“". . . 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 an 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 who's 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]
While serving in the reconstituted Earth Senatein 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 of making the Alliance appear weak to the alien governments, thereby risking 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. After she took the office, she met with John Sheridan and while she couldn't argue with the results of his actions, sternly lectured him on the costly and inconvenient way that he had resolved the crisis as well as his lack of political savvy. In the end, 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.[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 agreed to if the Minbari agreed on it first.[4]
In 2267, Captain Lochley called Luchenko very early in the morning to inform her that according to ISA President Sheridan, a Drakh fleet was mobilizing and poising 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 relive an extremely sceptical General Yuri Mikhailovich Denisov of command before convincing him to scramble the fleet.[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Official Babylon 5 Magazine: Volume 1, Issue #8 (May 1998) - Page 1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Rising Star
- ↑ Phoenix Rising
- ↑ Movements of Fire and Shadow
- ↑ A Call to Arms
- ↑ A Call to Arms (Novelization)