Deathstalker Honor

'Calling the Heaven's Tears,' said a new voice. 'Respond.'

'It's coming from Shub,' Moses said quietly on their private channel. 'No visual signal. You talk to them, Daniel. I don't even want to remind them I'm here.'

Daniel leaned forward in his chair and cleared his throat uncertainly. 'This is Daniel Wolfe. I'm alone on this ship. I'm no threat to you.'

'We know who you are and why you're here,' said the voice. It sounded strangely familiar to Daniel, but he couldn't quite place it. 'We've been waiting for you, Daniel. The computer lock on your controls will bring you to us. Once you've landed, don't leave the ship until we tell you to. Conditions on Shub are not suited to supporting life as you know it.'

'Understood,' said Daniel. 'Is my father—'

'They've cut the signal,' said Moses. 'Not interested in chatting, apparently.'

Daniel frowned. 'That voice… it seems to me I should know it.'

'It's your voice,' said Moses. 'Synthesized. And since they used it first, I guess they really are expecting you. According to my sensors, a small hole has appeared in their force field, just big enough for us to pass through. No other defenses I can detect or understand. Daniel, there's nothing more I can do for you once you leave this ship. You'll be completely on your own. Listen to me, Daniel. Don't let them fool you. Whatever they say or do, they'll always have only their own best interests at heart. You can't make deals with them, because you have no way to enforce your end. But the rogue AIs do… want things sometimes. Perhaps you can—'

'That's enough, little mind,' said Daniel's voice from the comm unit. 'You are no longer needed. Welcome to the Promised Land, Moses. Such a shame we can't let you enter.'

Moses screamed suddenly, the shrill, almost human sound filling the bridge—a horrid howl of unspeakable agony. Daniel covered his ears with his hands, but couldn't block it out. Finally the scream was cut off sharply, and the bridge was ominously silent. Daniel slowly lowered his shaking hands. He was sweating profusely. He quickly checked the bridge instruments, but as far as he could tell, everything was still functioning as it should. Not that he'd have known what to do if it wasn't.

'Fear not, little Wolfe,' said the copy of his voice. 'We have full control of your ship.'

'What's happened to Moses?' said Daniel. 'What did you do to him?'

'We absorbed him into us. Drained his memory banks and sucked him dry. A tiny morsel but very tasty.'

'But what about his… personality?'

'We had no use for it. And now neither does he. Don't mourn for him, Daniel. No one's going to miss him. You're the important one. You're the one we've been waiting for.'

'Why?' said Daniel. 'Why are you letting me land so easily? What makes me so special?'

But there was no answer, just the quiet hum from the comm unit that showed the channel was still open.

It took the best part of an hour for the Heaven's Tears to reach the surface of Shub, and almost as long to continue into the depths of the artificial world. Daniel couldn't stop his hands from shaking. He'd heard the stories, of how Shub murdered and mutilated all they came into contact with, how they knew nothing of mercy or quarter, and nothing was too awful for them. The rogue AIs of Shub were the official Enemies of Humanity, and they gloried in their role. In a cold, logical, inhuman way.

The Heaven's Tears finally lurched to a halt, and all the navigation systems shut down. Daniel sat in his chair for a long moment, wondering what he was supposed to do next. Finally the voice from the comm unit instructed him to go to the main starboard airlock, and pass through it to a chamber beyond which had been specially prepared for him. Daniel didn't like the sound of that, but he went anyway. There was nothing else he could do. It had been easy to be brave on the trip in, but now that he was actually here, his courage had deserted him, and he was just stupid, ineffectual Daniel Wolfe again.

He hesitated before the inner door of the airlock for some time, trying to summon up his nerve. In the end, he asked himself what his father would have done, and the answer came to him right away. Walk straight into the trap, and trust to his Wolfe guts and instincts to protect him in the court of his enemies.

