The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

Babylon 5 – The Wars That Were Not

Introduction

As I am a huge fan of the television series “Babylon 5”, I thought I would provide my take on what happened after the TV series ended. This take ties up three loose ends that the series was not able to conclude. If you do not know the story of Babylon 5, then this plot outline will not make sense. I would highly recommend that you take the time to review the Wikipedia article “Babylon 5”, and if you have not watched this series, it is well worth your time to watch it. The following, extracted from the Wikipedia article, is a plot outline of the series:

“Unusual for the time, Babylon 5 was conceived as a "novel for television", with a defined beginning, middle, and end; in essence, each episode would be a single "chapter" of this "novel". A coherent five-year story arc unfolds over five 22-episode seasons. Tie-in novels, comic books, and short stories were also developed to play a significant canonical part in the overall story. The series follows the human military staff and alien diplomats stationed on a space station, Babylon 5, built in the aftermath of several major inter-species wars as a neutral focal point for galactic diplomacy and trade. Babylon 5 was an early example of a television series featuring story arcs which spanned episodes or whole seasons. Whereas contemporary television shows tended to confine conflicts to individual episodes, maintaining the overall status quo, each season of Babylon 5 contains plot elements which permanently change the series universe. Babylon 5 utilized multiple episodes to address the repercussions of some plot events or character decisions, and episode plots would at times reference or be influenced by events from prior episodes or seasons.”

While there is much to critique in this series, the critiques pale in comparison to the accomplishments of this series. The plot, writing, and character development are excellent, the acting is well done, and the storyline is consistent and dramatic. This series has inspired many writers and producers to create television series that the storyline is from the beginning to the end of the series, rather than episodic, such as “Game of Thrones”.

The book “A Dream Given Form: The Unofficial Guide to the Universe of Babylon 5” by Ensley F. Guffey provides an accessible, comprehensive, and critical look at Babylon 5, one of the most groundbreaking series of all time. Nearly 20 years after the show ended, this indispensable companion not only covers all five seasons of Babylon 5, but also the feature-length TV movies, the spinoff series Crusade (including three non-produced episodes), The Legend of the Rangers, The Lost Tales, the canonical novels, the DC comic book series, and the short stories set in the Babylon 5 universe. Each season and text is explored thoroughly with an in-depth look at how the individual episodes, books, stories, and comics fit into larger ongoing storylines. Carefully constructed to be enjoyed by both those who have watched the series multiple times and viewers watching for the first time, A Dream Given Form elucidates without spoiling and illuminates without nitpicking.

While this series was not very popular with the general public, its fandom is widespread and enthusiastic. I, therefore, as follows, present my suppositions on the loose ends for this fandom:

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At the end of her very long life, Delenn gathers her son and grandchildren to give her last testament to Captain Sheridan, the first President of the Interstellar Alliance. She tells them the unwritten and unknown history of the two great wars that President Sheridan was able to avoid: The Telepath War and The Centauri War. Wars that never occurred and were never documented as it would have caused instability in the Interstellar Alliance if the facts were known.

The Telepath War

Every knowledgeable person knew that a war between the Telepaths and the Mundanes was inevitable. Yet it did not happen, although there were several riots and skirmishes that could have brought about a war.

For five years, G'Kar and Lyta Alexander had been exploring the galaxy looking for enlightenment. Their most recent encounter with a new alien race was about to end disastrously. Unbeknownst to them, they had violated an obscure custom that would have meant their imprisonment for twenty years. Fleeing from this alien race, they entered hyperspace, but their hyperspace navigation system was damaged by their pursuers fire. They became lost in hyperspace with no way to exit to normal space. As they sunk deeper into hyperspace, they reminisced about the wisdom they gained. When all hope was about to be lost, Lytas’ special telepathy sensed a jump gate, a jump gate that was unmapped and unknowable without her special telepathy. As G'Kar and Lyta maneuvered their ship to this jump gate, Lyta activated it with her special telepathy. Upon entering normal space, Lyta discovered that they were above the Vorlon homeworld, and because of Lyta’s “specialness”, they were able to gain entrance to the Vorlon homeworld.

