Blake's 7: Survivors
Chapter 9
Former deep space freighter "Flame", 4.5 weeks after the fall of Pelios
As was often the case, Mara and Caul exchanged no words as they changed shift on their vessel's flight-deck - Mara assumed that if anything had happened that was important enough to be shared but not important enough to summon her, he would let her know.
In any case, as she took up her place at the controls of Flame - she was not exactly sure why she had settled on that name for their new home - she already had a lot to think about. As Caul well knew.
At least, she assumed he knew. They hadn't really talked about it.
"How's he doing...?" Caul broke the silence.
"No different..." Mara replied as she checked the automatic logs. "Go and see him. I think he's still awake."
"All right..." Caul turned back just before exiting. "I'm sure..." She never found out exactly what he was sure of, as he never finished the sentence.
"You have to look after him..."
She had given that no reply at the time Alek had actually said it, having been taken so aback, but now Mara was just itching to reply.
"Why do I need to look after him...? Why can't we just look after each other...? Why is everything suddenly on me...?" As the aged control switches refused to engage the way they should, in a burst of temper she forced one into place.
"Caul was in many ways ideally suited to life in the Habitat..." Alek had continued, pausing a lot to form his words with even more care than usual - or was he just in more pain than he was admitting to...? "But the wider galaxy will probably not be quite so ideal. There are things out there... He will need you... Someone who understands his condition..."
"Condition..." Mara said quietly. "What condition? Why does he need to have a condition? Why can't he just be Caul? And why do you...?"- She closed her eyes and paused for a while before continuing. "Why can't you just... stay? You weren't ill when we were on Pelios. You were more alive than anyone I've ever"-
She rubbed the emerging tears from her eyes, even knowing that she was making the mild infection in one of them worse. "Why does this have to happen now...?" she asked the empty flight deck.
The intercom crackled into life, and she started. Somehow knowing what was coming...
She pictured Caul's hesitation on the other end... No, don't say it... If you don't say it, then for a while longer it just hasn't happened... Don't say it, Caul... Please...
"Mara... I'm... I'm sorry... Alek has... Well, he's... dead. Alek is dead. It must have been just after you... left."
"Understood..." she heard herself say calmly, and the intercom switched off. Mara leaned back in the flight chair.
It's all right. Until I see it, it hasn't happened. And I haven't seen it yet. Till then, I'm just going to look after this ship for a few hours. That, I can do... Then, after that, we'll see...
Maybe I'll let it have happened then.
They watched on the monitor as the shrouded body was blasted into the void, where it spun a few times before the gases released with it dissipated into space and Alek's body settled into a gentler forward motion and slow rotation. It was visible to them for a couple of minutes before it disappeared from view.
She was holding Caul's hand, a fact Mara hadn't really registered till then, so numb was she. They stood there like that for a while until, at a certain point, it felt right to let go, and they got on with the running of the ship.
The past was behind. Where the future lay was less simple.
"Where do we go...?" she had asked Alek as soon as they had the chance to speak after their hasty escape from Pelios.
He had seemed strangely reticent to express a view on the matter, but when at last she had managed to corner him into a reply he had said "I thought I would leave that up to you..." and left it at that.
Some time later, after they had dealt with their most urgent supply problems, she had broached the matter again. This time he had asked her more directly - "What do you want to do...?" She had decided by then.
"Gauda Prime..." said Mara. "I want to find out what happened... I want to know. I want to know everything."
5 months later
The stranger - the King in exile, as Adran still thought of him - quickly obtained his supplies in the encampment, oblivious or just plain indifferent as ever to the vague suspicions of the scavengers, and then started out for home. The boy accompanied him some of the way, and if he did not welcome the company the older man didn't choose to say so - Adran took that as tacit permission to tag along.
After a while he felt bold enough to strike up a conversation as they walked. "Why do you live over in that place...? Why don't you join us in the encampment? You could work, you're still able..."
"Why would I do that?"
"Because then you wouldn't be alone. You did say you were alone."
"And I would be welcome, would I...?"
"Before long. We take all sorts, my dad says... No questions asked."
"Perhaps I need certain things that are only available... in that place." He turned to look at Adran for a moment. "Had you considered that?"
