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English
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Part 14 of Jabberwocky - the gen stories
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Hermit.org Blake's 7 Library
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Published:
2008-05-26
Completed:
2008-05-26
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51,389
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2/2
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2
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302

Jabberwocky - part 14 - Malodaar

Summary:

by Sheila Paulson

A mission to the planet Malodaar to confront Egrorian and follow through on Cally's prophetic dream proves to be a deadly trap.

Notes:

Note from Judith and Aralias, the archivists: This story was originally archived at Hermit.org Blake's 7 Library, which was closed due to maintenance costs and lack of time. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in August 2015. We posted announcements about the move and emailed authors as we imported, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact us using the e-mail address on Hermit.org Blake's 7 Library collection profile.

This work has been backdated to 26th of May 2008, which is the last date the Hermit.org archive was updated, not the date this fic was written. In some cases, fics can be dated more precisely by searching for the zine they were originally published in on Fanlore.

Original Author's Notes:

Originally published in 'Jabberwocky 14'.

Sequel to Jabberwocky - Revenant. Prequel to Jabberwocky - Avatar.

Original Fanzine Editorial:

Editorial (ed. Judith Proctor)

Well, I've finally come to the end of Jabberwocky. The way my health has been recently, it was beginning to look pretty doubtful on occasion, but thanks to my husband in particular, we made it. I'm having extreme difficulty typing at the moment and could never have managed the layout unassisted. Compared with most parts of Jabberwocky, this one has been a lot easier to get into print. With it being the most recent part of the saga, Sheila had the whole story on a PC disc and I could just drop it into my machine. Wonderful! The adult and slash stories are being published simultaneously with Malodar. They are not essential to the saga, but add something extra if your tastes lie in that direction.

This zine is dedicated to all those people who tried to buy either Malodar or the Jabberwocky Collected edition from Janet Walker and have yet to see a copy. You're the main reason I decided to reprint Jabberwocky. I can't give you your missing zine, but at least Sheila and I can make it available from another source.

Thanks are due to Harriet Monkhouse for proof-reading and to Val Westall for the art work. Val's art has improved enormously over the last few years, I particularly like the fact that many of the illustrations here are to match specific scenes and are not just portraits. Avon's new outfit also looks rather nice on him. I should add that Val did some of these at incredibly short notice, so the resulting quality is even more impressive. Val is now selling original art and will also do commissions. Contact myself or Val for details.

After my last editorial, all of two weeks ago, I was asked about Morgan's Boy. Morgan's Boy was an eight part BBC drama in which Gareth Thomas played a Welsh Hill farmer who is living all alone on a remote farm after the death of his elderly mother. The story is set around his relationship with his nephew who comes to stay with him. It's very sad in places and not for those who want happy fantasies. (It's a long way removed from Jabberwocky) It is one of my favourite pieces of television and Gareth Thomas was nominated for a BAFTA for his part in it.

I'd write more, but my neck and arm are hurting, and you'd probably far rather get on with reading the story, so turn the pages and enjoy Malodar.

Chapter 1: Background

Chapter Text

Jabberwocky Part 14 Malodar cover photo Jabberwocky Part 14 Malodar cover_zps2lo1v4ca.jpg

Background

Part 1 Link-up

Cally has survived the explosion on Terminal and the crew have escaped in Servalan's wreck of a ship. While in a coma, Cally dreams the events of the fourth season, including Blake's death. Traumatized by her injury, she has lost her telepathy. When the crew, augmented by Hugh Tiver, a doctor kidnaped by Avon to take care of Cally, steal a prototype Federation mindship constructed around a living human brain and capable of bonding with a human in a mental linkage, their adventures are just beginning. Afraid of finding Blake for fear Avon will kill him, Cally bonds with the ship, naming it Jabberwocky. After rescuing Soolin from the Scorpio, they go to Gauda Prime, where the encounter backfires. Blake is wounded but is rescued and joins the crew of Jabberwocky. Cally's telepathy returns and she turns linkage of the ship over to Blake.

Part 2 Mind-Rape

Blake is back, and in linkage with Jabberwocky, and Servalan wants to steal Jabberwocky and link with it in order to take back the presidency. She had meant it to be hers from the beginning. She uses Witt, a telepath who had worked his way into Avalon's rebel army on Ryalon base, to wrest control of Jabberwocky from Blake, leaving the rebel trapped inside his mind. A mental linkage is the only way to bring him back, and Avon the only one who can do it. With Cally's help, and using nearly atrophied telepathic skills he had long pretended he didn't have, Avon is able to draw Blake back from the prison within his mind. Jabberwocky defeats the rogue telepath.

Part 3 - Healer

With Blake in control once more, Avon is gradually accepting he was born a telepath, but his powers were suppressed to the verge of destruction.

      Blake begins behaving oddly, and problems develop with the ship as Jabberwocky begins to remember his long suppressed past - his memories had been blocked when his brain was used in the mindship. In the meantime, Jenna Stannis and Del Grant have teamed up and have one objective: Kill Avon. When their plan goes wrong and Tarrant is gravely wounded, only the combination of the mindship and Avon, the untrained telepath are able to save the pilot's life, and at this point, Tarrant becomes Jabberwocky's linkmate. Jenna joins the crew.

