The Cyber Chronicles VI - Warrior Breed (5 page)

"Let's try a
leaf then." She glanced up at the fleshy leaves out of her
reach.

Sabre studied
them, the brow band flashing, and shook his head. "Even if they
taste like chocolate, they're also useless."

"Then why did
you let me taste the bark if you knew it was no good?"

He shrugged.
"It's time you did some tasting, and I thought it would be really
foul."

"Oh, so you
thought you'd let me try it?"

"Yeah." He
chuckled.

Tassin picked
up a rotten fruit and hurled it at him, but Sabre dodged behind a
tree, laughing. She picked up another one and pursued him, and he
dodged again, scooping up a missile. Tassin shrieked as it hit her
on the bottom when she tried to dodge, yelling in dismay and
chagrin.

"No! Enough!
Stop, you'll hurt my ribs."

Sabre dropped
a squishy fruit and came over to her, grinning. "Any excuse. You're
just chicken."

"No, I'm just
too clever to play this kind of game with a bloody cyber."

"I would have
let you hit me."

"That's not as
satisfying as this." She lifted the hand she had hidden behind her
back and squashed a rotten fruit on his chest.

Sabre laughed
and made a grab for her, and she dodged behind the tree, giggling.
Gripping the trunk, he gave it a shake. Rotten fruit rained down,
one landing on her shoulder with a squelch.

"Oh you
rotter!" she yelled.

Tassin picked
up another fruit and jumped out from behind the tree, then almost
fell over laughing. One of the rotten fruits had landed on Sabre's
head, and sticky juice ran down his neck. He picked it out of his
hair, grinning as she clutched her ribs and doubled over in
convulsions of mirth.

"Poetic
justice!" she cried when she was able to draw breath.

Sabre laughed,
nodding, then glanced around, the brow band flashing.

Tassin's mirth
ended abruptly. "What is it?"

"Get in the
pod, quick!"

Tassin glanced
around for the pod, which had drifted off amongst the trees, and
sprinted towards it. Sabre overtook and scooped her up,
half-flinging her into the pod, then climbed in and turned to face
the hatch.

"What is it?"
Tassin demanded again.

"Life forms,
heading this way fast. Large and alien."

"How
many?"

"A dozen...
thirteen. No, fifteen. They're just coming into range." He drew a
laser and held it ready.

A series of
booming hoots rang through the trees, making Tassin shiver, and a
distant thudding became audible, growing louder. She peered over
Sabre's shoulder as the thudding came closer. Flitting shapes
sprinted through the trees, impossible to see clearly. The hooting
came again, from above, and a shadow passed over the trees.

"Quadrupeds,
between seventy and a hundred kilograms. And one that can fly,"
Sabre muttered.

"Quad-whats?"

"Four-legged."

"What's
chasing them?"

"Something
large and heavy." He frowned, looking puzzled. "It's
mechanical."

"Then there
must be civilisation!"

"Don't jump to
conclusions."

"What else
-?"

He held up a
hand. "Shush."

Something
silver flashed amongst the trees, moving with a rocking gait.
Tassin peered at it, and for a moment it was visible. A squat,
sleek machine strode on two legs, its torso streaked with dirt and
lichen, its pale head flashing silver. Two long, curved arms
sprouted from its torso, tipped with pincer-like hands, and it
moved with remarkable speed.

Sabre said, "A
war bot."

"What's that?"
she whispered.

"A robot; a
machine built to fight like a man. But what the hell is one doing
here?"

"I thought no
one made those things because cybers are better fighters."

"They're rare,
but I've never seen one like that before. It's alien."

"Oh,
wonderful; there's an alien civilisation on this world."

"That's not
necessarily a bad thing." Sabre gazed after the war bot, which had
vanished amongst the trees.

"They don't
seem very friendly."

"Perhaps those
beasts are vermin. It can't catch them, anyway."

"So it's
slow?"

"They always
are, but that one's faster than most."

Tassin sat
back. "Well, at least it's gone."

"For now. But
we're drifting in the direction it came from."

"Is the pod
armed?"

He glanced at
her with a wry smile. "Of course not."

