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								Silent Enemies


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								Overview


								     Keffer and Garibaldi escape Centauri clutches in a struggle that

								     parallels Garibaldi's first adventure with Jeffrey Sinclair -

								     concluding the story of their meeting, what they discovered... and

								     what it may mean for Babylon 5's future.


								   Issue 8 (September 1995, released July 5)


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

								    Writer: Tim DeHaas

								   Premise: J. Michael Straczynski

								 Penciller: John Ridgway

								     Inker: C-S. Hampton


								   _Warning: this comic issue contains a spoiler for the episode

								   [8]"Divided Loyalties."_


								     _________________________________________________________________


								Synopsis


								   Garibaldi and Keffer make their way toward the Centauri city. As they

								   walk, Garibaldi continues his story.


								   He and Sinclair were low on air and their comlinks had stopped working

								   suddenly. A hunch led Garibaldi toward a canyon, where to his great

								   surprise -- and apparently Sinclair's as well -- they found a gigantic

								   spidery ship apparently excavating another just like it as people from

								   a nearby building watched. Was this what Sinclair was sent to look

								   for, Garibaldi wondered?


								   A land vehicle approached them. Garibaldi pulled a gun on Sinclair and

								   shot him. "Our coms were being jammed," he thought, "which, to my

								   knowledge, meant _all_ communications were jammed. That meant the

								   other guys had to use an alternative way to communicate... and the

								   possibilities made my skin crawl."


								   The vehicle came across Sinclair's body. Its armed occupants got out

								   to investigate. They returned to the rover to find Garibaldi waiting

								   for them; they were down before they could react. Garibaldi roused

								   Sinclair from his stungun-induced slumber. The two had suspected they

								   might be dealing with telepaths. Sinclair had asked Garibaldi to stun

								   him so his thoughts couldn't be read.


								   Garibaldi and Sinclair quickly donned the telepaths' suits. Sinclair

								   explained that he was investigating possible covert human-alien

								   activities. Previous missions sent to investigate had found only the

								   tip of one human ear, nothing else. Perhaps suspecting that the

								   earlier missions had been sabotaged, Sinclair elected to go with

								   Garibaldi's privately-run shuttle service rather than through official

								   channels. "Right now, Garibaldi, you may be the only one I can trust,"

								   he said.


								   Their planned escape was cut short when they discovered that the only

								   way back was the roadway the vehicle had come from -- straight toward

								   the buildings and the mysterious alien ship, still performing its

								   excavation. They decided to play along until they could escape, and

								   followed the hand signals of the people on the ground. Unfortunately,

								   that strategy led them straight toward the largest of the buildings.

								   Garibaldi got out and tried to blend in with the other people; he was

								   directed to load boxes onto a cargo platform attached to his vehicle.

								   Then he was motioned to drive into the building -- straight into the

								   belly of the whale, he imagined.


								   Inside the building was a horrific sight: a huge transparent dome

								   containing a large alien biomechanical construct, veins and skin and

								   bone intermingling with tubes and panels. Passing through the organism

								   were scores of human bodies on a conveyer belt. The whole operation

								   was being monitored by technicians in a small isolation area jutting

								   out the side of the dome, as workers milled about the rest of the

								   building with heavy weaponry. Suddenly, Garibaldi could feel darkness

								   closing in around him, self-pity and fear building in his head. It

								   subsided somewhat when he remembered what Sinclair said about trusting

								   him; he gathered enough courage to get out of the vehicle and unload

								   the boxes, one of which had contained something he wanted, something

								   with which to cause a diversion later.


								   He walked closer to the dome and looked inside. The bodies on the

								   conveyer belt appeared to have energy fields surrounding their heads.

								   It was clearly some kind of medical experiment, but Garibaldi couldn't

								   figure out what it was for.


								   His pause at the dome gave him away, or perhaps one of the telepaths

								   happened to read his thoughts. Whatever the cause, a large group of

								   people started heading his way. Luckily, he was carrying the box he

								   wanted -- it was full of grenades. He tossed one into the crowd, but

								   quickly found himself pinned down. Sinclair came to the rescue,

								   bursting through a stack of boxes with the vehicle and confusing the

								   situation long enough for Garibaldi to climb aboard. As the vehicle

								   raced out of the building, Garibaldi tossed out the entire box of

								   grenades; the resulting explosion ripped the roof off the building.

								   They were pursued, but not for long. Whatever was inside the building,

								   Garibaldi guessed, the telepaths wanted very badly to try to save.


								   As Garibaldi finishes his story, he and Keffer are discovered by two

								   Centauri sentries, who lead them at gunpoint into the city. Later, the

								   city magistrate tells them that his investigators found no trace of a

								   crashed ship, or a fight in a clearing, as Garibaldi and Keffer

								   described. But he remembers that Babylon 5 is where Londo Mollari --

								   the man responsible, Garibaldi learns, for saving Quadrant 37 from the

								   Narn -- is stationed. He says he'll call Londo and try to verify

								   Garibaldi's story.


								   Back on Babylon 5, Vir answers the call and tries to cover for

								   Garibaldi and Keffer, but the magistrate insists on talking to Londo.

								   Londo also covers for Garibaldi, but clearly isn't happy about it. He

								   tells the magistrate to arrange for their transport back to Babylon 5.

								   The problem resolved, he goes back to what he was doing: discussing

								   something with Morden.


