The Long Trial, Part Two
Chapter Twelve: Anlashok Training
by R. Bernstein

A week and a half later, Havah presented Rathenn with some very rough drafts. She embraced Katani and Sorail and thanked them for their hospitality, and then picked Nohri up and planted a big sloppy kiss in the middle of her cheek. Nohri put her arms around Havah's neck and didn't want to let go. She sulked when her mother took her and set her down. And then Sinclair, Rathenn, and Havah left for Tuzanor, the town closest to the training camp of the Anla Shok.

It was a different town than Yedor, a mountain town. The air was at least twenty degrees colder, and the people were more home-spun. The houses were simpler, and rather than knocking down the stands of tall wind-gnarled trees, they were built around them. Very enchanting. Tuzanor was built in a nook of the mountain and the training camp began a few kilometers higher, far enough away from the town to be undisturbed and leave the townsmen undisturbed, but close enough to acquire supplies with little effort. The camp was nestled right against the slope, like the training temple on Hua mountain in China. The altitude and steep terrain assisted in acquiring endurance and agility. The barracks were built right into the slope-side, insulated by earth. There were training courses up and down the slope, areas for target practice, natural obstacle courses, and farther up, there was a plain cleared as a landing pad for transports, practice craft, and to one side, a staging area for supplies. Near the barracks was a compound, also dug into the rock-side, utilizing caves and gullies, for formal classes, such as meditation. There was, in fact, a large cavern dedicated to this class. It reminded Havah of the legendary cave used by Ta-Mo, the Buddhist founder of Shaolin kung fu. Sinclair's new quarters were off to the side of the instruction compound, as were Havah's, although smaller. The cavernous rooms were not as cold as she would have thought, insulated as they were by earth and hot mineral springs. The mountain on which Tuzanor and the Anla Shok camp was built had been an inactive volcano for thousands of years, but the heat remained in the heart of the rock.

They were greeted by the instructors, who would test them for preliminary scores, and then drill and prepare them to take their posts. There was Sech Durhan, the Warrior Caste master of the denn'bok, Sech Turval, the Religious Caste master of meditation. They both seemed to Havah like an old married couple, constantly shooting good­natured snipes at one another, just to keep in spirit. There was Sech Hurdal, the master of interrogation and forensic investigation techniques, Sech Yurenn, master of hand to hand combat, Sech Doshoni, a female and master fighter pilot, Sech Lontal, also female and a master strategist, and a few others. They arrayed to meet their new trainees. Sinclair greeted them all with a bow, and she followed suit.

After they were settled and fed, Sech Turval explained that the preliminary testing would begin the next morning at first light. It was only to determine in what areas they most needed more training before commanding new recruits. Sinclair thanked him and they went to their respective quarters. Morning would come soon.

"Back to boot camp, soldier!" Sinclair said to her cheerfully as he disappeared into his quarters for the night. Havah sighed and unrolled her sleeping bag. She still hadn't gotten used to the tilted beds, and tonight was no time to try.

The next morning, Havah went to meet the instructors. She had been out of the military a very long time and the first thing that came to mind was Katani's comment about needing her strength. The first test was a general fitness test. She took the obstacle courses up and down the mountain and did well on everything except running. She could run for endurance, but not speed. She remembered being hollered at constantly by the drill sergeant back in basic, "Private Lassee! Are your feet glued to the ground, pick up those legs and move your lame butt! We'd all like to finish this course before I have to retire! My grandmother could outrun you, Private! Why are you here!?"

As usual, her mouth had only served to make things worse. "Sir! If I could outrun anyone, I wouldn't have to learn how to fight, Sir!"

His eyes had bugged at her impertinence, as he towered over her and put his face close to hers, his breath pounding down against her forehead and ears. "What did you say to me, maggot?!"

She'd repeated herself, only slightly more meekly, honestly thinking he was going to deck her.

But he stood huffing for a moment and then burst into laughter. He ran behind her for five more miles at top speed after the rest of her unit had returned to the barracks. But the Minbari instructors said nothing. Somehow that was more unnerving. Her flying was very rusty, but at least she could still fly after being shown the controls of the simulator. For the hand to hand and pike-fighting, she had to fight the masters. That was one of the most instructive and thoroughly daunting experiences she had ever had. Sech Durhan was one of the most frightening Minbari she had ever seen. He was like the old Tai Chi masters, 'when they move cannot be seen, felt but cannot be touched'. He would all but disappear in front of her and reappear somewhere she never anticipated and throw her wherever he wanted, at will. And she couldn't even touch him. It was the same with the hand-to-hand master. Her target-shooting was excellent, but she had always been a dead-shot. Her meditation skills had never been very strong, despite consistent practice. All in all, she finished the tests feeling completely deflated and certain that they would change their minds about wanting her to assist Sinclair.

Their assessment surprised her. For someone who had been out of the military for so long, she had scored better than they had expected. The strategy instructor was openly impressed, and so was the hand-to-hand instructor. Sech Durhan had even grudgingly admitted that for a Human, she showed unusual promise with the fighting pike.

How could he tell? I spent the whole time on the ground or flying through the air! She needed training on everything, certainly meditation, flight, and most of all the pike, which, aside from some forms in kung fu, she had never encountered before. It was decided that she would spend the next few weeks, while Sinclair was gathering recruits for the next class, receiving training in all of the areas that the other recruits would. At the end she would spend the customary nine nights out in the mountains. That final training and initiation mission would be to take, hold and deliver a message given her from one of the veteran Anla Shok to a contact at another point, while hunted. And as the first new class was being trained, she would receive training in command, which had been lacking in her short military tour. Sinclair would be trained in the use of the denn bok, the signature weapon of the Anla Shok. But his training would be abbreviated, since he had come to them from a command position, and he required less polishing. She readied herself for training.

