Disclaimer: everything in Babylon 5 belongs to JMS and Warner Bros., I'm just borrowing some of it. The title of this story is a loose translation of a line from a Russian song of the space era, music by V. Muradeli, lyrics by Y. Dolmatovski. Not making any money. Don't sue.

Chapter III

Life, Once More

By chimère

After the madness had burned itself out, Ene began to settle down little by little. A strange numbness, if not calm, asserted itself, and she was able to start making repairs after the breakdown.

She came back to work the very next day. Doctor Franklin tried to send her away, but she wouldn't hear of it. Unlike sitting in her quarters with nothing to do, mechanically going through the tasks at the lab was soothing. Franklin was obviously quite concerned, which was more than what could be said about the attitude of her other colleagues. Ene ignored the glances and whispers and was simply glad about the wide berth they gave her. She didn't have the strength to care.

The precious copy of the Book of G'Quon she had so disrespectfully dropped to the floor somehow found its way to her quarters a few days later. She wondered whose idea it had been. She liked to run her fingers over the smooth leather binding, but guilt prevented her from opening it.

The first night after the breakdown Ene had slept like the dead, and the following nights proved that her ability to sleep was returning. In fact, she now felt ready to go to bed every evening as soon as she entered her quarters – she seemed to be making up for all the sleepless nights of the last few years.

When she was paid her first salary on Babylon 5, she didn't have any idea what to do with the money left over from paying for her quarters and food. But soon enough she found herself shopping for several items to decorate her living space with. Babylon 5, a mere space station and no planet, was a fitting home for someone as fleeting and rootless as her.

The Rangers were obviously a busy organisation, and no surprise, given the escalating events everywhere around. Ene knew about them, unlike most people, had known even before Neshann had asked her to join them. It had been explained to her by Doctor Franklin as soon as she had been able to stay awake and coherent long enough to absorb it. Given that the Rangers were more or less a secret group, this explanation had been provided on the theory that if she received none, she would start to ask too many dangerous questions on her own. She had been made to promise to keep it a secret, of course, and she had no desire to spread it around. Quite naturally, she hadn't been given any details about the Rangers' ways of operating or their purposes, only the bare skeleton story that had to be told to people who had had contact with the Rangers and might begin to wonder too much.

Ene understood that the Rangers were fighting a war, but she couldn't claim to understand who the enemy was. Talk of attacks, the Shadows, an ancient evil – it was all still quite vague for someone who wasn't an officer or a government official and had to hear it all second hand. But she did believe it, sceptic though she was. Rumours were flying all across the station, and she thought that for once quite a number of them might be true. It was strange, really, for her to believe in stories – normally she would have thought it irrational and childish. But although she had no contact with the military – human or alien – but hearsay, she was neither blind nor stupid. She could see that some of the groups of aliens arriving at Babylon 5 were refugees, could see real fear in people's eyes. All the events had the feel of a storm gathering strength and she could taste the war in the air. So it was no surprise that the Rangers were busy, coming and going constantly, if one knew how to look for them.

It was no surprise that Ene didn't see Neshann for over a month.

During that time, on top of everything else, Doctor Franklin decided to resign to work out whatever problems he had. Ene could only shake her head at his sense of timing. But she actually felt glad when he returned and survived the wound he had received on his tour of the Downbelow. After all, he was the person on this station she had had the most conversations with.

She had gathered her courage one day and requested an audience with Ambassador Delenn, the new Ranger One, to ask to be informed if and when Neshann's ship should happen to stop at Babylon 5. The tiny half-Minbari had been kind enough to grant her wish and tactful enough not to ask any questions.

She had to see Neshann. She owed him too much. She had been able to acknowledge the depth of her debts only after recovering somewhat from her madness. She didn't have the courage to face G'Kar just yet. But she had to thank Neshann.

Rumours thickened, the sense of looming danger became ever stronger.

But Delenn never contacted Ene to inform her of Neshann's arrival. It was understandable, of course. At the end of the year Captain Sheridan left secretly on a mission of a madman and was lost at Z'Ha'Dum. Ene heard of Neshann on her own, when Delenn summoned all the Rangers to Babylon 5, gathering them openly at last. It was with a profound relief that she learned that Neshann was among them.

It was a lull in the storm, and probably the last time to pay one's debts.

