(disclaimers and associated descriptions in overture)
* * *
<<ACT THREE>>
Darkness came to the great city of the R'kaht, and several rather interesting things accompanied that darkness.
* * *
The SHARD OF NIGHT; the moment before total eclipse.
"I cannot understand what she might have been thinking." Larieken mused, as he turned towards his captain. "All the Anla'shok aboard this vessel have guide-crystals implanted in locations from which they cannot easily be dislodged. As a result, we can, as you implied a few minutes ago, acquire her exact location within the ruins any time we wish to. She knew we could this, Val'na, why, then, did she choose to hide herself from her team?"
"It gained her a few precious minutes to act, Larieken..." Julia noted with some irritation, as the Minbari gestured into being an image of the city below and zoomed in on the complex that Sheynell and her team had entered a short time earlier. "Courtney Ellis was *just* indecisive enough not to call Klairika immediately about this matter, and now the other R'kaht world is plunging that city into darkness..."
It was then that a warning chime sounded on the bridge, of course, and a perplexed Larieken watched as the holoplot in front of him briefly dissolved into static, before returning somewhat... altered. "In Valen's Name! What is this?"
"What's going on?"
"An enormous energy source has just appeared in the heart of the ruins." Larieken calmly noted, although the calm appeared to be somewhat forced. "As near as I can tell, Anla'shok Keynes was at what your kind calls 'ground zero' when the energy source appeared."
"Damn!" she exclaimed. "This is the SHARD to Na'lai Alidiae. If you able..."
"This is Alidiae. Go ahead."
"Klairika; what's your status?"
"It is a good thing that we retreated to a place of redoubt when we did," the Brakiri replied, more then a little tersely. "A rather significant quake shook the city when total eclipse began, and several of the nearby towers have actually collapsed. On top of which, the ruined building in which we lost Anla'shok Keynes is now, ah...
Glowing."
"Glowing?"
"Glowing, yes. And brightly enough that we should be able to conduct a search during the time of darkness without any difficulty whatsoever. Do you wish us to begin that search, Val'na?"
Julia sighed; this was *so* frustrating, but for now, the need to find out what had happened to Sheynell was overcoming the worry of why the building was glowing. It probably had something to do with her tactical officer, in any case. "Take three Rangers you trust implicitly and try and find her, Klairika. And if you can get her out of whatever it is she's gotten herself into, then all the better."
"And if we cannot?"
"Then let's hope she can get herself out of this mess without blowing up the whole city in the process. SHARD OF NIGHT out." Julia then turned her attention back towards a still waiting Larieken. "Is there something else?"
The Minbari nodded gravely. "There is ONE other matter I wish to discuss with you at this time."
"And that would be?"
"I do not believe that we are alone in this place."
"May I assume you have some sort of evidence to support this hypothesis of yours?" she critically inquired.
Larieken gave her a 'this is *me* we're talking about' look at that point. "Yes. If you will observe these sensor records..."
* * *
On the Whisperglass.
The moment of shock and terror passed, and when it did, Sheynell gathered her thoughts, and began to critically observe what it was she was experiencing, although, all things considered, what she was experiencing could not be reality. The flare of light that had come from the Whisperglass had blinded her at the same time the telepathic shock had hit her, and now, she appeared to be drifting through a latticework of light, the individual beads of which extended... how far? To infinity?
<What is this place?> she cried out. <Where am I?>
One of the beads of light abruptly left the latticework, and drew close to her. <You are in our world, now; the only world we have known for so very long. After much discussion, the rest have allowed me to speak for them.>
<Who are you?>
-smile/tenderness/sadness- <You may call me Willein. That is close as I can get to translating my true name into your (sigh) primitive tongue>
<Willein, I'm sorry to ask, but can you do something about... all of this?>
-concern- <Apologies! I was, I am the one who drew you into this; allow me to alter your perception, and we will continue this discussion.> There was a flare of sensory disruption, and then the latticework was gone, and she found herself standing on a broad terrace beneath a blazing sun. Behind her, hundreds of silvery spires reached for the heavens, and tiny craft buzzed through the skies in an uncountable multitude.
"This was the way it was." the voice continued, and Sheynell slowly turned away from the vista to meet the gaze of a tall, silvery-skinned being, its two compound-eyes glittering in the bright sunlight. "Before the Darkness came. Before the Plague."
"It's beautiful." she managed, before lowering her gaze. "It *was* beautiful. I'm sorry."
"Please, do not be! It was our decision to ally ourselves with the ones you know as Vorlons, and our decision to fight against the Darkness. The only mistake we made, child, was to not find other allies like ourselves. We believed that with the Vorlons to aid us, we could defeat the Darkness and their creatures. We were wrong."
