Babylon 5:  The Joker	
by Anthony Durrant



As the passengers came through the customs gate of Babylon 5 the security
guard smiled as he watched the scan results come up on his monitor. He noticed
a tall woman walking toward the scanner grid in the customs gate that all who
came to Babylon 5 went through to get in. This woman was neatly dressed in
black robes, wore a cowl, and carried a wood staff with which she walked. For
a few seconds the guard - Lt. Andrew Reiss - caught a glimpse of something
over her eyes, masking them from sight. She held her head high, with an air of
sadness.

"Do you have anything to declare, Madam?" the lieutenant asked.

"No," the woman told him, "nothing to declare."

Eyeing the ornate box the woman had under her arm, Reiss asked, "What's your
name?"

"My name," the woman told him, "is Sister Winnilla of the Sisterhood of Love."

After Sister Winnilla walked away, the lieutenant grabbed the plate he'd
bought to give to his mother for her birthday, wrote a note on a piece of
paper, dipped the note in transfer glue and clapped the paper to the plate. A
few hours later, just as Reiss's relief came to take his place, the paste was
dry and the lieutenant scraped it off. He knew the writing was backward, but
his sweet mother was smart enough to hold it up to a mirror. His relief tapped
him on the shoulder.

"I'm Lieutenant Marshall," she told him, "and I'm to relieve you of duty."

"Thank goodness!" Reiss cried. "Now I can get my mother's plate fired!"

He ran off to the potter's to get the plate glazed and fired.

"Good morning, Elizabeth," Marlena Reiss told Captain Lochley. "How are you
feeling?"

"Fine, I guess," Lochley replied. "How are you feeling?"

"I've felt better," Marlena told her. "Today I got this for my birthday."

She nodded to her bedside table, and the Captain saw the red plate sitting on
it.

"There's a message from my son on the platter," Marlena said, "hold it to the
mirror."

Lochley picked up the plate and held it in front of her to see the backward
message.

"'The Joker lives!'" she read. "'He has come to this space station - to
Babylon 5!'"

"It seems that traitor and butcher is still alive!" Marlena cried. "Styling
himself after the infamous comic-book villain, one of my fellow prisoners at
the Grudunza Concentration Camp decided to join the army of our captors and
called himself 'the Joker.' He created the Laughing Virus, and many of the
Orione prisoners died laughing with horrible smiles on their faces."

"If he's here," Captain Lochley told Marlene, "I promise you he won't get very
far."

Meanwhile, Sister Winnilla walked into her quarters, and sat on the bed.
Placing the box gently on her bedside table, she opened it and gently touched
the round plastic balls inside.

"It's good to see you again, old friends," she said softly. "I wish I could
use you here - but now I can't. You see, I'd be breaking the law if I let you
loose aboard Babylon 5."

Closing up the box, she lay back on the bed and fell asleep. As she slept a
figure tiptoed inside. Hands opened the ornate box, took out the three round
plastic balls and closed the box again. Winnilla woke some hours later, and
when she checked the box, she found the balls had been stolen.

"I was carrying Minbari rubies inside that old box," she was telling Security
Chief Zach Allen ten minutes later. "They were priceless holy relics owned by
my order."

"I'm pretty sure we'll find all those rubies and get them back to you as soon
as possible," Allen told Winnilla. "I'll track down the thief and make sure he
or she gives them back to you."

"Thank you," Sister Winnilla said. "That would be wonderful."

Still, Allen was surprised at the design of the box - for the carving on the
lid was an exact copy of a playing card: a Joker, the funniest card in the
whole deck . . .

Hands pulled off the grate of one of Babylon 5's ventilation shafts, then
dropped the balls down into the shaft, where they shattered on hitting the
bends in the shaft, releasing what was safely contained inside those balls.
These same hands hastily slammed the grate back on the shaft again, and their
owner quickly walked away, trying to avoid becoming the victim of the balls'
contents and suffering the most horrible death anyone had ever known.

"I've fixed supper, boyo," Marlena told her son. "Come and get it."

"Thank you, Mom," Andrew said as he sat down at the table. "I'm famished."

"Is it true," she asked, "about the Joker?"

"Yes, Mom," Andrew said, "but I think we'll catch him sooner or later. He's
probably going to start killing again with his Joker Virus, now that he knows
he has been spotted."

