Armies Of Light And Dark, Page 3

  Chapter 3 Vir knew perfectly well what a trip through hyperspace was supposed to be like, and this wasn't it. There were great similarities in the look and the feel. But even to Vir, who wasn't exactly a battle-hardened veteran space jockey, it felt different. As opposed to a journey through hyperspace in which one guided oneself via the use of carefully mapped pathways, this voyage felt as if the ship was somehow being propelled in a specific direction. If they had been in a planetary atmosphere, he would have said that they had a strong tailwind. "Where are we going?" Vir said. Gwynn didn't even bother to look at him, but Finian cast a glance and muttered, "Not just where. Why?" "Because we're supposed to," Kane said. He sounded rather detached from the entire matter, even though he was nominally guiding the ship. "We're supposed to?" Gwynn looked to Finian in obvious hope of some sort of explanation, but his helpless shrug indicated that he was as in the dark as she. "Are you saying you've been given some sort of... of separate instructions?" Not for the first time, Vir was struck by the difference between these cloisters and the techno-mages he and Londo had encountered in the past. His current companions didn't maintain the constant air of superiority, the portentousness that usually accompanied a techno-mage's every word. Of the three of them, Vir suspected Gwynn was the closest to having the requisite arrogance down pat. But her inexperience was allowing her obvious frustration to bubble over, 33 most likely due to the unusual circumstances into which they had been thrust. "Well?" she prompted when she decided Kane hadn't replied quickly enough. Kane turned and looked at her then, and there was something in his eyes. His voice sounded as if it were coming from another time and place, perhaps even another dimension, as he said, "I have seen it." At that moment, Vir was reminded of what Kane had once said to him, after one particularly nebulous comment: "I was going for cryptic." "You succeeded," Vir had said to him. Now, after all this time had passed, he couldn't help but feel that Kane had succeeded once more. For once again, Vir had no idea what he was talking about. Of significance, however, were the reactions he prompted from Gwynn and Finian. The comment obviously had meaning to them. It truncated all discussion, brought the entire disagreement to a screaming halt. Instead, all Gwynn asked- sounding not unimpressed-was "Are you certain?" "Yes." "Very well." It struck Vir as a bit amusing; Gwynn was acting as if she was giving permission for something in which she had no actual say. Or perhaps ... perhaps she was just saying to Kane that she understood a bit more what had led him to propel them into the jumpgate, rather than attempting to get safely away. Finian likewise was nodding. Vir just wished that he could be as sanguine. He wanted to ask just precisely what it was that Kane had seen, but he had the distinct impression that any such inquiries wouldn't be welcomed. Suddenly, the ship lurched, and for a moment Vir was certain that they had been struck by some sort ofblast attack. But Kane said with confidence, "We're coming out of the funnel." "Funnel? What funnel? I never heard of a funnel," said Vir. "You wouldn't have. It's theoretical," Kane told him. "Ah. Of course." Vir didn't have a clue to what Kane was talking about. Finian, however, saw fit to take pity on him. "It's Shadow tech," he explained. "Think of it as a sort of wormhole within hyperspace. A subsystem or subroutine, if you will. One beginning point, one end point, no detours. When you use a funnel , it renders you undetectable to any other ships that might be traveling through hyperspace at the time. Limited utility, but handy if you want to build a fast path to somewhere." "And where would the somewhere be? At this moment, I mean?" said Vir. "I don't know," Kane admitted. "It will take a few minutes to determ-" His voice trailed off. He was looking ahead through the main viewing port, and Finian and Gwynn were doing likewise . Vir turned to see just what it was that had grabbed everyone's full attention. He had no idea what he was supposed to see, but considering the reactions of the mages- what he did see certainly wasn't at all what he would have expected. "Nothing," he said. "I ... don't see anything." And indeed he did not. They had dropped into normal space, but there was absolutely nothing ahead of them. A good deal of nothing, in fact. "Nothing is what you're supposed to see," Gwynn informed him. "Ah. Good. Then I'm right on top of things, I guess." "Take us in slowly, Kane," Gwynn continued, as if Vir hadn't spoken, and indeed for all Vir knew, she hadn't even heard him. "We're a relatively small ship, and it's not as if they're expecting us. With any luck, we can escape detection entirely." "And without any luck?" Vir asked. The look they shot his way was all the response he required . Unfortunately, he still didn't know what was going on. Clearly there was