The Cyber Chronicles IX - Precipice (24 page)

Stepping closer
to it, he bellowed, "Get away from the wall; I'm going to break
through!"

Shrieks and
screams came from beyond it, then the life signs on the scanners
moved aside, clearing an area. Sabre loped to the far end of the
dormitory, turned and sprinted at the wall. This time he hit it at
full speed, his foot smashing through it with a tremendous crash,
splintering the brittle plasteel. He landed on his feet on the far
side and skidded to a halt in a smoke-filled room in front of a
wall of flame. The fifteen crewmen and women gave cries of relief
and gratitude as they climbed through the hole he had made. The
last one paused to glance back.

"Hey, buddy,
you can't stay here, you'll..." He trailed off as Sabre turned,
looking puzzled, then climbed through the hole after his
fellows.

Sabre faced the
wall of fire again, considering his options, and the man's
reaction. Indeed, it would seem strange for a cyber to rescue
anyone other than his owner. He did not doubt that Tarvin's cybers
sought the King even now, and Thestan would be well advised to
undock before they found him.

According to
the scanners and heat imaging, the burning area was five metres
wide, and appeared to be where the explosions had breached a
corridor and part of the room beyond. Tassin was to his right,
fifty metres further down the burning corridor, in a room that
appeared safe, for now. Two people were with her, and he wondered
how they had got trapped there. How stupid were Tarvin's crewmen?
Why had they not taken her to an escape pod yet? He turned to the
wall beside him. The room beyond was not on fire, and he did not
fancy braving the flames. Trotting away as far as he could, he
sprinted at it and smashed through into the next area. It was a
bathing room, with rows of glass shower cubicles shivering in the
vibrations, some already cracked.

A haze of smoke
hung in the air, and he raced across the smooth plastic floor to
the far wall, this one sheathed in a waterproof coating. His foot
punched through it with a hollow boom, but, unlike the plasteel
cabin walls, it did not shatter. His forearms took the brunt of the
impact, and the brow band shielded his forehead. Nevertheless, the
shock of the collision staggered and almost halted him. He reeled a
little as he broke through it, his head ringing like a gong and his
arms burning. He glanced down at them. Blood seeped from abrasions,
and there were more on his knees and shins. Shaking his head, he
looked around at a smoke-filled corridor.

The toxic fumes
made his throat close, and he coughed. Tassin was on the far side
of the wall to his left, and he turned to it, searching for a door.
His groping hands found a frame and an access control, which he
pushed. The door grated open, and he entered a less smoky room.
Tassin lay on a hard bed in the centre of it, apparently
unconscious. Two techs, or medics, he could not tell which, were
sprawled on the floor beside her bed. Sabre crossed to her side in
two strides and gazed down at her, his heart swelling with joy
until it hurt. He placed a hand on her brow, smoothing a few
strands of hair from her face with trembling fingers.

It seemed like
an age since he had last seen her, on the night before he had woken
in the Myon Two lab. They had shared a private candlelight dinner,
which, she had assured him, was a romantic thing to do. He recalled
her gentle smile and sparkling eyes, the way she had reached across
the table to hold his hand. Then he had found it pleasant, but he
understood it better now, and he wanted to feel her hand gripping
his again. Taking hold of it, he leant over her.

"Tassin!
Tassin, wake up, it's me." He patted her cheek.

Sabre checked
her pulse, finding it slow, and pried open one of her eyes. Her
pupil was dilated. She had been drugged. One of the white-clad men
on the floor stirred, coughing.

"Help me," he
rasped, raising a hand.

Sabre turned
his head to glare down at him. "What did you give her?"

"Who? Oh. Just
a sedative."

The cyber
scooped Tassin up, cradling her against his chest, and headed for
the door.

"Help us!" the
man cried, grabbing Sabre’s ankle.

Sabre jerked
his leg free. "No."

It was not the
medic's fault, Sabre reflected as he strode back out into the
corridor. The man was just following Tarvin's orders, but somehow
Sabre could not forgive him. A black tide of bitterness and rage
filled his heart, mingled oddly with the buoyancy of the joy that
finding Tassin had brought. That he had not killed the man was
testament to his restraint, and he had enough to deal with, saving
Tassin. The yellow pills, he realised, were wearing off. Like every
drug he ingested, he metabolised it rapidly.

