The Cyber Chronicles VIII - Scorpion Lord (25 page)

"The nearest
spaceport, I'd say."

Kole went into
the bedroom. "Yeah, okay, I'm dressing."

"Hurry
up."

"Jeeze, I come
all this way to help you, and this is how I get treated? Bullying
tactics?"

Sabre ran a
hand over his hair. "Do you know what happens to me if they catch
me?"

"Nope."

"They're going
to fry my brain."

"That's a bit
harsh."

"Then they're
going to burn me once a week with a flamethrower."

Kole poked his
head around the door. "Damn, has Myon Two become Hell, now?"

"It always was
Hell, for me. And these two get to go to prison, for helping me
escape."

"Nasty."

"And so do
you."

Kole emerged,
clad in an expensive, but tasteful outfit of dark blue trousers and
jacket trimmed with white. "I haven't helped you yet."

"I'm in your
room."

"You could be
here to kidnap me."

"We have a
past association, which is why this is now the first place they'll
look for me."

"Right. Okay."
Kole sighed and went over to the girls to hug and kiss them. "So
long my sweets. I have to go save the universe, but stay, use the
room; it's paid up until tomorrow. Have fun."

The girls
grumbled and tried to tug off Kole's clothes, but he fought free
with a rueful smile and headed for the door. Martis kept his eyes
averted, his cheeks pink. As Kole pushed the door-open button,
Sabre tensed, turning his head.

"Enforcers."

Kole swung
around. "Where?"

"Two
kilometres away, but closing fast. Looks like this was a trap, and
you were the bait. Let's go."

"Damn, but
you're an enforcer magnet, I -" He yelped as Sabre gripped his
elbow and shoved him out of the door, forcing him to trot along the
corridor towards the lift. Martis and Estrelle followed, their
expressions tense. Estrelle tottered in her high-heeled sandals,
falling behind. Sabre glared at her when he was forced to wait in
the lift, which now played tuneless jazz.

"Take those
damned things off."

"I'm okay, and
they cost a fortune -"

"I don't care.
If you can't keep up, I'll leave you behind."

Kole's brows
rose. "Hey, that's a bit harsh, old pal, I -"

"I'm not going
back to Myon Two," Sabre said, "and if you'd called Fairen like I
asked, she wouldn't be in danger of being left behind now."

"Oh, right,
blame me," Kole muttered as the lift shot downwards.

"Because it's
your bloody fault."

"You know,
this is – Ow!" Kole yelped as Sabre's grip on his elbow
tightened.

"Shut up."

Exiting the
lift, Sabre loped towards the rented air-car, dragging Kole.
Estrelle took off her shoes and ran after them, Martis staying with
her. They piled into the car, barely closing the doors before Sabre
raised it on its antigravity and shot onto the fly-way, heading for
the closest spaceport. Being a city vehicle, the air-car hovered
only a few centimetres above the ground, and was incapable of
flying any higher, which meant they had to use the paved areas. As
Sabre turned onto the fly-way, two black cars shot towards them,
passed by, then swung around and gave chase.

Sabre swore.
"They've worked it out. One cyber, three humans. And of course,
cybers are illegal here."

"How do they
know you're a cyber?" Kole asked.

"They have
their own cybers, who have scanners, like me."

"How many
cybers do they have?" Martis enquired.

"Two, one
driving each of those cars." Sabre pushed the accelerator lever to
its limit, and the car shot along the fly-way, swerving around
slower vehicles. Estrelle and Martis clung to the handholds in the
back, pale faced. Kole stared ahead with white-ringed eyes.

"Hey, take it
easy, pal, let's get there in one piece."

"If we don't
get there far enough ahead of them, we'll never make it to the
ship. Or at least, some of us won't."

In the back
seat, Martis and Estrelle swapped nervous looks. Sabre swerved onto
the spaceport fly-off, narrowly avoiding cross traffic and two
black cars that tried to cut him off, scraping along the side of
one with a bang and screech. Sabre pushed between slower cars, and
Estrelle squeaked as they were banged around. Sabre cursed and
glanced at Kole.

"Where's
Striker?"

"Um... Far
side docking, on the left."

