The Cyber Chronicles 03: The Core

by T C Southwell

  Slumping against the cabinet, he cursed his stupidity. Now they would take Tassin to the altar and let the radiation do their dirty work. She would be dead within a week or so. He had failed again, he thought bitterly, because he had tried to be a nice guy. The thought of Tassin paying for his mistake made his chest ache. He should have refused when the mutants had insisted he come to the city. The cyber would never have agreed to come here, and it would have killed the mutant men if they had tried to force the issue.

  The oil lamp sputtered and went out, and the cyber automatically switched his vision to infrared. He wondered how much time he had wasted pondering his fate, and how much remained before his breathing quickened as the oxygen level dropped. Asphyxiation was not a pleasant death, nor was the radiation poisoning Tassin faced.

  Chapter Four

  Tassin paced Dena's hovel, waiting for her to return. The girl had left saying that she would bring food, but Tassin was not sure it was safe to eat the mutants' food. The shadows outside lengthened and darkened, and she was worried about Sabre. He would not make her wait until after dark, and if he had emerged and found her gone, he might be searching for her now. She should probably go back to the temple and see if he was there, but she had no idea how to find it. The city was a warren of shacks built within the old ruins, cramped passages linking them. She would have to wait for Dena. That decided, Tassin fretted for her return.

  Dena reappeared an hour later, and Tassin wanted to simultaneously hug and spank the girl, who seemed wary, as if sensing this. Tassin controlled the urges with an effort and confronted her.

  "Did you find out anything? Sabre could be waiting for me by the cart. Perhaps I should go back and look?"

  Dena shook her head as she dumped a sack of shrivelled vegetables on the rickety table. "He's not there, I checked. The cart's gone too. They must have put it somewhere, and they're looking for you."

  Tassin's heart sank. "What's happened to him?"

  "I'd guess whatever happened to the star man, and the other man with a light on his head."

  "We must free him."

  The child looked up from peeling vegetables. "Maybe he's already dead. Forget him. We'll go to your land without him."

  "No!" Tassin knelt beside the child, wanting to shake the little brat until her teeth rattled. "Dena, we need him. We'll never make it across the desert without him."

  Dena nibbled a raw carrot. "But the priests have got him, and we'll never get in there. And what if he's already dead?"

  "He's very hard to kill. If they attacked him, they wouldn't stand a chance. But they've killed a cyber before, so they must have a way, only they're all slow ways. Poison, suffocation, gas... they wouldn't have gas... drowning... but there's not much water around."

  Dena munched her carrot. "Some poisons are quick."

  Tassin shot her an acid look. "You're not helping."

  The child shrugged. "It's true."

  "How can we get into the temple?"

  "We can't."

  "Come on, there must be a way."

  Dena shook her head. "Only the priests and priestesses go in the temple."

  "That's it!"

  Dena eyed her. "What's it?"

  "I need a priestess' robe."

  Dena laughed, her mouth full of carrot. "How will you get that?"

  Tassin frowned, thinking. "I need a weapon. Do you know where the cart is?"

  "No."

  "Can you find out?"

  Dena shrugged again. "Probably."

  "Will you?"

  "Okay, when I've had my dinner."

  Tassin glanced at the pile of raw vegetables. "You're going to eat all those?"

  Dena nodded.

  "Can't you eat when you get back?"

  "I'm hungry!"

  Tassin leant forward. "Listen to me, Dena. Sabre could be dying, right now, and without him we can't cross the desert. It's impossible. The curse would kill us – me, and there are monsters too. If we don't save him we're stuck here, and you'll have to keep hiding me. If they find out you've been hiding me, they'll punish you, won't they?"

  Dena's eyes narrowed. "I could throw you out."

  "I would tell."

  "They wouldn't believe you."

  "I know your name; I know where you live, and people saw you bring me here."

  Dena considered, then gave a hearty sigh, picked up another carrot and stomped out. Tassin settled down to wait, worry gnawing at her.

