*****************************


Onboard the Valen’s Path:

   Alyt Devro had been contemplating his commander’s planned actions. He had 
made a study of the Ares when he discovered that it had captured the Drakh 
dreadnought. The scans of the Earth ship had revealed that she had sustained a 
lot of damage, but most of it was minor. It would be expensive to repair, but 
it didn’t impact her main weapons systems to a great extent. If asked, he 
would have said that an attack on the Earth ship by a lone war cruiser was a 
fool’s errand. Unlike most ship designs, this destroyer – if that was a proper 
name for it – didn’t have its power sources concentrated in one area of the 
ship. A lucky shot would not mortally wound it. Its design would allow it to 
continue fighting until the ship was completely destroyed. He doubted a war 
cruiser could absorb the punishment it would receive in such an endeavor and 
survive. The fate of the Drakh ships was testimony that superior technology was 
not enough. His impression of the human female general was that she was not to 
be trusted in combat. She would not let restrictive thinking cloud her 
judgment. She would fight like a cornered animal fighting for its life. She 
would hold nothing back.

   Besides, inside his own mind, Alyt Devro’s own conscience was unwilling to 
accept his Shai Alyt’s decision. It was wrong, and the more he thought about 
it, the more he knew he couldn’t be part of it. He also knew that his refusal 
to support his Shai Alyt would result in his execution. Considering that he 
greatly doubted they would survive the coming fight, it was, as far as he was 
concerned, a moot point.

   So he found himself sitting in his quarters awaiting the outcome of the 
fight.

*****************************

In Valen’s Path’s tactical situation room:

   Shai Alyt Prathen was still smarting from having his Alyt refuse to support 
him in his endeavor. He would deal with him after this was over. He was 
relishing the thought of making an example of Devro. Addressing his weapons 
officer, he said, “Lock weapons on the Ares’ port side missile launchers.”

   “Shai Alyt, shouldn’t we destroy his weapons or engines first?” Asked the 
weapons officer.

   “Normally we would, but the human female likes to use nuclear warheads. By 
attacking her missile launchers, we may be able to detonate their warheads. At 
the very least we will ignite their rocket motors in the launch tubes.  That by 
itself should wreak havoc on her ship. Then we will attend the engines and 
weapons.”

   “We have locked weapons on its missile launchers, Shai Alyt. Sir, the 
whitestars are powering up their weapons and locking onto our engine areas.”

   “He thinks he can intimidate me into standing down. He is wrong.”

   “Who is he, Shai Alyt?” asked the weapons officer.

   “The human female has turned tactical command of her ship over to Shai Alyt 
Sheraun.”

   “Why?”

   “Fire!”

   The weapons officer initiated the firing command and all forward weapons on 
the war cruiser spewed intense energy beams in the direction of the Ares. At 
the same time the whitestars began attacking the cruiser’s engines and power 
control rooms. The effect was immediate. The huge war cruiser shuddered as the 
drive systems fought to recover from the pounding they were taking. 

   A second later Shai Alyt Prathen saw return fire from the Ares. Its effects 
were not immediately known, until the weapons officer said, “Shai Alyt Prathen, 
we have suffered damage to ten percent of our forward weapons arrays.”

*****************************

In Ares’ flag mess:

   “She was right, here it comes. What in God’s name are we doing in this 
mess?” asked Fitzgerald.

   “In the first place, God probably doesn’t care, if he even knows. But, the 
last time I heard, this nut on the war cruiser was determined to blow us out of 
space,” replied Ames.

*****************************

In Ares’ CIC:

   The SWC had given firing control to Sheraun. There was a display screen 
attached to the right armrest of the captain’s chair. It not only functioned as 
a display, but as a weapons control console. With it, Sheraun could select 
weapons, use cross-hairs to aim them and even set the output level of each 
weapon. He had only taken control of the main batteries. He had left the 
secondary and tertiary batteries to the auxiliary weapons consoles located in 
all three CICs.

   “Powering up weapons and locking onto the war cruiser’s engine rooms,” said 
Sheraun’s second in command from Whitestar 71.

   Sheraun saw the cruiser’s weapons fire and heard his second say, “Initiating 
attack, shai alyt.”

