REMNANTS

          The lights in the corridor were barely functioning at all, but there was enough of a glow for her to see the person who she was pursuing dart down it and into an open door that led to the bridge of the massive vessel. The ship had been a derelict for some time, and was in no condition to be moved or used to escape the star system that it had lived in for the last couple of years.
          'Fool. There is no escape!'
          Taking her time, she moved amongst the shadows with ease, her black attire almost hiding her from view entirely. Upon passing through the open door herself, she could see the man hunched over a control console, attempting something hastily. He didn't see or hear her sneak up from behind.
          The man, a human with salt and pepper hair, and wearing the tattered brown and black robes of a Ranger, hurriedly tapped controls on the flickering console, before stopping dead in his tracks with a look of terror on his weary, lined face. His brown eyes were wide, the pupils dillating.
          'The defences in your mind are no match for my telepathic power!" said a female voice inside his own mind, as he started to scream in pain and double over, covering his ears with his hands to no avail.
          'You Rangers are just like all the others that lie dead on this ship - irrelevant, and quite inadaquate! Would you like to join them now?'
          "N-No...." he stammered, but it was too late. Blood began to trickle from his nose, around his eyes, and he wasn't able to let out a scream before falling to the deck in a heap, his mind being torn apart from the inside. 
          She looked down at his lifeless form and pushed his head to one side with her left boot, the man quite dead as this point. An evil grin formed on her smooth face, the vibrant red lipstick making an exclamation mark on what she had just done. Satisfied, she ran a hand through her shoulder length blonde hair before turning and leaving the bridge, content to head back to the interior of the habitable area of the ship she called home.
          The control console continued to flicker, but something had been accomplished before the Ranger was killed, as a signal had been sent on repeat and the console itself sit to be silent during it's broadcast of the distress signal.
          'He was the last.' thought the woman to herself as she walked. 'Him, and all the others like him are now dead, and it's finally peaceful again around here.'
          Amongst the darkness of the corridor, she let out an unhinged kind of giggle, one that would frighten anyone with a conscience. Once, she had been a mild-mannered woman that woudln't dream of hurting so much as a bug. Now, she was unhinged, and had killed many just on a whim, or because she could without respite.

                                                     *          *          *          *

          "Drazi Sunhawk, test out those engines. They should be good to go now." said the commanding officer of the EAS Chimera over the comm to the friendly ship he had been assisting for the last couple of hours.
          Captain Adam Reid sat in his command chair on the bridge, hoping that the captain of the damaged Drazi warship would finally be able to get his jump engines back online so that it could head home for more permanent repairs. Within moments, Reid got his answer. The Drazi ship powered up, and looked to be in much better shape.
          "Thank you, Earth captain! Much appreciated help. Drazi everywhere thank you for your service! Be on our way now!" came the reply over the comm, before the nearby jumpgate was activated by the Sunhawk. A vortex of gold energy opened moments later, with the Sunhawk disappearing into it before it closed completely.
          "Glad he's happy." said Reid. A man in his late forties with greying hair but a pleasant demeanour, he turned his chair to face the helmsman again to relay an order so that the Chimera could once again get underway.
          "Helm, stand by to activate the jump gate sequence once the maintenance shuttle is back in the hangar bay, and--"
          Reid didn't get to finish his sentence, as his communications officer interrupted. 
          "Sir, jump point forming to starboard!"
          The captain didn't respond, waiting to see what would emerge first as they were inside friendly space by a wide margin. As soon as the blue vortex opened fully, it deposited a familiar sleek vessel before disappearing. The unmistakeable design of a Minibari White Star came to a halt not far from where the Chimera sat by the jumpgate.
          "They're hailing us, Captain." mentioned the comm officer.
          "Put it through." he replied, turning to face a small monitor next to his chair.
          "This is Captain Rourke, onboard White Star Fifty-One." said a younger man with pale skin, brown hair and a small goatee.
          Reid nodded. "What can I do for you?" he queried.
          Rourke held up a data crystal in his right hand, and moved the clear object around in his fingers for a moment.
          "We were heading back to Minbar after completing a mission, and recorded an outdated Earth Alliance distress signal while hopping in and out of hyperspace." he explained.
          "Your ship was said to be in this sector of space, so we decided to pass along the information and then be on our way."
          Reid raised an eyebrow. "Thank you, captain. Please transmit what you have, and we'll look into the matter."
          Rourke agreed. "Ackowledged, transmitting now. Rourke out."
          Within moments, the information had been downloaded into the Chimera's computer, with White Star Fifty One turning and opening a jump point to disappear back into hyperspace.
          'Let's see what we have here.' thought Reid, his curiosity piqued.

