brennen
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lurkers-guide



								<p><strong>Written by Lois Tilton</strong><br>

								Released: April 10, 1995<br>

								ISBN: 0-440-22058-0 (US)<br>

								ISBN: 0-7522-0649-4 (UK)<br>

								Setting: Mid-2259, between

								<a href="/lurk/guide/031.html">"The Coming of Shadows"</a>

								and

								<a href="/lurk/guide/033.html">"All Alone in the Night."</a>


								<br clear>


								<blockquote>

								<p><i>Ivanova is implicated in a murderous plot to steal supplies of a

								strategically important raw material.</i>

								</blockquote>


								<p>

								Reader reviews, and online ordering, can be found at

								<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0440220580/thelurkersguidet">Amazon.com</a>.


								<p>

								<hr>

								<p>


								<h2><a name="BC">Back Cover</a></h2>


								<H3 align="center">Friends Like These</H3>


								<p>He came to Babylon 5 from out of Commander Susan Ivanova's past.

								His cryptic, urgent message asked for an immediate meeting, but when

								Ivanova arrived to meet her old friend, Ortega was dead -- murdered --

								and the word from Mars Colony was that the man had been a terrorist.


								<H3 align="center">Accusations</H3>


								<p>Dealing with an outbreak of hijacked shipments of morbidium ingots,

								Ivanova is caught by surprise when EA investigators accuse her of

								being in league with Ortega, then strip her of her command and

								threaten Security Chief Garibaldi as well.  Now the once and future

								Babylon 5 loyalists must unravel a mystery of corruption and murder.

								Fail, and the price will be their careers, or their lives....


								<h2><a name="SY">Synopsis</a></h2>


								<p>The scene opens on a busy day at C&amp;C as Commander Susan Ivanova

								is monitoring the station's traffic lanes.  The screens highlight a

								single crippled cargo vessel with failed stabilizers.  She orders the

								Centauri transport to cut its engines and not to attempt to land under

								its own power.  Ivanova orders some shuttles to tow the vessel into

								the docking bay and consequently must divert traffic to nearby lanes

								to leave plenty of room for the shuttles to grapple the freighter.  As

								the shuttles grapple on, Communications reports that an "urgent and

								personal" message has arrived for her.  Because it is tagged personal

								she chooses not to view it immediately.


								<p>Aside from a tense moment when Narn fighter leaves its assigned

								lane to cut off the Centauri ship's path, the procedure is both

								uneventful and tedious.  Once the situation is fully resolved, Ivanova

								returns control to the technicians and queries the computer about the

								message.  The sender is reported simply as "J.D."  She figures out

								that it is from J.D. Ortega, her former flight instructor who had

								chosen to leave Earthforce and go back to Mars to work in the mines.

								Finally she views the message:


								<blockquote>

								<p><i>"Susan, I am in trouble.  They say you're Number Two here on

								this station.  I don't know anyone else who might be able to help.

								There's something I have to tell you.  Please, meet me in the Alpha

								Wing ready room at 20:00 hours."</i>

								</blockquote>


								<p>After nearly two hours of waiting, she finally asks the computer

								about J.D.'s arrival on the station.  The computer responds that

								although there have been eight Ortegas arriving on the station since

								it first came on line, none of them have had the initials J.D.  After

								doing some more queries about the origin of the message she asks for a

								search of all files containing the name "J.D. Ortega", to which the

								computer responds that it has found a restricted file.


								<p>The computer responds to her executive officer password and the

								screen is replaced by an image of his face, along with a fugitive

								alert listing him as a suspected terrorist.  Ivanova contacts

								Garibaldi and, upon mention of the name, he asks her to meet him in

								Security Central.  After explaining that she and J.D. hadn't seen each

								other or corresponded save holiday greetings since her first posting

								on Io, she insists that she still can't imagine him having been

								involved in any sort of terrorism or conspiracy.


								<p>A distress signal is received on Babylon 5 and Sheridan orders

								Ivanova to scramble Alpha Wing to protect the transport.

