi fellow is likely to be a bit narked when he finds out 
that we busted into his office."

"Good.  Angry people make mistakes," said Barry as he and Kei went 
in.  A few moments later he began to swear, becoming quite 
inventive about gods, demons, Garibaldi's ancestors, the relative lack 
of the same compared to normal people and how he must be able to 
count to more than 20 if he took his shoes and socks off.

"Oh, stuffit, will you?" came Kei's voice.  "I found the damned thing... 
AND I found the other stuff.  Now c'mon."

"I just wish you hadn't found it in *bits*!" Barry grumped.

"Find everything, Princess?" asked Zen-chan sweetly as the two 
emerged from the office.  Barry kept mumbling imprecations under 
his breath, and nodded.  He had the Genom lockbox tucked under an 
arm, while Kei held a small satchel.

Barry took several deep breaths before continuing.  "Right, then.  
Where did you say you were parked?"

**** O_O ****

Michael Garibaldi got to the security offices mere moments after the 
3WA team had left with his prisoners.  He looked around the main 
lobby in shock.  There was water everywhere, though the rupture 
had been sealed off, and bodies littered the deck.  It looked like his 
people had fought a war here, and lost.

More security personnel piled in behind him, fanning out to search 
the area.  They moved cautiously, not wanting to end up like their 
fellow officers.

"Will somebody please shut off that damned klaxon?" Garibaldi 
yelled.  Feeling mildly sick to his stomach he knelt down to examine 
one of the bodies.  It turned out to be Zack Allan.  Then, to his 
surprise and immense relief, he noticed that Zack was still breathing.  
Hastily he checked for a pulse and found it strong and regular.  
Moving to the next of his fallen crew he found the same thing.

"Get a team from Medlab up here!" he cried out.  "Whetever they're 
using appears to be non-lethal.  Then get kitted - we're gonna take 
these bozos down."

**** O_O ****

Zen-chan and her comrades, however, had other plans.  Once they 
were clear of the detention area, they ducked into a side corridor to 
catch their breaths, while Zen wrung the last of the water out of her 
hair.  Kei passed the satchel she'd retrieved to Madigan, and checked 
the corridor.  "It's clear," she declared at last.  "Let's make a run for 
it."

"No," said Zen-chan, holding up a hand.  "That'll attract too much 
attention.  Princess?  You and your friend here keep between us.  
We'll walk.  But briskly, mind you."  She reset the toggle on her 
phaser, widening the beam focus.  "Just act like you know what 
you're doing, and things should be fine."

Pausing to straighten her 'uniform', Kei nodded, and the four of them 
stepped out into the main corridor again.  Quickly they made their 
way to the end of the section and darted around the corner.

Now they were traveling through one of the busier sections of the 
station.  People darted about their business, all but oblivious to the 
now fugitives in their midst.  Madigan looked a bit unsettled at first, 
like she wanted to run, but regained her calm after a moment.  She 
was in complete control.  If she could handle running large chunks of 
the Genom Corporation, this should be a piece of cake.

Zen-chan was pleasantly surprised when they made it through the 
first of the office zones without incident.  Her objective was one of 
the four radial lift shafts that would take them toward the station 
core - where they would move to the forward sphere in which the 
docking bays were housed.  She was just beginning to think that they 
would make it when a burst from a PPG scorched the wall a half a 
meter in front of her.

"Halt!" came the cry from one of the side corridors.

Zen-chan dove forward and rolled, drawing the security man's fire 
while Kei dropped him with a burst from her phaser.  They'd gotten 
lucky, she thought as she hauled herself to her feet.  There was only 
the one man, and she doubted he'd had a chance to call for backup.  
She glared balefully at the scorched paint where he'd tried to shoot 
her, and trotted over to give the downed man a swift kick while she 
relieved him of his link and his weapon. [Cool,] she thought to herself 
as she hefted the PPG.  [Didn't know they had rifle versions.]

Slinging the weapon over her shoulder, she rejoined her group.  
"Looks like they're onto us.  Kei, open a channel to the _Pathfinder_ 
and see if Yuri can find us a clear path outta here.  We're gonna have 
to switch tactics a bit, I think."

**** O_O ****

Garibaldi was worried.  Whoever these people really were, they'd 
gotten a pretty good head start on his people.  They'd gotten damn 
near all the way to Blue Six before they'd been noticed.  And the 
reason that Garibaldi knew *that* was because the man assigned to 
patrol that sector was no longer responding to hails.

As his search teams started to catch up, more information was 
coming in - information that was not consistent.  He knew from a 
review of the security office cameras who was responsible.  Those 
two from that alien ship - Zen and Kei - had come into the office - 
approached Zack, and then things got fuzzy.  He didn't know what 
those weapons were, but they seemed to be fairly effective.

Kei's first shots had taken out most of the surveillance sensors, as 
well as the water line.  Then she, Zen, and their prisoners had all 
disappeared.  They'd even broken into his office!

Naturally, Garibaldi had given his search teams pictures... he'd had 
pictures of the prisoners, and the security shots of Kei and Zen.  His 
teams were looking for a bearlike man and a stacked red-head that 
were each wearing light grey jumpsuits, as well as a woman with 
blue hair and a tall, red-headed male in obvious civvies.

That was the problem - the group that his men were now chasing 
didn't match those descriptions.  The smugglers had been easy 
enough to identify, but the other two were a mystery.  The man had 
disappeared completely - there were now two red-headed women, 
and they'd somehow managed to trade their light grey jumpsuits for 
very close approximations of Earth Alliance uniforms.

The questions were coming in MUCH faster than the answers.  For 
example, where had this other girl come from?  Details were sparse, 
but most sightings agreed that she was a red-head and that she was 
well built, like her taller companion.  And where had that Zen fellow 
gone?  No one could find any trace of him.  Garibaldi didn't like that 
one bit.  He could be anywhere, doing who knew what.

He turned to one of his team leaders.  "Bremer, get another squad 
together.  There was a man with these people when they came in, 
and I want him located.  I don't care if you have to take the station 
apart to do it, but FIND him."

**** O_O ****

The objects of Garibaldi's ire were, at that moment, moving at a brisk 
trot, making for the connecting tube to the station core.  They didn't 
even see the two techs until they'd rounded the corner and ploughed 
into them.  Zen-chan squared her shoulders and glared balefully up 
at the large man she'd run into, who was backing against the wall, 
making apologetic noises.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," he babbled, "I didn't know there was any officers 
down here... Stan and me, we was just fixing up the cycler unit, an..."

"Right right," Zen growled.  "You lot okay?"

"Just fine, thanks!" beamed the other tech, a tall, skinny man with a 
long face and an unruly thatch of dirty blond hair.

Madigan speared the oblivious technician with a withering look, and 
nodded.  "I think I'm all right."

"Condition nominal," was Barry's monotone reply.

"Oh, GOSH," squealed Kei.  "I am, like *so* sorry!  Here!  You simply 
*must* let me help you with that!"

Zen, Barry and Madigan all looked at the gushing Kei, the expressions 
on their faces as stunned as those of the techs.

"C'mon," Kei said, grabbing a tech with each hand.  "Let's see what we 
can do to get you cleaned up."

Dazed, the two techs allowed Kei to lead them down the corridor to a 
doorway marked 'maintenance'.  She ushered them through the door 
still bubbling.

"But Lady..."

"No buts!  Now you two shuck off those jumpsuits this instant!  Don't 
you realise how dangerous Dihydrogen Monoxide contamination is?"

"But...."

"NOW, dammit!  Or do you want me to get a squad down here to pull 
'em off FOR you?  The way you were going, you'd have contaminated 
half the station!"

"Yes'm!  Whatever you say!"

Zen-chan and Barry exchanged shrugs, and Madigan watched with a 
measure of horrified fascination as, after a bit of rustling, two light 
brown jumpsuits, caps and belts were tossed out into the corridor at 
Kei's feet.

"Much better!" said Kei brightly.  "I'll see that these are taken care of 
right away!"  She was still smiling at the two hapless techs as she 
drew her phaser and fired.  As the techs' unconscious bodies thudded 
to the deck in the closet, Kei scooped up the jumpsuits and turned, 
tossing them to Barry.  "Here you go, Princess.  I think you know 
which one's yours."  Barry nodded and started pulling on the large 
man's jumpsuit over his own clothing.

