Deathstalker Coda

  "Could something have happened to them?" said Silence. "If Finn launched an attack on their homeworld, could they be dead?"

  "If Finn had ships that powerful, he'd have sent them after us," said Lewis. "No; the AIs must have gone into the Madness Maze. I knew we should never have left them there alone. All they've ever cared about is transcendence. It must have proved too great a temptation."

  "It's not just the fleet's AIs," said Silence. "We've been picking up reports from all over the Empire. Everything that Shub had a hand in has stopped working, from air traffic control down to sewer maintenance robots. It's chaos on every industrialized world."

  "Presumably everything will start working again when they come out," said Lewis.

  "Not necessarily," said Silence. "It depends what comes out of the Maze. Who knows what they'll evolve into?"

  "Could the Maze have destroyed them?" said Jesamine. "Or driven them crazy again?"

  "No way of knowing," said Lewis. "The Maze does what it does, and we never know why. But we can't allow ourselves to be distracted. We have a battle to fight."

  "Where are your appalling friends?" Silence said suddenly. "The con man and the psycho? No one seems to have seen or heard of them in ages."

  "Probably trying to break into the med dispensers again," said Jesamine. "Brett always gets a little nervous before… well, anything, really. No doubt he and Rose will turn up once the action starts. If only because they hate to miss out on anything."

  "The powers and abilities I got from the Madness Maze were always limited," Silence said slowly. "Even at my peak, which was a long time ago. You see, I never made it all the way through the Maze to its center, even though I went in twice. The heart of the Maze has always been reserved for Deathstalkers. Do you have any powers, Lewis, any special abilities you could use against the Imperial fleet?"

  "I'm still learning what my abilities are," Lewis said carefully. "And I can't talk about what I found at the heart of the Maze. It's not my secret to tell. But I don't see what use our kind of powers would be in a space battle anyway."

  Silence sighed, and sat down on the edge of the unmade bed. He looked suddenly older, and very tired. "I've been teaching my captains what tactics I can. I was shocked by how much had been forgotten. It's been so long since the navy faced a serious threat that they've got rusty. They don't even run full-scale battle maneuvers anymore. No starcruiser's fired on another in two hundred years. The only good news is that Finn's captains will be just as rusty as ours."

  "Let's just hope our captains are faster learners," said Lewis.

  Finn's loyalists were meeting down by the Havoc's engine bays. Apparently the strange radiations sleeting continuously from the ship's stardrive made any kind of tech eavesdropping impossible. Brett was there, very much against his better instincts, and hoped they were right. There was no way he'd ever be able to talk his way out of this. He tried to stick to the middle of the crowd, putting as many people as possible between him and the engines. He'd heard about stardrive radiation, and had horrible visions of all his extremities rotting and dropping off in the night. Leslie Springfield was right out there in front, of course, haranguing the gathered faithful. They were responding well, cheering his every inflammatory statement. Brett checked that Rose was behaving herself, standing bored but patient at his side, and then looked inconspicuously about him. There were a lot of people here. Far more than he'd suspected. Hundreds of men and women, from all ranks and stations. The Havoc had a real problem on its hands, and quite possibly the other starcruisers too. A few faces looked back at him suspiciously. Brett gave them his best reassuring smile, and made himself concentrate on what Leslie was saying.

  It seemed that the Owen that had appeared to the fleet off Haden had been nothing more than a trick, just a Shub illusion, intended to distract everyone from their seizing control of the Madness Maze. The AIs were trying to steal Humanity's rightful chance for transcendence. The AIs wouldn't be able to transcend, of course, only humans could do that, but once they'd failed the AIs might decide to destroy the Maze, on the grounds that if they couldn't transcend, Humanity shouldn't be allowed to either. The crowd responded angrily. They understood that kind of thinking. It was what they would have done. Leslie went on, speaking persuasively. It was vital, he said, that the forthcoming clash between the two fleets should be decided as quickly as possible, so that the victors could return to Haden and rescue the Madness Maze from the treacherous AIs.