Upon landing upon the Vorlon homeworld, Lyta introduced G'Kar to the Vorlon homeworld, a homeworld that was entirely controlled by telepathy. Lyta was strangely drawn to one building, which turned out to the alien telepaths center, a center where the Vorlon’s genetically created and engineered Telepaths of all races. As Lyta had remembered, there was a very large room full of large transparent cylinders that contained the rotting corpses of telepathic fetuses of all races, including the Narn. Lyta reviewed the notes of this engineering and discovered that Narn’s could be telepathic, but the Vorlon’s choose not to introduce them to the Narn homeworld for fear of alerting the Shadows of their plans. They then entered another large room that resembled a combination of lab and operating room with many strange instruments. Lyta discovered that this was a room that the Vorlon’s utilized to genetically modify Telepaths to increase their telepathic abilities. She had a flashback where she remembered that this was the room where she was genetically altered to increase her telepathic abilities. Lyta also discovered that many Vorlon spacecraft had such a room. The Vorlons would secretly visit alien worlds to seed Telepaths, as well as to abduct Telepathic children for short periods of time to increase their telepathic abilities. Such abductions generally occurred when the children and their parents were asleep so as they would not recall their abduction.

Lyta and G'Kar had discovered the secrets of the Telepaths, as all Telepaths were seeded and then nurtured in the human and alien races as weapons against the Shadows. As Telepaths did not occur naturally at this stage of evolution in the human and alien races, a Vorlon seeding was necessary to begin telepathy to all the alien races. The nurturing of some Telepaths was instituted as to increase their telepathic abilities after they were born, for without this strong nurturing Telepaths would not occur. Lyta also discovered that without the Vorlon’s seeding and nurturing of Telepaths the telepathic genome would become recessive, and Telepaths would disappear from the alien races within a few generations.

G'Kar and Lyta were able to repair their spacecraft hyperspace navigation system by utilizing leftover alien technology, that was brought back to Vorlon during their travels to other worlds. They decide to report their findings to President Sheridan at the Interstellar Alliance headquarters on Minbar. President Sheridan decided to withhold this information from everybody but Delenn, due to its strategic value. Lyta asked if she could stay on Minbar to assist in finding a peaceful resolution to the Telepaths and Mundanes conflict. A peaceful resolution that would hopefully protect the life, liberty, and happiness of the Telepaths. President Sheridan agreed to this request; however, G'Kar decided to continue his explorations in the hopes of gaining more wisdom that he could utilize to help his people.

It was seven years after the founding of the Interstellar Alliance that the conflict between the Telepaths and the Mundanes became critical, as skirmishes and riots had broken out between both parties. At the same time, Earth had just finished building a new battle group based on hybrid Minbari-Earth technology. A battle group consisting of a battleship, two cruisers, and seven destroyers, all under the command of Colonel Susan Ivanova. Likewise, the Psi-Corps had built several warships to counter this new battlegroup, which they had hidden in hyperspace. The Earth fleet was making a grand tour, along with several dozen White Stars, to show the flag to human worlds and several Interstellar Alliance worlds.

As the skirmishes and riots became more widespread and more violent, Bester visited President Sheridan to arrange for a peaceful settlement, by which he meant a surrender of the Mundanes to the Telepaths rulership. It was then that President Sheridan revealed that knowledge was power and that he had knowledge that Bester and the Psi-Corps lacked, a knowledge that would mean the ultimate defeat of the Telepaths.

The Psi-Corps had become aware that fewer Telepaths were being born, and that those that were being born had less telepathic capabilities. Despite their breeding program, and attempts to genetically engineer stronger Telepaths, they were unsuccessful. They would continue to be unsuccessful as they did not have the knowledge and technology to successfully genetically create or engineer Telepaths.

