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								Survival the Hard Way


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								Overview


								     Lost, on the run and stranded on a Centauri outpost, Keffer and

								     Garibaldi are overtaken by strange aliens with the power to control

								     minds.


								   Issue 7 (August 1995, released June 6)


								   Setting: Before [7]"The Coming of Shadows"

								    Writer: Tim DeHaas

								   Premise: J. Michael Straczynski

								 Penciller: John Ridgway

								     Inker: Robbie Busch


								     _________________________________________________________________


								Synopsis


								   Garibaldi and Keffer are walking across a valley, two hours away from

								   the Centauri city they spotted from the summit. Garibaldi reassures

								   Keffer that they got enough of a head-start on the aliens that they

								   should reach the city before their pursuers are able to catch up. As

								   they press forward, Garibaldi continues the story of his first mission

								   with Sinclair.


								   Sinclair and Garibaldi had taken shelter in a cave to wait out the

								   dust storm. With only five days of air and food, it wasn't easy to

								   just wait, but at least they were in radio contact with Lt. Sanchez

								   aboard Garibaldi's shuttle. Sinclair believed the worst of the storm

								   was over.


								   Garibaldi tired of the conversation between Sinclair and Sanchez and

								   moved closer to the mouth of the cave, where he started drinking. He

								   recalled a previous assignment, as head of security on Io, and the

								   death of his friend Frank Kemmer (cf. episode [8]"Survivors") -- a

								   death Garibaldi felt responsible for.


								   Garibaldi found himself out on the surface, apparently after wandering

								   off in his stupor. He reactivated his commlink to find Sanchez

								   urgently trying to contact him. Sinclair, it seems, had noticed

								   Garibaldi's absence, and started to go out looking for him -- but the

								   mouth of the cave had collapsed, and Sinclair was pinned down just

								   outside the cave, almost out of air. Sanchez hadn't heard from

								   Sinclair for five minutes, possibly because he'd blacked out.


								   Sanchez told Garibaldi that if Sinclair died, it would be on

								   Garibaldi's head. That struck home; Garibaldi immediately went looking

								   for Sinclair, aided by a flare fired from the ship by Sanchez.

								   Following the flare's lead, Garibaldi found a collapsed cliffside, and

								   soon came across Sinclair. He was almost too late, but eventually

								   Sinclair regained consciousness after Garibaldi switched air

								   cylinders. As soon as Sinclair came to, he wrestled Garibaldi to the

								   ground and threatened to kill him if Garibaldi ever did something as

								   stupid as wandering off again.


								   Keffer notes that in fact, Garibaldi's wandering saved Sinclair's

								   life; Sinclair would never have survived if he'd been at the back of

								   the cave when it collapsed.


								   Meanwhile, the aliens -- humanoid, fanged creatures with feline eyes

								   -- have not only caught up with Garibaldi and Keffer, but overtaken

								   them, and enter a small forest, where they somehow meld with the

								   trees. Keffer and Garibaldi arrive shortly thereafter, and Keffer

								   begins acting paranoid, accusing Garibaldi of keeping them out in the

								   open so they can be picked off by the alien ship. He pulls a gun on

								   Garibaldi and takes Garibaldi's weapon.


								   As Garibaldi tries to argue, he feels something try to control him,

								   too, get him angry at Keffer. He ducks out of the way as Keffer fires,

								   manages to zigzag out of the line of fire a couple more times. One of

								   Keffer's shots hits a tree and sends an alien flying off to the side.

								   That breaks the aliens' grip, and as they close in to attack, Keffer

								   tosses Garibaldi his gun. The two manage to kill all the aliens, but

								   the creatures self-destruct before the bodies can be examined.


								   "Did you _see_ those things?" asks Keffer. "They could have torn us

								   apart... but they tried to mind-warp us into killing each other

								   instead."


								   "Yeah," says Garibaldi. "Always work from behind the scenes... leave

								   no traces... leave no _witnesses..._" If this has anything to do with

								   what he saw on Mars, Garibaldi says, they're in _big_ trouble.


								   Because what he saw on Mars, looking on with Sinclair from the top of

								   a canyon, was a large Shadow cruiser, apparently excavating another

								   Shadow ship from beneath the surface -- while figures from a nearby

								   building stood and watched.


								Backplot


								     * Both Garibaldi and Sinclair have seen a Shadow ship in action,

								       years before Sinclair took command of Babylon 5.

								     * Garibaldi saved Sinclair's life twice on Mars, once inadventently

								       and once out of remorse.


								Unanswered Questions


								     * What were the aliens? Were they merely servants of the Shadows,

								       along the lines of the creature in [9]"The Long Dark," or were

								       they something else? (see [10]jms speaks)

								     * Why did they try to get Garibaldi and Keffer to kill each other

								       rather than simply attacking from their ship? (see [11]Analysis)

								     * What else did Garibaldi and Sinclair see on Mars, and what do they

								       know about what they saw? Garibaldi's comment suggests they may

								       have seen more than just a ship. (see [12]Analysis)


								Analysis


								     * The creatures' strategy of pitting Garibaldi and Keffer against

								       each other seems to be consistent with the Shadows' modus

								       operandi; the Shadows are pitting the Narn and Centauri against

								       each other rather than striking directly. Perhaps their caution

								       and indirection stems from their defeat at the hands of the

								       Minbari and First Ones a thousand years earlier, when they moved

								       too quickly and were perhaps too direct.

								     * It was already revealed (in [13]"The Long Dark") that some

								       servants of the Shadows were already on their way back to Z'ha'dum

								       before the Icarus landed there and reawakened the Shadows

								       themselves (cf. episode [14]"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum.") But if

								       Sinclair and Garibaldi saw a large Shadow ship before then, it

								       suggests that either some Shadows were awake before the Icarus

								       incident, or that their servants are allowed to pilot their

								       vessels unaccompanied.

								       If the latter is the case, why didn't those servants awaken the

								       Shadows before the Icarus' crew did?

								     * What was the set of buildings overlooking the Shadow ship's

								       excavation? We know of one secret installation on Mars -- a

								       Psi-Corps training center (cf. episode [15]"A Voice in the

								       Wilderness.") This could be how Garibaldi knew about the training

								       center, and if true, it suggests a strong link between the Shadows

								       and the Psi-Corps.


								Notes


								     * The cover picture is something of a temporal slipup; the young

								       version of Sinclair is fighting with the present-day Garibaldi

								       (judging by the latter's lack of hair.)


								jms speaks


								     * The comics version shows creatures that are not the shadows

								       themselves but some of the many creatures who serve them.

								     * Actually, in the comic, you never saw shadows influencing anyone's

								       mind; you saw their humanoid (in this case) servents doing this.


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								      Last update: October 30, 1996


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