The Cyber Chronicles IX - Precipice (23 page)

"And he might
not. There's no way out of this situation."

"Maybe there
is. I'm going to find her -"

"They'll kill
her."

Sabre released
Tarvin and swung away, rubbing his head. Tarl was right, unless
Tarvin's men thought Sabre was one of the Shadows. He swung back to
face Tarl.

"I'll find a
uniform. They won't know who I am."

"You don't have
time."

Sabre knew he
was right again, and growled with fury. Emotional dross clogged his
mind, and he could not think straight. He longed for the calm,
logical thinking he had had before, now buried under a mountain of
useless, painful feelings. Grimacing, he gripped the cyber
band.

Tarvin sneered,
"A cyber will never be able to outwit a free man. You don't have
the brains for it."

"You'd be well
advised to keep your trap shut," Tarl said.

Sabre swung
back to Tarvin, gripped his hair and jerked his head back, ramming
the laser under his chin. "How will you commander feel when he
hears your girlish shrieks of pain? I think maybe he'll do as I say
then, hmmm?"

Tarvin tried to
shake his head. "He'll do as I ordered. Once an Overlord arrives,
your little escapade will be at an end. Harm me, and you will
pay."

"Sabre," Tarl
murmured. "Calm down, bud. Bad idea."

The cyber
released Tarvin, who slumped. Swinging away, he raised a hand to
rub his throbbing brow again. The ship shuddered. He knew what it
meant. An Overlord had arrived, and Shadow Hawk was in a grappler
beam, as was, undoubtedly, Endrovar. He waved the laser at
Tarvin.

"Ask your
commander which Overlord it is."

"What
difference does it make?"

"A big one, to
me."

Tarvin shrugged
and touched the coms key. "Andon, which Overlord has just
arrived?"

"None, Sire,
it's Imperial."

"What? He's
attacking us? What's happening?"

"He's trying to
board us. I'm attempting to get free of his grappler."

Tarvin's scowl
deepened. "That bloody fool!"

"Do you want to
fire on him, Sire?"

"No. An
Overlord will arrive soon."

"Odd that one
isn't here yet if you're so important," Sabre observed. "Perhaps
they're all too busy."

"One will come
soon."

"You hope."

"It makes no
difference to you,” Tarvin said. “If you surrender now, I might be
lenient."

"Give Tassin to
me, and I'll leave."

Tarvin looked
smug. "You're in a poor bargaining position, and you know it. Get
the hell off my ship, and I'll consider flushing her out with the
garbage."

Sabre shook his
head. "Not a chance. I'm not leaving without her, and I know you
and Endrovar will use us for target practice. If anything happens
to her, you will die, and I'll blow up your ship, too, just for
shits and giggles." He stepped closer to Tarvin and wagged the
laser under his nose. "Because you know what, Your Majesty? If she
dies, I won't care if I follow her, got it? You know what a cyber
can do. Hell, you've had first-hand experience, which is testament
to your stupidity. So just imagine, if you will, how much
destruction a suicidal cyber bent on revenge can wreak. Scary
thought, huh?"

"This is why
cybers are computer controlled."

"Yeah, but I'm
not, so perhaps you'd like to rethink your little plan. Your troops
won't be able to stop me reaching this ship's armaments and setting
them off, and, once you're dead, your cybers won't do a damn thing.
You see," Sabre went on conversationally, "the problem with
computer controlled soldiers is they only do what they're told.
They have no loyalty; they'll feel no rage when you die. They won't
give a shit. In fact, they'll be happy, deep down, where they
think. Which they do, you know. It's a dark prison, insulated from
the world, but we do think, and have feelings, mostly anger and
despair, but emotions nevertheless."

Tarvin eyed
him. "My commander will also have sent a distress message to Myon
Two, so any ships in the area will come to my aid."

"Will they now?
They might find it strange, then, that Pathos is docked with you.
But I can trump that." Sabre shot Tarl a hard look before returning
his attention to the King. "You see, my mission was sanctioned by
an Overlord. The Scorpion Lord, to be exact." He held up his left
arm, so the bracelet glinted in the overhead light. "Do you know
what this is?"

Tarvin stared
at it, then inclined his head. "It is an Overlord's friendship
bracelet."

