Babylon 5 s05e11 Episode Script

A few words for those who've just arrived: A colony of rogue telepaths have been unwisely allowed to take up residence here.
Since they're humans, they fall under the jurisdiction of Earth law.
The Alliance has agreed to respect rights of each member world to control its own people.
This leaves it to us.
The rogues have engaged in unauthorized scans of several dozen ambassadors.
They have extracted an unknown amount of privileged information intending to exchange those secrets for a Homeworld of their own.
Since then, they've divided into two groups.
Half of them are now holed up in Downbelow.
They have reportedly begun a hunger strike which they believe will create sympathy for their cause.
This is all fine by me since it means that group one is already contained.
Saving us the trouble.
Also, the longer they continue their hunger strike the weaker their condition becomes the less resistance we'll encounter when we go in after them.
Group number two is our main concern.
Group two, the rest of Byron's followers have scattered throughout the station.
Several Bloodhound units are already on patrol running them to ground.
Several of them broke into an armory last night seizing an unknown number of PPG rifles and handguns.
We believe only a small portion of them are armed.
Fortunately, there seems to be little tactical coordination between the members of group two.
This should make them easier to bring down.
We should expect some losses on their side but let's try to keep it within acceptable limits.
The Corps is mother.
The Corps is father.
In that way, these are our children who have gone astray.
We have to at least try to bring them in alive so that we can correct their thinking.
Data packets you've received detail which part of the station you've been assigned to cover and pair you up with one of the Bloodhound units.
I want this situation resolved by tomorrow morning.
Latest.
Dismissed.
You enjoy this, don't you? The drama, the chase.
I enjoy being good at what I do.
You should take some small pleasure in it as well.
This is for your benefit, after all.
Our job is to protect normals from rogue telepaths.
Perhaps now you'll understand why we're necessary.
Every race to develop telepaths has had to find some way to control them.
Through laws, religion, drugs or extermination.
We may not be pretty but we're a hell of a lot better than the alternatives.
Maybe so.
But I don't have to like your methods.
They shouldn't be run down like mad dogs.
If they insist on behaving like mad dogs, we have to treat them as such.
Look, captain, you called me, remember? Now that we're here, we'll handle it our way and our way always works.
Because whatever our differences, those rogues are telepaths and that puts us on the same side.
We just have to help them understand that.
I have a hunch that might be more difficult than you think, Mr.
Bester.
And so it begins.
- There's a hole in your mind.
- What do you want? No one here is exactly what he appears.
Commander Sinclair is being reassigned.
Why don't you eliminate the entire Narn Homeworld? I see a great hand reaching out of the stars.
President Clark has signed a decree declaring martial law.
These orders have forced us to declare independence.
Unless your people get off their encounter-suited butts and do something - You're The One who was.
- lf you go to Z'Ha'Dum, you will die.
Why are you here? Do you have anything worth living for? I think of my beautiful city in flames.
- Giants in the playground.
- Get out of our galaxy! We are here to place President Clark under arrest.
- Any news? - We just heard.
Byron wants to talk to us.
Good.
Maybe we can negotiate our way out of this.
Mr.
President, sorry to bother you.
It's a little late to worry about that now.
Byron, I trusted you.
I let you form a colony here, gave you a place to stay.
Your people are turning this place upside down.
- They've killed four people.
- The situation's gotten out of control.
And so have my people, at least the ones out there.
I can help, but you have to remove the Psi Cops first.
I can't do that.
As long as they're here violence will continue.
My people will do anything necessary to keep from going back to the Psi Corps.
I believe I can get them to back off if I talk to them directly but if any of us leave here we'll be arrested.
I wouldn't believe him, Mr.
President.
Byron never keeps his promises.
- Do you, Byron? - This doesn't concern you.
Oh, but it does.
You want us to leave so that you can get away.
Not a chance.
Your followers killed at least four people.
And even the president despite his liberal attitudes knows that you can't let killers get away.
Stay there and we'll dig you out.
Come out and we'll arrest you.
Either way, it's over, Byron.
No.
There are other ways.
Byron, you What did he mean, Byron about you not keeping your promises? Later.
We have to go now.
Thanks for the help.
