The Cyber Chronicles 03: The Core

by T C Southwell

  The excruciating pain paralysed her, making her arc rigidly until she thought her spine would snap. Sabre continued to hack at the ghouls, unable to come to her aid. The yellow power crackled around her, filling the air with static as it popped and banged into the ground. It seemed like an eternity that she lay there, helpless, waiting for a zombie to reach her and stamp out her life, but Sabre kept them away. The agony eased, allowing her to gasp as her muscles relaxed. The strange power trickled out of her into the ground, leaving her in a cold sweat. She scrambled to her feet, staggering sideways like a drunk.

  Sabre shouted, "Get back!"

  The ghouls converged on him while he hacked them down, and Tassin steadied herself. More and more zombies appeared, lifting their arms to attack Sabre with yellow fire. The cyber band flared constant red now, and he fought the jerking of his limbs to swing the sword. As the ghouls fell, the power drained out of them, leaving them thrashing. Tassin staggered forward again, attacking a ghoul from behind as it lashed out at Sabre with the strange power. Her dagger sank into the rotten flesh, and the yellow power flashed up it. Her muscles spasmed in uncontrollable jerks as the shock snapped through her, and she collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

  Tears blurred her vision, and again she lay helpless while the power coursed through her. A zombie loomed over her, but a slashing silver sword smashed it away in a spray of rotten flesh. Sabre stood over her, keeping the ghouls at bay. She still held the dagger, and forced herself to her feet again. The strange yellow light the zombies used did not seem lethal, only painful. Sabre had cleared a space around himself now. The ghouls tried to stay out of range of his sword, sending their yellow fire flashing across the gap. Sabre hacked down the last one near him and strode towards the others, which shuffled back.

  Gasping with pain, Tassin blundered past him, intent on attacking another zombie. Sabre's hand flashed out and gripped the back of her dress, yanking her back.

  "No! Get out of here!"

  Tassin landed heavily on her rear, and anger surged through her in a molten tide. With a snarl, she went after him when he advanced on the ghouls, trying to dash past. Again he yanked her off her feet and hurled her backwards. This time she sprawled painfully, scraping her elbows. With a snarl of rage, she sprang up, giving him a wide berth to attack a ghoul.

  "Tassin, no!"

  Tassin flung herself at a portly, middle-aged man, and her dagger sank into his chest. Fire flashed up it, making her recoil with a shriek, her legs giving way. Sabre's sword swished over her, and the portly ghoul collapsed, his legs sliced through at the knee. Tassin writhed, and Sabre stood over her again, keeping the ghouls at bay with sweeps of his sword. Another lost its legs and fell, its glowing eyes dimming.

  Tassin staggered to her feet, noticing dully that the world had Changed to a forest of bleached, long-dead grey trees. Ankle deep water sloshed around her feet, explaining the forest's demise. She took a step, and found her leg embedded in a dead tree from the knee down. Several zombies had suffered the same misfortune, their yellow glow dimming as their power drained into the wood. Sabre leapt at the remaining loose zombies, slicing through their legs.

  As many as Sabre cut down, more kept coming, their yellow fire concentrated on him, though he hardly seemed to notice it now. He bared white teeth in a grimace while he attacked, the cyber band brilliant red. Flux-reality Changed, freeing Tassin, and an alien landscape of blue bulbous growths amid whip-like fronds of red vegetation winked into being.

  Ignoring the alien vegetation imbedded in her legs, Tassin ran to one of the zombies that had been trapped in a tree and lacked the yellow glow. She hamstrung it with her dagger, and it collapsed. The red fronds snared another ghoul, whipped around it and tried to tear it apart while they fought over it. Tassin shuddered away from the fronds near her as the rotten corpse parted. Its pieces were fed to the bulbous growths, which opened toothless maws to accept the food like hungry chicks.

  A lash of fire hit her, and she fell with a shriek, writhing while the pain drained away with the light. She struggled to her feet once more as Sabre ran after the retreating zombies. He ignored the yellow fire they poured into him, his sword sweeping through their legs. The fronds grabbed many who stumbled near them, dismembered them and stuffed them into the waiting blue mouths. Determined to help in spite of the agony that coursed through her, Tassin staggered towards a faded ghoul, hamstringing it. As the undead woman collapsed, she lashed out with a decayed fist, hitting Tassin in the face. She fell backwards and landed hard, her head striking a rock that had materialised instants before.

