[Exterior shot of Liberator in orbit]

[Teleport section. Blake hands over a plastic sheet to Jenna 
and Cally, who sit at the console]
BLAKE:      Can you correlate the locator fix to this.
[Jenna moves some levers and a light dot moves on the grid]
JENNA:      How about this?
BLAKE:      But that puts it right in the middle of the 
        Federation defense complex.
CALLY:      Well, we can put you one half co-ordinate 
        point to the fix. That will put you down in 
        the outer limits of the complex.
BLAKE:      That'll do. Let's go. Come on, Vila.
VOILA:      You're quite sure you need me?
BLAKE:      Certain.
AVON:       Doesn't it make you feel good to be wanted?
VILA:       I've been a wanted man all my life. What I 
        need now is to be unwanted.
BLAKE:      Come on. Put us down, Jenna.
JENNA:      Good luck.
[They teleport]

[In the complex grounds. Federation corpses are lying about]
AVON:       It must have been quite a fight. These men 
        are from the Federation Space Assault Force. 
        They're crack troops.
BLAKE:      It's quiet enough now. The battle seems to 
        be over.
VILA:       Just one thing we don't know: who won?
AVON:       Let's find out. [He starts to move off]
BLAKE:      Not that way. Let's look at some of the other 
        levels first.
VILA:        Why?
BLAKE:      I'd rather not meet anyone until we get the 
        geography of this place sorted out. Men fresh 
        from a battle tend to be a little trigger happy. 
[There are sounds of guns firing in the background. He moves off]
VILA:       Trigger happy?
AVON:       It would be stupid to be shot up by our own 
        allies. [Follows Blake]
VILA:       Not only stupid, painful.

[Blake, Avon, and Vila in a corridor. Blake tries a door]
BLAKE:      It's locked.
VILA:       Allow me. [He opens it] You see -- the old 
        magic's still there.
AVON:       [To Blake] The old ego, too.
[They enter the room and Avon turns on the lights]
VILA:       It's a rocket launch pad!
BLAKE:      [To Avon] What do you make of it?
AVON:       I'm not sure.
BLAKE:      [Follows Avon to side of rocket] Vila, take 
        a look around.
AVON:       [Apparently reading from far side of rocket] 
        This is the specification. It's fast but 
        short-range. It has a life-support capability 
        of about a hundred space hours.
BLAKE:      But the nearest habitable planet to Albian is 
        over five hundred space hours away.
AVON:       Then it would probably have to rendez-vous 
        with a mother ship.
BLAKE:      Or come back to Albian. I don't see the point 
        in having a rocket like that here.
AVON:       Just in case of emergencies, perhaps.
BLAKE:      Come on, let's go. There's nothing else for 
        us here.
VILA:       Blake, look!
BLAKE:      What is it?
VILA:       There's a sliding section in the roof -- 
        they're launch doors 
[He opens and closes them using a control panel on the far wall]
BLAKE:      Why don't you do that again, maybe they didn't 
        hear you.
[Blake and Avon leave]
VILA:       Wait for me!

[Control room. Ralli is checking the files. Provine opens the 
escape tunnel door and watches her, then emerges from the 
tunnel, knocks her out, puts her into the tunnel, and closes 
the door. Countdown 587, 586, 585. Provine checks it and leaves 
the control room]

[Blake, Avon, and Vila walking in a corridor, weapons drawn]

CAUDER:     Stand where you are! Lower your guns.
BLAKE:      [He continues to be noticeably on guard] Easy 
        now, we're not Federation.
CAUDER:     Don't move. Now who are you?
BLAKE:      I'm Blake. This is Avon and Vila.
CAUDER:     Blake? [He lowers his gun] You mean the Blake 
        who's been giving the Federation so much 
        trouble?
BLAKE:      We've certainly been trying and from what we 
        see here, you've been doing the same thing.
CAUDER:     How did you get here?
BLAKE:      Our ship has teleport capability. We came down 
        from the rocket level.
CAUDER:     Rockets? Where?
BLAKE:      Two levels up.
CAUDER:     [To Arrian and another who have been standing 
        O.O.V.] You two: find that rocket and stay 
        with it. If Provine's alive it'll be his escape 
        route [They leave and Blake finally relaxes] 
        My name's Cauder. I'm glad to see you, Blake, 
        all three of you. We have a desperate problem.
BLAKE:      Can we help?
CAUDER:     If you can't, every living being on this planet 
        will be dead within hours. Come with me. 
        [Blake and Avon follow him]
VILA:       Oh dear.

