The Cyber Chronicles V - Overlord (29 page)

Kernan broke
into Tassin’s thoughts. "I know you don't owe us an explanation,
but will you put us out of our misery and tell us how you pulled
that off?"

She considered
for a moment. "How much do you know about cybers?"

"A fair bit. I
served with a platoon that was led by a cyber during the Emron
conflict seven years ago. He gave me this." He indicated his
scar.

"Why did he do
that?"

"I disobeyed
him."

"And that
was... punishment?"

He shrugged.
"More like an example of what can happen to stupid human troops
when they disobey an officer."

"I didn't know
cybers were put in charge of humans."

"They make
excellent officers, but they're prone to expecting too much."

"What
happened?"

Kernan frowned
at his porridge. "We were in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. I
charged into a nest of them after he had ordered us to wait. I was
being gung ho. He saved my life and killed the lot of them, then
turned to me and said 'if you want to end your life, it's not hard
to do, soldier'." He imitated the flat, toneless speech of a cyber
to perfection, and Tassin glanced at Sabre.

"I swore at
him," Kernan went on. "Big mistake. I was a bit of a hothead back
then. So he filleted my face and sent me back to the medical
tent."

"Why couldn't
he just have ordered you to go back?"

Kernan shook
his head. "I had to be injured to leave the combat zone."

"So you don't
dislike cybers?"

"Hell no, I
respect the hell out of them."

"Don't you
think what's done to them is cruel?"

His brows rose.
"Cruel? How?"

"Being enslaved
by a machine."

"Well they have
no minds of their own, do they?"

Tassin lowered
her gaze to the grey sludge in her bowl, then looked at Tarl, who
shook his head. She said, "Well, if you want to know how we fooled
the sand runners, it's simple. I instructed the cyber to perform a
false transfer, and we used invalid codes and passwords, then he
sneaked out of the camp after dark."

Kernan's eyes
narrowed, and he studied Sabre. "Really. That would have worked,
except it's impossible."

"How so?"

"If it was,
don't you think every unscrupulous trickster would have done it by
now? Cybers won't do what you said. If the password's invalid,
they'll say so." Tassin spooned her porridge, avoiding his eyes,
and he nodded. "Okay, that's your story, and you're sticking to it.
Do you mind if I ask your cyber a question?"

"No."

Kernan
addressed Sabre. "Why did the cyber officer cut my face?"

Sabre ignored
him until Tassin told him to reply, then asked, "Why didn't you ask
the cyber who did it?"

"I never got
the chance; he was killed."

"He chose the
least important part of your anatomy."

"He could have
cut my chest, or my arm."

"There are
important muscles in those areas," Sabre said.

"He could have
avoided them."

"Then you would
not have been sufficiently injured to require medical
attention."

Kernan looked
thoughtful. "I guess so. Why did he save me?"

"Cybers are
trained to minimise casualties amongst their human troops during
battle. He considered you to be at risk."

Kernan pondered
that with a frown, then nodded and ate his porridge.

Tassin asked,
"How's Trina?"

"Asleep. I gave
her something to knock her out for a while. She needs to rest."

"I hope she'll
be all right."

"Yeah, me
too."

Trina emerged
from Kernan's cabin the next day, clean and dressed in a silk gown
that clung to her slight curves. Her hair was pulled back in a
severe bun and her eyes were haunted, but alert. Kernan hovered
over her as she made her way to the breakfast table, and she moved
carefully, which Tassin knew from experience meant that she had a
lot of bruises. Kaylar presented her with a plate of what looked
like meat and eggs, while the rest once again spooned a stickier
version of the grey paste.

Kernan sat
beside Trina and cut her meat for her as if she was child, gazing
at her with deep adoration. Tassin marvelled that such a tough,
strong man could be so obvious about his feelings, uncaring of what
people thought. It touched her, and she revised her opinion of him,
hoping that Sabre was taking notes.

Trina nibbled a
piece of meat and raised her eyes to study Tassin, who sat
opposite. Kernan introduced her, and she nodded at each of them in
turn, her gaze lingering on Sabre.

"Thank you for
saving me."

