The Babylon Project
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A Keeper was a creature that was genetically modified by the Shadows and was used by the Drakh in order to control individuals from other races.

Biology[]

Keeper dissected

Dr. Franklin dissects Captain Jack's Keeper.

Newborn keepers were spawned from a device called a 'technonest', a process that left the parent keeper reduced to a shriveled blackened husk. Born with a high degree of self-awareness but no sense of being or purpose, a keeper was immediately bonded to a Drakh. Driven only by instinct, the keeper digs it's still short and stubby tendrils into the specialized nourishing pouch on the Drakh's chest and became a part of the Drakh Entire as a whole, though it would always remain especially responsive to the individual Drakh to which it bonded. Once bonded to a Drakh, the keeper quickly matured, and an exceptional specimen became fully grown in as little as three days and was ready to be implanted into a thrall.[1]

The skin of a keeper was covered with microfibers that dug into the victim's skin and hooked into their neural system. The creature itself was built like a series of synaptic relays that could cut into the neural pathways and override them and the longer that they stayed attached to a host the more microfibers it grew and the greater its ability to control became, so its control over a given host grew.[2]

The keeper could not be completely removed from its host while both it and its Drakh controller were alive, and even if most of it was somehow destroyed or excised, it quickly regenerated. It could, however, be incapacitated if the host consumed enough alcohol, due to its symbiotic nature.[3][4] A keeper could choose to disengage itself from its host, but it was a lengthy process and was usually lethal to the host.[4][5]

Known Sightings[]

In 2260, the Drakh attached a Keeper to Captain Jack, in an attempt to kill Number One, the leader of the Martian resistance during the Earth Alliance Civil War. The Keeper was placed there as part of the Clark administration's pact with Mr. Morden and his associates, though by the time it was discovered the Shadows had already left for the Rim so it appeared as if the Drakh were attempting to continue their relationship with Earth in their masters' absence.[2]

War-without-end-07

"We all have our Keepers"

Around the same time the Drakh began to influence the Centauri by attaching a Keeper to Regent Milo Virini, which allowed them to influence his actions as part of their long term plan of retaliation against the actions Londo Mollari and the Centauri Republic took when they executed Morden and his two Shadow "associates" and destroyed the Shadow base on the island of Selini.[6]

In 2278, David Sheridan II had a Keeper that attached itself to him from an ancient urn from Londo Mollari who was under Drakh control by means of another Keeper. Sheridan headed for Centauri Prime in order to lure his parents into following him there. Despite a plea from Michael Garibaldi not to rush off to Centauri Prime, both of Sheridan's parents went anyway, and were both captured by the Centauri. Garibaldi went to Babylon 5, where he was able to learn from Vir Cotto that the Drakh had been on Centauri Prime for quite some time, and that they were in control of the Emperor and Prime Minister.[7]

317 305

Emperor Mollari's Keeper awakens.

Mollari was ordered by the Drakh to have David's parents killed - however, he arranged their escape after he drank enough in order to gain a few minutes of freedom from the Keeper's influence. Upon returning to Minbar, David Sheridan II was examined by Dr. Stephen Franklin. Franklin figured out that the only way to remove the Keeper without killing Sheridan would be to kill the Drakh that spawned the Keeper.

Vir Cotto and Garibaldi then returned to Centauri Prime and found the Drakh Shiv'kala, who had spawned the Keeper. Vir then killed the Drakh, and the Keeper immediately died.

Known Keeper Hosts[]

Dreamweavers[]

A Dreamweaver was a special offshoot breed of keeper that was used to create and implant dreams while a subject slept. In late 2262, Shiv'kala used a Dreamweaver to encourage Durla's ambitions and urged him to send archaeological teams to K0643.[8] He continued to use that method over the course of many years in order to guide Durla's actions and even went so far as supplied detailed weapons designs.[7]

References[]


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