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| - A hopeful crowd has gathered in the Zocalo, eager to see the first ISN broadcast since their Geneva premises were raided by President Clark's soldiers. However, hopes for a better situation back on Earth are dashed when a nauseatingly pedantic reporter announces that ISN was not attacked by Clark's forces, but were taken over by alien-backed saboteurs. News at 11: a sugary piece on Clark's domestic policy, proving that ISN has now become just a propaganda tool for the President. Ivanova, Garibaldi and Dr. Franklin are indignant, but there is nothing they can do except wait for Sheridan to return from his test run of one of the Starfuries recovered from the Churchill, a new model that can fly undetected inside an atmosphere. During the exercise, Sheridan receives a distress signal coming from a nearby sector. It is from a lone black Star Fury, painted with an ominous Black Omega symbol, and bearing the station's favorite Psi Cop, Mr. Bester. Keeping carefully out of telepathic scanning range the Captain asks Bester why he shouldn't just blast him to hell. Curiosity?, Bester suggests. When there's no reply, Bester gets impatient and calls out from the Captain, but receives a taciturn reply: "I'm thinking it over." Hah! Ivanova is on her way to greet Sheridan at the docking bay when she is intercepted by an angry G'Kar, who wants to know why Sheridan hasn't acted on his promise. G'Kar has fulfilled his part of the bargain by having his Narns assist with station security, and he demands that he now be allowed to join the war council. Ivanova blows him off, saying she'll talk to Sheridan. Meanwhile, Bester arrives and is escorted by heavily armed guards to a cell, as usual. He has demanded a meeting without telepath-suppressive drugs; in return, Bester promises not to scan anyone. Privately, Sheridan manages to convince a reluctant Ivanova to be the one to grill Bester, since her latent ability will allow her to detect a scan. She greets the Psi Cop in his cell with icy demeanor. Predictably, Bester idly needles Ivanova about her hatred for the Corps and her mother's suicide, earning himself a resounding slap in his face. Point taken, Bester explains explain that President Clark is being guided and influenced by the Shadows, whom he suspects have infiltrated Psi Corps as well. An anti-telepath conspiracy is brewing on Earth, one which is interfering with Bester's own designs; a future where "mundanes" are governed by telepaths. He has come to Babylon 5 to find someone who hates Shadows as much as he, because he thinks he knows a way to damage them. In Delenn's quarters, she and Captain Sheridan hash over G'Kar's demand. They both realize that bringing G'Kar into their circle means owning up to the fact that they allowed the Narn homeworld to be invaded rather than divulge their knowledge of the Shadows. Delenn feels it is her responsibility to talk to G'Kar personally, but Sheridan fears for her if she does. Bester tells the gathered officers that a ship bearing weapons components for the Shadows is en route to the Rim and needs to be seized. He explains that he can pinpoint the ship's location in hyperspace by homing in on the thought waves of the occupants. The White Star sets course sector 500 in hyperspace, piloted by Sheridan, Ivanova, Lennier, with Bester guiding them to the location of the convoy. Bester strolls around the bridge of the ship, examining all the cool toys. "Try not to drool on the controls," Sheridan mutters under his breath. The instant the Captain leaves his seat, Bester hops on, only to be booted out an instant later. When Bester detects the ship's coordinates, Lennier refuses to budge until Sheridan parrots Bester's orders. Even Lennier hates him! Delenn, her head bowed, reveals to G'Kar that the Grey Council knew that the Shadowing were puppeteering the Centauri, yet they kept silent because it was necessary to let the Shadows believe they were operating under the radar. Under the heel of the Centauri, there is still hope of survival for the Narns, but had the Shadows had been alerted, they would have exterminated the lot of them. G'Kar confesses that had he possessed this knowledge beforehand, he would have killed Delenn on the spot. With all that's happened, however, G'kar knows that if it were not for the Grey Council's inaction, his people would be a dead race. A tearful Delenn finally welcomes him into the War Council, and expresses hope that he can forgive her someday. Perhaps, he replies, but not today. Back in hyperspace, the White Star has destroyed the small fighters and is using a magnetic discharge to grab the transport ship, when they detect another Shadow vessel, this time a mothership, moving towards them. To their surprise, it does not attack but breaks off. What the--? The White Star returns safety to the station. The ship's cargo is comprised of over a hundred cryogenic tubes with the Psi Corps logo, each containing a telepath whose face is contorted in pain. Sheridan confronts Bester with earlier claims of the ship carrying "weapons components". Bester says he lied because he could not trust that they would help him if they knew the cargo wasn't weaponry, but telepaths. Dr. Franklin has taken one of the cryo tubes to Medlab and is examining it. The telepath, a woman, has no other identification but a Psi Corps bracelet, and she also has two cyberweb implants on either side of the head. She wakes up screaming and needs to be sedated. Dr. Franklin brings the bracelet to Sheridan and Bester identifies it as one worn by a "blip", a telepath on the run from Psi Corps who was captured and imprisoned in a re-education camp. Bester then examines the bracelet closer and, looking disturbed, asks to see her immediately. In Medlab 1, the telepath woman is having a nightmare where three unknown aliens that could be of the same race as the alien pilot are examining her and probably putting the implants on her head. She also hears a hideous scream and sees a Shadow vessel. She wakes up screaming and touches the medical equipment by her bed. Alarms sound and a troop of security guards with Garibaldi, Bester and Dr. Franklin arrive at the evacuated Medlab. Inside, the woman is suspended in mid-air inside an intricate cocoon of wiring and is interfacing with the station's computers. She calls out to Bester for help, but when he approaches she spots his Psi Corps lapel pin and attacks them with electricity from the cables at her fingers. Dr. Franklin prepares a sedative injection and tries to reason with her, but can't get close. Bester is confused and tells Garibaldi that there is no reason for her to attack him. That makes Garibaldi realises that the reason for the attack might have been the sight of the Psi Corps insignia. He takes it from Bester and throws it to the floor, where she blasts it. She then speaks to them while Dr. Franklin approaches her slowly with the sedative: "Al, what have they done to me?" and sends him images of her ordeal: alien brain surgery and Shadow vessels. Back in Sheridan's office, Bester confesses that the woman, Carolyn, is his lover and that she is also pregnant with their child. His marriage to his wife is just a genetic pairing arranged by Psi Corps. He met Carolyn at the re-education centre and tried help her, but she would not compromise by taking the sleepers or joining Psi Corps. Ivanova remembers what Delenn told them, that they are made of organic technology and use living beings as their central operating system. The Shadows were intending to plug these telepaths into their newborn ships. If Bester hated the Shadows before, now he wants to destroy them. He asks Sheridan to help Carolyn, but Sheridan is not so sure if they have the know-how to remove the implants. Bester asks that they at least try, and pledges his support to B5's war before departing on his Starfury, leaving Carolyn in the care of Dr. Franklin. Garibaldi is reading the Book of G'Quan and realizes something. There, he asks G'Kar to translate for him a passage concerning the presence of the Shadows in Narn a thousand years ago, when they used the Narn homeworld as a base for their ships. The passage explains that the darkness moved across Narn killing the "mindwalkers" and their families. If "mindwalkers" is the term that the ancient Narns used for telepaths, that means that the Shadows can be driven away by using telepaths. This explains why the Shadow vessel did not attack the White Star when Bester was on board, as well as why Carolyn attacked the Psi Corps insignia. It seems that telepaths can block the Shadow's systems somehow and that the Shadows are trying to compensate for this weakness by using telepaths in their ships. That means they might have found a weapon at last. None too soon, as they receive a report stating that the Shadows are attacking Rim worlds openly. The gloves are off.
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