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Babylon 5 Station Map

Babylon 5 Exterior Map | Station Overview | Station Services | Babylon 5 Interior Map | Blue Sector | Brown Sector | Green Sector | Red Sector | Gray Sector | Yellow Sector | Downbelow

Babylon 5 Exterior Map

Station Overview

Babylon 5 is the last of the Babylon stations. After the loss of Babylon 4, the station was left with a minimal budget. Even with additional alien funding, the Earth Alliance kept looking for ways to reduce their financial commitment. Babylon 5 is a marvel of human engineering. It is a cylindrical construct nearly five miles long with a maximum capacity of 250,000 beings. While the interior rotates for a gravity positive environment, the spine of the station, housing the zero-g docking bays, and the fusion reactor, are relatively stationary. Framing the rear of the station are the blue internal heat radiator fins.

 The interior station is itself divided in to color-coded sectors. Each sector consists of at 70 to 30 levels between the axis and the hull. Blue sector houses station administration and EA personnel quarters. Red Sector is relegated to business and diplomatic chambers. Green sector contains high-security quarters for the various alien diplomats (with adjustable environment quarters for ambassadors that require it). Unauthorized personnel are not admitted. Both Grey and Brown Sectors were largely unfinished due to budgetary constraints. Grey sector is infamous for the Babylon 5 Triangle -- an area around Grey 17 that leads an active imagination to believe the place is haunted. Maintenance crews have reported strange lights, sounds and disappearances in the area.

 A jumpgate is located nearby with the Corridor being the standard approach vector to the station. Vessels straying off the Corridor's flight path are fined.

Station Services

 While most officials refer to the station as a trade center (and rightly so, Babylon 5 typically services 50 to 60 ships per day cycle), a multitude of services are available for the business traveller, tourist, and resident alike.

  • Communications Utilizing the Tachyon Relay System, Babylon 5 has real-time communications with the rest of the Earth Alliance and alien worlds. High-priority Gold Channels are exclusively for official use and always have top priority in relay routing. Commercial communications are less reliable and have much fewer channels available, making the wait for the call to go through is the target of many jokes.
  • Credit System Beings entering Babylon 5 are given a credit chit. Any currency held by the being is converted to current Earth-value credits according to the currency exchange rate. This is usually accomplished at Exchange Machines located conveniently throughout the station. The credit chit contains the being's name, ID, additional personal information, including genetic anti-forgery information, and the current amount of credits the being currently has in the Babylon 5 central computer (the chit is also tied to a being's IdentiCard). Employees of the station have their salaries tied into the chit. It is used as a debit card. Each purchase or transfer runs down the total amount of credits until a deposit is made.
  • Entertainment Babylon 5 offers a multitude of entertainment opportunities, including those of an illegal nature. Station vids offer thousands of entertainment channels (including ISN, the Business Channel, Channel 57, and local news). Holo-arcades and sports arenas are also available, including several "outdoor" activities in the Park. Intergalactic shopping in the Bazaar and Zocalo is always a  favorite. For those wanting pleasures of a more basic nature, dozens of bars are located throughout the station, and prostitutes of many species are available both legally and in Downbelow.
  • Living Quarters While most quarters are designed for nitrogen/oxygen breathers, several living areas are designed to accommodate those beings requiring alternate atmospheres. Should such aliens wish to travel in the standard atmosphere areas, they must wear respiration equipment or a full-body encounter suit.
  • Showers Executive and Command quarters are the only suites that have real water showers, the rest of the station must make do with vibe showers which use sonic projectors and antibacterial lighting rather than water.
  • Transportation  All in-station transportation is handled by the Babylon Transit Authority. The most convenient means of transport through the station are the transport tubes, which can move vertically from level to level (average travel time between levels is three  seconds). Some transport tubes offer transport horizontally. The Core shuttle (hanging in almost z-gravity near the Axis of the station) is the fastest way to travel along the length of the five-mile station. Core shuttles run every five minutes with stops at fifteen points along the length of the station.
Babylon Transit Authority
Babylon 5 Interior Map

