Free To Dream in the City of Sorrows by Babylon 5 Page B

them, so seamlessly were they set into the walls.
    Sinclair looked around for a place to sit, but it was an empty room with the same dark, polished and featureless walls as the hallways, illuminated by only one spot of light shining down from above. It was uncomfortably reminiscent of–
    No, Sinclair thought. It was pointless to go there. His dreams were merely dreams now, and the past was the past. He closed his eyes and tried to quell the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He would pay his respects to Jenimer, express due gratitude, and get the hell out of here.
    The doors opened and Rathenn reappeared. “This way, Ambassador.”
    Sinclair walked slowly across the room, his muffled footsteps sounding strange to his ears in the oppressive atmosphere of the palace, and stepped through the doors into another antechamber. Rathenn closed the doors behind them, and for a moment it was pitch dark. Then a set of double doors opened in front of them and Sinclair was momentarily blinded by the bright sunlight that streamed in. He took a couple of steps forward, and when he could see again, he found himself in an unexpectedly pleasant, well-furnished room with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on a spectacular view of the distant skyline of Yedor, and the Tchok’an mountains beyond.
    In front of those windows sat Jenimer, the Chosen One, a rather frail-looking, elderly Minbari male. Flanking Jenimer, to Sinclair’s astonishment, were Delenn; Kosh, the Vorlon ambassador to Babylon 5, a second Vorlon he did not know; and another older Minbari male. Rathenn took his place with that group.
    Sinclair smiled a greeting to Delenn. It was still a shock to see his friend with her new half-Minbari, half-Human appearance. Delenn smiled in return and then looked down.
    “Ambassador Sinclair,” Jenimer said in a voice far more robust than his frail appearance. “I thank you for coming.”
    Obviously this meeting was going to take place with everyone standing but Jenimer.
    “May I please start by apologizing,” Jenimer continued, “for the way you have been treated since coming to Minbar. I assure you that Minbari hospitality is usually far more generous and gentle to visitors. But then this is not the first time that you have been mistreated while within Minbari jurisdiction, is it? That you do not despise us, but indeed came here willing to work with us, is truly something of a miracle.”
    “You are most gracious, Chosen One,” Sinclair said. “I have the greatest respect for the Minbari people, and if I may say so, a certain fondness as well.”
    Jenimer smiled. “I hope you continue to feel that way when you find out that you have not been told everything about why we asked you to be assigned here.”
    “And why I’ve been kept in virtual isolation since coming here?”
    Jenimer looked a little surprised at Sinclair’s directness. “That also,” he said apologetically, “though I must say in our defense that not all of that was our fault. Your own government seems to have its own reasons for keeping you out of contact with your world – though I won’t deny we were quick to take advantage of it.”
    Sinclair folded his arms. “Toward what end, Chosen One?” He hoped such direct questioning didn’t break some Minbari rule of etiquette for addressing the Minbari leader, but he had a lot to do before leaving, and wanted to accelerate the pace of the meeting if he could. He was curious, however, and hoped he could get some answers without hours of meandering Minbari pleasantries first. Sinclair had a feeling that such directness was totally acceptable to this particular Minbari.
    He decided he had called it right when Jenimer responded with a laugh. “I hope you will allow me to introduce everyone here first. You, of course, know Rathenn, and Delenn, and Kosh.”
    Sinclair nodded to each of these in turn.
    “So let me also introduce you to the Vorlon ambassador to Minbar, Ulkesh Naranek.”
    Sinclair turned to