Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

the landing pad. Finn accepted their officer's salute, and looked the ship over. From a distance, it seemed normal enough. Standard passenger job, built for comfort rather than speed. No obvious signs of damage. Finn looked at the officer.
    "Report. What's all the fuss about? What have you been told?"
    "Not much, Your Majesty. We can't contact the ship's captain, or any of the crew. The ship's AI seems to be in a state of shock. The control tower had to bring the ship down by remote control, or it would have slammed right into the pads. Whatever's happened on board the Hunter, no one's talking. And since it came from Haden…"
    "Understood. Hold your people where they are. No one's to get anywhere near this ship until I've cleared it. I'm going inside now, to take a look. Oh, don't look so shocked, man; I was a Paragon and a Champion long before I was a King."
    "At least take some of my men with you, Your Majesty!"
    "No one gets anywhere near this ship until I've cleared it. And no one talks about anything they see or hear, or I'll have their heads. I'm going in. You make sure I'm not interrupted."
    Finn strode calmly towards the starship. The air seemed very cold, and there wasn't a breath of wind on the pads. The great steel hull of the Hunter loomed over him as he stopped before the main airlock. Finn pursed his lips, and considered the matter. If for whatever reason Shub had returned to their old ways, he wouldn't put it past the AIs to have left some clever and very nasty booby trap inside the airlock, to take the unwary by surprise. Finn used his skeleton key to open the airlock, and then stood carefully to one side as the door cycled slowly open.
    The smell hit him first: all kinds of filth, mixed together and polluting the thick air seeping out of the lock.
    Shit, piss, vomit. Blood. Something really bad had happened inside the Hunter on her trip back from Haden. Finn drew his gun and waited patiently, but nothing happened. He stepped sharply round the open door and stared into the airlock, gun at the ready. It was empty. Finn stepped inside, and opened the inner door. Again, there were no surprises, but the smell was immediately much worse. Finn moved cautiously into the main corridor of the ship.
    The lighting had been dialed down to an eerie yellow glow. There were finger paintings on the steel walls; childish and obscene, and all the more disturbing because they'd been drawn in blood. Someone had written helpmehelpmehelpme all down the length of one wall. It had taken a lot of blood. Finn peered about him into the gloom. There was no sign of anyone. He listened carefully. He thought he could hear something, but it was a long way off. He headed for the bridge.
    The main command door was open. It should have been sealed in flight, for security reasons, but instead it was standing just a little ajar. Finn pushed it open with one hand, gun at the ready. The bridge turned out to be deserted, apart from a severed head placed on the pilot's seat. The eyes had been gouged out, but someone had drawn another eye on the forehead, in blood. Finn tried to get the ship's AI to talk to him, but it wouldn't respond. Finn left the bridge, and headed for the stern, and the passenger section.
    He checked each door and compartment carefully as he went. He found more disturbing signs, but no trace of any of the scientists. Until halfway down the main corridor, he found his path blocked by a clumsy barricade of furniture, jammed together so tightly Finn couldn't budge any of it. Steel chair legs stuck out like spikes, a defense against… what? There was a gap in the middle of the barricade.
    Finn leaned forwards. There were definite sounds coming from the other side of the barricade. Low, awful, eerie sounds. Finn leaned forwards, very cautiously, and peered through the gap.
    On the other side of the improvised barricade, all the human scientists from Haden—some forty-odd men and women—were packed together in the narrow corridor. Some were dead. Some had clearly been attacked. Some had been at least partly eaten. There was blood all over the floor, and other things too. On the bulkhead walls, the scientists had scrawled horrid signs and images. The surviving scientists were in one big pile, crawling slowly over each other, like insects in a nest. Their faces, and their eyes, were quite mad. Some were crying, some were speaking in tongues, and some were making a noise very like laughter.
    "Fascinating, isn't it?" said a