Deathstalker 08 - Deathstalker Coda

sending data back to the Heritage . Vardalos had a sick presentiment of how the herald would look, plunging into the sun to give birth to its awful progeny.
    There was a sudden explosion, which everyone on all three starships felt rather than saw or heard, and then the sun convulsed. It swelled unevenly, spitting out ragged solar flares millions of miles long, and then it collapsed in upon itself, shrinking impossibly quickly. The Heritage and the Hook shuddered, fighting to hold their positions as gravity waves fluctuated all around them. The sun became a red dwarf, hot and sullen, and then before it could collapse further into a black hole, all its compressed energy lashed out in a single terrible beam of light so bright that no one could look upon it. All the ships’ viewscreens went blank instantly, overwhelmed.
    The searing energy beam hit the Terror’s herald head-on, enveloping it in shimmering fires. A sun’s entire life, compressed into one endless moment of unbearable force. And then the beam blinked out, exhausted, and the herald was still there, untouched. Only now it was headed towards the sole surviving sun.
    The Heritage and the Hook rocked behind their force shields, blind and helpless. Tech exploded and fires broke out in all the corridors and departments. Crewmen died in their seats as their consoles exploded, and smoke filled the air faster than the extractor fans could deal with it. Men and women ran frantically back and forth, doing what they could, while steel bulkheads buckled and whole sections had to be closed down and isolated, for the good of the ships. Somehow, both starcruisers held their positions. Captain Vardalos and Captain Randolph barked orders till their voices were hoarse, and slowly, gradually, the ships’ systems came back on line. And they were able to see what had happened to Usher II.
    The planet had been devastated. It rocked in place before its sole remaining sun, no longer held between two equal forces. Solar flares had cooked the surface, and gravity waves had dug crevices thousands of miles deep. Earthquakes were still rippling across the surface. Cities blew apart as their force shields collapsed, showing briefly like firecrackers in the night. The cities died, and millions of people died with them. Usher II was coming apart at the seams. Even the last of the escaping civilian ships had been caught up and destroyed in the terrible forces unleashed by the superweapon.
    “So many dead,” Vardalos said quietly. “And all for a weapon that didn’t do a damn bit of good anyway.”
    “You have to think of it as a mercy killing, Captain,” said her second. “Consider what the herald and the Terror would have done to them.”
    “What have we come to?” said Vardalos. “When something like this can be seen as mercy?” She turned to look at her comm officer. “Are you picking up anything from the planet? Maybe something from the factories buried deep underground?”
    “I’m sorry, Captain.” The comm officer didn’t even look at his board. “Usher Two is as silent as the grave. No one made it through.”
    “Then it’s time for us to fall back, and let the Hook do her work. Second, what do the damage reports say? Can we get out of here?”
    “Main force shields are still holding, though severely depleted,” said Fortuna. “Eighty percent of systems are on line, though large sections of the ship are no-go areas. Initial reports indicate . . . acceptable losses.”
    Vardalos nodded slowly. “Then release the sensor drones, and deploy them as planned. Put as much power into the shields as you can, and shut down all ship’s sensors. From now on, we don’t look at anything directly, only via the drones. And let’s hope the baffles the scientists installed work the first time. Second, move us out of here, as fast as we can go and still maintain contact with the drones. Our job’s over. It’s all down to the Hook now.”
    As the Heritage slowly withdrew, and the herald closed in on the remaining sun, the Hook opened its cargo bay door, and dropped the single transmutation engine it had brought all the way from Logres. The engine took up an orbit around the dead planet, and released its powerful energies, transforming what remained of Usher II into a poisoned, radioactive cinder. In a reverse of its usual programming, which turned dross into gold, and lifeless rock into habitable worlds, the transmutation engine turned the corpse of Usher II into a