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Welcome to T-Rob’s Sci-Fi Guide

A Guide to the heroes, villains, aliens, places, items and adventures of sci-fi

Compiled by T. Rob Brown

I

• Icarus, The: Scientific vessel destroyed when it landed on the Shadow stronghold, Z’ha’dum. Members of the crew who would not serve the Shadows were killed. Captain Sheridan’s wife, Anna, was also on board. (KNIVES) [BAB5]
• ICE: See Intruder Countermeasure Electronics. [BAB5]
• ICE-breaker: Computer program used to override Intruder Countermeasure Electronics. Security Chief Garibaldi employed an ICE-breaker to trade the individual who was illegally using the Gold Channel. (PURPLE) [BAB5]
• IDC: Short for indentification code, an IDC is a signal transmitted by a GDO through a stargate to the SGC in order to open the iris for incoming travelers. See GDO and iris. [SG1, SGA]
• identicard: A personal identification card. [BAB5]
• identification code: See IDC. [SG1, SGA]
• Ikaara 7: Ikaara 7 was the home of an advanced, space-faring society which was annihilated some time around the 13th century. After their homeworld suffered half a dozen invasions, the Ikaaran leaders decided they needed to create the perfect weapon to defend themselves: a bio-organic weapon could adapt to any situation and was capable of intelligent thought. Using the brainwaves of a researcher, Tu’Lar, to form its personality matrix, Ikaara’s leading scientists created eleven machines which were programmed to meld with a living being and then kill anything that wasn’t pure Ikaaran. However, when the warriors saved the planet from yet another invasion, they then turned on their creators and wiped out the entire population of Ikaara 7. (INFECTION) [BAB5]
• Ilarus: The Centauri goddess of luck and patron of gamblers. (SURVIVORS) [BAB5]
• Imperial Conditioning: A development of the Suk Medical Schools: The highest conditioning against taking human life. Initiates are marked by a diamond tattoo on the forehead. [DUNE]
• Indonesian Consortium, The: A commonwealth located on Earth. (VOICE I) [BAB5]
• Ingata, The: The Minbari war cruiser upon which Branmer’s body was transported on its journey to the homeworld in 2258. (LEGACIES) [BAB5]
• Inquisitor, The: See Sebastian. [BAB5]
• Interplanetary Expeditions (IPX): The corporation that sponsored the controversial ISN documentary "36 Hours Aboard Babylon 5" in September 2259. Its catchphrase was, "Exploring the past to create a better future" (WORD). Dr. Vance Hencricks said IPX was a front for the important bio-weapons supplier who funded his trip to Ikaara 7 (INFECTION). [BAB5]
• Interstellar News Network (ISN): The galaxy’s leading news network, based in Geneva. All its broadcasts are hypertext captioned. In 2260, ISN itself hit the headlines when it broadcast Lieutenant Keffer’s footage of a Shadow ship in hyperspace. It was immediately taken off the air by Earthforce. (MATTERS) [BAB5]
• InterWeb: An Earth Alliance computer network. (EYES) [BAB5]
• "In the Light of Two Moons": A poem written by Shall Mayan. "In the Light of Two Moons" took many years to write, and made its debut in 2258 on Babylon 5. (PRAYER) [BAB5]
• Intruder Countermeasure Electronics (ICE): Computer program which protects the user from external tracking. Lieutenant-Commander Ivanova used ICE to prevent Security Chief Garibaldi from tracing her when she used the Gold Channel to contact her dying father. (PURPLE) [BAB5]
• Io: A moon of Jupiter, Io is the site of an Earth Alliance outpost, jumpgate and transfer point. Prior to their appointments to Babylon 5, John Sheridan and Ivanova served together at Io (DEPARTURE), while Dr. Kyle met his successor, Dr. Franklin, at the Io transfer point (SOUL). [BAB5]
• Ipsha: A non-aligned alien race, the Ipsha fought the Dilgar during the Dilgar Invasion. (DEATHWALKER) [BAB5]
• iris: A retractable iris of a trinium-titanium alloy is less than 3 microns from the event horizon and prevents unauthorized entry. This allows for additional security. In order to bypass the iris, a GDO must transmit a valid IDC to signal the SGC to open the iris for incoming travel. See GDO and IDC. [SG1, SGA]
