Tales of Babylon Five

Ambassador Azula and Bestor the Telepath

"You're lucky you didn't end up spaced young lady." The blurry image of Doctor Franklin spoke as Azula slowly regained her wits. "Garibaldi found you unconscious in a heap behind a pile of garbage in Down Below."

"As you say..." The young lady spoke weakly. Ambassador Azula had come to Babylon Five from the Fire Nation Homeworld to serve as their envoy. The Kaitanni as the other races called the race from her world had long lived under the shadow of the more powerful but generally benevolent Minbarri. In the last few centuries, they had voyaged on their own into space and become a cornerstone member of the League of Non Aligned Worlds.

"I find it hard to believe the duties of the Kaitanni Ambassador would require her to go to the seedier parts of the station and get mugged." Franklin hovered over his young patient taking careful readings to make sure he had not missed anything. "Someone hit you in the back of the head with a blunt object."

"I don't have a medical degree and I could have told you that." Azula felt the back of her head which exploded in pain. "Ow!"

"Stay still until I say so." Franklin commanded. He had met Azula and her aide Katara at several station functions and he had to admit he liked the Kaitanni but he had discovered they could have a kind of bulldog toughness. On a chart of the races, the Kaitanni stood near the short end of the scale but they seldom looked up at anyone. Azula stood a full head shorter than the average human woman but Franklin found it hard to believe. She had a strong personality and venomous temper. Lando in his bumbling way had succeeded in angering her at a diplomatic function and discovered she didn't have any conception of tact or diplomacy. She had no problem expressing her displeasure at his patronizing attitude and he treated her with some measure of fear and respect since.

Azula sat up and a wash of pain came over her.

Franklin had anticipated this and motioned for his patient to remain still. "Katara will come and see you soon. Your body has told you that you need rest so - rest."

Garibaldi tapped on the glass of the window of the operating room. Katara stood beside him in her regal looking Kaitanni robe – the traditional black with silver trim and the royal blue pants worn by the 'Water Tribe'. As with the Kaitanni Franklin had seen, she had long hair but unlike Azula, she wore hers in a braid and didn't wear a hairpin.

Franklin walked to the sliding glass door and pressed the button and the door slid open.

Katara rushed in. "Ambassador Azula! How could you do anything so reckless!" Katara wagged her finger and scolded her boss.

"I wished to investigate the disappearance of our courier. I had report she might have been seen in your Down Below." Azula said as she lay back. "I got mugged and now Mister Garibaldi has to investigate the disappearance of my gold hairpin."

The next day, Azula had largely recovered and Garibaldi found her taking a walk in the Japanese Garden. He caught up to her as she took time to look and stare out over the gravel and delicately set stones.

"Ambassador Azula..." Garibaldi straightened out his navy blue Earthforce Uniform out of some misguided attempt to make himself look as proper as possible in the face of an important dignitary.

Azula raised her hand. "I never understood this place. They call it a Japanese Garden but I have yet to see any Japanese growing out of it. I doubt the rocks take much care and so aside from neatly packed gravel, I don't get it."

"It's an exercise in form," Garibaldi stood next to Azula; "designed to clear the mind."

"Another way of saying I won't get it." Azula huffed. "Anything new?"

"We caught a human trying to pawn your gold flamed shaped hair ornament to an even less trustworthy pawn broker in Down Below. He knows nothing – probably true. He 'found' your hair pin rummaging through the trash for things to see. He had no record to speak of and has been on the station for six months - another Down Below cast off down on his luck." Garibaldi explained. "Our mutual friend Lando Mollari recognized it for what it was and alerted security. He didn't think any of your people would part with their hair decorations." Garibaldi held up the hair ornament wrapped in plain brown paper. "He didn't do it out of the goodness of his heart so expect him to approach you for some kind of political favor."

"Any news of our courier?" Azula asked as she held her hair ornament.

"She arrived on the station two weeks ago under the name Suki Igasawara and as far as we can tell, she never left." Garibaldi sounded apologetic: he knew this news was the same news he had given Azula the previous week. The Fire Nation didn't have more than a few dozen citizens on Babylon Five and they maintained a policy of neutrality in galactic politics and like neutral countries on Earth; they had a first rate banking system. Earthdome had used their secretive banking system to finance the desperate defense of the Earth during the Earth Minbarri War. The Narrn and the Centauri had also used their banks as had countless criminal organizations hiding their loot. Garibaldi liked Azula and her people but knew their banking practices verged on the unethical. The Kaitanni ran a branch of their bank on Babylon Five and aside from Azula and her aide Katara, the rest of the permanent Kaitanni residents worked in banking. The courier had come on bank business and vanished from Babylon Five without a trace. "Some people don't approve of your world's lending practices."