Tassin inclined
her head. "Our pleasure."

"You're all
good people."

"Thank
you."

Trina regarded
Sabre again. "Especially him."

Kernan coughed,
looking embarrassed. "He's not a person, sweetheart, he's a
cyber."

"What's
that?"

"Well... he's a
computer controlled clone."

Trina's eyes
focussed on the brow band. "That thing on his forehead?"

"Yes, that
controls him."

Her expression
became puzzled. "No it doesn't."

Tassin expected
Kernan to scoff at the girl’s announcement and argue with her, but,
to her surprise, he cast Sabre a disbelieving look. "It
doesn't?"

"No."

Kernan stared
at the cyber for several moments, then turned to Tassin. "Would you
like to explain?"

She shrugged,
concentrating on her porridge to cover her disquiet. "She's
mistaken."

"Trina's never
mistaken. If she says he's not controlled by the brow band, he's
not."

"How could she
possibly know something like that?"

"She's
special," Kaylar stated in a righteous tone.

"Special?"

Trina rose and
walked around the table to Sabre, who sat beside Tassin. He ignored
her, staring into space, and she stopped beside him and stroked his
face. Her fingers traced the thin scar that ran along his
cheekbone, then moved up to touch the brow band. Tassin was amazed
when he did not protest as he should have, had he been under cyber
control. Instead, he turned his head to gaze at the girl. She
smiled, and her eyes filled with tears that overflowed and ran down
her cheeks. Tassin glanced at Kernan, who watched them
open-mouthed.

Trina sank to
her knees beside Sabre's chair, her hand sliding down his chest in
a graceful gesture. She closed her eyes and laid her cheek on his
thigh.

"Thank you,
warrior."

Kernan strode
around the table, looking perturbed, but stopped when Sabre looked
up at him and said, "She's an empath."

Kernan nodded,
his eyes filled with confusion. "And you're not a cyber."

"I am."

"But you... you
can't be."

"He is," Tassin
said. "He's just not controlled by the brow band anymore."

Trina opened
her eyes and raised her head to smile up at Kernan. "He's a great
warrior, and his mind is pure, like flowers in spring or leaves in
autumn. Peaceful. Gentle. Beautiful."

Kernan opened
and closed his mouth several times, amazement and unease warring on
his face as he stared at Sabre.

Tarl chuckled.
"It's official, he's speechless."

"I am," Kernan
agreed. "It's supposed to be impossible."

"Well it's
not."

"Obviously. So
you told the truth about scamming the sand runners. This is the
only way it could work, but you didn't know that."

"I did," Tarl
admitted. "That's why it was guaranteed to fool them."

"A fool proof
ploy. But the brow band's still active."

"Only the
control circuit is damaged."

"So he still
has all his... scanners, infrared, tactical -"

"Everything,"
Tarl said, frowning. "And kindly stop speaking about him like he
isn't here."

"Sorry."

Trina rose and
slid her arms around Sabre's neck, kissing him on the cheek with a
tender smile. Kernan stepped aside as she returned to her chair and
sat down, gazing across the table at the cyber. After a moment,
Kernan followed and sat beside her, and she glanced at him.

"He's a good
person."

"He's..."
Kernan turned to Sabre. "Cyber hosts are supposed to be -"

Tarl snorted.
"Here we go again. Clearly they're not, are they?"

Kernan nodded.
"That's why you said it was cruel."

"And now do you
agree?" Tassin enquired.

"Yes.
Absolutely."

Chapter Nineteen

The
conversation died when Tassin walked into the dining room four days
later for breakfast. She paused, her smile becoming strained, then
went to her chair and sat down. Kaylar placed a bowl of porridge in
front her, and she picked up her spoon, noticing that the silence
had become pregnant.

"What is
it?"

Tarl shrugged.
"We've been talking, and... we've kind of decided to stay with
Kernan and his crew for a while."

Tassin paused
with her loaded spoon poised. "You're joking, right?"

"No."

"What do you
mean by 'a while'?"

"Until we
decide to leave."