								   Garibaldi tells Sheridan what happened and explains that he thinks the

								   erasure of his crashed ship links it to what he and Sinclair found on

								   Mars. After they had escaped the telepaths, Garibaldi says, and gotten

								   out of range of the comm jamming, they'd returned to the area with an

								   Earthforce shuttle and found no trace of ships, explosions, buildings,

								   or anything. Earthforce conducted a thorough search, but it was

								   Sinclair and Garibaldi who found the one piece of evidence at the

								   site. It wasn't enough to convince anyone, though, so they kept it to

								   themselves.


								   "The alien ship we saw on Mars looks _exactly_ like the ship Keffer

								   saw in hyperspace when he helped rescue the Cortez," Garibaldi says.

								   "Something's out there, Captain, something big and dangerous. And it

								   doesn't want us to know it's out there. And Londo's involved. I don't

								   know how, but I intend to find out." Sheridan believes Garibaldi, but

								   for appearance's sake has to give him an official reprimand.


								   Keffer and Garibaldi talk about the outcome of their adventure. Keffer

								   wonders if anyone survived the explosions on Mars. Garibaldi isn't

								   sure; it's hard to see how anyone could have. Sooner or later, though,

								   he's going to find out who owns the item he found on Mars: a Psi-Corps

								   badge.


								Backplot


								     * When Garibaldi and Sinclair were on Mars, they discovered a secret

								       operation involving Psi-Corps and the Shadows, part of which was a

								       medical experiment of some kind. They destroyed the operation,

								       which was erased without a trace, presumably by the Shadows.

								     * Londo's involvement in clearing up the Narn problem in Quadrant 37

								       (cf. [9]"Chrysalis") is widely known among the Centauri.

								     * Talia Winters survived the explosion on Mars, and may have been

								       one of the experimental subjects. (This is shown on the last page

								       of the comic, and is probably a spoiler for the episode

								       [10]"Divided Loyalties.")


								Unanswered Questions


								     * What was the organism?

								     * Who built or grew it? The Shadows likely had some input, but was

								       it simply a gift from them?

								     * Was it destroyed in the explosion?

								     * What was the purpose of the Mars operation? Why were weapons being

								       warehoused?

								     * What were the two Shadow ships doing on Mars?

								     * What is the connection between the Shadows and Psi-Corps?

								     * Was Talia one of the people under the dome? (Garibaldi sees a

								       blonde woman on the conveyer belt, but it's not clear if that's

								       Talia or someone else.) If so, what was done to her?


								Analysis


								     * This issue provides pretty compelling evidence that the Shadows

								       were back in operation long before the Icarus stumbled across them

								       (cf. [11]"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum.")

								     * It seems odd that the Shadow ship in the air just stood by and let

								       Garibaldi and Sinclair escape unharmed. Perhaps it was simply

								       there to perform an excavation mission and didn't care what else

								       was going on.

								     * Garibaldi is quite a storehouse of knowledge about what's going

								       on: he knows about Londo's connection with Quadrant 37, knows

								       about the Shadow connection to Psi-Corps (for that matter, knows

								       about the Shadows, even if at the time of the story he doesn't

								       know exactly what they are) and, possibly, knows that Talia was

								       involved in a Psi-Corps experiment. Whether, and how, all this

								       will surface on the show remains to be seen.

								     * Assuming the Shadows were involved in the construction of the

								       organism under the dome, this is also compelling evidence that

								       they have mastered the creation of living technology. What's less

								       clear is how much of that expertise Psi-Corps now has as well.

								     * Could the fact that Talia was involved in the Mars operation have

								       something to do with why Kosh was interested in her in

								       [12]"Deathwalker?" Likewise, did Jason Ironheart ([13]"Mind War")

								       realize what was going on with her, and did he do anything to

								       change the situation when he altered her abilities?


								Notes


								     * On page 12, to the left of the dome, an indistinct shape can be

								       seen standing by the wall. From its outline, it's obviously a

								       Shadow.


								jms speaks


								     * _Did you tell the artist what the organism under the dome should

								       look like?_

								       I didn't get too much into that one shot in the comic; it seemed

								       reasonable under the circumstances. The one panel where I *did*

								       get screwed was saying, "Hey, look, this here episode's going to

								       air just before the book comes out, so why don't we REALLY tie the

								       book and the show together by inserting this one panel I came up

								       with here...."

								       Sometimes I outsmart myself.....

								     * _Didn't Garibaldi see Talia? Why didn't he recognize her later?_

								       Nope, he was looking at the process overall; he never saw Talia.

								       The one shot of her is the omniscient POV, not his. (And even if

								       he had seen her, it would've been only a glimpse of a blonde

								       woman, no name that he could see, and after so many years, given

								       that her condition wasn't great at the time, he wouldn't

								       necessarily recognize her in any event.) But it's a moot point;

								       the comic never indicated that he saw her.

								     * "...picture of Talia on conveyer with red net over her face."

								       C'mon...you're saying anybody'd be able to recognize a flash image

								       of a woman with a red net over her face as much as 7 years

								       later...?

								     * As I recall, the Winters, T badge was only visible in the next to

								       last panel, which is a narrative flashback, not him personally.

								     * _Does Talia remember being on Mars?_

								       I think that non-memory of the event is a good assumption.


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								      Last update: October 30, 1996


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