"Did you hear?" "They're putting ISN back online." "If ISN's broadcasting the news again, maybe that means things are better back home." " Why else would they allow it?" " I don't know." "It took them a long time to get back on the air." "The place was shot up pretty bad by President Clark's troops." "Probably took them this long to repair everything." "This could be the first good sign we've had in months." "ISN, the galaxy's most important network." "Good morning." "The Interstellar Network News is back on the air broadcasting throughout Earth and to over "two dozen colonies and deep"- "range outposts."" "The first thing we want to do is explain what happened to cause the disruption in service." " See?" "Told you." " "The signal from the ISN News Center..."" "...here in Geneva was lost when our facilities were attacked by saboteurs intent on paralyzing all Earth communications systems as a prelude to invasion." "What?" "That's a lie!" "In order to divide our forces, the saboteurs used our facilities to stellarcast a fake report designed to create the impression that the government itself was taking action against us." "To stop this campaign of misinformation we ourselves pulled the plug on the broadcast." "In the ensuing firefight, government forces recaptured the ISN facilities and apprehended the saboteurs." "We've been working round the clock to repair the damage." "And now, at last, we're back, better than ever." "In the next hour, President Clark accepts a report from the Ministry of Peace on how crime has been virtually eliminated ever since the extremely popular martial law declaration was issued." " Turn it off." " "Former Senator Ronald"" "You know, sometimes I think I'm too pessimistic." "I mean, what's wrong with thinking things might work out?" "Then something like this happens." "Did they think people were gonna fall for this?" "Why not?" "Worked before." "He who controls information controls the world." "God, the captain's gonna love it when he sees this." " Where is he, anyway?" " Oh, he's being checked out on the new Starfuries we inherited from the "Churchill"." "So the attitude controls are pretty much the same, but a lot more sensitive." "Yeah, I can feel the difference." "Okay, I'm gonna try the atmosphere wings." "Locking down." "This is the first production model of Starfury that can operate inside an atmosphere." "No one else in a prior model can follow you in." "Roger that." "Captain, we're picking up a distress call in an outer sector." " Earth or alien?" " "Earth."" "Should we scramble "a search"- "and"- "rescue team?"" "No." "We'll check it out." "May as well give these things a real workout." "I'll check in as soon as we find out what it is." "Echo 1 to damaged ship, can you receive?" "Echo 1 to damaged ship, can you receive?" "I hear you just fine, captain." "But just get a little closer." "We need to talk." "The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace." "It failed." "But in the year of the Shadow War, it became something greater our last, best hope for victory." "The year is 2260." "The place, Babylon 5." "We're close enough for a scan, find out who's out here." "Echo 1 to Echo 2." "We've got a situation here." "Stand by." "Confirmed, captain." "This is Echo 1 to intruder." "You have entered Babylon 5 space." "Please identify yourself." "Captain, such formality." " Bester?" " You recognize the voice." "You've got a good ear." "I'm picking you up on my instruments, but you're not in visual range." "Is there a problem?" "I noticed the Black Omega insignia on your Starfury." "Black Omega is an elite unit attached to Psi Corps." "A telepath can only scan you if you're on a direct line of sight." "So I am making damn sure we don't get that close." "Very good." "I have something for you, captain." "Something very important." "If I came unannounced, your people would shoot me down before I got within two kilometers of Babylon 5." "Mr. Bester, we no longer have any ties to Earth or to the Psi Corps." "So we don't have to put up with you or your games." "Now, I am sitting on four brand- new unidirectional pulse cannons." "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't blow you out of the sky." "Because you're curious?" "Kill me and you'll never know what brought me all the way out here." "I think if you weigh that against the brief satisfaction of "blowing me out of the sky," you'll do the right thing." " Captain?" " "I'm thinking it over."" "Good." "Echo 1 to Echo 2, form up behind Omega Starfury." "We'll escort him to Babylon 5." " Commander." " Look, G'Kar, I'm sorry I missed our meeting." " But something important has come up." " Not a problem, commander." "My patience is infinite." "I've come to collect on a debt." "When you broke from Earth, I offered Sheridan the support of all the local Narns." "Since then, we've helped maintain station security." "We've kept the peace." "Many of us were killed during the defense of Babylon 5." "G'Kar, I know this." "And we're very grateful, but I just" "You've been putting together a new alliance." "You know it, I