The Cyber Chronicles 05: Overlord

by T C Southwell

"He's the weakest of us in that regard, something that irks him greatly. It makes him a moderate Overlord, ever erring on the side of caution, while I am the most extreme, and inclined to make sweeping judgements that result in many deaths. Odd, isn't it?"

  Sabre shrugged. "I suppose so, but since I have trouble understanding my feelings, I'm a poor judge of those who do."

  "Your conditioning and training have given you profound logic, the most powerful of all mental tools, and as yet you are barely sullied with the turmoil that comes when emotions play a part in our decisions. I like that about you, though it stems from a painful past."

  "So what happens now?"

  "Your planetary leader awaits. Take your chances. It's your life."

  Sabre bowed. "Thank you, My Lord."

  "I assume, since Ravian revealed herself to you, that you have agreed not to divulge our true identities."

  "Yes."

  Fairen nodded, and Sabre headed for the door, where a crewman waited to escort him off the ship. In the doorway, he paused to glance back at the boy on his massive throne, lonely and aloof. Clearly Fairen's power weighed heavily upon his frail shoulders, and he would never know a normal life. They had that much in common, Sabre thought as he left the room.

  When he stepped out of Blue Sun's airlock, Tassin gave a glad cry and hurried over to embrace him. Embarrassed and uncomfortable at her effusive show of affection, he extricated himself as soon as he could, noticing her crestfallen expression.

  Tarl grinned and thumped him on the back. "I thought your goose was cooked, Sabre."

  "It may be yet. Ramadaus still wants me dead."

  "Even with Fairen on your side?"

  "Fairen isn't on my side. What makes you think he is?"

  Tarl shrugged. "Well, he saved you from Ravian."

  "Only because Ravian was holding me prisoner after he had judged me innocent. That, apparently, isn't allowed. But Ramadaus has condemned me."

  "Did Fairen judge you?"

  Sabre nodded and sighed. "Yeah."

  Tarl frowned, studying him. "What else happened to you?"

  "Nothing much. I could use something to drink, though."

  A clunk came from the docking port as the Scorpion Ship released Blue Sun, and Tarl went to the bridge to move the ship to a safe distance. When the Overlord ship filled the bridge screens, he led the way into the kitchen, where he made coffee and they sat around the table while Sabre explained the situation.

  Tassin gazed into her cup. "So nothing much has changed."

  "No. Is Fairen still here?"

  Tarl rose and headed for the door. "Let's have a look."

  The blood-red ship still filled the bridge's screens, and Tassin shivered, rubbing her arms. "That thing turns my blood cold."

  Kole nodded, sipping his coffee. "It should. That ship's slaughtered more people than the rest of the Overlords put together. Well, almost. Fairen's reputation is blood curdling, to say the least."

  Sabre glanced at him. "What's he done?"

  "The details are sketchy, but he's known as the Red Death. Most of his judgements, it seems, result in billions of deaths. In the last four years he's destroyed seven planets."

  Sabre gazed at the ship, remembering the lonely boy dwarfed by his massive throne.

  "We should go home," Tassin said, "before Ramadaus finds us."

  Tarl said, "We'll have to sell Blue Sun and take a transport ship to an outlaw planet where we can buy a ship he doesn't know."

  "He'll probably be waiting for you at Omega Five," Kole pointed out. "I'm glad I’m leaving."

  "We've got to try."

  "I wish you luck."

  Tassin shivered again and turned away. "I'm going to get some rest. It's been a long day."

  Sabre watched her leave, then glanced at Kole, who raised a mocking brow. Tarl sat in his command seat and tapped buttons on the console in preparation for their departure, and Sabre left the bridge. Outside Tassin's door, he hesitated before pushing the entry-call buzzer, receiving a gruff invitation to enter. She sat on her bunk, her expression downcast, and hid her surprise with a brittle smile. Sabre went over to her, his heart pounding and his doubts multiplying. Thrusting them aside, he sat on the bed beside her and took her hand.

  "I want to thank you, for what you did. You saved me... again."

  "You'd have done the same for me."