"I have no doubt about that...your people are frequent grumblers." Azula spoke in a low murmur as she fidgeted with the hair decoration. "Our banks still receive loan payments from your people from the time of the Earth Minbarri War. They have protested the high interest rates but given the risks we took; the terms are fair."

"As you say," Garibaldi spoke through taught lips. He had let Azula's small, petite frame lull him into false confidence and Azula let him know she could state things with blunt honesty.

"Have good day...Mister Garibaldi." Azula waved and walked toward the entrance to the ambassadorial wing. She waved the hair ornament in the air. "Thanks for your work."

"Stay away from Down Below." Garibaldi cautioned. "Something tells me that your mugger had no intention of getting rich by pawning your jewelery."

Telepaths avoided the Kaitanni.

Ambassador Azula belonged to a race telepaths could not read. Even animals had emotions, sensations or impressions but not Ambassador Azula. She was a void, she gave a disquieting jolt to any telepaths not familiar with her and her race.

Bestor knew this. Psy Corps wished to understand this odd anomaly but their best guesses couldn't account for the fact a clearly hominid race had minds unreachable by the best telepaths and immune from the most focused telepathic attacks while other races had minds open to direct attack.

Bester had tried to read Azula once and got nothing, not even noise. He had no trouble spotting her. Her people had a short, thin and fragile build and richly colored eyes. He had seen her across the vast shopping and market center called the Zokolo and decided to use his full power to read her mind and received nothing. Azula was like a perfectly black surface which reflected no light.

Azula never noticed anything.

Bester walked up to the table in the Zokolo's bar when he saw Azula sitting alone sipping a cup of strong coffee. She sat by herself tossing a lavender colored data crystal in her left hand.

"Can I do something for the Psy Corps?" Azula asked with suspicion in her voice. She had no doubt that the man with hard chiseled features wanted what Lando wanted. They wanted to find out how her race had no telepaths and could in no way be affected by them. She had no answers for them. The Kaitanni had never considered telepathic abilities possible until they had contact with other races and encountered the telepaths among them. Centuries of inquiry had not cracked this mystery.

"Ambassador Azula?" Bestor had grown accustomed to speaking with people and sensing their thoughts and regarded language as a laborious and inefficient means of communication – yet another thing that made normals inferior. This violated Psy Corp rules but as long as he could briefly pry without being detected; he didn't consider it to violate anyone's privacy. He had to use his verbal skills and trust in them when speaking to the Fire Nation ambassador.

"Indeed...which brings me to the obvious question. Why does a highly placed human telepath wish to speak with me when most telepaths avoid our people?" Azula raised her eyebrow.

Bestor found her instantly intimidating. Her people had a reputation for being snobs and having short and at times violent tempers but the rich amber eyes of Azula signaled a crafty and intelligent mind. They had a jewel like luster human eyes lacked and he had to discipline himself to avoid staring at them.

"Go away." Azula tapped her fingers against the plexiglass of the table. "I have nothing to tell you that you couldn't find out for yourself." She waited a fraction of a second. "If you must have a polite request – please leave?"

"I haven't said anything yet. Maybe I want to find out more about your Homeworld?" Bester said calmly as he put his gloved hands on the plexiglass table. "I rarely have a chance to meet any of the races from the Non Aligned Worlds." He held out his hands as a gesture of openness. "I wish to expand my horizons."

"Good luck with that." Azula sarcastically replied. "Your National Geographic Society once came to our planet and made a documentary. I don't suppose you thought of downloading it and viewing it in the privacy of your own quarters?"

Azula stood up and as she passed the waitress told her to pass the bill to the 'kind gentleman'.

Bestor had trained to understand human psychology but he had grown to rely on his telepathic powers. Azula made him think for a brief moment. She had no telepathic ability – none of her kind id but it had never occurred before now as he gave the waitress his debit card to pay for the coffee that she might actually be a good and intuitive psychologist. Azula had read his intentions and had clearly understood his motivations without having the ability to read his mind.

He swiftly dismissed this. Her people were less evolved as they had not yet had the gift of telepathy bestowed upon them.

"Why does the little Kaitanni ambassador interest you so much?" Sinclair spoke coolly as he sat behind his desk and faced Bestor. "She told me you spoke to her when she had gone to the Zokolo to have a cup of coffee during her mid morning break."

"Did she launch a formal complaint?" Bestor stood with his hands crossed behind his back. "I know so little about her people and her culture. I wanted to know more but she didn't warm up to me."

