Babylon 5: Blood Oath
 First edition cover | |
| Author | John Vornholt |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Babylon 5 |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Del Rey Books |
Publication date | May 1995 |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 278 pp |
| ISBN | 0-440-22059-9 |
| OCLC | 33182486 |
| Preceded by | Babylon 5: Accusations |
| Followed by | Babylon 5: Clark's Law |
Blood Oath is the third book in the series of original science fiction novels based on the Emmy Award-winning series Babylon 5 created by J. Michael Straczynski. The book was written by John Vornholt
Plot
The book focuses on G'Kar and his conflict with the family of Du'Rog. This conflict first appeared in the television series in the episode "The Parliament of Dreams", where Du'Rog hires an assassin from the Thenta Makur to kill G'Kar because Du'Rog knows G'Kar had a hand in framing him for war crimes, but the assassin fails to kill G'Kar. In the novel, Du'Rog's daughter Mi'Ra sends G'Kar a message that she has sworn a Skon'Kar. Between the episode "The Pariliament of Dreams" and this message from Mi'Ra, there was another attempt on G'Kar's life by assassins hired by Du'Rog's family. This second attempt is mentioned in the novel when G'Kar has recurring nightmares about the attempt.
G'Kar fears that attempts on his life will continue unless he can end the conflict with Du'Rog's family, by either making peace with them or killing the remaining members of the family. G'Kar fakes his death by having his personal shuttle explode after leaving the station. After a memorial service on Babylon 5 for G'Kar, Michael Garibaldi and Susan Ivanova head to the Narn homeworld with Na'Toth to answer questions about G'Kar's death.
Garibaldi and Ivanova begin to suspect that G'Kar is alive because his body is never recovered and, before leaving for Narn, Molari makes a reference to Mark Twain, which they suspect is to Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer attending their own funerals in one of Twain's novels. While on a ship to Narn, they follow their instincts and find G'Kar hiding on the ship. They agree to help him on Narn with the understanding that he will reveal the truth and prevent his conflict from affecting Babylon 5 more.
Gaibaldi, Ivanova, Na'Toth, a human named Al who joins them with the pretense that he has lived on Narn for ten years and knows the area, and G'Kar wearing a fake disguise attempt to find a way to curve Mi'Ra's blood lust.
They meet with Mi'Ra to explain that G'Kar is alive, but they tell her he is still on Babylon 5, and that she must end her attempts to kill him. Mi'Ra however knows that G'Kar is alive and is with them using a disguise. She attempts to kill them, but they escape and hide in underground catacombs. In the end, she finds them again and Al reveals that he is actually there with information that will end the conflict as the information proves that her father was innocent of all charges against him. He will give her the information if she agrees to let G'Kar live and if G'Kar agrees to give enough money to Du'Rog's family to help restore them to their lives.
On Narn, G'Kar avoids going public about his involvement in framing Du'Rog, and instead presents himself as a hero who has worked to restore Du'Rog's family honor. After leaving Narn, G'Kar goes to thank Molari as he knows Molari is the only one with access to the information that could have cleared Du'Rog's name. Molari says that hewould rather have G'Kar in his debt then see G'Kar die at the hands of Mi'Ra.