The Cyber Chronicles IV - Cyborg (13 page)

“
The cops?” Kole snorted and climbed to his feet. “Waste of
time. Those guys are long gone. What I can’t believe is that I was
just robbed while in the protection of a bloody cyber!”

“
I wasn’t protecting you,” Sabre said. “I was protecting
Tassin, and if you want valuables kept safe they need to be in my
keeping.”

“
You knew I had a lot of money! Why didn’t you see those guys
with your scanners, or whatever the hell it is you’ve
got?”

“
I did, but why would I be suspicious of four men on air-bikes
in a leisure club parking lot?”

“
They were armed!”

“
So were half the men in the club.”

The hacker
glared at him. “You saw four armed men on air-bikes coming at me at
high speed and you didn’t think that was suspicious? Were you born
yesterday?”

“
In a manner of speaking; and only two of them were
armed.”

“
Hey!” Tassin said. “Quit blaming Sabre, it wasn’t his fault.
You stomped off alone. If you’d stayed close to him you’d have been
safe, and now he’s hurt.”

Kole growled
and swung away, heading for the air-car again.

The journey
back to the ship was achieved in silence, and when they arrived
Kole vanished into his cabin and Sabre went into his. Tassin
followed and found him seated on his bunk, his trousers around his
ankles as he examined the wound in his thigh. He glanced up at her
entry, looking uncomfortable, presumably because of his state of
undress, although he still wore his undershorts. She sat beside him
and inspected the oozing red spot on his thigh and the blistered
skin around it, then looked up at him.

“
Are you okay?”

“
It’s just a laser burn; painful, but not serious.” He dug in
his medical kit and took out a tube of ointment.

“
Here, let me,” she said, taking it from him.

“
I can do it,” he assured her.

“
Well I want to help, okay?”

He leant back
while she smeared the ointment on the wound and stuck a dressing
over it. When she was finished, she replaced the ointment in his
medical pouch and studied him. Once again he looked ill at ease,
his eyes avoiding hers.

“
Thanks.” He stood up and donned his trousers. “I need a cup of
coffee. Want one?”

“
Sure.”

Sabre limped
into the galley, and she leant against a counter while he tapped
the instructions into the auto-chef.

“
How badly are your reflexes impaired?” she asked.

“
About fifty per cent.”

“
Have they improved at all?”

“
Not much.” He held out his hands, which still
trembled.

“
Maybe this neurologist can help you.”

“
Maybe, but he’s not a cyber technician.”

She frowned.
“You’re still human.”

“
Not entirely.”

“
Your brain is, surely?”

“
Mostly, except for the software in it… and the hardware. And I
think that’s what’s caused the problem.” He took two steaming cups
of coffee out of the auto-chef and handed her one. “Even if he
figures out what’s wrong, he won’t have the equipment to treat
it.”

“
But surely whatever will help a human brain to recover will
also help yours?”

“
I don’t know. Perhaps. Mine’s human, too.”

“
I didn’t mean -”

He smiled. “I
know.”

She blew on
her coffee. “Are you okay with telling him classified Myon Two
information?”

“
Sure, but I think it will get him killed.”

“
It’s the only way to get him to help you.”

He nodded and
sipped his coffee. “Yeah, he does seem to have a death wish.”

An awkward
silence fell, and Sabre leant against the opposite counter, sipped
his coffee and avoided her eyes.

“
I wish your memories would come back,” she blurted
finally.

“
Yeah, me too.”

“
You still don’t remember anything?”

He hesitated.
“I remember a desert… and a chestnut horse.”

“
Yes! That was on Omega Five, when we were fleeing from
Torrian.” Hope flared in her heart. “Anything else?”

“
No.”

Tassin put
down her cup and stepped closer to him, desperate to find a way to
jog his memory. Then things could go back to the way they had been
before he had left Omega. She placed a hand on his chest and raised
the other to stroke his cheek, surprised at her own boldness, which
the alcohol she had consumed bolstered. Sabre frowned at his coffee
cup, which he still held in front of him.

