The Babylon Project
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". . . Half of Earthforce wants to give you a kiss on the cheek and the medal of honor. The other half wants you taken out and shot. As a politician, you learn how to compromise...which by all rights means I should give you the medal of honor then have you shot."

Acting President Susanna Luchenko to Captain John Sheridan, 2261.


Susanna Luchenko was human and Earth Alliance Senator from the Russian Consortium who became the acting EA President in the immediate aftermath of the Earth Alliance Civil War and the suicide of President Morgan Clark.[2]

History[]

In her youth, Susanna had a daughter named Alexandra, whose father was killed during the Earth-Minbari War. Susanna kept Alexandra with her in Geneva, never taking her away from Earth where she felt it was safe.[1]

Babylon 5 Beata Pozniak President Susanna Luchenko

Babylon 5 Beata Pozniak President Susanna Luchenko

While serving in the reconstituted Earth Senate in 2261, Luchenko and others were well aware that Clark was out of control but chose not to move against him for fear of being discovered, and also of making the Alliance appear weak in the eyes of alien governments, running the risk of an invasion. When Clark's regime was brought down on November 2nd, the Senate held an emergency session to decide how to proceed. By the end of the session, Susanna was nominated as acting President of the Earth Alliance. After she took the office, she led the discussion with the joint chiefs about how to handle John Sheridan, who turned himself in, then met him to discuss it. While she could not argue with the results of his actions, she sternly lectured him on the costly and inconvenient way that he had resolved the crisis, as well as his lack of political savvy. She offered to let Sheridan resign honorably, keep his pension, and offered to extend amnesty to all who had followed Sheridan. After she agreed to put that amnesty in writing, Sheridan accepted her offer. Luchenko then led a press briefing where she let Sheridan address Earth, then allowed the League of Non-Aligned Worlds to speak. To her surprise, G'Kar and Delenn described a new Interstellar Alliance and invited Earth to be a part of it. Later, in her office, she admitted it was tempting but wanted more. She then found out Sheridan, in fact, was slated to be its President all along.[2]

She was contacted by Captain Lochley and President Sheridan in 2262, first on matters concerning the Psi Corps operation against Byron’s band of rebelling rogue telepaths on Babylon 5.[3] Then when war with the Centauri broke out later that year, she was contacted on the matter of a joint Earth/Minbari project for the construction of a destroyer class White Star, a proposition she would only agree to if the Minbari agreed on it first.[4]

In 2266, Captain Lochley called Luchenko very early in the morning to inform her that according to ISA President Sheridan, a Drakh fleet was mobilizing and poised to attack Earth.[5] Though Luchenko was aware of reports that Sheridan had been acting increasingly erratic, she decided the risk was too great to ignore the warning, though she had to threaten to relieve an extremely sceptical General Yuri Mikhailovich Denisov of command before convincing him to scramble the fleet.[6]

In 2267, President Luchenko declared a week of planetary mourning for the 6,000 to 7,000 men and women killed in the battle against the Drakh.[7]

References[]

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