Read A Call to Arms for Free Online

interesting.
    This woman coming into the inspection area now was worth a second look. She was humanoid, though not Human. Small but striking, just over five feet tall, golden-eyed, dressed in dark leathers and bright, flexible metals. She had wild, raven hair that fell down over her shoulders and a to-hell-with-you air about her that was intriguing, to say the least.
    Her papers said she was Dureena Nafeel. Home planet, Zander Prime. Zack thought he had heard that name before, but he couldn’t place it. There were so many planets! Maybe he’d look it up later when he had some free time.
    Dureena took long strides through the scanners. A monitor near Zack read WEAPONS VIOLATION. Zack stepped forward toward her.
    “Ma’am? Can I see you over here?”
    He escorted her to a private area near customs.
    “What’s the matter?” Dureena asked with a touch of defiance in her voice.
    “I guess you didn’t read the postings outside,” Zack said. “Babylon 5 has a strict weapons policy. Now, either give me whatever you’re carrying, or I’ll have to ask you to leave the station.”
    She studied him with all the interest she’d give to a bug, then pulled a long-bladed knife from her belt, handed it to him hilt-first, and started to move away.
    Zack, still keeping his voice pleasant, said, “All of it. You can pick it up when you leave.”
    The woman looked from him to the guards, as though assessing how much trouble it would be to take them out. She seemed to think it wouldn’t be difficult at all, but decided it would stir up too much trouble. This was neither the time nor the place.
    There, in front of Zack’s astonished eyes, she pulled a short sword from a hiding place behind her back, another blade from her belt. With a flick of the wrist she produced a wickedly curved knife from each boot, a garrote from around her waist... Before she was done, nearly a dozen weapons, exotic and lethal, had been added to the collection on the countertop.
    “That’s it,” she said with finality.
    “Thanks a lot,” Zack replied.
    “Can I go now?”
    “Be my guest.”
    She went through the customs barrier, then stopped, apparently bewildered by the proliferation of corridors and levels that lay ahead of her. Near her, two small humanoids were playing a game with colored bones. A panatos salesman was offering his small, warm buns. Passing close by were oddly assorted couples, most notably a gigantic woman in a garish green shift paired with a very small man in a simulated leopard-skin jumpsuit. Where did that duo come from?
    There was a babble of conversation covering the whole auditory range, from bass grumblings to high-pitched twitters and squeaks. And the colors! Bright, flashing, constantly shifting. It was difficult to make out shapes; everything became a pandemonium of coalescing images.
    And where was she supposed to go in all this?
    She turned to Zack. “Where do the lost people go?”
    “Who?” Zack said.
    “The forgotten. The castoffs. The neglected. The lost people.”
    Zack nodded in understanding. “Down Below. Brown Sector.”
    With the barest nod of her head in acknowledgment, Dureena strode off. Zack watched her go, wondering if this one was going to be trouble.
    He wasn’t the only one watching Dureena on the day of her arrival.
     

Chapter 9
     
    On Excalibur , Sheridan walked down the long, curving, evenly lit corridor looking for an empty sleeping cubicle. There were plenty of them: Excalibur was still an empty ship, without her complement of soldiers aboard. He could have any room he cared to take, or any ten of them, for that matter. They were all the same, anyhow, without any personal touches yet.
    “I guess this’ll do as well as any other,” Sheridan said to himself, choosing one of the sleeping cubicles at random. It was comforting to him, the simplicity of the small, rectangular space. There was nothing in it but a bunk bed, a desk, a StellarCom monitor, and two chairs. There was an adjoining