We were finally opening up a dialogue.
I don't believe in dialogue, only action.
That's what I'm here for.
To give you a progress report on our activities.
Don't worry, captain.
This'll be over by morning.
I get the feeling he wants this confrontation.
There's something personal in this for him.
Speaking of personal grudges you seen or heard of Garibaldi since Bester came on board? No.
I thought you would have heard from him by now.
You're right.
That's what's got me worried.
There's only one thing more dangerous than Mr.
Garibaldi when he's loud.
It's when he's dead silent.
Turn around.
Very, very slowly.
Hello, Mr.
Garibaldi.
Good to see you again.
I was wondering how you were doing.
- You haven't written, you haven't called - Shut up.
Obviously haven't improved your manners.
I want you to go over to the BabCom unit.
Hit the record button.
Standing by to record.
Touch "record" a second time to initiate recording.
Now, I want you to dictate a full confession.
I want you to tell the whole truth about what you did to me and to Sheridan.
What I did? You mean the part about my conditioning you to turn against your friends sell out Sheridan to President Clark and infiltrate a conspiracy against my beloved Psi Corps.
Yeah, that's the one.
Now, hit the button and say it again.
- No.
- This isn't a discussion, Bester.
Yes, it is.
You won't shoot.
Don't count on it.
If anybody asks, I'll just say it was self-defense.
And there's nobody who loves you enough to even question it.
See, the truth is I don't care if I go up for your murder not after what you did to me.
I've thought about this for a long, long time, Bester.
And either you do what I say right now or I'll kill you.
I mean it.
Yes.
I believe you do.
But my answer is still no.
So I guess you're just going to have to shoot me.
Let me ask you something, Mr.
Garibaldi.
A purely philosophical question.
On a scale of one to 10 how stupid do you think I am, anyway? Do you really think I'd let you run around, knowing what you know and leave you free to kill me? - What have you done to me? - I hit you with an Asimov.
He was a writer long ago who wrote stories about robots.
He came up with a set of rules to prevent them from turning against mankind.
The cybertechs adopted them in the early pre-ban experiments and I've found them useful myself from time to time.
Before we finished adjusting you I made sure we planted Asimov's two most important rules in your mind: You cannot harm me directly or, through inaction, allow harm to come to me.
To make it harder for someone else to break the conditioning I put the block in the part of your brain that controls the neural system.
You can want to kill me as much as you want the same way I can say "I wanna raise this hand.
" But it won't lift up until I send the impulse.
You're blocked at the point of action but I left your rage intact.
Call it counterpoint.
Dramatic irony.
Well l'd love to stay and chat, Mr.
Garibaldi but I just have so much work to do.
Be sure and turn out the lights on your way out.
This isn't what I wanted, Lyta.
I tried to teach them to show them that there is another way than violence.
Did I fail that badly? You can't change human nature, Byron.
Then there's not much point in living, is there if we can't hope for something better, nobler at least something kinder? You still haven't answered my question.
What did Bester mean about you not keeping your promises? It seemed as if he knew you.
The tone in his voice, it It was almost as if this were something personal to him.
It is.
Very personal.
Why? You shouldn't ask questions that will lead to answers you don't want to hear.
Byron.
I want to hear it, whatever it is.
I grew up in the Psi Corps, same as you.
Do you know my rating as a telepath? I'm a strong P-12.
But all P-12s are automatically designated Psi Cops.
- You were a Psi Cop? - Not just a Psi Cop.
Bester's protégé.
He was training me to be just like him.
And I was.
For a long time.
And then It was supposed to be a simple interception.
We'd gotten word about a covert operation smuggling telepaths into some outer colonies where it would be harder for us to find them.
We surrounded the transport and demanded they turn over telepaths.
Or we would use deadly force.
They did as they were told.
They didn't have much choice.
Omega 7 to Omega 1.
Blips are clear.
Captured transport moving into position.
All clear.
We can head back now.
Not yet, Omega 7.
We got this batch, but there'll be others.
- We need to send a message.
- All right.
- I'll arrange for them to be escorted to - Negative, Omega 7.
Lock all forward weapons on transport.
Prepare to fire.
Sir, they're unarmed.
