lurkers-guide/ftp/Synopses/001.Midnight-on-the-Firing-Line

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   Midnight on the Firing Line, as well as the Babylon 5 series, starts
   out at the Ragesh 3 colony, a Centauri agricultural colony. The colony
   finds itself suddenly under attack. As the station in orbit around the
   colony is about to contact its home world, Centauri Prime, the station
   is destroyed.
   
   [INLINE] The attack on Ragesh 3.
   
   Meanwhile, on the Babylon 5 station. Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova, the
   new officer who is second in command of the station, interrupts the
   only quiet, restful part of Commander Jeffrey Sinclair's day--a time
   when he shuts off his comm-link and "escapes" from the rigor of his
   life. "There's a problem," she tells him.
   
   Elsewhere on the station, Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari is having
   a pleasant conversation with Security Chief Michael Garibaldi when
   Londo receives word that the Ragesh 3 colony has been attacked. He's
   informed, however, that nobody knows who the attackers are.
   
   Londo and Sinclair meet concerning the incident. Sinclair tells Londo
   that Earth doesn't know anything more about the incident--the identity
   of the attackers is still a great mystery. Ambassadors Delenn (of the
   Minbari) and G'Kar (of the Narn), offer their condolences and also
   claim to know very little about the attack. Sinclair suggests that an
   emergency meeting of the Council be called to discuss the matter and
   lend aid to the Centauri colony.
   
   Shortly after, on the bridge, Ivanova informs Garibaldi that they've
   received a distress signal from a trading ship near the station. She
   says that at first, she thought the incident might have had something
   to do with the Ragesh 3 incident, but that, instead, the ship claims
   to have been attacked by "raiders." Garibaldi takes a fighter out to
   try to come to the aid of the ship that was attacked. Right after
   Garibaldi leaves the bridge, Talia Winters--the commercial telepath on
   the station--enters the bridge and wants to speak with Ivanova. She
   says that because of Psi Corps regulations, she must report with the
   second in command, but that she hasn't been able to find Ivanova for
   quite a while. Ivanova rudely dismisses Talia, saying that she's
   rather busy right now.
   
   Meanwhile, Sinclair is in his office, watching on "television" the
   latest news about the upcoming presidential election. Ivanova enters,
   and Sinclair informs her that there is not yet any further information
   on the Ragesh 3 incident. Ivanova notices the telecast and finds out
   from Sinclair that the presidential race is very close at the moment.
   
   Londo is in his room when Vir, his gawky assistant, rushes in and
   tells him that a coded broadcast has just been received. As Vir shows
   the broadcast to Londo, Londo sees the incident that we saw at the
   beginning of the episode. He freezes the image of the broadcast and
   enhances the image of one of the attacking ships. He immediately
   recognizes it as a Narn warship, and heads out to confront his enemy
   G'Kar with this newly-found evidence.
   
   Meanwhile, Garibaldi has found the ship that was attacked by the
   raiders. He finds it very badly damaged--and realizes that the weapons
   that were used to attack this ship must have been much stronger than
   the weapons the raiders have previously had.
   
   Londo finds G'Kar and accuses him of deceit--since G'Kar said he
   previously knew nothing of the attack. G'Kar, somewhat surprisingly,
   tells Londo that he has just found out about the attack--but he
   confirms that it was indeed Narn forces that attacked Ragesh 3. "I'm
   sure there's some reasonable explanation," he adds. Londo asks what
   reasonable explanation there could be for attacking a defenseless,
   agricultural colony. G'Kar refers Londo to a similar attack that the
   Centauri made years ago against Narn holdings--and expresses his
   indignity at the former Centauri subjugation of the Narn. One insult
   leads to the next, and a fight breaks out between the two ambassadors.
   The fight is eventually broken up by security personnel, but not
   before G'Kar threatens Londo that the Narn will eventually rise and
   destroy the Centauri.
   
   [INLINE] "The wheel turns, does it not, Ambassador?"
   
   After the fight, Londo meets with Sinclair. He apologizes for his
   actions and says that he won't repeat the incident--but that he _will_
   eventually kill G'Kar. He explains that Centauri have strange
   premonitions of how, and even when, they will die--and that Londo has
   had a dream in which he will eventually die 20 years from now, with
   his hands wrapped around G'Kar's throat and vice-versa. Londo also
   explains that he had a nephew on Ragesh--a nephew for whom he deeply
   cares and is deeply concerned about. He vows that if his nephew has
   been harmed, there will be war--at any cost. He dismisses Sinclair's
   "galactic peace" arguments as nothing but silly paperwork and "games."
   "Only one thing matters: blood," says Londo.
   
