Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

cross. Zero Zero was the world used in the Empire's first tentative experiments with nanotech, hundreds of years earlier.
    It all went terribly wrong, terribly quickly. The nanotech somehow escaped the confines of the scientific Base, and ran wild. The whole population of colonists was wiped out, the entire natural order of the planet was transformed and violated in terrifying ways, and the last few scientists left in the Base, locked in their isolation chamber, died screaming for help that never came. Zero Zero was quarantined, and nanotech was banned. Officially. Random was one of the few people who knew Lionstone had briefly dabbled in nanotech, in an isolated
    lab on the planet Vodyanoi IV. The lab had self-destructed, under mysterious circumstances, and that put an end to that.
    Even Lionstone had enough sense to be afraid of nanotech.
    "Nanotech is forbidden," said Gutman slowly. "And with good reason. If what happened on Zero Zero had got offplanet…"
    "But it didn't. So its secrets should still be intact. If we want an answer to the nanotech plague, Zero Zero is the only place we might hope to find one."
    "Are you volunteering to go there, Sir Random?"
    "Hell, no. I'm not crazy. But I can think of one brave, honorable, and very dutiful Captain who might just be crazy enough to do it."
    "Of course," said Gutman. "The good Captain Silence. Currently on his way to the Darkvoid. He shouldn't be too upset by a chance to put that off by stopping somewhere else first. And the good captain has always been a most… dutiful man."
    "Not to mention expendable," said Random.
    "Best not to," agreed Gutman. He looked out at his audience, who by now were hanging on his every word. "Just to reassure everyone that the best scientific minds in the Empire haven't been entirely idle concerning this matter, I can also tell you they have established contact with a small scientific group on Wolf IV, a hellworld right out on the edge of the Rim. The hellsquad assigned to investigate this new world apparently discovered an ancient race of shapechanging aliens, whose nature might also be based around nanotech. Always best to have more than one iron in the fire… Now, let us move on to the next item on the agenda."
    "You mean that bit of paper in your hand, covered in your usual indecipherable scrawl?" said Random. "Since when did you start deciding the House's agenda?"
    "Ever since things got so busy around here that the House didn't have time,"
    said Gutman tartly. "There is a war on, you now. Several wars, to be exact. We haven't all been hiding out on backwater planets."
    "Hiding out?" said Ruby dangerously.
    "The next item," said Gutman, "concerns the dragon's teeth; people who supposedly lost their minds in the computer Matrix, and now have only Shub's thoughts in their heads. An army of Shub spies, walking undetected among us."
    "There's no supposed about it," said Random.
    "There's been no actual evidence to support the theory yet."
    "Only because you won't allow the espers to run random tests on the population,"
    said Ruby, just to show she was keeping up with the argument.
    "Would you let an esper scan your mind?" said Gutman.
    Ruby shrugged. "Wouldn't bother me. Of course, how they coped with what they found there would be their problem. My head's a weird place these days."
    "It always was," said Random generously.
    Ruby gave him a hard look. "Guess who's sleeping on the couch tonight?"
    "Esper scans are vital," said a new, harsh voice, and everyone turned to look.
    Most of them then wished they hadn't, as Diana Vertue strode through the packed House, the crowd falling back to open up a narrow aisle for her. It had been a while since the short, scowling blond woman had gone by the name Jenny Psycho, but enough of her old malevolent persona still crackled about her to push back even the most tightly packed crowd. No one wanted to get too close to a human time bomb. She came to a halt beside Random, gave him a quick nod, and then glared up at Gutman, who looked uneasy for the first time. Diana gave him her best disturbing smile.
    "Listen to me, fat man; it's essential this House authorizes the mass screening
    of the population by the esper fraternity, right damn now. There are too many people walking about who probably aren't people anymore. We're talking dragon's teeth, Ghost Warriors, Furies, and maybe even shapechanging aliens. Remember that crazy thing we discovered masquerading as human in Lionstone's Court? Just