Please e-mail comments and feedback to: tazey@club-internet.fr
(Corinne Saglio)

Notes : I am a French viewer of Babylon 5 giving fan fiction a try. I first thought of 
this story when the fourth season began last November in France. Since it was set in 
late 2262, I read spoilers on the Web to use information on the entire fourth season 
(my grateful thanks to the Spoiler’s junkies page). So far, I have resisted reading 
spoilers on the fifth season. I had vowed myself to and did well because it took me 
so long to wrap up this story that I would have had to change it continuously to keep 
up with the new information and it probably would have no longer fitted with the 
‘real’ events happening on the show.
Anyway, this story is written in a scriptwriting style which normally requires a very 
specific presentation. Since that presentation was taking too much place for the 
internet, I made a few arrangements and my style, if any, became a bit hybrid. But 
it’s the story that matters, right ?
Feel free to e-mail me your impressions (good or bad) and to warn me of mistakes 
regarding chronology, characters, places, etc. Last but not least, forgive my syntax 
and vocabulary mistakes, English is not my mother tongue.



REQUIEM



Prologue

In Minbar City

The frail figure of a woman, wrapped in a large hooded cloak, is walking in silence 
in a residential area located in the outskirts of Minbar City. Her face is hidden by her 
hood. She stops in front of a house and before she has time to make herself known, 
the door is opened by a young Minbari servant, bowing in welcome. The woman 
bows back and follows the servant inside. She is led along a corridor and gestured to 
wait in a small room leading to another bigger round room from which whispering 
words and music come to her ears. The servant gives her a candle and leaves. Left 
alone in the room, the woman approaches the opening to the other room and 
discreetly takes a peek. The large round room is illuminated by a semi-circle row of 
candles along the wall. A very aged Minbari woman dressed in a pale blue outfit is 
lying on a slanted Minbari bed, right in the center. Lennier is kneeling at her side, 
holding a lit candle. The woman retreats in the shadows not wishing to be seen. She 
listens to their conversation, straining her ears to catch the words whispered by the 
ailing elder.

“ You’re a dedicated aide Lennier, just as Delenn was. Such a quality is rare.”

The servant enters the room through another opening and waits at the foot of the 
bed. The elder looks at her and she nods in return.

“ You must go now. My time is near.”

Lennier gets up, bows to her with genuine deference and goes to put his candle in 
the row along the wall. He leaves the room after the servant. The elder turns to the 
opening on the smaller room.

“ I feared you would come too late.”

The woman enters the room and lighting the candle given by the servant from 
another candle, she comes to kneel by the elder’s bedside. She pushes back her hood 
revealing her long jet-black hair, her deathly pale complexion and dark blue eyes. 
She’s barely in her twenties, not quite out of adolescence. She bows her head in 
respect. The elder woman lifts her hand as if to caress her hair, letting it hover above 
the bowed head but finally lets it fall back down on the bed. The servant enters the 
room again, bringing a rich blue material with streaks of gold wrapped into a bundle 
with a thin paper and exists again. The young woman watches her go and turns to 
the Elder.

“ Why didn’t you tell me when I informed you I was coming? I would have come 
sooner.”
“ It got worse all of a sudden.”

The young woman meets her stare, her eyes filled with silent reproach and they look 
at each other for a long moment until she breaks the silence.
“ I came to give you this back.” She brings a Ranger’s pike with a delicately carved 
handle out of her pocket and places it in the elder’s hand.
The elder pushes it back toward her in a weak but vehement manner. “ No. You 
must keep it. Remember how much giving it to you meant to him. He was so proud 
of you that day. Only of Delenn was he ever that proud.”
The young woman casts down her eyes. “ I haven’t forgotten. I …”. Her voice 
wavers and she’s unable to continue her sentence, bending her head further down. 
The elder looks at her in worry and sympathy. “ We Minbaris are not accustomed to 
speak out our hearts and for a human, you’re worse than a Minbari. Won’t you tell 
me what happened during all that time ?” She gently pats the long jet-black hair with 
a motherly hand.

The young woman rises abruptly and goes to the semi-circle row of candles, turning 
her back to the elder, arms crossed on her chest.
“ There you run away again.” She sighs profoundly and stares at the young woman’s 
rigid back while trying to improve her breathing. “ You recognize this music, don’t 
you ? It’s one of your favorites, Mozart’s Requiem as you call it, your own 
adaptation for Minbari instruments. I know it is fit for the occasion, you taught me 
that one day… my alien child…”. Her hand closes on the pike and she starts to sing 
softly, surprisingly switching from Minbari to Italian.
“ Fa’ la ninna, fa’ la nanna, ecco l’amore della mamma…”

The young woman turns to face the ailing Minbari, obviously moved by her words. 
The elder extends her arms to her. “ Bambino, non piangere più. Il mio cuore ha 
compreso il segreto delle tue lacrime”. She switches back to Minbari. “ Indulge me 
just this once. Let me try to alleviate your pain. Let me carry it with you. Please”. 
The young woman hovers on her feet, holding back on her growing urge for 
comfort. “ I know who you are, Stre So’Za, I’m not afraid”, the Elder adds very 
softly. The young woman takes a step forward. 


Outside the planet of Minbar

A spaceship of apparently Earth origin, though no one has ever seen the like of it 
before, is leaving the planet of Minbar, its somber grey form visible only as it blots 
out a small part of the starlit universe. A small feminine hand emerges from a dark 
sleeve and places itself on what seems to be the control panel, beside which lie a 
rich blue material with streaks of gold wrapped in thin paper and a delicately carved 
Ranger’s pike on top of it. The spaceship dissolves into hyper space.



Part I

Babylon 5 

A worried Delenn is examining herself in a full length mirror in the quarters she 
now shares with John Sheridan in the diplomatic level. She places her two hands on 
her stomach, concentrating on that particular area of her body. The opening of the 
door to her quarters takes her out of her trance in a jump.
“ John ?!”, she exclaims in pleased surprise.


**********

Everything is going smoothly in the C&C room, everyone is concentrated on his 
task. On the screen of the officer in charge of arrivals stands the very same ship that 
left Minbar, dissolving into space.

The officer raises his eyebrows at the sight of the ship.
“ Please identify yourself.”
On his computer screen, the image changes and is replaced by a video of the pilot of 
the ship, the young woman from Minbar. A classical music piece plays faintly in the 
background.

“ Spaceship Toccata E 205743.”
“ This is a peculiar spaceship that you have”, he remarks, examining the image of 
the spaceship on his screen.
“ She’s been through many hasty and disfiguring repairs.”
“ Hmmm, very well spaceship Toccata, send your data.”

On his screen appears information on the ship and her owner, the number of 
passengers and the purpose of the visit. The owner is named Laetitia Vail, born 2241 
on Delta IV, no criminal record, no previous visit to Babylon 5. She’s the only 
passenger of the ship, coming for ‘tourism’ purposes. A location has been reserved 
for two days at the exclusive docking bay Alpha, where VIP’s and rich people can 
choose to leave their spaceships instead of using the shuttles like the rest of the 
cattle. The officer straightens a bit on his chair. The mention ‘Clearance granted’ 
flashes across the computer’s screen. 
“ Everything in order, spaceship Toccata E 205743. You can proceed toward 
docking bay Alpha. Have a pleasant stay with us on Babylon 5 ”, he says, a lot more 
deferent now then punches a few keys, officially registering the entrance of the ship.

He turns to another officer on his left and points to his screen. “ Do you know that 
woman?”
His colleague takes a peek at the screen showing a frozen image of Laetitia Vail. 
“ Nope. Don’t tell me she’s another one of your many girlfriends !”
“ She’s not”, the first officer replies, dead sure of himself. “ She seems familiar 
though”. He stares at his screen for a moment then sighing in puzzlement, he 
punches a key and the image of another ship appears on his screen.
“ Please identify yourself.”


**********

Laetitia Vail, her figure hidden under a large ankle-long hooded cloak, comes out of 
docking bay Alpha and emerges in the common arrival and departure area, without 
having to go through customs. She pauses for a second and takes a roundabout look. 
One of the many people selling souvenirs and other tourist paraphernalia spots her 
and rushes to his newfound gullible prey.
“ Regular station maps, 5 credits, holographic station maps only 8 credits”, he says 
loudly, waving different stuff under her nose.
“ No, thank you”, she answers, raising a hand to hold off the waved paraphernalia. 
“ I know my way.” She quickly leaves the area.
“ Damn religious”, he mutters after her, “ they never understood what consumer 
society meant.”


**********

An undetermined Delenn enters the medical lab and walks toward Doctor Stephen 
Franklin, busying himself between three patients.

“ Morning Stephen.”
“ Morning Ambassador”, replies Franklin absentmindedly as he rushes between his 
patients.
“ I am no longer an ambassador.”
“ Sorry, I keep forgetting.”
“ I wanted to ask you something…”, says Delenn hesitantly, “ I’m a little 
worried…”
Franklin looks up at her and takes her away from the others. He eyes her with 
sympathy. “ You worry too much, Delenn. There’s nothing wrong with you. You 
will get pregnant again, it is just a matter of time”, he smiles, “ I’m sure you and the 
capt… President, are doing everything possible to succeed.”
Delenn rewards him with a light embarrassed smile and leaves the lab, muttering to 
herself . “ If only Susan were here.”


**********

Laetitia Vail is strolling about in the Zen gardens. She bends towards different kinds 
of plants and flowers, smelling their perfumes with a sigh and gently caressing their 
leaves and stalks. On her way, she attracts Delenn’s attention, sitting on a small 
bench in a corner in a meditative state. Delenn is annoyed at first to find someone 
else entering her favorite spot while she’s looking for some quietude but as Laetitia 
carefully disentangles bad weeds from a fragile rosebush with a gardener’s touch, 
she finds herself drawn to the stranger and approaches her. Laetitia catches her 
movement and stands up quickly, ready to leave the spot but Delenn is blocking her 
way out.
“ I wish I could find the time to tend a garden of my own, there are such peaceful 
places,” says Delenn quietly with a warm smile, while trying to make out Laetitia’s 
face under the hood.
Laetitia observes her for a long moment, her silence making Delenn almost 
uncomfortable. “ Music makes one peaceful too”, she finally says,  her eyes 
dropping to Delenn’s stomach, “ besides, babies love rhythm and music.”
Delenn stares at her in amazement, her usual composure gone.
Surprised by Delenn’s reaction, Laetitia gives her a Minbari parting bow and hurries 
away.
“Wait! How…”, cries out Delenn, still in shock.


**********

“ I’ve just had enough !”, yells Captain Mac Wright, throwing a bunch of papers on 
his desk. Tobias Mac Wright, fifty-four years old, is a former military man drafted 
more than twenty years ago into the realms of politics. He was the highly regarded 
mayor of Johannesburg for fifteen years before he took up the job of Captain of 
Babylon 5 after Sheridan’s resignation. His commandant, Juan Alvarez, the 
temperate element of the new command team, waits in respectful silence for the 
outburst to abate.
“ 37.8% of the crimes on Babylon 5 are linked to the presence of the Interstellar 
Alliance: fraudulent trades, bar brawls, murders, etc, etc, not mentioning the extra 
protection we have to provide. It has gone on far too long. Babylon 5 is a space 
station, not a political arena”. He looks at his commandant. “ Sheridan is not back 
yet ?”
“ He came back early this morning.”
“ Good. Tell him to come over  a.s.a.p.” He waves him away. “ Dismissed.”


**********

Laetitia Vail is walking along a corridor on her way to the Zocalo when she 
suddenly picks up the muffled sounds of what seems to be a fight taking place 
somewhere in the corridor on her left.
She hesitates for a second, hovering on her feet before she resumes her walk but a 
louder cry of pain prompts her to find the origin of the scuffle. After a bend in the 
corridor, she discovers two humans with black cloth masks on their faces beating up 
a sixty-odd years old Minbari of the religious caste with clear determination.
She approaches the group quietly, reaching down in one of her front pockets for her 
Rangers’ pike she then hides along her sleeve.

“ Hey you! Stop this!”, she says in a commanding voice

The two brutes turn to look at her. The first man snorts, “Stay out of this kiddo.” 
Then he dutifully returns to his previous task. Laetitia takes off her hooded cloak, 
revealing clothes very similar to a Ranger’s outfit but devoid of any insignia 
whatsoever. She lets it fall in a heap on the floor then she steps forward, snaps her 
pike out and gives a little tap with it on the first man’s shoulder. He turns to her and 
receives a full blown hit on the face given with unexpected strength that sends him 
reeling on the floor away from the Minbari. The second man has hardly time to react 
before he finds himself against the wall, nursing a bruised hand already turning 
purple. The first man lunges at her, grunting as he stops the strike of her pike with 
his arm and sends it flying over to the Minbari. He brings her down to the floor with 
him but she uses the momentum to flip him over and he crashes against the wall, 
slamming his head violently. She rolls back on her feet with remarkable swiftness 
and grabs her pike in time to fend off an attack by the second man, who falls down 
to the floor coughing hard to recover his breath. The first man gets up gingerly and 
takes a step toward her.
“ Think twice”, she says weighing her pike in a teasing manner.
He steps back, muttering words like ‘traitor’ under his breath and takes his 
accomplice away with him as he leaves the place.
Laetitia bends toward the Minbari, trying to sit himself against the wall.
“ Don’t move”, she says, addressing him in Minbari.
The Minbari has his gaze locked on her Ranger’s pike. Pointing a finger to the 
carvings on the pike, he whispers, “Dukhat…” and raises reverent eyes to Laetitia 
before fainting in exhaustion and pain.


**********

Sheridan enters the captain’s office.
“ You wanted to see me, Captain?”

Captain Mac Wright turns toward Sheridan. “ That is correct, President. I won’t beat 
about the bush. I have been doing some thinking about the Interstellar Alliance and 
its presence on Babylon 5. You’ve been housed on the station for over nine months, 
awaiting the end of the construction of your headquarters on Minbar and I’ve agreed 
with this. But your presence here is bringing us many additional security problems, 
not mentioning the severe outbursts of violence we’ve encountered at some point, 
and I’d rather your organization left Babylon 5 as soon as possible. I’ve heard that 
your new headquarters are nearly operational except for some finishing touches. It 
would be better for Babylon 5 if you took possession of them at the earliest notice”. 
Mac Wright calms down a bit. “ Don’t mistake me, President, I have the utmost 
respect for everything you did for this place and Earth but I have a space station to 
run and my job is to keep it running smoothly.”
Sheridan remains silent, slowly taking in the meaning of the captain’s words.
“We will be gone in less than five weeks”, answers Sheridan in a toneless voice.


**********

G’Kar and Garibaldi are chatting amiably in Garibaldi’s reserved spot at the Zocalo, 
right beside the antiques corner. Laetitia overhears parts of their conversation as she 
brushes past them.
“ … and Daddy Tomato squashes his son and says ‘catch up’ !”
“ I don’t get it”, replies G’Kar, racking his brains to understand the pun.
“ Tomato, catch up…”, Garibaldi starts to explain.

Laetitia is continuing her visit of the station, strolling about with no specific goal, 
letting her gaze roam the place, taking in the surroundings and their load of peculiar 
objects until she stops in mid-stride, as she spots an upright piano, totally 
incongruous in such a place and time. She removes the hood from her cloak to get a 
better sight and rushes to the piano, jostling people on her way. G’Kar’s roaring 
laughter resonates in the Zocalo, making people jump around him. Finally standing 
in front of the piano, Laetitia uncovers the keyboard with trembling hands and uses a 
bunch of boxes to sit in front of it. She lightly touches the keys, like a caress, and 
starts testing the tuning of the instrument with a variety of scales, drawing 
everyone’s attention to her. Garibaldi raises his head toward the growing 
commotion. 
“ What on Earth is this?”
“ What is what ?”, asks G’Kar, still chuckling. He half-rises to better see the scene. 
The owner of the antiques shop approaches the piano, trying to determine if he’s 
dealing with a potential buyer. Seeming satisfied with the overall quality of the 
instrument, Laetitia starts playing for real, browsing effortlessly through different 
classical pieces. G’Kar, enthralled by the music, comes to stand on Laetitia’s side, 
one hand crushing the shoulder of the shop’s owner to keep him from interrupting 
the improvised recital.
“ It’s beautiful”, G’Kar can’t help whispering.
Laetitia stops playing and raises her eyes to him. He is startled by their utter sadness 
for such a young person.
“ It’s Mozart.”


**********

Zack Allan is sitting in his office in front of the babcom’s screen, listing pictures of 
newcomers to Babylon 5 over the last months. Sheridan enters the room.

“ I received your message, Zack. What’s wrong?”
“ Actually it concerns Delenn’s security but I thought I’d talk to you first.”
“ You thought well. She’s been a bit upset lately and I’d rather she was spared any 
more trouble.”
“ As you know”, Zack starts, walking on eggs, “ some humans see your wedding as 
a betrayal to your race and are determined not to let Delenn become a member of the 
human race least of all build a family with you.”
Sheridan’s jaw twitches. “ How determined ?”
“ Enough to consider an assassination”. He pauses momentarily. “ They’ve recently 
sped up their plans, launching attacks on other Minbaris to keep up their hatred. 
They are very well organized and hard to track.”
Sheridan turns his back on Zack. “It’s really not my day…”, he murmurs to himself. 
“ The Interstellar Alliance security division is being very cooperative and Garibaldi 
is also working on it, pitching me whatever he comes across, but until I can proceed 
to any arrest, I suggest appointing two personal bodyguards to Delenn.”
“ With Lennier gone to Minbar, I guess that’s the best solution”, Sheridan reflects, 
“ I’ll talk to her about it.”


**********

G’Kar is seated on a box right by Laetitia. His imposing stature looming over her 
frail figure. She’s showing him the basics of piano playing under the amused eye of 
Garibaldi, leaning nonchalantly on the wooden frame of the piano. Most people have 
lost their interest in the little group except a man from another shop in the Zocalo, 
stroking a bandaged hand. The owner of the antiques shop sports the contented smile 
of someone who’s just made a great deal.

G’Kar is truly enjoying himself, delighting in being able to “play”.
“ You know, I think I have the most wonderful idea”, says G’Kar smiling broadly.
Laetitia and Garibaldi both look at him in worry.
“ As G’Quon said …”. G’Kar continues his sentence in Narn
Garibaldi repeats the words then tries to translate them. “Music… hem… brings…”.
“ Music brings souls together regardless of bodies”, Laetitia says without hesitation.
G’Kar turns to her in pleased surprise. Garibaldi eyes her suspiciously.


**********

“ Two bodyguards !”, cries out Delenn, quite upset.
“ It’s only until we find out if these rumors are really serious,” replies Sheridan 
calmly.
“And how long will that take ?”
“ Zack and Michael are doing their best.”
Delenn relents a little. “ John, we have so little privacy already, how are we going to 
deal about it with two bodyguards on my trail day and night ?”
“ They will stay away when I’m with you.” He smiles coyly. “ I’ll be your knight in 
shining armor.”
She nestles close in his welcoming arms, burying her face in his shoulder.
“ You could leave for Minbar now”, he murmurs softly to her ear, “you would be 
safer there. We will have to go and live there in a few weeks anyway…”
She raises questioning eyes to his face.
Sheridan smiles halfheartedly and gently puts his hand on her cheek. “ But please 
endure those bodyguards… I need you close.”
They kiss briefly and Delenn buries her face back in his shoulder.
“ I’m not leaving”, she says in a muffled voice.
Sheridan tightens his embrace.

Behind them the babcom screen flashes.
“ Incoming message from Deputy G’Kar to John and Delenn.”
They both turn to face the screen, John keeping a comforting arm around Delenn’s 
shoulders.
“ Message accepted”, Sheridan says.
G’Kar’s happy face appears on the screen. The noisy background of the station bar 
from where he’s calling forces him to talk quite loudly.
“ There you are ! Good day to you two. Well I hope you have nothing planned for 
tomorrow night, I’m inviting you over for a very special dinner, a truly unique 
occasion. Will you do me the honor of being my guests ?”
Delenn and John exchange a look, surprised by G’Kar’s unusual joviality and offer. 
“ We’d love to. Thank you, G’Kar”, Delenn replies affirmatively, sensing that no is 
not an option.
“ Fantastic. 7’o clock standard time, tomorrow, my quarters.”
G’Kar disappears from the screen. 

