Deathstalker (76 page)

Silence sighed quietly. All this because of a handful of rebels. He still didn’t understand what was so special about them, but they’d led him a hell of a chase before bringing him here, into the Darkvoid. To an almost legendary planet, to the Tomb of the Hadenmen and the Darkvoid Device itself. Silence had hoped he’d be allowed to kill them now and get it over with, but they’d offended and insulted the Empress, according to V. Stelmach, and that meant they had to be captured and brought back alive, if not necessarily intact, to stand trial on Golgotha. Killing them would have been kinder. And all this time he and his army were standing around, the rebels were getting further away and closer to the Tomb. He gestured wearily for Stelmach to rejoin his pet, and the Security Officer saluted briskly and strode away. Frost stirred at Silence’s side, and he turned his head in her direction.

“What do you suppose that thing ahead of us is?” she said quietly. “Just looking at it makes my head ache.”

“According to Dram, it’s called the Madness Maze,” said Silence, careful to keep his voice low, too. “Though when it comes to what that means, your guess is as good as mine. Dram might know, but if he does, he isn’t telling. Much. It’s apparently some kind of Hadenman defense to keep out intruders like us. Probably booby-trapped, but the espers should be able to spot them in advance. They’d better, I’m sending them in first. I was hoping I could use Stelmach to get direct orders from the Empress about entering the Maze, but it seems the comm systems arc jammed, so all we can do is stand around with our thumbs up our asses until the Lord High Bloody Dram deigns to make a decision.”

Frost nodded glumly. “How’s Stelmach’s pet holding up?”

“Still under control, and ready for action. All we need now is an enemy to point it at. And preferably something large to hide behind. I’d feel a lot happier if Stelmach’s control wasn’t basically just on/off. I can’t help feeling that creature knows exactly what’s been done to it and is just waiting for one slip on our part to express its extreme displeasure.”

“Let it,” said Frost. “I’d kick its ass and ruin its day.”

The trouble is
, Silence thought,
she means it
. He decided to change the subject before she could get too enthusiastic about the idea. She was quite capable of attacking the alien on an impulse, just to see what would happen. She’d been
trained all her life to kill aliens and saw the Sleeper as a challenge. He gestured for Stelmach to come back. The Security Officer glared at him coldly, but did as he was ordered. He might be the Empress’ eyes and ears, but Silence was still his superior officer. For the moment. He tried to express that last thought in his cold face and stance as he saluted and stood stiffly at attention.

“Stelmach,” Silence said, smiling warmly in a comradely sort of way, “the Investigator and I have been talking about you. Specifically, we’ve become very intrigued as to what the V. in your name stands for. We’ve tried everything to find out, including asking the ship’s computers, but you seem to have blocked off access to all forms of inquiry. As your Captain, I have to say I don’t like the idea of one of my crew witholding information from me. After all, you never know what might prove to be important some day. So be a good man and tell us your first name. Unless you’re ashamed of it, of course.”

“I am not ashamed of it,” Stelmach said coldly. “It is a perfectly good and honorable name. I just prefer not to use it.”

“Oh, go on,” said Frost. “We won’t tell anyone. Not unless it’s really embarrassing.”

Silence shushed her and was about to try again when the Lord High Dram suddenly turned away from the Maze and strode unhurriedly back to join them. “Send your men in, Captain. Use the marines first. We’ll hold back the espers and the Wampyr until we see how the Maze reacts to the marines.” He looked briefly at Stelmach. “You stand back, too. We’ll need that pet of yours for later. Don’t worry, Valiant. You’ll get your chance.”

He walked back to study the entrance to the Maze again. Stelmach stared straight ahead, two spots of bright crimson burning on his cheeks. Silence and Frost looked at each other and didn’t say a thing. They didn’t dare. Some moments are just too precious to disturb. Stelmach saluted, turned and strode quickly back to rejoin the Sleeper. He should have waited for his Captain to dismiss him, but something in the extreme straightness of his back suggested this would not be a good time to bring that up. Silence firmly swallowed a smile, and gestured for the two marine company commanders to join him. They approached at something just a little less than a run, eager for orders and
a chance to do something before their men started fighting each other under the influence of drink and battle drugs. Silence nodded to them as they saluted and stood at attention.

