Blake's 7 - Liberators
The sequel to Blake's 7 - Survivors
Chapter 11
Proxima II
Dr Lenta Guld put off the decision as long as she could... Even though the reports coming in pointed to no other recourse, she resisted. She waited. She received more reports, more and more, every one of them narrowing her options, till only one was left... Well, two... But she had spent the first thirty years of her life running, and she would never go back to that.
No.
There was only one way now. She immediately went about erasing all the drives, the ones seized in the raid on Del Grant's former headquarters, in the full knowledge that, now, there was no going back.
The walk to the First Lady's suite of rooms was long, slow and, to Dr Guld's mind, funereal. How often had she taken this route without thinking, without for one moment stopping to savour the plushness of this environment, the comfort that would have been unimaginable to her till the last few years... Not a trace of the humidity that plagued the ordinary citizens of the Kapital below, or the harsh conditions endured by the miners on the outer planets. Luxury she only now began to appreciate, now it was probably too late.
She was one of a privileged few who would be allowed in on sight, possibly the only one around whom the guards would actually relax, as much as they ever could... That would give her time, hopefully enough time to get Lady Shilena Mekatir Scarn to listen to the entirety of what she had to say... Before she knew it, she was at the doors, and the doors were opening, and... There.
It was now. It had to be.
"Ah, Dr Guld..." Lady Shilena began. "There a thing I've been-"
"-Your pardon, my lady..." Guld interrupted - It was enough to make Lady Shilena's head turn sharply. Few people interrupted her mid-sentence, and fewer still went away without cause to regret it.
"Dr Guld..."
"No, my lady. I'm not actually Dr anything... But my name really is Lenta... You can just call me that, perhaps."
Lady Shilena sat. "What are you saying?" Their voices were low, and none of the guards had yet registered anything was out of the ordinary, and Lenta took a breath and tried to slow her pounding heart.
"I have something very important to tell you, Lady Shilena... At the end of it, I may very well find myself scheduled for one of theose executions we don't have, but I must. Hear me out, please, and then do what you will."
Lady Shilena's hawk-like face was expressionless, the eyes cold. "Go on."
"Indulge me, for a moment..." Lenta went to Lady Shilena's personal work station and activated it before starting to tap rapidly at the keys.
"Don't I always...?" The First Lady inquired, her tone harboring a hint of danger.
"There is someone who can explain the situation - at least partly - somewhat better than I can... Please, just a moment longer... There..."
"What-?" Lady Shilena stopped as a holographic image appeared above her projector, a face at once familiar and still strange - Long, half-hidden in shadow. The face broke out into a grin.
"Hi ho!" Caster Baroon exclaimed, and Lady Shilena glanced over at her aide - perhaps former aide, depending on the outcome of this particular meeting - questioningly, and Lenta indicated she should watch the projection.
"Listen very carefully," said Caster Baroon solemnly, then the peculiar face broke out into a grin. "I shall say this... only once, baby!"
Avalon's ship
"You can say it if you want," said Grant, sitting hunched forward on the stark bench-seat, fingers clasped together in front of him - just as he had been for what must be a couple of hours now. Remarkably, at least Blake thought it was remarkable, he actually looked up at her for the first time since they had been placed together in this cramped space.
She let him hang there for a few moments, continuing her slow circuit of the ship's brig - It had to be slow, as there wasn't a lot of ground to cover. "I would," she said at last. "If I knew what you expected me to say."
"I messed up," he replied. "I know it. So do you."
"Who hasn't?"
"I messed up in a very special way..." Grant went on. "I placed my trust in someone who repeatedly showed me, told me even, that she can't and shouldn't be trusted... I did it anyway... Just because..."
"Avalon's final plan." Blake walked between him and the single light-source, and the timing seemed appropriate as the light vanished from his eyes.
"Yes," he said quietly. "I didn't have to go along with it... I could have just agreed till the moment she... died, and then... got out of there, taken Avral and just got out of there... Gone somewhere safe, or as safe as anywhere can ever be. It's only now I realise, I should have been the kind of friend she needed me to be, not the kind she demanded... I should have protected the only thing of real value she left behind. Let everything else go to hell."
Blake stopped pacing. "Avral doesn't need to be protected," she said gently. "And she's not a thing."
"Did you feel that?" he asked, responding to the slight trembling in the hull. "Engine burn."
"Yes." She felt the hard bulkhead and after a few seconds the faint tremor in the cold metal ceased. "This ship's old."
"But serviceable," said Grant.
"That's quite a few course-corrections so far," said Blake.
"Tells a story," Grant replied. "Not that it's much use to us, stuck in here."
"Are the others in a cell like this, do you think...?"
"Juni and Avral will be, there's another one like this on the opposite side."
"The others, your other people, they didn't need much persuasion to join her."
"Good... I would have told them to, anyway... In any case, they thought they were with her already."
"But Avalon... isn't actually Avalon..."
"As far as they're concerned, she's the same person she's always been. They weren't here when..." He tailed off.
