Simon R. Green - Deathstalker Prelude 02 - Ghostworld

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Simon R. Green- Deathstalker Prelude 02 - Ghostworld

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Ghostworld by Simon R. Green

GHOSTWORLD

Inside Base Thirteen, nothing moves. Doors remain closed, elevators are

still, and shadows lie undisturbed. One by one the flickering lights gutter and

go out, and a growing gloom stalks the empty steel corridors. The few

computers remaining on-line mutter querulously to each other in the growing

dark, until finally they fall silent in the night.

In the silence, in the dark, something stirs.

CHAPTER ONE

Something in the Storm

The Darkwind's pinnace fell away from the mother ship, a gleaming silver needle

against the endless night. It hung for a moment above the Rim World called Unseeli,

and then its nose dropped, the engines roared silently, and the pinnace slipped into

Unseeli's churning atmosphere like a knife into a belly. The engines burned bright,

powering the slender ship through the violent storms by sheer brute force. Lightning

flared round the pinnace's hull, and winds gusted viciously from every side, but nothing

swayed the ship from its course. It punched through the roiling clouds with arrogant

ease, dropping like a stone towards the metallic forest below.

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Simon R. Green- Deathstalker Prelude 02 - Ghostworld

Unseeli had no oceans and no mountains, only an endless arid plain covered by a

brightly shining forest stretching from pole to pole. A forest whose colossal metal trees

knew nothing of leaf or bud, autumn or spring. They rose unbending from the grey

earth in the millions, cold and unfeeling, like so many gleaming metal nails. Towering

almost to the edge of the planet's atmosphere in places, the huge trees stood firm and

unyielding against the turbulent storms. Winds whipped viciously around leafless

branches, radiating out from smooth, featureless trunks in needle-sharp spikes. Violet

and azure, gold and silver and brass, the trees reached up into the thunder and lightning

to welcome the falling craft.

Captain John Silence sat slumped in his command chair, watching the sensor display

panels before him. They changed from moment to moment with bewildering speed, far

too fast for him to follow. Which was why the ship's AI was piloting them down and he

had nothing to do but strain his eyes at the displays. The thick storm clouds hid the

metal trees from sight, but the AI picked them up on the pinnace's sensors and changed

speed and direction accordingly, making decisions and evaluations in spit-second

bursts. Since the AI could think faster and react more quickly than Silence ever could,

even when he was mentally linked to the onboard computers, there was never any

question as to which one of them would get to pilot the pinnace down. But the AI was

programmed to be considerate of people's feelings, so it might let him actually land the

pinnace, if it didn't seem too difficult.

Deepening his concentration, Silence accessed the ship's sensors through his comm

implant. The bulkhead walls before him were suddenly transparent as the sensors

displayed a real-time simulation of what was happening outside the ship. Dark, swollen

storm clouds rushed toward and around the pinnace at heart-stopping speed, and

lightning struck viciously at the craft. Silence winced inwardly, but kept his face calm

so as not to upset his passengers. The storm could rage and spit all it liked; nothing

could harm the ship as long as its force screen was up. Gleaming metal trees appeared

and disappeared in the blink of an eye as the pinnace surged this way and that,

threading a path through the metallic forest to the landing pads by Base Thirteen. The

storm clouds were too thick and too dark for Silence to make out the forest itself, but

his imagination pictured it as an endless, vicious pincushion; solid metal spikes waiting

for him like the sharpened stakes at the bottom of a pit dug to trap animals.

The image disturbed him, and he cut off the display and swung round in his chair to see

how his passengers were doing. A good Captain never neglected his crew. Supposedly,

loyalty was programmed into them these days, but it never hurt to be careful.

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Simon R. Green- Deathstalker Prelude 02 - Ghostworld

The ship's young esper, Diana Vertue, was looking distinctly green about the gills from

being tossed around by the pinnace's sudden changes in direction. Investigator Frost sat

beside her, cool and composed as always, her face almost bored. The two marines,

Stasiak and Ripper, sat behind the two women, passing a gunmetal flask back and forth

between them. Silence's mouth tautened. He hoped it was just alcohol, and not some

new battle drug they'd cooked up in the medlabs. Officially he was supposed to

encourage such initiative, but Silence didn't believe in chemical courage. He preferred

the real thing whenever possible. Chemicals wore off.

