Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

realized that this identity didn't appeal to Owen either, judging by his deepening frown, and changed again, becoming Cathy DeVries, Owen's old mistress and dead love.
    "That better?" said Cathy.
    "Depends," said Owen. "What the hell are you?"
    "I have many names, but one nature. Many forms and none. I am older than your Empire, and indeed your entire species, and I am every dream you ever had, including the ones that made you cry out in the night. I'm also responsible for
    everything happening here, though I don't like to boast. Well, I do, but I'm programmed against it. I created the Madness Maze, and I've been waiting a very long time to meet you, Owen Deathstalker."
    Owen paused for a moment, considering this, and then decided to stick with the part he could understand. "Why did you look like me, and then Giles, and now Cathy?"
    "To put you at your ease."
    "Trust me," said Owen. "It's not working."
    Cathy shrugged. "There's only so much I can do. I have a vast repertoire of shapes and forms, but you wouldn't like most of them. I think I'll stick with this one for the time being, or at least until I get bored. I've been studying Humanity for longer than you could comfortably comprehend, and I'm still no nearer understanding you. You're remarkably complex for such a limited life-form. But then, it's that potential that makes you perfect for our needs.
    We seem to be drifting away from the point of this conversation. Would it help you if I explained that I am in fact an ancient, semi-sentient recording, left behind by a mighty and noble species that passed through your galaxy long ago?"
    Owen considered this. "Possibly. You're just… a recording? Not an actual member of your species?"
    "Alas, no. You couldn't cope with the real thing. But I am a fairly accurate recreation of as much of us as you could hope to comprehend."
    "Wait a minute," said Owen. "I have this horrid feeling I've seen you before.
    You're that shapechanging alien who appeared in Lionstone's Court a few years back, disguised as a priest! I saw the holo recording. Silliest damn thing I ever saw. Everyone wondered why we'd never encountered your species before, and
    why we could never find a trace of you or your kind again."
    "Oh yes," said Cathy cheerfully. "That was me. Or rather, one of me. I am widely spread, with parts of me everywhere Humanity goes, watching and recording.
    Forbidden to interfere directly, of course. I follow the path I was created to follow, and you've no idea how frustrating that can be. Humans can be so exasperating. Give them three choices, and they'll come up with a fourth every time. Sometimes I think they just do it to be perverse. Luckily I'm only semi-sentient, or I'd have washed my hands of you long ago."
    "Slow down a bit," said Owen, just a little desperately. "You're all that's left of a shapechanging species that passed through long ago. Okay. Where did you come from, and where did you go?"
    "We came from outside your galaxy, long and long ago. As to where we went, you're not ready to know that. You've come a long way, Owen Deathstalker, but you're still basically human. Trust me; it's not anywhere Humanity could hope to follow. Not until your species has done a hell of a lot more evolving, anyway.
    Why don't you ask me what we did, while we were here? That's much more interesting."
    "Might as well," Owen said resignedly. "This is going to take some time, isn't it?"
    "Oh yes," said Cathy. "I've got such a lot to tell you. But at least after you've heard it all, your life may make a little more sense. You are the final product of generations of planning, Owen Deathstalker, not all of it human.
    Shall we be seated?"
    Two comfortable chairs appeared out of nowhere. Owen and Cathy sat down facing each other. Beside them, the baby slept peacefully in its glowing crystal, sucking its tiny thumb.
    "We created the Madness Maze to raise Humanity to its full potential," said the alien recording with Cathy's face. "But somehow, it didn't work out that way.
    The first to discover the Maze were the Blood Runners, and they were frightened, and ran away. The Hadenmen scientists came out of the Maze with the right idea, the perfectibility of Mankind, but they got the method all wrong. They tried to do it with tech, when all they really needed was the Maze, and faith in themselves. They were already superhuman, but they couldn't believe it was possible without tech. Humanity has always been rather small, not to say limited, in