"High turnover?" Blake asked.
"It's dangerous, what we do." He thought for a moment. "No, I'm glad they went along with it, I don't want any more of them to die, not for me... Their loyalty was always to Avalon... I had no illusions about that. And Barr is the only Avalon most of them have known."
"So all these years, you've been running Avalon's movement, letting everyone think Barr was the real leader..."
"She was, it seems. Or at least has been for a while." He closed his eyes and sighed. "I lost focus."
"I'm afraid I could tell you quite a lot about what she's been getting up to," said Blake. "It didn't make sense till I came here and Avral showed me her mother's grave..."
"I know she's not a thing," Grant said, his tone changing as abruptly as the subject. "But I'll never stop wanting to protect her... Accept that, Blake." He looked at her with a hint of warning in his eyes, and she held his gaze. "But I'm glad she found a little bit of happiness while she could... It's not an easy thing to come by."
Blake seemed about to reply a few times in the long pause that ensued, but finally decided just to join him on the bench-seat. "I used to think it was impossible," she said at last. "And I wasn't expecting it."
"It's not impossible," Grant replied. "But it's seldom convenient."
"Do you mind if I sleep?" Avral inquired casually, and Juni turned to look at her. "Just a couple of hours, then I'll stand over there and you can have the seat."
"You can sleep...?" Juni asked, looking her slightly askance. "With all that's happening?"
"For me, this has always been happening," said Avral, and when Juni waved her hand a little in a gesture that seemed to say Go ahead she lay down. "I can sleep, yes. I've been a soldier since I was fifteen."
"I've come to it late, comparatively," said Juni. "Or not so late, depending on how you think about it..."
"Or we could talk," said Avral ruefully, sitting up, but she smiled faintly to suggest that was actually fine with her. "You're really Servalan's daughter...?" she asked, as if it was a question she had been desperate to ask for a while.
"No," said Juni. "At least, she never adopted me or anything, not formally... She just... found me, and seemed to like having me around... It's funny, the way everyone talks about her, I never saw all that. To me..."
"She had my mother tortured, and would certainly have killed her if Roj Blake hadn't stopped her." Avral said that matter-of-factly.
"I'm sorry about that," said Juni, detached and a little wary.
"Don't be, it's not your fault." Avral shrugged. "In any case, I've no doubt there are people out there who hate Avalon for similar reasons... Even those who try to do what's right end up harming someone."
"There's truth in that," said Juni.
"A few days ago," said Avral, "I murdered one of my best friends... Throttled him..." She smiled bleakly. "He was a big man, you wouldn't think I was strong enough, but I was."
"I'm guessing he wasn't really your friend, if you did that to him."
Avral looked up at Juni then, eyes glistening. "He thought he was... I'm certain he thought he was... But I was so angry, I..." She took a breath. "He betrayed us, and he betrayed himself... And now he's dead. Walar... His name was Walar."
"Where's your mother taking us, do you think...?" Juni wondered, moving slowly around the perimeter of the cell again.
"She's not my mother," said Avral.
"Yes, of course, I'm sorry..." Juni looked appalled at her own careless words.
Avral smiled, properly. "I've done that a few times... But then Barr reminds me... She's not Avalon, and never can be... And that's why we'll beat her."
Storm Mountain
"Not quite what you expected?"
Faal nodded slightly in response to Vuun's inquiry as they walked through the stark corridors of Storm Mountain's main habitation ring - He thought he knew what to expect of environments associated with Scarn - opulent and gaudy, tasteless to a fault. This, perhaps, was what ultimately lay behind the public show - the central purpose of UniS itself. The heart of Scarn's empire.
"The energy cost must be considerable," said Faal. "To maintain life inside a star."
"Proxima Centauri itself provides the energy, brother," Vuun replied. "Storm Mountain is self-sufficient. In any case, that is not what we are here to discuss. The-"
"-Why do you persist in calling me that?"
"It amuses me... We are after all practically identical."
"Genetically, yes."
"Though you still have no sense of humour."
"As you have no sense of ethical responsibility." Faal stopped and turned to Vuun sharply. "I assume you have used your own capacity to produce a clone."
"I know you have," said Vuun. "Interesting choice. My choice was born of necessity... Before I left our homeworld, I took possession of some useful genetic material, and when the time came I opted to create a companion formidable enough to offer me some protection. A body guard, I believe is the human term."
"And where is this... bodyguard?"
"We parted company, once he had served his purpose."
"You mean, once you lost control of him... If you ever had such control in the first place."
"Careful, brother," said Vuun.
"Always," said Faal, deigning to resume their walk. "In any case, I will be gone soon, and with me all further prospects for your obscene experiments."
"The recovery of our race from extinction..." intoned Vuun. "You call that obscene..."
"Perhaps our time has passed," suggested Faal. "With my imminent dissolution, our extinction becomes inevitable." He turned his head briefly. "I have come to terms with that... I may even welcome it."
