"An Overlord cannot make idle threats."
"Are you all right?"
He nodded, frowning. "Men like him sicken me. I touched his mind to see if he was lying. He's corrupted."
"I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do?"
"No." He hesitated. "I wish Sabre was here."
"You think much of him, don't you? Not only because he saved your life."
"Yes."
"Will this get you into a lot of trouble with the other Overlords?"
A slight, wry smile tugged at his mouth. "No. It's all in the wording. If I had said bring me Sabre or I'll destroy your world, I might have been in a bit of trouble."
"But isn't that what you said?"
"No. I said obey me or I'll destroy your world, in which case, it doesn't matter what the order was. An Overlord must be obeyed."
Tassin moved closer to gaze up at him with deep respect and affection. "How will it make you feel, if you have to kill millions of innocents?"
Fairen raised his head and stared at the pale globe. "Apart from the children, probably the only innocents on that world are the cyber hosts. Myon Two has long been known as a cesspit of corruption, self-gratification and debauchery. They have never drawn the attention of an Overlord because they've never actually crossed the line into lawlessness, and their wealth greases many palms. If Sabre dies at their hands, at least I'll do what he asked of me, and end the suffering of cyber hosts."
"Won't they flee?"
He snorted and turned to look down at her. "I'd like to see them try to evacuate fifteen billion people in two days. No, they won't even try, because I'll destroy any ship that tries to leave, and they know it. While an Overlord is in orbit around a world, no ships are allowed to leave. They were effectively under an embargo from the moment I arrived."
"Fifteen billion?" Tassin shook her head in amazement. "So many. Will they call on another Overlord for help?"
"They would have to be truly stupid to do that. Overlords don't interfere with another's decrees. It would undermine our rule if we were to fight and argue amongst ourselves. They are at my mercy."
"Has anyone ever tried to kill an Overlord?"
"Of course, but only the criminals who are brought before one for judgement, and when condemned, try to attack him. That's what they're for." He gestured at the guards.
Tassin nodded, perching on the edge of the dais at his feet. "Why don't you come down and have some refreshment with us in a more comfortable room? You must be tired."
He sighed and rubbed his face, then rose and walked to the edge of the dais, stepping down beside her. "I know why Sabre feels so much for you. You're a strong, honourable, honest person with a deep wellspring of compassion."
She smiled, her cheeks burning. "Thank you."
"But you definitely got the better bargain when you chose him."
"I know."
"I only hope you always treat him with the respect and honesty he deserves."
She nodded. "I will, and I hope we're left in peace to enjoy our lives together, with our children."
"When we get him back, I shall take you to Omega Five myself. There will be no more mishaps."
****
Commander Barrin wandered into the examination room, and Grundel shot him an irritated look before turning back to his equipment.
"Any progress?" Barrin enquired.
"No."
Barrin studied the rat's nest of wires around the rogue cyber's control unit, the ends clipped or stuck to various parts of it. The cyber's eyes were closed, and Barrin wondered if he was asleep or unconscious. Knowing Grundel, the cyber was probably unconscious. Barrin had already realised that the cyber tech found the rogue cyber's presence extremely discomfiting.
"What have you been doing?"
"Trying to find out what was done to the control unit, and how to undo it."
"And you've made no progress at all?"
"No." Grundel glared at him. "It doesn't make any sense. Nothing's been changed except the polarity of the implants, and that hasn't been reversed. A negative polarity has been added, so they work both ways. This way, he can still receive information from the unit, but also command it. It's impossible."
"Maybe you're looking in the wrong place."
"What do you mean?"
"Perhaps the changes were made to his brain, not the control unit."
Grundel snorted. "How can you change a brain?"
"How should I know?"
"You can't."
"How do you know what those beings are capable of?"
Grundel glared at his instruments, throwing down a bundle of sensors. "So how the hell am I supposed to find out if his brain has been changed?"
Barrin shrugged. "I don't know, but if I was you, I'd start by waking him up and talking to him. Have him command the control unit and monitor his brain activity."
"He won't do what I want. Why should he?"
"It's not much to ask. I bet he'll do it just so he can move again."
"And have a chance of getting free."
"With two cybers guarding him? Come on, Grundel, he's not a superman. Put him back in the restraints."
Grundel looked pensive and frustrated. Clearly he had hoped to make some progress, and, since he had been trying for a day and failed, he had reached the point where he would consider any option. Finally he stood up, scowling.
"Send in the cybers then. I'll put the restraints on him."
Barrin nodded to the guard at the door, who left to fetch the cybers. Grundel snapped the duronium shackles onto the rogue cyber's wrists, ankles and neck, pinning him to the metal table. They waited a minute for the cybers to arrive and take up positions in the lab's corners, then Grundel filled a syringe and injected the rogue.
Another couple of tense minutes passed before the cyber's eyes opened to stare at the ceiling.
Barrin stepped closer. "Do you have a name?"
The cyber's cold, expressionless eyes flicked down to him before wandering away again. "Why would you care?"
"It's easier than using your serial number, but we can just assign you a name, if you like. Cyber Three, for instance."
"I'm not one of your damned cybers."