Madigan sniffed disdainfully at hers, but did the same.  "Why the 
act?" she asked peevishly.  "Wouldn't it have been easier just to stun 
them and then take what you wanted?"

Kei flashed her a feral grin.  "Three reasons," she replied, closing and 
locking the door to the maintenance crawlway.  "First, this way was a 
LOT more fun."

Madigan scowled.

"Second, did you see the size of that one guy?  How many times have 
you had to pull jumpsuits off of 170 kilos of deadweight?  That takes 
*work* and this was faster."

Madigan nodded.  She hadn't thought about it, but now that Kei had 
mentioned it, it made sense.

"And third," said Kei with a nasty grin, "Phaser stuns are curious 
things.  They don't do any long term harm, but sometimes they DO 
force all the voluntary muscles of the body to relax.  At *that* point, 
bladder and bowel control can become a problem..."

Madigan turned slightly green, and made no further argument.

Barry and Madigan finished dressing, and  Kei handed them the belts 
and caps.  Madigan tucked her hair into a bun under hers while Kei 
and Zen-chan made adjustments to the controls on their morph suits.  
Five minutes later, a small squad of four 'technicians' was once more 
making its way toward the main docking bays.

**** O_O ****

Garibaldi's temper was threatening to get the best of him.  It had 
taken longer than he'd like to re-route Security's communications 
traffic through the main station grid.  It was no one's fault, really - it 
had just never been considered a serious possibility that someone 
would make such a mess out of the security offices.

Now that communications were back up to strength, he was finding 
out things that he didn't want to hear.  First of all, his fugitive party 
had gone missing again.  He had no idea how they'd done it, but no 
one was reporting having seen them anymore.

He was beginning to think that maybe they all had changeling nets, 
but that was absurd.  They were far too dangerous; far too unstable.  
Besides, after the *last* time one had been used on the station, the 
internal sensor grid had been modified to detect and to track their 
unique energy signature.

No, they must have done something else.  But what?  As big as the 
station was, a running group couldn't just disappear.  At least he had 
a fair idea where they would be going.  If he was patient, they would 
all but come to him.  Sounded great in theory.  He just hoped that it 
would be so simple in practice.  But there was an itch, a tiny, still 
little voice in the back of his skull, that told him it wasn't his day to 
be that lucky.

**** O_O ****

Zen, Kei, Barry and Madigan were trying very hard not to look like 
they were in a hurry.  They were walking through one of the busier 
concourses they had yet crossed, moving as fast as they dared, lest 
they become conspicuous.  The lift that would take them up to the 
next transit station and relative safety was just a scant few meters 
away.

Kei's tricorder was back in her pocket, so as not to attract attention, 
and comm traffic with Yuri had been cut off for the same reason. So 
Zen-chan's heart all but stopped as a man in an Earth Alliance 
uniform popped out of a side corridor and she almost ran into him.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the man said. "Are you all right?"

Zen nodded wordlessly as her gaze locked onto the 'Security' tag on 
the man's uniform.  Carefully she started to reach for her phaser.

"Look, I realise that you're busy, but we have a little problem aboard 
station."

[He's a cool one,] thought Zen to herself as her hand settled on the 
grip of her weapon.  She tensed as the man reached for something on 
his belt, and relaxed, if only slightly as he brought out a small padd.

Tapping a key on the device, and turning it so that Zen-chan could 
see the small screen, he asked, "Have you seen this man?  Or anyone 
who looks remotely like him?"  On the compact screen was a picture 
of Zen - in his male form.  Making a show of studying the picture, 
Zen-chan looked back up at the man and shook her head 'no'.

"What about the rest of you?  Anyone?"  He showed the display to 
each of the others in turn.  "He's going by the name 'Zen' - he is 
armed, and should be considered very dangerous."  After getting 
three more negatives, the security man sighed and returned the 
device to his belt.  "Well, sorry to bother you.  If you DO see him, 
contact security at ONCE."

At Zen's nod, he sketched a small bow, and moved on past, scanning 
the crowds for signs of his quarry.  Zen-chan blinked, and shook her 
head in amazement.  "The gods watch over fools..." she whispered to 
herself.  Ten meters further down the concourse, the four of them 
darted thankfully into an empty lift car.

Zen-chan heaved a deep sigh of relief as the lift doors closed, and the 
car started to rise.  Her heart skipped another beat as the lift stopped 
again, two decks up.  The doors slid apart and two people entered.

The Minbari ambassador, Delenn, was followed by Ambassador G'Kar.  
"Deck 12 please.  Now G'kar, what is it that makes you think I know 
anything about these travelers from across the galaxy?"  Her voice 
held a note of amusement.

The leather clad reptiloid rolled his eyes and gesticulated.  "Great 
G'quon!  Are all Minbari so *evasive*?"

Delenn smiled as the doors closed.  "I do not know.  I have not yet 
met all Minbari."

Zen-chan started to sweat.  Delenn was staring at her with the oddest 
expression - a mixture of open curiosity and satisfaction.  Zen-chan 
tried to smile in a friendly manner, but found her gaze held by those 
eyes once more.  Kei shuffled to the back of the car, trying to fade 
into the background as the lift began to move.

G'kar threw up his hands with a wordless cry of frustration.  "How 
can you not?  You invited them to your ceremony only yesterday!"

"Did I?  Indeed..." Delenn murmured, her eyes never leaving Zen-
chan's.  "I do not recall..."

As the lift reached its next stop and the doors opened, Delenn nodded 
to Zen and the rest of the escapees with a slight bow.  "May you have, 
I believe the phrase is, a 'nice day.'"

"Come, Delenn, no more games!  As members of the Babylon Council, 
the Narn are entitled to share in the advances that such contacts can 
bring," G'kar continued as he and Delenn exited the lift, "It is most 
improper and selfish for you to keep news of such universal import 
to yourselves!"

As the doors closed, the Minbari caught Kei's eye... and winked.

**** O_O ****

Once they'd gotten to the next ring, the fugitives abandoned the lift 
to try for one of the core lifts that would take them all the way to the 
huge station's axis.  This level appeared to be all but deserted, for 
which Zen-chan was duly thankful.  They were making much better 
time for it.

Zen-chan slowed as they reached a cross corridor, motioning the 
others to be quiet.  She crept forward until she was just to the 
intersection.  Someone pinched her on the butt and she almost cried 
out.  She whirled to see Kei grinning at her, and signing the number 
'three'.  She nodded and carefully set her phaser.

Kei moved to cover as Zen-chan darted into the corridor.  The 
surprised guards never really knew what hit them - they were 
collapsing under the effects of Zen-chan's phaser stun before they 
could so much as call out.  Zen-chan made the next junction, then 
waved for the others to catch up.

As they gathered, Kate passed a PPG to Barry.  "Here... I took these 
off the guards..."

Barry shook his head and passed the PPG to Zen-chan.  "No, Kate... 
I've never fired a gun in my life and I'm not about to start now."

"But it's self defence," she said unhappily.

"It escalates things," he replied.  "If we start shooting people dead, 
then they're more likely to do the same.  We can always escape later.  
I would never leave you behind."

Zen-chan reached over and gently pried the other PPG out of Kate's 
hand.  She resisted at first, but Zen was insistent, her voice gentle.  
"He's right, you know.  We cannot afford to kill here."  Kate scowled, 
but didn't push the issue.

After tucking the PPG's into pockets on her morphsuit, Zen-chan 
reached into another pouch and produced two largish capsules.  She 
gave one to Barry and the other to Kate.

"What are these?" asked Kate, eyeing the horse pill dubiously.

"According to Yuri's downloads from the security net, they use a 
knockout gas to stop intruders.  If they use it on us, these will help 
you resist its effects."

Barry and Madigan exchanged glances, and swallowed the capsules.

"Right then," said Kei.  "We've got a ship to catch, ne?"

**** O_O ****

Susan Ivanova glared at the displays in front of her.  It didn't take 
anyone with tactical genius to guess where the fugitives were 
headed.  The docking bays.