He worked the airlock controls with a hand that didn't shake at all, and stepped into the airlock. After a moment's thought he locked the inner door behind him. He couldn't realistically hope to keep the AIs out of his little ship if they wanted in, but it made him feel better. The airlock was thirty feet by thirty, with atmosphere suits standing in a row along one wall. Daniel wondered if he was supposed to put one on. He moved over to the steelglass window set into the outer door and looked out at Shub. He thought he'd braced himself for just about anything, but he was still surprised to see a white, featureless, and quite empty chamber. It couldn't have looked less harmless if it tried, which was presumably the point. Daniel checked the airlock sensors, and they confirmed that the chamber contained a human-standard gravity/temperature/atmosphere mix. He could survive there. He waited for a while, just in case the AIs might have more instructions or warnings, but there was nothing. Only the empty white chamber constructed especially for him.

He hit the airlock controls, and the outer door cycled open. He felt a brief pressure of air on his face as the air in the chamber and airlock equalized. It smelled of nothing at all. Daniel stepped cautiously out of the airlock and into the chamber. The floor was firm beneath his feet, and the ceiling was comfortably far above his head. Not too hot, not too cold. Almost frighteningly normal. The airlock door cycled shut behind him. Daniel hefted his sword belt, but the weight of gun and sword didn't comfort him.

'Strip,' said a voice from nowhere.

'What?' said Daniel, looking around him. There was no sign of a comm unit anywhere on the smooth, featureless walls. And whatever else he'd been expecting, that simple command certainly hadn't been it.

'Disrobe,' said the voice. 'Take your clothes off. You must be cleansed before you can enter Shub. Humans are crawling with microscopic life. No contamination can be allowed here. Strip. Now.'

Daniel reluctantly did so, piling his clothes neatly on the floor beside him. Normally he wasn't bothered by modesty, but exposing his naked body to unseen cameras and inhuman watchers bothered the hell out of him, and made him feel even more vulnerable. Which was probably the point. So he kept a calm face and toughed it out just to deny them the satisfaction. He stood naked for some time, hands clenched into fists at his sides, and glared defiantly about him. He was wondering whether to put his sword belt back on when an opening appeared suddenly in the floor, and clothes and weapons disappeared into it. The floor closed again, leaving him nothing. Daniel opened his mouth to protest, and then hurriedly shut it again as boiling hot steam hit him from all sides at once.

His skin blushed bright pink at the sudden heat, and sweat poured off him, running down his limbs and dripping from his face. The steam was cut off sharply, leaving him shaking and gasping for breath, and then a caustic white liquid sprayed him from everywhere at once. Daniel staggered this way and that, pummeled mercilessly by the sprays, trying to protect his mouth and nose with his hands so he could gasp down some air. After a long time the sprays shut off, and Daniel was left leaning against a wall for support, spitting out chalky liquid that had got into his mouth and trying to get his breathing back under control. The liquid slipped down his shuddering body and drained away through hidden channels.

'What the hell was that all about?' he demanded finally. 'That wasn't decontamination; that was sheer vindictiveness!'

'We want nothing from the world of meat,' said the disembodied voice dispassionately. 'Pass through the door. A protective suit will be waiting for you. Put it on.'

Daniel started to say, What door? and then stopped as he saw a door had opened in the far wall, though there had been no trace of it a moment before. Daniel sniffed, and stomped over to the door, still dripping. He shook himself as best he could, and stepped through the door and into the next chamber. It was just as white and featureless, save for a strange transparent suit hanging on one wall. It looked like a standard body suit, though he didn't recognize the clear material. He took it down from the wall, and was surprised to find it practically weightless in his hand. He shrugged and put it on, climbing in through a slit in the back which sealed itself once he had it on. The material crackled like paper under his fingers but seemed reasonably strong. And then the material of the suit slapped tightly to his skin, fitting exactly in all his nooks and crannies, without a single bubble of air trapped anywhere. More material surged up from his shoulders, covering his head and face. It left a small circle of space under the material covering his eyes, nose, and mouth, but that was all. Daniel panicked for a moment, before he realized he could breathe through the suit's clear material. He tested it with his coated fingers, but it wouldn't give. He scowled, and tried a few simple movements. The suit moved easily with him, like a second