  The crowd cheered and roared, and Leslie let them. Brett didn't know what to believe. He'd heard about the starcruisers' AIs all going offline simultaneously. That had to mean something. He realized Leslie was speaking again, and paid attention. He was explaining that he'd spoken personally with the Emperor Finn, who had authorized and ordered a night of the long knives on every starcruiser in the rebel fleet. Any officer not known to be loyal to the Emperor was to be killed, struck down without warning, all in the one night; and then replaced by loyalists. It would be a coup, a sudden transition of power, and the battle would be stopped before it had even begun. It was much better than a general uprising; this way only the traitors would have to die, with no need for more casualties.

  Brett found himself nodding. This had all been very carefully thought out. It could work. Certainly the crowd was eating it all up with spoons, actually straining at the leash to get their hands on officers they despised. Brett had been worried that Leslie might call on him to use his powers of persuasion and compulsion, to sway the minds of the doubtful, but to his great relief it seemed he might not be needed after all. He'd only just started to relax when he discovered that Leslie had stopped talking, and everyone was staring at him.

  Oh shit. What did I just miss? Where's the nearest exit?

  "Brett Random and Rose Constantine," said Leslie, smiling down on them. "To you is given the most honorable and most dangerous assignment. It will be your responsibility to kill the traitor Deathstalker and his slut. You are the only ones who can get close enough, and the only ones powerful enough to remove these two obstacles to our glorious triumph. They must be removed, or all our plans will come to nothing. Do you forsee any problems with carrying out this mission, Brett?"

  "Problems? Me?" said Brett, trying hard to sound confident and devil-may-care. "No. No problems."

  "It's about time," said Rose, almost languidly. "I need to go one-on-one with the Deathstalker. Find out once and for all which of us is the better fighter. And now we've both been through the Maze, it should be an especially… intense match. I can almost taste the blood. God, it makes me feel so hot…"

  People around her were backing away. Brett felt like joining them.

  "You will be well rewarded afterwards," said Leslie, just a little hoarsely, as he tried to get things back online again. "You will be honored heroes of the new order, and decorated by the Emperor himself."

  "So?" said Rose.

  "What about John Silence?" Brett said quickly. People in the crowd murmured the ancient, legendary name.

  "We will deal with the admiral," said Leslie. "He claims to be navy, one of us, but he is not. Just a jumped-up merchant trader, tarnishing a legend."

  "He does seem to have… powers," Brett pointed out diffidently.

  "Then we will drag him down, drive a stake through his heart, burn the body, and scatter the ashes to space," said Leslie. "We are the faithful, and our faith will sustain us."

  Rather you than me, thought Brett, but had enough sense not to say it. "When does the uprising start, Leslie?"

  "It has already started," Leslie said, smiling at Brett's reaction. "Our people in the comm section have already taken control, spreading the word through the ships in the fleet. The Mistworld and Virimonde trash are cut off from the starcruisers. By the time they figure out what's happening, it will be far too late. And we will deal with those traitors at our leisure. For now the killing has begun. The culling of the ungodly. Let us go forth and join them. Blood shall flow, bodies shall fall, and Pure H
umanity and the Church Militant shall triumph at last!"

  Oh, shit, thought Brett, as the crowd erupted into cheers. What do I do now?

  Returned to the bridge of the Havoc, Silence realized almost immediately that something was wrong when the comm officer reported that all the usual ship-to-ship chatter had suddenly ceased. Silence tried to raise the Havoc's comm center, and couldn't. Even interior communications were down. Silence sent runners out to discover what the hell was going on, and alert his security people. Something bad was happening aboard his ship. He could feel it. Reports began coming in slowly, of widespread acts of sabotage, of officers found murdered at their posts, of fighting in the steel corridors. The ship's Armory had been broken into, and all kinds of weapons seized. If Silence hadn't acted immediately on his instincts, most of his people would have had no warning at all.

