Deadly Relations by J. Gregory Keyes

Author:J. Gregory Keyes [Keyes, J. Gregory]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, SciFi, Babylon 5
ISBN: 9780345427168
Goodreads: 715060
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 1999-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

A week later, they found time again. His roommate had leave, and they lay together twisted in his sheets. He knew how she felt, but he liked having her in his room. When they were away, in Geneva or farther afield, it was like a strange dream. Here, she seemed part of his life. It was comfortable, real. It helped him imagine their future together and make that real, too.

Tonight she was restless, more restless than she had been a week before. Her unease felt like a rotten spot in his own chest.

“Alfie—have you ever considered—have you ever considered not joining the Corps?”

“Not joining? I’m already in the Corps.”

“Only until you finish the academy. Then you can choose.”

“Choose what? The sleepers?”

“I know. It’s just that—you can’t see it, Alfie. You remember that movie you showed me? Rashomon?”

“Sure.”

“You grew up in the Corps. I know you love it. But—you know, you must know—that they only showed you one side of the story, don’t you? You know that there’s a whole world out there that has nothing to do with the Corps.”

“What happened, Liz? Did one of the instructors—”

“Nothing in particular happened, Alfie. It’s just that I don’t like being controlled, and the Corps is all about control. It’s about—”

“It’s about being telepaths,” Al said. “Liz, that’s what we are. There isn’t any place out there for us. Nothing. The Corps is all there is, and I know there are some things about it you don’t like, but—”

“How do you know that there’s nothing else? How would you know? All of your life you’ve been taught one thing—that the Corps is the only way. Don’t you see how that serves them?”

“What ‘them’? There is no them. The Corps is us, Liz—”

“Oh yeah?” She sat up in bed. “When did ‘we’ ever get a vote about the breeding regulations? When did ‘we’ get any say whatsoever? When did we get to decide that we can never be lawyers, or stockbrokers, or politicians—”

“That’s EA law, Liz.”

“It’s all the same, Alfie. It’s all control, and we just do what they say.”

“Are you saying that I don’t have the brains to know I’m being controlled?” Al asked, suddenly feeling a little angry. “That I believe the Corps is best only because I’ve been told it is? Liz, I’ve been out there. I’ve seen what happens to our kind without the Corps. I saw—”

“You still saw only what they wanted you to see.”

“No. I went after Brazg and Nielsson on my own. Nielsson was sick. He would have killed me. The whole underground is like that.”

“So much from a single example! You were trying to take his freedom. Of course he—”

“Nielsson was a criminal. What freedom do you think a criminal should have?”

She looked down at him, her eyes ablaze, and he was suddenly, terribly frightened. Not of her, but for her.

But then she bent and kissed his forehead. “I’m sorry, Alfie. I upset you, and I didn’t mean to do that. It’s just that sometimes I want you to see more than you do, just for a moment.

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