Blake Fest. The Last Holidays
Title: The Last Holidays
Author: la Avispa
Written for: Mithen
Characters: Avon, Vila, Gan, Cally, Blake, Jenna, Servalan
Length: 3 365 words
Type: season 2 (post Horizon)
Category: gen
Summary: After visiting Horizon the members of the Liberator’s crew find themselves not just over-stressed, but exhausted. They do need holidays!
The Last Holidays
Cally gave Vila another injection of adrenalin and soma and caught Jenna’s hard eye. The Liberator was close to a cloud of meteorites, and the pilot couldn’t afford resign herself to sleep. Cally gave her an apologetic smile and headed to Avon, who refused an injection with a sharp gesture. Cally shook her head in disapproval. Avon looked terrible. His back pain had strengthened much in the last several days. Well, he never complained, of course, and very seldom agreed to injections, but he had lost his lithe agility. And once, when Avon thought nobody was looking at him, Cally noticed a grimace of pain on his face. Cally pursed up her lips and called:
“Blake!”
Blake was sitting on the flight couch next to cozily lying Vila rubbing his throat. He didn’t answer. Cally touched him on his shoulder and repeated:
“Blake!”
This time he raised up his eyes and asked tiredly:
“What’s wrong, Cally?”
“Everything is! I told you before Horizon that we were all over-stressed. I’d be glad to say that the situation hasn’t changed, but it has. We are more than over-stressed now. We’re exhausted.”
“What do you suggest?”
“I have to agree with Vila’s old idea of a Rest Centre.”
“Cally that’s absurd, and you know it! If we turn up in a Federation Rest Centre, we’ll be recognized and arrested immediately.”
Avon’s quiet, cold voice got into their argument.
“It shouldn’t be necessarily a Federation Centre.” He activated his beloved computer. “Orac, we need information about Rest Centres outside the Federation.”
“Let me remind you I was not created to perform primitive tasks,” grumbled Orac.
“Okay,” agreed Avon. “Let’s make it less primitive. “I need a list of Rest Centres outside the Federation, where the Federation has no influence, the service is excellent, and the personnel are not curious.”
Orac spat a sheet of paper from the printer. Avon reached out for the paper, but it disappeared seized by Vila, who was surprisingly awake after the adrenaline and soma injection Cally had given him. The thief began reading the list aloud, introducing his own comments.
“Health Resort Ecstasy, planet Kronn - the conditions look decent, but that’s too far. It’ll take us about two months to get there. With the maximum speed, I mean… What’s next? Pleasure-dome RRR, planet Lemston - Orac, are you crazy? I know that place, a friend of mine told me once. They would offer you a cup of tea, or an aromatherapy session, and add… what was the name of that drug?”
“K2,” prompted Orac.
“What?!” shouted Vila. “You knew it, and you still included that place into your list?”
“This parameter was not mentioned by Avon,” said Orac impudently.
Vila crumpled up the paper, threw it on the floor and said:
“Orac give me another list, which only includes Rest Centres outside the Federation, reachable in no more than a couple of weeks, where the Federation has no influence, the service is excellent, the personnel are not curious, where we’ll be absolutely safe, and from where we can easily get away any time we wish.”
Unwillingly, Orac printed another list. This time Avon didn’t even try to get it quicker than Vila. Vila grabbed the paper and moaned disappointedly:
“Only two options!”
“What are they?” asked Avon.
“Vacation House Sweetheart, planet Galium. Seems to specialize on honeymoons. Only two days from here. And Cleengan’s Recovery Centre, Planet Sapona, twelve days. I vote for Galium! It’s much closer”
“Specializing on honeymoons?” sneered Avon. “Won’t we look suspicious there?”
“We can pretend to be newlyweds. I can go with Jenna, for example… Oh, don’t give me that look, Jenna! Cally, what about you?”
Cally smiled.
“That won’t do, Vila. We can only make two couples, unless one of you wishes to masquerade in female attire. Or, as we can’t leave the Liberator all at once, Jenna and I will have to go twice, which will arouse suspicion as well. I choose Sapona.”
Avon, who had meanwhile printed himself a copy of the two rest centres’ description, nodded.
“Yes, Sapona seems to be a more reasonable choice.”
“Wait, wait, wait!” objected Blake. “There is a very important task to accomplish. The one, after which I may declare my mission fulfilled, my whole life a success, not a waste.”