Grundel recoiled at the rogue cyber's use of the first person, looking perturbed.
"Then give us your name," Barrin said.
"Sabre."
"Good. We have a proposition for you."
"I know."
"Will you co-operate?"
Sabre shrugged. "Until you start injecting me with drugs or sticking probes in me. It won't help you to undo what they did."
"Why not?"
"Because you're a bunch of stupid monkeys compared to them."
Barrin nodded. "Yes, they were rather impressive. So you don't know what they did to you."
"Yeah, I do. They gave me control of the cyber, but I don't know how they did it."
Barrin smiled. "Of course. We would like a demonstration."
"Wait, wait," Grundel muttered, grabbing a U-shaped sensor on the end of a flexible telescopic arm and positioning it around Sabre's skull, next to his ears. He switched on two more monitors, one of which showed a digital graphic of Sabre's brain, with sparkles of activity running over it. "All right."
"Run through all the control unit's functions, if you please," Barrin requested.
Sabre sighed. "Scanners... infrared vision... internal diagnostics... structural scanners... cybernetic interface..." The deep hum filled the room, and the brow band glowed electric blue for a moment. "Organic scanners... battle schematics."
Grundel stared at the screen, nodding. "There it is, in the cerebral cortex, at the termination of the main control implant. Somehow they've given him the ability to send impulses to the control unit through that implant."
Barrin said, "Well, that was easy."
Grundel turned to Sabre. "Were you able to communicate with the control unit before they did this?"
"Yes."
"Fascinating."
"I don't know. If I could re-establish the brow band's control, it could probably block it, but that won't be easy to do now."
"Perhaps you shouldn't be so concerned about fixing him. Isn't it enough that he'll provide the basis for new clones?"
Grundel glanced up at him. "It'll be twenty years before the new cybers are ready for sale, but with him as a prototype, imagine the orders we could get. He can demonstrate the new capabilities to prospective customers, which would be far more impressive than promises. Getting him back into service is imperative."
Barrin turned to Sabre. "What did you think you were going to do, anyhow? Live happily ever after as a human being?"
"Something like that."
The commander snorted. "A killing machine masquerading as a human being. How droll. It's absurd. You can't change what you are."
"I'm a man, just like you. The only difference is you weren't enslaved as a child and kept a prisoner in your mind while your body was used to perform unspeakable acts."
"No, you're a cyborg. You're part human, part alien and part machine. You weren't designed to be a man. Your attempt to be one is pathetic. You have no concept of what it means to be human."
"I'm learning."
"You're learning to act like one, but you'll never feel like one."
"How would you know?"
Barrin shrugged. "I have the assurances of research and development. They say you don't have the capability, and they should know."
"They know nothing about me."
"They know everything about you. They designed you."
Sabre frowned. "They used a man as a host for a machine. They don't know what I can do now that I'm free."
"Shall I tell you your fate?"
Grundel looked up with a frown. "I don't think you should antagonise him, Commander."
"I think he can handle it." Barrin leant closer to Sabre. "You'll end up as a psychopath. For a while you'll try to cultivate human emotions, ape those around you, tell them what they want to hear, especially that pretty little girl who seems to like you so much. It may take a couple of years, but eventually you're going to realise that you can't be what she wants, then you'll realise that those emotions you think you feel aren't real. They're products of your imagination, reflections of what you see in others.
"You're incapable of compassion, or pity, or love. You'll realise that for you, killing is easy, and you don't feel guilty about it, then you'll start to kill anyone who goes against you, or whom you don't like. Then you'll be a sociopath, without conscience, but eventually that, plus your self-loathing, will turn you into a complete psychopath."
Sabre tensed and jerked against the shackles. "You'd like me to believe that, wouldn't you? Just because you're stupid enough to do so doesn't mean you're right. Cyber hosts have always been treated like living machines. No one has ever bothered to study our minds. Your technician finds it repellent to study it now, and talking to me makes him squirm. You’re just an enforcer; you've always believed we were empty shells, incapable of thoughts and feelings, now you can't admit that you're wrong. You never will, even when the proof is right in front of you."
Barrin glanced at the cybers who stood in the corners. "So tell me, what are they feeling right now?"
"They hate you."
"Really. Is that all?"
"No. They're trapped in a kind of septic darkness, stagnant and sticky, silently screaming for release. Their only connection with reality is the distorted voices they hear and their unfocussed vision."
"That's what you felt?"
"Yeah."
Barrin nodded. "And how do you know they're the same as you? Perhaps you're an aberration. Perhaps they're oblivious, as our techs say they are."
"Why should I be the only exception?"
"Who knows? Perhaps your implants aren't in quite the right place."
Sabre looked away. "Ask Grundel."
Barrin shot Grundel a surprised glance. "What does he mean?"
"His implants are perfectly positioned, Commander."
"Have you ever seen a cyber stretch, or scratch, or yawn?" Sabre asked.
Barrin shook his head. "Of course not."
"Have you ever had an itch you couldn't scratch, or a stiffness you couldn't ease? Or been thirsty or hungry and been able to do nothing about it? Or better still, how about being terribly wounded, yet unable to stop fighting or cry out in pain? That's what it's like to have a body you don't control."
