The Cyber Chronicles VI - Warrior Breed (3 page)

He chuckled.
"I bet she's grown into a lovely young woman."

"Yes, she has.
She's an excellent princess, and spends a lot of time ministering
to the poor, which has made her very popular. She'd make a good
queen, but, unfortunately, my cousin will inherit."

"Hey, it's not
over yet. Tell me more about Arlin, and Dena."

"She missed
you terribly, you know. The way you left, without even saying
goodbye, really hurt her. She wept for days, so I'm told, while I
was out looking for you."

"I did say
goodbye." His voice grew husky. "But she was asleep. I thought it
would be easier for her, having a reason to resent me."

"Well it
didn't work. She loved you too much to resent you."

Sabre pushed
them away from the wall again. "It was easier for me. I didn't want
to go through the ordeal of a tearful parting. It might have
undermined my determination to leave. That was hard to do, you
know. I wanted to stay so much, but I wanted to spare you the pain
of seeing me put into that casket even more."

"Were you
angry when I found you?"

"Angry and
glad. I longed to see you again, and it was wonderful when you
came. And when you wanted to attack Manutim..." He chuckled. "That
was really dumb."

"I couldn't
just sit there and do nothing. At least I would have proved to
myself that I couldn't save you, otherwise it would have haunted
me. It did haunt me, after he took you. I kept thinking what if…
what if I’d been able to kill him… you could have taken his ship,
and then returned when it was safe."

He shook his
head. "It wouldn’t have worked, but that you were willing to try
made me feel important, and special. I was grateful for that."

"I'll never
forgive Manutim."

"What did you
do, after I left?"

She shrugged.
"Cried a lot."

"That's not
what I meant."

"After I
stopped crying, I started hunting for that damned sword. I knew it
was my only hope of finding you. I appointed several advisors to
deal with less important matters of state. I was too distracted to
be bothered with it. Torrian made a few threats and caused a bit of
trouble on the border, so I sent some troops to keep him happy. All
the other kings kept very quiet, and, of course, none of them knew
you were gone."

He rubbed her
shoulder. "It must have been hard."

"It was, but
mostly all I could think about was what was happening to you, and
how terrible it must be for you. I wish you hadn't hidden the
sword. If I'd taken it with me the day Manutim came, I could have
stopped him."

"You couldn't
trust that thing. It might just as easily have killed you."

"He might have
taken it in trade for you, since it was so valuable."

"So many ifs
and maybes... It's no good regretting it now."

"I know." She
rested her helmet’s visor against his shoulder. "I just wish things
had been different. We could have been so happy..."

Tassin told
him how she had taken Dena to the clearing where the spaceship had
landed, because the girl had wanted to see it. She told him about
finding the sword, and travelling to Ferrinon to find him. How she
had met Kole and found Sabre with the smugglers. A red light
flashed inside Tassin's helmet, distracting her, and she realised
that a lot of time had passed. He continued to pant, and, when she
placed her hand on his chest, she found that his heart was
racing.

"Sabre, what
does this red light mean?"

He appeared to
shake himself from a daze, and glanced down at her. "It's your
oxygen supply..." He paused, gasping. "It's finished."

Releasing her,
he unclipped his helmet and pulled it off, then unclipped hers.

"What are you
doing?"

"I'm giving
you mine, what do you think?"

"But it must
be finished too, and anyway, it's yours!"

He shook his
head. "I haven't been using it. You have another six hours."

"No!" The
despair she had kept at bay with her meaningless prattle for so
long overwhelmed her. "You said... No, I don't want you to
die."

"Neither do I,
but it seems to be inevitable. This will just buy you some more
time, and a little more hope."

"No!" She
pushed him away, sending herself crashing into the wall. Lances of
pain flashed from her ribs, making her gasp and clutch them. Sabre
drifted over to her and tried to put the helmet on her again, but
she slapped his hands away. He let the helmet drift and grabbed her
wrists, even as her straining lungs sent alarm signals to her brain
and a wave of dizziness washed over her.