some sort of imminent threat, some immediate danger ... but he wasn't seeing it at all. Furthermore , the dark vessels that had preceded them had vanished entirely. Where could they have gone? And what was this threat? Nothing seemed to be presenting- Then, after a moment, he looked again ... and he saw it. Or rather, he didn't see it. The stars were there ... but they weren't. The area of space ahead of them was-there was no other way to express it interrupted. It was broken by a patch miles across, where the stars didn't appear to be shining. There was, indeed, nothing ahead of them, but it was a nothing that was most definitely something. It didn't have any sort of geometric shape to it. It was so large, so irregular, that even though he could detect the outline with his unaided eyes, he still couldn't get any sort of mental image as to what it actually looked like. But at least he knew it looked like something . Or nothing. His head was starting to hurt. "You see it now," Finian said with faint approval. Vir might have been imagining it, but he felt as if Finian was actually rooting for him in a way. "What is it? Or maybe that should be, What isn't it?" "It's a null field," Finian replied. "Think of it as almost a sort of portable black hole ... except you can go in and out. It absorbs all light and all manner of sensory or energy probes. It can utterly convince instrumentation that it's not there. And people who encounter it won't bother to see with their own eyes, because they've become so heavily dependent on technology. . ." "So says the techno-mage," Vir commented. There was silence for a moment, then Finian said with a small smile, "Touche." "So do we go in?" Gwynn asked Kane. Vir was mildly surprised ; until that point everything from Gwynn's attitude had given him the impression that she felt she should be in charge. Yet now she seemed to be deferring, however nominally , to Kane. Kane simply nodded. Vir wished at that point that he had a weapon. "Here." As if reading Vir's mind, Kane reached into the folds of his cloak and extracted something solid and round, about the size of Vir's fist. Vir turned it over and over, trying to discern some hidden meaning. Nothing immediately presented itself. "It's a rock," Vir said. "That is correct." "Is there any particular reason you've given me this?" "I thought you might need a weapon. I suspect you did, as well." "Yes, but I. . ." He stared at it in confusion. "A rock? Why a rock?" "Nature's weapon. Really, the only weapon that nature intended humankind to have," said Kane. "You will do well with it." "Thanks. And here I didn't get you anything," muttered Vir, shoving the rock into his coat pocket and reminding himself , not for the first time, that hooking up with the techno- mages might not have been the brightest idea he'd ever had. There was silence as they approached the null field. The techno-mages didn't appear to be especially concerned, but Vir was reasonably certain that it was simply a facade they had adopted. They simply had no intention of coming across as apprehensive when an outside observer such as Vir was present. "Time to null field ... eleven seconds," Kane announced. Vir glanced around the control board and saw no sign of a chronometer. Yet somehow he didn't doubt the accuracy of Kane's time estimate. "Ten ... nine ... eight. . ." Vir steadied himself and, for a moment, thought about requesting that they turn the damned ship right around and head back to the excavation world. They had discovered something hidden by the Shadows; something that would likely have serious consequences once the technology therein was employed. Rather than risking their necks, perhaps the intelligent thing to do was get out safely and alert ... Who? Alert Londo? But Londo had evicted him from Centauri Prime. It was possible that, after a period of time, tempers would cool and relationships could be normalized, bu
t that time certainly wasn't when Vir was still dusting off dirt left over from his stay in a Centauri dungeon. Tell Sheridan? The Alliance? This Shadow technology had been unearthed as a result of a Centauri dig. Vir knew exactly what the perceptions would be: that he, Vir, was acting as an informant against his people. And that the Centauri themselves-particularly the government-had, in fact, allied themselves with fearsome creatures who had served even more fearsome masters. The problem was that all of that might very well be true. But Centauri Prime certainly didn't need that information getting out, causing even further deterioration of their relationships with every other sentient race in the Alliance. No, the Shadow influence, whatever it was, had to be expunged quietly, from the inside. If the Alliance even suspected that the Centauri were in league with servants of the Shadows, they might show up to bomb Centauri Prime once more, and this time they might not cease their efforts until the Centauri Homeworld was nothing but uninhabited rock. Centauri Prime had to be kept clear of this situation. Vir could take no chance