Babylon 5: The Lost Tales - Voices in the Dark

I believe that when we leave a place...

...part of it goes with us, and part of us remains.

Go anywhere in the station when it is quiet and just listen.

After a while, you will hear the echoes of all our conversations...

...every thought and word we've exchanged.

Long after we have gone, our voices will linger in these walls.

Get out of my head!

No!

Personal log, Colonel Elizabeth Lochley, commanding officer, Babylon 5.

In the nine years since I took over day-to-day operations on B5...

...I've requisitioned some pretty odd things.

Strange foods, alien booze, exotic dancers...

...for a Centauri business meeting.

But this... This is a new one even for me.

Begin docking procedure. All hands, stand by.

Father Cassidy, Colonel Elizabeth Lochley.

- Welcome to Babylon 5. A pleasure.

I hope your trip in wasn't too bad.

The only ship we could get was a cargo transport...

...and they can be pretty awful.

I've been in far worse places than that.

Though I must say, there was quite a line at the customs area.

We're getting ready for the big celebration party...

...for the anniversary of the Interstellar Alliance.

President Sheridan himself is coming in from Minbar to be here for it...

...so things are a bit crazier than usual, which is saying something.

Well, please, this way.

I hope you don't mind that we're meeting here in my quarters.

I felt it best to keep this away from the crew.

The clergy specializes in private conversations...

...in small, quiet places.

I'm just sorry it took my superiors so long to respond to your request.

I'm afraid there aren't many priests in this sector of space...

...or any sector, to tell the uncomfortable truth.

We're something of a vanishing breed out here.

- I'm sorry. - Don't be.

A decline in faith and the influence of the Church was to be expected...

...once humans penetrated heaven and found there no angels...

...no choir eternal, not even a delinquent seraphim left behind...

...by the general evacuation.

Just infinite space.

For 200 years, mankind has walked among the stars...

...on legs of fire and steel, daily encountering profounder wonders...

...than the burning bush.

True, but still, there are a lot of scientists that believe in God.

Oh, sure.

Physicists have tried to soften the blow...

...with quantum-mechanic consolation prizes...

...noting mysteries yet to be resolved in tiny subatomic particles...

...whose actions hint at the presence of intelligence.

But where, in those infinitesimal spaces...

...can be found the God who stopped the sun in the sky over Jericho...

...parted the Red Sea, birthed the universe...

...and shaped molecules of dust until their name was man and woman?

Once we got into space, the deck was stacked and the clock was ticking.

But that doesn't scare me.

I think the Church still has a few surprises up her sleeve.

Well, if it's surprises you're looking for, you have come to the right place. I--

Before you go any further, I have to ask, are you religious yourself?

Yeah, sometimes I think I'm pretty religious.

Then I realize I haven't been to church in ages and I feel guilty, so then I go...

...but then, am I going because I'm faithful or because I'm guilty?

Ah.

So you're just like the rest of us, then.

Good. Go on.

Well, it started with this smell in Brown Sector...

...which isn't surprising because there's always a smell in Brown Sector...

...but this one wouldn't go away.

And the repair crews, they kept hearing voices in the hallways...

...even when we could determine for sure...

...on the monitors that there was nobody there.

And then...

Then a few days ago...

...there's this guy that works in security, Simon Burke.

He had come back from a vacation on Earth a few weeks earlier...

...seemed fine, and then...

Suddenly, in the middle of a shift...

...he just started screaming and saying that he wasn't alone...

...and that something was inside him, and then he disappeared.

He'd barricaded himself inside the chapel on Blue 4.

But when we got to him, it really wasn't him anymore.

It was...

Father Cassidy...

...do you feel qualified to perform an exorcism?

Is there anything in his file...

...showing a history of mental instability, psychosis, erratic behavior?

No. No more so than anybody else around here, myself included.

You understand why I have to be sure.

In situations like this...

...a mundane answer is far more likely than a supernatural one.

The last recorded case of possession was almost a hundred years ago.

Yeah, I know.

We've got a little piece of the 14th century here...

...right in the middle of all this technology.

- Hardly seems to fit, does it? - No, I--

It's cold. And dear Lord, that stench.

Knocks you back on your heels, huh?

Two feet that way, it's 72 degrees. Drops another 20 right there.

His cell is up here.

Hello, Father.

Please come in.

I could use the company.

- Mr. Burke? - After a fashion.

Are you or are you not?

I'm sure he's in here somewhere.

Why is he restrained?

For our protection, and his.

The night we found him, he attacked two of my security guards.

And then last night, we came in and we found him covered in blood.

We checked him for wounds...

...not a cut, not so much as a scratch anyplace on him.

And the blood?

Well, according to the tests...

...not a single strand of DNA was anyplace in the blood.

Platelets, red cells, white cells, but no DNA.

You wanna explain that one to me, Father?

The devil is in the details.

Are you saying you are the devil?

No. Just a humble servant.

Does the smell offend you?

- Would you like me to change it? - Can you?

Roses?

- Impossible. - Of course it's possible.

Are not all things in heaven and Earth possible for those who believe?

But this is neither heaven nor Earth.

Then this must be hell. So why then are you surprised to find me here?

If this is hell, and you hold sway...

...then you shouldn't mind telling me your name.

Names have power.

Yes, they do.

You first.

If you are what you claim, then you should already know my name.

So, what is it?

Your name is sadness...

...loneliness, uselessness.

Those are descriptions, not names.

That's why they have power.

That's why my name has power.

And that name would be?

Asmodeus.

- You're a long way from home. Home is where the heart is.

You're very clever, at least in English. Do you know any other languages or--?

Do not waste my time or yours, Father Cassidy.

We have more important matters to discuss.

- And those matters would be? - My removal from this flesh.

Get to it or leave.

Let me get this straight. You want to be exorcised?

Cast out, yes.

You have the authority to bind me.

Speak the name, abjure and command me...

...and I will be removed from this body.

Look, if you wanna leave, then why not just leave?

We were bound here among the stars long ago.

Bound to remain, and bound to possess.

Bound by who?

Oh, we cannot speak the name.

Are you saying that God himself bound you to this part of space?

Why? Why would God do that?

It was inevitable that, in time, man would cross the sea of stars.

Inevitable that their faith would wane as they gloried in their accomplishments.

And as you reshape distant planets...

...becoming yourselves creators of worlds...

...whence comes the desire to crawl on bended knees for salvation?

Where can be heard the cry of the terrified...

...and the lost raised in the hope of heaven...

...and the intercession of divine providence?

Nowhere.

Nowhere.

But before there can be hope, there first must be fear.

Before man can seek salvation, there must be the smell of damnation.

There must be a reason to reawaken the love of God.

But in the absence of humility...

...that reason is the fear of hell...

...the terror of we who fell and walk among you still.

Man sought his God in the stars and found only silence.

But if the hand of darkness can be found...

...does that not imply its opposite?

Proving the presence of hell also proves the existence of heaven...

...bringing people back to God.

- Is that it? - Yes.

And for this reason...

...the one you worship salted us among the stars...

...to wait the silent centuries for your arrival.

To remind you of your limitations.

To renew the fear you thought you left behind...

...when you stepped beyond your cradle.

To keep you from getting too far off your leash...

...and forgetting your place.

Remarkable.

The most remarkable pathology I've ever seen.

What, you don't think he's really possessed?

Demonic possession carries with it several very specific signatures...

...none of which were present here. No demonstration of special powers...

...no ability to speak in more than one language...

...no special knowledge.

He knew your name.

He could have heard it from one of the guards.

What about the smell?

Interesting, but not conclusive.

There's an element of suggestion...