  Sabre studied the glowing hole in the escape hatch, which had used up two power packs already. The dead cyber's laser was empty, as was the spacer's, and they only had one spare power pack between them. The hole was still too small to get his hand into, and he plugged the second to last power pack into the laser. May as well go out with a bang instead of a whimper, he thought. The laser burnt oxygen, but it made little difference. Either he got out, or he died.

  Aiming the weapon at the hole, he held the trigger and moved the beam around its edge. The searing light melted the high-tensile alloy, and molten metal dripped into the tunnel below. No fresh air blew in through it, so the other end was also sealed, and he hoped it was not buried under a pile of rubble. The hole gradually enlarged, but the metal had a high melting point and it took a long time.

  A laser was not designed for cutting metal. For that, you needed a needle-gun, with a beam so fine it would slice a hole in no time. The laser's more diffuse beam was intended to burn holes in living flesh. A needle-gun could be used as a weapon, but only to slice a victim in half, or chop off some vital extremity. If fired at a man like a laser, it would burn a tiny hole right through him, and, unless it hit a vital organ, like the heart or aorta, the victim would hardly notice he had been shot.

  Burning a hole in the escape hatch was a long shot, anyway. He might put his hand through it and find there was no way of opening it from the other side either, but there was no reason to shear off the outer handle. According to the cyber's information on tactical control bunker design, the tunnel would run for more than the five hundred metres, and if a bomb had fallen anywhere along its length, he was dead.

  After a five minute burn, the power pack gave out. Sabre inspected the glowing hole, which was bigger, but it would still be a tight squeeze. He may as well use the last power pack, he decided. If this did not work, he would have no use for it, anyway. The escape hatch was only six centimetres thick; he could not have burnt a hole this size in the main door. When the last pack died, he inspected the glowing hole again. It looked big enough, just. Now all he had to do was wait for it to cool. He leant against the cabinet and gazed at his grinning companions. Lethargy made him yawn.

  Tassin glanced up at the patter of running feet. Dena appeared, looking cross, and Tassin confronted her when she scuttled into the room.

  "Did you find out anything?"

  "Of course!" Dena flounced over to the table and resumed her meal. "The cart is in an empty shack, and the donkeys are in another one next to it."

  "Are the weapons still in it?"

  "Those tubes? Yeah."

  "Good. Now we just have to get one."

  "You mean I have to go back there?" Dena looked incredulous.

  Tassin's cheeks warmed with embarrassment at her oversight. "I should have told you to bring one..."

  Dena grinned and dug in her coarse dress, producing a gleaming laser with the flourish of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

  "You clever girl!" Tassin exclaimed.

  The Queen took the weapon and studied it. How did it work? Buttons. Yes, there were two buttons on the side, one red, and one green. Why two? Her brow furrowed. There was only one way to find out. Pointing the weapon at the floor, she screwed up her eyes and pressed the green button. It clicked. Okay, it was the other one. She pressed the red button with identical results, and stared at the weapon in confusion. Dena giggled.

  "It needs this." She dug in her dress again and produced a cylindrical power pack.

  "Oh!" Tassin scowled. "How do you know?" />
  "There's a shed full of these things on the far side of town, all sorts, some different from that one. Us kids play there sometimes."

  "Play there? These are dangerous!"

  Dena nodded. "I know. A boy was killed; that's how we found out."

  Tassin stared at her, horrified, then held out the laser. "You do it then. You know what to do."

  The child deftly fitted the power pack into a slot in the weapon's grip and turned it so Tassin could see the two buttons. "The green one's the safety; it must be pushed down, or the thing won't work. The red one's the trigger." She handed it to Tassin, who took it as if it was a poisonous snake.

  "The safety's on. It's harmless now," Dena assured her.

  Tassin put the laser gingerly on the table, making sure it was not pointing at either of them. "Okay, now how do we get a priest to come here?"

  "What for?"

  "So we can make him tell us where Sabre is."

  "Oh, that's easy. I just tell him there's a baby born here."