that this ... this whatever-it-was might be linked to the Centauri Republic. The consequences might be fatal and he, Vir, would be responsible. But neither could he simply turn away and ignore what he was now a party to. If this was Shadow technology, about to be employed against other races, how could anyone of conscience stand by and do nothing? And, he realized with a shudder, there was no guarantee that this technology wasn't going to be used against Centauri Prime itself. He muttered something and Gwynn glanced at him, even as Kane continued the countdown. "What did you say?" she asked. "Something my mother used to say," Vir told her. "An old saying: `One choice is no choice.' " She nodded. "A good saying." "Three ... two ... one.. !' Space seemed to elongate around them, as if they were pushing through a gigantic wall of clear gelatin or squishy water. Vir prayed that the null field simply provided limited invisibility, rather than some genuine offensive means of beating back intruders. Then, just like that, they were through. This time, even the techno-mages gasped. It wasn't a sound Vir liked. The concept of startled techno-mages wasn't one he happily embraced. On the other hand, he certainly couldn't blame them. The structure that hovered within the confines of the null field was massive beyond Vir's imagination. It would have dwarfed Babylon 5. For that matter, in terms of sheer mass, it might very well have dwarfed entire planets. The Shadow Base-for that was what Vir had come to think of it as-reminded him of nothing so much as a gigantic coral reef. It seemed to stretch almost into infinity, with numerous entrances pockmarking its craggy exterior. "Xha'dam," breathed Finian. Vir looked at him in polite confusion. "What?" "Xha'dam," he repeated. "It's nearly legendary ... mythic. Reportedly a Shadow base to end all bases. So huge that-2' "They named it?" Finian rolled his eyes and looked away. There was some sort of activity at the far end of Xha'dam, and Vir tried to figure out what it was. The Drakh ships had reappeared, and had converged there. To Vr's confusion there seemed to be some sort of planet there as well. But something didn't ... Then he realized. "Great Maker," he breathed. "That's ... not a planet." "It's a Death Cloud," said Kane. "A what?" "A Death Cloud. Theoretically, it envelops a world and rains destruction down upon it." "Like a ... a mass driver or something?" "A Death Cloud is similar to a mass driver," Finian said, "in the way that an adult with heavy artillery is similar to an infant with a toy hammer." The comparison was horrific. Londo had been present when mass drivers had been used on the Nam homeworld, and the description he had given had been so ghastly that Vir had wondered about the minds of the people who had come up with such a weapon. Now, upon witnessing something that was infinitely worse, Vir thought of the Shadow creatures, and knew that they were more than mere alien beings. The Shadows were incarnations of all the darkest and worst impulses that the mind of sentient beings had to offer. "You said `theoretically,' " said Vir. "You mean it was never actually used ... T, "Our understanding is that it was close to completion when the Shadow War actually ended," said Finian. "Naturally, our information was hardly comprehensive. We're techno- mages, not omniscient. We didn't know the where of it, for example, or how close to completion it actually was." "From the look of it, the answer is `Very,' " observed Gwynn. "That's why we took such an interest in the Centauri excavation ," Finian said. "We thought that the Drakh might be seeking out lost Shadow technology, and suspected that this might be part of it." "The Drakh. Their servants." "Yes. But even in our wildest suspicions, we never thought. . ." "I did," said Kane in that same oddly distant tone. Yes, of course. He had "seen" it. Vir still felt, rather wisely, that pursuing an inquiry along those lines would likely be folly. "So what do we do? How do we stop it ... T, And then they heard it. Even though sound didn't travel in space, they still heard it. Whether there was some sort of atmosphere attached to Xha'dam, whether the null field was capable of transmitting it, Vir didn't know, nor would he ever know. What he did know, however, was that there was a massive rumbling that seemed to envelop everything around them. It was as if they were trapped within a massive hurricane. They weren't being spun about, but the pounding all around them made Vir feel as if his teeth were going to be jarred loose from his mouth. No ... it was worse. It was as if his skull was going to be jostled out of his head. The Death Cloud was moving. "In answer to your question, Mr. Cotto," Gwynn said grimly, "we don't stop it." "That thing wasn't near completion," Finian said, unable to keep the sound of horrified realization from coloring his voice. "It was complete. All they had to do was turn it on. If the Shadows had unleashed it during the war. . ." "We'd have been ready for it!" Vir said with rising