"Just as he did in Grudunza . . ." Marlena whispered. "He ran away when
Earthforce captured the planet and slaughtered the Orione warrior squad in
charge of the camp. All of us watched as those ugly, bioenhanced creatures
fought to the last breath. Shortly after the capture, the Orione Empire
collapsed, and the species spread out over the galaxy. I have no doubt the
Joker's also bioenhanced and he easily could have escaped, using the enhanced
strength given him by the Oriones. You know, it is really quite funny that the
Joker never came after any of the Grudunza survivors. Yes, it is so funny - so
funny - hee, hee, hee, hee, hee, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha

haaaaaaaaaaaaa . . ."

Marlena fell out of her chair on to the floor; Andrew could only watch as her
lean, strong face's muscles pulled her mouth into a horrible grin - the wide,
toothy grin of the Joker . . .

Bending down over his mother's body, Andrew broke down and cried like a baby.

"She's the second victim brought in here today," Dr. Franklin, Babylon 5's
doctor, told the new Captain. "A security man also died laughing - look at
their faces!"

"Horrible," Captain Lochley whispered. "Death with a smile."

"I found an artificial virus in their systems," Franklin continued, "one I
can't identify."

"You don't have to worry about that," Lochley assured him. "I can - it's the
Joker Virus."

"You mean, the war criminal who styled himself after that comic-book villain?"

"Yes, Doctor," Lochley said, "and somehow, the Virus has gotten aboard Babylon
5!"

Meanwhile, Sister Winnilla was walking through the corridor toward the
elevator when a sound reached her ears - the sound of someone sobbing. She
followed the sound to a room at the other end of the corridor and opened the
door by using the manual control. When she went in, it was pretty clear
something was terribly wrong: she could hear someone pulling on something.

"What's wrong?" Sister Winnilla asked.

"Mommy and Daddy won't wake up!" a little girl's voice cried.

Stepping over to the beds, the Sister felt the faces of the couple lying
there; she could feel their teeth under the palm of her hand, and lips curled
into a terrible grin of death.

"Damn," she thought. "Someone has let loose the Joker Virus on Babylon 5!"

Lifting the little girl without even trying, Sister Winnilla took her away to
her own rented quarters. It was amazing that she'd survived the deadly Joker
Virus, even though it had killed her mother and father. Was it possible that
this child was immune to the thing that had caused so many deaths? Winnilla
decided to find out for herself. Having brought her lab equipment to her
quarters, she took some of the little girl's blood and tested it. Sure enough,
the little girl was immune to the virus.

"I don't believe it!" Sister Winnilla cried. "You're immune to the virus. Ha,
ha! Ho, ho! You - you didn't die! Ha, ha, ho, ho! The joke is on the Joker!
What's your name, girl?"

"Jennie," the girl said. "My name's Jennie."

"That's a lovely name," Sister Winnilla said. "I'm Sister Winnilla."

Hugging the child to her breast, she began to cry herself, moved by Jennie's
grief.

"Don't worry, girl," she told Jennie between sobs, "I'll look after you now,
just as my own sweet parents looked after me when we travelled the Harlequin's
Route many years ago."

By that time, Zach Allen had found the bodies of Jennie's parents in her old
quarters.

"I've found two more Virus victims," he said into his commlink. "Have Franklin
take them, and perform autopsies on both of them. Looks like the Joker's
wild."

Allen wondered who could have unleashed the Joker Virus on Babylon 5 and why
anyone here would want to kill so many people. He felt that a man's hand was
behind these deaths and realized that he must find the Joker before anyone
else aboard died a horrible grinning death. Allen went back to his office and
asked the computer for any information on file regarding the Joker. As it
turned out, there was some information on the station's files.

"Grimaldi, Joseph Elthan," the computer answered, "AKA the Joker. Born 2300,
interned in an Orione concentration camp on the planet Grudunza, 2314. Joined
Orione forces, 2318, after four years of struggle during which his parents and
grandmother were all brutally slaughtered. Rank: Executioner, First Class.
Wanted for: Treason, War Crimes. Is an expert nanotechnician and
microbiologist."

"He'd be 75 years old now," Allen thought. "I wonder what became of him? Funny
how these criminals can vanish so successfully. Yes, funny . . . it's so funny
. . . ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, HAAAAAAAAA!"

