Return Part 1
By Christina Jarrett
"Incoming message," a sweet, somewhat sappy computer voice informed
her as she entered her quarters.
She waddled over to the Babcom screen, and pressing a flat black
button, watched as an old fashioned music video appeared on the screen in front of her.
A reasonably soft song began to play. Sitting down she listened intently to
the lyrics, bent on figuring out who might have sent her this strange message.
"I’ve got a past, who doesn’t?
I won’t pretend that I wasn’t,
Who I was back then,.."
The beat was a style known as New Country back in the late twentieth
century. The artist was a human female with long blond hair… She was brought
out of her assessment of the video when another section of the song caught h
er attention. Immediately she knew who sent it.
"Well I don’t believe in the hands of fate
but to be in your arms I believe I could wait
till the end of time for a chance to start
If you’ll just let me into your heart."
she thought viciously as her child gave her a quick
sharp kick to her tender stomach. her thoughts turned from self
pity into violent mental screams.
Just then the door chimes summoned her, "Open!" the command came a
little louder than she had expected.
"Love?" a voice called her as she turned just in time to watch all
the color drain from that smiling face of his. "Bloody Hell. That isn’t
mine is it?" he asked staring at her swollen abdomen.
"Yes it is," her voice was cold, and bitter. "Get in her now," her
voice was solid, and demanding. He did as she wished, barely managing to
miss her right hook in the process.
"Of course," he replied entering the tidy room. "I’m sorry," he
began as they sat down on the comfortable couch, though it seemed rock hard
to him at the moment. "I know I shouldn’t have left."
"Damn Straight. Why? You could have at least told me where you were
going. I thought we could trust each other?"
"Listen. I would have told you if I had known I would be leaving."
"Don’t give me any of that bullshit. You never even sent me a
message. I just assumed that your desires had been sated. I guess I
believed that that we made love, you had claimed your prize, you were happy.
No need to keep me around anymore."
"No, Susan. I loved you. I sent you so many messages, you just never
returned any. Susan it hurt me, but I still loved you, and I still love you.
I just wish that I had known."
"Messages, what messages. If you had sent me messages, I would have
got them. The only people who could interfere with messages sent to me on
this station would be the captain, and my God… Garibaldi."
"Computer, list number of messages sent to the station from Ranger
Marcus Cole in the past seven months," he called out to the central computer.
The unusually sugary computer voice answered, "Authorization code
required to access that data."
He replied quickly, "Name Marcus Cole, authorization code Southampton."
"Authorization Code confirmed. You have sent fifty-eight messages to
the station in the past seven months."
"Who were they sent to?"
"Two messages to Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari, four messages to
Captain Sheridan, six messages to Attaché Lennier of the Minbari, forty six
messages to Commander Susan Ivanova," came the reply.
"Computer, why didn’t I receive any of those forty-six messages?"
Ivanova asked.
"Unauthorized access, security clearance code level Alpha-B required."
"Commander Susan Ivanova, security clearance code Griffin," she told
it, become more and more annoyed with the computer with each passing moment.
"Those messages have been rerouted," it was a troubling reply, though
not nearly as disconcerting as the rest. "They were received, and accessed
by Security Chief Michael Garibaldi."
"Can you retrieve any of those messages?" Marcus asked gently laying
a hand upon her stomach.
"Affirmative, retrieving files now."
Soon a long list of messages came up, they had all been sent within
the first five months, a large portion of which had been received within the
first two.
"computer, locate Mr. Garibaldi," Ivanova barked. The whole
situation was confusing enough before, but now she couldn’t make sense of it
if she tried. Marcus and her having shared a night, and then waking up to an
empty bed, and not having heard from him for seven months had hurt her. Then
Garibaldi’s terrible attempts at comfort, and his recent proposal, had calmed
her slightly. But now this, why would he have gone to the trouble of making
her life hell?
"Mr. Garibaldi is in his quarters," the answer had come but a few
seconds after the request had been given.
"Come on," Susan took Marcus’ hand from her belly, and led him out
the door.
They stood together in the hallway, having decided to rest a moment
before confronting the traitor. "Susan, " he began, setting an arm around
her waist. "I’m sorry I couldn’t come back any sooner. Had I known about
the child, I would have dropped everything, no matter how important the work
to return. I just never knew."
"I know Marcus, I know," she pulled herself closer, and there in that
abandoned corridor, they shared there first tender embrace in over seven
months. "Ahh.." she winced as the child kicked her again.
"Are you all right?" his voice was full of consternation as he spoke.
"It’s the baby isn’t it, Susan?"
"Yes, he likes to kick. I swear, if you ever want another one of
these, you’d better find yourself another woman willing to carry it!"
"Don’t worry, I wasn’t even expecting this one, let alone another,"
he chided rubbing her swollen abdomen, feeling the baby kick at her.
"We’d better go," she informed him as she pulled herself away, and
continued on down the hallway. She was wearing a somewhat short dress made
out of a silky burgundy material. It had a high waist, and buttons ran down
the entire front of it. He watched for a second as the hem of the gown
bounced just above her knees, and swished about her hips as she walked away
from him. Then, after satisfying his need just to watch the woman he loved,
he quickly caught up.
End Part 1
(
geocities.com/area51/corridor) (
geocities.com/area51)