Hellworld (Deathstalker Prelude) Read Online Free PDF Page A

find any. We’re pretty much near the end of the recordings. If there were any other cities like this, we’d have come across them long before now.”
    “Switch to the viewscreen,” said Hunter. “I want full computer analysis of the recording. This has top priority until I tell you otherwise.”
    “Aye, Captain.”
    The alien city disappeared from Hunter’s eyes, and the control deck reappeared around him. After the haunting, mysterious views of the city, the Spartan Empire fittings had a comforting familiarity. The Investigator was already bent over the control panels, calling up more data. Hunter leaned back carefully in his webbing, and studied the alien city on the viewscreen. Now that the first flush of excitement had died down, he found that his skin was crawling, and he had to keep fighting down an urge to look away. The shapes of the structures were ugly, twisted … wrong, somehow. They made no sense. There was something actually unnerving about the alien shapes and angles. Whatever theories of architecture had produced the city, they followed no human patterns of logic or aesthetics.
    “How far away from us is it?” he asked, and was relieved to note that his voice sounded somewhat calmer.
    “Fourteen, fifteen miles. Walking distance. We could be there in a day.”
    Hunter looked sideways at Krystel, but didn’t say anything. She might see fifteen miles as walking distance, but he sure as hell didn’t. Fifteen miles? He scowled unhappily. He hadn’t walked that far since Basic Training. And he’d hated it then. He shrugged, and turned his attention back to the viewscreen. Something about the alien city nagged at him. It only took him a moment to realise what. The labyrinth of twisting streets appeared to be completely empty. Nothing moved in the city. Hunter studied the viewscreen for a long time, and then activated his comm implant.
    “Esper DeChance, this is the Captain. Please join me on the control deck immediately.”
    “Aye, Captain. On my way.”
    Hunter shut down his comm unit, and looked at the Investigator. “No life, no movement. Nobody’s home. What do you make of it?”
    “Too early to tell, Captain.” Krystel drew a slender, villainous-looking cigar from her sleeve pocket, and took her time about lighting it. “The city could be deserted for any number of reasons, few of them good. And anything alien is always potentially dangerous.” She looked at Hunter. “Strictly speaking, we ought to report this immediately to the Empire.”
    “But if we do that,” said Hunter, “we’ll have to wait till they send in an official Investigatory team. And that could mean a long delay before they send us any colonists… or the extra equipment that comes with the colonists. And we need that equipment.”
    “Yes,” said Krystel. “There is that. There’s only one choice open to us, Captain. We need more information, so we’re going to have to go there and take a look for ourselves. We need to know what happened to the city’s inhabitants, and why. If there’s anything on this planet deadly enough to wipe out an entire city’s population, we’d better find out all we can about it, before it comes looking for us.”
    “I couldn’t agree more,” said Hunter. “That’s why I’ve sent for the esper.”
    Krystel sniffed, and studied the glowing end of her cigar. “Telepathic evidence is subjective, and therefore unreliable.”
    “Espers have their uses. And I’ll trust a human mind over a computer any day.”
    The door behind them hissed open, and the esper Megan DeChance stepped onto the control deck. She was a short, wraithlike woman in her late thirties, with long silver-blond hair. Her eyes were green and very steady, and like the rest of her face, gave nothing at all away. She nodded once to Hunter and ignored the Investigator. Hunter’s heart sank. Traditionally, espers and Investigators didn’t get along. By virtue of their telepathy and empathy, espers tended to be