The Cyber Chronicles Book III - The Core (26 page)

Sabre punched
her head again, trying to burst an eye or crack her bony armour.
Her semi-exoskeleton protected her organs, and her windpipe and
jugular ran through the middle of the column of disks that formed
her sinuous neck. Pounding it would do little good, and his hands
were already bruised and bleeding. He gripped her long head,
avoiding the needle teeth, and twisted. The trendil writhed, her
blade arms and tail whistling towards him together. He batted away
one blade arm, but the other sliced into his flank and the tail
blade stabbed him in the back. Either blow would have killed a
normal man, but the barrinium mesh turned the blade aside. In
reflex he kicked the blade arm, which broke with a dull report.

The trendil
lifted him off the ground as she struggled to rise. Her neck lacked
muscle, however, and his weight at the end of it was too much for
her. The broken blade arm flopped, but the other slashed at him
again. To win this battle he would have to be as ruthless as the
cyber, and willing to suffer the grievous wounds that would result.
As the blade arm swept towards his neck, he grabbed it. The blade
sliced into his palm, grating on the mesh just under his skin.
Gritting his teeth, he wrestled the arm closer, fighting the
warrior's massive strength as she tried to pull it away.

Again the tail
blade whistled in, and he ducked. He chopped at the blade arm,
failing to break it on the first attempt, but succeeded on the
second. He dropped it, turning as the tail blade lashed in again.
With her blade arms broken and her injured hand arms unable to
reach him, the tail blade was her only weapon. Her powerful hind
legs flexed, and she reversed, dragging him. The cyber flashed a
warning, and tail blade hit him on the side of the head as he
ducked, opening a gash that pumped blood down his neck. His attempt
to grab it failed when it stabbed at him again, trying to dart in
under his guard.

Sabre panted,
sweat streaming down him, mingled with blood. The tail blade lashed
in yet again, too low to duck, and he smashed it down with a
double-fisted blow, then grabbed it before she could jerk it away.
She hauled on it, dragging him off her neck. Gripping the
razor-sharp blade with one hand and the knobbly tail with the
other, he twisted with all his strength. Her tail broke with a dull
crunch, and without warning her head swooped towards him, mouth
open.

Sabre hurled
himself backwards, kicking her under her jaw. The blow snapped her
mouth shut and smashed dozens of glass teeth, then a blade arm
whipped across the trendil's neck, severing it. Blood pumped from
the stump, spraying him as he rolled away from the jerking corpse.
He rose to his feet, staring with blank incomprehension at the
second warrior who stood over her fallen comrade's body. The beast
glowered at him, and he watched her warily. The trendil queen's
hiss made him turn.

"You have won,
man-thing. I am surprised, though I doubt you will live much
longer. Still, it is a momentous victory for a man-thing to defeat
a kin-sister-warrior."

Sabre shook
his head in confusion, one eye still on the warrior who had killed
his opponent. His dry mouth made it difficult to hiss his
question.

"Why did he –
she kill her?"

The queen's
reply was vicious. "She was in dishonour. Never are the eating
parts used in battle."

"Ah." Sabre
nodded. That explained why the beast had not tried to bite him
before. Chills ran through him, and the chamber smeared before his
aching eyes.

"May we...
have the metal tool now?"

The hive-queen
hissed at the warrior nearest her, and the beast vanished into a
side tunnel behind the resin curtains. Sabre turned at a touch on
his arm to find Tassin gazing at him with worried eyes. His head
was cold, as if the blood had drained from it, and gravity seemed
to have doubled. With a sigh, he sank to his knees, then settled on
his haunches. Tassin knelt beside him, pressing a hand to the wound
in his side to try to slow the bleeding.

"The sword
will heal you," she muttered, frowning.

"That bloody
thing." Sabre wished he never had to see the hateful weapon again.
He looked down at Tassin's blood-stained hands pressed to his
wounds. "You'll have to carry it. I'd rather not touch it."

"You must
touch it in order for it to heal you."

Sabre panted,
light-headed and queasy from blood loss. The trendil queen watched
him, patently waiting for him to die. Perhaps she planned to make
him the main course. Blood pooled on the floor under him, soaking
his ragged trousers.

