‘Today’s full of surprises.’ She refocused her attention on the control panel outside the capsule. ‘I didn’t expect Avon to stay and fight.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘He’s always taken some persuading,’ she said. ‘Right back to that time on the prison transport.’
‘I can be very persuasive.’ For some reason, this seemed to greatly amuse Jenna. He was pleased to see her laugh, nevertheless. ‘What?’
‘He said the same about himself.’ She peered in through the hatch again, as though scrutinising Blake for a reaction. ‘But you had to promise him the
Liberator
to change his mind. Is that why he was such a willing ally?’
Blake took a pensive breath, and exhaled it slowly as he mused on his response. ‘Someone once told me that the people you choose as allies don’t have to be your friends. They just have to be the enemy of your enemy.’
He studied Jenna’s face. She didn’t look convinced. ‘You don’t really believe it’s that cynical, do you Blake?’
‘No,’ said Blake. He didn’t even have to think about it. ‘No, I don’t.’ He tapped at the fingertip controls on the dashboard in front of him. ‘And I don’t think he does, either.’
The safety harness fastened around Blake – tightly enough to hold him in position, but not so rigidly that it pressed against the abrasions on his body.
‘Right, you’re all set.’ Jenna closed the cover on the external controls. ‘Can’t tell where you’ll make planetfall. The console suggests… let’s see…’ She paused briefly to review the navigation data. ‘OK, the nearby inhabitable planets include Sarran and Morphenniel. Or further out is Epheron in the Lauritol system.’ She tapped him lightly on the back of his hand. ‘Move your arm inside, so I can close the hatch.’
Blake placed both his hands on the navigation console in front of him.
‘Once the door’s sealed,’ Jenna continued, ‘hit the launch toggle.’ Her voice was already fading as the hatch slid across into place. She’d said ‘Good luck.’ Or perhaps it had been ‘Good luck, my friend.’
The hatch clunked shut, and sealed him inside. He was cut off completely from the distant crashes and explosions aboard
Liberator
.
‘Thank you, Jenna,’ he said quietly. ‘Good luck yourself.’
There was a muffled rapping sound from beside him, and he saw Jenna’s puzzled face through the transparent hatch. She was mouthing a question at him.
‘I was just saying…’ he shouted. And laughed at the absurdity of this as his voice echoed around inside the capsule. She couldn’t hear him either. ‘Never mind,’ he said quietly, slowly and exaggerated so that she could lip read. ‘Get in your own capsule.’ He pointed in the direction of the upper level on the opposite side.
Jenna gave him a thumbs-up and, after a moment’s hesitation, blew him a kiss. Then she was off and up the ladder, starting on the calibrations for her own escape capsule.
‘See you again soon,’ Blake said softly, and chuckled. Now he was just talking to himself. He considered the controls in front of him. ‘Hit the launch toggle,’ she’d said. Well, that would be this one at the centre.
The external hatch blew out explosively, and the launch hydraulics kicked the capsule out into space. Despite the cushioning all around him, it felt to Blake like he’d been punched in the side.
And then the capsule was free-falling away from the ship. Blake could feel the giddy sense of zero gravity throughout his whole body, and the gentle pressure of the restraints holding him in his flight seat.
Ahead, through the front view screen, he saw a glimmer of distant, glittering lights. Some of them were the final moments of spacecraft at the conclusion of the war – civilian, Federation, alien, he couldn’t discern from here. Some of the points of light were stars, around which planets orbited. Inhabited, uninhabited. There were worlds out there ready to welcome him wherever he made landfall. He hadn’t felt that way for quite a while. Not since long before he’d had to leave Earth. When he’d last left home.
He craned his neck to peer straight up through the canopy of the life capsule. Diminishing through the glass was the extraordinary sight of the four-pronged space ship he had just left. A scattering of iridescent lights sparkled across the bows as her systems fought valiantly against the ravages of the conflict.
He almost said ‘Goodbye.’ But the word stuck in his throat.
No, Blake decided. I’m coming back.
David Richardson, who brought
Blake’s 7
back to audio, and invited me to join in.
Xanna Eve Chown, who chaperoned my script into this novelisation.
The cast, whose performance in my audio and in the original series inspired me.
Anne Summerfield, for support and love.