Lost in the Worlds
“Carolina O’Kelly Rand, you are under arrest for suspicion of Mind Control. You’ll have to come with me,” Jae Rallene told her in a strange, tight voice.
“A-arrest?” Lina O'Kelly asked, staring up at the so-tall Legionnaire with the startlingly beautiful face. She clutched the abundant white lace of her wedding dress because she didn't know how else to hide her shaking hands. Londo wasn't here now to protect her. No one else was here. Londo and all the other Mega-Legionnaires had been called away from his own wedding reception for an emergency, to rescue a damaged hyperspace ship.
Did he know that they'd planned this?
No. No, of course not. She trusted Londo. He was the only person that she did trust. He couldn't help it if the universe was spinning out of control and dragging the two of them with it. Londo was used to this kind of thing. Lina wasn’t even used to this world.
Jae grimaced and ran his hand through the mop of sun-gold that framed his head and shoulders, darker blond cat-patterning it. For a moment the points of his elfin ears showed and then were covered again.
“Look, Lina, the Commander didn’t specify that you were to be put in a holding cell, so I’m going to declare you under house arrest. I’m your confinement officer; that means that whatever I say you take as an order.”
She gave a dazed nod at her new husband’s best friend. She should have been expecting something like this ever since they got out of quarantine. Stupid of her not to.
But everything was topsy-turvy now. She didn’t know which direction to keep watch out for -- or for what. Anything could happen here. Anything already had: a wonderful man had fallen in love with her and he’d married her, right out of the blue. Who could have foreseen that?
House arrest? She had a faint idea of what that entailed on Earth, but here -- a world totally unknown to her, a technology far beyond familiarity -- what did that mean?
The only thing that came to mind was that she needed a lawyer. Mind Control had to be a major crime, possibly on terrorist level. Did they have lawyers Out Here? And if so, how the heck would she contact one?
Londo would know, but Lon wasn’t here now.
What was the punishment for Mind Control? Would Stoan Kinrol really try to railroad a charge like this against her? No one Out Here would believe the Terran witchdoctor was innocent, would they?
Jae lifted the minister's stole from his shoulders. He stared at it a moment, then folded it into a black square and tucked it under his arm.
"I suppose this last miracle was asking for too much." Lina tried to smile bravely, but had to clap her hand over her trembling mouth.
The empty holosuite echoed Jae’s words now that it stood empty and colorless: “Central command is being transferred to Lab 1-A. That’s standard procedure with a skeleton staff. Wiley hardly ever goes on missions with the rest of us.”
At Lina’s jerky nod Jae added, “Come on. All you have to do is stay in the lab under watch until everyone gets back. We’ll need to run a few tests, ask you a few questions, but it won’t be bad. If we get a quorum in the meantime, don’t worry. I’ll arrange for you to remain under house arrest. You won’t be going into any cell. If I'm called away, I want you to stay with Wiley, is that clear?”
“Thank you--” Her voice broke and she turned away hastily from him, hiding her face with her hands as tears erupted. Alone! She wanted Londo! He’d protect her, he’d make everything all right again. In his arms there was nothing that could harm her, no one who could try to break her will.
Londo was a new telepath. It probably hadn’t occurred to him to warn her about the silence of hyperspace. But when he'd entered it, it had been as if her insides had been sucked out, trying to follow him to wherever he was bound and unable to find him anywhere.
Where had all this dependence come from? When had she stopped being her own person and started relying on Londo instead? In her entire life no one had cared for her, so she had watched out for herself. She'd learned to hide from the world, to detach herself so far from it that she couldn't touch it and it couldn't touch her.
Her own hard work had established a firm control over her small life. She'd made her way in the world and hadn't been that bad at it. Now why was she trying to cling to a husband for what she should be providing herself? She wasn't going to put that burden on Londo. He was the famous Valiant, after all; he had enough problems to deal with. She was not going to be a burden to him!
She fought for control, embarrassed to weep in front of Jae, Londo’s best friend. What kind of an impression was she making? She never cried, never ever -- but in these past few days she’d found herself crying so many times on Londo’s shoulder, as if emotions bottled up for all her life were suddenly finding a way to seep out of her through her tear ducts.
A loudly voiced sob -- She couldn’t choke it down and it came out anyway, echoing in here. Stop it, stop it! “I’m sorry,” she managed to say. That was her motto any more, wasn’t it? “I’m sorry.” She sniffled her way to a semblance of order, holding her hands over her face, breathing purposefully to get rid of the redness, the puffiness. “I seem to... My emotions aren’t being very--” she sniffed -- “logical these days. Give me just a minute, please.”
“Sure,” she thought Jae said.