"No." The boy thought for a while. "Don't you get lonely?"
"No."
"Not ever?"
"No."
Adran shrugged. "I get that. I'd like to be alone too."
"You've picked an odd way to further that ambition."
"I mean, family is overrated, isn't it...?"
"I wouldn't really know."
"Soon as I'm able to, I'm going to go off by myself and explore this place."
That made Avon stop for a moment. He seemed reluctant to speak, wrestling briefly with some inner conflict. "I wouldn't stray too far from your ships."
"The ships...?" Adran responded incredulously. "The ships are rubbish. I think probably half of them can't fly any more."
"Repair them. Cannibalise some to repair the others if you have to. Whatever you have to do. This is the only warning you're likely to get."
"You mean, leave here...?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because something is going to happen."
"Something bad?"
Avon shrugged. "It depends on your point of view."
DSV-A1, Deep space, 676,849 spacials from designated embarkation point...
Internal configuration in flux... Parameters being defined... Processing... Processing... Life support systems on line... Specified compartments ready for habitation.
Confirmed.
Galaxy City
"Our first priority should be to double the security at the following points..." said Servalan very precisely. "The airlocks, obviously... Entrances to the hub... though preferably not too openly... The armory, and small arms lockups... And, this being possibly the most vital, the gravity drive..." She looked round at Juni, Faal and the City's head of security - a slightly portly, thick-necked man named Ramm - "...Well, don't everyone speak at once."
"A good approach, Madame..." said Ramm - Servalan for some reason always found herself fascinated by the single fleshy fold of skin that formed at the base of his skull when he sat back in one of her chairs, and had to stop herself staring at it. "And exactly the approach I had planned to take... Add to it my mobile reserve force, ready to respond to the area of greatest need... Should any crisis actually arise, that is..."
"And you two...?"
In contrast to Ramm's relaxed posture, Juni and Faal both sat straight-backed, avoiding each others' gaze - Even someone far less observant than Servalan, Ramm for example, could have noted the tension hanging over them. Servalan had no patience for any such distractions at this point, and was determined to shock them out of it.
Whatever it was. She had some notion, but was hoping somewhat against hope that she was wrong.
"Yes..." Juni's attention snapped into focus, and she met Servalan's eye with a cool, consciously professional demeanor. "Yes, Madame Orella. The need for possibly extensive overtime has been discussed with all our security personnel, and all are amenable."
"Good for them." Only someone like Juni who knew her well would have detected the faint hint of danger in Servalan's tone. "Faal...?"
"Madame...?" Like Juni, Faal quickly pulled himself together. "Nothing unusual to report."
"Your people are ready, should any... threat emerge...?"
"My people..."
"The technicians are, I believe, operating at maximum efficiency..." Juni interrupted, rescuing Faal, and perhaps throwing the briefest glance his way while doing so.
"I'm glad to hear you say so..." Servalan sighed, if only inwardly. None of them could possibly know how difficult it had been for her, all those years ago, to adjust to managing an organisation where the best results were genuinely obtained by treating her subordinates like human beings - even the ones who weren't quite. After clawing her way by any means necessary to the very top of the Federation hierarchy - twice!
Sometimes, the sheer effort of it began to tell on her... On days such as these. "Well..." she said. "That will do for now... We will resume at the same time tomorrow... assuming nothing changes drastically in the meantime, that is..."
The other three got up to leave, Ramm draining his drink appreciatively having refilled it more than once during the meeting. Juni hung back and seemed to want to add something, and Servalan dismissed her with a faint smile that said Later. "Faal..." she said, her voice gentle. "Stay a moment, please."
He did so, reluctantly, and she waited till the others were away before she said anything. "Madame..." he began, before she cut him off.
-"Have you told her?"
"No."
"Good. At least there is that."
"I think she knows anyway. Or is close to working it out."
"That would be unfortunate..." Servalan pointed out, turning to look at him. "For both of us. Why does she suspect?"
"Because she is intelligent..." Faal answered immediately. "There are discrepancies in the official account... Unavoidable ones."
"Yes, I suppose so..." Servalan looked weary for the first time. "I almost wish she was a less perfect copy. Less intelligent than my dear girl was, and more easily deceived... But then, that wouldn't be... What would be the point...?" Faal almost thought that was it and, anticipating dismissal, started to turn toward the door, but Servalan's next words turned his blood cold.
