Free Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return by Simon R. Green Page A

talk to them, while I'm human. We'll need to use the comm systems in Base Thirteen. When we're in there, stay close. The base has been dead for centuries, but it is still a dangerous place for the unwary."
    "He's talking to you, Brett," said Lewis. "Don't touch anything."
    "I am hurt and wounded," said Brett.
    "You will be, if you don't do as you're told," said Lewis. "Saturday, you'd better watch the door while we're in there. Feel free to eat anyone who isn't us or the Ashrai."
    "Dinnertime's coming," said the reptiloid cheerfully, staring up at the clouded sky. "Just as well. Some of you were beginning to look especially tasty."
    "Is he joking?" said Jesamine.
    "Best not to ask," said Lewis.
    Carrion led the way into Base Thirteen. The great metal entrance doors hung limply from their supports.
    They moved jerkily apart under Carrion's hands, all power gone. Inside, what they could see of the lobby was a mess. The light from the open doorway didn't penetrate far into the centuries-old gloom. The place looked to have been thoroughly trashed, with shattered furniture, dents and cracks in the metal floor, and even some holes in the outer wall, through which some light reluctantly entered. There didn't seem to be any power, no working lights or tech. On the very edge of the light, they could just make out an old-fashioned reception console.
    Lewis and his companions hesitated just inside the door, waiting for their eyes to adjust to the gloom.
    None of them liked the feel of the place. They could sense all those piled-up years from the bad old days of Empire, just waiting to ambush them. Base Thirteen smelled of death. Carrion walked forwards into the dark, his face entirely calm. He stopped by the reception console and passed one hand slowly over it.
    Deep within the base, old systems sluggishly awakened, and lights reluctantly flickered on, one by one, until the reception area was full of a kind of twilight glow that, if anything, made the place seem even spookier. Brett started to edge backwards, until Rose took him firmly by the arm. Comm panels on the reception desk hummed suddenly with static, and a single viewscreen glowed into life on the opposite wall, putting itself on standby. From all around came the sounds of machines waking up, as system after system came back on line.
    "I don't get it," Jesamine said quietly. "If the base was shut down two hundred years ago, where's all this power coming from?"
    "From me," said Carrion. He shouldn't have been able to hear her from such a distance, but no one was really surprised that he could. His hands moved slowly over the comm controls, as though reluctantly remembering skills long since abandoned when he became Ashrai. The viewscreen on the wall cleared to show a fleet captain standing at strict attention on the bridge of his ship. His uniform had been pressed and cleaned to within an inch of its life, and helped to distract from his young face. Probably one of Finn's creatures, thought Lewis. "Newly promoted just for this mission. An experienced fleet officer would have had more sense than to come to Unseeli. The captain looked startled for a moment at the unexpected
    face before him, but then he thrust out his jaw and glared truculently from the viewscreen. This is Captain Kamal, of the Imperial starcruiser Hector, on official business. Identify yourself!"
    "I am Carrion, of the Ashrai." Carrions voice was harsh, flat, subtly inhuman. His eyes were very dark.
    "Why have you come to Unseeli, Captain? You must know we do not welcome visitors."
    "You have given sanctuary to those most notable traitors Lewis Deathstalker and Jesamine Flowers, and their associates. All are guilty of crimes against Humanity. I have orders to bring them back to Logres, dead or alive. I require you to assist me in this matter. And with regard to your veiled threat, five starcruisers now orbit your world. The Empire goes where it will, to do its will. You will cooperate, in the name of King and