He fell to the floor laughing and as his face began to shape itself into a
ghastly grin, Zach Allen felt something cold press against his neck. Little by
little, Zach's face returned to normal, and he fainted dead away. When he woke
up Allen realized he'd fallen victim to the Joker Virus, yet that virus hadn't
killed him! Somebody must have injected Allen with a vaccine - but who could
have created one in so short a time - then used it to save his neck? He was
going to find out. A tiny piece of black cloth was caught in his office door,
and Allen pried it out.

"I'll have Franklin analyze this," he said to himself, "and learn where it
comes from."

"I've completed my analysis of that cloth fragment," Franklin told Lochley and
Zach Allen, just an hour later. "It comes from a cloak worn by the priestesses
of the Sisterhood of Love, who aid orphans and other unfortunate people
throughout the galaxy."

"And there's only one such priestess on the station," Zach Allen said. "Sister
Winnilla."

"I think," Captain Elizabeth Lochley said, "that you'd better pay her a visit,
Mr. Allen."

"Aye aye, Captain!" Allen cried. "I'm going now."

Allen located Sister Winnilla's quarters by using an area map and walked
directly there. However, Winnilla wasn't in and he had to open up the door
with the manual control. Inside, he found a number of samples of blood - which
a quick read of the medscan showed was Jennie's - and several injectors full
of newly harvested vaccine, none of which had been used yet. A small lab had
been set up on a white table, and Allen realized somebody had found a cure for
the Joker Virus - the very virus which had claimed so many lives on the camp
known as Grudunza.

"That somebody," he thought, "ironically enough, has to be the Joker himself!"

At that moment, the door slid open and Sister Winnilla came in, with Jennie
beside her.

"Sister Winnilla," Zach Allen told her, "you're under arrest - and the charge
is murder!"

"Damn," Sister Winnilla said. "I knew I couldn't stay hidden on Babylon 5 for
long."

"What's wrong, Sister?" Jennie asked. "Why is he arresting you?"

"He's arresting me," she told her, "because when I was younger, I was a war
criminal."

With one deft movement of her left foot, the curious Jennie stomped right on
Winnilla's cloak as she moved forward to surrender to Zach Allen, causing the
small clasps to pop open. The cloak fell off, thus revealing that Winnilla was
wearing some sort of turban under her hood; Zach grabbed the cloth strip on
her eyes and yanked it off. Underneath the cloth was the scarred face of a sad
older woman with bright eyes and high cheekbones. Allen lifted up a corner of
the turban to see what was underneath it and saw long scars running down
behind her jawbone.

"Biosculpt scars," he said, "made by Centari surgeons. You must've paid them a
mint to make you over into your current form . . . Joker! You were clever -
but not clever enough to out- wit Zachary Allen, Security Chief of Babylon 5!
I was just too smart for you."

"That's 'treason' you're a good officer," Winnilla confessed, smiling the
Joker's smile. "I was the Joker, yes - I admit it freely. But - I didn't
unleash my Joker Virus on Babylon 5!"

He handcuffed Sister Winnilla and led her away to the lockup.

"The Joker's in our lockup," Allen told Captain Lochley. "I arrested him - I
mean, her - this afternoon. She's going to be taken back to Earthforce HQ to
be tried for war crimes."

"Was she the one who injected you with the vaccine to the Joker Virus?"
Lochley asked.

"Yes, she was," Allen said. "She saved my neck, and I can't forget that.
That's why I'm wondering if she's really guilty of the murders that have taken
place here on Babyon 5."

"Forget it," Lochley told him. "What matters is that she'll be put on trial
for her crimes."

"You're right," Allen admitted. "She'll be getting her just deserts when she's
tried."

Meanwhile, Sister Winnilla was watching the news in her cell. She saw a young
reporter on TV facing the audience and smiled sadly to herself as the young
woman started to speak.

"Kelly O'Brien for Interstellar News Network," she said, "reporting from
Babylon 5. It's now estimated that as many as eight to ten people have died so
far from an epidemic of the Joker Virus, the deadly creation of the formerly
long-missing war criminal known as the Joker, finally brought to justice
recently. Ironically enough, the vaccine for the disease was discovered by the
Joker himself - or rather herself, since the infamous war criminal now goes by
the name of Sister Winnilla. Now relatives and friends of those who died of
the Virus have gathered together to say 'so long' to the victims who fell to
its deadly effects before the vaccine was discovered."

