Blood Oath

by John Vornholt

  "Is this the way he left his desk?" asked the commander.

  Na'Toth shrugged. "Unfortunately, yes. He left everything as you see it. Perhaps there is something useful here, but I worry that he was lured by this message into a hasty departure."

  Garibaldi took an evidence bag from a pouch on his belt and opened it. "Commander, could you please drop those crystals in here. And the transparencies."

  As Ivanova dropped the evidence into the bag, Garibaldi told Na'Toth, "We're going to have to remove all his documents and seal off his quarters. I'll give you a receipt for this property, and I'll give it back to you after I've had a look."

  "It doesn't matter," answered Na'Toth. "What are the leavings of a dead man but twigs on a dead tree?"

  "I feel terrible about this," said Captain Sheridan. "Allow me to contact the Kha'Ri for you."

  "No," snapped Na'Toth. "I will do it. There are several matters I must attend to right away. I will be in, my quarters."

  Garibaldi watched the woman square her shoulders and march out of the room. Na'Toth's reaction had been about what he'd expected—no tears, no denial, no accusations, and not much help either—just pure anger. Some people might have considered Na'Toth a suspect, but not him. He knew how much she admired G'Kar.

  "Does she mean it with this Shon'Kar thing?" asked Sheridan.

  "Oh, she means it all right," said Garibaldi. "If you remember from reading the reports, she had her own Shon'Kar against Deathwalker. Na'Toth nearly killed that woman with her bare hands the moment she stepped off her ship. They take the Blood Oath very seriously."

  The chief tapped his link and said, "Garibaldi here. I want a security detail and a forensic team at Ambassador G'Kar's quarters. On the double."

  "Let's freeze departures," said Sheridan.

  Ivanova started to the door. "I'm on my way to C-and-C."

  The two men watched Ivanova leave, and Garibaldi felt like he was in suspended animation. His shock and grief had put him into a sort of lethargy. He knew they should be taking action, but they could do nothing to bring G'Kar back to life. That made every action seem pointless. Still, justice had to be served, whether one called it Shon'Kar or revenge. If the perpetrator was still on the station, they had to open every hatch until they found him.

  "I've got condolences and reports to send," said Sheridan. The captain winced. "There will have to be a station announcement, then a press conference. Don't worry, I'll keep the press away from you. You just pursue your investigation."

  "Thanks," said Garibaldi.

  The captain strode out, and the security chief dropped the bag of documents and data crystals on to G'Kar's desk. Looking for more clues, he glanced around G'Kar's quarters, which were almost Mediterranean in appearance, with heavy furnishings of dark metal and leather. On the walls hung embroidered tapestries of hunts and battle scenes, with bloodstone standing in for the blood. Garibaldi turned his attention to the desk drawers and added a few stationery items to his evidence bag.

  "Welch here, Chief." Garibaldi looked up to see the security detail he had called for.

  "Ambassador G'Kar is dead," the chief reported simply. "His ship exploded, and he was the only casualty. I can't give you any more information than that." Garibaldi frowned. "I'm worried about his aide, Attaché Na'Toth. She's not a suspect, but she could be a victim. And I think she knows more than she's telling us. You and Baker go to Na'Toth's quarters and keep an eye on her. Tell her you're just checking in, to see if she needs anything. If she goes anywhere, follow her and advise me."

  "Yes, sir," said Welch. He and a woman officer hurried down the corridor.

  Garibaldi pointed to the other two officers. "You seal off these quarters and wait for the forensic team. Except for them, nobody is to go in or out. All Narns trying to leave the station should be held for questioning."

  "Yes, sir." The officers took positions on either side of the door.

  Garibaldi thought about taking his bag of evidence to the laboratory, but he wanted to view the data crystals first, and he had a viewer only a meter away. He reached into the bag and brought up a handful of data crystals, which varied in shape and color. Their connectors were exactly the same, although they had different serial numbers and notations etched upon them.

  That is, all but one had serial numbers and notations. One data crystal was so dark that it looked as if it had been irradiated, and it had no identifying marks. Slowly, he placed it into G'Kar's viewer.

