Deathstalker 02 - Deathstalker Rebellion Read Online Free PDF Page A

how can you achieve anything?"
    "I have never known my place, and I've achieved quite a lot. You'd be surprised what people can do, given a chance."
    Owen looked at her thoughtfully. "Hazel d'Ark. The d'Arks used to be nobility, not all that long ago. Do I detect just a little overreaction here? By someone just a little ashamed of their aristocratic roots? Surely, Hazel, you must feel some loyalty to the Iron Throne?"
    "Not one damned bit. The only soft spot I've got for the nobility would be a massive quicksand big enough to swallow the whole lot of them. I was never an aristo. I wasn't born a d'Ark; I stole the name when I was on the run and needed some false papers in a hurry. Mainly, because I liked the sound of it. I didn't want to risk my family finding me again or being sent back to them if I was rounded up."
    "You never talk about your family," said Owen. "Don't you ever miss them?"
    "No I bloody don't," said Hazel. "If I never hear from them again, that will suit me just fine."
    Owen chose his words carefully. "Did they… abuse you in any way?"
    "Oh, no. Nothing like that. They were just so bloody boring and nice I couldn't
    stand them. Their idea of a wild party was a wine and cheese tasting where you spit the wine out. I had to get away, see the universe, taste some life before I got old and gray like them. You know how it is."
    "Yes," said Owen. "I suppose I do. But I never had a chance to leave my Family.
    Too many duties and responsibilities. In the end they all left me, dying one after the other while I just stood by helplessly and watched it happen. There was never anything I could have done, but it didn't stop me feeling I should have done something.
    "The boost killed a lot of them while they were still children. Only a few in every generation survive its first onslaught. The price of our genetic gift.
    Which is why I am all the sons and daughters of my father's line. I'm pretty much all that's left of the Clan now. Apparently, they found some distant cousin to take over the Lordship in my place, but I'm the last of the direct line. When I die, my line dies with me. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Seems to me we did as much harm as good down the years, but then I suppose that's true of most of the Families. And above it all, my father, sacrificing me and everyone else in his endless schemes and intrigues… I never had a life of my own, ever since I was a small child. This mission is the nearest I've come to running away, to doing what I want to do instead of what my father planned. It feels very… liberating."
    He smiled suddenly. "You're right. I do tend to lecture people, don't I? One of the more socially acceptable vices of the scholar, I'm afraid. What were we talking about? Oh, yes, universal suffrage, even for the non-people. I really don't think you've been thinking this through, Hazel. If all the clones and espers were to be freed and enfranchised, the Empire itself would collapse. Its whole economy is based on the exploitation of clones and espers. They turn the
    wheels that keep things moving. Without them, everything would just fall apart.
    Food and power distribution would be disrupted, businesses would be in chaos…
    Civilization itself could be threatened. Billions of innocents would suffer."
    "No one's really innocent, if their lives of comfort are based on the suffering of others. If we have to tear civilization apart in order to put it back together again in a more just form, then that's what we'll do. Remember how horrified you were at how people lived on Mistworld? The appalling conditions and short brutal lives? Think how bad the lives of clones and espers in the Empire must be, if they're prepared to risk their lives just for a chance to flee to Mistworld. They're not second-class citizens, they're not even slaves.
    They're just property. Worked till they dropped, because there are always more to replace them. When I said tear it all down, I wasn't kidding.