The Cyber Chronicles V - Overlord (6 page)

"No."

"But..." He
raised a hand and fingered the brow band. "What about this?"

"You'll
surprise a good many people, but eventually you'll become known as
my agent, and people will know you for what you truly are. When you
go on missions, you'll have to be disguised, of course."

He turned to
face her. "What about Tassin? Can you protect her as well?"

"Of
course."

"Will you?"

"If you
want."

"I do."

"Very well. If
you agree to work for me, I will protect her."

He nodded.
"Then I accept."

"Good." She
smiled. "You will tell no one of my true identity. You may return
to your quarters for an hour. New clothes will be sent to you, and
then you'll be summoned. Be ready."

Sabre put down
his drink and stood up, and Ravian rose with a smile. She placed a
hand on his cheek. "I think we will become good friends, Sabre. I'm
glad you sent that distress message."

"So am I."

Ravian nodded
and lowered her hand, glancing down at the override she held, which
was half the size of a standard model. Sabre wondered what she was
going to do with it. She looked up at him again and smiled, then
held out the instrument that could render him unconscious in an
instant by sending a powerful stun pulse into his brain from a
special node on one of the implants. She took hold of his hand and
placed the override in it.

"Do with it as
you wish. Its purpose has been served."

"You trust
me?"

"Of course. I
have shared your feelings. The only time you would even consider
hurting me is if I was to harm Tassin myself, and even then you
would do as little harm as you could."

Sabre nodded,
frowning at the instrument, then closed his hand with a brittle
crunch and dropped the bits into an empty bowl on the table. Ravian
inclined her head and stepped aside.

A crewman
waited outside, but he merely turned and led the way back to the
rooms where the others waited.

Chapter Four

Tassin, Tarl
and Kole sat on the sofas in the lounge area, and looked up when
Sabre entered. Tassin jumped up with a glad cry and approached him.
Kole and Tarl rose too, studying him. Her welcoming smile faded
when she noticed the bandage on his hand.

"What happened?
How did you get hurt?" Her brows drew together. "Did he torture
you?"

"Who?"

"Overlord
Ravian, of course."

Sabre hid his
surprise. "No. You're all free. Tarl's death sentence is rescinded;
you and Kole are pardoned."

"That's
wonderful! What happened to your hand?"

Tarl came over
to inspect Sabre's hand. "Somebody did a good job of bandaging
it."

Sabre tugged it
free. "It's fine."

"How did you
hurt it?" Tassin demanded again.

"I punched
through a wall, okay? It doesn't matter."

"Why did you do
that?"

"I'm not
allowed to tell you."

Tarl said,
"Unless my eyes deceive me, these walls are duronium, probably a
centimetre thick."

"Two
centimetres; that’s why I hurt my hand."

"Right."

Tassin took
Sabre's uninjured hand and tugged him over to the chairs. "Tell us
what you can."

"I passed the
test, and Overlord Ravian has given me a job."

Her brows shot
up. "A job? Doing what?"

"As his agent,
and spy."

"Was it a
condition?"

"No."

"And you
accepted it?"

He nodded,
sinking into a chair. "I now have his protection. Myon Two can't
touch me."

"That's
wonderful," Tassin murmured, looking uncertain. "But doesn't it
mean you'll be travelling all over the universe?"

"Sometimes. The
rest of the time I'll be on Omega Five."

"Oh. Good." She
still looked unhappy. "Why did you accept it? I thought you wanted
to be left in peace."

He shrugged.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time. Overlord Ravian agreed to
protect you as well."

"You did it to
protect me?" Her eyes flitted over his face, and he looked away.
"You didn't have to do that. We would have managed. We don't need
his protection."

"Yes we do.
Myon Two knows our ship and where we're going now. What chance do
you think we'd have of reaching Omega Five?"

"We could have
left the ship and bought passage; used disguises."

"We can't buy
passage to Omega Five, and if we'd bought another ship the
enforcers would have been waiting for us. We'd never have made
it."

Tarl nodded.
"He's right. Now that they know our destination, we'd never have
got past them."

