by Tony Attwood
'Is Terminal Computer back on line?' demanded Avon.
'Er yes, I think so... ' replied Vila. He felt it unjust that greater credit had not come his way for having seen the sphere before.
Avon punched the contacts. 'Terminal Computer, which fleet does the ship come from that has just crashed on the planet?' demanded Avon.
'Servalan's, ' replied the computer.
'Then at least we needn't worry about rescuing the crew, ' said Vila.
'No wait, ' said Korell. 'We may be able to gain some information from the captain about the strength of forces - and about the sphere. With the way the sphere cut it down it might be able to knock this whole planet out of the skies. '
To both Korell's and Vila's surprise Avon did not try to argue. He looked at Korell curiously, as a broad grin moved across his face. 'Open the entry port Vila, ' he said. Avon's voice was curiously flat. Vila did as he was told.
Only two people emerged from the ship. Both seemed ill-equipped to walk across the frozen surface of Terminal, even for just a few hundred yards, and one particularly appeared to be wearing footwear that actually made walking on any surface difficult.
The tigers and mammoths that Vila had witnessed at Tarrant's departure had now passed on and been replaced by nothing more harmful than a race of long thin-bodied bats, which frightened and annoyed the visitors but certainly had no ability to harm them.
Through the gloom it was hard to make out the identity of the two, save to say that one was female. It was not until the first of the two reached the spotlight at the top of the descent stairs that Vila realised he was letting Servalan into Terminal.
Avon seemed far from surprised, turning to greet her only at the last moment as she entered, closely followed by Federation Captain Telon.
'Avon, we simply cannot go on meeting like this, ' Servalan announced cheerfully, walking straight across the room and taking a chair. A broad smile stayed on her face. 'And Vila too, of course, always faithfully by his master's side. And Koreli. ' Servalan drew her head back. 'Koreli you have disappointed me. I hear you have been cavorting with those degenerates in the Administration. Not what I wanted at all. Oh Avon, ' she turned with an exaggerated gesture, 'did you know this charming young lady worked for me?'
'And for the Administration, and from time to time for herself. '
'Really? My dear little Koreli, you have been busy. Well well. '
'And you Servalan, ' said Avon, rising from his seat but carefully keeping his back to the wall. 'Your fleet seems to be largely in ruins. And how is Orac?'
'Yes Orac, such a helpful little fellow until the creatures in those crazy spaceships started interfering with Tarriel Cells. '
'Where is Orac?'
'Now Avon, you surely didn't expect me to bring that box of tricks with me did you? My associate is looking after it.
Knowing your ability to be at the very centre of Galactic events, and finding nothing less than the infamous Terminal at the heart of our little battle I could only conclude you were here. Nice of you to let me in. I do hope the irony of the situation has not escaped your notice. '
'Is Orac on the ship?'
Servalan ignored Avon's question. Instead she changed the subject. 'Avon, you remember my captain, Telon? We all met on Gauda Prime!' Servalan performed a long series of introductions. Nobody tried to stop her. 'And now, ' she said as she concluded, 'it is my turn to ask you some questions. Avon, what is that sphere up there?'
Avon retained his position, arms crossed leaning against a wall, saying nothing. He was for the moment content to stand and watch.
'Come now Avon, I have Orac. Wouldn't you like Orac back?'
'I doubt if you'll give it to me. '
'Oh but I would Avon. And helpful Caro too. My troops are poised to take over the Administration. We have suffered some minor setbacks but nothing permanent. The enemies' weapons are essentially useless. Victory is at hand, and with that victory total power. I admit it would be nice to have Orac around to solve the odd problem, but I think I could manage without it. '
'You mean Orac refuses to talk to you, ' said Vila brightly. 'I told you it only talked to Avon. '
'Orac is in a ship of my fleet. We can do an exchange, Avon. You tell me all about counteracting the Ghammaran weapons, and all about that little sphere, and I'll give you Orac. '
Looking back on it Vila felt sure Avon was about to continue the discussion. He seemed in no hurry to reach a conclusion whatsoever. But at that moment Koreli acted: she drew a gun. It wasn't a particularly fast draw but she knew that no one was watching her. As she drew she shot. The laser ray missed Servalan's heart but took her clean in the stomach. The one look on her face that remained inVila's memory was surprise. The one word she spoke, was 'You. ' It could have been a statement or a question, but there was little energy left in Servalan for the niceties of inflection. Even Captain Telon was too surprised to act. By the time he thought of it Avon had him covered.
Korell's calmness and smile stayed even as she spoke in bitter tones to the dying woman. 'Monoceros, Servalan. Remember Monoceros?'
It was unclear if in the best of health Servalan would have remembered the little-known star close by a rebellious Federation planet. Certainly in her present predicament she did not. She slumped to the floor with a hand outstretched. By purest chance it stretched towards Vila. He retreated as far as he could. It seemed an obscene gesture.
'Monoceros!' Korell was annoyed at the lack of response from the half dead woman. In fury she kicked her in the ribs. 'You destroyed half of it Servalan. '
Vila thought he began to understand. He moved across to Korell to comfort her. 'She killed your parents there, right? Korell I'm so sorry... '
Korell pushed Vila away, with a touch that sent him tumbling backwards halfway across the room and into the arms of Telon. It gave the captain an opportunity to make a move to save his commander. He didn't take it.