Sinclair spoke levelly at Bestor. "I didn't know you took an interest in anthropology."

"Anthropology is the study of human cultures." Bestor corrected Sinclair hoping to provoke anger.

"I stand corrected." Sinclair leaned forward. "As a Psy Cop, I will remind you to report to me when you first land on the station. You ignored that protocol and instead visited Ambassador Azula and I would like to know why."

"You must admit Earthdome may wish to understand why her people have proven so impervious to telepathic contact." Bestor stood facing Sinclair across his imposing glass topped desk and he chose his words carefully. "One never knows when one might have a need to understand such an unusual phenomenon and I have an ongoing interest in such things."

"Azula and her assistant Katara have lived here since the station began operating." Sinclair slowly explained in a manner to make certain he came across as unsympathetic to Bestor's cause. "They come from an Earthlike world within the borders of Minbarri Federation but they function as an independent world and belong to the League of Non Aligned Worlds. They usually take a neutral position in the politics of the galaxy but they have close relations with the Minbarri."

Bestor shifted on his feet uncomfortably. "All that is common knowledge."

"I mentioned it to remind you of the Minbarri Federation." Sinclair said pedantically. "During the Earth Minarri War; the Kaitanni remained officially neutral but their banks made a huge profit from lending money to our side. We have to tread carefully where the Kaitanni are concrened lest some unpleasant aspects of our shared history become more widely known. The Kaitanni can block telepaths but others cannot."

"I never meant to cause any problems." Bestor's smile grew over his face and then as he leaned over the desk; it grew even more cloying. "Confer my apologies to the ambassador."

"I have no need. She didn't take offense at anything you said...or at least not so she told me. She found your actions suspicious and wondered what you might be up to." Sinclair didn't move and his face retained his granite like expression of detachment. "Ambassador Azula's people have no telepaths and Psy Corps find that baffling since they can't account for it. Psy Corps wants a fancy theory to understand how an entire race can evade telepaths; perhaps as you say, to understand telepaths better. I think they may have made the simple truth into a complex mystery. Has any of your people considered the idea that Azula's people lack telepathy and can't be read by telepaths because they are such good studies of human behavior?"

"Indeed...but one does wish to know." Bestor stood up and left the room quickly.

Shortly after he left, Garibaldi entered. Bestor sensed an obscene remark cross his telepathic threshold of perception.

"Bestor spoke with Ambassador Azula." Sinclair said calmly as Garibaldi pulled an office chair to the front of the desk and took a seat. "Our little Prussian didn't complain but she has no special love for Bestor." Sinclair had a habit of referring to Ambassador Azula as 'the Little Prussian' as she had much the same attitude about her as the Germans he had met.

"I pity the fool." Garibaldi snickered. "At least with humans, that scheming bastard stands a chance but against a Kaitanni he has none. Did you know during the war, the Minbarri warrior caste had Kaitanni military strategists on their payroll? They have a certain knack for being in the right place at the right time with bags of money on offer for the right price."

"Any news for me?" Sinclair said jovially.

"Azula wouldn't tell me anything about why she went to Down Below but I think she went searching out leads." Garibaldi squeaked his chair slightly. "He said two men sold it to him for next to nothing but the mugshots of our usual suspects didn't yield any results. He picked out two men from the list of human arrivals from a week ago – I played a hunch. They came here eight days ago as 'salesmen for a communications company'." Garibaldi shrugged his shoulders. "They never left Babylon Five and the company in question never heard of them."

"Do you have any theories?" Sinclair leaned back in his chair.

Garibaldi sucked in a short breath and then spoke. "I can't tell you what I think because you have more of a chance of meeting Mister Bestor than I do. If you have any ideas, don't let that greasy bastard roam in your mind. I know Azula has figured out as much as I know. I think Bestor knows more than either of us and that scares me."

Lando pressed the button and the door to his office slid open. "Azula?" He said in a heavy Centauri accent. "Do what do I owe the good fortune of a visit from the Fire Nation Ambassador? I have paid off my debts so your banks can quit sending me messages."

"Thank you for returning my property." Azula bowed. "If you have paid your debts; the messages will go away one the banks you deal with on Homeworld have received news of payment. I didn't come as a collection agent. I thank you for having my hair decoration returned."

Lando held up a drink. "You would have been one of the more pleasant collection agents I have met. Come on in? Can I get you a drink?"

"Our people have no reaction to alcohol until our livers get a hold of it and turn it into something that resembles embalming fluid." Azula entered Lando Mollari's plush apartment. "This insures a pleasant looking corpse but still ensures a corpse."

