Blake's 7 - Liberators

The sequel to Blake's 7 - Survivors

Chapter 16

Karstus, a few days earlier...

"What've you got there?"

Blake looked up, her expression almost guilty, as Del Grant entered the main room of Avalon's cave bunker. She showed him the small hand-held device and the computer interface it was connected to. "The Geologists' friend, I believe it's called."

He grunted as he moved over and divested himself of his heavy cloak, then proceeded to try to rub warmth back into his hands. "Not my field."

"And what is your field?" she said good-humouredly, being careful not to overstep. Things were still a little delicate and unsure, and Blake was keenly aware of her and Juni's current status - No transport, no weapons, nothing but the clothes they arrived in, and even they were lightly scorched.

He thought for a moment. "I was about to say killing... But looking back, the moments I'm almost proud of, certainly the most difficult skill I've ever acquired, is learning how not to kill."

She didn't know how to reply to that, and chose to elaborate on her task instead. "Hope you don't mind, I'm just collating some data I gathered in the caves earlier."

"Why should I mind?"

"Avral gave me the device... That is, let me borrow it... I'm..." Blake ground to a halt for a moment, horribly aware of the rushing of blood to her face - This was ridiculous...! What was going on with her...?

"She must trust you," Grant commented dryly, sitting down. "Quick work."

"Just an idea I had, a theory I'd like to test sometime."

"It's the concentration of mineral deposits in the caves that protect us from the star's interference, so I'm told," said Grant. "Fortunately, since our electronic shielding takes a lot of power to maintain."

"I know. I thought if I could figure out exactly what it was, it could be useful."

"How so?"

"You know about the pulse on its way from Earth to the Proxima system?"

"I know the runour. It's true...?"

"It is. I was there on Earth, just before Avon fired it."

He looked up at her on hearing the name, and an expression she couldn't quite identify passed over his face. "You've seen him?"

"Yes."

"Should have known he'd make it." Grant shifted position in his seat. "Will you be seeing him again?"

"I don't think so."

"Possibly just as well..." He ran a hand through his sparse cropped grey hair, and dropped it to his side again. "Not sure what'd happen if I met Avon again." Something told Blake not to ask for specifics, and Grant did not choose to go into any detail. "So you think this place might offer some way of countering the pulse? Surely that's their problem, not yours."

She shrugged. "I never thought of all the people in the path of that weapon... People. Children, a lot of them. They have... faces."

He smiled wryly. "A lot of people do."

"No... I just... They're not all enemies, are they? They can't be."

They sat in silence for a few moments, then Grant made to get up off his chair. She thought he was going to leave without saying anything, but at the last possible moment he leaned over toward her.

"That lesson I was talking about," he said. "The one it took me almost a lifetime to learn... I'm not certain you need it."

Interstellar space, between Sol and Proxima Centauri

A flotilla of around twenty UniS civilian ships, picked for the quality of their transmitter array, formed up around the Liberator in a radial arc like a giant wheel in space... Or not really so giant - In many ways their relative closeness was potentially dangerous if this did not go so well.

"Almost there, guys... Very good... Very good indeed," said Darvin, his voice level and calm as he broadcasted to the other ships. "Keep this steady, and I promise... Actually, no promises... Forget I said that. As you were."

The shield activated. To a theoretical observer drifting in space, it was visible only in the sense that it made the stars viewed through it ripple slightly, giving little sense of the enormous strain it was putting on the ships around the circumference of the formation... and of the possibly intolerable strain it would soon put on the Liberator.

The Liberator

"For you, Del."

Blake said that quietly to herself, and found herself glancing up again at Avral's station high above the main part of the flight-deck. She was looking back, and it was almost as if she had heard.

"You know they already tried this, right?" asked Rissa with uncharacteristic nervousness, and when she got no answer she shrugged. "Right."

"They tried something like this," Caul replied just as Blake was about to, even as he was busy at his station monitoring the Liberator's position relative to the other ships. "They were on the right track, but they didn't go nearly far enough."

"So long as you're sure," said Rissa uncertainly. "I fight really well."

Blake smiled. "True, but is it relevant?"

"That's just it... Am I, here and now? Relevant? I don't see anyone I can fight."

"Oh, we're fighting, all right," said Darvin.

"Well, I'm glad you're here," said Blake.

"It's coming," Avral warned from above them. "Coming straight at us... I don't know why I sound so alarmed - that is the plan."

"I know why you're alarmed," said Caul. "And you're right to be."

While the others were busy, and she was uneasily idle, Blake found herself going over and over her reasoning... Over the conversations she had had with Juni, with Darvin, with Caul and finally, and most infuriatingly, with Orac. In all of them, she had found the same doubt that even now gnawed at her. The doubt she dared not show.

"I realised how heavy the concentration of aluminium was in the cave walls on Karstus. And that must be why they were so effectively shielded from the star's emissions. The ships they used to get to and from the surface had force shields, but the power demand was heavy and could only be sustained for short periods... And of course nothing like what would be needed to block Avon's pulse."

"Great," Darvin had said. "We just need a giant sheet of aluminium... What, about fifteen spacials across if it's going to effectively block that thing. And about half a spacial thick. No problem. Good thing we've got four years, really."

