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   An elderly Minbari male arrives on the station and asks to be shown to
   Ambassador Delenn.
   
   [INLINE] Asking for directions.
   
   Epsilon 3, the planet B5 is orbiting, is experiencing large
   earthquakes. Ivanova and Sinclair clear Dr. Tasaki, a geologist, to
   take a shuttle closer to the planet and collect data.
   
   On his way to a negotiation session, Sinclair runs into Talia Winters
   waiting for the transport tube. She comments that Garibaldi is always
   in the tube waiting for her, and sure enough, he's there when the door
   opens. She opts to take the stairs.
   
   As Dr. Tasaki's shuttle nears the surface of the planet, a powerful
   energy beam suddenly fires into space from below ground, knocking the
   shuttle out of control. Ivanova orders two Starfuries to tow the
   shuttle back to base. When he returns, Tasaki is eager to go down
   again the next day with more equipment, to try to figure out what's
   causing the beam.
   
   Sinclair is presiding over a negotiation between Delenn and Londo
   about trade routes. The negotiation proceeds smoothly, which Londo
   attributes to G'Kar's absence. Delenn assures him that G'Kar's anger
   will fade with time, but Londo insists that the Narn hatred of the
   Centauri is intense enough to reduce Centauri Prime to ash if it could
   be made physical -- and the Centauri react to that hatred by hating
   the Narn all the more. After Londo leaves, Delenn comments to Sinclair
   that if Londo is right, if future generations won't be born into a
   brighter world, "then life is pointless, and evolution vastly
   overrated."
   
   [INLINE] Londo describes the Narns' hatred.
   
   Later, Ivanova tells Sinclair that the beam is a signal, perhaps a
   beacon, though nobody has been able to decipher it. She remarks that
   the day's Earth Force status report didn't say anything about the Mars
   colony, very unusual as it's mentioned every day.
   
   Delenn is returning to her quarters when she's met by the Minbari male
   who boarded the station earlier. His name is Draal, and he's an old
   teacher of hers.
   
   Sinclair is preparing for bed, watching the news on TV. The anchor is
   interrupted by a special report from the Mars colony: an armed revolt
   has begun, and heavy fighting is reported. The news show is able to
   broadcast a few moments of a field report before the reporter is cut
   off. Sinclair shuts off the television, disturbed.
   
   Before he can contemplate further, a flickering image appears in
   midair across the room, an alien man who pleads for Sinclair's help
   before vanishing abruptly.
   
   [INLINE] Pleading for help.
   
   The next morning, Sinclair and Ivanova talk about the situation on
   Mars over breakfast. Sinclair, of course, was born there, and it's his
   home that's being blasted apart; but neither of them has friends or
   family there any more. Garibaldi, according to Ivanova, is taking the
   news badly.
   
   Draal joins Delenn in her quarters. After thanking her for arranging
   for his quarters, he says that he left Minbar because it's changing
   for the worse, the people growing dissatisfied, self-involved to the
   exclusion of others; they've lost their sense of purpose. He says that
   he's "going to the sea" -- journeying out into the sea of stars in the
   hopes of finding a place where he's needed. Delenn is shocked.
   
   Garibaldi tries to get a comm channel to Mars, but the government has
   imposed a communications blackout and he's not highly-placed enough to
   get through despite the blackout.
   
   Ivanova briefs Dr. Tasaki and his crew, reminding them that the
   Starfuries escorting them are only designed for spaceflight and won't
   be able to help if the shuttle goes into the planet's atmosphere.
   Tasaki agrees not to do that, and the shuttle and escort are launched.
   
   [INLINE] Ivanova briefs the shuttle crew.
   
   Garibaldi goes to Talia and explains that when he was working security
   on Mars, he met and got involved with a woman named Lise Hampton. It
   was serious, but when he accepted Sinclair's offer to come to Babylon
   5, he and Lise broke up angry with each other. They haven't spoken
   since, but now he's worried sick about her. He asks Talia to try to
   get him a comm channel via the secret Psi Corps training facility on
   Mars -- a facility, Talia notes with surprise, that he's not supposed
   to know about.
   
   [INLINE] Garibaldi talks about Lise.
   
   Ignoring Ivanova's order, Tasaki takes the shuttle into the upper part
   of the atmosphere to get more detailed sensor readings. Suddenly, a
   barrage of missiles is launched from the surface. One of them strikes
   the shuttle, but after Ivanova has the Starfuries disorient the
   missiles from orbit, Tasaki and his crew manage to escape safely.
   
   Back on the station, Tasaki shows Sinclair and Ivanova a
   high-resolution image he captured just after the missiles were
   launched. It shows them coming from deep inside a fissure in the
   surface, five kilometers below the surface. Sinclair easily convinces
   Ivanova that the two of them should take a shuttle down to take a
   closer look, justifying his presence because it might be a first
   contact.
   
   [INLINE] Tasaki describes the image.
   
   Garibaldi is in the zocalo, looking miserable. Londo cheers him up by
   telling him a story. Londo was sitting in a club one day, looking
   miserable, when one of the dancers kissed him and told him it couldn't
   be that bad. He married her, regretted it the next morning, and has
   regretted it ever since.
   
   On his way back to his quarters, Londo sees the same alien Sinclair
   saw earlier. Once again, it asks for help, then vanishes.
   
   With orbiting Starfuries disorienting the missiles, Sinclair and
   Ivanova take a shuttle into the fissure, where they discover an
   artificial tunnel in the rock face. They land on a platform inside and
   put on breathers to go have a look around.
   
   [INLINE] Distracting the planetary defenses.
   
   Talia speaks with a member of the Psi-Corps, someone at the Mars
   facility. The woman refuses to let Garibaldi have a link -- doing so
   would confirm the existence of the facility, and he might be asking
   for a channel just to find out if the place really exists -- but she
   offers to look Lise Hampton's name up in the files and see if she's
   all right. Fighting is occuring less than a quarter-mile away from the
   facility, it seems; the Free Mars movement was much better armed and
   organized than anyone suspected.
   
   Sinclair and Ivanova explore some smaller side tunnels on foot. They
   pass a dead alien, then nearly stumble into a high-tech deathtrap, but
   Sinclair sees it in time and the two of them make it through
   uninjured. They find themselves on a bridge spanning what looks like
   the hollow core of a gargantuan machine, miles tall with huge parts
   moving up and down the walls.
   
   [INLINE] Sinclair and Ivanova cross the bridge.
   
   Delenn and Draal visit Londo, who complains that he's unable to
   comprehend Earth people. As an example, he quotes a song he's been
   studying for a week. "It doesn't mean _anything_," he complains.
   
   Talia visits Garibaldi in the command center and tells him Lise
   Hampton isn't on the survivor list. Garibaldi refuses to believe that
   something has happened to her, but seems somewhat numb.
   
   An earthquake cuts off the tunnel behind Sinclair and Ivanova.
   Continuing forward, they see another projection of the alien Sinclair
   saw on the station. This time, though, the real alien is just around
   the corner, strapped into the center of a huge machine on the wall.
   "Help me," he says, "or your people, _all_ your people, will die."
   
   They help him out of the machine and take him back to the shuttle.
   With fighter cover, they head full-speed back toward the station.
   Sinclair orders Garibaldi to have a medical team standing by.
   
   Garibaldi is relieved to hear that they're returning, but his relief
   is cut short when a tech announces that a ship, a _big_ ship, is
   coming through the jump gate. He looks down at his computer display.
   "What the hell?"
   
   _To be continued..._
   
  Synopsis by [9]Steven Grimm
  

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      [16]Last update: March 19, 1997

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