• Ironheart, Jason: Jason Ironheart worked as an instructor at the Psi Corps Training Academy and gave high-level training to P5-P10 telepaths. Among other things, Ironheart taught about jamming, long-range scans and fringe skills. Ironheart was a P10 when he volunteered for a covert Earthforce Military Intelligence genetic experiment aimed at increasing his telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Ironheart said the ultimate aim of the experiment was to create a telekinetic assassin who was capable of killing with just a thought. Ironheart took between five and 15 injections a day for months. Then, one day, he woke up and could "see everything." Ironheart knew he had to escape from the Psi Corps, otherwise it would have him killed and dissected to discover the drugs that transformed him. Before he left the Corps’ base, he killed the researcher who had created him, so he could not manufacture another telepath/telekinetic like him. As his abilities continued to grow, Ironheart traveled to Babylon 5 to say farewell to his old lover, Talia Winters, and prepare for the final stage of his transformation. While he was aboard the station, his abilities increased beyond his control. As a result, he found it increasingly difficult to control his mindquakes. Ironheart was programmed with a telepathic password to shut him down and put him to sleep. When Psi Cops Bester and Kelsey tried to use the password, he killed Kelsey in an act of self-defense. Shortly after he left the station, Ironheart’s ship exploded. Although official records state he was killed during the explosion, in reality he moved onto a higher plane of existence. Ironheart said farewell to the station’s command staff and gave Talia Winters an unspecified gift which, he told her, was in memory of their love. (Played by William Allen Young.) (MIND) [BAB5]
• Isogi, Taro: As the chief executive of FutureCorp, Taro Isogi dedicated his business and his life to improving the lives of others. During his career, he developed a close friendship with Talia Winters, whom he considered to be the finest commercial telepath he had ever worked with. In 2259, Isogi traveled to Babylon 5 to meet Amanda Carter of the Mars Conglomerate. He proposed a solution to the Mars crisis which would bring freedom and peace to the colony and healthy profit to FutureCorp. Although this was risky and extremely expensive in the short term, Isogi felt the Mars Colony could be self-sufficient by 2269 if alien trade agreements were finalized. Shortly after his first meeting with Amanda Carter, Isogi was murdered by Bureau 13 operative Abel Horn. Carter later agreed to pursue Isogi’s plan as a tribute to his memory. (Played by James Shigeta.) [BAB5]
• Isolab: Self-contained, hermetically-sealed isolation chamber in medlab. Isolabs are used for biological research and to identify hazardous microorganisms, and also create nonhumanoid atmospheres. They are accessed through their own airlock. (SACRIFICE) [BAB5]
• Itagi: Boxer beaten by Walker Smith. Some spectators referred to their fight as "World War 4." (TKO) [BAB5]
• Ivanov, Andrei: The husband of Sofie Ivanova and father of Susan Ivanova and Gayna Ivanov, Andrei Ivanov was a Russian Jew and a scholar who devoted his life to logic, reason and peace. A typical Russian realist, Ivanov used to say "If regret could be harvested, then Russia would be the world’s food basket." Ivanova called Susan "dushenkanyia," which means "little soul." Following the death of his wife and son, he became too wrapped up in his own grief to give his daughter the love and support she needed. When she joined Earthforce, he opposed her decision because he was afraid of losing her. Susan invited him to visit Babylon 5 several times but he never took her up on the offer. He always declined because he believed mankind had no right to travel across the stars until it had learned to live peacefully on Earth. Rabbi Koslov thought Andrei would have liked the station. Andrei Ivanov died in 2258 after a long illness. When Susan contracted him on his deathbed, he apologized to her for not giving her the love she needed and asked for her forgiveness. (Played by Robert Phalen.) (PURPLE) [BAB5]
• Ivanov, Gayna: The son of Andrei and Sofie Ivanov and brother of Susan, Gayna Ivanov was killed in the Earth-Minbari War, a year after his mother committed suicide. (TKO) [BAB5]