Jenna raised her head from the indicators and supported the idea of a rest centre.
“If that task of yours is that important, Blake, you’ll have more chances if you accomplish it after a good rest.”
“Jenna’s right, Blake,” insisted Cally. “In your current state you are not very likely to accomplish any task at all.”
That very moment Gan entered the flight deck and Blake used all his skill of a born orator to persuade at least one man in his crew not to waste time on such trifles as health resorts. But even Gan was against him, and for the first time in their life on the Liberator Blake had to submit to the majority.
***Zen’s imperturbable voice broke the silence:
“Completed. The Liberator is in stationary orbit one thousand specials above the surface of planet Sapona.”
Six pairs of tired eyes were looking at a lovely blue Earth-type planet visualized on the screen. Gan was the first one to find his tongue.
“We’ll have to go in turns. Ladies first, I think.”
“Let’s cast lots, I’m not less tired than the ladies are,” complained Vila.
“I still don’t like the idea,” said Blake to his crew. “Why don’t we just find an uninhabited planet to spend our holidays on?”
“A wild planet can’t give us the necessary level of relaxation,” Cally explained patiently. “We’ll have to divide into two groups, but thank you, Gan, I can’t go with the first group. I need some time to finish my research with the moon disc. Three or four days, I think. And there’s no need to cast lots, Vila. We can just discuss who goes first. Anyway, the first group will have to wait for the second one later.”
“I won’t go at all,” said Blake stubbornly.
“Then I’ll stay, too,” decided Jenna.
“How very noble of you,” said Avon in his usual cold voice. “Then use these two weeks to persuade him to join the second group. We don’t need an exhausted leader unable to listen to those making adequate decisions.”
“Two weeks?!” shouted Blake. “I thought you were going to waste a day or two!”
This time Vila organized a loud and eloquent protest and won three more days, as Cally took his side, and Orac visualized a graph depicting the time it takes a human body to recover from fatigue. It was decided that each group would spend five days in the Cleengan’s Recovery Centre. The first group would include Vila, Gan and Avon. Unwillingly, Blake gave the three men a substantial sum of money suggested by Orac as an optimum amount. On Avon’s request Orac printed forged IDs and the schedule of ship’s arrival on Sapona in the last three weeks. Thus they chose a suitable big space liner that had recently brought about two hundred holiday-makers to the planet. No one would take trouble to check whether the three of them were included into the list of the liner’s passengers. Now it was safe to teleport down.
***It was the fourth day of his well-deserved rest. After a couple or sensory ecstasy hours and an hour in the pleasure machine Vila was lying on a lounge hidden in some local large plants next to a big swimming pool, a glass of soma in his hand, when he heard a whisper.
“Lurgen, I think, we should separate. Thus each of us will get more chances to survive. Servalan will never cease hunting us.”
The Supreme Commander’s name sobered Vila at once. He became all ears.
“Hush! Someone may hear us.”
“There’s no one here, I’ve checked. And it is safer to speak in the open air. If they have tracked us down, there may be bugs in our rooms.”
“True. Well, then, I think you are right. Who will take the print? Or shall we make a copy?”
“Oh no, no, no! I’ve had enough of it. Why don’t we just destroy it? Thus Servalan will never get it.”
“She won’t anyway. And I will. It’s a funny game. But if you don’t want to play it, it makes everything easier for us. You may just leave the planet tomorrow with the Arrow. They are going to the Freedom City, if I’m not mistaken. A fine place to hide in.”
“And you?”
“I’ll take the Ace. They blast off this evening and their route will pass close to a wild planet called Goth. I always wanted to see it. A great place. I’ll find a way to persuade them to drop me off there.”
“I think I’ve heard something about it. The place’s not great, it’s crude! I’ve never understood your lust to danger.”
“No one has.”
***“Avon!”
Avon was in his room reclining in a massage armchair. He put aside the ebook he was reading, his face reflected discontent.
“Vila. I thought we've made an agreement to avoid each other. I have enough of you on the Liberator. Why can’t I enjoy my last two days of…”
“Yes, Avon, I’m glad to see you too,” interrupted the thief. “But there’s something very important I must tell you.”
Vila hadn’t finished his story about following the two men whose conversation he had overheard to their rooms, when there was a knock at the door and Gan appeared on the threshold.
“Avon, I know about the agreement… Oh, Vila, you are here, too?”
“I am. What is it, Gan?”
