Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

it.”
    “This is my ship, Investigator. You are a part of my crew. From now on I want to know everything. Is that understood?”
    “Yes, Captain.”
    Silence glared at him for a moment, and then they continued on their way. The corridor seemed emptier of people than it had been before. Carrion remained impassive, striding soundlessly down the corridor with his black cloak billowing about him like the wings of the black bird of ill omen he thought himself to be. Silence cursed himself for a fool, for not fully considering the impact Carrion’s return would have on his crew. Of course there were bound to be hard feelings. Twelve years was a long time, but nowhere near long enough to forget something like Unseeli. God knows he’d tried hard enough. But all that had mattered to him at the time was getting the man who used to be his friend back on board ship with him, where Silence thought he belonged. But his old friend Sean was now the man called Carrion. Traitor, murderer, alien by adoption and by choice. It would take more than a Pardon and a reinstatement as Investigator to undo what the man called Sean had made of himself. Silence sighed quietly. With Frost gone, he needed someone he could trust to lean on. It was as simple as that. And Carrion, ill-suited to the role as he might be, was the only one Silence could turn to.
    “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, Captain,” said Carrion, his voice calm and unmoved. “But I feel I should point out that adding a notorious traitor such as myself to your crew is probably not the wisest thing you could have done. It won’t do much for your career prospects, and it could undermine your standing and authority with your crew.”
    “I don’t have any career prospects,” said Silence. “I’ve seen to that. And my crew trusts me, and my judgment. They’ll learn to accept you.” “I can’t replace Investigator Frost, Captain.”
    “No one could. I was offered my choice of Investigator for this mission, but I wanted you. Someone who could understand the alien viewpoint and come up with other options than just blowing them away.
    If the Recreated are everything they’re supposed to be, going head to head with them is not going to be a viable strategy. I needed someone… flexible.”
    “I’ve been called many things in my time, but I think that’s a new one. But how can you be sure I’d side with Humanity?”
    “Shub destroyed the metallic forests. Took away everything you had. They’re your enemy too now. And siding with Humanity is your only chance for revenge on them.”
    “How well you understand me, Captain. You’re quite right. Revenge is a cold comfort, but sometimes it’s all we have left to cling to.” “Just do your duty, Carrion. That’s all anyone can ask of us.” “Duty.
    Honor. Revenge. They always come back to claim us. And I have always done what I must, because it is not in me to stand aside. I’ll be your Investigator, Captain. Just promise me that when I’m no longer needed, you’ll let me go.” “Of course, Sean. I understand.”
    “No, you don’t, Captain. You never did.”
    They walked a while together, staring straight ahead. They’d never found it easy to talk about the things that mattered.
    “Did you get a chance to talk to Diana again before we left?” said Carrion. “No. I left a message at the esper Guild House where she’s been staying, but she never got back to me. Perhaps it’s for the best.
    You saw how Diana was at Parliament. She said she hated me. With good reason, if truth be told. I wasn’t there to save her when she needed me. Not the kind of thing that can be sorted out with a ten-minute chat, in the middle of our busy lives. Maybe when this mission is over…” “She was such a frail young thing when I first knew her on Unseeli,” said Carrion. “So full of life and happiness, and wonder. I saw so much of that crushed by what she went through. But at the end she found the strength to join in song with the Ashrai, to fly free as they do. I couldn’t see any of that person in the woman I met at Parliament. I’ve heard of some of the things she did as Jenny Psycho. Terrible things. How did she turn from what she was to what she became?”
    “How did we?” said Silence.
    “Good point, Captain. Good point.”
    They came at last to Frost’s old cabin. Silence hesitated for a moment before the closed door. He hadn’t been in there since just after her death, when he went in to