Midnight on the Negotiating Line
by Sunraven, Feb 1999, revised Nov 2000

Introduction: The peace negotiations have been proceeding on the neutral planet of Aldenon, located in Centauri space, for four Earth standard months. Tension has never been higher between the two negotiating teams, and the Empathic Mediator, Dr. Terra McClare, is exhausted from a particularly grueling session. The topic under discussion is war crimes and the possible reparation to the families of the war dead on both sides.

Terra sighed. Right now all she wanted was to knock a Minbari Shai-Alyt's headbone and a Human Major General's wooden head together if the two of them didn't stop posturing. Great Maker, the testosterone in the negotiation room was getting so thick you could almost see it dripping off the walls. Branmer's aide and MG Bolter's assistant were standing behind their bosses glaring daggers at each other, with Neroon caressing his denn-bok lovingly.

"Uhm, excuse me, gentlemen."

No response as they totally ignored her. The other negotiators were too wary of the angry military men to say anything. They too could sense a potential breakdown in the negotiations about to happen.

She tried again in a louder voice. "Excuse me, Gentlemen!" The shouting continued as though there were no one else in the room, with the two men leaning over the table, headbone to forehead, shouting all the while.

That did it! She had had about enough of these two today. She reached to their vocal centers, and pressed, just so.

Startled, both men stepped back, their voices silenced without even a squeak.

"Now, have I gotten your attention, gentlemen?" Four sets of male eyes glared at her, sending all sorts of blistering emotions through to her already rather flimsy shields.

"If I let your voices go, will you promise to be silent for a moment while I make a suggestion?"

Grudgingly they both nodded, giving each other a final glare just for good measure. Terra released her hold on their vocal cords.

"See here, young lady, you have no right to ..."

"Doctor, you have no right to ..."

She stood up, looking into each of the combatants' eyes in turn. "Actually, I do have the right to stop any action in these sessions that I see fit. And right now, with the way you are both behaving, I saw fit to interrupt." Her attention was caught by a movement at the corner of her eye. "Colonel Lanscombe, don't touch your gun holster again, please, it's making our other negotiators nervous. Alyt Neroon, please stop doing the same with your denn-bok, for the same reason. I don't need to remind both of you that you have only been allowed to keep your weapons on sufferance, and that privilege can be taken away if I feel that your behavior with them negatively affects these negotiations." Her now startling green eyes turned back to the warrior leaders.

"We all know that the feelings on dealing out reparations for war crimes run very hotly in both your hearts. And for a good reason. It was your people, the warriors on both sides, that did the dying, that were tortured, that were interrogated improperly, and all the rest. We civilians sat at home and watched ISN for reports of the battles that your warriors fought. There is so much hurt on both sides, and it will take far longer than these peace negotiations will last, for healing to take place." She smiled at the two men suddenly. "But we were all hoping to conclude them in our lifetimes if possible." The facetious comment broke the tension a bit and started some of the negotiators chuckling.

"Everyone in the room is exhausted. I suggest that we stop for today, and that we all take a much needed holiday for tomorrow. We could perhaps reconvene at 0700 hours two days from now? Is that acceptable?" She looked around at all of the diplomats. They all nodded, even Branmer and Bolter. "Good. Then I will see all of you in two days. Good day."

Satai Relinn caught her outside the door. "Terra, thank you for silencing those two. It was beginning to look as though the war was going to be fought all over again right in front of us."

"They are definitely two hot pots, aren't they? Between them and their aides stroking those weapons of theirs like they would their lovers, I'm totally exhausted. My shields are about as thin as rice paper, and until I strengthen them some more, I'm afraid I'm going to be of no use to anyone."

"There is a saying on our world, Terra, that if you ask a Warrior Caste male which he prefers, his p... uh, his reproductive organ, or his denn-bok, the only answer you will get is a glare and him caressing the denn-bok." She giggled at that one, meaning to pass it on to Neroon the next time he got annoying. Pleased he could make her laugh, the Worker Caste leader continued, "You have been looking rather tired lately. Yes, Daughter. You must rest. You are so valuable to us, that we all forget how difficult this must all be on you." He smiled, bowed, then turned to talk to Satai Delenn, who walked past just then.

She started walking toward her quarters. Her nerves felt like a current was surging over them and her head was spinning from the emotional overload she had taken in today.

"Terra!"

God, what now?

Neroon came up to her. "May I escort you to your quarters?"

Before she could answer, Dick Lanscombe came up, obviously having overheard the Alyt's request. "I will escort Doctor McClare to her quarters, Alyt Neroon. There is no reason for a Minbari to take the trouble."

