Orbit Ending
Vila tugged desperately at Avon's inert form. The hatch was open; in a few minutes his body would slide out and without resistance to the pull of gravity, would fall through the atmosphere to hit the ground far below.
"Hold on, Vila, I'm coming!" said a voice, and turning his head he saw Dayna plunging across the hold towards him.
She grasped Avon's shoulders as his feet slid over the edge and with a terrific heave pulled him back, reaching over quickly to slam her hand on the controls that shut the hatch. Gasping for breath she sank to the floor beside them as Scorpio broke free of orbit.
"I was only just in time," she observed. "Another moment and he'd have gone."
Vila, face pale, hands beginning to shake, nodded speechlessly.
"What happened?" demanded Tarrant as he and Soolin entered.
"Well - we were trying to jettison all the weight we could," Vila began, trying to think. "We'd got rid of a lot of stuff but it didn't seem to be enough. Avon went looking for something else to throw out - " He paused, collecting his thoughts. "There didn't seem to be much else we could get rid of and I think he'd decided to make the supreme sacrifice," he added brokenly. "I didn't want him to do it, I tried not to let him, but we became separated." He paused again. "Then he called out something, but I couldn't hear what he said. When I next saw him he was crawling along the deck, pushing something heavy. He called me again, and then something flew through the air and hit him across the throat and chest as he raised his head. Scorpio sort of tilted and the object Avon was pushing slid out into space. I grabbed Avon by the shoulders and then Dayna came to the rescue. If it hadn't been for her, Avon would have gone out, too."
Soolin bent to feel Avon's pulse and at her touch his eyelids fluttered open. His lips moved but no sound emerged. Soolin touched his throat with gentle fingers. "Did you say he was hit here?" she asked Vila. He nodded.
"I'm afraid his larynx is shattered," she said. "He can't speak."
Vila let out his breath in a long sigh, echoing the hoarse rasp of Avon's respirations.
"We'd better get him down to the Medical Unit," Tarrant said soberly. "He sounds bad."
"No, don't!" came quickly from Vila. "It might be dangerous to move him," he explained as they turned astonished glances on him. "Better get a stretcher."
"I'll go," said Dayna, moving quickly from the hold.
At the sound of Vila's voice, Avon's gaze had moved from Soolin's face and fixed on Vila. His usually emotionless gaze seemed at this moment to hold some strong feeling. He tried again to speak and when he failed, feebly raised his hand and sketched something in the air.
"He's trying to tell us something," Tarrant said. "What...?"
"The first one looked like a V."
"Vector, perhaps? He might be telling us what course he wants, but I can't make out the following figures."
With an immense effort, Avon rolled to his side, dipped his finger in the blood from his shattered throat and traced the following symbols on the floor:
V X X
But the effort was fatal. As Dayna came racing back with the stretcher the painful respirations changed to a choking gurgle and died away into a silence.
Dayna dropped the stretcher to the floor. "He's not dead!" she cried incredulously. "Not Avon? He can't be!"
Soolin straightened the twisted body, closed the sightless eyes and crossed his hands on his breast.
Tarrant compressed his lips, feeling oddly moved. He had often clashed with Avon, often wished him gone, but now he felt an indefinable sense of loss. Avon had always been so confident, so self assured, so right. If he could die.... Tarrant shivered, a sense of his own mortality hitting him suddenly and bringing back the memory of Deeta's death.
Dayna had dropped to her knees beside Avon, tears trembling on her lashes. Soolin put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't, Dayna," she said gently."He's gone. Tears can't bring him back."
"I know. Nothing, nothing will ever bring him back."
Vila, not wanting the others to know his real feelings, but needing some vent for his emotions, heaved another sigh.
"To think that he was prepared to sacrifice his life for us," said Tarrant. "I never thought he was capable of such an unselfish action. Vila, are you sure....?"
Vila raised his hand, palm forward. "I swear that what I told you was true. He was prepared to make the supreme sacrifice."
"We misjudged him, then," said Tarrant soberly, "and it's too late to make amends."
"Too late," agreed Dayna sadly. "It was a pity he always concealed his true feelings beneath that arrogant manner. We all came to feel that that was the real Avon, and instead...." she broke off as her voice became uncertain.
Vila turned away, anxious to hide his emotions.
Soolin, ever practical, said, "Shall we bury him in space or find a planet and lay his body to rest there?"
"In space," said Dayna firmly. "Earth, his birthplace, rejected him, and we cannot lay him in alien soil. Let him float in space for all eternity, free from the Federation at last."
Soolin and Vila began to put Avon in a spacesuit for burial, Soolin humming a lullaby as she worked. Dayna brought a blaster and teleport bracelet. "A warrior always used to be buried with his possessions," she explained as they looked at her questioningly.
"Not the bracelet!" Vila exclaimed in horror.
"No, better not," agreed Soolin. "Too dangerous; his body might be found by the wrong people."
Dayna reluctantly put it aside and the three rose to the feet and stood facing Tarrant.
"To the depths of space we entrust the body of our comrade, Avon. May the gulfs between the worlds receive this homeless wanderer and preserve his body from any who would defile it. May the soul of this most noble warrior receive the reward it merits and may we, his friends, prove worthy of his sacrifice."
As he finished speaking, Vila pushed the rigid body through the momentarily opened hatch. Tarrant stood silent, a lump in his throat. Dayna wept quietly, her head bowed, and Vila turned aside from the others, his hands shaking and his thoughts in a turmoil.
Soolin thought it was time to bring them back to practicalities. "Where to now?" she demanded.
Tarrant spoke. "I've been thinking about those signs Avon made, like a V and two crosses."
Vila glanced at him sharply.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" Tarrant went on. "Vera Cruces. What else could it be? I don't know why Avon wanted us to go there but we must carry out his last wish. He may have had word Blake is there, perhaps. I'll set course immediately. Vila, you'd better go and rest, you're on next watch."
Vila left and as he climbed wearily into his bunk some minutes later, the words of the lullaby Soolin had been humming came into his mind: 'Little man, you've had a busy day.' How true. How very, very true.