The Cyber Chronicles IX - Precipice (2 page)

Tassin smiled
and addressed the massive man. "You must be a clever man indeed,
Your Grace, to amass such great wealth."

Endrovar
beamed. "Ah, I like her already, Ashmond. Indeed, little lady, I am
very clever. I was once a fighter, believe it or not. A good one,
too. I won many bouts, and then my luck got even better. My fortune
is thanks to these little guys here." He gestured to the cybers.
"You see, I was almost past my prime when I stumbled across one in
a smuggler's den."

Tarl sensed all
the people in the room sag with boredom, including Ashmond, and
gathered that this tale was one Endrovar told far too often.

"On my home
world, and several others in my quadrant, cybers were unknown,"
Endrovar went on, warming to his tale. "I had some money saved,
and, after seeing a demonstration, I bought one. I made a cunning
disguise to hide the head band, and entered him in fights with
normal men. Do you know anything about cyber-bio combat units?"

Tassin inclined
her head. "I am familiar with them, Your Grace."

"Ah, good. Well
then, you can imagine how well I did, with prize money and bets. I
was raking in the dough hand over fist. My little guy was
unbeatable, yet so small that all the big guys wanted a piece of
him. I won every fight, no one could beat him. Of course, neither
of these is him; he was retired and returned a few years ago. But I
still make an occasional fortune when someone is stupid enough to
challenge my fighters."

"A cunning plan
indeed, Your Grace. You are to be commended for such astute
thinking," Tassin murmured.

"Aren't I,
though? I only wish I had discovered them sooner. Ah well, soon
enough, I suppose." His brown eyes raked her. "Well, you are a
pretty little thing. Ashmond, get her some nice clothes, then
she'll have dinner with us."

Ashmond bowed.
"As you wish, Your Grace."

Tassin preceded
him to a side door at his gesture, and Tarl went ahead to open it
for her. They entered a smaller room furnished with a garish gold
and green lounge suite, a gaudy purple and green bedroom visible
through a door in the far wall.

Tassin turned
to the baron. "You did not convey my offer to him."

"He won't
accept it, My Lady. Whether or not you're a real queen, as you
claim, he's more interested in you than he is in more money."

She frowned.
"He is an uneducated lout."

"He owns
planets."

"What does he
want with me?"

Ashmond cast
her a puzzled look. "He likes pretty girls, what else?"

"Surely he has
a surfeit of them?"

"He gets bored
easily. He'll sell you in a few weeks, never fear."

"I am
betrothed, My Lord."

The baron
smiled. "Alas, you do not have a choice. He owns you."

"I will
purchase my freedom."

"You're not for
sale, at any price."

"I can offer...
a service, other than that which he wants of me."

Ashmond tilted
his head. "And what might that be?"

Tassin cast
Tarl a pleading look. "My servant. He is a cyber tech; he will care
for Endrovar’s cybers in return for my... being left alone."

Ashmond turned
to study Tarl, who straightened from his subservient pose and
nodded. The baron looked undecided, then shrugged. "I'll tell him,
but I can't predict what he'll decide. You may buy yourself some
time, but ultimately he owns you both, so your man will do as he's
told or pay the price. Endrovar will be pleased to own a cyber
tech, though. Of course, your man will have to prove his
worth."

"He will. But
if Endrovar lays a hand on me, he will die rather than serve
him."

Tarl's brows
rose as he opened his mouth and raised a finger, then thought
better of it and subsided. Ashmond smiled and gestured to the
room.

"Take your
ease, My Lady. There's a bathroom through there, and the wardrobes
are full of gowns. Endrovar will expect you to look your best for
dinner, which is in two hours. We've left the station and are
heading for Hades Eleven, where he has fights lined up
tomorrow."

She inclined
her head. "Thank you, Baron."

Ashmond left,
and Tassin turned to Tarl, her expression contrite. "I'm sorry,
Tarl, I didn't know what else to do."

"It's okay, you
did the right thing. You actually did great. You pulled our butts
out of the fire, I think. At least here we have a chance of being
well treated. If one of those smugglers had bought us, or you,
things would have gone badly."

"Obviously I
don't expect you to die rather than let me... be abused, but he
might believe it."

