The Cyber Chronicles VII - Sabre (7 page)

Two guards
gripped Niare's arms and dragged him, weeping with relief, from the
room. As the doors closed behind him, Fairen pulled off his hood
and turned to Tassin, who pushed hers back. She smiled, her eyes
stinging with unshed tears.

"You did
it."

"That was
close."

"Thank you, My
Lord."

"Don't thank
me yet, we haven't got him back."

She nodded,
rubbing her eyes.

Fairen rose to
step down from his dais, coming over to her. "Hope for the
best."

"I do, most
fervently."

Distant booms
and groans echoed through the Scorpion Ship, and the pale globe
moved off the screens as it turned away from Myon Two, breaking
orbit.

****

Sabre opened
his eyes in the pitch darkness of a casket. Its silken confines
pressed in on him from all sides. The fully loaded armament array
in the lid dug into his belly and thighs. The paralysing agent he
had been injected with when he had lain down robbed him of all
movement, and would only wear off in five hours. To speed it up, he
ordered the cyber to increase his metabolism. Warmth suffused him,
counteracting the freezing cold inside the casket. His dream now
seemed like a portent, except that in it, he could see. He had
considered resisting being put into the casket, but with two cybers
able to beat him unconscious, had decided against it. When the time
came, he needed to be able to get out, and hoped with all his heart
that Fairen would not give up too soon.

****

"No!" Tassin
strode towards the enforcer officer who stood before Fairen's dais,
a cyber beside him. She glared into Second Officer Montral’s eyes,
her hands clenched, and he stepped back, looking nervous. Reliant
was docked with the Scorpion Ship, and she had just finished
listening to his halting account of Sabre’s demise with growing
disbelief. According to him, Reliant had picked up a malfunctioning
cyber on a routine sweep and, after attempting to fix him, had
deduced that he was irreparably damaged and euthanized him. They
had confirmed that Sabre was Fairen’s cyber by his serial number,
and Montral had offered his regrets for the bungle, but pointed out
that Cybercorp had performed a service for Fairen and registered a
replacement in his name. He was an earnest young man with a lean,
handsome face, brown hair and green eyes, whose impeccably fitted
dark grey uniform bore the red trim of his rank.

"You
lie
!"
Tassin gritted. "He's not dead!"

"He's not
lying," Fairen said.

"Then he’s
telling someone else’s lie!" Her heart pounded with rage and
anguish. "Who told you Sabre was dead?"

“
Commander Barrin.”

Fairen asked,
"What ails your commander?"

"He - he
didn't say. He sends his apologies."

"So it was all
a mistake."

"Yes, My
Lord."

"How
regrettable. I also make mistakes, sometimes. I think I might
mistake your ship for a piece of space junk. That would be
unfortunate for you, don't you agree?"

"We've done
our best to make amends."

"How do you
make amends for killing my friend? You cannot replace him with this
cyborg."

"I don’t
believe it," Tassin said. "You should search his ship, My
Lord."

Fairen turned
his veiled head towards her and nodded. "Yes. I want to see his
body."

Montral shook
his head. "It's been spaced.”

"Liar," Tassin
growled. "You wouldn't space a cyber’s corpse, it’s too
valuable!"

"I only know
what I was told, Miss."

"Yes, that's
the problem," Fairen said. "Shrain, scan the enforcer ship."

Shrain tapped
his com-link and studied it. "We're picking up one cyber on the
enforcer ship, but there are some areas that are impervious to our
scanners."

"My men will
search your ship,” Fairen informed Montral.

"You own this
cyber now, My Lord,” Tarl said. “You could ask him. He won't
lie."

The young
Overlord turned to the cyber. "Cyber Two. How many cybers are
aboard the enforcer ship?"

"Two."

"The usual
complement is two, but they should be missing one, and according to
the scanners, they are. If there are still two cybers aboard that
ship, one is hidden from our scanners. Do you know where he
is?"

"No."

Fairen turned
away. "Prepare for your ship to be boarded, Second Officer
Montral."

"Yes, My
Lord."

"I want to
go," Tassin said. "Please."