"Sometimes I think your people and the Minbarri must share some generic code." Lando placed his glass of white wine on the counter. "One cannot tolerate drink on account of the mind while another cannot tolerate drink on account of the body. I keep expecting to hear you or your attache Katara explain to me that you are a deeply spiritual people."

"I will have to speak with her because if she has told you that; she has severely misrepresented our people. We could have a spiritual ceremony for everything but that severely depletes the joy one finds in life." Azula raised her eyebrow. "I came to ask for a favor."

Lando raised his pointy eyebrows. "A favor from me? What could I have that could help a young Fire Nation Ambassador?"

"You have heard of Viccers?" Azula asked. "A cyborg of sorts. They are telepaths who read and record the thoughts of another and don't ask the reason."

"You have need to record the thoughts of another eh?" Lando stared at Azula. "Surely not another one of your people?"

Azula shook her head hoping this meant 'no' to Lando. "I want a tool to convince a telepath I have that capacity in a device. As you know one of our citizens have gone missing and I think she has run afoul of the Human Psy Corps." Azula leaned in toward Lando. "I can't wait for the one in a million chance a Viccer will turn up ready to peer into the mind of my suspect so I need the next best thing: a device that can fool someone into thinking I can do just that."

"You know of Super Conducting Quantum Interference Detectors?" Lando wagged his finger.

"Yes...as a medical device," Azula answered back, "Homeworld has such devices and aside from their ability to detect epilepsy or depression; I understand they can detect when a telepath probes another mind – if configured properly."

"Ah!" Lando gestured with his hands, "as you have such a close relationship with the Minbarri; why not ask them?"

"Asking the Minbarri is a good deal like asking your dad for the keys to the car. They will ask a few too many questions and then if they dislike your answers; become moralizing and refuse your request." Azula said starkly. "I don't wish for the humans to know and no one else would have what I seek on the station – save you. You have a natural paranoia bequeathed to you by common sense – you have to look out after your own survival and can't have your secrets revealed for all the Houses of the Centaurum to read."

"Now you see...I may have something to help you," Lando primped his hair and straightened up his ornately embroidered purple vest. "As a self respecting Fire Nation citizen; you do know this comes at a price."

Azula snapped her fingers and Katara stood at the door holding a tablet computer.

"Our bankers have great skill but mistakes or oversights are sometimes made." Azula motioned for Katara to enter the room. "I can have an oversight arranged in your favor and have your line of credit extended. This should help you manage your debts – yes?"

Katara handed Azula the tablet computer and a plastic stylus.

"Ha!" Lando gave out a hearty laugh. "As women, can you tell me if the amount of hair you have contributes to your ability to scheme?"

"We can leave if you don't agree." Azula said coldly.

Lando walked around the apartment opening cupboards and then left for his quarters. He returned a few seconds later holding a black plastic computer card. "Forgive me but I hadn't expected such conniving from you but I have grown to admire this quality. This device should interface with any standard tablet computer on the station." He placed it on the counter. "You can configure it to raise an alarm or graph the output to your screen and you will know if someone has tried to scan you. The 'help files' are in any number of alien languages and will tell you what you need to know."

Azula pointed at the display on the tablet computer. "I think you will find the terms of this financial agreement to your liking?" She handed him the red plastic stylus.

Lando could see a standard explanation in Centauri and tapped the 'I Accept' icon.

"If I didn't have bad luck," Azula told Katara as her assistant read the report from Homeworld over her shoulder, "I would have no luck at all."

Katara stood back and pondered the situation for a moment. "So Suki is actually from Earth and came to our planet as a refugee from the Psy Corps."

"I had guessed as much." Azula placed the tablet computer down on her kitchen counter. The Fire Nation never sought out immigrants or refugees as it preferred to remain as neutral as possible when dabbling in interstellar politics. In spite of this stand offish policy; from time to time humans fleeing the repression of Psy Corps managed to make it to the Fire Nation and pass for Kaitanni. The Psy Corps knew this and yet could do nothing about it as the Kaitanni were far too close to the Minbarri Homeworld for Psy Corps to do anything at all. "She arrived on Homeworld in 2256 and gained employment with one of our leading banks."

Katara found her way into the kitchen as Azula spoke and had begun to make Fire Nation tea as she listened to Azula. "What do we do now?"

"Our government may allow a telepath to live on Homeworld but given our isolationist foreign policy; I don't think we can count on them for any timely support." Azula glanced at the tablet computer. "The fact we haven't had any news from our Ministries of Foreign Affairs is either because the right bureaucrat hasn't found out about this piece of information," Azula shook the tablet that contained the report on Suki, "or they hope the problem will go away if they stall for long enough."