“Servalan’s here.”
“Servalan?! How quick! I think it has something to do with… Ouch! Avon! You’ve stepped on my foot!”
Avon looked into Vila’s eyes.
“Sorry, Vila.” He shifted his gaze to Gan. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
“Where did you see her?”
“I left my room to go to the gym, and she was entering the Queen’s Suite, the best suit in this centre.”
Vila exclaimed:
“Do you live in a suite, Gan? How did you manage to get one?”
“No, Vila, my room is small and cheap. On all the floors the suites are located on the opposite side of the corridor. It’s because of the view from the windows, I think…”
“Vila, Gan!” interrupted Avon. “This is all totally unimportant. The important thing is whether Servalan has noticed Gan, or any of us.”
“I’m sure she didn’t see me. And, as far as I know she has just arrived. This morning I heard a chambermaid complaining to her mate that the room stays empty, they expect no one to come, and she still has to clean it twice a day.”
“Better,” mumbled Avon.
“I think we should tell Blake,” offered Gan.
Avon shook his head.
“By no means. He will decide to find out what she is doing here, and won’t have a rest like we have. And neither will the girls.”
Gan smiled broadly.
“Avon, you are a better person than I thought.”
“Maybe,” smiled Avon in reply. “But anyway we should check if the Liberator is still on the orbit.”
He turned up his long sleeve, under which his teleport bracelet was hidden, and pressed the communication button.
“Liberator.”
“Yes, Avon, what is it?” answered Jenna’s voice after a while.
“Just wanted to get sure you’re still on the orbit.”
“Of course we are.”
“We are going to return tomorrow evening as planned, be ready to teleport down. Avon out.” He switched off the communicator and said: “She sounded calm. That means Servalan didn’t use a Federation Fleet ship to get here. Zen would have detected it. She doesn’t want to be recognized. Now we’ll have to find out, for how long she’s planning to stay, and if she knows the Liberator’s on the orbit.”
“And if Servalan is going to stay here long?” asked Gan. “Then we’ll have to tell Blake anyway.”
“Sure, but I don’t think the Supreme Commander would dare leave her residence incognito for more than necessary. Or she may find the place occupied by someone else when she returns.”
“So, now we should all go to Gan’s room, which is the closest to Servalan’s suite, and try to find out what her plans are,” suggested Vila.
“No,” said Avon. “We should separate. Gan, you’ll go to your room and do as Vila sais. If you find out anything, communicate us using your bracelet. Vila and I will try to obtain information from the personnel. They are not curious, as Orac promised, but they still might know something.”
When Gan left Avon grabbed Vila by the collar.
“Don’t tell Gan about your two men! If he finds out, he’ll tell Blake, and if Blake learns Servalan’s after something, he’ll want to get the thing first.”
“Easy, Avon! You’re right, of course. And I think Servalan will leave no later than tomorrow, with or without her prey. But what is it she is looking for so eagerly?”
Avon’s lips broadened into a dazzling smile.
“I’m not against to find out myself.”
***But luck was not on their side. When they got to Lurgen’s room, the latter had left already. And as they checked with the reception, the spacecraft Ace as well. Vila didn’t remember the name of the planet Lurgen wanted to go to. The only consolation was that Servalan had obviously missed the man as well, as Gan managed to get into the suite hidden in a maid’s trolley and overheard her conversation with an officer, or whoever that man was. Now the Supreme Commander had left the suite, and Gan called Vila to rescue him, as they had locked him inside.
A quarter of an hour later the three of them were sitting in Gan’s room.
“It was stupid to get into that trolley,” Avon said.
“I know. But no one was looking, and it was not a chance to miss. I haven’t found out much though. They are seeking two men, who have left the planet an hour or so ago in a spacecraft called Ace. It will bring them to a distant Federation planet. Servalan sounded pleased to hear it. She said they don’t have any chances to escape from her now.”
“What were the men’s names?” asked Avon.
“No idea.” Gan shrugged his shoulders. “I only know there are two of them. When the officer informed her they had left on the Ace, she asked: ‘Both of them?’ And he said yes. That’s all I know.”
“Pity.” Vila could swear Avon sounded upset. “If we knew the name of at least one of them we could follow the Ace and alert them. But as we possess so little information, it’ll be too dangerous and foolish to try. What about Servalan? Is she planning to stay here long?”
“I think she’s left already.”