* * * * * * * *

After the first day of training, the news came. Havah was in the meditation room, trying to control her body heat when a robed Minbari entered and spoke under his breath to Sech Turval. Though it was otherwise silent in the room, and Havah's ears were very good, she could not hear what was said. Sech Turval frowned and looked solemn, and then turned to Havah who was watching his face, and admonished her for not focusing on her meditation.

* * * * * * * *

That evening, Sinclair told her what had happened to warrant Turval's expression. Delenn had been removed from the Grey Council, and Neroon had been appointed in her place. If Delenn's removal was not of enough concern, the situation was further complicated by Neroon's obvious dislike of Humans, and by the fact that his appointment now meant that there were now four members of the Warrior Caste on the Council instead of three. This configuration had never existed in the thousand-year history of the Council, primarily because the original design was supposed to achieve balance between the castes. At another time this configuration may not have been so alarming, but in light of the fissure between the Religious and Warrior Castes, this skew in favor of the Warrior Caste could be construed as preparation for a coup d'etat. And there was the small matter that it had been predicted by Valen, that this unbalancing would occur before the Council was broken and disbanded. The Minbari's current age had just darkened. It was very possible that the days of the Council were numbered, and who knew what would arise to fill that vacuum.

This could not be happening at a worse time, Havah thought. If these Shadows are everything that we fear, everything that the Minbari faced a thousand years ago, we are going to be in a great deal of trouble as it is. But we don't stand a chance if the Minbari sink into civil war. You can't fight enemies on two fronts. A house divided cannot stand. Those words meant nothing to us as kids in a classroom. They mean everything now. She supposed the situation was not much different than the one Valen faced then. That was why the Anla Shok was founded. Except that then, the Warrior Caste at least believed the possibility of the threat was real.

After laying awake that night, Havah became distracted in her already grueling training. During her next session, Sech Lontal, the strategist currently training her in covert operations, addressed her preoccupation. "You must focus on what is now, rather than dwell on what may occur. There is nothing you can do about that situation as it stands, and to spend time on it at the expense of your training is a waste of resources and an exercise of poor logic. If the Grey Council should fall, the Anla Shok as an institution must survive. And whatever is in that future, you must be prepared to help Sinclair. It is the only way. Now pay attention."

"Le', Na!" Yes, Ma'am! The address Na typically meant First, when there was a title or station before it, but by itself doubled for 'Sir', or in this case, 'Ma'am'. Havah liked this woman. She said precisely what she meant, and nothing more or less. Strange for a covert operative, whose business was involved in things that were not as they appeared. Havah forced herself to concentrate.

But the following nights she still laid awake long, ruminating on situations she couldn't change, and mourning the dwindling likelihood that she would ever be able to have a relationship with her father, or that she could ever even tell him who she was. By the look of things, maybe that was for the best. She threw herself into her training with the fervor born of sublimating anguish. Her teachers, for their part, encouraged her concentration and enthusiasm, with delight. But they knew, as teachers often do, that it came from a dark place, one that they could not touch unless Havah should choose to let them. So they waited quietly.

* * * * * * * *

Sech Durhan continued to disarm her and beat her to the ground at will. But he remarked to Sech Turval, out of the Humans' earshot, of course. "Both Sinclair and Lassee are making great progress. It is possible that Humans have more potential than I would have thought, after the War. Or perhaps it is possible that the Religious Caste's supposition that some Humans may have Minbari souls may have been true in a couple of isolated cases. Previous knowledge might be sufficient to explain the students' developing talent."

Sech Turval smiled wickedly. "Is that an admission that we might have been correct?"

"Absolutely not, you white-robed pil'ta! It was merely the consideration of an alternative explanation!" He harrumphed and stalked away, leaving Turval smirking at the mild slur 'Book worm!'

* * * * * * * *

If sessions with Sech Durhan had been frustrating, they were nothing to the paces Sech Turval put her through. He was an elderly, kind-faced man, and also the strictest most demanding teacher she had ever known.

Like Yoda on growth hormones, she thought miserably.

As she tried for about the three-hundredth time to lower her heart rate and drop her breathing into fal-seh, a meditative state, Sech Turval stood and watched her intently. She could feel his eyes boring through her. He spoke suddenly. "Miss Lassee, you will never achieve any state of meditation as long as your mind is elsewhere, turned in upon itself. What is happening in the outside world cannot impose upon your consciousness. You must let things be as they are."

She sighed and dropped her eyes into her lap, defeated. She said nothing.

After a moment, Sech Turval studied her pursed features. "There is more?"

She didn't answer him at first. He just waited, hands clasped in front of him. She drew breath and sighed again. "NaŠWhat if youŠwhat if your father didn't know who you were and you wanted to tell him but you knew that he would only hate you or at least be ashamed of you? What would you do, how would youŠlive with that? And, and on top of that, he had done something that really bothered you too, something very terrible."

He thought for a moment, trying to answer both the question she had asked and the ones she was not asking. "First, you cannot be certain of what your father would think unless you know him and talk to him. People cannot always be predicted. They can however, fulfill our expectations of them. Second, even if he should be ashamed, his shame does not touch you if you have done nothing for it. Your actions speak for you. You own your honor and your being. What he feels or thinks and what he does, belongs to him, not to you. Do not confuse the two. Blood is important, but it does not determine your path. Of course all children want their parents' love and respect, but while you must respect them for your life, they cannot decide your name or your heart for you. In the same way, they must follow their own path and do what they believe is right. Whether you agree or not, and whether you choose to accept them or not, is up to you."

