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								<p>   <cite>Midnight on the Firing Line</cite>, as well as the Babylon 5

								series, starts out at the Ragesh 3 colony, a Centauri agricultural

								colony.  The colony finds itself suddenly under attack.  As the

								station in orbit around the colony is about to contact its home

								world, Centauri Prime, the station is destroyed.

								<p>

								<img src="/lurk/gif/001/attacking-raghesh.gif" align=middle> The attack

								on Ragesh 3.

								<p>   Meanwhile, on the Babylon 5 station.  Lt. Commander Susan

								Ivanova, the new officer who is second in command of the station,

								interrupts the only quiet, restful part of Commander Jeffrey

								Sinclair's day--a time when he shuts off his comm-link and

								"escapes" from the rigor of his life.  "There's a problem," she

								tells him.

								<p>   Elsewhere on the station, Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari is

								having a pleasant conversation with Security Chief Michael

								Garibaldi when Londo receives word that the Ragesh 3 colony has

								been attacked.  He's informed, however, that nobody knows who the

								attackers are.

								<p>   Londo and Sinclair meet concerning the incident.  Sinclair

								tells Londo that Earth doesn't know anything more about the

								incident--the identity of the attackers is still a great mystery.

								Ambassadors Delenn (of the Minbari) and G'Kar (of the Narn), offer

								their condolences and also claim to know very little about the

								attack.  Sinclair suggests that an emergency meeting of the Council

								be called to discuss the matter and lend aid to the Centauri

								colony.

								<p>   Shortly after, on the bridge, Ivanova informs Garibaldi that

								they've received a distress signal from a trading ship near the

								station.  She says that at first, she thought the incident might

								have had something to do with the Ragesh 3 incident, but that,

								instead, the ship claims to have been attacked by "raiders."

								Garibaldi takes a fighter out to try to come to the aid of the ship

								that was attacked.  Right after Garibaldi leaves the bridge, Talia

								Winters--the commercial telepath on the station--enters the bridge

								and wants to speak with Ivanova.  She says that because of Psi

								Corps regulations, she must report with the second in command, but

								that she hasn't been able to find Ivanova for quite a while.

								Ivanova rudely dismisses Talia, saying that she's rather busy right

								now.

								<p>   Meanwhile, Sinclair is in his office, watching on "television"

								the latest news about the upcoming presidential election.  Ivanova

								enters, and Sinclair informs her that there is not yet any further

								information on the Ragesh 3 incident.  Ivanova notices the telecast

								and finds out from Sinclair that the presidential race is very

								close at the moment.

								<p>   Londo is in his room when Vir, his gawky assistant, rushes in

								and tells him that a coded broadcast has just been received.  As

								Vir shows the broadcast to Londo, Londo sees the incident that we

								saw at the beginning of the episode.  He freezes the image of the

								broadcast and enhances the image of one of the attacking ships.  He

								immediately recognizes it as a Narn warship, and heads out to

								confront his enemy G'Kar with this newly-found evidence.

								<p>   Meanwhile, Garibaldi has found the ship that was attacked by

								the raiders.  He finds it very badly damaged--and realizes that the

								weapons that were used to attack this ship must have been much

								stronger than the weapons the raiders have previously had.

								<p>   Londo finds G'Kar and accuses him of deceit--since G'Kar said

								he previously knew nothing of the attack.  G'Kar, somewhat

								surprisingly, tells Londo that he has just found out about the

								attack--but he confirms that it was indeed Narn forces that

								attacked Ragesh 3.  "I'm sure there's some reasonable explanation,"

								he adds.  Londo asks what reasonable explanation there could be for

								attacking a defenseless, agricultural colony.  G'Kar refers Londo

								to a similar attack that the Centauri made years ago against Narn

								holdings--and expresses his indignity at the former Centauri

								subjugation of the Narn.  One insult leads to the next, and a fight

								breaks out between the two ambassadors.  The fight is eventually

								broken up by security personnel, but not before G'Kar threatens

								Londo that the Narn will eventually rise and destroy the Centauri.

								<p>

								<img src="/lurk/gif/001/wheel-turns-small.gif" align=middle>"The wheel turns, does it not, Ambassador?"

								<p>  After the fight, Londo meets with Sinclair.  He apologizes for

								his actions and says that he won't repeat the incident--but that he

								<em>will</em> eventually kill G'Kar.  He explains that Centauri have

								strange premonitions of how, and even when, they will die--and that

								Londo has had a dream in which he will eventually die 20 years from

								now, with his hands wrapped around G'Kar's throat and vice-versa.

