lurkers-guide/synops/015

<p>
A transport ship docks with the station.
<p>
Sinclair sits down to eat with Garibaldi.  Delenn and Lennier interrupt
them; there is a distinguished guest coming aboard, Delenn says, and
Sinclair should greet him.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/015/interrupt.gif"> Delenn and Lennier
interrupt a meal.
<p>
In Downbelow, a crime boss named Deuce asks another man, Jinxo, to provide
him with the locations of secret passages in the station.  Jinxo replies
that while he did help build Babylon 5, he was mostly involved in big
structural construction and can't provide that information.  Deuce insists
that he can -- or else.  He gestures to another part of the room, where a
woman is tied down in a chair.  Her name, Deuce says, is Mirriam Runningdear,
and she agreed to testify against him.  Now she'll pay the price.  He beckons
to something in the shadows.  A Vorlon encounter suit comes forward.  The
front panel opens and a tentacle extends out, attaching to Runningdear's
forehead.  Deuce tells Jinxo to have the plans, or 50,000 credits, within
300 cycles, before Ambassador Kosh gets hungry again.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/015/jinxo-deuce.gif"> Deuce warns Jinxo.
<p>
In a courtroom somewhere on the station, an ombudsman listens to testimony
from a man who's suing aliens for abducting his great-grandfather.
<p>
Sinclair, Garibaldi, Delenn and Lennier greet a man named Aldous Gajic.  He
says he didn't notify Sinclair of his arrival because his mission is not
Earth-related.  He reveals that he's looking for the Holy Grail, and, as
his order has looked everywhere on Earth, he has come to the station to
talk to the alien ambassadors about its possible whereabouts.  Sinclair,
incredulous, excuses himself.
<p>
Delenn catches up with Sinclair and asks why he holds Gajic in such contempt.
Sinclair explains that the Grail is just a legend, but Delenn counters that
that doesn't matter; Gajic is a holy man, a "true seeker," devoting his life
to a search for enlightenment and the bettering of his race.  "I wish him
luck," Sinclair says.  "He's probably the only true seeker we have."
<p>
"Then perhaps you do not know yourself as well as you believe," Delenn
comments, and walks off.  Sinclair gets a call from Dr. Franklin; there's
another brainwipe victim.
<p>
Gajic is changing money when Jinxo walks by and picks his pocket.  Garibaldi
is watching and grabs Jinxo before he's gone twenty feet.  Gajic wants to
let Jinxo go, but Garibaldi says that Gajic is a witness and insists that he
testify.
<p>
In medlab, Franklin and Sinclair look at Mirriam Runningdear, who lies
unconscious.  Franklin says her brain has been wiped clean, synapses fused,
leaving it barely able to keep her autonomic functions going.  She'll live,
but she'll have to start all over again, as her life experience is gone.
Garibaldi is furious that his sole witness against Deuce has been "reduced
to a rutabaga" and asks Sinclair for permission to sweep through Downbelow
with his men.  Sinclair tells him to wait until there's proof that the
brainwipe is in fact connected to Deuce.
<p>
The ombudsman sentences Jinxo (whose real name is Thomas.)  He is barred from
the station for five years.
Jinxo objects strongly: "I can't leave the station, or it's the end of the
station -- and every man, woman and alien on the station!"  Gajic speaks with
the ombudsman and convinces him to remand Jinxo to his custody.  As Jinxo
leaves, he's pulled aside by Deuce, who reminds him that he has only 240
cycles left.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/015/bargain.gif"> Bargaining with the
ombudsman.
<p>
Next, the ombudsman reads the charges against Deuce, who pleads innocence.
Garibaldi tells the ombudsman about Runningdear's condition.  Unfortunately,
without her testimony, there isn't enough evidence; the ombudsman dismisses
the case against Deuce.
<p>
Gajic takes Jinxo to his quarters and asks why he thinks he can't leave the
station.  Jinxo answers that it's the "Babylon curse" -- if he leaves, the
station will blow up or disappear or something else will happen.  When Gajic
asks how he got the curse, Jinxo answers, "Don't you get it?  I don't
<em>have</em> the curse.  I <em>am</em> the curse."
<p>
Jinxo explains that he was too young to fight in the war, so when he had the
opportunity to work on the original Babylon station, he jumped at the chance.