“ There goes another hope of spending some time together alone”, sighs Sheridan. 
Delenn puts her arms around his neck and smiles enticingly. “ Are you in such a 
hurry to leave me ?”
He smiles back, tracing her lips with a finger. “ That is not very Minbari wise.”
“ I’m experimenting new human ways.”
“ I think I can scrape a few minutes.”
“ Your time is mine.”


**********

Zack Allan turns around as a smiling Delenn enters the medical lab.

“ Ah Delenn, thank you for coming. Sorry to call upon you but we’re a bit short on 
Minbari translators.”

He takes her over to a private examination room where Franklin is examining the 
wounded Minbari rescued by Laetitia Vail. They remain behind the glass wall. A 
look of compassion crosses Delenn’s face as she discovers the condition of the 
Minbari from her own caste.

“ From what we understood, he was badly beaten by two humans late this morning. 
Another human helped him out and called the medical rescue team. We need 
everything he can remember on his attackers and his rescuer.”
“ Why do you bother knowing about his rescuer ?”
“ He is an eye witness and…,” Zack gestures to Franklin to join them, “ can you tell 
Delenn what you told me?”
Franklin turns to Delenn. “ When the medical team found him, his wounds had been 
attended to. Most of it was just basic first aid but, without entering into gruesome 
medical description, I’ll bet my two hands it was the work of someone with 
extensive medical knowledge of Minbaris.”
 “ Meaning…,” Delenn says, quite puzzled.
“ We believe his rescuer did that”, explains Zack.
“ And he is one hell of a doctor, especially with no medical instruments 
whatsoever,” adds Franklin. “ I’d be curious to meet a human who seems to know 
more about Minbaris than I do.”
“ Especially since no such person has been registered on Babylon 5 in the past 
weeks”, Zack concludes.
“ It could be a Ranger”, Delenn offers tentatively. 
“ Yes, it could”, Zack answers, “ but I’d like to make sure.”
The three of them turn to watch the ailing Minbari.


**********

Garibaldi approaches the officer in charge of arrivals in the C&C room. 
“ Salvador, someone called Laetitia Vail arrived on the station this morning…”
“ You know her ?”
“ Not really”, replies Garibaldi, surprised by Salvador’s interest. “ Do you ?”
“ Not really. I thought she looked familiar”. Garibaldi smiles knowingly. “ No, she’s 
not one of my girlfriends”, Salvador replies wearily.
“ Anyway, she will be staying an extra day. What have you got on her ?”


**********

Delenn is bending close to the ailing Minbari. Their talk is quite agitated, for 
Minbaris that is. Something he says startles her. She leaves his bedside and goes to 
find Franklin, sitting behind his desk. He looks up expectantly.

“ His attackers wore masks, he didn’t see their faces. A Ranger did rescue him.”
She departs hurriedly, leaving him no time to comment.


**********

G’Kar and Laetitia are sitting at a table in a bar, talking quietly. Actually, he is 
doing most of the talking. Few tables are occupied as the night is already well 
started. Behind them, at a table littered with too many empty drinks, two 
representatives of different alien races enter into a drunken brawl.



Part II

Babylon 5 


One of the drunkards from the night before swallows a pill and generously gives one 
to his neighbor, his previous drink companion, painfully holding his head in his 
hands and sporting a swollen nose. They are two of the members of the Interstellar 
Alliance, gathered today for their monthly ordinary session. At least sixty 
independent worlds made of forty different races are represented and more send 
applications regularly to become members. Because the Alliance has grown faster 
than planned, the room in which the members convene is already too small and 
people in the audience, once allowed in the room itself, are now only a handful and 
consigned on a gangway on one side of the room overlooking the upper seats of 
some members. Tight security measures ensure that no one in the audience 
constitutes a threat to any deputy of the Alliance and an official pass is required to 
be able to attend a session. However, security among the deputies themselves is an 
entirely other problem. The deputies are provided with two official passes for the 
audience which they can dispose of at their own will with members of their people, 
family or friends. 

Laetitia is waiting at the entrance of the gangway to be allowed in. She has been 
given a pass by G’Kar. Garibaldi is right behind her. The security guards examine 
her pass and scan her for weapons. She undergoes their scan in silence, intensely 
staring ahead of her, with only a fleeting blink of her eyes as they scan the area of 
her front pockets. The scan is clear and they let her in. Garibaldi watches her go.
“ Mr. Garibaldi !, the guard exclaims. “ It’s been a while !”
“ I was too busy. Business is booming”, he answers, keeping his gaze on Laetitia.

They let him in and he goes to stand by Laetitia, who hardly pays any attention to 
him. She chose to remain close to the gangway entrance, facing the entrance of the 
room below but too far on the right of the Advisory Board to be caught in their field 
of vision. The Advisory Board is composed of John Sheridan, President, Delenn, 
Vice-president, G’Kar, a Drazi, representing the former Non Aligned Worlds and 
Vir, who took up Londo’s place as Londo’s past history with the Shadows was not 
well appreciated by the first members of the new Alliance. The session is about to 
begin and murmurs fill the room with a continuous background noise.


Several hours later, the room is hot and filled with electricity. The murmurs have 
turned into shouts and cries.

“ All right, all right,” shouts Sheridan. “ The Advisory Board will prepare a draft for 
the next session regarding the cleaning of space after a battle to see to it that 
everyone participates equitably”. Several members from alien races sit back and 
quiet down. “ Now let’s move on to the last item on the agenda, the application for 
membership of the Gster People. Their delegate is here to answer our questions.”

Sheridan nods to security guards who let in the delegate of the Gsters. The noise 
abates and the room is filled with murmurs again as the members examine the 
newcomer. Their expressions are far from welcoming. The Gsters are a small dark 
skinned humanoid species, they possess a bony face with an exceptionally large 
nose, two holes for ears and entirely dark eyes. Their bodies are sinewy and their 
hands, proportionally very large, display great strength. The delegate enters with a 
very light step, he gives the room a sweeping look, spots the gangway and holds 
Laetitia’s stare for a split second longer than the other people. Garibaldi observes the 
unspoken exchange, unsure whether he imagined it or not as Laetitia’s face remains 
completely blank.


**********

Laetitia and the Gster delegate are walking together, working their way through 
small empty corridors, away from the mainstream itineraries.
“ You were right”, says the Gster in a strangely pronounced standard English, “ the 
Alliance turned us down, my people will be very disappointed.”
“ I warned you that it was too soon. Hardly six months ago, you were still 
conducting stealthy attacks under the Shadows’ name and killing people. 
Forgiveness and trust require longer periods of time.”
The Gster looks behind his back at the near empty corridor and sniffs the air. “ We 
should have listened to you more carefully. Will you let us know when the time is 
right for a new application?”. He turns again to sniff the air and look around.
“ You will have to find out about it yourselves. I’m retiring.”
He looks at her in surprise then sharply raises his head as if he heard something 
unusual. He moves closer to her and whispers a few words in her ear. She nods in 
understanding.
“ One hint though…”, she continues as they both turn left at another corridor, “ the 
day the application of the Troen people is accepted…”, the Gster stops and waits 
right after the bend, Laetitia looks at him and continues walking, “ you can send 
yours …”
The Gster shoots out his arm and grabs Garibaldi by the collar, he brings him to the 
floor and holds him in an immobilizing lock. Laetitia turns and swiftly strides to 
them.

“ Let him go. I know him.” The Gster immediately releases Garibaldi who comes to 
his feet stroking his bruised throat.
“ Mr. Garibaldi, I’m sure you have better things to do than follow me everywhere.”
“ Not at the moment. G’Kar is my friend, I don’t like to see him fooled.”
“ Fooled ?”
“ Yes fooled. With that music and Narn crap. Only to get an official pass and meet 
your accomplice. Your acquaintances could put him in a lot of trouble.”
“ It is precisely to spare him from trouble that I asked him for that pass. I had made a 
promise to the Gsters and would have attended the session anyway.” She tosses to 
him an official pass, bearing the seal of the Gster people and the mention ‘Foreign 
Delegate’ under her picture, with what is meant to be her name written in an alien 
language. “ Meeting G’Kar was totally fortunate and I love music too much to 
refuse his offer.” She looks him straight in the eye. “We all have our weaknesses… 
Using G’Kar’s pass was one way to keep my promise without attracting undue 
attention and bringing the suspicion of nosy people like you”. Garibaldi is not yet 
convinced, toying with the pass in his hand. “ As for my ‘acquaintances’ as you say, 
I have nothing to be ashamed of and certainly don’t owe you any explanation. You 
know where to find me tonight, no need to follow me”. She turns to the Gster. 
“ Shall we ?”

They retrace their steps to the first corridor, the Gster walking sideways to observe 
Garibaldi.
“ I will be keeping a close eye on you”, shouts Garibaldi, quite pissed off to have 
been caught.
“ Don’t bother”, replies Laetitia over her shoulder. “ I’ll be gone by tomorrow 
morning.”. She takes a few more steps and turns around. “ Mr. Garibaldi, I almost 
forgot. You should stop eating peppermint candies, it gives you away.”
They turn at the corner and disappear from Garibaldi’s sight. He looks again at the 
pass then cups a hand to his mouth and checks his breath.


***********

The Gster looks at Laetitia in worry; she’s walking mechanically, head bent, 
eyebrows furrowed over some inner problem.
“ You wouldn’t be here if not for us, we only bring you trouble”, the Gster 
apologizes. She reassures him otherwise with a light squeeze on his arm, slowly 
shaking her head in denial. He acknowledges her gesture with genuine gratitude. He 
observes her again, visibly wanting to add something but not daring to. 
“ Excuse me for my disrespect”, he finally says, plunging forward, “ but staying 
here any longer may not be wise.”
“ I know”, Laetitia admits worryingly, “ but there’s something I really would like to 
do.”
The Gster stops her, grasping her arm. “ I feel this place is bad for you”, he says 
earnestly. “ I can protect you until you leave”, he offers. She thanks him with a 
smile.
“ I’ll be fine. Mr. Garibaldi belongs to the suspicious kind. He barks but doesn’t 
bite.”

The Gster sharply raises his head, sensing danger again. Three men wearing black 
cloth masks emerge in front of them from the next bend in the corridor. One of them 
is sporting a bandaged hand.

“ Well, look who’s here”, the apparent leader says, “ our little traitor”. Three other 
men close the trap behind them. “ You really like aliens too much to my taste.”
Laetitia and the Gster exchange a look, silently evaluating their chances against the 
six men. Laetitia reaches for her pike.
“ I think you need to be reminded who your people are”. The six men advance on 
them. “ I brought my own little stick”, he adds, displaying a heavy iron bar. As if on 
cue, his fellow bullies display similar bars and knives.
“ Trar ?”, the Gster asks, still evaluating their opponents.
“ Trar”, Laetitia assents without hesitation. “ Ev dar taul”, she continues, looking at 
him. He slowly nods in understanding and clenches his fists. She snaps her pike out. 
They attack first, one against three.
The fight is even at the beginning, the Gster easily holding his three assailants at bay 
but soon Laetitia is overcome by the sheer physical superiority of her own three 
assailants, despite her fighting skills with her pike. They manage to rid her of her 
weapon and two of them pin her against the wall. She tries to wriggle out of their 
grip, giving them some nasty kicks.
“ Keep her still”, orders the leader to his accomplices.
Hearing this, the Gster fights more fiercely and definitely rids himself of two of his 
opponents but stops short in his impetus as the third one displays a large gun aimed 
right at him. The Gster steps toward him. The man’s hand tightens on the trigger, 
visibly determined to shoot if he comes too close.
“ Say goodbye to your musician’s hands”, the leader hisses, raising his iron bar, 
ready to strike her hands, held flat on the wall by the two other men.
“ Goodbye”, Garibaldi says as he grasps the man’s arm in the air and punches him 
hard on the face.
The man holding the Gster at distance turns his attention to the commotion. The 
Gster immediately seizes the opportunity and lunges at him. A gunshot explodes on 
the wall as the Gster sends the weapon flying over to the end of the corridor.
Seeing Garibaldi, the men holding Laetitia release her and beat a hasty retreat with 
the rest of their group, picking up their weapons on the way.

“ Thank you”, Laetitia says turning toward Garibaldi, who only grunts in answer.
The Gster approaches and gives her a worried ‘see what I meant’ look. She pockets 
the pike that he brought her back out of Garibaldi’s view.
“ Thank you”, he says, also turning toward Garibaldi and he extends his hand for a 
conciliatory shake.
Garibaldi ignores his offered hand. The Gster takes back his hand in disappointment. 
Laetitia lightly touches in shoulder in support.
“ Why were these men after you ?”, Garibaldi asks her.
“ I took the defense of a Minbari against them. They didn’t appreciate”, she replies 
matter-of-factly while examining a bloody cut on the Gster’s arm. “ Nothing 
serious”, she reassures the Gster. She then carefully examines his right hand visibly 
swelling.
“ These men are dangerous”, the Gster says to her in worry, “ let me stay to protect 
you until you leave this… bad place.”
“ A little ice should be enough”, she tells him, releasing his hand.
“ Laetitia…”, insists the Gster with an extraordinarily gentle voice, “ you’ve 
traveled too far…”
“ I’ll be careful”, she interrupts him reassuringly.
He turns toward Garibaldi for support. “ You tell her”. Garibaldi looks at him in 
stunned surprise.
“ Mr. Garibaldi vowed to keep an eye on me, didn’t you Mr. Garibaldi ?”, she asks, 
involving Garibaldi furthermore. He looks at both of them in worry, feeling himself 
caught between two fires.


**********

“ Why ?”, asks Garibaldi, as they are watching the Gster leave with other travelers.
“ He is much needed among his people”, Laetitia replies quietly. “ I cannot let him 
risk his life.”
“ He seemed to think the same of you.”
She only shrugs in answer.
“ About these men…”, Garibaldi starts.


**********

Londo and Vir are having a drink in Vir’s quarters. Londo raises his glass, 
examining his drink. He drinks it in one gulp then sets the glass back on the table 
rather sharply, to pour himself another one.

“ Vir, I can’t believe you’re making me do this. Me, the Emperor of the Centauri 
having dinner with a Narn !”
“ G’Kar is not just a Narn, you are aware of that yourself”. Londo waves at him in 
good humor to minimize the importance of his previous comment, meant as a joke. 
“ Anyway he seemed so excited about the whole thing, I just couldn’t say no.”
“ He was excited ?! He must be plotting something evil.”
“ If so, you’ll be able to give him some useful advice”, Vir replies, feigning 
innocence.
Londo stares hard at him.


**********

Laetitia is standing in the main room of her ship. It is practically bare, except for a 
number of computer screens clustered on a table in a corner. The bareness makes it 
look bigger than it is, but it adds up hardly to one tenth of the ship. She is now 
wearing a dark blue dress made in a rich and heavy material. Golden embroidery 
runs along the low hem, going up to trace intricate patterns on her back. Her hair is 
braided in a reversed French braid, exposing her taut features and revealing her dark 
blue eyes, two lonely spots of color seeming to float on her face and matching 
perfectly the color of her clothes. As she is about to leave her ship, the walls in the 
room take a red throbbing hue. She turns around and picks up a flesh colored object 
she slips under her dress, close to her throat. The walls go back to their former color.

Suddenly the small hair on the nape of her neck starts prickling with a sense of 
strange awareness. She slowly turns on her feet, scrutinizing the air around her, 
scanning every part of the room.

“ Is this you at last ?”, she asks still turning on her feet, “ Coming to gloat over my 
defeat ?”. The air around her remains empty. “ Well, I’m tired of begging for 
forgiveness, Lorien ! I hope you took fun in your little games. From now on, you 
can count me out.” She strides away in anger.


**********

Sheridan is leaning against a metal pole on the catwalk where he made his 
appearance when coming back from Z’ha’dum. He is watching people come and go 
through the large area beneath his eyes, hungrily recording in his mind the bustling 
of activity, the mixing of races, the whole atmosphere of the station.

Delenn approaches him quietly, her two bodyguards remaining at a good privacy 
range. She puts a comforting hand on his back. “ We should be getting ready for 
G’Kar’s dinner.”

Sheridan doesn’t answer, his attention still focused on the people below. Delenn 
comes nearer and watches his features with concern. She takes his face with both her 
hands and gently forces him to look at her. “ John, I know what this station means to 
you. I promise you that Minbar will truly become home to you. I’ll do anything I can 
to make you happy”. He reaches for her hand and gently kisses it. “ I know you 
will.”


**********

Zack Allan is poring over a huge stack of security reports.


**********

Delenn’s two bodyguards stand by the door to G’Kar’s quarters. Inside, Sheridan, 
Delenn, Franklin, Garibaldi, Brother Theo, Londo and Vir are seated in a semi-circle 
before a curtain hiding a portion of the room. Behind them waits a large round table 
ready for dinner. G’Kar stands between his guests and the curtain.

“ I’m really glad to see you all tonight, the ‘old team’, we’re almost complete”. He 
takes a pause, trying to get a hold on his nervousness. “ I’m inviting you to a 
concert… of music, of course”. He fumbles for his words. “ For a moment, I thought 
of singing a few Narn songs myself,” Londo is ready to leave but Vir forces him to 
stay put, “ but Garibaldi talked me out of it. From your relieved expressions, I guess 
you consider yourselves lucky”. Vir takes his hand off Londo’s arm. “ Anyway, 
human classical music will be the high topic, I will discover most of it along with 
you. Let us begin now.”

He pulls the curtain on the side, revealing the upright piano and Laetitia’s back, as 
she is sitting in front of it. They nod to each other and he goes to sit between Delenn 
and Franklin. Laetitia starts playing.


**********

The stack of reports to read remains despairingly high despite Zack’s good will.


**********

Everyone is listening attentively to the music though Laetitia seems to be playing 
more for herself than her audience : G’Kar, eyes shut in awed rapture; Londo in 
feigned indifference; Vir, brother Theo and Garibaldi with earnest attention; 
Franklin with simple politeness; Sheridan, with his attention directed to Delenn, 
holding her hand tenderly, moved by her own overwhelming emotion.

Finally, Laetitia strikes the last chords of the play then rises and turns to face her 
audience, seeing G’Kar’s guests for the first time and sending a flicker of 
recognition and surprise in Delenn’s eyes.


**********

Zack rubs his eyes, sighing profoundly as he finishes reading yet another report. He 
munches absentmindedly on a cold piece of pizza.


**********

Diner is on its way. The table is covered with intriguing food unlike the common 
looking porridge-like food space station dwellers usually complain about. The 
general attention, especially Delenn’s, is directed toward Laetitia, who is cutting and 
sorting the little food she’s taken, putting bits on the side of her plate and regrouping 
others in a precise and organized manner. G’Kar notices her doings in dismay.
“ Is there something wrong ?”
Laetitia looks at him. “ No, why ?”.
“ You’re leaving the best pieces on the side.”
“ I know, but these are complex nutrients”, Laetitia explains very seriously, showing 
the left-over pieces, “ they don’t blend well with the rest and require unnecessary 
effort from the body to digest them and only for a ridiculous amount of energy 
actually stored for future use.”
“ Come on young one”, says G’Kar his dismay dramatically deepened during her 
explanation, “ do not turn down the pleasure of good food whatever your stomach 
tells you afterwards. Life is short, enjoy the present.”

Delenn turns to look at Sheridan, who lowers his gaze to his plate. Laetitia smiles 
wryly with a sudden interest in her plate too and notices the fleeting awkwardness 
between the couple as she turns back to G’Kar.

