Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

way."
    "How are you going to manage that, if you won't fight?" said Brett. He was getting out of breath from the long descent, but he was damned if he'd be left out of the argument. "I mean, once Finn learns you've chucked out his pet scientists, you can bet your metal arse he'll turn up here in force to give you a right good spanking."
    "Now there's a mental image I could have done without," said Jesamine.
    "You will be safe," said the robot. "We give you our word. There are many amusing and annoying things that can be achieved through subtle use of teleportation."
    "You always said… that extensive use of teleportation was impractical, because it used up so much power," said Jesamine. "That's the reason you've always given for not making it available to Humanity.
    "Teleportation uses up energy at an appalling rate," agreed the robot. "Repeated use will drain our homeworld reserves to a dangerously low level. And below a certain level, we could not survive. But we will protect you, whatever the cost. Just… don't take too long, Deathstalker."

    By the time they reached the end of the stone steps, at the very bottom of the Pit, all of them except the robot were severely out of breath, bone-deep tired, and decidedly fractious. They stopped for a while, the robot waiting patiently, and leaned on each other or against the inner crater wall, to get their breath back and flex their aching leg muscles. Even Saturday was out of sorts. She wasn't exactly built for steps.
    After a decent interval, the robot led the way through the great maze of scaffolding and equipment, down a narrow steel corridor that wandered back and forth through the incomprehensible jumble of assorted tech, leading them on to the dark heart of the base, and the Madness Maze itself.
    The corridor seemed to twist and turn, and even go back on itself, as though it had grown to resemble the Maze it led to. Lewis and his people stuck close behind the robot. They didn't want to get lost. They didn't meet anyone on their way. All the human scientists were gone, and all the other robots apparently had business elsewhere. It was very quiet, away from the winds up above. There was tech everywhere, but it only muttered quietly to itself. Jesamine tried to beat some of the accumulated dust from her clothes, but gave it up as a bad job. She would have killed for a shower. She stuck very close to Lewis.
    She didn't like the fierce look of concentration on his face, as he finally neared the end of his long journey, and the destiny of his Clan. He seemed to have forgotten all about her, and the others. He was a Deathstalker, and the Madness Maze called to him.
    But they still had a stop to make first. The group rounded a sharp corner in the steel corridor, and found themselves facing the annex to the Maze: twelve cells closed off by shimmering force fields, containing creatures that had once been men and women.
    "What have you done to them?" said Jesamine, appalled.
    "The Maze did this," said the robot. "And then it grew this annex, to house them. It maintains the force shields. We care for them, as best we can. Interestingly enough, some of them knew you were coming before we did."
    A man who had torn out his own eyes stumbled up to the force shield and looked right at Lewis with his blood-caked eye sockets. He was trying to smile. "Thank God you're here," he said. "Thank God… a Deathstalker has come at last."
    "The Maze did this?" said Brett. "No wonder we were never told! The Maze really made a mess out of these poor bastards. They're worse than anything we dumped on Shandrakor! Jesus, the last time I saw anything like this I'd been drinking absinthe for a fortnight." He turned and glared at Lewis. "And you still want to go into the Maze? I don't see any superhumans here, Deathstalker. Just a bunch of deluded fools who all drew the really short straw."
    "Two hundred years of suffering, and they're still alive," said Jesamine. She looked accusingly at the robot. "Why have they been allowed to live like this? Why hasn't someone done the sane, compassionate thing, and put them out of their misery?"
    "They can't die," said the robot. "The Maze made them, and the Maze maintains them, and we don't have anything that can harm them."
    Jesamine turned to Lewis. "You can't go into the Maze now. Not after you've seen what it does to the people who survive it."
    "They were not Deathstalkers," said the robot. "We have reason to believe things would be different for a