Deathstalker 03 - Deathstalker War

there were the quiet niggling suspicions that murmured at the back of Owen's mind and wouldn't be silenced. He couldn't help thinking that Giles often seemed to be remarkably well informed on the current situation, for a man who had supposedly spent the last 943 years in stasis… He pushed the thought aside, for the moment, and moved over to join his ancestor beside the viewscreen.
    "How does it feel to be home again, after so long?" he said quietly. "Is it what you expected?"
    "No," said Giles, just as quietly, not looking away from the screen. "Almost a thousand years have passed since I last saw Golgotha, but it seems like only yesterday to me. Everyone I ever knew or cared for down there is long dead and
    gone to dust. Instead, the place is overrun with clones and espers, the Families have grown soft or corrupt or insane, and the Empire… the Empire I remember no longer exists. I feel like a ghost, fighting a ghost's old battles, not noticing that the world has moved on without me. The Empire was falling apart even in my day, but I never dreamed it would end up like this. I don't know whether to save it or put it out of its misery. It's like a sick distortion of everything I ever believed in. But I will put things right. I will wake the people from the nightmare of history and rebuild the Empire as it should be."
    "With a little help from your friends," Owen said lightly.
    Giles looked at him for the first time, his solid, lined face impassive. "Of course, kinsman. I couldn't have come this far alone. You and your friends have made all this possible. I'll never forget you. Now, time for a conference, I think, before the battle begins and we all go rushing off in different directions. It may be some time before we can talk again."
    "What's there to talk about?" said Ruby, calmly manicuring her nails with the edge of an evil-looking dagger. "We go down, kill everything in a uniform, grab as much loot as we can carry, and then race to see who gets to kill Lionstone.
    My kind of party."
    "There are things we need to discuss," Giles said stubbornly. "The Madness Maze changed us all, but apparently in different ways. According to the reports you filed since you returned, and Ruby, I'm still waiting for yours, it would seem our… abilities have been developing in different ways. I have learned to teleport. Owen has become a psychokinetic. Jack and Ruby have manifested pyrokinetic abilities. And Hazel can summon alternative versions of herself from different timelines. I don't even pretend to understand how that works. None of
    this is what I expected."
    "Why shouldn't we have changed in different ways?" said Random. "We're different people. And what do we really know about the Maze? That it was probably an alien artifact, that no one knows how old it might have been, or what its original purpose was, and that the last people to go through it created the Hadenmen. Not much to go on, is it?"
    "Unless you know more about it than you've been letting on," said Hazel. "How about it, Giles? You been holding out on us?"
    "Of course not," said Giles. "I did study it briefly, before I was hounded away to Shandrakor, but I never did understand its purpose. I'm not sure if anything human could. Now that it's gone, I don't suppose we'll ever know. What matters is that we have all been bestowed marvelous gifts, and it's up to us to try and understand them. Contrary to Ruby's comments, the fighting down on Golgotha isn't going to be easy or straightforward. Lionstone's got a whole army of Security people down there, plus the various armed forces, plus whatever nasty surprises she has set in place for just such an occasion as this. Never underestimate a ruler's paranoia. Lionstone always knew a day like this might come, and you can bet she's got plans in place to frustrate us."
    "Damn," said Hazel. "He makes even longer speeches than you do, Owen. Must run in the Family."
    "Is there a point in all this?" said Random. "I would prefer to go down and get involved before it's all over."
    "The point," said Giles, "is that we need to split up. Spread our talents as widely as possible, hit Lionstone on as many fronts as possible."
    "Hold everything," said Owen. "We've always been strongest together. Remember the force shield we raised on the Wolfling World? That was strong enough to
    stand off massed disrupter cannon at point-blank range. And Hazel and I worked miracles together on Mistworld. Who knows what we might be capable of if we all