Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

Silence. "The Recreated are plowing through what's left of the Fleet, and heading straight for Golgotha. When the homeworld falls, so does the Empire, with all of Humanity not far behind. We're all there is left, to snatch victory from the jaws of extinction."
    "Ah hell," said Owen. "We've done it before."
    "But things are very different, this time," said a deep, growling voice, and they all turned sharply to look. The Wolfling had arrived, without any of them hearing or noticing, and now he stood before them, tall and proud and very bitter; Wulf, the last of his kind. He had a man's shape, but he didn't stand like a man. Easily eight feet tall, he towered over them, a commanding,
    threatening presence. Wide shoulders surmounted a barrel chest and a long narrow waist, all of him covered in thick golden fur. The legs curved back like a wolf, and the oversized feet and hands had long, jagged claws. In the wolfish head, sharp teeth showed in a disturbing smile. The eyes were large and intelligent and almost overpoweringly ferocious. Just standing there, motionless, the Wolfling looked very, very dangerous.
    Owen kept his hands ostentatiously well away from his weapons. He'd never been too sure of just where he stood with Wulf, and now he had even more reason to be wary. Hazel stood very close at his side, scowling unwaveringly back at the Wolfling to show how unimpressed she was, but Owen could feel she was coiled tight as a spring. Captain Silence and Carrion were also standing close together, and Carrion no longer held his power lance like a staff. The Wolfling looked them over for a long moment, and then fixed his unsettling gaze on Silence.
    "I remember you, Captain. We met only briefly the last time you were here, but I remember you. You thought you could destroy the Maze."
    "I did my duty," said Silence.
    "Of course you did. That's just what the other humans said, as they hunted down and destroyed my kind all those years ago, showing no mercy to females or cubs.
    Have you learned no new excuses for your destruction, in all that time?"
    "No," said Carrion. "They wiped out my people too. The Ashrai. But still and all, I made my peace with the man who ordered their destruction, and Captain Silence is my friend again. I vouch for him."
    "And who vouches for you, human?" said the Wolfling.
    "The Ashrai. If need be. Let us all pray I don't need to call on them. They wouldn't leave much standing of your fragile, pretty wood." Carrion looked
    almost sadly at the Wolfling. "I sympathize with your loss, friend Wulf, but let us understand each other. We are here to do what we must, and we will do it, right or wrong, with you or despite you, as need be. I lost one people. I couldn't bear to lose another. Can't we be friends, Wulf, in the face of such dark evil as the Recreated?"
    The Wolfling laughed suddenly, and shook his shaggy head. "You don't even know what the Recreated are."
    "And you do?" said Owen.
    "Oh, you'd be surprised what I know, young Deathstalker. Come; we are wasting time, and there's not much left of it to waste. The Madness Maze has returned, and the baby is waking up."
    "I'm glad the Maze is back," said Silence. "I always felt just a little guilty at destroying something so… extraordinary. Like a barbarian tearing down a city he wasn't advanced enough to appreciate. But it killed my men, and it was a threat, so… I never did understand about the sleeping baby, though. It is significant?"
    "You could say that," said Hazel, smiling despite herself. "It's Giles Deathstalker's clone. It's also a being of incalculable power. You know it better as the Darkvoid Device."
    Silence looked at her, startled. "A baby was responsible for all that death and destruction? I don't believe it!"
    "Believe it," said the Wolfling, smiling his unsettling smile. "The baby has slept for centuries, and I have felt his power grow. If he wakes again, the whole universe may tremble, and he is very close to waking now."
    "Damn," said Silence. "Damn! I had the Darkvoid Device in my hands, all those
    years ago. If I'd only known…"
    "What?" said Hazel. "What would you have done with it, Silence? Used it to protect Lionstone from us, and keep her in power? Prevented the rebellion, and all the changes we made for the better?"
    "Perhaps," said Silence. "Not all your changes were for the better. It doesn't matter now. We still have to face the Recreated."
    "When you opened fire on the Maze, and tried to destroy it," said the