Throughout his life, Jeffrey Sinclair had been trying and failing to find where he fit in, always restless, uncertain, unsatisfied. Coming to Minbar as earth’s ambassador had helped, he’d felt more at peace there than he ever had on earth, or even Mars, his homeworld.

But now a message had arrived, a message from nine-hundred years ago, a message written, unaccountably, in his own handwriting, by his own hand. He knew it was no forgery, because when he read it, all his doubts and confusion melted away. At last he knew why he was here, and the course he must now take.

It wouldn’t be easy, it meant saying goodbye to people he cared about, old friends who had stood by him through difficult times, and newer acquaintances. As he’d expected, some of them tried to talk him out of what he intended to do, even wanting to trade places with him, but he stood firm. He was the only one who could do this, and he would do it because he already had. To NOT go through with it would be to change the past, which in turn would alter the present, and not in a good way.

Besides, this was what he’d been waiting for his entire life, even though he hadn’t known it until recently. He had no more doubts, only a calm and sure sense of purpose. He would travel back in time, along with Babylon 4, undergo a transformation similar to the one Delenn experienced, and help the Minbari and their allies defeat the shadows. But he wouldn’t be doing it as Jeffrey Sinclair, human, ex-Commander of Babylon 5. He’d be doing it as Valen, a Minbari not born of Minbari, fulfilling both prophecy and destiny.

It wasn’t the end for him, just the beginning.


The End