Ficlet: Amnesty

[vilakins]

Last week's b7friday challenge was to pick a random word from a dictionary and use it. Set pre-series, no spoilers, 250 words.

Amnesty

"See? You're on the list."

Vila bit his lip as the name Restal, Vila leaped out at him. The government was offering amnesty to selected wanted criminals in return for induction into Space Fleet. Vila knew quite well why his name was there. He'd become quite famous for a short while after escaping from CF1 in a hijacked supply ship along with a group of other convicts, several of whom had been caught and spilled the beans about who'd done the flying. As a 15-year-old pilot, he'd been bought a lot of drinks, and, for a time, acquired the nickname of 'Huple' from a well-read fence.

"You could be a space captain,"

"Yeah." Vila pointed at the bottom of the notice. "You have to read the fine print though. 'Rehabilitative training.' Know what that is?"

Linzi shook her head.

"The modifer, that's what. They'd turn us into mutoids. They want our skills, see, but not who we are." Vila looked sideways at Linzi. "I can cheat on the test so I come out grade 3 ignorant or even worse, but I'd need you to make sure it's subtle enough. Copy someone else's results and maybe slip a report of brain injury in there?"

"All right." Linzi was happy to. She was a promoted Gamma clerical grade and Vila had been the only school-friend who hadn't ostracised her.

"Don't want my remains orbiting some star after all," Vila said. "Mind you, I s'pose they will if I stay here on Earth."

***
My first pick was rehabilitative. I didn't fancy writing about the Federation's reprogramming practices, so I had another stab and got modifier. Hmm, it looked like I was meant to. I thought. "All right, third time lucky," but my last word was remains. So I gave in and to make up for trying to weasel out of it, used all three.

Comments

[kerravongenius.livejournal.com]

You're a good writer. Can I tempt you to join my fanfic community? http://www.livejournal.com/community/b7ficandfilk/

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ooh, great filks; I know two of the tunes. I've only ever written one filk, Captain Blakey and His Crew (http://www.livejournal.com/users/vilakins/8652.html), which you probably need to know the original for: Captain Beaky and His Band (links on the filk). Are you British? If so, you probably do know it. :-)

I could cross-post my fiction there if you like. I write at least one a week for b7friday's weekly challenge--want to join us?--and I have longer ones on my site's fiction page (http://www.farsight.net.nz/fiction/index.htm); I've also put a page of links (http://www.farsight.net.nz/fiction/ljfiction.htm) to my LJ stuff up which I update every couple of weeks or when it occurs to me.

You could also advertise your site on b7friday (I'm a mod) and blakes7.

Oh, and I suppose you already know I write vila_restal and kerrill's LJs, mainly answering questions from theatrical_muse and doing the odd meme. They also take part in b7rpg which is a PGP game in which Vila stole a ship from Gauda Prime.

You're a good writer too. Um, do I know you from a B7 mailing list at all?

[kerravongenius.livejournal.com]

You probably don't know me. I've only recently discovered how many Blake's 7 fans are on livejournal and I don't think I'm on any mailing lists. If you ever see a Trilby Ardath on one, that's me. (She's a character from my PGP, which I hope to finish one day, "After Blake")

I've joined b7friday. Thanks for telling me about it. I'd love to see your fiction cross-posted at the community. I love your filk, and yes, I am British and I know Captain Beaky. :D

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Hey, Trilby! I met you here about a year back! You pointed me towards your filk site and I've got a link to it on my own site. I haven't been there for a while; if I had, I'd have recognised you. I must read your new filks there. Awww: "I am Gamma, going on Delta". :-D

The Blake's 7 Mailing List (http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7/Fanclubs/MailNews.html#Mailing), otherwise known as the Lyst, is good for interesting discussions but not so busy it'll take up much of your time.

[kerravongenius.livejournal.com]

Of course! It's you! I recommend your site to all my friends. Brilliance close to genius! Even those who had never heard of Blake's 7 before they met me love your site. Several of them are determined to see some episodes as soon as they can.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

[blush] Thank you so much! If I get people interested in B7 then I've really achieved something!

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

You keep on cunningly sucking me in to read your stories by prominently displaying the word count, which is generally low. I think: "That's only 250 words, so I may as well read it."

Seriously, I'm glad I read them, even if my knowledge of B7 is a little lacking, as they're excellent pieces. And I love the last line in the current one.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I display word counts because they're for b7friday which has a maximum of 500, though I occasionally go over. I have longer stories on my site (http://www.farsight.net.nz/).

This one was set before the series, but it explains some comments Vila made in a particular ep, 'Volcano'. And in another, we hear that the military get star-orbit funerals.

If you don't mind spoilers, or can't be bothered ever watching, you could read Vila Restal's E-mails on my fiction page (http://www.farsight.net.nz/fiction/index.htm) as they take you through the series and a little after from his POV, usually humorous though not always.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

While I've got your attention, :) did you get the email about the Lyric Wheel that I sent you yesterday, as you haven't yet replied? If not, I'll send it again.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I did. I'll do that now.