  "Not quite, since I'm not a planetary leader, but yes, I would have saved you if I could." He paused, frowning at her hand. "Or I would have died trying."

  "Sabre... What are you trying to say?"

  "I'm not sure. Nothing you don't already know. I'm not sure what it means, but... I would die for you. I want you to know that."

  She slipped her arms around his neck and hugged him. "You have no idea how much I've longed for you to say something like that, although that wasn’t quite what I had in mind. Still, I think… I hope I know what you mean. But don't you dare do it. I can't live without you. I don't want to."

  He held her awkwardly. "I don't know what to do in this situation. I'm sorry."

  "I know, it's okay. This must be hard for you, so you take as long as you need, until you're comfortable with your feelings."

  He drew back to regard her. "Yes, it's hard. I'm still trying to sort through all the memories I got back, and some are... confusing. I have many strange feelings, but they feel so wrong. There's a part of me that still feels like a machine, and machines don't have feelings."

  "You're not a machine."

  "Part of me is."

  She shook her head. "That doesn't matter."

  "It matters to me, but I'm working on it. I'll get better. I know I've hurt you, but it wasn't intentional, so if I do it again, please remember that."

  "I've known it all along." She hugged him again. "As long as you stay with me, I'll be all right."

  "I mean that much to you?"

  Her arms tightened. "Words cannot describe how much you mean to me. I would die for you too."

  "I won't let you."

  “And I won’t let you, either, so I guess we’re both going to live forever.”

  Sabre wished his heart would stop thudding and cursed the flashing proximity alert light in his skull. He returned her embrace and tried to force himself to relax, fighting years of conditioning and training. After a minute she released him, and he sat back, avoiding her eyes.

  "Tell me what you feel,” she said. “Maybe I can help you to understand it."

  He hesitated, loath to admit to even some of his many oddities, of which he was so ashamed. She deserved to know the reason for his standoffishness, even if it made him sound like a complete idiot and doubled his freak factor. "Close contact makes me uncomfortable. I get tense, and my heart speeds up. It's the way I've been conditioned, and… I have a warning light flashing in my mind."

  She cocked her head, studying him. “Did you have that on Omega Five?”

  “The tension, yeah, a bit, not as bad as this, but not the warning light. It’s a proximity alert, but it shouldn’t happen with you, because you own the cyber. It started after I went back to Myon Two. They must have done something to the cyber.”

  "So you need lots and lots of hugs."

  He smiled. "I suppose so."

  "I'm happy to oblige. Just let me know if you get the urge to break my neck."

  Sadness invaded his heart, and he drew her into his arms again and held her close. He would learn to deal with the discomfort, he decided, so he could hold her as she clearly wanted him to, and as he did, too. She deserved his affection, and he wanted hers more than anything. She was the most precious thing in his life; he wanted to learn how to make her happy, because right now, he was failing. His memories of Omega Five were gradually settling into a coherent order and joining together into a story instead of flashes, and some parts disturbed him. He now knew he had felt far more for her than mere friendship then, but he had known, as he did now, that such feelings were forbidden to him. The memories did not really seem to belong t
o him, either, as if the years of forgetfulness had made them alien, along with the feelings he had experienced then.

  Sabre remembered that fateful dusk in the snow when he had said goodbye to her, and the pain that had filled his chest. The memories were no longer part of who he was, but of who he had been, as if he had been reborn and they belonged to a previous life. He was not the same man he had been then. Parts of him were missing, washed away by pain or cyber control or overwritten with data. He had been a whole person then, now he was only a shadow. He wanted his old self back, but he was out of reach, and the tug-of-war in his mind only abated when he had to deal with a dangerous situation. Then his pure logic took over and swept away the turmoil, giving him clarity of thought. In a way, he resented the ghostly memories of the life he had left behind, which haunted him. The girl who had been so much a part of his life then was back, however, and his forbidden longing to be close to her had returned, along with the malicious voice in the back of his mind that reminded him of what he really was. Cyborg!

  Sabre rested his cheek on her hair, hating himself for ever having told her about the cyber’s intrusive programming. It was not the part of him he wanted her to know about. It was part of his hated half, which was nothing more than a killing machine.