[Provine hides in a corridor as Arrian and the other rebel 
pass by]

[Control room. Avon has been looking at the device]
AVON:       This is a solium radiation device.
BLAKE:      Solium?
CAUDER:     You know about it?
AVON:       Enough to know that it's deadly. Once in 
        fission it creates intense radiation. It 
        destroys living tissue instantly.
CAUDER:     That's right, and the Federation made us 
        understand exactly its effects, left us 
        in no doubt if we mounted any major 
        rebellion they wouldn't hesitate to use it.
VILA:       But to blow up the whole planet, destroy 
        everything's that's here -- that's stupid.
AVON:       But they don't blow it up, that's the point. 
        Solium itself produces a very small explosion 
        and the radiation fall-out decays rapidly. 
        They could wipe out a whole population and 
        still leave the buildings and the installations 
        intact. In less than a day there is no trace of 
        any radiation.
BLAKE:      See what you can do with it. Typical Federation 
        policy: things are more important than people. 
[He and Cauder sit at a table]
CAUDER:     The Federation was bleeding us dry. They levied 
        impossible demands on our economy, gave us no 
        voice in our own government. We were little 
        better than slaves on our own planet.
BLAKE:      It's a familiar pattern. Go on.
CAUDER:     So we decided to cede from the Federation. 
        Oh, we tried to do it legally, went through 
        all the normal diplomatic patterns, through 
        all the interplanetary laws, but none of it 
        did any good. They declared a state of emergency 
        and placed Albian under martial law.
BLAKE:      But policing a planet of this size must tie 
        down a fairly considerable Federation force.
CAUDER:     No. They had less than a hundred troops here.
BLAKE:      What?
CAUDER:     They had an easier way to ensure our loyalty. 
        Simple and terrifying. They installed THAT. 
        [Gestures. Shot of Avon working on the device]
BLAKE:      Yes, must've been like living with a gun 
        against your heads.
CAUDER:     That's right. And that is why we were finally 
        driven to act. We knew the enormity of the 
        risk but we had to take it. Somehow, I thought 
        when it came to it, they wouldn't detonate,
            I thought they were bluffing. I was wrong. Now 
        unless we can deactivate that, millions will 
        pay for my mistake.
AVON:       I can dismantle the solium device, but first 
        of all I have to find it. This isn't it.
CAUDER:     What?
AVON:       It is a subetheric transmitter that activates 
        remotely. The bomb itself could be anything 
        up to ten thousand miles from here, hidden 
        anywhere on the planet.
[Countdown 503, 502, 501, 500]

[Rebel in the rocket silo. Hears noise in hall and goes to 
investigate. Provine kills him O.O.V., then enters the room 
and unsuccessfully tries to open the launch doors]
ARRIAN:     You're not going anywhere -- Major Provine. 
        The launch doors won't open; I've smashed 
        the relays. Don't move! Just throw your gun 
        down, carefully. There [Gestures to middle 
        of floor] where I can see it. [Provine complies] 
        Good. Now, we're going back to the control 
        room and you're going to deactivate this device.
PROVINE:    I can't do that.
ARRIAN:     I think we can find ways of convincing you.
PROVINE:    I didn't say I wouldn't, I said I can't. Once 
        the device is activated it can't be stopped. 
ARRIAN:     I don't believe that.
PROVINE:    But it's true. It's out of our control now. 
        Neither I nor anybody else can do anything about 
        it. Now. You listen to me. You can give yourself 
        a chance. You don't have to die here with the 
        rest of them. 
ARRIAN:     What do you mean?
PROVINE:    Help me repair the relay. It's a Stadler link, 
        isn't it? Well, there must be a spare in the 
        technical stores, mustn't there?
ARRIAN:     Maybe.
PROVINE:    Help me find it and we can get the launch doors 
        open. Once we get this ship into orbit, we'll 
        be safe. We can stay out in space until the 
        radiation decays and then return in perfect 
        safety.
ARRIAN:     Return to what?
PROVINE:    This planet is important to the Federation. 
        They'll bring in settlers, repopulate it. You 
        could play an important part in that. You could 
        have power, position. Help me now and you won't 
        find the Federation ungrateful.
ARRIAN:     And my family, my friends?
PROVINE:    I'm afraid there's nothing you can do to help 
        them now. Be sensible; to stay here and die with 
        them achieves nothing. 
ARRIAN:     You think I could live, knowing I'd helped a man 
        who'd murdered an entire world? No, Provine, 
        you're not going anywhere. You're going to stay 
        here and die with the rest of us. Now move.
PROVINE:    No, wait.
ARRIAN:     Now move!
PROVINE:    You're a fool. [He moves to the door and reaches 
        for the panel, hesitates]
ARRIAN:     The door.
[Provine touches the lowest portion of the panel and the rocket 
exhausts flare. He retrieves his gun and kills the Arrian after 
a brief struggle. Provine then begins to leave, goes back for 
the damaged relay circuit, begins to leave again, looks from his 
uniform to Arrian's, then begins undressing them both]