								Unfortunately, the transport is unarmed and the ETA to the transport's

								last position is nearly 3 hours.  The fighter wing arrives, and

								long-range scans detect several raiders along with a larger ship.

								Ivanova splits her squadron in an attempt to cut the raiders off at

								the jump gate while also sending some fighters in towards the raiders

								and the transport ship.  Combat ensues, and in the end two raiders

								collide, taking the jump gate off-line until repairs can be made.  The

								transport's crew is dead and its hull is ripped open.


								<p>Back on the station, J.D. Ortega's body is found in the flight

								lockers belonging to Alpha Squadron.  Dr. Franklin is called in to do

								the autopsy.  He uses a compound to relieve rigor mortis, and with

								some new techniques, he is able to determine that Ortega was murdered

								around 20:00 hours and that the cause of death was a particularly

								unusual and hard to detect poison, chloro-quasi-dianimidine.  The

								poison had been directly injected into the blood stream.


								<p>Garibaldi had previously asked Talia Winters to scan the workers

								who had found the body.  The workers agreed and she performed the

								scans, to discover that they had told the truth and knew nothing about

								the origin of the body.  Garibaldi insists on having Ivanova give a

								positive identification of the body, which she provides.  He also

								shows her a message that was found on the floor of the briefing room,

								presumably from Ortega to Ivanova.  It reads:


								<blockquote>

								<p><i>S I -- hardwired</i>

								</blockquote>


								<p>They agree that "SI" probably stands for Susan Ivanova, but for the

								life of her Ivanova can not make sense of the word "hardwired".

								Sheridan offers to take Ivanova to breakfast, and she accepts.  It

								turns out that the attacked transport was carrying a strategic metal

								called "Morbidium" which is vital for the production of phased plasma

								weapons.  It is a material that has its price and trade strictly

								controlled by Earth Alliance, and consequently has a high black market

								value.


								<p>Ivanova notices that since they were cut off severely last year,

								raids seem to be on the rise.  She decides to hunt for a pattern to

								the raids and receives Sheridan's approval.  Because of the broken

								jumpgate, C &amp; C is hectic and Ivanova does not find time to

								investigate while on duty.


								<p>Later that evening Ivanova begins sifting through the data.  After

								several blind paths she finally tracks down a correlation: the

								increase in raids has occurred on transports out of Marsport, and

								further, all of them were carrying strategic metals.  Worst of all,

								they were successful raids.  The next morning Ivanova explains her

								findings to Garibaldi and he warns her to be careful of stepping on

								toes.


								<p>Their breakfast is interrupted by a call from Sheridan to Garibaldi

								asking him to come to his office.  Sheridan orders Garibaldi to

								terminate his investigation into Ortega's death and prepare to turn

								over all files related to the matter to a special investigator from

								Earth Central.


								<p>Garibaldi watches the arrival of the transport and the disembarking

								of the special investigators.  The investigators promptly arrive in

								Security and demand that he turn over his files, records and

								passwords.  The investigators are led by Commander Wallace and his two

								assistants, Lieutenants Miyoshi and Khatib.


								<p>Garibaldi leaves them to their work, which includes taking some of

								his guards under their control and establishing their own lock-up

								facility and interrogation rooms.  He goes Downbelow where he searches

								for leads from sources such as Mort the Ear and an old friend, Nick

								Patinos, who is from Mars.  Neither is able to offer him any useful

								information.


								<p>Commander Ivanova is interviewed by Lieutenant Miyoshi who causes

								her to lose her temper after he insinuates that she destroyed the

								cards and letters of holiday greetings from Ortega to conceal her

								involvement with a terrorist.  Miyoshi then makes a point of the fact

								that Ivanova waited so long after the arranged meeting time to contact

								anyone, and that she was unaware of the security notice about Ortega.

								He also points out that nobody but Ivanova saw the person leaving the

								area as she entered the ready room.  Miyoshi also makes a point of

								wanting her to figure out the meaning of the note, and finally

								dismisses her.


