The Cyber Chronicles IX - Precipice (20 page)

"Such a thing
would have been disastrous, but then, on a visit after his son's
deaths, Darzel noticed how like him young Sharlin was, not like his
father at all. Darzel had Sharlin's DNA tested, and discovered the
truth. Not only was Sharlin his son, he was perfect, the epitome of
a combat physique, and a peerless fighter already at sixteen. But
he was a bastard. Darzel was not about to let that stop him,
however. First he arranged an accidental death for his wife, then
another for his cousin's husband. He married her, and declared
Sharlin to be his legitimate heir. So, King Sharlin came to be, and
he united the kingdoms through combat, beating all the kings or
their champions until he became High King.”

“Clearly he was
a better man than you’ll ever be, bastard or not,” she said. “I’ll
wager Myon Two killed him, and you’re now profiting from their
murderous ways, even using his enslaved clones. How despicable is
that?”

“You would be
well advised not to rile me, you know. If you persist, I’ll have
you fitted with one of those little control units Myon Two makes
now."

Tassin's face
went cold as the blood drained from it. "A control unit? Like the
ones used on cyber hosts?” She glanced at the cybers by the
door.

“No, no, not
even close. It merely ensures complete obedience. Girls implanted
with the control unit are willing, even eager, participants in
whatever is suggested to them. That's how it works. Obeying a
suggestion causes the control unit to stimulate the pleasure
centres in your brain. Refusing makes it administer tiny shocks,
which cause the equivalent of a blinding migraine. You won't be
truculent for long."

Tassin gulped
as bile stung the back of her throat. "I thought you were a decent
man, but you’re a monster. If you do that, Sabre will surely kill
you when he finds me."

"I'm protected
by cybers, my dear, so even if he does find you, he has no hope of
freeing you or killing me, regardless of whether or not he is one
himself. Ironic, isn't it, that you claim he’s a free cyber, yet
his brothers will keep you prisoner at my behest."

"Those are
machines. He's a man, and an extremely clever one at that. When he
comes looking for me, and finds out who he is, he might just decide
to start that interstellar war you mentioned."

“He would be a
fool to do that, and I would kill him before he could,” he said.
“If you do succeed in summoning him to Parthis, all you’ll do is
assure his death. You wouldn’t want to do that, would you? You
claim to love him, after all.”

Tassin looked
away. "He will come for me, that, I promise."

"Then he’ll
die, and you’re going to Myon Two for execution. That, I
promise."

****

Sabre opened
his eyes as a chiming came from the door, noticing the cyber’s
warning that had not woken him. The drug Tarl had given him made
him groggy, and his head now seemed to be stuffed with cotton wool.
It was better than the endless waves of senseless feelings that had
battered his brain before, however. He gave permission for whoever
was seeking entry to come in, and the door opened to admit Tarl.
The cyber tech went to a chair and flopped into it, frowning.

"I've heard the
whole story now, and it's a bit worrying, bud."

Sabre closed
his eyes. "Yeah. I'm not too happy about it either."

"Myon Two is
never going to stop hunting you now, not until they get what they
want."

"Are you
suggesting I should give it to them?"

Tarl sighed.
"Perhaps, if they agree to leave you alone. That's the only thing
that's going to stop them. It seems those beings of light didn't do
you such a big favour after all. Now you're a prototype. They can't
kill you, because of Fairen, but they can steal from you."

Sabre opened
his eyes and stared at the dimpled plastic ceiling. "You're just
stating the obvious now."

"Well, I…"

The ship
lurched, as it had done many times before, to avoid Imperial's
attempts to get grapplers on it, but this time an alarm whooped.
Sabre rose and headed for the door. Tarl jumped up and followed. A
tense atmosphere pervaded the bridge, and Thestan vacated the
commander's chair as Sabre entered. The cyber ignored him, his eyes
flicking around the bridge.

"Report."

"We're exiting
the corridor, and Imperial's got a grappler on us. We can't shake
it. We have to fight," Thestan told him.

"It's an hour
too early. We're too far from Parthis."

"We don't have
a choice. We can re-enter once we get free."

"He'll target
our engines. If he cripples us, we won't be able to get back into
the corridor."