"Of course you
may. Shrain, prepare a boarding party at once. Search that ship
from stem to stern, leave no part unexplored."

"Yes, My
Lord."

"And take a
medic to examine their commander."

“
At once, My Lord.”

Fairen
dismissed Montral with a wave, and the young officer bowed low
before marching out. Shrain headed for the door, Tassin and Tarl
behind him.

Tassin sank
down on a box in one of the enforcer ship’s many sleek grey storage
rooms and bowed her head. After two hours of fruitless searching,
her feet throbbed and her head ached from tension and worry. She
had lost count of how many glowing, grey-carpeted corridors she had
traipsed down, or the bright, ultra-modern rooms she had searched.
Reliant appeared to be brand new, spotlessly clean and equipped
with all the latest technology.

Commander
Shrain oversaw a group of Fairen’s men that removed boxes from one
pile and created another, to ensure there was no hidden access
point to a crawl space or door behind it. She was fairly sure they
had searched this storage room before, and maybe even moved the
pile of crates, but she could no longer be certain.

She rubbed her
brow. "He's got to be here somewhere, Shrain."

"We've
searched every part of this ship, My Lady."

She looked up.
"There must be somewhere we've missed... A hiding place. They must
have drugged him and stuffed him into some small space."

"We've even
been through all the crawl spaces."

"There's got
to be somewhere!"

"But we can't
find it." Tarl leant against the wall, shaking his head.

"I wonder if
Fairen could help."

"How?"

"He's... he's
an Overlord. He has powers."

"What
sort?"

"Never mind."
She turned to Shrain. "Would he help?"

"I don't know,
My Lady. You'd have to ask him."

"Then let's
go." She jumped up and headed for the door.

In his private
chambers aboard the Scorpion Ship, Fairen gazed up at Tassin from
his voluminous white couch and tilted his head, clearly surprised
by her request. "You're asking me to go aboard the enforcer
ship?"

"Would you?
Could you sense him?"

"Possibly, if
he was near enough. But Overlords never leave their ships, except
to visit other Overlords."

"They're
hiding him, I know it," she said. "Their commander isn't ill. Your
medic says he can find nothing wrong with him."

"I could have
him brought here for questioning."

"He'll never
tell the truth now. He'd be digging his own grave."

"As he would
by lying to me," Fairen said.

"He's dead
whether he tells us the truth or not now."

"I could offer
to spare him in return for the truth."

She nodded.
"Yes, that would probably work."

"But I dislike
the idea of sparing a guilty man. Your suggestion appeals to me.
It's something I can do myself, not merely by giving commands and
threatening to destroy worlds. I will find him."

"He'll
appreciate it."

"Considering
how much trouble I've gone to already, I should hope so." Fairen
rose to his feet turned to Shrain, who hovered in the background,
as always. "I will go aboard the enforcer ship. Prepare an
escort."

"Yes, My
Lord."

"Have the
enforcer crew brought aboard and confined until I return."

Shrain nodded
and spoke into his communications link.

Almost an hour
later, Fairen led a group of his men aboard the empty enforcer
ship, Tassin and Tarl at his heels. As Fairen entered Reliant, he
removed his gloves and gestured for his escort to move away.
Stretching out his hands, the young Overlord paced along the
corridors, leading them towards the centre of the ship. At the end
of a half-hour walk, he entered a cramped room, glancing around at
the sparse furnishings, which comprised a table and four hard
bunks.

"This is the
cyber quarters," Tarl supplied.

"Hush. He's
here somewhere. Close." Fairen spread his hands towards the far
wall. "He's confined. He can't move. He's... afraid."

"
Sabre
!"
Tassin bellowed.

Fairen swung
around. "Be quiet."

"Sorry."

Fairen turned
back towards the far wall. "He's afraid… probably that we'll
abandon him. He must have heard you, but you've only added to his
anguish." He walked up to the wall and placed his hands against it.
"He's behind here." He turned to the cyber at his side. "Cyber Two,
burn a door in this wall."

The cyber drew
his laser and aimed it at the wall, holding the trigger while he
moved the beam over it in a door-sized rectangle. The sheet of
metal tilted as he burnt along the bottom of it, then fell outwards
with a clatter. The inside had a grey glitter, and Shrain said,
"Lined with trinium; impervious to scanners."

