The Cyber Chronicles IV - Cyborg (8 page)

“
What are those?”

“
Cosmic dust clouds, or asteroid clouds. You don’t want to get
caught in one of those if you value your ship and your life.
Luckily, photon corridors never go near them, or vice
versa.”

“
Entering corridor X436-32,” Striker murmured.

There was
nothing to indicate they had entered any sort of corridor, but
Tassin waited to see what would happen next. A few minutes passed,
then the ship said, “Deploying solar wings.”

Tassin gasped
as two brilliant, scintillating filigree webs sprang into being on
either side of the ship, visible in the rearmost corners of the big
window. They glowed faintly blue, and flashes of paler hues ran
along them in regular wave patterns. They looked like nets made
from spun diamond, she thought, and were by far the most beautiful
things she had ever seen.

Kole smiled.
“Pretty, huh?”

“
They’re spectacular.”

“
Approaching light speed,” Striker said.

A moment
later, the window filled with blinding light, and then darkened,
dulling the brilliance to a faint blue glow. She stared at it.
“What causes that?”

“
We’ve just overtaken light. Now it’s all flying back past us,
so it’s really really bright. The screens dull it, though, or it
would blind us. Come, that’s all the excitement for now. I could
use a drink.”

In the lounge,
she found Sabre seated on the sofa, sipping what looked like a
thick nutrition drink. She sat beside him and accepted the glass of
something pink and fizzy that Kole handed her. It tasted a bit like
cherries.

Chapter Four

Tassin gazed
around at the bio dome on the Drellin Moon, wondering how anyone in
their right mind would want to live there. Then again, no one said
this Trevare character was sane. Even Kole had his foibles. Striker
stood behind them in the hangar section of the bio dome,
fortunately small enough to fit in the gargantuan hangar.
Disembarking had taken a few minutes, and Kole had explained that
they had to wait for air to cycle in before he could open the
ship’s outer door, then he had led the way outside. Sabre stood
behind her as usual, staring into the distance. Beyond the
semi-transparent dome, a harsh, cratered grey lunar surface
stretched away to the horizon. The faint haze of a slight
atmosphere coloured the sky a dull grey, but she doubted it was
breathable, hence the bio dome. A few plants grew in pots beyond
the translucent wall ahead of them, where corridors stretched away.
The shadowy forms of several people approached the wall, and the
door in it opened.

A tall, thin
man with a bland face and a shock of red hair, who looked about
Kole’s age, led in a trio that comprised two women and a short,
stocky man. They all wore dark blue one-piece suits with red
emblems on the chests, and the tall man approached, grinning at
Kole.

“
Kole! You old bugger! It’s good to see you!”

The hacker
stuck out his hand. “Trevare old pal, glad you could accommodate
me.”

“
What are buds for, hey?” Trevare wrung Kole’s hand and slapped
him on the back, then glanced at Tassin, his brown eyes twinkling.
“And you brought company!”

“
Yeah, this is Tassin.” Kole said. “She’s in a bit of a bind,
too.”

“
Same bind as you, huh?” Trevare shook her hand, his grip firm.
He gestured to the trio behind him. “These are Ellis, Mag and
Botham.”

The two pretty
young women had brown hair, green eyes and sharp features, and
might have been sisters. The young man was rather rotund, with dark
hair and blue eyes in a refined face that would have been handsome
if not for the excess weight. Everyone shook hands with everyone
else, and then Trevare led the way into the corridor beyond the
hangar, which took them into a sizeable atrium filled with plants,
birds and insects, where a curvy wrought iron table and six chairs
stood. The girls went off to fetch refreshments, and the rest of
the little party settled on the chairs. Trevare eyed Sabre, who
took up a guard stance behind Tassin.

“
So, you have a cyber. For protection?” he asked
Tassin.

“
No. I’m going to free him.”

Trevare
snorted. “Wow. That’s quite an ambition.”

She glanced up
at the cyber. “Sabre, sit down.”