"But you've
got your lasers."

"Yeah. But
only two spare power packs."

"What are we
going to do?"

"Hope it
doesn't come back this way."

"Right."

****

Tassin sat on
the padded bench and studied the valley ahead of the pod, which was
negotiating its way through a last belt of trees. Fortunately, the
slope levelled off considerably, so they would not gain too much
speed. During the past two days Sabre had had to free the pod
several times when it got stuck. The craft rolled around a tree,
and she lost sight of the view ahead, then it completed its turn
and drifted towards another trunk. Sabre sat across from her on the
other side of the bench. She squinted across the valley, then
pointed.

"What's
that?"

His eyes
followed her finger, looking vague as he consulted the scanners.
"It's mechanical, but only partially in range."

"Another
robot?"

He shook his
head. "Too big."

"There's a
ring of posts. Do you see it?"

"Yeah. It
looks like some sort of defensive array."

"Alien?"

"Yeah." He
frowned. "That thing is a flattened ovoid. It could be a -"

The pod rolled
around another tree, and Tassin grabbed his shoulder. "Look!"

Sabre glanced
to the side as she pointed, and smiled. Another pod was caught
amongst the trees some distance away, and a figure stood beside it,
trying to pry it loose with a pole.

"
Tarl
!"
Tassin bellowed.

"He's too far
away to hear you."

"Let's go and
help him!"

Sabre turned
to the panel beside him and pushed a button. "I'm anchoring the
pod. It will take a while to get there and back. You should stay
here; it's safer. I'll bring him back."

"No! I'm
coming with you."

"How did I
know you were going to say that?"

"You know me
too well?"

Sabre nodded
and checked his weapons, then jumped out and helped her to the
ground. They set off through the forest, Sabre leading. Drifting
spores and pollen filled the warm, muggy air, swarming in shafts of
sunlight like golden smoke. A breeze stirred the calmness, but the
silence made their footsteps seem loud even on the spongy
ground.

"Strange that
there doesn't seem to be any weather on this planet," Sabre
commented, breaking the hush.

"We've only
been here four days."

"And every
day's been exactly the same. No more or less clouds, no difference
in temperature, wind velocity or humidity."

"What would
cause that?"

He glanced
back at her. "In addition to the two suns on the tropics? No oceans
and no moons."

"Then it's not
strange. There's a logical explanation."

"It is
strange. Most habitable planets have weather. Without it, there's
no rain, and without rain nothing grows."

"Then there
must be rain."

He held a bush
aside for her. "Yeah. The ground is damp, but it may have a high
water table, so it never dries out."

"Wouldn't it
stagnate?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe the
ground water circulates?"

"Underground
streams?" He smiled. "If there's no rain, the water would pool in
the valleys, but the soil's damp even on the top of the hills.
That's really weird. It must rain. The suns are evaporating water,
forming clouds, so sooner or later it's got to come down."

"So it just
doesn't happen very often."

"Maybe.
Something's odd about this planet. There must be a geological
reason why the soil doesn't dry out on the hills, and no pools form
in hollows."

As they
emerged from a clump of trees, Tassin shouted and waved to Tarl,
who glanced around in alarm, then grinned and hurried towards
them.

"Am I ever
glad to see you guys! I'd almost given up hope!" He embraced Tassin
and looked like he was going to hug Sabre too, but then thought
better of it. "What happened to you?"

"The explosion
ruptured our oxygen tanks. We only just made it," Sabre explained
with his usual brevity.

"Wow, days of
suffering and terror summed up in two sentences," Tarl said,
nodding and smiling.

"Is Kernan
still alive?"

Tarl's smile
faded. "Just barely. He's really sick. I've done all I can for him.
He might make it. He's sedated; otherwise he'd be in a lot of
pain."

"We have more
painkillers in our pod," Tassin said.

"Good. At
least our oxygen tanks didn't rupture, so we had enough air." He
studied Sabre, looking concerned. "You don't look so good, bud. How
are you feeling?"

"Fifty-seven
per cent."

"I didn't ask
for your bio-status. A simple 'fine' or 'not too bad' would have
done the trick."