"Yeah, funny
how everyone knows what it is, yet I didn't at first. But now I do.
So, all I have to do is press it, and Fairen will be here in a
couple of minutes. Unless he's busy blowing up a planet, in which
case it might take him a couple of minutes longer. He will come,
though, and even if your summons brings another Overlord, he's not
going to go against Fairen, or harm his friend. So I'm not in such
a bad bargaining position after all, am I?"

The King's
expression hardened. "In that case, take your harpy and leave.
She’s more trouble than she’s worth, anyway."

Tarl slumped
with a sigh, leaning on the com-station.

Sabre smiled.
"I see you got to know her a little bit. Tell your men to bring her
here, then order your ship to set course for Pallin Two. Also, tell
Endrovar to stay the hell out of your way, and not to follow."

"He won’t do
what I say."

"Then if he
does try to follow, you fire on him. There's an enforcer outpost on
Pallin Two, so once Thestan identifies himself, he'll have a few
more warships to back him up and send Endrovar packing if he
follows us."

Thestan said,
"Or you could tell Endrovar that Pathos is a Myon Two enforcer
ship, and Tarl has been arrested. Then he'll know there's no way he
can get him back."

Sabre shot him
a scathing look. "He already knows that. Apparently Endrovar isn't
afraid of enforcers, at least not if they don't outgun him." He
glared at Tarvin. "I didn't hear you give those orders yet."

The King turned
to the com-station and touched a key. "Commander Andon. Bring the
slave girl to my meeting room, unharmed, and lay in a course for
Pallin Two. Tell Endrovar to... not to follow us, and if he does,
fire on him."

"We're still in
his grapples, Majesty," the commander's voice replied. "He's unable
to lock on a boarding tube, but he's still trying."

Tarvin frowned.
"I thought you would have broken that by now."

"Sorry, Sire,
not yet."

"Then fire on
him, Commander, until he releases my ship."

"Sire... at
this proximity, our weapons will do a great deal of damage -"

"Good."

"And so will
his."

"No more than
ours, surely?" Tarvin asked.

"Possibly not,
Sire, but -"

"Just do it,
Commander."

"Yes, Sire. Are
you unharmed?"

"I’m fine. I
have reached an agreement, of sorts."

Sabre nodded
when Tarvin turned to him again. "Good. Now you can tell me why
Tassin is in your hospital."

"How do
you...?" Tarvin's eyes flicked up to the brow band. "Of course.
She’s unharmed, I assure you. She just needed some calming
medication."

"I'll bet."
Sabre glanced at the door, longing for Tassin to arrive. He looked
at the scanners, where her life sign was moving now, escorted by
two others, towards his location. His heart seemed full, as if some
strange emotion clogged it. He had felt it before, in a far milder
form, and knew what it was, but he had not known it could become so
strong.

The ship
shuddered, and he glanced at Tarvin, who looked pensive, scowling
into the darkness where his cybers had stood. Doubtless this
experience was humiliating for the youthful King, and Sabre
analysed the new emotion that had prevented him from calling
Fairen. Pride, Tarl had called it. Something he had not had before.
Yet using Fairen's name had been enough to resolve the situation,
and for some reason he resented that, too. Odd. He did not
understand the reason for it. Vibrations ran through the floor, and
Tarvin turned to the com-station, tapping the key.

"Commander,
report."

"It's Endrovar,
Sire, he's firing back, and -"

A dull boom
rattled the ship, and the floor seemed to tilt. Tarvin grabbed the
com-station as his floating chair started to drift across the room,
and the enforcers flinched. An alarm wailed outside, and the
com-station beeped, many of its lighted keys flashing. Sabre found
that he was leaning, his boots’ rubber soles preventing him from
sliding across the smooth floor.

"He's hit our
main stabilisers!" Andon yelled, his voice distorted. "The
explosion has broken into the port armoury! We're venting!
Artificial gravity is malfunctioning... Sire, we're going to break
up!"

"Abandon ship,
Commander," Tarvin said with remarkable calm.

Sabre glanced
at the scanners, where Tassin's life sign was now moving towards
the far side of the ship. The area of destruction in the vessel's
port side was between her and the meeting room, and whoever was
with her had evidently decided to retreat. If the ship broke up,
however, she would be trapped in the stern, reliant on Tarvin's
crew to get her to a life pod.

Sabre turned to
Thestan. "Take him to Pathos. I'm going to get Tassin."

