Tessa Holloran

Tessa Holloran, also known as Number One was a female hero who appeared in the fourth and fifth seasons of the television series Babylon 5.

She was portrayed by Marjorie Monaghan.

By 2261 Tessa was a leader of the Martin resistance in opposition to the tyrannical President Morgan Clark of Earth Alliance, where she was known as Number One. She worked to keep the more extreme elements under control so that innocent civilians would not be killed. Later that year she was approached by Stephen Franklin and Marcus Cole with a request from John Sheridan to assist in the fight against Clark. The two saved her from an assassination attempt by a member of the resistance under Drakh control. After hearing Sheridan's request and his promise that Mars would be recognized as an independent nation, she and the other leaders decided to ally with Sheridan. During this time Tessa and Stephen became romantically involved.

At the final battle Tessa's resistance forces played a key role in smuggling Shadow enhanced telepaths on to the Clark loyalist ships. When they awoke the telepaths took control and disabled the majority of the fleet before being killed. When Sheridan's forces arrived at Earth Clark committed suicide rather than face arrest. Sheridan kept his word and arranged for Mars to be granted independence.

Tessa spent the next year trying to work to form a functional government, something bureaucrats on Earth tried to slow down as much as possible. Frustrated by how the bureaucrats were treating Mars Tessa travelled to Babylon 5 to see if Sheridan could offer assistance. Sheridan helped her set up an independent office for the Mars government, allowing the Martin government to engage in trade and diplomacy without Earth's interference.

At the same time Michael Garibaldi was leaving his job as director of covert intelligence for the Interstellar Alliance in order to move to Mars and take over the corporation his wife inherited. Sheridan asked Tessa to take over as the Director of the ICI. In her first days on the job she discovered how much trouble the board of the Edgars Corporation had caused during their fight for independence, and with her help Garibaldi was able to force them off the board.

After Sheridan relocated the government of the ISA to Minbar, he asked Tessa to remain on Babylon 5, feeling that it would be easier for her to gather intelligence from B5 rather than Minbar.