"Who *are* these people?" she asked angrily.  The crew around her 
knew better than to try and answer.  Again she turned a dark 
expression on the station map displayed.  Garibaldi's people were 
good, but it looked like these people might just be better.  And if that 
ship of theirs had weapons... Susan shuddered.

Ivanova turned to the Comm Station.  "Raise that ship... as I recall, 
that Zen fellow declared a crew of three, but only two of them stay 
aboard station..."

After a moment, the tech spoke up. "I have it, Commander..."

"Patch it through over here."

"Aye."

The screen above the command station lit, and Ivanova did a double 
take.  The image showed a dark haired girl with bright blue eyes, 
and a face that looked like it was used to smiling.  She was wearing 
the same peculiar two piece uniform that her red-headed shipmate 
had when they'd first arrived.  Ivanova felt her cheeks reddening.  
The outfit had obviously been designed to display the girl's... talents. 
From the way they were drooling, it was apparent that the rest of 
the bridge crew agreed.

[She hardly looks the terrorist type,] Ivanova thought to herself 
bitterly. [Then again, the most dangerous ones never do...]

<<Pathfinder,>> chirped the brunette on the screen.  <<Yuri speaking.  
What can I do for you?>>

[Damn, but she's a cool one.]  Ivanova put on her friendliest smile 
and replied, "Actually, I was wondering if there was anything that 
*we* could do for *you*..."

** O_O **

On board the _Pathfinder_, Yuri stared at Ivanova's image on the 
monitor.  [Damn, but she's a cool one,] Yuri thought.  She looked over 
at another monitor which was displaying a map of the station with 
the locations of Kei's and Zen's transponders plotted on it.  They'd 
been making fairly good progress, though Yuri had been worrying 
about what they would do once they'd gotten to the ship.

Yuri smiled disarmingly at the station officer and asked, "What did 
you have in mind?"

** O_O **

Back in CNC, Ivanova blinked.  She hadn't expected that.  "Errr..." she 
stammered.  "You've come rather a long way... perhaps you need 
fuel?  Provisions?"  [God, that sounded lame,] she thought.

The girl on the monitor just smiled brightly and shook her head. <<No, 
thank you... Our fuel supply is contra-terrene, and we're still at over 
ninety percent capacity.>>

"Contra-terrene?" asked Ivanova, a growing sense of forboding in the 
pit of her stomach.  "What's that?  Is it anything like Tylium?"

The brunette shook her head again.  <<Tylium?  No.  The _Pathfinder_ 
is powered by a pair of phase synchronised matter/antimatter 
reactors.>>

Ivanova paled. "Boooooomm," she whispered to herself.  To the comm 
unit she said, "Then I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask you to 
park that ship off station."

Yuri blinked at her.  <<Why is that?  Is there some problem?>>

"No problem, per se," Ivanova replied, "but possession of antimatter 
is strictly against station regulations.  Like weapons, it's considered a 
contraband material."

<<But,>> Yuri protested, <<there was nothing about that in any of the 
data packets that you transmitted to us on approach...>>

"Frankly," said Ivanova, "that is because no race we know has ever 
managed to contain significant quantities of the stuff - let alone use 
it for fuel.  Given the rather... spectacular nature of the failed 
attempts it simply never occurred to us that anyone would keep on 
trying."

<<I assure you, Commander, that the containment system is triply 
redundant, and completely safe.>>

"I understand that, but regulations are quite specific.  I'm still going 
to have to ask you to move that ship off station."

After a moment, the girl on the monitor nodded. <<Understood.  We 
will, of course, comply.  But I still have people on the station.  May I 
recall them before moving the ship?>>

"That could take some time," Ivanova said thoughtfully, "And if any 
of the League representatives found out that I'd allowed it, there'd 
be one hell of a row... I'm afraid that we'll just have to arrange to 
shuttle your people over to you."

<<Really, I don't want to put you to any trouble, but I'm sure that I 
can get my crew back aboard in twenty minutes or so...>>

"I'm sorry, but no.  You know how diplomatic types are.  As it is, 
they're going to kick up a fuss if they find out about this.  We really 
can't afford that kind of trouble."

There was another pause.  It looked to Ivanova as if the brunette 
was studying other displays.  Finally, however, the girl nodded.  
<<Very well.  Thank you for your hospitality.  If you'll give me 
departure clearance, I'll move the ship.>>

"I appreciate your cooperation," Ivanova said letting out a sigh of 
relief.  She smiled to herself.  [Two birds with one stone,] she 
thought. [Got that antimatter,] she shuddered again at the thought, 
[off the station, and now our little fugitive party is trapped.  They've 
got nowhere to go.]  Still, she waited until the _Pathfinder_ had been 
lifted out of her docking cradle and was clear of the station before 
she called Garibaldi.

** O_O **

[Thank the goddess,] Yuri thought to herself as she piloted the 
_Pathfinder_ clear of the rotating entrance to Babylon Five's docking 
bays.  [We'd have been in a bad way if we'd had to try and shoot our 
way out of there...]  Once more in open space, Yuri moved the little 
ship into a parking orbit on the opposite side of the Station from 
Epsilon Three.  She tapped a control on the comm panel. "Zen?"

**** O_O ****

"We GOT 'em," crowed Garibaldi as he closed the channel on his link.  
Turning to his squad leader he grinned.  Youngblood, take a team and 
get to the docking bays as fast as you can.  Park yourselves where 
that ship used to be, and wait for them.  If they slip past us, it'll be 
up to you.

Corporal Thom Youngblood saluted smartly and grinned.  "Yes, Sir!  
We'll bag 'em for sure."

**** O_O ****

Zen-chan signed off on her call from Yuri and sighed.  Turning back 
to her companions, she announced, "Rules change, people... the ship's 
been moved off station."

"So, what's plan B?" asked Barry.

Zen pulled out a PADD and called up a map of the station.  "Well, we 
need to get as close to the outer hull of the station as possible."  She 
indicated a section on the map's display.  "We could try for these 
cargo areas here.  That should make it easier for Yuri to get a clear 
lock on us."

Barry smiled.  "You know, this could be fun.  They know the ship's 
moved, but they don't know that *we* know.  Let's give them what 
they expect.  A mad dash for the docking bay."

"But," said Zen-chan, pointing at the map, "to get to the docking bays, 
we have to go to the station core... and take the connector to the next 
section - the rotational velocity is different."

Barry shrugged.  "It might buy us some time... do you have cutting 
and rappelling gear of any kind?"

Zen-chan nodded as she considered the proposal. "Yah... we've got 
lightblades, and flight belts... think that'll do?"

"I think we can manage."  Barry's face went slack for a moment as he 
stared at nothing.  "There's a main lift 20 meters down that corridor.  
It ought to be perfect - it goes all the way to the core."

They ran towards the lift while Barry outlined out his plan to Zen.  
When the elevator doors slid open, Zen ducked into the car, breathing 
a sigh of relief as she found it empty.  Hitting the button for the core 
level, she held the doors as the others piled in.

A pulse from a PPG struck the back wall of the car as the doors slid 
closed, and the car started to rise.  Zen could hear their pursuers 
pounding on the thick doors, the sounds fading into the distance as 
the lift picked up speed.

"Okay... I've got the controls locked.  This thing won't stop until it 
gets to the top of the shaft," said Barry.

Zen-chan nodded as she and Kei set to work, their lightblades already 
ignited.  With a few smooth strokes they sliced most of the way 
through the heavy composite of the elevator floor.  Zen-chan gave 
their impromptu 'door' a swift kick, watching in satisfaction as the 
panel folded back, exposing a drop that was several hundred meters 
and increasing steadily.

Drawing loops of webbing from pouches on their belts, Zen and Kei 
each fashioned crude harnesses.  Kei offered hers to Kate, while Zen 
passed the other to Barry.  "There's not much time, Princess."

**** O_O ****

Garibaldi and his team stood outside the doors to the lift that Zen and 
the others had taken, swearing.  These people were good, he had to 
admit it.  He was sure he'd had them when they'd ducked into the lift 
- all the station elevators were computer controlled.  Unfortunately, 
they'd managed to override that, leaving Garibaldi unable to take 
control of the car.

He raised his link.  "This is Garibaldi... They're headed for the docking 
bays, all right.  They just took the core lift from Blue Seven.  Get a 
team to the top of the shaft, and hold it... we'll meet you there."  He 
was already moving as the acknowledgment came over the link.  It 
was time to bring the chase to an end.

