Deathstalker Return (70 page)

Finn laughed at the surprise and shock on their faces. He was still laughing as his holo image faded away to nothing, and was gone. Everyone looked at Rose. She shook her head slowly. The viewscreen flickered into life again, revealing Admiral West’s face, scowling triumphantly.

“I demand your immediate surrender. You have no choice. My armies are ready to land.”

“Not now!” said Lewis. “We’re busy!” He gestured sharply at the robot, and the screen shut down again.

“I am not a spy,” said Rose. “I’ve been many bad things in my life, and gloried in them, but I’ve never lied about who and what I am.”

“A spy,” said Jesamine. “A traitor among us. It all makes sense now. Why they always seemed to be waiting for us . . . How else could Finn know we’d be here today? He must have been assembling that fleet in hyperspace for ages, but it only appeared once we were all gathered at the Maze! And he wasn’t surprised to see that Owen was back. He knew! And he knew who Silence really was! The only way he could know these things is if someone told him.” She glared at Rose. “I never trusted you. Once a psycho . . .”

“Rose isn’t a spy!” said Brett sharply, moving forwards to put himself between Rose and the others, glaring into their accusing faces. “I vouch for her. I touched her mind, remember? I’d
know
if she was a spy.”

“You’d say that anyway, Brett,” said Jesamine.

“Normally, I’d say you can’t trust anything Finn says,” Lewis said slowly. “But a spy among us does make sense . . .”

“I won’t let you hurt her,” said Brett. “You’ll have to go through me first. Once, that might not have meant much, but Rose has taught me a lot of things. And I bet I could do some really nasty things to you with my esp compulsion, if I really put my mind to it. I’ll have your brains dribbling out your ears before I’m through!”

“Oh, Brett,” said Rose. “You say the nicest things.”

And while they were all caught up in the argument, the reptiloid Saturday, who’d been lurking unobtrusively in the background for some time, stepped suddenly forwards and lashed out with a clawed forearm, smashing Silence’s head so hard against the nearest wall that it dented the steel. While Silence was still slumping to the floor, Saturday swept her great bulk around impossibly quickly, and her other clawed hand sank deep into Owen’s side and out again. Bones broke and splintered under the force of the blow, and blood jetted on the air as Owen was thrown back against the opposite wall. The reptiloid started towards Owen to finish him off, but the others got in her way first, guns and swords in their hands. Saturday laughed at them, a happy hissing sound, flexing her bloody clawed hands eagerly. And then her jaws snapped shut and her eyes widened, as behind Lewis and Jesamine and Brett and Rose, the reptiloid saw Owen Deathstalker rising unhurriedly to his feet. The great wound in his side had already closed and healed, with no sign to show it had ever been there, but for the blood on his clothes. He smiled at Saturday, and it was a very nasty smile.

“Bad move, lizard,” said Owen. “I think we know who our spy is now, people.”

“But . . . you were always our ally, Saturday!” said Jesamine. “Our friend! We fought our enemies side by side . . .”

“Reptiloids have no use for weak concepts like
friend,
” Saturday said calmly, her barbed tail lashing slowly behind her.

“You mean nothing to me. Any of you. You understand nothing of the joys of slaughter or the honor of sacred combat. We always ache to know: who’s best?”

She darted forwards, and her great jaws snapped shut on the air where Rose’s sword arm had been just a moment before. Rose and Lewis both cut at Saturday with their swords, but neither were fast enough to make contact. Brett aimed his disrupter, but the robot stepped quickly in and stopped him. Energy weapons were just too dangerous to use, in close proximity to so much Shub tech. Brett scowled ungraciously, holstered his gun, and drew his sword. Jesamine slashed at the reptiloid’s hip with her sword. Saturday swayed easily out of the way, and one clawed hand shot out to rip half of Jesamine’s chest away. Blood fountained as she collapsed, hitting the floor hard. Lewis sank to his knees beside her. He dropped his sword, and tried to close the wide wound with his hands. He could feel the gashed lung fluttering uselessly under his fingers, in the space where her breast used to be. Saturday edged forwards, but Owen was there to block the way. The reptiloid stopped, eyeing him warily with her head cocked unnaturally far to one side. She was smiling again.

“I was always Finn’s spy,” she said to Lewis, as the young Deathstalker’s tears dripped down to mix with the dying woman’s blood. “It was always me. Who better? This was set up right from the start, ever since Finn sent me to rescue Lewis from Rose’s attack, during the Neuman riot outside Parliament. What better way to ingratiate myself, than by saving the Deathstalker’s life?”

