Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

to say they were wrong.
    No one sat at his table with him. People ostentatiously chose to avoid even the tables nearest him. Some talked about him, just loudly enough to be sure he'd hear. Most wouldn't even look at him. Truth be told, Carrion took comfort in his isolation. After Silence gave the order to scorch Unseeli from orbit, and wiped out every living creature on the planet, Carrion had lived there alone for many years, his only company the ghosts of the murdered Ashrai. Apart from one brief period a few years back, when Silence had returned to drag him unwillingly from
    his preferred isolation to help investigate the mystery of Base Thirteen, Carrion had remained aloof from all humans, and preferred it that way. He wouldn't have known what to do with human companionship, even if it had been offered to him. He no longer considered himself human, and believed he had little left in common with those who did. He felt no need for company or conversation. He felt no need for anything much, anymore.
    Except perhaps for revenge on the rogue AIs of Shub, who had destroyed what little sanctuary and reason for living he'd had left.
    Anyone else would surely have gone mad, left alone on an alien world for so many years, but Carrion had found a kind of absolution in his solitude. The Ashrai had altered him, so that he could survive where no other human could, and Unseeli became his home. He walked for hours through the gleaming metallic forests, listening to the wind sing in their spiky branches, and sometimes hearing the song of the dead Ashrai too. The trees weren't just trees, though he was never sure quite what else they might be, but there was a harmony to be found in their embrace, and he became a part of it. He was at peace, with no one to hate and no one to hate him. His wars were over.
    Or so he thought, till the great metal ships came from Shub, filling the skies with their horrid shapes, and tore the metal trees out of the ground until none remained anywhere on Unseeli. And who else was there left for Carrion to turn to, except his old friend and enemy, Captain John Silence? They'd struck a kind of truce, and now here Carrion was on a human ship again, an Investigator again.
    It was a harsh kind of joke, but then the universe was like that, in Carrion's experience. The dead forests and the ghosts of the Ashrai cried out for vengeance, and if this was all he had left to give his life purpose, it was
    better than nothing.
    He missed Unseeli so much. It was the only place where he'd ever been happy.
    A man came up and sat down beside Carrion. He did so quickly, almost rudely, as though not wanting to give Carrion any time to object. He was young, barely out of his teens, with dark eyes and a set, determined mouth. Carrion recognized the face, and the newcomer saw that he did. He shifted his gangling frame uncertainly in his chair, and then nodded jerkily.
    "You do know me. I wasn't sure you'd remember."
    "Of course I remember," said Carrion calmly. His power lance leaned against the table beside him, but he made no effort to reach for it. "You're the one who tried to kill me when I first came aboard the Dauntless."
    "Yes. That's right. I'm Micah Barron. Ordinary crewman. My father was one of the men you killed in the war on Unseeli."
    "I don't remember him. There were so many… I regret his death, if that makes any difference. Do you still wish to kill me?"
    "No," said Barron, looking down at his hands clasped tightly together before him, on top of the table. The knuckles were white with strain. "The Captain vouches for you. Called you his friend. And the Captain… is a good and honorable man. I'd die for the Captain. I've followed his career since I was a boy. It was a way of making contact with the father I barely knew. After he died… I couldn't wait to be old enough so I could join up too. I've tried to read up on the Unseeli war, but most of the files are still Restricted. Parliament keeps promising more open government, but I'll believe that when I see it. So really, there are only two places I can go, to find out the truth about what really happened on Unseeli all those years ago. What the war was really about. And why my father had to die there. One is the Captain, the other is you. And after my
    previous behavior, there's no way the Captain's ever going to agree to speak to me again. Except maybe at my court-martial. So that just leaves you."
    Carrion stirred uneasily. "It is not a time I care to