Sabre trotted
along the corridor, passing the huddled forms of unconscious
crewmen, and consulted the schematic for the quickest route to an
escape pod. Tassin's head fell back, and he held her closer, so her
cheek rested on his shoulder. According to the control unit, she
weighed a mere fifty-two kilograms, which was nothing to him. She
did, however, occupy his arms. He glanced down at her through the
haze of smoke, marvelling afresh at this feisty girl's endless
courage. She had been through so much for him, risked her life many
times, and it still amazed him that someone so proud and beautiful
could love him.

Rounding a
corner, he arrived at the row of escape pods the schematic had
shown him, and cursed. They had all been launched, and the hatch
panels flashed red. Five unconscious people lay in front of one,
left behind to die. Evidently this was why the medics had retreated
to the room with Tassin, since there was no escape here. He should
probably have consulted the scanners, he reflected. Looking inwards
at the cyber's information, he searched for a loaded pod bay. The
closest was on the far side of the fire, but he could not take
Tassin through that. The next closest was two hundred metres to his
right, one deck down. One pod remained in a bank of five, and he
hoped it was not malfunctioning.

The escape pod
was also perilously close to the explosion site, and the scanners
showed that the hull was breached in several places. There were no
others close enough, however. Most had been launched, the rest were
beyond too many sealed pressure doors and walls. He could not smash
through walls with his burden. The cyber warned him that the level
of toxicity in the smoke was rising, and, while it was still not
bad enough to affect him, it was growing dangerous for Tassin. Now
would be a good time to call Fairen, he mused, except the boy would
put Sabre’s safety ahead of Tassin’s, and he could only translocate
one person at a time. It would take him several minutes to arrive
and locate Sabre, and then he would transfer the cyber first,
leaving Tassin in this toxic environment, which was rapidly
becoming more and more unstable. Sabre would not risk anything else
going wrong. His life seemed to be cursed, and, now that he had
found her, he was not going to let her out of his sight until she
was safe again.

Sabre loped
along the corridor to the next sealed pressure door. The access
panel beside it flashed red, indicating that it was locked, and he
activated the cybernetic interface. The panel’s lights turned green
and the door opened. Air was sucked through it with a thump, almost
sweeping him off his feet, and he stumbled into a smoke-free,
low-pressure section of corridor. The tilted floor made walking
difficult, but the wind stopped when the door slid shut.

The venting
that was taking place here was evidently slow, and some air
remained, but it was thin. His heart speeded up and his breathing
quickened. Tassin panted, and he cast her a worried glance. He had
to remember that she could not withstand hostile environments like
he could. The floor shuddered and heaved, the walls warped and
bent. The ship was breaking up, and he was approaching the damaged
section. It was debateable which was worse for Tassin, the toxic
smoke or the lack of oxygen. The pod was a hundred metres ahead,
but he still had to find a way down to the lower deck. According to
the ship's schematic, there were no stairs between him and the pod,
and he was not about to go back.

Sabre went over
to the wall and placed Tassin next to it, then turned his attention
to the floor. The scanners informed him that it was only
one-centimetre-thick duronium, and he drew a laser, pointed it at
the floor and held the trigger. The beam of white-hot light seared
through the carpeting, starting little fires that went out quickly
in the low oxygen atmosphere. The laser sliced a deep groove in the
metal beneath, causing the area around it to heat and the carpet to
smoulder. Sabre completed a metre-wide circle and holstered the
weapon, then stamped on the middle of it. It bent, then gave when
he stamped again, falling into the corridor below with a dull
clang.

Scooping Tassin
up, he dropped through the hole, cushioning his landing with bent
knees. She moaned and writhed, forcing him to tighten his hold. He
glanced down at her, wondering if she would wake up. That might be
a good thing, or not, depending on her reaction. Knowing her,
however, he hoped that she remained unconscious. He trotted towards
the pod bay. The breeze that blew past him was alarming, but he was
committed now. The ship groaned and creaked, the floor heaved and
shuddered. Gravity had become almost negligible, which made running
hard as each stride sent him bounding into the air. The endless
wailing of the alarms spread anxious tension with the toxic
noise.