"If I don't
keep you safe, Sabre will kill me anyway."

"No he won't,
and you know it." She sank down on a couch. "God, those cybers look
just like him. I was shocked when I saw them."

"Yeah, well,
they're clones." Tarl sat on the sofa opposite. "I wonder how many
he has."

She grimaced,
rubbing her face. "He is vile."

"Yep, he's a
lowlife, and no mistake. That's what happens to a man who beefs
himself up for strength, then lets himself go to pot. Not a
pleasant prospect."

"Will it happen
to Sabre?"

Tarl glanced
up. "God, no. He's genetically engineered to remain super fit, even
if he never exercises and spends his life eating. His metabolism
will just speed up to burn off the extra... Agh, well, don't worry
about it, it's not going to happen to Sabre."

"Not that I
would..."

"I know."

"We have to
find a way to get a message out."

He nodded. "I
may have a better chance than we had hoped for, if I'm allowed
access to areas with hi-tech equipment. We'll have to be careful
around the cybers, though. They know when we're lying,
remember."

"I know." She
stood up. "I'd better get ready for dinner."

****

The control
unit's warning light jerked Sabre awake, and he sat up in the soft
king-sized bed to scan the dim bedroom. All seemed peaceful and
quiet. According to the cyber, he had been asleep for six hours. He
rubbed his eyes, rose and dressed, then padded through to the
lounge, wondering what had sparked the cyber's warning.

The ship's
husky voice said, "Translocation in one minute."

Sabre left the
suite at a run, heading for the bridge along a velvet-floor black
corridor with a glowing ceiling. Fairen stood in the centre of the
gigantic black room whose hellish ambience was due, in part, to the
swathes of backlighted floor to ceiling crimson curtains that hung
at even intervals around its walls. The young Overlord gazed out of
one of the four huge circular screens, a frown furrowing his brow,
and turned when Sabre ran in. The cyber slowed to a walk to
approach him, aware of the dozen soldiers stationed around the
walls, each armed with a lethal poison dart gun.

"What's
happened?" he asked.

"An Overlord
has been attacked at Permon Seven."

"Attacked by
whom?"

Fairen rubbed
his tousled hair. "It sounds like another Corsair station, and it's
Ramadaus who's been attacked. He's in trouble. I have to help
him."

"Of course you
do."

Commander
Shrain stepped out of the shadows. "My Lord, the Thaytan ships are
too close to us. Our translocation will damage them."

Fairen swung
around. "Why are they so close?"

"Apparently
they found the Scorpion Ship's continued presence interesting, and
many yachts and tourist vessels have approached us."

"Delay
translocation and send a pulse."

Sabre wondered
why there were no distant booms or groans, then remembered that the
ship had gone into translocation configuration right after the
battle, but had not left, because Fairen had gone to sleep. He
glanced up at the screens, where a plethora of silver ships hung in
space around them. If the Scorpion Ship had been going into
translocation configuration, doubtless its changing aspect would
have warned them, and they would have moved away, but now they
lingered, driven by curiosity. Shrain tapped his com-link, and a
green glow ran over Scorpio's skin. A shimmer swept out in a wave,
causing the silver ships to roll and veer, rocked by the fiery
shockwave. Flames sprouted from their tails and sides as they
turned away from the Scorpion Ship, retreating.

Shrain frowned
at his com-link. "They will be at a safe distance in fifteen
seconds... all except one, which appears to have engine
failure."

"The fools! I
have no wish to harm them. Get rid of it, Shrain."

"Yes, My
Lord."

A filament of
green light snaked from one of the main arms, latched on to the
crippled ship and thrust it away to a safe distance, then winked
out.

"All safe,"
Shrain muttered.

"Translocate.
And send a message to the Thaytan high commander, that if Thaytan
ships approach an Overlord vessel so close again, they will be
destroyed. They must not delay an Overlord with their
presence."

"Yes, My Lord."
He tapped the com-link. "Translocation in ten seconds."