Ene had contacted Neshann and he had – although looking somewhat surprised on the BabCom screen, or as surprised as was possible for a Minbari – agreed to meet before the White Star fleet left for Z'Ha'Dum. But on the morning of the day of their meeting Ene learned that G'Kar had left Babylon 5 in search of Mr. Garibaldi, of all people.

G'Kar had left the safety of his sanctuary and Ene could just imagine how many Centauri were already hunting him down. It was highly doubtful he would return. He had left, and she had never apologised. A debt unpaid. Another regret.

She arrived at the Zen Garden quite shaken. But Neshann was already there, waiting for her, so she tried to suppress it as best she could.

"Ene Maaroos," Neshann said, greeting her with the traditional Minbari bow. She marvelled at how an alien had memorised her name and its pronunciation exactly, when that seemed to be an impossible feat for most English-speaking Earthers.

"Just Ene, please." Then, remembering his earlier request not to call him Captain, she said deliberately, "Neshann."

The Minbari smiled. Ene returned it tentatively, wondering how they were supposed to talk to each other if even just names took so much effort.

"Why did you call me here?" Neshann asked after a stretch of silence.

"Isn't it obvious? Well, maybe for you it isn't, and I shouldn't wait so long that you'd have to ask yourself." Ene took a deep breath. "You have saved my life twice over. I wanted to thank you."

"There is no need for that. I was only doing what I have been trained to do."

"You make it sound like you're a dog!" At the Minbari's look of incomprehension she continued, "No, never mind. Well, maybe you have been doing this all your life, but for me it's a new experience and I do believe that a thank you is in order."

"Not all my life. You forget that I belong to the Warrior Caste."

It was Ene's turn to be confused.

"The Warrior Caste destroys lives more often than saves them. The Rangers are different, but I joined them only a little over two years ago. My Caste has not taken it kindly."

"Why? One would think that they'd approve of military organisations."

"But the philosophy of the Rangers does not suit the Warrior Caste. And right now, the Rangers are doing everything that they have been opposing lately. I am a deserter, a shame to my Caste. An outcast."

"But you belong among the Rangers now."

"Why should they truly trust a member of the Warrior Caste?" For the first time, Ene could hear a trace of bitterness in Neshann's voice.

She looked at him in a new way. Perhaps they had something in common after all.

"For whatever it's worth, I trust you. With my life. Having held it in your hands twice and not dropped it, you're probably more trustworthy around it than me."

Neshann smiled again. It was a beautiful smile, Ene noticed.

"When are you leaving?" she asked.

"In five days. The White Star fleet and some from the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. What's left of them since the League broke up."

"You can't win. Not if anything I've heard about these Shadows is true." This statement of a fact hurt more than she would have thought.

Neshann didn't answer to that, perhaps considering it too self-evident to comment upon. He only said, "This is the deep intake of breath before the breaking of the true storm."

Ene nodded. "Everything and everyone seems to be… waiting. It's quiet at the MedLab, too, which is the reason I could come here today."

"It almost feels like – peace," the Minbari said softly.

"Almost. Peace is so often false. All of this has made me remember some old Earth songs I liked as a child. When the humans constructed the first shuttles that were able to take them off Earth – no farther than the planetary orbit and the Moon –, long before we encountered any of the other races, it was a time of great hopes and dreams and elation. It's sometimes been called the space era. People believed that we could do anything now that we had gone to the stars, that we could conquer the galaxy, put an end to poverty and disease, bring world peace. Peace. At the same time countries were caught in bitter rivalry over whose space program was the most successful. There's one song I remember in particular. The original was in Russian, but I heard the translation into my mother tongue, Estonian, when I was a child, and I liked it a lot." She hummed the sad tune for a few moments. "In the song, astronauts are leaving Earth and they make a promise to the people left behind that one day apple trees will bloom on Mars. Well, maybe they do have apple trees under the domes on Mars now, I don't know. But we don't have the peace we dreamed about."

"It makes one wonder how and why we dream about peace, if we are so incapable of achieving it." It was generous of Neshann, Ene thought, to say "we", as the Minbari had had peace for centuries. But then, even that quiet race had warred against the humans.

"There were a few lines in the song that were different, wiser than the rest. I don't remember it exactly, but it went something like Live. Believe. That is our motto, though the wind of the unknown blows in our face. I can't translate it very well, but I like it. We didn't know almost anything about the universe back then, and now we perhaps only know how much we still don't know. But humans are still presumptuous, still acting like we're entitled to everything."