President Sheridan handed Bester a highly secret report that G'Kar and Lyta prepared on their findings, as well as a highly secret purloined report of the Psi-Corps findings and efforts that revealed that the Psi-Corps leadership knew of this problem. A purloined report obtained through the efforts of his Intelligence Chief Tessa and Mr. Garibaldi, and verified as scientifically accurate by Dr. Franklin’s examination of several alien Telepaths from several different races. President Sheridan then informed Bester that he did not have to win the war but only delay the war for several generations to allow nature to take its course in eliminating the Telepaths. This was the reason the Interstellar Alliance was not actively engaged in the riots and skirmishes. This was also the reason that Mr. Garibaldi did not actively taking revenge on Bester, as Garibaldi felt that the pain of Bester’s never being able to achieve his goals of Telepathic supremacy was the best revenge.

As to the fleet of warships that the Psi-Corps had construction, President Sheridan assured Bester that Colonel Ivanova had them firmly in her sights. With Lyta by her side to protect the Earth fleet from telepathic interference from the Psi-Corps, and her ability to detect the Psi-Corps ships location in hyperspace, the Psi-corps fleet was no match for Colonel Ivanova’s fleet. The grand tour's real purpose was to map the location of the Psi-Corps fleet in hyperspace, which they had successfully accomplished. Relocating the Psi-Corps ships in hyperspace was not an option, as the Grand Tour had planted undetectable White Star ships nearby the Psi-Corps ships, each with a strong Minbari Telepath aboard. Any attempt to relocate a Psi-Corps ship would result in a tailing by the nearby White Star ship, who would then report back their new location to the Interstellar Alliance. President Sheridan informed Bester that any attempt to detect and/or destroy the nearby White Star ship would trigger the destruction of the Psi-Corps ship by one of the new destroyers that had the ability to do so in hyperspace.

Bester was disbelieving of these reports, but he left President Sheridan to investigate them on his own. After returning to the Psi-Corps headquarters and investigating these reports, he discovered that they were true. At this point, he set about to thwart the looming Telepathic War and protect the Telepaths from persecution and recriminations. He neutered the Psi-Corps leadership by threatening to reveal his findings to the public if they did not give him the authority to reach an accommodation with the Mundanes and the Interstellar Alliance that would protect the Telepaths. The Interstellar Alliance agreed to provide a homeworld were Telepaths could emigrate and live in peace under their own government, and they would guarantee their safety. They also agreed that when the telepathic genome went dormant, and there were no more Telepaths, this homeworld would be admitted into the Interstellar Alliance as the first multi-diverse alien inhabited world.

Delenn then commented to her son and grandchildren that this is what occurred, as several years previously, the Telepathic homeworld was admitted into the Interstellar Alliance. Consequently, the War with the Telepaths was averted and never occurred, thus bringing about a peaceful solution to the problem of the Telepaths.

The Centauri War

Emperor Londo Mollari was able to rebuild the Centauri Republic after the events of the television series. But it was a malevolent rebuilding in order to wage war against the Interstellar Alliance. The Drakh were a secretive race and allies of the Shadows that had placed Keepers on many of the Centauri Republic leadership. Keepers that controlled the actions of those to which they were attached and could not be removed without killing the host. The Drakh had also placed a Keeper into a ceremonial jar that was to be presented to Sheridan and Delenn’s son David when he became of age. A keeper that would control David and would direct him in disrupting Sheridan and Delenn and the Interstellar Alliance.