alarm. "And we would have had the Vorlons backing us up! Better that it should have been used then. We'd have had a better chance against it! Now, we've none!" "Vir ... " "I'm sorry, Kane." Vir pulled himself together. He took a deep breath, reminded himself that this was absolutely the wrong time to come unraveled. The simple fact was that Gwynn was right. There was no way to stop it. Already the Death Cloud was moving off, out of the null field, surrounded by several Drakh ships that acted as an escort. "They're going to test it," Vir said suddenly. "What?" said Gwynn. But Finian nodded. "Yes. Yes, I bet Vir's right. Whatever they're planning to use that thing for, they're not just going to take it right into battle. They're going to run a test on it first. Kane, have we got the area tracked yet?" Kane nodded, looking over star charts that he cued up on a nearby screen. "We're near the Daltron system. There's one inhabited world there ... the seventh planet out, with a population of three billion. Minimal space flight capacity." "We've got to get word to them," said Vir. Gwynn was shaking her head. "Never get there in time. And if the Drakh intercept our message, they'll know we're here. We'll lose the element of surprise." "We can't simply not warn them! We have to tell them to-!" "Tell them to what?" said Gwynn coolly. `Abandon their planet? A world isn't a cruise ship, Mr. Cotto, where every- one can just jump into lifepods when things go badly. Besides , you heard him: minimal space flight. They have no defenses, and they can't get away. Even if we manage to alert EarthForce or the Alliance, we're too far out here. Too remote . No one will get here in time." Vir didn't know which he found more upsetting: the reality of the situation or Gwynn's icy, dispassionate assessment. "Don 't you care? " he finally exploded. "Care? About things I can't prevent? No, Mr. Cotto, I don't. What I care about are those things that I can prevent. Such as the chance that another planet destroyer might be built." "Another. . ." "Yes. Like that one." And she pointed. Vir felt his gorge rising. For there, still at the far end of Xha'dam, he could see the skeletons being erected already for a second and third Death Cloud. With the finished model as an indelible mental template, he immediately knew the constructs in progress for what they were. "They learn fast, the Drakh," said Finian humorlessly. "Possibly some construct 'bots, or similar machines that they've put into place," Kane guessed. "There may be some Drakh remaining behind, though, overseeing it." He paused, and then said, "I'm taking us in." It took a moment for Vir to register what he was saying , and then he comprehended. They were heading into Xha dam, for a very obvious purpose:
to destroy it. "I'm picking up several key energy sources," Kane continued. "I thought our sensory devices weren't working." "Outside the null field, Vir, that was correct. But now that we're inside the null field, we're not hampered anymore. I'm bringing us into the closest entry port ... or at least what looks like one. That should still keep us a fairly safe distance from whatever Drakh might be here. With any luck, we can get in and out without any problems." "But what about safeguards?" Vir asked. "Certainly the Shadows would have built in-" "Not necessarily, Mr. Cotto," Gwynn responded. "The null field would certainly have served as a means of avoiding discovery . And in the unlikely event that someone did stumble across it, certainly the Shadow vessels themselves would have been more than capab le of dispatching any intruders. It is indeed more likely that they saw no need to integrate any sort of traps into the base's design." "And if they have?" Vir couldn't help but ask. "Fortunately, we have a plan to deal with any traps that may be lying in wait for us," Finian told him. "Oh? Really?" Vir felt somewhat encouraged at that news. "What's the plan?" "We send you in first." Vir stared at Finian and saw a slight twinkle of amusement in his eyes. It was, however, only slight, and then deftly covered up. Vir only wished that he could find it remotely comical. "I am concerned," Kane said abruptly. "Going on the assumption that we survive this ... in the unlikely event that any Drakh are on Xha'dam, it would not be wise for them to see Mr. Cotto's face. What one Drakh knows, he can relay to others with the speed of thought. But they need not know the face of their opponent. Vir ... I shall have to conceal your features. Are you prepared?" Vir paused for a moment, then nodded yes. And then, a bit nervously, he added, "Will it hurt?" "Unlikely." Kane pulled a black mask with string ties from within the folds of his garment and handed it to Vir. Vir looked at it, somewhat crestfallen. "Is that the best you've got?" "Would you prefer a bag over your head?" Kane inquired. "Is this a vote?" Finian asked. "Because if we get to choose what he should wear. . . " "Never mind." Vir sighed as he pulled the mask on and decided that, yes, definitely, he was not enthused