| Walkers: "Mind War" |
"Whatever they are, Mrs Sakai, they walk near Sigma-957."
"They must walk there alone."
Voices of Authority isn't the only episode where the Walkers of Sigma-957 have been in. JMS brought the Shadows slowly into the story and is bringing in the Walkers even slower. I don't know just how much of the storyline the Walkers will be part of, but I do have a strong feeling that they will have quite an impact on lives in the B5 universe. Wheither that is saving the day against the Shadows and the Vorlons, just providing a gate for new information, or all of the above.
In Season 1 the Walkers of Sigma-957 made their first appearence in "Mind Wars." The show starts off with Sinclair's girlfriend, Catherine Sakai, preparing to survey a planet for Quantium-40. Quantium-40 is a material important to the construction of jumpgates. Due to an EA shortage of this material, jumpgate construction is backed up 6 months. This planet is non-other than Sigma-957, and the planet is said to be loaded with Quantium-40. Catherine's mission to survey the planet is largely to determine whether this material is on the planet or not.
Sakai is told to talk with G'Kar since the Narns have some knowledge about Sigma-957. Sakai sees G'Kar, but is angered by his response. She gets annoyed with his involvment of her mission to Sigma-957 and that G'Kar tells Sakai not to go. He tries to warn her -- "Sigma-957 is not a healthy place. Strange things happen there." Sakai doesn't believe him and accuses him and the Narns of just wanting to keep Sigma-957 to themselves.
Sakai ignores G'Kar and heads out to Sigma-957 with her ship, The Skydancer. As she arrives to Sigma-957, she laughs to herself about G'Kar's warning. She launches a probe to conduct an environmental search. Then Sakai sees something near Sigma-957, which neither she nor the ship's computer can identify. The Skydancer suffers a power drain making the computer's power level decrease drastically. Because of this her ship is being pulled out of orbit and toward the planet. If the ship can survive re-entry, then she will be killed when the ship crashes on Sigma-957 with less than two hours.
As she is decending, two Narn ships come through the jumpgate, grapple Sakai's ship and escort it back to Babylon 5 on G'Kar's order should anything strange happen.
Sakai returns safely to Babylon 5 with the help of the Narn ships. She asks G'Kar why he went to the trouble of rescuing her. "Why not?" G'Kar replies. Sakai comments saying that isn't an answer. And G'Kar replies:
Oh, yes it is. It's simply not an answer you like or the answer you expected. There's a difference. Narns, humans, Centauri -- we all do what we do for the same reason ...because it seemed like a good idea at the time. There was no profit -- no advantage -- in letting you fall to an untimely and most uncomfortable death. It would distress the commander to no good end.
Sakai excepts this and then asks if G'Kar knew of what she saw at Sigma-957. G'Kar simply responds by saying:
There are things in the universe billions of years older than either of our races. They are vast, timeless... They are a mystery, and I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the universe -- that we have not yet explained everything. Whatever they are, Ms. Sakai, they walk near Sigma-957. They must walk there alone.
Well if Sigma-957 is rich with Quantium-40 then that might explain why the Walkers have such unique jumpgate. With the material at hand they probably learned how to manipulate hyperspace, how to get in and out before most of the other races have. Now the Walkers make their own jumpgates, but could Quantium-40 be the reason why they still protect Sigma-957. JMS has already stated that the Walker's ship only comes by once and awhile, but what for? Is there is something even more important than the Quantium-40 on Sigma-957? ...if so, what?
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1551 (4/5/98 - 6/6/99)