"I will save you, brother..." Vuun shook his head, a faint smile on his face. "In every sense."
"This is him." That was a statement, not a question and Vuun left it unanswered. Faal locked eyes with President Scarn, and instantly noticed that the stout figure was not corporeally present in the reception chamber - He was rather an immensely high-resolution holographic image, detectible only by the subtlest glitches, particularly in motion. Most people stood a chance of being fooled.
"President Scarn," Faal acknowledged impassively.
"Has he agreed yet?" Although Scarn's piggy eyes were directed at Faal, the question was addressed to Vuun.
"Not yet."
"You're with Blake." That was said to Faal.
"Not currently," Faal replied casually.
Scarn's face creased in an approximation of a smile. "Good... Very nice, I like that. You've got nerve. Don't lose it, not entirely." To Vuun: "So, they think he's dead."
"They do."
"No one to miss him..." Scarn mused. "Or, if they were to find out, might that bring them to us...? So many possibilities."
"I think you overestimate their loyalty," said Faal. "I was with the woman calling herself Blake due to brief mutual advantage... She and her followers mean nothing to me... And I mean as little to them... How could I? They're humans. So threatening me would avail you nothing also."
"I suppose threats are no good."
"Your supposition is sound, President Scarn."
Scarn gave a brief, hacking laugh. "I almost like you, you know... That's rare. Very rare." To Vuun: "Show him... Show him everything... Then see what he says."
Vuun nodded in response, and Faal's eyes briefly flickered over to him - If he was honest, their assurance worried him slightly.
Abisian
"A lot of ghosts here..." Tam Nivri mused, as he and Darvin explored the corridors of the former prison transport ship London. It was said casually, but made Darvin turn to stare at him.
"What do you mean by that?"
Nivri found himself a little disturbed by the unexpected intensity of Darvin's reaction, and backed off a little. "Nothing... Just... A lot of ghosts, that's what I mean. A lot of history here... Just a bit spooky, is all. Don't ya think?" Reassured as Darvin seemed to accept that, he continued. "You know this ship once carried Blake... The Blake."
Darvin nodded. "I did know that."
If any residual awkwardness lingered, Rissa and Caul rescued them, hurrying to catch up with them at a junction. "Boss!" Rissa began. "We can sink this crate, and we can do it easily... I know just the way... Boss...? Darvin!"
Darvin had been staring absently down the gloomy corridor and into the shadows at the end, but now his head snapped round to look at her. "Yeah."
"I know when you're not listening to me, Darvin... We're a team, right...? We're still a team?"
"Always."
"You're making me wonder."
"Just tell me," he said, irritated - at himself, not her, but she wouldn't realise that. "What did you find?"
"It's just like I said, boss..." said Rissa excitedly. "There's enough juice left, plenty in fact... We can blow this thing up good and proper-"
"-Could we fly it?"
Rissa's jaw dropped, and Caul looked bemused as well. "You never said anything about flying her," she said. She looked at Caul, who shrugged. "Anyway, you're the pilot. Judge for yourself."
"I thought we were relying on the Liberator to pick us up," said Caul. "Trying to take off in this thing will be a risk."
"Risk sounds all right to me," said Nivri. "Under the circumstances. If you really think you can get us off here."
"I'm just going over our options," said Darvin, apparently unaware Nivri had spoken. "The Liberator may never come, and stealing this thing from under the Children of Light's noses has a certain appeal."
"It does at that," said Rissa with a smile. "Well, we're at war, you the boss, boss... Your call, make it quick."
Darvin was staring down into the shadows at the end of the corridor once again, and this time he was certain they moved. "You're right," he said to Nivri. "There are ghosts here."
Avalon's ship
Zee smiled, the secretive smile she reserved for her partner, as she turned away from the console on the flight-deck and looked up. "On their way."
Barr smiled back, and laid a hand on Zee's shoulder. "That'll be one debt repayed. How long till the rendezvous?"
Zee checked the navigation computer, and confirmed her readings with the helmsman. "We'll meet them about halfway through the morning watch... You going to tell our guests what awaits them?"
"I really don't know," said Barr. "I'm thinking we'll probably leave it as a surprise, for old time's sake."
"Well," Zee replied, "It always used to work for us... Don't let the animals know they're in the slaughterhouse, that's what they used to say... Makes them more docile."
"Del Grant might be many things," mused Barr. "But docile is not one of them."
Barr went to visit the prisoners, although she wasn't entirely sure why. The doors on both cells, opposite each other at either side of the narrow access corridor, opened, and instantly the electronic force shield kicked in, detectable by the faint buzzing sound and the tangible charge in the air on either side of it. All the prisoners were familiar enough with the principle of the barrier not to go too near, so Barr was denied the amusing spectacle of one of them being stunned by contact with it.
They did go as near as was safe to, however, and all looked past Barr to reassure themselves the other pair were present and safe in the opposite cell. "Everyone sit tight," said Grant calmly. "This will be over soon."