He glanced at
Tassin and forced a smile. "I'm not going to die. The wounds are
superficial. I've just lost a bit of blood, that's all."

She looked
stunned, glancing down at his wounds, then shook her head. "Even
so, you need to be healed. We still have to get through the Death
Zone."

Sabre closed his eyes and concentrated on satisfying his
craving for air. His bio status had stopped dropping at forty-two
per cent. Tassin was right; he would have to force the sword to
heal him so he could protect her in the Zone. For the moment, she
still needed him. Deep within him, a wisp of bitter laughter
flitted through his empty heart. That was his only purpose. It was
the reason he had been created, to serve others and protect them;
to pit his enhanced abilities against whatever threatened his
charge. That was the only reason he, a manufactured man, was ever
needed. The mocking voice shouted its derision from the dark corner
of his mind where it dwelt.
Cyborg!
He had the right to hate people as much as these
aliens, yet he could not dislike this girl. Every time he had a
brush with death, he was tempted to let it claim him, but she
always pulled him back from the brink. He would pay dearly for his
sentimentality, he knew.

The warrior
reappeared carrying the sword, which looked small beside her bulk,
but hummed with subdued animosity. Sabre eyed it with deep
loathing. His enemy, and their salvation. The warrior held out the
weapon, and Tassin rose to take it. The sword whined, a
high-pitched, querulous tone of frustration, Sabre sensed.

It had gone to
great lengths to be rid of its human adversaries, and now was being
handed back to them. Tassin turned to him, holding out the sword.
Bracing himself for the lash of hatred the weapon would direct at
him, he took hold of the hilt. Alien malice poured into him, making
him grit his teeth and scowl. The sword gave a flat chime that
echoed around the chamber, bringing startled hisses from the
warriors. Evidently it had not revealed its vocal abilities to the
trendils.

Sabre raised
the weapon and grated, "Heal me."

The sword gave
a flat gong drone.

"Heal me, or I
will destroy you."

Its answering
chime was discordant, and it radiated waves of malevolent triumph.
It did not believe he could destroy it. Sabre considered. Well,
perhaps he could not, after all. He could snap the blade, even
pound it into a mangled mass, but that would not affect the entity
within it. Unless he melted it down, or broke it into so many
pieces that he reduced its occupant to nothing, he could not
destroy the Core. He had a stronger weapon than brawn, however, a
high-technology ally whose speciality was bending others to its
will.

Gripping the
hilt with both hands, Sabre touched the flat of the blade to the
brow band. The cyber knew what he required. The band flared with
blue light, and its subsonic drone filled the cavern with an eerie,
almost inaudible humming. The sword chimed, and, with a flash,
turned to crystal. Neosin crawled over his skin as it fought the
cyber's command, flowing into the brow band to be directed back
into the crystal blade. Shudders racked Sabre as the neosin soaked
into him, cramped his muscles and sent unpleasant tingles along his
bones.

The cyber's
drone changed tone as it hunted through the frequencies for the one
that would subdue the Core. The brow band's electric blue glare
brightened, shone through the crystal sword and turned it into a
weapon of light. The warriors hissed, and the trendil queen shifted
on her resin ramp. The cyber's tone rose, and the sword chimed,
then flashed to metal. The cyber's tone shot up to an excruciating
pitch, then became inaudible, and the sword reverted to crystal
again. This time its power flowed around Sabre in a shimmering
sphere, sealing him off from the world as it enveloped him in the
time twist that would obliterate his injuries.

The blood that
ran down him flowed back into his wounds, and the lacerations
vanished. The long slash in his flank closed, the skin sealing. The
blood he had lost during the battle remained splattered on the
floor, beyond the sword's influence. Sabre lowered it and slumped,
the cyber dimming to its usual red flashes. The weapon reverted to
metal with a harsh, angry whine. Tassin tugged at his arm, and he
guessed that she was afraid he would pass out, aware of the
hive-queen's hostile eyes boring into them. He closed his eyes,
longing to lie down and rest. His bio status was at forty-three per
cent. For some reason, reversing time to heal his wounds had not
restored his strength, but he was too tired to wonder about it now.
If anything, he was even more exhausted. The trendil queen hissed,
a sharp sound. Tassin tugged on Sabre's arm again.

