SquidgeWorld Archive

Title: Babylon 5 Character Play
Author: Orion Tiye
Fandom: Babylon 5
Characters: Sebastian, Ulkesh
Status: First Draft
Archive: Yes, please
Feedback: Yes, please
E-Mail: wa_bekah@yahoo.com
Series/Sequel: Going to be a series of shorts, focusing mostly on characterization
Other Websites: None
Disclaimers: It all belongs to the Great Maker... uhm.. I mean J. Michael Straczynski. Or maybe both?
Notes: First draft.

Babylon 5 Character Play

Sebastian

The seamless, ever-changing pattern of what can only be called the skin of the Vorlon transport shifted to allow me entrance once again. The words I had spoken to the fellow Human captain of the large station rang in my mind, the truth and stark hope of them.
At last, I had found the truly chosen, the ones who had a fate and would stand by it, come fire, death and the destruction of all they held dear. Perhaps, finally, they would let me die. Each time the thought came to my mind, I forced myself to let it go to ash. No matter the depth of my hope, no matter how I willed the outcome, I knew within what was left of my soul that it would never come to be.
I laid myself on the extension of the ship that made itself into a shelf to allow for my need for sleep. This night, this journey, I would not sleep. I watched the skin of the ship change and listened to the song it sang.
So long I have been traveling between the stars, so long since I had been taken into their service. Yet I remembered every moment of my own experience with an Inquisitor. The fear, the anger and the absolute terror that was a part of the process. It seemed terribly ironic now, so many hundreds of years later, that I was instilling the same fears in others, sometimes a fatal terror.
There were always moments, truly shaking moments where I have wondered if this was all a great, epic dream, that I would wake up back in my abode in London, back in 1888. The work gave me focus, gave me a purpose, but how was that purpose any different than what had brought me here in the first place?
Delenn had given an answer to the question I was never able to. She knew her purpose, and it was a purpose on a sweeping, grand scale. Life. All life, and being willing to give hers for another, in absolute darkness, abandoned and alone. She and Sheridan were in love, likely they both realized it, but had not spoken of it. I knew it the moment he approached me coming through customs. The look he had on his face, the tone in his voice while questioning me.
Questioning me.
It had surprised me, the fact that someone else was asking me questions. Seemed a quaint thing, and I answered as I was allowed. Ordinarily I would have pushed his questions aside and demanded to see the one I was sent for. I had, of course, been warned about Sheridan by the Vorlon who called himself Kosh Naranek before I had left the Vorlon Homeworld. He also knew that they had grown close, that their fates were tied together somehow. That the one would likely follow the other, when the time was right. When he came, I was to question him until the truth came out.
Even though I had been told, I knew, and I was prepared, I had no idea that there would be such depth to their devotion, his to keep her from suffering, and hers to keep any life from suffering. I wondered if he knew of her past, of the secrets she hid from him. I wondered, even though I knew it was, as the Vorlons told me, a waste of time and energy.
The Vorlons, to them time was nothing, but everything was energy. Spectacular, blinding, colorless and formless energy. I had on occasion, found other Humans from other times that had been "rescued" by the Vorlons, and they claimed to see a form, angelic in nature when they saw a Vorlon's true being. Yet, I saw nothing. For all my belief in the Almighty, for all the work I had done in His name, however wrong I had been in taking those actions, I saw nothing but a blinding light when I looked upon a face of an angel.
Sleep finally took me. I did not know where it would take me, but after living in the service of others, I knew that nothing would truly surprise me anymore.
Except perhaps death. I had been thinking about death quite a bit since the Vorlons let me out of my falsified slumber. After nearly 400 years of life, I think it is a natural thing to think on mortality. I had, in the first hundred years of interrogation, tried to take my own life, but was stopped or saved each and every time. No, they had told me. No, you have much to learn, much to atone for before we let you pass beyond the Rim. You thought yourself on a mission from your God. You must find those who truly are on a divine mission, one that will reshape the galaxy to what it is meant to be. Until that time, you will serve us and no other. Not yourself, not your ambitions, not your emotions. Us.
They taught me my lesson and sent me off to teach the same to others. I got a certain pleasure, an elation from the process of breaking another. It was the same feeling I had when I was carrying out my mission during my life on Earth. It seemed an odd thing, that the Vorlons would teach me how deeply mistaken I was, and yet allow me to exercise those same powers over others. Perhaps, since it served their purposes, they did not see wrong in it.
