Темное, кривое зеркало. Том 5 : Средь звезд, подобно гигантам.
Шрифт:
She was your muse, your inspiration, your greatest fear.... and your successor.
Susan, you are going to kill me for this. If we all survive, then you are welcome to try.
I am a leader, yes, but I am a leader such as existed of old. As the Wind Swords knew in the days when they were mighty, as Emperor Shingen knew, a leader must be cold and merciless. He must be seen to be invincible, mighty and indomitable and unstoppable, leading from the front, fearless and immortal.
This is a war for the hearts and minds as well as for the bodies. Our enemies are strong and powerful, seeming to us like Gods. I must be shown to be their equal, even their better.
Sinoval spread his arms wide and looked down at Babylon 5 beneath him. Around him, tucked into a fold of hyperspace, his armies gathered. The call had gone out and they were assembling. Not everyone was here yet, and he could wait.
It would hardly be a war until the other army appeared, after all.
us
It was the smell and the taste, thick and heavy and musty and dusty and so very, very wrong. There was no other word to describe it. The thing he had seen, the thing he still saw rising from the open gateway of the Box, was wrong.
It did not belong here.
"There is danger," he moaned.
There was danger, a greater and more terrible shadow than he could have imagined. He had watched the Shadow ships soar over Proxima, he had stood on the bridge of an untested vessel to face down an invincible enemy, he had held a hot gun in his hands and contemplated the murder of a beautiful woman.
And he saw that thing rising from the Box, the monstrous birth of something evil, and utterly, terribly, inhuman.
"Remember," he whispered.
Voices came to him sometimes, real voices, not the fake ones he had heard from that other place. Voices he knew.
"He shouldn't be sleeping this long."
"He experienced something his mind wasn't fit to comprehend. You had help, not to mention years of training. All he had was some rudimentary empathy, which did him more harm than good."
"Tell me he will wake up."
"He will. There's a strong soul in this one. Most people would be irrevocably insane by now."
"You withstood it fine."
"I have.... certain gifts. The human mind isn't intended to remember hundreds of thousands of years worth of history. I was.... modified slightly."
He wanted to reach out, to find the owner of the female voice. He could see her sometimes, beyond the foulness and the fog and the mist. She seemed to shine, but however strong her light was, the darkness was stronger.
And the smell....
Always the smell.
"We are Death," he whispered to himself. "We are the Gods of All Creation. We were created first and all life that came after us was flawed and imperfect. Thus, all life that is not ours has to be destroyed."
The female voice sounded a little scared. "He's sounding like that.... thing."
The other voice sounded terrified. "Yes, he is."
He slipped back, the fog growing just too thick for him to cross.
"There is danger," he whispered. "Remember."
you
"Is it so wrong to believe.... to hope?"
Kats sat cross–legged on the floor, staring at the simple necklace she held in her hands. An unfinished, not particularly beautiful creation of a mediocre craftsman.
"Is it so wrong to want a better world? I know you, and I know people like Takier and Tirivail....
"And Sinoval.
"I do not hate any of you. I have come to understand you, at least a little, but I wish there was another way."
She was cold. Everything around and outside her was cold. She was no psychic, no prophet, but anyone could sense that something was very wrong here. Since her meeting with Delenn she had tried to contact the Grey Council to try again to reason with them, only to learn that all external communications were shut down. She could not even contact her ship, and no shuttles were permitted to leave Babylon 5.
None of the Ambassadors she had tried to contact were in. Not one. G'Kar had arrived, but no one seemed to know where he was. Lethke, Durano, G'Kael and Taan Churok were all unavailable. Commander Kulomani was indisposed.
Even Delenn had disappeared.
The Security forces seemed much more prevalent outside. The merchants had closed their stalls. There were more Dark Stars than usual.
Kats was not afraid. She did not think she was capable of feeling fear any longer. She had an uncomfortable feeling of helplessness, but it would pass. She had faith.
"I will be with you soon," she whispered. "Just keep waiting for me.... just a little longer."
There was a ritual some of the warriors had used in the days before Valen. Every day they awoke they prepared to die, and so when they prayed to their ancestors at dawn, they promised to join them soon.
There was just one person waiting for Kats, but she knew he would wait as long as necessary.
Kats....
She started, and looked around. The voice had been very faint. Nothing more than a whisper....
.... or an echo....
.... or a heartbeat.
Kats.
A voice from so far away.
Stay safe. Hide and stay safe.... Can you hear me?
"There is nothing for me to fear," she said. "But thank you, beloved."