**** O_O ****

Once Madigan was wearing her harness, Kei hooked it to the loops on 
her flight pak.  "Now hold on tight, ne?" Kei told her.  With a grin, she 
stepped over the edges of the hole and dropped into space, drifting 
lazily down the shaft, her passenger clinging desperately to her back.  
Zen-chan noted with mild amusement that Madigan had her eyes 
tightly shut.

Zen-chan started to secure Barry's harness to her own flight rig.  "Our 
turn..."  As they got ready to drop through the hole, Barry chuckled.  
"What's up, princess?" asked Zen-chan, a suspicious look in her eyes.

"Just thinking.  If you'd had the rappelling gear, this'd be even more 
like Star Wars.  Mucking around with bottomless pits and all that."

Zen-chan gave Barry a funny look.  "If you give me a kiss... for luck 
or for anything else, I will *leave* you here!"

"Heh.  No fear mate."

The two of them followed Kei and Kate down the shaft.

**** O_O ****

Garibaldi arrived on scene to find his men clustered around the doors 
to the lift.  He'd been lucky in managing to get to a maintenance lift 
that was smaller and faster than the main, arriving just moments 
ahead of his quarry.

The squad leader saluted.  "The lift's made no stops, sir."

Garibaldi grinned.  "Good.  Get your men under cover.  Aim to wound, 
if you can.  No one's been killed yet, and I'd like to keep it that way."

There was a moment of confusion as the various squaddies took up 
protected positions around the lift shaft, and waited, PPG's at the 
ready.  The snap-hum of charging capacitors filled the air as the lift 
chimed its arrival.  Fingers tensed on triggers as the doors parted.

Nothing happened.

The open lift stared silently back at them, as though daring them to 
make the first move.  Finally, Garibaldi did, motioning two of his men 
forward.  They approached the lift cautiously, one man covering his 
mate as the latter ducked inside the elevator.  And screamed.

His partner got off one shot before Garibaldi was running forward, 
yelling for him to stop.  The Chief of Security got to the open doors, 
and stared inside, gaping at the hole that took up most of the floor of 
the otherwise empty car.

"DAMN!" he swore.

"Help me!" called a voice from floor level.  Looking down, Garibaldi 
was relieved to see that his officer had not fallen, but was hanging 
onto the rough edge of the floor panel.

"Get your butt back up here," he snarled at the man, waving over a 
man to help.  "Damn.  DAMN.  Where the hell are they going?"

**** O_O ****

"Okay, Yuri," Zen-chan whispered hoarsely into her commlink.  "We'll 
be making for the cargo areas near the outer hull in Red Section.  
We're approaching the number three transfer tube now.  Maintain 
scan and advise of hostiles, ne?"

<<Hai...  be advised, that your signals are breaking up a bit... dunno 
what they've got in that section, but it's generating a good bit of 
static on the scanners, too.>>

Zen-chan swore and wished that they'd brought the badge comms 
instead of the smaller earring units that they were using.  They had 
at least twice the power.  At least she didn't have to wear the bloody 
thing as a lapel pin in this form.

It had been far too quiet for Zen-chan's taste.  Certainly they had 
been lucky so far, but that couldn't hold forever.  That Garibaldi chap 
was, after all, NOT stupid.  Hell, Zen-chan was surprised that he'd 
fallen for the stunt with the elevator.  They'd dropped to the very 
bottom of the shaft and forced the doors that opened into the service 
corridor through which they were now skulking.

Zen-chan poked her nose around the corner at the end of the dingy 
hallway and peered into the gloom.  The chamber was a large one, 
with pipes and conduits running everywhere, exposed valves and 
access covers as far as the eye could see.  It didn't smell very nice.  
Wrinkling her nose, she looked back at Kei inquiringly.

After a quick look at her tricorder's screen, Kei nodded.  It was clear.  
Turning back to the next room, Zen-chan gauged distances... at least 
twenty meters to the next junction... but if they made that, it would 
take them all the way to Red Section.

"Okay, you lot... Stay here, and keep your heads down until I wave 
the all clear, you go that?"  After getting Barry's nod, Zen-chan took a 
deep breath and darted out across the chamber.

She knew she'd made a mistake the instant she heard the whine - 
the now familiar snap-whine of a PPG activating as its capacitor was 
charged.  She turned to fire, but the first bursts from the PPGs struck 
her thigh and her hip, and she went down with a scream.

Kei had heard the weapons arming as well, and was firing even as 
Zen-chan went down, the beam from her phaser slamming first one, 
and then a second attacker into unconsciousness.  Kate screamed.

"Be *quiet*!" Kei hissed.  She re-set her scanner and turned to search 
the darkness once more, looking for signs of further hostiles.  Neither 
her eyes, nor her scanner showed any, but Kei lobbed a couple of gas 
grenades into the chamber for good measure.  Once she was as sure 
as she could be that it was clear, she hurried out to check on Zen.

Zen-chan lay on the deck, her face grey, and her respiration shallow.  
There was a thick pool of blood under her leg, and the smell of burnt 
flesh hung in the air.  Kei nodded to herself as she checked the girl's 
pulse, and then gently rolled her over onto her back.

One shot had struck obliquely, burning across the hip, charring the 
fabric of Zen-chan's morph-suit, leaving a cauterised gash.  The other 
had hit her thigh, more or less directly.  The pale white and black of 
carbonised bone gleamed wetly at the bottom of the wound.  Kate 
turned away, trying to keep her gorge down.

Kei brought out a small tube from her utility belt, and sprayed its 
contents over the wound.  Zen-chan cried out as the spray started to 
work, killing germs and protecting against future infection.  Kei held 
her down until the worst of it had passed.

Groggily, Zen-chan levered herself up into a sitting position and 
groaned.  "Crap... that was stupid..." she muttered.  She bit her lip, 
trying not to scream as Kei cut the burned cloth away from the 
wound.  Kei started to reach for her field kit, but Zen-chan shook her 
head.  "No... no time..."

Kei ignored the shorter red-head's protests and opened a small but 
comprehensive first aid kit.  She continued to dress the wound, doing 
her best to keep Zen immobile as she worked.  "Dammit, Zen, hold 
still, will you?"

Gritting her teeth, Zen-chan nodded, a sharp gasp escaping as Kei 
wrapped the wound with a compression bandage.  "Goddess, that 
smarts," she hissed.

"No shit," said Kei dryly as she reached for a neural patch.

Once more Zen-chan shook her head, grasping Kei's wrist.  "Please... 
No...  Those damned things always make me sick to my stomach."

Kei looked into her partner's eyes.  "Are you sure?" she asked.  When 
Zen-chan  nodded she shrugged and helped the smaller red-head to 
her feet.  Zen-chan wobbled for a moment, and started to fall, but Kei 
caught her.  Leaning heavily on her partner, Zen-chan struggled to 
catch her breath, and keep from passing out.

Silently Barry handed her the phaser he'd retrieved.  With a grateful 
nod, Zen-chan took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.  "Right 
then.  Let's go."  She started to hobble for the doorway at the far side 
of the room.

"What?  Just like that?  What if there are more of them?" demanded 
Kate, her voice a sharp hiss.

"There will be," said Kei.  "And if we don't get moving, we'll never get 
through them all."

Madigan pointed at the stunned guards at the chamber's other end.  
"Well, we would have gotten through those two just fine if you, or 
your little toys had seen them in time!  If you can't do any better 
than that, then maybe I'd have a better chance walking!"

Kei bristled, but before she could reply, Zen-chan's quiet voice cut 
the executive's tirade short.

"Ms. Madigan," Zen-chan said in a tired voice, "Please calm down.  
Histrionics are just going to get someone hurt, or killed.  Kei-chan is 
following proper procedure, and you have her to thank for your life 
several times over already."

"But you were nearly killed!" snarled Kate, "And you yourself said it 
was stupid!"

Zen-chan turned to give Madigan a cold look.  "The stupidity was 
mine.  I'm the one that should have been more careful.  And as for 
those guards, Kei-chan's 'little toy', as you call it, isn't *set* to detect 
people.  That would be worse than useless on a crowded station like 
this."