“ If they could hear you now, the French would welcome you heartily at their table”, 
she says to lighten the mood.
“ Ah, French cuisine…”, sighs Vir in delighted wonder.
Londo stares at him in surprise.
“ Nothing beats the Italian cooking”, Garibaldi states, not leaving room for dispute. 
“ Right, a dietetic dish like the bagna cauda for instance!”, retorts Franklin 
ironically. Garibaldi shoots him a dark look. 
“ Is this the way your parents taught you to eat ?”, inquires G’Kar not quite over it 
yet.
“ No. I learned that from a race leaving on a small planet in the outer sectors.”
“ What race ?”, asks Garibaldi.
“ They call themselves Choh’chhh.”
“ Never heard of them. Are they former allies of the Shadows ?”
The others are surprised by his question. Laetitia glares at him in annoyance.
“ No, they keep very much to themselves and mind their own business”, she replies, 
keeping her voice quiet and polite though.
“ What kind of food do they eat ?”, asks brother Theo, trying to ease the tension.
Laetitia reluctantly unlocks her gaze away first from her silent intimidation fight 
with Garibaldi and looks at brother Theo with a softening stare.
“ Well, for instance, their most renowned dish on their planet is called Ho’h, 
meaning the Universe in their language. There’s a soup recipe for ordinary days and 
one done only for the celebration days of season changes. A few days before, they 
hunt and capture a wild animal they call Noar. They feed it with carefully selected 
dried nutrients and absolutely no liquid. Two days before the celebration, they only 
give it water and store the animal’s continuously passing urine, which contains a 
very high proportion of basic elements coming from the previous nutrients. On the 
morning of the celebration, the animal is killed and roasted. The urine is used to 
prepare the gravy that is served with the very tender meat, purified by the precise 
feeding. The kidneys are given to the most important guests. They have a truly 
delicate taste.”

No one is feeling hungry anymore.
“ My Lord”, says Brother Theo joining his hands, “ I’ve never been so grateful for 
my bread and water diet !”
All the guests let out a relieved laugh, Londo joining in later, too engrossed in 
Laetitia’s story to realize it was over.
Laetitia shakes her head sadly. “ Don’t underestimate them just because the 
description sounds disgusting. They are the most brilliant cooks I’ve ever met, 
blending their nutrition needs with their amazing chemistry mastery. I tossed aside 
the chemistry I had learned and practiced over the years and completely relearned it 
with them.”
“ Chemistry ?”, Franklin wonders, “you’re a chemist then. I thought you were a 
musician.”
“ Oh, you’d be amazed at the number of things she knows”, replies G’Kar 
admiringly.
Garibaldi grimaces wryly. Delenn’s hardly disguised interest for Laetitia heightens 
with G’Kar’s comment and she stares at her with an intense look as if trying to 
discover what’s beneath the surface. Laetitia returns her stare, unmoved by her 
scrutiny.


**********

“ That’s not the way to our quarters”, Vir remarks to Londo, who just made an 
abrupt turn to his right.
“ I know”, replies Londo not slowing down his fast pace.
Vir hesitates for a second then decides to follow him, trotting behind to keep up the 
pace. Londo takes another turn on his right and nearly bumps into Laetitia, on the 
way back to her spaceship. She steps aside and resumes her walk. Londo grabs her 
arm to stop her and releases it immediately, showing her unexpected respect. She 
stops and faces him.
“ Have we met before ?”, he asks her in an unusually serious way. Vir looks at him 
in astonishment.
“ I’m surprised that you remember”, she replies in a similar serious way, increasing 
Vir’s astonishment, “ though Centauris have an uncanny relationship with 
memories, past and future.”
“ My memories are not clear. It’s just your voice… and a strange feeling of…”, he 
comes very near to her, their bodies almost touching, his breath slightly reeking of 
alcohol brushing over her face, “ …closeness”. Vir is starting to feel out of place. 
“ When ? … Where ?”
“ We met a long time ago on Centauri Prime”, she gives him a tender and sad smile, 
“ you fell asleep in my arms”. Vir’s jaw drops in shock. Londo is taken aback, 
visibly wondering how he could have forgotten such an event and he seems unable 
to decide whether he should look flattered or embarrassed. His mouth opens and 
closes but no sound is coming out. The faintest trace of a smile hovers on Laetitia’s 
lips. She pats his shoulder with a light hand.
“ Don’t get overexcited. You were only about two years old and the pride of your 
family”. A shiver runs through her and she swiftly withdraws her hand. “ You’ve 
changed a lot since then…not for better”. Londo steps back, unable to bear seeing 
the expression of pity in her eyes and face. “ It doesn’t show on the outside though”, 
she reflects, examining him closely, “ you look pretty good… for your age”. Their 
gazes lock again and he looks at her in puzzlement, his memories not getting clearer. 
“ Good night, gentlemen.” She leaves them standing like frozen statues in the 
middle of the corridor.

“ Humans really have a strange sense of humor”, remarks Vir in amazement. “ But 
even I never had such a severe rebuke from a female.”
Vir’s vexing remark takes Londo out of his pensive state.
“ Vir, you’ve taken insolent manners with me lately”, he says quite irritated and still 
at a loss over the entire encounter. “ Who do you think you are my boy ?”
“ The next emperor, I guess”, Vir replies with a sad voice.
Londo shoots him a painful look.


**********

Garibaldi gives a heartfelt yawn and takes a look at his watch clocking 4:36 a.m., he  
rubs his eyes wearily. Hiding behind furniture and stacks of cardboard and carbon 
boxes, he is spying upon a small group of eight men gathered in a circle, 20 feet 
away and among them the man with the bandaged hand. The men are discussing 
with low voices and Garibaldi has to strain his ears to catch their words. A suave-
looking man in his early sixties leads the conversation.
“ Time is running against us. My sources told me the Alliance will be moving in its 
new quarters right after the next session. Moreover, the glue’s return is planned in 
five days. Therefore, we will act in the next three days. Three days max”, he adds, 
stressing his words, “ and we’ll be rid of the alien abomination.”
Murmurs of excitement run through the group. Garibaldi scribbles down notes on a 
pad. Beside the words ‘the glue ’, he writes down ‘Lennier ?’.
“ And no more fooling around without my permission. We cannot risk being noticed 
so close to our goal. We have to stay focused on our mission”. The men in the group 
look at each other in discomfort. “ Now, let’s go over the first steps of our plan. 
Wilson ?”
“ Yes, sir. We’ve carefully studied her schedule and…”
Garibaldi can’t help yawning his head off again.
“ Wait”, interrupts the leader, raising his hand to obtain silence. “ Don’t you smell 
anything strange ?”, he asks around.
The men sniff the air. Garibaldi holds his breath, trying to suppress another yawn. 
The seconds seem to drag on. 
“ All right, Wilson”, the leader finally says, nodding to the man named Wilson.
Garibaldi expresses silent relief and tightens his lips, trying to hold away the 
continuously coming yawns.
“ From studying the schedule, we’ve come up….”


**********

As he is about to leave his quarters, John Sheridan hurriedly grabs his jacket on the 
nearby couch and inadvertently knocks down a delicate music box resting on the 
corner of a low table, with some sort of organization’s logo on its top. The box lets 
out a few notes before breaking on the floor in several pieces. Dismayed at his own 
clumsiness, he picks up the pieces and puts them back on the table. He tries to 
assemble the pieces back together but is too irritated to manage anything. He looks 
under the couch and retrieves the former top of the box, putting it down on the table 
with its inward face decorated with what seems to be a faded photograph facing 
upward. He turns to leave but comes back to that last piece and takes a good look at 
it. The caption above the photograph reads Laetitia Duschene-Assisi (2043-2058) 
and the photograph of a fifteen-year-old teenage girl bears an eerie resemblance to 
Laetitia Vail, musician and alien food taster.

Sheridan’s face turns ashen, “ What on Earth…”



Part III

Babylon 5 

Laetitia is sitting on the floor, leaning against a wall, her legs propped up against her 
chest and enclosed in her arms. The wall in front of her is literally covered with data 
crystals, thousands of them neatly stacked on rows and rows. A glass-like shield 
protects that part of the room from the rest. One crystal is lit in the storage part of 
the room and projects a three dimensional view of the Earth’s Solar System with 
Pluto standing inches from her face. The solar system is then replaced by close 
images of Pluto and its baby brother satellite, Charon. She stares at the twin system 
pensively and runs her hand through it almost lovingly. 
“ Set flight coordinates…”, a map of the galaxy replaces Pluto, “ Sector 18…”, an 
area of the galaxy gets zoomed in, “ 159-48-10…”, another zoom brings in a system 
made of one planet and two suns, data on the side of the display read ‘System of 
Harr, no life forms’. 
A deep man’s voice resonates. “ Security breach level 2. Counter data effective in 
two hours.”
Laetitia registers the information with concern. “ Set departure in one hour, pending 
confirmation. Report on…”
The voice interrupts her. “ You have a visitor.”
As if on cue, a delicate chime tinkles. Laetitia stops the visualization of the data 
crystal with a gesture. The lit crystal turns dull, lost again in the multitude of other 
crystals. She stands up. “ Video.”

Delenn’s face appears before her, awaiting an answer as elements of her biography 
(text, dates and photos), retrieved from several newly lit data crystals, are displayed 
on the side of the same video. Laetitia knits her eyebrows, annoyed. The chime 
tinkles again.
“ Please, I know you’re there. I will wait until you answer.”
Pursing her lips, Laetitia turns on her heels and climbs the short staircase on her 
right. “ Close storage room”. She emerges in the main room of her ship as the huge 
vaulted hatch of the storage room closes behind her with a thud, the opening 
invisible to the eye.“ Open entrance door.”
Delenn steps in and gives Laetitia a straightforward look.
“ We have to talk.”


**********

Zack hands a weary-eyed Garibaldi a cup of coffee, that he takes absentmindedly, 
too engrossed in something he’s watching on Zack’s babcom vidscreen.
“Well, what do you think ?”
“ I’ll be damned ! I knew she had a weak point !” Garibaldi answers, shaking his 
head and smiling lightly. “ She’s traveled too far indeed.”
“ What !?”
Garibaldi turns away from the vidscreen. “ It all fits. She needed an identity to be 
able to come here. She chose Delta IV as her home planet for very specific reasons. 
They’re cut off from the rest of the Universe and don’t let anyone access their data 
bases. When their people travel abroad, we only know their names, date of birth and 
the names of their closest kin. She didn’t have to recreate an entire life only a family 
tree but she just couldn’t bring herself to dispose of the old one.”
“ You don’t think that she’s…?”, asks Zack in disbelief.
“ Who else can she be ? I ran a check on her after G’Kar came up with his diner-
concert idea, I tried every data base of the Earth Federation and found absolutely no 
entry. She never went anywhere or bought anything, absolutely nothing. I also went 
through several alien data bases and found zilch, not even on Narn and she knows 
things about Narn that you can’t find in data bases. You’ve checked them too with 
your new angle and found nothing, niet, nada”.  He takes a short pause. “ Look, she 
comes from nowhere and has the same face, the same parents and as far as I can 
remember quite the same profile. It is a very special person we’re dealing with.” 
“ But she’s dead”, Zack stresses.
“ There were no witnesses.”
“ Of course ! She died in the middle of nowhere, years away from the next living 
thing.”
“ My point exactly.”
“ More than two hundred years ago !”, Zack insists.
“ I’ve seen stranger stuff”, replies Garibaldi, unabashed.
Zack raises his eyes to the ceiling in surrender.
“ Some people have expressed doubts about her death”, Garibaldi points out.
“ Yeah right”, Zack snorts, “ the same people who saw Elvis water skiing on Beta 
Proxima with Marilyn Monroe last week”. He looks back at Garibaldi. “ She could 
be a clone”. Garibaldi is about to argue. “ I know, I know, human cloning is 
forbidden. Officially. But there’s always a scientist with his own personal ethics.”
“ I guess she could”, answers Garibaldi, relenting. “ You can always make 
hypotheses. But, clone, original or plain lunatic, you actually have no tangible proof 
that her identity is a fake and she’s about to leave.” 
Zack sighs profoundly, chewing on the inside of his cheek. “ Do you think she’s 
dangerous ?”
Garibaldi takes his time to answer. “ I think we have more pressing business than 
her. I’ve found our suspects, we have to set up an ambush to collar them nice and 
easy.”
“ That’s excellent news !”, interrupts Zack, clearly relieved by the information. “ I’ll 
organize the surveillance.”
“ Great. She can be dealt with later. We’ll keep an eye on her with the help of the 
Alliance. Right now, she’s just a matter of hours. As long as she does leave the place 
and is not left alone with anyone important in the meantime, it’s gonna be fine.”


**********

Delenn is sitting on a small lightly curved metal-looking bench, in a corner of the 
ship’s main room, facing another similar bench. Laetitia puts a glass of water in 
front of her guest on a tiny table. The rest of the room remains just as bare as usual. 
Delenn waits until Laetitia is seated in front of her.
“ I’ve been told that you possess an interesting Ranger’s pike. May I see it ?”
Laetitia doesn’t move or speak.
“ Had anyone else asked him about the fight, he might have kept it for himself. But I 
was Sataï, he had to tell me.”
Laetitia retrieves the pike from her pocket and rolls it toward Delenn on the table. 
Delenn picks it up on the other side and examines the handle.

Still holding the pike in her hands, she starts speaking again in a low voice. 
“ Someone dear once told me long ago that sometime in the future I would meet a 
person bearing his name who would play an important part in the fight for peace and 
the prophecy. He also said that I could turn to that person as I would have turned to 
him. This pike belonged to him, to Duckhat”. She looks up at Laetitia. “ I expected 
you sooner … and much older.”
“ Ah! But prophecies don’t deal with such petty details”, replies Laetitia, who had 
been listening attentively to Delenn’s words, “ that’s why they can so easily lead to 
misinterpretations.” She looks straight at Delenn. “ You’re mistaken, I have no part 
in your prophecy. No message is attached to that pike.” She stands up, putting an 
end to the conversation. Delenn stares at her, unwilling to give up on her first belief.

“ Did his wife give it to you ?”, she asks, trying a more direct tactic. She stands up 
too and approaches Laetitia. “ I know that you were the last person to visit her a few 
days ago just before she died.”
“ You are well informed… again”, Laetitia replies, unmoved. “ Therefore you must 
be aware of the important role she played in developing exchanges between Minbari 
and Human art forms. Music was one of them. It was only natural that I paid my 
respects to her in her last moments.”
“ She gave you the pike ?”
“ She wanted me to keep it”, Laetitia admits.
“ And you’ve learned how to fight with it.”
“ A woman traveling alone has to know how to defend herself.”
Delenn looks again at the weapon, searching for yet another tactic to break her 
composure. “ It is very old, probably the pike he received when he finished his 
Ranger’s training. Most Minbaris would worship the mere sight of it”. She meets 
Laetitia’s gaze. “ Duckhat and his wife had no close kin, I was the closest to a child 
they ever had and yet she chose to entrust you with it. You must have been very 
close to her”, she reflects.
“ I guess ”, replies Laetitia, noncommittal.
“ You guess ?”, Delenn repeats doubtfully, her tone of voice and gaze telling 
Laetitia that she knows better. Laetitia averts her gaze for a second, taking a grip on 
her emotions then looks back at Delenn with a neutral face.
“ If it bothers you so much that I have it then take it”, she offers offhandedly as 
Delenn still holds the pike in her hands.
Delenn is horrified at the thought. “ No, never. It is yours”. She returns the pike to 
Laetitia but doesn’t move to leave. Laetitia steps back, ready to show her back to the 
entrance.
“ There’s something else I wanted to ask you”, Delenn says.


**********

Garibaldi enters his quarters.
“ Lights. Out”. He heads straight to his bed, taking off his shoes and discarding his 
clothes on the floor, one after the other: jacket, shirt, pants, socks. Wearing only his 
johns, he sprawls on his bed, closes his eyes and sighs in perfect bliss.


**********

“ You use Vorlon technology”, Delenn remarks, lying on an examination bed in her 
undergarments. The bed, closer to a bunk actually, is set by the cluster of computers 
in the ship’s main room, extruding from the wall at waist-height and made in the 
same material.
“ I use any technology that is best fit for my purpose”, answers Laetitia, 
concentrated on her screen. “ This is Shadow technology”, she adds looking up at a 
strange device that just appeared from the ceiling and stops three feet above the bed. 
Delenn is stunned and throws anxious looks at Laetitia, back to her computers and 
too engrossed to notice. The words ‘Change of parameters recorded’ then 
‘Beginning of examination’ flash across one of the computers’ screen. The device 
above the bed slowly descends and hovers hardly one inch over Delenn’s stomach. 
Delenn looks alternately at Laetitia and the device, her anxiety growing. 

A three dimensional image appears on Laetitia’s computer screen, hidden from 
Delenn’s gaze, but it is somewhat blurred. Laetitia seems puzzled, she turns to look 
at Delenn and notices her anxious face and clenched fists. She rolls her chair a bit 
and hesitantly reaches for Delenn’s right hand, slowly unclenching her fist.
“ Relax”, she says in a soothing voice. “ Close your eyes… Close your eyes”. 
Delenn complies. “ Breathe deeply and relax. I’ll tell you when you can watch”.  
She starts to roll her chair back to its former place but Delenn won’t let her hand go. 
They exchange a brief look. “ We can stop now if you prefer”, Laetitia offers gently. 
Delenn takes one more look at the device hovering over her stomach then closes her 
eyes again and releases her grip. Laetitia checks the computer’s findings while a 
now perfect three dimensional image of a twelve-week old fetus rotates on her 
screen. All parameters are correct. She punches a key and the same image appears 
right above Delenn’s head.

“ You can watch now.”

Delenn opens her eyes and stares at the image in amazement. She reaches up to it, 
almost able to touch it. Her emotion is beyond words. The image of the fetus gets 
blurred again then settles back to its former highly clear definition. Laetitia gets up 
and approaches the bed. She places her hands low on Delenn’s stomach, the device 
rises a little to allow her some space, and she presses lightly, keeping an eye on the 
image of the fetus. The small pressure she gives makes the fetus change sides. 
Delenn gasps as she can see it move and laughs lightly as it raises its diminutive 
hand with the five fingers clearly visible toward the point where Laetitia is exerting 
pressure. The laugh dies in her throat as she notices Laetitia’s grave face. She gives 
her a questioning look.
“ Is he… ?”
“ Everything is fine”, answers Laetitia reassuringly. “ You can start planning for 
sleepless nights.”
Delenn gives her a smile of utter joy, her happiness so strong that Laetitia can’t bear 
the sight of it, she turns back to her screen.
“ Do you want to know the sex ?”
“ I know it”, replies Delenn without the slightest doubt in her voice, her whole 
attention focused on the image. 
Laetitia looks at her sadly and murmurs to herself. “ Such blind faith.”


**********

“ We still don’t know who she really is”, remarks Sheridan thoughtful and worried. 
“ And we don’t have much to feed on. I did receive a message from Delta IV, 
officially certifying that the information we have on her is correct but…”
“ What ?”
“ It was an impersonal message. Anyone could have sent it.”
“ I see. Did you ask G’Kar about her ? He seemed to know her quite well.”
“ He is attending a meeting in a spaceship outside the station. I left him a message.”
Silence grows between the two thoughtful men.
“ Garibaldi thinks she is Laetitia Duschene-Assisi”, Zack finally says.
“ Impossible”, replies Sheridan firmly, examining the top piece of the music box 
with the photograph.“ I don’t like secrets I don’t know about”, he mutters for 
himself. 

A call on Zack’s commlink interrupts them.

“ Chief ?”
“ Yes. What is it ?”
“ We’ve accompanied VP Delenn Sheridan to docking bay Alpha. She specifically 
insisted that we stayed outside while she visited someone but she’s been in there for 
more than two hours now.”
“ Who is she visiting ?”
“ She said something about a musician.”
“ Oh no…”, whispers Sheridan.
“ Stay close. Let us know if anything happens, we’re on our way.”


