The Cyber Chronicles IX - Precipice (6 page)

"If I had
analyser I could show you the flaws. This sort of thing happens a
lot. There are suppliers who buy nothing but B-grades, then sell
them as A-grades. Customers who don't know about the flaws, or who
don't know that A-grades are supposed to be flawless, buy them as
A-grades. Even some A-grades have tiny flaws, but far less than
these have."

Endrovar
glanced around as Warrior Two returned, accompanied by two more
cybers, and they stopped beside his chair. "Tell me about these
two. Warrior Three, Warrior Four, allow this individual to touch
you."

The cybers
turned their heads towards Tarl and acknowledged the order, and
Tassin swallowed a lump. Tarl inspected them, snorted and shook his
head over one of them, peered closely at the other and placed a
hand on his brow, then felt for a pulse in his wrist.

"Well, Warrior
Three's a grade C. He has facial nerve damage, and his left hand
hasn't been plated at all, or his left foot. He's blind, and he
appears to have skipped the radiation treatments, judging by the
colour of his skin."

He turned to
the other cyber. "This one almost had me fooled. On the outside he
appears to be a grade A, until you check his temperature and heart
rate. He's either got a defective heart, or it was damaged when
they put the barrinium mesh around it, because his heartbeat is
about a hundred, and he's running hot. A cyber's normal resting
heart rate is thirty beats per minute, so his is way too high, and
will eventually lead to early failure, probably in his
mid-thirties, or it could fail during high exertion, and he's
running hot because of it."

Endrovar
glared, his mouth a grim line. "I'm going to have words with my
supplier. Warrior Three is supposed to be a grade B."

Tarl shook his
head. "Definitely a grade C."

"Well, you
could prove useful. Can you fix them?"

"No, these are
production flaws. Cybercorp would have fixed them if it was
possible."

Endrovar
nodded. "This equipment you spoke about, where would I get it?"

"You could ask
your supplier, but Myon Two only sends analysers to their repair
stations."

"I'll get it.
What else do you need?"

"I'll make a
list."

"Good."

Tarl glanced at
Tassin. "But I'll only do this work for you if you agree to give
Queen Tassin leave to work in a menial capacity, and not as a
pleasure partner."

Endrovar raked
the Queen with a scathing glance. "Fine. She's really not my type,
anyway. The cooks can use her in the kitchen. Ashmond, take her
away and show her her new duties."

The baron bowed
and gestured for Tassin to precede him, guiding her from the
banquet room and back to the cabin in which she had changed
earlier. He paused in the doorway.

"Take off the
finery and put your old clothes back on, and I'll take you to the
kitchens."

Ashmond waited
in the lounge while Tassin changed in the bedroom, then took her
down into the bowels of the huge ship, where she was given a
burgundy uniform and a mop and put to work cleaning the floor.

****

The cyber's
virtual warning light woke Sabre, and he opened his eyes and sat
up. Shrain stood in the doorway, a scowling Estrelle hovering
behind him.

"What is it?"
Sabre asked.

"I told him you
were sleeping," Estrelle said.

"It's okay. He
wouldn't be here if it wasn't important. Shrain? What's wrong?"

"Overlord
Fairen requires your presence at once, sir."

Sabre rubbed
his face and stretched, then swung his legs off the bed. When he
was dressed, the commander led him through the ship to the door to
Fairen's private rooms, where he stepped aside. The cyber entered,
and Fairen rose from a couch, turning to him.

"What is it,
Fairen?"

The boy looked
mournful. "I received a message from your friend, Kole. It's bad
news, I'm afraid. Tassin's not on Omega Five."

"Where is
she?"

"No one knows.
Kole spoke to a man there who said that she and Tarl left on a
ship, but he didn't know anything else. She was supposed to have
been away only for a short time, but it's been three days now."

Sabre went over
to the couch and sat down, staring ahead. "Who would take her?"

"I don't know.
You'll be able to find out more on Omega Five. I'll take you there,
then I must leave. I'm needed in the Presda Quadrant. I'm
sorry."

