After the Blood Flowed Like Rivers
by Sunraven, Jan 1999, revised Oct 2001

Synopsis: This story is set immediately after the Minbari surrendered during the battle of the line. For the next year, grueling peace talks and negotiations took place between a very frightened EarthGov and a mix of Religious Caste, Worker Caste, and very pissed-off Warrior Caste Minbaris.

"They've finally agreed to have the peace talks on a neutral planet, so we submitted the three proposed sites to the Minbari Contact Team. I wonder which one they'll pick? With the way Earth's luck is going, they'll probably not like any of these, and want one with the equivalent of three earth gravities. Or maybe a methane giant with a violet sun like Bartals World. Anything to make it uncomfortable for the Human negotiating team."

Jonathan Hastur, the aide to Earth President Beth Levi, looked like a casualty of the war with the dark circles around his eyes due to lack of sleep.

President Levi knew she didn't look much better, though her aide's natural resemblance to a basset hound always became more pronounced when he was working late hours.

"Now, now, Jon, be nice. Unfortunately, I can't worry about that until they choose the site. I've looked over your submissions for the peace negotiations mediator. I can tell you, Jon, all of the Psi Corps' suggestions really raised my hackles. None of their candidates were less than P-10s, nor do they have high enough empathy ratings for my peace of mind. The same goes for most of the civilians as well. The one that looks the best to me is awfully young to be trusted with such a responsibility."

"That would be Dr. Terra McClare?" At her nod, he continued, "It's true, she is young, only 25, but she's been a part-time EarthGov empathic mediator since she was 16, with six years of rigorous training before that."

She looked closely at her aide. "You sound like you prefer her as the top candidate."

He nodded. "You know my feelings about the Spook Brigade. I don't trust them as far as I can throw them. The fact that she managed to trick them out of any legal claim on her gifts is a definite plus in my book. Also, she just finished her M.D. in xenobiochemistry, and her post-doc studies are on the physiological stressors that come up during negotiations between humans and aliens. That and her high empathy rating could be a big help during the peace negotiations."

"What's her rating?"

"She was tested by the Corps as a level 25, but that doesn't mean she isn't higher than that. That just means that their tests capped out at that level and they didn't want to admit that she broke the machine. Her psi rating is minimal, which is how she managed to stay out of the Brigade. From what the Psi Corps say, the woman's some kind of mutant or something. Remember, Beth, the Minbaris mentioned that they didn't want a telepath as mediator, and I have to say that I wholeheartedly agreed with them. We sure as hell don't want a telepath in our heads during these talks, even one of our own. And the boneheadsä"

"Jonathan, you really need to get out of that habit."

"Sorry, Beth, old habits die hard."Ý He responded uncontritely with an impertinent bow in her direction.Ý "Anyway, our esteemed Minbari ex-enemies would insist on bringing their own telepath to the table if we bring one of our own.Ý And we definitely don't want that!"

"But Jonathan, her age!"

"Come on, Beth, just because Selena would be about the same age as her isn't a reason to discount her."

At her wince, he came to her and put his hands on her shoulders.Ý "I am most greviously sorry.Ý That was hitting below the belt.Ý Please forgive me."

Looking at his sad hound dog eyes, she managed a smile.Ý Selena's death in the war was still a sore point with her, and probably always would be.Ý But he was right, even though it hurt to hear it.Ý She couldn't base her decision on protectiveness for this unknown woman who would be the same age as her own dead daughter.

Squaring her shoulders, she said firmly in what he always called her "royal we" voice, "Set up an appointment with Dr. McClare to meet with me ASAP.Ý You're right, you obnoxious old hound, she is the best choice we've got, at least on paper, but I will make the final decision."

"Dr. McClare?"Ý

Terra looked around to where a tall skinny man with the face of a hound dog stood at the walnut door of the Presidential Waiting Room.

"Yes."

Hastur shook her hand, noticing the firm handshake with approval.Ý "The President will see you now."

He showed her in to the Oval Office, where President Levi was sitting behind a huge cherrywood desk. She was turned around and looking out the window at the force field shimmering outside.Ý Terra's medical training clanged an alarm bell as she studied the President's profile.Ý Her olive complexion was sallow, even a bit jaundiced, and she looked totally exhausted.Ý Terra didn't even know why she'd been called here.Ý Hastur had told her that the President was looking for an empathic mediator for a certain situation, and wanted to interview her. She'd never been called by someone this high-ranking before for a job before. It must be an important gig.

Not... the Earth-Minbari Peace Negotiations? No Way. They'd never trust someone my age. They'd want a venerable elder mediator who'd seen it all, twice.