Three months into it, he went on leave, and the station's infrastructure
collapsed, the result of sabotage.  The same thing happened to Babylon 2.
Babylon 3 blew up while he was away, and he got the nickname "Jinxo."  When
Babylon 4 was
being built, Jinxo stayed the entire time, until it was completely finished.
He thought the curse was gone.  "But as I was leaving on the shuttle, I looked
back, and the station just sort of wrinkled.  Twisted like putty.  And then
it just... disappeared."
<p>
Gajic suggests that Jinxo should have been nicknamed Lucky -- he managed
to escape death four times.
<p>
Franklin and Ivanova suggest a possible cause of the brainwipes: a creature
from an off-limits world in Centauri space called a na'ka'leen feeder.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/015/feederfile.gif"> Describing the feeder.
<p>
Sinclair asks Londo about the feeders; Londo says they're very dangerous
creatures.  The Centauri lost an entire colony to them.  When Sinclair lets
slip that there may be one on the station, Londo makes a beeline for his
quarters, and suggests Sinclair does the same.
<p>
Gajic and Jinxo visit Delenn, who says the Minbari don't have the Grail,
nor had they heard of it before Gajic asked them.  Lennier says they searched
their files very thoroughly.  Delenn tells Gajic that she will have word
sent to all Minbari outposts, and if one of them hears about the Grail,
they will find Gajic and tell him.  Jinxo is amazed; after the war, he
figured, the Minbari wouldn't be eager to help a human.  Lennier explains
that there are two castes of Minbari: the warrior caste and the religious
caste.  "The warrior caste... would not understand," he says.
<p>
"So we will not tell them, and spare them the confusion," Delenn says.
<p>
"These two parts of your society.  Do they ever agree on anything?" asks
Gajic.
<p>
"Yes," says Delenn.  "And when they do, it is a terrible thing.  A terrible
force, as recent events have shown.  Let us hope that it never happens again
in our lifetime."
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/015/consult-delenn.gif"> Gajic and Jinxo
visit Delenn.
<p>
In Downbelow, Kosh (or is it a feeder?) pleads with Deuce to bring him
more food, older minds.  The voice is high and tinny, not the usual melodic
rumble of a Vorlon voice.  Deuce orders a henchman to fetch Jinxo and the
ombudsman.
<p>
Dr. Franklin tells Sinclair that using the file provided by Londo,
he can confirm that Runningdear was indeed attacked by a na'ka'leen feeder.
Sinclair tells Ivanova to run a check on every ship entering the station
in the last ninety days.  Garibaldi says he's going to track Jinxo down,
as he saw Deuce and Jinxo talking at the trial.
<p>
Londo speaks with a Centauri government representative, trying to get the
government to reinstate the quarantine on the feeders' world.  Gajic and
Jinxo are waiting to talk to him.  Gajic asks about the Grail.  Londo says
he can search the Centauri-Earth trade files, but it will be very
time-consuming and expensive.  Vir interrupts and says he's already done
it, in the interest of efficiency, prompting Londo to scold him.  Gajic
and Jinxo leave in a hurry.
<p>
Gajic tells Jinxo that if he finds it, he will use the Grail to heal.
"Perhaps it has enough power to heal the entire human race," he says.  Jinxo
asks how he got started looking for the Grail.
<p>
Gajic did the accounts for a large Earth corporation, he says.  He lived
in a world of numbers, logical and clean.  He and his family took a vacation
on the Mars colony.  An accident killed his family but left him alive.  He
mourned for a long time, and when he returned to work he found that the
numbers didn't make sense.  He began to wonder why he was spared.  And then
he met a man, the last of his kind, who told him he was a man of infinite
promise and goodness.  When the man died, he entrusted his legacy to Gajic.
Now Gajic is the last of his kind.  "The numbers add up again, Thomas,"
Gajic concludes.  "The numbers do add up."
<p>
Deuce's men kidnap the ombudsman.
<p>
Two thugs try to capture Jinxo, but Gajic fights them off.  Jinxo, panicing
as he thinks of what Deuce will do now, asks if he can learn to fight like
that.  "You can learn whatever you like," Gajic says, "because you are a
man of infinite promise and goodness."  When Jinxo scoffs, Gajic points out
that Jinxo is willing to stay on the station to protect its people, even
at the risk of his own life.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/015/fight.gif"> Fighting off the thugs.