"What will we do?" Katara turned on the induction heater under the kettle and drummed her fingers.

"We haven't received any orders," Azula tapped the tablet, "and until we receive official orders; we will pretend Suki has full Homeworld citizenship and try to find her."

"What if they have already whisked her away to Earth?" Katara knelt down and began to look for the tea.

"We can't do a thing," Azula tapped the counter to let Katara know where she kept the tea, "but something tells me the Psy Corps would tread carefully. They have Suki but they have to find a way to get her off the station beneath the noses of Garibaldi and his security staff. They don't yet know how our government would react and given our financial help in recent years; they may not wish to openly offend us. Humans nearly faced annihilation during the Earth Minbarri War; the very same War where we took an officially neutral stance while we lent money to the humans. Bestor believes in the Corps and something tells me he won't do anything to harm their reputation – at least not openly."

"I hate to ask this but what do you have in mind?" Katara found the red teapot and the tea bags. She poured hot water from the kettle over them and Azula's apartment began to fill with the spicy fragrance of red tea.

"We set up a meeting with Bestor," Azula began pressing on the screen of the tablet computer, "and offer him something he can't refuse to pass up."

Babylon Five had to accommodate many races and many different information processing technologies and this meant nobody had any reasonable expectation of system security if they knew anything about system security. Azula had a good instinct for sentient behavior and had the distinct impression Bestor would be on a terminal or tablet computer watching the Kaitanni traffic as it went back and forth from station to Homeworld. Katara could tell by the shifting color of the light outside that at least five hours had passed with Azula fastidiously working on the computer terminal in her room all that time.

Katara watch Azula create a file with fake identities for twenty five 'refugees' and then encrypt it with the latest version of the encryption software for the Kaitanni diplomatic code. Azula placed this file in her account using a fake or stolen email address (Katara knew better than to ask) that appeared to come out of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Azula had to craft her work carefully to create the appearance of legitimate communications.

"And we wait." Azula sat back in her chair and netted her fingers behind her head.

"What makes you think Bestor will even take notice?" Katara leaned over the chair and looked at the computer display as the email began to ply through the vast depths of hyperspace. "Can you be sure he even has his eyes on us?"

"He can read the email header but the file will appear opaque to him. I made sure the email had a standard kind of encryption – the kind some idiot on Homeworld would use." Azula sighed and continued. "I applied the latest diplomatic encryption and the humans haven't yet broken that. Anyone reading the email will see an answer to my faked request for the names of the Psy Corps refugees not the file."

Katara knew Azula had pulled off a major technical feat and vastly understated her accomplishment. Azula wanted credit and glory if the plan worked and yet have the ability to deny everything if it backfired.

"I'm going to head to my quarters if you don't need my help." Katara said as she prepared to leave. On Babylon Five, shadows didn't grow longer as the evening set in, but the massively powerful artificial lights shifted their color temperature from daytime white to the redder hues of evening on most oxygen nitrogen planets. Babylon Five engineers never quite succeeded in convincing those in the metal sphere that they had experienced a whole day. Katara wanted seasons and tides but Babylon Five had an outdoor temperature kept within a ten degree band to keep the inhabitants and the plants as comfortable as possible.

"Good night Katara." Azula said as she waited for the computer to signal her someone had intercepted the message.

"Don't do anything stupid." Katara said wearily. "I sense one of your elaborate schemes."

Bestor had no idea what to think about the email delivered to Azula. It had the proper kinds of encryption and had the seal of their Ministry of Foreign Affairs but it appeared to opportune for the jaded Psy Cop to take at face value. He passed the email through the standard Kaitanni encryption program and discovered the heavily encrypted attachment that appeared to be the file which contained a list of the refugee human telepaths living in Kaitanni space.

He passed the decrypted body of the message through his workstation.

He paced the room until the computer announced it had completed translating the email but could not read the file.

Bestor read the text and the email had the appearance of being legitimate. If the email had an attachment that contained the list of refugee telepaths that might prove interesting and could close many cases.

At the very least, he could have another discussion with Azula and her assistant Katara. He had apprehended a fugitive but Ambassador Azula didn't view the matter in the same way he did. His Psy Corps operatives had hidden their prisoner on the station but they couldn't risk taking her off the station. Garibaldi viewed this as a missing persons case, Sinclair didn't want a diplomatic incident and Azula wanted his prisoner returned. Garibaldi could be brought to obey orders as could Sinclair. They were Earthdome.