"How right you are, Del..." Barr responded, amused, and blocked his view of Juni and Avral in their cell. "How right you are."
"We're gonna have a reckoning, the two of us..." Grant said in a very low voice. "You know it's coming."
"Oh, Del..." Barr mocked. "Could you really kill someone with this face...?" That face, so close to that of Avalon, settled into a sneer of contempt.
"Let me out of here, and you'll find out," said Grant coldly, murderous fury just under the surface.
"Where are we headed?" Blake demanded, partly as a genuine question but mostly to spare Grant if at all possible. Barr turned her head slightly to regard the cell's other occupant.
"Blake...!" Barr said brightly, happy at the prospect of a new victim to torment. "The mysterious Blake... If that really is your name... We haven't got to know each other yet... And I'm afraid we never will. Unfortunate, but time is pressing and I have somewhere to be once I've dropped you off..."
"Oh, really...?" Blake looked downcast. "I do like going to new places."
Barr had a hint of regret on her face as she considered her reply. "Yes, you're a very interesting one, aren't you...? Had we more time..."
"Urgent appointment?" Grant inquired.
"Yes, Del," said Barr. "I'm going to do what you couldn't... What Avalon couldn't... What Blake never could..." She moved back from the doorway, and they saw that Juni and Avral were listening closely. "I'm going to bring down the Proximans... Restore the rule of the Presidium... Unified Systems as it was originally meant to be, with Avalon at its head... Aren't you pleased about that?"
"You're not Avalon," said Avral, her voice only just loud enough to be heard. Barr looked pleased at the sound of the voice, and seemed to savour the moment before turning round to view the other cell.
"Leave her alone!" said Grant, and was ignored.
"Avral..." Barr mused, with a cruel smile. "Daughter mine..."
"You're going to die," said Avral. "Very soon."
"So are you, sweet girl," said Barr. "And unfortunately I won't be there to see it, but I'll be thinking of you."
"In case you're a little deaf," said Juni, "I'll say it too... Leave her alone."
"You've done well for yourself, haven't you, beautiful...?" Barr regarded Juni for the first time, another victim to work on. "Considering the lack of moral compass... Oh, I'm not criticizing, I'm the same... Yes, I know who you are... I'm a great admirerer of your late... benefactor...? I feel we might have got on rather well, before she lost her edge."
"You should be glad you never gave her cause to notice you," said Juni.
"Actually, Galaxy City to this in the space of a few months, maybe you're not doing so well..." Barr stepped close to the force shield, close enough to feel the charge in the air. "How the mighty fall..." She stepped back, and turned away. "How the rich fall, anyway." She cast a glance at Grant and Blake. "Perhaps the company you keep... Just a thought."
"You're done now," said Grant. "Leave us."
Barr moved in close, a look of barely-contained fierce anger on her face. "I'm just getting started," she said. "Nine years of my life, spent serving you... Well, I was doing that for a reason, Del... I had a plan, and now you're going to see the fruits of my labour... A whole new order... Soon, a merc, born in the dirt, is going to rule this galaxy, and it's not going to be Del Grant."
"You honestly think that was ever what I was aiming for? Or do you think we're all like you...? Everyone just like Barr..." Grant smiled faintly. "That would explain a lot about you."
"I'll remember that look, Del... I'll remember it for a long time... Then, one day, I'll forget it, and you."
Barr turned on her heel and walked away, soon disappearing fom their limited view of the corridor. "Everyone all right...?" asked Blake, unsure how long they would keep their view of the other cell.
"Fine," said Juni laconically, with a slight wave. Avral stepped close to the buzzing shield, and didn't speak - She and Blake just looked at each other across the corridor. Blake offered a faint smile, and after a few moments it was returned.
"We're going to get out of here soon," Blake assured them out loud. To herself, once she had turned back toward the interior of the cell, she added, "One way or another."
The ship was sturdy and compact, muted in colour, worn enough to suggest its decades of service. Nothing visibly suggested its function or status, but the signals broadcast on a variety of wavelengths almost literally screamed both - The vessel's neutrality was sacrosanct even in these difficult times for spacefarers. The worst pirates would hesitate before attacking a hospital ship.
It closed on a very precise heading for its rendezvous.
"I've seen something like this before..." Zee mused. She picked up one of the captured weapons and trained the gun, being careful to keep her fingers away from anything that might be a firing mechanism.
"I was thinking the same thing," said Barr, having just entered the otherwise unoccupied crewroom. She picked up the other such gun, ignoring the weapons owned by Grant and Avral. It was the ones belonging to Blake and Juni that had captured their attention. "Who'd have thought...?"
"If we'd known, all those years ago, we had one of Blake's people... The Federation would have given us far more for him than they did..." Zee smiled at the thought of Vila Restal - It may have partly been the pain medication they gave him, but his gullibility had amused her... She wondered what exactly it had been about herself and Barr that he had taken to, and questioned if two male bounty hunters would so easily have gained his trust.
