lurkers-guide/synops/027

<h3>Synopsis by Matthew Murray (i9717029@unicorn.it.wsu.edu)</h3>

<p>
Sheridan arrives at C&C after Ivanova's call.  Babylon 5 has picked up a
weak signal which Ivanova doesn't recognize coming out of deep space,
from something that didn't use a jump gate.  Sheridan asks if it is an alien
craft, but it isn't.  Ivanova plays the message for Sheridan: "This is
the Copernicus.  We come in peace."

<p>
In Downbelow, a man named Amis jumps out of a dumpster screaming,
"Through the walls!  It's coming through the wa..."  He says he needs
some ozones, but he doesn't have any with him.  He is suddenly seized
by pain.  "No!" he screams.  "I'm stuck!  Get out of my head!  Where
are you?"  He looks at the floor.  "There you are!"  He pushes some garbage
aside
and looks out a porthole, seeing the approaching craft.  "There you
are!  I see you..."  He begins to recite the Lord's Prayer, but
can barely remember the words.  He runs away screaming as
the vessel approaches the station.

<p>
Amis goes to the plaza,
where he stands atop a table, delivering a doomsday speech to all the
people there, warning them that Judgement Day is coming.  He says that
they are all in great danger.  He sees G'kar and tries to warn him, but
G'kar does his best to ignore him, and walks away.  Garibaldi arrives
and grabs Amis, taking him off to the brig.

<p>
<img align=middle width=128 height=96
src="/lurk/gif/027/preach.gif"> "Judgement Day is coming!"

<p>
Sheridan, Ivanova, and Garibaldi attempt to identify the ship and
determine why it didn't use the jumpgate.  A maintenance craft, sent to
examine the ship, approaches it and shines its light on the ship's
name.  There are some letters, difficult to make out, before the ship's
name, but Sheridan says he thinks they say U.S.S.  Ivanova doesn't
recognize the ship's design.  Sheridan explains to her that ships
like these were "used in early deep-range exploration, back before we
got jumpgate technology from the Centauri."  None of them, however,
know what happened to the ship in the more than 100 years since it was
launched.  Ivanova detects a life form aboard the vessel, and Sheridan
orders the ship to be brought aboard the station.  Sheridan calls down
to Dr. Franklin to inform him that they may be bringing a patient
aboard.

<p>
<img align=middle width=175 height=131
src="/lurk/gif/027/copernicus.gif"> The Copernicus.

<p>
Sheridan, Ivanova, Garibaldi, Franklin, and several other officers
enter the ship and examine the contents.  Inside, they find two
cryogenic freezers.  The occupant of one of the freezers is dead, but
the other contains
a young woman, whose life signs are deteriorating quickly.
Franklin says that they must get her to MedLab quickly.  They open up
the freezer and take her to MedLab.  As they begin to treat her
vanishing pulse enroute, the transport tube's lights go wild for a moment.
She suffers a heart attack, but Franklin and his assistants are able to
treat her for it.

<p>
Garibaldi enters the brig, where Amis is resting.  He is asleep, but
thrashing about and shouting loudly about incoming weapons.  "Damn lurkers,"
the guard says.  "We oughtta space the whole bunch of 'em."

<p>
"Were you in the war?" asks Garibaldi.

<p>
"No, I missed it."

<p>
"Yeah, well he didn't."

<p>
"How can you tell?"

<p>
"I've had that same dream."  Garibaldi leaves.

<p>
Ivanova is aboard the Copernicus, attempting to restore full power.  As
soon as she does so, strange noises seem to come from all around her.
She looks around, but sees nothing, and goes back to work.

<p>
<img align=middle width=128 height=96 
src="/lurk/gif/027/bridge.gif"> On the Copernicus' bridge.

<p>
Amis wakes up, with Garibaldi at his side.  Amis says that he is in
perfect health, but doesn't know what he said or what he did.
Garibaldi tells him what happened, and that they had to sedate him to
get him to sleep.  Garibaldi asks Amis if he had done this before, and
Amis says that he has done <em>everything</em> before.  Garibaldi asks where
Amis was stationed during the war, and Amis admits that he was a, "gropo,"
a ground pounder.  Garibaldi says that he was one, too.  Garibaldi asks
him about his dreams, but Amis says that he doesn't dream.  Garibaldi tells
him about the things he said in his sleep, and decides to let him leave
the brig, though he recommends the man see a counselor.