Azula took a different view of the entire matter. She took the abduction of the fugitive as a personal affront to her position as the representative of her people. Bestor didn't need telepathy to figure out that he had insulted Azula in some fashion – probably because he had his agents apprehend the rogue telepath and hadn't paid her off. He had overlooked this detail.

He had come to untangle the problem. 'What could I offer Azula?' he thought as he set his computer the task of unscrambling the file. He knew it would be night topside and so he settled down on his bed and relaxed as he waited for the computer to finish its work and decrypt or fail to read the file.

He had begun to drift into a relaxed sleep when the chime on the door went off.

"Lights." Bestor spoke in his always patient voice. He walked to the door, stretched his leather gloves over his hands, straightened out his uniform and half expecting one of his aids simply stated: "Come in!"

"You do know how rude it is to read diplomatic mail?" Azula stood at the door with her tablet computer in her hand. "May even be felonious but I don't know what laws apply to you."

Bestor knew better than to question Azula. "A list of telepaths on the Kaitanni Homeworld? Do you have such a thing?"

"Of course." Azula stood as tall as she could manage. "But we have no plans to let Psy Corps have such a list given the fact the telepaths who have fled to our world have found employment in many sensitive areas. One of your philosophers said 'knowledge is power' – Fredrick Nietzsche I believe."

"Wissen ist Macht." Bestor translated. "What makes this person so important to you?"

"A legal citizen of our nation is kidnapped and held somewhere on this station?" Azula glowered at Bestor. "Our world may seem small and unimportant to your people but what kind of ambassador would I be if I didn't stand up for our little planet?"

"If push comes to shove; the command staff of Babylon Five will take my side." Bestor tried to make contact telepathically with the little ambassador but she didn't flinch even with his entire power trained on her. Focus proved impossible because to his telepathic senses; her mind proved a void. Bestor knew if he had tried to contact a human in this way, he might end up in serious trouble but Azula was telepathically blind. "Sinclair will have reservations but he will tow the line."

Azula nodded. "Given where their duty lies; I have no doubt about that." Azula held out her tablet computer and pushed on the small postage stamp sized device clad in black plastic which popped out. "You may have some misgivings about pursuing this when I show them the results of a very simple test I performed on you just now."

"What do you have there?" Bestor looked at the card which had Kaitanni writing on it and he couldn't read the label or the small print. It looked like the kind of camera card used in photography but something told him otherwise.

"Our scientists studied the problem of telepathy long before telepaths were noticed among the human population." Azula pushed the card back into the slot. "We wished to know why we lacked telepathic powers while other races had had them or they had begun to emerge in the younger races. Why had evolution passed us by? Did the other races have something in their genetic make up we lacked? Did we wipe out telepaths as the Narrns did during their prehistory? We never found any satisfactory answers except that perhaps in our prehistory; a virus a good deal like polio infected the population and wiped out the dormant telepaths. We have no clear idea but our research had practical outcomes. We developed a variant of the Superconducting Quantum Interference Detector – the medical tool used to scan brain waves and..."

"I have heard of it," Bestor said sharply. The Superconducting Quantum Interference Detector could read and translate brain activity. On Earth, they functioned in medical implants to restore vision and hearing to the blind and deaf. "You can't hope to read my mind with such a machine!" Bestor spoke with the kind of hubris Azula had hoped for.

Azula showed the image on the tablet computer. "I never hoped to."

The image showed his brain (or what he took as his brain) and all of the activity in perfect detail. He found this fascinating but the expression on his face didn't change from his usual stone cold calm. "As I recall," Bestor raised his hand and walked in a small circle, "no one except another telepath can detect another telepath. I don't sense another telepathic mind and you have very little chance of hiding one."

"You are looking for one," Azula smiled slyly.

Bestor stood still. "Really?"

"I can't read your mind but telepaths do send out information." Azula waved her tablet computer. "When you scanned my mind, the device in this computer picked up on it. Nothing more than a dumb device tuned into the kinds of carrier waves a telepath might send out."

"So what?" Bestor paced in his little circle. "How do you know what I had in mind? No machine can read mere minds and you can't either."

"Reasonable doubt." Azula clasped the tablet in her hand. "In order to control the activity of telepaths and prevent them from prying into every mind and violate the privacy of ordinary citizens; you are not allowed to scan the mind of another individual except under very precise circumstance and with consent. I can't prove you scanned my mind because I have no way of knowing. I have to use a device to detect the kind of brain wave activity that just happens to coincide with telepathic scanning."

Bestor rubbed his chin. "What do you want?"