**********

“ Come in”, says Garibaldi curtly as he is finishing shaving his beard in front of a 
mirror.
Salvador, the young officer in charge of arrivals, enters Garibaldi’s quarters, 
carrying a folded towel and looking as ecstatic as Archimedes must have been when 
coming out of his bathtub.
“ I know why she looks familiar !”. He looks at Garibaldi expectantly.
Garibaldi turns toward him, his face wet from the water he just splashed on it. 
“ Why ?”, he asks, reaching for a towel to wipe his face.
“ Well today is my day off and as usual on that day, I go to the dry cleaner’s, you 
know the Chinese people on level 4, they take really good care of your clothes, not 
like that dry cleaner’s on level two who ruined one of my uniforms. Anyway, I’m 
waiting in the line wondering what I will be doing next, you know…”
“ Come to the point, Salvador”, Garibaldi interrupts him, carelessly throwing his 
towel on the side of the sink.
“ Tada !”, proudly says Salvador, unfolding with a flourish the large towel he 
brought with him and displaying it before Garibaldi’s eyes. A young girl in an 
astronaut’s jumpsuit with the helmet under her arm is represented on the towel. 
“ That’s Laetitia Duschene-Assisi, she’s a national hero in my country… Chile, you 
know. There’s a definite resemblance, don’t you think ?”
“ Absolutely”, Garibaldi answers, much to Salvador’s pleasure.
“ And they have the same surname ! No wonder she seemed familiar !”
“ You tell me !”. He looks thoughtfully at the towel. “ I can’t wait to be a national 
hero.”


**********

The main room of Laetitia’s ship is back to its original bareness : no more benches, 
table, examination bed or device.

“ It contains useful information for the rest of your pregnancy”, Laetitia says giving 
Delenn a data crystal and gently, but firmly, guiding her back to the entrance.
“ I don’t know how I will ever be able to thank you for what you did today.”
“ Forget me.”
Delenn is surprised by her curt answer.
A deep man’s voice resonates. “ You have four visitors. Level 3.”
“ Simple video”, answers Laetitia.
Sheridan and Zack appear on the wall before her, their features revealing their 
anxiety and determination.
“ John ?!”, cries out Delenn.
“ You have to leave”, Laetitia says brusquely. “ Open entrance door.”

Sheridan and Zack quickly step in, with the two bodyguards on the rear, all of them 
with their weapons drawn.
“ Step away from her, Delenn”, shouts Sheridan.
“ But John …”
He interrupts her. “ She is not who she says she is.”
Zack grabs Laetitia by the shoulders. “ You are now under arrest for the use of a 
false identity and the cracking of data bases.”
Laetitia turns to Sheridan, shaking her head in annoyance. “ You’re wasting your 
energy.”
Sheridan’s jaw twitches. “ Take her away.”
Zack gestures to one of the guards. “Stay here, watch the area, I’m sending people 
over to search the ship”, turning to the second guard, “ You ! Escort her with me.” 
The deep man’s voice makes him jump. “ Full security shutdown in 30 seconds. All 
passengers must exit. Twenty-five, Twenty-four, Twenty-three,…
Zack roughly seizes Laetitia’s arm. “ What’s going on ?”.
“ The ship is shutting down her entire operating system, including the air supply. 
Anyone who stays inside will die of suffocation.”
“ You did that, didn’t you ?”
Laetitia remains silent.
“ Eleven , ten, nine,…”
“ Shit.” He pushes her forward and they all exit the ship. The ship’s entrance closes 
slowly and the pieces seem to melt together, making it invisible. The entire hull of 
the ship becomes one giant piece without the slightest asperity. Sheridan turns to 
Laetitia. “ You have a lot of questions to answer”. She still remains silent. Zack 
takes her away with one of the guard, the other staying by the ship. 

Sheridan starts to follow suit but Delenn stops him.
“ John, I don’t understand…”
“ We absolutely don’t know who she is”. He takes her by the arm and brings her 
closer. “ Delenn, I got so worried when I found out you were here alone with her. 
How could you agree so easily to meet someone you hardly know in a potentially 
dangerous place ?”
Delenn feels embarrassed. “ Actually, I went uninvited.” 
Sheridan raises his eyebrows quite surprised. Delenn turns toward the corridor 
where Zack took Laetitia away. “ I thought I knew about her… and I needed her 
medicine skills.”
“ What ?!” Sheridan almost yells. “ For all we know, she’s just a musician, with an 
interest in unorthodox chemistry.”
“ She’s much more than that.”
“ Why didn’t you go to Franklin?”, asks a much calmer Sheridan, not wishing to let 
the guard overhear their conversation.
“ If I had gone to Franklin, you would have heard about it. I trusted her secrecy.”
“ Is there something wrong ?”, he inquires suddenly worried.
“ Nothing’s wrong”. She turns to him and smiles bravely. “ I’m pregnant”. Sheridan 
is dumbfounded. “ I wanted to make sure everything was all right before I told you. I 
didn’t want to give you false hope like the last time.”
“ I can’t believe you went to a total stranger about that while your life is under 
possible threat. Delenn…”. He puts his hands on her shoulders.
“ She’s not a stranger. I had been told about her. She’s in the prophecy.”
“ The prophecy !”, replies Sheridan, shaking his head. “ You always mention it as if 
it were the ultimate explanation but you’re reluctant to tell me about it. Are you 
aware that those who told you about it, may have kept some things for themselves 
too ?”. Delenn doesn’t answer. “ I should never have told you about my flash 
forwards during the time disturbance on Babylon 4. You took it as a confirmation of 
that damn prophecy and today you’ve endangered yourself because of it.”
“ Like it or not, we’re the central figures of that ‘damn’ prophecy”. Her smile 
deepens and she puts her hands on his chest. “ John, I saw our baby, our son.”
Sheridan strokes her cheek, in a tender and sad way. “ How can you be sure that she 
did not deceive you somehow?”.
“ John, I am pregnant”, stresses Delenn a bit hurt by his remark, “ almost three 
months along. I already knew it. I’ll see Franklin right away if you want. He will 
confirm everything she’s told me.”
They gaze at each other for a moment. 
“ That night on Minbar, right ?”,  Sheridan says, finally smiling.
“ I think so”. She smiles back.
He turns to look at the ship, with her smooth, unrevealing hull. Delenn follows his 
stare.
“ She carries Duckhat’s legacy. He sent her to me somehow.”
“ Duckhat ?”, answers Sheridan in disbelief, “ he was dead and buried before she 
was even born !”
“ I know. She herself denies being sent but I’m sure she’s on our side.”


**********

Sheridan drops the broken pieces of the music box on the table with a clatter. He 
places the top of the box with the photograph right before Laetitia’s eyes. She picks 
up the pieces for examination.
“ Of course, number 7, mahogany and Tchaikhovski’s ‘Nutcracker’, originally made 
for Captain Anton Roskov. Awarded to Cadet John J. Sheridan for outstanding 
performances”. She looks up at Sheridan. “ Congratulations. Where did you keep 
it ?”
“ Hey, I’m the one asking the questions here!”, Zack snaps, holding off Sheridan. He 
whispers for his ears only. “ You’re not supposed to be in this room”. Sheridan 
retreats in a corner of the cell.

Zack places two groups of three pictures on the table, one above the other. Laetitia 
reaches out, tracing a line with her finger below the first group of pictures.
“ These people are John Duschene, Claudia Assisi and Laetitia their daughter”, Zack 
says showing the first group, “ well known figures of the 21st century”. He points to 
the music box piece. “ That’s also Laetitia Duschene-Assisi”.  He turns to the second 
group. “ And these people are your ‘parents’, John Vail, Claudia Vail born Umbria”, 
he continues emphasizing the pronunciation of the surnames, “ and yourself”, he 
adds, showing the last picture. The two families are like identical twins. “ Who 
would you say are the odd ones out ?”
 Laetitia looks thoughtfully at Sheridan and Zack then back at the pictures.
“ If I had come here pretending to have been born on Earth in 2043 and wrongfully 
thought dead, I would have ended up right here at once in a straightjacket”, she says 
looking up at Zack. “ I had to change the names and dates, for my own safety.” 
Zack is taken aback. “ You’re telling me that you are Laetitia Duschene-Assisi ?!”
“ Yes”. Sheridan lets out an outraged grunt.
“ Right. And I’m the Queen of China”, Zack retorts.
“ That’s your problem”, she pipes up.
He shoots her a dark look, unsure whether or not she meant it as a pique.
“ How do you expect people to believe you ? Laetitia Duschene-Assisi has been dust 
for centuries”, he points out.
“ Any witnesses of her death ?”, Laetitia asks matter-of-factly.
“ Of course not, she blew up…”
“ An empty oxygen tank, just in case someone came looking for wreckage”, she 
interrupts, finishing his sentence.
“ All the scientists studying the last data about her ship concluded it had suffered a 
massive electrical malfunction and exploded !”
“ I sent that data”, she points out quietly.
Zack is at loss for words. Sheridan is muttering to himself in his corner.
“ Very well”, Zack says calmly, taking a grip on himself. “ Let’s say that you are 
Laetitia Duschene-Assisi and that these people are your parents…”
“ They are my parents indeed.”
“ Sure.”
“ I would never lie on that subject”, Laetitia stresses earnestly.
“ Okay, sure. Let’s pretend you’re her. If I understand correctly, you faked the 
explosion of your ship.”
“ Correct.”
“ Then what, you went on traveling through space ?”
“ Yes.”
“ Why ?”
“ That’s personal.”
“ If you want me to believe you, I have to know.”
“ No you don’t”, she replies, gentle but firm. 
Sheridan has a hard time fighting his urge to take control of the situation. He paces 
back and forth in the background.
“ Okay, have it your way”, Zack replies, remaining unexpectedly calm, somewhat 
influenced by Laetitia’s own calmness. “ So, you managed to go through two 
centuries, aging only five or six years, even though your ship had absolutely no 
cryo-stasis facilities…”
“ How can you be so sure ?”, she remarks, interrupting him. “ You weren’t there.”
“ I know my history. Complete success in human freezing and revival was not 
achieved before the beginning of the 22nd century and”, he picks up the photograph 
from the music box, “ you aged during your trip from Earth to Pluto.”
“ Actually”, Laetitia says with a wry smile, pointing to the photograph, “ that picture 
is a fake. I used a great software developed by the movie industry to age characters. 
I used it for all my video transmissions to Earth. Pretty close to reality, don’t you 
think ?”

“ Bullshit !!”, shouts Sheridan, finally exploding. He comes out of his corner, much 
to Zack’s displeasure. “ I don’t buy your story”. He leans on the table, his face 
inches away from hers. “ Who are you ?”
“ Laetitia Duschene-Assisi, born April 5th, 2043 in the Atacama Observatory, Chile, 
Earth”, she replies quietly.
“ Let’s try again. Who are you ?”, repeats Sheridan, unflinching.
She purses her lips, looking at Zack, who’s cursing himself for letting Sheridan take 
over. She turns back to Sheridan and looks at him straight in the eye. “ Anastasia 
Romanov.”
Sheridan’s hand itches to slap her face and he steps away from her, to avoid 
temptation. “ I’m not in the mood for games, young lady. Don’t test my patience. 
Last try, who are you ?” Laetitia keeps a stubborn silence. “ Very well, I leave you 
the night to think it over. We’ll talk again tomorrow morning.”
“ I won’t talk to you. Besides”, she adds looking at both of them, “ this is just one 
big bluff, you have nothing against me. You can’t build a case on a couple of 
pictures. Keep me 24 hours if you please, but by tomorrow afternoon I’ll be gone 
from here.”
Sheridan leans again on the table. “ Believe me, you will talk.”
Laetitia returns his cold stare, unabashed. Cocking her head as if evaluating him, she 
whispers for his ears only. “ I wonder what sacrifice was asked of you. It is said that 
you died on Z’ha’dum but you came back quite alive and kicking…”, realization 
dawns on her, “ unless you’re a walking dead.”
Sheridan’s jaw twitches. He stands up quickly and walks to the door, he turns to her 
one last time. “ I will find out one way or another ”. He storms out of the cell.

Zack shakes his head and sighs. “ Why upset him like that ?”
“ Why let him take control ? He was hostile from the beginning”, she replies 
scathingly.
Zack visibly flinches at her words.
“ I’m sorry”, she apologizes instantly. “ My own carelessness makes me angry. I 
should have known better.”
Zack looks at her in puzzlement.
“ Is there anyone who could confirm what you’re saying ?” 
“ Someone you would believe ? Not anymore”, she replies sadly.
“ Can you prove it any other way ?”
“ Only if you give me the benefit of the doubt. There’s nothing you know about me 
that no one else but I could know.”
“ Why did you come to Babylon 5 ?”
She shrugs. “ Curiosity kills the cat.”
Zack starts to collect the pieces of the music box on the table. She stops him. 
“ Leave it there. I will repair it.”
“ It’s broken.”
“ No. It is merely in pieces. They can be assembled back together”. Zack gives her a 
dubious look. “ Trust me. I designed it”. He shrugs and leaves the pieces on the table 
then picks up the pictures, spots her silent plead and puts them back on the table. He 
starts to leave the room. “ If you really are Laetitia Duschene-Assisi, you should be 
smart enough to find a way to prove your identity… before tomorrow morning.”



Part IV

Babylon 5 

Garibaldi is sitting at his spot in the Zocalo. He’s got his personal computer before 
him on the table with the vidscreen opened, watching a video from the archives of 
the scientific society. Titles at the foot of the screen read : November 9, 2050 – 
Shuttle crash news report. The video portrays a male journalist, a caption picture on 
the top right of the shot shows a crash explosion titled below ‘breaking news’.

“ The scientific community is devastated after hearing the terrible news given by the 
company operating the Phoenix-Montreal shuttle, that crashed in the Rocky 
Mountains early this morning, less than thirty minutes after take-off. John Duschene 
and his wife Claudia Duschene-Assisi, the world’s leading scientists in space travel 
research and highly regarded figures in many other scientific research fields, died in 
the crash”. A picture of the couple replaces the crash caption picture. “ It is a 
dramatic loss for the scientific community and the future of humanity. John 
Duschene and Claudia Assisi, alone or together, won ten Nobel prizes in Physics, 
Chemistry, Mathematics and Medicine over the last 25 years”. The journalist’s 
image dissolves and his commentary continues in voice-over as images of lesser 
quality replace his own. “ These are the last images we have of them alive. They 
were taken by the security cameras of the Phoenix airport as the couple was 
boarding the shuttle, John Duschene carrying their sleeping 7-year-old daughter”. 
The video freezes and the camera zooms on the sleeping child. “ We’ve just learned 
that their daughter, Laetitia, is among the three survivors of the crash. She was 
found in a state of extreme shock by the rescue team and has been transferred to 
Denver’s children hospital.”

G’Kar arrives and sits by Garibaldi.
“ I got a strange message from Zack then yours. What’s going on ?”
Garibaldi points to his vidscreen where the image is still frozen on the sleeping 
child. “ I thought you might be interested in seeing this. It’s about your protégée.”


**********

Delenn is in her quarters watching the babcom screen where a video from the 
archives of the scientific society is displayed. Titles at the foot of the screen read : 
March 20, 2053 – The Duschene- Assisi project / Last launch.

The video displays the takeoff of a space rocket. Titles at the foot of the screen read 
Kourou, Guyana – Courtesy of EC Space Center. The image dissolves and is 
replaced by a journalist from America’s Information Network. A caption picture on 
the top right of the shot displays a crossed symbol of justice titled below ‘The 
Laetitia Duschene-Assisi issue’

“ The rocket that successfully left Kourou earlier today carried the mainframe of the 
spaceship that Laetitia Duschene-Assisi will use for her round trip journey to Pluto 
and within that mainframe, Laetitia Duschene-Assisi herself. Four previous launches 
have sent the other elements of the ship over to the international space station. 
America’s attempt to stop this crazy project was unsuccessful and a child, one of the 
most promising scientific minds in the world, will die because the international 
community failed to reach a satisfying agreement.”
The symbol of justice is replaced by a picture of a young girl. 
“ It all started when Laetitia Duschene-Assisi contacted the EC Space Center to buy 
launching capacities and requested authorization from the international scientific 
community to use the facilities of the international space station to assemble her 
spaceship in zero-gravity environment. The United States and Canada immediately 
tried to take the affair to court for reason of insanity regarding her legal tutor, 
Michael Harrison, her parents’ former patent rights lawyer. Harrison had signed all 
the official papers for her different approaches, using her parents’ huge fortune to 
finance the project. Arguing that the child’s father was French Canadian and her 
tutor American, the two countries requested that the child be placed in their joint 
care. But Chile rallied round its young citizen, born and raised in the northern part of 
the country and appealed to Italy, homeland of the child’s mother. Italy brought 
along the support of the entire European Community, creating an unprecedented 
diplomatic clash between North America and all of Europe. The support of Russia, 
Japan and India to the child’s side at the last minute left North America 
outnumbered in every international organization…”

Sheridan enters the room and discovers the babcom screen with evident displeasure. 

“…and in a month from now, on her tenth birthday, Laetitia Duschene-Assisi will 
start her suicidal journey to Pluto”. The picture of Laetitia Duschene-Assisi covers 
the whole screen. “ We can only hope and pray that she will miraculously prove us 
wrong.” 

Sheridan turns off the babcom screen. Delenn watches him slump on the couch with 
concern. She raises from her armchair and goes to sit by him. She takes his hand in 
hers, stroking it gently, respecting his silence.

“ Zack told you”, he finally says.
“ Yes.”
“ You believe what she says ?”
“ I don’t know. I told you I thought she was someone special. I didn’t ask for that 
much though.”
“ She gave us no proof.”
“ What kind of proof do you want ?”
“ I don’t know but I just can’t let her claim to be Laetitia Duschene-Assisi without 
some proof.”
She runs her hand over his hair and face. “ I know how much you cared for that 
award but you look like you’ve just lost your best friend.”
He puts his arm around her shoulders and brings her closer. He kisses her temple 
and takes a deep breath. “ Maybe I have”. He pauses momentarily. “ I grew up in a 
world that had brought to reality the dreams that had pushed it forward for centuries, 
especially space travel. I’ve always thought that she and her parents were 
responsible for that. Man first landed on the Moon in 1969. Then Mars became the 
next destination. After several failures, the human race successfully set foot on Mars 
in 2025, during the first mission supervised by her parents. John Duschene and 
Claudia Assisi were geniuses and many predicted that their daughter would surpass 
them both. She started early on. Laetitia Duschene-Assisi was the first child on the 
moon, the first child officially admitted in the international society of astronauts, the 
first human to leave Earth to reach the limits of our solar system at an age when I 
had to be in bed at nine sharp. So much data was recovered from her journey that 
scientists had enough to feed on for decades and space travel was literally boosted. 
In many ways, she was my childhood hero. I collected all the information I could 
find on her”. He takes a pause. “ I can’t believe I didn’t make the parallel right 
away”, he says shaking his head in dismay, “ the same features, the same surname, 
the same brilliant abilities…”, he recites, “.… and the music.”
“ You had no reason to think of her. She belonged to the past”, Delenn replies softly.
“ Or so I believed.”
Delenn runs her hand over his chest.
“ What does your heart tell you ?”
“ My heart tells me it’s her but my head refuses to consider that eventuality.”
“ I had the feeling that she was just as stubborn as you. One of you will have to 
compromise.”
“ I have a way to know for sure”, Sheridan replies pensively, staring ahead of him.
Delenn looks at him in concern but doesn’t push the issue.


**********

G’Kar is bent toward Garibaldi’s small computer vidscreen, hands to his face, his 
features sad and grave. Titles at the foot of the screen read : March 20, 2053 – The 
Laetitia Duschene-Assisi project – Last launch.

The video portrays a South-American woman journalist with a caption picture of a 
spaceship titled ‘Fugue’ on the top right of the screen.
“ La niña de las altas montañas, Laetitia Duschene-Assissi, is about to reach her 
beloved stars. In two hours, she will leave the Kourou space center in her ship’s 
mainframe and join the international space station where she will assemble her ship 
before she leaves for Pluto in a month from now. Many have expressed doubts about 
the feasibility of her project and even tried to stop her. We know better and so does 
Captain Anton Roskov.” 
The picture of the journalist is replaced by an interview of an astronaut in his forties, 
titles at the foot of the screen read : Captain Anton Roskov, Shuttle pilot, Moon 
mission 3.
“ I’ve been stuck in a cramped base on the Moon during four months with ten other 
adults and a six-year-old child, all chosen for their outstanding grey cells and strong 
psychological balance. Many said that Laetitia had been put on the mission only 
because of her parents’ request to have her with them. Well, I’ve been through 
several such long missions with many different people and believe me, if anyone can 
make it at all, it’s Laetitia.”