The cyber
nodded, wondering what the strange emotion was that clogged his
chest and made it hard to breathe. It seemed as if an immense
weight had just dropped onto his shoulders, and a dull ache filled
his heart.

"I must find
her."

"And you will.
But I can't help you, unless you get into trouble. You understand,
don't you?"

"Yes, of
course, you have too much to do already."

Fairen sat
beside him and clasped his shoulder. "I wish I could help, but...
I'll do what I can, give you whatever you need, but I can't
intervene personally."

"I know. You
have to save planets..." Sabre shook his head. "I just can't
believe this is happening."

"If she was my
friend, if I had given her a bracelet too, she could have sent a
distress signal, and I could help. But finding her... will take too
much time."

Sabre turned to
him. "It's okay. You've done more than enough already."

"What do you
need?"

"A ship.
Something with a lot of firepower."

Fairen nodded.
"I'll appropriate a battle cruiser from Myon Two, but you'll need a
crew. It will mean you'll have to command enforcers."

"I can do
that."

Fairen turned
his head and addressed the air. "Summon a Myon Two commander at
once."

Sabre looked
down at his hands. "We're still at Myon Two?"

"Yes. It was
quiet, so I got some sleep, then the two messages came in right
after each other."

"She must have
been trying to find me." Sabre rubbed his face.

The strange
emotions were growing, making it hard to think. His initial
reaction of determination and illogical optimism was fading, giving
way to a growing sensation for which he had no name, but which
robbed him of his motivation. The more he thought about the
problem, the larger it loomed, and it was growing to gargantuan
proportions as the ramifications of the immensity of space swamped
him.

"She's gone and
got herself into trouble," he muttered. "If anything happens to
her..."

"You'll find
her."

"She could be
anywhere."

Fairen patted
his shoulder. "She's resourceful. She'll be all right. And Tarl's
with her."

"I'll kill
him." The sudden irrational urge made Sabre's hands clench.

"No you
won't."

"If anything's
happened to her... Why didn't he stop her? He should have known
better."

Fairen shook
his head. "Tassin's too strong willed for him to have stopped her.
Don't blame him. I'm sure he's doing his best to keep her
safe."

Shrain's voice
spoke from the com-link by the door. "A Myon Two commander awaits
you, My Lord."

The young
Overlord stood up and donned his hood, arranging the veils over his
face. Sabre followed him into the command centre, where the
silver-haired commander waited. Fairen mounted the dias and sat
down on the black throne, Sabre wandered over to gaze out at the
pearly globe of Myon Two. The immensity of the task that faced him
had reached an incomprehensible magnitude, and the sheer
impossibility of it clogged his thought processes. His analysis of
the situation had expanded to encompass the myriad possibilities
that existed after three days of space travel. His mind seemed
numb, and the unidentified emotion kept intruding, making logical
thought all but impossible. The volume of data available to him in
the form of star charts that mapped a three-day travel radius of
the space around Omega Five, and the specifications of the dozens
of planets in it, overwhelmed him. His mind followed the train of
logical impossibilities down the black hole of illogical emotional
overload like a rabbit down a burrow.

Fairen beckoned
to the commander. "Approach."

The man walked
up to the dias and bowed. "My Lord."

"Your
name?"

"Commander
Thestan, My Lord."

"I am
appropriating your ship, Commander. I am placing it and its crew
under the command of my friend, Sabre. You will do exactly as he
orders at all times. If you feel that any of your crew is liable to
disobey him or show him disrespect in any way, you may dismiss them
now. You will dock in the Scorpion Ship for translocation. Is that
understood?"

Thestan nodded.
"It is, My Lord."

"You will be
given instructions when you have returned to your ship."

The commander
bowed and backed away, and Fairen's men escorted him out. The
Overlord pulled off his hood and went over to join Sabre, gazing
out of the screens.

"You're very
calm."

The cyber
frowned. "I don't know how I'm supposed to react. This is new to
me."

"How do you
feel?"

"Numb.
Detached. And it hurts, here." He tapped his chest.

