“Babylon Squared” is episode twenty of season one of Babylon 5.
Sinclair and Garibaldi are eating breakfast when Ivanova arrives. She looks a bit tired; C&C woke her up an hour early because of unusual tachyon emissions in Sector 14. Although it looked routine, Ivanova dispatched a Starfury to investigate. It’s three hours away in normal space.
Both Sinclair and Garibaldi like mornings; Ivanova definitely does not. Sinclair, by speaking quietly, manages to send her back to sleep. When that happens, Garibaldi and Sinclair replace their plates with empties, then wake Ivanova up. They tell her it’s 7:30 and that she has slept through breakfast. This means Ivanova is late, so she leaves. On which the plates are swapped again. Ivanova is not happy when she realises she’s been duped.
The Starfury, Alpha 7, arrives in Sector 14 and detects more tachyon emissions, and something appearing on the scanner. Then a shape starts to take form, one which the pilot seems to recognise – but he does not believe his eyes. Then there’s a burst of light. In C&C, they’ve lost contact with the pilot, but the Starfury’s homing beacon is active and it’s returning to base.
Delenn is leaving on a Minbari flyer, by herself, and departs through the gate.
When Alpha 7 returns, the Starfury just sits there, not docking. No life signs can be detected. Garibaldi tells Sinclair and Ivanova that what killed the pilot is hard to explain. He appears to have died of natural causes – but the natural causes are old age. The pilot may have looked 30 on the outside, but his internal organs were of someone three times his age.
Prior to his death, the pilot had scratched something on a buckle – ‘B4.’ Does that mean Babylon 4, the station that vanished without trace four years ago? Sinclair has checked, and the tachyon emissions are coming from the exact spot from which Babylon 4 disappeared.
C&C pick up a distress signal, and one that appears to be coming from Babylon 4. The signal code matches, and the temporary commander of Babylon 4, Major Krantz, requests help evacuating the station. They have 1,200-1,300 personnel on board, and evacuating the station will take ten hours. So, is it Babylon 4? When the evacuation ships arrive, it certainly looks like it.
Major Krantz does not seem totally surprised to find that they are in the future; it’s more a confirmation of something. Time is coming adrift in the station, and they need to evacuate before they do the time warp. Again.
Delenn is meeting with the rest of the Grey Council. It is time for a new leader to be chosen, and the rest of the council have chosen Delenn. She is not exactly happy with this honour.
There are intimations of future events in this episode.