The Cyber Chronicles VI - Warrior Breed (18 page)

"I'm commander
of the ship, and I say she stays."

Tisha's eyes
glinted. "You insult me."

"I don't care,
and don't change the bloody subject. What did Diarda order you to
do to me?"

"Nothing."

"So, you want
to do this the hard way." Sabre put down his drink and leant
forward to pick up the fist-sized chunk of pink crystal Tassin had
brought for his demonstration to frighten Tisha. It was part of an
old power core, and extremely hard, so much so that he wondered if
his little show would backfire. He hefted it. "Could a Trykon man
crush this, do you think?"

Tisha snorted.
"No man could crush that."

Sabre wondered
if she might be right, and wished Tassin had found something a
little less hard. Tarl had claimed that a cyber could crush rocks,
however, and he suspected that she wanted to see him do it. He
settled the crystal comfortably into his palm, turning it so that
no jagged edges would cut his skin. The cyber flashed a warning in
his mind, and a readout showed him the strength of the stone and
the optimum crushing ability of a cyber, which was insufficient.
According to the cyber's information, he would fail.

Sabre almost
put the crystal down, but the cyber's data was based on the
abilities of an average A-grade host, so it might still be
possible. The margin of insufficiency was small. Setting his
fingers, he gripped the stone and squeezed. His knuckles whitened,
and the tendons on the back of his hand stood out like bars under
his skin, the thin scars becoming more prominent. The muscles in
his forearm bulged, and his biceps strained at his sleeve. Tisha
leant closer, her gaze intent, and Tassin bit her lip. The flesh of
his fingers and palm flamed with pain as it was crushed, and cold
sweat popped out on his brow. He strained with all his might, but
his effort seemed doomed to failure, and he put one last bit of
strength into it.

The crystal
burst, spraying dust and chunks, and his hand closed on the jagged
remains, which sliced into his palm. Sabre cursed and dropped the
pieces, shaking his hand.

"Shit."

Tisha gasped,
her eyes wide, and Tassin looked stunned. Sabre jumped up and went
into the washroom, where he held his burning hand under the tap and
picked shards of crystal from his palm. When he was satisfied that
he had removed them all, he wrapped a towel around it and returned
to flop back onto the couch, shooting Tassin an accusing look.

"A piece of
stone would have been better. That stuff's sharp."

"Where was I
supposed to find stone on a spaceship?"

"Good point."
He sighed and picked up his glass with his left hand, taking a
gulp. Tisha stared at the bits of crystal on the table and carpet,
her expression disbelieving. Sabre put down his glass and held out
his left hand to Tisha.

"Give me your
hand."

She snatched
them away and hid them in her lap. "No."

"Tell me what
Diarda ordered you to do."

"No. I
can't."

"You're
commander of the women now. You can do whatever you want."

"I won't
betray her."

Sabre lunged
across the table and grabbed Tisha's right hand, foiling her
attempt to evade him. Sitting back down, he held her hand just
firmly enough to prevent her from tugging it free, and she soon
realised that her efforts were futile.

Sabre gazed
down at her slender hand. "You have lovely hands. It's a shame.
What do you think this one will look like after I've done to it
what I did to that crystal?"

"You
wouldn't."

"How do you
know that?" He cocked his head. "Do you know me so well?"

She jerked a
dagger from her belt with her free hand and held it close to her.
"I won't let you."

"Ah. Now
that's just going to earn you a few slaps. Put it away."

"No, I won't
allow you to torture me. I'll fight."

"Brave girl,
but it won't do you any good. Haven't you figured it out yet? I'm
at least four times stronger than a normal man, and my reflexes are
measured in milliseconds. A normal man's are about point two of a
second. Even a trained fighter is in the hundredths of a second
range."

Tisha
shuddered. "What are you? That's what Diarda wanted to know. How
you came to be able to beat our commander, despite your lack of
stature."

"What
else?"

"Nothing, I
swear."

"Why did she
want to know that?"

