Picowrimo Day 6... As Good as a Million Miles... (Blakes 7 - gen, 865 words)
Today's offering is a little ficlet for the b7friday challenge of "near miss", and uses some of those planet names I was thinking up (being a good little packrat, I have added the surplus, and yes there was a surplus, to my Little Folder of Names :)
As Good as a Million Miles...
We looked for you after Star One, Blake, honestly we did, Avon and Cally and me. We just didn't know where to look, did we?
Orac complained, but was an obedient junkheap and searched the galaxy's communications for rumours, gossip, hints, clues, anything and everything that might have told us where you ended up after we all had to jump ship and run. But there were so many stories before you'd been gone a week; according to the starwaves flying around what used to be our own Evil Empire, you were helping/joining/leading rebels on every world in what used to be the Federation. Everywhere.
Avon's face when Orac spat out the list was... honestly Blake, it would have been funny if it hadn't been so sad. All that "I want to be free of him" talk when you were there to hear it, and when he is free, do you think he likes it?
Oh right, you probably do, wherever you are.
Can I just say, though, I wish you didn't? Think that, I mean. Because you're wrong, so wrong, and if you could just see the way we've been running around, the places we've been looking for you...
Alpha Agricola. Bargain-price brandibeer, Betelgeuse beevecake, bombs, battles and blood on the streets... but not you. We stocked up on the beer and beevecake, though; Cally insisted, said that that you're fond of it and we'd need it when we found you. But if you were there, we must have just missed you.
Then Anglayssia: sun, sand and all the simulated sweetsex money can buy. But we didn't, because the locals hadn't even heard Orac's sure rumours - or anything else - and if you were there, you'd left. And the simulators were all in ruins anyway...
Wynterworlde in the Seventh Sector. Nothing, there was nothing at all there. You know how it was said your friend Avalon went there before the war? If she did, the Federation followed her... and if you went there, you would have seen that. So if you went there, you didn't stay.
On Median II, they're still fighting and hanging bureaucrats on lightposts, and they think you're on your way to help them before the Federation fights back and hangs them. You're not there yet, in any case.
On Meicleha III, they all swear you're there, that they've seen people who've seen you, that they've talked to people who've talked to you. But they don't know where, and they can't say when. You've left, if you were there are all.
We don't ask Avon what he found when he met the rebel slaves on Ursa Prime, and he didn't tell us. But it was bad, and you weren't there, whatever Orac said.
There were Exbar, Destiny, Silmareno and Lindor, because Cally has a feeling that you might have gone somewhere you knew people, and you might be safe. Cally doesn't say much, but she misses you, she's afraid for you, she just wants you to be safe. But if you are safe - and if you are, Blake, can't you let us know? - if you are, you're not with them. And then Aristo, because Orac suggested it, but maybe Orac just wanted to go home.
And Malermael at the edge of the Inner Worlds, with its tropical fruit and technology and trading. Orac told us there were several sightings there... but it didn't mention the other sightings, of all the Federation deserters who'd holed up there. We sent Tarrant down, as another deserter seemed like a good idea but trust me, it wasn't. You'd've owed him, had you been there. But if you were, you must have left really fast.
Space City, it's said you went to Space City. But it's also said Servalan went there. If either of you did, one of you didn't leave anything but floating space flotsam. We're blaming Servalan.
Zeta Barana sounded good. It's an old communication centre, and we all know you liked visiting galactic communication centres. But as Avon pointed out afterwards, what you liked was blowing them up. Now that there's not much to communicate, you probably don't need to go there, and you didn't.
Uriel Orennox - people after my own heart, in a way, crooks and cheats and criminals every one. They all wanted to sell us information, tell us where you were for a price. And you won't believe me, Blake... but we paid. It was for nothing because you weren't anywhere we paid for.
Perdition's Wake IV, Blake. We even went to Perdition's Wake IV. Avon nearly died on that hellhole, because the story was that you were dying there (made sense, like the story that no one gets off that planet alive). If you were there, you must have died, and none of us are ready to think that, are we?
Metatron... horrible place.
Xyclon... even worse.
Gallowglass... what's left of it.
Diophantes... still Federation, too dangerous.
And Simalis VII... lots of rebels, Blake, none of them you.
We did look for you after Star One, Blake. If you were there anywhere, anywhere in the whole galaxy... we must have just missed you.
-the end-