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								  Synopsis by Katrina Glerum (kat@midwinter.com)


								   A hopeful crowd has gathered in the Zocalo, eager to see the first ISN

								   broadcast since transmissions broke off violently after the imposition

								   of martial law a few weeks earlier. However, even Ivanova is

								   disheartened by the anchor's bold-faced lie that the final broadcast

								   had been made by alien-backed saboteurs attempting to overthrow Earth

								   Gov.


								   Captain Sheridan is busy checking out one of the new fighters from the

								   Churchill when a distress call is logged. It is from a lone black Star

								   Fury, painted with an enormous Omega, and bearing the station's

								   favorite Psi Cop, Mr. Bester. Keeping carefully out of telepathic

								   scanning range the Captain asks Bester why he shouldn't just kill him

								   on the spot. Curiousity? Bester suggests. When there's no reply he

								   prompts impatiently, "Captain?" but finds the response: "I'm thinking

								   it over," rather unsettling.


								   A frustrated G'Kar catches Ivanova in a corridor. He has fulfilled his

								   part of the bargain he made with Sheridan by having his Narns assist

								   with station security and even defense, and he demands that he now be

								   allowed to join the alliance Sheridan and the rest have formed.


								   Stepping onboard the station, Bester is amused to find himself greeted

								   by a team of armed guards. Meanwhile the command staff watch him

								   suspiciously on a closed circuit TV and debate whether to drug him up,

								   lock him up or give him a chance to explain. Privately, Sheridan

								   manages to convince a reluctant Ivanova to be the first to meet him

								   since her latent ability will allow her to detect a scan. She greets

								   the Psi Cop in his cell with icy demeanor. Bester's idle needling

								   about her hatred for the Corps brings her to flash point faster than

								   he could have estimated, and earns him a resounding slap when he

								   mentions her mother.


								   But it brings him to his point. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend,"

								   he remarks. He has found out about the Shadows and their influence

								   over President Clark and the Psi Corps, and he doesn't like it. They

								   interfere with his plans for a future when humans are ruled by

								   telepaths. He has come to Babylon 5 to find someone who hates Shadows

								   as much as he, because he thinks he knows a way to damage them.


								   Sheridan and Delenn discuss G'Kar's demand. They both realize that

								   bringing G'Kar into their circle means they must own up to the fact

								   that they knew that he was right about the ancient enemy's return and

								   let his world be conquered by this enemy and the Centauri rather than

								   reveal their knowledge. Over Sheridan's objections the Minbari

								   Ambassador insists that it is her responsibility to tell G'Kar the

								   truth now since it was she who insisted that the secret be kept.


								   Bester tells the gathered officers that a ship bearing weapons

								   components for the Shadows is en route to the Rim and needs to be

								   seized. He explains that he can pinpoint the ship's location in

								   hyperspace by homing in on the thought waves of the occupants.


								   "Try not to drool on the controls," Sheridan mutters as Bester admires

								   the White Star's bridge. The instant the Captain leaves his seat,

								   Bester hops on, only to be booted out an instant later and ignored by

								   Lennier when he tries to give an order.


								   Her head bowed, Delenn admits to the Grey Council's knowledge of the

								   Shadows and their alliance with the Centauri. If they had spoken out,

								   she explains, the Shadows would have acted openly and would have

								   annihilated the Narns rather than simply allowing the Centauri to

								   seize their homeworld. Instead of millions dying, billions would have

								   died -- whole planets, she gasps, horrified.


								   "If I had learned this as my world was being bombed by the Centauri, I

								   would have killed you instantly," G'Kar hisses. "You understand that,

								   do you not?" Then he repeats the line from his Vorlon-inspired vision,

								   "'Some must be sacrificed if all are to be saved.'...Now I understand

								   that is as much about how we got here, as where we are going. I think

								   that one sentence is the greatest burden I have ever known." He admits

								   that if it were not for the Grey Council's inaction, his people would

								   be a dead race.


								   As tears slide down her face Delenn says, "You have come a long way,

								   G'Kar. Further than I could have guessed," and she welcomes him into

								   the War Council, only hoping that he can forgive her someday.


								   "Perhaps, but not today," he utters.


								   The White Star knocks out the last of the Shadow fighters protecting

								   the transport and grabs it as an enormous Shadow ship looms out of

								   hyperspace. Lennier announces its presence, but the ship breaks off,

								   and Bester has a strange look on his face.


								   The transport is carrying a cargo of human telepaths in cryogenic

								   suspension. The pilots are an unknown alien species who have committed

								   suicide rather than be captured. When Sheridan demands to know why

								   Bester didn't tell them about the cargo, Bester admits that he knew

								   Babylon 5 probably wouldn't expend any effort to save telepaths.


								   When Franklin unfreezes one, he notices that she seems to have

								   cyberweb implants. He takes her ID bracelet to Bester, who

								   condescendingly begins to explain that she is a "blip" who refused to

								   join the Psi Corps. Suddenly his face grows numb. He must see her

								   immediately.


								   She has other plans, however. By the time Garibaldi, Franklin and

								   Bester arrive at medlab, she has wrapped herself into an intricate

								   cocoon of wiring and is interfacing with the station electronics. She

								   wants to be free of the pain she's in, but the commands in her head

								   which tell her to attack the Psi Corps, are too powerful. As the

								   doctor knocks her out, she asks Bester, "Al, what have they done to

								   me?" and sends him images of her ordeal: alien brain surgery and

								   Shadow vessels.


								   She knows him because she is the love of Bester's life, and carrying

								   their child. The Shadows were intending to plug these telepaths into

								   their newborn ships. If Bester hated the Shadows before, now he wants

								   to destroy them. For saving her life, he pledges his support to B5's

								   war before leaving the station.


								   The recent events have reminded Garibaldi of something. Turning to the

								   Book of G'Quan, he finds it, and calls an immediate meeting of the War

								   Council in their new command center. It appears that all of the Narn

								   telepaths were killed by the Shadows a thousand years ago, because the

								   Shadows using the planet as a base in their last war feared them. The

								   Council members instantly realize that this might be why the Shadow

								   ship didn't attack the White Star with Bester aboard, because maybe

								   telepaths constitute a threat, and are therefore perhaps a weapon

								   against the Shadows. It's just in time, Ivanova reports, because the

								   Shadows have just begun attacking Rim worlds openly.


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								      [15]Last update: November 9, 1997


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