   Ivanova and Garibaldi are discussing the raiders' methods. Garibaldi
   says that trade routes are normally kept secret--to prevent the kind
   of attacks that recently happened--and Ivanova and Garibaldi come to
   the conclusion that there must be some leak of information from the
   trading companies.
   
   Meanwhile, Sinclair goes to meet with Ambassador Kosh, the mysterious
   Vorlon representative who must wear an environmental suit at all times
   because of extreme differences between the Vorlons and the other
   races. Sinclair wants to know Kosh's position on the Ragesh incident,
   and asks Kosh if he will support sanctions against the Narn. "They are
   alone. They are a dying people; we should let them pass,"
   enigmatically responds Kosh. "Who?" asks Sinclair. "The Narn or the
   Centauri?" Kosh's simple and almost humorous answer is merely "Yes."
   
   [INLINE] Sinclair visits Kosh
   
   Garibaldi is meanwhile sitting at Ivanova's station on the bridge,
   researching the flight paths of the trading vessels. All incoming
   ships are tracked through Ivanova's console.
   
   Londo is lying down in his quarters, rather drunk. He is rather
   depressed, and tells Vir, his assistant, that he has received word
   from the Centauri government saying that they will do "nothing" about
   the attack on Ragesh. Londo is enraged--he feels that the Centauri
   government is made up of cowards, and he nostalgically pictures the
   former grandeur of his people--a grandeur that has all but evaporated.
   He suddenly gets the idea to ignore his government's message, and he
   forces Vir to comply with this. He tells Vir not to mention that the
   message was ever received--that if they can get the other powers to
   force sanctions against Narn, they can force their own government into
   cooperation. He says that he will go ahead with the emergency session
   of the Council--a session that will be used to decide on the actions
   to be taken against the Narn regime.
   
   Talia Winters, in the meantime, finds herself in the elevator with
   Garibaldi. She tells him that she's upset that Ivanova is basically
   ignoring her, and she wants to know what she's done wrong. Garibaldi
   says that Ivanova takes a while to get to know people--especially
   while at work--and advises Talia to catch Ivanova in the casino after
   hours.
   
   G'Kar and Sinclair meet in the station's arboretum. They have a sharp
   conversation where G'Kar tries to gain support for his people by
   telling Sinclair that the Narn race and humans are very much
   alike--and that, in fact, the Narn were one of the only people that
   were willing to supply weapons to the Earth in the Earth-Minbari war.
   Sinclair dismisses G'Kar's claim by saying that the Narn will simply
   supply weapons to anyone who can afford them--not out of any sense of
   brotherhood or similarity between cultures. Sinclair further
   criticizes the Narn cowardice because of their "sneak attack" on
   Ragesh. G'Kar is enraged.
   
   Garibaldi presently finds that one trading company--which sold access
   to the "jump gates" that provide interstellar travel--seems to have
   had its information concerning the trade routes stolen from it. He
   informs Sinclair about these findings, and tells him that there's one
   ship which had bought routes from the company that was broken into and
   which still hasn't been attacked. Garibaldi says that they have only a
   few hours to come to the rescue of this ship.
   
   Sinclair is meanwhile speaking with a representative of the government
   of the Earth Alliance--a superior of his. The representative is
   advising Sinclair to either delay the emergency session of the Council
   or to abstain from the vote; Earth cannot get involved in any type of
   war so soon before an election. Sinclair protests that this will hurt
   the Centauri case--that if Earth doesn't lend aid, others might not
   either. The representative doesn't seem to care, and closes the
   communications channel. During the conversation between Sinclair and
   the Earth official, Ivanova has arrived at Sinclair's room and has
   been standing outside of the door, waiting for Sinclair to finish. She
   has come to inform him that Garibaldi is going to leave on his mission
   to rescue the ship that was supposedly about to be attacked by the
   raiders. Suddenly, Sinclair seems to realize something about the
   allegedly-powerful raider weapons. He says that he will be replacing
   Garibaldi on the mission to rescue the ship. He orders Ivanova to
   continue the meeting; further, he tells her that she "never" heard the
   conversation that he had with the Earth official--and that as far as
   she last heard, Earth was voting for the sanctions, rather than
   abstaining.
   
