Babylon 5 Council
Here on Green 11, you can find the Council Chamber for the Babylon 5 Advisory Council. The Council is the seat of diplomacy on Babylon 5, through which it is hoped to resolve all inter-species disputes by debate and peaceful negotiation. There are five standing members of the Council, which represent the five major spacefaring races. Alongside these, there is a rotating membership taken from the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, representing the minor spacefaring races. Diplomatic Attaché Lennier of the Minbari Federation has agreed to meet with you to explain what goes on in the Council Chamber.
Babylon 5 Council in Session
Greetings. My name is Lennier. I can explain what is going on below. When the Babylon 5 Council is in full session, all five standing members attend. These include the founding members of Babylon 5, the Earth Alliance and the Minbari Federation, the partner nations the Centauri Republic and the Narn Regime, and finally the elder nation the Vorlon Empire.
It is clear why the Humans and the Minbari take such an interest in inter-species diplomacy; they wish to avoid the same ruinous errors that led to the Earth-Minbari War that nearly exterminated the Human race ten years ago. The Centauri were the first non-Humans you encountered, and seek to offer some kind of guiding influence. The Narns were formerly a client race of the Centauri, so are seeking to establish their independence.
Permanent Ambassadors
The permanent ambassadors are currently:
Commander Sinclair, for the Earth Alliance,
Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari Federation,
Ambassador Londo Mollari of the Centauri Republic,
Ambassador G'Kar of the Narn Regime, and
Ambassador Kosh Naranek of the Vorlon Empire
No-one really understands why the Vorlons take an interest in the younger races, given that they are millions of years more advanced. Ambassador Kosh is quite secretive, and only attends some of the Council meetings.
League of Non-Aligned Worlds
The Humans gained some influence among the minor spacefaring races, when they assisted them in the war against the Dilgar, some twenty-six years ago. The League of Non-Aligned Worlds is how these races are represented on the Babylon 5 Council. The membership rotates, according to a scheme that allows up to sixteen delegates to attend at any one time. Today, I think we have the following representatives present, starting on the front row:
Two male Abbai diplomatic attachés from the Abbai Matriarchate - these do not have the pronounced head-crest of the females, like Ambassador Kalika Qwal'Mizra, who seems to be absent today,
Ambassador Juphar Trkider of the Drazi Freehold, from Zhabar,
Ambassador Suarez Cil'Tlakh of the Llort Mi-Ma-Ti, from Vartas,
The seal of the Babylon 5 Advisory Council and the League of Non-Aligned Worlds
On the back row, I think I can make out the following representatives:
Ambassador She'lah of the Gaim Intelligence - they are an insectoid race that communicate via clicks that needs a machine translator for us to understand,
Ambassador Lethke of the Brakiri Syndicracy, from Brakir,
A representative for the Iksha, a scaly amphibious species from Ikos,
A representative for the Pak'ma'ra, a highly intelligent race of carrion eaters from Pak'ma - who also need to communicate via a machine translator.
I cannot see who is sitting on the other side of the chamber from here; but we might have representatives from the Markab, the Vree, the Hyach, the Grome and the Hurr.
Business of the Council
Sometimes the Council has to deal with problems at an early stage before these erupt into a major conflict. Recently, we had a case where one of the member races was profiting by selling armaments to raiders, who were using these to attack other member races.
Who are raiders? Raiders are a parasitic kind of space pirate. They make a living by hit-and-run tactics, immobilising transport ships and then stealing their cargo to sell on the black market. A raider captain dreams of building up enough credits to be able to buy his own jump-capable carrier transport; and then that raiding party can rapidly go from one system to the next. Babylon 5 offers some protection against raiders, with their defensive Starfury fighters. You would need to talk to Lieutenant Commander Susan Ivanova to find out more about that.
Another recent incident involved the use of the rare and hard to obtain G'Quan Eth plant, native to Narn. The Narns wanted to use the seeds in a religious ceremony, to be used as incense; but the only supply on the station was owned by the Centauri, who add the seeds to drinks as a narcotic! Well, the Narns and the Centauri do not see eye-to-eye because of the long occupation of the Narn homeworld, but eventually the Commander managed to persuade Ambassador Mollari to sell some of his stock to Ambassador G'Kar, in time for the religious ceremony.
Would you like to find out more about all the different races represented here?