[Control room]
BLAKE:      If there is any information on the location 
        of the device --
CAUDER:     But there must be!
BLAKE:      Then the obvious place is the safe. Vila, can 
        you crack it?
VILA:       It's a tough one, but I've got the combination.
CAUDER:     You have?
VILA:       Yes, but the buttons are sensitized to respond 
        only to certain fingerprints. I've got to 
        bypass all that before I can go to work on the 
        combination mechanisms. [Goes back to safe]
BLAKE:      If anyone can crack it, he can. Breaking into 
        a Federation stronghold must've taken some
            doing. How many men did you have?
CAUDER:     About a hundred and fifty. They came from 
        resistance groups all over the planet.
BLAKE:      But you planned the organization.
CAUDER:     Initially, but it didn't take me long to 
        realize I'd need a professional dealer. 
BLAKE:      You mean you hired a mercenary?
CAUDER:     Yes. He organized the revolution on the planet 
        Arcos, others before that. He has a very good 
        record. 
BLAKE:      Hmph.
CAUDER:     I made contact. He agreed to help, but demanded 
        a very substantial sum. 
AVON:       Mercenaries generally do.
CAUDER:     No, I think the price was to satisfy his ego, 
        to prove he's the best in his field.
BLAKE:      He's certainly very good at his job to get 
        your men in here. Where is he?
CAUDER:     He should be back. I'll fetch him.
BLAKE:      Oh, what's his name?
CAUDER:     [On his way out] Grant. Del Grant. 
[O.O.V., Avon? drops something]
BLAKE:      What's the matter?
AVON:       Nothing. It's not important. I was a little 
        surprised, that's all.
BLAKE:      Why? Do you know him?
AVON:       I once knew somebody called Del Grant, but 
        it was a long time ago. I doubt that this is 
        the same man.
BLAKE:      You don't seem very eager to find out. Why?
AVON:       There are matters that remain to be settled 
        between us.
BLAKE:      Like what?
AVON:       I told you: it's not important.
BLAKE:      If it is not important, then why did his name 
        have such a strong effect upon you?
AVON:       Because the Del Grant that I knew said that 
        if we ever met again, he would kill me.
VILA:       I've done it! I think I've done it. [He joins 
        them, a box in his hand] I've isolated the 
        identification sensors. It's straight 
        combination now. Watch this -- it should open 
        like a dream [He does something with the box 
        and the safe explodes]
BLAKE:      [Coughs] More like a nightmare. [He and Vila 
        pull data cards from the safe] They're all in 
        code [Avon takes one]
VILA:       So are these.
AVON:       Give me a little time, I can decode it.
BLAKE:      Time is what we don't have. [Into bracelet] 
        Liberator, this is Blake, do you read me?
CALLY:      [V.O., on bracelet] We hear you.
BLAKE:      Stand by to teleport, Vila's coming up. [To 
        Vila] I want all that stuff run through Orac, 
        I want the cipher broken, and a full read-out.
VILA:       Right.
BLAKE:      Ready?
VILA:       Yes.
BLAKE:      [Into bracelet] Take him up. [Vila teleports]

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