Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

discomfort.
    Among themselves they had declared her the patron Saint of lepers.
    Eventually Bonnie moved on, word of her appearance moving ahead of her so that there were always people waiting to meet her. Many of the lepers were pathetically grateful that anyone had come to fight beside them. They’d been told they were the lowest of the low for so long that many had come to believe it. Bonnie blew that notion away on a cloud of raucous laughter. Midnight began adding the occasional dry comment, just to provide a balance, and found a ready audience for her sharp wit. It had been a long time since the lepers had had anything to laugh at. Bonnie and Midnight moved on through the small village of low buildings, smiling and chatting and making themselves known, until finally they had to beg for a little time for themselves. The lepers withdrew to a respectful distance, while Bonnie and Midnight pulled up their hoods and lowered their voices so they could talk privately.
    “Oh, Jesus,” said Midnight softly. “The poor bastards. How can you keep smiling like that? They’re dying and they know it and they haven’t given up. I think of the kind of guts that takes, and I feel like nothing in comparison.” “I smile and laugh to make them laugh, because the last thing they need is some outsider weeping buckets over them.”
    “They break my heart. It’s so… unfair. These people had lives, futures, dreams… they had friends and families and loved ones. And now they have nothing but the disease that’s killing them. And they still believe in God. If I were in their place, I’d curse Her name every day. They put me to shame.” “If you so much as sniffle, I’ll slap you a good one,” said Bonnie fiercely. “We have to be strong, for them.”
    “Strength through piercing,” said Midnight. “A novel approach to psychotherapy.” “Whatever works.
    Their bodies have ruled their lives for so long, it’s only fair they should get back some control over their flesh.” “They’re strong people,” said the warrior woman. “They’ll make good fighters when the Hadenmen come again.”
    “Of course they will. But can we defend this place indefinitely?” Midnight shrugged. “Depends on how many Hadenmen we have to fight off. Which in turn depends on how badly the Hadenmen want this planet. The Mission’s walls are sturdy, the attackers have to come to us across an open clearing, and apparently we don’t have to worry about large-scale weaponry. And there’s the Sisters of Glory that Hazel was so impressed by. The situation could be a lot worse. Anyway, the question’s redundant.
    We’ll hold out because we have to. Because there’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no starship to get us off-planet.” “And no reinforcements,” said Bonnie. “There’s just us.” “We don’t stand a chance, do we?” said Midnight Blue. “Not a hope in hell,” said Bonnie Bedlam.
    At first Owen and Hazel had to walk on either side of Moon, with their hands hovering over their weapons, because once the lepers recognized a Hadenman, they either ran or tried to attack him. The atmosphere got very bad very quick, until Owen identified himself, and just like that the mood changed.
    People came running from all over to meet the legendary Deathstalker, and once he’d vouched for the Hadenman, things calmed down a lot. Everyone wanted to meet the great hero of the rebellion, and he warmed in the glow of appreciation, and was soon at his most charming and gracious. Hazel smiled determinedly in his shadow, and did her best to be polite. Owen kept his smile steady as he clasped hands that weren’t always complete, and had a kind word for everyone. No one wanted to get close enough to Hazel to shake her hand. Soon the crowd around them had got so dense no one had room to move anymore, so Owen led the way to the compound before the main gate, and the crowd sat facing him in neat rows, filling the great open space.
    Owen had never felt at ease in front of large audiences, but the hero worship was unnerving him even more, so he overcame his natural tendency for speech making and opted for a questions-and-answers session. After a little prompting, people began introducing themselves and asking questions, most of them so familiar to Owen that he could have answered them in his sleep. Soon the lepers became just another audience to him, a little better behaved than most, as he began telling them about his time in the