Ushton was Blake's uncle, his father's brother, who was resident on the abandoned prison planet Exbar with his daughter Inga. Blake was reunited with him when he came to Exbar on hearing Travis was holding Inga hostage. Ushton told him that Travis had arrived six days previous with four crimos and had based himself in a communications tower at the top of an escarpment. He claimed he could not make the journey himself since he had injured his leg falling into a crevice the previous year. In fact, he was feigning the injury and co-operating with Travis. After sending Blake up a back route that supposedly would not be watched, he contacted Travis.
Ushton next captured Vila, who had been watching his hut, and, after questioning him, informed Travis there were two Liberator crewmembers other than Blake on Exbar. He joined a crimo in escorting Vila to Travis and directed him to remove the teleport bracelet from Avon, who had been caught in a net. With Blake also Travis' prisoner, Ushton demanded Inga's release. Travis said he would release her in the morning, then had her tortured by Molok to force Ushton to tell him Vila was the weakest of his prisoners.
When Travis attempted to kill Blake and the others by shutting off the air supply to the airlock they were held in, Ushton tricked him into sending the crimos away by claiming Inga had escaped, then knocked him out, restored the air supply and dumped Travis outside the base. He co-opted Blake and Avon into helping him take on the crimos, starting a rockslide that killed one, before throwing the second off a cliff and overcoming the last with a combination of a man trap and a rock to the head. He threw a net over Travis as he was about to kill Blake and Avon. Blake tied Travis up and left him for the Federation.
The group returned to the tower where Blake had Jenna teleport down with spare bracelets and invited Ushton and Inga to join them. Ushton felt it was too late for him while Inga wanted to use the food nutrients in the tower to get the planet's abandoned population fed and organised. Blake wished them luck before leaving the planet, as Inga and Ushton began their task.