Havah thought hard about the hypothetical answer to the hypothetical question. She closed her eyes and resumed trying to meditate again.

* * * * * * * *

It was the longest most strenuous few weeks Havah had ever lived through, and the last nine days were the longest of all. Havah awoke at the prescribed hour of three, feeling like stones had filled her gullet while she slept, not that she had slept much. It was the morning of the Mission, the final exercise of Anla Shok trainees, a symbol of their new-found expertise. She was to deliver a real message, and she would be hunted by veteran Anla Shok the entire way, who would try to acquire the content of the message by any means they could. She was terrified. Her small bag was packed with the equipment she had been given the night before, a knife, simple map of the mountain ranges, a small directional light crystal, a time-piece, and enough rations for three days. The deliverance of the message should take nine.

She entered the chamber of the compound where Sech Turval already waited. His face was like alabaster in the dim light. He solemnly handed her the data crystal and instructed her on the coordinates and showed her the person to whom the message was to be delivered. It was to go to another Anla Shok called Tirhan, who would be expecting the message in the Cave of Hatari. That cave was somewhere on the farthest peak of the long mountain range. No two missions were alike. They were all determined by some real task that needed doing, so the fledgling Anla Shok were given these tasks as an initiation into the reality of the sect. Each new recruit would take a necessary message that otherwise would have simply been sent or even linked, to the necessary person. It was not always to the same place or the same person, and it was never the same message. The person to whom the message was to be delivered did not have to stay in the assigned place. He or she could make things difficult and disappear, changing the plan. This would force the recruit to track or even 'rescue' the contact in order to deliver the message, all the while evading capture. If captured, the recruit would have to escape. And if the message was not in physical form, if it was in the form of memory, the hunters were qualified and sanctioned to try to gain the information using terror, deceit, espionage, and even torture. No recruit could actually be physically harmed during torture, but this did not rule out the use of pain. The mission ended when the message was delivered, and was forfeit if the enemy acquired the message in any way. Those who successfully completed the mission were inducted. Those who did not, had one more opportunity to do so after completing the weeks of training again. If they still did not pass, then they were barred entrance to the Anla Shok, and returned home. The second test for repeaters, was harder than the first. This had only happened a few of times in the history of Anla Shok training, and was a source of great disgrace for those who failed. These thoughts cycled relentlessly through Havah's brain as she set out into the mountains.

0310 hours‹Speed was an imperative. Havah would have three hours on her pursuers. Thankfully, although she had always been a terrible sprinter, she was passable at long distance running. Her top long-distance speed, at which she was running now, was about five miles an hour. She set herself a comfortable but hasty speed, located an animal trail, and focused on putting as much distance between her and the compound as possible.

0600 hours‹She had to figure at this time that she had put about 15 miles between herself and the hunters. They would be leaving now, if they had not already. She unsheathed her knife and looked around. She had no idea how fast they would be, only that they were seasoned trackers, if not masters of their craft. She could not afford to be seen at all. She searched the ground and picked up little twigs and bunches of leaves and stripped bark, yards away from the trail she was on, and affixed them to her coat, crafting a ghillie suit. The Minbari had a strong sense of smell, and the pungent aroma of the evergreen leaves, boughs, and decaying vegetation were likely to at least partially mask her scent. She resumed her run, keeping to low rock faces and streams. A light snow began to fall, drifting down onto her head like wispy feathers, until they were melted by her heat into a net of dewdrops.

0600 hours‹The teams of Anla Shok departed, fanning out slightly, three sets of teams, three Anla Shok to each team. There were four animal trails. Their quarry was likely to take one of them. This was the first Human ever to make this mission, and the trackers were both excited and curious. Humans had been unexpectedly dangerous during the War, and that was the one thing they could count on now. Naal, the commander of the first set of three, recalled uncomfortably the tales reported from the Warrior Caste, of Havah's disguised massacre of the soldiers on Proxima Three. First they had to find her.

1100 hours‹The snow was coming heavier now, in swaths of white. But there was not enough wind, and still not enough snow to cover the tracks she would make in the accumulation. She slowed down and pulled a branch from her ghillie suit and brushed away her tracks as she went. Nervous about the skill of her hunters, she took a few minutes to lay down false tracks in a right angle from her true direction. She still brushed the tracks, but left them more obvious and, after a distance, left a long black hair caught in the cross of an overhanging branch. She doubled back to her original position and kept running through the night, and the next day, eating tiny portions of her rations on the way. Where the areas of snow were too difficult to brush away without being obvious, she climbed the trees and raced along the interlacing branches, or brachiated, until she almost slipped and fell.

1430 hours‹The snow was thickening, but Naal discerned a spot on the trail where someone had passed. It was not obvious. He followed it for a little while, after contacting the other two, and was rewarded with a black Human hair. Lassee. A moment later, he realized that the trail did not continue on, but doubled back in a loop. It had been a ploy to throw them off her trail. He grimaced with aggravation for having let himself succumb to such a trick, but smiled inwardly. At least she would be the challenge they had hoped for. Training had not been wasted on the Human.

1230 hours, Day Three‹Havah had come almost 93 miles by dead reckoning, running or traveling by tree throughout the night again, after a brief pause to eat almost the last of her rations. Now she would have to add the search for food to her time, or go without, for the remaining miles. She was getting very tired, and perhaps because of this, she was not wary enough in her passage to avoid startling the large animal hiding at the edge of a snow bank she was passing. Its sudden movement caused a small snow-fall that she leapt to avoid. An edge of it caught a tiny twig from her suit and half buried it in the fall. She did not notice its absence, and kept going.

