Blake's 7 - Liberators

The sequel to Blake's 7 - Survivors

Chapter 4

Liberator sped through space, its velocity in real terms many times faster than light - Standard by Six in the parlance of its builders, the System. An estimated 12.5 hours remained till its destination was reached.

Within, its six human - or in one case, humanoid - inhabitants. One manned the flight-deck, as at least one of them did at all times. One slept. One found herself so preoccupied by the prospect of what might await them at their destination that sleep remained elusive. Four of them, at this precise moment, were alone.

Two were not.

When the ship's interior had been configured to accommodate this crew, their quarters had been arranged along the same habitation deck, and undeniably that was a convenient layout. One possible development had not been foreseen, however, and it had fallen to two of the crew to establish for themselves a discreet hideaway elsewhere, to pursue an agenda of their own in comfort and - most of all - secrecy.

"I'm going down there, when we get to this planet," she said quietly.

"You're on the landing party?" he replied. He too spoke very quietly. Lying as they were, limbs entwined, his mouth very close to her ear, there was no particular need for volume.

"It could be dangerous, couldn't it?" she pondered, turning her face toward his, and moved her hand up to rest on his pale, sparsely-haired chest.

"All of it is dangerous," he said. "We chose to risk it. I wonder, if I suggested I go too..."

She smiled faintly. "No, best not. Your place is on the flight-deck, you're far more use there."

"Suppose so."

"And let's not make anyone suspicious."

"Why...?" he asked. "We're not actually doing anything wrong."

"I know," she said. "I know... It's just, I like this, whatever it is we have here, the way it is right now. I don't want... Oh, I don't know how to say this... Please don't think that I'm-"

"-Embarrassed?"

She smiled again. "I'm embarrassed it took so long to get to... this."

"Was it all right?" He said it casually, but his nervousness was clear enough. There was a long - very long, for him - moment of silence.

"Am I the first...?" Juni asked, and Caul nodded. "I'd never have known," she said, gently mocking, and leaned over to kiss him. "So, back on... What was it, Pelios...? Never?"

"They tried to pair me once. Arranged a time and a meeting place. It didn't work out."

"What happened? Didn't you like her?" When Caul glanced over at her, something in his eyes made Juni think again. "Him...?"

"She didn't like me," said Caul. "I... didn't feel anything at all. Then I just never got the summons again. I don't think they were pleased with either of us."

"I'm sorry about that," she murmured, running a slender finger along the line of his collar bone and back again.

"Why?"

"I did think, maybe you and Blake... Mara, you called her then. Something Rissa said once, or was it Darvin...?"

"No," said Caul. "I loved her... I still do, but not like that."

"How did she feel about that?"

"Once she realised, we... had a talk. And after that, it was very different."

"I see," said Juni, even though she didn't.

14 hours later...

Rissa watched from cover, completely still in a way only years of training and practice could instill. The ragged column was a good forty-five or fifty metres away, advancing - from her point of view - from left to right. Her augmented eyesight, one of the benefits of her artificial silver eyes, could pick out the individuals easily, and with a little adjustment could give her a good view of the two prisoners at the heart of the column.

Blake and Juni were being taken back to wherever these things - were they people? Rissa wasn't sure - had come from, guarded on all sides by the spear-carrying, mud-encased creatures that had attacked them shortly after they teleported down. Rissa's hand briefly went to her teleport bracelet on her wrist, as if to reassure herself it was still there. Then the bag with the spares... Yes, still secure.

Erupting into motion, she moved swiftly, abandoning stealth to a necessary degree. Scrambling first up the gravelly slope and then back down the other side, she still took care not to be seen. This route would take her ahead of the column, and hopefully afford her a preview of their destination... Better to be prepared.

I hope you know what you're doing, Blake...

Yes. There it was... Nestled in the valley below, either side of the dismal trickle of water flowing - if its motion could be called that - down from the hills, the primitive settlement was bleak. A wind-blown, dusty collection of crude mud - Hey, what else in this place? - buildings on timber frames. Where did the wood come from...? Rissa peered curiously around, but didn't see any sign of a single tree.

That's where the patrol was returning, with their prisoners - her friends. Hey...! They really were that now, even Juni... Who would've thought that, three months ago?

"These are humans..." observed Juni. "Well, sort of. Underneath all that caked mud."

"Yeah," said Blake. "I wasn't sure either, at first."