I did not know how the Great War against the Shadows, as they were called because their true name was a thousand letters long and literally unpronounceable by the Human tongue, would proceed. The Vorlons and the Shadows were like brother races, but had greatly disparate methods of ruling the teeming masses. And yet, each was operating on the same exact assumption: that they alone were right. That they were the chosen ones, that they alone were meant to rule the known universe.
This thought occasionally passed through my mind, and raised anger and rage against them within me. How could they pass such cruel judgment against me, when they were operating on the same premise? How were they possibly any better than me, or the other Inquisitors under their service?
In what seemed a short time, I awoke, to find the ship singing that it had reached the far edge of Vorlon space. I prepared myself for the inevitable debriefing by the one who called himself Ulkesh. He was a darker being, as Vorlons went. He did not care about those under his rule, any more than I would have cared about the ants or flies that crawled and flew on Earth. He had always done my questionings upon returning from an assignment. I think he got that same sort of pleasure at watching me try to consider things as quickly as I could before answering, the panic behind my eyes.
I was taken, after leaving the ship, straight to the waiting room that was assigned to me. I was not allowed any sort of decoration, no furniture other than a bed. The Vorlons were not known for their generosity, or decorative sense.
I sat on the bed, and tried to calm myself. The restlessness spread through muscle, tendon and bone, and I was up on my feet and pacing within a few moments. Each time that a thought came to mind regarding how to answer the inevitable questions from Ulkesh, tried to push it back down. But, trying to banish thoughts is a nearly impossible feat, particularly around Vorlons.
After what felt like hours, the door opened and there was Ulkesh, in his usual angular violet encounter suit. All these years, and still more often than not, the Vorlons chose to appear in their encounter suits around me, and I assumed around the other representatives of the "younger races" they had gathered here.
"You are to follow me." The oddly cadenced voice, layered over strange chords and mechanical sounds echoed in my empty bedchamber. I stood still for a moment, wondering what would happen if I refused. The single, glowing eye narrowed.
"Now!" Even with the mechanical translation, the anger was evident. Reluctantly, I fell into stride behind him.
He glided forward, not saying anything, not even looking around. Ulkesh was the most reserved Vorlon I had met, never saying any more than needed, and at times not even that. Having recently dealt with the one known as Kosh during my duties on Babylon 5, Ulkesh seemed even harsher than usual. Kosh did not speak of small, unimportant things, but when you asked him a question, at least he gave you an answer, however vague and frustrating it was at the time.
Ulkesh stopped and another door opened, showing a brightly lit room inside.
"Enter." Again, I hesitated, but did as I was told.
"Tell me what you found."
I began circling the outer edge of the floor. I did this most often when thinking, considering what to say next to get the greatest impact.
"I performed the interrogation as directed. I believe that they are the ones you have been searching for. Delenn was willing to sacrifice herself for a stranger, as well as someone she felt close to. It is finished and it is over."
The eye closed briefly, perhaps in thought. Somehow, the opening and closing of the eye was very expressive, though I was never sure if the interpretation was correct.
"Did you tell them?"
I stopped my circuit. I turned to look at the Vorlon, as though he would have expression I could readily read. His tone was off, somehow, though I could not have said how.
"Yes, I did. I thought it was important for them to know what was coming and what might be expected of them." I tried to sound offhand in my voice and manner, but found myself growing more concerned. This was not a normal thing for a Vorlon to be concerned about. Something was going on.
"You do not understand," came the long-suffering reply. I heard this particular phrase at least once during each of these sessions.
"Then help me to understand," I said with a slight pleading tone that was not intended. "If you want me to do this work, to find the chosen ones for you, then I have to know the rules, I have to understand what is going on out there. I know that things are changing, that something is taking form and you have control of it. Tell me the shape of it and perhaps I will understand!" I was using the same tone with Ulkesh as I generally used when being their Inquisitor. I did not know if tone of voice even worked with Vorlons, but I felt like I should pull out all my tricks and talents at this point.
"Impudent."
As always, with that word came a momentary jolt of pure anguish. As I collapsed under the wholly unexpected tide of pain, a rage and fury I had not known for centuries filled me. I raised myself back to my feet and faced Ulkesh with a fire behind my eyes. I slowly traveled the space between us, until less than two feet were remaining between us.
