The Cyber Chronicles Book III - The Core (14 page)

"Are all human
females this crazy?"

Sabre laughed.
"Only the ones with a sense of humour."

Tassin flung a
dollop of muck at him, which hit him square on the forehead and
obliterated the cyber band. Declining to join in, he retreated with
the mosscat to the safety of the donkeys' lee, laughing. By the
time the mud fighters had had enough, they were plastered with grey
sludge from head to foot.

They trailed
behind the cart, vainly scraping at the caked muck while they
meandered between the craters. Despite the slippery footing, they
made good progress in the mud world. Sabre was not surprised that
this world had no life; it appeared to be a young planet, still in
its birth throes, unstable and unformed. He wondered if their
tracks would remain to puzzle archaeologists in a millennia's
time.

Chapter Nine

Again the
Change came faster, and the mud world vanished in a wink. A
sun-drenched beach pounded by the waves of a sparkling green sea
replaced it. Noting Tassin's weariness, Sabre stopped the donkeys
and made camp while Dena frolicked in the shallows, collecting
shells. Tassin sat on the sand, looking a bit startled to find
herself clean again, the mud vanished with the previous
Flux-reality.

Although the
warm, pleasant world offered easy travelling, and the beach
stretched invitingly ahead of them, they had to sleep; even Sabre
was tired. The constant daylight made time hard to calculate, and
only weariness dictated their sleeping times. Even the control
unit's clock failed to provide a reliable time, Sabre had
discovered that every Change reset it. When he turned to offer
Tassin some food, he found her already asleep, her hair blowing
over her face in a veil. He gazed at her, wishing anew that he did
not have to leave her when this adventure was over, if he
survived.

He caught Purr
watching him and said, "Why don't you go and catch a fish or
something?"

The mosscat
gave his purring chuckle. "Eating Flux-reality only makes you
hungrier when it's gone, friend Sabre. I thought you would have
noticed that."

"Yeah, but
it'll keep you occupied." Sabre lay back, closed his eyes and
allowed the lassitude to wash over him in a healing tide. Cyber
hosts still needed sleep.

Sabre woke
with a violent start when something small and hairy landed onto his
chest with a squeak. He struck out in reflex, sending Purr flying
with a yelp, and sat up, a hand on his laser.

Purr rolled to
his feet and cried, "Look out!"

Sabre whipped
around. A huge red cat with golden spots crouched not two metres
away, ready to spring. Snatching the laser from his belt, he fired
as the beast leapt, burning a hole in its chest. It rolled to a
stop beside him, its blue eyes glazing. He rose to his feet,
staring down at the beast.

"How the hell
did that thing get so close, Purr? I thought you were keeping
watch?" He glared at the puffed-up mosscat, who glared back,
undaunted.

"It just
appeared out of thin air! One minute there was nothing, then
suddenly, poof! It just stepped through, as if an invisible door
opened."

Sabre glanced
at Tassin, who stared at the cat, rubbing one eye sleepily. Dena
studied the beast with obvious fascination, and he turned back to
Purr.

"How's that
possible? It's never happened before."

"We're getting
close to the Core. I did warn you, it will try to protect itself.
It's divined your intentions."

Sabre snorted.
"I think you fell asleep."

"No. I've
watched three Flux-realities come and go. You slept for a long
time, but I was awake. Had I been asleep, you'd be dead."

Sabre doubted
that, but his anger abated when he bent to examine the beast. The
cat had none of the deformities Flux-monsters usually did. He
glanced around at the new landscape of shoulder high golden grass,
which almost hid distant trees with long yellow leaves. Deep red
earth was visible between the grass clumps in a pattern of spots
and stripes. The feline matched the terrain perfectly.

"It's a
Flux-reality animal," he informed Purr.

The mosscat
sniffed. "Of course, I knew that."

"So it stepped
through the grass and caught you on the hop."

"No! It came
out of nowhere! Nothing creeps up on me. Do you think I would have
survived this long if I was that stupid?"

"It was well
camouflaged," Sabre pointed out.

"I saw the
animal in the weird world coming, and that was invisible."

Sabre
pondered. The mosscat was right, the big cat should not have been
able to sneak up on him, but that introduced a plethora of
unpleasant possibilities. "So, you think the Core sent it."