"It's not going to take that long."

"Feed me," Darvin commanded grandly, his voice a drawl.

Gradually building up power and monitoring the Liberator's operations, Juni frowned. "Can you say that again, only in a normal tone of voice?"

"Feed me," Darvin said insistently. Shaking her head slightly, Juni got on with her task.

"I wonder if it would be better if we could see it," she wondered. "Or worse."

"Almost on us!" Avral warned.

"Be sure to tell us when it hits," said Rissa, but not scathingly. "I'd hate to miss it."

"You won't," said Caul.

"INFORMATION," said Zen, as the Liberator began to shake. "POWER SYSTEMS NOW AT MAXIMUM OUTPUT... SAFETY LIMITS EXCEEDED IN- SAFETY LIMITS NOW EXCEEDED."

"The energy required to generate an electronic shield capable of simulating the chemical and magnetic properties you describe is beyond the capability of even the most well equipped Unified Systems vessels," Orac had said when Blake had broached the subject. "Their transmitter arrays would burn out in a period varying between-"

"-They won't need to. The Liberator will generate the shield. The other ships will only need to use their arrays to create a... border. An edge to concentrate the shield's effectiveness. What I need you to do is to calculate the precise angle for us to meet the pulse in order to achieve maximum dissipation. Can you do that...?"

"In which case," said Orac, sounding almost pleased to be pointing out obstacles to her plan, "The requirement may be too great for the Liberator's systems. If an emergency shutdown is necessitated to avoid overload, the Liberator could find itself in the path of the pulse carrier and incapacitated. In which event, it is doubtful-"

"Thank you, Orac."

Some of the ships of the formation began to drift slowly off-station under the strain of the nearby magnetic fluctuations, and it took fierce concentration from all the helmsmen and navigators to maintain some semblance of the wheel. "That's it, people," said Darvin across the vast space the flotilla occupied. "Don't give it up now."

"Why are we doing this," Juni had said when Blake had outlined her plan in its early stages. "For an enemy?" Blake had been so surprised by that she didn't immediately have an answer. "Give them the solution, let them work it out for themselves. It'll keep them occupied for years, years in which they won't be chasing us."

"About that," Blake had replied.

"Aren't we there yet?!" Rissa yelled over the cacophonous sound of the Liberator's very nearly overloaded systems. Like the others, she clung on to her station to stop the buffeting throwing her to the floor.

"We're drifting slightly," Caul replied, a little bemused as he studied his panel. "But we're not moving."

"That's right we're not moving," said Darvin. And it looks like that carrier beam isn't getting past... Well, we'd know if it was, wouldn't we?"

"How much longer can we stand this?" Blake wondered. "Zen?"

"INSUFFICIENT DATA."

"Thanks."

"Put it another way," said Avral. "How much longer do we have to stand this? Anyone?"

"Caul...?" Blake turned to him. "How's the dissipation rate?"

"Not long now..."

"Not very precise," said Juni, not looking at him but smiling faintly. "Not like you." He smiled faintly as well, not caring who saw it.

"Dissipation proceeding at a little less than the projected rate," he said, pulling himself together again with a brief clearing of his throat. "Sorry."

"Not to hurry anyone, but if we don't ease off very, very soon, we're going to shut down automatically."

"Zen," said Blake. "Override final safety cutoffs." No one protested, but a few eyebrows were raised.

"Dissipation continuing," said Caul. "We might be able to drop the shield..." As the Liberator's systems reached a crescendo of noise once again, and the flight-deck vibrated enough to rattle their teeth, he raised his hand. Then, finally, he let it drop. "Now!"

"Shutting down," said Darvin, systematically easing the strain on the Liberator's overworked power systems in coordination with the others - Approvingly, he noticed that Avral was busy at her station, punching up her share and carefully powering down and monitoring the resulting data - Good kid that one, he thought. Promising.

"Was that it?" asked Rissa. "Can we go now?"

Juni looked over at her, and with a rueful quality to her expression she then glanced at Blake. "I just hope they're grateful," she said pointedly.

"Yeah, we're done with that," said Darvin, skimming over the reports now coming in, then activated the ship-to-ship comms. "Thanks, people," he said. "Well done to all of you. We did it."

"Acknowledged, Liberator."

Rissa frowned. "Acknowledged...? That's all they have to say?"

"You expected gratitude?" asked Juni.

"No, I just-" Rissa stepped down from her station, moved over to the bank of seating and threw herself down on it. "Never mind."

"Blake," Darvin called over. "We're good. Go and get some rest. That's an order."

"Me? Why me?"

"Because you look awful. No offence, unless it'll make you more likely to obey."

"You're giving me orders now, Stev?"

"I'm the captain, aren't I...? You appointed me."

"I will when you do."

"People might talk. Seriously, Blake, you're dead on your feet." He broke off for a moment. "Zen... Can we leave it in your capable hands now?"

"CONFIRMED," said Zen, after a short pause, somehow managing to imply there wasn't much he couldn't handle better than the crew.

The Kapital, Proxima II

"Well...?" Lady Shilena had heard the brief chime of the incoming message, and given Lenta a few seconds to take it in - Plenty of time. Too much time.