“Good. Then we can return to our rooms and continue our vacation. We have only one day left.”
***“Vila, where are you going?”
“To my room to continue my vacation. You said…”
“I said that to Gan. Even if Servalan hasn’t left, I don’t think she might want to use the local gym. They won’t meet. But as far as I remember you told me the two men Servalan is after were going to separate. And the second one will only leave tomorrow.”
“So he said, but Gan…”
“Forget Gan. We’d better check it ourselves.”
***They knocked at the door several times, got sure none of the neighbours reacted, and then Vila used his skill to open the door. There was no one in the room, but the things were intact. The man hasn’t left or has left without his luggage. Avon took a small device out of his pocket.
“Your Lurgen was wrong, Vila. There are no bugs in this room.”
Avon looked around and saw a sheet of paper on the table. A message? No. The sheet looked blank. Under it there was a cheap brand new photoframe with no photo in it. A farewell souvenir from a friend? Nonsense!
Avon disassembled the frame, and a small black plate hidden between the back cover and the standard picture of a smiling girl fell down on the floor.
“What’s that?” Vila asked.
Avon turned the black plate to the light.
“It must be the print they were talking about.”
“A print of what?”
“I don’t know yet. We’ll take it back to the Liberator and check with Orac. But don’t tell anyone else about it.”
“Who do you take me for - a fool? If Blake finds out, we’ll have a lot of trouble.”
Avon smiled.
“Precisely.”
“But I’m sure there has to be a message!” Vila said.
Avon examined the back cover of the photoframe and the picture. Nothing.
“Wait!” shouted Vila suddenly.
He switched on one of the heaters on the wall and pressed the blank sheet of paper they’ve found on the table to it. Avon criticized the thief’s actions.
“You’ll just burn the paper.”
But suddenly he saw faint brown letters appearing and growing brighter and brighter.
“Dear D.
I still think it’s unfair to leave you without a copy.
L.
P.S. Be careful. S. is here.”
“It’s an ancient trick,” Vila explained. “Written with milk. S. stands for Servalan! L. is Lurgen. D. must be the other man’s Initial.”
“How very clever of you, Vila,” Avon said ironically. “Well, whatever it is, D. doesn’t know about it. And according to you he refused to get the copy. Take the frame and the paper and let’s get out of here.
***Vila went to the treatment block for some more sensory ecstasy. Avon destroyed the frame and the message and was going to the restaurant, when he was suddenly seized from behind. A hand shut his mouth. Avon always thought of himself as a strong man. But all his attempts to get free were in vain.
“Avon, stop struggling. It’s me, Gan,” whispered Gan.
“What it is Gan?” asked Avon in a whisper, too.
“Servalan. I was wrong. She hasn’t left yet. She is leaving now.”
And then Avon saw the Supreme Commander of the Federation Fleet. She was standing by the reception desk, waiting for her companion to sign the necessary documents. Her white dress was relatively modest this time. Her smile looked sincere and innocent, her movements were full of natural grace. All the men stopped to admire her beauty. All the women scrutinized her long dress, her spike heel shoes, her make-up…
Avon shook his head. Maybe in another life it would be possible to possess this woman. In this one the farther she is from him the better.
“Thank you, Gan.”
This time Avon and Gan decided to be one hundred per cent sure she had left. They followed her to the transporter, then to the spacecraft, then watched the spacecraft blast off and disappear in the evening sky.
***When they teleported up, Vila looked the one who hadn’t had a rest yet. Avon and Gan were both healthy and strong again. And the girls were so breathless with anticipation for the holidays, that the mere thought of it made them look fresh and shining. Even Blake smiled looking at them.
“How was it?” Cally asked.
“Great!” said Gan.
“Not bad,” confirmed Avon.
“Heaven,” sighed Vila.
Blake frowned suspecting something, but Avon was already teleporting him down on Sapona.
***Avon was on watch in the flight deck. Vila joined him there.
“Avon, have you found what it was?”
“Orac has. Coordinates. Some truly absurd ones.”
“And?”
“And I destroyed them. And made Orac erase the memory of them for Blake not to come across them accidentally. Whatever they hide there, I don’t want it found.”
“So be it. Where’s Gan?”
“In the teleport section. He has resumed his classes with Orac.”
“A good guy, Gan.”
“The one I’d hate to have as an enemy,” murmured Avon.
Why an enemy, Vila wondered to himself, but failed to find an answer, and offered:
“A game of chess?”
