Armies of Light and Dark (8 page)

"I can't die," he whispered. "Londo said so. I'm invincible."

Not giving a damn about fate, Centauri predictions, or Londo Mollari, the Drakh squeezed the trigger. His weapon made an oddly vacant sound – one that had a uniform quality across a variety of cultures. It was the sound of a weapon empty of ammunition. The Drakh uttered a word that Vir could only surmise to be a curse in the Drakh's native tongue, and then the creature began to haul himself up. Suddenly the entire room shook violently, and the Drakh flopped over onto his back. This time he didn't get up. The creature emitted a sound that could only be a death rattle, and his head slumped to one side.

Kane was still on his knees, looking somewhat perplexed as he stared at the metal projectiles sticking in his chest. Vir hauled him to his feet, shouting, "Come on! Hurry! Back to the ship!"

"I do not think ... that is going to happen," Kane said softly.

"Oh no you don't!" Vir yelled at him. "I am not about to go back to your techno-pals and tell them that I left you behind! And they're going to tell me that if I'd dragged you along with me, maybe they could have saved you, and the next thing I know, someone's going to be wearing my head for a hat! No thank you!"

Kane tried to say something else, but Vir wasn't listening to him. Instead, with a strength he never would have dreamt he had, Vir yanked Kane to his feet and started hauling him, draping one of Kane's arms around his own shoulder to provide support. They stumbled out of the control room and down the corridor, and Vir didn't even want to think about what was going to happen if they ran into a Drakh because they had absolutely no defense at all. Kane sagged, and Vir thought desperately to himself – to himself, and to whatever deity might be willing to listen – Please. Please let us get back to the ship without any problems. Please.

They rounded a corner, and there was a Drakh standing there. Vir froze, almost losing his grip on Kane. He saw, out of the corner of his eye, that Kane actually had a grim smile on his face, and for a moment he was certain that the techno-mage had completely lost his mind. That was when Vir realized that the Drakh wasn't moving. He wasn't looking at Vir and Kane; they simply happened to be standing directly in the path of his blank gaze. Then the Drakh sagged to the ground to reveal Gwynn right behind him.

"The Drakh and I were having a chat," she said.

Her dark eyes widened as she realized Kane's condition. For a moment her veneer of unflappability slipped, and then she composed herself. She moved forward quickly and brought Kane's other arm around her own shoulder. The two of them helped Kane toward the ship without a word. The shaking around them grew more violent, and Finian joined them on a dead run. He cast a glance at Kane's condition, but made no comment. They half ran, half stumbled into the ship as the door irised shut behind them.

"Where are the rest of the Drakh!" Vir called out.

"In case you haven't noticed, Mr. Cotto, this place is about to blow up," said Gwynn.

"I know. I caused it."

"Well done," said Finian, who had seated himself at the controls. But there wasn't a great deal of congratulations in his voice, for his attention was split between getting the ship into motion and glancing worriedly over at Kane. Kane, for his part, seemed to be staring at the spikes in his chest as if he were studying someone else's body.

"Get those out of him! Can't you help him? Wave a magic wand or something!" Vir shouted with increasing agitation.

The frightening calm that had settled upon the cloisters was to him the most disconcerting thing. Gwynn glanced at Vir for a moment, looking as if she wanted to explain something of great consequence. Then obviously she changed her mind, and instead crouched next to Kane, studying the spikes. Then she looked up at Kane, who simply shook his head. There was sadness on his face, as if he felt more sorry for her than for himself. Vir started forward, and suddenly the ship shifted wildly.

Finian was hardly handling the vessel with the same calm assurance that Kane had displayed. His jaw was set in grim determination and he shouted, "Hold on!"

Vir, who by this time was lying in a crumpled heap on the far side of the ship, considered the advice to be a classic case of too little, too late. On the monitor display, he could see the rapidly receding Shadow Base, and then suddenly it vanished entirely. For a moment he had no idea why, and then he remembered: the null field. They had emerged from it, and the base had securely vanished back into its invisibility.