  Tassin looked uncertain. "Why would that make him come?"

  "They always inspect new babies. If they're too badly twisted, they kill them."

  Tassin swallowed bile. "Okay. Will you do that?"

  "After I've eaten."

  "Now."

  Dena grimaced. "I knew you'd say that."

  Tassin smiled as the girl flounced out again. She hoped her plan would work, but it was sketchy at best.

  Sabre jerked awake, annoyed to find himself nodding off. Returning to the escape hatch, he inspected the hole, which had cooled. Easing his hand into it, he groped towards the centre of the hatch. The handle had to be there; a blunt nub flattened on the sides. When turned, it pulled back the four high-tensile steel rods that fastened the hatch. His groping fingers found it, but it was difficult to grasp, for his wrist was bent at an acute angle to reach it. Although he twisted it as hard as he could, it remained solid. Cursing, he withdrew his hand. He would have to push his arm through, to the shoulder if he could. That would give him more leverage.

  It was a tight squeeze, and the sharp edges took several layers of skin off his biceps, but he succeeded. He groped for the knob again and found it, then used all his strength. The edge of the hole cut into his arm as his muscles bulged, and the knob turned a fraction. A smile tugged at his lips. A little more and he would be out. He strained. The rim cut deeper into his arm, and blood ran down it to drip off his elbow. His fingers flamed with pain from the amount of pressure he exerted, but the knob remained solid no matter how hard he twisted. Withdrawing his bloody arm, he sat back. The skeletons grinned at his defeat, and he chuckled.

  "What are you two laughing at?"

  Catching himself, he sobered. The first symptom of asphyxiation was delirium. The situation was far from funny. Be rational. Okay, the damned thing was jammed. Find something heavy and bang it. Rising to his feet, he went in search of an object to use as a hammer.

  Tassin listened to the approaching patter of feet. A heavier, slower tread accompanied them, and she gripped the laser in sweaty hands.

  "In here, Exalted," Dena's piping voice said.

  A tall, albino priest ducked into the hovel and straightened in surprise, banging his head on the roof. He rubbed his bald pate, his pink eyes riveted to the laser Tassin pointed waveringly at his chest.

  "Do you know what this is?" she asked, trying to act fearsome.

  The priest nodded, his mouth open.

  "Tell me where the man with the lights on his head is, or I'll blow your leg off."

  "Head," Dena corrected.

  "No, leg. He can't talk without a head."

  "He may not have legs; a lot of people don't."

  Tassin frowned at her. "He can walk."

  "They have false ones."

  "Oh." Tassin waved the laser at the priest, who looked from one to the other with growing panic. "Do you have real legs?"

  The man nodded.

  "Right, tell me where the man with the lights on his head is, or I'll blow one off."

  "The - the high priestess took him to the room," he stammered.

  "What room?" Tassin demanded. Dena munched her supper again.

  The priest said, "The one with the machines."

  Tassin scowled. "Tell me where it is! I don't know any room with machines in it."

  The priest made a vague gesture. "From the altar room, you go down a passage, turn left, then right, down some steps, and it's the big door in front of you."

  "Where's the key?"

  "Key?"

  Tassin snorted. The man was a simpleton. "The key to the door!"

  "There's no key. It's a combination."

  "Combination?"

  "It's a special lock; you turn the dial to unlock the door."

  Tassin glanced at Dena, who shrugged. "Okay. What's the combination?"

  The priest shook his head. "I don't know. Only the high priestess knows the combination. I don't, I swear! Don't hurt me -"

  "Shut up." Tassin considered the problem. "What's the door made of?"

  "St - steel." The priest gulped.

  "How thick?"

  The man held his hands up, about twelve centimetres apart.

  "Damn! Too thick for a... for this. What about the wall next to it?"

  The priest moved his hands almost half a metre apart.

  Tassin remembered Sabre's tirade after she had brought the walkway down on her head. The pretty blue gun she had found there was designed to destroy matter.

