Blake's 7 - Liberators
The sequel to Blake's 7 - Survivors
Chapter 5
Planetoid TNDM-1939
"I don't know what I expected when they shoved us in here," mused Juni quietly. "But I know I didn't expect to be bored."
"No," Blake agreed. The two of them were kept waiting at the side of the large interior space, in the shadow of an overhanging upper floor supported by wooden posts, while on the other side, as well as the ever present mud primitives, two visitors sat at a crude trestle table playing a board game.
Blake, back when she had been called Mara, had seen a variant of the game on Pelios, even played it, and understood it was available in various forms throughout the galaxy. And that was not the least of the clues that told them the two men were not from here - their clothes did that. Of simple, smart cut and subdued hues, but nonetheless of expensive materials, the clothes of wealthy men, barely touched by the dirt and dust of this environment.
One of the two men glanced over. "Shall we?" he said in a bored tone. "I think they've been kept stewing long enough."
"Stewing," said the other one, and laughed. "Why not? I think our friends here prefer a roast, mind you..."
"Yes," the first one said, smiling at the observation. "It will take a little time for the others to get here, so let's amuse ourselves in the meantime."
"Do let's."
"Names!" the first man, short and stout, greying hair slicked back, suddenly barked at Blake and Juni. His companion, taller and lean, around the same age, sat back in his seat and watched with interest.
"Names?" pondered Blake, and glanced at her companion. "Do we have those?"
"No," said Juni. "Never had any need for one. What about you?"
"-Let me be clear..." the first man said. "We are certainly curious why and how you came to be here, but that curiosity will not keep you alive, or safe, with any reliability. If we indicate to our friends..." - he indicated the mud primitives - "that we are finished with our questioning, you will be taken swiftly from here to suffer a particularly excruciating and lingering death. Now, with that in mind, even though I do not have to, I shall introduce myself. I am Mister Rist. This is Mister Lim. We are traders, and for one reason and another, we don't like spies. Now, what are your names, and why are you here?"
"Was that supposed to scare us?" Blake demanded.
"Yes," said Mr Rist.
"Oh, yes," said Mr Lim.
"Very well, then," said Blake casually. "My name is Blake, and this is Juni, one of my followers. Our mission is broadly to... help people, I suppose, and our particular reason for being here is to investigate the source of a particularly nasty psychoactive chemical being used to subdue and enslave several unaligned planets currently resisting attempts to make them join Unified Systems... We've seen this material extracted and capsuled in refining pods just outside, so obviously we haven't had a wasted journey. Was that enough information, or do you want more?"
It took a while for the two men to form a response, such was their astonishment, but when it came it was almost explosive. Their laughter lasted for quite some time, throughout which Blake and Juni stood calmly, waiting. At last, recovering, Mr Rist struggled to speak.
"Oh..." he said. "Thank you... I haven't laughed like that..." He turned to Mr Lim. "When was the last time? No...?" He turned back to his prisoners. "Sincerely, thank you. That was a lot to take in, though, and you didn't even let us react to My name is Blake before starting on the rest. So, timing slightly off, but your material is top notch. Indeed, very good."
"All true," said Blake. "Every word. Now, Mister Rist and Mister Lim, who do you work for?" They laughed again, long and hard, and Blake and Juni exchanged glances. "You're only making it more difficult for yourselves," said Blake, provoking more laughter.
Slowly recovering, Rist beckoned one of the mud primitives over with a bundle, which he unwrapped carefully on the table - Blake and Juni's confiscated possessions, including their guns and teleport bracelets. "Now," he said. "What are these?"
"So you run the business, to give them deniability, is that it?" asked Blake. "But exactly who are they?"
"I know what my colleague Mr Lim thinks," said Rist. "He's a bit of a history buff is Mr Lim, and he has a notion of what these objects might be, but I want to hear it from you..." As Lim nodded, Rist held up one of the bracelets. "Oddly enough, what you've said so far rather concurs with Mr Lim's theory." He looked again at Lim, who shrugged.
"Can I ask a question?" said Juni.
"Oh," Rist said to Lim. "This one makes me somewhat sorry we're not still in the people business, Mr Lim... She really is quite special, is she not...?" Lim nodded again.
"I'm still here." Juni tried to let the full extent of her annoyance show. "What I want to know is, if this is being done in partnership with or on behalf of Scarn, why isn't the work being done in some high-end facility? Rather than... well, in this place."
"What about that one?" Lim indicated Blake, like Rist ignoring Juni's question.
"Not so pretty, obviously, but I think she has a certain something..." Rist mused, meeting Blake's ominous gaze with wry amusement. "There is a real strength of character in that face, isn't there? Not as conventionally attractive as the other one, but back in our day we could have made a pretty penny on both of these two."
