Damocles

Chapter 5 New world dawning

It was so hard to remember now, those days; after all he had spent a lot of time trying not to.

After Star One he was even more determined that he had to win, that there was no other way. But the deaths of Star One burned a black hole in his soul and he vowed that there would be no more innocent blood spilt. Those dark days after the war, when he had learned the bitter truth of the failure of the rebellion.

Building an army was the only remaining option, the outer worlds seemed too weak to be able to finish what the aliens had started. But armies had to be fed and equipped; and they had to be hidden until the time was right, until there was a chance of success. The bounty hunter routine had worked well, but he had soon realised that it wasn’t enough, could never be enough.

But he wasn’t sure when the idea had come to him, or even if it had been his idea at all.

If only Avon hadn’t lost Liberator, and Cally; but he had and then it became possible, if unthinkable. And one day it hadn’t been so unthinkable any more. When he learned that Avon had the antidote and the star drive.

At first he had only planned to sell the Federation Avon’s ship, after all he had lost Blake’s so it was a fair trade. Avon would come and he would spirit him and the others away and sell the ship. Orac would make sure that his enemies didn’t capitalise on what they had bought.

Blake couldn’t be sure how he had moved to the point of selling them too, only that his need for resource had grown beyond what the ship would have brought him. But the bounty on the others, and on Avon in particular, was very large. He needed the army to win, and the army needed money. Avon and the others had lived on borrowed time for years, years that he had given to them; it didn’t seem so wrong that they should die so that so many others could be free.

Only now, seeing the look on Jenna’s face, did he squarely face the truth of his actions; and wonder if, when it came to it, he would have sacrificed her too.

It was almost as if she heard his thoughts because her mouth twisted and her eyes became colder,
“Don’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same to me, because I won’t believe you. I wondered, Deva was certainly flirting with the idea. I didn’t want to believe it, but I ran anyway.”
Her hand was still stroking the stone and her touch wavered slightly,
“If I’d known, realised what you planned, maybe I’d have stayed and tried to stop you. I don’t know. But I didn’t...… I didn’t.”
The last words were almost a whisper.

Blake closed his eyes, shoulder slumping.
“It seemed the only way. We had to win. Jenna you must see that? We had to win for everybody’s sake. I needed resources; food, weapons, armour. If Avon hadn’t lost Liberator the strong room would have provided it all, but he lost it, he lost my ship, and I had to find another way. You must see that.”
“Your ship?” her eyes widened, “As I recall you didn’t know one end of a navigation console from the other! As I recall you gave it to Avon in exchange for Star One!”
“I didn’t mean that! You know I didn’t. But I needed his co-operation and it was the only way. He would have come round, given it back. He would have had to, it was my ship!”

For a moment Jenna stood staring at him, speechless. Then she shook her head sadly,
“And for losing the ship he and the others had to die? Was that it?”
“No of course not!”
Anger drove away the fear and he moved toward her, only to be pushed back by the slap of a force field. She smiled slightly, and waved the gun;
“Make no mistake Blake, this gun can fire through that shield.”

A new fear took root in his mind as he watched her.

Blake took a deep breath,
“I wouldn’t let them be hurt Jenna. The bounty was dead or alive, I wouldn’t let the Federation have them and hurt them. But dead? Well it had to happen sooner or later, so I made sure that it was dead and that they died quickly. They died fighting. No pain, no fear. I made sure of that.”
“The troopers were yours.” She already knew.
He nodded,
“Yes, it was safer that way, except for Arlen. She was Federation.” He gave a twisted smile, “there to see fair play.”
“So you made sure they were all dead.”
“Yes.”

“Except for Avon.”

Blake swallowed hard, memories surging, memories he had denied for years. He felt his heart hammering as if it would break. He could see it all again, Avon standing over him, that smile of understanding as the troopers surrounded him. Oh Avon had known, in those last moments he had known; the troopers were already in the base when he arrived, they had to have been otherwise he would have seen them on the approach. Blake had betrayed him, and he had known it as they brought him down.

But he’d only known the half of it.

“Except for Avon,” Blake’s throat felt tight, his eyes hot and damp,
“They wanted him alive.” Jenna stated.
Blake nodded,
“It was my contacts price for letting the others die.”
He closed his eyes, the memories drowning out the present,
“They told me what would happen to them if they were taken alive, not that they needed to, I had a pretty good idea." He sighed wearily, "but if I made sure that Avon were taken alive then they would settle for the bodies of the others. I realised that they wanted what he knew, so they wouldn't kill him. Whatever he told them.... well it would take time for them to do anything with it, even if they could. And if I gave them Avon and the ship it would buy me the time I needed, buy a chance to win once and for all.”

“And you didn’t think it was Servalan! Who else would have offered to let the others die? Who would have known that it would matter to you? Assuming that it did.” Jenna's voice dripped contempt.
The surge of anger pushed the memories away,
“It mattered,” he almost spat the words, “Don’t think that it didn’t. But it was the only way I could see.”
“And they were going to die anyway.” Her words were flat and cold.
Blake sighed slightly and closed his eyes against the expression on Jenna’s face;
“Yes. I’d heard the stories, I knew they couldn’t go on for much longer. Avon had forgotten caution and he didn’t have my luck.”
“No he didn’t, did he?”
The words were like a whip across his face.

The knife of memory twisted again; Avon standing over him blood staining his jacket, the sound of alarms, the thud of falling bodies, the hiss of uniforms as they had moved to surround him. That last smile of understanding.
“They needed him, they couldn’t just break him. They would have made sure he was safe!”

