Investigation Teamleader, Commander Wallace, provides information that Ortega was a terrorist from Mars. Due to possible involvement with a Mars terrorist, Ivanova is relieved of all her command duties. However, Station Captain Sheridan is able to deny Wallace’s request to confine Ivanova to quarters. Sheridan reaffirms her assignment as the commander of the Alpha Wing Squadron and assigns her to protect local cargo transports from raider attacks. Ivanova accepts the raider patrol duties with enthusiasm. After all, it’s only a matter of time before her record is cleared and she is returned to Command & Control, overseeing the usual, boring docking routines.
Meanwhile, back on the station, Wallace and his Team have completely disrupted the daily operations of the stations. Sheridan tries to restore order by petitioning the Earth Force Joint Chiefs of Staff for a ruling on the extent of Wallace's authority to detain and deport Babylon 5 residents. The Joint Chiefs give Wallace full authority to conduct this investigation, using any methods he deems necessary. The Joint Chiefs specifically forbid Garibaldi to participate in any part of the Ortega investigation.
While Garibaldi is watching Ivanova’s career go down the tubes, his ensign notifies him that a human foot was discovered in the recycling system. The foot belonged to Fengshi Yang, but the records indicate that Yang has already left the station. Yang certainly didn't walk off Babylon 5 without his foot. Garibaldi starts investigating Yang’s presumed death and discovers that Yang had known Ortega. Violating a direct order from the Joint Chiefs, Garibaldi investigates both murders. Ivanova is depending on him. After all, what's a little court-martial between friends? When Garibaldi disappears, Sheridan issues a station-wide alert.
This is the second Babylon 5 book. The events in this book take place between the television episodes "The Coming of Shadows" and "All Alone in the Night." The Fans of Babylon 5 should keep in mind G’Kar’s memorable words, "[n]o one here is exactly what he appears." Some of the characterizations are a bit off. Just ignore Garibaldi’s nanosecond of lust for Ivanova, Ivanova’s crying jag and any other cockleburs I can’t nail down at this moment. Also, ignore the typo/cameo appearance by "Sinclair" at the bottom of p. 252. Only Valen knows what he's doing there.
If you are a first-time B5 reader and you like murder mysteries, you will enjoy this book. The murders are compelling enough that the reader doesn’t need years of exposure to the Babylon 5 series to make sense of the situations. The characters are substantial enough to add flavor and humor to the drama. Come, Watson, the game is afoot -- quite literally!
<*> Ariann <*>
It’s a boring day in Babylon 5 Command & Control until Commander Ivanova receives a message from J.D. Ortega, her flight instructor from the good, old days at the academy. He’s on the station and would like to meet with her about something important. Ivanova thinks it will be a Kodak (TM) moment with an old friend; but it turns into a rendezvous with a corpse. Security Chief Garibaldi has to investigate all the possibilities, including the one where Ivanova is a murderer. Before Garibaldi has to compromise his friendship with Ivanova, a team of special investigators arrives from Earth Force HQ to probe into Ortega’s murder. The Team takes over Garibaldi’s security office, co-opts a cadre of his security guards and locks up all his security files.
Out on patrol, Ivanova takes her mind off her troubles by escorting cargo transports and blowing the raiders to hell. Under her leadership, Alpha Wing reduces the loss of human life from 120 to zero. On one lucky run, Ivanova captures a raider pilot. She spares his life in exchange for information on the transport piracy. All the stolen shipments are morbidium ore. Morbidium is an essential ingredient in the manufacture of plasma weapons. This is an important discovery. Being a loyal Earth Force officer, Ivanova reports the morbidium raiding information to the Joint Chiefs of Staff at Earth Force HQ.
Garibaldi realizes that Wallace and his staff weren’t sent to invesitigate the murder, they were sent to cover it up. If that is the case, why is Wallace interrogating everyone from Mars? What does he hope to learn? And for that matter, why did Ortega come to Babylon 5? All the murder evidence points to Ivanova, or does it? Garibaldi is sure it’s a frame job, but he has no proof -- and he may never find any! Every time a clue is discovered, Wallace confiscates the evidence and it disappears.
