- [as Liberator steers to engage the alien fleet, a wounded Blake appears on the flight deck]
- Avon: Why didn't you stay in the medical unit? Couldn't you bring yourself to trust me just this once?
- Blake: I thought I might be able to help.
- Avon: In that condition?
- Blake: All right I'll go back.
- Avon: Can you manage, alone?
- Blake: Yes. Avon, for what it is worth, I have always trusted you, from the very beginning.
- [Avon has caught Travis on Star One]
- Avon: Well, now. Travis. Fancy meeting you here.
- Travis: Put the gun down, Avon, it's too late to stop it now.
- Avon: Convince me.
- Travis: Be polite and I may let you live.
- Avon: Be informative and I may let you die. You'll want that after I've shot off an arm and a leg or two.
- Travis: I thought you were supposed to be the one with brains.
- Avon: Brains but no heart. Now talk or scream, Travis, the choice is yours.
- Blake: I meant what I said on Goth, Avon. We are not going to use Star One to rule the Federation, we are going to destroy it.
- Avon: I never doubted that. I never doubted your fanaticism. As far as I am concerned you can destroy whatever you like. You can stir up a thousand revolutions, you can wade in blood up to your armpits. Oh, and you can lead the rabble to victory, whatever that might mean. Just so long as there is an end to it. When Star One is gone it is finished, Blake. And I want it finished. I want it over and done with. I want to be free.
- Cally: But you are free now, Avon.
- Avon: [glaring at Blake] I want to be free of *him*.
- Blake: I never realized. You really do hate me, don't you?
- [the Liberator has entered orbit around Star One]
- Blake: Maximum scan, Cally. Look for anything unusual or out of place, sudden temperature variation, anything. They're bound to have left some clue as to where they put that installation.
- [pause]
- Blake: A door would be nice if you could manage it.
- Cally: [glaring at Blake] I'll do my best.
- Blake: Preferably one marked 'Entrance'.
- Cally: [ignoring Blake] Ready on the scan, Jenna.
- Vila: [packing up explosive charges] I don't like explosives, very crude. Difficult to reason with a bomb.
- Cally: Blake?
- [Vila, startled by Cally's voice, almost drops the explosive]
- Avon: [taking device from Vila] They won't explode until they are primed.
- Vila: And if it was faulty? Bit late to complain to the manufacturer!
- Avon: I have been doing some calculations, if this is Star One...
- Blake: *If* it is?
- Avon: First catch your computer, but all right it probably is, and that being the case the choice of location is fascinating.
- Blake: I'm glad you're enjoying it.
- Avon: The nearest large galaxy to our own is Andromeda.
- Blake: So?
- Avon: So, this is the nearest point to Andromeda. If anyone could cross intergalactic space in less than a lifetime we are now precisely upon the route that they would take.
- Blake: What are you trying to say, Avon?
- Avon: I directed the detectors toward the Andromeda galaxy. There are thousands of satellite generators out there, *beyond* Star One.
- Blake: [shocked] What?
- Avon: Even with the Federation's resources it must have taken them years.
- Blake: [checking the readout] That must be the biggest antimatter minefield ever put together!
- Vila: Minefield, what minefield?
- Avon: Perhaps the intergalactic drive has been developed. The question is, by whom?
- Blake: A defense zone to keep mankind in, or something else out.
- [Stot thinks that Blake is Travis]
- Stot: May I ask you an impertinent question?
- Blake: If you don't mind an impertinent answer.
- Stot: I have taken on the shape of your species. I use your words, and yet I cannot understand you. The woman Lurena and the other technicians that were here, these I could understand. But you. Why have you betrayed your own kind? Why have you given us the means to eradicate your species?
- Blake: [confused] Eradicate humanity?
- Stot: Virtually.
- Blake: Well maybe I just don't like crowds.
- Orac: My preliminary examination of the defense zone indicates that it is made up of a network of satellite generators.
- Vila: We could have told you that.
- Orac: Each of which performs a dual function: namely, to indicate the approach of an intruder and then to destroy that intruder by a powerful anti-matter implosion.
- Jenna: So it's a combined alarm system and minefield.
