lurkers-guide/synops/050

<h3>Synopsis by Matthew Murray (mmurray@wsu.edu)</h3>

<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/050/indict.jpeg" alt="">
Sheridan approaches a store owner who is having an argument with a
member of the Night Watch.  The member of Night Watch says that the
store owner, who has been hanging signs expressing his negative
feelings about President Clark, is committing acts of sedition.
Sheridan tries to calm him down, and says that the shopkeeper has a right to his
opinion.  He warns the Night Watch officer that, if such harassment happens
again, the responsible party will be disciplined.

<p>
Ivanova arrives in Garibaldi's office to receive a message from the
PsiCop Bester, who will be arriving on Babylon 5 in seven hours.  He
claims that there is an individual on board who may be a danger to the
station, Earth, and the PsiCorps.  Garibaldi tells her that he thinks
this visit, like Bester's others, is merely a ploy to check up on them.  It
turns out that Bester's concerns may be justified, for a crazed man,
shouting, "The mountain is falling on me," is attacking people elsewhere on
the station.

<p>
Sheridan warns the other members of the Babylon 5 war council that
Bester will soon be on the station.  He tells them that, with the
current state of the station and everything that has been going on,
they can't afford to be scanned by Bester, who might not obey PsiCorps
regulations.  Garibaldi suggests killing him if he learns too much, but
Sheridan won't hear of it.  Delenn tells everyone that, although risky,
there may be an alternative to violence.

<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/050/vir.jpeg" alt="">
Vir arrives off a transport to meet Londo in the docking bay.  After
exchanging a few pleasantries, Londo asks Vir to tell him everything
about his trip.

<p>
Dr. Franklin, in MedLab, is treating the man who had the crazed fits
earlier when a nurse comes in with one of his victims, who nearly died
in avalanche several months earlier.  Since the crazed man had been
shouting about a mountain falling on him, Dr. Franklin asks him to be
tested for traces of Dust.

<p>
When Bester's transport arrives at the station, Ivanova orders everyone
off the command deck so that she can perform a maintenance routine, but
she has other ideas in mind.  "They don't know you, your kind, the way
I do," she says to herself.  "They don't understand, they think it's
some kind of a joke.  But nothing works with you people.  Nothing but
force.  Computer, activate forward defense grid.  We can't risk
throwing it all away, not because of you.  I've been saying it for
weeks now... The defense grid's been acting funny.  Defense grid,
prepare to fire.  Fire!"

<p>
"Belay that order," shouts Sheridan, who entered unbeknownst to Ivanova.
He manages to convince her that this would be throwing away her career,
and that she would become exactly what she hates most.  He
deactivates the defense grid and tells the computer to begin docking
manuevers.

<p>
<img align=right width=160 height=120 src="/lurk/gif/050/throw.jpeg" alt="">
After his ship docks, Bester comes aboard the station, and is taken to
Sheridan's office, where Sheridan and the others are waiting, each with
a Minbari standing by them.  Sheridan introduces them as Minbari
telepaths, who he has brought to level the playing field.  He tells
Bester that he doesn't trust him, and blames him for what happened with
Talia Winters.  Bester tries to bait Garibaldi on that topic, but isn't
successful.  Ivanova explains
that, while a human telepath couldn't block a PsiCop's scan, a group of
Minbari telepaths can.  Franklin gives him the choice of either
taking the sleeper drugs to suppress his telepathic abilities, or to
put up with the Minbari telepaths.  Bester chooses to submit to an
injection of sleepers.<br clear=all>

<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/050/surprise.jpeg" alt="">
Londo, Vir, Delenn, Lennier, and the Drazi ambassador and his aide are
meeting together to try to solve the dispute between the Centauri and
the Drazi.  Londo explains that the Centauri Republic wants a buffer
zone of seven planets, which is five more than he originally wanted.
This angers the Drazi ambassador, but Londo is unwilling to say
anymore, and tells the Drazi ambassador that, if he isn't careful, what
happened to the Narn homeworld might happen to the Drazi homeworld as
well.  Londo and the Drazi leave, leaving Vir alone with Delenn and
Lennier.  He thanks them for supporting his visit to Minbar, and
suggests that Londo might do well to visit as well.  Delenn and Lennier
are unsure that that would help, but Vir insists that he knows there is
more to Londo than meets the eye.