"Protection against the radiation? Would that really work?"

"I doubt they have any idea why they're wearing the mud, it's just what they do. Certainly makes them look a little unnerving, anyway." Their captors squinted against the weak sunlight of their desolate world, eyes practically invisible. Every inch of exposed skin was encased in a thick covering of dried mud.

"I never did believe it was possible..." Juni pondered. "You know, human colonies gone wrong... I mean, to this extent!"

"Oh, it's possible, all right... There's quite a few of them scattered around. Fewer now, of course, thanks to the war..."

"Quite the expert."

"My tutor, back on Pelios... He was the expert." Blake paused and took a breath. "Alek... this was kind of his pet subject, and once he got started... Civilisation is fragile, and this sort of thing has happened on many planets colonised by Earth in the First Calendar. Cephlon, Goth, Xenon... I could go on."

"What it is to have an education..." said Juni, but with a faint smile."Rissa certainly got out of there in a hurry," she went on, a little resentfully. "I thought she was the warrior."

"She is," Blake replied. "That's why I told her to get out of there." Responding to Juni's querying glance, she added, "Well, aren't you glad she's out there right now?"

"Yes, I suppose so."

"Rissa can obey orders, and that's the bit I wasn't sure about till then." Blake looked doubtful of her own words. "Everything's under control."

Juni flexed against the crude rope binding her hands in front of her, and shot a resentful look back as one of the mud primitives prodded her with a spear - apparently she had moved out of line. "Glad to hear it."

"This place is everything we thought it would be, and less," said Rissa through the comms on the Liberator's flight-deck. "Darvin, can we cut this one short? I'm sick of this place already. It's such a- You know what, I'm going there...! It reminds me of home, that's how bad it is... I went there."

"Yep," said Darvin, standing at the pilot's station. "You went there."

"And you know I wouldn't do that lightly."

"Keep in touch, Rissa... Continue to keep an eye on things, and if the slightest thing goes wrong, or you find anything down there... Oh, you know what to do. Darvin out." He looked over at Caul, and raised an eyebrow. "It's going fine," he said, though who he was trying to reassure wasn't necessarily all that clear. "It is."

Caul examined the readouts on his station one more time - Zen would alert him at the slightest hint of another ship, but he trusted his own instincts more. "I don't know whether to hope they find what they're looking for," he said, "or hope they find nothing."

"I think I'd rather have a wasted journey too," said Darvin grimly.

Proxima II

Proxima Centauri rose over the horizon and gradually filled the deep shadows of the Kapital, and in the first hour of the morning a huge bank of water vapor formed over the vast cityscape before slowly dissipating. This, probably the most dense concentration of human life still in existence, slowly returned to life for another day, little knowing that the remaining days of this civilization were at this moment very much numbered.

"Tev Kopper...?"

"Who wants to know?"

One of the two nondescript-looking young men nodded briefly to the other, and they each grabbed one of the large bald man's arms and quickly wrestled him into submission before dragging him into the empty storehouse, then onward into the narrow space between two rows of storage shelving. Startled and thoroughly bewildered, the man was quickly abandoned by his two assailants, although he was only alone for a moment before someone else came in to replace them.

Walar loomed over him menacingly, or tried to - Inconveniently, Kopper wasn't that much less tall than he was. "What's this all about?" the affronted Kopper demanded, the bushy mustache that almost entirely hid his mouth moving in time with his words. "Ohhhh... Is this about-? Look, don't worry, the transfer is done, it'll just take a while for it to appear on your- It's not about that, is it...?"

Walar shook his head slowly. "I need to talk to you."

"So talk," Kopper responded truculently.

"How closely are you supervised?"

"Supervised?" Kopper bristled. "I'm the one who does the supervising, mate! I'm in charge of this whole place... Oh, where's he going now...?" Kopper waited impatiently as Walar disappeared back the way he had arrived. "Gimme strength..."

Walar looked out onto the goods supply yard with a soldier's eye. This was the quietest time of the day - that was no accident - but even so there were a lot of people around, loading and unloading the large containers that arrived and departed on the powered conveyors, emitting only a low hum in the process. A pity. Walar wished for a little more noise, to make doubly sure his conversation went unnoticed. A brief glance at the two men standing guard for him, and he returned to the interrogation.