"It's done," said Lenta, at last. "They did it." Lady Shilena closed her eyes and offered silent thanks to gods she had never believed in before, and still didn't.

"All right, Stev... All right," said Blake. "I promise I'll get some rest very shortly. Is that good enough for you?"

"Suppose it'll have to be," said Darvin. "Well, congratulations. You've just saved civilisation as we know it."

"You mean we have," she replied.

"So where next? Wherever our new boss wants us, I suppose."

"Right," said Blake, and moved over to stand in front of his station. "It will be up to your new boss... Let's hope he's the right man for the job."

Darvin seemed to wonder for a while whether he had heard correctly, and spent a bit longer pondering the meaning of what she had just said. "The ship..." he began, and tailed off. No, he didn't quite understand.

"Is yours, as ever..." she said. "Now, so is the mission, as per our agreement... We never thought the time would actually come, but here we are."

Darvin took a few seconds to process that, and even without looking at them Blake knew the others were all staring at her. Springing this on them now was unfortunate, but time was a factor. "So come with me," he said at last. "As per our agreement."

"That bit wasn't binding," Blake replied light-heartedly, and then grew more serious. "I thought I could just tear everything down and then run, leaving others to build something better... Turns out, I'm going to be doing my part after all."

"And what's that going to be?" he asked. "Your part... What is that?"

"Go wherever I'm needed," said Blake. "At first, I'll be Lady Shilena's liason to the UniS Presidium on Prautan. There's a few things needing fixed there before we can start to make everything right again."

When exactly was everything ever right, wondered Darvin, but he nodded, seeming to find that a more or less satisfactory answer. Don't spoil it. He turned to Avral. "Look after her."

"It'll be my job to," said Avral. "Officially."

"All worked out," Darvin mused, addressing Blake again. "Your Lady Shilena... She wants the Liberator."

"She never said so."

He laughed. "Did she need to?"

"We don't always get everything we want," said Blake. "Not everything. You'd be helping me out one last time if you took the Liberator away... Far away."

"Head out there..." Darvin pondered.

"Before you really do get old," she said, echoing his own words. There were tears in her eyes even as she started to laugh. "You'll never be old, Stev."

"Well..." he responded. "That's not very encouraging, as prophecies go."

"That's not what I meant."

He stood there, grinning, his mind whirling with the implications... Finally, he replied. "I'm gonna miss you!" he said, his tone accusing.

"So you ought to," said Blake, before looking at the others. "I'm sorry, there hasn't been time, I really am sorry to present this so suddenly... But it has to be now."

Caul looked up, having been studying his panel till now despite obviously listening to every word. "You're right," he told Blake. "She shouldn't have the Liberator. Putting it out of her reach is the best thing we can do." Blake's gaze lingered on him, and seemed to promise to talk more later, but for now the others were waiting to offer their thoughts.

"This..." Rissa said, visibly upset. "This... No...! We can't lose Blake. We're a team..." Unable to stay where she was, she stood and went to Blake, enveloping her in a tight hug. "No, more than that... We're a family."

Their faces very close together, Blake smiled and spoke quietly. "We are. But this has to be done."

"You can't go," said Rissa.

"Well, coming with me is an option," said Blake. "There's a lot of challenges ahead, and I could use you."

Rissa shook her head slightly, and her glance flickered a little in Darvin's direction. "You can't make me choose."

"No," said Blake. "But I still wanted you to know you had a choice."

Rissa hugged her again, and seemed to get a little more upset as the full ramifications occurred to her. "Juni..." she said. "Is she going too?" Pulling away, she turned. "Are you?"

Juni looked a little hesitant, then replied with a nod. "I'm going with Blake. Tempting though it is, I think I'll be a lot more use." She pointedly did not look over at Caul, but Rissa did.

"And you... Caul... We can't lose you... All three of you...?"

"No," Caul replied. "I'll stay on the Liberator." He looked at Blake, and pointedly not at Juni. "I'm more use here."

Blake had suspected this already, but even so tears were starting to come to her eyes again. "You'd be useful anywhere, my friend..." While Rissa impulsively moved on to hug Juni, Blake moved to stand just beneath Caul's station and look up at him. "My first friend," she said. "I can't imagine life without you. How will that work?"

He looked down at her, and seemed to be searching for something to say in reply, but failed to come up with anything adequate. Her face, however, told him eloquently the same thing it always had every time he had come up against this problem...

It didn't matter.

In front of the others, Juni and Caul said very little to each other, nothing but the most basic platitudes... Even later, when both of them had the chance to steal away and find their cabin, just as they had left it, they said very little to each other. They expressed themselves in a rather different way.

Afterward, they lay spreadeagled over the highly distressed bunk, limbs entangled, both out of breath... Juni was the first to speak. "That was... enthusiastic!" she said, smiling.

"What I lack in other ways, I make up for with enthusiasm?" Caul wondered, and she laughed, having come to recognise an example of his humour.

"I think some of your enthusiasm might have gotten on the ceiling," she pointed out.

There was silence for a few seconds. Then they both started laughing, and continued laughing for a long time. Gradually recovering, they each offered a hand and clasped them together, and Juni brought Caul's hand to her face and, his fingers on her lips, settled absently into a gentle stroking movement.

