Passengers transferring from starliner Asimov
to outbound flights
should take shuttle 1-a to docking area 7.
Emigrés and long-term visitors...
Commander Sinclair,
it's good to see you again.
And you. It's been a while.
This is my first officer,
Lieutenant Commander Susan Ivanova.
Susan, Dr. Stephen Franklin.
Our new medical chief of staff.
It's a pleasure.
I've followed your work while I was stationed back home.
We're honored to have you aboard.
Well, thank you.
Ran into Dr. Kyle at the transfer point.
He sends his regards.
He's really looking forward
to working with the President.
It's a great opportunity.
Well, with so many aliens migrating to Earth,
we need more people like him back home.
So, when do I start?
As soon as you'd like.
[Beep beep]
Sinclair.
We're getting a disturbance in the jumpgate, Commander.
Thought you'd want to check it out.
All right. On my way.
If you'll see the good doctor the rest of the way,
I'll catch up with you later.
Always this busy around here?
Yes. We like it that way.
Ok, what have we got?
Unidentified ship
coming through the jumpgate.
Frequency, silhouette, star drive--
doesn't match anything we've seen before.
How long before it comes out of hyperspace?
Right now.
Trajectory's wild.
She's out of control.
Commander, it's on a collision course
heading straight for us.
It was the dawn of the third age of mankind--
10 years after the Earth-Minbari war.
The Babylon project was a dream given form.
Its goal--to prevent another war
by creating a place where humans and aliens
could work out their differences peacefully.
It's a port of call,
home away from home
for diplomats, hustlers,
entrepreneurs, and wanderers.
Humans and aliens
wrapped in 2,500,000 tons of spinning metal
all alone in the night.
It can be a dangerous place,
but it's our last best hope for peace.
This is the story
of the last of the Babylon stations.
The year is 2258.
The name of the place is...
On station, Commander.
Any response yet? Negative.
I'm gonna try to link up with the ship.
If I can't make it, you'll have to
blow that ship before it hits.
Why not destroy it now?
First contact protocol, Lieutenant Commander.
Only when conditions present a clear and present danger.
If this is a new technology, a new race,
I want that ship intact.
This is not a clear and present danger?
I must read the rule book again.
Open defense grid.
Defense grid activated.
Checking incoming ship. 5 by 5.
1 minute 30 seconds to impact.
Coordinating vectors for grapple.
One minute to impact.
Closing in.
20 feet.
10.
5.
Activating grapple.
Negative contact on grapple.
40 seconds.
Activating grapple.
I'm not getting it.
10 seconds.
If I don't get it on the next pass,
you'll have to destroy it.
Understood.
Stand by. Prepare to fire
on my Mark, not a second before.
Got it.
Heading for flight bay. Tell Dr. Franklin
to have the medbay standing by.
Assuming the pilot's still alive,
we may have his first patient.
Commander.
Ambassador Delenn.
I heard about the rescue.
Is the pilot alive?
Barely. Just got him into the isolab in time.
Ship was pretty banged up--
carbon scoring all over the place.
Meaning someone attacked his ship?
One more hit, and it would've cracked like an egg.
Can't tell from the damage
if it was raiders or something else.
We were able to analyze the atmosphere in his ship
for the isolab, but that's all.
We have no idea who he is, what he is,
or where he came from.
I have seen many kinds of life, Commander.
Perhaps I can help identify him.
We'll take all the help we can get.
Blood pressure is rising.
Respiration up 12%.
So, that's good, right?
For a human, yes.
In this case, it may be good.
Or he may be hyperventilating
before his heart explodes all over the isolab.
Ask a silly question, get a silly answer.
How's he doing?
Doc says it's 50-50. Either way,
I'd stay on this side of the glass if I were you.
Trust me on this.
Have you finished going over his ship?
Not yet. Parts of it are sealed.
I don't want to laser our way in
until we know what's inside.