“Get your men ready. Under the Lord High Dram’s orders, I am sending both companies of marines into the Maze.” He looked at the commanders sharply, but they just looked calmly back, giving away nothing. Silence smiled grimly. “In an ideal world, we’d send in the remotes first and check the Maze out from lop to bottom from a comfortable distance, but apparently we don’t have the time. I don’t have to tell you to keep your eyes and ears open and your wits about you, but I want us all to be extra careful. There are bound to be hidden dangers and booby traps, either intrinsic to the Maze or left by the rebels. Either way, let’s do our best to disappoint them and avoid triggering anything we don’t have to. I don’t want to be up all night writing letters to your next of kin about why we’re sending you home in a sealed coffin.”

“Who’s going to lead the incursion?” said Frost.

“I am,” Silence said flatly. “This is loo important to leave to anyone else, and I don’t want to hear any arguments from you, Investigator.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” said Frost briskly. “Especially since I’ll be going in with you for exactly the same reason. And I don’t want to hear any arguments from you, Captain.”

Silence was about to answer her anyway when he realized the two Commanders were watching the exchange with interest. They had enough sense not to smile, but Silence glared at them anyway. “Check your equipment and get your men ready. We’ll be going into the Maze in ten minutes, and I don’t want to hear any excuses. The Investigator and I will lead the way. I want all the espers to accompany us. No exceptions. If the Lord High Dram says anything, send him to me, and I’ll officially ignore him. We’ll leave the Wampyr behind to keep Stelmach and his pet company. Just in case. Any questions? And they’d better be important.”

“Yes, sir,” said Commander Jameson. He was senior by a couple of months to Commander Farrell, and never let him forget it by always insisting on talking first. Silence hadn’t heard a dozen words out of Farrell yet, but he lived in hope. Both Commanders were supposed to be good men in a tight corner. Jameson looked straight ahead and kept his voice
low. “Will the Lord High Dram be accompanying us into the Maze, sir?”

“The Lord High Dram … will make his own decision. No doubt he’ll follow us in when he sees how very careful and professional we’re being. Now get your men moving.”

The two Commanders saluted and hurried back to their men. There was a lot of shouting and milling about, but the marines were ready to go in an impressively short time. The Wampyr looked neither pleased nor displeased at being left behind. They gathered together near Stelmach and the Sleeper, and the alien and the Wampyr studied each other interestedly. Stelmach looked around for help, but Silence deliberately avoided his eyes. The espers had formed a small group together before the entrance to the Maze and were milling about there like frightened sheep, all wide eyes and abrupt movements. Frost looked at them thoughtfully.

“They don’t like the Maze, do they? I can’t help thinking we’d do well to listen to them, Captain. They see things we don’t.”

“Unfortunately, I think you’re right.” Silence scowled unhappily. “I just hope this bunch hangs together better than the ones we had on Grendel.”

“Yeah,” said Frost. “I’m still trying to get the blood and brains off my boots.”

Silence gave her a pained look and strode over to the espers. They were so mesmerized by the Maze they didn’t even notice he was there until he raised his voice. A few managed some kind of salute, but most of them couldn’t even stand at attention with any success. Silence made allowances. You didn’t expect military virtues from espers. They had other qualities. He nodded calmly to the man in charge, an esper named Graves. The name suited him. He was tall and painfully thin, with a bony face and slightly protruding eyes. Silence couldn’t help thinking that he’d buried men who’d looked healthier than Graves, but the man had a good record for noticing things that others missed, and Silence was becoming more and more convinced that he was going to need every advantage he could get his hands on when it came to the Madness Maze. Just standing this close to the entrance was giving him gooseflesh. He would have liked to sigh heavily, but he couldn’t afford to look weak before the espers.

Nothing had felt right since he arrived on the Wolfling
World, also known as Haden, though they hadn’t bothered to tell him that till he got here. No one had even mentioned taking on an army of Hadenmen when he started this mission. Not that it made any difference. When you’d just been repealed from a Court Martial at the very last moment, you went where the Empress sent you, and if you had any reservations, you kept them to yourself. Silence looked sternly at Graves, and the esper stared back like a mournful and slightly surprised fish.

“All right, Graves, what is it about the Maze that’s got all of you so upset?”

“It’s alive,” said Graves. His voice was flat but firm. “We can hear the Maze thinking. Its thoughts are strange and cold as ice. It knows we’re here. It’s waiting for us.”

Silence sighed, despite himself. He should have known better than to expect a straight answer from an esper. “Now, Graves, are we being metaphorical here, or do you mean the Maze is some kind of cyborged lifeform?”

