02x05 - The Long Dark

[bunniefuu]

-What've you got?

-A weak signal coming out of deep space.

Not using the jumpgate?

No, and it's using a frequency I've never heard before.

-Alien?

-Not exactly.

We come in peace.

We come in peace.

Through the walls! It's coming through the.

I need some ozones.

No ozones.

Oh, no.

Get out of my head! Where are you?

There you are.

There you are.

I see you.

Our Father, who is in heaven.

Hallowed be the name.

Thy kingdom is done.

Thy will is something that.

On Earth as it is in space.

Hail Mary.

best hope for peace.

located in neutral territory.

A place of commerce and diplomacy humans and aliens.

all alone in the night.

of the Third Age of mankind.

came upon us all.

of the Babylon stations.

The name of the place is Babylon 5.

"This is the" Copernicus.

"We come in peace.

" "This is the" Copernicus.

"We come in peace.

"

-"This is the" Copernicus.



-Hear me, O Lord and the rest of you miserable sinners and non

-humanoid types.

Judgment day is coming, and it don't care what you look like, and I have seen it.

An army of Darkness, soldiers of the devil.

Something like that.

We're all in great danger.

A pox upon this station.

You! A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit unless it's got bad roots.

Oh, please.

Don't I have troubles enough?



-I have walked in the valley of

-

-

-Good! Keep on walking.

Hurry, ambassador, he's gaining.



-You with the hair.



-Oh, jeez.

Please.

Now, unless you have a class C missionary license, it's time for a little R and R.

You can't.

You can't.

There is no shelter.

It's coming.

Right.

I got the message.

Any idea where it's from?

We're trying to identify the design.

Wherever it's been, it's taken a b*ating.



-Why didn't it use the jumpgate?



-That's what we're trying to figure out.

position for a longitudinal scan.

We're trying for a visual ID now.

Those look like letters.



-It's English.



-It should say USS.

Earth?

I've never seen this design before.

Then check your history.

Ships like this were used in early deep

-range exploration back before we got jumpgate technology from the Centauri.

That was over 100 years ago.

What's it doing here?

Things were pretty primitive back then.

Maybe it missed a thruster f*ring, or went off

-course.



-Wow.

It's been adrift ever since.



-Possibly.

Well, that's a hell of a wrong turn to make.

Maybe it wasn't a wrong turn.

Why don't we ask the pilot?

There is something alive in there.

Bring her in.



-Sheridan to Medlab.



-"Franklin.

" We may have a patient for you in Docking Bay 4.



-I've got something over here.



-Cryogenic freezer.

I've seen them at the Air and Space Museum.

Well, let's see if anybody's home.

This one's dead.

I've got life signs in this one right here.

Her signal's weakening.

Opening the ship must have triggered something.

We're gonna have to get her back to Medlab, or we'll loose her.

Open it up.

I'm losing her pulse.

Thready.



-She's gone into arrest.



-Fifty cc's of DeValera.



-Still flat line.



-Cardiac stimulator.



-Ready.



-Hit her.



-Nothing.



-All right.

Again.

Let's go.

Move! Incoming! Incoming! Incoming! Incoming!

-How long has he been like that?



-Couple hours now.

To the walls.

Get to the walls.

Damn Lurkers.

We ought to space all of them.



-Hanson.



-Oh, God.

Stop them.

Incoming.



-Were you in the w*r?



-No, I missed it.



-He didn't.



-How do you know?

Incoming! I've had that same dream.

That's better.

You all right?

I never felt better.

I'm a picture of health.

Where am I?

Oh, God.

What did I do this time?

You don't remember?

Well, I've found that life is, in general, much easier if I forget most of the things that happen to me.

You were about to accuse the Centauri ambassador of being in league with the devil, which might not be far from the truth.



-My head hurts.



-We had to put you out.

I was that bad.

You were standing in the middle of the plaza, yelling that the day of judgment was coming.

Did it?

Not that I know, but I may have missed a staff meeting.