								Londo also explains that he had a nephew on Ragesh--a nephew for

								whom he deeply cares and is deeply concerned about.  He vows that

								if his nephew has been harmed, there will be war--at any cost.  He

								dismisses Sinclair's "galactic peace" arguments as nothing but

								silly paperwork and "games."  "Only one thing matters: blood," says

								Londo.

								<p>   Ivanova and Garibaldi are discussing the raiders' methods.

								Garibaldi says that trade routes are normally kept secret--to

								prevent the kind of attacks that recently happened--and Ivanova and

								Garibaldi come to the conclusion that there must be some leak of

								information from the trading companies.

								<p>   Meanwhile, Sinclair goes to meet with Ambassador Kosh, the

								mysterious Vorlon representative who must wear an environmental

								suit at all times because of extreme differences between the

								Vorlons and the other races.  Sinclair wants to know Kosh's

								position on the Ragesh incident, and asks Kosh if he will support

								sanctions against the Narn.  "They are alone.  They are a dying

								people; we should let them pass," enigmatically responds Kosh.

								"Who?" asks Sinclair.  "The Narn or the Centauri?"  Kosh's simple

								and almost humorous answer is merely "Yes."

								<p>

								<img src="/lurk/gif/001/sinclair-mask-small.gif" align=middle>Sinclair visits Kosh

								<a name="ivanova-console">

								<p>   Garibaldi is meanwhile sitting at Ivanova's station on the

								bridge, researching the flight paths of the trading vessels.  All

								incoming ships are tracked through Ivanova's console.

								</a>

								<p>

								Londo is lying down in his quarters, rather drunk.  He is rather

								depressed, and tells Vir, his assistant, that he has received word

								from the Centauri government saying that they will do "nothing"

								about the attack on Ragesh.  Londo is enraged--he feels that the

								Centauri government is made up of cowards, and he nostalgically

								pictures the former grandeur of his people--a grandeur that has all

								but evaporated.  He suddenly gets the idea to ignore his government's

								message, and he forces Vir to comply with this.  He tells

								Vir not to mention that the message was ever received--that if they

								can get the other powers to force sanctions against Narn, they can

								force their own government into cooperation.  He says that he will

								go ahead with the emergency session of the Council--a session that

								will be used to decide on the actions to be taken against the Narn

								regime.

								<p>   Talia Winters, in the meantime, finds herself in the elevator

								with Garibaldi.  She tells him that she's upset that Ivanova is

								basically ignoring her, and she wants to know what she's done

								wrong.  Garibaldi says that Ivanova takes a while to get to know

								people--especially while at work--and advises Talia to catch

								Ivanova in the casino after hours.

								<p>   G'Kar and Sinclair meet in the station's arboretum.  They have

								a sharp conversation where G'Kar tries to gain support for his

								people by telling Sinclair that the Narn race and humans are very

								much alike--and that, in fact, the Narn were one of the only people

								that were willing to supply weapons to the Earth in the Earth-Minbari

								war.  Sinclair dismisses G'Kar's claim by saying that the

								Narn will simply supply weapons to anyone who can afford them--not

								out of any sense of brotherhood or similarity between cultures.

								Sinclair further criticizes the Narn cowardice because of their

								"sneak attack" on Ragesh.  G'Kar is enraged.

								<p>   Garibaldi presently finds that one trading company--which sold

								access to the "jump gates" that provide interstellar travel--seems

								to have had its information concerning the trade routes stolen from

								it.  He informs Sinclair about these findings, and tells him that

								there's one ship which had bought routes from the company that was

								broken into and which still hasn't been attacked.  Garibaldi says

								that they have only a few hours to come to the rescue of this ship.

								<p>  Sinclair is meanwhile speaking with a representative of the

								government of the Earth Alliance--a superior of his.  The representative

								is advising Sinclair to either delay the emergency session

								of the Council or to abstain from the vote; Earth cannot get

								involved in any type of war so soon before an election.  Sinclair

								protests that this will hurt the Centauri case--that if Earth

								doesn't lend aid, others might not either.  The representative

								doesn't seem to care, and closes the communications channel.

								During the conversation between Sinclair and the Earth official,

								Ivanova has arrived at Sinclair's room and has been standing

								outside of the door, waiting for Sinclair to finish.  She has come

								to inform him that Garibaldi is going to leave on his mission to

								rescue the ship that was supposedly about to be attacked by the

								raiders.  Suddenly, Sinclair seems to realize something about the

								allegedly-powerful raider weapons.  He says that he will be

								replacing Garibaldi on the mission to rescue the ship.  He orders

								Ivanova to continue the meeting; further, he tells her that she

								"never" heard the conversation that he had with the Earth official--and

								that as far as she last heard, Earth was voting for the

								sanctions, rather than abstaining.

								<p>   As Sinclair leaves, the session of the Council is begun.

