Deathstalker 01 - Deathstalker

get up out of the crash-webbing and only stopped herself with an effort of will. There was no point in leaving the pod; the Shard was a death ship now. Her only hope for survival was to make the pod work. The panic began to die away as she made herself study the problem logically. There was nothing wrong with the pod itself or it would have showed up on the control panels, which meant the problem lay outside. In the launching systems. Systems controlled by the ship's AI… Hannah.
    Hazel accessed the AI through her comm implant, but there was only silence. The lack of response was somehow more worrying than the previous gibberish. Hazel called again. There was someone listening; she could feel it. When the answer finally came, it was like a whisper at midnight, as though the sound was traveling from somewhere impossibly far away.
    "Hazel, everything feels wrong. Parts of me are missing, and I can't find them.
    I can't think properly. There are shadows in my memories, running loose like
    rats in a barn. Help me, Hazel. Stop them. Please stop them… it's so cold in here, and I'm afraid…"
    "Hannah! Listen to me, Hannah. I'm stuck in escape pod seven. I need you to run through the launch sequence for me. Can you hear me, Hannah?"
    "Forget the AI," said Captain Markee calmly, patching into the channel. "She's falling apart, like everything else on this ship. The Shard's on her last run, going out in a blaze of glory. I've activated the pod launch from the bridge.
    You'll be on your way in a moment. Just as well. You'd never have made a good clonelegger, Hazel. Too soft where it matters. If you get out of this alive, raise a drink to me and the Shard. She was a good ship."
    His voice faded out at the end, and before Hazel could say anything, the escape pod blasted out of its hatch and plummeted toward the planet below.
    On the bridge of the Darkwind, Captain Silence studied the small craft on his viewscreen as it slowly closed the distance between them. The Darkwind's disrupters had hammered away most of the pirate's force shields, and it was only a matter of time now before they failed entirely. And once that happened, it would all be over in seconds. It was a miracle the pirate's shields had lasted this long. The Captain must have drained the ship's batteries dry to power them.
    The ship continued to drift closer, and Silence frowned thoughtfully. The pirate was up to something; he could feel it in his bones. He glanced at the Investigator beside him and saw that she was scowling intently at the viewscreen, too.
    "Pirate ship's speed increasing, Captain," said his comm officer suddenly.
    "Accelerating steadily toward us."
    "He's trying to ram us," said Frost. "The force shields will stop him."
    "But he must know that," said Silence slowly. "So why is he doing it?"

    "Captain!" The comm officer's voice was sharp and concerned. "Our shields are dropping! They don't answer the control panels!"
    "Odin!" said Silence. "What's happening?"
    "The pirate ship has infected my systems with a virus," said the starcruiser's AI. "Which is supposed to be impossible. It's bypassing all my safeguards. I've never encountered anything quite like this. Systems are crashing faster than I can isolate them. Our force shields are down, and I am unable to raise them again. The pirate ship will impact with us in six minutes and fourteen seconds."
    "Recommendations?" said Frost.
    "Abandon ship," the AI said flatly. "If you leave now, most of the escape craft will survive the ensuing blast and should make a safe landing on Virimonde. Go now. Captain. It's the only chance you have."
    Silence looked at Frost and then round his magnificent bridge. So many systems, so many highly trained personnel, and still there was nothing he could do to save his ship. He look a deep breath and let it out slowly. He patched into the shipwide address channel, and then paused a moment longer to be sure his voice would be calm and steady when he spoke.
    "Attention all hands. This is the Captain. Abandon ship. I say again, abandon ship. This is not a drill. Remember your training and make your way to the nearest escape craft. We'll reassemble on Virimonde. Good luck, everyone.
    Captain out."
    He looked around him and clapped his hands briskly. "All right, that's it. Clear the bridge. Everyone out."
    His people rose quickly to their feet and left the bridge with a professional minimum of fuss. Investigator Frost turned to go, and then stopped as she
    realized Silence