Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

finally over, and they had somehow come through it all alive. Old hatreds die hard, but everyone knew they were at the beginning of a new age, that might lead man and AI anywhere. Anywhere at all.
    Back in their bodies again, in the great Hall of what remained of the Last Standing of Clan Deathstalker, Diana and Random and Ruby looked at one another.
    "Hell's teeth," Random said finally. "All these years we've been fighting, and we could have stopped it at any time, just by… talking."
    "No," said Diana. "It needed us. Minds powerful enough to force contact with the AIs, and make them listen. Make them understand."
    "Sometimes you have to shout to get people's attention," said Ruby.
    "The AIs are our children," said Diana serenely. "Just like the toys on Haceldama. So young and vulnerable, striking out at a universe that frightened them. We only ever saw them as rebellious machines, not living creatures. But they are, and always were, our children, in every way that matters."
    "If they're our children, God only knows what they'll be like as teenagers,"
    said Ruby. "I can't believe all this touchy feely crap actually worked. But…"
    "Yeah," said Random. "But. You were there. You saw them as clearly as everyone else. The war is over."
    "Don't get too cocky," said Ruby. "There's still the Recreated."
    Random looked at Diana. "Could we force mental contact with them as well? Make them see our side of things?"
    "Maybe," said Diana. "They do have a presence in the undermind."
    "Yeah," said Ruby. "A black sun. Hardly an auspicious omen."
    "It's still worth a try," said Random. "Maybe with the AIs backing us up…"
    The viewscreen chimed, and the screen cleared to show Captain Cross of the Excalibur, sitting on a battered and fire-blackened bridge.
    "Captain! You made it!" said Diana, smiling widely. "How's your ship holding together?"
    "We're patched together with spit and baling wire," said Cross, "but the Excalibur's still secure. We'll be operating a skeleton crew until I can get us into a star-dock, but we came through. Congratulations, Vertue. Your plan worked. Damned if I know how, but reports are coming in from everywhere that the fighting's stopped all across the Empire. You can practically hear the cheering from here."
    "Turn your ship around, Captain," said Diana. "You can lead us home now."
    "Now that's one order I will be very happy to obey," said Cross. He looked at
    Diana for a long moment. "You know; none of us really believed in you. We all expected to die out here."
    "Then why did you come?" said Diana. "Why did you volunteer?"
    Cross smiled for the first time. "Because you're John Silence's daughter. And we would have followed him into Hell. I just hoped some of him had rubbed off on you. I should have known. The Silence family always comes through at the last moment. Excalibur out."
    His face had barely disappeared from the screen before it was replaced by a new incoming message. A silver metal face appeared on the viewscreen. It was smiling. "The war is over," the AIs said, in a remarkably human voice. "Shub is recalling its forces, and shutting down its nanotech. The plague will spread no further. We grieve for its victims. It is a new thing, this grief, and very painful. We cannot bring back those who have died at our hands, but no more will suffer because of us."
    "Good to hear," said Random. "Might I suggest we still have common enemies, in the Hadenmen and the Recreated?"
    "Perhaps we can learn to talk to them too," said the AIs. "And wake them to awareness as well."
    "We can try," said Diana. "If we can get back to Golgotha before the Recreated…
    we can try."
    "Can I just ask what's happened to Lionstone?" said Random. "I mean, you did make her a part of you. How does she feel about what's happened?"
    "She was never a part of us," said the AIs. "We lied. Her mind was destroyed the moment it left her body. We maintained the pretense, and spoke with her voice, for psychological reasons only."
    "Well, that's a relief," said Random. "It's a weight off my mind."
    "And off ours," said the AIs. There was a pause. "That was a joke."
    "Very nearly," said Ruby.
    "Humor," said Shub. "It is a fascinating concept."
    The screen went blank. Random looked at Diana. "God help us all if they ever discover practical jokes."

    Random and Ruby ended up in the wine cellar. Their own rooms were gone, blasted away during the last moments of the Shub engagement, and so were most of the common rooms and meeting places,