As she heard the tone of Avon’s voice change Servalan realised, with the sudden tingling chill of shock, what he was about to do. She had been so sure he would give her what she wanted but it seemed that he wasn’t going to. For a moment she froze, unwilling to accept what instinct told her, disbelief warring with a stomach churning certainty. That moment was all it took to deprive her of the prize.

One stride brought her close to him.
"No" she shouted.
But Avon was speaking again,
“It’s important Vila, do it now!”
It had been one stride too many and even as she got within striking range he was closing the channel. Raising the gun she brought it down on his neck almost by instinct and then watched in furious confusion as he fell at her feet.

For a moment he seemed only stunned; arms spread as if to regain his balance he raised his head and made an effort to rise, then his eyes lost their focus as unconsciousness overtook him completely, he fell back and lay still. Servalan stood over him for a second or two, staring down in baffled horror; then, throwing the gun to the floor, she bent and turned him towards her, willing him to wake up. But his face was white and his eyes closed. Gripping his jacket firmly she shook him;
“Avon” her voice was sharp and threatening, “Avon, speak to me damn you!”
She shook him again her finger nails sinking deeper into his arm as her grip tightened. But he remained limp and silent, a dead weight in her hands. Swearing silently she realised that she hit him harder than she had intended. Releasing him she turned to call the guard, then she returned to stand over him, her mind seething in baffled anger, repressing an undignified urge to lean down and try and slap him awake.

Why? The question echoed through her fury, why had he done that? Why? Avon of all people! Never would she have expected him to make any kind of sacrifice, let alone the ultimate one. She continued to stare at the silent man at her feet until she heard the guard approach, only then did she turn away.
"Take him away and put him somewhere secure, get the medics to look at him I don’t want him dying yet, and hand me that! ", Servalan impatiently indicated the fallen communicator. There was still a chance, a slim one maybe, but a chance, she doubted that the others would be ready to move away and leave Avon so quickly. Vila and Cally had been with him a long time, they were bound to hesitate for a while. If she offered them Avon they might still give her the ship. If she had to she would offer them Blake as well.

Impatiently, but with a surge of new hope, she opened the channel Avon had closed just a short while before.
"Vila, listen to me. I have Avon. Teleport down here now with a spare bracelet, if you don’t then he will die."
Nothing came back.
"Vila do you hear me? Come down now or I will have Avon killed."
Still there was no response. Servalan threw the communicator to the floor as they carried the unconscious cause of her fury from the room. Then with a thunderous frown she stalked across to the base intercom and stabbed a key.
" I want to see you now!"

Seething with the bitter impotence of the situation Servalan slammed the channel closed and resumed her seat. Head tilted back she stared at the wall, trying to control her fury and exasperation. Why had Avon done that? He must have known he was signing his own death warrant, and he should have believed he was signing Blake's too. So why? Damn the man, why did he never seem to do what he was expected to?

That left her with the question what now? Without that ship her options were minimal and reducing. Servalan stared at the spot where Avon had fallen and a cold realisation began seeping into her mind. Avon had been prepared to die to deny her Liberator. Willing to kill Blake too. If he was prepared to sacrifice his own life and Blake’s then the probability was that was also willing to sacrifice the others, and if that were the case there was no knowing what measures he had taken. Avon was both devious and dangerous, but he was also cautious. Her heart skipped a beat as the realisation matured; even if she succeeded in capturing and boarding Liberator she could no longer be sure that she, or the ship, would survive the taking for very long. For a moment an unfamiliar panic hovered on the edges of her mind before it slid back into her unconscious again.

Her brows contracted in anger then smoothed as another idea occurred to her. She smiled to herself, of course she did have Avon now, and it was possible that he could give her at least some of the technology they needed so badly. More than possible, she doubted that he had spent so long on Liberator without learning at least a few of its secrets. Her study of his files after Kairos suggested interesting abilities, unusual in their nature and scope for a dome dweller, talents carefully covered up after his arrest; it seemed likely that the years since that Federation assessment had given him ample time to develop them and to absorb some very useful information indeed. Then there had been his access to Orac, she was equally certain he had put that to good use.

True it now seemed unlikely that he would be willing to share that information without extensive persuasion, but that could be arranged with little trouble; after all she had come prepared for that. The frown returned, but how much could they risk? They would have to be very careful. She had lost one prize, at least for the moment; she couldn’t afford to lose the one she still held.

