From: nick! Subject: Rebirth: Part one Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 16:27:25 +0100 (BST) Alright so my emailing skills are even worse than i originally thought! Here is part one ( you should already have part two). Usual disclaimers apply (see part two 'cos i can't be bothered to write them out again)! Set at end of season 4, spoilers up to season 5. First fanfic effort so go easy but all comments welcome ( it's dead *cute* knowing people actually *read* this stuff! These: << >> indicate thoughts or telepathy if you couldn't figure it out. W * A * R * N * I * N * G * * S * P * O * I * L * E * R * S * * A * B * O * U * N * D * * REBIRTH PART ONE When Zack arrived in Garibaldi's quarters, a case of beer tucked under his arm, Sheridan and Franklin were already there, hunched over a small table, playing cards. Their host was busy in the kitchenette, tipping popcorn into a huge bowl. "So, she let you out for the evening then...!" He paused in the doorway and grinned at the President of the interstellar Alliance."Yes Zack, *She* has. Delenn is busy with Lennier this evening, something to do with some ritual...So, I thought I'd get out for a while, find out whats been going on in the world. if that's okay with you, of course...!" Sheridan replied in a mock- hurt tone, then returned the grin."Little bit of male-bonding huh? I fold." Franklin chuckled, throwing down his cards in disgust, "I swear I am jinxed. And you..." he gestured at a very smug looking Sheridan, "are a shark." "Give up Stephen, you won't get anywhere. He can't die and he can't lose at cards, it's as simple as that- a little known side effect of throwing yourself into 2 mile deep pits on strange alien planets!" Garibaldi made his way back to the table, popcorn in hand. He sat down and picked up his carrds, "Wait a minute, these aren't my cards...someone's been messin' with these..." The others groaned and exchanged weary glances."Michael, when are you gonna learn to accept losing gracefully?" Sheridan reached for the popcorn,Garibaldi moved the bowl out of his reach. "The same day *you* learn to win gracefully and play by the rules!" Zack scratched his head, "New game anybody? an' a new subject too..." The rest nodded in agreement. "So how's my replacement doing then?" Sheridan had reached for the pack and began to shuffle the cards. "As easy-going, liberal-minded and good-natured as me?" Garibaldi half choked on the popcorn he was shovelling into his mouth, "Captain Lochley is about as easy-going, liberal minded and good-natured as Ivanova on a bad day! I'm just glad *I* don't have to work for her." He looked meaningfully at Franklin and Zack. "Ah come on Chief...here quit hoggin' that..." Zack reached for thebowl in Garibaldi's hand and managed to grab a handful of it's contents before it was snatched back, "She's not that bad. She's just lettin' everybody know who's boss." "Zack's right." Franklin agreed, also trying his turn at reaching the bowl which Garibaldi was by now hugging to him like a baby."Y'know she's fine when you get to know her/It must be hard for her coming here; don't forget she was on the other side during the war with Earth and now she's got to earn the respect and trust ofof people who not long ago saw *her* as the enemy. Also, you and Ivanova are a pretty tough act to follow." This last part of his spiel was directed at Sheridan. "Oh no, I agree with you Stephen. I just think Michael's getting a little steamed up over this topic. Anything you wanna share with us Mr Garibaldi?" he smirked and nudged the other two under the table. "Ah come on..." Garbaldi groaned, "Subject change: have any of you *heard* from Susan recently?" The mood of everyone at the table darkened slightly as they all shook their heads dolefully. Sheridan, for one was worried: since she left for Earth after Marcus' death, she'd barely been heard of. "You really that worried?" Zack opened a bottle of beer on the edge of the table and took a quick swig. "Well...She was a mess when she left, physically and emotionally." Franklin reasoned, looking up briefly from the cards in his hand. "It knocked her for six, what Marcus did...I mean we all know *why* he did it and that only makes it worse." Sheridan nodded slowly before adding, "I think staying out of contact is just her way of coping..." "What, by pretending we don't exist, that none of this ever happened?" Zack again. "Maybe," Garibaldi opened a bottle of soda, spilling a fair amount of it's contents on the floor. "Look at it this way: everyone she's ever been close to has let her down or left her in some way. And then this guy she's come to rely on and trust, in a very short space of time-" "Two years, thats a *short* time?" Zack interupted, his voice incredulous. "For Ivanova, yes. Anyway," he looked briefly at his cards then scowled at Sheridan for giving him a lousy hand."He's beenat her side through the break from and fighting with Earth, John's adventures on Z'ha'dum, an' all the rest of that crap and suddenly he goes an' dies