Sabre cocked
his head. "How about ‘bloody awful’?"

"That would
about sum it up, I suppose."

"Would you two
stop carping at each other?" Tassin glared at them.

Tarl said,
"Let me guess, you survived in a low oxygen environment for a few
hours?"

"Almost
twelve."

"Well then
you've metabolised some of your liver and muscle mass. I hope
you've been eating."

"No, I've been
on a hunger strike."

"Very funny.
Why didn't you use a suit?"

"Tassin needed
them."

Tarl nodded.
"Of course. You'll need to eat ration packs, so I hope there's
something edible on this planet for the rest of us."

"Not that I've
found."

"Great." The
ex-technician sighed and shook his head. "Then I hope there isn't
anything dangerous around here."

"Why, because
the weapon's defective?"

"Stop it!"
Tassin glared at Sabre. "You're being obnoxious. Why can't you just
accept that Tarl's concerned about your welfare because he's your
friend."

"Because he's
not."

"Your friend,
or concerned about your welfare?"

"Is he your
friend?"

"Of
course."

"Then why
hasn't he asked how you are?"

Tarl ran a
hand through his hair in a gesture of frustration, or perhaps
embarrassment. "He's right. I'm concerned for our safety, which
might rely on his abilities. Unfortunately, that's the way of it in
this situation. But I tell you what, Sabre, when we're safe on
Omega Five, I won't give a rat's arse about your bio-status,
okay?"

"That will be
refreshing."

Tarl turned to
Tassin. "Are you okay?"

"She's got
three broken ribs," Sabre said.

"How did that
happen?"

Tassin opened
her mouth, but Sabre was faster. "She took on a cyber trying to
protect me, then got banged up in the explosions."

Tarl looked
shocked. "You took on a cyber?"

"I was only
trying to distract him," she explained, shooting Sabre a frown.

"Yeah, well,
I’m sure you didn’t think you could beat him. I can strap those for
you."

"That was done
on Fairen's ship."

"Good." Tarl
turned to Sabre again, studying the fading bruises on his arms and
neck. "I assume you took on a cyber, too?"

"Two of them,"
Tassin said.

"You didn't
mention this when you told us what happened before."

Sabre
shrugged. "It wasn't important."

"Right. Well,
any suggestions on how we're going to get off this planet?"

"Nope."

"There's
something in the valley ahead, surrounded by a ring of posts,"
Tassin said.

Sabre nodded.
"It looks like a ship on the scanners. A metal ovoid with what
could be engines and compartments inside."

"Life forms?"
Tarl asked.

"No, but we
did see a war bot a few days ago, and the ring of poles looks like
a defensive array."

"You don't
sound very certain. You should know the model, manufacturer and
date of production of every ship ever built, and the same for
defensive arrays and war bots."

"Perhaps it's
a new model," Tassin suggested.

Tarl shot her
a wry smile. "The cyber receives updates on all new models and
complete instructions on how to operate them."

"But now that
Sabre's free -"

"It doesn't
matter. The information is broadcast to every cyber on an encrypted
frequency."

"Encrypted?"

"It's sort of
scrambled, so only a cyber can understand it."

"Oh."

Tarl turned to
Sabre. "So it's alien."

"Yeah," he
agreed. "Maybe abandoned, maybe just waiting for its owners to
return."

"Abandoned
seems unlikely, but its owners could be dead. Which raises the
question, if its owners are dead, what, or who, killed them?"

Sabre nodded.
"The bot concerns me more. It was chasing some beasts, so it's
hostile; probably set to guard the ship."

"So if the
ship's owners are away they've probably got more bots."

"Maybe."

"Are you sure
it is a ship, Sabre?" Tassin enquired.

"No. It could
be a prefabricated portable base camp. The engines could be
generators."

"Then we
should go and have a look at it," Tarl suggested.

Sabre snorted.
"You mean I should go and have a look at it, and I'm not doing that
until I'm feeling better. Anyone who triggers that thing's defences
had better be in top form, and that's if the war bot doesn't show
up, which I'm sure it will. That thing's probably rigged with
motion sensors and alarms that will bring that bot running."