'No of course my parents weren't on that pathetic little backwater. My parents are Pro-vice Administrators on Earth in the Terran Administration. But on Monoceros we had an excellent revolution brewing. For years I had forgone the luxury I could have legitimately claimed on Earth as the daughter of senior officials to cultivate that revolution. It was growing. It would have been a wonderful revolt. And then this idiot Commissioner comes along and blows them all to bits. '
Vila was bemused. For the moment the dying Servalan was forgotten at their feet.
'So you had split with your parents to rim the revolution on Monoceros?'
'Look, Vila, let me spell it out for you. The Administration has known for years that it is threatened by possible attempts to overthrow its power by fanatical military elements in the Federation. So I and a handful of others had the job of organising occasional revolts in the Fourth sector. The revolt we had brewing in Monoceros could have tied up Federation military forces for centuries. I would have been decorated and honoured and had my position in the Administration more than assured. Then that maniac Servalan found some grievance with the locals and burned up most of them in one go. '
With that Korell sent two further blasts into Servalan, and watched coldly as the former President of the Federation and one time Supreme Commander of its Armed Forces in Space stopped moving and lay motionless on the floor. Korell seemed to feel no further need to explain herself but Vila was unsatisfied.
'You're saying that the Administration deliberately stirred up revolts against the Federation? I don't believe it. Give me another example - some planet I've actually heard of. '
'Gauda Prime, ' said Korell.
'You don't mean you and Blake... ''Blake was a demented wreck by the time we found him. He'd got laser burns, radiation burns, star burns and cerebral burns. Someone had patched him up on a deadbeat planet, but not done a very good job of it. The Administration took him in, repaired his skin as best they could and restored him to something like a quarter sanity. Then we put him on a nowhere planet and let him start his revolution,
except that the poor fellow had been through so much that he'd lost his real ability to lead. He bumbled around and attracted a few idealists with more emotion than sense and lived on his name. It was genuinely sad. Then we told the Federation command he was there fermenting another revolution. Except that by then Blake couldn't even ferment a capsule of^ soma. We had to keep sending him more supporters to replace the ones he'd just shot because he felt they were Federation agents. And finally out of the blue comes the gallant Avon and company. '
'You mean we weren't part of the plan?' asked Vila.
'Not at all. It didn't matter too much because we'd kept several divisions of the Federation's senior officers on the hop over Blake for nearly a year. But your sudden appearance took everyone by surprise. We had told the Federation command that Blake was on Gauda Prime, but we certainly didn't tell anyone else, and Blake had no real way of communicating beyond that one star system. So I was rushed in to find out what you'd got up to. Only by the time I arrived all I could find was Kerr Avon. '
As Koreli finished her explanation she heaved a sigh of relief, letting out the tension of a long campaign. She turned her weapon to one side and brought her mouth close to it, and spoke a soft word of command. In one corner of the room a blue haze began to appear, grew deeper, took shape and turned into an eighteen year-old with cropped hair. As the girl's form completed she stepped forward and handed a ring to Koreli. Koreli turned to Avon and Vila. 'Let me introduce you, ' she said with a smile. 'This is Daareen. Supposed mastermind of Servalan's strategic operations, but in reality, a loyal agent of the Administration. '
The words had little effect on Vila. He continued to stare at the corner from which Daareen had appeared. 'Teleport, ' he said. 'You've got teleport. '
Koreli adjusted the ring on her hand and looked at the thief. 'Poor Vila, ' she said, 'you still don't follow, do you? It's not about Servalan and Avon - it's not about people at all. It's about systems - technologies - progress. Our Empire has always been based on rational logical thought and that remains the only route of true progress, because rationality supercedes all individual deviance. That has been the strength of the Administration since it was founded one hundred and fifty years ago. And that logical thought reached its summit with Ensor, and through Ensor, Orac. For five years it has been the central aim of the Administration to bring Orac back where it belongs. At the heart of the Federation, on Earth. '
'But Servalan took Orac, ' protested Vila, looking down at the grisly corpse on the floor.
'And why do you think Avon had so few worries about letting Orac go? Because he knew that Servalan's political ambition was so great she would use Orac for nothing more than concocting strategies to fight her way back to the Presidency. She didn't even notice when Daareen suggested that she might have a little time with Orac to solve one or two problems, especially since we'd arranged for her to have Caro as well. Caro talked to her, relayed messages from Orac, told her what she wanted to know. After a while she didn't realise that she hadn't seen Orac for days on end. As long as something was there to give Servalan her battle projections she didn't care. It actually took Orac about three weeks to design and test out a teleport system that we could build with materials available on Earth. Servalan didn't even know it had been done. '
Koreli turned to Avon. 'I should shoot you here and now. Your kind has no place in the future. You are a vagrant, nothing more. For a while we all respected your technical skill, but once you started tinkering with the idea of MIND you were lost. All these wild games you play; they are meaningless. Skat, and the black hole - a useful theoretical construct, and probably one of Servalan's best strategies, but it's a dead end. Just like the sound projections of the Ghammarans. One weapon and an effective one too, and you were the only man in the Galaxy who could have found a way of negating it so quickly. The Administration owes you for that, I recognise it. But it is still an aside from the main thrust of development.