We can't just Prepare to fire, Omega 7.
- I can't.
- I gave you an order, Byron.
Execute the order or face the consequences.
They're just mundanes, Byron.
And it's them or you.
You wanted to run with the big boys now you have to show that you're up to it.
Are you? Are you up to it, Byron? I knew he was serious knew he wanted me bloody, just like him.
I knew they would kill me if I didn't do as I was told.
So God help me, I pulled the trigger.
After all, they were just mundanes.
When I got back I tried to file a report on what had happened but nobody wanted to know.
So I left.
I swore I'd never let innocents be harmed like that again.
Swore to find a better way for us, for our people.
Without violence, without preying on our own kind or letting others prey on us.
Do the others know? They have been my salvation.
I gave them direction organization, strength.
But they gave me hope.
And now look where I've brought them in return.
I got them! I got them! Go.
Go! They cut off the hall.
We can't go back the way we came.
- Reinforcements? - They're bringing in 12 security guards.
- Thomas, we're outnumbered.
- We need to fall back consolidate our forces, buy a little insurance.
They may not value our lives, but the mundanes, that's a different question.
The captain will never let anything happen to them.
I think I know where we can get some.
All right, everybody, fall out! - Let's go! - Hurry! Come on! Let's move! Move! Coming through.
Coming through.
Watch it.
Doc.
- Got a second? - Yeah, but we're getting a lot of wounded.
What do you know about neural blocks? What kind? Chemical, telepathic, biomechanical? Telepathic.
Any drugs that overcome a telepathic block? Well, it depends Close the door! Enough.
That's enough.
We need them alive.
Thomas, this is Garibaldi.
He works for the president.
- And we have the main doctor too.
- Good.
I had hoped for valuable hostages, but I never thought we'd come up aces.
Get the president and the captain on the line.
Tell them we have hostages and if we don't get what we want, they're all dead.
Starting with you.
And then you.
Unless our demands are met, we will begin killing hostages starting with Garibaldi.
We demand the release of Byron and all others like us who have been taken into custody safe passage off Babylon 5 to neutral territory and the commencement of negotiations aimed toward creating a Homeworld for telepaths.
You have two hours to comply or we will begin the executions.
And don't think for a minute we'll hesitate to do exactly as I say.
- After all, to us - They're only mundanes.
they're only mundanes.
No! I swore an oath, Lyta.
I won't let it happen.
Not to mundanes, not to our people and, by God, I won't let it happen in my name.
Could you tell where they were? It was difficult, but I think it was Medlab 1.
- Can you get me there? - We sealed ourselves off in here.
We welded half the doors shut, the other half are guarded by Psi Cops.
There must be other ways, too small for them to bother with.
Ways that fell between the cracks.
Air ducts, maintenance halls, a crawlspace, anything.
You have to get me into Medlab, Lyta.
I won't have innocent blood on my hands a second time.
I won't! I know it hurts, Peter, but we need you.
Byron needs you.
Thomas needs you.
We all need you.
There's a major access hall we can't guard properly.
And we need you and your special gift.
- I'll try.
- You can't take that man out of here.
- He's not well enough to move.
His injuries - Stephen! His injuries will be less than yours or theirs if you try to interfere with us.
Try that again and we'll kill five at a time instead of just one.
Get him out of here.
There's one telepath I can't kill, but nobody said anything about you.
You hurt these people you'll go to your grave with my teeth in your throat.
We've got movement.
Could be trouble.
Chief, I've got to go down! Fall back! - Fall back to Blue 4! - Go! Go! Go! That's very good.
We'll go tell Thomas the hallway is secure.
Remember, Peter, nobody gets by.
- You understand? - No one.
Okay.
I tried to warn you, Mr.
President.
You can't trust Byron or his people.
Now you see that I was right.
And maybe we could have avoided this if we'd opened negotiations.
You can't talk to them.
You can talk to her.
You can talk to me.
Everyone talks to me.
People like talking to me.
I guess I just have that kind of face.
But you can't talk to them.
They can't be trusted.
Just leave it to us.
And if Garibaldi is killed? Zack gets his room.
Look, this is all very fascinating but the latest from Earthgov confirms I still have jurisdiction over the situation.