1230 hours Day Three‹Lassee had lost them. Naal was annoyed. They had managed to track what they thought had been her trail, but there was now no sign of her at all, nothing but fresh snow. Just as he was about to double back to where he thought may have been a divergence, a faint motion caught his attention on the side of the next peak. It was barely visible, white against white, a small cascade of snow from a startled animal. He just caught sight of the flight of the animal. But it was worth investigating. What had startled the animal?

1700 hours‹Naal approached the pile of snow. He stepped gingerly, peering intently around. A discoloration caught his attention. He looked closer and then reached into the snow and pulled out a sliver of twig. He inspected it. The end had been pulled off, not broken. It was a green twig. She had been here. He broke into a wide smile, and located her trail easily, directing his team.

1700 hours‹At her next small rest, she realized that it would be wise to more precisely measure her path. She had been eyeballing the position of the sun and stars, when visible through the snow clouds, and trying to calculate her distance by the speed she thought she was going, and by the timepiece, using the map as a traverse board. But now, she took the bough out of her cloak that she had been using to brush away her tracks. It could double as a cross-staff. She sliced approximate inch-marks into the side of the staff. There were fibrous vine-shoots roping some of the trees and she used these to lace a green twig to the cross-staff for slide measurement. This was part of their Anla Shok history. The Star Riders had developed quite advanced systems of celestial navigation very early in clan history. The cross-staff was extremely rudimentary, the earliest and most basic of devices in many cultures, including Human, but it was all she could come up with or had the means to use now. And it was time to be off again.

0200 hours, Day Four‹Havah was exhausted and freezing. Her body temperature had dropped dangerously. If she did not raise her core body temperature, she would lose the circulation in her extremities, followed by the slow creep of frostbite. She went back the way she had come, a short way to another trail. She went down it a few feet and ran to the edge of a large burrough. She pulled snow-covered boughs from the surrounding area over it, and returned by a different route to her starting point, found a hidden grove of trees and stand of bushes to shroud her, and forced herself to sit down among them and meditate. This had always been the worst of her skills, and she struggled with it even more now. But she focused, and it came slowly, a rising heat from her center, filling the capillaries in her fingers and face, suffusing her with a slight warmth. She continued to concentrate, now on letting her mind rest. If she did not rest, the slow freeze would come back as soon as she returned to her normal state. She had finally managed the rising of heat or cold in class, but the relaxation had been the greatest challenge. Slowly her mind relaxed, but as the night waned, her consciousness slipped beyond meditation into dream.

0400 hours‹The coldest, darkest hour, and what happened next could have been a dream, except that she knew it was not. There was no detectable sound, nothing to key her in on the presence of another being, but an eerie sense. It could have been the short pause in the chattering of a rodent nearby, it could have been nothing at all but her own nerves. A slight breath of motion reached her a nanosecond before she jerked awake and rolled to the left side just missing the fall of a heavy net, as a black figure appeared like mist through the trees nearest her. She felt the whistle of an object in the air past her. The heavy thud that barely missed her in the spot where she had been a second earlier showed a depression in the ground like the end of a denn bok. It would have broken bones if it had connected with her body. There was a slight whine in her right ear as she grabbed the edge of the net and heaved it across the shifting silhouettes bearing down on her, ensnaring them. There were three pine needles protruding from the trunk in front of her. Except that there was something strange about them and the rigidity with which they stuck from the trunk. She grabbed them, realizing that they were darts, skillfully crafted to look like long slender fir needles. She avoided the tips, realizing that they were probably tipped with a soporific. As the shadows slid out of the net, she threw the darts at each of them, just as the third figure who had thrown the net leaped down upon her from the tree above where he had been perched. Havah hip-checked him and ran, not wanting to waste any more valuable energy on a fight, and remembering the trap she had left. But he gained easily. She could almost feel his fingers touching twigs on her suit as she ran, phantom-like behind her. She reached the burrough and leapt away from him and over the cover of boughs. His legs cracked through the fragile dry twigs and he fell into a deep hole. Havah rushed about and tossed brambles and stinging plants into the aperture on top of the thrashing figure. She turned and ran, her hands burning with poison. She passed two unconscious figures and kept running. Her damn cat-nap had almost cost her the mission!

0400 hours‹The trail led them to this grove, but Lassee was nowhere to be seen. They scanned the brakes silently, and finally Jodat motioned to a close-knit grove of trees and a pack of shrubs. There were a few leaves sticking out that didn't appear like the others, the wrong species. It was her. She didn't move, and gave no indication of having seen them. Jodat slipped into the trees above the brake and Naal and Niseni concealed themselves among more shrubbery. She had fallen asleep. Too easy. That was a fatal mistake for many, and Naal was almost disappointed that it should end so. Well, she was still Human after all. They had less stamina than Minbari. Jodat dropped the net as Naal and Niseni began to move. She moved a fraction of a second before the net touched her, and slid out of its reach, and out of the reach of his denn bok, as it blurred toward her body. Niseni's darts whirred by the Human's head, brushing the edge of her hair. Lassee seized the net and cast it over him and Niseni before either of them realized what her tactic would be. She was incredibly fast. He had never seen her in motion before. As they struggled to free themselves, she plucked Niseni's darts from the trunk in which they were embedded and hurled them with pinpoint accuracy back at them. He felt a slight prick and stared wide-eyed at Niseni, and knew Lassee's dart had hit her too. They had done what he had sworn they wouldn't do, underestimate the Human, and she had surprised them. She threw off Jodat as he came down from the tree, as though he weighed no more than a tree branch, and streaked away from him. He gave chase. Naal and Niseni groggily freed themselves from the net to assist Jodat. As they slipped into drugged unconsciousness, Naal's thoughts were mingled: damaged pride in his skill, now bested by a greenhorn Human, new pride in the training Lassee had displayed, training given by their sect, and a new admiration for the unexpected strength of Humans. Jodat almost had her. She was not a fast runner. She compensated by bobbing, weaving and trying to pull branches in his way, but he was close enough to smell her through the leaves she wore. The only danger would be for her to turn on him suddenly in confrontation. So he readied himself. She leapt clear over a pad of branches. She had lost more speed in this move. But as his foot trod the far edge of the leaves, it slid down the edge of a hole that had been concealed. Despite his twist in mid-air, the rest of his body followed and he tumbled into an burrough. He hoped it was abandoned. But he had no time to ponder this, because as soon as he began trying to ascend the rock outcroppings, bushels of pricker and stinging plants rained down on him and he was forced to protect his eyes, as the poisoned thorns raised welts all over his face and neck. Like Naal, Jodat felt a mixture of admiration for her technique, and fury as he picked briars from his clothing and nursed the hives swelling his face.

