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- Synopsis by Katrina Glerum (kat@midwinter.com)
-
- A hopeful crowd has gathered in the Zocalo, eager to see the first ISN
- broadcast since transmissions broke off violently after the imposition
- of martial law a few weeks earlier. However, even Ivanova is
- disheartened by the anchor's bold-faced lie that the final broadcast
- had been made by alien-backed saboteurs attempting to overthrow Earth
- Gov.
-
- Captain Sheridan is busy checking out one of the new fighters from the
- Churchill when a distress call is logged. It is from a lone black Star
- Fury, painted with an enormous Omega, and bearing the station's
- favorite Psi Cop, Mr. Bester. Keeping carefully out of telepathic
- scanning range the Captain asks Bester why he shouldn't just kill him
- on the spot. Curiousity? Bester suggests. When there's no reply he
- prompts impatiently, "Captain?" but finds the response: "I'm thinking
- it over," rather unsettling.
-
- A frustrated G'Kar catches Ivanova in a corridor. He has fulfilled his
- part of the bargain he made with Sheridan by having his Narns assist
- with station security and even defense, and he demands that he now be
- allowed to join the alliance Sheridan and the rest have formed.
-
- Stepping onboard the station, Bester is amused to find himself greeted
- by a team of armed guards. Meanwhile the command staff watch him
- suspiciously on a closed circuit TV and debate whether to drug him up,
- lock him up or give him a chance to explain. Privately, Sheridan
- manages to convince a reluctant Ivanova to be the first to meet him
- since her latent ability will allow her to detect a scan. She greets
- the Psi Cop in his cell with icy demeanor. Bester's idle needling
- about her hatred for the Corps brings her to flash point faster than
- he could have estimated, and earns him a resounding slap when he
- mentions her mother.
-
- But it brings him to his point. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend,"
- he remarks. He has found out about the Shadows and their influence
- over President Clark and the Psi Corps, and he doesn't like it. They
- interfere with his plans for a future when humans are ruled by
- telepaths. He has come to Babylon 5 to find someone who hates Shadows
- as much as he, because he thinks he knows a way to damage them.
-
- Sheridan and Delenn discuss G'Kar's demand. They both realize that
- bringing G'Kar into their circle means they must own up to the fact
- that they knew that he was right about the ancient enemy's return and
- let his world be conquered by this enemy and the Centauri rather than
- reveal their knowledge. Over Sheridan's objections the Minbari
- Ambassador insists that it is her responsibility to tell G'Kar the
- truth now since it was she who insisted that the secret be kept.
-
- Bester tells the gathered officers that a ship bearing weapons
- components for the Shadows is en route to the Rim and needs to be
- seized. He explains that he can pinpoint the ship's location in
- hyperspace by homing in on the thought waves of the occupants.
-
- "Try not to drool on the controls," Sheridan mutters as Bester admires
- the White Star's bridge. The instant the Captain leaves his seat,
- Bester hops on, only to be booted out an instant later and ignored by
- Lennier when he tries to give an order.
-
- Her head bowed, Delenn admits to the Grey Council's knowledge of the
- Shadows and their alliance with the Centauri. If they had spoken out,
- she explains, the Shadows would have acted openly and would have
- annihilated the Narns rather than simply allowing the Centauri to
- seize their homeworld. Instead of millions dying, billions would have
- died -- whole planets, she gasps, horrified.
-
- "If I had learned this as my world was being bombed by the Centauri, I
- would have killed you instantly," G'Kar hisses. "You understand that,
- do you not?" Then he repeats the line from his Vorlon-inspired vision,
- "'Some must be sacrificed if all are to be saved.'...Now I understand
- that is as much about how we got here, as where we are going. I think
- that one sentence is the greatest burden I have ever known." He admits
- that if it were not for the Grey Council's inaction, his people would
- be a dead race.
-
- As tears slide down her face Delenn says, "You have come a long way,
- G'Kar. Further than I could have guessed," and she welcomes him into
- the War Council, only hoping that he can forgive her someday.
-
- "Perhaps, but not today," he utters.
-
- The White Star knocks out the last of the Shadow fighters protecting
- the transport and grabs it as an enormous Shadow ship looms out of
- hyperspace. Lennier announces its presence, but the ship breaks off,
- and Bester has a strange look on his face.
-
- The transport is carrying a cargo of human telepaths in cryogenic
- suspension. The pilots are an unknown alien species who have committed
- suicide rather than be captured. When Sheridan demands to know why
- Bester didn't tell them about the cargo, Bester admits that he knew
- Babylon 5 probably wouldn't expend any effort to save telepaths.
-
- When Franklin unfreezes one, he notices that she seems to have
- cyberweb implants. He takes her ID bracelet to Bester, who
- condescendingly begins to explain that she is a "blip" who refused to
- join the Psi Corps. Suddenly his face grows numb. He must see her
- immediately.
-
- She has other plans, however. By the time Garibaldi, Franklin and
- Bester arrive at medlab, she has wrapped herself into an intricate
- cocoon of wiring and is interfacing with the station electronics. She
- wants to be free of the pain she's in, but the commands in her head
- which tell her to attack the Psi Corps, are too powerful. As the
- doctor knocks her out, she asks Bester, "Al, what have they done to
- me?" and sends him images of her ordeal: alien brain surgery and
- Shadow vessels.
-
- She knows him because she is the love of Bester's life, and carrying
- their child. The Shadows were intending to plug these telepaths into
- their newborn ships. If Bester hated the Shadows before, now he wants
- to destroy them. For saving her life, he pledges his support to B5's
- war before leaving the station.
-
- The recent events have reminded Garibaldi of something. Turning to the
- Book of G'Quan, he finds it, and calls an immediate meeting of the War
- Council in their new command center. It appears that all of the Narn
- telepaths were killed by the Shadows a thousand years ago, because the
- Shadows using the planet as a base in their last war feared them. The
- Council members instantly realize that this might be why the Shadow
- ship didn't attack the White Star with Bester aboard, because maybe
- telepaths constitute a threat, and are therefore perhaps a weapon
- against the Shadows. It's just in time, Ivanova reports, because the
- Shadows have just begun attacking Rim worlds openly.
-
- [14][Next]
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- [15]Last update: November 9, 1997
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- References
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- 12. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
- 13. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/synops/057.html
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- 15. file://localhost/lurk/lastmod.html
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