Part 2
It was dark. The darkness pressing in upon her was the first thing Susan noticed as she became aware of her surroundings. She felt sick, slow, unable to concentrate. She could hear voices, people talking. They sounded familiar, but Susan couldn't place them. She lay still, listening.
"I was revealed too soon. I had no time to obtain sufficient information from her"
A woman. A man's voice answered her, calm, oily.
"No matter. Now we have her, the information can be extracted by... other means"
Susan wondered groggily what he was talking about. He spoke again.
"I'd like you to work closely with Commander Ivanova during her... stay. I will of course be overseeing the proceedings, but I feel the... connection the two of you shared will provide you with a valuable advantage"
Commander Ivanova... that's me... Susan thought, feeling the first stirrings of apprehension in her stomach as her brain fought off the drug. ...Psi Corps... oh God, I've been captured by the Psi Corps...
She gave a low cry and opened her eyes as the woman, ...Talia, no longer Talia... replied demurely, "Of course, Sir"
They both turned to look at Susan and smiled. ...Bester... Talia Winters... Susan made one futile attempt to run, to hide, to escape from these people she feared more than any others, but was brought up short by the straps encircling her ankles and wrists, holding her flat to the medical bed. She shook her head, remembering everything. All her hatred of this being, the cause of Talia's demise, the cause of all her pain...
"It was you!" she hissed at the blonde woman. "You spied on us all these years! I trusted you..."
She jerked in the restraints, irrational in her desire to hurt the telepath before her. A malicious smile crossed Talia Winters' beautiful face as she watched Ivanova's struggles.
"Yes" she said, smiling, entirely unaffected by Susan's accusations. "But you most of all, Susan. I was so close, so close to learning all your secrets... oh well. We have plenty of time to learn... all about each other now, don't we?"
The light danced in her eyes. Incredibly, Ivanova felt tears forming. Trying desperately to avoid crying in front of them,she twisted her head away from the woman. Her eyes came to rest on Bester, who hadn't moved. He had a smile on his face, obviously enjoying the interaction.
"Yes" he said, motioning Talia before him to the door "I'm sure the two of you will work well together. Hurry up and get well, Commander, the fun can't start without you, you know"
Giggling, Talia left the room, Bester pausing to flash Ivanova a last, wolfish smile. Susan closed her eyes, trying to block out the Psi Corps medical facility.
...Dear God... let me wake up... please let this not be real...
"What the hell d'you mean, 'she's gone'??!"
Sheridan looked incredulously at his Chief of Security.
"What I said. Look, John, she's nowhere on Babylon 5. Didn't tell anyone she was leaving... oh, she spoke to Stephen late last night... it seems he was the last person to see her..."
"Stephen?" Sheridan interrupted sharply. "Where is he? I want to see him" Maybe he'd be able to shed some light on this mystery.
"Yes Sir, I'll call him" Garibaldi turned away, speaking into his link.
"It's just not like Susan" Sheridan insisted. "She wouldn't just up and leave like this, would she?"
He looked at Garibaldi as if daring him to disagree. Michael looked back soberly. Maybe Sheridan hadn't noticed anything, but Ivanova had been acting awful depressed lately. He was saved from answering by the arival of the doctor. Franklin looked hassled, like he'd been surrounded by a lot of arguing Drazi, all shouting loudly and bearing suspiciously similar injuries, which knowing Babylon 5, he probably had.
"What is it, Captain?"
"Ah, Stephen!" said Sheridan eagerly. "You spoke with Susan last night, didn't you?"
"That's right" Stephen replied, looking suddenly tired.
"Well, c'mon! Tell Michael here that she was fine, acting great, her usual self! I bet she evn threatened to trash MedLab, didn't she?!"
Stephen passed a hand in front of his face.
"I'm... afraid not, Captain. She looked awful, breathing funny, looked like she had one hell of a headache" he shook his head. "Hell, I wish I'd listened... I was busy, I just sent her away with some pills... maybe I could have stopped her..."
Sheridan lked incredulous.
"So you're saying that you believe this... that Susan just suddenly.. took off?"
Stephen looked resigned as he nodded, unable to meet the Captain's eyes. Sheridan's face darkened, he opened his mouth as if to rage at his officers, when the door to his office chimed. Caught off guard, he glared at Michael and Stephen and snapped out,
"Come in!"
The door opened and Lyta Alexander rushed in.
"I'm sorry for the intrusion, Captain, but I have something to tell you. It's about the disappearance of Commander Ivanova"
"How did you know she was missing?!" barked Sheridan.
Lyta put on hand to her head, obviously in pain.
"Last night I saw the Commander near Ambassador Kosh's docking bay. I thought she was... snooping around his ship, so I went to warn her. She sa me, and she shouted at me, and then..."
"And then what?"
"She... she knocked me out, Captain"
"She WHAT?!" the three men exclaimed.
"I think she did it before I could tell anyone what she was doing. When I woke up, she was gone"
There was a long silence. Finally Sheridan spoke.
"Right, uh, well, thankyou, Ms Alexander. You should probably get to MedLab, get your head checked out"
When the telepath and the doctor had gone, Sheridan and Garibaldi were left staring at each ither.
"Now do you believe me?" Garibaldi said grimly.
...Thud... thwack... Ivanova groaned as the bunched fists slammed into her midsection, causing her to double over on her knees. Hands twisting deep in the thick chestnut tresses of her hair, hauling her roughly to her feet. Gasping, S tried to ward off the attack, but there were too many of them... Psi Corps guards dressed in red and black uniforms, surrounding her... staring at her with blank unseeing eyes... the butt of a gun crashed into her kidneys knocking her to the floor again.
Bester stood watching, a dispassionate half smile on his face. Ivanova tried not to think of the probable pleasure he got from seeing her hurt, after all she had taken every oppurtunity on Babylon 5 to show how she despised him. She tried to think about something... anything... to take her mind off the pain...
...It hadn't been a good idea, she saw that now, but it had seemed like her only chance. Pretending to be weaker than she was, as the guards took her from the medical room, Ivanova suddenly dived for the PPG of the nearest guard, turning to point it at Bester, her finger tightening on the trigger... Then the guard lashed out with his foot, catching Ivanova's wrist and sending the PPG spinning across the corridor. Snarling, she turned on him, advancing like an animal, no sense of rationality or reason. The man connected with his right fist, sending Susan sprawling backwards into the grip of another guard. He turned to look at Bester, who nodded at him. Smiling evilly, the man moved towards Susan, struggling against her captor.
...Slam... crunch... thud... Dimly, through a haze of pain, Susan wondered why Bester didn't just punish her telepathically, and decided that the beating was probably part of the breaking process. Once again she was dragged to her feet, staggering and swaying as she tried to face her attackers. A searing pain on the left side of her face brought her to her senses, just in time to see the second slap which landed on the other side. Her face burned with humiliation, anger, pain...
Through the mists rising around her, Ivanova heard Bester's voice.
"I told you to leave her face alone. That's enough for now, I think"
Ivanova felt her arms seized roughly and she was marched along the corridor, stumbling from dizziness and pain. She had a vague impression of a small room, empty except for a military style cot in one corner which rose rapidly to meet her, before everything went black.