“What did he promise you?” said Rose. “What did Finn buy you with?”

“The reptiloids of Shard shall be Finn’s shock troops, to bring about the subjugation of Humanity,” said Saturday. “Your worlds shall be our hunting grounds. You run so prettily, and when cornered you fight so fiercely. Humans will be such tasty prey. Our greatest venture outside our own species . . . But I just couldn’t wait any longer. I couldn’t resist the challenge of taking on the legendary Owen Deathstalker. A human that might actually be a match for a reptiloid? I have to know: which of us is the best? No doubt Finn will be upset with me for killing you, but after I’ve eaten, I’ll be sure to leave enough of your corpse for the scientists to work on. He’ll forgive me. He’ll understand. He’s the closest I’ve found to another reptiloid.”

“And Finn naming Rose . . . was just Finn being Finn,” said Brett. “Divide and conquer. Lewis, how’s she doing?”

“I’m losing her! Oh, God, I’m losing her . . .”

“We have a regeneration tank here,” said the robot. “We brought one, in the event that it might come in useful, if we ever found a way to release the twelve survivors. It is possible Jesamine might still recover, if you get her to the tank in time.”

“Why didn’t you say so?”
Lewis gathered Jesamine’s barely breathing body up in his arms, holding her as though she was weightless, and rose to his feet. “Where’s the tank?”

“In the corridor behind the reptiloid,” said the robot.

“We’ll move her,” said Brett.

“I shall savor the taste of your meat,” said Saturday.

“No,” said Owen. “I’ll take care of this. Lewis, get your woman to the tank while I kill this lizard.”

He moved forwards to face Saturday, and Brett and Rose moved in on either side of him.

“Our job too,” said Rose.

“Of course,” said Brett. “What are friends for?”

The three of them charged the reptiloid, and hit her together. Saturday had to fall back, unable to face three thrusting swords, and Lewis darted past her into the corridor beyond. The reptiloid bellowed her frustration, and her barbed tail lashed viciously around to slam into Rose’s armored chest. The force of the blow sent her flying twenty feet. Brett howled with rage. He ran forwards, climbed the eight-foot-tall reptiloid like a ladder, and used both hands to thrust his sword into Saturday’s eye. She roared furiously. Dark blood ran down her face. She bucked her shoulders, and Brett went flying, leaving his sword protruding from her eye socket. He hit the floor rolling, and was quickly back on his feet. Saturday surged towards him. Brett drew a dagger from his boot and held his ground, standing between the reptiloid and the semiconscious Rose.

And then Saturday stopped abruptly, and looked back over her shoulder. Owen had hold of her by the tail. He yanked hard, and the reptiloid stumbled backwards, caught off balance. Her great wedge-shaped head swung round towards Owen, her mouth open, revealing teeth like knives. Owen let go of her tail, darted forwards and grabbed Saturday’s head with both hands. He twisted sharply, and the sound of the reptiloid’s neck breaking was very loud in the sudden quiet.

Saturday hit the steel floor with a crash, and lay there stretched out and shuddering. She looked up at Owen with her one remaining eye. Her breathing was slow and labored, and blood drooled out the side of her mouth.

“Thank you,” she said indistinctly. “A warrior’s death. An honorable end, for . . .”

“Shut the hell up,” said Owen. He bent down and slammed his fist into the reptiloid’s chest. The armor plating cracked and collapsed inwards. Owen thrust his hand deep into the abdomen, grabbed the heart and ripped it out. Saturday convulsed, and then was still. Owen looked at the still-beating heart in his hand, and crushed it. Purple meat and dark blood oozed from his closed fist. Owen threw the mess away, and looked around him. Brett was tending to Rose, who was sitting up and looking rather embarassed at being taken out so easily. The Shub robot approached Owen, and bowed low to him.

“You are indeed the true Deathstalker.”

“Don’t you start,” said Owen. A thought occurred to him, and he fixed the robot with a thoughtful gaze. “Is that why you didn’t join in the fight? Because you wanted to see if I still had it?”

The robot just looked at him with its blank face. There was a groan to his left, and Owen looked round to see Captain Silence rising awkwardly to his feet.

“I must be getting old,” he said glumly. “They didn’t use to be able to sneak up on me.”