know it." "So in exchange for my cooperation, I told Sheridan that I wanted in." "He agreed, or seemed to." "I've been waiting for him to keep his part of the bargain." "Nothing has happened, so now I'm forcing the issue." "We've been very busy, G'Kar." "It does not show any signs of getting any less busy in the near future." " I can only wait so long." " I thought your patience was infinite." "Since space and time are curved, the infinite sooner or later bends back upon itself and ends up where it began." "And so have I." "I've kept my part of the bargain, commander." "Now it is time for you to keep yours." "Alpha 3 and 4, the captain says you're clear to bring him in." "You know, if this keeps up I'm gonna start thinking that people around here just don't like me." "I don't like it." "Well, I didn't even know the little creep could fly a Starfury." "Every once in a while, Psi Cops have to go off on their own for security reasons." " He's checked out on all the latest fighters." " Did he tell you why he's here?" "He said he wanted to fill us in at a personal meeting." "He just wants to get close enough to scan us." "Yeah, but why?" "I mean, everything we were planning to do, we've done." "We've broken away from Earth." "We've taken a stand against Psi Corps, the president." "There's not much left to scan for." "He doesn't know that." "Well, I could drug him up again, limit his ability to scan us." "He says if we do that, he won't be able to help us." "Come on." "Who in this room thinks he wants to help anybody but himself?" " He's trying to pull a fast one." " What do we do?" " Just keep him locked up forever?" " I can get behind that." "We have to find out if he's telling the truth." "If he is, we need to hear him out." "If not, I'm all for throwing him into-- No, under the brig." "I need to speak to Ivanova alone for a moment." "Susan, Bester still doesn't know you're a latent telepath." "No, he doesn't, but...." " You're not gonna do this to me, are you?" " lf he's going to risk scanning someone he'll grab the first person that walks in the door..." " ...in case he doesn't get another chance." " I can't block a Psi Cop." "No, but you told me that you can sense instantly if someone is scanning you." "If I send you in first to talk to him you'll know if he tries anything." "If he doesn't try it, we'll know we can trust him." "A little." "But if he does?" " Then we'll keep him in the brig." " For how long?" "Until we run out of food or he dies of old age, whichever comes first." "Okay." " Now" " Before you do that there's something you should know." "We've got a problem with G'Kar." " I was expecting the captain." " He sent me." "Did he?" "He has a better sense of humor than I thought." " Please sit." " I'd rather stand." "I suspect you'd rather walk out that door and wall me up inside." "Do a little re- creation of "The Cask of Amontillado"?" " "For the love of God, Montresor." - lf you get near a point, make it." "You know, when I first came to Babylon 5, I studied your record." "Terrible pity about your mother." "But she took her own life." "It wasn't the Corps that did it." "I was just noticing, you have her eyes." "You know, it's come to my attention lately that we have a common enemy." "There's an old saying:" ""The enemy of my enemy is my friend."" "President Clark isn't calling the shots back home." "Others are whispering in his ear." "I don't know who they are or where they're from." "But I do know they're not human." "I've only heard one name for them:" "Shadows." "My guess is you know more about them than I do." "But you're probably not interested in sharing that information." "Are you?" "You know the real reason you don't like me, commander?" "It's the jealousy of evolution." "Normals like you are obsolete." "The future belongs to telepaths." "And I intend to make sure that future happens one way or the other." "So when the dust settles and telepaths are running everything you'll be on top of the new order." "Well, let's just say I have certain ambitions and leave it at that." "But we can't be on top if the aliens get there first, and some of them have." "Through Clark, they've infiltrated the Psi Corps." "And apparently they have their own plans for my telepaths." "Whatever these aliens are, they're interfering with my plans for the future." "I won't have it." "And so, I need someone who feels the same way I do." "Which brings me to you." "Would you like to hurt them, commander?" "Because I think I know how." "If you're up for it." "So G'Kar's kept his promise." "I mean, he helped bail us out of a real situation during our fight with Earth." "He's proven he could be a major asset to us." " I'd just hoped to postpone this a little." " I know." "He's been poking around for some time now, asking about Rangers, our meetings, the new war council" "He was also the first one to warn me about the Shadows." "Many months before you said anything." "I didn't want to hold back, but silence was necessary." "We had to buy time to build our defenses." "The Centauri never could've taken Narn without outside