"Presumption is a common flaw, and not attributable only to humans. As for knowledge of the universe, I suspect that none of our races can claim much of that."

Ene caught herself staring into the Minbari's dark grey eyes, wondering how he could understand her so well. "Thank you for saving my life," she said again.

This time, Neshann didn't refuse the thanks. "You are welcome. It was no burden. It wasn't just my training, I wanted to save you."

"Why?"

"You are like no other human I have ever met." Which, in true Minbari style, wasn't really an answer at all. It seemed to imply something, but Ene couldn't begin to imagine what.

"I am sorry that you have to go to Z'Ha'Dum. I don't want you to die." Her voice caught, just a little.

Neshann regarded her for a long time. "I am sorry, too. Before this meeting, I wasn't sure. Now, though… But it has to be done."

"Yes." After a long pause, Ene said, "Maybe there's a chance…" Her voice died. She didn't believe it, and she knew that Neshann didn't, either.

"We have made each other want to live again. But it seems that we are still unable to give hope."

Ene took a deep breath, feeling her own failure keenly. He had done so much for her, and she couldn't give him anything back, not even a crumb of hope that he would return from this suicide mission.

Suddenly she saw a solution. Not letting herself think about it twice, she stepped closer to Neshann and kissed him on the lips. It was less strange than she had thought. As they drew apart, she whispered, "For luck."

Neshann looked more bemused than shocked. After a pause, he asked, "Is this an Earth custom?"

"Sometimes." Ene found that she was smiling, though she couldn't tell why. Hope is not easy to recognise when rediscovered after so long.

Feeling suddenly shy, she said, "Just try to come back," and fled the Zen Garden, leaving Neshann to gaze after her.

Hope, life's means to preserve itself, is so often foolishly unfounded. Therefore, it was all the more amazing for one who was used to broken dreams to see this fragile faith turned into reality. Granted, the suicidal attack on Z'Ha'Dum that had been planned by Ambassador Delenn had been called off after Captain Sheridan had miraculously returned from the dead. But the war against the Shadows and, more lately, the Vorlons as well, still seemed far too desperate an endeavour to expect the return of anyone going into battle. Laughter through tears was all that Ene could manage as she discovered that for once, life didn't mock her and throw her hope back in her face. Neshann was brought into MedLab 6 on a wheeled hospital bed, badly burned, but unmistakably alive. She abandoned her duties to sit by his bed and annoy the medics who tended to him. Caught in dizzying relief and joy, it took her a while to absorb that Neshann's survival was only a small portion of the good news now reverberating throughout Babylon 5.

The station echoed with incredulous joy, from whispers to shouts. Somehow, amazingly, inexplicably for Ene, the war was over, and it was won. A slight, distant smile appeared on her lips and stayed there without her noticing it. That was how she acknowledged the removal of the death threat on this part of the galaxy. She resigned herself calmly to wait. Eventually, the rumours would settle into truth or something close enough to it, and she could start to make sense of how this seemingly impossible feat had been accomplished. Until then, she was in no hurry. In any case, the end of the war mattered a lot less to her than the fact that the Minbari Captain who had saved her life was lying on the hospital bed, his face flushed slightly from fever, his breathing laboured, but steady.

Neshann remained unconscious for two days. Ene couldn't neglect her duties for very long, since MedLab was truly swamped with the injured and although medics were most in demand, the lab technicians' workload was tripled as well. Therefore she couldn't be there when the Ranger woke up. She was just dropping by once again to check on him when she saw the Minbari's dark grey eyes open and looking back at her.

Her breath caught and she couldn't say a word. He watched her just as silently.

"You're alive," Ene finally whispered thickly through tears that suddenly welled up.

Neshann smiled and Ene felt something break in her. She hadn't realised how much she had missed that smile. She stepped to the bed quickly and took his hand. She saw a fleeting look of surprise on the Minbari's face as she pressed her lips to it. Then Neshann's expression changed, he freed his hand to gently push stray hair back from her face, to smooth tears from her cheeks.

Ene sat down on the edge of the bed and took his hand again. They looked at each other in silence, their fingers intertwined in her lap.

Ene didn't take part in the festivities that abounded on the station. In the last few years she hadn't exactly felt like partying, and although she was much less bitter and angry now, she still wasn't in the right frame of mind. Instead, she worked – not because she was overly diligent, but to be close to Neshann. She didn't dare to visit him very often, but she wanted to at least be in the vicinity of the room where he lay. There were still many patients in MedLab and quite a number of people were needed to take care of them, but everyone who could be spared had been granted leave to join the festivities, which meant that there was a fair amount of work for those who remained.