Barr returned the gun to the box on one of the mess tables. "Ah, but you're forgetting, at that point the Federation had all but collapsed... We weren't to know it would recover... At least for a while."
"True... If we could see the future, I suppose we'd all be rich."
"We are rich, my dear."
"We'd all be considerably more rich, then."
Barr smiled secretively. "We will be."
Abisian
"All right," said Darvin, surveying the dark corners of one of London's storage holds. "I'm alone... Come out and talk if you want." For a while, he entertained the notion that there really was nothing there, that he really was just going crazy, but then... There she was. "Tarna..." he said quietly.
"Stev..." The girl was a shadow at first, but as she emerged from the other shadows her features started to become distinct.
"What do you want from me?"
"Nothing."
That made him laugh slightly. "Oh, all right... You're just here to finally send me over the edge, is that it...?"
"I'm not trying to send you anywhere, husband... Not trying to make you go anywhere, do anything... Anything that you don't already want to."
"Stop it."
Her head tilted a little to the side, something else that had changed from endearing to deeply irritating during the year and a half they had lived together. "Stop what?"
"The cryptic statements... The portentous..."
He never got to finish whatever he was going to say, as Tarna offered a warning. "Careful, Stev... I just came here to say that... I can't stay long. He's here."
"Huh...? Who's here?"
"The one. He's still here, after all this time... That's why this ship is so valuable. They'll do anything to take it from you, Stev... Don't let them."
"Just tell me one thing, one thing only..." Darvin stepped forward. "Are you real...?"
Catching the light, Tarna's eyes shone, and she smiled. "One way to find out..."
"Yeah..." he said. "I suppose..." He stepped forward again, and hesitantly at first started to hold out his hand...
The sound was faint, hardly audible at all, but Darvin's hearing was good, and his head snapped round to catch whoever it was making their way out of the hatch... and stopped Caul in his tracks. Another slight movement of his head told him that Tarna was no longer there. "How long have you been there...?" he asked. "Long enough," he said, supplying his own answer.
Caul let go of the hatch and moved back towards Darvin, and shrugged. "A while."
"So, what then...?" Darvin rubbed his eyes, suddenly aware of just how tired he was. "You going to tell the others?"
"What would I tell them?"
"Out of curiosity, could you see her...?" Darvin shook his head, knowing the answer and wishing he could withdraw the question.
"Is that a real question...?" asked Caul. "I... can't always tell."
"Rissa believes in me," said Darvin. "I know that sounds stupid, but there's things you don't know about... Not yet. If she found out... about this, she'd... I don't know... Actually, she'd probably believe me, and that would be..." He took a breath and started again. "Look, I know this looks-"
"-I'm not going to tell Rissa."
"All right... What are you going to do?"
"What I usually do, I suppose," said Caul, suddenly sounding bitter. "Nothing."
"You think I'm going mad?"
There was a long pause before Caul answered. "I don't think anything. I try not to, anyway."
"Sounds like we both have troubles, my friend... How about we lend each other a hand...?"
"How do you mean?"
"Well, you give me what I need... Basically, don't tell the others they're relying on a man who talks to his long-dead wife... And I'll see what I can do to help you out just when you need it most... Deal?"
There was a slight, almost imperceptible, movement of Caul's head that might just have been a nod.
"How are the secondary and tertiary power banks...?" Rissa called over her shoulder, and Tam Nivri spent a few moments perusing the unfamilar instruments of London's flight-deck. "Hurry up!" she added.
"Give's a chance! I've never crewed a ship before... Yeah... All right, it's looking... Not great, put it this way, but I think we could possibly make this work..."
"Possibly?" Rissa demanded. "We're going to need more than that."
"All right," said Nivri. "I know it's risky... If we drain them and put everything into the main power banks-"
"-Like every flight school tells you not to...?"
"I dare say."
She shrugged. "Why not...? I don't know about you, but I've broken every other rule I ever signed up to..." She smiled secretively. "Except one."
In the event that Nivri expected to be told what the exception was, he was to be dissapointed - Rissa leaned over and used the intercom, trusting that it worked. "Darvin, finish whatever you're doing, and get up here... We need you."
The outlying sentries posted by Nivri on the approaches to the ship were not prepared for what came for them - Elite wariors of the Children of Light advanced silently, veteran skirmishers used to moving quickly and quietly, and attacking with devastating efficiency. One by one, Nivri's early-warning system was dismantled, and the main force started to move in, stealth now less important.
Soon, London was surrounded, and the Children of Light closed in on foot, by land vehicle, accompanied by their armed drones in the air, their line of sight - and of fire - marked out by thin red laser beams. Nivri's terrified people, ill-suited for war, fell back in disarray aboard the former prison ship and sealed all the hatches...
The next stage of their defences would hold... for now. It had to.
"Nicely timed...!" Rissa was buckling herself in and stabbing furiously at the co-pilot's controls as Darvin and Caul made their way onto the flight-deck. "Since we last talked, the situation has gone from dire to... Worse than that!"