0700, Day Four‹She was starving. Her rations were gone. Rather than waste time hunting, she easily located some wood grubs in few fallen trunks. They were wriggly, and gelatinous, but non-toxic, and full of protein. And as long as she was in the forest, there was an endless supply of them. All plans came to a screeching halt when she arrived at a dry ravine. She searched along the carpeted ridge and finally found the remnants of an old rope bridge. She hauled up the half that dangled down the cliff face to find that the ropes had been cut. She laid back, still holding the edges of the rope and let snow fall into her mouth, while she contemplated her next move. Nothing moved but the snow and wind, as she started down the slope.

2000 hours‹Into nightfall, she found herself walled in by high ridges on either side, facing a bog that was not noted by the map, a bowl hollowed by some retreating glacier in another age. Much of the Minbari northern and southern regions were still covered in glacier. Their arctic regions were far more extensive than on Earth, and the glaciers were returning, but they had not yet come back to this region. It was a broad bog and, while dangerous, would also not be likely to leave many tracks because of the springy peat-like substrate and water. There was nowhere else to go unless she wanted to scale the cliffs, and she liked those odds even less than the thought of drowning in the tannic water. And she had to admit a certain clinical fascination with the environment of bogs, such a weird mixture of plants and animals. Like Earth bogs, this one was an eerie place at night, lit by little colored lights that had been dubbed Will-o-the-Wisps on Earth. She wondered if the Minbari had a name for them, undulating candles of methane that seemed alive. When she looked more closely, she realized that some of the glowing flickers were in fact alive. Unlike Earth, the bog was teeming with bioluminescence: insects, and plants. Huge lovely nightflower blossoms waved by the light of the stars which had come out. The long trumpet shapes had honey-sweet scent and appeared to be covered with phosphorescent dew. She watched as a large night-bird lit on the edge and dipped its beak into the cone. Almost instantly the petals closed around the bird, far tougher than they appeared, and glued themselves shut as the bird struggled, squeaking, against constriction, as it slowly dissolved in the flower's juices. Carnivorous plants, Havah thought, and refrained from sticking her face so close to the petals. I wonder how big they can eat? She trod carefully. Every step she took seemed to send a tremble to some farther point, like stepping on a raft. She picked her way meticulously, noting every quiver of the ground, every flit of creature in the corner of her eye, every ghostly wink of leaf-blade and diaphanous wing, and listened to every click, grunt, and whine. When she was halfway across, she dropped to her knees on the soggy carpet, as a high pitched shriek filled the air all around her, followed by a sobbing moan. It sounded like the maniacal scream of a loon, until she saw the creature that emitted it, before it slid into the water. It was a small amphibian, like a salamander. After pulling herself back together, she trod on. At least she would probably feel it if another being like a Human or Minbari were to step onto the mat of moss, just as everything on this expanse could probably feel her presence.