"Well, the bottom fell out of the people market," said Lim. "We were right to get out when we did." The two of them laughed throatily at their private joke.
"I think that the right buyer might even have given us more for this one... This Blake," said Rist. "A real pity they probably have to die, and in such a manner too..." He spoke to her at last. "Blake what...? Or rather, What Blake?"
"I'm not anything Blake," she replied. "I'm just Blake. It's the only name I need."
"It is the modern way, Rist," said Mr Lim, and his partner grunted in response.
"Listen to me," said Rist, all trace of humour in his voice gone. "You're not the first to try to interfere with our business on this planet, and all the others have died out there, died screaming, roasted on our friends' fire or else caked in mud and baked alive. Not a good end, either way. You understand me? Your chances of avoiding that fate are very, very slim, but not quite non-existent. Not yet. Just tell me who sent you, and give me something I can use against them, and we can talk. If not..." He raised his hand, and at the gesture the mud primitive guards stirred on the edges of the dwelling and moved in around them, still hanging back a little.
"Blake..." Darvin's voice crackled from the teleport bracelet in Rist's hand, and he almost dropped it. "Blake, if you can hear me, get ready for trouble..." Before he had finished, the whole place was shook by an explosion outside, dust and fragments of the building shaken loose and cascading down on them. Much commotion was heard outside, the mud primitives audibly scrambling to meet whatever threat faced them.
Blake and Juni looked at each other, and smiled secretively. "Rissa," they said together.
Proxima II
Avral was standing in front of a screen showing the feed from Walar's detention cell, just staring, when the summons came. Her mind went around and around the problem, getting nowhere. Looking at the set features of the man she... had come to find reasonably personable, she was surprised at how little anger she felt. At him, at least. She did not feel for him, did not and could not feel, what he apparently did for her, but he was her friend - of sorts - and certainly her comrade, and in combat she would unhesitatingly trust him with her life.
This was combat, she realised. Walar had made a mistake. Had she never made one of those...? Even before the messenger, in her robe of Mekatir blue, came to deliver the message, Avral had made up her mind what she was going to do.
"Thank you," she said, deceptively calm. "I will attend the First Lady immediately." Her stomach was in knots as the young woman glided away from the security section back to Lady Shilena's wing of the palace. Had she been discovered? How could that have happened...? Walar hadn't even been interrogated yet, and even then she was confident enough it would take a great deal to make him betray her.
This would be her first face to face encounter with Shilena Mekatir, but she knew of the fierce intelligence hidden behind the old woman's apparent mildness. It could be something entirely innocuous, a meet and greet with the youngest and fastest-rising security officer in her service... or it could be a trap. Or anything in between.
Taking a breath that rattled slightly in a throat constricted by tension, Avral went to find out. As an apparent afterthought, in a gesture that could easily be missed by an inattentive viewing of the footage later, she quickly cancelled the electronic locks securing Walar's cell.
It would be some time before that act was traced back to her, and she would deal with that when the time came. Finally, once more, she felt less than guilt than she did anger at Walar for forcing her to abandon this mission just as it might be getting somewhere...
As if prompted by that, her personal comm-unit beeped for her attention, and she glanced at it. When she saw the ID - or lack of it - she moved out of sight to quickly skim the accompanying message, coming in as text.
Always text. A little early to fully trust each other.
THEY'RE MOVING, it read. INTELLIGENCE HAS BEEN RECEIVED AND THEY MIGHT BE ON TO ONE OF US. I JUST DON'T KNOW WHICH ONE.
Who was this? Avral had yet to find that out, and found herself wondering if Del Grant knew of this other agent, whoever it was... Did they work for him? Or for... her? Or for someone else entirely? Would Del really keep her in the dark like that, when her life might depend on that knowledge?
Perhaps that was it. His protectiveness might be the very thing making him keep this from her. I'm not your daughter, Del Grant, whatever you might wish, or I might-
Accordingly, having given her enough time to read it, the message vanished from her unit and deleted all traces of its presence. Avral leaned against the wall of the corridor for a moment, mind racing, till a party of administration staff passed by and she went on her way again briskly before they could register anything unusual about her presence there.
Distantly, elsewhere in the complex, alarm sirens could be heard. A prisoner was escaping on the detention level.
"I think... we have something to discuss, you and I..." said Lady Shilena, as Avral stood before her, keenly aware of the First Lady's own elite guards standing near the door. Her chances of overcoming them, if it came to that...? Less than zero. "Thank you for coming so promptly."
"My lady." Avral's response was straightforward and noncommittal. "I have just received word. The insurrectionist captured last night has escaped somehow. I must-"
"-That's in hand," said Dr Guld calmly. "No need to concern yourself with that for now, it will be dealt with."
"I am sorry, I'm very good with faces but terrible with names..." said Lady Shilena, dragging Avral's attention back reluctantly.