God, what he must think of her. He’d warned Londo before they got married, hadn’t he? He’d told Londo that she was a weakness he didn’t need, a vulnerable spot, a target for his enemies. He’d told her that Londo needed to explain things to her before they got married. But she and Lon had convinced Jae to officiate at the wedding. Didn’t that mean that Jae approved of her, even a little?
With a shake, she straightened herself. Being wife to the great mega-hero Valiant meant that she couldn’t allow her actions to detract from his reputation. “I’m sorry,” she repeated, but now she turned around to face Jae. “It won’t happen again. It’s just... everything at once.”
Now she blinked not to get rid of tears, but because they were back in the laboratory -- or rather, in the little break room just off the entrance to it. She hadn't ported. They'd accused her of teleporting to arrange the strange things that had been happening lately, but it hadn't been her and her new power of interstellar teleportation. “How--?”
“You knew we had our own transporters,” Jae gave her a small, encouraging smile. Obviously he was uneasy around females on a crying jag. “I just saved us a trip. You okay now? You look all right. A little red around the nose.”
“No, I’m fine." A sniff betrayed her. "How does this house arrest work? Do you need to get my fingerprints or a-anything? Do I get to call a lawyer?”
Skurn it all. Jae knew he should have treated her like a real suspected Mind Controller and clapped her into one of the inner cells of the ForceField section -- but he couldn't. Londo was his best friend and this was his wife. Jae had just presided at the marriage.
Commander Magnos's orders left a lot of leeway since he'd been more concerned with the immediate emergency at hand. Jae had decided to take advantage of it. Something in his gut told him that this woman with the wide green eyes wasn't a Mind Controller. She'd been dying herself when she'd brought Londo in. She'd saved Lon's life. That alone was worth leniency, as much as Jae could bestow. Or was that the Mind Controller telling him that?
It had only been a couple hours ago that he'd been trying to talk the two of them out of this crazy idea of getting married. Then Londo had promised him that Jae would get his chance to present the truth of the matter to Lina, certain truths that Londo just didn't have the guts to tell her beforehand.
Londo might be the most powerful being in the sector, deservedly renowned for his bravery, but about a tiny slice of his life Londo was a coward. Londo didn't trust anyone, not all the way -- not even his best friend. And not even his girlfriend -- no, his wife.
A few minutes ago the holosuite had been rolling meadow. It had been filled with celebrating Legionnaires and their families. Londo had smiled and laughed more than Jae had seen him do in a long time. Maybe this strange Terran girl was good for him.
And maybe she had him under Mind Control.
Great grigach. Look at her, so forlorn. This pretty little witchdoctor was precisely the woman that Londo had always wanted. Lon had always hated the style of shaved heads, especially when it came to women. Of course he'd like this hair that hung halfway down Lina's back when she wore it in her usual braid. It was softly curly when it wasn't braided; Jae had never seen hair like that in person; well, not since his childhood on Feith.
"Redheads are the hottest," Londo had confided to him many times over the years and indeed, Lina's auburn hair did glow with bright red highlights when the light struck it strongly. But even without it all, without the innocent, oval face, without the full bustline that was precisely what Londo would order, there were the exotically tilted green eyes that seemed to gaze unaccusingly into your soul. There was no way that Londo could have escaped their magic. Or was it Mind Control? Was that how Mind Controllers did it, to catch their victim unawares?
And if so, how safe was Jae from her? He'd been locked in quarantine with her for almost three days now. Now he had to be with her for how much longer? Was it his imagination, or was there someone scritch-scratching at his brain, trying to worm their way into his mind?
The last thing Jae wanted was to play watchdog to Lina O'Kelly... Rand. Grigach, he'd married her to Londo! That Londo had tricked him. The miracles of the morning had dazzled him so he didn't notice how blatantly Lon had twisted things to make Jae play his way -- having him preside at Londo's own wedding. Tick Londo anyway!
And sunfire take Lina Rand for screwing up their plans so badly. It was going to be difficult to work up a healthy dislike for her, but he was going to give it a try. He was going to ignore the fact that she'd saved Londo's life and hate her. He was.
And when Londo came back, Jae would make a few things very, very public. See him try to worm his way out of this! Lon could be cruel. By the orb, Lon could be kind, too. So many times when Jae had been maddest at Londo, it had turned out that Lon had had Jae's best interests at heart. He just had a tick of a habit of trying to control things to make them work out his way. Like now.
And poor Lina was caught in all this. For a moment Jae wondered if she knew, and then he shook his head to himself. Of course she didn't know. Londo didn't tell people important things; he didn't trust them enough. He didn't trust Jae, his closest friend for so many years. He wouldn't trust this woman he'd just met.
This woman he'd just married.
Ah grigach, Londo, what have you done? What have I helped you do?