<p>
The two of them go to visit Kosh.  When Jinxo sees Kosh, he runs away,
terrified, warning Gajic to stay away or Kosh will eat his mind.
<p>
Gajic catches up with Jinxo in Downbelow and convinces him to talk to Sinclair
if he has information about the Vorlons.  Deuce's men attack; Gajic fends
them off long enough for Jinxo to escape, but is captured himself.
<p>
Ivanova reports to Sinclair that she hasn't had much luck figuring out
which ship might have brought the feeder onboard.  Garibaldi links in and
tells Sinclair the ombudsman has been kidnapped.  Sinclair leaves to see
the scene of the crime for himself.
<p>
The ombudsman, strapped to the same chair Runningdear was, watches in horror
as the feeder approaches in the Vorlon encounter suit.  Deuce reassures him
that if there's any pain, it won't last long.  Deuce's men bring Gajic in.
<p>
Jinxo finds Sinclair in the hallway and tells him that Deuce is going to
feed Gajic to the Vorlon.  Sinclair goes with him and tells Garibaldi to
follow his signal.
<p>
Gajic steps between the ombudsman and the feeder.  The feeder moves to
attack Gajic, but stops short, then withdraws its tentacle.  Gajic speaks
softly.  "There is nothing in the dark.  No fear, no pain.  Only the light.
Show yourself."
<p>
The feeder, resembling a cross between a squid and a jellyfish, steps out
of the suit.
<p>
Garibaldi's men blast the door in and a firefight ensues.  The feeder leaps
up into the pipes crisscrossing the ceiling.  As the firefight continues, it
drops behind one of Garibaldi's people and strikes, then, more confident,
approaches the ombudsman.  Jinxo leaps out from his hiding place and unties
the ombudsman's hands, but he doesn't notice Deuce taking aim at his back.
Gajic does, and takes the shot.  The feeder is blown to pieces by Garibaldi,
Sinclair, and the security team.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/015/shootout.gif"> Sinclair consults
Garibaldi.
<p>
Before Gajic dies, Jinxo promises to continue the search.
<p>
Sinclair visits Kosh and tells him Deuce was using an excellent replica of
a Vorlon encounter suit so people would think he had the Vorlons on his side,
making him appear more fearsome.  "Why?" asks Kosh.
<p>
"No one knows exactly what you look like," Sinclair answers.  "And that makes
some people a little nervous."
<p>
"Good," Kosh replies.
<p>
Sinclair and Delenn see Gajic's body off.  "It's hard," Sinclair says, "to
spend your whole life looking for something and never find it."
<p>
"Are you speaking of Aldous, or someone else?" asks Delenn.
<p>
Sinclair looks at her for a moment.  "Aldous," he finally answers.
<p>
"There you are wrong.  He found what he was looking for.  What we are
<em>all</em> looking for.  A reason."
<p>
"For what?"
<p>
"Everything, Commander.  Everything."
<p>
Jinxo arrives just as the coffin is about to be loaded aboard the ship.
Delenn gives him a crystal.  "Put this on his grave, and crush it," she says.
"It will glow every night for a hundred years.  It is our way with all true
seekers," she continues, with a meaningful glance at Sinclair.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/015/gift.gif"> Delenn gives Jinxo a crystal.
<p>
"Good luck, Jinxo," says Garibaldi.
<p>
"Thomas," he answers.  "My name is Thomas."
<p>
<a name="boom">
Sinclair, Ivanova, and Garibaldi</a> are back in C&C, discussing the Babylon
Curse, when Thomas' ship leaves the station.  It enters the jumpgate.  "No 
boom?" asks Sinclair.  "No boom," answers Garibaldi.
<p>
"No boom <em>today</em>," Ivanova corrects them.  "Boom tomorrow.  There's
always a boom tomorrow."  Sinclair and Garibaldi shake their heads and leave.
<p>
"What?" Ivanova asks.  "Look, someone's got to keep some damned perspective
around here.  One of these days... <strong>boom!</strong>"
<p>
<h3>Synopsis by <a href="http://www.midwinter.com/~koreth/">Steven Grimm</a></h3>