<p>
Meanwhile, in MedLab, the woman from the cryogenic capsule, Mariah
Cirrus, has passed from her unconciousness into a dreaming state.  After a
few moments, she awakens with a start, and looks at her surroundings,
frightened.  Dr. Franklin assures her that she will be all right.

<p>
<img align=middle width=128 height=96
src="/lurk/gif/027/medlab.gif"> Mariah wakes up.

<p>
In Sheridan's office, Ivanova tells Sheridan that the man from the
other cryogenic freezer should be alive, because the freezer didn't
malfunction.  "Something," she says, "or someone murdered him."

<p>
Dr. Franklin examines the corpse from the other cryogenic capsule in
MedLab.  "At the time of death," he tells Sheridan and Garibaldi, "the
victim's weight appears to have been about 90 pounds.  Given his height
and bone structure, his normal weight should have been about 180.  But
malnutrition wasn't what killed him.  He died as a result of organ
failure."

<p>
Garibaldi asks why, and Franklin says that the man's organs
are missing, as if something had pulled them out from the inside.
But a thorough scan of the ship revealed that the organs were not on
board.  Garibaldi wants to interrogate the woman that was with him,
though Franklin insists she couldn't be responsible, because she was in
stasis the whole time.  Sheridan and Garibaldi can't accept this as an
explanation.  Franklin then goes to check on her, though Sheridan tells
him that he wants to talk to her when it is possible.

<p>
Mariah thanks Dr. Franklin for helping her.
Franklin introduces himself.  He asks her how she got on the
ship.  She explains that she and her husband were part of a commerical
research group, which needed volunteers for a long-term deep space
mission.  They volunteered and were put on the Copernicus, which would
awaken them from their cryogenic sleep when they came in contact with
an intelligent signal.  She asks how long they were asleep.  Franklin tells
her that she was in the ship for over a hundred years.  She asks
to see her husband, and Dr. Franklin tells her that he died during the
voyage, and that they didn't know the cause.  She says that it seems as
though they just said good-night to each other, and when she tries to
cry, she can't, which Dr. Franklin explains is due to long-term stasis
drying her tear ducts.  "God, what have I done?" she asks herself.

<p>
Amis runs through the station, as if searching for the presence he
believes is putting the station in danger.  He goes to the cargo bay,
where he finds the Copernicus.  "Holy mother!" he shouts, before he is
chased away by a guard.

<p>
Dr. Franklin and Mariah are visiting various parts of the station.
They go to the plaza, where Dr. Franklin explains the things she missed
while cryogenically frozen.  "A few years after your ship left Earth,"
he tells her, "we finally made contact with another species -- the
Centauri.  We opened up trade relations and they gave us jumpgate
technology.  Before that, we'd been pretty much limited to our own
solar system.  After that, we were out among the stars, first leasing
time on alien jumpgates, and then building our own."

<p>
Mariah laments at
how she and her husband didn't wait, and how things might be different
had they not gone on the Copernicus.  Dr. Franklin tries to tell her
that what she did took courage, but she brushes it off, wondering about
what else she missed.  He tells her about some of the general things
that have happened, and about the Dilgar and Minbari wars.  She feels
bad that the humans hadn't outgrown violence while she was in
suspension.  "It's gonna take a lot more than a hundred years to evole
a better human," Franklin tells her.

<p>
Ambassador G'Kar appears by their
table, and Dr. Franklin introduces him to Mariah.
"Take my advice and go back to the time you came from," G'Kar tells
her.  "The future isn't what it used to be."

<p>
As she ponders his
words, she remembers, subconciously, something that happened to her
during the voyage.  She is in her cryogenic capsule aboard the
Copernicus, asleep, when something appears in the capsule with her.
She wakes up in the capsule and screams.