  “You never have to worry about that, okay?” he whispered.

  She giggled. “I was kidding, Sabre.”

  Chapter Nine

  Tassin glanced around as a distant alarm sounded, her attention torn from the entertainment vidimage on the screen in front of her. The suite aboard the passenger liner Triumphant was quite luxurious, decorated in shades of blue with cream pseudo-leather settees and a chrome and glass kitchenette in one corner. It had no portals, being deep in the liner’s interior, and a door in the far wall led into a similarly decorated bedroom and en suite bathroom. Tarl had paid for a cabin down the corridor with the proceeds of Blue Sun's sale. Kole had left them on Travon Nine and taken a transport to Espen Four, where Striker had run out of fuel. The parting had been sorrowful, and his last words had left her in no doubt that if she should one day find herself alone, he would welcome her company. Tarl had been sad to sell Blue Sun, which he had owned for six years and grown attached to. Triumphant was bound for Gorran Six, the closest inhabited world to Omega Five, and sufficiently disreputable that Tassin would be able to purchase a ship with no questions asked. She turned to Sabre, who sat beside her, looking vaguely unsettled.

  "What does that alarm mean?" she asked.

  "It's a proximity warning; there must be a ship very close to us."

  "Can't you use your scanners?"

  "There's nothing unusual on them yet."

  "What should we do?"

  "Wait and see. If it's Ramadaus we'll know soon enough, and if it's pirates we're better off staying here."

  Sabre rose and went into the bedroom, returning a few moments later wearing his armour, his lasers strapped to his thighs. Since returning from the Scorpion Ship, he had worn his combat clothes, and pretended to be a cyber in public. At those times he donned the armour and helmet to make the pretence easier. Tassin had purchased an outfit of stretch black jeans, a dark grey long-sleeved blouse, flat-heeled ankle boots and a black leather jacket, which she deemed to be suitable fugitive attire, and wore her hair in a practical French braid.

  Sabre returned to the couch, still looking tense, and she switched off the vidimage to listen to the distant alarm. After a couple of minutes, a louder alarm joined in, and a flat, artificial voice ordered the passengers to abandon ship. Sabre stood up and held out his hand.

  "Let's go."

  Tassin took his hand and rose, tension making her stomach knot. "Is this what usually happens when pirates attack?"

  "No. Normally they're only interested in the cargo, and leave the passengers alone." His eyes became distant as he consulted the scanners. "Corsairs."

  "Who are they?"

  He led her to the door. "Aliens. Humans invaded their territory thirty years ago, but couldn't wipe them out. They'll kill everyone if they can."

  Tassin jumped as the door chimed, and Sabre pressed the panel beside it. It slid open to reveal a white-faced Tarl.

  "Let's get out of here," he said.

  Sabre nodded and clipped on his helmet, leading Tassin into the bright, blue-carpeted corridor, where panic-stricken passengers ran past in confusion, shouting.

  "They don't know where the life pods are," Tarl yelled over the din.

  Sabre glanced around. "This is a Bell-Durrum class liner, the life pods are two decks down, in the outer corridor."

  Tarl shouted over his shoulder, "Follow us to the life pods!"

  "A ship has just docked with this one," Sabre informed them, breaking into a lope. Tassin clung to his hand and Tarl followed close behind, as did a number of passengers who had heard him, their eyes wild with terror. Young women clutched wailing children, and their husbands tried to shield them from the pushing throng. None dared to get too close to Sabre, and Tassin was glad she was spared the shoving that was going on behind them. They reached the three lifts at the end of the corridor, and Sabre pressed the button of one. The passengers activated the other two.

  Tassin stood close to Sabre's reassuring presence and glanced up at him. "What are these aliens like?"

  "Like a cross between a human and a cat," Tarl supplied. "They move like lightning, and they have a lot of teeth and claws, not to mention the weapons they use."

  Sabre turned his head. "There's no need to frighten her."

  "What kind of weapons?" Tassin asked, shivering.

  "They fire pellets of acid and venom, deadly on contact."

