Let's see, silly ideas.
Silly Idea #1
Slowly, as if in a dream, Avon looked up from Blake's blank, staring eyes. He saw his . . . friends. Yes, he could admit that, now it was too late. He saw his friends, lying dead around him. He saw the Federation guards, their weapons pointed at him in a moment that seemed to stretch on forever.
So, it ended as he had always known it would from the very begining. He smiled, raising his gun, and -
"Barkley, turn off the holo-deck and get over to engineering."
Silly Idea #2
Same as above only it's the Red Dwarf "Back to Reality" episode. They wake up and find they've spent the last four years making a hash of the most popular virtual reality computer game around. Avon discovers he's really Dwayne Dibbly, etc. Finally, before they all get suicidal, Orac and Slave get through to them. Pylene-50 is really a despair drug and they're back in the first episode where it showed up. The rest of S4 was an hallucination meant to make them suicidal.
Silly Idea #3
All this time, they really were minor characters on the edge of a bigger story. Just when all seems lost, Gollum falls into the pit of doom with the one ring. Gandalf comes flying in to pick up Frodo and Sam and grabs the other characters who happened to be lying around for the heck of it (the Federation soldiers, being low level Sauron minions, turn tail and run when the ring is destroyed). Avon is revealed as Boromir and Faramir's geeky brother, Avomir (who was left out of the tales for a good reason). Vila's a Hobbit. Orac's a palantir. Cally, despite having evidently died in the pits of Moira (Terminal in some lower tongue or other), shows up alive and well. Blake has difficulty adjusting to this view of reality.
Silly Idea #4
Avon ducked. The guards shot each other.
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