“A Voice in the Wilderness: Part 1” is episode eighteen of season one of Babylon 5.
A Minbari arrives on the station and speaks to a security officer, as he’s looking for Delenn. The guard says he will show him the way. In C&C, Sinclair and Ivanova are discussing a shuttle mission that is about to depart. There are some disturbances on the surface of a planet, which ordinarily wouldn’t be important, but because it’s Epsilon 3, the planet that Babylon 5 is orbiting, a shuttle is being sent to investigate.
Once the shuttle departs, Sinclair leaves, telling Ivanova he has to play diplomat. He meets Talia Winters outside a transport tube; she tells him that every time she wants to use a tube, Garibaldi is inside it when the door opens. Sinclair says that Garibaldi is not omniscient, but when the tube opens and Garibaldi is inside, both decide to use the stairs.
As the shuttle approaches the planet, an energy beam of some type spears up from the surface, damaging the shuttle. The beam caused a power surge that took both the station’s and the shuttle’s systems offline; the shuttle can make it to orbit but not back to the station, so Ivanova despatched a couple of Starfuries to help.
Sinclair’s diplomatic duties are with London and Delenn, discussing trade routes; what’s happening on Epsilon 3 crops up. There was no sign of life on the planet in any of the previous surveys, and Londo says that maybe they’ve awakened something.
Epsilon 3 was supposed to be safe, stable and uninhabited. The first two are no longer true; the third may or may not be – what’s happening may be automated systems coming online. Ivanova says that the energy beam is a beacon of some type, and asks Sinclair if anything has been heard of from Mars Colony. That night, as Sinclair is listening to the news, it’s announced that Mars Colony is in open revolt. Afterwards, Sinclair sees what looks like a hologram of an alien saying ‘Help me.’ Sinclair shrugs it off, but Londo sees the same thing later.
The Minbari who was looking for Delenn is Draal, an old friend and tutor of hers. He is concerned about what is happening on Minbar, and doesn’t think he can cope with the changes. So he tells Delenn that he is going to the sea. Which isn’t elaborated on, but it sounds like it’s the last thing someone does.
Epsilon 3 also has active defences, buried deep within the surface, which is why they were never detected before – they are simply too deep. Defences that make it a security risk to the station. Garibaldi is concerned about the news from Mars, because there is a communications blackout and he can’t contact someone he cares about.
The story continues in “A Voice in the Wilderness: Part 2”.