You ever done this before?

Hell, I've done everything before.

Where were you stationed?

Nowhere special.

Here and there.

Just a gropo.

It was no big deal.

I figured you for a Ground Pounder.

Me too.

It looks like we both missed our chance to be heroes.

What about the dreams?



-Dreams?

Well, I never dream.



-You've been talking in your sleep.

Is there a reason that that door is open?

You can go.

I know some good counselors.

I've used them myself.

Now, what would a man with everything in the world do with one of them?



-When did it start?



-Moments ago.

Looks like a dream.

Or a nightmare.

It's all right.

I'm a doctor.

Do you understand?

There's nothing to be afraid of.

I'll take care of you.

I ran a general diagnostic of all the systems that still appear to be operating.

And then I found this.

According to the analysis, there's no malfunction of the other cryogenic tube.



-He should be alive.



-You double

-checked it?

Three times.

Something or someone m*rder*d him.

At the time of death, the victim's weight appears to have been about 90 pounds.

Given his height and bone structure, his normal weight should have been about 180.

But malnutrition wasn't what k*lled him.

He d*ed as a result of organ failure.



-Why?



-I don't know.

They're missing.

It's as if something reached inside of him and pulled everything out.

What happened to the organs?

There's no evidence of them anywhere on the ship.

We ran a complete scan.

If there was a cell remaining, we would have found it.

We better have a talk with the woman who was with him.

I don't think that's such a good idea yet.

A man's been m*rder*d, and the list of suspects is pretty short.

According to the ship's log, she was in stasis the whole time.



-She couldn't have done it.



-Logs can be altered.

It's a good bet he didn't reach in and yank out his own heart.



-"Dr.

Franklin?

"

-Yes?

She's awake and asking for you.

I have to go.

When she's ready, I want to talk to her.

Finish up for me.

Lousy way to die, huh?

Last I checked, there weren't too many good ways.

Well, you're looking a lot better.

I'm feeling a lot better, thanks to you, Dr?

Franklin.

Stephen.

If you don't mind answering a few questions.

What were you doing on that ship?

Will, my husband, and I are part of a commercial research group.

They needed volunteers for a long

-term deep

-space mission and I jumped at the chance.

We were assigned to the "Copernicus.

" She was programmed to home in on any signal we might come across and wake us up.

I never thought the signal could be of human origin.

How long were we in stasis?

I think we should take this a day at a time.

That doesn't sound very good.

How long?

Well, I don't have the exact number, but over 100 years.

A hundred?

I'd like to see Will now.

Something's wrong, isn't it?

I'm afraid he d*ed during the voyage.

I'm sorry.

Oh, God! We still haven't been able to determine exactly what happened.

We just said good night to each other.



-I can't cry.



-Long

-term stasis dries the tear ducts.

God, what have I done?



-He says that the system's down.



-You gotta check the reading.

I'm trying.

Holy mother.

Hey! You! You've never seen an alien before, have you?

There were indications that there were other life forms but I never imagined anything like that.



-I've missed so much.



-Well, not all of it's been good.

A few years after your ship left Earth, we finally made contact with another species.

The Centauri.

We opened up trade relations, and they gave us jumpgate technology.

Before that, we'd been pretty limited to our own solar system.

After that, we were out among the stars.

First, leasing time on alien jumpgates, and then building our own.

So the cryogenic suspension, the goodbyes it was all for nothing.



-If we'd just waited a few more years.



-Well, you couldn't have known.

I mean, what you did, it took vision.

It took courage.

What else have I missed?

The usual.

The good times and the bad times.

The revelations, the revolutions.

Outbreaks of hysteria, the parade of scandals, promises, constitutions and the occasional w*r.

The big ones were against the Dilgar, which we won and against the Minbari, which.

Well, that's a long story.

And we still haven't outgrown v*olence?

No.

It'll take more than 100 years to evolve a better human.



-Doctor.



-Ambassador.

This must be our visitor from the past.