  His first thought was that somehow the Havoc had been boarded, by Imperial agents from the opposite fleet, but not even the smallest attack craft could have sneaked up on Silence's ship without him knowing. The comm officer managed to get the security cameras back online, and soon they were watching fierce fighting raging back and forth in all parts of the ship. Many of the attackers wore Pure Humanity and Church Militant sashes, and shouted out their cold and vicious slogans as they fought, shooting at anyone who wasn't them. Silence cursed himself. He'd thought allowing the graffiti and loud talk would act as a safety valve, letting the frustrations out before they could build. But it seemed he'd seriously underestimated the problem.

  He sent out repair techs to deal with the sabotage, backed up by armed security men. The ship had to be protected first. Silence reached out with his mind. The Imperial fleet was getting really close now. He had to put down the loyalist rebellion before Finn's ships got within firing range. He watched his screens helplessly as friends and fellow workers turned on each other, with guns or knives or whatever came to hand. Great acts of heroism and treachery were performed in the gleaming steel corridors, and the blood flowed thickly. There were bodies everywhere. The fighting was fierce and brutal. Faith in the Church Militant fueled one side, and faith in the blessed Owen fired the other. There was no meeting ground, no possibility for mercy.

  Silence threw himself out of his command chair, a moment before an energy beam seared through the air where he'd just been sitting. He hit the ground rolling and was quickly back on his feet, even as the energy beam flashed on to blow out a console on the other side of the bridge. Flames rose up and smoke billowed out. Alarms went off, too late. Unfamiliar faces were spilling onto the bridge, guns in hand, their faces twisted with hatred and loathing. Silence shot the nearest through the chest, and the energy beam punched right through him, to take out the man behind. Other officers were rising from their consoles, groping for weapons. Silence had already drawn his sword and charged the mutineers before him, moving so fast they couldn't draw a bead on him. He raged among them, his sword rising and falling impossibly quickly, slicing through flesh and bone alike. He was fast and strong, and his victims cried out in shock and horror as they realized they didn't stand a chance against him, for all their numbers. They kept coming, firing their guns almost blindly now, and more consoles exploded all across the bridge. Smoke was thick on the air, despite the extractor fans. Silence laughed breathlessly as he cut men down. It felt good to have something solid to fight, after so long. Some of the enemy were chanting prayers, and even exorcisms. Silence killed them anyway. And in the end, he stood alone among piles of bodies, blood running thickly from his sword blade, and they hadn't touched him once. The blood that soaked his uniform, and had spattered across his face, was all theirs. Silence looked around at his bridge crew, and saw shock and horror in their faces at what he'd done.

  "Get used to it," he said harshly. "This is what war means. Comm officer, get me contact with the rest of the fleet. The Imperial ships will be here soon, and I need to know who I can rely on. Security, guard all entrances to the bridge. And somebody put out those fires and turn the damned alarms off!"

  He sank back into his command chair, while his crew hurried to obey. Captain Price watched him with wide, almost frightened eyes. Silence ignored him. He realized he was still holding his sword, and started cleaning the blade with a cloth.

  Good work, Captain, said Investigator Frost. Good to see you haven't forgotten everything I taught you.

  Is that why you're back? thought Silence. Because death is so very close to all of us?

  Lewis Deathstalker and Jesamine Flowers left their quarters the moment they heard the alarms sound, sword and gun already in hand. Which meant they surprised the small crowd of mutineers who'd come to watch them die. Lewis and Jesamine charged the crowd immediately, and soon the corridor was full of the sound of clashing blades, and the screams of the dying. There wasn't much room to maneuver in the cramped space, but Lewis and Jesamine didn't need it. They were both inhumanly fast and impossibly strong, and they hacked and cut their way through the fanatics like they were back breaking trail in the jungles of Shandrakor. After everything they'd faced, a crowd of armed men was nothing.

  Brett Random watched it all from a concealed side entrance, holding Rose firmly by one arm. The plan had been for him and Rose to attack Lewis and Jesamine from the rear while they were distracted by the crowd, but Brett just couldn't do it. His stomach ached so badly he was almost bent in two—and besides, he put no faith in Finn's promises of rewards and safety. Rose strained against his hold, but he knew she'd follow his lead. She'd got used to having him do all the thinking for both of them. So Brett waited awhile, just to be sure of which way the fight was going, and once it was clear the mutineers were losing, he ran forward to back up Lewis and Jesamine, Rose moving just a little confusedly at his side. The four of them quickly finished off the last few loyalists. Brett was surprised to find that his stomach had stopped hurting already. He might not have a conscience, but apparently his stomach did. He'd have to do something about that.

