TITLE: Alone
AUTHOR: Michael J. Gallagher ( mikejoe@odyssey.net )
RATING: PG
SYNOPSIS: Trance goes to seek advice from an old friend.
DISCLAIMER: Gotta lot of ground to cover this time.
Ok, GRA is owned by Tribune, not me -- pretty much standard.
But BABYLON 5 is owned by Warner bros.
Who owns DUNE? Not me.
And I don't know who's owned the rights to GRIMJACK every since First Comics went belly-up, but I don't own that one, either. Either way, I ain't makin' a dime off this, so no one sue me, 'kay?
Please?
+++++++++++++++++++++
"Where do you want to go in the* Maru?*" Beka Valentine asked sleepily, leaning on her cabin's door frame.
"A little trip to talk with an old friend," Trance said. "I'll be back before you know I've gone."
"Looking like what this time?" Beka asked the gold-skinned woman who'd been a purple-skinned girl until ... she was still trying to sort it out.
"Beka .... "
"I know, I know, I'm sorry ..... ok. Andromeda, release control of the *Maru* to Trance, authorization Captain Beka Valentine, code *notonescratchyahearme.*"
"Authorization granted," the ship's voice answered.
Trance smiled. "Thanks Bek!" Then she whirled on her heel and left.
Beka turned, shambled back into her cabin, and as the hatch closed behind her, shed her bathrobe and fell face-first onto her bed.
"Beka?" the ship's voice asked.
"Yeah, Rommie?"
"Are you feeling all right?"
"Yes. Why?"
"You let Trance take the *Maru* without much of an argument, given you are still 'getting used to her.'"
"It's three o'clock in the morning. I'll let anybody get away with almost anything when I want to sleep."
"Oh."
Beka's eyes snapped open; her voice hardened. "But don't you and Harper get any ideas!"
*****************
Trance paid the rickshaw operator and pulled her hooded cloak around her and proceeded to walk the last two blocks to her destination. If Cynosure, the pan-dimensional city, could be said to be the ultimate city, then The Pit was the ultimate slum, and she could understand perfectly why no one would even want to be paid to come into it -- and the rickshaw operator had been the only one willing to come as far as he had.
Fortunately, none of the local sentient beings troubled her as she came to the ugly, concrete igloo of a building, and went down the steps into the bar itself. She pulled the hood back; Munden's was just as shabby and dilapidated as before, but still comfortable ... if you didn't mind the fact that some of the regulars were lethal enough to send the Magog running for cover.
She turned to her right and nodded to the proprietor, sitting in a corner with his back to the wall. "Hello, John."
"Hello yourself ... Trance?" John Gaunt's eyes narrowed and he leaned forward a little. In the light she could see the face of the middle-aged man with graying, shoulder-length black hair and a vertical scar crossing his right eye. "Looks like you've been through some changes."
"Yeah, well, I've grown up."
"Hmm. If I were twenty years younger ..... "
"You'd be way too young for me."
"If you say so. Want to say 'hi' to Bob?" Gaunt stroked the odd little lizard snoring on the table in front of him.
"Of course." Trance went to the table. "Bob. Bob? It's me, Trance."
The little lizard woke up and looked at her sleepily.
"Whoooooooooooo?" She put out her hand; he sniffed it.
"Trrrrraaaaaannnccccceeee."
"Hi, Bob. At least someone doesn't give me grief about my look." Her eyes flicked to Bob's owner. "Can I?"
"Sure. He likes you; that's good enough for me."
Trance picked up the little gator-lizard, who started cooing happily (if drunkenly) at her touch, and held him to her shoulder as she went over to the bar. She waited while the human bartender, who reminded her of slightly younger, shorter version of Dylan, had finished with other customers and came over to her. "Yes .... Trance!?"
"Hi, Gordon."
"That's you? I mean *you* you, the same you who was in here last time."
"Yes, more or less. I .... grew up fast."
"Well, what'll it be? The usual?"
"No!" Trance snapped quickly; her obsession with all things purple had gone with her skin color. "Um, maybe I want to try something different."
"Trance! I layed in a case of Grape Frizzy just for you!" Gordon teased. "Unless you want to be the one to tell Grimjack himself, of all people, that he went through all that trouble to get it for nothing?"
Playing along, Trance's eyes flicked in Gaunt's direction. "I could take him, but why spare you the exercise? 'Sides, my younger self may be along any day now."