Shagh-toth?
Shagh-toth!
No! What are you doing?
What's the matter with you?
Kill it.
You have to kill it, Commander.
Put it back in the ship.
Shoot it into space.
Fire it into the sun.
But you have to kill it quickly!
You're not making sense. Why? Why should we kill him?
You don't know.
You don't know what that thing is.
It is shagh-toth.
It is a soul hunter.
Get it off this station, Commander.
Now!
Before it's too late.
Before... Someone dies.
I apologize for my behavior, Commander.
It's just...
You do not know these things as I do.
Then educate me.
Delenn, I've known you almost 2 years,
and I've never seen you
react so violently before.
Training. Even as children--
every Minbari is taught to be careful...
Or a soul hunter will come in the night
and steal their souls.
They are immortal.
No one knows who they are
or where they came from,
but they can sense death, Commander.
They are drawn to death like insects drawn to the light.
Why? What do they get out of it?
An object for their collection.
They have the power to steal your soul
at the very instant of death.
They are thieves, Commander.
They steal your innermost thoughts,
rip away from you that which is eternal.
Not every soul--
only those they consider to be of sufficient value.
They have always taken a particular interest
in certain classes of Minbari.
You must believe me, Commander.
As long as the soul hunter remains here,
everyone on this station is in terrible danger.
Send it away...
While you still can.
Watch it. Peeper.
Hey, officer. How are you?
Ok. Step right up. Here we go. Here we go.
Place your bets. Place your bets.
One red ball, 3 cups.
All you gotta do is find the little red ball.
Notice it's not here. It's not here.
Round and round she goes.
Where she stops, nobody knows.
All right, son, go ahead. Pick a winner.
Be a winner. Be a winner. Go ahead. Double your money.
Double your money...
Oh! I'm awfully sorry.
[Distorted] Ok. Place your bets, place your bets.
Here we go. One red ball. 3 cups. Remember?
All she do is go round and round she goes.
Where she stops, nobody knows, nobody knows.
I just got back from the aliens' sector.
It's kind of strange.
The place is practically deserted.
It's as if they're... Hiding.
The place is shut down tighter than a drum.
I'll link in later.
Interesting. We've had nearly a dozen ships
ask to leave the station immediately.
Some of them weren't due to leave for weeks.
The one thing they have in common is, they're all aliens.
I think word's gotten out
about our friend down in the isolab.
All right. Here we go.
Now, remember, the ball's right here.
Place it here. Place your bets. Place your bets,
place your bets. You notice it's not here.
It's not here, ok?
Get your money down. Money down. Here we go.
Round and round she goes.
Where she stops, no one knows. Heh heh!
Aw, I'm sorry, son. You're a loser--
it's not here, either!
Hey, come back here!
Can you hear me?
Can you understand me?
This is medlab 1.
I need a translation team stat.
Mmm.
No.
I have been to your world.
C-can you feel it?
Feel what?
Low...
Quick...
Muffled...
Terrified.
It comes.
Aah!
It comes.
What have you got?
Knifing, ground floor.
We have the perp in custody.
What about the victim?
En route to medlab.
I'll be there in one.
Roger.
Quick flash.
The deep blue of pain.
All right, I need 20 ccs of myceotoxin now!
Upper vena cava punctured, serrated artery...
Laser cauterization, level 10.
Dull...
Muffled...
Slower now.
I'm losing him.
Closer now.
Over your shoulder...
It comes...
The transition.
[Heartbeat]
A Shadow...
The long exhalation of the spirit.
Can you see it, healer?
Can you see it?
Someone, kill that speaker.
All right. Activating full torso stimulation.
Ready? Now.
Again.
Flatline.
Gone.
Turn that speaker on.
Gone now.
Gone.
If you could only see.
Cee toh
ree, Cho...
I'm going to ask you again to identify yourself.
Who are you?
Cee toh...
Where are you from?
