lurkers-guide/synops/018

<p>
An elderly Minbari male arrives on the station and asks to be shown to
Ambassador Delenn.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/018/draal.gif"> Asking for directions.
<p>
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.
<p>
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.
<p>
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.
<p>
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."
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/018/negotiation.gif"> Londo describes the
Narns' hatred.
<p>
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.
<p>
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.
<p>
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.
<p>
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.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/018/varn.gif"> Pleading for help.
<p>
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.
<p>
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.
<p>
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.
<p>
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.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/018/brief.gif"> Ivanova briefs the shuttle
crew.
<p>
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.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/018/garibaldi.gif"> Garibaldi talks
about Lise.
<p>
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.
<p>
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.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/018/tasaki.gif"> Tasaki describes the
image.
<p>
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.
<p>
On his way back to his quarters, Londo sees the same alien Sinclair saw
earlier.  Once again, it asks for help, then vanishes.
<p>
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.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/018/furyfire.gif"> Distracting the
planetary defenses.
<p>
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.
<p>
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.
<p>
<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/018/bridge.gif"> Sinclair and Ivanova cross
the bridge.
<p>
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 <em>anything</em>," he complains.
<p>
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.
<p>
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, <em>all</em> your people, will die."
<p>
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.
<p>
Garibaldi is relieved to hear that they're returning, but his relief is cut
short when a tech announces that a ship, a <em>big</em> ship, is coming through
the jump gate.  He looks down at his computer display.  "What the hell?"
<p>
<strong>To be continued...</strong>
<p>
<h3>Synopsis by <a href="http://www.midwinter.com/~koreth/">Steven Grimm</a></h3>