“A Race Through Dark Places” is episode eight of season two of Babylon 5.
Ivanova is briefing Sheridan on station matters. Earth Central has reported that there has been a 15% drop in station revenue; according to Ivanova, an increase in Earthforce military transports has forced the station to reroute some commercial traffic elsewhere. This is apparently temporary. There is one final matter, related to the station budget running at a deficit. Earth Central wants Sheridan and Ivanova to either move to smaller quarters, or start paying 30 credits a week in rent. Starting immediately. Sheridan is really not happy with this.
On Mars Colony, the Psi Cop Alfred Bester is questioning a restrained man. Bester tells the man that he was raised by the Corps, and that he was led astray by others. Bester wants the man to cooperate, but he doesn’t seem terribly willing. He’s questioning the man about an underground railroad that is helping unregistered telepaths escape from the Corps. Bester wants him to name names, but the man says that no names are used. So he is then questioned about a central clearing house. An issue Bester forces, killing the man as he does, but getting the location – Babylon 5.
Sheridan is talking to Dr. Franklin about Earth Central insisting he pays rent. He is still more than a little irate on the matter, and intends to keep going. Franklin comments that he’s doomed. Then Delenn approaches Sheridan for a word. She underwent the change so that she could be a bridge between humans and Minbari. Delenn wants to better understand what it is to be human. She may look more like a human, but she isn’t one. Sheridan wants to know what she suggests, and what Delenn suggests is dinner. So that she can just sit and talk with a human, and not about diplomatic and trade matters. Sheridan agrees, and finds the idea a bit amusing – most of his experience with Minbari was trying to kill them and vice versa.
Bester arrives at the station and requests a meeting with the full command staff, which is Sheridan, Ivanova and Garibaldi as well as Talia Winters. Bester tells them that an underground railroad is smuggling unregistered telepaths to the outer colonies. Ivanova does not see a problem with this. Bester tells Sheridan that he must close down the route and he would appreciate his cooperation. So Sheridan asks for privacy to speak to the others.
According to Garibaldi, they have to uphold Earth Alliance laws. He might not like helping Bester, but he says that legally they have to. Garibaldi thinks that people were so scared by telepaths they shoved them all into a black box called Psi Corps. Now, with their black uniforms and jackboots, they scare the hell out of him. A problem of their own making perhaps. Ivanova, after the meeting, suggests that Sheridan check the station’s files on Bester – the captain was not in command during the events of “Mind War”.
Bester, whilst with Talia, senses someone call him a murderer, He tells Talia to open up, but she hears nothing. Bester is pleased, because this means that the rogue telepaths are on the station. Which they are, and they are planning to kill him. Ironheart, before he left, gave Talia a gift, that of telekinesis. A gift that seems to have become a lot more powerful. Originally, she could move a penny slowly along a surface. Now she can hurl a penny fast enough to half embed it in a wall. Yet Bester, despite being in Talia’s mind, never detected it. Which makes Talia think that Ironheart gave her another gift as well.
Garibaldi’s first step in his investigation is to question Ivanova. He wants to know if she is involved in the underground railroad, because it would be hard for the railroad to operate without someone ranking helping out and, given Ivanova’s low opinion of Psi Corps, she’s the logical choice. It’s not her though.
Sheridan’s dinner with Delenn goes surprisingly well. The conflict over his and Ivanova’s quarters doesn’t go as smoothly. And Talia learns some disturbing things about Psi Corps that make her question the organisation’s policies. Although not to Bester, of course.