So until that changes we'll play it my way.
Is that true? - Heard back from President Luchenko? - They confirmed receiving our request to shut down Bester's operation.
They're considering it.
We should know in a few hours.
Yeah, and Garibaldi has less than two hours left.
I know.
But if we go in while Bester's still in charge they will panic and kill the hostages.
Unless we want to give in, give them what they want.
Do we? Do we want to negotiate with terrorists, Mr.
President? Can't get out that way.
It's blocked.
This one.
This will do it.
Time's almost up.
- How did you get through? - I don't have time.
- Are they still in there? - Yes.
They said no one was to get past me, though.
I'm sure they didn't include me in that.
It's all right.
I've always tried to do the right thing, Byron.
- Always.
- I know.
You gotta listen to me.
This isn't gonna work.
Now, if you give yourselves up, we could go back, we could talk to the others.
You say you're doing this for a cause.
What kind of sympathy are you gonna get by killing innocent people in cold blood? You wanna send out a message, this ain't it.
Look, I can work with you.
I can get you out of this, but you've gotta work with me.
What do you say? Yeah.
That's what I thought you were gonna say.
This is President Sheridan.
I've consulted with Captain Lochley and we have reached a decision regarding the current situation.
It is not the policy of the Interstellar Alliance or this station to bargain with terrorists for the lives of hostages.
If we open that door even once we will never be able to close it again.
You have two choices: Surrender or we will use lethal force to bring you down.
You have 10 minutes.
Swell.
Wait, look, we can It's almost 10 minutes.
Why don't they answer? Did you know that Garibaldi has been here longer than anyone else in the command structure? Yeah.
He came on board with Sinclair.
And despite a history of alcohol abuse despite being shot, stabbed, beaten up he has survived five years in this place.
If I am responsible for changing that, if he I don't know that I can live with myself, captain.
You made the right decision.
There was nothing else you could do.
Yeah? Well, it's a great epitaph, but it is a lousy thing to do to a friend.
- Lochley.
Go.
- We've got a response coming in from the telepaths in Medlab.
Put it through.
Byron.
I didn't expect to see you there.
- How did you? - How doesn't matter.
The immediate situation has been resolved.
But I need your help to end this.
I will arrange to have the hostages released but in exchange I want to gather all my people together in Downbelow.
Talk to them, bring this to a peaceful end.
That means no interference.
If your people or Bester interfere, I won't be able to control them.
After we've had some time together I and those directly responsible for the recent violence will surrender.
Okay.
What's the condition? I want your personal guarantee that the rest of my people Those who harmed no one will be allowed to leave the station in peace.
We will only surrender to you, not the Psi Corps.
They can't be any part in this, otherwise Captain this is the only way to end this without further bloodshed.
Those responsible for the violence will surrender and the innocent will leave.
The crisis will be over.
And one way or another we will be gone.
Byron, how do we know that everyone responsible for the violence will surrender? How can we be sure some of them won't escape? You'll have everything you need to be sure they won't get away.
All right.
I'll order my people and Psi Cops to clear out.
I'll have a transport tube waiting at the end of the hall.
We'll program it to take your people back to Brown Level, but nowhere else.
There will be no interference from Bester's people and those not involved with the violence will be allowed to leave.
If you can prove to our satisfaction that those responsible for the violence will remain in custody.
Thank you.
You will hear from me again in a few hours.
- You promised what? - It's the best chance we've got to end this peacefully.
We get those responsible And the rest get away.
You have no right to do that.
You speak for the Alliance on a political basis.
- You don't speak for Earth policies.
- We do now.
The violence was directed against station personnel.
Because of that, we asked Earthgov to transfer jurisdiction.
They agreed, both as a gesture of goodwill and to help end this crisis.
You'll get your pound of flesh, one way or another.
Byron will be surrendering with the rest.
To you, not to us.
I want him in our custody.
Then you have to go through channels back home.
Sorry.
That's the way it has to be.
We'll see.
Zack.
Byron gave this to one of my guys to give to you.
These are the Identicards of those responsible for the violence.
They can't get off the station without them.
And these are the signed confessions of everyone involved.
This is over.