"He blackmailed
you," she said to Sabre.

"No, he gave me
a choice,” he replied. “He would still have let us go if I hadn't
agreed."

"Knowing full
well that you knew we'd never make it home on our own. What choice
is that? If he'd really wanted to help, he could have ordered the
enforcers to leave you alone, but he didn't offer to do that, did
he? Not unless you worked for him."

Sabre rubbed
his brow. "Why should he?"

"Because he
can! He must know now that what was done to you was wrong, and you
deserve his help without conditions attached to it."

"Everyone who's
helped me wanted something in return. Tarl wanted to assuage his
guilt and examine me, Kole wanted to impress you, and you..."

Tarl snorted,
Kole shook his head, and Tassin scowled. "Yes? What did I
want?"

"Me."

She opened her
mouth, probably to argue, then closed it, clearly stunned. Tarl
grimaced, and Kole, who leant against the back of a chair opposite,
shook his head again. "That's a bloody cold way of looking at
it."

"It's the only
way I know."

"Then you
should learn a different way, a human way, instead of analysing it
like a damned machine."

“
But I am part machine, and this is how I think."

Kole stepped
closer and bent to glare into Sabre's eyes. "Well, you're wrong. I
did it because I liked you and I wanted to help you, no other
reason."

"As did I,"
Tarl said. "I didn't know you well enough to like you, but helping
you had nothing to do with assuaging my guilt, which I knew it
wouldn't. As for examining you, I'll admit to some curiosity, but
that wasn't what motivated me. Sometimes people do things simply
because they want to. We don't always require some form of
reward."

Tassin said,
"How could you think so little of us? What's happened to you? Did
the Overlord do something to you? Did he poison you against
us?"

"No." Sabre
bowed his head and ran his hands through his hair, clasping the
back of his neck. A long, pregnant silence fell, and Kole flopped
down in another chair, frowning. The cyber raised his head, his
eyes sweeping over the three of them. "I don't understand."

"Understand
what?"

"Why anyone
could like me, or would want to help me without getting anything
out of it."

"You asked for
my help, remember?" Kole asked.

Sabre nodded.
"I knew we needed it."

"You have such
a low opinion of yourself that you have to find other, more
believable reasons for our help, don't you?" Tarl asked, frowning.
"You just can't accept the fact that we would do it purely out of
kindness or generosity."

"And you think
I'm a negative person," Tassin murmured.

"Pessimistic,"
Sabre corrected.

Tarl sat
opposite Sabre. "I understand." He glanced at Tassin. "This all
stems from years of conditioning, albeit unintentional. Sabre's so
used to being treated as a piece of equipment, he doesn't
understand anything else." He turned to the cyber. "If someone was
hurting me, would you help me?"

Sabre shrugged.
"Sure."

"Why?"

"Because you
needed it, I guess."

Tarl said, "If
someone was hurting an enforcer, he'd need help too. Would you help
him?"

"No. Enforcers
are the enemy."

"Okay, bad
example. A stranger, then. If you had to choose between helping me
and helping a stranger, and we were both in mortal danger, who
would you pick?"

"You."

"Why?"

"You helped
me."

Tarl sighed.
"Pure logic."

"I'm not an
idiot; I know what you're driving at. You want to know if I'd help
you because I like you, which I don't particularly, in any case.
But my feelings are beside the point; it's yours that are in
doubt."

"Only by you.
We all know we like you, hell, some of us feel more than that for
you. Why can't you just accept that?"

"Because it
makes no sense."

"Why not?"

Sabre glanced
at Tassin. "I accept that Tassin feels something for me. She must,
to do what she did to free me. But I'll never understand why."

Tassin placed a
hand on his arm. "Do you like me?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

He frowned. "I
don't know."

"Is it because
I helped you?"

"No."

Tarl leant
forward, his expression intent. "So you have no logical reason for
it."

"No."

"Then why can't
you accept that we don't need a logical reason for liking you?"

Sabre shook his
head. "Because... I'm not a real person."

"Because you're
a cyborg. A weapon."