"Caught short, were you...?" inquired Kopper. "I know how you feel, my waterworks are playing up something awful these days. Still, comes to us all. Would've thought you were a bit young for that, though."

Walar peered at the rotund depot manager curiously - Kopper could have been anywhere between forty and sixty, it was impossible to tell. "Where is she?"

"Pardon?"

"Where-? I haven't got time for this..." Walar slammed Kopper against the side of the shelving, with a lot more difficulty than he was expecting, but apparently only succeeded in amusing him further. "Just where did you send her?"

"Right," said Kopper. "I get it. I know who you're looking for. Red Ridinghood, I call 'er. And let me just say, I don't think you're doing her any favours coming here... Or yourself, for that matter."

"I'm not interested in your opinion, just tell me. I need to get her out of there. She shouldn't even be there in the first place."

"'Was a bit concerned, m'self. But ultimately, I figured, it's her decision. Sound mind and body, and all that. And our girl's pretty sound in both, let's face it."

"Seems like a military decision to me..." Walar's reply was scathing. "And... Oh, let's see, which of us does that best cover...?"

"Not so clear cut, mate. Andromedan wars veteran, right here... Both lots." Kopper's mustache, which up to now had been more or less level, was now turned down at the sides, indicating his severe displeasure. "And I've had ties with the guv'noress's organisation for... oh, a good ten years now." The mustache straightened again. "What 'bout you?"

Walar found himself cowed into silence, but not for long. "Things... Things have changed. I've had intelligence-"

"-Not to worry. It doesn't show."

"She's in danger, all right?! I have to get her out of there!"

"Calm down, mate," said Kopper. "Calm down. Anyone would think... Ohhhh, right." He chuckled to himself, face creasing into a smile . "Dear oh dear... Oh, mate..."

"What?"

"You're serious, aren't you...?" Kopper's turned away for a moment. "I thought you knew 'er. Ooh, I reckon our girl's been playing you something rotten, mate. Y'know... Let me know if she does ever come clean, I wanna see your face."

"Just what do you mean by that?"

"Never you mind, sunshine..." Kopper leaned forward till their faces were very close together. "Just... never you mind." They stared at each other for a few moments, and Kopper looked like something had just occurred to him. "Tell you what, though... While we're standing here like this..."

"What...?" Walar demanded eagerly.

"Give's a kiss." Kopper chuckled as Walar angrily shoved him away. "Oh, lighten up, mate...!"

"Red Ridinghood is the... guv'noress's daughter...!" said Walar, stumbling over Kopper's odd turns of phrase. "Does that make a difference to you?!"

Kopper blinked. "Get outta town."

"I wish I could...! Are you going to help me or aren't you?"

Kopper sighed. "I'm gonna end up regretting this. If I get this wrong, she'll kill me. But that'll mean she's safe, so... still a win. Just... Don't you dare let me down, all right?!"

"Are you certain this is safe...?" Grant demanded to know, first and foremost. "Absolutely certain...?"

"It hasn't been up to now..." Avral's voice through the comms was totally clear, probably because geographically she wasn't at all far away. "But rank brings privileges."

"All right." Grant rubbed his eyes, more tired than he would admit. He reached for the half-full glass in front of him, and his hand hovered over it for a moment. "You know what you're doing by now," he said, and his hand moved away from the glass again.

"Can I have that in writing?"

He smiled. "Nothing in writing. First rule."

"Wasn't that the second rule? After "do as you're told"?"

He squinted. "Might have been. I think I've forgotten. But I'm pretty sure I remember the third rule..." Always assume you're being monitored.

"Point taken." There was a pause. "This is going quite well."

"Really?"

"Oh yes, I'm doing quite well indeed. This was absolutely worth doing. There's actually someone else here already, with the same interests as me. Has been for some time."

"Would I know them...?"

"Not sure yet... But I'll let you know."

"I'll look forward to catching up with you, then. Any word on when that might be?"

"Not yet."

"Well, don't be a stranger."

"Never that. Unless you're planning to replace me..." The transmission was more than clear enough for him to detect the hint of reproach. Some wounds never heal...

"No..." he said, with a faint shudder. "There will only ever be one of you."

"I... I'm afraid I'll have to go now, father..." she said, clearly not alone now. "Duty calls."

"See you soon," Grant managed to respond before the transmission cut off, and hoped it was true.

