"Finally, Zondawl." "Latest victim of the Federation's Pacification and Control Programme." "The drug is still Pylene-50." "The concentration has been stepped up, however." "DISEMBODIED VOICES:" "You are cared for." "You are loved." "You are cared for." "You are loved." "You are loved." "You are cared for." "You are loved." "You are cared for." "You are loved." "You are cared for." "You are loved." "...cared for." "...cared for." "You are loved." "You are cared for." "You are..." "You..." "You are cared for." "You are loved." "You are cared for." "You are loved." "You are cared for." "You are cared for." "You are..." "That videocast was taken on Zondawl six weeks ago." "What is happening there now will soon happen on Serrus, Herriol, Sentha, all the border systems, unless you resist." "Resist?" "With what?" "We have no armies, Avon, no great battle fleets." " Zukan does." " But Zukan isn't here." "And why not?" "Because he has his armies and his fleets, and is probably attacking Tarl or Serrus even now, while we all listen to a renegade, who has more reason than us to fear the Federation." "I may be a renegade, Boorva, but you betray your people if you do not fear the Federation." " It's going badly." " Hardly surprising." "Avon's idea of diplomacy is like breaking someone's leg, then saying, "Lean on me."" "Resistance means armies, Avon, whatever you say." "And we haven't got them." "Well, neither has the Federation." "At least not sufficient to indulge in widespread conventional conquest." "Why else have they embarked upon drug control?" "Defeat the drug and you buy yourselves time." "I mention it in passing, since none of you seem to have noticed, but there are two craft registering on the detectors." "SOOLIN:" "How near?" "Orbit range in 17 minutes." " Visual scanners?" " Locking on to automatic." "Originally the stuff was administered by medical laser, but now they have developed variants that can be fed into your reservoirs or even into the air that you breathe." "You're saying that we have no protection." "On the contrary, I'm offering you the best there is." "Total immunity." "I have the antitoxin." "What I do not have is the necessary equipment to mass produce it, or the raw material from which to obtain the toxin extract." "Zukan has the raw material, and you, gentlemen, you have the necessary equipment." "Any such alliance would be futile as long as Zukan remained outside it." " And he has the armies." " And the war fleet." "He's a pirate." "Zukan's a pirate and he's an outlaw." " Who are they, Orac?" " Why not ask them?" "This is Xenon base." "Identify yourselves." "I repeat, identify yourselves." " You have 10 seconds or I'll open fire." " With what?" "Xenon base, this is Betafarl Commercial Freighter, Lodestar." "Who's with you?" "I repeat, who's that with you, Lodestar?" "This is Zukan, President of Betafarl, come to attend the conference of the non-aligned planets." "Gentlemen, the President of Betafarl, Zukan." "You are welcome, Zukan." "I apologise for my late arrival." "Boorva, perhaps now you may care to revise your position?" "Because Zukan has finally arrived?" "That doesn't necessarily change anything." "Why can't you accept that Zukan is here in good faith?" "There is no history of trust between us, Avon." "True, we know Zukan to harbour territorial ambitions against us all." "Does he renounce them?" "And even if he says he does, why should we believe him?" "May I reply?" "By all means." "In so far as we on Betafarl have always sought to protect ourselves and our borders, there are some here who would not be unjustified in regarding us as aggressors." "But if it is aggression to protect oneself by ensuring that the others remain weak, then we have been aggressors." "But no more." "Because now we face a true aggressor." "The Federation does not seek merely to defend itself, but to subjugate all peoples to its will." "And Betafarl is no more able to stand alone against the Federation than any of you." "So if we cannot be friends, for the sake of all our peoples, let us be allies as from this day." "Well, he spares us the hypocrisy of pretending that his motives are anything other than self-interest." "Are our motives any