<p>
She wakes up for real, with Dr. Franklin, who
tells her that she passed out and was taken to his quarters.  She
thanks him again.  He asks her what her dream was about, but she
doesn't remember anything about it.  She asks Dr. Franklin why he is
interested in her dreams, and Franklin explains to her that her husband
didn't die of a hardware malfunction, but was instead murdered.  She
assumes that he means that she killed him, and he tries to tell her
that he knows she didn't but wants to find out who -- or what -- did.  She
begins crying that she is alone, feeling lost and distraught.  He tries
to convince her otherwise, but stops and almost kisses her.  After they
pull apart, he says that it is inappropriate, something to which she
agrees.  Dr. Franklin suggests that she try to rest, even though she is
very scared, which she does.

<p>
Garibaldi is eating in the Zocalo when Amis enters, again telling the
patrons that they are all going to die.  Garibaldi escorts Amis out,
telling him that he doesn't want Amis causing trouble on the station.
Amis insists that he isn't crazy, and that something is on the
station.  Garibaldi asks him what is on the station.  "Death," Amis
replies.  "It came off that ship from the past.  I found it."
Garibaldi asks Amis if he is sure.  "Yes.  I saw it do the same thing
during the war."  As the two leave the Zocalo, in another part of the
station, an alien, in an otherwise empty room, becomes the creature's
next victim, his final word a scream as it attacks.

<p>
<img align=middle width=128 height=96
src="/lurk/gif/027/arrest.gif"> Garibaldi escorts Amis away.

<p>
Garibaldi and Sheridan are in MedLab, listening to Dr. Franklin's
findings about the latest victim.  Dr. Franklin explains that the
alien's internal organs disappeared, with no visible entry or exit
points, just like Mariah's husband.  Garibaldi expresses doubt that
Mariah may be who she claims.  "I arrested a lurker named Amis," he
says, "who was stationed on a deep-space listening post during the
war.  Forty-seven men landed on that moon -- all of them were
slaughtered, except for one."

<p>
Franklin tells Sheridan that whatever
killed them couldn't have come aboard the Copernicus because the scan
revealed nothing, but Garibaldi says that it could be something they
had never before encountered.  "I traced the ship's path.  It passed
within the gravitational pull of the same moon that Amis was stationed
on.  This Mariah Cirrus may not be what she appears."

<p>
Franklin tells
them that, since Mariah was with him the previous evening, she couldn't
be responsible for the alien's death.  Sheridan orders that a
watch, someone other than Franklin, be put upon Mariah around the clock.  Dr.
Franklin is upset, taking this to mean that he isn't doing his job.
Sheridan says he wants to protect the station; Dr. Franklin says
he can't believe that this is happening on the word of a lurker.
But Garibaldi tells Franklin that Amis won many medals during the war,
making him fairly trustworthy.  Sheridan says that the League of
Non-Aligned Worlds has asked for a council meeting to discuss the problem,
and orders Franklin to go over her medical scans again.  "For what
it's worth," Garibaldi tells Franklin after Sheridan leaves, "I hope
you're right.  But if you're not, be careful."

<p>
At the council meeting, a delegate says that the League insists
that Mariah be removed from the station.  "She has brought something
evil from the past...a soldier of darkness," he says to the council.
Though Londo finds the situation laughable, G'kar takes it quite
seriously, telling the delegate to continue, which he does.  "The forces
of darkness do not move openly.  They work through others.  Use
others.  When the darkness was defeated long ago, they scattered, hid
themselves away in secret places, and waited.  Now, the dark hand is
reaching out and recalling them from their sleep."  Sheridan can't
believe that Mariah is responsible, but the alien says, "Evil
sometimes wears a pleasant face."

<p>
G'kar thinks they should consider
the delegate's word, but Londo doesn't.  Sheridan says that they shouldn't
ignore what is going on.  Londo laughs and this, and leaves, saying
they should kill the presence, if they find it.  The alien delegate says that
the League will take action if Sheridan doesn't.  This angers Sheridan,
who warns the League that Mariah will be protected at all costs.  He
adjourns the meeting.  He talks to Ivanova, also present at the
meeting, about the situation, and she asks him what he would do if a
"soldier of darkness" did board the station via the Copernicus.
Sheridan scoffs at this, saying he will believe it when he sees it,
though Ivanova hopes it will not come to that.

