Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

troubled by some half-felt premonition.

    Not long after, another ship came to the Wolfling World; that famous and much-traveled starcruiser, the Dauntless. On the bridge, Captain John Silence sat stiffly in his command chair, eyes fixed on the main viewscreen before him.
    The Dauntless had been threading its way through the huge alien forms of the Recreated for some time now, guns and shields at the ready, but so far the ship had gone entirely unchallenged. Which was just as well, in Silence's opinion. He wouldn't have backed his entire weapons systems against even one of the huge alien vessels. The Dauntless moved slowly forward, sliding silently past and between the Recreated, and Silence couldn't help feeling just a little annoyed that none of the Recreated even deigned to notice them.
    The pardoned traitor called Carrion stood calmly beside the command chair, leaning idly on his power lance. His dark, shadowed eyes studied the alien shapes on the screen with interest, apparently entirely unmoved. The rest of the bridge crew were so stiff and strained you could have struck matches off them, and the general atmosphere on the bridge was tense almost beyond bearing, but no one even looked like cracking. They were a good crew, and Silence was very proud
    of them.
    "What the hell are all those Recreated doing here?" he said quietly to Carrion.
    "Why aren't they attacking Golgotha, with the rest of their kind?"
    "Clearly, something on the planet below holds their attention," said Carrion, not looking away from the screen. "Something they consider more important than Humanity's imminent destruction. Which suggests the rumors are true. The Madness Maze has returned. And with it, perhaps, the Darkvoid Device."
    "Let's hope so," said Silence. "It's the only weapon left that might help us against the Recreated, now that Diana's failed to convert them. The Device could be Humanity's last hope."
    "Really?" said Carrion. "I always thought that was the Deathstalker."
    "If he's even here," said Silence. "And I don't know I entirely trust him in this. The last time a Deathstalker and the Device got together, they wiped out billions of innocent lives. And he has a history with the Madness Maze I can't even begin to understand. I only went partway through, and it scared the shit out of me. It killed my men as I watched, and I couldn't do a damned thing to save them. No; we'll deal with the Deathstalker if we have to, if he's alive and here, but we concentrate on the Device. At least we've got plenty of targets here to test it on."
    "Assuming we can use it without destroying everything else in the process," said Carrion. "Including us. Though that would be one fine last joke."
    "You always did have a weird sense of humor, Sean," said Silence. "Navigator; select a low orbit, and move us into position. Preferably well away from any of those… things, out there."
    "Aye, sir." The navigation officer's voice was steady, and his hands moved
    surely over the control panels. Only the paleness of his face betrayed his inner tension.
    The Dauntless eased into orbit around the Wolfling World, and still none of the Recreated showed any reaction. Silence, and the rest of his crew, began to breathe a little more easily. And then Hemdall, the ship's AI, raised its voice politely, and everyone jumped just a little.
    "You asked to be advised of any other human ship in the vicinity, Captain.
    Sensors are picking up what could be a small craft, also in low orbit."
    "Put it on the screen," said Silence. He studied the ship as its image replaced the Recreated, and nodded thoughtfully. "Looks like it was bolted together from half a dozen different vessels, but the general shape's familiar. That's a Sunstrider. The Deathstalker got here before us. Damn. Hemdall; scan the ship for life readings."
    "None detected, Captain. The ship appears to be entirely deserted."
    Silence frowned, and then rose sharply to his feet. "That means he's already gone down, into the interior of the planet. Probably already making plans with the Wolfling."
    Carrion moved forward to stand beside him. "Does it matter that he got here first? He is Humanity's hero. What could he have to say to the Wolfling that might worry us?"
    "Who knows?" said Silence. "He's a Deathstalker. I never believed he was really dead. Owen's always had his own agenda."
    "Unlike us," suggested Carrion.
    Silence glared at him. "We are following Parliament's orders. After Jack Random went crazy, I don't