Deathstalker 01 - Deathstalker

has, thought Owen as he glanced about him through the drifting smoke for the Hadenmen. Tobias Moon had wedged a chair into one corner of the lounge and was sitting there at his ease. He looked entirely calm and relaxed, and Owen felt very much like hitting him on general principles. It was all he could do to remain vaguely upright and keep his last meal down where it belonged.
    "Oz, talk to me. What's happening?"
    "We're crashing, Owen. You must have noticed."
    The crackling of a nearby fire suddenly sounded a lot closer than it had been, and the air grew uncomfortably warm. Something large and jagged thrust suddenly down through the ceiling, plunging into the lounge floor like a massive metal javelin. The floor seemed to drop out from under Owen's feet for a second, and
    he hung on to the stanchion with both hands.
    "I meant, what are you doing about it? Give me a status report!"
    "All right, but you're not going to like it. At the moment, the vast majority of systems are doing everything they can just to hold the ship together. We've taken extensive damage inside and out, and it is continuing. Multiple breaches of the outer and inner hulls, and the stem is gone. There are fires in three compartments, but I'm on top of it. We're losing air and pressure badly, but at the rate we're falling we'll crash into something hard and unyielding long before air loss becomes a problem."
    Owen winced. "What are our chances of walking away from a landing?"
    "Not good. The force shields are down, and we don't have the power to raise them again. The Sunstrider was never intended to take punishment like this. It's a pleasure yacht, not a gunship. Most of the automatics are down, and the backup systems are sitting in a corner crying their eyes out. I'm having to run everything directly and juggle power back and forth between the systems according to what's working. There is some good news. The basic structure of the ship is still pretty much intact, which is just as well, as I have absolutely no information on how to repair it."
    "Have we got any life pods, or antigrav chutes?" yelled Hazel. "Could we bail out if we had to?"
    "You do have to, and no you can't." The AI sounded positively disgusted. "With all the power and safety systems built into this ship, no one ever thought emergency evacuation systems would be needed. We've got a waterbed in the main stateroom. You could chuck that out and hope you landed on it."
    Jack Random looked across at Owen. "Interesting sense of humor your AI has."

    "Yeah," said Owen. "And if I ever find out who programmed it into him, I'll have his balls in a vise."
    The ship convulsed, and everyone was thrown from one side of the lounge to the other. The drinks cabinet overturned, and there was broken glass everywhere.
    There was a high-pitched screech from somewhere aft, and then the ship righted itself again. The extractors had sucked most of the smoke out of the air, but the fire next door sounded closer than ever. The wall Owen was leaning against was growing uncomfortably hot.
    "All right," he said loudly. "What the hell just happened?"
    "We just lost the stern assembly," said Ozymandius. "I'm jettisoning everything that isn't absolutely essential. It won't make a lot of difference in the long run, but I've run out of anything else to do."
    "Wait just a minute," said Owen. "What do you mean, jettisoning? As in, dropping extremely expensive items overboard? Do you know how much I paid for this yacht?"
    "Yes, and they saw you coming. If we survive this, you could always ask for your money back. Or claim it on the insurance."
    "It isn't bloody insured!"
    Jack Random looked at the Hadenman. "Didn't you just know he was going to say that?"
    "Owen," said Hazel, "shut the hell up and let the AI get on with it. He's in the best position to know what's necessary."
    "All right," said Owen, sulkily. "Assuming by some miracle we survive the landing, what's waiting for us down there? Will the planet support human life?"
    "Air and gravity are within acceptable limits," said the AI briskly. "Nothing you can't cope with. It's pretty damn hot down there, though."

    "It doesn't matter," said Random. "It's not as if we had any choice in the matter. Description of land masses, please."
    "Did you hear that?" said Ozymandius. "He said please! I'm glad there's someone on this ship with a few manners. Land masses: just the one, stretching from pole to pole, with a handful of inland seas. Unusual. The land mass is covered