• Ivanova, Sofie: The wife of Andrei Ivanov and mother of Susan and Gayna, Sofie Ivanova always kept her telepathic abilities a secret. On her 35th birthday, the Psi Corps caught her. Given the choice between joining the organization, life imprisonment, and a telepathic suppressant, Sofie decided to accept the last option and she was treated with weekly injections which slowly eroded her spirit. Sofie wanted to make sure Susan would not share her fate. She taught her how to fail the Psi Corps telepathic tests and kept transferring her from school to school in order to stay one step ahead of the Corps. After 10 years of the Psi Corps treatment, Sofie Ivanova committed suicide. (MIDNIGHT, LEGACIES, EYES) (Played by Marie Chambers.) [BAB5]
• Ivanova, Lt.-Commander/Commander Susan: As Babylon 5’s first officer, Susan Ivanova supervises everyday operations aboard the station. Born Aug. 30, 2230, in St. Petersburg, the Russian Consortium, Earth, she was educated largely abroad to prevent the Psi Corps from learning she was a latent telepath (WORD, DIVIDED). Sofie taught Susan how to avoid being discovered by the Psi Corps and convinced her she must never be scanned (DIVIDED). When her mothelr was discovered by the Corps and slowly pushed toward suicide by it, Susan built up a deep resentment for the organization (MIDNIGHT). When she was 13, Susan became obsessed with the radical neo-communist Kushoyev and persuaded her father to take her to one of his readings. Although Andrei thought Kushoyev’s work would destroy Russian culture and didn’t want to go, she sulked until he relented. After the reading, father and daughter attended a question and answer session, during which Susan asked her idol a question she had worked on for weeks. When Kushoyev said it was the stupidest thing he had ever heard and called her "a bourgeois little twit barely out of diapers," her father was not impressed. He stood up, pointed out that she was not a bourgeois or a twit and had been out of diapers for many years, while his writing had yet to rise above the contents of diapers. He then added that if he wasn’t a man of peace, he would have horsewhipped him through the streets of St. Petersburg just like his father should have done many years earlier! Susan was mortified, but felt better when her father told her, "It was a good question, dushenkanyia." After the death of her month, Susan became estranged from her father, who buried himself in his own grief. The following year, when her brother Gayna was killed in the Earth-Minbari War, she ignored Adrei’s wishes and joined Earthforce in 2247. Susan felt she had to finish what her brother started and graduated from the OTC in 2249, just after the end of the war. (WORD) Ivanova embarked on a passionate affair with Malcolm Biggs, whom she left in 2250 when she accepted a transfer to Io. While she thought the transfer was a big and exciting career move, she cried herself to sleep for the first few months (PRAYER). At Io, Ivanova served under John Sheridan for the first time. He got a taste of her dislike for telepaths when she threw a telepath out of a third-story window into an "ample" pool (SPIDER). Ivanova worked her way up the ranks without connections or patrons and was appointed Babylon 5’s first officer in January 2258 (FALL). Her record was exemplary (EYES). Like her father, Ivanova tried hard to keep her feelings to herself. When he passed away in 2258, she chose not to tell anyone and didn’t attend his funeral due to work commitments. She was later convinced by Rabbi Koslov to let go of the pain, guilt, and anguish surrounding her father’s death and sat shivah for him on Babylon 5 (TKO). Enlightened by her experience, Ivanova later urged Dr. Franklin to make peace with his father before it was too late (GROPOS). Raised a Jew, Ivanova said she believed in God most of the time (Z’HA’DUM). Ivanova shares her father’s typically-Russian realism and she became famous aboard the station for her sharp one-liners. As a result, many of the staff on Babylon 5 consider her to be a pessimist (SOUL). She once said a good leader should have a strong chin. Consequently, she voted for Marie Crane in the 2258 Earth Alliance presidential election because her opponent, Luis Santiago, didn’t have a strong chin, but several weak ones (MIDNIGHT). Ivanova subsequently became a strong supporter of Santiago and felt shattered when he was killed in January 2259 (DEPARTURE). Ivanova said the hardest thing about serving on Babylon 5 was getting out of bed. She always had a problem waking up when it was dark outside, so she found