“Why not?”
Author: la Avispa
Written for: Mithen
Characters: Avon, Vila, Gan, Cally, Blake, Jenna, Servalan
Length: 3 365 words
Type: season 2 (post Horizon)
Category: gen
Summary: After visiting Horizon the members of the Liberator’s crew find themselves not just over-stressed, but exhausted. They do need holidays!
The Last Holidays
Cally gave Vila another injection of adrenalin and soma and caught Jenna’s hard eye. The Liberator was close to a cloud of meteorites, and the pilot couldn’t afford resign herself to sleep. Cally gave her an apologetic smile and headed to Avon, who refused an injection with a sharp gesture. Cally shook her head in disapproval. Avon looked terrible. His back pain had strengthened much in the last several days. Well, he never complained, of course, and very seldom agreed to injections, but he had lost his lithe agility. And once, when Avon thought nobody was looking at him, Cally noticed a grimace of pain on his face. Cally pursed up her lips and called:
“Blake!”
Blake was sitting on the flight couch next to cozily lying Vila rubbing his throat. He didn’t answer. Cally touched him on his shoulder and repeated:
“Blake!”
This time he raised up his eyes and asked tiredly:
“What’s wrong, Cally?”
“Everything is! I told you before Horizon that we were all over-stressed. I’d be glad to say that the situation hasn’t changed, but it has. We are more than over-stressed now. We’re exhausted.”
“What do you suggest?”
“I have to agree with Vila’s old idea of a Rest Centre.”
“Cally that’s absurd, and you know it! If we turn up in a Federation Rest Centre, we’ll be recognized and arrested immediately.”
Avon’s quiet, cold voice got into their argument.
“It shouldn’t be necessarily a Federation Centre.” He activated his beloved computer. “Orac, we need information about Rest Centres outside the Federation.”
“Let me remind you I was not created to perform primitive tasks,” grumbled Orac.
“Okay,” agreed Avon. “Let’s make it less primitive. “I need a list of Rest Centres outside the Federation, where the Federation has no influence, the service is excellent, and the personnel are not curious.”
Orac spat a sheet of paper from the printer. Avon reached out for the paper, but it disappeared seized by Vila, who was surprisingly awake after the adrenaline and soma injection Cally had given him. The thief began reading the list aloud, introducing his own comments.
“Health Resort Ecstasy, planet Kronn - the conditions look decent, but that’s too far. It’ll take us about two months to get there. With the maximum speed, I mean… What’s next? Pleasure-dome RRR, planet Lemston - Orac, are you crazy? I know that place, a friend of mine told me once. They would offer you a cup of tea, or an aromatherapy session, and add… what was the name of that drug?”
“K2,” prompted Orac.
“What?!” shouted Vila. “You knew it, and you still included that place into your list?”
“This parameter was not mentioned by Avon,” said Orac impudently.
Vila crumpled up the paper, threw it on the floor and said:
“Orac give me another list, which only includes Rest Centres outside the Federation, reachable in no more than a couple of weeks, where the Federation has no influence, the service is excellent, the personnel are not curious, where we’ll be absolutely safe, and from where we can easily get away any time we wish.”
Unwillingly, Orac printed another list. This time Avon didn’t even try to get it quicker than Vila. Vila grabbed the paper and moaned disappointedly:
“Only two options!”
“What are they?” asked Avon.
“Vacation House Sweetheart, planet Galium. Seems to specialize on honeymoons. Only two days from here. And Cleengan’s Recovery Centre, Planet Sapona, twelve days. I vote for Galium! It’s much closer”
“Specializing on honeymoons?” sneered Avon. “Won’t we look suspicious there?”
“We can pretend to be newlyweds. I can go with Jenna, for example… Oh, don’t give me that look, Jenna! Cally, what about you?”
Cally smiled.
“That won’t do, Vila. We can only make two couples, unless one of you wishes to masquerade in female attire. Or, as we can’t leave the Liberator all at once, Jenna and I will have to go twice, which will arouse suspicion as well. I choose Sapona.”
Avon, who had meanwhile printed himself a copy of the two rest centres’ description, nodded.
“Yes, Sapona seems to be a more reasonable choice.”
“Wait, wait, wait!” objected Blake. “There is a very important task to accomplish. The one, after which I may declare my mission fulfilled, my whole life a success, not a waste.”
Jenna raised her head from the indicators and supported the idea of a rest centre.
