"Secrets of the Soul"

"Pak'ma'ra are chosen of God, very special. We can eat of all the creatures who walk, and fly, and crawl, but not of the fish in the sea."
"So you can handle mammals of all kinds, even reptiles, but no fish. Interesting. Your system may be set up to destroy harmful bacteria on a selective basis. I'd like to do an analysis of your upper intestinal system. This .. is a barium compound, perfectly harmless. It'll help me track how your system handles outside material."
"Not on approved list."
"Well, everything you eat doesn't have to be dead for 5 days. This is a non-organic compound, and it does not fall in the same category, so don't worry, now. You'll be fine. We do this all the time."

	-- Pak'ma'ra and Franklin in Babylon 5:"Secrets of the Soul"

"That's why we're all here: to better understand one another and treat each other with sympathy and compassion, commodities which are all too often in short supply."

	-- Franklin in Babylon 5:"Secrets of the Soul"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the right place, but this is getting out of hand. How many more of you people are coming here?"
"How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? That question baffled religious thinkers for centuries, until someone finally hit upon the answer: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? As many as want to. How many of my brother and sister telepaths are coming? As many as want to."

	-- Zack and Byron in Babylon 5:"Secrets of the Soul"

"You don't understand."
"No, I understand, Zack. I understand plenty. You and the others needed my help during the shadow war, and I did that. I put my life on the line, and what did I get? You were going to boot me into smaller quarters because I couldn't afford anything better? The only way I got out of that was to rejoin the Psi-corps, and you don't even want to know the deal I had to make to pull that one off."
"Lyta--"
"I'm not finished. After all that, you had the nerve to ask me to risk my life a second time during the civil war back home, and, stupid me, I did it. And what did I get out of that? Nothing, nada, zip, zilch. I got no life, no hope, no prospects. Now along comes Byron. And for the first time in a long while, I feel like someone actually cares about what happens to me."
"I care what happens to you, Lyta."
"Yeah, well, maybe that's true. But talk is cheap, Zack. Byron is putting his life on the line to create something for his people. And I'm one of them. He's given us back a sense of dignity and community. I'm proud of that, and I'm proud of him."

	-- Zack and Lyta in Babylon 5:"Secrets of the Soul"

"Was one the same as three? Was three the same as one and two?"
"Wh--?"
"Was there any difference between one, two, and three?"
"I..I--"
"And what would you expect to get out of four, five, and six that you did not get out of one, two, and three? Your anger has nothing to do with me. What will satisfy your anger will never come from me or anyone else here. I'm afraid you must look for it elsewhere."

	-- Byron and a bully in Babylon 5:"Secrets of the Soul"

"No tyranny has ever really lasted. No government based on violence has endured. Sooner or later, they all fall. We're here to build a new life for ourselves, a home among the stars. Would you build a home on a foundation you knew would not last?"

	-- Byron to Lyta in Babylon 5:"Secrets of the Soul"

"Do you know what you are?"
"What?"
"A B.C.F.M.O. A brightly colored fast moving object. You don't just walk into a room. You blaze in and blaze out again, like a comet. There's much more to you than meets the eye."
"If you only knew."

	-- Byron and Lyta in Babylon 5:"Secrets of the Soul"

"Byron, the Vorlons changed me. More than you could possibly know. I don't know what it'll do once you get past my barriers and I get past yours. It could burn you."
"Then let it burn."

	-- Lyta and Byron in Babylon 5:"Secrets of the Soul"

"It was the Vorlons."
"Yes."
"They created telepaths on a hundred worlds. Interfered with their genetic development. Took people from their homeworlds and adjusted them over the course of the centuries."
"Yes."
"Because they needed telepaths in their war against the Shadows. Needed us as cannon fodder."
"Yes."
"We would be normal. We would have lives. We would be able to walk and live and work among normals without fear of persecution if the Vorlons had not interfered with our normal development. We were made for their benefit, to save them. We were told that our abilities were our gift and our curse, and that we were somehow responsible for it. But we're not. We're not."

	-- Byron and Lyta in Babylon 5:"Secrets of the Soul"

Compiled by a1bert@iki.fi
Babylon 5 characters & trademarks Š1996 by the PTEN Consortium