Prologue
Blake ran down the corridor, taking the steps down to the flight deck two at a time, Vila at his heels. The Liberator should have been moving, speed Standard by Ten, getting out of the area before the anticipated hostiles arrived. Instead it was stilled, drifting in the galactic equivalent of the doldrums.
"Jenna, what's happening?"
At the main pilot's station, she shook her head, her expression mirroring her confusion.
"I don't understand. Zen's not responding. Negative response on all controls. The secondaries are out too."
"Switch to manual," Blake suggested.
"I've tried," Jenna replied. "Nothing. The controls are dead."
"Zen!" Blake called out.
Lights moved across the bronzed surface, more erratically than usual, Blake noticed. A single light stalled, blinked rapidly, and then the sequence resumed. Zen was working, but unable or unwilling to respond.
"Orac, what's wrong with Zen?" he demanded.
"Blake," Vila said, a worried note in his voice.
"Not now. Orac!"
"What do you want now?" came the testy reply.
"What's happening?"
"Blake!" said Vila again.
Blake ignored him. "Well, Orac?"
Orac made a noise that sounded like the electronic sigh of impatience. "That should be obvious even to a species of your limited intelligence."
"An outside influence." He did not have far to look to find the cause. On the scanner, a small shuttle moving away from the Liberator on coordinates three three eight. "Orac, intercept their signal and block it."
"There is no signal to block," said Orac. "The programme is now embedded in the system."
"Then analyse it and resolve the problem."
"I cannot. To do so would invite my own destruction. That runs counter to my programming. I suggest you find your own solution."
"Blake!" yelled Vila.
"What?" he snapped.
"Long-range detectors are registering six pursuit ships in close formation." Vila's voice fell at the end. "It looks like... well, there's a cruiser following them. Blake, what are we going to do?"
It took a heartbeat for him to reach a decision. "Cally," he said into the communicator, "we need Avon up here now. Can he make it?"
It was Avon who replied. "I'm here. What's wrong? Why aren't we moving?"
Blake caught the slight edge in his voice. "Zen is not responding, and Orac is refusing to help."
"The pursuit ships!" said Vila. "Tell him about the pursuit ships."
"Pursuit ships?" Avon queried.
"At the limit of detector range."
"We're on our way," came Cally's voice from the communicator.
"As quick as you can," said Blake.
"Until then, we're dead in the water," said Jenna, sitting back from the controls.
"Or just dead," said Vila miserably. "I knew this was going to be a bad day."
Watching lights stutter and struggle across Zen's screen, Blake could not disagree. The question now was how it was going to end.
To find out how this situation came about, on to Chapter One!