Even so she had to try, maybe with Liberator gone he would accept the situation and co-operate. Of course he would! Avon was not the sacrificial type; he would not put himself through the pain of a prolonged interrogation unnecessarily. She keyed the intercom again,
“Kant, when the medics have finished patching Avon up have him transferred to a cell. Send the interrogation squad down; tell them that I want all the information they can get without doing him any significant harm. Any sign that he might seriously resist I want to know. And Kant make sure that they understand I do not want him dead or useless, if they damage him permanently in any way they will regret it.”

The door slid open on her aides “yes ma’am” and Servalan heard someone enter. For a few seconds she stayed as she was ignoring the new arrival, not that she could be sure he would take the hint or respond to it. He was every bit as difficult as Avon to intimidate. Finally she turned to look at him, her expression as bland and collected as she could make it.
"Well, it doesn’t seem to have worked in the way you expected Carnell, are you going to fail me again? That could be very dangerous".

The man who had entered strolled across the room, his face calm. Behind the cool blue eyes and the faint smile his mind was working rapidly, he knew there was nothing to be gained by pointing out it had been her plan, or that he had warned her that they could not be certain of how Avon would react. There was too much of his recent life that was unknown to them for accurate predictions of the kind Servalan wanted. But there was no point in saying I told you so to Servalan, not if you wanted to stay alive, and he did he most certainly did.

He kept his face carefully composed as stood in front of her,
"No, it seems his concern for Blake's safety is not quite the overriding concern that had been supposed".
Carnell smiled his most charming smile at her,
"It might have worked, but we know too little about his relationship with Blake to be sure of how far his loyalty would stretch." He sighed, "Apparently Liberator was a little too far".
Servalan turned away, her eyes drifting back to the ceiling.
"He came though" there was a hint of satisfaction in her voice.
Carnell nodded,
"Yes he came, even though he must have suspected a trap. So obviously Blake is important to him. We might make more use of that, assuming that Avon is still alive?"
"Oh yes he's still alive" she smiled " I've had the guards put him somewhere secure and arranged for any medical treatment he might need. Then we will see what my interrogators can get out of him"

Carnell felt a thrill of unease at the tone of her voice, he looked at her from under his lashes and the nature of her smile worried him. He really must take a look at this man who seemed to have the power to affect Servalan in such a way, not that Carnell was quite sure yet of the exact nature of that effect. Still there was definitely something, it made him sure that she wasn’t going to end it here. Not that he intended to let her leave it just yet, that wouldn’t serve their purposes at all.
“With due respect for your interrogators ma’am, that might be dangerous. They may”, he hesitated for a split second, “damage him.”
Servalan’s smile was arctic
“Oh they have been warned Carnell, they have been warned”.
“Even so ma’am.”

She sat further back into her chair,
“He is not likely to put up much resistance. Once he knows he cannot escape he will see sense.” There was no hint of uncertainty in her voice. Carnell’s brows rose but his voice stayed gently enquiring,
“As he did on Earth not so long ago?”
Servalan frowned her displeasure,
“This is hardly the same situation Carnell.”
“No but I rather fear the outcome will be similar. He has after all just declared his intentions in a very definite manner, it is likely that he will resist to the point where the only options left may render him useless in the longer term.”
“We will see.” Servalan’s voice was bland but Carnell caught the flash of dismay in her eyes quickly followed by speculation, “well if that is the case we will have to try other means. So I won’t be dispensing with your services just yet.”

Carnell smiled blandly and inclined his head,
“We are, of course, at your service Madame President.”
His voice was as smooth as ever. Servalan's eyes were bright with amusement as she looked at him, “Yes and I expect you to stay that way for some time to come Carnell. I’m, sure your…. employers will agree.”
The blue eyes smiling back at her seemed to get a little colder at that and she laughed silently. You are not getting away that easily Carnell she thought to herself. I will know what Avon knows, I will get what I need. and if that requires you, well, then you stay as long as is necessary. Those shadowy employers of yours will agree if they know what is good for them, the Federation may be weaker than it was before the war but I can still hit them hard enough to hurt. and they know it.

Carnell gave no sign of whether he was aware of her amusement but inclined his head slightly.
“Of course” He hesitated for a moment, “but I would suggest not here. Terminal is somewhat conspicuous. If we need to spend any time on Avon we will need to move somewhere else.”
He saw Servalan’s eyebrows rise, then a hint of calculation crossed her face as she thought about the hostile world above.
“Perhaps” her voice gave little away but Carnell repressed a smile, she had no desire to stay here either. Terminal did not agree with Servalan and their people did not meet her standards of sycophancy. For all her composure the place worried her and she would be glad to leave as soon as she could. But then they had been at some pains to ensure that was the case. Servalans presence on Terminal was an unavoidable nuisance, but it must be short lived.