"Have you resumed your relationship...?" she asked calmly.
"Madame, I"-
-"Or rather, have you begun one with her on the same terms you had with the original Juni? Let me stop you before you make the mistake of lying to me. And inform you that I knew of your relationship with her very promptly indeed. Bright she certainly was, but capable of hiding anything from me...? No."
Faal addressed the initial question. "I am not pursuing any relationship beyond the most functional professional one. To do otherwise would be against the basic tenets governing the Clone Master's life and work."
"Have you considered that might be a mistake?"
"Madame...?" Faal's mind was reeling - Having dreaded the prospect of Orella finding out about his weakness, this last question was forcing him into very uncertain territory.
"A happy girl, buzzing with all those lovely youthful hormonal feelings... She might be less inclined to spot the discrepancies you mentioned... And even less likely to care if she does." Servalan's eyes clouded over. "Believe me, I know."
"In this, Madame..." Faal said, "I stand ready to abide by your preferred course."
"The most intelligent among us are often capable of remarkable feats of self-deception" she continued. "You'd be surprised... Or perhaps not. After all, you did deceive yourself that you had managed to hide your liason from me." She smiled broadly, but that just made him more uneasy.
"What do you plan to do?"
"Too early to say..." Servalan had a brief moment of looking almost vulnerable, but soon recovered. "Which I suppose is just another way of saying I don't know..." She looked at him pensively. "I suppose I'm lucky it's only you who heard me say that."
Lost for any other kind of response, Faal simply inclined his head - That usually sufficed for any exchange with a human in authority, but then none of them had ever been quite like this one.
"You heard the recording? Of my conversation with our guest...?" Servalan changed tack very quickly, but Faal immediately knew what she was referring to.
"Yes."
"Nothing to say...? About my handling of her questions...?"
"I saw it as your prerogative to withhold information, if you saw fit."
"I didn't so much withhold information as just lie to her. Which may yet prove to be a mistake, I don't know... The clone Blake was not capable of producing a child. That is correct, is it not?"
"That is so" he confirmed. "Although sexually functional, that type of clone was never designed to be genetically compatible with a human being."
"Something like yourself, eh, Faal...?" Servalan quickly added "I'm sorry, do forgive that. A rare lapse."
"Madame."
"While the girl thinks she is most likely Blake's daughter - in a manner of speaking - She may yet be able to work with us. But if she learns that her father is more likely... Well, I wouldn't want to learn that a man like Coser... Oh, never mind..."
"Madame...?"
"This is the worst part, Faal. Where everything is in the air at once... And no one knows how any of it will land..."
"I'm sorry..." said Brintun. "I've forgotten your name."
"My name is of little importance..." replied Miko serenely. "I am here to speak for the Children."
"Well, I was rather hoping to speak to some grownups at this point, if that could possibly be arranged..." Brintun's voice was brittle.
"We are all Children in the Light of the One." Miko met the UniS representative's challenge with a level, unconcerned gaze.
Brintun cleared his throat with a short, sharp sound. "Yes."
The two of them sat facing each other in one of Galaxy City's opulent guest suites, with several of President Scarn's whey-faced courtiers watching the verbal bout with dead-eyed indifference. Brintun knew, however, these cronies of the President would report every word they heard, and what's more every word would be weighed carefully for any potential advantage to them in their backstabbing route to the top of Scarn's inner circle.
As the man currently at the apex of that structure - and keenly aware that a circle does not normally have an apex - Brintun was always conscious of their scrutiny.
"Be assured..." Miko went on, "Your concerns regarding our alliance are well-known"-
-"Indeed...?"
"...And your counseling your President against an understanding with the Children of Light was, seen in the light of mere political expediency, perfectly sensible..."
"Thank you."
"But seen in the true Light, that is the Light of the judgment that awaits us all, it is clear, Mister Brintun, that your path is a rocky one..."
Brintun glanced briefly at his feet, clad in Federation-issue boots. "I'm always prepared for rough terrain."
"We all think we are prepared. But each of us, when the time comes, must face the Light in our own unique way..." Miko's scarred face took on a peculiar quality when he smiled, as he did now, the still-livid scar puckering in a way that was unpleasant to behold. Brintun found his distaste more and more difficult to disguise.
