Темное, кривое зеркало. Том 5 : Средь звезд, подобно гигантам.
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Lennier turned in the direction of the shout. He had thought himself alone. Most of the remaining inhabitants of Narn were cowering in their homes with friends and family, or in the chapels praying for a salvation that would never come. He had certainly not expected to find anyone out here.
It was an old soldier, dressed in a uniform that was ripped and torn and scuffed with age, but still worn with pride. Lennier had seen him before — walking about in the city, but earlier than that too. A long time ago.
"I know you, don't I?" the old Narn said, drinking from a bottle held in one hand. "You're one of my nephew's men. His Rangers."
Lennier touched the sunburst badge which he had taken to wearing openly again. "I.... was," he said, carefully. "My name is Lennier."
"G'Sten. I knew I'd seen you before somewhere. You were with the Centauri, weren't you? The one who's now Emperor, and Marrago. You helped break him out." Lennier nodded, remembering now. So many years ago.... "I knew it. Have you seen Marrago recently? Last I heard he'd been fired and gone into private work as a mercenary."
"I heard the same thing."
"Pity. He was a damned good man. For a Centauri. There's something about an enemy like that, someone you respect, even like. It makes it less of a war, less about hatred, and more about proving yourself better than he is. More about the Game." He took another swig. "Not that that's always a good thing, of course.
"But it's done now. Both of us are old men, discarded by our Governments, put out to grass. Happens to us all eventually."
"You did not try to leave?"
"Leave? Me?" He laughed. "I'm too old, boy. No, leave this life to the younger ones, the ones who've got enough time left to enjoy it. I'm a relic of the old days, me. By any rights I should be dead a hundred times over." He pointed a little way up the mountain. There was a cave mouth there. "Do you see that cave?"
"Yes."
"We had a Resistance base there, during the Occupation. Anyway, when I was young, in the early days, I was captured by a Centauri lord. I'd been sabotaging his estates, burning stables and farmland, that sort of thing. Turned out he had one of those witches on his staff. The ones who can see the future. You heard of them?"
Lennier nodded.
"Well, she went into a trance, and said she saw me dying in the mountains. She described this place perfectly. I don't mind admitting I was a bit scared. The Centauri had a thing about unpleasant deaths. One thing they liked to do was stick dozens of sharp stakes into the ground and then throw their prisoners off the top of a mountain on to them. The fall wasn't so far that it'd kill you, but the stakes would. Eventually. I thought that was what they'd do to me.
"But some of my friends broke me out that night, and I almost forgot about the prophecy. Some years later, twelve at least, the Centauri soldiers tracked down one of our bases, to that cave over there. We were outnumbered and overrun and pretty soon I was on my own, my gun running low on energy, staring at what looked like hundreds of the bastards. I remembered the old witch's prophecy again, and I was sure she was right. For a moment I felt like giving up and letting them kill me."
He fell silent for a moment.
"And what happened?" Lennier asked.
"I picked up the gun and carried on firing. Managed to fight my way out. Went to ground in the mountains. Hid for weeks, starving and hurt. But I was still alive. I'd won, see. I'd beaten the old witch. She died the night before we burned her lord's estates to the ground. Pity. I'd have liked to talk to her one last time."
He looked around at the mountains and sighed.
"And you have come back to die here?" Lennier asked.
G'Sten looked at him and laughed. "Are you joking, boy? No, I came here to spit in the bitch's face one last time." He threw his arms wide and shouted into the sky. "Do you hear me, witch? I'm still alive! And I'm not going to die here!"
He laughed, long and loud, and then jumped down from the rock he was sitting on. "I'm going to walk back into town. Do you want to come with me?"
"I...." Lennier looked around. "No, I think I will stay here. I.... like this place."
"Suit yourself." He shook the bottle. There was the sloshing of liquid. "Do you want some?"
"Is it alcoholic?" G'Sten nodded. "Then, no. My people do not drink alcohol."
"I don't think you'll have time to worry about a hangover."
"No, but thank you."
"Word of advice, boy. Take every opportunity you have to experience new things, because you never know when you'll never get a chance again." G'Sten thought over those words. "Or something like that. Are you sure you don't want any?"
"No."
"Your loss. Nice to have met you, boy."
"My name is Lennier."
"Nice to have met you, Lennier." He took another long draught and headed back along the road to the city.
Lennier looked up into the sky, and sat down to pray.
It was beginning to get dark.
Gareth D. Williams
Part 5
The Three–Edged Sword.
It begins as shock. It turns to anger, then fear. A dead world. A homeless people. And a lust for revenge. All forces begin to converge on Babylon 5, demanding answers, demanding retribution, demanding justice. Kats and Sinoval and Corwin and Delenn and Sheridan and the remnants of the Narn people. And Sebastian. And the Vorlons. Truth is a three-edged sword - but then understanding is not required. Only obedience.
Chapter 1
At first word came slowly from Narn. The ships, overburdened and slow and drifting, arrived on other worlds. Angry and traumatised and incoherent refugees tumbled out. Initially they were not believed.
Dark Star s and scientific patrol vessels arrived in neighbouring systems, sent from Babylon 5 by Commander Kulomani. They picked up more refugee ships and helped to escort them to safe havens. Some worlds were at first reluctant to admit so many fugitives, but the military might of theDark Star s convinced them.
TheDark Star s kept trying to force jump points into the Narn system. They experienced escalating problems - system failures and jump engine damage. Eventually a more conventional military vessel, a Brakiri troop carrier, managed to jump into the system.
It was destroyed in a collision with a huge asteroid cloud that had not been there before.
After that, the truth of what had happened to Narn was obvious. The shock was palpable, the fear more so. Narn space was shut down completely, the governors on Narn colony worlds closing down jump gates and fortifying their systems. Governments across the galaxy waited nervously for word from Babylon 5.
The Vorlons said, and did, nothing. As far as they were concerned, there was no need for explanation or apology.
Elsewhere, Sinoval had his own response to the tragedy.
MATEER, K. (2295) The Second Sign of the Apocalypse. Chapter 9 of The Rise
and Fall of the United Alliance, the End of the Second Age and the
Beginning of the Third, vol. 4, The Dreaming Years. Ed: S. Barringer,
G. Boshears, A. E. Clements, D. G. Goldingay & M. G. Kerr.