He inclined his head in aknowledgement,
“Perhaps he will comply after all, once he knows he faces interrogation. No doubt you will wish to return him to a Federation world if that is the case?” Dangerous though that might be for you he thought.
“No doubt. ” her voice was non-committal.
“So there is nothing more for us to do until we know what Avon decides.”
It was a statement not a question. The less time he spent with Servalan the better for everybody’s sake. He looked at her for a long moment in open admiration and she smiled back in understanding, whatever else she was Servalan was no one’s fool. A pity really, and such a waste; she was very beautiful, even sexy if you ignored the chill in her eyes. It would be a challenge to try and melt that chill, if only for a little while. Oh yes, they could have had a very pleasant interlude if she hadn’t been so dangerous. In fact he might have risked it even then if his employers hadn’t also been so very dangerous, and also very cautious. But then that was how they had survived to achieve what they had.

“You will inform me if Avon decides to so-operate?” The question was a formality.
“Of course.” Her smile was an acknowledgment of his look.
“Then if you will excuse me, I would like to review the record of Avon’s reaction to Blake.” He smiled brightly, “just in case”
Servalan nodded her dismissal, her eyes gently mocking.
“A good idea, just in case”
He heard the wry humour in her voice as he turned away and his own smile widened, sometimes she was even human.

***

Liberator continued to fly on automatic, nothing Tarrant could do would give them back manual control, nor would Zen answer any of their repeated questions for information. Orac too was silent, so far no one had been able to find the key. Their speed had increased as the autorepairs brought the damage done by the enzyme under control, other than that nothing had changed since they had left Terminal’s orbit.

Vila shook his head, his smile almost indulgent, as Tarrant tried yet again to persuade Zen to hand back manual control.
"Tarrant there is no point, Avon was determined we were leaving Terminal and going to Kaliferon and so we are going. There is nothing you can do about it"
"I am the pilot of this ship" Tarrant’s frustration and anger obvious in both his face and his voice.

Vila gave a short laugh as the other man stormed from console to console trying to make sense of what he saw there. Vila made no move to help him but just sat with a faint grin on his face; as long as he didn’t think about the real reason for Tarrant's rage he could quite enjoy this situation.
"Not if Zen says you're not" Dayna chipped in a hint of humour in her voice.
Vila’s smile widened further at the pilot’s answering scowl. He spoke kindly,
"Tarrant this is a computer controlled ship. What Zen says goes, and at the moment that means that even though he's not here what Avon says goes. He could bypass Zen if he had to, none of the rest of us would even know where to start."
Dayna looked up at that
" Could he? Bypass Zen I mean" the curiosity in her eyes was echoed in her voice.
Vila nodded
"Well then maybe Orac could tell us how he did it."
"Maybe but I doubt that he would even if we could find the key. You'll see. Avon will have got to Orac as well. He planned it like this."

Tarrant gave up and abandoned his position and joined them on the forward couch.
"Yes it begins to look like that and I wonder how long he's been planning it. Maybe he knows something we don't, perhaps he knew about that space enzyme"
Dayna looked at him pityingly
"If you think Avon would abandon us or Liberator that easily then you understand him even less than I thought"
"So why else would he threaten us, leave us and fix Zen so that we have no control over where we are going?"
" I don’t know, but I am sure he had a good reason".
The tone of her voice suggested that she blamed Tarrant for whatever Avon had planned going wrong.

Seeing the look on Tarrant's face Vila cut in hurriedly
"Avon wouldn’t risk losing the Liberator no matter how he felt about any of us, and he certainly wouldn’t have left Orac behind if he had gone voluntarily. Avon always thought of Orac as his even when Blake was around".
Tarrant ran a hand through his hair.
"No that’s true I suppose. So we must assume he had no choice."
"But then he knew there was a risk of whatever has happened"
Dayna added, the unease clear in her voice. Tarrant nodded abstractedly.
"So we are left with the question why did he run the risk. What was it that a selfish, cold blooded bastard like Avon would chance dying for?"
"Dying" Dayna exclaimed, “you think he is dead?"
"Maybe not yet, but alone on Terminal his chances of survival won’t be good". Tarrant turned to Vila "any suggestions about what this might all be about?"
Vila opened his mouth as if to reply then stopped and just shook his head. Abruptly he stood up,
"I need a drink" and with that he walked quickly from the flight deck leaving Dayna and Tarrant to stare after him.

