Deathstalker (69 page)

“You did well enough in the jungle,” said Ruby. “Lots of people wouldn’t have survived to reach the Standing. Don’t talk yourself down, Random. I never had much use for legends. I killed a lot of them, looking for one real one, but they died as easily as anyone else. You impress me a lot more than most of them.”

“Thank you,” said Random. “Good thing you didn’t find me. It would have been such a pity if I’d killed you before I got to know you.”

Ruby grinned briefly and offered him her bottle. “Drink?”

“Wish I could. My system can’t handle it anymore. Kidneys took a few beatings too many. You drink. I’ll enjoy it vicariously.”

“You feel that way about all your pleasures?”

“Not necessarily,” said Random. “If I was just twenty years younger, I’d chase you round this table a few times.”

“Great,” said Hazel, from the doorway. “Just what we needed. A drunken bounty hunter and a horny legend. The Imperial troops will take one look and piss themselves from sheer terror.”

“I admire the man’s courage,” said Owen, beside her. “I wouldn’t want to get within ten feet of Ruby Journey without a chair and a whip.”

“Always knew you aristos were into the kinky stuff,” said Ruby. “I’d offer you a drink, but I’ve only got the one bottle.”

“I’ll join you,” said Hazel. “I could use a drink of something even halfway decent.”

“Ah, yes,” said Random. “You always did have a weakness for drink, as I recall.”

Hazel looked at him. “You recall? I wasn’t aware we’d met before.”

“It was some time ago, on Mistworld. Someone recognized me and invited me to dinner. And I went because I was hungry. You were working for my host as a ladies’ maid. They were short of staff, and they pressed you into service at the dinner table.”

Ruby’s head came up, and she looked at Hazel with a slow grin spreading across her face. “You were a ladies’ maid, Hazel?”

“How the hell would you remember me?” said Hazel, glaring at Random.

“I have an excellent memory for faces. Besides, you spilled most of a bottle of rather good port over me. Ruined the last good pair of trousers I had.”

“You were a ladies’ maid?” said Ruby.

Hazel scowled. “I said I was sorry.”

“No, you didn’t. You said—”

“Never mind what I said!”

“You brought it up.”

“You were a
ladies’ maid?
” said Ruby.

“Sure,” said Random. “She looked very pretty in the uniform, too.”

“I’ll bet,” said Ruby.

“If any of you tell anyone else, I’ll kill you,” said Hazel.

“I believe her,” said Owen.

“Don’t worry, sweetie,” said Ruby, still grinning. “Your secret is safe with us.”

“There’s something I wanted to ask you, Random,” said Hazel in the manner of someone determined to change the subject. “Owen and I were talking about some of the campaigns you fought in. You led rebellions that covered entire worlds, commanded whole armies. Even had your own attack fleet, at one time. What I want to know is where did all the money come from? Wars are expensive. Men, supplies, guns. Who funded all those armies and attack ships? I never heard you were independently wealthy. So who paid the bills?”

“Men of good will,” said Jack Random. “Mostly. The rest
came from anywhere I could raise it. There were always people around with an interest in seeing authority toppled, or at least challenged. Political groups, persecuted religions, businessmen who stood to make a profit from war. Young nobles who couldn’t wait to inherit, or who were looking for a little excitement. There were always factions jostling for position within the Empire, ready to sell each other out for a moment’s advantage. I learned not to ask too many questions.

“After all, as I told myself on more than one occasion, lesser evils are better than greater ones. And I could always lead another rebellion against the new people in power, if necessary. There was never any shortage of courageous, idealistic young cannon fodder in those days.

“Never any shortage of loot, either. I took what I had to in order to do what I had to. And if sometimes I had to deal with scum, or place my trust in men of evil, well, there was already too much blood on my hands for me to ever be innocent again.” He smiled at Owen. “You’re looking quite shocked, Deathstalker. Sorry, I seem to be just one disappointment after another for you, but that’s life. My life, anyway. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll take a little walk; limber up the old muscles before we have to go dirtside. Play nicely, now.”

