Biography

Catherine was now a professional planetary surveyor, an independent contractor for UTC Operations. She traveled to those distant worlds she had so often seen in the night sky as a child and had considered a friend. Remaining in her ship, she would send probes out to collect samples from the planets. They would return them to her sample bay. She had spared no expense in order to have the best sample bay. While waiting for the probes to return, she also conducted tests from her ship. She loved her ship, Skydancer, and she had everything she would need to stay in space, alone, for several months at a time.

In 6353, Catherine ran into the former love-of-her-life, Jeffery David Sinclair, Commander of Babylon 5. They were like a magnet to each other, being drawn once again into a relationship. But this time proved different and each felt they had put their lives back together again and each wanted the other in their lives permanently. Jeff asked her to marry him two days before New Year’s Day. Two days later, she was back on the job.

They had met while she was in her second year as a cadet at Earthforce Academy. He had been her flight instructor. She had thought him incredibly handsome; it had been love at first sight. On their first meeting, she had almost blacked out with his daring execution of a hairpin backward loop followed by a spinning barrel roll. She had called him a dangerous show-off and he had said she didn’t have what it took to be a pilot. For fifteen years they fought and broke up, repeatedly. But the loving never seemed to go away. It mystified both of them. They were both stubborn and spent way too much time apart from each other. Their longest running argument was that Jeff had no personal life, he was always on duty. She had once asked him to leave the military and go into business with her. That resulted in one of their biggest arguments ever and another breakup.

When Jeff was sent to Minbar as the first Earth Ambassador, Catherine was still out on the rim collecting samples. It would be several months before she learned of his fate and would go to join him. Jeff found out about the Shadow’s activities. Worried for Catherine, he sent her a coded message of warning. Since he rarely sent her any messages, she knew it was important and took even more precautions for herself and her ship.

On the last leg of her journey, she was in hyperspace, traveling towards the jump gate where the UTC Operations ship was awaiting her. She ran into several unknown ships traveling her way. She had a bad feeling about them so remained quiet. Suddenly, most of the ships were gone, leaving a few on the other side of her. One became a shadow, waiting for her to move. She finally decided she had to move towards the jump gate. As she moved the shadow moved. She figured this was not a friendly ship but one of the ones Jeff had warned her of. She made a dash for the jump gate and dumped all of her samples at just the right moment so as to clog up the jump gate so her "shadow" couldn’t follow her. While she was dumping he was shooting at her. But it only grazed her ship.

Upon her arrival on Minbar, she found that the Vorlons had not wanted her to come. They didn’t want Jeff to lose his focus on the work ahead. And after hearing all about his new assignment, as Ranger One, Catherine wanted to train as a Ranger also. In the months that followed, she proved to be one of the best pilots to ever take the training. She also did well in all of her other studies. She supported Jeff when he was made Entil’Zha. She was his assistant during the ceremony, helping him with his new cloak; handing him the glass of sha neyat, which he had to drink as part of the Minbari ceremony. Sha neyat is poisonous to humans, but Jeff had decided to just sip a very little of it. He had to or he would not be fulfilling the tradition set down by Valen. She sat with him for three days after that while he was comatose with a high fever. He had drunk more than he had intended to because he was so nervous.

And as the months passed, they both knew that the work they were doing was important for all the races. For each Ranger would be sent on a mission to keep watch and gather information about the Shadows.

"I am a Ranger. We walk in the dark places no others will enter. We stand on the bridge and no one may pass. We live for the One. We die for the One." Catherine spoke those words along with the other newly installed Rangers during their initiation. Jeff had a special gift for her, a very old denn’bok, the Minbari fighting pike but he would have to wait to give it to her. It was decided that Catherine was to become one of the flight instructors.

Right after the ceremonies, Ulkesh, the Vorlon Ambassador, and Rathenn, a member of the Grey Council, were waiting for them. The time rift at Sector 14 was being forced open by some of the components that worked for the Shadows. They had flown in a bomb and were trying to force open the rift. Only Draal on Epsilon 3 was holding the rift closed. But he couldn’t take the pressure much longer. A plan was put together; that three of the best Ranger pilots would go in and destroy the bomb.

Catherine was at the top of her class and was first choice. It was against everything that Jeff wanted but those were personal issues and he knew she would never stand for it. The second choice was Marcus Cole. Marcus had done very well in all his classes and was an exceptional pilot. His teachers felt that he would make an extraordinary Ranger. Marcus had gone through the classes with Catherine and Marcus, Catherine and Jeff had become good friends. Later, Jeff would give Catherine’s denn’bok to Marcus.

Sinclair decided that the third pilot should be himself, against the wishes of the Vorlon. But he was determined that if Catherine went so would he. He considered himself one of the best pilots they had. They all trained with the new Minbari/Vorlon fighting ships.

They traveled to Babylon 5 and Epsilon 3, picking a place on the other side of the planet so they would not be noticed by anyone on Babylon 5. The three ships left for the rift. The Vorlons could not get involved, therefore it was suppose to look like Draal had sent the ships. When they arrived at the Sector 14, they took the enemy ships by surprise and mastered the situation in minutes. They set off the bomb, thinking it would react in a certain way, the way the Vorlon had said, but it reacted totally different. The backlash sent Catherine’s ship into the time rift and she was lost to this time forever.

Jeff tried to go after her but the time rift was closed by Draal. He had regained control over the area and the time rift. After returning to Minbar, Jeff questioned Kosh, who had come to express his condolences for the loss of Catherine. He asked him if there was any way to find her. Kosh would not answer him. Jeff’s last question was would he find her ever again. Kosh turned and walked away but said "Perhaps".

Years later, when Marcus visited Minbar while he was healing from one of his many battles, he was given a letter. The paper was very old, could have been over a thousand years old. It was in Sinclair’s handwriting, stating: "From both of us, our thanks and friendship. Continue to dream that better future ……. where perhaps we’ll meet again." There was no way to tell for sure, since no one had signed it, but it sure seemed that Catherine had found her way to Sinclair, 1,000 years in the past and had become a Minbari. Which would make her Delenn’s great, great, great, well you get the picture, grandmother.

Notes: 

B5 Ep. "Darkness Ascending" - Garibaldi mentioned that Catherine Sakai disappeared over a year ago. Her disappearance is covered in more detail in the novel "To Dream In the City of Sorrows." One possible chronological discrepancy is that according to the book, Sakai disappeared before Sinclair returned to the station in "War Without End," which would make it at least two years, not one. Of course, Garibaldi may not have found out about her disappearance until some time after it happened.