What happened to your ship?
Mon toh Rey...
We checked the medlab records.
The stabbing took place at 11:02:13.
Your reactions at exactly that moment
show you knew he was dying. How?
Ree Cho
mon toh Rey...
Did you come here for his soul?
We've heard, if that's what you're wondering.
I've never met a soul hunter before.
Don't know if I should believe
any of this or not.
Cee toh
ree Cho
mon toh...
Well, I don't think he's going to cooperate.
I don't blame him.
Who wants to admit to being a thief...
A stealer of souls?
We are not thieves!
We are preservers!
Thought that might get your attention.
We act only for the greater good.
The Minbari don't seem to think so.
Minbari-- pale, bloodless.
Look in their eyes
and see nothing but mirrors,
infinities of reflection.
Will not let us help them.
No.
What exactly is a...
Soul hunter?
Ask Commander Minbari, friend.
We are drawn to the moment--
the moment of surrender, the instant of loss
between despair and ecstasy
when the flesh fails,
and all that remains behind--
the soul--we save.
Not all.
Only the special ones--
leaders, thinkers,
poets, dreamers,
blessed lunatics.
And what do you do with these souls
after you've saved them?
We enshrine them,
worship them.
We talk to them,
listen.
We learn.
Well, this is nonsense.
It's patent superstition, can't be done.
With the right technology, maybe you could encode
the personality matrix
and produce a clone of someone's mind,
but the idea of taking someone's soul?
Whew.
Ridiculous, yes. So let me go.
Not yet.
What is it between you and the Minbari?
Minbari.
Jealous.
Selfish.
Private.
We have saved only a few.
Very rare.
Rarest of all, their leader Dukhat dying.
Your fault.
Your war.
The pinnacle of Minbari evolution.
We came, I, others.
They made a wall of bodies
to stop us.
He died...
And his dreams,
his ideas,
all that he was...
All that he could ever be...
Gone.
Wasted.
Jealous.
Gone.
Can he leave here without a breather unit?
Well, it's hard to say.
This is his natural atmosphere,
but his lungs seem capable
of processing oxygen as well.
He'll need a guard.
I'll have somebody from security here
within the hour.
Personally, I don't believe you can do what you say,
but your presence here is disrupting this station
and causing tension among the alien population.
They consider you to be a clear and present danger,
and I have no reason to question their judgment.
You can stay in the isolab
until your ship is repaired and you're fit to travel.
As soon as that happens,
I want you off this station. Any questions?
Cee toh
ree Cho...
He's all yours, doctor.
Mon toh Rey.
Cee toh
ree Cho...
I finished the autopsy on the stabbing victim.
We're clear to handle the burial.
Have the next of kin
signed off on the death certificate?
Yes. They can't afford to send the body home. Here.
Shuttle 5, you're clear to proceed.
Confirmed to Babylon control.
From the stars we came.
Into the stars we return
from now until the end of time.
We therefore commit this body to the deep.
Something, doctor?
It's all so brief, isn't it?
Typical human life span is almost 100 years,
but it's barely a second
compared to what's out there.
It wouldn't be so bad
if life didn't take so long to figure out.
Seems you just start to get it right,
and then...
It's over.
Doesn't matter.
If we lived 200 years, we'd still be human.
We'd still make the same mistakes.
You're a pessimist.
I'm Russian, doctor.
We understand these things.
What do you want, Minbari?
Soul hunters never travel
without their collection.
Where is yours?
Safe.
My children are safe.
We talk together of many things.
They are many and wise and rare,
the finest souls.
Are any of them Minbari?
Understand this.
Before you leave, I will search your ship,
rip every panel, tear up every floor.
I will gut it from end to end
until I find the souls you have stolen from us.
And what will you do then?
Free them.
Release them.
You mean kill them.
They will join with the souls of all our people,
melt one into another until they are born
into the next generation of Minbari.
Remove those souls, and the whole suffers.