Tassin brushed
past Fairen and entered a tiny, bare room that a solitary yellow
light illuminated. A casket lay on the floor, the lights on its
side glowing red. Her throat closed, almost choking her.

"Oh, God, he's
in the casket.” She crouched beside it and yelled, “Sabre! We're
going to get you out!"

"He can't be
awake in there," Tarl muttered, coming to her side.

"He is,"
Fairen said.

Tassin reached
for the button on the side of the casket, but Tarl grabbed her
wrist. "Wait. If he's awake, you don't want to do that."

"Why not?"

"It starts the
wakeup sequence, raises the temperature and injects him with
stimulants, then the antidote to the paralysing agent. If he's been
awake in there for more than five hours, he's already metabolised
the agent, and the stimulants will have an adverse reaction if he
doesn't need them."

"Then how do
we get him out?"

"They've
sealed it, so we'll have to pry open the lid. Cyber Two can do
it."

Tarl turned
away, then paused as the casket creaked. A dull thud issued from
it, and the lid was dented outwards in a fist-sized area.

Tarl bent and
gripped Tassin’s wrist, pulled to her feet and tugged her away.
"Stand back."

The
ex-technician led her out of the tiny room as another bulge
appeared in the casket’s lid with a thud. The seal broke, allowing
a wisp of mist to escape. Tassin swallowed a lump as a third bulge
popped up in the middle of the lid, and the flow of mist
increased.

"We have to
help him!" she said.

Tarl shook his
head. "You don't want to be close to that thing when he breaks the
lid."

"He could be
weak, or injured. He may not be able to do it alone."

"He's not
weak," Fairen said. "But he is in pain."

The casket's
lid flew up with explosive force, ripped free of its hinges and hit
the wall with a terrific bang. It clattered to the floor as mist
swirled up out of the satin-lined interior and streamed over the
edge. Sabre sat up, gripped the sides of the casket and climbed
out. Tassin stared at him in horror. The lights on his brow band
were in an in-control configuration, and Tarl grunted with shock.
She shot him an alarmed look, which he met with an anguished
glance. Sabre straightened, clasping his right wrist. She
hesitated, then approached him. His eyes met hers, dispelling her
fears, and she ran the last few steps to embrace him, sobbing with
relief. His arms enfolded her, and he bowed his head.

"You found
me."

“
Are you all right?”

“
I’m fine. Just a little banged up.” He raised his head.
"Fairen."

The young
Overlord smiled, his pale cheeks flushed. "Sabre."

"Fairen found
you," Tassin said.

Sabre nodded
and gave her a little squeeze, then released her and turned to
Fairen. To Tassin's astonishment, the boy stepped forward and
clasped Sabre’s hand, pulling him into a brief embrace as if he was
a long lost brother. Sabre returned his hug with his peculiar brand
of gentleness. When Fairen stepped back, he looked oddly
serene.

Sabre said,
"Thank you."

"You deserve
my aid. More so than several planets of ungrateful, corrupted
humans. And I always keep my word."

"Fairen
threatened to destroy Myon Two to save you," Tassin blurted. "Then
we couldn't find you, and the enforcers lied. Fairen came here to
sense you, otherwise we might not have found you."

Sabre smiled
at Fairen, then glanced at her. "I heard you call, and the
paralysing agent wore off just a minute ago." He turned back to
Fairen. "I'm in your debt, My Lord."

Fairen's smile
widened. "I think perhaps we're even now."

Sabre
considered. "No, I'm definitely in your debt."

“
If you insist on arguing about it, I shall have to demand a
trial by combat between us to decide the issue.”

The cyber’s
smile widened. “We may just have to do that, then.”

"I look
forward to it."

Tassin studied
Sabre, concerned. "Fairen says you're wounded."

"It's nothing
serious." He glanced down at his new standard issue combat
clothes.

"What did they
do to you?"

"Why don't I
tell you about it aboard Fairen's ship, hmmm? I’d really like to
get out of here. This place gives me the creeps."