Sabre veered
off the paved road and scraped and bumped over a grassy area,
forcing wandering people to dive out of the way. A three-metre
slice-wire fence loomed ahead, and Kole yelled, throwing up his
hands as Sabre rammed the car into it. The slice-wire cut deep into
the front of the vehicle before it snapped, and they broke through
to slew across the apron. The car spun out of control, wobbling and
scraping along the cement. Estrelle clung to Martis in the back,
burying her face in his chest. Sabre fought the controls, bringing
the crippled car back under control, but some of its repellors had
been damaged, and it scraped in the front. Showers of sparks flew
past the side windows as Sabre pushed the accelerator to its limit
again, heading for a distant sleek silver ship.

"Did you have
to park so bloody far away?" he asked.

"If I'd known
-"

"Shut up."

Blue flashes
came from behind, and bangs rocked the air-car, making Estrelle
yelp. The rear view display showed Sabre that the enforcers had
fallen a little further behind, probably slowed by the slice wire
fence. Several hundred metres of concrete still separated them from
Striker when another bang rocked the car. It dropped, slewing and
scraping across the concrete. Sabre let it grind to a halt, slammed
open his door and jumped out.

"Everyone out!
Run!"

Kole sprinted
for the ship with a surprising show of athleticism. Sabre loped
after him, looking back at a shout from Martis. He dragged Estrelle
along, but she could not keep up. Martis swept her up in his arms,
which only slowed them more. She clung to him, but he could do
little more than trot, carrying her. Sabre cursed and glanced at
Kole, who had almost reached Striker, then back at the two
irritating techs he longed to ditch.

Sabre sprinted
back to them and swept Estrelle out of Martis' arms, tossing her
over his shoulder, then gripped the young tech's arm and dragged
him along. Warning shots flashed past, and he increased his speed,
Martis panting beside him. He released the tech just before he
reached Striker, racing for the open door. He almost hurled
Estrelle inside, then yanked the tech up the steps and shoved him
ahead. Striker's bow lasers glowed as they warmed up and turned
towards the enforcers to unleash a stream of crackling blue pulses
that brought cries of pain and alarm from their pursuers.

A ship's
lasers were a thousand times more powerful than hand-held weapons,
and not intended for use in an atmosphere. A strong smell of
burning air assaulted Sabre's nose, and lines of smoke marked the
trajectory of the laser fire. The enforcers had dropped flat. He
leapt up the steps, jumping over Estrelle and Martis, who lay
gasping on the grey-carpeted floor. The door whined shut, and he
went to the bridge, where Kole sat in one of the two ergonomic
pilot’s seats, surrounded by a curved black dashboard covered with
data screens and keypads. He tapped on a keypad, looking
impatient.

"Emergency
take off procedure, complete," Striker's honeyed tones assured him
with calm sweetness. "Lift off in thirty seconds."

Sabre leant
against the wall, his head pounding and bruises throbbing after the
ill-advised exertion. "Send the message now, Kole."

"Okay, okay,
in a minute. I'm a bit busy right now."

"Now!"

"All right!"
Kole swore. "Striker, open frequency..."

Sabre supplied
the sideband frequency, which he had sent the hacker in his
message, but Kole had evidently forgotten.

"Frequency
open." Striker informed them, then added, "Frequency jammed."

"Shit!" Sabre
glared at the enforcer vehicles that surrounded the ship. "They're
going to do everything they can to stop me sending that
message."

"Lift off,"
Striker informed them, and Sabre's legs bent as the ship shot
upwards. "Atmosphere craft in proximity," Striker crooned.

Several black
craft converged on them, blue laser beams pulsing from their
bows.

"Evasive
manoeuvres," Kole ordered.

The ship
veered, almost throwing Sabre across the bridge. He braced himself
against the far wall. The ship righted itself and swooped low
across the spaceport, then ascended in a high-G climb that
flattened Sabre to the wall next to the door. He glanced back
through it as grunts and yelps came from the corridor. Martis and
Estrelle rolled down the steeply inclined floor to land in a heap
against the far wall. Striker headed for the blackness of space,
the muted roar of her atmosphere engines rising to a scream. Blue
light flashed past them, and then a bang shuddered the ship.

"Engine three,
damaged," Striker intoned.

Kole swore.
"Every time I have anything to do with you, it -"

"Shut up."

"Right, what
do you care? It's not your ship."