We are diminished. Each generation
becomes less than the one before.
A quaint lie.
Pretty fantasy.
The soul ends with death...
Unless we act to preserve it.
We will help you...
In spite of yourselves.
I know you.
You were there at the death of your leader Dukhat.
We stopped you from
taking what you have no right to take.
You stopped me from saving him.
That is where it began to go wrong.
The lost souls...
One after another
after another.
Voices still.
I failed because you stopped me.
Failed.
The pattern began.
I remember.
They called you satai Delenn of the Grey Council.
Curious.
What is one of the great leaders of the Minbari
doing here playing Ambassador?
[Glass breaking]
Med alert! Isolab 1.
Med alert!
Be at peace, my children.
I now know what has brought us to this place.
At last I know
who we have come for.
How's the guard doing?
He suffered a mild concussion,
but he'll be all right.
Any idea where the hunter is now?
We're looking everywhere.
We know he got to his ship before we did.
We found a cabin that wasn't there
the first time we went over the place.
Anything inside?
Negative.
Whatever was there, he's got it now.
My guess is he'll head toward the alien sector
if he hasn't already done so.
He'd draw too much attention elsewhere.
Agreed.
Only thing I can't figure out is why?
Even if his ship were operational,
he can't leave anyway.
We've got security
all over the docking bays.
He's alone. What's he after?
Delenn says these hunters are drawn to death.
The more important the person about to die,
the more they're drawn.
If that's the reason, all we have to do
is figure out who's about to die.
Hah!
You are n'grath?
Yes. I sell,
provide,
fix.
Do you know what I am?
Yes.
You wish to buy.
Yes.
I require a guide to this place,
all the secret ways--
corners, tubes,
places to hide,
places to run,
ways in,
and ways out.
Difficult.
Requires level-5 security.
Earthers only.
Very expensive.
You can afford?
I must.
I have a mission.
A soul will be lost if I do not act.
This I cannot allow.
Confirmed, Epsilon 3. You're cleared.
You may proceed to gate.
How many ships are in holding?
3 more. Stand by.
There's a ship coming to the gate.
Confirmed. Entering in 5 seconds.
Nothing's scheduled.
Don't tell me. Tell that.
2 soul hunters.
Did somebody book a convention
without telling me?
All right. Patch me through.
This is Commander Jeffrey Sinclair
of Babylon 5.
Please identify yourself.
You know who and what I am.
I must dock at once.
Someone is about to die.
And if we refuse access?
Then there will be more than one.
We'll clear you for docking,
link instructions to your n.A.B. System.
Who are you here to see?
I am here to see you, Commander,
and quickly, before it's too late.
Just got the relay.
I don't think you should meet this guy.
I don't like the look of this.
I don't like anything about it.
That comment sounded like a threat.
There was something in his voice,
not aggressive-- nervous.
Fine. Let him be nervous.
Look, let my people deal with him.
Sorry.
I really hate it
when you get heroic-- cuts into my business.
Man's got to earn a living, you know.
You are the Commander?
Yes.
I have come to warn you.
One of my brothers is here?
That's right.
Why? You said you had to warn me.
About him.
I fear he is disturbed,
deeply, deeply disturbed.
Every moment he remains here
places this station in terrible danger.
Someone is about to die, Commander,
and it will be at his hands.
In the hope that we can open trade relations with them--
[beep]
Come.
At the first--
I have come for you, satai Delenn,
to save your soul.
At any cost.
He was ordered to preserve the soul
of the Minbari leader and others.
Each time he was prevented
or arrived at the death too late.
Souls were lost.
Our order was disgraced.
He was always fragile,
but then he became obsessed
with the fear of losing souls.
He said he'd found the solution to the problem
and vanished.
And this solution?
To stop waiting for death.
The fear, the danger of arriving too late
became too great for him.
Now when he finds someone worthy of preservation,
he does not wait, does not risk.
