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- Against the Odds
-
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- Overview
-
- Garibaldi experiences an alien encounter chillingly similar to what
- he went through years ago on Mars, when he first met former Babylon
- 5 commander Jeffrey Sinclair.
-
- Issue 6 (July 1995)
-
- Setting: Before [7]"The Coming of Shadows"
- Writer: Tim DeHaas
- Premise: J. Michael Straczynski
- Penciller: John Ridgway
- Inker: C-S. Hampton
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Synopsis
-
- Garibaldi and Keffer climb out of the crashed ship and leave quickly,
- in case their attacker comes looking for them. Garibaldi makes certain
- to set the ship to self-destruct. As they walk away, Garibaldi
- mentions that he's seen a ship like the attacker's before. Years ago,
- on Mars...
-
- Two young officers, Foster and Sanchez, waited for Lt. Commander
- Sinclair and Garibaldi in the Mars spaceport. Garibaldi turned out to
- be unconscious in the passenger compartment of his ship; Sinclair woke
- him and tossed him to Foster and Sanchez to sober up. "Earthforce may
- have given me this make-work mission to keep me out of the way,"
- Sinclair said, "but by God, I _will_ accomplish it."
-
- Much later, Garibaldi flew Sinclair and the two others over the
- surface of Mars, searching for something. Garibaldi notes that
- Sinclair wasn't what he expected -- after what he'd heard about
- Sinclair being a hero of the Battle of the Line, he hadn't expected
- someone stiffer than a corpse. Sinclair refused to tell Garibaldi what
- they were looking for, and even filed fake flight plans so nobody else
- would know where they were.
-
- On the fifth day of searching, the ship's navigational systems and
- inertial dampers suddenly went offline. Garibaldi managed to crashland
- the ship, wrecking it, without killing everyone -- but Sanchez' leg
- was broken, and Foster didn't survive. Sanchez clearly blamed
- Garibaldi.
-
- Sinclair and Garibaldi went to get help, a fifty-mile trek across the
- surface. They weren't far when Sanchez linked in to report that all
- the ship's systems had suddenly started working again -- evidence that
- Garibaldi wasn't at fault after all. Sanchez picked up a dust storm on
- the ship's scanners; Sinclair and Garibaldi sought cover.
-
- Keffer and Garibaldi reach the top of a large rock formation
- overlooking the crash site. From that high vantage point, Keffer can
- see what looks like a small Centauri settlement in the distance. But
- Garibaldi's attention is elsewhere: the Shadow ship has landed next to
- the crash site, and humanoid figures have emerged, examining what
- little remains of the wreckage. "Did you see something like that on
- Mars?" Keffer asks, staring down at the Shadow ship. "That and
- _more_," Garibaldi answers, face full of fear. He says there's no hope
- of a rescue, because he didn't tell anyone where he was going.
-
- On the ground, the remains of the crashed ship suddenly vanish without
- a trace, as does the impact ditch. "They're getting rid of the
- evidence," Garibaldi says. "They don't want anyone to know they were
- here."
-
- The figures seem to decide that someone survived the crash, and head
- purposefully toward the rock formation. "Let's get the hell out of
- here!" says Garibaldi as he and Keffer scramble down the other side of
- the formation.
-
- Backplot
-
- * Earthforce used to give Sinclair busywork missions to keep him out
- of the way, suggesting he was something of a troublemaker.
- * Garibaldi has seen a Shadow ship, if only a small one, on Mars.
-
- Unanswered Questions
-
- * Who are the beings on the Shadow ship?
- * What was Sinclair supposed to be searching for?
- * What else did Garibaldi see on Mars?
- * What caused Garibaldi's ship to malfunction years ago?
- * Does whatever Garibaldi saw mean that the Shadows have been active
- for many years? (See also episode [8]"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum")
-
- Analysis
-
- * If Sinclair and Gariabldi found a Shadow ship on Mars, and
- especially if they were able to destroy it somehow, that might
- explain why the Shadows haven't attacked any human ships in the
- series so far (as of [9]"Knives.")
- * Of course, there's no evidence that Garibaldi saw a _functioning_
- Shadow ship on Mars; maybe he and Sinclair found an ancient crash
- site, the occupants long since dead or vanished -- which would
- have given Garibaldi the opportunity to explore inside. That may
- even have been what Sinclair was sent to look for.
-
- Notes
-
- * Keffer has also seen a Shadow ship before, in [10]"A Distant
- Star," though it was a large cruiser rather than the smaller
- variety in this story.
-
- jms speaks
-
- * Issues 6-9 of the B5 comic from DC will focus on how Sinclair and
- Garibaldi met and formed their friendship.
- (This is based on a premise from me, so it's canon.)
-
-
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- Last update: October 30, 1996
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