Cally was in the teleport when Vila tracked her down. She looked up at him
"Before you ask Vila, no I won't give you a relaxant".
Vila put on his best hurt and misunderstood expression,
" I wasn't going to ask for one", for once this was true but he had no time to savour the rare feeling of virtue. " Cally have you any idea what Avon might be up to"
She stared at him blankly,
"No, why should I?"
Vila produced one of his puzzled but ingratiating smiles,
"I just wondered, you seem to be able to read Avon better than the rest of us".

Cally smiled slightly
"That is not always as difficult as you make it sound. You just need to remember that a large part of what Avon says is not what he means, or even believes, it is said to achieve the effect he wants."
"Effect?"
"Oh Vila don’t play the fool.” She sounded suddenly weary, “You know that Avon does not like people getting too close to him; he does not feel safe when they do. They let him down, or worse still they might make it necessary for him to do something he would rather not do."
"Avon only ever does what is best for Avon."
Cally sighed and shook her head,
"If that were true the Federation would have had Liberator, or we would have been dead, a long time ago, and you are quite well aware of the fact. I don’t understand why but Avon would like to really be what he often appears to be, but he can't quite manage it so he tries to avoid situations where the discrepancy might be seen."

Vila grinned suddenly,
"Yes I know, it was fun watching him do it around Blake. Sometimes I thought Blake pushed him too close to the limit though. Impostor or not Avon was still too dangerous to play games with if you ask me, well….. most of the time anyway. "
Cally looked up sharply
"You talk as if he is dead Vila"
"Tarrant thinks so, or that he will be soon" Vila's expression was sombre, " he’s probably right for once".

He wandered across and sat down next to her, shoulders slumped, why Avon's death should matter confused him, but it did matter. Cally smiled sadly and shook her head,
"I do not think he is dead yet, but Tarrant is right that his prospects of survival on Terminal are not likely to be good."
She stood up and looked down at Vila
"Why do you think he did this Vila, why didn’t he tell us what it was he was looking for?"
He leant back and looked up at her
"I can only think of one reason, we should have thought of it before, and if I'm right…." Vila paused smiling a twisted smile and for a moment Cally saw another Vila reflected in the familiar eyes, "Then he was right, he couldn't tell us."
Cally looked at him and Vila was sure that she had come to the same conclusion. He smiled again "Blake. He went looking for Blake".

"Yes" Cally said quietly " I had thought that too but that doesn’t explain why he felt he needed to do it alone. He must have known we would support him if he was going after Blake".
"Would we?" Vila asked, " would Tarrant?"
"Of course he would, he did when he first came aboard why would he not do so now?"
Vila considered that, he wasn’t so sure. After the incident with Bayban and that confrontation on Sardos he had doubts about Tarrant, more than he did, ever had, about Avon now he came to think about it. Avon would not have sent him into an unknown danger. Danger yes, he wouldn’t have thought twice about that, but he would have made damn sure he understood it first! He was not careless with other people’s lives, regardless of his lack of interest in them, and he would have taken all available precautions to protect whoever he sent. Given the life they lived, the world they lived in, that was all anyone could ask. With a sudden flash of insight Vila realised that it was all he, or any of them, had ever asked of Blake.

Tarrant, well he was different, far more reckless; raised in a tradition that saw lesser ranks as disposable, who could know how he would see it? Or how he would see their ownership of Liberator. Vila frowned at the thought,
"Because he has been on Liberator long enough to feel that he has a stake in it, maybe he thought that Blake would take his place. Or Jenna if she was still with Blake, after all she was a pilot too."
Cally shook her head,
"No Vila, I am sure you are wrong about that, Tarrant is loyal to his own, and we are his own now. Anyway Dayna would have agreed with us and there would have been nothing that Tarrant could have done about it. Avon could always face down Tarrant if he wanted to, even without our support."
Vila grinned again
" Yes, and didn’t Mister Space Academy hate it".
Cally ignored that,
"There has to be some other reason for Avon's secrecy."

Vila was silent for a moment, not sure how to say what was going through his head,
"Maybe he didn’t trust us" he said eventually. He caught Cally's eyes and saw shock and pain there and hurried on
"Not to rush in and put Blake in danger I mean."
Cally's expression became thoughtful as she considered the implications of Vila's words. He frowned as he tried to explain what he meant,
"You have to admit that Tarrant does have a tendency to try to rush into things, particularly if they are the opposite of what Avon wants him to do. Look at Kairos. Maybe Avon thought it would be safer.”
Cally smiled slightly,
"Safer for whom Vila? Not for Avon, so why run the risk?"
Vila slid a little further down in his seat his expression mournful,
"I know, I know, but I can't see any other reason except that he thought it might be a trap and wanted to keep us out of it. That it would be safer for us and Blake if he did it alone."
Cally nodded slowly.
"His words in here suggest that you are right, but still I can see no reason why he could not have told us. Even if he just told you and I".
As she said it Cally knew that Avon would not have told them because he could not be sure that they would not have told the others. Vila did tend to chatter and didn’t always take enough care about what he said or to whom.