"He was such a dear, sweet man!" an old woman sobbed. "Why did she kill him?"

"I loved my wife very much," an Oriental fellow said, "and the Joker took her
from me!"

"My mother was like an angel," Lieutenant Reiss said, tears streaking down his
face, "but now the Joker has taken her from me for no apparent reason at all.
Mom, I miss you!"

Sister Winnilla - the Joker - bowed her head and cried with them all.

"This is all my fault!" she sobbed. "They died of my Joker virus."

"Excuse me, sir," Ensign Palmer said as she handed Zach Allen the ornate box.
"but I have just completed the fingerprint analysis on this. There were a
number of fingerprints in this box - and none of them were hers. They must be
the fingerprints of the person who stole the rubies from the box after she
went to sleep the night of the robbery."

"Not rubies, Ensign," the Security Chief said. "Ampoules - four virus ampoules
full of the Joker Virus. No wonder she lied about what the thief stole from
her. She kept those ancient ampoules as a memento - never meaning to use them
anymore - and told us that rubies had been stolen. That way, she could report
the theft without revealing her former identity to the Station Security,
thereby keeping her long-held secret safe from prying eyes."

"Why," Palmer said, "that means the Virus was spread onto Babylon 5 by -"

"Another Joker." Zach Allen told her, realizing she'd said those words at the
same time.

"We'd better find that other Joker, sir," Palmer said, "before someone else
dies."

"Good idea," Allen said. "Match the fingerprints to the ones we have on our
file."

"Aye, sir," Palmer told him. "I'll get right on it."

Mother Joliette of the Sisterhood of Love was appalled - she'd had no idea of
her own sister's criminal (to say the least) past until Captain Lochley had
told her.

"To think we've been harbouring a - a monster - and we never realized it!" she
cried. "I deserve a booby prize for my stupidity. Sister Winnilla played me
like - like a little girl!"

"There was no way you could've known," Lochley told her. "She'd undergone high
level biosculpting, and looked pretty much like a normal woman. She even had a
menstrual cycle!"

"Did she really kill all those people on Babylon 5?"

"We believe so, Mother," Lochley said proudly. "Don't forget, our security's
very efficient and we have the most advanced equipment in this sector. We
caught her within hours. She is in a cell in our lockup, ready to be sent back
to Earth to stand trial for war crimes."

Meanwhile, Sister Winnilla was still sitting in her cell when her guards
suddenly keeled over and horrible smiles formed on their faces. Reaching
between the lines of the force field, she snatched both electronic keys to the
cell and unlocked it, then just walked out of her cell, shuddering with a
horror she had never felt during her days as Executioner of Grudunza. She ran
out of the lockup, leaving the shiny keys behind on the floor of her cell, and
headed straight for a certain person's quarters, eager to make sure the Joker
Virus victims received justice.

Zach Allen was sitting in his quarters, reading a Sherlock Holmes novel, when
his chimes rang. He went to the door and opened it manually. Ensign Palmer was
on the other side.

"We have completed the fingerprint analysis," she said. "The prints belong to
someone on the Security Staff - an officer who's worked for you for a number
of years."

"Who?" Allen asked, amazement in his eyes.

Lieutenant Reiss was sitting on the couch in his quarters, drinking a large
pina colada. He was talking to his Aunt Maria, who'd called him to see how he
was holding up.

"Are you ready to go out on a date yet?" Maria asked.

"Not yet, darling," Reiss told her. "Perhaps when I'm feeling better. Right
now I'm seeing my mother floating before my eyes everywhere, as though she
were still living. I see her face on the ceiling above me, the floor below me,
and on the planet in my window."

"Goodbye, then." Maria said.

"Goodbye, Aunt Maria!" Reiss said, then Maria ended her transmission.

Jumping to his feet and heading for the window, Reiss started singing.

"Oh, what a beautiful morning!

Oh, what a beautiful day!

I've got a beautiful feeling

Everything's going my way."

He opened the window, and the two panes slid back to reveal the stars
twinkling before Reiss.At that moment Reiss felt a hand clamp down on his
shoulder, almost breaking it, and saw Sister Winilla standing behind him. She
smiled at him, knowing he was startled, then said:

"Mr. Reiss? We have to talk."

She drew a sword.

