By Elizabeth Ann Lewis

Author's Notes

OK, it isn't, but it's a very large portion of her fault.

I was one of the very few who was not interested in watching Babylon 5 when it first came out. First because I've never been that into science fiction in general, second because I was about to start UCLA and didn't have the time, and third because all my energies were being concentrated on this weird show about Immortals and sword fights.

And fourth, because I didn't have any sick, demented friends to drag me kicking and screaming into watching.

Three shows and a few years later, excuses two and three are no longer valid, and number four is definitely no longer a problem. (Can we say, "Due South"? Can we say, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"? I knew you could...) So when Perri started plotzing all over the place about Babylon 5 (and sending out story parts that left me scratching my head and going, "Huh?") I decided to watch. Just so I would know what was going on, of course.

In the meantime, Chris was sending out parts of Freedom Network that left me even more confused. If I had any remnant of sanity left, I would have reconsidered whether or not I wanted to get involved in a TV show that was known -- renowned -- for its plot complexity and subtly.

Sanity? What's sanity?

About halfway through the first season (meaning, two weeks after I started watching) I knew I had to write a story. And I knew it had to be in the same universe as Sinjun. That was a given. A very early draft of the first chapter had Garibaldi talking about... well, that's a spoiler for Scenes and I won't go there. But, you see, I didn't want to give Perri the satisfaction of letting her know how well she had got me (and I didn't want to piss her off if she objected to my stealing her character), so I worked on the story for a few weeks with Dianne and Chris betaing it for me.

I sprung the story on Perri just after the first major plot twist (you'll know it when you read it). And shortly thereafter, collaborated with Chris on an interview. That was an experience that made me truly treasure both my friends and my characters. Things have snowballed from there.

The Power of Persuasion takes place over a very few weeks in the spring of 2258, shortly after Captain John Sheridan takes over the station. It occurs in and around the episodes "Soul Mates" and "A Race through Dark Places" and concurrently with Chapter 5 of Scenes from a Spaceside Bar. It has nowhere near the epic depth and breadth of either Scenes or Freedom Network (never fear, Mingala is desperately trying to tell me a sequel). The Babylon 5 characters exist in the story but do not take center stage. It is, primarily, a story of two people coming to an understanding of their differences... and, more importantly, appreciating their similarities.

One disclaimer: I wrote the Legend of Valen and the Rathenn before either reading To Dream in the City of Sorrows or seeing "World Without End". Make of that what you will.

I can't claim to be the sole author of this story. The amount of help and inspiration given to me by my beta readers can't be measured by my thanks.

Dianne as fellow Bab5 newbie who told me when I was not explaining enough and when I was explaining too much, Perri as Detail Girl to the rescue (who helped me untangle all the various sections of the station), Celli as motivation expert (who gloated with me when I said, "My readers are following me where I lead them -- and then I'm going to drop them down a mine shaft."). And especially Chris as my "I-can't-spoil-her-but-I-can-tell-her-what-works-and-what-doesn't" checker, IRC-interviewer, and general all-around wonder person. Much of Margo and Sophie's dialogue in the story, and not a little of the description in the scenes involving her characters, are her work.

So I invite you to the Babylon 5 station, in the year the Great War came upon us all, in the weeks before the Narn-Centauri War, in the months after the death of President Santiago. There's a singer in Paulie's who is more than she seems, reporters who know that the universe is collapsing around them. There's a man on a transport from Minbar who is on a mission to protect his people -- at any cost. And there's a woman on a transport from Earth who holds the key to peace in the galaxy... or war.