"That's enough," Grundel said. "Stop this, or I'll paralyse him again."
Barrin snorted and turned away. "It doesn't bother me. What are you going to do now?"
Grundel turned back to his keyboard. "I'm going to install a copy of the software patch that reinstated the cyber's control before, then shock his brain into submission and see if I can get the unit in control again. Once I've done that, his ability to command it will become redundant."
"Good. Let me know when you've done it."
Barrin strode out, and Sabre turned his head to glare at Grundel, his silver eyes filled with hatred.
"Torturer."
"Be quiet." Grundel fitted a crystal memory chip into his computer's reader and typed on the keyboard, downloading the software patch into the control unit. When it was installed, he attached a pair of electric cables to the cyber unit to boost its power. He swung back to his bank of screens, tapped the keyboard and pressed a button.
Sabre's spine arched as the shock sizzled through his brain. He strained at the restraints, his face twisted in a grimace of pain. Grundel studied the screens, where the cyber's in-control areas mapped the brain in a brief flicker before vanishing again as Sabre recovered.
Chapter Four
After the second explosion of blinding pain and white-hot light lanced through his mind, Sabre realised that resisting was futile and self-destructive. The technician would persist until he succeeded, doing a lot of damage in the process. After only two of the powerful shocks, parts of his memory were disintegrating and his thoughts were becoming hazy. Grundel did not care how much damage he did. The cyber would regain control once Sabre's mind was sufficiently weakened, and, although a damaged brain would lessen its abilities, Grundel would be the victor.
As the pain of the shock ebbed, Sabre ordered the cyber to change the lights on the brow band to an in-control configuration. He turned the seven control lights green one by one and sent a false set of graphical readouts to Grundel's monitors. If he could fool the technician into believing the cyber was in control, he would be released. Then he would have a chance at regaining his freedom, to say nothing of an end to his torture. Closing his eyes, he switched to the cyber's optical inputs.
Grundel stared at the monitor as the areas of the rogue cyber's brain turned green one by one, hardly able to believe his luck. Turning to the cyber, he studied the brow band. All seven control lights were green, and other areas were returning to a normal configuration. Amazed, he turned back to the monitors to reassure himself that all was as it should be, a rush of pride and triumph filling him. It seemed that the rogue cyber's ability to remain in charge had been more tenuous than he had thought. He had done it. Swinging back to the rogue cyber, he studied his face.
"Cyber unit, serial number XCA-6352-JY9019, status."
"Unit is functional." The cyber spoke in a normal, flat tone.
Grundel grinned and rubbed his hands together. "Excellent. Your designation is Cyber Three."
"Acknowledged. This unit requests owner location."
"Ah, of course. We can fix that." Grundel turned back to his keyboard. "I'll just access your owner registration files and change..." Grundel gaped at the screen. "Bloody hell." He touched a com-link beside him. "Commander, you'd better get in here."
"On my way."
Two minutes later, Barrin entered, looking curious and a little irritated. "What is it?"
"I've done it. The control unit's back in charge."
"How did you d
o it?"
"A couple of boosted brain shocks."
The commander went over to Sabre and studied the brow band. "That was easy. Too easy, perhaps?"
Grundel bristled. "There's no way he can fake this. Look at the monitors."
"It looks good." Barrin nodded. "Well done."
"There's just one problem."
"What?"
Grundel pointed at the writing on the screen in front of him. "That."
Barrin read it and cursed. "Overlord Fairen owns him?"
"That's what it says."
"I thought that girl owned him."
"So did everyone."
Barrin frowned, considering. "Change it. Then transfer one of our cybers who's the same age to Overlord Fairen. That way he can't accuse us of stealing his property. He'll never know the difference. When we get back to Myon Two, we'll contact Overlord Fairen and inform him that we picked up his cyber in a registration sweep, and send him back."
"The registration numbers won't match."
"Can we swap them?"
"No. They're burnt into the control unit's ROM, and also tattooed on the inside of the host's top lip and the back of his scalp."
"Bugger." Barrin looked pensive. "But would he check it?"
Grundel shrugged. "If he does, we're in the shit. Besides, Overlord Fairen knows this cyber was free."
"So we fixed him. That's our job. Better still, we found that he was malfunctioning and destroyed him, so we've replaced him. That's exactly what we'd do for an Overlord."
Grundel hesitated, doubtful. "Overlord Fairen forbade Myon Two to capture the rogue cyber. That's why we're doing this in secret, remember?"
"Yeah, okay, it's risky. So it was a bureaucratic bungle. We weren't notified, or we didn't know who this cyber belonged to until after he was destroyed, or that he was the cyber Overlord Fairen forbade us to hunt. We apologise and replace him. What more can we do?"
"I guess it might work. We didn't know who he belonged to, that much is true. But you can't lie to an Overlord, Commander."
"I know that." Barrin glowered at Grundel. "But it will work through a third party, as long as he believes it. President Niare could tell that story to Overlord Fairen in complete honesty, because he doesn't know the truth."
The Cyber Chronicles VII - Sabre Page 4