<p>
Bester explains to the command staff that he has come aboard the
station to find one of the main distributors of Dust, a drug which
allows the user to activate his or her latent telepathic gene, allowing
them to invade others' minds, living their life for several hours.  It
is highly addictive, and more is required each time to achieve the
affect.  When a telepath is read by someone using Dust, he almost never
recovers.  Bester explains that he believes that the seller wants to
sell the Dust to alien governments to use as a weapon, and that that is
what the Corps is worried about.

<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/050/deal.jpeg" alt="">
G'Kar tells Lindstrom, the Dust dealer, that their agreement called for
no selling of Dust while he was delivering it to G'Kar.  G'Kar promises
to pay him, when he learns that it works as advertised.  Lindstrom
presents G'Kar with a small packet of Dust, which G'Kar explains he wants
to use as a weapon.  Lindstrom tells him that the drug was designed for
human telepaths, and might not work on the Narn, whose telepaths and
their families had been exterminated many generations earlier.  G'Kar
tells Lindstrom they will continue business after the Dust has been
tested, but Lindstrom warns him that it 
could be dangerous.  G'Kar doesn't care, and sends him on his way.

<p>
Garibaldi and Bester are walking together through a crowded area.  Bester
explains that he wishes to protect Earth just as Garibaldi wishes to
protect Babylon 5.  Bester says it is his job to protect the human race
from threats that only the Corps can stop.  He says they may be the only
chance that the human race has for survival.

<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/050/mollari.jpeg" alt="">
G'Kar sits crumpled on the floor of his quarters, the empty Dust packet
sitting nearby.  He croaks out the word "Mollari," and leaves his
quarters.  He sees and hears the world around him differently while he
is under the effects of the drug, picking up the stray thoughts of
those that walk by him, and he is scarcely able to control their effect
on him.  But, he does manage to make his way through the station
slowly, toward his destination.

<p>
Garibaldi and Bester are interrogating one of the more powerful members
of Babylon 5's underground about what he knows about the Dust dealer.
When the man, Ashi, claims he doesn't know anything, Bester says that
he's lying, explaining that strong emotions cause him to blurt out
things like that sometimes, though the information can't be used officially.
Ashi explains that he was approached by a man with numerous crates of Dust,
but that he wouldn't help handle them.  He tells Garibaldi that the man has
quarters in Red Sector, that he is using the assumed name Morgenstern,
and that he has a shipment coming in this afternoon.  Garibaldi sends
the man away with two other security officers, and then asks Bester how
he was able to read the man's thoughts.  Bester explains that his
uniform gives him a power over others -- whether or not he can read their
thoughts, they believe he can.  Garibaldi accuses him of using it
merely for intimidation, but Bester is quick to point out to Garibaldi
that his uniform, too, can be used for that purpose.

<p>
Londo tells Vir that the report he is planning to send to the Centarum
is not appropriate, and that it demonstrates great political naivete.
Vir tries to explain his point of view, but Londo will not listen to
anything he has to say, only allowing Vir to leave in his explanation
of Minbari spirituality.  Londo's door chimes, and Vir goes to
answer it, but is accosted and rendered unconcious by G'Kar, who then
enters Londo's quarters, a look of fire in his eyes.

<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/050/stakeout.jpeg" alt="">
Garibaldi and Bester hide behind a large crate in a storage room,
hoping that they will be able to catch the dealer and the evidence all
at the same time, according to due process, which Garibaldi accuses
Bester of ignoring all too frequently.  Several men enter the room, and
begin their dealings for the Dust.  Garibaldi speaks into his link
quickly, and a shrill siren fills the room, dropping all of the men to
their knees, while Garibaldi confiscates the Dust.  Several other
security officers enter and cart off the men involved in the deal.

<p>
Londo, bleeding and unable to move, finds G'Kar standing over him, and
tries to make an offer to him.  G'Kar, still under the effects of the
Dust, takes a trip into the depths of Londo's mind...