“No, we're not going to collect identification now," Jae told the girl. The top of her head came to the base of his neck. Lon had mentioned that on Earth she'd be considered very tall for a woman. Not here. And her smooth shoulders were scandalously bare, which had added to all the gossip at the reception. He'd have to have a little talk with her himself about propriety, about a lot of things -- without letting on to the secrets Londo wanted him to keep. How did you do that when you talked with a telepath? No doubt Legion Protocol would want to talk with her, too.
"Come on," Jae said brusquely. "There might still be time to see the last off. Watch the dress.”
Lina grabbed on to the lace train of her wedding gown to make sure that it didn’t sweep across any machinery or into any of the boxy experiment stations here in the main lab. She followed Jae to the central data console where Dr. Wilder Mem-Bazer had already settled.
The aqua-skinned genius with the subdued violet hair was talking to a 3-D screen hanging in the air. "All systems are checking in blue light. I've got you cleared for hyperspace insertion coordinates EF-679-45. Three minutes."
"Right, Wiley." It was Aiko who filled most of the screen, sitting in front of the camera with the hint of a body or two behind her. She still held her courageous, cover-up smile from the wedding.
"Coordinates noted. Time marked. All other Mega-Legion passenger ships are clicking out of com range. There goes the hospital ship. Robot ships are checking in; I'm giving them the go-ahead now. Time for us, I suppose; see you in about four or five days. Oh -- there's the bride herself," Aiko said, surveying the lab and Lina from her screen.
"Congratulations again, Lina. Sorry it had to be like this. On my world we have a saying: 'Dark start, bright finish.' Things will get better for you two. We'll finish that party when we all get back. He’ll be fine; don’t worry."
"Thank you," Lina tried to bring up a genuine smile, but she felt sick inside. "And good luck to you all."
"We don’t need luck; we are the Legion. Take care of business, Wiley. Jae. Hyperspace insertion mode commencing. Fallow out." The screen blacked.
Lina turned quickly from the screen, afraid she was going to scream. She clapped both hands to her mouth and then realized that Jae was still staring at the space in the air where the screen had been. His toast-brown skin had gone pale.
"You saw it too," she accused him. Wilder caught the words and turned towards the two of them.
"What's the matter with you? I can understand Lina being upset, but you, Jae..." He paused, looking at them. One eye targeted Jae and the other, Lina. "What the skurn is it?"
Jae tried to speak, then tried again. "Aiko... She's not going to come back."
"What? What do you mean?"
Lina put her hands on Jae's shoulders, surprised that she could do that much as he stood there paralyzed. She said, "He means that she's going to be killed. Real soon."
Wilder turned to his control board and back to them. "They're gone; no further communications possible until they return to normal space. What's this all about?"
Jae choked, "I saw the Mark of Ramseur on her -- the Feithi death sign."
Lina nodded, tight-lipped. "I saw her dying in Londo's arms in a room filled with flame and smoke," she said. "There was something sticking in her, in her midsection." She studied Jae with concern, then turned to Wilder, who obviously didn't believe in death omens. But she could tell that he was considering it, considering the thought of Aiko dead.
"How many times have you had death visions come true?" he finally asked her.
"Never," she said. "But I know this one will. It's a gut feeling, Wiley. I've had gut feelings before, just never ones that concerned someone's death."
"The Mark of Ramseur," Jae muttered, glancing around in a daze. "I've never seen it, but I know what it was. It's always true. Always. There's a phrase, 'As true as the Ramseur,' but people didn't say it much because it was... so..."
His gaze met Wiley’s. "She's going to die," he told him. "Aiko. Aiko!" He grabbed Wiley by the front of his yellow lab coat. "A ship. We'll get another ship and follow them--"
"Because of a psychic event? If it was one?" Wiley asked. "You just said that this Mark of Ramseur was always correct. Have you ever heard of anyone beating it?"
Jae's face fell.
"I take it that's a no. Then what good would it do to follow? We have real work here. You've been in quarantine for days, Jae. You've been off your schedule for too long. The wedding this morning -- it's just nerves."
"It's not nerves," Jae said tightly. "I am not insane."
"I didn't say you were. But sometimes you become upset when you've been through too many strange circumstances," Wiley told him calmly. "All I'm saying is that perhaps, due to the wedding and all the changes it implies, that your imagination or subconscious may have summoned a literal example of what you think has figuratively happened."
"You make it sound so cold," muttered Jae.
"Not cold, just less emotional. If you were Tishana, Jae, I could well believe you saw something. But you aren't, so chances are that it was just--"
“I am Feithi. We were far beyond the Tishana.”
Wiley pressed his lips together, as if he’d almost begun to say, “Maybe you used to be,” and decided against it.
"Aiko's going to die," Lina interrupted gently. "I'm sorry if the thought distresses you so much that you can't consider it seriously, Wiley, but it's a fact."