help." "How are we gonna tell him that we were willing to sacrifice his world to keep a secret?" "We will not have to." " I will tell him." " Oh, absolutely not." " It was my decision, John." " Delenn, I am" "I held back the information from you for months." "And it was Kosh and I who insisted that you tell no one else." "The choice was mine." "And now the responsibility is mine." "Delenn, I am not gonna" " Yeah?" " "I've finished my meeting, captain."" " "Ready when you are."" " I'll be right there." "Are you sure you wanna do this?" "Want to?" "No." "Have to?" "Yes." "In a few hours, a convoy of ships will be riding the hyperspace beacon through Sector 500." "At the center of the convoy is a ship containing supplies for our mutual enemy." "The ship is being escorted by approximately half a dozen enemy fighters." "Seize the ship and we deprive them of some of their weapons capability." "But it's important to capture the ship, not destroy it." "So how did you find out about all of this?" "I'm a telepath." "Work it out." "Okay, you've delivered your message." "What do we need you for now?" "Locating a ship this small in hyperspace is extremely difficult." "The gravitational incline, competing beacons, energy surges." "You could search for days and not find it." "Unless you just happen to have along a telepath rated P- 12." "Someone like myself." "A trained P- 12 can pinpoint a ship's location by focusing in on the thought waves of those aboard." "For some reason, hyperspace amplifies the signal considerably." "So how come I've never heard of that little ability before?" "We kept it to ourselves." "Otherwise, the military might start putting telepaths on the front lines." " We're not expendable." "Mundanes are." " That would be us." "Got it in one, Mr. Garibaldi." "It takes generations to breed a telepath." "Mundanes breed like rabbits." "Supply and demand." "Nothing more, nothing less." "Captain, we don't have a lot of time." "Without me, you'll never find them." "So do we stay or do we go?" "Come." "Hello, G'Kar." "Try not to drool on the controls." "You said something, captain?" "Not a word." "Just burped." "Approaching target area." "Scanners aren't picking anything up." "All right, let's see what you can do" "Mr. Bester." "Captain Sheridan." "Get the hell out of my chair." "They're here." "I can feel them." "Thirty degrees to port." "Captain?" "Thirty degrees to port." "And we knew that the Shadows the "Ancient Enemy," as you call them, had returned." "We knew they were rebuilding their forces, preparing to strike." "We knew that they were seeking allies and that the Centauri were the first to enlist." "When you came back from the area near Z'ha'dum and warned us about the enemy's return we could have spoken out." "We could have confirmed your story." "We chose to remain silent." "Who is "we"?" "The Grey Council." "I was still a part of them at that time." "Once the decision was made, I could not disobey it." "So you stayed silent." "And with the help of these Shadows the Centauri destroyed my world enslaved or killed millions of my people." "G'Kar, if we had spoken out if we had gone public with what we knew most of the other worlds would never have believed us." "It would have changed nothing." "Your world would still have fallen." "With one critical difference." "There are billions of Narns still surviving on your world." "If we had exposed the Shadows, they would have struck openly before we had time to prepare and none of your people would have survived." "G'Kar." "Under the Centauri, there is at least the hope of survival." "With the Shadows, there is no hope at all." "We had to choose between the death of millions and the death of billions, of whole planets." "I'd already discovered much of what you just told me about the Centauri." "But that you knew and said nothing...." "Had I learned this as my world was being bombed by the Centauri I would have killed you instantly." "You understand that, do you not?" "Yes." "I do." ""Some must be sacrificed if all are to be saved."" "At first, I took that as revelation for the future." "Now I see that it is as much about how we got here as about where we are going." "I think that one sentence is the greatest burden I have ever known." "You're right." "Nothing would have been changed." "Except that my people would now be a dead race." "You have come a long way, G'Kar." "Further than I could have guessed." "Sheridan's promise binds me as well as it does him." "We will take you into the council, G'Kar." "And someday, when all this is over perhaps you will find it in your heart to forgive me." "Perhaps." "But not today." "Locking weapons." "Firing." " Target has been eliminated." " Where's the transport?" " Moving to escape." " Can we intercept?" "The "White Star" is powered by a magnetic and gravitational system like all Minbari cruisers." "You can use a magnetic discharge to capture the" "A simple yes or no would've sufficed, Mr. Lennier." "Grab it." "Captain, I'm picking up another ship." "It's a Shadow vessel, probably the mothership for the fighters." " Stand