Purr's tail
twitched with annoyance. "That's what I said. The Core transported
it here, hoping it would kill you while you slept."

"So we can
expect more visitors like this."

"A lot worse
than this. I think this one just happened to be nearby. Perhaps the
Core has just realised the danger, soon it will start sending many
monsters, real ones."

Sabre looked
at Tassin, glimpsing a flicker of fear in her eyes before she hid
it. "Sure you don't want to turn back now? Purr can still guide you
out."

"No, I'm
coming."

Sabre looked
away, angered by her foolishness. Females were supposed to have
better survival instincts than males, but this one was distinctly
lacking. To prevent himself from arguing with her, he checked his
equipment, ensuring the lasers were fully powered, and tucked some
spare power packs into his harness. He took an extra laser and
checked Tassin's weapon as well, avoiding her eyes. His
preparations clearly frightened her, and that gave him an odd
twinge of satisfaction. He buckled the sheathed sword across his
back, where the hilt was easily reached over his shoulder, and
tucked the knife into his belt.

Turning to
Purr, he said, "If you want to leave, it's okay. I'm sure I can
find the Core now."

The mosscat
watched him with narrow eyes. "I'll stay a little longer."

Sabre grunted
and pulled the donkeys from their meal, pushing through the long
grass. Tassin walked close behind him, and Dena sat on the cart,
scanning the land with wide eyes. Within half an hour another
Change came, a strange world of metre-high buff ridges that
stretched away to the horizon. A pale yellow sky glowed uniformly,
with no sign of a sun. Sabre stopped the donkeys and frowned at the
ridge that blocked their path. Stepping forward, he kicked it in
frustration, and his foot sank into it. He prodded it, finding it
as soft as sponge, and led the donkeys on again, trampling the
stuff underfoot. The sponge gave off a tangy smell when it was
crushed, which made Sabre's mouth water.

A dark green
monster stepped out of the air in front of Sabre. Purr sneezed,
sprouting claws and fangs, and Tassin yelled, reaching for her
laser. Sabre's weapon was out before anyone else had time to do
anything, and the monster died with a surprised look on its ugly,
snouted face. After a second of shocked stillness, Purr sneezed
again, and Sabre put away the laser, staring down at the
monster.

"One thing
about the Core interfering like this," he said, "the beasts are
just as surprised to see us as we are to see them."

"It will
learn," Purr stated grimly.

Tassin leant
on the cart, looking like her legs were weak with shock. "What will
it do, materialise them right on top of us?"

"Maybe. Or
further away, so they'll have time to attack us, and probably many
of them."

Sabre stepped
over the corpse. "Then we'll see how clever it is."

They walked
undisturbed for an hour, then the world Changed again, this time to
rolling hills covered with bright red creepers that snaked across
the land like serpents, twitching and coiling in the sun. Sabre
poked one with his foot to assure himself that it was harmless, but
it merely coiled away, revealing black soil beneath it, from which
it had withdrawn thousands of slim white roots. The sun was a
lighter spot behind a layer of pale grey clouds, casting a diffuse,
cold light. Within minutes of the new Flux-reality coming into
being, the Core launched an attack.

Five monsters
stepped from the air around the cart, one less than a metre away,
the others a few metres distant. Purr sneezed as Sabre yanked out
his laser and shot the nearest tusked horror. The mosscat leapt at
a hairy orange creature with blazing green eyes. Tassin pulled out
her weapon and fired wildly at a bewildered boar-like animal. Sabre
killed two more attackers while they lumbered towards the cart,
then shot the boar-like animal as it swung about short-sightedly,
confused by the cracks of laser light around it.

Purr and the
orange monster rolled together, snarling, in the vegetation, a
whirling blur too confused for Sabre to aim at with any degree of
accuracy. Instead he grabbed an orange appendage and lifted the
wolf-sized monster up, Purr dangling from its bloody snout with
long claws and fangs. With a quick twist, Sabre broke its neck and
dropped it into the red creepers. Purr regained his rotund
appearance with a sneeze, and Sabre surveyed the bodies with grim
satisfaction.

"It'll have to
do better than that."

"It will,"
Purr muttered.