0500 hours, Day Six‹Havah traversed the last mile of bog as the air turned deep ocean blue with coming dawn. She had reached a line of trees at the other end of the bowl. She turned and looked back the way she came. The pixie-lights bobbed and danced in the periwinkle, lit by the phantom glow of the moon-blossoms. An animal gave a mournful call and was answered in kind by another, halfway across the dark peat. A pair of gossamer insect wings brushed her ear, purring. It was a beautiful night place. She would have liked to linger if there had been time. She headed into the mantle of trees and brush, and was suddenly startled to a halt a few minutes in, by a low growl. It was not a friendly sound. In the darkness of brush, she could only make out a hulking shape and shining eyes. Havah froze as the animal extended its head in threat, flattening its ears and baring its fangs. She began to make out its shape in the gloom, as the air seemed to lighten minute by minute. It was a gokar, distant wild relative of the gokh. The recruits had been warned of these animals. Far from their semi-domesticated diminutive relatives, the gokari were known as one of the more ferocious predators of the northern forests. Havah had seen one once before, in a depiction. It looked, for all her imagination, like a cross between a black tiger, and a bearŠa Minbear, she had dubbed it. Except it had gleaming green-gold eyes and despite its bulk, moved like a great cat instead of with the ponderous gait of the ursine species of Earth. And it had opposable thumbs and the ability to climb trees after prey, given a large enough tree. It could simply shake prey down from the smaller ones, or pluck them out with its rough hands. A desperate plan formed in her mind, as it slowly, sinuously advanced towards her, blocking her path out. It was a woodland creature, and trees were not an option for her escape. The best shot she had was to slow it down on the bog. Its bulk made travel on the peat raft ungainly and slow. She would have the advantage of lighter weight thereŠat least for a few moments. She let it push her back and hoped that it wouldn't pounce too soon. She couldn't match its speed on land. As she reached the edge of the swamp, it crouched and sprung, just as she dashed across the hummocks. It fell angrily into stagnant water, sending a quake across the bowl. Havah almost lost her footing but jumped another hummock and threw the last dart she had, from the encounter with the team earlier, praying she wouldn't miss. The sleeper-dart embedded itself in the creature's thick hide. It hadn't occurred to her until now though, that there may not be enough poison in the tip to fell a beast of such mass. She kept running, and it gave clumsy but terrifyingly swift chase, as Havah reeled from the vibrations of its weight. It gained until she felt its weight shift into the crouch for the pounce that would take down its prey. The soporific had failed. Then, instead of leaping, it resumed its run, slower than before. After an interminable time, it gave up pursuit, moaned a final time deep in its throat, and collapsed onto its belly, haunches under its huge torso. Havah gave it a wide berth and after about forty-five minutes, returned to the treeline. Her heart was still thundering and her knees trembling. Despite the awkwardness of its loping gait on the bog, its near-silence had been the most terrifying aspect of its chase. She reached the ridge, crouched and looked down into the valley. There was a small town nestled there in the distance. She would have to risk discovery in the town, because she didn't know the whereabouts of her destination, just a vague description. And it was possible that the name of the cave given by the Anla Shok, might be known by a different name here.

1230 hours‹She got to the edge of town in mid-day, hunkered in the trees, waited and watched. A few flyers flitted here and there and then Havah spotted something that could give her cover, a family of Human tourists. She was not going to be able to conceal her Humanness, but if there were even a couple tourists there, her chances were better for passing without too much attention. Thankfully, her Anla Shok gear was nondescript. She pulled off all the brush, gathered her long hair into high girlish pigtails on the crown of her head, and headed down. A big mischievious grin split her face as she waved exuberantly at the first person she saw and pranced by. An older Minbari man, he beamed and waved back. She wandered into the common area, amidst a couple of glances, and sidled over to a lawn and sat down on a large rock by a stream running through the town, near which a number of Minbari were seated, taking their lunch. Any one of them could be Anla Shok posing as locals. She had no food and the sight and smell of the picnickers were driving her mad. So she bumped her heels incessantly against the rock she sat on, feigning the coltish energy of a young traveler newly away from her parents. The gnawing hunger certainly aided in the appearance of restlessness. Widening her eyes, she peered around as if she were completely lost. A young man in a long mountain coat took notice.

"Pardon me, miss, are you lost? Do you speak Grey by any chance?" He spoke politely in Minbari, hoping she did as well. This was the Minbari Worker Caste dialect, and most commonly spoken among Humans attempting to learn. He continued haltingly in English. "IŠI notŠspeak HumanŠgood." He sighed and gestured as Havah feigned a vapid stare.

After her months of study, she now understood and spoke Grey and the other languages quite fluently, but as this would give her away, she giggled and answered in very broken Minbari, like a tourist desperately trying to grace the locals with her effort. "IŠummmmŠspeakŠummmmŠlittle MinbariŠ" She used the broad term for the languages, as though she had no clue about any differences, and tittered again. "I ummm" She stuck her finger in the edge of her mouth and sucked on it while groping for the word "Šlike climbing." She finished triumphantly and twirled her pigtail coquettishly, still giggling awkwardly.

He smiled back and moved in closer. In Grey, he said, "There are many peaks." He said. She stared dumbly at him. He shook his head and motioned to the peaks with his hands.

A look of comprehension bloomed on her face, as she stuttered in Grey. "OhhhŠWhat aboutŠwaterfalls? I heardŠummmmŠabout big cave behind waterfallŠnorth peak." She grinned.

He pursed his forehead in frustration. "I am not familiar with this place." At her puzzled look, he shook his head and held up his hands, sorely disappointed that he could not help the stranger further. "Wait here, I'll ask someone." He signed to her to stay seated, while he went and got the information for her, and rushed off.

She slid off of the rock and meandered about small shops, looking around her to make sure she was not recognized. The young man came up to her about a half an hour later and exclaimed in halting English, that he had found the place she was looking for. "It isŠonŠnext peak toŠnorth." He pointed. "We callŠ'glamo she' hran', in Grey. It meanŠWater Hidden HoleŠin English." His brow darkened. "It isŠdifficult ground."

She grinned widely and innocently at him, and answered in English. "I am a very good climber. I'll be ok."

He frowned again. She certainly looked athletic, but she was so young. As she spoke, there was a tone of unquestionable authority. Her eyes were not as young as her face. They bored into him. She would brook no followers. He sighed. Athletes, he thought. They are the same on every world, it seems. There had been a few other Human tourists a few days ago wanting to brave the highest, most treacherous peak to the far north. Or perhaps it is the Human bravado I have heard about, even in the young women.

She gave him a big hug, and tried again in broken Minbari. "I thank youŠso muchŠfor help! I be ok!" She lavished him with a kiss on the cheek.

"I am Hodann." He blushed at the kiss and hug. Before he could be tempted further, she wheeled away lightly. He shifted from foot to foot and padded back to the stream dejectedly. Havah headed as fast as she could out of the town. She had to make haste. If the Anla Shok went there, or had been there, and he spoke of her, suspicion might be aroused.