“
We went through so much together,” she said. “I lost count of
how many times you saved my life.”

He shot her a
wry smile. “I think that was my job.”

“
No. You were free. You chose to do it.” She leant against him,
wincing as her hand smarted, and ran her fingers along the scar on
his cheekbone. “We shared a lot. We were… close.”

He put his cup
down and cleared his throat. “I don’t remember.”

“
Have you tried?”

“
How do I try to remember stuff I can’t remember?”

“
You fought a monster on an alien world… a skifgar. We had a
friend in the Death Zone, called Purr, and a mutant girl, Dena.
She’s a princess now. She was about twelve then.” She traced the
scar on his cheek into his hair, where it continued as a line of
white amidst the dark gold. “You were trapped in a room once, with
no air, and I blew a hole in the wall with a sonlar and saved you.
Do you remember any of that?”

“
No. But I’m sure it will come back to me.”

“
I would have done anything to find you.” Her eyes grew moist,
and she cursed inwardly. She did not want to blubber all over him.
“I missed you so much… It’s so unfair that you don’t remember me
now.”

“
Sorry.”

“
It’s not your fault. I just wish things could go back to the
way they were, before, you know.”

“
Maybe this Shasen guy can fix me.”

She met his
eyes. “That’s not what I meant. You’re not broken; you just need to
try to remember.”

He looked
away. “I’ll try, okay? I think you should go and sleep now. You’ve
had too much to drink.”

“
I’m not -”

“
Hey, what’s going on here?” Kole stood in the doorway, his
hair sticking out in all directions, frowning at her.

“
Nothing.” She stepped away and leant against the opposite
counter, picking up her cup of coffee. “We’re just having
coffee.”

Kole snorted
and headed for the auto-chef, pushing past Sabre, who moved over to
sit at the table. Tassin gulped the rest of her coffee and escaped
to her cabin.

Sabre eyed
Kole when the hacker sat opposite. He found the emotions of his
shipmates confusing, to say the least. Undercurrents of tension
thickened the air, especially when Tassin was around, and Kole’s
embrace earlier seemed to have made it worse. Sabre was still
adjusting to his newfound freedom, and wished, like Tassin, that he
could remember his former life. His gratitude to her was immense,
but he knew she was disappointed in him for some reason, and
unhappy that he had no memory of her. He tried his best to please
her, yet she seemed to want more. His heart warmed in her presence,
and he knew, deep down, that she was important to him. Sometimes
his heart quickened when she looked at him, and, while he longed to
be with her, he also found her unnerving.

Kole sipped
his coffee. “What is it with you and her, huh?”

“
I don’t know what you mean.”

The hacker
shook his head. “The sad thing is, that’s the truth, isn’t it?
You’re clueless.”

“
I guess so.”

Kole leant
closer, his attitude belligerent. “She’s got feelings for you,
doesn’t she?”

“
I think she likes me, yes.”

“
Likes
you! You really think she would
have gone to as much trouble as she has to find and free you just
because she
likes
you?”

“
I don’t know. She said I saved her life a few times. Perhaps
she thought she owed me?”

“
Oh, she thinks she owes you, all right, but that’s not it,
either. Cybers save loads of people every day, and some women do
fall in love with them, despite Myon Two’s best efforts to prevent
it. Hardly surprising, really, when cybers are so good at
protecting and taking care of their owners, and they do exactly as
they’re told. For some women, that’s the perfect man, if they’re
not bothered by the lack of intelligent conversation or affection.
Difference is, you’re free, so you can give her those things, and
you’ve got a personality, of sorts. Presumably you had more of one
before, because you sure as shit don’t have much of one
now.”

He waved a hand. “Anyway, I reckon she does a lot more
than
like
you.
She’s got the hots for you, and that’s going to confuse the hell
out of you when it rears its ugly head, which it will, trust me on
that.”

Sabre frowned
at his coffee. “So what should I do?”

“
How the hell should I know? I’m not a bloody killing machine
with a girl who has the hots for him. You’ll just have to figure it
out, won’t you?”