with what passed for humor among techno-mages. The fact that the entry into Xha'dam went as smoothly as it did should have been enough to still some of Vir Cotto's fears. It did nothing of the kind. Instead all it did was heighten Vir's concern that disaster was imminent. As he reasoned it, each passing moment increased the likelihood that they would be discovered, and the fact that they hadn't been found out only brought them seconds closer to the inevitability of being spotted. However, the techno-mages moved as though with full confidence that they would not be detected. And Vir had to admire Kane's sure hand at the controls. He guided the small vessel down an assortment of progressively smaller passages, before finally determining that they had gone as far as they could go. Despite Finian's earlier jest that Vir was going to serve as a walking decoy, the trio of cloisters offered Vir the opportunity to remain aboard the ship. Vir shook his head vigorously. "I'm going to see this through," he said firmly. "Besides, if the Drakh show up and come after whoever's in this ship, well ... I'd rather take my chances with you than without you." "Very well" was all Kane said. The exit door irised open, and Vir almost choked on the air. As absurd as it sounded, as ridiculous as the notion seemed, even in his own head ... the air smelled of evil. He knew it was absurd. Atmosphere couldn't possess abstract concepts of morality as part of its chemistry. Of course, Vir could ascribe to the stale air just about any virtue he desired. In point of fact, though, there was no way that the air itself could be evil. And yet it was. It wasn't that it smelled particularly foul. But even as it filled his lungs, he felt as if darkness were filling not only his body, but his very soul. He wanted to suck down oxygen. He wanted to vomit up whatever it was that was getting into his circulatory system. He wanted to seize control of the ship somehow, and send it hurtling out of this abysmal place of shadow, as quickly as he possibly could. Instead he forced himself to follow the three cloister mages and hoped that he wasn't making the worst, and last, mistake of his life. The walls weren't dissimilar to those of a series of caverns. As Vir walked, he would rest his palm against them now and again, and whenever he did so he would quickly yank his hand away. The walls felt incredibly cold. No, it was more than that. It was as if coming in contact with the walls allowed them to suck the heat out of Vir. Yet, if he didn't touch them at all, they had no immediate effect. Kane, Gwynn, and Finian moved forward purposefully, so much so that Vir felt hard-pressed to keep up. The passages formed a virtual labyrinth, and yet they found their way through with ease. Vir felt tremendously envious of them. Part of him wondered whether he hadn't missed his calling . Perhaps he should have become a techno-mage himself. Rather than fighting off panic at the very thought of the science-based magic users, he would be one of them and instill trembling fear in ... well, in people like himself. For just one moment, he allowed himself to become preoccupied with this rather pleasant reverie. As he did so, he turned a corner ... and discovered that the techno-mages were gone. "Oh, not again," he moaned softly. This time, however, he was quite certain that they hadn't simply vanished to avoid being noticed. Instead it was probably something far more pedestrian, namely that he'd made a wrong turn and become separated from them. But all was not necessarily lost, for he had a general idea of where they were going. The concept was that they were going to head for a major power source and, presumably, blow it to hell and gone somehow. With any luck, that explosion would in turn take out the entire Shadow Base ... while, ideally, giving them enough time to get the hell off the base before it went. And locating the power source didn't seem as if it was going to be that much of a chore. He could hear rather distinctly a steady, distant thrumming sound, a slow pulse that beat so regularly that he felt as if he were somehow inside a living body. He made his way toward the source, at first tentatively , then becoming more and more self-assured. It appeared that the techno-mages had been correct. He didn't set of any alarms, nor did he run into any unexpected traps. Obviously , the Shadows had been overly confident. He thought that, right up until the moment that he turned a corner and ran into a Drakh who was heading in the opposite direction. Vir remembered being a child, wandering about in the woods once during a camping expedition and suddenly finding himself face-to-face with a wild animal. It hadn't been an especially fierce one, but nevertheless, young Vir knew that they were on the animal's home territory, and that carried with it an advantage. But his father had seemed to materialize at the side of his petrified son, and had said with confidence, "Don't worry. He's just as startled to see you as you are to see him:" That was certainly the case