Deathstalker 01 - Deathstalker

emotions. Their training saw to that. There were those who said the Investigators were as inhuman as the aliens they studied. That there was no room in them for anything but cold, calculated killing.
    In which case, she'd feel right at home on Grendel.
    Silence sighed quietly and gave his full attention to the viewscreen. Grendel filled the screen, a gray featureless ball of ash, hiding secrets. The planet had a surface once, complete with the decaying husks of deserted alien cities and machinery, but all that was gone; lost or destroyed when the Imperial Fleet scorched the planet from orbit to be sure of destroying the terrible creatures that had boiled out of the Vault of the Sleepers.
    Grendel had been under full quarantine ever since, and six starcruisers hung permanently in orbit over the planet to ensure that nothing and no one got in or out. Silence had thought that something of an overreaction, but that was before he'd seen the surviving records of the first contact team and saw how they died.
    Now he was just grateful the ships were there. Not that they'd actually back him up, even if things went disastrously wrong a second time, but they would ensure that whatever happened not one alien creature would escape from the planet. Even if they had to scorch it again. Silence shivered briskly, as though someone had just walked over his grave, and put that thought aside, too. First things first: check that the quarantine remained secure, for the record. He had his communications officer raise the command ship of the quarantine, and the cold, calm features of Captain Bartek of the Defiant filled the viewscreen. Bartek the Butcher. In his time he'd overseen the scorching of three worlds and put down a dozen rebellions, by whatever means he thought necessary. A personal favorite of the Iron Bitch, and just the kind of man you needed to run a quarantine like
    this. Try and bribe Bartek, and they'd hand you back your balls on the way out.
    Silence nodded to him courteously.
    "Last contact before we make planetfall, Captain Bartek. Just checking that everything's still secure. For the record."
    Bartek sniffed and fixed Silence with a cold, unyielding stare. "For the record, then: quarantine remains unbroken. Not one ship has survived to make planetfall since this operation was set up, and there has been absolutely no trace of alien activity on the planet itself. My orders are to stand by and observe as you send your people down in pinnaces. They will disembark, and the pinnaces will return to the Dauntless, where they will be thoroughly inspected by my people. So if you do let loose something you can't control, it will have no means of leaving the planet's surface. Understand me, Captain Silence: you and all your people are completely expendable. I have been expressly ordered that under no circumstances am I to assist or help you in any way once you have made planetfall. Whatever happens, once you're down there, you're on your own. And in the most extreme case, acting on my judgment alone, I am to destroy the Dauntless completely if there seems any risk that she might be… contaminated.
    Have I made myself clear, Captain?"
    "Utterly," said Silence calmly. "I've seen the records of the first team. Take no chances. Silence out."
    He sensed as much as heard Frost stirring at his side while Bartek's face disappeared from the viewscreen, replaced by Grendel's enigmatic surface. He turned slightly to look at her.
    "Problem, Investigator?"
    Frost sniffed. "Thinks he's so hot. All he's ever done is give orders from the
    rear. Never killed in hot blood in his life, like as not. Darling of the Academy, but no guts. No real guts."
    "Not to worry, Investigator. We've gone into sticky situations before without any backup."
    "At least then we didn't have to worry about being shot in the back by our own side." She flicked a quick glance at the Security Officer, who was quietly studying the most recent sensor readings at the science console. "We're not even entirely safe on our own ship. V. Stelmach. Wonder what the V. stands for. Vile, Vicious… Vermin?"
    "Probably all three," said Silence easily. "You could always look it up in the computer records."
    "I already tried that. He's got it under a personal security code. Must be something really embarrassing."
    "Ignore him. We'll do what we have to, same as we've always done. I just hope our luck's better than the last time. Unseeli was bad enough, but Grendel looks as if it could