on her. Then there's his reasons for doing so..." "You can't deny it, she's been through it alright." Sheridan sighed "I just hope she doesn't stay away forever and that one day, when she feels ready, she'll come back to us. Hell, if she even just went back to work..." "She still on extended leave?" Franklin picked up a card, looked at it and then returned it to the pile in the middle of the table. "Last I heard. She told me before she left that she was going to visit her parents' grave and then who knows what." Sheridan answered. "It must be what, six, seven years since she was last on earth...Going that long without dirt under your feet, sky over head, rain, wind-" Garibaldi's musings were interupted by Franklin, "Traffic, pollution, psi corp...sorry" Franklin looked sheepish and let his friend finish. "It's enough to force anyone to take some time out, just to take stock." "Well, wherever she is, our thoughts are with her." Sheridan summarised.The others all nodded their agreement. "Now *Mr* Garibaldi, will you *please* stop hoggin' that! Didn't you get dinner...?" St Petersburg, Earth. Ivanova stepped out of the graveyard and onto the street. She'd been there every day for over a week now. Somehow it was the only place where she could think straight. She was dressed all in black, her eyes red raw from crying and her thoughts were a million miles away from the picturesque winter scenery around her. Out of nowhere a figure appeared, running straight into her. Susan reached out an arm to stop it and holding her captive firmly by the wrists, ordered it to stop struggling. It was only then that she noticed that the creature was in fact a girl, aged in her late teens. She was a little smaller than Susan, slight, with dark, messy chin-length hair, dark eyes and whiter-than-white skin. Ivanova peered briefly over the girl's shoulder in time to spot two figures closing in, moving swftly through the crowd- psi corp. Without thinking,she turned and ducked back into the churchyard, dragging her captive with her. Quickly scanning the area she realised with a small amount of panic that there was no way out. <> Wordlessly the girl tugged at Ivanova's coat sleave, pointing into the church. "No, it's no use hiding, they can track your thoughts..." Susan tried to keep the fear out of her voice. The girl just pulled her down between the church pews, "It's okay, they won't find us." Her accent was English, although slightly different to Marcus' from what Susan could remember, rougher, coarser somehow. The psi cops passed by a mere hair's breadth from their hiding place and eventually left. Ivanova turned to the waif in amazement, "How did- why didn't-" "Magic." her companion smiled conspiratorially and introduced herself as Maggie. "You're English." "Are you asking me or telling me?" "How long have you been running from them?" "About an hour. But I've been on the run for about five years now. This is the closest they've come to finding me in all that time." "Wait a minute..." "I'm a very strong telepath. Stronger than any psi cop anyway. I've been a teep and a teek since birth- rated about P12: genetic pairing's a wonderful thing. They've made several 'modifications' for want of a better word. After one particularly heavy dose of drug therapy, deep scans and various other nasties, they thought I was braindead like all the others they'd tried it on. Pretty much left me to rot. I escaped before they had the chance to realise that their tinkering had paid off. I can block any psi cop- they can't *find* my thoughs, let alone *read* them: i'm almost like a ghost to them." "Oh boy....They've probably gone now. We should get out of here too." Maggie paused for a moment,cocking her ear as if listening for something, "Yeah, you're right, they're heading back to the market place. We should find somewhere equally crowded- my little trick works better that way. It'll be easier for me to hide you that way as well...Why did you help me anyway? Most people turn blips in- they're terrified of us." Ivanova explained that since her mother and some of her friends had been telepaths she knew better than most what the psi corp was really like. As they walked through the bustling streets she also explained why she was in St Petersburg and then as their wandering continued she fell to thinking of ways of getting Maggie off of earth and away from the clutches of the dreaded corp. Within two days, Ivanova had secured Maggie fake travel papers and ID plus a ticket on board the Asimov, destination- Babylon 5. "You're not coming with me?" "No, I'm not really up to going back there just yet..." "How come?" "I don't really want to talk about it. But you'll be fine, they'll take care of you- they're good people. You know the drill, right?" ""Yeah, yeah, as soon as I get there I find some bloke called Garibaldi, I do as i'm told and i don't give him any aggro!" "Good. Just make sure you know your alias. Your first name's the same but everything else is different." Maggie studied the ID card in her