"I want Suki returned." Azula glared at Bestor. "I want any information your crude tools pried from her mind returned to us."

Bestor stopped and looked at the little Ambassador with her hair decoration and her gold fringed black robe and vaguely oriental looking loose fitting clothes. He found her almost humorous but something in her eyes reminded him of a predatory cat. A human could have smashed her against a wall with little effort: he had hired two petty criminals to mug her when she had the courage to enter Down Below. He gave Azula a thoughtful look and realized his plan had merely pissed her off. In his line of work, he had to think ahead and he could see nothing to gain by angering the the Ambassador.

"Of course," Bestor said deliberately. "I will want something from you."

The small steel room they had used to imprison Suki looked like a squashed beer keg with bright halogen lights. The room no longer had a function but if the station needed more waste processing capacity, this room would house a massive set of pumps. The room had steel lined walls with a solid meter of heavy concrete designed to keep down sound and it also proved impervious to station sensors. Suki sat in a steel office chair and two members of the Psy Corp stood next to her. Bestor had told them of his arrival and that the Ambassador would also be present. He had ordered them to not attempt any scans of any kind but he had delicately not mentioned the reason behind his order.

Suki appeared in good health and she wore the gray and black clothes of a bank courier. She didn't look at all like Azula: she had blond hair and blue eyes with freckles on her cheeks. She stood a head or more taller than Azula.

Azula stood in front of Suki. "You didn't have a convincing costume. What brought you to Babylon Five? You had fled Psy Corps and must have known you took a huge risk coming back into the human realm."

Suki looked down at the metal floor as if searching for a way to logically explain her actions. "You have a very ordered society. I fled the Corps only to find myself living on the fringe of your society. When the bank posted a job to Babylon Five, I volunteered for it so I could once more walk among humans and hear minds in the background." Suki stopped when Azula raised her hand.

"She has not been mistreated," Bestor explained briefly.

"We will debrief her ourselves." Azula told Bestor.

Bestor turned to Suki. "The Corps can offer you much more than you would ever find on the Ambassador's Homeworld. Do you still wish to return to the Fire Nation Homeworld?"

"In the Psy Corps, I wouldn't have freedom. On the Fire Nation Homeworld I am a social outcast without even a family to turn to." Suki looked at Bestor. "Still, they do not act like monsters and they don't try to make me conform."

"You had a choice." Bestor wagged his finger. "You could have taken the medication to suppress your powers."

"That amounts to little more than sleeping through life." Suki admonished. "The drugs cause more mental suffering than any kind of loneliness. I made my choice when I left and so I stand by it."

Suki turned to Azula and bowed. "Can we leave now?"

"Don't forget." Bestor wished he could say something cutting to Azula. She had him boxed in. He could have refused to turn over the rogue telepath but Azula and her people had bankrolled some of Psy Corps 'secret' and illegal projects. Whatever made their minds unreachable by even the most powerful telepaths made them the proper people to finance their secrets and angering the Ambassador could do much to sour their business dealings. "I doubt you could cause problems for me even if you made a complaint and I have no doubt you know this. I will need your influence in the future so consider this a personal favor."

Garibaldi found Azula sitting alone with at her favorite coffee shop on the Zokolo. He wanted to yell at the Ambassador for taking such risks but he had to admire her for her cleverness and he had a few questions for her.

He took a seat across from Azula.

"You negotiated with Bestor to free Suki?" Garibaldi sounded dubious. "He doesn't negotiate with anyone."

"I don't have to submit a report to you so I assume you mean my aide Katara told you?" Azula turned her coffee in her hand. "I negotiated with Bestor and freed Suki. I come from a race of people who have a talent for making deals. We made a deal."

"I hope you know how lucky you are," Garibaldi cautioned. "Bestor will carry a grudge and don't expect him to be a pushover next time you cross paths and I can't protect you against Psy Corps."

Garibaldi didn't expect Azula to reveal what she had offered to buy Suki's freedom and decided to catch the barista's attention and order a coffee with cream for himself. Babylon Five had to bring in coffee and it was a costly indulgence but he decided to indulge. He had come out of the current crisis without having to arrest anyone or having to file reports – he deserved an indulgence. Azula had done her work with some degree of skill and he wouldn't ask too many questions if he didn't have to deal with any problems.

"Suki has left?" He asked as he waited for his coffee.

"I put her up in Katara's quarters until the next Fire Nation transport arrives the day after tomorrow. I debriefed her and she tells me that her captors didn't mistreat her. As telepaths go, she rates low on the scale so I fail to understand Psy Corps interest in controlling her. She didn't rate high enough to pose much of a threat if I understand my Psy Rating scale." Azula sipped her coffee then shrugged.