1200 hours, Day Five‹Selain and his team were growing exasperated. They had not even caught the slightest hint of the Human. She must be nearing her destination now. They did not even have an idea of the target yet. Humiliating. Selain paused. If they could only figure out her destinationŠSomething had been nagging at his memory for the past three days. Something he had seen at headquarters in the compound. Anla Shok Tirhan had been there for a few days before they left. He had apparently been recalled from one of the outposts in the Euphrates Sector. Why now? He had gone to ask his old friend, only to find his friend had been dispatched again, to re-stock the secondary base. He had contacted the base. No one was there, at least not yet. But Tirhan should have been there already. Selain had then gone into old message files and found that the coordinates to which his ship was charted were a few miles south-west of the base. This was not so uncommon as long as one did not wish the base to be discovered, in the event that an Anla Shok believed he might be followed, or if he was meeting someoneŠThe Human. This was the mission. He was involved in the testing, and was to receive either an inventory or reconstruction plans, or a manifest for the re-manning of the base from the recruit. He knew the point to which Tirhan had gone. His team would beat her there. He notified the rest of his team and they picked up speed for the cave.

1500 hours, Day Eight‹Selain had the luck to see Tirhan before the grizzled ranger saw him. It was as he suspected. He sent Mudenn and Selnet to surround the target. It would be a fight. Tirhan had already suspected an ambush as part of the exercise, and had keener hearing than even most other Anla Shok. He had heard something and his pike whispered open. After elaborate evasions, several long heated bouts and then a near-escape, the target was in custody. Winded, two members of the team and the target were all fighting gleeful grins. This was as much an exercise to hone their skills, as it was a test for the new recruit. It was a prisoner's obligation to escape, so the game was not over yet between them, as they waited for the Human, listening to Tirhan growl that he was getting too old for this. After a day of the game, as the time for Havah's likely arrival grew near, they ended the bandy between them and collaborated in the interest of the recruit's test. Tirhan listened to the team's plan, and gave the passphrase in approval, agreeing to continue to play victim, and grinning evilly. Selain activated the net and prepared himself to meet the recruit.

0730 hours, Ninth Day‹Havah had traveled for two and a half days since the village. The terrain had been treacherous, as Hodann had warned. However, she was rewarded with the sight, not only of her destination, but of one of the most beautiful grottos she had ever seen, even snow-laden. The boughs, twigs and remaining leaves of the surrounding trees and plants were encased in sparkling sheaths of ice, a pateen of frozen dew. Blue icicles hung from shelves of rock and made the partially frozen falls luminescent. Live turbulent water churned around, through and under the ice and snow, and cascaded to a deep pool and stream. It must be grandiose in the warm season, green and misted. She edged along the shelf behind the largest fall, breathing its chilly vapor deeply, and slid into the concealed cavern. Using her light crystal, she crept along branching tunnels until she got to one of the smaller caverns where she expected to meet her contact. He was there, looking down on her from a high rock shelf.

"It seems the wind has started to pick up outside. The weather trackers say there is a gale forming across the Eastern sea. But it will not be here for some time yet." He said, hopping down from the ledge. I am the person whom you seek. I am alone.

She approached him. "I am out from the far north. Nothing going on there yet, but I have rain gear. The wind doesn't seem bad yet." I am the person whom you are waiting for. I have the data. I have not been followed. She took out the crystal she was supposed to deliver. She peered at the man, lit by the dim corona of her light crystal. He looked like the man to whom she was supposed to deliver the message, a kind-faced older Anla Shok, with a brindled beard, hooked nose and deep crow's feet around sharp hazel eyes. But she paused. There was a strange twinge at the back of her neck and in her gut. Fear. She didn't know what subconscious cue alerted her that something was wrong. It was just a feeling. The man looked slightly surprised and disgruntled as she backed off slightly, before she could hide her reaction. But she recovered, and held out the data crystal to him. As he stepped inside her range to take it, she wheeled down into a tiger-tail sweep with her right leg, catching both of his legs and sweeping him to the ground on his back. Unlike the soldiers she had encountered in the eatery, he was far more trained and far faster, despite middle-age. Like a feline without a spine, he kipped up gracefully to his feet and started to rise. She trapped the crook of his knee with her right foot, sending him to one knee with his back facing her. In one step, she chopped down on the nerve bundle on either side of his neck, just below the head-bone. And he lost consciousness. His image shifted and melted into another face. It was not the man whom she was supposed to meet, but a stranger. Another Anla Shok. It had been a trap. How had he done this? Quickly, she searched him and found the answer. A changeling net! But these are outlawed?! Aren't they? Puzzled, she looked at the nodules. There were two wristlets, two anklets, a belt, and a necklace, a network of hologram-producing fibers. This was one member of one of the three teams out to find her. Even if she were to assume that only one team had followed her, where were the other two members? And where was her contact? This man had spoken the passphrase. He could only have gotten it through her contact, which meant that the other two members of the team had him, unless he had escaped. Telepathy was not allowed in the game. That had been specified. But they had said nothing of devices like changeling nets. She hadn't even known they possessed them. An evil thought occurred to her. If they used these devices in this game, then so could she. Just like Proxima Three! Lets see how you do the second time around, boys! She slipped on the equipment, turned it on, and scanned the unmasked Ranger lying before her. The net came alive around her, enveloping her body in a veil of electrostatic energy. It tingled at first, but after a few minutes, the constant tugging of the energy became itchy and then painful, as the light radiation seeped into her skin. No wonder no one uses them, what an icky feeling! Not to mention how dangerous they could be with prolonged and repeated exposure. But, this would not be longŠhopefully. She dragged the unconscious Ranger and hid him behind a rock shelf. She found the other two members of the team, and her real contact about fifteen minutes later. He was bound and sat between a large-boned woman with a broad face, and a tall man. She nodded to the contact, and spoke to the woman, her vocal chords distorted. "You may as well untie him. The recruit failed." She held up the crystal. "It's over." The two stared at her with surprise, and, to Havah's satisfaction, not a little disappointment.

