Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

command.
    Mass executions without trial, and other atrocities. Unacceptable, barbaric behavior."
    Owen looked at him for a long moment. "I don't believe it," he said finally.
    "Jack Random would never allow such things to happen. I never knew a more honorable man. No; this is just some trick, to get me to return to Golgotha with you. Well, I'm not going. Hazel needs me."
    "The fate of all Humanity is more important than one woman! It is your duty to return with me."
    "Don't you dare use that word with me. I've given up more for duty than you could ever imagine! For once I don't care what other people want or need. My only real duty is to the one I love."
    Captain Rottsteiner stepped back a pace without taking his eyes off Owen, and then moved away from the airlock. "It was anticipated that you might prove difficult. I was therefore provided with an escort, to ensure that you do the right thing."
    He snapped his fingers crisply, and the crimson-armored figure of a Grendel
    alien stepped out of the airlock. The rain pattered loudly on its broad heart-shaped head as it moved slowly forward, flexing its steel-clawed fingers and smiling endlessly with its steel teeth. It came to a halt beside the Captain, and only then did Owen note the control yoke around its thick neck. The creature stood inhumanly still, all its attention fixed on Owen, silent and deadly and utterly disturbing. Owen stood very still too, careful to make no movement that might provoke it, staring steadily back so Captain Rottsteiner wouldn't guess how scared he really was.
    Owen had once fought a Grendel alone, with only his boost and his courage to sustain him, deep in the caverns below the Wolfling World before the Tomb of the Hadenmen. He'd been lucky to escape alive. He'd killed the awful thing, eventually, but had lost his left hand doing it. He still had nightmares, sometimes. But the Captain didn't know Owen was just a man again… He thought he was facing the legendary Owen Deathstalker, hero and miracle worker. Owen fixed the Captain with his best intimidating stare.
    "I just finished fighting a whole bloody army of these things. You might notice that I'm still here, and they're not. A wise man would derive a conclusion from that. Now get rid of your little pet, before I dismantle it into its respective parts, and make you eat them."
    The Captain paled slightly, but stood his ground. The Deathstalker he knew of old was almost certainly capable of such a thing, but the espers' Guild had assured Parliament and him that the Grendel would be able to handle the Deathstalker. They knew something about Owen, though they wouldn't say what.
    There'd never been any love lost between the espers and the Maze people. Captain Rottsteiner studied the Deathstalker carefully. He didn't look like he was
    bluffing… The Captain drew himself up to his full height, and reminded himself that God was with him.
    "I have been instructed to bring you back alive, Deathstalker, but not necessarily intact. You will return with me, one way or another. It is your duty to your fellow man, and to God."
    "And Hazel d'Ark?"
    "Is irrelevant."
    Owen looked at the Grendel. Eight feet of impenetrable armor, steel claws and vicious speed and strength.
    Owen had his gun and his sword, and his boost. He could take the creature. He'd done it before. Hazel was relying on him. He realized the captain's hand was hovering dangerously near the disrupter on his hip. So; shoot the captain first, and then go one on one with the Grendel. That made the odds even worse, but it wasn't like he had a choice. He took a slow deep breath, settling himself. He could do this. He could. Damn, he thought coolly. This is going to hurt.
    And then Vaughn, forgotten by everyone, lurched forward a step and pointed a stubby gray finger at the Grendel. Its yoke chimed loudly, and then chimed again. The creature twitched, and then shook as the yoke kept chiming. In seconds the Grendel was convulsing violently, in time to the continued chiming.
    Captain Rottsteiner went for his gun, only to find Owen already had his in his hand. The captain looked at the gun aimed at his belly, and stood very still.
    The Grendel shook and shuddered, the collar chiming so fast now it was an almost continuous tone. And then the Grendel's back arched, it threw up its arms, and fell rigidly backward onto the landing pad, like an oversized toy whose batteries had just run out. The yoke chimed once more, victoriously, and then was