          Looking about the small conference room as his assembled crew members, Captain Reid activated the large, wall-mounted monitor that was located just past the head of the oval-shaped table that everyone sat around, save himself.
          To his immediate right in the first chair sat his executive officer, Commander Jon Marzcek. His well-kept short blond hair and dark blue eyes always gave him a striking appearance that complemented his fair skin.
          To Reid's immediate left was Major William McIntyre, the squadron leader of the group of pilots known as the 'Birds of Prey'. His blond hair was slicked back this time around, and his light blue eyes focused on the monitor.
          Next to him was Lieutenant Lewis Sewell, the second in command of the Birds of Prey. His head was now blad, opting to get rid of the little hair he had up there. Dark skinned but always a smile on his face, he was popular with the crew, and also McIntyre's best friend.
          The next two chairs were occupied by Lieutenant J.G. Ray Park, a pilot of Korean descent with dark hair, and Lieutenant J.G. Jack Whitmear, a man of European descent with shoulder length black hair. 
          In the final chair sat Lieutenant J.G. Sarah Atkinson, a woman with red hair tied back in a ponytail, and striking green eyes. She was romantically involved with Major McIntyre, and one of the most talented Starfury pilots out there.
          "Listen up," started the Captain. "We had a distress signal passed along to us from one of the White Star fleet ships. Her captain intercepted it and recorded the signal while on another mission."
          Reid inserted a data crystal into the port next to the monitor, a wavelength animation of the signal coming up on the screen.
          "It's an older EarthForce distress signal, but we can't seem to pinpoint what ship it's from, or how long it had been transmitting before. Captain Rourke was also nice enough to include coordinates to where he found the signal, so we're going to investigate."
          Marzcek looked up at the monitor and scrutinized the signal, before glancing at Reid for a moment,
          "Looks like something an Explorer-class ship might have used." he mused, going over the signal again and again.
          McIntyre stroked his chin. "What are the coordinates?" he asked aloud.
          Reid looked to his squadron leader. "Believe it or not, the far side of Alpha Omega Three, also known as Z'Ha'Dum, which you might all be familiar with."
          A shudder went through everyone in the room, with Sewell speaking up right after.
          "Z'Ha'Dum was blown to bits. There's nothing left." he mentioned.
          Reid nodded. "Yes, but something is in that sector transmitting an old Earth signal, and we're going to investigate it."

          As the Chimera hurtled through hyperspace, her crew were busy getting ready for the mission they had undertaken. Captain Reid had retired to his quarers, leaving Commander Marzcek in command for the watch. He sat in the command chair and was reading a hard copy of a status report, when the communication device known as a link - located on the back of his left hand - beeped.
          "Marzcek. Go ahead." he said after tapping a button on the link.
          "Commander, can you come down to the gear room, please?" asked McIntyre.
          "Acknowledged. Be there shortly." he said before closing the channel. "Lieutenant," he said, having turned to his right to address the man who was stationed at the master system console.
          "You're in charge until I get back." 
          With that, he got up from the command chair and left the bridge, heading to the hangar deck at a reasonable pace. It didn't take him long to get there, and he had just exited the corridor and made his way into the gear room to see McIntyre sitting in front of his locker and personal space, when Lieutenant Sewell walked into the room from the opposite entryway that led to the hangar.
          "Commander." said Sewell, sitting down next to his squadron leader. McIntyre looked up to see the Chimera's executive officer, who he had summoned.
          "What can I do for you, Major?" asked Marzcek.
          There was a pause as McIntyre leaned back on his locker before speaking. "This one worries me a bit." he said, quietly. "A repeating distress call from an explorer ship? When the hell did one ever go missing? I'm surprised none of us had ever heard of this."
          Marzcek couldn't argue with the logic behind the statement. 
          'Explorer ships just don't go missing, and if one did, Earth would be all over it and letting everyone know post haste.'
          "I agree." he replied. "It was the first the captain heard of it as well."
          Sewell put his head back on his locker and closed his eyes. "What exactly is the plan? What do we do if we find said ship?"
          Marzcek's lips pursed for a moment. "First, we continue to verify the signal before we get there, and determine if it's actually legit." he answered. "Secondly, the five of you will scout the area. The debris field might be too much for the Chimera, but Starfuries should be able to navigate in closer."
          Sewell opened his eyes as McIntyre whistled.
          "Hide and seek with asteroids. This should be fun." said the Major with a grin. Sewell chuckled, while Marzcek just shook his head lightly with a smile.
          "Anyways, be sure to get some sack time." he said. "We'll all need to be as sharp as possible for this one."
          Marzcek then left the gear room, heading back to the bridge. McIntyre and Sewell looked to each other, knowing that the commander made a good point about getting some sleep, and decided it was time to do so.