"I thought..." he began, gently withdrawing his hand.

"Go on," Juni said softly, after the pause had become a long one.

"I thought, after what happened to... Faal... you wouldn't want to come back here... Wouldn't want to do this again."

"It was difficult," she acknowledged.

"I'm sorry I couldn't... I didn't know how."

"I didn't know either," she said, and kissed him. "I wonder if we could have worked it out, with time..." She looked at him steadily, very close, and he held their eye contact. "Blake knew you'd stay on the ship. Somehow, she knew."

"Yeah."

"If you don't mind me asking..."

"There was a time," Caul said, "I thought home was wherever Mara was..." He used what he still thought of as Blake's real name, and she didn't correct him. "But"-

-"You've found where you belong," she said, understanding. "I think I might have too."

"I hope we're both right."

"So do I," she replied. "Otherwise..." Her train of thought apparently ended there, and after a moment, he decisively leaned over and kissed her.

"So what happens now?"

"I think you might have me confused with someone else... I am neither clairvoyant nor inclined to forecasting."

"You know what I mean."

Lenta leaned forward over the desk, her face very close to the image of Avon projected from the emitter in the centre. In truth, she was beginning to realise, she had never before in her life been quite so powerful as now, and before he disappeared, she wanted, just once, for this man to realise that.

I'm no longer scared of you... No, not scared at all...

Part of her would always be that girl cowering in the 'tween'decks, waiting for the Andromedans to come, waiting for it to be over... The Andromedans hadn't come that day... He had.

"Often," he replied. "But not always."

"All these years, planning for this day... And now it's here. I should be excited."

"It's a good sign that you're not," he said.

"Is this the last time I'll see you?"

"See me, certainly... At least, you'd best hope so."

She smiled. "Is that a threat?"

"Not on my part... And my part in all this is almost at an end."

"You look old," she observed. "No offence."

"I am old... A condition you will be very lucky to attain. I wish you good luck, if that is your goal."

"Thank you. And to you, in whatever goals you still have." She got to the question she really wanted to ask him, before it was too late. "Have we... Have we done everything we can...? I mean, will it be enough?"

"Looking to me for reassurance... Not exactly encouraging. It's all yours now... Was that reassuring enough...? Probably not."

"It almost helped, believe it or not."

"I must be slipping... Probably best to leave it there before I become inspiring."

"Little danger of that." she smiled again. "We're finally here. I can't quite believe it."

"I can't quite believe we made it this far," said Avon.

Lenta's reply was somewhat rueful. "Yes."

The six of them stood opposite each other, three facing three, in the teleport bay. Blake, Juni and Avral secured bracelets around their wrists. No one said anything, and the silence persisted.

"Are we doing the right thing?" Blake asked nervously of all of them, and at the same time none of them. "Are we?"

"Not too late to change your mind," said Darvin nonchalantly as he stepped over to the control desk. Hand poised over the controls, he looked back at her. "You're an adventurer, Blake... I knew it as soon as I saw you."

"I was unconscious when you first saw me."

"Just shows what a good judge of character I am." He sighed. "You really are going, aren't you?"

"Did you doubt it?"

Darvin moved back from the controls. "C'mere, then."

For a moment she didn't know what he meant. Then she did, and tried to suppress the automatic grin. He really meant it, she realised. All right, then...

They moved up to each other, somewhat awkwardly. "You sure you want to do this?" Blake asked. The two of them embraced, and both smiled at the absurdity of it - The smile became barely contained laughter as he lifted her off her feet.

"We had to do that, just once," said Darvin, setting her down. "Could you have lived with yourself?" He registered that the others were all following their lead, hugging in every combination - Even Avral was included. One of us now. However briefly.

"We're doing the right thing," she said very quietly, so only he could hear.

"'Course we are," he replied, just as quietly. "That's why it all feels wrong." They held eye contact for a few moments as they drew apart, before Blake found herself gripped tightly by Rissa. Darvin turned, and found himself face to face with-

-"Juni," he acknowledged, a little surprised.

"Everyone else is doing it," she said. After years of antipathy, and a moment's hesitation, they hugged.

"Look after her," said Darvin.

"I'll try," she replied into his ear.

"Look after yourself too," he said.

"Likewise."

Blake was now hugging Caul, and was very reluctant to let go. Eventually, she made herself do it, and drew back far enough to look at him while keeping a grip on his shoulders. "This is difficult," she said. "It's even more difficult than I thought it would be."

He didn't reply, but that didn't matter.

"Tell me to stay," she said, and then more insistently, "Tell me... If you tell me, I will. I'll stay, we'll all stay... We'll take the Liberator, and we'll head out there, where none of them will ever find us... It'll be"- He still didn't say anything, but didn't have to. She stopped, and took a breath, and after a moment they leaned forward and rested their heads together. "Thank you," she said.

"Yeah," he replied.

"And sorry. I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"It's my fault... Everything that's happened to you, all the awful things... All my fault."

"I was the first one you saved," he said, and then a long pause. "But not the last," he added. "Nowhere near."

"Caul..."

"Goodbye, Mara."