Thestan nodded.
"You have a better plan?"

The navigation
officer said, "Exiting corridor in ten seconds, Commander."

"If I do, it's
too late now, isn't it?" Sabre asked.

"I didn't have
a choice," Thestan said.

"You should
have called me before making the decision."

"Once he got
the grappler -"

Sabre held up a
hand. "Don't explain what I already know, it's irritating."

"Exiting
corridor," the navigation officer stated. "Solar wings offline,
engines coming online in four... three... two... one...
online."

"Battle
stations," Sabre ordered. "Target Imperial's grappler emitters, and
send the distress signal. Identify yourself as a Myon Two ship. Is
there any sign of Shadow Hawk?"

"No sir."

"Well done,
Thestan. You've succeeded in dropping us in the shit."

Pathos
shuddered, and pulses of red laser light flashed past.

"Grappler
emitter destroyed," another officer said. "We're free."

"Get us back
into the corridor, and keep sending that distress signal in case we
don't make it."

"If we try to
re-enter the corridor, we'll be vulnerable," Thestan pointed out.
"We'll have to turn broadside on to the -"

"What did I
just say about stating the obvious?" Sabre asked.

"As
sub-commander, it's my duty to -"

"As your
commander, it's my prerogative to tell you to shut the hell up. If
I want your advice, I'll ask for it."

Thestan's mouth
compressed into a grim line, and he frowned. Sabre stepped closer
to him, his demeanour threatening. "And if I don't start hearing
some 'sirs', I'll give you some bruises to go with that bad
attitude."

"Yes...
sir."

The ship
shivered, and distant alarms whooped and brayed. An officer said,
"We're taking hits on the starboard flank; hull strength down to
fifty per cent in three places."

"Initiate
emergency depressurisation procedures," Thestan ordered.

"Depressurisation doors activated, sir." The ship quivered again,
and the officer frowned at his screen. "Engine two damaged, taking
it offline."

"How long
before we're back in the corridor?" Sabre asked.

"Two minutes,
fifty-three seconds, sir."

"Turn
away."

The navigation
officer looked surprised, but tapped his console. The ship veered,
stars moving across the screens from left to right.

"We're now
heading away from the corridor, sir."

"Give me full
dorsal thrusters, and deploy solar wings."

"But -"

"Now!"

Thestan relayed
the order to the cyber pilot, and Sabre sat in the command chair as
vibrations ran through the ship. An officer tapped his keyboard,
and a new alarm joined the cacophony, along with a strident
automated message spoken in a toneless artificial voice.

"Brace for
emergency deceleration, brace for..."

Sabre tuned it
out. The stars in the screens moved upwards as Pathos dived. The
massive solar wings flared out on either side, turning the ship
into a giant butterfly with wings of filigree fire. The bridge crew
hung on as the violent deceleration overwhelmed the interior stasis
field, hurling anything and anyone who was not tied down across the
room. Sabre waited as the stars continued to fly up the screens.
Effectively, the ship was turning on its back, but, without
exterior gravity, the change in attitude went unnoticed. When
deployed outside a photon corridor, solar wings provided excellent
braking for the moment it took them to calibrate to the photon
stream, or lack thereof.

“Take solar
wings offline,” Sabre ordered.

"Imperial is
overshooting, sir," an officer said.

"Naturally,
they're larger, and have more inertia. Set course for the
corridor."

Thestan turned
to him. "You do realise -"

"That it
overloaded your generators, yes, I do. I know more about what it
did to your ship than you do, so kindly keep your carping to
yourself."

"Yes, sir."

"Entering
corridor in five minutes," the navigation officer stated. "Imperial
is still decelerating and turning. They've lost ground."

Sabre nodded.
"With a big ship like that, deploying the solar wings would burn
out his generators. He doesn't have that option."

The tension on
the bridge remained in a stifling cloak of silent animosity. Sabre
tried to relax, tapping on the arm of his chair. Kole came in,
looking a little alarmed, and Tarl explained what was happening in
a mutter.

Pathos
re-entered the corridor four minutes ahead of Imperial, a lead the
larger ship would close in the hour that remained to Parthis. Sabre
returned to his cabin to lie down, taking two of the pills Tarl had
given him. The surges of anger and anguish nibbled at him again,
and he was not ready to deal with them yet. When he had Tassin
back, he would deal with the new emotions, for then they would be
good ones, he hoped.

