From ravensteel@usa.pipeline.com Sat Jun 15 14:22:27 1996
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1996 03:56:29 GMT
From: "Leslie C. McBride" <ravensteel@usa.pipeline.com>
Reply-To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com
To: b5-creative@lists1.best.com
Subject: "War Without End", Epilogue

          Hi, all! 
          Yet another entry into the post-WWE field. I enjoyed both
"Remember" and "Explanations", but this is what my brain came up with.
(Though it could fit in with "Explanations" without too much work) 
          Let me know what you think. 
 
**************** 
                                        Epilogue 
                                        ^^^^^^^ 
 
          "Yes, sir." 
          With those two words, Captain John Sheridan had felt any respect
he had earned from that man in the past two years bleed off into the inky
vacuum of space. 
          And now, back in his office on Babyon 5, that's all he was
getting: vacuum.  
          It was going to have to be settled. Now. Somehow. Bickering was
exactly was the Shadows wanted. 
          He stole a quick glance at Susan -- standing uneasily, not
looking around -- before broaching the subject. 
          "Tell me what's on your mind," he offered, leaning back in his
chair to cushion the verbal blast he was about to receive. 
          The vacuum revealed the white-hot furnace that had spawned it.
"You had no right to order me back here!" 
          "Do you think I wanted to? Ambassador Sinclair asked me for a
favor. If I'd any idea what it was, I wouldn't've agreed." 
          "Jeff Sinclair was my friend longer'n any of you! I shoulda been
with him!" 
          "He had to take Babylon 4 back through time." 
          This only made him hesitate an instant. "Couldn't that nutcase
whats-iz-name taken it back?" 
          Susan's low voice flowed over the hate, made it seem like they
were having a normal conversation. "Don't you remember the pilot we sent to
investigate Sector 14? When we brought Babylon 4 forward to when you and
Jeff found it...." Her voice caught and she finally looked up, an odd look
in her eyes. "My God, Michael! He'd aged twenty years for four! He
couldn't've survived another trip forward. He *had* to go back." 
          "He'd guessed what would happen if he went there again. If you'd
gone, the same thing would've happened to you, and we need you here." 
          Michael growled, slammed his fist on the desk. "How many people
do I have to lose to the Shadows?" he ground out through clenched teeth. 
          John knew the other thing haunting him, haunting all of them, had
started this whole mess: Susan's panicked, pain-racked voice they had
listened to too many times, pleading for help that wuld never come. Had it
truly been averted? The only way to know was to wait a week, and even then
there was no way to tell if that future had been avoided or merely
postponed. 
          He didn't mention any of this when he answered. "He wasn't lost
to the Shadows; he was gained by the Light." 
          "Why was it so damned important that *he* be the one to take it?
Why not Marcus, or Lennier. Or you?"  
          The last was flung like a knife a John's heart. He couldn't
answer. 
          She laid a soothing hand on Michael's arm. It was flung off
angrily. 
          "You've heard the Minbari talk about Valen?" 
          "Yeah." 
          "He appeared suddenly a thousand years ago, and let them to
victory in the last great war against the Shadows. He was a Minbari not
born of Minbar." 
          For the first time in this awful interview, he looked at someone
other than the Captain, with an expression other than rage. "What?" 
          "Jeff had a Minbari soul. He *had* to be the one to go." 
          He sank into the chair he had refused earlier and covered his
face in his hands. 
          They left him to his grief for many minutes. 
          Then John cleared his throat, and used his CO's voice. "I know
you gut is telling you it's my fault. If it's going to be a problem, I'm
sure the Ranger outpost on either the Drazi homeworld or Minbar would be
pleased to have you, or you could lead a team to found another outpost. I
would understand if you chose to do so." 
          Michael shook himself, looked up. "No, you were right. I'm needed
here." He stood up and looked squarely at John. "You did right." In spite
of his words, there was something in his eyes that said "You left him." 
 
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Leslie C. McBride 
ravensteel@usa.pipeline.com 
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I was there at the dawn of the Third Age of  
Mankind. 
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