"Talk to me," said Darvin, taking up the pilot's chair. "They're here, I'm guessing..."
"My people are all aboard," said Nivri, turning from talking into the comms. "Well, most of them are... I don't think we can wait."
"Now or never..." Darvin started up the flight sequence. "Next stop... Anywhere but here."
The Children of Light's attacking force was still waiting for their artillery to be brought up when London took off, a couple of them - even bolder than the others - killed in the exhaust blasts. They were forced to watch, powerless, as the ancient vessel rose slowly in the air and finally climbed through the atmosphere in a spiral ascent pattern. The assault party communicated their failure, and awaited the consequences.
"Soon be back in space!" said Rissa to Caul, hanging on at the rear of the flight-deck, and he responded to her apparent glee with the wateriest of smiles. Darvin turned to her briefly before returning his attention to the pilot's console.
"And then," he said, "Our troubles really begin... again."
"The ship... The London, has just left orbit..." Miko stood back from the controls, but he didn't quite dare to turn to face Tylner - The side of his face with the gaping eye socket was the one nearest him, and even in his peripheral vision Miko could detect a slight stiffening of Tylner's wiry frame.
It seemed like an eternity until there was a response. "Interesting," said Tylner. He turned and walked away, and Miko was only barely able to hear the follow-up command. "Don't lose it."
Storm Mountain
"I never thought to see this again..."
"No, brother," Vuun replied. "There have been times I despaired of it also."
The two of them gazed up at it, the gleaming, faintly green-tinged sphere hanging in the centre of the roughly spherical chamber, without visible means of support, some twenty feet in diameter and thirty or so feet above them. As they watched it revolved slowly, somehow in all dimensions simultaneously. Mysterious patterns formed in its shiny surface, patterns not accountable to reflections... Something, some substance, coursed within the huge object.
"Where did you obtain the catalyst?" Faal inquired, though he believed he already knew the answer.
"An adequate supply was found on a remote world..." said Vuun. "It was already mined purely for its waste elements, one of which has a powerful narcotic effect. An agreement was reached to acquire what we needed... under cover, as it were."
"TNDM-1939," said Faal, somewhat startling Vuun. "I've been there."
"Contact was lost with our partners in the enterprise..."
"They knew what they were building for you?" Faal chose to change the subject, gesturing up at the floating sphere.
"Only in principle," said Vuun. "And then, only some of them. Only Scarn, and his advisor, Brintun, knew it all... Teams of different specialists were called in, as and when required, and performed each stage to my precise specifications."
"And of course you had all the required material..." Faal looked at Vuun with something like distaste, with a hint of sadness that someone once held in high regard could do this.
"It was provided."
"Meaning?"
"All UniS military personnel were donors, with or without their knowledge... Appropriate candidates were chosen for development."
"And you expect me to help." It was a statement, not a question.
"It's different, isn't it, brother...? Now you're actually standing here... Now the choice is immediate, and real... Not some abstract..."
Vuun moved closer, and spoke quietly in the knowledge that they were being monitored. "Scarn knows only a fraction of what this can do... Once we have met his paltry requirements... A few tens of thousands of soldiers, memories and skills intact, will subordinated to him... Once that is done, we can proceed with our real work."
"It is... different."
"The return of the Clone Masters, Faal... Think on it. Think."
"If I cooperate."
"Yes."
"And if I choose not to... Choose to die, and take all of what you have just described into the darkness with me..."
Vuun's face became cold. "I would not choose to let you."
Scarn, esconsed in his survival chamber, tersely allowed the communication to interrupt his monitoring of the two Clone Masters. "What...? I told you, no interruptions!"
"Yes, sir... I... You needed to be informed at once..."
"Informed of what...?"
"Sir..." The voice was hesitant. " Something is happening on Proxima II."
Avalon's ship
"He's getting restless," Dannen said, voice crackling over the slightly distorted comm-link. Barr knew this conversation would have to be concluded in a hurry, and it made her even sharper than usual.
"So am I," she said tartly. "Perhaps Delegate Joban is confused - he is, after all, not a young man... Confused as to just who needs who the most..."
"I know he's old, but don't underestimate him..." said Dannen. "Don't underestimate any of them... Scarn's greatest trick has been to divide them and keep them divided, but that strategy has started to fall apart, and the more they find out... If, for example, they were to discover-"
"They won't, will they...?" Barr's eyes narrowed. "Unless someone tells them."
Dannen picked up where he had left off. "You must remember, Scarn has been able to disregard the outer worlds as anything other than a source of tribute for a long time now... But many of them have been building up their forces, and with a unified, or near-unified, Presidium, they'll be a major power in their own right-"
"I know. That is rather the point, isn't it...? That's why we want them."
"Just don't take them for granted, that's all... We're not quite secure yet."
"I take nothing for granted," Barr replied.