"We thought something wasn't right straight away..." said the security officer in a low-pitched drawl. "Then a routine check flagged him up... Didn't take long, even. He's one of that lot, can you believe it? A known terrorist, and he just casually strolls in with a cleaner's pass - which absolutely checks out, by the way - that's a bit worrying... Then he doesn't even do any cleaning, he just starts to wander and snoop around the restricted areas like he wants to be caught."

"Right... Well done."

"Do you want to handle the interrogation...? It's your sector."

Avral looked up, trying not to appear distracted. The professional mask obscured the turmoil inside. Even as she pretended to consider the officer's question, she took another brief glance at the still on screen. Walar's face was set - defiant, determined. Doomed. "Stand by on that," she said. "Got a lot on today, and I might not have time."

"Seriously...?" the officer inquired, a little incredulous. "How often does this sort of thing happen?" He looked alarmed for a moment, and his own mask descended. "Um, sorry sir. Spoke out of turn, there."

Avral considered him for a moment. "I commend your enthusiasm, so I think we can overlook a little minor insubordination. This once."

"The prisoner will be waiting for you," the officer said, offering a salute as Avral walked away - her uniform was just like his, but with a brightly coloured flash on the right sleeve of her black tunic. "All right if we soften him up a little?"

"Absolutely," said Avral.

"They might have untied our hands," said Juni irritably, walking in a tight circle around the limited confines of the hut in which she and Blake were imprisoned. Outside the single entrance, there were guards. Lots of guards.

Blake was sat on the rough earth floor, leaning back against the wall with her eyes closed. "That would have been kind of them, yes..." she said. "The trick is to keep your expectations low, when it comes to hospitality on planets like this."

"Thanks for the tip," said Juni, smiling graciously with her teeth only slightly gritted. She slumped against the wall and slid down it to sit next to her companion. "Blake...?"

"What?" Blake opened her eyes and turned to give Juni her full attention.

"Never mind," said Juni, apparently preoccupied.

"All right..." Blake smiled. "Well, if it comes back to you..."

"What was Pelios like?"

That was unexpected, and Blake appraised Juni for a moment before replying. "In what way? I mean, it's a big question. It's where I spent my entire life, from infancy up to... less than a year ago."

"Did the authorities ever... pair you with anyone?"

"You've been talking to Caul."

Juni did her best not to read anything accusatory in that, and took the statement at face value. "Yes..." She shrugged. "Well, we shared a few shifts on the flight-deck, and then there was that time I needed his help with that-"

"-Juni, it's allowed." Remembering the initial question, Blake quickly added, "No. No, they never did, for whatever reason. Maybe they didn't want me breeding with any of their people. I was an alien in that place, and never knew it."

"So you've never...?"

Blake laughed quietly, and gave her an I didn't say that look. "Caul was classified a Bee very early on, I think. But I spent a lot of my time at ground level, among the Cees and the other unclassified citizens, so I got away with quite a lot that would have been impossible on the upper levels. I should point out, though, that breeding, as such, wasn't something I ever gave much thought to." She paused for a moment, considering. "Why now...? I mean, I don't mind you asking at all, and I'll tell you whatever you want to know. But what brought this on?"

"Nothing. We just... don't often get a chance to talk, that's all."

"Well, I'm glad we are," said Blake, before casting a look around their prison. "Whatever the circumstances. And... while we are... I have to ask, what is it with you and Faal?"

Juni laughed. "I fell into your trap...!"

"No trap," said Blake amiably. "Just conversation. But you really don't have to-"

"-I'm a copy of his... dead girlfriend," said Juni, suddenly and frankly. "The girlfriend he wasn't supposed to have, and maybe didn't want any more anyway. I'm not actually Juni, I'm a clone." She splayed her fingers out in front of her as if to say Finally, I told someone, the gesture inconveniently impeded by the rope around her wrists. "A copy, and not even a particularly good one. My memories have these... gaps. And then there's the nightmares... I see terrible things, but only kind of remember a fraction of it when I wake up... I think I'm remembering the crash that killed her."

Having let all that out in a rush, Juni took a breath and made herself calm down. "I'm not me." She smiled, grinned even, but her eyes just looked very scared. "I'm... I don't really know what I am."

Blake shifted position and touched her arm. "I thought for a while I might be the daughter of a clone. I wish I was. But apparently it's not possible."