                                                    *          *          *          *

          "The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father...."
          Talia Winters awoke with a jolt, jarred awake by a voice she thought she had heard in the far corner of her mind. Her normally straight hair was slightly frizzy, having slept in her tunic all night in a reclining chair she had located in a vacant crew cabin that she had turned into her own while she hid on the massive ship.
          Still haunted by her time back at a PsiCorps facility back on Mars, she sometimes had mental flashes, pictures of a past event or life that could never be nailed down. It was as if there was another person somewhere inside her that was trying to get back out from time to time.
          Her mind suddenly raced to the memories of the last few people she had killed on this ship, and how their minds had been easy to collapse.
          'I killed them, and I'll kill anyone else that tries to get near me! I'll kill anyone from PsiCorps that tries to come for me, and I'll kill anyone that is against PsiCorps! Everyone will suffer!'
          All of a sudden, her mind was a myriad of confusion and broken images, as if she was seeing remnants of someone else. Talia put her hands on her head and covered her ears in an attempt to achieve some silence, but the noise inside her mind became deafening to the point where she screamed out loud. And then, just as quickly as it had begun, it was over, and she was alone once again.
          'Damn.'
          It had been a long time since she had last felt like herself, going all the way back to when she had been exposed on Babylon Five, and then sent back to Mars and reassigned to the PsiCorps facility on Syra Planum. There, she underwent tests and conditioning that started to change her even more. It wasn't long after that before the experiments started, with 'doctors' pushing her mind to do more and more whether she wanted to or not. 
          'Bastards!'
          Talia hated them, all of them. She hated all the normals that didn't respect her, she hated the PsiCorps for ruining her, and she hated that pathetic excuse for a living being named Alfred Bester, and hoped he'd die a painful and lengthy death. Hate had been her constant companion for years, and it wasn't about to leave. Still, there were pieces of something in her mind that flashed from time to time like afterimages. Two of those pieces were faces, people that Talia thought she should know.
          'Ironheart. Garibali.' 
          The two names should have some kind of importance, but she was unable to figure out what. Dismissing them once again as remnants of something else,  Talia stood up and straightened her tunic, feeling like it was time to go for a walk and stretch her legs for a while. There would be ample time to sleep again at some point.
          "Need to focus on something." she muttered.

          Having come out of hyperspace with enough of a buffer zone in between itself and the debris field, the Chimera came to a complete stop and hung in space for the time being, the crew getting ready for the next phase of the mission.
          Inside the large hangar bay, five Starfuries were being made ready to launch, with the five members of the squadron already in their ships and completing their pre-flight checks ar the same time.
          "Lady and gentlemen, this is Hawk Leader," said McIntyre over the open comm channel. "We hit space in two minutes. Navigate the debris field as best you can, and try and locate that distress signal, or find a ship."
          The other four pilots acknowledged McIntyre, just before the captain's voice broke in over the comm.
          "Birds, this is Captain Reid. The signal is coming from the far side of the debris field, and is weakening. Do what you can to locate a ship, but don't get caught up in the asteroids. That is all."
          Flicking a few switches, McIntyre again addressed his squadron. "All right people, you heard the captain. Let's do this."
          A short countdown signified the launch, with the protective shield dropped once the hangar doors opened, admitting the five Stafuries into space and hurtling towards the debris field to begin their mission. As always, McIntyre worried about his love, Sarah, as he glanced through his cockpit window at her Starfury, which was pulling even with him to port. He always worried about her at the start of a new mission, and was something that would never go away due to how much he loved her.
          "Okay people, we're entering the debris field." he said over the comm. "Heat 'em up, and be prepared for anything."
          McIntyre wasn't expecting a battle but as a matter of protocol, made sure everyone in his squadron had weapons at the ready. There was a strong possibility that they might need to blast some chunks of floating rock, so it was better to be safe than sorry. Losing a fighter or small ship in a debris field wasn't unheard of even if it was rare.
          'Even a massive ship like an explorer could be pounded to submission in a debris field like this...'
          "The late, great Z'Ha'Dum." said Lewis Sewell over the comm.
          McIntyre started to scan the area, navigating his Starfury as best he could around the chunks of rock that floated everywhere. The others were doing the same thing, avoiding any distraction to concentrate on flying and scan for anything that wasn't a rock. After another fifteen minutes of careful flying, McIntyre detected something in the distance on his forward scanners.
          "Hawk Leader to Chimera, I've located something big amongst the asteroids. I'm not sure what it is yet, but--"
          His sentence was cut short as a silhouette of the massive object showed on his display screen in the cockpit.
          "What is it, Hawk Leader?" asked Captain Reid. "What do you see?"
          The four other pilots started to get the same silhouette, while McIntyre could now make it out through the his cockpit windows, especially it's name on the hull.
          "The Cortez?!"

          Following the five Starfuries at a safe distance through the debris field, Commander Marzcek guided the Kestrel-class shuttle expertly, piloting the craft alone. Reid had sent him to board the derelict with the Birds to take a quick survey of the ship, hoping to ascertain if she could be moved, or even salvaged.
          As the shuttle was finally in view of the massive explorer ship, Marzcek couldn't believe what he was seeing. As reported by Major McIntyre, it was indeed the EAS Cortez, but it made little to no sense that she was here, near what was left of the planet formely known as Alpha Omega Three. The ship didn't look to be too badly damaged, albeit adrift. Marzcek was getting very low power readings, but the rotating sections were turning, which meant that the ship had gravity at the very least.
          'Doesn't make sense, though.' he thought to himself. 'Last anyone heard, the Cortez was still epxloring deep space out on the rim under the command of Captain Maynard, and wasn't due back for some time.'
          "Hawk Leader, this is Shuttle One." he said over the ship to ship comm.
          "This is Hawk Leader. Go ahead Shuttle One."
          "I'm on approach to the Cortez's hangar bay." said Marzcek.
          "Copy that." replied McIntyre. "Hawks Three and Four will join me in escorting you into the hangar, while Hawks Two and Five patrol the area and lend us cover."
          "Acknowledged. See you on deck."
          He brought the shuttle around to the forward section of the Cortez, using various thrusters to orient the small craft with the derelict's forward hangar bay, a mammoth opening twice the size of the one on the Chimera. a skillful pilot in his right, Marzcek slowly applied the use of the engines before cutting them completely, letting his momentum guide him the rest of the way.
          It wasn't long until he was inside the huge hangar bay, along with three of the five Starfuries in the squadron behind him. Once all four ships had safely landed near the rear of the hangar, it was time to disembark. Unsure if the hangar's forcefield was functioning, Marzcek put on a helmet and space suit with magnetic boots before leaving the shuttle, while the fighter pilots kept their helmets on until they all reached an airlock.
          Once inside the equivalent of a 'gear room', the four of them removed their helmets and suits once it was determined that there was air and a relatively normal atmosphere inside the rest of the ship. They all carried PPGs as per standard procedure, while Marzcek also had a small scanning device with him. Most of the lighting appeared to be non-functional, but the odd one did flicker here and there.
          Marzcek looked around, wondering what had happened with the Cortez.
          "First and foremost, let's stick together and head to the bridge." he said. "It's the best place to start to try and find out how she got here in the first place."
          McIntyre agreed. "Good call, sir. Let's go."

