The Cyber Chronicles VIII - Scorpion Lord (11 page)

"What are you
going to do?" Estrelle asked.

"Save
you."

"How?"

Chapter Six

Sabre's eyes
flicked up to the racks of caskets behind Martis. "The fastest
killer is carbon monoxide, then lack of oxygen. The carbon monoxide
poisoning will start in about half an hour, since we're living on
the air that's trapped in the ship. Every cyber casket has a supply
of oxygen, and scrubbers to filter out carbon monoxide."

"Of course!"
Estrelle was delighted and relieved. "That's it!"

"Yeah. That's
it."

"So what are
you waiting for?" Estrelle shook her head and jumped up. "Never
mind, we can do it."

The cyber
smiled up at her. "Go ahead."

Estrelle
headed for the racks, beckoning to Martis. "Come on, Martis."

The young tech
sighed and sat down with his back to a rack. "You'd be wasting your
time."

"Why?"

He glanced at
Sabre. "Because those caskets are armoured duronium-cobalt alloy,
able to withstand... ah hell, I forget exactly, but one hell of an
explosion."

"Two
megatons," Sabre supplied.

"Right. We
have about as much chance of breaking into one as we do of getting
out and flying home."

Estrelle was
flummoxed. "So... what then? Were you trying to be funny,
Sabre?"

He smiled
again, shaking his head. "My sense of humour isn't at its best
right now."

"Sabre can
break into one," Martis stated.

"I see."
Estrelle came back and sat down beside Martis. "So we just have to
wait for him to decide to get up off his butt and do it before our
air runs out."

"And he'll
have to make up his mind soon. The more the oxygen level drops, the
weaker he'll become."

"I have made
up my mind," Sabre said, "but I'm not feeling really great right
now. Jorran's little experiment killed me, remember? I may be a
cyber, but I'm still part human. I'm having muscle tremors, and,
even though my bio-status is sixty-two per cent, I'm quite weak.
The convulsions strained most of my tendons, and I think I have
torn ligaments in my elbows."

Estrelle
chewed her lip. "I'm sorry. I... I'm just afraid to die."

"I won't let
you die. Relax, give me a minute, okay? I slowed my metabolism in
the casket, which is now making me feel really shitty."

"You could
initiate an emergency energy burst," Martis suggested.

"I'll have to
do that."

Sabre closed
his eyes, and they waited for several minutes. Estrelle chewed her
nails and fidgeted, Martis gazed at the cyber with something akin
to admiration. At last Sabre opened his eyes and raised his head,
then stood up in a lithe motion, swaying a little. Estrelle jumped
up, and Martis rose more slowly, eyeing the cyber. Sabre walked to
the rack behind him and unclamped a casket, floating it onto the
floor, then tapped in the override code. The lid cracked open with
a click, and he lifted it, mist billowing out. Inside, a young
cyber lay like a corpse on a bed of white satin, his control unit
dead.

"Brand new,”
Sabre said. “Just twenty years old and destined only to
suffer."

Sighing, he
reached into the webbing inside the lid and drew out a laser.
Estrelle gasped as he pressed it to the cyber's eye and pulled the
trigger. The flash of blue light was accompanied by a sharp thud.
The young cyber remained immobile. Sabre put down the laser and
bent to lift the body out of the casket, laying it on the
floor.

"Sorry,
brother, but you're better off dead."

"Did you have
to kill him?" Estrelle demanded.

"Yes."

She opened her
mouth to ask why, but Martis tugged her arm and shook his head when
she turned to him.

"Leave
it."

"Why? Why does
he have to kill them? We could use them! Wake one or two up and
make them open the caskets, then Sabre wouldn't have to do it."

"No, we
can't."

"Why not?"

"We don't have
the codes."

"Oh." She
frowned. "But then how do they wake them up at the other end?"

Sabre reached
into the casket and ripped out the satin lining. "The codes are
sent ahead to the new owners on an enforcer warship, to make sure
pirates don't steal them. Although it wouldn't do them much good,
without knowing which codes belong to which cyber, or even which
batch of cybers.

"That's why
drone ships are hardly ever attacked, there's really nothing to
steal. Otherwise, you'd be looking at about... fifty million
credits worth of merchandise on this ship alone. If it was possible
to steal new cybers, no drone ship would ever reach its
destination. They'd have to be protected by warships."