"We'll be touching down soon," he said evenly. "There shouldn't be any immediate

danger, but keep your eyes and ears open anyway. Due to the urgent nature of the

situation, we're going in pretty much blind on this one. The mission's simple enough.

Base Thirteen isn't answering any calls. Our job is to find out why."

"Question, Captain?"

"Yes, esper Vertue?"

"According to the computers, Unseeli is a dead world. Nothing's lived here since all

indigenous species were wiped out after the Ashrai rebellion, ten years ago. . . ."

"That's right," said Silence as the esper paused.

"But if that's the case, Captain, if there's nothing on this planet that could be harmful,

why all the panic? It could just be a case of cabin fever. It's not exactly unknown, out

here on the edge of the Empire."

"A good point, esper. But four days ago, Base Thirteen declared a Red Alert

emergency, raised a force screen round the Base, and cut off all communications with

the Empire. The Empire doesn't like being cut off. So, we're going in to find out what's

happened. Don't frown, esper; it'll give you wrinkles."

"I was just wondering, Captain; well, what is the Investigator doing here?"

"Yeah," said Investigator Frost. "I've been wondering that too."

Silence took his time about answering, openly studying the two women. They made an

interesting contrast. Diana Vertue was short, slender, and golden-haired, and reminded

Silence very much of her mother, Elaine. The young esper had only just turned

nineteen, and had that arrogant innocence that only youth could produce and maintain.

She'd lose it soon enough, trying to maintain law and order and sanity out on the edge

of the Empire, among the newly developed Rim Worlds. There was little civilisation to

be found on the new frontier—and even less law, never mind justice.

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Investigator Frost was only a few years older than the esper, but the difference between

them was that of the hunter and its prey. Frost was tall and lithely muscular, and even

sitting still and at rest, she looked dangerous. Dark blue eyes burned coldly in a pale,

impassive face framed by short-cropped auburn hair. The jolting descent didn't seem to

be bothering her at all, but then, it wouldn't. Investigators were trained to withstand

much worse than this. Which was at least partly why they made such efficient killers.

Silence realised he'd paused longer than he'd intended. He leaned forward in his chair,

frowning as though he'd just been marshalling his thoughts, knowing even as he did that

he wasn't fooling the Investigator one bit.

"You're here, Investigator, because we don't know what we're going to find when we

get down there. There's always the possibility that Unseeli has been visited by some

new alien species. This is the Rim, after all, where starships have been known to

disappear into the long night, never to be seen again. And aliens are your specialty, are

they not?"

"Yeah," said Frost, smiling slightly. "That's one way of putting it."

"On the other hand," said Silence, "Unseeli is a mining planet, and the metals extracted

here are of vital importance to the Empire. Any number of factions might have an

interest in disturbing production. Which is why I'm overseeing this mission myself."

"If it's that important, why are there only five of us?" asked the marine Stasiak. "Why

not go in mob-handed with a full Security team, surround the Base and then charge in

and hammer anything that moves?"

"Because Base Thirteen controls all the mining equipment on Unseeli," said Silence

steadily. "Systems are already running at barely thirty per cent efficiency. We don't

want to risk damaging the Base and making things even worse. And, as the esper

pointed out, there's always the possibility this is just some new form of cabin fever, and

all the Base personnel need is a nice little chat with the Darkwind's psych department.

We're here to find out what's going on and to report on it, not run a crash-and-burn

mission on the only people who can tell us what's happened."

"Understood, Captain," said the other marine, Ripper. "We'll run this one nice and easy,

by the numbers. No problem."

Silence nodded curtly, and studied the two marines unobtrusively. Lewis Stasiak was

average height and weight, only in his early twenties but already looking hard-used and

running to seed. His hair was a little too long, his uniform rumpled, and his face had a

kind of slackness to it. Silence recognised the danger signs; Stasiak had gone too long

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Simon R. Green- Deathstalker Prelude 02 - Ghostworld

without any real action or challenge, and grown soft and careless. Which was at least

partly why Silence had chosen him for the exploratory team. If something went wrong,

Stasiak wasn't going to be any great loss. It was always useful to have someone

expendable on hand, to send into dangerous situations before taking a look for yourself.

