- Gan: You're never involved, are you Avon? Have you ever cared for anyone?
- Vila: ...Except yourself?
- Avon: I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational in order to prove that you care. Or indeed why it should be necessary to prove it - *at all*.
- [exits]
- Vila: Was that an insult, or did I just miss something?
- Cally: You missed something!
- [the crew are watching the "duel" on screen. Avon gets up and starts to leave]
- Vila Restal: Have you thought of another plan?
- Kerr Avon: Yes: I'm going to get some sleep.
- Vila Restal: How can you sleep with all this happening?
- Kerr Avon: With all what happening? Blake is sitting up in a tree; Travis is sitting up in another tree. Unless they're planning to throw nuts at one another, I don't see much of a fight developing before it gets light.
- Olag Gan: You're never involved, are you Avon? Have you ever cared for anyone?
- Vila Restal: ...Except yourself?
- Kerr Avon: I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational in order to prove that you care, or, indeed, why it should be necessary to prove it at all.
- [Avon leaves]
- Vila Restal: Was that an insult or did I miss something?
- Cally: You missed something.
- Vila: Have you thought of another plan?
- Avon: Yes. I'm going to get some sleep.
- Vila: How can you sleep with all this happening?
- Avon: With all what happening? Blake is sitting up in a tree, Travis is sitting up in another tree. Unless they're planning to throw nuts at one another, I don't see much of a fight developing before it gets light.
- Sinofar: Our powers grew out of a thousand years of war, out of hate, and fear, and the will to survive.
- Giroc: [on Liberator's screen] We built destruction, weapons that your peoples have not yet dreamed of. Every passing year brought new ways to kill, and throughout the centuries the war raged across our planet.
- Sinofar: [on planet] With each generation there were fewer of us. The dead vastly outnumbered the living. There was not victory for either side.
- Roj Blake: How did it end?
- Giroc: How? Another development of another weapon. We demanded their surrender, they refused. The weapon was used. Those that we call our enemy were annihilated.
- Space Commander Travis: You won. That's all that matters.
- Sinofar: It wasn't a victory, only the end of the war! We were left with a planet made barren by radiation. Our children were monsters, or died, or were never born. This, we won.
- Roj Blake: How many of you are there now?
- Giroc: None. We are a dead race.
- [thunderclap]
- Sinofar: We tell you this so that you will understand our reasons for intervening in your dispute.
- Roj Blake: [laughs] I get the distinct feeling I offended Zen's professional pride then.
- Avon: It's just a machine, Blake.
- Vila: And he should know.
- Gan: Well Avon is the expert.
- Vila: That's not what I meant.
- Avon: No, he was calling me a machine, but since he undoubtedly defines himself as a human being, I shall choose to accept that as more of a compliment than anything else.
- Jenna Stannis: Do you believe what they told us? About themselves, I mean.
- Roj Blake: With that much power why bother to lie?
- Jenna Stannis: That's one way to become a hunted man: trust the powerful.
- Roj Blake: True.
- Avon: If any of our control systems are damaged by the impact, we will be helpless.
- Roj Blake: We're not exactly in a commanding position now.
- Jenna Stannis: Activating!
- Roj Blake: Have you got any better ideas?
- [violent impact. As Blake and Avon reel back, Avon clutches Blake protectively]
- Avon: As a matter of fact, no I haven't.
- Roj Blake: Does that mean you agree?
- Avon: Do I have a choice?
- Roj Blake: Yes.
- Avon: Then I agree.
- [lets go of Blake]
- Space Commander Travis: You do realize that any hostile act against me will be regarded as a hostile act against the Federation.
- [Giroc laughs]
- Space Commander Travis: Have you any idea of the risk you're running?
- [Giroc laughs harder]
- Roj Blake: They don't seem very impressed, Travis.
- [laughs]
- Roj Blake: Why don't you try stamping your foot?