Sabre braced
himself, imagining what the Thaytan observers would see as the
Scorpion Ship translocated. It would become incandescent for a
moment, like a star, then simply vanish, leaving a fairly powerful
gravity shockwave. What the ship did, in effect, was generate a
spacial distortion that caused a wormhole to form, folded space and
punched a hole through it, which it then side-slipped through. The
stasis field clamped down, immobilising him with its smothering
embrace for several seconds, indicating that this was another long
jump. The pressing force released him, and he staggered, raising
his head to look up at the screens. A yellow planet hung in space,
silvered by a blue giant's light, a huge dark moon orbiting it.

The silver and
gold Moth Ship was off the port bow, and Sabre stared at it in
surprise. Its giant filigree wings were spread like a glinting net,
and blue fire streamed from their leading edges, bathing a
sparkling lattice orb with a tiny silver core. There was a second
battle station behind the Moth Ship, whose rear laser cannons sent
burning light flashing through it, but neither orb was damaged.
Dull grey ships with glittering silver cobweb wings fired bolts of
yellow fire at the battle stations, and several boxy Corsairs
attacked the defenders.

Clearly
Ramadaus had been summoned here just as the Corsairs' attack had
summoned Fairen to Thayta Three, and with the same intent. In this
instance, the Overlord had become the target, and the residents of
Permon Seven strived to save him from the battle stations. Most of
the Corsair ships fled when the Scorpion Ship appeared, some of the
defenders chasing after them. One of the stations fired a net of
vermilion plasma, which the green web around Ramadaus' ship
shredded, but remnants got through, scoring glowing wounds in the
Moth Ship's glinting hull.

Fairen's
nostrils flared. "Scorpio, battle mode."

Shrain cast him
a martyred look and lowered the com-link as he stepped back into
the shadows. It seemed that as soon as Fairen spoke directly to the
ship, Shrain became superfluous. An aide approached Fairen and
whispered to him, and the boy cast Sabre an irritated glance, then
held out a hand to the aide, who gave him a veiled hood. Fairen
donned it and nodded to the aide, who beckoned to the guards by the
door. Kole and the two techs entered and bowed to Fairen, who
ignored them. Distant booms and groans echoed through the ship as
it went into attack mode, the vast main arms spreading.

Kole approached
Sabre, Estrelle and Martis following. "What's going on?"

Sabre
explained, and the trio stared at the Moth Ship as the battle
station behind it fired, hitting one of Overlord ship’s wings. The
delicate silver and gold web buckled, and Fairen swore.

"That fool is a
mule."

"Why doesn't he
leave?" Sabre asked.

Fairen glanced
back at him. "Like I said, he's a mule. He'll stay and fight."

"But he can't
harm them."

"Ramadaus will
never back down, even if it kills him."

Kole leant
closer to Sabre. "Doesn't he have plasma guns?"

"No."

"So how does he
blow up planets?"

Fairen turned.
"He has particle disintegrators. He doesn't blow them up, he turns
them into clouds of dust, but a particle disintegrator is useless
against something as small as those orbs. My main gun is also too
powerful to use safely against them, but it works."

"And how," Kole
muttered.

"Kindly be
quiet." Fairen turned back to the screens.

Faint
vibrations ran through the floor as the Red Death's main arms
spread and the tail gun curled over its back. One of the orbs
turned towards them, flames sprouting from its edges. The battle
station behind the Moth Ship fired again, and the Overlord ship
became radiant, then winked out of existence, reappearing on the
far side of the orb. Double gravity shockwaves rippled from its
exit and re-entry points, rocking the Corsair stations. The one
that turned to face Scorpio aligned its arms, preparing to
fire.

"Main gun,
ready," Scorpio said. "Targeting; preparing to fire."

A blue beam
shot from above the bridge, hit the central sphere and made it shed
beams of light. A moment later, the crimson plasma bolt followed.
It ate through the filigree orb and struck the tiny sphere, which
disintegrated into a cloud of debris. Scorpio turned to face the
second battle station, which also turned towards her, ignoring the
lasers of the Moth Ship beyond it.

Fairen cursed.
"He's in the way."

"He'll move,"
Sabre said.

The beam of
blue light targeted the second orb, making the sphere blaze. The
plasma bolt shot from above them, spreading into a net of
super-heated particles. It struck the battle station, flashing
through the web of silver struts to the sphere, which exploded.
Remnants of the plasma passed through it and flew towards the Moth
Ship, which vanished in a flash, reappearing closer to Scorpio.