“If that task of yours is that important, Blake, you’ll have more chances if you accomplish it after a good rest.”
“Jenna’s right, Blake,” insisted Cally. “In your current state you are not very likely to accomplish any task at all.”
That very moment Gan entered the flight deck and Blake used all his skill of a born orator to persuade at least one man in his crew not to waste time on such trifles as health resorts. But even Gan was against him, and for the first time in their life on the Liberator Blake had to submit to the majority.
***Zen’s imperturbable voice broke the silence:
“Completed. The Liberator is in stationary orbit one thousand specials above the surface of planet Sapona.”
Six pairs of tired eyes were looking at a lovely blue Earth-type planet visualized on the screen. Gan was the first one to find his tongue.
“We’ll have to go in turns. Ladies first, I think.”
“Let’s cast lots, I’m not less tired than the ladies are,” complained Vila.
“I still don’t like the idea,” said Blake to his crew. “Why don’t we just find an uninhabited planet to spend our holidays on?”
“A wild planet can’t give us the necessary level of relaxation,” Cally explained patiently. “We’ll have to divide into two groups, but thank you, Gan, I can’t go with the first group. I need some time to finish my research with the moon disc. Three or four days, I think. And there’s no need to cast lots, Vila. We can just discuss who goes first. Anyway, the first group will have to wait for the second one later.”
“I won’t go at all,” said Blake stubbornly.
“Then I’ll stay, too,” decided Jenna.
“How very noble of you,” said Avon in his usual cold voice. “Then use these two weeks to persuade him to join the second group. We don’t need an exhausted leader unable to listen to those making adequate decisions.”
“Two weeks?!” shouted Blake. “I thought you were going to waste a day or two!”
This time Vila organized a loud and eloquent protest and won three more days, as Cally took his side, and Orac visualized a graph depicting the time it takes a human body to recover from fatigue. It was decided that each group would spend five days in the Cleengan’s Recovery Centre. The first group would include Vila, Gan and Avon. Unwillingly, Blake gave the three men a substantial sum of money suggested by Orac as an optimum amount. On Avon’s request Orac printed forged IDs and the schedule of ship’s arrival on Sapona in the last three weeks. Thus they chose a suitable big space liner that had recently brought about two hundred holiday-makers to the planet. No one would take trouble to check whether the three of them were included into the list of the liner’s passengers. Now it was safe to teleport down.
***It was the fourth day of his well-deserved rest. After a couple or sensory ecstasy hours and an hour in the pleasure machine Vila was lying on a lounge hidden in some local large plants next to a big swimming pool, a glass of soma in his hand, when he heard a whisper.
“Lurgen, I think, we should separate. Thus each of us will get more chances to survive. Servalan will never cease hunting us.”
The Supreme Commander’s name sobered Vila at once. He became all ears.
“Hush! Someone may hear us.”
“There’s no one here, I’ve checked. And it is safer to speak in the open air. If they have tracked us down, there may be bugs in our rooms.”
“True. Well, then, I think you are right. Who will take the print? Or shall we make a copy?”
“Oh no, no, no! I’ve had enough of it. Why don’t we just destroy it? Thus Servalan will never get it.”
“She won’t anyway. And I will. It’s a funny game. But if you don’t want to play it, it makes everything easier for us. You may just leave the planet tomorrow with the Arrow. They are going to the Freedom City, if I’m not mistaken. A fine place to hide in.”
“And you?”
“I’ll take the Ace. They blast off this evening and their route will pass close to a wild planet called Goth. I always wanted to see it. A great place. I’ll find a way to persuade them to drop me off there.”
“I think I’ve heard something about it. The place’s not great, it’s crude! I’ve never understood your lust to danger.”
“No one has.”
***“Avon!”
Avon was in his room reclining in a massage armchair. He put aside the ebook he was reading, his face reflected discontent.
“Vila. I thought we've made an agreement to avoid each other. I have enough of you on the Liberator. Why can’t I enjoy my last two days of…”
“Yes, Avon, I’m glad to see you too,” interrupted the thief. “But there’s something very important I must tell you.”
Vila hadn’t finished his story about following the two men whose conversation he had overheard to their rooms, when there was a knock at the door and Gan appeared on the threshold.
“Avon, I know about the agreement… Oh, Vila, you are here, too?”
“I am. What is it, Gan?”
“Servalan’s here.”
