Темное, кривое зеркало. Том 5 : Средь звезд, подобно гигантам.
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"I trust you," Kats replied. "I have faith in you." l
Tirivail snorted, but said nothing else. l
Babylon 5 grew closer with each second. Kats felt like a drowning woman reaching vainly for the sun, only to realise the light she could see was the surface of the lake on fire. o
"I wish you were here," she whispered again. b
eyus
"God Almighty!" y
She was pacing up and down, tears streaming from her eyes, running down the furrows of her scarred face. Sinoval knew enough to realise that they were tears of anger, not grief. o
"Good God, I just want to.... I feel so angry I can't.... I just want to go and kick every damned encounter–suited butt I can find." u
Different people react to shock in different ways. Sinoval had turned his rage inwards. He already hated the Vorlons as much as it was possible to hate anything. He doubted there was a single thing they could do that would make him hate them any more. w
But this.... the destruction of a planet, of billions of people.... He understood death. He could look at it with eyes that were colder and more dispassionate than others. He could see the patterns behind it, and heading out from it. i
He remembered the feeling of all those lives expiring in one instant. And not just the Narn deaths. The plants, the animals, the grass and the air and the planet itself. Narn had been just as much a living, breathing organism as anything that had lived and moved and crawled across its surface. l
The Well had shaken with the loss, with the Narn souls therein sensing the deaths of their living brethren and crying out in grief. Soul Hunters had visited Narn, although not for many centuries. The Well knew that world. l
Just as it, and Sinoval, knew that this would not be the last. o
"How can you not be angry?" Susan spat. "I.... well, there really isn't a big enough word. Furious might just about cover it." b
"I am angry," Sinoval replied. "But I am a leader. I must think as a leader, and that means not letting anger cloud my thoughts. Was it not you who was sent here to ensure that did not happen? To make sure I understood that the Vorlons have to be destroyed because it is right that they be destroyed, and not just for some personal vendetta?" e
"Well.... yes, that was part of it, but surely this is right now. After what they did, can you really say it isn't right to wipe out every one of the sons of bitches?" y
"Maybe it is, but why do you want to wipe them out? Is it because it is right to defeat them, or is it because you hate them and want them dead?" u
"I.... well.... To hell with it, does it matter?" s
"Yes, I am very much afraid that it does." y
"As far as I'm concerned at the moment we should just go into Vorlon space and blow apart every single planet there." o
"And how would that make us better than them?" u
"We're on the side of the angels." w
Sinoval smiled; a sly, sardonic smile. "Ah, but Susan.... theyare the angels. It is a strange thing, but no one ever believes themselves to be evil. Everything is justified. Even the Brotherhood, even the worst of them, they could justify everything they did and have it make sense. The Vorlons are no different." i
"So what are you saying? Forget it? Well, that would be easy for you, wouldn't it? You've done this before! It's fine for you." l
Sinoval rose to his feet, eyes flashing in the darkness. "I will forgive your anger, but never say that again! The Vorlons will pay for what they have done, just as surely as we did. But it will be when the time is right, and it will be because it is right to do so. What they have done is wrong, and I will make them see it." l
"So what now, then?" Her breath was coming in harsh, ragged gasps. "What do we do now?" o
"We carry on our journey to Tuchanq. The Vorlons have destroyed a world. If we are to be better than they are, we must prove ourselves better. We will restore a world, and bring the Song back to Tuchanq. There will no doubt be many there who will say the Narns deserve what they are suffering. It is easy to hate when hate is all you have known. I will give them back their world, and then maybe they will see that the Narns deserve pity and help, not hatred." b
"And then?" e
"We go to Babylon Five. Things are starting to happen there. The peace, the slow night of terror and nightmares, is over. The war will start again. The Vorlons have seen to that. And this time it will not stop short of the final ending. For us or for them." y
"So, we will have revenge after all." Her tears were of fire, her eyes blazing in the night. u
"Vengeance is for lesser men." If her eyes were fire, his were death. "We will have justice." s
"That's it?" y
"You were expecting something else?" o
"It's a box. It's a big box. I can't wait to tell my friends. They don't have a box like that." u
Talia elbowed him in the ribs, and Dexter grunted. "It's not just a box," she said firmly. w
"It looks just like a box. Ow, that hurt. Unless it has some all–powerful weapon inside it. I mean it, that really hurt." i
"Oh, don't be such a baby. Al found it.... God knows where. I managed to salvage it from one of his safety deposit boxes. It's how we've been fighting off the Hand of the Light. It's been helpful in other ways too." l
Dexter looked at it. Nothing in its appearance hinted at it being anything other than.... well, a box. Ornately carved and made out of some alien material he couldn't quite place, but a box all the same. It looked like a jewellery case, or a musical box he had seen in a shop once. l
But he had a feeling that any music that came from this wouldn't be nice at all. The whole thing gave off an aura of.... He wasn't quite going to say 'evil', but malevolence would come close. Whatever was in there hated him, and everything else. If even he could sense that, with his very limited telepathic talent, he wondered what it was doing to Talia. o