“I know how you can gain my memories.”
“Yes, through the mind probe.”
“No, a different way.”
“There are no other ways,” the Web-Mind said.
“You have the old one, right?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Varg prisoner,” the soldier said. “He has psionic mind-reading powers.”
“You’re right. I hadn’t considered that. Why would you tell me this?”
“For the best of reasons,” the soldier said. “The Varg psionic could read my memories and articulate them to you.”
“That’s silly. Why not have you explain them to me exactly? Now, you’re treating me as if I’m stupid. That inclines me to accept Tara’s explanation about you.”
“What if I’m right about her and the tech company?”
“The elixir is almost exhausted. The machine making it broke down long ago. I have grown weary of this tedious existence. I desire conquest and the resumption of the Great War. The time has come for cyborgs to dominate the galaxy. Now that I have a functioning obedience chip, it is conceivable I can manufacture more. In fact, most of my present effort is in restoring the obedience chip-making machine. I wish to insert them in these so-called tech company people. The androids like Rohan Mars, I can reprogram directly.”
“I like your plan,” the soldier said.
“You do?”
“I mean in a military sense. I’m a soldier after all. I can appreciate a master plan for its precision and effectiveness, even if I deplore the ends.”
“That is an interesting thought. If I didn’t desire your memories to such an extent, I might have kept you around as a military advisor.”
“You honor me,” the soldier said.
“I do no such thing. I am thorough and dislike waste. Now, I will have the androids deposit you in the cell. There are certain matters that need more of my concentration and attention.”
That ended the conversation. The androids continued their course, taking the soldier to his cell and leaving him there.
Once the hatch closed and disappeared, the soldier sat on the cot. He was trapped deep underground in an ancient bunker designed to keep a Web-Mind alive for a long time. Why had ancient cyborgs chosen Avalon IV? Did it have anything to do with the alien elixir? Who exactly had those aliens been? The logical answer was the Vargs used to be them, or the Vargs had served the ancient aliens.
The soldier considered that, and he thought about everything he’d learned about the Vargs. Might that be the key to his dilemma?
Marcus Cade concentrated. As he sat on the cot, he tried to project his thoughts to reach the old one somewhere in the ancient bunker with him.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
If Cade reached the old one via telepathic mind-link, he didn’t know it. It had been worth the attempt, though. Now he knew he was alone in the underground citadel of a Web-Mind. This one seemed naïve, which likely had to do with the partial erasure that had occurred due to the repeated use of the golden draught. He understood Tara’s thinking. His memories would give the Web-Mind old knowledge of the Great War. A mind probe could directly relay that knowledge into the tissue sheets of programmed cyborg brain-mass.
Tara would likely fix the mind probe soon. He had until she did so to attempt an escape. But just how could he escape from an underground bunker when a Web-Mind kept constant watch through cameras, sensors and several android guards?
The elevator was likely the only route up. Supposing he did escape this place, was getting off Avalon IV even possible? Maybe if he could fly the X-ship it was. What did he remember about them? Hmm… A pilot plugged directly into an X-ship. She controlled it in the same manner she controlled her body, thinking actions into direct movement.
Did the orbitals only watch space? Was that the way to destroy them, to come up under them from the atmosphere? It seemed logical. Tara would need the Web-Mind’s cooperation to dismantle the domes and tissue sheets down here and carry the components into the X-ship. Or, once the X-ship destroyed the orbitals, a cargo hauler might land on the planet and they would load the Web-Mind into that. Yes. The latter plan seemed more achievable.
If he couldn’t escape from Avalon IV, he could still attempt to stop the Web-Mind from doing so. Perhaps that was his destiny, his duty to his old comrades-in-arms who had fought all their lives to defeat the cyborgs.
Cade did not think in “higher terms” in this, but in soldierly terms in relation to Battle Unit 175, his fellow soldiers slogging through a grim conflict together. Many of them might be dead, but he would not let their sacrifices be in vain—if he could help it. The other thing was that many of them could still be alive, if in stasis hibernation. He needed to find them as well as his wife and release them all.