hand, <> "Maggie Cole, thats me. Did you pull that name out of the air or what?" "Something like that. Cole was the name of a friend of mine." "Was? They're dead now? What a wonderful omen..." Susan felt her eyes misting over and concentrated very closely on the zip of her jacket, "Actually it's a very *good* omen: If it weren't for him, I'd be dead." An hour later Ivanova was seeing her young charge off: "Got everything?" "Yup." Maggie slapped her rucksack before delving into her coat pocket to produce her already battered and dog-eared ID and ticket. "You've taken the-" "Yes, for the umpteenth time, I've taken the travel sickness tablets. I'll be fine. Actually I'm more concerned about *you*. You just helped a telepath to escape, it's only a matter of time before they track you down. I know you're a telepath too and it won't take them long to work it out...I can't hide you if I'm not here." "I'll be *fine*. besides, i'm latent, there's not much they can do." "Don't be so sure. And you're not as *latent* as you think..." "But I'm-" "They're here." "What? Are you sure?" "Yep. I can keep the shutters up for a short while but we have to get out of here...too late, they know we're here. And Susan, they know about you..." "Oh hell, come on we have to get you on that transport." "Susan, think hum-drum things." "What?" "Just do it. Must get some postcards and some stamps of course..." "Oh I get it.." Susan started trying to think similar thoughts to those of the other travellers who scurried around as the two of them hurried through the port. They reached the Asimov as it was about to leave with the psi cops close behind. With their prey now in sight one of the cops raised a ppg aiming at Susan. Maggie whirled around and pulled the older woman behind her. The ppg fired and stopped short of them, bouncing off of some invisible barrier. "Come on, you can't stay here" the barrier between them and the psi cops stayed in place and the latter could only look on helplessly as Maggie and susan boarded the departing transport. "What about security? Maggie I don't have a ticket or *anything*" "Stowaway then!" The journey to Babylon 5 passed without further incident as the two stowaways stayed out of sight below decks. Ivanova whiled away the time telling maggie about her time on the station: the shadow war, the break from Earth and so on. Speaking for the first time about what had happened there served to bring the events of the last two years back to the front of Susan's mind and later on, while Maggie slept, curled tight in a ball, with her head on her rucksack and red-socked feet in Ivanova's lap, she found herself thinking more and more about Marcus- more than she had ever dared to before. <> Maggie's fidgeting told Ivanova that she was starting to wake up, "Morning." she smiled down at the still drowsy teenager. "I think we'll be docking soon. Although I don't know how I'll get through without a ticket or anythiing." "I thought you knew these people." Maggie sat up, rubbing her eyes and pulled on her boots, fumbling for a moment with the laces before giving up and just tucking them in. "I do. But theres a new captain now and things might be a little different..." "I could cause a diversion, so you can get through and find someone you know well enough to trust." "Diversion?" "I don't know, scream bloody murder, nick someone's wallet, start a small fire, all of the above..." "Okay, okay, just nothing major." Zack was on port detail. It was boring, but it made a nice change from being stuck in the station house, drowning under a mountain of paperwork. "Have your passes ready please...thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyo-" Out of nowhere an alarm sounded. People started rushing out into the station, a few were screaming. Zack quickly made his way through the throng- he could see smoke.... END OF PART ONE From: nick! Subject: Story submission (If i've got the address right)! Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 19:52:59 +0100 (BST) Okay, i sent part one of this via the 'story sumit' page a short while ago so it should be in by now. if not and you're interested then let me know and i'll repost it. This is my first fanfic thingy so go easy (but all feedback is welcome). Set after season 4 so if you've not seen that season this won't make much sense. I suppose i should also mention that it contains little, ickle spoilers for season 5. STANDARD DISCLIAMERS APPLY ie. none of these characters are mine, you all know full well who they *do* belong to. I'm only borrowing 'em for a while and will give them back all squeaky clean and good as new when i'm done. DON'T SUE ME, I'M POOR ENOUGH TO QUALIFY FOR LEGAL AID! Enough jabbering, on with the story. (ps. these- << >> indicate thoughts or telepathy) W A R N I N G S P O I L E R S A B O U N D REBIRTH PART 2 OF ? Dropping everything, Zack hurried to where the smoke was coming from. There didn't appear to be any source for it and the smoke began to mysteriously wane and diperse before his eyes. Confused, he scratched his head, then shrugged and sauntered back out into the arrivals lounge. "panic over, folks" he called out. No one paid any attention. "What's goin' on?" Garibaldi sped toward him, concern showing on his face. "Smoke without fire, it seems..." Zack replied. "Environmental controls show no damage and we've got a crew in there now, but..i don't know..." "I don't like it." Garibaldi growled, "You don't get smoke without fire." He turned on his heel and left, muttering under his breath about how nothing like this ever happened when *he* was chief of security. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a familiar form moving swiftly past him and reached out to take her arm and pull her to one side. "Susan! I see it but I don't believe it...What are you doing back here?" He grabbed her into a tight bear-hug. "Nice to see you too Michael." She laughed, returning the hug. "Can we get out of here? I just snuck on here without a ticket." "Sure, but why?" "Long story." Ivanova started peering around for Maggie. <> Finally she caught sight of her, standing a few metres away, closely examining a guide book she'd just lifted from one of the fleeing passengers. "Maggie, get over here! What did you do?" "Sorry? Did you know that over a quarter of a million himans and aliens live here?" she asked, paraphrasing from the book in her hand. "Amazing- that many people can actually get to sleep at night in a giant baked bean tin in the sky!" Then she spied something she'd never seen before, mincing past, "What is *that*?" she asked loudly, pointing at it. "That's a pak'mara Maggie. Don't point." Ivanova groaned, absentmindedly drifting into her 'parent' voice. "Who's this?" Garibaldi asked, gesturing at the petite adolescent. "Huh? Oh sorry Michael, this is Maggie. She's on the run from the corp. LIsten, can we please go?" "Oh great. You make it sound like she's just your cousin stoppin' by for lunch! On the run from the corp: well isn't that *just* the sort of thing we want shouted around the station. Hey everybody, guess who this is-" he started shouting. The few remaining travellers turned to stare. "Michael!" Ivanova clamped her hand over his mouth, just in case. "Maggie, how did you get on with security? Did they okay your ID? I know how tough they are on these things." "No problem. I told them I was a fairy princess from a galaxy far, far away, sent here to investigate this place as prelude to invasion." "Oh my god..." Ivanova fancied she could see her life flashing before her eyes but Garibaldi caught the smirk on the teenager's face and simply asked what they had said. "One of them ruffled my hair and called me a cute kid. I hate that." "Michael, take us to Sheridan before i commit a murderous act..." "Susan? My god it's good to see you!" Sheridan grabbed her in a bear hug tight enough to rival the one she'd earlier received from Garibaldi. Then he held her at arms length, "Are you okay?" "I'm fine John. Although...I wasn't expecting to be back here so soon." "Oh?" "This is kind of an unexpected visit." They sat and after introducing Maggie, Susan explained the events of the past few days. Two days later, Maggie and Susan were situated in guest quarters, Garibaldi having altered the Asimov's manifest to include Susan's name, just in case the new captain asked any questions. He was a little suspicious of the young telepath and had taken to keeping what he hoped was a covert eye on her. He didn't manage it though, she was onto him almost immediately. His suspicions weren't without grounding either, she'd been asking some very odd questions about various things including the location of the cryo tubes on the station. When asked about this, she simply replied "Curiousity, nosiness, boredom. This place stinks!" Garibaldi, of course expressed his concerns to Ivanova who told him that while she didn't doubt for a minute that the girl wasn't up to *something*, she trusted her not to do anything dangerous. She and Franklin did however want to test her psi ability though. Maggie consented to this with little fuss but added that there was "No point mate. Off the scale." "well?" Ivanova appeared at the entrance to medlab, having received a call from Franklin saying that Maggie's psi test results were back. Maggie had already been and gone- she knew how strong her telepathy was and certainly didn't need reminding! "She was right." Franklin grinned ruefully as he glanced up from the monitor at his work station, "She *is* off the scale! I even had Lyta check her out as well- being part Vorlon I thought she might be able to pick something else up..." he looked over at Lyta who was leaning on one of the rolling beds, a cup of water in her hand. "Phew, it's high!" she affirmed. "I can't put it into figures but her ability is probably at least as strong as,say, Bester's ..." She paused to take a sip, "I don't know what else she's capable of but shielding her own and someone else's thoughts from 2 psi cops, blocking a ppg and forming some kind of telekinetic barrier between