   A moment later, Sheraun initiated return fire at the war cruiser. He 
concentrated on the weapons arrays that were mounted all over the forward part 
of the cruiser, paying particular attention to the main batteries. He had 
lowered power levels on the Ares’ main batteries, only wishing to damage the 
war cruiser’s weapons enough to require they be taken down for repairs.

   Susan felt the ship shudder slightly when the weapons fire from the war 
cruiser impacted the Ares and burned through the outer armor of several of the 
missile launch tubes. She sent to Sheraun, {She packs quite a punch.}

   He responded thinking, {Ares can take a lot of punishment.} Then he realized 
he had heard Susan in his head. Having experience with Lyta caused him to 
accept it without thinking much about it.

*****************************

Onboard Valen’s Path:

   “Damage assessment on the Ares?”

   “Shai Alyt,” said a sensor operator, “She suffered minor damage to three of 
her missile launcher tubes. We barely penetrated her armor.”

    Shai Alyt Prathen felt his ship shudder again more heavily than last time, 
as the whitestars pursued their attack. Noting the lack of effect on Ares, 
Prathen ordered, “Target its engines and weapons systems.”

   “Shai Alyt Prathen! We are unable to get weapons’ lock on the Ares engines 
and weapons. Our weapons control and tracking systems are being effectively 
jammed by the whitestars. Also, the Ares is using its secondary and tertiary 
weapons to blind our targeting sensors. That and the jamming from the 
whitestars is making it all but impossible to effectively target the Earth 
ship. We are reduced to firing on a bearing,” noted his weapons officer.

   “Shai Alyt,” said his engineering officer of the watch, “Our jump engines 
have been damaged and are off-line, and our main engines have been damaged. We 
are only able to make one-quarter speed.”

   “Destroy the whitestars!” Ordered Prathen.

   “We will have to maneuver to bring weapons to bear on them, Shai Alyt. If we 
do that, we give the Ares a clear line of fire on our reactors, engines and 
power control rooms. If Shai Alyt Sheraun is operating their weapons, they will 
surely damage us beyond the ability to fight, or they will outright destroy 
us,” noted his tactical officer.

   Shai Alyt Prathen continued the futile attempt to target and damage the 
Ares. The weapons fire on the Ares bearing was having the effect of destroying 
most of the secondary and tertiary batteries on its port side. The energy beams 
were finally penetrating Ares' armor, but the evacuated spaces and lack of 
personnel kept damage to a minimum by not supporting any secondary explosions 
or burning, and casualties to zero due to the spaces not being manned. due to 
the spaces not being manned. After a full fifteen minutes of ineffective, 
untargeted fire, he ordered his weapons officer, “Target the warlocks.  Their 
armor cannot withstand our weapons. We will destroy as many of the humans as 
possible.”

*****************************

In Ares’ CIC:

   {Sheraun, Prathen is targeting the warlocks. He wants to kill as many humans 
as possible. He knows he can’t win against the Ares and the whitestars.}

   “Navigator, bring us around. I want to be bow on to the Valen’s Path.”

   “Bringing us about now, shai alyt,” responded Lieutenant Breen.

   All the while, Sheraun had been blasting away at the war cruiser’s weapons 
systems. He had damaged more than half of her forward weapons systems. He 
wished he didn’t have to do it, but it was looking like he would have to 
destroy the Valen’s Path whether he wanted to or not. Shai Alyt Prathen wasn’t 
giving him much in the way of alternatives.

   The war cruiser had been raining a steady stream of high intensity weapons 
fire on the port side of the Ares. While the bio-armor was absorbing and 
dissipating most of it, the port side secondary and tertiary weapons 
emplacements were being shot all to hell. The hull was being deeply scored and 
in some places breached, but as Sheraun’s efforts to damage the war cruiser’s 
weapons continued as the intensity of the incoming fire began to subside. When 
the whitestars finally damaged the war cruiser’s power control rooms, the 
weapons fire dropped to less that fifty percent of its original strength. It 
was at this time that Prathen decided to shift fire to the warlocks.

*****************************

In Ares’ flag mess:

   “Does anyone in here doubt that we are getting our money’s worth out of the 
Ares?” asked General Ames.