								<p>Garibaldi discovers that Wallace has locked out files on some

								people, including Patinos, and goes to Sheridan to complain.  Sheridan

								orders Wallace to release all files not directly related to the Ortega

								case and orders Garibaldi to steer clear of the Ortega case.  Wallace

								then insists that Ivanova be put on restricted duties or arrested.

								Sheridan eventually relents, placing her on restricted duties.


								<p>Prior to this point, Ivanova had had an unblemished career record.

								Sheridan was aware that this flag in her file might ruin her chances

								of ever having a command of her own, but he also felt that it was

								better than having Wallace go over his head and perhaps having Ivanova

								arrested or even shipped back to Earth.


								<p>Garibaldi then goes back Downbelow only to discover that Mort has

								disappeared from the station.  A comm link message informs him that

								part of a second body, a foot, was discovered in the in the recycling

								facilities.  They are able to identify the DNA pattern as belonging to

								Fengshi Yang, who had allegedly already departed -- less one foot?

								Garibaldi carefully informs his next in command, Lieutenant Torres,

								that she is to investigate this matter and that there is no connection

								to the Ortega case, if she knows what he means.


								<p>Garibaldi returns to pump Nick for information, but his friend is

								even more tightly clammed up.  Garibaldi does learn that people are

								being deported off the station -- presumably by Wallace and his

								assistants.  Further, he finds out that a telepath is being used to

								scan the people being questioned.


								<p>Garibaldi makes a point of sitting down with Winters and prying

								information out of her about whether Wallace is using her services.

								She eventually acknowledges that he is, and Garibaldi points out that

								the people she is scanning probably haven't really consented.  Later,

								Winters visits Sheridan and explains that the people aren't actually

								consenting.  He informs her that he will talk to Wallace, but

								ultimately it is a matter between her and Psi Corps.  Sheridan

								contacts Wallace and a heated discussion takes place in which Wallace

								refuses to budge, and Sheridan informs him that he will contact Earth

								Central about Wallace's conduct.


								<p>When Winters arrives at the interrogation room, Miyoshi is waiting

								and complains about her lateness.  Miyoshi then informs her that she

								will confine herself exclusively to their needs.  Miyoshi then pulls

								out a viewer card and hands it to Winters.  In her hand, a glowing Psi

								takes holographic form (<em>cf.</em> <a

								href="/lurk/guide/006.html">"Mind War"</a>), and she feels a message

								force itself into her mind:


								<blockquote>

								<p><i>Obey.  No questions.  Obey.</i>

								</blockquote>


								<p>Meanwhile, Ivanova reports for duty, and Sheridan puts her in

								charge of escorting transports in an attempt to reduce raider attacks,

								and to give her something useful to do.


								<p>Garibaldi has kept all of the information about Yang's death out of

								the computer to avoid prying by Wallace, and promises Ivanova he will

								continue looking into things.  Sheridan calls Garibaldi to view a high

								priority message direct from Admiral Wilson of the Office of the Joint

								Chiefs, informing Sheridan that he is to give Wallace every degree of

								cooperation with regard to the investigation.


								<p>Garibaldi finds himself called to the Casino to break up a fight

								between patrons that is breaking down along human-alien lines,

								concerning cheating.  An alien has accused a human of cheating, and

								the human has accused the alien of being a telepath.  Telepaths are,

								of course, banned from gambling (<em>cf.</em> <a

								href="/lurk/novels/001.html">"Voices"</a>).  Garibaldi ascertains that

								the human was cheating, and with Winters' help discerns that the alien

								is a telepath as well.  With the fight broken up he turns his

								attention to the human who confesses without too much effort.  The

								gambler also recognizes Yang's picture and explains that he was an

								enforcer for AreTech Mining.  Garibaldi convinces the man to leave the

								station quietly.


								<p>Another day, and Ivanova finds herself back on escort duty once

								again.  This time the ship <i>Kobold</i> is helped by them.  They

								escort the ship all the way from the jump gate back to the station.