  Flux-reality Changed again, and a world of stone replaced the predatory plants. The vegetation protruding from her legs vanished with the previous reality, but she hardly noticed. Momentarily stunned, she struggled to get up, the world spinning. As she regained her wobbly legs, another lash of yellow power struck her, sending her sprawling again. This time she lay gasping, sobs of pain racking her. She ached with a vengeful throbbing, and her limbs jerked as the power fizzed through her muscles. Her hands clawed at the dirt of a new world, seeking release from the pain. This time it persisted, holding her in an iron grip of agony. A red haze clouded her vision as she fought to breathe, her lungs locked by the rigidity that ruled her muscles.

  The sounds of battle behind her ceased, and moments later Sabre knelt beside her. He dropped the sword and lifted her off the stony ground.

  "You stupid little..." His jaw clenched. "You've absorbed too much, hold still."

  Tassin gripped his arms, the agony in her bones causing tears to run down her cheeks. Sabre laid a cool hand on her forehead, and the already bright brow band flared. The pain flowed out of her, as it had done into the ground before, but now it streamed into Sabre. She relaxed when the agony diminished, her frantic gasps subsiding to deep breaths. He watched her with intense silver eyes, and she forced a tremulous smile.

  "Better?"

  She nodded. "How did you do that?"

  He glanced around. "The control unit does it. The power they're using attacks the bones, since they're a metal; calcium. Water conducts it, so it goes through the body fast. But it earths to metal, like electricity, so when you fell, most of it went into the ground. But some of it remained behind, and if there isn't much metal in the ground, it leaks out more slowly."

  His eyes flicked down to her. Droplets of sweat ran down his cheeks and gathered on his chin. "Every zap you got made it worse, and that last one almost killed you. With me, it went straight into the barrinium on my bones, and from there, to the cyber. As soon as the cyber had analysed it, it was able to disperse it quickly. Painful, but for me, not fatal. Although the scanners don't work in here, the cyber is still active. When I touched you, the power was drawn into me, due to my high metal content."

  With a slight smile, he wiped the sweat from his forehead, studied his wet hand, and rubbed it on his trousers. "I never wanted any of this." He gestured. "I never asked to be a warrior, to fight and kill, but it seems I'm well equipped for it. You, on the other hand, have a choice, and you're making the wrong one. You could be killed. Your life is precious; you're a free person, you can do what you want, yet you're trying so hard to get killed."

  "I am not! I was trying to help you."

  "Yeah, I know. But you're not a warrior, no matter how much you say you are, no matter how hard you try. I wish you'd stay out of it. Even more, I wish you'd go home and marry a prince, have lots of babies, and be happy."

  Tassin stared at him, longing to tell him that she would rather die by his side than be parted from him, but the words would not come. The intense sadness and fatigue on his sensitive face deepened the pain within her. The alien band on his forehead flashed, mocking her with its reminder that he belonged to another, alien world, far beyond her reach.

  She looked away. "Well, I won't."

  With a resigned sigh he helped her to sit up, and she looked around as another Change came. A pleasant world of green grass and forests winked i
nto being, distant huts trailing wisps of smoke into a blue sky. The ghouls had vanished, even the legless ones.

  "Where did they go?" she asked.

  "Seems they'd had enough. They couldn't kill me with that power, so the Core is probably having a good think now." The red lights on the control unit dimmed, and Sabre settled more comfortably on the ground, wiping the fouled sword blade on the grass.

  "I think I know what the Core is. The power that the ghouls were using is the same sort that's used in modern power stations to light cities and run cars. Normally it's pretty harmless; it only kills when highly concentrated.

  "Long ago, they used something called electricity, but then they discovered this stuff, which is called neosin. It's all around us, easily drawn in by compilers and stored in special crystals. It's far more efficient than electricity; it doesn't need to be generated, and it can be stored forever."