Juni's eyes darted briefly to the side to look at her, but otherwise remained fixed straight ahead. "I only exist right now because Servalan couldn't let go."

"Because she loved you."

"She loved Juni."

"You're the only Juni I know," said Blake, a little quicker and louder than she had meant to, as several of the mud primitives entered the hut abruptly and dragged them to their feet. "Back to work...!" she said breezily.

As they were escorted to the largest of the dwellings in the mud primitive's village, Blake and Juni were afforded an altogether better view of the place than when they had arrived, and what they saw did not please them. In an open space, tables were set up for a form of simple manufactory, and lots of the mud primitives - women and children, mostly - were stuffing a peculiar crumbly material - not mud, for a change - from sacks into metal capsules a few inches across. The capsules were smooth, coloured a deep blue and clearly the product of a technology far beyond the people handling them.

Blake and Juni glanced at each other. "We need a sample of that," Blake said under her breath.

"Why bother?" asked Juni. "I think we know what we're going to find."

"We need to be sure." Blake was downcast, but still clinging onto some remnant of hope. "I've never wanted to be wrong about anything quite so much as this."

"Low expectations, Blake..." said Juni cheerfully. "That's the trick." Blake gave her a rueful look, but Juni had one more thing to add. "Heroes are just villains you don't know much about yet."

"Shall we...?" Blake asked, as the mud primitive guards prodded them with their spears, bidding them enter the largest dwelling.

"Oh, I'm not sure I feel like it right now," said Juni. "Perhaps another day." As a spear was prodded into her back, she rounded on the carrier of said spear. "I didn't mean it, all right?! I'm going!"

"I really don't like the look of this," said Rissa to herself as her friends were led out of her sight, and it was an understatement of her actual feelings. Carefully, staying under cover, she ran in a crouching position along the perimeter of the mud primitive's village. Like Blake and Juni, she saw the crude manufactory and the non-native technology, and her heart sank. All right, she hadn't bought into the mythology the way Blake or some of the others had, but it was still a disappointment. She wondered if it would be possible to sneak a sample right now...

Probably not. She stayed very still as a patrol of the spear carriers moved by, and then eventually resumed her tour of the perimeter. Seeing another unusually large gathering of the primitives, she found a position to watch them unobtrusively. When she realised what they were doing, a jolt of adrenaline shot through her and her heart pounded.

Oh, what the hell... The teleport bracelet was quickly raised, and she was speaking into it in a low voice. "Darvin..." she said. "You'd better not be no the toilet right now... Answer the-"

"What...? What?"

"Darvin, I don't know what's happening to them right now, because it's an indoor event, but I'm fairly sure I know what's next on their itinerary, because I'm looking at it..." She looked up again, and saw the preparations going on in the centre of the village. A complicated wooden framework was being assembled, strong and sturdy, hanging over a pit, broad but fairly shallow, in which dried sticks and what looked like it might be straw were being dumped. Again she wondered where these materials were coming from...

Pots of what appeared to be more of the ever-present mud were bubbling away at the sides, and large quantities of rope were being piled up. Rissa did not like the look of this at all. "Darvin...!" she hissed into her bracelet. "The good news is, our friends are likely to be fed very soon... The bad news is who they're going to be fed to...!"

"Stand by..." said Darvin, distracted.

Rissa couldn't quite believe that. "You stand by," she said, and cut off the communication. "I'm off the leash!"

"Continue to monitor," said Darvin to Caul, voice as stern as his face. At times like these, it was actually possible to imagine him as the Federation officer he had been. "Faal, deep scan, while they're still settling... What kind of ship is that?"

Faal held up a hand for a moment, before finally offering his verdict. "Planet hopper," he said. "With external cargo hold. No match for Liberator."

"Nothing else?"

"Nothing yet," said Caul. "Darvin-"

"I know...!" Darvin went back to the comms. "Rissa... Rissa, respond please...! Rissa!" As the other two looked on, increasingly alarmed, he took his finger off the switch and threw up his arms in his frustration before slamming them down onto the pilot's console.

"You wanted to see me...?" Avral's voice held all the slight disbelief that could be expected in the situation, but little of the alarm she actually felt, as she was escorted into the First Lady's office by her personal guards.

"Ah... Yes, my dear..." said Lady Shilena, turning her chair around, and throwing a brief glance toward Dr Guld standing nearby. "I did, I did... I think... we have something to discuss, you and I..."