There was a pause. "Good," was Dannen's - and the conversation's, final word before the link was cut off. Barr immediately rose from her chair and left the tiny cabin.
"Force shields to maximum..."
"Good..." said Zee, presiding over the personnel on the flight-deck. "Steady... Stay sharp." She looked round as Barr came in and stood next to her. "You sure we're in this much of a hurry...?"
"I think our people can handle a simple navigational hazard like this..." said Barr, staring at the viewer. "So that's what a neutronic storm looks like."
The viewer just showed the massive gas giant slowly growing larger to the right - The neutronic storm, hazardous though it undoubtedly was, was quite invisible to the eye. "I know it saves us a little time, this maneuver, but is it really worth it?"
Barr looked at Zee with a faint smile. "Since when were you jumpy?"
"Just a feeling."
Barr frowned, amused but reluctant to dismiss her friend's instincts out of hand. "Just make sure we keep an eye on the scopes while the scanners are down... We'll be fine."
"As you wish."
Barr laid a hand on Zee's shoulder for a moment. "This is it for us... The most critical moment. That's why you're nervous."
Zee turned to look at her. "For us...? Or for you?"
"Where has this come from?"
Zee was about to answer when one of the flight-deck personnel interrupted. "Sighting...!"
"What is it?" Zee moved over to the young woman at the console, and leaned over behind her.
"Too early to say... But I think-"
"Something coming!" shouted someone else, just a moment before the impact slammed both Zee and Barr to the floor - Even though they had the benefit of chairs, the flight-deck personnel were badly shaken.
"Three ships...! No - four!" said the young woman at the scope, and Zee and Barr staggered over to her.
"Shipwide systems malfunctions!" said another crewman. "Damage reports coming in...!"
"Get everyone we can spare to the brig," said Barr, with a glance at Zee. "Just in case." She took out her sidearm. "In fact, I'll check them myself... Can you handle things here?" Without waiting for an answer, she left the flight-deck.
"Who is it...?!" demanded Zee. "Who knows we're here...?" She thought again. "Just pirates, I suppose... Clever pirates."
"Uh... Negative, ma'am...! Unified Systems transponders detected, just for a moment while the scanners briefly kicked in!"
"UniS...?" Zee pushed hair away from her face as she moved over to stand by the crewman. "Why here...? And why now?"
"There it was..." said Grant, leaning forward and then getting to his feet, legs stiff. "Did you see that?"
"I saw it..." said Blake, hurrying over to the electronic shield blocking the doorway. "What did I just see?"
"A disruption... A definite loss of integrity, just for a moment..." The lights flickered and came back again as the life support system backups kicked in. Grant held out his hand gingerly, and was about to touch the barrier till Blake snatched his hand away from it.
"What are you doing?"
"If it's weak enough, I should be able to shove my hand through it... If I don't black out from the pain first."
"You can tell where the weak point is?"
A pause. "No."
"Don't you dare, Del!" Avral shouted from the opposite cell, from which she and Juni watched.
"Even if it kills me, Blake can get out and free the two of you..." He turned to Blake. "Are you really going to stop me?"
"It's a good idea," said Blake. "With just one minor adjustment."
She turned to stare at the barrier for a moment, and before Grant realised what she intended, thrust her left hand through what she decided was the weakest point. Trembling, gritting her teeth in agony, she persevered, the mechanism protesting with a shrill cacophony as the barrier struggled to maintain its integrity.
"What are you doing?" Avral shrieked. "Blake...! Stop it!" Juni gripped her shoulders and kept her from touching their barrier, and watched intently.
"Blake..." Grant stood close to her, but didn't attempt to physically remove her from the doorway. "Blake...!"
Blake screamed, throwing her head back, just as her hand finally passed throgh the doorway. Flailing for a moment, fingers twitching involuntarily, she finally hit the emergency release off to the side, and the barrier suddenly disappeared.
She fell to the floor just before Grant could reach her, but he helped her stand and supported her weight. "That was a stupid thing to do," he said.
"Just get the others out," she replied. "We don't have time."
Avral was the first through the door leading into the ship's central corridor, and came abruptly face to face with Barr. For one brief moment, they stared at each other, till Barr started to raise her gun... The two of them struggled, Avral trying to wrestle the weapon from her mother's doppelgänger's grip and meeting fierce resistance. Finally, the younger woman pulled the gun aside and very abruptly let go, forcing Barr off balance - Avral took the opportunity to deliver a savage blow with her knee and then the back of her hand.
"Somebody book me a psychotherapist!" said Avral as the others caught up.
"Arms locker," called Grant as she picked up the gun. "No time to be lost!"
Avral looked down at the winded Barr, staring up at her with blood dripping down her face, wariness alongside her usual contempt as she stared up the barrel of her own gun.
"Better make up your mind, my dear."
Avral turned away and ran for the arms locker, firing a couple of shots as some of Barr's people appeared at the next intersection but one. Grant loomed over Barr, and Blake and Juni paused to watch. "You look like you want to kill me with your bare hands," said Barr.