He settled in
the chair beside hers, his back ramrod straight.

Trevare turned
to Kole. “So, who have you pissed off this time?”

“
Cybercorp.”

“
No way!” Trevare laughed. “How the hell did you do that? You
didn’t hack them, did you?”

“
Nah, I’m not an idiot. Tassin’s in trouble with them, and she
was staying at my apartment. Now I’m in the poo too.”

“
So for once you didn’t cause the shit. Can’t say I blame you,
though.” He chuckled and looked at Tassin. “How did you manage to
piss off Myon Two?”

Tassin
explained her suspicions about Manutim, and Sabre’s past.

Trevare leant
forward, clearly intrigued. “So he was free before?”

“
Yes. But now he’s been back to Myon Two for repairs and he
doesn’t seem to be able to free himself anymore.”

Trevare looked
disappointed, and sat back as the girls returned with two trays,
one laden with bright drinks, the other covered with plates of
finger food. They handed out the drinks, offered everyone the
finger food and sat down. One had to go and fetch another chair.
After checking that it was non-alcoholic, Tassin gave Sabre a glass
of the juice and a plate of sandwiches.

Trevare turned
to Kole. “So what do you need?”

“
Just access to the Net so I can set up a new alias and
transfer my funds.”

“
No problem! Wait till you see my setup, you’ll be green with
envy.”

Kole smiled.
“You’ve never seen mine.”

Tassin sipped
her fruity drink and listened to the two hackers chat, not
understanding most of talk about computers and systems, data
storage and other strange stuff. The girls soon grew bored and
wandered off, and the plump young man listened to Kole and Trevare
raptly. Evidently he was an apprentice or something, learning from
a master, hence his subservient attitude and close attention to his
mentor’s words. Tassin yawned and glanced around, her eyes drooping
after the excitement of the chase on Ferrinon Four and the
seven-hour trip.

“
Tassin!” Trevare said, making her jump. “Sorry, you must be
bored stiff listening to us ramble on about technical shit. Botham,
show her to a guest room. We dine at eight. Botham will show you
the dining room. We’re very informal around here.”

Tassin smiled
and thanked him, following Botham to a comfortable room furnished
with a largish bed, two plain brown chairs and a bedside table with
a lamp on it. A bathroom led off it, and she showered, wishing she
had clean clothes. When she emerged, wrapped in a towel, Sabre
stood in a guard stance beside the bathroom door, his eyes closed.
He opened them when she passed him, but he probably needed to
sleep, she guessed, only the cyber would not let him. She cursed
her thoughtlessness in forgetting that the cyber would force him to
stand guard unless she ordered him to relax. The sword lay on the
bed, and she pushed it under it, out of sight.

“
Sabre, you are off duty. Go and shower.”

The cyber
vanished into the bathroom, and soon the hiss of running water came
from it. Tassin sat on the bed and brushed her hair, drying it. Ten
minutes later, he emerged clad only in his shorts, his clothes
draped over his arm, and proceeded to hang them up on the chair
backs. They appeared to be clean and damp, and she asked him how he
had washed them.

“
There is an auto washer in the bathroom.”

“
Show me.” She picked up her clothes and went into the
bathroom. Sabre followed and indicated a white, metre-square device
on the wall that she had assumed was a water heater. He opened the
door and took her clothes from her, hanging them up inside, then
turned a dial and pushed a button. The auto washer hummed, and she
turned to find herself nose to chin with him. He stared over her
head, and she gripped the brow band and pulled his head
down.

“
Look at me,” she said. “I know you can hear me.”

Sabre closed his eyes in a slow blink, and when he opened them
again, they were focussed on her face.
She
gasped,
and her heart pounded. Several of
the brow band’s lights flickered red, then turned green again, and
his eyes glazed. Only some of her joy ebbed away, however. It
proved he could hear her and was able to respond, even if only for
a split second. She took his hand and led him back into the
bedroom. Sitting on the bed, she patted the covers beside her, and
he sat down. Tassin leant closer, trying to gaze into his eyes, but
they stared through her.