Still, it would be well to keep an eye on the man. Marines who got sloppy tended not to

last long under pressure, and when they snapped they had a nasty habit of taking down

anyone who happened to be with them at the time.

Alec Ripper, on the other hand, was everything that Stasiak wasn't. Ripper was a career

marine, and looked it. Twenty-nine years old, fourteen years in the Service, big as a

brick outhouse and twice as mean. Sharp and tidy from his close-cropped head to his

shiny boots. Four medals, and three commendations for courage in the field. Could

have been an officer, if he'd only had the right Family connections. As it was, he'd been

a noncom twice, busted both times for daring to suggest a superior officer might just

possibly be wrong. That wasn't wise in the Service. Especially in front of witnesses.

Also, according to the records, Ripper was a good soldier and a better fighter, with a

positive gift for survival. If anyone was going to come back alive from this mission, it

was Ripper.

If anyone was.

They didn't know about Unseeli. Silence knew. He'd been here before, ten years ago,

when the Ashrai came sweeping out of the forest in endless waves, slaughtering every

man and woman in their path. He remembered the awful things they'd done, and the

worse thing he'd done to stop them. The Ashrai were dead now. Extinct. Along with

every other living thing on the planet.

The pinnace lurched suddenly to one side, the roar of the engines seeming to falter for a

moment before regaining their normal rhythm. Silence spun round in his chair and

glared at the displays before him. Warning lights were flaring red everywhere, but there

was no sign of any actual damage yet. He accessed the sensors again, and the ship

seemed to go transparent before and around him. Dark storm clouds boiled around the

pinnace, streaming away to either side with breathtaking speed. The ship lurched again,

and Silence's stomach quivered in sympathy as the pinnace changed course and speed

with reckless indifference to its passengers' sensibilities. Glowing metal trees appeared

and disappeared around them, come and gone in a flash, but Silence could tell it wasn't

just the trees that the pinnace was trying to avoid. There was something else out there in

the storm. Something that had waited a long time for revenge, and didn't give a damn

that it had been dead for ten long years.

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Ghostworld.

"Marines, man the guns," said Silence harshly. "Investigator, access the sensors and tell

me what you see. Esper, I want a full psionic scan, as far as you can project. I need to

know what's out there."

The marines' faces went blank as they accessed the pinnace's firing controls through

their comm implants, their eyes filled with what the gunsights showed them. The

Investigator's cold face hardly changed at all as she looked quickly around her at

bulkheads that were suddenly transparent. The esper looked at Silence uncertainly.

"What exactly am I scanning for, Captain?"

"Something, anything; for whatever's out there."

"But . . . there's nothing there, Captain. It's just a storm."

"No," said Silence. "It's not just the storm. Run a scan, esper. That's an order."

"Aye, sir." The esper's eyes became fixed and unseeing, and her face was suddenly

blank and untenanted as her mind leapt up and out beyond the pinnace.

The storm boiled around her, but could not touch her. Metal trees burned in her mind

like brilliant searchlights plunging up through the clouds, guttering here and there as

automated mining machinery tore through a tree's roots. Apart from the trees, there was

no life anywhere in range of her esp, and yet it seemed to her that there was something

at the edges of her mind, sensed only as swift flashes of movement and an occasional

feeling of being watched. Diana forced her esp to its limits, pushing at the range of her

scan, but was unable to get a clear view of whatever it was. If there was anything at all .

. .

Stasiak grinned nastily, feeling the pinnace's guns swivelling back and forth, responsive

to his thoughts. Four disrupter cannon, state of the art and fully charged, were scattered

the length of the pinnace and ready to kick ass at his command, or merest whim. But

there was only the storm and the wind and the endless bloody trees. According to the

sensors, there was nothing out there worth firing at. He found a secure line and patched

into Ripper's comm implant.

"Hey, Rip, you see anything?"

"No. But that doesn't mean it's not out there."

"Yeah, sure. You ask me, the Captain's got ants in his pants over nothing. This world's

dead, Rip; everyone knows that."

