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Stella NovaDreamSpace TwoFull Circle - PreviewBy Maree Sole |
Vila bounced onto the flight deck, slipping a bit but turning it into a soft shoe shuffle step as he came to relieve Avon. It wasn't necessary for them to keep watch, as Cliopay, the liaison between themselves and the computer which ran the ship, was a sentient being. But Avon liked to keep to a routine so they would not get dull and lazy. Besides, someone had to send out feelers to the scattered rebel groups, demoralised since the tragedy on Gaudia Prime, and that was a round the clock job when you had to preserve a degree of anonymity. Vila checked the control lights on his console, one of the two three-seaters either side of Cliopay's casket. He felt good, better than he had since they had lost Dayna and Tarrant, dead or captured, and this extraordinarily beautiful woman from the Darkling Zone had whisked himself, Avon and poor Soolin out of that hellish mess. Soolin's wounds were healing slowly in the regenerator tank, but it would be some time before she emerged from her coma.
Avon stepped down from the centrally-mounted command chair. Cliopay's holograph appeared beside him as he addressed Vila.
"I've made contact with the rebel group on Illium. They need a central communications control knocked out before coordinating their final attack."
"They don't know...."
"Of course not, they think we're... pirates." Avon seemed pleased with the word. "And anyway, since Orac had penetrated their communication system, they were already out in the cold had we been against them. We didn't ask for much either."
"I'll bet." muttered Vila. He caught Avon's glance and smiled innocently.
"So we move in, mop up, and move on?"
"Something like that..."
"Uh..." Vila knew it had been too good to last.
"...Cliopay will drop you and explosives into the control room which will have been evacuated due to a report of a chemical leak, faked of course by Orac and myself." Avon turned to go, but then turned back. "Don't do anything silly, like losing consciousness while you're down there..."
"Alright! I know, or Cliopay can't pick up my alpha waves, and I'll be stuck."
Avon's teeth showed briefly. "Then it's on to Fivel, the rebels there want a meet. Time to let people know who's back... once they've seen what we can do."