"If you disapprove of the way I do things, then perhaps it's time for you Vorlons to step out of the shadows and-"
I fell to my knees, barely able to keep from howling in a greatly undignified way. I had to quickly think before I realized why I had been punished. I had not meant or planned to mention shadows. As the pain subsided to a throbbing pulse, I took to my feet once again. The Vorlon had tilted his head away from me, likely trying to elicit shame from me.
Breath came in gasps, but I was able to speak. Given Ulkesh's violent reaction to the wording I had, however accidentally, chosen, I knew I had found my weapon. I wasn't sure of what his reaction would be, but I had to take the chance. I might not get another opportunity like this for another fifty or hundred years, if ever.
I faced him once more, steeled myself and in what I hoped was a more threatening than trembling voice, asked the one question I knew would anger a Vorlon.
"What do you want?"
A whir of movement, a flash of light and the breath was knocked out of me. My legs crumbled beneath me and I fell to the cold floor. My body twitched and spasmed as wave upon wave of intense pain rolled through me.
I clenched my jaws, trying to keep from screaming, though I knew it was a futile battle. The scream would come, it was only a matter of pride and a measure of strength to keep it inside for as long as I could. My mind was so overwhelmed with searing pain that I could barely hear the voice say in a far-too-calm way:
"Never ask that question."
The pain rose further, though I would not hae thought it possible. Every fiber of my being was on fire, crying out to be snuffed from being. Still the white-hot pain came and gathered with what had been there already, and became more powerful.
Suddenly an unearthly howl escaped my lips, unbidden. I curled in upon myself and the pain filled scream continued.
Silence from the Vorlon.
The pain left me then, and I lay, sweat pouring out of me, gasping for breath, on the floor before Ulkesh. I could sense his detachment, once more noticed how different he was from the others.
"You desire death," he said, as a comment. He sounded curious, if the translation through the machine could be believed.
Still gasping for air, all I could do was nod assent.
"You believe you are finished? You are not done. You will serve, or you will die."
"If I serve, I will die anyway," I gasped out each word, now able to sit up. Breath still came surrounded by pain and my vision was twinkeling with tiny stars, but I was not going to show weakness to the Vorlon.
"You will die when we decide it is right, and you will serve, even in death. It is who you are." With that, he turned and glided toward the door.
I was just as determined to have the final word on this. He was not going to leave now. I was not done.
"I will not serve. You can suspend me, take me out and give me another assignment but I will not serve you anymore. I refuse to serve masters who will not even see their own way is even possibly flawed."
"You will serve, or you will die." The voice had taken on a very dangerous edge. A jolt of fear rang through me. I had pushed him to the edge of tolerance. Just a bit farther now.
"Then," I said, rising slowly and painfully to my feet, "I will die." But, I added silently, I was going to die on my feet.
"You do not understand. But you will."
Ulkesh turned with a speed I would not have guessed and the eye narrowed to a pinprick. A beam of light came out, and centered in my chest. The eye expanded outwards, and the light enveloped me. I felt my feet leave the floor.
Agony coursed through my veins, making the previous attacks seem like drops in a great ocean. My back arched and I tried to scream this time, but no sound came.
Every muscle tensed and refused to relax, I could not breathe. My heart felt as though it would explode from the pressure building within me. I felt something crack inside of me and a heat radiating out. I knew I was dying, at long last. I had completed my task, done my part. I had set the universe in motion, verified the right people were in the right places at the right time.
I wondered if anyone would remember me this time. If Sheridan or Delenn would recall who had tested and purified them for the task ahead. If they would remember me as simply the Inquisitor, the pawn of the Vorlons, sent to glean answers through pain and suffering, as Jack (though I was nearly certain that Delenn would not understand the reference as thouroghly as Sheridan had), or as Sebastian. I supposed they were all the same.
I was barely aware of collapsing back to the ground, and exhaling for the final time.
Ulkesh stared at the beaten and broken form of the Inquisitor. Nearly four hundred years, taken by a moment of pique. Kosh and the others would be disappointed in his behavior, but they did not yet know the depth or length of this road they were traveling. The Inquisitor had always been unstable, as most of the beings they took into service as Inquisitors were. However, he had always done an impeccable job.
Ulkesh turned away from the body and exited the room.
All of this would be forgotten as the path became clear to the others. In the mean time, he would need to get one of the other Inquisitors to clean up this mess.