"Oh," Estrelle
said. "Myon Two thinks of everything, don't they?"

"Except,
apparently, two techs escaping in a drone ship with a cyber to help
them."

"Is that why
techs aren't allowed to own cybers?"

He shot her a
surprised look. "Could you afford one?"

"No, but I'm
not allowed, even if I could."

"Well, I don't
know why that is."

Sabre had
stripped all the satin out of the casket, and picked up the laser.
Leaning into the casket, he aimed the weapon at the floor and
pressed the trigger, holding it. The hot blue beam ate into the
metal, leaving a glowing line as he moved it around in a rough
square.

Estrelle
glanced at Martis, her brows raised. "We could have done that."

He sighed,
closing his eyes. "Just wait and see, okay?"

"No, I don't
see the problem. You could have burnt through that just as easily
as he can."

Sabre stopped
and looked up at her, then held out the laser with a smile. "Want
to try?"

She stepped
forward to take it, but Martis grabbed her arm, halting her.
"Estrelle, please! We can't do that, damn it."

"Why not? He's
just burning through it with a -"

"He's
not!"

Sabre lowered
the laser, looking amused. "She never stops, does she?"

"Apparently
not."

"You'd better
explain it to her then, because I don't have the time." Sabre leant
into the casket and resumed cutting through the bottom with the
laser.

Estrelle
jerked her arm from Martis' grip and put her hands on her hips.
"Well?"

"Right under
the floor are two fairly large oxygen tanks, and, since these are
new cybers, they're full. He can't burn right through the floor
without risking puncturing an oxygen cylinder, and then...
boom."

"Oh."

Sabre nodded.
"And only a cyber can burn almost through the floor without
piercing it, by using the scanners."

"Ah."

"So just
wait," Martis pleaded. "Okay?"

"All right,
I'm just curious."

Sabre
deactivated the laser, which was starting to overheat, and studied
the shallow, glowing groove in the floor. "Now it just has to
cool."

"How long do
we have?"

"About an
hour."

Estrelle
shivered, rubbing her arms. "It's getting bloody cold in here."

"It will get
colder, without heating."

"So what,
we're going to freeze?"

Sabre sighed
and sat next to the casket, looking up at her. "No. Would I bother
doing this if I was going to let you freeze?"

"But how can
you -?"

"Estrelle,"
Martis groaned, rubbed his brow and shook his head. "Anyone would
think you know nothing about cybers."

"I'm a control
unit tech, I don't know much about hosts."

"That's
obvious. How about you just wait and see?"

"The caskets
have heating units?"

"No, they have
refrigeration units."

"Oh." She
sighed. "Okay, I'll wait and see."

"Thank
you."

Sabre stood up
and bent to peer into the casket, testing the heat of the metal. He
went over to the discarded equipment from the lid and took an
armoured glove from the pile, pulling it on. Returning to the
casket, he sidled around it to get a good angle, flexing his right
hand.

"What's he
going to do?" Estrelle whispered to Matris.

"You're about
to find out."

Sabre leant
over the casket, drew back his fist and punched the floor with a
terrific bang, making Estrelle jump and squeak. He recoiled with a
curse, shook and wrung his hand, then nursed it against his
chest.

"Damn, that
hurts."

Estrelle
stared at him, her hands clamped over her mouth. He paced around,
rubbing his hand. Returning to the casket, he leant over it again,
positioning himself. His fist hit the floor with another loud bang,
and he swung away once more, nursing his hand.

"Shit!"

Estrelle cast
Martis a wide-eyed look, and he grimaced. Sabre inspected his hand,
pulling off the glove to suck the split skin of one knuckle, which
bled. Replacing the glove and returning to the casket, he leant
into it and tested the floor. He punched it again, swung away with
another curse and held his hand clasped to his chest. When he took
off the glove to inspect his hand, blood oozed from his knuckles,
and he grimaced, frowning.

"You're
hurting yourself," Estrelle pointed out.

"You don't
say?" Sabre muttered.

Martis touched
her arm. "Leave him alone."

"But he's
-"

"Estrelle,
please!"

