Ghostworld (Deathstalker Prelude) Read Online Free

stardock’s facilities.”
    Silence nodded slowly. “Worst-case scenario?”
    “If I can’t repair the hull, we’re not going anywhere, Captain. You could, of course, always call down another pinnace from the Darkwind , but there’s no guarantee it would arrive here in any better condition than us.”
    “Wait a minute,” said Stasiak. “You mean we’re stranded here?”
    “Ease off,” said Ripper quickly. “That was a worse-case scenario. Things aren’t that bad. Yet.”
    “I have some questions of my own, Captain,” said the Investigator coldly. “This planet is officially listed as a scorched world. Nothing is supposed to live here anymore. But something was trying to kill us in that storm, even if our sensors couldn’t pick it up. And you knew what it was. You recognised it. I represent the Empire in all matters concerning alien species, and I demand an explanation. What was that in the storm?”
    “The Ashrai,” said Silence.
    “But they’re dead. Extinct.”
    “Yes. I know. I told you the situation was complicated.”
    “So what the hell was knocking the crap out of us on the way down?” said Stasiak. “Ghosts?”
    Silence smiled slightly. “Perhaps. If ever a planet was haunted by its past, Unseeli is.” He hesitated, then looked quickly from one face to another. “Did any of you … feel anything, sense anything, on the way down?”
    “Yeah,” growled Stasiak. “I felt sure we were all going to be killed.”
    Ripper shrugged. The Investigator scowled for a moment, and then shook her head. Silence looked at the esper. “What about you, Diana? What did you sense?”
    The young esper studied her hands, which were clasped tightly together in her lap. “They could have killed us all. Our force screen couldn’t keep them out, and our guns couldn’t hurt them. But at the last moment they looked at me and turned away. I don’t know why. Do you know why, Captain?”
    “Yes,” said Silence. “Because you’re innocent.” He raised a hand to forestall any further comments or questions. “All right, pay attention. This mission was put together in something of a hurry, so you haven’t had much in the way of a briefing. That’s at least partly because no one really knows what’s going on here. And partly because I wanted you to come to this with open minds.
    “Ten years ago, the Empire discovered that Unseeli was rich in important metals, and started mining operations. The main indigenous species, the Ashrai, objected strongly. They rose in rebellion against the Empire, aided by a traitor from within the Service, a man who turned against his own kind. The Empire troops were vastly outnumbered, and no match for the sheer ferocity of the Ashrai, even with their superior Empire weaponry. But they couldn’t afford to lose. The metals were too important. So they retreated offworld, called in the starcruisers, and scorched the whole damn planet from pole to pole. The metal trees survived unharmed. Nothing else did. Mining resumed soon after.
    “But that’s not all of the story. The trees are not just trees. They cover ninety per cent of the planet’s surface, and are one hundred per cent metal. They contain no organic matter at all, but they are quite definitively alive. These trees were grown, not sculpted. Their roots draw metals from deep within the planet, isolating the heavy metals and storing them within their trunks. We don’t know how they do this. There is reason to believe the trees were genetically engineered. Certainly it strains credulity that something so amazingly useful could have evolved entirely by chance. Especially when you consider that the particular heavy metals these trees store are ideally suited for powering a stardrive. Given the scarcity of such metals, you can understand why the Empire was prepared to do absolutely anything to ensure that the mining of Unseeli’s unique forest could continue uninterrupted.”
    “Hold it,” said Frost. “Are you saying the