After the Blood Flowed Like Rivers, Part 8 Synopsis: In part 7, Terra tells the Shi Alyt about a biochemical weakness in the Minbari she had discovered during the war. She also learns for the first time of the beauty to be seen in the arts of war. At 8:15 the next day, Terra stood at the vid-com. Jon Hastur’s face and upper body was visible. "Are all the preparations ready for our trip down, Jon?" "Yes. We arranged to have the area cleared as you asked, and Earthforce personnel will be standing outside the immediate perimeter as guards. We also haven’t told them who or what they will be guarding. When I’m done talking with you, I’ll transmit the coordinates and the landing details for the pilot of the shuttle. Now, are you going to tell me what this is all about?" "Just to say that I am giving a very great man a gift, that’s all. Thanks for helping to arrange all this so quickly. I have got to go, once you transmit the landing information, I need to go over it with the pilot in order that he understands where he’ll be landing. He will also be acting as my guest’s bodyguard, at my request, Jon. I’d prefer to keep EarthForce in the background." "Well, I just hope you know what you are doing, Terra." Then he signed off, after sending the information. At 9:30 the door chime rang. Terra opened the door, and Alyt Neroon stood in the doorway. "Good morning, Alyt. If you would like to come in, I have the coordinates and information on the landing site for you to look at." "Uh, yes." He moved rather nervously into her quarters and went to stand by her. She inserted the crystal into the port. The physical conditions of the landing site showed up on the screen. "The place we will be landing is an ancient asphalt parking lot. It is not set up for shuttle landings, and could give you some trouble. I figured with your piloting abilities, you can easily handle it. There is another potential danger source. We will be landing very near a geographical anomaly which is often a cause for distorted weather effects. Although the weather is predicted to be fair, the distortion for a shuttle can still be a factor." He looked up from where he had been reading the data and studying the maps and said rather gently for him. "You do not need to tell me my business, Doctor. I do know how to land a shuttle, you know." "I am sorry, Alyt. I am a little nervous is all." "Shouldn’t we go now so that we can meet Satai Relinn in the docking bay?" "Yes. Of course." Satai Relinn was already in the docking bay when they got there. He greeted them both, then said, "I must say, Doctor, that I had difficulty sleeping last night in anticipation of this trip." "Good, Satai. Anticipation will only make it more sweet." She turned to Alyt Neroon. "Shall we board, Alyt?" "Yes, Doctor. I already did the preflight checks earlier this morning so that there would be no delay." He’s as full of anticipation as the Satai! She thought. They entered the shuttle, and Neroon moved to the pilots chair while Terra and Satai Relinn strapped themselves into the passenger seats. "Now, child, are you going to tell me where you are going to be taking me?" She smiled. "No. To tell you would be to spoil the surprise." She put her hand to the globe on her chest. Rathenn told me that you made this for you wife Sador, Satai." "Rathenn has a big mouth." "No. I’m glad he told me. He mentioned that she was a painter?" "Yes, one of the best." "Tell me about her, Satai, so that I may appreciate your gift just that little bit more." She coaxed. "Sador was – a contrast of light and dark, a chiaroscuro of beauty and grace, just like her paintings. She was very straight forward, you remind me of her in that, Doctor. She used to chew me up and spit me out if I did something she thought was stupid, yet she could also, with just a look, make me feel as though I stood on top of the tallest spire on Minbar. I loved her from the first moment I laid eyes on her. She was painting Valen’s temple in our capitol city. I was working on a crystal piece for the sanctuary, and was coming out of the temple with my designs. I saw her, standing behind her easel, with beauty in her eyes and in her mind. And I was transfixed. "Did she see you?" Terra asked, transported with the elder Minbari into the past. He laughed, his brown eyes twinkling. "Oh, yes, Doctor. She saw me. The first words we ever exchanged, I will never forget them. She looked at me with those fine eyes and said, "Will you get out of my way, you fool, you are blocking my light." Both of them laughed, and Terra could even sense that Neroon, who had been eavesdropping shamelessly, was amused and touched by the story. "Well, that was it. She had me for life from that moment on. Of course it took me several years to convince her of that, but I finally did." "She sounds like my mother. She used to try to seem gruff to my father and me, but we knew deep down how much she loved us. In fact, if it hadn’t been for her, I probably wouldn’t have made it out of childhood with my mind intact, because of the strength of my gift. She was an empath also, but not a strong one. Through sheer dogged persistence and love, she managed to get me through the worse times. I grieved as though I would never be happy again when she died. My father died when I was fairly young, so I only remember a vague sense of loss with regards to him, but when my mother went beyond the veil, I felt as though I couldn’t go on." "I felt the same way when Sador died. Do you know what finally forced me to come around again?" "No, what?" I had a dream about her. She was sitting near me, with paint on her robes, and smelling of distillents and thinners. She looked at me and said, "Relinn, you fool, get out of that bed and get on