Book II of The Passing of the Techno-Mages Summoning Light By Jeanne Cavelos Based on an outline by J. Michael Straczynski A Del Rey® Book THE BALLANTINE PUBLISHING GROUP • NEW YORK Published by Ballantine Books: CREATING BABYLON 5 by David Bassom Babylon 5 Season-by-Season Guides by Jane Killick SIGNS AND PORTENTS THE COMING OF THE SHADOWS POINT OF NO RETURN NO SURRENDER, NO RETREAT THE WHEEL OF FIRE BABYLON 5 SECURITY MANUAL BABYLON 5: IN THE BEGINNING by Peter David BABYLON 5: THIRDSPACE by Peter David BABYLON 5: A CALL TO ARMS by Robert Sheckley The Psi Corps Trilogy by J. Gregory Keyes BABYLON 5: DARK GENESIS BABYLON 5: DEADLY RELATIONS BABYLON 5: FINAL RECKONING Legions of Fire by Peter David BABYLON 5: THE LONG NIGHT OF CENTAURI PRIME BABYLON 5: ARMIES OF LIGHT AND DARK BABYLON 5: OUT OF THE DARKNESS The Passing of the Techno-Mages by Jeanne Cavelos BABYLON 5: CASTING SHADOWS BABYLON 5: SUMMONING LIGHT BABYLON 5: INVOKING DARKNESS* *forthcoming Books published by The Ballantine Publishing Group are available at quantity discounts on bulk purchases for premium, educational, fund-raising, and special sales use. For details, please call 1-800-733-3000. Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If this book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as "unsold or destroyed" and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it. A Del Rey* Book Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group TM & copyright © 2001 by Warner Bros. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Del Rey is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc. BABYLON 5, characters, names and all related indicia are trademarks of Warner Bros. © 2001. www.randomhouse.com/delrey/ Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001116594 ISBN 0-345-42722-X Manufactured in the United States of America First Ballantine Books Edition: July 2001 10 987654321 To Jamie Ferris, friends forever acknowledgments Thanks again to J. Michael Straczynski for allowing me to add a small piece to the Babylon 5 universe. Thanks also to all the wonderful actors on Babylon 5 and Crusade who brought their characters to inspiring life. Thanks to my group of Babylon 5 experts, for keeping me accurate and alerting me to some intriguing possibilities: K. Stoddard Hayes, K. Waldo Ricke, Merryl Gross, Don Kinney, John Donigan, Patricia Jackson, Alec Ecyler, Penny Rothkopf, William (Pete) Pettit, Marty Gingras, Allen Wil-kins, and Bill Hartman. For generously sharing their scientific expertise, thanks to Tom Thatcher, Dr. Charles Lurio, Elizabeth Bartosz, Dr. Stephanie Ross, Dr. Michael Blumlein, Dr. Korey Moeller, Dr. Stuart Perm, Dr. Dennis C. Hwang, Bruce Goatly, Megan Gentry, Dr. David Loffredo, Dr. Gary Day, Dr. Reed Riddle, Beth Dibble, Dr. Gail Dolbear, Dr. John Schilling, Britta Serog, and Dr. Paul Viscuso. Thanks to those who provided extremely useful information on a variety of bizarre topics: Julia Duncan, Thomas Seay, JoAnn Forgit, Matt Winn, Deirdre Saoirse, Marty Hiller, Elaine Isaak, Susan Winston, and Tony Gangi. Thanks to all the people, including many of those listed above, who read pieces of this book in manuscript form and gave very helpful feedback: Keith Demanche, Barnaby vii vm ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Rapoport, Martha Adams, Michael Flint, Keith Maxwell, and Margo Cavelos. Thanks to Sue Gagnon and the rest of the staff at Saint Anselm College's Geisel Library. Thanks to my husband for telling me about Confederate General John Bankhead Magruder, an amateur actor whose big act was deceiving Union General George McClellan, and about U.S. General George S. Patton, whose phantom army in Britain decoyed the Germans. An additional, passionate thanks to him for keeping me stocked with Russell Stover chocolate, Diet Coke, and chocolate chip ice cream throughout the writing of this book. Thanks to my agent, Lori Perkins, and my editor, Steve Saffel. And thanks to Igmoe, my iguana, for redeeming himself after his poor behavior during the writing of Book 1 by being quite a good boy this time around. WHAT ARE YOU? The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance—it is the illusion of knowledge. —DANIEL J. BOORSTIN January 2259 chapter 1 The ship sang of the beauty of order, the harmony of the spheres. The peace of its silent passage through space, the symmetry of its form, the unity of its functioning wove through its melody. But within the song, Kosh was disturbed. The maelstrom was spreading. Only a short time ago, the forces of chaos had been limited to their ancient home of Z'ha'dum. While that planet remained their stronghold, they had now spread to over a dozen worlds in the surrounding systems. Kosh altered