                                                  *          *          *          *

          'Four humans, here and now. I wonder what they want?' 
          Talia Winters has felt their presence the moment they had landed on the ship, curious as to their intentions.
          'Do I kill them as well, or wait?Hmm...'
          She wasn't sure how to proceed, and decided instead to watch them. She had learned the layout of the ship in the weeks she had been hiding within in, and knew how to use this to her advantage. Talia also knew how to use her enhanced telepathic powers to keep herself hidden while moving about the ship so as not to be found prematurely.
          Without any further delay, she got up off the chair she was sitting in and headed for the corridor, using her telepathy to figure out what their destination might be. Logically, she assumed they might try heading for either the computer core, or the bridge, Talia decided to head for the latter, as it made the most sense.
          'I can be there before them....' she thought to herself, being a lot closer to the bridge than the hangar deck. Talia headed for a ladderway on the deck she was on, and prepared to climb up to where the bridge was located.
          'Visitors, beware.'

          Pushing up on the door that looked have jammed halfway, Will McIntyre and Jack Whitmear managed to budge it enough to release the servos in the wall, the door gliding back up into the frame and locking in place. Marzcek was the first to enter the bridge, using his scanning device as the other three fanned out to explore.
          Almost tripping over something upon entry, Ray Park trained his flashlight downwards, the sight before his eyes making him jump backwards in fright for a split second that seemed like an eternity. The dead body of a Drazi male lay next to the tactical console, visibly injured by something or some one.
          "Damn. What the hell happened here?" he asked aloud.
          "I don't know," started Whitmear, shaking his head on the other side of the bridge at something he had found.
          "...but it wasn't good. There are several dead bodies here. Two humans, and also a Minbari that looks to be wearing Ranger clothing."
          "And a Drazi." added Park, frowning at what he saw.
          "This gets weirder and weirder." chimed McIntyre. "Let's try and get some answers before anything else happens."
          Marzcek nodded. "Agreed. Go to it, men. I'll try and restore some power and/or lighting to the bridge in the mean time."
          One thing was for sure, and that was the feeling of uneasiness they all shared.

          Calmly flying past the Cortez for another pass, Lieutenant J.G. Sarah Atkinson kept her scanners at maximum, just in case. Even though she knew that Will McIntyre could more than take care of himself should something happen, she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling deep in her stomach.
          "Hawk Two, this is Hawk Five." she said into the comm. "Any news from the rest of the team yet?"
          Lewis Sewell chuckled inside his helmet. "Miss him already, huh?"
          Sarah blushed inside her own helmet, before quickly changing the subject.
          "Getting any power readings from the Cortez yet?"
          There was a pause before Sewell replied to her query. "No, just the low-level indicator that notes the rotating sections are still online. Power readings overall are still low and hard to read."
          Sarah pressed a few buttons above her head in the cockpit, trying to see if she could get anything else from her scanners, but to no avail.
          "Same here. I guess we'll have to wait this out a little more."
          "Copy that." replied Sewell. "I'm going to head around for another pass of the ship and continue scanning. Hawk Two out."
           Sarah had her Starfury follow closely behind, staying in formation so that they could make the pass together. Still, she couldn't get Will or her odd feeling out of her mind.
          'Hope you are all right, my love...'

          Having managed to get some systems online as well as part of the main computer, Commander Marzcek started to replay a log entry made by Captain Jack Maynard:
          "Personal log, Captain Maynard, EAS Cortez. Having kept my ship and crew in deep space and staying out of the hostilities between my own people, I have decided to head back to Earth, finally.
          President Clark is apparently dead, and the government is back in the hands of the people this time. Given everything we've heard recently, I and my crew will be needed on Earth to help rebuild and get everything straight again. The Cortez should be home well before Christmas, which will help to start the healing process.
          Hopefully, a better Earth will come about."
          "More questions." muttered Marzcek under his breath. The log entry was dated December sixteenth, twenty-two sixty one.
          "More than a month after President Clark's reign of terror ended."
          'So, if the Cortez made it back to Earth, how in the hell did it end up out here in the debris field of a destroyed Z'Ha'Dum?' he wondered, unable to make sense of the current circumstances whatsoever.
          Without hesitation, Marzcek produced a data crystal and plugged it into an open port so as to download the logs of the Cortez and any other relevent information. He knew there had to be something in the computer about the ship's disappearance.
          'Hmm.'

