Deathstalker War

as he groaned aloud. Evangeline moved quickly in beside him.

'What is it? What did you see?'

'We're not alone here,' he said thickly. 'There's another ship, about twenty feet away. Buried under the grass. It's full of death. Tell the others.'

In the end, it took all of them working together the best part of an hour to dig down to the buried ship's airlock. The lock was closed, its power depleted, and they had to crank it open with the exterior manual override. Inside it was dark and gloomy, all systems dead, and they had to wait impatiently while Finlay went back to the cargo ship for flashlights. None of them felt like going in without them. Julian was still muttering about death.

They moved slowly through the dark interior, the ship gradually giving up its secrets to the bobbing lights. It was an Imperial pinnace, presumably sent down from the orbiting starcruiser. Something had shot the shit out of it, but it had still made a safe landing. The rebels searched the pinnace from stem to stern, but there was no sign of life anywhere. What they did find was blood. Old, dried blood. Dark and heavy and splashed over most of the interior. Given that the inner hull was still intact, despite the battering the pinnace had taken, it seemed clear that whatever happened did so after the landing.

'These bloodstains are long dry,' said Toby. 'Whatever went down here, it's over. Guess the war must still be going on.'

Finlay unloaded the memory crystal containing the pinnace's log, took it back to the cargo ship, and ran the last few entries on the viewscreen. Everyone crowded together before the screen, but the log didn't have much to tell them. The pinnace had been sent down by the Quarantine starcruiser, the Deliverance. It had carried a crew of twenty, all trained marine elite reconnaissance troops. They'd tracked Harker's beacon to the escape pod and put down beside it. There were no more log entries after that.

'They had the same idea we had,' said Toby. 'And look what happened to them.'

'We don't know what happened to them yet,' said Giles testily. 'We don't know what happened to anyone yet.'

'None of this makes sense,' said Evangeline. 'If the recon team were all killed, where are their bodies? And why bury the ship instead of them?'

'More mysteries,' said Giles. 'I hate mysteries.

According to our sensors, there's some kind of building or structure just over the horizon, due east of here. I say we go and take a look. Maybe we'll find some answers there. Or at least some clues.'

'What about the two contacts I made?' said Julian. 'They were definitely some kind of life-form, heading this way.'

'If you see anything that isn't us or Harker, you have my permission to shoot first and ask questions afterward, if at all,' said Finlay. 'The one thing we can be sure of is that we don't have any friends here. This particular part of Haceldama may seem quiet and harmless, but that doesn't mean you can trust it an inch. Stay alert, all of you. This place kills people.'

And so they set off across the grassy plain. Anywhen or anywhere else, it might have been a pleasant stroll. The gentle slope was just enough to stretch their legs, and the air was full of the smell of freshly cut grass. The day was warm enough to make them feel pleasantly loose, with the occasional cool breeze to make sure they didn't overheat. The going was firm without being hard, and the grass sprang back up immediately, no matter how hard they trod on it. Perfect weather, in a silent, empty world. Under a sun with a smiley face.

The horizon slowly flattened out before them, eventually revealing a sudden dip in the land, like a huge grassy crater. In the middle of this was a large building, simple and blocky, constructed in bright primary colors. A high arch stood between the rebels and the building, covered in swirling red and white stripes. A large sign at the top of the arch said WELCOME TO SUMMERLAND! The rebels stopped at the base of the arch to study the sign. The letters were big and blocky, almost cartoonish, like something from a children's primer, designed to be bright and cheerful and nonthreatening. There were floodlights at the top of the sign, but they'd all been smashed. There were splashes of old, long-dried blood on the arch supports.

Beyond the arch, the building had its own cheerful sign, saying Welcome Station. Giles headed toward it, gun in hand, and the others followed him. The sound of their feet crunching the grass seemed very loud in the eerie silence. They all had a constant feeling of being watched, but no matter how quickly they looked in any direction, there was never anyone to be seen. As they drew closer, they discovered that the Welcome Station hadn't escaped the war's attention either. The inner walls, still remorselessly bright and cheerful, showed the scars and pockmarks of discharged energy guns. There were long jagged cracks in the floor and holes in the ceiling, from high explosives. There were dark scorch marks everywhere, from fires that had been left to burn themselves out. And though the walls still stood, the Welcome Station was now cold and lifeless.

The rebels moved slowly forward, checking every corner and shadow for potential enemies. They all had guns in their hands now, except for Toby and Flynn, who were getting it all on film. The eerie silence hung about them like a shroud as they passed from room to room. The wooden furniture had been broken apart and the pieces tossed aside, like so much kindling. Some of it had been used to start fires, but they hadn't taken. There were children's paintings on the walls, damaged by smoke and heat, and curling at the edges. Some were splashed with blood. More unusual were oversize children's toys, overturned here and there, like a rocking horse large enough for a grown man to ride. As they pressed deeper into the Welcome Station, the rebels found themselves stepping over more toys left scattered on the floor as though their owners had been interrupted in their play, or had had to leave in a hurry. But for all the damage and destruction, the fires and the smeared bloodstains, still the bright colors dominated the rooms, as though the rebels were walking through a violated and abandoned nursery.

But if that was so, where were the children?

And then they came to the gymnasium and had to fight not to look away. They were in the heart of the building now, with bright sunlight streaming through the shattered windows, illuminating climbing frames and vaulting horses and other simple equipment, most of it wrecked or overturned. And there, at the back of the room, on a row of wooden stakes hammered into the floor, were impaled twenty severed human heads. There was no sign of the bodies anywhere, or even that much blood. The shrunken, mummified faces stared back at the rebels with empty eye sockets. Their mouths dropped in silent, eternal screams.

Evangeline moved in close beside Finlay, gripping her gun so tightly her fingers ached. If anything had moved in the shadows just then, she would have shot it without hesitating. It seemed there was no room left in her for anything but anger and rage at what had been done to these men and women. Somehow she knew without a shadow of a doubt that nothing human had done this. This was an affront to Humanity, planned and delighted in by its perpetrators. Giles glared about him, searching for some enemy to revenge himself on, but there was no one. Toby gestured to Flynn, who nodded, and sent his camera forward for a close-up, panning slowly along the row of screaming faces.

'You bastards,' said Julian, his voice thick with emotions he couldn't afford to release. 'You bloody vultures. Haven't you any feelings? Is that all you can think of, getting good pictures for your ghoulish audience? Doesn't this move you at all?'

'Sure,' said Toby. 'That's why we're getting a record of each face, so they can be identified by their next of kin.'

'Oh,' said Julian. 'I'm sorry.'

'And because it's a dynamite shot. It'll make a hell of an impact on the early-morning news slots. This is the kind of footage that wins awards.'

'Not to mention bonuses,' said Flynn.

'Right,' said Toby. 'And if it puts a few people off their breakfast, so much the better. With a bit of luck, someone might even call in and complain. You can't buy publicity like that.'

Julian didn't know what to say that wouldn't involve shouting, so in the end he said nothing. He didn't want the others to think he couldn't control himself. He looked to Finlay for his cue. The Campbell was looking at the severed heads, but not seeing them, his brows furrowed as he tried to remember something. Evangeline put a hand on his arm.

'What is it, Finlay?'

'I know this place,' he said slowly. 'Summerland. Someone told me about it, long ago… This wasn't just a pleasure planet.'

'What else was it?' said Giles.

'I'm not sure,' said Finlay. 'But I think… it was a therapy world.'