Void Stalker Read Online Free

chains again, as if to make a point.
    ‘Ah, yes,’ said Variel. ‘Of course.’ He keyed in a code on his vambrace, deploying a circular cutting saw from his narthecium. The kiss of the saw along the chains was a high-pitched, irritating whine. One by one, the lengths of metallic binding fell free.
    ‘Why was I restrained?’
    ‘To prevent injury to yourself and others,’ explained Variel.
    ‘No.’ Talos focused on his retinal display, activating a secure vox-link to his closest brothers. ‘Why was I restrained here , on the bridge? ’
    The members of First Claw shared glances, their helms turning to face each other in some unknowable emotion.
    ‘We took you to your chambers when you first succumbed,’ said Cyrion. ‘But…’
    ‘But?’
    ‘You broke out of the cell. You killed both of the brothers standing guard outside the door, and we lost you in the lower decks for almost a week.’
    Talos tried to rise. Variel fixed him with the same glare he’d turned on the rest of First Claw, but the prophet ignored it. The Apothecary had been right, though. He felt as weak as a human. His muscles burned with cramps as blood trickled back into them.
    ‘I do not understand,’ Talos said at last.
    ‘Neither did we,’ replied Cyrion. ‘You’d never acted in such a way while afflicted.’
    Xarl took up the explanation. ‘Guess who found you ? ’
    The prophet shook his head, not knowing where to begin to make assumptions. ‘Tell me.’
    Uzas inclined his head. ‘It was I.’
    That would be a story in itself , Talos reckoned. He looked back at Cyrion. ‘And then?’
    ‘After several days, the crew and the other Claws began to grow uncomfortable. Morale, such as it is among we happy and loyal dregs, was suffering. Talk circulated that you’d died or were diseased. We brought you here to show the crew you were still among us, one way or the other.’
    Talos snorted. ‘Did it work?’
    ‘See for yourself.’ Cyrion gestured to the rapt, staring humans around the command deck. All eyes were upon him.
    Talos swallowed the taste of something acrid. ‘You made me into an icon. That treads close to heathenism.’
    First Claw shared a low chuckle. Only Talos was unamused.
    ‘Fifty-five days of silence,’ Cyrion said, ‘and all you have for us is displeasure?’
    ‘Silence?’ The prophet turned to look at each of them in turn. ‘I never cried out? I never spoke my prophecies aloud?’
    ‘Not this time,’ Mercutian shook his head. ‘Silence, from the moment you collapsed.’
    ‘I do not even remember collapsing.’ Talos moved past them, leaning on the rail ringing the central dais. He watched the grey world hanging in the void, surrounded by a dense asteroid field. ‘Where are we?’
    First Claw came to his side, forming up in a line of snarling joints and impassive, skullish facemasks.
    ‘You don’t recall your orders to us?’ Xarl asked.
    Talos tried not to let his impatience show. ‘Just tell me where we are. That is a familiar sight, yet I struggle to believe we truly stand before it.’
    ‘It is, and we do. We’re on the Eastern Fringe,’ said Xarl. ‘Out of the Astronomican’s light, and in orbit around the world you repeatedly demanded we travel to.’
    Talos stared at it as it turned with indescribable slowness. He knew what world it was, even though he could remember nothing of these events his brothers insisted had happened. It took a great deal more effort than he’d expected to resist saying the words ‘It cannot be’. Most unbelievable of all were the grey stains of cities scabbing over the dusty continents.
    ‘It has changed,’ he said. ‘I don’t understand how that can be true. The Imperium would never build here, yet I see cities. I see the stains of human civilisation scarring what should be worthless land.’
    Cyrion nodded. ‘We were just as surprised as you, brother.’
    Talos let his gaze sweep across the rest of the bridge. ‘To your stations, all of you.’ The humans