The journalist comes back on the screen. “ Laetitia Duschene-Assisi granted an 
interview to our special correspondent a few hours ago before entering the last steps 
of the launch.”
“ You seem very serene for someone leaving on such a trip”, remarks the special 
correspondent.
“ I’m aware of the risks”, quietly replies the ten-year old Laetitia, already dressed in 
her astronaut’s jumpsuit and surprisingly sporting the complexion of someone 
spending most of her time in the open air, “ no existence, even the most boring one, 
goes without risks.”
“ You’re not concerned about the loneliness and the hard living conditions ?”
“ I’ve been raised in the high mountains of the Atacama desert since my birth, I 
know about living in extreme conditions.”
“ And the loneliness ?”
“ Music will be my companion.”
“ I have a little boy, Diego, he’s five”, says the special correspondent, suddenly 
tossing aside the formality of the interview, “ when I told him we would meet, he 
gave me this for you”. The correspondent places a small compass hung to a little 
chain in Laetitia’s gloved left hand, the kind of cheap gifts one gets from cereal 
boxes. She stares at the colorful object in silence. “ It’s his magical compass”, the 
correspondent explains. “ He said it will guide you in case you can’t find your way 
back home with the stars.”
Laetitia chuckles lightly and rewards him with a heartfelt smile, bringing back the 
youthful innocence of her age on her face. The correspondent can’t help caressing 
her hair with paternal fondness. She slowly closes her fist on the compass.
“ Anything else you would like to say before you leave ?”, he asks, serious again.
“ I would like to thank all the countries who came to my support, especially Chile”, 
she says, looking directly at the camera. “ Chilean people, my people, whatever the 
outcome, know that I will never forget what you did for me. You made it possible 
and you hold the keys to a bright future for your country.”
“ Thanks to you, Laetitia”, replies the news journalist back on the screen. “ Laetitia 
is now about to enter her ship for the final countdown. We have the images from the 
security cameras.”
Laetitia is walking on the gangway leading to the entrance of her ship, a small figure 
in an overgrown jumpsuit. She’s carrying her helmet under her arm. She turns 
around before the hatch and waves goodbye to the camera in the exact way she’s 
pictured on Salvador’s towel then goes through the hatch.

“ It’s her”, murmurs G’Kar, “ definitely… but different in a way.”
“ She was much younger”, Garibaldi points out.
“ It’s not that. She was hopeful.”


**********

Laetitia takes out the photograph from the top piece of the music box that she just 
finished repairing. She closes the box carefully, putting an end to its sweet melody 
and places it in the middle of the table. She then pockets the retrieved photograph 
and those Zack left her and walks toward the door. She presses her ear to it, trying to 
find out if guards have been assigned to watch the door to her cell. Satisfied with the 
silence, she approaches the control panel of the door, opens it and starts rummaging 
through the wires. She selects one and yanks it out. The door opens slowly… on 
Zack and G’Kar. Zack’s hand hangs in the air, inches away from the opening 
command of the door, he’s carrying a tray of food with his other hand. His surprise 
turns into understanding.
“ Where do you think you’re going?”. He shoves the tray into G’Kar’s hands, grabs 
her and sends her back toward the center of the cell. He notices the control panel 
with its wire hanging out and starts putting the wire back in place while keeping an 
eye on Laetitia, sulking on her bad timing.
“ From now on, I’m putting security guards in front of your cell.”
“ That won’t be necessary”, replies G’Kar, putting the tray on the table, “ I will 
watch over her. She won’t go anywhere”. Laetitia looks at G’Kar in puzzlement.
“ I agreed to your visit and you can stay in here if you want”, Zack tells him, “ but 
I’m putting guards before the door anyway”. He turns to Laetitia. “ You’re really 
making things hard”. He slams the top of the control panel back in place and leaves 
the cell.
“ Forsberg, Popov”, he calls on his commlink as the door closes behind him, 
“ you’ve got five seconds to bring your butts over to cell #1”.
Laetitia starts moving to the control panel but G’Kar comes to stand in front of it. 
She looks at him in determination.
“ Let me go, the guards will be here any second”, she says in an urgent tone. G’Kar 
doesn’t budge. “ I mean no harm, I’m going far away from here.”
“ No.”
“ Why ?”
“ Because I don’t like the place you’re going to”. He presses his back to the control 
panel, putting it completely out of her reach. He shoots her a look as determined as 
hers. She grimaces in anger and frustration. 
“ You don’t understand.”
A loud knock on the door surprises them both. “ No more escaping now”, shouts a 
guard from the outside. Laetitia turns her back to the door, giving up her hopes of 
escaping.
“ I understand very well”, replies G’Kar, leaving the control panel to approach her. 
“ Contrary to some, I believe you are Laetitia Duschene-Assisi”. He grabs her arm to 
get her attention. “ Don’t take that path ! My home planet is still in ruins after the 
war against the Centauris, my body has been torn to pieces by a madman and I’ve 
lost so many close ones that I stopped keeping track of it years ago. Do you think 
you’re the only person to have known suffering and grief ?”, he asks, shaking her 
arm in his growing anger.
She looks up at him, approaching her face to his. “ Todmer”, she whispers.
G’Kar releases her arm right away and steps back in horror and fear. Laetitia makes 
a slight grimace as if expecting this particular reaction. “ I win”, she says with a wry 
smile. She approaches the control panel, opens it and yanks out the same wire again. 
“ Good bye”. The door opens slowly and the guards stand by ready to shoot her if 
she makes the slightest move to escape. She slowly steps away from the door, arms 
raised over her head and goes to sit on the chair in the middle of the cell. G’Kar 
looks at her one last time in puzzled revulsion then leaves.


**********

Zack is in the watch room from where he can observe everything that is going on in 
Laetitia’s cell, a situation peculiar to cell #1. The cell and the watch room are 
separated by a two-way wall, giving Zack the impression that he is in the cell 
himself but he can’t be seen or heard. His eyebrows are furrowed in worry. Laetitia 
is lying on a bunk in a corner of the cell; the lights, kept on a low level, hardly break 
the obscurity of the room. She’s listening over and over again to the music box 
resting on her belly. The door to the cell opens and G’Kar steps in hesitantly, 
carrying his book of G’Quon. Laetitia closes the music box and rises from the bunk.
“ Lights. Up”. She looks at G’Kar in appraisal. “ I figured the competition was 
over.” 
“ I’ve thought a lot about what you said last night”, he says, looking at her directly 
without the slightest trace of fear or revulsion anymore. “ I wondered if you would 
explain me some things ?”.
Laetitia puts the music box on the table and sits herself on the chair. “ Starting with 
what ?”, she replies quietly.
“ That”, answers G’Kar, putting on the table his book of G’Quon, opened on a page 
displaying the drawing of some golden form that vaguely resembles the design on 
the back of Laetitia’s dark blue robe. Laetitia brings the book closer to her.


Lyta Alexander enters the watch room.
“ Morning, Zack.”
“ Morning, Lyta. Sheridan told me you’d be coming by. I gather he asked you a 
favor.”
“ I owed him one. A big one”. She eyes him closely. “ You don’t approve.”
Zack doesn’t answer. Lyta looks at the cell.
“ What’s G’Kar doing here ?”
“ He’s taken quite an interest in the girl.”
Lyta starts concentrating on Laetitia and raises her eyebrows in worried surprise. 
Moved by a sudden interest, she slowly approaches the partition wall
“ Her thoughts are confusing”, she tells Zack, remaining behind her as she’s 
performing her scan. She deepens her concentration. “ She told you the truth, she is 
Laetitia Duschene-Assisi”. An expression of panic spreads on her face and, swaying 
lightly, she has to put her hand on the wall for support then she seems to take a grip 
on her emotions, summoning up her resolve and her eyes turn black.


Laetitia presses her fingers to her temples in discomfort, still looking in silence at 
the drawing. She looks up at G’Kar, standing close by.
“ You must have studied G’Quon’s book in depth. Very few people know the 
meaning of that page”. She presses her fingers to her temples again but in pain this 
time. Realization dawns on her and she sharply turns her attention to the watch room 
in worry. “ No !”, she shouts, standing up to approach the wall. “ Don’t ! No !!”
Lyta springs back as if hit by an electrical surge and slumps to the floor. Zack rushes 
to her. “ Lyta, you all right ?”. His attention is drawn to the other room. G’Kar is 
pounding fiercely on the wall, yelling. “ What have you done ? What have you 
done ?”.  He picks up in his arms Laetitia’s unconscious body.


**********

Franklin is bent over Laetitia, still unconscious, scanning her head. He turns to his 
assistants.
“ Put her under monitoring.”
G’Kar watches him with worried eyes leave Laetitia’s side to examine Lyta. He 
scans her too then simply slaps her cheeks. She starts to gain consciousness and 
moans in pain.
“ Lyta, how are you feeling ?”
“ Like my head has just been slammed in a wall.”
“ I’m giving you some painkillers. Can you explain what happened ?”
“ I’m not sure…”, answers Lyta, though the way she looks at Laetitia bears a 
different meaning.

A trickle of blood slowly starts running out of Laetitia’s nose. The monitors are 
triggered off and start beeping wildly.
“ Doctor, she’s slipping!”, cries out an assistant.
“ Look at her brain waves !”, screams another.
Franklin rushes to Laetitia, he checks the monitors and takes a look at her bleeding 
nose. “ Shit ! There’s brain tissue in it ! Take a sample for examination and turn off 
that noise”, he yells to his assistants.
The assistants turn off the monitors’ alarms. One low-pitched sound remains.
“ I told you to shut them off !”
“ We did”, answers an assistant. “It’s coming from her.”
Franklin bends toward Laetitia, looking for the origin of the irritating sound. He 
unbuttons the top of her clothes and uncovers a small biological device, obviously of 
Vorlon technology, set at the base of her throat. The device is pulsing red with the 
sound. 
“ What …?!”, lets out Franklin in puzzlement. He touches the device warily. The 
sound stops but the pulsing remains.
Zack’s commlink beeps.
“ Allan ?!”
“ Peter Sloane here. That ship in docking bay Alpha that we’re watching. It looks 
like it just geared up on its own and the hull has changed colors.”
Zack turns to Franklin. G’Kar steps in and grabs Franklin by the arm. “ Transfer her 
to her ship. Now.”


**********

“ Congratulations”, whispers  Laetitia.
“ I hope you got what you wanted”, Zack hisses angrily, shoving the repaired music 
box into Sheridan’s chest.
“ … walking dead”

Sheridan turns over once more, he’s lying awake in bed, unable to find some peace 
of mind. He gets up and goes to the living room. He sits wearily on the couch and 
reaches for the music box back on the low table. He opens it, starting its sweet 
melody and sadly stares at the empty spot left by Laetitia’s missing photograph.

“ You couldn’t know”, Delenn says to comfort him. She’s standing in the doorway 
leading to their bedroom, a bathrobe slipped over her nightgown.
“ It was wrong anyway”, he answers guiltily. “ Lyta and Zack told me so but I didn’t 
listen. I couldn’t bear the uncertainty, not about her”. He snaps the music box shut. 
“ I ended an extraordinary two-hundred-year journey out of irritation”. He gives her 
a painful look. “ I’m losing control.”
Delenn approaches him slowly. “ It’s not just her though, is it ? Something is 
bothering you, you’ve been acting remote lately, long before you found out about 
her.”
He sighs deeply. “ I’m just so tired of the constant bickering and squabbling for 
petty details. When we’re not out there, fighting the former allies of the Shadows, 
who always seem to appear everywhere and from nowhere or trying to mend the 
damage they caused, counting our deads by the thousands, we have to solve disputes 
inside the Alliance such as space housekeeping ! And they all turn to me, expecting 
me to come up with the perfect solution as if I was infallible and some sort of 
visionary. Such attention and expectation are wearing me out. I just don’t see the 
end of it. What I wouldn’t give for a normal, basic war against one big bad enemy !”
“ I think it’s high time we take a little vacation”, Delenn says, definitely worried 
about him, “ we haven’t had any since our honeymoon”. She sits by him on the 
couch. “ I could join you on Earth next week and we could visit your family for a 
few days.”
“ Things won’t change while we’re away”, answers Sheridan hopelessly, still 
mulling over his depressing thoughts.
“ John…”, Delenn murmurs, putting her hand on his thigh in a soothing gesture. He 
takes her hand in his and plays with her fingers absentmindedly.
“ When we got married, I figured that at last we truly had a long time before us to 
spend together, as I had promised you when we got engaged. Presiding over the 
destiny of the Interstellar Alliance seemed like the logical outcome of what we had 
been striving for and the best way to be together, after all the problems that had kept 
us apart for too long. Now, I realize that the best I can offer you is what we have 
right now: stolen moments from time-consuming jobs. We’re always going some 
place and when we have the rare opportunity to travel to the same place, safety 
measures force us to travel in separate ships”. He takes a deep breath in. “ Do you 
realize that G’Kar’s diner was actually the first occasion we’ve had in weeks to 
spend an evening where the Alliance, Earth or Minbar were not mentioned at some 
point ? And that’s the way it’s gonna be for the next eighteen years or so…”
“ John…”
Sheridan shakes his head in dismay, lost in his thoughts.
“ People of my own race put you in danger…”
“ John, listen to me”, Delenn insists softly. “ Lately, I’ve been thinking that perhaps 
it would be better if I stepped down from my responsibilities at the Interstellar 
Alliance. Lennier can take over, he knows everything there is to know.”
“ He knows all right but he’s not you”, he points out, his attention fully caught by 
her words. “ Delenn, why ? You’re at the origin of the Interstellar Alliance, you 
can’t leave it like that.”
“ I won’t be far and I will have plenty of time for responsibilities later…”
“ After I’m gone”, Sheridan finishes for her. He sighs deeply, looking at her in 
apology. “ Delenn, you’re a born leader. The Alliance desperately needs people like 
you. Don’t do this because of what I just said. Don’t pay attention to my words, I’m 
just mad at myself at the moment.”
“ It’s not only for us. In a few months, I will be giving birth to our son. He is going 
to be an important figure in the future, probably more important than us, as the 
symbol of the joining of two alien races. It will be a very difficult position for him 
and we have to prepare him for it. He’s the key to lasting peace.”
“ Still…”, Sheridan starts to argue, though shaken by Delenn’s apparent certainties.
“ We will have time to talk about it again”, she gently interrupts him. She raises 
from the couch and extends her hand to him in invitation. He takes it and she guides 
him toward the corner where she performs her prayers and meditations.
“ Minbaris have a ritual for sick close ones, to pray for recovery”, she says, lighting 
several candles. “ We can do it together, for Laetitia, unless…”
“ I’ll do it. Right now, I could do all the rituals you know to make amend for my 
stupid behavior.”
She smiles at him tenderly and lights several new candles. He brushes her hair away 
and kisses her lightly on the nape. “ I love you”, he whispers.



Part V

Babylon 5 

“ E.T. is coming home”, whispers a man in a miniature mike while watching Delenn 
go away in a corridor, her two bodyguards following her.
“ On my command”, whispers back another man wearing a black cloth mask. His 
accomplices, scattered in different hiding places, bring out their weapons.
“ Now !”
The two bodyguards, shielding the object of their protection behind them, fire as the 
men fall in on them, drawing up their weapons. Members of the Babylon 5 security 
appear from vent conducts in the ceiling and from both ends of the corridor, closing 
the trap on the group of assailants and disabling them before the battle has time to 
turn really ugly.
Zack approaches the two bodyguards.
“ Are you okay ?”, he asks. The two men nod in reassurance, they turn and help a 
fake Delenn to come back to her feet.
Zack opens his commlink. “ Everything in order.”

Garibaldi emerges from a maintenance closet in another corridor.
“ The danger is gone”, he states reassuringly, over his shoulder.
“ Others will come”, Delenn replies sadly, emerging after him.


**********

Garibaldi approaches the entrance to Laetitia’s ship, guarded by two men from the 
Babylon 5 security. He goes to enter the ship but the guards stop him.
“ Sorry Mr. Garibaldi, you can’t go in. This ship is under the responsibility of 
Babylon 5 security. Orders of Captain Mac Wright. No one is allowed in without 
permission given by the Captain himself.”
“ Come on guys, it’s me.”
“ President Sheridan wasn’t allowed in either.”
“ But G’Kar is inside. I just want to talk to him.”
“ I’ll go get him”, answers the guard. He turns to enter the ship and sees G’Kar.
“ Let him in.”
“ The Captain said….”
“ Let him in”, repeats G’Kar firmly.
The guards observe G’Kar’s drawn face and determined expression and step aside to 
allow Garibaldi in. G’Kar leads the way without a word. He takes Garibaldi through 
the main room of the ship, turns left to a narrow, dimly-lit corridor unseen before 
and they emerge in another room about as large as the ship’s main room and almost 
as bare. G’Kar goes to sit on a stool on the far right end of the room, facing an 
empty wall with weary eyes. Garibaldi looks around the room in disbelief.
“ Are these her living quarters ?”
“ I think so, yes”, replies G’Kar.
The decoration is non-existent and hardly any object is lying around, giving the 
room a feeling of artificial order and emptiness. Only the musical instruments, a 
trumpet, a violin, a clarinet, a cross flute and a guitar, neatly placed in specifically 
made-for recesses in the left wall and the several scribbled sheets of music paper, 
scattered on a table, placed before the wall underneath the instruments, give 
evidence of some life going on there. The room itself seems especially carved to 
favor acoustics and music plays softly, exuding from the entire surface.
“ That music isn’t exactly joyous. You might feel better turning it off.”
“ I don’t know how. It’s been on since we entered the ship.”
Garibaldi takes a peek through a door on the far right end and discovers a bathroom, 
as deserted as the rest. He gives a roundabout look, obviously looking for something 
then watches G’Kar staring at the wall.
“ Well, where is she ?”
G’Kar points to the empty wall he’s facing. “ There.”
“ Excuse me?”
“ She’s in the wall.”
Garibaldi is even less enlightened.
“ When we came in with her”, explains G’Kar after seeing Garibaldi’s puzzlement, 
“ we were led in this room. There was a bunk by the wall, we placed her on it and 
then the wall engulfed her and the bunk.”
Garibaldi frowns at the explanation. “Sounds like science-fiction to me.”
“ It’s just Vorlon technology”. G’Kar turns back to the empty wall. Garibaldi looks 
at him with concern.
“ G’Kar, you’ve been here for over thirty hours, you can’t stay any longer without 
eating or sleeping, waiting for something to happen. It could last days or weeks !”
“ I want to be there when she wakes up.”
Garibaldi raises his eyes to the sky in helplessness.
“ You don’t understand, do you ?”, asks G’Kar. They look at each other. “ She 
reminds me of me not so long ago before I went looking for you and fell into 
Carthagia’s hands. By then, I was just drifting through life, blinded by my hate of 
the Centauris, standing alone among my people. As I told you once before, that 
ordeal was the best thing that ever happened to me, it completely opened my eyes”, 
he chuckles a bit, “one of them anyway”. They exchange a smile. “It’s just so good 
to be alive”, he adds, relishing on the thought for a moment. He points to the wall, 
drawing Garibaldi’s attention to it and becomes serious again. “ She’s further down 
the road I was following back then and I’d rather she was spared another Carthagia 
to open her eyes… if it’s not too late.”
He looks at Garibaldi and turns to the unrevealing wall again. Garibaldi approaches 
him and puts a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“ Take some rest. I’ll keep the watch and wake you up if anything happens.”
“ That’s very kind of you, but you have work to do.”
“ I’ve got some spare time before the next big crisis. We’ve just arrested a group of 
suspects red-handed. Justice and Zack will take care of it now.”