different?" "I welcome your words, Zukan." "But words are no more than words." "Zukan must forgive our mistrust, but he himself has fuelled it for far too long for words alone to be sufficient here today." "Avon, show us your freight bay." "Now, those are my technicians." "The equipment is everything necessary to produce an antitoxin." "This is Betafarl's first contribution to our new alliance." "So doubt my words if you will, but not the evidence of your own eyes." "The power inlets are on the far side." "I hope they're not just going to dump it all and go." "Unless you want to be the one who decides which bit fits where." "I thought we could leave that to Vila." "You should see the laboratories they've got on Betafarl." "Zukan gave Avon and me a tour when we were there trying to persuade him to attend today." "Zeeona." " Someone you met while you were there?" " Zukan's daughter." "If all this is the result of your intercession, we're grateful." "My father required no intercession from me." "Your own case was so strong that in the end he knew he couldn't afford not to respond." "Some response." "In war or friendship, my father is never less than wholehearted." "Zeeona, Soolin." "Maybe you'd like to take Zeeona to the crew room." "Thank you, but I think it might be better if I stayed here to help." "Zukan's daughter carrying boxes?" "I'm a biogenetic engineer." "I work with this kind of equipment all the time." "I thought I could help to put it together." "We're unlikely to be ready for that today, so why not let Soolin show you to your father's quarters?" "He..." "He doesn't know I'm here." "I came aboard the freighter out of curiosity, I suppose." "I hope to go back the same way, without him knowing I've been here." " Would it matter if he did?" " I think he might be displeased." "And no doubt he is as wholehearted in his displeasure as in everything else." "You can't stay here, there are video scanners that can be switched through to the conference chamber." "Better come with me." "We don't want to upset our principal ally and benefactor now, do we?" "Well, gentlemen, before we drink our toast are there any grievances that could, in the future, threaten our accord?" "Yes." "Shall we receive compensation for the crafts we have lost to Zukan's war fleet?" "Any such craft were legitimate targets being in the Betafarl sector." "In that case, Betafarl sector extends for as far as your war fleet care to roam." " Not so." " Sectors are a thing of the past." "I thought you'd agreed." "But Chalsa seems to want to make the agreement retroactive." "Just how far back do you want to go?" "We have lost craft, too, Chalsa." "Shall Zukan recompense us all?" "How could he?" "May we not wipe out the past and start afresh?" "I agree with Mida." "When you talk of compensation, Chalsa, remember," "Zukan has already pledged more to this alliance than anyone else!" "All right." "All right, I agree." "I accept." "Then are we all friends here, with one common enemy?" "Tarl affirms." "Let's hope we're never given cause to regret it." "Lovus affirms." "Herriol affirms." "Komm affirms." "Betafarl affirms." "I don't think my father ever believed a day like this could be possible." "I'm glad I'm here to witness it." "Why would he be so displeased if he found out you were here?" "You know what fathers are like with their daughters." "As it happens, I don't." "Mine was murdered when I was eight." "I'm sorry." "So were the men who did it, eventually." "So tell me, why doesn't he want you here?" "You may find it strange, in view of my father's reputation as a fighter, but for some time now, he's been trying to achieve a kind of respectability, through me." "Yes, it may be politically expedient to be allied with us, but we're hardly respectable." "It could explain it, I suppose." " Is everything all right?" " Seems to be." "A neutron bombarder." "As long as the organic source has a molecular structure that's reasonably close to that of the antitoxin, that'll do the rest." " Any danger of radiation?" " As long as the installation is right." "Well, the only problem now is where do we find enough raw material to keep this lot running?" "That's not such a problem, Avon." "As I told you, we