lurkers-guide/synops/083

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

<p>
As Sheridan's forces approach Earth, the fighting grows more fierce.
Outgunned and unable to flee, Clark's remaining ships still refuse to
surrender.

<p>
Meanwhile, Dr. Franklin and Lyta find themselves on Mars again with
their disturbing cargo.

<p>
Garibaldi matter of factly informs Edgars that John Sheridan's trap has
been baited with his father.  Pleased, Edgars again promises Garibaldi
the elusive reward of the whole truth.  "I think the last guy got
thirty pieces of silver for the same job," Garibaldi remarks with
distaste as he leaves.

<p>
Sheridan orders the opposing vessels to stand down again.  One captain
finally breaks silence saying that Sheridan is only going to execute
them if they surrender.    Sheridan's new ally Macdougan convinces the
young captain that its safe to stand down just as a new ship jumps into
the melee.  To Sheridan's relief it's his old ship, the Agamemnon, come
to join his fleet.

<p>
Number One is livid to discover that Franklin has brought a teep into
her facility without even thinking of consulting her.  The dozens of
frozen telepaths he brings are equally unwelcome.

<p>
Sheridan and the Agamemnon's crew share a fond reunion when he goes on
board.  He's still there when Garibaldi's transmission catches up with
him.  Garibaldi explains that Clark's people have captured Sheridan's dad,
and says he has a rescue plan which requires Sheridan's presence.  Against
everyone's advice Sheridan decides to go to Mars alone, and the
Agamemnon agrees to transport him there.

<p>
The hostility towards Lyta is not limited to Number One.  Franklin is
baffled, until Lyta explains the Bloodhound program.  Anyone suspected
of being in the Resistance is simply picked up and scanned.  No due
process.  Quietly Lyta begins to explain the other things Psi Cops have
done.  One serial killer of telepaths now lives in an institution,
screaming all the time at the "things [we] planted in his mind."  When
that happened she left Psi Cops for Commercial work, but from then she
became afraid of what telepaths could do.  "Someday there's going to be
a war between telepaths and mundanes, Stephen," she predicts direly.

<p>
Ivanova leaves the station to take command of the fleet in Sheridan's
absence, and Delenn agrees to keep watch over B5 until she returns.

<p>
John pilots a fighter down to the surface of Mars.  Garibaldi is
waiting in a smoky bar.  As soon as the Captain sits, Garibaldi slaps a
tranquilizer patch on his hand.  Furiously Sheridan stands and attempts
to escape, but like a lion brought down by jackals, the men who have
come for him are too many and too strong.  Garibaldi just sits in his
place and watches impassively as his former friend and CO gets beaten
to a pulp.

<p>
ISN's gloating begins immediately.  Ivanova and Marcus watch in stunned
silence.

<p>
Garibaldi returns to his boss, furiously demanding to be finally told
the truth.  Edgars and Wade reveal that they have genetically
engineered a virus that attacks only telepaths.  They have also
developed an "antidote" that needs to be administered to infected
telepaths every two weeks.  Turning telepaths into a virtual slave race
is the only way they see to counter the threat of the "death of human
liberty and human thought."  As a side-effect, by removing Clark's
power base in the Psi Corps, they will be free to overturn his
government easily.  Garibaldi affirms that he is still on board and
Edgars informs him that now that Clark is distracted by the capture of
Sheridan, he can begin the process of releasing the virus.

<p>
"The telepath prob--" he utters and stops.  Hearing the holocaustic
parallel in his own words, he continues in a broken voice, "The
telepath problem...will finally be over."

<p>
Unbeknownst to them all, a horrified Lise has heard everything from her
hiding place behind a column.

<p>
When they have left the room Garibaldi sits quietly and pops a cap off
his tooth revealing a miniscule transmitter.  Lise finds him later
waiting stony faced in a tube.  She begs him to help stop her husband.
With eerily muted urgency Garibaldi only tells her to go home.

<p>
Moments later a new passenger joins him and the car leaves the
station.  Without hesitation, Bester jumps straight into Garibaldi's
mind and extracts Edgars' nefarious plan.  Even the imperturbable Psi
Cop is stunned by the extent of this "final solution."   Having
finished what he came for, Bester muses about what to do with Garibaldi
next.  "I can feel you, you know...the real you, beating at the inside
of your skull, screaming to get out."  Should he let Garibaldi
free?  Should he keep him penned up forever?  He explains to Garbaldi
what happened when he was captured by the Shadows.

<p>
Bester got control of Garibaldi during the Shadows' attempt to
"adjust" him and managed to handle the procedure on his own terms.
That way he could thwart his enemies the Shadows (the virus of Edgars'
was surely Shadow technology after all), take revenge on the officers
of Babylon 5, and use Garibaldi as a weapon against his other enemies,
all in one move.  Accentuating his naturally rebellious and
suspicious instincts turned Garibaldi into the perfect tool for digging to
the bottom of anti-telepath conspiracies.  The odd messages Garibaldi
received from time to time tuned his conditioning until his real
personality was completely buried under the new one.

<p>
And now Bester wonders what to do.  Toying for an instant with a gun in
Garibaldi's face, Bester comments that now that Garibaldi's friends know
he betrayed Sheridan, he "can't go home again."  Deciding to let the
real Garibaldi free, Bester exits the car and the train leaves the
station.

<p>
Garibaldi sits impassively on the bench.  A flash of reality slams his
mind.  He shakes his head.  Then another.  And then again.  He screams
in rage and whacks his head into the wall of the train.

<p>
When Marcus informs Ivanova that Garibaldi has attempted to contact
them, she orders that if he shows up on the station he be shot on
sight.  In the interim, with Sheridan captured and the fleet in limbo,
she vows to finish the job her Captain began.

<p>
Garibaldi frantically searches Edgars' home for Lise but only finds
Edgars dead, the virus removed and Wade mortally injured on the floor.
Wade manages to whisper that Lise hadn't been there when they were
attacked.

<p>
The ISN anchor reports the assassination of William Edgars apparently
by Free Mars terrorists.  She also proudly congratulates former Chief
Warrant Officer Michael Garibaldi for rescuing the renegade Earth Force
Captain John Sheridan.  While Sheridan continues to be pummeled by his
captors, she reports that now that he has been freed of alien
influences, Sheridan is expressing regret for his actions against his
home world.