"Okay! Sheesh!
I just thought maybe there are some tools on this tub he could use
instead of his fist. A hammer, maybe?"

Martis shook
his head. "Why would there be tools on an unmanned ship?"

"I don't
know."

"If there
were, Sabre would know. He has all the information about every ship
every built, so if he's using his damned fist, there are no tools,
okay?"

"Fine."

Sabre put the
glove back on and returned to the casket. Reaching inside, he
tugged at something. Estrelle moved closer and peered in, horrified
to find that he had hooked his fingers around the sharp edge of the
torn metal square and was pulling it up. The edge cut through the
glove and into his fingers, and he grimaced, biting his lip. As
soon as the metal bent a little, he eased his hand further in,
getting a better grip, then pulled on it again. The metal creaked
and ripped free with a screech, flew up and hit the ceiling with a
clang before clattering to the floor.

Sabre pulled
off the glove and inspected his hand, which now bled from deep cuts
in his fingers and grazes on the back of it. Estrelle frowned at
him, chewing her lip. Sabre gripped one of the exposed oxygen
cylinders and ripped it free. Oxygen hissed from the broken pipe,
and he squeezed the end of it half shut, cutting down the flow to a
trickle. Reaching into the casket again, he pulled out a square
object and placed it on the floor. It hummed, and air moved through
it. The cyber went over the medical kit he had removed from the lid
of the casket and found a roll of bandage, starting to wrap his
hand.

"I'll do that
for you," Martis volunteered.

Sabre nodded,
returned to the console and sat on the floor beside it. He rested
his head against it and closed his eyes. Martis took the bandage
and wound it expertly around Sabre's hand, the clean white cloth
turning pink. Estrelle pondered the cyber, then sat beside the
rack.

"So we're okay
now?"

"For a few
hours."

"And
then?"

"Then I'll
open the other one."

"But now we -
you have to change our course, so we can reach an inhabited planet,
right?"

He sighed, a
tired smile curving his lips. "Yeah."

"So how long
before -?"

"Estrelle,"
Martis interrupted. "If you don't shut up, I swear, I'll gag
you."

"What's wrong
with asking -?"

"Enough!"

Estrelle
glowered at him, mutinous. Martis bandaged Sabre's hand and came
over to sit beside her, leaning against the rack.

"Look, leave
him alone, okay? He doesn't have to help us, and all you're doing
is pissing him off. He'll do what's necessary, when it's necessary,
but he doesn't need your constant carping."

"You really
think he'd let us die, just because I ask too many questions?"

"I don't know.
I very much doubt that he likes us, given what we are - were. He'd
be a lot better off without us. We're just a burden to him, and
keeping us alive is forcing him to hurt himself, which I doubt he's
enjoying. So let's rather not make it worse by badgering him,
okay?"

"Okay."
Estrelle shivered and rubbed her arms. "I'm cold. Aren't there any
coats in the caskets?"

"No, cybers
don't wear coats. They don't need one unless they're in a really
cold environment, but they aren't sold with coats."

"It's not part
of our standard equipment," Sabre said without opening his eyes.
"And while I would rather not have to answer so many questions,
Martis, your insinuation that I might let you two die is not only
insulting, it's extremely annoying."

"Sorry, I just
wanted to -"

"I know. But
don't use me as the reason when I'm not."

"I thought you
were getting a bit irritated with it."

"And you're so
concerned about my mental status... or is it because you think I'm
some sort of pathological killer?"

"No! I don't
think that at all, I -"

"Bullshit."
Sabre smiled. "You forget, I know when you're lying. You saw me
kill two of your cohorts, and you're downright terrified of me.
Even though you helped to free me, and you trust me to know how to
save you, you still think I might get angry enough to snap both
your necks in a... what? Fit of uncontrollable rage?"

"I... I saw
how you snapped when they were burning you the first time. It was
scary."

"Well, yeah,
they were burning me." Sabre opened his eyes. "And if you do it
again, I will break your neck, but if you think I'm going to let
you die because Estrelle's a bit too talkative, that's an insult.
Right now, you're more irritating than she is. Is that why you
claimed to trust me so quickly? Because you were afraid that if you
didn't, I'd let you die, or kill you?"