The Lie (2021)

After rescuing Dayna from the clutches of Terminal's mutated lifeforms, Avon took the lead and led the warrior girl back across the frozen tundra via a memorised route. Underneath his feet, the artificial world's mechanism thrummed at regular intervals. Avon's gait was slow and patient, his grip on the handgun strong. He trusted nothing that Servalan had touched, and there was no telling how long she'd been here.

An earthquake hit without warning. It was as if the entire landscape shuddered in fright, tripping both of the survivors into the snow. 

“Is that the-?” Dayna shouted, only to be cut off by the roar of a distant explosion. She no longer needed an answer. Servalan had left no chances and rigged the base complex.

“BLAKE!”

The telepathic scream tore through their brains, and forced them to clutch their heads in agony. Little beads of blood dropped out of Avon's nose onto the snow, shining bright red. For a few moments, he and Dayna could only stare at each other in bewilderment as they recuperated from the headsplitting effects. Then, Avon jumped to his feet. He felt nauseous and dizzy. 

“Stay here.” Was all he said to Dayna and he didn't stick around to wait for a response. Too weak to run, Avon simply jogged towards where he remembered the complex to be, any notion of taking a safe path forgotten.

It was a sorry sight. Vila and Tarrant lying amidst burning rubble. The elegant hatchway almost entirely obliterated. The complex reduced to little more than a hole in the ground, somewhat like a well. Noticing Vila mumbling to himself incoherently, Avon rushed to him and grabbed the thief by the back of his coat. 

“Vila!”
“Ahh!” Vila yelped, disoriented. Avon steadied him.
“Where's Cally?”
Vila blinked. “Whah-? She...” He turned to look at the smoking hole. “She was stuck. Tarrant, he... tried to get her out. Then I had to get him out. Avon! There can't be anything left...”

Avon frowned. He wouldn't admit it, but Vila was most likely right. Hope had never been in his vocabulary. Still...

“You look after Tarrant.” He told the thief, and took a step towards the hole.

Vila looked appalled. “You can't go in there!”

The older man whirled around, and snarled: “I see you left Orac down there as well. If I can't get him out, we're never leaving this planet.”

Avon stepped onto the blackened metal ladder of Terminal Base and descended into the hellish pit. It was gloomy, filled with noxious smoke and debris. Dirt rained onto his shoulders. The Base was structurally unstable, and Avon could tell he risked being buried alive. Fortunately, Orac was still in the living quarters where Vila had left it, though its plastic container was cracked and filled with rubble. 

“Damn!” Avon growled, and had a coughing fit. Although the smell of burning lithium was very potent, a different scent caught his nose as well. A very strange one that shouldn't have been there at all. It was the comfortably familiar smell of...

Avon nearly gagged.

It was the smell of cooking meat.

Avon grabbed Orac and forced himself to follow the stench, wandering aimlessly through the dimly lit corridors.

“Cally!” He barked loudly. “Cally!”

To Avon's fury, his nose led him to a small, undecorated room with an empty table on it. It was the place where he'd been tricked into speaking with the fake image of Blake. He placed Orac's plastic container on the table and took a breather. The roof had caved in on the other side of the room. It was a mess of rebar, plastic and glass. And a slim figure, halfway buried in it all. Avon rushed to her, and wiped black soot and blood from her scarred face. She didn't appear to move. Avon licked a finger and held it just over her lips. A slight chill passed over it. A breath. Cally was alive!

Carrying himself with renewed determination, Avon rushed back to Orac and set the activator key into its socket. The machine didn't react. In a rabid frenzy, the man shook out all the larger bits of dust and filth that had gotten into the box and tried to rewrite the computer's brain. “Work, damn you! Work!”

“I do not fear death.”

Avon paused, looking back at Cally. Her mangled body hadn't so much as twitched. Yet, despite the destruction of her body, the voice in his mind was as clear and confident as it had ever been.
He sat down next to her and used his hand to peel open her eyes. They were glassy and wet, and became more so as they looked at him. Avon had never had cause to examine Cally's eyes up close, and was now taken by the brown earthiness in them. She reminded him of a nymph from the bygone ages.

“Neither do I."

“Then let me go.”

“No.” Avon smirked indulgently. “You forget... I'm very greedy. I already lost the Liberator today. If I lose you, well, that would make me laughingstock of every crook in the galaxy.”

Cally's mental voice laughed. “Oh, I'm bounty, is that it?”

“Taking things of inordinate value is but one of my many vices.” Avon stood up and resumed tinkering with the computer. “I will repair Orac, and he will call for a hospital ship. There's always some flying around. One will pick up the signal.”

“How long?”

“Depends on the extent of the damage done to Orac. Vila naturally left it underneath...”

Cally interrupted him.“I meant... for how long would you have me?”

“... as long as I can.” Avon admitted, nearly snapping one of the wires in his hand out of frustration. He was not not used to feeling helpless.

“Forever?”

“Neither one of us will last that long.”

“Come here, Kerr.”

Compelled by her use of his first name, Avon walked over and sat down. She didn't say anything else, so he glanced at her eyes, suddenly afraid that it had happened. But the eyes still stared at him, not through him.

“Kiss me.” She suddenly commanded.

He obliged. Her lips were cracked and tasted of nothing but copper, yet the knowledge of being able to make her happy – here of all places – made him feel oddly free of pain... but only for a moment.

“How can that not be forever?”

“Well now... I suppose I should consider myself lucky.”

“There are times, you'll find, when even the most cynical must trust in luck.”

Avon kissed her again, for he'd told the truth when he said he was greedy. But before he was even done, he knew that she'd passed. No, not passed. Died. Ended, obliterated. Never to return. He felt ashamed, knowing that Cally had believed his lie, believed that he'd finally come around to seeing her vision of eternity. But if he did believe in something, it was that he would have done or said any lie to bring her a measure of happiness in the end.
He turned around on his heel and left the chamber of illusions, never to return.

By the time he finally returned to the surface, it was dusk. Dayna and Vila had lit a fire, and Tarrant - who'd managed to cling to life - was regaining consciousness.

“What happened?” Vila asked. “Did you-?”

“Cally's gone.” Avon replied coldly, and dropped Orac onto the ground unceremoniously. “Though if you'd had the wits to look after this, perhaps she wouldn't be.”

Vila scowled. It was not something he did often, but he had his limits and Avon was pushing them. Grumbling to himself, the thief wandered off with a half-hearted excuse to look for more firewood as Avon continued, in vain, to try and repair the damage to the computer.
Tarrant opened his eyes.

“Am I still alive?” He asked, slightly delirious.

Avon gave him only the briefest glance. “Vila's to blame for that one.”

“Vila rescued me?”

“You were injured trying to rescue Cally, he rescued you. Suddenly I am hip deep in heroes.”

Tarrant frowned. “Where is Cally?”

“Cally is dead.”

“Are you sure?”

Avon paused. “Yes, I'm sure.”