'Orac is the first twentieth generation computer and we need more, and you should be using your skills to build them to help us continue to develop. Orac has given us teleport, and within months every Administration ship will have the facility. The existing Federation command structure will be replaced and a new Federation created withoutthe likes of Servalan in control. You could have been part of it, Avon. But there is something rotten in you that is slowly eating you from within. I won't kill you Avon. You've lost yet again. Take your revenge against Blake now. You're dead already. '
Korell looked at Daareen and together they touched elements on their rings. Within seconds they had vanished.
Vila had no hope of explanation from Avon. He looked at the body of Servalan, bent over it, and struggled to pull it to the door. Without a word Captain Telon moved across and gave Vila a hand. Together they pushed the inert form into the extractor bay. The body fell into the central disintegrator easily. Servalan was no more.
By the time Vila and Telon got back to the main control room events had started moving again. The sphere had moved lower whilst the skies above Terminal had cleared as the Administration forces regrouped to make a final assault on the fleets of Servalan and Yardyan. However, one of the captains had clearly either developed the notion that Terminal was a hostile planet, or had the intention of diverting the attention of whatever it was that was in the sphere elsewhere. Whichever the reason the result was clear enough: a series of plasma bolts were unleashed. A series which would, in time, destroy the whole planet.
'Get the shields on!' shouted Avon.
Vila fell into his chair and turned on the defences just in time to deflect the first bolt.
'Two further bolts running, ' announced Terminal Computer.
'Keep the shield up, ' called Avon.
'But the energy drain, ' protested Vila. 'These things were never built to withstand this sort of bombardment. They were supposed to take little more then meteors. '
'It doesn't matter, keep them up, ' Avon replied as a second pair of bolts struck the planetary atmosphere.
'Why didn't you kill the women while they were here?' asked Telon above the vibration.
'I must be getting soft, ' came the reply. Avon continued watching the screen intently. 'Now!' He said it to himself, but loud enough to catch Vila's attention. A beam was passing out of the sphere. It hit the ship responsible for the bolts, and must have caused some damage, for immediately the attack on Terminal was broken off and the ship made a rapid departure.
Distractedly they watched as the sphere came lower. It landed, gently, only feet away from the main exit bay. A door in the side of the ship opened up and a short ladder came down to the ground. Then all was still. Avon stood up.
'Bring KAT, ' he said to Vila. 'And your tool box. '
'What for?' Avon began to walk away to the main shaft. 'I said "what for?'" repeated Vila, breaking into a run.
'It is hard to justify your existence at the best of times, ' Avon told him. 'Without your tools for opening locks it would be impossible. ' And with that he began to climb the long stairway.
'You are not going into that ship? Avon! What for? Who are they? Telon, are you going too?' Telon evidently was, although he failed to reply. Finding no answer Vila lowered his voice, but kept talking to himself as he climbed behind Avon. At one stage he paused for a moment and looked back down. They had left the lighting systems on full, illuminating the passageway now two hundred feet below. The possibility of a fall made him feel sick. He clung to the rails, and looked upwards. Avon was making rapid progress. Vila glanced back down one more time. In two' hundred years the battery cells would run down and need replacing. Then the lights would go out. Vila carried on climbing.
On the surface the bats seemed to be resting. In fact there were no immediate signs of wild creatures of any variety, although that hardly reassured Vila. Tarrant hadn't seen the white tigers.
The enormity of the sphere was overwhelming but it wasn't just the size that impressed Vila. It was more that it seemed impossible that
anyone - anything - could have landed so huge an object so close to the target - presuming that the entry port was the target. Avon walked calmly in his space suit across the few feet of frozen ground, with Telon and Vila close behind. The sphere had put out a series of shafts which dug straight down into the hardened ground, presumably to hold it upright. At least twenty could be seen in the gloom. The single door appeared designed for a conventional humanoid, about seven feet high and three feet wide. From this angle there were no signs of propulsion units, docking hatches, external screens, nor anything else normally associated with a deep spaceship. Black stripes crossed the whole machine.
Avon walked under the shadow of the sphere and put a gloved hand against it. It was perfectly smooth. He pulled a fist back and hit it hard. It gave out no sound. He seemed to be in no hurry to walk inside. Vila, on the other hand, was now starting to get very cold even with the thermal protection of a Terminal spacesuit. His attitude changed and he urged Avon to abandon his stroll around the ship (which he estimated was going to take about half an hour) and start up the short metal stairway. A loud howl in the background encouraged him to urge Avon even more strongly. At last Avon accepted the suggestion and led the way up the short ladder and pressed on the control panel at the top. The door silently slid back and allowed them to enter an airlock which rapidly closed behind them. The inner door opened and Avon moved forward, drawing his laser gun. Vila did the same, keeping one pace behind, shuffling along uncertainly. Silently Telon brought up the rear.