   His question was greeted by silence. “Come on now. Some of you raised holy 
hell when Susan Ivanova and company managed to convince President Luchenko’s 
representative that building the Ares was the way to go. You also raised holy 
hell when her design change recommendations were adopted for inclusion in the 
ship’s construction. We’re getting the hell shot out of us by that war cruiser, 
and we’re still here. Name me one other ship in our inventory that can take 
half this much punishment and keep on fighting?”

   Garibaldi could have answered him, but security restrictions prevented it. 
He had been riding herd on the new IA destroyer project for President Sheridan 
for the last few years. Even though the new ships were more technologically 
advanced than the Ares, he wouldn’t want to be on either one if it came down to 
a toe-to-toe slugfest. He knew that the Vorlon based main gun could tear the 
hell out of the Ares, but it depleted the ship’s power reserves and left it 
unprotected for a minute each time it was fired. Because of its distributed 
construction the Ares could not be taken out with one shot, and under command 
of Susan Ivanova and her crack crew, it would cut the new ships to pieces. Even 
its new armor would not stand up to the Ares’ main batteries operated the way 
Susan used them, and she would come right down your throat with all guns 
blazing. She had destroyed Clark’s advanced destroyer group with just those 
tactics, even though she was vastly out gunned and those destroyers had been 
equipped with Shadow derived bio-armor. “There aren’t any, General Ames. No one 
single ship presently in any of the EA or IA inventory could take down the Ares 
one-on-one. I’m surprised that neither the other alliance members nor the non-
aligned worlds haven’t raised hell about it.”

   “Actually they did,” replied Leftcourt. “We supplied them the standard set 
of design prints to show that Ares was nothing more than a well designed 
destroyer, capable of supporting troops. What Susan has made out of the Ares is 
something else all together. She has had virtually all the systems software 
custom modified specifically for this ship’s systems. That’s one of the reasons 
she is going to end up running the Departments of Design and Procurement.”

   “Isn’t having a very junior general in that position irritating to some who 
might feel those assignments should go to more deserving people who have paid 
their dues?” asked Garibaldi.

   “There were, Mister Garibaldi,” replied Sanchez.

   “However, we gave them reasons to support the assignments,” commented 
Leftcourt.

   “I suppose that the traction wards of the Earthforce hospitals are getting a 
lot of use lately,” noted Garibaldi.

   Several of the generals including Sanchez and Leftcourt looked at Garibaldi 
and smiled, knowingly.

   “Gents, it looks like we are about to change tactics,” commented Owens, 
watching the changing pictures on the display.

*****************************

Onboard the Valen’s Way:

   “We are almost in position to attack the warlocks, Shai Alyt Prathen,” noted 
his weapons officer.

   “As soon as you can line up on them,  commence firing!” ordered Prathen.

   He had no sooner spoken than a sensor operator announced, “Shai alyt, the 
Ares has come around and has brought her forward weapons arrays to bear on us. 
They have charged weapons to maximum capacity.”

*****************************

In Ares’ CIC:

   {Prathen has given the order to fire as soon as his weapons can be lined up 
on the warlocks,} Susan’s “voice” whispered in Sheraun’s mind.

   “SWC, do I have firing control?”

   “Yes, sir, shai alyt.”

   Muttering something in Minbari, Sheraun stabbed at the icon on the display 
screen that would initiate firing the forward main batteries at the Valen’s 
Path. A few seconds later, Susan screamed at the top of her lungs and collapsed 
in the flag command chair. Sheraun stifled a scream and went limp in the 
captain’s chair. Without hesitation, Lieutenant Breen thumbed the 1MC switch on 
his control panel and said, “Medical personnel to CIC immediately. Medical 
personnel to CIC immediately.”

   “SWC , the war cruiser is beginning to drift,” announced Breen.

   SWC ordered cease fire and both he and Breen quickly moved Sheraun from the 
captain’s chair to the deck. The engineering watch and his assistant had tended 
to Susan. She was laid out on the deck adjacent her chair. Having checked both 
Susan and Sheraun for pulse and breathing the men returned to their stations, 
with Breen manning the captain’s chair. He wasted no time taking control of the 
situation.

   “Whitestar 71, Shai Alyt Sheraun has been incapacitated. We read the war 
cruiser as being disabled with weapons down and engineering functions non-
operational. Do you concur?” asked Breen the alyt of Whitestar 71.”

   “We concur, Ares. We are standing by pending further orders.”

