lurkers-guide/synops/001

<p>   <cite>Midnight on the Firing Line</cite>, 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.
<p>
<img src="/lurk/gif/001/attacking-raghesh.gif" align=middle> The attack
on Ragesh 3.
<p>   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.
<p>   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.
<p>   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.
<p>   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.
<p>   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.
<p>   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.
<p>   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.
<p>   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. 
<p>
<img src="/lurk/gif/001/wheel-turns-small.gif" align=middle>"The wheel turns, does it not, Ambassador?"
<p>  After the fight, Londo meets with Sinclair.  He apologizes for
his actions and says that he won't repeat the incident--but that he
<em>will</em> 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.
<p>   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.
<p>   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."
<p>
<img src="/lurk/gif/001/sinclair-mask-small.gif" align=middle>Sinclair visits Kosh
<a name="ivanova-console">
<p>   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.
</a>
<p>
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.
<p>   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.
<p>   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.
<p>   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. 
<p>  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.
<p>   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.
<p>   Sinclair is meanwhile pursuing the raiders.  After successfully
saving the trading ship, he outwits the raiders and finds their
command base.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/001/battle1-small.gif">The battle at the trading ship
<p>   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.
<p>   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.  
<p> 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.
<a name="ivanova-mom">
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.
</a>
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.
<p>   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.
<p>   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.

<p>
Shawn Bayern
<em>bayern@minerva@cis.yale.edu</em>
<hr>
Copyright 1994, Shawn Bayern.  All rights reserved.  Permission is
granted to distribute this synopsis <strong>noncommercially</strong> 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.