with your life. If you go to the sea before you are ready, I will never speak to you again!" Believe me, I had been well trained that when she used that tone of voice, I obeyed. And I did. It was difficult, but I managed." "Doctor, Satai, we are nearing the landing site. Please make sure your straps are fastened tightly. The wind shear is strong, and we may get a rough ride." Neroon actually took them down without much turbulence, a tribute to his skill as a pilot. After the shuttle was safely down, he opened the exit door, and went outside to scope out the area before he let them outside. For peace’s sake, Terra didn’t bother to point out that she could feel every person in the vicinity, and knew exactly where they were placed. She meekly followed him and the Satai out the door and down onto Earth. The sky was a lovely blue, and the desert pine trees surrounding the parking lot were scrubby and wind blown, but yet majestic in their own way. "Now Satai, Alyt Neroon, come with me. Neroon, we will be going south for a few hundred meters." She lead the two men south until they approached a thinning of the trees. She turned to Alyt Neroon and said quietly, "Alyt, I would like to go further with the Satai alone, if you don’t mind." He started to protest, but she shushed him by touching his arm lightly and saying gently, "Please trust me. He will come to no harm, and you can follow in a few minutes." Swallowing nervously, yet totally unable to resist the plea, he nodded. She turned to the Satai, and said, "Through these trees, Satai. I would offer you a gift." She took his arm as they walked through the last few feet of trees. She then turned again to him and said, "Satai Relinn, would you trust me enough to close your eyes for these last few steps? I wish to share with you a gift, but would surprise you with it." He agreed with a nod, then closed his eyes. "I will lead you safely, Father, I promise you." "I know, Daughter." Out of the forest they came, and she walked him to the brink of the north rim of the Grand Canyon, located in North America. It was over a mile deep, and was one of the 7 wonders of the world. "You can open your eyes now, Satai." He opened them slowly, and stood there looking out at the wondrous vista, his breath stopping in his throat. "You need to remember to breathe, Satai." She smiled at him. "You are the first of your people to see this, Relinn, and I give that to you, and to Sador, who so loved beauty. My mother and I always wanted to visit this place, but she died before we could. After her death, I took leave and visited here. This is the very spot where I first saw it, and knew, somehow, that she was there sharing it with me. He caught his breath, his gentle brown eyes filled with tears, and turned to her. "You honor me with this precious gift, Daughter. And you are correct. Some how, some way, Sador is here with us. Do you feel her presence?" "Yes," She whispered, tears falling down her own face as she reached for his hand. "Hers, my mother, oh, Satai, most of all I feel the presence of God!" The special moment was then burst as Neroon pushed through the scrub trees, saying, "Satai, Doctor! I must insist that…." His voice stopped along with his breath. Quietly and together, the three of them stood at the rim, Warrior, Worker and Human, and communed with God. Later, after the wanderers returned to the Far Seer, Delenn, Branmer, Relinn, and Minur sat at a table. "The human seems as though she has mental and emotional integrity and some wisdom, although she is young for the mediator role." Minur said. "I find her refreshing, and think her gifts could be quite useful for both sides. She brings to us, with her empathic gift, her zenobiological training, and humanitarian outlook, a new way of looking at ourselves. A way which, as Alyt Neroon has apparently found out, is not always a comfortable process. " Delenn added. "I feel she will mediate for us as fairly as for the humans." Relinn paused, as he thought of the moments the three of them had shared down on the planet below. "She has the heart of a Minbari." "I like her. And I have never seen my aide so off balance as he is when he deals with her. He has killed thousands of her people in battle, yet with her has lost the battle before it’s begun. She can diffuse his anger by smiling at him, and can then drive him almost to berserker status by speaking a few words. And she usually gets the effect she is trying to get. She is frank, but in a respectful way, usually. She can defend herself well against mental and physical attack, and most often remains calm in stressful situations. Although," He allowed himself a chuckle, "Neroon is probably still attempting to find out what a gorilla is. I suspect that when he does, he is not going to be very happy. So far, that was her only show of a lack of self restraint." The Shi Alyt said. "I felt that the circumstances more than warranted her reactions, Branmer. If you had done the same to me when I was her age, especially after what I had put her through earlier that day, I would have reacted even stronger, I think. Alyt Neroon would not have gotten up so quickly or so painlessly, that is for sure." Said Minur. "You were never her age, Minur. You have always been as old as Valen, and you know it. And in your time, you have put so many men off balance, myself included, that you had us all following you around like rechlas in mating season trying to impress you, to no avail." Branmer’s flirtatious response with his old friend allowed the four to share a hearty laugh. "Yes, this human female may just be the mediator we need to come to a true and lasting peace with the Earthers, to the benefit of both peoples." Summed up Delenn. The End (finally!)