<p>
Garibaldi springs up in bed, apparently due to a bad dream, and goes to
talk to Amis.  Garibaldi confronts Amis about the creature, telling him
to take him where he found it.  Amis has a difficult time believing
Garibaldi really believes him.  They go to the
place where Amis had seen the creature earlier, though there is nothing
there now.  Garibaldi draws his weapon, and searches for the creature,
but only finds a lurker in hiding.  He grabs Amis, but Amis breaks
away, and then shouts into midair for the creature to finish what it
started.  He collapses near the wall, sobbing.  Finally understanding,
Garibaldi tells Amis why he believes him.  "During the war there was a
guy in my unit.  Kept telling everybody our perimeter was weak.  We
laughed 'cause we checked it over and over.  It was secure.  We all
figured he was nuts.  Until then, we'd never seen any action.  And
then, one night, we stopped laughing.  They came through that perimeter
like it was paper.  He was the first to die.  Saved our butts.  He was
a nut, but he was right.  I believe you."

<p>
Garibaldi asks Amis to tell him about the listening post, and Amis
explains what happened to him.  "We were an intelligence-gathering
unit, not set up for heavy combat.  We'd heard the Minbari were setting
up a command and control post, so we slipped onto a small moon before
they finished the perimeter scans.  We set up camp in old ruins of some
kind.  As far as we knew, it was a dead world.  It came in the night,
during a storm.  We heard nothing, saw nothing...It came right through
the walls, like a hot wind.  The first man died, just meters from
me -- never even screamed.  We ran... we ran.  For a second, I thought I
lost it, and then I saw it.  Standing in the middle of a ball of
lightning.  It looked like it had come straight from hell."

<p>
"How did you survive?"  Garibaldi asks.

<p>
"I didn't!  It kept me alive.  As a snack.  It becomes part of you,
feeding on you.  The lucky ones were the men who died on the moon.
What it took from me I can never get back.  When the rescue party
showed up, I weighed 85 pounds.  That's how I knew it was on this
station.  A part of me's still inside that thing.  I can feel it.  But
nobody ever believed me...until now."

<p>
"This feeling...can it lead you to it?"

<p>
"I think... I think maybe that's what it's been doing.  All this
time... Calling me.  I think maybe we have some unfinished business
between us."  Without warning, Amis runs off.

<p>
Dr. Franklin enters the Copernicus and finds Mariah there.  He asks why
she is there, and she says that it is all she has...other than him, if
that's even true.  He tells her he doesn't want to move too fast, and
she understands.  She misses her husband, and wants to find the
creature responsible, but she also says that she had marital problems,
and that all she and her husband had left when they began their journey were
the stars
and their dreams.  Franklin understands, saying that he has devoted
most of his life to his work, and that he has had little time for
anything else, and that Babylon 5 isn't an appropriate place to raise a
family.  Mariah says that she believes her husband wouldn't have liked
the world in which she woke up.  Franklin tells her that what killed
her husband is on the station, and he wants to know anything she knows
that might help.  She tells him that, in her dreams, she is not alone
in the cryogenic tube, and that she believes it used her to stay alive
until it could find more food, which Franklin believes it has found on
Babylon 5.  "I've put everybody here in great danger," she says.

<p>
Meanwhile, Garibaldi walks through the corridors of Babylon 5, looking
for Amis or other clues when he hears a scream coming from nearby,
which he quickly runs to investigate.

<p>
Later, Sheridan tells Garibaldi and Ivanova that official accounts blame the
attack on the listening post on the Minbari.  Garibaldi says that Amis
is certain the Minbari didn't attack the post, and that the alien took
a part of him when it left his body, and that he could feel it on the
station.  "If the same thing happened to Mariah," he suggests, "she
might be able to help us find it."  Ivanova says it is too risky, and
since they don't know the nature of the creature, they don't know what
to do about it, since it may have control over her, causing her to
scout for it without her knowledge.  Sheridan tells Ivanova and
Garibaldi that whatever happened to the listening post is happening
again, and that they need to be ready for whatever it is.