"It seems to me your religion is a peculiar mix of several ancient superstitions, with disparate bits and pieces of mythology all forced in and made to fit this... agenda you have... Interesting from an anthropological perspective if nothing else..."
"And yet your President Scarn chooses to ally himself with us... Perhaps he sees the way clearer than you do."
One of the chairs creaked as the courtier slumped in it stirred in anticipation of overhearing a treasonous exchange, but Brintun was not so easily drawn. "President Scarn is a survivor, above all..." he said with admiration that was not entirely forced. "Great empires have come and gone, and he has endured. Now is his time."
"Well, on that we can agree..." said Miko, his tone investing his words - apparently inconsequential to any disembodied listener - with additional meaning to those present. "Now is the time."
The UniS flagship Leviathan hung in space just far enough away from Galaxy City to avoid detection, its support craft buzzing around it like worker bees - There was more activity than was usual at the moment, as a transfer of personnel was underway.
His enormous frame squeezed into a flight chair, President Scarn endured the brief journey by shuttle from Leviathan to his waiting launch - An elegant vessel reminiscent in its shape and colours of some exotic bird, built for speed and charged with returning the President home, his duties here discharged.
First, however, there was one more task to be performed.
"I think it would be true to say, Sol... This is make or break for your plan..." Scarn remonstrated over the private, scrambled video link. Brintun received it in the guest suite, using his own equipment and confident that their exchange would avoid the scrutiny of eavesdroppers.
"I understand that" Brintun replied calmly, the sweat still nonetheless pouring off him in waves.
"Let's not have to break anything, eh...?"
"A sentiment we can all agree with."
"I don't necessarily ask for agreement, Sol. Just good advice. And at certain times, just obedience."
"That is certainly understood."
"So long as it is. Is everything in hand?"
"Everything is prepared."
"Good. Contact me on Proxima III when the site is secured."
"Acknowledged."
"I look forward to it."
"As do I." As the video link cut out, Brintun looked up to see his guards ushering a visitor into the suite - A powerful stocky figure squeezed into one of the resplendent uniforms of Galaxy City's security force.
"How goes...?" asked the man cheerily, noisily chomping on a piece of fruit grabbed from the hub's marketplace en route to the guest suite.
"A question..." Brintun mused coldly, "I was about to put to you, Mister Ramm..."
DSV-A1, Deep space, 459,236 spacials from designated embarkation point...
Deep Space Vehicle now on state of alert... All automatic defence systems in readiness... Combat readiness to be maintained. Hostile scrutiny to be discouraged...
Confirmed.
Admiral Zanso stalked onto the vast bridge of Leviathan in ill temper - None of the crew present were surprised, or even particularly blamed him. The distinguished officer, a veteran of the Intergalactic Wars, had been thoroughly sidelined on his own vessel, and only now was he able to exert his own authority without the overpowering presence of the President or his oily advisor.
"Situation report...!" the gaunt flag officer barked, and all present hurried to assemble one.
"Flotilla maintaining station within acceptable parameters, sir..."
"Nothing on scopes... No, wait..."
"Wait...?" Zanso demanded incredulously. "You tell your Admiral to wait...?"
"Apologies, sir... I had something there... Just for a moment... Then it was gone... Trying to get it back..."
"Well..." Zanso somewhat regretted his brief outburst - He took no pride at all in letting recent pressures get to him in that way. "Report as soon as you have it."
"Sir."
"Hey there."
"Hey..." Rissa moved her seat at the bar over slightly to let the bulky figure sit next to her - the man she had assisted against Scarn's heavy-handed security.
"Thanks" he said, as he silently negotiated a drink from the barkeeper.
"Wasn't a problem..." she said. "In fact, I enjoyed it. I'd been cooped up on the ship for a while, and that was just what I needed."
"I like that..." he said, smiling, and swigged from the tall glass the keep had just put in front of him. "Watch yourself, though..."
"How'd you mean...?"
"I hear things, that's all... Don't underestimate UniS. They mean to have this place - the whole thing."
"You think Madame Orella will let that happen?"