"You're in
shock. It will pass."

"I'm not sure
it will. I... I feel like my reason for living just disappeared.
She could be dead."

"I doubt it,"
Fairen said.

"They might
hurt her."

"Possibly, but
you'll save her."

"I don't want
her to be hurt, but I can't prevent it. I don't know where she is.
I don't know how to find her. There is no way. There are a hundred
and eighty-seven planets within three days’ travel of Omega Five.
Forty-two of them are outlaw worlds. She could have been taken by
Myon Two, or slavers, or hitched a ride on a friendly yacht, or
paid for passage on a merchant vessel. The possibilities are
endless. She could have travelled as much as eighty-two light years
in any direction. There's no data to base a working theory on.
There's no way to find her."

Fairen frowned
and glanced at Shrain, who hovered nearby as usual. "Bring me the
tech, Martis."

"At once, My
Lord."

Fairen replaced
his hood before Martis was ushered in, looking nervous. Estrelle
followed him, and the Overlord beckoned them over. They stopped
beside Sabre, who continued to stare out of the screens.

"Cyber Tech
Martis," Fairen said. "Sabre has just received news that his
betrothed has been abducted, and he appears to be dealing with it
badly. What's wrong with him?"

Martis studied
Sabre with a frown, waving a hand in front of his eyes. The cyber
ignored him, not even blinking. "You have no information about
where she might be, My Lord?"

"No."

The host tech
looked worried. "I think his brain block just failed."

"What is that,
and what does it mean?"

"Most of his
emotions and human instincts were locked away behind a wall in his
mind, which has been gradually weakening. I think this shock has
caused it to fail, and he's gone into emotional overload."

"So he's in
shock?"

Martis nodded.
"Of a sort, My Lord. He has a machine-trained mind that has just
been swamped by a huge amount of illogical human feelings,
instincts and urges, and he can't handle it."

"Can you help
him?"

"If I can get
him to focus on something. Right now he seems to have gone into a
sort of illogical loop." Martis hesitated, then gripped the cyber's
arm and shook it. "Sabre. Snap out of it. Focus."

The cyber's
eyes flicked down to him. "What?"

"What are you
going to do to save her?"

"I don't
know."

"Is there a way
to find her?"

"I don't
know."

"She needs your
help, what can you do?"

Sabre's brows
drew together. "I don't bloody know!"

"What about
going to Omega Five and finding out what happened to her?"

"They won't
know anything, they're peasants."

"What about
tracking the ship that took her?"

The cyber shook
his head. "It's too late; the ion trails have faded by now."

"There must be
a way to find her."

Sabre's hands
flashed out and gripped Martis' shoulders, making him wince.
"Listen, you bloody little shit, she's gone! Get that through your
head! She could be anywhere in the damned galaxy, a hundred light
years away by now."

"Or she might
be close by, waiting for you to rescue her."

Sabre's face
twisted, and he released Martis, reaching up to grip the brow band.
"I can't think straight. I don't know what to do."

"Okay, calm
down. Everything's going to be all right. We're going to find
her."

The cyber swung
away, releasing the brow band, and stalked towards the screens,
shaking his head. "No one can find her."

Martis looked
at Estrelle, who chewed her lip, then at Fairen, who had turned his
head to watch Sabre. "My Lord, to be honest, I don't know if there
is a way to find her, and he knows it. I think he's experiencing a
whole host of emotions, the strongest of which, I would imagine, is
despair. He's experienced that before, but in a dumb, distant
capacity, for himself. Now it's full strength, mixed with anguish,
helplessness and grief, for someone he cares about. He can't handle
it, and I think he wants to shut down to escape it, but he can't do
that either."

Fairen glanced
around as Shrain said, "The enforcer ship is docked in berth five,
My Lord."

"Translocate to
Omega Five."

"Yes My
Lord."

As the distant
booms and groans echoed through the ship, Fairen turned to Martis.
"You must help him. You know what's wrong with him. An enforcer
battle cruiser is at his command; he just needs to decide how to
find Tassin."