psychic influence.
To use antiquated terminology, a curse.
- Well, why us and not you?
- Before my time.
What are you getting at?
I seem to recall you telling me of an alien
trying to take over the Liberator through Cally.
Avon killed it.
Psi powers, a negative influence left behind.
(Thunder)
- Thunder, right on cue. This is silly.
- Is it?
The indestructible Liberator was destroyed
and Cally died.
Why don't you just shut up!
What the hell do you know about any of that?
Do you believe anything of what you've just said?
Not one word.
None of this makes sense anymore.
Would this be the point at which we break down
and tell each other the stories of our lives?
- To soulful music?
- Preferably.
How did you get away from the Liberator?
- It was difficult.
- It was impossible.
- Manifestly not.
- So how?
The teleport. A malfunction.
A power surge.
Suddenly I was back on a Federation world.
- What a lucky little commissioner you are.
- Aren't I though?
What happened to the presidency?
It was stolen in my absence.
I shall take it back eventually.
- If the new boys don't spot you first.
- I'm dead.
And anyone who was ever directly involved
with me has been purged.
Well, it's somewhat academic
at the moment anyway
while we're prisoners here.
- Prisoners?
- What else?
If anyone can find a way out of here, you will.
- Will I?
- Naturally.
You are both resourceful
and decorative.
Thank you. I might say the same about you.
But then I'd also say you're possibly
the most unscrupulously venomous woman
in the galaxy.
Being shut in here with you
is rather like being locked in a cage
with a panther,
a black cat with large golden eyes
and long silver talons.
Oh, Tarrant.
I'm just the girl next door.
If you were the girl next door, I'd move.
- Where would you move to, Tarrant?
- Next door.
What on earth are you doing?
It's called a probability square.
You've never heard of it?
No.
Each square represents a piece of information,
a fact, a reason for that fact, or a conclusion
that might be drawn from that fact.
You keep shifting the squares
until you achieve a pattern that makes sense.
The square represents Virn.
Oh! Playing Orac.
- And getting some very interesting results.
- Avon the machine.
Oh, go away, Vila.
- I thought I liked you.
- You do like her. Now go and sit down.
Funny, aren't I?
If I died it'd be a real joke.
Who'd care?
Who cared about Cally?
You know, I have a theory about all this.
Keller's base was wiped out by a mysterious virus
that left the corpses supple and undecayed.
I say corpses. If we were able to search the place
we'd find the others. I'm sure of that.
What else have we got?
A planet that registers a life reading,
only nobody can figure out what the life form is.
A planet with energies in the air
that turn every piece of advanced machinery crazy,
from a ship to a computer.
And yet, somehow, Keller's machines
were able to put up this base,
and the base and its life support systems
have remained intact.
This planet has one other thing,
though, doesn't it?
The thing we're looking for.
Some unique, unspecified element
that could be incredibly useful
if we knew what it was.
I know what it is.
- You don't happen to be boring me.
- Good, then I'll go on.
No, answer a question first.
Before I killed him,
something peculiar happened to Reeve.
What happened to the other two in your party?
One died here. The pilot's still on the ship.
There was a sand slide.
If he's still inside the ship
then he's probably safe.
Oh, you're very clever, Servalan,
why can't you work it out?
Sand slides. Sand higher than the windows.
- Are you serious?
- If you think about it, it's the only explanation.
- The sand?
- You've seen the way it moves.
- Blown in the wind.
- There is no wind.
Nonsense, it's been blowing...
A sound like the wind, that's all.
You're right.
The air never stirred. There was no wind.
The trace of life on