"Maybe. There's nothing on the sensors. But I still keep getting the feeling that we're

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not alone up here. Stand ready, Lew. I don't like the feel of this at all. And if it does all

hit the fan, don't waste your shots; place them carefully. Remember, these cannon take

four minutes to recharge between each shot. A lot can happen in four minutes."

"Yeah, right," Stasiak stirred unhappily in his seat, trying to look every way at once.

Now that Ripper mentioned it, he could feel it too. Something waiting, watching, hiding

just out of range of his sensors. His mind caressed the fire controls, feeling them

respond like hounds straining at the leash. The pinnace's AI was programmed against

activating the guns itself except in the direst emergencies, to keep it from getting ideas

above its station, but it too sensed something was wrong about the storm, and in its own

way was just as eager for action as Stasiak was.

Investigator Frost looked across at the Captain. "Sensors all report negative. There are

no life signs registering anywhere within their range."

"I didn't think there would be," said Silence, staring unblinkingly out at the storm.

"Odin, how long till we touch down?"

"Twelve minutes and forty seconds, Captain," said the AI promptly. "Assuming nothing

interferes with my flight plan."

"Get us down fast, Odin," the Captain ordered. "Marines, stand ready. Something's

coming."

And then the pinnace lurched suddenly to one side, the slender craft thrown violently

off course as though some giant hand had reached out from nowhere and swatted it. The

ship bucked and heaved as the AI fought to keep it from crashing into the tightly

packed trees. Dark shapes loomed up out of the boiling storm clouds, huge and

threatening.

"Odin, raise the force screen," said Silence, his voice calm and steady, though his hands

were closed into white-knuckled fists. "Marines, pick your targets carefully.

Investigator, what do you see?"

"Still nothing, Captain. Sensors are adamant there's nothing out there."

"Same here," said Stasiak urgently. "There's nothing to aim at!"

The pinnace shuddered as something impossibly huge pounded against the force screen,

again and again. Silence watched tensely as his displays showed mounting pressure

building up against the screen from all sides at once. Glowing trees whipped past faster

than ever as the AI sent the pinnace racing through the metallic forest, heading for the

landing field. But despite the pinnace's increasing speed, the dark presences stayed with

them, battering at the force screen with vicious determination. Silence scowled, and

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licked his dry lips.

"Marines, lay down a field of fire on both sides. Random selection of targets. Do it

now."

The marines' replies were lost in the thunder of the disrupter cannon, and blinding

energy leapt out from the pinnace, striking through the screen and shattering the metal

trees. Great metallic shards flew like shrapnel. And still the unliving presences pressed

close around the screen, the pressure rising impossibly moment by moment.

"Our guns are useless now until the energy crystals recharge," said the Investigator

quietly. "And the force screen isn't going to last long enough for us to reach the landing

field. It's taking more and more of the ship's power just to maintain the screen, and we

don't have that much power to spare. Not if we ever want to get off this planet again.

What's out there, Captain? Why don't they show up on our sensors?"

Silence looked at her. "Because they're dead, Investigator. Because they're dead. Odin,

time to touch down?"

"Ten minutes, twenty-two seconds, Captain."

"When I give you the word, drop the force screen and channel the extra power to the

engines. Do whatever you have to, Odin, but get us down. If we survive the landing, we

can always recharge the ship's batteries at Base Thirteen. Marines, stand ready to fire

again, on my order."

"But there's nothing out there!" said Stasiak. "There's nothing to aim at!"

"Keep the noise down, Lew," said Ripper calmly. "Ours not to reason why, remember?

Just do what the nice officer says. At least he seems to have some idea of what we're up

against."

Stasiak sniffed mutinously. "They're not paying me enough for this."

Silence glared out at the storm, then looked back at the Investigator. "Anything on the

sensors?"

"Negative, Captain. No life signs of any description. As far as the instruments are

concerned, we're alone up here." The Investigator looked at him with cold, hard eyes.

"You were expecting this, weren't you, Captain? That's why you came down with us.

You know what's out there."

"Yes," said Silence. "I know."

"Guns are powering up, sir," said Ripper. "Ready to fire again soon. Just find us a

target."

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"Stand by, marines. Esper, talk to me. What do you see out there? Esper!"