Mariah Cirrus, this is Ambassador G'Kar of the Narn.

Take my advice and go back to the time you came from.

The future isn't what it used to be.

Welcome back.

Take it easy.

You passed out.

Where am I?

My quarters.

They were closer than Medlab.

I guess you came to my rescue again.

Hardly.

You were having a dream.

You cried out as if something were attacking you.

I did?



-I guess I just don't remember.



-It seemed very frightening and violent.

Why are you interested in my dreams?

I haven't been completely candid with you about your husband.

What are you saying?

He didn't just die.

Something k*lled him, something that was on that ship.

No, there were

-

- There were just the.

Two of us.

God, you think I k*lled him.

I think something in your dreams might be able to tell us what did.

No.

What kind of insanity is this?

It's gonna be all right.

All right?

God, I don't know where I am anymore.

I'm all alone.

You are not alone.

You're not alone.

You are not.

I don't think that this is appropriate at this particular time.

No.

I guess not.

It's just that I'm a little scared.

I don't know.

Maybe more than just a little.

Why don't you.

Why don't you just try and rest.

Try and rest.

No, thanks.

I'm trying to cut down.

You're all gonna die! A soldier of Darkness has come on that ship from the past! I have seen it.



-Save me some dessert.



-Don't close your eyes.

Don't sleep.

It'll find you! Brother Garibaldi, I was looking for you.

Let's take a walk, huh?



-You're making the natives restless.



-I'm not crazy.

It's on this station.

What is?

Death.

It came off that ship from the past.

I followed it.



-You're sure of that?



-Yes.

I saw it do the same thing during the w*r.

I finished examining the victim.

Not one of his internal organs is still inside his body.



-What happened to them?



-I don't know.

There's no sign of an entry or exit wound.

In other words, he d*ed the same way as Mariah's husband.

Correct.

It's assuming that's who she really is.



-What are you saying?



-I arrested a Lurker named Amis who was stationed on a deep

-space listening post during the w*r.

Forty

-seven men landed on that moon, all of them were slaughtered except one.

Is there a point to this?

Amis thinks what wiped out his post came here on the "Copernicus.

" We ran a scan on that ship.

If there was an alien onboard, we would have found it.

Unless it's something we'd never seen before.

Something completely outside our experience.

I traced the ship's path.

It passed within the gravitational pull of the same moon Amis was stationed on.

This Mariah Cirrus may not be what she appears.



-She had nothing to do with this death.



-How can you be sure?

Because she was with me last night, the whole night.

Moving kind of fast, aren't you, doc?

I don't sleep with my patients.

She's in pain, and I'm helping her.

That's all.

I want a watch put on her 24 hours a day, and I don't mean you.



-Are you suggesting I'm not doing my job?



-If something is threatening this station l'll do whatever's necessary to protect it.

All this on the word of a Lurker?

I checked his w*r record.

They put enough ribbons on him to open a gift shop.

Word of this m*rder has spread among the alien community.

The Non

-Aligned Worlds have asked for a meeting to discuss the possibility that something came aboard this station from that ship.

Go over her bio

-scan again, and make sure you haven't missed something.

For what it's worth, I hope you're right.

But if you're not, be careful.

We insist this woman be removed from this station.

On what grounds?

She has brought something evil from the past.

A soldier of Darkness.

That is rich.

Nothing like a good ghost story.

Let him speak.

I find this very interesting.

Go on.

The forces of Darkness do not move openly.

They work through others.

Use others.

When the Darkness was defeated long ago, they scattered.

Hid themselves away in secret places and waited.

Now the Dark Hand is reaching out and recalling them from their sleep.

You think this woman is one of these soldiers of Darkness?

Evil sometimes wears a pleasant face.

All too true.

I believe we should consider what he is saying.

Why am I not surprised?

More of your superstition?



-I don't know.



-Please.

Don't tell me you believe this.

There's an old human saying, "Where there's smoke, there's fire.

" If you ignore it, you get b*rned.

