Babylon 5: Red Fury Read Free Page B

missile bays, one heavy railgun and two light pulse cannons operational.”
    Another blast shook Titans.
    “That’s a direct hit, sir.
    Ivanova looked around at her command crew. They were beaten
    and bloody, but not defeated. Not yet.
    “Get the Star Furies back on the destroyers. Target them with any firepower we’ve got left. Buy me time.”
    “Time for what?”
    -16-

    RED FURY
    “Berensen, you’re in charge,” she said, striding towards the turbo lift. “Captain?”
    “Keep angling us behind the asteroid so we only have to take fire from one ship at a time. Force them to keep repositioning if they want to hit us.”
    As she stepped into the flickering light of the turbo lift she felt fluid running down her forehead and into her right eye. Ivanova instinctively wiped it away and as she lowered her hand she saw blood. She recalled she’d hit her head during the battle. That explained why she suddenly found it so hard to think straight. And now that she thought of it, she felt tired. So very tired.
    Keep focused , she ordered herself. Keep it together. You can rest when you’ve done your duty.
    “Sir? Where will you be, sir?” Berensen’s voice came in through the speaker as the turbo lift carried her down into the ship.
    “Deck 7,” she replied. “I’m going to poke our resident Vorlon
    transport with a stick and see what happens.”

    Susan struggled to remember the complex sequence of letters and
    numbers that would grant her access to the sealed deck. It seemed as if a fog had settled over her mind and it took an enormous effort of will to overcome it.
    The heavy door slid open and she stepped into darkness. It was the first time anyone had been in there since John and Lyta had helped her integrate the alien transport with Titans’ systems but there hadn’t been a day when she didn’t think about it. Her ship was like her body, an extension of herself, and having the Vorlon craft inside it was like having an unwanted skin cancer, you never forgot it was there. Sometimes she awoke to realize she’d been dreaming of it. In those dreams, she’d be back home, in Russia, and she’d suddenly spot it in the sky overhead.
    -17-
    RED FURY
    It occurred to her there’d never been a dream where she’d gone inside it, never any clue of what lay behind the living Vorlon shell.
    As Ivanova moved down the metal walkway, the transport started to glow—a crimson, pulsing light with scarlet accents—revealing itself in the darkness. It looked like a giant, angry squid. There was no doubt in her mind that the pulsating glow was a warning—she wasn’t welcome.
    John had told her how he’d got it to cooperate last time. He’d put his hand on it and simply talked to it. She wasn’t John. Wasn’t Vorlon-touched like he was. There was one other thing he’d said though—it had been bored. It had welcomed fighting the Shadow entity that had taken over her ship. And she suspected that was why it had jammed her outgoing signal for reinforcements. It wanted something to do. It wanted to stretch its wings.
    She strode towards it with purpose and the living surface of the alien ship warped in response. A long, thick tentacle emerged from its surface, its tip hovering in the air above her, glowing with a strong, yellow light. The point of light came to rest over Susan’s heart. A targeting beam; another warning. One more step and an organic beam weapon would kill her instantly.
    “This is your doing,” she said to it. “You wanted this conflict, you blocked my call for assistance, and now you’re going to set things right.”
    She took another step forward, the targeting beam shining right in her face. A loud humming filled the deck.
    “Kill me if you want, we’re all going to be dead in a minute anyway, so fire away or get that tentacle, or whatever the hell it is, out of my face.”
    And, to her surprise, it did.
    She took one tentative step after another until she was beside it. It rippled with power,