“
Sabre. I want you to try to get free. You hear me? You can get
free. You did it before and you can do it again. I crossed the void
to find you, just as I promised, and now you need to free yourself.
I never gave up, and you must not, either. Free yourself! I know
you can do it. Try!”

As she spoke,
it seemed to her that the awareness in his eyes increased, as if he
could hear her calling from far away and sought to swim up from the
bottom of a dark pool. She stroked his cheek, hoping her touch
would help to stimulate his imprisoned psyche.

“
Come on, Sabre, please try,” she said.

“
Order not understood.”

Tassin’s
breath caught as several of the brow band’s lights turned red,
including the seventh control light, which flashed. A few seconds
later, the sixth control light flashed, then turned red, and she
chewed her lip. The fifth control light flashed red, then turned
green again, and her heart sank. The control unit was fighting
back. The fifth control light flashed and turned red. Sabre’s brows
drew together and his hands snapped up to grip the brow band. She
recoiled as his spine arched and he keeled over backwards. He slid
to the floor, his lips drawn back in a grimace of pain and his eyes
screwed shut. He hauled on the brow band, his fingers whitening
under the strain. Muscles bulged on his chest and arms, and his
breath came in harsh gasps. He rolled sideways as his back arched
again, his face twisted.

Tassin’s heart
hammered with excitement and anguish. Sabre groaned, a sound of
intense pain that made tears flood her eyes, and she stood up and
stepped back as he writhed, his brows knotted and teeth gritted,
muscles writhing in his jaw as he struggled against the
micro-supercomputer in the brow band. The sixth control light,
which his hands did not hide, turned red and flashed. Then Sabre
convulsed once more as all seven control lights flashed three times
in unison and turned green. He slumped, releasing the cyber band.
The rest of the brow band had regained its normal configuration.
His eyes opened, unfocussed, and he sat up.

She shook her
head in numb disbelief. “No… Sabre… God, what have they done to
you? Damn them!”

Tassin bowed
her head, brushing away the tears that trickled down her face. Myon
Two had done something that made it impossible for him to get free,
just as he had said they would.

****

Kole’s smile
faded at her expression when she entered Trevare’s computer room
the next morning, and he looked concerned.

“
What’s happened?”

“
Myon Two has done something to Sabre. He can no longer get
free of the cyber.”

His eyes
flicked past her to the cyber who had followed her in. “He
tried?”

“
Yes, last night, but that damned…
thing
stopped him. It shocked him
into submission or something. He had a seizure.”

Trevare
swivelled his chair to face her. “If he could free himself before,
and went back to Myon Two for repairs, you can be quite sure they
fixed him so he can never get free again. A free cyber is, like,
their biggest fear. In the early days, their detractors used to say
it would happen one day. A cyber would get free and go on a killing
spree. So if your guy could get free…”

“
He could, but now he can’t. I have to find a way to fix
it.”

“
Have you tried asking him?”

“
He can’t tell me when he can’t get free.”

Trevare
nodded. “No, I don’t mean the host, I mean the control unit.”

“
I’m sure it will be classified, like every other aspect of
cyber design.”

“
But it’s not part of cyber design, is it? It was a repair,
and, as the new owner, surely you have a right to know the
maintenance history of your unit?”

Tassin glanced
around at Sabre. “I don’t know.”

“
What harm can it do to try?”

“
None, I guess. What do I say?”

“
Just ask him. The AI is designed to be extremely user
friendly.”

“
I bet it’s a software patch,” Kole murmured. “The brow band is
a sealed unit. There’s no way they could have repaired the
hardware.”

Trevare smiled
at him. “I agree.”

“
Sabre, come here,” she said.

The cyber
approached and stopped before her, assuming a guard stance. Trevare
pushed a spare chair over to her, and she sank onto it, gazing up
at Sabre.

“
Cyber, have you ever been repaired?” she asked.