"Dela, my lady. Security lieutenant."
"Ah, yes. As I say, I never forget a face, and I feel sure I have seen yours..."
"I have had the honour of attending you on three of your public engagements, my lady."
"Yes, of course, but I meant... Oh, never mind me, I don't know quite what I mean... When you have lived as long as I have, you know, you will find this peculiar sensation more and more, the finding of familiarity where it is least expected." Avral, with no idea where this was headed, but decidedly on edge, did not even think of interrupting - Security lieutenant Dela would never interrupt First Lady Shilena.
"I'm afraid I have begun to experience it already," said Dr Lenta Guld, standing unobtrusively, and till now silently, off to the side. "But then, that may be a consequence of my responsibilities rather than..."
"Advanced age...?" suggested Lady Shilena. "You may say it. I have few illusions, at this stage."
"What I meant to say is, I too see the same old faces cropping up again and again," said Dr Guld. "But then, true enemies of the state do tend to be somewhat persistent." She stared at Avral levelly, her expression giving nothing away.
"If I may ask, and forgive me if I am being is in any way inappropriate," said Avral, "How may I serve my Lady?"
"She is very lovely to look at, isn't she?" said Lady Shilena, talking to Dr Guld. "Oh, I know, you'd much rather be recognised for your professional abilities, my dear, and believe me, you have been, but allow me to admire for a moment, please... And remember... Yes, remember..."
Avral tensed, every instinct screaming at her, and tried to position herself where she could at least see the guards in her peripheral vision, so she would have a little warning if they moved to seize her... Stupid...! Grant had been right, Walar had been right, even Tev Kopper had been right when he had gently tried to suggest this was a bad idea... But then she hadn't foreseen that someone, let alone the First Lady herself, might recognise her merely for her supposed resemblance to her mother...
Had Shilena even met Avalon...? It didn't matter, it would be easy enough to find out what she looked like. Again, Avral cursed her own stupidity, and braced herself for the consequences.
"I also," Lady Shilena continued, "I was beautiful, in my day. I know that is difficult for you to believe, but then that was somewhat long ago... Beautiful enough to make a certain young nobleman take leave of his senses and determine to marry me, against all custom, against the objections of his people and mine, against... Well, against everything except his own will... and mine. Oh, it wasn't President Scarn, he has always been consistently... himself, young and old. No, I speak of another young man, a quite beautiful young man... He was the son of the ambassador from... Oh, where was it...?" She pretended to struggle to remember. "Ah yes, Thearon... It was Thearon. The son of the ambassador from... Thearon."
Avral's heart missed a beat, as she finally knew without doubt this was not the harmless meandering of a wandered mind, but a calculated, insidious attack. She was half-Thearonian, the man she spoke of could only have been her father, and the old woman knew it. She glanced over at Dr Guld, but the First Lady's advisor just seemed a little bored, if politely so.
"Think of it, eh, girl...? Almost ten years my junior, he was, and I recently widowed... But, for one reason or another, it was not to be. Too many objections, and we both lost heart. My suitor ended up marrying very differently in the end, to someone a little more than ten years his junior. Particularly galling for me, that, in a manner I'm sure you cannot imagine as yet, but one day you might..."
"Lady..." Avral began, with no idea what she meant to say after that. She could hear her own heartbeat, but still tried to give no outward sign of her anxiety.
"He was, by that time, a leader among his people. She was a leader of the resistance, moving from planet to planet inciting revolt against Federation rule. A political match, it was, to secure an alliance it was hoped would at last topple the Federation... Of course, they only had to wait a little longer, and the Andromedans would turn up again and begin doing that job for them... Ha!"
"Were they happy?" asked Dr Guld, and locked eyes with Avral. They held each others' gaze as Lady Shilena replied.
"Who can say? I know very little of what transpired between my beautiful young man - not so young, by that time - and... the future Chairperson Avalon, save that they did produce a child... A girl. Something my barren husband, our illustrious President, was never able to beget on me or anyone else, despite his prodigious efforts, which is why one of his dreadful cousins will be his successor when the time comes."
"It seems to me," said Avral, her eyes shifting to lock with those of the First Lady, "that a marriage founded in political expediency need not necessarily be an unhappy one. Not entirely."
"So they say," Lady Shilena acknowledged, her eyes bleak. "He died," she said abruptly. "Lost in the war, with more than half the human race... So did the child along with him, although... There have always been rumours to the contrary... How like Avalon it would be to protect her daughter by such subterfuge."
"It sounds like she was a very caring person, always more concerned for others than herself..." Avral said that quietly, looking at neither of them now. "Perhaps too much so." She turned to look at Lady Shilena as she spoke again.
"His face has faded in my memory, but his eyes... I will never forget those eyes... I never thought to see them again." Till now hung in the air unspoken.
