Peace Talks - Part 5 By Sunraven The hostility quickly escalated between the two men, and the teams polarized by race. Terra watched in disgust while one of the female Star Riders deliberately and brutally ran into the tiny third baseman, Ensign Harisa Iomoto. She was called out, but it didn't matter. She had scored one against the enemy. And Neroon looked as though he approved, which annoyed her to no end! David Sheridan called a conference, which included Delenn, Terra, Branmer, Bolter, and Relinn. "I'm thinking now, all, that this wasn't such a good idea after all." Terra answered, putting her hand on his arm. "It was a good idea, David. But I'm thinking that it might have been a bit too early for it. The hostility is still so fresh." Delenn added, "Should we stop the game before someone is seriously injured?" Terra looked over at Neroon. He was sitting among his Minbari teammates and watching Branmer and the rest of the leaders. Terra felt guilty because part of the fault of the ill will was because of her. Granted it wasn't her fault, not really, but still... "I have an idea." She said suddenly. "Let me talk privately with the team Captains, and see if I can stop this now. Maybe this game can be saved." She walked up to Dick Lanscombe first. "Dick, could you take a walk with me? We need to talk." "But the game..." And he glared over at a suspiciously staring Neroon. "It's on hold for a moment. That's why I want to talk." They walked away from earshot and eyeshot. She turned to him and said, "Dick, the seniors are thinking of canceling the game." "What! Why? We're having a great time." She sighed. Warriors were all alike. "Because it's gotten too rough, is why. It's Minbari against Earther all over again." "Well, it's that damn boneheaded Alyt's fault! He tried to kill me!" She smiled, then reached down and touched his abraded thigh gently, leaching the pain away from the wounds. "You were really fast, getting out of the way like that. I was really impressed." All anger towards her melted against a wall of empathic charm. "Well, it was just lucky I saw it, I guess." He took one of her braids and brought it to his lips. "You've been pretty impressive yourself." And he looked her spandexed figure up and down appreciatively. Forcing down a surge of annoyance, she reached up and stroked his face. "Do you know what would really impress me, Dick?" He looked up from her hand that he'd taken hold of. "What?" "If you could get your team, both races of them, to work together, and not against each other. But I guess that's a tall order with a bunch of soldiers who love to fight." He straightened up. "I can handle it, if that damn bonehead can! I'll calm my team down, if the seniors don't call the game. You can count on me, Terra." And he moved much closer to her. "And you do know you can count on me, don't you, Terra? You're an empath, you have to know how I feel about you." She forced herself to smile. "Of course I know, Dick. I'm sorry I haven't seemed very receptive. It's just that this is such a big responsibility and all, I've got a lot on my mind." "Well, maybe later you can bind my war wounds, here, and then you might want to let me help you take the pressure off for a while, eh?" "Maybe so, Dick. Why don't we see, okay?" She avoided him deftly so he couldn't grab her close and kiss her. But she did it in such a way as to seem as though she was still receptive to his overtures. "Come on, we've better get back. I need to have a good scream at Alyt Neroon. Maybe I can talk some sense into him somehow, and the game can continue." "I wish you didn't have to. I don't like him, or the way he looks at you." She smiled. "Why, Dick, with you around to protect me, he wouldn't have the nerve to get up to anything, I don't think. Come on, let's go back." They returned to the game area, and Terra then took Neroon out for a walk. "What did that Earther say to you, Terra? Was he disrespectful? If he was, I'll arrange for my crew to punish him even more..." How could she possibly convince this very alien male? She turned to him and said, "What I said to Dick is between he and I, Neroon. I'm going to tell you the same thing, though. The seniors are appalled with the display of lack of discipline that you and your people are showing, along with the Earther soldiers as well!" He bristled, all affronted pride. "They were responding to the attack on me by that Colonel, is all. They are defending their Alyt. Do not criticize my crew for their loyalty." "Then I will criticize their Alyt, for his lack of ability to keep control of his people. Or maybe for his using his people as a weapon to fight a battle with Dick, is more like it!" She knew she took a risk of alienating him with what she was doing. But somehow she had to show him that letting his people run amuck like this was wrong. He closed in on her, looming, and said in a growl, "You go too far, Human!" She reached up and grabbed his headbone and dragged it down to her level. "No, Neroon, you do. I trusted you to lead your people wisely, that's why I chose you to be Captain. And now you are failing. Was I so wrong in my assessment, and my admiration of you, Alyt?" Her voice shook with the strength of her emotions. The closeness of his face burned into her brain as he let her hold him down to her level for a few seconds. The urge to kiss him was almost overwhelming, and she could feel his anger melt under an avalanche of arousal. Then he reached up and gently removed her fingers from his bone, and straightened up, still holding her hands lightly. "No, you were not wrong, Doctor. I have let my people act in undisciplined ways to handle my own dislike of the Colonel. I have shamed not only myself, but the Shai-Alyt and you who trusted me. If you can convince the elders to not stop the game, I will have a talk to my crew. None of them will get out of line again. You have the assurances of a Star Rider on that, Terra." He bowed to her, and they returned to the game. Both men were as good as their words, and the game finally ended in a tie among fairly peaceful relations. But everyone breathed a sigh of relief when it was all over. That night an exhausted Terra couldn't for the life of her get to sleep. She tossed and turned until finally she drifted off into a fitful sleep. Dreams of the Minbari War overwhelmed her psyche, and she woke up suddenly with her heart pounding. Someone was in her bedroom! Someone so filled with anger and grief that the strength of it