now. The Drakh was caught completely flat-footed. Any notion that Vir had that he might have tripped some sort of alarm disappeared when he saw the expression on the alien's face. Clearly the creature had had no idea Vir was going to be there; he had simply been going on about his business and found himself face-to-face with an intruder. Vir, however, had a momentary advantage. After all, he at least had known that he might run into trouble, whereas the Drakh had been wholly unprepared. Vir drove himself forward off one leg, summoning all his strength and bravery and swinging from the hip as his father had taught him, back when young boys were routinely beating him up. His right fist connected squarely with the Drakh's head, and Vir felt a shock of pain that ran the length of his arm up into his shoulder. The Drakh rocked slightly back on his heels, but otherwise didn't seem to feel the blow. Realizing that he was in trouble, Vir took a step back as the Drakh advanced, and the grey-toned creature let out a horrifying shriek of anger that rooted Vir to the spot. Then suddenly the Drakh froze in place, his eyes going wide in astonishment. He was looking at a spot directly over Vir's shoulder. Had he been thinking fast, Vir might have chosen that moment to press for an advantage. Instead he turned and looked to see what the Drakh was staring at. Instantly, he felt his blood turning to ice water in his veins. It was a Shadow. Vir had never actually seen one, except in the outermost periphery of his darkest nightmares, and yet he knew the Shadow warrior for what it was the moment it scuttled forwa
rd from the darkness. He could hear a scream in his head like a thousand souls being thrown into damnation, and there was a scrabbling sound as its pointed feet moved across the rocky surface of the floor. A mixture of amazement and joy appeared on the Drakh's face, as he clearly waited for the Shadow to issue some sort of order. And suddenly the Drakh's head snapped around, as two hands touched either side of his temples. His eyes went wide in confusion when the Shadow warrior failed to leap to his defense. Then the Shadow disappeared. It didn't fade into the darkness from which it had sprung; instead it simply vanished. The Drakh didn't comprehend what had just happened, but neither was he capable of staying conscious long enough to find out. Instead he simply sagged to the ground, and as he did so, Vir saw Gwynn standing behind him. Her long, tapering fingers released their hold on the Drakh's forehead, letting the Shadow servant collapse with a most satisfying thud. "I ... I got separated," Vir stammered out. "Obviously," she said, with the air of one who did not suffer fools gladly. Feeling very much the fool, Vir could understand her impatience. "Come." He followed her, staying so close on her heels that he nearly stepped on her a couple of times. The tunnels seemed to be widening out around them, and the sounds ahead of them were getting louder. Vir squinted against an increasingly bright light, and as he did so, he commented , "Kane said that he `saw' that we had to be here. What did he mean?" Gwynn said nothing. "Did he have some sort of... of psychic vision? Is that it? Some sort of look at the future?" "Do not," she warned him, "inquire too closely into the affairs of wizards. You may not like the answers." "Don't inquire?!" It was all he could do not to stammer. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm up to my neck in the affairs of wizards! So you'll forgive me if I make an inquiry or two!" "Very well," she said archly. "You are forgiven." Vir rolled his eyes and wondered why he had even bothered. They approached an archway that loomed high ahead of them, and went through it. The sound clearly emanated from the other side, so loud that Vir couldn't have missed it even if he were deaf. Considering the volume that was engulfing him, he began to worry that he might indeed wind up without hearing, at that. The place was huge, as Vir had suspected it would be. But it was like no power core that he had ever seen. There were towering columns all around him, except there was no sense of symmetry. Structures appeared to come together, then split apart from one another. It reminded him of nothing so much as a gigantic spider web made entirely of stone ... except it wasn't exactly stone. It was some sort of porous, black material , which glowed from within with a blue fire. He didn't have a clue as to where to look first. Gwynn, meantime, called out, "Kane! Finian!" Her two associates stepped out from behind different parts of the power room. "Vir ran into a Drakh. They're apparently not all at the other end of the base, as we had hoped." "Then we must attend to this quickly," said Kane. "Okay, so what do we do?" Vir asked. "Can you just, I don't know ... wave your hands or say some magic words and blow this place up?" "I'm afraid not," said Finian. "We cannot use our tech for destruction. Only for creation." Vir's eyes widened. "You're not serious." But the other nodded in