"Sabre, I
think we should leave."

"Yeah, that's
what she said," he muttered. "You queens all think alike. Hold onto
me."

He opened his
eyes and raised the sword, holding it before him. "Take us back to
the Death Zone, the same place, the same time that we left."

The sword did
not have to vocalise its feelings, its hatred burnt through Sabre,
yet it had no choice. He closed his eyes again as the chamber
smeared and faded. Tassin hung onto him while they spiralled away
into the dizzying nothingness and dark, weightless cold. The air
was sucked from his lungs, and he opened his eyes to glimpse stars
spinning in an endless helix of light. He wondered if the Core
could hold them in this airless void and kill them, but, even as
prickles of fear trotted up his spine, weight returned.

Sabre hit the
ground hard; the impact jarred his arm and forced a grunt from him.
The sword clattered onto rocky ground. Sucking air into his
tortured lungs, he fought to stay conscious, rolling onto his hands
and knees. With an effort, he sat up and looked around. Tassin lay
close by, her face deathly pale, curled in a foetal ball.

He jumped as
Dena shrieked, "Sabre!"

While he
rubbed his ringing ear, she bounced with joy, but her face fell
when she noticed Tassin's ashen countenance.

"Tassin! Is
she dead? Help her Sabre!"

Sabre crawled
over to the Queen and gave her a vigorous shake. Her head lolled,
but the scanners showed that she was not breathing, and her blood
oxygen was only sixty-two per cent. He could survive without air
for up to twenty minutes, and Tassin had clearly been starved of
oxygen for too long. It had not seemed as if they had spent all
that long in the void, but evidently the time had been deceptive.
Dena wailed, and Sabre cursed, wondering if he would have to
resuscitate her. His lifted her into his lap and patted her face,
using harder slaps when this evoked no response, muttering under
his breath. Tassin coughed and gasped, her eyes opening wide. Dena
gave a crow of delight, and Sabre flopped onto his back, his limbs
shaking. After a few minutes, Tassin sat up and looked around at
the swirling madness.

"We're
back."

"Yeah."

Dena flung her
arms around the Queen. "I'm so glad you're okay! The monster just
vanished!"

"The monster?"
Tassin looked surprised. "Didn't we vanish too?"

The child
shook her head. "No. It was all confusing. You and Sabre were
fighting it, and then poof! It disappeared, and you fell out of the
air."

Tassin swung
to scowl at Sabre, who smiled crookedly.

"But... what
happened, Sabre?"

"I told it to
bring us back to the same place, and the same time."

"You
mean..."

"No time has
passed here."

Tassin cast an
amazed glance at the sword. "How did you know it could do
that?"

He shrugged.
"A good guess. If the Core can span universes and reverse time, it
can certainly span time too. Also, the catapult effect is linked to
time as well as place." He stretched, wincing as aching muscles
protested.

Dena eyed him,
clearly confused and intrigued by their conversation. "What
happened?"

Tassin sighed.
"It's a long story. I'll tell you as we go along."

Sabre
staggered to his feet, lurched to the cart and climbed into the
hay, stretching out. His ribs ached, and bright spots danced in his
eyes. Purr jumped up and settled down to groom his dusty fur.

"I'm afraid I
wasn't much help."

Sabre smiled.
"It was a bit out of your league, Purr. What could you do, gnaw on
its legs? Even they were bony."

The mosscat
gave his purring chuckle. "You're right, friend Sabre, but I wish I
could have done more, even so."

"You're doing
plenty, just guiding us out of this hellhole. If not for you, we'd
probably be going in circles."

"The Flux-zone
is fading. Soon I won't be able to find my way, when the lines of
force have gone. But I think we'll be out before that happens."

Sabre looked
down at the dirt and dried sweat that covered him. "What I need now
is a pool of real water."

Chapter Seventeen

The Death Zone
faded. Flux-reality became mere illusions, its swirling chaos
harmless, and they made swift progress through it. Sabre recovered
most of his strength, and, with the cyber's aid, they avoided any
more monsters. Those that appeared on the scanners seemed to be
wandering in aimless circles, confused by the chaos.