Betty Ragan wrote:
Except that part of Blake's point here -- and I think it's the real reason why he doesn't kill Travis at other opportunities, as well -- seems to be "better the devil you know." He doesn't want to kill Travis because he knows, no matter what, *someone* is going to be after him,
Also, there's the minimizing the danger you present aspect. As it is, the Fed. officials know that Blake's group has eluded a relatively small force directed at him under the control of a single man. His survival therefore could be due to Travis' incompetence rather than Blake's superiority.
If Travis gets killed, someone new comes in. And someone after him. And now Blake is the super-strategist who has outthought/fought everyone sent against him, so time to escalate your response. It's bad enough to have one man and a handful of ships after you. What if it's dozens of commanders and hundreds of ships? What if the Feds run a version of Raiker's threat on a larger scale? "Surrender yourself or we pump poisonous gas into <some Dome full of thousands of innocent farmers/workers"?
Susan Beth (susanbeth33@mindspring.com)