Deathstalker 03 - Deathstalker War

in a handcart."
    "I wish I shared your confidence," said Stelmach. "I don't even know why the Empress wanted me here."
    "You're our lucky charm," said Silence. "Just stay back out of the way, and we'll do all the work."
    "Gladly," said Stelmach. He hoped they couldn't tell that he was lying. He knew exactly why the Empress wanted him on Virimonde. For some time now, Silence and Frost had been displaying near superhuman qualities in their missions. They were faster, stronger, and more capable than they had any right to be. Ever since their encounter with the enigmatic alien device known as the Madness Maze on lost Haden, they had demonstrated powers and abilities that bordered on the miraculous. Not to mention psionic. The Empress had no intention of letting
    rogue espers of such potential run around loose, so this mission, with its many obvious dangers, had been arranged for Silence and Frost, specifically to bring out their powers. And Stelmach would be right there to study and report on them.
    He'd been sworn to silence, on fear of his life, and it was tearing Stelmach apart. He thought of Silence and even Frost as his friends, but he couldn't defy orders that came directly from the Iron Throne. So he kept his mouth shut, fretted till his stomach cramped, and tried constantly to discover some way out of his predicament that wouldn't get him killed either by the Empress or his friends. If they had powers, and Stelmach wasn't even convinced that they had, they must have some good reason for keeping it quiet. Stelmach just hoped that when he finally found out what it was, it would be something he'd be able to include in his report. In the meantime, he worried a lot, and jumped whenever Silence or Frost spoke to him.
    "What have we sunk to?" Silence said disgustedly. "Paid assassins, in all but name. All that nonsense about bringing them in alive to stand trial was just a smoke screen. They know we'll never be able to defeat them without killing them.
    We're supposed to kill them to save the embarrassment of bringing two Lords and heads of their respective Families to trial."
    "It's our only way of getting our ship back from the Rim," said Frost. "If the price for that is the death of two strangers, I have no problem with that. I've killed before on the Empress's orders, alien and human, and no doubt will again.
    It's part of the job."
    "It was never part of my job," said Silence flatly. "I didn't join the Fleet to kill people for political reasons."
    "Then you were remarkably naive, Captain," said Frost. "In essence, that's
    always been our final duty. To fight and kill those the Empress has declared enemies of the Empire."
    "We should be fighting the real enemies," said Silence. "The Deathstalker and the SummerIsle are just a couple of kids with too much time on their hands.
    Probably never had a political thought in their lives. The Empire's real enemies are the rebel underground. Owen Deathstalker and his people. Lionstone doesn't take them seriously enough. You saw what happened on the Wolfling World. What Owen and his people have become. I don't even know if they're still human anymore. They're the real danger. And that's the only reason I'm doing this.
    Because we need to be back in a position to protect the Empress from the coming rebellion. She needs us, whether she wants to admit it or not."
    "You don't like the Empress," said Stelmach.
    "Hell, no one likes the Empress," said Frost. "At best, she's an amiable psychopath. But she's the Empress. I took an oath upon my blood and my honor to serve and protect her all my days. Right, Captain?"
    "Right," said Silence. "She might be a psychopath, but she's our psychopath. Our Empress. Besides, she can't live forever, and when she's gone the Empire will still be here, if we've done our job right. In the end, we're loyal to the Throne, irrespective of who sits on it. We preserve the Empire, for all its faults, because all the alternatives are worse. Without the central control of home world to keep things running, it would be only too easy for everything to fall apart, and all the worlds slide back into barbarism and mass starvation.
    And let's not forget the various alien threats out there. We have to be strong and organized, to be able to stand against them when they come. We can't afford luxuries like dissent anymore. Right, Stelmach?"
    "What? Oh, yes; right. We have to be loyal. Whatever it costs us."

    Valentine Wolfe returned to his quarters alone. They were