[The opening monologue to the episode, done in voiceover. This is the special edition version; for continuity purposes, two lines were removed from the original.]
I was there at the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind. It began in the Earth year 2257, with the founding of the last of the Babylon stations, located deep in neutral space. It was a port of call for refugees, smugglers, businessmen, diplomats and travelers from a hundred worlds. It could be a dangerous place, but we accepted the risk because Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. Babylon 5 was a dream given form, a dream of a galaxy without war where species from different worlds could live side by side in mutual respect. Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. This is its story.
[producing a data card] Here is a copy of everything I have. It may be of use. If anyone asks...say it fell from the sky. I imagine I will be quite astonished by this breach of security.
There was a time when this whole quadrant belonged to us! What are we now? Twelve worlds and a thousand monuments to past glories, living off memories and stories...selling trinkets! My god, man, we've become a tourist attraction! "See the great Centauri Republic, open nine to five...Earth time!"
I was squad team leader when the call came in. We all knew it was a suicide mission. The Minbari had broken through and were closing in. Every ship we had left was ordered to circle Earth. We had to stop them, no matter what it cost. They came at us out of nowhere. We never had a chance. The sky was full of stars, and every star an exploding ship--one of ours. My team was blown out of the sky in less than a minute.
I managed to take out a fighter before they hit my stabilizers. I was losing power, I'd lost my team. And I figured if I was going to die, I'd take some of them with me. So I targeted one of their heavy cruisers. Hit my afterburners. I was going to ram them head-on. The last thing I remember is hurtling toward that cruiser. Filling my screen, big...my God, so big! Then...something...passed in front of my eyes. I guess I blacked out from the acceleration. When I came to twenty-four hours later, the cruiser was gone. I checked in. They told me the war was over. The Minbari had surrendered.
So, Doctor, just what did you see when you looked inside that (Vorlon's) suit?
BKDr. Benjamin Kyle
There are moments in your life when everything crystallizes...and the whole world reshapes itself, right down to its component molecules. And everything changes. I have looked upon the face of a Vorlon, Laurel, and nothing is the same anymore!
I lied. I figured if there were a transmitter, sooner or later they'd find it and remove it. But if I just told them there was, they'd keep looking. Indefinitely.
Plain old human stubbornness, I guess. When something we value is destroyed, we rebuild it. If it's destroyed again, we rebuild it again. And again, and again, and...again, until it stays. That, as our poet Tennyson once said, is the goal: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