								Ivanova notices that the pilot seemed to be expecting a raid and the

								pilot agrees to discuss the matter further once back at the station.

								Raiders do attempt to get her to pull her squadron off escort, but she

								doesn't fall for it and the <i>Kobold</i> has a smooth escort all the

								way to Babylon 5.


								<p>Garibaldi goes back Downbelow to meet with someone, a meeting

								arranged by Patinos.  The man does not recognize the picture of Yang,

								and Garibaldi wanders off realizing he has hit a dead end.  He doesn't

								notice the man come up from behind, who then whacks him with shock

								sticks.  When he awakes he is trapped in a locker, and he fights

								frantically to attract attention.


								<p>Lieutenant Torres decides to contact Sheridan when she realizes

								that Garibaldi is missing, and she explains the investigation that is

								going on.  After Garibaldi is found and brought to Medlab, Wallace

								enters, rather aggressively, against the wishes of Franklin and a

								tech.  Garibaldi mentions Yang's name to Wallace and realizes that,

								when he claims not to recognize the name, he is probably lying, but

								having said he didn't know the person, Wallace is forced by Sheridan

								to leave.  Sheridan insists that this time things are going to be done

								his way, and that he will bring in Garibaldi's contact.


								<p>The <i>Kobold</i>'s pilot, Mr. Pal, insists upon buying dinner for

								Ivanova as a thank-you gesture.  He explains that they were expecting

								an attack, and that he thought that her ships might have been raiders

								until they identified themselves.  Pal is on the union's central

								committee and he explains that when he left Marsport, their demands

								for better protection were still being studied.  Ivanova explains,

								mindful of the trouble she is already in, some of her findings from

								her earlier computer analysis.  Pal explains that they have started to

								think that Earth Central has a reason to be looking the other way.

								Pal also explains that they have started to wonder what they are

								really carrying morbidium, or perhaps just "slag", worthless mass.


								<p>The union thinks the plan would be to ship the rigidly

								price-controlled item and have it raided, then resell the product on

								the black market while also taking the insurance money.  Or perhaps

								for each cargo there might be two ships: one for which they collect

								the insured value, and the other, which goes to the black market.  In

								other words, pay raiders to attack ships carrying slag.  Pal offers to

								have the insurance agent tell Ivanova the results of opening the

								crates at the final destination.


								<p>Later, Ivanova turns in response to her name being shouted across

								the Zocalo by a young businesswoman approaching.  Luz Espada of the

								Universal Underwriters Corporation introduces herself and offers to

								buy Ivanova coffee.  The two sit down to talk.  Ivanova once again

								explains the results of her computer analysis of the raids, and Espada

								explains that her company has begun to reach a similar conclusion.

								She explains that ships and cargoes are generally separately insured,

								by different companies, and so it could take some time before losses

								would be noticed.  Espada is able to provide some of the information

								about insurance companies that the computer couldn't provide Ivanova

								earlier.  It turns out that shipments from AreTech Consolidated Mining

								Corporation of Mars -- headquartered on Earth -- have been the targets

								of a high proportion of raider attacks.


								<p>Their discussion is interrupted when Ivanova receives a request

								from Security to arrive at Docking Bay 18, where the <i>Kobold</i> is

								docked, to help with an incident.  Torres explains the situation to

								Ivanova: Khatib has orders from Wallace to search the <i>Kobold</i>'s

								cargo and the crew is refusing, claiming that someone arrested their

								pilot.  Torres explains that Security does not have the pilot and that

								Khatib has ordered the security squads under his control to use force,

								but they won't without confirmation from Babylon command.  The captain

								is unavailable, making Torres the highest-ranking officer.


								<p>Ivanova talks with the members of the crew and convinces them to

								just leave unless Pal is returned, and only to agree to a search if it

								can be observed.  They resist initially, but after convincing them

								that she will do everything to get him free and that the station will

								not stop the launch, they agree to the bluff.  Ivanova explains the

								deal to Khatib, who rebuffs it but eventually realizes he will need to

								relent when C &amp; C refuses to take his order to stop the launch of

								the ship.