Now, if you've got a problem with that, take it up with Earthgov.
We don't have time.
Byron.
Byron.
Byron.
Byron.
Byron.
- You hear me, don't you? - Yes.
Don't do this, Byron.
We worked together once.
We were close, if not necessarily friends.
We've had our problems.
But it's still you and it's still me.
And we're still what we are.
We both acted hastily.
We both acted badly.
But I'm willing to put that behind us if you are.
Don't go off with strangers, Byron.
Don't talk to strangers.
No, I imagine you don't want them to know what you did.
What we did.
Don't want them to know how easily we kill their kind.
I'm not thrilled about the idea, no.
But that aside we're still family, Byron.
The Corps is mother.
The Corps is father.
It can't be any other way.
Yes, it can.
And it will be after today.
- Byron.
They're ready to go.
Then we should go.
Quickly, while we still can.
We don't have much time.
Tell the others to meet me in Brown 7.
We're going in on my signal.
We have a job to do.
We're gonna do it.
Make sure they understand.
We're not leaving here without Byron.
I kept my word.
We're here.
We will surrender peacefully.
And we will keep ours.
The rest of your people will be allowed to leave safely.
Thank you.
L Just a second.
I contest this transfer.
- What's he doing here? - I don't know.
- What are you trying to pull, Bester? - Captain, I have a right to these prisoners.
- It's all right.
- No.
- No! - It's all right.
- I won't go back with them! No! - No! No! No! Hold your fire! Damn it, hold your fire! Danger: Hazardous chemical spill.
Danger: Hazardous chemical spill.
It didn't have to end like this.
It still doesn't! Yes, it does.
We can't go back now.
There's too much blood.
We are no longer who we were.
We are what we have become.
What you made us! Byron, don't do this.
You're a symbol to these people.
Yes.
And so are you.
Remember that.
I said there would come a time when you would have to walk away.
Walk away, Lyta.
Do it now.
For me, for the others.
They will need you now.
- I can't.
- Lf you stay, they win.
If you stay, then our love was false and my life was in vain.
It will be the end of everything I've worked for.
Byron.
I love you, Byron.
How can I leave you? I'm already gone.
It's too late for me but not for the others.
They are my life's work and my redemption for sins past.
You cannot save my life but you can save my soul.
I called you my willow the strength that would survive me and shelter those who follow.
Now I need you to be strong for me one last time.
Go.
Don't look back.
Clear out! Move! Go! Go! - Get out of here! - Everybody out! Security, we need an additional hazmat team down here.
This is security.
Roger that.
We're sending two down right away.
Medlab, we're bringing in three more.
We need to make room down there.
You satisfied, Mr.
Bester? No.
Not at all.
I don't understand it.
In spite of it all, I always thought at the end of the day we were on the same side.
They just needed someone to explain it to them so they'd understand who the real enemy was.
You mean us.
The mundanes.
We weren't supposed to fight each other.
Not like this.
I don't understand.
I truly don't.
- Hey, Stephen.
What's up? - Hey.
I'm looking for Garibaldi.
Since he's never far from trouble I figured he might be here.
No, I haven't seen him all day.
Why? Well, it may be nothing, but I watched him while we were stuck in Medlab.
Now, he asked me something, some kind of neural block question.
And he seemed down.
He seemed lost, almost powerless.
I mean, I've seen him in a lot of moods, but never like that one.
And I just wanted to find him, see if he was okay.
Hope he doesn't do anything stupid.
Yeah.
Over here.
Wait.
Wait.
Just a minute.
Before the end Byron sent me his memories of contacts safe houses resources secrets.
I've arranged for each of you to be met and escorted into safety.
I'll give you that information as you leave.
And then, tomorrow we begin again.
Remember Byron.
Remember Byron.
Remember Byron.
Remember Byron.
Remember Byron.
Monitor on.
- with the Mars Rockets ahead by five games in the interplanetary standings.
It's too early to say anything's done for the World Series.
There doesn't seem to be any team on the horizon who can threaten their position.
In other breaking news, ISN has just learned that the main Psi Corps headquarters was bombed early this morning by unknown parties.
The only clues found at the scene were the words "Remember Byron" painted on the side of the building.
More after this.