I don't have to believe in this dark force to realize there is something strange going on.

It's been nice having this chat with you, but I have more important things to do.

If there is something aboard this station, find it and k*ll it.

It's that simple.

The rest is nonsense.

If you do nothing about her presence here, we will.

I don't like threats.

And as long as I am the law on B5 I intend to see everyone is protected, human and alien alike.

Understood?

This meeting's adjourned.



-Very smooth.



-That bad?

What if something did get onboard the "Copernicus" when it passed that moon?

A soldier of Darkness?

I'll believe it when I see it.

Let's hope we don't get the chance.

Oh, hell.

Okay, rise and shine, pal.

You know, everything in your Earthforce record suggests you're out of your mind.

That's debated in the medical community.

There are those who give me benefit of the doubt, just to figure me for a compulsive liar.



-And you want me to believe you?



-Yeah.

Then this is your chance.

Take me to where you followed it.

What?

Right now.

It was there.



-What'd it look like?



-The past.

Freeze! I saw it! You have to believe me! You want me, you bastard?

Well, I'm here! Come on, let's finish it! Come on! During the w*r there was a guy in my unit kept telling everybody our perimeter was weak.

We laughed 'cause we checked it over and over.

It was secure.

We all figured he was nuts.

Until then, we'd never seen any action.

Then one night, we stopped laughing.

They came through that perimeter like it was paper.

He was the first to die.

Saved our butts.

He was a nut.

But he was right.

I believe you.

The honored dead.

Tell me about the listening post.

We were an intelligence

-gathering unit, not set up for heavy combat.

We'd heard the Minbari were setting up a command and control post so we slipped onto a small moon before they finished the perimeter scanners.

We set up camp in old ruins of some kind.

As far as we knew, it was a dead world.

It came in the night.

During a storm.

We heard nothing, saw nothing.

It came right through the walls.

Like a hot wind.

The first man d*ed just meters from me.

Never even screamed.

We ran.

We ran.

For a second, I thought I lost it.

And then I saw it.

Standing in the middle of a ball of lightning.

It looked like it had come straight from hell.

How did you survive?

I didn't! It kept me alive as a snack.

It becomes part of you, feeding on you.

The lucky ones were the men who d*ed on that moon.

What it took from me, I can never get back.

When the rescue party showed up, I weighed 85 pounds.

That's how I knew it was on this station.

A part of me is still inside that thing.

I can feel it.

But nobody ever believed me.

Until now.

This feeling, can it lead you to it?

I think.

I think maybe that's what it's been doing all this time.

It's calling me.

I think.

Maybe we have some unfinished business between us.

Amis! Amis! Mariah, what are you doing here?

It's all I have now.

This, my memories and you.

Or maybe I'm assuming more than I should.

I just think this is happening a little fast, don't you?

You just lost your husband.

I know.

And I'd be lying if I said I don't miss him.

I do.

And I want to find whatever k*lled him.

But I'd also be lying if I said things were perfect between us.

Before we left Earth, Will and I must have split up half a dozen times.

After a while, all we had in common were the stars dreams.

You can go far on that.

A hundred years.

What about you?

Same problem, I guess.

My work comes first, always has.

Finding someone who understands that, well, it hasn't been easy.

And this place isn't exactly ideal for raising a family.

No, it's not.

Maybe it's just as well Will never woke up.

I don't think he would have liked this world.

Mariah.

Whatever k*lled your husband is on this station and has taken another life.

Now I need to know everything that you know.

In my dreams there's something in the life tube with me.

And I think it was using me to stay alive until it could find more food.

Babylon 5.

I've put everybody here in great danger.

Official accounts of the m*ssacre at the listening post blame the att*ck on the Minbari.

Amis may not be sure of much, but he is sure of one thing: That post was not att*cked by the Minbari.

He said it was as if hell had been let loose.

Well, that doesn't help us much.

No, but he also said the alien took a part of him when he left his body.

So that he could feel its presence on the station.