<p>
Mariah is in asleep in MedLab when Garibaldi wakes her.  He tells her
that he needs her help to find Amis.  He asks her if she can feel where
the alien is, and she says that she believes she can.  Dr. Franklin
says he will allow it, but only if he can come along to make sure she
is in no danger.

<p>
Ivanova reports to Sheridan on C&C that they received reports of weapon
fire and part of a signal from Garibaldi.  Sheridan orders that section
of the station to be sealed off.  He tries to contact Dr. Franklin, but
can't, which Ivanova assumes is because Dr. Franklin went to search for
the creature.  Sheridan agrees, and then tells Ivanova to bring out the
heavy artillery, with which to fight the creature.  Ivanova and
Sheridan, and several other officers, all heavily armed, go down to
the section and find Franklin and Mariah outside tending to two injured
officers.  Franklin tells Sheridan that Garibaldi is still in there,
trying to find Amis and the creature.  Sheridan and Ivanova enter.

<p>
<img align=middle width=128 height=96
src="/lurk/gif/027/hallway.gif"> Off to fight the creature.

<p>
Weapons at the ready, they search the area, but can see nothing.  Soon,
they come to an open area, where Garibaldi is searching for Amis, whom
he soon finds, being held in midair by some invisible force.
Amis shouts at Garibaldi to shoot the creature, which
is apparently attacking him.  Garibaldi fires at the air behind Amis,
who drops
to the ground.

<p>
<img align=middle width=128 height=96
src="/lurk/gif/027/drop-amis.gif"> The creature drops Amis.

<p>
Garibaldi tries to get him up as Sheridan and Ivanova
move closer.  They all fire blindly into the area where the creature was
last seen, though they don't do much damage to it.  Amis says that he
believes the creature is waiting for him.  Sheridan then orders Ivanova
to triangulate their fire, so that they set up a "kill zone, point
blank."  Amis claims it won't work, that the creature is too smart.
"You've got to give it what it wants!"  He runs out into the open area,
shouting at the creature to come and get him.  The creature complies, and
begins attacking Amis.  But, it walks directly into the kill zone.
Garibaldi, Ivanova, Sheridan, and all the others fire madly at the
creature, which looks very tall, humanoid, with horn-shaped protrusions coming
from its head.  The creature falls to the ground and evaporates,
apparently dead.

<p>
Dr. Franklin and Mariah are in MedLab, checking on Amis, who will be
okay.  Franklin asks how Mariah will fare, and offers to let Mariah
stay on the station.  She declines, saying that she wants to mourn for
the loss of her husband, bury him, and visit Earth.  She says that she
wants to come back, if he is still interested, which he claims he will
be.  "Don't make promises life won't let you keep," she tells him.
They kiss, and then she leaves MedLab.

<p>
Ivanova reports to Sheridan, saying that they finished analyzing the
database from the Copernicus.  She found that Mariah was telling the
truth.  But, Ivanova has something else to report.  She says that the
ship lost about one tenth of its oxygen when it passed by a moon in
sector 18x70x59, which would have happened when the creature came aboard, but
when the ship left that sector, it was set on a new course.  They were
lucky that the creature didn't know the ship would make contact with
any signal it came across, or it would have passed right by without
anyone noticing.

<p>
Sheridan asks what course the ship had been programmed
on, and Ivanova tells him that the ship was heading to the rim, "toward
the exact place where Ambassador G'kar told us an ancient enemy was
gathering its forces."  She asks if it was a coincidence that it was
going to Z'ha'dum, and Sheridan says he didn't believe it was.

<p>
"Something's going on, Commander," Sheridan tells Ivanova.  Ivanova
agrees, saying that the sitatuation worries her a great deal as well.
As they ponder the meaning of recent events, G'kar is in his quarters,
reading the book of G'Quan, in which he sees a drawing of a tall
creature, which bears a distinct resemblence to the one killed by
Garibaldi, Sheridan, and Ivanova.

<p>
<img align=middle width=128 height=96
src="/lurk/gif/027/book.gif"> The Book of G'Quan.