Shadows Past and Present

Set prior to The Coming of Shadows.

Issue 5: With Friends Like These...

Written by Tim deHaas
Premise by J. Michael Straczynski
Pencilled by John Ridgway; Inked by Robbie Busch
DC Comics, June 1995
(Released April 1995)
Garibaldi informs Londo that, through intercepting some of Londo's communications, he knows he's implicated with the attacks on Quadrant 37.  Morden meets with Londo, warning him to be careful with his off-station transmissions and asks that he tell him if Garibaldi interferes again in future.  Doing routine comm-channel surveillance, Garibaldi finds another transmission from Londo Mollari, although he can't see who he's talking to without alerting him to the tap.  It is Lord Refa: Londo wants to discuss with him some of his misgivings about his "associate".

Garibaldi decides to take a shuttle to their "secret" meeting place, and Warren Keffer invites himself along.  Londo is met by Morden again, who dissuades him from his meeting with Refa, demanding to know where his meeting place is.  En route, Keffer admits to coming along because, with the departure of Commander Sinclair, Garibaldi doesn't seem to have many friends left on Babylon 5.  Garibaldi begins to tell Keffer the story of how he met Sinclair...

Years earlier, on Mars Colony, Garibaldi was running a "discreet" transport service.  Lieutenant Commander Sinclair and two junior officers, Sanchez and Foster, enlist his help, although a little dubious about Garibaldi's apparently alcoholism...

Garibaldi's story is interrupted when they are shot down by a Shadow fighter, plunging toward the planet below...

Notes: Quadrant 37 was attacked in Chrysalis.  G'Kar refers to the destruction of the Narn fleet in Revelations.  Garibaldi's former alcoholism was introduced in Survivors.

Recurring Characters: Jeffrey Sinclair; Lord Refa; Morden; Warren Keffer.


Issue 6: Against the Odds

Written by Tim deHaas
Premise by J. Michael Straczynski
Pencilled by John Ridgway; Inked by C.S. Hampton
DC Comics, July 1995
Garibaldi and Keffer make a hasty exit from the crash site in case their attacker returns.  Garibaldi mentions that he's seen a ship like that before on Mars, and resumes his story...

Despite Garibaldi's alcohol problem, Sinclair is determined to carry out his mission - apparently one assigned to him to keep him "out of the way".  Flying over the surface of Mars, Sinclair refuses to tell Garibaldi what they're looking for.  When the navigation and inertia systems go off-line, Garibaldi crash-lands, injuring Sanchez and killing Foster.  Sanchez blames Garibaldi for the incident.

Sinclair and Garibaldi trek across Mars to find help, while Sanchez stays with the flyer.  When the ship's systems come on-line again, she discovers that Garibaldi isn't at fault after all, and warns the two of an oncoming sandstorm.  

Reaching a vantage point above their own crash site, Keffer and Garibaldi discover a Centauri settlement.  They also see the Shadow ship land by their shuttle and humanoid figures emerge to inspect the damage.  They "erase" the crash site, hiding the evidence - nobody knows where Garibaldi of Keffer went - and then set out to find the occupants.  Garibaldi, expecting the worst, makes a run for it...

Notes: Garibaldi recalls his crashlanding on Mars with Sinclair in Infection.


Issue 7: Survival the Hard Way

Written by Tim deHaas
Premise by J. Michael Straczynski
Pencilled by John Ridgway; Inked by Robbie Busch
DC Comics, August 1995
(Released June 1995)
Garibaldi and Keffer head for the Centauri settlement.  Garibaldi continues his story...

With only five days of air and food, Sinclair and Garibaldi wait out the sandstorm on the surface of Mars.  While Sinclair talks with Sanchez, Garibaldi hits the booze again and wanders out onto the surface.  When Sinclair had noticed he was missing, he went out to search but got caught under a collapsed rock face.  Garibaldi finds him and saves him by switching air cylinders, but Sinclair says if anything like this ever happened again he would kill him.

The humanoid aliens catch up with Garibaldi and Keffer, hiding invisibly in a forest.  Keffer becomes paranoid and accuses Garibaldi of keeping them out in the open where they are easy targets.  Garibaldi can feel something trying to gain control of him, getting him angrier at Keffer.  Keffer fires a weapon at him, which Garibaldi dodges, and instead hits one of the hiding aliens, breaking their hold on the two.  Before they can examine the alien, it disappears.

Garibaldi claims that this is how these aliens operate - from behind the scenes, leaving no evidence.  If this does have anything to do with what happened on Mars, he says, they are in big trouble.

Because on Mars, looking from the top of a canyon with Sinclair, Garibaldi watches as a Shadow cruiser excavates another from beneath the surface of Mars.  In a nearby building, humanoid figures stand watching... 

Notes: Garibaldi recalls the death of his friend Frank Kemmer, something he still feels responsible for (see Survivors).


Issue 8: Silent Enemies

Written by Tim deHaas
Premise by J. Michael Straczynski
Pencilled by John Ridgway; Inked by C.S. Hampton
DC Comics, September 1995
(Released July 1995)
On Mars, the approach of a vehicle alerts Garibaldi.  All transmissions have been jammed, which suggests to him that the vehicle occupants have an alternate means of communicating.  He pulls a gun on Sinclair and shoots him, taking cover as the vehicle approaches to investigate.  Garibaldi ambushes them and revives Sinclair from his stun; the two had suspected telepaths and with Sinclair stunned they couldn't read him.

Sinclair explains that he is investigating covert human-alien activities.  Previous missions had failed and so this time Sinclair employed Garibaldi, a private transport service clear of official channels, to avoid sabotage.  The two are forced to infiltrate the building compound before they can engineer an escape.

Inside the largest building they find an enormous alien biomechanical construct, human bodies being conveyed through it.  Garibaldi begins to feel fear and self-pity building in his mind, but recalling that he is the only person Sinclair can trust right now gives him impetus to keep going.

A box of grenades comes in handy as Garibaldi and Sinclair are discovered and make an escape.  The explosion destroys most of the building, and they are not pursued for long: whatever was inside the building requires the most attention from the telepaths to save...

As he finishes his story, Garibaldi and Keffer are met by the Centauri, who at first don't believe their story so attempt to contact Ambassador Mollari (the man responsible for "saving" Quadrant 37 from the Narn, Garibaldi learns conclusively) to verify it.  Londo covers for Garibaldi, but isn't happy about doing so, and arranges for a transport back to Babylon 5.  After the communication, Londo turns back to his conversation with Morden...

Garibaldi explains the situation to Sheridan, along with his fears of a connection to whatever it was he and Sinclair found on Mars.  After he and Sinclair escaped, they returned with an Earthforce shuttle to the area and found that everything - ships, buildings and all - was gone.  All Garibaldi found was a damaged Psi Corps badge, but as it wasn't conclusive proof so he kept it to himself.

Notes: The final panel shows Talia Winters being prepared for some kind of surgical procedure with Psi Corps - a hint toward the events of Divided Loyalties.  Garibaldi recalls his sighting of the Shadow ship and the involvement of the Psi Corps in Messages From Earth (where he shows he still has the Psi Corps badge).  The telepaths' link with the Shadows is revealed in Ship of Tears.