herself and danger, not to mention the possibility of her having used some sort of pyrokinetic ability to cause a distraction when you first arrived here Susan...I don't know what those bastards did to her but there's got to be more to her abilities than she's letting on. And i'm not entirely sure I want to know." "So what now, we're keeping this from Lochley, right?" "Definately. The fewer people know about this the better. Also, as military governor here, she'd be obliged to tell psi corp." Lyta and Susan both murmured in agreement. At that moment Garibaldi walked in. "How did it go?" They all turned to look at him and Lyta mouthed the words "Don't ask". "Look, she's not very trusting- unsurprisingly, so why don't we just give her time. I'm sure one of these days she'll confide in me at least..." Susan sighed as she made for the door. "Anyway, I need a drink; anybody wanna join me?" Garibaldi nodded, "I'll be in." and together the two of them left medlab. "Susan, I'm glad we got this chance to talk...you know everyone's worried about you." Garibaldi leant forward, resting his arms on the table they sat at . "I know. And there's no need. I admit that when I left I wasn't exactly feeling on top of the world, but I'm not planning on doing anything stupid." "Oh I *know* that...So when are you coming back to work." "Soon. But I don't plan to take up a post on B5, no matter how much you'd enjoy telling the new captain where to go! This place has a few too many memories for me." "You're talking about Marcus, right?" "Well, the war also. But, yes, he's a pretty big part of it. I mean, god, he's lying in a cryo tube because of me! I know he's not officially dead, but..." "That's not much of a consolation." Garibaldi finished for her. "Stephen told me what you said about him- I hope you don't mind, he was concerned." She shook her head, frowning as the last of her vodka burned the back of her throat. "Was there anything going on there?" he asked. She sighed and returned her empty glass to the table. "No, not really.I mean, I knew he had...*feelings* for me and I guess they weren't entirely unreciprocated. But no, neither one of us ever acted on those feelings." "How come?" "I don't know. He was always too much of a gentleman to make a pass or anything and I...I guess I was just too scared to do anything about it myself...so...Ah hell, this drink's really gone to my head. I'm gonna go to my quarters and lie down. I'll see you later." She promptly left and started the slow walk back to her quarters. She wasn't really feeling drunk, she just wanted to be by herself: It was still too soon to be reminded of what had happened to *him*. Out of nowhere she suddenly felt her pulse quicken, her heart racing and gasping for breath she fell against the corridor wall. After what seemed like a lifetime of struggling for breath, she managed to take in a gulpful of air. Confused, she stayed slumped where she was, inhaling deeply and listening for her heart to slow. It was at that point that she heard a familiar voice in her mind, calling her name. *End of part 2* *Part 3 will follow shortly* From: nick! Subject: REBIRTH PART THREE Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 12:33:50 +0100 (BST) Right, after the minor fluff up that was my near-debut into the world of email, ehre is part 3 of my first fanfic thingy. This *should* be the last part, but as i'm still reworking bits of it, there may be a 4th part. For disclaimers see part 2 as mentioned before, there are spoilers up to season 5 S P O I L...OH SOD IT. YOU KNOW THE DRILL! REBIRTH PART THREE Garibaldi was following Maggie. Or tryin to: he'd never had such a hard time keeping someone in sight. Just when he thought he had her, she'd disappear from sight, only to reappear moments later where he least expected to see her.This time though he was sure he'd got her: She'd gone= into grey sector. He waited outside the entrance to grey 18 until he was sure it wasn't another of her tricks and then prepared to follow her. Before he had a chance to he felt a rush of coolair and the lights began to flicker on and off. He stood where he was for a moment, unsure as to what to do. The lights went out completely and the hum of the generators and other machinery stopped also - power failure. Zack was in the stationhouse. He'd avoided the dreaded reports and duty rostas for long enough and now a dauntingly high tower of forms and reports that bore down on him from the in-tray. "paperless society my-" His grumbling was interupted by Corwin's image appearing on the monitor before him: "Chief, we're picking up a power surge in grey 18. Recommend you get a team down there. Dr Franklin's been notified..." "Franklin? Remind me again whats it grey 18?" "Cryo tube storage facility." "Oh. I'm on it." Zack jumped to his feet and trotted off down the corridor, glad to be temporarily free of the less scintillating parts of his job. When he arrived in grey 18, Zack noticed franklin Standing by one of the tubes, anger and upset clearly visible on