“How?” he asked himself. He flexed his hands, examining them. He needed an android-destroying weapon. The robots down here didn’t seem very smart. Likely, they were simple extensions of the Web-Mind’s will.
Cade stood. He was sick of being a prisoner, sick of using only half his brain, or being a cipher in a greater game. He was his own man again. He would decide his goals and execute toward them in whatever manner he thought best. He’d been a Force-Leader, but from here on out he did his duty as one man alone.
“Find your wife,” he whispered. “She’s counting on you. No, she doesn’t even know what’s going on—” if she was still in a stasis unit.
Cade’s nostrils flared. He wanted to shout and rave. He was like a tiger trapped in a cage. How—
The cell door appeared and rose. In disbelief, Cade stared at the old one, who had been manipulating the outer controls.
“I heard your thoughts,” the old one whispered. “You are no longer Two Minds, but The Soldier.”
Cade hurried out of the cell, clutching one of the old one’s elbows. The Varg coughed, with sticky, partly dried blood on his white fur. Androids must have ripped off his clothing. All he wore was a loincloth. He had same nasty cuts on his chest. Even in his bent state, the old one towered over Cade.
He didn’t spy any androids or see anyone else moving in the large corridor.
“Are you mentally blocking the cameras?” Cade asked.
The old Varg coughed again. “Here,” he said, pressing a flat laser emitter into Cade’s hands.
The soldier examined the weapon. He’d seen this type before back in the day. It had a full charge. He clicked it to the narrowest setting: a hot tight beam, realizing that holding a weapon bolstered his confidence.
“We have to get out of here,” Cade said.
“No. We must destroy the abomination.”
“The Web-Mind?” asked Cade.
The old one nodded.
“He controls the androids,” Cade whispered.
“They…sleep,” the old one said, coughing, spitting up blood.
“You’re hurt.”
“I’m dying,” the old one whispered. “This was why…why…slay the abomination, Soldier. You are the one we’ve waited for.”
“I don’t understand.”
“There’s no time,” the old one said, coughing.
“Here,” Cade said, putting a trembling furry arm over his shoulder, turning the old one so they faced the large but closed hatch to the Web-Mind Chamber.
“Do not worry about me. Go. Kill the abomination.”
“Did you plan all this?” Cade asked, forcing the old Varg to move with him.
“Fool,” the old one whispered. “You don’t understand.”
“I’m getting you out of here.”
“No…” The old one coughed harder, spitting up more blood, leaving red stains on his fangs. “This is our last chance, Soldier. This is it.”
“Just how old are you?”
The Varg smiled with blood on his fangs. “I’m the last.” He shivered as his body spasmed with coughing.
“Look—” Cade said.
“Understand,” the old one said, pressing a shaking p
aw against Cade’s forehead.
In that moment, a flooding panorama of images impinged upon Cade’s consciousness. He witnessed scenes of an X-ship and a cyborg supply ship landing on Avalon IV. Cyborg troopers found an intact alien artifact, testing it and soon discovering its function. What the cyborgs did not see or understand were Varg guardians watching them, the last of an alien species, former shock troopers for a higher alien culture. The cyborgs and guardians fought, and the guardians lost, although they set off charges. The charges destroyed the supply ship, slew most of the cyborg troopers—the living dead—and sealed the alien artifact and transported Web-Mind under tons of rubble and rocks. That also buried the X-ship. The last guardians fled the vicinity, carrying with them several leather flagons of the golden draught.
The former shock troops for a higher alien culture sank into barbarism, became the Varg nomads living on the plains of Avalon IV. They had already been devolving culturally for centuries before the two ships landed. The process had simply accelerated.
The millennium on the plains changed the Vargs. The imbibing of the golden draught by a few leaders altered them, unleashing latent psionic abilities. Those psionics informed the Vargs of the abomination in the depths, one surviving by bathing its brain tissues with the golden elixir.