          Standing in a corner of the bridge where no one would normally walk, Talia winters had hidden herself in plain view, albeit concealed from everyone else due to her telepathic abilites. She marvelled at the fact that two of the men wandering the bridge had always glanced directly at her, but saw nothing.
          'Maybe PsiCorps did some good in my mind afterall.' she thought to herself, in a rare moment of positive clarity that helped her to appreciate all the twisting and reprogramming that the Corps did to her before she escaped them. Ever since she had been outed as Control by the command staff of Babylon Five, her journey had become perilous to say the least. Her original personality had been destroyed beyond recognition, but unbeknownst to her, existed on a datacrystal somewhere far away.
          'The fragments, what are they?'
          Talis continued to observe the moments of the unfamiliar humans, two of them trying to access different systems, while a third was intent on a monitor, and the fourth wandering around the large bridge and looking at everything. To her surprise, lights started to suddenly come back on, with some of the bridge's consoles and systems coming back to life as well for the time being.
          'Interesting. It seems they think they can get this vessel in motion again.'
          She had no intention of letting her hiding place get taken away, nor did she relish the idea of going anywhere near Earth again, if that was their intention.

                                                 *          *          *          *

          "Any idea how they died?" asked Captain Reid over the comm, shocked at what Marzcek and the Birds had found over on the Cortez. 
          "No sir." replied his executive officer. "We saw dried blood around the ears, under the eyes, and even some under the nose of most of the deceased. That's all we know at this point, and even that is confusing."
          Reid raised an eyebrow as he pondered the news. "Can the Cortez move under her own power?" he queried.
          "Not as this time, sir. We can't seem to figure out why some of the systems still won't come online. Park and Whitmear have gone to check out the propulsion and see if the problem lies with the engines, because everything seems to be working up here."
          The captain nodded. "Very well, keep me informed. Reid out."
          After cutting the comm channel, Reid sat down in his command chair for a moment and pondered everything, including the news on the last log entry, as well as the dead humans and aliens found onboard. The most confusing part was the Cortez being out here, in a distant sector and all alone.
          He remembered being on Earth when the Cortez arrived home just before Christmas, having missed the conflict that ended with the death of President Clark. He had talked with Captain Maynard at length, envious of how the man kept his crew out of the conflict completely, partially do to the luck of being out on the rim for so long.
          'The Cortez was sent for a refit, if I remember correctly. Captain Maynard was planning on staying with her, even though there was talk of him retiring from deep space exploration. I honestly don't remember what happened after that.'
           Reid got up off his chair and signalled to the Lieutenant that he was in charge for a little while.
           "I'll be in my officer for a bit." he mentioned, before the door to the bridge opened and admitted him into the corridor, which he crossed to gain access to his office. Once inside, he sat down behind a large desk that contained a computer screen, and activated it to do some research.
          "Computer, look up the personnel file for a Captain Jack Maynard, and display on the screen for review."
          "Accessing." replied the calm female voice of the computer interface. Within less than a minute, the requested information was on his screen. Scrolling through the service record and associated images, he saw that Jack Maynard was listed as retired, with an effective date of December 22nd, 2264.
          "That was last year." mumbled Reid to himself. "Still, it doesn't explain what happened to the Cortez."
          Switching gears, Reid decided to forget this and research the ship itself, and see if that held some of the answers he was looking for.
          "Computer, access all records on the EAS Cortez and display."

          Down in the engine room of the Cortez, Lieutenants Park and Whitmear stood in front of different consoles, going over the readings on the screens that they had managed to re-activate and access.
          "By every right, the engines should be working, except they're not." mentioned Park aloud, frowning at the screen in front of him. From what he saw, the engines were in great shape, there was power now throughout the ship, and the fusion reactor was working exactly as it should be.
          "Agreed." replied Whitmear, across the engine room working away. "It's almost as if there is some unknown external force getting in the way, and yet I can't detect anything at all on or around the ship. It's weird."
          Whitmear re-checked some of the main circuits, and then shrugged. He'd never seen anything like it before, and was running out of patience. On the other console, Park stopped his work for a moment, suddenly having the feeling that someone else was watching him. He looked about the engine room, but only saw Whitmear shaking his head at the screen, and little else.
          "Jack, are you getting an odd vibe in here?" he asked of his comrade.
          Whitmear turned to look at Park. "No, not at all. Are you?"
          Park looked around again, to his console, and then back to Whitmear, who was looking back at him with a befuddled look on his face.
          "Maybe I'm imagining things. Forget it, okay?"
          Whitmear nodded before turning back to his screen. "All good. Maybe seeing those dead bodies rattled you more than you thought. Try not to think about them."
          Park considered those words, but didn't feel as if the bodies were the problem. He'd seen death before, but this feeling was much different. It was almost like an afterimage of something that was imprinted in his mind, giving him a feeling that wasn't his. Shrugging it off, he got back to work before contacting McIntyre via the link.
          "Major, we can't seem to get this ship moving. Everything works fine, but she just doesn't want to move at all. Orders?"
          "You might as well join us back on the bridge." replied McIntyre. "The commander has found some log entries and data in the ship's mainframe, but it still doesn't explain much of anything."
          Park nodded. "Okay. We're on our way up. Park out."
          Whitmear turned to face Park again. "We're leaving?" he asked.
          Park acknowledged the query. "Yup. No use staying down here. Maybe we'll be leaving soon to head back to the Chimera. I'll be happy when I'm back in my Starfury and blasting away from this thing."
          "Hard to argue with that." agreed Whitmear. "Let's go."