“More than that, Captain. Much more. It’s not human life, or human technology.”

“Hadenmen?”

“Alien. It’s been here a long time, Captain. Long before Humanity ever came here. Constructed, not born, but still alive in every way that counts. It has its own purposes, and they are not human purposes or reasons. If we enter the Maze, we do so at peril of our lives and souls. There are powers between these metal walls to change and transform us beyond human knowledge. And whatever survives the Maze won’t be human anymore. Or perhaps … more than human.”

“Did the rebels pass through the Maze?” said Silence. “Did they survive it?”

“Yes, but …”

“But me no buts. If they did it, so can we. Anything else in the Maze I should know about?”

Graves stared at him dolefully, but hid any frustration well. Espers were taught to obey. “There is a place, in the center of the Maze, where we cannot see. A place we dare not look. There’s something there: alive, powerful, but not part of the Maze.”

Silence frowned. “What kind of alive? Human? Hadenmen? Alien?”

“Unknown, Captain. We can’t see. Something … prevents
us. Possibly our own minds. I think if we were to look at it too closely, see it too clearly, we would all go mad.”

Great
, thought Silence.
That’s all I need. More complications
.

“We’re going in,” he said briskly. “I’ll lead the way, with the Investigator, and I want you right there with us. Scatter the rest of your people throughout the marines. Leave a couple with their mind’s eye cranked all the way open; if anything is going to happen, I want plenty of warning in advance. The rest can maintain an esper shield, tight as you can make it. I don’t want a single stray thought getting out or in. Now get your people moving and motivated; we’re going in in a few minutes.”

He strode away without waiting for an answer and rejoined Frost, who had her sword out and was running through a few loosening up exercises that would have intimidated the hell out of any enemy with half a brain. Silence didn’t like being harsh with the esper, it felt uncomfortably like shouting at a child, and a frightened child at that. But if he wasn’t harsh, there was a good chance they’d fall apart. Whatever they’d made contact with in the Maze, it had clearly disturbed the hell out of them. Hopefully, if they were scared enough of him, that should keep them from being too scared of the Maze. He looked back at the shimmering steel walls and shuddered suddenly. Great. Now they’d managed to spook him, too. He made himself concentrate on Frost, as she swept her sword through one vicious cut after another and then was suddenly, smoothly at rest. Her pale skin had a healthy glow, and she looked like she could take on an army. Maybe she could, at that. She was an Investigator, after all. She nodded to him calmly and hefted her sword.

“I’m ready, Captain. Can we make a start now?”

Silence had to smile. “Doesn’t anything ever worry you, Investigator?”

“No. Worrying is bad for you. It interferes with the digestion and gives you wrinkles. The greater the challenge, the greater the glory to be gained. At least, that’s what the Empire always told us at the academy. Or are you suggesting they lied to us?”

“The Empire, lying to its own people? Perish the thought. Let’s go, Investigator. I want to get to the rebels before they can get to the Hadenmen.”

“Spoilsport,” said Frost.

And so, not long at all after they first arrived, Silence and Frost and the esper called Graves stepped cautiously into the Madness Maze, followed by a small army of marines and espers. The Maze swallowed them up without a murmur, and in a matter of moments they were lost to sight by those they’d left behind. Dram watched them enter, one after another, his face impassive, and he stood looking at the blank, enigmatic walls long after the last of the army had gone. Hidden under his long cloak, his hands had clenched into tight, white-knuckled fists.

At first, it wasn’t too bad in the Maze. Each of the shimmering metal walls looked just like any other, and whatever surprises the Maze had, it kept them to itself. Graves took the point almost immediately, his head held erect as though sniffing out the way. He chose each turn with unwavering confidence and concentration, and Silence and Frost followed close behind him. The Investigator had her sword and gun drawn, ready for use. Silence kept his hand near his gun, but didn’t touch it. He didn’t want his people to get the idea he was nervous. Bad for morale, not to mention discipline. His people were stretched out behind him, marines and espers looking equally uncomfortable. They stuck close together for comfort, and the sergeants had to keep warning them not to bunch up. There was little talking in the ranks. The heavy unbroken silence of the Maze didn’t encourage conversation. If there was something coming, and the marines were increasingly sure there was, they wanted to be able to hear it in plenty of time. The espers concentrated on their mental shield and tried not to think about the Maze at all.