lurkers-guide/synops/071

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

<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 alt="" src="/lurk/gif/071/cloud.jpeg">
The station spins amidst a growing cloud of warships and tension as the
coalition prepares to defend itself against the Vorlons and Shadows.
Ivanova finds the Captain brooding in C&amp;C.  It seems that the Shadows have
finally reacted to the Vorlon "planet killer" attacks against worlds where
they have influence with an equally destructive offensive against Vorlon
supporters.  They watch with horror as a report shows an evil cloud
suffusing a world, rippling the surface and killing all sentient life on it.  

<p>
"Giants in the playground," Sheridan remarks with disgust.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 alt="" src="/lurk/gif/071/meeting.jpeg">
On Narn, Londo has convened a secret meeting of Centauri leaders.  In no
uncertain terms he and Vir explain that if Emperor Cartagia is not killed
today and the Shadows driven off homeworld, Centauri Prime will be
destroyed by the Vorlons.  

<p>
Ivanova tracks down the Captain again in his office.  She tells Sheridan he
must be proud.  Even if they die in the coming battle, it will be at the
head of what must be the greatest fleet the galaxy has ever seen.  When he
tells her that he needs her to track down the remaining First Ones for him
and this will prevent her from accompanying the fleet, she grows angry.  

<p>
When she was a child, her mother told her to wait at the neighbor's house
one day.  She waited and waited and her mother never came.  It was the day
her mother killed herself.  Ivanova refuses to be left behind again.  She makes
Sheridan promise, as one soldier to another, not to protect her, but to let
her be there when the final battle comes.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 alt="" src="/lurk/gif/071/cartagia.jpeg">
The throne room rings with laughter as a jester entertains the court.
Emperor Cartagia enthusiastically explains his latest idea to Mollari.
When he attains godhood, Londo shall be his high priest.  They will go back
to watch the Vorlons destroy Centauri Prime as soon as G'Kar is executed.
The emperor turns to find himself the object of the jester's mimicry.  The
room stills and the courtiers quake until Cartagia laughs, and everyone
laughs with relief.  Londo leaves to "check on some arrangements."

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 alt="" src="/lurk/gif/071/cell.jpeg">
He is shocked to see the "arrangements" sitting in a dark cell, drawn,
bloodied, with only a single eye.  But "an empty eye can see through to an
empty heart," G'Kar says.  Londo tells G'Kar that his chains have been
weakened enough that he can break them at the moment before his execution
to create a diversion the Centauri can use to kill the emperor. "Your
heart is empty, Mollari.  Did you know that?"  Londo's sympathy dries up at
that remark and he leaves the Narn with the injunction not to touch the
emperor's person.  "Leave him to us."

<p>
Mollari returns to the throne room in time to see a body dragged from the
room and a jester's cap on the floor.  "Humor is such a subjective thing,"
Cartagia comments.

<p>
Later that night Vir appears bearing a secret package.  He is surprised
no one followed him.  "Everyone knows that you are incapable of doing
anything really dangerous or subversive," Mollari smiles.  The package
turns out to be anything but innocuous however.  It is a needlelike dagger
with a button on the handle that when plunged deep into the breast of the
victim will release a toxin that can kill a Centauri "almost
instantaneously."  They joke around about whether that might be long enough
for the emperor to say "Londo killed Aaaaagh!"

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 alt="" src="/lurk/gif/071/free.jpeg">
As G'Kar is paraded through the corridors as a lesson to the Narn, Cartagia
idly mentions that he had G'Kar's chains replaced because they looked weak.
 The emperor passes judgment, death by vivisection, and asks for the Narn's
plea.  G'Kar only grabs his chains.  With a mighty pull he breaks them and
attacks the emperor's guards.  Londo hurries Cartagia into an antechamber
behind the throne.  

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 alt="" src="/lurk/gif/071/assassin2.jpeg">
Nervously fumbling for his dagger and peering around for guards, Londo
distractedly tells the enraged emperor to be quiet.  Cartagia turns on him
instead, punching Mollari in the face and knocking the weapon out of his
hand before getting him in a headlock.  "You will burn with the rest of
Centauri," he says, then turns away to find a dagger in his chest, in the
hands of a horrified Vir.

<p>
Within the hour Londo announces Cartagia's death to the court.  In the same
moment he declares that this is a sign that they must leave Narn forever.
They must also return to Centauri Prime immediately to remove the Shadow
presence there.  Since there is no clear line of succession, he is named
Prime Minister by a member of the Centaurum to lead until a new emperor can
be chosen.

<p>
Back on Babylon 5, Lennier hurries into the war room with an intelligence
report.  It shows that the Shadows, like the Vorlons, are destroying planets
hit-and-run style.  He is interrupted by an incoming report from a White
Star scout, whose probes are able to show how the Shadows operate.  They
surround the victim planet with a cloud of black missiles.  These missiles
assault the planet en masse, burrowing through the crust to the planet's
molten core where they detonate together.  The resultant tectonic upheaval
effectively destroys all life on the planet within hours.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 alt="" src="/lurk/gif/071/garibaldi.jpeg">
Garibaldi is upset.  "We are outclassed, boys and girls."

<p>
But Lennier knows where the Vorlons might be heading next, Coriana 6, a
planet with over 6 billion people on it.  They convene the League worlds to
discuss their next strategy.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 alt="" src="/lurk/gif/071/drunk.jpeg">
The Centauri must leave Narn immediately but Vir is no where to be found.
Londo's impatience with his assistant turns into distaste when he finds Vir
thoroughly drunk.  But he softens in the face of Vir's anguish.  No matter
how good the cause, Vir has just killed someone in cold blood.  Londo tells
him what he did was necessary, that he may have saved their people.  "But
you still have your heart.  And your heart is a good one.  You would not be
in such great pain otherwise."  Their conversation is interrupted by
the fireworks of celebrating Narns.  Londo may regret the loss of his own
heart, he says as he leaves Vir, but in keeping his promise to G'Kar, at
least he retains his honor.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 alt="" src="/lurk/gif/071/suicide.jpeg">
The League representatives are appalled by their first vision of the Shadow
planet killing cloud.  In this mood of despair Sheridan announces they will
stand against the Vorlons at Coriana 6.  In addition, it's time the
Shadows and Vorlons fought each other directly instead of attacking through
the destruction of innocent worlds.  The Shadows will have to be tricked
into joining them however.  While the League watches, Sheridan calls up the
White Star scout ship again and instructs her captain to attack a Shadow
base near one of their main staging areas.  The Shadow response will be
instant--and deadly.  Sheridan asks this crew to leak news of  a
nonexistant coalition base near Coriana 6 to the Shadows, and to die in
apparent defense of this false intelligence.

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<p>
<img align=right width=128 height=96 alt="" src="/lurk/gif/071/gkar.jpeg">
The Narn throne room is the scene of revelry once again, this time as the
Narn tear it to pieces.  G'Kar is outraged when he sees this, and even more
infuriated when the Narns try to make him their new leader to strike back
against the Centauri once and for all.  He will lead only as a member of
the Kha'Ri, not as a dictator.  Angry at being told off, one Narn asks
him, while we've been down here suffering under Centauri rule, "What have
you endured?"  G'Kar's answer begins in rage and ends in ineffable mirth.

<p>
The scout ship's final message is received at the station.  The Shadows
have taken the bait.  And so the greatest fleet anyone has ever known sets
off for Coriana 6.