The Letter: Valen to Jeffrey David Sinclair
By Laura M. Appelbaum
From Valen to Jeffrey Sinclair – greetings.
"Acknowledging my utter unworthiness, I humbly beg of Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, to be graciously pleased to accept my whole self as a full and entire oblation. Grant that I may live and die at the point where the interests of Thy glory and my salvation and Thy divine call may have placed me."
"So therefore, any of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."
Luke 14:33
You're wondering how Valen knew scripture and Jesuit prayer. And how as Rathenn asked, did he know your name and where you would be, a thousand and one years into the future? Why have you felt so at peace on Minbar and why does working with the Rangers seem more natural than serving in EarthForce ever did? There have been so many unanswered questions since the Battle of the Line. There is a single answer to them all; your entire life has been leading to this moment. You are him, are me. You are Valen. This is your destiny.
There is little more to say as you are thinking it already; only some instructions. There are three short days ahead of you in the Twenty-Third Century: put your affairs in order and travel to Babylon 5. Don't let Michael find out you're there; if he does he'll want to come with you, but he can't for reasons you already surmise. Delenn has also received a letter this day. She will gather a team together; you, her, Sheridan, Susan and Marcus. Zathras will meet with you shortly as well. He will be your companion in the journey through time.
You will arrive at the Station the same day that Babylon 4 reappears. A distress message will be received from the alternate timeline you flash forwarded to in 2258. Babylon 5 is under attack and about to be destroyed because in that timeline you have not taken back the base from which Valen defeated the Shadows. That base is Babylon 4. You always wondered where the Station had gone and Garibaldi had insisted you weren't the captain of the "Flying Dutchman's ship." This time your old friend was wrong. You are. And contrary to the myth, it's is not a symbol of doom but the garrison from which you'll bring a thousand years of peace.
Sheridan will send Michael to Sector 14 to investigate while Delenn shows the rest of you a recording from the Great Machine. It will reveal the appearance of B4 in the past and that the Shadows remember it and their defeat; with it, their forces were depleted to the point that they would have been three times stronger in your current century had you not brought it as Valen. So in 2256 they tried to destroy it with a fusion bomb. You'll make your first trip back in time with the White Star to stop them. If you fail, B5 will fall in eight days. But you will not fail, despite apparent set-backs.
Zathras will arrive with time stabilizers for the team but with the destruction of the bomb the White Star and Sheridan's stabilizer will be damaged. He'll disappear, lost in time, but will return. Don't be distracted by his departure; burn your way into Babylon 4 where your activities will go unnoticed because of the electromagnetic pulse. Break into two teams; you and Delenn; Marcus and Susan. They'll provide a necessary distraction so when Sheridan reappears you two will be able to install a time system in the central power core. While you are there, a power surge will destabilize time again and Sheridan will once more vanish. B4 will jump forward to 2258 just as you and Garibaldi are about to arrive and meet with Krantz. Everything will happen just as you remember it. You must of course avoid them. You'll meet with the others to discuss the situation and then finish your work in the core. When Sheridan returns this time and Susan finishes rerouting the time system controls to Command and Control, it will mark the end of your Human life. Despite their protests, send the team back to the White Star; what was before must happen again.
Once you've taken B4 back in time, you'll mirror Delenn's actions and assemble the Chrysalis device. It activates with a Triluminary. Weeks will pass during which Zathras will watch over you and for the Vorlons. When you emerge, you will cease to be purely Human, but you'll never relinquish your humanity. And so your life as me will begin. Have no doubts; there will be much satisfaction and even happiness in this life. I can say no more; you'll have to live it anew. Strive, seek and find. Do not yield.
Valen