The few surviving cyborg troopers mated, producing human offspring. The offspring followed flawed cyborg trooper programming—taboos and customs for them—living in the hills for the day the “gods”—the Web-Mind—reappeared. They mutated over the millennium and waged war against the Vargs.
Then an altered human dropped from space, leading the “hill scum” to chisel and mine, digging up and finding a way into the abode of the “gods.” The keepers started then, and the hill scum grew in numbers.
The Varg elders debated. The last dregs from the flagons of the golden draught were consumed. Rune stones were cast. The Red Clan and others believed that one day another would drop from the sky, an enemy of the abomination, a soldier of superior skills.
The Black Clan never agreed with the cast runes. When you landed, Soldier, the Black Clan shamans sent a hunter to slay you, showing you to be an imposter. But you slew the creature. We knew then that you were the awaited one. We followed fate, and it has unfolded to this very moment.
“What?” Cade whispered, dazed by the revelation.
The images in his mind dissolved so he could see normally again. He realized that only seconds had passed as the old one telepathically disgorged ancient knowledge into his brain.
“Do you believe all that?” Cade asked.
“You are the Soldier—” The old one coughed wetly. “You are in the Pit of the Abomination. You have a weapon.” He coughed worse than before. “I do not believe. I know. This is the moment. Fulfill your destiny, Soldier.”
“Are you keeping the Web-Mind docile through your psionic powers?”
“No longer, Soldier, for I am spent. I die.” As the old one finished speaking, he shivered uncontrollably, and he vomited gore.
Gently laying the bloody old one on the floor, Cade’s head jerked up in surprise as a klaxon began to blare.
Chapter Forty
The large hatch to the Web-Mind Chamber opened, and four gleaming chrome androids emerged.
From where he knelt on the floor beside the dead old one, Cade aimed and depressed the emitter switch. The unit hummed softly, sending a hot narrow laser beam.
One, two, three, Cade aimed for and hit each of the first three androids in the left eye. Two dropped to the floor, twitching a moment before lying still. The third jerked violently backward, falling, its legs churning, shoving it deeper into the chamber.
The last android halted as if in confusion.
“Cade,” the Web-Mind said from a wall speaker. “Stop what you are doing.”
Cade fired at the last android, drilling it in the left eye as well. Like the others, the beam destroyed the cybertronic brain, destroying the android’s effectiveness. It fell, twitching before freezing.
“I told you to stop,” the Web-Mind said.
Cade launched from his spot, sprinting for the open hatch.
The hatch closed and would have sealed the Web-Mind in its chamber, but it had struck two fallen androids directly in its path.
“I am summoning reinforcements, Cade. You will never survive your victory. Let us speak of terms.”
Cade reached the large hatch, threw himself onto the floor, and wriggled under the blocked hatch. He climbed to his feet in the main Web-Mind Chamber. He expected defensive lasers to drill him, but none did, although units clicked impotently along the walls.
“Cade, I order you to stop.”
Didn’t the Web-Mind realize he no longer carried the obedience chip? The soldier had no need to gloat here at the decisive moment. Victory was everything. He strove to achieve that and could not have conceived of wasting time or effort trading insults or witty comments with the enemy.
“I will gas you, Cade.”
The soldier hurried to the small domes of tissue sheets. He expected more androids to appear and wondered what Tara Alor was doing.
“What do you want, Cade? Tell me, and I will grant it to you. I swear this.”
Cade beamed the nearest tissue dome. The laser burned but did not penetrate the clear dome.
“Do you see the futility of attempting to harm me? I offer you the galaxy, Cade. I can give you whatever you desire. I made a mistake with you. Let us team up—”
The soldier spied a metal bar in a tool cache by the life-support systems. He raced there, freed the tool and whirled around.
“Cade, Cade, why are you doing this?”
With the heavy metal bar in hand, Cade advanced and swung at the nearest dome. Cracks appeared in the glassy substance.