He left the kitchen without looking back. He’d said all he felt like saying. No doubt they’d talk about him while he was gone, but they’d have done that anyway, and he preferred not to be around when they did it. He made himself be patient until he was well out of their way, and then he stopped and produced a battered silver flask from an inner pocket. He unscrewed the cap with steady fingers, raised the flask to his mouth and took a good swallow of the bland, almost tasteless liquid. He might not be able to handle booze anymore, but he’d be no use at all without an occasional jolt of the good stuff. He looked at the silver flask and sighed quietly. There was a time he’d thought battle drugs were just for cowards and fools, but time had taught him differently. Sometimes it seemed the only courage he had left came out of that flask. And he did so want to be a legend again, if only for his new friends’ sake. They’d been through so much already, and faced so much more. They needed a legend. Jack Random sighed, raised the flask to his mouth, and
then lowered it again without drinking. He screwed the cap back on and put the flask back in his pocket.

He strode on down the quiet corridor, his footsteps echoing back from the stone walls. His legs felt firmer, and he was breathing more easily. Give him some time, and a few more jolts of the right stuff, and he might be some good in a fight after all. He smiled sadly, remembering the feisty young warrior he once was. Ready to draw his blade at the drop of an insult, to avenge a lady’s honor, or his own, or just because he was the best and no one could touch him. A crack shot with any kind of gun, he could pilot any damn thing that flew and plot strategy with the best generals the rebellion had to offer. He’d forged his legend day by day, world by world, and he’d made the Empire fear him as it feared no other.

But that was a long time ago now. War takes a lot out of you, and one of the first things it takes is your youth. He’d grown old and hard on the field of battle and never missed his youth till it was gone. But he still had to be the best. People needed him, depended on him, believed in him. For a long time that was all he needed, drawing his strength from the fervor of their belief. But as the years wore on, and failure after failure wore him down, he turned first to drink and then to drugs, and finally to battle drugs. At first he had reasons, and then excuses, until finally there was only the need. On Mistworld he’d learned to live without them, as he learned to do without courage or honor. A janitor’s world was simple and undemanding, and he gratefully lost himself in it. He just took a drop now and again to get his heart started on cold mornings. Or for emergencies, like now, when he really didn’t feel like Jack Random at all.

He found Tobias Moon in a side room, sitting alone, looking at the frozen planet below on a viewscreen. The Hadenman’s face was as cold and emotionless as ever, and he sat stiffly in his chair as though only waiting there because he’d been told to wait, when all he wanted was to be going. Random hesitated in the doorway, uncertain whether it was wise or necessary to disturb Moon, and then the Hadenman spoke suddenly without turning around.

“Come in, Jack Random. It’s been a long time since we talked together before a battle.”

Random swore silently and did his best to seem relaxed
and confident as he entered the room and pulled up a chair beside Moon. Although the Hadenman claimed to have fought at his side during the Cold Rock campaign, Random couldn’t honestly say he remembered the man. Cold Rock had been a hard and bloody struggle, with a lot of good men killed, but even so he should have remembered a Hadenman. They’d been extremely scarce on the ground after their failed rebellion, mainly because most people shot them on sight, just in case. But Random had to admit his memory wasn’t what it was, like so many other things in his life. Some things were still crystal clear, but some were lost forever, and more were confused. The Imperial mind techs had really done a job on him. He wriggled surreptitiously on the hard chair, trying to get comfortable, and wondered what the hell he was going to talk about. The Hadenman spoke first.

“I have no memory of being here in the city or laboratories of lost Haden. I was quickened offworld, on a ship between planets, between battles. The rebellion was going badly, and my superiors needed all the units they could muster. I fought in many battles, on many worlds, following the orders of my superiors. I killed men and women and children. After the rebellion, most of my people were dead or fled back to Haden, to their Tomb, and I was abandoned to my own devices. I had no idea where Haden was. For a time I continued fighting. It was what I knew. I fought on many sides, on many planets, but all the causes looked the same to me, and I grew bored. I traveled for a few years, searching for new challenges, but already my energy crystals were becoming depleted, and the technology necessary to recharge or replace them could only be found in Imperial strongholds, where my kind would find no welcome. Eventually, I ended up on Mistworld, little better than any human.

“Can you understand what that meant, to be merely human? I had been capable of so much; I was strong and fast and my senses saw so much more of the universe than your simple organics. But every day I grew weaker, and saw less, and my thoughts were no longer quicksilver fast.

