End Of The Line

CrusadeStill following the signal transmitted by the Shadow hybrid vessel, the Excalibur follows the trail to a distant and supposedly uninhabited system. Galen warns Gideon of a carefully-placed minefield just before the ship runs into it, and the captain orders Matheson to search for comm leaks. A junior crew member is found to be the cause of the link, but before Gideon can interrogate him, the crewman commits suicide. As anticipated, enemy forces arrive to warn the Excalibur away…but these enemy forces are flying Starfuries. Gideon is contacted by an Earthforce officer on a nearby planetoid base who begrudgingly gives the captain permission to visit the installation. The visit, however, only confirms the obvious – that the base is top secret, and the Excalibur’s presence is not welcomed. Unsatisfied with the official denial, Gideon enlists Galen’s help to slip him past the base’s defenses. But what Gideon finds inside the base is horrifying – hideously mutated human test subjects, the results of highly-guarded attempts to meld humans with leftover Shadow technology from the great war. Gideon’s knowledge of these chilling experiments calls the loyalty of an old friend into question…and lands the captain on a short list of people who know too much, and must be prevented from ever revealing that information to others.

written by J. Michael Straczynski

Notes: This episode was never filmed due to the cancellation of the series. This would have been the season finale of the first year of Crusade.

LogBook entry by Earl Green