These two foolish males had developed a rivalry between them, with Terra's attentions as the prize. This stupid competition was starting to get on her nerves.

"Thank you to both of you, but I need some time alone. I prefer to walk by myself tonight."

"But Terra, what if another assassin should come after you? You know that you were told by EarthGov to take an escort with you wherever you went." Dick was a tall slender man in his mid thirties. He had rugged features, dark hair, and lovely sky blue eyes. She had once been fond of him, had even allowed him to kiss her goodnight once (but only once). But he had an air of possessiveness with regards to her that drove her wild! And the fact that he wanted to become her lover, and wasn't used to women turning him down, made it even worse. He didn't seem to want to take no for an answer.

"I am certainly able to take care of myself, Colonel. The self-defense lessons you and the Alyt have been giving me will keep me quite safe, I expect. You are both such good teachers."

Neroon nodded at the compliment. "Flattery aside, the Colonel is correct, Doctor. You should have an escort."

She started feeling as though both of them were pressing their wants onto her. It was smothering! She gritted her teeth against screaming at them, and said, "Thank you, but I am going alone. Good night."

She then turned and started down the corridor, walking fast. Instead of heading towards her quarters, she headed towards the formal gardens. She needed a change of scenery bad, and needed to do some meditation to release some of the emotional junk she had picked up today.

She went to her favorite bench. It stood nestled under a large tree. When she sat there, her head leaning against the knobby trunk, she could feel the silent peace of the night and the old tree soak into her. The only sounds were the rustling of the birds and the leaves moving in the breeze. This planet had a yellow sun like Sol, and today the weather had been warm. She reached up and pulled down her hairpins, loosening her long hair into a veil around her body. Her breath became deeper and more regular as she floated into a light trance.

Her tranquility was disturbed by her empathy picking up the presence of someone nearby. She didn't sense danger, or feelings of hatred, or other signs of warning. As the person came closer, she picked up the characteristic emotional signature of Neroon. That idiot had followed her anyway, despite her wishes. He came up to where she was sitting.

Coming back up to the world, she sighed loudly. "Neroon, I told you I needed to be alone. Can't you respect my wishes just once in your stubborn life?"

He looked down at her, a midnight darkness in the brighter night. "After that attempt on your life, the Shai-Alyt and I have been ... concerned. The peace negotiations would probably not succeed as efficiently without you as mediator, and you do not seem to want to take precautions. I got to within three kilometers of you, Terra, before you noticed me."

"Actually I noticed you about twenty minutes ago. But I didn't respond to your presence until you were that close. Since you meant me no harm, I just ignored you and hoped you would go away."

"Now that I am here, may I sit with you for a few minutes? Then I promise I will leave you to yourself."

Actually, Neroon was a fairly relaxing person for Terra to be around, as long as his anger, pride, stubborness, etc. wasn't pricked. He was fairly self-contained most of the time, which is probably why he erupted into anger so strongly when he did lose his self-control. Over the stressful months of the conference they had become quite good friends. She trusted him, both with her safety and with her peace of mind, which wasn't something she felt very often.

She moved over on the bench to make room for him. It wasn't a big bench, so they were sitting pretty tight. She closed her eyes, sighing her tiredness.

"Terra, are these negotiations becoming too much for you? You have seemed much more tired lately than at the beginning." The worry in his voice filled her with pleasure as her heart picked up its pace in response to his physical closeness.

She sighed. "It wasn't too bad until the war crime reparations subject came up. Those holos the Shai-Alyt and the Major General showed us of the bodies of the warriors that had been tortured to death, Great Maker, they were horrible! That poor warrior caste who had had his limbs cut off, one by one," She put her face into her two hands. "I don't think I will ever get him out of my head. I am so tired, Neroon. I even dream of the peace negotiations, or the war, every night. I had no idea that it would be this intense on such a constant basis."

"I told the Shai-Alyt that I did not think you should be exposed to those holos. But he felt it was necessary for you to understand our feelings of hatred and anger over someone who could do such a dishonorable deed."

"He was correct. I needed to see them. Certainly I have seen just as bad in my negotiating career. But I hadn't become so ...fond... of the people it had happened to before. That's what is different, I think. To think it could have been you, or the Shai-Alyt, or Relinn who had had that done to him makes it a thousand times worse for me. I'm beginning to wonder if, in my admiration of your people, I have lost my objectivity."

"You have grown on us, as well, Terra. When that Earther assassin attempted to kill you that time, there were some of us who were ready to take out the entire unit that is stationed here in retribution."

Catching his eyes, she said with a small smile, "Some of us?" So that he had to smile in return. He never had been able to hide anything from her.