Thus Ene spent her days in the lab, her hands mechanically going through her tasks while her thoughts were elsewhere. They were strange thoughts, almost alien to her after such a long spell of hopelessness – thoughts of the future, of plans too precious and fragile yet to voice aloud.

Her colleagues still seemed to think it best to avoid her whenever possible. When she heard movement behind her one day as she was working at the DNA sequencer, she actually jumped.

"I am sorry if I startled you," Neshann said.

"What are you doing?" Ene exclaimed. "Are you mad? You should be in bed!"

"No need. I have no broken bones, just a few burns from the battle. I am quite ready to be on my feet."

"That's for someone with medical training to decide. I'm calling someone in here right now."

Neshann's hand on her arm stopped her. "Don't, Ene." The Minbari seemed to collect his thoughts for a moment. Then he said, "I am well enough. I will heal on my own. Very soon I shall have to return to my Ranger duties."

Ene felt suddenly cold. "Already?"

"The war may be over, but there is still much work to be done. I fear that the Castes will begin to fight among themselves on Minbar soon. The conflict has been mounting for a long time."

"And there is going to be civil war on Earth," Ene replied. "Clark's regime can't last forever, but it will cost a lot of lives to bring it down."

"So you see, I have to go," Neshann concluded. He regarded Ene for a long time. "We might not meet again."

"I know."

The silence was long and became intolerable. Finally Ene threw caution and propriety to the wind – she understood perfectly well that they didn't really know each other at all, that the chasm of difference between their races and cultures was frighteningly wide, and she didn't care about any of that – and said, "I'll wait for you."

Neshann's face went very still. "That's a dangerous promise. I don't want you to make it."

"But I want to make it! And you want it too, or I really don't understand you at all! Not your common sense, not your conscience – but your heart wants me to make that promise." Ene stepped in front of Neshann, their faces just inches apart. "Say it! Say that you want me to make that promise!"

The Minbari stared at her, his eyes dark and unfathomable, and with a jolt of fear Ene thought that perhaps understanding really was impossible between them. But then Neshann said, "Yes. I want you to make that promise."

Ene drew herself up straight, although she was shaking a little. "Then I promise that I will wait for you." She managed a smile.

Neshann took her hands. "And I promise that if I can, I will return."

All of a sudden, though she had started it herself, the intensity of their words frightened her. She still felt fragile after her breakdown, any strong emotion easily wore her out. To distract herself, she tried to find other, more ordinary words. "I'm sorry about pressuring you like this. I can be a bit too… forward sometimes. For all I know, I may have committed a horrible breach of good manners from the Minbari point of view." She realised that she was blabbering and shut up.

"It's all right. Though I daresay that neither my Caste nor my clan will approve of a Minbari taking a human mate." The words were lightly spoken, but Ene could not doubt that the meaning behind them was utterly serious.

"I suppose it might never come to that," she made her own half-hearted attempt at levity, still trying to wrap her mind around the word "mate". "In all probability, we're too different for this to work anyway."

Neshann didn't reply and Ene was bitterly ashamed of her words. But he seemed to understand and forgive her human callousness, because suddenly he pulled her into his arms. In breathless wonder, she clung to him, and for a whole sweet minute, they forgot the world around them.

Neshann left a couple of days later and Ene felt her loneliness sharply. But even this was much better than the hollow emptiness that had been her only emotion for three years.

She could hardly believe it when she heard that G'Kar had returned to Babylon 5, having somehow survived after all. And that was not the end of it – rumours began to circulate that the Centauri had left the Narn Homeworld. However afraid of G'Kar Ene might be, she simply had to talk to him.

As she stood outside the door to G'Kar's quarters, she noticed that her hands were gripping the Book of G'Quon so tightly that her knuckles were white. Irritated by her fear and hesitance, she rang the bell.

G'Kar didn't answer at once. Ene wondered if this was because he had somehow guessed her identity, and her stomach gave another little jolt of fear. Then the Narn's deep voice called, "Come," and not letting herself think about it, she stepped through the door.

G'Kar was sitting behind his desk, writing, but he stood up as she entered, and regarded her grimly. Ene was shocked to see that he had lost an eye.

