The Nothing That Is by Lexa Reiss (NC-17)

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Fandom: BLAKE's 7
Pairing: I would argue this was Tarrant!gen, despite the rating. However, you do have Tarrant/Travis, Tarrant/Kyera, Tarrant/OC (Jarn - puppeteer in training)
Length: Long-ish
Why this must be read: Skipping on to 1994 and a fic from the zine 'Southern Comfort 8.5'. With some serious reservations about the final 50 pages, I really like this zine. It has one of my favourite A/B fics ('Turn, Turn, Turn' by Irish) and lots of other fun and/or thoughtful things. It also has very nice illustrations, as do most of the SC series (.5 indicates B7 only, .75 indicates Avon/Vila only - none of my recs will be A/V, but it was a very popular pairing back in the day.) This fic is arguably the best thing in the zine.

I've given it the NC-17 rating it deserves (and there's non-con as well as consensual sex), but the fic is not so much about the sex (although the way that Tarrant has different sex with all of the three people mentioned above is interesting and reveals different aspects of his personality). It's about living in the Federation when you know what it's doing is wrong and how you cope with that. The use of Jarn's future profession (puppeteer) works very well as a device for understanding the B7 universe, while Kyera's ultimate fate (as the mutoid from 'Duel') never feels cheap - it feels like a Greek Tragedy. Our hero himself, Del Tarrant, is out of his depth, but not at all stupid - and he's the one who is changed by these events. And we have a good example of a morally grey Travis (in a similar vein, I second the rec of Privilege . Excellent writing, too. I thoroughly recommend.

Excerpt:

"How did the exam go?" Tarrant asked without much concern. Jarn always did well on exams.

"Mmh. I'm not sure my answer about Palmero made much sense. But neither did the textbook. Why would anybody want to refuse climate control?"

"Some of the Palmerans thought that a twenty percent rise in fruit production wasn't sufficient compensation for destroying their planetary ecosystem," said Kyera, surprising both men.

"But it hasn't been destroyed," Jarn objected. "I've been to Palmero. It's beautiful."

"Yes, but that's all done through Central Control. If control ever failed, the planet might become uninhabitable."

"I don't understand," said Tarrant. "If people could live there before Central Control, why should there be a problem if it failed? They'd just go back to the way they lived before."

"Because before Central Control, there was a natural balance of forces. Now there isn't. If a planet could be compared to a person, you could say that the autonomic nervous system is atrophied. Rather like a mutoid, really. Some functions have been enhanced, others have been eliminated, but the price is permanent dependence."

"Ah," said Jarn, nodding. "So what the Federation really gained was not the increased output of fruit, but the certainty that Palmero could never leave the Federation." He didn't sound disapproving, merely a trifled chagrinned at not having understood the situation earlier. Kyera seemed to feel that a slight change of subject was in order.

"What class at FSA talks about climate control?" she enquired. "I thought it was all ships and tactics."

"Political History."

"Pre-Puppeteer."

Jarn gave the actual name of the course at the same time Tarrant mentioned its unofficial title. Jarn looked momentarily irritated.

"I've always thought pyschostrategists were rather paradoxical," Kyera told Jarn. "They're required to give up most personal property, family connections, and all the other things people use strategy to keep."

Now that Tarrant thought of it, there was a paradox there. "If they're as powerful as people say why don't they change the rules?"

"It's not exactly a rule," Jarn said. "More like a consequence. A puppeteer cant have a personal stake in a situation he's working on, any more than a cybersurgeon can operate on himself." He added thoughtfully, "If you really want to understand something, you can't desire it, or hate it, or feel anything about it. You have to make a space in your mind for it to be what it is."

"That's sounds very... cold."

It seemed to Tarrant that she was concerned rather that critical: not "You are a cold bastard", but "Aren't you cold without a jacket?"

Link: You can buy the zine here. I got mine on eBay.