Tisha shook
her head. "She didn't say, but probably so we could train warriors
like you."

Sabre released
her hand and sat back. "Impossible."

"Why?"

"Would you be
prepared to inject your sons with muscle enhancers and growth
hormones from early childhood, put them through a twelve-year
training regimen that will kill forty per cent of them, use
electric shocks to speed up their reactions, and splice their genes
with alien DNA?"

"No, that's
barbaric." Her mouth twisted.

"That's the
short version of what was done to me."

"Who did it to
you?"

"Barbarians,"
Tassin muttered.

Tisha glanced
at her. "Did you help him to escape these people? Is this the debt
he owes you?"

"Well, that
got around quickly," Sabre murmured. "Yes, she freed me."

"With the help
of the two men?"

"No. They
helped later."

Tisha studied
Tassin. "I understand now why she's so important to you."

Tassin moved
closer to Sabre and took his injured hand, unwrapping it to examine
the cuts. "If I'd known you were going to hurt yourself, I'd never
have let you crush that crystal."

He shrugged.
"It worked."

"The
information wasn't important enough."

"We didn't
know that."

Tisha looked
puzzled. "Why couldn't you escape these barbarians without her
help? With your abilities, how could they keep you prisoner?"

"The brow band
contains a micro-supercomputer that used to control me. I was a
slave."

"You were a
cyber host," Tassin corrected.

"Same
thing."

"How vile,"
Tisha murmured.

"Right, well,
now you can run along and tell Diarda what you found out."

"You don't
want me to stay?"

"No. I don't
want you as my spouse. I only did it to humiliate Diarda and strip
her of her rank."

"And to
humiliate me with your lack of interest."

"That
too."

Tisha rose and
left, looking subdued, and Tassin fetched the medical kit. After
she had sprayed antiseptic on his cuts and bandaged his hand, she
moved closer and ran her fingers down his cheek. Sabre turned his
head and smiled, but was a little forced.

"Are you all
right now?" she asked.

"Yeah,
fine."

"No, you're
not."

He sighed. "If
you know, why ask?"

"I was hoping
for the truth, and perhaps a reason why."

"I'd rather
not discuss it, especially with you."

"Why?"

"I don't think
you'd understand."

She cocked her
head. "It has something to do with me, doesn't it?"

"Just leave it
alone." Sabre jumped up and strode towards the door, but she got
there before him and blocked it.

"If you would
just propose, we could get married now. We don't have to wait until
we're back on Omega."

He closed his
eyes for a moment, then frowned at her. "Is that what you
want?"

"You know it
is."

He drew her
into his arms. "Then you're a fool."

"I don't care.
Why am I a fool to want to marry the man I love?"

"You're a fool
to love me."

"Why?"

"Because I'm a
damned cyborg, you bloody little idiot."

She drew back
to look up at him, but he avoided her eyes. "What has that got to
do with it?"

"Everything.
I'm not normal. I'm so far from normal it even scares me."

Tassin shook
her head. "There’s no such thing as ‘normal’. Everyone is unique,
and you were born human -"

"I wasn't
born. I was incubated in an artificial womb. They opened it and
took me out when I was ready, like a loaf of bread. That's not
being born."

"It is, in a
way."

"A normal baby
listens to its mother's heartbeat while it's growing in her womb,
and she holds it when it's born..." He raised his head and stared
across the room. "But this is beside the point."

"Then tell me
what the problem is. Or would you rather talk to Tarl about it?
Maybe he knows the answer."

"Hell no."
Sabre swung away and went back to the couch. "He always has a
bloody answer. I think he makes them up as he goes along. I’ll
figure out, so leave it alone, okay?”

“
No. I’m going to ask Tarl, if you won’t.”

“
Tassin… He doesn’t know everything.”

“
He knows more than I do, and I want to know what he knows.”
She headed for the door.

Chapter Twelve

Tarl frowned
at her. "He's damaged. When are you going to get that through your
brain?"

"Explain it to
me."