Blue Sector

Function: C&C, Docking Bays, Customs, Medlabs, Personnel Habitation, Administration, Babylon 5 Advisory Council Chambers

 Below the zero-g docking bay, in the rotating section, is the docking bay proper and the forepart of Blue Sector. All ships enter the station dead center. An incoming ship surrenders its shipboard computer to Babylon 5 Command and Control, or C&C, located directly beneath the bay entrance. While most pilots can easily match the station's rotation, the possibility of pilot error is far greater than computer error (a fact proven more than

once). . Unfortunately, certain cost-cutting measures taken during the station's construction have lead to accidental loss of life and property. A ship is then taken and lowered into one of many bays located toward the hull. The docking areas are divided into sections, with the diplomatic and military bays having restricted access. Starfuries are housed in separate launch bays in cobra shaped projections along the round front of the station, hence their common name "Cobra Bays."

 The Service Collar is the name for the structure immediately south of the command and docking sphere at the head of the station. Immediately "south" of the collar is Customs and Disembarkation. Customs is a hundred-meter wide chamber running in alongside the collar. While most employees are human, several aliens are employed using substandard hardware translators.

 The seventy levels of Blue Sector mostly house the 8,000 station employees. Several mess halls and rec areas are in Blue Sector. Also in Blue Sector are the Medlabs, staffed by highly trained xenobiologists who tend to the ambassadors and Earth Force personnel. Medlab One (Blue 7) is a small facility exclusively used by the Medical Chief of Staff, Doctor Stephen Franklin. There are larger medical facilities, resembling proper hospitals, elsewhere on the station. The Babylon 5 Council chambers are located here as well. A recent addition to Blue Sector is the Strategic War Room, from which the Great War is monitored and directed.

Brown Sector

Function: Commerce and Transient Habitation

 Because of its location to the docking area and customs, Brown Sector is dedicated to the thousands of beings passing through the station on a daily basis and aliens with special requirements. Temporary lodging and commercial (including some of the more shady restaurants and clubs) are dedicated to travellers, traders, and others.

 Aliens requiring alternate atmosphere and gravity conditions live in the Alien Sector. While most aliens residing here require special atmosphere mixes, oxygen breathing aliens tend to gravitate here, away from the overabundance of humans elsewhere. The alien sector is not all blank corridors curtained in noxious gasses, the Hanging Garden houses various varieties of alien plant life suited to a methane-ammonia atmosphere. The Hanging Garden got its name from the various spheres of soils that hang suspended from the ceiling by thick chains. Most of the alien growths are phosphorescent. The Dilgar War Memorial was erected here to commemorate the worlds and species that fell to the Dilgar.

Green Sector

Function: Diplomatic Habitation and Facilities

 Green Sector is set aside for the residence of the alien ambassadors, dignitaries, and their parties. Limited facilities are available for aliens whose atmospheric needs are not so severe that they must live in the Alien Sector. Diplomatic quarters for the major powers are located in Green 2. Each ambassador has diplomatic immunity and the quarters of each ambassador are considered to be part of their world's territory. Since a complete suite of offices for each ambassador would take up most of the station, diplomats are given priority access to the station's meeting rooms, conference centers, and auditoriums.

Red Sector

Function: Habitation, Commerce and Leisure Facilities

Fresh Air Restaurant

 The hollow interior of the rotating section is called the Garden. Its main purpose is to provide food and oxygen and water reclamation for the station. Most of the food grown here do not require seasonal changes, since there are no seasons in this artificial environment. Foods that do need seasonal variation are grown in separate hydroponic areas. In addition to necessary insects cultivated in the zoos below the "ground," birds are also in the Garden -- all of which are now used to the new

physics of flying in this environment. No one is allowed to camp out on the interior -- anyone doing so is arrested for destroying precious crops. A small percentage of the 12 square miles of vegetation is used for recreation. The Garden offers the following amenities to station inhabitants: a hedge maze, Zen garden, sports fields, recreation lake, a rotunda, mosque, a pavilion, and the high class Fresh Air Restaurant. Supporting the park plantlife is twenty meters of dirt, under which are four levels of hydroys, support systems, storage and silage units, water and oxygen reclamation units, chemical processors, farm equipment garages, and insect zoos.