almost overwhelmed her senses. She fought for control and reached over and manually turned on the lights. Three feet from her bed stood one of the EarthForce pilots from the escort unit. He was blonde and tall, about thirty, and would have been handsome except for the hatred that twisted his face into that of a gargoyle's. He held a ppg in his right hand that shook alarmingly. "Get up, traitor!" She pulled the bedsheets up over her chest, and frightened suddenly at the rage in this man, she found herself wishing strongly and inexplicably for Neroon's comforting presence. Struggling out from the overwhelming emotions being thrown at her, she tried to focus her gift to knock him out. "Move, damn it!" Scrambling out of bed, she pushed aside her long red hair and said, "Don't do this, please." "Shut up! You've kissed up to those damn Minbari long enough, and stopped Earth from getting the upper hand. I can't take it any more. I'll take you out of your misery, and maybe they can get someone who actually cares about all the people who were killed by the boneheads." She said gently, "I do care, Captain LaClait, isn't it? I lost a man I was going to marry to them." "Well I lost a wife and our unborn son, and two brothers and a sister on the Line! I made sure I got assigned here to see how I can stop this craziness of peace talks." The shaking had gotten worse. This man was ill, Terra was sure. Real compassion colored her voice as she said with tears in her eyes, "I'm so sorry. No wonder you're so angry. But I have done nothing, Captain. To kill me won't stop the talks. Why do you hate me so much?" She projected helplessness and hurt to him. The ppg dropped about half-mast. "Your hair..." Confused, she asked, "My hair?" "She had hair like that. She wanted to cut it to better fit a helmet, but she kept it long for me. Why couldn't I have died instead of her and our son?" Terra was shaking now in empathic sympathy. "I don't know. Because you've got something to do still, Captain, and I don't think that it's killing me. You don't really want to take another human life, do you? We've lost so many..." She talked gently, and stepped closer to him. The ppg came back up. "But they say that it's you who's pulling it all together. I could see that today at the game. It can't do that! We have to keep killing the Minbari until we've shed all the blood that they've shed of ours. It's the only way!" "The only way to do what?" "To...to take away the pain. To stop getting eaten up inside. It's just that you remind me of her..." Now his sentences were becoming disjointed. "Killing won't stop the pain, Captain. Taking more lives will just add to the hurt inside us all." This time she stepped all of the way forward, her arms outstretched, offering what little comfort she could give against his agony. Sobbing so hard his whole body was shaking, he stepped into her embrace, the ppg resting against her shoulder. "Help me, please, help me stop the pain." "Shhh." She stroked his hair, and gently brought him down to sit by her on the bed. "I will, dear. Just hold on to me." She sent soothing waves of empathy over him, and took some of the pain he was feeling into herself. Just then the door slammed open as Neroon crashed in, followed closely by Dick Lanscombe and some EarthForce men, ppgs in hand. Neroon went for the man in Terra's arms with a roar and wrenched him out and threw him across the room! "Neroon, No!" She screamed as the enraged Minbari took the Captain's neck in his big hands and started to squeeze. Terra ran up and grabbed the Warrior Caste's arms, pulling with all her strength. "No. Let him go!" Of course it had no effect. The Captain cried out, "No, let him do it. Let him kill one more. Then there will be no more pain..." At that heartwrenching cry, Neroon's rage drained off and he loosened his hold, a horrified look on his face. Terra crouched down and again took the human into her arms, glaring at Neroon and the armed men behind him. "Can't you see he's ill? Leave him alone!" Dick said then, "But he was trying to assassinate you, Terra. Alyt Neroon was only trying to protect you." "Please, just leave him with me. Go. Now!" All of them stood up, but Neroon said, "I will not leave. He could still harm you." Terra could see that he wouldn't be budged. "Okay, but only you." Reluctantly the rest of the soldiers left. "Captain, it's all right. They're gone. No one will hurt you." "Why did you stop him? Then the pain would stop, and I'd be with her! Why?" He was hardly comprehensible by now. "Because you are needed too badly to lose, is why. It isn't time to join her and your son yet." Neroon, finally grasping what was going on, came back to them and squatted next to Terra. "Because there has been too much killing between us, human. We need you to live to help make sure it never happens again. To keep the memories of those who passed on in your heart and mind." Then the Warrior Caste reached out a hand to the damaged human. "The time for hatred has gone, and now we must help each other bind our wounds. I, too, lost those who were dear to me. But together we can keep their memories alive forever. But not through hatred. It is only friendship that will do that." Captain LaClait shakily reached out and took the black-clad hand. After that he meekly allowed Neroon to gently lead him to his own people for help. After they had taken him away, Neroon came back to Terra's room. He came in after ringing the door chime and just looked at her quietly. "What do you want, Neroon? I need to rebuild my shields after that. That poor man!" Again tears ran down her face from the overload of the pilot's emotions. Suddenly he was there and she was in his arms. "I thought I had lost you." He whispered in a voice filled with pain. Shoved against his chest, she looked up at his face. "Thank you for understanding him, Neroon. How did you know to come?" The dark eyes engulfed her. "I...I do not know. Suddenly I knew you were in great danger, and I ran and woke the Colonel and came. I was sure you were lost!" "No. It was that poor man who was lost. And who you helped find himself again, Neroon. Thank you so much for your gentleness to him." "You are quite welcome, little human." He pulled reluctantly away from her and smiled, chucking her under the chin. "I had better be going before things start looking improper. You will be well, Terra?" She nodded, stepping away from him as well. "I'll be fine, thanks to you. Good night, Neroon." The end.