"I just did. Let me do it again.
He's
damaged
."

Tassin glared
at the ex-cyber tech, who lay on his bunk, propped up with pillows,
his legs crossed. He had been reading a vidbook when she came in,
and had listened to her question with patent annoyance.

"He’s
confused, that's all."

He put down
the vidbook. "Yeah, that's the understatement of the century."

"Explain it to
me."

"It won't do
any good."

"He's human.
There must be a way to help him," she said.

"Actually,
that's where you're wrong."

“
What do you mean?”

Tarl glanced
at the vidbook and switched it off. "You won't understand."

"Please."

He sighed.
"Okay, listen carefully, because this is going to confuse the hell
out of you. The supercomputer we call the cyber is the most
advanced thinking machine ever designed. It learns at an
astonishing rate, and has a computing ability that only increases
as it learns. Once it learns something, it never forgets, and the
information is stored in the host brain, which is essentially
biological random access memory. It's a cold, unemotional, logical
thinking machine. You with me so far?"

Tassin nodded,
trying to keep the confusion off her face.

He looked
thoughtful, tapping his chin. "How to explain this in simple
terms... He can function very well as a free man. He can cope with
almost any situation, but he doesn’t think like a man, because he’s
programmed. Now he’s discovering such weird and wonderful things as
emotions, and sensations like pleasure. Such things are not only
totally alien to him, they're scary, and some are scarier than
others. He's done well so far, but the hurdle he's faced with now
is huge. That's why I advise you not to try to get him over it. Who
knows what's on the other side?"

"What do you
mean?"

Tarl picked up
a food bar from the bedside table and tore off the wrapper. "I'm
talking about psychosis. Look, he's got some normal instincts, and
then he's got a huge computer-induced brain block when it comes to
human relationships. Sorry, I hate to rain on your parade." He tore
off a mouthful of chewy fruit-flavoured paste and masticated
noisily.

"You could
help him. You could explain this to him. If he understood it -"

"No. He's
shoved me around quite enough, thank you. He's getting a bloated
head, and he's becoming a bully. You explain it to him; maybe he'll
try to shove you through a wall."

"He's never
hurt you. He wouldn't. He just finds you annoying, and he hates
what you are."

"Yeah, I know
all about him. That's what he really doesn't like."

"All right,
tell me how to help him."

Tarl waved the
food bar. "How the hell should I know? There haven't exactly been
any cybers who've got free and become normal."

"You must have
some idea."

"As far as I
know, it can't be done. Look, he thinks like a machine. You figure
it out. He's got feelings, yeah, and you've labelled them, so now
he knows what they are, but he’s like a child in many ways. Don't
get me wrong, I love the guy; he's great. Just leave it alone. Love
him; be affectionate, fine. Don't try to take it further, or you're
going to get hurt."

"I don't
believe you."

He snorted.
"Oh, yeah, what the hell do I know? I only studied cybers for seven
years and spent fifteen repairing them. What do you know?"

"I know he's
human."

"For god's
sake, I don't want to see you get hurt, but at some point he's
going to realise he can never be truly normal, and then he's going
to leave. That's if he doesn't flip out. He's already on the road
to a mental breakdown, so don't push him over the edge with foolish
expectations he can never fulfil."

"I think
you're wrong."

"Of course you
do. You're living in a delusion, and I'm sorry for you." Tarl threw
the wrapper in the direction of the waste chute, and it bounced off
the wall beside it.

"Isn't there
anything you think might help?"

"Look, from
the sounds of it, he's trying to avoid the whole issue. Let him. He
can't deal with it, and he wants it to go away."

She sighed.
"Thanks for explaining it."

"Any time. Oh,
and I advise you not to tell him what I said. He won’t like it any
more than you do."

When Tassin
returned to Sabre’s cabin, he was lying on the bed, his eyes
closed. He opened them when she came in and sat up, eyeing her.

"What’s
wrong?"

"Nothing." She
sat beside him, avoiding his gaze.

"You obviously
didn’t like what he said."