The Cyber Chronicles Book III - The Core (22 page)

Sabre leapt at
the skifgar, thrusting the blade into the creature's neck. The
sword sliced into its tough flesh, and blood splattered over him.
It hissed, and its head swooped at him, mouth open. He slashed at
it, the weapon bouncing off bony armour. He was too weak, and what
strength he had was fading fast. As the skifgar recoiled, Sabre
held the sword before him. It glowed with a rainbow nimbus, humming
with power and hatred.

"If I die, you
rot," he promised it, remembering Tassin's recipe for the Core's
co-operation.

The blade
chimed and flashed, turning to crystal. Sabre slashed at the
monster's head as it lunged at him again, leaping over a blade arm
that swept past at knee level. The sword unleashed a flash of
golden power that lanced through the creature's head in an
explosion of blood and brains. The headless corpse lurched and
collapsed. Sabre tried to fling himself aside, but again his
strength failed him, and the corpse hammered him to the ground.
Vaguely he was aware of a blinding white flare, then he went rigid
as searing agony lanced up his arm.

The world
darkened and Tassin screamed, a thin, distant sound. Tingles washed
through him in waves, accompanied by a sickening sensation of
weightlessness. Hatred and triumph radiated from the sword, and he
flung it away. The tingling shocks and weightlessness vanished. He
landed on hard ground with a thud, momentarily stunned. The
situation's urgency beat at his brain through the mists of
confusion and disorientation that clouded it.

Shaking his
head, he levered himself to his feet and glanced around at a
glowing yellow tunnel. The skifgar's corpse lay nearby, Tassin in
its clasp. He staggered to her and freed her from the alien's grip.
She was unconscious, but appeared to be unharmed.

Sabre dragged
her to the side of the tunnel and propped her against the wall,
glancing around again as he squatted beside her. A few gentle slaps
made her gasp and open her eyes, which widened. She grabbed his
arm, and Sabre tried to fend her off, but she transferred her grip
to his neck and hung on.

He patted her
back. "It's okay. We don't seem to be in any danger, and if we
were, you're not helping."

"Where are
we?"

"I haven't the
foggiest idea. At a guess, I'd say we're on the trendil – skifgar's
home world."

"How did we
get here?" Her voice shook, muffled against his neck.

"The sword, of
course." He glanced down when she pulled back to look up at him.
"It transported us here. Just as it snatched the skifgar from this
world, it cast us into it."

"Why?"

"Revenge." He
sighed. "That always was its greatest wish. Vengeance against
mankind, and now that I've reduced it to its present state, it
wants me dead more than anyone. You should have left it there. You
should never have kept your side of the bargain. That thing is
evil. That's why I didn't want to touch it again. I'd already had
too much contact with it when it was still the crystal, when we
were bound together with neosin.

"Its hatred is
immense and its depravity horrible. It didn't have nearly as much
power as it had as the crystal, but I think it controlled the
skifgar, lured it to us and made it attack me. It waited until we
were in contact with the skifgar, then used the catapult effect to
throw us back into the skifgar's world."

Tassin's eyes
roved around the glowing tunnel. "What's a catapult effect?"

Sabre eased
his aching back, allowing her to hold his wrist, since he knew she
needed the tactile comfort of his presence. "It's the attachment
every creature the Core snatched has with its native world. It took
immense power to pull them from their worlds into ours, but not
very much to send them back. That's why the sword waited until we
were in contact with the skifgar before using its power. It used
the skifgar like a homing beacon, catapulting it back to its world,
and taking us with it."

Tassin
shivered, although the tunnel was warm. "Where's the sword?"

"Good
question. It forced me to release it, but I think it's also in this
world somewhere. The catapult effect is powerful. I doubt it had
the power to stay behind."

"Well I'm glad
it's gone."

Sabre shook
his head. "Don't be. This isn't a pleasant world, and its
inhabitants certainly aren't, which is probably why the sword sent
us here. It's our only hope of getting back. We have to find
it."

"What if it's
not here?"

"Then we're
screwed."

Tassin gasped,
her eyes widening. "Dena!"