For a few moments Ene stood dumb and unable to move. Then she took a deep breath and said, "I am sorry. I offended you and was ungrateful when I should have felt honoured. I don't deserve this." She set the Book of G'Quon on the desk. Remembering that the Narns were a people of few words and feeling that she had said everything she had meant to say, she turned to leave.

Ene was almost at the door when G'Kar said, "Professor Maaroos."

She turned around, feeling another little stab of guilt. "I'm not really a professor any more."

"You helped my people," G'Kar said. "I haven't forgotten that, and I shall not. Whether you did so because you truly wanted to help us or because you wanted to die, doesn't really matter. Most people would have chosen a far less honourable way to end their life. And I do not think that you care nothing for the Narns."

"Is it really true that Narn is free again?"

A smile spread over G'Kar's face – Ene had never seen anyone so happy before in her life. Quite unexpectedly, her eyes filled up with tears. She hadn't realised how much she had felt for the fate of the Narns.

They stood looking at each other – human and Narn, tears of relief and smile of joy. In that moment, they understood each other, understood the extent of their difference and that sometimes, like now, difference didn't matter. G'Kar picked up the Book of G'Quon Ene had set on the table.

"I am glad to see that you no longer wish to die," the Narn said. "I would have mourned you, for you are a friend of my people. This was a gift, and it belongs to you." He handed her the Book of G'Quon.

Ene held the book very carefully in her hands. She wanted to ask what had happened to G'Kar away from Babylon 5, how he had lost his eye. She wanted to ask if he had, as she suspected, played a role in freeing Narn.

She couldn't find her voice. She bowed her thanks and left.

War, it seemed, was almost a constant on Babylon 5. Just about six months after the end of the Shadow War the war to liberate Earth and her colonies from President Clark's regime broke out. But Ene followed its progress with less attention than she had listened to every one of the few reports that had reached her concerning the war between the Castes on Minbar. She hadn't even known which news to consider worrying and which encouraging. In a war between the Warrior and the Religious Caste, with the head of the Rangers also being the leader of the Religious Caste, which outcome could a Warrior Caste Ranger hope for? Ene knew that Neshann's loyalty was primarily given to the Rangers, but nevertheless, she feared that his ambivalent affiliations meant that he would grieve no matter which side won.

But then that war had ended with the Religious Caste's surrender turned into victory and the transfer of power to the most unlikely of candidates, the Worker Caste. Neshann, however, did not return to Babylon 5. Ene was becoming very worried and had just resolved to ask Delenn, inappropriate as that might be, for any information, when the message arrived. It was text only and read,

I am well, but my duties will keep me from Babylon 5 for some time yet. I will return as soon as I can. You are in my thoughts.

That sustained Ene for the time being. She filled her time with work and keeping track of the new war, letting herself be glad at every one of Sheridan's forces' victories. Like most people, she hoped to see the end of the near-tyranny on Earth, but she also thought that the new states born out of sheer defiance could hardly achieve democracy on their own – Sheridan was still the king of his own little military empire, wasn't he? She could only hope that Sheridan could pull this coup off and would not be so accustomed to being in charge by then that he'd try to cling to power. Democratic elections on Earth would be the only thing that could really put her mind at ease. But right now, the war was just something to keep herself occupied with.

Ene waited, as she had promised to do.

The death of Marcus Cole in order to save Commander Ivanova left Ene to ponder love. She was glad that hers and Neshann's (and she was still only able to admit that it was love in the privacy of her own thoughts) was not of the unrequited sort. She observed how quickly that tragedy was eclipsed by the victory of Sheridan's forces, and felt for Susan Ivanova more deeply than she had felt for another human being in years. But she knew better than to approach the newly promoted Captain and offer her condolences. Any words she could have said right now would have sounded hollow, no matter how honest the meaning behind them.

Ene was sitting in the Zocalo one day, having finished her lunch and simply watching the life of Babylon 5 flow around her, when she heard the familiar voice too long missed.

"Ene."

She practically jumped to her feet and turned to see Neshann, who was regarding her with a warm smile on his serious face. She found that she couldn't return the greeting, couldn't say anything at all. She only smiled without knowing it and stepped closer to grasp the hands the Minbari held outstretched.

