Темное, кривое зеркало. Том 3 : След на песке.(ЛП)

I've been listening to Sinoval too much,she thought uneasily. To be certain, the warrior detested Vorlons with every fibre of his being, and after his revelations at the Rebirth Ceremony at the beginning of the year Delenn understood something of why, but did that mean his paranoid suspicions were true? Previously she had disbelieved them all, but since meeting Ulkesh again….

"Then what do we do?" asked Vizhak. "Sit here and wait to die? Is not Drazi way."

"No, we do not just sit here, but we do not send our ships out to be pointlessly butchered either. We formulate a plan, and we force the confrontation on our terms. That is as soon as we are ready. Commander Corwin…. do you honestly think we can defeat the Shadows?"

The young human shuffled in his seat awkwardly. He had been invited to all the meetings of the Alliance Council since the Battle of the Third Line, but he had only started coming with the advent of the open attacks by the Shadows. Of everyone here, with the possible exception of Ta'Lon, he had the most experience of fighting the Shadows directly.

"There's no denying their superiority," he said, after a moment's hesitation. He was clearly uncomfortable. "Technological, that is. Some of their tech was put into the Babylonby the Resistance Government…. not as much as was built into the later ships, but still a little. We've been going over it as best as we can, and what we've found isn't very…. um…. reassuring.

"Their ships are organic in nature, at least partially. They're very resistant to damage. It can be done, though, with great difficulty. We've all seen that. Telepaths seem to be our only real advantage against them. Each time we've fought them…. something has happened to swing the battle in our favour.

"At Proxima Three it was the arrival of a Vorlon fleet. At…. Epsilon Three, the Great Machine helped us as much as it could, and when it…. exploded it took some of their ships with it." He fell silent, and Delenn looked down. When the Great Machine exploded it had taken something else with it as well. Commander Corwin's great friend Michael Garibaldi. And it looked as though it would take his Captain as well.

"I'd…. ah…. rather not spend all my subsequent battles with the Shadows praying for a miracle. Besides, if we take anything near the losses we took at Epsilon Three, another couple of battles like that and we won't have any ships left to pray for miracles with."

"Then…. what do you recommend?"

He was very quick, and blunt. "Get the Vorlons here to help us now. Because without them, we don't stand a chance. None at all."

Delenn sighed again. Exactly as she had thought. Sometimes she hated being right.

* * *

G'Kael seldom thought much about the future. As far as life in the army and in the lower circles of the Kha'Ri went, he was lucky if he had time to think about the present. However, if he had given much thought to where the path of his destiny would take him, he would never had believed it would lead to Kazomi 7, and to the position he now held.

Ambassador. A fine title in theory, but a hollow one in practice. The Kha'Ri had little time for this Alliance, being far more preoccupied with the war against the Centauri, and they had responded to the Council's offer of representation with hearty guffaws. Eventually, however, they had accepted the need to have someone here, even if only to serve as a spy, and a quick series of suggestions had thrown up G'Kael's name.

In the few months he had been here, though, he had learned that his post was considerably more important than some back home seemed to think. First, he had met and spoken to the fabled Ha'Cormar'ah G'Kar himself, who had pressed home the great importance of this place. G'Kar was gone now, on some personal errand of great urgency, but his second Ta'Lon was still here.

And now, to his considerable surprise, someone else of importance had turned up, someone he had definitely not been expecting.

"Councillor Na'Toth," he exclaimed, seeing her sitting in the room he had been using as an audience chamber. The furnishings were hardly perfect, but this had been a Drazi colony after all. "I am honoured."

"I wish I were," she said, with trademark bluntness. G'Kael had spent much of his time in the Kha'Ri's lower circles observing those in the upper ones, and so he was fully acquainted with what some might call Na'Toth's lack of tact. On the other hand, he could tell from her tone that she was less than pleased.

"I am to take it, I suppose, that the Kha'Ri has not decided to recognise the full importance of my position here?" he speculated, taking a wild guess. He knew well enough how politics in the Kha'Ri worked, after all.

"If they had, I would not be here," she replied acidly. "No, I fear there has been another round of ritual blood-letting in our Government, and I am the latest victim. I have been…. posted here. As your attach?."

"My…. attach?? But…."