the doctor's face. "What kind of a @*%$=A3 does a thing like this...?" He shook his head. Zack approached= and looked closely at the tube which had been forced open and had obvoiusly been tampered with: the control panel indicated that the freezing process had been reversed. "Doctor?" One of the technicians accompanying Franklin glanced up quickly, confused- "There's a pulse..." "What? Don't be so stupid!" Franklin turned to him in anger, "Don't you know how to use that scanner?" "I'm *serious*" The tech insisted, his voice a little panicked. "I've checked three times." "So check again!" The doctor shouted, moving toward him, his face pale and his eyes wide. "*You* check him!" The tech shouted back. Zack reached= into the the tube and took hold of it's occupant's wrist. "He's right. There any reason for that? I mean is it just some sort of anomaly?" "No, it isn't." Franklin murmured, batting Zack's hand out of the way to check the pulse first on the man's wrist, then at his throat. Finally he placed his head on the man's chest to listen for heartbeat. "My god...Alright what you waitin' for people? Lets get him up to medlab- stat!= " The darkness lasted only a few minutes and Garibaldi waited impatiently for the emergency power to come back on. In the distance he could hear the shouts of the medlab and security teams in grey 18. He moved to join them when he came face to face with Maggie. She was ghostly pale, her eyes huge in their sockets. Her nose was bleeding and there were trails of dried blood running down the sides of her eyes. One of her hands looked badly hurt, clutched into a bloody fist and cradled in her other hand for protection. When she saw him she stopped in her tracks and sank to the floor. He crouched down and examined her face. Her eyes were half closed now and she slumped against him as unconsciousness claimed her. "We better get you to medlab." he grunted as he struggled to pick her deadweight off the floor. "Be okay soon...just need some kip..." Medlab was in chaos when Garibaldi arrived carrying Maggie. Most of the staff were crowded around one of the beds and Franklin was yelling himself hoarse, shouting orders, diagnoses and insults at the other doctors and techs. Garibaldi noted to himself that he'd not seen his friend this stressed since his addiction to stims two years ago. Depositing Maggie on one of the rolling beds he walked over to take a look. "Hey, when you've finished I got a kid here needs attention." he growled. Franklin looked up. "waht's goin' on?" "Take a look for yourself Michael." The doctor answered before leaving the group to check on Maggie. "Now what have you been doin' to yourself..." he murmured. She was still unconscious so it was more of a rhetorical question. He frowned as he gently straightened out her clenched fist and caught sight of it's injury: a large hole- about an inch in diameter and a quarter of an inch in depth which was burned, almost cauterised at the edges. Meanwhile Garibaldi pushed his way through the blue fog of medlab uniforms and then stopped dead, "Jesus..." He hurried over to the computer, "Corwin, get Sheridan down here. And Delenn. And Ivanova, and...oh hell, just get *everybody* down here. You are not going to *believe* what just happened!" "Alright Michael, where is the fire?" Delenn glided in through the medlab= doors closely followed by her husband. Both looked somewhat disshevalled having obviously dressed in a hurry. "And you'd better have a damned good= reason for this..." Sheridan added, glaring at him. "I didn't realise it was that late...oh I get it. Honeymooners, I don't know..." Garibaldi grinned and winked at sheridan. Ivanova was next to enter, her face pale and drawn. "What's up Michael?" she frowned, rubbing her forehead where a= headache was forming. "well, there's two things. First theres Maggie..." Garibaldi gestured at the still sleeping adolescent. "Don't be alarmed by= the blood on her face- she's not been beaten up or anything, it's from burst capillaries in her eyes and nasal passages." Franklin walked in, pulling a mobile suturing tray behind him over to where she lay. He seated himself and began to clean up the wound to her hand, talking over his shoulder as he did so. "This on her hand though..." He turned the girl's hand over so that Susan and the others could see the damage. "The shape is pretty symmetrical so it was caused by sticking a foreign object= *into* her hand. The cauterisation around the edges would suggest to me that the foreign object was of high voltage...Michael says the shape matches the end of a piece of high voltage cable used mainly in grey 18."