Tassin glanced
at Trina, who sat beside Sabre, trailing her fingers down his arm
in an affectionate gesture. He studied his bowl of porridge. Tassin
had noticed that Trina had been spending a lot of time in his
company, often taking his hand and leading him away to be alone
with him. At first he had been reluctant, but she had seemed so
innocently friendly, and had looked so hurt when he had shown his
reluctance that he had gone with her.

Tassin had
thought it was a passing phase, born out of gratitude and her
apparent enjoyment of his company, which would be good for Sabre,
she surmised. Trina had done the same with Tarl, luring him away
with gentle smiles and coy looks, showing him an unusual amount of
affection. Whenever she entered a room, she hugged and kissed all
the men in it, only smiling at Tassin. At first Tassin had found it
charming and innocent, but it had started to annoy her, and now
this.

"Who do you
mean by 'we', Tarl?"

"Me and
Sabre."

Tassin frowned
at Sabre. "What about going home?"

"I like it
here."

"Oh really.
You'd rather be cooped up on this rust bucket than back home with
me and Dena?"

"That's your
home, not mine," he said.

"I thought it
was the closest thing you've ever had to one."

"Maybe, but
it's still not my home."

"So is this
your home now?"

He inclined his
head, toying with his porridge. "It could be."

"Have you gone
mad?"

"We want to
stay with Trina," Tarl said.

"With Trina?"
Tassin eyed the girl. "Why?"

"She's a
special person, and she needs our protection."

"From
what?"

"Anything. Like
what happened to her on Endroad. We won't let that happen
again."

Tassin ate her
cooling porridge. "I see. So does anyone care about what I
want?"

"Of course we
do!" Trina cried, gazing earnestly across the table. "What do you
want?"

"I want to go
home."

"Then you
shall. We'll find you a ship on Toron and a pilot to fly you
home."

"I want Sabre
to come with me."

Trina looked
sad. "But I want him to stay with me, and he wants that too. You
wouldn't want to make us unhappy, would you?"

"What about my
happiness?"

"Oh, you'll be
fine once you're back home with your friends and family."

Tassin put down
her spoon, her appetite gone. "No, I won't! I left my home to find
Sabre and free him, and I didn't do all that and risk my life just
so he could stay with you."

"But that's
what he wants. Is he your slave? Does he belong to you now because
you helped him to get free?"

"No, of course
not. I... We’re friends. Good friends. Very good friends. This
doesn't make any sense."

Kernan and
Kaylar swapped a surprised, shocked look. Pryan's mouth fell
open.

Tassin glared
at them. "What, that surprises you? Did you think we were just
acquaintances? We share a cabin."

Trina smiled.
"But you're not lovers. He's had a change of heart. If you care
about him, you'll let him go."

"No, I care
about him enough to fight for him, and I don't know what you've
done to him, but it's unnatural. It's like you've taken control of
his mind."

Trina gave a
trilling giggle. "What a strange thing to say. Sabre loves me now,
so does Tarl. We all love each other."

Tassin glanced
at Tarl, who looked away, then at Kernan, who met her gaze with a
bold stare, his expression stern. Kaylar wore a righteous smile,
and Pryan looked confused, muttering under his breath. She tried to
hear what he was saying, but could not make out the words, only
that he was repeating the same phrase over and over. The strange
musical chairs atmosphere that had been building over the last four
days had come to a head, Tassin realised, and she was the odd one
out.

She stood up.
"Sabre, I want to speak to you, alone."

He started to
get up, but Trina clasped his shoulder, and he sank down again,
frowning.

"He doesn't
want to speak to you," she said, smiling.

Tassin marched
around the table and stopped beside Sabre. "Yes he does. Get your
hand off him."

"Now that's no
way to speak to Trina," Tarl remonstrated.

"Bugger Trina.
This is madness, and you know it."

"I don't know
anything of the kind. We've made a decision, and we're sorry if you
don't like it. No one will hurt you, but if you want to leave,
that's fine."

Tassin looked
down at Sabre. "I want to talk to you, now."

Trina stroked
his hair in a possessive manner that set Tassin's teeth on edge.
"Leave him. You're upsetting him."