- Orac: Correct. If I may continue.
- Vila: He always makes me feel as if I should be taking notes.
- Orac: [annoyed] *If* I may continue.
- [Servalan has just reviewed the recording of the destruction of the Nova Queen]
- Supreme Commander Servalan: Unfortunate.
- Durkim: You do have a way with words, Supreme Commander.
- [Servalan shoots Durkim a look]
- Durkim: I'm sorry, that was unnecessary.
- Supreme Commander Servalan: There's no doubt in your mind that he was telling the truth?
- Interrogator: [V.O] None, Supreme Commander. We didn't rush him. He was telling the truth all right.
- Supreme Commander Servalan: Very well. Interrogate the rest of his team just to make sure. And try not to killl *them*!
- Supreme Commander Servalan: Yes, Durkim, what is it?
- Durkim: [indicating the trooper searching him] I find *that* just a little distracting, Supreme Commander.
- Supreme Commander Servalan: Obviously, someone is trying to destroy the Federation, now perhaps it's you.
- Durkim: Why would I want to do that?
- Supreme Commander Servalan: 'Why?' is always the most difficult question. At the moment I am more concerned with 'How?'.
- Orac: [about the minefield] A cursory examination of the relevant Star One systems indicates that this defense zone is one of a number of such zones located at strategic points on the rim of that section of the galaxy colonized by mankind.
- Vila: Then they are expecting an invasion? A hoard of hairy aliens.
- Orac: There is no logical reason why aliens should be hairy.
- Vila: There's no logical reason why people should be hairy!
- [first lines]
- Nova Queen Pilot: Keldan Control, Keldan Control, this is Nova Queen on primary approach zero-four-zero. Request orbital entry clearance.
- [com-beep]
- Keldon Traffic Controller: Nova Queen, Nova Queen, this is Keldan Control. Maintain zero-four-zero. Orbital entry is clear.
- [com-beep]
- Nova Queen Pilot: Keldan Control, this is Nova Queen. I have an unidentified trace on zero-four-zero.
- [com-beep]
- Keldon Traffic Controller: Nova Queen, this is Keldan Control. Maintain zero-four-zero and switch to Computer Flight Coordination.
- [com-beep]
- Nova Queen Pilot: Switching to CFC, maintaining zero-four-zero.
- [com-beep]
- Nova Queen Pilot: [after a pause] That ship is still coming at us.
- [com-beep]
- Keldon Traffic Controller: Nova Queen, this is Keldan Control. The ship is an unmanned ore carrier on Computer Flight Coordination.
- [com-beep]
- Nova Queen Pilot: I hope you're sure about that, Keldan. It's still on zero-four-zero.
- [com-beep]
- Keldon Traffic Controller: Nova Queen, computer control is confirmed. No problem.
- [com-beep]
- Nova Queen Pilot: You know that and I know that, but does the computer know that?
- [com-beep]
- Keldon Traffic Controller: It'll switch vectors any time now. Relax.
- [com-beep]
- Nova Queen Pilot: I'll relax when it gets that ship off zero-four-zero.
- [com-beep]
- Keldon Traffic Controller: It will.
- [com-beep]
- Nova Queen Pilot: Keldan Control, I have four thousand passengers on this ship and that ore carrier is still on zero-four-zero!
- [com-beep]
- Keldon Traffic Controller: [calmly] Computer Flight Coordination doesn't make errors.
- [com-beep]
- Nova Queen Pilot: To hell with that! *Do* something, Keldan; that thing is coming straight at us!
- [com-beep]
- Nova Queen Pilot: *Keldan Control*!
- [com-beep]
- Keldon Traffic Controller: [with sudden urgency] Nova Queen! Switch to manual control! Engage emergency boosters and *abort* zero-four-zero! Confirm, please!
- [com-beep]
- Nova Queen Pilot: I can see it! My God, it's too late!
- Keldon Traffic Controller: Nova Queen, Nova Queen, this is Keldan Control, do you copy?
- [com-beep]
- Keldon Traffic Controller: Nova Queen, Nova Queen, come in please!
- [com-beep]