  "A sonlar," she muttered.

  "Huh?" Dena looked up, her mouth full.

  "That's what we need." She turned back to the terrified priest. "Unless your priestess values you enough to release Sabre in exchange for your life?"

  He shook his head. "She'd kill me herself."

  "Just as I thought." Tassin looked at the munching child. "Dena, did you ever see a pretty blue crystal thing in that shed?"

  A frown puckered the child's forehead. "I'm not sure; maybe."

  "I need one."

  "Now?"

  Tassin nodded, and Dena pulled a face, her cheeks bulging. "That's all the way across the city. It'll take ages!"

  "Do you want to come across the desert with me?"

  The girl nodded.

  "Then I need one of those pretty blue crystal things, and fast."

  Dena sighed. "I bet he's dead already."

  "You better hope he's not."

  "No! He isn't!" the priest said. "It will take a few more hours."

  Tassin glared at him. "Thanks for the titbit. I think you've outlived your usefulness. Take off your robe."

  He fell to his knees. "No! Ple-please, please, don't kill me! Please, I beg you!"

  She regarded him contemptuously. "Get up and take off your robe."

  The priest obeyed, his expression despairing. Underneath it he wore a pair of baggy shorts, and one of his legs was twisted and withered. He stared at the floor, cringing. Now that she had reached the crucial moment, however, Tassin was unable to push the button and end his life. It was easy when someone else did it for you. She glanced at Dena, who watched her, wide-eyed.

  "Get some rope."

  "You're not going to kill him?"

  "No, we'll tie him up."

  Dena blinked, then went and rummaged amongst the rubbish in a corner, emerging with some stout leather thongs. The priest sobbed his gratitude while she tied his hands behind his back, then they made him sit in a corner and bound his legs. When he was trussed, Tassin turned to Dena.

  "Will you go now?"

  Dena heaved a sigh. "Go here, go there, fetch this, bring that!"

  Tassin smiled. "This is the last time, I promise."

  Dena turned and flounced out again.

  "Good girl!" Tassin called after her.

  Sitting down on Dena's pile of sacking, Tassin eyed the bound priest, hoping the girl would find a sonlar.

  Sabre pounded on the escape hatch with a wrench he had found in one of the cabinets. The intense clan
ging hurt his sensitive ears, and it was rapidly giving him a headache. He stopped to rest, sweat beading his brow. He panted and his heart raced from the slight exertion, which meant the air was getting bad. He had been trying to unjam the escape hatch for what seemed like hours, maybe it had been hours.

  At first, he had administered a few taps and tried to turn the knob. Then he had hit it harder, and tried again. Now his arm was badly lacerated, and he pounded at the hatch with all his might. Easing his bloody arm through the hole, he tried the knob again, but it remained solid. Maybe, when they had sheared off the inside knob, they had damaged the mechanism. He strained, veins bulging on his temples. Nothing. Sliding his arm out, he gripped the edge of the hole and tugged at it like a demented ape with its hand glued to the floor, roaring with rage and frustration. The hatch did not even rattle.

  Releasing it, he flopped down on his back, gasping. His vision swam, and pretty lights floated before his eyes. How long did he have left? He consulted the cyber's information, but there was nothing useful there. His bio-status had dropped considerably and his blood-oxygen level was low, but that was no news to him. Perhaps, if he found a long, strong bar, he could put it in the hole and lever the damn thing up. No, that was a silly idea, the hatch was too strong. A weird notion of dousing himself in oil and squeezing through the hole entered his mind, and he realised that he was going off the deep end. Would he die a raving lunatic?

  Chapter Five

  Tassin fidgeted. Dena had been gone for ages, and the Queen could not shake off a growing sense of urgency. The priest had said that Sabre had a bit more time, but how much? She scowled at him.

  "How much longer does he have?"

  He looked up, startled from his gloom. "I'm not sure. It depends on what he's been doing. If he's been exerting himself, not long, if not, maybe another hour or so."