have a plant on Betafarl." "It grows wild." "In the outlying areas, it's prolific." "The sap has a molecular structure that's close to that you need." "We started harvesting it just before I came here." " How long before it can be shipped?" " That is up to you, my friend." "We brought the equipment, we're harvesting the crop." "The freighting of it, we leave to you." "Though don't take too long." "Indications are it degenerates fast, even under freezing." "Any reason why you can't take Scorpio and leave tomorrow?" " No, except..." " With Avon's permission," "I should myself like to stay to supervise the installation." "Tomorrow, you go." "Your father means to stay until the installation is complete." "I thought you should know." "Thank you, but I did already." "I was watching the monitor." "You must also have heard that I'm going to Betafarl tomorrow." "Perhaps it would be sensible for me to take you back." "Perhaps it would, yes." "Thank you." "Right." "Good." "Well, we'll sort out how to get you aboard in the morning." "Would you like to know why I really came?" "Oh, it's true, I thought I could help with installing the equipment, and it's true that I was curious about all of you, the kind of people you are, the way you live." "But most of all..." "But most of all, I..." "So, you see, I shall be very happy to be going back to Betafarl with you." "One per exit." "Got some news for you." "There was somebody on Lodestar you didn't reckon on." "Your daughter." " She is here!" " Not to my knowledge." "She is here somewhere, and one of your people must know where!" "Where is my daughter?" " I don't know." " Nor me." " Where is the other one?" " What other one?" " That came with you to Betafarl." " Tarrant." "Search the base." "If she is here, presumably she wants to be." "She's not a child." "She is my daughter." "Where is she, Soolin?" "And then, after you'd gone, when you left Betafarl" "I felt as though I'd lost something." "I never felt that way about anyone before." "Zeeona." "I'm sorry if all this is unwelcome to you." "No." "(Bleeping)" "Zeeona, your father wants to see you." "Now, Tarrant." "Your man, Tarrant." "Now he is the reason why she should not be here." "I mean this as no disrespect to you, Avon, or your group, but she is the daughter of Zukan." "Let us give our guests some privacy." "Just when it was getting interesting." "The game, I mean." "I'm sorry, I don't know how he found out." "Excuse me." "Now, let..." "How dare you?" "I'm sorry I went against your word, but I'm glad I came." " You cannot be both." " Truly." "Then I wish for both our sakes it were not so." "You shall not stay." "I didn't intend to." "I go home tomorrow aboard their freighter." "Tarrant will take me." "My daughter will be a passenger on your freighter tomorrow." " I would like you to change its captain." " Whom would you prefer?" "Yourself." "I shall be honoured." " Good night." " Good night." "What I care about is not antagonizing the most powerful ally we have." "At her expense!" "She is not a child." "You said so yourself." "She deserves better than having just you for company." "Besides, I'm surprised you're prepared to risk leaving me alone with her father." "I dislike him so much, there's no knowing what I might do." "All right, come along and hold her hand if you must, but in the meantime you can make yourself useful." "There's a fault on the inner-door alignment." " All launch checks complete." " AVON:" "Green on all systems." "Betafarl has just confirmed full clearance on your flight plan." "About time." " Goodbye." " Have a good trip." "Your passenger's on her way." "Good." " Where is Tarrant?" " Drowning his sorrows?" "Main drives running up." "Thirty hours from now and you should be home." "I'm a bit worried about the inner-door alignment still." " Do you think you should take a look at it?" " I thought you had fixed it." "I did, only I'm not sure it will hold." "I just thought while there's still pressure on the freight deck you might want to take a look." "Tell me quickly." "Do you want to go back?" "Where have you been?" "She was looking for you to say goodbye." "Didn't see any point in saying goodbye, not when she's coming back again." "Coming