								G'Kar stands up and announces that the Narn regime has a valid

								claim to Ragesh 3 because the planet was originally Narn territory

								before it was invaded by the Centauri.  Delenn succinctly rebuts

								this argument, saying that if the Narn hold a grudge for so long,

								peace will never come, and an endless cycle of wars will result.

								G'Kar claims that he doesn't want a war--he's only exercising a

								valid claim to the planet.  Further, he claims that the Ragesh

								colony invited the Narn there--that the Narn never invaded the

								colony.  To support this claim, he opens up a live link with

								Ragesh.  Carn Mollari, Londo's nephew, appears on the screen and

								recites a message--clearly forced--saying that the Ragesh colony

								did indeed invite the Narn regime in to restore order in the

								colony.  After the message is completed, Londo says that the

								message was clearly forced at gunpoint and is of no validity.

								However, G'Kar silences Londo by revealing that he knows that the

								Centauri government has taken the position that they will not

								intervene--he asks Londo why he is using the Council to enact a

								personal vendetta.  G'Kar proceeds to call a vote to dismiss all

								charges against the Narn regime.

								<p>   Sinclair is meanwhile pursuing the raiders.  After successfully

								saving the trading ship, he outwits the raiders and finds their

								command base.

								<p>

								<img align=middle src="/lurk/gif/001/battle1-small.gif">The battle at the trading ship

								<p>   If Londo was desperate before, he's certainly desperate now.

								He is entirely outraged at the preceding events in Council, and has

								decided to take matters into his own hands.  He assembles a gun

								from parts that he's hidden around his quarters and proceeds to

								attempt to kill G'Kar.  As he's walking toward G'Kar's quarters,

								however, he bumps into Talia, who, despite her training, accidentally

								senses Londo's intense, emotional thoughts.  She quickly

								informs Garibaldi, who intervenes and stops Londo from committing

								the murder of G'Kar.

								<p>   Sinclair has returned to Babylon 5 and carries evidence with

								which he immediately confronts G'Kar.  Sinclair has found a Narn

								agent on the raiders' base; it seems that the Narn were supplying

								weapons to these raiders, and when Narn supply weapons, they always

								include a Narn agent to instruct their customers on how to use the

								weapons and to make sure that the weapons are not resold to a third

								party.  Further, this Narn agent had been found with logs of the

								communication between the attacking force on Ragesh 3 and the Narn

								homeworld.  The logs of this communication confirm that the attack

								was, indeed, uninvited and unprovoked.  Faced with this evidence,

								G'Kar is forced to tell Narn to withdraw the forces from Ragesh.

								<p> Talia meanwhile has found Ivanova in the casino, just as

								Garibaldi advised.  Talia asks Ivanova if she had done anything to

								offend her.  Ivanova apologizes to Talia and admits that the acted

								rude.

								<a name="ivanova-mom">

								Ivanova explains that her mother was a telepath--however,

								she had kept this as a secret to herself and had never joined the

								Psi Corps.  On her mother's 35th birthday, the Psi Corps caught up

								with her and gave her three alternatives: to either join the Corps,

								go to prison, or take telepathy-inhibiting drugs.  She chose the

								latter; however, as Ivanova explains, the drugs were very strong

								and destroyed her mother's will and personality.  After 10 years,

								after her family thought her mother could no longer survive, her

								mother took her own life.

								</a>

								Ivanova explains that she doesn't blame

								Talia as an individual for what happened to her mother, but says

								how these types of events are part of every member of the Psi

								Corps.  However, Ivanova explains to Talia that Talia is just as

								much of a victim as Ivanova's mother was.  When Talia responds that

								she does not feel like a victim, Ivanova rejoins that she hasn't

								yet figured out if that feeling is good or bad.  When Talia

								suggests that they might start off on better terms the next day,

								Ivanova says that she very much doubts it.

								<p>   In the meantime, Garibaldi is sitting in his quarters, showing

								Delenn his "second favorite thing in the universe"--old "Duck

								Dodgers in the 23rd-and-a-half century" cartoons.

								<p>   Sinclair is resting in his quarters, watching with what

								appears to be disappointment that Santiago, the incumbent president,

								has been declared the victor of the election.  As he is about

								to retire for the night, he receives a call from Ivanova:

								"Commander, there's a problem."  It seems that a commander's job is

								never done ... in fact, it has just started.


								<p>

								Shawn Bayern

								<em>bayern@minerva@cis.yale.edu</em>

								<hr>

								Copyright 1994, Shawn Bayern.  All rights reserved.  Permission is

								granted to distribute this synopsis <strong>noncommercially</strong> as long as

								the synopsis and this copyright notice remain intact.  Babylon 5 is

								a copyright of the PTN Consortium; no infringement of that

								copyright is intended by writing these synopses.