= Ivanova looked shocked but quickly composed herself on hearing that her young charge had no more serious injuries than that to her hand. "You said there were two things." She said, turning to Garibaldi. "Oh yeah. Um, you should probably sit down for this...you're not going to believe who's in there." He pointed through the doorway to one of the private rooms. "Michael, what are you talking about?" Sheridan grumbled,storming over to where the first man was indicating. He stopped dead, "Son of a-" Delenn followed him and gasped, one hand clapped to her mouth. Ivanova finished discussing Maggie's condition with Franklin before following the= others. They moved aside allowing her to see for herself who it was lying= in the medlab bed. END OF PART 3 PART 4 WILL FOLLOW WHEN I'VE FINISHED IT AND *SHOULD* BE THE FINAL PART BUT I'VE ONLY HAD TIME AND PATIENCE TO SEND SHORT SECTIONS OF THE STORY AT A TIME SO BEAR WITH ME. NICK XXX From: nick! Subject: REBIRTH PART FOUR Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 14:12:31 +0100 (BST) Me again with what should hopefully be the final part of this story(God knows i'm bored with it already and am in the process of writing some more). Spoilers up to and including season 5; for disclaimers see part one/two. No sex, no violence, minimal bad language, awful spelling 'cos i keep forgetting to use the spell check. On with the story. S P O I L E R S A B O U N D REBIRTH PART FOUR. Franklin handed Susan a glass of water. She was sitting down on one of the medlab beds, flanked by Sheridan and Delenn and looked the most shocked they'd ever seen her. Franklin, Garibaldi and Zack had explained what they knew about the events of the past hour including Maggie's appearing in grey 18 shortly after the power failure with a bloody face and a dirty great hole in her hand the shape and size of which matched the power cables used in grey sector; but Susan was having trouble taking such vast amounts of new information in when the only coherant thought running through her mind was <>. Through all of this Maggie still lay on her bed, dried blood covering her face. She was curled up into a tight ball, the same way she always slept and her injured hand, now swathed in bandages was flung out on the pillow beside her head. Although the others took it for granted that the troublesomr adolescent was still unconscious, she was in fact concentrating on tuning out their oppressively loud voices and thoughts in an effort to keep a telepathic eye on the man who lay unconscious in the adjoining room. Bringing him back had been a little risky and more of an experiment than anything else. As far as she could tell he hadn't been dead in the first place- she'd felt his presence in Susan and on the station. But even so, she'd not stopped to think of the ethics of bringing someone back to life after several months. She still wasn't sure what events she had put into motion- he might not even be the same person as the one who had left in the first place: Maggie wasn't religious, didn't go in for all that heaven and hell stuff but she did still wonder... what if after a certain point, you're not *supposed* to come back? Still, there was little use in worrying about that now- if he didn't behave himself, she'd just have to kill him, wouldn't she...? The others all looked up as Lyta emerged from Marcus' room. "I can't communicate with him, but I could detect thought patterns so I don't think there's any brain damage." She announced. Sheridan just nodded to acknowledge her statement. "Is Maggie showing any signs of life yet?" He asked, turning to Franklin. Garibaldi wandered over and gently nudged her, "Maggie, you awake?" "Mm, no..." She mumbled, rubbing her face with her good hand and stretching. "How ling was I out for?" "Long enough to miss the raising of the dead! Except it was you that did it, right?" "What did you do?" Delenn approached, trying to keep her voice gentle. "Ah, something an' nothing..." Maggie sat up and swung her legs around to stand up. She noticed that her boots were missing- one of the techs had removed them while she was still unconscious. She crouched down and fumbled under the bed to find them. This done she hopped over to Marcus' bed, still tugging them on and paised for a second, shutting her eyes and concentrating hard <> She returned to the group and as she struggled groggily with her laces she added, "You're right, i think he's going to be fine. Right, i'm off, i could *murder* a milk shake! See yers!" she turned to leave. "Maggie, how and *why*?" Ivanova struggled to her feet, shaking off any assistance from the others. "In order, because I did. And because I could." The expressions on their faces told Maggie she'd have to explain a little more. "Look. I didn't perform a miracle or any thing- he wasn't dead. Not really. He just needed more energy, kind of like the human equivalent of a dead car battery, I suppose. All I did was convert some of the electrical energy from environmental support to a type that can be absorbed and used by the body. I kind of acted like a set of jump leads." "You can convert electrical energy into life energy." Franklin kept his voice even but amazement showed on his face, "Sometimes. When energy passes through me, it changes." Once she'd finally convinced them that they weren't going to find out anymore from her, she went back to her quarters. She didn't feel as drained as she had at first