STAR AND CIRCLE: 'THE SEEKER'S FIRE'
EPISODE 14: "CRIMES OF ASSOCIATION"

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(disclaimers and associated descriptions in overture)

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        <Envoi>

        Interstellar Alliance Starship 'Shard of Night' - in Minbar nearspace. August 14th, 2267.

        The moment Sheynell stepped onto the bridge she felt the atmosphere change - and for a moment the worries of her friends as they looked at her, trying to figure out if she was 'okay'. The thing they didn't know, of course, was that Bester and the other Psi Corps instructors had, in their time, put her through ordeals almost as bad as the one Viyana and Edward had just put her through, all in the name of teaching her what it was to be them -- and after the youth she'd spent in the Corps... "There's no need to look so worried! -- Vahzil and Veyshahk checked me out thoroughly, and I'm fine."

        "Then they've proclaimed you fit to return to duty, then?" Larieken asked.

        She nodded. "They have indeed."

        "This is well." The Minbari replied, as he turned to face the door to the captain's ready room. "Especially given that *she* wishes to speak to you immediately."

        "Well of course she does." Sheynell replied with a sigh, as she reached up to tap the door signal. "She is the captain, after all."

        "And shouldn't the captain worry about her crew?" Julia asked her as the door opened. "Come on in." A moment passed, then, in which Julia poured her some of the piping hot coffee that had been brought up to the ready room a few minutes before her arrival... part of the new supplies they'd taken on at Minbar before departing, she assumed - and then...

        "So..." Julia began, "Is this 'all's well that end's well', or do we have to worry about..."

        "The secrets they dug out of my mind after they captured me?" Sheynell matter-of-frankly replied as she carefully sipped her coffee. "You know what, Julia? -- to be honest, I'm not so sure they deserve to be called 'secrets' any longer - and what they learned didn't aid their cause in any case. They already knew I served Bester before they even got a hold of me - and while they learned a few things they didn't before, because of what President Sheridan and the others did for me when I first came here, they couldn't take me back to Mars no matter how much they wanted to. And they sure as Hell don't know where Bester is, either."

        "And what about you?" Julia asked, her expression one of polite inquiry. "Were they right about you? Are you still hiding some secrets from them... things they weren't able to get to? Are you sure you don't know where Bester is?"

        Almost Sheynell thought to give a snappy reply to those questions - but then she took a deep breath, and shook her head. "That part of my life is over now, Julia - I made a lot of mistakes I shouldn't have... did a lot of things in his name that I shouldn't have. But no... they took me so much by surprise that I wasn't able to put up any resistance. And yes... I'm sure. Except..."

        Julia raised her eyebrows. "Go on..."

        "Except now... Viyana and Edward have reminded me of what went on in the War, I can't help but think on what he said to me before we parted ways for the last time, I to try and save as many telepaths as I could... and he, I suppose, into exile." She sighed - "Never say never, Sheynell.

        Never say never."

        Which was, of course, when the chime of the intership comm system sounded, and with a sigh, the captain of the 'Shard of Night' rose to her feet and made her way out of the ready room into the bridge, Sheynell right on her heels. "Klairika - our status?"

        "We are approaching the gate - all crew and departments stand ready for jump." The Brakiri reported, as Julia and Sheynell took their stations. "Our helmsman respectfully requests that you provide him with a course, Val'na."

        "Back to where we are most needed, of course." Julia crisply replied - to which Dasouri gave an emphatic nod... even as the jump gate irised open in front of them, and the 'Shard of Night' vanished from Minbar system.

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        While a moment after that departure, the gate technician that had given Julia and her crew permission to jump abruptly turned aside from his duties, and opened a comm channel. "Report." A voice ordered.

        "Tikopai and her crew have just left through the gate - we believe they are returning to their duty of guarding the *Excalibur*." The worker caste technician reported. "Without any escort, of course."

        "This is well." The voice replied. "Everything appears to be going according to schedule. You have told us everything we need to know to proceed with the next stage of our plan. Your aid - will be remembered."