"Purr's with
her. He'll take care of her until we can get back."

"What if we
can't get back?"

Sabre groaned.
"What if... what if... We'll just have to find that damned sword,
okay? But right now I think we should find somewhere safe to
rest."

Tassin glanced
up and down the tunnel and nodded, brushing back a lock of hair.
Sabre consulted the scanners, which showed many points of pale
mauve light. Trendils. The corpse did not register on the scanners
anymore. A structural analysis revealed a network of interlinking
tunnels, some passing close to each other. They appeared to be in a
hive, surrounded by trendils.

Keeping an eye
on the scanners, Sabre led the way down the tunnel, Tassin clinging
to his hand. The yellow glow came from a sticky coating on the
roof, jelly-like and unpleasant to touch. Sabre steered away from
the trendils on the scanners, entering a downward sloping tunnel.
The structural analysis showed an empty cavern ahead, and they
entered a bizarre garden. Yellow slime threw a warm glow onto an
amazing variety of fungi.

A pool at one
end glinted mysterious black, and he wound his way through the
growths to sample the clear water. While Tassin drank, he examined
the fungus garden. There was an occasional recognisable mushroom
variety, but most were alien, with odd colours and weird shapes.
Hunger reminded him of his need to regain his strength, and he
asked the cyber to analyse the fungi. It indicated that several
varieties were edible, and he tasted some. Tassin looked alarmed
when he munched on a bilious orange growth.

"What if
that's poison?" she demanded.

"It's not. Try
some."

She shook her
head, rubbed water on her face and smoothed back her hair. "I'm not
hungry."

Sabre settled
beside the pool, eating a pale blue mushroom. "You will be, and I
doubt there's anything more appetising than this down here."

"How are we
going to get out?"

"We're not.
We're going to find that bloody sword."

"But there
could be more of those monsters down here."

He nodded.
"There are. Plenty of them."

"Then we must
get out of here. We must get to the surface."

"And
then?"

"I don't know.
Find help!"

"This is a rim
world called Narrin Three, the only planet that trendils, or
skifgars, inhabit. It was abandoned about fifty years ago, so I
don't really know what's on the surface. It never was a very nice
world, and the surface might be more dangerous than down here. In
fact, I would guess it is."

"Why?"

Sabre threw
away the pale blue fungus, which was so pithy his tongue seemed to
have turned into a mohair rug. "Because skifgars live down here,
and they're pretty formidable. There's only one real reason to live
underground, in a hive like this, and that's protection."

"There might
be people up there. Perhaps that's who the skifgars are hiding
from."

He shook his
head, plucking a knobbly yellow fungus. "No. Like I said, this
world was abandoned. The settlers couldn't share it with such a
dangerous creature. Forget the surface. If we want to get home, we
have to find the sword."

Tassin looked
crestfallen, but nodded. "Can you find it with the scanners?"

"Unfortunately
not. The scanners only detect living creatures."

"Then how will
we find it?"

He shrugged,
popped the last bit of yellow fungus into his mouth and reached for
a grey one. "Search."

"That could
take ages!" She scowled. "How can you eat that stuff?"

He nibbled the
grey fungus. "It's quite tasty."

"It looks
revolting."

Sabre
shrugged. "Cybers are conditioned to eat anything edible and
nutritious. I've eaten worse than this. I need my strength if we're
going to get out of here alive. Try some."

She shuddered,
shaking her head. "Even if we find the sword, how will we make it
take us back?"

"I'm not sure.
I think it brought us here for two reasons. One is so the skifgar
will kill us, especially me, and the other is to find creatures to
care for it, ones it can control, perhaps even regain its previous
power. It must have selected this world carefully before it made
the skifgar attack us. Since its main motivation is
self-preservation, perhaps it can be blackmailed."

"How?"

Sabre finished
the grey fungus. "By threatening to destroy it."

"Do you think
you could?"

"I'll
certainly give it a bloody good try."