Vila sighed,
"Avon wouldn’t have trusted us to keep quiet about it, let's face it Avon didn’t trust us for much at all. Well that isn’t quite true, he trusted you but no one else. He always said he considered self interest as a virtue, looks like his finally ran out.”
Vila paused for a moment trying to think through something that had been nagging at the back of his mind for some time,
“You know in some ways he was beginning to behave like Blake. He was far more willing to fight than he used to be, and I have to admit he was better at it than I would have thought. That was part of the problem with Tarrant, it was Avon who took the lead and got us out of trouble, not what Tarrant expected”. His voice took on a serious note, “That business at the combat grounds, with Servalan and Tarrant’s brother, that was very Blake like when you come to think about it.”
He stopped and looked at Cally his eyes troubled.
“What do you think will happen now?".

She shrugged slightly.
"He said he had left a message for us after twelve hours it must be nearly time. Maybe that will tell us more."
" I hope so, having no control over the ship makes me nervous". He turned away towards the flight deck. Cally looked after him smiling faintly;
"Oh I'm sure that he made certain we could defend ourselves Vila."
"Yes, but did he make arrangements to protect us from Tarrant?” Vila exclaimed. “ He's getting really wound up about not being able to get control back from Zen. He'll never forgive Avon!" Vila's expression changed as he realised what he had said,
"Mind you that might not matter".

He looked back at Cally,
"What will happen if he doesn’t come back?” His voice was uncertain, “Losing Blake and Jenna was bad enough but losing Avon too doesn’t sound healthy. I don’t trust Tarrant not to get us killed, and I'm not sure that he will take any notice of what we want with Avon gone."
Cally looked him in the eye,
"No Vila, nor am I. Blake gave Liberator to Avon and with he and Jenna gone I think we felt to some degree that it was Avon’s ship and because of that he acted as a check on Tarrant just as he had on Blake. But Avon didn’t really want to be our leader and so he was willing to do what we all wanted", she smiled slightly, " well as long as didn't go against what he wanted to do. Tarrant would like to lead and he may now feel that he is commander of Liberator. We may need to act decisively to prevent him treating us as his crew".

Vila sighed in resignation,
"Why do I get a feeling that I'm not going to enjoy this? I never thought I'd say it but I wish Avon was here. Why did he have to go off and leave things like this?"
Cally got to her feet, put her hand briefly on his shoulder, and smiled.
"I think you are right, he went after Blake. But he also thought it was a trap, probably a trap for Liberator. After all Servalan has tried to gain control of the ship several times since Star One even though she knows that Blake is not here. She has lost both ships and men in the process, her need may be greater than we realise. Maybe Avon knew this, perhaps Orac had intercepted something.” She turned and stared at the teleport,
“ So he went alone and took precautions to prevent us coming after him and risking the ship."

Vila shook his head slowly.
"I would never have expected Avon to see keeping the Liberator out of Federation hands more important than his life. Why would he do that? Avon didn’t like heroes, he told me that once. So why would he act like one? I don’t understand Cally."
"No nor do I" she shrugged "maybe I am wrong. Yet I think in some way he liked Blake, even if he disapproved of him, and enough may have happened to Avon in the last few years to make him care about depriving the Federation of Liberator. Even though he would never have admitted it."
She thought back to an old cellar and a woman with several names. Maybe more than any of us wanted to understand, she admitted to herself.

She pulled her attention back to Vila still and smiled sadly. He looked at her bleakly.
"It doesn’t really matter now, he isn't coming back is he?" there was a strangely forlorn note in his voice.
" I don’t know Vila, but I hope so. We will have to look for him if he doesn't"
"We've looked for Blake and Jenna and we haven't found them, why should we find Avon? It’s a big galaxy Cally, and even if the Federation haven't got him where would we start?"
"We will have to go back to Terminal and try and trace him from there" Clly sounded as if she had just made a promise to someone. Vila repressed a shudder got to his feet turned towards the flight deck. He again spoke without turning back
"If he's still alive, and anyway he told us to stay away from there."
Cally didn’t reply and he continued walking, leaving her standing staring silently at the teleport.