They barely spoke as she paid her bill and they left the Zocalo, and the silence continued for a while as they walked slowly towards the Zen Garden. They were simply basking in each other's presence, letting it warm and melt and awaken parts of them that lay dormant in solitude. Finally, Ene said,

"I'm afraid I can't hold my human nature in check any longer. What have you been doing these last months?"

"Patrolling the borders of the League worlds with the other Rangers," Neshann replied. "Guarding against the raiders."

"Then you didn't take part in the war between the Castes on Minbar?"

"No." That one syllable sounded very heavy. "It was not a fight for the Rangers. We try to keep the larger peace, we do not interfere with internal conflicts." The Minbari's voice had turned bitter, he let go of Ene's hand he'd been holding until now. "And once you are a Ranger, that must come before everything else. However much I may have wanted to –" He broke off, jaw set and staring straight ahead.

Ene took Neshann's hand again and pressed it. "Which side would you have fought on?"

The Minbari was silent for a time. "The Religious Caste," he finally replied. "We live for the One, we die for the One. But you are right – it would have been too hard. Warrior by birth and Ranger by choice, and I will never be free of either of them, no matter what I or others might wish. Perhaps it was better that I wasn't there. But my Caste was killing our people, when no Minbari has killed another for a thousand years…"

"Do you like the way it all turned out in the end?" Ene asked just to break the oppressive silence that followed Neshann's last words.

With a visible effort to pull himself together, Neshann said, "Yes. I think it's for the best. Both the warriors and the priests had become too arrogant and forgotten that their true purpose was to serve. There are many things that the Worker Caste can teach us."

Ene smiled at Neshann and stepped a little bit closer to him. Suddenly, he let go of her hand and instead wrapped an arm around her waist. She was rather surprised by such an open physical display of affection from the restrained Minbari, but there it was – they were walking hip to hip as they entered the Zen Garden.

There were two people coming towards them, apparently just leaving the garden, and walking in exactly the same way that they were. Well, perhaps with more justification, Ene thought – the newly wed Captain, no, President Sheridan and Delenn. They smiled at Ene and Neshann, coming to a halt right in front of them.

Neshann immediately let go of Ene and bowed to Delenn. "Entil'Zha."

"Neshann," Ranger One replied warmly. "And you are Ene Maaroos, correct?"

"Indeed, Ambassador Delenn."

"That's an interesting name," Sheridan put in. "Finnish?"

"No, but close," Ene answered, pleasantly surprised that someone like John Sheridan would be so familiar with European languages. "Estonian. I'm pleased to meet you, Mr. President."

"John Sheridan," he replied, shaking her hand.

On impulse, Ene said, "Thank you. To both of you."

"For what?" Delenn asked.

"For saving my life, in all probability, among billions of others. But mostly for showing me that there can be leaders who simply lead and don't cling to power."

Sheridan smiled widely at her. He was charismatic indeed, Ene noted. Delenn bowed her head in thanks. And then, with nods and another exchange of Minbari bows between Delenn and the silent Neshann, they parted ways. Sheridan and Delenn gave them one last look as Neshann pulled Ene close again, smiling knowingly, perhaps even a little condescendingly, but warmly. And Ene found that she couldn't be irritated. It was too much of a relief to see the approval of another pair like them.

Perhaps Neshann was thinking the same, because he pulled her to face him, his eyes searching hers, and when she smiled a little to show her acceptance, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. It was like finally knowing the truth, being grounded, being home. There was no painful past, no difference in races, no universe with all its difficulties to separate them.

As they drew apart, the world reappeared around them, and it felt like they were creating it. In absolute wonder, Ene stared into Neshann's dark grey eyes that held none of their usual reserve. It was one of those rarest moments, and they both realised it – there were no obstacles, they could fly free, and the world would have to give way.

"Where are we going to live?" Ene asked.

"My people accepted Delenn and Sheridan. They will accept us. But being a Ranger, I cannot settle on Minbar. At least not yet."

"I have a farm back on Earth…" Ene fell silent for a moment, then shook her head. "No. Not really, not any more. And I don't want to be planet-bound while you are travelling among the stars."

"We could live here."

"Babylon 5?" Ene laughed. "A fitting home for me, indeed, and for you as well, I suppose. But who knows how long this station will even be operational? In times as hectic as these, anything might happen with Earth in charge here again."

Neshann stroked Ene's cheek in a gesture so tender that her joy became almost painful for a moment. Then, unexpectedly, the Minbari laughed as well. "I think Babylon 5 will last long enough," he said.