"Then what is it that she's always looking for?" asked Kate, her tone 
defensive.

"Their weapons," said Zen-chan.  "Specifically, the resonant harmonics 
of the capacitors.  Those two," she indicated the guards, "didn't show 
up on the scans because their PPG's weren't charged."

Barry scowled.  "That's a violation of their own operating procedures.  
They should be put on a charge for that."

Zen-chan gave Barry an odd look, then shrugged and limped toward 
the access way that connected Blue Section with Red.  She stumbled a 
bit, and Kei moved to catch her again, supporting her as she walked. 
After a moment, Barry and Kate followed.

This time Zen-chan called a halt before they came out of the tube.  
Leaning against the wall for support, she lobbed a stun grenade into 
the chamber beyond.  Bodies littered the deck as they crossed.

"See?  That was easy," said Madigan smugly.  "You should have been 
doing that the whole time."

Zen-chan wiped the sweat soaked hair out of her eyes and simply 
looked at her.  "And just how many of these things do you think we 
can carry, Ms. Madigan?  Besides, it's best to keep your aces 'til you 
*need* them."

**** O_O ****

"Commander Ivanova..."  There was an uncertain note in the tech's 
voice.

Susan turned away from the station map and came up behind the 
tech. "Yes?  What is it, Davies?"

"I'm not really sure, sir," the young man replied.  "Under any other 
circumstances, I'd say it was just a glitch, but..."

"Go on, man.  What have you got?"

"I'm picking up what looks like sensor echoes... It's not a signal that I 
can detect per-se... it's more like the shadow of one.  But I'm tracking 
two sources.

"And where are these echoes coming from?"

"That's just it... one set is coming from that odd ship that you just 
asked to move."

"And the other?"

"From inside the station.  Blue Section - near one of the maintenance 
corridors to Red Section.."

"So," Ivanova said thoughtfully, "That's where they are.  And they're 
talking to each other.  Get on to Garibaldi and tell him where his 
fugitives are, and that they probably know their ride is gone.  He 
should move to flank and contain them as soon as possible."

"Aye."  A pause.  "Chief Garibaldi reports that he knows, and he's on 
top of it..."

Susan turned to the tactical station.  "And you... bring the defence 
grid on line.  If they're making for the outer hull, they might try to 
cut through it.  If that ship moves any closer, put a warning shot 
across her bow.  If it doesn't stop, then destroy it."

"Commander..."

"And," Susan said in a low voice, "DON'T miss... if that thing gets too 
close to the station before you can blow it to hell, then it'll take us 
with it."

The tactical officer gulped audibly. "Yes, sir!"

**** O_O ****

Garibaldi was, in fact, on top of it.  He and his teams were finally 
starting to close the gap on the fleeing group.  It would just be a 
matter of time now.  He'd already received reports that the shorter 
of the redheaded women had been wounded; a solid PPG hit in the 
leg.  Surely she would be slowing them down considerably.

He was thankful that they were headed for the cargo sections here as 
well.  If Susan was right, and they were planning on cutting through 
the hull, they'd have a rude shock waiting for them.  The only place 
the station's shell was thicker was around the fusion plants in Grey 
Section.  The holds around here were for commercial traffic, and as 
such, were heavily reinforced.

The other benefit was, of course, that there were generally very few 
people hanging out in these areas.  There would be a lot less to worry 
about in terms of potential civilian casualties.  And that meant that 
his men wouldn't have to pass up shots anymore.

On the downside, they'd found out the hard way that the people they 
were chasing also had area effect weapons.  Fortunately, those too 
seemed to be non-lethal.  But three groups of his men had now fallen 
victim to the devices, and they were making it much harder for his 
men to get close.

Yes, Garibaldi thought to himself, these people were going down.  
And going down HARD.

**** O_O ****

The cargo hold that Zen-chan and the others finally reached was 
huge - easily thirty meters on a side, and a ceiling that was lost to 
view in the dim light.  Boxes, barrels, and other shipping containers 
were stacked against the far walls, leaving most of the cavernous 
room empty.

Staggering into the hold, phaser at the ready, Zen winced and swore 
as her injured leg brushed against the frame of the doorway.  After 
she was sure that there was no one else there, Zen waved Barry and 
Madigan into the room.  "Kei-chan... are there any other exits?"

Kei studied the display on her compact scanner.  "No... all the holds in 
this section open onto that central lade-way.  These doors are the 
only way in or out."

"Good.  Get Princess and his girlfriend under cover - I'll take care of 
this."  Kei nodded and moved to comply, while Zen keyed the doors 
shut.  Once the massive panels were closed, Zen re-set the toggle on 
her phaser and took aim.  Metal flowed like molasses where the 
beam touched, the two doors fusing into one solid mass as Zen drew 
the beam along the seam between them.

"What is she doing?" a confused Kate asked the taller redhead.

"Buying us some time," said Kei.  "Now, you two take cover over here, 
while I try to buy us a ticket home."

Kate turned to Barry, still confused, but Barry nodded reassuringly. 
"It's okay, Kate... I think I know what they're up to.  At least I'm 
assuming that you have transporter technology, Zen?"

Zen-chan finished welding the doors to the frame as well and flashed 
a quick grin.  "Got it in one, Princess."  She reset her phaser again, 
and blew the door lock controls to hell for good measure.  Holstering 
the weapon, she limped over to rejoin the others.  "That'll at least 
slow 'em down a bit.  What's the word from Yuri?"

"She's at extreme transporter range," Kei replied.  "She said she'd try 
the beam-out as soon as the station's rotation brought us closest to 
her."

"Why doesn't she just move in?"

"Apparently, the station's defence grid is now on-line, and Yuri is 
afraid that they'll start shooting if she moves closer."

Barry nodded. "And as she can't have the shields up when she 
initiates the transport..."

Sagging heavily to the deck and favouring her leg, Zen-chan nodded.  
"That makes sense... it's what I would do."  She winced as muffled 
shouting could be heard on the other side of the cargo hold doors.  
"Sounds like someone's a wee bit upset about their door locks..."

**** O_O ****

Michael Garibaldi caught up with his advance team just outside of 
the doors to the cargo bay that Zen and company had barricaded 
themselves into.  "Are you *sure* they're in there, Biles?"

"Yes, Sir!" answered the lieutenant, a smallish man who looked more 
like an historian than a security man.  "They're in there, all right."

Garibaldi smiled.  They were good, he had to admit.  But they didn't 
know the station - not like he did.  And they had just made their big 
mistake.  Still, best not to take that for granted.

"Good.  Bracket them... make sure they don't burn through any of the 
walls.  Hosmer... you and Gallegos fetch the cutter.  They're not going 
to get away from me this time."

**** O_O ****

Warily, Zen-chan eyed the point on the door where the cutter was 
beginning to punch through the thick metal.  "Princess?  Can that 
light-gate of yours open a portal between two points in the *same* 
continuum?"

Barry blinked.  "Technically possible.  Targeting would be tight.  I'd 
feel more comfortable jumping back to Megatokyo or Earth Prime 
then back here... more margin for error.  Give me a minute."

"Talk to them," said Zen-chan, gesturing over her shoulder at the 
door.

Taking the satchel from Kate, Barry sat cross-legged on the deck,  He 
opened the bag and rooted out the bits and pieces of the compact 
device.  Unfolding the tool kit that had come with the jumpsuit 
they'd taken from the tech, he set quickly to work.

After several moments fiddling, Barry sat back and the atmosphere 
once more rang with oaths and colourful metaphors delivered in an 
Aussie accent.  Zen-chan's ears reddened.  Barry had the vocabulary, 
but he didn't quite have Kei-chan's style.

"So the widget's busted?  It won't work?" asked Kei.

"Cretinous bloody Gibbons!" Barry snarled, "Some kack-handed, 
illegitimate son of a wombat's gone and cracked the main depolariser 
crystal!"

"Ahh.  I'll take that as a 'yes' then..." said Zen-chan dryly before 
turning back to keep watch on the cutter's inexorable progress.  Out 
of the corner of her eye, Zen-chan noticed Madigan.  A part of her 
mind wondered why she was taking the news so calmly...