  (Besides—he liked Lewis. And those Church Militant and Pure Humanity zealots had got right up his nose.)

  Lewis looked at Brett. "Do you have any idea of what's going on?"

  "Loyalist elements trying for a coup," Brett said crisply. "We'd better help out where we can."

  Lewis nodded and set off down the corridor, Jesamine padding eagerly at his side. Brett and Rose followed after. Rose was frowning.

  "I know," said Brett. "Just trust me and go along, for now. I'll explain later."

  "I wanted to kill Lewis," said Rose, just a little sulkily.

  "There'll be other times. For now, kill the loyalists. As many as you like."

  Rose looked at him. "Only for you, Brett. Only for you."

  The fighting in the corridors quickly fell apart, once Lewis and the others joined in. No one could stand against them. The mutineers lost all confidence, having failed to kill most of the officers they'd targeted, and soon they were on the run everywhere. They came together for one last push, and actually succeeded in briefly separating Lewis from Jesamine.

  He cut and hacked fiercely about him, desperately trying to reach her, but the Church Militant fanatics packed tightly about him, their faces filled with the frustrated fury of animals who can sense their imminent death. They no longer cared about their cause, or even about winning; all they wanted to do was bring their hated enemy down with them. New strength flooded through Lewis as he saw Jesamine being carried farther away by the press of milling bodies, and he slammed right through the men before him, throwing their broken bodies aside like so many rag dolls.

  Jesamine fought doggedly on, faster and stronger than any of those who leapt and howled around her, but in the end the sheer weight of the crowd backed her up against a steel wall. Jesamine looked for Lewis, but he was too far away. Rage flooded through Jesamine, and she opened her mouth and sang. The terrible song cut through her attackers like a blade. Their eyes burst and blood ran from their ears. Some fell dead from heart attacks, and others went mad in a moment. T
he steel corridor was full of awful screams, all of them drowned out by the deadly song. Even Lewis flinched away from the killing sound. In the space of a few moments, every mutineer in the corridor was dead, the piled-up bodies scattered the length of the corridor. Jesamine stopped singing, and swayed unsteadily on her feet. Lewis was there in a moment, to hold and support her. She clung to him like a child.

  "What has the Maze done to me, Lewis? To my voice? My songs were never meant to do anything like that."

  "There will be time again, for songs of love and joy," said Lewis. "That's what we're fighting for."

  And that was when Brett and Rose appeared around the corner of the corridor to join them. Lewis gave them both a withering glare.

  "Where the hell were you? What kept you?"

  "Stomachache," Brett said briskly. "There's something on this ship that doesn't agree with me at all."

  Some loyalists went down to the cargo bay of the Havoc, to kill the monsters from Shandrakor in the name of Pure Humanity. The monsters tore them all apart, and then ate them. One of the monsters sent up a comm request to the bridge:

  Send more loyalists.

  And that was pretty much it, for the uprising. There never were as many of them as they'd hoped or believed. Only the really hardcore fanatics had been able to lie to themselves about what they'd seen when Owen Deathstalker had appeared on all the bridges of all the ships at once and called them to his side. He was the hero of prophecy, the legend returned, and most of the crews would rather have died than fail him. The mutineers didn't take control of a single ship in the rebel fleet. Good men and women had died, and there were bodies and blood to be cleaned up, but the night of the long knives was over.

  The few mutineers who survived the fighting were put out the nearest airlock and told to walk home. There was no time for mercy or clemency, with the Imperial fleet closing in. Lewis and Jesamine, Brett and Rose gathered together on the Havoc's bridge, and there on the main viewscreen was the attacking fleet, come out from behind its stealth shields at last. There were starcruisers beyond counting, and more dropping out of hyperspace all the time.