Sabre turned
to frown at Tassin. "If you can't hit anything with that laser,
don't waste the power."

Her mouth fell
open at his unexpected rebuke, then she shut it and her expression
hardened. "Fine."

Sabre grunted
and set off again at a faster pace, eager to meet his foe and put
an end to its toying with them. Flux-reality Changed again, this
time to an icy world of freezing wind and snow. The donkeys
floundered into a snowdrift up to their shoulders and stopped.
Sabre was hip deep in it, and Purr had vanished. Tassin sprawled as
the subsidence of the snow crust took her unawares. Sabre struggled
over to her and helped her to crawl onto the cart, where she
huddled with Dena. Purr emerged from the snow as a ball of thick
fur with paddle-like paws and waddled over to the cyber. Sabre
scanned the snowy landscape, but the whirling flakes reduced
visibility to only a few metres. Thick clouds obscured a weak sun,
making the world dim, and Purr snuffled the air while they waited
for the attack.

A heaving mass
of grey beasts emerged from the icy gloom, eyes gleaming. Sabre
yelled a warning and fired, the blue laser light cracking into the
monsters. The pack of huge wolves from the prairies bounded through
the snow with deceptive ease. Several fell to his fire, and
Tassin's laser cracked behind him, killing more. With so many, she
could not miss. The pack kept coming, however, leaping over their
fallen fellows undaunted. Sabre fire again and again, drawing the
second laser when the first ran out of power. Dozens of wolves
fell, but still more came on.

Tassin shouted
as the first beasts reached him, and Purr shifted with a huge
sneeze. A beast leapt at Sabre's arm, and he spun away, sending it
sprawling with a punch. Two more came at him, one of which he burnt
at point blank range, but the other knocked him into the snow.
Pulling out his knife, he stabbed it, and hot blood pumped from the
wound. Another went for his throat, but he smashed it away with his
forearm. A yelping close by told him that Purr was busy, then a hot
beam of laser light seared dangerously close to him and a hairy
body crashed into him. He pushed it off and struggled out of the
snow as more wolves attacked, eyes gleaming, teeth bared.

The deep snow
hampered Sabre as he fired into the mass of grey bodies, smashing
others aside when they hit him. Their teeth ripped his arms and
claws scratched his chest. One tried to leap past him onto the
cart, but he stabbed it with the knife in his left hand, firing the
laser in his right. His knife opened gashes that stained the snow
red and his fists hammered the wolves aside, crushing bones. Laser
fire flashed from the cart, making him flinch when it came too
close.

Within a few
minutes the attack broke off, and the half a dozen remaining wolves
retreated, some limping, to glare from the gloom. Picking up the
laser he had been forced to drop in the melee, Sabre climbed out of
the trampled, bloody depression and stood on top of the dead wolves
piled around it. Reloading the laser, he killed two more animals
before the others fled, then he turned to survey the carnage.

At least
thirty wolves lay dead in the snow. Purr sat atop his victim, and
the rest were ranged around the spot where Sabre had fought. He
looked up at Tassin, who sat on the cart with a spent laser gripped
in her white-knuckled hand. Dena also clutched a weapon, her face
deathly pale. He longed to climb up and comfort them, but hardened
his heart, unable to forgive Tassin for her foolishness. Instead he
turned to the mosscat, who was licking a gash in his flank.

"You're
hurt."

Purr shot him
a sour look. "So are you."

Sabre looked
down at his arms, surprised to find blood running from deep gashes.
He had felt nothing, but now a dull burning spread up his arms.
Cursing, he put away his laser and scrubbed the wounds with snow,
then dug in his pouch and smeared antibiotic cream on them, using
the well-worn strips of cloth to bind them. Tassin appeared beside
him, her face pale, and took over the chore. He studied her while
she worked, noting her clenched jaw and icy hands.

"It's going to
get worse," he warned.

Tassin
shrugged, then looked up at him, the expression in her eyes making
him look away. When she climbed back onto the cart, he joined her,
settling down in the hay to await the next Change. Dena cuddled up
to him, and he put his arm around her to hold her shivering form
close. He thought about the look in Tassin's eyes, something
frighteningly akin to despair, and wondered at it.