"Don't be
silly. You can't fight me, and you'll pass out in a minute. You
can't survive in this atmosphere."

"Put the
helmet on. I want to die in your arms, not alone."

"Oh, and you
really think I want to watch you die?"

A red haze
clouded her vision, and her strength drained away. Sabre clipped
the helmet onto her suit, and fresh air rushed into her lungs. She
studied him. His skin was abnormally pale, and his lips were tinged
with blue.

"Share it with
me, please."

He shook his
head. "No. I'll still be here in six hours."

"You don't
look so good."

"I don't feel
so good, either, but that's beside the point. The cyber is doing
marvellous things with my body. It's been burning sugar for quite
some time now, releasing the reserves from my liver and slowing
down my metabolism."

"How much
longer can you survive?"

He shrugged.
"I don't know. A while, probably."

"You were
almost dead when I found you in that room in the mutant city, and
that was after only twelve hours or so."

"I wasn't
actually, I was just... unconscious, but that was because I'd been
exerting myself trying to get out. This time I'm relaxed, so the
cyber's been able to make adjustments."

Sabre pushed
himself away from the wall, and Tassin found herself drifting past
him towards the same wall. She recalled that while they had been
talking they had ended up resting against that wall, after Sabre
had given up fending it off. It seemed as if gravity was returning
in a small way, and she cast him a puzzled look.

"Why do we
keep drifting to this wall?"

"Do we?" He
frowned, looking confused. "Yeah, I guess we have been. It can only
be a gravity well."

"What's
that?"

"It means
we're close to something big. A planet or star."

Her heart
leapt. "Isn't that good?"

"Not if it's a
star. We may just be passing it, though, the chances of us -"

"Is there
anything you can do?"

He looked
vague, and turned to the wrecked panel, flicking a switch. "I guess
I could switch on the autopilot."

"What will
that do?"

"Well, if
we're close enough, and if it's not a star, it will... should be
able to get us on an entry vector..."

The pod
lurched, and it seemed as if it spun, although it was hard to tell,
since Tassin was floating in the middle of it. The floor rushed
towards her, and she would have hit it hard if Sabre had not
fielded her in time and imposed himself, cushioning the impact. She
ended up lying on top of him, her ribs aching as he supported her
shoulders. A muted roaring filled the pod, which vibrated.

"What's
happening?" she asked.

He eased her
onto the floor beside him and sat up. "The retro rockets have
fired. Evidently whatever's out there is a suitable landing place.
Doesn't mean it's suitable to live on, though."

"This
autopilot thing, is it like the cyber?"

He snorted.
"Hell no. It's little more than an overgrown calculator."

"But it's
going to land us?"

"It's going to
try."

"How does it
know it's safe?"

"It doesn't.
It has primitive scanners, little better than old-fashioned radar,
and it's weighed and measured its target, using a set of parameters
to determine that it's a planet, not a sun, and it's solid. Other
than that, it's pretty ignorant. We could land in a volcano for all
it cares." He rubbed his brow. "No, I'm exaggerating. It wouldn't
do that. It can identify large formations and detect whether it's
an ice planet or a molten one, but not if there's food available or
if the atmosphere's breathable. It can only determine that once
it's entered the atmosphere."

"What about
the cyber?"

"By the time
we're within two kilometres, it will be far too late."

"But there's a
chance?"

"Yeah."

Joy washed
through her. "That's wonderful! Now you can share the helmet."

"No. It's
going to take at least five hours of braking to bring us to
re-entry speed, and another hour or so to get down. You'll be lucky
if you make it."

"What about
you?"

"I'll be
fine," he said.

"Tell me the
truth."

"I am. What
difference does it make, anyway? You might make it."

"How long do
you think I'll survive on a strange planet without you? If there
are animals, they might be dangerous, and if there aren't there
might be no food that I can find, or identify. I need you to
survive."

"I'll do my
best, okay? But if I share your air, you won't, so drop it."