          Talia smiled to herself as she felt the two men leave the engine room, both frustrated at their own lack of progress. The amount of control she held over the ship with her mind nt only made her content, but also curious as to how far these 'enhancements' to her mind what go and what they might let her achieve.
          'They're all powerless, and yet they don't even know it.' she thought to herself, plotting her next move.
          'Do I kill them all, one by one, or all at the same time. Or, do I let them leave without incident? Hmm....'
          The appeal of killing them really did tickle her fancy, even though a very small sliver of her core being was saying not to. Even though these particular humans didn't do anything to her personally, they did end up boaring the ship and interrupting her solitude, and that was reason enough to do something to them.
          She had killed the PsiCorps officer that had brought her aboard this ship with the intention of using it as a way to reach far-out areas on the rim that might harbour telepaths during the war with the normals, only to manage to get the ship to a place where no one should ever go again to gain her solitude.
          'Tranquility. No other minds. Just me.'
          Her plan would have worked, had an expedition of alien beings not found the ship and stopped to investigate. They kept poking around and trying to find reasons to stay longer, which annoyed her to the point of doing something. At first, it had been fun to try and control their minds, especially the weaker ones. But alas, she tired of the games and wanted to regain her alone time and ended up killing them one by one.
          'And here we are again. A vicious cycle indeed.'
          Reading their minds easily, she left the engine room a few moments after they did, knowing that they were headed back to the bridge to join up with the others. It would be far easier to kill them all at once before going back to her hideway in the crew quarters and finally being left alone.
          'Yes. That sounds nice.'
          The darkness she created with her telepathy shielded her from view, even though she was following the two men closely behind. While they might be astute enough to feel something, they would never catch a glipmse of her. 
          'Until it's too late...'
          It wouldn't be long at all until she reached the bridge and had her way with the lot of them, and finally put this matter to rest.

          Captain Reid put down the tablet containing the ship's status reports as soon as the computer nofified him of something in regards to the Cortez. A report that he hadn't come across until now, one that was apparently hidden from view for some time. It was a communique to EarthDome from the PsiCorp, accepting the temporary transfer of the Cortez for a mission, only for it to be nulified a couple weeks later.
          'Except that the Cortez never came back.' 
          The only thing that made sense to him at this point was that the ship was lost to thought due to the telepath war and conflict with the Centauri that were both going on at the time, which meant that one lost ship wasn't exactly a priority.
          "Still, for the PsiCorp to take the Cortez and somehow end up here, in this dead sector, is a bigger mystery." he mumbled to himself.
          "Why would they employ a massive ship to take on a joy ride just to end up in a dead sector of space like Z'Ha'Dum?"
          Suddenly, the answer hit him like a revelation.
          "Damn!" he cursed to himself, before flying out of his chair and away from his desk to leave the office and head back to the bridge. It had dawned on him that maybe the Corps were trying to locate other telepaths in other areas of the galaxy and plotting something that involved them. Remembering that Z'Ha'Dum was once the homeworld of the race known as the Shadows, he shuddered to think what would have happened had PsiCorps gone farther than they did when they tried to integrate themselves with the Shadows.
          Upon entering the bridge, he quickly looked to the comm officer on duty.
          "Get me our people on the Cortez!" he exclaimed.
          "Aye sir."
          Within a few moments, he could hear Commander Marzcek's voice on the other end.
          "Marzcek here. What can I do for you, sir?"
          Reid sat down in his command chair. "Round up everyone, and head back to the Chimera as soon as you can. I'll explain later." he replied.
          "Will do. On our way."
          Once the comm channel closed, Reid turned to his helmsman. "Helm, try to get us closer to the Cortez. I know it's hard with all that debris, but do your best."
          "Aye captain." was the response, as the younger man executed the other from his captain, the engines of the Chimera coming to life to start propelling the ship towards the far side of the debris field, avoiding the asteroids as best he could.
          Reid had a bad feeling all of a sudden, and hoped he was wrong. But, the location of the ship, shady orders, and dead bodies that had been found all pointed to something that could end becoming even more terrifying.

                                                    *          *          *          *

          "The captain says it's time for us to leave." said Marzcek, relaying the order. "Let's get back to the hangar bay and get out of here."
          The others agreed that this was a good idea, and all left the bridge to head back to their ships and leave the Cortez for the time being. Marzcek lead the way, taking them back the way they came on their way back down through the decks of the ship. Ray Park, who was bringing up the rear, still couldn't shake the feeling that someone may or may not be watching him, and was continually looking over his shoulder, but saw nothing.
          "This ship keeps creeping me out." he said aloud.
          McIntyre chuckled as he walked. "Don't worry, we'll have you back on the Chimera soon, and sipping a cup of your tea."
          Park didn't muster a laugh, too preoccupied with what he was feeling. Within moments, he sae Jack Whitmear start doing the same thing as he was.
          "I don't know, Major. This place is starting to give me the creeps as well." he said. "Something is not right on this ship."
          McIntyre and Marzcek both looked back to see the worried expressions on their comrades' faces, and thought back to all the dead bodies they had found.
          'An understatement, perhaps.'