Tassin closed
her eyes and rubbed her brow, drooping with weariness. Sabre's
fatigue was profound, compounded by his weakness after his battle
with the Core. He led her to a niche and settled down as
comfortably as he could on the hard ground. The spicy scent of the
fungus surrounded them as Tassin curled up beside him.

Chapter Fourteen

The cyber's
red warning flashes woke Sabre, and he shook Tassin. Two life forms
approached the cave and entered it. Sabre froze, pinning Tassin to
the wall to prevent her from moving. The skifgars were smaller than
the one he had fought, with shorter necks, larger heads and no
blade arms. They had more powerful hand arms than the warrior
skifgar, and were armed only with a short blade on the end of their
tails. They started to fill the panniers on their backs with
fungi.

The workers
hissed at each other while they toiled, and a garbled translation
whispered in Sabre's mind. He could understand a word here and
there, from which he deduced that they discussed the fungi and the
state of the garden cave. Myon Two had only partly translated
trendil speech, but the cyber would fill in the missing data as it
accumulated more information. Sabre relaxed, patting Tassin's hand,
which gripped his hard enough to cut off his circulation. Her
proximity made him a little uncomfortable, but the dangerous
situation distracted him.

The workers
wound through the clumps of fungi, harvesting the largest until
their panniers were full. As they returned to the cave entrance,
one glanced up and hissed a comment about the lighting. Sabre
noticed that the yellow glow was dimmer than before, and he
wondered what they would do about it. The second worker merely
hissed an agreement as they left.

Tassin relaxed
her death grip on his hand, and he massaged the blood back into it,
shifting away as he became acutely aware of her pressed against
him. He rose and stretched, refreshed by the rest and food, a
little of his strength seeping back. His bio status was forty-two
per cent, still dangerously low. Ambling down to the pool, he
slaked his thirst and ate more fungus. Tassin joined him, sipping
water while she eyed him.

"What are we
going to do now?"

"Eat."

"What about
finding the sword?"

Sabre munched
a grey fungus, which was the best tasting; a rather bland, earthy
flavour. "Not yet. I'm not strong enough. We'll rest here until I
am."

"What about
Dena?"

"Purr will
take care of her, and she has food and water. She'll be okay."

Tassin
scowled. "What about me?"

"What about
you?"

"I'm hungry
too."

"Then eat." He
held out a piece of fungus, which she eyed with distaste.

"I can't eat
that. I'll be sick."

"No you won't.
It's not bad, and it's all there is. You also need your strength,
so don't be silly."

He pressed the
damp morsel into her hand, and she nibbled on it, her face twisted
with disgust. "It tastes like dirt."

"Really? When
have you ever tasted dirt?"

She glared at
him. "You know what I mean."

"Just eat it.
Try some of the others if you like."

Sabre watched
with amusement as she sampled all the fungi he had eaten, spitting
out the pale blue mushroom, which he knew had a tart, hairy taste.
Her mood improved when her hunger was assuaged, and they returned
to the side of the cavern to rest. As soon as they had settled
down, the cyber flashed a warning.

A life form
approached the cave, and he said, "Hush. Something's coming."

"What?"

"I don't know.
Not a skifgar."

"We should get
out of here."

"No, we'll be
safer here. It's too close. Just sit still."

Sabre waited
for the creature to enter, and at first he could not see it, even
though the scanners told him it was already inside, then he looked
up. A two-metre long, bright yellow slug crept across the ceiling,
its suction foot rippling. Its eye stalks and feelers waved, and
red-tipped protrusions dangled from its flat body. It left a trail
of glowing yellow slime. Sabre smiled and pointed, drawing Tassin's
eyes to it. She started, then relaxed.

"A sun slug,"
she whispered.

Sabre nodded.
It seemed an apt name for the light giving animal, which went about
its business oblivious to their presence. It circled the roof in
decreasing circuits until it reached the centre, where it paused
before moving down the wall to a clump of bilious yellow-green
fungus. The cyber had deemed that variety inedible for humans, so
the trendils must grow it for the sun slugs, Sabre guessed. The
warm yellow glow made their niche far more exposed to prying eyes,
but Sabre settled down to rest a little more.