“For a long time, I existed only to exist. I had no plans, no hope, no future. And then word came of the outlawed Deathstalker, and I remembered the intrigues of his Family, and dared to hope again. He led me to you, and then brought me home, to lost Haden and the Tomb of my people. I have
a chance to be complete again, among my own kind. I owe him everything. But once my people are awakened, I must follow the orders of my superiors once again, whatever they might be.”

Ransom frowned. “You think they might refuse to join the Deathstalker’s rebellion against the Empire? Surely they’ll see that it has to be in their best interests to join with us?”

“You don’t understand. You and your fellow rebels are all human, and for a long time that was just another word for enemy. It is a central creed of Hadenman thought that we were created to replace you. You are weak, soft, inferior. But I have lived among you, and I have seen strengths and potential that my young race as yet lacks. They would say you have infected me with your weaknesses. Perhaps they are right. I truly do not know whether I am a Hadenman, a human, or something else, less or more than both. I have waited so long to be a part of my people again, to be a fully functioning augmented man, but now … I am not sure where I truly belong. I’m not sure of anything anymore.”

“You’re bound to be nervous. That’s only human.”

“But I am not supposed to be human. I shouldn’t even be thinking these thoughts. I am a Hadenman, the next evolutionary step forward in our species. That’s what my people will say when they walk out from their Tomb. I have finally returned home, to lost Haden, only to find it does not feel like home at all.”

The Hadenman rose abruptly to his feet and left the room, moving silently and gracefully with his usual inhumanly perfect poise. Random didn’t go after him. He doubted he could have kept up with Moon, and even if he had, he didn’t know what he would have said. What do you say to a man mourning the loss of his own inhumanity? So Random sat back in his uncomfortable chair and studied the viewscreen, wondering if he should tell the others what he’d heard. The frozen planet stared back at him, mute and enigmatic and full of secrets. He heard footsteps approaching, and turned quickly in his chair in case it was Moon coming back. But the man in the doorway was the original Deathstalker, the man called Giles. He looked tired, and perhaps just a little lost. He gestured for Random to stay seated and sank into the chair beside him. He looked at the world on the viewscreen and sniffed once.

“Ugly planet. Didn’t look much better when it was alive, from orbit. Maybe that made it easier to destroy it. I never thought to see it again. When I landed the Last Standing on Shandrakor, I was expecting to die. Everyone’s hand was turned against me. Some for using the Darkvoid Device, some because I was determined it would never be used again. No one was more surprised than I when the dust finally settled and I found I’d killed all the people sent to kill me. Part of me had wanted to die. So I went into stasis in the hope that things would work themselves out before I had to waken again. I should have known better. Things are more complicated now than they were before. Three different kinds of augmented men, rogue AIs, an insane Empress on the Iron Throne, and not one but two possible alien threats. And my descendant, the Deathstalker of this time, is a historian.”

“He’s a good man,” said Random. “He fights well, when he has to, and he has a good head on his shoulders. He cares about people, and mostly for the right reasons. You could have done a lot worse.”

“I hear much the same about you,” said Giles. “They tell me you’re a famous warrior and a great leader of the rebellion.”

Random sighed. “Maybe once. I’m not sure anymore. I spent most of my life fighting on one world after another, giving up all hope of love or family or a normal life, just to lead a struggle whose end was always just over the next horizon. I saw good men die, over and over again, many better men than me, and all for nothing. The Empire’s as strong now as it ever was, and I’m just an old man with nowhere safe to lay his head.”

“It’s not whether we win or lose,” said Giles. “It’s how many of the bastards we can take with us. Anyone can look away and pretend they don’t see evil, as long as it doesn’t affect them. But a man of honor has no choice but to stand up and do something. Whatever happens, you and I have lived the life we chose. Too many people live the lives other people think they ought to, following orders they don’t agree with, for causes they don’t believe in. They live lives that don’t matter, that touch no one and change nothing. For better or worse, you and I stared evil in the eye and didn’t flinch. We raised our swords and went to war, and even if
we didn’t win we kicked some ass along the way. We made a difference, and that’s all any man can ask.”