   As Sinclair leaves, the session of the Council is begun. G'Kar stands
   up and announces that the Narn regime has a valid claim to Ragesh 3
   because the planet was originally Narn territory before it was invaded
   by the Centauri. Delenn succinctly rebuts this argument, saying that
   if the Narn hold a grudge for so long, peace will never come, and an
   endless cycle of wars will result. G'Kar claims that he doesn't want a
   war--he's only exercising a valid claim to the planet. Further, he
   claims that the Ragesh colony invited the Narn there--that the Narn
   never invaded the colony. To support this claim, he opens up a live
   link with Ragesh. Carn Mollari, Londo's nephew, appears on the screen
   and recites a message--clearly forced--saying that the Ragesh colony
   did indeed invite the Narn regime in to restore order in the colony.
   After the message is completed, Londo says that the message was
   clearly forced at gunpoint and is of no validity. However, G'Kar
   silences Londo by revealing that he knows that the Centauri government
   has taken the position that they will not intervene--he asks Londo why
   he is using the Council to enact a personal vendetta. G'Kar proceeds
   to call a vote to dismiss all charges against the Narn regime.
   
   Sinclair is meanwhile pursuing the raiders. After successfully saving
   the trading ship, he outwits the raiders and finds their command base.
   
   [INLINE] The battle at the trading ship
   
   If Londo was desperate before, he's certainly desperate now. He is
   entirely outraged at the preceding events in Council, and has decided
   to take matters into his own hands. He assembles a gun from parts that
   he's hidden around his quarters and proceeds to attempt to kill G'Kar.
   As he's walking toward G'Kar's quarters, however, he bumps into Talia,
   who, despite her training, accidentally senses Londo's intense,
   emotional thoughts. She quickly informs Garibaldi, who intervenes and
   stops Londo from committing the murder of G'Kar.
   
   Sinclair has returned to Babylon 5 and carries evidence with which he
   immediately confronts G'Kar. Sinclair has found a Narn agent on the
   raiders' base; it seems that the Narn were supplying weapons to these
   raiders, and when Narn supply weapons, they always include a Narn
   agent to instruct their customers on how to use the weapons and to
   make sure that the weapons are not resold to a third party. Further,
   this Narn agent had been found with logs of the communication between
   the attacking force on Ragesh 3 and the Narn homeworld. The logs of
   this communication confirm that the attack was, indeed, uninvited and
   unprovoked. Faced with this evidence, G'Kar is forced to tell Narn to
   withdraw the forces from Ragesh.
   
   Talia meanwhile has found Ivanova in the casino, just as Garibaldi
   advised. Talia asks Ivanova if she had done anything to offend her.
   Ivanova apologizes to Talia and admits that the acted rude. Ivanova
   explains that her mother was a telepath--however, she had kept this as
   a secret to herself and had never joined the Psi Corps. On her
   mother's 35th birthday, the Psi Corps caught up with her and gave her
   three alternatives: to either join the Corps, go to prison, or take
   telepathy-inhibiting drugs. She chose the latter; however, as Ivanova
   explains, the drugs were very strong and destroyed her mother's will
   and personality. After 10 years, after her family thought her mother
   could no longer survive, her mother took her own life. Ivanova
   explains that she doesn't blame Talia as an individual for what
   happened to her mother, but says how these types of events are part of
   every member of the Psi Corps. However, Ivanova explains to Talia that
   Talia is just as much of a victim as Ivanova's mother was. When Talia
   responds that she does not feel like a victim, Ivanova rejoins that
   she hasn't yet figured out if that feeling is good or bad. When Talia
   suggests that they might start off on better terms the next day,
   Ivanova says that she very much doubts it.
   
   In the meantime, Garibaldi is sitting in his quarters, showing Delenn
   his "second favorite thing in the universe"--old "Duck Dodgers in the
   23rd-and-a-half century" cartoons.
   
   Sinclair is resting in his quarters, watching with what appears to be
   disappointment that Santiago, the incumbent president, has been
   declared the victor of the election. As he is about to retire for the
   night, he receives a call from Ivanova: "Commander, there's a
   problem." It seems that a commander's job is never done ... in fact,
   it has just started.
   
   Shawn Bayern _bayern@minerva@cis.yale.edu_
     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
   Copyright 1994, Shawn Bayern. All rights reserved. Permission is
   granted to distribute this synopsis _noncommercially_ as long as the
   synopsis and this copyright notice remain intact. Babylon 5 is a
   copyright of the PTN Consortium; no infringement of that copyright is
   intended by writing these synopses.

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