Suddenly the wall starts shimmering back and forth between dark grey and light 
blue, becoming oddly transparent as it finally settles on the light blue. G’Kar and 
Garibaldi step forward, trying to get a better look at what’s behind the thin layer of 
color. They can discern Laetitia’s shape lying motionless inside the wall. The 
Vorlon device at the base of her throat pulses in a slow heartbeat rhythm.
“ Do you think it’s good news ?”, asks G’Kar, whispering.
“ I don’t know”, Garibaldi whispers back. G’Kar’s shoulders slump a little. “ But it 
looks like an improvement”, he adds trying to be positive to enlighten G’Kar’s 
mood.
G’Kar just keeps staring at the wall, his gaze focused on the pulsing device.
“ Lie down for a moment, I’ll keep the watch and let you know if anything happens. 
Come on”, Garibaldi says, shaking G’Kar’s shoulder to get him moving. “ Go to the 
other room where you won’t hear that gloomy music.”
G’Kar finally shuffles through the corridor. He looks around the near empty room, 
not knowing where he can lie down. He leans on the wall in a fleeting moment of 
weariness and a bunk extrudes from the wall at knee-height, right before him.
Garibaldi slumps on the stool, arms crossed on his chest, readying himself for a long 
wait.


**********

 “ I’m leaving you this house”, says the elder Minbari, cupping Laetitia’s tear-
streaked face in her hands, “ you’re the only ‘family’ I have left. Make it your home 
and start anew. It’s not too late.”
Laetitia shakes her head in denial.
“ What is gone is gone”, the Elder adds, stressing each word, “forget the past.”
“ I can’t.”
Suddenly, the elder collapses on the bed, her energy drained by her last efforts. 
Death is winning over. Laetitia grabs her shoulders and shakes them hard, trying to 
stir up some life back in the tired body.


“Mamma !!”, cries the seven-year old Laetitia, as she’s violently shaking the 
shoulders of her mother’s body among the wreckage of a shuttle crash. 
“ Mamma !!”. Blood is running down from her nose and from an ugly wound on the 
side of her head. She raises her gaze to the soul hunters gathered around the dead 
bodies of her parents. “ Take me with you too, I want to be with them.”
“ We only take the dead.”
“ I’m not afraid to die”. She starts looking among the wreckage for a sharp 
instrument.
One of the soul hunters grabs her roughly. “ It is not your turn. You will have to 
wait, a very long and lonely time. Kill yourself and you will never be reunited”. He 
releases his grip and Laetitia falls to the ground. “ Have a nice day.”
Another soul hunter shoots her a look full of hate. “ You are the shame of the 
Universe.”
She gets back on her feet painfully and stumbles after them as they start boarding 
their ship, waiting close by. Behind her, the bodies of her parents burst into flames. 
Weakened by her wounds, she can hardly put one foot before the other and trips 
over wrecked furniture from the shuttle. The hatch to the spaceship closes over the 
last soul hunter.
“ Wait. Where are you taking them ?…Who am I ?”


Garibaldi is whistling along the music in an exasperated and bored way. His 
whistling dies abruptly as he watches with concern the wall shimmer again. It 
becomes translucent and finally opens, letting the bunk out with an unconscious 
Laetitia on it. He approaches her warily, not knowing what to expect next, and takes 
her hand. He’s checking her pulse for signs of life when she suddenly heaves her 
chest in a painful deep breath and opens her eyes. She seems completely lost, not 
quite out of her previous comatose state and clutches Garibaldi’s hand fiercely.
“ Wait…wait”, she croaks, tears rolling down her cheeks as she closes her eyes 
again and falls into a heavy sleep.
Garibaldi gently brushes the tears away.
“ Welcome back to the world of humans.”


**********

Laetitia opens her eyes wide. She slowly observes her surroundings, spotting G’Kar 
sitting on the stool, engrossed in his book of G’Quon. She painfully reaches for the 
wall on her right and places her hand on it, sending waves of brilliant colors 
reverberating all around her hand, her eyes lose focus. G’Kar raises his head, his 
attention caught by the cascade of colors. He gets up from his stool to approach 
Laetitia. She takes back her hand, stopping short the carnival of colors and covers 
her face in sadness.
“ Laetitia…”
“ Later”, she replies, her voice muffled behind her hands. “ I need to be alone.”
G’Kar hovers on his feet, unsure whether to insist or not.
“ Please”, she begs him.
“ As you wish”. He regretfully leaves.
Laetitia takes in a deep breath and puts her hand back on the wall, knowing what has 
to be done.
The computers in her ship’s main room are triggered on and set to work on a 
program called ‘Five fingers’.


**********

Franklin opens the refrigerated closets where the medlab keeps tissue samples. He is 
looking for a sample but can’t find it.
“ Kumiko”, he asks one of his assistants, “ where are the blood and tissue samples 
from Laetitia Vail ?”
“ I destroyed them”, she answers, surprised by his question.
“ What ?!”, yells Franklin.
“ I only followed your instructions”, she replies, defending herself. “ It was on the 
daily worksheet when I took my shift. See for yourself”. Franklin moves over to a 
screen on the nearby wall and takes a look at its display.
“ It is the worksheet I prepared last night, except for the destruction of the sample.” 
Moved by a sudden thought, he sits before his computer and tries to access his files 
on Laetitia. The computer comes up with the answer ‘Files not found’.


**********

Lyta walks silently between the guards, passing through the entrance of Laetitia’s 
ship before their very eyes, but they seem not to see her at all. Her gaze is intense as 
she is projecting her mind forward, being able to see things about the ship that 
remain invisible to the others. Scanning the main room, she can discern the opening 
leading to the storage room with its innumerable data crystals, but as she tries to 
trigger the opening, she experiences a jolt in her mind and is pushed backward by an 
invisible power. She takes the corridor on her left, making out an opening on its left 
side, leading to another storage room for the food and other daily necessities. On the 
right side, appear closets with neatly folded clothes. She enters the room where 
Laetitia is sleeping on her side in a fetus position, her back pressed to the wall now 
shining with a rich dark red color. Her mind brushes over her, checking her state of 
sleep and then sweeps the room. She makes out another opening on the far right 
corner of the room but cannot fathom what the shapeless forms she discern can 
represent. She tries to focus harder and experiences another jolt. When she 
approaches her hand to the opening, the wall darkens threateningly.
“ You came to finish the job ?”
Lyta braces herself not to jump in surprise. She turns slowly on her heels and 
discovers Laetitia, sitting cross-legged on her bunk, wide-awake.
“ What job ?”, she replies with a steady voice.
“ Well, I’m still alive”, states Laetitia matter-of-factly.
“ If you refer to the scanning incident, I’m sorry about it. I meant you no harm.”
Laetitia eyes her coldly. “ I may not be a telepath but I can tell when someone is 
lying”. She flips her legs over, rising effortlessly from the bunk and walks to the 
table. “ You knew from the very first steps of your scan who you were dealing with, 
because you heard about me just as I heard about you”, she continues while pouring 
herself a glass of water from a jug, set on the table, “ You couldn’t miss the 
opportunity to find out how much I knew about Lyta’s adventures in Vorlon 
Land…”, she takes a sip from her glass, “ and eventually to get rid of me”. Lyta 
remains silent. Laetitia looks at her with commiseration. “ You are your own enemy. 
Whatever accrued powers the Vorlons gave you, you won’t be strong enough. Your 
plan is bound to fail.”
“ If you didn’t have your ship, you would be dead by now”, Lyta replies icily.
“ Wrong ”, answers Laetitia with a somewhat disappointed tone, “ I have my own 
resources and would have recovered anyway.” Her gaze sharpens on Lyta. “ Well in 
time to attend your funeral.”
Lyta turns away from her, backing a step or two. You belong to the circus, you freak. 
She jumps and turns back to Laetitia, stung to tears by her words and the blinding 
clarity of the thought.
“ I knew it. Cheating is bad”, Laetitia says, sighing profoundly. She puts her hand on 
the nearby wall, which trembles lightly beneath her touch and Lyta’s tentative scan 
is put to an abrupt end. “ Trying to kill me doesn’t give you the right to violate my 
thoughts”. She then leans completely on the wall behind her, which seems to take 
the mold of her body, and closes her eyes. Lyta’s own eyes turn black and she steps 
away in surprise.
“ You said you were not a telepath !”, she cries out.
“ I’m not. I learned a few tricks, the ship does the rest. I only have to concentrate 
real hard.” She steps away from the wall and looks at Lyta patronizingly. “ You 
know you can’t have it.”
They gaze at each other for a moment.

“ Why ?”, Lyta asks with much seriousness.
“ Why what ?”
“ Why did they treat you differently ?”
“ Lyta, you of all people, should not be fooled by appearances. You got more from 
the Vorlons than I ever did.”
“ I paid greatly for every little thing they gave me. They… changed me. You got 
everything for free.”
“ Oh, you don’t want to pay my bill, believe me”, Laetitia replies sadly. “ It’s ironic, 
you know. You went begging to them and they gave you most of what you wanted. 
They came looking for me, the ship was an element of our deal. I did my part but 
they never did theirs.”
“ Don’t expect me to feel sorry for you”, Lyta snaps, unable to forget the earlier 
insulting thought.
“ I don’t expect anything from anyone anymore.” 


**********

Earth

A young member of the Psi Corps enters Bester’s office.
“ Good morning, Sir. The last report from our hackers on Babylon 5”, he says, 
putting a data crystal on the desk.
“ Anything unusual ?”, asks Bester, engrossed in some papers.
“ Yes, Sir. Occurrences on your Omega list.”
Bester looks up sharply. “ Who ?”
“ Just one person. Someone named Laetitia Duschene-Assisi”, replies the young 
man, unsure how to pronounce the name.
Bester mulls over the name for a second then his face lights up in understanding.
“ It often happens at this time of the year. Today is the anniversary of her death.”
The young telepath doesn’t seem enlightened by the explanation.
“ You know who she was ?”, Bester asks him.
“ No, Sir”, he replies respectfully.
“ You should. Quite an interesting case. She lived in the middle of the twenty-first 
century. Among the pioneer scientists who studied telepathy and genetics, there 
were persistent rumors about her parents both having been strong telepaths and some 
very interesting rumors about her too”. He stares pensively at the data crystal. 
“ Such a pity she managed to slip out of their hands…and destroyed everything”, he 
mutters to himself then realizes the young telepath is listening to his words.
“ You can go”, he says, curtly dismissing the young man.
The young telepath leaves. Bester goes back to his papers but can’t help looking at 
the data crystal. He picks it up and places it in the reading machine.


**********

“ Come in”, says Juan Alvarez to Sheridan, Zack and Lyta, who had been waiting in 
the hall outside Mac Wright’s office, avoiding each other’s stare. They enter the 
room in single line, Lyta smiles nervously at Juan Alvarez, he smiles back 
reassuringly. They go to stand in front of Mac Wright’s desk, waiting for the 
lynching and anxiously looking at Mac Wright and Laetitia, sitting right by him. 
Mac Wright let them marinate for a few seconds before starting.
“ Jacques Marnier, the President of Delta IV, called me a few hours ago. Actually, 
he woke me up. He was extremely upset about what had happened to Miss Vail, 
‘Delta IV‘s most brilliant mind’ to quote his own words and incidentally, his grand-
niece.”
“ What ?!”, lets out Zack.
“ Only by marriage”, Laetitia specifies, looking at Zack with an impertinent 
expression. She turns and gives Mac Wright a modest smile.
“ That’s right”, Mac Wright replies, smiling respectfully back at her. “ Anyway, 
President Marnier gave me undeniable proof of Miss Vail’s identity and called your 
allegations of her claiming to be someone dead two hundred years ago pure 
nonsense. Since the recording system of cell #1 was out of order during the 
interrogations, some sort of interference problem, it’s your word against his. Having 
spoken with Miss Vail myself, I am forced to believe that those allegations were 
poor excuses for a reprehensible behavior”. Sheridan and Zack stare at Laetitia in 
growing disbelief, she stares back at them, daring them to challenge her position.
“ But Lyta’s scan…”, Zack starts arguing.
“ Illegal and most certainly mistaken”. Sheridan and Zack turn toward Lyta in 
surprise. She’s just as puzzled.
“ How could it be mistaken ?”, doubtfully asks Sheridan.
“ Miss Vail admitted that she was in total confusion after the first interrogation and 
that her state of mind may have mislead Miss Alexander. After all, Miss Alexander 
is only a P5 and studies have shown that prisoners put under dire strain can produce 
artificial thought patterns induced by their interrogators.”
“ Officially, Lyta is…”, Sheridan starts to say.
“ I’ve heard about those studies too”, Lyta interrupts him. She stares at Sheridan, 
silently urging him not to reveal the extent of her abilities. “ Their accuracy was 
proved”. She glares at Laetitia, who only smiles lightly and turns to stare 
absentmindedly over Mac Wright’s head toward Juan Alvarez. Lyta focuses on her, 
determined to find out Laetitia’s scheme. She sees through Laetitia’s mind Juan 
Alvarez, stark naked, starting to approach toward her. His mouth is forming words 
that she can’t make out. The intensity of the image slightly diminishes on the sides 
but remains too strong for her to go around it. Being in a room with others, she 
cannot allow herself to deepen her scan without them seeing her eyes turn black.
“ Unjustified arrest, assistance to security breach, non-assistance in preventing 
forbidden scanning, exceeding of one’s rights, incitement to the breaching of the 
law, forbidden scanning, unintentional assault and battery”, Mac Wright recites, 
looking at the three of them successively. “ That’s a lot even for three people. A 
strong punishment by the law would be no surprise.”
‘ Cheating is bad’, repeats Juan Alvarez over and over again, still advancing 
toward Lyta, completely naked.
Sheridan shuffles on his feet and straightens up, readying himself for the next blow.
“ What is it, Miss Alexander ?  You’ve turned bright red all of a sudden.”
“ Lyta, are you all right ?”, asks Juan Alvarez, gently squeezing her shoulder.
Lyta cringes from his touch and withers Laetitia with her meanest look. Laetitia 
rewards her with most innocent looking expression. 
“ I’m fine”, she mutters.
“ You are indeed… the three of you”, Mac Wright reflects in evident displeasure. 
“ The young lady right beside me has refused to press charges and even argued in 
your favor to keep me from pressing charges myself against any of you. There will 
be no mention of the incident on your records but that doesn’t mean that I will forget 
about it”. They all look at each other in understanding. “ Apologies would be 
appropriate”, Mac Wright stresses meaningfully.


**********

“ Well, you’re in great shape…”, Franklin says, shaking his head in disbelief as he 
reads the data from his scan, “ considering… no, not even considering, you’re in 
great shape, a bit pale and thin perhaps, but not many people have your physical 
stamina, not even in their prime. Do you have a recipe ?”
“ Discipline”, Laetitia answers, coming down from the examination bed. 
Franklin looks at the medlab where people are coming and going all around them. 
Looking for more privacy, he takes her arm and brings her to the room where they 
keep terminally ill people in cryo-stasis, among them Marcus Cole.

“ I was thinking of a more scientific method”, he explains, looking at her very 
seriously.
“ I know”, she replies, returning his serious stare. “ Don’t set your hopes too high, it 
only works with me.” 
“ Is it because of that unusual particularity in your brain cells ?”
Laetitia doesn’t answer, she brings her hand to her nose and comes away with a little 
blood on her fingers.
“ Oh shit”, mutters Franklin nervously. He fetches a compress from a nearby 
medical tray and gives it to her. “ The brain scan showed nothing wrong.”
“ It’s okay, it’s just a small after effect”, she says calmly, lightly tapping her nose 
with the compress. “ See, it’s already over”, she adds reassuringly, not touching her 
nose anymore.
“ I’ll take care of that”, he says, extending his arm to rid her of the soiled compress.
She rewards him with a tired smile. “ I’d rather keep it, thank you”. They look at 
each other in understanding. She takes a deep breath. “ Doctor Franklin, after I leave 
this place, please do not try to recover stuff from which you could extract my DNA. 
It will make us both work unnecessarily, you to find it and I to erase your findings.”
“ Why ?”
“ It’s too dangerous.”
“ I’ve hardly seen the beginning of it but I can already imagine the benefit…”
“ My imagination only sees the dark sides of it”, she says interrupting him, “ and 
they are appalling.”
“ But… ”
“ Think of it as a lethal panacea”, she stresses with fear creeping up her voice.
Franklin is about to argue but catches in his eyesight the face of Marcus. She follows 
his stare and discovers Marcus’ face, oddly beautiful and serene in the mask of 
death. He grimaces wryly and looks back at Laetitia.
“ I understand what you mean”, he says sadly. “ Is there really no way ?”, he asks 
earnestly, “ I’m not looking for personal glory… It’s just that we have so much 
trouble dealing with an organ as fragile as the brain that…”, he looks at her, 
searching for his words.
“ Self regenerating brain cells seemed a miraculous solution”, she finishes for him. 
“ They mean the death of mundanes though.”
Franklin looks at her in puzzlement.
“ You have to forget, even thinking about it is dangerous”. She reaches for his hand 
and gently squeezes it. The Vorlon device at the base of her throat pulses lightly 
through the fabric of her clothes.
“ What are you sorry for ?”, asks Franklin with a detached voice.
“ I was meant to remain unique”, she replies sadly. She closes her eyes for a second 
then lets his hand go and opens her eyes again.
Franklin frowns his eyebrows in puzzlement. “ Where was I ?”. He looks at her for 
an answer. She averts her gaze, not exactly proud of what she just did and catches in 
her eyesight the face of Marcus.
“ You were telling me about the fate of Marcus Cole”, Laetitia replies slowly, 
searching for her words, staring pensively at Marcus’ face.


**********

A hand stops the closing of the elevator. Sheridan forces his way through the 
opening and discovers Laetitia, lost in her thoughts. The door closes behind him, 
leaving them alone in the elevator which slowly starts its descent. Laetitia remains 
engrossed in her thoughts. Sheridan reaches for the control panel and stops the 
elevator between two levels.
“ Planning your next deceit ?”, he asks contemptuously.
She raises her gaze, not overly surprised to see him.
“ I had to”, she replies matter-of-factly. “ You shouted my name all over the 
universe.”
“ You blame me for what you did ?!”, exclaims Sheridan, getting quite irritated. “ I 
don’t understand you. What game are you playing ?”
“ No game. It’s all my fault”, she replies, remaining very calm. “ It was stupid of me 
to think that you would believe me.”
“ You gave me no proof !”
“ I could have given you any proof you wanted, you just weren’t ready to believe 
me. You called Lyta instead.”
Sheridan’s irritation abates a little. “ Listen, I’m sorry about that, really”, he 
apologizes sincerely. “ I didn’t know…”
“ You couldn’t know. But then things became too dangerous. Do you have any idea 
how many people hack their way through the station’s files ?”, she asks him, 
genuinely interested in his answer.
“ Beside you ?”, he snorts.
She shakes her head in disappointment and reaches for the control panel.

“ No so fast”, exclaims Sheridan, stopping her, “ You owe me an explanation.”
“ I owe you ? I don’t owe you anything”, she stresses, pushing him away from the 
control panel. “ Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have things to do and not much time left 
to do them”. She presses a button to restart the elevator, which resumes its descent.
“ What do you mean you don’t have much time left ? You travel through centuries 
like other people take this elevator ! Time doesn’t touch you !”, he shouts to her 
face, his anger flaring up again. “ I’ve got no more than eighteen years left to live !”, 
he blurts out.
“ You don’t know that”, she chides him.
“ I know”, he states, not leaving room for dispute. “ That was my sacrifice”, he 
confesses.
She slams her hand on the button to stop the elevator again and looks at him in 
disbelief. He holds her stare, his eyes telling her it’s the truth and a heavy silence 
falls between them as Laetitia slowly takes in the meaning of his words. She averts 
her gaze, somewhat upset and her expression turns very cold suddenly. She steps 
away from him, turning her back to him.