"Some think she's lost her edge a bit. But anyway, I just thought I'd best warn you - something is going down..."
"Well, thanks for that..."
"Least I could do." He drained his drink and stood, clasping her hand in his massive one for a moment. Then he left, leaving her lost in thought.
Darvin arrived from the other side, and sat in the just-vacated seat next to her. Caul came up to stand next to him, looking like he would rather be anywhere else, and wiped at a stain on the bar with his sleeve. A blood stain, as Rissa well knew - she had caused it to be there. She grinned at the memory - that guy had truly deserved it.
"I've just been talking to Caul..." Darvin said.
"Oh yes...?" She looked over at Caul casually and winked, receiving a vague smile in response. "And what has our very handy new friend been saying...?"
"He's only agreed to join us, that's all..." Darvin said cheerily.
"If Mara does..." Caul added. "I think she will." Darvin and Rissa exchanged glances, and then realised that the subject of their speculation was actually walking calmly around the perimeter of the bar area and round toward them.
"Hi, you...!" Rissa called. "Sorry for pointing the gun at you, but it was orders..."
"It's all right..." Mara said, slightly detached. "I've had a bit of time to think."
"Thinking is overrated" said Rissa.
"Thinking has its place..." Darvin countered. "But has it resulted in any deciding...?"
"Well, I've decided I'll join your crew..." said Mara. "If the offer stands. As for the rest..."
"Yeah...?"
She was about to reply, but at that moment the lights suddenly cut out and emergency lighting kicked in. Darvin and Rissa were on their feet instantly, and leading their new friends away from the bar. "This way..." said Darvin. "We don't wanna get caught in here..."
"What's happening...?"
"Fun fun fun..." said Rissa, but her subdued demeanor belied the glee her words suggested. "Those fools have actually decided to go for it."
"We don't know that..." said Darvin. "It could be any number of things."
"Hey...! Infallible instincts, right here..."
"Yeah, I forgot... Well, Miss Infallible Instincts, let's just get to the small arms, shall we...?"
"You go for the small arms. I want one of those things that fires rockets...!"
Servalan was relaxing in her sitting area when not one but two calls came through on her private comm-system. Recognising one, she gave it priority. "Yes...?!"
"It's happening..." said Darvin - A moment after he said that, the base alert came up on her wall monitor, and a klaxon sounded outside.
"Al right..." she snapped. "Follow the plan."
"Already on my way. Pick you up in... ten...?"
"Make sure you do..." Servalan walked over to a dressing table and sat before it. After a moment, staring at her reflected image, she carefully took off her black bob-cut hair and set it aside - Beneath, her actual steel-grey hair was cut short.
"Soon..." she said quietly. Then, remembering the other call, she switched channels with her remote device. "What is it...?"
"Sorry to disturb you, Madame..." said an unfamiliar voice. "But you did say to tell you... That signal you had us analyse..."
"What about it?"
"It's coming in now... It's being beamed directly at us...!"
"Find the source!" Servalan rushed out of her sitting area and up the stairs to the guest reception area and her private collection of art - There she stood and gaped for a moment.
The box had come to life - lights activated within and an electronic hum that she had not heard for decades filled the room. "Orac!"
Barely had the box come to life than all signs of activity ceased, and it once more became dormant - Servalan moved toward it, incredulous. "No!" she cried. "No!"
Her fist slammed down on Orac with as much force as she could muster. "No!"
"Ready the ship...!" Darvin yelled into his wrist communicator, and turned to the others as they walked urgently in one of the City's service corridors. "Just in case..." he said, almost sheepish.
They turned at a junction and found themselves faced with the business-end of a gun, though Juni pulled the weapon up to point at the ceiling when she recognised them. Faal was with her, and he was not armed.
None of them could quite see Faal with a gun, though the time might come...
"Where are you going...?" Juni snapped, her indifferent gaze taking in all of them and zeroing in on Darvin.
"Small arms, then to evacuate herself... And by a remarkable coincidence that's where you're going now as well... Consider yourself under my command now, OK...?"
"Your command...?"
"That's right. Check with her when we've got her safely on board Revenant, by all means. It's all arranged."
"Arranged...? By you...? Why wasn't I kept informed...?"
"I don't know... Ask her that as well..." Darvin made reproachful eye contact with Faal as he said that.
