Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

develop such an ability, I very much doubt we would be able to control or contain the twelve survivors afterwards. They represent a level of power beyond anything we have encountered, apart from Owen and his people."
    Finn was still frowning thoughtfully. "But you do have teleport capability. Could you perhaps teleport items in or out of the cells?"
    "We are considering the possibility," said the robot.
    "You never said anything about that to me!" said Dr. Ramirez.
    "You never asked," said the robot.
    Finn turned to Dr. Happy. "I'm leaving you here, Doctor. Learn everything that can be learned about the twelve survivors, and then let your mind run wild along its usual appalling paths. Let it run free. I will see to it that you have a completely free hand here, so no experiment should be considered too controversial, too expensive or too dangerous. Think the unthinkable! But, you are forbidden to use any of the scientific staff here as subjects for whatever drugs you develop, on pain of me getting really upset with you. If you reach a stage where you need subjects, I'll supply them. And Doctor, if Shub does find a way to gain access to the twelve through teleportation, feel free to do any damned thing you like to them. As long as it doesn't involve any risk of their escaping."
    Dr. Happy nodded, beaming widely. Finn turned to Dr. Ramirez. "I can see the objections rising to your lips, Doctor, but they will do you no good. Parliament has given me complete control over this whole establishment. Mainly because no one else wants it. If you even try to impede the good doctor in any way, I'll let him have you as a subject. Concentrate on your own work, and all will be well. I shall expect regular reports and updates on everything that happens here. I need to know why these twelve survived, when so many others died. In the meantime, Haden is now officially under full quarantine. I'll have two starcruisers posted here to ensure you're protected from outside influences. And if any investigative journalists should manage to sneak their way in here, you have my permission to shoot them on sight."
    He turned to the blue steel robot of Shub. "Teleportation has to be the key. Work on ways to get things into those cells, and indeed, into the bodies of the twelve. But be very careful about taking anything out. I don't want to risk losing any of our subjects."
    "We shall cherish them," said the robot. "All that lives is holy."
    "So I'm told," said Finn.
    "What if we can't learn anything useful from the twelve?" said Dr. Ramirez, just a little sulkily. "After all, my predecessors have been studying them for two hundred years, to little effect." , Finn considered the question, and then smiled. "The answer would seem to be obvious. I'll just have to send more people through the Madness Maze, until it produces some survivors you can work with."
    Ramirez looked at him, aghast. "But… you'd lose thousands of people! Maybe hundreds of thousands!"
    "There's never any shortage of fools," said Finn Durandal.
    Some time later, in the House of Parliament on Logres, King Douglas sat in his throne as Speaker, and watched with a dull helpless anger as the members voted to dismantle the regulatory committee he'd set up to monitor the increasingly powerful Transmutation Board.Douglas couldn't honestly say he was surprised. It was just the latest in a series of moves that proved Parliament was now dominated, if not actually controlled, by outside interests these days. Searching for something, anything, to shore up their ebbing power and influence, the members were desperate for support, and many were almost openly for sale. Or at least, for rent.Douglas had tried to contribute something to the debate, but the outcome was a foregone conclusion, and everyone there knew it. Besides, as Speaker and as King,Douglas 's position was not what it had once been. He was no longer the respected new force on the throne; he had been betrayed, and sidelined, and made irrelevant by the changing new order. Still, everyone remained very polite to him. Because he had been a Paragon, and was still a Campbell, and you never knew…
    Douglassat stiffly on his throne, overlooking the House as the members argued loudly over the next proposal, a bill to license and control all espers in the Empire, and especially on Logres.Douglas would have smiled at that, if he'd been in a smiling mood. This was the mice voting to bell the cat. But with public feelings against espers