The disgraced Lennier had been roaming the galaxy for many years seeking redemption when he discovered these facts. He accomplished this by engaging and damaging a Drakh spacecraft by using the same maneuver that Captain Sheridan used against the Minbari Dark Star during the Earth-Minbari war. The Drakh abandoned and then tried to self-destruct the spacecraft, but Lennier was able to board and disabled the self-destruct. Lennier was then able to examine the records aboard the spacecraft when he discovered these facts. He decided that his redemption would be in saving David and putting an end to the control of the Drakh and their keepers in the Centauri Republic. To do this, he contacted G'Kar for his assistance, which G’Kar readily agreed to provide. G’Kar traveled to Centauri Prime to renew his friendship with Londo, and to discover the extent of the Centauri Keepers and their plans. Emperor Mollari revealed to G’Kar that he had discovered that the Keepers could not control their liquor, and they would fall asleep for short periods of time when he drank too much. A short period of time when Emperor Mollari could act independently of the Keepers. Emperor Mollari had collected the names of all the Centauri who had keepers, of which there were only several dozen as the Keepers were the creation of the Shadows, and with the departure of the Shadows and the destruction of Z'ha'dum no more Keepers could be created.

Lennier devised a plan to have Emperor Mollari place the Drakh and their Keeper infested Centauri on a battle fleet that was preparing to stealthily attack the Interstellar Alliance headquarters on Minbar. He also had Emperor Mollari obtain and give G’Kar a duplicate ceremonial jar without a Keeper, that G’Kar smuggled to Lennier. Lennier then smuggled himself to Minbar, where he utilized the honor of his clan to stealthily swap the ceremonial jars. He then smuggled himself and the Keeper infected jar to Centauri Prime to carry out his plan.

The plan that Lennier devised was to sabotage the main battleship to explode in Centauri space when it engaged its jump point to travel to attack the Interstellar Alliance headquarters on Minbar. However, he soon discovered that this could not be done automatically and with certainty, as it required precise timing of when the fleet was gathered in close proximity to each other in order to destroy the entire fleet. Lennier, therefore, resolved that he would manually trigger the explosion aboard the main battleship to destroy the fleet, an act that would cost him his life. At the same time, when the fleet was destroyed, it would be necessary for G’Kar to kill Londo, as he would be the last Keeper infested Centauri. G’Kar knew that this was a suicide mission, but also an act of friendship and mercy for Londo. He, therefore, volunteered to undertake this task, a task in which both he and Londo strangled each other to death. Before this strangulation occurred, it was necessary for G’Kar to kill the lone remaining Drakh assigned to shadow Emperor Molari. A fight to the death with the Drakh, which G’Kar won, but he lost his one eye as it was plucked out during the fight.

President Sheridan was informed by Lennier of the Drakh subversion of the Centauri Republic, and Lennier alerted him to his plan to end this subversion. He, therefore, had his Ranger fleet on standby to destroy any Centauri battleships that survived the explosion. After the explosion was triggered, several Centauri battleships survived but were damaged. At this point, the Ranger fleet jumped in and destroyed the surviving Centauri battleships to assure that all the Drakh and their Keeper infested Centari that were aboard were killed. G’Kar and Lennier both died in this action, but their parts were obscured to help preserve the peace of the Interstellar Alliance. The Centauri Republic was then reformulated under the new Emperor Vir Cotto, and with the assistance of the Interstellar Alliance, it became a peaceful civilization.

Sleeping in Light

After telling these stories of the Telepathic and Centauri Wars that were not, Delenn informed her son and grandchildren that it was her time to pass away and join President Sheridan and Valen. She reminded them that the Minbari believed that the number "3" to be sacred and that all things happen in threes, as Zathras had stated in “The One That Was”, “The One that Is”, and “The One that Will be”. She revealed that she had discovered that Valen had not died but instead went to Coriana 6, where his spaceship was found empty, just as Captain Sheridan spaceship was found empty at Coriana 6. It was now time for her to go to Coriana 6 to join them in Sleeping in Light. After taking leave of her son and grandchildren, she boarded her spaceship for Coriana 6, where it was found empty as had been true for both President Sheridan’s and Valen’s spaceship. By doing so, Delenn completed the three, and all three were Sleeping in Light together.