          Following their every move, Talia exited into the gear room with them, and watched as they put on their flight suits and got ready to head back to their own vessels.
          'Leaving so soon?'
          Just as they were about to head out into the hangar, she used her mind to abruptly close both doors that led into the room, trapping them for the time being. She laughed to herself at how easy this all was, and prepared to enter their minds and start killing the four of them from the inside out.
          'Fish in a barrel....'
          It amused her somewhat to watch a couple of the normals attempt to unlock the doors and use the control panels to try and get them to open. The other two tried prying at the door with their hands, but to no avail.
          'This will be extremely enjoyable!'
          Her eyes turning jet black, she began to slowly enter their minds and find the first sign of weakness that she could exploit, hoping to find a fear that she could turn against them that might do the job for her. Still, there was something to be said from tearing apart a brain herself, neuron by neuron.
          'Mmm.'

          "We're locked in!" exclaimed McIntyre, having tried the door to no avail. The heavy doors had dropped into place and prevented anyone from leaving the gear room. Short on options, he looked to Park for an idea.
          "Are these things magnetically sealed?" he asked.
          Park, visibly distracted now, managed to look to McIntyre and give him an answer before going back to his building paranoia.
          "N-no, not these doors."
          McIntyre nodded. "Good. Everyone stand back!" he said, before pulling out his PPG and aiming it at the control panel next to the door that led to the airlock before the hangar.
          With one shot, the panel exploded into a fizz of smoke, but also released the emergency charges designed to blow the door in case someone was inadvertantly trapped in the airlock and couldn't get out.
          "Helmets on, and fast! We're leaving!" he said, everyone completing their flight suits with the helmet and hurrying into the airlock. Within moments, they were in the massive hangar bay and heading to their ships. Once aboard, each pilot quickly dispensed with the pre-flight and powered up quickly in order to depart the Cortez as fast as possible, looking to put distance between them and it, and now.
          As McIntyre got his ship ready to fly, he suddenly saw the form of a blonde-haired woman appear out of nowhere in front of the airlock door. She wore an all black tunic/blouse, and a breather mask.
          'What the hell?!'

          Commander Marzcek looked up for a brief second and peered out the forward windows of the shuttle cockpit to see a woman with a breathing mask standing in the hangar bay, and was shocked to say the least. The woman started to slowly saunter towards the cluster of Starfuries and the shuttle, and he didn't like the look of it.
          "Hawk Leader, are you seeing this?" he asked over the comm.
          "Roger that! Where in the hell did she come from?"
          Marzcek hurried to bring his engines up to power. "I'm more concerned as to where she's going. This isn't right!"
          "Roger that. We're ready to leave, but the scanners indicate that the hangar force field has been activated. We can't get out of here while it's up!"
          Having monitored the ship to ship comm channels from outside, Lewis Sewell chimed in from his Starfury, now hanging in space near the Cortez.
          "Hang in there, Will. Hawk Five and I will enter an attack formation and fire low-power bursts at her in an attempt to distract your new friend."
          "Acknowledged."
          A few minutes later, the deck shook slightly over and over enough to be felt in the Starfuries and shuttle, signfying the attack being performed by Hawks Two and Five. The blonde woman started to look all around her, wondering what was going on. McIntyre and the others started to feel more worried and more paranoid the closer she got, and were relieved to see her stop for a moment.
          The Cortez continued to shake, but the woman quickly regained her composure and again sauntered towards the helpless ships. The pilots started to feel pain in their heads, almost like headaches that were turning into migraines.
          'Dammit, we have to get out of here!' thought Marzcek, even though he wasn't sure how it could be done at this point. As the Cortez shook again from another low level assault by the other Birds, Marzcek wondered if it was a good idea to do that.
          'They could breach the hull if they're not careful, and then....WAIT!'
          "Hawk Leader, can you turn your ship to face the hangar wall?" he asked over the comm quickly.
          McIntyre responded. "Yes. Why?"
          Marzcek remembered flying in that while largely intact, the outer hull had some damage from asteroid strikes due to the debris field. One of the compromised sections was the starboard hull of the hangar bay.
          "Slowly turn your Starfury to the left, and power up your plasma cannons. I have an idea that might get us out of here."
          Confused, but starting to lose control of his faculties due to the migraines, he complied and turned his craft on it's repulsors, while also heating up his weapons. Whatever Marzcek had in mind, he was hoping it would work.
          'Got to give it a shot....'

