“Ship of Tears” is episode fourteen of season three of Babylon 5.
The opening view of the space around Babylon 5 shows rather more military vessels than normal, and of different races, thanks to the treaty that Sheridan negotiated with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds in the previous episode, “A Late Delivery from Avalon”, to help with protecting the station.
Inside, Garibaldi is talking to Ivanova and Dr Franklin about ISN coming back online after it went off the air in “Severed Dreams”. Franklin thinks that this is a good sign but Ivanova asks why it has taken so long to come back on the air. The doctor comments that the place go shot up pretty badly by Clark’s troops; it probably took this long to fix it. And continues, saying that this could be the first good thing that has happened in some time. Pretty much guaranteeing that it won’t be.
According to the ISN anchorwoman in their first transmission, the disruption to their service occurred because saboteurs attacked their facilities in order to disable Earth’s communications in a prelude an invasion. These saboteurs then used the facilities to broadcast a fake report intended to give the impression that the government was attacking ISN, and that ISN pulled the plug themselves and the saboteurs were captured by Clark’s forces. And that they are going to be talking about the elimination of crime since the extremely popular martial law was put into place. So, ISN is now a mouthpiece for Clark’s regime. So much for this being the first good thing.
Ivanova comments that sometimes she thinks she is too pessimistic. Then something like this happens. When asked if people will surely not fall for this, Franklin asks why not, as it has worked before. He who controls information controls the world. They don’t expect that the captain will be too happy when he hears this. Sheridan is apparently checking out the new Starfuries the station received from the Churchill.
Sheridan is indeed checking them out and is in a twin-seater. He is told that this is the first production model that can operate inside the atmosphere, so no older models will be able to follow them. Then Sheridan receives a message from C&C saying that there has been a distress call in an outer sector. When Sheridan asks, he is told it is an Earth ship and C&C asks if search and rescue should be scrambled. Sheridan says that he and the accompanying Starfury will check it out themselves. The distress call is coming from a Starfury that is tumbling and has a symbol of an omega on it. Sheridan calls the ship and asks if it can receive him. Inside the Starfury is the Psi Cop, Bester, who comments to himself that he can hear just fine. The captain just needs to come a little closer as they need to talk.
Sheridan’s Starfury identifies the other ship as a Black Omega. He contacts the vessel asking them to identify and Bester replies. Sheridan recognises his voice. Bester says that his instruments can detect Sheridan, but he can’t see him, and asks if there’s a problem. Sheridan says that Black Omega is an elite unit attached to the Psi Corps, and as telepaths can only scan when in direct line of sight, he’s staying out of visual range. Bester tells Sheridan that he has something very important to tell him, but if he came in unannounced he’d probably be shot down before he got near the station.
Sheridan tells Bester that, as Babylon 5 no longer has any ties to Earth or the Psi Corps, they do not need to put up with him any longer. And inquires why he shouldn’t just blow Bester out of the sky. Bester replies that the captain must be curious as to what brought him all the way out here, and if Sheridan does blow him up, he will never find out why. Sheridan doesn’t immediately respond. Then tells Bester he’s thinking about it. Then tells his wingman to escort Bester to the station.
Ivanova gets collared by G’Kar and she apologises for missing their meeting. G’Kar says that he has come to collect on their debt. G’Kar offered the station the support all of the local Narns who took the place of much of station security in “Point of No Return”. They have kept the peace and many died during the defence of the station. G’Kar knows about the new alliance being formed and wanted in in exchange for his cooperation. Sheridan agreed, or seemed to, but nothing has happened so G’Kar is forcing the issue. Ivanova tells him that things have been very busy; G’Kar doubts they are going to get quieter.
Bester arrives on the station and smiles to himself, turning the corner to see many armed guards, both human and Narns. He makes a comment about getting the impression that people around here just don’t like him. Garibaldi is watching on a monitor with the others and doesn’t like it. Not liking things is pretty much the chief’s job though. He didn’t know that Bester could fly a Starfury. Sheridan tells him that every so often Psi Cops have to go out on their own, and Bester is qualified on a whole bunch of craft.