"I now cast aside my lawful identity!" she cried, pulling off her cloak and
veil. "This I do for the cause of justice. This I do for the good of all!"

She raised the sword to cut off his head - and then stopped herself

"No!" she cried. "I can't do this anymore. I've reformed - I'm Sister Winnilla
now!"

At that moment, the door slid open, and Zach Allen and his officers came in,
aiming their PPGs at Reiss and Winnilla. Winnilla grabbed Reiss by the upper
arms.

"You're very quick, Mr. Allen!" she told him. "Here's the maniac who swiped my
virus ampoules, and spread the Joker Virus throughout Babylon 5, resulting in
the deaths of many inn- ocent people including Jennie's mother and father.
He's the worst criminal I've ever seen."

"We know!" Zach told her. "We've come to arrest him."

She let Reiss go, and Zach took him into custody.

"You were clever, Reiss," he told the young man, "but not clever enough to
outwit Sister Winnilla - or me, Security Chief Zach Allen of Babylon Five!
Both of you will look nice in my lockup! Sister Winnilla, you'll still have to
return to Earth to be tried for war crimes."

"I know, Mr. Allen," she told him, "so I'll go with you willingly."

About an hour later, when Winnilla had been put back in her cell in the
lock-up and Reiss had been placed behind the bars of another cell, Captain
Lochley called Zach Allen.

"We have an incoming message from Chief of Earthforce Security Frank
Merriwell."

"I'll take the message in my office, Captain!" Lochley exclaimed.

"As you wish, Zach!" Lochley exclaimed.

At that moment, the bony, handsome face of Frank Merriwell came on the screen.

"Good to see you again, Frank!" Zach exclaimed.

"And you, Zachary!" Frank cried. "And you!'

"What's the reason for this call, Frank?" Zachary asked. "Is it important?"

"Yes, Zachary, old boy!" Frank told him. "I received your report about the
Joker, Zach- ary, and I've read it from cover to cover."

"Did you like it?" Zach asked Frank.

"It was very interesting, Zachary," Frank told him, "and I've made my decision
on how to proceed in this matter. Zachary, I'm asking you to let Sister
Winnilla go free."

"You've got to be kidding, Frank!" Zach exclaimed.

"I'm not, Zachary, old boy," Frank told him, "I'm serious. She may have been a
criminal in the past, but I feel that she is now completely rehabilitated.
What kind of people are we being when we arrest someone who is obviously
rehabilitated for crimes that she committed years ago? What you've done to
that poor woman, Zachary, is the worst form of mental cruelty I know. Af- ter
reading your report, I am convinced that Sister Winnilla no longer presents a
threat to anyone on Babylon 5 or any place else in the Galaxy. Mr. Reiss will
be sent back to Earth to be tried for his crimes, Zachary, but Sister Winnilla
must go free. I'm issuing her a full pardon."

With that, Merriwell's face disappeared from the screen. True to his word, a
pardon for Sister Winnilla arrived from Earth late that afternoon and Zach
Allen was forced to let her go. It cited "her gallantry in ending once and for
all the threat of her Joker Virus" and the fact that she was completely
rehabilitated and posed no further threat to the Solar System. Zach Allen took
it upon himself to bring Sister Winnilla and Jennie to the docking bay and see
them off.

"Why did you decide to become a woman?" he asked Winnilla.

"I wanted to honour the memory of my beloved grandmother and to honour the
Sisters I slaughtered at the concentration camp on Grudunza who are now
considered martyrs."

"When did you decide to reform?" Allen asked.

"When the Grudunza camp was invaded by Earthforce and its allies," she said,
"they des- troyed the computer that was linked to the Orione officers'
implants. Therefore, I was restored to my normal self and felt a horrible
guilt for what I'd done to those people in the war."

"That will be all, Sister!" Grant Allen said as he kissed her hand.
"Farewell."

"Goodbye, Mr. Allen!" Jennie cried, waving wildly as she and Winnilla entered
the ship.

Standing on the floor of the vehicle bay, Security Chief Grant Allen watched
as the ship carrying Winnilla and Jennie left the vehicle bay and went into
the Earth jumpgate. To his surp- rise, there was no boom as the ship
disappeared into hyperspace; Sister Winnilla and Jennie were both together
forever and both had reached a final peace. The Joker was truly happy at long
last.

the end