“Your actions are mere futility,” the Web-Mind said. “You will not have time to demolish all the domes. Even with one, I will have the capacity to rebuild.”
Cade swung again, shattering the clear material. He immediately beamed the tissue sheets within, burning them.”
“You mad barbarian,” the Web-Mind said. “I will keep you alive a thousand years for this, torturing you the entire time.”
From behind there came the squeal of metal on metal. Cade faced the main hatch. It moved upward, and then stopped.
“You broke my hatch, you wretch. Grab it with your hands. Pull it up.”
Gleaming chrome hands appeared all along the bottom of the hatch. Perhaps eight androids strained to raise it.
Cade looked around and beamed the main life-support units. The laser burned through metal. He beamed one portion of the system after another. He did not know it, but his face was contorted and his lips pulled back exposing his teeth. His eyes gleamed with murder-lust.
Smoke billowed from the life-support systems. Electrical zaps heralded an explosion. At the same time, the great metal hatch squealed as the androids forced it up centimeter by centimeter.
The soldier studied the chamber, trying to calm down enough to think logically. He needed powerful grenades or a rocket launcher.
Ah! He slapped his forehead, racing to a row of canisters of fire retardant. He grabbed the biggest one and ran to the main life-support tube. Using the emitter, he beamed a spot and then used a boot to kick the tube open. He pressed the nozzle of the unit against the opening and hissed foam into it. He watched as the foam boiled through the tube, gushing into one tissue dome after another.
“This is your last chance, Cade,” the Web-Mind said. “Please, I beg you. It is getting harder to think, to make, to make…C-a-d-e, I beseechhhh…you, friend…”
Cade held down the trigger until the canister emptied of foam. Already, the foam in the tissue domes had begun hardening. Was that killing the brain tissues?
He noticed that the androids had all ceased moving. The lights in their eyes still shone red, but they did not move. Likely, they were not receiving instructions.
The soldier found that he was panting. He’d wo
n this round. But did that mean the war was over? He didn’t think so. People who knew what they were doing might be able to revive the Web-Mind. He had to find explosives. He had to destroy the Web-Mind and all the technology related to cyborgs. It was more than likely the tech company people were near Avalon IV. If they could destroy the orbitals, they would be able to land.
“Tara,” he said. Why hadn’t she shown up? Had she fled? If she had, she would likely try to extract the X-ship from the rock. How could she achieve that?
The soldier’s eyes shone. She could do it with explosives—the explosives he needed to destroy the ancient crypt. Or, she was still down here, plotting to kill him.
The soldier eyed the chamber, looking for weapons. There was nothing more in here that he could use easily. He needed to find Tara, especially if she was still down here. If—
The soldier shook his head, wiped his sweaty brow with a forearm and headed for the frozen androids. The task wasn’t even half done. He’d bought himself some time. That’s all. Surely, talented techs could revive the Web-Mind, or barring that, the tech company people could still dismantle the thing and learn how to construct another.
It was time to find Tara Alor.
Chapter Forty-One
Pilot Tara Alor left the crypt before the start of the underground battle. She still did not know what was happening. She’d returned to the ancient X-ship for some spare parts. After all this time, some of the equipment in the crypt had worn out. That certainly included the mind probe.
The probe was the ticket to persuading the crotchety old Web-Mind to leave its sanctuary. Once the knowledge of the ancient Ultra flooded the Web-Mind, it would realize what was at stake. The probe would directly send and turn Cade’s brain pulses into coded data acceptable to the cyborg brain-mass. Then, certainly, the Web-Mind would eagerly desire to get off world and start running cyborgs again. That was what Rohan Mars was counting on. He was upstairs near Avalon IV, having sent a missile-message to her.
Their masters wanted the Web-Mind and all the other superior technology stored down here for a millennium. Of course, Tara had her own ideas. She had ancient cyborg programming in her mind, but the Web-Mind here hadn’t known how to exert the pressure on her. Rohan Mars was a clever android, and his masters—
The Soldier: The X-Ship Page 23