“Safe!” Jenna’s voice was suddenly animated with anger and contempt, so sharp it almost scoured the walls of the vault. “Safe! Listen to yourself Blake, you of all people should have known better than that. They wanted what he knew! What did you think they were going to do to get that? How on earth could you think that he would be safe?”
Blake backed away from her,
“They had no need to hurt him, he would have co-operated!”
He saw the expression in her eyes and the knife twisted again, fear returning a thousand fold.
“Are you saying that he wasn’t? How do you know? He must have co-operated with them, he was never executed, we would have known.”
The words were a plea.

Jenna’s expression blanked again. Why had he never realised just how like Avon she could be? Her voice grated against the silence; there was anger in it and something close to pain. He wondered whom that pain was for.
“He didn’t co-operate Blake and he was far from safe. They tried everything, but you know how bloody minded Avon can be.” She shrugged wearily, “For some reason he had decided not to co-operate so he didn’t. He went to every hell they could imagine. Then someone had the idea that if they modified him then put him in front of a star drive or a teleport system and ordered him to make it work he just might do it.”

Blake stared at her in open horror. She saw it and smiled,
“Well what did you expect? You knew how desperate they were.”
Her smiled twisted,
“That was when Servalan contacted me and told me where to find him. I never did find out how she knew where I was.”
Jenna met Blake’s eyes and her own were alight with some cross between amusement and malice,
“Servalan discovered there were some things even she didn’t care to do, that there was a line she wouldn’t cross.” She gave a short laugh, “I think it came as something of a shock to her.”
Then she sighed,
“Or maybe she didn’t think it would work and that in time she might find another way to get what she wanted. It doesn’t matter any more does it?”

“You know where Avon is?” Blake asked slowly.
“Yes, he’s safe and he’s staying that way.”
There was an unexpected protectiveness in her voice and her hand drifted down to Vila’s name carved in stone again,
“I couldn’t save the others, but I’ll keep Avon safe.”
“You, protecting Avon?”
Incredulity had crept into his voice and her brows came down in a frown,
“Yes, he needs it for the moment; and,” her eyes flicked across Blake with some expression he didn’t want to understand, “I find I understand him better these days.”

“Where is he?”
“That’s no concern of yours.”
“I want to see him Jenna, explain to him. He must understand that I had no choice!”
“Oh he understands,” she said softly, her eyes dropped to Vila’s name and a wave of sadness washed across her face, “he understands.”
“Then let me see him, bring him here. No one need know.”
Jenna looked up into the scarred face, and wondered why, with the whole of the Federated worlds at his command, he still bore those scars. Like Travis she found herself thinking, just like Travis. His expression was different though, a mix of guilt and desperation and hope. She shook her head,
“I don’t think so. Avon is not…well. I don’t think seeing you would do him any good at all.”

The hope died from his face,
“Then why have you come?”
“To warn you.”
“Warn me,” he exclaimed, “Warn me of what? Or do you mean blackmail?”
The blaze of anger in her eyes caused him to take a step backwards. For a moment she seemed to struggle to speak calmly,
“I said warn and I meant just that. Warn you that we are here, that we know, and that we can turn our knowledge into action. Don’t doubt it Blake, Avon might not be well but he isn’t stupid. Oh, the Federation didn’t get his knowledge, but they didn’t destroy it either. Between him and Orac, and yes we have that too, there is nothing and nowhere you can hide. Not from them and not from me. I have my followers Blake, people who will listen to me, support me. If I were to come back from the dead… well it would make things very difficult wouldn’t it?”

Blake felt desperation creeping over him.
“So what do you want?”
Jenna looked around her, at the cold stone and the polished inscriptions
“We’ll start with their rights.”
“What?”
“You will find information that exonerates them, Orac will supply it. Their names will be added to the role of the glorious dead.” Her voice dripped contempt again. “If they have any family remaining they will be made restitution.”

Blake rubbed his eyes,
“Very well. But I’m sure there’s more,” the words came out with something close to a snarl.
“Oh yes there more.” Jenna smiled at him and it was Avon’s smile again.
“Once, a long time ago, I said you were an honest man. From where I’m standing now it looks like I was wrong. But you’re going to change that Blake, you are going to be the man I thought you were, the honest man. There will be freedom Blake, there will be the something better that you promised me.”
“I’m trying” he insisted, “but it’s not easy.”
“Did I say that it would be?” Her hand stroked the stone beneath her fingers once more, “but you will find a way won’t you?”
She took a step backwards, her hand dropping to her side.
“Some of your recent decisions have been…. Ambiguous Blake, make sure that is rectified. Don’t doubt that I meant what I said. We will be watching. If there is something we can help with…. then you can always ask and we’ll consider it. But you will be an honest man, you owe me that and you owe them.
“Jenna,” Blake started to protest but she wasn’t listening any more. A faint shimmer appeared around her; then, for a moment, she was haloed in light, the gun in her hand still pointing towards him. A second later she was gone.

For a moment Blake stood and stared at where she had been, wondering if he had imagined it all. But standing beside Vila’s stone was a glass of wine and a pack of cards on a silver tray. Blake smiled to himself, oh, she had been here alright!

Suddenly he understood Servalan’s smile when she spoke of his new world, and the meaning of the carving of the sword on the top of the crock she had handed him. She had known what was waiting at the end of her rainbow, and that had been enough for her. He looked down at the pack of cards; in the end she had known that she still had an ace in her hand.

“Sir,…. Sir. Are you there? Do you need my assistance?”
The calm, dead, tones of his mutoid guard sounded behind him.
“I’m here. Stay where you are, I’m coming out.”
He didn’t want her in here.

Blake cast a last look around him and turned to the door now standing open. He took a deep breath and climbed the stairs back towards the cold evening air; straightening his shoulders he pushed the memories back under their heavy blanket and strode out into a new world.

Last Night of the Year

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