"Till we get some guns, that's all I have," said Grant, trembling a little. "I could do it."
"Yes, I know you could..."
Grant was thoroughly taken aback as someone walked in front of him - Juni brutally kicked Barr in the head, knocking her unconscious against the bulkhead. "You were taking too long," she said by way of explanation as she ran after Avral.
Grant and Blake shared a brief look - his bemused, hers wry amusement - before hurrying after the others. Barr remained slumped on the deck - Her hand, pressed against the bulkhead, slowly slid down as her grip relaxed.
The flight-deck of Avalon's ship was in turmoil as it became clear ships were now approaching from - as far as was meaningful in space - every direction. Zee demanded reports of the crew, becoming more and more rattled as it dawned on her there was no escape. "How many of them...? Just tell me that, if nothing else... How many ships-?"
She looked round as the doors at the rear opened, and was allowed just enough time to register Del Grant standing there with a gun in his hand before he shot her. The flight-deck personnel just stared, as Zee did into the coldly ruthless eyes of her killer as she slowly toppled and hit the deck.
Blake came in and moved past Grant. "You are all our prisoners now," she said calmly, holding a gun of her own. "Stand, slowly and carefully, and in an orderly fashion, leave the flight-deck..." As they all stared disbelievingly at her, she raised her voice. "Go! Go now!"
They started to obey, and filed past a vigilant Juni and Avral. When the last one had left, Avral sealed the hatch, locking them in and everyone else out.
The voice came through on comms before any of them even had a chance to get acclimatised. "Attention, pirate vessel... Attention... Respond or be fired upon."
They all scrambled into the crew positions, and Juni searched for the means to respond and eventually found it. "Um, yes, this is... pirate vessel... Go ahead." Go ahead? Blake mouthed incredulously, and Juni shrugged.
"Your immediate surrender is demanded... No conditions or attempts at deceit will be countenanced... You have-"
"-Tell me who I'm surrendering to, and I might consider it!" said Blake. "If it's Scarn, forget it... Just destroy us now." It was the turn of everyone else to look incredulous, but Blake settled them with an urgent gesture. There was a few seconds of dead air before the reply eventually came.
"The offer comes from the Lady Shilena Mekatir, in her capacity as ruler and commander-in -chief of the forces of the Proxima system."
Blake, Juni, Avral and Grant just looked at each other, nonplussed.
Proxima II - One day earlier
"You are a most peculiar creature," Lady Shilena told the projection, that curiously-elongated artificial-seeming face, towering above her, ignoring Lenta Guld for now. Caster Baroon grinned, displaying perfectly even white teeth.
"Why, shucks, m'lady..." The accent was curious, and obviously assumed temporarily, perhaps for this being's own amusement. "Shucks."
"You wanted to speak with me..." A glance at Lenta, then back to the projection. "Why?"
"Because, basically, because I thought it was time someone did."
"What does that mean?"
"Ain't'ya tired, I mean, sooooooooo tired, of propping up a parasitical monster who's been squandering what's left of your family's good name for the last fifty years and now plans to do the same to the whole human race...? I know I'd be mightily peeved if I was you... Ooh, I just imagined that... That's weird... I got pimples... That was fun, I liked the time I spent being you... Let's do this again sometime."
"You expect me to listen to this fool?" Lady Shilena demanded, speaking to Lenta.
"You are listening," her aide replied.
"Well," she said, returning her attention to Caster Baroon. "I have, as you might have noticed, lived a rather long time, and it is possible, inevitable perhaps, that in that time I have learned certain lessons... That sometimes a fool is a fool... and sometimes he might happen to be a very effective disguise for something else."
"Ooh," said Caster Baroon, "M'lady's no fool, that's for sure... But is she sure she wants to go down this road... Is she sure she wants a peek behind this particular curtain...?"
"She is quite certain, I assure you." Lady Shilena looked over at Lenta, and saw her aide's eyes widen... Excitement...? Trepidation...? Plain fear? She turned back again sharply as a voice, different from that of Caster Baroon, issued from the speakers.
"Request permission to disengage avatar protocol..." said a prissy, fussy old man voice, and then there was a pause. "Awaiting administrator with somewhat dwindling patience..."
Lady Shilena found the voice, synching perfectly if somewhat peculiarly with Caster Baroon's full lips, irritatingly familiar... until she finally recognised it as that of Orac, the super-computer... A voice she heard only once, thirty years earlier, issuing tinnily from a bracelet... A bracelet on the wrist of-
-"Yes, Orac," said a gravelly, oddly toneless voice. "Disengage avatar protocol."
"How... unexpected to hear from you again." Lady Shilena sat forward, eagerly, like a master of Probability Squares who has only ever played with amateurs and now finds herself opposite someone who is at the very least her equal... She watched as Caster Baroon's face dissolved into shadow, and another took its place. Human, that of an older man, craggy and cold in its repose.
"Lady Shilena..." said Avon. "We must speak."