Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

Everyone stay put here while I go and have a quiet word with him.”
    “My Owen never did anything like that,” said Midnight. “He was far too dignified.”
    “My Owen did all kinds of things,” said Bonnie, tugging reflectively at one of her piercings.
    “I’ll just bet he did,” said Midnight.
    Hazel left Moon trying to make sense of the undercurrents in those last few comments, and moved cautiously forward. Owen was leaning with his head against the coal black bark of a tree trunk. His breathing had slowed somewhat, but he still had his sword in his hand. Hazel hadn’t found Owen’s outburst funny at all. In all the time she’d known him, he’d never once lost his temper like that. Given what he was capable of, if he got angry enough, Hazel found his sudden loss of control worrying. She stopped a respectful distance away and cleared her throat politely. Owen didn’t look around.
    “Go away, Hazel.”
    “What’s the matter, Owen?” she said quietly. “It wasn’t that bad a landing, all things considered. I mean, we’re alive.”
    “It wasn’t the landing,” said Owen, staring off into the scarlet jungle. Rain ran down his face, and dripped from his nose and chin. “It’s… everything. I am just so damn tired of everything going wrong.
    This was supposed to be a simple mission: show up, flash the powers, kick a few Hadenman butts, and move on to more important matters. Now look at us. Stranded in the middle of nowhere on a hellplanet colonized by lepers, while all hell is breaking loose in the Empire. I shouldn’t be here. I should be out there, fighting the aliens or the Hadenmen or whatever the hell Shub’s throwing at us this week. I have a
    duty, an obligation, to use my abilities to help Humanity. But no, I’m stuck here in the back of beyond when I’m needed elsewhere.”
    “You’re needed here too,” said Hazel. “Saint Bea wouldn’t have asked for us unless things were really desperate here.”
    “They’re lepers,” Owen said brutally. “They’re dying anyway. The Empire needs us more.”
    “Every planet, every people, is just as important as any other,” said Hazel. “Didn’t your time as an outlaw teach you anything? It’s not just the big, important planets like Golgotha that matter. Everyone matters. I know what this is all about. It’s hurt pride. You thought you could just drop in here, act the hero for Saint Bea, and then move on to something more high-profile. Instead you screwed up. You, the Deathstalker, the living legend. You think you’re the only one that can save the Empire from its enemies.
    Well, you’re wrong. The Empire is perfectly capable of defending itself without you. Even the mighty Deathstalker can’t be everywhere at once. Humanity survived perfectly well before we marvelous Maze people came along, and they’ll manage just as well when we’re gone. The Maze may have made us more than human, but it didn’t make us gods. Now cut the crap and shape up, or I’ll slap you a good one.”
    Owen finally turned his head and looked at her, and something in his cold eyes made Hazel wonder if she’d gone too far. But she held her ground, and after a moment Owen relaxed just a little, and tried a smile. “You wouldn’t really hit me, would you?”
    “Damn right I would.”
    “Okay, I surrender. No more tantrums. Let’s go and see what kind of a fix Saint Bea’s got herself into.”
    Hazel hesitated. “Are you… all right now, Owen?” “No. But I am back in control. I’m just… tired.
    Tired of things never going right for me. Just once I’d like to take a trip on a ship that doesn’t crash, or get attacked, or land me up to my ass in trouble. You said it yourself: I’m supposed to be the great hero, the savior of Humanity, and I can’t even make my own life work out properly.”
    Hazel had to laugh. “Owen, everyone’s life is like that. Now, let’s get back to the others and work out what we’re going to do next before we all drown in this bloody rain. Doesn’t it ever let up?”
    “Not for the last few million years. Maybe we could fashion umbrellas out of the local plants.”
    “I don’t think they’d like that,” said Hazel, looking around her at the surrounding vegetation, all of which seemed to be constantly if slowly on the move. “This stuff gives me the creeps. Plants should know their place.” They returned to the others to find Bonnie and Midnight ostentatiously not talking to each other.
    Moon had