 Wrapped around the "southern end" of the Garden is Red Sector; the Zen Garden and the Maze have Red Sector addresses. The interior of Red Sector is lined with marketplaces, business areas such as the Zocalo, Hotel suites, casinos, bars, brothels, hundreds of shops, stands, bars, restaurants, and clubs. Places to see:

Zocalo
  • The Bazaar - alien traders from around the galaxy ply their exotic wares here.
  • Book Universe (book store)
  • Casinos The casinos accept all currencies and offer games from seven systems including Joy Wheel and Blackjack. Telepaths are allowed access, but are forbidden to play. Station personnel are allowed access too, but cannot exceed a fifty credit limit, lest they turn to unsavory elements for funding.
  • The Dark Star Club (seeTaan Churok )
  • Doug's Dugout Sports Bar Specializes in Zoon Burgers, Jovian tubers, and Attraxion Ale.
  • The Eclipse Cafe
  • Earhart's (Earth Alliance officer's club)
  • Finagle's Place
  • The Fresh Air Restaurant The finest (and most expensive) restaurant on station.
  • The Galactic Boutique
  • The Glory Shop
  • The Green Tiger
  • Happy Daze Bar
  • Babylon 5 Museum permanent exhibition on Earth History (highlighted by a 20th century electric guitar) with rotating exhibits from various worlds.
  • Zocalo Cafe

 Gray Sector

Function: Construction and Manufacturing

 Gray Sector is the industrial center of Babylon 5. Manufacturing and maintenance facilities that cannot be located the the populated sections of the station are located here. Power regulation stations, food production facilities, and waste processing facilities are also located here. Access to this section is restricted to station operations personnel only. It has a total of 30 levels at its widest point.

 Gray 14 houses environmental support, cooling areas (for the fusion reactor), and storage space. Gray 17 was hidden from station records by a cult and was ignored by maintenance workers as a blueprint glitch for four years. Station folklore said that the area around Grey 16 and 17 (actually 18) was haunted. A number of maintenance workers claimed to have seen strange lights and heard unusual noises. There were problems with scans and communications here, and several missing people were last seen in that area before they disappeared. It wasn't until the station's security chief discovered the missing level was stolen by the Cult of the Universe and that the cause of the disappearances was a zarg.

Yellow Sector

Function: Zero-Gravity Cargo Bays and Docking, Maintenance, Defense Systems

 In the fore of the station is the zero-gravity docking bay entrance. Two docking "horns" frame the bay, to help guide and stabilize the huge bulk freighters. Once parked in front of the area, a freighter is offloaded, refueled by the "hose jockeys," and ofttimes loaded up again. The zero-g bays extent well into the middle of the station, just above Red Sector. Although the area is stationary, it is accessible from many parts of the habitable sections of the station.

Downbelow

 "Downbelow" is a term used to describe the unused parts of the station (mostly those levels nearest the outer hull) where the homeless, or Lurkers, eke out a living. Trapped on the station for various reasons, most die here unknown and unremembered. Commerce runs primarily on barter. It is estimated that Downbelow accounts for nine-tenths of the station's crime.

 "Downtown" is an area between the hull and the water reclamation systems situated in levels 50 and 51 between Blue and Grey Sectors. It is full of heavy machinery, lead walls and pipes and was welded shut when the station went online. Water and Waste reclamation systems are on decks 49-51 of blue and gray sectors.

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