When it’s suggested that Bester has arrived so that he can attempt to scan them again, Franklin says that there’s not much point. Everything they were planning to do, they’ve done, so there’s nothing for Bester to find. However, he doesn’t know that. If Bester is drugged again, like he was in “Dust to Dust”, he has said he will be unable to help them. Franklin asks if they can lock Bester up forever, an idea that Ivanova is perfectly happy with. Sheridan wants to find out what Bester wants, but first wants to have a quiet word with Ivanova.
The captain asks Ivanova if Bester still doesn’t know she’s a latent telepath. He says that if Bester is going to risk scanning someone, he will do it to the first person to walk through the door. Sheridan wants Ivanova to be that person. She tells him that she can’t block a Psi Cop, but Sheridan says that Ivanova told him she would know if someone had tried to scan her. So if Bester doesn’t scan her, they will know they can trust him. A little. If Bester does try to scan Ivanova; well, in that case they will throw Bester in the brig until either they run out of food or he dies of old age. Ivanova agrees – but tells the captain she needs to speak to Sheridan about G’Kar first.
When Ivanova enters the room Bester is being kept he, after first poking her a little verbally, says that it has come to his attention that they have a common enemy. And the enemy of my enemy is my friend. President Clark is not calling the shots back home, there are others whispering in his ear. Bester doesn’t know who they are or where they are from, only that they are not human. He has heard a name though – Shadows. Something Bester suspects Ivanova knows far more about than he does.
Bester claims that the reason Ivanova doesn’t like him is because she’s jealous of evolution. Normals are obsolete; telepaths are the future. Given that Ivanova is a latent telepath, that’s not the reason. Not that Bester knows this. Bester wants to make sure that future happens, a future where Ivanova says that Bester will be on the top. Bester doesn’t challenge this, but says that he will not be there if someone gets there first. The Shadows are interfering with his plans for the future, and he won’t have it. So Bester needs someone who feels the same way he does, and that if Ivanova wants to hurt their common enemy, he knows how.
Sheridan is talking to Delenn about bringing G’Kar into the fold. He had hoped to postpone this a bit longer. Delenn replies that G’Kar has been poking around for some time now and Sheridan says that G’Kar was the first one to warn him about the Shadows, months before Delenn. Which she apologises for, saying that silence was necessary. The captain continues, saying the Centauri would never have taken Narn without outside help, and asks how they can tell G’Kar that they sacrificed his world to keep a secret. Delenn says they won’t; she will. The choice to keep it a secret was hers, so the responsibility to tell G’Kar is as well. Sheridan doesn’t want her to do it alone but Ivanova interrupts regarding Bester.
Bester tells them that a convoy is passing near the hyperspace beacon in Sector 500. It’s carrying supplies – weapon parts – for their mutual enemy and is escorted by half a dozen enemy fighters. By seizing the ship, they will deprive the Shadows of some weapons capability. They also need to capture the ship, not destroy it. When asked why they need Bester now, he says that locating a ship in hyperspace is difficult, and could take days. Unless they happen to have a P12 – like him – on board. Hyperspace amplifies the ability of telepaths, something they have kept to themselves. If the military knew about this, they would put telepaths on the front lines. Telepaths are not expendable; mundanes are. Bester clearly does not believe in making friends.
So Bester is taken out on the White Star – which he clearly likes, to the point where Sheridan comments about trying not to drool on the controls. The weapons components turn out to be telepaths and Bester gets a bit of a shock. Then everyone gets a shock as it’s discovered why telepaths can be called weapons components.
Delenn speaks to G’Kar about everything, much of which he had already guessed. Apart from the fact that the decision was made not to speak out when G’Kar tried to warn everyone. On the whole, G’Kar takes this better than Delenn expected. He isn’t happy about what happened to Narn, or willing to forgive at the moment, but in “Dust to Dust” he was told that some must be sacrificed for all to be saved. G’Kar thought this referenced the future, but he now realises that it referred to the past as well. So he understands.
Garibaldi makes a breakthrough with the Book of G’Quan, which G’Kar gave him in “Voices of Authority” saying it would be helpful. And it is. Which is fortunate, as things are getting worse.