Tassin
slumped, unable to argue with his logic. "I wonder how Tarl and
Kernan are doing."

"Hopefully
better than us."

"Do you think
they'll land on the same planet?"

"Maybe, if
their pod was also hit by debris. We were very close to the ship
when it blew up, so it’s possible."

"How will we
land? Does this thing have... whatever makes air-cars float?"

"Repulsors.
No. That technology wasn't invented a hundred and thirty years ago.
It has retro-revolution antigravity."

"What's
that?"

“
I’d rather not explain it now, talking uses air,” he
said.

Sabre looked
irritable, and she realised that he suffered from the same thing
she had earlier, which made him aggressive. His chest heaved, and
he clearly found talking difficult. Considering how bad she had
felt after being in the pod’s toxic atmosphere for just a few
moments, she could not imagine how much he must be suffering, after
breathing it for so many hours. After several minutes he took her
hand, and she moved closer to slip her arms around him.

Tassin raised
her head to study Sabre's face, her concern for him growing acute.
His eyes were closed and he breathed in deep gasps through blue
lips. The roaring of the retro-rockets went on and on, the pod
vibrating. How much time had passed? Three hours? Four? It did not
look like he was going to last much longer, and she wondered what
she could do. The temptation to share her air with him was
overwhelming. She had no wish to survive him, anyway.

Turning away,
she groped for the helmet's release catch, snapped it open and took
a deep breath before she pulled it off. Slipping it over his head,
she clipped it to his atmosphere suit's collar and waited, holding
her breath. Colour rushed back into his skin, turning his lips a
healthy shade of pink. His eyes opened wide, and he stopped
breathing while he found the catch and released it. He pulled the
helmet off and placed it over her head again.

"You silly
girl," he muttered. "I appreciate it, but that wasn't such a good
idea. I'm deeply hypoxic now, and the cyber is pulling out all the
stops. That sudden rush of oxygen was almost toxic. Do you
understand?"

She shook her
head, biting her lip at the unexpected reprimand.

"It means my
system has adjusted to the low oxygen atmosphere, and one of the
things it's done is increase my blood's ability to absorb oxygen in
my lungs. Taking such a big breath of normal air overloaded my
system for a moment. It has helped, though, thanks."

The roar of
the retro-rockets died away, leaving a deafening silence. Sabre
took her hand again and squeezed it.

"Almost there.
We've reached an acceptable re-entry speed; now the autopilot will
adjust our trajectory. Not much longer."

The pod
lurched, sending Tassin drifting off the floor, and Sabre pulled
her close, fending off the wall that moved towards them. It lurched
again, and another wall came at them. Sabre pushed it away with his
foot, and they floated in the centre of the pod, drifting towards
the far wall. The pod clicked and whirred, making its adjustments.
A deep affection for the little craft grew in Tassin, and she
silently wished it well in its attempts to save them. The floor
rushed up at them again, and Sabre cushioned the impact, letting
his knees bend and holding her close.

"What's
happening?" Tassin murmured. "What's it doing?"

"Adjusting our
entry vector with thrusters. By now it will have analysed the
planet's atmosphere, and it's adjusting our speed according to its
density."

The pod
shuddered, making Tassin glance at Sabre in alarm. He appeared to
be half asleep, his eyelids drooping.

She shook him.
"What was that?"

"It's okay. We
bounced on the stratosphere. It's not good, but the pod will adjust
and try again."

The pod
lurched on cue, sending them spinning across it, and Sabre fended
off the wall, his movements slow. The pod shuddered again, and this
time the tremors continued, growing more violent. Sabre smiled and
nodded, closing his eyes.

"We've entered
the atmosphere."

"Stay awake.
Stay with me."

"I'm
trying."

"How long
before we land?"

He shrugged.
"That depends on how thick the atmosphere is."

"Approximately."

"Somewhere
between ten and fifteen minutes."

The pod's
shuddering increased, and the hull made pinging, groaning
sounds.