He was right, it was time. "Goodbye," said Mara, and Blake turned away.

The Children of Light fleet, deep space

A state of nervous anticipation, often present in himself, was simply not something Miko could imagine manifesting in Tylner - That said, it was difficult not to see some signs.

No sooner had their diminished fleet reached the rendezvous point than Tylner had ordered the salvage vessel to come alongside Star Maiden and dock. Striding along the transfer tube alongside the imposing figure, Miko wondered exactly what it was they had sacrificed so many lives to obtain. He had some notion, of course... but knowing what this artifact was only went so far when it came to explaining its significance.

"Show me," Tylner barked commandingly as they went aft along the narrow service corridor of the salvage ship, and the Lightseeker crew led him to the cargo bay. By the time they had arrived, repressurisation had just been completed and it was possible for them to approach the object.

Torn from London's hull, it was a mess of rended metal plates along with a small section of the London's superstructure - Underneath, a large lump of solidified resin-like material, the edges crumbly... Tylner looked closely, and Miko joined him in peering at the section that occupied his attention.

"There."

There, indeed. Jutting out, partially hidden by a buckled metal hull-plate... Dried-out, frozen. Wizened by the decades since its entombment... A hand. A human hand. "You hear him...?" Tylner murmured, his one good eye closed. "He calls..."

Miko almost thought he could hear something, and he took joy in that, but it was only a moment before he realised the moment of epiphany was not for him alone... The others looked up and around them at the sound, and like him felt the vibration in the deck through their feet... "What's happening...?"

"Fear...?" Tylner's casual query may have been a criticism, but if so it was couched in a spirit of mere curiosity. The hand emerging from the solidified lump was occupying his attention. "We have little to fear."

Miko noted he said little, not nothing. The rumbling in the hull was getting louder now, reaching a crescendo, and he thought he could hear a drawn-out sigh, a human sound that made the hairs stand up on the back of his neck. He thought he had been prepared for anything, but this...?

"What's that sound...?!"

Tylner grinned, and expression Miko had never seen on that awful face, and it was chilling... "An echo... Of a cataclysm that, for one moment, broke the skin of the universe..."

To Miko's astonishment, and the terrified awe of the others, the wizened hand twitched.

"He is coming."

The ceremony was relatively brief, restrained in its dignity, and to most of the attendees it was a welcome chance to gather their thoughts. There were a lot of those to gather, and a lot of loss to come to terms with.

Blake let the images and the words wash over her, paying due respect to the dead of the battle of Storm Mountain, and was moved by the inclusion of those who had meant the most to her... She thought of Del Grant, but mostly she thought of Avral and what his loss would mean... Then she thought of Faal. The greatest sacrifice of all... He had been one of her people... Hers. The first to die, and hopefully the last... Once again, she hoped she had done the right thing.

They returned to the palace in a solemn procession headed by Lady Shilena in her formal robes of Mekatir blue, through the ornate gardens and the main gate and up the long spiral ramp that twisted its way around the main tower, eventually reaching the balcony overlooking the twilit Kapital.

"You all right?" Blake asked Juni, taking her arm. Juni had been subdued throughout the memorial ceremony, and she wanted her friend to know her particular loss had not been forgotten.

"Fine." Juni took a long breath, and stopped walking, and she and Blake carefully withdrew from the procession. "Do you need me right now?"

"You need some time? I understand."

"Thanks." Juni suddenly looked wary, and drew Blake's attention to the approaching Lenta. Lady Shilena's aide did not look pleased.

"Blake..." Come with me, she didn't have to add.

"Something wrong?"

It was difficult not to view Blake's reply as disingenuous, and Lenta's eyes narrowed. "The Liberator has left orbit... and left the system. But then, you presumably know that." Blake nodded, and Lenta looked away for a moment before directing her gaze back at her intently. "She wants to see you."

"I'm not surprised." Blake turned to Juni. "See you later." A glance back to where Avral, further back in the procession, was just arriving on the balcony, and Blake was gone.

Avral hung back while the others moved on, and moved to stand next to Juni. Finally, Juni looked up as she became aware of the unexpected presence. "You all right?" she asked.

"As far as I know," said Avral.

"That's good," said Juni.

"It seems to me," said Avral, "that we should probably get on."

"True. There is a lot to be done."

"No, I mean, us... We should- I don't know - be friends, if at all possible. Or at the very least get over this awkwardness. You know what I mean."

Juni shrugged. "I never really had a friend before."

"I'm not taking her away from you, you know."

"I know." Still, Juni was reserved, and Avral decided to get to the real point.

"You're hiding something, aren't you...? Something about Blake."

Juni smiled faintly. "You can tell that?"

"It's now my job to know these things."

"Good luck with that."

"I've seen it a few times. It's like you have something to tell her, and you just can't. What is it...? Something so secret, if I knew it I'd have to die...?"

Juni smiled more broadly, then the smile vanished - Even then, it was a few moments before she spoke again. "You're right, of course."

"What is it?"

After a brief debate with herself, Juni replied. "I know her name," she said.

"Mara"-

-"No, not that. The name Rashel, her mother, gave her. Her real name."

Avral considered that for a moment. "Why haven't you told her?"

