The Great Machine
From The Great Machine
The Great Machine is a repository of knowledge and technology five miles beneath the surface of Epsilon 3.
- Since The Great Machine is the single largest known repository of knowledge in the B5 Universe, it was picked as the title for this reference site for Babylon 5.
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Overview
Powered by several massive fusion reactors, some five to ten kilometres across, the planet could sustain itself for a short time. However, due to the sheer complexity of the mechanism, it requires a living being to keep the system stable.
Living within the machine itself are a race of quiet, reserved beings. One family of ten was named Zathras (all with slightly different pronunciations that humans can't tell apart). They work diligently to maintain The Great Machine throughout the ages, mostly doing a variety of minor tasks so as to avoid diverting the operator's focus from the Great Machine by weighing him down with trivia.
History
Sometime in the late 13th century, shortly after the First Shadow War, Valen traveled to Epsilon 3 and received the three Triluminaries. These three items became Minbar's most treasured religious possessions.
In c. 1750, the last of the race of beings that built the Great Machine left Epsilon 3. They left a guardian, Varn, to keep the machine until the time it would be needed in five-hundred years.
In 2256, Babylon 5 begins construction in orbit of Epsilon 3. Scans of the planet turn up no traces of life or prior inhabitation. Deep under the planet, the Great Machine goes unnoticed.
In 2258, the keeper of the Great Machine, Varn, was dying, and with him, the planet. With the impending death of Varn, a new keeper needed to be found. The Minbari Draal, in an effort to keep the planet stable, accepted this duty with great honour, restoring the machine to stability.
When Draal appeared to Captain Sheridan in 2259, it was revealed that being the keeper of the Great Machine came with the added benefit of a greatly extended life. Draal's physical appearance had been changed to that of a man roughly half his age, as he appeared when he was Delenn's teacher.
In 2260, John Sheridan learns that Epsilon 3 was responsible for sending Babylon 4 back in time to help the Minbari in the last Shadow War.
In 2261, Susan Ivanova uses the planet's vast supply of power to boost the signal of the station's alternative news broadcast, The Voice of the Resistance such that it could slip past the Earthforce jammers.
Abilities
Known Capabilities
- Holographic Communication and projection
- Long Range Sensors
- Bending of space and time itself
- Remote power distribution
Suspected Capabilities
Since the Great Machine is capable of transporting gigantic objects through time itself and has been shown to be capable of projecting holograms at great distances, it is possible that the machine could have some limited ability to teleport matter.