  A female Narn appeared on the screen, and she was breathtaking. She had on a clinging red dress that hugged her slender body. This couldn't be G'Kar's wife, could it? Garibaldi dismissed the idea out of hand, because if this was G'Kar's wife, he wouldn't have left her for months at a time.

  "Hello, G'Kar," sneered the woman. "Do you recognize me? I am Mi'Ra, daughter of Du'Rog. I speak for my mother, Ka'Het, and my brother, T'Kog. We are all that is left of the family you destroyed. Yes, G'Kar, we are beaten, and our titles and lands are gone. Our father is dead, his name disgraced, and his attempt to kill you from the grave was a failure. To our shame, every assassin has failed."

  Garibaldi grumbled a curse under his breath, because he had never heard of any of these murder attempts. The delectable Narn got really angry at that point and went on to threaten G'Kar's life. She vowed a Shon'Kar against him, as if they didn't have enough of those. Well, thought Garibaldi, this certainly qualified as a personal problem.

  When she pulled out a sword and sliced open her own forehead, Garibaldi's jaw flopped open. The viewer blinked off at the same time that his link chimed, Garibaldi yanked the data crystal from the viewer and put it in his pocket before he answered his link.

  "Garibaldi here."

  "Welch," came the reply. "We have a problem, sir. Attaché Na'Toth is not in her quarters."

  The security chief headed for the door. "All right, find her. In fact, I'm sending out a security alert. Detail all Narns for questioning!"

  Ambassador Londo Mollari preened in front of his vanity mirror, shaping thick strands of black hair into dagger-like spikes. They framed his rotund face like the rays of Proxima Centauri. He touched a manicured finger to his tongue and ran the saliva over an unruly eyebrow, then he adjusted his sash and the medals on his burgundy jacket. He had to look good tonight—it was a holiday on Babylon 5! Summer Solstice, they called it, and he'd had no idea that solar astronomy was so popular on Earth. At a holiday commemorating the sun, what could be better than having one's hair look like the rays of the sun?

  Londo chuckled and took a sip of chardonnay wine, which he was drinking in honor of Earth's fiesta. Then he checked his purse to make sure he had his casino tokens, his winnings from the night before. But he didn't plan to gamble too much, not when the ladies were in a holiday spirit and there were exotic refreshments to sample. His experience with Terran beverages had proven them to be sweetly innocent in taste yet quite intoxicating in effect. A perfect drink with which to woo the ladies, he thought with another chuckle.

  Slapping his ample belly and thinking about his wonderful meal of woolly embryo and brain pudding, Londo strode to the door. He began to hum a waltz melody, thinking that he might do some dancing tonight, and he was still humming when he stepped into the corridor. He didn't know there was someone waiting for him until the hand cupped his mouth and the knife slipped under his double chin.

  "Quiet," hissed Na'Toth. "Your life depends upon it."

  Londo's first instinct was to fight back, but the strong female was thirty years younger than he, and she had the advantage. Still, he couldn't remain quiet. "You fool!" he sputtered through her fingers. "What's the matter with you?"

  The knife point pricked his chin, and it felt as if he had cut himself shaving. "Open the door," she whispered.

  The Centauri did as he was told, because he didn't wish to be slaughtered in the hallway, for all to see. If he was to die, at least let it be privately and with some dignity. He jabbed his identicard into the lock, and the door slid open.
/>
  Na'Toth guided him into his quarters, taking a glance down the hallway to make sure they weren't seen. As soon as the door shut behind them, she pressed the knife closer to his throat.

  "What's the matter with you?" he asked again in his peculiar accent. "If you need to go to this much trouble to kill me, just kill me and be done with it!"

  She gripped his ornate collar and shook him. "You killed G'Kar, didn't you?"

  He laughed at the absurdity of it. "Kill G'Kar? Many times in my dreams, but he's still alive, isn't he?" He stared at her wary eyes. "Do you mean G'Kar is dead?"

  She glowered at him. "You don't know anything about it, I suppose."

  "I swear I don't! How did it happen?"

  "Much more quickly than your death will." Na'Toth pressed the knife into his throat.

  There came a door chime, followed by a banging on the door. "Londo!" called Garibaldi. "Are you in there?"

  The Centauri grinned at his attacker, showing a pair of sharp canine teeth. "Do you wish to be a fugitive or not?" he whispered to Na'Toth.