        "Then she will finally be made to pay for what she and the others have done to us?" the technician asked. Like so many of the others who'd served under Alyt Rahkeel on 'Vi'dalae An'shaka' before the Drakh attack, the technician still felt shame at what had transpired when the Anla'shok had taken possession of the battlecruiser, and he and his fellow crewmembers, along with their captain, had been banished from the ship at Sheridan's command... while he and certain of the others continued to look for ways to erase that shame.

        "Soon." The voice at the other end of the channel confided. "Very soon now indeed."

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        Interstellar Alliance Space Station Babylon 5 - August 15th, 2267.

        It was, Jamie Pratchett wearily considered as she began to work her way through the mound of paperwork on her desk, looking to be another one of those days already. Her first cup of morning coffee had been going cold before it had hit her desk and she hadn't even got to breakfast before a dozen other things had got in the way. "Damnit!" she whispered, "I never should have said yes when the Council decided to promote me..."

        "Sha'vei." Jamie looked up to see Cebrai, her primary assistant, standing in the doorway of her office. "I beg leave to report that a package has arrived from the High Councillor's office on Minbar. Do you wish it brought into *your* office at this time?"

        Jamie scowled as she reached for her latest (and still, for now, hot) cup of coffee - okay, what the Hell was Will up to this time? "A package, huh?" she muttered. "Yeah, may as well - the paperwork pile's already so bad that one more package won't make any..."

        "Hello, Jamie."

        There was a moment of silence, then - and then that silence was shattered by the sound of a mug clattering on the floor, even as Cebrai shook her head sadly and proceeded to begin the process of cleaning up the mess her leader had just made. Jamie, of course, was noticing none of this... she only had eyes for the slim figure in Ranger black and silver standing in her door... "Bree?"

        Brianna sighed, even as the two women came together in a fierce embrace. "Oh dear, here we go again! - please tell me you're not going to cry... because that'll just set me off again, as well!"

        "But... how? And why?"

        "It's a long story -- but it all started when I finally returned to Minbar, and went to meet with our fearless leader and his wife..."

        "Let me guess," Jamie managed after a long moment, "Your reunion with Will and Jen on Minbar was a little emotional, right?"

        "A little is the understatement of the century." Brianna replied, as she and Jamie sat down, while Cebrai silently vanished from the office to give them some peace. "But the sooner we get this all behind us, the better. And now that I'm back, the first thing you should know is that there's nothing, absolutely nothing that's going to make me go away, ever again. I finally know where I belong, and which family I belong to... and I never forgot what you said to me that time, four years ago..."

        Jamie grinned. "Once a Ranger, always a Ranger, huh?"

        "Something like that, yes." Brianna admitted. "And now, would I be correct in assuming you need an excuse to set aside your paperwork for the rest of the day? We've got a lot to talk about, while I'm absolutely famished..."

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        Mars -- shortly thereafter.

        Edward Cattrall sighed as he and his rebellious young partner made their way up the hallway towards the office of the Bureau's Director. Even now, this late in the game, with their suspension from active duty an all too probable outcome, even now Viyana was continuing her tirade about Keynes! "Damn it!" the young telepath said again, "We were so close, Edward - we had her in the palm of our hand until Tolmanes interfered!"

        "You heard what they said as well as I did - Keynes is a serving member in the Anla'shok as well as a citizen of the Interstellar Alliance - even if we had taken her off of Minbar, we would've had no legal standing to keep her here for trial. The ISA authorities would have been perfectly within their bounds to come for her and take her back."

        "I know - but it's just not fair!" Viyana insisted, as she and Cattrall reached the portal of the Director's office. "We had her - and we had to let her go!"

        "And what do you suppose would have happened if you hadn't been coerced to let her go?" a firm tenor voice announced from within. "Neither the Earth Alliance nor this organization needs another crisis right now - and as long as I am in charge, Agent Metois, this will continue to be the case."

        "But, sir!..."

        "That's quite enough from you." Colin Ferris interrupted her, his expression grim, "Quite enough. Into my office, both of you -- we have a great deal to discuss...

        And none of it will be pleasant."

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