								<p>Pal is returned, drugged, and the cargo is searched.  The cargo is

								in fact real morbidium ingots.  Ivanova also realizes that the reason

								for interrogating Pal is that they wanted to see if she had passed

								information to him, information from Ortega.


								<p>Garibaldi finds out that Patinos is being held, on Sheridan's

								orders, and goes to him.  Patinos explains that he had Garibaldi

								attacked.  Garibaldi gets the name of the attacker and tries to track

								the man down, but his quarters are empty.  Meanwhile he tries to track

								down information about Yang on Mars, and discovers that the records

								are now classified -- as of just hours after he told Wallace that he

								was investigating Yang's death.  Garibaldi is certain that he has

								Wallace caught in a lie now.  Garibaldi finds out from Patinos that

								the name of the attacker was really Josef Nagy, and he sets out to

								find the man before Wallace can.


								<p>Ivanova is again on escort duty and this time they receive a

								distress call from the transport <i>Duster</i>.  They intercept the

								raiders before they have a chance to destroy the transport and even

								manage to capture one of the raiders alive.  In the process, one of

								Ivanova's squad members is killed.  Ivanova allows another pilot to

								fly her Starfury; the <i>Duster</i> takes the damaged Starfury on

								board along with Ivanova, so she is able to question the raider.


								<p>Meanwhile, back on the station, Garibaldi stops the launch of a

								ship and manages to search, finding Nagy aboard.  Garibaldi questions

								Nagy about Free Mars, Yang, and Ortega.  The questioning is

								interrupted by the discovery of Khatib's body.


								<p>Upon questioning her prisoner, Ivanova discovers that AreTech has

								been selling out information about its shipments to the raiders

								directly from their office on Mars.


								<p>Wallace attempts to interfere in the investigation of the murder of

								Khatib but Garibaldi gets microfilms off the body and away from

								Wallace.  Franklin locks the films inside the biohazard area.  This

								results in the rather funny situation of Wallace being knocked out by

								the biohazard security system when he later tries to go back and get

								access to the films.


								<p>Meanwhile, a near riot has erupted on the station as people were

								complaining of lock-ups of hundreds of people by Wallace and Miyoshi.

								Sheridan orders the guards back under his command and has the

								prisoners released.


								<p>Wallace and Miyoshi are arrested for complicity in Yang's murder,

								and Ivanova returns, with the connection to AreTech Mining becoming

								clearer and clearer.  (Ortega had worked for AreTech.)


								<p>Sheridan has contact with the Joint Chiefs again.  Admiral Wilson

								reveals that the problem involving AreTech was quite real and that

								Wallace was a special investigator for them.  He also explains that

								there will be no reprimand for Sheridan or his staff, but stops short

								of reinstating Ivanova, saying her case will be reviewed, eventually.


								<p>As if realizing the depths of her plight, Ivanova finally decides

								to turn to Talia Winters for assistance.  The two return to Winters's

								quarters, and a deep scan is performed on Ivanova.  The scan reveals

								that Ortega had a view that a pilot and their Starfury should be

								"hardwired together", so to speak, and Ivanova realizes that this

								means that the information is on her Starfury.


								<p>Ivanova boards her Starfury and queries for a file by keyword

								"J.D."  A file is produced and she downloads it onto a data crystal.

								As she leaves the ship, she is knocked to the floor.  Miyoshi has

								attacked her and has taken the data crystal from her.  The two become

								engaged in combat, with Miyoshi clearly trying to kill Ivanova.


								<p>Winters gets onto the communicator with Garibaldi and warns him

								that she thinks Ivanova is in danger; Garibaldi reacts.  The security

								officer that comes upon Miyoshi attacking Ivanova is forced to kill

								Miyoshi.  The data crystal is removed from Miyoshi's pocket and the

								scene shifts to Sick Bay where Ivanova is recovering, and Sheridan,

								Garibaldi and Franklin are examining the data crystal.  Ivanova comes

								to, and insists on seeing the contents of the crystal, too..