"When I read Servalan's file on her, I had no idea she didn't know it. By the time I did realise... Well, I knew her by then... I cared. And every time I almost told her, something stopped me. Just like you said."

"Is it that big a deal?"

"Perhaps."

"A name makes that much of a difference?"

"To her, it might make a big difference... And she matters a lot, to all of us. Never more than now."

"Wow."

Juni turned to face her. "Don't you want to know what it is?" she asked.

Without hesitation, Avral shook her head. "Not before she does."

They continued to stand looking out over the city for a while after that, comfortable in each other's company for the first time.

"Shall I report to the cell block?" asked Blake as she followed Lady Shilena and Lenta into the former's private office. The forbidding look she got back from the President, and the disappointed, but hardly surprised, one from her aide, made her pause and resolve to handle this more carefully.

Allies they might be, but these two were not to be crossed lightly.

"Don't test me," said Lady Shilena coldly. "Or rather, don't test me further."

"I don't plan to," said Blake, schooling her expression to stay neutral.

"Oh, right," said Lenta. "You've finished rebelling, is that it...? You're going to play nice from now on."

"I wasn't aware you wanted me for my niceness..." said Blake. "Or was it never me you did want? Was it only the Liberator?"

"They are being pursued," said Lady Shilena quietly, containing her anger. "But just for show." Blake looked a little confused at that. For show?

"Necessary," said Lenta. "We don't presently have anything capable of catching the Liberator, but we have to be seen to try."

"They can go," said Lady Shilena. "Since depriving me of that ship is so important to you. At least we know rather more clearly now where we stand... Don't we, my dear?"

Blake began to reply. "I never"-

-"Your rebellion is over," the Lady President practically whispered. "Your namesake ultimately did not survive his, so I think you can be counted as lucky... Just one thing, Blake - Never deceive me again." A long pause, and the old woman went on, amused. "A promise too far, is it?"

"No," said Blake. "A promise I'm prepared to make... So long as you never deceive me either."

Finally, a nod. "Very well... Yes, I think we really are beginning to understand each other now."

The Liberator

Darvin went to his cabin to change clothes, and took his time. Even after all these years, the artificial arm he had been assured would be better than the original slowed him down a little, but all the same he relished the lack of urgency - for once. He had his back to the door, and as he pulled the shirt over his head and fastened it, he looked down at the tunic of some shiny green synthetic fabric and lifted it... He paused before putting it on, and without looking round he spoke.

"Curious what I look like now without clothes...? It's been a while." He continued ruefully, "And of course, back then... I had more of the original features." When no reply was forthcoming, he said, "Well, we've established one thing..."

"What have we established?" asked Tarna. Darvin smiled, and turned to face her.

"I assumed you were part of the Liberator," he said. "The security system, some kind of test."

"That was well reasoned, Stev... But reason will only get you so far."

He nodded. "Then when you showed up on Abisian, and then on the London, I thought you were in my head."

"Oh," she said, now standing very close, "I am. I always have been." He could smell her, that distinctive cinnamon-like scent, and knew that whatever this was, whatever she was, she was no illusion or hallucination.

He stood back, just a little. "You're really here. I don't know what you are, but you're really here."

"I'm your wife..."

"I'm not sure that still holds, you know. Last time I checked, death was definitely an out." When she just stared impassively at him, he remarked, "Tarna would have appreciated that."

A smile in response to that, though a somewhat crooked one. "I warned you."

"About the London, yeah... Don't let them have it. Mission accomplished."

She shook her head. "They got what they wanted."

"Oh... OK. Bad news, I suppose. Not really my problem any more, though." He started to move toward the door. "You can see yourself out."

"You don't understand."

Facing away from her, hand poised near the door control, he smiled. "No... But you know what's good for that sort of thing...? Explanations." When she didn't reply, he went on instead. "See, the Liberator is a telepathic ship, I know that. Maybe even alive, in some way. I figure it must be sensitive to a lot of things that maybe its makers didn't even intend... or understand."

"Good reasoning," Tarna commented archly.

"And it's been inside my head... Is that why I can see you?" He turned to face her again. "What are you? And don't say you're my wife. She's dead, she's been dead for a long time. You look like her, you talk like her, you... But you're something else. Not Tarna."

"Can't I be both?" Tarna shifted almost imperceptibly closer to him. "Can't I be Tarna... and something else?"

"Listen to me," he said. "You say you've come to warn me, but you won't say what against... You look like someone I never wanted to lose, and never wanted to see again... You've hurt me in ways I didn't think were possible any more... So I'm only going to tell you this once..." The last two words were snarled, practically spat at the apparition. "Go away!"

There was a moment where surprise, even shock, registered on Tarna's face, then the calm half-smile was restored... It would never be as effective again, though, now it was revealed as the mask it was.

"Unless you can tell me something useful, just go away...!" Darvin yelled. "Never appear here again, go bother someone else!" He turned back to the door. "You're not my problem, none of it is my problem... I'm free. You hear me?"

Before he left the cabin, he glanced back. No one there. "Free," he said again.

Yeah, free.