"Fortunately some of you realized that I would personally strip your hide off of your bones if you had done something that stupid. Besides, he didn't represent the majority of our escort unit. You were there, Neroon. Even you could tell that he was mentally ill with post traumatic stress disorder when he tried it. I knew that as soon as he showed up in my quarters that night. He was hardly coherent. With the self-defense lessons you and Colonel Lanscombe have been teaching me, I could have probably taken him out without my gift. The poor man. He had lost a pregnant wife and three siblings to the war, and had not been able to mourn properly. Once he got to my room, all he did was hold his ppg and cry. It was quite a coincidence that his wife also had long red hair." She sighed again.

Then she tried to lean her head against his shoulder, but hit his stupid shoulder board instead. "Ow! Those shoulder boards of yours should be registered as lethal weapons."

He shifted in the seat, turning his body so the offending ornaments were not in her way. Then he reached for her gently and drew her to lean against his chest. It was and it wasn't sexual, exactly, though there was certainly that between them as well. It was more a friend's response to her desperate need. Over the months, he had become used to her habit of lightly touching her friends, and had stopped being shocked or concerned by it, had actually grown to like it. He had started taking it as the complement it was, that she did see him as a friend. Not that the sexual side of it didn't crop up once in a while, but those feelings he just tried to ignore. He had seen pictures of naked female humans before, and if once in a while he started to imagine what Terra would look like without her clothes, well, he usually sent those thoughts away when they came to him. And his dreams, which featured her quite often, he could do nothing about, so he ignored them as well.

"Why don't you rest right here for a few minutes. I won't let anyone disturb you."

She was so spiritually tired, she did just that. She closed her eyes again and let herself float. Taking in his now familiar astringent smell, she felt oddly comforted. Regulating her breathing, she went into another trance, this time deeper than the last one. This time she didn't have to keep a portion of her psyche active to make sure no danger approached. Neroon's presence added a safety to the area, without contributing much emotional noise.

After about a half an hour, she brought herself out of the trance. She had gotten rid of a surprisingly large amount of accumulated emotional baggage in those few minutes. Neroon hadn't moved from his position, though it must have been uncomfortable after a while.

She looked up at him in the moonlight, smiling gently, her eyes and face still dreamy. His breath caught in his throat in response to that smile, but he just tried to ignore the increased beating of his heart and the increasing of other things as well.

"Thank you for being so patient. I feel much better. But your shoulder and arm are cramping! You should have said something."

"You needed the time, and you do look more relaxed. It was worth a little pain, I think. Do you want to go to your quarters?"

"Yes, I think so. I think I would like to lay down and rest. Since you were so sweet to stay so still, I'll let you escort me there, if you'd like, as long as you don't tell Dick, of course."

The sarcasm/laughter in his tone was obvious. "That is very generous of you, Doctor." He got up from the bench and turned to her to give her a hand up. She was cramped from sitting on the hard bench. Before she let go of his hand she gave in to an impulse that she had wanted to do for a long time. She kissed him lightly on the lips, saying afterwards, "Thank you, Neroon. You seemed to have given me just what I needed." He tasted like citrus, she thought.

The kiss so startled him that he didn't say another word until they neared her quarters. Then he turned to her and asked, "Why did you touch me like that with your lips? Is that something that your people do casually? My people do not do that until two people are approaching an...understanding."

She looked at him, her eyes twinkling. "We probably do kiss more casually than your people do, I expect. But I have to admit that I have wanted to do that for a while, mostly out of curiosity as to your reaction." She patted his armor. "So don't worry, we aren't getting close to any understanding, as far as I know. Just think of it as a human sign of friendship between two people. When we humans start reaching an understanding, we kiss much more passionately than the kiss I gave you. So you don't need to get worried or frightened, Alyt Neroon."

That was a mistake.

The light of challenge flared in his brown eyes. He half snarled, "I am not frightened, Doctor." And he surprised her by grabbing her in his arms and kissing her soundly. Not so much, she felt, to show a sexual advance, but to prove a point that he wasn't intimidated by her boldness. At least, that was how it started. Unfortunately, by the time it ended, all pretense of no sexuality was driven right out the airlock. His heat moved downwards, and hers did the same. When he finally let her go, she was torn between wanting him to do it again, and wanting to get away from him.

With a shaky voice she said, "No, Neroon, I can see, and feel, that you are not ...frightened. Good night."

He didn't try to stop her when she turned and entered her quarters. He was as shocked as she was by what he had just done, and by what he had felt during it.

 

Part 2, a discussion of comparative mating habits

-- continued in part two --