He kills them to capture their souls.
Our order does not support this.
We've tracked him to a dozen worlds,
arriving too late.
Others have paid the price.
We almost captured him 2 days ago,
but he escaped, his ship damaged.
[Beep]
Garibaldi. Go.
Jackson in green 2, chief.
Just came on duty and found henson stunned.
Green 2--that's the Ambassadorial wing.
Delenn.
You and the others,
you stopped me,
shamed me before my brothers.
I failed to preserve your leader.
His wisdom,
knowledge...
Gone forever.
Wasted.
I failed.
There must be balance.
Your soul,
one of the Grey Council itself,
will atone for my failure.
I give you a great gift--
to live forever
in here.
I will be careful.
You will hardly feel it
when your body dies.
No! No!
Let me go!
Shh.
Do not discomfort your soul.
I could just take it!
I could rip your soul from your body,
but this damages the soul.
Ah--
a peaceful death.
A clean transfer.
I do not wish you any discomfort.
Aah! Ah!
See? It goes through here,
the artery.
And your heart beats,
low, quick, muffled,
the blood pounding out
through here,
and then it slows...
And slows,
then stops.
You will feel as if you are falling.
Do not be afraid.
I will be here
to catch you.
She's gone, all right.
As I told you, it's too late.
He cannot escape.
We'll bring him back after the death.
There's not going to be a death.
It's inevitable.
A soul hunter is never wrong.
You say you can sense death,
you're drawn toward death. Here.
Show me.
The moment comes.
It moves, calls, sings low.
Quickly, here! Here!
Closer now.
It comes--
the transition.
Anything?
Negative.
You two take the section below.
Garibaldi, you take this level.
I'll go topside.
Lock and load.
Close now.
Enough for a glimpse into your soul.
You would plan such a thing?
You would do such a thing?
Incredible.
Sinclair: Delenn.
No.
Not again.
Leave us alone!
Oh!
Why do you fight for her?
Don't you understand?
She is satai.
I have seen her soul.
They're using you.
They're using you!
Unh!
What are you doing?
You--you don't know what you're doing.
My children.
Listen, please.
I--i never meant any harm.
Listen--
listen to me.
Listen to me!
My children.
No.
Delenn.
Commander.
How's she doing?
Better.
She has a strong constitution.
Amazingly strong, really.
Losing that much blood would have killed a human.
Explains why they fought so well during the war.
They just kept going
no matter how great the loss of blood.
So, I hear you saw something.
Yes.
Something.
Do you think you can be
a little more specific?
I'm not sure.
I don't know if I'll ever be sure.
Well, well, I still don't believe it.
I'd be careful if I were you,
Commander.
That sort of talk will get you sent
on a very long vacation.
I knew...
You would come.
You should rest.
We were right...
About you.
Who was right?
I...
Delenn.
No, no. It's ok. She's just sleeping.
Whatever she had to say
will wait till she's back on her feet.
Yeah.
I'll bet you half a year's salary
she doesn't finish that sentence.
Computer.
Key word search.
Minbari language.
Designated key word...
What was it?
Satai.
One reference.
Satai--
honorific.
Title applied to ruling body
known as Grey Council.
Why would a member of the ruling body
be assigned to Ambassadorial duties?
That's like assigning the vice President.
Unknown.
Do you wish to make a further inquiry?
No. Not now.
It can wait.
There's always time.
Delenn lost a lot of blood,
but Dr. Franklin thinks
he's got the situation under control.
Yes. If it were to go differently,
I would feel it.
I have a message for you and your brothers.
Babylon 5 is off limits to soul hunters.
I know you're doing what you think is best,
but I can't allow it, not on my ship.
I understand.
We are rarely welcomed.
It is our lot.
Good-bye, Commander.
If I may ask,
what happened to my brother's collection?
Life's full of mysteries.
Consider this one of them.
[Glass cracking]