"INFORMATION," Zen began. "LIBERATOR IS NOW ABOUT TO SURPASS A DISTANCE OF FIVE-HUNDRED MILLION SPACIALS FROM THE LIMITS OF THE PROXIMA CENTAURI SYSTEM, AS INSTRUCTED. NEW INSTRUCTIONS ARE REQUIRED."

"What do you think?" Rissa asked, leaning over her station precariously and waving one booted foot in the air behind and slightly above her head, stretching. "Where shall we go?"

Caul looked up briefly. "I think we should wait for the Captain."

"Oh, you're no fun," she replied, then smiled. "I don't mean that." She swung her hips from side to side till her pelvis clicked audibly. "Just the three of us, then." That, she didn't seem so pleased about.

"Maybe we'll recuit others," Caul suggested.

"Oh... I hadn't thought of that. We can't just take anybody, though..."

"Bit premature, I'd have thought," said Darvin, striding along the corridor and down the couple of steps onto the flight-deck before climbing up and assuming his station. "Let's see how we go."

"The three of us can run the ship indefinitely, with Zen," Caul agreed. "But, all the same..."

"Anybody else missing them?" Rissa asked. "Or is it just me?"

"NEW INSTRUCTIONS ARE REQUIRED," repeated Zen.

"All right, Zen," said Darvin. "New heading..." When he hesitated, the other two leaned over toward him a little. "Away," said Darvin, and looked down at his panel. "Just away." He looked up again, more resolute. "Ahead, Standard by Six. And on till further instructions."

"CONFIRMED," said Zen.

Prautan

They came to get him in the late afternoon, and despite his years of preparation, years of planning and plotting, Dannen was taken by surprise. Avalon's former lawyer, now the intermediary and go-between - the true mastermind, as he saw it - of the soon-to-be rulers of Unified Systems, found himself dragged from his opulent quarters in the Presidium building, out through one of the goods delivery ports onto the landing field with a bag over his head, wrists shackled. All the way, he struggled, he kicked, he screamed through the bag, and knew nothing of what sort of reaction it provoked from anyone who might have witnessed the commotion.

Finally, when their destination was reached and the bag removed, he identified his assailants - Men of Lady Shilena Mekatir's elite Personal Guard. Save for the ones who held him, and brutally brought him to heel if he tested them too far, they lined up on one side of the ground, and it quickly became apparent what they were waiting for.

The second ship from Proxima II touched down, the command party quickly exited, and Dannen found himself staring at the young woman walking down the ramp toward him, not quite believing what he was seeing... A ghost, almost. It only took a few disbelieving seconds, however, to realise this was not his old commander restored to youth, but her daughter, very different from when he had last seen the difficult, moody little girl... A woman now.

"Dannen," said Avral, and he quickly realised that it wasn't a greeting, or even an acknowledgment. It was a curt introduction for the benefit of the other young woman who had descended the ramp with her - Dannen turned his attention to the new arrival.

She was only a little shorter than him, slender in build. Her long face was dominated by large dark eyes, so dark they were almost black. Her brown hair was a curly mass that stopped at the collar of her new uniform, her pale skin lightly freckled. "Blake, I assume," said Dannen, refusing to be thrown off.

"They told me you were smart," she said, a glint of humour in her eyes despite her otherwise cold demeanor. "But not this smart."

"They didn't lie," he said, starting to recover some of his confidence. "All due respect to you, Blake... You moved against us much more quickly, much more deftly, than I expected... The day is yours... This day. There will be others."

"Is this him?" Blake asked Avral a little scathingly. "I expected more somehow."

"He was good at what he did," Avral replied. "Once. My mother was able to keep him in check."

"Where is Avalon?" Dannen demanded. "When she learns of this"-

-"My mother's dead," said Avral. "Oh, but you don't mean her, do you...? You mean the woman who stole her name. You became her creature very quickly, didn't you?" Blake looked at her sidelong, a little surprised by the degree of anger in her voice. "Forget Barr, she can't help you."

"Listen to me," said Dannen, moistening his lips nervously. Rattled now. "I'm a very useful man to know, I"-

-"Get him aboard," said Avral dismissively, and walked away. As Dannen was dragged past Blake, he only had a moment to talk further.

"Blake!" he cried. "You're going to want to talk to me, one day soon... I promise..." As he was shoved up the ramp into the ship, he raised his voice. "And it will cost you, I promise that too...! Blake...!"

Avral had been talking to one of the officers of the Guard, and came back to relay his report to Blake. "The other one's coming now... It's taking a little longer to bring him... He is quite old."

They did have to wait a while, but Blake did not mind too much, taking the opportunity to enjoy the gentle warming rays of Prautan's star, just beginning to sink towards the horizon and starting to bathe the Presidium landing field with a bright yellow glow. After the forbidding environments she seemed to have spent most of her life in, this place made her feel almost peaceful.

She looked up at the huge Presidium building, and despite its architectural splendour something about it told her that beyond its superficial beauty, peace might not be something she could expect to attain here after all. "Relax..." said Avral. "We've cut off the serpent's head."

"What if it grows a new one?"

"We'll keep cutting."

"Delegate Joban," Blake greeted the wizened old man escorted toward her across the landing field, and added, "I hope my men haven't been too rough."