  She pulled back the knife and stuck it into her sheath. "I can't kill you without proof. But if I ever find any proof..."

  "It will be false," claimed Londo. He straightened his jacket and wiped a few beads of blood off his chin. Then he went to his control panel and opened the door.

  Garibaldi rushed in, followed by two more security officers clutching PPG rifles, and the chief didn't look surprised to find Na'Toth there.

  "I thought you had things to do," he said to the Narn.

  "This is one of them," she answered.

  Londo cleared his throat and loosened his collar. "I told her, and I'll tell you, Garibaldi—I had nothing to do with G'Kar's murder. In fact, I just found out about it."

  "Yes, he was gunned down while walking along the mall," said Garibaldi.

  Londo shivered. "Ooooh, disgusting. I hope it didn't spoil your Terran holiday." Then the Centauri thought about what he had just heard. "You mean, the Narn ambassador was shot down in plain view, like a dog, and you don't know who did it? You are slipping, Garibaldi."

  The security chief looked sheepish. "That's not really how he died."

  "Oh!" said Londo with disappointment. "Now you're playing games with me, hoping to trip me up. It won't work. In this matter, I am as dumb as you are!"

  Na'Toth scowled. "If it wasn't you, if it wasn't one of our enemies, then who was it?"

  Londo cocked his head, trying not to smile. The idea of never having to see G'Kar's smirking face again had its appeal, but there would be a price for such relief. First, there would be the inevitable suspicion cast upon him and all Centauri, and that would grow worse if no one was arrested. Second, there was bound to be much gnashing of teeth and rattling of swords from the Narn Regime. And finally there would be a new Narn ambassador to B5, one who might prove more unpleasant and pig-headed than G'Kar, if that was possible.

  The ambassador lowered his head. "Of course, I will relay my condolences to the Narn Regime, but I ought to wait until there has been official confirmation."

  G'Kar pointed toward the Centauri's desk. "Check your terminal in a while, and there should be an announcement from Captain Sheridan. He scheduled a memorial service for G'Kar at 18:00 hours tomorrow in the theater on Green-9. Don't expect a lot of details about this—we really don't know what happened. It may have been an accident."

  Now Londo permitted himself a smile. "I don't think so. A man like G'Kar always dies badly."

  Na'Toth glared at him, and her hand flew to the hilt of her knife. Londo laughed. "Did you really think G'Kar would die of old age, in a soft bed somewhere?"

  "No," Na'Toth admitted, letting her hand drop from the hilt of the knife.

  "I have sources of information," said Londo Mollari. "Permit me to ask around a bit, purely in the interest of aiding Mr. Garibaldi. Perhaps I can uncover some tidbit of knowledge that has gone unnoticed."

  "Just watch yourself," Garibaldi cautioned him. "We don't want to lose any more ambassadors."

  That wiped the smile off Londo's face. "Thank you for spoiling my evening."

  "Think nothing of it." Garibaldi turned to the Narn attaché. "Na'Toth, I think you had better come with me. I have a few questions for you, based on some new information."

  Na'Toth said nothing to apologize for the unprovoked attack on Londo; in fact, she glared at him for a moment before brushing past the security officers. Garibaldi and his officers followed her out, and the door clamped shut behind them.

  Ambassador Mollari heaved a worried sigh and poured himself another glass of wine. The death of an ambassador, even a Narn ambassador, was bound to create wounds that might take years to heal. It could set back the peace negotiations that staggered forward in starts and stops, and scare away the League of Non-aligned Planets. The death of more than one ambassador could doom the entire mission of Babylon 5.

  Londo set down his wine glass and hurried to his communications panel. He pressed the panel and snapped, "Vir! Come to my quarters immediately."

  "But, sir," answered the voice of his portly aide, "I thought we had agreed to meet in the casino." Londo heard a shriek of laughter in the background.

  "The fiesta is over for us. We have intelligence to gather. I take it you do not know that G'Kar is gone?"

  "Is he here yet?" asked Vir, having a hard time coping with the noise in the casino. "No, I haven't seen him."

  "Never mind," said Londo. "You'll hear about it soon enough. Come to my quarters, as I ordered. And look out for suspicious persons, especially suspicious Narn persons. Mollari out."