“ Has Lorien got anything to do with it ?”. Sheridan is surprised by her question. She 
turns and looks at him straight in the eye, requiring absolute frankness. “ I’m asking 
you. Has Lorien got anything to do with it ? He brought you back from Z’ha’dum... 
Did you die on Z’ha’dum ?”
“ Yes”, replies Sheridan, answering her request for frankness. “ Lorien gave me 
some of himself to sustain me for twenty years.”
“ Twenty years ? How appropriate !”, she remarks somewhat cynical. “ And you’re 
grateful to him !”, she states disdainfully.
“ It’s twenty more years than I would have had.”
“ Are you really so damn blind !”, she explodes, her aloofness suddenly blown 
away. “ The bastard has been living for billions of years, do you think that giving 
you forty years back instead of twenty would have made much difference on his life 
span ?!”
“ It probably didn’t work that way”, he replies warily, observing her vent her anger 
in growing astonishment, discovering in her a rage and violence he had not 
suspected.
“ So what if it meant one million years to him. Big deal ! Open your eyes ! He’s 
been playing us all like puppets.”
Sheridan shakes his head in denial. “ You don’t know him.”
“ Do you ?”, she snaps, staring hard at him.
Sheridan finds himself unable to answer affirmatively. She averts her gaze.
“ It doesn’t matter anyway”, she murmurs sadly, her anger gone as fast as it came. 
She presses the button to restart the elevator one more time. “ Nothing matters.”
“ Technical checkout due to repeated stops. Thirty seconds before restart”, says a 
metallic voice coming from the ceiling.
Sheridan stares pensively at her back with the shoulders slumped under an 
unbearable invisible weight.
“ Tell me”, he says with a gentle voice. “ Open my eyes.”
“ I have to go”, she replies, shaking her head in denial.
“ Can’t you spare a few hours of your time ? You just said that nothing mattered 
then what you have to do certainly can wait a little. It matters to me to hear your side 
of the story…”, Laetitia doesn’t answer, “… unless you prefer to see Lorien keep 
playing us all like puppets”, he adds, trying the only thing he thinks can provoke a 
reaction.
Laetitia’s shoulders slump further down.
The elevator resumes its descent.
“ Your terms”, he offers to her back.
She takes a deep breath in.
“ My ship. It’s the only place where the walls have safe ears. Be there in half an 
hour.”
The door of the elevator opens on a group of women, expressing their relief to 
finally see it arrive and discovering Laetitia’s distressed face. Laetitia hurries out of 
the elevator. Sheridan exists after her, slowly making his way through the group of 
women, staring ominously at him.


**********

Centauri Prime

A hand reaches for a near empty bottle of alcohol and clumsily knocks it down from 
the table. The bottle crashes on the floor, spilling broken glass all over the surface.
“ Boom”, Londo slurs in his heavily drunken state. He stumbles across the room set 
a shambles, knocking down more objects on his way. He comes to stand in front of a 
full length mirror and slips the top of his bathrobe over his shoulder, revealing the 
creature resting on his neck. He looks at it in disgust in the mirror. “ Sleep tight, you 
monster”, he hisses. “ Let me choose my fate”, he adds, looking forlorn. He slips the 
bathrobe back in place and shuffles to a table on which lie several miniature portraits 
of Centauris. He picks up the portrait of a young Centauri woman holding an infant 
child and looks at it regretfully. He holds the portrait against his chest in a tight 
embrace and balances on his feet in a slow rhythm. He starts humming a little tune, 
muttering words alongside. 
 “ ninna…nanna…amore…ecco l’amore…della mamma…”
As his words get clearer, an image forms before his eyes, but it remains blurred and 
he screws up his red-rimmed eyes to get a better sight. The image seems to represent 
the same Centauri woman, singing the tune he started. “ Mata ?”. The image 
changes and he sees a rather clear image of Laetitia, hardly older than when she left 
Earth. She’s bending over him, softly lulling him to sleep with the song, a tender and 
sad smile playing on her lips.
“ You !”, he exclaims, “ I remember you”. He tries to approach the hallucinatory 
image. “ I felt so safe with you… like Mother”. Laetitia’s image gets blurred. 
“ Come back.”
He stumbles after the disappearing hallucination and collapses on the floor, his hand 
clutching the miniature portrait.
“ Help me.”


*********

Babylon 5

The entrance door to Laetitia’s ship opens before Sheridan, Delenn, G’Kar, 
Garibaldi and Lyta, revealing Laetitia standing in the doorway. She gives their little 
group a sweeping look of appraisal then points at Lyta.
“ Not you.”


“ In the past years, I have acted as a go-between, a negotiator, a philosopher, the 
grey shade between the light and the dark to bring the Vorlons and the Shadows 
back to the time when their positions were complementary. My cooperation was my 
redemption and the assurance of my return among the First Ones… at least, that’s 
what Lorien led me to believe.”
Laetitia looks at Sheridan, Delenn, G’Kar and Garibaldi, sitting packed like sardines 
on a curved bench in her ship’s main room and watching her pace back and forth 
before them in evident disbelief. Only G’Kar seems to believe her, he’s nodding to 
her every word in assent. She approaches them and sits on another bench.
“ I’ll start by the beginning”, she says smiling wryly, noticing their faces. She takes 
a deep breath in.

“ My parents kept repeating that we were three of a kind… but not the humankind 
and that something was up… something not good. They gave me no further 
explanation, trying to shield me from what was to come and however much I loved 
them, I found it hard to believe their words…”, she says, “ …until the soul hunters 
came and took their souls away after the crash of the shuttle.”
Murmurs of surprise and sympathy run through her audience.

“ The soul hunters told me we were to meet again but that if I provoked that meeting 
by a premature death, I would never find out about the fate of my parents. For many 
different reasons, I felt I couldn’t just sit and wait for their return so I decided to go 
hunting myself”. She pauses momentarily. “ When I left the orbit of Pluto after…”
“ Wait !”, exclaims Garibaldi, bending forward, “ What happened during all the 
years between the death of your parents and your departure from Pluto ?”
“ Back in those days, you just didn’t leave the planet on a whim to spend the week-
end on Beta Proxima”, Laetitia replies matter-of-factly. “ I couldn’t leave unnoticed 
and no sane people would have let me go. I had to make up a plausible excuse, find 
allies and prepare the journey… prepare my disappearance”. She catches herself 
absentmindedly stroking the bend of her left arm with her right hand and abruptly 
stops, looking up at him. “ The rest is not interesting”, she adds brusquely, clearly 
avoiding the subject. Garibaldi watches her quizzically then sits back as she resumes 
her tale.

“ In my chase after the soul hunters, I knew that time was on their side. My parents 
were geniuses, more important than anyone could have imagined, but the level of 
technology they had reached was no match against the soul hunters technology. I 
was like a snail trying to catch up with a leopard. My only asset was cryo-stasis, a 
field my parents had been working on before their deaths and their researches left 
Earth with me. I tested their findings myself during the first part of the trip. My hope 
was to last long enough until I could meet a race which would possess a technology 
that would give me the opportunity to catch up with the soul hunters. And so, after I 
left Pluto, I went to sleep. The computer was to wake me up in forty years unless my 
ship entered in contact.”
“ Why forty years ?”, asks G’Kar.
“ Because that left me still close enough to the Earth Solar system to recover 
information on what was going on back there using radiotelescopes.”
“ The first entry in your long career of breaking into other people’s systems !”, 
remarks Sheridan ironically.
“ Not my first.”
He looks away, regretting his words as he sees the pain in her eyes.

“ No contact happened and I woke up in 2098 in an area you came to call sector 9. I 
stayed awake several months, long enough to recover all the information I needed. 
Then I went back to sleep for another forty years… or so I thought”. She pauses 
momentarily. “ The ship’s computer woke me up in 2132. When I opened my eyes, 
there was a strange alien being standing by my bunk. First I thought I was 
hallucinating because the being looked so much like my mother but then he spoke to 
me and said that he was a Vorlon and that I could call him by the name of Keosh.”
“ They really all go by the same kind of name !”, Sheridan wonders.
“ It’s not exactly their name, rather their rank. There are seven ranks in the Vorlon 
society”, she explains, “ starting from top : Kosh, Keosh, Kyeosh, Kuyeosh, 
Kauyeosh, Kiauyeosh.”
“ That makes six ranks”, remarks Garibaldi.
“ I don’t know the name/rank of their leader, it can only be said by members of the 
rank of Kosh."
“ You never met him ?”, Delenn asks.
“ I met him just as anyone in the vicinity of Coriana 6 did when experiencing the 
live broadcast of that great battle. He was the Vorlon you spoke to when you told the 
Vorlons and the Shadows to go play in somebody else’s yard.”
A heavy silence falls between them and G’Kar realizes that he can now hear the 
faint music coming from the ship’s structure.
“ Where were you when you met that Keosh ?”, Delenn inquires quietly.
“ Sector 18.”
“ I never heard of Vorlons traveling in that area, even back in 2132 when they were 
still very much active”, Delenn remarks.
“ He wasn’t traveling or just passing by, he came especially for me”, Laetitia 
specifies. She looks straight ahead of her. “ He said he had been waiting for me and 
that when he heard my song coming closer, he knew it was time to bring me to his 
world. He said that his people needed my help and that in return they would help me 
find my people… I believed him…”
“ You entered the Vorlon space ?”, Sheridan asks in genuine interest.
“ Yes, several times. That’s where we built this ship, Keosh and I”, she answers, 
looking at her ship. “ When we were done, he more or less kicked me out”. She 
shrugs lightly. “ He probably was out of riddles to answer my unceasing 
questioning. His favorite one was ‘Far is close, further burns’ whenever I asked him 
about my parents. Talking with him sometimes made me so mad, we could never 
have a normal conversation. I mean, I’m not one against a puzzling riddle from time 
to time but after a while it gets annoying.”
“ Simple words like yes or no are not in their vocabulary”, Sheridan jokes. He 
smiles at Laetitia in understanding.
“ I had no real notion of the time I spent in the Vorlon space”, Laetitia says, 
continuing her story. “ My body hardly aged during the building of my ship though I 
could have sworn that that building had taken a very long time because of all the 
changes we made to adapt their technology to my biology.”
“ Adapt it to your biology ?”, Sheridan inquires.
“ All the Vorlon ships were unique. Let’s just say that this ship is mine and partly 
me.”
Her guests look around them in wariness, feeling the slow rhythm of life pulsing 
through the ship’s structure all the way to the bench on which they’re sitting.

“ ‘Blend in wide’, he said as he sent me away, telling me he would come for me 
again. When I came out of the Vorlon space, I discovered that some sixty years had 
gone by. I was on my own again but with a fast ship and humans were roaming the 
galaxy thanks to the Centauris. I stayed clear of the human outposts to avoid trouble 
and went in search of my people. In all his riddles, Keosh had somehow given me 
clues on what to look for and I went everywhere, visiting all the races and worlds 
where I thought I could find some answers, playing hide and seek with the soul 
hunters. That’s when I visited Narn, back in 2194”, she tells G’Kar.
“ That’s why your impressions sometimes seemed outdated !”, he exclaims in 
understanding. “ By Narn, I wasn’t even born at that time !”, he adds, dumbfounded.
“ I guess you’re not that old then”, she replies with a gentle mocking smile. He 
returns her smile. She turns her attention elsewhere, cocking her head as if listening 
to something they cannot hear then comes back to them.

“ I was making good progress in my search and quickly realized that only a race as 
old as the Vorlons could give me the confirmation of my findings. Since the Vorlons 
were so reluctant to speak clearly, my only other option was to enter in contact with 
the race whose existence I had recently found out about, the race you came to call 
the Shadows. So I went into hyper space and called out to them. But it’s Keosh who 
answered my call and he brought me back to the Vorlon space to meet one of the 
Kosh”. A shiver runs through her spine and she rises abruptly from her seat, 
approaching the wall behind her. When she puts her hand on it for support, a fleeting 
image of herself being violently interrogated by a blazing Vorlon forms on the wall 
and she swiftly withdraws her hand, unaware that the image brought back memories 
of similar painful interrogations in her guests’ minds. Taking a grip on her emotions, 
she leans on the wall, seeming to find some quietude in its touch and faces them 
again.

“ Kosh and I had a little chat”, she tells quietly, her words ironically undermining 
the intensity of their meeting. “ He told me of the rivalry between the Shadows and 
the Vorlons, how the war had abruptly ended some one thousand years ago with the 
arrival of an unknown contestant in the battle and how it was about to happen all 
over again. He told me of the prophecies related to that forthcoming war. The 
Vorlons were divided about what to do and their leader was undecided. Among the 
seven Kosh, five were undecided as well and two were antagonistic. The other Kosh 
wanted to establish the supremacy of the Vorlons once and for all over the younger 
races, at all costs. My Kosh, if I may say so, told me of his wish to avoid all this 
through negotiation and still reach lasting peace. He said that the Shadows would 
never agree to speak to him directly and that he needed me to speak in his name for I 
was the only one the Shadows might listen to. He promised that my help would not 
go unrewarded and that afterwards he would help me plead my case before the other 
First Ones and be reunited with my people. And so I was sworn in”. Her expression 
turns cold. “ The second act was about to begin.”
She comes back to sit in front of them. Sheridan is trying hard not to show his 
growing misgivings, Garibaldi is not so tactful and stares at her in open distrust.

“ Kosh said I had to recover some stability before he could start to brief me and he 
sent me over to live with Minbaris”, Delenn makes a little move of surprise, “ one of 
the few races I had been careful to avoid.”
“ Avoid ? Why ?”, Delenn wonders.
“ I thought the Minbaris were dangerously xenophobic”, Laetitia explains, “ simple 
prejudices”, she adds with an apologetic expression. “ At that time, Minbaris kept 
very much to themselves and seemed unwilling to meet new races. Whenever I 
encountered a Minbari ship, it welcomed me with all its weapons out. My own ship 
has absolutely no weapon, I couldn’t take the risk of engaging into a fight”, she 
explains.
Delenn nods in understanding. “ So you went to Minbar around the year 2194 ?”
“ Actually, more like the year 2226. The Vorlon space…”
“ It was Duckhat himself, wasn’t it ?!”, Delenn exclaims dumbfounded, interrupting 
her. “ He gave it to you.”
“ I earned it”, Laetitia corrects.
“ Earned what ?”, asks Sheridan, feeling left out.
“ My Ranger’s pike”. Laetitia retrieves the pike from her pocket and displays it 
before their eyes, snapping it out then in and putting it on the table between them.
“ Kosh contacted Duckhat. He introduced me as a wild electron, a race-free 
individual that Duckhat was to educate as a Minbari. I wasn’t allowed to meet 
anyone else than Duckhat and his wife and Duckhat was forbidden to mention my 
presence or even my existence to anyone, including the other Members of the Grey 
Council who had some knowledge of the prophecy”. She pauses momentarily. “ I 
left with Duckhat in his ship, bringing with me only the clothes I had on my back. 
Though I didn’t realize it at the time, I wasn’t exactly alone. Part of Keosh left with 
me…in me”, she adds pointing at her head. “ That way I was constantly under 
watch”. She shrugs. “ I guess Kosh didn’t quite trust me.”
She picks up the pike and looks at it lovingly. “ I completed my education as a 
Dun’Fan and also my Ranger’s training in one cycle…”
“ Dun’Fan in one cycle ?!”, cries out Delenn.
“ I’m a fast learner”, Laetitia replies looking up, almost apologetic. “ It was just as 
well. Soon afterwards, Duckhat made you his aide and I had to leave and go back to 
the Vorlon space.”
“ You left because of me ?”, Delenn inquires worryingly.
“ I left because I was not allowed to enter in contact with people too closely related 
to the prophecy. And yes, in that occasion, it was you.”
“ I’m sorry.”
“ Don’t be. Duckhat himself only knew that I was one of the good guys but he had 
no idea what my exact part was. No one was to know because my mission could not 
influence the course of the prophecy, they had to go parallel ways. If people 
involved in the prophecy had hoped for a diplomatic issue, events would have gone 
awry”. She pauses. “ Knowledge is not always a good thing.”
“ Did Duckhat find out that you were a Human ?”, Delenn inquires, a terrifying 
thought nagging at the back of her mind. Laetitia looks at her in understanding and 
casts down her eyes.
“ No”, she replies quietly, “ though I believe his wife already suspected it, she was 
shrewder than him on that point and found out a lot about me”.  She looks up at 
Delenn. “ I know what you’re thinking about. I had no idea what was going to 
happen, Kosh had carefully avoided that part. We had a terrible fight when I found 
out about Duckhat’s death and the ensuing war between Minbaris and Humans… the 
only time I managed to drive Kosh away in fear”. Tears form in her eyes. “ Duckhat 
meant a lot to me…him, his wife, my parents, my tutor, who was probably the most 
decent being I’ve ever met. I thought Keosh was my friend for a while but he was 
only Kosh’s handyman”. She angrily wipes out her tears, somehow irritated at her 
show of emotions. “ And then there were the Shadows.”
A heavy silence ensues as they slowly take in the meaning of her last words.

“ You considered the Shadows as your friends ?”, asks Sheridan in disdain.
“ They behaved more honestly with me than the Vorlons”, Laetitia replies in total 
frankness.
They all look at her in misunderstanding and angry reproach. She holds their stares, 
unwavering.
“ Kosh sent me to Z’ha’dum right after the Shadows woke up. They recognized me 
right away, though they were wary of me at first because of the presence of Keosh in 
me. I didn’t even have to ask, they knew what I wanted. They unlocked blocks in 
my mind and let me see… everything”. She looks alternately at Sheridan and 
Garibaldi. “ Humans often think that when you die your whole life flies before you 
in a flash”. They nod to her in understanding. “ Well, that was exactly that, except 
that I had been dead some fifty times and saw the fifty lives.”
“ Wow, time out !”, Garibaldi cries out. “ What are we exactly talking about ?”
“ I am one of the cast out Firstborns, the last one actually”, Laetitia replies matter-
of-factly, as if it makes total sense.
G’Kar bends toward Delenn, sitting by him. “ Todmer”, he whispers. She looks at 
him quizzically.
“ Who …?”, Delenn starts to ask.
“ Stre So’Za”, Laetitia immediately answers. Delenn looks at her in horrified awe, 
much in the way G’Kar reacted in the cell.
“ You can’t be”, she replies, shaking her head in disbelief.
“ Why ?”, Laetitia inquires.
“ You’re…you’re ”, Delenn stutters, searching for the right word, “ not bad.”
“ That’s just prejudices”, Laetitia replies, smiling sadly. “Because we were cast out 
and doomed, people thought we were bad, but our sin wasn’t so great.”
“ Okay, you’ve lost me again !”, Garibaldi says in irritation.

“ A long time ago, the races of the First Ones started going beyond the Rim, the 
blessed space where everything is peaceful and quiet”, Laetitia explains, gravely 
looking at him. “ In each race, they were only a few individuals left, some retreated 
in isolated areas of the galaxies but eventually they left for the Rim one by one. 
Some 1500 years ago, only a handful of First Ones remained, disinterestedly 
watching the younger races get a kick out of life because they knew its brevity. Our 
options in life were not exactly enthusiastic. Imagine living with the same people for 
millions of years that you come to know them so well, they’re like an extension of 
your bored self. Everything that happens around you, even among the younger races, 
you’ve seen it thousands of times. No surprise, no excitement, no expectation or 
hope and your choice is whether you want this kind of life here or beyond the Rim 
where you would be with the exact same people. My race chose none of the above. 
It chose to experience the excitement of life and therefore decided to reincarnate 
among the younger races. It was a terrible slap in the face for the very First Ones, an 
unacceptable violation of their authority and they sent the soul hunters after us.”
“ I can’t follow you there”, Garibaldi mutters, shaking his head in disbelief. 
Sheridan turns to Delenn to share in his doubts but she’s whispering with G’Kar, 
nodding in assent to each other’s words.

“ Mr. Garibaldi, I know it must be hard for you to retrace in a few minutes a path 
that took me thousands of years to cover”, Laetitia says. She sighs deeply. “ I could 
let you see my whole story directly from my head into yours with the help of my 
ship, only I can control my thoughts but not my memories and please believe me 
when I say that by showing them to you, I wouldn’t be doing you a favor.”
Garibaldi chews the inside of his cheek, inwardly debating his next step. He gets up 
and paces back and forth in agitation, under their gazes. He bangs his fist on the wall 
and Laetitia cringes slightly. She quickly gets up and catches his arm before he has 
time to bang the wall again.
“ Please don’t hit the ship”, she begs him. He roughly grabs her arms, squeezing 
them hard. The ship’s walls tremble lightly.
“ Mr. Garibaldi…”, Laetitia warns him as she sees the walls darken threateningly.
“ Call me Thomas”, Garibaldi retorts, bringing her closer to the nearby wall. “ Show 
me.”
“ It’s really not a good idea”, Laetitia replies with concern.
“ Show me”. He releases his grip on her arms and the walls go back to their previous 
state. “ Let me see.”
They gaze at each other for a moment, Garibaldi’s resolve unwavering under her 
stare. 
“ I’m sorry”, she apologizes, taking his hand and putting it flat on the wall, fingers 
splayed out.
“ What for ?”
“ You’ll know”, she replies as she puts her hand on his, the tip of her fingers 
touching the wall and she closes her eyes.
Garibaldi immediately jerks away from her, yelling in pain. He falls on his knees, 
hands pressed to his face and breathes deeply several times, having trouble to regain 
his senses. He keeps his eyes closed, trying to make out what he’s seen. Laetitia 
starts to approach him, a comforting hand held out before her and stops in mid-stride 
as he suddenly shoots her a look full of hate.

