lurkers-guide/synops/063

<p>
B5 is openly recruiting telepaths, but it is slow going.  Sheridan recalls
Franklin's underground network for helping telepaths escape Psi 
Corps, and Ivanova goes looking for the doctor, who is still on Walkabout.<p>

A maintenance worker is checking a power failure in Grey 16 and links with
Central to inform them he can't find the cause of the malfunction. As 
soon as he finishes communication, something pulls him down the shaft he
was working in, and he vanishes, screaming. <p>


<IMG SRC="/lurk/gif/063/sinclair-effects.gif" ALIGN=RIGHT WIDTH="160" HEIGHT="120">
On Minbar, Rathenn tells Delenn of his last moments with Ranger One, and how
his loss is being felt by everyone. Lennier arrives with a box containing 
Sinclair's personnal belongings - surprisingly few, which leads Rathenn to
comment he lived his life as only passing by, not wanting to carry any 
burden. Delenn assures Rathenn she will send the box to Sinclair's family 
and prepares to leave. Before that, however, Rathenn tells her that Ranger
One's position must be taken without delay, and he thinks Delenn would be perfect for the job. She objects, but
Rathenn is adamant.<p>

Garibaldi is cleaning an antique Smith &amp; Wesson .38 that was his 
Grandmother's when she was on an Earth police force when Zack arrives with the 
report of the disappearance of the maintenance worker in Grey
sector. Garibaldi decides to investigate himself.<p>

Ivanova finds Franklin in Downbelow,
starting to suffer from Stim withdrawal. She asks him for
data on the telepaths.  He says that he wiped it from the main computer, 
but he has a backup on his personal system.  He trades the data in return
for being left alone, "no matter what."<p>

Garibaldi and a tech supervisor visit the site of the tech's disappearance, 
but find nothing. They argue about the number of Grey levels, which are mostly 
industrial areas.  He says 30, but she says 29 -- a mix-up on the 
blueprints that was never picked up due to the speed of the construction 
of the station.<p>

<br clear=all> 
Sheridan congratulates Delenn and tells her she is the perfect choice for
Ranger One. She points out that while she may be the logical choice,
she's not necessarily the popular 
choice. She decides to have her initiation ceremony on Babylon 5. 
Sheridan is worried about how public such an event would be, given
that the Rangers have been a secret organization up to now. That is about
to change, Delenn assures him.<p>

After he leaves, she is 
confronted by Neroon, who says he underestimated her: he didn't think she had such 
ambition: Calling the Rangers together after 1000 years of silence, and 
having the Religious Caste building Warships without the knowledge or
consent of the Warrior Caste. Valen's law, he says, 
was quite clear: 
"Three Castes, Worker, Religious, Warrior. They build, you pray. WE fight!"
Delenn points out that he broke that law when the Warrior Caste assumed 
a majority voice in the Grey 
Council.<p>

Neroon demands that she
renounce the leadership of the Rangers, and accuses her of creating
a vaccum of power on Minbar so that she could occupy it. A religious
zealot, guided by prophecy, taking command of a military structure.
He tells her he is sworn to stop her - no
matter the means. Lennier arrives and Delenn is distracted by seconds -
time enough for Neroon to vanish.<p>

<br clear=all>
<IMG SRC="/lurk/gif/063/tranq-trap-doll.gif" ALIGN=RIGHT WIDTH="160" HEIGHT="120">Garibaldi takes the elevator down through each Grey level, counting the time taken 
between floors.  Between 16 and 17 the gap is twice as long, so he takes 
the elevator back up and stops it between floors.  Opening the doors, he 
finds a previously unknown level, strangely designed and strewn with garbage.
He is then shot with a tranquilizer dart by a ventriloquist's dummy.<p>
<br clear=all>
<IMG SRC="/lurk/gif/063/delenn-entilzha.gif" ALIGN=RIGHT WIDTH="160" HEIGHT="120">
Lennier is outraged that Neroon, a former Grey Council member, would threaten
Delenn with death. After all, no Minbari has killed another Minbari in over a thousand years. Lennier wants Delenn to 
tell the captain about this, but Delenn refuses, and makes Lennier promise not to tell Sheridan. They leave to prepare the ceremony. <p>

Garibaldi comes to and is confronted by a ragtag group of people, led
by a man named Jeremiah. The group believes that the universe 
is sentient and is striving for perfection. It hasn't got it right yet.
After the next big bang, they say,
everything will be perfect.<p>

Lennier arrives at Marcus' quarters and tells him
he has come to break a promise, by not breaking a promise. He promised 
Delenn he would not tell Sheridan a thing. He cannot tell anyone in the chain of
command, because Sheridan would find out, but by telling Marcus, who is outside the chain of command, he will not have broken his promise.<p>