The tall Ranger spoke. "I must admit, as much as I don't want to, that I did not expect her to fail!"

The woman added sardonically. "This has been an enjoyable exercise, yes. What a shame, the first Human!" She sighed and untied the contact, who stood and rubbed his wrists and ankles and rose, frowning. "Well, I do hope that she tries again!"

Havah smiled and nodded. "Perhaps you can come and tell her that. She is quite unhappy. She was too ashamed to come with me, so she remains where we met." Havah nodded to the Rangers. "Perhaps you should give us a few moments, I would like a chance to speak with her."

"She should not feel ashamed. Part of our order is persistence. Let me speak with her as well." The woman followed Havah into the passage. She stepped into the cavern and as she turned to look for the missing recruit, Havah chopped the same nerve bundle on the woman's neck as on her team member. Havah returned to the edge of the passage to wait. By now, the static of the net was excruciatingly irritating. It was like lying in the strong sun for hours. Her skin vibrated and burned slightly, but so deep in the tissues that she wanted to scream and rip it all off. She listened, and when she heard them approaching, she began talking to herself, so that they would hear someone speaking and assume a normal conversation. "Remember what I said earlier, you will have an opportunity to try again, Miss Lassee. It is not such a shame to fail once." Luckily the tall Ranger was the first to round her corner. She punched him in the jaw as hard as she could, knowing what it took to knock out a Minbari with sheer force. Mercifully, he dropped, having been unprepared for the assault. Tirhan stared at her as she finally shut off the infernal net, doing a squirmy dance pulling off the hateful nodules, throwing them to the ground and scratching and rubbing her body and head, ruffling all her hair, trying desperately to get rid of the itch. He burst into such hard laughter he had to lean against the wall to catch his breath, and spoke the passphrase amidst gasps for air. "The windŠ*gasp*Šhas picked up outsideŠThe weather trackers said a gale has formed across the Eastern sea." He clutched his side again, amidst another deep-belly laugh. "But you need not fear the storm."

Havah was done with this. "I believe this is yours." She held out the crystal and he took it, grinning widely at her.

"Thank you, Havah Lassee. But I believe that you have incapacitated your ride back to the base!" He laughed again and nodded at the tall Ranger slowly rising to his feet, rubbing his jaw. The man smiled at her and the two men bowed to her. "Congratulations, Anlashok Lassee. You have passed the trial." The tall man said softly. And then looked about the cavern, noting the female Ranger stirring. Selain stood and came over, his expression a mix of pleasant surprise and chagrin, nodding to the nodules scattered helter-skelter at Havah's feet. "You used my trick against my team!"

The female Ranger called over, "Yes, and we were amateur enough to succumb to it, even after knowing that she had pulled almost the same trick at Proxima Three sans the technology." She stood, smiled and bowed to Havah, sighing.

Maybe they would now answer Havah's questions about the 'technology'. "How did you come to have a changeling net? I thought they were illegal."

"They are outlawed for certain interactions, yes. But within a single organization among its own members with explicit stipulations on its use within the by-laws of that organization, selective use may be sanctioned dependant upon circumstance. You see, we only use it for training purposes, and then only occasionally. Typically, the use is reserved for second-time recruits, because it is more difficult to evade. But it was a tool given to us to use on this mission and so we used it. It appears that we were to test you quite thoroughly. It is used to teach attention to instinct and fear. What made you decide that I was not who I appeared to be?"

"I don't know. Instinct, I guess, like you said. I just had a bad feeling."

"Sometimes that is all you will get. And you must know when it is a true feeling and obey it, or recognize when it is not, when it is merely an unquiet mind."

Havah nodded. "But aren't these things dangerous? The radiation, I mean?" Havah was still uneasy about the feeling it had left in her skin.

"It is, over long periods of time and if there is repeated use. But we rarely use this one, and only for short periods of time. Also, our technicians have been working on it, and the output of radiation is only very slight, not as much as it feels." He said reassuringly. "It will leave no damage for the short time we have used it. But you will see the physician upon return, and she will confirm that. We should leave now. It is getting late in the day, and I suspect that you are hungry and tired."

Tirhan spoke. "I will attend to this." He held up the data crystal. "It was a pleasure to engage in this trial, Anlashok Lassee. Come with me and we will go to the flyer waiting for you all." They left the caverns and grotto and hiked a few miles to another set of caverns, concealed in next mountain-side, the secondary base.

Selain explained to Havah, as they walked in. "I figured out where you were headed when I learned that Tirhan was to restock and make ready the secondary base. And so then, I also knew what was on the data crystal you carried and where he would meet you to retrieve it. Manifests, inventory lists, and plans." The woman gave Havah her rations, so that she could eat in the transport and they could be on their way. If Havah never saw another wood grub again it would be too soon. They boarded the small flyer and were back at the original base in a day. Havah dozed the whole way.

No sight in the world was as welcome as the forbidding front face of the rock compound. Sech Turval's face lit up when she walked in, bedraggled. He fetched a blanket, food and drink, and left her to eat it in peace, before he allowed Havah to report. After finishing the meal, she gave her report in as minute detail as she could, beginning with, "I ate bugsŠ"

Sech Turval smiled tolerantly.

-- continued in chapter thirteen --