  A woman close to them sobbed, and the man with her cursed. "Shut your gob, idiot, before I shut it for you!"

  Tarl stepped back. "Sorry."

  "Yeah, you should be, scaring the womenfolk like that. I should knock your lights out and leave you for them to find, might hold them up a bit."

  Tarl made an appeasing gesture and turned to the sobbing woman, who held a weeping toddler. "We won't even see them. I'm sure the captain sounded the alarm before they boarded."

  The man thrust his pugnacious face close to Tarl's. "I heard they eat people, so leaving a body for them would help the rest of us escape."

  "Now you're scaring the womenfolk," Tarl said.

  "No I ain't!"

  Tarl shook his head and turned away. "Fine, have it your way."

  The man grabbed Tarl's shoulder and swung him back, yanked a laser from his trouser pocket and stuck it in the ex-cyber technician's face. "Don't turn your back when I'm talking to you, arsehole!"

  Sabre turned to face the man, who glanced at him and released Tarl, retreating with a black look at Tassin.

  Tarl said, "I think the lifts are too busy. We should take the stairs."

  Sabre nodded and led Tassin through the crowd, which parted before him. The door beside the lifts slid open when he reached it, and he headed down a steep stairwell, Tarl close behind, followed by the passengers. The next deck was deserted, which brought wails of anguish from the passengers.

  "They've left without us!" the pugnacious man yelled, inciting greater panic.

  Sabre headed for the next emergency door, but stopped halfway there, the brow band flashing. "Aliens are on the deck below."

  Some of the women shrieked, and the crowd bolted down the corridor. Tassin turned to Sabre, her alarm growing when he turned his head from side to side. She knew what that meant.

  "There are more down the corridor," he said.

  The fleeing passengers skidded to a halt and ran back to him, the pugnacious man at their forefront. "Where do we go? Ask the cyber! Tell him to protect us!" he shouted, reaching for Tassin as if he intended to shake her. Sabre punched him, sending him flailing into the crowd with a grunt.

  Tassin gazed up at the black visor that hid his eyes. "Why are you only sensing them now?"

  "They were detected even before they boarded this ship, but only entered the deck
below a moment ago."

  "Where do we go?"

  Sabre nodded towards the opposite end of the corridor. "That way."

  Taking her hand again, he broke into what, for him, was a lope, but for Tassin was so fast that she could barely keep up. Several male passengers overtook them, abandoning their women. Tarl ran alongside, scowling.

  "They're herding us into the centre of the ship, away from the life pods. I've heard about them doing this."

  "I know," Sabre said. "But there are too many behind us."

  A little further down the corridor, he stopped and kicked open a door with a terrific bang, leaving the men who had overtaken them to race on to certain death. Sabre led the remaining passengers, all of whom were women, across a rather shabby crew mess hall with yellow floor tiles, cheap plastiform chairs and worn green tables. He ran through the adjoining kitchen and into another corridor, turning back the way they had come. Tassin's lungs and legs burnt by the time they reached another bank of lifts. Sabre slammed open the door beside them and descended the stairwell. Tassin stumbled after him, only his grip on her hand preventing her from falling. Tarl helped a pregnant woman who could barely keep up, earning grateful smiles from the other women who were trying to support her.

  Sabre stepped out of the door at the bottom of the stairwell and into another identical corridor, heading for the life pods at the end of it. He released Tassin's hand and drew his lasers. "Stay behind me and hold on."

  Tassin hooked her fingers into his belt, her heart hammering. None of the women appeared to have noticed Sabre's slip-ups, and she was beyond caring if they did.

  "Why will we be... safe in the life pods?" she panted. "Surely they'll attack those, too?"

  "There are hundreds of them, some will escape."

  "It sounds like poor odds."

  "Better than staying on the ship."

  "What about calling for help?"

  Tarl, who trotted beside her, said, "The captain's done that already, but no one wants to take on a Corsair horde."

  "So no one's going to help us?"

  "Unlikely. Unless there's a full squadron of warships within range."

  "What about an Overlord?" she demanded. "Surely one of those ships could -"