"Oh, one of those deals."
"Something like that."
Gordon grinned. "Seriously, what'll you have?"
"Um, let me think ... I know, how about some Caladanian mineral water?"
"Sure. With ice?"
"Ok."
Gordon brought out the bottle, opened it, and poured some into an ice-filled glass. "No charge. I have a hunch you deserve it."
"Thanks .... uh .... " Trance suddenly had to figure out how to juggle a sleepy gator-lizard, a bottle, and a glass.
"Allow me," Gordon said. "Where you headed?"
"Over there."
"Ok."
Gordon came out from behind the bar and picked up Trance's glass and bottle, and followed her to a taller table against a far wall. He went back to his business as soon as she was settled, standing at the table.
Trance spent the next hour sipping her water, petting Bob, and fending off fewer advances from other customers than she might have expected, but she supposed her kind was better known in other realities. Then her friend arrived, sliding over in a black and green encounter suit that was as much a badge of office as it was protective covering. Not so much protecting the wearer from the environment as the surrounding crowds from their own inner selves.
"Hi, Kosh," Trance said.
The oblong headpiece of the Vorlon's suit bowed, and it's vocoder translated music into words: "Trance." He seemed to look her over. "There has been change .... transposition?"
"Yes."
"Unexpected."
"You're telling me."
"So."
"So." Trance shifted a little uncomfortably. "I need advice."
Kosh didn't answer, but Trance knew he was silently prodding her.
"I'm back with my friends on the *Andromeda,*" Trance went on. "They're all as I remember them, all so full of life, even Rommie in her own way. And I just want to hold onto that, to stay in that moment." Her glass was empty; she poured the rest of the water into it. "But I know what's coming; I know it will be bad. I knew it would be bad the first time, and I couldn't stop it. I'm hoping I can avoid making the same mistakes, but .... " Trance's eyes fogged over a bit.
"You will tell them when the time comes," Kosh said.
"Oh, of course," Trance said. "That's not the problem. The problem is, how do I get through it? What's coming will make the hells they've been through look like a very big pillow fight. I just want to grab the slipstream controls and take the ship as far away as I can, but I can't do that. And they won't want me to; they will want to do the right thing when the time comes. But I still have to watch while the people I love .... Please, Kosh, tell me how I can get through it."
"I do not know. When you know, tell me; I would like to know."
Trance smiled. "I had a hunch you would say that."
"Of course."
Trance downed the rest of the water and even chewed a few ice cubes. "Still, I think it was good to talk it out with someone who understands. Thank you, Kosh."
"Thank you, Trance."
"Will you be here next time?"
"No." That one word carried a multitude of meanings.
"Oh ..... " Trance struggled with herself. "I'll have to go on alone, won't I?"
"You are not alone, Trance. You are never alone."
"I know. Still .... " She walked to the Vorlon and put her arms around him, gently squeezing the encounter suit. "Goodbye, Kosh."
"Goodbye, Trance."
After pulling away from Kosh, Trance waved goodbye to Gordon and carried Bob back to John's table. Then she pulled her hood up over her head and went up the stairs to the entrance.
It was raining, and of course, the rickshaw was long gone; she would have to walk a long way before hailing a cab back to the space/timeport.
************
The *Andromeda* jumped to the slipstream just as Trance entered the bridge; she found Dylan and Beka watching on as Harper piloted the mighty starship through the faster-than-light realm.
"Transiting to normal space .... " Harper said, and the ship bucked through a slip portal back into the reality they knew .... the only one they knew.
"See?" Beka asked as the slip controls unfolded from around Harper.
"Yeah, but I don't think it's the drive -- oh, hi, Trance," Harper said as he turned to the backrest and fiddled with the right hand controller.
Beka noticed Trance. "Trance? How was your trip?"
"Ok," Trance answered.
"You see your friend?"
"Yes, but I won't be seeing him again, I think. He's ..... going away."
"Well, that's too bad."
"As I figured," Harper said. "It's sticking a little. Suggested remedy -- WD-40."
"I'll get it," Dylan said, heading for a locker. Trance looked on. Dylan, Beka, Harper, the *Andromeda* herself, all so alive, all so ..... unaware .....
Kosh had been right. She would tell them when the time came. And curse herself for the rest of her life.
"Trance?" Dylan said, handing the oil can to Harper. "Is everything all right?"