A screen
cracked as he loped past it, and air whistled out of it, adding to
the ship's death wail. Shadow Hawk's remaining lifespan was
measured in mere hours now, and for this section, possibly minutes.
As he passed another screen, he glimpsed glinting silver escape
pods and debris drifting away. The pod bank came into view ahead,
and his heart sank. Four soldiers stood around the remaining pod,
banging on the flashing red panel beside it. The warship’s escape
pods held four people, maximum. The men turned to scowl at him as
loped up. They were sufficiently panicked to have a desperate glint
in their eyes, which told him that they would fight for the pod.
Since they could not open it, however, the point seemed moot.

Sabre placed
Tassin on the floor, out of harm's way, and approached them. One
stepped towards him, his eyes on the brow band.

"Cyber, open
this pod, now!"

Sabre drew his
laser and shot the man through the heart. His companions gaped at
the corpse, then at Sabre. They were pale and panting in the
insipid air, and hypoxia made them aggressive and stupid. Another
soldier reached for his laser, and Sabre shot him in the head. The
other two raised their hands and stepped back, shaking their
heads.

"Hey, take it
easy. There's room for all of us now. Just open the door, okay?"
one asked.

Sabre was in no
mood to share. His lungs laboured, and he knew he had to get Tassin
into the pod within the next few minutes. Aiming at the soldier who
had spoken, he pulled the trigger. The beam died, leaving a
smouldering spot on the man's uniform, and Sabre reached for a
fresh power crystal. The nearest man charged him, but the lack of
gravity sent him flying into the air, arms flailing. Unlike Sabre,
the soldiers had not been trained to deal with low gravity, and
were stupid enough to attack a cyber.

Since Sabre had
made it plain that he intended to kill them, however, their only
choices were fight or flee, and fleeing was certain death. Then
again, so was attacking a cyber. Either the soldier had forgotten
he had a laser, or it was spent. As the man landed, Sabre stepped
forward and punched him in the side of the head. It exploded like a
rotten fruit, splattering the wall with blood and brains. The last
man drew his weapon and fired. Sabre ducked and leapt sideways,
rebounding off the wall, and the shot cracked into the bulkhead
further down the corridor. The ship groaned, alarms wailed, and the
floor heaved. Time was running out, big time.

Launching
himself from the floor and wall, Sabre reached the man in a mammoth
bound. His fist hit the soldier's chin with a soft crack of
breaking bone, and the man went limp. Down the corridor, the
bulkhead the laser shot had hit tore apart as the ship contorted.
Wind howled past Sabre, and he fought against it to the pod door.
The flashing panel beside it indicated a coding error.

Escape pods
were not locked, but had a safety feature to prevent ignorant
people from accidentally activating them. It required that four
keys be pressed simultaneously on two keypads, but if less were
pressed, the pod would lock and send an alarm signal to the main
control station. This would usually bring a technician at a
leisurely stroll to recalibrate the mechanism with a coding wand.
Some panic-stricken idiot had triggered the locking mechanism, and
it could not be overridden except with a coding wand. Or by a
cyber.

Sabre activated
the interface, and the cyber connected with the lock to unscramble
the codes. The wind grew stronger as the hole down the corridor
became bigger, sections of the armoured hull ripping off to fly
into space. Sabre clung to the door, casting a worried glance at
Tassin. If the wind got any stronger, it might suck her out of the
hole. The pod panel's lights turned green, and Sabre pressed the
four keys. The door rotated and swung open, and the lights within
the pod flickered on. Its generators hummed as they powered up.
Sabre released the door and crawled towards Tassin, the wind
tugging at him.

When this
section of corridor emptied, they would be left in a vacuum. Even a
cyber could not survive for more than twenty minutes in space.
Judging by the amount of air rushing past him, some of the pressure
doors further up the corridor must have failed, and this entire
section was depressurising. A dull thud came from deep within the
ship, and the wind grew stronger. Walls and doors, weakened by the
explosions and the ship's subsequent contortions, were collapsing.
Anyone who had not found an escape pod by now was doomed. Sabre
clung to the floor as the wind threatened to sweep him away, and
one of the dead soldiers rolled past, heading for the hole.