Free To Dream in the City of Sorrows by Babylon 5

other since their mother’s funeral, barely speaking to each other then.
    Young Willie, immature and irresponsible, jumping from this job to that, working just long enough to get the money to travel aimlessly around, leaving Marcus to try to hold everything together on his own.
    “He probably wants money,” Marcus muttered angrily. He considered simply erasing the message, not even listening to it, but in the end, he called it up.
    His brother’s face smiled nervously at him from the screen. “Hello, Marcus. This is expensive so I’ll make it short, especially since I know you’ll probably just hit the erase button and not even hear this. Well, hello if you’re there. I’ve been on a real tour of the Solar System since I saw you last – saw all those sights we used to talk about wanting to see, remember? I’ll tell you all about it when I see you next. But I just wanted to let you know where I’m going next, in case you need to contact me.” He paused, then broke into a big grin. “Minbar! I’ve always wanted to go there, and I’ve been learning the languages. Well, I’m running out of time here. I’ll try to write you, or better yet, I hope somehow I’ll see you soon. Bye.”
    Marcus stared dumbly at the blank screen for a moment. Minbar! He half suspected his brother was going there just to irritate him. As far as Marcus was concerned, the Minbari had a lot to answer for. Their bloody, pointless war had dragged him into military service unwillingly, killed several of his best friends, and had nearly destroyed his parents’ company.
    He counted it a certain measure of payback that the Minbari were among his best customers, sending freighters for regular Q-40 shipments. He always made sure they were charged the allowable maximum – nothing illegal or unethical, mind you, but no breaks, no bargains, no discounts, ever. It rather bothered him that they didn’t seem to mind.
    Minbar. Marcus shook his head. In a strange sort of way, he finally thought, it might do his brother some good. After all, the one thing he knew about the Minbari was their devotion to service, to putting the needs of the community and the family above one’s own selfish interest. Might do him some good at that.
    Marcus looked at the stack of paperwork that he knew would keep him up into the small hours of the night, looked at the meal that didn’t look in the least bit appetizing, and then went over to his desk and reached up to the shelf of real, bound books above it. He pulled down a novel.
    “Just a half hour,” he said to himself, and sat down to read.

C HAPTER 7
    A FULL Minbari day had passed since Sinclair had resigned as ambassador, and he had not yet heard from Rathenn or any other Minbari. No protests, no inquiries, not even a “here’s your hat what’s your hurry?” Perhaps he had committed so serious a transgression against the famed Minbari obsession with serving society above all else that he was now deemed persona non grata.
    He didn’t know and at the moment it didn’t matter as long as they didn’t try to interfere with his plans for leaving. For the first time since being recalled to Earth and then sent to Minbar, he was feeling genuinely hopeful. He had managed to book passage on a Narn transport ship which was departing the next day for Babylon 5 – for what he had come to consider as home.
    As the son of a military man, and then as a career officer himself, home had always been a transient thing, the place you stayed for just a short while until the next assignment. He had lived in numerous places on both Mars and Earth while growing up, and then had hung his hat in a hundred more locales throughout the solar system and explored space since he had himself joined Earthforce.
    Odd that the one place he had truly come to think of as home was Babylon 5. He had been there only a little over two years, and had been other places just as long. But Babylon 5 represented something more to him than all the other