   “We have a shortage of anyone who can speak Minbari in CIC at this time. I 
request that you try and communicate with the war cruiser. If she is ready to 
quit fighting, extend our desire to help with her wounded and whatever else she 
needs to maintain life support.” 

   “We will comply. Whitestar 71 out.”

*****************************

In the Ares’ flag mess:

   Seeing what was transpiring in CIC, Leftcourt said, “I don’t care what her 
orders were. I’m going up there.” With that he rushed the door and 
said, “Open!” whereupon the door immediately opened. He could see that there 
was no security guard on the door. “I wonder when they left?”

   “Probably five minutes after they closed the door,” replied 
Garibaldi. “Susan bluffed us, and not one of us had the balls to call her hand. 
The damned door was never locked, and there is no knockout gas either.”

   “I strongly suggest that none of us ever play poker with her,” commented 
Sanchez as he quickly followed Leftcourt out of the flag mess.

*****************************

In Ares’ CIC:

   Captain Owens was the first one to reach CIC arriving just behind the 
medical teams. As he came into CIC, Lieutenant Breen vacated the captain’s 
chair and turned to Owens. “Captain, I surrender the con to you, We have 
gravely damaged the war cruiser and the whitestars are moving to evacuate her 
wounded to us. They have stood down and are presently under the command of Alyt 
Devro. I have informed the IA of our present situation.  President Sheridan and 
Entil’zha Delenn have been monitoring everything that has transpired. As to the 
General Ivanova and Shai Alyt Sheraun, we don’t have a clue, sir.”

   Owens turned to the communications display and looked at the image of John 
and Delenn Sheridan. “We have a problem Mister President. We don’t have an IA 
officer onboard to take command in Shai Alyt Sheraun’s absence.”

   “Captain Owens, you are hereby ordered to assume command of the EAS Ares 
presently attached to the IA fleet, until suitable replacement for Shai Alyt 
Sheraun can be found. I understand that hostilities have ceased.”

   “That is correct, sir.”

   “Keep this channel open, and keep us informed.”

   “Yes sir.”

   “You have survived your first interstellar event, Captain Owens,” commented 
Leftcourt.

   “I wish it were under better circumstances.”

   “We have to play the cards life deals us, captain.”

   By this time, the medics were removing Susan and Sheraun to the main sickbay.

   “Does anyone have any idea what happened to Susan and Sheraun?” asked 
Leftcourt.

   “General, we were coming around to enable us to use the forward weapons 
arrays on the cruiser. Shai Alyt targeted a part of the cruiser that houses its 
tactical control center, their version of our CIC if you will. He had powered 
up the main arrays to their maximum output level and had been firing for maybe 
seven or eight seconds, then he and General Ivanova both screamed and 
collapsed. After that you know as much as we do, sir.” explained SWC.

   “Maybe I can shed some light on this, general.” said Garibaldi.

   “We are listening, Mister Garibaldi.”

   “Susan said she was in telepathic contact with the cruiser’s commander. She 
was an untrained telepath. If she was in his mind when those energy beams fried 
him, there is no way to tell what kind of damage she might have suffered.”

   "That would explain her, Mike, but the Minbari fellow wasn’t a telepath,” 
noted Bryson.

   “Your friend has a good point, Michael,” added President Waters.

   “Maybe Susan had some kind of link with Sheraun. Maybe he got a very small 
blast of what she got. I don’t know anymore than you guys, but I’ve had some 
dealings with telepaths in the past.”

   “Amen to that,” added Bryson. This drew looks from everyone who heard the 
remark, and a frown from Garibaldi.

*****************************

In Ares’ main sickbay:

   “I’m telling you, General Leftcourt, we have been monitoring both of them 
for the hour they have been here and all they have now are autonomic functions. 
They are breathing and they have heartbeats, and those are none to strong,” 
reported Doctor Hazel Abodo. Our equipment, augmented by some of the stuff the 
Minbari brought over,  show that their synapses are firing wildly throughout 
their brains. By any sane measures they might as well be dead. I can’t possibly 
imagine what they are going through, or if they are in any way aware of it.”

   “I’m sorry, doctor. It’s just that Susan is special to me.”

   “General, they are all special to me.”

   Having been properly chastised, General Leftcourt retreated from the area.