President Levi turned to her guest and the two women studied each other for a few seconds.Ý A forty-year veteran of politics, Beth knew how to sum up people in a very short time.Ý She saw a young woman dressed neatly in an aqua suit. McClare's pugnacious chin showed strength, and possibly stubborness, which could be a negative if taken too far. The red hair and freckles showed a Celtic ancestor somewhere in the woodpile of the ancestory tree.

"Please sit down, Doctor."Ý They both pulled up chairs at the small conference table in the front of the President's office.

"Do you know why I have asked you here today?"

Terra shook her head.Ý "I only know that it's about a mediator job.Ý I should tell you up front, Ms. President, that I am in the midst of my post-doc researches, and I'm not really inclined to interrupt them.Ý I told Mr. Hastur that when he contacted me, but he didn't seem to care."

Beth waved her hand dismissingly. "Mr. Hastur's job is to take care of my requests, and getting you here to meet with me was part of that."Ý She sat back in her chair.Ý "You have a great deal of mediation experience, I saw from your record, for one so young.Ý Tell me, how did you manage to stay out of the Psi Corps?"

Surprised at the apparent change of subject, Terra answered, "My mother and my lawyers set up a two-fold defense.Ý The first was that I was barely a telepath, not even a P-1, which the Psi Corps don't usually conscript.Ý After all, P-1 and 2 are within normal limits for mundanes.Ý They wanted me for my empathy gift, because I could manipulate others' emotions as well as sense them."

"And the second reason?"

"I was already in training as an empathic mediator, and as such was to be used by EarthGov for crucial negotiations.Ý EarthGov didn't want me tied to or brainwashed by the Psi Corps, it was as simple as that."

"So it was due to influence by EarthGov that you remained free?"

Terra didn't know why, but she felt uncomfortable with where this conversation was going.Ý "Only partially, Ms. President, as I'm sure you well know.Ý Basically, I showed the leaders of the Corps that they could never control my gift, because empathy works differently than psi gifts."

"How so?"

"A telepath, no matter how strong, can't block a projective empath.Ý Only another empath of equal strength can do that.Ý But a projective empath can block a telepath from scanning a mind."

"Your record doesn't give details on how you convinced Psi Corps to leave you alone."

Terra's face reddened, the curse of her fair skin.Ý "Frankly, Ms. President, I don't see how that is pertinent to what you want me to do."

Beth leaned forward, looking at her young companion.Ý "On the contrary, Doctor.Ý It is extremely important for me to know how you handled that situation, so that I can have some insight on your negotiation skills.Ý Please tell me."

It was not a request.

Terra looked into the tired brown eyes, reading only curiosity and concern coming from the President. Finally she decided to tell her, Terra's mind slipping back to the very unpleasant situation she had faced.

A 14 year old Terra stared at the hard face and into the dead eyes of Selena Tompkins, the then head of the Psi Corps.Ý She knew the woman was a P-13, and that she had been a psi cop for years before she became the head honcho.Ý Using her empathy, Terra sensed that the leader was very annoyed, slightly frightened, and that parts of her emotional makeup felt... dead.Ý The overall feel of the other was evil, and Terra wanted to shiver.Ý But she forced her body to stillness and into the poker-faced blandness of a professional mediator.Ý

Suddenly she felt a brutal attempt to deep scan her mind!

Iinstinctively she reached out with her empathic senses and felt for Tompkins' nerve centers in her body. Twisting just this way, she tugged at these bright-feeling electrical bundles.Ý Selena Tompkins fell to the floor writhing and screaming in pain.Ý

Hearing their chief scream, several psi cops burst into the office and went after Terra with minds and large black-clad bodies.Ý Frightened, she reached into them as well, only with a slight variation. This time she sent both of them out cold.Ý

Turning calmly (at least on the outside), Terra went over and closed and locked the door.Ý

"I will make the pain stop if you give me your word that you will not try to scan me again.Ý Or touch my mind at all.Ý I can sense even the lightest scan. Do you understand?"

The pain-filled woman, tears coursing down her face, nodded.

"Do I have your word that you will not touch my mind again?"

Another nod, this time more desperate as the pain weakened her.

"All right."Ý Again Terra felt the nerve bundles, this time easing the pressure off.

Hate and anger clouded the room as Tompkins scrambled to her feet and collapsed into her desk chair.Ý Terra strengthened her shields to ward the filthy emotions off, so that she could breathe again.Ý She crossed to the head of Psi Corps' desk, and looked down at her.