          Sarah Atkinson was now worried about her love, especially since she was firing on this ship he and the rest of the squadron was trapped inside, albeit at a low power setting so as to not damage said ship too much but to offer as a distraction. With the hangar forcefield up, there was no way anyone could escape from inside the Cortez.
          "Hawk Five to Hawk Two, we need a better plan to get them out of there." she said over the comm. "Continual fire isn't working very well."
          Sewell came back quickly. "Agreed. Suggestions?"
          Before she could respond with an answer, Will broke in over the comm, but sounded almost exhausted and not good at all.
          "Stand. By." he stammered. "Trying. Something."
          Hawks Two and Five ceased their assault, and broke formation to position themselves a couple hundred kilometers off the forward section of the Cortez and just hung there to see what was going to happen. It was then that Captain Reid's voice came over the comm to get an update. Sewell filled him in, and it was a moment before a response came as well.
          "Very well, keep me informed. This channel will stay open." said the captain. "The Chimera is getting closer to your position and will assist once we get there."
          "Acknowleged, captain." responded Sewell over the comm.
          Sarah waited as patiently as possible to see what would happen, but was beginning to become worried sick about her beloved, and her friends. Moments later, the comm came to life as Marzcek and McIntyre were talking to each other.
          "Will, are....are you ready?"
          "Yes. Ready. Others are...ready to. Leave."
          "Good. Pre...pare to. Do it. NOW!"
          "Firing!"
          Sarah's heart jumped, but before she could say anything, a section of the hangar bay's hull exploded outwards, with pieces of the spaceframe having been blasted off. A split second later, three Starfuries and a shuttle exited the orifice and blasted safely out into the darkness of space, free of their captivity.
          "Will! Will, are you all right?" she asked excitedly yet still worried.
          After a long moment of silence that seemed to go forever, the comm finally crackled back to life with the voice of Will McIntyre. "We're okay! My head is finally starting to clear, and the others seem to be fine." he explained. "Let's all head back to the barn. I've-I've had enough of this mission!"
          "Hawk Leader, this is Hawk Two." replied Sewell. "Form up on my port wing, and I'll guide you back home."
          "Acknowledged, Hawk Two. Thank you."
          As all five Starfuries and the lone shuttle got into formation and headed back to the Chimera, Sarah's scanners picked up something as she brought up the rear.
          "Is that a dead body, floating out in space like that?"

                                                     *          *          *          *

          "Her name was Talia Winters, a former commercial telepath and member of the PisCorps who was assigned to Babylon Five back in 2258." explained Captain Reid.
          "How she came to be out here, on the Cortez and lost in the far reaches of space in a dead star system are beyind me, but I did come across something that helps explain at least most of this mystery."
          Marzcek leaned forward in his chair. "What did you find, sir?" he asked.
          Reid held up a datacrystal, and plugged it into the port next to the screen. An image of an executive order with the Earth Alliance stamp was displayed.
          "Looks like the PsiCorps requistioned the Cortez for a deep space mission as a 'temporary' arrangement." he explained. "Unfortunately, the ship never made it back to Earth-controlled space, and ended up here. I couldn't figure it out until I remembered that the ship is sitting here, at the remnants of Z'Ha'Dum."
          McIntyre raised an eyebrow. "I don't follow."
          Reid brought up an image of the former Shadow homeworld on the screen. "Before it was blown to bits, this was the homeworld for the race known as the 'Shadows'. Based on what happened between them, PsiCorps, and President Clark during the civil war, we can assume that PsiCorps wanted to try and find more and more alien telepaths for some reason only they will know."
          The rest of the crew seated around the table ran this over in the minds and thought for a moment before anyone spoke.
          "And the dead bodies we saw on the ship?" queried Whitmear. "Where did they all come from, and how did they get on the Cortez?"
          "Rangers. Ever since the Shadow War, the Rangers have been patrolling all over the place, and keeping an eye on far-flung star systems."
          It all started to make sense, but something bothered Ray Park enough to also ask a question of his own.
          "And that telepath woman, Talia. How does she fit into all of this?" 
          Captain Reid moved his chair slightly to be able to sit down, and then swiveled to face the whole table and everyone around it.
          "Far as I can tell, she was sent along with the PsiCop, for whatever reason. He personnel file doesn't list any information after being sent back to the Corps after a situation on Babylon Five back in 2259." he relayed.
          "I did call in a favour, and found out that her personality had been destroyed, and that she was sent to Mars for experimentation and mental restructuring. The details after that point are sketchy, and we all know that the Corps doesn't tell anyone the whole story."
          Reid looked around, and saw that everyone had silently acknowledged the information and didn't have any questions left.
          "All right. Dismissed, people."
          Everyone filed out of the room, with only Will McIntyre lingering behind until he was alone with the captain. Reid looked up to see his squadron leader standing by the end of the table, his expression one of fatique and question.
          "Major. What can I do for you?"
          McIntyre walked a bit closer to the captain. "Are we leaving the Cortez behind?"
          Reid shook his head. "No. EarthDome is sending several cargo ships with repair teams to fix the damage, and get her back to Earth."
          "Good to hear, sir." replied McIntyre, who started to quietly leave the briefing room, before Reid stopped him close to the door.
          "The Chimera will be between missions for the next two weeks, so I'm going to extend shore leave to the crew. I think we can all use a break, especially after the last few assignments we have. Now, go get some rest, Major."
           McIntyre managed a grin. "Thank you, sir." he said, before heading out into the corridor and leaving Captain Reid alone with his own thoughts, going over the last twenty four hours over and over.
          'A ship, a destroyed planet, and a telepath, all with links to the past. Remnants indeed, as well as links to events now consigned to the history books. With luck, this time they will all remain history....'

                                                    
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