*****************************

In Ares’ flag mess:

   Generals Leftcourt and Marsh had just finished exchanging information with 
John and Delenn Sheridan. All the necessary documents and other legal 
formalities and been waded through and thrashed out. The Ares was still under 
IA control and would remain that way until the Valen’s Path and its personnel 
could be removed from the area, and that was dependent on more than a few 
situations being resolved. It had been decided to return Captain Owens to his 
rightful status as the ship’s captain and reassign him to temporary duty with 
the IA for that same duration. Owens would be wearing several hats for the next 
few weeks.

   During the information exchange, Leftcourt had notified the Sheridans that 
Shai Alyt Sheraun had regained consciousness. His answers to inquires had been 
less than helpful. He claimed to have felt a searing pain throughout all parts 
of his body simultaneously and then awakened no worse for physical wear in the 
Ares’ main sickbay. As for Ivanova, her condition was unchanged. Leftcourt 
would be transiting back to Earth on Whitestar 71 and would be accompanying a 
doctor and Susan on the trip. Due to her condition, it was decided to return 
her to Earth and see if any help could found amongst telepaths there. He agreed 
there wasn’t much hope for her recovery.  She had been in Prathen’s mind when 
he was fried and got the full effect of the death experience. Sheraun had only 
had a tenuous link with Susan at the time, virtually non-existent, and he had 
barely survived the mental blast.

*****************************

In a middle class home in the Russian Consortium on Earth:

   “Sweetheart, we have had this conversation before.”

   “Mickey, she has been gone off planet for almost twenty years, maybe even 
more, I’m not sure. I haven’t had a chance to meet her, much less talk to her. 
She was due back several days ago, but she got delayed by the Mars’ fiasco. She 
returned today with a doctor pushing her on a Gurney. She went straight to the 
medical facility in Earthdome compound. All I want to do is see her.”

   “You get caught skulking around there, and we’re both in big trouble. I 
managed to elude the Psi Corps for a great many years and no one is aware that 
I’m a telepath now. I’d sort of like to keep it that way.”

   “I have just as much to lose as you do. They never learned about me in the 
first place. Besides, the day I can’t walk in and out of a building unnoticed, 
I’ll give up my abilities.”

   “If you insist, there isn’t much I can do to stop you. Just keep in mind 
that we have children and they aren’t getting any say in this at all.”

   “I’ve been told stories about her all my life. I have to find out for 
myself.”

   “You’re going to march into her room and pull a blood sample?”

   “Of course not. Stealing a brush with her hair in it will do nicely. She 
won’t ever know one way or the other. It will be for our information only. 
Besides, I may not even like her.”

   “Just be careful.”  

*****************************

In the military hospital in Earthdome: 

   “Good evening nurse,” said the middle aged man in the medical scrubs 
uniform. “My name is Doctor Fisher. I’ve been asked to consult on the situation 
with General Susan Ivanova.”

   The nurse looked the man over and replied, “I wasn’t informed.” Checking her 
computer display, she looked confused. “I’m sorry, Doctor Fisher. I seem to be 
mistaken. Notice of your visit is right here. The general is in room 608.”

   Fisher thanked her and went down the hallway looking at the room numbers. 
The nurse promptly forgot the incident.

   The rooms were numbered differently than Fisher had expected, but in less 
than a minute he was in the intensive-care room of General Susan Ivanova. Since 
this was an intensive-care floor, there were more nurses than would be found in 
other parts of the hospital. Fisher walked over to the bed, and stood looking 
down at the unconscious form lying there. She had an IV in one arm and a 
battery of monitors hooked up at various points on her body. She appeared to be 
sleeping comfortably. Fisher touched her forehead gently and jerked his hand 
back like he had touched a piece of white-hot lava.

   The rumors he had heard in his short time in the hospital seemed to be borne 
out. Physically she was just fine. It was her mental condition that was the 
problem.

   “What do you think, doctor?” 

   Fisher turned slowly to see who had addressed him. The source of the 
question was a man of about forty, so average looking that giving a description 
of him would be totally generic. He had absolutely no features that stood out. 
You would never find him in a crowd.

   “About what?”