affirmation. "Okay, fine, how about this!" he sputtered . "How about you use your power to create a big chunk of empty space where this base used to be!" "You must do it, Vir." "Me!" He gaped at Kane. Then, realizing it was pointless to argue, he waved his hands about and said, "Okay, okay, fine. What do I do?" "Blow it up." "How?" "Quickly." And then he pointed over Vir's shoulder, and Vir-against his better judgment looked where Kane was indicating. More of the Drakh were coming. There appeared to be at least a dozen of them, perhaps more, and they were pouring in through the entrance that Vir and Gwynn had just used, nineteen yards away. "This could be a problem," murmured Finian. That seemed, to Vir, to be something of an understatement. He backed up, watching what seemed like a wave of dark grey advancing on them quickly. And suddenly Vir and the techno-mages ran in one direction. And then another. And then another, and still another. Vir had no idea which way to look first, but neither did the Drakh. Suddenly the entire power room was cluttered with Virs and techno-mages, and no one could possibly have known which way to look or which was which. "Hurry! Hurry!" whispered Kane, and he shoved Vir in the back, to start him running. Then the techno-mages moved off in a variety of directions, and suddenly Vir was alone in a crowd. The Drakh made no sound, yet seemed to move in unison as they literally threw themselves into the chaos. They carried what appeared to be small weapons in their hands, though Vir couldn't make out precisely what they were. They looked vaguely like PPGs, but there was something different about them. Suddenly there was a rush of air and something small and presumably lethal hurtled past Vir's face, missing by the narrowest of margins. It made a metallic noise just beyond him and Vir's head snapped around to see what it was and where it had landed. It appeared to be a spike, about as long as one of his fingers, narrow and sharp and extremely deadly. It was embedded in a rocklike "web strand," and was still quivering from the impact. Vir had to credit the illusions provided by the techno- mages, however. If the genuine Vir had been the only one reacting with obvious horror, he would easily have stood out. Instead every single one of the mirages dashing madly about had the exact same look of fear and trepidation. Several of them were even "hit" by the spikes and reacted as if they had been mortally wounded. The way they doubled over, staggered about and such, it was impossible to determine whether one of the lethal missiles had actually embedded itself in a corporeal body or had passed harmlessly through an illusion. Any technology capable of creating such instantly adjusting holograms was beyond Vir's ability even to contemplate. Not that he had the time for pondering. Instead he had to concentrate on one thing and one thing only: coming through this madness with his head still firmly attached to his neck. He wove his way through the bizarre structure, trying to find some sort of vulnerable point. Not that he had any idea what he was going to do once he located it. It was most unlikely that he would encounter a large sign that read "Press here to destroy Shadow Base." He darted left, right, right again ... and suddenly found himself in what appeared to be another area entirely. There was still the humming of tremendous power around him, but there was something else, as well. Control panels still looked like control panels, no matter what technology was crafting them, and that was exactly what he had found. Even more important , he saw a holographic image floating nearby that he recognized instantly: it was one of the Death Clouds that was still under construction. With horror, Vir noted that the device was already much further along-it actually seemed to be nearing completion. Small robotic drones were moving around it in a smoothly coordinated display of activity. They were not, however, acting entirely on their own. A Drakh was overseeing the entire operation, making sure that each of the 'bots attended to its assigned task as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Vir knew this because the Drakh was sitting right there in front of him, doing his job. He turned and saw Vir, and for a moment, they simply stared at each other. Then the Drakh let out an angry screech, and from the folds of his garment he yanked out what appeared to be one of the spike-firing weapons. Vir's reaction was entirely automatic. Given time to reflect on it later, he wouldn't even remember pulling the rock from his pocket. All he knew was that one moment the stone was in his pocket and the next it was in his hand, and just as the Drakh brought up his weapon to fire, Vir let fly with all his strength. The rock crashed squarely into the Drakh's head, and the Drakh let out a shout of fury even as he toppled backward. Fumbling his weapon as he fell, his finger spasmodically tightened on the trigger. As a result, the spike embedded itself squarely in the Drakh's chest. The Shadow servant let out a last strangled protest, and then collapsed altogether- Vir didn't even take the time to be horrified-the silence around him told him the techno-mages must have drawn the Drakh off in another direction. He just stepped over the fallen one and went quickly to the controls. He looked them over for a moment, trying to determine what was what. The robots that had been assembling the Death Cloud had ground to a halt, twirling calmly in space and obviously waiting for further instruct
