Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

then activated the viewscreen. A series of security warnings scrolled up before them.
    Silence continued his introduction. "You're about to see a recording of the last log entry from Zero Zero's scientific Base, made by Base Commander Jorgensson.
    She downloaded it into a security buoy and blasted it into high orbit, just before everything went to hell." He paused again, remembering another time like this. Then, it had been he and Investigator Frost, studying the last words from Unseeli's Base Thirteen. But then, a lot of Silence's career seemed to consist of cleaning up after other people's messes. The recording began, and he decided he didn't really have anything more worth saying anyway.
    The viewscreen filled with the head and shoulders of Base Commander Jorgensson.
    She was a pleasant enough looking woman in her early thirties, her generous mouth set in a grim line. She wore her long dark hair in a single functional braid, draped over her left shoulder. The camera pulled back to show her seated before a desk littered with scattered papers. A hand disrupter lay within easy reach. It looked large and clumsy, compared to the modern-day model. Somebody had taken a shot at the Commander. There was a large scorch mark, darkened with dried blood, on her left side, and there were beads of sweat on her forehead. In the background, alarm sirens blared over and over, drowned out now and again by
    deafening screams and howls and raised voices that didn't sound entirely human.
    Jorgensson looked round sharply as something heavy slammed against the door from outside, but the security seals held. She turned back, staring out of the viewscreen with determination and desperate control.
    "Last report from Base Omega, Zero Zero. Security has been breached. The Base is contaminated. Nanotech has spread beyond the Base, and out into the planet's ecosystem. God knows what it will do there. It's all Marlowe's fault. Damn him.
    He was in overall charge of the scientific team. Impeccable record. But while everyone else was working on the official experiments, he had his own, very unofficial, experiments going on. He had this dream of becoming superhuman, of having the nanos make him over into something far beyond human limitations. He exposed himself to his own specially coded nanos, and unfortunately they didn't kill him. We have no idea of what he's become. He disappeared from the Base several hours ago. From what we can understand of his notes, he coded the nanos to rework him from the DNA up, and programmed them for open-ended evolution. He then either released them into the Base, or they escaped. They were programmed to multiply endlessly, using any and all available matter for base material.
    People inside the Base have been… changing. They don't look like superhumans to me.
    "I've raised the Base force shield, so no one else can leave. I don't trust what people are becoming. There's been a lot of killing. Physical transformations.
    Strange shapes in the corridors. There are monsters and nightmares running loose in the Base, and nothing seems to stop them. Every Quarantine we set up is breached almost immediately. The nanos are everywhere. They're in me too. I can feel them moving; changing things. So that leaves me only one option. I'm going
    to download this log into a buoy at the starport, and then launch it by remote control. It's far enough away from the Base that it should still be uncontaminated. And now I'm going to hit the Base's self-destruct, and blow us all to hell. Damn you, Marlowe. This is Base Commander Ingrid Jorgensson, signing off."
    The viewscreen went blank. Morrell nodded approvingly. "Brave woman. Captain; I know it's been centuries, but the first question that occurs to me is… could Marlowe, or whatever he eventually became, still be down there on Zero Zero somewhere? A man full of nanos programmed to eternally repair him could last a long, long time. Theoretically."
    "Everything's theoretical where nanos are concerned," said Silence. "Finding Marlowe could give us all the answers we need; assuming he's still able to understand the questions. But I don't think we should count on finding him. We don't know what's been happening on the planet's surface. After centuries of nanotech running loose, endlessly multiplying, there's no telling what we'll encounter. At one end of the scale, we might find a whole world gone into meltdown, like the people with the nano plague. At the other end…"
    "Yes?" said