  Hmmm, thought Londo Mollari with a wry smile, they suspect another Narn. But they hadn't made any arrests or even admitted that it was murder, so their case must be lacking. He would help them if he could because he didn't want to feel any more Narn blades at his throat. On the other hand, if this incident were to mushroom out of control and cause chaos on the Narn Council, that could lead to a weakened grip on some of the Narn colonies, which was not such a bad thing. It might be a good time to foment insurrection on those colonies stolen from the Centauri.

  Londo Mollari sipped his wine thoughtfully.

  chapter 3

  "I have things to do!" said Na'Toth as she planted her feet firmly in the center of the corridor and refused to budge.

  "Like roughing up the ambassador," said Garibaldi. "If you really want to find G'Kar's murderer, you'll make time to come with me."

  She lowered her jaw slightly. "You know who did it?"

  "Let's just say, I have a pretty good guess. Come on, the captain is waiting."

  When Garibaldi and Na'Toth reached the captain's office, Ivanova was just completing her report. Basically, the repair crew, the rescue crew, and the reconnaissance ship had uncovered a whole bunch of nothing. There was nothing wrong with the docking mechanism or the airlock, and there was nothing left of the small craft and her pilot, except for a billion particles scattered through space. It would take days to gather enough of these particles to analyze them, and she had assigned crews to the task.

  All eyes turned to Garibaldi, and he extracted the unmarked data crystal from his pocket. "This is one of the crystals G'Kar left on his desk. I popped it into his viewer because it didn't have any serial numbers or markings on it."

  "I always clearly label our data crystals," said Na'Toth, bristling at the idea that she would be such an inefficient administrator.

  "I'm sure you do," said Garibaldi, "but I don't think you've seen this crystal."

  He activated the captain's viewer behind his desk and inserted the crystal. He heard several intakes of breath when the vibrant Narn woman in the red gown appeared on the screen.

  "Hello, G'Kar," she began. "Do you recognize me? I am Mi'Ra, daughter of Du'Rog. I speak for my mother, Ka'Het, and my brother, T'Kog. We are all that is left of the family you destroyed."

  Na'Toth slammed her fist on the back of Sheridan's chair and cursed colorfully. Garibaldi instantly paused
the playback.

  "I take it you know this woman?" asked Captain Sheridan.

  Na'Toth's lips trembled, whether from anger or sorrow it was hard to tell. "I know what is coming next."

  Garibaldi resumed the playback, and the Narn in the red dress swore the Shon'Kar against the dead man. She invoked the Prophets to allow her to kill him with her own hands. Garibaldi didn't warn them that she was about to cut a gash in her own forehead, and there were more abrupt intakes of breath. The playback ended, leaving the room in silence.

  "Charming," said Ivanova.

  Na'Toth stalked to the door, and Garibaldi headed her off. "After what's happened, I don't want to make things hard for you, Na'Toth, but I want you to tell us everything you know."

  The angry Na'Toth stared from one human to another, and Garibaldi had a terrible fear that she would smash his head and bolt for the door.

  Finally Na'Toth growled deep in her throat and began to pace Sheridan's tasteful office. "I had just arrived on Babylon 5. I had never met G'Kar, but I was excited about my new position and eager to prove myself. At that time, Du'Rog, her father, was dying. As his dying wish, he hired an assassin from the Thenta Ma'Kur to come to the station to kill G'Kar. To make sure that G'Kar suffered and knew why he was to die, Du'Rog sent him a message like that one, on a data crystal."

  She laughed without humor. "In fact, G'Kar thought I was the assassin! What a fool Du'Rog was, as his assassin would have succeeded without the advance warning."

  "Why didn't you tell me about this murder attempt?" said Garibaldi.

  "It was the time of the religious festival," answered the Narn, "and you had your own problems. Besides, this was a private affair. G'Kar did cause grave wrong to the Du'Rog family, and their vengeance was justified. We managed to stop them the first time, but this time they apparently..." Na'Toth bowed her majestic head, unable to finish the thought.

  Captain Sheridan scowled. "So this is another incident of Shon'Kar? I had heard the Narns were civilized, but vengeance killings and blood feuds went out with the Middle Ages! They won't be tolerated on this station."