mornings on Babylon 5 to be particularly difficult. Ivanova also wondered why her mouth always tastes like old carpet every morning. (SIGNS) Ivanova is an experienced combat officer. She has more than 100 hours flight experience and occasionally yearns to leave Babylon 5 and take a Starfury into action (BELIEVERS). When she was described as being cute by an amorous male in the casino, she acquitted herself admirably in a fight with everyone in the building (EYES). Despite her spotless record, Ivanova has been known to break rules. For example, in 2258 she used the Gold Channel to contact her dying father and confronted a Raiders squadron without backup to give the Asimov a chance to escape. (PURPLE, BELIEVERS) When her ex-lover Malcolm Biggs returned to Babylon 5, she was willing to consider rekindling their romance. However, when Biggs was revealed to be a leading member of the Homeguard, she was horrified and agreed to help Sinclair bring him to justice if she could be their for his capture. She couldn’t believe how much Biggs had changed and said she had known many aliens who were more human than he was. (PRAYER) Sinclair depended on Ivanova and said she was the finest officer he ever served with (TKO). Unsurprisingly, therefore, she was promoted to the rank of commander in January 2259 by Captain Sheridan the day after he assumed command of Babylon 5 (GEOMETRY). Ivanova’s first assignment as a commander was to stop the green and purple Drazi aboard the station from fighting each other during their battle of supremacy. She first tried to find a peaceful solution to their dispute, but when she learned they were fighting a war out of tradition, she decided her only option was to structure the fighting so no one was seriously hurt or killed. Ivanova paid the price of peace when she found herself caught between the warring factions in one fight and broke her foot. She was then kidnapped by the purple Drazi who intended to use her to lure their green opponents into a trap. Finally, she managed to stop the fighting when she unintentionally assumed the leadership of the purple Drazi and ordered them to dye their sashes green, thus ending the war on the station (GEOMETRY). Her next signifigant diplomatic mission was to convince the Lumati to join the Babylon project. Sheridan told her to do whatever it took to forge an alliance with the advanced aliens. When they agreed to sign on to the program, Ivanova was shocked to learn the Lumati finalize all agreements through sexual intercourse and found herself caught in a moral dilemma. When Dr. Franklin pointed out the Lumati were probably quite ignorant of human biology, she performed a manic dance for Correlilmurzon which, she told him, was human-style mating. Before he left the station, the Lumati sent her a present and a message saying, "Next time, my way!" (SACRIFICE) Ivanova always remembered how John Sheridan once told her not to fear answers but only running out of questions. When Sheridan revealed he had never told her that, she was left trying to recall who she had confused him with. (HONOR) When she goes off-duty, Ivanova normally winds down at the casino (MIDNIGHT). She exercises vigorously once a day and fights to keep her figure, but her diet is low in iron and calcium (DISTANT). The commander would sometimes visit Bay 13 late at night to look at Ambassador Kosh’s ship (PREY). During her first two years aboard Babylon 5, Ivanova refused to be scanned on several occasions so she could keep her talent telepathic ability a secret. She initially dismissed the possibility she could ever be friends with Psi Corps telepath Talia Winters, but their relationship slowly changed. The unlikely pair developed a respect for each other when they clashed over the fate of the unregistered telepath Alisa Beldon and became much closer when Talia confided in Susan that she had learned the true nature of Psi Corps and no longer wanted to be a part of it (RACE). However, their intimate friendship was destroyed when Talia was revealed to be an unwitting Psi Corps mole (DIVIDED). In the long term, Susan Ivanova hopes to command a starship one day. When Nightwatch representative Mr. Weller told her his organization could find her a command faster than she could imagine, she refused the bribe. (FALL) (Played by Claudia Christian.) [BAB5]

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