They were huge and awful and they filled her mind, blazing like the sun. Too strange to

measure, too vast to comprehend, they gathered in the storm like ancient vengeful gods,

striking at the pinnace with thunder and lightning. Diana Vertue struggled to maintain

her own sense of identity in all that rage and fury, but her human mind was a small and

insignificant thing in the midst of such intense, bitter hatred. She retreated behind the

safety of her mental shields, fighting to keep out the inhuman thoughts that roared and

howled in the storm outside the ship. One by one her defensive barriers slammed into

place, and suddenly she was back in the pinnace again, and Captain Silence was

shouting at her.

"It's alive," she said dully, her mind feeling slow and awkward now that it was working

only on the human level again. "The storm's alive, and it hates us."

"Have you made contact with it?" asked Silence. "Could you communicate with it?"

"Communicate with what?" said the Investigator sharply. "If there was anything alive

out there, the sensors would show it!"

"They're too big," said Diana Vertue. "Huge. Vast. I've never felt such hate."

"Try," said Silence. "This is why I brought you with us; to talk to . . . what's out there."

"No," said Diana, tears burning in her eyes. "Please. Don't make me . . . the hate hurts

so much . . ."

"Do it! That's an order!"

And Diana threw her mind up and out again, into the storm. Espers always obeyed

orders. Their training saw to that. Those who couldn't or wouldn't learn didn't live to

reach an adult's estate. The storm raged. Immense, dark thoughts were all around her,

and she knew she survived only because she was too small for them to notice. She also

knew that in a slow, creeping way, they were beginning to realise that someone was

watching them.

Silence watched the young esper's face, contorted by the horror of what her blind eyes

were seeing, and wouldn't let himself look away. If she died or lost her mind, it would

be his responsibility. He'd known the risks when he insisted on her as part of his team.

A thin line of saliva ran slowly from the corner of her mouth, and she began to moan

softly. Silence still wouldn't look away.

"Marines, lay down a covering fire, random selection, as before. Odin, lower the force

screen. Hang on to your seats, everyone. The ride's about to get a bit bumpy."

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There was a deafening roar, slamming against the mind as much as the ears, as the dark

shapes pressed forward, no longer held back by the force screen. The disrupter cannon

blazed through the storm, and could not touch them. The pinnace shuddered and

lurched from side to side, tossed like a leaf in a hurricane. Metallic trees a dozen feet

thick leapt out of the clouds and slammed against the pinnace sides, but the ship's hull

had been designed to withstand disrupter cannon and low-level atomics, and they held

easily against the battering. The thunder of the pinnace's engines rose and fell as the AI

fought desperately to keep the ship on course. The Captain accessed the instruments

directly, and bit his lip as he saw they were still more than four minutes from Base

Thirteen and the landing pads.

The pinnace's nose dropped sharply, as though some immense weight had settled upon

it. There was a screech of rending metal, and the port bulkhead tore like paper. Jagged

rents surged down the wall, grouped together like giant claw marks. Something

pounded against the outer hull, and great dents and bulges appeared in the cabin roof.

"There's nothing out there!" screamed Stasiak, beating blindly with his fists against his

chair's armrests. "There's nothing out there! The instruments say so!"

Ripper's head swayed back and forth, his mouth forming soundless denials. The

Investigator glared about her at the fury of the storm, her hand clutching at the gun on

her hip. Things were moving in the storm, dark and indistinct and impossibly huge. The

whole frame of the pinnace groaned as the roof bulged inwards, forced down by some

massive, intolerable weight.

"We're losing pressure, Captain," said the AI quietly in Silence's ear. "The ship's

integrity has been breached beyond my ability to compensate. I am no longer confident

of being able to reach the landing field. Do I have your permission to attempt an

emergency landing?"

"No," said Silence through his implant. "Not yet."

"We have to put down before we fall apart!" said the Investigator.

Silence looked at her sharply. He hadn't known she had access to the command

channel, "Not yet," he said firmly. "Esper, talk to them, dammit. Make them hear you!"

Diana Vertue dropped what remained of her mental shields and stood naked and

defenceless before the alien presences. They rushed forward and swept over her. The

pinnace punched through the last of the clouds and burst out into clear air. The metal

trees swept toward and around the ship at dizzying speed. Vicious barbed spikes

snapped past them, seeming only inches away from tearing the pinnace open like a

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