lurkers-guide/synops/058

<h3>Synopsis by Katrina Glerum (kat@midwinter.com)</h3>

<p>
A hopeful crowd has gathered in the Zocalo, eager to see the first ISN
broadcast since transmissions broke off violently after the imposition
of martial law a few weeks earlier.  However, even Ivanova is
disheartened by the anchor's bold-faced lie that the final broadcast
had been made by alien-backed saboteurs attempting to overthrow Earth
Gov.

<p>
Captain Sheridan is busy checking out one of the new fighters from the
Churchill when a distress call is logged.  It is from a lone black Star
Fury, painted with an enormous Omega, and bearing the station's
favorite Psi Cop, Mr. Bester.  Keeping carefully out of telepathic
scanning range the Captain asks Bester why he shouldn't just kill him
on the spot.  Curiousity? Bester suggests.  When there's no reply he
prompts impatiently, "Captain?" but finds the response: "I'm thinking
it over," rather unsettling.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/058/gkar-demand.jpeg" alt="">
A frustrated G'Kar catches Ivanova in a corridor.  He has fulfilled his
part of the bargain he made with Sheridan by having his Narns assist
with station security and even defense, and he demands that he now be
allowed to join the alliance Sheridan and the rest have formed.

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<p>
<img align=right width=160 height=120 src="/lurk/gif/058/bester.jpeg" alt="">
Stepping onboard the station, Bester is amused to find himself greeted
by a team of armed guards.  Meanwhile the command staff watch him
suspiciously on a closed circuit TV and debate whether to drug him up,
lock him up or give him a chance to explain.  Privately, Sheridan
manages to convince a reluctant Ivanova to be the first to meet him
since her latent ability will allow her to detect a scan.  She greets
the Psi Cop in his cell with icy demeanor.  Bester's idle needling
about her hatred for the Corps brings her to flash point faster than he
could have estimated, and earns him a resounding slap when he mentions
her mother.

<p>
But it brings him to his point.  "The enemy of my enemy is my friend,"
he remarks.  He has found out about the Shadows and their influence
over President Clark and the Psi Corps, and he doesn't like it.  They
interfere with his plans for a future when humans are ruled by
telepaths.  He has come to Babylon 5 to find someone who hates Shadows
as much as he, because he thinks he knows a way to damage them.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/058/sheridan-delenn.jpeg" alt="">
Sheridan and Delenn discuss G'Kar's demand.  They both realize that
bringing G'Kar into their circle means they must own up to the fact
that they knew that he was right about the ancient enemy's return and
let his world be conquered by this enemy and the Centauri rather than
reveal their knowledge.  Over Sheridan's objections the Minbari
Ambassador insists that it is her responsibility to tell G'Kar the
truth now since it was she who insisted that the secret be kept.

<p>
Bester tells the gathered officers that a ship bearing weapons
components for the Shadows is en route to the Rim and needs to be
seized.  He explains that he can pinpoint the ship's location in
hyperspace by homing in on the thought waves of the occupants.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/058/chair.jpeg" alt="">
"Try not to drool on the controls," Sheridan mutters as Bester admires
the White Star's bridge.  The instant the Captain leaves his seat,
Bester hops on, only to be booted out an instant later and ignored by
Lennier when he tries to give an order.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/058/admission.jpeg" alt="">
Her head bowed, Delenn admits to the Grey Council's knowledge of the
Shadows and their alliance with the Centauri.  If they had spoken out,
she explains, the Shadows would have acted openly and would have
annihilated the Narns rather than simply allowing the Centauri to seize
their homeworld.  Instead of millions dying, billions would have died --
whole planets, she gasps, horrified.

<p>
"If I had learned this as my world was being bombed by the Centauri, I
would have killed you instantly," G'Kar hisses.  "You understand that,
do you not?"  Then he repeats the line from his Vorlon-inspired vision,
"'Some must be sacrificed if all are to be saved.'...Now I understand
that is as much about how we got here, as where we are going.  I think
that one sentence is the greatest burden I have ever known."  He admits
that if it were not for the Grey Council's inaction, his people would
be a dead race.

<p>
As tears slide down her face Delenn says, "You have come a long way,
G'Kar.  Further than I could have guessed," and she welcomes him into
the War Council, only hoping that he can forgive her someday.

<p>
"Perhaps, but not today," he utters.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/058/tractor.jpeg" alt="">
The White Star knocks out the last of the Shadow fighters protecting
the transport and grabs it as an enormous Shadow ship looms out of
hyperspace. Lennier announces its presence, but the ship breaks off,
and Bester has a strange look on his face.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/058/frozen.jpeg" alt="">
The transport is carrying a cargo of human telepaths in cryogenic
suspension.  The pilots are an unknown alien species who have committed
suicide rather than be captured.  When Sheridan demands to know why
Bester didn't tell them about the cargo, Bester admits that he knew
Babylon 5 probably wouldn't expend any effort to save telepaths.

<p>
When Franklin unfreezes one, he notices that she seems to have cyberweb
implants.  He takes her ID bracelet to Bester, who condescendingly
begins to explain that she is a "blip" who refused to join the Psi
Corps.  Suddenly his face grows numb.  He must see her immediately.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/058/wired.jpeg" alt="">
She has other plans, however.  By the time Garibaldi, Franklin and
Bester arrive at medlab, she has wrapped herself into an intricate
cocoon of wiring and is interfacing with the station electronics.  She
wants to be free of the pain she's in, but the commands in her head
which tell her to attack the Psi Corps, are too powerful.  As the
doctor knocks her out, she asks Bester, "Al, what have they done to
me?"  and sends him images of her ordeal: alien brain surgery and
Shadow vessels.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/058/lover.jpeg" alt="">
She knows him because she is the love of Bester's life, and carrying
their child.  The Shadows were intending to plug these telepaths into
their newborn ships.  If Bester hated the Shadows before, now he wants to
destroy them.  For saving her life, he pledges his support to B5's
war before leaving the station.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/058/book.jpeg" alt="">
The recent events have reminded Garibaldi of something.  Turning to the
Book of G'Quan, he finds it, and calls an immediate meeting of the War
Council in their new command center.  It appears that all of the Narn
telepaths were killed by the Shadows a thousand years ago, because the
Shadows using the planet as a base in their last war feared them.  The
Council members instantly realize that this might be why the Shadow
ship didn't attack the White Star with Bester aboard, because maybe
telepaths constitute a threat, and are therefore perhaps a weapon against
the Shadows.  It's just in time, Ivanova reports, because the Shadows have
just begun attacking Rim worlds openly.