“ They worshipped you ?! Those ruthless bastards worshipped you ?!”
“ Listen…”, Laetitia tries to say, backing off before the violence of his reaction.
“ Do you realize the harm they brought to all of us ?”, he yells, interrupting her, his 
wide gesture encompassing all the space around him.
“ The Shadows ?”, asks G’Kar in puzzlement.
“ Yes, the Shadows !”, Garibaldi shouts. “ They were her friends indeed !”
They all look at Laetitia in disgust and blame.
“ The Shadows followed ideals which pretty much said that progress came through 
total chaos”, Laetitia explains, trying to keep her voice steady and calm. “ They 
rejected orders and rules. My race disrupted the only order they didn’t even dare 
disturb, the order of the Universe. We were supposed to retire and make room for 
new souls and new races not to reincarnate. The Shadows saw us as unattainable 
models. That’s why I was the only one they might listen to.”
“ You lived with them while they were killing people all over the Universe !”, yells 
Garibaldi, pointing an accusing finger at her face.
“ The Vorlons destroyed entire planets and yet you had welcomed them with open 
arms right here on your station !”, Laetitia points out icily.
“ That was before, not during the hostilities. We even killed Kosh !”, Garibaldi 
shouts.
“ What do you want me to say ?”, Laetitia asks, her temper rising fast. “ That I’m 
sorry ? I’m not sorry”, she says, stressing out her words. “ Enough with sorrys”. She 
shoots him such a freezing stare that he involuntarily steps away from her. “ Do you 
know the official reason the First ones gave to send the Soul hunters after us ?”, she 
asks him aggressively. Garibaldi shakes his head slowly in ignorance, put off 
balance by her sudden change of mood.
“ They said we would disturb the development of the races we reincarnated among 
but in truth, they were just plain jealous. Disturbing the development of races was 
never our intention and I know, from my own experience, that the only development 
we ever slightly sped up was on Earth when we were reunited during our last 
existence, but that reunion wasn’t fortuitous. Everything was so fucking well 
planned. I never had a chance.”
“ Listen…”, says Sheridan calmly, trying to ease the tension.
“ No, you listen”, Laetitia snaps, her eyes blazing. “ You wanted to know, I’m 
telling you, so you’d better listen”, she hisses. “ Sit down !”, she orders Garibaldi. 
He doesn’t move. “ SIT DOWN !!”, she shouts at him, in such anger that he lets 
himself drop on the bench with no further ado. They exchange worried looks as they 
discover in her a rage so powerful it somehow gives her body a golden glow. A 
tentacle shoots out from the opposite wall and approaches her.
“ I’m fine”, she snaps angrily. The tentacle beats a hasty retreat. The faint music 
turns into a wail then abruptly stops as the walls turn black, plunging the room in the 
dark, making Laetitia’s body glow more evident. The glow slowly diminishes in an 
ominous silence.
“ Everything is fine”, Laetitia finally says in a calm tone of voice. The room returns 
to its former luminosity and a soft hum peacefully fills the ship. Delenn slowly 
comes out of Sheridan’s protective embrace. G’Kar and Garibaldi exchange a look, 
checking on each other’s well beings. Laetitia brings her hand to her bleeding nose, 
she looks around her then starts rummaging in her pockets for a handkerchief. G’Kar 
stands up and offers her a tissue as large as a napkin. She looks at it quizzically.
“ I have a big nose”, G’Kar points out in excuse.
“ Thank you”, she replies, gratefully taking his handkerchief.
He goes back to his seat and they all look at her expectantly. Keeping G’Kar’s 
handkerchief with her, she sits in front of them again, all anger gone, for now, and 
starts speaking again in a low voice.

“ Our souls being what they were, whatever race we entered, we possessed strong 
psychic powers. We could feel the soul hunters on our trail and escape them, usually 
going our own separate ways. On Earth, we became a family and my parents’ 
powers annihilated themselves in me. All the soul hunters had to do was concentrate 
on me. I couldn’t feel anything”, she grimaces wryly, “ I was just another limited 
mundane. That made me such an ideal candidate to talk with the Shadows, I should 
have guessed right away something was wrong”, she says, shaking her head in 
dismay. She exhausts her dismay in a long sigh and looks at them in recovered 
serenity.
“ The very First Ones knew it was time for the last generations of First Ones to leave 
for the Rim and let the younger races take over”. She pauses momentarily, searching 
for her next words. “ The very First Ones…”, she repeats, “ I think of them as old 
stage actors”, she reflects, “ people who had known fame and fortune during their 
prime, who had been highly respected and looked at only with awed admiration and 
were now living in oblivion, forgotten by all, superseded by the youthful confidence 
of a new generation, that had hardly ever heard of them. Their talents were intact but 
nobody needed them anymore and people would even have expressed surprise at 
finding out they were not dead yet”. She smiles ironically. “ Their last exit had to be 
dramatic, to remind the younger races of their existence and overpowering 
influence. The Shadows and the Vorlons thought they were in charge but they were 
only actors like the rest of us. They had failed their mission of shepherds for the 
younger races and decency required that they stepped down and leave. The other 
First Ones could simply have asked them to do so and they would have been forced 
to abide to their decision… but that would have been such a boring end. They 
wanted their last deeds to be glorious and so, they decided to play a little game, 
using other races and people… the Shadows, the Vorlons and you…”, she specifies, 
looking straight at her listeners, who shift uncomfortably on their bench under her 
gaze full of pity. “ I was only the cherry on the cake, the sweet taste of revenge.”

She stares at her hands clasped over the bloodied handkerchief. “ I have to clean my 
hands”, she murmurs to herself then rises abruptly from her seat and approaches the 
nearest wall. She puts her hands on it, then in it under their bewildered eyes. After a 
second, she takes her hands out, ivory clean, and looks back at them, staring open-
mouthed at her. “ Simple applied chemistry”, she explains with a shrug. G’Kar runs 
his tongue over his dried out lips.
“ Would you like something to drink ?”, she inquires with concern. Her guests look 
at each other quizzically.
“ Yes please”, G’Kar answers for the others. “ Something strong”, he specifies, 
swallowing hard as he sees her retrieve the handkerchief from the wall, spotlessly 
clean and folded.
“ I don’t…”, she starts then seems to recall something, “ I may have something for 
you”, she corrects herself. She heads straight to the wall where the now invisible 
corridor to her private rooms had once appeared. The wall opens before her, 
revealing the corridor. They hardly have time to realize that she left the room that 
she’s already back carrying a tray with five glasses, a package of alien biscuits, a jug 
of water and a strange-looking bottle. She puts the tray on the table between them. 
G’Kar immediately reaches for the bottle, while Laetitia places the glasses and 
opens the package of biscuits.
“ Narn Grad ! Splendid !”, he exclaims, looking at the bottle. 
“ Sixty-eight years of age”, Laetitia specifies.
“ You’re kidding me !”, G’Kar replies, his interest for the bottle greatly heightened.
“ Never”, Laetitia replies quietly. She hands him back the handkerchief.
“ Keep it, I have many others”. He pops the cork of the bottle. “ Just what I needed ! 
Now taste this! I’m sure you’ll like it”, he says enthusiastically to the others, pouring 
them a glass. Laetitia raises her hand to stop him.
“ Water is fine.”
“ Nonsense! You have to try this”, he replies authoritatively, pouring her a glass 
then turns questioningly toward Garibaldi.
“ Water is fine”, Garibaldi says, reaching for the jug and pouring himself a glass.
“ Raps !”, G’Kar exclaims, raising his glass as if for a toast then he swallows it in 
one gulp and sighs in perfect bliss and much needed relief. Sheridan and Laetitia 
look at each other then imitate G’Kar, drinking bottoms up, while Delenn carefully 
takes a little sip out of her glass. Laetitia turns even more deathly pale and Sheridan 
doesn’t look too good either. Garibaldi reaches for one of the biscuits.
“ What is it ?”, he asks, closely examining the biscuit.
Laetitia painfully clears her throat. “ It’s…”, she croaks, her voice still hoarse then 
she catches herself, clearing her throat again. “ It tastes like cheese crackers”, she 
informs him. She reaches for a biscuit herself and gratefully munches it, slowly 
regaining her composure. She clears her throat once more.

“ Negotiations were a dead-end from the beginning”, she tells them, resuming her 
tale as they help themselves with the biscuits. “ In the end, my actions only served to 
buy you some time to prepare yourselves for the final act. It took me years just to get 
the Shadows to consider negotiation as an eventuality. Kosh’s double game didn’t 
help. He talked of peace and at the same time kept making sure that the staging 
directions were followed correctly… that the prophecy was following its course. The 
Shadows felt the game was played with loaded die and when Kosh came to Babylon 
5, they became restless… suspicious”. A expression of pain crosses her face. 
“ Events started escalating toward war. When Kosh personally helped you fight the 
Shadows, he knew they would immediately retaliate and they did”. She pauses 
momentarily. “ Kosh’s death created a minor civil war among the Vorlons. The 
other Kosh took over, he rid himself of all opposition. Keosh was killed… I felt it. 
War had truly begun. I was no longer welcome in the Vorlon space and decided to 
remain on Z’ha’dum. The Shadows were the only ones left willing to help me. I was 
still there when you came”, she addresses Sheridan, “ my ship was badly damaged in 
the explosion, it even stopped singing. While I was repairing it, I found out about 
Lorien. I left for Babylon 5 as soon as I could only to see him leave in one of your 
white stars. I followed him on his quest for the other First Ones, remaining in hyper 
space not to be noticed and I repeatedly called out to him and the others but they 
refused to answer my call. Then there was Coriana 6.”
Her eyes lose focus and she stares pensively over their shoulders.
“ It took me six months to recover from Keosh’s abrupt departure… I had been 
ready to leave with them for the Rim but only the little of Keosh that was in me had 
left. When I came back to my senses, they were all gone. I tried to go beyond the 
Rim but they closed the door to my face”. She grimaces wryly. “ I could almost see 
Lorien laughing at me, at my naïveté for believing that he would ever forgive me. 
The Great Lorien had brilliantly demonstrated his authority over all the other races 
and I was left behind to meditate on his lesson”. Her expression turns very cold. 
“ But the only thing I could meditate on was the most painful way to kill him. I 
could understand the punishment but not its cruelty”. She takes a deep breath in. 
“ For seven years, I had been blessed with a happiness so perfect, it sometimes hurt. 
I never thought that it could end until he took it away from me. I was just a child, I 
would have done anything to have it back, even for just a second”, she explains, 
looking at Garibaldi, as if her words were meant only for him. “ I was ready to 
believe all those who said they could help and nurtured my hope for the impossible. 
And now the hope was gone, everything was gone… even the music was gone”. She 
presses her fingers to her temples painfully. “ All I could hear was a deafening 
noise, like an out of tune orchestra massacring the music and screaming for death 
and pain”. She covers her ears with her hands, the memories too vividly present in 
her mind. “ I thought I was going crazy”, she says then realizes it is most certainly 
their opinion at the very moment. She folds her hands on her lap and smiles lightly, 
“ I probably was”, she admits quietly, “ until I managed to concentrate on each solo 
instrument and followed the melodies to their sources”. She takes a deep breath in. 
“ I ended up visiting all the former allies of the Shadows. I tried to achieve with 
them what I had been unable to achieve with the Shadows and the Vorlons. Some 
responded to my words : the Raks, the Pols, the Tur Pleins and the Gsters. They are 
all on your side now if you agree to give them a second chance. Basically, they are 
no different than you, only once led in another direction. Don’t make them wait 
overlong though, patience is not one of their virtues.”
“ Did you meet the Drakh ?”, Sheridan asks, moved by a sudden interest.
“ Yes”, Laetitia replies coldly. He looks at her questioningly. “ I hate them”, she 
says with evident disgust. “ The Shadows followed ideals, extreme and violent but 
ideals anyway. The Drakh have no such excuse, they like to hurt and see the pain 
they inflict on other people. Beware of them. Strike them before they strike you 
because when they will be ready to fall upon you, there will be no mercy.”
A sudden dread fills the hearts of her listeners.

“ Everything you know about the former Allies of the Shadows is precious 
information for us…”, Sheridan starts to say.
“ You already know everything there is to know”, Laetitia quietly interrupts him.
“ But there’s more, right ?”
Laetitia averts her gaze. “ Just guesses”, she replies, shrugging, not wishing to 
pursue the subject.
He watches with concern the paleness of her drawn face and the dark lines under her 
eyes, noticing the strain their conversation has put on her. He can almost make out 
the lonely and frightened child in her.
“ Laetitia”, he gently says, feeling a sudden urge to protect her, “ you’re welcome to 
stay with us, no conditions required.  You’ll do whatever you want to do, like… piss 
me off for instance…”, Laetitia watches him quizzically, he smiles warmly at her, 
“ or repair music boxes…or…”, he looks at the others for some ideas.
“… tend gardens…”, Delenn continues,
“… give concerts…”, G’Kar offers,
“… but not touch the food”, Garibaldi finishes falsely serious, entering the others’ 
game.
Laetitia smiles at him, at all of them with heartfelt gratitude, touched by their 
attempt at cheering her up but slowly shakes her head in denial.
“ I came here on a promise made out of curiosity. I wanted to see you in flesh and 
blood just once, not meet you, only watch you and listen to your music”. She makes 
a slight pause. “ I don’t belong to the same universe you do. You shine in the light, I 
pledged myself to the dark, our paths were not supposed to cross.”
“ Join us in the light”, Delenn offers earnestly. “ There’s so much left to be done, so 
much left to be enjoyed. I’m sure you’ll find a place where you belong.”
Laetitia observes Delenn in silence for quite a moment, making her almost ill at 
ease.
“ I admire you”, she finally says. “ Duckhat judged you well, he felt your high sense 
of sacrifice. You underwent a dramatic change to become compatible with the 
Humans, to create a bridge between two races, to give birth to a symbol of peace”. 
Sheridan turns to look at Delenn, who uncomfortably avoids his gaze. “ Love was an 
unexpected gift and they’ve already asked you for the down payment. And yet, you 
go on”. She grimaces wryly. “ I don’t have your strength or your faith, I’m tired of 
pain and death. I just want out.” 
“ And where will you go?”, Sheridan asks softly, taking his gaze away from Delenn.
“ Home.”



Epilogue

John is staring sadly through the great window bay, hands clasped behind his back, 
watching the sun slowly set over the station. Delenn approaches him quietly, she 
remains behind him, looking at his back, her face greatly distressed. He sees her 
reflection in the window bay and turns toward her, noticing her distress. He gently 
extends a hand out to her in invitation, taking both her hands in his and they sit 
together before the window bay. They stare at each other, reading in each other’s 
hearts. Her lips trembling, Delenn opens her mouth to speak but finds herself unable 
to say something and she casts down her eyes, tears starting to well up. He looks at 
her with deepened tenderness and carefully puts a hand on her belly. She looks up at 
him.
“ He’s ours”, he softly says, watching his hand slowly caress her belly, making out 
its barely discernible curve, “… no matter what”. He meets her stare. “ We’ll protect 
him.”
She stares back at him, her heart going out to him with such strong feelings, they’re 
almost excruciating. She puts her hand on his.
“ I lov…”

“ Delenn ?!”, exclaims Zack, poking his head through the opening to the bay. “ I did 
not expect to find you here”, he remarks, coming toward them, unaware of his 
untimely arrival.
Sheridan and Delenn turn toward him, rising from their seat and trying to conceal 
their much shaken feelings.
“ Here you go”, he says flippantly, giving her Laetitia’s pike. “ Laetitia whatever-
her-real-name-is told me to give it to you.”
Delenn looks at the pike in puzzlement.
“ She’s already gone ?”, she asks in disbelief. “ Just like that ?”, she adds a bit hurt.
Zack looks at her quizzically.
“ No, she’s just taking a walk outside. I have to pick her up in two hours”. He takes 
a look at his watch and grunts in annoyance. “ As if my days were not long enough 
already”, he mutters.
“ What do you mean outside ?”, inquires Sheridan, “ Outside outside ?”
“ Yes, outside of the station. Mac Wright had offered to grant her a special favor to 
make up for the unforgivable mistreating”, he explains, somewhat upset, “ she chose 
to take a walk outside.”
“ I can understand that”, Sheridan reflects, smiling lightly. “ Any idea where she 
went ?”
“ No”. Zack opens his commlink. “ C&C, Zack Allan here. Can you tell me where 
Miss Vail is taking her walk at the moment ?”
“ Yes, Sir. She’s… on the rear end of the station… the very end actually.”
Zack, Sheridan and Delenn approach the great bay window and try to spot Laetitia’s 
suited form. Zack points at a minuscule orange spot standing on the edge of the rear 
of the station.
“ She made it very clear that she didn’t want to be disturbed”, the officer from the 
C&C stresses. “ She’s listening to music”, he explains.
“ How do you know that ?”, Zack asks.
“ We have the feedback from her helmet”, the officer replies, switching a button and 
letting them hear the feedback too. “ It’s rather beautiful, don’t you think ?”, the 
officer comments.
“ I never much liked Mozart”, Zack grunts.
“ That one is from Beethoven”, the officer points out.
“ Well, I’m relieved ! Thank you”. Zack shuts off his commlink.

“ Isn’t that her ship ?”, Delenn asks suddenly worried, pointing out to the spot where 
they saw Laetitia. A ship is standing there.

Laetitia extends her hand to caress the nose of her ship standing inches away from 
her. The ship answers her touch with a rainbow of color cascading along its hull. 
Then it jumps back, clear out of the way of the station. She raises her hand, waving 
goodbye and the ship dissolves into space with a high-pitched wail sending shivers 
down many people’s backs.

“ Wow ?!”, lets out Zack.

Laetitia bends to diminish the intensity of the magnetism of her shoes then she 
stands up again and opens her left hand. The little compass is resting in it, still held 
by its chain, caught under her thumb. She closes her fist back on it and throws it 
before her. The little compass falls down in space. She jumps after it.

“ No !”, cries out Delenn, seeing the small orange spot fall down in space.
Zack slams open his commlink.

An alien ship appears at the rear end of the station, bringing back in its wake 
Laetita’s ship.

“ Wait !”, Sheridan exclaims, stopping Zack. “ Lorien…”

A cloud-like blue form exists from Lorien’s ship, resembling the shape under which 
Sheridan sometimes saw Lorien when they met on Z’ha’dum. It stops Laetitia’s 
jump-suited figure in space and shoots out a tentacle to recover the small compass. 
A golden form, similar to the one drawn in G’Quon’s book, emerges from Laetitia’s 
jumpsuit, sending flashes of lightning every way and starts to struggle with the blue 
form under the bewildered eyes of Sheridan, Delenn and Zack. The struggle between 
the two forms illuminates the starlit sky with its blazing fierceness, the golden form 
trying to escape the other’s firm embrace until the contenders seem to find a truce, 
Lorien’s brilliant blue form enveloping its golden offspring in a protective way. The 
two forms finally separate and the golden form, now shining softly, slowly reenters 
Laetitia’s jumpsuit. Lorien brings Laetitia back on the spot from where she jumped 
and reenters his own ship, keeping the small compass with him. His ship disappears 
as fast as it came, leaving Laetitia’s own ship standing by.

Laetitia slowly comes close to the edge again, she turns on the magnetism power of 
her jumpsuit’s wristbands to the maximum and clumsily but carefully sits on the 
edge. Feet dangling into space over a boundless carpet of shining stars, she lets 
herself be carried away by her beloved music.



THE END.