Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

Barren.
    "You heard the Commander," said Morrell. "Strange shapes. Monsters. Nightmares."
    "Don't frighten the boy too much," said Silence. "We'll be taking every precaution. A pinnace will take us down to the planet's surface, protected by full energy shields. We will be equipped with personal full-body force shields, and then dropped onto the surface from the pinnace. It will then return to high orbit, well away from the Dauntless, just in case, and stay there until we send for it. Full-body shields use up a lot of power, very quickly. We'll have a maximum of four hours, and then the shields will collapse. So we'd better not
    still be on Zero Zero when that happens."
    "Four hours is very short, even for just an information run. Captain," said Carrion. "Are you proposing several visits?"
    "Depends what we find on the first one," said Silence. "And whether we survive finding it."
    "Couldn't we improve our odds by wearing hard suits?" said Barron.
    The others looked at him pityingly. "The nanos were programmed to interact with all matter they encountered," said the esper Morrell. "A hard suit would be just another snack to them."
    Barron flushed, and hastily regrouped. "What about the Shub and Hadenman forces?
    I mean, their ships are deserted, so the crews must be dirtside somewhere."
    "Whatever's left of them by now," said Morrell. He cracked his knuckles loudly.
    Everyone else jumped in his seat, and then tried to look as if he hadn't. The esper continued smoothly. "They may have had force shields when they went down, but the power must have run out by now. They must have been exposed to the nanotech."
    "We can't know that for sure," said Silence. "Shub and Hadenman tech is more advanced than ours."
    "I'm still concerned with that bastard Marlowe," said Morrell. "What he might have become, after centuries of change."
    "Nanos coded for open-ended evolution," said Silence thoughtfully. "I wonder what you would find at evolution's end, for Humanity?"
    "You should know if anyone, Captain," said Carrion. "You're further along that road than the rest of us."
    Morrell cut in smoothly while Silence was still glaring at Carrion. "Assuming
    Marlowe is still around, in whatever shape or form, what are our orders, Captain? Do we try and apprehend him?"
    "What would be the point?" said Silence. "We daren't risk taking him offplanet, for fear of spreading the nanos he's carrying. Sure, we could isolate him behind a series of force shields, but all it would take is one power outage, one slipup in security, and the whole ship would be contaminated. If the Empire even suspected the nanos might have got loose, we'd never be allowed to land again.
    Hell, they'd probably shoot us on sight, just in case. I would. No; if we find him, he stays on Zero Zero. And I don't want you trying to read his mind either, Morrell. After all this time, who knows what his thoughts might have mutated into. You go in, and you might not come out again."
    Morrell sniffed. "You're no fun anymore, you know that? What's the point of going down there if we don't take a few risks?"
    "This from the man who preferred to mutilate himself rather than join the landing party," said Silence. "We will only be taking calculated risks, Morrell.
    You don't do one damn thing down there without my express permission, in advance. Is that clear?"
    "So clear it's positively dazzling, Captain. Be making me wear a bib next."
    "What was that?"
    "Nothing, Captain. Just clearing my throat."
    "All right," said Silence. "End of preliminary briefing. Morrell; since you're so keen to be up and going, you get to check out the pinnace and make sure it's ready for the drop. And take Barron with you; I want him familiarized with all the systems, just in case he has to pilot the ship back."
    Morrell and Barron rose to their feet. Barron saluted Silence. "I won't let you down, Captain."
    They left together. Silence waited till the door had shut behind them, and then looked at Carrion. "That boy is too keen to be real. Odds are he'll take the first chance he gets downbelow to shoot you in the back."
    "I don't think so, Captain. He's had any number of opportunities to try and kill me since his first attempt, and he has if anything been conspicuous in his absence from the rest of the crew's silent disapproval."
    "But do you trust him?"
    "I don't trust any human these days, Captain."
    "Let's change the subject," said Silence tiredly.
    "As you wish."
    "The Ashrai; are they still with you? We're a