Chapter Twelve

The golden
doors opened with a groan as Sabre reached them, jamming halfway.
He pushed one aside and sprinted down the corridor. Ships as large
as Shadow Hawk were structurally fragile within their armour
plating, built in space where they only had to deal with inertia,
and the explosion had weakened the framework sufficiently for the
ship to warp. It had been underway at the time, too, since
spaceships rarely came to a complete halt without a good reason, so
inertia would be causing it to twist and bend. In addition, the
explosions had caused shockwaves in the interior atmosphere,
pushing the surrounding areas of the ship in opposing directions,
effectively tearing it apart. The scanners showed him Tassin in the
stern, moving away. Behind him, Tarl and the enforcers emerged with
Tarvin, pushing him along. Panicked crewmen and women raced towards
the nearest escape pods, pushing and shoving. The malfunctioning
gravity field caused Sabre to lean to his right, making it appear
that the floor was tilted.

Another massive
explosion ripped through the ship, making him stumble as the floor
rippled. Imperial’s lasers would have been devastating at such
close proximity, and hitting a soft target like the main
stabilisers had been pure luck, but it spelt Shadow Hawk's doom. A
battleship commander had more sense than to do what Imperial had
done, since there was a good chance the explosion had damaged
Endrovar’s ship as well, but when an egomaniac like the self-styled
emperor got his hands on a weapon as powerful as a battleship
disaster was just an idiotic order away.

A wind blew
past him, and he ran faster, his feet barely touching the floor as
the gravity field weakened. He raced down a plush blue and grey
corridor whose glowing ceiling flickered. The schematic in his head
showed him the quickest way to Tassin's location. Rounding a corner
with the aid of the far wall, he leapt through a pressure door as
it slid shut. Another alarm joined the wailing siren as the ship's
internal sensors detected the drop in air pressure and triggered
the compartment doors that would seal off all the areas of the
ship. If the last one had been closing, the next one would be
sealed by the time he reached it. A group of panic-stricken people
ran to the pressure door he had just come through and wailed in
despair when they found it closed. They looked like servants, and
he wondered if they would find an escape pod. Tarvin's evacuation
procedure seemed lax, but then, he probably never expected to have
to use it.

Sabre checked
the schematic in his head again, mapping the quickest direct route
to Tassin's location. She was five hundred metres away via the
corridor route, but only three hundred metres away if he went
through the walls. He turned into the next door, which slid open
with a screech, and entered what appeared to a recreation room.
Velvet and chrome chairs huddled against the wall to his right, a
few tables still clung to the sloping floor, and gaming machines
beeped and whirred. The floor quivered as he sprinted for the far
wall, the scanners telling him that it was only
two-centimetre-thick plasteel, commonly used for interior
bulkheads.

Sabre leapt at
it, concentrating all his power into his right foot. He hit the
wall with a terrific bang, smashed through it as if it was
cardboard and stumbled into the next corridor, catching himself on
the far wall. The floor trembled and heaved, and several wailing
people scrabbled for footing as they tried to run in the direction
whence he had come. He wanted to stop them, but he did not have the
time. He had to reach Tassin before it was too late. The air was
growing thin, and his heart speeded up to compensate, his breath
coming in rapid gasps.

Sabre entered
another room, whose door jammed halfway, and raced across a
dormitory lined with tiers of bunks, each one with a tiny fold out
table and recessed cupboard beside it. The plush décor continued,
only now in blue and cream. He ran towards the far wall, noticed a
red light flashing in his brain and glanced at the scanners. A
group of people was crammed against the other side of it, and if he
smashed through it he would kill some of them. Unable to stop in
time, Sabre slowed and ran up the bulkhead, somersaulting back to
the floor. He approached the wall, wondering what the hell a bunch
of people was doing squashed up against the far side.

Consulting the
scanners again, he switched to infrared and discovered that the
room beyond was on fire. He was getting close to the explosion
sites, and evidently the people had become trapped against the
bulkhead. Banging and shouting came through it, but they had no
hope of breaking it, even with tools. Not in time, at any rate. The
automatic fire extinguishers must have failed, or been exhausted,
and it surprised him that they had survived. The interior panelling
and much of the furnishings were fireproof, so the armaments that
had caused the explosions must be fuelling the fire. Exod-X, a
vital component in photon entrapment and acceleration, was highly
volatile and extremely toxic. He needed to get through the wall,
however.