"In all honesty, I have endured worse in my time," said Joban. "I am gratified to be recognised... Blake?"

She nodded. "I know more about you than you realise... I'm a student of history, you see."

"I too," said Joban. "Then you, like me, will understand."

"What exactly will I understand?"

"Events... They have a habit of moving in cycles," said Joban smoothly. "And you don't even have to have been alive as long as I have to perceive it. We all rise, Blake, we rise and then we fall, and then... Some of us rise again."

"Perhaps."

He smiled, his eyes disappearing into crinkly folds, before turning and deigning to be escorted away by the guards, carrying himself with almost exaggerated dignity. "Goodbye, Blake. Perhaps we will meet again, when the cycle has moved on again somewhat."

"Why don't you cycle off?" suggested Avral, and smiled. "Oh, he has."

"Maybe he's right," said Blake, and then tried to match the smile, trying her best to make light of what she felt... A sensation like physical cold, even here in the mild warmth of Prautan's evening breeze. "Any regrets?"

"About what?" Avral was somewhat guarded, and Blake suppressed her own doubts, her own regrets, as she looked for the answer in the young woman's face as much as in what she might say in reply. "You mean, us?"

"That, certainly."

"We can't do this, together, if we're... together... Can we? It just can't work."

"That's right," said Blake, even though coming from Avral - just as similar words had come from her the day before - it sounded like a prison sentence. She desperately wanted to reach out and touch her face, but didn't.

"It's just for now, anyway..." said Avral. "Who knows where we'll be in a couple of years' time... Who we'll be."

"What we'll be," Blake almost whispered, and looked away and out into the gathering dusk of Prautan's capital, distracted... She had heard something on the wind... What-?

Looking back at Avral, she gathered herself to look as strong as she absolutely did not feel, and even dared to briefly touch her advisor's arm... Yes, she could still touch her. Like she wouldn't hesitate to touch Juni, or Rissa, or Caul. No different.

No different. Just keep telling yourself that.

Blake and Avral walked toward the Presidium bulding, purpose in their stride, and Blake did her best to pretend she had imagined what she had heard a moment before... That voice that wasn't a voice, that feeling inside her... Those two words that filled her with excitement... and dread.

President Blake.

Deep space, unknown location

The long, dart-like ship was heavily-armed and fast, a perfect balance between offensive power, maneuverability and speed. Black as space itself, and very difficult to detect until it was almost upon its enemy.

The product of an experimental program abandoned several years earlier, due to its excessive cost, in favour of the UniS Gamma-Class Pursuit Ships. A discreet line was drawn under the project when the prototype vessel unexpectedly went missing, simultaneously with another classified UniS asset, and apparently vanished into the unknown regions of the galaxy.

That asset stood on the flight-deck of the ship, his tall, sturdy form looming over the pilot's console. A human pilot might have been rendered extremely uncomfortable by his proximity and his brooding presence, but this was no ordinary pilot...

This was a Mutoid. One of the last three mutoids known to exist.

"Nothing else...?" The voice was deep, the diction crisp with little trace of the accent of his childhood... Or rather, the childhood of his long-dead progenitor. The neatly-arranged short hair was grey, the granite-carved face that of a man in late middle age, but the muscles and sinews were those of a far younger man.

"Nothing, sir... Only further confirmation. A great battle in space. Considerable losses on both sides... Precise figures are still coming in. But it seems Unified Systems forces achieved a narrow victory. Their enemy has retreated."

"And Storm Mountain... Definitely gone?"

"Confirmation is received."

He took an audible deep breath, in and out swiftly. "I knew already... I could feel Vuun die. We were linked."

His head inclined and tilted a little to look directly at the reporting Mutoid for the first time, one eye hidden behind the prosthetic mask. Unlike the original from whom this clone was derived, the prosthetic was not a replacement but an enhancement to his natural vision - A choice, as was the weapon built into his arm. He smiled faintly, a rare sight for anyone and probably wasted on a Mutoid - Not that he cared.

"I want further reports as they come in," said Travis. "See that I get them."

"Yes, sir."

"This isn't our time," he mused. "Not yet. But it will be."

...

Next

...

...

"I've come a long way..." he said. "Risked a lot... Taken a few losses. So, you tell her..." He attempted to rub the exhaustion out of his eyes, close to tears of grief and despair. "You tell Blake, Stev Darvin is here to see her."

"We can't."

"What do you mean you can't? Where is she?"

"We don't know," said Juni wearily. "No one knows."

32 years after Gauda Prime, 4 after the battle of Storm Mountain... The Children of Light advance - relentless, unstoppable - while Unified Systems forces fall back. Humanity, what is left of it, stands on the brink. Civilization is about to end. The human race is about to fall, forever.

On the last day of the Second Calendar, one ship and seven people will go forward, into the Light, and there will be a reckoning. A final one.

"Very soon now, it will all end," said Blake, her smile sad. The cable protruding from the port in her temple emanated a harsh, sickly light, and her scar was livid in the pulsing illumination. "The only way it was ever going to."

...

Blake's 7: Believers

...

"Yes..." The tall figure stepped forward. "I'll do this for you, I'll find Blake..." Travis smiled. "After all, it's what I do."