She nodded dejectedly. "They tried to kill you with the plague, and then, when that didn't work to their satisfaction, they destroyed your civilization with one of their planetkillers."
Willein inclined his head. "That is more or less accurate, yes. Some of us survived, only to be destroyed without mercy. So much time, we wasted..."
"Please! I'm sorry to interrupt, but I don't know how much time I've got to talk to you, here..."
"Not as long as I would wish." the other admitted.
"Then I must come to the point, Willein. As you probably know by now, I belong to a race named humanity, a race that has recently fought in the latest war of Darkness to plague this galaxy... the last, we hope."
"Last?" Willein exclaimed. "The Darkness is gone?"
"Yes. And the ones we know of as Vorlons, as well."
The R'kaht sighed explosively. "I wish there was time to discuss this matter more closely, but since there is not, we must press on to deal with more critical concerns. I can sense that you have a more important question to ask, young one. Since you are the first to properly contact us in so very long, ask your question. Answer it I will, to the best of my ability."
"The servants of the Darkness, ones we know of as Drakh, have cast upon my people the same plague that they cast upon you. Willein, I must know what method you used to defeat their plague, and if it can be used to aid my people! Can you aid us?"
Willein sighed again, and then grew sorrowful. "I wish it were that simple, young one, but it is not. Defeat the plague we did, but not without paying a great price. A story I must tell you of the ending of our days, so that you might understand what it is we did, and why. And also, what it is we ask of you on this day, and at this time."
"I'm not going to like this story, am I?"
The R'kaht shook his head. "I do not believe so, no."
* * *
The nearer they got to the heart of the ruins, the louder the vibration grew, and the brighter the glow became. Finally, Klairika had to shield her eyes as she emerged into the vast central space at the bottom of the ruin, the Rangers accompanying her close behind. At the exact center of the chamber, a circle of *something* blazed on the otherwise black floor, surrounded by a chamber-high veil of blue light, while ON the circle...
Klairika ground her teeth in irritation as she stepped off the ramp and approached the shimmering veil of light. Sheynell was standing on that fiery circle, her eyes wide and pupils fully dilated, her mouth slightly open, her arms and fingers outstretched; almost... enthralled, she appeared. Whatever this thing was, it had probably drawn her here against her will, and now, it was clear they had to get her off the circle as quickly as possible. Shaking her head, she then attempted to reach out to grab her new friend...
And cried out in shock and pain as the blue veil of light surrounding Sheynell quite thoroughly decided it wasn't going to let her through.
"Klairika!" Julia exclaimed from high above. "Are you all right?"
"We," she replied a moment later, while rubbing her still-buzzing arm, "Would appear to have a larger problem then we previously thought. May I suggest you join me down here as soon as possible?"
"I'll be on my way down shortly. For now however, I think you and your team should keep keep your eyes open for other intruders in the ruins. Larieken's just shown me some evidence that suggests something, or even *several* somethings, may have entered the system a short while ago..."
* * *
Elsewhere, but quite close.
"Look what the *human* has done!" the younger of the two Watchers exclaimed. "Exactly at the moment we intended to act, the human female interfered!"
"Yes." the Elder replied. And although the Elder was just as annoyed as his companion was, a dozen centuries of duty in the name of his Primarch had given him a *somewhat* greater measure of reserve. Hence, the annoyance did not show. "Although I suspect the R'kaht within the Whisperglass drew her to this place with... promises."
"Promises?"
"Yes. As you know, the ones on the ship above are not here merely by chance. They are hunting for a cure to the nano-disease that afflicts the world of the humans."
"And they thought to find such a cure here?" his now-appalled companion replied. "Do they not understand?"
The Elder sighed. "The humans are too young to understand, their lives too ephemeral. And she is a telepath... a strong one, for their kind."
"This may ruin *everything*!"
"Yes, it may indeed. But now that this has happened, we can do nothing else but observe the end result. You understand why this must be so, do you not?"
"Yes. The Primarch has ordered it so, because of the greater concerns involving the fate of the newborn Sha'naktoweire that commands the ship above. And if we do not obey the Primarch in this..."
"Then there is every chance we may never see Cathedral again. It is good that you understand."
* * *
On the Whisperglass.
"There-and-back, you said, before I stepped onto the glass." Sheynell recalled, as Willein sat himself down on the long stone bench that ran along the edge of the terrace. "What did you mean by that?"