but she couldn't stop the odd tingling sensation in her fingers. She was a little uncertain as to her next course of action: She knew she couldn't stay much longer- she'd start to change soon and judging by the agony her last change had put her through, there was no way she could go through the next one alone. She *had* to go. Trouble was, now she'd brought this guy back, she was worried about leaving him to cope alone. Only time would tell if her actions had been wise ones. She couldn't protect her new friends if he turned nasty if she wasn't there....And she couldn't take care of *him* if she wasn't there either. <> The following day, Ivanova stepped back into medlab. She'd recovered a little from her shock but was still a little dazed. "How is he?" She asked an eating Franklin. Medlab was, as usual, short-staffed and being the only doctor mad enough to do double shifts in order to cover for a colleague, he was eating lunch on-the-go. "Not much change really." he answered in between chews of fake ham and mustard. "We took him off of life support late last night, as you know and he seems to be doing fine. But, he's not regained consciousness yet. Y'know, Lyta and Maggie have both been able to communicate with him telepathically and Lyta seems to think it might help ...You could try...I mean, he's already contacted you before, right? So there's already quite a strong link between you..." "No way. Absolutely *not*. Stephen, the only person who's mind I've been in was my mother and there's no way I'm having anyone in *my* mind." <> "But he reached out to *you* when he came back. I'm not asking you to scan him or anything, just let him know you're here: reassure him." "Forget it." "Can't you even *try*? Susan, I know it's alot to ask but he's as good as come back from the dead. Who knows what kind of an effect that could have had on him. Come on Susan, he *died* for you for god's sake!" Ivanova was fighting back angry tears and looked about ready to trash the room. "I said *no* and I meant *no*. If I am going to have to spend the rest of my life being grateful and doing *penance* for a decision *he* made, then I'd rather be *dead*. I don't owe anyone *anything*- I refuse to. You want him scanned or whatever thenfing someone else to do it." "What's going on?" Maggie appeared behind her, "Nothing." Ivanova answered, glaring at Franklin as if daring him to disagree. Then she stormed out. "She'll come around." Maggie grinned knowingly. "I thought I knew her but..." Franklin fell back into his chair, "*I* know her. And so does he," she gestured at Marcus."She'll be back." Maggie sauntered over to Marcus' bed and took his hand. <> It was late when Ivanova crept back into medlab. The place was all but deserted- she'd timed it that way, not wanting to explain why she was there to anyone- she couldn't even admit it to herself. <> Hesitantly she took his hand and sat for what seemed like an eternity, just watching him and debating with herself whether or not to try and enter his mind. She decided against it. <> She got up to leave; half disappointed that her presence hadn't woken him, half relieved- what would she say to him? 'thanks for saving my life'? Not bloody likely! She sat down again. still holding his hand. Slowly his eyelids fluttered open and he lay blinking up at the ceiling above, still disorientated. "Marcus?" she stroked his hand and he turned his head slightly to focus on her, smiling ever so slightly. "I'm glad you're here." he whispered. "Th-thankyou." she whispered back. "For what?" "You know...for what you did..." "Oh that." he looked down and saw his hand losely grasped in hers. Quickly she jerked away, startled and embarrassed, "You called my name, when you um... came back..." she concentrated her gaze on the sheets, unable to meet his eyes with her own. "Did I? Oh well..." He was growing sleepy again, "Stay awhile, will you..." "Sure." She waited until he was asleep and then sat a little longer. She could feel her eyes growing heavy with exhaustion. Maggie curled up in the command chair of white star 12, her knees hugged to her chest and her arms and temples decorated with various electrodes and wires form the ship, blood was drying where it emerged from the incisions she'd made in her skin to link into her ship. She'd found it easy to hack into babylon 5's computers to gain clearance to leave and now she was in hyperspace heading toward the galactic rim where she knew *they* would be waiting for her. She could still hear the thoughts of the occupants of b5 and was still able to watch over them- she'd be able to do that for quite some time whuich was probably for the best because she could feel *something* looming. Smiling softly to herself she deamed of her destination. She was longing to be with them again, it had been so long... When Franklin arrived in medlab a few hours later to start his shift, he found Susan fast asleep in a chair beside Marcus' bed, her head resting on the mattress. Softly he chuckled to himself, "Well I'll be..." THE END!!!