								<p>Computer analysis reveals that it is a description of a new atom,

								number 156, supermorbidium.  Its chemical properties are such that it

								will be a potent portion of a weapon system.  Sheridan and Ivanova

								contact the Joint Chiefs in private with information about recovery of

								the plans.


								<p>The novel ends with Ivanova back at her station and things

								returning back to normal.


								<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>


								<ul>

								  <li>Why is G'Kar's picture on the cover when he plays no role in the

								      novel?  (See

								      <a href="#NO:cover">Notes</a>)


								  <li>Why is none of the information about the somewhat warmer

								      relationship between Ivanova and Talia included in this book?

								      Specifically, why do they both still seem to be acting like they

								      did in

								      <a href="/lurk/guide/001.html">"Midnight on the Firing

								      Line"</a>?


								  <li>Was Ortega a traitor or a hero of sorts in trying to hide the

								      information about supermorbidium?


								  <li>How do the events of this novel fit into the conspiracy

								      discussed by General Hague in

								      <a href="/lurk/guide/033.html">"All Alone in the Night"</a>?


								  <li>Is Ivanova's record spotless again?


								  <li>Was Miyoshi a telepath in disguise?  If not, how did the card

								      send a message to Winters?  Either way, what is the level of Psi

								      Corps's involvement in this whole conspiracy -- just the

								      military telepaths, or are the Psi Cops involved in some way as

								      well?  How did Miyoshi manage to remain or get back onto the

								      station after presumably being forced to leave with Wallace?


								  <li>Are the Joint Chiefs involved in the conspiracy or are they

								      really trying to investigate the extent of corruption?


								</ul>


								<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>


								<ul>


								  <li>This book is a lot like a cross between

								      <a href="/lurk/guide/016.html">"Eyes"</a> and

								      <a href="/lurk/guide/035.html">"Hunter, Prey"</a>.  You have the

								      interrogation of senior officers aspect &agrave; la "Eyes" and

								      the conspiracy aspects &agrave; la "Hunter, Prey". If we are to

								      understand the events of this novel as describing a facet of the

								      conspiracy General Hague was concerned about, then we are left

								      with two possible interpretations about the Joint Chiefs.  One

								      is that the Joint Chiefs are working with General Hague to

								      uncover corruption and the high placed leak is somewhere else in

								      Earth Central, perhaps in President Clark's office.

								      Alternately, we can see this as showing that the corruption goes

								      to the highest ranks of Earthforce, and that Sheridan and

								      company (<em>cf.</em>

								      <a href="/lurk/guide/033.html">"All Alone in the Night"</a>)

								      certainly will have their hands full in trying to put a stop to

								      the conspiracy.


								  <li>Now that Ivanova has been scanned -- deep scanned, in fact -- it

								      would seem to put rest to the notion that she might be a

								      telepath trying to avoid detection from Psi Corps.  On the other

								      hand, if we take into account some of what we have learned about

								      Winters in

								      <a href="/lurk/novels/001.html">"Voices"</a> and

								      <a href="/lurk/guide/030.html">"A Race Through Dark Places"</a>,

								      it is possible that she and Ivanova have developed a close bond

								      of shared secrets; consequently, even if Winters discovered that

								      Ivanova was a telepath, it might not get reported to Psi Corps.


								  <li>Things between Earth and Mars seem to be getting steadily worse.


								</ul>


								<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>


								<ul>


								   <li><a name="NO:cover">According to Lois Tilton on GEnie,</a> the

								       cover art was a sample submitted by the artist when Dell was

								       looking for someone to draw the novel covers; they decided not

								       to waste money having four covers drawn up and just use it on

								       an actual book.  <cite>Accusations</cite> got stuck with it.


								</ul>


								<h2><a name="JS">The Author Speaks</a></h2>


								<hr>


								<p>Written by Erik Oliver &lt;oliver@dolphin.upenn.edu&gt;.