“Servalan?! How quick! I think it has something to do with… Ouch! Avon! You’ve stepped on my foot!”
Avon looked into Vila’s eyes.
“Sorry, Vila.” He shifted his gaze to Gan. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
“Where did you see her?”
“I left my room to go to the gym, and she was entering the Queen’s Suite, the best suit in this centre.”
Vila exclaimed:
“Do you live in a suite, Gan? How did you manage to get one?”
“No, Vila, my room is small and cheap. On all the floors the suites are located on the opposite side of the corridor. It’s because of the view from the windows, I think…”
“Vila, Gan!” interrupted Avon. “This is all totally unimportant. The important thing is whether Servalan has noticed Gan, or any of us.”
“I’m sure she didn’t see me. And, as far as I know she has just arrived. This morning I heard a chambermaid complaining to her mate that the room stays empty, they expect no one to come, and she still has to clean it twice a day.”
“Better,” mumbled Avon.
“I think we should tell Blake,” offered Gan.
Avon shook his head.
“By no means. He will decide to find out what she is doing here, and won’t have a rest like we have. And neither will the girls.”
Gan smiled broadly.
“Avon, you are a better person than I thought.”
“Maybe,” smiled Avon in reply. “But anyway we should check if the Liberator is still on the orbit.”
He turned up his long sleeve, under which his teleport bracelet was hidden, and pressed the communication button.
“Liberator.”
“Yes, Avon, what is it?” answered Jenna’s voice after a while.
“Just wanted to get sure you’re still on the orbit.”
“Of course we are.”
“We are going to return tomorrow evening as planned, be ready to teleport down. Avon out.” He switched off the communicator and said: “She sounded calm. That means Servalan didn’t use a Federation Fleet ship to get here. Zen would have detected it. She doesn’t want to be recognized. Now we’ll have to find out, for how long she’s planning to stay, and if she knows the Liberator’s on the orbit.”
“And if Servalan is going to stay here long?” asked Gan. “Then we’ll have to tell Blake anyway.”
“Sure, but I don’t think the Supreme Commander would dare leave her residence incognito for more than necessary. Or she may find the place occupied by someone else when she returns.”
“So, now we should all go to Gan’s room, which is the closest to Servalan’s suite, and try to find out what her plans are,” suggested Vila.
“No,” said Avon. “We should separate. Gan, you’ll go to your room and do as Vila sais. If you find out anything, communicate us using your bracelet. Vila and I will try to obtain information from the personnel. They are not curious, as Orac promised, but they still might know something.”
When Gan left Avon grabbed Vila by the collar.
“Don’t tell Gan about your two men! If he finds out, he’ll tell Blake, and if Blake learns Servalan’s after something, he’ll want to get the thing first.”
“Easy, Avon! You’re right, of course. And I think Servalan will leave no later than tomorrow, with or without her prey. But what is it she is looking for so eagerly?”
Avon’s lips broadened into a dazzling smile.
“I’m not against to find out myself.”
***But luck was not on their side. When they got to Lurgen’s room, the latter had left already. And as they checked with the reception, the spacecraft Ace as well. Vila didn’t remember the name of the planet Lurgen wanted to go to. The only consolation was that Servalan had obviously missed the man as well, as Gan managed to get into the suite hidden in a maid’s trolley and overheard her conversation with an officer, or whoever that man was. Now the Supreme Commander had left the suite, and Gan called Vila to rescue him, as they had locked him inside.
A quarter of an hour later the three of them were sitting in Gan’s room.
“It was stupid to get into that trolley,” Avon said.
“I know. But no one was looking, and it was not a chance to miss. I haven’t found out much though. They are seeking two men, who have left the planet an hour or so ago in a spacecraft called Ace. It will bring them to a distant Federation planet. Servalan sounded pleased to hear it. She said they don’t have any chances to escape from her now.”
“What were the men’s names?” asked Avon.
“No idea.” Gan shrugged his shoulders. “I only know there are two of them. When the officer informed her they had left on the Ace, she asked: ‘Both of them?’ And he said yes. That’s all I know.”
“Pity.” Vila could swear Avon sounded upset. “If we knew the name of at least one of them we could follow the Ace and alert them. But as we possess so little information, it’ll be too dangerous and foolish to try. What about Servalan? Is she planning to stay here long?”
“I think she’s left already.”
“Good. Then we can return to our rooms and continue our vacation. We have only one day left.”