   “Her condition. She’s fine physically, but her mind is... Christ, I don’t 
even have words to describe it. The other doctors had some very long words and 
plenty of them they used, but between you, me and the gatepost, I think it 
boils down to the simply fact that her mind has been completely fried. The only 
things working are breathing and heartbeat. They don’t need the brain to 
maintain life-support activity. I wonder if we wouldn’t be more merciful by 
just pulling the plug?”

   “You would never pull the plug on this woman. You haven’t got it in you.”

   “You don’t know me, but you seem to be damned sure about your assessment of 
me.”

   “No one who loves her as much as you do, could do something like that, 
unless you were one-thousand percent certain her other life functions were 
gone. Even then you would have a great deal of trouble. Why don’t you sit with 
me for a few minutes and hold her hand while you tell me about her.”

   After they were seated, and the man was holding Susan’s hand, he began to 
talk. “Doctor Fisher, Susan Ivanova is one hell of a woman. The first time I 
met her...”

*****************************

Somewhere:

   Susan Ivanova could not believe how hot the fires were. The entire 
wilderness was going up in flames for as far as her eyes could see. Even 
through the smoke and haze she got the impression that she was looking at a 
horizon that was a thousand kilometers away. Her coldly logical mind told her 
that was an impossibility. To be able to see a horizon that far away from 
ground level wasn’t possible on any planet which she could exist on without 
some pretty fancy special protective clothing, starting with something to 
negate the extremely heavy gravity that would exist there.

   She had no idea at all what all of this meant. She surmised it was her mind 
trying to interpret something for which it had no reference points.

   “This place looks like what I’d expect hell to look like... that is if you 
believe the religious zealots descriptions of it.”

   Susan turned to look at the speaker. The voice had sounded very familiar. 
What she saw was herself looking back at her. “What the hell is going on here. 
Is that you, Lyta?”

   “Most certainly not. I’m you, or at least a reflection of you.”

   “A reflection of me, huh. Then where’s the mirror?”

   “Susan Ivanova, don’t sound like some confused child. Your mind is shut-down 
right now, at least as far as the outside world is concerned.”

   “Then how in hell did you get in here?”

   “I told you. I’m a reflection of you. For now, that’s all you need to know.”

   “Do you have any idea how to handle this?”

   “I can help, but you have to be the idea generator. I’ve never done anything 
like this before, and I don’t think that I’ll ever want to do it again.”

   “I suppose the first thing to do is try and figure out how big this fire is?”

   “That one I can give you, Susan. The whole planet is burning, and it is one 
very big planet.”

   Fisher got up from the chair and looked at the man holding Susan’s hand. He 
was fast asleep. Quietly, Fisher departed the hospital. 

   A bit later that morning there was excitement amongst the staff as the neuro-
monitors’ recordings showed distinct differences within the activity of Susan’s 
brain. They didn’t know if they were negative or positive, but any change was 
better than nothing.

   Doctor Fisher visited Susan every night for almost two weeks. Most times, 
the man he had seen the first time was there. Funny how he had never gotten his 
name. One morning, just after the last of Doctor Fisher’s visits, Susan opened 
her eyes to see sunlight streaming into her room. The doctors had seen the 
changes in her brain patterns monitored by the neuro-monitors, but had no 
explanation. All the changes seemed to have happened just after sunrise each 
morning, when Susan was alone in the room.

*****************************

In a middle class home in the Russian Consortium on Earth:

   “It went just like I said it would, Mickey.”

   “Did you learn what you wanted to know?”

   “Of course. I collected enough of her hair from her hairbrush to make the 
comparison. I didn’t even have to steal the brush. I even used it myself 
several times.”

   “That wasn’t wise. If someone should notice and run the tests?”

   “They’ll find nothing. It will look like her hair, just a bit lighter in 
color.”

   “DNA tests wont give a damn about the color.”

   “Like I said, they’ll believe it’s hers. If it looks like a duck and quacks 
like a duck, and has webbed feet and swims, what would anyone think it is? A 
duck, silly. They won’t find what they don’t know exists.”

*****************************

In Susan’s room the morning she awoke from her coma:

   The doctor looked at Susan’s monitor equipment again and said, “I have no 
idea how or why, General Ivanova, but this equipment says you are in perfect 
health, both physically and mentally.”

   “You don’t have to look so damned depressed, Steven. What are you doing here 
anyway? You don’t make house calls anymore. Besides, I thought you ran this 
place?”

