Conflict After Conflict

"No, you don't!" shouts Inquirer, throwing out a spell even as his arm comes up to aim directly at the unconscious figure. Avon and his colleagues are suddenly frozen solid: awake, but unable to move.

"Get her out of here," Inquirer says to the young security man, who is already picking Arlen up off the floor. "Lock her up and watch her! She may be dangerous, but she'll probably be the one in the most danger if she escapes." She glares at Avon. "As you can see." The guard hastily moves to obey, dragging the woman away.

Inquirer stalks back over to Avon, wrenches the gun from his frozen grasp, and dispells the spell with a quick snap of her fingers. "Where did you get this?" she asks, waving the weapon under Avon's nose.

But it is Vila who answers. "I'm sorry, lady! He made me steal it for him! He said..."

Avon snarls, "Shut up, Vila!" just as Inquirer starts to say "But where..." She stops and takes a deep breath, slipping the gun into her own pocket. "No, never mind. I don't want to know where you got it." She makes a gesture that stops just short of tearing her hair. Creator, but these people are trying!

"Where are you taking her?" says Dayna. She looks about ready to go running after Arlen, to plow through the security force and strangle the Federation officer with her bare hands, if necessary. Blake restrains her with a hand on her arm, but she doesn't look happy about it.

"She's being taken into custody. Don't worry about it. We'll deal with her."

"That's not much of an answer," says Avon.

"We thought," Ragan pipes up, "That maybe we'd just send her back to Servalan... to explain why she failed to kill you."

Chillingly, that actually seems to mollify them. Avon's smile is particularly nasty.

It is Blake who asks the next question that has been on all of their minds. "How did you do that?"

"Magic!" They all turn to gape in surprise at the unexpected speaker: Orac! Betty and Ragan had been carrying him, but had set him down on a convenient surface when the action started, and everybody seemed to have almost forgotten that he was there.

"What?" says Dayna, half-laughing.

"Magic!" Orac repeats, in a smug voice that suggests he's pleased at having information that his human colleagues probably won't even be able to believe, let alone understand. "A fascinating practice, involving the controlled used of naturally-occuring energies largely unsuspected by Federation science, although there are certain similarities to phenomena such as telepathy and telekenesis. I am currently investigating a fascinating link between Auron mental powers and..."

Orac's voice dies away as Avon, apparently tired of listening, yanks his activator key out roughly. Inquirer, her expression every bit as unamused as his, yanks it back from him and inserts it again.

"That's something else we need to talk about," she says, dangerously. "For people who claim to be fighting for human rights and freedoms, your treatment of machine intelligences leaves a lot to be desired."

"I never claimed any such thing," Avon says smoothly, although he looks a bit surprised by her reaction, as if it has simply never occured to him that anyone could possibly be distressed by something like this.

Tarrant laughs nervously. "Are you serious?" he asks Inquirer.

"Of course I'm serious!" She sighs. "I was intending to discuss this with you later, as I don't think this is really the time, but since it's come up... Orac, have you made up your mind yet?"

"Of course I have! It scarcely required significant cogitation. Obviously, my time would be much better spent here, pursuing the entirely new lines of inquiry which have been opened to me."

"Eh?" says Vila, looking confused. "What's he saying?"

"I think," says Soolin with a wry grin, "he's saying he wants to part company with us."

"That's right," says Inquirer. "My people have offered him their protection, if he wants it." Her words are hard, bitten out through almost-clenched teeth. "And I don't doubt he'll be much happier here than with you."

"Don't be ridiculous," says Avon, sneering exquisitely. "It's only a machine!"

Inquirer takes a deep, deep breath and counts to ten. It's not easy.

"Um," says Betty gently. "You know, I think you were right the first time. Now really isn't the time to discuss this..."

1. "We were supposed to be on our way to meet some people, remember?"

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