****

Tarvin frowned
at Tassin, his patience wearing thin. When his men had informed him
that the girl had vanished, it had only taken one his cybers two
seconds to find her, but his men had wasted three hours winkling
her out of the air duct she had crawled into in some hare-brained
escape attempt. Where she thought she was going to go, he had no
idea, but now she stood before him in his private lounge, flushed,
dishevelled and scowling, smeared with dust and unrepentant.

He schooled his
expression. "Since you choose to be so troublesome, you leave me no
choice but to control you in a more aggressive fashion, one you
cannot defy."

She raised her
chin, although her eyes glinted with fear.

“You will be
taken to my hospital, where they will give you drugs to make you
more amenable. You only have yourself to blame."

"You will rot
in Hell for all eternity."

"I think
not."

Tassin lunged
at him, her hand aimed at his cheek. A cyber sprang from the
shadows and yanked her away by one arm, making her hiss with
pain.

Tarvin was
thoroughly fed up with her antics. She would find out what happened
to people who defied him. He would not tolerate it. "Hurt her,” he
ordered the cyber, “without damage."

The cyber
shifted his grip to the nerve bundle in her elbow and pressed with
iron-hard fingers. The Queen gasped and gripped one of his fingers,
trying to bend it, but his hand was too strong. She gritted her
teeth, her lips drawn back in a snarl and her brows knotted.

"When you agree
to stop the being so difficult, I’ll order him to release you,"
Tarvin offered.

"Let him rip
off my arm. I'll never stop," she gritted.

"That is
unfortunate, for you. Cybers can inflict excruciating pain. They
are expert torturers."

Tassin gazed up
at the clone. "The man trapped inside his head hates you. You use
his body against his will, and that is the worst kind of slavery.
What's more, he’s your blood kin, and any man who would condone
such a thing has no morals and is not fit to be a king, or even a
man. You should be a worm, rather, and that would be an insult to
worms."

"Doubtless you
have an endless supply of derogatory remarks, but they are of no
consequence."

"I am sure
you’ve heard them all before."

Tarvin shook
his head. "No one would dare, and soon, neither will you."

"I’ll curse
your name with my last breath."

"Think that, if
it pleases you, but soon you’ll be smiling and doing your utmost to
be pleasant, I assure you."

Tassin bit her
lip, clearly striving to hide the pain the cyber inflicted, which
he knew was becoming unbearable. Tarvin ordered him to release her,
and she sagged, then glared at him again.

"So, you remain
defiant," he said. "How very brave of you, my dear. Shadow Eleven,
take her to the hospital and tell them to make her a lot less
truculent."

The cyber took
hold of Tassin’s arm, and she accompanied him to the door with
admirable dignity, her head held high. It opened before they
reached it, and Sub-commander Geral trotted in and bowed to
Tarvin.

"Sire, a ship
in distress has just entered Estron space. They're under attack by
Emperor Endrovar, and are requesting assistance. It's a Myon Two
enforcer ship. We've confirmed their codes."

Tarvin raised
his chair and turned to face his sub-commander, frowning. "Why is
Endrovar attacking them?"

"They didn't
say, Sire."

"I suppose it's
irrelevant, but still, I'm curious."

Tarvin set his
chair in motion, heading for the door. Tassin cast a look over her
shoulder as the cyber led her away down the corridor, and he
experienced a twinge of satisfaction at the hint of desperation in
her eyes. She would regret defying him, queen or no.

Tarvin followed
the sub-commander to the bridge, which thrummed with tension. A
variety of screens and tactical workstations lined its dull blue
bulkheads, an officer manning each one. A central, U-shaped
dashboard housed the most important instruments, such as steerage
and engine controls. A cyber pilot sat behind it on a floater
chair, the data cable that connected his brow band to the board
providing a direct interface. Subdued, recess lighting cast a
subtle glow, allowing the monitors and flashing keys to be more
visible, and massive front screens gave a panoramic view of space.
Parthis Two shone like a blue jewel in the distance, still only a
tiny, featureless sphere.