"Yes."

Kole snorted.
"Well that argument doesn't hold up. I like my ship, and she's not
a person."

Tarl shot him a
glare. "You're not helping, Kole."

Sabre frowned
at Kole. "You like your ship?"

"Hell yeah,
she's -"

"Kole," Tarl
interrupted, "you're making things worse."

"No, that's
interesting," Sabre said, studying Kole. "What other inanimate
objects do you like?"

"My air-cars,
my apartment, my computers, hell even my bank account, all of which
I've lost, thanks to you."

"You blame me
for that?"

"Well, I guess
it's more Tassin's fault, since I was helping her to free you, but
yeah, you too."

"Kole..." Tarl
groaned, rubbing his face.

"Now that
you've been pardoned, you'll get it all back," Sabre said.

"Well good.
Great." Kole nodded, casting Tarl a confused look. "What's the
problem?"

The cyber tech
sighed. "I'm trying to persuade Sabre that he's a real person, and
that's why we like him, and you've just told him that you like
equipment."

"Oh."

Sabre said,
"But that makes more sense to me. If people can like -"

"You're not
equipment. You're a human being."

The cyber
fingered the brow band. "Is this human?"

"No, it's
-"

"Are
barrinium-plated bones human?"

"No, but -"

"Then how can I
be human? I'm only part human. The rest is machine."

"I know what
you are, damn it!" Tarl said, scowling. "Yes! You're a cyborg!
You're also a bloody human!"

"You don't have
to be human for someone to like you," Kole said. "Hell, some people
love their pets more than other -"

"Kole!" Tarl
jumped up and rounded on the ex-hacker. "Shut up!"

"Just trying to
help."

"Well you're
not!"

Sabre raised
his brows. "People love animals?"

"Yes, but
-"

"Why?"

"Some are good
companions, and they're affectionate. People usually reciprocate
when someone or something shows them affection."

"They're also
useful," Kole said. "And some will protect their owners -"

"Kole," Tarl
said, "one more word out of you, and I'll put your lights out, I
swear."

"What? It's
true."

Sabre
considered. "I thought people could only like, or love, other
people."

"Nah," Kole
said, eyeing Tarl. "People love money, gambling, alcohol,
holo-entertainment, hunting, fishing, skiing... all sorts of
things."

Tarl's hands
curled into fists, and he stepped towards Kole. Sabre jumped up and
blocked Tarl's path, placing a hand on his chest.

"I have to
learn these things."

"He's just
confusing you. It's not the same thing."

"Sure it is,"
Kole said.

"Perhaps you'd
like to explain obsession, infatuation and lust, too, Kole."

"Why don't you
just give him a bloody dictionary?"

Tassin stood
up. "Stop it, both of you. Leave us."

Kole smiled at
Tarl, his expression challenging, but headed for the
interconnecting door that led to the rooms next door. Tarl
followed, shaking his head and muttering under his breath. Sabre
turned to Tassin, who regarded him with deep sorrow.

"You really
don't understand these things, do you?"

He shrugged.
"How can I?"

She sat down
again and patted the chair beside her. "Sit down, and I'll try to
explain it."

He obeyed,
folding his arms. "Will it take long? Overlord Ravian needs me
soon, and I should bathe first."

"No, it won't
take long." She sighed, looking thoughtful. "People do love many
things, but it's different to what we feel for each other.
Friendship is a special bond, and Tarl and Kole consider you their
friend. They like and respect you, and you’re still human, just
with a few additional machine parts. You do know that, don't
you?"

"Actually, the
machine parts make me a cyborg."

"Do cyborgs
have feelings?"

"That would
depend on whether the human brain or the AI was in charge. Although
I have feelings, I'm not certain what they mean."

"Fair enough."
She studied his profile. "We care about you. It’s not because
you're useful, like a ship, or enjoyable, like a pet, or even
affectionate, which you're not, but because you're a good person,
and we enjoy your company."

He glanced at
her. "So much so that Tarl kept me asleep during the journey to
Omega Five, and you only woke me when there was a problem."