| In all his
dreams he had never imagined it could be so quiet. Sheridan stepped from his shuttle and walked through the docking bay. There was no one here now. In his time it was near impossible to walk the corridors without bumping into someone. For twenty-five years humans and aliens passed through the station, an average of a quarter-million life-forms aboard every minute of every day. Now he was the only one to dock here. There was a small shut-down crew whose job would soon be done. And then it would be over. It was nearly over for him too. "Have you ever walked this station, end to end?" The voice at his shoulder made him turn. "Michael... I thought...." "You thought I was back on Minbar." His old friend shook his head. "I know you too well. I knew you'd try to leave without saying goodbye so I followed you." For a long time they regarded one another, twenty four years of history in that shared gaze. "So... have you?" John nodded, smiling. "Once." "Do you have time to do it again?" He looked within himself for the answer, but shook his head. "I don't think so." Michael almost choked on the lump in his throat. But he reached out, and slipped his hand into that of his former captain. "A little way?" * They reached Corianus Six and Sheridan brought the White Star shuttle to a halt. With a quiet instruction, he shut it all down. They sat together, on the step up to the command stage, John resting in Michael's arms as he had so often so very long ago. His eyes closed of their own accord, and his grip loosened on Garibaldi's hand. 'Who are you? What do you want? Where are you going?' Both heads turned when Lorien stepped up close to them. Crouching by them, he smiled. "Did you think we had forgotten you?" he asked John. Slowly, John shook his head. He glanced up at Michael before asking, "Can I come back?" Lorien shook his head once. "No. This journey is at an end. Another one is just beginning." Michael felt the unguarded tear slide from his eye and he lifted a hand to wipe it away. John stopped him, and in its place brushed the moisture aside with his fingertip. "We knew this would happen," he reminded Michael. "We talked about this moment." Michael nodded. They had. They'd known. It didn't make it any easier. "I'll never forget you." The promise didn't seem to mean much when the universe itself would always remember this one man. "I'll never stop loving you." John's hand stroked over Michael's face, then dropped to his own lap. In the silence that followed, Lorien touched his long fingers to Sheridan's forehead. "He has stopped." "Will you take him?" "We will. We will take his body," he regarded Michael with sadness. "But you will always carry his memory, and his heart." * And in the Epsilon Sector the station, that had lived and breathed to the rhythm of John Sheridan's heartbeat, died with him. |