Just as the display showed where they had come from, it also provided a view of where they were going. The jumpgate appeared just ahead of them and, sensing the approach of a ship, flared to life. A moment before the mage ship leaped into the gate, they saw the null field suddenly split apart. Gigantic chunks of Xha'dam spiraled away in all directions. There were pieces of the planet destroyer as well, ripped to shreds by the force of the explosions that the device itself had instigated. A fireball, feeding on itself and the continued detonation of Xha'dam, grew wider and faster, and for just a moment, Vir was certain that the thing was going to engulf them. That was when space again seemed to stretch all around them, and an instant later they had leaped into the gate and were propelled at speeds that would have once been considered beyond all imagination.

Vir picked himself up off the floor and went quickly over to Gwynn and Kane. Kane's face looked absolutely ashen, his eyes were misting over.

"Do something!" Vir urged once again. Gwynn s detached demeanor cracked.

"Don't you think I would if I could!" she said angrily. "If I could help him ... if any of this could have been avoided..." Something about the way she said that brought realization to Vir. "What he saw ... what he said he saw ... it was this, wasn't it."

"Some of this," Kane said softly. "Not all. But 'twas enough. 'Twould serve."

"Do all of your–"

"See the future? Have visions of what is to come? Some. A few of the full techno-mages, full adepts ... but a cloister?" Gwynn shook her head and regarded Kane with something approaching reverence. "Never. He is most blessed."

Vir gestured helplessly.

"You call this blessed? Great Maker, at least pull those out of him!"

"It would be ... too late," whispered Kane. "And it would simply cause ... a bloody mess. Vir ... there are things you should know. Must know. Things that ... only you can stop."

He leaned in closer to Kane.

"What are they?"

Kane's eyes momentarily refocused.

"Don't worry. You already know them."

"What? I ... I don't understand."

And he had to strain to hear Kane say, "Good. I was ... going for cryptic." The faint smile remained on his face even as his head slumped to one side, and then he was gone.

Vir let out a sigh.

"You succeeded," he said, as he reached over and closed Kane's eyes.

C
HAPTER 4

They emerged from the jumpgate, spiraling at high speed into the surface of the planet designated K0643. Finian barely yanked the nose of the ship up in time to prevent it from slamming into the ground, and the ship suddenly went straight up like a surface-to-air missile. He called out, "Something's wrong!"

"Oh, now what?" said Vir, not sure how much more he could take. He kept trying to tear his gaze away from the fallen Kane. He saw that Gwynn was still crouched next to him, and she was gently caressing the curve of his jaw with the side of her hand.

"It's not us! It's the gate!"

Vir immediately saw what he was talking about. Energy was crackling all around it, but far more violently than before. The thing was trembling wildly, and fissures were appearing all through it. It began to splinter, to shudder under some sort of pressure that Vir could not even guess at, and then the arch began to crumble in upon itself. Within moments, gigantic chunks of it were tumbling to the ground. Then with a roar, the gate collapsed completely.

"Good riddance," muttered Finian.

"But what caused it to happen?" demanded Vir.

"Not what. Who," Finian said suddenly, getting the ship's trajectory under control. "Look."

Apparently in order to illustrate his explanation, he keyed the monitor to zoom in on a lone individual standing on the uppermost outcropping of some rocks. It was wearing immediately recognizable long robes, a hood drawn over its head, and a telltale staff gripped solidly in its right hand. Its left hand was placed on its hip in a casual manner, as if this being was impatiently waiting for a late-arriving bus.

"Is that who I think it is?" Gwynn asked. "I suspect so."

"Who? Who is it?" Vir wanted to know.

They did not reply. For some depressing reason, that didn't surprise him at all. Finian guided the vessel toward a convenient landing point at the outer edge of the excavation. Vir could see on the monitor screen that the cloaked figure was making its way down to meet them. Despite the rockiness of the terrain, the newcomer moved with self-assurance. Vir was certain, beyond any question, that it was a techno-mage. In truth, Vir was still having trouble believing any of this had happened. After the business with Elric back on Babylon 5, he had been pleasantly certain that he would never see a techno-mage again. The thought didn't bother him a bit. Now he was ass-deep in them. He started to wonder grimly if perhaps he should just ask where the techno-mage recruitment office might be so that he could sign up and be done with it.