his ship's song, slowing its speed, drawing it carefully closer to the fourth planet orbiting the star called Thenothk. Near the end of the last war with the ancient enemy, Kosh had visited this place. It had been a sphere of red in the darkness of space, a frigid, barren desert, unable to sustain life. He had left a buoy nonetheless, and over time, it had perceived changes. Soon after the buoy had begun its observations, a great ship had arrived, an engine of transformation sent by the ancient enemy. It was but one of many sent into the systems surrounding their home, designed to create habitable environments for them and their allies. Finally they had realized their vulnerability in remaining concentrated on a single planet. Over the years, the great engine released many smaller ones, in wave upon wave upon wave, each designed to perform a 4 SUMMONING LIGHT specific function. Some took up residence above, some burrowed below, some spread over the land. The planet warmed. Ice frozen for eons melted. Floods raced across the lowlands. The atmosphere thickened, and storms raged through it. Life-forms were seeded and flourished, performing necessary chemical reactions. When their purpose was accomplished, they were replaced with others, one species after the next, until the work of transformation was complete. Gradually the storms lessened, conditions stabilized. From chaos, order came. As was inevitable. Then other ships began to arrive, and a settlement was built. While the ancient enemy preferred to live underground, they built the majority of this settlement above, erecting structures that would feel comfortable and familiar to many of the younger races. It was to be a place where they could meet and interact with allies, where the maelstrom could present itself with a false face and draw others into its grasp. The small settlement quickly grew, spreading its tentacles in chaotic form, until now over twelve million of various species lived there. Several other settlements appeared as well, where more secret work took place. Now the planet was busy with activity, and Kosh took care to make sure his ship was not observed. He directed it to extrude several new buoys, which would take up positions around Thenothk 4 and provide more complete information about the activity occurring within the thick haze of the atmosphere. As the war cascaded from hidden attacks to outright aggression, the Vorlons would need to know their ancient enemies' actions. A new harmonic entered the ship's song, alerting him to the presence of several other probes. They were small, nearly as small as Kosh's buoys, and they orbited a bit closer to the planet than the Vorlon buoys would. He recognized them immediately. He had come across the probes of the fabulists numerous times. They too observed many things in many Babylon 5 5 places. Apparently, they too found the activity here of interest. To Kosh, the probes held no negative significance. But some among the Vorlons, he knew, would say the probes revealed a further connection between the fabulists and the forces of chaos, an interest that could perhaps lead to alliance. Kosh feared that talk of destroying the fabulists would gain strength. Their position was precarious. They carried great power; they could be the pivot on which the war turned. The Vorlons would not allow that pivot to turn against them. At the fabulists' recent assemblage, their leaders had decreed that they would go into hiding, that they would leave the coming war for others to fight. Although the plans of the fabulists were always difficult to decipher, Kosh believed this was their true intent. Yet others believed the plan a deception. Kosh had watched as the fabulists left the assemblage and journeyed back to their homes. A few at a time, they destroyed those homes and set out for the place where they would gather in preparation for their migration. They gathered slowly to disguise their mass activity. Yet soon they must leave, or more among the Vorlons would doubt their intentions. A dissonance entered the ship's song, and Kosh saw through one of his buoys that a jagged black silhouette was rising up out of the thick greyish atmosphere. If any would detect him, it would be this monstrosity created by the maelstrom. He would observe it through the currents of the buoy without revealing himself. Kosh directed his ship to withdraw to a safer distance. It obeyed eagerly. Obedience was its greatest joy. The great black vessel screamed up out of the gravity well. It was an abomination, a failed technology that required at its center a living, intelligent being, enslaved to the needs of the ship and the directives ...
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