Blake’s 7: Warship Read Online Free

wobbled in response, and Vila quivered along with it.
    ‘There are more coming!’ Jenna warned him.
    ‘Another four,’ Cally confirmed.
    Jenna twisted Liberator aside, and the ship rolled abruptly. But it was to no avail. ‘They’ve got us in a pincer formation!’
    A coruscating barrage of alien blasts pummelled the Liberator . The flight deck lit up, brilliant light searing from the main screen until the automatic filters cut in to compensate for the painful brightness. The ship’s engines dipped ominously, then re-established their familiar note. Vila wondered if the defences had been breached. Were they holed? Could they still defend themselves from this fresh onslaught?
    He examined his readouts worriedly. He wasn’t optimistic at the best of times, but this really didn’t look good. ‘Our neutron blasters are almost exhausted.’ He looked over at Jenna for reassurance.
    She had none. ‘The force wall is failing, too. Zen, what’s our status?’
    ‘DEFENCE FIELD NOW AT TWELVE PERCENT EFFICIENCY. BATTLE COMPUTERS PROJECT THAT CURRENT RATE OF DAMAGE WILL EXHAUST THE AUTO-REPAIR SYSTEMS IN TEN MINUTES.’
    ‘What was that?’ asked Cally.
    Vila saw that she had her head tilted at an angle, as though straining to hear something. ‘That was our last chance of survival!’ he told her.
    She didn’t seem to hear him. Or maybe she was concentrating on whatever had caught her attention. Though what she could possibly hear above the cacophony of the alien assault, Vila couldn’t imagine. He returned to his controls, firing the neutron blasters as the alien counter-strike continued. Liberator ‘s hull groaned ominously.
    ‘Can’t you hear it?’ Cally asked. Her voice was insistent, but so quiet that she was barely audible beneath the noise of the attack. ‘It’s a babble of voices… a kind of continuous chattering…’
    ‘The aliens!’ groaned Vila.
    ‘Or,’ suggested Avon, ‘she’s been listening to you for too long.’
    ‘INFORMATION. DETECTORS INDICATE SEVERAL HUNDRED ADDITIONAL SHIPS APROACHING LIBERATOR , VECTOR SEVEN-NINE.’
    ‘At last!’ A surge of relief flooded through Vila, almost as good as a slug of soma. ‘The Federation fleet! I never thought I’d be glad to see them.’
    ‘Impossible,’ snapped Avon. ‘They are a long way off. Zen, identify those ships!’
    ‘THAT INFORMATION IS NOT AVAILABLE.’
    Jenna already seemed to be considering other possibilities, but the instrumentation was not helping her. ‘Rear sensors have been knocked out.’
    ‘I only realigned those the other week,’ grumbled Vila. The emotional rush had well and truly dissipated. ‘I don’t fancy going out there again, Jenna. Those hull suits make me claustrophobic.’
    ‘Auto-repair should be able to handle it,’ she reassured him.
    ‘Not at this rate of damage,’ said Avon. Trust him to crush any remaining optimism.
    Vila was exasperated. ‘We’re surrounded! Defenceless. Blind. Let me know if I’ve missed any other kind of catastrophe. I’d hate to die misinformed.’
    Avon clearly still couldn’t believe the evidence of the readout in front of him. ‘How the hell did so many alien ships get behind us?’
    Vila glared at him. ‘You know what they say about “fight or flight”? Well, I’ve always been quite keen on flight. How does that sound to you, Avon? Jenna?’
    ‘Neutron blasters are depleted,’ she replied. Her choice was clear, at least.
    Avon was still searching for straws to clutch at. ‘We’re running out of options.’
    ‘Running out sounds like a pretty good option to me!’ Vila retorted. ‘So what’s keeping us here?’ He twisted around to appeal directly to the others. ‘You agree with me don’t you, Jenna? And you, Cally?’
    Jenna was frowning. But it wasn’t Avon she was worried about. ‘Cally? Are you all right?’ There was no reply.
    A fusillade of alien fire raked across Liberator , and a control panel next to Zen exploded in sparks. Everyone ducked