BABYLON 4 STATION
TYPE: Babylon - O'Neal Class Station
LOCATION: Sector 14
Grid Epsilon
POPULATION: 800,000 max
STATION CREW: 1300 Skeleton Crew
LENGTH: 10 miles
DIAMETER: 3 miles
MASS: 6 million tons
GRAVITY: varies according to distance
from the outer hull.
ATMOSPHERE: Oxygen/Nitrogen with facilities
to provide alternate atmospheres.
DEFENCE GRID: High Level
SUPPORT: 100 Starfuries
The biggest and most expensive of the Babylon stations built by Earth Force Science & Technologies Division, and the first to be completed (the previous three stations were sabotaged and destroyed early in construction) using some of the leftover parts from the previous three attempts at constructing the station.
Much of Babylon 5 can be seen in its predecessor,
although Babylon 4 is much larger.
Normal planetary gravity was simulated by rotating the station
inner and outer sections in different directions, and at
different speeds. Babylon 4 was the first station to employ this
counter rotation system. This could provide a higher gravity
environment as well as essential extra stabilization for the
station should it be moved forward using its rear mounted
engines. This same system was to be used in the construction of
Babylon 5, but due to budget cuts was never introduced into the
Babylon 5 design.
Other differences were in its aft mounted fins which
were arranged radially, with the flat edges pointing forwards
like petals of a flower rather than arranged in four rows of
three and the front section which was considerably longer than in
its predecessor, and the docking booms were located along the
sides of the station rather than at the front.
The Babylon 4 station was defended by a high level defense grid,
with enough fire power to take on up to three war ships. This
station was to also be armed with a full complement of 100 SA-23C
Starfuries. Do to the stations unexpected disappearance
however, Earth Alliance never had the chance to equip the station
with its fighters.
HISTORY:
Babylon 4 disappeared from its construction site in sector 14
without a trace in 2254, a mere 24 hours after becoming
operational, along with a skeleton crew of around 1,300 personnel
under Major Lewis Krantz, an event observed by departing
construction workers, including Thomas Jordan, AKA Jinxo, and the
station was listed as destroyed by Earth Force. The station made
a brief stop in 2258 after its disappearance, when its initial
crew was rescued by a team from Babylon 5 led by Jeffrey Sinclair
and Michael Garibaldi, after which Earth Force confiscated all
records of events in sector 14, although copies were kept
surreptitiously by Michael Garibaldi, and marked the sector as
off-limits. Reports submitted by Major Krantz indicated that the
station had just become operational when discrepancies started
showing up in the stations' time-tracking systems, initially
thought to be a computer glitch but later found to be a time
anomaly when the crew started seeing glimpses of the past and
what was assumed to be the future. The confusion was compounded
when a mysterious being, calling himself Zathras appeared out of
nowhere claiming to be looking someone identified only as
"The One" who was a leader in a great war between the
forces of light and dark.
In 2260 it was revealed by Delenn that the station was being stolen and transported through time to be used as a replacement base of operations in a the previous Shadow war by Zathras and a future version of Jeffrey Sinclair, after the Shadows had managed to destroy the Minbari space station that had been the command center. Leaving Michael Garibaldi behind at Sinclair's behest Delenn and Sheridan left with him on the White Star, accompanied by Susan Ivanova, Marcus Cole and Lennier to use the rift in sector 14 to transport the White Star to 2254 where they destroyed several Shadow fighters attempting to use a fusion bomb to destroy Babylon 4, and put in place the equipment necessary for its transportation into the past. A premature initialization of the device when Major Krantz ordered an increase in the output from the station's power core moved the ship forward four years to 2258 where its initial crew disembarked for Babylon 5 after the arrival of the earlier Jeffrey Sinclair and Michael Garibaldi. With the station to themselves the necessary preparations were soon completed and Sinclair and Zathras took Babylon 4 back in time to fight in the previous Shadow war while the others returned through the time rift to 2260 on the White Star. Having arrived in the past Jeffrey Sinclair, by now in Minbari form having using the chrysalis device, and backed by two Vorlons introduced himself as Valen and led an epic struggle that drove the Shadows back, although the station itself did not come out of the war in very good shape and did not survive much longer before breaking up.