1x04: Infection
When his friend asks for help, Stephen hesitates. It is not the lack of trust – well, not quite, not exactly, just innate cautiousness, because the man might have been his friend, but they have not met for years and there is no way of telling whom his friend is now. Something is slightly off with that case of theirs, something Stephen cannot pinpoint, because their explanations seem true enough. But a voice deep inside him, maybe the primal animal instinct of survival, sniffs at the case with profound distrust and screams in alarm. His rational mind, though, suppresses the warning.
When he agrees, it is not because he wants fame, wishes for his name to be remembered, to secure himself a place on the cards of history. These are his reasons also, but there is more to that. What Stephen values more than fame or renown is knowledge. The frantic question how is already burning in his mind, overshadowing everything else, because in a moment – minutes, hours, days, compared with a lifetime it is still just a moment – he could be on a brink of a great discovery.
If Stephen only could, he would love to learn how every single living form works like, to discover the answer to one question: how. And maybe then he would understand the inexplicable clockwork of life and death, for now, even though he knows the answer to many whys and hows, they did not seem to suffice.
Disclaimer: Babylon 5 created by J. M. Straczynski.