Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

silent. Owen and the Captain looked at the unmoving body, and then turned to
    look at the stunted figure in the gray cloak and hood.
    "What did you just do?" said Owen.
    "Activated Grendel yoke, drove it crazy with conflicting orders. Very stupid creature. It shut down now, till someone stupid enough to repair collar. Why you so surprised? I tell you, I am mighty and terrible wizard! Can cure cattle, poison wells, screw all day and chew gum at same time! I is going for little nap now. Bother me again and I turn your didgeridoos inside out and make your droopy bits explode in slow motion."
    He or she spun around, wobbled unsteadily on her or his feet for a moment, and then stomped off. Owen and the Captain looked at each other, and shrugged pretty much simultaneously.
    "I wonder what Saint Bea could do with a controlled Grendel," said Owen. "He'd make one hell of a worker… Now, Captain, I am commandeering your ship. Feel free to protest as loudly as you want. It won't make a blind bit of difference." He reached forward and took the Captain's gun. "Any other weapons I ought to know about? Bearing in mind I'll shoot you on sight if I see anything of a remotely threatening nature in your hand."
    "Knife in the right boot," said the Captain reluctantly. "And a cosh in the left."
    Owen relieved the Captain of these tools of his trade, and tucked them neatly about his own person. You never knew. "Right, Captain. Go break the bad news to your crew, get them off my ship, and then report to Mother Beatrice. I'm sure she can find something useful for you to do while you wait for the next supply ship."
    "You can't do this, Deathstalker!"
    "Really?" said Owen interestedly. "Who's going to stop me? Now collect your crew and off you go to Saint Bea. Hop like a bunny. And don't bother me again or I'll set Vaughn on you."
    Captain Joy In The Lord Rottsteiner knew when he was caught between a rock and a sledgehammer. He went back inside what used to be his ship to take out some of his bad mood by shouting at his crew, and Owen left the landing pad in search of Tobias Moon. He had his ship, and nothing and no-one was going to be allowed to stand in the way of his getting offplanet.
    Tobias Moon had left the recovered stardrive outside the Mission, wrapped in many layers of protective vegetation, just in case. He made his report to Mother Beatrice, and broke the news of Sister Marion's death as gently as he was capable, then left her to her grief, and went looking for Owen. His legs had healed themselves on the way back. He considered how such an accelerated healing process might have saved Sister Marion, and felt the stirrings of a new emotion.
    He thought it might be guilt. Owen walked up to him while he was thinking about that.
    "Good work, Moon! Any problems getting the drive out?"
    "Some," said Moon. "Sister Marion was killed."
    "Oh hell," said Owen. "Damn. I liked her. I never meant for anyone to get hurt.
    But then, I never do. Friends and enemies die around me, but I go on. She was a good fighter. What am I going to tell Mother Beatrice?"
    "I've already told her," said Moon. "Does it… does it ever disturb you, Owen, the way we use mere mortals, even let them die, to get what we want?"
    "I've put my life on the line to save Humanity more times than I can count,"
    said Owen angrily. "And I never asked anyone to die for me. Sometimes… bad things happen. That's life."
    "You mean death. What do you want me to do with the drive, now it's here?"
    "There's a courier ship on the landing pad," said Owen, immediately all business again. "Rip its drive out, and put in the new stardrive. Shouldn't be too difficult. It was designed to be easily transferred from one ship to another."
    "I'll get right on it." Moon looked unblinkingly at Owen. "You're going after Hazel, aren't you?"
    "Of course. She needs me."
    "So does the Empire, from what I've been hearing. Apparently all hell's breaking loose."
    "It always is! Don't I have a right to a life of my own? To save the things that matter to me?"
    "What about honor?"
    "What about it?"
    "You don't really mean that."
    "No," said Owen. "Perhaps I don't. But I'm tired of being the hero for everyone else, for strangers I never met. The Empire can survive without me for a while.
    Do it good to stand on its own feet for once. Sometimes… you have to follow your heart, and to hell with the consequences. That's what being human is all about."
    "I'll bear that in mind," said Moon. "It is a very