"Desperate we were to find a cure to the nanovirus the Enemy had cast upon us," came his reply. "And our warriors were equally determined to continue the war against the Darkness. Compromises we made, for unlike your kind, the virus was adapting itself rapidly in our case, and in no more then three or so of your years, we would all be dead. We decided that this was unacceptable, and luckily, or so we believed at the time, one of our scientists had developed a process that we thought might be able to erase the nanovirus from our bodies, and allow us to continue our struggle."
"And that would be?"
"You are standing on it." was the R'kaht's reply.
"What? You mean the Whisperglass?"
"Indeed. The process I mentioned a moment ago, there-and-back, did exactly what the title implies. Each and every R'kaht, in their turn, stepped onto the glass and allowed their essence to be transferred into the crystal... and then back, while the crystal purified and cleaned their bodies of the invasive force. It took a very long time, many months you would say, but eventually, the process was concluded."
"And it *worked*?"
Willein sighed. "More or less."
Uh-oh, here it came. "Something went wrong, didn't it?"
"Yes. At the time we fought the Darkness, there were many of my people living on these worlds, primarily on this one, for it was the one upon which we first appeared. Out of that many, all of which stepped upon this glass, most were returned to their bodies, the healing complete.
Over four of your millions, however, did not."
"Why?"
Willein shrugged. "We do not know why, only that when the machine attempted to return us to our bodies, we could not escape from the crystal. A 'minor' technicality, the scientists termed it; if the rest of our people could be cured to continue the struggle, could we not afford to pay the price we were paying?"
"And you kept doing it..." Sheynell whispered, as she paused to wipe away the tear that had appeared, almost as if by magic, on her cheek. "You were so determined to fight the Shadows that you kept on stepping on this damned glass, right down to the last man, woman and child?"
"Yes. And therein lies our present concern. Thousands of years have now passed since the Dark One's great weapon swept this world with fire and murdered the rest of my people, but, in a stroke of fate, their missiles did not destroy the glass..."
"And you've all been trapped here since then?"
"You have it." At that point, Willein's expression became more critical. "And now, if you are to help us, it must be now. We have sensed another force drawing near, a force that while it means to aid us, would seek to place us in a prison no different from the one we find ourselves in now."
In a moment of realization, she realized what it was he was talkng about. "Soul Hunters. You're talking about Soul Hunters, aren't you?"
A brief whisper passed through her, and the R'kaht nodded. "So you call them, yes. About to strike they were, when we summoned you to this place. Some among us did not mean you well, but the greater, conservative majority silenced them and held them in check... but I do not know how long this will last. And what is worse is this: it would appear that the source which powers this device is also beginning to wane. If we do not do something soon, we may all perish, trapped in this glass prison.
Will you help us, Sheynell Keynes of Earth? Will you help us to escape from the ones named Soul Hunters? Will you free us from this dying tomb?"
"What do you want me to do?"
"Though you are different then us, the machine has treated you no different in one way." Willein explained. "You have begun the journey there- and-back; the only thing that is stopping that journey is our interference."
At that she shuddered, as her worldview abruptly spun around her. "You're not... you're not trying to tell me that my body's on the glass, and my soul's in here, are you?"
Willein shrugged. "What is, is. You are here, talking to me. Where do you believe 'here' is?"
"But... but what if I can't get out!" she just about shrieked. "I'd be trapped here forever, like the rest of you!"
"We do not believe that is a likely outcome. You are not our kind, and the machine is not tuned to your race's... patterns. When release you we do, we believe that you will complete the journey, and return to your body unharmed. Because of your differences, however, and the sheer strength of your telepathy, it is the... judgement of all that the glass will shatter, and that we *should* be able to escape."
"Should?"
"Yes." Willein declared, as he suddenly strode forward and grasped her hands in his. "Should. This is the reason we summoned you here, the reason we plotted to summon your essence into this place, so we could talk to you... and reason with you.
You are our final hope, Sheynell Keynes of Earth. Help us now, or not at all."
* * *
The SHARD OF NIGHT.
"Captain!" Nicholas exclaimed, as he burst into the shuttlebay, "Wait! Before you go, I've got to tell you something. Lesaki and I have just discovered something that you should know about..."
"Mr. Dawson!" she icily noted, "I simply do not have time for this at the moment. One of my senior officers is in terrible danger..."
"One?" Nicholas ground out. "Sorry to burst your bubble, Captain, but it's more then one. And unless we get everyone off the surface, pronto, they're all gonna be in terrible danger, *trust* me on this one."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you know that polite little iceball just next door? Well, it's not nearly so polite as we thought.
To be succinct, Captain, looks like it's about to have a temper tantrum, actually."