  Sabre rose and went over to the cart. Dena had succeeded in hanging onto the donkeys and leading them back. He led the animals over to Tassin and took a water skin and some food from the cart. Dena squatted next to him when he settled on the ground, gazing at him with wide, admiring eyes.

  Sabre shot her a smile and winked while he sipped some water, then continued, "I think the Core is an ancient power crystal. Somehow, it's been mutated by the radioactivity that was released during the holocaust. Crystals grow, and they have some strange properties. This one has become intelligent, after a fashion. A truly alien intelligence, one we can't understand. It wants to grow larger still, and I'd guess that the Death Zone is meant to protect it. It probably sees us, its original masters, as a threat, and it's trying to wipe us out."

  Tassin tried to quell the trembling that was spreading through her.

  Sabre chewed some meat. "It has a problem now. It's found that it can't kill me with the neosin, at least, not in such small amounts, but the concentration in the crystal itself must be enormous. But I have an ally." He tapped the brow band. "No doubt the computer is working on the problem too, since it can read my thoughts, and knows my speculations. It should be figuring out a way to disperse vast amounts of that stuff."

  Tassin clasped her knees as an uncontrollable shaking grew in her muscles. Sabre leant over and pulled her arms away, chafing her hands.

  "Relax, it's just shock."

  Holding her wrist with one hand, he rubbed the tense muscles of her shoulders and neck. Tingling shot through her at his touch, making her shiver. Gradually her tension leaked away, and he stopped, much to her chagrin, and patted Dena on the head. The child grinned at him, her eyes filled with adoration. The Flux-reality had Changed again, this time to a rolling golden pampas under a vermilion sky streaked with amber clouds. Sabre stood and pulled Tassin to her feet, then turned to her, holding her wrist. His brows gathered together, and his eyes were flinty.

  "By the way, if you ever do anything so stupid again, I'll put you over my knee and paddle your backside, understand?"

  Tassin's mouth dropped open. "I was trying to help you!"

  "Then stop it. I don't want you to get killed."

  "I got two of them!"

  "Tassin, you may be used to getting your own way, and having people fall over each other to do your bidding, but I'm trying to keep you alive, so don't make my job any harder."

  "You would not dare to... to...."

  "Paddle your backside? You bet I would. What could you do about it?" He folded his arms. Fresh blood seeped through the bandages on his forearms, and the ghouls' fire had reddened his chest. She glared at him, unable to think of anything. He smiled and walked back to the cart. By the time they reached it, the world had Changed to one of strange clumps of vine-laden black trees growing between purple creepers sprinkled with pink flowers.

  Dena looked up at Sabre. "Are the monsters gone?"

  He tousled her hair. "For now. At least you have the sense to stay out of the way, huh?"

  Tassin shot him a dirty look, and Dena shrugged. "Not my fight."

  Dena scrambled onto the cart, and they headed towards the Core again. They travelled through two Changes, one tame, the other quite nasty: a world of steaming sludge lighted by two red suns. A strange belt of mist became visible ahead, obscuring the distant trees of the next world, one filled with bright blue butterflies and tracts of sombre forest. The mist seemed out of place, like a cloud that had settled on the ground. When the Flux-reality Changed, the mist remained.

  Sabre eyed it. "Well, well. It seems we're closer than I thought." He urged the donkeys into a trot. "Let's get to it before it thinks up a new strategy."

  Tassin was puffing by the time they reached the mist, and the Changes swept through the land at an alarming speed. A world of black rock streaked with gold replaced a landscape of scarlet grass dotted with obscene pink mushrooms. As they drew near the mist, the air parted and a guardian stepped forth. He was an old man, thin and bent, his grey hair and beard wild and unkempt. Unlike the others, he wore a tattered robe of dirty white cotton. He held up a claw-like hand.

  "Stop!" His eyes glowed red, and the yellow power shimmered under his skin. "You seek to challenge the Core itself, fool, you will die."

  Sabre stopped and eyed him. "Getting scared, is it?"

  The old man almost smiled, then his face stiffened. "Turn back now, and you will be spared."

  "I didn't come all this way to give up now," Sabre retorted.