Wouldn't it be gorgeous if this thing had explosive rounds...? That was all Rissa said - or rather, thought - as she fired her Liberator-issue hand gun indiscriminately around the settlement. She was as surprised as any of the mud primitives when a shot actually set off an explosion that demolished one of the buildings in fiery ruin. Was that all she had to do...? Think, and it would obey? That thought was exciting for a weapons enthusiast like her, for the moment or two it took to realise the building had probably been used to store unstable chemicals.
Ah well. Still a good gun. Leaving cover, she strode down the main street, letting them all see her, the weak sunlight flashing off of her silver eyes and inspiring superstitious awe in the mud-caked inhabitants. "Bow before your god...!" Rissa yelled delightedly, laughing manically. "No, forget bowing... Kneel before your god! Yeah, kneel! That's right! Kneel! Till I think of something else for you to do..."
Oddly, some of them actually obeyed, but soon a party of spear-carrying warriors arrived, and they were not for bowing or kneeling. Several of them came at her, and Rissa was careful to stay well out of their range while firing shot after shot at their heels and just past their heads... No killing, Blake had said. Unless it proves absolutely necessary. Well, that didn't need to entirely spoil her fun, did it...?
She sprinted from place to place, firing off shots every time she stopped, slightly out of breath now, but enjoying herself enormously. Off the leash, she had said, and that was exactly how she felt. When she heard the voice, apparently speaking to her directly, she searched for the source with a feral quality to her movements.
"You there...!" the voice called. "You might wish to rethink this approach! We have your friends, and we have weapons like yours also! We're not all primitives here!"
"You may have weapons!" Rissa answered, before moving to new cover. "But do you have the skills to use them properly...? I have!"
"She really has," Blake confided to Mr Rist, before one of the primitives grabbed her and shoved her onward, Juni right behind them. Hurriedly, the primitives brought their prisoners to the large wooden framework over the shallow pit, and prepared to secure them both. Juni looked up at it, askance, and over to Blake with a look that said What now?
"I've had enough of this," said Rist, ill-tempered now, and turned to the primitives. "Do as you will with these two." He turned to Mr Lim. "Let us deal with this one, my friend. Been a while, has it not?"
"It has indeed, Mr Rist," his partner replied. "It has indeed."
As they moved away, Blake and Juni struggled against the primitives as they began linking more rope to that around their wrists, and bringing over crude ladders. Blake savagely elbowed one of them in the face, but the force of the blow was limited and the primitive quickly recovered and resumed his work. "Blake!" Juni yelled, alarmed, as she was shoved against one of the ladders and more of the primitives began securing her to it. Others were lighting the fire in the pit. "Are you sure you've got this right?!"
"I don't like this," said Darvin, slamming his artificial hand down on the pilot's station and startling Caul. "Well, I never did, but now I really don't like it." He started to climb down. "I'm going down there."
"No." Darvin and Caul both looked over at Faal, and as ever searched for expression in the long solemn face.
"Faal?"
"I will go."
"You're sure?"
"I said, I will go." With that, Faal turned and went to obtain a gun.
"If you're sure..." Darvin said, probably unnecessarily.
"Come to us, my dear," crooned Rist, advancing with surprising grace for a man of his build. He glanced over at Lim, and signaled him to move round in the opposite direction and trap their opponent between them. Nodding, Lim disappeared from view. "Let's get this over with quickly...!"
"No, thanks," called Rissa, startling Rist, who expected the voice to come from a little further away. "That weapon of yours, that's illegal isn't it? Causes death by internal displacement!"
Rist laughed, recovering quickly from his discomposure and adjusting his plan. "That entirely depends," he said. "On where you are, and who you know!"
"Yeah!" Rissa replied. "Well, just so you know, I'm going to kill you with it. My own weapon is just too kind, so I'll just use it to disable you."
"Funny, my dear!" yelled Rist, taken aback and a little disturbed. "Very amusing!"
"So I've been told!" replied Rissa, again from a different location, one rather closer to him than expected. Her shot was precisely fired, and took Rist's legs out from under him, making him cry out with pain.
"My legs!" he yelled. "My legs! You-"
Moving in swiftly, Rissa kicked him in the face and confiscated his gun, examining it with interest. "Nice..." she said admiringly. "I mean, horrible... but nice."
"Stop right there..." Rissa turned her head slowly to see Lim creeping up behind her, and smiled faintly at him. He kept the gun trained on her, his expression grave. Lim wasn't planning to play any kind of game, and would shoot without hesitation if she moved. His eyes flicked over for a moment as smoke began to rise on the other side of the settlement. "That's your friends..." he told her. "We'll start to hear the screams any moment now... What do you think of that?"
Rissa smiled again, and moved swiftly. Lim fired.