**** O_O ****

Garibaldi watched as the heavy duty cutter burned through the thick 
metal of the cargo bay doors.  Whatever had been used to weld them 
shut was remarkably effective - the two door panels might as well 
have been cast as a single unit.  But in the end, he would win.  The 
people in the hold had nowhere to go, and no way to get there.

"Okay, people... look alive.  And remember... this time they're going to 
be trapped.  Don't assume that their weapons won't be set to kill."

His men nodded, weapons at the ready as they prepared to storm the 
hold as soon as the door was down.

**** O_O ****

Time was running out.  On the door, the glowing point of the cutter 
head approached its starting place once more.  A few more seconds, 
and they'd be overrun.  Zen-chan sighed, and lurched painfully to her 
feet.  She switched her phaser back to heavy stun, and took careful 
aim at the new entryway.

Kei kept an anxious eye on it as well, as she tugged at her earring 
commlink. "Yuri... now would be a good time!"

Yuri's voice came tinnily from the speaker. "Keep your panties on, 
I'm working on it... there's a lot of interference.  You don't want to 
wind up as a scramble case, now do you?  Although, in your case, it 
could only be an improvement..."

The last bits of metal burned away in a shower of sparks and smoke 
and the door panel fell in with a clang.  The security men in their 
black armour poured into the hold - just as Kei was screaming into 
her comm, "Yuri!  Ooooh, you just WAIT til I get my hands on you!  
I'LL give you scram...!" - and just in time to see their four fugitives 
dissolve in pillars of silver-blue light.

**** O_O ****

"...BLE!" Kei's voice rang out in the confines of the _Pathfinder's_ 
transporter room.  "About bloody time!"

"Temper, temper," chided Yuri.  "What will our guests think?"

"Later, you two," muttered Zen-chan as she limped toward the door.  
"Computer!  Shields!"

There was an answering chirp from the comm-panel in the wall, but 
Zen-chan was already through the door and on her way to the flight 
deck.  As she reached the compact bridge, the ship rocked under the 
impact of plasma fire.

After stowing her rather impressive collection of PPGs and settling 
into her seat at the con, Zen ran a quick check.  "Shields are holding... 
systems all read nominal."

Kei was only two steps behind her, and dropped into the ops station.  
She brought the little ship's weapons systems on-line, and threw up 
a tactical display.  "We're under fire from the station... but I don't 
think they can penetrate our shields at this range."

**** O_O ****

Garibaldi reacted on instinct.  Even as his mind screamed that what 
his eyes had told him was impossible, his voice was on the link to 
Ivanova in CnC.  "Susan... they got away... stop that ship.  NOW."

<<Michael, that ship hasn't moved since it left the station... what are 
you talking about?>>

Garibaldi looked up at one of the hovering recorders and smiled. 
grimly to himself.  "I wish I could tell you that, but believe me... that 
ship is gonna be moving any minute.  You gotta stop it now."

There was a pause, then Ivanova's voice returned.  <<We're detecting 
some kind of energy field now.>>  In the background, Garibaldi heard 
her giving orders to intercept the alien vessel.  He closed off the link 
and headed grimly for CnC.  If something was going to happen, he 
wanted to be there to see it.

**** O_O ****

_Pathfinder_ spun on her axis as Zen-chan fed a new course into her 
board, taking up a bearing pointing almost directly away from the 
Babylon Station.  Zen smiled as she felt the thrum of power through 
the deck plates as the little ship's engines came to full life.

"Launch detected," Kei reported from the ops station.  "Estimate two 
squadrons of fighters.  They're gaining on us, and their weapons are 
hot."

Zen-chan nodded wordless acknowledgment as the scanner showed 
the Starfuries continuing to chew up the space between them.  This 
time there was no doubt that they would fire on the _Pathfinder_.

Barry looked at the readouts.  "Can't this thing go any faster?"

Kei smirked.  "Heh.  Funny you should ask that..."

Though there was no sense of increased motion, as Zen removed the 
lockouts she'd put on the drive, _Pathfinder_ started to pull away 
from her pursuers with ever increasing speed.  Within moments she 
was leaving them in her wake.  Once she was well clear of the 
gravity well of Epsilon Three, Zen took her ship to warp.

"Cool. Inertial dampers." Barry murmured.

"Right then.  Yuri-chan?  Would you escort our guests to sick-bay?  
Let's see if we can't make them a little more comfortable than they 
were on the station."

"That wouldn't be too difficult," grumbled Madigan.

"Yah," Kei said.  "And I think it'd be a good idea to get that hand of 
yours seen to properly.  What'd you do to it, anyway?"

"Oh, some moron tried to stab me," said Barry.

"More than _tried_." commented Kate.

"No fear then.  The autodoc can fix you right up, good as new."

"Thanks," Barry grinned ruefully.  "I'd appreciate that."

Yuri smiled. "Well, it'd hardly do to deliver you to Herself with that 
kind of damage."

**** O_O ****

Garibaldi had gone back to his room to sulk.  He didn't like mysteries, 
and a mystery that broke out of his station before it was solved was 
a particular anathema to him.  He pulled the ID card that Kei had 
given to Zack out of his pocket, and glared at it balefully.  He still 
could not shake the feeling that he had seen this redhead somewhere 
before... even her ID picture looked somehow familiar, with her fists 
clenched, as though she'd been angry when it was taken.

His link chirped.  "Garibaldi.  Go."

<<Michael, we've aborted the search for the man, Zen... there's no 
trace of him on the station, and I can't believe that they'd have left 
him behind.>>

"So how the hell did he get OFF the station?" he snarled.

<<The same way the ones you were chasing did?  In a cloud of 
sparkly magic?>>

"You saw the tapes, Ivanova...  Not even *I'm* crazy enough to have 
made up a story like that."

<<Take it easy, Michael.  I saw the recordings.  I still don't *believe* 
them, but I saw them.>>

"I know, I know.  Hell, I was *there* and I don't believe it."  Garibaldi 
sighed and scratched the back of his head.  "And that other girl... how 
did she get ON station?  And for that matter, who the hell was she?"

<<We're still trying to figure that out.>>

"Well, it's obvious that somehow, Zen managed to trade places with 
the girl they left on the ship."

There was a pause.  <<I thought you said that your mystery girl was 
another redhead.>>

Garibaldi blinked. "Yah, that's right.  Flame red hair, and a nice set of 
curves.  Why do you ask?"

Ivanova's tone over the link was dry. <<Well, then, whoever she was, 
she was NOT the girl they left on the ship.>>

"Fine.  So maybe they really had four people on that ship."

<<I thought of that.  Steven says no.  What little we did manage to get 
in the way of sensor readings confirmed just the three of them.>>

"Then she *was* the third.  She had to have been."

<<I'm afraid not... I talked to the girl on the ship, and she was most 
definitely a brunette.  Quite a looker, too.  If you don't believe me, 
ask Delenn - the one time she left their ship was to attend that 're-
birth ceremony' with the other two.>>

"A brunette you say?  Are you sure?  Damn, this just gets stranger 
and stranger."

<<Quite sure.  Her name was... Yuri, I think she said.  Yes.  Yuri.  I 
remember thinking how it was such a nice, Russian name.>>

Garibaldi froze in mid-pace. "Did you say... did you say Yuri?  Her 
name was *Yuri*?"

<<That's right, why?>>

"I'll get back to you."

Kei... Yuri... and the code-name... Lovely Angel.  The ID card dropped 
to the deck from suddenly nerveless fingers.  It was impossible.  It 
HAD to be impossible... but there was a sinking feeling in the pit of 
his stomach that told him it fit all too well.

** O_O **

Sinclair sat in his office trying to figure out how he was going to 
explain the escape of the fugitives to Earthdome.  Bad enough that 
the 3WA team had gotten away before the Earth Alliance ship had 
arrived, but they'd broken the others out of the detention block as 
well.  No, that would not look good.  He started as his link chirped.

<<Jeff?>>

"Michael... I was hoping it was you.  Tell me that you have some good 
news about our escapees."

<<Yah... about those escapees... the good news is, they escaped.  They 
*are* gone, right?>>

"They left the system over an hour ago.  We're not sure, but we think 
the ship went supraluminal... yet there was no jumpgate."

<<Without a trace?  Vanished?>>

Sinclair blinked. "No traces that I know anything about, Michael."