"Two groups...!" Juni said decisively. "You secure the weapons, I'll bring her to you and then we'll all proceed from there." Darvin clearly would have liked to be able to dismiss that, but he knew it made sense.
"All right..."
"Faal, with me..." Juni said, and turned to leave.
"Take one more..." Darvin interrupted, and looking round he settled on Mara. "OK...?" he asked her.
"Of course."
Juni looked uncertain, but for the sake of getting away she settled. "Come with me... Don't fall behind."
DSV-A1, Deep space, 47 spacials from designated embarkation point...
Mission reaching crisis point... Potential hostiles now on scanner scopes... Weapon systems on line... Damage control procedures in readiness - energy transfer from internal configuration programs confirmed... Concomitant delay of internal configuration procedure now being calculated...
Confirmed.
Menacingly, Leviathan approached the planetoid hosting Galaxy City, settling into geostationary orbit - and for Admiral Zanso, that was where it all started to go wrong.
"Detectors offline, sir!"
"Restore them!" the Admiral demanded.
"Trying, sir... No response. It's possible they've been blocked deliberately."
"Possible...? Since when has that been possible...?"
"Don't know, sir..."
"About time!" Juni snapped as a squad of guards led by their Chief came up to join them - Ramm looked the three of them over.
"This all...?" he asked. "No Darvin...? Or that girl with the eyes...?" Something made Mara uneasy, and she was about to warn Juni when at that point such a warning was rendered obsolete - Ramm's men turned their weapons on them, and on Faal.
"You're coming with us..." Ramm breathed. Surprisingly he spoke not to Juni but to Faal - Reflexively, the tall Clone Master had stepped between him and Juni, and Ramm noted that. "Her as well..." he added to his men, indicating Juni.
"Are you out of your mind, Ramm...?" Juni demanded as she and Faal were dragged away, a question he ignored - He glanced at Mara and seemed to dismiss her instantly. "Um... You two, find somewhere and guard this one..." he said, as if annoyed at having to engage with such a minor detail.
Not resisting, Mara was led away. Now was not the time.
"That was our own people...!" Darvin was incredulous as he, Rissa and Caul found themselves pinned down on the approach to the arms lockers. "What...?"
Rissa watched coolly as some of their own security men circled above them on a narrow gantry - In a moment, they would be able to target them. "Darvin...!"
He saw the danger, thinking furiously. "All right... Not much choice then... With me...?"
"Have been up to now."
"Count to three... One...!" Taking Caul as much by surprise as the enemy, Darvin and Rissa scrambled out of cover and charged headlong at their opponents, yelling as they went...
The two guards brought Mara to a storage room with only one door in and out, apparently with a view to adding other prisoners as their mutiny progressed. She perched on a neatly-stacked heap of large shiny tins as one guard took up a position near the door, gun trained on her. The other one took up his station outside.
Still not quite the time.
"Get me the landing party!" Admiral Zanso barked savagely to the bridge personnel of Leviathan, his patience long since run out.
"Impossible sir... All communications with the surface blocked..."
"Well, get them unblocked...!"
"Sir...!"
"What now...?"
The navigator was studying the readings on the panel. "Detectors were restored for a moment there, sir... They showed... something..."
"Anything better than that to offer?" the Admiral said dangerously.
"It's coming round toward us, sir... The alien... It's big, as big as we are. At least..."
"Nothing's as big as Leviathan..." The Admiral pushed him aside and studied the data himself. "Could it be an Andromedan ship...?" he whispered - He had always feared it wasn't really over...
"Whatever it is, sir..." the navigator said, "We'll be able to see it momentarily... Yeah... Here it comes..."
Anyone looking out of one of Leviathan's aft viewing ports would have seen the horizon briefly distort as the unidentified object came into view in the extreme distance, and the light of the star behind it momentarily flare as it passed between it and the UniS flagship.
Getting closer.
DSV-A1, Deep space, 0.5 spacials from designated embarkation point...
Teleport system on line. Ready to engage program 17... Confirmed.
Mara was staring intently at the guard left to look after her, willing him to make some kind of mistake, when the opportunity she had hoped for came out of nowhere.