back?" "Yes, so long as Soolin can work it before they're out of range." "Yes or no?" "Yes." "Get a bracelet and stand in there." "Scorpio to base, we're teleporting now." " Welcome back." " Come to stay this time?" "Thank you." "I can't see anything to worry about back there." "Oh, thanks for checking anyway." "Where is our passenger?" "You've sent her back, haven't you?" " She wanted to go." " And you helped her." "Zukan need never know." "He saw her come aboard." "And as far as he's concerned, she still is." "When he gets back to Betafarl, he'll think she's simply disappeared again." " We know nothing about it." " He'll never believe that." "But you lie so well." "We're going back." "If we do, Zukan will know for certain." "Almost there?" "Another day." "The programming will take longer." "Will it be ready to test-run by the time Scorpio gets back?" "I hope so." " Has Avon arrived yet?" " By this evening." "Betafarl has perpetual day, did you know?" "No." "It never sleeps." "Perpetual light." "All that energy." "There are times when I miss the darkness." "It's hard to live always in the light." "I shall leave this evening." "There's little more I can contribute here." "Well, won't you stay for the test run?" "My people will." "I have confidence enough in them." "Base to Scorpio." "Scorpio, do you read?" "Scorpio to base, we hear you, Dayna." "Go ahead." "Zukan to depart base for Betafarl in three hours." "I say again, Zukan 32 hours behind you." "Do you understand?" "Only too well." "Happy landings." "Out." "He's going to get here and discover that his daughter is nowhere to be found before we've even finished loading." "Unless we get a move on." "If it comes to a choice between the alliance and Zukan's revenge don't think that I won't sacrifice you." " Up to power." " VILA:" "You're clear for lift-off, Zukan." "I salute you all." "Glad I won't be down there half an hour from now." "You're just in time." "Thank you." "When your father finds out, he'll probably incinerate us all." "Do you realise that?" "ORAC:" "Someone would seem to have anticipated him." "Orac?" "Scans indicate a foreign object in the teleport bay." "My calculations suggest that it is an explosive device." " A bomb?" " Precisely." "I can't see anything." "Where?" "Where, Orac?" "It's at floor level on the right-hand side." "What's happening?" "Channel one, dead." "Two, dead." "Kill that alarm, somebody." "Vila, switch it off!" "We've got channel five." "Is that all?" "It's all the entrances and exits." " We've been boxed in." " Yes, but..." "Extent of damage, Orac?" "Orac?" "(Orac expiring)" "SERVALAN:" "Is it well-met, Zukan?" "Well-met it is, Commissioner." "This is Finn." "Without him I couldn't have done it." "If you had only told me the whereabouts of their base, you needn't have done anything." "Are they dead?" "Dying." "Now." "We don't know how far it goes." "We're about 30 yards from the mouth of the tunnel." "It can't go any further than that." "(Rubble tumbling)" "It could take us anything up to four days to dig that far." "At least we've got enough air." "The ventilation system's still functioning." "Well, that doesn't make sense either." "Why should someone block us in, but leave us air to breathe?" "DAYNA:" "Tarrant, get back here." "Why?" "Look!" "(Screaming)" "ZEEONA:" "That was Jarder." "VILA:" "What the hell is doing that?" "Whatever it is, it's coming towards us." "It's getting nearer all the time." " What is it, Tarrant?" " I don't know." "VILA:" "What's causing it?" "ZEEONA:" "I don't know." " The explosions, something..." " The air." "It's in the air." "That's why the ventilation system's been left working." "Whatever it is, it's being carried in the air." "VILA:" "The air?" " Switch it off." " DAYNA:" "What?" "Everything off." "All life-support systems off." "We've got to stop the air circulating." "Are we safe?" "How do I know?" "How much oxygen have we got down here?" "How long can we last without fresh air?" "Eighteen, twenty hours." "And how long to dig our way out?" " Anything up to four days." " Oh, no." "Oh, well, I was never very good at maths, but..." "You don't have to be." "We're dead." "You know the composition of the antitoxin." "You didn't