   “I do, but you aren’t just any patient. We’ve had our best people poking, 
prodding and watching you since you arrived. We don’t even know what was wrong 
with you. We were told you were in the mind of some guy when he was 
incinerated. I didn’t even know you were a telepath.”

   “Well, I am now, but you would be doing me a favor if you didn’t broadcast 
it. The guy was the shai alyt, same as a ship’s captain or commander of a 
squadron of ships, Prathen of the Valen’s Path. He was trying to destroy us. 
Somehow while we were aboard his ship, I established a link directly into his 
consciousness. Don’t ask me to explain that either, I can’t.”

   “We have notified Leftcourt that you’re awake. There’s someone waiting to 
see you. He has been by your side since you came in. He says he knows you, 
warts and all.”

   Susan looked confused. “I can’t imagine who it might be, Steven. I don’t 
have any family on Earth.”

   “Maybe you haven’t recovered as much as we thought after all. This guy 
insists that he’s in love with you.”

   Susan looked completely blank, as if Steven were talking about someone else 
besides her.

   “Bring him in, nurse.”

   Susan felt something touch her mind gently just before the man stepped 
through the door. As she saw him, she looked very angry. Steven was confused at 
her reaction.

   “This is a very poor joke, Steven. I don’t know where you found someone who 
looks like Charley, but I’m not laughing.”

   “What’s wrong, Susan?”

   “You’re supposed to be dead.” At this point, tears were running down her 
face as she lost control of her emotions.

   “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Susan. I thought you’d be happy to see me. 
What’ve I done wrong?”

   By this time Susan had broken down and was crying uncontrollably. Charley 
quickly moved to sit on the side of her bed and hold her in his arms. He had no 
idea what to say or what to say it about, so he just sat and held her.

   Steven hustled the others out of the room and followed them. Susan was okay, 
except for her response to her husband and he wasn’t going to jump into that 
brier patch.

   It took Susan several minutes to get her tears slowed to a raging flow and 
another ten to get herself composed. “We thought you were dead, Charley.”

   “Sorry to disappoint you, but why would you think that?”

   “They found your diplomatic box in the wreck.”

   “What wreck?”

   “There was a wreck in the tunnel. It was on the news. They found your case 
in the remains. There wasn’t enough of the people left to even do a DNA 
identification on. We assumed since your case was in the mess, you were one of 
the victims.”

   “I wondered where it had gone. I thought maybe I left it on the ship with a 
piece of my luggage that was missing. I guess it wasn’t missing. It must have 
been stolen, and I can imagine why.”

   While he was talking, Susan had regained control of her emotions and now 
other emotions and desires were making themselves known.

   “Susan someone could walk in on us. We can wait until they let you out of 
here,” he said, untangling her arms from his neck. 
  
   “Steven! Get me out of here!”

   As if on cue, Steven Franklin came in through the door. “Let us run one more 
series of checks, Susan, and I’ll release you. By the way, Leftcourt said 
something about you still owing him a report on the Mars’ fiasco.”

   It was three more days before Steven would release her, and Susan was eager 
to get out of the hospital. They had moved her to a private room that was more 
like a suite. Steven had explained that it was because of her rank. She had 
explained what she could remember between the time she had gone into the coma 
and the time she had awakened. The part about a blond version of herself 
helping her put out a burning world had fascinated Steven. He had accepted that 
it was her brain’s way of interpreting something it could not understand. She 
had complained that her hairbrush was full of someone else’s hair. The 
offending hair was blond and hers was dark chestnut brown. Steven had run DNA 
tests on the hair and proudly told her that it was hers, even if it was blond.

   Susan was visited by General Leftcourt. He informed her that while she was 
out of it, President Luchenko and the Head of the Department of Interstellar 
Affairs had reviewed her actions in the battle with the Valen’s Path and 
concluded that she had acted legally and in the best interests of the Earth 
Alliance and Interstellar Alliance. She had handled the diplomatic “hot potato” 
in a most appropriate manner.
 
   Two days after that Susan and Charley left for the vacation honeymoon that 
they had planned on the way back to Earth. Susan had insisted on someplace that 
could not be reached by the outside world.

*****************************

END PART 14

Suggestion for music to read Ivanova’s battle scenes to: Music, not words, of 
Metellica’s “Nothing Else Matters”.

15

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