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.

Last update: June 10, 2018