<<Oh, thank God.>>  The relief in Garibaldi's voice was almost tangible, 
even over the link.

"Michael... Are you all right?"  There was a pause.  "Michael?"

Finally, Garibaldi asked, <<And the station?  Is there anything wrong 
with the station?>>

"What would be wrong with the station?"

<<I don't know!>> Garibaldi snapped. <<It... it could be anything.  Is our 
position okay?  Are there any leaks in the fusion reactors?  Odd 
magnetic fields?  Hell, does anything *feel* wrong?>>

Sinclair had the feeling that he was missing something. "Michael... 
why are you asking?  Is there something that I should know?"

After another long pause, Garibaldi answered; less snappishly, but 
still on the defensive.  <<I haven't touched a drop, Jeff...  I swear to 
you that I haven't.>>

"Michael... just what the hell is going on?"

<<I... I can't tell you, Jeff.  You'd never believe me anyway.  Just... You 
gotta just trust me on this one, okay?  I'll take the heat for it; it was 
my fault they got away.  But...>>

"But you're glad that they did..." finished Sinclair, though he wasn't 
sure how he knew that.  A brief surge of panic washed through him - 
as though he'd looked back to see that he'd been walking along the 
edge of a great precipice, and hadn't even known it.  The feeling was 
disconcerting in the extreme.

<<Yes.  Oh, GOD yes, I am.>>  There was a moment of silence.  Then, in 
a quiet voice, <<Thanks, Jeff.  This is another one I owe you.>>

"It's okay, Michael.  I... think that maybe I understand... a little.  And 
Michael... I'll check on the station's status.  Just to be sure."

<<Thanks, Jeff.>>

** O_O **

In his quarters, Garibaldi collapsed heavily onto his bunk.  He buried 
his face in his hands, and took a deep shuddering breath.  The gods 
had, he thought, a particularly vicious sense of humour.  He'd wanted 
answers, and now he had them.  But the answers he had could not 
possibly be correct.

Briefly, he considered the idea that he was delusional.  That he was 
in med-lab in a coma from a Martian sand-spider bite, and that the 
past three and a half days were no more than a toxin induced 
hallucination.  The ID card that was still lying on the floor could not 
really be there, after all.

But it was.  He knew that it was.  No matter how impossible it was, 
no matter how far-fetched or unbelievable it seemed to be, his gut 
told him that it had to be true.  Even Kosh believed it.  That must 
have been why the Vorlon had left the station right after their 
'visitors' had arrived.

A cold shudder passed through him.  Sinclair was never going to 
believe this... never going to understand.  Not even Jeff would be able 
to grasp just how close they had come to total annihilation.  He 
looked back at the screen on the wall.  He imagined the image frozen 
on its display was mocking him; he could almost hear it laughing.  
Who could he tell?  If he went to Earthdome with a story like this, 
they'd lock him away and vapourise the keycard.

But it was all there... the United Galactica, the Worlds Welfare Works 
Association, everything.  All of the niggling doubts; all the little half 
memories snapped into place.  He still had no idea who this 'Zen' 
character was, or that other red-headed girl, but Kei and Yuri... there 
was no mistaking *them*.  Garibaldi didn't know whether to laugh or 
cry.

God, but he needed a drink.

**** O_O ****

Kate stood next to Barry and watched in amazement as the beam 
from the anabolic protoplaser that Kei was using played over the 
wound on Barry's palm.  Before her eyes the tissue melded, the gash 
closing to show the pink of new skin.  After a few moments only the 
slightest trace of the injury remained.

Barry flexed his hand, and grinned.  "Say, that's lots better, thanks."  
He turned to face Zen-chan.  "Hadn't you better get her to see about 
your leg?"

Zen-chan grinned as Kei put away the medikit.  "Oh, no... that won't 
be necessary."

Barry looked dubious.  "That was a pretty nasty burn you had.  Those 
PPG's of theirs can do a lot of damage."

Zen-chan stepped back from the treatment table and reached down 
to remove the bandage from her leg.  Barry's eyebrows climbed.  The 
hole was still evident in the morphsuit that Zen wore, but the flesh 
underneath was smooth and unscarred.  If it weren't for the slight 
reddening of the skin, Barry would never have known that there had 
been a wound there.  "Nanotech?"

Zen nodded.  "Ayup.  Damned useful stuff at times."

Kate looked away, a look of mild disgust passing across her features.  
She started as the bosun's whistle sounded two blasts.  "What's that?"

"Err?  Oh, that's just 'secure for jump' - it means we're about to make 
the transit into non-space."  Kei finished securing the gear as Yuri's 
voice rang through the little ship.

<<Prepare for jump in three...>>

The throb of the engines deepened slightly, as though building up a 
charge. <<...two...>>

Unconsciously, Kate took Barry's hand in her own, looking slightly 
nervous.  He smiled at her reassuringly.  <<...one... ...Transit now.>> 
There was an almost lurch, as if the ship had hit a tiny bump along a 
plane that had no meaning in realspace; all but imperceptible.

"Well," said Kate, relieved.  "That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

Barry's eyes had gone wide, and his complexion had gone pasty, with 
a faintly greenish cast..  "Blurgh," was all he had time to say before 
he was folding forward, heaving the contents of his stomach all over 
Katherine Madigan's dress.

Zen-chan winced as Kate's strident screech echoed through the small 
sickbay, then handed the woman a towel.  After Kate had blotted up 
most of the mess, she said, "C'mon.  Lemme take you somewhere you 
can get cleaned up."

Kei watched as Zen-chan led Kate off in the direction of the passenger 
cabins, sure that the lavender haired woman's shrill invective would 
scorch the paint.  As the doors closed, she turned to Barry, who was 
looking a little less green, but still peaked.  "Yeesh, what's with her?  
Is it that time of the month?"

Barry's 'how the hell should I know?' scowl was eloquent.

**** O_O ****

Some hours later, Barry found Zen-chan in _Pathfinder's_ forward 
lounge, sitting at the games table and tinkering with a scattered pile 
of components.

"Hey... aren't those the bits to my lightgate?"

Zen-chan nodded absently, but did not look up.  "I hope you don't 
mind... I thought I'd have a go at fixing it."

Barry shrugged and took the seat across the small table.  "Go for it.  I 
can build a better one if I ever need it."  After a moment's silence he 
asked, "Zen...  What about the Knight Sabers?  Will they be on FRED 
when we get there?"

Zen-chan looked up, hearing a dangerous note in Barry's voice.  His 
expression as he looked at her was oddly intense.  "Why is it you 
wish to know?" she asked.

"I have some matters to 'discuss' with Miz Stingray and her friends."

After a long moment, Zen-chan said in a quiet voice, "Barry... Sylia 
Stingray and Linna Yamazaki are dead."

Barry went grey.  "What?"

"Eight days ago, FRED was invaded by the Pforr.  Sylia and Linna 
were killed in that invasion.  Along with a lot of others."

The tall red-head's voice went flat. "I see."  He started to rise. "I'll... 
I'll see you later, Zen."

"Barry... what is it that..." Zen started to ask.

"They tried to get their revenge on me.  They failed.  That's all I care 
to say on the subject."

Zen-chan watched him go, and sighed.  It was going to be a long, and 
bitter conflict.

**** O_O ****

Zen-chan and Kei arrived on the flight deck at the same time.  "Is 
there a problem, Yuri?" Kei asked.  "I thought we were still at least 
twelve hours out."

"I don't know that I'd say it was a problem," Yuri replied, "but I 
thought that you two ought to see this."

"See what?" asked Zen-chan.

Yuri tapped a few keys and an image appeared on one of the 
monitors.  The view was from one of _Pathfinder's_ internal cameras, 
and showed Barry, leaning back in his bed in the med-unit, staring at 
the monitor of the bedside terminal.

"Okay, so he's reading.  So what?" asked Kei.

Yuri poked her partner. "Baka.  Look more closely."

Kei scowled, but did as she was told.  On the screen, Barry had not 
moved.  For all Kei could tell, he was barely breathing.  There was an 
oddly intense look on his face as the flickering light from the display 
played over his features.  Kei scratched her head in confusion. "I still 
don't see what the problem is.  Though I think we'll have to replace 
that display unit... it shouldn't flicker like that."

