Babylon 5 · Season 3
Breen! You've managed to import breen from Homeworld! How?
It, uh...isn't actually breen.
The smell, the taste--!
It's an Earth food. They are called Swedish meatballs. It's a strange thing, but every sentient race has its own version of these Swedish meatballs! I suspect it's one of those great universal mysteries which will either never be explained, or which would drive you mad if you ever learned the truth.[N]
[Franklin explains the principles of "walkabout" to Garibaldi.]
You know, as a Foundationist, I was always taught that if you're not careful, you can lose yourself in the world. You get too busy with things, not busy enough with yourself! Spend your days and nights living someone else's agendas, fighting someone else's battles, and you're doing the work you're supposed to be doing, but every day there's less and less of you in it all! Till one day, you come to a fork in the road, and because you're distracted, you're not thinking. You lose yourself. You go right, and the rest of you, the really important part of you, goes left! And you don't even know you've done it till you realize, you finally realize, that you don't have any idea who you are when you're not doing all those things!
Stephen...you don't really believe there are two of you, do you?
[chuckles] No, it's a metaphor! All right, there isn't literally another me walking around the station. But the principle is real! I realized I didn't have any idea who I was when I wasn't being a doctor, and I think I was using the stims to avoid facing that. Now I gotta fix it.
How?
By going walkabout. You just leave everything, and you start walking. I mean, the Foundation adopted the idea from the Aborigines back on Earth. The theory is, if you're separated from yourself, you start walking and you keep walking until you meet yourself. Then you sit down, and you have a long talk. Talk about everything that you've learned, everything that you've felt, and you talk until you've run out of words. Now, that's vital, because the real important things can't be said. And then, if you're lucky, you look up, and there's just you. Then you can go home.
It's easy to fight when you've got a lot of ships to work with. The real crunch comes when you're down to almost nothing! Then you either play it safe and you probably lose it all, or you take a chance! After what we've been through with your people, Sheridan was crazy to send our pilots out to fight for your ship! They didn't want to go, they didn't want to get blown out of the sky and leave B5 defenseless, and they sure as hell didn't want to die! But they did it because Sheridan told them to do it and because it was right!
This time it is possible he could be wrong.
Yeah, it's possible. But you don't follow an order because you know for sure it's gonna work out! You do what you're told! Because your CO has the moral authority that says, "You may not come back! But the cause is just and fair and necessary!" That's why Sheridan is out there, and damn it, that's where that cruiser should be, too! It's not Na'Kal's decision, G'Kar. He doesn't see the big picture--you do! So in my book, and your book, that makes it your responsibility! Deal with it!
[Sheridan and Ivanova meet the new Vorlon ambassador, Kosh's replacement]
Your government neglected to tell me your name. How should I refer to you when we're alone?
Kosh.
Ah, yes, I understand that's how we're to refer to you publicly, but privately?
Kosh.
Ambassador Kosh is…dead.
We are all Kosh. [he leaves]
Well, he's a Vorlon, all right.
Yep.
[Lennier is alarmed about Neroon's challenge to Delenn assuming the title of Entil'Zha.]
It should come as no surprise. We knew the warrior caste was unhappy with our activities.
Unhappy?! Delenn, he's planning to kill you!
That is...one interpretation.
He said he would use any and all means necessary. I respectfully suggest that he intends to go far beyond harsh language.
[Beating the tar out of Marcus, Neroon suggests the human need not be bound by Minbari honor.]
I am a Ranger! We walk in the dark places no others will enter! We stand on the bridge and no one may pass! We live for the One, we die for the One!
[Lennier aproaches Marcus for help with Neroon]
I'm trying to keep a promise. By breaking a promise. I was told not to mention this to anyone in the chain of command. You were not mentioned by name but that is implicit. However, by telling you, the captain need not find out about it and I will not have broken the promise.
I'm in awe, Lennier. The way you can take a simple proposition and turn it inside out so that it says what you want it to say rather than what it actually says. Does this come naturally or did you attend some sort of...martial arts class for the philosophically inclined?
Delenn, all we know is that we will die. It is only a matter of how, when, and whether or not it is with honor.