It started when the comm-panel on the wall behind him beeped. "Yes" the guard said irritably, awkwardly keeping Mara covered with one hand while holding the switch with the other. "Yes...?" he said again when there was no answer.
Finally, a voice emerged from the speaker, but it wasn't speaking to him. It simply said, in what sounded like the prissy tones of an elderly academic - and on Pelios Mara had met a few of those - "You, girl... Breath-mask."
It was all the warning she needed - Mara took advantage of the guard's consternation to retrieve the breath-mask she had used on Danteron from the capacious pockets of her trousers, and put it to her face, as the doors to the storeroom were sealed and simultaneously the air evacuated via the vents.
Knowing what was happening but with no way to stop it, and in his panic not even registering Mara's mask, the guard hammered urgently at the door, first in the hope of attracting attention and then in an irrational effort to break it open. As he was distracted, Mara picked up a heavy can and slammed it against the side of his head, knocking him unconscious. She picked up his gun from the floor, very glad to be armed once again.
"Put on the bracelet..." said the voice, apparently irritated at having to involve himself in this.
"What b?"- Suddenly the object was there on the floor next to her - There was no disturbance in the air or charge of static as with Revenant's teleport, but the arrival was marked by a momentary halo of light around the object that seemed to melt away within a couple of seconds but remained as a faint after image on her retinas.
"Put it on...!" For some reason, she found herself obeying, crouching down and putting the bracelet, superficially like a refined version of Revenant's, on her wrist - It fastened with a click.
Teleport engaged...
The atmosphere on the bridge of Leviathan could not possibly have been more tense, not even if the intruder had started firing on them. The Admiral hunched over the scanner scope, hungry for the latest data quicker than the bridge personnel could provide it.
"Have we got it yet...?" he demanded. "Get me precise data on that thing... And an optical. Now!"
"Trying, sir..." said the First Lieutenant. "It seems to resist attempts to scan it... somehow..."
"Well, get me a visual!"
"That we can do, sir..." came the relieved reply, and he urgently pointed to the Admiral's scope. One of the operators hurriedly put the visual feed through.
"It's..." One of the operators looking through the scopes, a grizzled veteran, breathed out slowly. "It can't be... Never thought I'd see..."
"Get me the visual!" the Admiral demanded as there was a brief lag before the image appeared on his scope. "Put it on screen as well!" He looked up.
"It's back..." said the veteran, smiling faintly, tears even forming in his eyes. "It's back..."
Mara found herself clutching at the bracelet on her wrist as the only real thing, at least the only real thing that wasn't her or the clothes on her back, that she could see - Everything else was in flux.
The space around her was somehow... fluid. Not as in made of a liquid, but somehow... imprecise, as if the very space she was standing in - and in itself that was a puzzle as there didn't seem to be a floor of any sort - was in the process of forming. Deciding at great length, in no hurry at all, about what kind of wall or floor or ceiling to become, with all options on the table. It was extraordinarily disorienting, and not at all an experience she would have chosen to have.
Table.
A large table started to form a short distance from her as she thought that, and Mara resolved to restrain her thoughts while this process was taking place.
She did not dare look down - insanity threatened if she did that. Better to just close her eyes and wait. No doubt it would be over soon. Then... Whatever else might come.
Internal configuration continuing at reduced capacity... Processing... Life support maintained... Processing...
The Admiral's eyes widened.
The other ship glided above the surface of the planetoid toward Leviathan with an elegance the UniS ship could not aspire to. Its hull grey but shining brilliantly with the reflected light of TNCB-5213, it was formed of four parallel, vaguely cigar-shaped pieces, three of them arranged in a triangular formation around the central one, all ending with forward-pointing turrets terminating in narrow prongs. At the rear, cradled and partially-enclosed by the structure of the ship, a bright-green spheroid - Perhaps the ship's means of propulsion, or perhaps fulfilling another function that could only be guessed at.
To the eyes of Leviathan's bridge personnel, it was simultaneously beautiful, awe-inspiring, utterly alien and terrifying - A lot of the operators stepped back from their stations nervously as if the alien could come out of the scopes to attack them.
The Admiral looked around incredulously. "What is it?" he demanded. The veteran looked over at him, seemingly incredulous that the Admiral could possibly not know.
"It's the Liberator."