ions. "There." Vir jumped involuntarily at the sound of Kane's voice coming from practically in his ear. He saw Kane standing right at his shoulder, studying the controls. There was no hint of confusion on Kane's face-it seemed to Vir as if Kane understood everything. He pointed at several panels in sequence. "That one ... then that one ... then rest your hand on that and tell it to do what you want it to do. It will respond." "Are you sure? I'm not a Drakh. . ." "You do not have to be. The Shadows designed this equipment to be as simple to operate as possible. Even the most ignorant person, with a modest bit of training, can handle it." "Oh. Good." Vir didn't exactly feel flattered by that piece of information, but this wasn't the time to take offense. He touched the panels in the order Kane had indicated, then placed his hand where he was supposed to. At first nothing seemed to be happening, even though Vir was concentrating so hard that he thought the top of his head was going to blow off. "Just remember who is in charge," Kane counseled him. Vir nodded, then realized he had been having trouble simply focusing thoughts, perhaps out of sheer nervousness. "Move away," he said firmly and, sure enough, the robots began to clear themselves from the Death Cloud. The robots were not, however, Vir's major concern. He had given that command more or less as a test, in preparation for something more extensive and, ideally, more final. He took a deep breath, which rasped unsteadily in his chest, and then he ordered, "Move into position." For a moment nothing happened, and then the Death Cloud slid gracefully forward and around the end of Xha'dam, positioning itself so smoothly that one would have thought Vir had been doing it all his life. He steadied his nerves, focusing on the far end of the Shadow Base, and then in a quiet voice of command, said, "Fire." No response. Vir immediately assumed that the Death Cloud must not have been far enough along to have been given any sort of detonation capacity. Really ... how could it be? When they had first spotted it, it had been little more than a skeleton. Even with all the advantages the Shadow tech provided, it simply wasn't conceivable that any sort of weapon of mass destruction could be brought into working order in that short a- Then the Death Cloud shuddered slightly, as its weaponry discharged-directly into the far end of the Shadow Base. Even as far away as they were from the source of the destruction , Vir still felt the base trembling around him from the impact. More hits, more firing upon the base, as the Death Cloud- operating in some sort of automatic program now--started to progress down the base's length. Then, on the holographically reproduced image, Vir saw more explosions, this time from within Xha'da m itself. The vibrations became more pronounced , even though the source of the devastation was still miles off. "Now would be a good time to leave," Kane said, with such calm that one would have thought the base's destruction could have no immediate impact upon him. Vir's head was bobbing. "Yes ... yes, I think you're right." He turned to head for the door, and suddenly Kane was shoving him to one side. Vir tumbled to the floor, wondering just what in the world was going on, unable to comprehend why in the world Kane would have suddenly attacked him. Then he heard a slight whisper of a noise, a pfwwt of air, followed by another, and he half sat up and twisted around to look behind him. Kane was standing there, looking down in what almost seemed to be amusement. Three spikes were imbedded in his chest. The centermost one happened to be the one that he had intercepted when he had pushed Vir out of the way. The second and third were still quivering, having just been shot into him. Vir, to his horror, saw the Drakh lying on the ground, his fingers still twitching around his weapon, apparently not as dead as they had assumed him to be. It all happened so quickly that Kane had no time to react or prepare a spell to freeze them in place. He tried to use his staff for support, but instead sank to his knees, and the Drakh focused on Vir. Vir desperately threw himself to one side as the Drakh squeezed off two quick shots. Both of the needle darts flew past him, but he tripped, hit the ground, and found himself lying there, eye-to-eye with the fallen Drakh. The creature swung the weapon around and Vir found himself staring right down the barrel. "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. T
hey 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.