“
I’m not really equipped to deal with human
emotions.”

Kole raised
his brows. “You’re not, huh? Nothing in your database?”

“
No.”

“
Come on, I was kidding. You don’t really have a database. Do
you?”

“
I do.”

“
No shit?” The hacker smiled. “At least there are some
drawbacks to being you, or you’d have everything, wouldn’t
you?”

“
You think being me is fun?” Sabre shook his head. “It’s not.
Whenever there’s shit, I’m the one who has to deal with it, and it
usually entails lots of pain and strain.”

“
Oh, I don’t think that will be a problem once you’re safe on
Omega Five with her, although getting back there with enforcers on
your tail will be a mission and a half. If they find out you’re
free of your control unit, they’ll never stop hunting you. You do
realise that, don’t you? Come to think of it, you won’t even be
safe on Omega Five unless you can get there without them knowing
about it. Even then, they’ll probably search there, and you won’t
be able to hide what you are from their cybers’ scanners. I doubt
the restrictions will stop them. All in all, I’d say the two of you
are royally screwed. And when they find out about Malatar… Well,
murder carries a death sentence on Myon Two. That was not a bright
idea.”

“
I had no choice,” Sabre said. “If I’d knocked him out and he’d
recovered while I was fighting the cyber he would have killed her,
and me. I didn’t even know if I was going to win the battle that
time. And even if everything had gone according to plan, if we’d
released him he’d have told them about me being free.”

“
You really think they won’t find out?”

“
Maybe not.”

“
Even if they don’t, it’s still illegal for a cyber to be on a
restricted world, and I’m sure your previous owner, this Manutim
guy, has told them where Tassin’s from.”

Sabre
considered this for a moment. “So what do you suggest we do?”

Kole sat back,
looking a bit smug. “Like I said, I reckon you’re up shit creek.
They’ll catch you eventually. They always do. Sad thing is, now
Tassin’s in the poo too because of you.”

“
Yes. Did you help her to find me?”

“
Yeah.” Kole sighed. “She’s a hard one to say no to, and I
never thought it would come to this. There was no harm in tracking
down a cyber and buying him. I wasn’t expecting that to go
pear-shaped. Even kidnapping a Cybercorp executive, while pretty
dumb, wasn’t all that idiotic, and I figured I’d just change my
identity and vanish again. But I never thought you could actually
get free, and now that you are and he’s dead… well, it’s a whole
new ball game.”

“
Will you help me?”

Kole stared at
him for a moment. “You… Ugh, sure. I’m already in the crap. I can
still disappear, though. It’s a big galaxy, and I’m just an
accomplice.”

Silence fell,
and stretched, while Sabre sipped his cooling coffee and fiddled
with his cup. Eventually curiosity got the better of him, and he
asked, “So… why do Tassin’s feelings for me bother you,
anyway?”

“
They don’t.” Kole rose and stomped out.

Sabre pondered
what the hacker had said. He already knew all about Myon Two and
enforcers, more than Kole, in fact, so nothing he had said about
them was news. He wondered what ‘the hots’ were, and why Tassin had
them for him. That she was grateful to him for saving her life in
the past, and had saved him because of it, made perfect sense. She
was clearly a sweet, kind girl who had gone to great lengths to
repay her debt, and he assumed that the warmth he experienced in
his chest in her presence was a symptom of the friendship they had
shared. It must have been strong for him to feel it even without
his memories of her.

It had all
added up until Kole had thrown doubt on it, and he knew the hacker
had lied about not being bothered by Tassin’s feelings for him.
Kole’s animosity apparently stemmed from the fact that Sabre was a
cyber, as the hacker’s comment about killing machines made clear.
Sabre had wondered about it, too. Why would a girl want a cyber for
a friend, even a free one? The only explanation was her gratitude,
and perhaps she still wanted, or needed, his protection, although
her current danger was due to the fact that she had freed him.
Perhaps she had not realised the kind of trouble she would get into
for doing it, since she came from a backward world, according to
his information on Omega Five. That she was now in so much danger
because of him depressed him.