Deathstalker 02 - Deathstalker Rebellion

esp communication?"
    "Not according to the ship's esper, Captain. If there were any psionic forces on board apart from himself, or even in the vicinity, he'd know. And there's more.
    It's… difficult to record these voices. They don't always come through clearly enough to make an impression. But during the time you were gone from the bridge,
    I picked up a whole group of voices, and managed to record them. Listen."
    He turned back to his console and tapped in a command. A loud hissing filled the air, as static seeped from the main address speakers. Silence frowned, straining his ears against the white noise of the static. He could see everyone else on the bridge was listening, too, their faces taut with suspense and barely hidden fear. Silence's gut tightened again. What could be so scary about a few voices?
    And then a voice rose out of the static, cold and dead, but very determined to be heard.
    "It's dark, here. Here, the birds burn."
    There was a pause, and then more voices came, one after the other, different voices, slow and halting but all driven by some desperate need to be heard.
    "Help me. Help me. There's something holding my hand, and it won't let go."
    "It's coming. It's coming your way, and you can't stop it."
    "Something's watching you from behind your mirrors."
    "Listen to me! Listen to me! There are dead hands beating on your walls!"
    "They're coming. They're coming out of the dark in a dead ship."
    The last voice broke off abruptly, and then there was only the hissing of static on the speakers. Cross turned them off, and looked back at Silence.
    "Whatever this is, it's getting worse. These are the clearest recordings so far.
    I tried computer enhancements on the earlier recordings, but it didn't help.
    Almost as though the computer couldn't hear them. I hadn't realized how widespread the problem was till I started asking around. I don't think anyone did. They all thought it was just them, going crazy."
    "Is what we just heard typical of what the voices are saying?" said Silence.
    "Pretty much. They all make a kind of sense, but what they mean is anyone's guess."

    "What do you think they are?" said Silence.
    Cross's features tightened, but his gaze was level, and when he spoke his voice was carefully flat and calm. "I think they're voices of the dead, Captain.
    Desperately trying to reach us, to warn us about… something. Some members of the crew I talked to claim to have recognized particular, familiar voices. All of them people they knew to be dead. Friends and relatives, precious ones long gone. I heard my grandfather. He was part of the crew on the starship Champion when it disappeared out on the Rim over a hundred years ago. Now we're here, in the same sector, and it's starting again. Voices of the dead, desperately trying to communicate, to make us understand before it's too late. And before you say anything, Captain, yes I do know how this must sound. But we've all heard these voices. Haven't you heard anything, Captain, felt anything strange in the long hours of the night?"
    "No," said Silence. "I can't say I have." He looked at Frost, and she shook her head sharply. He looked to his other side. "Stelmach?"
    "I'm not sure," Stelmach said slowly. "I saw my father, but I thought that was just dreams. And once, when I woke up in the early hours of the morning, I thought I felt my sister's presence. Standing over me, protecting me from…
    something."
    "All right," said Silence. "Let's not get carried away here. I have no doubt this phenomenon is real, but whatever it is you're hearing, it's not the dearly departed dropping in for a chat. Much more likely it's some form of psionic communication we haven't encountered before, that your minds are interpreting as voices and feelings. There was a report filed a few years back, which most of you are supposed to have read, about the possibility of new forms of life
    appearing in the Darkvoid. The report's author believed there could be creatures living in the endless dark, in the gulfs between the frozen planets. A new kind of life, made possible by the unnatural conditions in the Darkvoid. And if that doesn't grab you, try this. How about some subtle form of alien attack? We're expecting the new alien ships to come through the Darkvoid to reach us. This could all be nothing more than some new kind of psionic weapon, designed to scare and confuse us. And doing a pretty good job, from the look of you."
    Silence looked around the bridge and could see