"Bestor wants control over his vast little empire. The General puts in more effort to find the one deserter than to recruit a thousand good troops."

"Very profound..." Azula raised her eyebrow. "I still sense you want to sternly lecture me."

"Save it. You never listen to advice." Garibaldi gave a dismissive wave. He felt relieved that Bestor had left and they had dodged a minor diplomatic crisis. "We will call it a lesson learned – just don't do this sort of thing again. When an Ambassador gets mugged; the paperwork is a royal pain in the butt. Your people want to know why my people didn't protect you and the reports take forever to fill out. If you can keep away from Down Below, I'll be happy."

"I have done you a favor. On our planet we have these skittering little bugs – about the size of one of your mice. They make a rustling noise at night that can make you jump out of your skull. Killing one is next to impossible because they look slow but scuttle along faster than many forms of land transport. At times, the only thing you can do is move out for a few days while the exterminators drape your house in a tent and spray the kind of poison gas banned in most civilized planets into the house until it seeps into their hiding spots and kills them. Funny thing is that they hate light so if you shine a flashlight on them; they leave. I have shone a flashlight on Bestor and he left. I would like to have filled his room with nerve gas but that would create more paperwork for you. He won't be as comfortable slinking around this spinning metal tub now that he has met someone who can outsmart him."

"You might be right." Garibaldi said tersely. "I hope Bestor has the kind of smarts to benefit from common sense but I have my doubts. If you see Katara; please go easy on her – she's a good kid."

Azula nodded and smiled. "I would be far more of a handful without her to keep me out of trouble. I won't mention anything.."

Azula's eye caught something; she watched a young man clutching a red lizard business case. It looked like the kind of soft sided case she had seen humans carry but she could could see it lacked a lock. The young man had braided gray hair, a piercing set of deep green eyes, a nervous attitude and had the short and frail stature of someone from the Fire Nation. He wore the same red uniform as Azula wore and so he marked himself as a member of the nobility but had an unsteady gait. He approached the table and bowed to Garibaldi and to Ambassador Azula.

"I must excuse myself," he said as he dropped his case onto the table, "I have endured a long voyage and I do not travel well." He picked out a set of papers from his case and nervously handed them to Azula and narrowly missed spearing Garibaldi in the neck with his red flame shaped hair pin.

"And the glory, the glory of the Lord?" Azula held out the blue booklet.

"I gave you the wrong documents." The man had the face of a young man and an almost cherub like boyish face. "I apologize – that is from Handel's Messiah." He reached into his case and produced a plastic folder and handed it with shaking hand to Azula.

"Gabril of the Earth Kingdom City of Omashu?" Azula grew confused as she read down the laminated sheet. "You are age twenty five and you have come to compose music and lead musical groups as well as carry out additional diplomatic functions? I don't recall having made a request for help or having any need for a musician. Katara had proven quite useful and I have nothing but respect for her. Why did the Fire Nation Diplomatic Department decide to send a musical composer?"

"You didn't but Easter is coming and and Babylon Five has need of someone to conduct Handel's Messiah." Gabril knew the Babylon Five Orchestra consisted of a comparable body of talent but could tell Azula hadn't bought into this. "The Fire Nation wants a third presence on Babylon Five and the King of Omashu chose me. Our kings have some influence over the court and yet had a tradition of not making rational decisions."

"Gabril..." She glanced over to Garibaldi who had just received his coffee but who said nothing. "I see you have a number of health problems. You have a mild form of cerebral palsy and have long suffered from bouts of depression and take medication for this."

Garibaldi held out the seat and offered it and Gabril sat down as he prepared to leave. "At no time did I think myself qualified for this posting. In the last year, I have suffered a deep depression nothing could relieve. I have a dream, not of things but of music. I have the work in here," Gabril pointed at his head, "but I can't make it real. I have in my mind a theme as if wind were blowing through a graveyard and all the dead in the war are asleep and the only thing I can hear is this melody and the only thing I can see are the graves of young soldiers illuminated by the moonlight."

Azula cleared her throat and handed back his papers. "I will need to speak with you. I trust you have been briefed on Babylon Five and can find my quarters?"

"Yes?" Gabril said nervously.

"I will meet with you in an hour. Feel free to make yourself comfortable." Azula stood up and bowed and Gabril walked off.

"Why would they send him here?" Garibaldi leaned over and whispered.

Azula shook her head. "Perhaps he needs more confidence or the place might prove therapeutic? I have no clue but as a race, we are sometimes neurotic."