leave without obtaining that." "That's why you wouldn't tell me the location of their base, so that you would have a chance to get it." "Perhaps." "Then immunise your people, if you do not trust me." "And Komm, Herriol, Tarl?" "And the rest." "Yours to take, yours to keep." "I gave you my word." "Except I know how worthless words are." "Too late." "You can't undo what you've done, so you have little choice but to trust me." "DAYNA:" "Base to Scorpio." "Base to Scorpio." "Avon, come in please." "Base to Scorpio, do you copy?" "Someone isn't dead." "They soon will be." "That base is sealed like a tomb." "What if Avon heard?" "He's been on Betafarl for three hours." "He'll have left Scorpio by now." "Here?" "According to Zukan's coordinates, which were confirmed by flight control." "There's nothing here." "No vegetation, no crop pickers, no harvesters." "Nothing." "We've been tricked." "But why?" "Federation guards." " You know what that makes Zukan, don't you?" " I know what it makes us." "Drop your gun." "Drop it." "Don't shoot." "Don't shoot." "I am Zeeona, daughter of Zukan, and I give you Avon." "It was a mistake to let Avon take your daughter." "If he escapes, we've achieved nothing." "You do not trust your own men, Commissioner?" "It isn't a matter of trust, so much as matching ability." "Against one man?" "Against Avon." "You make me wonder if I didn't choose badly." "You fear him." "He and I, together we could have been invincible." "Really?" "CAPTAIN:" "Commissioner." "Yes, Captain?" "Signal from Betafarl." "Avon's been taken." "Send me his corpse." " What about Zukan's daughter?" " What about her?" "There's a woman with him who claims that's who she is." "Tell them to let her go." "She will have to know sometime." "Enjoy your new territories." "How are they going to kill him?" "Why don't we try blasting through?" "The roof's already been weakened." "Another blast could bring the lot down." " We're never going to make it like this." " Shut up!" "We haven't got four days!" "Maybe it'll only take four hours, or fourteen." "Now help me!" "Oh, no." "This machine is suggesting an airborne virus." "Sorry?" "A radioactive airborne virus." "Radioactive airborne virus." "But if that's what it is, it'll get through to us eventually no matter what we do." "There was a research programme on Betafarl." "Radioactive airborne virus." "But that means there could be only one person responsible for all this." "Look, there's little point in speculating about that now..." "It's not speculation!" "My father." "We've heard nothing for nearly three hours." "From them." "They're all dead." "Eleven good Betafarlians." "Do you think you'll see them in your dreams, Finn?" "Not me." "I will, if my dreams aren't already overcrowded." "You should take dream suppressants." "They don't help." "I see my bad dreams in other people's eyes." "Get me a drink." "Zukan." "Get it off the wall!" "No!" "I can't keep this up." "Stop it then, shall we?" "Go back to the others and tell them we've decided to die." "Well, why don't they come and do some?" " When we need them, they will." " When?" "I say we need them now." "When I say so!" "What is it?" "Paraflame Five." "It's lethal." "Get out!" "We're safe so long as the air seal on the door stays good." "What is Paraflame Five?" "It's a coolant." "There must have been a pipe running along the tunnel, and either the explosion or the roof fall fractured it." "Odd, a coolant called Paraflame." "It's a contradiction in terms." "Yes, isn't it?" "I wonder why." "Perhaps we should devote our last few hours to fathoming that out." "Why don't you go and crawl into that bottle?" "You don't want to help, you don't want to think, you're useless." "Thinking." "This is it." "Thanks to you and your father we're all dead!" " You little runt!" " Don't, Tarrant." "Why hurt him for speaking the truth?" "Come on." "AVON:" "Scorpio to base." "Scorpio to base." "Come in, base." "Base to Scorpio, we're receiving you, come in." "Emergency, mayday, mayday." "Can anybody hear me?" "Emergency, emergency, mayday." "Can anybody hear me?" "DAYNA:" "Enough oxygen for 12 more hours, at the most 13." "How soon can you get Scorpio within teleport range?" "Wait, Dayna." "We