by to" " Just a moment." "It's breaking off." "It's not attacking." "That's strange." "Why didn't they attack?" "They must know we're here." "Unknown." "We could pursue it and attempt to inquire." "Thanks, no, no." "I'm just as happy to get out of here without another fight." "Set course for home." "Are you sure you don't know what's inside that ship, Mr. Bester?" "Weapons supplies." "That's what I was told." "Got your message." "What's up?" "Want you to take a look at this." "Tell me what you think." "It's the pilot of the transport we brought in." "Or what's left of him." " What happened to him?" "It?" " That's what we're trying to figure out." "Best guess it took its own life rather than be captured." "We found some kind of acid compound all over the command deck." " Well, it's hard to tell from what's left." " Yeah." "I've never seen anything quite like it before." "I'll do a full autopsy, archive the body." "You never know when we may see something like this again." "Captain, we finished burning through the cargo hold." "We're emptying the contents now." " Was Bester right?" "Were there weapons?" " That depends how you define weapons." "Psi Corps." " These are telepaths." " That would be my guess." "We found about 100 of them in sleeper tubes." "From the look on some of their faces, I don't think they went voluntarily." "You knew there were telepaths aboard that ship and you didn't tell us!" "Why?" "Your crew here isn't exactly sympathetic to the Psi Corps." "I assumed that since those at risk were members of the Corps..." " ...you wouldn't be interested in helping." " You told us weapons systems..." " ...were aboard that ship." " That's what I was told." "I didn't find out about our people being aboard until much later." " May I ask where they are?" " Medlab 1." "Dr. Franklin is taking one out of cryogenic suspension to see if we can find out what happened." "And why someone would describe a bunch of unconscious telepaths as components of a weapons system." "Computer, continue recording." "I've gone over the cryo tubes." "Can't find any indication of who made them or where they came from." "Raising the temperature slowly to avoid trauma." "The only ID on the body is a bracelet." "I can see a Psi Corps logo and a sequence of numbers." "I suspect our friend Mr. Bester might have some ideas about what this is." "Hard to tell without doing a detailed scan, but there appear to be cyberweb implants in the skull on either side of the cerebral cortex." "There are small metallic interfaces on either side of the head just above the temple." " I can almost see" " Get me out of here!" "Keep them away from me!" "Leave me alone!" "Why are you doing this to me?" " It's gonna be okay." " No!" "Someone's definitely messed with her wetware." "Technology is way beyond anything we've got." "The only clue we have is this." "You ever seen one of these before?" "Frequently." "She's a blip, a telepath who refused to join the Corps or take the sleepers to control their ability." "Sometimes they run." "She ran." "And one of us caught her." "We always do." "The code indicates after being captured she was sent to the re- education facility on Mars." "From the serial number, she was classified as either P- 11 or P- 12." "Very high on the teep scale." "She" "What was she doing on an alien transport bound for the Rim?" "I said" "I need to see her." "She'll be out for at least another several hours." "Too long." "I have to see her." "Now." " Where is she?" " Inside." "You don't want to go in there." " Stephen." " No, let me try." "It's all right." "No one's gonna hurt you, all right?" "You've been through a rough time, some things have happened to you." "I know they've been traumatic, but you're gonna be okay." "Al." "Alfred." "Help me." "Stephen, don't." "Look, I'm a doctor." "I wanna help you, but you gotta let us get to you." "Pain." "We can stop the pain." "Give us a chance to stop the pain." " Yeah?" " "We're getting a serious energy surge..."" "...from Medlab 1." "Losing control over several automatic systems." "Re- route command authorization." "Shut down the systems links to Medlab." "Stand by." "She must be using those connections to infiltrate the rest of the station." "There's no reason for her to do this." "Or attack me." "Why is she doing this?" "That's a good question." "She wasn't going to" "Until...." "Give me that." "Stephen, back off a second." "The machine says kill to protect." "The sign hurts us." "We cannot hear the machine." "What machine?" "Alive in my mind." "I am the machine." "We join." "We fight." "It is dark." "Terrible." "Help me." "Please, make it stop talking in my mind." "I will." "Oh, God." "Al, what have they done to me?" "What have they...?" "Bester." "Bester, what happened?" "What did you see?" "Garibaldi said she called you by name." "You two know each other?" "I recognized her ID." "I didn't believe it." "I didn't think...." "Who is she?" "The single bright light of my existence." "My lover." "She's carrying my child." "I thought you had a wife and daughter back on Mars." "I do." "It