<p>
...He finds himself seeing Londo being assigned to Babylon 5, and
learns that Londo
was appointed to his position of Ambassador only because there was no
one else who wanted it.

<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/050/inside.jpeg" alt="">
G'Kar takes great pleasure, while inside Londo's head, in tormenting him
about this fact.  Londo begs G'Kar to leave his mind, but G'Kar refuses,
demanding that Londo show him all of the secrets he has been holding
in.  He delves further into Londo's mind...

<p>
...This time seeing the meeting Londo had with Morden in the garden
just before President Santiago's death.

<p>
G'Kar reacts very strongly to this, finally learning that it was
Londo who was behind the plight of the Narn.  G'Kar demands to know who he
was working with, but Londo refuses to tell him.  Infuriated, G'Kar rips the
information he wants from his mind.  The resulting montage of images is
so strong that it thrusts him out of Londo's mind, and into his own...
<br clear=all>

<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/050/dad.jpeg" alt="">
...G'Kar finds himself back on the Narn homeworld, many years earlier,
witnessing the death of his father.  His father asks him to honor his name
right before he dies.  The image ends, and G'Kar hears a voice.  He turns
around...

<p>
...To find an old Narn standing before him.  The old Narn tells G'Kar
that both the
Narn and the Centauri are a dying people, and that they cannot simply
fight forever, until both races have been exterminated.  Once that
happens, there can be no winners or losers.  G'Kar says that he made a
promise to his father to honor his father's name, but the old Narn asks
him to reexamine how he should go about that.  He tells G'Kar that, if
they are a dying race, they should die with honor, and no longer devote
their life to fighting and hatred.  "We are fighting to save one
another.  And some of us must be sacrificed," he tells G'Kar, "if all
are to be saved.  Because if we fail in this, then none of us will be
saved, and the Narn will be only a memory."  The old Narn vanishes, but
G'Kar is not alone for long...

<p>
...A strange voice fills his thoughts.  "You have the opportunity, here
and now, to choose.
To become something greater and nobler and more difficult than you have
been before.  The universe does not offer such chances often, G'Kar."

<p>
"Why now?"  G'Kar asks.  "Why not earlier?  All this time... Where have
you been?"

<p>
"I have always been here," the voice replies.  G'Kar finally sees its
source as the sound of flapping wings fills his mind.  G'Kar spins
around to see the white, glowing figure of G'Lan rise up and fly into the
distance.

<p>
Once G'Lan has vanished, G'Kar can only sit and sob, with the
unconcious Londo nearby.  Neither of them notice another visitor, Kosh,
who soon takes his leave.

<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/050/bruised.jpeg" alt="">
While Vir visits Londo, who is just regaining conciousness in MedLab,
G'Kar faces the ombuds who is presiding over the hearing where he is being
tried for his crimes.  After G'Kar pleads guilty, Sheridan tries to
convince the ombuds that G'Kar's actions were caused by the Dust, and
therefore, not his fault.  She disagrees, saying that the fact that he went
to Londo's quarters, constitutes premeditation.  She sentences him to a
term of no less than 60 days in the station's prison facilities.
Garibaldi approaches G'Kar and offers him the Book of G'Quan, which
G'Kar had loaned him, but G'Kar asks him to keep it, since he himself
is now "somewhat closer to the source."

<p>
After being released from MedLab, Londo and Vir speak of the last few
days' events, but Vir explains that he must leave that night.  Londo
tells him that he should never allow the Centauri government to make a
joke of him or his work.  Vir promises that he won't.

<p>
Garibaldi escorts Bester to the docking bay, and though Bester has enjoyed
working with Garibaldi, the feeling isn't mutual.  When another PsiCop
arrives for Bester, Garibaldi makes a hasty exit.  As they walk away,
Bester says that he knew the original purpose of Dust, to create
telepaths from those without latent skill, would never work, but that
at least he has retrieved it; it's back among humans, where it belongs.

<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/050/prison.jpeg" alt="">
G'Kar sits alone in his prison cell, quietly thinking, and remembering
the words he heard the old Narn speak to him, while under the effect of
the Dust.  "We are fighting to save one another.  And some of us must
be sacrificed, if all are to be saved."
<br clear=all>