Lyta Alexander
Lyta Alexander is a female television character who features in Babylon 5.
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Biography
Lyta Alexander
On January 3rd 2257, Alexander was assigned to Babylon 5 as the station's first commercial telepath. She began mediating business deals and also received an odd proposition from Ambassador G'Kar for a deal to sell her DNA, since the Narn did not have telepaths. The day after she arrived, there was an assassination attempt on the Vorlon Ambassador Kosh. To discover the person who had done this, Laurel Takashima and Benjamin Kyle asked her to conduct an unauthorized scan on Kosh. Alexander initially dismissed this, but, seeing the consequences, agreed and was eventually able to view Kosh's last few moments. Surprisingly, she saw Commander Jeffrey Sinclair as the attempted assassin, however, the real culprit was a Minbari assassin using a changeling net. She encountered the assassin leaving Medlab, appearing as Alexander herself where she narrowly escaped death. (Episode: The Gathering) A week later, she was recalled to Earth as the Psi Corps wanted to question her about what she experienced while inside Kosh's mind. (Episode: The War Prayer) After leaving Babylon 5, Talia Winters was chosen to replace her as the station's assigned commercial telepath. (Episode: Divided Loyalties)
After months of being interrogated about her experience with Kosh, she escaped Psi Corps custody and began working with the Martian resistance. While in hiding with the resistance, Alexander learned of the Psi Corps sleeper program. Finding out that one of these sleepers was on Babylon 5, she discovered the password required to unlock this hidden personality and traveled to Babylon 5. Unsure of who it could be, Alexander scanned the minds of all the command staff but was unable to find the sleeper among them. By chance, Winters walked into the room and Alexander scanned her mind, unlocking the hidden personality. The second personality then took complete control, effectively destroying the 'real' Winters. (Episode: Divided Loyalties)
Alexander then traveled to the edge of Vorlon space in an attempt to make it to the Vorlon homeworld. She paid a ship captain to bring her to the edge of Vorlon space and send a signal, but after waiting for an extended period of time without a response, the captain decided to leave. Determined not to give up, she paid the captain the last of her credits for a lifepod where she would continue to wait, sending a telepathic signal into Vorlon space in hopes of a response. After drifting in space for five days, nearly out of supplies and oxygen, she was picked up by the Vorlons and taken to their homeworld. While there she was modified physically and mentally, her regular telepathic abilities enhanced dramatically. She was given gill implants which allowed her to breathe in an alien atmosphere. In 2260 she returned to Babylon 5 and served as an aide to Ambassador Kosh. The Vorlons provided Alexander with protection from the Psi Corps, along with paid living quarters on the station and a salary for her services. Part of her duties included 'carrying' part or all of Kosh's essence around inside her. Alexander also aided the crew in ways a normal Psi Corps member could not. She forcefully scanned a Centauri telepath who aided a man who kidnapped and tortured Edward in order to find out where he had taken Edward. Alexander was also approached by Mollari who tried to blackmail her into giving him details of Vorlon territory. She threatened to give him nightmares if he didn't back off. (Episode: Passing Through Gethsemane)
In the aftermath of Sheridan's 'death', Lyta became the adjutant of the new Vorlon ambassador Ulkesh who had come to Babylon 5. Despite his placement, he did not attend any meetings on Babylon 5 with the alliance of younger races starting to fracture as they believed the war against the Shadows had ended after the enemy simply pulled back on all fronts. Delenn requested a meeting with the ambassador where she attempted to enlist his aid as she felt that a word from the Vorlon empire would rally the others. However, Ulkesh did not respond with him forcing Lyta to deny all the Minbari ambassadors requests. After leaving the meeting, Lyta apologised to Delenn over the ambassador and explained that she had no choice in the matter with her then leaving the accompany Ulkesh. (Episode: The Hour of the Wolf)
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Lyta Alexander was a human female with a slender, athletic build and fair skin. She possessed long, vibrant auburn-red hair styled straight with a clean middle parting that fell past her shoulders, paired with prominent hazel eyes and sharp, expressive facial features. Her specialized institutional uniform reflected the strict regulatory dress code of the commercial division of the Psi Corps. This attire consisted of a form-fitting, high-collared dark blue jumpsuit featuring structured gray paneling along the torso, long sleeves, and a matching belt. Secured prominently to her left collar, she wore the official silver insignia of the Psi Corps, and she wore a matching pair of short, dark leather gloves to cover her hands during public transactions. When navigating civilian sectors of the space station, she carried a standard electronic identification badge and data terminal. She did not wear traditional military body armor, ballistic helmets, or concealment masks, maintaining a highly polished, professional, and distinct corporate presentation. (Episode: The Gathering)
After her encounter with Kosh, Lyta felt inexplicably drawn to the Vorlons and sought travel to their homeworld despite no one ever surviving entry into their space. In her case though, she was taken by the Vorlons and became the aide to Ambassador Kosh. (Episode: Passing Through Gethsemane)
During her service to the Vorlons, she came to learn of the true reason the telepath gene was present among the various races. Namely, that they were seeded by the Vorlons to make them into weapons to fight in the coming Shadow War. (Episode: Secrets of the Soul)
Powers and abilities
Lyta Alexander was a member of the human race who was born a multi-generational telepath, classifying her within the evolutionary subspecies naturally capable of psionic energy manipulation. As a human telepath, she had the gene which allowed her to mentally scan the minds of other organic beings. On a basic feats level, her standard human biology provided her with the baseline physical strength, speed, and environmental durability standard for an ordinary adult human female who focused on specialized intellectual labor rather than rigorous tactical combat training. She was an exceptional member of her species due to her formal classification as a P5-rated telepath by the Psi Corps, a status that granted her the capability to perform commercial mind scans, decode linguistic barriers, and evaluate business dynamics through telepathic empathy. (Episode: The Gathering)
Her primary power was telepathic projection and reception, enabling her to establish direct mental links with other sentient consciousnesses to extract memories, perceive deep emotional states, and project thoughts across short distances. She possessed an exceptional degree of mental endurance, which allowed her to withstand the intense psychological shock of interfacing directly with the non-human mind of a Vorlon without suffering immediate cognitive collapse or loss of individual autonomy. While she entirely lacked active telekinetic force generation, energy shielding, or enhanced physical attributes during her initial introduction, her baseline psionic metrics established the structural framework for her future genetic augmentation by extra-dimensional entities. (Episode: The Gathering)
After being taken by the Vorlons, she found herself to be augmented and enhanced in a number of ways. One of the physical augmentations given to her body were gill implants located on her throat. This allowed her to process and breath the Vorlon atmosphere without the need of a breather unit. These gills were not seen when not in active use and thus others were oblivious to their existence. The only signs on a physical examination of the body was the fact that Lyta's blood was highly oxygenated. (Episode: Passing Through Gethsemane)
It was later discovered that her enhanced telepathy made her the telepathic equivalent of a nuclear doomsday weapon. Lyta herself would confirm the suspicions made of her when she began to actively make use of her powers to their full potential. (Episode: The Wheel of Fire)
As a citizen of the Earth Alliance, she was required by law to register with the Psi Corps where she initially served as a commercial telepath for them. (Episode: The Gathering) After going rogue, she was hounded by the Psi Corps but Lyta came to find protection from the Vorlon Empire after being drawn to their space. This saw her being appointed as the official aide to the Vorlon Ambassador. (Episode: Passing Through Gethsemane)
Notes
- Lyta Alexander was portrayed by actor Patricia Tallman where she featured in the Babylon 5 universe.
Appearances
- Babylon 5:
External Links
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