was a genetic pairing arranged by the Corps." "There's no love there." "But Carolyn...." "She was supposed to be just another blip assigned to the re- education center." "The moment I saw her I felt as though something long dead had awakened inside me." "I used every excuse I could to spend time with her." "I helped her get better quarters, more food." "I did whatever I could to make her life a little more bearable." "Somewhere along the line...." "Somewhere along the line I discovered I was in love with her." "I hadn't thought it possible." "I don't think I'd ever been in love before." "If that's true, then why didn't you get her out?" "Because I don't have that kind of authority." "When I found out she was pregnant with our child I kept after her to go on the sleepers or join the Corps." "We could be together that way." "She refused." "She was always stubborn." "That was four weeks ago." "What did you see inside her mind before she passed out?" "Those things." "Those Shadow vessels." "How much do you know about them?" "Delenn said they're some kind of organic technology." "And they use living beings as" "As their central operating system." "That's it, isn't it?" "They were gonna plug those people into their ships." "Weapons components." "My God." "That's how she was able to interface with the equipment in Medlab." " She was going to merge with the station." " Yeah, but why telepaths?" "Delenn never said that was a requirement." "Can you help her?" "I don't know." "The technology that's plugged into her brain is beyond anything we've seen before." "I'll wait." "However long it takes." "She's the only thing I have, captain." "The only thing I care about." "I promised her I would take care of her and the baby." "It's the only promise I ever made that means a damn to me." "If you can save her, I'll do anything you want to help." "Your war is now my war." "You have picked a most auspicious day to join the war council, G'Kar." "The captain tells me that a new ally has joined our cause today and our new facilities are complete." "Ours has been a long and difficult road, G'Kar, filled with mistrust." "Once you step through this door, all of that changes forever." "I am honored to be among you." "This is a great day." "Very great day, indeed." ""The enemy of my enemy is my friend."" " You sound dubious." " He's still a Psi Cop." "I don't trust him, never will." "He has a vested interest in helping us now, but once this is all over, he'll turn on us." "You do know that?" "Come on, where is it?" "In a book this important, you would think it would have an index." "Okay." "Na'fariki." "Mindwalker." "Romo- ki." "Destroyed." "I was right." " Garibaldi to Sheridan." " "Sheridan, go."" " Code 7" " R, 15 minutes." " "I'm in the middle of something."" "Make time." "You're gonna love this." "Hello, hello, hello, and hello." "Michael, you look like the proverbial cat that ate the equally proverbial canary." "I've got it." "I've got it, I've got it." "It's right here." "It's right..." " ...right here." " Do not thump the Book of G'Quan." " It is disrespectful." " You've got what?" "What's in there?" "G'Kar, as I understand it, there aren't any Narn telepaths, correct?" "Yes, I'm afraid it is so." "It is a matter of great concern to us." "But once upon a time, there were Narn telepaths, weren't there?" "Yes, but they and their families were wiped out a thousand years ago." "The gene that controls telepathy has never been strong enough in any of the survivors to breed another one." "Mr. Garibaldi, I'm not entirely sure I see the point in all this." "A thousand years ago, ambassador." "You said the last time the Shadows were on the move was a thousand years ago." "G'Kar, it says here that your world was used as a base..." " ...by the Ancient Enemy during that time." " Yes, that is correct." "All right." "Read this." "Right here." ""And the spirit of darkness moved upon the land." "It screamed in the dreams of the mindwalkers." "And they fell, destroyed by it, to their children and their children's children." "Then did the darkness come to Narn until it was driven out by G'Quan and the last of the surviving mindwalkers."" "Mindwalkers." "Telepaths?" "They're afraid of telepaths." "Carolyn fired at Bester's Psi Corps insignia to protect." ""The sign hurts us." "We cannot hear the machine."" "They're using humans to control their ships." "Maybe telepaths can block their system, jam it." "He might be right." "We've never seen the Shadows back away from a fight." "But they didn't attack the "White Star" when we were right there." "Why?" "What was different about it?" "Bester was on board." "That would explain their decision to infiltrate your Psi Corps and take telepaths as components for their ships." "Perhaps they intend to use one telepath to stop another." "We have a weapon." "My God, people, we have a weapon." "I just hope it's in time, because we're gonna need it." "We just got a report." "The Shadows have just started attacking Brakiri space, openly." "They're not hiding anymore." "They're finally on the move." "(ENGLISH)"