***“Vila, where are you going?”
“To my room to continue my vacation. You said…”
“I said that to Gan. Even if Servalan hasn’t left, I don’t think she might want to use the local gym. They won’t meet. But as far as I remember you told me the two men Servalan is after were going to separate. And the second one will only leave tomorrow.”
“So he said, but Gan…”
“Forget Gan. We’d better check it ourselves.”
***They knocked at the door several times, got sure none of the neighbours reacted, and then Vila used his skill to open the door. There was no one in the room, but the things were intact. The man hasn’t left or has left without his luggage. Avon took a small device out of his pocket.
“Your Lurgen was wrong, Vila. There are no bugs in this room.”
Avon looked around and saw a sheet of paper on the table. A message? No. The sheet looked blank. Under it there was a cheap brand new photoframe with no photo in it. A farewell souvenir from a friend? Nonsense!
Avon disassembled the frame, and a small black plate hidden between the back cover and the standard picture of a smiling girl fell down on the floor.
“What’s that?” Vila asked.
Avon turned the black plate to the light.
“It must be the print they were talking about.”
“A print of what?”
“I don’t know yet. We’ll take it back to the Liberator and check with Orac. But don’t tell anyone else about it.”
“Who do you take me for - a fool? If Blake finds out, we’ll have a lot of trouble.”
Avon smiled.
“Precisely.”
“But I’m sure there has to be a message!” Vila said.
Avon examined the back cover of the photoframe and the picture. Nothing.
“Wait!” shouted Vila suddenly.
He switched on one of the heaters on the wall and pressed the blank sheet of paper they’ve found on the table to it. Avon criticized the thief’s actions.
“You’ll just burn the paper.”
But suddenly he saw faint brown letters appearing and growing brighter and brighter.
“Dear D.
I still think it’s unfair to leave you without a copy.
L.
P.S. Be careful. S. is here.”
“It’s an ancient trick,” Vila explained. “Written with milk. S. stands for Servalan! L. is Lurgen. D. must be the other man’s Initial.”
“How very clever of you, Vila,” Avon said ironically. “Well, whatever it is, D. doesn’t know about it. And according to you he refused to get the copy. Take the frame and the paper and let’s get out of here.
***Vila went to the treatment block for some more sensory ecstasy. Avon destroyed the frame and the message and was going to the restaurant, when he was suddenly seized from behind. A hand shut his mouth. Avon always thought of himself as a strong man. But all his attempts to get free were in vain.
“Avon, stop struggling. It’s me, Gan,” whispered Gan.
“What it is Gan?” asked Avon in a whisper, too.
“Servalan. I was wrong. She hasn’t left yet. She is leaving now.”
And then Avon saw the Supreme Commander of the Federation Fleet. She was standing by the reception desk, waiting for her companion to sign the necessary documents. Her white dress was relatively modest this time. Her smile looked sincere and innocent, her movements were full of natural grace. All the men stopped to admire her beauty. All the women scrutinized her long dress, her spike heel shoes, her make-up…
Avon shook his head. Maybe in another life it would be possible to possess this woman. In this one the farther she is from him the better.
“Thank you, Gan.”
This time Avon and Gan decided to be one hundred per cent sure she had left. They followed her to the transporter, then to the spacecraft, then watched the spacecraft blast off and disappear in the evening sky.
***When they teleported up, Vila looked the one who hadn’t had a rest yet. Avon and Gan were both healthy and strong again. And the girls were so breathless with anticipation for the holidays, that the mere thought of it made them look fresh and shining. Even Blake smiled looking at them.
“How was it?” Cally asked.
“Great!” said Gan.
“Not bad,” confirmed Avon.
“Heaven,” sighed Vila.
Blake frowned suspecting something, but Avon was already teleporting him down on Sapona.
***Avon was on watch in the flight deck. Vila joined him there.
“Avon, have you found what it was?”
“Orac has. Coordinates. Some truly absurd ones.”
“And?”
“And I destroyed them. And made Orac erase the memory of them for Blake not to come across them accidentally. Whatever they hide there, I don’t want it found.”
“So be it. Where’s Gan?”
“In the teleport section. He has resumed his classes with Orac.”
“A good guy, Gan.”
“The one I’d hate to have as an enemy,” murmured Avon.
Why an enemy, Vila wondered to himself, but failed to find an answer, and offered:
“A game of chess?”
“Why not?”