[Neroon comes to Marcus' bed in Medlab to honor him.]
Denn-Shar, you said. To the death...and death there was. The death was mine. To see a Human invoke the name of Valen. To be willing to die for one of my kind when I was intent upon killing one of my own. The rightness of my cause disappeared. Strange, that a human in his last moments would be more Minbari than I. Perhaps it is true what Delenn said: That we are not of the same blood, but we are of the same heart.
[Neroon turns to leave.]
The next time...the next time you want a revelation...could you possibly find a way...that isn't quite so...uncomfortable?
[Neroon laughs out loud.]
[Ivanova and Brother Theo are at customs to greet a group of religious leaders]
Are you starting in already, Theo? I tell you, in fifty years of living and forty years of serving the Lord, I have never met a sorrier soul than Brother Theo here!
Well, I wouldn't say...
Thank you! But I'd prefer to leave judgments as to the state of my soul to someone better qualified, and perhaps a bit less loud!
But it says in the Bible to make a joyful noise unto the Lord!
[grinning] I've heard you sing, Will. And take my word for it, that is not what the Good Lord had in mind when He said, "a joyful noise"!
[Delenn finds Sheridan in the War Room, going over reports]
Ivanova sent me to find you. She said you haven't been sleeping, you have hardly been eating; she said that you have been, in her words, "carrying on cranky." I looked up the word "cranky." It said "grouchy." I looked up "grouchy," it said "crotchety." No wonder you have such an eccentric culture: none of your words have their own meaning! You have to look up one word to understand another. It never ends.
[not paying attention] Something here doesn't make sense.
That is what I thought when I came across "crotchety." This cannot be a real word, I said.
The Shadows keep attacking random targets! Very illogical! On the other hand, once engaged, their tactics are very successful! Very logical! It's–it's a contradiction!
Unless the random attacks are logical in some way we haven't yet determined.
Exactly.
[grinning] So you have been sitting here trying to think illogically about logical possibilities, or logically about illogical possibilities.
Hm? Yes, yes.
Well, no wonder you are cranky! [he looks at her in confusion, oblivious to everything she's just said] Grouchy? [still nothing] Never mind. Your face just broke the language barrier.
Ah...I haven't had a good night's sleep since Kosh died. I'm having the kind of nightmares that make your hair stand on end.
Well, that would explain the Centauri. You need food...and rest!
[annoyed] Aah.
The humans who you've been waiting for have arrived and would like to have dinner with us.
No, no, I don't have time! If they want to come here...
So I told them yes!
Delenn!
Since Minbari do not lie, except to save another, my reputation is now at stake. If you say no, I will be publicly dishonored.
[realizing he's been beaten] You don't fight fair!
True! Dinner is in two standard hours. I will see you there! [heads to the door]
[muttering] Pain in the butt.
[over her shoulder] Grouch.
I'd rather do something and make a mistake than be frightened into doing nothing. That's the problem back home. Folks have been conned into thinking they can't change the world. Have to accept what is. I'll tell you something, my friends, the world is changing every day. The only question is, who's doing it?
You know, before I got married, Emily used to come by sometimes and help me clean out my apartment. Well, I asked her, "How come you're so eager to help clean up my place when your place is just as bad?" She said, "Because cleaning up your place helps me to forget what a mess I've made of mine, and...when I sweep my floor, all I've done is sweep my floor. But, when I help you clean up your place, I am helping you."
Every day, here and at home, we are warned about the enemy. But who is the enemy? Is it the alien? Well, we are all alien to one another. Is it the one who believes differently than we do? No, oh no, my friends. The enemy is fear. The enemy is ignorance. The enemy is the one who tells you that you must hate that which is different. Because, in the end, that hate will turn on you. And that same hate will destroy you.
[last lines: Delenn shows Sheridan a fleet of White Stars]
White Star was never intended to be one of a kind. It was only the first. We've been working around the clock to construct them. I said we needed time to prepare. This is why. The first wave of ships is finished at last. The Rangers will pilot them under our shared command. We are as ready for them as we will ever be. We finally have, as you say, a fighting chance.
I don't know what to say.
Then say nothing.
[they kiss]
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Babylon 5 pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