-Some kind of symbiosis?



-Maybe.

If the same thing happened to Mariah, she might be able to help us find it.

It's too risky.

Whatever's in this station came from her ship.

Now, if what the Lurker said is true and there is a symbiotic relationship who knows what kind of influence it may have over her.

She could be scouting for it without knowing what she's doing.

If what happened on that listening post is happening here we're not gonna have to go looking for it.

It'll find us.

Let's just make sure we're ready for it.

Ms.

Cirrus?

Mr.

Garibaldi?

Yes.

I need your help to find a friend.

Dr.

Franklin told me about him.

I'm sorry.

Can you find this thing?

Can you feel where it is?

I think so.

I can try.

Provided her doctor comes along.

We're getting reports of weapons fire in Brown 90, and a signal came in.

I think it was Garibaldi.

Then it was cut off.

Seal off the area.

I don't want anyone in there.



-Sheridan to Franklin.



-I tried him.

He's not answering.

I'd say they found it.

Break out heavy weapons.

Have a security detail meet us down there.



-You all right?



-Garibaldi pulled them out.

He went back in.

You two stay here with them.

Tell us if it doubles back.

I don't want it to escape.

You ready?



-You got a plan?



-Let's try not to get k*lled.

Brilliant.

Amis?



-Amis!

-k*ll it! k*ll it! sh**t! sh**t! Get up.

Come on.

It's gotta be stopped.

You finished your tour of duty.

Get down! They're calling.

It knows I'm here, and it's waiting for me.

These PPGs don't do much more than sting it.

It prowls around hurt for a while but comes back stronger.

Yeah.

Well, one bee

-sting may be an annoyance but a hundred of them can k*ll you.

Ivanova, you got a fix on my position?



-"Confirmed.

On our way.

"

-No.

Negative.

Triangulate your fire and stand by.

I want to set up a k*ll zone, point blank.



-How's your charge?



-I'm down to my last cap.



-Let's hope that's enough.



-It won't work.

It's too smart for that.

It can smell a trap.

It can wait.

It's patient.

It's patient.



-You've gotta give it what it wants.



-Amis, no! All right, I'm here! You wanted me?

Here I am! Let's finish it! Come on.

No more dreams.

Let's end it.

Amis, get clear! Amis! Open fire! We got it, Amis.

We got it.

No more bad dreams.

It's over.

It's over.



-You sure he's gonna be okay?



-He's just banged up.

I gave him something to help him sleep.

All he wanted was to be set free.

To forget.

Maybe now he can.



-So, what about you?



-What about me?

You're gonna need a place to stay, and this is as good a place as any.

I can help.

I thought about it, but l

-

- I can't.

Not yet anyway.

I have a hundred years to catch up on.

I need to see Earth.

Bury Will.

Mourn for a while.

I just need time.

If I can, I'll come back.

If you're still interested.

I think there's a good chance of that.

Don't make promises life won't let you keep.

Take care, Stephen.

Captain, we just got finished analyzing the database onboard the "Copernicus.

" It took us a while to go through 100 years of entries but everything she told us checks out.



-I think we kind of figured that out by now.



-Not entirely.

There's one more thing I figured you ought to know.

According to the log, the "Copernicus" lost 10 percent of its oxygen when it passed by a moon in Sector 18 by 70 by 59.

Which would've been caused when that thing came aboard.

Exactly.

But when it left that sector, it was heading on a new course.

That thing was more intelligent than we thought.

It didn't know the ship was programmed to make contact with signals it came across.

Otherwise it would've gone by, and we never would have known it was there.

You said the ship was reprogrammed to a new destination?



-Yeah.

-So where was it going?

It was heading for the Rim.

Toward the place where Ambassador G'Kar told us an ancient enemy was gathering forces.

-Z'ha'dum.

-You think it's a coincidence?

A few weeks ago, I probably would've said yes.

But now, no.

Something's going on, commander.

I know.

Between you and me, it's scaring the hell out of me.