As soon as the ship's landing procedures had cycled through, Finian and Gwynn positioned themselves at the door. Gwynn laid Kane down gently and respectfully on the floor, and removed her own outer cloak to cover the fallen cloister with it. They stood before the door of the ship, waiting. Then it opened, and the hooded figure stepped through. He pushed back his hood and Vir saw a very curious-looking individual. He was completely bald, with a strong jaw and piercing gaze. There was a bleak twinkle in his eye, as if he knew the entire universe was based on some cosmic joke, with death as the great punch line.

"Galen," said Finian in acknowledgment, and he bowed. Gwynn followed suit.

Galen took the entirety of the situation in with a glance, including the presence of Vir and the corpse of Kane.

"Pity" he said. "He had potential. So," he continued, as if that was to be the end of the mourning period, "would you care to tell me what the hell you three ... I'm sorry, you two ... thought you were doing."

"I did it, too," said Vir tentatively.

"Yes, but you don't count. Don't worry, though. You will eventually."

"Oh. Thank you. I guess."

In quick, broad strokes, Gwynn outlined for him what had happened. The one whom they addressed as Galen might have been carved from marble for all the expression or reaction he displayed. Every so often he would glance at Kane's covered body as Gwynn continued her narrative. Most of it, of course, Vir already knew, but then Gwynn got to a point in her recitation that was news to Vir.

"As we were departing," she said, "I managed to capture a Drakh and ask him a few questions in a manner he could not ignore. They had intended to use the Death Clouds..."

"Those massive planet killers," said Galen, just for his personal confirmation. "Yes. Those were going to be the centerpiece of their new fleet. The Drakh have been rebuilding their vessels, preparing themselves, but the Death Clouds were intended to tilt the balance utterly in their favor."

"And to what end did they intend to employ them?"

"The Drakh blame John Sheridan and his wife, Delenn, for the departure of the Shadows," Gwynn told him.

Galen nodded slowly.

"That's probably because Sheridan and Delenn told them to go away. In the end, you have to credit the Shadows with at least having the good taste to leave a party when asked to depart."

The words sounded flip, but Vir could tell there was very much an edge to them. Galen's hatred for the Shadows was palpable, and Vir could only guess what sort of personal suffering Galen had known at their hands ... or claws ... or whatever.

"Do you think the Drakh would be willing to follow suit? Leave if we ask them to?"

"I doubt it," said Gwynn.

"So do I. Proceed, then. They blame Sheridan and Delenn..."

"And because of that, it is their intention to punish the species that gave birth to them. Their plan is to use the Death Cloud on Earth. By this point, they will already have tested it on Daltron 7. If it operates as I suspect it will, there will be nothing left there. Not a being, not a bird, not a bug ... nothing. That is the fate they have planned for Earth."

Upon hearing this, Vir's spine froze, as did several of his major bodily organs. But Galen's deadpan expression never wavered. Gwynn might just as easily have told him that the Drakh intended to orbit Earth, spew harsh language, and leave.

"And what about Minbar?" he inquired.

"A plague. They intend to annihilate the seat of the Interstellar Alliance with a plague."

For the first time, true darkness of worry passed over Galen's face. It was as if he was confident that the Death Cloud could be handled, but germ warfare presented an insurmountable problem.

"They have created a plague?"

"No. They don't know how to build or grow the virus. The Drakh aren't that advanced. They are superb scavengers, and can manage machinery and construction adroitly enough. But replicating Shadow-created viruses is beyond them. However, they managed to salvage enough of the virus from Z'ha'dum to accomplish their aim."

"How much?"

"Enough to wipe out an entire world."

To Vir's astonishment, Galen actually let out a sigh of relief.

"We're most fortunate then."

He couldn't believe it.

"Fortunate! They're planning to wipe out all of Minbar, and you call that fortunate!"

"Well ... not if you're Minbari, certainly," said Finian. Gwynn made an angry face at him that indicated it would be best if he kept his mouth shut.

"Enough virus for only one world means that the situation is containable.' said Galen. "Be grateful it's not enough for a hundred worlds."