####Overview

Talia’s old Psi Corps instructor, the victim of a secret experiment, is the target of a manhunt involving the Psi-Cops. Catherine wants to survey a promising planet for possible mining, but G’Kar warns her to stay away.
####Guest Stars

Walter Koenig as Bester. Felicity Waterman as Kelsey. William Allen Young as Jason Ironheart.
####Lurk

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/synops/006.html
####Backplot

Jason Ironheart was Talia’s instructor and lover at the Psi Corps Training Academy. After she graduated and went into commercial telepathy, they kept in touch by letter – until a year ago when his letters stopped. As Ironheart recounts, he volunteered to undergo genetic and biochemical modification he thought was intended to make him a stronger telepath. The experiment turned out to be an attempt to make him a stable telekinetic, and it after many months and hundreds of injections it worked – stunningly! Ironheart became able to see through any mind like glass, and manipulate matter and energy both. He discovered then that those in charge were after offensive military applications for TK, like secret assassination. So, he killed the head researcher (the only person who could duplicate the work) and fled to Babylon 5, still undergoing changes to his mind and body.

What is it like to be a telepath?

Talia: “It’s like staying in a hotel room where you can just hear the people talking next door. You can try and shut it out, but it’s always there. The key is not to eavesdrop unless you’re invited… casual thoughts are very easy to block, but strong emotions have a way of slipping through.”

“Do you know what it’s like when telepaths make love, commander? You drop every defense, and it’s all mirrors, reflecting each others’ feelings, deeper and deeper, until somewhere along the line your souls mix, and it’s a feeling so profound it makes you hurt. It’s the only moment in a telepath’s life when you no longer hear the voices.”

Ironheart: “We all thought Psi Corps was controlled by the government, but that’s changing. The Corps is starting to pull the strings behind the scenes; they’re more powerful than you could begin to imagine. Telepaths make the ultimate blackmailers…”

“The Psi Corps is dedicated to one thing: control. Control over telepaths, the economy, the courts, over matter, over thought itself.”

A transcript of Ironheart’s meeting with Sinclair is available.
####Unanswered Questions

How much of what Ironheart said was true? He was mentally unstable, to say the least. He was also very motivated to gather fast allies.

G’Kar (to Catherine): “Let me pass on to you the one thing I’ve learned about this place. No-one here is exactly what he appears. Not Mollari, not Delenn, not Sinclair. And not me.” What does G’Kar know that we don’t? (cf [[And The Sky Full Of Stars]] [Delenn, Sinclair], [[By Any Means Necessary]] [G’Kar])

Just before he departs, Ironheart says to Talia: “In memory of love, I give you a gift, the only gift I have left to give.” The gift, as she soon discovers, was at least the beginnings of telekinesis. What manner of telepath has she become?

What did Ironheart mean by his final words to Sinclair? “Good-bye commander. I will see you again, in a million years.”
####Analysis

If Ironheart’s figures are true, and if there are 20 billion human beings in existence, then there should be a thousand people who are (or will become) stable telekinetics. If the Psi Corps’ pursuit of a stable TK justified the extreme measures they attempted with Ironheart, then something about naturally occurring TK’s must make them unusable. It could be that use of TK invariably drives one insane, or perhaps natural TK is insufficiently fine-controlled enough for their purposes.

Whatever it was that the Psi Corps scientists did to Ironheart, it wasn’t more than physical alterations to his brain and body. Yet those alterations started a process that led to his essentially becoming a demigod. This could represent a latent potential in humanity as a whole, of which iceberg telepathy is merely the tip. Or perhaps not – “This is a power that we were never meant to have,” Ironheart tells Sinclair, “we’re not ready for it.”

Ivanova hates the Psi Corps with a passion (understandably – cf [[Midnight on the Firing Line]]) “Good ol’ Psi Corps. You never cease to amaze me – all the moral fiber of Jack the Ripper. What do you do in your spare time, juggle babies over a fire pit? Oops, there goes another calculated risk!”

In spite of this, Ivanova gives Talia a glass of water after she comes through the ordeal of being scanned by Bester and Kelsey. Ivanova’s hatred is tempered with compassion for individuals. (see “jms speaks”)

By threatening to hold him accountable for endangering the station and causing the death of his partner, Sinclair strong-arms Bester into omitting from his report mention of Ironheart’s real fate and Talia’s willful collaboration. However, this can only be an agreement about what gets made official. Just as folks on Babylon 5 know full well that Something happened to Ironheart (with the willing help of both Talia and Sinclair) the right folks in the Psi Corps should know the same through Bester’s unofficial report.
####Notes

Sinclair mentions to Catherine in the morning that he’s got a budget meeting with the construction guild that day, in which he’ll have to make some cuts to which he’s not looking forward. ([[By Any Means Necessary]])

Universal Terraform: a mega-corporation that explores and prepares new worlds for colonization or exploitation.

The procedure for evaluating a newly discovered planet: first, an unmanned sensor probe launched by the exploring ship assesses gross features and composition. If that’s promising, a manned survey is undertaken to determine its value for various purposes. Finally, if the corporation wants to continue, a life sciences probe is sent out to determine the legality of exploitation. (If there are sentient species present then the planet is off-limits.) (see “jms speaks”)

Due to an EA shortage of the material “Quantium-40,” jumpgate construction is backed up 6 months. Catherine’s survey mission to Sigma 957 is largely to determine whether this material is present on the planet.

The being that appeared at Sigma 957 appeared to enter and leave through its own jumpgate. It may have been there for the Q-40.

Just as the Narn fighters match up with Catherine’s ship, part of it sloughs off as it burns up in the atmosphere. The fighters are unaffected; presumably they are atmosphere-capable ships.

Rent for a spartan studio on Babylon 5 is 500 credits per week.

Psi corps ratings:

P5 – level of commercial telepaths. Can easily detect deception and other surface thoughts at close range. Deeper probing is possible but difficult.

P10 – level of Psi Corps trainers. Can observe the mental actions of other telepaths, block some scans, cut through some blocks, perform long-range scans, and may have some fringe skills.

P12 – level of Psi Cops. Can communicate smoothly with normals via telepathy. Two Psi Cops can invasively probe a P5.

Stronger telepaths have a harder time shutting out “the voices”.

Upon graduation from the Academy all telepaths take a telekinesis test – it’s a much sought-after skill. .1% of human beings have some level of telepathic ability, and only .01% of them have TK, half of whom are clinically insane. (see Analysis)

Most telepaths have fewer human rights than normals. They’re forbidden to possess psi abilities unless they’re in the Psi Corps or in prison ([[Midnight on the Firing Line]]). They’re required to submit to scans by Psi Cops, and aren’t even allowed to have fleeting bodily contact with normals, since that would raise the chance in inadvertent scans. (see “jms speaks”)

Psi Cops are afforded greater latitude than other telepaths, “in the interest of efficiency.” For example, they can perform at least surface scans on normals without permission.

As he leaves, Bester gives Sinclair an odd salute – a circle of thumb and forefinger at the forehead – and says, “Be seeing you, commander.” This is tribute paid to one of jms’s favorite shows, “The Prisoner,” in which the line was identical but the hand-motion framed the eye instead. An appropriate twist for a telepath salute!

Continuity glitch: After Ironheart arrives in his quarters, he pours some water into a cup. When the cup is knocked over by his mindquake a few seconds later, it’s empty.