can't do it." "Scorpio to base." "It will be at least 20 hours before we can lift you off, which means that you must reduce your oxygen intake or we must think of something else." "DAYNA:" "Well, the opinion here is we've exhausted all options." "(Signal wavering) Zukan to Avon, to Avon, do you read me?" "Wait, Dayna." "Zukan to Avon, Zukan to Avon, do you read me?" "Zukan to Avon." "Do you read me?" "I read you, Zukan." "What do you want?" "I can tell your people how to obtain fresh, clean air." "But before I do, you've got to help me." "Help you how?" "I'm out of control, drifting." "Short on oxygen." "Pick me up and I'll tell you how to save your people." "Where are you, Zukan?" "I don't know." "I've lost all computer function, but my distress beacon's on two-two-one." "Find it, Slave." "I think I have, Master." "Of course, I could be wrong." " How near?" " Fifteen hours." "Zukan, you are too far away, they will be dead before we reach you." "Tell them how to get the fresh air, and we will rescue you." "I give you my word." "Your word?" "Your word is not good enough, Avon." "They will all be dead in 15 hours." "If two of them volunteer to die, the oxygen they have left will last the rest of them." "If just one of them dies, for any reason at all, so do you, Zukan." "Father, it's Zeeona, Father." "I'm here on the base with the others." "No." "No, no, you're not there, you're not there!" "Father, if you leave us no choice, I shall volunteer to die." "Tell us how to get fresh air, Father." "No, no, you're on Betafarl!" "I was teleported back to the base, Father." "No, no, you were seen on Betafarl!" "That was Soolin." "You are murdering your own daughter, Zukan." "You're trying to trick me, Avon." "ZEEONA:" "I watched Jarder die!" "No, you're on Scorpio." "You're in league with Avon." "I'm on the base, Father, please!" "I don't believe you!" "I don't believe you!" "I think we can do it without him." " Tarrant, are you there?" "Tarrant?" " I'm here." "Good." "If it is possible to get fresh air, as Zukan says, then not all the ventilators are contaminated, so which way did the virus come at you?" "We think the first place affected was the freight chamber." "Slave, show me the Xenon base ventilation system." "At once, Master." "Good." "Now, what I would have done would have been to connect the neutron bombarder to the air ventilators and reverse the flow." "Instead of pushing air, it is sucking air, and the virus, into the whole system." "Simple." "Tarrant, disconnect all north side ventilators and reverse the air flow." "That way, you will get fresh air coming in against the contamination." "You're wrong, Avon." "If your man does what you've told him, you've killed them all for sure." "Father, Father, please!" "No, no, you're not there!" "AVON:" "Do it, Tarrant." "You're wrong, Avon." "I'm the only one who can save them." "Then tell us, Father." "Tell us!" "Do it, Tarrant!" "Oh, get on with it." "What difference does it make if he is wrong?" "Power on, Dayna." "I am on the base, Father." "We have fresh air again now." "All right, Zeeona." "What's it like down there?" "Salvageable?" "If we can get rid of the contamination." "Which is a pretty big if." "Perhaps we could reverse the process on the neutron bombarder and use it as a neutralizing filter." "Is that feasible, do you think?" "Risky, though." "It's not very stable." "It could go critical." "One person must go down." "Volunteer?" "Or shall we draw lots?" " I'll go." " No." "Why?" "Because I'm the only one who knows how to work it." " Seems reasonable." " Shut up, Vila." "I want it to be me." "It has to be me." "Don't you understand?" " Then I go with her." " No." "She will go alone." "Let her do it her own way, Tarrant." "You'd demand the same." "I'll get your suit." "I shall be perfectly all right." "I'll work the teleport." "It's been too long." "Could be a faulty communicator on the suit." "Zeeona?" "Zeeona?" "I'm going down." " Nothing can have happened to her." " How do you know?" "Because she's protected from everything by the suit." "Radiation, poison gas, fire, wind, rain..." "Oh, let him go down." "It's worked." "The place is clear." "Zeeona!" "Zeeona!" "She took her glove off."