Part 4 - The Froma

On a mission to draw in potential rebel support, Blake and his crew are asked to steal the Froma, an alien artifact that cannot be stolen as it destroys anyone who tries to remove it from its world. When Avon and Hugh are captured, Avon receives an unexpected telepathic contact - from the Froma itself. The strange device proves to be a sentient organism, the last of its kind. Able to link telepathically with Avon, it wants to bond with him on a permanent basis, but Cally helps, and the entity is taken to Kahn where it can be among the newly reviving Auronar.

Part 5 - Decoy

When the Jabberwocky crew pick up a message that suggests IMIPAK is being taken to a remote world, they are in two minds about going after it, partly because of the danger to Avon and Blake and partly because it may be a trap. But Blake refuses to leave IMIPAK in Federation hands. The mission is complicated by the fact that there is a potential sleeper agent on the ship who might betray them. Everyone suspects everyone else. The sleeper proves to be Soolin, who was programmed long ago. The IMIPAK device proves a dummy, part of a plot to capture the rebels, but they are able to escape, taking the false device with them.

Part 6 - Kyl

A teenager comes to Ryalon to join the resistance and causes a great deal of trouble inadvertently when he encounters the crew of the Jabberwocky. Concealing his true identity, he is torn between a desire to become a member of the resistance and the need to confront his long-lost father - Avon. Kyl proves to be programmed, part of a long-standing plot to get Avon, but Orac is able to deprogram him, and the plot is thwarted when Kyl's former guardian arrives and nearly kills Avon. Kyl and his father make wary peace.

Part 7 - Clone

Realizing mention of IMIPAK will draw Servalan back to the planet where it was left, Blake plans a mission to find and destroy the weapon. Trailed by a mysterious ship, and protesting all the way, the crew arrive to find that Blake's clone is still there. When the mysterious ship arrives and Dayna dies in an accidental confrontation, Servalan captures the clone only to find she has the original Blake. The clone overpowers Blake and replaces him on Jabberwocky. When the captain of the mysterious vessel proves to be Dorn Suliman, a friend of Tarrant's and the son of the man Jabberwocky once was. Avon plans a rescue of Blake, using the dummy IMIPAK. Dorn warily decides he will try to get to know his father again.

Part 8 - Stand-in

A mysterious cube proves to be a prison for an alien mass-murderer, who escapes - into Tarrant's body. With the link broken, Jabberwocky's sanity is in jeopardy, and Vila offers himself as a temporary link-mate. With Tarrant's body in stasis and the alien in possession of the ship's computers, only Vila can find a solution that will drive him away and restore the ship and Tarrant. The link is returned to Tarrant once the being is defeated.

Part 9 - Choices

When Avon's son Kyl stows away on a mission and winds up being kidnapped by Servalan, she plans to use him in trade for Blake. Left with an impossible choice, Avon is overruled by Blake himself, and with Jabberwocky's help and the development of a gestalt linkage, the whole crew forms a mental link to confront Servalan and rescue Kyl and Blake.

Part 10 - Program

Jabberwocky and Orac design a program that can hold a complete human personality. They use Dayna's personality - and the program becomes self-aware. Some of the crew want to use the program to get Dayna back, using an android body. Avon finds this impossibly distasteful and tells Blake he will leave the ship if the program becomes part of the crew. In spite of his objections, Avon winds up teamed with Hugh on the planet where the android assembly plant is located, in an attempt to rescue the Dayna android before Servalan can steal it. They escape in a defective ship with Servalan in pursuit, but with the help of Dayna, she is captured.

Part 11 - Overload

Servalan is now a prisoner of the resistance. Held prisoner on Ryalon, she plots to escape, using old programming implanted in Avon at Terminal and the help of the rogue telepath Witt, whom she used once before to try to steal Jabberwocky. When a programmed Avon shoots Tarrant, he is suspected by his own crew. He is forced to use his developing telepathic skills to heal himself of the programming, and then the crew uses linkage to thwart Servalan's escape.

Part 12 - Lifeblood

Dayna returns to her homeworld of Sarran to visit her grave and learns that three former Federation technicians, Edge, Perren and Tanz, have taken over her old home. Abandoned there by Servalan when she believed Dayna was dead, they are in grave danger because they helped in the construction of Jabberwocky's telepathic linkages - their abilities are tied into knowledge of psi. They wish to join the resistance. But once again, Servalan is in pursuit, nearly destroying Dayna. And Tanz proves that a part of Dayna is very human indeed when she falls in love.

Part 13 - Revenant

Supreme Commander Arpel may or may not have rebel leanings, but when he frees a long-time prisoner, Gan, and sends him to Blake, no one knows whose side he is on. When Gan returns to his old comrades, they are eager to welcome him - at first. Then a Federation plan using a partially completed mindship breaks the link between Tarrant and Jabberwocky and sends Tarrant, Blake, Avon and Gan into unconscious states. While Edge, Perren and Tanz struggle to repair linkages, Avon must use his telepathic gifts to bond with Jabberwocky to save the mindship's sanity. Together Avon and Jabberwocky defeat the programming, and Avon, who has long claimed to want to be Jabberwocky's link-mate, returns the link to Tarrant, realizing that he doesn't need it. Gan joins the crew.