From: Alternate Universe Today Archivist Subject: Sleeping with the Enemy by Allenna Sinclair Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 11:02:52 -0700 "Sleeping with the Enemy", by Allenna Sinclair (Allenna1@aol.com) A Neroon story set in 2262, the main part on Babylon 5. The timeline and events are mostly "B5 alternate universe" and thus don't strictly hold to jms' vision. Here's the first part of my Neroon story. The main part of it is set in 2262 on B5. Most of the timeline and events don't hold strictly to jms's vision (Neroon isn't dead for one thing). The Heroine: Hailey is the niece of the man who ordered the first shot be fired on the Minbari. Prologue: The Lies 2242: A week after the first shot of the E-M War; outside Dublin, Ireland. (Note the spelling errors in young Hailey's speech is purposeful) "Humans have a phrase: 'What is past is prologue.' Minbari also have a phrase: 'What is past is also sometimes future.' " --Delenn, Z'ha'dum "Uncle --- ?", The little girl looked up at the man standing before her. "What's wong--where Da 'n Mum?" The man kneeled down before the four year old and placed his hands on her small shoulders. He had a choice: damn himself and tell the truth or be damned and lie. "I don't know how to tell you this sunshine........something bad happened and --," his voice faltered. "What uncle--what sumting hapined?" Clear amber eyes looked at him. So innocent--did she really need to know the truth? To know what kind of man her hero uncle was? Could this small angel handle the truth? "Your mother and father are dead, baby," he told her plainly. The girl looked puzzled...she was too young to understand concepts like death but understood the word meant something bad. "What's dead, uncle?" She asked, clutching a brown teddy bear. "They went to heaven ----,"he hugged her tight, "They didn't want to though, honey." The meaning hit the little girl and she clung to her uncle, tears began to flow from her eyes. "Why'd they go then?" "Our ship was attacked--by a race called the Minbari--" "But why- ," the little girl sobbed, "Why they take my Mum n Da? Why?" "They just attacked--I'm so sorry--so sorry--", hatred bulit up in him. Both at the mysterious Minbari and at himself. "I hate 'em!", the little girl cried hardly knowing what the words meant. Her still developing empathic abilities latched on to her uncle's strongest emotion: hate and made it her own. He held her as she cried, hating himself for lying to the one person who would have forgiven him. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- 18 years later The young woman stood in the doorway of her Uncle's study, gazing at her Uncle in indecision. Her Uncle called her away from college for Holiday break early. Strangely enough he always seemed to call her home at the same as the Psi tests. But this was not what was troubling her. She pulled on one of her straw hued pigtails. "Uncle?" "Yes, Hailey?", he looked at his 22 year old niece. She was so pretty, but she would never come close to the radiance of her long dead mother -- as he often told her. "Uncle--I've heard people talking lately---," she hesitated, sitting down on the piano bench. "About what?", he went back to reading his book. "About what happened 20 years ago---they've been saying that maybe the Minbari didn't fire first--that--," she said slowly, looking at him closely. Ellihah froze and looked at her. Oh God----. "That what--Hailey?" "That you lied--," she whispered. "Hailey--," he took her by the shoulders "They fired first---I was there--don't you believe me? They're the enemy!" "I guess so--it's just that--" He lifted her chin. "Would I lie to you? Your my world, Hailey--you mean everything to me--I would never lie to you." She hugged him, and nodded. "I know--I know." "Never, EVER forget they're the enemy, Hailey! They're monsters, murders! They not civilized like us, they're animals. They killed your parents without a second though! You can't trust them!" The lie was so much easier now. But what he didn't know was that lie was one day going to come back to haunt him and Hailey. "Always remember .. they're the enemy. Never --EVER TRUST the Minbari. No matter what....no matter what!" A lie that would tear them apart and destroy more than one life. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Allenna Sinclair Allenna1@aol.com Comments and suggestions always welcome. Always looking for beta readers.