“You just made a dent in a steel wall with your head!” said Brett. “That blow would have killed anyone else!”

“I’m not supposed to be anyone else,” said Silence.

Lewis came back, with a repaired but still somewhat fragile-looking Jesamine on his arm. She held her tattered dress front together to preserve her modesty, and smiled weakly at the others. Lewis nodded respectfully to the robot.

“That is one hell of a regeneration tank you’ve got there. I’ve never seen the process work so fast. But if you ever wait that long again to tell me something I need to know, I will dismantle you with a blunt spoon. Do you understand me, Shub?”

The robot bowed to him. “My apologies to you, Sir Deathstalker. And to the lady.”

Jesamine looked at the dead and eviscerated reptiloid, sniffed loudly, and gave the body a weak but heartfelt kick. “I never liked you, you overgrown handbag. You tore off one of my tits, you cow! I’m still not sure the new one matches the other.”

“I promise I’ll check them both thoroughly later,” Lewis said solemnly, and they both laughed.

Owen looked at Lewis and Jesamine together, and then at Rose and Brett, and a slow cold tiredness ran through him, as he recognized in them the love he’d never known himself.
Hazel’s missing. No one knows where she is. It’s been two hundred years . . .
Owen met Silence’s gaze, and they shared a moment of understanding. It’s always hard to outlive the ones you love.
She can’t be dead. I’d know if she was dead.

To hell with all that,
Owen thought abruptly.
I’ve got work to do.

He summoned up all his power, feeling it seethe and boil within him, and sent his mind soaring up and out. He rose up from the planet Haden, blasting through the atmosphere, shining like the sun. The fleet and the Shub ships were spread out before him, like so many clever toys. Owen concentrated, and suddenly he was standing on all the bridges on all the starcruisers in the Imperial fleet. Not a holo image, but the real man himself, present on a thousand ships simultaneously. All the captains knew who he was immediately. Owen’s presence burned like a star, suffusing the whole bridge. Many of the crews cried out, and fell from their seats to kneel and bow to him. Owen looked at them accusingly, like a father disappointed in his children, and said,
Stand down.

And they did. All the captains on all the ships shut down their weapons systems, lowered their force shields, and canceled all invasion orders. Because this was Owen Deathstalker, returned in the hour of the Empire’s greatest need, just as the legends always said he would. The captains rose from their command chairs, bent their knees and bowed their heads to him. Owen smiled on them.

He disappeared. Captain Price of the
Havoc
got to his feet again, and wondered vaguely why his cheeks were wet with happy tears. Admiral West was standing beside him, white-faced and trembling. She had not kneeled or bowed. She looked at Price.

“It’s a trick. It has to be a trick. It couldn’t be . . . him. Finn said . . . We have our orders! Order the invasion!”

“No,” said Price. “It’s over.”

“They’re monsters! All of them! We have to scorch the planet! Destroy them all!”

“No,” said Captain Price.

The admiral looked round the bridge, and saw all the other faces turned against her. Some of the crew even looked at her pityingly. Admiral West lunged for the controls to start the scorch herself, and Captain Price shot her in the back of the head.

 

 

Down in the workings around the Madness Maze, Owen Deathstalker looked at the Shub robot, and his voice held all its old authority.

“The Terror,” he said. “Where is it now?”

The robot called up a navigation chart, and put it up on the viewscreen. “Here, Lord Deathstalker. Our projected course puts it not far beyond the remains of the dead planet Heracles Four.”

“I can get you there in about two weeks,” said Silence.

“Hell with that,” said Owen.

He reached out with his power, gathered up all their minds and joined them to his. Lewis and Jesamine, Brett and Rose, Captain Silence and the AIs of Shub were all joined together under the force of his will as Owen leapt up from the planet Haden again, and shot out into the stars. They flashed across space at impossible speed, heading for Heracles IV.

I always said you were the best of us,
said Silence.

They came to the dead world. Owen and all the others hung above it, in spirit. Laid out before them was the wreckage of a ruined planet. Dead cities full of dead people. The scars of huge fires. The scarred hulk of a murdered world. Owen reached out with his Maze-boosted mind, and found traces of the Terror, still lingering. Traces so strong that Owen could still feel them . . . still recognize them. In that moment, he knew what and who the Terror was, and the shock of that recognition broke his concentration, and he and all the others tumbled back across space, and back into their own bodies again. Owen looked at them all.