"Now you will listen to me.Ý I could just as easily have killed you as cause you pain, and there is no one in the Corps that could have stopped me.Ý You don't want me in your organization, because you can't control me.Ý And you and I both know that the Psi Corps thrives on control.Ý EarthGov needs me as a mediator, and wants me to have no taint of the Corps about me.Ý I am not enough of a telepath for you to have a claim on me.Ý You tested that yourself.Ý I have no intention of joining the corps, and that is my final word.Ý I will, however, make a deal with you.Ý No word of what happened in here today will leak out through me.Ý You have ways of stripping memories, so you can ensure that your flunkies here,"Ý She went over and toed one of the unconscious cops.Ý "don't remember your weakness.Ý I will not interfere with Psi Corps as long as they do not interfere with me or mine."

Tompkins croaked, "And in return?"

"Very simple.Ý Leave me alone.Ý Publicly drop your stupid claim to me, and never come near me again."

"And if I don't agree?"

The pretty young face hardened.Ý "Then you won't leave this room alive, and I'll deal with your replacement.Ý I'm sure your dead body will prove to be more than enough incentive for them to be very agreeable.Ý After all, you and I both know that you Corps telepaths are very big into self interest."

Green eyes met dead brown ones.

"All right, I agree.Ý Now get out of my sight, you mutant."

"When will my lawyers hear from yours?"

"By the end of the day.Ý Now GO!"

Coming back to the present, she looked at her current audience.

"Would you have done what you threatened?"

Suddenly Terra was a slightly confused 25 year old.Ý "I'm not sure, even now, whether I could have killed her or not."Ý She looked up at the President.Ý "But I couldn't let the Corps get control of my talent!Ý As far as all the records tell, I'm the most powerful empath on Earth.Ý If my gifts were used for evil, there would be no one who could stop them."Ý She reached out to put her hand on Beth's.Ý "Madame President, you must not let what I just told you get out, not even to your aide.Ý I have to keep my word to the Corps, so that I never have to make the choice of whether to kill one of them, or myself instead to keep my gift out of their hands."

"It won't go past me, Terra.Ý But I had to know what you had done to discourage them.Ý The job I'm considering you for isn't just your usual trade negotiations.Ý You know that EarthGov is going to be starting official peace negotiations with the Minbari, don't you?"

Terra's eyes got very big suddenly, even though this was what she had suspected.Ý "You want me to be the mediator for the peace negotiations?"

Beth made one of her famous on-the-spot decisions right then and there.Ý "Yes.Ý But I'm only the first obstacle to you being assigned."

"I don't understand."

"Terra, my approving you is the first step.Ý The next one is for the Minbari to approve you.Ý You will have to meet with their leaders next, and submit to any tests they decide they need to perform on you."

"Tests?"

"They, and we, don't want a telepathic mediator."

"Oh, well that makes sense.Ý A telepath for one side could cause an unfair advantage."

"I'm glad you understand."

"What's next, then?"

"I'll talk to their leaders, submit your records for their examination, and then I expect they will want to meet with you, as I did."

"But, I don't speak Minbari."

"You will, by the time the negotiations start.Ý We can use sleep learning for to get you a basic understanding of the language before you meet with them. Most of their team already speak Interlangue, surprisingly enough."

She studied the woman across the table from her.Ý "Child, have you even seen a Minbari before?"

Terra decided not to take offense at the term the President used. She could sense that the older woman was having a lot of emotional turmoil over choosing Terra for the position, for some reason.

"Only dead ones during my internship, Madame President.Ý They are extremely efficient biological specimens.Ý Much more efficient than the human body."

"Well, for some reason they stopped themselves from efficiently exterminating our race, and now we have to try to turn the negotiations to our benefit, if at all heavenly possible.Ý Under no conditions can these talks break down, or the human race will not survive.Ý Those extremely efficient biological specimens need to be turned into our allies, and friends, if it can be done.Ý And if you are accepted as mediator, you will be a big part in making that happen."

"Madame President, my role as a mediator won't be to win concessions for earth.Ý That's the job of the negotiating team.Ý My role will be a neutral monitor who will try to stop emotional problems or misunderstandings from breaking down the negotiations.Ý On both sides.Ý If you expect me to use my gift to manipulate the outcome, other than maintaining positive relations of course, then you will have to get someone else.Ý I'm sorry."

The President of Earth smiled then, a chagrined look on her face.Ý "Well, you can't fault me for trying, can you?"

The records were sent to the Minbari representatives, and the wait was on.Ý Within only a few days, Rathenn, one of the Minbari negotiating team, met with the President and Hastur and announced that they would meet with the proposed negotiator to see if she would be suitable for the difficult task of mediator.Ý He gave some times and dates, and asked that Earth choose a suitable one for the meeting.Ý It would take place on the Farseer, the Minbari war cruiser that even now circled Earth.Ý The human mediator would come alone.

And so it begins ...

-- continued in part two --