"If you had
sent the message like I asked you to..." Sabre frowned as scrolling
data deep in his brain flashed red, glancing inwards at it. Eden
Five was a dran-world, it said, with powerful electromagnetic
fields that prevented scanners from penetrating the stratosphere,
effectively making departing ships blind. Striker would not be able
to detect anything in her path just beyond the event horizon,
something he had forgotten about.

He glanced out
of the screens at the swirling, multi-coloured lights that marked
the electromagnetic curtain. "Kole, tell -"

"Bloody hell!"
Kole recoiled as the ship broke free of the atmosphere and two
massive battle cruisers came into view directly ahead.

"Collision
alert," Striker murmured.

"Evade!
Evade!" Kole yelled.

The ship
veered as thrusters fired, changing its trajectory just enough to
miss the closest battle cruiser, scraping past a filigree of
antennae with a shriek of tortured metal. Striker shot between the
enforcer ships, and blue light strafed her, hitting the hull with
sharp, sizzling cracks.

"Get into the
nearest corridor," Sabre said.

"Striker, set
course for the closest corridor," Kole repeated for the AI, then
swung to face Sabre. "We can't outrun them. They're faster, and we
can't send a message in a corridor."

He nodded. "I
know, but we can't fight them either, so we really don't have any
choice. The closest corridor is J345-55, and just one hour along it
is Lair Nine, one of the worst smuggler planets around. If we can
reach it without getting caught, the enforcers will have their
hands full dealing with a bunch of irate smugglers."

"So will we,"
Kole pointed out.

"I'll take my
chances."

"With my
ship!"

"You have a
better idea?"

Kole frowned.
"Yeah, chuck you out of the airlock."

Sabre smiled.
"I'd like to see you try. Now you really wish you had sent that
message, huh? Don't bother," he added as Kole opened his mouth.
"Those cruisers are jamming us, and they'll keep doing it for as
long as they stay in range."

"Which is all
the way to Lair Nine, and then the smugglers will shoot us
down."

"They'll shoot
the enforcers first."

Martis
appeared in the doorway, rubbing his head. "What's going on?"

Kole eyed him.
"We're being chased by a couple of battle cruisers."

"Ah. So did
you call Overlord Fairen?"

"They're
jamming us, too."

"Right."
Martis peered out of the screens. "So we're going into a
corridor?"

"Yeah. No
choice."

Martis turned
to Sabre. "I think Estrelle has a broken wrist. Can you have a look
at it?"

The cyber
nodded and followed Martis into a room down the corridor, where
Estrelle sat at a dining table, nursing her left wrist. Tears ran
down her cheeks, and she chewed her lip. Bangs and hisses came
through the hull as laser bolts hit it, making her jump. Sabre
remembered the ship well from the last time he had been aboard.
Striker’s interior was plush, decorated mostly in white, grey and
cream, with occasional splashes of deep crimson. Further down the
corridor was the lounge, with cream seats around a glass-topped
table, where Previd Malatar had tried to kill Tassin and Sabre had
gained his freedom for the second time. At the far end of the
lounge, a speckled white bar counter fronted a glass cabinet full
of bottles of liquor.

Sabre knelt
beside Estrelle’s chair, took her hand and probed her wrist,
bending it a little, his touch gentle. Tilting his head, he aimed
the scanners at it, and she winced as he turned it.

"It's cracked.
Not too bad," he informed her. "I'll strap it up. How did it
happen?"

"When I hit
the wall at the back."

"The high-G
climb. We had to evade those atmospheric craft." Sabre dug in his
medikit and took out a roll of bandage.

"Are we going
to make it?"

"I don't know.
I guess you're wishing you hadn't freed me, about now?"

"I wasn't
expecting this, but no, not yet."

He smiled,
wrapping the bandage around her wrist. "You will."

"It's going to
get worse, isn't it?"

"Yeah. They're
still trying to capture me, but at some point they're going to give
up and try to kill me. Then it'll get really bad."

"But they're
shooting at us. Aren't they trying to kill you now?"

"No, they're
trying to cripple the ship, shooting at the engines. When those
guys aim to kill, we won't last long. This is just an armed
explorer; it can't withstand fire from two battle cruisers." Sabre
pulled the bandage tight. "We'll be safe in the corridor, if we get
there. I guess we're going to find out how bad they want me
back."