Lennier informs
Marcus of Neroon's intentions. Lennier can't stop Neroon without causing
a civil war between the Castes, but Marcus, a non-Minbari, could. He would only need to delay
Neroon -- once the cerimony is done, it cannot be undone. Marcus, without 
hesitation, agrees, but Lennier informs him that Neroon is one of the 
greatest warriors of the Minbari, specially trained in killing humans, 
and very good at what he does. Marcus only asks Lennier to inform him of 
Neroon's whereabouts, as soon as he discovers them.<p>


Jeremiah explains to Garibaldi that the universe is alive,
and each individual
is a part of the greater whole. The universe is trying to understand
itself -- something, he says, that the Minbari understand perfectly.
Garibaldi, however, is only really concerned about 
escaping. That proves difficult, however - all pressure doors are locked and
the tube sabotaged. <p>


Preparations are being made for the leadership ceremony. Rangers
arrive by the dozens on the station. Sheridan and 
Delenn talk about her past.  After her birth, Delenn's mother entered a 
religious order, the Sisters of Valeria,
has seen her only twice since. Delenn's father passed 
beyond the veil 10 years before.  The war 
between the Minbari and Humans broke his heart.<p>

<br clear=all>
<IMG SRC="/lurk/gif/063/marcus-neroon-fight.gif" ALIGN=RIGHT WIDTH="160" HEIGHT="120">Neroon and Marcus meet in a corridor.  Neroon tells Marcus to step aside,
that Neroon's argument is with Delenn. <i>Then it is also with me,</i>
Marcus says. Marcus invokes a Minbari fight-to-the-death ritual. 
They go at each other with Minbari 
staffs.<p>


In Grey 17, Jeremiah - while Garibaldi checks every corner for an exit - 
muses on how a new Big Bang will occur, this time conciously directed, 
each part of the whole concious of its larger role, and solving "a serious
design flaw": that the Universe kills everything it creates. Simulating pain
due to the dart, Garibaldi manages to get rid of one of the guards,
and then hits another one,  "persuading" Jeremiah
to show him the exit.<p>


The Ceremony is in progress, with Delenn being offered
Ranger One's vest and with virtually everyone present, except Marcus, whose
absence is noted by Sheridan and Ivanova.<p>

<br clear=all>
<IMG SRC="/lurk/gif/063/predator.gif" ALIGN=RIGHT WIDTH="160" HEIGHT="120">
Garibaldi and Jeremiah find the worker's bloodied vest, and Michael asks 
him if they killed him. Jeremiah says no.
However, in search for perfection, the cultists have imported a Zarg,
one of the most perfect forms in the Universe, moved by instinct only.
"You have a Zarg here? Are you nuts? They're the most dangerous aliens
in the sector!" A noise approaches them...<p>


Marcus is losing badly.  Neroon says that he cannot back away from 
Denn-Shar, but Marcus, as a human, can. Marcus refuses. Neroon asks him
why. For Delenn, Marcus replies:
<i>We live for the One and we would die for the One.</i><p>


Garibaldi, using a steam tube, manges to scare the Zarg a first time,
but he knows that is only temporary. He them discovers the bullets
of his Smith & Wesson in his back pocket.<p>


The ceremony is almost complete when Neroon walks in, carrying a bloody 
staff which he throws as Delenn's feet.  There is blood now between
the Humans and the Warrior Caste, he says. He does not believe that
they would die for him, but they would die for Delenn.<p>

Lennier finds Marcus and gets him to Medlab, where he will recover.<p>


Jeremiah can't understand why Garibaldi is fighting, since the death at the
hands of the Zarg is a perfect death. Garibaldi points out that
Jeremiah isn't out there with the Zarg either. Jeremiah hesitates, 
and concludes he is not yet perfect enough.
Garibaldi, using a local heat souce, detonates the bullets inside the tube and 
they hit the Zarg, killing it. They run.
<p>

Neroon arrives and orders Delenn and Lennier out of the room so he can 
speak to Marcus, one worrior to another. Neroon says that the death that took
place in their battle was his own. Marcus was willing to die for 
someone of another race, when Neroon was going to kill one of his 
own kind.  He muttered something about Marcus being more Minbari than 
himself. <p>

As he turns to leave Marcus gasps: "Next time you want a revelation, 
could you possibly find a way that's not quite so uncomfortable?" Neroon laughs.<p>

Garibaldi meets Sheridan at his office and tells him, "You wouldn't believe
the day I had." Sheridan won't have any of it, though: where the hell was he 
while Marcus was being beaten up, someone was trying to kill Delenn and someone
was invading the ceremony? Garibaldi starts telling him about the missing 
Grey level, the cult, the quest for perfection, the killer predator...<p>

"Am I going too fast for you?" he asks.