Yuri nodded.  "It's not flickering."  She tapped a few more keys, and a 
second display lit up, next to the one displaying Barry's image.  Page 
after page of information flashed across its surface faster than Kei or 
Zen could properly follow.  Text, equations, diagrams and more were 
being called up and displayed at a frenetic rate.

Zen-chan's voice was almost a whisper. "This... is what his display is 
showing now?  Realtime?"

Yuri nodded.

"What's he been reading?"

"Just about everything," Yuri said.  "He started with the operations 
and maintenance manuals for the ship.  Then he switched to theory, 
and right now he's reading up on warp drive design.  Given the way 
he's reading all the cross references, I'd say he's understanding most 
of it, too."

"Every manual?" Zen-chan squeaked.

"Well, everything that isn't classified, yes."

Zen-chan dropped heavily into the pilot's seat and swore.  "Great.  
Just great.  We go out to get an author, and we wind up with Gary 
Fucking Mitchell.  This kind of headache, I don't need."

"Gary who?" asked Yuri, perplexed.

"I'll show you later.  Isolate the security cores.  Take them off-line 
altogether.  And," Zen said, her tone deadly serious, "set the lockouts.  
If anyone but the three of us tries to access those cores, wipe them.  
If someone tries to force access..." Zen-chan paused.

Kei swallowed.  "If...?" she prompted.

"If access is forced," Zen said in a very quiet voice,  "Or if Barry tries 
to access any part of the system without a terminal, set it to destroy 
the _Pathfinder_."

Kei nodded, her expression hardening as she turned and keyed the 
requisite instructions into the Engineering console.  Yuri stared at the 
shorter red-head in shock.  "Zen... why?" she squeaked.

Kei's voice was tight. "Think about it, Yuri... Nothing human can read 
that fast.  Certainly not with anything that approaches that level of 
comprehension."

Zen nodded. "Barry, if that IS the real Barry, and not some kind of 
boomer, had to have been altered.  That may not mean anything bad, 
but it's something that Frosty will need to know when we get back."  
She paused and added darkly, "If we get back."

"Ya know, Zen... I really hate it when you say things like that..."

**** O_O ****

The next several hours were tense ones for Zen-chan.  She made a 
point of keeping a close watch on the computer, and was immensely 
relieved when their guest showed no inclination to wander through 
secure areas of the system.

Yuri complained that she didn't know what all the fuss was about, 
after all, cyberware wasn't that uncommon.  Zen had smiled at her 
and reminded her that Barry didn't *have* any cyberware.  Then 
she'd called up 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' from the archives, 
and told Yuri to watch it.  An hour later, Yuri understood.

"I hope it doesn't have to end like that," she'd said.  "I mean, he's a 
bit of a stiff, really, but he seems like a decent sort."

Zen-chan had nodded.  "I'm hopeful that it won't.  That is, after all, a 
worst-case scenario.  Still, best to be prepared."

Things stayed pretty quiet, after that.  Barry continued to spend his 
time devouring the contents of the ship's library, or talking to Kate.  
What time she wasn't spending looking after Barry, Kate had spent 
sleeping, or sitting in the forward lounge and brooding.  Yuri had, at 
one point, tried to strike up a conversation with the former GENOM 
executive, but had abandoned the effort after Madigan had snapped 
at her.

"I don't know what has her panties in such a wad," Yuri had told Kei 
afterwards.  "Maybe it's just that time of the month."

As the trip wound to a close, Zen-chan finally started to relax a bit.  
Kei had just rolled her eyes and pointed out that their mission had 
been a stunning success... after all, there hadn't been so much as a 
single fatality.  When Zen-chan had voiced enthusiastic agreement, 
Kei had whocked her over the head.

Zen and Yuri were the ones who ended up going to advise their 
guests that the journey's end was imminent.

**** O_O ****

Zen-chan was unsurprised to find Barry lost in the depths of another 
technical journal as she and Yuri entered the sickbay.  Kate Madigan 
was sitting in a chair beside his bed, reading something from a PADD.

When Barry looked up, Zen said, "We'll be arriving in another couple 
of hours.  I thought that you might want to get ready."

With a shrug, Barry shut off the reader.  "We don't really have that 
much that needs to be packed," he said with a rueful grin.

Zen-chan coughed. "I suppose not."  Turning toward Kate, she smiled.  
"I can see why Barry's getting involved in this lunacy, Ms. Madigan, 
but what brings you into a mess like this?"

Madigan looked up from her PADD, her face a mask of thinly veiled 
hostility.  "You want some motivation 'Miss' Author?"  Zen-chan and 
Yuri each took a half step back as Kate stood, her body shaking with 
the force of her anger.  "Well, I'll *give* you motivation!  I've seen 
the anime now, and I've read some of the puerile nonsense that you 
people write - and this time around, I want to be on the winning 
side.  Is that good enough for you?"

There was a thick silence as Kate turned and stalked out of the med 
bay that lasted for several moments after the doors had swooshed 
closed.  "Well," Yuri said at last.  "That was... nice."

"Maybe," Zen-chan muttered darkly, "It's just that time of the 
Mo<<oof>>"

Yuri smiled sweetly as she pulled her elbow back from Zen's ribs.  
"What was that, Zen, dear?"

Barry sighed.  "I'm sorry about that... this has all been rather hard 
for her.  She's given up a lot, and she'd rather die than admit that 
she's scared."

"It's okay... we're used to it,"  Zen-chan shrugged.  "I'm sure Frosty 
will certainly be glad to have her.  Goddess knows that FRED needs 
competent administrators."

Yuri snorted. "You can say THAT again."

Leaning back against one of the consoles, Zen-chan said, "So...  Yuri-
chan here tells me you've been doing quite a bit of reading..."

Barry nodded.  "You've got an impressive library here, and I thought 
it might be a good idea for me to get a handle on the tech base that 
I'll have to work with."

"Sensible enough," agreed Zen-chan.  "And have you learned anything 
of value?"

"Lots.  The problem is, while I'm getting an idea of the tech, I still 
don't have any clue what resources you have, or what the enemy 
has."

Zen-chan nodded. "Resources are a weak point... we're chronically 
short of labour and finished materials as well.  Though the system 
does seem to have a wealth of easily accessible raw materials;  the 
asteroid belt, for example."

"And what sort of production facilities have you?"

"Minimal."

Barry winced. "Well, as I see it, the main advantage that we'll have is 
that we've got access to all sorts of different technologies... we can 
pick and choose the best.  A ship that has shields or inertial dampers 
will have a considerable advantage in a battle against one that 
doesn't."

"True," said Yuri, "But we can't just assume that the enemy won't 
have access to the same range of technologies that we do."

"That's why making the right choices will be so important," Barry 
was nodding.  "Take, as an example, ship mounted weapons.  Phasers 
have a LOT of flexibility, but GRASERS are easier to mass produce, 
and have a greater range.  They're also more energy efficient."

"Well, normally, perhaps... but Zen'll put the phaser arrays aboard 
the _Pathfinder_ up against any graser, any day."

"Yes, but you use an antimatter reactor...  You have power to burn 
here.  I don't like the idea of antimatter power on a main battle unit. 
The failure mode is just too extreme."

"There are times, Barry, when an extreme failure mode is a GOOD 
thing.  But even so, this ship uses dual warp cores... not the single 
core system you're used to with Federation vessels.  And her anti-
matter containment systems are triply redundant."

Barry looked skeptical.  "It's anti-matter."

Zen-chan shrugged.  "It's as safe as a conventional fusion, or Tylium 
based drive, I tell you.  Look, if you like, I'll show you the guts of the 
thing after we land."

Barry's eyes widened a bit, and his tone was incredulous.  "You mean 
they actually let you LAND this crate on the surface?"

"Of course they do," sniffed Zen-chan in a hurt tone.

Barry shook his head in amazement.  "Just be glad I'm not in charge 
then...  If it were up to me, you'd defuel it first or better, leave it up 
in orbit."

Zen-chan grinned.  "I'll make you a deal.  I take you the rest of the 
way to FRED rather than making you get out and walk, and you don't 
mess with my ship."

Barry laughed out loud.  "Deal!  So long as it isn't actually dangerous 
that is."

They shook hands.

EOF Sono 5


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