  The ghoul pointed at Sabre, and a brilliant bolt of yellow light arced from his finger into the cyber. He stiffened, his jaw clenching. The brow band flared as it shed the neosin in a blazing conduit that arced into the ground. The old ghoul's glow dimmed, and he lowered his hand. The world Changed to a bleak vista of twisted grey trees, and an icy wind plucked at them.

  Sabre glared at the old ghoul. "You'd better run along and get charged up again, old man."

  The ghoul swung and pointed at Tassin. Sabre reacted in the instant before another bolt of neosin, weaker than the first, flashed towards her. He hurled the sword into the fire's path, and the neosin arced into it, drawn to the metal. It fell to the ground with a clang, tongues of fire crawling over it. The old ghoul lowered his arm, drained of power, his eyes a dim red glow.

  "You will die, and if not you, she will." He vanished.

  Sabre glanced at Tassin. "Great, it's figured out my weakness. A certain stubborn female, if I'm not mistaken."

  "If it kills me, so be it."

  "Don't give me that fatalistic crap." He stepped closer to her. "It hasn't even noticed Dena, because she's kept out of the way, but now you're a target."

  Tassin glowered at him. Sabre walked over to the sword, which was still bathed in fire. He winced when he picked it up. The neosin flashed into his hand, making the brow band flare. A world of grey, slashing rain washed over them in a freezing downpour, drenching them in moments while thunder roared and lightning crackled. They hunched over for the brief time that it took to pass, emerging into the next Flux-reality dry but chilled.

  Changes flowed through the land, jungle, desert, snow, volcanic, forest, pampas, cultivated, ruins. Each one was different, some alien, some ordinary. They were only a few seconds apart now. Faint tugs pulled at her as she shared space with the ever changing Flux-realities. It was no longer alarming; the Changes were so fast that it was impossible to avoid the brief entrapments. There was also a faint pushing sensation, barely noticeable, as if whatever lay within the mist repelled her.

  Sabre faced the mist wall, his expression grim. "This is it, I guess. Time to see if the spacer who brought me was right in thinking that a cyber could defeat this thing." He turned to them. "Tassin, I want you to stay here with Dena and the cart, will you do that?"

  She raised her chin. "No."

  "I thought not. But you're not coming; it's too dangerous now." He shook his head. "It always was too dangerous. I must have been mad to let you come. I should have taken you to Arlin and had them lock you in a dungeon until this was over."

  "You had no choice, and they
wouldn't have done it. I'm their queen."

  He fingered the sword's edge, testing its sharpness without looking at her. "Well, I'm making a choice now, and you're staying here, where it's safe."

  "It is not safe! What if something attacks us?"

  "If not for your stubbornness, you would be on your way to Arlin now. How safe do you think you'll be in there?" He gestured at the mist with the sword. "Purr said that the monsters don't come near the Core, and it has no reason to attack you if you're out here; it'll be too busy dealing with me."

  "No! We should stay together."

  He studied the sword again, his words slow and weary. "If I succeed in destroying the Core, it will probably be fatal for anyone close to it. That means me, and you, if you're there. Stay here with Dena where you'll be safe, and once the Core's gone, the Death Zone will collapse and you'll be able to get home."

  "No."

  With a sigh, he turned to face her, stabbing the sword into the ground as he finally met her eyes with his guarded grey ones. "You're the damnedest, most mule-headed female I've ever met, do you know that?" She gulped when he raised a hand to stroke her cheek. "I can't allow you to put yourself in danger. Hopefully, I'll be back. If not, you'll have to make it on your own, and use the weapons to reclaim your kingdom, but for now, I'm sorry."

  Sabre took hold of her arms, and his sudden change of tactics stunned her. Her heart leapt and started to hammer, and her mouth went dry as he leant closer. He solved the mystery of his intentions when he pinned her wrists with one hand and pushed her back against the cart. Reaching past her, he pulled a length of material from the packs. Tassin struggled while he twined it around her wrists, trying to kick his shins. He dodged her kicks and held her easily. Realising that it was completely idiotic to try to fight him, she resorted to verbal abuse, which he ignored. He tied her ankles together, and in moments she was trussed. Lifting her into the cart, he placed her on the hay.